// Category Archive for: Reviews

Subscribe To Marshall Crenshaw: New Single Out On November 23

By Cait Brennan

It’s hard to believe that Marshall Crenshaw’s tuneful, songs have been with us for three decades, but amazingly, 2012 marks the 30th anniversary of his acclaimed, self-titled 1982 debut. Three decades, five presidents, and thirteen albums later, he’s still going strong, not only with his own music, but his radio show, a book, film music, and vital compilation work as well. (It’s not an overstatement to say that the Crenshaw-helmed Hillbilly Music . . . Thank God!, a 24-track compilation of rockabilly and country sides by artists from Buck Owens to Rose Maddox to Hank Thompson to the Louvin Brothers, saved my soul and the souls of every living, breathing human being who heard it. It’s not too late for you, brother, get yourself a copy.)

Writing and performing new music is still where his heart’s at, though, and like so many artists in the still-evolving, post-record-industry-Armageddon landscape, Crenshaw turned to Kickstarter to fund a new way of getting his songs to his fans. After blowing past his goal with a cool $33,000, Crenshaw is launching a subscription EP series, enabling him to get new music to his fans in a cool way. Over the next two years, Crenshaw will release six exclusive three-song 10-inch, 45-rpm vinyl EPs, along with a download card for digital versions of the tracks.

The opener, which debuts November 23, features the brand-new Crenshaw tune “I Don’t See You Laughing Now,” combining Crenshaw’s relentless knack for melody with a withering character portrait of somebody who clearly had it coming. “It must be hell to realize you fell for your own lies,” sings Crenshaw, dismantling his subject line by line and rubbing it in with some gorgeous harmonies and the fine playing of Andy York on guitar and the brilliant Graham Maby on bass.

Track two features Crenshaw and alt-country sensations the Bottle Rockets on a live alted-up version of the Crenshaw gem “There She Goes Again,” originally on Crenshaw’s 1982 album.

A weird and wonderful cover of The Move’s post-apocalyptic 1971 classic “No Time” rounds out the set. Recorded with Glen Burtnik (who starred as Paul McCartney in Beatlemania opposite Crenshaw’s John Lennon), “No Time” is worth the price of admission all on its own, with its rich layered harmonies, gorgeous psych-pop production, and fine mastering by engineer Greg Calbi.

“I’ve always put a great deal of care into the albums I’ve made,” Crenshaw said in a press release. “But as a listener, I’ve always been a singles guy and an individual-tracks guy. I’m looking forward to creating a steady output of music in small batches, rather than being stuck in a cave for months and stockpiling a whole bunch of music and dumping it out all at once. Now, when I finish something, I get to put it out, instead of having to wait until I’ve got 12 more.”

“I Don’t See You Laughing Now” is available November 23 from marshallcrenshaw.com. Please note: the website has been down due to issues resulting from Hurricane Sandy, so keep checking back.

Music Review: Firewater, International Orange!

By Julie Finley

The new Firewater album came out on 9/11, so I have had some time to let it sink in. I don’t think it was a coincidence that it came out on that historic day, either; I truly think that Tod Ashley was thinking that it would be a good day to release the record, just in time for my first wedding anniversary (I’m kidding!).

I believe it’s been about four years since the last Firewater album, The Golden Hour, was released and International Orange! is the perfect sequel. In fact, I think I kinda like this one even more (and I really loved the last one). They are very similar musically, but lyrically there is a much more positive and playful vibe to International Orange!

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Concert Review: Firewater At The Grog Shop

By Julie Finley

Cleveland, OH
October 6, 2012

It had been a while since I’d been to a show . . . almost a year. There really hasn’t been anything worth seeing that has come through Northeast Ohio (with the exception of Blowfly, but yours truly had a migraine that wouldn’t quit that day, so I had to skip it). I heard that Firewater was actually coming back to Clevehole; I figured that Tod Ashley would’ve just skipped this dump altogether since the last time they played here, the crowd was small and the venue sucked. Luckily, he brought himself and his newest batch of minstrels to The Grog Shop in Cleveland, one of the few venues I actually like. The show was also on a Saturday night so I figured it was going to be mobbed, but that sadly wasn’t the case.

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Music Review: Ultimate Creedence Clearwater Revival – Greatest Hits & All-Time Classics

By Danny R. Phillips

In the opening line of Alec Palao’s liner notes for the new three-disc set Ultimate Creedence Clearwater Revival, he makes the following statement: “If any one act could legitimately stake a claim to be America’s Beatles, then that would be Creedence Clearwater Revival.”

That is some bold shit.

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Music Review: Sophie Auster, Red Weather EP

By Chelsea Spear

From the first notes of her debut EP Red Weather, Sophie Auster creates a compelling mise e scene. The angular piano riff and cacophonous arrangement that propel the first song, “Run Run Run,” invest the song with a palpable sense of urgency. Auster sketches out a minimal narrative that deepens this mood, and you feel her voice in the pit of your stomach as surely as you hear it.

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Movie Review: The Red Machine

By Chelsea Spear

In the annals of unlikely buddy teams, the portrayal of a working relationship between a rock-ribbed naval officer and a wisecracking thief seems so obvious, it’s a wonder it hasn’t been done before. Stephanie Argy and Alec Boehm’s compulsively watchable heist flick The Red Machine hinges on such a surprising bond. Set against the conflicted relationship between the US and Japan in the years before World War II, Argy and Boehm create a fascinating world.

The place is Washington, DC; the time, 1935. The Great Depression is at its height, and war between the Allies and Axis powers is over half a decade away. Cryptologists in the nation’s capitol are working to decode a series of messages sent from the Japanese consulate. Two unlikely accomplices must work closely with one another to aid in the cryptologists’ plight: Eddie Doyle (Donal Thoms-Cappello), a voluble, fast-talking safecracker, and F. Ellis Coburn (Lee Perkins), a disgraced naval officer as mysterious as his first initial. Coburn regards Doyle with silent contempt, while Doyle works to get thrown off this project by trying to get on Coburn’s last good nerve. In spite of their fractious bond, the immovable object and unstoppable force work together to create a caper that will allow them to get the goods on their opponents.

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Music Review: Wazu, Robobo

By Less Lee Moore

Being old enough to have lived through and enjoyed the fecundity of post punk and new wave music when it originally blossomed in the 1980s has advantages and disadvantages. I feel lucky to have experienced the excitement of those years first hand. On the other hand, I often find myself eyeing with suspicion new bands that fell in love with those same sounds decades later. Hearing “Councillor,” the first single from Wazu‘s new album Robobo provided mixed feelings along those lines.

The song is so obviously influenced by Depeche Mode it’s almost cute: chord changes, heavy guitar, chiming keyboards, buzzing industrial sounds. Still, it’s a fine song and quite good at paying tribute to the originators of the sound.

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Music Review: Majeure, Solar Maximum

By Less Lee Moore

The musical entity known as Majeure is A.E. Paterra, also known as the drummer for prog rock band Zombi (also one of the coolest band names in recent history). Solar Maximum, Majeure’s second album, is proof positive that all those ignorant cranks who think synth-based music isn’t “real” music are just that: ignorant cranks. The depth of emotion conveyed on Solar Maximum is quite real indeed.

Paterra, according to a review in AQ, has mastered an impressive array of analog synths and instruments on Solar Maximum. Score another point in the “synth music is real” camp. In all seriousness, though, Solar Maximum is a seriously good album.

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Music Review: ESP, ESP EP

By Less Lee Moore

My introduction to ESP was via the eye-popping video for their song “Serenade,” directed by Alexandra Pelly, and described as an homage to Yellow Magic Orchestra. As a fan of WTUL’s Techno 2000 radio show in the ’80s, I am familiar with YMO’s music, particularly that of member Ryuichi Sakamoto, who also worked with Japan and David Sylvian. Naturally my interest was piqued.

According to their press materials, “ESP is a new Los Angeles-based trio whose primary interest is, as their name implies, Extra Sensory Perception.” Apparently they seek to explore this phenomenon through their music. It’s a fitting title; their music is psychedelic but not beholden to the 1960s sonic palette normally associated with that word. Their lyrics are more about creating a mood than telling a story.

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Graveyard Smash: John Zacherle, Monster Mash/Scary Tales

By Cait Brennan

Ever since the creeping dawn of that undead-zombification machine known as television, monster movies and horror hosts have been joined at the hip, like a mad scientist and his freakishly deformed sidekick, like Jan and her pan, like Rosie Grier and Ray Milland’s racist head. From Vampira and Ghoulardi to Dr. San Guinary and Morgus the Magnificent, horror hosts were an indelible part of pop culture in the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s.

But nowhere is there a horror host whose career—and life—has lasted as long as John Zacherle. The rockingest of horror icons, Zach got his start as Roland (pronounced “Roland“) on Philadelphia’s WCAU before pulling up stakes to New York and becoming “Zacherley” (same ghoul, different name). Now 94, the eternal Cool Ghoul is almost certainly the last survivor of the golden age of horror hosts, and he still looks as good . . . he still looks as . . . he still looks like Zacherle, and he’s still out there making convention appearances and delighting generations of horror fans.

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