CD review - White Denim, Fits (2009)

This seems to be my week for Austin bands. White Denim is a hard rocking Austin trio with a lot of tricks in their bag. Their last album, Fits, melds a number of genres into an unique cohesion. As a whole, the sound is quite retro, with a heavily reverbed vocal mix and a little fuzziness that contrasts sharply with the sterile studio sounds favored today. A number of the harder edged songs sound over saturated in gain, giving a tape distortion sound that you just don't hear that much anymore. Combined with the retro stylistic elements, it's situated firmly in the late '60s or early '70s. There a lot of hard rock, psychedelia, and a bit of blue eyed soul on this disc, with references to Steppenwolf, the Doors, and Al Kooper.

The album is split into two sections. The first section hits the acid rock groove hard, while the second emphasizes the soul vibe. It's a bit jarring when it switches, but there's still some crossover. There are no weak songs here. White Denim plays hard and delivers some great music.

All Consolation dredges up Pictures of Matchstick Men (Status Quo), with the thick layered vocal sound and trippy groove. The wailing wah-wah guitar is great, but the drum work is especially impressive. It's a spirited performance, with a lot of tight rolls and heavy cymbal work.

Say What You Want bridges the gap between a retro hard rock Steppenwolf sound and Superunknown-era Soundgarden. A driving beat with touch of feedback guitar, this pounds steadily and then slides into a more psychedelic mood. Melodic bass anchors a droning guitar, with bits of fake sitar and grungy noise. This is great head music and it would be even better live.

The peak of the rocking half is the moody, uptempo Mirrored and Reverse. The bass and keys evoke a strong Doors vibe. The vocals have been processed with echo, compression, and slight distortion to the point of being wispy. The fills are heady and inspired, featuring twinned guitar parts meandering around each other. The song drifts off into a fake ending before returning and building into a climax ending. I've listened to this a dozen times today and I'm not tired of it at all. It's also cool how it leads directly into the looser Jeff Buckley sound of Painting Yourself.

On the soulful section, most of the songs are sweeter, with no distortion, although still maintaining a snappy tempo. Everybody Somebody shifts back into the first half by bringing back the distorted guitars to thrash out a soul rock groove that reminded me of Sly Stone. Acid rock twinned guitar lines run through this, but it all fits together.

Then the mood shifts sharply with Regina Holding Hands. Folky acoustic guitar grounds a pretty arrangement. Something about the phrasing or the choppy acoustic rhythm reminds me of Jackie Blue by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. That lasts right until the chorus, which dives right into a My Morning Jacket sound: loose drums with interesting fills, soulful singing, and a similar approach for the electric guitar sound. White Denim has fused a couple of things together here into a seamless whole. The start doesn't foreshadow the ending, but the flow is natural.

White Denim is touring this month in the US. I plan to see them in Denver at the Larimer Lounge (1/27/10). Catch them if you get the chance.

What to recommend here? With two distinct sections and moods, maybe Kamikazes with a Bass ale chaser would work.

CD review - Spoon - Kill The Moonlight (2002)

Slap-CHOP! Themes of alienation and how to cope inspire staccato power pop songs. On Kill the Moonlight, Austin's Spoon channels new wave/power pop bands like Wire through a more modern indie rock filter. The songs all have a touch of new wave emotional distance as they deal with helplessness, numbing distractions, and disaffection. The driving, choppy beats make it an interesting listen and keep it from slipping into some kind of emo sink.

Normally, production values don't stand out unless the band is going for a low-fi feel (e.g. some of Beck's early work) or heavily using a technology like AutoTune. The stripped down arrangements on Kill the Moonlight are engineered to emphasize a disconnection between the component parts. In particular, several songs have piano parts that sound photoshopped in. That said, there's a retro vibe here that's compelling.

There's an overwhelming Brit feel here, with many of the songs evoking groups like XTC (Something To Look Forward To), T. Rex (Someone Something, You Gotta Feel It), and Elvis Costello (All the Pretty Girls Go To The City). The saving grace is that it's a set of influences, not rip-offs.

All The Pretty Girls Go To The City is one of my favorite tracks. Aside from the saturation of Elvis Costello throughout the song, there's a wonderfully ominous piano that has some of the same threat as the guitar in Costello's Watching the Detectives. It's complemented by shards of echoey guitar. Although the lyrics are a bit ambiguous about these girls, the music is a walk down a rainy alley that acts as a warning.

Vittorio E stands out as unique on this album. The sound is nothing like the rest of the songs. A collection of recording studio artifacts coalesce into a song. It builds, surrounded by a haze of U2, with layers of elements accruing into a pearl of a song. It's pretty and smoother, without the relentless staccato beat of the other songs. There's still some of the same sonic distance, so the pieces don't mesh as smoothly as they could, but it's a fine after dinner mint of a song.

Enjoy a double shot of espresso while you listen to Kill the Moonlight.

CD review - The String Quartet Tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd - This Sweet Home (2006)

For those who appreciate Southern Rock, there is a schism between fans of the Allman Brothers and fans of Lynyrd Skynyrd. I have always been an Allman Brothers fan: I respect Duane's slide work and loved the jazzy changes that the band could jam through. Lynyrd Skynyrd, though, always had more fans, with simpler songs and a better feel for the popular pulse. Maybe that's why I didn't care for them as much -- I had heard all of the songs far too many times: Sweet Home Alabama, Gimme Three Steps, and the major offender, Freebird. To be fair, they do have some decent tunes, they just don't come to mind as readily.

For the holidays, my siblings-in-law decided to torture er, bless me with this tribute album. To be fair, it was a gag gift, so I can't complain too much. Vitamin Records has developed a business (over 180 albums) recording string arrangement cover albums for a wide variety of artists and styles. Looking at their site, I saw their versions of Warren Zevon, Tool, and Slayer among others. I may well check out some of those in the future. As I started playing the disc, I hoped it might be as interesting as Kronos Quartet's Purple Haze.

The album leads off with Gimme Three Steps. Unfortunately, it was a straight, if slightly stiff, cover, with the violins playing fiddle licks. This song has especially weak lyrics, so an instrumental version was a slight improvement:

I was cuttin' the rug down at a place called The Jug With a girl named Linda Lou When, in walked a man with a gun in his hand And he was looking for you-know-who He said, "Hey there fellow with the hair colored yellow, What you tryin' to prove? Cause that's my woman there and I'm a man who cares And this might be all for you"

The opening line is contrived enough, but the fellow/yellow rhyme is just awkward.

Still, though, This Sweet Home did improve. One More Time is a pleasant enough arrangement that hints at a chamber music approach, but still stays fairly close to the original. A high point was their arrangement of Tuesday's Gone. The original is a decent sentimental song and this version thickens the treacle a bit, but the multi-part harmonies and cello/violin parts fit together nicely.

Comin' Home also worked well in this format, in part because Skynyrd had a more interesting melody and some good dynamics. The pizzicato intro echoes the original's guitars. The sparse first verse builds into a richer chorus. The beginning of the bridge takes on a more chamber music sound before descending into a closer cover of the guitar solos. The last verse builds up more of a fugue arrangement than the earlier verses. This piece stands well enough on its own, as well as being an interesting cover.

The liveliest song was an original , Gonna Fly Again Someday, which was inspired by Lynyrd Skynyrd's music. The melody sounds quite familiar, but it works. It's more playful than the rest of the disc, which makes it more fun to listen to.

On the whole, this was an interesting album, which worked best when the violins didn't slip into fiddle riffs.

By the way, their version of Freebird was tolerable. I recommend some sour mash and a splash of white wine when you listen to This Sweet Home.

CD review - Disco Biscuits, Planet Anthem (2010)

The Disco Biscuits have spent the last decade and a half evolving their own style of trance fusion music. Infusing electronica elements into free form, jam oriented grooves, their live shows are a celebration of psycho-social ritual. They've been releasing bits of their upcoming album, Planet Anthem (due Feb 2010), as EPs. This has been touted as a shift in sound for the band, incorporating more hip hop beats into their sound. It actually goes further than that. As a whole, there's a pervasive club-scene, pop-friendly mindset, which is a bit new. But the core sound of the Biscuits is still strong, making Planet Anthem yet another trippy mind groove of a disc for their catalog. The new elements add a progressive rock feel to the proceedings.

On Time, Loose Change, and Konkrete were all released on the On Time EP, giving their fans a taste. On Time showcases the club beat element they've integrated into their sound, with it's throbbing, lock step beat and over processed vocals. Loose Change layers an electronica groove under a steady rock beat. Lyrically, it's largely a reworking of Pink Floyd's Money without being a cover. The psychedelic lead near the end incorporates some horribly abused guitar sounds before dropping back to a cleaner sound. Konkrete is fuses new and old for the band: a gamelan sound leads into a repeated guitar figure and a sort of MC 900 Foot Jesus vocal. This song's a treat with layers of bass, vocals, synth washes, scratching, and distorted guitar.

The EP songs were a good taste, but Planet Anthem has a lot more to offer. Rain Song is one of my favorites, starting out with a thoughtful intro of echoed keys before the beat kicks in. This wouldn't be out of place on a Massive Attack disc, with moody electronica, a strong vocal, and a tight beat. The dynamic flow makes this work. Tension builds and ebbs, preserving a balance. This one will be great to hear live.

Another favorite is The City. It's got a nice R&B groove with hints of disco. The vocals are half spoken, but the lyrics are cool:

Well, I thought I knew the future of the mountains in my range
If the future teaches anything, the past can never change

The lyrical idea is smooth: seeing the city's buildings as mountains and a contrast between connection to a place and its people with the distance that separates the people in the city.

Grab Planet Anthem when it comes out and kick back to the jams with a glass of Duchesse de Bourgogne. The Disco Biscuits will also be playing at the Fox Theater (Boulder CO) at the end of the month, giving us a chance to hear some of this material live. See you there!