5. 2010s Music That Doesn't Suck Part 2

Part 2 of 2. Justin and Noah discuss more of the music that made the 2010s not suck, focusing on more obscure acts this time.







Find us on ITunes

The Kills Ash & Ice: An Album a Day

An Album a Day is posted 5 days a week, Monday- Friday

    Going back to the collection of albums that Noah really likes, we’re today looking at the latest album by The Kills, Ash & Ice. For those of you who are unfamiliar with The Kills, they are a blues inspired indie rock duo featuring Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince. Rather than The White Stripes / Black Keys formula of drums and guitar they instead have only guitar and vocals, using a drum machine to fill out the rhythm section. The interplay of Mosshart’s vocals and Hince’s guitar playing is what makes this band a lot more than the sum of their parts.

    While The White Stripes always had a punk influence they never really played up the bad boy punk image all that much. Their music was devoid of profanity and generally were closer to nasty blues rock than anything. While The Kills don’t sound particularly punk rock, being way too slow and methodical, they do play up the menacing atmosphere and delinquent attitude of punk music. The image and attitude of punk without the sound is probably why they’re usually categorized as indie rockers. This slightly darker tone and image also bleeds over into the Jack White and Alison Mosshart supergroup The Dead Weather.

    Getting back to Ash & Ice, it may be their easiest album to listen too, especially if you come from a pop or mainstream rock background. Blood Pressures and No Wow are also pretty accessible, but this is the most streamlined and cleanly produced album they have ever done. The whole album is fantastic from start to finish, but the highlights are Doing It To Death, Hum For Your Buzz and Siberian Nights.

    Doing It To Death was the first single off of this album and it’s not hard to see why, this song has the crossover appeal to have worked on alternative stations, rock stations and maybe even pop stations. The way that Hince’s guitar builds and fades in time with the drum machine creates the perfect bed for Mosshart’s vocal delivery. Also props to the music video director for having the choreography evoke the feeling of the song perfectly.

    Hum For Your Buzz is one of my favorite moments on this album, containing nothing but Mosshart singing over a very basic blues guitar accompaniment. Obviously this is one of the softer moments on the record and features some of the best of Mosshart and Hince playing off of each other. I also want to hear more direct guitar solos after the tasteful blues solo Hince pulls off here.

    Lastly we have Siberian Nights, the track which absolutely drips in the sexual tension and energy that Mosshart is so good at conveying. While she always has an element of this in her delivery, this song makes it fairly explicit with lyrics full of double entendre and sexual references. The lyrics seem to go back and forth between seduction and hesitation, with Mosshart asking in the chorus why the target of her affection has no love for her. By the end of the song she turns from seduction to practically begging her target to help her through the Siberian Nights.

    While this album isn’t anything particularly special in regards to the rest of The Kills catalogue, it’s one of their only albums I can get all the way through. Most of their albums feature a dud or two, or have weird noise rock inspired breaks, but this one is clean all the way through. As a huge Dead Weather fan it’s cool to see how Alison manages to take over and own every track she’s on, regardless of what sort of band she’s working with.

Album on Google Play

Album on ITunes

Album on Amazon

Royal Blood: An Album A Day

An Album A Day is published 5 days a week Monday-Friday

There are very few bands that have something truly unique or unusual about them as most bands simply imitate their heroes. Royal Blood are a band that actually feels truly new and unique, paying homage to their heroes without ever just copying them. While many would point to the somewhat gimmicky duo structure or lack of guitarist as an explanation why. While their ability to stand out is helped by the oddity of being a bass and drums only duo, their uniqueness extends far beyond any aesthetic qualities.

Some of the bands that lead singer/bassist Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher agree have influenced their sound include Queens of The Stone Age, Muse and The Dead Weather. Kerr cited the song No One Knows by Queens of The Stone Age as being the track that made him realize he could be a rock singer, as Josh Homme’s crooning seemed attainable. Kerr said that the powerhouse singers commonly found in rock music had made him believe he wasn't good enough to be a lead singer, but hearing Homme croon over music that would feel at home in a metal track showed him a way to be a rock singer he had never considered.

Kerr has also stated in interviews that Chris Wolstenholme of Muse was part of the inspiration for his complex bass setup. Wolstenholme utilizes a combination of bass and guitar equipment to allow him fill out the mix better underneath Matt Bellamy's vocals and lead guitar playing. Kerr takes a similar approach to filling out the mix in Royal Blood, using a mix of guitar and bass amplifiers to produce both bass frequencies and the mid range associated with electric guitar. This setup along with some octave pedals are what allow Kerr to simultaneously sound like he's playing bass and guitar with only one instrument.

The influence taken from The Dead Weather is mostly seen in the way that Kerr and Thatcher throw different genres into each song. Some of the elements specifically taken from The Dead Weather include funk and rap inspired drum beats and the rapid fire singing that Jack White and Alison Mosshart both make use of. This heavy syncopation and rhythmic singing style can be found all over Royal Blood's debut album and it adds a lot of tension and attitude to their music.

Despite utilizing elements from all of these bands and others, what Royal Blood delivers is something really interesting and unique. Kerr’s gear choice is something that many wannabe musicians, myself included, have spent hours researching, but in the end what makes his sound so great is what he plays. While most of the bass playing is shockingly simple, every song oozes cool and style. Kerr's convey a disinterested swagger that plays perfectly over the thick and aggressive bass riffs.

Songs like Ten Tonne Skeleton and Better Strangers balance powerful riffing and an almost sarcastic attitude on the vocals perfectly. The other thing that is huge throughout this album is just how good of a drummer Ben Thatcher is; unlike The White Stripes, the drummer is the superior musician in this duo. Whether keeping time or playing complex fills and solos he always fits the song and is never distracting, even when playing extremely technical parts.

It's easy to see why guys like Dave Grohl, Jimmy Page and The Arctic Monkeys have been so high on these guys. Like all great duos, Kerr and Thatcher have learned how to use their limitations and, to quote Kerr “take the weird way round.” Do yourself a favor and go check this album out, and keep an ear out for these guys’ second album How Did We Get So Dark? that drops tomorrow (6/16).


Album on Google Play
Album on ITunes
Album on Amazon

The Black Belles: An Album A Day

An album a day is posted 5 days a week, Monday-Friday

            In the music industry there is a tried and true formula for making money, get a group of attractive young, mildly talented girls and give them something to sing. The Black Belles are the Third Man Records equivalent of the girl group. Featuring Third Man Records multi instrumentalist Olivia Jean as front woman of the quartet, The Black Belles truly encapture the Third Man Records blues rock sound.

The four piece consists of Ruby Rogers on bass guitar, Shelby Lynne on drums, Christina Norwood on synth and Olivia Jean with vocals, guitar and organ duties. One of the first things that struck me with their self titled album is that only one song, “Honky Tonk Horror” eclipses the 3 minute mark and the entire album being around 27 minutes long.

The first few tracks start off strong, with the opener “Leave You With With a Letter” being one of the strongest on the album. This track features a driving blues rock guitar and distorted bass riff as the centerpiece while the drums pound out in a 3/4 tempo. The psychotic waltz fits with Jean’s vocals in both tone and delivery as she goes up and down in pitch to match the guitar. This is one of the tracks where the Belles shine the brightest, displaying their own twist on the Third Man sound.

Unfortunately for most of the albums the Belles sound like a tribute band, owing equal parts of their sound to Jack White and Kills frontwoman Alison Mosshart. They come by it honestly with Jean herself having been a feature in Jack White’s backing band, but it would be nice for them to cultivate more of their own style. Rather than having their own sound,  The Belles often sound like a poor man’s copy of White and Mosshart’s supergroup, The Dead Weather.
    While sounding similar to The Dead Weather is not a bad thing by itself, the Belles do little to bring anything new to the Goth Blues Rock sound that they share. The similarities go so far that it sounds like Christina Norwood is playing the exact synthesizer that Dean Fertita uses with The Dead Weather.

In fairness, The Belles do have a few songs where they do add their own twist on the sound, such as Breathing Down My Neck. This track jumps back and forth between loud fuzz guitar filled verses and a calmer folk styled chorus. While it features some of the same elements as The Dead Weather, Jean adds enough of her own style to where she doesn’t just sound like a Mosshart imitator. Jean’s guitar solo towards the end of the track is rather simple blues rock fare, but it serves the song and leads to the outro.

None of the other tracks are particularly bad, but they also are not anything special. Songs like “The Tease”, “Honky Tonk Horror” and “Pushing Daisies” lack an original style, while “Hey Velda” and “Howling At The Moon” are just boring. Olivia Jean is clearly a talented singer, but for much of the album she lacks a distinct sound and the album suffers for it.

Ultimately, most of this album is solid with a few real gems that stick out. Fans of garage rock and alternative artists like Jack White, The Kills or Queens Of The Stone Age will likely enjoy this album, as well as those putting together a Third Man Records playlist. But for me, to be honest when I hear The Black Belles I would rather just go listen to The Dead Weather.

Get The Album On Google Play
Get The Album On ITunes

Get The Album On Amazon (Vinyl and CD only)