SOUND CHECK : POP.Alejandro Escovedo/``With These Hands'' Alejandro Escovedo Alejandro Escovedo is an American musician. He is from a very musical family that has generated several professional musicians, including his brothers Coke Escovedo and Pete Escovedo, both percussionists, and longtime Prince collaborator Sheila E (who is Pete's daughter and started out as a punk (the Nuns), shifted to cow-punk (Rank and File), then rabble-rousing rock (True Believers "True Believers" is the fourth episode of the first season of the CBS television series The Unit. The episode aired on March 28, 2006. Summary The team is sent to Los Angeles to protect Mexico's drug minister from an assassination threat. and Buick MacKane). And whether he opts for soft-spoken laments or kicks up a cloud of dust, Escovedo totters on the brink of the abyss, wrenching out emotions like he's wringing a wet rag dry on ``With These Hands'' (Rykodisc). Escovedo's songs are the trials and tribulations of an honest man, one who casts a hard look at himself and his actions, and ``With These Hands'' is an emotive journey that joins pleasure and pain, pinpricking the heart and mind. Three Stars SOURCE: - Vickie Gilmer Screaming Trees/``Dust'' It has been easy to look at the Screaming Trees Screaming Trees was a musical group considered part of the grunge music movement of the early 1990s. Founded in Ellensburg, Washington in 1985, their sound was a mixture of arty '60s psychedelia and west-coast punk rock. as just another sonic boom from the wet and foggy Northwest. The band's ninth release (and first in four years), ``Dust,'' keeps the head-kicking riffs intact (compliments of the Connor brothers, bassist Van and guitarist Gary Lee). But the Trees also have a newly found favor for melody. Produced by George Drakoulis and including such guest musicians as Tom Petty's organist, Benmont Tench Benjamin Montmorency Tench III (born September 7, 1953) an American keyboardist, best known as a founding member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, along with Tom Petty, Mike Campbell and Ron Blair of the current lineup. , and Pearl Jam's guitarist, Mike McCready, it's easy to pinpoint where the melodic direction of ``Dust'' (Epic) comes from, yet each of the Trees' handprints still surfaces. Mark Lanegan's raspy rasp·y adj. rasp·i·er, rasp·i·est Rough; grating. Adj. 1. raspy - unpleasantly harsh or grating in sound; "a gravelly voice" grating, rasping, gravelly, scratchy, rough , whiskey-soaked vocals are used to great affect, whether he adopts a mournful mourn·ful adj. 1. Feeling or expressing sorrow or grief; sorrowful. 2. Causing or suggesting sadness or melancholy: the mournful sound of a train whistle. tone (``Halo of Ashes''), defiance (``All of You'') or hope (``Traveler''). ``Dust'' still plows a rock groove deep enough to bury most of the competition, and that, paired with the album's unexpected melodies, make it the band's finest effort thus far. Three Stars SOURCE: - Vickie Gilmer Grant Lee Buffalo/``Copperopolis'' Grant Lee Buffalo Grant Lee Buffalo was a Los Angeles-based rock band, consisting of Grant-Lee Phillips (vocals and guitar), Paul Kimble (bass) and Joey Peters (drums). All three were previously members of another LA band, Shiva Burlesque. vocalist Grant Lee Phillips
v. crooned, croon·ing, croons v.intr. 1. To hum or sing softly. 2. To sing popular songs in a soft, sentimental manner. 3. Scots To roar or bellow. radiates through and transcends ``Copperopolis'' (Slash/Reprise). No easy task, as his band mates provide country-rock backing that sways between baroque and simple, nearly always retaining a lush, earthy tone. Phillips' lyrics also display a deft human touch: The themes are elemental and wishful, traveling from urban to natural landscapes in effortless steps. The disc's effect is like a lover whispering and nibbling nibbling Nutrition The consumption of multiple–up to 17–'mini-meals' per day, as opposed to the usual 3 meals/day. Cf Bingeing, Gorging. on your ear. You'll get shivers. You'll want more. Four Stars SOURCE: - Steve Byrne Steve Byrne is a half-Korean, half-Irish stand-up comedian from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Byrne is featured on the new NBC series The Real Wedding Crashers and was a featured comic on The Tonight Show. King's X/``Ear Candy'' You won't hear it, but there's a sigh somewhere in this sixth album from the prog v. i. 1. To wander about and beg; to seek food or other supplies by low arts; to seek for advantage by mean shift or tricks. [ imp. & p. p. os> ( ) r>. p. pr. & vb. n. os>
King's X are critically acclaimed American hard rock band noted for its sophisticated music (that combines progressive metal, grunge, funk and soul with vocal arrangements influenced by . Maybe it's boredom, or weariness, or sheer frustration at plugging away for years under quasi-cult status. The Texas trio has made some of the best smart-rock of the last decade - 1989's ``Gretchen Goes to Nebraska'' is a masterpiece - but here the group does it with half a heart: The Abbey Road harmonies soar a little lower, the guitars shimmer a little less brightly, the songs drive with a little less gas in the tank. But half-baked King's X still tastes better than fully cooked stuff from most anyone else, and ``Ear Candy'' (Atlantic) has its moments, most notably guitarist Ty Tabor's rootsy ``Mississippi Moon.'' Two Stars SOURCE: - Brian McCollum JAZZ Shirley Horn/``The Main Ingredient'' With her hushed tones and understated style, Shirley Horn is jazz's most intimate singer. She continues to move listeners on this CD (Verve) with her deeply romantic, sensual, conversational, storytelling approach to love songs of both pleasure and pain. Her reading of Bobby Troup and Leah Worth's love-lost song, ``The Meaning of the Blues,'' is particularly transfixing. By singing this torch song at a tempo close to slow-motion, and playing delicate, sparse piano, Horn creates drama that heightens the loss and hurt expressed in the lyrics. Of the love-found songs, ``You Go to My Head'' is sublime, thanks to Horn's quiet reading, and tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson's solo that is so soft it sounds as if he's barely breathing. And Horn's minor vamp deepens the romantic feel of ``The Look of Love,'' sending it into a dreamlike state. Three Stars SOURCE: - Bob Protzman COUNTRY Tammy Rogers/``Tammy Rogers'' Tammy Rogers is the least-known of the artist-owners at the fledgling Dead Reckoning label. This solo debut should elevate her profile considerably. ``Tammy Rogers'' maintains the high label standard set by Kieran Kane, Kevin Welch and Mike Henderson, and establishes the 30-year-old fiddler-writer-singer as a triple-threat in the league of Alison Krauss and Rhonda Vincent. The former Patty Loveless and Trisha Yearwood accompanist sings in a luminous soprano that helps hold together a set which, in typical Dead Reckoning fashion, is difficult to categorize. And while the album's intimate ambience runs counter to mainstream trends, Rogers' heart-tugging songs are as tight and catchy as anything on the radio without sacrificing weight. Three Stars SOURCE: - Nick Cristiano CAPTION(S): 3 Photos Photo: (1) A little bit country, a little bit rock 'n' r oll ... it's Grant Lee Buffalo's ``Copperopolis.'' (2) Former punk rocker Alejandro Escovedo takes listeners on an song-driven, emotive journey via ``With These Hands.'' (3) Shirley Horn displays her hushed, understated style on ``The Main Ingredient.'' |
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