Men Guided By A (Young) New Moon

The Men have been workhorses, tirelessly touring whilst bringing out a record a year. Their latest album is New Moon, and despite the brilliantly executed shift in tone and musical approach that occurred on last year's Open Your Heart, opening track 'Open The Door' is bound to throw you, starting with a slightly honky-tonk piano a la pastoral Neil Young (also the name New Moon could point to the new direction for the band, or a tip of the hat to Young himself). In fact we see two halves of the album that represent the split personality of the New York four-piece - the part that electrified audiences with their brazen brand of hard-edged punk underlined with an economical, no-frills approach to making noise (and still do); and the earnest songwriters, using the generic tropes of popular song structure to expand on what is and should be expected of any band, let alone The Men. 'I Saw Her Face' is possibly the best example of this - a Neil Young/Crazy Horse countrified dirge, with fantasy/reality lyrics and a wonky, can-fall-apart-at-any-time distorted guitar sound whilst Mark Perro warbles along with the high timbre that mirrors the cagey, cracked-genius Canuck. It's an excellent song, and despite the second half steering closer to past hardcore/garage glories and concepts ('The Brass', 'Electric', the excellent noise wigout closer 'Supermoon') it's becoming clearer than ever that The Men are growing into themselves nicely (listen to the country rock jangle and harmonicas of 'Bird Song' if you aren't a believer). There is no pretension here - the band are finally embracing all of their influences, and in doing so are redefining themselves, and possibly a whole sound. Country as the new punk? That's what true country has always been.

New Moon is out now through Sacred Bones - you can pick it up here. It's bloody great.

The Men - The Brass
The Men - I Saw Her Face

Getting In The Huddle!!!

Words can't describe how excited I am about tonight. 2013 is already brimming with highlights - Godspeed, Swans, Drones, Wedding Present, Deerhoof, plenty of great local stuff - yet to see one of the true rock gods, ol' Shakey himself, Neil Young on his Crazy Horse is like a dream come true. Crusty guitar solo nirvana.

Thought I'd leave you a couple of newer cuts from last year's Psychedelic Pill. Its as great as any CH release of the last thirty years.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Ramada Inn
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Twisted Road

Arbouretum Come Out Of The Fog

 

Baltimore’s Arbouretum have covered most sub-genres within the rock spectrum over the course of their eleven year career. Yet there has been a smoky bonhomie ever-present in the music that, whether pared back or tearing apart the speakers, always underlined the fact that they were earnest songwriters, searching for the perfect way to convey their viewpoint of the world.

Coming Out Of The Fog is their fifth longplayer, and it focuses more on conciseness. It still remains a heavy mix – 'The Longest Night' and 'The Promise' have solos that are unrelenting – but the tracks don’t trail out as much (‘All At Once, The Turning Weather’ stands as the longest track at 6:47), the drones and drags reined right in. What’s left are eight doom-laden songs that still wallow in the direr side of human nature that frontman Dave Heumann revels in, but with a coiled precision that amplifies the darkness that belies these apocalyptic tokens of Americana and the Self.

Lyrically, it’s typically verbose, and obtuse – intent on focusing on the murkier regions of the human psyche, Heumann focuses on everything from futility to the story of St Simeon, who lay on a pillar for 37 years to experience death, in order to experience life and God. Sonically, its cyclical – repetition is key, with thumping, plodding drums (not a disservice – such efforts are perfectly in sync with much of the dirges that are on display). As an overall package Coming Out Of The Fog is a rocking album in delay overload, full of loaded imagery, smoke and mirrors, and a swirling repetition that evokes the best of Besnard Lakes at their dirtiest, or even Neil Young on his Crazy Horse (especially on a smokier track like the country-tinged winner ‘Oceans Don’t Sing' or the elegant closing title track).

 

You can grab Coming Out Of The Fog (out through Thrill Jockey) here. Arbouretum are launching an European tour next week, playing some usual haunts (London’s Corsica Studios, Dublin’s Whelans) and some not so usual (Clonakilty in Ireland, Hasselt in Belgium, Savignano Sul Rubicone in Italy). If you’re a fan and can get to one of these more out of the way shows, I highly recommend you do. Check the list below.

February

20th Brighton, England The Prince Albert
21st London, England Corsica Studios
23rd Clonakilty, Ireland De Barra's
24th Dublin, Ireland Whelans
25th Cork, Ireland Crane Lane Theatre
27th Hasselt, Belgium Muziekodroom
28th Antwerp, Belgium Trix

March

1st Schorndorf, Germany Club Manufaktur
2nd Leipzig , Germany UT Connewitz
3rd Prague, Czech Republic Klub 007
4th Freiburg, Germany The Swamp
5th Geneva, Switzerland Usine
6th Turin, Italy Blah Blah
7th Rome, Italy Circolo degli Artisti
8th Foligno, Italy Auditorium
9th Savignano Sul Rubicone, Italy Sidro Club
13th Cologne, Germany Club S
15th Creil, France La Grange A Musique

Arbouretum - The Promise
Arbouretum - Coming Out Of The Fog

Buffalo Killers Come In 3's

It's weird sometimes how people come together over music. I met a young lady some time back whose musical interests did not mirror mine in the slightest - Lykke Li and Joanna Newsom was the closest we came to a compromise. Lucky there were other things that worked for us... Anyway, I had just seen Buffalo Killers play a solid show at the Breeders curated ATP, and literally the following week she was playing it on her stereo. I knew I hadnt mentioned them to her, so I felt almost betrayed that she had some good taste and hadnt bothered to share with me. Turns out she loved the Black Angels too. That fact alone prolonged the relationship for a couple more months...

Anyway, before more personal asides get me into trouble, we have a new Buffalo Killers album on the loose. 3 harbours more quiet moments than psych wigouts - therefore more reminiscent of Neil Young and his spiritual brethren Crazy Horse fucking things up (think a less drunken, more thought-provoking Tonight's The Night...). Its pretty tasty stuff.

Buffalo Killers - Love Is Gold

Keep On Truckin

Its hard to believe that Drive By Truckers' new LP The Big To-Do is their eighth album. Furthermore, its shocking to think that after such prolific output and incendiary live shows, they are still in essence an underground band - or even worse, seen as an oddity or novelty act. The notion infuriates me. They are more akin to bands like Hold Steady or My Morning Jacket - lyrical storytellers with a psychedelic, almost Crazy Horse-lite take on riffery.

Whilst their albums of yore have been prone to sprawl - double album sprawl - The Big To Do is a welcome change, and is a great way to introduce yourselves to this great Atlanta, Georgia band. They still havent changed though - with stories about strippers, booze drenched dropouts and killer wives. The Big To-Do is a great record, chase it down, put it on, and immerse yourselves into the murky and yet somehow joyous Southern comforts of the Truckers.

Drive By Truckers - This Fucking Job

Album review - Retribution Gospel Choir's 2

Im a huge fan of Low, and therefore a huge fan of Alan Sparhawk. Not the biggest fan of the band’s sound/genre moniker – slowcore - but that is not the band’s fault in the slightest. They have made an indelible mark on the indie scene for the past 15 years. And it is of immense pleasure that I can say that they are performing their 2004 masterpiece The Great Destroyer in its entirety at Barcelona’s incendiary Primavera Sound festival this May. It is on this record that we get more of a sense of Sparhawk’s rocking sensibilities, and whilst tapered down for the simmering menace inherent in Low's follow up album Drums & Guns, it was only a matter of time before it all came bubbling to the surface.

And so it is with Sparhawk’s side project, Retribution Gospel Choir. Sparhawk, along with Steve Garrington and Eric Pollard, have created a rollicking record that incorporates Low's song structure and sensibilities, but with the amps opened up, allowing for Sparhawk to let loose on all the aggression that is meticulously maintained in his 'day band'. This is certainly evident in the penultimate song Electric Guitar, a 8 minute sprawler that evokes Low in almost every way, except for the soaring finale. Its almost like Low is the sexual prelude, the major prick tease, whilst RGC is Sparhawk's money shot.

In saying all that, it must be said that 2 doesnt offer us all that much outside of what Low offers in the first place. Granted, absent is the gradual building of pressure inherent within the framework of Low's songs, with these taking more of a leaf out of bands like Crazy Horse in their guitar fuelled wig outs. 43 second short stop '68 Comeback is exactly that - harking back to the rock of yore, evoking a little Led Zep or Black Sabbath, albeit in bite-size format. Single Hide It Away is a great opener - a soaring shimmering gem of a song that builds in radiant glory around a beautiful and joyous melody, double helixing into the sun - a true kicking off the shackles of Low. But what must be remembered that live, Low know exactly how to temper their dark menacing songs, their slow crawlers, ekeing out the tension before exploding - in some cases, such as 08's End of the Road festival, LITERALLY - into bursts of glorious, visceral, melodic, feedback drenched violence. So songs such as Poor Man's Daughter and Your Bird arent that far removed. Not that this is in any way a disservice to RGC - it just proves to underscore the notion that the band really is Sparhawk's energy outlet.

Except for the closer. It has been a song that has perplexed critics thus far, not because its difficult to understand, interpret or justify - more in that its difficult to grasp how it works within the scheme of things. Essentially, Bless Us All is a Low song, through and through - and yet you cant help to note that it isnt, that the only place this song belongs is right here, bookending 2's set of Neil Young's Ol' Black era guitar noodlings (especially Workin Hard) and squalling rock jams with a dark, haunting ode to loss. It begins with the whisperings of strings and the murmurings of talkback radio, before Sparhawk's wavering voice kicks in. Backing vocalists chime in near the end, evoking the choir that their moniker espouses. It is like Low, then? True...but it is so much more affecting, so sad, that it takes the breath away, immediately stealing the mantle of song of the album.

So, 2 sees Low in a more rocking, balls out style, tied together by Sparhawk's songwriting sensibilities, but still offering more than just a louder version of their songs. And whilst not reaching the heights of the admittedly unique highs of Low, Sparhawk has created an album that excites, and elicits excitement in where he may spread his wings next time.

And sorry to glut this article up with visuals, but watch the comparison between Low and RGC - both brilliant songs, both wildly contrasting levels of 'restraint'...