|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CD
|
|
THR 264CD
|
"Leaving the Commonwealth is the third full length by D. Charles Speer & the Helix and features their most accomplished playing and songwriting yet, setting a high watermark for narrative honky tonk rock at this late date. Inspired by swaggering, outrageous and engaging sonic tales like Cowboy Jack Clement's 'Miller's Cave,' this album features byzantine songs which flow surprisingly quickly and with natural grace. The album opener 'Razorbacked' emits nourish cinematic imagery and twists which are matched with music sparked from a wasted mid 70s cassette from Peaches or Turtles. Numerous musical luminaries, including Freddie King and Clifton Chenier, are invoked and celebrated in song. Other tracks like 'Cumberland' and 'Battle of the Wilderness' are historically detailed and geographically specific chronicles. Dense tones flow from all corners, with guitar sounds reminiscent of Fripp or Manzanera on one end and the pedal steel tones of Emmons and Mooney on another. Beautifully recorded by Jason LaFarge of Seizures Palace in the urban environs of Brooklyn, this album is southern by lyrical setting, country by instrumental arrangement, rocking through its rhythmic heft and most certainly contemporary in attitude."
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
THR 264LP
|
LP version, housed in a die-cut jacket with full-color inner sleeve.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP+CD
|
|
3LOBED 072LP
|
"It is a tremendous understatement to say that it is with grand excitement that Three Lobed Recordings is proud to announce the release of Distillation by D. Charles Speer & the Helix. For the last couple of years we have been continually excited by each of the fruits that have resulted from Speer/Helix collaboration. For our money, 2008's After Hours album was one of the best released by anyone. Distillation only ups the ante from that prior full length by elaborating upon some of the musical themes from the late 2008 In Madagascar 7". The resulting album presents a tightly focused modern honky tonk quintet more than happy to blur the lines between country, psychedelia and the overall American musical tradition. Consisting on this album of D. Charles Speer (aka Dave Shuford from the No Neck Blues Band and Enos Slaughter), Hans Chew (last seen providing some ripping piano accompaniment on 'Fishtown Flower' from Jack Rose's The Black Dirt Sessions), Marc Orleans (Enos Slaughter, Sunburned Hand of The Man), Jason Meagher (No Neck Blues Band, Coachfingers) and Rob Gregory (the Suntanama), the Helix are a seriously experienced and talented crew. Distillation was recorded over time between the winter and summer of 2008 at the band's home away from home, Meagher's Black Dirt Studios in Westtown, New York. Includes a limited edition glass-mastered CD titled Of Snow Smoked Moose presenting a full, killer live set from the full band recorded on April 25, 2008 at the Turf Club in St. Paul, MN. This CD is not available separately." Gatefold sleeve.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
BD 004LP
|
"The much-anticipated blast-off release for Speer and his band. Recently rewarded 5 stars in Time Out mag by the music editor, this album is a landmark in laid-back blues and country songwriting, feat. members of NNCK and Sunburned." -S@1. "The inimitable Mr. Speer coined the term himself upon titling his pre-Helix full length release... Forgotten Country. Not so much a forgotten people of a state or a rural area. Not so either some Souths gonna rise again moonshine. More so a return to a way of presenting a music in the context of a tradition (something those boys in the band are pretty high on.) But this isn't your grandfathers Bakersfield we're dealing with. Tho the tongue of the balladeer may spin tales ripe with a cast of characters including 'the Pastor' Randolph Healey, Cheese Frog, the man from HHS, Uncle Ernie, that guy with the black mustache and red Caddy who stole your girl, and the true born sons of Levi, he sings them not only with the twang of the roadhouse, but tainted with the grit of the streets of the big city. As one casual listener once noted to the band after a performance, 'You guys play both types... country and psych.' And it's true that the sounds contained on After Hours do act on the mind as much as they tug at the heartstrings. Replete with tales of mental instability, infidelity, drunken advice, wartime hucksters, heartbreak, and redemption, the first album by D. Charles with his backing band will surely immediately stand out amongst the shards of gothic Americana that litter our fair sonic landscape. Edition of 500. Recorded at Black Dirt Studio" -- Black Dirt.
|