Weekend Outburst 2
By Team JamBase Apr 5, 2009 • 6:30 pm PDT
Foul Mouth Jerk: Streetlight Music (GFE)
A burblin’ hip-hop slab full of quotable jabs and more bounce than a cheerleader on a mechanical bull, this captures the genre’s core delights. GFE‘s Jerk throbs with confident, flowing strength, offering a slamming trunk rattlin’ banger that harks back to golden era Third Bass and Masta Ace (who guests). Get them hands up! (Dennis Cook)
Heavy Hands: Smoke Signals (Language of Stone)
This Brooklyn band has a straightforward stoner rock agenda on their 8-track debut, which they accomplish quite simply with loud bashing drums and buzzing guitars similar to The Black Angels and Clutch, distilled through amp stacks and flared denim jeans with reasonably flashy playing and a mood-establishing tone. (Jake Krolick)
Bell X1: Blue Lights On The Runway (Yep Roc)
A serious grower, this blips warmly with some significant, expertly placed crunch (think Talk Talk meets recent U2). Windswept and instantly appealing, the songs move in unexpected directions, and Paul Noonan belts ’em with crooner intoxication. A New New Romantic vibe prevails – swoony, big, enfolding, cool. (DC)
T-Bird and the Breaks: Learn About It (self-released)
Learn About It emits a vibe of cool that glides across the room like a ghost from Motown’s past. The debut release by Austin’s T Bird and the Breaks is an old-school throwback to the era of James Brown and the Funk Brothers. The full swing of this 11-piece band tightly follows T Bird’s every step. (David Higdon)
Steven Bernstein’s Millenial Territory Orchestra: We Are MTO (MOWO! Inc.)
This tea pad/speakeasy ready treasure puts the “hot” back into jazz. Arranged with Ellingtonian flair, this honors AND retools Basie, The Beatles, Fats Waller and more with thumping, curvaceous ingenuity. Able to meld Raymond Scott’s cartoon wit with raw funk, Bernstein confirms his genius here. (DC)
Fight The Big Bull: Dying Will Be Easy (Clean Feed Records)
Guitarist Matt White‘s compositions are unquestionably the work of a creative master. Tackling free jazz without forgoing structure or melody, White creates an acoustic collage; a unique homage to more styles than I knew could coexist within a 32-minute album. I wouldn’t hesitate an instant to see this troupe live. (Trevor Pour)
Revolting Cocks: Sex-O Olympic-O (Megaforce)
Grab your amyl nitrite and fanciest dog collar and prepare to sweat. RevCo’s latest is big, nasty, nostalgic, effective dance grind that shoves a hot pepper up your ass, willy-nilly, and hurtles you back to when Sisters had mercy and Ministry played under a cage. (DC)
Karl Hector & The Malcouns: Sahara Swing (Stones Throw)
Malcouns founders Thomas Myland and Zdenko Curlija with Karl Hector and a slew of others have created an album of weighty jams rooted in Afro-exotic rhythms with funky undertones. Mostly instrumental grooves, this plays like a 1970s Blaxploitation soundtrack. Every second of swirling organs, steady bass, horns and tight snare keeps your head filled with marvelous otherworldly sounds! (JK)
The Whispertown 2000: Swim (Acony Records)
The first non-Gillian Welch/David Rawlings release on their label is…perplexing. Repeated spins reveal a group working in the fractured folk vein of Fire On Fire and SoCal bud Jenny Lewis, except not as good. Often strident and only intermittently tuneful, this sinks more than it swims. (DC)
Ralph Roddenbery Band: For So Long (Ralph Roddenbery Music.)
Upbeat, positive and downright danceable, Roddenbery’s latest release is a dream come true for jam fans searching for depth. With a vocal delivery comparable to Cat Stevens, should he have ever walked barefoot through kudzu, Roddenbery’s projection on “Get On Up” is an album highlight. (DH)
