December 2008 update

In South Africa, quality radio programming is a problem. Maybe it’s because we live in such a culturally diverse country, but radio station wise, it is very difficult to tune into some good quality rock.

 

This does not always have to be a huge issue since I now have my Squeezebox ( see www.slimdevices.com) and can therefore tune into radio stations around the world via the internet at home. The huge issue relates to what to listen to when I am driving.

 

I have blogged before on the college radio station UJFM that can be picked up in the Johannesburg area, and they have been a bit of a life-saver in this regard. You cannot begin to describe my joy in turning on the radio at 6:45 a.m. on my way to work and hearing the new AC/DC, Kings of Leon, Killers or Metallica song. Sometimes even an old classic comes on that leaves me overjoyed. This radio station can really be a life-saver sometimes.

 

There are slots in their programming where it all goes horribly wrong for me. They do have times that they play more of the commercial type industry bubble-gum. They also have some DJ’s who are abysmal. Some of these guys cannot even pronounce the street names around Johannesburg when providing traffic updates. That kind of makes the whole point of a traffic update redundant.

 

But on the whole, this is still a great station to listen to when looking for some good rock music.

 

A few weeks ago I even entered a competition on a Sunday afternoon whereby I won the new Kings of Leon album – how cool is that? For the record, it is a very good album. I had my reservations about this album and that is why I had not already bought it, but it certainly holds up as a strong offering from a really talented band.

 

Other news for December is that most magazines on the web have got their ‘Best of 2008’ lists out. Have a browse on NME.com (there is even a blog on NME.com that tries to compile results from all over), rollingstone.com and popmatters.com for a view on what people are rating for the year. For a South African flavour check out www.isolation.tv for Lloyd Gedye’s best of 2008 summary. My favourite South African rock offering is the new one (EP only unfortunately) from Foto Na Dans. They are an incredible band doing very fresh stuff. In terms of my favourites for 2008, what is new to me may even actually be a couple of years old.

 

What I can commit to however, is that the greatest musical experience I had this year was seeing Muse live in Johannesburg! Truly truly incredible. I am not sure that I will ever get to see something like this in South Africa again.

 

In terms of albums, Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago is my recommendation for 2008 in terms of what I have heard of all the offerings out there, which probably is not much.

 

The best music related DVD that I bought this year is Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Runnin’ Down a Dream by Peter Bogdanovich.

 

Albums that I listened to a lot this year regardless of when they were released are:

 

Rodriguez – ‘Cold Fact’,

Radiohead – ‘In Rainbows’,

Muse – ‘HAARP’,

AC/DC – ‘Black Ice’.

 

All in all I thought that 2008 has been a great year for music! Let’s see what 2009 has to offer….

CD Review: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raising Sand

As an avid Led Zeppelin fan, I have tried to follow the careers of it’s members over the years. I have bought albums such as ‘Honeydrippers’, ‘Outrider’, ‘Walking into Clarksdale’ and ‘Manic Nirvana’ amongst others. And I must say that none have ever been as satisfying as the tremendous back-catalogue that Led Zeppelin have.

 

Also, I have a couple of Alison Krauss and Union Station (AKUS) albums which are enjoyable blue-grass offerings. Therefore this specific musical partnering appealed to me the moment I heard of it. Of course I was a little anxious, as I have felt let down by Robert Plant before, but as the rave reviews came in, I felt more and more confident that this would be a worthwhile purchase. But I was a little concerned that I would be getting a full CD’s worth of ‘Battle of Evermore’ style keening. While a fantastic song in the context of the Led Zeppelin album, I had my doubts about this being bearable for a whole albums worth of songs (I have enough issues with some of the neighbourhood cats on my garden wall).

 

My next problem was finding it at a decent price in South Africa. It seemed to be priced at least 10% higher than any other current/chart CD in the shops that I visited, and that offended my principles of the moment (hee hee). Then I noticed recently that it was going for half-price in on-line retail shops like Amazon, and my mind was made up. That’s the story on why I took so long to buy it!

 

The first good news is that it is not as I imagined – namely not ‘Battle of Evermore’ keening throughout. While Robert and Alison do sing together on a lot of the songs, there are just as many where Robert takes the lead, or Alison takes the lead with the other performing backing only. This means that there is plenty of variety. Another point is that the pace is rather slow. There are one or two up-beat songs, but it is largely a pretty laid-back album.

 

What comes through though is a pair of voices that nearly perfectly compliment each other, a solid bunch of musos backing this all up, and the production standards of T-Bone Burnett. I would say that the music is dreamy, smooth, beautiful, down to earth and warm. Overall, if one wanted to classify it, I suppose that one could say ‘Country’.

 

Making a reappearance from Plant is ‘Please Read The Letter’, that also appeared on ‘Walking into Clarksdale’, and I suppose that people are still not reading his letters. Since you’re asking, I will say that I prefer this version of the song but I really wish someone would read the damn letter now. The overall feeling about this album is that Plant sounds a lot better than he has for a while. Not everything is highly original. Songs are covered, the style is old, but amazingly it is one of the freshest sounding offerings that I have heard this year. I hope that they do another one!

CD Review: The Felice Brothers - The Felice Brothers

Amidst all the genre definitions of music, there is a constant striving in the music industry to pigeon-hole bands and their musical styles. One that I have become increasingly attracted to is that that has been labeled variously alt.country, Americana, or even alternative rock. Maybe I have confused a few of them together where in reality they should be considered more distinctly, but what I am talking about is music by the likes of Wilco, Golden Smog and more recently Okkervil River and The Felice Brothers amongst others. What seems to define this music for me is that real instruments are used, influences can be detected from Bob Dylan and The Band to Tom Petty, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and the blues. The music is earthy, rootsey and heart-felt.

 

The Felice Brothers have two albums out. This one called ‘The Felice Brothers’ and is their second, apart from one song on their first (which I love) I have not heard that one. Based on my enjoyment of their second, I will certainly try to dig out their first. This can be a challenge in South Africa as shops here are pretty dismal, and ordering online has become more and more risky whereby shipments are frequently lost.

 

‘The Felice Brothers’ is in fact a very varied album. This was a refreshing discovery for me as I had the expectation that they would put out an album full of very similar sounding songs. This is not the case. Sure the vocalists have pretty distinctive sounds, and there is a general trend of a basic format carrying each song. But the pace changes a lot from song to song, the vocalists seems to change too (there are no liner notes so I don’t know this for sure, but if it is the same guy singing every song, he sure can change a lot), and they bring in some pretty different instrumentation from song to song too. Again without liner notes I can’t be 100% clear on who is playing what on each specific song, but on some the is the presence of brass, others include the accordion, while others can be pretty stripped down too. But my point here is that The Felice Brothers have managed to keep the entire album refreshingly different.

 

The anecdotal nature of the songs also draw the listener in from song to song. In each, one is also drawn into considering the protagonist. This multi-layered song writing requires a lot of talent and skill, and this band is certainly not short on that. What this results in is that you can listen to this album time after time and it reveals itself to you a little more each time.

 

The band is not afraid to start the album off on a pretty subdued note with the exquisite ‘Little Ann’, subsequently taking the listener on a roller-coaster ride with many changes of pace. One of the main ingredients that I look for in a great album is that of the fun element, and you can hear that this band really enjoys what they do. This is highlighted in some of the more bar-room brawl type songs that they deliver which bring a smile to my face every time. These songs come across as raunchy and rollicking, but such is the nature of this album, that you can expect a complete change of pace at any time.

 

If you’re looking for some real music by a band that loves what they do – I strongly recommend this one.

November 2008 summary

While the postings on this blog may not reflect it, November has been a rather busy month for me in terms of my music activities.

 

Amidst the financial crises around the world, and the subsequent tightening of belts by consumers, I have been out shopping. I have purchased the following albums and found them very enjoyable (I hope to provide more in-depth or detailed assessments soon):

 

The Felice Brothers – The Felice Brothers,

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss – Raising Sand,

Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago,

MGMT – Oracular Spectacular, and

Okkervil River – The Stand Ins.

 

I also got the chance to visit the excellent Roughtrade store in East London, and can report that they have a really cool shop there including, by today’s standards, a huge vinyl selection, as well quite a different categorization system for their CD’s. Check out their web-site here www.roughtrade.com where you can shop online. Also very cool there are the in-house compilation CD’s that they put together. These are great samplers of specific themes, or genres – normally 2 CD’s for about 11 GBP. You can also check out their top ten list for 2008.

 

Other exciting things about November have been the appearance of the new Kings of Leon album. I have not heard it yet, but love the single. As well as the great reviews of Metallica’s latest which , I am ashamed to admit, I have not yet heard either. Some members in my household are also wildly anticipating the release of the new FOB album. Then the biggest buzz around has got to be that Guns ‘n Roses have finally released their ‘Chinese Democracy’ album after 15 years in the making. I have heard snippets, and all I will say right now is that what I heard sounded ‘OK’.

 

In December, I will try to compile some lists such as my best purchases of 2008. Songs that I have most enjoyed in 2008 etc. If you have any best of 2008 music comments to make, please do not hesistate!