Slipped Discs - September 2009
Discs you may have missed | by John Noyd
Long time no see. September somehow reins in our summer vagrancies to put us back on course. From national distribution for Canadian heavy metallurgists ANVIL’s first record since 2004, “This Is Thirteen,” to the return of funk-rockers LIVING COLOUR after a six-year hiatus, September’s resurfacing theme chooses new music from bands absent from the shelves. So let’s rejoin and rejoice - getting back down to it isn’t all that bad.
Os Mutantes
Haih Or AmortecedorRecord Label: Anti Records
Review published: September 2009
A moveable feast of theatrical rock turned multi-cultural pop, Brazil’s playful dance-party revolutionaries return more powerful and impassioned than ever. Throbbing musical mosaics piece together Kasbah grooves, political sambas, translucent blues and rainbow-colored psychedelia while, “Haih,” field surreal appeals through hyperbolic ballads, dramatic apparitions and intercontinental imaginations. OM hit Minneapolis’ Cedar Cultural Center Sept 26th.
Reader Votes: 0
Shudder To Think
Live From HomeRecord Label: Team Love
Review published: September 2009
Sparking fiery thought bombs beneath serrated storms, angular angst and pounding, stalk-rock, “Live,” juices up STT’s catalogue. By all appearances a joyful event, Shudder’s 2008 reunion roll out pulverizing palpitation, a towering squalor through which slinks serpentine soliloquies performing jungle-gym twists around a steel web of mind games and shock logic.
Reader Votes: 0
Marshall Crenshaw
JaggedlandRecord Label: 429 Records
Review published: September 2009
Haunted by the golden age of early rock since he debuted decades ago, Marshall crafts crooning prom-night ballads and boppy paeans to love, waxing nostalgically in rockabilly twang, pistol-packed snares and turbulent, indie-pop jangle. “Jaggedland,” tracks the wistful singer pouring his wise, world-weary heart into incandescent comforts. Crenshaw visits Milwaukee’s Shank Hall Sept. 23rd.
Reader Votes: 0
Lhasa de Sela
LhasaRecord Label: Nettwerk records
Review published: September 2009
Acoustic tapestries grace a tranquil, confiding voice; mid-tempo meditations, slow-moving harvest songs and phantom shanty waltzes float over fluttering melancholy. Lhasa’s beating dreams, reasonable realism and twilight candor snakes in a long, winding fuse igniting folk-blues blossoms among withering prophecies. In her first all-English album, the globe-trotting artist quietly embellishes clear-eyed feelings into beautifully serious poetry.
Reader Votes: 0
Hot Club Of Cowtown
Wishful ThinkingRecord Label: Gold Strike Records
Review published: September 2009
A phoenix rising from nests of effervescent finesse, “Wishful,” is packed with upbeat pluck, down-home charm and gracious glissando. Swinging between cocktail country, lonesome folk and chipper pitch-perfect jive, HCOC concoct a spiffy, hep-cat burlesque that addresses modern life in undulating harmonies. Catch the toe-tapping trio playing Beaver Dam October 20th.
Reader Votes: 0
Lita Ford
Wicked WonderlandRecord Label: JLRG Entertainment
Review published: September 2009
Hard rock boogie and wicked vixen blues reign over blistering bravado, cannonball caterwauling and tawdry anthems as Lita’s return after an eighteen year absence is a herald of rollicking riffs and stream-lined chaos. Shiny, sweaty, high-octane fun, “Wonderland,” floods the senses, churning a Mad Hatter’s bash into classic come-ons and pyrotechnical aggression.
Reader Votes: 0
Radney Foster And The Confessions
RevivalRecord Label: Thirty Tigers records
Review published: September 2009
Sage and resolute, hard-won and road-tested; life experience informs Radney’s straight-shooting, textbook tunes. Seeking relief in hindsight enlightenment and soulful regrets, “Revival,” engages and captures, corralling its deeply-felt sympathies beneath level-headed epigrams poured over muscular melodies and rousing choruses. A well-versed honky-tonk pilgrim, Radney rallies true-blue homilies into honest, everyman sentiments.
Reader Votes: 0
Final Thoughts
Balancing the karmic wheel, fall offers all kinds of new. From JACK PENATE’s sophomore, “Everything is New,” where he looks back at eighties New Romantics to POLVO, who recently reformed with a new drummer yet continue to defy categorization with their innovative, indie-twisted, acid-punk, jazz-rock constructs populating, “In Prism.” The most outré-nouveau release this season by far is ukulele-wielding, puppet-master, lo-fi trip-hop artist tUnE-yArDs’ spunky, funky, all-out courageous debut, “BiRdBrAiN.”
