Ann Arbor, Michigan’s Blue Snaggletooth will make ya throw the horns – like a Tiefling or Kobold, man. These self-proclaimed D&D lovers pour down fire and rain in the eight battles with the forces of decay and doldrum-ery on Dimension Thule. Whilst such fantasy rooted fare can often be a goofy tickle-feather, Blue Snaggletooth rock with the ball-vibrating chooglin’ of Drunk Horse married to the amp-striding muscle of Saxon and the meat-n-taters boogie of vintage Molly Hatchet, consistently rolling “20” on this end-to-end pleasure. In fact, even with titles like “Death of the Time Lords” and “Swords of Atlantis” this doesn’t come off as fairies and fireballs. These guys really have achieved their goal of painting “aural pictures not unlike Frank Frazetta and Larry Elmore.” Close your eyes and visions of rippling muscles, crimson skies, clanging steel and heaving maiden flesh rise. It’s a beautiful thing, and there’s more than a touch of space rock, where “Sector 7” and “Star Flight” set controls for the same cosmic patch that once fueled early LSD/guitar rock synthesizers. Closer “Fireball Island” could be a missing track from Ace of Spades, and there’s no finer orbit than Lemmy. Ultimately, there are so many promising, pleasing aspects to Dimension Thule that it should put this band on the watch list of any serious hard rock enthusiast. (Dennis Cook)
Download the album here, where there’s also an option for Dimension Thule on 12″ blue vinyl in a limited edition of 300 with a hand silk screened black light album cover. Package includes lyric sheet and immediate download of 8-track album in your choice of MP3 320, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.
15 minutes, then 10, and finally 5 minutes with John Oates is what Dirty Impound scored, but one takes what they can get when it comes to an audience with one of the premiere songwriters and pop artists of the past 50 years. As the dark haired half of Hall & Oates, John Oates has had a hand in scores worldwide hits, but in recent years he’s rededicated himself to the music at the roots of his own music – blues, folk, jazz and early rock ‘n’ roll. Last year’s Mississippi Mile (DI review) was a serious charmer, and he’s just released a great live album with the John Oates Band entitled The Bluesville Sessions. At a stage when most well established (and well-heeled) musicians would be enjoying a comfortable retirement, Oates is in the midst of a renaissance that’s showing folks what a gifted, multi-layered artist and dedicated craftsman he is.
This conversation took place aboard Jam Cruise 10 this past January, where Oates was an Artist-At-Large who sat in with Umphrey’s McGee, Ivan Neville’s Sly & The Family Stone Tribute, and many others, including a JC 10 highlight guest turn to close The Omega Moo’s yacht rock reverie with a grand call-and-response on “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)” [watch the set here]. Our time was short because Oates was itching to get back onstage and jam with more people, but he grinned – a vision of vigor, fitness and engagement – and promised he’d talk quickly.
People have this conception of you as this mainstream pop guy, and Mississippi Mile (and your other recent solo work) show off your interest in old jazz, blues and more. Is it a challenge to you as an artist to still be convincing folks about your actual range?
It is a challenge because people tend to pigeonhole you, but that’s just the nature of the world. I played guitar for 12 or 13 years before I ever met Daryl, but people think I was born with a moustache singing “Maneater” [laughs]. It’s untrue. I played a lot of folk music, blues music, ragtime, things like that, finger-picking. That’s really where I came from, and I added the urban/R&B thing much later when I got older and moved to Philadelphia. So, if you combine Daryl’s doo-wop/urban/R&B background and my folksy, blues background, that’s where we started.
If people haven’t listened to early albums like Abandoned Luncheonette they don’t know that, but it’s more apparent in your early work.
Well, the pop thing in the 1980s overshadowed everything. It was like a giant footprint that you just can’t get away from, but that’s okay.
New Live Album
Jam Cruise is such a unique experience. What’s been your experience of it?
I love it. I love the musicianship and the fans, who’ve been very welcoming and very respectful. The whole thing has just been a great experience.
All of your sit-ins have been cool. I loved seeing you strap on a guitar and stomp the wah-wah pedal during the Sly & The Family Stone tribute.
Well, I’m an old wah-wah guy!
Is it fun to just be a freelance player in these bands?
Absolutely! There’s no responsibility for me. I can just sit in and have fun. Whether it’s my solo thing or with Daryl, I’m a bandleader and I’m a principal. And when you’re a principal and a bandleader, there’s a lot of other things you have to do besides make music. But here, all I have to do is play, and it’s totally freeing and cool.
The Ink Spots
Another aspect of Mississippi Mile worth noting is what a range you show as a lead singer. Frankly, Hall & Oates doesn’t always showcase this fact.
In the early days we sang more equitably, but once we started having hits and Daryl’s voice became the signature sound of our hits that’s what happened – simple as that. I don’t think people realize what I do onstage [with Hall & Oates]. Daryl is such an outgoing personality – very aggressive and in-your-face – and he’s an amazing singer – one of the greatest singers of all-time in my book. So, as far as I’m concerned, I’ve always been a singer, but I found my niche with the blues and early R&B and rock. That’s where I really come from, and so I like this niche I’ve found.
Who are some singers that turn you on? I hear real echoes of the 1940s in your voice.
Believe or not, I do go back to the 40s – The Ink Spots, The Mills Brothers – and early rural blues – Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee – and Dave Van Ronk, Doc Watson, Curtis Mayfield, Little Richard, Gary U.S. Bonds…Put all those names together in a big mixer [laughs].
J-Stache
Beyond your music, you’ve made it into mainstream pop culture, including bizarre moments like J-Stache.
That was an aberration really. The J-Stache thing was an idea by our publishing company to promote our catalog and to do something unique that gets attention on the internet, something viral that people would pay attention to. And I jumped on board because I thought it was funny.
Did you know Dave Attel [the voice of Oates’ disembodied moustache in cartoon] before this project?
No! They hired him to do it. There was a lot of [mimes toking off a joint].
So, you’ve accomplished a lot already in your career. What’s really got you excited these days?
Music. I’m a very blessed and fortunate musician because I can pretty much do whatever I want. I have this incredible foundation of Hall & Oates that I’ve built my house on, and the house is pretty solid. I can go back to it and enjoy and appreciate it and do it, but at the same time, it allows me to go out in the world and do what I want. I think that’s probably the ultimate goal of a creative person, and I’m really fortunate to be able to do it.
It’s natural to miss Bon Scott. Rock just ain’t been quite the same since the AC/DC frontman’s sudden demise in 1980. However, Spain’s ’77 is doing their part to ease our collective Bon ache. Many bands have attemped to evoke the AC/DC of the Scott years but no one has come closer to capturing the slippery, purely carnal mojo of that period than ’77. And while their 2010 debut, 21st Century Rock (DI review), got the basic feel down cold – particularly Bon’s distinctive phrasing and growl – the follow-up, High Decibels (released March 13 on Listenable) shows they’ve got the makings and pummeling talent to eventually knock out their own Let There Be Rock and Highway To Hell.
Like their debut, the fingerprints of their touchstone inspiration are readily apparent, but where High Decibels betters its predecessor is in the increasing complications and subtle touches that step away from Angus, Malcolm, et al. This time they draw upon the Chuck Berry, old electric blues root stuff that originally sparked AC/DC. There are also echoes of early Alice Cooper Band and even Thin Lizzy (think “The Rocker”), and overall this is less slavish to any template. The songwriting is considerably stronger – anti-heroin number “Melting In A Spoon” and broken-hearted near-ballad “Since You’ve Been Gone” are both cool evolutions, and closer “Promised Land” has the revelatory range of AC/DC classics like “Ride On” and “Overdose” – yet they still pull off the glorious dumbstick trick of making titles like “Let’s Beat It Up” and “Are You Ready For Rock ‘n’ Roll” not just stupid anthem red meat. The basics mean something to ’77 and their passion for them renews the listener’s own love of the fundamentals.
With High Decibels, ’77 taps into rock’s primal truths and administers an adrenaline shot to the genre’s heart, waking it up with a throaty come-on, irresistible twin guitars skipping madly atop a crunching, never teetering rhythm section as they chase down birds and good times with a wink and a leer.
While the CD is a pricey import in the U.S., the album is available as a download for $7.99 here.
The Seasonal Mix Series is an inquiry in song about where we stand as the weather changes and the calendar pages leaf by.
Even though the official Spring Equinox isn’t until March 20th, DI decided to share this one early in honor of U.S. clocks “springing forward” today. Your keywords for this latest season cycle are “lovers,” “fools,” and “gardens” as we head into this annual tipping point for fresh starts. Just make sure you do a little weeding as you plant this year’s crop. It makes a world of difference…
The first Friday of each month Dirty Impound will celebrate one of our favorite albums with a mix bookended by cuts from the inspirational record and a selection of tunes that tap into the feel of the original work – lyrically, musically, attitudinally, however-ly. The goal is not to present bands that sound like the spotlight artist but to surround them with music pulsing on a kindred wavelength.
The Black Crowes in 1992
“Did you ever like a bad dream? Sometimes life is obscene.”
Red-blooded rock ‘n’ roll was in bad shape in 1992. Sure, there was Nirvana and that whole Pacific Northwest thang, but the sense was that the time of monoliths like Led Zeppelin, Cream, et al. was well behind us. And then The Black Crowes unleashed their sophomore slab, The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion. Suddenly those who’d missed out on rock’s earlier golden age had a band of our own. Following up one of the most commercially successful debuts in history, the Crowes had crafted a mission statement that’s held them in good stead ever since, a marvelous, artfully unruly, lustily urgent set that’s unflinchingly honest and ceaselessly immediate – this music unfolds right in one’s grill, a slithery lap dance from a street gang ready – hell, anxious – to throw elbows and knock some truth and beauty into a world struggling to get worked up about much of anything. Full of knots but packing rolling papers, the Crowes showed that rock’s fundamentals were in fine shape without any need to genuflect to grunge or any other momentary flavor. Southern Harmony gets at rock ‘n’ roll’s foundations, shaking its pillars to wake up the temple, an Easter Sunday kiss that blows one’s haze away.
Jay Gonzalez had some mighty big shoes to step into when he joined the Drive-By Truckers in 2008. His predecessor was Muscle Shoals royalty Spooner Oldham, an ivory tickler with one of the finest CVs in the biz, and while the pairing of Oldham and DBT had been relatively satisfying it wasn’t exactly a perfect fit (to these ears). From the first time Dirty Impound caught Gonzalez with the band at two-night barn-burner at The Fillmore in SF, we were certain that the Truckers had found the right man for the job. Gonzalez quickly found his place amidst the three guitar frontline, texturing the music and even muscling in for a share of the solo space from time to time – no inch is given in the Drive-By Truckers – a player in the line with Ian McLagan and Johnnie Johnson, i.e. keyboardists able to NOT be swallowed whole by rock’s general genuflecting to six-stringers.
However, nothing in his Truckers work prepares one for his freakin’ delightful solo debut, Mess of Happiness (DI review), where Gonzalez reveals his unadulterated pop side in a sound redolent of solid gold 70s AM radio, early solo Paul McCartney and Todd Rundgren, and even early Ben Folds Five. There’s great sweetness and a winning lightness of touch to Gonzalez’s tunes, and each cut is arranged and produced with obvious care – as apparent a labor of love as we’ve ever encountered. It’s an album to confound any preconceptions around this gifted young musician and a pointer to swell sounds to come. And the videos from Mess [shared at end of this article] show off an endearingly playful side – we’re reminded of The Monkees capering – that’s probably not safe to flash around the likes of Mike Cooley. Everything about Gonzalez’s solo work speaks to an artist who loves what he’s doing and does it so well one is quickly smitten with what he’s dishing out.
Here’s what Jay had to say to the Impound’s keyboardist inquiry.
Ann Arbor, Michigan’s Blue Snaggletooth will make ya throw the horns – like a Tiefling or Kobold, man. These self-proclaimed D&D lovers pour down fire and rain in the eight battles with the forces of decay and doldrum-ery on Dimension Thule. Whilst such fantasy rooted fare can often be a goofy tickle-feather, Blue Snaggletooth rock with the ball-vibrating chooglin’ of Drunk Horse married to the amp-striding muscle of Saxon and the meat-n-taters boogie of vintage Molly Hatchet, consistently rolling “20” on this end-to-end pleasure. In fact, even with titles like “Death of the Time Lords” and “Swords of Atlantis” this doesn’t come off as fairies and fireballs. These guys really have achieved their goal of painting “aural pictures not unlike Frank Frazetta and Larry Elmore.” Close your eyes and visions of rippling muscles, crimson skies, clanging steel and heaving maiden flesh rise. It’s a beautiful thing, and there’s more than a touch of space rock, where “Sector 7” and “Star Flight” set controls for the same cosmic patch that once fueled early LSD/guitar rock synthesizers. Closer “Fireball Island” could be a missing track from Ace of Spades, and there’s no finer orbit than Lemmy. Ultimately, there are so many promising, pleasing aspects to Dimension Thule that it should put this band on the watch list of any serious hard rock enthusiast. (Dennis Cook)
