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

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

August 14, 2008


	Get your copy! Find the Uptown Magazine pickup location nearest you.

2008-08-14

Afroman Waiting to Inhale (Hungry Hustler Records) F Website: http://www.hungryhustlerrecords.com	"Because I Got High" is no excuse anymore, Afroman. I don't know what to say about this album, except that it's the aural equivalent of finding out you have AIDS, cancer and the Ebola virus all at once. Just... don't. Stay away. Bad. — Sam Thompson

The Boxmasters

(Vanguard Records)

Website: http://www.theboxmasters.com

The Boxmasters are the current vehicle of artistic impression for Mr. Bad Santa/"Flowers is purty" Slingblade himself, Billy Bob Thornton. Acquiring the new handle of "Bud" for this project, Thornton and musical deputies J.P. Andrew and Michael Wayne Butler have created a two-disc set that resurrects the spirit and, of course, twang, of classic greaser country music. The covers album (Theirs) hits hard with slippery renditions of the likes of Charlie Louvin, Mel Tillis and Mike Nesmith. Original Boxmasters compositions on the Ours disc drive over the same neon-lit musical back roads with the extra added attraction of Mr. Thornton's cinematic and darkly comic lyrics.
— Jeff Monk

Goldfrapp

Seventh Tree

(EMI Records)

Website: http://www.emimusic.com

On the fourth release by the former "disco beast" duo Goldfrapp, singer Alison Goldfrapp proves she's much more than a pretty, vacant face. Her whispery incantations and sexy growls create a gorgeous wall of sound that is the aural equivalent to quicksilver. How can a track with a title such as Eat Yourself sounds so heavenly? It must be the Optigon. The other side of this coin is the magnificent Will Gregor: Pick any song here and listen to his willful, sky-high compositional creativity. The leaps and bounds he establishes are mind-blowing, and set a new standard for baroque pop epics.
— Jeff Monk

The Grascals

Keep On Walkin'

(Rounder Records)

Website: http://www.grascals.com

If you are as amazed as I am by the sheer number of contemporary bluegrass albums released every festival season, let this dozen-tracker from Nashville-based quintet The Grascals be our new benchmark of exciting, neo-trad BG fervor. Sounding like their influences without aping them, these boys prove it's sometimes best to wear your heart on your brocade vest when adding cover versions to your albums. The Only Daddy That'll Walk The Line and Today I Started Loving You Again shows their respect for the past - and adds an extra notch to their bullet belts for going there.
— Jeff Monk

Tift Merritt

Another Country

(EMI Records)

Website: http://www.tiftmerritt.com

Anyone who tries to convince you that a pretty face will never trump genuine talent hasn't heard the new album by U.S. country crooner Tift Merritt. With looks to spare - the now-defunct music rag Harp Magazine really couldn't get enough of her - the singer/songwriter sounds like she could have been served by having this album recorded at a lower altitude. Her breathy renditions are unlistenable. Every track is another airy bit of folk-country blather that is perhaps more embarrassing for estimable cats such as Charlie Sexton and Doug Pettibone, who clearly needed the paycheques.
— Jeff Monk

Ron Sexsmith

Exit Strategy of the Soul

(Yeproc/Warner Music)

Website: http://www.ronsexsmith.com

Canada's melancholy and perpetually disappointed world-class singer/songwriter never shorts his fans the way the world and personal relationships seem to betray the Sexsmith ideal. Often credited for his lyrical insight, Ronboy also continually crafts brilliant pop songs - haunting, fragile melodies framed by his signature piano and guitar work. This time out, producer Martin Terefe (Cobblestone Runway) adds horn arrangements recorded in Cuba that sound like a Burt Bacharach or Fifth Dimension production from the '60s and provide a widescreen soundscape for Sexsmith's often bittersweet inward-looking musings.
— Jim Millican

The Ramblin' Ambassadors

Vista Cruiser Country Squire

(Mint)

B+

Website: http://www.ramblinambassadors.com

True to form, Calgary's Ramblin' Ambassadors have produced another long-awaited album that offers a full fuel tank of twangtastic instrumental goodness. Fans of this kind of wordless bombast have high expectations and the Ram Asses have got their collective fingers on the pulse of what makes this kind of music evocative and fun to listen to. On-loan Huevos Rancheros guitar boss Brent Cooper turns up the heat and rips into the requisite reverberations, and once you have this top fuel 12-tracker's slicks warmed up, it peels out at full throttle. Features future hits Speed Wobble, Cabbage Diablo and a cover of The Sadies' Rat Creek.
— Jeff Monk

NQ Arbuckle

XOK

(Six Shooter Records)

C+

Website: http://www.sixshooterrecords.com

This quartet must give thanks every day for two of life's generosities: college radio airplay and Canadian content rules. Sure, NQ Arbuckle is a passable alt/insurgent/indie country whatever band that makes the kind of dusty homages that send certain radio programmers and fans into heavy-lidded, near-orgasmic reverie. Subtract the fanboy overratedness and you've got an album of likeable, quasi-rough Canuck roots music that really breaks no new ground. You've heard the charming My Baby on the university radio channels and the rest (especially the über-melodic Marco Polo) are bearable in their own unsurprising way.
— Jeff Monk

Matt Mays and El Torpedo

Terminal Romance

(Sonic Records/Warner)

Website: http://www.mattmays.com

Disc of the Week

Why not just file Terminal Romance under 'Outstanding' and forget about genres and labels? If you must have some frame of reference for the latest from Matt Mays, imagine a record that seamlessly manages to blend The Traveling Wilburys, Bruce Springsteen, ZZ Top and The Ramones into a cohesive whole that's as appealing to alt-country rebels as it is to indie rockers. Album opener Building a Boat is pure rock, while Digital Eyes would fit into a Roy Orbison mix CD. Tall Trees is getting airplay on local country stations, Rock Ranger Record is retro-punk with a Blitzkrieg Bop beat, and Shining Eyes is a dreamy singalong the brings the best of Tom Petty to mind. In short, it's all good. Get Terminal Romance - it should be your new soundtrack to summer.
— Mike Warkentin

Current Issue • Archive • What’s Up • Contact • Media Kit • Contests