320 kbps | 77 MB | LINKS
‘Long Winter Rodeo’ is the second solo outing for Portland-based, singer-songwriter, Chuck Westmoreland. Available on Black and Gold Records, it’s an infectious collection of well written story based songs that exude honesty and emotion. There is a darkness in these tunes that feels real. The music paints a picture that draws you in and the words make you want to stick around.
For a songwriter it’s all about the songs and where better to find inspiration than in your own bar. ‘The Red Fox’ is Chuck’s own place which he compares to the creepy watering holes of Twin Peaks. Personal experience, combined with the flow of life through the bar, provides a solid foundation for the record. The songs are that good you’ll want to head down there for a beer after the final notes fade away.
There is noise and quiet in the music. The driving guitars that thread through the album are made even more powerful knowing that Westmoreland made them himself. “I made six of those guitars,” he says, highlighting his love of woodworking. “It gets pretty addictive.”
Opener ‘Sharp Rocks’ starts well then kicks up a gear with a powerful wall of guitars, not overbearing and not overused though. ‘Cryin Shame’ follows as a quieter, melancholy foil for the more upbeat songs. ‘Mystic’ is another example of controlled power, the finishing touch being perfect backing vocals courtesy of Stephanie Woods. ‘Long Winter Rodeo,’ ‘Eastern Valley Sunset’ and ‘Denim Tears’ are all highlights but there is not a skippable track on the album. This is how it should be done.
320 kbps | 928 MB | LINKS
Although touted as the audio companion to the significantly expanded Grateful Dead Movie 2004 DVD, this package ably stands on its own as one of the best anthologies of the era. The band is captured just prior to its short-lived touring sabbatical from October 1974 through April 1976. In fact, the five shows at Winterland Arena on The Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack (2004) — not to mention the film itself — are drawn from the final run of gigs prior to that hiatus. Scholarly Deadheads may recall the thoroughly dismissible Steal Your Face (1976) had likewise been compiled from the same concerts, with the rambunctious reading of “Casey Jones” being featured on both. Even given the extended CD format, nary a moment is wasted. Every live performance included in the movie is presented unedited as is the 90-plus minutes of bonus footage incorporated into the DVD. Among the pinnacles from 10/19 are the jazzy “Eyes of the World,” which is linked to an emotive “China Doll.” There is also the stretched-out and spacy “Playing in the Band” from 10/16. Plus, there is tons of music that still wouldn’t fit on the DVDs. In particular, the reunion with Mickey Hart (drums) on 10/20 as he returned to the fold after an absence of three years and eight months. Zeniths from that set comprise the last CD with another phenomenal “Playing in the Band” bookending athletic renditions of “Not Fade Away,” “The Other One,” “Wharf Rat,” and two respective percussion interludes from Hart and Bill Kreutzmann. Until all five nights are released in their entirety, The Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack will suffice nicely as a reminder that there will never be anything quite like a Grateful Dead concert circa 1974.
Spring Heel Jack And Wadada Leo Smith With Pat Thomas And Steve Noble
Hackney Road
(Treader, 2018)
more details
thanks to Alessandro Padovani
320 kbps | 82 MB | LINKS
If you’re thinking of buying just one magnificent pop disc in 2018, you need look no further: Tapete present Simon Love’s Sincerely, S. Love x. Sincerely, S. Love x (the kiss is meant to be pronounced) is Simon’s sophomore solo album (his 2015 debut It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time was released on the brilliant, now sadly defunct Fortuna Pop label) and it features at least ten hits. Proper pop hits, with ELO harmonies, Spectoresque production, strings, and trumpets, the whole shebang. All recorded over the last two years in London, England. Big city pop! Listening to Sincerely, S. Love x conjures up images of the Run DMC/Aerosmith video for “Walk This Way”, except in Love’s case, the 1910 Fruitgum Company would be rehearsing on one side of the wall and The Left Banke on the other. When the wall between the two bands comes tumbling down, Elton John might pop in to see what all the fuss is about. He happens to see a white grand piano standing there and joins in the fun. Then they crack open a few bottles of Cola and listen to The Rutles or Stiff Records 7″s. And seeing as they are all there in the same place, they record a few songs together. The result: the album you now see before you. More or less. “Maybe it sounds rather corny, but love really is a big part of this album,” Simon Love admits. “‘God Bless The Dick Who Let You Go’ was a wedding gift for my wife, for instance … I’m such a cheapskate!” Homemade presents are the loveliest presents of all. And to be fair, with a name like Love, why shouldn’t the most delectable of feelings take center stage? Love is in abundance on Simon’s new album: two tunes for his beloved (“God Bless The Dick Who Let You Go”, “I Fucking Love You”), one for himself (“The Ballad Of Simon Love”) and one for Joey Ramone (“Joey Ramone”). A song about the Beach Boys villain who shares his last name would not be out of place either. One for the next album perhaps. Other topics covered on this set: an unsightly tattoo (“Why´d You Get That Tattoo Girl?”), tennis (“Tennis Fan”), and a letter written by the five-year-old Stephen Timothy West to Blue Peter presenter John Noakes (“Stephen Timothy West”). The album is also characterized by a liberal dose of swearwords: Fuck, fucking, dick, dicking (and there’s a shit in there too). This should, if nothing else, finally lend an air of street credibility to Tapete Records.
