noisenursery

Steven Hyden wrote on Pitchfork: A very good and quietly unassuming band with an impressive– but decidedly unflashy– discography, Califone almost dissipated into the ether after the release of 2009’s reliably strong All My Friends are Funeral Singers. The band’s core member Tim Rutili spent almost a year away from Califone, committing his attention to screenwriting, scoring films and TV shows. He shed a few band members during the hiatus, but thankfully not his interest in eventually returning to Califone. He just didn’t want to go back exactly like he had before. For the new Stitches, Rutili hit the road, leaving his familiar environs in Chicago and recording at various locations in the southwestern United States, including Arizona, Texas, and Southern California. He also went back to his roots in home recording, stripping back the dense tangle of rustic instrumentation, electronic atmospherics, and spooky field recordings that distinguished Califone’s past work.
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AmericanSongwriter.com wrote: When you’re writing from the perspective of a fictionalized character, it takes quite a journey to nail down a solid story line—let alone enough interesting melodies and compelling lyrics to back it up. That’s the journey that Grammy-nominated alt rock singer Joseph Arthur has been on for the past several years.

During a career that has spanned nine full-length albums and 11 EPs, Arthur has been socking away songs and ideas that weren’t yet ready for listening ears. From that abundance of riches, the Brooklyn-based singer (who is formerly from Ohio) carefully selected and molded his latest record, The Ballad of Boogie Christ.

This single narrative thread is based on what Arthur describes as “a fictionalized character loosely based on my own journey.” And what a journey it’s been. The album is comprised of sessions put to tape in upstate New York, Los Angeles, Brooklyn and Minneapolis, thanks to the help of talented session drummer Jim Keltner, composer Paul Cantelon, and a handful of other talented musicians.

While The Ballad of Boogie Christ is being sold under the guise of Psychedelic Soul, there’s more to the album than one simple genre. The opening track (“Currency of Love”) is decidedly orchestral, which gives Arthur the chance to prep listeners for a sensory excursion with his truly exceptional vocal range.

From there, the narrator calls for a muse in “Saint of Impossible Causes.” Following that, the title-track offers a closer look at the character of Boogie Christ (“Christ would be rocking/Christ would be free/He’d say there’s no difference between you and me”) in a soulful production complete with horn solos. Other tracks explore the victory of overcoming addictions (“All the Old Heroes”), while others provide narratives of open-hearted loyalty and solidarity (“It’s Okay to Be Young,” “Famous Friends Along the Coast”).

The Ballad of Boogie Christ weaves beautiful narratives in and out of folksy numbers and rock songs, adding a layered palette of horn solos and soulful back-up singers. In short, there’s a reason why Arthur calls this album one of the “richest” projects he’s worked on during his 17-year career.

Listen to the whole album in one sitting, and you’ll feel like you’ve traveled a long journey with the 41-year-old singer—one that leads you from addiction, to recovery, to making amends and affirming friends, and, finally, to the light at the end of that long, dark tunnel.
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MOJO writes: ONCE YOU’VE ESTABLISHED yourselves as the testifyingest gutbucket rock’n’roll band in Christendom, all slicked-up and flicknifed and primed to deliver 110% live entertainment, where do you go from there? It’s a moot point for Jim Jones Revue, one of the best live groups you’re likely to see, but with a necessarily retrospective shtick that translates less well in recordings, despite the best efforts of all.

The answer, as delivered by their pending new single, Collision Boogie, could lie in texture. There is more to rock’n’roll thrills than out-and-out blasting and this spooky little shimmy could be a neat repositioning exercise, with the usual guitar blamalama on hold and pencil-moustachioed pianist Henri Herbert swopping Jerry Lee Lewis maximalism for Bo Diddley minimalism (we’re thinking Lafayette Leake’s sparse lines on 1958’s Hush Your Mouth).

“Collision Boogie is a sort of personal user’s guide to some of the things that [you] might come crashing into in life,” explains titular singer Jim, who has something of a history in the garage-rocking game. “It was originally inspired from hearing a Jamaican dancehall track blaring out of a car in Hackney; but by the time we had an arrangement together, it ended up with more of a New Orleans flavour.”
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Minimal Wave Records wrote:
We’re very proud to announce a new release by the UK duo known as The KVB via our sublabel Cititrax. Combining shoegaze guitars, minimal synth melodies, hypnotic drum machine rhythms and reverb drenched vocals, The KVB was first formed in 2010 as the solo project of Klaus Von Barrel. He was later joined by his girlfriend Kat Day, who added synthesizers and abstract visual elements. Their sound can be described as dark, layered, complex and moody – an icy atmosphere juxtaposed by the warmth of distorted guitars.

Aside from actively touring, they have had quite a few releases in this short time span, including a limited edition cassette on FLA Records (“The Black Sun”), a 10” vinyl EP on Downwards Records (“Into The Night”) and two releases on Clan Destine Records (“Subjection/Subordination” and “Always Then”). Inspired by what we heard on these releases along with the recent inclusion of Dayzed on Downward’s So Click Heels Compilation, we felt the time was right to present a full length album of The KVB’s latest material. The record will be pressed on 180 gram ultra clear vinyl, housed in a high gloss printed heavy sleeve, limited to 999 copies. Sound samples linked below.

Aside from the 8 tracks featured on the Immaterial Visions LP, we’re also happy to announce that there will be a limited edition vinyl release of remixes of select tracks from the album. The release will include remixes by Regis, Silent Servant, In Aeternam Vale, and Shifted and will be available as a 12” EP. More news on this soon.
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The Chrome Cranks are renowned for their raw, dark, and fiery live performances, and they were regarded as one of the leading acts in the 1990s punk blues movement in New York City. The Chrome Cranks’ singular brand of dark, unhinged punk blues has been cited as a key influence by a growing number of younger acts, such as The White Stripes and Cat Power. Covers of songs by The Chrome Cranks as done by other bands are relatively commonplace, and several are being assembled into a tribute album tentatively entitled Collision Blues.
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Brand new. Feeling lonely and abandoned 80s style. Hope to here more from Prayers soon. It’s a Nice video clip too.

Ol’ man Eagle is back, floatin’ Apocalyptically on a Whaleheart down the Dream River. Eight gentle percolations fire the pressure-cooker of life, dialing us into the Callahanian mind- and soul-set. Deep like aqua, soulful like man and animal alike.
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Trigger on savingcountrymusic.com wrote:”Yes, yes, and yes!

No ladies and gentlemen, Western Swing is not dead; not when Davy Jay Sparrow is on the job, doing his level best to keep the distinguished country music sub-genre fresh and fun by forging ahead with his fast-paced and frolicking take on one of country music’s original modes.

davy-jay-sparrow-all-nite-longSince Sparrow released his last album Olde Fashioned, he’s migrated west from Indiana to Portland, OR and traded in his “Well Known Famous Drovers” for a gaggle of “Western Songbirds”. Together they have released a stellar and entertaining album called All Nite Long complete with dancing horn sections, Sparrow’s spellbinding vocal acrobatics, 11 all new original songs, and two delicious traditionals. Put it all together and you have one of the most entertaining albums released so far in 2013.”
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Chris Kelsey wrote on AMG: “Free jazz has not produced many notable guitarists. Experimental musicians drawn to the guitar have had few jazz role models; consequently, they’ve typically looked to rock-based players for inspiration. James “Blood” Ulmer is one of the few exceptions — an outside guitarist who has forged a style based largely on the traditions of African-American vernacular music. Ulmer is an adherent of saxophonist/composer Ornette Coleman’s vaguely defined Harmolodic theory, which essentially subverts jazz’s harmonic component in favor of freely improvised, non-tonal, or quasi-modal counterpoint. Ulmer plays with a stuttering, vocalic attack; his lines are frequently texturally and chordally based, inflected with the accent of a soul-jazz tenor saxophonist. That’s not to say his sound is untouched by the rock tradition — the influence of Jimi Hendrix on Ulmer is strong — but it’s mixed with blues, funk, and free jazz elements. The resultant music is an expressive, hard-edged, loudly amplified hybrid that is, at its best, on a level with the finest of the Harmolodic school.”
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When we spoke with Jonathan Rado from a Minneapolis hospital last month, he was having a pretty hard week. Physically speaking, Rado was in good health—he was at the hospital to visit his Foxygen bandmate Sam France, who had broken his leg onstage the previous night only a few minutes into the performance. The broken leg was one of a handful of crises on Rado’s plate that week, as headlines circulated about a tell-all Tumblr post from a former touring vocalist, a festival “meltdown,” and a subsequent string of canceled festival dates while France’s leg healed. While this particular week was probably one of Rado’s most stressful in recent memory, scrutiny from the music press is familiar to him and his band.

When we do get around to the purpose of the call, his upcoming solo record Law and Order, Rado describes the album and its writing process as “stuff I would laugh at” and that he “doesn’t think much about it at all.” It’s easy to take those pull quotes out of context, but he’s actually describing a pretty organic songwriting and home recording practice, which takes place entirely—including a full drum set—in his current bedroom in New York and his childhood room in California.
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