The Feelies – Here Before - May 2011 May 16th, 2011

The Feelies sprouted in New Jersey in 1976, their debut Crazy Rhythms following in 1980, a re-tread of The Velvet underground’s melodic moments played with a neurotic, new wave, energy. Here Before is only their fifth album in thirty-five years. Glenn Mercer’s Loud Reed-style, New York school, vocals have slipped an octave but those simple…

The Fuzztones – Preaching To The Perverted - May 2011 May 8th, 2011

Forming four years after their fellow New Yorkers The Fleshtones, The Fuzztones’ take on Sixties punk is fundamental to the point of religious fanaticism, with bad trip condensed vocals, paranoid analogue organ sounds, and loping slide guitar. If The Fleshtones sound like they’d buy you a beer, The Fuzztones would spike your drink with something…

The Fleshtones featuring Lenny Kaye – Brooklyn Sound Solution - May 2011 May 8th, 2011

The late Seventies garage punks revered their Sixties forerunners, having been hipped to their culturally distant cousins when Patti Smith’s guitarist Lenny Kaye assembled the Nuggets compilation of forgotten trash. In a world where time has been kaleidoscoped by the instantaneous availability of everything, the fact that The Fleshtones still sound like 1976 doing 1967,…

Martin Carthy – Essential Martin Carthy REISSUE - May 2011 May 8th, 2011

Martin Carthy, English folk pioneer and national treasure, celebrates his 70th birthday at the Royal Festival Hall next weekend, and here’s a two disc career overview. The hypnotic, chunky, acoustic guitar style arrives fully-formed on the earliest tracks, from ’65 and ’66, pulsating round the purloined ur-folk licks on which Paul Simon and Bob Dylan…

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Here We Rest - April 2011 April 24th, 2011

Often regarded as The Drive-By Truckers’ most talented member, only to leave and find his belatedly acclaimed colleagues surpass him, Jason Isbell might appear to be Alt Country’s Robbie Williams. The eleven tracks on his perfectly paced third solo collection politely play out just as one might expect, from dainty fiddle driven numbers to lightly…

The Chemistry Set – This Day Will Never Happen Again - April 2011 April 24th, 2011

The resurgence of the Eighties psychedelic scientists The Chemistry Set is due to Music Blogs, tacitly tolerated websites offering illegal downloads of unavailable music. The Chemistry Set’s lone 1989 album has over ten thousand recent rips, dwarfing actual sales enjoyed upon its released, and softening the Set’s comeback trail. On a second, much delayed, album,…