This is a certified jazz/funk/power trio bomb. With Vernon Reid on guitar, Jamaaladeen Tecuma on bass, and G. Calvin Weston on drums, there is not a flabby moment on this record. Many people know Reid from his fire-spitting days with Living Colour. If you weren't paying attention though, you might be lead to believe that Reid was only capable of those tangled rock solos. Not true. The man has soul. Tons of it. Mountains of it! Tecuma and Weston (great names in their own right) have joined forces with Reid to produce this spectacular funk assault.
Since Guided By Voices split on New Year's Eve, 2004 (and even long before that) some fans have pined for the old days - back when Robert Pollard and company crudely recorded in a basement on cassettes into a boombox, throwing caution to the wind and making lo-fi masterpieces that confounded standard song-writing practices. Pollard's become something of an off-kilter, oddball-pop genius over the years, but he hasn't forgotten those days, and with his latest album, as always just the first of several this year, he returns to those old techniques to see what turns up. 20 years of old tapes+new vocals and other goodies=a good time for willing ears.
Here are all of this week's new album releases courtesy of All Music Guide:
Antietam
Opus Mixtum
Carrot Top
Alternative Pop/Rock, Heavy Metal
British Sea Power
Do You Like Rock Music?
Rough Trade
Indie Rock
Michael Jackson
Thriller [25th Anniversary Edition]
Epic
Pop/Rock, Urban, Funk, Dance-Pop, Club/Dance
Widespread Panic
Free Somehow
Widespread
Jam Bands, American Trad Rock, Rock & Roll
Alarm Will Sound
Michael Gordon: Van Gogh
Cantaloupe
Contemporary Chamber Music
Dan Baird
Out of Mothballs
Jerk
Rock & Roll
Joe Beck & John Abercrombie
Coincidence
Whaling City
Post-Bop
Marco Benevento
Invisible Baby
Hyena
Avant-Garde Jazz, Noise Pop, Experimental Rock, Post-Rock/Experimental, Modern Free, Urban Folk, Instrumental Rock
Blue Highway
Through the Window of a Train
Rounder
Progressive Bluegrass, Contemporary Bluegrass
Jack Bruce/Robin Trower
Seven Moons
Evangeline
Hard Rock, Blues-Rock
The Buckinghams
The Greatest Hits and More
Fuel 2000
Sunshine Pop, Pop/Rock
Deaf Pedestrians
And Other Distractions
Virgin
Hard Rock, Alternative Metal
Flo & Eddie
The Phlorescent Leech & Eddie/Flo & Eddie
Manifesto
Pop/Rock, Power Pop, Satire
Front Line Assembly
Tactical Neural Implant/Millennium
Roadrunner
Electro-Industrial, Industrial Dance, Industrial
Guru
The Best of Guru's Jazzmatazz
Virgin
Underground Rap, Jazz-Rap, Hip-Hop
Gladys Hardy
I Love Jesus But I Drink a Little
Warner Bros.
Prank Calls, Country Comedy
Buddy Holly & the Crickets
Not Fade Away: Buddy Holly 1957 Complete Recordings
El Toro
Pop, Rockabilly, Rock & Roll
Article comments
1 - Donald Gibson
Thank you very much for the link, Glen, as well as for your kind words on my article.
- Donald
2 - Glen Boyd
No problem Donald. It was a great piece.
-Glen
3 - Pico
Woo hoo! Thanks Glen (and Mark and Tom), I am complete, now ;&)
4 - Glen Boyd
The pleasure was all yours Pico...oh, and ours too of course.
-Glen
5 - JC Mosquito
Dan Baird - yaaaayyyyyyhhoooo!
If there was any justice in the world, they'd reissue the Satellites' In the Land of Salvation and Sin and make it required reading... or whatever.