| CD REVIEW TSM/ SLW Promotion special, Jan. 2011, Part 3: Smoking Bird – Streetcorner Prophets – Sweet James – T Clemente Band |
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And here's the 3rd TSM/SLW Promotion special for this month...well, there IS a 4th possible 4th one underway, I guess, because the editor-in-chief let me knew he'd received new material. This time, only Four (4) bands asking your attention, with a nice surprise coming from Spain's Smoking Bird, Canada's Sweet James, and San Francisco's T Clemente Band. The forth one gets both positive and negative criticism...but you'd better read one for the details. ---------------------------------------------------- Spain, 1997. From the ashes of the bands Garlic Breath and Jodocus Band arises the smoking bird then still called Junk. Playing all over their native country, this outfit had already made a name for themselves on native soil by the end of their formation year. 1998 saw the birth of the Junk's first release Fuckin' A Bottle, a demo which is indeed well received, and the foursome of singer Pablo “Chazz” Lalanda, guitarist David Tamarga, bassist Ray Kurtz, and drummer Iván Tamarga working out an “unplugged” set of songs. The year 2000 saw the release of the band's debut mini-album Smoking Bird (which included acoustic covers of songs by Free, Neil Young, Queen, and The Jayhawks along with 2 electric originals) and at that occasion they also changed their name to the current one. That same year the band also released Losing Touch, a demo-EP with all-electric material. And rave reviews evidently result I more and more people finding their way to SB shows. It would take the band two years before they entered the studio to record their debut full-length Sunset In A New Town, but by then the material had been worked out and selected so well that it took producer Fernando Pardo only a week to do his job. SIANT was the recording which saw the band come to full fruition, pinpointing the band's Melodic (Hard) Rock style (which on the one hand harkens back to early harder Rock alà Chuck Berry, then moves over to more intricate Hard Blues tracks indicative of the late '70s & early '80s, and eventually also finds a steady foot planted in some '80s Arena Rock) with passionate high-pitch vocals, interesting guitars which alternate between acoustic and electric, a really creative and present bassist, and the rock-steady percussive foundation of it all by the drummer! Some of the songs on this album became live staples for the band (still present in their live set today) and the song “Lost For The Most” was selected for inclusion in a 2004 compilation released through Canadian webzine StonerRock Chick. And with the band's debut full-length on the streets getting rave reviews from national press, of course their live activities increased as well, securing some occasional higher profile gigs, the highlight of which was an inclusion in the bill of the 3rd edition of the Serie Z Festival (which that year also saw perform such internationally important bands as Slade, Supersuckers, Raging Slab, and Nashville Pussy. In 2005 the band returned to the studio, this time taking production of the Naughty Little Girls full-length (which was released in 2006) on their own shoulders. Spanish publications such as Popular 1 and Route 66 gave the album rave reviews, and did several group write-ups afterward. But this time the raving was not contained to Spain alone, as both Italian, British (Kerrang!, no less!), and American magazines picked up on the folly! After a new round of the usual Spanish venues, the band stepped outside of it's native country's boundaries, hitting Italy to finish the 2007 NLG Tour. If it seems like some while since the band's last album, know that they put some time and effort in putting together their own Smoking Bird Playmobil Studio...and self-producing their great new 9-track album (8 songs plus one short intermission in which they have “the bird” squeak awhile). Material off that album (and nothing more) can be found at (www.) myspace.com/smokingbird in the form of just one track, but you'll find the same plus one more track (in the same late '70s Blues-inspired Hard Rock style) at the band's page on ReverbNation. So you're better off immediately seeking out that page. That second song also stands as proof of the fact that the guitarist incorporated some real neat keyboard and piano lines in some of the songs. I'm not sure whether the album has a page on Amazon or any of the other trusted online sales websites, but if it does you'll find two songs (the album opening “Joking Bird” and “Lighter Than Leaf”) are acoustic, and one (“What We Really Need Is”) is semi-acoustic (with a focus on tasteful piano play) but in fact constitutes the album's (truly beautiful) ballad. You'll also witness the incredibly beautiful lead vocals and vocal harmonies. I mean, Lalanda could've been native of California in stead of Spain, and his vocal rendition is beyond anything I've ever been graced to witness from the Iberian peninsula! The question remains: why don't these guys have a deal with a decent record label yet? At any rate the band's current march up the corporate ladder is temporarily hampered by the fact that for reason unknown to me the bassist left the band, and the remaining trio will surely have a hard time finding a replacement with an equal inventiveness on his instrument. I dó hope they find a suitable new guy though, because Smoking Bird's music nééds to be better known to the world at large! What a delightful band this is!!! 98/100 ----------------------------------------------------- According to the info sheet I got with the (data) cd-R copy of their first recording session, Streetcorner Prophets is a Philadelphia based band formed in 2009 by four young Jazz musicians (lead vocalist Amanda Noce, guitarist Mike Onufrak, bassist Dahni Scally, and drummer Andy Rinn Martinek) whom, inspired by the apocalyptic vision and unusual but powerful musical concept of their bassist, each contribute to their band's memorable sonic experience. Well, as far as the music is concerned, I certainly agree with the latter part of that first sentence, namely that the guys put down a memorable musical soundscape based in Hard Rock, but with additional flavourings coming mainly from the Jazz genre (let's not forget Blues and some Funk as well though) which make the band stand out from any modern bands in the Hard Rock genre. In spite of their different individual musical backgrounds the musicians come over as a tight outfit, and it's no surprise to me to hear that the band has played the greater Philadelphia area, putting in gigs at such notable venues as The Khyber, The North Star, The Tritone, and others. And now usually you'll find me being a strong advocate of female-fronted Rock or Metal...however...(and that's so often an introduction to a less enjoyable part of the task I set myself out as a music journalist, because I'm occasionally called on to be frank and bold...to be critically honest, in fact) in my humble opinion Amanda spoils the goods with her all too frequent off-key vocals! I mean...I usually try to find the best elements in a band's music in order to promote it (proof of which you'll find amply within these specials of often unsigned bands), and of course I'm too far removed geographically to know anything about the inner relationships within this young band, but the only advice I can give the musicians is to ask their singer to step down, so they can seek out someone to fill her spot appropriately. I mean, musically, they definitely have the goods to make it to even bigger venues, play support to higher profile bands already in the music business...but not with Amanda fronting 'em! The band placed 1-minute samples of all 6 songs on their EP except of opening track “Requiem” (which features Amanda's only acceptable vocals on the album in the form of backing chants, while two of the lads do a spoken word thing) at (www.) myspace.com/streetcornerprophets. Should be proof enough of both my positive evaluation of the musicians (whom I'd like to give maximum rating), and my less favourable assessment of their frontwoman (whom regrettably pulls down that rating considerably). 70/100 ----------------------------------------------------- This is the Alternative rock solo project of Canadian singer/ songwriter and multi-disciplined musician Randy James (besides playing the drums, he also handles acoustic guitars and keyboards/ piano), whom was noticed while still in high school, and found himself opening for Canadian legend David Wilcox at the tender age of 16! Several bands later and now n his twenties, Randy found himself ready to promote some of his own work with his brainchild Sweet James, a project for which he enjoyed the help of guitarist Steve Clark (of Vibrolux and The Premiums) and bassist Ben Hubard (of Benjamin). Guesting on the harmonica (in the track “The Wanderer”) is Jerome Goodboo (of the Phantoms). When listening to the songs (well, all are posted, except for the remix of the opening track) at James' own website (www.) sweetjames.ca, you'll find several musical influences being blended on top of a firm basis of Blues Rock, namely Progressive Rock and Pop Rock from the Hit Parade era. James' Prince-styled vocal antics in the opening track may come over somewhat weird at first, but they stand out perfectly against the rest of the material, and they sound quite acceptable when the EP is played for a second listening session. In hindsight, I certainly understand the comparisons to Led Zeppelin and Black Crowes made by one music journalist (from Britain's webzine Uber Rock) concerning this track, as I now also feel the 'take on Rolling Stones' he mentioned for the ensuing track “Goin' On Something Good”. “The Wanderer” is definitely the most smouldering track on the EP, as the semi-acoustic (acoustic guitar throughout, some piano play) “Movin' On” could be seen as the EP's semi-ballad! Well, if there wasn't the bonus track, that is! Because with its a capella opening and minimalistic instrumental additions (acoustic guitar, conga percussion, some sparce violin-sounding keys), the shortened version of the opening track deserves that “title” even more! In essence, this is a very nice EP, with some great tunes that should find many music lovers (of old specifically, but there's no reason why younger people would not find this to their taste as well) turn their heads when first getting in touch with it! As of January 2011, Sweet James has twó EP's to its name. More on that soon enough, I hope...you lot can already explore it right now, since its music is posted in its entirety at the aforementioned website. 95/100 ----------------------------------------------------- Born on the Philippine Islands, Teddy Clemente immigrated to the USA at the age of 20 in 1981. Thanks to the US military base and community in his then hometown of Cavity City, he had however come in contact with western music at an early age, making Deep Purple's Machine Head the first album he ever bought, because he was hugely impressed by Ritchie Blackmore's skills on the guitar! Later discoveries including Santana, Van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteen, John Petrucci, Joe Satriani and others, Teddy started writing his own music back in the '80s, and even joined a band that never went anywhere. Concentrating on the throws of life, he then stopped playing music altogether, even selling all his equipment. It's a colleague and friend of his whom, wanting to d something special for the Y2K New Year's Resolution, eventually inspired Teddy to resurrect his passion for music, get his ass over to a Guitar Center to buy new equipment, and start practicing again. Slowly but certainly, Teddy's skills came back...and possibly improved as well, and he founded the T Clemente Band, with which he plays live a first time in Feb. 2007 at the occasion of the band's first CD release, issued in Oct. 2006. In the beginning the band only came out occasionally (5 shows in 2007 and an equal amount in 2008), but nevertheless Teddy gathered a decent technical crew around himself and his live band (consisting of rhythm & lead guitarist David Basuil, singer & keyboardist Butch Basuil, bassist Silas Parian, and drummer Mark Galbadores), and in the latter two years the band has doubled it live appearances, becoming “regulars” at San Francisco's Rock It Room. In 2008 Teddy had the opportunity to work with a couple of music industry veterans from the San Francisco area for the recording of this second album of his. To begin with, there was Robert Berry (known from the bands 3, Hush, Alliance and solo outings), whom not only got involved as recording & mixing engineer, but also contributed to the album by playing all keyboards and part of the rhythm and bass guitars, and added part of the backing vocals. On lead vocals (but also part of the rhythm and bass guitar, acoustic guitars, and mandolin) the choice fell on Thom Duell (a voice that stands its own among the greater voices in the Melodic Rock scene) , and on the drums we find none other than David Lauser (has worked extensively with Sammy Hagar and his bands, and is also in Alliance with Berry). Guesting on the album are backing vocalist Mark Crissman, and Chris Jackson (of SF's Kfox radio station) played lead guitars on the track “Life”. Hum, put quite simply, with all the people involved in the project, it's hard to conceive that the album did not end up on a respected label! With the album out for quite a while now, there's already plenty of descriptions been tried out on the album...not all of which I can readily agree with...but I agree with the statement that Duell has a voice reminiscent of Ian Parry (but then I also agree with another reviewer whom put his voice as a blend of Chris Thompson, John Farnha, and Chris Farlowe). Musically, I'd have to say the music falls into two categories, namely those songs which are more reminiscent of Deep Purple and Rainbow (make those Classic Rock), and then those songs which are more reminiscent of the early to mid '80s Arena Rock (thinking of such great bands as Nightranger and Triumph – honestly, because reading some reviews already done on the album reminded me of that). In between the more straight-forward Hard Rock tunes, you'll nevertheless also find some more introvert songs, such as “Children And Their Future” and “Prisoners Of War” (the latter still with a nice bombastic second part), and the very, very nice album closing instrumental “In My Mind”. With all music and lyrics written by Teddy, this is as good a moment to tell you that the album Illusions is all about life, caring for our children, our environment, our world...and how we really feel about political & corporate powers' lies and how we are just numbers to them. All songs on the album, and many more, are posted as downloadables in the music section of Teddy's own website (www.) tclemente.com, and I'm sure you can listen to 'em before purchasing 'em there as well. I don't even think there's a MySpace page on this dude (I checked, certainly?), but why bother when áll the goodies on this fine guitarist are already available. Of course, the more sites his music can be heard on, the more promotion the band would get. Great stuff, and I hope to be hearing more work by Clemente's hand pretty soon. I mean, it's been more than two years since this album was released, now wasn't it!? 95/100 Tony. |
