Thursday, October 30, 2008

Casual Listening Halloween Extra!

Casual Listening

Extra!

October 31, 2008

Halloween Special!

This week, my mother-in-law and I decided to pick the scariest new release we could find to share with you. By consensus between us, this week’s scariest music is:

Kill the Client – Cleptocracy

You’ll understand when you hear it.

Listen to Kill the Client “Divide & Conquer

Casual Listening -- Susan Tedeschi, Black Milk, Snow Patrol

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

October 31, 2008

! Susan Tedeschi – Back to the River (blues)

Susan Tedeschi owns what is arguably the best blues voice to be found anywhere. The album is a sometimes funky set of blues-rock and soul that showcases her vocal pyrotechnics. If you’ve never heard of Tedeschi, you need to listen to this immediately.

Listen to Susan Tedeschi “Talking About

* Dozan – Introducing Dozan (World)

A small ensemble of strings and voices that presents the beautiful sound of Jordanian music. Choral harmonies deliver expressive, heart-tugging songs over a background of oud and hand drums.

Listen to Dozan “Ya Jarati

Bloc Party ­– Intimacy (rock)

A rhythm-heavy ball of static electricity. Layers of samples capped with frenetic vocals. Nine Inch Nails fans will feel at home with this one.

Listen to Bloc Party “Ares

Black Milk – Tronic (rap)

Black Milk creates a powerful, fresh soundscape for his rhymes. Seriously heavy backbeats with accents of trumpet, organ, and outer space electronics. Lyrics never stray far from creative self-promotion.

Listen to Black Milk’s Give the Drummer Sum

Snow Patrol – A Hundred Million Suns (country)

Rock backdrops support subtle songcraft. A basic lineup of guitar-bass-drums-and-sometimes-piano is doused in reverb, with an understated vocal finesse that sets it apart from other bands in this style. Snow Patrol is radio-ready, but likely to wear better than the majority of what’s getting airplay these days.

Listen to Snow Patrol “Take Back the City

In the blog: Halloween Special – this week’s scariest new release

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

Check out the blog at http://casuallistening.blogspot.com . To subscribe or unsubscribe, or just to say hi, send an e-mail to jeffpinzino@gmail.com.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Casual Listening - Aterciopelados, AC/DC, Hank Williams III

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

October 24, 2008

! Aterciopelados – Rio (Spanish rock)

Aterciopelados play a sort of acid rock en espaƱol – artsy, psychedelic, and immensely hip. Guitar, bass, drums, and tenor-range vocals are refracted through a prism of sonic effects, and augmented with everything from tabla and ocarina to Tuvan-style singing. This one will split your mind open.

Listen to Aterciopelados “Gratis

* Bohren & Der Club of Gore – Dolores (New Age)

Breathe deeply and empty your body of tension with this cycle of slow, atmospheric pieces. Electric organ, vibraphone, and spare drums characterize the sound. Bohren & Der Club of Gore has invented a new genre that is the opposite of heavy metal: weightless metal.

Listen to Bohren & Der Club of Gore: Schwarze Biene (Black Maja)

* Eleanor Murray ­– For Cedar (folk)

Simple as it comes – a sweet-voiced woman with a guitar. Solitary, melancholy, beautiful.

Listen to Eleanor Murray’s “For Cedar” here

AC/DC – Black Ice (rawk)

This legendary guitar rock combo has been scoring high on the bombast-o-meter for decades. Their newest album is true to form. Shuffle it on your iPod, and you’d mistake the songs for deep cuts from earlier albums. This is a worthy AC/DC record, although I’d skip the trip to Wal-Mart and listen to it for free on their website:

Listen to AC/DC’s Black Ice here

Hank Williams III – Damn Right, Rebel Proud (country)

Serious country with a raw edge and attitude. His foul mouth dressing-down of the Grand Ole Opry is classic. This is alternative country in the same sense that his grandfather was an alternative to the highbrow country of his own day.

Listen to Hank Williams IIIThe Grand Ole Opry” (explicit)

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

Check out the blog at http://casuallistening.blogspot.com . To subscribe or unsubscribe, or just to say hi, send an e-mail to jeffpinzino@gmail.com.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Casual Listening - Buena Vista Social Club, Little Big Town, Lucinda Willimas

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

October 18, 2008

! Buena Vista Social Club – Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall (world)

A decade after the fact, you can finally hear what all the fuss about BVSC was about. The pristine production of the original studio release made these masters of Cuban son sound like a museum piece instead of a dance party. The concert recording has the hot sound and live energy that characterize the roots of salsa. If BVSC is still on your “I should listen to that someday” list, listen today, and listen to them live.

Hear the difference yourself!

Here’s the studio version of “El Cuarto de Tula

Now listen to the live version of Buena Vista Social Club “El Cuarto de Tula

* Little Big TownA Place to Land (country)

Hipster bands have capitalized on some pretty unusual influences, but I never thought I’d see the day that someone could make Fleetwood Mac sound cool again. Little Big Town poses larger-than-life vocal harmonies in a rootsy tableau with country overtones. An easy listen that manages to avoid being Easy Listening.

Listen to Little Big Town “Evangeline

Menahan Street Band – Make the Road By Walking (jazz)

An all-star New York big band with veterans of funky groups like the Dap Kings and Antibalas. Surprisingly, it’s not the rhythm but the texture that’s the compelling part of this record, with horn-heavy instrumental soul laced with vibraphone and keyboards.

Listen to Menahan Street Band “Tired of Fighting

Lucinda Williams ­– Little Honey (rock)

Williams’ unpolished vocal style has a love-it-or-hate-it appeal; I’m definitely in the love camp. A solid album of literate honky-tonk, including a duet with Elvis Costello and a random AC/DC cover

Listen to Lucinda Williams “Tears of Joy

Shugo Tokumaru – Exit (world)

A quirky gem of Japanese pop. The instrumentation is expansive – xylophone, harmonium, steel drum, recorder – and the vocals are breezy. I can guarantee you that you haven’t heard anything quite like this before.

Listen to Shugo Tokumaru “Green Rain

Martin Sexton – Solo (folk)

Sexton is an artist who takes the singer part of singer-songwriter seriously. He has a resonant voice moves freely from bluesy to sensitive to falsetto. The album is a live set from a recent tour of folk festivals.

Listen to Martin Sexton “Diggin Me

Armin van Buuren – A State of Trance 2008 (dance)

Two hour-long mixes of swirly electronic sounds. Put on a strobe light and dance yourself into another state of consciousness.

Listen to Armin van Buuren “A State of Trance 2008 CD2

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

Check out the blog at http://casuallistening.blogspot.com . To subscribe or unsubscribe, or just to say hi, send an e-mail to jeffpinzino@gmail.com.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Casual Listening -- Pretenders, Bob Dylan, Juana Molina

Casual Listening

a review of cool new music

by Jeff Pinzino

October 10, 2008

* Pretenders – Break Up the Concrete (rock)

Forget the three songs you’ve heard in endless rotation on classic rock radio. Pretenders have rediscovered the jagged soul of rock & roll and etched it into this record. They’ve traded in the Hall of Fame for the garage, and pumped up their sound with strong shots of blues and country. Possibly the best work they’ve ever done.

Listen to Pretenders “Boots of Chinese Plastic

* Bob Dylan – Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 (folk)

Bob Dylan’s outtakes are better than 99% of other songwriter’s best. This series covers the period from 1989 to the present, when most agree he resumed making excellent music. It’s mostly simple and straightforward songs, some solo, others with a band, but with the singing in the spotlight. He’s at a point in his life where he’s got something to say and nothing to prove, which makes for some powerful music.

Listen to Bob Dylan “Red River Shore

Eccodek – Shivaboom (world)

A global mosaic of beats, vocals, drums, and instruments ranging from piano to kora. Serious influences from Africa, India and Jamaica, with bursts of American techno.

Listen to samples of Eccodek here.

Juana Molina ­– Un Dia (experimental)

Trippy. Molina’s repetitive patterns of affected vocals and percussion have a hypnotic quality. Her music has a global sensibility that seems to emanate from a parallel universe.

Listen to Juana Molina “Los Hongos De Marosa

* highly recommended

! highest recommendation

Check out the blog at http://casuallistening.blogspot.com . To subscribe or unsubscribe, or just to say hi, send an e-mail to jeffpinzino@gmail.com.