This Is Book’s Music

Johnny Black wants a lady and talks about it in “Automobile”. However, he has some competition in the form of Milk Dee from the hip-hop duo Audio Two. See and hear what happens.

If you don’t know or remember who Milk Dee is, refresh yourself.

Normally I don’t start a review off with the word “I”, so I’m not. Instead, it will start the second sentence.

I last heard of Silveroot last year with a great album called Full Measure, and arguably the world was very different in the spring of 2008. A lot has changed since then, but then again maybe they haven’t, at least within the United States. I state this because while they celebrate the best of Americana and what it means to live in this country, it’s more of an album about the human condition and what we must do with and amongst each other in order to survive in peace. This is one of the underlying themes on Big Difference (Silverado), as the group continue with their well-executed mix of country, bluegrass, rock, pop, and on this album a number of worldly influences, most notable in teh final song “Last Night In Marrakech”, which sounds like a cross between Led Zeppelin, Loggins & Messina, and something you’d hear on a Folkways album. The smell of good food can be imagined in “Home Cookin’”, where Flynn imagines the delicious goodies found in New Orleans while creating a song that is reminiscent of The Band.

Most of the vibe on the album is down home music, but as the old saying goes, “wherever you lay your hat, that’s home”. It looks inward, but in “Brazil” there’s a slight tropicalia feel where vocalist Patrick Flynn and violinist Emily Palen unite in a celebration of the sunlight in Rio. The way the song is put together, it might help cross them over into a much bigger audience, sounds like a song that could be covered by The Dave Matthews Band or even Clara Hill.

Exploration is a key element here, or at least Flynn and friends are being motivated to open the door to their musical world to see what else lurks down the road, and Big Difference is indeed just that. A very strong statement.

Yes, what you see is a computer illustration of a breast that is leaking milk. This is the product of a band called Vagina Panther, who are apparently “an illegal rock band from Brooklyn”. Did you know Brooklyn rocked this hard? How hard?

Well, these guys take on the heavy pop styles of Foo Fighters with a pinch of Queens Of The Stone Age with touches of Cheap Trick, while vocalist Dead June will be pleasing to fans of Mia Zapata or Carrie Akre. There is a bit of punk angst on their self-titled debut (Metive), and with lyrics that reach immediately into the hearts of its listeners, this is sure to be anthemic for everyone. June sings at times with a bit of vulnerability, especially when she sings the words “someone save me” in “So…How We Gonna Do This?” (free MP3 download, 7mb), but most of the time she sings as a champion of her own destiny, taking her life experiences and sharing them with an audience who will easily relate to her human stories. In other words, they’re real, it doesn’t sound manufactured or forced. Bassist Johnathan Swass and drummer Trent Good are incredible together, sounding like some of the best rock bands of the 1990’s. With a double guitar attack from Kit Davis and Dirt Wave that occasionally expands to triple when June plays the guitar, they create a melodic wall that gets heavy, distorted, and sensitive, sometimes within the first minute of a song. May they become the band that will influence many people to form bands in the 10’s.

(Vagina Panther will be released on November 10th.)

Vagina Panther, Dave You are Killing Me. from V. P. on Vimeo.