Reviews

140 CHARACTER REVIEWS: VAN HALEN – A DIFFERENT KIND OF TRUTH

Feb 032012

So. For the first time in 14 years as a band and 27 years as a band with David Lee Roth in it, Van Halen is releasing an album of all new material. When I first heard this news, I shrugged it off and went about my life confident I’d not think about Van Halen again until one of them does another stint in rehab. Then a funny thing happened. My twitter and facebook feeds started blowing up with folks talking about how good this new Van Halen album was. In the end, I couldn’t resist giving it a listen and decided, in the process, to give my opinion track by track on twitter as I listened for the first time.

Now, to be fair, you need to know that I was never a huge Van Halen fan. If you walked up and said, “Quick, name as many Van Halen songs as you can in 5 seconds!”, “Jump” is gonna be the only track I come up with. Peeking at Wikipedia it’s obvious I know many more, but that’s the only one that comes to mind and it brings back memories of me being 11 years old and sitting in front of a little single speaker cassette player/radio in my backyard. I think that’s worth keeping in mind as you read this break down.

Van Halen – A Different Kind Of Truth (in 140 or less characters at a time):

Tattoo: musically, okay. Lyrically, not so okay.

She’s The Woman: Sounds like it came right out of the heyday of hair metal. Think 1991 Arena Rock and you’ve nailed it’s sound.

You and Your Blues: I only need 1 word for this song: boring.

China Town: not bad. not bad at all. Rocks harder than any other 60 year old’s music. I’ll thumbs up this track considering.

Blood and Fire: This is the first time on the album they’ve felt like old men trying to rock instead of just rocking.

Bullethead: not bad. Fave from the cd so far.

As Is: This one has that classic David Lee Roth feel/swagger to it.

Honeybabysweetiedoll: ugh. bad song. 2 minutes in I had to press the skip button. First time I’ve done that on the album though.

The Trouble With Never: Another one right out of the 90′s arena rock sound.

Outta Space: Starts off promising but I didn’t even notice it end. Tried to listen twice. Same result.

Stay Frosy: The title says, “bad song”. The opening guitar says, “maybe not”. The title was honest & honestly, Dave ruins this song.

Big River: musically, you totally could have sold me that this was a George Lynch song. Honestly, this one is pretty good.

Beats Workin’: Despite the promising musical opening, this song fell flat on me. Again, I blame David Lee Roth for fucking it up.

And that concludes the Van Halen 140 character review. In the end, not horrific but I’ll never listen to it again…

DEAR SISTER – DEAR SISTER

Feb 012012

Dear Sister is Raven Shields and Bri Salmena playing on vocal harmonies and guitars, joined by multi-instrumentalist Aaron Comeau from multi-cities Canada. Their debut album, Dear Sisters, was orginally recorded and released in early 2010, managing to catch a little fire at the time. Despite selling out multiple Canadian venues, life took over and the band seemingly lost its momentum. Well, it seems the band has refocused and decided to give it another go with repackaging and re-releasing Dear Sister here in 2012.

I’ll be honest, I had to put in a little work to like this album. There were a few songs that jumped out at me right away but there were more that just came and went with little response. Normally that would result in moving the songs that jumped out into a directory I have set for that sort of thing with the rest getting the delete treatment, but something wouldn’t let me. So I saved it and came back to the album from time to time, and man am I glad I did. The singers harness that same vocally deadpan delivery you find with Gillian Welch, while musically they feel very similar to The Waifs or to me.

Admittedly, there are still a few tracks on the album I skip but if you’re willing to let an album incubate with you for a few listens, Dear Sister might, ultimately, reward your patience. Hopefully the band will maintain momentum this time around, I’d like to see what their sophomore effort might sound like.

Dear Sister – Con Man
Dear Sister – Coyote
Dear Sister – Hey Oh!

Dear Sister on Bandcamp, Dear Sister on Facebook, Buy Dear Sister

LOW CUT CONNIE – GET OUT THE LOTION

Jan 312012

One of my New Year’s Resolutions was that I’d parse through my entire “incoming” directory that that has been growing for the past few months and I’d get through it by the end of January. Low Cut Connie was one of the bands hanging out in said directory who I managed to come across this morning. The reviews on NPR and Rolling Stone show that they’re in no need of any mention from ninebullets, but the album is just too much fun for me not to.

Low Cut Connie was founded by a fella from New Jersey and a fella from Birmingham…UK, not Bama, and the moment you hear their sound, it makes perfect sense. Listening to the album, Sean’s words from his John Moreland review keep coming to mind, “rock ‘n roll. really it’s a simple concept. guitar. bass. drums. honesty. yet it is constantly fucked up.” Well, Low Cut Connie add some Jerry Lee Lewis-style piano to the recipe, but they aren’t fucking it up.

Had the British invasion had started in the South….Get Out The Lotion might have been what it sounded like.

Low Cut Connie – Rio
Low Cut Connie – Johnny Cool Man
Low Cut Connie – Big Thighs, NJ

Low Cut Connie’s Official Site, Low Cut Connie on Facebook, Low Cut Connie on Spotify, Buy Get Out The Lotion

THE DIRT DAUBERS – WAKE UP SINNERS

Jan 262012

They say music soothes the savage beast, but I’d beg to differ when it comes to one Col. J.D. Wilkes. And I’d venture a guess that anyone who’s been to a Legendary Shackshakers show and seen him go from pre-show cordial, mild-mannered J.D. to snot launchin’, pube tossin’ J.D. once the music starts is likely to agree.

So, what do you do when it’s the music that feeds your inner beast?
Go lo-fi, young man. Go lo-fi.

The Dirt Daubers are Col. J.D. Wilkes, wife Jessica Wilkes and LSS bassist Mark Robinson. Their latest release, Wake Up Sinners!, offers JD a perfect chance to play Dr. Jekyll to his Shackshaker Mr. Hyde. Thirteen songs that would, if music had an instagram app, have the scratchy sepia filter all over them. And you’d need the filter, not for lack of authenticity, but for lack of it having being recorded 70 years ago like it should have been. Unlike their debut, Wake Up Sinners! skates a thin line between being a sound all their own and being LSS minus electricity, and Mr. Robinson joining them for this album has made that line ever thinner. That said, for every “The Devil Gets His Due” moment where you could be convinced this is the Shackshakers performing an acoustic show in someone’s backyard, there’s an “Angel Along The Track” moment where J.D. and crew emerge from under the LSS shadow. The standout track on this cd has to be their cover of the old Lulu Belle and Scotty single, “Single Girl”, as it just fits this sound so perfectly.

I offer no hesitation in labeling this cd as Essential Listening, as I think it takes the classic country sound and adds enough modernization and gloss to it to make it attractive to the average passerby without spoiling any of its integrity.

The Dirt Daubers – The Devil Gets His Due
The Dirt Daubers – Angel Along The Tracks
The Dirt Daubers – Single Girl

The Dirt Daubers’ Official Site, The Dirt Daubers on Facebook, The Dirt Daubers on Spotify, Buy Wake Up Sinners! (for $5.00)

THE PACK A.D. — UNPERSONS

Jan 242012

Vancouver-based The Pack a.d. is Becky Black on guitar and vocals and Maya Miller on drums. They share a blues backbone with other well-known guitar-drums duos, such as The Black Keys, White Stripes, and Left Lane Cruiser–but the Pack also has the muscle to bring its ruckus closer to melodic Stooges and X territory. I was going to say they pack more of a punch, but I waited until the next sentence.

Unpersons is their fourth album. They’re already getting their deserved accolades in Canada, but they’re still translating in America. The Pack has grown from a band that gets by mostly on energy, like Two Cow (or most young people), into a confident, harnessed train wreck. Between Black’s vocals and Miller’s beats, the music emerges as a sludgy mix of ghost rock and droid funk. If The Pack a.d. played the cantina band in Star Wars, it would’ve actually been a menacing scene. Picture it set to:

“I know your pain and share your pain,
let’s have soup together.
I’ll lift a rock and kill the world,
then we’ll have lunch.”
~ from the song “8″

Unpersons has been out for a few months, but if you’re just getting it now, it’ll make a great companion listen to the new Black Keys album. That’s not fair, though–the album stands on its own, the Pack is not just another garage-blues duo, it’s one of the best, it’s pushing that loose sound in its own direction. It’s a feat to make hard-driving rock feel desolate, simultaneously woodsy and industrial. They’re also like The Who.

The Pack A.D. – Positronic
The Pack A.D. – 8
The Pack A.D. – Seasick

Buy Unpersons from the mighty Mint Records on vinyl, CD, or digital. American distribution here. Buy it on iTunes. On Amazon. The Pack a.d.’s website. The Pack on Spotify. The Pack on Facebook.

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