A Great Big World : Say Something

New York duo Ian Axel and Chad Vaccarino go global with Is There Anybody Out There?

It's a debut album built of finely crafted, quirky, singer-songwriter pop highlighted by single Say Something, featuring a surprisingly subtle guest spot by Christina Aguilera.

She heard the song, pleaded for the chance to join in, then watched as it swept the States after featuring on TV shows including The Voice.

Now released here in the UK, the song will put you in mind of Damien Rice’s The Blower’s Daughter with its emotional punch and melancholic melody.

It's just one of those timeless tracks that will be everywhere.

Take a look at the heartbreaking video...

Neil Young & Crazy Horse announce UK show

Neil Young & Crazy Horse have announced a UK gig.

They’ll be playing the Liverpool Echo Arena on July 13.

Last summer’s shows in support of the Psychedelic Pill album were heralded as some of the greatest live events of 2013.

But a Liverpool date of the tour had to be cancelled after an injury to guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro.

Tickets for the show are available at www.echoarena.com or by calling 0844 8000 400.

No word yet on whether local hero Ian McNabb will be available for the support slot.

The former Icicle Works frontman had been set for the original date.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse – completed by Ralph Molina and Billy Talbot – also recently announced a Barclaycard presents British Summer Time show in London’s Hyde Park on July 12.

The line-up also includes support from artists including The National and Tom Odell.

No Sinner : Colleen Rennison - hot blues in hot pants

“I love the smell of whisky, and I hate the taste of gin, but I’ve always been at home in a place that’s soaked in sin...”

Yep, Colleen Rennison’s back in town. Winter suddenly got warmer.

The 25-year-old Canadian blues belter fronts No Sinner, the band everyone’s talking about since Amazon made Boo Hoo Hoo their free single of the week.

No Sinner? It’s Rennison in reverse. Geddit?

The band’s debut mini-album Boo Hoo Hoo came out towards the end of January in the UK, and it’d be a sin to miss it.

Because Colleen Rennison is a hard-singing, hard-loving, hard-drinking, hard-working throwback to the icons she grew up listening to – Nina Simone, Tina Turner, Joe Cocker, Big Mama Thornton and Bessie Smith.

“People have told me I sound like Janis Joplin since I was five years old,” says the Canadian songbird, who has a penchant for denim cut-off pants.

“My mom was a little wary of introducing me to Janis’s music at an early age. Maybe she wanted to keep me away from sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll as long as possible.”

If that was the case, mom failed miserably because Rennison is inciendiary.

The mini-album finds her in the bad company of guitarist Eric Campbell, drummer Ian Browne and bassist Bradley Ferguson. Back home in Canada, they’re already building a huge reputation.

Boo Hoo Hoo travels from the juke-joint jump blues rockabilly of its title track to the bad-ass blues rock and roll of Devil On My Back, which finds Matt Camirand’s scuzzy bass moonlighting from the Black Mountain day job.

Running is Delta swamp, albeit more Quo than Creedence; Love Is Madness rides a Motown bassline and has a Dusty Springfield “Spooky” vibe; Rise Up is a spiritual for which Rennison smooths out her world-weary vocal.

There’s a cover of Nina Simone’s version of Nat Adderley’s Work Song, but it’s That’d Be The Day that sends shivers down the spine as Rennison duets simply but soulfully with Campbell’s softly overdriven guitar.

No Sinner’s music, says Rennison, is about the clash between the sacred and the profane, the preacher and the devil, the sins of Saturday night at the being washed away on Sunday morning in church.

It’s the contradiction at the very heart of rock’n’roll.

“We need a healthy dose of good and evil in our lives,” says Rennison. “Music is a medium between us and the spiritual world. Our songs express the gamut from sinful to celestial.”

So how did it all start after she heard Janis sing Mercedes Benz.

In her hometown of Vancouver, Rennison started writing songs with Parker Bossley (formerly of Hot Hot Heat) and joined up with future band members Campbell and Browne, for a weekly Thursday night residency at Guilt and Company, a club in Vancouver’s Gastown district.

“I honed my chops, my stage confidence, my style and versatility,” she explains. “I learned to play with other musicians.”

Known for performing in a T-shirt and cut-off jeans, Rennison’s larger-than-life, whiskey-swigging, last of the red hot blues mamas is no act.

“So much of the music I started listening to as a girl came from churches and gatherings where people congregated and sang their blues away,” she says.

“‘It’s a dirty business loving me,” I warn in If Anything,” she grins. “That’s a disclaimer for anyone who wants to get involved with me.

“I’m warning you now.”

Rennison is an old soul, wiser than her years might suggest. “I want to bridge the gap between class and trash,” she says. “I love the idea of these women who very much lived in a man’s world, touring on the road.”

Certainly her performance echoes Maggie Bell’s early days in Stone The Crows, and traces a path all the way through to contemporaries such as Gin Wigmore. It’s old school and proud of it.

“We write whatever comes to us. We’re fans of a variety of different sounds and all kinds of music. We’re inspired by the way bands like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, early Kings of Leon and the White Stripes brought the blues and rock back to basics.

“We’re into so many different styles of music that we have the liberty to do what we please. We really don’t have a formula.

“We’ve here to make our own mark. Now stop asking questions, and listen to the music...”

Ted Nugent : Motor City Mayhem & Sweden Rocks review

He’s 65 years old and ornery as hell.

But rock loudmouth, gun nut and all-round guitar star Ted Nugent still ruffles feathers.

In an explosive way. And usually involving hunting dogs.

He has, of course, lambasted Barack Obama; he has hinted he may stand for public office.

Earlier this year, at a Las Vegas hunting and outdoor trade show, the Michigan marauder was recorded stating: “I have obviously failed to galvanize and prod, if not shame enough Americans to be ever vigilant not to let a Chicago communist-raised, communist-educated, communist-nurtured subhuman mongrel like Barack Hussein Obama to weasel his way into the top office of authority in the United States of America”.

Don’t pull your punches, Ted.

His next tour is going out under the banner of ‘Black Power’.

Don’t ask...

All of which is typical of the larger than life Amboy Duke made good.

But all of which tends to overshadow a fundamental truth.

His studio albums may be patchy (don’t get me started on Damn Yankees) but Ted Nugent’s gigs pack feelgood frenzy.

The re-release of two live albums – Motor City Mayhem and Sweden Rocks, now packaged as a double-CD set – is a timely reminder of what Nugent was placed upon this earth to actually do.

Entertain us.

Recorded in hometown Detroit on Independence Day, Motor City Mayhem originally saw light of day in 2009.

It’s an unashamed crowd-pleaser – Nugent’s 6,000th gig apparently – with Ted given to bellowing “Free-e-e-dom!” in every other song.

All the hallmarks are here, Wango Tango, Wang Dang Sweet Poontang and Free For All served up in inimitable fashion.

There’s a Hendrix-inspired Star Spangled Banner (well, it is July 4) and covers of Bo Diddley and Baby Please Don’t Go. It’s an old-fashioned, old school rock and roll night out. With beer. Plenty of beer.

But it’s the unholy trinity of Stormtroopin’, Cat Scratch Fever and Stranglehold that remind you that, hell, Ted Nugent sure can write a mean riff.

(As he likes to inform the crowd, and at every opportunity).

The Sweden Rocks swet, originally released in 2008, offers pretty much the same songs in different order – plus the likes of Snakeskin Cowboys, Soul Man and Still Raising Hell.

And that, of course, is what the gun-loving political pensioner continues to do.

Pop it in the car player, hit the motorway and crank the volume up to 11.

It ain’t pretty. But you’ll feel a whole lot better for it. Honest.

Black Sabbath : Geezer Butler thumbs up for primary school version of Iron Man

Bruce Springsteen : High Hopes review

You’ve just stepped off the bus at the end of a marathon world tour, the adrenaline still coursing through your body. Suddenly, you’re at a bit of a loss, time on your hands.

Who you gonna call?

Tom Morello, that’s who.

And the tricksy Rage Against The Machine axeman, now seemingly surgically attached to the E Street Band, is round in a flash. “So whaddya want, Boss?”

For his 18th studio album, Springsteen has plundered the archives once more. It’s a wander down memory lane that worked for Tracks and The Promise, and works again, if with mixed results.

Working with Morello, he’s revisited recent live set staples American Skin (41 Shots) and a turbocharged Ghost Of Tom Joad, the Rage guitarist’s slippery licks turning the sombre solo turn into stadium rock.

The rest of the songs are out-takes, the so close yet so far songs that didn’t make the final cut for his last six albums, dating back to 2002’s The Rising, and have now been given a makeover.

Album opener High Hopes – a Havalinas cover – boasts all the Boss’s recent hallmarks, a singalong holler that combines Celtic tradition with New Orleans swagger, rock and roll with a hint of RATM steel.

The finalé is another cover, of Suicide’s Dream Baby Dream, which doesn’t fare as well, syrupy strings and drum loops replacing the post-punk duo’s gutter drone. Some things are better left alone.

In the crime noir setting of Harry’s Place Morello fires machine gun guitar across throaty sax originally laid down by the late Big Man, Clarence Clemons. And, yes, that’s Danny Federici, who died in 2008, playing organ on moving Vietnam memorial The Wall.

The rest are by the E-Street numbers, although Springsteen’s filler sets faster than most band’s polished product.

Frankie Fell In Love proves an old-fashioned frat-rock riot; Heavens Wall goes gospel; Down In The Hole is one of those reflections on despair that The Boss does so well; Just Like Fire Would as forgettable as the pun intended.

This Is Your Sword, a song originally due to appear on a ‘lost’ gospel album since dropped, should have remained undiscovered. Hunter Of Invisible Game, an acoustic waltz, mines a similar vein but is at least Dylan dusty.

But, let’s face it, you’ll buy the album for The Ghost Of Tom Joad, especially if you saw it live on the Wrecking Ball tour.

And, just for the record, Nils Lofgren’s onstage tour de force beat Morrello’s tricks hands down.

* A limited edition version of High Hopes adds a live concert DVD of Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band running through the Born In The USA album live at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park last year.

Marlin, Sabbath, Zervas, Doillon, Mitiku, Gelb and Simon head Best 50 Albums Of The Year 2013

Mike Marlin

 

ROCK

1. MIKE MARLIN: Grand Reveal

The former child prodigy, physics boffin and city whizzkid releases a deadpan delivery rock and roll album that’s lyrically astute, nodding to Lou Reed and David Bowie.

2. IAN McNABB: Eclectic Warrior

The Icicle Works frontman returns to the Neil Young-inspired guitar-spitting rock that was the signature of his hallmark Head Like A Rock album.

3. PURE LOVE: Anthems

Not the maudlin mess the name of the band and the album might suggest, but big hook-laden rock songs from Gallows frontman Frank Carter.

4. NEW MODEL ARMY: Between Dog And Wolf

New lease of life for the Bradford revolutionaries thanks to a left turn that sees them drag drums high up in the mix, tribal rhythm replacing rock riff.

5. AIRBOURNE: Black Dog Barking

They’ve always followed in the footsteps of Angus Young, and now Aussie rockers Airbourne come up with the best album that AC/DC never made.

6. THE WINERY DOGS: The Winery Dogs

Monster riffs, big bass, levee-breaking drums and gravel grunge vocals as prog rockers Mike Portnoy and Billy Sheehan re-invent classic rock.

7. DEEP PURPLE: Now What?

They could have called it quits after Jon Lord died. So it’s surprising that Purple’s return, with Don Airey as super-sub, is better than anyone expected.

8. DROPKICK MURPHYS: Signed And Sealed In Blood

Rabble-rousing American-Irish rock and reel that captures the energy of the Boston paddy punks’ shows. The boys are back and they’re looking for trouble.

9. SAMMY HAGAR: & Friends

Red rocker Sammy Hagar calls in a stellar cast including Joe Satriani, Neal Schon, Kid Rock and Heart’s Nancy Wilson for blues-rock fuelled studio fun.

10. TOM KEIFER: The Way Life Goes

The Cinderella frontman’s solo album eschews the band’s dated glam metal for an eclectic mix of rock and roll, stadium pop and radio ballads.

  

 Zervas & Pepper

POP

1. ZERVAS & PEPPER: Lifebringer

Welsh duo Paul Zervas and Kathryn Pepper capture the sound and the spirit of the Woodstock generation on an album that shamelessly takes its cues from late 1960s California.

2. TIERRA BLANCA: Shadowlands

Moody wild western rock and stroll surprise from Brit John McKeown, a Tex-Mex tapas of self-penned songs that recalls Tito & Tarantula.

3. GOLDFRAPP: Tales Of Us

Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory back to what they do best: ethereal ballads delivered in whispered vocals and wrapped up in cinematic strings.

4. DEAF HAVANA: Old Souls

Flag-waving festival rock with pop hooks from the surprise package at Reading. Widescreen road trip rock that marries Springsteen to The Killers.

5. JOHN FOGERTY: Wrote A Song For Everyone

Creedence legend re-invents his rock classics special guests ranging from Foo Fighters and Tom Morello to Bob Seger and Allen Toussaint.

6. DAVID BOWIE: The Next Day

His first album in ten years, some of it masterful, some of it muddled. But Bowie albums are never to be missed and overall it’s welcome back.

7. I AM KLOOT: Let It All In

Elbow’s Guy Garvey guests on his Mancunian mates’ new album – 10 songs in 36 minutes proving that less can, indeed, be more.

8. DAVE STEWART: Lucky Numbers

Eurythmic Dave Stewart’s set is rooted in classic 1960s British rhythm and blues shot through with Americana – recorded on a yacht in the South Pacific.

9. COUNTING CROWS: Echoes Of The Outlaw Roadshow

New live set is a barnstormer, collecting fan favourites and covers. A reworked Round Here and a mash-up of Rain King and Elbow’s Lippy Kid star.

10. GIN WIGMORE: Gravel & Wine

She hollers like a veteran rock and roller, and plays the blues as if she was born in the USA. Rootsy pop-rock from the New Zealand songbird.

Lou Doillon

SINGER-SONGWRITERS

1. LOU DOILLON: Places

Parisian songbird Lou Doillon, daughter of Jane Birkin, half-sister of Charlotte Gainsbourg, gets moody as her warm, part-sung, part-spoken vocal caresses sublime songs. The French Aimee Mann.

2. DAVID FORD: Charge

Ford’s best album to date adds variations in pace and mood to that distinctive vocal. How the ex-Easyworld frontman remains under the radar is a mystery.

3. PHILDEL: The Disappearance Of The Girl

The Brit songbird has soundtracked TV ads ranging from M&S to Apple, but her own album reveals she has an ethereal indie-pop voice to die for.

4. BILLY BRAGG: Tooth & Nail

Bragg has rarely sung better, and the gently reflective songs are country confessional rather than rock and roll rebellion. That’s getting older for you.

5. LINDI ORTEGA: Cigarettes & Truckstops

Although she’s just moved to Nashville, Ortega is equally at home on the Coachella and T In The Park stages. Country, rock and murder ballads.

6. DIDO: Girl Who Got Away

She’s been there, done it, got the T-shirt but Dido’s long-awaited return is every bit as winning as her debut. She’s the girl who came back.

7. GABRIELLE APLIN: English Rain

She topped the charts with Frankie’s The Power Of Love thanks to John Lewis. Now she bares her soul in a folk-pop set with world music cues.

8. JENN BOSTIC: Jealous

Lazily catalogued as country, Bostic gives the late Amy Winehouse a run for her her soul-pop money. Jealous Of The Angels was huge on youtube.

9. STEVE EARLE: The Low Highway

Roots rocker Steve Earle’s most upfront and rock radio-friendly set since 2004’s The Revolution Starts Now. He was great at Symphony Hall.

10. JOSHUA RADIN: Wax Wings

Bubbly folk, polished pop, memorable melody – and is that alt.country icon Ryan Adams I hear on guitar on Lovely Tonight? A high-flier.

Howe Gelb

FOLK & ROOTS

1. HOWE GELB: The Coincidentalist

Dusty desert Americana from the prolific troubadour, recorded with M. Ward and Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley. Bonnie Prince Billy and KT Tunstall guest in a strong set without a weak link.

2. TOM RUSSELL: Aztec Jazz

The godfather of Americana has never been shy of re-invention and now revisits sublime signature songs live with the Norwegian Wind Ensemble.

3. CHRISTY MOORE: Where I Come From

Asked to select songs for a three-disc retrospective, Moore has chosen instead to rerecord 45 of them, updating the lyrics to reflect the changing times.

4. THE FALLOWS: Liars & Kings

The Coventry band’s clever tuneful folk-rock is a delight, with Cast The First Stone unlikely to be bettered anytime soon in its genre.

5. EMILY BARKER & THE RED HALO: Dear River

The Aussie songbird who calls Britain home has her folk roots peeping through polished pop production. Better than KT Tunstall and Amy MacDonald.

Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi

METAL

1. BLACK SABBATH: 13

An event album. Sabbath’s reunion has seen them come full circle to the metal with which they first made their name, and exceeded even the band’s own expectations.

2. STONE SOUR: House of Gold & Bones Part 2

Corey Taylor’s metallers close the circle on the concept album begun last year with radio-friendly riffs nodding both to idols Sabbath and Metallica.

3. MOTORHEAD: Aftershock

Lemmy may have a pacemaker but driving rock guitar riffs, gruff vocals, speaker-busting bass and bombshell drums spell business as usual.

4. ALTER BRIDGE: Fortress

Myles Kennedy returns to the day job after his foray with Slash, and Alter Bridge’s fourth studio set accordingly proves their most radio-friendly yet.

5. AVENGED SEVENFOLD: Hail To The King

A7X have waded out into the mainstream until they’ve emerged dripping hard rock riffs, with nods to Metallica, Maiden, Sabbath and G’n’R.

Paul Simon

RETRO

1. PAUL SIMON: The Complete Albums Collection

Fourteen albums from his debut to the most recent outing in one hefty box set, adding up to an amazing 199 tracks in all. Arguably the greatest singer-songwriter of them all.

2. THE EAGLES: The Studio Albums 1972-1979

Six-album boxset from one of the world’s best and most enduring of bands. Looking forward to seeing them at the LG Arena in May next year!

3. DEL SHANNON: Essential Collection 1961-1991

Everything you ever wanted to hear from the late, great Del Shannon, including Runaway. I was proud to do some recording with him in the Seventies.

4. THE WHO: Live At The Isle Of Wight Festival

One of Britain’s greatest-ever rock bands, caught at their peak, whilst topping the bill at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970. Sensational.

5. CHICAGO: The Studio Albums 1969-1978

Ten-album boxset from debut Chicago Transit Authority in 1969 to Hot Streets in 1978. Over 150 tracks by one of my all-time favourite bands.

Emilia Mitiku

JAZZ / BLUES

1. EMILIA MITIKU: I Belong To You

She ended the nineties with worldwide hit Big Big World but now she’s subtly smouldering through a bluesy set informed by the greats – Etta, Ella, Eartha and Billie.

2. BETH HART & JOE BONAMASSA: Seesaw

The musical marriage of Stateside blues belter Beth Hart and guitar giant Joe Bonamassa is surely made in rock and roll heaven.

3. HUGH LAURIE: Didn’t It Rain

Gentler, soulful and more spine-tingling than debut Let Us Talk, Laurie brings the virtuoso voices of Gaby Moreno and Jean McClain along for the ride.

4. POPA CHUBBY: Universal Breakdown Blues

Unlikely figure for a guitar hero, his publicity shots suggesting R&B bling, but Popa Chubby plays down and dirty blues-rock with attitude.

5. DANNY BRYANT: Hurricane

Blues-rock guitar albums can be self-indulgent snoozes, but Bryant lets his tormented soul seep out on a set of surprisingly strong songs.