Archive Review: Probot's Probot (2004)

Probot is Foo Fighter Dave Grohl’s labor of love, a four-year project that saw the former Nirvana skinman writing songs for his favorite heavy metal artists. Grohl would create a song in the vein of the chosen artist’s style, record the basic tracks, and then get together with the collaborator to pen lyrics and record vocals and final instrumentation. In the current corporate rock climate, however, no major recording label – not even those for which Grohl has earned millions – would touch the project.

Metal label Southern Lord finally released Probot’s self-titled “debut” and they deserve every dime they make on the gamble. From a pure heavy metal perspective, Probot kicks ass in more ways than you can count. As a kid growing up in the Washington DC area, Grohl may have played in hardcore punk bands, but he had his ear turned towards the mid-80s underground metal scene. Grohl has a zealot’s appreciation of the genre and it shows in every monstrous beat that he brings to Probot. His choice of collaborators is a literal “who’s who” of late ‘80s/early ‘90s metal myth, from obscure tastemakers like Cronos of Venom and Voivod’s Snake to better-known rockers like Max Cavalera (Soulfly) and Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilminster.

It’s the songs that make Probot a headbanger’s delight, Grohl’s co-conspirators all bringing inspired performances to the project. Grohl’s staccato drumbeat propels Cavalera’s haunting lyrics on “Red War” to new heights of metallic mayhem and Lemmy proves with “Shake Your Blood” that the old dog can still rock with the young pups. Corrosion of Conformity’s Mike Dean provides “Access Babylon” with a maddening energy while King Diamond’s dark-hued charisma infuses “Sweet Dreams” with a diabolic ambiance. Celtic Frost’s Tom G Warrior, the Obsessed’s Wino and Lee Dorrian of Napalm Death are also among those contributing to the musical madness while ringleader Grohl provides solid instrumental accompaniment behind his guest stars. Loud, dark, evil, and relentlessly rocking, Probot is a welcome throwback to the classic age of heavy metal. (Southern Lord Records, released 2004)

Archive Review: Halfacre Gunroom’s Wrecked (2004)

It should come as no surprise that Memphis, Tennessee is experiencing a roots-rock revival, carried on the shoulders of bands like the Porch Ghouls and Halfacre Gunroom. The home of Stax Records, Elvis Presley, Sun Records, Dewey Phillips, Sam Phillips, Holiday Inn, and Rufus Thomas, the city on the bluff has deep roots in American music and culture, a legacy that few cities can legitimately claim.

Wrecked is Halfacre Gunroom’s debut, a red-hot rocker that weds alternative country influences with a restless punk rock spirit, a Memphis version of Jason and the Nashville Scorchers. Bryan Hartley is the ringleader here, a skilled wordsmith with a Johnny Cash baritone and a firm grasp on the heavenly concept of “glorious din” while the band, including guitarist Brian Wallace, manufacture a joyous noise. Wrecked is a maelstrom of bluesy vocals, savage guitar riffs, powerful rhythms, and songs that dance too closely on the brink of disaster.

Hartley reminds me a lot of Joe Grushecky, his lyrics telling stories of people who work too hard, drink too much, love too quickly and, at the end of the day, still find the strength to carry on in the face of adversity. This is blue-collar roots-rock – Southern style – as only a band from Memphis could deliver, Springsteenesque tales matched with a rowdy twang and a belief in the power of rock ‘n’ roll that the Boss lost years ago. Highly recommended for fans of Slobberbone, Uncle Tupelo, or the V-Roys. (Icarus Records)

Review originally published by Jersey Beat zine...

Archive Review: Mitch Ryder’s Detroit Ain’t Dead Yet (The Promise) (2009)

The Legendary Mitch Ryder

 

Back in the fall of 1980, when Detroit rocker Bob Seger was riding high on the charts and packin’ ‘em into the stadiums with his Against the Wind album, he sold out every show during an unheard-of nine-night stand in the Motor City. For these triumphant homecoming shows, Seger hand-picked Detroit rock ‘n’ soul legend Mitch Ryder as his opener, a gracious act that jump-started Ryder’s second shot at the brass ring.

Born William Levise, Jr. in Hamtramck, a city within the city limits of Detroit, Ryder got his start singing as a teen with a local soul band named the Peps before forming his own Billy Lee and the Rivieras. Discovered in 1965 by producer Bob Crewe, the band was re-named Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, and they would go on to score a string of early hits like “Jenny Take A Ride,” “C.C. Rider,” and “Devil with A Blue Dress On.” When the hits dried up, Ryder made the sojourn to Memphis to record the amazing The Detroit/Memphis Experiment with Booker T and the M.G.’s in 1969.

Mitch Ryder’s Detroit Ain’t Dead Yet (The Promise)

Returning home, Ryder put together the ground-breaking rock outfit Detroit, which released a single 1971 album that yielded a hit with an energetic cover of Lou Reed’s “Rock and Roll.” By 1973, though, Ryder was experiencing problems with his voice, and he retired from music. He still had the itch, however, and his self-produced 1978 comeback album How I Spent My Vacation led to the aforementioned gigs opening for Seger; more indie releases; a major label deal and a John Mellencamp-produced, critically-acclaimed album that went nowhere fast. Although Ryder’s overshadowing influence could be heard in ‘80s-era hits from folks like Seger, Mellencamp, and Springsteen, the man couldn’t get arrested with his own work.

Flash forward almost 30 years and, much like the gardens that are starting to crop up in the abandoned lots around the urban wasteland formerly known as Detroit, Mitch Ryder is still punching away at success. He never really went anywhere you know…Ryder remained somewhat of a star in Europe, and he has continued to record and release albums to the present day. In the closing days of 2009, he teamed with producer Don Was – another Motor City talent – to record Detroit Ain’t Dead Yet (The Promise) in L.A. with a top notch batch of musicians. Working with a set of largely original songs, Ryder has delivered a spirited performance that equals his mid-1980s creative peak.      

Ryder’s calling card has always been his uncanny ability to blend blues, soul, and rock ‘n’ roll into a single artistic entity, and it’s no different on Detroit Ain’t Dead Yet (The Promise). Ryder’s whiskey-soaked vocals still ooze with blue-eyed soul better than anybody ever has; nowhere is this more evident than on the album-opening track, the semi-autobiographical “Back Then.” Ryder’s vox slip-n-slide across a funky soundtrack with characteristic swagger, growling when necessary and hitting the high notes when appropriate as the band lays down a vicious groove.

And so it goes…the Southern-fried soul of “My Heart Belongs To Me” benefits from some Steve Cropper-styled geetar pickin’, a lively rhythmic backdrop, and Ryder’s passionate vocals. The intelligent, sometimes shocking “Junkie Love” is a frank discussion of addiction that benefits from 1970s-styled rolling funk-n-soul instrumentation, lively vocals, and Randy Jacobs’ squealing fretwork. A beautiful cover of the great Jimmy Ruffin soul gem “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted” was recorded live and showcases Ryder’s emotion-tugging vocal abilities while “The Way We Were” is a haunting, topical tale of society’s decline that rocks as hard as it rolls.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Detroit Ain’t Dead Yet (The Promise) isn’t an exploitative cash-grab taking advantage of some over-the-hill, broken-and-broke-ass rocker. No, this is the one-and-only Mitch Ryder, still kicking ass and taking names at age 65, delivering a monster set of songs that combine the artist’s 1960s rock ‘n’ soul roots with his edgy 1980s solo work. With a sympathetic producer in Don Was, who worked with Ryder in the 1990s with his own Motor City band Was (Not Was), Ryder is able to make a late-career statement that stands tall alongside anything he’s ever done. Detroit ain’t dead yet, and neither is Mitch Ryder… (Freeworld Records/Floating World Records, 2009)

Review originally published by Blurt magazine, 2009…

Archive Review: Slim Cessna's Auto Club's The Bloudy Tenent, Truth & Peace (2004)

Slim Cessna’s Auto Club blends punk attitude with Gospel fervor, traditional C&W roots, and rockabilly riffs, creating a mutant strain of spiritual music that sounds like it was brewed up in some mountain hollow. Cessna is the band’s main vocalist and songwriter, a prophet without honor with a background seeped in mystery. The rest of the band – Rev. Glasseye, Munly Munly, Tim Maher, Dwight Pentacost, and Judithann – aptly support Cessna’s musical ministry. As you might guess, the lyrical direction of The Bloudy Tenet, Truth  & Peace concerns itself with sin and salvation, the benefits of a simple country life and the evils of modern society. A thought-provoking collection of songs by a talented if slightly off-center band, The Bloudy Tenet, Truth & Peace is unlike anything you’ll hear this year. Gospel music from Hell’s half acre? Joyful noise from the Devil’s playground? Only the Lord hisself can judge… (Alternative Tentacles Records, 2004)

Review originally published by Jersey Beat zine...

Archive Review: Motörhead’s Motörizer (2008)

Just one question: why isn’t Motörhead in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? If there was ever a band that epitomizes the road warrior ethic, a lifelong dedication to the rock ‘n’ roll muse, it’s this gang. Motörhead’s 24th album, Motörizer provides another good argument for the band’s ticket to Cleveland. These songs don’t just sit there on the slab o’ plastic like some stinkin’ corpse, they leap out of your speakers with bloodlust, a knife in their teeth and evil on today’s “to do” list. Lemmy’s liquor-soaked blues-metal growl is complimented by Filthy Phil’s napalm-strength fretwork while drummer Mikkey Dee delivers a good old-fashioned mugging. Songs like the pub-rocking “English Rose” or the brutal “Buried Alive” are landmines itching to trigger, displaying a mix of punk attitude and metallic overkill. Motörizer is a hellbound train, with Lemmy K at the helm…hold on for the ride of your life! (Steamhammer Records/SPV Music, released August 26th, 2008)

Review originally published by Blurt magazine, 2008...

Archive Review: Bill Janovitz & Crown Victoria's Fireworks On TV! (2004)

Alt-rock veteran Bill Janovitz – late of the Boston band Buffalo Tom – originally formed Crown Victoria as a vehicle for his solo efforts. Recording during the downtime from his critically-acclaimed major label band, Janovitz’s solo work eventually eclipsed the band’s vision and, as things are wont to do in rock ‘n’ roll, Crown Victoria eventually became a full-time pursuit. Fireworks On TV! is the band’s third album, a mature and fully-realized group effort, the tight chemistry between Janovitz and his bandmates showcased on tunes like “Almost Beating” and the eclectic “One Two Three.”

Janovitz’s musical milieu definitely falls into the folk-rock vein, with a little alt-country twang and alt-rock guitar pyrotechnics thrown in to spice things up a bit. An engaging songwriter of no little folk influence, Janovitz has an eye for the minutiae of daily life and the complexities of human relationships. As frontman for Crown Victoria, however, Janovitz nevertheless enjoys the crashing of cymbals, chiming guitars and the Fort Apache studio approximation of Phil Spector’s “wall of sound.” Fireworks On TV! is a smart, hard-rocking and entertaining effort, Janovitz and Crown Victoria ready for prime-time and a higher profile in indie-rock circles. (Q Division Records, 2004)

Review originally published by Jersey Beat zine...

Archive Review: Bill Chinnock’s Badlands (1977 / 2008)

Long before CBS Records tried to remake him into the next Bruce Springsteen (no, I dunno why…maybe one wasn’t enough?), Bill Chinnock was one of the last of the young soul rebels. Pursuing a houserockin’ sound that was equally indebted to the Chicago blooze blast of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf as it was to Chuck Berry’s three-chord Sturm und Drang, Chinnock was a white bluesman – born in New Jersey, sure, but his heart was beating pure Delta grit.

One of John Hammond’s many discoveries, Chinnock made his bones as part of the Asbury Park mafia, playing in various boardwalk bands with future and present E Streeters like Danny Federici, Gary Tallent, and Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. At Hammond’s recommendation, Chinnock exiled himself to Maine to work on his wordplay, later emerging as the East Coast poet laureate, his new songs matching intelligent lyrics to a raucous soundtrack that translated well to the stage and made him a bigger performance draw than the Boss during the mid-‘70s.

Bill Chinnock’s Badlands

Of Chinnock’s 1975 debut album, Blues, Hammond said “listening to Bill Chinnock sing blues brings back the days of the old Paramount label with Ma Rainey,” and he oughta know ‘cause John Senior was there in person. Following a live set, Badlands was Chinnock’s third album, originally self-released and the one that finally caught the attention of the suite-sitters at Atlantic Records. The label signed B.C. to what seemed to be a creatively-advantageous deal, bought up all the copies of Badlands floating around the Northeast, and reissued the album with naught but a few additional flourishes.

Not that Badlands needed much tinkering, mind you, the album emerging from Chinnock’s artistic psyche pretty much perfectly intact. The album-opening “Outlaw” is smoky big-band R&B revue stuff, with funky hornplay and Chinnock’s soulful vox shouted out above a driving rhythm. Chinnock sounds like a cross between Tom Waits and David Clayton-Thomas on “Another Man Gone Down,” the sound of heartbreak carved with tears into the grooves of the record. Jazzy guitars and dancing synths sit atop a vaguely disco rhythm, but “Something For Everybody” is a bad-luck tale of homeless life in 1978 America that retains its optimism and hope in the face of desperation, stating “the streets are filled with money, the sidewalks paved in gold.”

Chinnock’s “Crazy Ol’ Rock ‘N Roll Man” is a brilliantly-painted rock ‘n’ soul anthem for every bar band and rock star hopeful that ever climbed onto a ramshackle stage while “Prisoner” is pure ‘70s-era R&B cheese, all soulman tease and ready-to-please with the Brecker Brothers holding down a funkified bottom end while Chinnock’s lusty voice soars just below the clouds. Chinnock’s relationship with Atlantic went downhill fast after the label ignored Badlands in favor of a fresh album, one for which the singer felt they were trying to push his normally rhythmic, soul-driven sound into a more disco-oriented direction when all he wanted to do was RAWK!

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Slamming the door behind him on the way out, Chinnock returned to the indie hinterlands save for the mid-‘80s travesty that was his CBS Records deal, enjoying a lengthy and productive career in music, video and graphic arts until his death in 2007. Badlands remains a favorite with Chinnock’s loyal fans, a soulful romp down the lost highway that separates rhythm & blues and rock ‘n’ roll, the album displaying the attitude of both. (Collectors’ Choice Music, reissued August 12th, 2008)

Review originally published by Blurt magazine, 2008

Archive Review: Nick Gravenites’ Bluestar (2009)

His name might not be familiar to the average blues fan, but you really can’t challenge Nick Gravenites’ credentials. He was part of a circle of blues-loving white musicians in Chicago during the early 1960s that included Paul Butterfield and Mike Bloomfield. He was schooled by some of the biggest names and talents in the city, including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Otis Rush. His songs have been recorded by folks like the Wolf and James Cotton, and his classic “Born In Chicago,” performed by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, earned him his ticket into the Blues Hall of Fame.

One of the reasons that Gravenites is not the best-known of Chicago’s young blues turks is because he recorded so infrequently on his own. Gravenites released his solo debut, My Labors, in 1969 between touring and recording with Big Brother & the Holding Company. He didn’t get around to releasing his sophomore album, Bluestar, until 1980. Working with a band that included some of the San Francisco Bay area’s best talents, including bassist Pete Sears (Jefferson Starship), harmonica player Huey Lewis, and his Gravenites-Cipollina Band collaborator John Cipollina (Quicksilver Messenger Service), Gravenites delivered a stellar set of rockin’ blues tunes.   

Nick Gravenites’ Bluestar

Gravenites’ “Junkyard In Malibu” is a good measure of the artist’s songwriting skills, a sly song that posits a junkyard in the high-priced enclave of Malibu, California that serves as an analogy for a love gone bad. Gravenites’ gravel-throated vocals are complimented by a funky, swaggering rhythm while he and guitarist Cipollina swap Southern-fried licks back and forth. The mid-tempo “I’m A Bluesman” draws the Mississippi Delta roots out of the Chicago blues to deliver a down-and-dirty declaration that is supported by some fiery fretwork and Huey Lewis’s surprisingly supple harp playing.

The smoldering “Blues Back Off” is a slow dance across the history of the blues, Gravenites’ soulful vocals bolstered by Sears’ subtle keyboard flourishes, drummer Joey Covington’s steady beats, and a blistering guitar solo slightly more than two minutes in that channels decades of R&B soul into six strings and several measures of gorgeous tone. By comparison, “Who’s Out There” is a good old-fashioned Chicago blues styled romp, with the rhythm section kicking out a rapid, foot-stomping pace and Lewis blasting out a wild harp riff. The guitar solo here – I’m guessing that it’s Gravenites – sounds like Buddy Guy in his prime, full of energy and passion.

Remembering The Southside

The wild boogie-rocker “My Party” takes its cue from John Lee Hooker with a mesmerizing rhythm, walking bass line, and swamp-blues flavored vocals while the semi-autobiographical “Southside” is Gravenites’ account of those raucous early ‘60s nights in Chicago’s blues clubs. With a deliberate beat and staggering rhythm guitar, the song is as entertaining as it is boastful.

Of the three bonus tracks included on this first-time CD release of Bluestar, the slippery “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” is the best, its somber vocals and serpentine slide-guitar matched by a dark-hued ambiance and driving rhythm. What the live “Rattlecan Man” lacks in sound quality it more than makes up for with pure reckless energy, the mid-tempo traditional blues number benefiting from a swinging rhythm and shocks of sharp-edged guitar.  

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Because he’s working in a traditional blues medium that has changed little in 50+ years, there’s a lot on Nick Gravenites’ Bluestar that will sound familiar to the experienced blues fan. On the other hand, it’s exactly for this reason that much of Bluestar sounds as fresh and contemporary today as it did in 1980. Gravenites’ guitarwork is solid and, at times, downright scary good, while his songwriting is never anything less than entertaining. This is timeless blues and blues-rock music, and if you’ve never heard of Nick Gravenites, or you’ve heard of him and always been curious, you’ll find Bluestar to be a pleasant surprise. (Renaissance Records/It’s About Music, 2009)