Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash

Posted on April 1, 2012 by rightintune

Soulive Review

Posted on March 25, 2012 by rightintune

Check out my review of the last night Soulive’s Bowlive run, originally published on jambands.com here and copied below:

The excitement of a sold out crowd at Brooklyn Bowl was soaring through the roof as Soulive took the stage for the final night of their Bowlive residency. Bowlive, now in its third year, featured ten nights of Soulive with special guests and surprise collaborations. With no announced guests for the final night, the sold out crowd was excited to see what treats the band had in store. With The Allman Brothers in town at The Beacon, whispers of a potential Derek Trucks sit in flew through the crowd like wildfire.

Much to the delight of the crowd, Trucks did indeed show up after the Allman Brothers’ show, but didn’t join Soulive until nearly one in the morning. By that point Soulive had been going strong for hours, taking the stage around 10:30 after an incendiary opening set by close friends The London Souls.

With a debut album recorded at Abbey Road Studios, The London Souls have already experienced a significant measure of success for such a young band. But that feels like just a tiny taste of what’s to come. With crashing drums and huge guitar riffs, The London Souls build on the classic power trio sound of Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Having performed live in New York and on the festival circuit over the past few years, The London Souls have turned into a monstrous live band. They are more comfortable with each other since the recent addition of a new bassist, and this opening set found guitarist Tash Neal thrilling the crowd with searing guitar solos while the band stretched out on songs from their first album and new tunes destined for their upcoming sophomore effort. While watching The London Souls, I can’t help feeling that someday I’ll look back in awe and marvel at how lucky I was to see this band before they turned into rock and roll giants.

After The London Souls’ barn-burning opening set, Soulive took the stage accompanied by a horn section. Between The London Souls’ energetic opening set and excitement for the night’s surprise guests, Soulive’s first couple songs of instrumental funk felt timid, but the band was just getting started. Things heated up halfway through the set, as Soulive invited out Bowlive regular Nigel Hall to sing original “Too Much” and a couple of covers. To close the set out, The London Souls’ Tash Neal also joined the band, and with Hall’s wailing vocals and Tash’s scorching guitar leading the way, Soulive paid tribute to Jimi Hendrix with a rousing cover of “Them Changes.”

As Soulive took the stage for a second set, the crowd was greeted with dozens of white balloons as the show turned into a loose party. The band kicked the set off with “Bubble” which highlighted Neal Evans and followed with the crazed, exploratory funk of “One In Seven,” that found Eric Krasno’s guitar gracefully darting around the thumping rhythm section of Alan Evans’drums and Neal Evans’ clavinet, before Alan Evans took over with a drum solo. As the clock passed midnight, the band dipped into material from their latest release, Beatles tribute Rubber Soulive. Krasno shined while shredding his way through “Eleanor Rigby” while Tash Neal joined in for a menacing cover of “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).”

After The Beatles tribute, Derek Trucks emerged with soul singer Ledisi for a cover of “A Change Is Gonna Come.” As highly anticipated as Trucks’ sit in was, the relatively unknown Ledisi managed to steal the show with her stunning vocal performance. Bowlive allows Soulive to act as hosts and collaborate with a variety of friends, not only big names like Derek Trucks, but also emerging young talents like Ledisi and The London Souls. By generously sharing the spotlight with so many talented friends, Soulive managed to keep things fresh and exciting over the course of their ten-night run and after three years of fun, Bowlive has turned into one of the New York music scene’s best traditions.

Dr. Dog Review

Posted on March 23, 2012 by rightintune

Here’s a review of Dr. Dog’s new album Be The Void, originally posted here on jambands.com and copied below:

In Dr. Dog’s early days, the band picked up steam despite shying away from major labels and producers, preferring to stick to their own vintage, lo-fi style. On their last album Shame, Shame, that style seemed like it had evolved, as for the first time, they used an outside producer and embraced a bigger sound. Shame, Shame finds the band at their catchiest but also hardest rocking, as years of heavy touring had turned Dr. Dog into a true rock band with rumbling bass and drums and clashing guitars.

Dr. Dog’s new album Be The Void finds them retaining the raw rock and roll edge of Shame, Shame with their most musically aggressive and ambitious album yet, while also returning to the quirky, experimental style of their early days. The country blues of album opener “Lonesome” sets the tone for Be The Void, as it is irresistibly catchy and charming despite utterly nonsensical lyrics and barroom cheers. Between the oddities of “Lonesome” and the bongos and spacey keyboard effects that open the album’s second song, “That Old Black Hole,” the band wastes no time in declaring that their decision to go back to self-producing must have been motivated by their love of doing whatever the hell they want in the studio.

After perfecting streamlined rock and roll with Shame, Shame, Dr. Dog have produced a wild collage of sounds with Be The Void. On the new album, they flesh out these songs with improved musicianship and studio bells and whistles. Make no mistake, not all of the bells and whistles work. The computer noises at the beginning of sleazy rocker “Warrior Man” add little to the song, and the bongo drum led breakdown in the dance pop of “Heavy Light” is even more surprising (though, like everything else on Be The Void, it will grow on you quickly). But the unabashedly loose, fun vibe of the album is contagious and musically, Dr. Dog thrives most in this anything goes atmosphere.

Dr. Dog is built on the unique songwriting partnership of bassist Toby Leaman and guitarist Scott McMicken, who trade off songs throughout the album. Because their writing styles are so different, the album is full of sudden twists and turns. While Leaman’s songs are fairly straightforward, McMicken’s songs sound like a collage of soundscapes. From the electro-pop of “Heavy Light” to the memorable psychedelic dance edge of “How Long Must I Wait,” McMicken’s songs force Dr. Dog into new musical territory.

While McMicken’s songs on Be The Void tend to lean towards experimental psychedelic pop, Leaman’s songs are comfortable rockers. “Warrior Man” nods a little too heavily at The Kinks, but “Big Girl” could be the best rock song Dr. Dog has ever recorded. With Leaman’s infectiously catchy chorus and McMicken’s slashing guitar solos, “Big Girl” finds Dr. Dog fully capturing their live energy in the studio. Leaman’s “Vampire” and “These Days” feature more howling vocals and searing riffs from McMicken and rhythm guitarist Frank McElroy, and show that the band is just as influenced by ‘70s glam rock as they are by ‘60s psychedelic pop.

With the right mix of heavy rock and roll and indie charm, Dr. Dog’s Be The Void is a loose, ragged and lighthearted album that keeps growing on you until it just won’t leave your head. After enduring years and years of comparisons to The Beach Boys and The Beatles (and seemingly no one else), Be The Void finds the band embracing a wider palette of influences and moving closer to their own sound in the studio. Be The Void is harder rocking and livelier than anything they’ve recorded before, and though the experimentation makes for an album that is not as immediately catchy as Shame, Shame, it also creates an album that is certainly more adventurous and ultimately at least as enjoyable.

Caveman Interview

Posted on March 21, 2012 by rightintune

Check out my interview with emerging young rockers Caveman, originally posted here and below:

As soon as I met Caveman’s singer Matthew Iwanusa and drummer Stefan Marolachakis at Cobra’s Guitars, it was immediately apparent that this unique shop served as the band’s unofficial home and also as an inspiration. Caveman’s multi talented lead guitarist Jimmy Carbonetti runs Cobra Guitars, a custom guitar shop. Full of guitar experts, gorgeous guitars and shelves and shelves of vinyl records, Cobra’s Guitars is any music lovers dream and a perfect place for the band to hang out and experiment with new gear that has shaped their distinctive densely layered but breezy sound.

After releasing their debut album CoCo Beware independently last fall, Caveman quickly gathered steam and buzz that led to a sold out headlining show at New York’s Bowery Ballroom earlier this year. While explaining how they released the album on their own, Stefan says, “Knock on wood, so far, so good,” and that phrase works to describe Caveman as a whole too. So far things seem to be going well for Caveman, who are poised to establish themselves nationally as one of the most exciting and creative young rock bands. Today the band is relaxing at Cobra’s Guitars just two days before embarking on a massive tour that will see them cross the country and include multiple appearances at SXSW and Canadian Music Week.

Eventually we move outside to take advantage of the unseasonably warm spring weather with some basketball, but first we sat down at Cobra’s Guitars to discuss Caveman’s upcoming tour, critically acclaimed debut album, signing to Fat Possum and plans for a new album.

Let’s start off by talking about your big spring tour and SXSW. Is this your first national headlining tour?

Matt: We’ve done a few weeks here and there of headlining but this is our first actual headlining full sweep of the states.

Stefan: And it’ll be fun because the April tour will be after our record is being reissued by Fat Possum, that’s happening March 27th so we’re really excited about that. And then when it ends, I mean SXSW should be really fun, and when it ends we’re coming home, we’re playing a show at BAM Opera House so that’s sorta unbelievable. Yeah it’s a good 60 day stretch ahead.

You mentioned Fat Possum is putting out your record. You guys originally put it out yourselves and started your own label to do so?

Stefan: Yeah, Magic Man

What was that like?

Matt: Lotta fun

Stefan: Yeah it felt like a great idea. It feels like we were sort of taking the temperature around us and realized that the best thing would be to not sit around and wait to get the songs out into the world. And we had a lot of fun doing it. We played a ton of shows, and, now you know we met these guys who have a great label who wanted to team up and so far, so good.

Matt: We can take it to the next level.

Stefan: Knock on wood, so far, so good

What is happening to Magic Man, is that gonna stick around?

Stefan: Oh it’s still around, yeah. That’s the thing, we’re gonna work on the business plan for Magic Man…

Matt: We’ve got some ideas for Magic Man. It’s a good group of guys who work over there at Magic Man. It’s a great team. We’re looking to do something in Manitoba in 2015… with Magic Man. I’ll leave it at that.

Are you using it to put out music by some of your friends, maybe some smaller groups?

Stefan: Yeah that would be cool to do one day.

Matt: Once you know it seems right, we’ll do something like that, probably. This Manitoba thing is really cooking, but after that…

Stefan: We need to finish building the home before we build on the additions if you know what I mean. We can’t do renovations yet because we’re still fixing odds and ends.

Are you working on a second album for Fat Possum yet?

Matt: We’ve been writing and I think we’ll record in June. We’ll start recording in June and gonna record at this place called the Rumpus Room in Brooklyn. Great place. Now that we’ve been playing together for a long time, it’s just taking the music the direction that it should go, and now we all feel comfortable about what we’re doing and it seems like it’s gonna be really fun to work on the second record. Lotta dudes in a room hangin’ out.

Have you been playing any new songs live or planning to break out a few in the spring?

Stefan: Yeah we’ve been road testing a few.

Matt: We’ve been rotating four new jams live that seem pretty much done.

Stefan: Gotta remember to pepper them in, gotta salt and pepper them right in there because people still want to hear the record that they know, or that they’re getting to know. And you have to retain that perspective because we obviously know the record pretty, pretty well at this point.

Matt: I’ve heard it a few times.

So is your plan to road test these songs and let them grow on the spring tour and then get right into to the studio once you get back home?

Stefan: Yeah totally. Yeah and then there’s some time between the tour and studio where we can work on other stuff too.

Are you planning to produce the album yourselves or work with someone outside?

Matt: We’re gonna work with Nick Stumpf again. He did our first record. He’s an awesome man full of good thoughts, great vibes, good ideas, easy going times. He’s a good man. So he’s gonna record it and it’s gonna be fun.

Stefan: He knows what to do. He knows just what food we should go get when we’re on break. He knows how to set the mood.

Matt: And he knows when to call it quits for the day.

Those are the important things. CoCo Beware is such a lush, layered, intricately produced album. What was the process like recording it?

Matt: Yeah, it was a lot of just going in as groups, sometimes as a full group and then sometimes as just a few of us and get the basic things down and then find the right sounds to layer with other things and just basically find sounds that complimented each other. So it’s eventually layered up and turned into this thing.

So how long did you spend in the studio?

Matt: We were off and on for about 4 months. But a solid 2 months of recording I’d say.

Do you feel with Jimmy making guitars and being into gear opens up more possibilities in the studio?

Matt: Yeah I mean, they’re really great guitars too and they all have their own specific sound. If you build it, then you know so much about it and you know every sound and every component of it. So that helps out a lot.

Stefan: Having a few guys, having not only Jimmy build guitars but he and Jeff (bassist) and Sam (keyboardist) all have experience having worked at the great guitar stores of New York. That helps a lot.

Cool, so you guys all have experience working in music stores, and you guys were all part of the New York music scene for years before putting Caveman together. Can you talk a little bit about those days and when you decided to form a band together and make it happen?

Matt: Yeah, all of our bands broke up that we were all in. Stefan and I had played in a band together. We played like two shows, it was just some fun, quick thing we did and I played in a band with Jeff and Jimmy and Sam you know, just randomly, a jamband. And so we were all just playing tons of music together and Jeff and Sam were playing together cause Jeff has his own band too called Starcrossed Signs. So they were playing, and then Jeff and I would hang out at the bar he was working at. He was liking the songs and then Stefan and I were hanging out and so it all just kind of came together at the right time with all this not being in bands at that moment but all playing enough together and wanting to play shows together for a long time. That brought us all together.

Did you get together with the idea that you would write new music with that group of guys?

Matt: We started to write new music together once we all came together. Before that we’d occasionally write… well Stefan and I were writing some songs together but not anything we were taking serious, we were just joking. It was more about the idea of playing together and that was the same thing with the other side things we were doing, excluding obviously Jeff’s other band, which he does really have a direction for.

Stefan: Yeah, me and Matt it was something where he was the one who actually came to me because we’d had so much enthusiasm to play music together but the short-lived project we had was just for kicks.

While we’re talking of about pre-Caveman projects, in terms of songwriting, the songs on CoCo Beware, were they songs that you wrote together or were they brought from previous projects?

Matt: A lot of the first record is like half songs that I wrote and half songs that we came up with together. And mostly just like an idea, you know a small idea that I brought to the band, but nothing really was anything that was part of other projects. It all kinda started when this project started.

You would bring in an acoustic skeleton?

Matt: Yeah it depends. It could be just a quick chord progression, a quick melody and then it’ll turn into a four minute song when everybody plays it so it’s gotta start somewhere, it’s gotta end somewhere.

CoCo Beware received a ton of critical praise including a rave review from the New York Times. Do you feel any added pressure for a second album after so many great reviews?

Matt: No. I mean we’ve all done records before that have gotten like zero press. So whatever, we’re gonna write another record, if it doesn’t get any, we’ll write another one. I’m not worried about it.

Stefan: It’s more inspiring and exciting, getting the hometown support.

Matt: It’s great to get it, there’s definitely nothing better than it, but at the end of the day, we’ll still write records and try not to worry about it.

What was it like selling out Bowery Ballroom, speaking of hometown support?

Matt: It was crazy.

Stefan: The best.

Matt: I would go there as a kid and see shows, and remember thinking “that’s the place, when you do that you’re doing something” and nowadays, it’s so cool, what an amazing place to be able to play.

Stefan: It feels like a real benchmark, that place.

Matt: Our first show ever was at Bowery, opening for The White Rabbits. But yeah it was an amazing moment, just cause I always loved that place. Definitely means something in your hometown, cause you’ve got the hometown behind you.

Stefan: It was incredibly exciting.

One of your favorite experiences as a touring band?

Stefan: As a person. Probably one of my favorite experiences as a person.

While we’re on the topic of live touring, I wanted to ask about opening for The War On Drugs and what that stint was like?

Matt: Oh it was great. Although Stefan didn’t have as good as a time.

Stefan: We had the best time, halfway through I got sick and had to go off the tour but I’m better now. But it was the greatest. They’re definitely one of our favorite bands for sure. And they’re the best dudes.

Did you take any lessons from them in terms of how they perform and approach their songs?

Matt: I think they just like to be relaxed and have fun playing and we could really relate to them on so many levels, with music and just as people, which was great. And that’s what made it a really cool experience.

Were you fans of their music before touring with them?

Matt: Yeah, totally.

Stefan: Yeah it’s just like double after that tour. They’re making such good records.

You guys both have a dreamy, jangly sound going for you. Are they a bit of an influence or just good friends?

Matt: Yeah just good dudes. I think we’re all influenced by similar things.

What are some of those bands?

Matt: They love Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, they are all about that era of music, they’re into feel good jams. Emotional feel good jams.

Bruce Springsteen- Wrecking Ball Review

Posted on March 19, 2012 by rightintune

My review of Bruce Springsteen’s album originally posted here and copied below:

Bruce Springsteen’s new album Wrecking Ball may be a solo album, but album opener “We Take Care Of Our Own” is full of pounding drums, layered riffs and a fist-pumping chorus, sounding just like an E Street Band classic. But of course there is something missing. Wrecking Ball is Springsteen’s first studio effort without his lifelong sidekick, saxophonist Clarence Clemons. And, as you might expect, Springsteen’s music just isn’t the same without Clarence’s horn leading the way. After all, how do you replace the man who Springsteen regularly introduced to crowds as “the biggest man in the world?”

But despite the fact that album opener “We Take Care Of Our Own” sounds like vintage E Street Band rock and roll, none of the core members of the E Street Band even appear on the track. Springsteen chooses to replace Clemons by straying away from the E Street Band and their distinctive style with one of his most musically experimental and ambitious albums. Perhaps in an attempt to distract the listener from the gaping hole where Clemons’ bursting saxophone belongs, Wrecking Ball leans closer to rootsy Americana and gospel than the grand rock and roll of the E Street Band.

The album’s second song “Easy Money” finds Springsteen’s studio experimentations begin – as the song sounds like a combination of the E Street Band and Springsteen’s bluegrass Seeger Sessions band joined by a gospel choir, and mixes moaning fiddle with an electric guitar solo. There are plenty more musical experimentations on the album – including an embrace of hip hop on “Rocky Ground” – an adventure that is just as awkwardly bizarre as you might imagine it to be. But aside from the sudden twist in musical direction on “Rocky Ground,” Wrecking Ball still sounds like a Bruce Springsteen album, just a little more colorful than usual. From bluegrass-tinged lonesome country to Irish folksongs and mournful ballads, Wrecking Ball finds Springsteen experimenting and succeeding with new styles.

Despite making more than a small fortune over the course of his career, Springsteen has never forgotten his own working class roots and the years he spent toiling in New Jersey’s tiny clubs before breaking through to commercial success. Much like his stark Nebraska and The Ghost Of Tom Joad albums, Wrecking Ball is full of stories of working class Americans and their troubles. “We Take Care of Our Own” quickly brings to mind “Born In The U.S.A.” as it is a biting criticism of the American government disguised by a patriotic chorus. With lines like “Where’s the promise from sea to shining sea?” “We Take Care of Our Own” opens the album with Springsteen questioning the American Dream and whether the government has fulfilled its responsibilities to its people.

Those themes are central throughout Wrecking Ball, an album inspired by Occupy Wall Street that finds Springsteen voicing his concern over the direction of this country and our future. He sings about “fat cats” in “Easy Money” and the haunting “Jack Of All Trades” features lines like “A banker man grows fat, a working man grows thin/It’s all happened before and it’ll happen again.” The standout song culminates with Springsteen declaring “If I had me a gun, I’d find the bastards and shoot ‘em on sight,” before Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine contributes a soaring guitar solo, making for one of the album’s most politically charged moments.

But the true highlight of the album is a dose of old fashioned E Street Band rock and roll on “Land Of Hope And Dreams,” where that sound you’ve been waiting for finally arrives. After a soulful gospel choir backs Springsteen as he pays tribute to Woody Guthrie’s “This Train Is Bound For Glory,” the unmistakable sound of Clarence Clemons’ saxophone leaps in above the roar of the band with a moving solo as Springsteen sings about “bells of freedom ringing.” Only someone like Clemons’ could make his last recorded appearance such a majestic one, and his horn has never sounded better.

Up until “Land Of Hope And Dreams,” Wrecking Ball, full of ruminations on hard times, finds Springsteen downtrodden and angry. But he takes a sudden turn towards optimism on “Land Of Hope And Dreams.” “We Are Alive,” a tribute to fallen heroic protestors, follows “Land Of Hope And Dreams” and the pair ends the album on an ultimately hopeful and inspiring note. After all, this is the same man who once proclaimed “It ain’t no sin to be alive” in a song about being “caught in a crossfire that I don’t understand.” With Wrecking Ball, Springsteen focuses on the wealth gap and the recession that America is mired in but this is by no means a dark album. He may be singing about broken promises and hard times, but ultimately, the album is fueled by Springsteen’s unwavering belief that it’s not too late for America to become that “Land of Hope and Dreams” again.

Christopher Paul Stelling- Songs of Praise & Scorn Review

Posted on March 8, 2012 by rightintune

Check out my review of Christopher Paul Stelling’s brilliant debut album, originally published here on jambands.com and posted below:

Though I listen to as much new music as I can, rarely do I stumble across a brand new artist who captures my rapt attention within seconds. Yet those magical albums do come along every once in awhile and Christopher Paul Stelling’s Songs Of Praise And Scorn is that special debut with the power to transfix the listener from its very first notes. With expertly picked acoustic melodies and gorgeous, howling vocals, Stelling’s songs are immediately captivating.

Though Songs Of Praise And Scorn finds Stelling accompanied only by occasional fiddle and sparse drums in addition to his acoustic guitar, it feels limiting to call him a folksinger. His singing and songwriting is unquestionably at the heart of the album, but he is also a tremendously talented guitarist. A gently picked flowing riff on album opener “Mourning Train To Memphis” is joined by Stelling’s equally raspy and tender voice and soothing fiddle. Proving he can’t quite be pegged down by the folksinger moniker, the song gathers steam as it rolls along and closes with Stelling’s voice energetically ringing out the chorus.

For a quiet, acoustic album, Songs Of Praise And Scorn features quite a bit of lively, wailing vocals. “Never Been There” is a punk rock classic without a band, as Stelling’s raucous guitar strumming is matched in energy by his impassioned vocals. “Strange Darkness,” the most stunningly moving moment on the album, finds Stelling’s voice ranging from a whisper to a deafening howl. He pleads “Be careful, please be gentle with me/Swear I’m not a bad person no, just got a strange darkness livin’ in me,” in a tortured roar that could only be compared to John Lennon’s primal scream therapy-inspired solo masterpiece Plastic Ono Band.

Stelling’s voice is so unique and soulful that the displays of raw wailing on “Strange Darkness” and “Never Been There” are rivaled in intensity by quiet ballads “King Is Dead” and “Little Broken Birds,” as his whispered vocals and whistling have their own kind of power. With a voice like that over a guitar style reminiscent of Bert Jansch and Nick Drake with a touch of John Fahey’s rustic Americana thrown in, Christopher Paul Stelling is well on his way to becoming the next great folksinger.