Showing posts with label Richard Lloyd. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Richard Lloyd. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

At The Moment - "Monte Carlo" CD EP Review



At The Moment - 'Monte Carlo' CD EP Review
Veteran musician Daniel Stampfel has been playing in bands on NYC circuit for quite a number of years but has finally released his first solo disc. Stampfel previously fronted The Inevitable Breakups, a power-pop quartet, whose debut album, No Wonder You’re So Beautiful, was produced by Richard Lloyd. One reviewer called Stampfel the “the reincarnation of Buddy Holly” and New York Press described the band as follows: “With a sound and infectious vocal harmonies reminiscent of The Raspberries, Weezer, The Cars, and Cheap Trick, they manage to combine those artists’ musical qualities to full effect with some kick-ass results.



With the (inevitable) breakup of The Inevitable Breakups in 2007, Stampfel kept a low profile for the next few years. “I stopped playing for about three years. I got wrapped up in relationships and real life,” says Stampfel. “I would write here and there, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do; what style, what ideas. But I knew I wanted to do something different.” Without a band for the first time in years, Stampfel didn’t have a set group to give him the yay or nay on his songs — and he didn’t have a set idea of how those songs needed to sound. The time was right for the songwriter to break out; to truly explore what he could do.



The three tracks on At the Moment’s debut EP show Stampfel moving in a direction similar to Matthew Sweet – 60’s/Byrdsian-inspired jangle pop. This is the sort of music that would have come out of Mitch Easter’s studios twenty years ago but, fast-forwarding to the present, Stampfel worked on his new disc with Longwave/Hurricane Bells mainman Steve Schiltz. Armed with a handful of songs he’d demoed at home, Stampfel hit the studio, “not knowing what to expect,” he remembers. Stampfel remembers "Steve suggested we record the songs live to capture the feeling of the original demos. We recruited Benjamin Cartel (Kaiser Cartel, The Benjamin Cartel) to play drums, Steve played bass and I played acoustic guitar. Steve and I shared overdub duties to complete the recording."

The end result was a trio of winsome songs, each with perfectly crafted hooks and ringing guitars.



Links:
At The Moment

Monday, October 20, 2008

Matthew Sweet - Sunshine Lies CD Review (Shout Factory)

Matthew Sweet - Sunshine Lies CD ReviewThis is one of the best (and most consistent) releases from Matthew Sweet that I have heard in years.

Gone is the soft-rock of the last few discs and this guitar-driven disc is solidly rooted in 60's power-pop and psychedelia. Sweet's songwriting shows a clear vision and there isn't a bad track on the disc. The strong songwriting is complemented by crystal-clear production (which was done by Sweet in his home studio) which highlight the disc's hooks. The power-pop tracks have exquisite (Byrds/Beach Boys style) vocal harmonies and the psychedelic tracks have both "teeth" and snarl. While Sweet mines from a variety of genres, the disc sounds like a consistent body of work and has a warm feel. Sweet describes this disc as "very direct, but seen through the eyes of nature, or rather modeled on its beauty, chaos and freedom, something like a stab at sonic art nouveau."

There are a number of stand-out tracks on this disc which include "Daisychain", which features Hollies-style vocal harmonies, and "Sunshine Lies", which features glorious backing vocals from x-Bangle Susanna Hoffs. Two of the disc's psychedelic rockers, "Flying" and "Room to Rock" are streaming on Sweet's MySpace page.

Matthew Sweet is currently out on tour behind this new release and he is playing Webster Hall next Tuesday, October 28th.

Links:
Matthew Sweet's Website

Monday, August 18, 2008

Holy Trinity River (HTR) - "Let It Die" EP Review

HTR - Let It Die CD EP ReviewThis release caught me out of left-field as I haven't heard a good cow-punk band in years.

HTR are Dallas-to-Brooklyn transplants and their sounds fits in there with the 'first-wave' cowpunk bands like Green on Red and The Divine Horsemen. The band arrived in Brooklyn in 2005 and recorded their first EP, Cause/Solution, with Ellis Traver at Brooklyn's Loiter Studios. The band just released a new four-song EP, Let It Die, which was produced and engineered by Richard Lloyd.

Let It Die is a great slice of whiskey-soaked cowpunk and Richard Lloyd's production is near-perfect. The band doesn't loose any of the overall grittiness of their sound but Lloyd's production brings out some great guitar licks which is complemented by steady-on bass work and I really love the snare drums. All four tracks from the new EP are streaming on the band's MySpace page (link below) and the standout track is "The Shaker".

Here are HTR's upcoming shows:
Aug 20 2008 8:00PM, Maxwells, Hoboken, New Jersey
Sep 12 2008 8:00PM, The Castle in Hell Brooklyn, New York

Links:
HTR's MySpace Profile