Willie Nelson Wynton Marsalis - Two Men With The Blues

Where to begin? You’re computer literate, net savvy groovers so I’ll begin by assuming you know nothing about Willie Nelson. And that’s probably a good thing. See, Willie has probably done a duet with everybody that’s ever cleared their throat.  And with limited success, but forget about all that. In fact, forget everything you though you knew about Willie Nelson.

Two Men With The Blues brings together two of the most important figures in Country and Jazz to share their love of Blues and Jazz. The result is a beautiful and often playful synergy of great musicians playing music they love. When interviewed Willie said:

‘Record labels had to know what to call it before they could sell it, so they called it Blues, Jazz, Bluegrass, Gospel and whatever. But some music incompasses it all. So what do you call it? And that’s pretty much what I like to play.’ 

The album opener is a scene setting loose and jazz infused blues version of Jimmy Reed’s ‘Bright Lights, Big City’. It hints at what’s in store - subtle arrangements that allow the whole band to shine, not just the headliners. Mickey Raphael’s harmonica and Wynton’s horn spar and play through out the album, with bass, guitar, keys and drums getting their moment in the spot light. Hank Williams ‘My bucket’s got a hole in it’ becomes a New Orleans march cum eulogy for beer, and showcases Nelsons picking and wry comedic timing.

Two Men With The Blues is unlike anything I’ve heard this year - a celebration of music. A worthy addition to anyones collection. Go get it!

THINK: The best Jazz / Blues album this year!
WATCH: Willie & Wynton’s clip.
READ: Willie & Wynton’s site.
BUY: Two men witthe blues at amazon

Tilly and the Wall - O

Tilly and the Wall were the coolest indie kids on the block. Cardigan and pigtail wearing chicks, they appeared on Sesame Street ( and covered ABC, naturally) and they have a tap dancer for a drummer. I remember that was the single line intro Marcus gave me when he turned me on to Tilly’s 2006 album Bottom of Barrels. The album was filled with close harmonies about rainbows and birds singing. ‘O’ is not that album.

From opener ‘Tall tall glass’ you know that Tilly et al have grown, and are bolder, louder and angrier. First single ‘Pot Kettle Black’ shows how creative they are when it comes to making the most of Pressnall’s galloping rhythms, turning two feet into an entire rhythm section. Goodbye sunrise songs, hello Party Rock. This is as loud as we’ve every heard Tilly, and they’ve fleshed out their sound with more than just volume.

‘Cacophony’ would have sat nicely on ‘Bottoms of Barrels’with its Tap-tastic intro and three-part vocal harmonies, but it too ventures into new territory with live drums and sax, with limited success it must be said. Tilly’s arsenal of glockenspiel, tap dancing and multi-layered vocals are thankfully present on the rest of the album, but there are still many surprises for long term fans. The album closer, ‘Too excited’ could be a mission statement or a mission-complete statement - swearing like sailors sluts on shore leave, they leave us as they began, with heavy reverb guitars and a proclamation - “I don’t give a shit if I’m cool enough“, and in the process prove that they most certainly are.

THINK: Go! Teammeet The Ting Tings (in tap school)
WATCH: Pot Kettle Black vid
READ: Tilly’s homepage and myspace
BUY: ‘O’ at Moshi Moshi

People Press Play - People Press Play

So you arrive at a party late, really late…as your eyes adjust to the dim light you hear smooth dub beats with swirling chords and the angelic voice of an unknown nonchalant lady singing….music that is the perfect wind down from what must have been a massive party. Except you arrived late. Me too. I arrived late to this 2007 release, almost a year late.

People Press Play are a Copenhagen foursome and ‘People Press Play’is their surprisingly accomplished debut album. Equal parts the Postal Service, Brian Eno and Death Cab for Cutie, they are a band in the traditional sense that they also play analogue instruments. Sara Savery’s lush vocals are equally at home over the dub infused athmospherics of opener ‘Girl’ as they are over the‘New Order-esque bassline’ of ‘Hanging on’. People Press Play is a down tempo album by a band rather than an ambient album by producers, and that’s an important distinction. The songs are carefully crafted, where melodies and electronic sounds progressively entwine around the vocals, or leave it hanging in mid air, unaccompanied. For silence is a rhythm too.

People Press Playwill suffer from some classifications imposed upon them. If I read ‘trip hop’ I’d think 1997, and move on. Down tempo can translate as ‘lacks excitement’, so I’ll settle in electronica ( despite the ‘band’ diatribe above) when I say that ‘People Press Play’is one of the best electonica albums that I have heard in a while. Check it out.

THINK: Plej meet The Postal Service in a jazz lounge.
READ: People Press Play’s myspace
WATCH:The vid for ‘These days’
BUY: People press play at inertia

The Hold Steady - Stay Positive

You may remember The Hold Steady from the Top 10 of 2006, where ‘Boys and Girls of America’ came in at Number 3. So it would be fair to say that I was expecting big things from ‘Stay Positive’ and in a way, I got exactly what I expected.

 I reckon Confucius did his best work early on, when he came up with ‘Careful what you wish for…’ and The Hold Steady follow suit. ‘Stay Positive’is filled with drug and alcohol soaked rock songs about fitting in, choosing not to, and ‘townies’ who throw parties and pack bowls. Just as I’d hoped, and they do it as well as they did on ‘Boys and Girls’.

And that’s my problem with this album. You can’t help think you’ve heard it before. They try and mix it up a little with a harpsichord ( a la The Stranglers), and some heavier use of the distortion pedal, but you can’t shake the feeling that these songs would have sat just as nicely on their 2006 album. It’s a fine rock album, with all the qualities that made their earlier release the third best release in 2006, but ‘Stay Positive’ should have been named ‘We’re still the boys and girls of America’

THINK: ‘Boys and Girls’ companion disc.
READ: The Hold Steady Home Page
WATCH: Sequestered in Memphis
BUY: Stay Positive at Amazon

_wednesday_weview - Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy - Lie down in the light

Every now and again one of us falls behind.
I think that you may have gathered by now that I love music. I spend a (scarily) large amount of my life with a soundtrack. Each of my moods or periods of my life have had an appropriate backing track. ’Lie down in the light’ is almost the diametric opposition to the previous post, it’s more like ‘hands in your hair’. (Sorry.)

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s (aka Will Oldham) 9th album ( under this name) is the warm embrace and consoling words of a friend. Warm and honest songs delivered in ‘a fragile sort-of warble frittering around haunted melodies in the American folk or country tradition’. But don’t let that put you off. Produced by Steve Albini (producer to Pixies and Nirvana), Bonnie is said to bring punk’s honesty to American folk. I wouldn’t say that, but you know….someone somewhere did.

I know my way around the world, it’s a circle - it starts and it ends.
If you need a some music that doesn’t demand you dance, or wave your hands like you just don’t care, then chances are you’ll enjoy ‘Lie down in the light’. It’s an album that won’t challenge you immediately. You’ll listen and think ‘I know where this is going’ but next time you look up you’ll be somewhere other than you expected.

For Every Field, There’s a Mole.
Clarinet swirls behind bare folk bones. Jews harp twangs act as exclamation points. There is reward for the attentive listeners that will make this album a consoling friend to all.

THINK: The Punk John Denver
READ: An interview with Bonnie PB
WATCH: Cursed Sleep clip
BUY: ‘Lie down’ at Spunk!