Page 28 - the NOISE June 2013

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that rockabilly Sun Records strut Cadillac An- gels have mastered for a thousand years now is track four, and even that feels a little sub- dued, like JJ Cale doing Stray Cats songs. The not-quite-perfect backing vocals are nice. The longest song, “Beat Up Cadillac” sounds like Rodney Crowell aping his slightly more famous father in law.
Tony Balbinot’s guitar licks are exceptional throughout this thing, particularly on those first few tracks, that sound almost unworldly in their lack of standard rockabilly produc- tion. The minimalism on “Red Bird” saves that particular track from being a misstep — in- stead it’s just a little off, just a little strange take on that perfect Muddy Waters riff. “Cruel Game” is more minimal perfection, this time slightly more country and western.
The album is barely a half an hour and never really settles for anything cliché or dull. They’re playing somewhere live tonight, might as well try to catch what could be one of Arizona’s best bar bands. Ever. — FC
V/A
Border Songs: A Collection of Music and Spoken Word to benefit No More Deaths/ No Mas Muertos
jjjj
It’s difficult to miss the message here. Two full discs of pro-human, pro-life propaganda for the masses. When one speaks of ‘pro-life’ this would be a far more apt description than the conventional one: a group of people that places water where it’s needed and provides services to those that can’t afford.
They have the still-living legend, Pete Seeger, providing a song, Michael Franti has to make an appearance on such a heavy- handed production, and there’s Giant Gi- ant Sand, Calexico, Sergio Mendoza, and a few more famous Arizona names to get the word out. A beautiful bit by Charles Bowden haunts the proceedings; it’s the spoken word and poetry bits that tie the whole splitting- at-the-seams project together, making the theme far more explicit, giving the two discs an unquestionable purpose. Best song award goes to Tom Russell with “Who’s Gonna Build Your Wall?” a song that deserves to be cov- ered as much as humanly possible. Thank you, Robert Neustadt and Chuck Cheesman. Keep up the excellent work.
— Bobby Carlson
Cadillac Angels; Border Songs
Run On Sunshine
Capital Cities Cassette Single
Cat Cassettes
jjj
This could be the weirdest thing I’ve ever been sent. First of all, cassette single. Cas- sette single. Three songs. Probably less than six minutes total. It’s made explicit in the liner notes that all three songs take place in capital cities. Because that’s important to know because ...? One of the songs is called
“The Ballad of Black Garfield.” It’s about Olym- pia, Washington. There’s one about Austin, Texas. And one that’s about Audrey Toatou, in which our narrator explores Paris obsess- ing over this actress. The only musical refer- ences that come to mind are Young Marble Giants and Daniel Johnston. But Mullarkey, Run On Sunshine’s only member, doesn’t have the pop sensibility or musical chops of either. If I was unfamiliar with Mullarkey’s other band (Monster Pussy) I would have to assume this is an eight-year-old boy playing with a keyboard.
One can argue what exactly makes up an ‘outsider artist’ until someone gets shot or dies of old age, but Mullarkey has firmly established himself in the realm of amateur weird tomfoolery. There’s a growing scene for these performers in Phoenix with Funny World, a house venue owned by Space Alien Donald (the world’s oldest gay Canadian rap- per) as the center of their universe, and the other strange Phoenix artists that believe in weird for weirdness sake, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and talent is a made up bou- gie convention for opera singers are growing.
There’s Sinbad in Flagstaff. And somehow, I feel like IHYWYP has a lot to do with this whole thing. However, in a world of strange, Mullarkey might just be the king.
At least in AZ.
Dennis Callaci & Simon Joyner
New Secrets
Shrimper
jj
— BC
The first thing I notice about these two gentlemen I had never heard of is they can- not sing. They’ve never taken a singing class, and possibly never even a music class. They seem to not like changes in their songs. Then
28 • JUNE 2013 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us