Trans Am | What Day Is It Tonight? Trans Am Live, 1993 - 2008

CD Reviews

Erik Deutsch | Hush Money

Hammer and String

By JON GARELICK | November 25, 2009

2.5 Stars

Having played in projects from jam bands to jazz and as a singer-songwriter accompanist (Fat Mama, Charlie Hunter, Ron Miles, Erin McKeown), keyboardist Erik Deutsch led an acoustic jazz album for his debut (2006’s Fingerprints). Here he says he’s going for something “atmospheric,” occasionally giving the lead-melody voices to clarinet and bassoon and loading on every keyboard in his garage.

How, then, to explain the extroverted straight-up Memphis horn arrangements on “Dirty Osso Bucco” and “Quittin’ Time” (the latter seeming to steal the riff from Al Kooper’s “I Can’t Quit Her”)? So it may take a couple of spins to sink into this disc and accept it as a cohesive, cinematic whole. (There’s barely a pause from track to track.)

The flitting oscillations of a vintage synth don’t seem to help. Neither does the mawkish movie-romance title tune. On the other hand, there’s the Latin groove and subtle arrangement of “Black Flies,” with its electric guitar rave-up, and the slow, moody “Hearts for a Purple Lion,” with its extended flute and bassoon solos, thumpity-thump rhythm, and deep-satisfying cadence. And the free duet for clarinet and bassoon on “Incandescence.” And the motorik Afro-funk of “India Rubber,” with its hefty doses of tenor sax. And those kickin’ funk numbers.

ERIK DEUTSCH WITH DANIEL BENNETT | Beehive, 541 Tremont St, Boston | December 1 at 8 pm | Free | 617.423.0069 or www.beehiveboston.com

Rihanna | Rated R
Look, it’s not as if there were a song where she says, “Chris Brown, you chicken-shit motherfucker, your ass is gonna pay.”
Elvis Presley | Elvis 75: Good Rockin' Tonight
There's a plethora of Elvis Presley albums on the market, most of them compilations and box sets, each focusing on certain hits, eras, and/or styles.
Photos: Passion Pit at House of Blues
Photos: Passion Pit live at House of Blues Boston, January 6, 2010.
Interview: Ozzy Osbourne
Long before he bit the heads off bats and doves, Ozzy Osbourne worked in a cheerless abattoir in the hardscrabble Aston section of Birmingham, England, where for 18 months he held such titles as "cow killer," "tripe hanger," "hoof puller," and "pig stunner."
Animal Collective | Fall Be Kind
This nifty little five-track postscript to January's celebrated Merriweather Post Pavilion demonstrates further how adept the members of Animal Collective have become at deploying their bottomless bag of electro-psych tricks in the service of songs.
New edition
There’s no underground scene for pop-minded R&B. Not in Boston, and not really anyplace else.
The Rolling Stones | Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert
This live 1969 Madison Square Garden set was released at the band's peak, following Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed , preceding Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street , and recorded a week before the disaster at Altamont.
The Big Hurt: 10-year glitch
It boggles the mind that as recently as a decade ago, if you wanted to hear "Knockin' da Boots" by H-Town (and you did, believe me), you'd have to perform a primitive prayer ritual: you'd call some creepy guy with a really deep voice and beg him to play it, then wait by your radio for an hour in the hope that he'd answer your plea.
Shout it out!
Sharks Come Cruisin' founder Mark Lambert is a Warwick native with a penchant for reworking and penning sea shanties from centuries past, often revised with rollicking punk flare — all thanks to the golden pipes of Quint, the shark-obsessed skipper in Jaws .
Punk wreck
Guitar punk rock has a long and, frankly, dull history.
Stroke of genius
Julian Casablancas is in control, for better or worse. Better, in the sense that he is finally seeing the release of his debut solo album, Phrazes for the Young (RCA), in which he steps out of the stripped-down style of the Strokes — his blockbuster unit for the past decade — and unveils a kaleidoscopic world of lush dreamscapes, arpeggiated classicism, and haunting balladry.
Less

Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Entertainment, Music, More

HTML Prohibited

Add Comment

view all

[ 01/30 ] Howie Howie + LTD + Sonny Jim & the Blue Devils @ C-Note

[ 01/30 ] Big Shot [Billy Joel tribute] @ Wolf Den @ Mohegan Sun

[ 01/30 ] Melissa Ferrick @ Center for Arts In Natick

[ 01/30 ] Newton Community Chorus @ Our Lady of Help Christians Church

[ 01/30 ] DJ Turbz + DJ Uptown @ Revolution Rock Bar

ARTICLES BY JON GARELICK

REVIEW: CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS AT SOMERVILLE THEATRE | January 29, 2010
The Carolina Chocolate Drops introduced the penultimate song of their Saturday night Somerville Theatre show as from 2001, "which is about 100 years ago in pop music."

NO IDENTITY CRISIS | January 25, 2010
If great art and great artists are supposed to contain multitudes, then in music, at least, pianists have the edge: 10 fingers theoretically capable of 10 different simultaneous paths for the music to take. Of course, it's not that simple.

MOSTLY OTHER PEOPLE DO THE KILLING | FORTY FORT | January 21, 2010
On their fourth CD, the celebrated young jazz quartet with the indie-rock name continue their audacious updating of the genre's old-school avant-garde.

FUSIONISTS | January 12, 2010
Nobody likes labels — except maybe critics. And we all want to live by Duke Ellington's measure of quality: beyond category. Beyond names and borders, that is, in a post-racial society. And yet, the word "fusion" — at least in music — has a pejorative connotation, suggesting bland pastiche and commercial opportunism.

REVIEW: CARMEN CONSOLI AT REGATTABAR | January 08, 2010
How Italian was the crowd at Carmen Consoli's sold-out Regattabar show? The language was everywhere. The couple from Methuen sharing our table were 50 percent, and the Italian husband estimated the room at 90 percent. (I was guessing 85.)

See all articles by: JON GARELICK

Most Viewed

Most Emailed

IS THERE 'HOPE' IN HOLLYWOOD?
Buoyed by President Barack Obama's campaign slogan, many had hopes for change after his election.

BRAVE NEW GLOBE?
Sizing up the Boston Globe 's recent past is easy: simply put, in the past 12 months, the paper has seen enough gut-wrenching drama to change the name of Morrissey Boulevard to Melrose Place. But forecasting the paper's future is another matter.

RAINBOW NATION
After a torturous history of being treated like second-class citizens, the black population in this country stunned the world by pulling off the unimaginable: voting a black man in as president.

OSCAR PREDICTIONS 2010
After years of shrinking audiences and low-grossing Best Picture nominees, the Academy this year is hedging its bets.

INTERVIEW: OZZY OSBOURNE
Long before he bit the heads off bats and doves, Ozzy Osbourne worked in a cheerless abattoir in the hardscrabble Aston section of Birmingham, England, where for 18 months he held such titles as "cow killer," "tripe hanger," "hoof puller," and "pig stunner."

IS THERE 'HOPE' IN HOLLYWOOD?
Buoyed by President Barack Obama's campaign slogan, many had hopes for change after his election.

IN PAWTUCKET, A HAITIAN-AMERICAN FAMILY ANXIOUSLY WAITS
Their roof is a blanket held up by sticks, their bed is dirt. Every morning, they wake — the grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews — and begin their journey on foot to search for something to eat and drink.

REBOOT
Portland artist Randy Regier's work is just beginning to be known, but he may be one of the best sculptors in the country.

BRAVE NEW GLOBE?
Sizing up the Boston Globe 's recent past is easy: simply put, in the past 12 months, the paper has seen enough gut-wrenching drama to change the name of Morrissey Boulevard to Melrose Place. But forecasting the paper's future is another matter.

REVIEW: WAITING FOR ARMAGEDDON
Much scarier than 2012 is this documentary about the death grip that fundamentalist religious groups have on American politics.

HOT TOPICS

Daft Punk , Elvis Presley , Johannes Brahms , Trent Reznor , Giuseppe Verdi , James Levine , Dmitri Shostakovich , Wu-Tang Clan , Elvis Costello , Joni Mitchell

CD Reviews

Erik Deutsch | Hush Money

Bob Blank | The Blank Generation: Blank Tapes NYC 1975 - 1985

DJ Mehdi | Red, Black & Blue

Various Artists | Where the Action Is: Los Angeles Nuggets 1965 - 1968

Swollen Members | Armed to the Teeth

Them Crooked Vultures | Them Crooked Vultures