Friday Feedback 2/4/22 (my latest, new releases, etc)
Thoughts on new titles from the Punch Brothers, Lost Dog Street Band, Boris, Cloakroom, The Flamingos, Mac Gollehon, and Corpsegrinder + misc debris.
Greetings!
New albums out today (2/4/22) that have been on my radar:
The Flamingos — Flamingo Serenade reissue (Real Gone)
”I Only Have Eyes For You” was one of the first songs I ever had a really powerful response to as a kid. I remember sitting with my grandmother watching the The Right Stuff on HBO (not really understanding what I was watching but being magnetized to the film nonetheless) and being overtaken by a wonderful feeling when that song appeared in the film. I still have a hard time describing it, even though it’s my job to put these things into words. (Again: reverb.) It was like the reverb was somehow rippling its way across the room and… inhabiting(?) my body. At that young age, songs played on my senses more like dreams than sound. It was really nice, actually to not really have any understanding of arrangements or even instrumentation. Music didn’t simply just speak to my ears alone — a song would hit me like one giant blob of sensation that felt three-dimensional and made me feel tingly all over. Especially that song. So I’m really excited to delve into this whole album, originally released in 1959 and available now in a limited-edition vinyl re-pressing. Here’s a playback (complete with needle drop) of a Rhino 7-inch pressing of the song:Mac Gollehon — The End Is The Beginning (Nefarious Industries)
With appearances on over 200 gold and platinum albums, trumpeter Mac Gollehon has played with the likes of Blondie, Billy Ocean, Chaka Khan, Madonna, Hall & Oates, Onyx, Buddy Rich, Al Jarreau, Sheena Easton, Nile Rodgers, Hector Lavoe, Grace Jones, and Mick Jagger (to name just a few). He also toured as part of Duran Duran’s live band for a decade. That said, this album showcases Gollehon’s more extreme side in another collaboration with the relentlessly prolific purveyor of ambient/industrial-metal gloom David Brenner AKA Gridfailure. Here’s the gritty video for the title track, featuring Vincent Pastore (Big Pussy from The Sopranos):Corpsegrinder (George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher)—self-titled (Perserverance Music Group)
Longtime Cannibal Corpse frontman George Fisher steps out on his own for the first time. I reviewed Cannibal Corpse’s latest album last year, focusing a great deal of attention on their lyrics. I’m really curious about this album, since Fisher doesn’t write any lyrics for the band, but did for this record. I hope to interview him soon to get the scoop about that, as well as what he was going for with the new album. The vibe seems more aimed at a fun, comic-book type of gore, and the artwork almost makes Fisher look like a pro wrestler. In case you haven’t heard, Fisher has one of the most charming IG profiles out there, often posting pics of his forays into department stores in search of cuddly stuffed animals and Lego sets. Here’s the animated lyric video for “On Wings of Carnage”:
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My latest — four pieces published in the month of January, all album reviews:
Punch Brothers — Hell on Church Street (Holler Country)
Fronted by one-time Prairie Home Companion host and ex-Nickel Creek mandolinist Chris Thile, there’s a slight veneer of urbane slickness to this group’s take on bluegrass, which Billboard contributor Will Schube described in 2018 as “red-state music made by liberal men” — a phrasing and framing I myself wouldn’t use because I’m not comfortable with fostering any condescension towards “Middle American” values, or even presenting “Middle America” or “red-state America” as a single homogenous concept. I steered clear altogether, though, because I found this music so stunningly beautiful that none of that stuff ended up mattering. Thankfully, I had no concept of who was in the band or how they dressed when I listened, which I did several times on repeat right off the bat. By the time any of my own prejudices could’ve kicked-in, it was too late. The sheer musical firepower these five players demonstrate is off the charts. There are live clips of them performing these songs live in the studio (like this one and this one) and their accuracy is so dead-on it’s scary. I had to A/B those versions against the record several times to determine whether they were separate performances.Lost Dog Street Band — Glory (Holler Country)
Lost Dog bandleader Benjamin Tod isn’t shy about showing his dislike for corporate country music that, in his view, lacks authenticity and soul. I didn’t find a good spot to mention in this review that one could look at Tod’s emulating of Woody Guthrie’s train-hopping tramp lifestyle as a contrived affectation too. Again, though, the music here speaks for itself, washing those kinds of surface concerns to the side and rendering them moot.Boris — W (Paste)
I wonder if there’s anyone in the whole world who owns of every release the Japanese trio Boris has ever put out. “Prolific” and “eclectic” don’t even begin to capture what this band is like, which I attempted to convey in this review...Cloakroom — Dissolution Wave (Bandcamp Daily)
OMG, a concept album about the universe behaving, basically, as a giant music critic hits so close to home for the themes I harp on incessantly (you’ll see!), but I had to tone it down slightly. Suffice it to say that space rock is alive and well, and that Cloakroom do it with more imagination, verve and freshness than just about any other contemporary band I’ve heard. It’s always so rewarding to discover a band that’s able to take old influences and turn them into something new. Cloakroom recapture some of the vibe and energy of ‘90s alt-rock, but they’re not stuck in the past. In a word: reverb. Cloakroom and their producer Zac Montez use reverb and space to wonderful effect.
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Earworm invasion:
I make playlists. Lots and lots of ‘em. I can’t explain why, but I’ve long been obsessed with sequencing songs. I have no idea if people even listen, but here are my latest ones:
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Miscellaneous debris that’s come across the Feedback wire:
Last week, during Hotep Nation’s annual Griftie Awards ceremony, rapper Coolee Bravo delivered the following monologue before presenting the award for Musical Grifter:
“Music is the outer expression of the passion that makes life worth living. The best beats and lyrics can capture the soul and motivate nations. People collectively spend billions of dollars to be in the >same room< as artists and participate in a religious experience where the music moves the body almost involuntarily. But, often the artists that create these works mistake >themselves< for the inspiration that flows through them. As they [become] absorbed in self-delusion, the grift [shines through].”
Preach! I mean, that reads just like verses from the Gospel According to FeedbackDef. It’s warms my militaristic heart, which beats an incessant war drum against celebrity culture, to see such likeminded cognizance pop up elsewhere.
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In other news, music publicist Rachel Hurley weighed-in on the recent Neil Young / Joe Rogan / Spotify controversy from a perspective that focused on the sheer volume of music being released. Her post has since gone viral. I found her assertions thought-provoking in a way that has me initially unsure what to make of them, but I can appreciate them whether I end up agreeing or not. Hurley and her business partner are on Substack, where she’s posted a response to her original post blowing up.
An excerpt from the first post:
Spotify and streaming are not the problem. Too much music is.
With the Neil Young vs. Joe Rogan battle coming to a head this week and Neil Young losing (what a poorly thought out maneuver that was), I've seen a renewed battle cry about Spotify being some demon corporation that devalues music and keeps musicians from making a living.
It’s hard to take seriously anyone who thinks that quitting Spotify will have any impact on anything. It feels performative and hollow. It doesn’t present any viable solution. And it tells me that they obviously have not looked at the numbers.
Streaming has been around for over a decade, plenty of time for musicians to unite and form a union or an advocacy group that could study Spotify’s extremely transparent numbers and come up with a more fair payment plan. But no one has and that’s because the math doesn’t work.
Even if Spotify doubled what they paid out, which they can’t afford to do, it would make no significant difference.
Streaming isn’t keeping musicians from making a living. The real issue is that music is an over saturated market. There are too many musicians and too much music…
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Likewise, music producer Michael Beinhorn (Herbie Hancock, Chili Peppers, Violent Femmes, Soundgarden, Soul Asylum, Pete Yorn, etc — also co-founder of the Bill Laswell-led group Material) has been posting some insights on the music industry that have caught my eye. Here’s an excerpt from this post:
Back when I was living in New York, I discovered that one of my neighbors was connected intimately to the music business. Very intimately in fact, because her sister had been married to a guy named Steve Ross. Ross (who passed away in 1992) was the man who became the CEO of Kinney Parking Systems in New York and quickly began expanding with the intention of growing a corporate empire. He eventually began acquiring entertainment companies, most notably Warners (which, eventually became Warner Communications).
Ross’ claim to fame was as the guy who helped engineer the notorious Time / Warner merger, which took place in 1989 to shore up flagging share prices of both companies. This was the first of the multimedia super-corporation mergers and it set the stage for all successive multimedia corporate mergers.
It also set off a chain reaction that resulted in an almost complete restructuring of the DNA of the music business (which was already on shaky ground)…
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Photo of the week:
Over ‘n out!