Friday, July 26, 2024

The Reverend's Summer 2024 Playlist

The Blessings' Woke Up With the Noonday Devil
While the rest of the world has gone ga-ga this summer over Sabrina Carpenter, or gone mad in a madcap effort to buy Taylor Swift concert tix, the Reverend has been catching up on the pile of promotional CDs plaguing his tastefully-decorated home office and rock ‘n’ roll laboratory. The albums reviewed below represent some of the best of the Reverend’s summer 2024 playlist, self-produced efforts that prove that the independent rock ‘n’ roll spirit is alive and well!

The BlessingsWoke Up With the Noonday Devil (self-produced CD)
Rock ‘n’ roll will never die, not as long as there are bands like the Blessings taking a stab at the brass ring. Not to be confused with the 1980s-era British band the Blessing, fronted by the talented William Topley, this contemporary outfit hails from Los Angeles and has been running the boards since 2006. Woke Up With the Noonday Devil is the Blessings’ fourth record and it’s more than good enough to make one go digging around online for copies of the first three. The Blessings are blessed (sorry…) with a talented, charismatic frontman in singer Jeremy White, who brings all the swagger and braggadocio of Mick Jagger or Steve Marriott to the microphone without sounding like either of those guys. White has his own rock ‘n’ soul thing going on, and he blows a mean blues harp as well, while the Blessings’ guitarist Mike Gavigan plays the Keef role to White’s Mick, tossing off hot guitar licks and rowdy rhythms that provide punctuation to the frontman’s vocals.   

Perhaps the Blessings’ greatest weapon, however, is vocalist Lavone Barnett-Seetal, whose powerful pipes and soulful nuances on songs like the rambunctious “Meaning of Sorry” remind of the ‘Queen of Chicago Blues,’ Koko Taylor. Barnett-Seetal’s vocals are a perfect counterpoint to White’s rocking style, creating the sort of dynamic you’d hear on late-period Humble Pie albums, when Marriott was getting his R&B groove on. “Wicked Mind” is a standout, with gorgeous guitar tone, a lush instrumental bed, and fluid vox while the hard-rocking “Back Home” features heavy riffs, and heavier harmonica rollicking above the solid rhythm track created by bassist Terry Love and drummer Scott Sobol. “More Trouble Than Fun” is the sort of romper-stomper that the Stones cranked out in the early ‘70s, with Jeffrey Howell’s subtle, underlying keyboards knitting the soundtrack together. Shimmering guitar opens “Uptown Too Long,” a bit of juke-joint piano chimes in, and then blasts of horn kick up a storm, taking the song into a rhythm ‘n’ blues-drenched direction. There’s not a duff track to be found on Woke Up With the Noonday Devil, the Blessings drawing obvious inspiration from the 1970s but doing so with their own indomitable style and grace. BUY!        

The Heartsleeves' Coverage
The Heartsleeves - Coverage (Flimsy Records)

Nashville’s The Heartsleeves fill the void between full-length albums with Coverage, a two-song CD single that pays tribute to punk-pop legends All/The Descendents with a pair of high-octane cover tunes guaranteed to strip the chrome from your trailer hitch. The Descendents’ “Silly Girl” is provided Scott Feinstein’s scorched earth guitar licks and jagged, pummeling rhythms courtesy of bassist Preach Rutherford and drummer Brad Pemberton. Feinstein’s vocals are appropriately lofty, blunting the sharp edges of the instrumental track only slightly in the creation of a rapidfire, radio-friendly tune…if AM/FM conglomerates still had any dignity, that is. The raucous, unrelenting performance of All’s “Minute” ramjams its punky energy and inspired recklessness into your ear cavity, steamrolling across your brain, exiting stage right and leaving a confused smile on yer face. Checking in at a taut four minutes plus and hotter than an M80 in your hand, Coverage is the Reverend’s “pick to click” for relief from your heat-induced summer coma… BUY!    

Tennessee Blues Mob's Deep Dark Alibi
Tennessee Blues Mob – Deep Dark Alibi (Twin Oaks Recordings, CD)

Mike Phillips’ 1990s-era Nashville band Peace Cry is a classic case of “should have been.” The band had a dynamic stage presence, socially-conscious lyrics and, in Phillips, a blowtorch vocalist with fearless, rage against the machine charisma. Sadly, although Peace Cry was phenomenally popular regionally, they never sniffed a label deal and went the way of so many other talented bands. Flash forward 30+ years and Phillips has hooked up with a new gang, the Tennessee Blues Mob, and I’m happy to say that they’re kicking ass and taking names. With Deep Dark Alibi, their six-song debut EP, Tennessee Blues Mob roars down the lost highway on fat tires and a tailpipe belching fire and brimstone, politesse disappearing in the rearview mirror as the band proceeds to steamroll everything in its path.

Phillips’ vocals are raw, unbridled screams from the abyss suitable for Norwegian death metal but better for hard-edged blues-rock. Wrapped around his inscrutable lyrics, Phillips vox channel the pissed-off spirits of a hundred Delta bluesman while the rest of the Mob rumbles on behind him with malevolent intent. Guitarist Shane Borchert is a beast, gnawing on his headstock and firing off blistering licks machinegun-style like it's the Valentine’s Day Massacre, but capable of subtlety and nuance when needed. Terry McClain’s keyboards add the right amount of grandeur to the songs, while the rhythm section of bassist Damian Robinson and drummer Scott Mincey create swaggering rhythms with jet engine precision. Monster performances like the stomping funk of “Climb the Mountain,” the soaring pathos of “Six Feet Under,” or the anguished “Two Devils,” with its stabbing Gothic keyboards, skid between your eardrums like an out-of-control Harley. With Deep Dark Alibi, Tennessee Blues Mob pursues a throwback ‘70s sound with a razor-sharp contemporary edge, more than living up to their billing as a “dark progressive heavy blues rock” band. BUY!

Trizo 50's 50th Anniversary Collection
Trizo 50 – 50th Anniversary Collection (DePugh Music, CD/vinyl)

Trizo 50 (pronounced ‘Try-Zo’) were a popular 1970s-era band in the Kansas City MO region, evolving, over time, from two earlier area bands, the J-Walkers and Phantasia. The Trizo 50 story is told in great detail by band keyboardist/singer Bob DePugh in the very cool booklet that comes with the two-CD 50th Anniversary Collection. Digging through the band’s impressive catalog of music, DePugh assembled nearly everything the band ever recorded here, the accompanying DEMO Return Requested vinyl release comprised of the first 15 songs from the anniversary collection, and replicating the band’s lone 1974 album. Although there are clear influences to be heard in these Trizo 50 songs – ‘60s pop, garage-rock, and psychedelia; 1950s-era roots-rock; British Invasion bands – they’re never derivative, the band opting instead for a fresh perspective on the music. Although these are definitely lo-fi recordings, captured on a four-track Teac deck in a makeshift studio circa 1973-74, the lack of sonic fidelity is overshadowed by the band’s earnest performances and sheer joy in music-making.
 
There are a lot of tasty bangers among the 51 tracks on Trizo 50’s 50th Anniversary Collection. The shambolic “Take A Ride” sounds like a Nuggets garage-rock outtake, the noisy performance full of fun and reckless energy. “Get Another Girl” is a R&B styled rave-up in a James Brown vein with a thundering bass line and scorching, fuzzed fretwork. The rollicking “It’s A Rock ‘n’ Roll Record” capture echoes of the ‘50s within a swaggering, “Stagger Lee” styled delivery and Gary “U.S.” Bonds vibe. The blended harmonies on “Heart Hoppin’ Homicide” evoke the Beach Boys, but grittier and “I’m Alive” is a jaunty, rockin’ romp with deep ‘60s roots and pop sensibilities. The mod “Who You Gonna Be With Tonight” flies the freakbeat flag high while “Live Like You Wanna Live” takes a Byrdsian turn. A third CD, Live In the Studio, offers up 19 songs recorded live during a band rehearsal with the same energy and elan as the first 51.

If Trizo 50 had been around 5 or 6 years earlier, they could have caught the last wave of 1960s pop; if they’d started 5 or 6 years later, they could have been the leading edge of the new wave, or maybe even garage-rock revivalists. What they did, they did very well, and they impressively did it entirely on their own; one can hear the band’s promise in these performances. If they’d been located on either coast instead of in Missouri, and had a sympathetic producer to help hone their sound, Trizo 50 might have made a real go at it. With these three CDs, they prove that they could have been contenders; even so, it’s not too late to discover the many charms of Trizo 50. BUY!

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