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JORMA KAUKONEN |
KEREN ANN |
WILCO |
ZOMBIES |
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TIM FINN
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JORMA
KAUKONEN
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MITCH
EASTER Dynamico (125) Back in the mid 80s guitarist Mitch Easter was producing R.E.M. and hanging with greats like Don Dixon and Marti Jones as well as formulating his own pop spectacle with his band Lets Active. Easters first album in eighteen years gets back to what he does bestcombining catchy pop hooks with a dynamic rock performance. A triple threat singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and studio wiz, Easter was influenced early on by the mid 60s Brit-rock invasion bands and he layers it with a love of post-Beatles psych-pop all presented within a self-produced rockin package. Easter coaxes some truly Syd Barrett inspired guitar tones here and there and his legendary prowess as a producer gives the sound extra impact and underscores the fact that hes playing everything. www.mitcheaster.com/dynamico.html
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KEREN
ANN Keren Ann (Metro Blue) Twenty
five years ago a gifted singer named Anna Domino appeared on the music
scene mixing pop, jazz and Euro style cabaret melodies. Israeli-Dutch
singer Keren Ann takes a similar tact as Ms. Domino but with Blue Note
backing her fourth album, its more likely that Keren Ann will rise out
of the kind of obscurity that made Ms. Domino such a cult icon. Both
singers were/are great and Keren Ann takes her soft psychedelic-jazz
sound to new heights with her 2007 self-titled Blue Note CD. Adept on
bass, guitar and B-3, Keren Ann is abetted by some excellent players
including guitarist Thomas Senence with occasional drums of Regis
Ceccarelli. Recorded in Paris, New York, Tel-Aviv and Iceland, Keren
Ann is a fabulous late night spinwith pastoral musical washes
over Ms. Anns dreamy female vocals punctuated by some well recorded
strings, piano and guitars. www.kerenann.com
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WILCO Sky Blue Sky (Nonesuch) Theres so many memorable tracks and cool musical atmospheres on the 2007 Wilco CD that its impossible not to like it. The addition of guitarist Nels Cline and keyboardist Pat Sansone really puts some hefty musical meat on the song lines of Wilco main man Jeff Tweedy. Tweedys Wilco cofounders John Stirratt (bass), Glenn Kotche (drums) and Mikael Jorgensen (keyboards) fill in the spaces on a record thats surely going to please long time Wilco watchers and turn the heads of newcomers and the unconverted. Commenting on Sky Blue Sky, Tweedy adds, In a lot of ways, Sky Blue Sky is our first record. This lineup of the band is probably the closest to ideal Ive ever been lucky to experience. If we all lived together, it would be like The Monkees. www.wilcoworld.net
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THE
ZOMBIES Live (Rhino) The Zombies remain one of the greatest and most progressive minded bands to emerge in the wake of Beatlemania and the early 60s British invasion. Contemporaries of The Kinks, Moody Blues and other first generation bands of the era, The Zombies featured the cool, calm and collected vocals of Colin Blunstone and keyboard legend Rod Argent. The late 68 Zombies album, Odessey & Oracle remains in the top 10 Lp classics of 68 but, just as the album was about to take offcourtesy of the late release of the album closing Time Of The Seasonall was lost and the band split. With Argent, primping out his own moniker, heading up a prolific, prodigious keyboard based prog-rock band with the great Russ Ballard, Rodford with Zombies coconspirator Chris White in tow, Colin Blunstone took off to an acclaimed solo career. It would be 30+ years before Argent and Blunstone would kick start their Zombies legacy againreleasing a 2004 studio comeback album on Rhino called As Far As I Can See. Rhino fulfills their Zombies reunification mission with an audiophile quality double live CD set and accompanying DVD entitled The Zombies Live At The Bloomsbury Theatre, London. Filmed and recorded in 2003, the CD and DVD combine sight and sound for a fine comeback performance by Blunstone and Argent backed here by the legendary Argent bassist Jim Rodford, son Steve Rodford on drums and the guitars of Keith Airey. The 25 track double CD set is scaled back on the DVD, which pares the show down to 16 classic Zombies and Argent songs. Both the CD and DVD are vivid pop artifacts well worth the time of Zombies / Argent fans and those who missed them 40+ years ago. Who says history never repeats? www.rhino.com / www.thezombies.co.uk
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