Holy Barbarians: Cream

As soon as he started singing I recognized Ian Astbury immediately. It took me about 80 seconds to place the voice as his. And really, this is just The Cult without Billy Duffy. Or at least it’s where I felt The Cult was going on their self-titled release two years prior.

This album isn’t quite as painful as that one. For one, they’re not trying as hard. They’re not any better, it’s just that the band is a little more comfortable with their diminished abilities at this point. They don’t try to do too much, and so don’t fail so often.

I can mostly listen to this album from start to finish without getting too upset. All the songs are accessible, and they’re even kind of differentiated from one another, which is a feat considering that they’re not all that interesting. How do you write ten different uninteresting songs?

But if I listen closely to this album, then I start to get ticked. For one, it’s just harder to listen to a boring song for several minutes if it’s not just in the background. Second, and more prominently, these lyrics are shit. Just plain fucking shit. Check out the notes for “Opium,” “You Are There,” and “Magick Christian” below the jump for more details.

When former rock stars start to suck, it would be nice if we could just put them out to pasture. I mean, there’s no way this record gets made if somebody without a “proven track record” (to borrow from idiot baseball front office people who make the same mistake) wasn’t fronting it. And it’s fine that he wants to make music that’s ranging from mediocre-to-bad…it’s just too bad that we all have to pay attention to it. Listening to this album didn’t make my life any worse, but it’s certainly not any better for the experience.

Rating:

– “Brother Fights,” “Dolly Bird,” “Blind,” “She,” “Bodhisattva”
– “Cream,” “Opium,” “Space Junkie,” “You Are There,” “Magick Christian”
Song Notes: After the jump

Los Lobos: Colossal Head

Shit, this run through the Los Lobos catalog has been depressing, as I haven’t liked any of the last three albums, this one inclusive, as much as I remember liking them. Certainly not the last two, which I remember loving, and now make me feel a little bit dirty. On the plus side, By The Light Of The Moon came back with a much higher rating than expected, and La Pistola Y El Córazon exceeded expectations as well.

Here’s where Ima land with this, the last of my re-reviews for Los Lobos: It’s still really good, just not as good as I remember it being. And, to be more precise, the sich is that it’s got this really cool laid back vibe with a Morphine-style saxophone and some really tricky, Latin-rooted (I think) rhythms that are also heavily R&B/funk-influenced and academic as well. So they groove but they’re a bit awkward and heady in their groove. (It’s a bit like Steely Dan in that way.) So it all works really well if you’re focused on the music…if the music is the event. But if you’re trying to get work done, then you just end up wondering, “Wait, has this seemingly simple but actually lurching groove been going on for the last 20 minutes? How come I’m five songs on?”

All of which is to say it’s an awesome album. Just give it it’s proper due.

Rating:

– “Revolution,” “Mas Y Mas,” “Maricela”
– “Everybody Loves A Train,” “Can’t Stand The Rain,” “Life Is Good,” “Little Japan,” “Manny’s Bones,” “Colossal Head,” “This Bird’s Gonna Fly,” “Buddy Ebsen Loves The Night Time”

Filed Between: Los Lobos’s Kiko and Lovage (Music To Make Love To Your Old Lady By)
Song Notes: After the jump

Screaming Trees: Dust

It’s conventional wisdom that the four year break between Sweet Oblivion and this album is what prevented Screaming Trees from being big stars; in other words, they didn’t capitalize on the Seattle boom of the early 90’s. And sure, no output from 1993-1995 surely hurt them. But just as big a factor, I have to think, is that this album just isn’t that good.

Of course the two can’t be teased apart all that easily. The band folded after this record, and it seems likely to me that they were headed down the breakup path during its recording and release. They’ve got a new producer on this album in George Drakoulias, and the sound is just…different. It’s not as muddy as it was when I was complaining about it on their indie albums, but Lanegan’s voice is higher, even falsetto in some places, and the guitar sound is too clean and radio-friendly. The guitar is also missing the hooks. So without the amazing guitar melodies and Lanegan’s voice, is it even really Screaming Trees?

It’s not like the band lost its sense of aesthetics during this time. In 1994 Lanegan released the excellent Whiskey And The Holy Ghost, and of course he’s gone on to have an incredible career that’s kind of even exceeded that of his original band.

So they ended up with an album that’s a bit aimless. It’s not quite clear what they’re going for, but you can be pretty sure they didn’t hit it. There are a few good tracks on here, particularly on the back half of the disc, but that half also features the god awful, outrageously dull “Traveler.” I’m no fan of the opener, “Halo Of Ashes,” either, and when I hear the opening riff to that song I have to remind myself that some good songs are coming up in order to hang on through it.

Even though the last two songs are very good, in particular “Gospel Plow,” I think in my mind the band will always have ended at “Julie Paradise,” going out on top.

Rating:

– “Sworn And Broken,” “Dime Western,” “Gospel Plow”
– “All I Know,” “Look At You,” “Dying Days,” “Witness”
– “Halo Of Ashes,” “Make My Mind,” “Traveler”
Filed Between: Screaming Trees’ Sweet Oblivion and Screwed Soundtrack
Song Notes: After the jump

Satchel: The Family

I don’t know how to review this album. It’s definitely in my top ten albums of all time, probably more like top three or four. It’s perfect. Every CD should strive to be this good. There’s really nothing more I can say about it. So let me tell you my memory of the first time I listened to it.

This album was my first real exposure to Satchel. I’d heard EDC maybe once from a friend and wasn’t that impressed. But I was a big fan of Brad’s first two records, so I gave this a shot. I don’t know where I got it, but I have an advance copy of the CD, so it was either a bargain bin pick-up or I swiped it from KWUR.

Anyway, I was in love from the first listen. How often does that happen? How often do you listen to an album for the first time and every note resonates with you? Well here’s one of the few times it happened for me. As “Roll On” ended and I blissfully faded into the silence, completely rewarded by the album for having lived over two decades at that point, I noticed that the CD was still going…it was silent but the timer was still ticking forward. Then the sounds of a light but steady rain (Seattle) came over the speakers, and I thought, “Oh no, how could you? How could you ruin a perfect CD, one that ended perfectly, with a hidden track?”

But then something weird happened. The hidden track, which is more mood than song, made the album even more perfect. How about that? An album that was perfect on first listen and whose hidden track actually worked as such. I don’t think there’s anything more I need to say.

Rating:

– “Isn’t That Right,” “Without Love,” “Not Too Late,” “Criminal Justice,” “Breathe Deep,” ‘Time “O” The Year,’ “For So Long,” “Some More Trouble,” “Tomorrow,” “Roll On”
Filed Between: Satchel’s Mr. Pink and Sausage (Riddles Are Abound Tonight)
Song Notes: After the jump

Counting Crows: Recovering The Satellites

Wow, right on the heels of a CD I’ve had for a long time and only recently realized how good it was, here’s another one.  This one I’ve also had since it came out, which means it’s been even longer that I’ve had it without realizing its quality.  Now, this isn’t as good as Give, and I don’t like it as much as I liked August And Everything After back when I loved that album.  However, this follow-up is much better than Counting Crows’ debut album.

There’s plenty here that would have worked on that first disc.  “I’m Not Sleeping,” “Goodnight Elisabeth,” and the assuredly satirically (right?) overwrought “Miller’s Angels” all have the sobbing vocal whine and soft verses killing time between crescendos fans expected.  But there are a few times where they really rock it (the full hearts) and the band seems much stronger this time around, likely a result of what must have been almost non-stop touring to capitalize on their early success.

If I had to guess, I’d say I didn’t like this because it was just too Americana-twinged.  I don’t know what turned me off to it, but I know I tried a lot.  It’s almost three-and-a-half clowns, but I like those full hearts so much….

Rating:

– “Angels Of The Silences,” “Have You Seen Me Lately?”
– “Catapult,” “Daylight Fading,” “I’m Not Sleeping,” “Goodnight Elisabeth,” “Children In Bloom,” “Another Horsedreamer’s Blues,” “Recovering The Satellites,” “Monkey,” “A Long December”
– “Miller’s Angels,” “Mercury,” “Walkaways”
Filed Between: Counting Crows’ “Mr. Jones” single and Course Of Empire (Course Of Empire)
Song Notes: Below the fold…

BR5-49: BR5-49

You’ve never heard it, or even of it, but this is probably the greatest country album of all time.  At the very least it’s the greatest country album released in 1996 and I’ll even say it’s the greatest country album released in the 1990’s.  With, you know, all of my extensive knowledge of country music.

I found out about these guys because they opened for The Black Crowes.  Loved ’em.  Bought this record and their debut EP, Live From Robert’s, immediately.  Where that EP was raucous and wild, this album is well-mannered and cleanly groomed.  It’s old, 50’s-style honky tonk, right down to the clothes, with 90’s-level production quality.  It’s clean, beautiful, and pure.

If you think you hate country, and especially if you think what you hate about is the twang, listen to this.  This will (probably) demonstrate to you that what you hate is lowest common denominator pop dressed up as an “other” to modern sophistication.

Beautiful playing, beautiful sound, beautiful songs, beautiful lyrics.  Pure beauty by a crew of honky tonks who feel completely comfortable navigating urban, modern life.

Rating:

Mix: “Even If It’s Wrong,” “Little Ramona (Gone Hillbilly Nuts),” “Hickory Wind”
Keep: “Cherokee Boogie,” “Lifetime To Prove,” “Crazy Arms,” “I Ain’t Never,” “Chains Of This Town,” “Are You Gettin’ Tired Of Me,” “One Long Saturday Night”
Like: “Honky Tonk Song”
Filed Between: BR5-49’s Live From Robert’s and Big Backyard Beat Show

Track Listing and Notes:

1. Even If It’s Wrong –
2. Cherokee Boogie – Such a good song, especially the end, though it does get my culturally insensitive senses tingling.
3. Honky Tonk Song –
4. Lifetime To Prove –
5. Little Ramona (Gone Hillbilly Nuts) – Mix rating is in no small part due to its lyrics, which push it over the hump.  About a punk rock girl who’s now into country. Best line: “Now she’s drinking Blue Ribbon and jitterbuggin’.”  Punk rockers drinking PBR…how prescient is that?
6. Crazy Arms –
7. I Ain’t Never –
8. Chains Of This Town – A bit of a Hawaiian feel, which doesn’t match the lyrics.  Great.
9. Are You Gettin’ Tired Of Me –
10. Hickory Wind – Ballad.  At first seems like this should end the album since it’s just so powerfully down, but then you get used to the killer rocker following and it works.  This could have been last, but I now see how it doesn’t have to be.
11. One Long Saturday Night – Can’t get mix due to scratchy record sound at end.

BR5-49: Live From Robert’s

BR5-49’s debut, six songs over 10 tracks and 23 minutes, is a frenetically-paced, raucous concert that runs the gamut from rockabilly to ballads but mostly serves to cement the band as a force to be reckoned with.  BR5-49 made country cool again, not by alt-ifying it or being renegades, but simply by being young men embracing all the genre’s best, pure elements.  With instrumentation including a stand-up bass and fiddle to subject matter that celebrates being a hillbilly and subject matter that explores porn from the perspectives of both the entertainer and entertained and lampoons The Andy Griffith Show with a hypothetical episode involving explicit sex and drugs, BR5-49 announced they were here by letting us know their talent was varied and nothing was off-limits.  It’s amazing how much ground they cover, and how well they do it, in just six songs.

I’m struck as I come back to this at how dark it is.  You’ve got “Bettie Bettie” (porn) and “Me ‘N’ Opie” (Andy Griffith), and then there’s also two tales of murder in “18 Wheels & A Crowbar,” which is road-rage-cum-serial-murder and “Knoxville Girl,” a darkly mysterious standard in which the narrator kills “the girl he loves so well” in cold blood.

Part of me wants to keep this as three-and-a-half clowns.  I’m not sure why that is.  It might be because it’s just an EP, or it may be because if I want to listen to BR5-49 I reach for their better but still flawed self-titled album that followed this one.  But neither of those is really an inherent criticism, so four clowns it is.

Rating:

Keep: “Hillbilly Thang,” “18 Wheels And A Crowbar”
Like: “Bettie Bettie,” “Me N’ Opie (Down By The Duck Pond),” “Knoxville Girl,” “Ole Slewfoot”
Filed Between: David Bowie (Ziggy Stardust) and BR5-49’s BR5-49

Song Notes:

1. Boot Plug –
2. Hillbilly Thang –
3. 18 Wheels And A Crowbar –
4. Bettie Plug –
5. Bettie Bettie –
6. Me N’ Opie (Down By The Duck Pond) –
7. Tip Plug –
8. Knoxville Girl – It kills to make this only like, but it’s not quite as powerful as I remember it and the lyrics are so disturbing.
9. Ole Slewfoot –
10. Fire Marshall –