Disc Reviews
by Max Ink Staff Writers
The Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones - Charlie Is My Darling, ‘65 in Dublin, Ireland
The Rolling Stones
Album title: The Rolling Stones - Charlie Is My Darling, ‘65 in Dublin, Ireland
By Michael Sherer
Posted: Oct 2013
Label: ABKO
(1518) Page Views
The uptown 92 Y in New York City brought back the swinging ‘60’s via a British band to their comfortable screening theater, but the setting wasn’t London. It was Dublin, Ireland, the year was 1965, and the band was the Rolling Stones, very early in their career. They were on a weekend jaunt there. The footage, all in black in white, was the first time the band was professionally filmed. The look and sound is very good, with a running time of 62 minutes.
They can thank their 21-year-old manager at the time, Andrew Loog Oldham, for ordering up and producing the footage. He had Peter Whitehead direct it. It was released by ABKO, an independent record label, music publisher, and film and video production company founded by Allen Klein in 1961. The late Klein was the Stones’ business manager and music publisher, and made a fortune from the band, as well as many other artists.
The film includes many locals talking about what they think of the then two-year-old band. It’s mostly youngsters that we hear, and they are the generation that the newly released smash hit, (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, was about and for. The song had been number one on the charts just weeks before, and was a big part of the increasingly-frenzied audience adulation that is on full display. It was enough that most performances had to be halted or even ended due to the fans rushing the stage.
There’s also many behind-the-scenes and day-in-the-life snippets throughout. I was especially interested in the ones of Mick and Keith trying to compose new material together. It hadn’t been long that Oldham had insisted that they come up with their own music, as the Beatles were, to be current, original, and to receive all the publishing monies that came with it.
Oldham was in attendance, and was in conversation on the stage with Stevie Van Zandt, someone who really knows the era, music, and history here. Their discussion was engaging, candid and relaxed, like the home movie style footage contained in this treat of a film.
Placebo - Loud Like Love
Placebo
Album title: Loud Like Love
By John Noyd
Posted: Sep 2013
Label: Universal
(1608) Page Views
Twenty years after their debut, Placebo’s seventh full-length effort continues to infuse glamorous gloom with decadent intelligence. Sentenced to sexy repentance cloaked in hard-bitten forgiveness, “Love,” sneers, veers and spears; pithy witnesses like snickering vicars baring cozy souls in weathered resignation and eloquent elocution. Dredging perplexing confessions poised on requisite precipices, the band shamelessly fans smoldering doldrums into fiery spite and brittle belittling, tackling post-millennial stagnation with petulant sentiment and casual impertinence. Edgy and anxious in sleepy mischievousness, the British trio’s strung-out, snake-like grandeur purrs and stirs in lurid purges, exacting revenge in goth-rock electronics; industrial hustle feeding chronic symphonics while thirsting for mercy in melodramatic apathy. Wrapped in leathery presents, romantic phantoms sanction coiled cadence, prowling in desolate dreamscapes while tied to tired apologies.
Lee Ranaldo and the Dust - Last Night on Earth
Lee Ranaldo and the Dust
Album title: Last Night on Earth
By John Noyd
Posted: Sep 2013
Label: Matador Records
(3985) Page Views
A spell-binding alliance surfing a groundswell of white-water trances and gypsy-rock dancing, Ranaldo’s tuneful musings provide a sizeable nucleus for band-mates Steve Shelley, Alan Licht and Tim Lüntzel to navigate a churning journey filled with spacey nuance. Swimming in simmering indie-rock hymns, thick in charging catharsis, “Earth,” works solid plots around meandering jams as the album’s masterful collaboration surrounds each song’s soul-seeking center with sublimely primal timing. United by wiry flights galloping through crusading waves topped in incandescent transcendence, The Dust rocks out with a glorious heart of gold, broaching easy-going vocals in a tumultuous storm of blustery muscle, delicate melting and twisted riffing. Landing October 14th at Madison’s High Noon Saloon, Lee and friends will surely purge your apocalyptic fits with guitar-driven mercy missions.
Basia Bulat - Tall Tall Shadow
Basia Bulat
Album title: Tall Tall Shadow
By John Noyd
Posted: Sep 2013
Label: Secret City Records
(1674) Page Views
Having joined My Morning Jacket’s Jim James on a portion of his tour that included a gig in Madison this past September, Bulat returns to the area November 6th headlining the historic Stoughton Opera House. A fitting venue for her intimate convictions, this restless Toronto songstress’ reflective perspectives and perceptive connections shepherd determined concerns into a vibrant science of nimble fingers dancing over vivid images for a rich mix of upbeat pop sweetness and mindful driving folk. Chasing erasable regrets and facing scarred hearts with respect, “Tall,” consoles and patrols with diligent vigilance surrounded by wisdom and sympathy. Basia’s stark autoharps melt beneath silky soliloquies as electric pianos rush around robust busking, a bright bouncy bounty of passionate ballads crafting long-lasting dreams from hard-fought memories.
Islands - Ski Mask
Islands
Album title: Ski Mask
By John Noyd
Posted: Sep 2013
Label: Manqué Music
(1960) Page Views
Disguising its despising in ironic pop-rock tonics whose bubbly cabaret betrays a wicked streak of cheeky conceits, “Ski Mask,” adapts an amiably ambling manner to its steel-trap attacks for philosophical demagoguery stuffed inside taut melodic opulence. Despite a rainbow of instruments and styles, the rose-colored glasses are nowhere in sight as savory new wave, smug indie-pop and staunch alt-rock launch sharp wit and squirming wordplay around soft melancholy and floundering heartache. Casting characters for narratives that are desperate and daring, the former front-man for the Unicorns and prolific misfit for Islands Nick Thorburn channels his skillful willful talent for sly bile, erecting a catchy net to filter life’s dodgy apologies into sour-grape escapes. Catch Nick and the band when they play UW-Madison’s Rathskellar Oct. 12th.
Here Come The Mummies - Cryptic
Here Come The Mummies
Album title: Cryptic
By John Noyd
Posted: Sep 2013
Label: Sphinxter
(1667) Page Views
The over-riding riddle to HCTM’s tightly-wrapped, “Cryptic,” is how did they manage to pack so much rousing good time party music in just one disc? Funky brass powers growling R&B sleaze, thundering cock-rock teases and manic Afro-Cuban fusions as, ” Cryptic,” rips through criminally simmering binges with a sizzling rhythm section equally at ease in heart-pounding ska as emotional Philly soul. Permanently on the prowl for rowdy romance, HCTM flaunt solid chops in a bevy of heavy gut-grabbing flash and smooth Rico Suave panache, slaying players in not so subtle double entendres ala King Creole and the Coconuts while dancing to hyperbolic salsa like a hot-blooded Miami Sound Machine. A guaranteed uproarious voyage, the shrouded dowagers of get-down sounds play Madison’s Majestic Theater Oct. 19th.
Ghost & Goblin - SuperHorrorCastleLand
Ghost & Goblin
Album title: SuperHorrorCastleLand
By Mario R. Martin
Posted: Sep 2013
Label: Ghost & Goblin
(1913) Page Views
A movement has begun. The movement, fronted by kings and queens, has taken shape over the course of many years. The results have been shed across canvases, figurative and literal, around the world. The kings and queens, royalty if you will, have stood proudly atop castles attempting to strike the mediocrity from society. And in modern day America, mediocrity begins with music.
A vast and banal realm, the music industry has suffered overpopulation at the hands of the greedy. The kings and queens, after being forced underground have risen up again to clean the air in an act of contrition for the sonic landscape. Leading the charge is Ghost & Goblin, a New York duo lurking in the shadows. G&G could easily be pigeonholed into a genre, but immediately it would be wrong. Much like limiting space or a black hole, G&G create music that is similarly expansive.
Electronic in nature, Ghost & Goblin is comprised of members, Nicholas DiMichele (Keyboard, Guitar, Vocals) and Spencer Synwolt (Drums, Percussion, Samples). The two formed Ghost & Goblin in 2012 to critical acclaim following the break up of their first band, The Kobolds. Shortly after forming, the two gained exposure at SXSW and immediately began ironing out details for their debut record under the newly minted moniker. The result is an epic opus entitled SuperHorrorCastleLand.
Kings and queens? Of course. This time, music gets the royal treatment a la Ghost & Goblin. Unexpectedly, these New York kings churn out noise rock that is sensibly melodic. It’s sensibly dark. It’s sensibly ethereal. And much like more contradiction in life, it’s sensibly tongue in cheek as well. Again, electronic by nature, SuperHorrorCastleLand is a trip through Roxy Music influence, fed through a contemporary bravado. But there’s one thing SuperHorrorCastleLand is not. It is not like anything before it or after it. There’s a gentle quality to the darkest moments—because they’re real; they’re genuine. Ghost & Goblin have crafted something special. The truth lives in the sounds they make.
SuperHorrorCastleLand is a soundtrack for a self-imposed darkness, a refusal to succumb to mediocrity. The kings have freed their people with their song.
J.J. Vicars - Long Way From Home
J.J. Vicars
Album title: Long Way From Home
By Sal Serio
Posted: Sep 2013
Label: Annie Gator Records
(3079) Page Views
Ramblin’ man J.J. Vicars has lived the life of the guitar player at “The Crossroads”, staring the Devil in the eye, always ready for the axe-slinger’s duel at the drop of the dead man’s hat. Currently based in Canton, Ohio, this down-South honky-tonk rockabilly blues man has paid his dues, but as does the finest timepiece, he takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’.
With a voice somewhere between Foghat’s Lonesome Dave, Bear Hite from Canned Heat, and Jerry Lee Lewis, Vicars lays down authentic rock ‘n roll blues with diverse technique, peppered with attitude and swagger.
While “Ain’t Waitin’ Anymore” has an SRV-type Texas vibe, and the instrumental “Icebreakin” features Freddie King or Albert Collins-ish bluesy chicken pickin’, there’s plenty of rock in this house, evidenced by “Cutie Pie” and it’s 70s sex gargoyle heavy modal shredding deconstruction. There’s also some Peter Green-era Mac magic at work here, with the ethereal “Albatross sheen” applied liberally to “Solitude” and “Sleep Walk”. In a nutshell, if you’re serious about your guitar-hero blues music, you be right at home drinkin’ and grinnin’ with Mr. Vicars. Screw the drummer, give the guitar player some, man! Kidding there, yet serious that this guy has the chops and the cojones to kick-start one helluva rockin’ roll-y hoedown.
Throw Logic - Breaking December
Throw Logic
Album title: Breaking December
By Sal Serio
Posted: Sep 2013
Label: Metal Karate Records
(1698) Page Views
Melody, Aggression, and Groove, are three words that jumped out at me as I was reading Throw Logic’s bio, and simultaneously listening to their new ‘Breaking December’ CD EP. This Phoenix, Arizona, based, heavy-industrial-collides-with-nu-metal juggernaut throws down pounding, metronome-type beats, slinky serpentine rhythms, and solid pop-metal vocal arrangements, in to their compelling songs.
Throw Logic’s two guitarists, Mikey and Nate, combine their crunchy hard-rock riffs with a fair amount of techno effects, painting a portrait of “Goth meets industrial meets modern metal”. Often, the multi-layered string-effects suggest keyboards or strings, adding quite a bit of classic off-Broadway-type stage theatrics to the otherwise generally metallic proceedings. This music makes me think what a band like Device or Fear Factory would’ve been like performing in the Vaudevillian era. Without question, part of that dramatic effect is credit to the gut-wrenching emotion and delivery of front man Ricky, whose soaring vocal parts are the cement to the duo-guitar-attack and the bone-crushing rhythm section.
Take a sec to experience ‘Breaking December’s first single and video, “Counterfeit”, which is currently all over the Internet. I’m also partial to the title track, and “Drifters”, which are the heaviest of these six relentless tracks.
Mojo Radio - Rise
Mojo Radio
Album title: Rise
By Sal Serio
Posted: Aug 2013
Label: Grooveyard Records
(5891) Page Views
‘Rise’ shows Mojo Radio maturing in to a more cohesive unit, mining the gritty blues-rock sound originated by the likes of Savoy Brown or The Faces, and popularized in more recent years by the Black Crowes. Their new songs are tight and trimmed of any excessive baggage, making it evident that the group woodshedded for months before committing these new songs to tape.
J.P. Peterson’s guitar is crispy razor sharp in it’s recorded presence. His slide work drips of reverberation and cavernous echo, giving this material a retro nod, yet managing to pull the best from the past and plant it firmly in to the present. Adam Zierten’s vocals now sound a lot like Chris Robinson, soulfully expressive on slower more “down home” tracks like “Hold Your Breath” and “110912”.
‘Rise’ features some exceptional special guest moments. On “See It Thru”, lead guitar is provided by Jeff Massey of the Steepwater Band, who weaves in and out of the melody, balanced by J.P.’s solid chordal structure. Additionally, “See It Thru” & “Darken My Door” features keyboards by Erik “ERock” Anderson, and, on “110912”, percussion by Tim Schmitt.
Mojo Radio’s CD release party is Saturday, December 14, at the Crystal Corner Bar in Madison, with special guests Subatomic.
Porcelain Raft - Permanent Signal
Porcelain Raft
Album title: Permanent Signal
By John Noyd
Posted: Aug 2013
Label: Secretly Canadian
(1734) Page Views
Drawing from his experience with the hive-like drive of major metropolitan areas around the world, Mauro Remiddi, who for all intent and purposes is Porcelain Raft, brings a polished cosmopolitan edge to his exalted future-pop melancholy, devising a swarming storm churning in urban ambience. An oddly toxic gospel rinsed in gritty synths and piano pathos, “Signal,” mingles in ominous crawls and melodramatic aftermaths; moody tunes swooning in glossy flotsam and surging purges emptying into wind-swept redemptions. Dabbling in stabbing satellite galleries planted around watery graves escaping decay, Remiddi’s digital crickets rise and fall among open-ended wishes wallowing in electronic ennui and strangled in strange waves of waxing ballads battling rogue hopes and searching purpose. PR brings his elegant existential endeavors to Madison’s Frequency September 13th
Bombadil - Metrics of Affection
Bombadil
Album title: Metrics of Affection
By John Noyd
Posted: Aug 2013
Label: Ramseur Records
(1572) Page Views
Named for a Tolkien character that lives in the woods and talks to animals, North Carolina’s effusive acoustic Bombadil exerts a natural magic for telling tall tales with a splendid tendency towards casual detail. From wise-cracking raps to cantering chanteys this band of merry mischief-makers deploy serene semantics in their warm, inviting antics; balancing light-hearted harmonies within well-informed choruses for a lilting patchwork quilt of cozy folk-pop vignettes both devilishly insistent and joyfully literate. Delightful flights filled with chatty patter and off-beat treats, “Metrics,” measures life’s simple joys and philosophical challenges with nimble civility and savory contemplation; befriending while upending in gleeful allegiance to fleeting melodies. Opening for Mexo-Americana band David Wax Museum, Bombadil plays Madison’s Frequency September 22nd and Milwaukee’s Shank Hall September 25th.
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