Beau
Jennings and the Holy Tulsa Thunder (Murkville
Music)
Alt-country is all kinds of popular these
days and as such there are a plethora of fancy-pants
New Yorkers jumping on the bandwagon making
music these days that isn’t quite country
music and as such can be enjoyed by a gaggle
of indie rockers. At first sight, Beau Jennings
is one more of those fellas - a fancy lad
Brooklynite who is so down-home that he still
rocks a beard and has pictures taken with
his dog and while canoeing. A deeper look
reveals a much more impressive picture of
an Oklahoma native with a penchant for J Mascis
like vocals over pleasant harmonies with just
the right amount of piano. On his first solo
album without his regular band Cheyenne, Jennings
starts off very strongly both musically and
lyrically with ‘Holy Tulsa Thunder’
and the pace only picks up ambling along quite
nicely for the next few songs, peaking with
the fourth track, ‘The Opolis’.
Jennings songs tell stories at times and are
poetic musings at other times. The highlight
of the album, ‘San Juan Capistrano’
is probably the best example of the latter
with lyrics like “And now my richest
gain can only count for loss/I can’t
stop shaking through the Stations of the Cross/I
tip the bottle up I watch the spirits flow/They
flow through San Juan Capistrano”. The
album is terrifically pleasant with hints
of all sorts of other alt-country and singer
songwriter type bands and although there are
a handful of weaker songs (musically more
than lyrically) it really is a terrific rookie
solo release. –Andrew Fersch
Porter
Block – Off Our Shoulders (Engine Room
recordings)
Somehow the duo of Porter Block has finagled
a whole bunch of positive press from the Washington
Post (“catchy melodies and buoyant harmonies”)
to Performing Songwriter (“[their music]
is what rock ‘n roll is all about”)
and places in between. They also have somehow
managed to make an album which, while catchy
at times, is pretty darn unimpressive. Average
lyrics sung by a guy whose picture should
be in the dictionary under ‘self-absorbed
douche bag.’ I get it, you meet ladies
and then love and broken hearts and such,
etc. Hand-crafted for folks who don’t
listen to lyrics, like their ‘rock’
stars sensitive. and are completely comfortable
listening to music which will neither inspire
them nor make any lasting impression on them.
This is the poor man’s version of rock
and roll. – Andrew Fersch
Tit
Patrol – Shut Up Juice (Madison Underground
Records)
There is little expected when opening up
an album called “Shut up Juice”
by a band called Tit Patrol. Of course, this
only helps their cause because without any
lofty expectations, it can hopefully only
be better than expected. Queers-like lyrics
that you can actually understand (clearly
with songs like “Butt Foot”, “Daily
Lobotomy”, and “Surfin’
Suzey”), chanted choruses, and a little
bit of speed. It’d be easy to discard
this band as another novelty – a group
of ridiculous teenagers who have nothing to
offer. While it’s true that they aren’t
doing anything particularly new, they are
doing it better than many other bands who
they are emulating. “Candy Not Cops”
is the sort of song that could win over any
teenager with a sense of humor, and “One
Of My Moods” shows that they can write
some pretty clever lyrics with some pretty
innovative songwriting too. It’s also
absolutely embarrassing and adorable that
they spelled ‘you’re’ and
‘rhythm’ incorrectly. It reminds
me of high school and falling in love with
punk rock music. Not too shabby for a band
named Tit Patrol. – Andrew Fersch
The
Headies – It’s a super-man’s
world (Madison Underground Records)
Straight forward rock and roll leaning towards
punk rock vocally featuring Tit Patrol’s
guitarist and bassist. They're trying for
humor, I think, although they don't do too
well on the terrifically un-funny “That’s
All I Need” about smoking weed. It’s
unfortunate because the music on songs like
“Not a Heartbreaker No Mo” and
“High on Drugs” is catchy, but
the lyrics are a little too true on the latter
when he says:“I’m just a loser
in this big life game”. Stick to Tit
Patrol, fellas. – Andrew Fersch
Let Me Run – Demo (Self-released)
Usually a burned CD with a paper homemade
case denotes beginners musically, or at the
very least a really poor group of punk rockers.
Let Me Run has officially shattered this stereotype
of mine. This three song EP is more professionally
recorded than many albums I’ve purchased
recently and the songwriting and lyrics are
pretty excellent. It may not be remarkably
original, it’s definitely got traces
of all sorts of other bands (most impressively
the occasional Ian MacKaye/ Fugazi years vocals
and CIV like guitars at times). The lyrics
read more like poetry and yet not in the “look
at how smart” we are kind of way, very
emotional and thoughtful, but certainly not
emo music. If in three years these characters
aren’t all over the place, some record
label is making a mistake. – Andrew
Fersch
New
Found Glory / International Superheroes of
Hardcore – “Takin’ it Ova’”
Split CD (Bridge Nine)
Wow. Who would have thought that a band could
imitate another genre and actually be better
than they were when they took themselves seriously?
Sure, New Found Glory is one of the more successful
pop punk bands; but they are still a pop punk
band, and that can’t be forgiven. But
I’ll be damned if they didn’t
just kick my ass with their other incarnation,
The International Superheroes of Hardcore.
Sure, they are mocking hardcore but it’s
done in the same loving way that Hard Skin
mocked Oi! Music. And damnit a song about
how you need to wear your seat belt with a
chorus of “Seat Belt, Never Forget,
Never Forget your Seat Belt!” is pure
comic genius – I can just see some meathead
hardcore kid pumping his fists with his local
high school football team shirt on to that
not even understanding the joke. “There’s
not a wardrobe for hardcore, I mean look at
us, we wear capes”. That is fucking
genius. – Andrew Fersch
CD
Reviews by Andrew Fersch
