Highlight: Various artists, Just Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac (Hear Music/Concord)

Producer Randall Poster curates a tribute to the Mac covering all periods of their career. In a history-revising but unsurprising turn, Tusk (that messy double-album favorite of indie rockers) gets disproportionately represented. Among all the writers in the band, Stevie Nicks is most often singled out: Antony, as you’d expect, delicately wrings all the pathos out of “Landslide” as does Marianne Faithfull with “Angel,” Lykke Li takes “Silver Springs,” Craig Wedren & St. Vincent team up on “Sisters Of The Moon,” Karen Elson gets “Gold Dust Woman,” and Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Matt Sweeney take “Storms.” But the pre-Buckingham/Nicks lineups get a few nods as well: Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) leads a take on Peter Green’s furious showcase “Oh Well,” MGMT do a 9-minute take on “Future Games,” and Lee Ranaldo & J Mascis (in a sort of reunion of their Sonic Youth / Dinosaur Jr. tour chronicled on 1991: The Year Punk Broke) team up on “Albatross.” Other marquee indie contributors include Best Coast (“Rhiannon”), The New Pornographers (the perfectly matched “Think About Me”), The Kills (“Dreams”), and Washed Out (Nicks’s Mirage deep cut “Straight Back”). It’s a well-sequenced and thoroughly listenable (unsurprisingly, given the Starbucks-backed Hear Music label) compilation, and thankfully not just a cover of the Greatest Hits.

Genre Spotlight — Japanese Metal: Fastkill, Bestial Thrashing Bulldozer (Pulverised Records); Loudness, Eve to Dawn (FrostByte Media)

Fastkill brings Big-4 worthy thrash riffage to their 3rd album Bestial Thrashing Bulldozer. Thrashing is central to more than just their album title (as with their previous albums Infernal Thrashing Holocaust and Nuclear Thrashing Attack). With the exception of the high-pitched yelps of Toshio Komori, there’s nothing here to get in the way of maximum headbang whiplash. The band is utterly tight, with an unrelenting twin-guitar attack and particular kudos going to drummer Kazuhiro Mochida.

Any Japanese metal band, sooner or later, must come up against comparisons to the first popular proponent of the style in their country: Loudness. Eve To Dawn is the 26th studio album since their 1981 formation from Japan’s first metal band to find major-label and MTV success. Loudness toured in their heyday with Ratt and Mötley Crüe and shared those bands’ anthemic glam-metal sound (with a little less L.A. sleaze), and guitarist Akira Takasaki was as melodic and slippery as any player of the era. Having reunited with original vocalist Minoru Niihara a decade ago after a few years in the wilderness, it is astonishing to hear veterans of this vintage remain this vital — particularly in light of their original drummer Munetaka Higuchi having passed away in 2008 at age 49. Here’s hoping that the belated U.S. showing of Eve To Dawn (as with the Fastkill album, a 2011 Japan-only release only coming out worldwide now) meets with enough success to prompt stateside reissues of their classic ’80s work, particularly Thunder In The East and Lightning Strikes. And their home country will be fortunate enough to receive another new album, 2.0.1.2., next week. (“Hang Tough” — streaming at MySpace)

With such a variance in styles, what links Fastkill and Loudness apart from their country of origin? The bands share a passion, conviction, and dedication to this music at a level rare to see anywhere.

Notable New Releases for August 14th, 2012

• A Forest Of Stars, A Shadowplay For Yesterdays (Prophecy Recordings)
  - Revealing reviewer bias: I prefer metal where the vocalist sings. But if, unlike me, you are good with raspy gargled recitations full of rolled-R’s and other affectations, the music behind it on this album is quite strong, epic progressive metal. The guitars are given equal weight with keyboards and violin, and the multi-part compositions are loaded with memorable riffs and countermelodies.
• American Me, III (Rise Records)
  
• Michael Andrews, Spilling a Rainbow (Vinyl) (Everloving)
  - Sweet and earthy-crunchy pop, very reminiscent of early solo McCartney in pastoral mode. (album stream at Spinner / AOL)
  
• Blackberry Smoke, The Whippoorwill (Vinyl) (Southern Ground Artists)
  
• Black Light Burns, The Moment You Realize You’re Going To Fail (Rocket Science / Brookvale)
  - (album stream at AOL)
  
  
• Black Pistol Fire, Big Beat ’59 (producer: Michael Rocha) (Rife Bird)
  - Garage-rock duo with “Black” in their name. That’s original. But then, garage-rock is largely revivalist by nature, and the fact is that the two Canadians behind Black Pistol Fire bring it with conviction.
  
• Spencer Breslin, Labor Day (Acadian Recordings)
• Jon Brion, ParaNorman (soundtrack) (RMG)
  - (album stream at AOL)
• The Classic Crime, Phoenix (producer: frontman Matt MacDonald) (The Classic Crime/Goomba Music)
  - Generic, though attractive and well-played, post-Nickelback rock is decimated by dumb lyrics.
• d’Eon, LP (Hippos In Tanks)
  
• Darkness By Oath, Near Death Experience (Metal Blade)
  
• Dead Can Dance, Anastasis (available on vinyl) ([PIAS] Recordings)
  - On the duo’s first album in 16 years, Brendan Perry & Lisa Gerrard sound as gorgeously frozen in time as ever, and fans of their previous work will hail their return.
  
  
• Deadly Remains, Severing Remains (Hell’s Headbangers)
  
• Delicate Cutters, Ring (Skybucket)
  
• Dignan Porch, Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen (Captured Tracks)
  
• The Dirty Guv’nahs, Somewhere Beneath These Southern Skies (Dualtone)
  - (album stream at AOL)
  
• Dragony, Legends (Limb Music)
  - (album stream at AOL)
  
• Dust Busters (With John Cohen), Old Man Below (Smithsonian / Folkways)
  
• Fozzy, Sin And Bones (Century Media)
  
• From Atlantis, Pedestals (InVogue Records)
  
• Insane Clown Posse, The Mighty Death Pop! (producer: Mike E. Clark) (Psychopathic Records)
  - Having proven they’re in on the joke with a recent appearance on Tosh.0 (and by suing the FBI so that Juggalos aren’t considered a real gang), it’s possible to enjoy ICP if you listen to it with a Weird-Al-Yankovic filter — particularly on tracks like “Night Of The Chainsaw” (“Somebody / Get bloody! / Go nutty!”). In any case, this is music for boys age 9-15, and they’ll love it.
• In This Moment, Blood (Century Media)
  - The ingredients employed by In This Moment certainly have precedent — industrial goth metal with anthemic choruses and dramatic female vocals — but the stunning production and intensity make Blood worthy of note.
  
• Simon Joyner, Ghosts (Sing, Eunuchs!)
  - A successfully crowdsourced project from the longtime lo-fi indie singer/songwriter.
  
• Vybz Kartel, Kingston Story: Deluxe Edition (Mixpak)
  
• Korpiklaani (Finnish traditional folk metal group), Manala (Nuclear Blast)
  
• Kottonmouth Kings, Mile High (Suburban Noize Records)
  - (album stream at AOL)
  
• Letter To The Exiles, Make Amends (Facedown Records)
  
• Locrian, The Clearing & The Final Epoch (Relapse)
  
• Loverboy, Rock ‘N’ Roll Revival (nine newly recorded Loverboy hits, plus three new songs; producers: guitarist Paul Dean, Bob Rock) (Frontiers)
  - It’s hard not to be sympathetic with the now-commonplace ploy of bands re-recording their classic work. Bands need income to continue touring (and maintaining all that gear), preferably such that it doesn’t have to be garnished by their old record labels. But such exercises almost never eclipse the originals in the minds of listeners. And, at least in the case of this new collection from Loverboy, there are three new songs amidst the remakes. And drummer Matt Frenette still looks just like character actor David Paymer.
• Corb Lund (Americana singer-songwriter), Cabin Fever (guest: Hayes Carll; Vinyl) (New West)
  
• Michael Maricle, The Heart Found You (Invibe Music)
  
• Charlie Mars, Blackberry Light (producer: Billy Harvey; Vinyl) (Rockingham)
  - (album stream at Spinner / AOL)
• Daniel Powter, Turn On the Lights (first single: “Cupid”) (International Solutions/Avex Management/EMI)
  
• Rumer, Boys Don’t Cry (Atlantic)
  - The 2011 MOJO Award winner for Best Breakthrough Act, Rumer ably performs covers of ’70s songs ranging from Townes Van Zandt’s “Flyin’ Shoes” to Hall & Oates’ “Sara Smile.” (Deluxe Edition; CD)
  
• Shoes, Ignition (power-pop legends’ first album of new material since 1994) (Black Vinyl)
  
• Slightly Stoopid, Top of the World (guests: Barrington Levy, Black Uhuru‘s Don Carlos, G. Love, Fishbone’s Angelo Moore, Chali 2na, Ian Neville, etc.) (Stoopid)
  - (album stream at AOL)
  
• Such Gold (Rochester-based melodic hardcore/punk group), Misadventures (producer: Steve Evetts) (Razor & Tie)
  
• Ben Taylor, Listening (first single: “Oh Brother”; Vinyl) (Sun Pedal Recordings/ILG)
  - The son of James Taylor releases his first album since 2008, which attractively hops genres but masters none. (album stream at Paste)
• Twitch the Ripper, Colorblind (producer: Mark Saunders; first single: “Strange Behavior”) (Metropolis)
  
  
• 2 Chainz, Based on a T.R.U. Story (producers: Mike Will, Drumma Boy, Da Honorable C.N.O.T.E., Mike Posner, Lex Luger, Kanye West; guests: Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Drake, Kanye West, Ludacris, Big K.R.I.T., Rick Ross, Meek Mill; new single: “Birthday Song”; Deluxe edition) (Def Jam)
  
• Steve Vai, The Story of Light (guests: Aimee Mann, Beverly McClellan) (Favored Nations) (album stream at AOL)
  
• White Violet, Hiding, Mingling (Normal Town Records)
  - (album stream at Spinner / AOL)
• Why?, Sod In The Seed (EP) (anticon)
  
• Robin & Linda Williams, These Old Dark Hills (Red House)
  - The Prairie Home Companion favorites return.
• Xibalba, Hasta La Muerte (Southern Lord)
  - (album stream at Soundcloud via Brooklyn Vegan)
• Yellowcard, Southern Air (producer: Neal Avron; Vinyl) (Hopeless)
  - The Deluxe Edition includes a cover of Coldplay’s “Fix You.” (album stream at AOL)
  
• Zombiefication, Reaper’s Consecration (Pulverised Records)
  
• Saul Zonana, Fix the Broken (20/20 Music)
  

Notable Reissues for August 14th, 2012

Note the vinyl reissues of key Phil Spector productions (The Ronettes, The Crystals, and Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans) on Sundazed.

• Aborted, Goremageddon, The Saw and the Carnage Done / The Archa•c Abattoir (Listenable Records
  
• Anvil, Anthology Of Anvil / Back To Basics / Past And Present / Still Going Strong (The End)
• Shirley Bassey, Shirley / Let’s Face the Music (1961, 1962 albums), I Capricorn (1972 album), Shirley Bassey Sings the Songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber (1993 album) (EMI)
• Bob B. Soxx and The Blue Jeans, Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah (vinyl) (Sundazed)
• The Byrds, The Ballad of Easy Rider (180g vinyl) (Friday Music)
• Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, The Blues (Fuel)
• The Crystals, Twist Uptown / He’s A Rebel (Sundazed)
• Culture, Seven Sevens Clash [7 LP vinyl box] (VP Records)
• dc Talk, Greatest Hits (16 songs) (ForeFront)
• Bob Dylan, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (Mobile Fidelity)
• Steve Earle, The Revolution Starts Now (eOne)
  - Earle’s charged-up album timed for the 2004 election, winner of the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album.
• Marty Friedman, Bad D.N.A. / Future Addict / Loudspeaker (Prosthetic)
  - Ex-Megadeth lead guitarist sees 3 of his solo albums reissued.
• Marvin Gaye, Live (Cleopatra)
• Merle Haggard, ICON (best-of) (MCA Nashville/UMe)
• Incubus, Incubus HQ Live (Special edition) (Epic/Legacy)
• Chaka Khan, Greatest Hits Live (2007 recordings) (Cleopatra)
• The Lijadu Sisters, Danger (1976) / Mother Africa (1977) / Sunshine (1978) / Horizon Unlimited (1979) (Knitting Factory)
  - These Nigerian twin sisters met up with Ginger Baker soon after his time working with Fela Kuti, then teamed with producer and multi-instrumentalist Biddy Wright for these 4 albums.
  
  
  
  
• Bill Monroe, ICON (best-of) (MCA Nashville/UMe)
• Mike Oldfield, Platinum: Deluxe Edition (1979 album; remastered, with a second disc featuring nine previously unreleased tracks from his “Platinum” tour at Wembley Arena in May 1980), QE2: Deluxe Edition (1980 album; remastered, with a second disc containing “Live in Essen, European Adventure Tour, April 1981″), Two Sides: The Very Best of Mike Oldfield (two discs) (Hip-O)
  - Last week’s feature at the John Peel Archive (for the letter “O”) was Mike Oldfield.
• Poison Idea, The Fatal Erection Years (Southern Lord)
• The Ronettes, Presenting The Fabulous Ronettes (vinyl) (Sundazed)
• Ralph Stanley, Old Songs & Ballads- Vol 1 / Vol 2 (Rebel Records)
• Marty Stuart, ICON (best-of) (MCA Nashville/UMe)
• Various artists, Joey’s Song Volume 2 (proceeds benefit epilepsy research and advocacy; contributors: Rosanne Cash, Mark Olson, Pete Droge, Sam Phillips, Gary Louris, Giant Sand, etc.) (Omnivore Recordings)
• Meri Wilson, Telephone Man (1977 album) (Fuel)

Notable August 14th Releases from Past Years

• Patsy Cline, Patsy Cline (EP, featuring “I Fall To Pieces”) (Decca) (1961)
• Doris Day, I Have Dreamed (Columbia) (1961)
• The Rolling Stones, Five By Five (EP) (Decca) (1964)
• Hawkwind, Hawkwind (Liberty) (1970)
• Al Green, Al Green Gets Next To You (Hi) (1971)
• The Who, Who’s Next (Decca / Polydor) (1971)
• Roberta Flack, Killing Me Softly (Atlantic) (1973)
• James Brown, “Papa Don’t Take No Mess” (Polydor) (1974)
• Eagles, “James Dean” (Asylum) (1974)
• The Police, “Can’t Stand Losing You” / “Dead End Job” (A&M) (1978)
• Wings, “Arrow Through Me” / “Old Siam, Sir” (Columbia) (1979)
• Christopher Cross, “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” (Warner Bros.) (1981)
• Genesis, “Abacab” / “Another Record” (Atco) (1981)
• The Rolling Stones, “Start Me Up” / “No Use In Crying” (Rolling Stones) (1981)
• N.W.A., 100 Miles and Runnin’ (EP) (Ruthless / Priority) (1990)
• Cameo, Emotional Violence (Reprise) (1991)
• Motörhead, March or Die (WTG / Epic) (1992)
• Aphex Twin, Donkey Rhubarb (EP) (Warp) (1995)
• Björk, “Isobel” (One Little Indian) (1995)
• Elvis Costello and Bill Frisell, Deep Dead Blue (Nonesuch) (1995)
• Oasis, “Roll With It” (Creation) (1995)
• Michelle Branch, The Spirit Room (Maverick) (2001)
• Maxwell, Now (Sony) (2001)
• Lambchop, Damaged (Merge) (2006)
• Matt Nathanson, Some Mad Hope (Vanguard) (2007)
• Sparks, The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman (Lil’ Beethoven) (2009)

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