'Loud Family' Week 3 of '50 New to Me'

Loud Family - Interbabe Concern
1996
Recommended by Dem McCarthy

At it's heart this album seems to be almost equal parts homage and parody of a cavalcade of alt-rock icons from over decades. From the psychedelic rock side of the 60's through the quirky alternative 80's up to the grungy 90's this album melds them all together. Vocally I think Scott Miller shares the most similarity, at least in tonality, with J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr, but at turns he seems to funnel the spirit of everyone from the Beatles & Bowie to Wayne Coyne (Flaming Lips) or even Shannon Hoon (Blind Melon) to name a few. He doesn't sound like any of these people it is more like the cadence he uses evokes the memory of them.

Musically the band does the same sort of thing, you can be in mindset 'strawberry fields' one minute and a flannel ridden grunge fest the next. I think the heaviest sound similarity comes down to a Sonic Youth meets Flaming Lips sort of feel. They are a tad bit on the experimental side, but they always keep it in some semblance of check. Their experiments rarely wander into the far left field of the musically bizarre, it is more like they walk up to the fence and have a nice pleasant picnic next to left field.

RIP Gil Ray, Loud Family's drummer, who passed yesterday 1/24/17

Into the Rotation -
This album is more than the sum of its parts. It is better taken as a whole rather than pulling a song or two out, as such it is an album I may throw on every now and then when the mood strikes. (Though on that note I did feel that the album, at 18 songs, was a few songs longer than it needed to be.)

Kanga, week 2 of '50 new to me bands'

Kanga - Self titled 2016 release

My second request went to DJ Black/Mail.

Kanga is a generally down tempo synthpop-ish album I'm not sure where exactly I'd categorize it and that is always a good thing. Upon the first listen it had some good hooks that drew me in and subsequent listens it only got better. Her voice is really hard to define, sometime breathy, other times pure and clear, sometimes tinged with regret other times fierce. It reminds me, at turns, of Bliss Blood of 'Pain Teens', Meg Lee Chin, Ayria, Katiejane Garside of 'Daisy Chainsaw', and Tina Root, but her voice is all her own. Musically I see it as kind of like a synthpop child of  NIN and Switchblade Symphony with 'Evil's Toy' as the godfather. The lyrical content and the vocal styling is often complete opposites creating a great juxtaposition. Many songs that would be great for a dance floor as well as simply listening for enjoyment.

This is a solid album, I liked almost every track though some certainly stuck out.

Going into rotation:

    Something Dangerous - a slow electronica grind, low in tempo. Almost seems like a musical                      homage to NIN 'The Becoming'
    All goes red - Steady driving beat with a breathy confident vocal track.
    Honey - Hard hitting song, dark & fierce undertones that really drive this song.
    Viciousness - This song has a great groove to it and dark sensual lyrics.
    Tension - Probably my favorite track, her voice is often haunting while a slow steady beat swirls               around it like a heartbeat.
 

Band 1 of new to me 50.

Posies: Frosting on the Beater

http://theposies.net/

   It is band 1of my personal quest to listen to 50 new to me bands in a calander year.

   For my first request I went to longtime friend Wally Fenderson. Over the years he has expanded my knowledge of music on so many occasions that he seemed the natural choice to select my first band to gain a new familiarity with.

   He selected the Posies album 'Frosting on the Beater' a '93 release. I'll be honest on my first listen I wasn't impressed at all. Much of that probably came from coming of age in the early 90's. There was nothing about this album that was a surprise to me, 30 seconds into the first song I could tell exactly when it was made. It is wholly a product of it's time. However, I give every album suggested 3 listens. Here is the analysis that unfolded.

   On my first listen I was just hearing the era it was from, it was such a familiar era to me that I was dismissive of it more than it deserved. This album is a complete amalgamation of those that came before, maybe not in a brilliant new way, but at least in a solid homage. It also is a bit of a herald of what is to come. Looking at the album as a whole its influences are simply dripping off it, and it is wide and varied, a cornucopia of greats had their influence in the making of this album. The overall sensibility is that of pre-Sargent Pepper's Beatles pop mingled with the alt-rock/grunge of the day, but mixing in the vocal timbre of the 80's alt-boys like Elvis Costello & Robyn Hitchcock. I think their biggest influence was probably Blue Oyster Cult, their overall song structure and harmonies hearken back to this 70's popular rock aesthetic. Now while all of this is going on you still can place it firmly in time due to the definite grungy Alice in Chains hints and Ned's Atomic Dustbin alt-rock styling. One of the interesting things about this albums is you can see hints of things to come, like the Foo Fighters and Silversun Pickups, I'm not implying that they influenced them, but this album is a prime example in music history of how you can hear musical evolution.

   There was one major issue that occurred throughout the album. The choruses were almost always great, but the verses were hit or miss. It was not uncommon to have a song where the choruses were spot on, as was the first verse, but the subsequent verses seemed to get away from the singers vision. It felt like he had the capacity to sing it right, but not the artistry to know what was properly fitting to the song.

   Overall, after the requisite 3 listenings, I like the album, it will never be my favorite, but it is a competent piece of music. The first listen was far less impressive than subsequent listenings though.

   Going into the rotation:
      Dream All Day - a great genre mash up. Half a grungy version of Jesus Jones, half Blue Oyster              Cult 'Don't Fear the Reaper' sort of rock ballad.
      Coming Right Along - great song all around. this song would fit in as a B-side from Alice &          Chains 'Sap' or some other more modern band that is on the tip of my tongue but I can't quite              place...
      Honorable Mention - Burn & Shine, a solid alt rock song, though it ends rather abruptly.