{"id":16779,"date":"2019-05-10T05:30:40","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T09:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=16779"},"modified":"2021-08-16T16:08:06","modified_gmt":"2021-08-16T20:08:06","slug":"hundred-worders-for-may-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/10\/hundred-worders-for-may-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundred-worders for May 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here we go again, kids. If you\u2019ve visited Musoscribe before, you likely know the drill: new albums worth your (and my) time, covered in the tidy space of precisely 100 words each.<\/p>\n

\"\"Proper Ornaments \u2013 <\/b>6 Lenins<\/b><\/i>
\nHere\u2019s a nice one. With shades of Echo & the Bunnymen and the Church, this London group makes a shimmering, melodic music that may remind some listeners of Together Alone<\/em>-era Crowded House. There\u2019s a melancholy air that recalls Pink Floyd and Steven Wilson (to name but two) but the Proper Ornaments\u2019 foundation in straightforward pop gives the music a timeless appeal that\u2019s even more mainstream than those epic artists. If you\u2019re familiar with the Milk and Honey Band<\/a> (and if you\u2019re not, dig up their stuff \u2018cause it\u2019s great) this should be your next stop. This is their second album.<\/p>\n

\"\"Chat Noir \u2013 <\/b>Hyperuranion<\/b><\/i>
\nThe band\u2019s name is French for \u201cblack cat.\u201d And there\u2019s a mysterious, sinister aura to this music, one that draws from EDM, prog, ambient and other musical styles that employ synthesizers as a sonic tool. A sample from the Beatles\u2019 \u201cHelter Skelter\u201d adorns \u201cBlisters,\u201d but the band can take things in an atmospheric, progressive and even vaguely jazzy direction, as it does on \u201cHumanity.\u201d This is some seriously moody mood music; it\u2019s highly evocative, and comes from a similar mindset to that of, say, Jaga Jazzist. Wholly instrumental, Hyperuranion<\/i> nonetheless succeeds at conveying emotional content without the use of words.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"Greg Antista & the Lonely Streets \u2013 <\/b>Shake, Stomp and Stumble<\/b><\/i>
\nEven though my music library is overflowing, there\u2019s always space in it for hard-driving, bone-shaking rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. If you like the harder-edge Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers stuff \u2013 or most anything by the Smithereens \u2013 you\u2019re all but guaranteed to dig this. Concise, taut songs played with verve and conviction, and nary an ounce of artifice or bullshit. The title track is a kind of modern-rock answer to similarly titled classics from the old days (Shake, Rattle and Roll,\u201d \u201cFlip Flop and Fly\u201d etc.), delivered with slashing, powerful guitar work courtesy of Gretsch-wielding Jessica Kaczmarek. Most enthusiastically recommended.<\/p>\n

\"\"Brandon Santini \u2013 <\/b>The Longshot<\/b><\/i>
\nMy initial thought upon seeing the album cover was, \u201cOkay, Americana.\u201d And while there is a heartland vibe at work here, Santini is a swaggering, energetic who ultimately has more in common with JD McPherson than any assembly-line-identikit Americana act. The lyrics here are on the ordinary side (\u201cpedal to the floor\u201d and so forth) but Santini \u2013 who also wails a mean harmonica \u2013 delivers the works with enough conviction that you needn\u2019t worry. The music isn\u2019t strictly blues, but it\u2019s always bluesy. One moment he sounds like Gregg Allman; the next, he and his band roar like vintage-era Faces.<\/p>\n

\"\"Dirty Echoes \u2013 <\/b>Faketown<\/b><\/i>
\nThis music has a somewhat Knack-like poke-in-the-eye sauciness about it. The instrumentation is stripped down, punk style, but the melodies and chorus vocals take things in a direction somewhere between Cheap Trick and early \u201870s bubblegum\/glam (see also: T. Rex, Slade). In places, Dirty Echoes has a bratty-but-clever feel reminiscent of The Pursuit of Happiness or Dada; that kind of \u201890s alternarock feel serves the band well. In a singe tune, the players shift easily between Police-style faux-reggae and straight-ahead rock. Their earlier release, 2015\u2019s Rebel Movers<\/i>, sounds a bit like fellow Texan Lannie Flowers. Solid, slightly twangy modern powerpop.<\/p>\n

\"\"Emperor Penguin \u2013 <\/b>Walnut Fascia<\/b><\/i>
\nThe label confused me by sending not one but two albums from this outfit. I had to dig into the booklet to discover that one (Rum Pop Engineer\/Crumhorn<\/i>) is a compilation of album from 2000 and 2017, respectively. The other \u2013 this one – -I don\u2019t know when it\u2019s from. What I do know s that it\u2019s quite good, a muscular and hooky powerpop that immediately brings to mind Greenberry Woods. It also reminds me a bit of Matthew Sweet\u2019s music from the days when Richard Lloyd laid down lead guitar parts. That alone should sell you; otherwise, move along.<\/p>\n

\"\"Gretchen\u2019s Wheel \u2013 <\/b>Moth to Lamplight: A Tribute to Nada Surf<\/b><\/i>
\nFor a one-person band, Lindsay Murray sure is prolific. Her albums released as Gretchen\u2019s Wheel hit the sweet spot between heartland rock and a more melancholy sort of midtempo pop; both are styles I love, and her work excels. But here she channels her talents into making a tribute to one of the best (here comes that word again) powerpop bands out there. It\u2019s a labor of love to cut an album\u2019s worth of covers that most listeners won\u2019t even know (her scintillating reading of \u201cAlways Love\u201d excepted). But Murray does brilliantly with this musical mash note. Well worth hearing.<\/p>\n

\"\"Cranberries \u2013 <\/b>In the End<\/b><\/i>
\nI must admit that I\u2019m one of the relatively few who didn\u2019t much care for \u201cZombie,\u201d and I thought \u201cLinger\u201d was pretty good in a kind of post-The La\u2019s kind of style. But as so often happens, the untimely and tragic passing of lead singer Dolores O\u2019Riordan leads me toward a belated reassessment of the band\u2019s work. In the End<\/i> was completed \u201cFree as a Bird\u201d style by surviving members, with O\u2019Riordan\u2019s vocals taken from demo recordings. But it doesn\u2019t sound unfinished; the opener \u201cAll Over Know\u201d (a sad title indeed) is as good as anything the band ever did.<\/p>\n

\"\"Big Daddy Wilson \u2013 <\/b>Deep in My Soul<\/b><\/i>
\nHere\u2019s a wonderful helping of authentic Memphis soul stew. But believe it or not, Big Daddy Wilson was for many years based in Europe, not the American South. The album was cut (at least in part) at the legendary FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, and it sure sounds like it. This set might not quite scale the heights of your old Otis Redding LPs, but it\u2019s a damn fine collection nonetheless, and recommended. It drips with authenticity and conviction; Wilson\u2019s a fine and expressive vocalist in the soul tradition. Country blues, soul and r&b are all tools in his arsenal.<\/p>\n

\"\"Binky Philips and the Planets \u2013 <\/b>s\/t<\/b><\/i>
\nGuitarist Philips and his band churn out snarly, snotty rock of the kind that the New York Dolls traded in back in the \u201870s. Shouted choruses and nuthin\u2019-fancy instrumentation gets across the edgy, carrening rockers. At times, vocalist Nolan Roberts sounds a bit like Dee Snider, but for songs like \u201cSplitsville or Bust\u201d and \u201cDrinking Gasoline,\u201d that approach makes perfect sense. The band sounds like it\u2019s playing live in the studio; one can imagine the meters peaking and the tracks bleeding into one another. Ain\u2019t nothing wrong with that. It may not change your life, but it sure is fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here we go again, kids. If you\u2019ve visited Musoscribe before, you likely know the drill: new albums worth your (and my) time, covered in the tidy space of precisely 100 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16771,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,26,49,51,55,56,59,60,62,69],"tags":[3861,3862,3857,3855,3860,3858,3859,3856,947,3854,3853],"class_list":["post-16779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-electronica","category-new-release","category-pop","category-powerpop","category-prog","category-punk","category-rb","category-rawk","category-soul","tag-big-daddy-wilson","tag-binky-philips","tag-brandon-santini","tag-chat-noir","tag-cranberries","tag-dirty-echoes","tag-emperor-penguin","tag-greg-antista","tag-gretchens-wheel","tag-lindsay-murray","tag-proper-ornaments","cat-9-id","cat-26-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-55-id","cat-56-id","cat-59-id","cat-60-id","cat-62-id","cat-69-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16779","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=16779"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21432,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16779\/revisions\/21432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}