Artvoice Music Reviews

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Country's Real Outlaw Merle Haggard Still On Track (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v7n32)

And you thought rap music was the genre where bad-ass credibility is essential for an artist. Not necessarily...

Spiritualized - Songs in A&E (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v7n31)

June 16, 1997 is a fascinating date in musical history. At the surface, it goes down in the books most famously as the day the Oxfordshire quintet Radiohead issued their third album, OK Computer. OK Computer was a sprawling concept album plumbing isolation and dystopic lows through Thom Yorke’s meditations on modern disdain,which still reached highs of sonically blissful vistas and sweeping guitar panoramas.

Mugison - Mugiboogie (by Joe Sweeny, Artvoice v7n29)

For the last few decades, the Icelandic music scene has been fertile ground for genre-defying, ethereal artistry. But in terms of honest-to-goodness eclecticism, no Icelander—Björk and Sigur Rós included—holds a candle to Mugison (aka Örn Elías Guðmundsson).

Dr. Dog - Fate (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v7n29)

How do you top the Beach Boys/Beatles/The Band amalgam put into action across Dr. Dog’s 2007’s We All Belong? Call it Fate.

I Have Come 500 Miles Just To See A Halo (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v7n27)

Back on May 5, when Tom Waits issued a prerecorded press conference—with himself and a record player appearing to be the only ones in the room—he announced his upcoming Glitter and Doom tour and insisted the small clutch of American dates were charted by the stars, based on a constellation pattern. While Waits has evolved, boundlessly reinventing his music, the coat-pulling huckster, carnival barker part of his character gleefully has not.

NYC's TV on the Radio Recasting the Rock Mold (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v7n26)

Though they are just at the other side of the state, the Brooklyn-based TV on the Radio—who have several years and tens of thousands of miles touring under their belt—have yet to bring their live show to Buffalo. All of that changes this Monday, June 30, when the band takes the stage at Town Ballroom.

Coldplay: Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends (by Brad Deck, Artvoice v7n25)

As if a gift from great-music heaven, along comes Coldplay’s newest disc to breathe some much-needed fresh air into the musical majority.

Handsome Jack: Self Titled (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v7n25)

Buffalo’s Handsome Jack are not only keenly recreating the kind of punk-imbibed, sleazoid blooze and 1970s rock and roll that boomingly poured out—along with certain kind of thick, thick smoke—from the shag-carpeted interiors of kustom vans so many years ago.

Hayes Carll: Trouble in Mind (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v7n24)

He’s got a book full of songs and a voice that’s like a deep, dried-out Texas riverbed. Meet Hayes Carll from the Woodlands.

Frank Sinatra - Nothing But the Best (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v7n24)

In his 83 years on earth, the mighty Francis Albert Sinatra had been up and down and over and out…but through it all, he was never licked.

Centro-Matic/South San Gabriel: Dual Hawks (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v7n23)

As if it weren’t enough that a sprawling and masterful split double album from Denton, Texas’ indie savants Centro-matic and that band’s dark-spun, psych-country alter-ego South San Gabriel entered the world last week.

Mudhoney: Staying In ’n’ Out Of Grace (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v7n22)

It’s fair to say that the massive, indelible imprint and explosive power that 1980s/1990s Seattle rock and roll—dare I call it “grunge”—has left on the world can be pinned on a couple of Iggy and the Stooges-loving, misfit schoolboys in the suburb of Bellevue, Washington.

Scarlett Johansson: Anywhere I Lay My Head (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v7n21)

Perhaps it was one of those ideas that had the proverbial “sounds good on paper” factor going for it.

Portishead: Third (by Joe Sweeny, Artvoice v7n21)

As the quintessential group to come out of the trip-hop movement of the 1990s, Portishead’s suave, cinematic style could fit snugly on many a spy movie soundtrack—that is, if their songs weren’t stomping grounds for the morbidly depressed.

Besnyo: Worry (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v7n17)

The Besnyo crew almost sound like they’ve been in a laboratory using precise measurements and scientific knowhow to concoct Worry.

Mark Olson: Salvation Blues (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v7n17)

When Mark Olson exited the Jayhawks, he not only left musical partner Gary Louris to realign the beloved Minneapolis country-rockers but left fans missing the tenor harmonies the pair conjured. Olson’s rich, reedy tone and Louris’ sparkling, warm and honeyed lilt remain unmatched in recent music.

The Lemonheads: It's A Shame About Ray (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v7n16)

Sometimes album reissues are little more than curios that cash in on a capitulation to taking the listener to the specific glory days of that release. I will be the first to admit It’s a Shame About Ray does indeed do that for me, but there’s much more to this record.

Diamanda Galás: Guilty Guilty Guilty (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v7n16)

A new Diamanda Galás disc is always an occasion for joy and terror. Few musicians are more prodigiously gifted than Galás, who has a unique ability to transfigure any song with her three-and-a-half-octave voice and hyper-muscular piano playing, but she also possesses an equally unique ability to locate the dark matter in the recesses of any song and bring it to light.

Van Morrison: Keep It Simple (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v7n15)

For his debut on the Nashville-based Universal imprint Lost Highway the maestro of Belfast soul is… How can it be put without the cliche?

The Found: Self Titled (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v7n15)

It’s loud. It’s chunky, sneering, glorious rock and roll as it was meant to be. Pairing nervy garage bombast with the heaviest blues rock the law will allow, the Found tear it up across the 10 cuts on a self-titled debut that sets them apart from the sea of Sabbath and Stooges wannabes.

The Alarm: Counter Attack Collective (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v7n11)

There are very few music aficionados in Western New York who hold a candle to Gary Zoldos. A regular on local music scene for three decades, Zoldos has been in bands, spun records as a club DJ and rarely missed a good concert that has come within spiting distance.

Michael Jackson: Thriller (25th Anniversary Edition) (by Joe Sweeny, Artvoice v7n9)

Thriller is that beautiful rarity of an album—like Sgt. Pepper’s or Nevermind, it’s both emblematic of its time and remarkably fresh-sounding.

Gary Louris: Vagabonds (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v7n9)

Gary Louris—along with Twin Cities brethren Mark Olson and Marc Perlman—carved a path far different from the ragged likes of locals like the Replacements and Hüsker Dü with his sunshine-kissed country balladry with a certain rock grit and a never-flagging pop sense.

Best Albums of 2007 (by various authors, Artvoice v6n52)

Check out Artvoice's top list of best albums of 2007.

Billie Holiday: Rare Live Recordings (by Edward Batchelder, Artvoice v6n51)

In fact, yes. ESP Disc, known for its pioneering free jazz recordings in the 1960s, has managed to assemble five CDs of lesser-known live recordings, interviews and rehearsal sessions that manage to throw a new light on Holiday’s career.

Donald Fagen: Nightfly Trilogy (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v6n51)

I feel like I completely understand the weirdness of Donald Fagen. In the fall of 2007, on a truly strange Saturday night, I visited the campus of Bard College—the place that inspired the ire of “My Old School” and the oddball outsider feel of “Barrytown,” to name just a couple among Steely Dan’s pathos-laden catalog.

Tracy Morrow & The Magi Chippie: Someday You Will Find a Home (by Mark Norris, Artvoice v6n47)

Listening to Tracy Morrow’s last CD, Morning Is the End of the Day, conjured a dramatic impression of eavesdropping.

The Exit Strategy: City of Microphones (by Mark Norris, Artvoice v6n47)

In the world of rock music, the rejoinder “But you should/should’ve seen ’em live…” is used far too frequently.

Broken Social Scene Presents Kevin Drew: Spirit If… (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v6n45)

Those who have been keeping score on Toronto’s Broken Social Scene—a bolstering, mucho member collective that stands like the indie rock analog of hip-hop’s multi-headed Wu-Tang Clan—can easily bust off the names of the Sceney superstars that have fallen in among its ranks: Leslie Feist, Stars’ Amy Millan, Jason Collett Metric’s Emily Haines and Mr. Apostle of Hustle Andrew Whiteman.

Britney Spears: Blackout (by Brad Deck, Artvoice v6n45)

Pop superstar Britney Spears commences her newest album, curiously titled Blackout, with the proud proclamation, “It’s Britney, bitch!”

I'm Not There Soundtrack (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v6n44)

In “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?”—one of his bitter, indicting gems of poison-penned songwriting—Bob Dylan takes aim when he sings of one who “looks so truthful, is this how he feels?/Trying to peel the moon and expose it.”

James Blunt: All the Lost Souls (by Joe Sweeny, Artvoice v6n44)

James Blunt is a genius. No song in the last decade has exploited the fragile psyches of young American females more successfully than his smash hit, “You’re Beautiful.”

Joni Mitchell: Shine (by Joe Sweeny, Artvoice v6n41)

Over the last few years, the successful comebacks of rock icons have become old hat. Dylan, McCartney, Simon and Waits are just a few that have showered us with unexpected brilliance.

Emmylou Harris: Songbird (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v6n41)

Though she’d likely be modest about it, as you’d expect any good Alabama-born, Carolina-bred lady would be, Emmylou Harris has got what’s probably the greatest voice country music can claim these days.

The Avett Brothers: Emotionalism (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v6n40)

The brothers Seth (vocals, acoustic guitar, hi-hat) and Scott (vocals, banjo, harmonica, kick drum) along with upright bassist Bob Crawford are behind a shaggy but wholly honest, hearty, hardy and real brand of modern bluegrass that adds to the staid mountain music’s soul the vigor of rock and roll and a particularly punk spirit with a “throw the rules out the window” attitude.

Swizz Beatz: One Man Band Man (by Donny Kutzbach, Artvoice v6n40)

New York City-based Kasseem Dean—better known to the world as Swizz Beatz—is dead serious about making it known that he is a one-man band, a super producer who can do it all. Known for his quick, dirty and headbob-banging rhythms, he’s been an in-demand remixer and producer who gave DMX and the Ruff Ryders their trademark sound and who has been called in by Usher, Britney Spears, Beyonce, Chris Brown, TI and Madonna to lend the streamed and streetwise gravitas elemental in his beats and hooks.