Week Of 3/6 - Rock, Industrial, Merengue, Blues, Metal

Heavy on the rock and roll this week, and old Tom Waits album finds its way into the collection, and a compilation of electro and industrial tracks plus Merengue! (I just like typing that word with a !).

New Releases:
Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball
Label: Columbia Records
Released: 3/6 2012
Genre: Rock
The latest album from The Boss is also the first album I've actually purchased from him, oddly. Like everything else I've heard from Bruce (which is a bit considering I've never personally owned an album), it's straight up rock, blue color, with a tough of gospel lyrics tossed in. Given just have massively The Boss looms over the American music landscape it is a wonder it took me so long to pick up a full album. Compared to my usual smattering of radio play and friends I've never heard one all the way through. The whole album strikes me as a look at America under the bad influence of financial crisis, and very much a shot at those who brought it. None so clear as Death To My Hometown which is about economic ruin of small town America (and a solid thumping rock anthem to boot). As a rock album it's excellent, moving from soft to hard easily, the rhythm keeps up all the way through, not losing itself in too much introspection. While the theme is modern and close to home, he never loses site of the fact he's writing a rock album and never lets the message get in the way of the music.

Adding To The Collection:
Girl Of Fire - Revenge
Label: Hollywood Waste
Released: 2011
Genre: Rock
In all honesty I only picked up this 5-Track EP because it was two dollars, even as a 2-track Single I would probably have picked it up, it's nice to see someone out there still has the art of the Single in mind. No remixes, just five songs. The band reminds me a lot of pretty much every other rock band out there these days, except that I like them. They're more in line with each other, the sound is tight, no unintentional rough edges. This is the kind of music I wanted to get when I picked up the debut Finger Eleven album when that came out some years ago (and didn't). I do hope there is a full album out soon, a band I'm definitely keeping my eye out for, as the world could always do with more rock and roll.

Motörhead - Ace Of Spades
Label: Metal-Is
Released: 2001 (originally: 1980)
Genre: Metal, Rock
So, I actually avoided picking up this specific Motörhead album for years, for a couple reasons. First, all the tracks I really like I owned on compilations or live collections. Second, to hear the title track you just need to tune into your local hard rock/metal station because it's the only Motörhead song to get airplay these days (which is stupid). So, finally, I just added it to the collection because the gap was there... there are only a few other of their albums I haven't gotten yet, I'm sure I'll fix that soon too. It is a classic, really. Simple, dirty, loud, very loud, and hard. This edition comes with a bonus live track and two tracks with Girlschool, all three originally B-Sides (which I also already owned). This is also, I'm pretty sure, the first time I've heard the studio version of We Are The Road Crew, fancy that. No bad music here, you can hear the foundation upon which they make very loud rock and roll for the next 30 years, and going.

Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones
Label: Island Records
Released: 1983
Genre: Blues, Rock
Tom Waits has always held a fascination for me, ever since I first heard Bone Machine over twenty years ago. Every time I picked up an album I never really knew what I was getting into, but I knew I'd like it. He just has that kind of strange magic over music, and I always look forward to the carefully timed selection of a new album - I haven't actually rushed out to complete a discography on purpose, I like the sense of discovery in his music. Swordfishtrombones isn't as overly bizarre as some other albums, it's mostly lots of talking blues, folk influences, and non-jazz songs. Very straightforward I think, in a really good way. It's different from his very early stuff, which had a lot of jazz in it, and more into experimenting with the sound, one of his first to not use completely 'standard' instruments of the time to make an album.

Rough Guide to Merengue
Label: World Music Network
Released: 2006
Genre: Merengue, Cumbia, Latin
Merengue is a dance, and the music of the Dominican Republic, emerging after their independence in the 19th century. It has it's deepest roots in Cuban dance. The Merengue style being both the music and the dance means every track here is highly danceable, the whole collection moves. And little bits of other parts of Latin America seep in, you can hear Cumbia, Mambos, Boleros, and others all get sucked in at points, but the core is still Merengue. It is not, as is a common misconception, derived from a circle dance (ballroom Merengue partners never separate). The music, well, it's alive. Very alive, and upbeat. The collection is modern artists, very little older stuff beyond modern renditions of traditional songs.

Vampire Freaks Precents Cry For Death Volume 1 Electro Edition




Label: Vampire Freaks website (none)
Released: 2011
Genre: Industrial, EBM, Electro
VF collected as many rare, b-side and even a few exclusives as they could (thirty six tracks) and dropped them all as a free download. The remixes are all off remix collections, Limited Edition releases, and a few unique songs, making it a decent enough collection and not just a bunch of album tracks. The upside is those into the genre get a smattering of songs they might have missed at some point, the downside is those getting into the genre don't get the best 'clean' representation of what the scene sounds like, it's all reinterpretations - though that in itself is very indicative of the scene, so, the down side isn't very down. If you like the genres, or want to get more cheaply (free!) head over to Vampire Freaks and download this, no sign-up required even. It's a solid way to get some stuff you might like - as compilations should be.

Bonus Tracks:
Kovary - Back In Black Moombahton Bootleg
Label: Soundcloud Release
Released: 2011
Genre: Moombahton
Kovary took AC/DCs Back In Black and bounced the hell out of it. The song is slow enough it doesn't need a tempo change, and hard enough that adding all that extra thump just gives it a little more punch. Toss this one onto a dancefloor and things should keep on bouncing hard. This is the kind of left-of-center stuff I like about Soundcloud.

Next Week:
I find out of The Ting Tings have put out "The album of 2012", examine another 2$ EP from the Hollywood Waste label, chill with Florence + The Machine, rock out with Hydrogyn, and get down with The Black Keys. . .