Titus Andronicus! Rock n roll!

poster designed by Jeff Ament from Pearl Jam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heyo, there’s a few house shows this weekend and the On Deck skateboard auction after-party at the VFW; that one’s with Buddy Jackson and Holy Lands and touring outfits Poor Me and Party Like Thieves. The Party Like Thieves crew are rad people. Recommended.

… gonna guess this was NOT designed by anybody from Pearl Jam.

Also, Titus Andronicus is recording a rock opera, which you may have heard, but I didn’t realize that Cory Walsh at the Missoulian actually broke the news. And the VFW is mentioned in the lede of a Grantland story! Excuse me while I geek out. (Also I am reasonably confident I went to that Titus Andronicus show but cannot remember a damn thing about it. Weird. Or not weird, I guess, bc alcohol.)

see y’all out and about this evening!

lord dying! helms alee! iron chic!

Your faithful editor gets crabby and ungrateful about living in Missoula sometimes. Particularly when she is recently returned from trip to warm southern cities that have palm trees and punk rock all the time.

But! We have snow-covered mountainsides! And cheap beer! And no traffic! And metal! And even punk rock sometimes!

So to that end, February is pretty bleak, but March is looking up. We’re getting Lord Dying! And Helms Alee! And Iron Chic! I have what vague details I know up on the show calendar. Those three are all at the ZACC! All hail the all-ages venue!

Oh and hey. Helms Alee has a new album streaming. It is strengthening my resolve to get through this stupid cold snap.

mind spiders eeee

Here’s the Mind Spiders album, streaming. Just in time for Halloween! That is all.

ETA:

Okay, that’s not all, because here’s the new Nothington album. It’s b-sides and alternates, I think.

new Murder By Death album

Need some spooky morning listening? The new Murder By Death album, Bitter Drink Bitter Moon, is streaming here. First impression: I like it.

New Teenage Bottlerocket song! Squee!

In Today’s Pop Punk News, Teenage Bottlerocket is putting out a new album July 3! Rolling Stone says a new track “gets personal,” because, you know, TBR’s last three albums of songs about feelings and girls weren’t personal. Anyway, you can listen to ‘Done With Love’ here.

-Ed.

Review: Cory Branan’s Mutt

So I decided singer-songwriter/charming Southern cad Cory Branan‘s new record, Mutt, out now on Bloodshot Records, is best played with the tracks in backwards order. Not only does this reveal awesome Satanic messages but the songs seem to follow each other better, and ending the album with The Corner puts it on just the right wistful note. (Kidding about Satan. OR AM I??)

His first releases, The Hell You Say, 12 Songs and the split he did with Jon Snodgrass, are all perfect hangover music for saps. The kind of music that’s best when you’re lying on the floor, mildly hungover, in the morning after a person has vacated your bed, and you’re finally left to yourself and you feel either sad, victorious, still turned on or a mixture of all three.

Half of Mutt is just like that. It’s the parts that aren’t I’m struggling with. Mutt branches out stylistically with a cheesy violin-backed track, jazzy cabaret-style song and what I can only shudderingly describe as country pop rock, and it’s those forays that don’t work as well for me.

Mutt is a fine album for listening to. It’s just not as emotionally powerful as 12 songs. While Branan’s albums are sometimes disjointed, what they’ve shared in common is mostly pretty acoustic guitar work, really strong lyricism and great lines. Just go listen to Prettiest Waitress in Memphis or Muhummad Ali- “my love put the deep in the ocean, my love talked the sky into going with blue…my love ain’t no delicate snowflake, my love’s a bull with the china shop blues.” Mutt doesn’t have as many songs I want to put on a CD and listen to on repeat.

I can see this record being a transitioning point in Cory Branan’s career to being more musically diverse, but I don’t think he’s yet figured out how to make it really work.

I still would highly recommend getting Mutt in whatever format you like, but I’m glad to have the mp3s so I can fiddle with it and play it in whatever order I like. It won’t be an album that I reach for when I want hangover-brain comfort food, but that’s okay.

Also, Fangirl Story Time: I saw Cory Branan at Revival Tour in Seattle in April (see photo), and after the show went up to him and said ‘Hi, just wanted to say the show was awesome’ and giggled like a shithead, because I lose my cool completely around my favorite musicians. I told him word is he’s a cad, and he said, “Why, I prefer to think of myself as a rake.” And he held my hand in both of his and said it was nice to meet me. Sigh.

Mp3: Bad Man, off Mutt

Mp3: The Corner, version off split with Jon Snodgrass (of Drag the River)

Buy Mutt here.

–Kate

Cory Branan’s new album Mutt out today

Cory Branan, the most delightful Southern cad you will ever meet, has released his third album today on Bloodshot records! A review will be forthcoming, after I think about it a bit. On first listen, “Mutt” is a different turn from the Memphis-singer-songwriter stuff we know and love from Mr. Branan. He plays around with different styles on this one. See what you think.

Stream Cory Branan’s Mutt here.

-Kate

Also, the album cover for Mutt shows a thin, white, generously-endowed topless woman wearing an alligator mask. I waffled for fifteen minutes whether to include it with this post (because I have too much time on my hands) but in the end, will not, because I am tired of album covers that are supposed to be artsy and provocative but really are just an excuse for a picture of tits.

Review: Brendan Kelly and the Wandering Birds

Brendan Kelly is a very talented man. He’s in some awesome bands (The Lawrence Arms, The Falcon) and been in some legendary bands (The Broadways, Slapstick). He writes the Bad Sandwich blog, raises kids, drinks beer and goes to bed early. In between all of that, he now has his own solo outing, Brendan Kelly and the Wandering Birds.

On the first listen, I’d Rather Die Than Live Forever might have many of Kelly’s fans (Kellidrians?) wondering what the fuck happened.

Gone is the distinct, whiskey-burned voice over distorted guitars, ala TLA/Falcon. Here is a clean, but gravely, croon he’s displayed a few times in his past efforts. Sure, there is distortion but every now and then a mandolin or a hybrid combo of keys or acoustic guitar pop in. It makes you feel weird, almost lost. But when you hit replay and return to the first track, “Suffer The Children, Come Unto Me,” a mysterious change comes over you. Kelly’s voice is no longer a distraction, it fits with the music perfectly. His dark lyrics describing disturbing crimes became catchy in a way that they shouldn’t. You finally accept this isn’t the next Larry Arms record or Falcon EP but it’s own thing entirely. With that, the record kicks it into overdrive and you’re hooked.

 This album is damn good. It’s almost frighteningly perfect, too. Kelly is able to break out of his comfort zone and really toy with some nifty ideas. Songs like “A Man With The Passion of Tennessee Williams” have almost a loop effect feel while “Dance of The Doomed” and “Your Mother” showcase different tempos/styles that you’ve never heard from him before. There are punk songs, too, but they flow in and out between slower jams that really pull this baby together. Every listen you begin to pick up on new things that are just kicking it in the layers upon layers of delicious audio lasagna. Oh, and his burned-out gravel voice even pops up a few times, too.

Overall, this is a solo album that just isn’t a continuation of something that Kelly has done before. This is Beax showcasing that he just isn’t a three chord lackey but an artist who isn’t afraid to put it all on the line and exceed expectations of Brendan Kelly junkies everywhere.

 Don’t be afraid, stream some of I’d Rather Die Than Live Forever here.

–Grant Geiger

Ed. Note: I love the ever-loving shit out of this album. Too bad somebody else has already had Brendan Kelly’s babies for him, because I totally would.

To submit your own review of a recent release, email Kate at justwhittlin [at] hotmail [dot] com.