Forgotten: Sunday Cannons - Red to the Rind

Back in 1988, I caught an Amnesty International benefit show at the Towson Armory in Towson, MD. Having seen locals Black Friday a few months before, I was anxious to catch them again along with Pearl Fishers, Sunday Cannons and the Unknown. While the latter was fairly rotten (one of the few bands whose set I walked away from), the other three were all very good. Sunday Cannons were so good, in fact, that I bought Red to the Rind the following week.

I pulled the album off the shelf a few weeks back and found that this punk/alt/psych material still appealed to me 20 years later, perhaps even more than it did at the time. It's true that there were plenty of bands in this vein in the late 80s underground, but Sunday Cannons are a fine example of that time and place. Perhaps some of the appeal for me today is nostalgia, but there's more to it. It's not just about a sound, but a vibe that still finds it's way into good music today.

Thanks to Mike Lane (now of The Lanes) for permission to make the album available for download.

Sunday Cannons - Red to the Rind

MP3: Gypsy Pistoleros - "Welcome to the Hotel de la Muerte"

Check out this rough mix of the title track from the Gypsy Pistoleros' forthcoming album (due in October on Lime Records).

"Welcome to the Hotel de la Muerte" mp3

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Review: The Mars Volta - Octohedron

Label: Warner Bros

Released: June 23, 2009

Straightforward. Subdued. Accessible. If Octohedron had been recorded by just about any other band, those words would never cross anyone's mind. However, the Mars Volta has pushed the boundaries of their music and their mania time and again, leaving the expectation that each album will be a further exploration of psychedelic insanity. This album explores to be sure, but in a different way than they have previously.

After the very, very quiet first minute and a half, the largely acoustic opening track, "Since We've Been Wrong," is practically radio-friendly. By the time they get around to "Cotopaxi," the first song to enlist their signature bazillion notes per measure approach, the album is in its back stretch. While the wide musical expanses and dabbling in free jazz is missing on Octohedron, the album is, in the end, more human. Their esoteric ramblings aren't altogether absent mind you, just significantly scaled back.

They have proven once again that their direction is as cryptic as Cedric's lyrics. Compared to most, they're still living in the prog rock ivory tower, but Octohedron reaches down and touches us in a way that is at once concrete yet fleeting.

You can pre-order the vinyl here.

Ratings
Satriani: 10/10
Zappa: 8/10
Dylan: 8/10
Aretha: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

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If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: Brian Bond - Fire & Gold

Label: self-released

Released: March 10, 2009

Folk and punk has found some common ground over the years. From Billy Bragg's incendiary love and politics to Elliott Smith's dark beauty, the two genres have occasionally met in strange ways that have never been entirely one genre or the other, yet clearly rooted in both.

Brian Bond is a similar artist in a sense. Musically, he's clearly a folk artist. The songs are gentle and quiet. At times, you can hear Elliot Smith's heartfelt hooks, only with a warmer, more open, perhaps more innocent heart. In addition, these songs have had time to develop over the two years it took to write and record them. It's clear, because nothing is rushed or incomplete. By taking the time to get it right, Bond gains the benefits of well thought out songs that, at the same time, don't lose their sense of spontaneity.

But somewhere in the spirit of this album is a fierce independence and DIY ethic that is clearly punk. Some of that stems from the album's simplicity. These songs are essentially Bond and his guitar. Though most songs feature accompaniment, it is crafted so as to enhance, but never overshadow Bond's performance. Fire & Gold follows its own path, one that runs musically parallel to folk, but spiritually intersects with the strengths of punk and indie music. It is a quiet moment for punks and a shot in the arm for folk.

This isn't the folk-punk thing that you get from a Chuck Reagan or a Defiance, Ohio. It's fundamentally (and beautifully) folk with a punk heart underneath.

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 7/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 8/10
Overall: 7/10

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If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

MP3: John Mellencamp - "If I Die Sudden"

John Mellencamp will release Life Death Live and Freedom, the eight song live companion to last year's Life Death Love and Freedom. Get a sneak preview mp3 until the album is released on June 23rd.

"If I Die Sudden" MP3

Review: Elvis Costello - Secret, Profane & Sugarcane

Label: Hear Music

Released: June 9, 2009

Elvis Costello has had quite a long and varied career to say the least, making albums bordering on punk on one hand and working with the likes of Burt Bacharach and Allen Toussaint at others. The genres he's avoided, like metal or hip-hop, are surely more by choice than inability. There's no question that as both a performer and a songwriter, he has few peers in terms of the breadth and quality of his work. That's not to say he's all things to all people, but that, as particularly evidenced on Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, he's Elvis Costello to whatever audience he chooses.

This time around, Costello takes on a particularly rootsy, unabashedly American form, dabbling in folk, country and bluegrass throughout. What he displays here, as he has so often in the past, is that he really doesn't play in each of the genres he engages so much as he adapts those genres to work with his distinct songwriting.

This works particularly well here for two reasons. First, Costello can write some great songs. There have been plenty of points in his career where the songs weren't up to the standard he had set, but they certainly are here. This is the strongest set of songs I've heard from him in some time and many could just as easily have been performed in a style he explored on another of his albums. They just work fundamentally, maintaining that which makes them distinctly his work.

Second, he understands the subtleties of the style in which he's working. These aren't just pop songs with some sting band instrumentation and a twang in his voice. The arrangements are careful to both evoke country music's vivid history and retain Costello's unique qualities. In addition to that, Secret, Profane & Sugarcane demonstrates an understanding that goes deeper than the music itself. It walks country's fine lines between the secular and religious and the happy and the sad.

The album succeeds largely because it isn't a superficial carbon copy, but a continuation of a long tradition. Elvis Costello hasn't inserted old-time country into his repertoire, but rather inserted himself into country's rich history.

Ratings
Satriani: 8/10
Zappa: 7/10
Dylan: 8/10
Aretha: 7/10
Overall: 8/10

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.