Justin Nozuka

JUSTIN NOZUKA
"HOLLY"
(Coalition, 2007)


"Be Back Soon"


I'm happy to have found out the other day that Tyler Hilton is finally getting ready to put out his next album, 'cause I've been waiting for what seems like an eternity. I've been hoping that Kyle Riabko would put out another full-length CD, but he's apparently been busy doing other stuff, such as Broadway. But now, thanks to newcomer Justin Nozuka, that void has been filled quite nicely.

The son of a Japanese father and the nephew of actress Kyra Sedgwick, Justin Nozuka has the same prodigious guitar savvy, songwriting talent, and deliciously soulful voice that made Kyle Riabko so striking. (And, by interesting coincidence, they both grew up in Canada ... a characteristic that a lot of good musicians I've found seem to share.)

Some tracks on this album are stripped-down, intimate acoustic recordings, and some are with a full plugged-in band, but they all show off his skill without any glossy over-production taking away from it. There's first-rate blues ("Mr. Therapy Man"), breezy and uplifting pop ("I'm In Peace"), cool folk-rock ("Golden Train"), and a whole lot more. Part of me hopes that Justin gets snatched up by a major label so he can get the nationwide exposure that he deserves -- but the rest of me hopes that doesn't happen, because it could only water down the richness of his talent.

Teddy Thompson

TEDDY THOMPSON
"A PIECE OF WHAT YOU NEED"
(Verve Forecast, 2008)


"In My Arms"*


I became aware of Teddy Thompson (son of veteran folk musicians Richard and Linda Thompson) by way of Rufus Wainwright, with whom he regularly collaborates, each making regular appearances on the other's albums. Until now, Teddy has been a rather subdued, semi-country-tinged (indeed, his last album was a collection of covers of classic country songs), folk-pop singer-songwriter. But all that time spent around the flamboyant Rufus appears to finally have had an effect on Teddy's music.

The ironic thing is that this is the first of his albums to which Rufus has made no contributions. With all the added flourishes, from the glassy echo of piano ("Turning The Gun On Myself") to the bouncy oom-pah of a brass section ("One Of These Days"), one could easily be led to think he was all over it.

The subject matter in Teddy's songs may still be somewhat sullen at times, but the instrumentation and arrangements frequently have a liveliness and catchiness to them that's quite uncharacteristic of what we've come to expect from him. Sometimes it hits you right from the start ("What's This?!!", "Jonathan's Book") and sometimes it sneaks up on you ("Can't Sing Straight", "The Things I Do"), but this album is an engaging and enjoyable listen from beginning to end. If you've ever even thought about checking out Teddy Thompson, this album is the perfect place to start, 'cause it's his best yet.

*Link provided by Sneak Attack Media, Teddy Thompson's promoter.

Simple Kid

SIMPLE KID
"2"
(Yep Roc, 2007)


"Serotonin"


It's funny sometimes how one artist in a particular sub-genre will "click" with the listener, while another very similar artist won't -- and in my case, I usually seem to gravitate more toward the lesser-known artists (perhaps for the very reason that they're lesser-known, as if they're "my own little secret"). For instance, I've come to like Kristian Leontiou more than Daniel Powter, and Simple Kid more than Beck.

Irish-born Ciaran McFeely is fond of the banjo (but uses plenty of other instruments too), records his music onto 8-track tape, and then cobbles it together on a laptop with samples of his own making, forming a unique and hard-to-pin-down sound, with traces of everything from country to hip-hop to mainstream pop to electronica to swamp rock. Do you remember the Saturn car commercial with that funky, bouncy, banjo-laden ditty with the audible "whoop!" hidden in the rhythm? That song ("Lil' King Kong") is on this album, and together with the track I've uploaded here gives you a good idea of what to expect from Simple Kid.

I'd probably give Beck a try, but I wouldn't hold out a whole lot of hope for liking him ... at least not nearly as much as I like this guy. Those "you might also like..." lists can be very hit-and-miss for me, after all. For now, I'll be quite comfortable with the charmingly slipshod pop of Simple Kid.

George Carlin: 1937 - 2008

I of course knew he wasn't going to be around forever, but it still came as a shock to find out that it happened so soon. My favorite comedian, the great George Carlin, has died of heart failure.




















Here's a Carlin bit called "A Modern Man", one of my all-time favorites, from his last album, "Life Is Worth Losing". If this doesn't show what a master wordsmith he was, nothing will.

I'll miss the hell out of ya, George. Now you'll be able to watch "the freak show" from one of the best seats in the house.

Back On The Blog, Y'All

Well, I'm back from one of the best vacations I've had in years! It may or may not have anything to do with the fact that I came home with the biggest bunch of CDs I've bought in years, but it definitely has something to do with this. Several of my purchases you'll be reading about here in the weeks to come, of course. But in the meantime, here's a picture of the pile (click to enlarge):
















I know ... frightening, isn't it? I don't even want to think of what the credit card bill is going to look like next month. But anyway, a handful of the CDs were items that were actually on my "to buy" list, but many of them were pleasant surprise discoveries: artists I didn't know or care about until I heard them playing on the store's sound system ... artists I had thought about checking out when their first albums had come out but didn't realize they'd put out anything since then so I decided it was the perfect time to try them out ... and a few neat-looking compilations (usually at excellent prices -- I guess Virgin Megastore isn't a complete and total waste of space ... yet) I stumbled into along the way.

Since I've been home now for several days, I've begun the slow process of actually listening to all these discs ... and, sad to say I've already found a few clunkers that have been put in the trade-ins stack. But if anyone wants to know about any specific titles they spot in the photo, please let me know and I'll try and make a point of reviewing them (if I haven't already gotten rid of them, that is).

I've been thinking recently about revamping the look of my blog (perhaps a new title and banner, but the content would remain the same), but that probably won't happen anytime soon, if at all. And you might have already noticed that I replaced the plain old blogroll with the new Blogger feature "Blog List", which you can see shows the title of the most recent post and how long since its last update. Neat, eh? (I've decided to sort them by most recently updated.) But anyway, I hope you missed me, and that you're ready for me to dive back into the great musical ocean and swim to the surface twice a week with more goodies for your ears.

Oh, and if any of you ever venture to California, you simply must make a point of visiting one of the Amoeba Music locations -- the vastness of those stores will unquestionably blow your mind, and the time and effort to visit them is absolutely worth it.

It's Him! It's Him!!!

Okay, I know I said I wasn't going to be updating this blog for two weeks or so, and this post isn't music-related at all, but I simply had to share this with everyone. My friend and I were at Amoeba Records in Hollywood yesterday (yes, I found a few goodies ... more on those later, of course), and he hurriedly came up to me while I was browsing and quietly ushered me to another part of the store, where ... are you ready for this? ... I MET JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT!!!





















Well, I don't know if "met" is the right word, 'cause I didn't give him my name. He was with a female friend (and no, I don't know if it's his girlfriend ... didn't ask and it's none of my business), so I just quickly extended my hand to him, begged their pardons for my interruption, and told him that I'm a big fan of his, to which he flashed that swoon-inducing smile of his and replied with a cheerful, "Thank you!"

Now, for those of you who don't know me, "JGL" (as I like to call him) is a favorite actor of mine, not only because of his sheer talent, but obviously because he's also unbelievably gorgeous ... plus, there seems to be a really down-to-earth, sincere, approachable quality, made all the more apparent by my encounter with him, that makes him seem like -- to put it embarrassingly bluntly -- the perfect boyfriend. (And no, nothing about him made him seem gay, so I kind-of doubt he is ... but let me have my fantasy life, okay?)

What still totally blows my mind about all this is not only meeting him, and not only that he seemed totally gracious and appreciative of the recognition, but the sheer odds of the encounter: me on vacation from Oregon, and just happening to be in the same store at the same time as one of my favorite stars. I could easily have turned into a hysterical, endlessly genuflecting, babbling idiot, thereby embarrassing both him and myself to no end, but somehow managed against all odds to avoid doing so. If I may say so myself, I'm quite astonished at my restraint.

Okay, now I'll let you get back to your lives, and try to get on with my own.

OMG!! I MET JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT!!!!

The Moffatts

Well, friends, I'll be taking a bit of a vacation starting tomorrow -- not only from home, but from the blogosphere as well. I'll be gone for about two weeks (perhaps a bit longer), but rest assured that I'll be back with more of the wonderful music you've come to love from me ... and no doubt I'll pick up a few CDs along the way, since I plan on doing some hardcore music shopping at least once. But before I go....

THE MOFFATTS
"SUBMODALITIES"
(EMI/Canada, 2000)

"Life On Mars"
"Walking Behind"


Okay, folks, do you mind if I put aside the well-structured critiquing for a minute? I'll be honest with you ... I've been having a lot of trouble deciding how I was going to describe how much I totally love this album ... so much trouble that my brain was on the verge of seizing up like an oil-depleted car engine. Have you ever loved a CD so much, with every fiber of your being, that you felt like you needed to make it your life's mission to get every one of your friends -- and, if you ran out of them, random acquaintances and total strangers -- to love it too? If so, then you'll understand the essence of this blog entry, because for me, this is one of those albums.

I'll save space by not going into the band's history, but all the same I'll try not to prattle on too much. Suffice to say that "Submodalities" is the fourth and, unfortunately, final album by the Canadian sibling act The Moffatts, consisting of Scott and his younger triplet brothers, Dave, Clint, and Bob. It could easily have come across as an ill-conceived, pretentious attempt to escape the "boyband" label that their previous, bubblegum-pop album, 1998's "Chapter I: A New Beginning", almost branded them with, but the guys had the foresight to recruit producer-writers extraordinaire Bob Rock and John Shanks to help them focus their talents into creating a tour-de-force album that seems like a natural next step in their evolution as musicians.

My inability to put into structured thought how much I love this album is the main reason I'm posting two tracks from it instead of the normal one ... that, plus the fact that it gives the listener a better idea of how amazingly all-encompassing this album's songs are. From emo-punk-pop ("California") to power-balladry ("Who Do You Love") to psychedelic rock ("Life On Mars") to radio-friendly pop ("Bang Bang Boom") to epic experimental prog-rock ("Spy"), this CD comes about as close to having a various-artists-compilation feel as any album by a single group possibly can, helped by the fact that each of the four brothers sings lead vocal on at least one song.

Lest you think I'm exaggerating the excellence of this album, let me remind you that I have around one thousand CDs, and this one is -- and has been since the day it entered my collection -- my absolute favorite. This album could have and should have been a worldwide smash hit, and to this day I continue to curse The Universe that it wasn't. If you've liked even half of the stuff I've featured in this blog, then believe me when I say that your CD collection is not complete unless The Moffatts' "Submodalities" is a part of it. Trust me, it's worth every penny of whatever you spend on obtaining it ... and all you have to do is click on the cover art above. Don't you owe your music-loving self that much...?

Ehhhh...

It occurred to me recently that I always talk about the good albums that I have in, and regularly add to, my collection. Well, I've run into a few not-so-good albums in just the last month or so, and as much as I believe in the old adage, "If you can't find anything nice to say, don't say anything at all", I figured it's as much my duty to steer you away from albums that I think you might regret buying as it is to point you toward the albums that I love. So, if your musical tastes are at all like mine, don't say I didn't warn you....

Johnny Mathis: "A Night To Remember" -- My two favorite "classic crooners" are Tony Bennett and Johnny Mathis, so I was eager to pick up this newly-recorded album. What I didn't expect was that I'd be left so cold by it. I can only figure that it was the choice of songs ... the original versions of most of them were kind-of cheesy, AM-radio fluff, and I had hoped that Mathis would have found a way to improve on them. Sad to say, that didn't happen ... either that, or I'm just so unforgiving of the originals that I'm unable to find anything to like in Mathis' versions.

Everclear: "The Vegas Years" -- Another cover album that seriously underwhelmed me. While I'm not necessarily a big Everclear fan, I've enjoyed a handful of their songs over the years, and was intrigued by the possibilities that the track listing hinted at. But unfortunately, this album just didn't work for me for some reason. Some of the songs I wasn't familiar with, and others just didn't seem to fit the band ... and a couple of them made me seriously wonder what they were thinking (the themes from "Speed Racer" and "Land of the Lost"!?). I didn't like Everclear's or Johnny Mathis' cover albums, but I ended up liking Clay Aiken's ... and I can only assume it was the songs that each artist ended up choosing.

Jesse McCartney: "Departure" -- I've only listened to this album once so far, but just one song on it was the least bit memorable to me ... and even that one was just a bit better than "okay". What disappoints me is that I really liked the rock-ish sound he had on his last album, and I'd hoped he would continue in that direction. But instead, he pulled a U-turn and went back toward the R&B-pop of his debut. I also felt kind-of betrayed by McCartney building up to the album's release by promising that it was going to be something unique and different ... sorry, Jesse, but all I hear is some warmed-over Craig-David-meets-Chris-Brown. I'm going to listen to it a few more times before considering getting rid of it, but let's just say that I'm not holding my breath.

Lucie Silvas

LUCIE SILVAS
"BREATHE IN"
(Mercury/Europe, 2004)


"Twisting The Chain"


I honestly didn't think much of this album after picking it up on a whim from the Tower Records clearance bin, so I traded it in at the local store about a year and a half ago. Since then, her lovely bilingual re-recording of her single "What You're Made Of" with the late, great Grégory Lemarchal on his debut album -- and my discovery that this disc also contains, of all things, a Metallica cover -- sparked my renewed interest in this album. Fortunately for me, the local shop still hadn't sold it when I went back last week looking for it, and they even cut me a break on buying it back.

How could I not have appreciated British singer Lucie Silvas before? I suppose the closest vocal comparison I can readily make (bearing in mind my limited familiarity with female voices) is to Christina Aguilera -- she can be delicately intimate in one track, and boldly brassy in another -- and she even has vaguely the same timbre. Not quite as soulful as Joss Stone (except maybe on the pseudo-gospel number "The Longer We're Apart"), but not quite as pop as Mandy Moore (though the bouncy title track comes close), there's really not a bad song on here.

It turns out that Lucie Silvas is something of a songwriter as well, having penned tracks for Will Young, Gareth Gates, and others. Not only am I sorry I ever got rid of this disc, and lucky beyond reason to have been able to get it back, but I'm putting her second album on my wish list right now.