SHADOWS&


REFLECTIONS Buttoned-down sounds for today’s discerning modernist.


NUSHU Hula


Self-released CD www.nushumusic.com


_______________________


THE BOOZE Our Favourite Booze Screaming Apple LP/CD www.screaming-apple-records.de The Booze are a young band out of Atlanta, Georgia. Formed in 2006, they already have three long- players to their credit. Our Favourite Booze is


a distillation of these onto one 14-track “best of” by way of introduction to a European audience. These Americans are plainly totally obsessed


with mid-60s British mod and R&B. Check out the pork pie hats and natty threads –all very 1964. Indeed, one song is titled ‘Solo In Soho’ and refers to seeing a girl in Denmark Street. Being an overview you get an idea of their stylistic range which goes between hardcore R&B (‘No Big Thing’, ‘Ain’t It The Truth’) to Chicago soul defined mod beat (‘Cut My Heart Out’, ‘Amy’). They sound hugely influenced by Them, The Artwoods, The Action and their ilk but with their own style intact. Chad Tolliver has a good voice and the band sound polished and committed. Highly recommended for parties!


Paul Martin


THE MEN Four Good Men And True Heptown CD


www.heptownrecords.com


The Swedish mods’ third long-player is very much in thrall to the British ’60s R&B of The Small Faces, Georgie Fame and The Spencer Davis


Group, sadly without ever approaching the heights of such heavyweight talents. That’s not to say this fizzing collection of energetic songs isn’t an enjoyable listen –the harmonies being especially good at accentuating the charming blue-eyed soul vocals of Sven Köhler. It’s just a shame the songs are not


particularly memorable. Only the dramatic, dynamic ‘Time To Cry’ demonstrated any talent for stirring the soul –the dance floor friendly ‘Where The Good Times Go’ really should appear as a 45 so we can spin it at ’60s parties. With a plethora of bands throughout Europe


doing this sort of thing I’m gonna find it hard to recommend you choose these mostly pedestrian efforts over better alternatives (The Attention!, The Gonks, Thee Attacks etc). For Purists Only It’sTrue.


Phil Istine


This is LA pop siren Lisa Mychols’ new project in conjunction with Hilary Burton. My first thought was


of The Bangles with added revs – the hooks,


melodies and sheer “zoom” of the guitars and the tunes make this a fabulous powerpop album. The seeming girl group retro sound of opener ‘Leave Me Behind’ soon swells in intensity, atop which the girls’ vocals effortlessly float. ‘Another Rainy Weekend’ has a great riff that I can’t quite pin down. ‘Beautiful Magical’ has a certain Masticators sound to it with an indie-rock pulse but again the great hooky vocal takes it somewhere else altogether.


‘Something In Between’ is the only track


lacking either a Mychols or Burton writing credit and it sounds rather at odds with the rest of the album. Overall, a sparkling, summer-fresh set of LA guitar pop. Paul Martin


ROCK ’N’ ROLL MONKEY AND THE ROBOTS Do What The Bee Does Motor Sounds CD


www.motorsoundsrecords.com What strangeness do we have here? The third album by Craig Campbell and chums (including this time Heavy Trash guitarist Bobcat Arkham) blasts out of NYC on a


mission to get your hips twisting via some catchy, surfadelic, groovy rock ’n’ roll. They succeed – especially on the flute and


sitar-driven title track. Opener ‘I Like To Go Man Go’ is as deranged as The B-52s at their best, whilst closing track ‘High School Hemmingway’ openly displays The Gun Club influence that permeates throughout. The second half suffers from songs that have a


tendency to aimlessly roll along (‘Man On The Phone’, ‘Monkey Machine Gun’), but the musicians (sorry, Robots) clearly are a talented bunch, so I shouldn’t be churlish about them expressing themselves. The overwhelming sense of fun this album was


to record shines through and the cartoon artwork brilliantly reflects this. If you like your rhythm to come with booze then you’re onto a winner here. Phil Istine


EDWARD ROGERS Sparkle Lane Shellshock/Zip CD www.shellshock.co.uk


Ex-pat from Birmingham, now a New Yorker, Mr Rogers – also known as the male half of The Bedsit Poets – has dropped a jewel. Part soft pop-psych, part


nervous-edged early Roxy Music, and always effortlessly melodic – gently pulled along by Rogers’ equally effortless, conversational vocal style. Some of these songs sound like Marmalade trying to put together a new record while Mick Ronson (impersonated here by Pete Kennedy, he of New York’sThe Kennedys) is rehearsing in the


next room. Some of them would have been right at home on a Left Banke LP. Some of them sound like the brilliant record Noel Harrison never made, um, because he couldn’t. And ‘Boys In Grey’ could have been The Peanut Butter Conspiracy. What are you waiting for?


Mike Fornatale


RICHARD THOMPSON Dream Attic Proper CD


www.properuk.com


Richard Thompson has always let a sense of national, and his own family, history infiltrate his work, but with this album he is offering wider, reflective


landscapes befitting a mature man. Several songs here feature outside imagery,


with water often becoming a natural backdrop to the varying emotions covered: a plea for help with ‘Haul Me Up’, anguish with ‘Crimescene’, and personal regret with ‘A Brother Slips Away’, which marks the passing of friends. Next to these ‘Bad Again’ and the very poppy ‘Big Sun Falling In The River’ provide some light relief. Richard chose to record the tracks live to gain


the invention of a small group playing new songs, and it works perfectly, allowing them all the freshness of each others’ solos, with many treats for fans of Thompson’s guitar playing spread among splendid tracks that vary from explosive to mournful. The “Collectors’ Edition” adds an extra CD of


acoustic versions. Kingsley Abbott


THREE BONZOS AND A PIANO Hair Of The Dog Self-released CD


www.threebonzosandapiano.co.uk In their late ’60s and still, erm, unusual, Rodney Slater, Roger Ruskin Spear and Sam Spoons continue to plough an irreverent furrow through Britain’s


rich musical comic landscape. The first thing that strikes you about Hair Of The Dog is just how British it sounds, and that’s compounded by the subjects they tackle – white van man, biscuits and old geezers. Poking a big pink tongue at contemporary mores, they’re as sharp today, both musically and satirically, as they ever were. You probably know what this album’s going to


sound like, you may even know some of the jokes, you might even know some of the songs (‘Ginger Geezer’ and ‘The Sheik Of Araby’) but with David Glasson bashing away on the old Joanna, Three Bonzos and a Piano still have something to offer young or old. Maybe you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but with these old Bonzos it doesn’t matter. John Blaney


THE TWISTAROOS Twisted! House Of Rock CD www.house-of-rock.no After eight years of gigging, it happened – The Twistaroos cut a record. But then, it’s not like the Norwegian quartet don’t have other fish to salt. Their soulful lead singer Vibeke Saugestad has


received heavy rotation on Little Steven’s Underground Radio with her ’60s pop-inspired solo material and also plays keyboards with two of her bandmates here,


lead guitarist/vocalist Morten Henriksen and bassist André Dahlmann, in powerpop stalwarts The Yum Yums. The Twistaroos on the other hand are a spirited


R&B party band, reminiscent of The Detroit Cobras, who kick out an excellent mix of garage-soul, bluesy hip-swivelling beats and goodtime rock ’n’ roll, while untamed covers of Etta James’ mid-50s side ‘Tough Lover’, The Hitch-Hikers’ ’60s dance- athon ‘Dog Fight’, Tom Jones’ first Decca single ‘Chills And Fever’ and a salacious version of Elvis’s ‘Animal Instinct’, replete with freaky snake-charmer flute, provide a window to the influences that make their communal heart oh so deliciously twisted! Alan Brown


VICKY AND THE VENGENTS A New Dawn Self-released CD


www.myspace.com/vickyandthevengents If there’s one thing that always tends to sound good it’s girl garage. Thus, California’s Vicky & The Vengents don’t have to try too hard to make A New Dawn a cool,


enjoyable album. Of course, there are the cheeky Ronettes rip-


offs and clear debts to earlier retro groups like The Pandoras and Thee Headcoatees, but a twist of Blondie-style stiletto punk helps Vicky and her cohorts stand out. Tracks like ‘The One You’ll Never Know’ are hardly songs of trailblazing originality, but they’re fresh and likeable. The straight girl group influence – The Shangri-Las in particular – is also stronger than on most garage records and contributes to the general long-eyelashed switchblade glamour of the album. A New Dawn is just simple fun: part


bubblegum, part crunchy guitars, all riot. Jeanette Leech


THE WELL WISHERS Post Modern Romantic Self-released CD www.notlame.com


The Well Wishers are another of powerpop’s innumerable one man bands. In this case, the man in question is Jeff Shelton. The risk in these affairs is that the songs


become samey and linear due to the lack of a group dynamic. No such accusation can be levelled here. In order to work, this sort of thing needs effervescence, dynamism and above all hooks and melodies. These are all present and correct. All 11 songs shine in their own right. From ‘Runaway’ to ‘Sorry About Your Politics’, the pace is relentless. Then ‘Consequence of Love’ and ‘As You Are’ provide the necessary shade; light guitar jangle in the former and purely acoustic in the latter.Then it’s all pistons firing again until the end.


This is the sixth Well Wishers CD that I know of


and I’d say Bob Mould fans will love it. Buzzing guitar, melodic tunes and vocals and plenty of rhythmic drive. Paul Martin


69


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76