Slipped Discs - September 2009

Discs You May Have Missed
by John Noyd

Canadian Metallers Anvil

Canadian Metallers Anvil

Initial Thoughts

Long time no see. September somehow reins in our summer vagrancies to put us back on course. From national distribution for Canadian heavy metallurgists ANVIL’s first record since 2004, “This Is Thirteen,” to the return of funk-rockers LIVING COLOUR after a six-year hiatus, September’s resurfacing theme chooses new music from bands absent from the shelves. So let’s rejoin and rejoice - getting back down to it isn’t all that bad.


Disc Reviews


Radney Foster And The Confessions - Revival

Radney Foster And The Confessions - Revival

Radney Foster And The Confessions

Album title: Revival
Record Label: Thirty Tigers records

Sage and resolute, hard-won and road-tested; life experience informs Radney’s straight-shooting, textbook tunes. Seeking relief in hindsight enlightenment and soulful regrets, “Revival,” engages and captures, corralling its deeply-felt sympathies beneath level-headed epigrams poured over muscular melodies and rousing choruses. A well-versed honky-tonk pilgrim, Radney rallies true-blue homilies into honest, everyman sentiments.

(3117) Page Views

Radney Foster And The Confessions online:
WebsiteWiki

Download Revival from Amazon
Purchase Revival on Amazon



Lita Ford - Wicked Wonderland

Lita Ford - Wicked Wonderland

Lita Ford

Album title: Wicked Wonderland
Record Label: JLRG Entertainment

Hard rock boogie and wicked vixen blues reign over blistering bravado, cannonball caterwauling and tawdry anthems as Lita’s return after an eighteen year absence is a herald of rollicking riffs and stream-lined chaos. Shiny, sweaty, high-octane fun, “Wonderland,” floods the senses, churning a Mad Hatter’s bash into classic come-ons and pyrotechnical aggression.

(6959) Page Views

Lita Ford online:
WebsiteWiki


Purchase Wicked Wonderland on Amazon



Hot Club Of Cowtown - Wishful Thinking

Hot Club Of Cowtown - Wishful Thinking

Hot Club Of Cowtown

Album title: Wishful Thinking
Record Label: Gold Strike Records

A phoenix rising from nests of effervescent finesse, “Wishful,” is packed with upbeat pluck, down-home charm and gracious glissando. Swinging between cocktail country, lonesome folk and chipper pitch-perfect jive, HCOC concoct a spiffy, hep-cat burlesque that addresses modern life in undulating harmonies. Catch the toe-tapping trio playing Beaver Dam October 20th.

(6373) Page Views

Hot Club Of Cowtown online:
WebsiteWiki

Download Wishful Thinking from Amazon
Purchase Wishful Thinking on Amazon



Lhasa de Sela - Lhasa

Lhasa de Sela - Lhasa

Lhasa de Sela

Album title: Lhasa
Record Label: Nettwerk records

Acoustic tapestries grace a tranquil, confiding voice; mid-tempo meditations, slow-moving harvest songs and phantom shanty waltzes float over fluttering melancholy. Lhasa’s beating dreams, reasonable realism and twilight candor snakes in a long, winding fuse igniting folk-blues blossoms among withering prophecies. In her first all-English album, the globe-trotting artist quietly embellishes clear-eyed feelings into beautifully serious poetry.

(3408) Page Views

Lhasa de Sela online:
WebsiteWiki

Download Lhasa from Amazon
Purchase Lhasa on Amazon



Marshall Crenshaw - Jaggedland

Marshall Crenshaw - Jaggedland

Marshall Crenshaw

Album title: Jaggedland
Record Label: 429 Records

Haunted by the golden age of early rock since he debuted decades ago, Marshall crafts crooning prom-night ballads and boppy paeans to love, waxing nostalgically in rockabilly twang, pistol-packed snares and turbulent, indie-pop jangle. “Jaggedland,” tracks the wistful singer pouring his wise, world-weary heart into incandescent comforts. Crenshaw visits Milwaukee’s Shank Hall Sept. 23rd.

(2817) Page Views

Marshall Crenshaw online:
WebsiteWiki

Download Jaggedland from Amazon
Purchase Jaggedland on Amazon



Shudder To Think - Live From Home

Shudder To Think - Live From Home

Shudder To Think

Album title: Live From Home
Record Label: Team Love

Sparking fiery thought bombs beneath serrated storms, angular angst and pounding, stalk-rock, “Live,” juices up STT’s catalogue. By all appearances a joyful event, Shudder’s 2008 reunion roll out pulverizing palpitation, a towering squalor through which slinks serpentine soliloquies performing jungle-gym twists around a steel web of mind games and shock logic.

(2928) Page Views

Shudder To Think online:
WebsiteWiki


Purchase Live From Home on Amazon



Os Mutantes - Haih Or Amortecedor

Os Mutantes - Haih Or Amortecedor

Os Mutantes

Album title: Haih Or Amortecedor
Record Label: Anti Records

A moveable feast of theatrical rock turned multi-cultural pop, Brazil’s playful dance-party revolutionaries return more powerful and impassioned than ever. Throbbing musical mosaics piece together Kasbah grooves, political sambas, translucent blues and rainbow-colored psychedelia while, “Haih,” field surreal appeals through hyperbolic ballads, dramatic apparitions and intercontinental imaginations. OM hit Minneapolis’ Cedar Cultural Center Sept 26th.

(3044) Page Views

Os Mutantes online:
Wiki

Download Haih Or Amortecedor from Amazon
Purchase Haih Or Amortecedor on Amazon



Final Thoughts

Balancing the karmic wheel, fall offers all kinds of new. From JACK PENATE’s sophomore, “Everything is New,” where he looks back at eighties New Romantics to POLVO, who recently reformed with a new drummer yet continue to defy categorization with their innovative, indie-twisted, acid-punk, jazz-rock constructs populating, “In Prism.” The most outré-nouveau release this season by far is ukulele-wielding, puppet-master, lo-fi trip-hop artist tUnE-yArDs’ spunky, funky, all-out courageous debut, “BiRdBrAiN.”