Posts By 75orLess
The Wire reviews the new Nate Laban & Sam Hill self titled album
You can read the article here.
“Nate Laban & Sam Hill” by Nate Laban & Sam Hill, natelaban.bandcamp.com: On the cover of Nate Laban & Sam Hill’s self-titled debut, a small, bespectacled man with a guitar fends off a huge, menacing devil. The artwork (by local illustrator Matt Talbot) doubles as a mission statement for the album itself—Laban and the band standing together, fending off all the demons, both minor and major, that life throws at them. “Nate Laban & Sam Hill” is, at its heart, a fun album, but buried underneath the rousing choruses and blazing guitar work is some serious grit. It’s also an album about small-town life, with songs that double as character sketches (“Hometown Shame”) and short stories of attempted redemption. “Autumn on a Beach” is a great, bitter break-up song set on a boarded-up beach boardwalk, while “Garbage Town” is a folk-punk love letter to a rundown city. Many of the songs, like “Shoot for Victory” and “Pills,” use driving drums and guitar to bring to life the conflicts that happen when a person tries to make positive changes in their lives. But Laban never gets too serious—“Fat Camp” and “Insufficient Funds Since 1975” are just awesome punk anthems, loud, brash, and punchy. “Nate Laban & Sam Hill” proves there are few problems so serious that a good song can’t help solve.
Allysen Callery interview at All Creativelike
You can read the article here.
Allysen Callery is an earth angel. Her lyrics, melodies, and haunting voice are truly unique and special. What’s more, Allysen is a kind and thoughtful human. Man, some folks have all the luck! Read on to find out more about Allysen’s songwriting process, creative influences, and what it was like playing at the esteemed South-by-Southwest music festival this year.
How do you define creativity?
I don’t. I think that’s anti-creativity.
Where does your songwriting inspiration come from?
I get inspired every time I learn a new chord, or open tuning. I’m still learning, even after 15+ years of playing guitar. The melody comes, and the words follow. But sometimes it’s the other way around.
Can you remember the first time you had an experience with music?
I was a toddler in Taiwan. My parents were there because of the Vietnam war. My father was a medic. Music was a part of our living space, and I first noticed where it came from by seeing that Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles was coming from a reel-to-reel.
Tell me about writing your lyrics vs. developing melodies?
I was a poet before I became a songwriter. I don’t worry about hooks and choruses so much. I want to tell a story, and I want to make you feel and be transported. Melodies just come when I’m playing around on guitar. But the words and music come from someplace other than just me.
What have you been working on lately?
I’ve been lucky to have been recorded lately by the great Bob Kendall, who also laid some production over my songs “for fun.” The result was a session for Folk Radio UK that’s gotten over 4,000 plays in the last month. I am going to be recording a British Isles covers EP for a UK label, and working with Bob for that, as well. I cannot wait. (Here the session here.)
Favorite artist or influence?
Oh boy, so many. I was heavily influenced by all the wonderful artists my parents listened to: Joni Mitchell, The Beatles, The Incredible String Band. I learned how to sing by listening to Sandy Denny of Fairport Convention and Maddy Prior of Steeleye Span. Lately I have been really loving Jessica Pratt out of San Francisco. And, Anne Briggs really inspires me.
You recently played South-by-Southwest. What was that experience like?
I was very well taken care of at my first “South By.” I was lucky to have caught the ear of someone in a senior booking position, and he made sure I was given extra performance slots and all my showcases were in nice hotels. I made a few wonderful connections, and was written up and ranked highly in the Washington Post. I also made NPR Bob Boilen’s list of Intriguing Unknown Artists.
Any daily or weekly habits and practices?
I’ve been posting homemade recordings on my Soundcloud page about every week, some covers and demos that may or may not make it onto an album at some point. I am not a very regimented person, but I try to play guitar every day, and am playing one or two shows every week. I still have a day job, and will probably always have one – I like to pay my bills on time!
Any advice for aspiring musicians?
Practice. Be better than you thought you could be. Take risks, you should be frightened what people might think of your art. Don’t try to fit in. Don’t try to play it cool. Answer emails. Be kind to everyone. Don’t let anyone other than you define who you are. Get nice head shots. Get a real website. Keep a part-time job that you don’t have to get up too early for, that is not too physically demanding, so you can still play shows within a one to two-hour driving radius throughout the week. Officially release music every year. Upload new content weekly. Don’t get hung up on perfection. Pursue the press. Be true to your self, and your vision – you are unique and the world is wide, you will find your peeps, your tribe. They might be sprinkled around the globe, but that’s why the Internet is so awesome.
Sick Pills review in The Noise
You can read the review here.
SICK PILLS – Sickening (75orLess Records) 12 tracks
Chris Guaraldi has anchored punk band Chris Evil & the Taints and more rootsy group the Blood Moons for over a decade. His new outfit, Sick Pills, is a bit more straight ahead rock, with garage and punk elements still there. This album is in-your-face rock music, but there are catchy parts that subtly recall The Cars or Modern Lovers. Chris Evil is turning over a new leaf and uncovering some dark subject matter in songs like “Wormfood” and “Dead Teenager.” I think I can best describe this CD by quoting my friends The Tall many years ago, “This is rock ’n’ roll.”
Vote in the 2014 Motif Music Awards
You can go here to vote for the 2014 nominees for the Motif Music Awards. 75orLess artists with nominations include Bob Kendall, Mark Cutler, The McGunks, Sick Pills, The diePods, Haunt the House, Jacob Haller, and Six Star General.
Allysen Caller ‘Mumblin’ Sue’ review at No Depression
You can read the review here.
If you’re in Austin this week, one performer to check out at SXSW is “ghost folk” artist Allysen Callery. Hailing from tiny Rhode Island, she was just selected as one of 40 “intriguing” artists to watch at SXSW by NPR critic Bob Boilen. Although she is pretty well known in New England (2012 Providence Phoenix Singer-Songwriter of the Year), and has a dedicated following in Europe and Australia, she’s yet to break out on the national scene. Her recent release, Mumblin’ Sue, could change that.
Callery lives by the ocean in Bristol, Rhode Island, across the pond from Bristol, UK. Her style is heavily influenced by the British Folk Revival of the 1960s and early 70s. In an interview she noted, “I grew up listening to my father’s old Steeleye Span, Incredible String Band, and Fairport Convention records. When I started writing music of my own, it was noted in some of the first reviews that the ‘ghost of British Isles Folk’ was in my music.”
She’s recorded several albums that show that influence, most recently, Mumblin’ Sue, released in June of 2013. The collection of songs is notable for its intricate guitar work – no overdubs here – just pure melodic magic. In fact her fingerpicked guitar feels more like her singing partner; sometimes leading her, other times, seemingly answering her lyrics. The interplay between her voice and her guitar is unique.
Her lyrics are just on the edge of surreal, slightly off center, and intensely passionate. Her voice is unique, but not unfamiliar. Sounding a little like early Joni Mitchell, with a voice airy and mystical, she’s a fairy whisperer. But her words speak to the human experience. In “The Hollow,” she asks…
In Your Hollow
Do You Collect the Sunlight
In Your Hollow
Lonely
On the brilliant “Lily of the Valley,” her nuanced guitar work equals her understated delivery.
Someone had to be the hard headed hammer
Well let me be the part that pries the nails out
When all of the walls built between us are gone
We’ll lie in the grass
In the warm sun
She has some fun on this album too. On the delicate “I Had a Lover I Thought Was My Own,” the narrator falls for the town gigolo. In “My Carolina,” whimsical lyrics match an upbeat tempo…
Meet Me Midnight
Soft step candlelight
And I’ll slip inside
I’m on fire driving down your highway
Callery’s warmth and delicate delivery comes through in concert; her “look” is reminiscent of early Joan Baez. There’s a lot going on in her music, and it’s well worth a listen. No doubt, there are many talented artists deserving of more widespread recognition – Allysen Callery is one of them.
Sick Pills – Sickening
75OL-184 Sick Pills – Sickening CD
$10.00 S&H Included
Digital download is available here
Track Listing
1. Wormfood
2. Nothing To Me
3. Get You Off My Mind
4. Evil In Your Eye
5. Summer’s Gone
6. Dead Teenager
7. If It’s Real
8. Growing Up
9. The Beach
10. He’s A Creep
11. I Wanna Be Adored
12. Without You
The debut album by Sick Pills recorded in the Fall of 2013 at Feedback Studios by Ron Poitras. 12 songs heavily influenced by 1980’s underground college rock. Sometimes noisy, sometimes poppy, and sometimes both! Influences include: Chameleons UK, Jesus and Mary Chain, Sonic Youth.
Deadlands – Faceless Angels
75OL-185 Deadlands – Faceless Angels CD
$10.00 S&H Included
Digital download is available here
Track Listing
1. Before You Were Born
2. Bottom Feeders
3. Libby Prison Blues
4. (I’m) Sinking In
5. Discotex
6. Fink
7. Cracks
8. Down for the Count
9. Sleeper in a Dream
10. Cold Cold Cold
2014 warms up with “Faceless Angels,” the latest from Cranston’s Deadlands. Murder/apocalypse blues that you can tap your toes to. A good chunk of the album was recorded live at Plan of a Boy. Hot guitars and cool dead dames, where no one is guilty and no one plays innocent (very well).
Mark Cutler ‘Dreamland’ review at Bill Copeland Music News
You can read the article here.
Mark Cutler has been a fixture in the New England roots music scene for some time now. The Rhode Island native’s latest album Dreamland continues his tradition of laying down earthy, soulful music with rich acoustic instrumentation around his mellow, flowing vocal, driving beats, and edgy guitar.
Opening his disc with “Doing Things That We Like To Do,” Cutler unfurls his flowing, tender guitar melodies. Within no time, a listener is wrapped up in the dreamy landscape of floating nuances from the acoustic instruments. A sparse amount of notes gather to make a fulsome sound around that assured, easeful vocal glide. Above all else, the tune is quite catchy, and hummable. It feels like a folk-rock number from the early 1970s.
Cutler digs deeper into his roots influences for “Tankful Of Gas,” a mellow piece marked by tender slide guitar. Possessing a real front porch in the summer of 1939 vibe, Cutler takes his sweet time finessing his tragic tale of a racing car driver. It’s a treat to hear all of the old time guitar picking styles offering notes that strut, jump around, and slide with greasy tenderness around its sturdy fretboard.
Cutler rocks things up a bit on “You’re Gonna Need My Help.” Here, an electric guitar gets a bit edgier while the percussion pieces slap things out uptempo. Cutler expresses his admonition to a friend with world weary persistence. It’s a fun number to follow because its pace and vigor make a listener picture all sorts urgent outcomes if his friend doesn’t take his advice. There’s a batch of roots things going on at once that make it a thicket of emotive, soulful Americana.
“Circle To A Square” finds Cutler holding his vocal notes a bit after accenting them with a driving persistence. He makes you feel the urgency of his tale. Surrounding his voice is a carefree layering of gritty banjo, thumping low end, pushy drum beats, and a smoldering electric guitar. The tune makes its steady march into destiny as a lead guitar unfurls its burning passion at its own considered pace.
Title track “Dreamland” moseys on up to the listener with a lilting, moody harmonica line that could be friendly or that could be weary. Cutler sings this one with a world worn resignation. He clearly has feelings about his situation but he also clearly feels that those feelings won’t power his dreams. That handsome vocal makes you feel what the song is about while putting its own indelible stamp on the song. You know its Cutler when you hear him. You also hear him control every direction that every verse and every instrument is taking. Cutler’s easeful control over his songs gives them another layer of that drifty, roots quality you’re looking for in this genre.
“Too Much Fun” feels like an FM classic rock staple even though it’s a new original song. Cutler puts something comfortably familiar in his acoustic guitar chord progression. It invites you in like an old friend waving you into his home,. The melody is alluring and the chorus is hooky as hell. An adept lead guitar line too helps to burn this song into a listener’s consciousness with its simmering buzz, its ability to swagger around the beat.
“Soul Flame” switches gears back into down tempo folksy roots flavoring. Cutler’s voice flows like honey over a thumpy beat and alongside fulsome harmonica and a hefty acoustic guitar melody. This creates a warm thick vibe that invites one in while offering plenty of nuances within a sparse instrumentation. A listener can follow Cutler’s message because he unfurls it at a friendly, respectful pace. His theme is strong enough to explain itself without a lot of verbiage and his rich, fulsome vocal makes it come alive like a fire that’s just burst into full bloom.
“Dead Man’s Song” continues the traditional Americana roots styles. Cutler’s lyrics sound like they were written in an earlier time period in American history. It’s as if Cutler had traveled back in time, worked at a 1930s gas station in a sleepy town for a few years, then came back to the present to write about all the human drama that the town slept on. His handsome vocal slides across the back of the imagery he offers. Meanwhile, a greasy slide guitar projects his message over a brittle thatch of peppy acoustic instrumentation. It’s that buzz of activity that keeps the ears glued to the song.
A wistful feeling permeates “We Don’t Do That Stuff No More.” Cutler looks back at his past with mournful respect. Each verse his voice glides through bring his story to vivid life, infusing each with his plaintive timbre. He doesn’t just sing to you. He invites you into his world with an unforced, unobtrusive vocal approach. It’s like a painting on the wall that draws your attention with all of the details and nuances it offers. The instrumentation around his voice is, as always, plentiful in taste, respect, the right touches in the right places. Each time that greasy slide guitar unleashes another melodic line inside a measure, you feel the personality behind the man playing it and the man who wrote the song.
Closing out his album with “I’ll Play For You,” Cutler offers the listener one last parting glimpse into his world, a landscape of human souls bruised, wounded, enlightened, and rescued by the power of redemption or damaged or destroyed by the indifferent hand of fate. It’s a gritty, realistic world Cutler writes and sings about. The gritty instrumentation around his steadfastly handsome vocal helps deliver that world with soulful, emotive purpose.
Dreamland is certainly another tasty nugget in a line of gems from this Americana roots music singer-songwriter. One can only play his albums over and over until he releases his next offering of timeless roots music and gritty realistic words. This is a songwriter who deeply cares about people from the highways and back roads and dark alleys of American life.
Bob Kendall in the Providence Journal
You can read the article here.
Bob Kendall moved from Middletown to Boston at age 19 and became the founding member of the bands Lifeboat, The Blood Oranges and The Brothers Kendall. He and brother Greg (“Skeg”) collaborated on music in the films “Bandwagon,” “The Unbelievable Truth” and “Drive Me Crazy.”
In 2002, he returned to Rhode Island, played the Newport Folk Festival (it was the year Bob Dylan returned) and released his first solo record, “Enough is Enough.”
Kendall’s new recording, “Midnight Flower,” is a collection of songs written over the past decade. Echoes of Ian Hunter, Tom Petty and even the British Invasion can be heard. His band is also featured on the upcoming release of “The Spindle City Gram Parsons Tribute.”
Bob Kendall performs acoustic rock and blues on Friday at 8 p.m. at the Courthouse Center for the Arts, 3481 Kingstown Rd., West Kingston. Tickets are $15 and there is limited seating. For information or tickets call (401) 782-1018 or go to the courthouse website.
The Noise reviews Mark Cutler, Allysen Callery, Haunt the House, and Dan Baker.
You can read the article here.
MARK CUTLER – Dreamland
Singer/songwriter Mark Cutler is in Rhode Island’s Men of Great Courage and in this side project, he is more coffeehouse then nightclub. This side of Cutler is more folk and more introspective, but the passion still prevails in every song. “Circle to a Square,” a slow Americana ballad, “I’ll Play for You,” “Soul Flame,” and the title tune, “Dreamland” with a nice harp, are all very personal confessions of a very talented artist to his audience; and his gentle voice is well suited for this intimacy. There is even some banjo on this Americana flavored CD. Mark Cutler delivers some nice acoustic ballads. This is a good listen. (A.J. Wachtel)
DAN BAKER – Pistol In My Pocket
Got misery? Dan Baker does, in spades. His latest CD speaks of lost love, mournfulness, and general-type unhappiness. I mean, when an album contains tracks titled “She’s Not Gonna Call” and “Threw Me Down a Well” you’re kind of clued in early this is not going to be a compilation of cheerful, danceable ditties, and this isn’t.
Recorded live in the vast, echoing space of an empty Masonic temple, Baker and band have at it, down, dirty… and good. The arrangements are lean and spare, with sometimes-skeletal acoustic guitar carrying the load alone. For others, his band adds the right shades of angst. Dan’s voice yowls and growls in a manner that echoes early Neil Young, but like Neil’s, it’s a voice that delivers pain perfectly. (Tim O’Brien)
ALLYSEN CALLERY – Mumblin’ Sue
While the hypnotic intertwining of Callery’s fancy finger-picking lulls you into a meditative state, it’s her petal-soft lilt that really does a number on your heart-strings, plucking them with the same fervor as she does her guitar. The music is stoic yet still yearningly bitter-sweet. The lyrics, poetic and steeped in country wisdom, relate stories of heartache seen through sadder-but-wiser eyes. The power isn’t only in the words themselves, but in they way they’re sung—in a melancholy, reverberating sean-nós style. Something tells me she could be singing in Swahili or Cantonese and anyone with ears would still have some idea of what she was singing about. (Will Barry)
HAUNT THE HOUSE – Rural Introspection Study Group
Will Houlihan’s solo foray is a modest collection of guitar ballads and blues. There’s no gainsaying his personal approach to the material, of which the best of show is the bluesy “Vampyre,” along with the heartfelt “Eden.” (Francis DiMenno)