Check it out here, and expect a full review here at RFF very soon.
-Posted by TZARATHUSTRA
Friday, May 11, 2012
Hot Water Music Streaming New Album
Three Chords and the Truth
"Real" is the word that most people attach to Tim Barry's music, and with good reason. In his folk-oriented solo material, the former Avail singer spins tales of heartbreak, crime, poverty, and train-hopping, all of which have been a part of his life at various points. But Mr. Barry himself apparently feels that he's not quite real enough yet, because he's named his newest record 40 Miler, which is a derogatory slang word for someone who hops trains for only short distances, a poser, in essence. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, he explained, "For 20 years, I have toured and illegally ridden freight trains, but I've never been truly committed to either. I am a poser – a 40 Miler." It's hard for fans to justify that claim, though, because from the outside, Tim Barry's resume reads like that of a grizzled, road-weary veteran. He made his name with hardcore punk legends Avail, and with this latest release, he's up to his fifth solo album.
If you've heard his previous albums full of straightforward guitar playing and uncompromisingly honest lyrics delivered in his Virginia accent, you know what kind of ride you're in for here. 40 Miler is not a drastic deviation from those earlier records, but the instrumentation is more full and varied. Instead of the spare arrangements of his early release Rivanna Junction, 40 Miler is fleshed out with piano, fiddle, harmonica, drums and even some electric guitars here and there. Make no mistake though, this is not a punk record with a little twang to it, this is a bona fide folk record, with tinges of country and bluegrass to give it even more of a sepia-toned rural atmosphere.
The songs are of a wider variety of tones and tempos than we've heard from Barry before, as well. He's put some rowdier numbers in with the weepers, and as usual, he blends bitter and sweet together with a little cutting sarcasm and outright invective. Barry is also one of the few artists recording today who can record songs about hopping freight trains and not come off sounding like a rich kid with a Guthrie fetish (see the photos he occasionally puts on his twitter account for proof of his railyard adventures). The railroad song "Driver Pull" alone is worth the price of admission on 40 Miler, with lyrics so vivid that you can almost smell the rust and grease. in fact, lyrical gems abound on this record, like these lines from the title track, which may well be Barry's mission statement: "I'd rather stay broke and play fake-ass shows/Move with heart, sing from your souls/If you can't play, then dance instead/Music should sound like escape, not rent."
The extra instruments and song variety are great, but what really makes this record a winner is that at it's core, it's still Tim Barry giving you three chords and the hard truths that he's found after all those lonely highway miles.
-Review by TZARATHUSTRA
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Preview - Hilary Hahn and Hauschka
Classical violinist Hilary Hahn is taking a serious creative risk this month, having teamed with experimental Icelandic soundscapist Hauschka for their new album Silfra, due out May, 23rd. It won't quite make her a lost persona of Lady Gaga, (she's not out dry humping a motorcycle), but as one of the two or three most visible performers in classical music over the last decade and a half, to abandon recording the classical back catalog in favor of locking yourself in a creative cell block with an avowed single-name Icelandic weirdo (see also Jonsi and Bjork) for a space of weeks and emerge with a largely improvised batch of abstract musical sketches and vignettes signals a significant and possibly risky shift.
Hahn landed on the scene in 1998 as a precocious teenager with her ebullient, maniacally forceful, and precise recording of Bach's Partitas for Solo Violin. She has since embodied an almost Prussian work ethic that Bach would likely have recognized and approved. She tours endlessly and has released almost one album per year for the length of her career thus far. At first she seemed happy rounding the bases of violin's established canon, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Barber, Stravinsky and still more Bach. In 2003 though, she signed with Deutsch Grammophon, away from her previous home at Sony and started looking around the library of great music for more idiosyncratic challenges. Paganini, Sphor, Schoenberg and most recently American populist of the avant-garde Charles Ives. She has presented herself as a happy promoter of the relevance of great Western music, remaining a favorite collaborator for orchestras around the world and a favorite with audiences.
And even despite her penchant for exploratory collaborations, a brief collaborative tour with singer songwriter Josh Ritter in 2008, for example, it has to come as a surprise to most that her newest release is not just a departure from classical compositions but an improvised set of minimalist spontaneous-music pieces. As a concert violinist she has long years' experience interpreting the muse for others but now for the first time she stands face to face with the Terpsichorean apparition to find from it a wholly original voice.
It's perhaps a sign of my inherent optimism that I am terrified of the result. I have the faith requisite to successfully worry, just as a man who believes in God may still fear the devil. Conquest belongs to the bold but so does spectacular failure. And since Ms. Hahn seems a courageous artist with no compunction taking these risks, I will gladly worry on her behalf...I hope it doesn't come off as just a trite, wanky mess. Look forward to a review here on RFF, pending the album's release.
-Preview by YORGOD
Listen to the first release from the upcoming Silfra, entitled "Bounce Bounce," with stop-motion visuals by animator Hayley Morris:
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Tom Gabel Comes Out As Transgender
Today it was announced that Tom Gabel of punk band Against Me! has come out as transgender and plans to live from now on as a woman. He plans to undergo hormone and electrolysis therapy, as well as change his name to Laura Jane Grace. Having lived in the band's hometown of Gainesville, FL, and being a big fan of AM!, I've had the pleasure of meeting Tom on many occasions. He was always attentive and gracious as Tom, and I'm sure those traits will endure as he becomes Laura. Making a decision like that has to be unspeakably difficult, but to do it in the public eye must be exponentially harder. I wish all the best to Laura, and hope that that Against Me!'s fans and the punk scene in general lend their support.
Rolling Stone will be running a full story in this week's issue, but you can read the preview here.
-Posted by TZARATHUSTRA
Nighttime Explorations
Now that they've released their third album to critical praise and an ever-increasing fanbase, maybe everyone can finally stop comparing Silversun Pickups to the Smashing Pumpkins. The comparison always seemed lazy anyway. Influences from iconic 90's rock aside, the Pickups easily stand on their own merits. Neck of the Woods is their latest release, and it follows their breakthrough release Swoon, which was an excellent piece of tense, fiery guitar rock. Swoon made it onto many Best-Albums-of-2009 lists, so is Neck of the Woods a worthy successor?
The answer is yes, but it's immediately apparent that Neck of the Woods is a different album than the Pickups' previous efforts. Their albums are always moody, but this one is darker and dreamier. Opening with a subdued atmospheric piece like "Skin Graph" is a good move, but making it six minutes long is risky. The Pickups are confident in their abilities though, and it pays off. If you let it, this album will pull you right in by the end of that first track.
The guitars are a bit more restrained this time out, especially in the first half of the album. You get the sense at times that all the keyboards and dreamy singing would be a formless mass without the strength of the rhythm section (powerhouse drummer Christopher Guanlao and bassist Nikki Monninger) keeping things moving forward. The atmosphere piles up, increasing until the burst of the heavier "Mean Spirits" halfway through the album. Singer/Guitarist Brian Aubert is in fine form on this release; the vocals never lose their passion in the dreaminess, and the guitars, when present, display the direct rock style plied with a bit of prog technique that the Pickups are becoming known for.
Rather than the stadium-rock bombast of the Smashing Pumpkins, Neck of the Woods finds Silversun Pickups making a home for themselves somewhere out between the sexy post-grunge of Placebo and the swirling nocturnal weirdness of The Cure. In the end though, this is an album that you can't really picture being made by anyone other than Silversun Pickups.
-Review by TZARATHUSTRA
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Rockin' and Reelin'
Opening bands are a crapshoot, especially when you've never heard of them before. Most are just okay; they're still finding their footing and putting in the miles. But every once in a while, you see an opening band that arrives fully formed and firing on all cylinders. Such was the case when I first saw a Bloomington, IN band called Th'Empires. That night, Th'Empires consisted solely of Eddy Price, who set up a bass drum and hi-hat stand, got out his white Gretsch hollowbody guitar, and started belting out swinging rockabilly songs all by his lonesome.
Th'Empires is not always a solo act. He has an upright bass player and a drummer, but says that they "have an open relationship." So if you see Th'Empires live, it might be just Eddy, pounding out the rhythms himself (which works a lot better than you might think), or you might get the full band for an even more fleshed-out version of the sound, but no matter which version you get, you're in for an experience that only the most jaded hipster could refuse dancing to.
On their debut LP entitled Volume One: Welcome to the Psychobilly Adventure Club, Th'Empires show that they obviously know their way around the old rockabilly heroes like Gene Vincent and Johnny Burnette. But like the album title says, they've also hot-rodded their sound with the speed and thump of the more modern psychobilly sound, minus that genre's obsession with horror movie imagery. Eddy instead fills his lyrics with tales of the down-and-out life that would appeal not only to greasers circa 1958, but also the punks of today. Price certainly knows his style, and his tales of women, booze, and crime are all delivered in a voice seemingly custom-built for rockabilly, rough but nimble, with a bit of the Buddy Holly hiccup thrown in for good measure. The guitar is a little dirty and appropriately soaked in reverb, and the rhythms are speedy, but always danceable. The band sounds boundlessly energetic, and their live performances serve to back up that hypothesis.
Th'Empires are planning to tour through much of the country this summer, so be on the lookout, and pick up a copy of Volume One: Welcome to the Psychobilly Adventure Club at their bandcamp site (they've got some great extras to throw in with the album right now, too). If you need a little more convincing, you can stream a preview below:
-Review by TZARATHUSTRA
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Jerry Lee Lewis' Hair Is Magic
This is a short video of a 1957 performance by Jerry Lee Lewis. I wanted to put this here not only because Jerry Lee is one of the original wild men of rock and roll, but also for the moment at about 35 seconds in when he really starts rocking. I've never seen hair percolate like that before.
-Posted by TZARATHUSTRA
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