Live Review - 1/26/2010 Railroad House at The Cantab

Last night I saw the bluegrass band Railroad House at The Cantab Lounge in Cambridge. The Cantab has the most well-known weekly bluegrass show in the Boston area, and each Tuesday night they get two bands to play upstairs. Railroad House was the opener, and very impressive. Sometimes the opening acts are a little raw, but Railroad House was extremely polished. I especially liked their sense of dynamics; they would save their beautiful harmonies for choruses or key emotional points in the songs. Rhythm guitarist Rich Piccaretto and mandolinist Jonathan Campbell traded off lead vocals, and Campbell, and fiddler Larry DeJong especially distinguished themselves on breaks, with DeJong throwing in deft tremolos and Campbell moving easily between blues licks, classic bluegrass breaks, and even their bossa nova-tinged finale. Bass player Mike Foster provided high energy and bass lines. Randy Batson, on lead guitar, and Charlie Downey, switching between banjo and Dobro, round out the sextet.

There were a sprinkling of instrumental numbers in the set, but vocal-driven tunes are where this band shines, whether plucking a couple tunes from Steve Earle's The Mountain (the title track and "Texas Eagle"), serving up a standard like "Blue Ridge Mountain Home," or adapting a country tune like "Rough Around the Edges." All in all, it was entertaining, diverse, and impressive - maybe next time they're at Cantab, they'll be a headline act.

Lightnin' Hopkins - Mojo Hand

I love Blues music. I only have a handful of Blues records, and I don't listen to them terribly often, but whenever I do, or whenever I'm at a bar or restaurant playing the blues, I feel a visceral change come over me. My friends call it my "blues face." There's no other form of music that hits me in quite the same way.

A few of my favorite artists (Townes Van Zandt and Deer Tick, to name two) list Sam "Lightnin' Hopkins" as among their biggest influences, but the boxed set Mojo Hand is my first exposure to his work. I knew of Lightnin' Hopkins as a guitar blues master, but I was unprepared for his range. He employs pre-rock 'n roll riffs ("Coffee Blues"), folks fingerpicking ("Shaggy Dad") and even a couple piano romps ("Los Angeles Boogie"). Vocals range from storytelling (Mr. Charlie Part I) to . Lyrical content spans from thinly-veiled euphemisms ("Play With Your Poodle") to gospel ("Needed Time"). Covers, originals, electric, acoustic, solo, with accompanyment - Po' Lightnin' can do it all. The best, though - the ones that give me the blues face - are the unaccompanied electric tracks where he alternates vocal lines with guitar riffs. "Automobile" is a fine example. These tracks make me feel like I'm in a smoky bar drinking whisky. It's no mistake that many of the images in the liner notes show Lightnin' with a cigarette or a flask - this is largely music from That Place.

This compilation is sadly out of print. You can find used copies on Amazon (below). I got my copy at local used record store Nuggets. There are many other collections of his work, but Mojo Hand's 41 tracks collect a great cross-section of work.

Buy it from Amazon:
Mojo Hand: The Anthology

Built To Spill - There Is No Enemy

Rating: B-

I'm really tempted to write a one-line review here: "it's a Built To Spill album." If you're a fan of the Pacific Northwest-based quintet, you know what that means: spacey, skilled guitar solos that are allowed to breathe over long tracks, complementing late-night-stoned lyrics sung in Doug Martsch's best Neil Young impression. If you're not a fan, you know what that means also: go-nowhere meandering guitar solos bridging sometimes-cryptic-sometimes-asinine lyrics sung in Martsch's nasal whine. They have some of the sound expansions you might expect - there's a little horn part in the strong "Life's a Dream," but it's just background over another tight guitar solo.

I love Built To Spill, but let's be honest: they've been coasting on the same formula for a while. There's a fine line between having "a distinctive sound" and having "all your songs sound the same," and BTS walks it. The amazing thing to me is how many guitar solos they have on each album, but it still doesn't get boring. "Hindsight" and album closer "Tomorrow" both feature short, simple filler riffs that are absolutely gorgeous. Just about every song allows room for Martsch's noodling, but the range from the slide guitar in "Nowhere Lullaby" to distorted bends in "Tomorrow" keeps him from repeating himself. The lyrics, on the other hand, are at times groan-inducing: "I come home to find you covered with ants / 'cause you're so sweet" he sings in opener "Aisle 13."

Built To Spill's magnum opus is still 1997's "Perfect From Now," with its dark motifs, spacey atmospherics, and haunting tone. Like just about every BTS album since, "There Is No Enemy" hits the high points, but without "Perfect From Now On's" consistency, the effect is greatly diminished. BTS is a band with a great ability to create atmosphere; it would be nice if they would create one and let us sit in it for an hour instead of jerking us in and out to show how much range they have. After all, at the end of the day, it just sounds like a Built To Spill album either way.

Buy from Amazon:
There Is No Enemy [Explicit]
Built To Spill Site

Genre Whores - Frequently Banned By Content Filters

Genre Whores describes their sound on their MySpace page as "Authentic New England Motor Folk." I think they sound like what would happen if Rhett Miller or John Joseph McCauley III decided to write songs like Nick Cave or Glenn Danzig but sing like Tom Waits. I'm a fan of all those musicians / acts, so you can imagine that I enjoy what Genre Whores are doing. The Worcester, MA - based trio combines their eclectic influences and styles with a dark folk sensibility - murder ballads updated for the modern age.

"Frequently Banned By Content Filters" is an eight-song EP available on at Genre Whores' live shows. The seven original tracks, from the breakneck stalker anthem "Chasing" to more country-inflected numbers "Light of Day" and "Southern Cross." The world painted by the lyrics of singer / guitarist Dave Leary is one peopled with sex, violence, obsession, crimes, and darkness. The one cover is "Safety in Numbers," a Joan Osborne (yes, she of the "One of Us" hit) song that morphs from girls-sitting-at-home-lamenting-their-broken-hearts to militants-holing-up-in-a-remote-bunker when delivered with Leary's growl. The EP is more fun than disturbing with Tom DuMont (bass) and Jim The Drummer (uh, drums) driving the songs with punk energy.

"Frequently Banned By Content Filters" is a fun debut. It's tough to predict what the Genre Whores might do next, it will surely be interesting, creepy, dark, funny, and thoroughly enjoyable.

Genre Whores Site

Best of 2009

I haven't heard everything released this year, but here are my favorites to this point:

Album: "The Hazards of Love" by The Decemberists. Runner Up: "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix" by Phoenix.

Track: "Easy" by Deer Tick. Runners-Up: "1901" by Phoenix, "The Wanting Comes In Waves / Rapid" by The Decemberists, "Bull Black Nova" by Wilco.

Live Act: Art Brut. Runners-Up: The Flaming Lips, Phoenix.

Deer Tick - Born on Flag Day

Rating: B+

Deer Tick is kind of a litmus test for your take on the importance of authenticity in rock 'n roll music. On the face of it, Deer Tick are just a bunch of poseurs. Look at Born on Flag Day's hidden track: A twenty-something dude from Rhode Island (John Joseph McCauley III, the band's lead singer, guitar player, and songwriter) rasping out Leadbelly's "Goodnight, Irene" live, over stereotypical live bar-room sounds - bottles clinking, pool balls clacking, laughter and talking over the guitar strumming. Does it get any more contrived than that?

So how you feel about authenticity is likely how you're going to feel about Deer Tick. If you think blues can only be written by those who've suffered, if you think country music is for southerners, and if a bunch o' young white guys covering an old black dude (as in the aforementioned Leadbelly cover) makes you feel uneasy - you're probably not going to dig Deer Tick.

The flipside is the argument that everything in the rock idiom is derivative - that it's the All-American melting pot of blues, country, folk, and bluegrass, and that criticizing rock music for being derivative is like criticizing ice cream for being cold. Sure, some bands wear their influences on their sleeves, as Deer Tick does, but that just means they're producing a more coherent synthesis.

I don't find either argument entirely persuasive, but a lot of that is around what "authenticity" even means. I think authenticity is important, but confining authenticity to antiquated notions of who should be playing certain kinds of music is artificially limiting. The thing that makes music, or any art, compelling is the extent to which it touches on common chords on human emotion. John Joseph McCauley III's experiences may differ tremendously from the artists who created early blues music, early country music, and even early rock 'n roll - but he knows what loneliness feels like, the appeal of wide open spaces, and the propulsive energy of music; and, most importantly, he can pass that along.

Which isn't to say Born on Flag Day is a masterpiece. It's uneven, as if by design, with hard rocking numbers sandwiching sleepier tracks, blues following country following rockabilly. The two standout tracks are as good as anything released in 2009. "Easy" is a vicious straight-ahead rocker, propelled by a deft Christopher Dale Ryan (seriously, why do these guys all use their middle names) bassline and a snarling chorus ("No you don't know / how easy it is"). "Smith Hill," which refers to an area of the band's hometown of Providence, RI, is a wonderfully written song. The harmonies coming in on the last line of the verse "Tonight I'll see my sweetheart / I've got a fifty dollar bill / But somewhere in her weak heart / She knows I never will" are chilling. The strings on the track make it sound a little slick and over-produced; Deer Tick is a band that sounds better raw than polished. They blew me away live, but the recorded product is not quite as strong.

Which brings us back to authenticity, I guess. Your mileage may vary on what authentic means, whether a bunch of white Northern youngsters from the city can play music originated by folks from basically the exact opposite circumstances. It works for me, as long as they're playing the hell out of it, and Deer Tick are.

Buy it from Amazon (MP3 Format) (only $5 if you act now!)
Deer Tick on MySpace

Le Loup - Family

Rating: B-

Ah, the sophomore album. When a band's debut meets with some success, as in the case of Le Loup's debut album, 2007's The Throne of the Third Heaven of The Nation's Millennium General Assembly, it leaves a world full of possibilities - and potential pitfalls. There is a delicate balance between evolving from the original sound and departing from it entirely. Many of the great first albums were followed by let-down second albums, and many of the great second albums were made by bands with uninspiring first albums.

Le Loup is trying hard to strike a fine balance here. The serpentine melodies of Throne are back, this time augmented with more harmonies and African-style polyrhythms. The touring band has changed considerably (see my review of their recent Boston concert), with three previous members departing. Largely gone is auteur Sam Simkoff's banjo, though a sampled five-string does make some appearances in "Morning Song" and "Go East." In short, they haven't thrown out the original formula, but there have been changes.

I wanted to like this album more than I do. I like it fine; it's got beautiful harmonies and arrangements, and some of the tunes are great - "Sherpa," in particular, is the kind of tune that will stick in your head for days. It's fun, and pretty, and catchy, and tasteful - and if it didn't follow Throne, and its existential creepiness, maybe I would have liked it more. I listened to Family again and again, waiting to have something grab me like "Planes Like Vultures" and especially "I Had a Dream I Died" - and it didn't happen. This is a good record, but not an arresting one.

I suspect, months down the line, I'll have one of the tunes come on shuffle and it will strike me in a way that it did not over the past few weeks, and I will re-listen to the whole album and it will be like hearing it anew. Until then ... here's where I'm at.

Buy it from Amazon (MP3 Format)
Le Loup Site