B+ The Felice Brothers
Life in the Dark
Yep Roc
The Felice Brothers have been around for 10 years now, shuffling about with a loose kind of folk-rock that's like Woody Guthrie and early Dylan getting drunk at a Pogues gig. On their latest, Life in the Dark, the Hudson, N.Y.-based Brothers drive their asthmatic accordion, scratchy fiddle and acoustic guitars like a run-down jalopy and somehow manage to keep it all together.
Singer-songwriter Ian Felice takes aim at the current state of affairs in America on the pointed "Jack At the Asylum," describing a place filled with drug addicts and lynching trees. "America, I've seen your guillotine/a fat boy adrift in a limousine/through the land of the lost Cherokee/down the rivers of red majesty ..." he sings, with Christmas Clapton providing wheezy backing vocals.
On "Triumph '73," Felice dreams of the road and his motorcycle as a way to flee a relationship, life in a dead-end town and a fate fighting in a rich man's war; and album closer "Sell the House" is a sad account of a family's financial ruin that leads to selling off whatever it can to get by.
It's not all doom and dread on this Life in the Dark. "Plunder" and "Aerosol Ball" both tackle some of the same subjects but with Felice's curiously playful way with lyrics, sort of like a Dust Bowl Dr. Seuss.
There's not really a misstep here, though we could have done without the hoedown "Sally." Still, this latest from The Felice Brothers may be our favorite since 2008's self-titled album.
Hot tracks: "Triumph '73," "Jack at the Asylum," the outlaw tale "Diamond Bell" whose narrator is a "kid from Arkansas" and "Sell the House" (Be sure to stick around for the hidden track afterward.)
-- SEAN CLANCY
B The Casual Pleasures
Heaven 7
Self-released
There are a couple of ways to check out "Heaven 7," the latest project from Little Rock's The Casual Pleasures.
A beautifully marbled blue 45 rpm single with "Heaven" and "See What Happens" is available. Pick that up and you'll get a download code for two additional songs -- "All My Friends (Are Dead Inside)" and the instrumental "Summertime to Meet" -- at the group's website, casualpleasures.bandcamp.com.
The band, featuring Nathan Houser, Jesse Lawson, Brad Birge and Shayne Gray, among others, has a sort of classic Bowie sound mixed with a bit of Flaming Lips, Radiohead and Pavement.
"Heaven" soars along with Matt Schatz's sax as Houser sings of heaven as "someone who remembers your name." It's a slow-building epic with a satisfying payoff. "See What Happens" is more spry, with rag-tag backing vocals that add to its charms. "All My Friends (Are Dead Inside)" has an ominous keyboard buzz running beneath Houser's world-weary vocals that adds to its air of dread.
If you dig gorgeous vinyl and good tunes, the 45 is the way to go. The single, which would make a nice addition to any record collector's stash, is available at central Arkansas record stores like Been Around, Arkansas CD and Record Exchange and Dogtown Sound and also at gigs (the group is planning several regional shows).
Hot tracks: "Heaven," "All My Friends (Are Dead Inside)"
-- SEAN CLANCY
B DJ Shadow
The Mountain Will Fall
Mass Appeal
DJ Shadow set a new standard for the art of sample-based composition with his auspicious 1996 debut album, Endtroducing. It was an album that turned snippets of obscure recordings into aural journeys, as if Shadow were orchestrating a perfectly sequenced dream, creating order out of randomness.
Shadow, aka Josh Davis, continues to produce challenging work and refuses to repeat himself. His latest is no exception. It finds Shadow mixing two thumping, old-school hip-hop tracks with atmospheric instrumentals that skitter and slither in the shadows.
Shadow's beats programming remains formidable, as he steers clear of standard bangers in favor of something far more difficult to pin down. This isn't an album built for dancing. It's more about its rhythmic intricacy and nuanced production.
"Nobody Speak," built on descending guitar and bass riffs that mirror one another, is a rare vocal track, with Killer Mike and El-P of Run the Jewels trading ill-mannered lines with typical swagger.
Otherwise, abstraction rules, sometimes awkwardly ("Mambo," "California"), sometimes beautifully. "Ashes to Oceans" ranks with Shadow's finest tracks, sandwiching melancholy around a whirling drum breakdown that dissolves into the sound of a single upright bass. It's not for everybody, and DJ Shadow wouldn't have it any other way.
Hot tracks: "Nobody Speak," "Ashes to Oceans"
-- GREG KOT
Chicago Tribune (TNS)
B+ Deerhoof
The Magic
Polyvinyl
There are moments on The Magic when Deerhoof sounds simply giddy.
"Cappuccino! Macchiato! Affogato! Cortado!" bassist Satomi Matsuzaki enthusiastically sings in "Kafe Mania!" over burbling synthesizers and roaring guitars.
It sums up the anything-goes vibe of Deerhoof's 14th album, seemingly a response to the more refined songs of the San Francisco quartet's recent albums. And they cultivated that feeling, recording The Magic in seven days in a studio set up in abandoned office space in the middle of the New Mexico desert.
Sometimes that creates indescribable bits of sound collage like the crazy funk of "Model Behavior," where various bass lines compete with Matsuzaki singing scales. Sometimes it results in the straightforward-for-Deerhoof rock of "Plastic Thrills," with its fuzzed-out guitar riffs and glam-rock trappings. There's the oddly faithful, spacey trip-hop version of the Ink Spots' 1941 hit "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire," which actually ends in laughter.
Deerhoof's idea of making music just for fun works well and that lighthearted feeling is contagious.
Hot tracks: "Model Behavior," "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire"
-- GLENN GAMBOA
Newsday (TNS)
Style on 07/05/2016