This month's SLUG has a few CD reviews I wrote which I'll post below.


Local Releases


Blue Sunshine Soul
In All of the World at Once
Gerontion/Beartalk
Street: 02.10

Blue Sunshine Soul = Rodriguez + The Rolling Stones
Diversity within the local scene isn’t always celebrated and is usually even harder to come across within the environs of a six-piece entity like Blue Sunshine Soul. Perhaps the fact that the majority of the members of this collective are professional musicians helps to keep egos in check and let the individual voices present come to the fore. With three, now four songwriters––and as many voices singing––what might be stale formulaic genre music evolves into an album that goes deep into your catalogue. Thanks to The Devil Whale, Calico and Band of Annuals for lending this group five members to make headway into a different style of music within the local scene. Lap steel, organ, just enough jangly guitar and the feminine influence of Jeremi Hansen’s amazing vocals (a great addition to any group) let us know that these locals can add more kick with their steel strings than just “alt-country” twang alone.
–JP


The Naked Eyes
Spell Talk EP
Self-Released
Street: 04.10

The Naked Eyes= Black Rebel Motorcycle Club + The Furs
Using their first release, Free and Easy, as a solid point to base jump off makes this local three-piece’s latest efforts a great follow-up to their previous grounded approach. As they continue to refine their signature style it seems they have no hinderance in the creative flow they’ve coddled––and are now unleashing it on The West. Further tours this summer along the coast up to Portland and down to LA mean that more will soon be hearing the word of The Eyes: free and easy. As with all their handmade merch, the EPs are being created in a unique manner, this time utilizing found-denim sleeves screen-printed by vocalist Andrew Milne (at Tony Damico’s Spilt Ink in Ogden). This mantra of respecting the old and forging with the new is not just something found in their physical wares, it is evident in their sonic efforts too, as they pay homage to their roots and infuse them with newly-applied handmade paint.
–JP



National Releases



Asa Ransom
An Asa Ransom Release
Self-released
Street: 04.10

Asa Ransom = David Bryne + Blondie + That Handsome Devil
Whistled birdcalls. It’s been too long since I heard a decent birdcall open a song, but Asa Ransom pull it off on “The Luck of Stoney Bowes” as some really low-pitched vocals underpin the pre-chorus and amp us up for the best chorus on the album: “If you are leaving, meet me on this highway/We can cut the cars off/We can do it our way/Vanish on the freeway burning with a grin/Darling, don’t you see, please just let us be” preceding some funhouse-inspired guitaritry. I do admit this quasi-full-length/EP is pretty good for some atmospheric background music—I’d say its tunes would fit a Friday night post-hipster/pre-scenester after-party at about 11 p.m. You can even pull off a hep shimmy or too; the majority of this album is high-tempo enough to bust out some Deborah Harry-inspired flourishes, ladies.
–JP


Spindrift
The West
Beat the World Records
Street: 11.02.08

Spindrift = Calexico + Darker My Love + Ennio Morricone score

The difference between great and merely good music is the ability of the medium to take you to other places. When one can come across bands like Spindrift, that conjure images in your head, it can be a bit of a modern miracle. Most music these days is happy enough to leave you with sore eardrums and a rattled noggin. But Spindrift assists the listener in transportation to an intriguing realm of melting clocks and silent, screaming figures on impressionist canvases with a twisting Spaghetti Western theme. There’s even reference to keeping a pistol close to your side on a later track. Prepare to go on a little trip, kemosabe. And listen to “La Noche Mas Oscura” for some Spanish-language education and further soundscaping of adobe structures and dirt-devil storms in the distance sprouting in your mind. (Spindrift play the The Urban Lounge 04.07.)
–JP