album review
Cracker
Gentlemans Blues
By Rob Nichols
Listen your way through Gentlemen’s Blues from Cracker, and there is enough familiarity (ie Dylan-era Hammond B3’s and Ray Davies-sounding vocals) to make you keep going .
From the band that grew from the burned-out years of the band Camper Van Beethovan, leader David Lowery and his fulltime sidekicks Johnny Hickman and Bob Rupe (one of the founders of the band The Silos) have evolved from goofy early 1990’s alternative rock and roll into a band that echoes the Kinks. And Dylan. And alternative country bands consider Cracker an influence.
Gentleman’s Blues has an intelligence that is subtle and a sound that is homegrown. We hear intimate sounds, like pianos, buried steel guitar, handclaps and tambourines.
It makes the rock and roll band basics of guitars, snares and pumping bass sound, well, smarter. Lowery has always been a songwriter with a few lyrical quirks. Songs like “My Life Is Totally Boring Without You” and “I Want Out Of The Circus” are memorable for their titles alone. Much like the latest Grant Lee Buffalo release, this one gets better with repeated chances in the CD player.
Guests like Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, along with drummers Steve Jordan (Keith Richards X-Pensive Wino’s) and Phil Jones (played on nearly every track on Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever and on other Cracker releases) lend to the familiarity. Davey Faraghar (John Hiatt’s bass player and alum of earlier incarnations of Cracker) sings backup on six track.
Lowery’s voice and Hickman’s lyrics are the paste that holds the album together, through the circus flourishes (Out Of The Circus), country rock romps (The Good Life) and Todd Snider-ish gospel songs (Hallelujah). The album contains tiny pleasurable flourishes, like the “Soul Man” riff on the song “Seven Days”. It is a album of unexpected hooks.
If music and artistry was a competition, these boys have now recorded an album better, deeper and smarter than the latest from Sister Hazel, Matchbox20 and Hootie and the Blowfish. For whatever that’s worth. Same music genre, but more hidden fun.
Rob Nichols
Review – Cheap Trick – "Music For Hangovers"
Mini Spin
Music For Hangovers
Cheap Trick (Live)
By Rob Nichols
For a band that hit the big time with a sonically inferior live album recorded in Japan under adverse circumstances, the new live CD from Cheap Trick Music For Hangovers is a chance at a little redemption.
Taken from a four-night stand at the Metro in Chicago last spring, the band has put together not so much a greatest hits package but rather set of songs that remind us why Cheap Trick is so valuable.
On each of the four nights, the band would tackle one of their first four albums in it’s entirety, then play some more off other albums during encores. The first night, the band performed the entire Budokan album, followed on successive nights by performances of 1977’s Cheap Trick and In Color from the same year, and concluded the stand with a performance of Heaven Tonight, originally released in 1978.
Only four songs on the new live CD cold be considered hits, with performances of “Surrender”, “I Want You To Want Me”, “If You Want My Love” and “Dream Police”
While “Surrender” sounds great, the reason for this album to exist is to help us remember how a band should age. Cheap Trick revisits a bunch of songs 20 years old and reinvests themselves into the music, with a not so surprising rock and roll punch. They treat listeners to an album of guitar rock and roll.
Robin Zander’s sounds like only Robin Zander can sound, which is like a he’s been preserved in a 1978 time capsule, while drummer Bun E. Carlos is terrific. Guitarist and main songwriter Rick Nielson wrote some great pop songs and his playing sometimes get lost behind his image. Not here.
They sound good. They look good. We find some songs we used to know. It’s a nice package.
Mellencamp Rocks Crowd at Historic Columbus Theatre
Under the guise of recording the pilot episode of a new A&E Bio show called “Back Where We Started”, Mellencamp and his band made creaky, cozy and barely back-to-fire code Crump Theater in Columbus, Indiana their musical bunker for the night.
Opened in 1872, The Crump Theatre is like many old theatres throughout the country; it has seen the glory days and they aren’t today. Red carpet with black spots, theatre seats carted in for the occasion, covered by backseat upholstery from a 1960 Chevy, and the giant “R” and a “P” letters of the giant “Crump” venue sign out front of the theatre not lighting up. It’s a legendary Indiana palace in need of some love.
It was perfect.
There were no bad views in the place. The balcony hung halfway over the floor seats.
Mellencamp brought the show to Columbus, a small city that took things seriously. A couple city blocks closed off. Key to the city from the Mayor. TV cameras documenting it all. Plus a nice little auction of 75 pairs of tickets for the show raised $42,000 for local flood relief.
It became an evening that never felt false or posturing. The show was witnessed by Hoosiers who knew John’s history, mostly ignored the cameras, cheered for the obscure songs, rocked with the new ones and sang the rest.
After three beautiful and fun Mellencamp accapella songs from the Columbus North High School Choir opened the show, John walked right out with the band and set the tone. He informed the crowd that they needed to keep the camera flashes to a minimum because he was told it screws up the video. Then he added he didn’t really give a crap and the audience could do what they wanted, this was a rock and roll show.
A killer “Check it Out ” popped up early, along with “Paper in Fire”, and an acoustic set that featured “Minutes to Memories”, plus a medley of late 70’s, early 80’s songs he never sings (“To M.G. Wherever You May Be”, “Taxi Dancing” and a solo “I Need A Lover”).
It was during the acoustic interlude that Mellencamp admitted he didn’t remember the time they played at the Crump Theatre 30 years ago
“Who remembers 30 years ago?” he said.
Following the acoustic set, he roared the band back to life, with drummer Dane Clark and bass player Jon E. Gee building a great groove for the new “Life, Death Love and Freedom” album cuts. The songs sounded inspired live, with a blazing “Troubled Land ” the highlight, featuring chunking electric guitars from Andy York and 35-year band vet Mike Wanchic. The tune stood up to the pressure of following the anthemic “Small Town” and “Rain on the Scarecrow”.
A set closing run of “Crumblin’ Down” “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.”, “Jack & Diane” led to the encore of “The Authority Song”.
Really a remarkable show, made so with a combination of the historic, tiny, character-heavy theatre in the middle of a small town, a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer swooping into the joint with a concert and a tv show videotaping in hand, and an audience that knew how to make noise, have fun, and respect the moment. All without failing to raise the emotion level for Mellencamp to have what looked like a damn good time.
It was the small things too. Very little security led to a relaxed, trusting vibe. One lady in our row got caught before the show by one of the few security guys as she was in her seat, drinking a bottle of Bud Light. That would have been OK — if they had been selling bottles of Bud Light at the show. Whoops. The security man started to come closer to her.
At the very least, the bottle would be taken and she’d be reprimanded. Security came nearer. He reached out to the woman.
With a “hear ya’ go” nod, a quick smile, and a extended hand, he waited until she poured the beer into the cup, then he took the bottle and was gone.
See? Life ain’t always that tough.
Not with a so-old-it’s-historic venue, a great midwest rock band and, by the end of the night, a bunch of people realizing they had witnessed something unique.
Rock and roll done right. Somethin’ to see, baby.
For one night, John Mellencamp returned to a place he said he couldn’t remember. But for the 600 or so radio station winners, auction top-bidders and whoever else could wrangle a ticket for the September 23 show that was not sold to the public, it turned out to be a memorable night of up close, back-to-roots rock, bearing the unique Mellencamp stamp. Brashness. Compassion. Pride. Middle-finger-extended attitude. Loud, rough-edged rock and roll.