some of that 'Southern Hostility' for me please

I don't usually do reviews that are not based on a live music experience or without some photos to back up the words. But I'll do it for the www to read and know. 

I have had the wonderful experience of seeing Upon A Burning Body  (https://www.facebook.com/uponaburningbody/) perform a few times. Definitely one of my favorites. Knowing they are from down the road in San Antonio and their mark on the metal scene, it is a pleasure to listen to and drop my opinion of their release 'Southern Hostility'. No, it's not a brand new release, but it is their newest.

So, lucky me. I was able to grab the limited release vinyl and get a copy of the disc. Well worth every damn dollar. Waited for the mailman to drop that shit off. Checked my camera EVERY DAY. I wasn't even home when it came in, but sent a neighbor over to grab the package when it was placed on my doorstep. 

I got home, opened it up.Admired the simple statement of the cover artwork, pure UABB. It was righteous. Then I put that fine piece of aural abuse on full volume.

Danny, Ruben, and the guys have stepped up created one of their finest works to date. ABSOLUTELY stunning, gut punching, nut kicking, ear bleeding masterpiece. The opening track doesn't really set the tone for the rest of the album, but that son of a bitch gets your attention instantly. It is great and demands that you shut the fuck up and listen!

Listening to the album on repeat several times moved me past the "Fuck yeah!" fist and middle finger in the air feeling on the first go round. To shouting along to lyrics on the second and third time. Yelling and thrashing about so much in my house the dogs were scared shitless and went outside and wouldn't come back in. 

Some where around the fourth listen something wonderful happened. I started hearing the music. The backing vocals. The choruses. I realized these boys from San Antonio didn't just put together another banger of an album. No, for fucks sake, they grew up. They just fully embraced the current sound and scene and made sure their music was still theirs, but knew how to stay absolutely relevant. Dare I say...mainstream. No! I am not saying radio airplay bullshit. But just simply, the music has moved to another level of badassery! I am not just talking about the legions of fans they have all over the world. I am saying this album easily moves them to a main stage. To crossing over a line where it's not just the long time fans listening, buying, and going to the shows. Southern Hostility has the sound, production, anger, and adrenaline producing ability to create smiles - show your teeth - to a wider and broader base of metal fans.

No. I didn't not critique the individual tracks on this album. I have just laid out for you a feeling it creates. Told you a story on how it made me feel. And simply explained to you....buy it, download it, and more importantly go to a show!

Laters

not on that other shit

It's on The Mothership. I took a ride on this ship when it sailed with "Now you can Boo me" and here we are with...

Nite Owl (https://www.niteowlhiphop.com/home) Hip Hop to make you proud. What I mean is this...IF you like Hip Hop and Rap, the real classic shit. The kind with the bass that makes you nod your head like your neck is broke. The lyrical story telling, clear and sharp. Fun beats and rhymes, with the whole dance floor jumping...

Then you need to pick up "When the Smoke Clear" - by Nite Owl here - https://niteowlhiphop.com/album/653369/when-the-smoke-clear This album starts out clean with the opening track "Who am I" which carries a surprise in the middle of the track. Excellent music writing and scoring. I had to listen to the track twice before I realized it was one track not two short ones. Genius and tricky.

Running right into the "Same old Story" we get straight into the deep. The passion and the story telling of Nite Owl. No, there isn't really any anger in this track but you feel his confusion and pain. Speaking of events and tragedies in the recent past. It is the track that anchors and directs the feel for the rest of the album.

"Here We Go" and "The Mothership" bring that fun vibe back to the album. OH! and then you get to that O N E track. THAT track. The laid back piece, with that nice little groove, and then the cool flow of Nite Owls voice is only topped by the cool sexy voice that does the chorus. This shit is gold.

This second half of the CD is not stop story telling of life, youth relived, and a movement and issues I will never understand but can appreciate. "BLM" nearly melted my speakers. "Once Again" and "Time" culminate into "Something Brand New".  And finally Nite Owl tells it all in "Current Affairs".

Let me lay my opinion on you like this  - when Jay Z was young and had stories to tell with wicked smart rhymes and amazing beats. When Eminem was young and angry and trying to prove himself.
Nite Owl is neither but the soul of true Rap and Hip Hop lies within him!

You ain't Know?

WELL NOW YA DO!

MC Overlord (http://www.overlordmusic.com/) has been wrecking the live music scene in Austin for a hot minute. The players he has walked with are stellar. The list of musicians he has influenced, worked with, performed on their stage, our shared his with, is mind blowing. He is humble about what he does and how he does it and he defends his friends, musical compadres, and the music scene with an  attitude and vigor that gives people a reason to be scared. A decades worth of music awards and a lifetime achievement award under his massive arms gives you a reason to pause and listen when he speaks, musically or literally.

The new, WAY over due disc by MC Overlord - 'You Ain't Know' (available on all platforms) is a thing to behold. Better than the rest and a definitive departure from his previous 2 efforts. You Ain't Know may prove to be his crowning jewel. With VMG behind this and a funky attitude and approach to the new music from the Legendary DJ Crash Da Scratcha (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009971946550), it should be a great source of enjoyment for anyone who touches it and listens to it. There is an intensity in this disc that out weighs the previous efforts. I can't put a specific finger on it, but it's there. Now, let me take the approach that you are unfamiliar with MC Overlords prior music, never been to a live performance, and don't know the accolades.

This is a hip-hop CD in it's purest, greatest form. It is head bobbing, in the car, turned up to 11, slipped down low in the seat, hip-hop music! The first time through provides some of those smile inducing moments as you listen. A chuckle for some of the song outros and some of the skits in between tracks. Then you listen to it, again. You play it again, and you listen to it, and again.

The production and the little samples and loops of some OLD O L D School funk reek of DJ Crash. It adds to the comfortable sound, wraps your ears around something that you think you have heard before, and makes you play it again. Then you hear it again, and realize the lyrical content, the storytelling, fun, funky, challenging, and ballsy is pure Overlord. Still and always clean, but a little on the edge of scandalous.

Then you realize the overall polish on the disc is only a finishing touch which is a VMG stamp. The players, guitars, and co conspirators on this disc is ONLY topped by a live performance.

I purposefully and willfully am staying away from talking about the individual tracks. I have some definite favorites and a couple that make me scratch my head. I can appreciate the talent that pours out of the speakers from everyone involved in making this one finally drop. I hope you enjoy and put it in your rotation.

If you haven't seen him live, and don't have a previous disc, the last line is simple to write..















YOU AIN'T KNOW!!!
https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/mcoverlord3
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/you-aint-know/id1218637312




Laters

Sunrise on the Wake Up Call

The home of great music and amazing good times on South Lamar...One-2-One (http://www.one2onebar.com). Located in a humble little strip center with plenty of free parking and easy quick access to and from downtown, the One2One is home to great music pretty much every night of the week. It's always good, the staff is always friend, and the whole live music vibe is to die for in there!

The "to die for" event this particular evening was for The Michael Dillard Band (https://www.facebook.com/MichaelDillardMusic/) release of their debut, full length CD - "Wake Up Call". I reviewed the disc here (http://livemusicinaustin.blogspot.com/2016/10/is-this-your-wake-up-call.html) and you can pick it up at their website...or better yet...AT A SHOW! Or here

https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/michaeldillardband

Putting on a release party can be anywhere from the same old same old to the full blown cake and balloons. Somewhere in-between you have someone who cares so much  about the live reproduction of the new disc you end up with 13 people on stage! Uber Epic! In addition to the normal players for the Michael Dillard Band, there was added an extra guitarist, two percussionist, 4 strings, and brass. I always thought the One2One had an pretty damn nice sized stage until I saw this...

and this...

As for the performance itself, an undertaking of this size is bound to have some hang ups and hitches. For this show it was a solid 30 minute delay. Dude! You're killing me smalls, you're killing me! With that complaint aside, the band took the stage and proceeded to rock the packed and overflowing house. With people standing shoulder to shoulder inside and waiting outside The Michael Dillard Band reproduced their debut CD in what seemed like effortless and glorious fashion.

It is very difficult to describe how amazing this perform was in whole. The subtleties of the strings and keys with the percussion just rolled together with the stunning vocals of Michael Dillard himself. The crowd was proof of this. Very few words in the house, all eyes up, and mouths open. At the end of the first, song the split second silence was followed with the stunned crowds collective roar and applause. It was over, it was done, the ice was broken. Putting all of that bad ass stage talent to use seemed easy with the great songs behind it. The crowd stayed fixated until the end. I know this because it was a MASSIVE Pain In The Ass trying to move around and take photos. It was a  performance to be proud to say you were there.






The rest of the night just poured out of the speakers, into our ears, and warmed us all at joy for Michael Dillard and his band. The overall, collective effort for the song writing, story telling, and performance will not be reproduced again. If you weren't there take a moment, buy the album, look the band up and make amends.




Laters

Is this your 'Wake Up Call'

I have only done a couple of album reviews. Primarily because I don't do album reviews. But when it is something exciting and the album turns out to be beyond expectations and greater than the sum of all its parts...yes I will tell you about it.

Michael Dillard Band's - Wake Up Call  (https://www.facebook.com/MichaelDillardMusic/) could be referred to as a breakthrough album. It's luscious melodies, powerful riffs, and haunting melodies, make it a beautiful walk on air.

I won't break down the entire album, that is for you to do and enjoy, but there were some things that struck me in which I have to share. My highlights that I want you to know about. Piece together the story and movie in your head when you listen to it, but let some of what I say guide you.

The whole album plays like a movie. Some lost soul little boy, young and trying to find his way. His innocence shattered and the reality of adulthood brings the light. Not necessarily happiness, but enlightenment.



Unexpected! The greatest way to describe the opening track - Blind lead the blind. Never, ever would I have expected the sounds that came from my speakers. The string arrangement was as I described - luscious. Then voice of Michael Dillard has progressed and as you hear it on this first track, it provides just a little growl with his passion. Then the chorus vocals kick in - haunting. Definitely an impressive opening to the album.

This theme and sound runs into the second track - Sunrise. An instrumental of sorts. As interesting as it is, I can see where the band may have had difficulty deciding which track to the open with, Ultimately after listening and re listening, they did good.

By no small margin, the third track (and title track) - Wake up call, is explosive. It is a powerful piece, that ebbs and flows through you mind. Take your your time and ponder what the lyrics of Wake up call means to you.

The fun and technically brilliance continues with the masterful drum tracks, a ukulele, stings, and keyboard arrangements. The next couple of tracks hold their own with unique sounds and catchy riffs. Post productions with the vocals is just mind blowing.

The whole album does move like the tides sweetly from the slower darker tracks in the middle of the album to the bright and shiny Desert Rose and finally ending with the crescendo of The Beast. With its echoing and strange story telling with the lone trumpet....fade to black.

Laters

The Greatest Thing You'll Ever Learn

The new full length album from 'The Roosevelts'. This is a Nashville group with their feet firmly planted in that Americana sound. 

On the first track, and throughout the album you hear the amazing harmonies between lead singer/rhythm guitar player, James Mason, and lead guitar/mandolin wizard, Jason Kloess.

'The Greatest Thing You'll Ever Learn' is a wonderful and fun story telling of love,  love lost,  and whiskey. From the fun, up tempo hit song 'This is Life' to the longing and forlorn track 'Ashes', James and Jason simply weave a tapestry of some truly sing along songs on this 35 minute journey.

'Tell only lies' is it that fearful track of a one night stand? Only to be followed with the spirited and lustful track 'Belly of the beast'. The entire story laid out before your ears is only capped off by the tongue and cheek track 'Peaches'. What a great and danceable track,  begging you to enjoy that fruit everyone always seems captivated by. Just grab your honey,  pull them close and tell them to give it to you...Baby!

'Runaround' has that pop sound you would swear you heard on the radio before. In all, I leave to you several other well written and gracious tracks to explore for yourself.

This album, by The Roosevelts, is that beautiful spring day or fall evening soundtrack to our lives. 'The Greatest Thing You'll Ever Learn' is the sit around the fire pit with your friends, and toast to the wonderfulness of life type of album.

Available online everywhere April 2016.

Enjoy