Album Reviews

ALABAMA THUNDERPUSSY
Fulton Hill
(Relapse)
ATP continues to evolve its Southern-fried whiskey metal on its latest album Fulton Hill. The band hasn't changed its approach, just refined it, as rhythms bludgeon harder, arrangements move through a great sense of dynamics and riffs slap the Skynyrdized Sabbath melodies around while still keeping them conscious. New throat John Weills is a more metallic singer than former frontdude Johnny Throckmorton (read: he growls and screams a lot more), but he fits in perfectly on tunes like "Bear Baiting," "Sociopath Shitlist" and the old-fashioned Southern rock balladanthems "Alone Again" and "Three Stars." It's always nice to hear a good band just keep getting better. Michael Toland [buy it]

ANTLER
Antler
(Tortuga)
An outgrowth of Boston sleazeground rock beast Roadsaw, Antler forsakes the city for the woods—you can practically hear the beards growing on the sextet's collective chins. Wooly and burly but still graceful, Antler takes 70s Southern arena rock and reinserts the soul that died with Ronnie Van Zant. With melodic powerhouses like "I Got Lost," "Didn't See the Day" and "Blood on the Moon" and singer Craig Riggs' controlled passion, there's not a note on this record that doesn't sound lived-in and heartfelt. Antler revels in tasteful bombast, and one listen will convince you that's no contradiction in terms. Michael Toland

JAY BENNETT
Bigger Than Blue
(Undertow)
Hard to believe that, as long as songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett has been in the business, Bigger Than Blue is his first solo album. This is a much more understated affair than The Palace at 4 am (Part 1); Bennett eschews the bright pop production for a more intimate, almost folky sonic palette. The rewards here aren't as immediate as they've been in the past, but multiple listens ensure the pleasures of tracks like "Reasons For You to Love Me (Cars Can't Escape)," "Cajun Angel" (lyrics by Woody Guthrie) and "It's Hard" (originally released as a single with Wilco-ites John Stirrat and Ken Coomer as the Courtesy Move) will be keenly felt. Michael Toland [buy it]

BLACK NASA
Deuce
(MeteorCity)
Chris Kosnik's Black Nasa shows major improvements on all fronts on its second album. Kosnik's songwriting is more inspired and his voice more soulful, the performances cut more deeply (especially that of guitarist Duane Hutter, who understands the value of a dirty bottleneck) and the band distinguishes itself as more than just an Atomic Bitchwax spin-off. The psychedelic songs ("Light," "Talking Candles") get spacier, the heavy monsters ("Thanks Anyway," "Boozer") hit harder and the whole record just thunders with more power, precision and volume than the debut. Not sure what the point of the brief Run DMC cover is, though. Michael Toland

THE BOOK OF KNOTS
The Book of Knots
(Arclight)
A bit of an odd duck, this…basically a bunch of NY underground rock buds from bands like Players Club, Tin Hat Trio and Pere Ubu convened in the studio for an album of seafaring tunes. The Book of Knots sits somewhere between the artier side of indie rock and the sludgier face of stoner metal, a unique space that may baffle first-time sailors. These aren't sea shanties, mind you, but great, lumbering beasts that seem to emerge from the waves like grog-sodden leviathans, all teeth and scales and big, slapping flippers. Sometimes the water laps gently at the bough, sometimes it roils furiously like Godzilla might rise up any minute, spraying nuclear halitosis. Mekons/Waco Brothers helmsman Jon Langford contributes to the din. Michael Toland

THE EROTICS
All That Glitters is Dead
(Cacophone)
New York is just a filthy breeding ground for sleaze these days, apparently. Or so one would believe after listening to All That Glitters is Dead, the third album from Big Apple trio the Erotics. Refusing to see a difference between power pop, flash metal and glam, Mike Trash and his boys gleefully lift the bird finger to polite society by celebrating such gutter-bred (or is that bled) fantasies as "Gas Chamber Barbie Doll," "Supermodel Suicide" and "Fast Cars and Porno Stars." Trash doesn't just skirt the boundaries of taste— on cuts like "Date Rape (By Candlelight)" and "Only Girl For Me" (trust me, you don't want to know who it is) he barrels right through them. But the Erotics are so goodnaturedly sleazy and the songs so fucking hook-heavy that it's easy to forgive his transgressions and just rock the heck out. Michael Toland

JAY FARRAR
Stone, Steel & Bright Lights
(Transmit Sound)
The stepfather of alternative country, Jay Farrar's first live album might be a worthwhile addition to your collection if you are a big fan. Stone, Steel & Bright Lights contains 19 tracks, recorded nearly a year ago, and, technically speaking, sounds great. The playlist reflects Farrar's moodiness, but the disc ends with an edgy cover of Neil Young's "Like a Hurricane." Though full and well-performed, the music fails in its goal to capture Farrar's celebrated live show. In fact, there is so little crowd involvement that you really have to listen to hear that these are indeed live performances. There are enough good Farrar bootlegs out there to pass on Stone, Steel & Bright Lights. Lance Looper [buy it]

FRIGG
Frigg
(Northside)
Led by the progeny of members of JPP, Norway's most famous folk band, Frigg revels in cross-cultural strains of folk music, gentling weaving strains of American music into its already complex web of Norwegian and Finnish melodies and textures. Nordic folk usually has dark edges that cloud the energetic tunes, but Frigg banishes the darkness with a series of bright, smiling instrumentals. If Nickel Creek ever decides to collaborate with a Nordic folk group, Frigg would be the ideal candidate. Michael Toland [buy it]

THE GIBSON BROTHERS
Long Way Back Home
(Sugar Hill)
Driven by crisp picking and old fashioned harmonies, the Gibson Brothers' second Sugar Hill release Long Way Back Home stays pretty close to home with contemporary bluegrass toe-tappers, but at times treads dangerously close to tear-in-my-beer country. The second track, "Callie's Reel," jumps off the disc with a mandolin/banjo combo that sets the tone for the rest of the album. Eric and Leigh share lead vocal duties without losing any of the album's momentum in the transitions. Long Way Back Home is a reminder why mountain music may best be left to the family. Lance Looper [buy it]

JOLIE HOLLAND
Escondida
(Anti-)
A former member of the Be Good Tanyas, songwriter Jolie Holland ambles down a similar rootsy acoustic path on her second album. Blues, traditional folk, oldtime string band music and swing provide the seeds with which Holland fertilizes her fields, but this is no retro project. Holland may have thoroughly absorbed the past but she makes music for the present. "Old Fashioned Morphine" may hearken to the early 20th century (especially with a melody based on a Blind Willie Johnson tune), but its theme of willing addiction is perfectly relevant in the 21st. She covers old traditionals, of course, but "Mad Tom of Bedlam" and "Faded Coat of Blue" fit so seamlessly into originals like "Darlin Ukelele" and "Amen" you'd think she wrote everything. Escondida is wonderfully timeless. Michael Toland [buy it]

PATTERSON HOOD
killers and stars
(New West)
Originally recorded in 2001 and sold only at shows, killers and stars is Drive-By Truckers sparkplug Patterson Hood's attempt to deal with the tension and weirdness surrounding both his personal and professional lives before the band suddenly hit big with Southern Rock Opera. While he deals with some pretty serious issues here in a solo acoustic way, he doesn't descend to the maudlinism in which so many songwriters wallow. Whether he's facing a friend's alcoholism (Tom T. Hall's "Pay No Attention to Alice") or musing on the perils of depending on stardom for self-esteem ("Belinda Carlisle Diet," the shenanigans-calling "Cat Power"), he brings the same matter-of-fact anti-romanticism and sardonic sense of humor to these songs that mark his band's best work. Michael Toland [buy it]

DIE HUNNS
Long Legs
(Disaster)
Duane Peters and Corey Parks, the rude 'n' tattooed fun couple of punk, finally get to collaborate on the viciously raging Long Legs, the first Hunns album to feature the 6 foot-plus ex-Nashville Pussy vixen. She brings to the table driving basslines and an effective vocal counterpoint to Peters' snotty rasp, but the focus is still the ex-U.S. Bombs frontman and his unceasing font of bad attitude. This is catchy, dirty, ugly-as-hell punk rock—after all, nobody wants songs like "Love & Hate," "Animals" (which should throw PETA into a nice tizzy) and "Burn in Hell" to sound like pleasant ditties for a Sunday afternoon, do they? Kudos especially to the brutal cover of the Chambers Brothers' "Time Has Come Today," the only version of this alleged classic I've ever been able to stand. Michael Toland [buy it]

THE IZZYS
The Izzys
(Kanine)
The heck with whatever pre-processed crap the Rolling Stones might try to foist on us in the coming years; NYC's Izzys sound more like vintage Stones than anything the Glimmer Twins have belched up in 30 years. Backed by a no-frills band, Mike Storey's passionate yelp and R&B-based rock & roll tunes keep faith with no-nonsense ideals rock radio seems to have forgotten. The production for this disk (the band's second, though this incorporates most of the tracks from the trio's previous EP) could be a bit sharper, but that'll come with a bigger budget. Which the Izzys are most certainly destined to receive. Michael Toland

SHARRON KRAUS
Songs of Love and Loss
(Camera Obscura)
Dense, fraught with emotional tension and little release, folksinger Sharron Kraus' second album updates the past couple of centuries of acoustic music for a contemporary audience, without resorting to modern gimmickry. An insistent strain of mysticism runs through her lyrics, but she never falls into hippie inner-eye navelgazing. "I am walking the straight and narrow backwards," she sings in "Song of the Hanged Man," "To see everything turned around." Reporting from the field in a beautifully modulated soprano, Kraus walks us through a world of pre-dawn darkness, with an assurance that the sun will come up any minute. Brilliant. Michael Toland [buy it]

MARBLE SHEEP
For Demolition of a Spiritual Framework
(Fünfundvierzig)
Marble Sheep hail from Japan, where it's been gleefully sampling the orange acid for nearly two decades. Led by guitarist/vocalist Ken Matsutani, the quintet (with two drummers) whips itself from misty psych-pop like "Fla Fla Heaven" and "Perfect Island" to string-snapping acid jams like "Old Fish" and "The Drop," sometimes melding the two approaches, as on the frontal-lobe melting "Rain." Amazingly, no matter how far into the galaxy the band travels, it never leaves melody and basic song structure behind. Fans of guitar rockin' head music, you need this. Michael Toland