CD Review: Breeders - Battle mountain

What with the recent spate of power outages that have seemed to affect my street only lately, and the fact that I have been out of the country for a week, my music blogging has suffered a bit. As a travel tip, I can say that when landing in Rome it is not advised to speak to anybody about taxi’s while still in the terminal – you get whisked away to unscrupulous taxi services who then charge the earth. Go outside to the official taxi rank, choose a taxi that looks official, and expect to pay about 40 Euros to get from the airport to the city centre of Rome.



Now, on to the CD Review!

My first impression of this album is that it is Lo-Fi. Meaning that things are stripped pretty much to the bone. It sounds like the Breeders are using old and worn out guitars, drums, amps, tape, bass guitars and Kim Deal’s lungs. Not that this is a bad thing, if the songs are strong.

When the Pixies reunited in 2004 I was a little worried. No matter how much one wants more and more of a good thing – in this case a new Pixies album, there is a lot to be said for quitting while you are winning too. My worrying caused me to avidly scan every little snippet I could find to try to determine whether they were recording again, and if so how it was going. In the end they only managed a couple of songs, which I have not heard as I have never managed to figure out Itunes (they don’t seem to service South Africa), which was the only place that they were released. At the time Frank Black commented that they had had problems getting Kim out of her house and into a recording environment. As always there was probably more to the situation than meets the eye, because she has clearly been channelling energy into the Breeders.

Battle Mountain is an album that I believe belongs in a context. It does not play that well in my car where the low-end is lost to the rumblings of the road (and most of the album is pretty much low-end). You can’t play it with the kids around as they consider it boring, and you probably could not play it with guests around as it might be considered too gloomy/moody. So my dilemma is that it sounds like a good album and what I hear I like, but in my natural surroundings the response to it by the co-inhabitants is cool (a bit like Grinderman’s excellent offering). So maybe the context for the album is sneaking off to a nice quiet place with a pair of good head-phones!

Let me try that out before continuing with the review……

Hmmm, this only goes to show how dangerous first impressions can be. The album is definitely fairly low-key in the sense of an un-hurried and simplified type of offering. But that does not mean it is not exciting. There are great songs on this album, my favourite being ‘Istanbul’ which displays how to create something that is complex and fun with a minimum of technology. The single ‘We’re Gonna Rise’ is also strong, while ‘It’s the Love’ is another strong favourite of mine.

This is also one track in German and one in Spanish, I have no idea what they are about, but I really like the German one. All the way through the bass playing is really good.

Listening to this album reminds me of bands like The Breeders (Doh!), Pixies (Doh!), PJ Harvey (not a band I know), and Throwing Muses. If you like these bands, and want some music that comes across as warm and cosy, you will enjoy this album.

CD Review: Eels – Useless Trinkets B - Sides, Soundtracks, Rarities and Unreleased

Compilations of B-sides can be a risky purchase if there is not some underlying level of consistent talent relating to the band or artist concerned.

I have always been more of an album guy, buying an album rather than a single with the view that singles are generally the tip of the ice-berg and one needs to assess the artists entire offering before coming to hasty conclusions.

What this tends to mean though, is that I generally snap up B side and rarity compilations of bands as it is generally guaranteed that I would not have heard the songs before.

Some of my favourite albums are thus The Pixies’ ‘B sides’ and Nick Caves ‘B sides and rarities’. Nick Cave’s offering is a sheer extravaganza, sprawling over three CD’s, containing one highlight after the next. It drives home everything that can be good about this type of compilation, such as finally getting versions of songs that have only appeared on movie soundtracks, or getting a glimpse of the artist when they are just relaxing and having some fun in the studio. Often these types of compilations include cover versions, which provide further insights into a band or artist with regards to their influences. Further, these compilations also often include stripped down or reworked versions of well known songs, which also provides food for thought where the listener can imagine how things are probably turning out in a parallel universe (I could not resist this ‘Eels type reference’). All in all compilations like this are normally the best way to really get to know a band.

Back to the Eels though and I must state up front that they have been one of my favourite bands for a very long time. The main member of the Eels is an individual known as E (His real name is Mark Everett, but he had two childhood friends who were also called Mark so they started using surnames, eventually shortening them to initials only). Oddly enough I missed the whole ‘Beautiful Freak’ period (their debut album) and only became aware of them through their next album ‘Electro-shock blues’ which created a huge positive impression on me. Since then I have been following their progress pretty closely and therefore became aware of the dual releases in 2008 of both a Greatest Hits and the B sides and rarities compilation. I have not checked out the greatest hits album yet as they are both very expensive in South Africa, and my thinking was that I probably have most of those songs. Therefore I decided to spend my hard-earned cash on the rarities album. Expensive though it is, I must point out that it consists of two CD’s and a DVD, as well as a fairly substantial set of liner notes with entries by E himself. Each CD has 25 songs on it with the DVD containing six songs too, so that totals to 56 songs by the Eels that I have not owned before.

Justification I suppose, unless they are all throw-away junk songs…..

But let me start with the DVD. The DVD contains six songs from the Eels’ 2006 Lollapalooza performance. As I understand it, the live Eels band can take on many configurations, this one being pretty stripped down with only 4 people on stage. However, the performances are satisfyingly off-beat and fun with my favourite being a great version of their early song ‘Not Ready Yet’ which includes an extended jam with E handing over his guitar to the 'security' guy at one stage to carry on with the riffing. Sound and image quality are good and the only complaint I have is that the six songs are over too soon.

Next are the CD’s. After three listens, I can report that there are no tracks that have me reaching for the skip button. That in itself is saying something about the consistency of this compilation considering that there are 50 tracks. There are great live and alternative versions of familiar songs such as ‘Novocaine for the soul’, ‘I Like Birds’, ‘My Beloved Monster’, and ‘Hospital food’ to name a few. Then there are some really weird offerings such as ‘Waltz of the Naked Clowns’ and ‘Jelly Dancers’. The firm favourite for now is the Moog Cookbook remix of ‘Novocaine For The Soul’. Also worth a mention is the fact that this compilation includes two covers of Prince songs, which one would not naturally associate as an influence on the Eels, but it all makes sense now (both actually coming from the same album ‘Sign O the Times’). But then who can be impervious to the influence of the Royal Purple Funkmaster?

Overall there is never a dull moment on this set of CD’s and as I hoped, it really does provide some deeper insight into E (I think it is time to order his autobiography from Amazon). They remain one of my favourite bands and hopefully there is a lot more where this comes from (I wonder if I should try to send a note to E warning him of the hazards of smoking those huge cigars he often pictured enjoying before he splutters out).

CD Review: Lucky Dube - The Best of Lucky Dube

Over the years, I have been privileged enough to witness some brilliant South African music live.

Having recently purchased the Lucky Dube – 'The Best Of' CD, I was struck by a big dose of nostalgia. I have been fortunate enough to witness live performances from seminal bands such as Sakhile, Stimela and Juluka. In fact, Sakhile’s show was the only time I have experienced my hair standing on end as a result of the collective band member’s musical virtuosity. Over the years I have been fortunate enough to see myriad bands come, some stay and others go, some brilliant and some rather average. I have been to concerts by Hotline where a young PJ Powers belted out Led Zeppelin covers accompanied by an awesome Alistair Coakley. I have seen Brenda and the Big Dudes dole out the soulful and funky, and then also witnessed the rise and (in some cases) fall of bands such as No Friends of Harry, Cinema, The Helicopters, Little Sister, Psycho Reptiles, Petit Cheval, Tananas, Dog detachment, Tribe after tribe, Seether (as Saron Gas), Wonderboom, Prime Circle, Henry Ate, the list goes on and on. Some were really good, other just OK and others really bad. What bothers me though is the lack of continuity and permanence of good bands and artists in South Africa. I think that there are probably numerous and complicated reasons for this (one being that people don’t go out and buy their albums), but what is sad is that we have this problem at all.

So it is even sadder when we have such seriously talented artists like Lucky Dube, who has been a relatively successful counterpoint to the inconsistency by becoming hugely popular throughout the world, and especially Africa, and releasing album after album of quality reggae music, who are cut down in their prime by mindless criminals. He has not been the only one, sadly there is a long list of highly talented musicians who have lost their lives to crime in South Africa.

It only takes one listen to this CD to realise that here was a hugely talented individual, surrounded by an extremely talented set of musicians, producing quality music time after time. The reasons for his continuous success is also obvious when you listen to the songs and realise just how good the musicians were, how much care was taken with the production of the songs and how much thought went into his lyrics. These songs are so much a part of South Africa’s radio airwaves that it is hard to understand why some of Dube’s underlying messages of Peace and Social Consciousness have not seeped into our ailing national psyche. Every home should have a copy of this CD, play it loud in your home and in your car, quote the lyrics to each other so that hopefully this contributes to South Africa becoming the beautiful nation that we all want so badly.

CD Review: Shack - Time Machine The Best of Shack

Shack is a band that everybody should know about, but they probably don’t. Consisting mainly of Michael and John Head, brothers from Liverpool, the rest of the line-up has kept changing over the years. Members trace their roots back to The Pale Fountains and The Strands. Read about them on Wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shack_%28Band%29 The Head brothers apparently have a bit of an obsession with Arthur Lee and the band Love that comes through in their own writing. In fact when Arthur Lee visited the UK they performed the role of his backing band.

Shack consistently produces quality albums that contain beautiful songs. More often than not, these songs are about everyday occurrences with the skill of the Head brothers being that of holding up a mirror for their listeners to use to look at themselves. My first experience of Shack was when I got hold of the ‘HMS Fable’ album. This album on its own should convert anybody into a Shack fan. Each and every song is a killer. Michael and John, on Vocals/Rhythm and Vocals/Lead respectively, sing and strum away in some of the most evocative songs I had heard for a long time. My favourite song on this album is ‘Daniella’ which I don’t think is the obvious choice but really appeals to me. I next got the album ‘The corner of Miles and Gil’, although ‘Here’s Tom with the weather’ came out between these two albums, which in my view was not as good as ‘Fable’, but still a very strong offering.

Next for me has been ‘Time Machine’: the to-date Best Of offering. As with most Greatest Hits compilations, there is always going to be some debate as to which songs make it onto the CD (I for one cannot understand how Neil Young could release a single CD Greatest Hits compilation, he has enough hits to fill at least 3 CD’s). I think that in Shack’s case, this can be even more heated than usual. This is because their songs work on such a personal level, meaning different things to different people. I just love the track ‘Cup of Tea’.

As always, as it is a ‘Best Of’ compilation, one has to view the offering in terms of completeness as well. In other words, if viewed as a ‘Time Machine’ it must include tracks from all stages of their career in order to be able to transport the listener back in time. From this perspective this is an excellent collection that enables the listener to hear the evolution of the band as they grow from strength to strength. This is not to say that the earlier tracks are not good – they are indeed very good. What changes though is the production quality and the growing use of other elements to further enhance their sounds, such as a strings section (maybe what changed was the budget available to the band when entering the recording studio).

The two songs on here that are most recent do not come from any of the already released albums, and therefore could be seen as providing a view into what is still to come from this great band. I must admit, while they are not bad songs, they do seem a bit too conventional in my view.

Overall, this is a nice snapshot of a very good band that manages to help the listener to identify the beauty in their everyday surroundings. The songs always leave me with my mood improved and uplifted. The message from the band seems to be that: no matter what terrible things happen in your life there is also a lot of beauty around if you look hard enough. If you like this their other albums are sure to blow your mind, I recommend ‘HMS Fable’ first and then move on from there, you will not be disappointed.

April 2008 what's on the player

The April roundup is a bit delayed, and I blame this excellent web-site: http://www.starwarsorigami.com/. It combines two things I really enjoy, star wars and origami. Have a look, I know it won’t appeal to all rockers out there but maybe some of you will appreciate it.

Back to the music though, and I can report that I finally got the Radiohead CD out of my player although I must admit that I do miss it. I must also point out that I have been listening to Muse HAARP a lot, but will not include it in my summary as my previous posting is dedicated to it.

The summary for the month therefore is as follows:


Paramore – Riot!

Imagine Avril Lavigne as a musically talented individual who can write good songs and sing well. This gets you to imagining what Hayley Williams from Paramore is like. Only she is even better than that. The Paramore album is full of strong rocking tracks that only grow with repeated listening.

Breaking Benjamin - Phobia

In my opinion this is a silly name for a band – it sounds like a boy band. But then, I don’t know, maybe they named it after two obscure blues legends….

However the album really rocks. It is on the heavier side of American type rock with good lyrics and a great overall sound.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Pack up the Plantation: Live.


Listening to Muse – ‘HAARP’ got me thinking about my favourite live albums, which then led me to dusting off my vinyl copy of ‘Pack up the Plantation’ (actually my vinyl does not have much dust on it). I wonder if there is a digitally remastered version of this recording out there – I will have to do some research.

This album, however, is an awesome concert document. Sound quality, crowd participation and band performance are all very strong, and the guest appearance of Stevie Nicks is also truly splendid, especially on the track ‘Insider’.

Queens of the Stone Age – Lullabies to Paralyze
Josh Homme of the Queens of the Stone Age (QOTSA) is a truly talented individual, with, a little paradoxically, one of his major strengths being the ability to collaborate. This has lead to great collaborations in his series of ‘Desert Sessions’ albums where he gathers together friends and colleagues (Polly Jean Harvey to name one) and takes them off into the desert somewhere to jam and record. I have got sessions 7&8 and 9&10 and they both rock. Also in his collaboration work, he has recorded with the band Eagles of Death Metal. This is another band with a slightly misleading name. The music is not of the genre death metal – I believe that it is meant to sound like, conceptually, what death metal would sound like if The Eagles played it. I can report that their interpretation of this is some really groovy, funky and skanky sounding boogie rock, with some of the nastiest (and funniest) lyrics around.

Josh Homme is the main member of QOTSA and what underscores all of his projects is the amount of fun he seems to have in doing them. ‘Lullabies to Paralyze’ continues on that theme, with the whole album capturing a unique sound, with plenty of attention to detail given to the tone of guitar sounds. There are immediately lovable songs such as ‘Burn the Witch’ and ‘Little Sister’, as well as songs that really grow with each listen such as ‘Everybody knows that you are insane’.

I love this album, and will try to get hold of their new one too as soon as I can afford it.

CD Review: Muse - HAARP

Following on from my much documented Muse euphoria (after seeing them live in March), I ordered the HAARP package. This package is based on two live concerts that Muse held in the new Wembley stadium over two days in June 2007. The CD captures the one day while the DVD is of the other day. Fortunately for me it did actually arrive and I have been listening to/watching it ever since. It is described as a live CD that includes a bonus DVD, but to me I view it as the other way round i.e. a live DVD with a live CD to accompany it (there are more songs on the DVD than there are on the CD).

Separating them out, let’s take a look at the CD first. If I consider what makes a live album great, it is very difficult to pinpoint one single thing. Obviously there are some factors that have to be good, such as song selection and recording quality. But the truly great ones capture something extra. In the case of AC/DC’s ‘If you want blood..’ there is a raw energy and excitement that make the album crackle with energy. The crowd chanting ‘Angus, Angus, Angus’, and Angus himself giving it his all as solo after solo sneaks in and boogie woogies all round your head, cannot be equalled. Then there is Iron Maiden’s ‘Live after death’ with Bruce Dickinson exhorting the crowd to ‘scream for me Long Beach’, a now classic quote. Others such as the Eels’ ‘Oh what a beautiful morning’, Talking Heads’ ‘Stop making sense’, Little Feat’s ‘ Waiting for Columbus’, Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker’s ‘Pack up the plantations’, Nick Cave’s wall of sound on ‘The abattoir blues tour’ and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘One more from the road’ have something special that makes them great. There are also some weird anomalies such as Lou Reed’s ‘Take no prisoners’ where the level of self, and audience,-loathing makes this a one of a kind too, but that is the exception rather than the rule. In each case it may be a different factor but in the end it is all about what the artists choose to reveal to their audiences, and the fun that they have playing their music (except for Lou).

On this CD, sound quality is really good, with the live mix coming across well. The track-listing covers all aspects of their career so far and my only beef is that there is no ‘Feelin’ Good’ on the CD. In terms of the ‘something extra’ discussed above, the band give it their all with an energy that is infectious. While not much dialogue takes place with the audience, there are enough quips and ‘thank yous’ to ‘Wemberley’ to keep this alive and energetic. What is astounding is the way that the band sound better with every song. Towards the end, Matt’s voice sounds stronger than when he started.

The DVD however is what makes this package worthwhile in my opinion, especially if you have been to a Muse concert. It functions as a perfect document of what a Muse concert is like and had my daughter and me reminiscing all the way as we recognised elements of the concert we had experienced in Johannesburg. Here the track-listing is far more comprehensive than the CD, covering 6 more songs (including Feelin’ good). As a bonus DVD, this far exceeds expectations. The sound and visual quality is of the highest standard, hence my comment about it being the actual item in the package with the CD as a bonus. Their concerts in general are grandiose, high energy, affairs, and in the case of these Wembley showings even more so. The energy and spectacle is thrillingly captured in this format. Musicianship is flawless with Muse the band delivering like a well-oiled machine.

In terms of extras, there is not much. There is a ‘making of’ type documentary that is interesting enough, but what would have been nice are some interviews with the band members, and a photo gallery. This brings me to the one thing that I would raise as a criticism. This is definitely not a band that gets very involved with their audience. They keep to themselves. Ultimately I suppose that their interaction is more at the emotional level, and at this they are very good. They manage to generate excitement, elation and euphoria with their craft. This to me is preferable to singers or bands who hold long one-way conversations with their audiences and then deliver an average performance. But, some insights into the band members and what they are like as people would have been very welcome.

Well I don’t want this blog to become a Muse blog in general and therefore will have to get over the band at some stage.

Don’t forget, your comments are most welcome.

CD Review: Bob Dylan - Modern Times

CD Review: Bob Dylan – Modern Times

In my explorations in the World Wide Web I have noticed that this album caused some controversy on its release in 2006. Several authoritative publications rated it as a 10/10 or full marks on whatever scale they use, and then very vocal commentators disagreed with that saying that it is not ‘Blond on blond’ or ‘Highway …’. This interested me and I decided that I should form my own opinion. The first thing that you should know is that up until now, I have never owned or heard a full Bob Dylan album – there I said it. Of course I have heard most of the most famous songs, and who does not totally enjoy Hendrix’s version of ‘All along the Watchtower’, but I have no prior experience of a Dylan album. Why I make this point is that, hopefully this will mean that I can provide a view on the album without having any pre-conceived ideas, and also make no comparison to prior work.

Although I must mention that the CD sleeve tells one almost nothing, I have determined that the band on the album is the same that has been touring with Dylan recently and the album was produced by Dylan himself.

In my mind, the antecedents of this album seem to align themselves for the production of a gem. Namely, there is no external pressure on Dylan to produce a best seller or hit single, I don’t think that he needs the money and his last two albums have been hailed as a return to form. Therefore he can go into the studio for the right reasons, to have fun recording a new album with nothing to prove.

So, what is the album like?

The answer is that it rocks! This bunch of old guys, lead by main old guy, Bob Dylan, lay down some funky grooves. The drum and bass section are rock solid. Every song bounces along on some of the coolest rhythm tracks one can imagine. The rest of the band is even better. Then Dylan adds more lyrics to each song than one can believe possible. He just keeps going and he’s got a lot to say. I always thought that his voice would start to grate after a couple of songs into any album, but in a strange way he manages to keep things fresh each time.

The question is: what does he sing about at such length? And interestingly, apart from a couple of barbed political numbers (which are thought-provoking and insightful), the story is the same as any guy has – guy meets girl, guy falls in love with girl, girl frustrates the hell out of guy. Listening to this album is like having a real heart-to-heart discussion on life with your most beloved Uncle. Here he is at 70 odd years, and still describing with such vivid clarity what you have been through, and what you can expect to go through for the next half of your life too. It is encouraging and empathetic in a way that leaves me motivated and glad to be alive and in a relationship. This may sound as if males may get more out of the songs than females, but what I would say is that if you as a female wonder what guys talk about – have a listen to this, you may gain some insights. I know I am generalising dangerously here. You are welcome to disagree; this is only my opinion

As I mentioned, there is not much information on the sleeve notes so I don’t see any song-writing credits. However I recognise some of these songs such as ‘Rollin’ and Tumblin’’ and ‘When the Levee breaks’, but I am pretty sure the lyrics are largely his own. My personal favourite track is ‘Rollin’ and Tumblin’’ closely followed by ‘Nettie Moore’. Dylan can pull rhymes out of thin air with nonchalant ease. His craft in this area is awesome to behold (sonically that is). Every song is strong and of high quality both musically and in terms of the lyrics – they have already become old friends to me and I can’t help smiling when each song starts and I anticipate what he is going to be singing about. Dylan is one witty guy who really loves music and still has a lot to say. The love of music is very tangible and this is why I like the album so much. In recording this album, Dylan also performs a very important role in an ‘oral history’ type of way by updating some near-traditional old songs, polishing them up and delivering them to generations who may never have heard them. Hopefully this will encourage people, especially other musicians, to examine their roots from time to time.

The band sounds comfortable and un-hurried. Dylan has taken some time to get into a studio, gather his thoughts and deliver a carefully prepared package of songs for his audience. My interpretation of the message is that people should stick together, enjoy life and don’t forget to stop and laugh at yourself every now and then.

I think that I should explore some of Dylan’s back-catalogue.

Or would that destroy the impression I now have?

Please add comments if you have them, they are most welcome.