{"id":12717,"date":"2017-05-18T05:30:43","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T09:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=12717"},"modified":"2017-05-18T08:08:24","modified_gmt":"2017-05-18T12:08:24","slug":"capsule-review-for-may-2017-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2017\/05\/18\/capsule-review-for-may-2017-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Capsule Reviews for May 2017, Part One"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Thank You, Friends<\/b><\/i> (Concord Bicycle Music)
\nI remember a time when seemingly nobody knew about Big Star; happily for me, that was about the time I found \u201cnew old stock\u201d vinyl copies of #1 Record<\/i> and Radio City<\/i> in a local record store. I was immediately hooked. As is its character, Big Star’s Third<\/i> album took a lot monger to grow on me. Fast forward several decades, and Big Star is nearly a household name (at least among music fiends). This all-star production (2CDs and a DVD of the same performance) is a wonderful and loving tribute, and if some of my music friends have criticized the whole venture as a shade too \u201cpretty\u201d (meaning, not as sloppy and dissolute as the original Third<\/i> sessions), well, hey, that’s okay by me. Starring Mike Mills, Jon Auer, Mitch Easter, Chris Stamey, Jeff Tweedy, Robyn Hitchcock and many others of similar stature.<\/p>\n

\"\"Blackfoot Gypsies \u2013 <\/b>To the Top<\/b><\/i> <\/b>(Plowboy Records)
\nOn first sight of the cover art, I didn’t know what to make of this set. It looked to me like a cross between Guns N’ Roses’ Slash and some kind of Americana (guys with hats). Alas, no: To the Top<\/i> has far more in common with the Shadows of Knight, the Seeds and other wonderfully sloppy\/thrashy bands of the 1960s. This is rock ‘n’ roll the way it’s supposed to be played: full of verve and abandon, where energy and we-mean-it-man attitude counts far more than chops. But in fact thee guys can play: \u201cEverybody’s Watching\u201d sounds like Amboy Dukes back when asshole-in-chief Ted Nugent wasn’t running the band. There’s a bluesy undercurrent to the band \u2013 one closer to Blues Magoos and Shadows of Knight than, say, John Lee Hooker \u2013 that suggests Blackfoot Gyspies might even catch on to the mainstream. We shall see.<\/p>\n

\"\"Max Bouratoglou \u2013 <\/b>Idle Intuition<\/b><\/i> (self-released)
\nLet’s face facts: a self-released disc from a teenage artist faces a pretty big hurdle to attract my notice. There are simply too may major-label (not to mention indie) artists vying for the attention of this humble reviewer. But for whatever reason, I gave this a spin, and it’s well-crafted pop with a level of musical sophistication one wouldn’t necessarily expect from a 16-year-old. No doubt it helps that Ken Stringfellow (Big Star, the Posies) produced, engineered, mixed and played half of the instruments. But young Mr. Bouratoglou is the songwriter, and his tunes are sturdy and packed with requisite hooks. Once they’ve heard this disc, fans of Stringfellow’s brand of melodic pop will understand what drew him to the project. Though his name doesn’t roll off the tongue, Bouratoglou is one to watch.<\/p>\n

\"\"Cait Brennan \u2013 <\/b>Third<\/b><\/i> (Omnivore Recordings)
\nIt’s pure coincidence that so many of the reviews in this pile have at least a tangential connection to Big Star. Brennan’s album was recorded at Ardent in Memphis, and of course the title is an unabashed reference to Alex Chilton’s old band. But far from being a Big Star pastiche, Third<\/i> draws much of its inspiration from more high-profile sources. I hear early Wings, Sweet and similar early ’70s rocking ear candy in Brennan’s songs. Aided by the omnipresent super-musical utility man Fernando Perdomo, Brennan has made a fine album. \u201cStack Overflow\u201d rocks hard while \u201cHe Knows Too Much\u201d smolders. And \u201cAt the End of the World \u201c is an understated ballad. Which is to say that Third<\/i> is pleasingly varied. Seasoned music listeners will recognize the myriad well-worn musical tropes in which Brennan revels here \u2013 Third<\/em> all but screams 1970s \u2013 but that won’t take away from deep enjoyment of the album, not one bit.<\/p>\n

\"\"Deep Purple \u2013 <\/b>Infinite<\/b><\/i> <\/b>(Ear Music)
\nI can hear you asking: \u201cWait, are these guys still together?\u201d Yes, they are. \u201cWell, who’s in the band \u2026 any names I’d recognize?\u201d Quite so, I’d say: Ian Gillan on vocals, Ian Paice on drums, Roger Glover on bass, Steve Morse (from Dixie Dregs, once upon a time) on guitar, and longtime keyboardist Don Airey. All the songs are credited to the whole band (‘cept a Doors cover), and DP’s primordial riffage approach is intact as the band approaches its 50th<\/sup> anniversary. Producer Bob Ezrin \u2013 a guy who knows a thing or two about how to record a hard rock band \u2013 does a fine job here. There’s an occasional slight misstep (the chanted vocals on \u201cTime for Bedlam\u201d might be more at home on a Spinal Tap album), and there’s profligate use of \u201cshit\u201d and \u201cpiss\u201d in the lyrics, but as a whole, Infinite<\/i> is a solid album very much in the style of classic Deep Purple. Airey in particular does a fine job of evoking Purple of old, and is quite suitable replacement for the dearly departed organist Jon Lord. Morse cranks things up Ritchie Blackmore style, but doesn’t lose his own personality in the process. Bonus points for inner sleeve art that riffs on Deep Purple in Rock<\/i>; the graphic suggests Deep Purple on Ice<\/i>, but Infinite<\/i> proves that Deep Purple \u2013 currently on its \u201cLong Goodbye\u201d tour \u2013 is not ready for cold storage just yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thank You, Friends (Concord Bicycle Music) I remember a time when seemingly nobody knew about Big Star; happily for me, that was about the time I found \u201cnew old stock\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12734,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,49,51,55,62,65],"tags":[307,3047,3049,651,3048,1622],"class_list":["post-12717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-garage","category-new-release","category-pop","category-powerpop","category-rawk","category-review","tag-big-star","tag-blackfoot-gypsies","tag-cait-brennan","tag-deep-purple","tag-max-bouratouglou","tag-omnivore-recordings","cat-33-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-55-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12717"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12739,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12717\/revisions\/12739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}