GF music review club

[Jose Jones]

3 hours ago, Fluter in Dakota said:

@Jose Jones and @ZonkoVille77 to leave their marks. I'm due to choose next, happy to wait until Wednesday to get an album up. Likely to stay on the Americana/Country road.

I already did a (short) review, and isn’t it me to go next?

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Jose Jones said:

I already did a (short) review, and isn’t it me to go next?

Yes it is, you're up next.

[TheHowieLama]

[Carvalho Diablo]

Hey Howie, how did you hear about Madison Cunningham?

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, Carvalho Diablo said:

Hey Howie, how did you hear about Madison Cunningham?

From what I can gather, she's quite big in Americana and her previous album was nominated for best Americana album at The Grammies.

 

Howie definitely seems to know his blues/country/Americana.

[Jose Jones]

10 hours ago, Fluter in Dakota said:

Yes it is, you're up next.

Nice one, shall I pop one up now, or wait for @ZonkoVille77 to get this one done?

[Carvalho Diablo]

42 minutes ago, Jose Jones said:

Nice one, shall I pop one up now, or wait for @ZonkoVille77 to get this one done?

I'd give @ZonkoVille77 a day or two.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Jose Jones said:

Nice one, shall I pop one up now, or wait for @ZonkoVille77 to get this one done?

Yeah, I agree with CD. Although we're keen to hear new music, a couple of days for Zonks to prove he's not fucking shite is fully warranted.

[Carvalho Diablo]

8 minutes ago, Fluter in Dakota said:

Yeah, I agree with CD. Although we're keen to hear new music, a couple of days for Zonks to prove he's not fucking shite is fully warranted.

In that case two days is being wildly optimistic...

[TheHowieLama]

12 hours ago, Carvalho Diablo said:

Hey Howie, how did you hear about Madison Cunningham?

When I moved to Arizona there was a band Calexico just starting - they ended up collaborating with a fella called Iron and Wine and the drummer in this clip played on a couple of those tours.

[Carvalho Diablo]

6 minutes ago, TheHowieLama said:

When I moved to Arizona there was a band Calexico just starting - they ended up collaborating with a fella called Iron and Wine and the drummer in this clip played on a couple of those tours.

I'm familiar with the Iron and Wine and Calexico stuff, my mate Dave is bang into them; pleasant, tasteful.

 

Shepherd's Dog?

[cloggypop]

9 minutes ago, TheHowieLama said:

When I moved to Arizona there was a band Calexico just starting - they ended up collaborating with a fella called Iron and Wine and the drummer in this clip played on a couple of those tours.

I know them from this Bunnymen cover

 

 

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, TheHowieLama said:

When I moved to Arizona there was a band Calexico just starting - they ended up collaborating with a fella called Iron and Wine and the drummer in this clip played on a couple of those tours.

That's deep down in the rabbithole. 

[TheHowieLama]

57 minutes ago, Carvalho Diablo said:

I'm familiar with the Iron and Wine and Calexico stuff, my mate Dave is bang into them; pleasant, tasteful.

 

Shepherd's Dog?

Yep, some good stuff on there.

 

 

[ZonkoVille77]

Madison Cunningham

 

Really enjoyed this short performance. It can be sometimes difficult to capture some artists like Madison in such a small space. Such a delicate and wonderful voice like that could easily get overpowered by other instruments but no sign of it happening here. Lovely tone from the Guitar - I think its a Fender Jaguar, (could be a Jazzmaster I'm blind as fuck these days) and she can really play it. Bass player really solid but looks like he sells shit overpriced coffee for a living. 

 

The songs are pleasant to listen to so I'll go check out some of her other stuff. She reminds me of Margaret Glaspy and that's no bad thing. 

 

7.5/10 for me. Nice pick, Howie.

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, ZonkoVille77 said:

Madison Cunningham

 

Really enjoyed this short performance. It can be sometimes difficult to capture some artists like Madison in such a small space. Such a delicate and wonderful voice like that could easily get overpowered by other instruments but no sign of it happening here. Lovely tone from the Guitar - I think its a Fender Jaguar, (could be a Jazzmaster I'm blind as fuck these days) and she can really play it. Bass player really solid but looks like he sells shit overpriced coffee for a living. 

 

The songs are pleasant to listen to so I'll go check out some of her other stuff. She reminds me of Margaret Glaspy and that's no bad thing. 

 

7.5/10 for me. Nice pick, Howie.

Zonko's not fucking shite.

[Jose Jones]

Nice one Zonko for not being fucking shite.

I had 4 or 5 new ones to choose from this time, so might store a couple up for later picks, but ended up defaulting back to the “Melbourne band you won’t have heard of” bucket, for a bit of psychedelic pop.

 

The pick is “The story of Bananagun” the debut album from Bananagun.
 

I came to this record through “Out of Reach”, which is pretty much the perfect pop song, and then was pleasantly surprised that the rest of the album was pretty great.

Link is here friends: https://open.spotify.com/album/0HWSN8KujRr3riuWkBVcen?si=5Cl6Br6xRXyhvoe-I072ig

 

 

[Carvalho Diablo]

Nice one, I've really been looking forward to listening to something new. Manky day outside, I'll be all over this in a minute.

[Carvalho Diablo]

Review: Bananagun - The True Story of Bananagun

 

Melbourne's finest? Let's find out...

 

Bang Goes The Bongos starts the album with plenty of energy and percussion, immediately the production and mix sound ambitious but lacking in the sparkle and polish of a good masterer, a tad too compressed and "lifeless", typical of a young band on a budget.

The vocal is very early 70"s and reminds me of British 3 piece Little Barrie, also keyed in on the nostalgia trip

Austin Powers approves and so do I.

 

The Master serves up more of the same, a busy hustle with that pigeon toed orange peel vibe.

Dig that big dirty bass break, plenty of ambition here. Bananagun know exactly what they want.

 

People Talk Too Much - love that busy Shaft intro, tons of percussion, I bet this was loads of fun to record.

Nice guitars and brass but it's the bass that underpins it all, a joyful sounding record so far.

The female vocal is really nice, prefer her to him tbh, I bet this is a lot of fun live, get those dancin' shoes on boy.

 

Freak Machine is a touch slower, Little Barrie meets early Floyd sharing a reefer with Austin Powers.

 

Bird Up! These guys do love their intros like. Filler.

 

Out of Reach had the strongest vocal melody of any track so far and with its happy summery lilt, it's an obvious choice of single.

Reminds me of that Peter, Bjorn and John tune Young Folks.

Another track which'll be a lot of fun live in a small club. Love the sax.

 

She Now - I'd like to hear more of the girl vocalist, the short bits of her sound really nice. Not digging this song but I do love that percussive shimmer.

 

Perfect Stranger is more to my taste, more summery vibes and dreamy wistful vocals. Nice guitar on this.

The vocal is low in the mix and the heavy reverb makes it quite difficult to make out the lyrics.

 

Mushroom Bomb - Bananagun definitely have that throwback thing going on, I wonder if they walk around Melbourne in flares and platforms?

Don't like the chorus but the guitar breaks are much better.

 

Modern Day Problems comes in with of the most memorable vocal melodies on the entire album, guitars sound great again and another track which is super heavy on the percussion.

Maybe my favourite song so far? Possibly.

Bond vibes at the end? Nice...

 

The album closed with Taking The Present For Granted, curious as this record is so firmly anchored some 50 odd years ago.

Canny track, but in truth a lackluster finish.

 

So then, wasn't expecting that! Melbourne 2020 conjurs Soho 1965. Not a pastiche, this album seems genuine and heartfelt, warm, full of promise and optimism.

Whilst this debut album would certainly benefit from some more catchy songs and memorable hooks (and a better singer too imo), there's definitely enough on show to make me want to go back for more.

 

The Story of Bananagun is a lot of fun.

 

7/10 Groovy baby.

 

 

[johnsusername]

Tonight on BBC 4...

 

 

[ZonkoVille77]

Bananagun - The True Story of Bananagun

 

I couldn't really get into this one if I'm honest. I kept expecting the Austin Powers theme to join in at some stage. Now that is just me being facetious but I just didn't find it memorable and even after the 3rd listen it hadn't really gripped me. It was all a bit too 'busy' for my liking at times and just never once let up for a breather. It also sounds like it just plucked the best bits of 60s psychedelic pop and put it together here without offering anything new.

 

Take nothing away from the effort though. It is a really ambitious record and the percussion and guitars here are really very good at times.

 

'Out of Reach' is excellent. Love the sax making an appearance and the guitar has been very well recorded here. 

 

'People Talk Too Much' sounds like it came straight from Fela Kuti himself. Funky Afrobeat rhythms that are difficult to dislike. 

 

I wouldn't be rushing back to listen to it but I appreciate what they've done is technically very good. So for that I give a 6.5/10 

[Carvalho Diablo]

Is it my turn next to pick the AOW?

 

Also, who's left to review the Bananagun record?

[TheHowieLama]

I will give it a listen - meantime trudge forward into the wind.

[Guest]

29 minutes ago, Carvalho Diablo said:

Is it my turn next to pick the AOW?

 

Also, who's left to review the Bananagun record?

I still need to give it a spin and a rate. I'll get that done soon.

[Guest]

@ZonkoVille77

@TheHowieLama

@Jose Jones 

@Carvalho Diablo  <---

@Fluter in Dakota