Alberto Montero has been working with the Spanish band Shake and on his new solo album (with help from Román Gil, Xavi Muñoz and Marcos Junquera) is playing some soulful, picturesque, and in places psychedelic folk rock. This is another in a long line of impressive talents on the Barcelona-based label BCore Disc. The new album Puerto Príncipe is a true gem - his voice is terrific, and the arrangements on these songs are impeccable. Over the course of the album's 13 songs, there are acoustic and electric guitars, piano, strings and even some sort of muted horn sections - all in service of Montero's artistic soundscapes. Each song is a work of art in and of itself, yet the album is of a piece and rewards repeated, extended plays.
Here's the title track, a beautiful, multi-hued song that runs a little over six minutes, and contains touches of British folk rock like Donovan and flawless pop a la Brian Wilson.
Check out the way his falsetto vocal and the guitar lines interweave with a simply played piano backing on "Hoy Ayer":
Here's "El Juego Del Olvido" - another pretty vocal with mostly acoustic backing, but some nice reverb on the electric guitars, too:
Every song on here is subtle, evocative and easy to listen to. The perceived resemblance to classic California folk rock might be fitting... Valencia, Spain's on a beautiful coastline, too. Amazingly, this record is available for "name your price" at Bandcamp - just click through the songs above to get to the site.
The roaring, driving sound of Spanish hard rock power trio Cuzo is back, and great news - they've lost none of their fire.
Here's the opening track, "Caída y Auge del Heavy Metal" - you could call the title a bit of statement of purpose:
And here's "Turbisofon", a heavy boogie/krautrock number with great drum, bass and synths:
The Spanish label BCore Disc has announced that, for a limited time, this and other releases are available for "name your price" on Bandcamp. Do not delay - this stuff will improve your collection immediately.
Canciones de kilometro cero is a five-track power pop release from Spanish musician Jose Casas y la Pistola de Papa. The lyrics are in Spanish, but the sounds are universal for guitar pop fans. And it is available for everyone's favorite price -- free. Hit the Bandcamp link below.
Pennycocks are a brash, pure old-school punk outfit from Barcelona. We became familiar with their sound last year (WYMA post here). Not much has changed, but why should it? They've still got that breakneck pace, snarling vocals and rough, ragged guitar lines - everything you want in a punk band.
Here's "It's My Life":
Here's "I Need A Job" - love the Johnny Thunder-style guitar on this one:
Punk rock in broken English, just for you from BCore Disc, via When You Motor Away... You're welcome.
Cuello is yet another project of José Guerrero, who is already one of my heroes for his work with Betunizer (heavy rock, boogie) and Jupiter Lion (krautrock, psychedelia). Like some of my other favorites, he's got so many musical ideas he can't contain them in one entity - but don't be fooled, none of these bands (nor, I would assume, his other acts) are shortchanged in any way.
Cuello may end up being my favorite of the three, and another reason that BCore Disc is a label with which you ought to become familiar, no matter where in the world you reside. Their album is Mi Brazo Que Te Sobre, and it's full of great hard rock containing traces of indie rock heroes like Guided by Voices and The Pixies. But it's definitely its own thing - rocking, rocking and more rocking, but still plenty melodic.
Here's "Trazo Fino" - like taking a trip back to GbV, Propeller-era:
A special shout-out to the drummer Oscar Mezquita (who should never put his shirt back on) and bass player Nick Perry - just mainly because of the relentless, breakneck pace they keep up on songs like "Trazo Fino". Also, in addition to Guerrero's vocals and guitar, check out guitarist Ubaldo Fambuena. All these guys are apparently veterans of the Valencia music scene.
Here's "Visado de Reina", which veers further along into stoner rock territory:
It's hard - really, impossible - to pick a favorite. They sing in Spanish, but think about it, if a band rocks this hard, do you really mind learning enough Spanish to sing along?
Spanish trio Violeta Vil is playing dense, majestic rock music. On their new album Lapidas y Cocoteros, the guitars and keyboards are layered, the vocal harmonies are soaring and they display a familiarity with a number of musical styles. The ladies in the band are originally from Venezuela, Chile and the Canary Islands - which explains the strong affinity this music has to Tropicalia and specifically to South American artists like Los Aterciopelados' Andrea Echeverri.
In the words of the band, the songs on this album "explore the dark underside of paradise, where old time superstition clash and mingle with the 21st century." That gives a very good underpinning to the marriage of 21st century shoegaze guitars/synths with traditional Spanish rhythms, and the somewhat inspired use of folk art in close proximity with 20th century surrealist (absurdist?) images. Here's the video for the title track (translation, "Headstones and Coconuts"):
Here's a video for "La Pericona" - the guitars are a little more unhinged in this one, something I enjoy:
Their musical journey has taken them from South America to Spain, and with the help of Austin-based label Young Cubs, they would like to begin to conquer the US. They're off to a good start.
Raul Malo is back where he started - with his mates in The Mavericks. Or, as he sings in the opening cut of In Time, "back in your arms again". The Mavericks seventh album, their first in 10 years, is a return to form (and it was always great form), and it explores all the familiar themes: memory, lost love, moonlight, jealousy and regret - but honestly, Malo could be singing the menu at Shoney's and it would be well worth listening to. The album pulls together rock, country, Tejano, Cuban and other musical influences - they're as impossible to pin down as ever.
Here's "Come Unto Me" from a performance at the 2012 Americana Music Festival in Nashville - tell me these guys don't rock:
For Malo, drummer Paul Deakin and multi-instrumentalist Robert Reynolds, keyboardist Jerry Dale McFadden and guitarist Eddie Perez, the joy of playing together again is obvious. They start off in pretty high gear, with the guitars and drums revved up, Malo just swings and swings through that lead track, and the pace stays pretty sprightly throughout. There are a couple of torch songs - of course there are, there may not be any more qualified singers alive today - but we don't get the first one until track five, "In Another's Arms".
For me, the highlight is the upbeat stuff: "Fall Apart" and "As Long As There's Loving Tonight" feature some great guitar work and show that Malo, swinging like Elvis, can lead these guys through rock songs as easily as he can front a Dean Martin-style love song or something more akin to son or bolero. "Born To Be Blue" is a bouncing bundle of surf guitar, Malo's voice and a knockout rhythm section:
With Lyle Lovett and Dwight Yoakam having released albums in 2012, this becomes the third very welcome "Nashville outsider" release in less than a year. The success of those three in the 90's always seemed like proof to me that talent this good can overcome an unwillingness to stick to "the formula" in country music, and gave me hope that more artists like them might make it onto the radio.
It hasn't been a secret that the Mavericks were back together - this welcome news was revealed early in 2012, and they even played downtown at the Nashville July 4 fireworks show. But to have a full album this good makes for a most welcome comeback... In Time is out this week - you can read more, listen or buy at these sites:
Echoes of the Wallflowers, Foo Fighters and '70s hard rock cascade throughout Bullitt's latest record, So Many Ways. Bullitt is a foursome from Sant Feliu with Xavier Calvet on vocals - while the music is fairly straightforward hard rock, his vocals are reminiscent of the emo of artists like Promise Ring - it's an interesting combination. As an example of the melange, check out "Back to the End":
They have incorporated violins and keyboards, but on the final 3-4 songs of the record, they return to what I am told is their previous form and rock very hard. Here's "Headblower":
This is an exhilarating listen - if you like melodic hard rock, it's worth your time to check out. Unlike some of the great Spanish stuff I've shared from BCore, these cats sing everything in English - so if that's been a barrier to you (it certainly isn't to me) - don't let it stop you this time.
You never know where your next recommendation is going to come from, which is why it pays to be open to nearly everything... for instance, who'd have predicted that I would become aware of outrageous garage punk from Mexican/Australian party animals, out now on a French record label (Casbah Records)? And yet, here we are:
There's not a lot to say about this record - good luck understanding, much less analyzing, the lyrics... It's as lo-fi and breakneck as any garage punk you are likely to hear this year, and features distorted guitars, undecipherable Spanish/English lyrics, and also distorted guitars.
In other words, it's fantastic. My favorite tracks are the nearly 4:00 "Los Perros" - a guitar distortion workout of epic proportions, and the 1:55 "Hijo Del Mal" - which reminds me of Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers played through the amp that fell off the back of Jackie Brenston's Rocket 88.
Prats is composed of former members of Spanish rock band Madee and The New Raemon, and the group is named after lead singer and keyboard player Marc Prats... This is well-made rock music, thoughtful and nicely-paced with some very lively guitar work in some of the songs and open space and delicate instrumentation that highlight the vocals in others.
Here's the video for "PlaDelirant":
And here is a live acoustic version of "Bestia somrient":
It's a nice mix of acoustic music (both guitars and piano), and electric guitars - and the vocals are evocative and expressive, even if they ain't in English (as I've said before - not an obstacle for me, if the sound is right). Prats reminds me of Peter Murphy as a vocalist, but the music sounds more like Coldplay - in a few ways, one of which is that it's so smooth you may not notice the quality of the guitar work on first listen. Give it a few spins...
