Cold War Kids - Loyalty To Loyalty. Love it. Minimal, and bare-bones, but intense and surprisingly melodic. They've got the raw retro R&B sound of a darker Black Keys but with a wider dynamic range and more depth in the lyrics. In addition, they use the same lo-treble, high-reverb guitar sound that The Walkmen use, which is cool thing to have. I wish that one song didn't remind me of "Taking Care Of Business", though. Still, great stuff. Thank you, RobC for the tip.
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Os Mutantes - Everything is Possible. It's impossible to know where to start with a band that's been around as long as these guys have, so I got a best-of collection. Most of the words are in Portuguese (I assume, since they're from Brazil), so I don't know what the songs are about, but the music is great fun. It runs all over the place, stylistically; some are light jazzy things, some are psychedelia, there is straight-up Latin dance music, ballads, and things I don't know how to classify - but it's all fun. So far, my favorite song is "Cantor De Mambo" (the mambo singer), which I believe is a tribute to Brazilian jazz legend Sergio Mendes, but sounds sometimes like a golden-era Santana song and finishes off with a sizzling Robert Fripp-style guitar solo. Wild stuff.
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Middle Distance Runner - Plane In Flames. I really liked their single, The Unbeliever, so I went looking for the album. But (as of yet!) there is no album - it's just a single. They did have this earlier album, though, so I bought it. There are a few fairly fine songs on there from the same vein as The Unbeliever; but then there a bunch of things that sound like U2RadioheadColdplay... which don't do much for me. Overall, a good disk, though. It's been stuck in my car CD player for weeks.
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Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard Of Ozz. I had some credit at a used book store, so I grabbed this - only $3. Heh. Memories. To think how this freaked-out parents all over the world when it came out - oy. If you couldn't tell he was play-acting, then, as most jr. high kids could, it's impossible to miss, now. OK, there are a couple of solid songs here and Randy Rhoades was surely a brilliant guitarist, but Ozzy's lyrics seem so cartoonish (even for Ozzy!) that it makes the parental freak-out look even more hilarious in hindsight than it did at the time.
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i’m watching the local concert schedules (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) for you guys. i’ve heard good things about your live shows :)
oh, yep… i see you’re going to Chapel Hill. excellent.
love that Unbeliever video, BTW.
Rob Caldecott
I also have the second Cold War Kids album, ‘Loyalty To Loyalty’ but I haven’t given it a good listen yet. I’ll report back when I’ve formed an opinion. :)
Rob Caldecott
BTW, do you have ‘Robbers & Cowards’? This is the one that I couldn’t stop playing a few years back and includes the awesome ‘Hang Me Out To Dry’.
I’ll be interested to know your thoughts on the first album (which I love) compared to the second (which you obviously like and I haven’t had a chance to listen to yet.)
Middle Distance Runner has a new CD out on October 20th and will be selling it throughout October on tour! I know because I’m in the band!
The new album will have “The Unbeliever” on it, amongst other tasty tunes.
Stephen, excellent news!
i’m watching the local concert schedules (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) for you guys. i’ve heard good things about your live shows :)
oh, yep… i see you’re going to Chapel Hill. excellent.
love that Unbeliever video, BTW.
I also have the second Cold War Kids album, ‘Loyalty To Loyalty’ but I haven’t given it a good listen yet. I’ll report back when I’ve formed an opinion. :)
BTW, do you have ‘Robbers & Cowards’? This is the one that I couldn’t stop playing a few years back and includes the awesome ‘Hang Me Out To Dry’.
BTW, do you have ‘Robbers & Cowards’?
do not. will soon, though.
I’ll be interested to know your thoughts on the first album (which I love) compared to the second (which you obviously like and I haven’t had a chance to listen to yet.)