Songs Of Sins And Redemption – The Molenes (Independent Release)
Take in the purity of Roots Americana, dirty it lovingly with hints of feedback, splashes of political anger and huge gulps of driving rock n roll, and you have the first two tracks, the gateway into the world of very human very fragile saints, and sometimes beautiful sometimes scary and sinister devils.
As just music this collection is oh so easy to fall in love with. There is not an instrument out of place, no arrangement over blown or underdone, and the nuanced interplay between musicians (who follow each others rhythms as instinctively as brothers) is thrilling.
Of course it’s not just about the playing and the tunes, but a journey towards the light with all the perilous thoughts and shadowy images that the odyssey entails.
Stealing from the track, ‘Bring the Bottle’ these are often snapshots onto a world that is ‘One Righteous bloody mess!’ and as the cover of the CD suggests, there is an allure to the decay, there is something deeply uplifting in the fact that the broken souls will keep standing, keep moving on.
And the Molenes will be the dance band they party loud to, in wicked stops along the way.
Find out more here
And you can hear the Molenes on this episode of the NBT podcast
http://www.nextbigthing.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=495389
Foresight/Poorsight- The Johns (Ghost In The Cupboard)
Rewind the film, slowly. A train sneaks back tragic into a tunnel, and the sun slipSlides behind a cloud. With rolling thunder, the drama of ‘Sun For Days’ unrolls. This is the end. NO, actually this is a seductively brutal beginning.
The theme of loss continues, made strangely sweet with a power pop chug, kinda like Mathew Sweet fronting a new wave Byrds. These are songs about dancing as close to the edge as possible, sometimes accepting that the fall is the most wonderful thing, these are songs that SEEM to be about giving up, but look/listen closer and they are about surviving the dull chaos of break ups and fractured dreams.
The singer is a cynic, the singer is conflicted, and the singer is a romantic, he searches through the shudders of the songs, through leftovers of a rock n roll explosion, the shattered remains of affairs and love, and he tries to explore the truth of things. And with this band, these are his findings.
This is no one man quest though; this band is a whirling strumming thrumming beating heart of a music machine, creating swirls and harmonies, a subtle modern wall of noise.
Through the loneliness, this band wants to reach out and touch you.
Find out more here
http://www.thejohnschicago.com/
Catch songs from this album on this weeks NBT podcast.. Going out this Friday
