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REVIEWS BY JOE
WAWRZYNIAK
 TK
WEBB & THE VISIONS - Ancestor (www.tkwebbandthevisions.com)
A nicely moody and atmospheric 11 track serving
of supremely heavy, yet still tuneful bluesy rock,
this album does the trick in a pleasingly crisp,
brooding and dynamic way. TK Webb’s thick,
drawling voice, strong, fierce guitar playing,
and sharp, thoughtful songwriting make for a potent
and impressive triple whammy. The biting guitar
riffs slice and dice their way through the heady
churning basslines and constant steamrolling drums.
The snappy tempos and chunky hammering beats rarely
let up for a second, thereby ensuring that this
album remains a consistently funky, absorbing
and exciting listen from start to finish.
 PRIMA
DONNA - After Hours (www.acetate.com)
Sounding like some unholy cross between a retro
70's groovy glam-rock band and your basic snarly
punk outfit (this is a very good thing), Prima
Donna deliver a delicious sonic cocktail of fresh,
bubbly, catchy melodies, passionate singing, and
snappy playing. The arrangements not only offer
the expected sturdy drums, chugging basslines,
and ringing guitars, but also plenty of sweet
saxophone wailing as well. Better yet, the lyrics
are pretty profane and witty. The vocals are both
smooth and seductive in equal measure. Whether
it’s the tart sting of the gnarly opening
track “Soul Stripper,” or the unabashedly
raw sexuality of the racy “I Don’t
Want You to Love Me,” this album comes through
with one exquisitely awesome and rousing song
after another. A real fun and thrilling blast
of gloriously brash and sparkling rock coolness.
 THE
SUBWAYS - All or Nothing (www.thesubways.net)
Coming on with fierce and attention-grabbing go-for-it
energetic gusto with the pile-driving “Girls
& Boys,” this delightful indie rock
album delivers one tunefully crunchy’n’punchy
song after another with a winning blend of tight
playing, a certain sweet, but spiky punk attitude,
and a strong grasp of raw, yet still melodic musicianship.
The vocals are robust and passionate, the guitar
riffs are heavy and ferocious, the savagely pounding
drums lay down plenty of awesome steamrolling
beats, and the basslines provide lots of gritty
undertow. This British trio serve up a hot, tasty
and steaming plate of pure in-your-face rippin’
and exciting garage-rock racket that totally hits
the spot with often stirring and always satisfying
results.
TWILIGHT PROCESSION (www.myspace.com/twilightprocession)
Getting off to a neatly humming start with the
arrestingly mellow “Diver Down,” this
album flows along at a pleasingly relaxed clip
while delivering plenty of delicious shimmering
grooves and ringing melodies. The cool, reassuring
vocals certainly hit the spot. The funky guitars,
sturdy drums, and soothing basslines likewise
do the trick. The sensitive, insightful lyrics
and overall upbeat sensibility are both refreshing
and engaging in equal measure. A nice little album.
VOLUNTEERS - Spectrophilia (www.myspace.com/thevolunteers)
Okay, so I had a typically rough, grueling and
exhausting day at work. Friday night, in fact.
Friday’s are just brutal. So, after a hard
day’s work I decide to give this particular
CD a whirl and get lost in the music. Well, a
few seconds into the groovy opening song “Rock
and Roll (Will Kill You,)” I flat-out forgot
all about work. The crunchy guitars, neatly chugging
basslines, and smooth steamrolling drums swept
me away with their crisp and constant sonic aplomb.
The raspy vocals and sharp, profane lyrics likewise
won me over. I also totally got taken by the cool-diggin’
grooves of such choice tasty tracks as “Get
on the Bomb,” “Monsta,” the
supremely funky “Feel It,” and “Rock
to Rock.” This is the type of straight-up
meat and potatoes rock music that just gets right
down to gnarly brass tacks and does the trick
in a pleasingly dynamic and unpretentious way.
 ED
HARCOURT - The Beautiful Lie (www.edharcourt.com)
Getting off to a weirdly haunting spacey groove
with “Whirlwind in D Minor,” this
gloriously offbeat and melodic album offers
up one strikingly singular song after another.
Ed Harcourt’s ghostly whisper of a raspy
voice and lucid, barbed, incisive songwriting
make for a formidable double act. Better still,
the arrangements are gorgeously lush, rich and
intricately harmonic, with Harcourt’s
stately piano playing perfectly meshing with
an eclectic array of instruments that include
a trumpet, violin, Spanish guitar, and even
a Hammond organ. The basic sensibility is sad
and dejected, with an added pinch of wry humor
and rueful introspection to keep things fresh
and interesting throughout. An absolutely smashing
one-of-a-kind quirky beauty of an album.
SILVER SUMMIT (Language Of Stone)
The weirdness continues with this arrestingly
bizarre and off-kilter, yet still hypnotic and
harmonic sonic excursion into sheer aural trippiness.
Sondra Sun-Odeon’s beautifully eerie vocals
cast a wickedly alluring spell on the listener
while the gradual tempos and trudging clip-clop
beats likewise mesmerize you with their deceptively
laid-back power. Whether it’s the supremely
hazy’n’lazy buzz of “The Door,”
or the equally enticing languidness of “Water’s
Edge,” this album offers one tasty track
after another. The flavorsome arrangements evoke
a funky Middle Eastern vibe with their snazzy
use of sitar, gong, and Tibetan chanting. A
real groovy headtrip of an album.
 TAB
THE BAND - Long Weekend (www.tabtheband.com)
Sounding like some retro 70's style scruffy
blues rock band, this album shakes, rattles
and rumbles out 10 songs worth of insanely catchy
and groovy sonic bossness. Getting off to a
rousing start with the punchy “Backseat
Lover,” the band deliver one beefy and
thundering slab of white-hot throbbing rock’n’roll
punch and pow after another. The lively full-throated
vocals, the swaggering basslines, the huge and
ripping guitar riffs, and the nonstop steamrolling
drums ensure that the snappy tempos and massive
hammering beats don’t let up for a minute.
This is no-bullshit straight-up meat and potatoes
good-time rock done with plenty of fiery gusto
and a winning dearth of needless hoity-toity
pretense. In other words, it’s the total
funky bomb, baby!
RICHARD D’ANJOLELL - NC*28465 (www.musicrd.com)
This nicely folksy and tuneful pop-rock album
mines a pleasantly engaging line in catchy,
dynamic melodies, sunny singing, and upbeat
lyrics. The vocals convey a winning sense of
sheer infectious joy and vigor. The arrangements
are likewise quite tasty and dynamic, with ringing
guitars, steady drums, and smooth basslines
delivering plenty of snappy tempos and constant
bouncy beats. Moreover, there’s a sweet
feeling of honesty and sincerity evident throughout
that’s impossible to either resist or
dislike. A nifty little treat.
 WHITE
ROSE - Songs for Summer (www.myspace.com/thewhiteroseband)
Offering a nicely cheerful and tuneful 11 song
selection, this album wins the listener over
with its engaging mix of bouncy melodies, peppy
vocals, snappy arrangements, and an infectiously
upbeat sensibility. The chipper vocals radiate
a positively infectious sense of joy and youthful
enthusiasm, the playing is crisp, tight and
energetic, the tempos are constantly brisk,
the beats hammer along with driving efficiency,
and the lyrics are very sweet and pleasant.
A nice little treat.
THE REAL MCKENZIES - Off the Leash (www.realmckenzies.com)
Hey pal, are you ready to hear some insanely
crunchy’n’punchy Scottish Celtic
punk rock music complete with roaring bagpipes,
rippin’ guitars, relentless jackhammer
drums, churning basslines, and a lead singer
who belts out the vocals with a great strong
and unmistakable Scottish accent? Well, that’s
exactly what you get with this simply stupendous
slab of spirited sass and spunk from these hardcore
berserk hellions from Vancouver, Canada. For
those looking for punk music that’s different,
original and flat-out kick-ass exciting, well
then this is the album for you.
 BEL
AIR - Pole to Pole (www.myspace.com/belairtheband)
Offering up 12 tracks worth of pleasingly mellow’n’melodic
laid-back and reflective soft rock, this album
gets off to a nicely soothing start with the
gently lulling opening song “Need to Believe.”
The basic sound is folksy country suffused with
a touchingly substantial amount of regret and
melancholy, the vocals are warm and affecting,
the arrangements spare, tight and harmonic,
and the songwriting clear, sharp and thoughtful.
The bouncy acoustic guitars and sweet harmonica
playing add a little extra tasty’n’tuneful
flavor to the already enticing and engaging
mix, thereby ensuring that listening to this
album overall rates as a very pleasant and satisfying
experience.
DVD
X-RAY VISIONS (www.microcosmpublishing.com)
This wonderfully vibrant and joyous documentary
offers a tantalizing portrait of the X-Ray Café,
a legendary nightclub in Portland, Oregon that
became an insanely hoppin’ cultural epicenter
for alternative rock bands, assorted underground
artists, and general all-out fringe nonconformist
oddballs from 80's up until the 90's. The film
traces the club’s history from its start
as the UFO Café before it became the X-Ray
Café. Club owners Tres and Benjamin Arthur
Ellis are interviewed along with a diverse array
of regular patrons, employees, and various acts
that performed at the X-Ray Café. The X-Ray
Café was the sort of all-inclusive anything
goes place where people of all ages were welcomed
with open arms: several folks actually taught
language lessons in the club and an evangelist
gave spankings to people looking to be cleansed
of their sins. To its credit, this documentary
paints a warts’n’all portrait of the
club: beloved regular Crystal Bullitt sadly committed
suicide at a tragically young age, a riot broke
out in front of the place, and Tres and Benjamin
unfortunately weren’t very good at handling
money. The song “American Pie” was
appropriately enough sung at the X-Ray Cafe’s
closing night; this particular moment in the movie
manages to be both strangely uplifting and absolutely
heart-breaking at the same time. Of course, there’s
lots of terrific footage of numerous acts performing
live on stage at the X-Ray Café and the
soundtrack smokes in no uncertain terms. What
this lovely and delightful documentary manages
to do exceptionally well is totally nail just
what an incredibly special, unique and magical
place the X-Ray Café was. It achieves this
goal by simply allowing the many interview subjects
to relate in their own words their thoughts and
feelings about the club. The net result is one
of the best, most engrossing and remarkable rock
documentaries of recent vintage.
 STARK
- Put It To Your Head (ww.starknyc.com)
A delightfully crunchy’n’punchy 10
song explosion of pleasingly raw’n’raucous
punk rock sass and spirit, this album really gets
your blood boiling and your ass shakin’
with its boundless go-for-it vitality and fierce,
aggressive, yet still melodic sound. Lead singer
Lani Ford growls out the sharp, stinging lyrics
with deliciously sexy’n’snarly aplomb.
The grinding guitars, churning basslines, and
jackhammer drums ensure that the snappy tempos
and driving beats never let up for a minute. All
the songs shake, rattle and rumble with substantial
flair and gusto to spare; highlights include the
rousing opening track “18 Again,”
the ferociously kickin’ “Nothing’s
Wrong,” the chilling “Co-Dependent,”
and the wonderfully thrilling full-throttle scorcher
“Disturbed.” Things quiet down and
end on a beautifully touching note with the lovely
acoustic ballad “Butterfly.” An excellent
and very impressive album.
 THE
MICKEYS - Walk Along (www.themickeys.net)
Oh yes, rootsy country folk music. You can’t
go wrong with this stuff. The gentle, lulling,
soothing melodies that sway and soar with exquisitely
dulcet grace and harmony. The lovely natural
sound of an acoustic guitar along with such
equally beautiful instruments as banjo, dobro,
and mandolin. Moreover, identical twin sister
singers Amy Sherman and Julie Peebles possess
two of the most gorgeously sweet and commanding
angelic voices imaginable; they sing so well
together that you swear they’re joined
at the hip. Add smart, insightful songwriting,
clear, spare, fabulously unadorned arrangements,
and plenty of achingly pure straightforward
lyrics. All these sterling ingredients combine
to create one hell of a fine and impressive
sparkling jewel of a debut album.
JIMMY REEVES - The Axe & The Tree (www.myspace.com/jimmyreevesmusic)
Thoughtful and touching in tone, lulling and
melodic in sound, with a wistfully arresting
air to it, this debut EP CD makes an immediate
beeline for your heart and frequently hits the
moving mark in a most impressive and straightforward
way. Jimmy Reeves’ clear, commanding voice
and smart, reflective songwriting deliver a
strong double whammy punch. Moreover, the arrangements
are rich, intricate and harmonic, with the steady
tempos and subdued, yet urgent beats keep things
cooking from start to finish. A nice little
item.
 THE
HEISE BROTHERS - III: The Return of the Heise
Brothers (www.theheisebrothers.com)
Coming on strong with a perfectly punchy and
melodic bunch of extremely catchy and enjoyable
songs, this album makes for a hugely satisfying
listening experience. The robust, passionate
vocals (Nelson Heise sings with tremendous brio
and conviction), snappy tempos, charging beats,
ringing guitars, and persistent drums keep things
steady and tuneful throughout. Better still,
the songwriting is pleasingly smart, thoughtful
and mature, the production crisp and polished,
and the arrangements tight, rich and dynamic.
Plus these guys sing about religion without
getting all sappy or heavy-handed about it.
A real treat.
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