The record industry continues its slow march towards the July 4th holiday (a week where nothing notable is scheduled to be released - good thing I'll be on vacation that week). For now we have two artists who recently preformed at WXPN Free-at-Noon concerts.
Ryan Adams Easy Tiger When I saw Adams and the Cardinals in concert last week, I still wasn't all that impressed with his new release, but I thought it had the potential to grow on me. Sure 'nuff, with each listening (Adams and Albert Hammonds Jr. are on heavy rotation in the minivan right now) a new song or two distinguishes itself from the disc's other songs.
While every other indie singer right now seems to want to sound like a young Neil Young (except those that strive to emulate Brian Wilson, that is) give Adams credit for going for that other early-seventies alt-country rocker, Gram Parsons - a little more country and a less rough than Neil's sound. Not that he's as good as Parsons was (where Parsons had Emmylou Harris backing him up - and Neil did quite all right with Nicolette Larson behind him - Adams has... Sheryl Crow?), but Parson's style is a good fit for Adams' singing and storytelling talents.
MuchMusic is still streaming Easy Tiger on their site. And so is his label, the outstanding Lost Highway Records.
Steve Forbert Strange Names and New Sensations I have to admit, when I saw Forbert in concert a couple of weeks ago I was more impressed with his older stuff than the songs from this new disc, but that had more to do with the subject matter (a lot of tunes about facing middle age) than the quality of the music itself.
Forbert seems to be one of those old school folkies who still doesn't trust the Internet enough to put up a couple of free downloads or stream a song or two. His site does have the video for the goofy "Strange Names (North Jersey's Got Them)," but it's not exactly the strongest song from the disc. Plus, even though he gets it right in the song's title, in the lyrics he refers to "North New Jersey" which - like "Southern New Jersey" - no one from Jersey ever says.
This week's list:
- RYAN ADAMS Easy Tiger
- THE WHITE STRIPES Icky Thump
- WILCO Sky Blue Sky
- BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Live in Dublin
- THE NATIONAL Boxer
- ALBERT HAMMOND, JR. Yours To Keep
- VOXTROT Voxtrot
- AU REVOIR SIMONE The Bird of Music
- PETER BJORN AND JOHN Writer's Block
- THE CLIENTELE God Save the Clientele
- FEIST The Reminder
- IMMACULATE MACHINE Fables
- THE POLYPHONIC SPREE The Fragile Army
- RUFUS WAINWRIGHT Release the Stars
- GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS Ongiara
- THE SHINS Wincing the Night Away
- ROSIE THOMAS These Friends of Mine
- LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III Strange Weirdos
- TRAVIS The Boy With No Name
- THE ROSEBUDS Night of the Furies
- STEVE FORBERT Strange Names & New Sensations
- WARREN ZEVON Preludes
- BRIGHT EYES Cassadaga
- MY MORNING JACKET Okonokos
- FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE Traffic and Weather
- RICHARD THOMPSON Sweet Warrior
- WHEAT Everyday I Said a Prayer for Kathy and Made a One Inch Square
- JOE STRUMMER The Future Is Unwritten
- ANDREW BIRD Armchair Apocrypha
- SON VOLT Search
Dropping off the list this week:
- THE DECEMBERISTS The Crane Wife
- THE AUTUMN DEFENSE The Autumn Defense
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