Fat Possum Records – Unsung Sundays https://unsungsundays.com What you should be listening to. Sun, 08 May 2016 05:24:36 +0000 en-CA hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.2.1 Seratones: Get Gone https://unsungsundays.com/album-reviews/seratones-get-gone/ Sun, 08 May 2016 12:02:00 +0000 http://unsungsundays.com/?post_type=album_reviews&p=1109 With their first record, Seratones have crafted a sound that is inspired by everything from classic rock and punk (clearly) to church choir-influenced vocal stylings — and to their credit, the unusual mix works.

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]]> Get Gone is exactly the sort of rock record that the industry needs more of: a kick in the pants that defines genre conventions in an effort to produce better songs. The title track is decidedly blues-influenced, but the first track (Choking on Your Spit) is filled with punk riffs. And it’s all anchored by singer AJ Hayne’s powerful vocal performance (which she of course learned from singing in a Baptist church).

The amount of all these influences is a debut album that refuses to allow the band to be labeled as anything other than effective rock and roll. Get Gone is filled with one stomping rock track after the other, a vivacious and vicious set of tracks that refuses to conform to expectations.

The anthems, in particular, are quite impressive: short, punk-y bursts of energy that are occasionally punctuated by guitar solos that aren’t indulgent so much as amplify the tune.

The best tracks are the deep cuts: AJ Hayne letting loose on Kingdom Come is one of the album’s biggest treats, and the guitar solo is one of the album’s best. It’s not a single, but it would be a ton of fun live. It’s unusual, imaginative riff is a great introduction to the Seratones sound: unpredictable roots-rock that’s unafraid to shy away from its own genre in effort to diversity its sound.

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]]> Jay Reatard: Blood Visions https://unsungsundays.com/album-reviews/jay-reatard-blood-visions/ Sun, 22 Nov 2015 13:10:10 +0000 http://unsungsundays.com/?post_type=album_reviews&p=127 Blood Visions is a sad reminder that Jay Reatard is no longer with us, but that's because it's a delightful punk record. It sounds at once familiar, like The Ramones, but it also has all the quirks that Reatard had. It's tight and no production detailed is spared, making it a near-perfect thirty-minute slab of punk rock.

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]]> Blood Visions is one of my favourite Jay Reatard records: it works great at the gym, but it’s also an insanely quirky punk record with a million moving parts. And it never slows down: this thing always moves at a million miles an hour.

You can hear a ton of the Misfits influence, but there’s also a poppy style that breaks in that can be easily traced back to the Ramones. And I can hear a ton of Minor Threat in here too.

Like the best punk, Blood Visions feels like it’s stuck in a time machine from the 80s. Which makes it so easy to love for fans of the genre.

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]]> The Black Keys: Chulahoma https://unsungsundays.com/album-reviews/black-keys-chulahoma/ Sun, 13 Sep 2015 12:01:35 +0000 http://unsungsundays.com/?post_type=album_reviews&p=538 Their blues origins were lost in all the hubbub about The Black Keys’ recent alt-rock records, but Chulahoma captures it in a way that none of their earlier records good. The Black Keys’ collection of Junior Kimbrough covers is both a fantastic tribute and a wonderful listen.

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]]> I’ve always considered myself a fan of The Black Keys and their old-school sensibilities of rock’n’roll. But I’d somehow never heard *Chulahoma*, recorded between *Rubber Factory* and *Magic Potion*. If that’s before your time, that’s back when The Black Keys were a great one-two blues-rock band — nothing more, and nothing less.

*Chulahoma* is a lesser-known record because, as it turns out, it doesn’t have a single original recording. Each track is a cover of a Junior Kimbrough. Kimbrough himself was a bluesman that The Black Keys called a primary influence at one point. He and The Black Keys shared a label together at one time.

The Black Keys do play these “covers” pretty fast and loose, so while they’re recognizable, they could be considerd homages more than anything. In blues, that feels appropriate: it’s more important to riff off ideas than it is to exactly represent something, and’s what The Black Keys have always been good at. If you’re a fan and you haven’t heard this record, you’ve got no clue what you’re missing.

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