Trevor's House - Dallas Frasca and Her Gentleman

Not to long ago, a blues singer I know introduced me to an artist she was rather fond of, given her rough and raw delivery and driving hooks and backing, she called it "dirty down under mississippi delta blues", which, being the blues man I am at heart, drew my attention. The band she introduced me too was Dallas Frasca and Her Gentleman, a blues duo from Pambula, New South Wales, Australia, though by listening to Dallas' voice, you'd never know that. their style is kind of a amalgam of sub genres of blues and old school rock with the modern heartfelt female power ballading women of today's rock. Its kind of like if Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin formed a band, musically and vocally, with Dallas both singing and doing guitar, while her gentlemen as it were, picks up the rest, vocally, Dallas seems to be somewhere in a class of her own, as a woman who was self taught by means of a radio who was her only company on 12 hour shifts as a lab tech, has a stand alone sound that shifts effortlessly from soft and beautiful to raw and an almost thunderous Battlecry on the gruff and hard edged tracks.



These reasons are why, of Dallas' few albums to her name, I picked "Trever's House" as the one to showcase here, it swings the entire length of Dallas' spectrum as an artist, from slow and beautiful to harsh and guitar driven, to everything in between. I've always believed an album should be a trip around the universe in sound, not just a drive around the block in your grandmother's old car just to show off for the neighbors, in that respect i wasn't let down once with this disc. The album starts out with "Define Addiction" a slow starting track that builds to these beautiful hard rock guitar hooks that crash and boom like thunderheads in the night sky, lovely start track, very smart choice. Followed by "No Coincidence" a lovely hard driving rock track, its very reminiscent of those grandus 1970s rock ballads you'd find as an album track on a Led Zepplin album, just on a shorter scale, lovely as well. Next is "rejuvenation" which is infact my favorite track on this disc, i find myself singing the hook at odd times, and the music is awesome, I love the 1940s mambo style beginning that goes into one of those trippy late 60s british rock style tracks, it actually had me kind of dancing in my chair, which, not easy to do.



The rest of the album expands from there, high energy booming guitars, driving drums and well constucted hooks and lyrics. As I listen to her I get a feeling like I'm at this smokey little club in Oz and just watching in awe of the power and drive the band has, which is what really sells the album, its that feeling that this is what they live for, what they love and what they can't breath with out, their desire to sound like no one thats out today, mixed with improvisation and knowing when to put the right songs in the right places, just make them a joy to listen too, another stand out track on the album is "positive contagious" which might be the most mellow song on the whole disc honestly, I love how there is no real growling, or howling, or power ballading, its just nice mellow music with nice mellow vocals as well, beautiful track, its follow up is "One Cent" which has this amazing blues rock song with guitar beats that are like rough hot sex in music form, with vocals that match it perfectly, the song also gets points for the word "shitabyss" which is a lovely reference to the canadian cult tv show Trailer Park Boys, where it was introduced.



There are more tracks on the album, but I have this sort of "you have to listen too it instead of me telling you about it" kind of feeling on it, I mean would you want to tell someone about a rollercoaster ride or would you rather put them in the cart and make'um ride that bad boy with you? Yeah, its conflicting that way, I wanna rave about it, but i don't wanna ruin the surprises. I would say though, everyone should have a listen to this, atleast once, the journey it takes you on is just so beautiful to the ears. Beautiful music by a beautiful and unique woman, which I hope you all will enjoy.

as for kind of a sample... well, I couldn't find a video from this album, but I did find a video of Dallas doing "Old Fashion Morphine" which will give you an idea of her vocals.



Artist: Dallas Frasca and Her Gentleman
Hompage: http://www.dallasfrasca.com/
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/dallasfrascamusic
Album: Trevor's House
Genre: Rock/Blues/Old School Rock
Download: click this

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BC

White Trash Beautiful by Everlast

Everlast might be well known in some respects to many of you, either from his days as the front man for the unforgettable hip hop group House of Pain, or from his amazing blues/hip hop/rock solo album "Whitey Ford Sings the Blues" in which is fused rock, old school hip hop and rock together and made amazing tracks like "What its like" and "The ends" both of which gained him a good amount of solo success in the summer of 2000 if I remember my times correctly. Now, what most people don't know is that after that album, and the failure of his follow up album do to lack of promotion or radio support, Everlast still kept on making music. And not just music, he kept making good music. Its very hard to understand the idea of a rapper fusing blues and rock and rap together, but I guess if Kid Rock can fuse all of those things and country together and make it work, I guess anything is possible in this day and age. Now, though Everlast has done afew albums in his time since his time in the spotlight for Whitey Ford Sings The Blues and the tracks off of it, I wanted to present to you all the album that just speaks to me the most, after all, isn't that really what this is blog is for?

White Trash Beautiful is a very down to earth grass roots look at life kind of album, songs about love, relationships and how they seem to go wrong, fear of death before your time, everyday hardships that cause people to do some horrible things, and just enough old school hip hop tossed in to make things worthwhile and remind us just where Everlast came from. Its a beautifully dark picture of his world and his vision of the rest of us, and I just love it! The first track off the album starts out with "Blinded by the Sun" a lovely track about some of the darker things he's heard as he travels around, its very much like "the ends" in lyrical style, but more upbeat, I like that. The next track is "broken" a sort of love song, where you can here Everlast's vocals straining in a way that seems very fitting for this song, giving it a very human quality to this song about how he wants to make up with his girlfriend, its a really beautiful song, you should give it a listen. The next is the title track "White Trash Beautiful", a love song about a woman pregnant woman who works at a dinner, and the man who tries to drive home to her as much as possible, and the love they have. Followed by "Sleeping Alone" a lovely blues style rap song trying to get this girlfriend to come back to him while she is dodging his calls, Everlast's flow is still one of the best I've ever heard, over 15 years after "Jump Around" he still has it. "The Warning" is a nice blues club style inspirational rap track, its very hypnotic actually, I rather enjoyed it personally. "Angel" brings us back to the blues rock with a nice hip hop beat flushed in, telling the tale of how he lost the perfect woman while describing the woman he desires in life. "This Kind of Lonely" is another of those tracks that reminds you just how human and emotional Everlast's lyrics are, its a very introspective song, you feel for him by the end of it. "Soul Music" is a very dark nod head low rider angry rap track with a very nice flow to it and pays respect to those who rocked the mic with him in the 80s and those who he wanted to be like. The last few tracks on the album are standard fair for this outing following the same concepts and formula of blues, rock and hip hop all together, "Lonely Road" is my favorite of the later tracks, a sort of uplifting coming to terms with the things he was dealing with all album sort of track, a light at the end of the tunnel if you will. A nice addition.

Do I think this album is something everyone could listen too? If they're up for a unquie mixture of various types of music that you hear mixed together alot these days, but done in a style thats not exactly what sells these days, then yeah, I think this would be for everyone, I can't see why it wouldn't be actually, there is atleast one or two songs on the disc that each person can take away and enjoy near as i figure. So give it a shot, see how it goes down, and show some love from a guy who shouldn't have dropped off.


Artist: Everlast
Album: White Trash Beautiful
Genre: Blues,Hip Hop,Rock,Indie Rock,Blues Rock,Blues Hop

Everlast - White Trash Beautiful

*Half of these tracks might actually be labled as the song after them, I noticed this after already uploading the album, be aware of that please.

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BC

Real Life by Joan as Police Woman

This lovely bit of audio and visual candy is a woman named Joan Wasser, she was born in Biddeford Maine and raised mostly in Norwalk, Connecticut, and believe it or not, she has one of the most impressive musical petigrees I've ever come acrossed. She started out playing piano at the age of 6, and spent her teens playing with various bands and working solo as well, this feat, more so the amazingly matured and defined that it gained her early admitance to the musical converatory at Boston University where she became the prize student of the world renowned Yuri Mazurkevich where she became part of the Boston University Symphony Orcastra and played many large venues through out her time with them. In this time she also formed Boston indie scene legends Hot Trix, The Damnbuilders and Black Beatle as side projects as well as did work with Those Bastard Souls and Mind Science of the Mind. Joan didn't go into classical music after college like most assumed she would, she went hardcore into the independant musical mecha that is the boston music scene and after awile formed Joan as Police Woman in New York City in 2002. Her credentials in the popular music scene are as equily as impressive as her classical, she was a former band member and lover of the late Jeff Buckley at the time of his death, and has worked with such well known artists as Lou Reed, Tanya Donelly, Sheryl Crow, Dave Gahan, Elton John, the Scissor Sisters, Antony and the Johnsons, Joseph Arthur and Rufus Wainwright, to name just afew.

With a history like that you would exspect her full length debut in this new band of hers to be nothing short of musical nirvana in mp3 form right? Well, if you assumed this you would be correct! This album is just complete bliss in audio form! Joan and her fellow musicans mix everything from blues to rock to pop to indie to late 1960s phycidelic infusions and soul to classical together in a way that leaves me speachless and wanting more. I love how they span the gammet from upbeat and fun to torch songs to straight up blues to rock and stop off all over the place along the way, Joan's vocals sound so much like Billie Holiday through most of this album that it scares me at times.

The title track "Real Life" is a great start off, its a very mellow smokey delivered piano driven love song, its as sexy as it is eerie. "Eternal Flame" is an odd mix of a love song and a grandus symphonic fused with uptempt 1970s style rock with a huge chorus singing along, its wonderfull. "I Defy" a great duet done in a 1970s Marvin Gaye "Whats Going On" era sort of style, I really wish they gave more more then just the first name of the man that sings it with her, I can't seem to find him in the band reguester or the credits and would like to here more from him, the way they blend horns, violins, pianos and strings together are just incredable as well. I could really go on and on about how great every track on this short disc is, only 10 tracks, though I would love a double disc special edition with all the B-Sides and out-takes and stuff, I just can't get enough of this band!

As for if I think most people will like this? Yes, I believe most would, there is enough of every style to keep even the most closed minded "one genre'er" happy. But people like me that are all over the musical spectrim will go wild over this and scream for more. Its just so beautifully crafted, there is so much detail given to even the smallest bit of music on this album, its almost bordering on artform in some spots. Its a definate must for anyone that claims to be "musically open minded" and isn't really just saying it to get cred. Give it a shot, seriously, won't be let down.


Artist: Joan As Police Woman
Album: Real Life
Genre: Indie, Indie Rock, Blues, Blues Rock, Fusion, Boston Indie

Real Life By Joan as Police Woman


By: BC