David Ford used to front a British indie-rock band called Easyworld. They split up in 2004. If you've seen his live, one-take video performance of the first single "Go to Hell" off of his latest solo LP, you may rightly conclude that the guy never really needed a backing band to begin with. In the clip, he plays every instrument (including the knife-and-fork and the sugar shaker), looping and layering each sonic riff on top of one another until the whole thing snowballs into a rich, robust rock song. The song itself is good and the performance is even more impressive. Check it out.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
New Tunes from The Hold Steady
It's safe to assume that The Hold Steady's gritty, Springsteen-esque breakout 2006 record Boys and Girls in America quickly became the soundtrack to many a-summer barbecue. Now, the Minneappolis via NYC band is looking to build on their burgeoning indie cred with a more tuneful collection. The new album Stay Positive, slated to drop on July 15th, features additional instrumentation (mandolin and talk-box), and frontman Craig Finn even went as far as to take singing lessons in preparation for album sessions. Appropriately, I've heard nothing but good things thus far regarding Stay Positive, and the tracks that I've listened to personally sound particularly focused.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
My Morning Jacket Test Sonic Boundaries (And Get Nifty New Haircuts Too!)
If you're a My Morning Jacket fan, none of this information is probably news to you. Nonetheless, I'll humor myself by announcing MMJ finally officially released their long-awaited follow-up to Z on Tuesday. And though the band continues to broaden its musical palate, building on Z's experimentation with studio effects, Evil Urges ultimately takes several steps in rather curious directions. That is not at all to say that the results are bad, just a wee bit unexpected. Some of the new songs ("Highly Suspicious" being the most obvious culprit) are bound to alienate a number of southern-rock and jam-band fans who got on board with albums like At Dawn and It Still Moves, the latter of which is distinct for being drenched in reverb and having been recorded in a corn silo. The point is that there are is very little reverb, probably no corn silo consideration, and basically nothing outside of genuine musical ingenuity tying Evil Urges to any MMJ albums prior to Z. Hell, the guys even got fresh haircuts for the album artwork, and I gotta say that Jim James cleans up nice for a guy that was once the spitting image of Cousin It from the Addams Family (don't believe me, check him out on Conan O' Brien a few years back). With all that said, the bottom line is that if you're willing to be open-minded and take a chance on a great band with a newly embraced penchant for genre-bending, than you probably won't be disappointed with the new album. And while Evil Urges is not quite as accessible as Z, you have to respect a so-called "southern-rock" band that has the guff to intermittently indulge itself in Prince-like falsetto cooing and futuristic prog-rock electronic freak-outs.
For a taste of the new record, check out a few of my choice cuts below:
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