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BY SAM HOUGHTON



Dead Weather >> Horehound
When I saw the White Stripes perform in one of their last gigs, I nearly gave up hope in Jack White and rock and roll for that matter. They played like shit for 40 minutes, in front of a crowd of screaming little girls. And then Icky Thump came out and I did give up hope in Jack White. It was clear that he was suffering from a similar disease as Cobain, being misunderstood by a horde of screaming girls in black lipstick and red hair, and he let it affect his brain waves. His weird side went over the edge. That’s when I went deep into blues, and many turned to hip-hop or Indy. We may have never returned…

But instead of killing himself, Mr. White dug his heals into different projects as we all know. He put out new material. With Horehound out, I feel saved. Jack White should solely be to blame for keeping rock alive. He has and will continue to influence numerous guitarists on down the line (drummers too: apparently White’s on the skins for the album). 

This album is wild and stings with grit. It doesn’t sound like the 60s, which is amazing and strangely satisfying: a rock album that is this good, having zero resemblance of that generation that hangs over us with a deserved condescending snicker and sucks so many good fans to old, sagging man shows. It certainly rocks hard, probably scaring a few parents and pumping up a few young punks. There are no bad tracks on the album. I put it number one because it’s revolutionary and scary to listen to. It pushes you and makes you feel mean and bad ass and makes you want to smoke cigarettes and possibly shoot guns, not in a cheep hipster way, but in a grown man way. The bass lines are so thick they hurt your groin and the guitars so edgy they sharpen your teeth. It’s the first album I’ve heard that has more balls than hip-hop.





Dan Auerbach >> Keep it Hid
If you’ve heard Chulahoma, the Black Keys’ cover album of Junior Kimbo, you should be familiar with the soul behind Dan Auerbach and his guitar. A white man singing the blues well is not only rare, it’s just, sadly, oxymoronic. But with Auerbach, it works. It does more than work, it’s original and damn good. That man grasps the pain of the working class and the unemployed without sounding completely cliché or white. 40 or 50 years after blues has been manipulated, fucked with, distorted and abused, Auerbach keeps the sad history there, singing so raw and soulful it’s almost majestic. Needless to say, for any blues and folk fan, the arrival of this album came somewhat as a joyful shock: drop the Pat Carney drum baggage and take the reigns completely.

This album isn’t going to knock your socks off; it’s not revolutionary or amazing, it’s just good. As is probably the case with 95 percent of the Black Keys' music, we know Auerbach has incredible song writing abilities. With this album, there’s a new folk charm to the sound, which we never heard with the Keys and which really shows Auerbach’s singing caliber. He’s got a lot of buzz brewing in the stomach region. This album is obviously no digression away from his talents, and with Patrick Carney away from the drums, Auerbach conjures up more diversity with his revolving team behind him. With songs like “Trouble Weighs a Ton” or “Goin’ Home,” this album will make you cry, if you’re as emotionally weak as we are at Groovemine, but with songs like “The Prowl” and “Heartbroken, In Disrepair,” it will also give you a big bass swagger.





The Heartless Bastards >> The Mountain
 Female singers, besides Janis and Aretha, are usually large turn-offs, sadly, for Rock and Roll fans, male ones at least. Maybe it’s not sad and maybe women have a different understanding of rock. I don’t know. I’m a dude, and I know that I often have a hard time when a woman tries to stand up to the gods like Plant and Mick Jagger. It’s just weird. I can’t explain it without the fear of castration so I won’t. Sorry Mom. But with The Heartless Bastards and Erika Wennerstrom on the vocals, it’s different. I’m kind of blown away by the sheer power of her voice. The pipes on this lady are outstanding. Sometimes she hits real deep notes that appear lower than a Russian Bass and sounds more like a powerful omni-potent god than Plant, while at other times she reaches up for the high ones. She’s impressive. This band is on the brink of being famous, but I’m not sure they will make it mostly because their appearance may come off as too old for rock and roll fans. However, their music it what matters, and it’s great. The Heartless bastards’ sound is like Nirvana with the heavy use of power chords, heavy drums, and a driving bass. It’s pure 90s grunge. Then ad the female vocals and a flowing, Brian Jonestown-like steel guitar through the background and you get a new sound. The most impressive track on the album is the lead of track “The Mountain.” It hits with a wall of noise, harkening back to My Bloody Valentine but a less weird and grungier, tolerable noise. If you haven’t heard these guys, they’re probably the next Black Keys: the next underground, for the common man, un-heard of, thankfully under promoted, sensation.

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Read the Groovemine review





  Grizzly Bear >> Veckatimest
I mostly threw this album on here to seem educated and to appeal to my new buddies in Brooklyn. Just kidding, although I do appear smarter now having a title like Veckatimest on my list. As a young music critic, I’ve learned to listen to new kinds of music. It’s been hard but I’ve realized that not all music must be about pumping your blood veins with maximum levels of adrenaline. It can be about something else, perhaps sitting back on a couch, zoning off into the eyes of your partner, taking a few happy pills and enjoying the music for what it is. I’ve learned also that music doesn’t necessarily need to be about masculinity. What I’m trying to say is that despite all the odds, despite risking my status as a real man, I’ve found myself enjoying Grizzly Bear. These guys understand that their music is about craft and perfection. They understand that it’s about creation. Their singing and harmonizing is heavenly, mixing the Beach Boys with gospel. The album flows well together through to the end, and it gives the impression of labor, hours upon hours perfecting every detail of each note. They use several instruments, including oboes and other strange things to give an orchestral sound. I think the Fleet Foxes threw the gates open for Grizzly Bear to take off with this album. While the Fleet Foxes remind us of the 60s and Crosby, Stills and Nash, Grizzly Bear has it’s own sound. It’s certainly introverted music but there are times in the day when it’s nice to be introverted. It’s an impressive album because it’s taking music in a new direction. Is it still rock and roll?

Preview & purchase album from Other Music
Read the Groovemine review





Wolfmother >> Cosmic Egg
Some people have the audacity to call this album an experimentation with psychedelic rock, as if Lead Singer and guitarist, Andrew Stockdale, were in some Berkeley lab putting together his thesis on the subject. If you’ve listened to Wolfmother before, you know there’s no experimentation, nothing near notable about intellectualism in the music. And thank the music gods.

I saw Wolfmother perform recently. It was at Terminal 5. All 3 enormous floors were jammed with screaming fans of all ages: hardcore fans with shaved heads and scary tattoos; youngsters with puffy hair and glazed eyes; old folks with curious smiles and hipsters alike. With these hundreds of fans screaming his bands name, Stockdale walked out on stage with a school boy grin stretching over his face as if we were thinking: “Holy shit, I had no idea people would like this as much as I do. This is exciting.” It may be because he’s purely ripping off Led Zeppelin, the Stones and Ozzy and can’t believe people are buying it, or, and what I want to believe and maybe in my desire to see rock and roll live strong, do believe, is that Stockdale and his band are psyched more because people are enjoying the music along with them.

It’s hard to say that Cosmic Egg is better than their self-title album from a few years back (which actually won best Australian rock album), but I it is. They’re even closer to the Zeppelin/Osborne sound than before, getting tighter with songs like “New Moon Rising,” and adding a little more diversity than the never-let-your-head-stop-banging- bravado like their debut album.



MORE OF THE BEST....
> Best of 2009 main page
> Alec Brinegar's Top Nine Albums of 2009
> Lukas Clark-Memler's Top Five Albums and Top Five Album Covers of 2009
> Raymond Chalmé's Top Ten Music Moments of 2009
> Neil Levens' Top Five Albums of the Year