Clang & Clatter

Put together an ensemble of virtuoso musicians that possesses a resume as long as your arm—and the pedigrees to support it—and give them the impossible task of writing and recording an album in only 9 days, and you could have a jumbled mess on your hands. Instead, new “supergroup” Flying Colors produced a unique, cohesive musical statement that is poppy, contemporary, and accessible while retaining an undeniably progressive nature that must have been one of the stated goals of the project. That’s all well and good, but the true test for me is always the songs, and there’s plenty here to love. I’m only on my third listen, but already I’m prepared to pronounce this set of 11 genre-defying tracks my favorite album of 2012. From the prog-boogie of album opener “Blue Ocean” to the Beatles-infused ELO-meets-Queen “Love Is What I’m Waiting For” to Dave LaRue’s funky bucket-o-beans bass groove on “Forever In A Daze” to the pure, sweet pop-iness of “The Storm” and “Better Than Walking Away” to epic prog-rock closer “Infinite Fire,” Flying Colors has a little bit of everything anyone could ask for.

As any Clang & Clatter follower well knows, I am already intimately familiar with the work of Neal Morse and Mike Portnoy and their respective bands and side-projects, so it should come as no shock that I would at the very least appreciate their contributions to Flying Colors. And I have at least heard of Dixie Dregs, the jazz-fusion southern rock outfit that features Steve Morse and LaRue (as well drummer Rod Morgenstein whose work in The Jelly Jam I have also written about). So going into this album, singer/songwriter/guitarist/keyboardist and frontman Casey McPherson was the one unknown element for me. Any reservations I may have had were immediately dispelled on my first listen. McPherson’s voice is a great fit for the music with a texture and character that I really like, and he often slips into a falsetto that reminds me quite a bit of a less whiny, more sincere version of Coldplay’s Chris Martin (and if you’re unsure, I think that’s a good thing). Here’s what Steve Morse had to say about his bandmate:

Casey was a glorious find, because he could make anything sound fantastic, and was also multitalented like the others.

As always, Portnoy’s drumming is spectacular—and he turns in a darn good vocal performance on “Fool in My Heart”—and I love just about anything Neal Morse touches. However, the biggest surprise Flying Colors had in store for me was Steve Morse. I was completely unprepared for how much I would love his guitar playing. He was named Guitar Player’s Best All Around Guitarist for 5 consecutive years before being removed from eligibility, so you would think that a guitar and music fanatic like me would already be a fan, but for some reason Morse has always been just beyond the scope of my radar. I am barely familiar with is work in the late-80’s incarnation of Kansas, and I was aware that he has held down the guitar spot in Deep Purple for nearly two decades (as long or longer than his predecessor Ritchie Blackmore, by the way). Steve Morse’s playing on this album is stellar, and he tackles nearly every style imaginable on this one disc. But it’s his soaring, expressive soloing that really won me over, reminding me at times of Ty Tabor. That’s big praise coming from me. It seems I now have a new musician with a huge back catalog to check out.

As with any supergroup, there is the possibility for things to go awry, but Flying Colors proves the adage “greater than the sum of its parts,” and it is definitely a must-listen for any fan of the members’ other work. The bio on the Flying Colors site has this to say about the band’s supergroup status:

The world didn’t need another supergroup.

Maybe not, but I’m sure glad they decided to put Flying Colors together anyway.

The Decemberists is one of those bands that I had written off as being a hipster indie band that there was no way in the world I would ever like. The hype surrounding and leading up to their brand new release The King Is Dead at the music sites I frequent did little to sway me from that opinion. By now you’re probably aware that my reasoning is that if everyone else likes it, I probably won’t. But thanks to a certain rock ‘n’ roll snob, I checked out the album, and to my surprise, I really liked it.

No, I really, really liked it. Alot.

The King Is Dead has a very country, working-class aesthetic without actually feeling like a country album—which, by the way, it isn’t—if you know what I mean. The Decemberists execute this style so well that it’s a shock to me to find that this is a fairly new direction for them. Largely a stripped-down acoustic affair, a couple of the tracks possess a jangly alterna-pop quality that borders on plagiarizing R.E.M., thanks in part to frontman Colin Meloy’s affection for that band and Peter Buck’s participation on guitar and mandolin, while others evoke full-on old-school country complete with steel guitar and harmonica.

I know absolutely nothing else about The Decemberists prior to The King Is Dead, but “Down by the Water,” the first single from the album and the backing track for the visual companion piece offered in this video, features Buck on guitar and singer-songwriter Gillian Welch (who also guests on six other songs) on harmony vocals. If you like it, I’m guessing that you (like me) will enjoy the rest (or at least most) of the remainder of the album.

Enjoy! And thanks, Jay!

Here are two blogging ideas I wish I had had the inventiveness to come up with.

1001 Albums

In 2006, Robert Dimery compiled a list of reviews from 90 music critics and published it as 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, a selection of essential listening that spans multiple genres and features albums ranging from Sinatra’s 1955 In the Wee Small Hours to The White Stripes’ 2005 release Get Behind Me Satan (an updated list that includes albums through 2007 resides at 1001 Before You Die).

25-year-old self-admitted music noob Liz decided to take this challenge head-on by listening to all 1001 albums—one each day for 1001 days—and write a review of each one at her blog. As of yesterday, she is at day 380 with an evaluation of Wire’s Pink Flag.

Five Albums :: Five Minutes

Want something with a lot less commitment? So did former Metal Edge editor Paul Gargano, so he came up with a creative way to blast through the piles and piles of albums he wanted to review. He takes five albums that are currently in active rotation on his iPod and takes no more than five minutes each to write down his thoughts on them.

His first installment assesses the latest releases from Black Label Society, Fozzy, Pearl, Ratt, and W.A.S.P. Not necessarily a selection that I would have chosen, but an ingenious idea nonetheless.

Now all I need is an imaginative way to incorporate (*cough* steal *cough*) these ideas into this blog.

The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium

I absolutely love the full-length debut De-Loused in the Comatorium from The Mars Volta. With a story that that has one foot firmly planted in reality—in part based on the death of El Paso artist and friend Julio Venegas—and the other somewhere in singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s wild imagination, the former At the Drive-In frontman and guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez managed to harness the intensity and inventiveness of their former band to create what I believe will forever be their finest work (I wish I could say as much for their subsequent releases, which to me, have been spotty at best).

Also hitching a ride from the ATDI days are Bixler-Zavala’s nonsensical, obtuse beat poet lyrics and Rodriguez-Lopez’s mad-scientist-like guitar noodling. The album sports a very heavily latin/jazz-influenced rhythm and feel and features RHCP wildman Flea on bass, with guest spots by John Frusciante on guitar.

I still don’t know quite what to think of a band whose lead singer slips as easily between English, Spanish, and some seemingly made-up language as I do English and Southern—yes, Southern really is a language all its own—or of a guitarist who has frequently expressed his frustration with the limitations of his main instrument’s ability to express what he hears in his head and who seems to release a solo album every other day. But I do know that if you invest the time to listen to De-Loused completely (with headphones, that’s a must) in one sitting (and it may take several listens), you’ll hopefully find it as rewarding as I do.

I would love to feature some concert footage of The Mars Volta, but their live performances just seem to frustrate me. I have witnessed a show on my cable company’s on-demand service that was pure perfection (and where the number of personnel on stage was more like a small army or sports team than a band), but Rodriguez-Lopez is just as likely to play an entire concert with his guitar wildly out of tune while Bixler-Zavala simply screams and mutters unintelligibly.

When The Mars Volta are on their game, they are a force to be reckoned with live, so maybe I’ll dig up something soon that I think is worth showing, but for now I leave you with the music video for the first single from the album, “Inertiatic ESP.”

Enjoy!

If memory serves, “The Runaways” was the very first Anberlin song I ever heard; if not, it’s definitely the one that hooked me. After I purchased Never Take Friendship Personal, it was my go-to track, although the entire sophomore effort from the Orlando-based band is packed with tight, upbeat, guitar-driven rockers, minus the ballad “(The Symphony of) Blasé” and the unnecessary instrumental interlude “A Heavy Hearted Work of Staggering Genius” (which, by the way, it is not).

I still think this is their best album to date, and it’s a sure bet to get my head bobbing and my feet tapping.

And I might even play along with a little air guitar.

You’d figure that I would like a band whose name originated from the fact that they had to push-off their two VW vans to get them started in order to make it to gigs. Better yet, how about a band that put out a (fairly) popular album in church youth group circles, disappeared for about ten years a short time later (and whose leader/vocalist/guitarist became a junior-high teacher in the interim), and then resurfaced with a new album that sounded nothing like their previous effort? Or what about a band whose frontman has written a song for his wife every year as a Valentine’s Day gift and then wrote a song—complete with slide guitar and “yippi-yi-yay-ay” refrain—about not selling those very songs to a country artist that had approached him about purchasing some of his unrecorded material?

Pushstart Wagon is such a band. And until I won a copy of their 2005 release L.A. Was Our Alamo a few years ago from a podcaster, I had never heard of them. I would venture to say most folks are in the same boat, which is a sad thing, since Steven Guiles is such a good songwriter, and this album is full of catchy, singable songs. It has a definite alt-country/roots-rock feel to it with plenty of pop thrown in for good measure, and the opening track acts as a tribute of sorts to Paul Westerberg, even including lyrics from and references to the Mats’ “Can’t Hardly Wait.”

Standout tracks include “Breathing Room,” “Would I Be So True,” the rockier “Defend You,” and the aforementioned “Paul.” Give it a listen. Then go purchase it at Amazon.com or iTunes.

Hi-res

Large fold-out KISS poster included with Dynasty vinyl album

What is the song you think of when you think of KISS’ 1979 release Dynasty? Chances are it’s the disco-inspired track—and first single off the album—“I Was Made for Lovin’ You.” For me, it’s Ace’s contributions “Save Your Love” and “Hard Times.”

I can remember sitting in the bedroom I shared with my brother listening to the vinyl version of this album on my cheapo JCPenney stereo while staring at the included fold-out poster of the band, which graced the wall of my own bedroom a few years later. Of course the Ace songs were my favorites (along with his cover of the Stones’ “2000 Man”), but Paul’s songs weren’t awful, and Peter’s “Dirty Livin’” was actually pretty good—if you can get past the disco-influenced bass lines (at this point in KISS, it’s hard to know who actually played what, and they were letting way too many folks outside the band influence their decisions, so I can’t blame that completely on Gene). Gene’s tracks on Dynasty are the only ones I cringe at today and just can’t listen to. Unfortunately, his songwriting only grew progressively worse as KISS slogged on.

Dynasty marked the beginning of a downward spiral for my then favorite rock band. They were becoming unfocused (at least they weren’t focusing on the music), Peter was MIA, Ace was increasingly self-medicating with booze and whatever else, and the band was falling apart. When Ace seems to be the only member who has his act together and bringing in good material, well, needless to say, there are some pretty serious problems afoot. Now that I think about it, maybe Ace was coming into Dynasty riding the wave created the year before by the release of his excellent “solo” album—and truthfully, the only listenable one of the four solo albums these days.

But I didn’t know any of this as a 9-year-old kid in rural Mississippi. I just knew I liked jamming to my KISS albums, and this one was no exception. Say what you will about Dynasty, but it brings back some good rock and roll memories for me.

I want to get out, but there’s too much on TV — “Live in Your House”

Independently released, Naomi’s Solar Pumpkin is King’s X guitarist Ty Tabor’s first solo album, with Ty playing all instruments and handling drum programming duties. Originally available as a limited-run, direct-to-consumer release (which, due to the voracious appetites of the fans for all things King’s X, understandably quickly went out of print), the album resurfaced when Ty remastered it in 2005 and began to offer it in an electronic format on his website.

Six of the ten tracks were re-recorded for his Moonflower Lane release, but I much prefer the versions found here. Stand-out tracks include “Had to Move,” “Live in Your House,” and my personal favorite “Boy to Man,” co-written with Marty Warren, who also gets a writing credit on one of my favorite King’s X tunes “Prisoner.”

As for the songs themselves, great riffs and guitar tone abound from one of the most revered—and ironically least known—guitarists in the music industry. But whereas some guitarists are content to put out ten tracks of six-string noodling and wankery and call it a solo project, the emphasis here is on the songs. If you are at all familiar with King’s X or Tabor, you won’t be surprised to find lush harmonies layered around Ty’s Lenon-esque vocals. The subject matter ranges from love and relationships to faith and religion, with a monkey thrown in for good measure.

The album has a raw quality to it without losing a feeling of refinement, especially on the mellower tracks, which land just shy of beautiful.

And you’ll probably even forget about the drum machine.

You can purchase Naomi’s Solar Pumpkin from iTunes or as a download at Molken Music.

Something here sounds like something I heard
A trip to the Hollies via Westerberg — “All That Zen”

A collection of B-sides, bonus tracks, and unreleased songs is usually not the best introduction to a band one can have, but ¡Chutzpah! Jnr. might just be an exception to that rule (although one could argue that a better starting point for those unfamiliar with The Wildhearts might be Earth vs. The Wildhearts, The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed, 2007’s self-titled release, or even ¡Chutzpah!, the studio album for which this mini-album serves as a bonus companion).

¡Chutzpah! Jnr. was originally available only to those who attended the band’s December 2009 Xmess tour and contains the bonus tracks from the Japanese version of ¡Chutzpah! along with several other previously unreleased tracks. Having been recorded during the ¡Chutzpah! sessions, these eight songs share a sonic quality with their parent-album brethren and could have easily fit into that disc (as witnessed by the Japanese track listing), with the possible exception of “Vernix”, which serves as a good example of musical ADHD with its frequent genre bending and dizzying time signature changes, and the otherwise outstanding “Under the Waves,” with its electronica-influenced intro and verse sections.

This collection is chock full of clever, quirky lyrics and hooks galore, backed by chunky guitar riffs and lush harmonies — just the thing that makes me love The Wildhearts so much. From the anti-suicide plea of “Some Days Just F*cking Suck” and the longing “Zeen Requiem” (written about Danny Deen, a friend who committed suicide) to the uplifting “All That Zen,” that these songs are considered bonus material speaks more to Ginger’s prolific songwriting nature than to a lack of quality. On the contrary, ¡Chutzpah! Jnr. is a superb disc, and with a couple more songs, it could easily have stood on its own as a separate album, going toe-to-toe with the best of The Wildhearts’ releases.

I’ll leave you today with the track “Zeen Requiem,” a track The Wildhearts offer as a free download on their website. If you like what you hear, you can purchase ¡Chutzpah! Jnr. at The Wildhearts’ online merchandise store.

All the fads and all the kicks of a billion years have come to this

I was turned onto Tsar’s debut album by Michael Butler at The Rock and Roll Geek Show podcast when he interviewed singer/songwriter/frontman Jeff Whalen for a discussion of the band’s history and a track-by-track dissection of the album. Butler spent the better part of an hour gushing like a schoolgirl over the eponymous release, and after giving it a spin, I can understand why. This is quite possibly — as Butler put it — a nearly perfect album. From the production to the hooks to the harmonies, Tsar borrowed elements from the Cars, ELO, Cheap Trick, T.Rex, and Sweet (to name a few) to create a brand of modern power-pop that should have catapulted them to the top of the charts. Add to that the fact that big-shot producer Rob Cavallo was at the helm and that the band earned the support slot on the summer 2000 Duran Duran Pop Trash tour, these guys should have been huge.

I’m not sure how I missed this band and this album 10 years ago, but apparently I’m not the only one if Whalen’s estimates of the album’s record sales are accurate. But although I’m late to the Tsar party, I’m glad I finally showed up.

Go here or here to listen to samples of the album, or just listen to the Rock and Roll Geek Show interview with Jeff Whalen for the inside scoop on the entire album:

Full Disclosure

In December, 2009, Apple acquired Lala, a online streaming music service and community site that allows users to stream Lala-hosted music on a one-time basis, upload their own (legally acquired, of course) music libraries for online streaming from anywhere they have web access, and purchase CDs, inexpensive “web tracks,” and MP3s at a price point competitive with Amazon.com and iTunes. I like the Lala service so much that one of my plans for this blog was to embed the Lala player on posts like this to give my readers a good way to preview music prior to purchasing it.

Unfortunately, Apple announced last week that they were shutting the doors on the Lala service at the end of May. As such, this review has been repurposed from one I wrote and posted on Lala back in March in an attempt to rescue it from its imminent digital demise and give it a proper home. What’s more, I think this is an excellent, overlooked album I think you really should check out.

Bye-bye, Lala. I’m gonna miss ya.

InsideOut Music is offering its latest sampler compilation Music In Progress, Vol. II as a free full-album download at Amazon.com. Despite only a name-recognition familiarity with many of the artists, it’s worth grabbing if only for the excellent cuts from the Devin Townsend Project, OSI, Dream Theater’s James LaBrie, and the mighty King’s X. Many of the other tracks here are uneven or uninspiring at best, even though the dullest of them has its bright moments, which is always a possibility in a genre where songs normally run well past the five-minute mark. The surprise gem for me among the artists not already listed is the track offered by Pain of Salvation — a trudging, sludge-rock groovefest which alternately reminds me of Queens of the Stone Age, Soundgarden, and Lenny Kravitz (believe it or not) until you hit the spacey middle section that serves as a reminder that this is a prog band.

If you enjoy the brand of progressive metal served up by InsideOut’s roster, Music In Progress, Vol. II might be worth picking up.

You can’t tell people what they wanna hear if you also wanna tell the truth.

OK, I have to admit not to having paid any attention to The Hold Steady in the past. Sure, I had heard of them, but to tell the truth, I didn’t even know what kind of music they played. But when I had lunch with a friend at work recently, he told me that local Memphis guitar hero Steve Selvidge (who also happens to be a friend of his, as well as a client of his guitar repair/luthier side business) had joined the group. Again, Selvidge lies just on the periphery of my musical meanderings — I know of him, I know he’s from around here, I know he’s been in several local bands, including Lucero and Big Ass Truck, but that’s about as far as my knowledge of him goes. So when another friend’s blog informed me that NPR was streaming an Exclusive First Listen of the new album Heaven Is Whenever due to drop on May 4, I gave it a listen so that I could at least appear to speak intelligently if the topic of The Hold Steady ever came up again.

Due to my pessimistic attitude toward the music industry as a whole these days and myriad lackluster efforts I have been subjected to lately, I was half expecting not to like Heaven very much. Surprisingly, it has many of the elements that I look for in a good album: well-crafted tunes with catchy melodies and plenty of hooks; instantly accessible sing-along choruses without degrading into the mindless FM radio pop drivel that I try to avoid at all costs; and just enough grit in the guitars to satisfy my inner headbanger. Lyricist, vocalist, and guitarist Craig Finn possesses a flavor of almost-Springsteen-esque rock-and-roll storytelling that reminds me of acts like The Damnwells and Counting Crows without the aloofness that you sometimes get as part of the package. His vocal texture and delivery also remind me of someone that I can’t quite put my finger on (Elvis Costello maybe?!). So far the stand-out tracks for me include “Soft in the Center”, “The Weekenders”, “Hurricane J”, and “The Smidge.”

Per my aforementioned admission of ignorance of The Hold Steady’s back catalog, I have no idea how this album stands up against their other releases. I have to think that with recent member changes, there are many long-time die-hard fans who might not like this offering as much or who may deem it sub-par, but coming to it with no history with the band and no pre-conceived notions, I think there is much to like in Heaven Is Whenever.

Give it a listen, and decide for yourself. If you like it, buy it.

One Final Housekeeping Item

In an attempt to avoid the obligatory “Hello, world, I’m a new blogger and this is my new blog” inaugural post, I figured I would let this album review serve as the introduction of me to you and you to me. But I also thought it might be helpful if you knew a little about me.

Being a long-time computer geek and webmonkey, and having worked in, on, and around the web for nearly 12 years now, I’m not new to web logs, blogs, blogging, personal publishing, or whatever you want to call it, but amazingly, I’ve never written a blog myself or even had a personal website. Funny, I have never felt the need or desire to do something like this until now. My plans are to use this as an outlet to express my opinion on music I hear and promote music I like. As such, don’t be surprised if you see affiliate links pop up here and there for the artists, albums, and music covered. Use them if you like, but don’t feel obligated to do so. There might also be non-music musings from time to time as well. You never know.

As for the name Clang & Clatter, we are all inundated daily with various types of “noise” — too many emails, too many demands on our time, multiple distractions, not to mention the noise that music and media can sometimes bring into our lives (both good and bad). I want to attempt to cut through some of that and provide something useful or helpful amongst the clang and the clatter. But as Switchfoot says:

If we’re adding to the noise, turn off this song

Plus, I thought it was kind of a catchy name for a (mostly) music-based blog. Enjoy.