Robyn Hitchcock: City Winery, New York, NY (11/19/2016)

 Ex-Soft Boys/Egyptians front man Robyn Hitchcock has been making music for almost forty-years. It's something of a surprise that he's as vital a live performer as he is. He's been a troubadour in the lone-man-with-an-acoustic-guitar sense for well over twenty of those forty years. His latest album The Man Upstairs (Yep Roc) is something of an odd summation of his acoustic leanings and where he comes from as an artist.

Hitchcock performed a few songs from the record (namely "San Fancisco Patrol") as well as some of his most well-known songs ("Balloon Man", "One Long Pair Of Eyes" & "Queen Elvis"). Australian country artist (and frequent collaborator as of late) Emma Swift join Robyn on harmony vocals for a few songs as well. He even dipped deeper into the back catalog with "Uncorrected Personality Traits" and "Trilobite" as well.

At 63, Robyn is as an engaging a performer as ever. He also makes himself very accessible after the shows, hanging out at the merch table, patiently signing anything for anyone.

A nice show by Robyn, as always.

Thanks to Doug Mashkow of CD Island and The New Music Scene.

Gene Clark: Two Sides To Every Story (High Moon Records/2013)

The late, great Ex-Byrd Gene Clark never quite had the record sales to reflect the quality of his work. The soulfulness of his material was nearly without equal and the depth of feeling of his voice is truly exceptional. Recorded in 1976 on Clark's own dime, and originally released on RSO Records in 1977, on his fifth solo album Two Sides To Every Story, even if his muse seems to come and go, Clark is fine form.

The album's best original songs; "Silent Crusade", "Past Addresses", "Kansas City Southern", "Home Run King" - the album's lone single -  and "Lonely Saturday" all plainly lay bare Clark's greatest strengths. His ability to simplify his lyrics and still be somehow amazingly poetic are over these tracks. The covers of "Give My Love To Marie" and "In The Pines" are well-executed.

Clark is aided by plenty of country rock luminaries; Emmylou Harris, Doug Dillard and Jeff "Skunk" Baxter are all well-accounted for. The album was produced by Thomas Jefferson Kaye who produced Clark's previous album, the legendary No Other album. However, whereas No Other was wonderfully excessive, Two Sides To Every Story is a fairly scaled-back affair.

Reissued in 2013 on High Moon Records for Record Store Day in a limited-numbered pressing of 5,000 copies. It comes with a beautiful twenty-four page booklet and an MP3 download card twenty-one bonus tracks including a full set from 1975 and a twelve-minute promotional interview from 1974. However, it does not contain the album itself, only the twenty-one bonus tracks.

A beautiful package and a must have for fans of The Byrds, Gene Clark or classic country rock from he 1970's.

Here's the video review:

Off!: The First Four EPs (Vice Records/2010)

Off! is a Los Angeles hardcore punk rock supergroup. Formed by Keith Morris of Black Flag and Circle Jerks and Steve McDonald of Redd Kross, Mario Rubalcaba of Rocket From The Crypt and Dimitri Coats from Burning Brides in 2009. The band recorded and released The First Four Eps 7” box set in 2010 on Vice Records.

The First Four EPs box set contains four 7" EP records, a very nice booklet with artwork from Raymond Pettibon and a download code. Produced by Coates and engineered by McDonald, the release is sixteen songs in just eighteen minutes. The package itself is beautiful. The tracks themselves are uniformly excellent. The music is simultaneously simple yet challenging. It's simply a must-have release for fans of classic punk rock.

Very most highly recommended. 

Here's the video review:

Teenage Fanclub: Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY (10/15/2016)

Scotland's Teenage Fanclub have just released their tenth studio album, Here. Their tour stopped at New York's Bowery Ballroom and I eagerly attended the show. It was my sixth time seeing TFC and second time seeing them at Bowery Ballroom. I'd first seen the band in 1993 at CBGB's. Their sound has changed considerably since then - with each album the band seems to ditch the Big Star/Jesus And Mary Chain influence more and more and they've become closer to being Crosby, Stills & Nashesque.

Norman Blake, Gerard Love & Raymond McGinley still deliver the goods. The band were in good form and their twenty-song set contained plenty of old favorites (including "Star Sign", "The Concept", "Radio" and "About You"). The band started the set off appropriately enough with "Start Again" and closed with their epic debut single "Everything Flows". In between the band played newish and genuinely new material (including the fine new single "I'm In Love").

The subtlety of the band's material is a something of a strength unto-itself, and the understatedness of the songs reveal themselves over-time. Which, if you're unfamiliar with, may not reveal themselves immediately, especially in a live setting. Thankfully for me, I knew all of these songs very well and wasn't clinging to a hope that the band was going to break out into a loud medley of material from their Bandwagonesque album. I was however disappointed that they didn't play "What You Do To Me", "Hang On" and even "Sparky's Dream", but I'll get over this some day.

Sneakers: Sneakers (Omnivore Recordings/2014)

North Carolina's Sneakers are known for containing Chris Stamey and Will Rigby of the dB's and Mitch Easter of Let's Active. Before those people formed their respective bands, they released some of the most challenging and well-recorded independent Power Pop records of the 1970's.

Released on RSD of 2014 in a limited pressing of 1,500 on clear vinyl by Omnivore Recordings, their self-titled debut 7" six-song EP is now a nine-song 10' EP. The songs have a very samey-quality to them; they're all very good but none are immediately memorable and none sticks with you for very long. In that regard, it begs you to return to it since it's obviousness is initially elusive. And the returns, are not diminishing.

So, for fans of The dB's, Let's Active and Power Pop in general.

Here's the video review:

Damon Albarn: Democrazy (Honest Jon's/2003)

Damon Albarn, he of Blur and Gorillaz fame, did what many touring musicians do. He recorded demos of songs in various hotel rooms across the United States. However, unlike the majority of them, he went ahead and released these sketch-like recordings, warts and all.

Recorded in 2003 on Blur's Think Tank tour, these fourteen songs on two ten-inch disks all contain a humble-sounding listenable quality. But this isn't the sort of thing you're going to return to very many times. Drum programs, acoustic guitar, organ and vocals are what you hear. And the songs were recorded simply as just a means of capturing an idea on tape to be worked on further.

Of these songs, "I Need A Gun" went on to become known as "Dirty Harry" by Gorillaz. The remainder apparently never went further than the demo stage.

The artwork on the vinyl itself is beautiful and the die-cut packaging is very nice. So it is collectible for this and this alone. Otherwise, for Damon Albarn/Blur/Gorillaz completeists only.

Here's the video review:

Buzzcocks: Irving Plaza, New York, NY (10/1/2016)

Manchester (Bolton), England's The Buzzcocks have been touring to celebrate the band's 40 anniversary. The band played Irving Plaza earlier this month, and by and large the show was a success. Given the longevity of the band (read: age) I wasn't expecting them to be so full of natural intensity. However the band gave credible, excellent readings of the majority of all the classics. The sound, as it generally always is at Irving Plaza was wonderful. It's still my favorite venue for rock shows in Manhattan.

Just a few songs in, it was crystal clear as to why they're the acknowledged pioneers of Pop Punk. The busy yet efficient drums parts, decidedly individual yet lovelorn lyrics, thoroughly melodic basslines, the crystalline crunch of the guitars and the harmony vocals of leaders Steve Diggle and Pete Shelley. Their brand of  Ramones wall of guitars with their own romantic concerns spawned the likes of The Descendants, Hüsker Dü, Green Day and Blink 182. 

The band performed a twenty-one song set in just over ninety-minutes. The classics "What Do I Get?", "I Don't Mind", "Ever Fallen In Love", "Promises", "Love You More", "Autonomy" and "Orgasm Addict" were all performed and sung-along-to-loudly by the crowd (whose ages seem to range from teenage to retiree). My favorite songs of the evening were "You Say You Don't Love Me", "Why She's A Girl From The Chainstore" and the sublime "Harmony In My Head". The best performance was the bands' trance-y "Moving Away From The Pulsebeat".

A great show from a legendary band.