Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Guided By Voices - Let's Go To The Factory

Like Pavement and Sebadoh Guided By Voices was one of the bands that opened my eyes to the possibility of different music. It was a nice cool autumn night when on a Thursday night I walked over to Elpee, a store in Groningen, and bought myself the vinyl version of GbV’s “Bee Thousand”. To my surprise when I opened it a beautiful blue vinyl disc appeared. “Bee Thousand” had it all; guitars that were recorded , then lost contact for a little bit, then reappearing again. It had songs and pieces of songs, beautiful little guitar riffs and heartbreaking melodies. It was as if the Beatles had reappeared in the form of a schoolteacher from Ohio. The two albums following “Bee Thousand” still appealed but after that I lost track somewhat, just listening to the occasional single once in a while. And when the band disbanded in 2004 so did my interest.
To my big surprise here now is “Let’s Go To The Factory”. Again some beautiful melodies come to me, bringing back those great old memories. Part of the album has the same crappy but perfect sound. Apart from lofi songs this album also has some studio tracks. It’s Robert Pollard’s overall songwriting that stands out once again. Lennon and McCartney melodies, NYC style garage sound etc. Again the songs at times do not seem finished, but that leaves open more own interpretation of what the song should be. OK, it’s not like the mid-90’s albums but I still love it, if only for that fond memory of my teenage years.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Charles Bradley - No Time For Dreaming

Real sixties Stax/Atlantic soul has been pronounced dead for a few decades now but with the meteoric rise of Daptone that claim can be shoved back into the ground for hopefully a long time. Charles Bradley is the latest perfect offering coming out of their studios. The man’s soulful voice seems lifted out of the Memphis studios into the cradle of the warm Dap King sound. Horns that soulfully blow on ‘Golden Rule’, a female chorus gospelling the chorus on ‘I Believe In Your Love’ or the hammond’s staccato riff on ‘Trouble in the Land’ that also features a beautiful hornriff making you wish they would have made it a 5 minute instrumental and not a 1 minute interlude. ‘Lovin’ You Baby’ is the real classic 60’s song which could have been sung by Percy Sledge. Soul is still coming back!