Uptown Magazine Online - Winnipeg's Online Source for Arts, Entertainment & News

Uptown Magazine - Winnipeg's Online Source for Arts, Entertainment & News

June 21, 2007


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2007-06-21

3 Inches of Blood

Fire up the Blades

(Roadrunner)

Website: http://www.3inchesofblood.com

True to its Maiden-esque roots, 3 Inches of Blood has experienced a host of lineup changes but still manages to craft one hell of a disc. Relying on the hammer and the sword that are Jamie Hooper (banshee screams) and Cam Pipes (clean vocals), 3IOB delivers a disc packed with galloping riffage and ridiculously overwrought fantasy lyrics. Wanna battle The Goatrider's Horde or bow down to the Forest King? Well, you've purchased the right disc - and the Vancouver-based sextet will throw in a few Assassins of the Light just to make sure you're getting all the swords and sorcery you can handle. These guys are definitely balls-deep in Dungeons & Dragons, but they also know how to create evil anthems that slay everything in their path. Put on your helm and crank up Night Marauders to hear what I mean. Oh yeah - +3 CON for savage album art.
— Mike Warkentin

James Blood Ulmer

Bad Blood in the City: The Piety Street Sessions

(Hyena Records)

B+

Website: http://www.hyenarecords.com

If you've been patiently awaiting the next Blood Ulmer "skronk" album, you still may feel a tad ripped off over the goings-on here - but thankfully the granddaddy of harmelodic guitar has inched a little bit closer to kicking out those particular jams once more. Aided and abetted by Black Rock-er Vernon Reid (ex-Living Colour), Ulmer has the use of a fully engaged band of fellow travellers and uses them to their fullest. Opening track Survivors of the Hurricane burbles funkily to a mid-tempo thump and a wild Reid solo. Amped-up covers of songs by Junior Kimbrough, John Lee Hooker, Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf and Son House show that Ulmer knows his history, and his own new compositions will have fans summarily delighted in this exciting turn back to his roots.
— Jeff Monk

John Doe

A Year in the Wilderness

(YepRoc Records)

B-

Website: http://www.theejohndoe.com

X-Band singer and guitar player John Doe has released a new solo album of two- or three-minute reformed punk songs, and he's invited friends such as Aimee Mann, Jill Sobule and Canadian Kathleen Edwards to sing along. Doe's previous solo record was heralded as his best and this fact - along with being two songs short of an album and having three drummers who bailed at the last minute - was making our hero nervous. But in true punk fashion, he dove right in and made this greasy collection. The mix is truly a mess, with John's vocals buried and the bass boosted to 11 throughout. The Golden State, with compression-smashed guitars and Edwards' soaring vocals, is the best track. If you liked Amy Rigby or The Replacements, try John Doe.
— Chris Brown

Liam Titcomb

Can't Let It Go

(Fusion 3)

Website: http://www.liamtitcomb.com

Liam Titcomb plays rock with Gibson guitars and writes great tunes with choruses you can sing along with after one listen - and he adds some keyboard atmospherics to keep it all modern and happenin'. Every summer we all look for songs we can turn up and play loud, and See Rock City, Got a Lot, That's It for Love and 11:30 will make the old folks scowl. Tremolo washes, reverb-saturated drums and laser-sharp guitars on the rockers contrast brilliantly with the slow burn of acoustic flat-tops and tambourines on Love Can and It's You. Damhnait Doyle lends her achingly beautiful pipes to augment the mood of the slower songs. If living in a Wal-Mart parking lot for two months while recording resulted in a record this good, maybe Liam should think about moving onto a cardboard box on Yonge Street for the follow-up.
— Chris Brown

Lokjaw

(Lokjaw)

B+

Website: http://www.lokjawlive.com

With schizophrenic changes between slamming hardcore and aggressive breakdowns, B.C.'s Lokjaw sound like a bunch of ADD-affected meth-heads who can't stop playing until their fingers bleed. As if afflicted by a severe chemical imbalance, Lokjaw shifts from Dillinger Escape Plan-style math rock to the hip hop metal of the Deftones to Jesus Lizard-y noise rock in the blink of an eye, creating powerful and intense music via a technical onslaught. The guitars spew abrasive chords and sludge, while the rhythm section fills in all the holes like a Frankenstein's Monster of Mudvayne and System of a Down. Seriously upping the aggression ante is the lead singer, who forms his words into razor-sharp shards of anger and hate. His off-time vocals on top of the already hyperactive rhythms create violent counter melodies. Lokjaw is the ideal prescription for your next psychotic episode.
— Ashley McCurdy

Patti Smith

Twelve

(Columbia Records)

Website: http://www.pattismith.net

You may wonder why an artist as cantankerous and iconoclastic as Patti Smith would want to spend any time recording cover songs. Well, she has her reasons and describes the varied driving forces that brought her to record each of the dozen songs in the booklet provided with the album. She "related" to Nirvana (Smells Like Teen Spirit), had "always had an affection for George Harrison" (With You Without You), found the lyrics to Paul Simon's Boy in the Bubble "strong and enviable," and just wanted to sing the Allman Brothers classic Midnight Rider. All the songs work in their own way when performed by Smith, Lenny Kaye, Tony Shanahan and Jay Dee Daugherty, and while some may balk at the former Queen of Punk being reduced to cover versions, Smith indeed reignites all 12 with her unique style.
— Jeff Monk

Queens of the Stone Age

Era Vulgaris

(Interscope/Universal)

C+

Website: http://www.quotsa.com

I find Queens of the Stone Age alternately annoying as hell and mildly pleasing. I get Josh Homme's passion for guitar-centric, robotic music with falsetto vocals, but most of the time I don't really like it. On new album Era Vulgaris, Homme is up to his old tricks, laying down stilted grooves and rock that feels like it occasionally gets wasted and makes out with electronica. On tracks such as Misfit Love and 3's & 7's, Homme gets it all together, and Battery Acid is aggressive enough to get the head bobbing. Make It Wit Chu, however, sounds a bit like a novelty your friends came up with while stoned - though many critics seem to really enjoy the cut. I might me in the minority, but I'd be happier if Homme went back to making Kyuss records.
— Mike Warkentin

Carol Welsman

What'cha Got Cookin'?

(Koch Entertainment)

C+

Website: http://www.carolwelsman.com

Carol Welsman is an accomplished jazz singer and pianist five CDs deep into a career that has found her compared to a stylish blend of vocal legends from Peggy Lee to Ella Fitzgerald. These days, the closer reference point might be fellow CanCon jazz artiste Diana Krall. Playing and singing a songbook of mostly country standards with the odd pop hit from the '50s and '60s thrown in is hardly an original thought, but Welsman gets inside songs by the likes of Hank Williams (Your Cheatin' Heart), Mary Chapin Carpenter (I Feel Lucky). The arrangements are never less than classy, and Welsman's voice is pure and expressive, augmented by clean, nuanced phrasing. Any time her pop/jazz sound wanders toward the middle of the road, it's yanked back into authentic musical territory by stellar playing from the likes of Tom Scott on sax and Randy Waldman on keys.
— Jim Millican

Various artists

Studio One Kings: The Original

(Soul Jazz Records)

Website: http://www.souljazzrecords.co.uk

Even 40 years on, an association with Jamaica's legendary Studio One is still a sign of quality. No matter how often the Studio One back catalogue is re-released, reggae fans will eat it up - and who can blame them? Studio One Kings is 17 tracks by the likes of Burning Spear, Delroy Wilson and John Holt, with essential smashes such as Horacy Andy's deadly Every Tongue Shall Tell and Alton Ellis' The Well Run Dry featured alongside lesser-known but equally satisfying tunes by singers like Devon Russell and George Philip. It's a disc full of highlights, but Freddie McGregor's take on I Shall Be Released and the underrated Joe Higgs' Change of Plan are particularly striking. You can't lose with Studio One, and these songs highlight some of the finest male vocalists to be recorded by Mr. Dodd. Righteous.
— Sam Thompson

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