Archive | Musical Interludes (Melodic thoughts from the Jester) RSS feed for this section

Looking Forward to End-of-Summer Albums

12 Aug

End of Summer

Doesn’t it seem that summer passes by quicker than any other season? For those (like me) who live in a state that experiences distinct climates, it is easy to become ensconced in the warm weather just to have it ripped away from you quickly. I should stop complaining. Summer still has more than a month to bathe us in beach weather. As we continue to enjoy the fading rays of summer, let’s take a glimpse at some end-of-summer albums music lovers should be looking forward to.

August 20

John Mayer – Paradise Valley 

The crooning bluesman is fully recovered from his vocal surgery and has hit the ground running after the delayed (2012) release of his fifth studio album Born and Raised. Paradise Valley abides by a similar formula as his last release: mixture of folk and country rock. The first single is evident of that.

Mayer’s airy croon does not disappoint and the song carries a relaxed rhythm. It’s a pleasant listen – and the embedded video is hilariously odd.

August 27

Franz Ferdinand – Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action

Franz Ferdinand

It has been almost a decade since “Take Me Out” hit #3 on the UK charts. Wow. The 2004 self-titled album sold more than three million copies and engendered worldwide popularity for the Scottish band. The band has always been able to stay relevant with its tunes, but the music has not been frequent. After a quick follow-up in 2005 it took the band four years to release its third LP and another four years to release the most recent album. The early reviews are proclaiming that it is well worth the wait.

September 17

Five For Fighting – Bookmarks 

Bookmarks

John Ondrasik – a.k.a. Five For Fighting – has penned some pretty substantial hits on his piano including: “Superman,” “100 Years,” and “The Riddle.” Slice, his last album, was released four years ago, and it is about time for the lifelong L.A. Kings fan to release a new album (I wonder if Bookmarks will celebrate the Kings 2012 Stanley Cup victory). One thing I can presume is that the new album will feature Ondrasik’s original, infectious piano pop that continues to impress.

MGMT – MGMT

MGMT

It is not usual for a band to have a self-titled third album, but, well, MGMT is not usual. This eccentric psychedelic rock band is on the cusp of the much awaited release of its unique third album, and fans of the band are in for a wacky treat. The band did tell Rolling Stone that they “are not trying to make music that everyone understands the first time they hear it.” It is refreshing to see two musicians carrying on the rich tradition of good psychedelic rock, and I have always been keen to the band. Just recently the band released its second single from the album, “Your Life is a Lie,” and…it’s…uhh…this:

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Festivals vs. Gigs

9 Aug

Image

We are now well in the middle of the UK festival season. Glastonbury is now a glorious, beer-soaked memory, V Festival is approaching fast while Leeds & Reading is still a couple of weeks away, marking the symbolic end of the summer. Meanwhile, mini festivals like Y Not and Lee Fest are popping up left, right and centre.

What’s strange is how well it seems to be going. When the recession hit, we were assured that festivals were now a thing of the past thanks to shrinking incomes and soaring ticket prices. Many people saw gigs as the way forward – you get exactly what you pay for and don’t have to stand through dozens of bands you’re not interested in or sleep in a tent that size of a small Alsatian. Yet gigs seem to be the ones that are struggling. Iconic music venues like the 100 Club are regularly faced with closure. So in these money strapped times, I thought I would decide once and for all which are better – gigs or festivals.

Having been to a couple of both, I would say my money is mostly – but not entirely – on gigs. My favourite one was Foo Fighters in 2010, performing in the enormous outdoor National Bowl in Milton Keynes. There was a palpable sense of build up all day. The crowd was very supportive of the warm-up acts, Biffy Clyro and Jimmy Eat World, even if those weren’t the ones they came to see. When Dave Grohl and co. finally arrived, there wasn’t a single person in the 65,000 capacity stadium who wasn’t cheering. But the icing on the cake was the special guests. When John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin fame and Seasick Steve joined Grohl on stage for the encore, I and many of the people near me nearly lost our voices. What was great was that the audience knew who they were; by attending a Foo Fighters concert, you could almost guarantee they admired idols such as these. I don’t think it would have quite the same effect had Foo Fighters been performing at Glastonbury, which attracts fans of a wide range of genres. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but prevents that same feeling of community.

Festivals, in my experience, are quite different. You spend the whole weekend bouncing from tent to stage and back again in order to catch your favourite bands. This pinballing inevitably means you’re always near the back and barely get chance to enjoy the performance before you’re dragged off by impatient friends somewhere else. Choice can be a curse as well as blessing. No matter what you do, you’re going to miss things you want to see. There’s also the problem of tourist-fans – people who go to see bands just to say they were there, regardless of whether they want to see them. I’m lost count of the amount of times I’ve been wedged against people who are stood motionless, looking as though they’re waiting for an advert on YouTube to finish playing. It kills the mood to say the least.

That isn’t to say that festivals don’t have their place in British music. Despite soaring ticket prices – a standard weekend ticket for Glastonbury costing £216, often being resold for much higher – they are still far and away the best value for money. With plenty of energy drinks, you could see up to twenty bands in the course of a weekend. There’s also the fun of camping with your friends. While a gig can be a great night out, a festival can feel more like a holiday.

Nevertheless, for the truly special moments, I’ve found you have to stick with gigs. When I see Arctic Monkeys in November – an event I’ve been waiting five years for – I know there won’t be any tourist-fans, hangers-on or people who wandered into the wrong tent, just true fans. Call my standoffish, but that seems like the purer musical experience.

Tags: , , ,

American Idiot – Gone But Not Forgotten

2 Aug

Image

“Can you hear the sound of hysteria? The subliminal mind fuck America.”

American Idiot dates very badly. It screams of 2003, when Americans were beginning to question the War on Terror and the anti-Iraq movement was in full swing. Its lyrics are an anti-Bush hymn. However it wasn’t until recently that I realised it was 10 years since it actually came out. This meant it was an entire decade since I first bought (or more accurately borrowed from a friend and didn’t give back) my first CD. Obviously, I had to go back and see how it stood up. The surprising answer is very well.

At its heart, it was a concept album exploring the journey of a character called Jesus of Suburbia, a messiah for the anti-establishment movement. He experiences the ups and downs of the American Dream before returning home. It has such a clear narrative that it was even turned into a successful musical of the same name.

It was surprisingly lyrically complex and ambitious. For a stoner punk-rock group who often wrote about masturbation, teen culture and drug use, a political epic was unheard of. By all accounts, the political themes arose by accident. The band were stringing short, 30-second songs together and happened to like the result. They did it again and these became the epic 7-minute songs Jesus of Suburbia and Homecoming that bookend the album’s narrative, a far cry from their usual short, catchy garage-pop songs. Filling in the blanks, the band created a complex story that explored the themes of rage versus love; blind, destruction-filled rebellion or commitment to your beliefs and ethics.

The title song American Idiot also became a surprise hit, and why not? Besides its angry attack on the state of the country in 2003, it’s a rollicking good rock song. Unlike their follow-up album, which packed in as many meaningless buzzwords as possible, the lyrics were a sharp criticism of the air of paranoia and propaganda that had followed 9/11. I didn’t understand all of the lyrics when I first heard it but it still struck a chord with me. It’s a political ‘fuck you’ the Sex Pistols would have been proud of.

And then there’s that song, which every emo/punk of a certain age knows – Wake Me Up When September Ends. Writing about a time shortly after his father’s death, Armstrong captures the desire to disconnect yourself from the world. It was an emotional ballad that was deeply personal and reminded the world the band had a softer side.

Although the band’s recent hattrick of albums Uno, Dos and Tre flopped, this politically charged album will stand the test of time. With the ambivalence the current NSA revelations are receiving, it’s good to look back to a time when Green Day brought political rebellion into the mainstream, They made it cool to care and that’s no easy these days.

Tags: , , , ,

The Folk Monsters of Yellow Red Sparks

21 Jul

Yellow Red Sparks

Speaking about the self-titled debut album of his folk band Yellow Red Sparks, Joshua Hanson said, “I don’t believe that it’s possible to share everything a writer is feeling or trying to convey within 3 ½ minutes of a track.” Wise words from a singer/songwriter who comes close to doing the impossible with each of the emotion-packed pieces on the album. Hanson, and fellow band-mates Sara Lynn Nishikawa (upright bass/vocals) and Goldy (drums/vocals), pack in so much Indie/Folk goodness in each song that hitting play is much like popping the cork of an expensive bottle of champagne.

Yellow Red Sparks originally started as the moniker of Hanson, a solo musician from California. After adding two members – which accentuated the Indie sound – the band released its debut album in January of this year. In the Spring, Hanson was notified that his song “Monsters with Misdemeanors” won the Grand Prize in the International Songwriting Competition (ISC). The song was selected from more than 20,000 entries. High praise for a rising folk songwriter – and a totally deserved reward for a folk song saturated with raw emotion.

A soft acoustic riff sits over light percussion and Hanson’s mature vocal. Hanson’s style hits with a similar force as singer/songwriters like Greg Laswell, Ben Gibbard, and Joshua James. The strings help add to the song’s powerful melancholy. The song’s melody, which has a DeVotchKa feel, climaxes during the bridge in a similar manner – with rising strings and crying vocals. It would be a crime to not discuss the award-winning lyrics of the piece. The lyrics tell a story of relationship turbulence, but do so in an original manner – almost minimalistic in the short verses that feature such gems as “there’s a parked car that won’t let me over
And there’s one thing I’ll regret, but you’d be the last.” The song is true tour-de-force.

Make sure to check out the rest of Yellow Red Sparks’ excellent debut release here. You can track the band on its Facebook, Twitter, and Website.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Song Dogs on the Prairie

17 Jul

Song Dogs

Is it wrong to get giddy when I come across new bands like Song Dogs? Well, if it is, I don’t want to be right. Ok, I admit that was a cheesy lede, but the sentiment it expresses is not facetious. Song Dogs’ throwback brand of true Americana blues elicits visions of The Band, The Allman Brothers, and Neil Young. The music is as pastoral America as Hardee’s and Apple Pie. By the time you are finished listening to Song Dogs’ debut LP Wild Country, you will be fully satiated and Americanized!

At first listen to the whining guitar in “Buffalo Crossroads,” you may be inclined to think that the 6-piece rock band resides in Missouri or Tennessee, but the dogs of song reside in the City of Brotherly Love. Yes, the Song Dogs have brought the open prairie sound to the Liberty Bell. The band successfully blends southern blues, western twang, and northeastern rhythm into a smooth sound that carries each of the album’s 10 tracks.

One of the most impressive aspects of the band is the talent of each member. With three lead vocalists, every song has a particular style – both vocally and musically – and this establishes variety. The band features Michael Southerton (vocals/guitar), Ryan McCloskey (vocals/guitar), Sam Conver (vocals/bass), Dan Cooper (Drums), Mariama O’Brien (Percussion), and Emily Southerton* (Keys – Emily is currently away from the band as she is traveling the country teaching poetry)

“Buffalo Crossroads” is carried by a persistent pop/rock rhythm and southern-style electric guitar. Much like Tom Petty, Song Dogs makes the bluesy sound mainstream accessible by implementing a catchy rhythm and melody. It’s a neat, content song that makes you smile about returning home.

“Careless” immediately strips the pop feel with the opening bass riff and the granular vocal that is so southern soul it’s scary. While the classic blues vocal clearly carries this piece, the electric riff, intelligent percussion, and effective soloing allow the song to thrive. Let’s be frank. The song kicks ass. It’s Allman blues at its very finest.

Make sure to keep tabs on Song Dogs by following the band’s Facebook and Twitter. You can buy the full album on the band’s Bandcamp

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →