Audioholic Media

»Album Reviews For Release Date: 04.20.09
by Joshua Krage

So much going on over this last weekend, what with Record Store Day, Coachella (vote – McCartney or My Bloody Valentine?), Picnic Day (for you Davis rezzies), and every pothead’s favorite holiday today (Monday), it’s easy to forget all the good news that’s hitting the board in the music world. This week has a huge stack of power-pop muscle, and supergroups to spare. So set that dentist appointment, you’ll need it after all the sugary-sweet goodness in store:

Art Brut
As Cities Burn
Asher Roth – yeah, I loved college too, mostly because I actually learned more than how to roll a doobie and chase loose women, and now have a good job with decent pay instead of having to bum rent money from my parents.
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Black Label Society

Brian Blade, Mama Rosa – a majorly seasoned jazz drummer recording a modern pop album. I’m not even kidding. Informed music fans will recognize the immense talent he’s roped into making this album, though it might be for the more advanced disciples of songcraft out there. Out on Verve Forecast, which is what caught my eye.

Booker T Jones, Potato Hole – yes, THAT Booker T, minus the MG’s, and amply backed on new solo album (first in 2 decades) by the muscular sound of the Drive-By Truckers and searing guitar work by Neil Young. All instrumental (of course), with interesting covers of a Tom Waits song and Outkast’s “Hey Ya,” which struggles but still shakes it (like some sort of instant photograph your parents may have used).

BrakesBrakesBrakes, Touchdown – like the Voltron of the 2nd-tier UK rock landscape, members of stellar bands The Electric Soft Parade, Tenderfoot, and British Sea Power combine to form a versatile juggernaut of alternative styles ranging from pub rants to countrified folk to full-powered, fuzzed-out club rock. The cohesion comes in their solid, wryly witty writing, and the fact that each chorus is sticky like honey oozing from block-rocking guitar amps helps a bit as well.

Cage the Elephant, Cage the Elephant – an impressively bluesy rock quintet out of Kentucky, taking the Kings of Leon route to fame (i.e. unheard of in the U.S., chart celebrities in the UK). Long-awaited self-titled debut album flows over with gloriously-fuzzed pentatonics, greasy slide work, and lyrics like “I can’t slow down, I can’t hold back, although I wish I could / No there ain’t no rest for the wicked, until we close out eyes for good.” That’s tasty in a lo-fi, gritty kind of way.

Camera Obscura

Chester French, Love the Future – lots of blog buzz over this cheeky Cambridge, MA duo, what with their place on the Pharrell’s Star Trak label and everyone from Perez Hilton to Kanye West talking them up for some reason or other. Bright, poppy choruses and requisite Neptunes-level squiggly electronics and big beats make everything palatable, but there’s not much meat to these guys. They did have a killer EP cover, though:

Chimaira
Daath

Depeche Mode, Sounds of the Universe – firstly, just to get it out of the way, every time I hear lead single “Wrong,” I can’t help but hear Dana Carvey’s spot-on John McLaughlin impression from 90′s SNL. But onto the music, David Gahan’s got a voice that doesn’t age, and Martin Gore’s got songwriting chops which keep getting sharper for all their dark-edged glory, plus they are still one of the most perfect vocal pairings of any band in existence. This album remains mostly low-key, somewhat like their last, with some vintage synthesizers popping up in strange places and bright (or dark, rather) ornamentation. Basically everything that’s good about Depeche Mode is retained and reworked in a more vintage feel here, very pleasing in a shadowy disco sort of way.

Down to the Bone
Electrik Red

Empire of the Sun, Walking On a Dream – mentioned by many journos in the same sentence as MGMT and everything after, it’s a psychedelic wave of acid-tinged dancefloor sorcery, and somewhat of a rebirth for Sleepy Jackson frontman Luke Steele, trading in his schizophrenic alt. indie rock for similarly schizophrenic hallucinogenic new wave. Trippy.

Floating Action
Greencards
Grouch & Eligh
John Hammond, Jr.
The High Strung
Clutchy Hopkins meets Lord Kenjamin – who IS this Clutchy Hopkins guy? Is he one of the Beastie Boys or something? Somebody give up the 411.
Jane’s Addiction – rarities box
Keak Da Sneak – y’all got dat noo keakdasneek?
Lenny Kravitz – Let Love Rule 20th anniversary edition
Lacuna Coil

Manchester Orchestra, Mean Everything to Nothing – not actually from Manchester (shock!), this 5-piece “orchestra” is the lusciously developed homegrown musical garden of Atlanta, GA resident and songwriting savant Andy Hull. Literate college rock along the lines of Death Cab or the Decemberists, but with a bit more punch in the vocal department, I’ve been following these guys for a while due to Hull’s Cobain-in-college caustic yowl and the astounding overall quality of the music, from arrangement to lyrics to production. Quality is fully delivered by this LP, very satisfying.

Meg & Dia, Here, Here and Here – putting aside their impossible cute(hot)ness, sisters Meg and Dia Frampton (no pedigree) inject a whole lot more muscle into this, their sophomore album, both sonically and lyrically. There are some moments that’ll make you downright blush in some of these songs, but they still hover around the PG-13 mark most of the time. Big guitars, aching hearts and confessional balladry abound, and ultimately it all reminds me of what Michelle Branch would sound like playing with her twin sister, which is a good (if somewhat middle-of-the-road) thing.

OST – 17 Again
Pepper
Pet Shop Boys
Radiohead – singles reissues, supposedly
Sarah Reeves
Rick Ross
Tiga

Tinted Windows, Tinted Windows – no one seems to know what to make of this supergroup featuring Adam Schlesinger (of Fountains of Wayne), James Iha (former Smashing Pumpkin), Bun E. Carlos (of Cheap Trick), and Taylor Hanson (of, well, Hanson, OMG!). The interwebs are all a-flutter– do we make fun of them? Do we like them? Do we merely tolerate them and remain on the fence? Whatever, 3/4 of these guys come from bands that make huge, sugar-sticky power-pop with unapologetically catchy choruses and bright, punchy walls of sound, so imagine all that with James Iha’s amazing space-guitar sounds in the solo breaks and you’re pretty much there. I happened to follow Hanson past their “Mmm-bop” days so I know Taylor’s got skillz, and mega hit-maker Adam Schlesinger with James Iha and Cheap Trick’s drummer? Fuggedaboudit, it’s hit-parade rock candy that’s above the hipsternet snark, with lots of stacked power chords and “Whoa”s and “Oh”s, all guilt-free enjoyment.

Veer Union
Ron White

I don’t know from what location you are reading this, but if it’s anywhere on the West Coast, you’ll want to step away from your computer and enjoy this amazing 80+degree weather. Which is what I’ll be doing in approximately 5 minutes. See you next week, stay in school kids, and please return your seats and tray tables to their full, upright positions. Hasta.

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