Husky - Forever So 2012

With Forever So, Australian indie folk quartet Husky present a collection of labored-over tunes, full of heart-on-the-sleeve sentiments and the combination of doe-eyed wonder and log-cabin existentialism that defines so much of the subsect of indie-based acoustic rock that followed freak folk. Opening with the softly building "Tidal Wave," Husky layer acoustic guitars, organs, shimmering electric guitar flourishes, and an ever-so-slightly psychedelic breakdown, resulting in the same kind of soul-searching arc Fleet Foxes regularly achieve, only minus that group's signature spot-on harmonies. Many of the album's 13 tracks follow closely in the footsteps of an already established act, with nods to Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear, and Midlake, and the entire album brims over with woodsy imagery and vague allusions to storms on the open sea, late-night city scenes, and uneasy emotional partings. All of the elements are placed meticulously, but when in motion, the album feels cloying, derivative at best, and boring in the most sterile of ways.
Lifeless production blends all the various instruments into a solid single color and pushes bandleader Husky Gawenda's reserved vocals into the grey blur. The album feels broadcasted in from across a canyon, reaching for emotional depth and autobiographical heaviness but never with lyrics, melodies, or performances direct enough to establish or even intone meaning in all of the void spaces left for the listener to fill in. Without making any overtly direct statements, bands like Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes broke through with the palpable, audible embodiment of heartbreak that characterized their earliest albums. Husky are lacking any of those raw nerves or experience and you can tell just by listening. Husky's naive approach is most apparent when they're trying their hardest for intensity or connection. "How Do You Feel" opens with the echoey sound of footsteps down a hallway and the lyrics "How do you feel?/I feel like I just killed a man/It doesn't feel real." The heavy-handedness is embarrassingly green and so serious it can only feel insincere. WhenHusky let their guard down somewhat, inspiration starts to show through the cracks, as on parts of the album's closing suite, "Farewell (In 3 Parts)." Classic rock harmonies à la the Beach Boys or CSNYsupport three partially finished and strung-together song fragments, and these salvaged afterthoughts are the most honest-feeling moments of the album. But sincerity isn't the main issue with Forever So. While the album has its share of pretty melodies and even some gently beautiful moments, it's mostly a string of unremarkable songs built on platitudes, searching for reason and resolution but ultimately coming up empty-handed. AMG.

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Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band - Bird Heard Song 2009

Bird Head Son is a 2009 album by poet Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band. It was recorded in just two days in March 2008 in Meudon, France and produced by Antoine Rajon. It is the bands sophomore studio album following 2007's Leggo de Lion. During the sessions, 20 songs were recorded live in the studio with no overdubs. The album features an expanded Spasm Band line up, a septet instead of the quartet that recorded the previous album, as well as guest performers Keziah Jones, Defunkt founder Joseph Bowie, David Neerman and Jamika Ajalon. A 3 track EP La Diablese was released by Heavenly Sweetness in July 2008. It included the tracks Vero, Robberman (both included on the Bird Head Son album) and a version of the Mighty Shadow's Poverty is Hell. The album was released in January 2009 by Naive/Heavenly Sweetness. Joseph's 3rd collection of poetry, also entitled Bird Head Son was published by Salt Publishing on February 7, 2009 to coincide with the UK release of the album, it features all the lyrics from the album.

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Grant Green - Blue Breakbeats 1998

Blue Breakbeats is an essential collection of six of the funkiest breakbeat heavy songs in Grant Green's deep Blue Note catalog. Prolifically sampled by beat thirsty hip-hop producers and stylistically influential in separating Green from Wes Montgomery's ever-looming shadow, these songs were compiled from Green Is Beautiful, Visions, Alive!, Carryin' On, and The Final Come Down by DJ Smash. While certainly nothing new here for the collector, it's a great starter piece for newcomers and those seeking out the original breaks sampled over and over on late 20th century hip-hop records. Playful grooves and classic drumbeats thump underneath some of the slickest jazz guitar work of the 1970s, while stellar instrumentation alone is worth the price of admission. With it being said that these groundbreaking Blue Note soul/jazz records are the foundation of hip-hop, these cuts are brick-by-brick testimonials. AMG.

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Deep Banana Blackout - Live in the Thousand Islands 2002

The group Deep Banana Blackout, who started in 1995, displays a wide variety of influences: rock, funk, soul, jazz, Latin, and psychedelia. On a more general level, because of their following, busy touring schedule, and skills at improvisation, they are considered a jam band. The group's albums include Live in the Thousand Islands (1997) and Rowdy Duty (1999). The band released 2001's Feel the Peel on Flying Frog Records, the label founded by Allman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks. In fact, Deep Banana Blackout has toured with the Allman Brothers, with several DBB members joining the legendary group for their set. In 2000, Hope Clayburn (saxophones, flute, vocals) and B. Smith(trombone, tuba, vocals) joined the collective. The rest of the band consists of: Fuzz (guitar, vocals), Rob Somerville (saxophone, vocals), Cyrus Madan (keyboards, vocals), Benj LeFevre (bass), Eric Kalb (drums), and Johnny Durkin (percussion). AMG.

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Boris Garcia - Once More Into the Bliss 2008

Philadelphia, PA-based progressive bluegrass band Boris Garcia began as a recording unit rather than a performing ensemble and was really more of a lark than a serious project at its inception. The five musicians -- Jeff Otto(ukulele, bass, guitar, slide, and vocals), Gene Smith(recorder, harmonica, guitar, and vocals), Bob Stirner (lead guitar, bass, and vocals), Stephe Ferraro (drums and percussion), and Bud Burroughs (mandolin, bouzouki, and accordion), sharing a love of bluegrass, decided to make an album together. It was called Boris Garcia's Family Reunion, and they released it in 2005 on their own Porchwerk Music label. Only after the disc's release did the band began taking gigs in and around Philadelphia and building up a following. They released their second album, Mother's Finest, on June 27, 2006, by which time they had been invited to play on the main stage of the Philadelphia Folk Festival. AMG.

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Tumbleweed Junction - Outlaws Forever 2007

Jam band Tumbleweed Junction was formed in northwestern Pennsylvania by Mark Benson (guitar, vocals, mandolin, harmonica), Peter Haver (guitar, vocals), Justin Meyers (bass), and Dave Stephen (drum, percission). They worked the regional frat and bar circuit before relocating to Atlanta, GA in 1995, where their unique mix of rock, blues and jazz (with just a tinge of acoustic bluegrass) earned them a reputation as a live act. Their self-produced debut album, Out of Ford City, was released on their own Tumbleweed label in 1998. AMG.

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Chris Thompson - Won't Lie Down 2001

Chris Thompson has been on the cutting edge of rock for nearly three decades. The lead vocalist on Manfred Mann's Earth Band's chart-topping 1976 hit version of Bruce Springsteen's "Blinded by the Light," Thompson has continued to make his presence felt. His distinctive vocals can be heard on albums by Elton John, the Doobie Brothers, Ozzy Osbourne, Tina Turner, Ray Charles, John Farnham, and Jefferson Starship, who covered his tune "Blaze of Love" in 1989, as well as eight albums with Manfred Mann's Earth Band. Thompson's songs have been covered by the Doobie Brothers, Michael MacDonald, Heart, and Isaac Hayes. He co-wrote seven songs, and sang two, in the film Fire and Ice. Thompson has been involved with a number of bands besides Manfred Mann's Earth Band. He formed Night, a Los Angeles-based pop band, in 1979, shortly after leaving Manfred Mann's Earth Band. During the three years that he performed with the group, he recorded two singles that reached the Top 20 -- "Hot Summer Nights" and "If You Remember Me," the theme song of the film The Champ. Thompson collaborated with ex-Doobie Brothers vocalist/guitarist Patrick Simmons on Simmon's debut solo album, Arcade, co-writing and singing on the Top 20 hit, "So Wrong." In 1993, he began a long involvement with keyboardist/composer Alan Parsons.
The American-distributed version of Parsons' 1995 album, The Very Best Live, featured a studio recording of "You're the Voice," featuring Thompson's vocals. Thompson has also been closely aligned with Queen. The group's guitarist, Brian May, was featured on his second solo album, Radio Waves, in 1985. At the Freddy Mercury Tribute Concert at Wombley Stadium in 1992, Thompson rehearsed the band and guest artists. The following year, he participated in Brian May's solo tour of South America. Born in England, Thompson grew up in New Zealand, where he formed a band, Hilbery Walker. Returning to the United Kingdom in 1974, he joined Manfred Mann's Earth Band two years later. Although he left the group in 1978, he returned to help finish the album, Somewhere in Afrika, in 1982. Together with drummer John Lingwood, he produced a live album and video, Live in Budapest. Thompson has recorded several hits on his own. In 1986, his song "The Challenge" was adopted as the theme of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships and became a number one hit in Germany. His fourth solo album, Beat of Love, released in 1991, included "The Joker," which was used as the theme song of a popular television show, Jolly Joker, and became a Top Ten German hit. He performed the theme song of another German TV series, Florida Lady, in 1994. In 2000, Thompson signed a worldwide songwriter deal with the London-based Notting Hill Music company. AMG.

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Bad Livers - Delusion Of Banjer 1992

Upon first listen, the Bad Livers' debut recording sounds like a good, old-timey bluegrass album, but by the time the tuba enters on the third track, you begin to realize that this is not your average bluegrass combo. Danny Barnes has got the chops on both guitar and banjo, and sings in a voice no more nasal than many of the genre's stalwarts. He can even write tunes that stand rather nicely next to traditional tunes and Reno & Smiley. Then there's "Shit Creek" and "The Adventures of Pee Pee the Sailor," a Butthole Surfers cover no less; and the mere presence of tuba and accordion almost assuring turned-up noses by the hardcore bluegrass crowd. But that's the beauty of the Bad Livers -- they love all sorts of music and aren't afraid to incorporate them in any way they see fit; a characteristic that would infuriate some fans later on in their career. On Delusions of Banjer, the sound remains mostly traditional, even when the subject matter may not be. Mark Rubin and Ralph White provide fine support, but the real focus is Danny Barnes. His songwriting ranges from "Shit Creek" to the beautiful bluegrass gospel of "Precious Time" and "How Dark My Shadow's Grown" to the murder ballad "Pretty Daughter"; and his guitar and banjo playing are both stellar. Delusions of Banjer is a great record that may not appeal directly to all bluegrass fans, but whose irreverent attitude and sense of humor might be just the ticket to attract other people curious about the genre, or those simply in search of an old-timey good time. AMG.

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White Hills - H-p1 2011

Evoking the spirit and sound of space rock pioneers likeHawkwind, White Hills capture the expansive rock sound of the '70s with their brand of trippy, synth-heavy rock & roll. Formed in New York City as the brainchild of singer and guitarist Dave W., the band also consisted of bassist Ego Sensation and drummer Lee Hinshaw; they got their first break when Julian Cope released their album They've Got Blood Like We've Got Blood on his own label in 2005. This kicked off a prolific string of releases, starting in 2007 withAbstractions & Mutations, released on Drug Space, and the self-released Glitter Glamour Atrocity (which was reissued by Thrill Jockey in 2014). Keeping the albums coming, the band self-released Little Bliss Forever in 2009, as well as Dead and Heads on Fire, both released by Thrill Jockey. In 2010, the expansive trio hooked up with Manchester-based psychedelic drone collective Gnod for Gnod Drop Out with White Hills II. The collaborations continued with the self-titled White Hills, which featured fellow New Yorker and Oneida drummer Kid Million on drums. Keeping the Oneida connection strong, the band returned to its Ocropolis studio to work on their next album with Shahin Motia, resulting in 2011's H-p1. Not wasting any time, the band went back into the studio later that year, bringing synth player (and Julian Cope drummer) Antronhy and touring drummer Nick Name into the studio with them to record the spacy and more refined Frying on This Rock, which was released in 2012. A fair amount of touring and smaller releases filled up 2012, with several live recordings and split releases leading up to 2013's bludgeoning full-length So You Are... So You'll Be. AMG.

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Eli Young Band - Live At The Jolly Fox 2006

Some call Eli Young a country artist, but his music could just as easily fall under the roots-rock umbrella. The Texas-based Eli Young band is part of the grass-roots Red Dirt scene, where country and organic, hard-driving roots-rock intertwine. The Red Dirt scene is centered on live shows, so the Live At The Jolly Fox album is unsurprisingly the best way to hear Young and his band, as they rip through rockers like "Drive Away" and "Guardian Angel," with loud, dirty guitars blazing. AMG.

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Richard Buckner - Our Blood 2011

No matter the medium of expression, songwriter Richard Buckner has been stubbornly mining the same vein his entire career, a Sisyphian struggle that delights his fans. Even on The Hill -- where he set poems from the Spoon River Anthology to music -- Buckner has looked incessantly at loneliness, betrayal, loss, displacement, yearning, and ennui to inform his lyric vision. What it all leads to is an impressive, stubborn, dark body of work that looks deeply into the interiority and detail of human interaction. His sonic approaches have changed, and are most ambitious on Our Blood, where the use of vintage keyboards equals the space taken up by guitars. Our Blood is Buckner's first recording since 2006's Meadow. He endured numerous obstacles along the way: broken gear resulting in the album's loss, the later theft of a laptop containing his new mixes and more astonishing ones. These nine new songs are a quiet, atmospheric, aural portrait of struggle, confusion, frustration, and the inability to surrender. Buckner produced and played all the instruments with the exception of pedal steel -- played by Buddy Cage on three cuts -- and maracas by Steve Shelley on another. Malcolm Burn mixed. Electric guitars and Cage's steel adorn "Traitor." It most closely resembles -- in form and sentiment -- the songs on his landmark Bloomed album, but its texture is radically different; it's a love song of the most strained variety. On "Thief," pulsing organs and a Wurlitzer piano interact with tom-toms and guitars as Buckner exhorts "Give it back, broken-in and stolen from the mourning....watching the gone go by, baited and kept alive, shaking you loose...." While it's an accusation, it's also a plea: in spite of everything, he longs for the thief's return, forgiveness already in place. 
"Collusion" is ushered in by guitars before synths enter after the first verse, and observes failure and loneliness by a narrator who empathically describes the dissolution of the song's subject and situation. Even the instrumental "Ponder," with its faux-flamenco guitars, harmonium, marimbas, and lilting piano lines broods and bleeds. "Confession," beginning with just an acoustic guitar, is as naked Buckner gets. He asks his age-old question in the opening lines, within and without: "We must've been carried away/And where are we now?...." In "Hindsight," another track with Cage and guitars colored by synths and electric piano, he simply explains that this is yet another case of opportunity either taken away by fate or by personal failure. That said, the song, with his trademark, authentic architecture of melodrama, approaches the sublime. All of the songs on Our Blood, as tragic and resigned as they may be, contain a trace of restrained fury that threatens to expose itself often, but never takes the bait. What remains is an unsettled acceptance without surrender. Our Blood, with its tattered, frayed grace, reflects Buckner's compellingly listenable, weary yet stubborn poetic journey, for answers to questions -- both past and and present, elliptical and enormous --that lie just beyond his grasp. AMG.

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Edward Ka-Spel - Red Letters 1999

The various reds of rage, love, apocalyptic prophecy, and taboo inform Red Letters, 2000's song-cycle offering from the pen of Legendary Pink Dots frontman and tortured poet Edward Ka-Spel. Bobbing amid the album's sad, sweet, slow-motion synth swells are some of the most forlorn and lonely words Ka-Spel has ever set to music. His familiar lost-in-space whisper seems content enough amid the star-streaked haze of the opening "Radio 6"; but Red Letters broadcasts a profound sense of alienation as it unfolds. Ka-Spel trudges with gloomy resolve through pretty but pained chord changes, a despondent song on his lips.

Dominated by candy-tone keyboards, hypnotic loops, and dazed chamber-music arrangements, Red Letters' more mirthful moments recall not only the Dots' first four full-lengths (as do most Ka-Spel solo albums), but also the late-'80s solo work of Wire's Colin Newman. The mystical "Illumina 3/ The Carrier," "Grooovy," and the closing medley wind through sample-warped atmospheric fronts, brushing against trippy, dub-circus beats. "Seeing Red" stands out as Red Letters' Ka-Spel classic, its obliquely doleful lyrics set to music of aching loveliness--including a memorable coda of psychedelic orchestration. AMG.

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Deuter - Eternity 2009

Like many artists in the contemporary instrumental realm,Deuter mixes acoustic and electronic instruments, ethnic influences, and sounds from nature -- only he's been doing it since the early '70s. Born in the German village of Falkenhagen, Deuter learned flute and taught himself to play guitar but was discouraged from pursuing music as a career. The trauma of a nearly fatal auto accident in 1970, however, motivated him to pursue his dreams. His first recording, D, was released on Kuckuck in 1971. Over the years, Deuter's spiritual search has taken him around the world, most notably to India, where he lived on an ashram, studied Indian music, and recorded several albums. In the mid '80s he moved to the US, eventually settling in Santa Fe, NM. Deuter's style is characterized by gentle melodies and joyful rhythms that render his music accessible even as he presents an intriguing blend of Eastern and Western styles. AMG.

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