VITAL REVERB: JUNE 24, 2009 Sounding Off On The Sounds You Need
Lee Fields & The Expressions
My World
Truth and
Soul
ESM Rating: 7/10
Lee Fields has soul — heart-throbbing,
funky feet soul that oozes from his vocals and speeds off the crest of this genuinely
casual artist’s pomade-slicked hair. Fields’
immense work ethic has spanned five decades and warranted a serious following
in the European house music scene, based around a rise of soul sampling in
recent years. A classic story of European audio ingenuity coupled the house
music legend Martin Solveig with Fields’
age-refined talents, and the results were, as usual, 100% on point.
In more
recent years, Truth & Soul Records have taken Lee Fields to a new level in America. Coupling Fields with The Expressions, the label has managed to produce an
ensemble that spans genres one would never imagine existed. Research finds
audio and video ranging from gritty recordings circa 1973 to more recent work,
where you’ll see him and his backing band dressed to a tip, all sporting tight
white suits and matching pink ties. The skinny mustachioed Europeans backing
him on keyboard and guitar, along with two beautiful backup dancers getting all
the way down, show Fields moves with
the times.
My World is his proclamation of an unattainable
ability, one that nobody else could come close to touching. The album is his
being; it seems that he has slowly, without a worry sweating his brow, taken
his sweet-ass time creating this baby. Yet his age cannot be captured in voice
or appearance, as he moves through tracks like “Do You Love Me?” and “My World,”
sounding somewhere between 23 and 70 years old. Regal. Smooth. Hip. The release
party for My World featured A-list DJs
(Egon and Young Chris), along with live sets performed by Fields, the Ghetto Brothers, and special guest Aloe Blacc. All of
that demonstrates the youthfulness of his persona, which is vital to anyone with
his immense amount of spiritual soul. By Will Tunstall
Deerhunter
Rainwater Cassette Exchange
Kranky
ESM Rating: 8/10
I have to
admit I was skeptical the first time I listened to Deerhunter. All of my hip friends were raving about how awesome the
Atlanta, GA, band was, so in March I relished the opportunity to see them
perform at the Harvest of Hope Festival in St. Augustine, FL. Unfortunately, an
early-afternoon set time, a debilitating hangover, and a large group made up of
many of those same hip friends who couldn’t get their asses moving conspired to
keep me from witnessing what I heard was Bradford Cox and company’s inspired
performance. So I popped in Cryptograms,
Deerhunter’s 2007 album and (at the
time) the only one I owned. I muddled through the first 30 minutes of ambient
noise and shiftless electronic instrumentation, intent on making it through the
record come Hell or high water, before I stumbled on “Strange Lights,” the
ninth song on the album and a tasty little indie-pop nugget. If only I had
listened to Rainwater Cassette Exchange first...
Deerhunter’s new five-song EP
compresses all that is good and listenable about the band into 15
easy-to-digest minutes. And if you can’t get down with the woozy tropicalia of
the title track, “Disappearing Ink’s” insistent, almost Strokes-like garage
rock, the supernatural theremin trill of “Famous Last Words,” or the exotic-drum-and-jangly-guitar
splendor of “Game Of Diamonds,” you might not have a musical soul. And while
“Circulation,” the last song on the album, goes from concrete indie rock to
two-minute sound collage, no better juxtaposition exists to represent the Deerhunter ethic. Sure, Rainwater Cassette Exchange won’t change
the world — but it does make it sound a hell of a lot better. By
Nick McGregor
Rancid
Let The Dominoes Fall
Epitaph
ESM Rating: 6/10
The long-running
East Bay ska-punkers return with their seventh album, still brimming to the top
with irresistible energy, catchy hooks, and skanking, The Clash-inspired instrumentation.
Staying true to their three-minute-and-under roots, Rancid plows through 19 songs in 45 minutes, while proving they can
handle everything from hardcore to Jamaican dancehall to brass-laden pop-punk. Co-frontmen
Tim Armstrong and Lars Frederiksen share vocal duties a bit more than in the
past, but they both know how to slur their lines to appetizing effect, most
notably on “That’s Just The Way It Is Now” and “East Bay Night.”
Even though Let The Dominoes Fall was recorded at
George Lucas’ high-profile Skywalker Sound Studio — legendary session
musician Booker T. Jones even stopped by to provide keyboards on “Up To No
Good” — Epitaph head honcho and Bad Religion co-founder Brett Gurewitz
adds enough production grit to keep Rancid
true to their street-level roots. And very few punk bands have shifted
gears to write songs as immediate as “Civilian Ways,” the mandolin-drenched
Dylan-esque folk-rocker that finds Armstrong ruminating on his brother Greg’s
return from service in Iraq. Gut wrenching, beautiful, and nostalgic all at
once, the track speaks volumes about how far Rancid has come. The rest of Let
The Dominoes Fall demonstrates how much fun they’ve had along the way. By
Nick McGregor
Hoots And Hellmouth
The Holy Open Secret
MAD Dragon
ESM Rating: 7/10
While upon
first listen Philadelphia trio Hoots And
Hellmouth may sound like any number of hell-raisin’ bluegrass/ old-timey
bands, these revivalists are actually quite adept with a number of genres,
including gospel, country-punk, jam-rock, and soul. For their sophomore album, The Holy Open Secret, Hoots teamed up with Philly
uber-producer Bill Moriarty to record at American Diamond Studios, which is
owned by hometown indie heroes Dr. Dog. If you’re familiar with the Dog’s
multi-part harmonies and junk-shop instrumentation, then you’ll be able to slide
effortlessly into The Holy Open Secret.
What’s most
impressive about Hoots And Hellmouth is
their ability to shape-shift from ferocious back porch energy (“You And All Of
Us”) to smooth folk balladry (“Three Penny Charm,” “Ne’er Do Well”) to jam-band
boogie (“What Use Are Plowshares When We Use Them Like Swords”) to
ragtime-inflected jazz (“The Family Band”). Of course, since countless numbers
of rock bands have dissolved in recent years into exactly this type of
percussion-less roots project, it could be hard for Hoots And Hellmouth to stand out in a crowded Americana field.
Thankfully, the band possesses enough quirky eccentricity and obvious energy to
prove they’re in it for the long haul. By Nick McGregor
Sonic Youth
The Eternal
Matador
ESM Rating: 8/10
These
American post-punk legends have blasted, droned, and noise-rocked their way
through nearly 30 years of contemporary music, yet few of their albums have
rocketed out of the gates like The
Eternal, their first for esteemed independent label Matador Records —
and also the first Sonic Youth album
with new bassist Mark Ibold (of Pavement fame). Kim Gordon has rarely sounded
as sexual as on “Sacred Trickster,” Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo’s dueling
guitars slither deliciously through “Calming The Snake,” and for every moment
of screeching dissonance on The Eternal (“Anti-Orgasm”),
there’s another of minor-key alt-rock beauty (“Antenna”).
Ultimately, The Eternal displays the kind of luxuriant creative freedom that Sonic Youth couldn’t attain during 15
years tied to corporate giant Geffen Records. That they could emerge from that
trying time to release one of the best albums of their career is a testimony to
their incredible staying power and cultural relevance — just see “Malibu
Gas Station,” the Britney Spears-skewering parody that finds Kim Gordon
sarcastically complaining “I can’t move faster/My face is plaster” and “A tough
cross to bear/Oops no underwear.” Only Sonic
Youth can make noise-rocking sarcasm sound so intriguing. By
Nick McGregor
