FIRST IMPRESSION: Queens of the Stone Age - …Like Clockwork

The information build-up to the new QOTSA album has been steady and intriguing: Dave Grohl would be back behind the drumkit; Mark Lanegan and ousted bassist Nick Oliveri were contributing; Elton fucking John plays and sings on it!  Barring this last piece, it seems as if the throngs were being intentionally whipped into a frenzy to expect “Songs for the Deaf Part II”.  That is not this album.  Sure, there are those moments that would have fit nicely onto that 2002 masterwork (opener “Keep Your Eyes Peeled” and first teaser single “My God is the Sun” have the distorted Josh Homme guitar riffs and groove that were hallmarks of that album) and Grohl’s pounding of the skins is unmistakable on the tracks on which he appears, but this is a slinkier, more pop-minded beast. “I Sat By the Ocean” and “Smooth Sailing” are all mechanized hip shaking and slippery falsetto, and I’ll be goddamned if you can’t dance to them, while the piano that opens “The Vampyre of Time and Memory” and forms the basis of the closing title track wouldn’t sound that far out of place on a 70’s Tom Waits record. Lyrically, the album finds as its focus the importance of relationships and keeping those who are important close to you (likely born from Homme’s life threatening illness and experience flatlining on the operating table the year before) while also recognizing that we as a society are preoccupied with as “If I Had a Tail” puts it, “expensive holes to bury things”.  Homme’s sneer may evince sleaze, but his mind (and soul) appear to be elsewhere.   The music wheezes and swims (especially the Trent Reznor-abetted “Kalopsia”, which sounds like something Ween would have released on one of their Elektra albums) rather than lurching and stomping like the QOTSA of old – those who are able to recalibrate their expectations will find a lot to enjoy.  Those who aren’t?  Homme’s former bandmates in Kyuss have a new group called Vista Chino who are prepping an album for later this year and who hew much closer to the scorched desert stoner rock that he has clearly outgrown.   And good for him!

Guided By Voices - Billy Wire

A fantastic fan-made video that sublimely echoes Robert Pollard's own sense of DIY collage-making

It's never too late for a "Best of 2012" list, right?

First off, lets get this out of the way upfront: this list is rockist, almost homogenously white, and very male-dominated.  Fair enough.  It's also full of buzzsaw guitars, mountains of melody, and sing-a-long choruses.  If that's not your bag, so be it.  But's it's mine, and it's one I've carried a very long time.  To paraphrase the Hold Steady, these singalong songs were my scripture last year and they need no defense.  Any chump can list the top 5 or 10 records of a particular year...this one goes to 7...enjoy!

1.       The Do-Good Assassins – Rome

Reinventing himself as he is wont to do, venerable Toronto songwriter Ron Hawkins’ new group released a helluva debut last year.  A double-album in 2012?  AS YOUR DEBUT??  But the guy’s got the goods and packs the 20 tunes here with wit and insight.  “Public Transit” is the type of song Elvis Costello would still be writing if his marriage to a jazz chanteuse hadn’t tucked him in for a songwriting nap for much of the last decade and the supple support from his backing ensemble (faces old and new to fans of LOTL and the Rusty Nails) nails the sweet spot between soul, rock and country.  It’s thrilling to watch an artist like Hawkins continue to hit new strides over two decades into an already tremendous career.  A must have!

2.       Your Favorite Trainwreck – s/t

Old punks don’t die, they just find salvation in power pop!  Jeff Caudill of Gameface and Popeye Vogelsang of Farside helped to define the Revelation Records sound for the better part of the 90s and then drifted off into the ether for the past dozen years or so (sure, Caudill put out a solo joint or two, and Vogelsang found work putting that amazing baritone to use shilling for Infiniti), leading one to believe that the good times were finally gone.  Not so!  Your Favorite Trainwreck shows both men in fine form and the songs meld the greatest part of both of their former bands with a sense of maturity that only comes with knowing that this isn’t a second chance but an opportunity to make passionate music you want with your friends.  And the harmonies, oh the harmonies!   A couple of the songs drift into mid-period Goo Goo Dolls territory, but the lion’s share displays why rock music needs gone-but-not forgotten punk vets like these two.

3.       Japandroids – Celebration Rock

I resisted this album for months because of the title alone. “Celebration Rock”?  REALLY?  But as the Catherine Wheel once put it, “your cynicism’s boring” – this album bleeds sincerity and makes you wish all two-pieces had the heart, balls and conviction that Brian King and David Prowse bring to their follow-up to 2009’s great “Post-Nothing” (Ahem, I’m looking in your direction, Black Keys!)   Beginning and ending with the sound of fireworks in the distance, this is an album perfect for driving through the gloaming, the windows down and you screaming along with reckless abandon, unafraid to look or sound like the joyful teenager you wish you still were.  The closest one can get to recapturing “that teenage feeling”…

4.       Cheap Girls – Giant Orange

Where the hell did this band come from?  Lansing, MI apparently, but 2009’s middling “My Roaring 20’s” gave no warning of the sheer amount of awesome this trio was capable of!  Produced by Against Me’s Laura Jane Grace (nee Tom Gabel) with a force and precision that allows the guitars and drums to EXPLODE from your speakers, this album is 37 minutes of sheer rock joy.  In a just world, at least three of these gems would find their way into the dying world of terrestrial rock radio, and I am not sure I have ever heard a sound as noisily glorious as the guitar that growls at the start of “Pacer”.  Consider my attention gotten…well done, boys!

5.       The Gaslight Anthem – Handwritten

It’s clear this late in the game that Brian Fallon has a serious Springsteen jones, and with the Anthem’s fourth full-length he goes for his “Born to Run”.  With the move to a major label and sidelining longtime producer Ted Hutt for big-shot “name” Brendan O’Brien, the signs of a cash-grab were all there. But,  Fallon stacks the deck with 11 pretty great songs and the band actually sounds hungrier and most desperate than they did on 2010’s merely OK, “American Slang”.  Longtime fans may bemoan that the band has gone for the brass ring, but if a single as perfect as “45” is born of careerism and actually giving a shit, I hope they sell millions. 

6.       Bob Mould – Silver Age

Having purged his demons in his must-read autobiography last year, Big Gay Bob decides to show the youngsters how it’s done!  It may have found its genesis in a songwriting exercise to make a simple power pop record, but Mould taps into his fountain of youthful fury and releases his most thrilling album since Sugar’s 1992 high-water mark, “Copper Blue”.  Gone are the flirtations with synths and the morbid navel-gazing that have been part and parcel of his solo albums this decade (all great records themselves, it must be mentioned).  Instead, Mould kicks it power-trio style, enlisting longtime compadre Jason Narducy and Superchunk drummer-extraordinaire Jon Wurster to peel the paint off the place.  Finally comfortable in his own skin (and with his own past), Mould makes his Stratocaster crunch and sing like a man half his age, and it’s a dazzling reminder of his awesome power.

7.       Nada Surf – The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy

Bands are supposed to mellow with age, but apparently Matthew Caws and company didn’t get the memo!  Trimming the fat and further distancing themselves from the “Death Cab Jr.” tag they (seemingly willingly) have been saddled with, “The Stars” bristles and hums with intensity.  The songwriting is top-notch and contain some of Caws’ best lyrics and melodies since 2005’s excellent “The Weight is a Gift”,  but I’m tempted to give the MVP award to Doug Gillard, the ace ex-GBV guitarist who was added on lead guitar.  Gillard’s slippery leads and muscular wallop give the songs the extra heft that helps them break free of the speakers and knock you squarely in the solar plexus.  Just listen to his guitar whine into the coda section of “When I Was Young” and it’s clear that his addition to the band has given their sound a new lease on life.  

OURS...

A preview of what's on deck for hopefully next week! I am hoping to get upclose and personal with Mr. Gnecco...stay tuned!

The title...

The title for the blog comes from this song from New Zealand's finest...

Crowded House - Fingers of Love (Live at the Sydney Opera House, 1996)

Welcome to the Machine

After months of dawdling, tittering, hemming and hawing, I have finally taken my ramblings blog-ward!  The goal of this blog is to reflect upon the power of music - that indescribable wow of feeling your heart beat as one with a song, its sounds winding their way through your sinew and falling into its thrall.  Updates will be periodic and will likely fall into several categories: reviews of new releases or concerts, revisiting "lost classics" from my youth, and finally the catchall of random musings and trips down memory lane.  Music is inherently and unapologetically personal...and hopefully this little corner of the interwebs will reflect that.  So, get ready for the fistfuls of awesome that are about to be shoved into your eyeholes!  Welcome to the machine...