{"id":6710,"date":"2014-11-27T05:30:33","date_gmt":"2014-11-27T10:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=6710"},"modified":"2014-11-27T05:30:33","modified_gmt":"2014-11-27T10:30:33","slug":"a-thanksgiving-feast-of-mini-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2014\/11\/27\/a-thanksgiving-feast-of-mini-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"A Thanksgiving Feast of Mini-reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

Customarily, I take Thanksgiving Day<\/a> off from posting to the blog (it’s one of very few days in which I do that). In fact I generally write the pieces days in advance, so trust me: I am taking today off with family. But for anyone who tunes in today or after, I present a few short-form album reviews. The theme here is new music that seeks to pay tribute to music and\/or artists from the past. My (as always, wholly arbitrary) word limit for each of these is 150 words.<\/p>\n

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\nThe Call \u2013 <\/strong>A Tribute to Michael Been<\/strong><\/em>
\nSanta Cruz, CA-based straight-ahead rock band The Call<\/strong> was one of those curious bands who got some critical cred, despite other styles having taken over as the rock du jour<\/em> (See also: Grant Lee Buffalo<\/strong>.) No less a light than Todd Rundgren<\/strong><\/a> regularly covered \u201cAnd the Walls Came Down\u201d \u2013 The Call’s signature tune \u2013 in live shows, for whatever reason (he also did Red Rider<\/strong>‘s \u201cLunatic Fringe,\u201d so, I dunno.) Leader Michael Been<\/strong> died of a heart attack in 2010; his son Robert<\/strong> (of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club<\/strong>) collaborated with the surviving band members. This album (CD+DVD) is a live concert document of that one-off performance. The set is expertly played and sung, but the mix is lifeless: as a direct result, the whole affair fails to excite as it should. In this role, Been sounds unlike his BRMC material, favoring a vocal style closer to that of Bono<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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\nHere Comes the Reign Again: The Second British Invasion<\/strong><\/em>
\nI’ve always held that a good song is a good song, and stands up to reinterpretation in many styles. Clearly those involved in this album agree: a collection of 27 songs \u2013 from what we could rightly call the MTV music era \u2013 recasts pop songs in a modern-rock\/pop format. There are lots of winners here; Chris<\/strong> (Fountains of Wayne<\/strong><\/a>) Collingwood<\/strong>‘s cover of The Dream Academy<\/strong><\/a>‘s \u201cLife in a Northern Town\u201d opens the set in delightful fashion. Several of the artists manage to add heft to what otherwise might be thought of as lightweight piffle (\u201cRelax\u201d). A few covers hew too close to the originals to make the exercise worthwhile (\u201cWest End Girls,\u201d \u201cTrue\u201d), but overall this is an excellent set from the same high-concept folks who brought you Drink a Toast to Innocence<\/a><\/em>. People on Vacations<\/strong>‘ shimmering rethink of Bananarama<\/strong>‘s \u201cCruel Summer\u201d is delightful. A few missteps, nonetheless essential.<\/p>\n

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\nLight My Fire: A Classic Rock Salute to The Doors<\/strong><\/em>
\nOverstuffing a project with talent \u2013 the kitchen sink approach \u2013 is no surefire recipe for success. So bringing together 45 male rock stars for a Doors<\/strong> tribute<\/a> doesn’t mean the results will be any good. As with many of these things, it’s a Billy Sherwood<\/strong><\/a> project; Sherwood (who plays bass on nearly all tracks) likely laid down reference demos for everybody to follow for their flown-in parts. Lesser lights (the late Jimi Jamison<\/strong>) share the spotlight with some big names. Larry Coryell<\/strong><\/a> reminds us that he can rock. Lou Gramm<\/strong> shows us why he’s not fronting Foreigner<\/strong> any more. Leslie West<\/strong> solos all over \u201cRoadhouse Blues,\u201d wasting Brian Auger<\/strong>‘s presence. Yes<\/strong>‘ Tony Kaye<\/strong> and Steve Cropper<\/strong><\/a>? Okay: that’s<\/em> an interesting pairing. Robert Gordon<\/strong>‘s vocals on \u201cTouch Me\u201d are positively gruesome. \u201cLight My Fire\u201d reunites Steve Howe<\/strong><\/a> and Rick Wakeman<\/strong><\/a>. The Jim Morrison<\/strong>-as-a-winged-Jesus <\/strong>cover art is good for a laugh.<\/p>\n

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\nGarden Music Project: Inspyred by Syd Barrett’s Artwork<\/strong><\/em>
\nThis project differs significantly from the three discussed above. All of the sounds here are original music, inspired by the work of Pink Floyd<\/strong> founder Syd Barrett<\/strong>. But not by his music: no, the songs are a product of synesthesia (simply put: hearing colors) experienced viewing the paintings Barrett did in his cloistered, post-Floyd days. True, that concept reads a bit gimmicky, but the results are quite interesting. The four piece group that produced this work are European musicians following the lead of artist Adriana Rubio<\/strong>, who spearheaded and produced the session. The vocals (by guitarist Alexander Ditzend<\/strong>) are reminiscent of \u201cBaby’s On Fire\u201d era Brian Eno<\/strong><\/a>, and Stefan Ditzend<\/strong>‘s sax work recalls Psychedelic Furs<\/strong><\/a> circa Forever Now<\/em>. Musically, the style does favor Syd-era Floyd, but then it would, wouldn\u2019t it? It’s appealing, retro-minded modern psych, like Robyn Hitchcock<\/strong><\/a> used to do. Enjoyable even without knowing (or appreciating) the backstory.<\/p>\n

Happy Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

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\nwhen new features, reviews and essays are published.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Customarily, I take Thanksgiving Day off from posting to the blog (it’s one of very few days in which I do that). In fact I generally write the pieces days […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,49,50,55,57,62,65],"tags":[880,1705,2108,2136,2144,2154],"class_list":["post-6710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-compilation","category-new-release","category-new-wave","category-powerpop","category-psych","category-rawk","category-review","tag-garden-music-project","tag-pink-floyd","tag-syd-barrett","tag-thanksgiving","tag-the-call","tag-the-doors","cat-19-id","cat-49-id","cat-50-id","cat-55-id","cat-57-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6710","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=6710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6710\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}