Double Header: The Dawes Part Two

Peace in the Valley – The Dawes – North Hills

For the second part of the double header I thought about reviewing one of the Dawes more country songs (Western Skyline), but actually chose one that represents another side of the ban where they kick in a little grit in the guitar tone and get down to some bluesy music. Don't get the wrong impression; it’s not B.B. or Freddie king, but it does drop into some heavier toned, darker, stuff, especially when paired against it poppy review companion When My Time Comes.

Clearly, I’m a big fan of bands that can put some attitude and emotion into their music, and while that’s certainly something I love about the song I also think its placement in the album makes it even more appealing and powerful to me. Instead of going out with lyrics and the spoken word, where the album (and half of the song) is really centered, it ends the album with a spacious, thoughtful sound. Guitar tones are sustained and bent, reaching high and hitting low hard. It really is like the image of "peace in the valley", a quiet spacious expanse that is below normal ground, the lyrics and speaking and voices of that proliferate the album before it. It's interesting that the Dawes choose to fill this peaceful place with such an emotive, hard, guitar tone and I think it really speaks to the final lines "If I don't find peace in the valley, I've got no place else to look.". Much like the rest of the album it takes on a reflective tone (When My Time Comes is mostly written in past tense, and is a self narrative), the last line seems to say that if he can't find peace in the valley, where he's the only person there, where else will he find it. Sadly when the vocals drop away we don’t find peace, instead we hear the long tormented wails of a guitar, rising and falling, until the end. It signals a sad realization that sometimes the trouble you find in the world is trouble you bring to it. Enjoy.

Song Here

Friday Special: So Excited - B.B King

So Excited - B.B King - Completely Well

This song really does make me So Excited. I feel bad whenever I write short reviews like these, but I really cant even begin to describe everything that I love about this song, probably because I love everything about it. From its key's to drums to B.B. King himself this is a truly amazing song.

Song: Here

Monday Night Special: Return Trip

Return Trip - Electric Wizard - Come My Fanatics

Well it's been a while since I reviewed an Electric Wizard track (let alone listen to one) and Return Trip really brought me back to what I first loved about them. They really should have been featured in the March Madness piece and it's a shame I didn't write anything about them because they are without a doubt one of the most maddening bands I've ever heard. While they're not exactly doing much new with the content of the genre (satanist imagery and slow dark jams about drug use have been around for a while) they do something special with where they take the sound. This weekend I was listening to some old Black Sabbath song's and their Electric Funeral stuck out to me as the forerunner to Electric Wizards earlier stuff. The distortion, the slowness and repetitiveness of the entire melody, except of course for the jazzy fun tempo change at 2:17. Thats the true "innovation" (if you could call it that, devolution might be more appropriate) of Electric Wizard. They do away with most concepts of lyrics, melody, and tempo change, and opt instead to sink the listener into a black pit of fuzz and distortion with an occasional rising guitar solo eventually falling back into the muck. I wouldn't say Return Trip is a song for people with long attention spans, it's more for people with no attention spans that just like to sink back and fall in. Enjoy.

Friday Special: Out of the Blue

Out of the Blue - George Harrison - All Things Must End (Apple Jam Disc)


An 11 minute "Jam" recording with Eric Clapton, Out of the Blue doesn't bother with slow introductions it just jumps right in with thumping steady driving drums, powerful saxophone and of course the bluesy duo of Eric Clapton and George Harrison. I find it particularly fun when a long song like this one manages to not just be the individual players showing off, but also building off of each other to create different melodic lines, it makes the song much easier to listen to the whole way through.