Around Hear Page 3
Ten years of combining polka with rock ‘n’ roll (and lots of beer) deserves a celebration. To mark their decade anniversary, The Polkaholics released 10 Years To The Floor, a live album that shows off this band’s dedication to all things polka. Even with so-so production, this album captures this Chicago trio’s live energy. Still, it’s hard to imagine anyone choosing the disc over the real thing. (www.thepolkaholics.com)
– Joseph Simek
On his eponymously-titled, first official release, Joe Pug sings with a weathered rasp far beyond his mere 20-something years, perhaps even making the likes of Bruce Springsteen and even Bob Dylan proud. A thoughtful storyteller with a head for the issues that plague the world today, Pug’s songs are often melancholic and heartbreaking, injected with the kind of intimacy only the best of folk singers can give topics this enormous. (www.joepugmusic.com)
– Dean Ramos
Argentina-born singer-songwriter Damian Rivero delivers a slick brand of Latin-tinged funk and sultry jazz on Con El Diablo En El Hombro, though he seems much more confident serving up the former. The Gypsy Kings-flavored “Vuelta Al Carrusel” and “Circo De La Soledad” are instant points of spicy connection, though the seasonings simmer down come the groggier “Every Once In A While” and “Como Oro En El Desierto.” (www.latinstreetmusic.com)
– Andy Argyrakis
The 15 tracks on The Long Haul span 20 years of work from singer-songwriter Andrew Robb, including eight new tunes. The collection of three-minute folk ditties is convincingly delivered with a storytelling drawl and songs built around layered acoustic guitars and an occasional mandolin, as on the breezy and aptly named “Happy Strum.” “You Can Say Anything” pays homage to Bob Dylan with its vocal delivery and guitar picking, while other tracks echo the folkiest of The Greatful Dead. (www.thetreemusic.com)
– Jason Scales
The Windy City provided the earliest musical experiences for the founder of the eponomously named Matana Roberts Quartet, and her new nine-tune CD, The Chicago Project, is an homage to those all-important influences. With the support of numerous young jazz luminaries, including Tortoise players Jeff Parker and John McEntire (the latter engineered the album), instrumentals such as “Exchange” and “For Razi” exhibit a definite Chi-town vibe, offering discordant, but always insistent and inventive, improvisational moments. (www.centralcontrol.co.uk)
– Jeff Berkwits
Tom Schraeder‘s acoustic-based music has an emotional realism that puts him in the same vein as David Gray and Shawn Mullins. Most of the seven tracks on his impressive debut, The Door, The Gutter, The Grave, are reflections on busted relationships and binge drinking, but his rough-hewn vocals and descriptive lyrics keep things interesting. “Weeping Willow,” a haunted, honky tonk duet with Sarah Holtschlag, serves as the CD’s high point. (www.myspace.com/tom schraeder)
– Terrence Flamm
The members of Soft Targets aren’t kids, and as a result the dozen songs on We Hate You Soft Targets reveal a maturity and gravity often missing from the repertoire of younger acts. Their post punk sound is wholly appealing, and tunes like “Walk Away” and “See You On The Way Back Down” exhibit a singular blend of energy and ennui. It’s grown-up music that happily retains a youthful oomph. (www.soft-targets.com)
– Jeff Berkwits
Taxi, a three-man garage band from Chicago’s South Side, have spent the last six years trying to make a name for themselves on the local music scene. They finally got around to recording their first EP, but at a mere three tracks, it’s not long enough to make an impact. It does at least introduce the listener to their flavor of guitar-driven alt-rock, which would sound right at home in MTV’s early-’90s Buzz Bin. (www.myspace.com/taxirockschicago)
– Carter Moss
Michael Antony Putignano is obviously a lifelong student of all types of metal, as evidenced on his ambitious, 16-track Baptized In Blood, recorded under the name Throne Of Serpents. The singer-songwriter provides most of the instrumentation, save for “shredding guitar solos” by Dr. Frankenshred and a posthumous appearance by guitarist David Nava on “Hiroshima Sleeps.” But the mixing of genres becomes overwhelming on a recording that sounds far too live. “Beneath The Surface,” for example, uses a Slayer-like buildup that eventually gives way to Ronnie James Dio-inspired vocalization. (www.myspace.com/throneofserpents)
– Jason Scales
Upon first blush, Tranell‘s My Name Is Tranell is almost too contrived to believe. Thin, Casio-driven R&B beats (“My Name Is Tranell”), pre-adolescent subjects and appropriately callow lyrics (“Friends,” “Myspace”), and the childish vocals conspire for a depressingly hollow experience. However, as a child prodigy with past success and a strangely compelling voice (Tranell is only nine-years old), there is potential that, with stronger material, she will truly blossom. (www.tranellbrown.com)
– Patrick Conlan
Category: Around Hear
