Four years after their 2007 effort “Moons and Mushrooms”, Lake Of Tears will release on April 29 their eight studio album. “Illwill” it’s dark, it’s heavy, it’s beautiful, it’s always recognizably Lake Of Tears, but they always evolved, searched, experimented and vary their sound and this ongoing development has continued through to this new album as well. There’s still gloomy reminiscences of Doom Metal, persist some polished Gothic shines, but Lake Of Tears have a strong and simple line of pure Rock groove in their vein and what make them different from most of the now days bands it’s their determination and focus to quality and music without fitting into some strictly delimited genre. Read more Lake Of Tears – Illwill (2011)
post rock
Garage A Trois – Always Be Happy, But Stay Evil (2011)
Garage A Trois was originally a trio founded in 1998 during the recording of Stanton Moore’s debut album “All Kooked Out!” by Moore, eight-string guitarist Charlie Hunter, and Skerik. The project grown to a quartet, the actual line-up including Stanton Moore (drums), Skerik (saxophone), Mike Dillon (vibraphone and percussionist) and keyboardist Marco Benevento. They play a variety of music including rock, funk and jazz. I stumble into this band a few years ago searching on YouTube for versions of the song by Hendrix “If 6 was 9”. Charlie Hunter it’s a killer guitar player and Moore is a color and powerful drummer, Skerik knows to blow his saxophone, so, Garage A Trois was an exciting discovery. Most widely known as a founding member of Galactic, Moore has also Read more Garage A Trois – Always Be Happy, But Stay Evil (2011)
The King Blues – Punk and Poetry (2011)
Or dub and hardcore. Whatever. But it’s “nice”, even if the world it’s not quite appropriate. Raggae, punk, dub, rock and hardcore are melting into one and The King Blues delivering another album with good pulse and groove, pumping rhythms, punk flashbacks and ska/dub mixture with hardcore attitude.
The King Blues started off in 2004, in London as a two man ska outfit, consisting of Jonny ‘Itch’ Fox playing ukulele and vocals and Jamie Jazz playing acoustic guitar and contributing vocals, fusing ska and folk together with influences from punk rock and hardcore punk. Influences include Public Enemy, The Clash, The Specials, Black Flag and Minor Threat. Full of energy, but not aggressive, more fun and refreshing. Read more The King Blues – Punk and Poetry (2011)
Duff McKagan’s Loaded – The Taking (2011)
At the previous spinning of the record, talking bout Nazareth I mentioned Axl Rose and right after that I stumbled into Duff’s new album… In this life nothing is accidental. Duff is quite a figure. (Michael Andrew) McKagan was born in Seattle, Washington, his brother Bruce taught him his first bass lines and while growing up, McKagan was a fan of such acts as James Gang, Sly Stone, Led Zeppelin, Vanilla Fudge, Jimi Hendrix, and New York Dolls. His idol at the time was Johnny Thunders. Later he being a huge fan of Sex Pistols, Ramones, and The Clash. He cites Paul Simonon of The Clash as his favorite bassist, and is also particularly fond of Sid Vicious. At the age of 15 in 1979 he joined the pop-punk band Fastbacks as drummer and between 1979 and 1982 he led and played guitar in punk band The Living. Answering an ad for a bass player in a local magazine, McKagan headed to California, at age nineteen. In California, he met guitar player Slash and drummer Steven Adler of the band Road Crew and in 1985 he joined Guns N’ Roses replacing Ole Beich. Read more Duff McKagan’s Loaded – The Taking (2011)
Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact (2011)
This is the fifth album by Gang Gang Dance and their continue the trip into the experimental electronic and worldbeat area of the music. They gained a kind of cult status in the New York underground and which finally push them into the mainstream attention. They blending electronic and post rock, psychedelic music into something strange and mysterious music with exotic perfume. Last year the band received publishing royalties from British group Florence and the Machine. Members of Gang Gang Dance noticed that part of “Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)” was lifted from their song “House Jam” from they 2008 album “Saint Dymphna” and approached Florence and the Machine’s label who acknowledged that “infringement had occurred”.
After releasing all their earlier records with Brooklyn label The Social Registry, in 2010 Gang Gang Dance signed with UK label 4AD and “Eye Contact” is the group’s second album after stepping out from the underground. Read more Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact (2011)
The Raveonettes – Raven in the Grave (2011)
Something stinks in Denmark. Actually Shakespeare said: “Something Is Rotten in the State of Denmark.” – Hamlet, Act I, Scene 4, at line 90. Well, when British music press staple NME declare the Danish duo to be responsible for sparking “America’s pop renaissanceâ€, something clearly stinks. On one hand, Brits has been already saved by the Americans by White Stripes, so, it’s pure wickedness to say America need to be “saved” by anybody, on the other hand when a band or an artist are highly praised by the media, there’s no bloody doubt: something stinks. Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo, the duo behind The Raveonettes delivered another nice album, but really, there’s nothing outstanding, nothing sparking, nothing special. In short words, it’s like Robert Smith (The Cure) teamed up with Angelo Badalamenti for a film score for David Lynch. Gloomy, airy, minimalist, kind of clear-obscure and with a particular, distant, but still warm retro taste, with a few nice tunes and a couple of better moments, but really, there’s nothing really impressive about “Raven in the Grave”. Read more The Raveonettes – Raven in the Grave (2011)
Acid Mothers Temple and The Melting Paraiso UFO – Pink Lady Lemonade – You’re From Inner Space (2011)
It’s almost kinky to write and record a 32 minutes long song these days. And actually it’s a nice track, the mix is what bothering me. The slide guitar is much too loud and covers almost completely the solo guitars and the bass. And it’s pity, they done beautiful things if you listen careful enough. But if you have to focus hard, all the pleasure of the listening goes out on the window. Still, “Part 1” from “Pink Lady Lemonade – Youre From Inner Space” it’s kind of chill, joyful, warm and embracing. A nice trip with beautiful images made of sounds running before our eyes. “Part 2” break in like a noisy explosion, it’s a crazy mixture of improvisations on psychedelic, noise rock and jazz like samples. It last only five minutes, but it’s heavy. “Part 3” comes back with the spacy theme of “Part 1”, the mix is much convincing, the pulse is a little bit faster and the song got a pleasant groove. 10 minutes of shades and bubbling sounds which brings me the image of a blooming flower. Well, kind of hippy. 🙂 Read more Acid Mothers Temple and The Melting Paraiso UFO – Pink Lady Lemonade – You’re From Inner Space (2011)
Soft Kill – An Open Door (2011)
Waving between Joy Division (and New Order) and The Sisters of Mercy, Soft Kill try to (re) open a door back to the eighteens goth rock and dark wave. While their earliest experiments took place in September 2010, Tobias and Shiloe, the two members of the group maybe are too in a hurry for a debut album. Still, “An Open Door” is kind of intimate and warm, which is kind of strange for a dark area of music, but the nine songs of this material are not quite bad. They mentioned influences by Howard Devoto, The Cure, Wire/Colin Newman and Killing Joke. The Cure earliest works atmosphere is present and Soft Kill managed to recreate that feeling. “Be Alone” for example sounds quite Robert Smith. And they have a few more good songs. Read more Soft Kill – An Open Door (2011)
The Kills – Blood Pressures (2011)
Rawness and kind of retro polish with that garage indie touch, the forth album by The Kills have the same noise blues flavor which was cooked and licensed by Jack White with The White Stripes and re-invented with The Dead Weather. And while Alison Nicole Mosshart spend most of her time lately touring with The Dead Weather, it’s kind of natural the infusion of the style and sound from Mr. White. “Blood Pressures” is noisy, dirty, sounds like vinyl and I almost miss the sound of some nice scratches, but on the other hand it doesn’t have the tension of the late “Sea of Cowards”. This “hippies goes punk” approach it’s a winning recipe, but if there will be a million plus one similar products, every single record label will try to invent their “own White Stripes”, the whole shit will goes down just like any other good thing before. Read more The Kills – Blood Pressures (2011)
Triptych – Physical Fitness for Better Tyranny (2011)
Best things in life comes for free! At least that’s what a buddy of mine used to say. And the best beer I ever drink was for free, the best whiskey was also for free, not to mention the best fuck. Well, sometimes free means that somebody else pay for it, that’s quit true, but what the hell?! life is full of shit enough to get lost in that kind of small details! 😀 “Physical Fitness for Better Tyranny” actually it’s for free for real. And it’s quit a nice piece of work. Well, definitively it doesn’t sound like a super sophisticated production, but it sounds very alive, absolutely honest and their music is balancing fluently from post rock experiments to jazz like solutions and turns, heavy and noise moments followed by jazzy improvisations or quiet breathes, their music swimming around in nice and colorful circles, raving and pumping without any annoying barriers. Complex and exciting journey into a very alive music.
I didn’t manage to dig out anything about this band, probably from San Antonio, Texas, but listening their 5 track material was a really nice surprise. Read more Triptych – Physical Fitness for Better Tyranny (2011)
