Rock & roll’s staple, celebrated:
My Morning Jacket has had an online buzz going for some time that its new live double album, Okonokos (RCA), will finally cement the hirsute “American Radiohead’s” rep beyond a doubt and put their thang across to the uninitiated. Well, even if Okonokos doesn’t ultimately rival such career changing concert documents as the Allman Brothers Band’s At Fillmore East, it’s a dazzling recording of a band in peak form (and recorded at the erstwhile Fillmore West). Side 2 surpasses the first, with a breathtaking, epic version of “Dondante,” pure sheets of psychedelicized roots sound and a miracle of ringing riffs freefalling into the “Cortez the Killer” zone — as well as such MMJ standards as “Dancefloors” and set closer “Mahgeeta.” Alas, Jim James and his Kaintuck brers are still one breakout single away from the arena stratosphere. For now, they remain a compelling link between Jam Nation and classic rock confessional. Stay tuned for the related concert DVD and 4-LP box set with extras.
With Fever Tree, we begin a Texas rock twofer. Collector’s Choice has reissued the Houston rock band’s first two LPs on a single disc: Fever Tree and Another Time, Another Place, both bearing the hallmark of the late Michael Knust’s searing guitar. I was introduced to this quintet’s music by my husband, a native of the place invoked in the band’s “What Time Did You Say It Is in Salt Lake City?” He comments, “[I] always thought their material was inventive and thought-provoking, besides being well performed. They never had a huge following but their fan base was fairly solid. I’ve always wished more of their material would be reissued.” Well, this disc is a good primer to the mid-60s moment when regional bands were assimilating British Invasion and coastal psych ideas into their respective sounds. Folk-rockin’ and flower powered, Fever Tree are recalled as one-hit wonders who made a brief splash with 1968’s anthemic “San Francisco Girls (Return of the Native)” — which appears herein of course. Other interesting tracks are the notable covers — “Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing,” “Fever” — and “Jokes Are For Sad People” which sounds remarkably like Spirit unplugged.
www.oldies.com/artist-view/Fever-Tree.html.
Doug Sahm is not a Texas footnote but a legend. Sahm’s also gotten the reissue treatment with Texas Tornado(Collector’s Choice) by his Sir Douglas Band. Oddly for the disc’s billing as prime ’73 vintage Tex-Mex, the initial swathe of songs trend more toward early Chicago pop and easy listening, especially “Someday” (redeemed by featuring David “Fathead” Newman on tenor sax). But after the standard “Ain’t That Loving You,” the LP’s Side 2 takes a turn towards lively border music with the title track, “Juan Mendoza” and “Chicano” — worthy burns all.
http://members.aol.com/sirdoug/.
Sparklehorse, now N. Cackalack’s own major purveyor of narcotic atmospherics, continues mining its patented mellow drone southern gothic (and Joseph Cornell-esque album art) on Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain (Astralwerks). On his first CD since 2001’s It’s A Wonderful Life, singer/multi-instrumentalist Mark Linkous bounces back from substance abuse drama in company with one of the moment’s hottest players in tow — exult in Danger Mouse’s Midas touch on “Getting It Wrong” and “Don’t Take My Sunshine Away” (and await their tentatively titled Danger Horse) — yet maintains his introspection and haunts on this fourth release. Steve Drodz of the Flaming Lips and Tom Waits also guest. Salvaging one of Linkous’ best compositions, “Shade and Honey,” ably sung by Alessandro Nivola on the Laurel Canyon soundtrack, is most welcome. And the superb track “Knives of Summertime,” replete with shimmering guitar, adds grace to the alt-Dixie archive.
The Roots are striving toward the landmark 10th album by exploring the crises of America in wartime. As captured by “False Media” and debut single “Don’t Feel Right,” drummer/theorist ?uestlove has described Game Theory (Def Jam) as very dark and reflective of the nation’s political state. This is reinforced by the insistent, menacing guitar on “In The Music,” a potent combination of agit-rap and desert rock.
Bonus track: Frankly, when I first saw TV On The Radio at Manhattan’s Mercury Lounge a few years back, I was underwhelmed. And the tenor of their reception, from critics and consumers both, smacked of problematic exoticism. So color me Puck-ish to now find these Shortlist Prize winners more intriguing now that they’ve seemed to sonically recall they’re (mostly) African. Frontman Tunde Adebimpe’s Nigerian heritage particularly surfaces on Return To Cookie Mountain’s (Interscope) brilliant hidden track “Things You Can Do.” Awash in peculiarly Western Sudanese percussive, droning guitar, the incantatory song is great post-JuJu music. Truly, Fela vision come again.
This article appears in Oct 11-17, 2006.
