Repost: Music Review3/24-3/28

This week in music has been really dull. Nothing too exciting came out, and the things that did, really weren’t that great (Counting Crows (yawn), Panic At the Disco (emo guys pretending to be pop), etc.). That being said, next week is shaping up to be a two-parter type of week with R.E.M., Black Keys, and Sun Kil Moon coming out…but that is next week. So…on to this week…

Must Buy:

The only must by this week is Consolers of the Lonely by The Raconteurs. For the uninformed, this is the band that Jack White and Brendan Benson formed on a whim while Mr. White was on a break from touring. The sound of the band remains unchanged from what listeners heard on Broken Boy Soldiers (think early White Stripes with a bass) but that is not a bad thing. This is dirty blues oriented rock and roll…in other words…real rock and roll. It is nice to hear that as the White Stripes spiral into a stranger sound (as much as you want to deny it, you know that it’s true) The Raconteurs serve as a more straightforward outlet for its members. The album starts with the title track, which has a fuzzed out vintage sound from the 70’s and also a fun time playing with the tempo throughout. The standout tracks on the album are "You Don’t Understand Me", "Top Yourself" and "Attention". "You Don’t Understand Me" starts off with a rolling piano riff and quickly turns into a good old fashioned sing-along with the chorus. This is not the first time or the last time that listening to this album I was reminded of Paul McCartney. "Top Yourself" is really what Ryan Adams should be writing these days instead of anything and everything that comes into his head (I realize that he’s a prolific and talented songwriter, but where’s the self editing…or even the label saying…hey…maybe FOUR albums in one year isn’t such a great idea…especially when, if you took all four of those albums and picked out the best songs it would make one great album). Sorry about the rant…anyways…the basic for this song are a banjo (sweet) and a slide guitar (even sweeter). If that doesn’t sell you, then there’s just no hope. "Attention" really got my attention (sorry…I just had to) because it starts out with a fuzzed out bass solo and turns into the greatest song Cheap Trick never wrote, complete with the call out and echo chorus. The only thing that concerns me about this album, is the fact that they didn’t even announce that they had recorded it until last week when they announced the release date…hmmm…that makes me think of the movies that you know are awful that they don’t screen for critics, and I’m afraid that may be what many people fear of this album before even hearing it.

Vintage from the Vault:

This week’s vintage artist is The Jesus and Mary Chain. Seeing that Rhino just reissued their entire catalog (minus Munki, which came out on Sub Pop and has stayed in print) I thought it would be time to talk about one of the most influential bands you’ve never heard of. Long before Noel and Liam Gallagher were taking sibling rivalries to a new height, there were Jim and William Reid. These guys made fighting with each other and their fans an art form. One of my favorite stories goes that when they were preparing for a show in ’84 the purposely set up their gear so that their backs would be facing the audience. This in turn started a riot and the show ended after 10 minutes (which was apparently quite common in their early days). My personal experience with JAMC is nothing as exciting, but they do put on one hell of a live show. As far as their music goes you really have to start with Automatic, which is the album that falls at the center of their career (subsequently it is also the album that gets name checked the most: see "Authority Song" by Jimmy Eat World, "We Looked Like Giants" by Death Cab For Cutie and the kick @$$ cover of "Head On" by The Pixies…see…they were influential). While this is not my favorite album (Psychocandy still holds that place in my heart), it is the most immediately accessible. The albums before this one tend to have a Phil Spectorish wall of sound made out of feedback. The most recognizable song from this era, thanks to its key involvement in the movie, Lost in Translation, is "Just Like Honey" from Psychocandy. The era after Automatic runs through the gamut of controversial (Honey’s Dead), acoustic with feedback (Stoned and Dethroned) and experimental (Munki) with a couple of soundtracks thrown in there (The Crow…where a lot of you have probably heard the song "Snakedriver" and not even realized it). Generally speaking the production got better, but the toll of tremendous drug use and squabbling began to tear the group apart. By the infamous House of Blues concert in ’98 the band members were hardly speaking and it all came to a crashing end after the show started with Jim hardly able to speak or stand due to the amount of alcohol and/or drugs he had taken and William walking off stage 15 minutes into the set and ultimately out of the band. Thankfully we have this week’s reissues (which in actuality are the same as the 2006 reissues without the dualdisc DVD side) and a brand new track (on the Heroes soundtrack) which makes me hope that I’ll be joyfully writing a review of a new disc by the end of the year.
Keep discovering new music and filling me in. Until next week...