Heck yeah! My favorite Scottish rockers have reinstated the bite, edge, volume, and power that was missing from their underappreciated but still lessor last, mellower fourth album, Warnings/Promises. This comes out next month in the U.K.; somebody smart should put this out here. And quick. This music should truly jump out of a crunching P.A. near you.
Everything I’ve said about Long Blondes’ singles in this space is delivered, completely, on this their long awaited debut LP. Tight, terse, cool, sexy, smart post-punk with great melodies and a smart come on or come down on every track. You can’t beat it right now for new albums. See our interview in the new issue 59 for more!!!!
I bought this eight song new EP from the band’s merch table, but it is a legit release out on Long Beach, CA label Devil Doll. Although an obvious stopgap release, it’s real value for money with the A-side taken from the typically sharp Carnival LP from 2005 and three live versions and a reggae remix and three other outright b-sides. All for a domestic price! That JUSTIN SULLIVAN is still as committed as ever after 25 years just says it all!!!! Check out four songs from 1982-2007, which show how true that last sentence is, at myspace.com/newmodelarmymyspace and if you don’t feel the righteous anger stirring up in him in _Carnival_’s “Another Imperial Day” to match that on 1984’s “Vengeance” then we have a disagreement.
This second LP is coming out in April from this exciting Newcastle bunch. They could perhaps be faulted for a making an LP that doesn’t break different ground from their debut, but then again, they are so good at it, I stopped caring by my second listen to this. It’s very nearly as great as the first, and that says a lot. It will infect you too.
San Francisco’s 1977-1979 punk rock incredibles stopped in New York for one show on their way to their European tour. Lucky us! This wasn’t as chaotic as their CBGB and Trash Bar shows last fall (only their second and third New York appearances ever). The Bowery’s spacious hall could never generate the mayhem of a crazed crowd surrounding a band and jumping all over each other and the stage sides like at those small clubs. But the tradeoff was that the Bowery has such a crystal clear sound system, that you could really hear every word PENELOPE HOUSTON barked out with the clarity of a solo acoustic gig. And GREG INGRAHAM was blowing us away on those hot leads and piledriving chord playing, especially on ‘Car Crash.” Just astonishing!
Sloan makes their boldest statement. 30 songs and nearly 80 minutes is a boatload to absorb, completely overwhelming. With age, though, Never Hear the End of It (you won’t, for a while!) unfolds its succulent secrets like an opening, multicolor flower.
I have long thought that Vancouver’s New Pornographers needed a live LP, and this limited edition 1000-copies CD sold at their merch table fits the bill. Despite some minor quibbles with the sound and harmonies, it reflects the crunchy insistence their live work infuses into their already caffeinated, onrushing power-pop
Fantastic! This collection of unreleased demos and hot live tracks rises to the level of the 1977-1979 L.A. punk greats’ self-titled 2000 retrospective on Bacchus. It might even better it, thanks to the surprising find of the smokin’ brief set the group did, impromptu and unrehearsed, for the “Back to the Masque” reunion night at Hollywood’s wonderfully decadent, decaying Cathay De Grande basement club at Argyle and Selma, January 19, 1982.
This is really the fifth ABLE TASMANS LP, their first since the Auckland, NZ band split following 1995’s Store in a Cool Place. Keyboardist GRAEME HUMPHREYS and singer PETER KEEN were their main songwriters. And yet, this is a fresh dimension, so maybe a new name was warranted. The Overflow is one of the deepest orchestral pop records you’ll hear this or any year. It sounds like someone took out a second mortgage to finance its recording, with its crescendoing strings, cooled down horns, even elegiac euphonium (from huge Big Takeover favorite DON MCGLASHAN, whose new LP Warm Hand is my number two pick in the current issue 59!), and most of all, Humphreys’ dominating piano so sonorous, it’s like its little hammers are pounding your head.
