Album Of The Week: The Sadies

The Sadies
New Seasons
Yep Roc

There is a certain class of band, the kind that have a unique sound but rarely deviate from it, and sometimes it ends up limiting their creativity and longevity. I’d place the Old 97’s in that category, as the old joke about them is that they have two songs—the fast one and the slow one—and they just gave them new titles every album. In the alt-country vein, the Sadies could very well have been placed in that compositional straitjacket, too, since their trademark sound was a kind of Morricone-influenced spaghetti western instrumental vibe.
Recent developments in their career have helped them to avoid the traps of repetition, however. From serving as a backing band for Neko Case and Andre Williams to last year’s guest star heavy double live album, they seem intent on not carving out any specific niche for themselves.
This new CD stretches the boundaries of their own music far beyond the surf-country vibes of their early work, an evolution that’s a combination of Travis and Dallas Good’s maturing songwriting and the airy production touch of former Jayhawk Gary Louris.
The stylistic swath the Goods cut this time around includes reverb-drenched country weeper, “Sunset To Dawn,” and Gram Parsons-indebted, “Never Again,” but it also harvests psychedelic pop nuggets such as the Donovan-esque, “Yours To Discover,” and, “A Simple Aspiration,” which sounds otherworldly, like a lost track from Roky Erickson and the Thirteenth Floor Elevators. In a further departure, there are only two instrumental tracks included, almost as brief afterthoughts or interludes.
The times when they combine these approaches are the most musically satisfying and memorable. “Anna Leigh,” is a soft-spoken tune that recalls a Johnny Cash murder ballad. Though its subject is not nearly as dark, there is a palpable sense of foreboding brought on by the eerie guitar tones and insistent tempo, and the song’s coda arches into an orchestral, swelling bridge worthy of the Moody Blues.
“The Trial,” may contain the best lines the Goods have every uttered in, “Every time I look at it I can barely breathe, and if I’m still alive when the autumn kills the leaves, I guess I’ll be what they consider free.” That’s a passage worthy of a poet, both picturesque and evocative of emotions and memories that the listener can project upon the song. Like Son Volt’s, “Windfall,” human nature and Mother Nature collide in an allegorical and literal sense.
The Sadies may never escape the ‘Spaghetti Western Country” tag, mainly because they do it so well, but it also appears that they won’t allow it to limit what they do. With this new batch of songs they have at least proved they have a few more plots up their musical sleeves than the average batch of B-movie Westerns.

New Seasons on Amazon.com

Rock ‘n’ Roll Magnetism

Great bands don’t come out of nowhere, like some rip in the space-time continuum opens up and Led Zeppelin drops out of the sky or something—most really good bands take years to get that way. Look at Nada Surf, who hit their stride with Let Go, a decade after “Popular” nearly doomed them to one-hit wonder status and haven’t peaked yet as far as I can tell.
So imagine my surprise when a really great new band landed on me recently in the form of Magnetic Flowers, from right here in Columbia, South Carolina. How they made an album as good as their new debut, Presents Pasts and Futures, at such an early stage in their development, I don’t know and really don’t care at this point—it’s enough to just acknowledge that it exists and be thankful for that.
After seeing the band live last month, I made a mental note to revisit the CD their producer had handed me a few weeks prior to that, but didn’t actually get around to doing so until today, when I took it with me to run a few errands around town before heading to work.

Mike Scott of the Waterboys coined the term, “The Big Music” for the grandiose, spectral arrangements his band utilized on early albums like A Pagan Place and This Is The Sea, but it applies equally well to the Flowers’ important-sounding indie rock. There was always a sense of making serious and important statements on a Waterboys album, and it is that attitude, more so than the quasi-spiritual lyrical poeticism of Mike Scott, that Magnetic Flowers appropriates here.

“Mark Pyritz Goes to Mexico,” is a great, rollicking call-to-arms that’s a perfect album opener, even as it confronts life-and-death topics in the context of a road trip south of the border. The character that’s closing in on the Grim Reaper (probably the ‘Mark Pyritz’ of the title) gives a sage bit of parting advice, but the real kicker here is the intertwined music that fits the lyrics so well that when they sing, “Sun is drowning in the sea, and our hearts waltz in time,” the guitars actually crank out a quick 3/4 –time riff as a route back into the chorus. It’s a small moment, but one that speaks volumes about where these guys are coming from as musicians and artists, sweating the details that give a fuller understanding and enjoyment for the listener.

“Widescreen Version,” would be called the ‘hit’ on this album, if there were a chance that it might get a wide enough hearing to have a chance to become one. Starting off with a leisurely, loping, Seventies-rock vibe, like a sleepy Jazz Butcher Conspiracy, halfway through it kicks into fast forward, and as the song careens to a close with the repeated chorus, “Someone should make a movie about you,” somebody yells “Roll the end credits!” in the background, and a litany of movie workers, from the producer on down, begins, culminating in the line, “some of us actors, most of us extras, and you, you as yourself.”

Magnetic Flowers’ musical strength lies in their arrangements, a lost art among rock bands especially on the level of local clubbing that they are in. The piano alone separates them from their peers and adds layers of texture in their sound, then they add the occasional horn solo and various stringed instruments which sometimes results in a cacophony of sound resembling nothing so much as a Broadway pit orchestra with a few drinks in them after a three-performance day. Having seen them pull this off live, I can say that not only does it translate to the stage well, like all good music it is made even more immediate and emotionally stunning in person.

check their Myspace page to download the two songs mentioned above, and for tour dates.

http://www.myspace.com/magneticflowers

Album of the week: Mountain Heart

This is the first in what I’ll try to make a weekly feature here, spotlighting a recent release.

Mountain Heart
Road That Never Ends
Rural Rhythm

Unless you’re a bluegrass fan, chances are you’re not familiar with Mountain Heart, who just released Road That Never Ends: The Live Album. Unlike Nickel Creek, Sam Bush, or Alison Krauss, they haven’t made that leap from independent bluegrass labels to the mainstream market, despite having many of the same qualities (Well, they don’t have a pretty girl in the band, but several of the guys are mighty nice looking…). They are marketing the band a little bit like Nickel Creek this time, however—the word ‘bluegrass doesn’t appear in the cover text until the end of a list of influences cited alongside rock, jamband, country, blues, and jazz. Instead, the bland, “Acoustic music,” is used in its place, a cop-out that could place them in the same category as Will Ackerman or George Winston from the New Age-synonymous Windham Hill label. In keeping with the slicker image of many contemporary bluegrass acts, the album cover makes them look more like a New Country act or a Contemporary Christian band, instead of a killer band of bluegrass pickers—none of them is even holding an instrument, even. I don’t expect a bluegrass band in 2007 to wear bolo ties and hats like the Bluegrass Boys, but it is still a little unsettling when you look more like Rascal Flatts or Mercy Me and still sing, “Mountain Man.”
Originally formed in 1998 by members of Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, Mountain Heart was immediately embraced by the bluegrass establishment as a fresh, contemporary voice, and the band has delivered on that acceptance with a string of bluegrass and bluegrass gospel albums featuring both excellent traditional instrumental skills (Fiddler Jim Van Cleve won a Grammy for his 2006 solo album No Apologies) and new compositions that added to the canon of great bluegrass songs.
The new disc serves as an introduction to the newest member of Mountain Heart, Josh Shilling, who plays guitar and piano, bringing an unusual texture to the band along with strong lead vocals. Perhaps it was a wise move to get that “new singer” stigma off their backs before going back into the studio, or maybe they just wanted to get something out and didn’t have the luxury of studio time available to add the new guy. Either way, it turns out to be a wise decision, as the live setting knocks some of the contemporary sheen off the band’s sound, proving that behind the slick recordings there’s a really hot live act. Bluegrass is a genre that demands virtuoso instrumental prowess due to the sometimes impossibly fast tempos and frequent soloing required, and the members of Mountain Heart are all more than capable.
Shilling gets a couple of spots to show off, including the newly written blues, “It Works Both Ways,” and a version of the Allman Brothers Band’s “Whipping Post,” a nearly solo Shilling performance which showcases his piano skills.
It’s the addition of Shilling on piano that is the riskiest part of this new twist in the Mountain Heart sound, and purists will cry foul, claiming that a piano isn’t a “bluegrass instrument.” So far, however, it doesn’t sound like they have integrated the piano into the traditional bluegrass, they have just added a piano number or two to the typical set, something any bluegrass band will do in a live show if there’s a piano nearby and someone in the group who can play it.
Another thing most bluegrass groups do is gospel, and Mountain Heart is no exception. Their second album, The Journey, was an all-gospel release but it is currently out of print, making the inclusion of the fun a capella “Gospel Train,” from that disc a nice treat. “God and Everybody,” from 2006’s Wide Open, isn’t quite the stark, ominous gospel of their contemporaries Blue Highway but it’s pretty close, with some chill-inducing vocal harmonies.
This isn’t the album that will introduce Mountain Heart to the mainstream, but it will certainly make their fans in the bluegrass scene happy. As for Shilling and his place in the group, that will become clearer once they get into a studio and come out with a full album of new material.

The Next Worst American Band

The next great American band

When Simon Fuller of American Idol announced the full-band version of “American Idol,” I’ll admit I was curious to see how the format would fit. Like a national ‘battle of the bands’, the show’s first episode included some good music and some wretched music—no William Hung eviscerations of pop songs, at least, since the really bad ones they only let us hear for a couple of seconds each in several still-painful montage segments.
The setting, a big outdoor stage in the desert, is ridiculous. Why not put them in a nightclub, small arena, or some other more natural setting for a concert than a big empty sandbox?

And tell me again about this being the search for a great American band when one of the judges and the host is from New Zealand

Not sure I’ll watch the rest of the season, and I’m sure that this doesn’t really deserve this kind of analysis (it’s just bad reality TV), but I was bored tonight, so here’s what I thought of the show and the bands presented:

Silly Happy family band–Not sure I’ve got the name right but who cares, since they started the show with a cover song. Said they’d quit playing music if they didn’t get through to the next round. Anyone wanna buy a guitar? Or an amp?

Tres Bien—retro band, which is hot these days. Pretty good sound, catchy song, good performance. They made it to the next round easily.

Light of Doom –preteen metal? Singer’s voice needs a few more years to mature, but they rocked harder than any pre-acne bunch of kids have a right to. Reznik wanted to say “no” but got whined into agreeing by Sheila E…. I can see his and the other guy’s reservations; it’s kind of like “Heavy Metal Hanson.” They won’t last much longer.

The Hatch—You’re from New York City, a major entertainment industry town (well, they’re from Brooklyn, but it’s close) and you play a cover tune? Even Hootie & the Blowfish do “Use Me,” better than this. Lame, but the singer’s cute so they get through.

Big Toe: a guy without arms who plays bass guitar with his feet? Take that, Jeff Healey! All the judges said no (not willing to give them a ‘leg up’, I guess), but I kind of liked the song they played.

The Clarke Brothers—Ringers! Ringers! These guys used to be part of the Clarke Family Experience, a country band made up of members of an 11-child family whose album I reviewed years ago. It was good, I recall, but the band went nowhere commercially. I think I even saw them play a live show once or twice, and they were pretty good live, too. I guess three of them grew up and decided they wanted to try again. They got through, impressing with an acoustic gospel medley.

Zombie Bazooka Patrol—“Better off Undead,” I think was the song, an entertaining acoustic rocking tune that reminded me a little of the Avett Brothers…wonder if they have any more Zombie-themed compositions up their tattered sleeves? They made it through, amazingly enough.

Dot dot dot—like a combination of Naked Eyes and Fallout Boy, New Wave Modern Rock? I’d agree with the judges on this one, they were the only ones that really looked like a rock band, so they easily made it through.

Northmont—derivative modern rock that sounded like a cover band, though I think it was an original song they played. And the singer climbed the rigging? This is American Idol Junior, not Bonnaroo, dude. The judges gave them a second chance to mess up again.

The Muggs—another band I’ve heard of before—they put out a pretty good garage-metal album a couple years back that I liked a lot. MC5 influenced stuff from Detroit, the judges loved it and rightly so, but they’re probably too retro and dated to get farther than the next round.

Fifi larue the gothic killer clown of heavy metal—okay, maybe there is a William Hung candidate here. This was so pathetic it wasn’t even funny.

Denver and the Mile High Orchestra—did anyone tell these guys that the nouveau swing revival was over a decade ago? Didn’t think so. Probably the most musically adept group of the entire show, but it’s a limited sound.

Zolar X—Star Trekking rockers, even this close to Halloween, are ridiculous.

Six Wire—“We represent today’s Nashville,” they said, “You might call it edgy country.” They even admit to having been signed and putting singles out but going nowhere. You can tell from their performance they’ve been through many a showcase opportunity, nailing their song, which itself wasn’t anything special but against all the other crap on this show they sound great.

Cliff Wagner and the Old No. 7 – named after the mule from “Grizzly Adams” but sounding like the house band from O Brother Where Art Thou? They were a pretty decent bluegrass band, and took the insults to their original song with a grain of salt, throwing a refrain of, “Like a Virgin”, bluegrass style, back at them when asked for something “not written by a 70 year old Raccoon Hunter.”

Franklin Bridge—Philly rockin’ soul. I want one of those yellow guitars, dude. Too bad it’s still a novelty to see an all-black rock band, this many years after Living Colour. Good stuff, and they have the kind of multi-ethnic appeal to go a long way in this kind of popularity contest.

Heaven Bound—just in case you thought all hot black girls could sing, this batch of babes proved otherwise in about fifteen seconds.

Rockette—Girl band doing a Ramones cover? Glad they’re kind of hot, because they weren’t very good.

Mezcal—Latinos who shoulda been shoe-ins with Sheila E as a judge—she even gets up and plays percussion with them for a few seconds. Alas, they weren’t good enough, even for Sheila.

So by my count, I only saw a half-dozen decent groups in the whole thing, not enough to hold my interest for a full season, I’d say. Unless the promised “theme nights” offer up some interesting twists, this one’s already deader than the desert it started in.

The Whole of the Moon

Despite all the reported death throes of terrestrial radio, there are times when it can still pack a punch. Driving around town with the family today, running errands, “The Whole of the Moon” by the Waterboys came on the local community alternative radio station WXRY-FM 99.3 (not to be confused with the much cooler but way more unpredictable local college station WUSC-FM 90.5, but that’s another post). It’s a classic song from the Celtic rock band’s 80’s album This Is The Sea, with all the hallmarks of that era–chiming guitars, tinkly piano fills, big boss drum sounds, but Mike Scott’s voice over the top of it trumps any notion of it becoming dated. My wife and I sang along, loudly, and the kids bounced along in the back, not knowing the words but recognizing a great song when they heard it.

It’s the chance hearing of a song like this that keeps me tuning in to the few decent radio stations still out there. Whether it’s an obscure old favorite or a newly discovered one, for me it reinstates the sheer joy of listening to and experiencing music, again and again.

“The Whole Of the Moon”
Mike Scott/Waterboys

I pictured a rainbow
You held in your hands
I had flashes
But you saw then plan
I wondered out in the world for years
While you just stayed in your room
I saw the crescent
You saw the whole of the moon!
The whole of the moon!

You were there at the turnstiles
With the wind at your heels
You stretched for the stars
And you know how it feels
To reach too high
Too far
Too soon
You saw the whole of the moon!

I was grounded
While you filled the skies
I was dumbfounded by truths
You cut through lies
I saw the rain-dirty valley
You saw brigadoon
I saw the crescent
You saw the whole of the moon!

I spoke about wings
You just flew
I wondered, I guessed, and I tried
You just knew
I sighed
But you swooned
I saw the crescent
You saw the whole of the moon!
The whole of the moon!

With a torch in your pocket
And the wind at your heels
You climbed on the ladder
And you know how it feels
To reach too high
Too far
Too soon
You saw the whole of the moon!
The whole of the moon!

Unicorns and cannonballs,
Palaces and piers,
Trumpets, towers, and tenemets,
Wide oceans full of tears,
Flag, rags, ferry boats,
Scimitars and scarves,
Every precious dream and vision
Underneath the stars

You climbed on the ladder
With the wind in your sails
You came like a comet
Blazing your trail
Too high
Too far
Too soon
You saw the whole of the moon!

This is the Sea at Amazon.com

Return to Blue Mountain

Back in 1993, I was briefly living in Charlotte, North Carolina, and one of my favorite local bands was the HardSoul Poets (later to morph into the band Jolene). Twice that summer they brought some friends of theirs from Mississippi to open shows for them, a band called Blue Mountain. All I remember of those sets was the blistering, Neil Young style guitar squall of lead singer and guitarist Cary Hudson, but their sound didn’t change much in the years after that. They went on to put out a couple big-label albums, including 1995’s excellent Dog Days and the followup Homegrown, which are considered classics of the 90’s alt-country scene.

Like many bands, they broke up and the trio headed separate ways–Cary to do several solo albums, Laurie Stirrat and drummer Frank Coutch to other projects. This year, the band reunited for the Twangfest festival in St. Louis, and they’ve been playing shows together again ever since, with plans for a new album already in the works.

I tell you all that to tell you this, as the saying goes…They played here in Columbia Wednesday night, to a very small but enthusiastic audience at the Hunter-Gatherer pub. Hudson was impressed with the surroundings, commenting from the stage, “What a cool place,” as he looked around at the two-story brick and glass surrounding him. From my vantage point at a front table, the lone stuffed hyena perched atop an upstairs window sill was an eerie echo of the canine on the cover of Dog Days.

The show was a loose affair, perhaps the band was feeling comfortable with the small crowd, but they seemed more like they were playing for fun than putting on a ’show.’ Not that Blue Mountain was ever about much more than the music–no light shows or pyro for them, just great song after great song. That’s what they brought to the table on this night, too, and the intervening years just fell away in the face of both the classic songs like, “Blue Canoe,” and “Soul Sister,” as well as the half-dozen new songs they tried out on the crowd.

Cary is still an incendiary guitarist when he wants to be, and the blues-oriented slant of his solo material has obviously influenced some of the new songs with the band, so at times it was like being transported to a Mississippi juke joint like Junior Kimbrough’s, which Hudson referenced in the lyrics of one such tune.

Seeing Blue Mountain again after their long hiatus was like striking up a conversation with an old friend I hadn’t seen in a while–some topics were the same, but there were new subjects to cover, too, and after a few minutes the years in between fell away and it was back to just being good friends, sharing a beer over good music.

2007 Music Crawl Report

KO’s Music Crawl Wrap-Up

With another Music Crawl come and gone, here are my impressions of what I saw and heard. I typically try to see at least the bands in the lineup that I have never seen play a live show before, and there were ten of those this year, a higher number than usual for me due to the preponderance of new faces—one of the strengths of this year’s bunch, I thought. I also caught a few others along the way, bringing my total for this year’s crawl to fifteen acts:

Kimberly Summer
Kenley Young
Preach
Brave Horatius
Magnetic Flowers
Collette
Black Swan
The Gadgets
The Heist and the Accomplice
The Decade
The Noise
Suhgarim
The Downcide
Neverbetter
Almost Jason

Highlights:

Putting Kimberly and Kenley on the street was an interesting move that provided walking music between the Art Bar and Headliners for a while, a trek I made numerous times.

Preach brought the noise with a full band, something I wasn’t expecting but it worked well.

Brave Horatius—The quieter stuff got a little lost in the crowd noise, but with two of the Heist guys and FT music editor Pat Wall in the band, when they cranked it up all was right with the world.

Magnetic Flowers were the most surprising act of the night, with a full-bodied sound that reminded me a lot of Ware River Club (look ‘em up). Great country-folk-rock mixture of sounds and some pretty catchy tunes. Definitely one to see again when the chance comes around.

Collette—I remember someone at FT wondering “Where are we going to put her on stage?” when the decision was being made to book this R&B singer, but they needn’t have worried: even on the tiny Art Bar stage, Collette and the full band complete with backup singers were very well-received. Fun stuff, and a nice change of pace from all the too-cute indie rock.

Black Swan: Wholly unfamiliar with this group prior to seeing them at the Crawl, all I can say is that they have an attractive lead singer who needs to smile a whole lot more. Given how lousy their sound was out front (and it was probably worse for the band on stage), I’m not surprised she didn’t look too happy. I’d have to see them again to confirm it but I wasn’t real impressed with this set.

The Gadgets—When I heard Eva from Cuatro Mono had a new band with Jason Puckett, I was intrigued by the tracks I heard online. Seeing them live reminded me of a couple of things—first, Eva’s just about the best-looking chick bass player this town’s ever seen (Sorry if that sounds sexist but it’s the truth), and even though the songs don’t really make a lick of sense it doesn’t matter because of the precocious poppy music that only sticks around for two or three minutes and then gets out. It’s like the indie-rock version of hard candy.

The Heist and the Accomplice—last set of the night for me before I hit the proverbial wall and had to sleep it off, so I don’t remember much other than their gloriously dense wall of sound being intact from what I remembered of previous shows.

The Decade—This one, on the other hand, was one of the first sets of the night and boy were these kids energetic or what? It was like a pop-punk ping-pong match watching the band members bouncing around the stage. Plus, the tunes were pretty good. Probably a tie with Magnetic Flowers for best set of my night.

The Noise—Proof that great musicians don’t always make great music. While these guys were obviously excellent players, the music did nothing for me, not even the Black Sabbath cover.

Sugharim—There’s an audience out there for a band like this, but I’m not sure this was it. Another one I was hoping to like more than I did, they did an okay job but I think with a little more partial crowd that was really there to see them, the heat generated by their singer’s dirty little catholic schoolgirl outfit would have been a little hotter.

The Downcide—There’s a reason this band’s one of Columbia’s hottest hard rock acts, and that’s because they put on a relentless, punishing show no matter what the context. The last time I caught them was at their CD release show back in the spring and they sounded just as into it here, even with their singer nursing a fully bandaged hand.

Neverbetter—I’m hoping that indeed, this band’s been a lot better, because after hearing others rave about them I wasn’t terribly impressed. I like the fact that they have a lead singer, not a lead screamer, though.

Almost Jason—accidentally saw a couple songs of theirs when I went to the wrong club trying to catch Loch Ness Johnny’s latest lineup (which I never did get to see, sorry guys.). Best house sound of the night, and it was at Wild Wing Café, of all places. Too bad over half the crowd didn’t look like they cared if there was a band playing at all.

Apologies to the other bands I missed, too, but even I can’t be everywhere at once—I’ll catch you somewhere else soon, I’m sure.

KO

Turn Up The Radiohead??

So by now you’ve probably heard about Radiohead’s pay-what-you-want strategy for their upcoming album release, and heard lots of noise about this being a daring new business model for the music industry. If not, click through this text for the basic story.

There is at least one big thing wrong with this scenario, however. Despite their circumventing the major labels this time around, their reputation and fan base has been built while they were a major label band–without that foundation they would have no fan base around to crash their server with demand for a new album.

So as a model, this one flops for all those unknown, unheralded bands out there wishing they could get as many hits on their website for a new CD release. Back to the grassroots drawing board, I suppose.

Doyle Lawson’s lesson in professionalism

So I went to Mt. Horeb United Methodist last night to see one of my favorite bluegrass acts, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver. despite it being a Sunday night way out in the sticks near Lake Murray, the place was packed, probably between 400-500 in attendance. I made it inside just as they were starting, so I have no idea whether there was a lengthy introduction, but the band played about six straight songs before any of them said a word, and the crowd was eating out of their hands the rest of the night. later in the show, things turned into corny comedy between songs and during the introductions of the various band members, but by then the band had earned the indulgence of an audience willing to go along with just about anything they did.

Lawson has been performing for forty years and it shows–he’s a gracious host and bandleader who lets his fellow musicians shine, and he seems genuinely glad to be there and appreciative of the audience.

I spotted a couple of local musicians in the audience, there are a bunch more who could learn a thing or two about putting on a good show from the old geezer on stage with the mandolin.

 KO