Weekend Music Roundup

The weekend is here once again, and so is the Roundup. I spent most of my time this week catching up on some things that have been waiting around for their turn on the list. There are a couple of 2018 releases on here, some new reissues, and a couple of old vinyl records that I picked up recently. Mostly rock, mostly bands that are familiar to me, yet there there are some new discoveries. Hopefully there's something on here you'll want to check out. Enjoy.

The Warlocks - Vevey: The first live album from the L.A. based neo-psychedelic rock band captures a kind of raw grit that has been lacking from some of their more recent and polished releases. It's a career spanning set of fuzzed out rock that serves as a nice introduction for those who may have missed the last 20 years of this band's history. Like a dirty version of Spacemen3, these guys have been overlooked. "Caveman Rock," "Shake the Dope Out," "Lonesome Bulldog," and "Dead Generation" are among my personal favorites.

Red Stone Souls - Mother Sky: Hailing from Detroit, this four piece band brings the kind of destructive energy that one has come to expect from bands out of that town. This is their second record and it's a guitar driven version of heavy blues rock. Sort of like a modern heavy-psych version of Grand Funk, this is a fun record, even if it's not anything that hasn't been done before. "Nights Watchful Eye," "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," and "Murder Thrills" are standouts for me on a record that can feel repetitive at times. 

The Rolling Stones - R.S.V.P. New Version: This bootleg captures studio outtakes from the Beggar's Banquet era, many of them extremely rough and raw, and some of them not very different from the final versions. Like The Beatles, it's always nice to hear this raw sound from The Rolling Stones as both bands were so carefully packaged because of expectations on their releases. Of course, The Beatles were far more produced, so the contrast when it comes to the Stones is much less, but still nice to hear.

Coleman Hawkins - Colman Hawkins: One of the local record shops always seems to have a bunch these "Archive of Folk & Jazz" albums in their $3 bin, so I always try to rummage through and find something to check out. This week it was Coleman Hawkins, a St. Louis saxophonist of the Big Band and Bop jazz era. Like all Big Band jazz, there is a part of it that is an adaptation of classical, warped around the edges to give it a life beyond math and instrumentation. Also, to anyone who grew up long after this age, it has the feel of old Hollywood soundtracks. There's something about those combinations that I can really get into early in the morning. The version of Brahms lullaby is phenomenal.

The Cure - Acoustic Hits: Back in 2001, the band released a Greatest Hits set, and this collection of acoustic renditions was a bonus disc to the set. Last year, the band decided to release this a its own album and for good reason. These are songs that fans know well, but there is always something about hearing acoustic versions of electric songs that is appealing. The Cure are professionals, and the acoustic versions are detailed arrangements that aren't scaled back versions of the songs, but new interpretations. A definite must for fans looking to be reacquainted with songs they grew up with. 

Tracker - Rule of Three: This is the second album from the Austrian band and while decent enough, it's fairly by the numbers heavy rock. While the musical arrangements were interesting, the vocals were a little flat, leaving me with a sort of generic reaction. It will certainly appeal to anyone clambering for 90's style noise / grungy rock music. "Recalibrate" and "Veins Out" were the two real standout tracks for me on an otherwise passable album.