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Daniel Kirkpatrick and the Bayonets
Alibis
Rock Ridge Music
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Ryan Adams in old man mode. I’m never going to make it out alive.
Joseph Childress
The Rebirths
Empty Cellar Records
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Joseph Childress; Quasi
exactly what it was that was so deeply upset- ting about this chilly, early 80s new wave... when Jef Barbara started to rock it out and then it got funky, and then I had to reevalu- ate. The same thing happens in the third song,
“Chords.” That one also goes into shredsville. “Song For the Loveshy” isn’t bad, and it goes on like that. It warms up. Sort of. “I Don’t Know What’s Going On but Something Is Coming On” is just silly. Even the now familiar guitar
shredding near the end can’t save it.
This one is for all the folks that think Velvet
Goldmine is the best movie ever. This is similar- ly plot-less. The clichés are just clever enough to float on by like an episode of Miami Vice. I personally am not nostalgic for the novelty of the synthesizer, but that doesn’t really speak to this painted man’s obvious talents.
Quasi
Mole City
Kill Rock Stars
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Man, this is some shredding 90s shred shred shred. It’s like Pavement and Sleater Kinney (this band does and has always fea- tured Janet Weiss) never broke up and started a super band. Kind of a good remedy for the ironical detached wretched mindstate one might go into from watching too much Port- landia. A double album well thought out and well executed... did I just hear that?
Dragonsflight
First Flight
Self Released
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I think I just found Elvis.
Now this is what this gig is all about. Very obviously self-produced, no internet pres- ence whatsoever (that I could find), Drag- onsflight is Rick Littell, (or should I say, “Rick Littell”) and it sounds like Elvis went and did a Nebraska — just reverb and a four track (more likely, Garageband), in Jerome, Ari- zona, and wah lah, outsider gold. The songs come across as sketches, more than actual songs, though some of these go well beyond the five-minute mark, it’s very much minimal. Rick Littell was listening when he heard the guy say, “It’s not about the notes, it’s about the space between the notes.”
The album came with a post-it note that said not to review in a vehicle, as the music will be drowned out by traffic noise. I expect-
The best songs have a yearless quality to them. That’s a general quasi-truth, but fits for this album as well. Is this a lost long player from the 60s or an FM radio dud from the 70s, an iconoclastic call against digital in the 80s, a Pavement and Beck opener from the 90s that never made it, or did this come out yes- terday? Well, it’s that one, but it could be any of those things.
Except, the super clean mastering job that takes away from the voluntary homeless dirt that’s implied by the artist’s press release bio in which he hopped trains and went Woodie Guthrie style, busking the streets until emi- nent stardom loomed. This is not the worst attempt to keep the spirit of Townes Van Zant alive, and it might be up there with the elite squadron of the best. This also has a lot of Nick Drake in it.
It opens with “Old William” which stomps out one or two chords and the next track starts with the sound of rain falling. The pro- duction is successful at creating a very inti- mate vibe. The album takes off with “Mama’s Strings,” a song about Childress’s guitar. “Char- iots” is even more upbeat.
None of it sounds like Bob Dylan, but Chil- dress looks sort of like a young Bob.
“Dance With Me” is a great ender. The lyr- ics, “come back home” have a heartbreaking beauty to it. I’m feeling it. It’s dynamic, even with just the dude and his guitar, Mama. I’m feeling that call. I’m picking up the phone. I’m also picking up this bottle of bourbon. Maybe it is time to go back home. I don’t know. Do we ever know?
Jef Barbara
Soft to the Touch
Club Role Music
jjj
So I was completely hating the first song and contemplating how to perfontificate
28 • NOVEMBER 2013 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us