The News Review:
- ABC News: The Movies & Music to Beat Winter’s Blues
- Gracias! – Flint Michigan Entertainment News – The Flint Journal ‘”…
- Eels: Useless Trinkets < Music | PopMatters
- At opposite ends of the music spectrum
ABC News: The Movies & Music to Beat Winter’s Blues
ABC News – Jan 8, 2008
getElementById(“shareThisButton”); stEntrybj. attachButton(stElement); January is an entertainment graveyard. It’s usually where forgettable movies music and books go to die. Like most early-winter culture some of this week’s releases aren’t worth the eulogy; but there are a few that rise up from the winter wasteland. So check out the ABCNEWS. com entertainment guide before you hastily enter cultural hibernation.
Gracias! – Flint Michigan Entertainment News – The Flint Journal ‘”…
mlive.com – Jan 8, 2008
ESTMRE AP HEADLINES » Gracias!by Doug Pullen | The Flint JournalTuesday January 08 2008 12:45 AM It’s late Monday night and my ears are still ringing my calves are still aching and my pride is still swelling after Sunday’s farewell concert at Jester’s. For a guy who’s made his living writing about the music he loves (and doesn’t love) it’s hard to put into words what the experience was like last night. I’m not saying it made me change my mind about leaving the Journal and moving home to El Paso but it did give me pause! First off there was the crowd. The house was basically full from about 5 p. when the musical bon voyage began to past midnight when Bodog Battle of the Bands contestants NuRokSol put the finishing touches on their explosive set… This and earlier incarnations of the band have played at major jazz festivals including the Montreux in Switzerland and the unsuspecting crowd found out just why. The sense of discovery in the crowd turned into outright admiration by set’s end. Hosts and concert organizers Rusty Wright Blues were next. Not only were they louder but they took a scorched-earth approach to their set turning what had been a friendly fairly laidback bar gig into a full-blown adrenalized rush of a concert event. Rusty’s six-string work was particularly incendiary (and crowd pleasing) the Mata twins added tight punchy horn arrangements and singer Laurie LaCross-Wright was the calm eye at the center of this energized blues storm all the more impressive considering their keyboard player was a late scratch. The Blue Hawaiians who always reminded me of rock ‘n’ blues bands like the Fabulous Thunderbirds the Millionaires and the Juke Jumpers that I used to love during my college days in the late ’70s in Lubbock Texas were next. They couldn’t compete with the sheer dynamism of RWB’s set but they didn’t need to.
Eels: Useless Trinkets < Music | PopMatters
PopMatters – Jan 8, 2008
It’s a good thing too since along with being one of modern rock’s most distinctive talents Everett has also been surprisingly prolific. This in spite of several family tragedies that rather than slow Everett down actually seemed to fuel his creativity as a form of self-therapy. 1998’s astounding Electro-Shock Blues for example tackled head-on the deaths of his sister and mother and songs full of crystal-clear grief like “Dead of Winter” cemented Everett’s status as an artist who could be counted on for emotional honesty. That was never really in doubt though even as early as 1996’s Beautiful Freak. Everett might have started the album off by singing “life is hard and so am I” but the rest of Beautiful Freak told an altogether different story. Songs like “My Beloved Monster” and “Susan’s House” with its images of street violence and teen pregnancy give off the overwhelmed vibe of a sensitive soul in a hard world. If there was any hardness it seemed to be little more than a defense mechanism… Songs like “My Beloved Monster” and “Susan’s House” with its images of street violence and teen pregnancy give off the overwhelmed vibe of a sensitive soul in a hard world. If there was any hardness it seemed to be little more than a defense mechanism. In fact if Everett’s music contains any single defining quality it’s probably vulnerability and the feel of each record—from the pensiveness of Electro-Shock Blues to the aggressive facade of Souljacker—is really just a different level of access to the questions on Everett’s mind. Whether he’s whispering over a light acoustic melody growling his way through a thicket of electric guitars or letting loose his whole toybox full of sounds the best Eels songs always possess an easily identifiable emotional center.
At opposite ends of the music spectrum
Aspen Times – Jan 8, 2008
But in his own way he was just as demonstrative making bug-eyed faces at listeners stomping away from the microphone and practically sawing away at his guitar with a slide. Peyton’s take on Delta blues though revved up in speed stuck to familiar blues themes like lust whiskey and guns. Plus Peyton had numbers on his side. While his Big Damn Band numbers only three members himself included Peyton was flanked by his wife Washboard Breezy. Without uttering a word Breezy sticks to playing a vicious metal washboard she cycled through facial expressions and body motions that made as much of an impact as any words could.