ALTER.NATION #48
Delbert McClinton and Self-Made Men, Lana Del Rey, Angie McMahon, Marika Hackman, Ty Segall, Nick Moss, Dennis Gruenling, Deadbeat Beat, Mauno, Van Halen, Moon Duo, Russian Circles, Yes
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"Temporarily Insane"
ALTER.NATION #48 on DEEZER
Delbert McClinton and Self-Made Men - Temporarily Insane from Tall, Dark, and Handsome
Retaining the Self-Made Men but adding saxophonist Dana Robbins, the jumping outfit he unveiled on the 2017 album Prick of the Litter, Delbert McClinton shakes things up for the swinging set Tall, Dark, And Handsome. Where Prick of the Litter settled into a mellow vibe, Tall, Dark, And Handsome is bold and restless, finding McClinton trying on all manner of blues for size...
Lana Del Rey - Season of the Witch (Donovan cover)
Lana Del Rey is releasing a new album, Norman Fucking Rockwell, at the end of the month, but tonight she’s serving up two tracks that aren’t even on it... The second is a cover of Donovan’s 1966 track “Season Of The Witch,” which Lana also previewed for us this past Monday. It was recorded for the Guillermo del Toro-produced adaptation of the horror anthology series Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark.
Angie McMahon - Standout from Salt
Before beginning her recording career, moody Australian singer/songwriter Angie McMahon fell rather suddenly into a massive amount of exposure when at age 19, she won a talent contest earning her an opening slot on Bon Jovi's 2013 stadium tour of her country. Although she possessed enough soulful vocal power to fill such big venues, the Melbourne native's craft was still relatively unformed, and rather than trying to parley the experience into a hastily built pop career, she wisely spent the next several years honing her songs away from the spotlight...
Marika Hackman - conventional ride from Any Human Friend
... While I'm Not Your Man suggested Hackman had belatedly discovered indie rock, Any Human Friend plays like her hip pop move, with plenty of keyboards and drum machines holding down the backing tracks and Hackman layering glossy harmonies around her vocals. There are guitars here, but they mostly serve as texture while the warm but clean electronic textures carry Hackman's melodies and make room for the lyrics. Any Human Friend sounds sleeker and more polished than Hackman's previous releases, but at the same time it takes the playfully libidinous tone of I'm Not Your Man and cranks it up a few levels. These songs leave no doubt that Hackman is a big fan of sex and pleasure, even if they can turn out to be problematic, and there's something quietly disarming in the unguarded way she sings about her needs...
Ty Segall - Lone Cowboys from First Taste
Ty Segall spent so much of 2018 cranking out albums and bringing the rock in a big way that one can forgive him for slowing down a bit and turning the volume down in 2019. First Taste sounds like that's just what Segall chose to do. It's a more tuneful and less aggressive set of songs than Freedom's Goblin, Joy, or Fudge Sandwich, with Segall easing up on his monolithic guitar attack and focusing more on pop melodies and folk-rock structures in his songs and arrangements. However, Segall sure hasn't cut back on his love of psychedelia, and First Taste finds him having a great deal of trippy fun, playing with unusual sonics and enjoying the possibilities of the recording process... At a time when too many people are questioning if rock & roll is alive at all, Segall is doing the work of four or five people in keeping it healthy, and First Taste is ample evidence that he's nowhere close to being done, which is good news indeed.
Dennis Gruenling is an American electric blues harmonicist, songwriter, record producer and radio DJ. He has released seven albums since 1999, with his most recent being 2016's Ready or Not...
the Nick Moss band feat. Dennis Gruenling - Hot Zucchini from Lucky Guy!
The first time the Nick Moss Band recorded a full album with harpist Dennis Gruenling went so well, the gang decided to reconvene for a second set just a year later. Like many sequels, 2019's Lucky Guy! doesn't offer surprises, but it could be argued that The High Cost of Low Living didn't exactly shock either. That was by design. Moss and Gruenling make it their mission to keep the greasy sound of Chicago blues alive, and while they're traditionalists, they're not stuck in the past...
Deadbeat Beat - Tree, Grass & Stone from How Far
After releasing two scruffy, noisy records that combined surfy garage rock and hooky indie pop in promising ways, Deadbeat Beat return with a fully formed, dramatically improved sound and vision on their third album, How Far. Recorded over a long stretch of time by the core band of guitarist/vocalist Alex Glendening, drummer/vocalist Maria Nuccilli, and bassist Zak Frieling, the trio polish most of the rough edges off their songs to leave only glittering gems that fulfill all the promise of their early work and then some... Nuccilli and Frieling form a powerful backline that's alternately swinging and punchy, and Glendening's guitar playing is malleable and sharp; he shows mastery of jangle, crunch, drone, and expansive freak-outs (especially on the album's longest and most psychedelic track, "Tree, Grass and Stone"). His vocals are sweetly unaffected and when he sings with Nuccilli, the duo come off like the life-long pals that they are.
Mauno - Half It from Really Well
Led by co-singer/lyricists Nick Everett and Eliza Niemi, Montreal-based indie pop group Mauno established a style that's both sophisticated and welcoming across their first two releases in 2016 and 2017. Two years later, Really Well returns the four-piece lineup from 2017's Tuning, all of whom contributed to writing and arranging the album. Like Tuning, it reveals a mercurial mix of ear-friendly influences as the set glances between '60s pop inspirations; jangly, homespun guitar pop; and the tighter sounds of progressive rock, sometimes within the same song or even simultaneously...
The Bird and the Bee - You Really Got Me from Interpreting the Masters, Volume 2: (A Tribute to Van Halen)
There's a bit of cheek in "Interpreting the Masters," a phrase the Bird and the Bee coined for their 2009 tribute to Daryl Hall & John Oates. The expression suggested songwriters more outwardly rarified than Hall & Oates, yet it wasn't necessarily meant ironically. Through their loving covers, vocalist Inara George and multi-instrumentalist Greg Kurstin made a case that Hall & Oates' catalog does stand on its own as a songbook. With Interpreting the Masters, Vol. 2: Van Halen, the duo achieve something similar yet notably different: they make one of the greatest hard rock bands go pop. Removing every trace of a guitar from the songs of Van Halen may seem a bit like a party trick, but these clever neo-new wave arrangements generally work because they're clever and affectionate...
Moon Duo - Lost Heads
It sounds like Moon Duo have found some new drugs. Historically, their brand of psychedelia has been a little foreboding — buzzing machinery guitars and guttural krautrock rhythms, imagery all focused on the occult and shadows and the grimier corners of the night... We got a hint of it with the album’s lead single and title track, sneakily one of the most addicting and straight-up prettiest songs Moon Duo’s ever recorded. “Lost Heads” might not have the lilting poppiness of its predecessor, but it definitely exists in the same airy, Technicolor world. The whole thing rides easily along a sun-dappled groove, with Johnson and Sanae Yamada’s vocals intertwined in a dreamily distant vocal...
Russian Circles - Milano from Blood Year
Russian Circles recorded their seventh studio album with producer/engineer Kurt Ballou (of Converge) at Chicago's Electrical Audio and God City studios, where many of their previous records were made... Russian Circles recorded their seventh studio album with producer/engineer Kurt Ballou (of Converge) at Chicago's Electrical Audio and God City studios, where many of their previous records were made... "Milano" is one of the album's most epic-sounding compositions, building up to a frenzied blast-beat section and lumbering on before bursting back after a false ending...
Yes - Close to the Edge from Yes 50 Live
Yes celebrated their 50th anniversary with a tour through America and Europe, one that is commemorated on Rhino's 2019 set 50 Live. Recorded over two July nights in Philadelphia, 50 Live touches upon material written throughout the band's history but it adheres most closely to the prog rock that made their name in the early '70s. The set is anchored by classics -- "Close to the Edge" opens the album," "Starship Trooper" ends it...
Delbert McClinton and Self-Made Men, Lana Del Rey, Angie McMahon, Marika Hackman, Ty Segall, Nick Moss, Dennis Gruenling, Deadbeat Beat, Mauno, Van Halen, Moon Duo, Russian Circles, Yes
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