Random Review #114 Dave Matthews Band - Live Trax Vol.5

C5S3CD16 For those that know me know of my love for the Dave Matthews Band. The strange thing is that I still haven’t found anybody else in the UK that likes DMB. I have been lucky enough to see Dave 4 times around the UK and Ireland and although the numbers seem to be growing the first time I ever saw Dave Matthews I suspect at least 80% of the audience were North American fans following the band from gig to gig.

I understand why people don’t ‘get’ DMB. If you look at them in isolation their songs don’t fit the norm, they don’t do verse, chorus, verse, they have a classically trained violinist as a band member, they are prone to extend their songs to 15 or 20 minutes in length depending on how they feel, they don’t play the same set list two nights in a row, and often play cover versions that they love, from reggae to rap. For all those I love this band but understand why people don’t as they don’t conform.

DMB have built their success on delivering what their fans want, whether that be constantly playing live, allowing fans to record live shows, allowing file sharing on the internet of the vase amount of merchandise that you buy from the website. DMB are known for their live performances and this album is one of 20 Live Trax Volunes that are available from the bands website. This are handpicked from the bands digital vault and cover their whole career. This is Live Trax Vol.5 and is from 1995 and was their performance at The Meadow Brook Music Festival, although it’s not my favourite Live Trax release (I have most) I have enjoyed the trip back in time as the material played is all older and it’s all fairly chilled and relaxed until about half way through the set when they launch into a 13 minute version of Exodus by Bob Marley. I suspect reggae lovers will be appalled by this version but it works for me and then moves into a 15 minute version of Jimi Thing which for me makes for a great 30 minutes of music.

This isn’t the greatest album for people who are new to DMB you would be better off buying The Best Of What’s Around which is a Best of covering a live and studio album. I will continue to love and buy music by the Dave Matthews Band and maybe just maybe I might just find someone else in the UK who likes them!.

7/10

This isn't the exact version of Exodus from the album, but it's from around the same time so gives you an idea.....

September Music Purchases

Golden Smog – Another Fine Day Alt-Country ‘Supergroup’ Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) Gary Louris (The Jayhawks) and members of Blind Melon last studio album. Great stuff.

Basement Jaxx – The Singles I don’t have much (any) dance music in my collection. On first listen I like about half the tracks on this album, which is what I thought before I bought it.

The Black Crowes – Warpaint Live Only Black Crowes album that I don’t have......

Mogwai – Young Team Mogwai’s debut album bought from a market stall in Tynemouth came with a free single of 4 remixes of Mogwai Fear Satan all for £3....

Bloc Party – A Weekend In The City Don’t know enough about this band so cheap purchase to find out whether they are one for me or not.

Mercury Rev – All Is Dream A #masterpieces discovery for me so picking up back catalogue when I can.

The Cranberries – Everybody Else Is Doing It So Why Can’t We Great debut from an Irish band that promised much and then appeared to lose the plot.

Gizeh Records I discovered this Leeds based label after seeing one of their bands, Sleepingdogs support Low. They specialise in post rock and ambient music for lovers of Mogwai, Radiohead etc. I bought a few CD’s in their sale and also downloaded some new artists for a nominal donation. Artists I bought were; Worriedaboutsatan, Redjetson, Immune, Greenland, Glissando,  Her Name Is Calla, Fieldhead, and Detwiije. This is a really good great label that deserves you support worth downloading the free sampler www.gizehrecords.com

Random Review #113 T-Model Ford - Pee-Wee Get My Gun

C9S3CD10 When this album was released in 1997 T-Model Ford thinks he might be 75 but he isn’t sure. When asked how many times he’s been in jail his response is ‘pretty much every Saturday night for a while’, although we do know he has been in jail for murder the rest is pretty vague. His only band member is his drummer called Spam, whose girlfriend is prone to smoking whilst carrying her oxygen supply around with her. This is just a small portion of the liner notes but you get the picture. This isn’t a plastic made for TV artist in fact I think I’d like to see Simon Cowell’s face if T-Model Ford rocked up at the auditions for X-factor.

This is raw blue, nasty dirty blues, if you think The White Stripes, The Black Keys or Seasick Steve had a raw sound then times that by 20 and you might get somewhere near the sound of T-Model Ford. In the mid nineties a number of artists like T-Model Ford were ‘discovered’ and brought into the mainstream. I use the term discovered loosely as they had been going for years but I guess the likes of R.L Burnside, Junior Kimbrough and to a lesser extent Cedell Davis, Robert Cage and others got a bit of the fame they deserved. This album is on the Fat Possum Record label which was responsible for bringing a lot of these artists to the general public. It is a great independent label that worked hard to promote these new artists and if you want an over view of what they do the compilation Not The Same Old Blues Crap is a great place to start.

The Blues is basic but good driven along at a pace by Spam on drums. You get 11 tracks all original as Blues can be as you hear the Blues classics in the rhythm and the beat of these songs. I suspect this music deserves to be heard in a dirty Juke Joint in Mississippi where it evolved, but I suspect it might not be the safest environment for a tourist to spend a Saturday night. Saying that I have survived a night in Newcastle’s Bigg Market so maybe I should have a go.

If you like The White Stripes or The Black Keys or saw Seasick Steve on Later with Jools Holland and thought I like the sound of that then this might be for you. It’s an insight into a different world of music that is still going strong and deserves to be heard.

Mark 6/10

Random Review #112 The Wallflowers - Collection 1996-2005

C6S9CD9 Formed in 1989 The Wallflowers released their self titled debut in 1992 which interestingly is omitted from this compilation which is culled from their four albums realised as the title suggests between 1996 and 2005. For those that don’t know The Wallflowers were the band of Jakob Dylan, son of Bob but other than a name the 2 share very little in common with regard to musical styles or appearance for that matter.

The Wallflowers play American rock music somewhere between the Counting Crows and REM and although Jakob now is producing solo music a lot closer to his father he’ll never be held in the same esteem as Bob (very few are).

The compilation is a fair reflection of The Wallflowers career and what I mean by that is there are 5 tracks from the first album (Bringing Down The Horses) 4 tracks from their 2^nd album (Breach) 3 from their 3^rd (Red Letter Days) and 2 from their final album (Rebel Sweetheart) and I suspect if I looked up album sales they would replicate this decline. They started brightly with Bringing Down The Horses with One Headlight, 6^thAvenue Heartache and Three Marlenas all achieving American chart success. This album is by far the strongest album of the four and although I like the other three they failed to deliver the hit tunes that they deserved. Tagged on the end of this album are 2 unreleased tracks which add very little to this compilation, but such is the want of record companies now they feel they need to add ‘new’ tracks on the end of Greatest Hits albums to make idiots like me who already have all the albums buy the Greatest Hits. 

If you like melodic rock served up in an American style then this might be an artist you might like to look up.

Mark 7/10

Songs I Love #29 Editors - The End Has A Start

I have nothing to say about this over than great tune

don't think that it's
Gonna rain again today
There's a devil at your side
But an angel on her way

Someone hit the light
'Cause there's more here to be seen
When you caught my eye
I saw everywhere I'd been
And wanna go to

You came on your own
That's how you'll leave
With hope in your hands
And air to breathe

I won't disappoint you
As you fall apart
Some things should be simple
Even an end has a start

Someone hit the light
'Cause there's more here to be seen
When you caught my eye
I saw everywhere I'd been
And wanna go to

You came on your own
That's how you'll leave
With hope in your hands
And air to breathe

You lose everything
By the end
Still my broken limbs
You find time to mend

More and more people
I know are getting ill
Pull something good from
The ashes now be still

You came on your own
That's how you'll leave
With hope in your hands
And air to breathe

You lose everything
By the end
Still my broken limbs
You choose to mend

You came on your own
That's how you'll leave
You came on your own
That's how you'll leave

You came on your own

You came on your own

Random Review #111 Led Zeppelin - Houses Of The Holy

C3S9CD7 When I first started looking at this album prior to starting my review the first thing I thought was, I wonder whether the cover art of this album would be greeted with such widespread acceptance in this day and age? As you can see the album cover depicts a number of naked children climbing up The Giants Causeway Northern Ireland, entirely innocent but I would suspect the ‘moral police’ would have a field day now. I have no idea what the cover was supposed to portray, Zeppelin were trying hard to make their albums as mythical as possible, this album like the previous album did not have the name of the band on the front of the album. Whilst on the subject of the last album (Led Zeppelin IV) actually has no title, it is commonly known as IV as the first 3 albums were numbered but this was never acknowledged by the band, it is also known as 4 Symbols due to the 4 Symbols on the inner sleeve each that are associated to the band members. Anyway guess what I’m trying to say is that Led Zeppelin at this time (1973) could do what the hell they wanted and their albums would still sell by the bucket load so whether the name of the band or the album appeared made no difference.

Zeppelins 5^th album and the first to have a album title, (ironically the album title appeared as a track on Zeppelins next studio album Physical Graffiti) 8 tracks, 5 of which would appear on their next album The Song Remains The Same the soundtrack to the film of the same name which was a mix of live concert footage and dream sequences, all very Spinal Tap but at the time they seemed like one of the most amazing bands in the world. Punk was just around the corner which would change things (for a little while) but at the time of this release Zeppelin were near Gods to the vast majority of the western world.

I retrospect I really like this Zeppelin album , not as much as Physical Graffiti but I think I play it more the IV, it has a good mix of styles, your standard rock which you would expect but, The Crunge is pure funk and D’yer Mak’er is reggae which may surprise many non Zeppelin fans. As I have mentioned a lot of these tracks turned up in the film but the studio versions are less bloated than the live versions and I think that suits the tracks. Favourites for me are The Song Remains The Same, The Rain Song, which is this albums Stairway to Heaven, slow mellow to start building to big rock finale, and No Quarter, but I can’t pick a duff track on this album.

I know that Led Zeppelin split music lovers, I think you either love them or hate them, but judging by the excitement that surrounded the (one off) live reunion a couple of years it’s safe to say that Zeppelins place as Rock Gods is still pretty secure.

 Mark 9/10

random Review #110 Cassandra Wilson - New Moon Daughter

C7S9CD16. We have all been there haven’t we, you buy an album play it and after playing it a couple of times it’s left to gather dust until we hear the artists name mentioned somewhere, or a track turns up on a soundtrack and we think, ‘I’ve got that album’ and you dig it out to find that the albums far better than you actually thought. I’m not sure why this is, maybe your tastes change, after all I have been buying music for over 30 years, or like me you have far too much music to give all your albums the attention they deserve but this album is one of those for me.

This is why I started this blog in January, picking 3 of my CD’s at random to listen to each week forcing myself to roll with the numbers and listen to albums that I may not have picked if given the choice. This is an album I have always wanted to like more than I do and so when @amcyoung picked the numbers for it I honestly thought great I’ll give it another go. Well I have to say I don’t hate this album it has moments of brilliance, but it just doesn’t quite work for me even after all these years. (It was released in 1995)

I bought this album along with Lizz Wright’s Dreaming Wide Awake, both reviews seems very similar, and although I now own all of Lizz Wright’s albums I only have this album by Cassandra Wilson and that tells me a lot, but at the time I thought I was taking a chance with the Wright album and my expectation wad I would love the Wilson album. Music is fickle sometimes and throws up surprises and that’s why I love it so much.

On paper Wilson’s album sounds great, a mix of original songs and classic covers along with one or two surprising reworks, Love Is Blindness by U2, and Last Train To Clarksville made famous by The Monkees all given a jazz country makeover by Wilson who has an amazing voice. It’s the arrangements at times that I don’t like and it’s purely a matter of taste, they lean too much to the Jazz side of things for me and I guess that’s why I struggle with the album.

The album opens with Strange Fruit a song made famous by Billie Holiday and describing the hanging of African Americans slaves in the Deep South in the 1930’s. I have always struggled to listen to this song whoever sings it. The lyrics are so descriptive it devastates me every time. Once past this track we hit U2’s Love Is Blindness which real works paired down to its bare bones. Last Train to Clarksville and a rework of Neil Young’s Harvest Moon are also good, but I guess the problem is I’m always drawn to the original versions when listening to this album rather than being pulled into this album.

There is nothing wrong with this album I just have too many other albums I would pick before playing this one.

Mark 5/10