6. May 2014
Things You Can Buy Today 6 May 2014
Thoughts From Around The Web, Click Album Titles for More Info…
Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project – ‘Axels & Sockets‘ (Glitterhouse)
The track (Nobody’s City) makes a roof-raising start to the project that brings together Jeffrey’s old friends, fans and band members to keep aloft the name of the Gun Club leader. Axels & Sockets boasts one of the most stellar lineups yet, including Debbie Harry, Primal Scream, Mark Lanegan, Warren Ellis, Gallon Drunk’s James Johnston, Lydia Lunch, Mick Harvey, Kid Congo Powers, Mark Stewart, Hugo Race, Black Moth, Honey, Crippled Black Phoenix and Andrew Weatherall.
Co-ordinated by Pierce’s former musical partner Cypress Grove, with Sclavunos (and with little help from me), the recording pays homage to Pierce by avoiding the cliches of the conventional tribute record. It creates fierce new music out of song sketches, demos, scribbled lyrics and leftover riffs that Pierce tragically didn’t live to complete before his early death in 1996, while other tracks cover personal favourites from his illustrious catalogue. – Kris Needs (The Guardian)
Matrimony – ‘Montibello Memories‘ (Columbia)
One of the coolest things about Matrimony’s debut full-length album Montibello Memories is just how difficult it is to characterize. Just when C.J. Hardee’s mandolin and banjo starts to take a song into rootsy territory, Jordan Hardee comes crashing in with walloping drums, creating momentum that hoists it into the cheap seats. As soon as you get used to Jimmy Brown singing anthems about the push and pull between hometown memories and the need to keep moving on in one’s life, Ashlee Hardee Brown (Jimmy’s wife and sister of Jordan and C.J.) takes over and muses poignantly about relationship struggles.
There will probably be those who want to label Matrimony as a kind of Americana Arcade Fire. While there is some accuracy in that description because of the way songs like “How Do You See Me” and “See The Light” soar to sudden crescendos seemingly out of nowhere, the comparison fails to capture the innate warmth of this music, especially when Ashlee’s ethereal vocals float above the fray. And yet the layered harmonies of the married pair sometimes bring forth raw, complex emotions that resemble Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac. – Jim Beviglia (American Songwriter)
Willie Watson – ‘Folk Singer Vol. 1‘ (Acony Records)
The song “Folk Singer” narrates the lonesome lot of the outmoded troubadour. Charlie Daniels wrote it before his rise to Southern rock fame, and Johnny Cash and Nick Cave both cut rather grave versions. The protagonist insists, with offish resignation, “All I knew to give ya / Was song after song after song.” Which apparently wasn’t enough to hold onto his crowd.
Willie Watson may have taken on the role with his debut solo album, Folk Singer Vol. 1 — the results of his laying down old song after old song after old song at Woodland Studios, with Dave Rawlings behind the boards, for Rawlings and Gillian Welch’s indie label Acony Records — but he’s rewriting the storyline, ready to deliver a stout, standalone performance whenever he’s offered a stage. That’s a surefire way to keep an audience plugged in when you’re giving ‘em unplugged, antique tunes. – Jewly Hight (Nashville Cream)
Nikki Lane – ‘All Or Nothin’‘ (New West)
“A feel-good record about feeling bad — iffy one night stands, bad breakups, and raging hangovers are the leaves on Nikki Lane’s tree — All or Nothin’ (like Lydia Loveless’ outstanding Somewhere Else back in February) suggests yet another trajectory for what we once called “Outlaw Country.” On the album’s very best track, the straight-up provocation of “Sleep With A Stranger,” Lane struts like Jagger as she admonishes a conquest that “you can call me anything you want to, just don’t call me after tonight.” This is tough-talking, hard-living stuff, but it’s been infused with a welcome dose of 21st century sexual politics. Ignore this one at your peril — Nikki Lane’s looking right at you.” – Stuart Henderson (Exclaim!)
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NOTE: Not a single one of the other writers we excerpted from or their web-spots are associated with Global Texan Chronicles. Click the links for more on’em. Can You Dig It!