Here Comes The Flood - a weblog about music

Jacob Vanags, a Kent (OH) native who spend most of his time in New York, is labeled as a piano rocker and he tries to live up to that tag. On his new EP Pulses Are Pluses he is aided by drummer and trumpet player, Zach Periharos on drums and trumpet and Nick Cantatore on bass. But something went wrong - there is no connection between the three. In the opening track All That You Have Vangags enthusiastically "woo-woo's" when they come to the bridge, but they other guys ars just standing there, hitting the occasional drum or strumming the bass. And Vanags reacts by singing even louder for the remainder of the song.

The other tracks are uneven too. Toss Up gets drowned in a militaristic back beat. Antarctica suffers from a cheap keyboard sound and Antarctica is a song that should have ended up on the floor during the recording of Robbie Williams inspired tribute album. He has trouble with cramming all the words into a song (Stuck and Speak Up Now). The slow closer Jonah's Dream is the only song that comes into his own. There is no rush and he doesn't want to proof anything, except singing the song well and using the piano as a melodic and percussive instrument. Vanags can sing, but he should stop trying so hard and keep it simple. As it stands he is no more than a second tier Billy Joel impersonator.

Pulses Are Pluses is a self-released album. Buy it from his website.

1. All That You Have
2. Toss Up
3. Antarctica
4. Stuck
5. Speak Up Now
6. Jonah's Dream

» myspace.com/jacobvanags

Is the iPod generation missing out? Yes, they are. The BBC put it to the test. An second hand h-ifi beats the iPod into a bloody pulp.

» Watch the video

(Thru Cabasse_uk)

photo: Bryan Adams

Chickenfoot are seasoned musicians who know how the businnes works. Release an album and then - just in time for Christmas - release it again as a DeLuxe Edition. First things first: Michael Anthony (bass), Sammy Hagar (vocals), Joe Satriani (guitar) and Chad Smith (drums) are a super tight rock band that can bring the house down. You can see for yourself on this edition of Chickenfoot. It comes with a documentary DVD featuring live footage of a show at the Montreux Jazz Festival on the 4th of July this year.

HCTF Exclusive
Photo gallery of Sammy Hagar performing with Chickenfoot @ Beacon Theatre in New York City - 2009/08/17. Photo credit: © Paul Bachman

Of course there is a lot of behind the scenes giggling as the band introduces each song of the album. There a few things that are nice to know - Chad Smith and Mark Anthony explaining that Down The Drain was a one-take wonder recording, and Sammy Hagar reminiscing about a surprised Joe Satriani who never woulg have that he would be singing in that particular spot of the song. And it's nice to have the promo videos for the singles Oh Yeah, Soap on a Rope and Sexy Little Thing. All in all one hour of solid family entertainment.

Make no mistake. Chickenfoot is a good band where famous guys overcome their egos to create a few monster riffs and anthemic rock songs and ballads. The CD and DVD of the Deluxe Edition come with one previously unreleased track Bitten By The Wolf, a NOLA blues stomp and a change for Satriani to show off his acoustic guitar playing.

The band will play their last show of 2009 in Las Vegas:

• 12/05 The Joint, Las Vegas, NV

The DeLuxe Edition of Chickenfoot is released on earMusic.

Video: Chickenfoot- Sexy Little Thing
Video: Chickenfoot - Soap On A Rope

» chickenfoot.us
» myspace.com/thechickenfoot

HCTF review of Chickenfoot.

photo: HCTF

Gov't Mule performed at the Melkweg, Amsterdam, The Netherlands - 2009/11/18.

1. Blind Man In The Dark
2. Bad Little Doggie
3. Stepping Lightly
4. Endless Parade
5. Broke Down On The Brazos
6. Slackjaw Jezebel
7. The Letter
8. So Weak, So Strong
9. 30 Days In The Hole

1. Lucky
2. Banks of The Deep End
3. Brighter Days
4. Like Flies
5. Drums>
6. Amsterjam
7. Railroad Boy
8. Monday Mourning Meltdown
9. Mule >
10. 3rd Stone Jam >
11. Mule

1. Forevermore
2. Soulshine

» More photos on Flickr
» mule.net

Phish
2009/11/18
Cobo Arena
Detroit, MI

1. AC/DC Bag
2. Foam
3. Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan
4. Bouncing Around The Room
5. Sample In A Jar
6. Kill Devil Falls
7. It's Ice
8. Horn
9. Mountains in the Mist
10. Poor Heart
11. 46 Days
12. David Bowie

1. Runaway Jim
2. Down With Disease >
3. Free
4. Waste
5. Taste
6. Bug
7. Wading In The Velvet Sea
8. Mike's Song >
9. I Am Hydrogen >
10. Weekapaug Groove
11. Cavern

1. Character Zero

» Buy the official LivePhish 2009/11/01 release (FLAC | FLAC-HD | MP3)
» fromtheroad.phish.com

Audience sources:

» Grab your torrent (Schoeps MK4(DIN))

Quick fix? Mr. Miner's Phish Thoughts have the show in MP3 shortly.

Steve Morse & Warren Haynes on stage in Amsterdam 2009/11/17
photo: toofonky

Gov't Mule guitar player Warren Haynes joined Deep Purple on stage at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam for the Black Night encore. The songs was kicked of by a Roger Glover and Ian Paice bass and drums duet.

For some reason tons of electronic music takes its inspiration form science fiction. Blame Star trek, Star Wars, Dr. Who, Red Dwarf and Douglas Adams. EOTO the electronic progressive duo formed by Michael Travis and Jason Hann that rose from the ashes of the String Cheese Incident have made a concept album of sorts called Fire The Lazers!!! filled with space opera soundscapes based on loops and beats that are trippy and percussive. This is not the kind of music that would be recommended on a first date, unless some stimulants were used.

For an album with such an aggressive title the tracks are mellow - the kind of after party stuff that music geeks claim to love. For less advanced listeners it is wise to sample this collection with care, let's say no more than three tracks at the time. Best experienced live with a light show that may be hazardous for people who are suffer from epileptic seizures.

Fire The Lazers!! is released on SCI Fidelity.

1. Flying Red
2. Time Saw
3. Are We Dead?
4. Contact
5. Comrade Down
6. Make My Day!
7. Spare Parts
8. Autopsy
9. Circuit Bent
10. Valeria Victrix
11. Externity (Reprise)

MP3: EOTO - Flying Red
MP3: EOTO - Are We Dead?

» eotomusic.com
» myspace.com/eotomusic

Watch the Pleasure Mob video for So Hard, their new single that will be released in early January on iTunes (it's free if you sing up for their mailing list). The video is made from over 1000 hand drawn images drawn by Nathan Von Boventor in Germany. The London band are part of the Bangers & Mash’s club night December 5th:

Saturday 5th December 2009 Stage Time: 11pm
Times: 10pm-4am
Dress Code: Express yourself like Madonna
Priority guest list or with flyer £5 before 11pm / £8 / Walk up £10 all night. Tables are available to book.
Address: Relentless Garage, 20-22 Highbury Corner, N5 1RD (Opposite Highbury & Islington Tube)

» myspace.com/pleasuremob

Carly Simon was huge in the Seventies and the Eighties - a singer who could sing nasty lyrics over a lush mainstream pop backing. You're So Vain is one of the all time great put-down songs and Nobody Does It Better is pretty near the top of memorable James Bond songs. She fell off the radar in the Nineties, writing occasional film scores and came back to the spostlight when she wrote the theme songs for the Disney Winnie the Pooh films Piglet's Big Movie in 2003 and Pooh's Heffalump Movie in 2005. Her 2008 album This Kind of Love shipped a respectable amount of copies, although she fell out with her label claiming that the promotion was below par.

For her latest offering Never Been Gone Simon looks back with acoustic versions of her back catalog. Recorded in her Martha's Vineyard home she has found joy in singing the oldies, rearranging and dropping her vocals with an octave. It's a warts-and-all recording at times - giggling at the start of It Happens Everyday and re-enacting the Saturday Night Live "More Cowbell" skit at the end of You're So Vain.

Two new songs have made the cut. No Freedom has loops that sound as if they were recorded in a trashcan and adding tons of echo to her vocals wasn't such a great idea, but the lyrics are classic Simon: "Hey now, you might have a hit On the radio / Success might scoop you up / And never let you go / But there ain’t no freedom / When you got a worryin’ mind". Songbird is a rather murky sounding demo with the piano drowning her out until she reaches the final bars of to end the song with a flourish.

Never Been Gone is released on Iris Records.

1. The Right Thing To Do
2. It Happens Everyday
3. Never Been Gone
4. Boys In The Trees
5. Let the River Run
6. You're So Vain
7. You Belong To Me
8. No Freedom
9. That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be
10. Coming Around Again
11. Anticipation
12. Songbird

MP3: Carly Simon - Let The Riverrun

» carlysimon.com

Minneapolis trio High On Stress participate in a special show celebrating the 25th Anniversary of The Replacements' Let It Be album and the paperback release of "The Replacements: All Over But The Shouting".

The show is a benefit for the Twin Cities Music Community Trust.

A Tribute To The Replacements:
Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Let It Be
2009/11/27
First Avenue, Minneapolis

Line-up:

• Ashleigh Still
• Brianna Lane
• Eliza Blue
• Erik Koskinen & Molly Maher & Her Disbelievers
• featuring
• Gospel Gossip
• High On Stress
• In The Entry
• Jennifer Markey
• Jeremy Messersmith
• John Swardson
• Martin Devaney
• Patches and Gretchen
• Sons of Gloria
• St Dominic's Trio
• Stook!
• Story of The Sea with David Campbell
• The Bottom Forty
• The Hard Left
• The Idle Hands
• The Tisdales

» first-avenue.com
» highonstressband.com

The 2LP vinyl version of the new Gov't Mule album By A Thread will be in stores on November 24th.

The set is pressed on two 180 gram audiophile-grade yellow vinyl discs. Inside Outside Woman Blues #1 is a vinyl-only track(not available on the CD version).

1. Broke Down on the Brazos
2. Steppin’ Lightly
3. Any Open Window

1. Railroad Boy
2. Monday Mourning Meltdown
3. Gordon James

1. Frozen Fear
2. Forevermore
3. Inside Outside Woman Blues #1

1. Scenes From A Troubled Mind
2. World Wake Up

Pre-order By A Thread on vinyl.

» mule.net
» myspace.com/govtmule

HCTF review of By A Thread.

NY trio Dead Leaf Echo employed the servces of John Fryer of 4AD fame to mix their new album Truth. Dark post-rock for lovesick people.

MP3: Dead Leaf Echo - Half-Truth

» deadleafechonyc.com
» myspace.com/deadleafecho

HCTF review of Pale Fire.

The release of the new Neil Young album Dreamin' Man has been pushed back to November 23rd. It is a complete live performance of his album Harvest Moon drawn from various solo acoustic shows in 1992.

1. Dreamin' Man
2. Such A Woman
3. Old King Rap
4. Old King
5. One Of These Days
6. Harvest Moon
7. You and Me
8. From Hank To Hendrix
9. Unknown Legend
10. Natural Beauty
11. War of Man

Listen to a stream of Dreamin' Man.

For the Neil Young audiophiles with deep pockets: his first four solo albums get an audio upgrade:

As part of its ongoing Archives reissue campaign with legendary singer-songwriter Neil Young, Reprise Records will release re-mastered versions of the first four of Young’s classic solo albums, 1969’s Neil Young and Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, 1970’s After the Gold Rush, and 1972’s Harvest.

Available on November 23rd, each re-issue has been re-mastered from the original analog master tapes by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering Studios in Hollywood, CA. The albums are being reissued on both vinyl and compact disc.

The individual albums are being issued on 140 gram vinyl to retail. There is also a box set of the four albums pressed on audiophile 180 gram vinyl. Vinyl will be pressed at Pallas MFG/Germany—the world’s premiere record-pressing plant.

The box sets will be individually numbered in gold foil stamp and strictly limited to 3,000 units worldwide. The four albums will also be released on 24 karat gold CDs, packaged in Gary Burden designed cardboard wallet packs. The four gold CD albums are housed in a numbered slip case, limited to 2,500 worldwide.

The box sets and gold vinyl be be available only through www.becausesoundmatters.com and neilyoung.com.