THE JAYHAWKS – Mockingbird Time

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After Mark Olson departed The Jayhawks in the mid-nineties to persue even more roots based music via a solo career and with his band Harmony Ridge Creek Dippers, his co-founder Gary Louris took charge of the band.  ‘Sound of Lies’, ‘Smile’ and ‘Rainy Day Music’ were fine albums, with Louris expanding the band’s country rock repertoire to include elements of classic pop music.  Lots of the Americana roots remained, of course, but without Olson, something was very different.

‘Mockingbird Time’ – The Jayhawks’ eighth studio album – marks the end of an eight year recording hiatus and return of Mark Olson.  It is the first Jayhawks release to feature both founding members in fifteen years. Within a few bars of the opening number ‘Hide Your Colors’, the listener is transported back to The Jayhawks at their peak, and those timeless, rootsy songs which filled the grooves of their 1994 masterpiece, ‘Hollywood Town Hall’.  The vocals may be slightly more weathered than on the early Jayhawks releases, but Olson and Louris sound simply marvellous together, with Olson’s slightly worn folksy tones underpinning Louris’s easily recognisable higher registers.

On the more country side of things, ‘Guilder Annie’ is a superb number, rootsy but never syrupy.  It’s a number full of great harmonies, which once set against an almost waltzing arrangement augmented by a subtle steel guitar, becomes essential Jayhawks.  Also very commendable, ‘Black Eyed Susan’ showcases the acoustic side of the band; while the acoustic vibes are great – and a moody fiddle accompaniment works well – it’s the dual vocals of Olson and Louris which really pull in the listener.  Strong, yet never perfect, their very natural style gives the sense of something recorded in one take.  As the track pulls to a close, the fiddle takes centre stage, playing in a more upbeat style.  Since the music never really breaks from its original mid-paced arrangement, this gives a much needed climax.

The title cut has a sense of fragility, beginning with a slightly jarring vocal complimenting a simple piano line from Karen Grotberg.  At first, it’s a song which appears unsure of itself, but soon, the drums find a place and a steady bass line pulls everything together. By the time you’ve tuned into Olson’s vocal midway, the track really starts to build.  Occasionally the use of accordion can be a little distracting, but the other elements are wonderful. From some rather more passionate vocals, a brief guitar break and Grotberg’s piano – which has a presence throughout – everything is wonderful.  By the close of the number the piano finally finds the courage to add a few lead notes to the mix.  This track may not grab you at first, but after a few spins, the warmth of the arrangement and romanticism within the lyrics will have won you over.  If it doesn’t click with you after a while, let’s just assume you have no soul.

Slightly edgier, Cinammon Love’  brings in a Neil Young style reverbed guitar, over which Olson and Louris lay a dual vocal. On occasion, the lead is placed against a selection of backing voices which appear to be working against the harmony.  The spikier parts of the arrangement are given the perfect counterpart in a chorus which focuses a on much tighter vocal harmony, acoustic guitar and piano.  There’s just the right balance between the smoother moments and the slightly rockier elements. ‘Stand Out In The Rain’ adds an occasional steel guitar to the band’s country rock sound, but due to a slightly louder approach to the guitar on the chorus, things do not ever feel too country.  The guitar is in a similar style to parts of ‘Cinammon Love’, but once again, this never seems intrusive.  While the arrangement is top notch, in terms of song writing, this number is potentially ‘Mockingbird Time’s weakest, due to constant repetition.  Still, everyone’s allowed a creative blip!

Elsewhere, ‘High Water Blues’ provides a strong acoustic stomp, lavish with harmonies and ‘Pouring Rain at Dawn’ is simply gorgeous.  On the latter, the band offer something incredibly understated; twin harmony vocals – with Louris taking the lead – sit well against a shuffling country number with brushed drums and warm bass.

Perhaps the best number of all, however, is ‘Tiny Arrows’, a moody piece which captures both Olson and Louris in their finest voices this time out.  Louris’s higher pitch is given the perfect accompaniment by Orson’s soft melodies, but no matter how great their voices are, it’s the epicness of the music which will have you coming back time and again.  Over a brooding soundscape, the steel guitars cry softly against the acoustic rhythms and the piano has a sense of leading without dominance.  Think of a softer, slightly spacier take of Neil Young’s ‘Cortez The Killer’ and you’ll have about half an idea what this sounds like.  Honestly, this could be one of the finest numbers the band has ever recorded.

Fans of The Jayhawks will undoubtedly welcome their return, and rightly so, since ‘Mockingbird Time’ is remarkably consistent.  After a few listens, these songs will feel almost as familiar as those songs the band recorded nearly two decades previously, proving The Jayhawks are still among alt-country’s finest, no matter how long between releases.

 

September 2011

BUTCH WALKER & THE BLACK WIDOWS – The Spade

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Butch Walker’s album ‘I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart’ led America’s legendary Rolling Stone magazine to proclaim him “one of America’s best singer-songwriters”. With a bunch of solo albums under his belt, plus releases with his former bands Marvelous 3 and Southgang, he’s already knocked up a fair amount of accolades. If you take into account he’s written and produced songs for Katy Perry, Avril Lavigne and Weezer, as well as many others, he deserves more recognition (especially from UK audiences).

His 2011 album, ‘The Spade’ comes loaded with the sharp song writing which his fans have come to expect, even though the music lacks the slickness of some of his previous outings. The lead single ‘Summer of 89’ is stupidly catchy. The chorus which comes loaded with gang vocals and a bouncy riff, which alone would be enough to guarantee a standout track. Walker takes things a step farther, however, with amusing tales of the past: he name checks Kiss along the way as well as throwing us the reminder that “nobody knew Bryan Adams wasn’t cool…the TV just told me he was”. [Bryan’s big undoing was also the thing that undoubtedly made him the most money – we probably never need to hear that Robin Hood song ever again. I’ll still proclaim Adams’s 1984 release ‘Reckless’ to be a genre classic, mind.] Also excellent, ‘Everysinglebodyelse’ has a rousing arrangement which has a more seventies glam vibe. Walker’s song writing and arranging is superb, and his band tight – yet never too tight. A strong chorus and arrangement would have carried this track alone, but the addition of a sax (with overtones of Bowie’s ‘Diamond Dogs’) just pushes the track into the realms of potential cult classic.

In a softer mood, ‘Sweethearts’ adopts a Stones-ish swagger, where Walker gets to air a more retro sound to his voice and playing. The bar-room guitars which swamp this track are just lovely, and played against a great lead vocal (and equally great female harmony), this feels like the tune The Quireboys have often strived to record, but haven’t often managed. ‘Synthesizer’ combines a wry humour with some rather excellent rinky-dinky tack piano lines, which sound like a Paul Williams composition for The Muppets (see tracks like ‘Movin’ Right Along’). Huge influences from seventies pop/rock shine through, but those are tempered with gang vocals very much rooted in the 80s. Although Walker’s lead voice is strong, it’s the combination of his lead with a slightly call-and-response backing which lends this tune its bucketful of charm. In an absolute change in style, Walker follows this classy old style pop rock workout with ‘Dublin Crow’ – a country-rock stomper, heavy on the banjos and twangy guitars. All things considered, it manages to sound well-crafted in the musical department but somehow disposable at the same time. It certainly feels like filler compared to gold standard offerings like ‘Summer of 89’.

With a mix of atonal guitars and hefty thumping drum, ‘Bodegas and Blood’ is less accessible than some of the other songs, and doesn’t have a particularly strong chorus to reel in the listener. As such, it sits beside ‘Dublin Crow’ as something which doesn’t quite reach its full potential. That said, a few of the cleaner guitar sounds during an instrumental break are pleasing enough. After a false start, ‘Bullet Belt’ brings the album something far more aggressive, as Walker spits an angry vocal over pounding drums and a hugely fuzzed up bassline. He avoids pushing the track too far into alternative rock territory by employing a bubblegum pop chorus – with a hint of the sixties in places – essentially pulling this tune in two different directions. The music and verses may aspire to the likes of New York Dolls, but the chorus turns that on its head: the songcraft is slicker and generally more accessible than the verses ever would have suggested. For no-nonsense, guitar driven rock/pop in a radio friendly vein, ‘Day Drunk’ has some good moments, chiefly a retro guitar riff and solid bass, while Walker’s vocal maintains a strong presence. Its chorus is something of a weakness, though, since it’s hard to get the most out a one word refrain, no matter how many multi-layered voices it comes loaded with!

Overall, ‘The Spade’s best strength comes from Walker’s ability to make each of the songs his own. While the subgenres of rock and pop on show here will often sound familiar, he rarely imitates any obvious influences. It’s not a patch on 2008’s ‘Sycamore Meadows’ – Walker would have to really be on form to release another album as consistent as that one – but even so, you’ll find more than a handful of top tunes scattered among this album’s eleven cuts.

September 2011

Opeth to return to Australia this winter

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Progressive metal/melodic death metal band Opeth are returning to Australia this December for a headline tour.

The dates are as follows:
Dec. 15 – The Tivoli – Brisbane 
Dec. 16 – The Enmore – Sydney 
Dec. 18 – The Palace – Melbourne 
Dec. 20 – Fremantle Metro – Perth

It will be the band’s first visit to Australia since 2009.

The band’s tenth studio album, ‘Heritage’ is released on Roadrunner Records on September 20th.

Mike Portnoy to guest with Stone Sour in Brazil

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Ex-Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy is to make a guest appearance with Stone Sour during their set at this year’s Rock In Rio festival.

Stone Sour’s drummer Roy Mayorga will not be appearing with the band at this festival, since he is on sabbatical, since his wife is due to give birth.

Portnoy commented: “It’s an honor and pleasure to be able to help out my good friends in Stone Sour. It’s also an unexpected treat for me to get another visit with some of the greatest fans in the world.”

Plans are still afoot in the Stone Sour camp to release a full-length live DVD and record an EP of cover tunes.  The band have not announced which covers will be included on the EP at this time.

ALICE COOPER – Welcome 2 My Nightmare

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Over the years, Alice Cooper has made us all think of the darker things in life; those things in life the world doesn’t need: spousal abuse (‘Only Women Bleed’), mental illness (‘Former Lee Warmer’), medication misuse (‘Dead Babies’), necrophilia (‘Cold Ethyl’, ‘I Love The Dead’) and a whole host of other wrongdoings. What else could he offer us? His 2011 release ‘Welcome 2 My Nightmare’ doesn’t bring much that’s new thematically speaking, but then, It doesn’t matter whether or not you’ve heard it all before from Alice. More often than not, he’s able to serve up his schtick with a fair amount of style. Revisiting an expanding on an old concept, however, relies on more than familiarity to make it work effectively… However, with ‘Welcome 2 My Nightmare’, there are various key features in place which make the listener hope that – being the professional he is – Cooper may just pull a decent sequel out of the bag.

Firstly, guitarist Steve Hunter is back in the capacity of guitarist and song writer, while Dick Wagner has co-written some of the album’s material. This pairing had a huge impact on Cooper’s original ‘Nightmare’ (and a few of his other 1970s works), so it seems only right they should have a hand in this sequel somehow. Perhaps most importantly, though, is the presence Bob Ezrin, the original ‘Nightmare’ producer. Factor in a few guest spots from original Alice Cooper band members Dennis Dunaway, Michael Bruce and Neal Smith and ‘Welcome 2 My Nightmare’ seems, at least in theory, to have a lot in its favour.

‘I Am Made of You’ opens with the piano motif from ‘Steven’ – providing some obvious continuity – but then it falls on its face. Once Alice starts to sing, there’s something very, very wrong. His voice has been auto-tuned to absolute extremes. Not through any fixing which needed doing, but autotuned in a very stylized way, as if Alice wanted to somehow prove he was up on musical trends from 2010/11. His familiar sneer is coated in an unnatural shine and pitch altering – one which can be heard on any number of r ‘n’ b records; it’s a bloody awful stylistic move, one for which Cher still ought to be blamed. Such a pity, since the musical elements have a fantastic amount of promise, particularly the piano, occasionally militaristic drumming and classy guitar solo (courtesy of AOR legend Tommy Denander). But, sadly, all the great arranging in the world just won’t make up for the presence of autotune where it doesn’t belong. Also, this number has a brooding tone which would have been ideal for bringing act one to a close –it’s great at what it does, but it doesn’t quite sit right as opening gambit. ‘Last Man on Earth’ is far more fun, with a Dixieland jazz arrangement (and a hint of ‘Some Folks’), which works exceptionally well against Cooper’s overly theatrical vocal (which appears in its natural state here, thankfully). The combination of a searing violin, live sounding drums, tuba and banjo and raspy rock vocal makes great listening, and although it’s provides more tongue in cheek theatrics than hard rock thrills…it’s so, so distinctly Alice.

‘Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever’ takes Alice’s tongue-in-cheek humour and pushes it one step too far, as he “raps” badly over a keyboard driven, semi-danceable arrangement which sounds like someone taking the piss. A choir of vocals which sound like the undead are vaguely amusing, but Christ, once you’ve played it once, the joke’s well and truly over. The closing section dispenses with the frivolity and goes for maximum octane rock, where Rob Zombie’s guitarist John 5 mangles his fretboard. Although the album is supposed to be a continuation of Steven’s horror-filled, childhood nightmares, this isn’t so much a nightmare as throwaway junk. The following track isn’t that much better…‘Ghouls Gone Wild’ resembles ‘Summertime Blues’ crossed with a dose of 70s glam, and tests listener goodwill. Sure, Alice is having fun singing about ghouls with a choir of backing voices – but it’s too far in the direction of disposable. There’s no way this stands alongside anything from the original nightmare. Rather than a piece of music from an Alice Cooper album, it sounds rather more like it belongs in one of the full-length Scooby Doo cartoons. In fact, ‘Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever’ and ‘Ghouls Gone Wild’ are so awful, let’s pretend they don’t exist.

‘A Runaway Train’ is a stomper, reuniting members of the original Alice Cooper band. Neal Smith’s powers the number with an uptempo drum line which fittingly resembles a locomotive. Dennis Dunaway’s bass is unwavering, while Michael Bruce’s lead guitars are shrill and cutting. It’s doesn’t reach heights of the glam-fuelled proto-metal of this band’s past, but it’s a powerful number nonetheless. The album’s lead single ‘I’ll Bite Your Face Off’ is also enjoyable in a self-parody kind of way, showcasing Cooper, Dunaway, Smith and Bruce on an arrangement which borrows heavily from late 60s Rolling Stones. With a tight musical backdrop and reasonable chorus, it’s not quite the anthem it could have been, but it’s entertaining enough. It has a feel-good nature, once which is sure to work even better in a live setting. It’s great to hear these guys playing together once more – and such a pity Glen Buxton wasn’t around to be a part of it all.

By the time you feel things are getting too safe, Alice serves up ‘When Hell Comes Home’ – an ode to domestic abuse. Centring around a piano’s bass notes and a slightly down-tuned guitar, this number has one of the album’s best arrangements, helping to create a slightly perilous atmosphere. Likewise, ‘Something To Remember Me By’ deserves attention (and maybe repeated listens to get rid of ‘Disco Bloodbath’s bad vibes). Sure, some may find this number a little cheesy, but hearing Alice in full-on power ballad mode (a la ‘How You Gonna See Me Now’) raises the bar considerably. His vocal is mature, strong and still as good as it ever was, but it’s the musical arrangement which is the crowning glory. Chock full of Bob Ezrin’s beloved strings and Steve Hunter’s classy, yet subtle guitar leads, this carries more of the spirit of Cooper’s 1975-78 work than any of the other featured material. Fantastic stuff, indeed.

‘What Baby Wants’ – a duet with Ke$ha – is a pop/rock number which makes good use of programmed and live drumming and a solid guitar riff. Cooper and Ke$ha sound great together, surprisingly, and their combined voices make the most of a catchy chorus. The autotune makes a return, but here it sounds more appropriate (although not better). It’s a great example of Cooper’s desire to always look to new avenues and never settle on the Alice Cooper sound. Similarly, who could have predicted that this time around, Cooper would choose to lend his rock chops to a number which contains elements of new country/country rock? That’s what he’s done on ‘I Gotta Get Out of Here’ – a reasonably enjoyable number with pleasing vocal arrangements and an equally pleasing, twangy guitar lead courtesy of Vince Gill. Both these tracks have great commercial potential, even if neither quite attains “classic Cooper” standard.

Closing this nightmare is one of the album’s other essential listens. ‘The Underture’ takes the original musical themes from 1975’s ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’ and presents them as a heavily orchestrated instrumental medley. The guitar leads are masterful, but no match for a full orchestra under the watchful eye of Bob Ezrin. Although ‘Welcome 2 My Nightmare’ has its share of enjoyable numbers, almost everything gets put to shame by this piece of music (sorry Alice, mate, but all you’ve achieved by sticking this on the end is remind everyone how much better the original ‘Nightmare’ was!). Once it’s finished, you have to ask, would it have been more interesting if Cooper and Ezrin released a reworking of the original album for rock band and orchestra, as opposed to constructing a sequel? Possibly.

Alice Cooper’s 1975 masterpiece ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’ is somewhat of a career defining album, so any sequel was always going to have a lot riding on it – and ultimately risk being inferior. Since this album mixes a few new ideas with hints of seventies nightmares past, while also drawing from the sounds of Alice’s MTV years and beyond, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Like Meat Loaf’s ‘Bat out of Hell II’ and Queensryche’s ‘Operation:Mindcrime II’, ‘Welcome 2 My Nightmare’ has some decent moments, but it’s never going to match that original release which inspired it’s creation. It’s most obvious weakness, though, isn’t necessarily the fault of too many bad songs (there are only two definite duds, after all); the potential weakness comes from the cut ‘n’ paste nature of the complete picture. There are different musicians appearing on different tracks, recorded at different times in different studios; the album just doesn’t flow, and as a result, doesn’t feel like a coherent concept album. Stylistically, with its similar construction and overall sound, 1976’s ‘Alice Cooper Goes To Hell’ always felt like a natural successor to ‘Welcome to My Nightmare’ – and even though we now have Alice Cooper’s vision of a genuine sequel, nothing changes that notion…

September 2011