Death Cab for Cutie ‘Codes and Keys’: Track-By-Track Review, Billboard

Seven albums in and nearly 15 years later, indie rock stalwarts Death Cab For Cutie are getting a little weird — and doing it right. On “Codes and Keys,” out today (May 31, Atlantic), listeners get a clear sense of where its members currently find themselves: in adulthood. And apparently it’s been a long, laborious haul to get there.

Early reports suggested the album was not a guitar-based album — a shift from 2008′s singularly rock-focused “Narrow Stars.” While “Codes and Keys” is less of a “they’re trading in their guitars for synthesizers” moment than some might expect, the album’s subtle experimentation makes all the difference, infusing darkness without maudlin emo-ness into one of Death Cab’s best. And in consideration of Ben Gibbard’s electronic Postal Service project, we have to wonder — why didn’t this synth love happen sooner?   Read more...

Samantha Fish/Cassie Taylor/Dani Wilde, Girls with Guitars, The Virginian Pilot

“Girls With Guitars” may sound like a ’60s grindhouse flick, but it’s the name of the latest all-woman blues revue from the Germany-based blues label Ruf Records.

This year’s barnstorming tour/record features British lead guitarist/singer Dani Wilde, Missouri blues singer/guitarist Samantha Fish and Cassie Taylor on bass/vocals whose pop is lauded trance-bluesman Otis Taylor. The three are backed by veteran drummer Jamie Little.

With all three chipping in original, if somewhat derivative, songs, the album is an estrogen-to-the-wall blues-rock session with touches of soul thrown in for good measure. They open things, appropriately enough, with a rousing version of the Rolling Stones’ “Bitch” and gallop through a set of unsubtle yet rollicking tunes. Wilde throws in dramatic slide and wah-wah leads, Taylor adds thick, slippery bass lines and Fish fuels the band’s rock chops with deft rhythm work. Taking turns on vocals, the trio goes from sultry crooning to red-hot roadhouse shouts.   Read more...

Shawn Pittman, Edge of the World, The Virginian Pilot

On blues vet Shawn Pittman’s 10th release, the listener will swear the Oklahoma native is recording live with a hot, grooving blues-roots outfit.

But that’s not the case.

Pulling a Stevie Wonder/Paul McCartney move, the Texas-based guitar slinger/vocalist plays every instrument save for Jonathan Doyle’s wonderful honking saxophone work. But the disc’s dozen original tunes paired with Howlin’ Wolf’s “Sugar (Where’d You Get Your Sugar From?)” sound energized and spontaneous, as if Pittman were rocking with a seasoned combo.

Since the late ’90s Pittman has worked with such blues luminaries as Mike Morgan, Sam Myers and Susan Tedeschi, and he brings all those lessons learned to the forefront on this rustic-sounding blues-roots recording.   Read more...

The Cars, Move Like This, The Chicago Tribune

The name fits. The Cars manufactured sleek, gleaming new-wave jingles, beginning in 1978 with their still-spiffy debut album. Turn on a Cars song, and instantly the world becomes a sea of androgynous boys and girls dressed in vinyl, wearing sunglasses and cruising for anonymous hook-ups.

After nearly three decades apart, the surviving members – Ric Ocasek, Elliot Easton, Greg Hawkes and David Robinson – have reunited for “Move Like This” (Hear Music), their seventh studio album (cofounding bassist Ben Orr died in 2000). Fans who loved the old Cars will find little has changed. Ocasek turns oddball phrases (“I heard your glockenspiel pounding soft”; “The world is full of quackers/And bellybutton rings”) in a deadpan voice well-suited for reading a William Gibson novel aloud. Jittery sixteenth-note rhythms coalesce into choruses fit for an army of androids to shout into space (“Sad Song,” “Free,” “Hits Me,” “Blue Tip”) while Hawkes breaks out his armada of keyboard squiggles and curlicues.   Read more...

Tab Benoit, Medicine, The Virginian Pilot

On Louisiana roots-rocker Tab Benoit’s latest release, fans get a dose of double trouble.

It’s Benoit’s project and he’s playing the bills, but Swedish-born bayou swamp-rat Anders Osborne is onboard as co-producer, co-songwriter and co-guitarist. And the result is one of Benoit’s finest, and most hard-hitting, records to date. The two seem to inspire each other, creating a hard-edged, punchy sound spiced with vintage soul, country and Cajun flavors.

They’re backed by a dynamic no-frills combo highlighted by N’awlins keyboardist Ivan Neville and the fiddle prowess and French-Cajun vocals of Beausoleil’s Michael Doucet. The result is a romp through all manner of Louisiana music styles, underpinned by sharply executed raw and clean blues-rock.   Read more...

Dub Is A Weapon, Vaporized, The Virginian Pilot

Dub, the Jamaican club dance grooves usually crafted from recorded backing tracks, has always been a creature of the studio, crafted by such legends as Lee “Scratch” Perry and ’60s era King Tubby. But guitarist and group leader Dave Hahn proves the club beats can be effectively created by a full band as opposed to tape loops, turntable scratchings and basic rhythm tracks.

Recorded in Syracuse, N.Y., “Vaporized” finds Hahn’s guitar leads and Brian Jackson’s keyboard noodlings pushed by the unrelenting hypnotic grooves of percussionist Larry McDonald, drummer Madhu Siddappa, “riddim” guitarist Ben Rogerson and bassist Dan Jeselsohn. The four lay down rhythms not only swaying in reggae but dancing in ska, funk and Afrobeat, with occasional Latin and Middle Eastern touches.   Read more...

Book Review: A Wizard, A True Star, Blogcritics.org

As both a solo act and as the de-facto leader of rock band Utopia, Todd Rundgren has had a successful career as a performing musician. But he’s equally well known for his work ‘behind the glass,’ giving shape to sound and extracting the best from the artists he works with.

Named for one of his first solo recordings, A Wizard, A True Star focuses primarily on Rundgren’s work as a producer of such disparate acts as Hall And Oates, Patti Smith, The New York Dolls, and the team behind one of the most successful albums of all time – songwriter Jim Steinman and unlikely rock star Meat Loaf. It’s definitely not a biography – author Paul Myers includes just enough background material to paint an outline of the man, but we learn little about his inner thoughts and feelings. Instead, Myers takes an episodic, project-by-project look at Rundgren’s work, combining technical detail (though thankfully not too much of that) with typical tales of in-the-studio escapades. It’s not without flaws, but the book, as a whole, provides some interesting glimpses into the way music is – or rather, was – made during rock’s ‘golden years,’ while remaining a pleasurable read. Read full review

Fat Freddy’s Drop, Live At Roundhouse London, The Virginian Pilot

Music fans will find no better groove-a-thon/dance-floor-filler in 2010 than this live album from New Zealand jam masters Fat Freddy’s Drop. The record chronicles the final concert of the Kiwi octet’s six-week 2008 European tour. And live is where this group thrives.

Featuring only six songs, with the shortest clocking in at 10 minutes, this lengthy jam is highlighted by the band’s unique blend of Afro-Beat, reggae, ska, ’70s American soul/funk, salsa and dub beats. The group’s mainly Maori musicians are led by Samoan DJ/effects master Chris Faiumu (aka DJ Fitchie), who mixes the band’s output on the spot with ambient sounds, turntable rhythms and effects into the roiling rock steady beats.   Read more...

Matorralman, Guateque Estelar, The Virginian Pilot

The record’s title means “Stellar Party,” and that’s what will take place the moment this disc is slapped on the player.

This quartet is the brainchild of Mexico City-based producer/composer/keyboardist/sound effects wiz Miguel Rizo. Backed by Armando Vazquez on keyboards, Gustavo Murillo on guitar and Benjamin Vazquez on bass/trumpet, Rizo sets up a battery of computers, samplers, keyboards and effects to conjure up a groove-happy musical blend.

Informed by ’60s and ’70s exploitation B-movies, the music sparks with electronic lounge, garage rock, tongue-in-cheek psychedelia, French “ye-ye” pop, surf music and spaghetti Western soundtracks. The tunes are highlighted by sampled voices,  effects and instruments spiced by Murillo’s Ventures-style twang- heavy guitar bouncing over thin, cheesy keyboards, retro-psychedelic blips and bleeps and herky-jerky beats.   Read more...

Lucky Peterson, You Can Always Turn Around, The Virginian Pilot

Acclaimed singer/guitarist/keyboardist Lucky Peterson began his career as a 3-year-old prodigy discovered by blues legend Willie Dixon. After a rich career of touring and recording, including his ’03 release, “Black Midnight Sun,” he succumbed to addictions and other troubles. The 45-year-old is back clean, sober and firing on all creative cylinders as evidenced by his latest release, possibly the finest record of his career. Working mainly with an acoustic combo made up of Woodstock-based A-list session musicians, Peterson presents a raw, powerful album of redemption, salvation and struggle. He gives visceral, cathartic treatments to blues chestnuts by Robert Johnson, Blind Willie McTell and the Rev. Gary Davis as well as contemporary songs by Lucinda Williams, Curtis Mayfield, Tom Waits and Ray LaMontagne. Peterson is lucky to be back so hale and hearty, and blues fans are lucky with this gut-punch of an album.   Read more...