Album Review: Downtown Boys- Full Communism

The Clash was my favorite band from 1979 to 1983.  Hip-hop and Cut the Crap made the Clash a far less important part of my life in the mid-’80s.

Full Communism, the new album by Downtown Boys, provides me with the same sort of jolt I once received from a new album by the Clash.

I don’t necessarily concur with the Providence band’s politics, but exposure to tear gas in South America last month has made me more receptive to radicalism.  Strident Full Communism songs such as "Wave of History" are balanced by amusing tirades like “Tall Boys.”

Punx not dead.


---
I reviewed Failure’s concert at Liberty Hall.

---
I featured the AM Trio on KCUR’s weekly Local Listen segment.

---
Justus West, a Kansas City, Kansas, teen, remade “Alone Again (Naturally).”

---
I listen to a lot of Red Dirt country acts.  Most are interchangeable.  Jered Deck, formerly of Green Corn Revival, has tapped into something both vital and traditional with ”17 Miles”.  The hearty song is RIYL: Will Hoge, Gaslight Anthem, Joe Ely.

---
Mark Guiliana’s Family First doesn’t do much for me.  RIYL: drummer-led jazz albums, Kamasi Washington, solos for the sake of solos.

(Original image of a mural in New York City by There Stands the Glass.)

The Right Profile

As a typical teenager, I viewed the world in black and white. 

I took the nascent punk revolution at face value and renounced my affinity for everything that didn’t conform to the new sound.  I spent the better part of a year attempting to be a purist, an absurd challenge for a kid who grew up loving Waylon Jennings, Michael Jackson, Elton John and Stevie Wonder. 

It’s almost impossible to overstate the impact of London Calling.  When my favorite band embraced jazz, reggae, rockabilly and blues in 1979, I was freed from the false stylistic constraints of punk.

I wasn’t alone.  Thousands of Midwestern kids like me would soon welcome a new wave of Los Angeles bands like the Blasters and Los Lobos. 

J.D. McPherson’s excellent Let the Good Times Roll reminds me of that era.  The smart, funny and soulful album is as solid as anything that came out of the roots revival of the early 1980s.


----
I reviewed Aaron Lewis’ concert at the VooDoo.

---
I created a Local Listen segment about Maps For Travelers for KCUR.

---
The lineup of the 2015 edition of Rockfest represents a step up from recent years.

---
Orrin Keepnews has died.

----
EarthEE, the new album by THEESatisfaction, is very good.  RIYL: Shabazz Palaces, funkateers, Erykah Badu.

---
Ibeyi’s self-titled album is just a tad too precious for my taste.  RIYL: Dirty Projectors, public radio, Cibelle.  Here’s Ghosts.

---
Jacky Terrasson is the exactly the type of brash ambassador that jazz desperately needs.  That said, his new album Take This makes me want to listen to Slayer.  Here’s the album trailer.

---
If Spoon wasn’t really good, the band might sound like Diamond Rugs. Cosmetics also resembles an  inferior version of the Latin Playboys or Morphine.

---
Gang of Four's What Happens Next is depressingly uninteresting.

---
Bob! How could you? (I love that man.)

---
I don’t even know who I am anymore.  A couple tracks on Diana Krall’s easy listening album Wallflower brought me to the brink of tears.  RIYL: Julie London, elevators, Andy Williams.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)