QUOTED: BECK EXPLAINS NEW ALBUM MEANING TO HIM
July 8, 2008
“Out of all the appropriate situations to find oneself, the least being the hurtling of loose bricks, the parties involved first disclosed their coordinates and proffered cards which happened to be in their pockets. From an embassy of restraint and a superimposed background they assembled at the time of next convenience and weighed their options. Drag a filing cabinet across a subdivision or sit out the current situation till a more reliable picture of the situation materialized. Neither seemed all that enticing, so the course was set, the workstation laminated and some biofeedback sorted out for use in further research. After the frequency which would shatter a display case was discovered they launched themselves at a barricade of empty cardboard boxes. All these games were inconsequential at first but then later provided some back story for the urge to be a human battering ram. While so many people with disposable incomes sauntered by on the boulevard near the workstation a new kind of light was grafted onto the premises. “How many songs can we fit in an inflatable raft?” “I didn’t know there was going to be a flood?” “There isn’t, but that rainbow is stalking me somehow…” And so, 120 nights of no sleep and seeing the dawn try not make an impression, there was some hollow hewn thing there that seemed a little basic. “Do you have anywhere to put this?” “Just leave it where it is.” I shook hands with Danger Mouse and said I’d see him again, maybe at the farmhouse or some scenic location where we could breathe a little.”
Beck’s “Modern Guilt” in stores today, 7/8/08!
HOT NEW TRACK FROM YV HERE
July 8, 2008
“I’m tired of eating Ramen noodles and getting evicted. I’m trying to stay out of the streets and just focus on my music.” With southern fused ingredients, surefire hooks and Zone 4 Inc. backing, YV will undoubtedly be leaving Ramen Noodles in the rear view mirror with nothing but stages and global exposure ahead of him.
Listen to YV’s latest single “I Gotta Dolla”:
http://www.myspace.com/yvigottadolla
NEW MP3 FROM GRAFH HERE
July 8, 2008
KOCH Records announces a new deal with Chaz Williams and his Black Hand Entertainment.
The first release under this new deal will be the new album by New York rapper and Black Hand Entertainment President Grafh. He is set to release The Evolution, on Black Hand Entertainment/KOCH Records this fall.
KOCH Records General Manager Alan Grunblatt says, “All of us here at KOCH Records are absolutely thrilled to be working with Grafh, he is truly a great New York artist.
This is the first big record we are doing via Black Hand and Chaz Williams. Chaz and I are pardners!”
Black Hand Entertainment CEO Chaz Williams adds, “KOCH Records has been at the forefront of indie music for some time. This is the perfect climate for what we do at Black Hand as an independent movement.”
“Like Ohh”:
SHOW REVIEW: STEVE MILLER AND JOE COCKER TOUR
July 8, 2008
Steve Miller Band and Joe Cocker Rock Out at Verizon Wireless Music Center. Steve Miller, Joe Cocker—two men in their middle sixties prove that age is nothing more than just a simple number.
Intercept, Magnolia Road
July 8, 2008
Intercept’s Magnolia Road comes just in time to book for the college Fall Fest season. Think of how those sensitive anthems will sound bouncing off the concrete at your campus arena, how those pounding toms will resonate in hearts wrapped in crisp new university sweatshirts, how impressed that cute freshman chick will be when you sing “Two Broken Astronauts” to her when the lights dim, mouthing “Try to get back safe/But you can never really go back home.”
Sound cynical? Not half as cynical as kicking off an album with the stack of clichés that is “Stand Back” – “Is this the way you are – like a shooting star – Always flying off the handle?” And not half as irritating as breaking the lyric sheet down into designations of “Verse One, Prechorus One, Chorus, Verse Two, Bridge,” etc. There’s actually an “interlude,” designated as such, halfway through the album.
Like Third Eye Blind and Vertical Horizon before them, Intercept are competent musicians and careful craftsmen who produce empty pop nuggets with just enough hooks to stay in the memory for a semester or so. Deep Blue Something anyone?
Magnolia Road is packed with agonizingly whiny sentiments of unrequited love (“I’m breaking my bones just to own a moment alone in the heart of you”) and faux spiritualism (“not just an average soul, I know I could be more”) all set to a melodramatic rock score. Trebly, echoing, and reverb-drenched guitars ring in approximation of the Edge, giving the big fat distorted guitars for the chorus, lead singer beseeches you to feel his pain. Competent, but not terribly compelling.
Then again, we can’t seem to shake “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (or “Semi-Charmed Life,” or “Everything You Want”). So rock on, and tell the freshman girl we said hello.
Review By: Nick A Zaino III
Rating: 
Fiona Joy Hawkins, ICE: Piano Slightly Chilled
July 8, 2008
Those unfamiliar with Fiona Joy Hawkins might be fooled by the title of her latest album, ICE: Piano Slightly Chilled, and the cover art featuring an abstract painting of a woman with (literally) impossible curves sitting on a piano, into thinking they are looking at an album of piano jazz. Something that belongs on the racks next to Diana Krall or someone trying to put a similarly modern stamp on a classic sound. If that’s your expectation, move along. This album is not for you. But if you’re into melodramatic new age music, press on.
On her Web site, Hawkins, claims this album is “a new exciting hybrid genre she calls – and which the world will soon embrace as – BLEND.” She puts herself at the head of this new genre, complaining she is tired of being lumped into the “tried and true new age category,” and saying artists all over the world feel the same way. And you can hear elements of different genres – highly processed rock guitar, classically influenced piano themes, programmed drum sequences, and a bit of world music (there is didgeridoo on four – count ‘em – four tracks).
Whether or not this is a new direction, however, is debatable. New age music has long been littered with pan flutes and “world” music instruments, and distorted guitars aren’t much of a revelation, either. Most of ICE is midtempo and moody, a lost score evoking the valiant cheese of a Lifetime movie, linked by the “ice” theme (sample titles – “Iced Rain,” “Cloud Chill,” “Love in the Refrigerator,” “Crystalized Love”). That seems to be what people love about new age music rather than some bold departure. It’s evocative but inoffensive and melodramatic enough to seem passionate. Call it BLEND if you want, package it to look like jazz, but it’s still new age music.
Review By: Nick A Zaino III
Rating:
Douye, Journey
July 8, 2008
Everyone is on a journey these days. Reality show contestants, musicians, athletes – ask them about their lives, and that word will come up, maybe more than once. So when someone releases an album called Journey, and they’re not in the band Journey, you’d have every right to be skeptical. But when Douye sings it on the title track of her new jazzy R&B album, it doesn’t sound half bad. Her clear, smoky voice helps you overlook a few pedestrian lines about destiny and shining stars and just hum along.
The fact that this isn’t a loud, brassy album is part of its virtue. Douye doesn’t have the bravado of Alicia Keys or the exploding passion of Anita Baker. She does share those singers’ affinity for updating a classic soulful sound, but Douye’s quiet, almost delicate confidence has more in common with Allison Krauss. “Cold Wind Blows,” with its simple arrangement and gently arpeggiating guitar, would fit neatly in Krauss’ set list. Douye’s voice flirts with the muted trumpet that winds through several tracks, a good foil for her scoops and glides effortlessly along. Even her ballad of love scorned, “Walk Away,” is more wistful than accusatory.
Douye wrote these eleven tracks with Terry Shaddick, best known for penning the Olivia Newton-John hit “Physical.” It’s clear the two wrote to showcase Douye’s voice more than the songs themselves. Many of them are pleasant but disposable, and Douye makes them sound better than perhaps they really are. But that’s also a function of the songs’ simplicity – sometimes when you’re aiming for simple, you hit ordinary. If Douye and Shaddick continue their partnership, it might be worth watching. Journey isn’t flashy, but not because Douye hasn’t found her voice. It’s where she goes from here that counts.
Review By: Nick A Zaino III
Rating:
Phoenix Block: Collaboration Yields Debut ‘Chemtrails’
July 8, 2008
The legend of the Phoenix reads something like this: in Phoenician mythology a fiery bird with a 500-year lifespan eventually dies after igniting its nest (and itself) only to be reborn from its own ashes.
Aaron English, The Marriage Of The Sun And The Moon
July 8, 2008
Seattle has been home to some of the most influential rock musicians ever. Think Kurt Cobain, Eddie Vedder, and Jimi Hendrix. Because of those three, it must be hard for many musicians from the Emerald City to be taken seriously. That does not seem to be a problem for Seattle-based singer-songwriter Aaron English though as the talented, piano player has perfected a sound for himself that is fresh and rather exciting.
Need proof of that. Just listen to his newest CD The Marriage Of The Sun And The Moon which shows English is not your normal staid singer-songwriter as he writes songs with complicated arrangements full of world beat and rock music elements. Some people have compared his music to Peter Gabriel and while that is apparent at times, it shortchanges English’s uniqueness.
The best example of English’s talents is heard on the track “Brittle” which is a sonic delight that features a soaring electric guitar, a nice but understated flute, and great bass and percussion work. Other songs follow through with this complex approach with the addition of distinctive instruments such as violin (the title track), hurdy-gurdy (“Like Smoke”), and the lute and kalimba (a cover of the Police’s “Message In A Bottle.”)
If there is a weakness to the songs on The Marriage Of The Sun And The Moon, it has to do with English’s vocals which are not as impressive as the music behind it. Don’t read this as English being a horrible singer though. He has a good range who can hit the low and high notes but he does tend to come across as too bombastic on certain tracks here which distracts from the songs’ fine arrangements.
That said, his best vocal performances come on the CD’s simpler songs, the piano ballad “Me And My Rainshadow” and the acoustic pop number “God Bless You And Your Man,” where his subtlety reign supreme.
Review By: Todd Sikorski
Rating:
Fanny Grace, Rise And Shine
July 8, 2008
Fanny Grace, a country-rock outfit consisting of songwriter/guitarist Paul Reeves and singer Carmen Mejia, has been around for more than a decade but it seems stardom has always been just around the corner for them. The duo’s popularity has never grown much past a small but faithful following–despite their opening for country icons Willie Nelson and Kenny Chesney and classic rock favorites Steve Miller and Joan Jett in the past.
Things might finally be changing for Fanny Grace though as they have released a fine country CD entitled Rise and Shine. Adding to the luster of the release is that it was produced by John Carter Cash, the Man in Black’s son, and it was even recorded in the elder Cash’s famed Tennessee cabin.
This Cash ambience must have been special for Reeves and Mejia because they crafted some great contemporary country songs for this release. Delicious harmonies abound on songs like “Counting On Love” and “Soon Be Home” and the fiddle, banjo, and mandolin battle for time in strong tracks like “Get Along” and “Don’t Want It All.”
That said, the track that must people will gravitate to is “My Cowboy’s Last Ride” which was actually written by the Man in Black years ago but never released. The song is most interesting because it is written with a female point of view and Mejia’s sincere vocals work perfectly with the heartfelt lyrics.
It can be argued that Rise and Shine is not ground breaking musically as the Dixie Chicks have done stuff like this extremely successfully for years. Still, there is no filler here as all twelve songs on the CD are good and if there is any justice in the country world, Fanny Grace will be enjoying a much bigger success than ever before.
Review By: Todd Sikorski
Rating: 
