Working Man's Café: A Bit of Shameless Fangirlism

The Kinks have been steadily climbing up my charts for about a year now, and to avoid putting all the Queen pictures and posters on my walls to shame, I now respectfully consider these two bands, as well as Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, as equal members of my top three. Along with the Kinks, Ray Davies has rapidly reached my top 5 songwriters, and let's just say that he is now officially my favourite British songwriter, which is why I got this album in the first place. I was quite eager to put on that album when I got it, and one look at that adorable smirk on the cover had me conquered. Yes, I know, it is a little pathetic, but being a girl music fan, I can't help, every now and then, to let my better judgement be clouded by style, and well, what can I say, the man has plenty of it. Maybe it is genius shining through, who knows, but in any case, now that I have been playing this record almost non-stop for 5 days, I am an even bigger fan of his and of his work.


Oh, I do not want to use the dreaded word nostalgic (everybody is using it when they are referring to Ray) to describes the songs on this album, but there is certainly an element of that present. From the first chords of Vietnam Cowboy, he starts by attacking globalization, reminding us that no, not all is well. Ray has been lifting veils for us with his music for years, and still, he is showing us how apparent grace can hide something abject, but also how murkiness can sometimes conceal a thing of beauty. This is what we have come to expect from his writing. And he is still the guardian of old values, reminding us that even though change can be good once in a while, greater things, like family, hard work, love, and, first and foremost, individualism should prime. It is pop music, perhaps, yeah, I suppose, but taken to his usual higher, exceptional level.


The lyrics, the themes are great, and I think that we as listener can relate to them, as we have all worried about the state of the world, and tried to hold to a past that seems to keep slipping through our fingers. The melodies are just as efficient as they used to be back in his Kinky days, and Ray certainly has not lost his way of creating those decidedly catchy choruses and bridges. Even songs where I felt the verse melodic lines, like in Peace In Our Time, or intros, like in Working Man's Café, were perhaps a tad weaker, still worked.


The strongest songs on the album are of course the amazing Vietnam Cowboy, which starts the album with a blast, the groovy No One Listen and The Voodoo Walk, as well as the melancholic Imaginary Man (one of those songs that almost give us the impression that he's allowing a glimpse into his mind). One More Time is just as delightful, a melodic yearning song about the "old country" but that could ultimately be applied to any relationship. The album ends with the wonderful The Real World, and I think it is safe to say that he is giving here his most amazing vocal performance.


Being completely awed by his singer-songwriter skills, my partiality is probably tinting my comment about his vocals a little too much, but I think he has never actually sounded better in studio than on this album. I'm particularly very much impressed by how appealing (well, how freaking sexy, let's admit it) he sounds when he gets into his, slightly raspy, lower register, which I've always thought he did not used nearly enough. He is, of course, sometimes a little nasal when he reaches a little higher, and I might have wondered once or twice whether or not he is hitting exactly the note where he wanted, but overall, I just think it just gives his interpretations a little more character and interest. Imaginary Man, No One Listen, The Real World and The Voodoo Walk are probably the ones that showcase that lower register the best.


I think that in many ways, the album is almost everything we would expect from a Kinks album, minus the Kinks, especially minus Dave Davies's harder rock and rolling, but it makes it very clear to me, first, how much The Kinks needed Ray, and secondly, how little Ray needs The Kinks now. He is a perfectly well-rounded artist of genius who can to confidently stand on his own. I read that The Kinks are apparently the only British Invasion band that still has all its original members, and there has been so many reunions and studio work rumours, it is all a little ridiculous. Yet, as much as it would be fabulous to have a chance to see the first line-up live, after having fallen head over heels in love with Working Man's Café, I suspect a chance to see a solo performance from Ray Davies would be just as satisfying, if not more. And I can't wait to pick up Other People's Lives, and to receive The Storyteller, which I've already ordered out of excitement.

A Dedicated Follower Of The Kinks

Have I mentionned my Kinks and Ray Davies infatuation and how long I've been waiting for this order? I'll be getting into reviewing all of it, hopefully, at some point. But for now, I just had to share my elation.

Tindersticks In Montreal

A thing of beauty, to say the least.

I wish I had discovered Tindersticks long ago. I should have. I always get a little cold sweat when I hear we came close to losing them before The Hungry Saw. In any case, last night was the first time I saw them. First, and hopefully not the last, because a talented bunch of artists like those should be seen over and over again. I don't see how they could ever get tiring.

I got to the La Tulipe pretty early, managing to secure a nice vantage spot and to not miss the weirdest first part ever (not Lhasa, the guys before her: I was open to the concept, but not entirely convinced by it). Sweet Lhasa De Sela doing a set of quiet songs, just her and the piano, was nice, and it perfectly set the melancholic tone of the evening, and the public loved her. But at last the band arrived, by 10pm, one member after the other to the intro to The Hungry Saw.

Not even sure we got a hello from Stuart Staples when he finally turned up for the next song, and I was surprised how much of a reluctant front man he appears to be. I wonder if he might not be a little bit shy. They played a good handful of songs from their latest release, including, the title track, Mother Dear, The Flicker Of A Little Girl, All The Love, Come Feel The Sun, Organist Entertains, and Boobar Come Back To Me (perhaps my personal favourite on the album) as well as a couple of older "hits", like Dying Slowly. The excellent performances went on one after the other, like a well oiled engine. The musicians appear to have a complete reverence for the that music they make, and are careful to play it to perfection, like it's really the only thing that matters to them. The three currently remaining members of Tindersticks (Staples, Neil Fraser on guitar and David Boulter or organ and piano) are joined for this tour by Thomas Belhom on drums, and Dan McKinna on bass. There are also multi-instrumentalists Terry Edwards and Mike Kearsey happily moving from saxophone to trumpet to cello (but don't quote me on it, I'm getting this information on the Live In Glasgow copy I got there).

Tindersticks is efficient, hardly loses time, and each songs was finished with a short and polite "thank you" from Staples. It's enough. He just had to be there. They just had to there. This is not just any band, this is one of the greatest band out there right now, whether you've heard about them or not. They have beautiful melodies, beautiful songs, but they perfectly illustrate how a lush, delicate orchestration with strings, saxophones (from alto to baritone, might I add) and trumpet can turns a simple, sorrowful tune into something purely divine. And to top it off, Tindersticks also happen to have one to be the most breathtaking and soulful vocalist of his generation singing with them.

Most importantly, there seems to be a real chemistry between all of them, as they appear to enjoy playing together, exchanging a lot of smiles throughout the concerts. Speaking of smiles, I think we got one from Staples at around the tenth song or so, and he finally seemed to grow at ease enough to utter a complete sentence by the end of their 1h15 or so set. Perhaps it's a matter of preserving his voice, I don't know, and the way I see it, when you're born with the gift of a golden voice like that, and when you put on a great show, you can do just whatever the heck you please.

Despite the relatively short set (although such quality music was a bargain for 23$), they came back for a long encore, five songs, including the beautiful My Sister, which I think the crowd was expecting (although I seriously don't understand all the woo-hooing on My Sister considering that it has to be the saddest song in history, cheering on that song would be like woo-hooing Eric Clapton in the middle of Tears In Heaven, although I do not know is My Sister is based on personal history). But we didn't have enough of 5 more songs, and clapped and clapped until they came back on stage with Lhasa and performed two songs, including That Leaving Feeling.

They were off the hook my midnight, a lovely evening it was, and I got their Live In Glasgow, which appears to be essentially the same set to keep me company until next time.

My First Prog Show!

Well, it was great. Despite a couple of technical problems (including the guitar that didn't sound quite right, according to my neighbour there). I only own three albums by the Strawbs, the usual Hero & Heroine, Dragonfly, as well as Grave New World, yet I knew about half the songs being performed last night, during the approximately 2 hours show.

Got there early enough, about half an hour before the doors opened, to quickly discover I was at a show where male outnumbered female by 10 or so, which unsettled me at first, but I quickly discovered once inside that the prog audience is a friendly one. Maybe it's from years of being bashed on the head about having shitty, pretentious tastes, and an urge to be nice to people who share those shitty, pretentious tastes, who knows. The Petit Campus, is a charming, intimate venue with a capacity of about 600 which means that even on the mezzanine, I was within a few metres of the band, with a great view of Dave Cousins, which sounds, even in his mid 60s, almost perfectly the same as he did on their 1970s albums, Dave Lambert on guitar (lovely vocals too!), of Chas Cronk on bass and of Rod Coombes on drums, who delivered a great drum solo in the second half, might I add.

Sadly, I was not smart enough to chose a place that provided a good view of guest player Oliver Wakeman (yes, the son of Rick!) on keys, and only managed the odd glimpses at his right hand, sometimes an elbow, here and there. We only got one real solo from him anyway, and that was was during the encore. It was yummy, he does have some big shoes to fill for me, since I'm not familiar with his own work yet, but I nonetheless found him very entertaining. He's obviously gifted, but I found him a little demure, perhaps. I supposed that The Strawbs' sound is not all that much carried by keys, as opposed to other progressive bands, but I would have liked to see a little more of Wakeman. That mind not even be a thought on hard core Strawbs fans' mind.

I got worried when a neighbour mentioned a tendency, back in the days, to show up super late for gigs, and playing only very little time, as well as something relating to Dave Cousins's bad temper, but the band showed on stage as planned at 8 o'clock, and quickly got the crowd going with Lay Down. Apparently, Hero & Heroine was hugely popular in Montreal, and they played a huge part of it, unless I'm mistaken, Autumn (a kick ass rendition right before the break, dang that song is soooo much better live), the title track, and Round And Round. I think they played Shine On Silver Sun and Just Love, maybe even Out In The Cold, but I'm not 100% on that right now, because I have a terrible memory for these things...

I'm pretty sure I remember The Weary Song and We'll Meet Again Sometime from Dragonfly as well. They also played two tracks from their newest release, The Broken-Hearted Bride (including a very strong and energetic version of The Call To Action, as well as the slightly weak title track). They also played the very pretty Tell Me What You See In Me, in the first part, which I had never heard but loved. They played from Grave New World too, New World and Benedictus... again, I think. They came back from a two-song encore, which the crowd very much appreciated and left it at that, with some kind of promise of coming back.

Overall, it was a great show. The band seemed eager to please, and for a first experience with live prog, it was quite a successful one for me personally. These guys have an amazing (although sadly forgotten in this town) catalogue, and turns out it sounds even better live. No washed up old rock stars there at all. They have great songs, a great sound, they're lively as younsgters on stage and seem happy to be there playing great music, what more could one ask for?

Il Bacio Della Medusa

I desperately need to learn Italian. I did take a few lessons years ago, but it did not stick, and I'm now going through this (horribly expensive) Rock Progressivo Italiano phase, which led me to do this insane Québec-Montréal drive today in order to visit this record store in Québec that keeps some titles of the genre. I have acquired a few things, but, right now, I'm particularly pleased at having found one of the two Il Bacio Della Medusa albums, their first and self-titled one, which was released in 2004.

I've been listening to them for a while on last.fm, but it's official: I just won't shut up about this band until I make everyone realise that this is one of the top bands of the 2000s.

Of course, I'm not optimally informed about RPI yet, but it seems to me like this band has taken the best from the past (Banco, Le Orme, PFM, etc) and has added a healthy dose of testosterone to that sound with the heavy guitar of Simone Brozzetti. They're gritty, yet incredibly melodic. They're loud, but pretty (literally, I should add). They're probably poetic too, but I don't know. But it sounds pretty darn good out of Simone Cecchini's mouth, who does have one or two weaker moments when it comes to his singing, but he never loses an ounce of his intensity, which to me is really what makes a lead vocalist great and appealing. He actually reminds me a lot of Jim Morrison.

The manly (to say the least) and sturdy rhythm section made out of Federico Caprai and Diego Petrini is nearly perfectly counterbalanced by a selection of strings and winds. It has Eva Morelli on flute, in particular, but this album also has the guest participation of Angelo Petri on sax, an instrument I usually can't stand but that works so well here that I can't help but love now. The second album even has some beautiful violin work, among others on the breathtaking Confessionne D'Un Amante.

As for this particular album, well, having previously heard all the tracks, I was not expected to be this impressed with it anyway. It's even more gratifying now that I can listen to all the tracks side by side. I might eventually get into a fuller review of the whole thing, but for now, let me just say that it was absolutely worth the 6 hour drive.

Already Free - The Derek Trucks Band

All right, so after 28 years of being a music fan, this is my first official attempt at album review writing, so please bear with me: it will probably be messy, as a review from me has so far consisted of either "it's good" or "it sucks".

The Derek Trucks Band's Already Free, which came out this past January, just happens to be the lucky (or unlucky, we'll see) guinea pig.

I did not even know about this band until April 15th, 2008, when I attended a Santana concert in Montreal. The band was doing the first part, and even though I found them pretty good (progressive blues, if that's possible), it was not until Derek himself joined Santana during his set for some jamming that my jaw really, really dropped, when I fully realised I was listening to what had to be one of the best, if not the best, guitar player of this generation. By then, I had not seen the Rolling Stones Magazines 100 Greatest Guitarist Of All Time and did know that at 24 then, Derek was the youngest player to make the list. I did not know either that he was Butch Trucks's, from the Allmans, nephew, or that he had started touring at 11, and formed the DTB by mid-adolescence, joined by madly skilled Todd Smallie on bass and Yonrico Scott on percussion. Then, there was the addition of Kofi Burbridge on flute and keyboards, Count M'Butu on congas, and finally Mike Mattison's sweetly husky vocals in 2002.

The guitar generous (well, obviously) twelve tracked Already Free is the band's sixth studio release. Besides the talents of the usual band member, the DTB has enlisted the help of fellow guitar player Doyle Bramhall II (whom you may remember from you last Eric Clapton concert) to co-write and co-produce a couple of songs: the funky Something To Make You Happy, Maybe This Time, and Our Love, for which he took on lead vocal duty (both of which I'm sorry to say are probably the weakest songs on the album) as well as the more upbeat and blues-rock Get What You Deserve.

The happiest collaborations of all is from Trucks' wife herself, the wonderful Susan Tedeschi lending her voice to Back Where I Started. Besides those songs, we find the usual blend of genres this band has used made its trademark: a bit of jazz, some rock, plenty of blues, plenty of jamming, a smaller dash of raga rock here and there (oh, I could use more raga anytime, I Know has some, but not nearly enough). The album strongly starts with a very decent Bob Dylan cover of Down In The Flood (from The Basement Tapes), quickly moving into Something To Make You Happy before dropping the ball a little with the "been there, done that" mid-tempo pop ballad Maybe This Time.

Thankfully, we then get to Sweet Inspiration, an enthusiastic near gospel song that serve as a perfect frame to show off Mike's vocals. Luckily for him, in fact, because the quality of the musicians is sometimes so high that we can't help but wonder why the band thinks they need him. Don't Miss Me is also very strong, with some lovely guitar work and a catchy chorus. We then find a strong rocker in Get What You Deserve, which is followed by the weak Our Love, which mercifully redeems itself with some amazing slide guitar work. The same problems occurs with Down Don't Bother Me, which I could not help but think could have actually been better without a lead vocalist.

This last song is followed with Days Is Almost Gone, on which we find the best, most intense vocal performance my Mattison, one we nonetheless risk forgetting because we immediately get Tedeschi's amazing rendition of Back Where I Started right afterward, before moving on to the pseudo raga intro of I Know. The title and final song is a pretty, short, bluegrass and southern rock mixture that never really builds up into a climax, and end the whole album on a pretty quiet note, literally.

It's a great album, don't let a few weaker songs make you think otherwise. If the near extinction of those Eastern influences we felt on other records could be due to a desire to be a more marketable band, I'd be quite sorry. Yet knowing that this album was recorded in Trucks's new home recording studio reassures me that this was probably more a personal choice of the band than a commercially induced decision. I'll just move toward other bands to get that feel, and leave the DTB to make their own brand of jam music just the way they like it. Such skills forgive anything.

Overall, I'd give this album a nice 8 out of 10, easily awarding songs like Down In The Flood, Sweet Inspiration and Back Where I Started a perfect 10. It's a great addition to any blues and rock fan, and one any guitar fan absolutely needs.

Lentils and The Red Russian Army Choir

We had my parents over for dinner last night.

I had been planning on experimenting with a lentil meal for a couple of days now, as someone from a music forum recommended me a recipe on how to cook them with sausages and vegetables. The goal of the meal was using sausages as a decoy to have my boyfriend eat lentils, but I used a kind that were too spicy for his tastes, so that didn't work at all (guess who froze the leftovers and will be eating them for lunch for a week?).

So I cooked (in this case, overcooked) the lentils with bay leaves, pepper, garlic, half an onion, a carrot and a celery branch, and I must say they tasted delicious just like that. But then, the next step was sauteing them with veggies, sliced sausages and adding a can of tomatoes at the end. Very nice, but next time, using orange lentils might make the whole meal look better.

At least, the sausage plan worked on my dad. We never had lentils at my parents' either when we were kids, as my dad is quite the conservative Norseman when it comes to food (and everything else), but he seemed to have liked the meal.

I even managed to discuss music with my parents, which is a rare occurrence, and had them listen to Le Orme because they thought "rock progressivo italiano" was bound to be something really weird, and really loud.

And in the middle of my boyfriend mocking my tastes for bass and baritone voices in singers, I put on some Tindersticks, and turns out my mother also thinks Staples has lovely vocals. And, much to my surprise, she went on an admiration filled rant about The Red Russian Army Choir's baritones vocalists.

Oh my god, I am not a freak, I just take after my mother (as I have informed my boyfriend, who insists he was already aware I eerily took after her).

Anyway, so I've been looking into this Choir, and turns out that they are not the Red Russian Army Choir, they are in fact "Дважды краснознаменный академический ансамбль песни и пляски Российской армии имени А. В. Александрова, Dvazhdy krasnoznamenny akademichesky ansambl' pesni i plyaski Rossiyskoy armii imeni A. V. Alexandrova" or the "A. V. Alexandrov Russian army twice red-bannered academic song and dance ensemble".

Now, isn't that catchy?

So apparently, the choir formed within the Soviet army in the late 1920s, with the idea of promoting amateur singing and good music, as well an entertaining the troops. Alexandr Alexandrov was the original master and conductor, and his song Boris succeeded him, right until 1987, taking the choir around the world on tours. The current director is Vyacheslav Korobko.

They are good, and I can see why my mother likes them so much, especially considering that this is an ensemble that managed to survive the end of the Soviet Union and still be a success now. They apparently have this huge repertoire of Russian folk, opera, hymns and the likes. Everybody seems to want to work with them too, from David Foster to local sensation Marie-Michèle Desrosiers.

And now I'm stuck with Kalinka in my head.