// Category Archive for: Music Reviews

Nude Beach, II

By Less Lee Moore

When MTV premiered in 1981, it was astonishingly free form. You’d see a wide range of musical styles represented. New wave, rap, and heavy metal hadn’t taken over the mainstream yet, so there was still a lot of straight-up rock & roll interspersed between U2, Gary Numan, and Adam and the Ants videos. Had they existed back in the day, Brookyln’s three-piece Nude Beach would have been on heavy rotation.

The band sounds like they’d fit perfectly on the soundtrack to a never-released Amy Heckerling or Martha Coolidge movie from the early ’80s, successfully straddling that precipice between pure rock and power pop. This description might cause some to grumble about “Brooklyn hipsters” but Nude Beach’s three members—Chuck Betz, Jim Shelton, and Ryan Naideau—look and sound completely unpretentious. Sure they borrow heavily from the past, but when it’s done in such a non-self-conscious way, it’s refreshing.

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Los Lobos, Kiko 20th Anniversary Edition: featuring Kiko Live, Kiko Live DVD/Blu-Ray

By J Howell

Los Lobos, photo &copy Drew Reynolds

It’s funny how time flies, and frankly a bit unnerving to think that Los Lobos‘ masterpiece, Kiko, is almost old enough to drink legally. In celebration of the benchmark album’s twentieth anniversary, Shout! Factory has a whole lot of Kiko for Lobos fans new and old to enjoy.

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Maxïmo Park, The National Health

By Less Lee Moore

On Maxïmo Park‘s Wikipedia entry there’s a great quote about singer Paul Smith: “When he first joined we didn’t know if he could [sing]; just that he was a lunatic jumping around in a suit, it felt like the last piece of the jigsaw.” When listening to The National Health, it’s immediately obvious that serendipity was on their side. At times Smith exhibits close, sensual vocals similar to those of Martin Gore (but minus the vibrato); other times, his soaring voice has flashes of Midge Ure.

The National Health is the band’s fourth album since their debut release in 2005, but it’s my introduction to them. There are thirteen songs included, all evidence of a self-assured bunch. Maxïmo Park’s songs are buoyant and radio-friendly, boasting interesting lyrics as well as first-class musicianship.

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Bad Lucy, Bad Lucy EP

By Cait Brennan

The Internet is a magical place. A few nights back, I muted Bob “Olympus Interruptus” Costas and took a random gander at the live web feed of one of my favorite watering holes—Tempe, Arizona’s historic Tempe Tavern. A suitably vibrant crowd was on hand to revel in the music of some fine local bands. It was all good stuff, but one band stood out so much that I had to track them down. The band is called Bad Lucy, and their gorgeous, melodic songs and energetic live show blasted right through the off-kilter webcam and livestream hiccups—and into my heart. Shut up, I’m serious.

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Shoes, Ignition

By Cait Brennan

Zion, Illinois hardly seems like the kind of place to jumpstart a music revolution. But in the dark days of 1974, this tasty bit of spicy mustard in the middle of a Waukegan/Kenosha sandwich found itself with not one but two seemingly endless power sources. Say what you will about nuclear fission, but the Zion Nuclear Power Plant had nothing on the thousand-megawatt power pop of brothers John and Jeff Murphy and their high school pal Gary Klebe—the creative soul of Shoes. Pioneers of both power pop and DIY home recording, the band made their mark with 1977’s self-released Black Vinyl Shoes, released three gorgeous albums on Elektra from ’79-82, and over the next 30-plus years, blazed a fiercely independent trail with a series of critically-acclaimed albums (1984’s Silhouette, 1990’s Stolen Wishes, ‘94’s Propeller, and a ton of rarities and reissues).

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Jezzy & the Belles, Compasses & Maps

By Chelsea Spear

One of the reasons why I got into music criticism was to discover and herald to the world up and coming artists. Thus, writing less than positive reviews of new artists’ self-released work causes me a small amount of pain. Someone took great time and expense to write, arrange, record, and press an album, and I don’t want to downplay their hard work by speaking ill of them in public. However, once in a while the dirty task of shrugging off a self-released album must be done.

And so it came to pass that Jezzy & the Belles‘ debut album, Compasses & Maps, came into my possession. I volunteered to review it on the strength of a few YouTube clips that established Jessica Eisenberg’s strong musical and lyrical abilities, and had looked forward to hearing a rising star for the first time. Sadly, the balance of the album’s nine tracks left a bland impression.

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The Tubes, Young And Rich and Now

By Cait Brennan

One of the most adventurous, imaginative, and irreverent bands of the 1970s and ’80s, The Tubes made a career—a whole new art form, really—out of being much too much.

The band existed in an alternate reality, almost inconceivable from our point of view, when bands could attack all different kinds of music, from every angle and attitude, in every genre now known or yet to be invented. In their time they were avant-garde madmen, merry pranksters, X-rated performance artists, art school punks, agents provocateurs, AOR gods, and—in a fitting twist of irony—actual Top 40 pop stars, becoming for a brief moment the very thing they were always sending up. Whether it was high concept or low pop, innovative composition and brilliant musicianship was the order of the day.

Now Real Gone Records has reissued two of the group’s essential yet long out-of-print early albums, Young And Rich and Now, the latter of which has never been issued on CD in the US, ever. It’s a welcome and wonderful addition to the Tubes’ catalog.

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Paul Thorn, What The Hell Is Goin’ On?

By Paul Casey

There were two barriers to my listening Paul Thorn‘s cover album, What The Hell Is Goin’ On? The first, I was not aware of Paul Thorn’s music. The second, I was not familiar with many of the songs he covered (and in some cases with the artists too). Quickly though these barriers turned to my advantage (aha!), finding a pleasant collection of Blues numbers and a new fellow who can turn it out a bit for money.

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Redd Kross, Researching The Blues

By Less Lee Moore

” . . . there’s nothing more comforting than being in a room with my brother where him and our drummer are just talking endlessly about Bob Dylan bootlegs and we have stupid inside jokes about public access shows from 1984. With them I can just turn my brain off and I don’t need to worry about the social aspect of this environment—that’s sorted.”
—Steven McDonald, interviewed in Stereogum, July 30, 2012

Disclaimer: Redd Kross has been an integral part of my life for almost 20 years, so I can’t promise that this review will be 100% objective. I can, however, promise that it will be 100% sincere.

Redd Kross. Oh, where to start? So much history that I can’t cram it all into one review, but chew on this: The band has been around for more than 30 years. Despite various lineup changes, two members have remained steadfast—brothers Jeff and Steven McDonald, now both in their 40s. (Your math is correct; Jeff and Steven started the band at ages 15 and 11, respectively.) And yes, they have been integral to my life, something that can’t be overstated; after all, the name of this website was inspired by the name of one of their albums.

Throughout the band’s existence, Redd Kross may not have released as many “proper” albums as other bands, but they’ve been no less prolific, participating in various soundtracks, tribute albums, singles, EPs, and at least two alter egos (how else do you describe Anarchy Sixx or Tater Totz?). Although their sound has never been what purists might consider punk rock, their attitude has always been. Even the bubblegum pop of 1990’s Third Eye contains a metal tribute to Japanese girl group Shonen Knife. Thus, answering the question, “so what does Redd Kross sound like?” has always been tricky.

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Thoughts On: The Band, CAHOOTS

By Paul Casey

Part four in a continuing series on THE BAND’s discography.

To read the whole series, go here.

“Where do we go from here?”

Cahoots was the last album of new material THE BAND would record until their last great work, Northern Lights – Southern Cross, in 1976. On the basis of the songs, and the disconnect between the constituents of THE BAND, it was a tough album to make. There is little thematic cohesion here. It is a leap around America in a manner—from the fairground to Chinatown—but it lacks the conceptual feeling of The Band or the personal confession of Stage Fright. It does have some of the eclectic feeling of Big Pink, if little of that album’s mood. It is when the burn out became an issue and when it became apparent that THE BAND could not muscle through their creative and personal issues. They do give it a hell of a try, though. Cahoots is not a classic, like the previous three, but it is a good record. (more…)