SPIN CYCLES
Hot new CDs span genres, generations
Patrick Coman begins his new album, “Tree of Life,” on a pirate ship in the fog at midnight (possibly with Tom Waits as his first mate). At least that's how opening track “Heartbeat” feels, with boot heels stomping on warped planks, rattling chains and a fatal loneliness. The song's vibe is hypnotic, but Coman doesn't stay in it long. A fixture in the Boston Americana scene, the singer-songwriter has no fear of sonic wandering, and “Tree of Life” is proof. On “Don't Reach,” he happily does a Buddy Holly rockabilly shake. For “9-5ers,” his touchstone is a sloppy, swaggering Elvis. (This is meant as high praise!) “Dirty Old Bed Blues” features the singer almost sashaying through an R&B romp backed by some drunken New Orleans trumpet wails.
The well-worn homages are welcome, but Coman is at his best when he is at his strangest. The title track returns to the rough aesthetic of boot heels pacing planks and bar room wisdom, and the words, voice and feel — that desolation! — are completely Coman's. Of course, it never hurts to have guitarist Peter Parcek (who produced the LP along with drummer Marco Giovino) unleash a squall of feedback and fury as he does on the track.
The title is a little flat: “Stax Singles, Vol. 4: Rarities & the Best of the Rest.” Who needs six CDs — 145 songs! — worth of odds and ends from the heyday of rock 'n' roll?
Turns out everybody who loves rock 'n' roll (and soul, blues, jazz, country and gospel).
Last year, the Stax label celebrated its 60th anniversary with a collection of hits called “Soulsville U.S.A.” The package included the expected — Otis Redding, Eddie Floyd, Sam & Dave. The new set of rarities offers the flip side (often literally, in the form of B sides). But so many of these tracks could have been smashes on a range of charts.
Unlike anything Otis ever did, Chico Hamilton lays down something between Latin jazz and psychedelia, “Shaft” and Santana on “Conquistadores '74.” Best known for their gem “Soul Finger,” the BarKays turn Sam & Dave's “I Thank You” into a horn-heavy slice of funk. Mable John sounds just like the blues-meets-Motown diva she should have been on “Left Over Love.”
Stax has packed the box with so many surprises. Larry Raspberry finds sonic space between boogie woogie and A.M. Gold on “Rock 'N Roll Warning”; Booker T abandons his trademark organ for gospel piano on “Sunday Sermon.” But I won't spoil them all. Buy the box and discover a dozen of your new favorites. It always seemed silly to listen to the Ramones on CD. And digital, that's outright ridiculous. You really have two choices: vinyl or half-crushed cassette underneath your Dodge Dart's passenger seat. Your cassettes are long gone; thankfully, Rhino just released the Ramones first three LPs on remastered vinyl as an addendum to the deluxe editions celebrating their 40th anniversary.
The self-titled debut remains a revelation, the “Citizen Kane” of gutter punk sleaze. This album takes pre-Beatles rock 'n' roll (Chuck Berry, surf, girl groups), turns up the volume, adds some grit and accelerates. Any rock fan inherently knows this. But absorbing the onslaught uninterrupted from “Blitzkrieg Bop” to “Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World” reminds you “The Ramones” struck like a lighting bolt just as Jimi Hendrix and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” did.
These reissues shine some deserving light on the Ramones' second album, “Leave Home,” kind of the forgotten middle child of their early catalog. This one features a more ridiculous Ramones — exaggeration becomes hyperbole — and it can work to great effect. “Suzy Is a Headbanger” has more bottom-end thump than “Judy Is a Punk.” “Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment” hints at thrash. “California Sun” sneers more than their typical covers.
If the Ramones just wrote the same song over and over, how can “Rocket to Russia” be better than the first two albums? The boys use the same beats, same guitar crunch, same dumb/fun lyrical approach, but the record improves on the simple formula. Somehow they make “Ramona” tender and “Teenage Lobotomy” more furious.