Author: falconi5

A place for musically minded folk to get together and share ideas, reviews, and basically spread the word.

Five Cool Ones: Five Cool Songs That Are On Our Radar

The Regrettes – Come Through

The Regrettes are one of our favorite bands, everything about them is cool from their dynamic lead singer Lydia Night to their Blondie meets The Ramones Vibe.

Church of the Cosmic Skull – Evil In Your Eye

Hands and ears down, The Church of the Cosmic Skull is our favorite new band. This one is from 2016 Album Is Satan Real. Kansas meets The Polyphonic Spree on this one.

Kurt Baker Combo – Foolish Stuff

Anytime Little Steven endorses a band and puts them on his Wicked Cool record label, they have to deliver the goods. Now, on the second single from the Let’s Go Wild record they really do.

Devotchka – Straight Shot

For a band that is heavily influenced by Gypsy music and spaghetti westerns, they play it pretty straight on “Straight Shot” the first single from their upcoming album.

Jill Barber – Girl’s Gotta Do It

The lead single from Metaphora. A girl’s got to do what a girls gotta do. Right on!

Best Albums of 2018: Nicki Bluhm – To Rise You Gotta Fall

To Rise, You Gotta Fall is a pretty solid description for the newly released record from Nicki Bluhm. Having recently ended a long term relationship and moving from the San Francisco Bay area to Nashville, Nicki shares her journey every step of the way with the listener. Recorded in Memphis at the Sam Phillips studio, the record has a deliciously retro vibe about it that is part 50’s Phil Spector girl group and part early 70’s country queen. The title track lays down a Memphis Soul Groove that is Dusty Springfield worthy.

Produced by Matt Ross-Spang, the man who knob-twirled most recently for Margo Price and Jason Isbell, the arrangements are of the first class variety. “Battlechain Rose” is a clear stunner describing in some detail her inner feelings she was dealing with in her personal life.

On the mournful bluesy Ballad “You Stopped Loving Me (I Can’t Stop Loving You)” the Hammond B-3 and Johnny Gimble are featured floating in and out in just the right places. A bit of a lover scorned push-back is provided courtesy of a cover of Dan Penn’s “Hate You” even though the closing track “Last to Know” gives every indication that she is completely over the relationship as she says “You Can’t Fool a Fool Any Longer.” Listen to this once, then grab a glass of wine and give this one another whirl. The leader in the clubhouse for the break-up album of the year.

Rock Chick of the Day: Meg Myers – Numb

The first single from Take Me To the Disco the newly released record from L.A. by way of Tennessee singer songwriter Meg Myers. The album is full of personal and emotional songs where you can almost see and hear her demons break free. Meg Myers may be the millennial Alanis Morissete.

Live Video of the Day: David Crosby and Chris Thile – Guinnevere (Live From Here)

On this superb live version of “Guinnevere” Chris Thile joins David Crosby on stage to play the part of Graham Nash. This is from the April 14, 2018 episode of the musical series Live From Here that featured a solo David Crosby.

Video of the Day: Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite – The Bottle Wins Again

Ben Harper was introduced to blues harmonica player Charlie Musselwhite by John Lee Hooker. Together the two talented musicians released a Grammy winning album, Get Up. And now, the duo has produced another stellar effort with their latest release, No Mercy In This Land. This is their story.

And this is their song.

Live Video of the Day: Blackberry Smoke – Run Away From It All (Live From Southern Ground)

Very much in the mold of The Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd by way of .38 Special and The Marshall Tucker Band, Blackberry Smoke should very much be on your Southern Rock radar. This one is from their highly excellent 2018 record, Find a Light.