Saturday, November 28, 2009

Tom Waits - Glitter And Doom Live

I'm going to break one of my rules. I don't normally fill my pages here with live albums or reissues or compilations. It's too easy to rave over what you obviously already liked when you started. They generally already include your favorite songs. I'm making the exception here, because, well... for several reasons.

1.) It's late November. People don't release new albums this time of year. That's because the record buying public is only buying the compilations and reissues and packages for Christmas gifts. 2.) Tom Waits is awesome, is awesome live, and I'm really excited to get to this. and... 3.) I'm on it. (I was at the Columbus show).

The album was recorded over his entire Glitter And Doom tour, which was just a random collection of shows that he made well after his latest release, which was a rarities compilation. The set-lists varied a bit, but not too much from show to show. What is included here is a collection of songs from the latest part of his career, all since his last live album in 1986.

Waits parts his time between the two vocal styles that he's used in this part of his career. The cool cat jazz whisperer and the gruff drunk howl. It is a live effort and time has passed, so I certainly wouldn't expect Tom to display the dynamics that he had, but I'm still questioning why he chose to use the gruff style here for a couple songs that was whispy on the studio version.

A highlight is "Falling Down", a favorite of mine which was recently covered quite blandly by Scarlett Johansson. The version here replaces the Northern-Isle folk gospel feel for something more '60s blues, trading the horns for piano. "Make It Rain" absolutely rocks. It's a more desperate "I Put A Spell On You", with Tom's son hitting the shit out of his drums.

The closer, "Lucky Day" is a divine ending to the story, a train-yard scream-along that is re-done here as a beautiful funeral ballad. The 2nd disc compiles some funny stories that Tom told between some songs. And that's fine, but I wouldn't have minded seeing more of that to break up the show on disc one. (3.5 of 5 stars)

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Them Crooked Vultures

You've undoubtedly heard of this collection and have probably heard raves about it before it even started. Even just a look at the album's wikipedia page will show a collection of reviews that are all in the 90th percentile. Don't worry. I'm not going to dash your dreams and really rebuke any of those praises. But I also don't mind saying that such universal accolades are more of an idea boner related to the company we're keeping.

Them Crooked Vultures is, of course, Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and Led Zeppelin's least laid member, John Paul Jones. Two guys who have achieved greatness fronting their own bands, and all of whom who have also sprinkled their career with enough off the cuff jamming and collaborating that each of their seats here are sure to be filled with supernatural ease. Now, I'm a rock guy; so what I hear is what I know of the participants. But even if you're too cool to have listened to Foo Fighters or Queens Of The Stone Age, you can still pretend that you're serving your indie cred hipness by relating this as a recall to Nirvana or Kyuss is some massive new Desert Session project that would only be more alternative is PJ Harvey were singing.

Point taken- we're all excited by the collaboration. How does it sound? They started off with the right idea: Make the first and the last songs the best ones.

The first track "
No One Loves Me & Neither Do I" is absolutely vulgar, from the sick riff to the lecherous lyrics. It reminds me of Josh's other side of a side project, Eagles of Death Metal, except there the singer would be Jesse Hughes who would make it sound comical and fun, whereas Josh sings it straight up blasé, just like that asshole that you're probably fucking.

"Spinning In Daffodils" on the other hand is a heady lengthy jam, avoiding the trappings of success OR failure and just relishes in the experience of being high. (Drug references are abound on the record.)

With Josh leading the guitar and vocal, it sounds mostly like a Queens record than anything else. Fuzz toned '70s licks and powerhouse drums. You would be inclined when getting John Paul Jones in your band to just embrace everything Zeppelin, and the influence is there to be sure, but there's certainly no Plant ability in the group (thankfully) and versatility of Page is traded here for the Whole Lotta Love riff. Even when some organic orchestration is blended in from Jones, it's done as a subtle backing for the song than like Zeppelin, which would feature a more instrumental break.

In total, the trio absolutely plays great together (quartet live - shout out to the great Alain Johannes). Great stoner rock from great stoners. But let's be honest, take all those 90% reviews that we discussed before. Package the same songs in a QOTSA album with credits of: Written by Josh, guest drums by Dave, guest bass by John... and those reviews would get knocked down a point. The hype of the whole is greater than the sum of the songs. (3.5 of 5 stars)

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Dasboard Confessional - Alter The Ending

There's actually not a whole lot to say about this release. I had come to know and appreciate Chris Carrabba like most everyone else (or at least most teenage girls) when he switched from punk rock to acoustic coffee shop guy and pioneered this emerging "emo" thing. I would never succumb fully to the emo lifestyle, being an adult myself. But the songs rang true to the first love experience and I got to reminisce a little about my pretty little angst-filled broken hearted youthishness.

Since then, he's done very little other than than trying to expand past what people liked him for. Writing songs probably not too unlike his old songs, but adding completely unnecessary and uninspired band arrangements. Counting Crows, for example, works (works better at least) because those guys are steed in the history of Wings and James Taylor and Van Morrisson. Carrabba and surely his band, are old alt. rockers playing to some Adult Contemporary-aspiring young adults. His lyrics are succumbing to his audience instead of his first album where he's scorning his jailbait listeners.

His new album is filled with tales professing his empathy for the "Belle Of The Boulevard" and taking deep breaths from her laundry to bring back her memory. Don't get me wrong, it's not "bad" in that way of something totally sucking. There's totally an audience for this... those times when the Ellen audience wants to get "introspective" while cooking themselves a special dinner after finishing the latest Twilight novel. That audience just isn't me- and it doesn't cost me too much to come back for each album just to see if that last chick has finally broken Chris' heart again so he and I can have a beer and get back to business. (2 of 5 stars)

Saturday, November 7, 2009

People Eating People

While this group is female-fronted piano music, you're not going to mistake it for Tori Amos or even Regina Spektor. Maybe there's a bass player in here, but essentially it's piano, vocals and drums.

Nouela Johnston has been in a Seattle jazz-pop combo called Mon Frere for a while. This release probably just strips the jazz off. Her voice isn't unlike Regina's, or Norah Jones for that matter. But the tunes are a bit more riffy and the drums will keep the indie librarian chicks head-bobbing and pogo-ing.

Still, the format is a bit limiting. Maybe this album is supposed to serve as an elaborate demo. I admit, that I'm am often a minimalist when it comes to the rock scene, but it seems to me that within the realms of pop, I wouldn't mind seeing the chick singers get some larger accompaniment. I certainly am not talking about the Beyoncé autotune treatment. Just more instrumentation, a string quartet, some horns.

And Nouela deserves it. She's written strong songs that the fellas aren't going to be ashamed taking their girlfriends to go see. She never hits the gospel-blues desperate genius of Fiona Apple, but it would be a good replacement to the whiny singer-songwriter dudes recording their coup d'états in isolated forests. (3.5 of 5 stars)