It’s easy for people like me to type stuff about how terrible it is that small music venues are closing down across the UK. For various reasons, mainly economic, venues as diverse as Madame Jojo’s, The 12 Bar Club, The Marquee and The Astoria have closed in recent years. Whether you think it’s about economics or cultural cleansing, the end result’s the same; it’s becoming more and more difficult for small bands to build an audience and develop themselves by playing the small gig circuit. So who’s doing anything about it? Well the Music Venue Trust is, campaigning on issues related to the survival of small venues. It’s gathered support from the business and creative sides of the industry and artist patrons include Elbow, Frank Turner and Neil Hannon.
This list has now been joined by The Carnabys. The band has built up a following for their powerful live act by playing in those venues that are at risk now and they want to do something about it by backing the “Save Live Music” initiative. But this isn’t just about a photo opportunity and a few canapes; this is about providing financial backing. Their much-anticipated second album “Too Much Never Enough” comes out in August and the band is launching it for pre-release now with all of the profits from the sales going to “Save Live Music”. That’s what you call putting you money where your mouth is. Not only that, the band is using their promotional campaign for the album and the lead single, ”Scars and Safety Pins/Caught in the Rain” to raise awareness of the live music situation.
You can pre-order “Too Much Never Enough” here, and all of the profits will go to “Save Live Music”. Meanwhile, we’ll try to get a review for you in the next few weeks.
Springsteen did it with Asbury Park NJ and, much more recently, Michael McDermott’s band The Westies did it with Chicago. They created a strong sense of place with characters and incidents directly observed or based on reality. On his EP “LA 14”, Rod Melancon has gone down the same route with his own little corner of Louisiana. Of the five songs on “LA 14” (produced by former Dwight Yoakam guitarist, Brian Whelan), four are stories of life in a small town deep in the American South.
The opening song, “Perry”, is a mid-tempo rocker with a pumping synth bass, telling the tale of the town’s bad boy, before the tempo slows and the time signature changes to ¾ for “Dwayne and Me”, a look back at a childhood friendship ended by Vietnam. “Lights of Carencro” is a menacing and grungy, the production matching the story of sudden death and delayed revenge before the final song “By Her Side” slows the pace to tell the love story of a lonely old man, the melancholy feel enhanced by some delicate pedal steel from Marty Rifkin. The central song, “A Man like Me Shouldn’t Own a Gun” contrasts with the rest of the EP, as an uptempo thigh-slapping piece to make sure the atmosphere doesn’t get too maudlin.
The feeling in the songs doesn’t just come from the lyrics; they’re often pretty matter-of-fact. Rod’s voice, older than its years, seemingly always on the verge of cracking, and some superb playing from Marty Rifkin on “By Her Side” and Brian Whelan’s steadily-rising solo on “Dwayne and Me”, are powerful and emotive; you can’t listen to these songs and not be moved. Rod Melancon understands that the little details add to the pathos; “Lights of Carencro” is more powerful because we know that the dead brother’s favourite song was Bad Company’s “Feel Like Making Love” and it’s always there as a reminder.
There’s a darkness on the edge of this town and Rod Melancon’s songs expose it, but they also capture the human touch that’s always just below the surface. LA 14 – running all the way from pure pathos to supernatural menace.
“LA 14” is released in the UK on Friday June 17th on Blue Élan Records (BR1015).
Here’s the video for “Perry”:
I’ve moaned about attendances at great gigs in the past, but this week at The Academy was a bit of an eye-opener. A headline band that hasn’t been in the UK for seven years playing on a wet Tuesday night in Islington: I wasn’t expecting a great crowd. Arriving about halfway through the first support band’s set after rain delays, I was gobsmacked; the place was almost full and the atmosphere was incredible. Even during the first support set, there was a sense of something special about to unfold in N1.
The two support bands, Lisbon and Secret Company, played energetic sets packed with inventive arrangements and melodies, building up the atmosphere for the headliners and gaining a few new fans as a bonus. Kakkmaddafakka seemed to be playing to a home crowd; it looked (and sounded) like every Norwegian from the Home Counties had come out to have some fun.
So, pretty much a full house and all revved up and ready to go. The simmering atmosphere was pushed a few more notches towards boiling with a fanfare as the stage lights died down and then the venue erupted as the six band members bounced onstage one by one, and built the first song from the bottom up. With a six-member line-up, the sound was absolutely enormous and the house sound system dealt with it perfectly.
The energy generated on stage was incredible and the audience fed on it throughout the set as the band jumped effortlessly from one genre to another; the three front men were constantly in motion, like spinning tops, all taking lead vocals at some point in the set. We also got a lot of shouts of ’Maddafakka’ (from the band and the audience). The recorded material may seem a bit fey indie at times (maybe a bit Kings of Convenience), but live they’re a very different animal, thunderous bass and drums and pounding keyboards transforming them into a live monster. Despite all of the onstage lunacy, the band didn’t miss a beat as they powered through indie, house and even reggae – “Gangsta”, complete with a stolen Bob Marley intro. By the end of the set and the cheesy house cover, they had the audience eating out of their hands. Their magic brew of great tunes, enormous beats and onstage mayhem would warm the coldest heart (or dry out the wettest Londoner).
Don’t leave it seven years next time guys.
“Hard Time Blues”; well I’m not so sure about that. There are a lot of other influences in there as well (soul, funk, jazz and Latin for starters) and only the title track hints at the ‘things are so bad I’m gonna have to pawn my glass eye’ school of blues lyrics. Maybe most blues fans don’t actually pay as much attention to the lyrics as they do to the playing. You regularly hear solos applauded, but when was the last time you heard anyone shout ‘Wow that’s a really perceptive and insightful lyric’ at a blues gig?
So obviously this album is about Javier Vargas as a guitar player and he’s a very good and versatile player. He may not be too well known in the UK, but he’s toured extensively in support of the likes of Jeff Beck and Gary Moore and recorded with Carlos Santana. Listen to the album purely from a guitar enthusiast’s point of view and you won’t be disappointed. He shifts seamlessly between the Latin grooves of the opener “Welcome to the World” and “King of the Latin Blues”, the slow blues of “Burning Shuffle” and “Spanish Roads” and the manic jazz/eastern/blues fusion of “Space Jam”. There’s even a bit of a soul groove with the lovely, understated “Fulton in the House”.
The billing for the album is Vargas Blues Band featuring Paul Shortino (Quiet Riot) and I’m not quite sure that the combination works. Paul Shortino has a great voice for cutting through metal arrangements but I’m not convinced that it works with a band playing songs that are subtle and delicate at times. Keys player Tim Mitchell in the live section at the end of the album and drummer Peter Kunst and Guy Pearson seem to be a better fit with the band’s style. Not sure about the live version of “Tobacco Road” either.
And after saying all of that, I still like the album. The instrumentals all work well and Javier’s playing is superb whether he’s playing with or without slide, playing delicate, controlled solos or in full wig-out mode. He’s really worth listening to and he’ll be in the UK later in the year.
Meanwhile, “Hard Time Blues” will be out on June 10th on Santo Grial Records (VB 002 CD). Currently available on iTunes.
