Nothing beats live music. Hands down, the live experience trumps any audio or video recording I’ve ever seen of an artist performing. That said, the next best thing is a concert recording, preferably video so you can see the actual performance instead of simply listening to it.
I have never seen Heart live other than the occasional performance I’ve seen on television. It’s on my list of things to do. But their album Red Velvet Car is probably more intimate than I could possibly be, even if I was sitting in the front row. From beginning to end, I felt with each track like it was recorded in my living room. It might have been a LOUD living room at times where the windows rattled, but you know what I mean…
The sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson have been queens of rock and roll since Dreamboat Annie hit radio waves in 1975, but Red Velvet Car is their first release in six years. This album manages to not only capture the classic Heart sound – from the style of “Barracuda” to that of “Dog and Butterfly” – while adding the new dimension that only age and experience can provide. From the duo’s voices that sound as good as 35 years ago to the guitars, songwriting, and harmonies that only they can create, it’s damn good to hear them rocking out again with some new tunes.
And with ten new tracks, we got a lot of new music to enjoy. I don’t know whether it’s the quieter tunes like “Hey You” and “Sand” or the rocking tunes like “There You Go,” “Wheels,” and “Death Valley” that echo in my mind long after listening… But whether you enjoy the fierce energy of electric guitars or the solace of getting lost in acoustic guitars and voices emotionally telling what can only be personal tales, there’s something for anybody who enjoys good music on this album.
The opening track – “There You Go” – tells a cautionary tale about losing control and being burned. With guitar melodies and rhythms sounding barely under control, you feel like the train is rushing forward only to crash in a ball of flame… “There you go again / Walking straight into the freezing flame / There you go again / There you go in the media insane…” The band is telling some poor innocent soul to be wary of the whirlwind of fame, to watch out for herself.
“Wheels” is another song that just drives along like a freight train in the dark… Again, the guitars and bass lines simply pound the song forward to some unknown destination. As they sing “Just close your eyes now / And breath a sigh now / Out of here” – like some great escape on the rails or open road. It’s impossible not to tap your toes as it drives on. (Note to self – don’t listen to this song while in the car with a known speed trap… )
But it’s “Sand” that sticks with me the longest. The last song on the album, it’s a story of endings or loss. The acoustic guitars set the stage and Ann’s expressive voice felt like I was listening to a song played at a funeral. Something private shared with a crowd to let them know whomever it was that left them is still with them, like sand in the wind. “I asked a distant star / I wonder where you are / the shadow at my door / the friend who is no more…” I couldn’t help but think of a friend I’d lost years ago… “Surely this sweet sand will run out by and by / and while the days come down to you / you are just a traveler passing through…”
It’s the intimacy that just floors me each time I listen to the album. I truly felt as though I had somehow slipped into a jam session as a fly on the wall… soaking up the music and the tales.
Red Velvet Car will be released on August 31, 2010 and I would encourage anyone who’s heard Heart in the past to pick up a copy. It’s another great album from Anne, Nancy, and the band to listen to over and over again.
This article first appeared at BlogCritics.org here.
–Fitz
p.s. Pick up this and other great Heart albums below!
When a passionate, talented artist finds another and things click, it’s kismet. That good fortune over the last three years has led songwriter Chris Dreyer and guitarist Scott Taylor to create some amazing music as the band Goodbye Picasso in New York City a few years ago. The band’s first album is The Book of Aylene (TBoE), which releases August 24, 2010.
TBoE tells the story about a musician who gets the girl, gets a great gig, and starts the downward spiral of drugs, relationships, and finally – losing the gig. Thankfully I was told this isn’t autobiographical in nature, which is awesome. In an age of overly engineered albums, it’s nice to find a concept album that is simply that… a concept seen through the arc of a series of tracks.
I’m positive there are many influences on the record, but as I listened I was reminded of groups from the 1970s, like Van Morrison and Simon & Garfunkle. The country influences aren’t far behind either, especially in the last song – “The Devil, The Bottle, and Me.” The hand of a storyteller was hard at work throughout the album, with a simplicity and honesty in words and melody providing a deep landscape upon which to layer some sweet instrumentals.
Though I love the faster, more upbeat or bluesy tunes on the album more than the ballads, the mixture meant styles changed across the album to reflect the tone of particular songs through the story arc. Everything from a rockin’ blues tune to acoustic strings and almost a wild west sounding piano can be heard as the tales progress and he falls further down the rabbit hole…
My favorite song on the entire album is the nearly drunken blues song “I Don’t Want Nothin’” with some riffs between saxophones and lead electric guitar that just sell the lyrics that much more. The musician is losing his girl, and he knows it. “Don’t call me superstitious when I catch you watching her / With your dirty little secrets of the places that you were / And you can play it cool / Or act the fool / It all looks well rehearsed / You’ve been talking me in circles, as if somehow I’ve not heard…”
But songs like “Lick the Thumb, Turn the Page” really define the struggling artist’s goal to find a way to be discovered playing gigs in some small town. “My drummer’s friend’s in A&R / He seems to think we could go far / It’s much harder than it sounds / Being no one in this town…” Playing to and for people through those initial years, “All these evenings that I’ve spent / with all these people I’ll forget…” The virtual blur of names, faces, places, and gigs has to wear on a musician’s soul.
And “The Song That Says Goodbye” tells the story when the musician really figures out that he’s losing it as things start falling apart. This is a ballad, almost. But it sounds more like he’s making excuses for himself until the end of the song, when he realizes he’s slipped too far and maybe his girl should keep her distance… “I kept on accusing everyone else / For these consistent bruises I gave myself / Is it real when you realize no wealth? / And you were best off losing with someone else…”
I could go on all day writing about these songs and the words therein. The tales embedded capture the manic cycle and downfall of a musician losing his battle with fame and fortune. When you add the beautiful musical compositions and soulful vocals, TBoE reaches a whole new level of introspection and sorrow as the musician hits rock bottom.
If you are looking for something new – something truly artistic and enjoyable from a group we should all get to know better – be sure to check out Goodbye Picaso’s The Book of Aylene when it’s released on August 24, 2010. It’s going to be a hard album to follow up after the invevitable national and world tours that will follow. I only hope that the band doesn’t read their own lyrics and start down this path of self destruction!
For more information about the band, their touring schedule, and lyrics for The Book of Aylene, be sure to check out GoodbyePicasso.com.
This article first appeared at BlogCritics.org here.
Have you ever seen a movie where music composer John Williams did a movie score? His film scores for movies such as Star Wars, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, and so on have entertained us for more than four decades. Some of his influences for the first Star Wars soundtrack may have come from a particular work by composer Gustav Holst. Holst’s most famous piece is “The Planets,” which was a suite of seven movements, each named after a planet and its corresponding astrological character.
In “The Planets,” the seven movements correspond to Mars (War), Venus (Peace), Mercury (the Messenger), Jupiter (Jollity), Saturn (Old Age), Uranus (the Magician) and Neptune (the Mystic). Each movement has a different character to it. For example, Mars is heavy and insistent with horns and drums, like a general marshaling his troops for a battle, while Neptune has a lighter, more mysterious feel to it using woodwinds. And each movement also is tied to the astrological character of the subject.
A new group has taken a similar approach to Holst in their new CD Eight Moons, composing songs about eight of the major moons with names of the gods – from Mars to the distant dwarf planet of Eris. Omnimi seems to seek a blend of classical, choral, and world music to evoke some of the same powerful feelings as Holst’s work – from the dramatic to the relaxing.
And, like Holst, each track feels as though it should be part of a movie soundtrack. “Phobos – Mars I” with its merging of a choir and driving percussion would be at home in a film like the upcoming Conan reboot starring Jason Momoa coming to theaters in 2011. There’s almost a desert feel to some of the percussion, giving it a vaguely “Arabian Nights” flavor.
From Phobos we move to “Io – Jupiter I,” which has a less insistent beat but somehow manages to fill the room with power with higher voices and strings building and building. What’s intriguing is there’s a rock guitar in the middle punctuating the lighter vocal performances, bringing this tune into a more modern era. Parts of the melody would feel right at home in the recent trailers for Chrisopher Nolan’s Inception.
My favorite of the tracks is “Neso – Neptune XIII” which manages to capture an ethereal, almost fairy-like sound and merges it with the incessant roll of the sea. Neso in Greel mythology is one of the goddesses of the sea and one of the 50 Nereids – one of the sea nymphs. Through a use of interesting beats behind the scenes along with the strings and voices it truly feels as though you are rolling along the waves.
Ultimately, I think Omnimi has done an amazing job in composing some truly unique songs in a Holst style. Movie directors and producers seeking full-sounding orchestrations for their own films would do well to give Eight Moons a listen to see how they might be worked into current productions. Hopefully we’ll hear more from Omnimi in the future!
For more information about Omnimi, be sure to check out their website at OmnimiMusic.com.
This article first appeared at BlogCritics.org here.
Once upon a time, I was more aware of up and coming bands. While living around Denver, CO, I regularly listened to KBCO on the radio – a station famous for a mix of both new and old tracks. Through KBCO I was introduced to bands and performers like Peter Mulvey, Snow Patrol, Jason Mraz, Brandi Carlile, and many many others. Unfortunately I don’t get to Denver much to take advantage of that influx of new artists and music. So I’d never heard of the band White Apple Tree before…
White Apple Tree (WAT) consists of brothers Ryan and Taylor Lawhon, and drummer Stefan Mac. Though founded in 2007 by Ryan as a solo project, his brother Taylor and Stefan joined pretty quickly after he recorded a solo five song EP – Taste the Celebration. In 2008, they released a single – “Snowflakes” – that was picked up by the hit TV show Gossip Girl, which gave them worldwide exposure far beyond their Southern California haunts as they toured across America and did numerous local shows. Fans clamored soon after for more songs from the group, resulting in Velvet Mustache – their debut album.
When Velvet Mustache appeared one day and I started to listen, I found myself immersed in a landscape of drums, synthesizers, and the occasional guitar and loving every minute of it. And as I started listening to the words behind the lush electronic landscape, I began to see a very unique point of view start to emerge.
What I immediately heard in the music itself were similarities to groups like Dishwalla and Snow Patrol – the layered electronic sounds mostly based around a synthesizer built upon with drums and voices singing about growing up in Southern California, the trials found in relationships of all kinds, and the swelling numbness all too common in the madness of the everyday.
“Youth” provides driving melodies and drums while its lyrics describing the seeming apathy of today’s kids. “We stick around because we don’t care / None of us have had to work for nothing / Let’s go to Tyler’s house and waste some air…” It’s tragic and yet telling of many of this new generation growing up without a direction. The music injects an urgency lost in the words.
“Clarity” is my favorite song on the album. There’s a beauty to the almost haunting synthesizer melodies and voices that reminds me of the hopeful nature of music I listened to in the ’80s. But again the lyrics call out a moment of clarity in the darkness – “Cover up my eyes / The tint is dark / So no one sees their shit fall apart…”
And “As Seen On TV” compares life to what’s on television and wondering if we’ve become jaded by all the violence. “Not death, life, birth, or pain / Can shock us now, we’re all the same / And now, or then, we’re jaded” they sing “It’s the man with the gun pointed at my chest / A whispered threat under his breath and I know / It’s just as seen on TV…” With another generation raised in front of the tube, can any of us be surprised or affected by the violence in the world? If it happens to us, do we see it as real or break it down mentally as though “this doesn’t happen in real life, just on TV”…
White Apple Tree not only creates great electronic-based music, but lyrics that make you think. Social commentary and music have always gone hand in hand. Is it enough that young bands like WAT try to inject their passion and observations of the world around them into their music? Velvet Mustache is an awesome mix of music and introspection I hope to hear again soon.
For lyrics and more details about the band, be sure to check out their website at WhiteAppleTree.com.
This article first appeared at BlogCritics.org here.
Sometimes I get clubbed on the side of the head when I least expect it. Though I’d heard of Great Big Sea when I reviewed Séan McCann’s Lullabies for Bloodshot Eyes a few months ago, I really didn’t know much about this band from Newfoundland, Canada. I listened to Fortune’s Favour and it was good, but didn’t wow me. But when I heard Safe Upon the Shore it was definitely a wake-up call.
This is the 10th album from Great Big Sea, a band that’s been together for 17 years. Safe Upon the Shore was recorded over the space of six months in New Orleans, St. John’s in Newfoundland, and anywhere inspiration happened to strike – including buses and dressing rooms while on tour. Evidently a good portion of the album was recorded on band member (and one of the founders) Alan Doyle’s laptop, which provided a mobile recording studio just about anywhere they happened to be.
Doyle, Bob Hallett, and McCann were the driving songwriters on the album, but it also included some co-writers you might not expect – like Russell Crowe and Canadian singer-songwriters Randy Bachman, Jeremy Fisher, and Joel Plaskett. With the New Orleans vibe and additional influx of influences, the group managed to push their usual sound to something I found to be truly inspired.
With a mix of styles, from folk and Bluegrass to rock I’d be happy to hear in any pub, this group of five musicians – Doyle, Hallett, McCann, Murray Foster and Kris MacFarlane – provides a full bodied sound that uses damn near everything that isn’t nailed down… Guitars, bouzouki, mandolin, banjo, piano, accordion, concertina, whistle, harmonica, fiddle, pipes, bodhran, drums, keyboards, and lord knows what else. If it has strings or keys, I bet these folks can probably pick it up.
But on this album it was the mix of deeper, haunting tracks with those imbued by humor that really caught my attention. For me, albums are made or broken by the way they’re constructed. The “landscape” of music that allows a comfortable mix from highs to lows and everything in between. Safe Upon the Shore provides a landscape as rich as the pictures of Newfoundland I’ve seen… from shores to hills, ice to sky.
The other thing you’ll immediately notice if you listen to the lyrics is the sadness buried in the cheerful melodies. It’s that irony that works for songs like “Good People” touting the fact that we’ll always have good people even when things are at their worst… “We’re running out of trees and we’re running out of space, but we’ll never run out of Good People…” And in “Over the Hills” they describe the life of a soldier – “Safe at home we’d rather stay / watch our children grow and play / we owe the Crown so now we’ll pay – over the hills and far away.” But it’s duty that leads good and men away from their families when their leaders call.
There’s too much on the album I absolutely loved, so I’ll just focus on a few tracks.
“Yankee Sailor” manages to be both cheery and sad describing a love that’s not to be with a beautiful acoustic guitar driving the tune. “We were poor / but I was satisfied / and I thought that you were too / You were pure / and I was terrified / I wasn’t good enough for you…” And when that lass met the Yankee Sailor that led her across the waves he knew he’d lost her. “America is beautiful / and I sure hope you’re right / if I could see you across the water / I’d say America is beautiful tonight…” The whistle in the background, with some amazingly simple but gorgeous harmonies adds emotional depth to this story of love lost.
In “Hit the Ground and Run” we hear the story of a shotgun wedding with some amazing Bluegrass… “You better lock the church door tight ’cause at the slightest crack of light that boy is gonna run…” This song hits the ground running and doesn’t let up to the end with it’s driving banjo riffs and hilarious story sung with humor.
It was “Safe Upon the Shore” that really drove this album home for me. A haunting ballad sung a cappella, the tale unfolds of a woman waiting for her “darling sailor boy” to come home. The lyrics alone are heartbreaking, but the slow reveal and Séan McCann’s emotion-laden voice that really drove this track home. “Now fisherman they cast their nets like miners pan for gold / and sailors push off from the docks and pray the gales will hold / the sea just sits silently / but sometimes she does more / and someone weeps as her love sleeps safe upon the shore…” It reminded me of the poetry of Gordon Lightfoot‘s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” which has haunted my musical memory for 30 years.
But in “Road to Ruin” with its “You can take the sunshine / I can take the moonshine / You can take the high road / I can take the low / though later in the evening / the one thing I believe in / I’m on the road to ruin / it’s the only way to go” I found my wife and I described… Again, the humor of accepting the lives we lead and relationships we keep manages to merge amazingly cheerful music and ironic lyrics into a tune that made even me want to dance.
Where Fortune’s Favour didn’t really capture my soul, Safe Upon the Shore managed to do that quickly and never let me go. I’ll be listening to this album for quite a while and shouting far and wide that I too am on the “Road to Ruin” and happy to be there!
Be sure to check out Safe Upon the Shore when it’s released on July 13, 2010. For more information about the band, check out GreatBigSea.com.
This article first appeared on BlogCritics.org here.
–Fitz
p.s. Pick up this and other great Great Big Sea albums below!
This takes the cake for me in the bizarre world of “getting a piece of” just about anything through lawsuits. Men at Work has lost a lawsuit because the flute work of their 1980s hit song “Down Under” was “stolen” from a more than 50 year old Australian folk song – “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gumtree.” And to me, it only sounds vaguely like the flute riff from “Down Under”… So what gives?
Now EMI Songs Australia has to pay 5% of the royalties from the song (earned since 2002 and from all future earnings) to Larrikin Music – the company who owns the copyright for the “Kookaburra” song. What’s even more bizarre is that Larrikin was asking for 60% of the royalties and they’re planning on appealing the ruling to get more of the pie.
Howard Jones has been a part of the soundtrack in my head since the 1980s. With such an amazing career with tracks such as “Things Can Only Get Better,” “What Is Love?”, “No One Is to Blame,” and “Everlasting Love,” his synthesizer pop sound seemed to do no wrong as New Wave album after awesome album appeared on the pop charts. Even today, it’s impossible for me to hear “No One Is to Blame” and not sing along in the car.
Even in his mid-50s, Jones is still touring and playing music for his worldwide fans. His songs have appeared in several movies and video games over the last 30 years and there’s just some endearing quality about his talent and personality that keeps him and his music in the limelight.
1984 seems forever ago, but “Like to Get to Know You Well” was a worldwide hit on The 12″ Album. He followed it up with “No One Is to Blame” in 1985 on Dream into Action, the Action Replay EP in 1986, and my favorite album – Cross That Line in 1989 with “The Prisoner” and “Everlasting Love.” Back then, MTV was actually a place to watch amazing music videos such as Jones’ video for “Everlasting Love” featuring a pair of mummies seeking the perfect relationship.
Now he’s releasing a new album – Ordinary Heroes – which provides the same Howard Jones we know and love but with a bit older, wiser, and more introspective flair. He still loves to write about love (“Even if I Don’t Say”, “Love Never Wasted”, and “Someone You Need”), but now he is mixing in songs about children growing up and going out on their own (“Soon You’ll go”), the unrecognized heroes all around us (“Ordinary Heroes”), and the lives of ordinary people (“Straight Ahead”). All ten tracks on the album are wonderful, providing glimpses of an aging Jones who seemingly hasn’t lost a single step since I heard him in high school.
My favorite song on the album by far is “Soon You’ll Go.” There’s something about the concept of watching your children grow, change, and leave the nest that’s one of those amazingly consistent themes of life. Even the recent Toy Story 3 release deals with it in an emotional, yet inevitable way.
“Tiny fingers clutching round the edge of the bed / Wouldn’t listen to a single word your mother said… These things I will hold on to / when I can’t hold on to you…” Howard’s lyrics bely simple sentiments, based in the memories each parent has of their children from birth to the time they move on with their lives. And the piano, Jones’ voice – backed by a choir – and the obvious emotion just emphasizes the story of the lyrics.
“Ordinary Heroes” – the title track – is my other favorite. “Ordinary heroes / There’s one one on every street / You might not recognize them / ‘Cause they’re just like you and me…” Jones focuses on the people behind us, making us strong and safe. The mothers and fathers, wives, and family that make us who we are. Jones’ voice, piano, and a nice acoustic guitar melody woven through the composition reinforce that none of us are truly alone if we look hard enough.
Thoughout the album, Jones’ piano skills lend themselves from the upbeat tunes to the slow songs and his voice sounds just as good now as it ever did. Howard Jones continues the legacy of the ’80s and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down or losing his touch.
If you’re a Howard Jones fan or are simply looking for something more hopeful and upbeat than the current songs beating the airwaves senseless, I’d encourage you to give Jones’ Ordinary Heroes a listen!
For more details about Howard Jones, his albums, songs, or tour dates, be sure to check out HowardJones.com.
James Newton Howard has always been a bit of a mixed bag for me as far as soundtracks go. There are always some amazing pieces within the whole of one of his movie scores, but I think his soundtrack to The Last Airbender may be my favorite of his so far.
Like a painter, the film score composer has many tools at his or her disposal. Broad strokes done with horns have a different effect than a quiet flute solo and the power of a single violin has a much different effect than the entire string section of an orchestra. And bringing in heavy, percussive drums and cymbals has yet another completely different effect.
It is also the job of any good movie soundtrack to not only enhance the action on screen, but also provide auditory clues to the audience. For example, each time you hear “The Imperial March” in a Star Wars soundtrack from John Williams, you know that Darth Vader is near. But more than that, the music should evoke an emotional response from the audience.
Within the soundtrack to The Last Airbender, I hear bits that make me think of Williams’ work, Basil Poledouris’ work on the Conanmovie soundtracks, as well as classical influences from the East and a bit of a Russian feel. The composition as a whole provides many layers that evokes in me a lot of hope for this movie.
The industrial power of the Fire Nation seeks to convince the rest of the world that their way is best and the old ways must give way to the new. The other nations have their own ideas however. The peaceful Air Nation has been destroyed, the Earth Nation has become isolationist, and the Northern and Southern Water Nation tribes are isolated by virtue of location. Where they all once worked together, now the world is full of distrust and a version of the “Might is Right” line of thinking.
The opening “Airbender Suite” provides a taste of the musical themes that persist throughout the soundtrack. The breathy flute gives way to the cresting waves of strings and horns as we prepare to see the story of a world in the midst of a clash of philosophies. All twelve tracks of the soundtrack utilize the full extent of the highs and lows of an amazing orchestra.
Newton has given each tribe a different feel – from the powerful militant drums of the Fire Nation to the light and airy Air Nation flutes. Each tries to capture one of the four elements of Air, Earth, Fire, or Water in terms of a group of instruments, chords, or melody. Immediately I was caught up in the ebb and flow of these inspired orchestrations.
Of the soundtracks I’ve heard so far this summer, The Last Airbender by Howard has to be my favorite. The mix of instruments and styles from around the globe lends itself to some very unique compositions such as “The Four Elements Test,” which takes distinctly Eastern flutes and bells and combines them with the drums, horns, and strings of more Western traditions. Out of the 12 tracks on the soundtrack, this one is my favorite as it builds and builds to its conclusion.
“The Blue Spirit” is my other favorite, as it managed to surprise me with its use of silence to punctuate eerie crescendos and crashing waves of strings and drums. It reminded me of some of my other favorite soundtracks such as Raiders of the Lost Ark by Williams and Gladiator by Hans Zimmer as it progressed from light and soft to a powerful mix of horns and strings worthy of a great climax in the film.
Howard has received eight Oscar nominations so far in his career, including six Best Original Score nods for Defiance, Michael Clayton, The Village, The Prince of Tides, and My Best Friend’s Wedding. Personally I think that The Last Airbender is the best work to date I’ve heard from him and would expect this score to also receive award nominations.
As a fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the animated series on Nicktoons that M. Night Shyamalan‘s movie is based on, I have to admit some worry about how it would translate to the screen. If Howard’s film score is any indication of the movie quality, I have gained some newfound hope for the entire experience. We’ll see if the film lives up to the promise of the soundtrack on July 2, 2010! Check out The Last Airbender soundtrack when it’s released on June 29, 2010.
New to U.S. shores, South African singer/songwriter Ashton Nyte’s baritone voice seems poised to be ready to make an impression. Often compared to David Bowie or Johnny Cash, voices this deep are not heard often in our current Top 40 landscape.
The Valley is Nyte’s fifth solo album and has been quite active in South African music circles for more than a decade – first as the front man, writer, and producer for the band The Awakening and later as a solo act. Mixing genres from across the board, his musical skills combine acoustic sensibilities, a gift for ballads, and a talent for the dramatic.
He’s definitely a prolific artist, with a catalog of more than 180 original songs, dozens of top ten national singles, and videos played on MTV Europe. Ashton headlined several festivals of 30,000+ fans, so hopefully now that he’s in the USA he won’t forget them as he gains a few in our country!
Here’s a video for a single off The Valley for a taste of his style and sound. I definitely hear the David Bowie influences in this one.
For more information and to hear more of his music, check out his website at AshtonNyte.com.
Here are a few of his upcoming tour dates if you want to catch him live in your neck of the woods:
Don’t you love it when a band manages to have a unique sound, creative songs, and comes out of left field to smack you in the head? Chicago-based AM Taxi is a young band that manages to mix punk with modern pop, offering their experiences with modern arrangements. It’s impossible for me to believe that these guys have been playing together less than two years.
AM Taxi was formed about two years ago by a trio of musical pals – singer/songwriter Adam Krier, drummer Chris Smith, and bassist Jason Schultejann. They produced their first EP – Runaway Songs – and were then joined by brothers John and Luke Schmitt on guitar and keyboards. After another EP – The Good, The Bad and The Fed Up – they were ready to tackle a major-label (Virgin Records) debut We Don’t Stand a Chance. They worked with producer Mike McCarthy (Spoon, Patty Griffin, and You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead) to capture the way they sounded doing live performances while in the studio.
And I think their album title says it all. But the “We” in this case is the throngs of fans they’re going to attract as they release this album, play locally in Chicago, and go on the Vans Warped Tour. “We” really don’t stand a chance.
Starting with “Dead Street,” they lay down an infectious beat with emotional punch as they describe the fate of people stuck in our current economy. “Dead Street” is a place where there aren’t any jobs and you can’t find a way to improve your situation. “All the strung-out kids on Dead Street / Gave her directions and a fix / She’s got money left for the ticket out / She’d rather drink ’til she don’t exist…” That about says it all. Is there a way out in some of these industrial areas that were clobbered when they economy crashed?
The album continues with “The Mistake” which merges almost spoken-word poetry with some vicious electric guitars, a light keyboard melody and drum beat in the background. Again, the lyrics say it all as the person being sung to is told over and over that hanging out with the singer is a bad idea that may lead to a worse end… “I am the truth you couldn’t take, I am the mistake / Worst you ever made…” Not cheerful by any stretch, yet expressive in the extreme telling the story again of someone stuck in a life who clings to even bad decisions to avoid change.
But my favorite song on the album is the duet “Maydays and Rosaries” between lead singer Krier and the singer of Company Of Thieves, Genevieve Schatz. Where “Dead Street” and “The Mistake” call out to the despair of certain situations, this song cries out to the hope inherent in love that must be acted on or lost. As he says – “I’d love to hear your voice.” And she says “I wouldn’t even know what to say.” It’s that precipice between decision and indecision – that paralysis – where we sometimes watch good things slip away.
These guys know how to play the angry/punk card and the gentle/romantic card with deep, emotion-packed lyrics and powerful arrangements evoking particular feelings in the listener. I hear aspects of many other bands I’ve liked over the years – Dishwalla, Snow Patrol, Better than Ezra… – brought into the realm of today’s music with some definite punk sensibilities. AM Taxi speaks the truth as they see the world and that no-compromise approach will win them a lot of fans.
If you’re looking for a new sound to jam to this summer, take a listen to AM Taxi’s We Don’t Stand a Chance (available June 8, 2010) and catch up with them on tour. In the meantime, check out their MySpace page to listen to some of their tunes and get details about upcoming dates!
This article originally appeared at BlogCritics.org here.
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DVD Review: Rock Slyde - Hi there… Rock Slyde aspires to be a noir detective flick in the vein of Raymond Chandler‘s stories or the classic Steve Martin comedy Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. To say it missed the vein completely... […]
Halloween 2010, the dead rise on AMC! - Hey all… Yes, I know it’s not even September yet and I’m talking about Halloween – one of my least favorite holidays… But this year will be different. AMC is airing the 90-minute premiere episode of... […]
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I have never seen Heart live other than the occasional performance I’ve seen on television. It’s on my list of things to do. But their album Red Velvet Car is probably more intimate than I could possibly be, even if I was sitting in the front row. From beginning to end, I felt with each track like it was recorded in my living room. It might have been a LOUD living room at times where the windows rattled, but you know what I mean…
But it’s “Sand” that sticks with me the longest. The last song on the album, it’s a story of endings or loss. The acoustic guitars set the stage and Ann’s expressive voice felt like I was listening to a song played at a funeral. Something private shared with a crowd to let them know whomever it was that left them is still with them, like sand in the wind. “I asked a distant star / I wonder where you are / the shadow at my door / the friend who is no more…” I couldn’t help but think of a friend I’d lost years ago… “Surely this sweet sand will run out by and by / and while the days come down to you / you are just a traveler passing through…”
And I think their album title says it all. But the “We” in this case is the throngs of fans they’re going to attract as they release this album, play locally in Chicago, and go on the 
