6 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- www.whatzup.com ---------------------------------------------------------- November 13, 2014

Sunny TaylorMap to the Fire

Map to the Fire is Sunny Taylor’s first full-length album of new mu-sic since 2007’s Lock the Door and Leave, and it’s only her fourth full-length album since her debut, 1999’s Lux in Tenebris Lucet, but there’s been a lot of maturing going on over those 15 years. These new songs aren’t the spirited complaints of a kid anymore, but the self-assured poetry of someone who’s started to figure things out. Taylor still calls her music “folk-alt rock,” but Map to the Fire is only “alt” by the standards of the late 90s, when anything that wasn’t Britney Spears was considered “alternative.” These days, Taylor’s songs, especially the tracks that open this new album, fit comfortably into the mainstream of folk rock and contemporary country. She does her share of subtle genre hopping (when the band kicks in on “Fire Fire,” she stomps confidently into blues rock territory), but you’re not going to find anything here that’s reminiscent of The Decem-brists. The real strength of the songs, though, lies in Taylor’s lyrics, all of which speak from a position of maturity. Some of the songs – “Hurricane Annabelle,” “10 Ft Tall” – are about clashes with other personalities, but they’re about stepping clear of the drama rather than participating in it. More of the songs are about pushing through the everyday disap-pointments and regrets, for good or for bad; when she says in “Bury It Low,” “we take it on the chin and off we go,” the tone is set for the entire album. The tone, however, is not despair, but a pragmatic hopefulness that if she does the right things, everything will turn out okay. In “Big Little Fish,” in which she comes to the conclusion that there’s nothing wrong with being in a little pond, she reminds herself to “forget the hook and write your song.” It’s an important lesson learned. (Evan Gillespie)

Steve GunnWay Out Weather

Steve Gunn makes music that is simple sounding on the surface, but underneath there’s a complexity hid-ing under the breezy sway and sum-mertime shine. He’s an incredible guitarist who can handle pretty much anything that comes at him. On his latest, Way Out Weather, it’s all about Southern jangle with an East Coast sophistication. When I heard last year’s excellent Time Off, I wasn’t aware that Steve Gunn played in Kurt Vile’s live band, The Violators. Now that I know that, I can really hear that Vile laid back drawl in Gunn’s mu-sic. While Vile’s music is firmly planted in the rock and folk camps, Gunn sticks with a more earthy, organic sound. He can kick it up a notch as well. “Drifter” is a hard-driving tune with some great Allman Brothers-like guitar. And “Atmosphere” has an almost psychedelic vibe to it, with Gunn singing through a Leslie speaker. Gunn’s voice is a smoother version of Califone’s Tim Rutili’s crackling, whispy voice. And Gunn’s music does bring to mind that Chicago band’s rustic and at time acoustic-driven sound, though Gunn is more subtle and intricate. He’s a clever songwriter in that he hides his prodigious playing under simple, pleasing music. “Way Out Weather” brings to mind Allman Brothers’ Brothers and Sisters and the Dead’s Workingman’s Dead – the latter showing a band in their prime “taking it easy” while still causing jaws to drop at their musical proficiency. “Wildwood” has a nice shuffle rhythm and some great guitar run through a Leslie speaker. “Milly’s Garden” is a mover and a shaker. It’s a breezy track that could soundtrack a million road trips and don a thousand mix tapes. It will please fans of the Dead and Real Estate alike. It even has a little bit of the Stones in there with the great lap steel guitar. “Shadow Bros” is the blues, but of a different shade than what we’re used to. The acoustics crackle and jangle as Gunn sings along to the beautiful waltz-time track. “Fiction” keeps that easy feel flow going with a touch of melancholy just underneath. “Tommy’s Con-go” closes the album out on an almost tribal note with a mantra-like guitar line that keeps repeating. There seems to be a mantra-like feel to Gunn’s music. It repeats itself over and over, lulling you into a meditative state till you almost

forget there’s music playing. It transcends from just a song to some-thing much deeper. Way Out Weather is a record that effortlessly flows from start to finish and moves like a river in the country or a subway in the city. It’s one of those rare records that will appeal to many who don’t normally see eye to eye, an album that brings folks together and lets them nod their heads in unison. Simple and sophis-ticated. (John Hubner)

ExodusBlood In, Blood Out

The new Exodus album, Blood In, Blood Out, features the return of two former members: vocalist Steve ‘Zetro’ Souza and guitarist Kirk Hammett. Souza, the band’s vocalist from 1986-93 and again from 2002-2004, has apparently returned for good, while Hammett, a founding member of the band before going on to join that other band (Metallica), contributes a guest solo on the title track. By and large, longtime fans have embraced Souza’s return, even though it meant the unceremonious dumping of previous frontman Rob Dukes. It’s a little unsettling, given that Dukes presided over what were perhaps Exodus’ most monstrously heavy albums (e.g., 2005’s Shovel Headed Kill Machine). That, plus a war of words be-tween Souza and Exodus in the press in which the band’s main man Gary Holt memorably referred to Souza as a “pile of crap,” make the transition somewhat vexing. Unsettling as it may be on paper, the changing of the guards has nonetheless yielded a terrific result with Blood In, Blood Out. The band does sound like it’s returning to its sonic roots. Recent albums, especially the two Atrocity Exhibition albums, fierce as they were, found the band stretching into epic/conceptual territory, with songs often clocking in at 8-10 minutes in length. The songs here are shorter, ranging between three and seven minutes, and the gang shout vocals will no doubt remind the old school fans of Bonded by

-----------------------------------------Spins ---------------------------------------

Jimi HendrixAxis: Bold As Love (1967)

The second album from Hen-drix was released just six months after his debut (in The United King-dom) and solidified him as a guitar legend at the age of 25. Like his first record, Hendrix mixed blues and psychedelic rock, but also threw in the occasional ballad that showcased his brilliant guitar. With most songs clocking in at just under three minutes, it was also radio-friendly; yet most of the tracks never charted. The album opens with a trippy monologue about UFOs, then segues into some feedback followed by the jazzy/blues “Up From the Skies.” “Spanish Castle Magic” is pure rock n’ roll with bom-bastic percussion and distorted guitars in the same mood as Cream or Led Zeppelin. A pop song follows in “Wait Until Tomorrow.” Crisp arrangements, dark lyrics and bassist Noel Redding’s back-ing vocals make this one of the best songs on side one. “Little Wing” is an R&B masterpiece that has a soothing melody which takes you back to the day when Hendrix used to jam with The Isley Brothers. Side one closes with the acid-blues number “If 6 Was 9,” which has been covered by numerous artists, includ-ing Todd Rundgren, Lenny Kravitz and our hometown boys, Left Lane Cruiser. “Castles Made of Sand” is an ethereal track about the harsh realities of life, but the band picks up the late 60s rock n’ roll again in “She’s So Fine,” one of just a handful of songs where Redding delivers the lead vocals. The rest of the album finishes beautifully, with “One Rainy Wish,” the dirty “Little Miss Lover” and “Bold As Love.” This really is the best collection of music Hendrix ever pro-duced, and some of you haven’t even heard it yet (Dennis Dona-hue)

BACKTRACKS

Continued on page 7

Wooden Nickel(Week ending 11/9/14)

TW LW ARTIST/Album 1 – PINK FLOYD Endless River

2 – SUNNY TAYLOR Map to the Fire

3 – FOO FIGHTERS Sonic Highways

4 4 SLIPKNOT 5: The Gray Chapter

5 – BOB DYLAN Basement Tapes Raw

6 – QUEEN Forever

7 2 TAYLOR SWIFT 1989

8 1 JOE BONAMASSA Different Shades of Blue

9 – ZAC BROWN BAND Greatest Hits So Far

10 – DAMIEN RICE My Favourite Faded Fantasy

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Blood. The songs aren’t just shorter; they have a thrillingly fast thrashi-ness to them. The shift from more epic to more thrash-y may have as much to do with Holt’s status as the more or less permanent replace-ment for Jeff Hanneman in Slayer. The riffs overall blaze by with a speed and intensity that’s reminiscent of that band. Opener “Black 13” starts off with an intriguingly mechanistic intro, an understated foreboding of what’s to come before the band kicks into high gear. The fourth track, “Salt the Wound,” features loads of the aforementioned shout vocals, and while Hammett’s gui-tar solo may not sound markedly different from his work with Metal-lica, the interplay between it and Holt’s chunky riffs is exhilarating. By the time the shouted chorus of following track, “Body Harvest,” kicks in, listeners will have a hard time resisting shouting along. The second half of the album is as pummeling as the first, with “Numb” being the likeliest standout, featuring a panoply of foreboding thrash and generalized shreddery. On its own merits, Blood In, Blood Out continues Exodus’ win-ning streak since their reformation in the early aughts. The circum-stances leading up to it may have been less than ideal, but it’s hard to argue with the end result. (Ryan Smith)

Flaming LipsWith a Little Help from My Fwends

As Flaming Lips fans learned four years ago with their cover of Dark Side of the Moon, there’s hardly anything the band won’t do to distin-guish themselves from any band or artist that has ever existed. That in-cludes tampering with classic albums in the Lips’ bombastic, psychedelic ways while enlisting help from musical peers who they affection-ately refer to as “fwends.” For all of the incredible risks the band has taken in its career, the most shocking thing about this With a Little Help from My Fwends tribute album to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts

Club Band is that it’s one of the least interesting works in the Lips’ staggering discography. The album title alone carries a sense of cheeky irony. After all, it suggests, “A Little Help,” but boasts close to 30 guest vocalists and collaborators ranging from J. Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.), Maynard James Keenan & Puscifer, My Morning Jacket, Dr. Dog, Moby and, most conspicuously, Miley Cyrus, who is given the honor of sing-ing on “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “A Day in the Life.” The novelty aspect of having these many fwends share the same disc space ostensibly seems like a pleasantly eclectic cornucopia, but it ultimately ends up sacrificing cohesion and coherence. But hey, it’s hard for me to get too cynical about this album, since the Lips have proven time and again that even their hammi-est ideas have their fair share of successes. Examples include Tegan & Sara’s vocal treatment on “Lovely Rita” and the groove of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)” with the assistance of Foxygen. Through these stand out interpretations, at best, this tribute album highlights the reasons why the melodies in the original Len-non/McCartney compositions helped establish the mythology behind Sgt. Pepper. At worst, these neo-psychedelic and experimental treatments of-fer just one worthwhile experience, but after that, each successive listen becomes more about the novelty than discovering nuances. However, it should be noted that a portion of the proceeds benefit the Bella Foundation which provides lower-income families with veteri-nary services. So at least there’s a more generous ulterior motive in mind other than, “Hey everybody, we’re the Flaming Lips and we can do anything we want whether you like it or not.” Even with all the clutter in the rearrangements, With a Little Help from My Fwends is still fun and accessible, and makes no attempt to mock or satirize the well-meaning intentions of the original album. That particular distinction belongs to Frank Zappa; he made fun of the Beatles and Sgt. Pepper before it was cool. (John Hubner)Send two copies of new CD releases to 2305 E. Esterline Rd., Columbia City, IN 46725. It is also helpful to send bio information, publicity photos and previous releases, if available. Only full-length, professionally produced CDs or EPs are accepted.

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