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

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

October 4, 2007


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2007-10-04

2PAC

The Way He Wanted It Vol. 3

(Liferdef Entertainment)

C-

Website: http://www.fusion3.com

Something tells me that having his music re-released in hundreds of shitty, posthumous remix collections is not what Tupac Shakur would have wanted. The Way He Wanted It Vol. 3 is another money-grabbing abuse of the gangsta rap martyr's legacy. While some of the posthumous releases include unreleased tracks, this disc, which doesn't appear to be endorsed by Shakur's family or anyone remotely associated with him, just drags out old hits and remixes them - poorly. Sure, When We Ride On Our Enemies is an amazing song, but it doesn't need a pointless re-tread with some no-name rapper adding his own lame lyrics to the mix. Shakur's performances on The Way He Wanted It Vol. 3 are impeccable, but the G-Funk-lite beats and unsolicited input from ridiculous unknowns with names such as Thuglife Macadoshis are disrespectful to his memory. If the original vocals weren't so great, this project would get a well-deserved 'F.'
— Sam Thompson

Charlie Sizemore

Good News

(Rounder Records)

Website: http://www.rounder.com

Eastern Kentucky-native Charlie Sizemore joined Ralph Stanley's Clinch Mountain Boys as lead singer at 17 and, after nearly 10 years serving, the bluegrass godhead decided to get back to school and make something of himself. He put his successful Nashville law practice on hold to record Good News and it's a good 'un. There is a fine line, it seems to me, between those who really feel this old-tyme music, and those who have merely jumped on the pony's back to make a buck because the style has become popular with music buyers since the success of O Brother Where Art Thou. Sizemore delivers the kind of authenticity that can only come from working with a master like Stanley. While Charlie wrote only a few tracks here, his unerring capacity to fully engage himself with someone else's words is outstanding. The band is stellar, featuring a dobro, mando, doghouse bass, banjo and guitar combination that screams classic bluegrass legitimacy. Good news indeed.
— Jeff Monk

Luka Bloom

Tribe

(Cooking Vinyl Records)

B+

Website: http://www.lukabloom.com

There is something about certain Irish singer/songwriters that puts them a pint of Guinness ahead of most of their contemporaries and Luka Bloom is no exception. Tribe is the kind of album that makes you feel as if nearly all the songs are an insight into your deepest, personal thoughts. Bloom sings with honesty and skillfulness that is pervasive in its emotionalism without sounding mannered - and his understanding of the human condition in general raises him to a level that is practically without peer
— Jeff Monk

Alvin "GG" Ranglin

Roots Man Dub

(Heartbeat)

Website: http://www.heartbeatreggae.com

Centred around a 1978 album of dub versions, but fleshed out with an extra disc's worth of 45s from the GG Records label, this collection of productions by GG Ranglin is a 29-track epic. Working with a dream roster of musicians, including Sly and Robbie, Horsemouth Wallace, Ansel Collins and Dean Fraser, Ranglin was a master at taking familiar rhythms and transforming them into over-the-top, effect-laden blasts of dub perfection. Hits such as Lone Ranger's Barnabas Collins are given the GG treatment and Mackaback Rock is reimagined to maximum effect. A chiefly instrumental (although vocal snippets from the likes of George Faith and Lefoy Smart can be heard), two-disc set of deep roots versions such as Roots Man Dub might be a hard sell to the uninitiated, but it'll be a hit among the reggae faithful. Still, if given a chance, it has the potential to open new fans' minds to the wonders of dub.
— Sam Thompson

The Weakerthans

Reunion Tour

(Anti-/Epitaph)

Website: http://www.theweakerthans.org

At least five of these 11 songs will be familiar to hardcore Weakerthans fans, but they gather new momentum as parts of a whole. Rather than seeming like hints at hidden treasures, as when played live, Night Windows, Sun in an Empty Room, Utilities, Tournament of Hearts and Civil Twilight become fully realized vignettes here, distinct episodes in a series of 11 case studies in disconnection. While it's tempting to judge the characters in these songs, that's not singer/lyricist John K. Samson's purpose. Whether his protagonist is a haunted, heartbroken bus driver (Civil Twilight), the ghost of David Reimer (Hymn of the Medical Oddity), a hard-living, free-falling victim of the 'new economy' (Relative Surplus Value) or a forlorn feline (Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure), Samson is pointing out and poking around in the disappointments and regrets which confront and confound us all. That he and bandmates Stephen Caroll, Greg Smith and Jason Tait can do so in such artful, tuneful fashion is testament to their quiet yet ever-growing strength. The mournful, acoustic lament of , the rocking chords of Relative Surplus Value, the ghostly twang and dirge of Elegy for Gump Worsley, the esoteric skronks and reverb of Utilities - all point to a group that's fully versed in any number of musical idioms and which isn't afraid to explore them in the context of three-minute pop songs. Recorded mostly in Winnipeg at Prairie Recording Co., and produced by Canadian indie legend Ian Blurton (his third time with the band), Reunion Tour is rife with unique arrangements and tuneful little touches.?There are horns on Bigfoot!, keys throughout (all four members are credited), even vibraphones, glockenspiel and some texturally effective tape loops. Ultimately, though, this record hangs on Samson's plaintive, sing/speak vocals and the compelling essence of his stories, and it succeeds because both his voice and the songs reveal a little bit more with every listen. At album's end, it's hard to believe that so much depth has been delivered in just 37 minutes, 12 seconds.
— John Kendle

Various Artists

The Rich Records Story: Music City, Motor City & The Big Easy

(SPV Blue)

Website: http://www.spv.de

Also reviewed here: Various Artists, Bullet Records Blues, SPV Blue
Grade: B-

As time grinds along, it seems a never-ending supply of great, undiscovered music (of all genres) is being dug out of some dusty back room, tidied up sonically and delivered to fans hungry for the obscurest of the obscure from days gone by. It's likely that in 40 years there won't be the same response to a lost BeyoncÈ or Justin Timberlake tune as there is to previously hard-to-find tracks featuring artists who practically wrote musical history. DJ John Richbourg tried his hand in the record biz in the late 1950s and the results on The Rich Records Story prove he had undeniably perceptive ears. Opening with an oft-covered Bobby Hebb classic, Night Train to Memphis, the 22 tracks here zero in on soulful R&B, hard soul and the kind of intoxicating, mojo-building grit that will electrify even the most hardened heart. Lattimore Brown's solid Hully Gully Twist and The Night Time is the Right Time, and Jimmy Church and Rodge Martin's Soul Shack are tighter than a Saturday night skirt and every bit as sexually charged. As we like to say none too often here at Uptown: Buy this. The Bullet Blues label was a post-war hotbed of talent, such that even B.B. King began his recording career here. King's two tunes, Miss Martha King and When Your Baby Packs Up and Goes, reveal that the level of musicianship B.B. had even in his earliest days was something to behold. The balance of the 25 tracks on offer here - ranging from scratchy to sublime and every blues-thang in between - are a must for collectors. Smokey Hogg, Joe Williams, St. Louis Jimmy and Walter Davis may not be household blues names, but without these cats breaking their collective backs paving the dirt road from the plantation to the bright lights of the big city, there would be no reason to even listen to the blues today
— Jeff Monk

Million Dollar Marxists

Zero Culture

(Stumble Records)

Website: http://www.milliondollarmarxists.com

With a name like Million Dollar Marxists, you may be expecting a politically-charged group lobbying for Bush's head on a platter. While this Ottawa band does touch on social commentary in its lyrics, it's also not the next Rage Against the Machine. M$M throw down fast and furious punk rock that gives nods to the ol' skool - Fugazi, Minor Threat and the Misfits, along with recent influences such as RFTC, Hellacopters and Murder City Devils. M$M bombard the speakers with tight power chords, a syncopated rhythm section and in-your-face gang vocals. In true punk fashion, Zero Culture clocks in under 25 minutes and leaves the kids wanting more of the band's no-bullshit, what-you-see-is-what-you-get sound. While misinformed kids born after 1985 think Sum 41 is the real thing, M$M delivers unrefined rock with plenty of angst and balls-out rebellion.
— Ashley McCurdy

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