Odd that England’s New Music Express called Tribes “Britain’s best American band”. They sound peculiarly British to me. Of course, so did The Redwalls, and they are from Chicago. I think it just might be that influences skip across the pond more liberally in both directions than ever before.
2012 was a downright depressing year for rock: the biggest newsmakers in the genre were names like The Beach Boys (50th anniversary tour), the Rolling Stones (also celebrating 50) and Springsteen (who may as well be). New rock took a back seat to Classic rock, and both were overshadowed by dance music and indie pop. That thud we all heard was the sound of a genre hitting (rock) bottom.
Maybe new rock bands aren’t ambitious enough. So seldom do you hear one even attempt to craft a polished, accessible, well-produced record–you know, the kind with audible lyrics and everything. And maybe Tribes won’t be the band to turn it all around. But at least they seem to go for it. They seem to be trying to make that great record that can be embraced by millions.
And we need it.A generation have grown up without knowing what it’s like to buy a new classic rock record. I don’t mean “classic rock” as in Steve Miller Band. I mean a rock record that is a classic. As much as I like to see a youngster wearing a Pink Floyd or Beatles T-shirt, isn’t it time a next wave of great rock bands stepped forward and made their presence felt on the charts alongside Taylor Swift and Rihanna?
The anthemic chorus of “We Are Children” is something I could hear a full arena chanting along with. “Corner of an English Field” may bring to mind Oasis in their better moments. And while “Himalaya” might not grab you at first listen, it’s a grower with a Zeppelinesque heaviness.
Tribes don’t sound like a flash in the pan to me. I’ll be interested to see where their ambition takes them next time out. And hoping they enjoy a bright future both in England where they seem to be loved, and in America where the critics have so far been less impressed.
These two albums are a real treat for Beatle fans. Each Christmas song contains musical references to a particular song by that other Fab Four, so it’s fun to spot the corollary song–as well as plenty of more obscure, uh, Easter eggs.
It’s quite an amazing job of meshing Beatle songs with Christmas carols and even makes for a few laugh-out-loud moments. Very cool concept–one that wouldn’t work as well with any other band.
But for so many of us these musical riffs and phrases are so deeply embedded that to hear them transplanted into holiday songs is a kick.
There doesn’t seem to be a single kind of music that Brave Combo can’t play, from polkas (in several languages) to rock, ska, hora, cha chas, rhumbas, salsa, samba, merengue, tango, even Japanese folk songs. This not only makes them a pretty engaging live act but makes for a festive holiday album. On It’s Christmas, Man! they definitely spike the eggnog, rendering familiar classics with a new beat, and mixing in some lighthearted originals, like the Tex-Mex ‘Christmas in July’:
Who says Christ was a Capricorn?/Maybe He perhaps was born/On the hottest Sunday of the year
His birthday might have been the time to be/On the beach at Galilee/Watching Him change water into beer
They’d have a Christmas, a summer Christmas/You’d-see-the-Lord-could-surf-without-a-surfboard Christmas
Could it be possible?/Check out the Gospel/This year let’s have Christmas in July
They not only have a way with words, but fare pretty well when they do away with words, as a snazzy, jazzy little ‘Frosty the Snowman’ shows. ‘Feliz Navidad’ as a cumbia? ‘Must be Santa’ as a polka? Why not? Christmas, among other things, is party time.
Once in a while a band comes along that challenges your ability to categorize, even for the sake of recommending, or to put your finger on a template for. North Carolina’s Roman Candle are nominally an alt country band (I suppose) but while their songs may call other bands to mind at times, they really sound like no one–they are the rare band who are their own template.
A reviewer in the Charlotte Observer used Goats Head Soup-era Rolling Stones for comparison, and that’s as good a match as any. But I won’t hesitate to say this is a better record. There are few if any weak moments–from beginning to end it’s a melodic mix of grit and sensitivity, sometimes woven together seamlessly.
NC locals knew and raved about this band for years before this album, which was shelved for about four years by the record company, finally was released in 2006. I can’t name a better album released that year.
Roman Candle is chiefly front man Skip Matheny, his wife Timshel on keyboards and his brother Logan on drums. In person they impress you as some of the most unassuming and personable people in the music business, truly the kind of folks that deserve success. But I think talent will be the determining factor, and a listen to The Wee Hours Revue will convince you they’ve got it in spades. This might just be your next favorite band.
For ears accustomed to contemporary pop music alone, this one’s a reach. But for the more adventurous ear, or for those who like 70’s Irish and English pop-folk, this is an album you should know about. As one Amazon.com reviewer put it: If you like it, you’ll love it.
Tir Na Nog are Sonny Condell and Leo O’Kelly, who met in Dublin in 1969. Discovering that they both had plans to relocate and give the more extensive London folk scene a go, they decided to form a duo. On their arrival in London, not only were they able almost immediately to line up a steady stream of gigs, but within a week their demo tapes earned them a contract from Chrysalis Records.
Their Celtic-rooted folk, with intricate guitar accompaniment and idiosyncratic lyrics made an immediate impression on folk and rock audiences alike; not only did they headline shows at colleges and London folk clubs, but they toured Europe in support of arena-filling acts such as Jethro Tull, Hawkwind, Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, Procol Harum, The Who, Cat Stevens, Roxy Music and Elton John.
Such was their reputation’s rise over two years and two albums that when it came time to record Strong in the Sun they were booked into Sound Techniques studio in London, where people like Paul McCartney and Wings worked, and much sought-after engineer Geoff Emerick, who’d worked on albums such as Sgt. Pepper and Revolver, was hired on to work with them.
Where their 1971 eponymous first album was filled with simply arranged, pastoral acoustic folk inspired by the Irish countryside, their second album, 1972’s A Tear and a Smile, found them moving slightly and subtly toward fuller arrangements and using a full drum kit for the first time. Strong in the Sun in 1973 completed the transition, and pushed the envelope of folk rock into full rock band territory. However, the album is not without a few sensitive acoustic moments that revisit the sound of the earlier work.
The album’s only non-original is a rather drastic reworking of Nick Drake’s ‘Free Ride’. Tir Na Nog were the only artists to cover Drake while he was still living. They were also perhaps the first to use what is now called “sampling”–the song ‘Cinema’ contains an instrumental bridge overlaid with a bit of audio from an old Henry Fonda Western.
The two held an art-over-commerce ethic throughout their major label run. Their first album did not see U.S. release because Chrysalis insisted they include Bob Dylan’s ‘Maggie’s Farm’, a concert favorite, on the record. Sonny and Leo refused and the label did not release the LP in the States as a result. When the record company suggested they include printed lyrics with their second album as was becoming customary at the time the two again stood their ground and refused on the principle that to do so separates music and lyrics, which they saw as inseparable. When Chrysalis executives heard demos of their third and final record, Strong in the Sun, they insisted Sonny and Leo start over and record the whole album again–new studio, new producer, new backing musicians. The pair went along and rerecorded the album, but it turned out to be the last time they chose to work for a major label.
Paul McCartney was said to be a big fan of Strong in the Sun. Knowing this, Sonny and Leo wanted to ask Paul to produce the next Tir Na Nog single, but it never happened. They’d had enough of a demanding touring schedule and of compromising with a major record label. Although they’d already begun writing material for a fourth album, they instead broke off from Chrysalis and went back to Ireland, leaving a legacy of three cult-favorite albums of progressive folk. Not many artists drop their record company and leave the major label world on their own terms. It’s a testament to the quality of the music that several reissue labels–Edsel, BGO and, most recently, Esoteric Recordings–have licensed it over the years, and all three of Tir Na Nog’s albums remain in print to this day.
Welsh band The Pooh Sticks have been described as “rock’s most inside joke”. At nearly every turn they were slyly sending up rock mythology, whether by ironic image manipulation, outlandish marketing (putting out their own mock bootleg) or stealing bits of classic songs–copping a Who riff here, the guitar solo from Neil Young’s “Powderfinger” there, nicking the opening lines from Alice Cooper’s “Hello Hooray” or a chunk of Stephen Stills’ “Love the One You’re With”…but all in a spirit of fun, a sort of game of spot-the-stolen-bit for the knowing rock fan.
Their first release was a single. Their second? A box set. Ha ha. A couple of records later came the ironically titled Million Seller, which of course wasn’t. It was however their best, most polished album.
But sales were disappointing, probably because they’d built a reputation for a somewhat ragged, more guitar-heavy power pop sound on previous releases. This one may have been a little too poppy and polished for its own good. So, having no place on 1993 pop radio and not being what fans of the band expected, this album didn’t really find much of an audience at the time. It has since, however, earned a degree of acclaim as a pop classic.
As is the case with so many of the good ones, the Million Seller album is out of print.
Every Moment Has A Song 