decoy spoon
J.J. Cale – Naturally (1971)
Even in this era of fashionable ageing-rocker-mega-tours, Cale has always remained a kind of mystery man, despite a cult status that could easily be capitalised on. Instead, he has chosen the quiet dignity of going about his bluesy business outside the parameters expected of musicians of his ilk. He has become a timeless enigmatic Mr. Cool that the Claptons and Knopflers can only envy and do covers of…
Lhasa de Sela – Lhasa (2009)
Over the course of twelve years, American-born/ Mexican-raised/ Montreal-based singer-songwriter Lhasa de Sela released three quietly sparkling albums of brooding balladry that oscillate between atmospheric folk/ blues/ country/ with flights of French chanson and slow lava-like tango. The beauty of these albums doesn’t hide itself in elliptical shades, it seems nakedly open to immediate appreciation via the most basic components…
Beach House – Teen Dream (2010)
Victoria’s voice is great, it reminds me of Cat Power or Martha Wainwright, if they were born as Jim Morrison. Which may sound weird. But there is a swagger to her voice. There is mystery to it. Like Jimbo, there are worlds in that voice. She twists some of those getaway notes in deeper, lower registers, crooning lyrics that would make The Lizard King proud…
The Deluxe Treatment Disintegrates…
After seeing Deluxe Editions of the albums Three Imaginary Boys, Seventeen Seconds, Faith, Pornography, The Head on the Door and Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, The Cure are (finally!) set to release a Deluxe Edition of their legendary 1989 album Disintegration…
The xx – xx (2009)
It’s like meeting a bunch of cool dudes at a bar, and somehow you end up in their car, soundlessly cruising through empty streets snug in the backseat, and they have this cool music coming out of the old stereo, and not much is being said, but you feel you can trust them because they’re not driving too fast and the tones of the keyboard are like protective coloured skins…
Rowland S. Howard, R.I.P.
As guitarist/songwriter with Melbourne’s Boys Next Door, who then morphed into The Birthday Party (then on to collaborations with Lydia Lunch, to Crime and the City Solution, and These Immortal Souls, and then on to solo efforts), he was the man beside Nick Cave who served up the frightening sounds that scraped the back curtains with feedback and laid the sonic landscape…
Billy Joel – The Stranger (1977)
The album, constructed with the help of legendary producer Phil Ramone, remains one of his best sellers. And he was kind of big for listless suburban teens, like myself, who drunkenly sang along to his tunes at parties with friends. He wasn’t shredding any guitars or thundering any drum-kits or speaking in-code about drugs, but it fit right in with whatever else we were grooving to at the time…
Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles (2008)
By placing digital breadcrumbs of sound throughout the album, they manage to draw you in, as if sleepwalking into a black hole. And as you pass through the event horizon everything is bleached white, and you adjust your eyes, making out a new soft country made of beats ripped straight from the ancient sound-banks of the Commodore 64 and the Amiga 500…
The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Electric Ladyland (1968)
No matter who comes along now, whenever they try to make one of those ‘Greatest Guitarists of All Time’ lists, the #1 spot will always be reserved for Jimi Hendrix. It’s one of the immutable laws of Rock. Which is how it should be. Hendrix redefined the guitar (and the blues) like no one else. He achieved sounds that still mystify guitarists today. ‘How the hell did he do that?’ But this designation often overshadows and negates Hendrix’s other skills as singer and songwriter and lyricist and producer…
Lemmy: The Movie
Still rockin’ into his 60’s, Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister is now the subject of new documentary – Lemmy: The Movie…
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