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

Woke Myself Up by Julie Doiron

I first heard about Julie Doiron as a featured musican on an album by one of my favorite bands, The Tragically Hip. I liked her and thought I would like to hear more from her, so just to give her a try, I picked up her latest album, "Woke Myself Up". And though I can't say this is my favorite album, I can tell you that it is infact, a good listen and something that in time does grow on you. I'm not sure if its Julie's bubblegum like delivery over well played "chick with guitar" style backings, or that she seems to be having fun wile doing her songs, or that she seems to write songs that seem realistic and down to earth and fuse them with a great many styles. I will say though, before I get into this, my only real complaint is that the album seems to have many short songs and the album itself suffers of short disc syndrome because of this. (Short disc syndrome is a term I coined for an album thats under 40 or so minutes total and is said to be a "full album")

Julie does blend styles well, each of her songs is done in a different genre all driven by a masterfully played guitar base. She crosses genres from bubblegum pop to blues, to rock, to a 1800s style traveling gypsy fire side dance anthem, to an accoustic adult contemperary song, to just about everywhere else one can go with a guitar. She really does a good job mixing all of these as she does and not sticking to any one genre for more then a song or sometimes two. "I left town" also has her cats meowing in the background at some points like an odd yet lovely idea for a chorus. Truely well done.

"No More" is actually about as close to "radio friendly pop" this album gets though, I will admit this, but then again, we're not really about radio friendly or mainstream around here, so that makes it ok. The track itself is great though, its got a beat that will keep the people that just have it on for background sound from getting bored with it, and the harmonics and lyrics will keep everyone else going as well. "Don't Wanna Be Liked By You" is second for radio friendliness, which I think is kind of why I think they were placed back to back, the beat sounds like a mix of "secret agent man" and "walking on the sun", very infectious and very easy to drive over the speed limit too.

The other tracks on the disc are just this great audio journey though the world of guitar based canadian infused music. As I said earlyer though, the only downside really is that its short, the songs average about 3 minutes or so, and there aren't very many of them, only about 10 or so, but still, by no means does this make the album suffer as a whole. I enjoyed it and intend to attain the rest of her collection whenever I can see possable to do so. I highly recommend this disc.


Artist: Julie Doiron
Album: Woke Myself Up
Genre: Slowcore, Indie Rock, Indie Pop, Singer/Songwriter, Female Vocalist

Woke Myself Up by Julie Doiron

By: BC

Leave The Light On - Beth Hart

From BC about this album:

Beth Hart first became known to the world in the very tail end of the 1990s with her massive hit "LA Song" and her in your face "this is me like it or fuck off" take on life kept her and the song in the media long after sales for that album "Screaming For My Supper" slowed to a snails pace. The only problem with this was, LA Song was the only single released off the album that charted, and most assumed that Beth was a one hit wonder deemed for the 1990s related obscurity that acts like OMC, Fastball and The Heights now dwell in.

But this wouldn't do for Beth. She didn't care that the major lables weren't pushing her anymore, she kept working, she turned out afew more albums, and one of them, her newest one to date, from 2003, "Leave The Light On" is truely a jem that should not be passed by. It spans the spectrum from pop, to southern style rock, to jazz and blues, to gospel, to soul, to female vocalist. There is no real way to pin down this album, it shows that Beth has become so much more as she's gotten older and worked more and more on her craft.

Beth has really changed, she started out as what most dismissed as a foul mouthed Tori Amos rip off, but her voice and her style has changed so much that, it seems silly now to have ever compaired the two. Beth's voice is somewhere between Anastacia Newkirk and just about any soul diva you can think of, there is alot of Aretha in her writing she's claimed, I hear more Patte Le Belle, but thats just me I guess. Doesn't really take away from how good this disc is.

I would say this disc is for anyone thats not fully tired of the mainstream, but would like to see what some of those that the mainstream has forgotten are up too these days. Her subject matter jumps all over the place, from love, to drug addictions and drinking to sexual abuse against a child (what the title song "Leave The Light On" is about), self redemption, and afew other things along the way. Its a true masterpiece.

Artist: Beth Hart
Album: Leave The Light On
genre: Female Vocalist

Leave The Light On by Beth Hart

By BC

In one hundred years the prize will be forgotten - The Potomac Accord

About the Album:

we come into a town we don't know, or maybe one where we have seen the area around the venue before... some awkward bands show up who sometimes look at the ground, or sometimes want to know what the best rock venue in your town is to play so they can set up their event there. we watch maybe a handful of small nervous and innocent people show up, but neither of us really talk to each other and we carry our weighted equipment past them and are sometimes brushed by the often disinterested and desensitized sound-man or door-man who quotes us the process of calling the night complete, but isn't interested in a conversation or sharing experiences and stories... you really cannot blame them though, they've submitted themselves to the company of total strangers nightly who are gone more quickly than they arrived, but we try our best.

we carry our stuff in, often in a rush to set it up and set back to a cold drink and rest on a wooden chair with hope that maybe someone will show up... we toss our experiences out into the public every single night possible with hope that someone may understand the message... we play to a room more often filled with smoke and clatter than conscious people, people who go home and forget the names of the bands, forget the instruments that composed the sounds, forget how far they may have come, and sometimes even forget the evening entirely... but they may have had a good time. you then carry your weighted equipment out the door, maybe down some narrow, dark, aging steps. sometimes all of this in the freezing rain when you have forgotten your jacket, or the soaking rain and the van smells like mildew, rust, and aluminum... cramming your wet bodies and your wet guitars into it...

but then there is one person who comes up and tells you something you will never forget for the rest of your life, and you realize that you have seen and experienced something completely unique to that particular evening, and it is beautiful. you realize that you have crafted something ambitious, personal, evocative, and to your personal life even maybe revolutionary.

in that moment the rain flows like stanzas from an aged poem handed to you on a piece of paper from someone you just met in a town, on a street, you had never known...

Aritst: The Potomac Accord
Album: In one hundred years the prize will be forgotten
genre: Indie Rock

In one hundred years the prize will be forgotten - The Potomac Accord

By BC