Category Archives: digital download

Apr 18 2023
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CD, digital download, reissue

NRBQ • Tiddlywinks [CD, DD, LP] / Terry Adams & Steve Ferguson • Louisville Sluggers [CD, DD]

We’ve got another new Omnivore reissue of a classic NRBQ album to talk about and it’s Tiddlywinks. Not a boring kids game, this one. Well… it does have a slight naiveté to it, but this one – originally issued on the band’s Red Rooster label in 1980 – is pure NRBQ. You get all the ingredients of a Q classic: humor, poignancy, rockin’, rollin’ and a slightly skewed yet completely healthy take on what makes rock ’n’ roll so fun all these years along.

Probably the NRBQ tune most people know (if they know any of them) is “Me and the Boys,” a cracker of a song that’s been covered by both Dave Edmunds and Bonnie Raitt (both big Q fans), and it’s here sounding better than ever. Other stellar band originals “Want You to Feel Good Too,” “Beverly” and “Feel You Around Me” are here, too. Basically, all three NRBQ songwriters are well represented: Terry Adams (keyboards, clavinet), Al Anderson (guitar) and Joey Spampinato (bass). (Drummer Tom Ardolino didn’t write any of these but his drumming is excellent.) Also present on Tiddlywinks is the band’s sprightly take on “Music Goes ’Round and Around” (from 1935 and a perennial jazz/R&B favorite). This Omnivore reissue includes a few bonus tracks, though one or two have appeared on previous Q CD reissues. All told, Tiddlywinks is an essential release from the New Rhythm and Blues Quartet.

Also reissued by Omnivore is a 2006 release by founding NRBQ members TERRY ADAMS & STEVE FERGUSON, Louisville Sluggers. Though Ferguson left the band after only a few albums, he was the main dude when they were still a quintet and is responsible for some of their all-time greats, including my fave, “Flat Foot Flewzy.” These two guys have stayed friends over the years and they collaborated on this album to prove it. Louisville Sluggers is a Q album in all but name, since the aforementioned Tom Ardolino provides drums for the proceedings and a few other band buds contribute, but the overall feel of this release is not as “Q-y” as I’d hoped for. You do get the essence of an NRBQ outing, true, but if you weren’t already a fan you might not detect it. Still, with guys this talented, how can you not find something to dig?  – Marsh Gooch

4/5 (NRBQ, Omnivore OVCD-500), 2.5/5 (Adams & Ferguson, OVCD-514) (2023)

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Feb 04 2021
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CD, digital download

Al Bloch • It Was All Once Bright Jewels, Protest Songs [CD, DD]

It’s kinda nice when you’re a rock critic and someone sends you an email, out of the blue, asking if they can send you so-and-so’s new release and you reply, “Yeah, sure,” and you hope it’s gonna be good but experience tells you that it probably won’t be and then it is. Good. At this point I should probably mention that it was Green Monkey Records who recently sent NuDisc.net an email asking if they could send us copies of AL BLOCH’s latest two releases, It Was All Once Bright Jewels and Protest Songs. (I should also note that yours truly was once in a band that released a CD on that label.*)

Okay then… So, Al Bloch is who? He’s a bass player and songwriter who was once in the ’90s L.A. band, Wool. He’s Kurt Bloch’s – of Fastbacks and Young Fresh Fellows, most notably – big brother, so he grew up in Seattle. He’s a funny guy who, when propositioned to write some songs again after a coupla decades not writing, took up the challenge and quickly wrote an album’s worth of stuff good enough to record and release. That album, last May’s It Was All Once Bright Jewels, is packed with smart-assed, pithy tunes like “Unemployment Office” and “Cahuenga Pass,” which I can relate to. (If you’ve ever lived in L.A. and had to cross over from Hollywood to “the Valley” then you’ll understand the reference and the dread of such an undertaking.) (Although, in my case, I lived in “the Valley” and usually went in the opposite direction; all the shows were in Hollywood. But then, of course, you did have to come back home [eventually] and so you’d have to leave Hollywood to go back to “the Valley.”) Bloch’s lyrics definitely look at things from a slightly bothered yet resigned viewpoint. I mean, we all have a friend or acquaintance whom “Stay Away from Steve” could be about. Or “Dude, What Were You Thinking?”, which is a funny one about a guy who doesn’t know when to leave well enough alone and ruins everything for everybody. These songs are set among pretty hooky, punk-rocky arrangements of guitar, bass and drums – my favorite! – provided by the Brothers Bloch and drummer Kevin Fitzgerald, and they’re quite catchy ’n’ fun to hear more than once.

The fun continues on Protest Songs, which came out a month or so ago, and is even better. It’s like, all that Al needed was a nudge to start writing again and then the floodgates burst open. Indeed, it is not an album of your typical protest songs – it’s more like the kind of protesting that he voices in the songs mentioned above. I mean, “Bass Solo” isn’t actually a bass solo (like you’d find on a live album, for instance) but a song bitching about how you go to a live show, hear a real crummy bassist playing on stage, then just silently think to yourself “Dear God/Satan/Deity-of-Your-Choice, PLEASE don’t let that guy take a solo!” “You Gotta Have a Plan” opens the CD with sage advice and it’s followed by the 1-2 punch of “Too Nervous” and the chuckler “One Chord Baby,” which includes the couplet: “Mary Lincoln used to say to Abraham/ You can’t save the world but this one chord can!” In fact, that song has a number of good lines in it – as do most of the songs here. (I don’t count the killer UFO cover “This Kid’s,” which earns Al bonus points for not doing the obvious “Doctor, Doctor” or “Rock Bottom”!)

Al Bloch’s not really what you would call a lead singer. He’s more of a guy who writes sharp, short ditties that probably wouldn’t be near as entertaining if someone else sang ’em. As for the production, well, these two albums were both produced by brother Kurt and sound nice ’n’ crisp, which is how scrappy little punk rock releases should sound. So, kudos to Green Monkey for lighting a fire under Al’s ass to get It Was All Once Bright Jewels and Protest Songs written and recorded, to Kurt for his crackling production (and his hotshot guitar playing), and to Al himself for figuring, “Why not?!” – Marsh Gooch

3/5 (Green Monkey GM1068, GM1075, 2020)  * Look up Ladies & Gentlemen, Your King County Queens, Green Monkey GM1018, 2013)

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Dec 09 2020
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CD, digital download

Jules Shear • Slower [CD, DD]

You may not know JULES SHEAR by name but there’s a good chance you know him by some of his songwriting credits. Despite having such a unique voice – and some pretty peculiar thoughts dressed up as lyrics – he’s penned hit songs for people like Cyndi Lauper, the Bangles and many others. Maybe he writes with specific people in mind? Or maybe they just pick the songs with more of a “universal” feel? Regardless, in the case of Slower, his latest solo album, the songs are definitely his to sing and the arrangements make that plain to hear.

I got into Shear in the late ’70s when he fronted the major-label-signed L.A. band Jules & The Polar Bears. Then as now, his voice was one that made you think you were listening to a boy singing a man’s lyrics. That new wave outfit surrounded his quirky (I hate that word but it’s the right one here) songs with equally off-kilter arrangements that were very much of the moment. From there Jules Shear went on to form a band called Reckless Sleepers and a solo career that went a long way to emphasizing his increasingly more mature lyrics. To tell the truth (something I usually try to do) I haven’t followed Shear’s career since the mid ’80s but was certainly aware of, for instance, Bangles’ version of “If She Knew What She Wants,” a song that signaled Jules’ new tools in the songwriting department. Circle around to today and Slower is a nice album to listen to. It’s certainly lighter than my usual fare but each listen brings out a new thought or twist-of-phrase, like the ones contained in the lyrics and title of “Between Hell and Hello” or “I used to think no one could catch me / But now I’m slower” from the title track. With arrangements veering between pop-lite and Sinatra-esque – courtesy mostly of piano by Pepe, with some additional help from bassist Sara Lee, (the) John Sebastian on guitar, autoharp and harmonica, and assorted others on the rest – Slower is Jules Shear at a much more mellow, measured gait.

If you’re hoping for the energy level that accompanied Jules and his Polar Bears, you may as well grab one of those records to put on. But if you’re cool with Shear’s cooler, calmer 21st Century vibe then Slower may just suit you fine. – Marsh Gooch

3/5 (Funzalo FNZ1120, 2020)

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Sep 10 2020
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CD, digital download, Limited Edition

Robyn Hitchcock • The Man Downstairs: Demos & Rarities [CD, DD]

ROBYN HITCHCOCK ought to pay me for reviewing as much of his music as I do. (Seriously: look at all this!) I guess you could say I’m a fan. And that’s why The Man Downstairs: Demos & Rarities warrants both my possession and dissection. Limited to 1000 copies on CD only, this ten song release is sort of a companion to 2014’s The Man Upstairs. The idea then was to record half Hitchcock originals and half cover songs, “a kind of Judy Collins 1965-era album.” Well, I’m not a fan of that folksinger’s, but since it’s always interesting to hear how Robyn hears some of his favorite songs, the concept is a good one. And in this current age of DIY, a good idea. (You can get it on CD or as a digital download on Robyn’s Bandcamp page.)

These, being demos, aren’t as ornate as the ones Upstairs, but that doesn’t matter much. Hitchcock plays mostly guitar, with few overdubs (most being backing or doubling vocals) in a cozy atmosphere. Naturally I’m really into his version of “Arnold Layne,” one of the great early Pink Floyd tunes penned by the “mad genius” Syd Barrett and practically purpose-built for Robyn Hitchcock. I’m not as fond of the Nick Drake tune “River Man” (though I now know where ’90s UK band The Lilac Time got their name) or Dylan’s “Born in Time,” but I like the Townes Van Zandt tune, “The Tower Song.” Of Robyn’s own tunes, a few of them really strike a chord at this moment in time: “All Love and No Peace,” “Recalling the Truth” and especially “The Threat of Freedom.” I’m glad they saved this stuff!

The Man Upstairs was a good record, with stellar versions of The Psychedelic Furs’ “The Ghost in You” and The Doors’ “The Crystal Ship,” and so this serving of the demos that led to that Joe Boyd-produced outing makes a great companion piece. The Man Downstairs may not make it into your collection, physically (if it’s sold out by the time you read this), but you’ll still be able to conjure his presence via download. Downstairs download. I like it. – Marsh Gooch

3.5/5 (Tiny Ghost [no cat. #], 2020)

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Jun 18 2020
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CD, digital download, record store day, vinyl

Neil Young • Homegrown [LP, CD]

“Homegrown is alright by me, homegrown is the way it should be…” If you remember this lil’ refrain then it’s safe to say you’ve been listening to NEIL YOUNG for a long time – or at least since 1977’s American Stars ’N’ Bars, the album it was first heard on. Now it’s featured on Homegrown, Neil’s “new” album that was originally recorded in the mid ’70s and was finally set for release in April 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic pushed Record Store Day back. It’s out now and like many of Young’s latest releases, there’s a bit of a back story.

Shelved in 1975 once he decided a lot of the subject matter was just a bit too personal, Homegrown is the latest in Neil’s Archive series of releases and it’s another good album from a man with way more music in him than we’ll probably ever know. If there’s any doubt about the vulnerability that may be on display, the opening track “Separate Ways” tells you that Neil had a lot on his young mind in late ’74 when these recordings commenced and from there the openness doesn’t let up much. “Try” definitely keeps it going, as does the now familiar “Love Is a Rose” (made a hit by Linda Ronstadt not long after this recording was made) and “Mexico,” which isn’t so much about that country as it is about the peace it would bring to the man’s mind. (Neil also visits “Kansas” and “Florida” – more about that state later.) In all, the album is mostly a low key affair that was absolutely worthy of release.

Primarily recorded in December 1974 (plus or minus six months), Homegrown would have followed On the Beach but was cut from the same cloth as ’72’s Harvest – and featured many of the same players. There’s just not a lot of the rock that Beach had, save for “Vacancy” on side two. A good half of the songs on the album, like the title track, “Love Is a Rose” and “Little Wing” eventually made their way to release on later albums (more about the songs’ destinations here), but these are the original recordings and they make up a pretty cohesive album. Are there tracks on here that we could have lived without? Well, yeah! It’s Neil. I’d be pretty safe in saying “Florida,” with its stoned narrative and wine glass rubbing, could’ve been relegated to a rarities record of some sort. Yet that’s about the only one out of a dozen songs here that misses the mark so it’s good that Neil decided to finally put out Homegrown intact. I mean, at this point, he’s released so much great material that in years to come it’ll be pretty hard to separate the stems ’n’ seeds from his bountiful harvest. (Sorry, couldn’t help it.) Of course, Young releases so many albums these days – of both new material and old – that it’d be easy for the good ones to get lost among them all, but it would be just as easy for the not-so-good ones to get lost, too, so you really gotta check them all out, decide for yourself, and I don’t know, maybe use a post-it note to indicate to yourself which ones you’d want to hear again. I bet this one would be in that category.

Homegrown is available on CD and vinyl, with independent record stores receiving the vinyl that comes with a print of the cover art (which is limited). – Marsh Gooch

3/5 (for Neil) (Reprise 093624898689, 2020)

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Apr 29 2020
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digital download, Download

Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets • Live at Haw River Ballroom (Download)

Well, it’s not the catchiest title for an album, but the new Live at Haw River Ballroom from NICK LOWE & LOS STRAITJACKETS is certainly a compelling concert. This download-only show was recorded in April 2019 in Saxapahaw, NC, presumably in the backyard of the artists’ record label, YepRoc. It’s also a good bet that this live show wasn’t planned for release until the coronavirus came around to keep us out of our favorite record stores (or from ordering “non essential” physical format items online).

Here on Haw River Lowe & His Straitjackets spend an hour and a half taking spins through Nick’s considerable power pop back catalog, as well as a handful of their more recent collaborations. Of the former you’ll hear classics like “So It Goes,” “Cruel to Be Kind” and “Heart of the City,” and of the latter there are the rockabilly-ish “Tokyo Bay,” “Love Starvation” and the cozy cover tune “Raincoat in the River” (all three of which appeared on a pair of 2018 and ’19 EPs). You also get a half dozen surf-style instrumentals by Los Straitjackets “solo” (including themes to both Batman and that dreadful movie, Titanic). Why, there’s even a sneak peek at Lowe/Los’ upcoming single, “Lay It On Me, Baby,” which is scheduled to appear on another EP later this spring. Very nice.

Now, I’m not one who typically buys download product, but there are times when a man who’s hunkered down has to hunker down and succumb to the music delivery mode du jour. As in, when a guy’s gotta go with the flow and support his favorite artists. Whether that’s downloading concerts that may have never been released (like this one) or purchasing a Patreon-style subscription to a favorite singer (such as Robyn Hitchcock’s), we must do what it takes until austerity measures are lifted. YepRoc plans to release more of this type of download in the near future, so here’s hoping they’ll put out some vintage Dream Syndicate, Minus 5 and Robyn Hitchcock concerts for us to dig while we’re still dug in.  — Marsh Gooch

3.5/5 (YepRoc download, 2020)

 

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Apr 16 2020
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CD, digital download, record store day

Andrew Gold • Something New: Unreleased Gold [CD]; America • Heritage II: Demos/Alternate Takes 1971-1976 [CD]

Here are a couple of releases that are coming out for Record Store Day 2020 (now post-poned to June 20), on limited edition vinyl, but are actually out on April 24th on CD and as digital downloads.

ANDREW GOLD‘s Something New: Unreleased Gold is a collection of early demos – recorded both solo and with a band – prior to him getting a deal with Asylum Records, where his first album came out in 1975. These ’73 recordings definitely encapsulate Gold’s folky tunes (especially the ones recorded solo on acoustic guitar), foreshadowing the smooth voice that sang later hits “Lonely Boy” (which I had on 7″) and the theme song to The Golden Girls TV show, “Thank You For Being a Friend.” The recordings themselves are quite good, having been recorded by professionals in an LA studio, and the bulk of them are Gold singing to solo piano or guitar (sometimes with his own double-tracked or harmony vocals). If you’re a fan of Andrew Gold and his mid-’70s LA folk-scene style, then this might be a fun diversion to take your mind off things.

AMERICA’s Heritage II: Demos/ Alternate Takes 1971-1976 is a similar affair, a second volume of the three-man band’s original recordings of songs that (mostly) appeared on their mid-’70s albums Holiday, Hearts and Hideaway (they got a little “H” thing going with those titles). At the controls for most of these tracks were producer George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick, two who are well-known for their work with The Beatles (for starters). I’m not a huge America fan so I don’t recognize most of Heritage II’s songs from their released counterparts, but there are some tunes on here that many of us would know, like the rough mix (with no lead vocals) of “Tin Man,” which was a big hit for them in 1974. Another highlight is “Jameroony,” a nearly 13 minute acoustic guitar jam that Americaphiles had only heard of until this new release came out. It’s a real nice jam session, alright, reminding me of the way my step brother Dave and I (and sometimes our dad, Denny) would play our acoustics together. It was usually Dave who did the soloing – he was much better than me and I seem to remember Denny wasn’t really into soloing – and we weren’t nearly as good together as Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell and Dan Peek were. You can tell these three spent a lot of time playing together, the way they play off of each other and anticipate where the current soloist is going. I’m drawn to this album for that and because of the fact that, at about 11 or 12, I learned how to play America’s “A Horse with No Name” on the guitar and it was likely the first song I knew all the way through. (It was either that or The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine”). Anyway, you get a baker’s dozen of the band’s demos on this collection, available now on CD and on limited edition vinyl come Record Store Day in June (or whenever it ends up happening, coronavirus restrictions pending). — Marsh Gooch

(Omnivore Recordings OVCD-371 [Andrew Gold] and OVCD-370 [America], 2020)

 

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Dec 19 2019
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Murry Wilson & Snow • The Break Away EP [DD]

Just in time for Christmas comes one of the world’s most loathsome rock impresarios with something new! Well, if not exactly new, previously unreleased and mostly unknown. Yes, it’s MURRY WILSON & SNOW! The Break Away EP is a 4-track digital-only collection of songs recorded sometime in 1969 by The Beach Boys’ patriarch and a Midwestern vocal group that nobody knows anything about! Okay, we do know a bit: Once Murry Wilson was forcibly removed from his sons’ (Brian, Carl & Dennis) orbit the old guy decided to try and replicate the boys’ success with a new group he could manage (The Sunrays, three Top 100 singles and then nothin’), which soon petered out, leaving him to ponder his next move. And that was, try again. Sunray leader Rick Henn brought Murry a new singing group, Snow, consisting of apparently a number of Midwestern guys and possibly at least one gal and soon the group and presumably some studio musicians (if it’s anyone from The Wrecking Crew none of ’em are owning up to it) got together to make an actually pleasant little sunshine pop concoction. “Break Away” and “We’re Together Again” were associated with The Beach Boys and the other two, “Wilderness” and “Bless Me,” are otherwise unaccounted for in the greater world of pop k-nowledge. Regardless of whether we knew about Snow before now, it’s kinda fun to listen to – dare I say, delightful? – and to see how Murry Wilson remained determined to get what he felt were his just desserts for giving his boys, The Beach Boys, to us years after they gave him the boot. — Marsh Gooch

2/5 (Omnivore OVDG-367, 2019)

Here’s a taste of the “legend” of Murry Wilson’s managerial (and fatherly!) finesse, followed by a fictionalized look created by cartoonist extraordinaire, Peter Bagge:

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Dec 02 2019
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CD, digital download, vinyl

Harry Nilsson • Losst and Founnd [CD, LP]

HARRY NILSSON died of a heart attack twenty-five years ago. That would seem to explain why it took so long to finish Losst and Founnd, the “new” album from pop’s coolest singer. But there’s almost always more to the story than the obvious explanation, especially with Harry. And so, here we are in 2019 with a finished version of the album he was working on when he passed away in 1994 and it’s just about everything you’d want out of a Nilsson record.

Why’d it take so long to find Losst and Founnd? It’s apparently a convoluted enough story that there’s a four part podcast series dedicated to it. I don’t have time to sift through that now, so take it from me, it doesn’t really matter. This is a new Nilsson record! As it’s sung on the title track, “Losst and Found, what a miracle!”

From the humor that is uniquely Harry’s on “U.C.L.A.,” to the die-hard fandom of “Yo Dodger Blue,” to his interpretations of Yoko Ono’s “Listen, The Snow Is Falling” and Jimmy Webb’s beautiful-yet-funny “What Does a Woman See in a Man,” this album’s completion means there’s one more really good Nilsson record (or CD) to have on your shelf. Yes, by now his voice wasn’t the instrument it once was – but he could still sing, and in fact the gruff in his voice quite suits the material. Sorta like how some of Johnny Cash’s American Recordings tracks (such as “Hurt,” the cover of Nine Inch Nails) benefited from the maturity and experience that only an old guy could emote. The arrangements, too, are of a similar quality level to what Harry accomplished with Richard Perry back in the early ’70s.

You may not go to Losst and Founnd as often as you do Nilsson Schmilsson or Son of Schmilsson, but it’s right up there with Pussy Cats and some of Harry’s other greats. Despite its twenty-five year incubation, it was really worth the wait. Kudos to Omnivore Recordings and producer Mark Hudson for allowing it to finally hatch.  — Marsh Gooch

3/5 (Omnivore Recordings OVCD-346, 2019)

 

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Oct 22 2019
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CD, digital download, punk, vinyl

The Muffs • No Holiday [CD, LP, DD]

When THE MUFFS’ lead singer Kim Shattuck died a few weeks ago, it was a sad day for alternative rock. On the one hand, it was great that the band were able to record one last, solid album before their leader passed away, but on the other, a bummer that their new No Holiday album would be viewed and reviewed with that event in mind.

Unlike many past Muffs releases, No Holiday is a mix of multiple indie rock strains, from the spare punk rock style they’re known for (like “Down Down Down,” “Pollyanna” and the slower “Earth Below Me”) to more poppy and even melancholy ditties like “The Best” and “A Lovely Day Boo Hoo.” I really dig “Lucky Charm” and “You Talk and You Talk,” too, with the lines “I am tired of you/and your ugliness, too/and I hear you can talk until forever.” In fact, there are 18 songs to choose from here, from really short (as in 23 seconds!) to not-as-short (face it: The Muffs don’t have “extended jam” in their vocab, which is a plus), but generally three minutes or less. Apparently, Shattuck and the boys picked out the songs from a batch of unused songs that go back as far as 1991 – basically the lifespan of the band – and luckily, these songs don’t sound like sloppy seconds. Kim said the songs had only been weeded out before to make for “super concise albums.”

No Holiday is still pretty concise and is available on CD and 2LP vinyl (with a laser-etched side four), and makes an excellent bookend to The Muffs’ nearly three decades creating some of the most uncomplicated, enjoyable pop-punk around. You’ll want to pick this one up, yup, and given that the band has now disbanded for the final time, hope that Omnivore or somebody continues reissuing their albums and maybe puts out a career-spanning comp. RIP Kim Shattuck!  — Marsh Gooch

3.5/5 (Omnivore OVCD-354, 2019)

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