Tag Archives: Alive

Buffalo Killers: 3

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Heavy guitar rock that echoes the James Gang

You wouldn’t be alone in thinking this Cincinnati band’s third album was a long-lost James Gang platter. Not only is the band a power trio, but the vocals have the same keening tone Joe Walsh brought to “Walk Away,” and the band’s rhythm section finds the sorts of grooves once laid down in “Funk #49.” All of which isn’t meant to suggest that the Buffalo Killers are a carbon copy, but that their music is anchored unapologetically in the rock (not rock ‘n’ roll) music of the post-Woodstock ‘60s and pre-punk ‘70s. It’s the moment just before rock music became bloated and faced a DIY backlash, a time when the hangover from psychedelia, thick guitars, heavy bass, instrumental prowess and production craft hadn’t fallen into self-seriousness and arena bombast. A similar strain of rock emerged in the mid-90s, but egos and self-consciousness quickly overwhelmed the music; the Buffalo Killers avoid these pitfalls by remaining relatively unknown (and thus not fashionable), and more importantly, more interested in music than the congratulations. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Huma Bird
Buffalo Killers’ Home Page

Brian Olive: Two of Everything

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A bewitching album of rock, soul, glam, psych and more

Brian Olive’s second album continues to showcase the multi-instrumentalist’s musical breadth. Singing, writing and playing piano, guitar, and woodwinds, his music is based in rock and soul, but stretches out with superb touches of psych, glam, jazz, blues, R&B, exotica and even a hint of the musical stage. As on his debut release, Olive interweaves his influences, evoking an Eastern feel with a guitar and tone generator solo on the funky “Left Side Rocking,” layering brooding woodwinds on the thick drum backing of “Traveling,” threading his flute into the deep bass soul of “Go on Easy,” and evoking Detroit-era Motown with the title track’s melody. The instrumental reprise of “Two of Everything” sounds like something from Edgar Winter’s glam period, and the tone generator on “Strange Attractor” hangs niftily between the backwards riff of the Beatles’ “Baby You’re a Rich Man” and a bagpipe. The lyrics are poetic and image-heavy, but rather than trying to decipher the sentences, listeners will groove on the ease with which the words express the melodies; more extemporaneous thought than composed character and story. Recorded in Cincinnati and Nashville, and co-produced by the Black Key’s Dan Auerbach, this is an album you don’t just listen to, you feel it. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Brian Olive’s Home Page

Gardens: Gardens

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Driving Detroit rock spiked with punk and psych

Detroit may have taken a body blow from the recession, but it only seems to have intensified the city’s music. This Motor City quartet has the aggressiveness of a ‘70s punk band weaned on the Stooges, Amboy Dukes and MC5 and the range of a band that’s listened through the transitions from garage to psychedelia and punk to post-punk. Things fall apart, Velvet Underground-style, on “Ideas to Use,” but snap back together for the driving bass-guitar-drums riff of “Safe Effect.” Touches of organ and a low-key lead on “River Perspective” down shift momentarily, as does the experimental “Poems,” but it’s the mid-tempo, hard-strummed numbers that will move you and make you move. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Safe Effect
Gardens’ Home Page

The Witches: A Haunted Person’s Guide to the Witches

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Psych- and garage-inflected Detroit rock nods to the ‘60s and ‘70s

Troy Gregory (Killing Joke, Dirtbombs) formed the Witches in Detroit in the mid-90s, and over the course of a decade this loose aggregation, including fellow Michiganders John Nash and Jim Diamond, produced the five little-known psych-inflected rock albums sampled here. The opening guitar riff of “Everyone the Greatest” suggests Paul Revere and the Raiders before the rhythm section add a heavier bottom end and the vocal shades to a 1960s drone. Gregory’s songs have the hooks of garage and rock bands that broke through to AM radio in the ‘60s and ‘70s, tipping their hat to the Byrds and Flamin’ Groovies with “Lost With the Real Gone,” Love with “Sprit World Rising,” and T-Rex with bass-and-handclap rhythm of  “Down on Ugly Street.” In contrast to fashion-plate revivalists, the Witches showcase an amalgamation and evolution of their influences that keeps these tuneful echoes fresh. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Lost With the Real Gone
The Witches’ MySpace Page

Paul Collins: King of Power Pop!

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Paul Collins keeps the power pop flame blazing

It takes a great deal of self confidence to proclaim oneself “king of power pop,” but given Paul Collins’ seminal role in the Nerves, Breakaways and Beat, and his subsequent appearances solo and with the Paul Collins Band, his claim is as good as anyone’s. While fellow Nerve/Breakaway Peter Case founded the rock ‘n’ soul Plimsouls, Collins refined his AM radio pop craft with the Beat; and as Case created a post-Plimsouls career as a folk-blues troubadour, Collins’ dapplings of soul, blues and country always left his pop core highly visible. He returned to an even purer pop sound with 2004’s Flying High and added 70s influences for 2008’s Ribbon of Gold, developing more introspective material on each. And while the artistic maturity was quite welcome, his twenty-something exuberance had faded.

Or so it seemed. It turns out that Collins hasn’t let the shadows of middle-age black out the enthusiasms of youth. More importantly, he can still write a killer melodic hook and make it stick in two-minutes-thirty. Recording in Detroit with Jim Diamond producing, Collins sounds as if he’s fresh off the end of a tour with the Beat – his voice a tad ragged but still thrilled by the glories of power pop. He charges hard into the bluesy “Do You Wanna Love Me?” and cuts the difference between the Beatles and Everly Brothers on the opening “C’mon Let’s Go!” His lyrics haven’t yearned so dearly and his voice hasn’t sounded this unbridled since he sang “Rock ‘n’ Roll Girl” and “Walking Out on Love” thirty years ago. Collins and Eric Blakely’s guitars rumble and sting, Jim Diamond’s bass and Dave Shettler’s drums propel, and the vocal harmonies and backings capture the joy of a summer’s night cruise with the windows down and the radio up.

Shettler adds tympani to “Many Roads to Follow,” and with the duet harmony sung at the top of Collins’ and Blakely’s ranges, they conjure the deep teen emotions of the Brill Building. Given his track record, it’s not really surprising that Collins still has great albums in him, but that he so effortlessly reaches back to the sounds he helped coin in the mid-70s (and whose invention he details in “Kings of Power Pop”), and it’s inspiring that he finds such satisfying ways to use the wear in his voice. Particularly noteworthy is how easily he matches Alex Chilton’s gravelly tone on a cover of the Box Tops’ 1967 hit “The Letter,” and how beautifully he covers the Flamin’ Groovies’ “You Tore Me Down.” The heartbreak of his original “Hurting’s on My Side” is rendered in the sort of ragged-voiced emotion John Lennon shouted out in 1964. Anyone who loves the Nerves EP and the Beat’s albums (particularly the debut) should grab a copy of this one ASAP. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Do You Wanna Love Me
Paul Collins’ Home Page
Paul Collins Beat’s MySpace Page
Paul Collins Band’s Home Page

Hacienda: Big Red & Barbacoa

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Invigorating mix of rock ‘n’ roll, production pop, Tex-Mex and more

Among the most intriguing aspects of this San Antonio quartet’s second album is that you’re never quite sure what you’re listening to. Is it taking cues from early rock? California production pop? Stax soul? Tex-Mex? Neo-psychedelic grunge? The answer is ‘yes’ to all. At times, like the Beach Boys ‘65-inspired “Younger Days,” the influence is pure honorific. Other antecedents are amalgamated, such as the suggestions of Little Richard and Thee Midniters in the early rock ‘n’ soul of “Mama’s Cookin.” Others are honored and tweaked at the same time, such as a cover of the Everly Brothers’ “You’re My Girl,” on which the sound is a bit harder than the original, but the lust in the vocal gets at what Phil and Don could only allude to in 1965.

You can hear Sgt. Pepper’s-era Beatles in the guitars, the somber mood of Johnny Cash in the vocals, and the teenage energy of mid-60s go-go rock in the rhythms. But as quickly as one thing strikes you familiar another emerges from the mix to create doubts. “Got to Get Back Home” features the roller-rink organ of Dave “Baby” Cortez,” a Norteno polka-rhythm and accordion, and a vocal that swings like a drunken folk-revival whaling song. The closing title track is an instrumental session that sounds like ? and the Mysterians jamming a B-side in Memphis. As an added treat, several of the tracks are produced in punchy AM-ready mono and the album is available on vinyl! [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | I Keep Waiting
Hacienda’s Home Page
Hacienda’s MySpace Page

T-Model Ford “The Ladies Man”

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Old school acoustic Southern blues

It’s hard to imagine a more fitting origin for a bluesman than not knowing your exact birthdate. To think you might have been born in 1920 or possibly 1922, and to have begun your commercial career as a bluesman in your early seventies, is to echo a hard life that included pre-teen plow work behind a mule, blue collar jobs in lumber and truck driving, and enough scrapes with the law (including a string on a chain gang) to lose count of the years. Ford isn’t a product of blues music so much as his delta blues is the product of a life that began in the deep, segregated south of Forest, Mississippi. Ford’s recording career began in the mid-1990s with a string of albums for Fat Possum. His songs are built on repetitive blues progressions and lyrics that often seem made up on the spot.

Ford’s latest, on the Alive label, was recorded live-in-the-studio at the end of one of his infrequent tours. Ford plays acoustic guitar and sings, with some younger players following along quietly on guitar, harmonica and percussion. His picking is solid, but what’s especially impressive is his voice. There’s a weathered edge to his tone, but his pitch is surprisingly sharp. Not sharp for an 88-year-old (or so) man; just sharp. He reprises the originals “Chicken Head Man” and “Hip Shakin’ Woman,” and blues classics from Roosevelt Sykes (“44 Blues”), Willie Dixon (“My Babe”), and Jimmy Rogers (“That’s Alright”). The informal recording session, planned at the last minute and plotted on the fly, finds Ford edging into each song as the mood and memory strike him. Two interview tracks further flesh out the character of this one-of-a-kind bluesman. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Two Trains
T-Model Ford’s MySpace Page

Black Diamond Heavies: Alive as Fuck

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BlackDiamondHeavies_AliveAsFuckHeavy, sweaty growling two-man punk-blues

As on their first two albums, Black Diamond Heavies crank out a lot more sound, and a lot more musical mass than one could imagine from a two-man blues band. It’s all the more impressive on this set for having been recorded live. John Wesley Myers plays the Fender Rhodes and provides bass via pedals (ala Ray Manzarek), and Van Campbell provides the drums. Their jamming actually does evoke the instrumental jams of the Doors, but heavier and grittier. The tone of Myers’ Fender may also remind you of Ray Charles, but it’s a guttural keyboard sound that Charles never laid down on tape. Myers plays both melody and rhythm on his keyboard, freeing Campbell’s drums to add a lyrical voice on top of their primary mission as the group’s timekeeper. Myers’ vocal growl still sounds like Tom Waits, but with distortion added to his piano, there’s a heavier punk-rock quotient, and the warble in the ‘50s-styled ballad “Bidin’ My Time” suggests a down-and-out Louie Armstrong. The roadwork that followed their studio releases solidified the interplay between Myers and Campbell, leaving little room for another instrumentalist and no sense that there’s a guitar missing. Recorded on a July night in a Covington, Kentucky Masonic lodge, the humidity clings to their performance, thickening it from the primal density of their studio work. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Hambone
Black Diamond Heavies’ Home Page
Black Diamond Heavies’ MySpace Page

The Breakaways: Walking Out on Love (The Lost Sessions)

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Breakaways_WalkingOutOnLovePower pop missing link between the Nerves, Beat and Plimsouls

Hot on the heels of Alive’s first-ever formal reissue of the Nerves EP and a rare live set, comes this volume of demos cut by Peter Case and Paul Collins in between the demise of the Nerves and the formation of their respective bands, the Plimsouls and the Beat. As with the Nerves, Collins started out on drums and Case on bass, with various guitarists pressed into action for cassette- and home-made reel-to-reel recording sessions. Case and Collins handled the vocals and eventually took on guitar duties as well. The recordings vary in quality, but the enthusiasm of power-pop pals playing and singing their hearts out easily transcends moments of mono muddiness and under-mixed vocals.

The thirteen songs include a few that had been recorded by the Nerves such as “One Way Ticket” and “Working Too Hard,” as well as originals that would become staples for the Plimsouls (“Everyday Things”) and Beat (“I Don’t Fit In,” “Let Me Into Your Life,” “USA” and “Walking Out on Love”). Even more interesting to fans are the originals that didn’t make it past these rough demos. “Radio Station” features the deep reverb guitar and impassioned vocal Case would perfect with the Plimsouls, “Will You Come Through?” has the ringing guitar of a P.F. Sloan folk rocker, and “House on the Hill” shows off Case’s rock ‘n’ soul sound.

In addition to the songs Collins would re-record with the Beat, he offers the driving drums and Everly-styled harmonies of “Little Suzy” and the rhythm-guitar propelled “Do You Want to Love Me?” As Collins notes in the liners, “this is the sound of pop on the streets of Los Angeles circa 1978, no money, no deals, just the burning desire to make something happen in a town without pity.” Case and Collins approached these sessions with the unbridled passion and total dedication of musicians without masters – no label, no audience, no radio stations, no managers or agents, just the muse of pop music. The recordings may be fuzzy in spots, but the invention is clear as a chiming bell. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Little Suzy
The Nerves’ MySpace Page
Peter Case’s Home Page
Paul Collins’ Home Page

Left Lane Cruiser: All You Can Eat

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LeftLaneCruiser_AllYouCanEatGreasy and gritty guitar-and-drums two-man blues

Two-man blues bands have become their own genre, blossoming from the font of the White Stripes and a dozen others. Left Lane Cruiser is a Fort Wayne, Indiana duo that offers roaring storms of electric slide playing by Freddy J IV (Fredrick Joe Evans IV) and powerful, driving drumming by Brenn Beck. Though the songs often settle into standard blues progressions, the raw, shouted vocals and in-your-face electric guitar force is quite unsettling. Beck is constantly in motion on his snare and kick drums, adding cymbal crashes for texture, while Evans alternates between greasy power chords, low-string riffs and slide licks that alchemize electricity into music. The torrent of distortion clears momentarily as the duo turns the volume down for finger-picking and washboard percussion on “Ol’ Fashioned.” But mostly the duo rages, with Evans’ growl sufficiently distorted to obscure many of his lyrics. But with titles that include “Black Lung,” “Hard Luck,” and “Broke Ass Blues,” the pain isn’t subtle. This is very much what you’d expect from a band that thanks Jim Beam and Pabst Blue Ribbon for “keeping us feelin’ good.” [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Crackalacka
Left Lane Cruiser’s MySpace Page