STACK #121 Nov 2015

EXTRAS

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Music extra

New Orleans Soul 1966-76 If Davis McAlary of Treme was real, he’d be behind this collection of New Orleans soul.The city, being a major slave

Foos hit sonic highs

trading centre in the 19th century, soaked up West Indian and Latin influences, shaping later N.O.L.A cultural traditions. Against the backdrop of the ’50s R&B explosion in the US, New Orleans soul had a slinkier, cheekier feel.Typically of Soul Jazz’s far-reaching and deeply knowledgeable musical archaeology, there are legendary names mixed with brilliant obscurities.You’d expect to hear Aaron Neville and the still brilliant Irma Thomas (hear the Spector-influenced paean to the pain of infidelity on What’s SoWrong AboutYou Loving Me? ), but Francine King’s Two Fools (a commentary on the battle of the sexes) rates as one of the great lost vocal performances ofThe Crescent City.Typically for Soul Jazz, the accompanying booklet is a mine of information. Jonathan Alley

Foo Fighters

F oo Fighters guitarist Pat Smear is an old punk. Formerly of hardcore legendsThe in Blade Runner! ), joined the final incarnation of Nirvana, and the first line-up of Foo Fighters. So you’d think he would’ve seen much of his native land, right? Not so. According to Smear, his years visiting America’s great cities in music have been “hotel, load in, soundcheck, play, load out.” But the new Foo Fighters album Sonic Highways has finally afforded a remedy. Recorded in eight American cities, the band chronicled the Germs, he was a bit-part actor for years (he’s time for Wasting Light , he’s loved working on the new album/series. “Being involved in Sonic Highways has given me all this appreciation of amazing music I never liked before. I had a passionate but limited taste before this; it’s opened my eyes to so much,” he tells STACK from his home inWest LA. Rather than holing up and getting a studio tan, Foo Fighters visited Austin, NewYork, LA, Nashville,Washington DC, New Orleans, Nashville and Chicago for one week each, with Dave Grohl heading out evenings to interview a local music luminary. Grohl would add lyrics last minute, often cutting and pasting phrases from his interview transcriptions.ThusWillie Nelson, famed producer Steve Albini, Dolly Parton, ex-Beastie Boy Mike D, Fugazi/Dischord records’ Ian MacKaye, and even US President Barack Obama appear in Sonic Highways , talking about the heritage of American music, and the nuances of its regional history. “There recording sessions – intercut with luminaries associated with each city – for a new HBO series of the same name. After rejoining Foo Fighters full

are reasons blues made it to Chicago, why Nashville became the country capital,” Grohl told David Letterman. “New Orleans is such a beautiful city with hundreds of years of history.The humidity in the air knocks the pianos and the horns out of tune!” Another highlight of the Foos’ recent week-long sojourn on Letterman saw CheapTrick’s Rick Nielson join them for a live rendition of Stiff Competition. “I loved

Jane Tyrrell Echoes in the Aviary JaneTyrrell’s debut solo record has been years in the offing. A longtime vocalist for Sydney

CheapTrick as a kid, so getting Rick Nielson was amazing,” says Smear.

menagerieThe Herd, her lilting voice has rendered the hooks to some of Australian hip hop’s most iconic moments. But Echoes in the Aviary is very much a singular work. TZU’s Pip Norman shares production duties alongside PVT’s Pyke brothers and Dustin McLean, making this is a rich, gorgeous trip into lateral pop compositions and stunningly nuanced melodies.The title track is gorgeous, withTyrrell floating atop stuttering percussion and wonky synths. Strikingly complex piece of pop-noir. Dan Rule

While there are several guests on the album (New Orleans’ legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band on one track, JoeWalsh on another), Smear

It’s given me an appreciation of amazing music I never liked before!

says it was much vaunted blues guitarist Gary Clarke Jr. that pulled out all the stops, playing on What Did I Do? a paean to the Southern Rock of The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd et al. “Gary Clarke Jr. played a different solo every take he played! None of them sounded the same; he sounded like Mick Ronson (late former Bowie/Dylan side man), one of the most underrated players ever, so we bonded over Mick Ronson”. It seems that Sonic Highways the series, like the album – while truly a sum of its parts – is also about driving deep down into the core of the music’s influence. Episode two, for example, looks at the Go-Go scene in Washington DC. “Go-Go was a uniquelyWashington thing,” says Smear. “I remember driving for hours to find a punk club in LA – we had our own local, hard to find version of it – but Go-Go just didn’t exist outside DC at all.” Smear says the project made him think about the band differently. “Everyone in Foo Fighters comes from different parts of the US; this project couldn’t work if we came from the same city.”

Collarbones Return On their first two records (2011’s Iconography and 2012’s DieYoung ) Adelaide/Sydney duo Collarbones mapped out a sonic path of listenable

forays into R’n’B, through the lens of contemporary, deconstructed electronica. If it harbours playfulness, pop and perfunctory melodicism, this is a more sonically, lyrically and structurally complex clutch of intermeshed moods. SingleTurning is a case in point. A nod to NewYork diva and vogue- inflected house, its scattershot rhythms and yearning vocal hooks float atop a rugged, tectonic bass rumble that shifts the frame of reference. There’s plenty more where that came from; OnlyWater (featuring Oscar Key Sung) is a dense compound of synth shimmer and vocal layers. Collarbones make us work a little harder, but it only makes the rewards all the more sweet. Dan Rule

Foos ON TOUR! Band hits aUS FEBRUARY 2015

24 FEB 26 FEB 28 FEB 2 MAR 4 MAR 7 MAR

Brisbane Suncorp Stadium Sydney Anz Stadium Melbourne Etihad Stadium

Sonic Highways by Foo Fighters is out November 7 on Sony Music.

Hobart Derwent Entertainment Centre

Adelaide Coopers Stadium

Perth Nib Stadium www.frontiertouring.com/foofighters

NOVEMBER 2014 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.com.au

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