Great stuff from The Will Callers is on the way. While getting ready for the legendary Ray Wylie Hubbard to produce their forthcoming album, the guys have managed to release an amazing five-song EP for free download here. “We recorded it at home and are glad to be able to get music out that actually reflects the way we sound,” drummer/vocalist Daniel Slatton said. In place of the band’s previous contemporary alt-country predilections comes a sincere and sincerely intoxicating throwback-to-early-FM-radio vibe, lots of dirty, swampy riffage and huge hooks, old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll punch evoking Faces and Creedence throughout. The twin guitarwork on “Take My Advice” is straight from the School of Keef and Ron, with frontman Jake Murphy and guitarist Justin Elliot basically trading licks throughout, calling and responding to each other, and the bluesy, slow-roiling “87 Miles to Austin” calls to mind JSBX on ’ludes. The Will Callers won’t be local long, trust me.
Several months ago, not long after releasing The Universal Answer is Both, the grand five-years-in-the-making debut album by his Fort Worth art-rock band Alan, singer-songwriter Chris Hardee promised to release another album on the significant-to-numerologists date of November 11 (11/11/11). Well, as Hardee semi-sheepishly admitted in October, an entire album might have been something of a pipe dream. However, with the new backing band of guitarist/engineer Adam Skokan-Guinn, drummer Andy Weaver, and bassist Toby Ferril, Hardee managed to release on that most portentous of dates a song, the hyper-melodic “Jane Dover,” maybe one of Alan’s most accessible songs to date and, consequently, one of the best songs of the year. Listen/download here.
Improvised Silence is the name of a forthcoming monthly show at The Cellar (2916 W Berry St, TCU area, 817-923-6116), curated by Hentai Improvising Orchestra, the Fort Worth improv-noise outfit whose members flipped wigs at The Cellar last Sunday with Houston/Fort Worth’s The Symptoms of Stereophonic Transmission. The IS events are slated to take place on the last Sunday of every month, and the first installation is January 29, 2012, with Fort Worth’s Darrin Kobetich not on his customary guitar but on … sitar. Dernernernerrrr!
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My very good friend / former Johnny Reno band-mate George Reiff is co-producing, along with Ray, the Will Callers record. George also produces Ray along with playing bass in his, Chris Robinson (Black Crows) and Joe Walsh’s bands. George, Tom Huckabee and I had a very cool hang with the “Callers” singer Jake and his cool girlfriend at the Flying Saucer after Ray’s early summer show at 8.0.
Alan’s song reminds me of The Catherine Wheel at its best. I wish that band would play shows.