Video premiere: “I Need My Rock N’ Roll” by Paul Collins
Is Paul Collins the King of Power Pop? The title of his previous album notwithstanding, Collins’ long and praiseworthy career, first with The Nerves (whose original “Hangin’ On The Telephone” was a mega-hit for Blondie) and The Beat (not the English), devotion to the form, indomitable energy, tireless support for younger artists, and sheer talent make a solid case.
Whitney Matheson, USA TODAY 10:14 a.m. EDT July 31, 2014
Paul Collins is a rock ‘n’ roll veteran who has crafted some of the catchiest power-pop tunes of the ’70s and ’80s. Best known for his work with The Nerves and The Beat, Collins has influenced generations of musicians and has been covered by everyone from Blondie to Green Day. (Fun fact: The Nerves wrote and recorded the original version of Blondie’s Hanging on the Telephone.)
In September Collins releases a new album, Feel the Noise, and it proves his songwriting skills have only gotten better with age. Today I’m thrilled to premiere an excellent track from it called I Need My Rock n’ Roll.
As you’ll hear, the song is irresistibly infectious. I’ve had it on repeat for days and still get a chill when those harmonies kick in!
To me, RADIO MOSCOW is the perfect representation of the idiom “they haven’t reinvented the wheel, but daaammn, they can roll it!”. While Parker Griggs perfectly embodies the über gifted and hyperactive multi-instrumentalist who knows exactly what’s best for him and his band (I mean, musically speaking), the lineup has finally stabilized around drummer Paul Marrone and bassist Anthony Meier. I don’t actually know the story behind the making of “Magical Dirt”, and to be honest I didn’t care much when I started writing this review, because this record displays such an incredible amount of shimmering colors, its guitar licks catch you so swiftly… that ultimately, who would care about the ins and outs? To all the people who loved the singles reservoir that “Brain Cycles” is, here: “Magical Dirt” was cast in the same mould. The electric boogie blues dispensed by RADIO MOSCOW conveys a flamboyant energy from beginning to end, from which we can already take off a few hit songs like “Death Of A Queen”, “These Days” or that kind of funky “Bridges”. Self-confidence and complicity were certainly the key elements in the songwriting of this new album, for good vibes show up at any moment. Party anthems being displayed by a trio of hard-partying fellas, what a delight it is.
Link : From rock to doom : the 10 coolest releases of 2014 (so far!)
Juke with John the Conqueror
By VINCENT HARRIS
For the Herald-Journal
Listening to John the Conqueror’s 2014 album, “The Good Life,” is like stumbling upon the hottest juke joint in Jackson, Miss., on its sweatiest night.
The trio, named after an African-American folk hero, gets down to business on every song. Singer-guitarist Pierre Moore slings out greasy, muscular riffs and solos that skip the polish and head right for the gut, and the rhythm section (bassist Ryan Lynn and drummer Michael Gardner) play sharp, nimble changes that are downright menacing in their intensity.
In today’s musical climate, it’s like finding a lost Junior Kimbrough album in a sea of manufactured pop.
RUST MAGAZINE
Hollis Brown makes today the best day ever. Their debut album “Ride On The Train” is an immediate classic. Pulling from the roots of rock, soul, ballads, folk and jam this hybrid sound feels as comfortable as your old jeans and sneakers on a stroll through sunlit paths. Get-up-and-jam tracks are mixed with patient ballads and they all sound distinctive. Superior songwriting, analog processing and a self-evident dedication to musical excellence across the board has resulted in a total package of musical intensity.
Not only is “Ride On The Train” a must-have for any rock and roll fan but the band is currently on an extensive tour and this is a band that demands to be seen live. Young, but already well seasoned, they bring a fresh vibe mixed with a classic sensibility. Make no mistake, Hollis Brown is headed to big, bright places, and they’ve earned it by staying true to themselves. It’s pretty rare when a group comes on the scene with such a total identity already earned, and they are just getting started. These guys are here to stay because they’re just so darn good that fans won’t let them fade away.
Whatever you’re doing today, stop. Take a pause, just for a moment. Check Hollis Brown out. That task can wait. That email can wait. Invest just a single moment to take a listen to this amazing band. Essential.
It shouldn’t happen to a label boss. But when you’re at the helm of Alive Naturalsound, it frequently does. “T-Model Ford was a character, that’s for sure,” reflects Patrick Boissel, of the batshit-crazy Mississippi bluesman who came aboard shortly before his death last summer. “When we met him, in his later years, he was pretty foggy: all those years of fried chicken and booze had led to several strokes and he wasn’t always sure what town he was in. He was happy to show you the knife he was carrying in his pocket, though. You never know when a 90-year-old man is going to get into a knife fight!”
“On is last trip to LA we all went down to the studio where he was recording for us. My wife and business partner, Suzy Shaw, was asking about his family and stuff like that, and he said: ‘Well, I have eight children, and my oldest is in jail for raping his own child. In the same tone that most people would tell you their kid was a doctor or something. Kind of hard to know what to say to that. But that session we did with him in LA was a ball…”
Two decades since he founded Alive in the Los Angeles warehouse that remains its mothership, Boissel still revels in recounting his life at the sharp end of an independent record label. “I once signed a deal with Kim Fowley on a piece of toilet paper in a New York hotel,” he smiles, happy to revisit the war-stories. “There was also one time I met up with a band in a Hollywood motel to get the contracts signed, and while the leader of the band was doing business with me, the drummer was on the bed naked, pleasuring himself, with his socks on. In the early days, we were dealing with a couple of nuts. Eventually, I bought a baseball bat to the office for defense…”
But Boissel isn’t just a great raconteur. Right now, he’s the man with the sharpest eye and driving force behind the blues label that many consider the most influential around. We’d go along with that. Every month, it seems, like a diamond among the teetering smokestacks of promos that festoon The Blues office, there’ll be a new release with that distinctive swirled logo, and the crackle of possibility that here, once again, is our next favourite band. We’ve never used an Alive CD as a coffee coaster – and at a music mag, there’s no higher compliment.
“The Alive label is definitely cool here in the US,” says Pierre Moore of Philly trio John The Conqueror. “But I think it might be even more respected in Europe. We were sitting in a bar in Bordeaux, and the bartender was just randomly playing songs. He played three Alive bands in an hour, without knowing that we were a band on Alive. So it’s definitely got a following.”
All bets are off when you hit ‘play’ on an Alive CD (or, indeed, drop the needle on the label’s healthy output of vinyl). The album to come might be the twilight-years last-gasp of a toothless, abrasive, alcoholic octogenarian who no sane A&R man would touch with a bargepole. It might equally be the debut of a pockmarked gang of boondocks blues-punks who’ll manage one tour before imploding. Ask for the rhyme and reason behind the roster and Boissel shrugs: “There was no grand plan or crusade. It all just evolved organically, signing one band after another. At this point, I just want to release great music by passionate and genuine people. We’ve taken different directions, but I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved in recent years. ”
No question, in 2014,business has never been boomier. But if it’s superficially tempting to cast Alive as the post-millennial upstart stealing a march on Fat Possum as the US independent to beat, a little digging reveals the operation’s heritage runs deeper. “We began back in the early-90s, when Nirvana was saving rock music, “recalls Boissel. “I’ve worked with Bomp! Records for many years, overseeing production, manufacturing and so on [the two labels still share a location in LA].
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Lonesome Shack — More Primitive READ THE REVIEW HERE
In my untutored opinion, the blues should punch you in the gut. It should make the little hairs on your arms and neck stand up. It should make you want to dance. It should make you want to booty call that certain someone.
Lonesome Shack’s More Primitive will make you (want to) do all of those things.
Frontman Ben Todd knows what he’s doing. He sequestered himself in the New Mexico desert “to study the music of American folk and blues lineage.” (Man, wish I had the chutzpah to do something like that.) Todd’s studies have paid off. These songs have the contemporary immediacy of the Black Keys without the studio gimmicks. But Lonesome Shack is infinitely more cool than the Black Keys have ever been. There’s a slinky, slithery quality to this hypnotic album that will have you blasting it on repeat.
By Bill Bentley, Columnist
June 30, 2014
Hollis Brown, Gets Loaded. Defying the odds of gravity and greatness, the Brooklyn-based Hollis Brown band records all the songs on one of the perfect rock albums, Velvet Underground’s Loaded, and still manages to hold their head high. So what may have looked like a long shot on the assembly line turns into an inspired piece of music-making. When the Velvets’ fourth (and last) studio album was released in 1970, it finally looked like the ultra-boundary-breaking New York outfit would get their due. Except for one small problem: the Velvet Underground had already broken up. So soon-to-be classic Lou Reed songs “Sweet Jane,” “Rock and Roll,” “New Age” and others were left in the cold light of winter to die, only to live now and see another day.
Now that Hollis Brown has decided to do their own take of the entire album, it’s clear this is rock that has never been surpassed. By anyone. As much as what Hollis Brown has accomplished by putting their own life into these ten songs, it is also a mighty display of courage to even attempt such a thing, proving that lives are still being saved by rock and roll — and Lou Reed.