Album Review: The Black Keys – Let’s Rock

The Black Keys
Let’s Rock
(Easy Eye Sound / Nonesuch Records)

It’s been a hot minute since we last heard from The Black Keys, but their heavy blues rock refrain remains the same. Reunited with his better half and percussionist Patrick Carney, vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach demonstrates that getting back in their brotherly Rubber Belt groove was as easy as falling off a tandem bicycle.

Recorded from scratch at Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studios in Nashville, Let’s Rock reportedly came together with very little preparation or premeditation. Edging away from the disco ball and asphalt sizzle of 2011’s El Camino and the polished tones of 2014’s Turn Blue, the stripped-down nostalgia of Let’s Rock offers a heartfelt tribute to the ultimate tool of the trade – the electric guitar. Irresistibly retro, yet tuned to a modern frequency, the album is already commanding the airwaves thanks to catchy-as-hell and radio-ready singles like “Lo/Hi,” “Eagle Birds” and “Go.” These three Cowtown-meets-Motown forerunners preface an album stacked with glossy, voluptuous ditties that bump ‘n’ grind like a preacher’s daughter.

Thumping bass notes and gliding vocals add sleek lines to “Shine a Light,” padded out by lux backups from guest vocalists Leisa Hans and Ashley Wilcoxson. Lonely forest mating ritual “Eagle Birds” gets down and dirty, while the stomping Austin gospel of “Lo/Hi” hits the album’s two sweetest spots – earnest storytelling and an unrelenting boogie beat that drives the drama towards satisfaction.

At peace with the past, the sugarcoated dirge “Walk on Water” echoes Auerbach’s time as “king of a one-horse town,” but you know you’re being lured in for the big come up when “Tell Me Lies” struts into Karmatown.
Yep, The Black Keys have returned to form nicely, which is most fortunate because we’ve been waiting.

03rd, July 2019

in • Record Reviews, REVIEWS

by Christine Leonard

Album Review: Jim Cuddy – Countrywide Soul

Jim Cuddy

Countrywide Soul
[Warner Music Canada]

Kicking rocks and turning over fertile ground, Blue Rodeo frontman Jim Cuddy returned to his family farmstead in Southern Ontario to get in touch with his roots and record his latest album.
The rustic rural setting provided a respite from his hectic touring schedule and the ideal environment for capturing the authentic wire-and-wood sound he sought. Joined in his makeshift studio by members of The Jim Cuddy Band, the multi-talented singer/guitarist/producer began reimaging songs from his back catalogue through a stripped-down, yet modern, country music filter.

Unearthing tracks he felt had been previously underdeveloped, Cuddy and company pour liberal doses of draft beer and wheat dust over Blue Rodeo numbers like “Clearer View” and “Draggin’ On.” Tributes to George Jones and Glen Campbell rip a page from the past and lend a high and lonesome mood with covers of “Almost Persuaded” and the star-spangled “Rhinestone Cowboy.” Pretty western ditties two-step and sway in time as Cuddy patches up his sonic scrapbook with a fresh pair of bootcut tunes, “Glorious Day” and “Back Here Again.”

It’s the perfect parting glance for a nostalgic hayride that sets fire to the barn before riding off into the sunset. “Shane, come back!”

04th, June 2019

in • Record Reviews, REVIEWS

By Christine Leonard

Album Review: Baroness – Gold & Grey

Baroness

Gold & Grey
[Abraxan Hymns]

From the opening rays of “Front Towards Enemy,” it’s obvious Baroness has risen from their own ashes and come to flourish in the aftermath of a tour bus crash that left the Savannah, Georgia-based heavy metal entity twisted and broken.

Leading the charge, guitar god John Baizley returns to the limelight with a fury. The subject of much interest and speculation, Gold & Grey presents a band that has been reinvigorated by the synergistic presence of incoming guitarist Gina Gleason.

Boasting 17 indefatigable tracks, the dual-toned album shifts smoothly between singles like the sinuous “Seasons” and the hyper-observant “Borderlines.” A naturally intense Baizley perpetuates his examination of the human condition with a long-absent sense of wonder and even enjoyment on “Broken Halo” and “Throw Me an Anchor.”

A gallery of layered vocals and intricate rhythmic patterns elevate “I Would Do Anything” and “Pale Sun” to a level of excellence commensurate with visual artist Baizley’s jaw-dropping album cover murals.

By Christine Leonard

04th, June 2019 

in • Record Reviews, REVIEWS

Dead Quiet - Silent Interview from Beyond the Grave

Dead Quiet Shut Up and Ship Out

By Christine Leonard

Photo: Asia Fairbanks

Explosive heavy rock quartet Dead Quiet is powering up for their Downtown Canada Tour, and charismatically chaotic lead vocalist/guitarist Kevin Keegan is bursting with anticipation.

“I love performing and as a performer you put on a little bit of a character. I’m an actor as well, so I kind of treat it the same way when I get on stage. It’s still me out there but it’s a version of me that’s a little cartooned and over the top,” he says. “It’s all part of what the music does to me and makes me want to do the things I do. It’s pretty organic and it always comes from a place of exorcising some demons.”

Keegan’s magnetic personality is fuelled by his willingness to go over the top on stage. His antics and dramatic range have become a mainstay of Dead Quiet’s riveting performances and are a big part of why they’ve amassed a Canadian cult following.

That’s not to say Dead Quiet is a one-man-band. Since their huge 2017 release, Grand Rites (Artoffact Records), they’ve been steadily experimenting with new elements to expand their heavy repertoire in anticipation of a new album this October.

“The new album is going to be more or less the tone of Grand Rites. It’ll be polished to an extent, but still raw and heavy and real sounding. I’ve always been a fan of 70s style Hammond organ in rock music and I’ve really wanted a keyboard player since day one. It adds texture and thickens up the melodies — it’s definitely crucial now.”

Self-directed Keegan has come to rely on his instincts as a songwriter and as well as his bandmates to bring each composition to its full potential. The more democratic style of songwriting has opened up new horizons for Dead Quiet’s traditionally heavy sound.

“I’ll bring the guys the blueprints or skeleton of a song and they always have ideas. We work really well as a team and that’s sort of blossomed for this line-up. It’s become symbiotic, which is really nice for me. I’ve learned to lean on my dudes more.”

Dead Quiet perform Wednesday, May 8 at The Palomino (Calgary), Saturday, May 11 at Gordon Yellowfly Memorial Arbour (Siksika Nation) and Saturday, May 18 at SBC Restaurant (Vancouver)

10th, May 2019 

in • Alberta, MUSIC

Album Review: Black Mountain – Destroyer

Black Mountain
Destroyer
[Dine Alone]

If you’ve been missing the clean refreshing taste of Canada’s psych-rock darlings Black Mountain, the time is now to rejoice. Destroyer has arrived just in time to quench your summertime blues and transport you to their silver mothership in the sky.

Far from an abandonment of their 70s space rock roots, Destroyer pulls its sinister title from the 1985 Dodge speed demon of the same name.

Peeling away from the post with the Sabbathy overture “Future Shade,” the expanded ensemble lays a fuzz-covered offering on the cybernetic altar of “Horns Arising.”

Video game monitors tumble down the hillside like granite boulders and levitate in a field of static electricity on “Closer to the Edge” and the lackadaisical Beatles meltdown, “Pretty Little Lazies.”

Hip-thrust hustle and string bending swagger rule the galaxy on the mercurial “High Rise” and “License to Drive,” while the leather-wrapped “Boogie Lover” oozes with nocturnal heaviness. Reboot and unwind with “FD 72” Black Mountain’s zero-G tribute to the man who fell to Earth and then returns to launch sequence and starts all over again.

By Christine Leonard

06th, May 2019

in • Record Reviews, REVIEWS

Album Review: L7 – Scatter the Rats

L7
Scatter the Rats
[Blackheart Records]

It’s been 20 years since L7, the cultish Los Angeles collective, released their last album, Slap-Happy, but vocalist/guitarist Donita Sparks and friends haven’t struck the revolution off their to-do lists.
Scatter the Rats is a street-smart 11-floor elevator ride complete with leather fringe, mirror balls and a giant bag of cocaine.

Ballsy Sunset Strip sizzlers like the surfy “Burn Baby” and “Fighting the Crave” showcase marquee grooves and flash bomb riffs, while roadhouse ramblers “Prototype” and “Murky Water Cafe” betray a brittle frailty.

Shades of a newly made-over identity emerge on the sweetly suburban “Holding Pattern,” but domesticity is short-lived as they dive back into the gutter with “Cool About Easy” and revel in the grimy catcall of a title track.

Revving into high gear for “Ouija Board Lies” and “Garbage Truck” the jaded foursome summons a western-tinged punk rock momentum that will ultimately leave you passed out on your front lawn come morning.

If this anarcho-femme punk band goes down in history for one thing it will undoubtedly be their 1992 smash hit “Shit List,” but coincidentally Scatter The Rats continues with the perfect anthem for the modern #MeToo era.

By Christine Leonard

06th, May 2019

 • Record Reviews, REVIEWS

Proto-metalheads The Well - An In-depth Interview

The Well Are Laughing
into the Darkness

by Christine Leonard

Photo: Andy Ray Lemon

A broken romance left Ian Graham staring into the void ahead of Austin-based proto-metal band The Well’s third album, Death and Consolation. Searching for some meaning while butting up against existential considerations, Graham took a couple of unexpected hits to the ego.

But the seasoned frontman’s approach to dealing with adversity is one that rolls with the punches while delivering some mortal blows of his own.

“Things have changed a lot over the past two years and that’s just how life is. Death and then some consolation, wherever you can find it,” he says. “We have no relationship with death as a living thing. We have paths, or maps, or shit like that, but we’re all just trying to fight off our fear of the complete unknown.”

Shouting into the abyss, The Well’s new album marks a powerful progression in the band’s primal metal style. Created with bassist Lisa Alley and drummer Jason Sullivan, Graham’s new material arrives cloaked in smoke and blood, and a little existential dread.

“We are ghosts riding around in skeletons. We are the scary things that we’re worried about,” he explains. “There weren’t a lot of preconceptions going into the studio this time. I do things in a metaphorical way. I never reveal what’s actually happening in life.”

Gothic literature and ancient history provided ample inspiration for Death and Consolation’s eerie chapters. Graham spent hours scouring his library for tales of terror and wonder to flesh out his metaphors, writing oozing, bluesy songs as a means to escape the emotional quicksand in which he found himself and working with the idea of death as a rebirth, the inward-turned out.

“It had to do with the death of a relationship, but also because of my own actions. Stuff like that. There’s some longing in it, I guess, and maybe regret in dealing with things. And anger! There are some kind of murdery things going on there and that’s always fun to play with when you’re in a bad mood.”

Deceptively humourous, irreverent, melodic and groovy, the album’s doomy disposition shouldn’t be mistaken for pessimism or misanthropy. On the contrary, The Well’s stony exterior and larger-than-life stage presence is intended to be just that, a work of poetic fiction.

“I love dark music, I always have. Whether it’s Joy Division or Slayer, it always made me happy and it makes me happy to make these things too,” Graham humbly relates. “Everything’s posturing, everything’s persona. I see through all that bullshit. That’s what human beings do. I don’t buy it. It’s usually the most sensitive people who are hiding that.”

The Well perform Saturday, May 11 at Static Juniper (Vancouver), Sunday, May 12 at The Palomino (Calgary), Monday, May 13 at Temple (Edmonton) and Tuesday, May 14 The Windsor (Winnipeg).

01st, May 2019

in • Alberta, MUSIC