The New Wild

Freakish Blues

I heard The New Wild (TNW) a few months ago with literally nothing in way of having any expectation for their sound, even what genre they were. I went in completely blind. Since listening to them the first time I have noticed they have classified themselves as “Freakish Blues” which I think is beautiful and fitting.

            When I flicked on their EP I was delighted to hear slurry, sloppy, frothy blues come out of the speakers right away. No build up. No warning strums to get me ready for the blues that were to come. I have only recently gotten into down and dirty blues like George Thorogood (most of his tracks being about whiskey has nothing to do with it, okay!) and Joe Bonamassa and I’ve been looking for a new band to get into and actively listen to so I can satisfy the bluesy hole I had. It looks like turning on TNW’s EP was a wonderful choice.

            With their grungy, growly vocals and rough, bluesy guitar they’re the perfect answer to a musical question. “Is there a place for blues, true blues, in a world where blues music is tragically become more and more scarce?” Well, obviously the answer is yes. Although the EP is a short one and in that way leaves the listener feeling a little unsatisfied, the tracks are so musically, well, interesting that even with just four tracks it at times feels like a full album. They do not leave any stone unturned. They don’t leave any leaf untouched. The shortness of their EP is easily made up by its efficiency to tell the tale they came to tell.

            TNW, with an odd twist, add different genres and sounds to their tracks throughout the EP. With little warning, their sound and overall genre shifts so fast that you they have already shifted back to their default sound before you’ve even noticed what’s happened.

            The first song on the album, Dallas is a perfect example of this. At first I was a little confused about the track. I didn’t really find where it fit with their overlying sound. It sounded an awkward pick for the vibe I was getting from them in the previous track. But then I realized that I was looking in all the wrong places. I was searching for a cookie cutter. Their previous song had established something for me that TNW had no plan of establishing. Then, to both mess with me and explore their musical boundaries, the sound started to change.

            With the inclusion of a garage-rock type sound in Dallas, though I now understood where the motivation stemmed from, I was still foggy on the influence. Until I did some extensive research and read their bio and noticed the first band on their influences list; The White Stripes. This little bud of knowledge served me well in two ways: 1. I was finally unburdened with having to figure out where this seemingly new/random style was stemming from and more importantly where it was going and 2. The EP actually started talking to me as an album and not just a random compilation of songs and sounds that were haphazardly thrown onto a disc.

            Also on said influences list are The Black Keys and Flat Duo Jets which are so wonderfully prominent on the EP that I dare a listener not to see their finger prints all over it.

            My favourite track on the EP is Wail. Not just due to the radio friendly sound and the light story about music, sex and love but because that wasn’t the only interesting and thought provoking thing that caught my attention on this track. As soon as the song started when I heard it for the first time I was all ready to start blasting it on having poor balancing. The guitar was way, WAY louder than everything else. I’m glad I continued to listen instead of making a silly first glance judgement because it only took a minute to figure out why. Although a pretty simple track, technically speaking, its simple qualities are easily forgotten once that loud, bluesy, rough, gooey guitar shows its face in-between each chapter of the story. The guitar work in-between these chapters I can only really describe as “cool”. Another great surprise on the EP.

            Finally, Play it By Fear is by far the most complex track on the EP. Starting off with loud, overdriven guitar feedback flowing into a guitar riff that I can only describe as Hendrix-y, the styles that are explored on this song are as numerous as they are difficult to seamlessly flow into one another. Let’s go through a few of the styles that I found on this track. The song starts with overdriven rock guitar into a Hendrix-y acid rock riff, then as the verse cuts in, all distortion disappears and it sounds like Nirvana is doing a guest session with TNW then to break up the verses it slips into a heavy rock kind of sound (although it could be argued that that Nirvana was still visiting as it does remind me quite a bit of the chorus of Smells Like Teen Spirit). I think I may be able to safely say that I have never heard these genres come head to head in one three-minute song. And the complexity and sheer craftsmanship of the songs seem to naturally come secondary to something that is ever-present throughout the EP… It is just so cool.

            The New Wild is a great, unconventional “freakish blues” band that going in I had absolutely zero expectations. All I have to say is that they surprised the shit out of me and I’m glad they did. I have added them to my normal playlist on my iPod and I highly suggest you do too.

The New Wild Stuff:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thenewwild?ref=br_tf

Bandcamp: http://thenewwild.bandcamp.com/

- Justin

Frank Turner

Celtic/Folk/Punk/Rock

            I’ve loved Celtic/folk/punk music since the first time I heard The Fields of Athenry, an old Irish folk song covered by The Dropkick Murphy’s. After listening to the Murphy’s extensively in my teen years and pretty well memorizing their albums I decided to explore more bands and acts. This led me to some of the greats like Flogging Molly, The Mahones and others. I needed more. It wasn’t until years later that I finally found my much needed addition to this wonderful genre of music.

            I had heard Frank Turner off  and on for about half a year on compilation albums and on those random “related videos” that pop up on YouTube. Then a got a call from a couple buddies that they were going to the Frank Turner show at the Burton Cumming’s theatre and wanted to know if I wanted a ticket. I asked when it was. It was in two hours.

            Scrambling on my phone I bought a ticket online and raced to the theatre not really knowing what I was getting into. I knew very little about Frank and his music. What I’d heard I’d liked but I had never actually given it a second glance. Well that was the best short notice decision I ever made.

            The fact that I’m writing this should pretty well tell you the rest of the story of how the night went. I was absolutely awestruck. Not just by the music and the energy, but by the atmosphere Frank creates at his shows and the fan base he has earned through his listeners trusting him. Trusting him to make good music. Trusting him to always deliver. And trusting him to never stop pushing the musical envelope.

            I can honestly say that that was one of the most exciting concerts I have ever been to. I stood beside without a word of a lie, a five year old girl sitting on her dad’s shoulders singing along to every song Frank played and on the other side a sixty year old man with massive sideburns and a studded leather jacket also singing along.

            To me, the mark of a great artist isn’t necessarily the art they create but rather the people that appreciate it. And with over a fifty year gap between just two of the fans I saw that night is any indication, I’d say Frank is doing pretty well. To be appreciated by three generations is a Rolling Stones level of appreciation.

            The first couple songs that really grabbed my attention were his “hits”. I know that’s not exactly a popular position when discussing musicians, but what can I say, they’re his most accessible tracks so that’s where YouTube sent me.

            Photosynthesis and Long Live the Queen were my first glances at Frank’s portfolio and though they are certainly radio friendly, mainstream tunes I believe they were hits for the wrong reasons. I believe they were hits because of their catchy, upbeat sound Not for the content of the tracks. After all, Long Live the Queen is a story about a friend dying. But whether or not they are hits or radio friendly or mainstream does not take away from the fact that they really are great songs for an array of reasons and their catchy attributes and deep stories are just two of several reasons.

            As I delved deeper into Frank’s catalogue I noticed that this otherwise catchy, upbeat band had some songs that were quite dark and featured drastic realizations a young man was making in reference to growing up, the progression of the world he lived in and his observation that most of the world is looking at itself through rose coloured glasses. My first notice of this darker side Frank seemed to have to himself was on the track Love,Ire & Song where frank talks about what he saw as a bitter teacher he had while growing up who essentially told Frank that when you grow up you may as well give up. Life is just a big disappointment. Might as well not try. Frank saw this as a betrayal from an individual who was supposed to be guiding him and wrote him off as a “wash-up” and that kind of attitude was a “fucking cop-out”. Frank made the vow that so many young people do, “When I get to your age I won’t…” In this case Frank vowed not to be a coward. However, as the song progresses Frank obviously finds out that his adolescent vow quickly seemed to not only disappear from his teacher’s life but by most people that he saw daily. His idealist approach he had as an adolescent clearly didn’t translate into the real world of grownups.

            “All the things that I believed with all my heart when I was young/Are just coasters for beers and clean surfaces for drugs.” Frank finishes up this realization, that being that he is clearly the outsider for still having ideals and passions, that being part of a dying breed, you might as well go out with a bang. Instead of just fading away, “If we’re stuck on this ship and it’s sinking/Then we might as well have a parade.”

            Earlier I mentioned that Long Live the Queen is his most popular (or one of the most popular at least) tracks due to how catchy it is, which is true, but I may have overstepped my bounds saying it’s popular for the wrong reasons. Whatever the case, I am very happy the song got as popular as it did because it still sits near the top of my Frank Turner list. Frank is one of the best in the business I’ve seen to turn pain, real guttural pain, real excruciating pain and turning it into art, unconventional art and making it that people will actually want to consume it. A painful, personal tale of his last moments with a friend and then her death is just such a terrible but beautiful story. Just because there is pain and sorrow throughout life and unfathomable evil, there’s still a light at the end of the tunnel.

            Frank Turner has a great blend of Celtic drawl (even though he’s English…) and peppy folk that really gets to the heart of what music, real honest music ought to be. Yes, music is a serious business about getting serious messages across, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun with it at the same time. Frank is a true talent that doesn’t play for the money… well maybe enough money so he can continue getting tattoos… but Frank is there for the message. He’s there for the fans. And he’s above all there for the music because he has something he wants to say and he would die before giving up his platform to say it.

Songs to listen to:

Photosynthesis, Long Live the Queen, Faithful Son, Live Fast Die Old, The Ballad of Me and My Friends, Once We Were Anarchists

- Justin