The Revivalists - Stand Up
About three years ago I published a review about the revivalists and their last album, "City of Sound." Three years later, and here we are with a new offering. In the last review, my thesis was that this band was versatile--as a band from New Orleans should be they incorporated funk, jazz, blues, as well as vibes and feelings from arena's of music like alt rock--and that it was on the strength of their musicianship, vocals, and intensity that ultimately held the album in cohesion rather than having it fall to be a collection of pieces. In this review, and more importantly in these live session videos, what became most apparent to me--more even than the musicianship--is that last quality: the intensity.
This band feels hungry. Which is not to say that they haven't had success recently. They've been touring extensively in the three years since their last album: all across the west, in their home town, through the south and even up the north east. What I can't get over is the feeling that they know how close they are to the big time. Face it--these guys are to maroon five as real bread is to wonderbread. Although in the same genre of "bread", the real thing is so much better because of it's rich and nutty flavor (and understanding and appreciation for the history of bread) and yet the other one beats it out in sales every single time. I think they know this. I think they know exactly how close they are to breaking through, and how much better they are than a lot of bands getting airtime. That's what makes this album, and these live sessions, so electric. This is exactly when you want to see a band. It's not only the sound, the songwriting, the lyrics, etc... It's the feeling of hunger that pervades all of it. It's like a wave in the ocean. The wave is big, you can hear it, you can see it mounting bigger and bigger, but what really gets you is that tugging of the undercurrent at your waste, pulling you into it. That's the aura of this band. Maybe that's why the album is called mountains and men. There's his band--these men--and their mountain. We get to listen to them try to climb it.
This band is electric. Enjoy this selection of their live performances. Enjoy the full throated roar of the alto sax. Enjoy the wail of that sweet solemn steel guitar. Most of all, enjoy that undercurrent, that pulling feeling you get when you stand in front of a wave, that pulling feeling you get when you a band whose trying to reach for something so bad.
Stand Up
Keep Going
Monster
For the first time in maybe a year, which is a long time for me, I thought about my top favorite albums. It made me realize I've become somewhat disconnected from my music library, and that I've really just been relying on finding whole new albums on youtube or other places (physical or on the internet) and just casually milling through those. In an effort to reclaim my library I decided I would randomly pick an artist every now and again and pick one song that stuck out to me from that album. Hopefully this is the first of many.
Slick track from MF Doom. The main sample of the beat is from a funky 70's jazz band called the Blackbyrds. The verse and song credits technically go to KMD (1991!), which is the trio that DOOM was a part of before he had the moniker MF Doom. They sound great, and I'm sure DOOM fans will love to know that there's even more catalog to dive through. Enjoy.