Tag Archives: Music

The True Barry

2 Aug

Never underestimate the power of music and brotherhood. The Barry brothers are proof of this sentiment. The band, Barry, was founded in 2011 by three brothers, who, despite having other commitments – like families, jobs and school – gathered in their self-made studio in Western, New York, and cut a fresh folk-rock album that oozes with such a cornucopia of sounds that I’m not sure how to label the music. The best I can do is alternative-inspired folk churned with harmony and a pleasant hint of country. I believe this description is suitable, but this is music you just want to lose yourself in. You can make your own judgment after experiencing their debut EP Yawnin’ in the Dawnin’ which was released on May 19. You can take a listen to some tracks below.


Music Player web

The Barry brothers are from Hume, New York. Just for some perspective, Manhattan is close to six hours away from Hume. New York. That is how far west they are. And I do think their location has an influence on their sound. It is agrestic, taking on the feel of rich farmland and open skies. Music like this cannot be created in a big city. This natural, old-time folk needs to bake in a town where the cacophony of screaming taxis and rumbling subways is not pervasive, and where when night falls true dark blankets the town.

The band is made up of Patrick Barry (Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica & Keys), Benjamin Barry (Bass, Vocals) and Bradford Barry (Drums, Vocals) and their musical maturity is on display throughout their first EP.

If I had to pick a favorite song it would be “Carnival(e).” The song combines two awesome elements. The verses are odd, but they match the carnival lyric well. The music moves up and down like a bouncing ball. The chorus strikes and the rhythm of the verse is replaced by a fast-paced rhythm and vocal harmony. This transition is skilled and much respected. “Three Years in Carolina,” another exciting song, displays Barry’s country influences. The chorus emits a southern effervescence and the well-placed harmonica helps carry the five-minute Carolina ode.

Check out the band’s:

Facebook

Twitter

Website

Tags: ,

It Never Rains On The Music Court – Albert Hammond’s Illustrious Career

20 Jul

Albert Hammond with his son Albert Hammond Jr.

If you are of the Millenials generation the name Albert Hammond might immediately spark images of the curly-haired Strokes’ guitarist. Yeah, that guy in the picture. But who is the dude next to him? That, my friends, is Albert Hammond, father of the Strokes’ guitarist and tremendous musician in his own rite. Hammond has been releasing and writing music for over 40 years and has skillfully adjusted to the transformation of music along the way. In 2008, he was inducted into the songwriter’s hall of fame (source for picture above). Let’s explore the musical life that is Albert Hammond.

Artist: Albert Hammond

Origin: Gibraltar

Genre: Singer/Songwriter – Mainstream

History:

Albert Hammond was born in London but grew up in Gibraltar with his Gibraltarian parents. Hammond, like many other musicians, left school to pursue music and first found a small market in the emergence of Spanish rock. While his first band, The Diamond Boys, wasn’t successful, it did help Hammond get performance experience and this came in handy later in his career.

1966 can be pointed to as the year Hammond broke out of his shell and started succeeding at song creation. He partnered with singer/songwriter Mike Hazelwood and helped form Family Dogg, a British vocal group, that also featured Steve Rowland. Hazelwood and Hammond not only performed with Family Dogg, but also became one of Britain’s most successful songwriting teams, scoring with hits like “Little Arrows.”

Family Dogg gave them an opportunity to sing and perform. The band released A Way of Life in 1969. The album’s success can be somewhat accredited to the historical personnel, but we will get to that later. Here is the Family Dogg performing the same-named “A Way of Life,” which appeared as the last track of the album. Just to make it clear, “A Way of Life” was not written by the songwriting duo of Hammond and Hazelwood (written instead by Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway). Hammond and Hazelwood’s only conjoined songwriting credits come from track 10, “Moonshine Mary” and track 11, “You Were On My Mind.”

That is how the 60’s ended for Hammond. But despite his successes, Hammond’s true contribution to music came in the 1970s. Hammond and Hazelwood moved to Southern California and continued writing together. Hammond signed with Columbia Records and started showing off his chops. Numerous famous 70’s acts starting covering his material. The list includes Johnny Cash, Elton John, Mama Cass, The Association, Steppenwolf, Sonny & Cher, etc. Hammond, who is bilingual, was able to start making Spanish-language albums. Then, in the 1980s, Hammond wrote several other highly successful songs including “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.” He continues to write music today.

If I had to choose a highlight from Hammond’s brilliant career it would have to be the release of his most known, and arguably best song in 1972. The song, “It Never Rains in Southern California,” is such a classic 70’s song. For what it is, it’s great. The song is soft-rock at its finest. It mixes light horns and Hammond’s pleasant voice into the pot and out comes a hit. I’ll leave you with a low-key performance of the song below.

Did You Know: The Family Dogg‘s album A Way of Life featured some pretty special guest musicians in the studio, including Elton John and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, John Bonham and Jimmy Page.

Tags: , ,

The Bands of Summer – Mind The Gap

19 Jul

Mind The Gap

“A Korean, a Sri Lankan, a Mexican, and a Jew from Cleveland. four musicians from four corners of the world aiming to shotgun blast through the insipid airwaves of current music using acoustic harmonies fused with modern technology.”

The beginning of Los Angeles based Indie band Mind The Gap’s introduction on their short biography page on their website sounds like the premise of a bad joke. But this neat band objective effectively explains the band’s sound in few words. So why I am I needed here? Good question. Just listen to this:

Before I proceed with my flowery praise for Mind The Gap, let’s celebrate the second week of The Bands of Summer. I know I said it was only a week special, but I have decided to make it an every Tuesday post. There are so many great new bands to profile. Today that band is Mind The Gap. I’m sure by now you have listened to the song above.

Mind The Gap has to be one of, if not the most ethnically diverse indie foursomes in the world (as you have read above). The band is a melting pot of diversity and mature rhythms, acoustic and electronic. Put the pot on a stove and after just a few songs on their debut 12-track album the intense laid-back creativity of Mind The Gap begins to boil over.

Mind The Gap’s debut release The Good Fight (released May, 2011) is one of those rare albums where every song is not only enjoyable, but also different. The album is like a good mystery film, there are just so many twists and turns that you are not sure what the next song will bring. The first two tracks are a good example of this. “Fall,” track one of the album, plays like an alt/rock hit with a fast-paced guitar riff carrying the verses with underlying electronic sounds. And then track two, “Smile Back At You” introduces itself with basic chords and manipulative keys and the alt/rock of track one fades away and is replaced by a blissful, effervescent pop song carried by lead vocalist Greg Cahn’s melodic voice and the band’s choral harmonies which are soft like a cool pillow. This is a diverse album. The band is composed of wonderfully talented musicians, each who makes their voice heard in their tremendous instrumentation. Whether it is Cahn’s magical vocal, Ozzy Doniz’s moving bass and rhythm guitar, Ruwanga Samath’s significant keyboard work, or Alex Yang’s skilled lead guitar and piano work, the band works together to create music that knocks down the walled conventions of pop/indie/electronic/acoustic music and blends them together into a high-quality, low calorie shake, one that you just feel good about drinking.

I will leave you all with “Once You Leave” which has a little more fun with modern electronic sounds. But while electronic sounds often seem tasteless and gratuitous in music today, Mind The Gap uses them with precision and they are vital to the advancement of “Once You Leave” which, when completed, is a fine indie/pop track.

Mind The Gap stands true to their band objective. They are skillful mashers of acoustic instrumentation and electronic sounds. They are definitely a band to follow.

Enjoying the music. For another 13 hours you can obtain the whole debut album for $5 on GroopEase where Mind The Gap’s album is being offered at a discount price. I bought it. Here is the link.

Tags: , , ,

The Bands of Summer – Common Grackle

15 Jul

GroopEase has a creative approach to selling albums. They feature several new artists a week and allow viewers to purchase the artist’s material for special prices for one or two days. It is the Groupon of music. I found out about this site a few days ago. So, naturally, I went prowling for cool new bands. And, even though I missed the special, I found Common Grackle, a hip/hop, indie blend. A what? I said the same thing. I pressed play. Out of my laptop speakers came the dopest Indie music I have ever heard. Why did I just write dopest? Because, I’m bemused, I have no clue what to call it. The music is a hugger-mugger of mashed-up rhythms and depressed lyrics. There is a slowed-down keyboard beautifully juxtaposed with lyrics about not wanting to die at a grindcore show (I’ll explain later). There are imprecations and rapping over spacey synthesizers. Then there is Gregory Pepper’s remarkably passionate voice that mixes witty sarcasm with true pain. It is an amalgamation of so many musical elements that my ears explode when I listen. But it’s a good thing. Let me make one statement before I move on.

Common Grackle is one of the most exciting indie acts to come out of the wide world of music in a while. And I think lead-singer Gregory Pepper has a response for my observation and it comes straight out of the lyric of “Down With The Ship,” track six of Common Grackle’s debut album The Great Depression (I bought it on Amazon for $5. Yeah, I’m cheap and poor). The line? “Told them all to take care but I don’t care a bit.”

The band formed at the suggestion of record label Fake Four Inc founder Ceschi Ramos (who raps in two of the songs including “The Great Depression” which is featured below). Singer/songwriter Gregory Pepper and hip/hop producer Factor were label mates and they began making music together in 2009. What formed was a magical combination of creative beats, hearty lyrics, intelligent instrumentation and one powerful vocal that sounds like it was chained up for years prior to this album. That is how effective Pepper’s voice is. Pepper and Factor churned out tracks with the help of Pepper’s band and a memorable 12-track album was created.

So where do I start with the music? There is bluegrass rap, a short dubbed ballad about a violent brawl at a laundromat. I think I am going to profile two of my favorite songs on the album, “The Great Depression” and “At The Grindcore Show.”

Oh, so I see where they were going with the title. How do you like that psychologically unstable video? How about the music and the lyrics? The music can best be described as indie/psych/pop/hip-hop fusion. Factor dreams up this swooning rhythm that hugs the rapped lyrics like a blanket. There is just so much sound and then, at the end, harmony. Harmony. Really good harmony, at that. The lyric is dark. “Dumb sh*t spilling out of his stupid f*cking mouth, I’m sorry mom and dad but I had a bad year, keyboard cut out hanging on the walls of heads of ex girlfriends.” It is downtrodden, melancholic and defeated. But, even with the rhythm, it works well.

This little ditty is hilarious, but scary. The melody itself is like a kid who just got ice cream, small and gleeful, but the lyrics are about how our protagonist is drugged and scared at a grindcore show where everyone is fake and he is lost. Sad but happy. Barret-esque. A lot of the music takes on this psychedelic quality and I am loving it. Keep rocking Common Grackle, it’s working well.

Tags: ,

The Bands of Summer – Marcus Foster

14 Jul

Marcus Foster

Marcus Foster has soul. No, not that superficial junk that is sometimes played off as soul today, but that true guttural, passionate soul. Only a few artists are capable of creating this sound today (i.e. Ray LaMontagne) and Foster’s powerful crooning makes the 24-year-old London musician a part of this exclusive club.

Foster has released one EP thus far in his burgeoning career. The link embedded in EP brings you to a page where you can purchase the four-song release in full or individually. If folk singer/songwriters are your thing, then give Marcus Foster a listen.

“Shadows of the City” is the first track on Foster’s EP Tumble Down. The song’s introduction features Foster’s robust voice demonstrating its impeccable range. The main draw for every singer/songwriter is their voice. When it comes down to it, only those with great, original voices survive in the cutthroat world of singer/songwriters. There are far to many creating similar tunes for everyone to succeed. A singer/songwriter is judged on their voice first and then their music. Foster easily passes the voice test. It is his clear strength. His voice is vigorous, but trained. Foster knows when to unleash it to its full potential. At the end of “Shadows of the City,” a melancholic percussion-driven piece with pleasant acoustic rhythms, Foster impressively displays a controlled scream that is shocking, but interestingly refreshing.

With the above acoustic home recording of the EP’s title track “Tumble Down,” I wanted to express Foster’s folk roots. He is clearly most comfortable in stripped down string-heavy folk recordings. The song is over six minutes, but it does not lose its charm. The additional acoustic instrumentation is nice, but I even feel that the song would succeed with only Foster and his acoustic guitar.

Soon, Foster will release his first full-length LP and if you like what you listened to on this post feel free to click this and pre-order his album Nameless Path.

Tags: ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →