Thursday, Sep. 24, 2009
Podpicks for September 24, 2009
This week we recommend a grab-bag of blues-based, Brit-soaked and retro-informed fresh rock tracks for downloading (legally, of course) to your iPod or other personal media device.
“Good Morning Captain” by The Black Crowes - The Crowes recorded a new double album in a barn owned by The Band’s Levon Helm. The new album is divided into two parts – “Before the Frost” is a straight CD release and the second portion, “Until the Freeze,” is available as a free download after the CD is purchased. The new format does not mean that the music has changed. Slide guitar, ragtime pianos and Chris Robinson’s vocals. Robinson’s voice lets you know two things – 1. He is Georgia Blues incarnate and 2. He is road-worn and wiser for it. Through several line-up changes and years of reunion shows, when The Black Crowes make a record, the sound is unmistakable. Get in your car, roll the windows down, take a drive in the country and turn this one up.
“Leftovers” by Jarvis Cocker – Former Pulp frontman Cocker croons, “I meet you at the museum at paleontology … and I make no bones about it.” This is blue-eyed soul that pays its dues to the likes of early David Bowie and Iggy Pop. Cocker plays the whole song with a tongue firmly planted in his cheek. It is smart, with lyrics that take several listens before you begin to laugh and sing along. Cocker lets this one roll on for six minutes, taking him wherever his perverse imagination wants to lead him. Funny and begging to be taken seriously, it is a fitting homage to his heroes.
“Lesson Learned” by Brendan Benson – Benson is a throwback. The repetitious keyboard, the layered harmonies with himself (via multi-tracking), the flawless production – Benson is crooning like he was plucked from ’80s radio. You feel like you should be listening to this while driving around in a convertible Volvo Rabbit and singing along with a couple of ladies who have used a can of Aqua Net on their bangs to fight off the wind. Benson, the other singer from The Raconteurs, has studied his Cars and Joe Jackson albums – unleashing a set of very tasty power pop – highlighted by this one.
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