The good people at amazon sent out a convoy with some new CDs for me. Like London Buses, I hadn’t seen one for a while, then four came at once.
The Airborne Toxic Event – s/t. Liking the west Coast Easy Rock vibe of these, with a definite highlight being Some Time Around Midnight.
Frightened Rabbit – The Midnight Organ Fund. Have heard numerous tracks from these guys over the last while, although I hadn’t realised just how many albums they have released! Not easy listening. Songs are deep, dark, intense, espresso coffee rather than Earl Grey.
Bell X1 – Blue Lights on the Runway – there are one or two tracks that you can instantly latch onto, but there is a lot here that is, so far, forgettable. Despite the ongoing negotiations with Brother Phil over the goodness of Flock, this is not a patch on Music in Mouth, which is excellent, loud and full of attitude. I do like the way they write songs with lyrics which seem light, fluffy and fun, but at the same time with deeper overtones. A grower?
Howling Bells – Radio Wars. Now I loved their first album, don’t we all! Can you ever release something as good as the album that brought you to the attention of everyone, everywhere! (The curse of the net?) What attracted me to the HBs (apart from Juanita!) was the raw, rough, edgy sounds, and although the vocals were restricted, they did exactly what they should. This new album though, I probably need to give it more time. It is a new direction. Perhaps that is progress? It is a lot more poppy, but a lot less memorable. Guess I should stick it on again!
Which leads me to the Howling Bells @ The Classic Grand. Not a classic venue. I think it would be great with round tables and an unplugged vibe or perhaps some jazz… nice. The bar is far nosier than even the ABC, and a lot more intrusive than Tuts or Barras… They opened with a number of tracks off the new album, which did nothing to hook the somewhat random mix of folks that made up the crowd. The band seemed to struggle with the new songs, especially vocally, not suiting the lovely singers range. Perhaps it was more a PA issue, since as the set moved onto a mix of tracks from their albums, things seemed to improve somewhat. The standouts were the “big” tracks off the first album, Setting Sun, Blessed Night, that sort of thing. Juanita made an appearance in the middle of the crowd for her creepy spider song, that freaks out the gig wife… this though seemed to help overcome her fear… the encore was a very strange choice of song, i’ve forgotten it, but there was a lot more stage presence during it than during the rest of the gig. So as most school reports have said at one time, shows potential, room for improvement, has a good understanding but could apply it better! Read Scott also.
