In the autumn of 1977, a most unlikely star made his big breakthrough on the UK music scene. A jerky and energetic man sporting Buddy Holly spectacles, Elvis Costello was to make regular appearances on Top of The Pops over the next couple of years. The power in most of his musical arrangements was immediate, but lyrically, this was a man who was a cut above. Spewing more sneering puns than anyone would likely hear on hit singles until Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine would make their breakthrough in 1989, Elvis cut a very distinctive presence.
Tag Archives: new wave
KURT BAKER – Brand New B-Sides
Following several EPs, new-wave revivalist Kurt Baker released his first full-length LP ‘Brand New Beat’ at the tail-end of 2012. It’s half hour of tunes recalled strong links with Joe Jackson, Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello and often felt musically familiar, but was not any the less enjoyable for wearing its influences so obviously. The sessions also yielded a truckload of extra material; ‘Want You Around’, an upbeat number featuring Dan Vapid, provided the lead track of a 7” EP (and also appeared as a bonus track on the French CD pressing of ‘Brand New Beat’), backed with three cover tunes, including a spot-on version of Billy Joel’s ‘Sleeping With The Television On’. Discounting these four recordings, Baker was still in possession of an album’s worth of other tunes, most of which were collected on this 2014 release.
BETTER THAN EZRA – How Does Your Garden Grow
Sitting rather comfortably alongside the Soul Asylum type bands, Better Than Ezra’s early albums are a solid mix of alternative rock and Americana stylings. ‘Deluxe’, particularly, may be a modern classic.
For ‘How Does Your Garden Grow?’ things don’t always feel as smooth. The band began to change direction on their third commercially available album, ‘Closer’, and by the time of this fourth release, for the most part, I’d say that the sound I most associate with Better Than Ezra isn’t really present. ‘Closer’ in many ways marked a definite shift, but for this album, the shift is more pronounced. The synths and electric pianos seem far more prominent and sometimes they seem to work, sometimes not. While some of the electric piano and keyboard led moments of ‘Closer’ had a smoothness (‘Get You In’ is lovely; ‘I Do’ is solid alternative pop-rock), moments which feel similar on this fourth outing are angrier, spikier and generally edgy. While some songs are obviously very good, it doesn’t have much in the way of user-friendliness. It may not even be the increased use of electronics; it may just be that for a good proportion of this album, the drums are way too loud. Maybe it’s because they’ve tried to follow up ‘Closer’ with something similar, to show how they’ve mostly moved on from the obvious Soul Asylum type sound, but the songwriting often lacks focus; that’s not to say it doesn’t have some notable moments – Better Than Ezra are, after all, a decent band.
On the opening track, ‘Je Ne M’en Souviens Pas’, the keyboards dominate so much of the arrangement. Combined with the vocals having a phased treatment and pretty much no guitar work, you could be forgiven that they’ve abandoned their past completely and gone synth-pop or electronica. It’s probably meant as a statement, but it’s a really poor choice of opening track and has little to make me want to listen to it more than once. They’ve attempted to be striking, but just about muddled through. ‘Live Again’is very drum led and clearly in the alternative rock bracket, but where guitars would normally be the focus, this song has nice electric piano flourishes. This could be a great song, but it’s not instantly obvious in the way that some of ‘Closer’ had been. ‘Under You’ is mellow and is much closer to old fashioned Ezra, but there’s something missing somehow. It’s not in the music; the music itself is as good as the band’s other pastel shaded moments. It seems to be lacking an obvious hook, which was something ‘Deluxe’ never really felt short of. It’s pleasant enough though. ‘At The Stars’ is definitely one of my favourite tracks; it sounds like a mix of older Ezra, with Our Lady Peace, but that may just be the drum pattern. Excellent.
‘Waxing Or Waning’ has a very relaxed feel, with brushes on the drums and twangy guitars. More Americana than much of the album, I wonder if anyone in the band is fond of the work of Howe Gelb? There’s a spaciousness which reminds me of him and his colleagues. He may well argue, of course. A mass of pre-programmed drums makes up the bulk of ‘Beautiful Mistake’ – a track which is nowhere near as focused or clever as it thinks it is. Largely forgettable at worst and casual indifference at best makes this track easily skippable. In total contrast, ‘Pull’ explores the band’s all-out alt-rock side, with big riffs and guitar solos. While their earlier work was only this rocky on occasion, personally, I’d much rather they went in this direction than the electronic one largely favoured on this album.
‘Particle’ matches pre-programmed drum loops with live drumming to good effect. Again, it’s the keyboard driven sounds here which carry the tune rather than the band’s previous Americana influenced styles. It’s hard not to think of Canada’s Our Lady Peace, although the vocals aren’t that striking. There’s a nice use of a mellotron sound during the last couple of minutes which more than fleshes out the arrangement, but still, at over six minutes, it feels slightly drawn out. Generally this succeeds in doing something ‘Beautiful Mistake’ failed spectacularly with. ‘Like It Like That’ somehow reminds me more of Third Eye Blind. It mixes slight samba rhythms, power pop chords and a repetitive hook that, while not brilliant, manages to stick in your head. The only thing here which doesn’t feel quite natural is the high pitched synth. After a handful of plays, it’s clear that this is one of the album’s high points.
Another of the album’s standouts is ‘How Wonderful You Are’. Again, while I’d struggle to recognise this being the same band who gave us the brilliant ‘Deluxe’, it’s kind of brilliant in its own right. Jangly guitars, a pure pop chorus and a nod to Lou Reed’s ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ make this recommended listening. Near the end of the album, ‘Everything In 2’s’ finally offers the listener something unmistakable. The soulful vocals, mid-paced arrangement, build up to the chorus and semi-acoustic stylings are very much in keeping with the old classic Better Than Ezra, so they’ve not completely abandoned the feel which drew me to them initially.
There’s very much an ‘experiement-not-quite-realised’ feeling about this album and on the whole, while ‘How Does Your Garden Grow’ is solid enough, it never quite hits the spot enough to match BTE’s earlier work. As good as some of it may be (‘Live Again’, ‘Everything In 2’s’ and ‘How Wonderful You Are’ particularly), its hard to imagine it being anyone’s favourite album by these guys.
November 2007
THE NETWORK – Money Money 2020
These guys can be seen scattered across the internet, but it seems every time you find something, it’s often the same snippets of information and speculation. Take five people, put them in disguise and throw in a bunch of new wave tunes with pop-punk edges and it’s widely believed that you have a collaboration between Green Day and Devo. The first half of this theory is certainly correct: Fink sounds like Billie Joe Armstrong and close ups of his eyes blow away any doubt. The same goes for their drummer, The Snoo, who is unmistakably Tre Cool. Of most interest, though, is bassist/vocalist Van Gogh (Mike Dirnt). He handles a majority of the vocals on this release, with a delivery rooted in the new wave.
As for the second guitarist and keyboard player, it remains unclear who they might be. One thing’s almost certain – despite what you may have heard, they’re not members of Devo, even though Devo are an obvious influence on these songs. Although there’s still no concrete proof, I’d hazard more than a guess they’re old friends and Green Day touring band members Jason White (Billie Joe’s band mate in Pinhead Gunpowder) and Jason Freese. It’s also certain that this release exists as an outlet for Mike Dirnt’s vocal and songwriting talents as well as giving White and Freese greater creative roles.
Enough of the speculation and hype – what about the songs? There’s plenty here to enjoy. ‘Reto’ is spiky pop-punk in delivery, but the guitars are turned town giving it more of a new wave feel. The lyrics are biting, about someone who uses internet technology for exciting teenagers with cyber-sex; this may or may not be a true story (again, check your Green Day ‘American Idiot’ CD single – it’s engineered by someone called Reto – yet another clue?). ‘Right Hand-A-Rama’ also explores the smuttier side of The Network’s little world, being a song about buying porn and beer to pass the time. It’s rather more obvious who is involved on this song, with Billie Joe taking lead vocals.
Again, ‘Roshambo’ is more obviously a Green Day number, but treated vocals give this a fuzzy sound and the music between verses gives it a very mechanical feel, which seems to be a recurring approach. ‘Love and Money’ exploits the new wave side of things completely, being nearly all droning keys, coupled with a quite spiteful sounding vocal delivery. ‘Supermodel Robots’ was one of the earliest tracks available from this album, available at one point as a free download before the album was released, so I’m told. It’s obvious why. The vocals are unmistakably Billie Joe’s; less of an attempt has been made to disguise the Green Day input here, and this track was a favourite of mine from pretty much the fist time I heard the album (I have to say, though, most of the other songs took repeated listens before they took hold). One of the weaker offerings, ‘Spastic Society’ perversely offers one of the strongest musical arrangements, but is let down somewhat by seemingly stream-of-consciousness words on the verses, coupled with a fairly obvious ‘society is screwed’ chorus. (Great tune, though their choice of words is an absolute travesty.)
Another album high point, ‘Joe Robot’ nods towards Devo’s ‘Whip It’ musically. It has lyrical concerns with changing technology asking whether these changes are helping us or hindering human progression. It’s almost certainly deliberate that one of the songs here most influenced by Devo has a lyrical concern that’s almost the anti-Devo. Also balancing out the fun and smutty offerings, ‘Spike’ is a piece based around telephone calls by a teenage heroin addict desperate to get money to get a fix. Like Devo, concerns of human wrongs are strong within The Network. Closing the original twelve track version of the album, ‘X-Ray Hamburger’ is slow and brooding, showing obvious homage to Tubeway Army.
The UK issue of this album features two bonus tracks, ‘Hammer Of The Gods’ and a quirky cover of The Misfits’ ‘Teenagers From Mars’. Neither of these add anything special to the overall feel or quality of the release, but from a fans perspective, it’s good to have them if you can track them down. As for the actual album itself, after a quick buzz, it seemed to go largely un-noticed here in the UK and full price copies of it sat gathering dust in the racks at HMV. If only Green Day would stop pretending they had nothing to do with it and start shouting about it a bit more, so many other people would have discovered this great album.
August 2007