Uruguayan Unsigned Artists – General Introduction

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Uruguay

It is often said that Uruguay is a country brimming with talent, and that not enough outlets for such creativity exist within its reduced geographical boundaries. I don’t know if the word “brimming” is 100 % accurate, but I can tell you that based on the bands I have worked with and the musicians I have met as I did the rounds, there is a significant share of talent that is not actually on anybody’s radar.

I have decided to start this section within MusicKO in order to give these voices that might go unheeded otherwise a spot where they can communicate what they do, what they believe in and what they angle for.

The only requisites for being listed here are:

1)    Being an Uruguayan artist
2)    Not being signed to any label within the country
3)    Having recorded at least four demos (for me to evaluate)

If you meet these criteria, you can get in touch with me. The address is (garbled on purpose):

emiliomusicko [at] gmail [dot] com

Although my favorite genres are rock, pop and punk I am more than willing to listen to other styles.

I will try and feature one or two “new” bands per week.

Cheers,

Emilio

Southern Accents – Tom Petty (Album Review) (Part 2)

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Click here to read the introduction to this review.

“Southern Accents” was an album that generated a considerable amount of friction within Tom Petty’s camp, to the point of physical violence – Petty broke his hand after punching the wall during the recording of the opening track, “Rebels”. The song and the track that follows (“It Ain’t Nothin’ To Me”) toy with those stereotypes that I mentioned in part 1 of the review, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some Southerners would shoot up copies of the record while “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” plays in the background.

Leaving the subject matter aside (basically “people down South are good-for-nothing louts, they can only raise hell”), the songs are good. “Rebels” is an infectious rocker (even if the production is a bit distracting), and “It Ain’t Nothin’ To Me” is a funky cut showcasing that Petty was in a willfully experimental mood. Well, he had someone that was more seasoned in that to assist him – the song was cowritten with Dave Stewart (better known from his work with Eurythmics), as was the other major curve ball on the disc: the hit “Don’t Come Around Here No More”. It is important to mention that the song had actually been offered for “Long After Dark”. That also gives you a clear indication that the conceptual thread on “Southern Accents” sometimes disappears altogether, in no small part thanks to the disagreements that recording a “concept” caused among Petty and his unit. They were known as rockers, after all. “Southern Accents” was a more polished and (above all) more diverse album. It was also an expensive record, and they labored at it for longer than any of them felt comfortable with at the end. Nowhere is that clearer than on the video for “Don’t Come Around Here No More”. A far, far cry from flagship tunes like “American Girl” and “Refugee”. They only rock at the end, the rest is all the things you can imagine but a rock & roll tune:

The first side finalizes with the title track. I first listened to Johnny Cash’s take on the “Unchained” disc (American II), and it absolutely had me first time around. It is the one “concept” song I deem as respectful and moving, and the lyrics are something which most people can sympathize with it, no matter where they are. But being a Southerner myself I found it so compelling that I bought this album after having listened to Cash’s version just once. As far as Petty and the Heartbreakers’s version goes, I consider it Benmont Tench’s most realized moment with the band. Continue reading →

Southern Accents – Tom Petty (Album Review) (Part 1)

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Issued In 1985, The Album Met With Lukewarm Reviews And Caused Notable Frictions Within The Band. It Was A Top 10 Hit Nonetheless.

Issued In 1985, The Album Met With Lukewarm Reviews And Caused Notable Frictions Within The Band. It Was A Top 10 Hit Nonetheless.

Released in 1985, “Southern Accents” is regarded as one of the few failures in Tom Petty’s checkered career. The consensus was that he bit more than he could chew, as he tried to write a conceptual album about the South just to end up painting a sort of contemptible caricature. Now, I am also a Southerner – but from another part of the world. As you know, I live in a country named Uruguay, tucked at the bottom geographical end of South America. That puts me in an interesting position since I can easily understand how certain traditions and conventions are easy to be mocked by people from other parts of the continent, and even the whole world.

I would feel a little miffed if some local musician recorded a conceptual album about people who drink mate and eat dulce de leche indiscriminately while talking about past achievements as far as soccer is concerned. For your information, in that sentence I mentioned our natural infusion (“mate”), one of the endemic dairy products of the country (“dulce de leche”) and I referred to one of the pet themes of conversation among old and young people alike: preterit soccer successes (with Uruguay’s defeat of Brazil in 1950 at Maracaná preeminently among them).

I would be miffed if that happened because setting that down as an album would only perpetuate an image of the country that most people (notably the younger generations) try to elude.

Or do they? As much as some mock drinking mate, when we are traveling abroad and we see someone with a thermos flask (something essential for drinking mate) underneath his arm then we rush to embrace him, proclaiming eternal friendship and a bond that will last through generations to come. And as much as some claimed to hate the talk about soccer, they were the first to post images and slogans on their Facebook profiles about Peñarol (one of the two giants of Uruguayan soccer along with Nacional) when FIFA named it the best team of the 20th Century. Continue reading →

Odds & Sods (The Who) – Album Review (Part 2)

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Read what I had to say about the original LP here.

The remastered “Odds & Sods” was issued in 1998, effectively becoming the final Who album to be expanded and reissued (leaving aside “My Generation”, which as I am sure you know remained in Shel Talmy’s grip). There was a lot of curiosity to see what was going to be added, and how it would be presented. Well, as it turned out the album length was more than doubled (it went from 11 to 23 tracks), and the new “Odds & Sods” was presented in chronological order. Now the album started with “I’m The Face” and finished with “Water”.

Led by Jon Astley, the archivists unearthed three true gems. The first two were from the sessions for Who’s Next: “Time Is Passing” and “Love Is For Keeping”. Of course, every self-respecting Who fan knew “Time Is Passing” from Pete’s version on “Who Came First”, but The ‘Oo’s version did not lag behind in any sense, and it evinced a gentle vocal by Roger at the time he was truly at the top of the Totem. And the song was fantastic even when it was only half the song – the channels that were meant to be on the left side were missing. As I explained when reviewing “Who Came First”, some bootlegger found them and put the full version together. Good luck if you can find it…

The “new” version of “Love Is For Keeping” was the electric take mentioned on the booklet of the reissued “Who’s Next”. Lesley West (from Mountain) played electric with Pete, and the result was equally as satisfying as “Baby Don’t You Do It” from the bonus-fortified “Who’s Next”.

The final true discovery was to be an outtake from “Quadrophenia“, “We Close Tonight”. But there was something strange about it – the song was credited to Pete but vocals were handled by John and Keith. That was something rare indeed, and the uber developed bass line just makes the question mark on who really composed it stand all the more noticeable. Personally, I think that “We Close Tonight” was the one song John wrote for “Quadrophenia”, and that he eventually chose to discard since he feared it summarized the whole opera in one song. Continue reading →

Odds & Sods (The Who) – Album Review (Part 1)

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"Odds & Sods" Was Assembled By John Entwistle In 1974 In Order To Buy Time For A "Proper" Who Album

"Odds & Sods" Was Compiled By John Entwistle In 1974 At The Band's Behest, In Order To Buy Time For A "Proper" Who Album

“Odds & Sods” was an album of rarities that The Who had John Entwistle assemble while the members of the band were engrossed in other film and career projects. The year was 1974. John came up with an album that had “I’m The Face”, The Who’s very first single from 1964 (when they were known as The High Numbers), a song that was always very popular onstage like “Naked Eye” (from an aborted post “Who’s Next” EP) and the tune that had inspired “Lifehouse”, “Pure & Easy”. That was by far the most notable omission on the finished “Who’s Next” (remember, the band did not choose the songs that were featured – Glyn Johns did), and its inclusion on an official album was long overdue

Two other songs from that troubled but incredibly fruitful period include “Put The Money Down” and “Now I’m A Farmer”. The first is actually every bit as good as any other song Pete wrote about performers and fans. The jawbone synthesizer is also noticeable, if only because it gives Keith a chance to play around the beat like only he could do in his prime. The song also has one of Roger’s most bestial screams ever, I am a bit perplexed that the fact is seldom mentioned.

On the other hand, “Now I’m A Farmer” is a jumble of a song, jumping from a rockier tune to a silly folksier number back and forth and back and forth, and with Keith Moon impersonating an old farmer at the end. The song was even shortly considered for inclusion on “Tommy” right before the band decided to make it a double album – that was a time when they also thought about including “Young Man Blues” on the deaf, dumb and blind boy’s opera.

Entwistle’s one contribution to the album was “Postcard”, a song about the band’s life on the road which was fine, although only devoted fans got the full joke.  (There’s kangaroos and we’re bad news in Australia/Thrown off the plane for drinking beer/So long on the plane it drove us insane/So long on the plane). The song was to be the one and only Entwistle-penned composition to be issued as a Who A-side. Continue reading →

Jeff Buckley – General Introduction

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Jeff Buckley

Jeff Buckley

Jeff Buckley is one of the modern legends of music. Bestowed with one of the most expressive voices in history, he drowned in 1997 after having released only one studio album (“Grace”, 1994). He was 30 years of age. A set of demo recordings named “(Sketches For) My Sweetheart The Drunk” was polished and issued shortly after his untimely death as a 2 CD set, which also included an album he had recorded with Tom Verlaine and decided to scrap. As it always happens in these cases, posthumous success exceeded all the critical (and commercial) accolades he had reaped during his short life.

“How can somebody be lauded as a legend when he only released one ‘true’ album?”, I hear some say as I make the rounds. I can make no other reply than handing them a copy of “Grace” and pointing at two songs in particular: “Last Goodbye” and “Hallelujah”. I know I am not exaggerating when I say that these two are the songs of the decade. “Last Goodbye” showcases Buckley’s cannonades of sonority and expressivity as barriers that seem unsurpassable are conquered one after the other, culminating in the explosive delivery after the orchestrated break.

“Hallelujah”, on the other hand, is an emotional paradox – a song that can be as uplifting as it can be disheartening. It all depends on the circumstances in which you are playing it. It was arguably Jeff’s highest (posthumous) commercial point, and one of the first “true” digital music smash hits in history.  Continue reading →

Spreaker – Social Radio Come True

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Spreaker

Name: Spreaker
URL: http://www.spreaker.com

Not every person with thoughts to share about his favorite artists will sit down and tend to a blog or a personal site. The thing is, there are not really that many other options, and none I can think of is as accessible as blogging.

Well, that is set to change thanks to a startup like Spreaker. We can call it a social web radio service. The site will empower just anybody to create his own radio and broadcast whenever he feels like doing it. There are no fees of any kind to be met, as both royalties and bandwidth expenses are covered by Spreaker.

This means that you can host your own talk show and (for example) invite people from you local music scene that you are in good terms with. You can also create a show devoted to your favorite band and play its songs left, right and center. Hint: if you tune in and catch a radio that plays The Who indiscriminately you know who is behind it. Continue reading →

Once – Original Soundtrack Album

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Once's Original Soundtrack Album Is Dominated By Glen Hansard's Songs. Marketa Irglova Has Two Sogs In, And The Band "Interference" Sings "Gold"

Once's Original Soundtrack Album Is Dominated By Glen Hansard's Songs. Marketa Irglova Has Two Songs In, And The Band "Interference" (With Glen In Tow) Contributes "Gold"

This new section (Original Soundtrack Albums) should have been added to MusicKO last month. I knew that the first album to be featured had to be the OST to “Once”, arguably the most striking musical I have ever seen. And that was what held me for so long. I have lived with the CD for the past month, trying to convince myself that it is every bit as good or essential as the film. And it is not. It is a fine album. But the movie was more than fine in every sense.

The problem might as well lie in Marketa’s solo songs. “The Hill” is not played fully in the movie. It is used in a very specific scene towards the end, and if you take the scene away you are also taking its weight with it. And “If You Want Me” is completely insipid. It dawns on you that what matters is how the song comes to be (the phenomenal street shot), not the finished song. The impromptu “Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy” is a toss-off, and while it is too short to cross anybody it is irrelevant.

Besides, “Say It To Me Now” is somehow limp if you didn’t watch the scene in the movie, with the camera slowly closing in and the Girl clapping as the shot ends.

Still, the album has its fair share of brilliance. I don’t need to tell you about
“Falling Slowly” because the song speaks for itself. I would kill to get my hands on the Oscar performance. All I could find was the performance embedded above, and the moment when Glen and Marketa get the coveted statues. Notice how they cut poor Marketa off. It is a good thing the host brings her back after the break. You can watch it here. Continue reading →

Original Soundtrack Albums – General Introduction

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Well, this is another category I have always been keen on adding as every single OST I have has an incredible emotional value attached to it. These reviews are going to be exactly like the “regular” reviews that you have got to know by now. The difference is that at the end there won’t be a score. Rather, I will cast a verdict regarding whether the OST can be enjoyed if you haven’t seen the movie.

I will start with “Once”, and then move on to “Great Balls Of Fire”, “Elizabethtown”, and even the two volumes of my favorite anime, “Zegapain”.

Tubeoke – Where YouTube Becomes A Karaoke

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LOTubeOke

Name: Tubeoke
URL: http://www.tubeoke.com

This is the kind of site that with some work could become notably more appealing. As it stands right now, it lets you turn YouTube into a (very) basic karaoke. You look up the song (or the artist), and upon picking a video it is played back at you while a second window (situated on the right) displays the lyrics to go with the song.

The idea is simplicity in itself, and the approach so far is nothing to go out of your way for. However, it can turn out to be exponentially good if the lyrics became an integral part of the video and were displayed automatically as the song went on. As it stands right now, you have to scroll them down in mid song, and if you don’t have a lackey at your beck and call to do the dirty job then it’s goodbye inspiration and concentration. Continue reading →