Music Review: Various Artists, Beale Street Saturday Night

By Melissa Bratcher

Beale Street Saturday Night is a historical document that you could dance to, if you were so inclined. In 1976, James Luther (Jim) Dickinson (who played with loads of people, from the Stones to the Cramps, and produced Big Star, The Replacements, et al) set out to document the music and the musicians that played on the storied street where rock and roll arguably began. He recorded blues musicians at home, at clubs, and at the Orpheum theater, creating a sonic trip with spoken reminiscences from the artists cut in to their songs. The resulting album, Beale Street Saturday Night, was released in a limited run in 1978 and fetches astounding prices for original copies.

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Music Review: The Damnwells, The Damnwells

By Melissa Bratcher

On the song “Too Old To Die Young” from their self-titled album, The Damnwells’ Alex Dezen sings, “We could have been Everclear.” Herein lies the problem with the record. The Damnwells make accessible pop/rock that would not be radio-unfriendly in the mid-’80s to ‘90s. It seems wholly inspired by The Outfield (sans clarion vocals) or the Goo Goo Dolls. Someone likes that sort of thing; those bands sold lots of records. It’s just not inspiring music. It’s not music that makes you yearn for more, music that makes you feel something, that makes you excited, happy, mournful. It’s the one-ply toilet paper of music. And the Damnwells’ new album is that. Meh.

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Music Review: Wire, WIRE

By Jeffery X Martin

“Seminal” is a funny word which makes the 12-year-old boy who still lives inside my adult body giggle. Yet, this is the word most often used to describe the band, Wire. They are a “seminal” New Wave band. Maybe they’re a “seminal” art punk band. They might be simply a “seminal” rock band.

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Music Review: Todd Rundgren, Global

By Jeffery X Martin

Nobody writes a lead-off single like Todd Rundgren. When that guy is on, he is all the way on. “Evrybody” is no exception. With its simple demand to clap your hands and some clever lyrics, this is the closest thing to a rave-up you’ll find on Rundgren’s new album, Global. It’s also enough to make you believe, at least for a moment, that he’s made another fantastic record.

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Music Review: Ray Wylie Hubbard, The Ruffian’s Misfortune

By Melissa Bratcher

Ray Wylie Hubbard is the kind of artist that it takes the world a bit to catch up with. Making a sort of bluesy, country-tinged, mystic-thinking, completely rocking sound, he should have been huge in the Outlaw Country days. Instead, his fame was mostly limited to Texas, despite having made critically acclaimed albums.

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Music Review: Folk Family Revival, Water Walker

By Melissa Bratcher

I had such high hopes for Folk Family Revival’s Water Walker on the strength of the opening song, “If It Don’t Kill You.” It’s an edgy, urgent, dark-feeling, guitar-driven tune with some pleasing, unforced vocals from singer Mason Langford (and nice siren-like backing vocals). It’s a good opener, one that feels as if there are real stakes here: something is going to happen.

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Music Review: Limblifter, Pacific Milk

By Tyler Hodg

A band can be either one of two things: a fragile organism that needs complete concentration to succeed, or a project that possesses a special kind of chemistry that allows it to be picked up at a moment’s notice and still work wonderfully. In the case of Limblifter, who have returned to the studio after nearly 10 years to record and release their fourth album Pacific Milk, it is the latter. It seems as though time away served the band for the better because not only is Pacific Milk a solid album, it may be their best to date.

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Indiegogo Campaign: Creature Feature Horror Film The Void

By Less Lee Moore

As the film’s Indiegogo page states:

“The Void is an original horror film from writer/director team Steven Kostanski & Jeremy Gillespie. Best known for their work as part of the Astron-6 collective (Manborg, Father’s Day), they are also design and FX veterans of major Hollywood productions (Pacific Rim, Robocop, NBC’s Hannibal).”

“With this project we are pooling over ten years of experience to conjure up a terrifying film that will combine the aesthetic attitude of modern horror cinema as it emerged in the 1970s with the splatter and sophisticated practical special effects that ruled the creature features of the 1980s and early ’90s. But make no mistake, unlike Manborg and Father’s Day, this time we aren’t joking around. We are committed to introducing audiences to a unique horror-mythology.”

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Music Review: Wand, Golem

By Less Lee Moore

Last year, Wand released a killer album called Ganglion Reef (review), which included a righteous track called “Flying Golem.” This year, they’ve picked up where they left off with an album named after that mythological creature. I’m not sure why they’re so fascinated with beings brought to life from inanimate matter, but the word “Golem” does provide the kind of fantastic imagery that befits their music.

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Music Review: Jellyfish, Bellybutton and Spilt Milk (Deluxe Reissues)

By Less Lee Moore

Like Big Star before them, Jellyfish developed a cult-like fandom that’s far exceeded not only their rather limited output, but also their impact on music charts. Omnivore Recordings, who recently released the soundtrack to the Big Star documentary Nothing Can Hurt Me, has now given the same loving treatment to the Jellyfish legacy with two new reissues of their studio albums—1990’s Bellybutton and 1993’s Spilt Milk—that include a ton of sensational extras, like 51 bonus tracks, full color gatefold sleeves with rare photos, two essays by Ken Sharp, and song-by-song commentary on the original albums from Andy Sturmer, Roger Manning, and Jason Falkner.

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