The bands on Forevermind — a Nirvana tribute record organized by X103 — stay true to the Seattle aesthetic, with standout efforts reinventing familiar melodies and textures without departing from the template. The album works as a Heartland tribute to a band that forever changed music.
Monofiction, a band featuring the Johnson Brothers (who own The Pop Machine studio and helped engineer the album), checks in with a power-pop take on “On a Plain.” Jenn Cristy’s version of “Lithium,” soulful and at its best in the slower parts, gently channels another Seattle band, Heart. Redline Chemistry’s nuanced, engaged take on “Polly” is a highlight, with acoustic guitars and harmonies that hit 45 seconds into the song.
Other standouts include ”In Bloom” from Phoenix on the Fault Line (with its echoes of the Smashing Pumpkins), Devil to Pay’s rendering of “Breed” as thrash garage rock, and a Gaslight Anthem and Ramones-inspired take on “Territorial Pissings” by New Politics.
We give kudos to X103 for putting together a project featuring Indiana bands in addition to national acts. Even now, the legacy of the Nirvana still resonates at the radio station. No Nirvana? Probably no X103.
There’s a division between bands that hits a note-for-note replication and those who twist the tune into their own sound. Regardless, hearing the songs from another band’s perspective is a thundering reminder how songs like “Smells Like Teen Spriit” and “Come as You Are” are flat-out great rock songs, time capsules of how it sounded when hair metal was pushed aside and flannel rock ruled.
Download: an RAR file containing a complete MP3 version of Forevermind
album reviews/previews
Indiana Music: Album – Bonfire John and the Majestic Springs Band – "Making the Most"
Making the Most gives hints that a solo project started in 2010 by singer-songwriter Owen Yonce has the potential to become a successful full-band project in a twangy indie-rock tradition.
Many of the songs on the 13-track album are short, with only three clocking in at more than three minutes. “You Never Learn Babe” is excellent, head-bouncing, Wilco-style rock; “Older and Gray” is nuevo Beatles, with a hint of Todd Snider as the guitar dances in for a fun solo; “Silly People” sounds like a Ringo number, circa Rubber Soul. “Fit for Desire,” featured as a free download, is a sly Dylan and Petty rock-and-roll rip with a Woody Guthrie whistle. Like much of the record, it’s filled with phrases melded together to create atmosphere rather than a linear story.
Hear: Making the Most (via Bandcamp)
Near the end, “Ride with Me” thrashes with some garage rock hopes and is bubble gum, in a good way. And the album’s best song is its closer, “Fade to Blue,” which resonates like an Avett Brothers number with its story about two people moving in opposite directions: “When I leave, will you remember me? Will I just say “I love you’”?
Don’t dismiss Bonfire John because of his tongue-twisting name and lo-tech recording standards. With cohorts Brian McGowan on guitar, Jack Sullivan on bass, and Jeffrey Lauer on drums, Yonce/John has put together a four piece that begs for opportunities to mash into the music even more. Are they a lo-fi unit happy to mine that thinner territory? Or do they have more to give? Stay together, boys, and give us another.
Indiana Music: Album – Bobbie Lancaster – "Live"
In the year following her debut, self-titled album, Bobbie Lancaster has continued to present her Americana chanteuse sound to audiences — via solo shows, radio gigs and on-stage with fellow folkie Tim Grimm for his John Prine tribute shows.
Her latest release is a live album (Bobbie Lancaster – “Live”) compiled from a pair of area shows. The first was an Indy Folk Series show on March 19; the other, a concert recorded in Bloomington on June 8 for community radio station WFHB’s Local Live series.
The album succeeds because Lancaster’s voice is a gem — expressive, sultry, and world-weary enough to make us think she’s experienced a bit of life.
One of her best, “I Don’t Wanna Miss You,” leads off the album; it’s a tune filled with longing and anthemic chord changes that hits the same vein as Mellencamp’s “Minutes to Memories.” “Hairless Monkey” shows Bobbie has been listening to Prine. “Run That Light” mines blues territory and provides a chance for Lancaster to stretch her vocal chops (“Baby, run that light, because I am on fire”).
Other highlights include “The Rain,” from her days performing as Stella and Jane, and the epic “The Tragic Tale of Maggie Donovan,” from her recent studio release.
Lancaster’s lyrics are sweet and strong, providing insight into a woman’s head and heart. They carry the work, since the music is spare — just two instruments (Lancaster on mandolin, Nick Einterz on guitar).
While the recording could have benefited from a bit more high end in the mix, and the folk series recordings sound subtly thinner than the radio set, those are minor quibbles with a release that gives the listener the feel of being in a room with Lancaster as she lets flow a raw, tight, stripped-of-gloss show.
Indiana Music: John Hiatt – Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns
John Hiatt is from Indiana. Lived in Broad Ripple, in the heart of Indianapolis. He ran off to Nashville, then to LA for a brief period, before settling back in Nashville many years ago. That Hoosier/Midwest/heartland vibe has always slithered through his music, especially from 1987’s Bring the Family forward. His new album is no different; it is Hiatt stories, ringing electric guitars, some swampy blues undercurrents, and a raspy familiarity that is well-earned.
Hiatt’s new album (it came out August 2) Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns was recorded in Nashville and was produced by Kevin Shirley (Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, The Black Crowes). He hooked up with Shirley, whom he’d met in the ’90s, after the producer sent word through Hiatt’s manager.
Video: “Damn This Town”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMF658rThog]
“He called my manager, Ken Levitan, and said, ‘Tell John I’ve been listening to what he’s doing, I know where he’s trying to go and I think I can help him get there,'” Hiatt told teh LA Times. “I’d never heard that before in my life. I was so intrigued I said, ‘Hell, yeah.'”
VIDEO: Making of the album
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R03Nlw9ZzhM&]
Roots Rock Notes: Jethro Easyfields talk guitar rock, Tim Grimm and Foster & Lloyd release new albums
Jethro Easyfields reports he is “in planning stages and gatherin’ ideas” for his next album. Easyfields says the sound may be an “album full of fleshy guitars” and “is gonna be a doozie.” He’s shopping around for a drummer/bass player combination for the project. He’s prevous outing, 2010’s Bloodletting veered into an interesting wierder-than-Tom Petty territory, and a number of cuts on the album echoed REM sounds, circa Fables of Reconstruction and Life’s Rich Pageant. (read full NUVO review here)
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One of Indiana’s most refined and intelligent folk artists,Tim Grimm, has a new album out, called Thank You Tom Paxton, co-produced by his friend and Prine guitarist Jason Wilber. In addition to helping produce, Wilber played guitar on most of the songs.
For the album, Tim recorded 12 of his favorite Tom Paxton songs. In addition to staying true to many of the originals, Wilber and Grimm also created some new arrangements for some of the tunes. The UK based music magazine Maverick gave the CD 4 stars.
Grimm, joined at some by Wilber, will be playing CD release shows, mostly in the Midwest this summer, but to the east coast at the end of July– with a small ensemble. He’ll be playing a couple of John Prine: A Tribute Concert shows, and a Festival at pal Joe Crookston’s place in Ithaca, NY. He’s heading to Texas in the Fall, then up the West coast, with dates in Washington state and Colorado.
For fans of the 1980’s country/rock/pop duo Foster and Lloyd, a new album called It’s Already Tomorrow, was released May 17, reuniting the Radney Foster and Bill Lloyd after 20 years. For their fourth album together they had an assist from Bruce Springsteen’s E. St. Band bassist, Garry Tallent on the the acoustic-based “When I Finally Let You Go”.
First Listen: The Cars new album
The new album from reunited 80’s rockers The Cars can be heard here ahead of it’s release later this month. Very close to their classic sound; a guiilty pleasure.
Not an album of the year candidate, but makes for a nostalgic listen for those who remember the band’s first three albums. “Too Late” is a poppy keeper, “Keep on Knocking” could have made it onto Heartbeat City and “Sad Song” is the old sound, ripped off as only they can be allowed to do.