The Spectrum Stacks: AltCountryA Handful of CDs from the Music Spectrum Office Floor

If you’ve been reading since late December, you’ll know that I started putting together the “Year-End Lists,” reviewing the CDs that I didn’t get a chance to review in 2004. Then two weeks ago I simply admitted that I was behind and changed the feature to “The Music Spectrum Got Behind” Lists. Now I’ve decided there’s no way I’ll catch up and still bring you some new releases burning to get on the site.

Therefore, there’s a new feature in town: The Spectrum Stacks. Periodically, I’ll grab a handful of CDs that haven’t gotten reviews and give you a whole set of reviews in a particular category. I hope you’ll enjoy this new feature.

Hauntingly, Johnny Dowd’s song “Brother Jim,” from Cemetery Shoes, was stuck in my head for almost a week. A Hawthorne-esque story of the sins of a “spiritual teacher” done to a blues-trap, drunken-stagger, Country sing-along. For “Garden of Delight,” Dowd takes AltCountry out to meet grunge. The cha-cha beat laid down by Willie B. (Brian Wilson) on “Dear John” might have made the song a little more upbeat, but the lyrics, keys, and horror song guitar make sure that we remain in this dark world. In fact, Dowd creates the best creepy world since Tom Waits. “Christmas is Just Another Day” is the most achingly pitiful Christmas song out there. There’s plenty of ripping and riffing here, though; it’s not all lament dirge-like paced. The album closes with the instrumental, “Rip Off,” finding Dowd and Willie B. doing some great Spaghetti Western, surf rock. Cemetery Shoes is released by Bongo Beat Records (US/Canada) and Munich Records (rest of the world).

Johnny Dowd’s collaborator, Willie B. (Brian Wilson) sets his own odd course with his music as on 2002’s Fresh: a-frame sessions vol. 2. It’s a combination of Electronica, jazz, and some AltCountry thrown in there somewhere. I’m putting Willie B. in the Spectrum next to Johnny Dowd for their association, but truly, Willie B.’s drums, programming, and writing covers such a wide range of the map. However, the left end of the AltCountry category is where I started to stack up the Surf Rock sound, at least the Surf Rock that sounds like its also paying homage to Country. As on Dowd’s album, Willie B.’s own album features that Spaghetti Western, Surf Rock combo. “Wilder Than the Wind ‘66” starts off with a huge wave riding drumroll. Snyths and guitars combine to make this like a Western movie of cowboys fighting out on the surf. “Tumble” takes this Spaghetti Western down to the Mexican border, a parade-strut rhythm ready to cross and escape the long arm of the law. Finally, a stand out element is the marimba on “Exotica #3.” Even with many electronic elements, Willie B.’s live, acoustic percussion remains center stage—as if there’s a drummer in the room, smashing down those heads, with the lights all focused on him. Meanwhile, from the edges of the dark room, there’s flashes of electronics, guitars, basses, and other odd sounds, but nothing, no, nothing, can stop that drummer from laying down his beat.

I Want to Live a Peaceful Life greets you on “Trivialized” with Emil Amos’ swallowed-up mumble, an off-kilter sad croon. Amos, the sole permanent member of Holy Sons, often sends up that croon to begin tracks which then build to full rock intensity, as on “Family Man,” creating this range of emotion not often found in straight-forward pop rock or Country. “Getting Old” starts out like a Gordon Lightfoot song, captured from his early days, gentle guitar picking and just enough electric guitar to fill in the spaces. There’s an eerie beauty to the bluesy “Spirits High,” which grows from lonely bedroom playing to front stage, Desperado guitar. Grappling with spiritual issues? So does this album, especially like the sparse, bold “Ready to Die.” Finally, how can you not own an album with a track called “Every Mansa Riddle”? I Want to Live a Peaceful Life is released by FILMguerrero.

From the Spanish label Acuarela Discos comes Grupo Salvaje with In Black We Trust. The sad-lovers waltz of the opening track, “A Christian Family,” has a menacing quality as it seems to second-guess Christianity. “So keep in mind/The Christian life/Is only made with/White…, white lies.” Not sure where we’re headed with that, but this album explores plenty of dusty, grimy corners of the world—physical and spiritual. With a “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”-like whistle, “Roses & Despair” gives words to a watcher, someone scorned or rejected by society, someone watching from the edge. He too finds the theme from “A Christian Family” as he watches couples going by saying, “Promises and promises/And white lies/That turned might life up.” On the 50’s pop rock swing of “Elvis, Love Us!” it’s time to turn for “true” spiritual guidance from one who has gone to the grave (and come back again?)—Elvis. Ah, but even this track finds the hole in such a religious devotion, saying that those who wait at the grave for Elvis to answer are “f***ing insane.” Really, someone needed to say that, and we needed to hear it.

Featured Spectrum Stacks Title

The only reason to explain why Sam Roberts got “stacked up” at the Music Spectrum office is that I kept putting off writing the review because I was just so darn taken with the album that I couldn’t possibly think of how to convey what a tremendous, wide-ranging, pop-gem, AltCountry-exploring, rocking album Roberts has turned out with We Were Born in a Flame. Frankly, as much as I heard the traditional folk, Country, and Americana elements in the music, I couldn’t get my ears away from picking out pieces of English Rock, American Band Rock, and a little bit of that Garage Rock throw-down attitude. Landing somewhat on-edge in the AltCountry section near Jason Walker and Anders Parker, just ahead of Wilco, Jay Farrar, and the Old 97’s, it’s a guess as to how Roberts fits into the Spectrum. I’ll say this, though, the main thought is that Roberts’ music has that roots rock core but grabs from so many different genre like Wilco’s playful romps into jazz, blues, funk, and all things rock.

“Don’t Walk Away Eileen” sort of updates Dexy’s Midnight Runners’ “Come On Eileen,” rocking hard with one of those charged-up, everyone joins in choruses. “Brother Down” has a more laid back blues groove with a rap-sing pace on the lyrics. That rap-sing thing continues on the chorus of “Where Have All the Good People Gone?” There’s that funk-exploring like Wilco. Certainly my favorite track on the album, it just invites you to chant along: “Montreal to Hong Kong/Where have all the people gone?”

Oh, and then if you really want to see just how wide-ranging the sounds are there’s: “On the Run” (punk), “This Wreck of a Life” (Beatles harmonies), “Dead End” (Country double-speed jam), “When Everything Was Alright” (Who), and “This is How I Live” (Kinks).

Just grab this wide-ranging ride, don’t let it get stacked up on your “to buy” list, and find just where the Sam Roberts Band can take Americana. We Were Born in a Flame is released by Lost Highway Records.

Thanks to all of the labels for the review copies.