Weekend Music Roundup

The days have turned away from another week, moving the year closer to more bearable weather and the onslaught of fall record releases. I eagerly await both, but in the meantime, there are still a ton of new releases from earlier in the year that I'm grooving to, as well as some classic records that have made their way into my collection. There's nothing but rock on this list, from heavy psych to agro, new wave to prog rock, this is a bit of a roadmap to the variations that exist in the far too broad genre. Lots of stuff worth checking out. Enjoy.

The Wild Century - Raw: Released this summer, this is the second album from the Dutch band. This is an interesting record that takes a different approach to the stone rock genre by venturing out of the strict hard riffs blueprint that has been established. It's not afraid to show range, which makes it easier to get into than some of the albums in the genre that can veer toward the repetitive side. In that respect, it plays more like a heavy psych record. "Done Lost Your Good Thing Now," "One Time Event," and the epic "Helpless Thing" are real standouts on this outstanding record. 

Graham Parker - Squeezing Out the Sparks: After releasing his first two albums in '76, and a follow-up the year after, the British new waver artist released this, his fourth album in '79. Graham's sound at this time falls right in line with Elvis Costello, and could probably be mistaken for him to the casual listener. The first two songs on the album, "Discovering Japan" and "Local Girls" were both sides of the first single, and are both fantastic tracks. The rest of the album is equally as solid, making for a wonderful example of the period. 

Pretty Vicious - Beauty of Youth: This is the debut album from the punk band out of Wales and follows an EP released a few years ago. This is political and aggressive and reminds a bit of that other band out of Wales' early days, The Manic Street Preachers. It really took two listens for me to really get this record in a way that made me understand that I truly enjoy it. Lots of great tunes on here about being young, down and out, and feeling like no one cares. Of course, I've moved on from that period in my life, but it still resonates and good to know people are still preaching about the universal experience of youth. 

Foghat - Fool for the City: This was the fifth album released by the London band. It came out in '75, only three years after their debut. The world was filled with blues based hard rock bands and they had a hard time breaking through, until "Slow Ride" hit the airwaves from this album. A spin-off (of sorts) of Savoy Brown, this is a solid blues bar type band that is heavy on groove guitar, and while certainly not original, these guys do it pretty darn well. "Terraplane Blues," "Take It or Leave It," "Slow Ride," and the title track are standouts.

YES - Fragile: The fourth album from the prog rock icons was released in 1971 and features probably their best known song, "Roundabout". As I mentioned in a previous Roundup, this is one of those bands that I just finally got around to giving a grown-up listen to after having written them off in my youth.  I think my problem was that in my younger years, I wanted them to be more space rock, more psychedelic, but since them, I've come to appreciate the mixture of blues rock with prog rock. This is more Traffic than Floyd, and that's okay. "South Side of the Sky" actually has proto-hardcore sound to the chorus while also managing to feel a bit like a hippy, bluesy Red Hot Chili Peppers tune. Very complex and very interesting album. 

DeWolff - Thrust: The fifth album from the Dutch hard rock band was released last year, and follows the the blues rock format of their previous albums. This is pretty standard hard blues rock, with lots of rhythm guitar and drums and soulful rock vocals. They play it very well, but it's certainly nothing you haven't heard before. "Once in a Blue Moon," "Freeway Flight," and "Sometimes" are standouts for me.