TRACK OF THE DAY - Tom Waits

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Orca Team - 2 albums

Artist:  Orca Team

Albums: Let It Go / Restraint

Released:  2010 / 2012

Quality: m4a VBR ~ 224 / mp3 VBR ~224

Size:  40 / 50 MB

”Orca Team is a 1960s Post Punk Beach Party from the confusing waters of the Pacific Northwest. They make the music of a punk  trio if everyone in the band decided to keep their volume low and their tones clean. Each song is short, sung with a lonesome croon, equipped with a melodic bass line, and drenched in reverb. Influences include The Flamingos, Pylon, Jan & Dean and The Smiths”   ©

 

TRACK OF THE DAY - Orca Team

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The Cubical (2009) -Come Sing These Crippled Tunes

Artist:  The Cubical

Album: Come Sing These Crippled Tunes

Released:  2009

Quality: mp3 CBR 256

Size:  78MB

”The Cubical's gritty, growly swamp blues has already earned some attention in circles where people place a premium on gritty, growly swamp blues. It really is quite a striking sound, and certainly if you're a fan of gruff, grumbling vocals a la Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart, and you like your rock'n'roll primal and pounding, then you will definitely go a bundle on this lot. They're vaguely in that blues-rock ballpark occupied by fellow Scousers the Coral and the Zutons, only straighter and less psychedelic, like the original punks on the legendary Nuggets compilation. Dan Wilson, the son of an army sergeant and a performer prone to "stalking the stage like a malevolent tramp begging for the crowd's attention as if asking for change and a spare ciggy" according to one innocent bystander, has a voice that fits perfectly in this setting, and its only drawback is its distinctiveness – the low, menacing way in which he chooses to grumble and roar is so obviously reminiscent of Waits/Don Van Vliet it can often sound as much like an affectionate homage as a straight pastiche.”   ~ read the full review by Paul Lester, The Guardian

 

The Cubical (2011) -It Ain't Human

Artist: The Cubical
Album: It Ain’t Human
Released: 2011
Quality: mp3 CBR 320
Size: 133 MB

”The Cubical's gritty, growly swamp blues has already earned some attention in circles where people place a premium on gritty, growly swamp blues. It really is quite a striking sound, and certainly if you're a fan of gruff, grumbling vocals a la Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart, and you like your rock'n'roll primal and pounding, then you will definitely go a bundle on this lot. They're vaguely in that blues-rock ballpark occupied by fellow Scousers the Coral and the Zutons, only straighter and less psychedelic, like the original punks on the legendary Nuggets compilation. Dan Wilson, the son of an army sergeant and a performer prone to "stalking the stage like a malevolent tramp begging for the crowd's attention as if asking for change and a spare ciggy" according to one innocent bystander, has a voice that fits perfectly in this setting, and its only drawback is its distinctiveness – the low, menacing way in which he chooses to grumble and roar is so obviously reminiscent of Waits/Don Van Vliet it can often sound as much like an affectionate homage as a straight pastiche.” ~ read the full review by Paul Lester, The Guardian

Dead Combo (2011) -Lisboa Mulata

Artist: Dead Combo
Album: Lisboa Mulata
Release Date: 2011
Quality: mp3 FLAC (tracks) / mp3 CBR 320
Size: 266 / 108 MB

Ty Segall (2011) -Goodbye Bread

Artist: Ty Segall
Album: Goodbye Bread
Released: 2011
Quality: mp3 CBR 320
Size: 76 MB

”…In Goodbye Bread, his first full-length for Drag City, Segall has embraced singer-songwriter craft wholeheartedly. While garage rock O.G.s like the Troggs and the Stooges continue to be an influence, Segall has turned in a relatively calm effort here, choosing to downshift into slower tempos and cleaner sounds, evoking instead the work of John Lennon, Neil Young, and Marc Bolan. Heavyweights. But what makes Goodbye Bread such a success is that we get an even keener sense of what a Ty Segall song sounds like and what that means. Jay Reatard, whose wild-child persona has often been linked to Segall since the former's passing last year, proved that it takes a little more to stand out in this sphere. The same dark energy that set "Girlfriend" in motion can be heard here in varying forms, whether in the enormous chorus of "My Head Explodes" (a head-bangers delight), the wheelie-popping solo that slices through "Comfortable Home (A True Story)", or the sweaty, shivering verses of "You Make The Sun Fry". Though Goodbye Bread rarely takes a direct route, the thrill becomes much more about the ride from start to finish, than the speed or force of impact.” MORE REVIEW

Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs (2011) -No Help Coming

Artist: Holly Golightly
Albums: No Help Coming
Date of release: May 2011
Quality: FLAC (tracks)
Size: 226 MB

Holly Golightly was born in London and named after the heroine in Truman Capote’s novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s. She fell under the spell of American roots music the minute she heard her first Stax single and started her musical career playing guitar and singing in punk bands like Thee Headcoatees. Golightly started recording her own albums in the mid-‘90s, drawing on the American singles in her massive collection for influence. She was particularly taken with gospel, blues, and other styles of music from the American South, as evidenced by her original songs, which have a strong retro feel. In 2005, Golightly started performing as a duo with Lawyer Dave, a Texas born one-man band that plays guitar, drums, and occasionally the banjo. No Help Coming is the fourth album they’ve cut as a duo, with Golightly singing and Dave acting as another vocalist and backup band.

On stage, Dave is impressive as he plays drums and cymbals with various foot pedals and wails on slide guitar. It’s natural to think there’s been a bit of overdubbing on the record, although the liner notes are mum on this aspect of the recording process. Still, the duo is responsible for every note on the album, and they make an impressive amount of rhythmic lo-fi noise, emulating the sound of the blues, country, and early rock oldies that inspired their songwriting.

“Burn O’ Junk Pile Burn” opens with a clattering of junkyard percussion and a spooky slide guitar figure from Dave that intensifies the song’s cryptic lyric, the story of a woman trying to scrape by on nothing much. The tune’s vaguely Middle Eastern feel brings to mind the Coasters’ “Little Egypt.” The country blues of the Chess era are the obvious inspiration for “Get Out My House”, a variation on the traditional and oft-covered “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” sporting a catchy chorus and delivered with a jubilantly ragged energy. Dave sings lead on “You’re Under Arrest”, a rocking country-blues tune that details an arrest for drunk driving with plenty of dark humor and a great twang-heavy guitar solo full of distorted chords and gritty bent notes. Golightly takes vocals on the sultry, simmering “The Whole Day Long”, a bluesy song of infidelity. Dave’s erratic slide guitar accents intensify the tune’s sexual tension, while the lyrics are sung at a slow deliberate pace, making every word simmer with a combination of guilt and sinful satisfaction.

The album closes with two covers, Wavy Gravy’s “L.S.D. (Rock ‘n’ Roll Prison)” and “Lord Knows We’re Drinking”, a tune made popular by country crooner Whispering Bill Anderson. “L.S.D. (Rock ‘n’ Roll Prison)” is sung by Lawyer Dave and opens with an impressive psychedelic guitar freak-out, then morphs into a country murder ballad. Dave sings the tune with a cracked, shaky voice that sounds almost comedic, rather than dramatic, which was probably Wavy Gravy’s intent.

Golightly and Lawyer Dave sing “Lord Knows We’re Drinking” as a duet, and it’s one of the album’s most cohesive moments. Anderson’s morality tale is a variation on the Biblical admonition “Judge not lest ye be judged,” a reminder that heaven will welcome all sinners, be they drinkers or teetotalers. The tune has a clever lyric, underlining the problems songwriters face when trying to recreate the feel of yesterday’s hits, and a melody that jumps out at you with a strong tension and release structure. It stands as one of the best songs on the record, with an effortless flow that many of the duo’s originals lack. For fans of retro sounding lo-fi blues, however, there is much enjoyment to be found on the entirety of No Help Coming.©

TRACK OF THE DAY - Dirty Beaches

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