Slipped Discs - July 2009

Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd

Eyedea and the Abilities - photo by Darien Chin

Eyedea and the Abilities - photo by Darien Chin

Initial Thoughts

As America celebrates 233 years of a more perfect union, Slipped celebrates bands united by the all-powerful and. What is music if not the joining of one together? Summer hosts smashing musical hook-ups from Minnesota’s graphic mix-masters EYEDEA AND ABILITIES, the hickory-flavored posse of GREG KOONS AND THE MISBEGOTTEN plus heavy metalists MAYLENE AND THE SONS OF DISASTERS. Once and for all it’s all for one and one for all.


Disc Reviews


Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeros - Up From Below

Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeros - Up From Below

Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeros

Album title: Up From Below
Record Label: Community Music/Fairfax Recordings

IMA ROBOT’s Alex Ebert’s alter-ego gathered dozens of friends to help form a perfect storm of high brow hoedowns where solemn bursts into sunny and grand-standing kinderpop whose momentum turns monumental. A massive hippie happening, “Up,” offers effervescent testaments and smarmy camaraderie bundled together in a traveling rock-minstrel circus.

(3032) Page Views

Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeros online:
Website


Purchase Up From Below on Amazon



Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey - hERE and nOW

Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey - hERE and nOW

Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey

Album title: hERE and nOW
Record Label: Bar/None

Eighteen years since their debut and decades since they co-founded indie-icons THE DB’S, H & S gently jangle hearts and minds, churning chiming Everly Bros. shindigs laced with Marsalis sax. Wholesome and upbeat, the duo’s lifetime hindsight serves up soaring choruses and sighing sentiment, fortified memories seasoned with sympathetic regret.

(3048) Page Views

Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey online:
Website

Download hERE and nOW from Amazon
Purchase hERE and nOW on Amazon



Hoots And Hellmouth
 - The Holy Open Secret

Hoots And Hellmouth - The Holy Open Secret

Hoots And Hellmouth

Album title: The Holy Open Secret
Record Label: Mad Dragon Records

Delivering rollicking honky-tonk, twisted mountain music jive and sweetly impassioned ballads, Hoots’ tight, bluegrass flashes and funky country-gospel revivalism weave traditional pickin’ through omnipresent social issues to produce relevant, toe-tapping Americana. “Holy,” rolls foot stompin’ razzamatazz around ironclad narratives shouting out injustices, suspended by suspicions and slathered in talented fretwork.

(3007) Page Views

Hoots And Hellmouth online:
Website

Download The Holy Open Secret from Amazon
Purchase The Holy Open Secret on Amazon



Fritz Helder And The Phantoms - Greatest Hits: Platinum Edition

Fritz Helder And The Phantoms - Greatest Hits: Platinum Edition

Fritz Helder And The Phantoms

Album title: Greatest Hits: Platinum Edition
Record Label: Last Gang Records

Pimping PRINCE, PARLIMENT and PET SHOP BOYS, Fritz’s self-effacing Phantoms’s Euro-tooled glitteraria produces superior haute couture. Ripping shiny robo-disco, “Hits,” parties into mirror-ball mania par excellence, groovin’ to DJ voyeurism, synthetic sexuality complete with answering machine interludes; Fritz’s rapid-fire fun works the runway insidiously replicating a club-crazy night out.

(4024) Page Views

Fritz Helder And The Phantoms online:
Website

Download Greatest Hits: Platinum Edition from Amazon
Purchase Greatest Hits: Platinum Edition on Amazon



Elizabeth And The Catapult - Taller Children

Elizabeth And The Catapult - Taller Children

Elizabeth And The Catapult

Album title: Taller Children
Record Label: Verve Forecast

Anchored by cozy vocalist-songwriter Elizabeth Ziman, EATC navigates breezy jazz, ska and country hybrids - gliding past a catalogue of lilting pop concoctions. Snappy, savvy craft turns the beautifully boppy, “Taller,” into smart, sharp ear-candy coated in sultry cynicism, balancing edgy and amiable admirably; its kittenish bitterness sophisticated, charming and buoyant.

(3299) Page Views

Elizabeth And The Catapult online:
Website

Download Taller Children from Amazon
Purchase Taller Children on Amazon



Builders And The Butchers - Salvation is a Deep Dark Well

Builders And The Butchers - Salvation is a Deep Dark Well

Builders And The Butchers

Album title: Salvation is a Deep Dark Well
Record Label: Gigantic Music

Seductively sinister, TBAB’s hangman’s requiems creep and crawl then pounce and preach for exhilarating alt-folk accusations. Sawing fiddles, flaming brass accents and brittle banjos expose twisted desert confessions of demonic dirges and eloquent exorcisms as, “Salvation,” indicts, smites and incites through ruthless acoustics and menacing melodies.

(3032) Page Views

The Builders And The Butchers online:
Website

Download Salvation is a Deep Dark Well from Amazon
Purchase Salvation is a Deep Dark Well on Amazon



Final Thoughts

From bands united by ampersands to discs that stand apart from the crowd. JON BALKE’s moody and majestic, “Siwan,” projects haunting Moroccan holograms serenely feeding galactic jazz symphonies. Long hairs get a buzz cut in PORTLAND CELLO PROJECT’s, “The Thao and Justin Powers Sessions,” where strings cascade, tango and fume. In TRIBECASTAN’s “Strange Cousins,” wood, metal, bone, shells and skin come alive, inspiring enthno-exercises which conga down and gypsy up.