Welcome to ROCKHOUNDING
a new ongoing review column headed up by the elusive Al Bruting
Emily Kopp, Just Getting Started...
by al bruting
photo by: Shauna Hundeby
Emily Kopp just released her first full-length album, Serendipity Find Me, with producer
Justin Beckler and producer/co-writer Anthony Battaglia. The Southeast Florida
native and recent college grad is also getting exposure to a wider audience by
kicking off a tour.
The album also shows balance. With a combination of soul and folk, she
avoids the tired soapbox that folkies perch on to preach. More interesting still, she still is able to
pull in a mild pop element and maintain musicianship because she’s a decent
guitar player.
Flying Blind is the title track and gives us reason to listen
further. Opinions vary, but the true showing on this album is Can’t Catch Me. It demonstrates her ease with vocal quality
and stands on its own as a solid offering.
We’ll continue to
watch and listen. Her record was
released on October 15th and tour dates are being announced which hopefully includes a visit to the Motorcity.
Black Sweater Massacre by the Reigning Monarchs
by al bruting
Sweater season is upon us. The LA based Monarchs feature comedian
and guitarist, Greg Benrendt paired with the former Boston group, Letters to
Clio's Michael Eisenstein.
The new
release, Black Sweater Massacre, blends traditional vintage styles into one
cohesive sound. Leading in with a surf tone, they incorporate rockabilly and
ska, some Mexicali brass with hints of a sixties Farfisa Italian organ. There's
even a track where the brass takes on the style of an Indian snake charmers
flute. What makes this release interesting is the combining of these very
distinct, but very different styles into a song and actually pulling it
off.
The Monarchs brand of rockabilly, surf and ska wouldn't sound out of
place in a Quentin Tarantino or a David Lynch film. Its occasionally slower and
more haunting melodies are quickly and mercilessly run off the road by a
intensely paced rhythms, darkened with heavy reverb. The tracks are all
instrumental on this release, but for live shows they feature guest
vocalists
The groups studio versatility has seen them backing names
like Norah Jones, Aimee Mann, alt country singer/songwriter Rhett Miller (of the
Old 97's) as well as comedians and actors like Ben Stiller, and Jason
Segel.
Black Sweater Massacre brings foreword momentum to a
band that's been steadily picking up a fan base through its live performances.
This release stands out from the background noise around it and is definitely
worth giving a listen.
New Release “AM” from the Arctic Monkeys
"These Monkeys are far from Simple"
by al bruting
Looking for a good way to spend 41 minutes? Put on the Arctic Monkeys
fifth British release "AM" and enjoy time well spent. It’s a
minimalist sound with genius hiding subtly between iambic lyrical rhythm and
percussion that play off each other and create a verse quality more reminiscent
to meter found in Shakespearian verse. The result is somewhat nonsensical lines
becoming hypnotically rhythmic with vocal melody.
The closer you listen the more you will find, but they are still just a
rock band that haven’t lost what has made them good. Add to this that
they deliver the goods playing live, and this rounds out the package of a group
that’s much more than just a studio wonder. If you get to a show, expect
to hear releases from the first 5 recordings, but known for their proclivity
for covers, the live show takes on an interesting texture.
AM is
on target to be the bands best sales week since its 2007 release AND the fastest selling debut album in UK chart history. So far AM has given the act its first top 10
effort since 2007's "Favorite Worst Nightmare" debuted and peaked
Knowing the Rules and Then Breaking Them...
by al bruting
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Clem Fortuna Presents a Microtonal
Music Revue at TRINOSOPHES October
18, 2013 featuring Jacob Barton and Andrew Heathwaite, plus the music of Clem Fortuna,
Frank Pahl, Joel Peterson and Harry Partch
Microtonal music features music written using unusual tunings. Headlining
were microtonal composers, Jacob Barton and Andrew Heathwaite. Also
featured were works by local composers Clem Fortuna, Frank Pahl, Joel
Peterson, and Jennie Knaggs.
The venue, TRINOSOPHES is near eastern market and
has nicely put back into commission longstanding Detroit brick and
mortar. The two sided structure offers a raised stage and large open
area with high ceilings, a library complete with "Pourover Coffee"
and a cafe that features guest chefs.
For workshops, exhibitions and
performances, TRINOSOPHES is definitely a place to put on your hit list.
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Almost all western music (and increasingly a lot of Eastern Music) conforms to
a single tuning using only certain notes. While blues and jazz sometimes slide
between these notes, these in-between notes are never treated as
"real" notes because they are considered "out of tune". A
small number of composers and songwriters have broken ranks and discovered that
these "out of tune" notes can open up new
undisturbed musical environments or soundscapes. However, playing them requires unlearning everything
we know about music, and in some cases building whole new instruments or
modifying existing instruments. This concert included works played on
refretted guitars, glass harmonica, voices, strings, pedal steel guitar,
specially tuned piano, and the "udderbot", a new wind instrument made
from a glass bottle and a rubber glove.
Jacob Barton grew up in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where his musical hunger led
him to learn piano, saxophone, clarinet, bassoon, and musical saw. He studied
composition at Rice University, where he received a BMI Student Composer Award
for “Xenharmonic Variations on a Theme by Mozart”. His passion for instrument
building led serendipitously to the collaborative invention and development of
the udderbot, for which he is the chief advocate and only known virtuoso. Jacob
has played the udderbot in traditional bands, children’s concerts, experimental
music venues, theater productions, New York City subway stations, and
humanitarian clowning missions in Ecuador.
Andrew Heathwaite is a performer, composer, teacher and student, whose work by
his own characterization centers around compassionate creative skepticism,
trivialization of power differences, and transformation of (at first invisible)
constraints to provoke the new. "I no longer want to see micro tonality
slip under the radar into pop music without anyone noticing, just to be sold
back to us by the greedy kings of copyright. That's not good enough.." As
a project of Oddmusic Urbana-Champaign, Andrew refretted a steel-string
acoustic guitar to 22 tones per octave in 2009 and a mountain dulcimer to a
20-tone Just Intonation scale in simple overtone relationship in 2010. He also
plays cümbüş, a fretless Turkish lute.
DUENSDAY!
Every First Wednesday of the Month @ The Loving Touch
NO COVER!!!
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