Author: falconi5

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

Video of the Day: Helen Love – This Is My World

Twenty years 10 albums in, Helen Love, for us, is an exciting new find. This Swansea, U.K. band can best be described as a bubblegum pop-punk band with an affliction for The Ramones. The title track from their latest record, “This Is My World,” is a perfect gateway drug to deep dive into the back catalog.

Five Cool Ones: Five New Records Released This Week (February 18, 2022)

A sneaky-cool week is brewing, with a couple of our favorites showing their musical wares. There is a groundswell of Rock and Roll in the air, and the Americana music brigade is out in force. And, if all of that is not enough.

We have our ears peeled for the upcoming release of their new record, and if “Devil’s Lullaby,” courtesy of the band Bad Day is any indication, it’s going to be a doozy.

The guns ‘N’ Roses riffing song driven by South of Eden, “Lone Rider’s,” will take you right back to the Sunset Strip.

And, straight out of Nashville, The Nobility, gallop, almost literally, their way into your airwaves with the highly infectious Western-Pop swagger of “No Doubts.”

And, of course, if all of that is not enough to satisfy your earbuds, here are five new records that are getting some serious play in the halls of Rock is the New Roll H.Q.

Goodbye June – See Where The Night Goes

The pride of Nashville, Goodbye June, has been flying under the rock and roll radar for almost a decade. But now, with their latest record, See Where The Night Goes, their current opening act gigs should be turning into headlining tours in short order. Goodbye group van, hello tour bus.

From the early guitar chords and instant Brian Johnson era AC/DC vocals on the opener “Step Aside,” it’s game on, lighters lit. Next in line is “See Where The Night Goes,” still a scorcher but a bit more melodic with killer hooks and even sweeter melodies that will whip the audiences into a frenzy during the upcoming festival season. And, things get more head-banging in all the best of ways from there.

Sure the band and the songs are a bit formulaic with an “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” approach to their rock and roll. But, when a band goes about their business with such exuberance and delivers the quality riffs song to song as they do on this one, imitation turns into emulation in the blink of a power ballad.

Sarah Shook & The Disarmers – Nightroamer

Sarah Shook and her Disarmers step over and cross back again, that line between Americana and Rock and Roll with the ease of A Wallenda sibling tightrope walking across the Grand Canyon. With their latest record, Nightroamer, Sarah seems to be shedding her image as the younger sister who waters down her parent’s vodka, climbs out of her bedroom window, and sneaks out to sing a few tunes for a Hank III tribute band. Now, with her late-era Tanya Tucker vibe, her music is more contemporary posh than cow-punk with a classic country flair in just the right places. 

The stellar “Talking To Myself” is Sheryl Crow Meets Joan Jett, “If It’s Poison” has a ’50s country lilt to it complete with a lap-steel guitar, and “I Got This” is a biographical piece that carries some Melissa Etheridge DNA in its core. “No Mistakes” could have been a Billy Joe Shaver penned outlaw country tune.

Still worn weary with a well-earned lifetime expressed with every syllable she sings, Sarah Shook & The Disarmers have been there, done that, so you don’t have to.

Foxy Shazam – The Heart Behead You

If like us, you know exactly where you were the first time you heard the glam-glorious band Foxy Shazam, you are in luck, and your musical ship has arrived at the dock. Going back to their epic breakthrough record, The Church of Rock and Roll, a classic that is ten years old now, the band has never has failed to deliver on their psychedelic, glam, power pop template that brings to the minds-ear the classic S.F. based band Jellyfish. Until perhaps now, that is.

Certainly not their best, the production seems a bit fuzzy in the mix and does not sparkle as bright as a Foxy Shazam diamond should. And, the band is trying a bit too hard to be clever in their wordplay, case in point is the attempt to rhyme china (the tableware) and a part of a woman’s anatomy with a straight face. 

The opener, “I’m In Love,” is pure soaring, bombastic Foxy Shazam, “Fall Into The Night” is a dance-hall worthy call and response feet-mover, and “Love Rush Ecstacy” would be a wonderment if, as mentioned above, the production was crisper and cleaner.

Not their best effort, this one might be among the worst in their oeuvre, but much like when a skunk comes home for Thanksgiving with his family, gets drunk, and accidentally lets out a little spray, he will still be invited over for Christmas dinner.

Hurray For The Riff Raff – Life On Earth

Alynda Segarra, doing business as Hurray For The Riff Raff, is out with her typically a per-usual stellar record, Life On Earth. As part of a collective of New Orleans musicians, the new album, self-described as “nature-punk,” is centered around the theme of survival in a turned-around world.

“All stunners, no bummers” is the order of the day on this one. “Pierced Arrows” floats in the ether like Florence and the Machine’s younger sister performing on a side stage at Bonnaroo, “Jupiters Dance,” has a wafting of a Kate Bush Spirit Dance, and the exquisitely horned “Rosemary Tears” is the essence of New Orleans pathos in a song. The “deep in the soul” rendering of “My Sweet Lord” is life-affirming.

While this new record doesn’t quite live up to the majesty of its predecessor, The Navigator, it is a sterling example of an artist in progress that is one of the shining lights working today.

Dana Cooper – I Can Face The Truth

Dana Cooper is an Americana treasure that you likely have never heard. Roaming the country from Kansas City, Los Angeles, Nashville, to Texas and beyond, teaming up with Shake Russell on several records, Cooper is a dues-paying road-weary musician of the highest order. And, on his latest, I Can Face The Truth, the truth is out there.

With a version of “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” that is as honest as you will ever hear along with the Thelma and Louise road-tripping with your BFF vibe of “Old Friends,” the stage is set for the circle to be unbroken. “Laughing and Crying” might be a fitting metaphor for the present times, and “Summer in America” is a “lovers in wartime” protest anthem with a satisfying ending.

If you are not previously hip to the Dana Cooper scene, use this opportunity to right a grievous wrong.

Five Cool Ones: Five New Records Released This Week (February 11, 2022)

Boom goes the dynamite this week as records are starting to hit the ear-waves that will be heard from again once the end of the year lists come around.

Ray Wylie Hubbard continues to blur the Rock, Blues, Americana lines with “Naturally Wild,” his most recent cool collaboration with Lizzy Hale and John Five.

Seratones are bringing the sunshine with their R&B and gospel-tinged feel-good tune, Good Day.

And, of course, one for the ladies with Valentine’s Day around the corner with Michael Buble and “My Valentine.”

But wait, don’t turn that dial. Here are five really cool records to share with your ears this week.

Spoon – Lucifer On The Sofa

With an uncanny ability to slightly reinvent themselves without losing themselves to the ether, Spoon is back with their first proper record in five years, Lucifer On The Sofa.

Full of sway and swagger, the record is made all the better with the return of Britt Daniel leaving the glitz and fake glamour of Los Angeles behind in favor of his hometown of Austin. The opener, a cover of the Smog song Held, sets the stage bringing a Blues-Rock White Stripes worthy semi-psychedelic opus feeling to the proceedings. And, on “The Hardest Cut,” one of the standout tracks on the record, the band lays down a ZZ Top groove on top of a T-Rex boogie that would make Ty Seagall blush.

Giving the guitars a more primo position in the mix than on some of their more synth-laden recent releases seems to serve the project very well, most succinctly on the highly excellent “The Devil & Mr. Jones.” And, there is a definite INXS vibe on the anthemic “Wild.”

With the chips going all-in to the middle of the table, let’s go on record in calling our shot early with this one as one of the best albums of the year. So far, anyway.

Delvon Lamar Organ Trio – Cold as Weiss

The dirty little secret in the halls of Rock is the New Roll HQ is that we are all closet Jazz fans, and in fact, we are lovers of the Hammond B-3 in the Dr. Lonnie Smith, Lee Michales mold. And, the latest record from the Delman Lamarr Organ Trio, Cold As Weiss, checks off all of the Jimmy Smith boxes. And, then some.

With the addition of drummer Dan Weiss to the band, the swing is the thing. The sound is pure seventies jazz-funk, psychedelic soul-jazz. The dials are set firmly to groove-city on the Stevie Wonder worthy “I Wanna Be Where You Are,” “Pull Your Pants Up” features the tight as Scrooge McDuck interplay between Weiss and the guitar player Jimmy James, and the spooky atmosphere of the closer, “This Is How It Is” throws things back to the Booker T and the MG glory days.

Swing it baby, swing it!

Night Shop – Forever Night

With Forever Night, Justin Sullivan, doing business as Night Shop, spins a record just a little West of Laurel Canyon, a tiny bit South of Bob Dylan, and straight to the heart of Conor Oberst, Brett Dennen territory.

“The End of Time” could have been one of the later-era Bright Eyes Conor Oberst reclamation projects, “Slow Dancing at the Wax Museum” could easily be a Beck tune, and “Pensacola, Florida” is an old school singer-songwriter type song that would have been epic sounding in the hands of Jerry Jeff Walker.

The semi-rocker “Let Me Let It Go” has a bit of a Chuck Prophet mantra about it, and the lilting “Midnight” is a contemplating wonder. “Let Me Begin” is pure mid-era Dylan.

There is no new territory being blazed on this one, but the influences are so tightly sewn here this record will only get better with multiple listens.

The Delines – The Sea Drift

If like many of us, while you were supremely enjoying reading Willy Vlautin’s novels and savoring his work with his Post-Punk band Fontaines, D.C., it is brilliant that his side-piece band, The Delines, have released their first album in over three years, The Sea Drift, and he is back to making music.

With singer Amy Boone making a mostly complete recovery from a near-fatal auto accident, the band is in fine late-night noir form. Inspired and centered around The California Northern coast, the song cycle came into being once Amy asked Willy to write a song like Tony Joe White’s “Rainy Night In Georgia.”

The familiar Southern-Gothic ambiance that is the core of this record with each song a cinematic screenplay in its own right will bring to mind Bobbie Gentry as well as the mid-sixties murder ballad records in the Porter Wagoner Cold Hard Facts of Life mold.

“Little Earl” could be a Faulkner penned short story, Kid Codeine should have been implanted in an episode of True Detective, and “Hold Me Slow” should be your soundtrack for Valentine’s day.

The Cactus Blossoms – One Day

A bit more upbeat than their semi-dour 2019 release, Easy Way, their latest, One Day, finds the Cactus Blossoms chaneling their inner Everly Brothers and outer Ricky Nelson in all the best of ways.

The opener, “Hey Baby” is a perfect demonstration of the pop sensibility that J.D. Mcpherson brings to the record as the producer, and on “Is It Over” the ghost of Tom Petty in his Byrds cloak of many colors comes out to play.

The collaboration with Jenny Lewis on the semi-spectacular “Everybody” wanders into Gram and Emmy on the synchronicity scale, and “I Could Almost Cry sounds like a Tom Russell penned song as sung by Mark Knopfler.

If this record was released in the mid-seventies it would have been a huge hit among the Sweethearts of the Rodeo Crowd. The fact that it is released now makes it even better.