The Big Pink

Future This

4AD

The Big Pink’s name is a tribute to The Band’s Music From Big Pink. They ‘re an electro-pop duo, Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell, and are from England. Future This is the band’s second album.

The lyrics are positive, especially the opening track “Stay Gold” and “Hit the Ground Running (Superman)” with its terrific Laurie Anderson sample from her song “O Superman.” The music is seamless, polished, and goes down easy. Maybe a little too smooth and easy, which is the album’s main flaw. The rough edges that made the band’s debut A Brief History of Love, so appealing are absent here. Which is a shame, because the song quality over all is as great as on the first. The lyrics are wonderful, and Robbie is a good singer. So call this album very good light entertainment if you need a pick me up. [http://musicfromthebigpink.com]

Andrea Weiss

tUnE-yArDs: Tiny Desk Concert

12-4-11

Three red hot songs from one of the best albums of the year, w h o k i l l. Merrill Garbus, fierce, tender, wild yet controlled, sings about love and pain, mostly from a political stand point. “You, Yes You,” a love song, is the quietest song of the set, but with terrific drumming, and Garbus’s sizzling electric ukulele playing. The band literally jumps in place at the end, adding to the fun, and the bounciness of the rhythms.

“Doorstep” examines love as viewed in an act of police brutality. Her boyfriend is killed by the cops for doing nothing but standing on her doorstep. Powerful, both musically and lyrically, by the end of the song it’s plain that Garbus will resort to violence if she feels it’s needed in a political situation.

“My Country” is along those same lines. It is a song of rage and sorrow about the U.S. While all three songs are danceable, this is the most so, with the drums, saxes, and the trademark loops Garbus employs, all flowing along to the beat. This concert is not to be missed, and neither is the album. It is a tour de force and this concert is a good intro to it. I reviewed w h o k I l l for this blog on 4/18/11.[ http://www.npr.org/2011/11/28/142861581/tune-yards-tiny-desk-concert?ps=mh_frimg1]

[http://www.facebook.com/tuneyards?sk=wall]

Andrea Weiss

Strange Boys on Face Time

11/31/11

This 20-minute video interview with the band is full of amusing, and great insights on the band, by the band, and the role of the piano in the band. The video to the single, “Me and You,” from Live Music, (rhymes with give) their terrific new album on Rough Trade, is hilarious: all the ways to play the piano, in many different situations. I reviewed the album on 10/24/11 for this blog, and the video can be found here:[http://www.noisevox.org/content/face-time-strange-boys]

[http://strange-boys.com/]

Andrea Weiss

Zomby

Nothing EP

4AD Records

Nothing is both a follow-up to Zomby’s album Dedication and a bridge to whatever he does next. Dedication was a tribute to a family member who had passed away, a very stark, grief stricken, downcast album. Nothing, by contrast, brims with life, love, and happiness. Even when the music seems sad, what it’s really expressing is love. Yes, dance to it, or use as a tool to spark creativity. And like Dedication, it has great rhythms, melodies and sounds, It’s another triumph from Zomby. [http://www.facebook.com/pages/Zomby/260117424964]

Andrea Weiss

Keys and Krates

Blackout EP

Self-Released

This Toronto band’s debut EP is seven songs of indie rock/electronica that steps very lively, rocks and rolls. The vocals are processed, no lyrics per se, just voices getting the party started. They are somewhat reminiscent of Fat Boy Slim, but more rocking and danceable than Slim ever got up to. By replacing 70s funk with hip-hop and modern R&B, and replacing classic rock with indie rock, their music puts them in a 2011 context. That’s a reason to rejoice. Maybe the 70s and 80s revival is finally over with, and music that sounds like today is here and that Keys and Krates and bands like them can lead the way. [http://www.keysnkrates.com/]

Andrea Weiss

Today's guest reviewer is Jen Grover, author of Second Choices and The Rooks Parliament, and editor of the former Tone and Groove magazine.

Jon Anderson

Open

Open Music, 2011

"Open" begins and ends with a delicate chime, like a formal meditation. What falls between those small tones is exuberant, joyful, and wide. This 20+ minute "single" was released on October 25, 2011, Jon's 67^th birthday, as a download only, currently available on both iTunes and Amazon.com.

Though structurally and lyrically it resembles long-form, 1970s Yes songs, it's not a rock song, nor would I call it New Age. It's a fully orchestrated sweeping epic, composed on Jon's 19^th century guitar with orchestration added by Stefan Podell. The introduction functions as an overture, stating the variety of musical themes that will follow. Dawn-like at the outset, it grows from quiet to bright and sprightly, dominated by horns, until electric guitar and piano come in. Then it falls into quiet melancholy just before the vocals begin, reminiscent of the soundtrack to a grand Hollywood film (think Ben Hur) married with a bit of Ralph Vaughan Williams, accompanied by strummed acoustic guitar.

The lyrics and music suit each other artfully, building, quieting, full and grand in parts, sparser in others, always reflecting the emotions of seeking and encountering the divine and learning to express that in one's life. The themes are typical Jon Anderson: musical segments flow one into another, despite their diversity and dynamic changes. Panentheistic lyrics center on the sun as a symbol and manifestation of God, with messages of affirmation, hope, peace, love, care of the earth, and music as a reflection and celebration of life and wisdom received. A primal, danceable rhythm recurs. I defy you to not sway to it.

Jon is a gentle, persuasive preacher, as webmistress Andrea and I witnessed recently at the Jon Anderson/Rick Wakeman performance in Philadelphia. He is able to make us feel good about who we are, while admonishing us to grow and improve the lives of others as well as our own, through love, peace, respect, recognizing the same light that shines in all of us. As this song states, "Open doors will open hearts/Open hearts will always open doors." In these trying times, a song like this is an oasis of hope and joy, and a motivator for the listener to do his or her part to make things better.

Play it loud. Immerse yourself in it. Recommended listening outdoors on a sunny day. Back-to-backs rather well with Keith Emerson's "Piano Concerto No. 1".

[http://jonanderson.com/]

Jen Grover [http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/brushpanther]

Kathryn Calder

Bright and Vivid

File Under: Music

Sometimes dark and/or sad lyrics can be the best lyrics of all, if sung this sweetly, soothingly, and with a steely resolve, determination, and calmness. These types of lyrics can also be a source of comfort. Life will go on, it has to go on, and that whatever pain or loss you are feeling now, will bring you understanding and relief down the line, even if the loss or pain never truly goes away.

Bright and Vivid was recorded after Calder’s mom had passed away from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). The lyrics deal with her learning to cope with the loss. And most of these lyrics aren’t downers. “New Frame of Mind” the album’s best track, points to a better future, even as the line, “how many throats will I cut til I see, what is beyond the breech,” means she is going to have that release and happiness any way she can get it.

The rough folk rock of Calder’s debut Are You My Mother soared in a way very few albums did in 2010, as for example Vampire Weekend’s Contra, and the New Pornographers Together, of which Calder is a member. Bright and Vivid couldn’t be more different musically than her debut, with its very lovely melodic synth and guitar-based rock. And it soars just as high. There are very few albums that come up to its level this year, like St. Vincent’s Strange Mersey and Tune Yard’s Whokill. There are also many wonderful found sounds on it, like water being poured from a pitcher into a glass in ”Five More Years.” In the end, one of the best albums of the year. [http://www.facebook.com/kathryncalder?ref=ts]

Andrea Weiss