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Post by laurentbigot on Sept 2, 2009 10:11:59 GMT -5
Definitely as good as the first, so a great disc.
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Post by strangevictrola on Nov 15, 2009 6:38:29 GMT -5
Mike & the Ravens - No Place for Pretty By Bill Kopp Middle-aged guys who haven’t made a career in the music biz aren’t supposed to make terrific, authentic, original rock and roll. It’s just not done. That’s the conventional wisdom, anyway. Mike & the Ravens defy that conventional wisdom. Reuniting after forty-five-plus years of doing other things, the five guys got together to release their debut, 2007’s Noisy Boys! The Saxony Sessions. Now in 2009 they follow that release up with No Place for Pretty, on which they up the ante. Beefy bass guitar and buzzing guitar strings are the order of the day on No Place for Pretty. The focus is squarely on straight-ahead rock and roll. It’s shocking, frankly, to hear such power coming out of guys who had straight careers (some of ‘em are lawyers, as it turns out). And the back-story — too convoluted and complicated to recount here — is the stuff films are made of. By all rights, these recordings should have never happened; the odds were truly stacked against the band. That it in fact did happen is a testament to the single-mindedness of all involved. But here it is nonetheless, and the world’s a slightly better place for it. Listeners won’t find a boatload of nuance on the aptly-titled No Time for Pretty; the sounds turned out owe more to the Sonics, Wailers and Monks. This isn’t trad-rock; it’s blistering sixties punk, played convincingly by guys in their sixties themselves. Played, no kidding, like their very lives depend on it. There are no production frills on the all-originals No Place for Pretty. The mix captures the live-in-the-studio vibe. Lyrics are often shouted; the chanting on “Dum Doovi” seems designed to bring the spirit of hard rock back from the grave, and its “Munsters Theme” derived arrangement adds a subtle twinge of dry-eyed nostalgia. “Shame, Shame, Shame, Shame, Shame” mines a Bo Beat and even throws in some harmonies, all nailed down to a martial beat. The last minute of “Broken Boy” is as frenzied as any rock and roll ever committed to wax. The neck-scraping on “I’ve Taken All I Can” suggests what Rick Nielsen might have sounded like onstage pre-Cheap Trick. While lead vocalist Mike Brassard’s story is compelling almost beyond belief, musically the heroes of the project are the rhythm section: crackerjack drumming and punchy bass lines operate like a perfectly tuned engine. Crazed guitar lines — played, like everything on No Place for Pretty, on vintage instruments — fly atop this rock-solid foundation. The stunning “One of These Days” sounds more like the Monks than any other band you could think of. There are (unconscious) hints of Guadalcanal Diary, the Godfathers and the Blasters, but the connection is probably due more to the fact that Dave Alvin and Murray Attaway (where’d he go?) drank from the same wellspring of real rock as did these guys. A look inside the sleeve will leave the listener with a strong sense of cognitive dissonance: these guys look like they’re on their way to a Rotary Club meeting at the local church basement. But the sounds on No Place for Pretty put the lie to that misconception. No Place for Pretty won’t change the world, and it likely won’t light the charts on fire, but it does embody the true spirit of rock and roll: players pouring their hearts out, doing what they love. At any age. Thank goodness for Mike & the Ravens. Loud fast rules indeed, and this record provides ample evidence to back up that slogan. blog.billkopp.com/?p=96 |
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Post by yardbyrd on Feb 17, 2010 4:52:05 GMT -5
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Post by bradx on Feb 19, 2010 2:08:52 GMT -5
grandpa beardsworth is looking sprightly. seriously, where was this recorded, a roller rink or old folks home? theyre older than dirt! old old OLD O L D ! ! ! !
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Post by yardbyrd on Feb 19, 2010 13:58:59 GMT -5
"No Place For Pretty" reviewed in Blitz
By Michael McDowell
Presumably in part for lack of a more feasible alternative from its perspective, contemporary society has a tendency to gauge its characterizations, assumptions and expectations of people with peripheral data such as geography and chronology. But common sense should dictate that an individual’s given age and/or what city or nation that their mothers happened to be in on the day that said individual was born is (at best) a poor standard by which to measure their worth and capability.
So does a more accurate standard of measurement exist? Most assuredly. Consider that everyone has been blessed with gifts and talents from God. Those talents are theirs to use to the best of their potential. And certainly an artist’s ability to create with those attributes is a far more accurate barometer of their identity than the year in which they were born or being lumped in lockstep with a given national identity, as if the millions of individuals who comprise a given nation are indistinguishable from one another.
Since the release of their Noisy Boys! The Saxony Sessions CD in 2008, Plattsburgh, New York’s Mike And The Ravens (Mike Brassard - lead vocals, rhythm guitar; Bo Blodgett - lead guitar; Steve Blodgett - keyboards, rhythm guitar; Bran Lyford - bass; Peter Young - drums) have simultaneously been the subjects of numerous accolades, tempered with no small amount of scrutiny. Many of these articles afforded the band conditional praise; conditional in the sense that the respective authors marveled at the band’s ability to still deliver at such a high standard, given the fact that Mike And The Ravens first came together as a band in 1960.
Such shortsightedness flies in the face of the fact that such venerable artists as Jack Scott, the Highwaymen, Patti Page, Charlie Gracie, George Jones and Dave Brubeck all continue to record and tour at optimum level to the present day, yet all have been actively pursuing their careers longer than Mike And The Ravens have. To be certain, the expertise that each has accumulated in their more than half a century of professional endeavor has served to enrich their vision and subsequent execution immeasurably. And like the Highwaymen, the members of Mike And The Ravens during their protracted sabbatical (from late 1962 until 2005) all successfully pursued high level careers in law, business and finance.
In this case, the band that was initially known as Mike And The Throbs until effecting a change of name in March 1962 to the present Mike And The Ravens have managed to sustain their ongoing status as musical visionaries in part as a result of their determination to confound expectations. They have done so by taking the foundations that served them well in such early triumphs as I’ve Taken All I Can and Biggest Fool Around for radio announcer Peter Guibord’s Empire label and building upon them in a manner that not only reiterates their ongoing commitment to the basic precepts of rock and roll, but their resolve to push the limits beyond convention in ways that have only proven successful for a very limited number of like minded greats, including the Monks, the Jellybean Bandits and labelmates, the Pretty Things.
For a brief season, No Place For Pretty was in danger of not being followed through to completion. Lead vocalist Mike Brassard was sidelined for a time after having been diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt Syndrome, a neurological disorder. Because Brassard’s condition was aggravated by the high decibel level that remains a prerequisite for his bandmates to execute their respective responsibilities, out of necessity he overdubbed his vocals on top of their pre-recorded instrumental beds.
Nonetheless, it is obvious by the tremendous resolve with which the band perseveres that they are collectively blessed. As such, it is within reason to continue to prayerfully hope that Brassard’s recovery will be complete, despite a medical prognosis that suggests otherwise.
Thankfully, the results have not suffered in the slightest from Brassard’s situation. Just as Noisy Boys! The Saxony Sessions confounded expectations a year ago, No Place For Pretty builds upon that momentum by continuing to sidestep convention and demonstrate that theirs is a mission statement whose key tenets remain uncompromised.
To that effect, Dum Doovi takes the countermelody as focal point approach of their earlier Dum Duvey (an experiment that succeeded admirably for Bobby Rio in his classic Don Diddley single for Lenox Records) and in turn almost propels it out of the spotlight by bringing into the forefront their formidable rhythm section in full assault mode. In doing so, they demonstrate a key component of their modus operandi. That is, to continue to build upon a given concept without losing its original essence.
The band also fulfills the latter half of that equation in part by opting to record in the analog format. Happily, observers who adjudicate such matters from the perspective of an audiophile should find little (if anything) in the band’s decision in that respect to circumvent their expectations.
Other triumphs from Mike And The Ravens’ legacy are revisited with similar results, including Brassard’s One Of These Days, Bo Blodgett’s Riptide and Steve Blodgett’s aforementioned I’ve Taken All I Can, with the latter track emerging the most reinvigorated in the process. When combined with the ruggedly determined Broken Boy, the autobiographical Steelhead and the Monks-like rave up, Sister Raeven, the results are nothing less than diverse, well executed original rock and roll that reiterates the belief that the wide-eyed optimism of a novice is no match for veterans who have not lost sight of their dream.
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Post by bradx on Feb 19, 2010 20:14:44 GMT -5
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Post by Wormman on Feb 20, 2010 1:18:18 GMT -5
Where the fuck are you getting this Americanized translation? "...a burbling old pyahnitsa or drunkie, howling away at the filthy songs of his fathers and going blerp blerp in between as it might be a filthy old orchestra in his stinking rotten guts. One veshch I could never stand was that. I could never stand to see a moodge all filthy and rolling and burping and drunk, whatever his age might be, but more especially when he was real starry like this one was" (Burgess, 13). |
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Post by bradx on Feb 20, 2010 4:53:55 GMT -5
from the guy who wrote the article in the post above it, the guy who played alex in the movie...
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Post by Wormman on Feb 20, 2010 12:27:56 GMT -5
You mean Malcolm McDowell?
Incidentally, the other night I went to the theater and before things got started I went to the bathroom. As I walked in, I saw a man hunched over the sink washing his hands and when I looked at his reflection in the mirror I saw that it was Malcolm McDowell so I totally froze and then he totally saw me staring at him. He stopped washing his hands turned around and looked at me, but because it was Malcolm McDowell, when he looked at me, he was pretty much glaring at me. Then he shook the water off his hands and because it was a small bathroom a lot of the water sort of got splashed on me. True story.
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Post by bradx on Feb 21, 2010 3:52:11 GMT -5
regardless of who first said it and where, it seems a fitting sentiment. garage punk is a young man's music, at this point they are just embarrassing themselves trying to recapture something long gone. not saying it cant be done properly, the alarm clocks are a great example, but mike and the ravens at this late date sound a little too bar band-ish for my tastes.
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Post by strangevictrola on Feb 23, 2010 4:00:03 GMT -5
I noticed that Laurent Bigot wrote this in the latest "Ugly Things," and since Brad brought up the comparison, it's interesting to get another point of view.
Laurent's review:
Nearly 50 years after their band breaks up, five old rockers get back together and start making music again. It shouldn't be good, but it's GREAT. Mike & the Ravens aren't out to peddle any warmed over maltshop memories for the ageing baby boomer set. They're back to make tough, loud, edgy rock 'n' roll. With "No Place For Pretty" they've proved that rock 'n' roll isn't about age. It's about heart and soul and guts. - Mike Stax
There are three reasons for a band to get back together: for the money (sad, unless you're the Sex Pistols), to re-live one's youth (even sadder, unless you manage to score some groupies... but the wife ain't gonna be too happy about that, is she?) or to kick some butts (in which case, additional greed and nostalgia sins may be forgiven). Though they should have, I don't think the Ravens made much money out of "Noisy Boys," their previous and excellent CD. I doubt they scored chicks, as they didn't play live this time around. Nevertheless, they are obviously still ready, willing and able to kick some asses as their new disc proves again.
So no Remember-How-Things-Were-So-Much-Better-When-We-Were-Young-Back-In-The-'60s-Though-I'm-So-Sad-I-Didn't-Get-To-Go-To-Woodstock spirit in sight. They hit hard and despite clear rocking, rolling and soulful roots, they don't look back more than needed. They only do two of their old numbers, including the fab rocker "I've Taken All I Can," but play them in a new and just as effecient way. With this new way, they always end up sounding closer to an up-to-date garage punk (on occasion Monks-like) band than any Danny & the seniors live at Dick Clark's New Millenium Caravan Fest direct from the Caesar's Palace all-you-can-eat buffet. So yes, there's no room for pretty here, and they are indeed not afraid of experimentation: "Dum Doovi" is pretty mad, and dig the crazy violin bow on "Unhand Me!"
Picking one favorite song here would be unfair to the others; this really works as a great album. And those guitar riffs keep blowing my mind. Once again, the Ravens prove they understand the true spirit of rock 'n' roll, a sound that must not be tamed. And they obviously had fun, which is also required. Now let's see if the Alarm Clocks can show them some competition with a second album as neat as the first. - Laurent Bigot
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