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music monday with PLC : Alabama Shakes

Pat walks into a bar...

Pat:  “I just got the alabama shakes.”

Bartender:  “Oh man, is it contagious?”

Pat:  “Why yes, it kind of is.”

Thanks everyone, I will be here every Monday.

The Alabama Shakes are tearing it up on their debut album Boys & Girls (USA - ATO Records, Europe - Rough Trade Records).  They are a band in their early twenties playing like a bunch of southern soul veterans and getting a lot of much deserved love thrown their way.  Led by dynamo lead singer Brittany Howard who mixes up a little Janis Joplin, Jack White, and Otis Redding while grabbing the mic and taking complete charge.  Like Springsteen, the whole time you listen to this album you think to yourself, “This must be awesome to see live.”  Wonder no more -

One of my favorite things about the Alabama Shakes, however, is that Brittany is confident enough to pull off one of the best rock moves in the first single “Hold On”:  she name-checks herself in the third person right in the song.  Pat likes that kinda stuff -

For all of you people who bought Sheryl Crow’s 100 Miles from Memphis album:  first of all, my condolences.  Second of all, this is probably the album she was trying to make.  Southern soul music with a rock sensibility, and more importantly without the fear of Kid Rock popping in to stink up the whole joint.  Surprisingly, there are no horns on the album, but I like that this allows the Allman Brothers style guitar licks and Booker T inspired organ to shine through.  And also, you have to leave something for album number two.  It would be interesting to hear them with a hot producer next, kind of like what Danger Mouse achieved with the Black Keys.

Alabama Shakes are on tour and headed for a town near you, so be sure and check them out.

- PLC

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be sure to check out Pat's other awesome music monday reviews:

• last time - Norah Jones
• a while back - The Faces
• full archive of Music Monday with PLC - HERE

 

music Monday with PLC : Norah Jones

Our two girls have an ongoing rivalry about who is better:  Adele vs. Norah Jones.  Each girl has her favorite, and I have to admit that it is a pretty good grudge match.  Battle of the multi-platinum stars.  I am also so glad that they are not arguing over Lady Ga Ga vs. Nicki Minaj.  Life’s little victories.  Besides, when the Adele vs. Jones battle gets going, someone always brings up Queen of all Monsters, Taylor “Godzilla” Swift to crush all other competition in the girls’ eyes.

Norah Jones has just released her new album “Little Broken Hearts” (2012, Blue Note Records).  Apparently, Ms. Jones has just gone through a break up, and it does not seem like it was an easy one.  But her loss is our gain.  This album is some pretty heavy stuff and it is not the Norah Jones of old.

I can just see the terror in poor Elmo’s face if she brought one of these songs back over to Sesame Street for a duet.  Guys, let this be a lesson; do not have a bad break-up with a woman who has a pen and a microphone: Norah, Adele, Alanis Morissette.  I like to think that it was one guy who happened to date all these women at different times and then broke up with them to be the muse to bring great music into the world.  Like a musical Wilmer Valderrama; but in my head, I will always suspect it was Dave Coulier who broke up with all of them.  Think she is kidding around?  Just take a look at the video for the first single Happy Pills.  (And this is the “happy” song, mind you.) -

The album is very dark, but it is expertly produced by Danger Mouse, who co wrote all the songs with Jones.  The two of them work very well together, stitching together the songs with rhythms and sounds that add heavy atmosphere and keep the whole album beautifully, slightly off-kilter.  All the while setting the stage for Norah’s emotionally raw lyrics and delivery.  And the really cool thing is that her voice is so sweet and understated that it belies the darkness of the lyrics.  Check out the song Miriam.  Wow.  I have not heard a pop song about that since Kenny Roger’s Ruby.  Well played, Norah.

Here she is performing the haunting title track Little Broken Hearts on “Later with Jools Holland” -

This is one great album that is equal parts gutsy and artsy from a performer who is popular enough to not have to be either.  Me and Ms. Jones, we got a thing going on.

- PLC

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be sure to check out Pat's other awesome music monday reviews:

• last week - John Mulaney
• last month - Dum Dum Girls
• full archive of Music Monday with PLC - HERE

 

music monday wednesday with PLC : John Mulaney

The year was 1978, and I used to have one of those Panasonic tape recorders.  It was the kind with the little simultaneous play/record button and the sleek black microphone that plugged into it.  It was the best.  And even better was the fact that I had ended up with a copy of Steve Martin’s  “A Wild and Crazy Guy” tape.  I would listen to it all the time; from the think jokes club guy at the beginning, to the wild and crazy arena guy at the end.  At that point, I even knew all the words to “King Tut”.  The tape was hilarious and really made me appreciate the comedy album.  There was something so awesome of being able to press play and hear the jokes coming right at you without all that laborious reading and the pesky distraction of video getting in the way.  Pure comedy. 

This week we turn to comic John Mulaney and his new album “New in Town” (Jan 2012 Comedy Central Records).  Mulaney is a great comic out of Chicago who now lives in New York and writes for Saturday Night Live.  He sets up the comedic premise and then has the talent to write a nice tight set of jokes around it.  Stick and Move all the way.

He is a clean cut and dapper enough performer to put him somewhere between Mary Poppin’s era Dick Van Dyke and the Music Man’s Robert Preston.  I am not sure whether I would rather see him break into a song and dance, or appear on stage in front of his name spelled out in giant light up letters.  And he thankfully works just blue enough to keep him out of the Brian Regan ghetto.

In an era of lazy comics who can’t construct a solid set of jokes, Mulaney is a throwback of sorts and a true craftsman.  So check him out now before they hire him to voice a Disney Character and he becomes bloated with all that Mickey money.                             

- PLC

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be sure to check out Pat's other awesome music monday reviews:

• last week - The Golden Dogs
• a while back - Toro y Moi
• full archive of Music Monday with PLC - HERE

 

music Monday with PLC : The Golden Dogs

So last Friday night was the Father/Daughter Dance, and it was a great time.  I do, however, have to call out the DJ.  I get it, a gig is a gig; but any great entertainer will teach you, you have to know your room.  I like LMFAO as much as the next guy.  But, seeing a bunch of dads and their daughters dance to “Sexy and I Know It” seems like poor planning on the DJ’s part.  But then again, I guess that is why pop music is for the young.  The same thing probably happened almost thirty years ago when Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” would come on at the dance.  And pity the poor SOBs who were stuck dancing with their daughters when Benny Mardones’s “Into the Night” hit the dance floor.  Maybe the Smith’s had the right idea:  Hang the DJ.  How about we go north of the border this week for some nice, wholesome Canadian rock.

The Golden Dogs are a great band out of Toronto, Canada.  And their latest album Coat of Arms (2011, Dine Alone Records/USA) is really worth checking out.  They have a nice + loose rocking 70’s vibe, throw in some cool vintage keyboards and bar-room piano, fuzzed out guitar tones, and never fear the maracas or tambourine.  Move over Buggles, here is the Golden Dogs 80’s-inspired video for “As Long as You Like” -

At the heart of the band is the interplay between main songwriter and singer Dave Azzolini and the awesome all around MVP Jessica Grassia.  They each have enough razzamatazz to front a band of their own, but put them together and you have some real rock and roll magic.  And live, they can certainly tear it up with the best of them.  Check out “Travel Time” and rock along -

The Golden Dogs are another in a long list of Canadian bands that achieve solid success in their own country, but seem to have trouble breaking into the US of A  (can someone please throw Sloan a red white and blue bone already).  So let’s break the cycle today: pick up this album and play it for a friend.

- PLC

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be sure to check out Pat's other awesome music monday reviews:

• last week - The Faces
• last month - Real Estate
• full archive of Music Monday with PLC - HERE

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Extra Credit:

Just in case you forgot the awesomeness.  Check out the tortured screams of Benny Mardones at the end of this classic:

music Monday with PLC : The Faces

I used to get a ride to school from a kid down the street during my freshman year in high school.  This kid was a big fan of top 40 radio.  I was just the passenger - pay my $10 a week in gas money and try to be up on time.  I can appreciate and enjoy pop craft for what it is:  ear candy.  That school year, I heard Sheila E’s “Glamorous Life” a lot, and the other song I remember is Rod Stewart’s “Some Guys Have All the Luck”.  For a guy who dates supermodels half his age, that may be the case.  For a kid stuck in a car pool having to hear that song multiple times every single day, not so much.  One day, I told the driver, “So, you like Rod Stewart? You know, he used to be in a really great band before he went solo.”  “Oh,” was the response I got.  And then he turned up the Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam that had come up next on the radio.

The Faces were a boozy bluesy rock band that rose out of the ashes of the Small Faces in 1970’s England.  They personify the spirit of the rock and roll band, and this weekend they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  This clip proves why -

Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, and Kenney Jones.  In their words, “Five guys who enjoyed a drink... or two or three.”  They put out four awesome studio albums in the early 70’s, and called it quits after Rod’s solo career and persona was taking off and overshadowing the whole band.  (Oh, and Ronnie Wood went on to join a little band called the Rolling Stones that you might have heard of.)  They looked even better than they sounded, which is saying something.  They were the good time boys, and I defy you to find a picture of the band where one or all of them is not grinning it up.  The Black Crowes should probably pay them royalty money, but the Faces would have just spent it on boas and booze.  Another great part about them was that just when you needed a little break from the Rod (and everyone does every now and then), in would come Ronnie Lane to give you a tender song to make you cry in your beer. Treat yourself to some real rock and roll -

The Faces had it all.  Like they say, some guys have all the luck.

- PLC

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be sure to check out Pat's other awesome music monday reviews:

• last week - Dum Dum Girls
• last month - Company of Thieves
• full archive of Music Monday with PLC - HERE