America 2024 is a land roiled by division and an air of impending doom. The Armoires’ new record Octoberland simultaneously reflects and pushes against that state of being with wit, wisdom and a playful mix of musical hues. Only a deep dive into its contents can tell you why.
Album opener “We Absolutely Mean It” embodies America’s contradictory trends, holding its tension like a clenched fist. But four-fifths of the way through they declare ‘this is where we go big’ and the song suddenly takes on a brighter, more positive tone. The message here seems to be – dark and light, rage and love: it’s all America – so things could go either way, depending on who does what. Not surprisingly then social commentary abounds on this album. Tracks like “Green Hellfire At The 7-11,” “Ridley & Me After the Apocalypse,” and “You Oughta Be Cut in Half” are pointed in their critique. But never at the expense of great tune. “Ridley & Me After the Apocalypse” has the clever lyrical polish and sunny disposition of The Lilac Time. Lines like ‘end times are so boring’ and ‘fighting for the future of the artistocracy’ are gold. Or check out the sing-along goodness and jangle accompanying the stinging lyrics on “You Oughta Be Cut in Half.” The ‘oh my my my’ chorus is simply irresistible, reminiscent of the sophisticated curio pop of Overlord. Despite these serious themes, a chipper sense of fun dominates this LP. I love “This One’s For the Swedes” with its marriage of spacey synth runs and percussive group vocal interjections. Early 1980s sci-fi movie montage sequence for sure. Stylistically there’s plenty of variety too, with nods toward country (“Ouroboros Blues (Crow Whisperer),” folk rock (“Snake Island Thirteen”) and even Irish drinking songs (“It’s A Good Time To Come Back Down From The Cold”). “Sickening Thud” gets my vote for should-be hit-single with its delightful jangle guitar, though “Music and Animals” is pretty close second with its Everything But The Girl pop smoothness.
Octoberland is a record with something to say, reflecting the dread of our times but also kicking at it to let a little light get in. Get yours from the source – Big Stir Records – or your favourite e-retailer.
What kind of album is Nick Lowe’s new Indoor Safari? His recent LPs have ranged from rock and roll allsorts mixtures (At My Age) to more sonically consistent kinds of musical statements (That Old Magic) but his new release harkens back to his 1980s rockabilly-tinged variety shows like Nick Lowe and his Cowboy Outfit and Pinker and Prouder Than Previous. Contra the post title, not much on the new album is genuinely new, with most tracks seeing release sometime over the past decade on a variety of extended singles and EPs, though the versions here are freshly re-recorded for this release. The new takes are not that strikingly different – the changes are subtle, perhaps a slight shift in the vocal fit or the band’s swagger. But put together in one place like this the songs do cohere into an album rather than just a collection of tunes.
Lowe opens with a blast of rockabillied sixties garage rock on “Went to a Party,” from which he derives his album’s title when he suggests a party is akin to an indoor safari. This track and “Jet Pack Boomerang” are the only wholly new tunes here and, along with “Tokyo Bay,” set the pace for the album’s more rocking moments. Lowe’s backing band for the record are Los Straitjackets and their playing adds a welcome degree of surly abandon to the proceedings. Other songs like “Love Starvation” and “Lay It On Me Baby” draw on a post-1950s but pre-Beatles rock and roll vibe. Then there’s “Crying Inside,” the kind sixties rewrite Nick has has tossed off throughout his career with reliably good results. Nick does also draw on his Brentford Trilogy sound for “A Quiet Place” and “Different Kind of Blue,” the latter conjuring a distinctly jazzy crooner feel. “Blue On Blue” remains my fave song from Nick over this last decade. A band like Los Straitjackets could have stomped all over this tune with their wall-of-guitar sound but instead deftly pick their way through, delicately shaping its impact. And while album 14 for Nick might see a bit more gravel in his vocal there’s no discounting his talent for phrasing, as evident when he makes a cover of Ricky Nelson’s “Raincoat in the River” sound more like a great lost Sam Cooke 45. “Don’t Be Nice To Me” wraps things up in a classic Lowe style, going low key only to reveal surprising hooks.
Aging artists risk turning into a broken record, releasing faded versions of their former glory again and again. But with Indoor Safari Nick Lowe – with help from his able backing band Los Straitjackets – proves an old dog can even make old tricks sound fresh and exciting. Long may he growl.
Get Indoor Safari from Nick’s Bandcamp locale and visit his website for his seemingly never-ending tour news.
Bummed at the thought of your mundane back-to-school choices? It’s not too late to enroll at the San Francisco area Chime Schooland takes classes on some A-levels jangle. Schoolmaster Andy Pastalaniec has put together an 11 song lesson plan entitled The Boy Who Ran The Paisley Hotel that will introduce students to the fine points of superior song-craft and Rickenbacker 12-string guitar technique. The Chime School music library gets a full workout here, drawing on myriad elements of 1960s and 1980s jangle texts in new and inventive ways. The lessons begin and end with some strong Cure vibes to my ears, with both “The End” and “Points of Lights” dropping some serious Robert Smith-like guitar lines. “Give Your Heart Away” has a Smithsian melancholy while I could hear REM doing “(I Hate) the Summer Sun.” Then “Words You Say” harkens further back to the 1960s folk rock scene. You won’t be drifting off to sleep in these classes because the pacing of so many of the songs here is just relentless. “Why Don’t You Come Out Tonight” adds impressive percussive elements amidst rapid fire jangle guitar licks. “Another Way Home,” “Desperate Days” and “Say Hello” all ride a river of jangle. The current video release “Wandering Song” is the obvious candidate for album valedictorian, leaping out from the start with an insurgent lead guitar lick that keeps looping back in throughout the song. Though “Negative Monday” is a pretty impressive jangle case study too, combining delicious guitar hooks with a decidedly melancholic melody.
Chime School is back in session and ready to take on pupils. Click the hyperlinks to register and download your course materials. Homework never sounded so good.
When Elvis Costello spit out This Year’s Model in 1978 he managed to combine a range of things that hadn’t been put together that way before. With his Buddy Holly-on-Benzedrine looks and an ability to toss off memorable tunes like a crossroads-enhanced demon, Costello and his crack new band The Attractions played the album with the in-your-face ferocity of seventies punk but with much better musical technique. Boiled right down though, it was the intelligence that stood out. Costello made being smart cool. Going forward, rock and roll’s angry young men (or women) could no longer just strike the pose, they had to have something to say. Today’s artists pay tribute to that legacy and add to it.
Toby Tantrum is the musical vehicle of Ben Simon. He’s got a load of singles and EPs up on Bandcamp though it’s hard map his career as most appear to be released in 2018 or 2021 and the artwork looks remarkably consistent throughout. In fact, he appears to be wearing the same 1965 jacket and tie in every pic. Musically Simon oscillates between an early Beatles Merseybeat and a ramshackle Velvet Underground strut. Lyrically, he splits his focus between mocking the pretentions/self-absorption of the musically famous and more obvious political themes. Songs like “One Take Wonder” and “One Chord” employ an unreliable narrator technique to tell us more than the protagonist realizes while “I Found Someone And It’s Me” speaks to the irresponsibility and shallowness of those in the spotlight. Politically “A City Is Not a Dormitory” from the EP Community for Those That Can Afford It is a scathing indictment of developers and local housing policy. And they all work as songs, which makes this whole affair more than a conceptual art project. Picking and choosing from his varied catalogue I’d draw your attention to at least three really hooky tunes. “People Are People” bursts with great guitar lines that ripple on repeat like a trickling stream while stylistically the song sounds like a rockier 1970s Roxy Music. “Hold Me Down” clocked me with its spot-on early 1960s vocal harmonies, very much in the early 1960s folk rock/country register. And listen to what Simon does on “So Many Times.” The vibe reminds me of those early Zombies records where they cover a load of American R&B 45s. Simon’s vocal even matches the delightful whine of Colin Blunstone in places. Alas, it appears Simon may have forsaken music for a more direct approach to politics, running for Cambridge City Council in 2019 as a Marxist socialist. My kind of guy.
Owen Adamcik loves The Nerves and The Plimsouls and you only have to tune in briefly to his recent long player Owen Adamcik’s Power Pop Paradise to get that message. But there’s more going on too. On his Bandcamp page you can find a raft of releases that chart his progress – from DIY teen-with-guitar to proto-punk to his more recent polished performances – and the pace of change has been meteoric. The new LP has oh so Plimsouls numbers like “Don’t Call Me on the Phone” and “When She Finds Out.” Then things branch out, drawing from a variety of sixties and late seventies new wave motifs. “She Kissed Me First” is built around some really nice lead guitar work that leads the vocal melody. Both “Her Eyes Made A Million Boys Cry” and “Maybe You Like Me” explore different song structures and put some interesting twists into their melodies. Really the Costello comparison here is more about intensity. Adamcik manages to squeeze maximum vocal anguish into every song, without over-reaching. On the other hand “Mixed Signals” definitely has a Costello punch to the chorus, run through a CCR filter. There are lighter moments too, caught in the more sixties boppy numbers like “You’ll Tell Your Friends” and “She’s My Girlfriend.”
Role models are important. Today’s acts show how to balance being ‘intense’ while still having a good time. Elvis would be proud.
Photo ‘That’s The Way Love Goes’ courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.
I’ve always felt like I should like The Decemberists more. I mean, they’re folky, they’re kinda political at times. And lead vocalist Colin Meloy is the closest thing America is ever going to have to a Morrissey-like tortured artiste. But, for whatever reason, I’ve often found that a little Decemberists goes a long way for me. Like one or two songs an album. But that has ended abruptly with the release of the band’s ninth long-player, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again. The record’s song selections flow like a greatest hits of the band’s stylistic range over their whole career. There’s folk aplenty on cuts like “William Fitzwilliam” “Don’t Go Into the Woods,” and “Black Maria.” I love the delicious jangle and pedal steel draping “Long White Veil.” The band turn up the horns and a Latin rhythm to define “Oh No!” Meanwhile “Tell Me What’s On Your Mind” is just a magnificent pop anthem. And then on “All I Want Is You” Colin Meloy suddenly becomes Don McLean. It’s quite an astonishing transformation, really. But the album’s standout track is undoubtedly the majestic lead single “Burial Ground.” With help from The Shins James Mercer and R.E.M.’s bassist Mike Mills the song rings out with a Byrdsian jangle and overlapping vocal lines that will make your heart soar.
With As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again The Decemberists confirm their status as a kind of American treasure. What a live show this album promises to be!
What band variously sounds like American punk circa 1978, Frank Zappa, The Sweet, Cheap Trick, pop metal, with maybe with a touch of ELO? Only Redd Kross can pull all that off without skidding into incoherence. Of course, they don’t pour all those influences into every song, which means an album by Redd Kross can sound like multiple bands. That’s not to say their overall sound hasn’t changed over the years. This is a band that continues to move to adjacent genres without definitively leaving the old ones behind. Take the first EP and album: 1980’s debut Redd Kross and 1982’s Born Innocent. Good time, grinding, American punk and roll. By 1984’s album number two though things start to branch out, as Teen Babes From Monsanto shines a light on the band’s emerging power pop chops. I’ll confess, for the longest time Redd Kross was more a band I’d heard about rather than heard. To rectify that and catch me (and maybe you) up, this post scans every RK album for only the most hooky numbers IMHO. Redd Kross my heart!
Redd Kross got their start in the hot heat of America’s punk summers 1978 and 1979. But I wonder if it wasn’t just the manic in-your-face intensity of that genre that appealed to them because over the years they would also show a lot of love for over the top pop-metal excess, faux stadium rock, even a few tongue-in-cheek prog rock interludes. Yet for me their power pop tunes have always been a cut above in terms of craft and melodic ingenuity. The turn comes three cuts into Teen Babes From Monsanto when “Heaven Only Knows” pumps that fifties bubblegum pop nostalgia. Then “Don’t Turn Your Back On Me” has a seventies glam meets new wave feel. On 1987’s Neurotica “It’s the Little Things” reworks the disaster rock formula of The Crystals and Ronettes to good effect.
By 1990 the band had signed to a major label and released Third Eye, a more slick production. The power pop single here is certainly smooth. “Annie’s Gone” is carefully crafted with a Cars-like precision, resulting in the band’s only American chart hit. On 1993’s Phaseshifter “Saragon” is positively Beatlesque with a Live at the Hollywood Bowl kind of Lennon energy. RK rounded out the nineties with 1997’s Show World and, again, the power pop sound notably shifted. “Mess Around” sounds a bit Crowded House while “Get Out of Myself” reminds me of other strong 1990s power pop acts like Sloan.
As the twentieth century faded out so too did Redd Kross, or so it seemed. The first decade of the new millennium failed to deliver any new material. Then in 2012 Research the Blues arrived heralding Redd Kross 2.0 had finally arrived. Here I like some of the late-breaking album selections like “Winter Blues” with its winning Hoodoo Gurus vibe or “Hazel Eyes” which really has the makings of a Big Star single sound-alike. 2016’s Hot Issue was a compilation of sorts, bringing together rare and unreleased material. Like the 1970s pitch-perfect riff on The Sweet throughout “Insatiable Kind” or the unstoppable guitar pop of “Don’t Take Your Baby Downtown.” The band resurfaced again in the two-thousand-and-teens with 2019’s Beyond the Door, proving their 2012 comeback was no fluke. So many great tunes here. “There’s No One Like You” sounds like a great lost Odds single. Or get close to “Ice Cream (Strange and Pleasing)” where the band is doing a full-on sixties garage power pop vamp a la the Troggs or Monkees.
Fans waiting for a ticker tape parade return of Redd Kross got their wish this year with the release of a sprawling self-titled album of all new material. Redd Kross (The Red Album) offers up 18 cuts and an album design mimicking The Beatles (The White Album). My own choices for winning should-be singles seems to accord with the band, who’ve turned both tunes into early release videos and singles. “The Main Attraction” builds from a slow start to a real stunner of a showcase single. Then “I’ll Take Your Word For It” works a Merseybeat seam in a style similar to contemporary acts like The Tearaways. I’d also single out “Good Times Propaganda Band,” a track that sounds like a cross between Paul Collins and mid-period Beatles. Of course, “Born Innocent” is also pretty special and the name of a recent documentary on the band.
Redd Kross, where have I been all your life? Clearly wasting precious leisure time I could have spent with all your records. Don’t make my mistakes dear readers, complete your Redd Kross catalogue today!
After 10 albums it might seem strange to re-introduce you to Super 8. But his new album is kind of a new start. Retro Metro gives you a kaleidoscope view of everything that is great about the Super 8’s supercharged take on the 1960s. So gather round errant flower children, folk rockers, sunshine pop lovers and Kinksian jangle fans, your pied piper is here with tunes to lead you astray and then some.
Following the funky keyboard-heavy instrumental opener “Retro Metro Theme” we get right down to what Super 8 does best with “Keep Doing It,” a chipper pop tune that manages to squeeze the sunshine out of the summer sky. You can practically feel the beach breeze coming off ‘feel good’ tracks like “Almost Anything” and “Mary Jane.” But the record has a harder edge too. Four songs included here are remnants of an aborted mystery-group side-project entitled The Plus 4 and they appear to have set the tone for the whole record. “You Look Right Through Me” rings out with jangle hooks that are unstoppable while the chorus is so Zombies it’ll make you swoon. Other former Plus 4 numbers like “Tell It Like It Is,” “Take It From Me” and “Every Word Is True” have a swinging Meet-the-Beatlesque charm, ornamented with some sweet sweet harmonica solos. But as we dig into the newer material here the star of this record might just be the Rickenbacker electric 12 string guitar. It makes everything sparkle. Check out its impact on “Lies,” which opens with a jauntiness reminiscent of the Fabs’ “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party.” Or see what it adds to the Stonesy “Just A Song,” the Ray Davies-ish “Another Me,” or Monkees-style “Just Me & You.”
So ask yourself, have you really met Super 8? Retro Metro is all the proof you need he is the grooviest undiscovered star you definitely need to become acquainted with. You can arrange your audio meet-up here.
Word hit the interweb last week that a new Nick Lowe album would arrive this coming September, the pub rock/pop rock veteran’s first album of new material since 2011’s That Old Magic and his seasonal sojourn on 2013’s Quality Street. The album cover for the to-be-released Indoor Safari lovingly recreates a mid-1960s stylized photo shoot, complete with hip fonts and a retro record design. But if you dip into the album’s proposed song order you might notice something familiar – nearly every song has already seen a public release via various EPs and extended singles that have come out over the past half decade. So this ‘new’ album really only contains just two genuinely new tracks, “Went To A Party” and “Jet Pac Boomerang.” The former is Nick doing his Cowboy Outfit era thing, a bit rockabilly in a 1980s sort of way. Los Straightjackets sound great on this track and the others that will appear on this LP, putting their considerable talents to work adding some welcome pep to Nick’s urbane performance. So, if truth be told, you can nick just about this whole album right now just by sorting through all these recent Nick and the Straightjacket EPs that have been coming out regularly. The only track you really have to wait for is the one with ‘boomerang’ in the title.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not really complaining. The songs Nick has collected for this new record are quality Lowe’s for sure. Personally I love “Blue On Blue” and “A Quiet Place.” These two and all the other selections deserve to be featured on an official Nick Lowe long-player. You can advance order your copy on Nick’s Bandcamp and website. I know I will.
It’s been 40 years since Neil Finn closed shop on his older brother’s band Split Enz, ending their run with an underwhelming swan song LP See Ya ‘Round. Yet just two years later Finn would return helming a new band – Crowded House – that would far exceed what Split Enz had accomplished chart-wise. The self-titled debut Crowded House topped the charts around the world and produced a slew of hit singles, including “Don’t Dream It’s Over” and “Something So Strong.” The band’s commercial fortunes may have ebbed and waned since then but their creative continuity has remained strong throughout three different periods that the group has been active. 1986 to 1996 is often seen as the band’s golden age, producing four albums and more than two dozen memorable songs. But their first reunion period from 2007 to 2018 produced two more albums of classic Crowded House poprock material. Now into their third phase the band have a brand new album entitled Gravity Stairs and it’s like returning to a favourite childhood home, familiar but pleasantly different at the same time.
Reviewers and Finn himself have described the new album as ‘dreamy’ and opening cut “Magic Piano” certainly evokes that. Then again dreamy is practically the DNA of this band, firmly established in the Temple of the Low Men era and threaded through every other release somewhere. So if you’re looking for that vintage Crowded House sound you can definitely find it on this release. Just turn on tracks like “The Howl,” “All I Can Ever Own,” “Black Water, White Circle,” and “Thirsty.” But there are some striking departures as well. Early release single “Oh Hi” shifts the band’s signature pop sound into new territory with some inventive instrumental choices and vocal arrangements. Most recent single “Teenage Summer” has echoes of a Bleachers sensibility while “Blurry Grass” throws up contemporary guitar tones that remind me of Vancouver’s The Zolas. “I Can’t Keep Up With You” honours the album art work’s riffing on Revolver by riding a Beatles ’66 blast of guitar hooks. And then there’s the obligatory Tim Finn duet on the touching “Some Greater Plan (For Claire).”
There’s always room at my place for more Crowded House. Gravity Stairs is another winning addition to the band’s musical family.
With just five songs featured on this post it may appear to be an abbreviated episode of Cover Me! but I still think it’s worth your while stopping by. “Whenever You’re On My Mind” is one of my all-time favourite songs. For me, there’s just no way anyone is going to touch the transcendent beauty of Crenshaw’s original. Initially recorded during sessions for his debut album, the song didn’t quite fit and ended up the lead single on his fabulous second LP Field Day. Talk about making a good first impression, the track opens the album with one of the most seductive guitar hooks of all time, the vocals are a master class in power pop elocution, and the production is so brilliantly, sibilantly Steve Lillywhite good. Frankly, running the search engines on YouTube, Bandcamp and iTunes, it doesn’t appear that a lot of people have been up for the challenge of covering such a formidable composition and performance. But there have been a few worthy attempts.
We start with Marshall, of course. For a different take from the single and album cut you can find a live version of “Whenever You’re On My Mind” on his 2021 collection The Wild Exciting Sounds of Marshall Crenshaw. The 1983 video for the song is worth a viewing too, if only for its time capsule feel for an early 1980s look and ambience.
In terms of covers, we begin with the most inventive. Working with REM producer Don Dixon, Marti Jones put out a number of albums in the 1980s that saw her put her stamp on a host of songs from the likes of Elvis Costello, Dwight Twilley, David Bowie, and John Hiatt. Her cover of “Whenever You’re On My Mind” appeared on her 1986 album Match Game, which Marshall Crenshaw played some 12 string guitar on, though not on his song. What is striking on her cover is how she changes the vocal emphasis on the lines in the chorus. Girl group legend Ronnie Spector did a whole EP of Marshall songs on 2003’s Something’s On My Mind. She too added a few surprising twists and turns to the song’s melodic arc here and there that really work. I only know Zach Jones from his spot-on Monkees reincarnation track from 2020 “Must Be On My Way.” His 2016 acoustic approach to covering “Whenever You’re On My Mind” lightens the power pop intensity, gentling the vocals and guitar attack. The effect is reassuring rather than bracing. I really like the guitar tone and ramshackle vocal on Michael Fiore’s cover from the same year. There’s a rehearsal space Replacements vibe to this rendition. The Kavanaghs hail from Rosario, Argentina and put Marshall’s song on the b-side of their 2021 single “Going To The Beach.” The latter is more of a vamp-ish rocker so their cover shows they can’t handle the more melodic side of the street too. Why more people don’t cover MC is a mystery to me, given the results on display here with just these five submissions.
Marti JonesRonnie Spector
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