Reviews

Review: The .357 String Band – Lightning From The North

No Comments

The .357 String Band: Lightning From The North (2010)

String bands with a little punk and rock’n’roll background seem to be the thing for me at the moment. My latest finding is The .357 String Band from Milwaukee and I’ve been listening to them an awfully lot lately. Lightning From The North is their third album if I’m not mistaken and while I don’t think it’s absolutely perfect as a whole, it certainly has a lot of drop dead gorgeous moments. Especially Oh, Adilene, Days To Engrave and Rags to Rags are totally brilliant and you just can’t get tired of them. Believe me, I’ve tried and listened to each of these 3 tracks about 50 times during the last couple of weeks based on last.fm.

Lightning From The North contains a lot of highly energic, hard driving and banjo-driven bluegrass ready to bite into your bones, but in the end, the moments when they take the foot of the gas are the ones that leave the most lasting mark on my body.  This doesn’t mean that the songs that fall into that first category aren’t any good. All of this biteful bluegrass that they call streetgrass is extremely enjoyable and the songs are either really good or just awesome like Darkness In My Soul and the already mentioned Rags To Rags. It’s just that when they slow down just a little bit, they are able to deliver something heavenly brilliant like Oh Adilene and Days To Engrave. Even though about 2/3 of the album is only really good and nothing totally exceptional, it’s still totally impossible not to fall in love with Lightning from the North, because the remaining third sounds like the best thing ever and contains some of the finest songs of the year.

Picture
 
Listen to Oh, Adilene:
[audio:http://www.onechord.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/06-oh-adilene.mp3]

The .357 String Band Website
The .357 String Band at myspace

Continue Reading

Finnish music, Reviews

Review: Hi-Lo & In Between – The Lonely Bird

No Comments

Hi-Lo & In Between: The Lonely Bird (Lumpeela julkaisut, 2010)

Recently I reviewed The Fox Hunt album and mentioned that more bands should have violin, mandolin and upright bass in their instrument arsenal. Therefore it’s about time to write about this wonderful finnish folk & country band called Hi-Lo & In Between who have all those instruments and are pretty marvellous in every other perspective as well.

The Lonely Bird is the second Hi-Lo & In Between album. I liked their debut album White Whale, but for some reason I never completely fell in love with it. I should pick it up from the shelf and check out have my opinions changed.  It might have been just a case of me being an ignorant fool. If this was the case, I plea on temporary insanity. Anyway, I’m cured now, I’m in love with The Lonely Bird and I’m thrilled that there are bands like Hi-Lo & In Between in this country. This is just beautiful and magical folk music that is so carefully and thoughtfully arranged. Take a combination of traditional british and american folk & country music, flavour it with a spoonful of finnish melancholia and you might get somewhere close. Even though the closest compatriots come from abroad, old Office Building fans should also take note, because I think this gets suprisingly close to debut-era Office Building on a couple of occasions and if you know me that is definitely not a bad thing (especially title track The Lonely Bird could be a brilliant lost outtake from To See Only Shadows, both style and qualitywise).

The Lonely Bird is a wonderful album and the band Hi-Lo & In Between deserves a lot of credit for creating this warm and gentle folk treasure.  It really doesn’t get much better than this and hopefully more and more folks will introduce their hearts to Hi-Lo & In Between. The Lonely Bird is my favourite finnish album of the year so far.

Picture

Hi-Lo & In Between at myspace

Continue Reading

Reviews

Review: Drive-By Truckers – The Big To-Do

No Comments

Drive-By Truckers: The Big To-Do (ATO Records, 2010)

Drive-By Truckers is still a great band. Yeah, it’s true that The Dirty South was a stunning album and Drive-By Truckers probably can’t ever reach the same level of perfectness. A Blessing and A Curse flew under my radar, but I really enjoyed Brighter Than Creation’s Dark even though some editing could have been done.  The new one called The Big To-Do isn’t entirely flawless either, but there’s still enough great songs to keep one interested. The album starts of brilliantly and the opening trio of Daddy Learned To Fly, Fourth Night Of My Drinking and Birthday Boy introduces the good old rockin’ Drive-By Truckers. Especially the latter two are fantastic songs. Unfortunately the album took a little boring direction in the middle, but then the  great first single This Fucking Job shooted the album back to the right path and rest of the album stayed on a high but not groundbreaking level. In overall, The Big To-Do is a really good solid album, but only a few times it rises into something really spectacular.

Picture

Drive-By Truckers Website
Drive-By Truckers at myspace

Continue Reading

Reviews

Review: The Fox Hunt – Long Way To Go

1 Comment

The Fox Hunt: Long Way To Go (Skull City Records, 2010)

The way things are going and my music taste evolving, I probably end up moving to some abandonded house on the Appalachian Mountains by the time I’m 60 and spend the rest of my days sitting on my front porch listening to string bands singing beautiful songs about broken hearts while digesting more alcohol than my body can safely handle.

The fox hunt as an sporting activity should be a closed chapter in history books, but the band called The Fox Hunt needs to be mentioned in every chapter if I try to write a novel about my new favourite bands. I’m just totally addicted to this stuff. I got their debut Nowhere Bound and this new album Long Way To Go a little over a week ago and I think they are both amazing albums. The only reason to say that they are not completely perfect albums  is the fact that if you would take the best half of both of them and joined them together than that album would be even better and actually pretty much the best album ever. More bands should follow The Fox Hunt and have banjo, fiddle, mandolin and upright bass in their instrument arsenal, but still it’s the singing that I love the most.  Both lead vocals and the harmonies are pure gold throughout the record. The songs often have a heartbreaking core, but they are injected to your veins with such a joyful and beautiful playing & singing that you end up smiling even if the character in the song is trying to pick the pieces of his broken heart from the gutter. Just wonderful stuff altogether if you are into things like string bands, bluegrass, roots music and well country music in general. Think of early Old Crow Medicine Show for example. Well think of great music. This is my favourite album of the year so far.

Picture

Listen to Lower Than I Should Be:
[audio:http://www.onechord.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/10-lower-than-i-should-be.mp3]

Listen to Troublemakin’ Woman:
[audio:http://www.onechord.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/02-trouble-makin-woman.mp3]

The Fox Hunt Website
The Fox Hunt at myspace

Continue Reading