Album Review- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!- New Fragility

I’m nostalgic for the music of 2003-2004.

It’s not supposed to be like that. Music is youthful nostalgia, maybe even rediscovering history. It would be a stretch to call me a youth in 2003.

But it was an exciting time for music and the two bands at the top of the list for me were The Arcade Fire and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

It wasn’t just those two. A quick glimpse back reveals many interesting debuts- some monumental, others sleds celebrated but equally noteworthy.

The Killers. Franz Ferdinand. Bloc Party. The Editors. The Thermals. Danger Mouse. British Sea Power. Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The Go Team. The Rapture. The Darkness and undoubtedly some I have forgotten.

Then too, many artists who seemed to be at the height of their powers (White Stripes, Green Day, Radiohead, Wilco, The Strokes, OutKast, Interpol, Peaches, The Libertines, etc)

But those two bands I first mentioned really symbolize that time for me. Both seemed to be fairly universally loved and both seemed very ambitious and different from most anything else.

While Arcade Fire has remained acclaimed, CYHSY! quietly has disappeared. Follow up Some Loud Thunder got mixed reviews (and an unappealing cover) but I did enjoy it, and most everything else has been off most people’s radar until 2021’s New Fragility.

Perhaps even then, it may have gone unnoticed had it not been released in music-starved February and was preceded by a ton of the band’s early bonus tracks released to streaming services (including the worthwhile 2009 Flashy Python album).

Initial listens may thrill the listener with nostalgia, but quickly, it becomes apparent that Alec Ounsworth was probably never going to be a pop star. This album feels different because it is different. The band is largely Ounsworth now and critics will point out setbacks in his personal life, but what that means for the listener is an album that is more in the mold of the great intimate indie singer-songwriter album, and less a bid to be the next Talking Heads.

None of which is to imply it isn’t an accessible album (it is quite accessible) or it will have an appeal to everyone. Or it doesn’t get loud (check out Innocent Weight) or go the traditional ballad route (Mirror Song).

Maybe more than most records, mileage will truly vary, and with perspective, this disc is probably closer to the more recent work of Ezra Furman (raw lo-fi and punk inspired folk) than it is to some of those heroes of ‘04, but it is a worthy listen and a nice return of a once again vital artist.

Album Review- Steve Earle - JT

 

I was late to Justin Townes Earle. There’s probably two reasons- neither good. First, I am admittedly resistant to famous children of musicians. A dumb prejudice that I started to break with Harper Simon. Second, I was expecting JT to be similar to his dad. 

He couldn’t be more different. Both are definitely “alt country” but different styles completely. Whereas Steve came through Nashville radio and trailblazers a genre created by Willie Nelson and David Allen Coe, JT inhabited a genre that is closer defined by Whiskeytown and Drive By Truckers, adjacent to musicians like Colter Wall and Hayes Carll and drawing more modern esoteric influences like Tom Waits 

Ironically, JTs music sounds older. He seems to draw from Hank Williams as well as old bluesmen, roots rock and certainly his namesake Townes Van Zandt. 

It is selfish and trivial perhaps to mourn a lost artist and the loss of any potential new art (selfish and trivial compared to the real pain of the family and friends dealing with the loss) but it is also real. 

You can’t really review an album like this. One can and one does, because it’s what we do but critiquing for example, Nick Cave or Mount Eerie’s output seems a bit crass. 

As a Steve Earle fan, having seen him do tributes to Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt, the JT tribute seems obvious. Of course, you would want it to be under different circumstances (and it’s hard to imagine what those would be without being patronizing to the sons career while it was still on the ascent). 

But we discuss music here, so I’m going to discuss music. JT is a really enjoyable record.  Yes, without a doubt, Steve is a veteran who knows his way around a song, but I think the real hero is Justin who crafted some classic songs. In just little over a decade of recorded music, he was able to write more than a few gems. 

At first listen, the styles of father and son are different and that seems like a strike against the project. 

That impression clears pretty quickly. Maybe it even becomes a strength. The cover of Harlem River Blues sounds like a celebration. The original a descendant of No One Gets Out of This World. Both are deceptively upbeat, but Justin Townes is a folky jaunt worthy of his namesake. Both versions are incredible and timeless. 

The Saint of Lost Causes works well as a traditional country song. The real shame that it was written too late to be covered by Johnny Cash. It is the kind of song that Steve can lean into. Once again, the original exists in this spot that transcends genre. Is it alt country? It could very well be indie. Or appeal to Adult Album Alternative. 

As recounted in the press for Ghosts of West Virginia, the son wrote a John Henry song before the father did. That’s here of course. 

Musically, the album reminds me of Train A Comin. Whether others will hear that, I’m not sure, but that album is a collection of early Steve Earle songs and a few covers. It hangs together as a beginning to end piece, and I think the JT album does too. 

The album ends with the original Last Words. Regardless what you think of Steve, he had reconciled with his son, and this song which recounts their last conversation is raw. It’s a fitting tribute to a lost talent. 

Album Review: Lee Rocker - Gather Round

 I’m a rockabilly fan and The Stray Cats are the most successful rockabilly artist of my lifetime. I’m a fan, of course, and generally like Brian Setzer’s solo albums (more big band than rockabilly). But if you really want to get me going, talk to me about Lee Rocker’s solo career.

Rocker, of course is best known for playing bass in the Stray Cats. He had a detour with band mate Slim Jim Phantom and Bowie guitarist Earl Slick (the two Phantom Rocker and Slick albums have been re-released. They’re ok. They just couldn’t sound anymore 80s).

Rocker’s career includes a stint on Alligator Records, and like many in the genre, he’s dipped heavy into classic cover songs. That said, I can’t think of many albums better (rockabilly or otherwise) than 2007’s Black Cat Bone.

Gather Round is the first album of Rocker original songs since then. Not that he hasn’t been busy. 2019’s The Low Road was a CD/DVD combo of the Cats greatest hits recorded at Daryl Hall’s famous studio. That same year, the Cats reunited and released ‘40’, their first new album in 26 years. Hardly essential, it was fun, and a reminder that music is better with the Stray Cats around than the alternative.

I should avoid comparisons with the Cats’ recent disc, but Gather Round at least seems like the more interesting album. Lead single “Pickin and Grinnin’” is a dig at a charismatic recent ex-President. Graceland Auction is the Elvis homage. When Nothing Goes Right is off the recent Cats album and Everyone Wants To Be A Cat sounds like it could have been (it’s the Scatman Carothers song from The Aristocats, I believe retrofitted as a cousin to Stray Cat Strut). Ophelia is the Band song with a bit of a 1920s jazz swing vibe. The Last Offline Lovers has novelty lyrics but swaggers like a barroom classic. A Dirty Martini is an instrumental that might be closer to what solo Setzer is doing.

For a genre that is fairly straight and narrow, Rocker has once again put together a record that has a lot of variety and fairly ambitious; if nothing else, truly enjoyable.

Album Review- Destiny Street Complete

It wasn’t that long ago that I was talking about Richard Hell, but they have reissued his second album Destiny Street with a lot of extras, and so that’s where my ears are at.

You know I have to admit that I am a big fan. Hell is probably best known for creating the image of punk rock more than anything, but Blank Generation is a classic of the genre.

I never got my hands on the Destiny Street album, but I knew the title track from a compilation and I had gotten his two ROIR cassettes which featured a lot of the songs off of that album.

I was drawn to Hell. It was the 90s so Blank Generation had been easy to find on CD and Hell joined with members of Sonic Youth and Gumball and made an album with Dim Stars. He wrote a novel, too.

The idea of a punk poet is an appealing one to me. That’s surely what Hell is. His best friend adopted the name Verlaine and Hell saw himself as poet. He was not the first or last punk poet (I’m a big fan of people like Patti Smith and Jim Carroll too). One can spot the influences in Hell’s choice of covers through his career - Kinks, Them, Fats Domino, Exile-era Stones, Dylan, Iggy, Howlin Wolf, T Rex, Hendrix, CCR, even Sinatra.

Blank Generation is a fantastic album with two fantastic guitarists - Ivan Julian and Robert Quine, and as mentioned by Clinton Heylin, a unique bass sound from Hell himself.

Destiny Street is an album, like other punk albums (LAMF, Raw Power) that the artist felt wasn’t delivered to the masses correctly.

Hell was farming out bass duties in his live performances and the band had effectively broken up a couple of years before, so when Hell went into the studio the Destiny Street band swapped Julian for “Naux” Maciel.

But Hell had not been a fan of the blurry production. He spent years to this end, that in 2009, although the original tapes were missing,he had what he needed and went about remaking it.

Destiny Street Repaired was Hell’s attempt at fixing the damaged product. With Quine and Maciel passed, Hell brought in Julian, Bill Frissell and Marc Ribot to add guitar sound and his own vocals over a rough mix of the original.

Now, over a decade later, some of the original session tapes have surfaced and Hell brought in Nick Zinner (best known as guitarist for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and had him remix the songs (and rework where necessary).

Destiny Street Complete is the collection of most all of this - the album as Hell intended, the Repaired songs and even a few of the original demos.

Although it lacks anything as compelling as the track “ Blank Generation”, Destiny Street is a pretty solid follow up. Even with the counts against it- Hell was doing it for money for drugs, Hell never again would revisit the Voidoids- it works in the same ways the predecessor had- Hell as charismatic poet over inventive and soulful guitar.

I don’t really find any filler in the ten original songs. John Lydon disputes that he stole anything from Hell (and that may be true) but Hell can hold a listeners attention. A bit Iggy, a bit Dylan, and a bit Allen Ginsberg.

The album’s lowest moment is the title track- a meandering jazzy track with some cringey tracks a la “The Plan” that doesn’t quite stand up to repeat listenings.

Adding the 2009 tracks brings redundancy, but are nonetheless enjoyable. The talent of all involved shows through and most of the songs turn into guitar workouts (of the “Blank Generation” kind). The songs don’t need that, but it’s not necessary a bad thing either (think of Lou Reed augmented by Wagner and Hunter).

Like the second Television album (Adventure), Destiny Street is overshadowed and a bit forgotten, but this collection corrects that and is a good starting spot for new Hell fans and the diehards.