Oasis finally produce ‘third great album’ with ‘Dig Out Your Soul’

Reviewed by Edward Wallace

Oasis/Dig Out Your Soul

This the Oasis album that should have come after (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? – the third great album fans have been waiting for. Closest in spirit to their debut Definitely Maybe, it’s tighter than their last two good albums Heathen Chemistry and Don’t Believe the Truth with a much better single. Hopefully it will find the appreciation Radiohead and Foo Fighters recently enjoyed. The first song “Bag It Up” has the Gallaghers taking on fear:  “Somebody tell me I’m dreaming/The freaks are coming up through the floor”/I’ve got my heebeejeebees hidden in a bag” with soaring, classic guitar and throaty vocal bravado. “The Turning” has a Kid A Radiohead beat, but sped up into an exciting rocker – the kind Radiohead may have made in a parallel universe where they took Bono’s advice to make a pop hit. Setting a theme that continues into the next song, Oasis uses imagery of Adam & Eve and the Christian Rapture. Where they began their careers declaring they wanted to “Live Forever”; here they face mortality (“I’m tired, come pick me off this merry-go-round”) but see love and living life to the fullest as the obvious answer. “Grab your guitar when the rapture takes me…will you be by my side?”

“The Shock of The Lightning” opens with an air raid, complete with plane noises and strafing machine gun drums. Vintage “Supersonic” guitar hooks explode. The chorus “Love is a time machine/Up on the silver screen” doesn’t worry about making sense because it’s too busy kickin’ arse. Returning to the mortality theme, “I’m Outta Time” is a touching Liam piano ballad on the final days of John Lennon. “If I’m to fall would you be there to applaud/Or would you hide behind them all.” It ends with powerful dialog from Lennon himself. Oasis is the one band that could pull this song off, and does.

“Get Off Your High Horse Lady” is a bluesy, hand-clapper kiss-off that fits with their last single “Lord Don’t Slow Me Down.” “Falling Down” is a shoegazer song with swirly guitars, strings and psychedelic lyrics about dreams and butterflies before turning defiant: “I try to talk to God to no avail/I said ‘If you can’t save me, then please don’t waste my time.’ “

The Chemical Brothers remix of that song (available separately) is bombastic. Had the two bands collaborated on a full album during the ’90s (The Chemical Gallagher Brothers?) matching Oasis’s rock-craft charisma with cutting-edge techno production, I think they could have created the best CD of that decade. It’s not too late. “To Be Where There’s Life” continues the psychedelia with a George Harrison-influenced sitar piece. “Ain’t Got Nothin’” (the most swaggering song Liam has written) kicks the door back in like ‘Force Of Nature’ demanding “The Truth,” with a more jangly, blues rock take from The Who. 

“Nature of Reality” returns to hippyland with shaky maracas, building into a glam rockier, reverberating update of “Helter Skelter”-era Beatles. “The nature of reality/Is pure subjective fantasy” seems to answer the question posed by the previous track. I’m amazed how well the brothers’ songs intertwine. The haunting ending “Soldier On” ends with a plodding, martial beat. A bold choice that leaves the brothers’ song personas toiling onwards – not at the promised land, but refusing to give up as though at the end of a cliff hanger movie sequel. Which of course leaves us looking forward again to the next exciting Oasis chapter.

http://www.oasisus.com

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The Veins capture decades of rock styles on ‘The Price of Blood and Gold’

Reviewed by Kit Burns

The Veins/The Price of Blood and Gold

To the Veins, it sounds as if rock & roll was dead by the mid-’90s; considering the garbage that has emanated since then, we can bless them for that. The Veins, not to be confused with any garage-rock revivalists with a “the” in front of their name, are hopelessly devoted to several generations of rock, from the ’60s British Invasion to ’90s grunge. You’ll find elements of them all in various tracks. For example, the first cut, “Subway Queen,” strikes with the thunderous jolt of prime ’70s Blue Oyster Cult, complete with Godzilla-sized guitar solos. “Buried,” on the other hand, is reminiscent of Alice in Chains’ descent into the abyss with reptilian riffs that’ll coil around your neck.

But, as I had just mentioned, the Veins aren’t about just one or two styles. “Superstar” is pure pop sweetness with crisp playing that is as melodic as any Bon Jovi hit single from the ’80s (and minus the cheese). “Bitter Wind” recalls the Beatles with its glowing melodies. The song titles (“Buried,” “Surfin’ on Gasoline,” “Blood and Gold,” “Lonely as a Gun”) and sleeve art (skulls, the American flag hidden in splashes of blood) seem to be a statement against the war in Iraq; however, I’ll leave it to you to find the political subtext in rock & roll this energetic and fun.

http://www.theveins.com

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Legal Tender’s Eric Davenport finds spiritual kinship with St. John and Sir Paul

Interview by Kit Burns

Let’s get it out of the way: Eric Davenport is not, and has never been, one of the Beatles. But sometimes you have to wonder if one of John Lennon’s groupies had, you know, oblivious to him dropped an egg somewhere and out hatched this glammy rocker based in Southern California. Davenport is Legal Tender, and the album Carbon McCartney is retro rock at its purest. Davenport explains it all except his possible bloodline.

Kit Burns: Your album is called Carbon McCartney, obviously a tongue-in-cheek reference to your easily detected Beatles influence. Were you conscious of your similarity to the Beatles or did you name the record that because people brought it to your attention?

Eric Davenport: Well, people have always said to me, “Ya know, you sound a lot like the Beatles/Paul McCartney,” but I think my own original style shines through. People have always compared my music to the Beatles, jokingly calling it the “Rolling Beatle Monkees Sound.” The fact,  it was my young twenty/thirtysomething  mates who started calling me Carbon McCartney. Ergo, the title of the CD. But please don’t get me wrong.  I am in no way comparing myself to the Great Ones, but if people want to make a comparison, I can’t think of  better musicians to be compared too. I won’t deny the influence is there and sometimes people hear the influence even when I don’t.  I may remind people of the Beatles (or Paul), but I
don’t think I sound exactly like them. But there will never be another Mozart, Elvis, or Beatles.

Burns: Legal Tender is just basically you, correct? Or is it a full band?

Davenport: Well, on the Carbon McCartney CD it is mostly me, but Tony Hart the drummer for the old band played on three of the songs. But the new band members are about to be announced in the next few weeks.

Burns: When did you get your start in rock & roll? Did you always have this glam meets British Invasion sound?

Davenport: Well, Elvis Presley probably started it off. I saw an Elvis movie; I do believe the first one I saw was King Creole. I liked that, that got me started wanting to play the guitar. I wanted to play guitar for a while. The next big thing came when I was in grade school, I was probably in the fourth or fifth grade, and Trudy Bennett lived across the street. She came running over one day, and I can still remember we were by the flagpole at Crestmore School, and every time I see that flagpole, it reminds me. She comes
running over and says, “You’ve gotta listen to this.” She had a transistor radio, and lo and behold, if it wasn’t “She Loves You” playing by the Beatles. Then from it, that’s what I want to do! As far as the glam meets British Invasion, I really do not know how to answer that, except to say I have always played what feels good to me. I have a vary rich back ground of influences: rock, blues, Jazz, country,
Gospel, classical, big band, heavy metal (like Ozzy Osbourne and Dio), pop, and yes, glam Like Davie Bowie and the like.

Burns: Listening to Carbon McCartney is a lot of fun. Do you feel that there’s not enough fun in rock & roll these days?

Davenport: The fun days of rock & roll seem to have gone for the most part. I always tell the young guys rock is a whole lot different to day than back in the ’50s and ’60s. The guys that owned record company actually liked, played, and collected records; now companies are middle management training grounds. It’s no longer the rock & roll business, but the business of rock & roll. It’s like everything else only to make big big money. No one’s happy to just have a recording that sells and makes you some good money. I think the worst thing is most artist are try to hard to project “that rock & roll image,” and it’s like play acting; they seem afraid to be themselves and hope people will like what they see. Most people find a formula that sells, and that’s where they stay, afraid to do anything else. 

Burns: Time for the most difficult choice in your life: Paul or John? Which one and why?

Davenport: That is like asking what do you like better a good meal or good sex; they’re both good in different ways. For me (the Paul part of me) Paul and I are alike in many ways. His first instrument was a trumpet, we both did the Boy Scouts, and he is down-to-Earth and sometimes a little corny. I like the
fact that he never tries to be something, he is who he is, and he is cool. You never hear him out in public cursing trying to be hip and making a jackass out of himself; he has class and he is a honorable man and someone who likes people and his fans. The John part of me is attracted to his humor and his intelligence and like Paul, he can pen a great song, genius that he be. Half-John, half-Paul makes a whole. And they were just cool. The difference between hip and cool, hip is when everybody is doing it, cool is when you’re the only one or the first one doing it.

http://mcmlegaltender.com

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Canada’s Shelby Nelson reaches for Britpop goodness on ‘Stars to Sail By’

Reviewed by Kit Burns

Shelby Nelson/Stars to Sail By

Miss Britpop? You probably do. After all, the mid-’90s invasion of U.K. retro rockers (Oasis, Blur, etc) didn’t last long stateside as many Americans seem to have forgotten how appealing those English accents and Beatlesque melodies were, eventually overshadowed by the icky likes of rap-metal, Nickelback, and emo. Well, for those who have a taste for the Brits will certainly embrace Canada-based Shelby Nelson, who wears his affection for John Lennon, Pink Floyd, and Oasis on his sleeves.

Thankfully, while Nelson’s influences are easily apparent to the educated ear, he isn’t copping anybody’s licks here unlike Oasis which proudly confessed their Fab Four theft (but they were so good at it we didn’t give a damn). “Intro” is spacey Pink Floyd-ish prog rock; it seemed oddly out of place at first but then I realized it does establish Nelson’s preference towards a bigger rock sound. “The Parasite and the Ghost” is powered by thunderously huge drums and stadium-sized guitar riffs while “In For the Night” is illuminated by shimmering, radiant hooks. “When You’re Feeling Better” echoes Pink Floyd’s distinctly English sensibilities but with more a emotionally accessible approach. Probably the biggest shocker here is “Caught in a Sweet Vibration” which aims for the wiggly synths and robotic cool vocals of the Cars’ late ’70s New Wave.

http://www.shelbynelson.ca

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