Album Review: Goodie Mob- Age Against The Machine

Goodie Mob

Age Against The Machine

***and1/2 out of *****

One of the more surprising recent reunion's saw The Dirty South originators returning after 14 years while one of their members exploded into superstar solo status. The Goodie Mob have decided to not just reunite for a feel good stroll through mid-90's glory, they have released a complicated up-to-the-minute sounding loose concept album regarding race in current day America. While Age Against The Machine is not perfect, it certainly is a unexpected breath of fresh beats and rhymes in the all too stagnant hip-hop world.

The title which at first glance seems like a clever pun fits into the groups overall message on the album. They are older wiser and not mad, just smarter at how to get after what is best for those who want to make the world a better place.

A track like "Power" tackles this with regards to C-Lo Green in particular getting a different view on power after gaining success now and seeing white financial power particularly. Green can dominate things at times on Age Against The Machine and the beats in particular feel very inspired by him, with his current appeal and dominant tone keeping things very 2013.

The group is never looking backward, they keep their positive stance and still manage to sound hard as hell when rhyming. Big Gipp in particular gets raw about cutting people like pizza and watching the cheese spread during the groups take on gangs in "Kolors" while T-Mo rocks "I'm Set" which is a chaotic scattered jumbled tune, that some how holds up brilliantly. 

Green is the focal point and even listening to past albums from the Mob he has always acted as a quasi front-man, "Amy" about an interracial love affair is whirl and he makes the "Ghost of Gloria Goodchild" into a broken down anthem with the chorus. The groups take (along with Janelle Monae's hook) on "Special Education" is just that, a critical attack on labels in education over a fantastical digital beat; it is topic tackling like this that makes Goodie Mob "special" indeed.   

On the down side for a loose concept albums things don't flow very easily, partially due to the musical experimentation and the pacing. There are too many skits and the disk runs overly long at 18 songs zigging and zagging in styles. One listen is nowhere near enough to ingest all the musical madness and lyrical underpinning contained on Age Against The Machine. This is an album like it title suggests will need to age to see its real results.   

While there is a rumored Outkast reunion on the horizon which will probably overshadow this reunion (like Outkast has done in the past) the fact that the M.O.B. is back on working terms and willing to stay true to their unique selves is good for everyone in the game. C-Lo Green comes out and states the groups ethos in "Special Education", "Let me put something poetic into plain English/I'd rather die than to not be distinguished". They are their own Mob.
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Personal side note, Soul Food is one of my personal top five favorite hi-hop albums, I loved it then, love it now. My first true introduction to southern hip-hop and one I go back to often, happy that the whole group is back in action.

Support the artist here, buy the album here, and peep some video below:
"Special Education"

Album Review: Valerie June- Pushin' Against A Stone

Valerie June

Pushin' Against A Stone

**** out of *****

A dynamically layered, release from Tennessee multi-instrumentalist Valerie June finds this talented songwriter dipping toes into bluegrass, funk, dirty garage rock and country waltzes.  It is her voice that captures your ear immediatly at once sounding light and free as sunshine but with a deeper feeling seemingly just under the surface.

The straight country numbers are sparse with that voice dominating ("Twined & Twisted", "Shotgun" & her cover of "Trials, Troubles, Tribulations ") but it is when June partners with producer Dan Auerbach for tracks like "The Hour", "Wanna Be On Your Mind" and "You Can't Be Told" where that extra sultry style takes over and elevates the whole proceeding. Auerbach adds his signature electric retro blues styling to things while acting as co-writer, backing vocalist and guitarist to songs here. The combo of June's vocals and Auerbach's audio enhancements is enchanting as tracks drip with an eerie feeling.

The disk doesn't have the smoothest of flows, the pure Americana of "Tennessee Time" awkwardly bounces up against the buzzing title track, but taken individually both tracks are fantastic. June's voice can feel like Dolly Parton one minute and Billie Holiday the next as she works her way through these songs. Lyrically June will only grow but her tastes and influences seem to point all in the right direction, Booker T. Jones even shows up to help out on disk closer "On My Way", co-written with June.      

June calls her style, "organic moonshine roots music" and that covers the bases, but Auerbach has injected some power to that combo and it works wonderfully. An amazing debut album Pushin' Against A Stone touches on lots of different possibilities while showcasing Valerie June as a dynamic new voice on the scene.  
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A really good disk that is a combo of a bunch of styles. June's voice is the real star here although it should be said everything Auerbach has produced lately we have loved.

Support the Artist here, buy the album here, peep some video below:

Live Review: Dylan Fest 11/12/13 Bowery Ballroom, NYC

Best Fest: Bob Dylan 

11-12-13 Bowery Ballroom, NYC

When it was announced that the minds and players (Alex Levy-Guitar, Matt Romano-Drums, Austin Scaggs-Bass/MC) would be celebrating their 10th year of "Fests" at NYC's best live music spot, sponsored by Jameson, covering The Bard; RtBE's digital-head exploded. Any reader of the site has come across our Dylan love, anyone who has drank with us knows our Jameson weakness, this was a perfect storm. Our liver thanks The Cabin Down Below Band for holding the event on a Tuesday Night allowing for moderate whiskey consumption while focusing on the music. We purchased tickets early and were glad we did as it was sold out with all of the money going to the charity, Sweet Relief.

The night opened with the incredible adept house band running through "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" belting out the classic line about coming back to the Big Apple. When the first guest came out Ruby Amanfu nearly stole the whole show with her first song. A fluttering "Don't Think Twice" was majestic and powerful, having only seen Ruby with Jack White, more research will be needed into her style and thankfully she would return later in the show.

Early on the guests came out for one song each as the band went through a semi greatest hits collection of tunes. Erika Wennerstrom from the Heartless Bastards did a straight ahead "Positively 4th St", The Mooney Suzuki rocked out "Obviously Five Believers" and Jason Isbell accompanied his wife Amanda Shires as she sang a sweet "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go". The Wild Feathers took over the stage for their rousing "Your Ain't Going Nowhere" making an early highlight but for the most part the guests were sticking to favorites from Dylan's catalog.

Scaggs would ask if people were "ready for a little" then insert the album title before bringing out each guest, when he said "Anyone ready for a little, Street Legal", few cheered, that is until Craig Finn and a bearded Tad Kubler from The Hold Steady rocked "Where Are You Tonight?". Following it up with a rousing "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?" The duo had people in the crowd asking what songs those were, while certain people (present company) were more then eager to let them know.  Cheers to the boys from tHS for bringing a new obsessive level to the show.

While Nora Jones was a big name draw with her cover of "Just Like A  Woman" unannounced guest Karen Ellison's groovy version of "Cold Irons Bound" trumped the star. Elvis Perkins gave the live stage a studio back in '64 feel with a ramblingly great "Motorpsycho Nightmare". At this point Amanfu reemerged for a chill inducing, show stealing version of one of Dylan's best songs, "Not Dark Yet". This version from all involved stopped even the whiskey fueled drunks in their tracks with its emotion and style, A+ stuff.

After Ruby's performance the party got revved up with an all-star version of "Congratulations" from The Traveling Wilburys as Dani Harrison, Lukas Haas, Jake Dishel and Patrick Carney all came out to contribute with surprisingly Haas leading the way. On a side note it is odd that Carney was top billed for this show and played very briefly then bolted. Harrison on the other hand looked like he couldn't be happier as he stayed out to front a version of "Buckets Of Rain" and didn't leave the stage for long the rest of the night.

Doyle Bramhall II was given a late set slot as his silky guitar playing and crooning was showcased on epic tracks like "I Shall Be Released" and "If Not For You". As the guests started piling up to close things out Meshell Ndegeocello snuck in for a bubbling bass injection to "Maggie's Farm", Isbell came out this time to sing and play on a "Lay Lady Lay" and everyone got back out there for the rousing finale of "Knocking On Heaven's Door".

When the dust settled what was left was an amazing night of music, run smoothly and efficiently, hitting all the right notes. Shows like this can be a clusterfuck, this one looked easy I am sure things back stage were tougher but you'd never know it in the crowd or by the bar. Having been hesitant to attend these Fests in the past (for no good reason) it is safe to say I won't miss any of them again, a great cause, by amazing musicians with fine spirits? Pretty much perfect.  
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Thanks to everyone involved, I am very happy to have contributed to this cause. I hope to have more from the group who puts these on in the future for RtBE so stay tuned,

Until then, xxsusannycxx has captured some amazing video from the show, I will post a few of our personal highlights here to get a feel for how things were, but I can't recommend this event highly enough. When it come to your town, go.
Craig Finn & Tad Kubler "Where Are You Tonight?"
Ruby Amanfu "Not Dark Yet"

"Congratulations"

Doyle Bramhall II "I Shall Be Released"

Album Review: Trombone Shorty- Say That To Say This

Trombone Shorty

Say That To Say This

** out of *****

The newest release from rising musical star Trombone Shorty (aka Troy Andrews) starts off with an instrumental that gives the album its name "Say That To Say This" and it is trademark Shorty with his band Orleans Avenue, crunching riff high power horns and a groove you can sink your teeth into. If only the rest of the album kept this style going instead of trying to give Troy Andrews R&B crossover appeal.

Simply put Andrews and crew can jam the hell out of an instrumental but when it comes to creating a pop/rock/r&b track things are lacking. Onstage Andrews is an engaging front-man but when he tries to tackle lyrics and singing in the studio space it often fall's flat and always takes a back seat to his instrumental prowess.  

There are some middle of the road tries at structured songs with vocals like "You And I (Outta This Place)" and "Dream On" but most of these attempts are rough going like "Get The Picture" which feels pulled between 4 different genres. The cover of The Meter's "Be My Lady" will hopefully get the crew laid but the Quiet Storm tinged get down jam is a carbon copy of the original with worse vocals this go around. "Long Weekend" continues this early 80's-light r&b trend that sounds overproduced and sapped of any real emotion. 

The track Shorty seems to be trying his hardest to crack into the mainstream with is "Fire and Brimstone" but when real fire power and a rocking feel is needed the group are stuck in neutral. The production does little to fan the flames as things are oddly muted. That in the end is the albums biggest issue, the production duties were handled by Raphael Saadiq and things have a fine new age r&b sheen to them, this vibe puts the songs in focus and they don't hold up.  

Of course the instrumentals still cook, if you were to make a mix album of all of the bands instrumentals and add the likes of "Shortyville", "Vieux Carre", the delicately building "Sunrise", along with the title track you would have an all time classic. As it stands though if Shorty wants the break through mass appeal he will have to wait for the next go around and maybe look for a better fit at producer.

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This one hurts, weaksuace R&B from Andrews, partially have to fault Saadiq too, I just don't like the pairing, guess it makes commercial sense but blah. We love Shorty, having fallen in love with Nola right around the time Shorty and crew were starting to make waves. We will always love the man and the band, will catch them all the time live, but we don't hold out very high hopes for upcoming studio releases.

Support the artists here, buy the album here, peep some video below.
"Fire and Brimstone"

Dylan Cover #116 Caleb Lee Hutchinson "You Ain't Going Nowhere"

In this ongoing Monday Series we will be exploring various artists versions of Bob Dylan song's. Today's tune is a cover by the Caleb Lee Hutchinson of the Dylan tune "You Ain't Going Nowhere"

Thoughts on Original:
From the first time we tackled a cover of this song.
A great tune from the amazing Basement Tapes and one of the most well known from those sessions the song has a down homespun country feel to it. Great lyrics from Dylan that span the globe, seeming worldly yet still remaining down home, familial and countryfied. A good tune that surprised us when we recently saw Dylan open his Brooklyn show with it.
Cover:

Thoughts on Cover Artist:
I have not heard about Caleb Lee Hutchinson but if this tune is any indication I certainly will be hearing more from him in the future...you can check out more covers of his on his youtube channel here.
Thoughts on Cover:
Wow, stumbled upon this singer and color us impressed. Caleb seems young, but you wouldn't know it by his confident vocals and playing on this Dylan cover. He impresses with range but not showboat playing/singing, nailing the song on a few levels. This is easily one of our favorite "deeper" finds of unknown artists in this series. The interwebs is a beautiful place, keep up the great work Caleb. 
Grade: A

Full Show Friday: They Might Be Giants, Kennedy Center 10/2/12

Last year we searched the murky back waters of youtube to find full concerts and posted them to the site monthly.  That was all well and good but this year RtBE is upping the ante with a show every week to celebrate Full Show Friday's.  These shows are of varying quality and may not be here for long so enjoy them while you can...As always, please support the artist every which way, but especially by seeing them live (if they are still playing)...This week...They Might Be Giants!

Let's cleanse the palette after last Friday with some good ol' family friendly rock now....

So last weekend I had a hankering for some good old school TMBG. This band along with Sonic Youth, Public Enemy, the Beastie Boys and tons of Hardcore/Punk bands got me through those murky years. TMBG is like a weird mind control drug for me, I hadn't heard them literally for 5-6 years until this weekend and when I started listening to Lincoln I knew every word like it was 1992 all over again. Their first 4 albums are ingrained (like a birdhouse) in my soul.

So here are the oddballs playing a fancy show at the Kennedy Center from 2010. I will admit to falling off heavily from this band when they actually became a band at John Henry, Apollo 18 was my last fling with the John's. I moved on, they did too but we will always have their early years. This show has a good selection of older jams including probably me favorite tune to open. Granted this isn't my favorite version but god damn I love "She's An Angel". Other highlights, "The Guitar", the amazing "Fingertips" whirlwind so cool live, "Your Racist Friend" and "Istanbul",

Pro-Shot, Pro-Sound, give it a geeky listen, set list below, Enjoy: 

Setlist
She's an Angel
Clap Your Hands
The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)
Nonagon
Birdhouse in Your Soul
Fingertips
I Never Go to Work (Seven Days of the Week)
Particle Man
Your Racist Friend
Canajoharie
I Am a Paleontologist
Pirate Girls Nine
James K. Polk
Older Doctor Worm
Damn Good Times (Introduced as "Dang Good Times")
The Mesopotamians
 Encore: Alphabet of Nations
What Is a Shooting Star?
Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

Album Review: Rough Seven- Code Breaker

Hey All,

Got a New Review up on Glide.

You can read it Right C'here!!!

It is of the Rough Seven's newest release Code Breaker.

We have loved the Rough Seven since the minute we heard them and don't go more then a few weeks without putting on their fantastic first album. Read our interview with the band here regarding the first album, it is a pure joy that we get another album from the group unfortunately it was produced under sad skies.

You can read all about it in the review, but this album is a personal favorite of ours and we are just glad to listen to these musicians create music under any circumstances. Any Rough Seven is good Rough Seven and the songs here flirt with greatness ("Perfect Tree","Everything But A Broken Heart") although I am guessing in a few years it will be the great covers I will come back to the most. The whole thing is great as Scully writes songs about growing up and the shifting of love, old days gone by  and current crazy situations like few songwriters today. The band is flexible and tight at once, a gift of music that can warm you this winter.

Support the artists here, buy the album here and peep some video below:
"Had A Home" off of Give Up Your Dreams   


"I'd Rather Go Blind" Live (without Meschiya Lake)