Music Reviews: Ray Lamontagne, Alexi Murdoch, The Blow, etc.

Music from my last trip to KC in July.  Good gravy, am I ever late with this!  Too much going on...  

The 6 CDs reviewed sort of fell into pairs:

Folk:

Ray Lamontagne - "Until the Sun Turns Black", "Trouble":  Oooh.  :)  I like this one.  His voice has a raspy, vaguely hoarse quality to it, not unlike Van Morrison.  He does a hot jump-blues riff, but is just as at home with a lilting waltz or a simple folk ballad.  Nice guitar, solid piano, some strings for texture, versatile vocals, compelling lyrics.  

Three More Days, which was released as a single, stands out on UTSTB, but other favorites from that CD are: Gone Away From Me, Within You, Be Here Now, Can I Stay, Lesson Learned (the vocal here is riveting.)  From "Trouble", his debut CD, I liked best: the title track, All The Wild Horses, Hold You In My Arms, Forever My Friend.

Alexi Murdoch - "Time Without Consequence":  Yeah... nice.  He has a great style.  How do I put this?  Maybe a cross between Mike Doughty and the "Into The Wild" Eddie Vedder?  He's a skinny-looking guy with a really cool deep husky/bluesy/folksy voice.  No bad tracks here, none at all.  Favorites:  All My Days, Love You More, Song For You, Wait, Orange Sky, Blue Mind.

Oh, and one more thing.. Alexi Murdoch has a single on iTunes which is a folk version of Silent Night.  Really good for Christmas.  :)  I know it's Summer, yeah, but it's on my mind because I did my usual Christmas-in-July thing on the way back from KC and played a Christmas mix CD for about 200 miles.  It's kinda fun when it's 95 out.

Minimalist:

Palace Brothers - "Days in the Wake":  Talk about bare-bones.  This one shames Bon Iver with its lack.  Not only a decided lack of instrumentation, but a decided lack of vocal quality, too. His voice breaks like an adolescent boy (a'la Michael Cera in Juno or Arrested Development), and he milks it worse than a country singer would. Truly a piteous sound, with lyrics to match. How do these guys get a recording contract?  Hmm.. maybe this is what Indie music is for - when no one else will publish you, do it yourself.  Favorites:  none. Thumbs up: none.

Songs: Ohia - "The Ghost":  Hmpf.  This CD sounds like the guy recorded himself singing & playing in his basement with a portable cassette tape player.  You can sort of hear the "click" of the recorder stopping and starting with each change in track.  Not to mention it sounds hollow the way a built-in condenser mic does.  And from one song to the next, there's no discernable change in style.  Plodding, doleful, spare.  No thumbs up on this one, either.

Anti-folk/avant-garde:

The Ex & Tom Cora: "Scrabbling at the Lock":  Ahhh!  Run away!  This is scary stuff.  Tom Cora is a cellist, classically trained and all, but.. well, scrabbling is the right word for the sound he produces.  It sounds like the kind of music you might expect from a horror picture where the aliens have finally come and they are scratching at the bolted doors and windows of your house with their reptilian claws...  

Except that occasionally there are spoken lyrics which serve to remind you that humans are making these sounds.  The one redeeming feature to it is that every time signature you can think of is represented here.  There's your basic 4/4, sure, and 3/4, and 7/8 (counted 123'4567'), and 5/4 (counted 123'45'), and 12/8 but felt in two (like triplets done in cut time)... wow.  But nothing made the study playlist, that's for sure.

The Blow - "Concussive Caress", "Poor Aim: Love Songs ":  Okay, picture the movie "Juno" and the songs in it which sounded like they were sung by a 14 year old girl (or two.)  Kimya Dawson.  The Moldy Peaches.  Anti-folk, squared.  That's The Blow.  

Mostly their sound is drum & bass with a thin female vocal.  Now and then there's a reedy organ or a toy piano (which seems to be the quirky instrument of choice for bands right now.)  The bass (played on a synth) is the kind of bass that's meant to be at the resonant frequency of your vehicle, so that the doors and dashboard rattle and buzz on every beat.  At least they did in mine, from Des Moines to the Missouri border!  Yow.

I actually liked some of this, though.  :)  Mostly the silly songs about boys and girls and the teenage mating dances which they try to figure out on the fly, embarrassing themselves in the process of learning what works and doesn't with the opposite sex.  My favorite track was the remake of "every little thing she does is magic" (Come On Pauline), but also Hey Boy, and Let's Play Boys Chase Girls.  Cute.