Vagrant Records
Black Joe Lewis used to be Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears. They started as a rough and tumble soul band with a funky blues streak. Two records later, Electric Slave finds BJL sans Honeybears and with a much more direct and dirty-garage-blues feel. The songs are mostly fast paced but there are a few good riffy stompers mixed in to keep you guessing. BJL is for sure pushing his voice more as well. There's a strain and a force in his singing that's reminiscent of James Brown or Howlin' Wolf. He uses this throughout most of the album rather than using that kind of snarl to punctuate lines. The production is a little bit dirty and lo-fi and, along with the extra grit in the guitar tones and voice, it can cause some muddiness in the mix at times but when the solos kick in or the choruses are meant for hooky sing-a-longs everything is clean enough so you don't miss out on any of the tasty bits. There is still a full on horn section and the band is at their best when they're whooping up some old school boogie-woogie, like on "Guilty". There is a great deal more channeling of Thickfreakness era Black Keys and some serious love for Hound Dog Taylor's furious rhythms here.
While it sounds like a lot of change has happened BJL has not so much moved out of a style as evolved into something a little more his own. The soul is still there it's just been turned up so loud and pushed so fast it doesn't come across as quite as soulfull. That's not such a bad thing though! This is house rockin' music, what it lacks in smoothness it doubles up on in energy. This doesn't mean they just blindly speed they're way through 40 minutes of jangled four chord slop. There is a great deal of attention to guitar tone here and when you're playing this kind of amped up blues that's a must. You've got your thick fuzz on some riffs... you've got your sharp/cutting funk sound... and then there's an over driven solo tone to push the guitar up above the band. This kind a thing is sorely missing in the realm of rock n' roll these days and it's about time someone who can play the hell out of a guitar also new how to tailor their tone to songs and parts of songs. I also wish more garage bands would take a queue from the sounds on Electric Slave and add in some solid rocking horns and or keys to fill out their sound and make it more interesting. Shit... the Sonics were doing it in the 60's! What made everyone forget how cool that sounded? Granted this is a much funkier Chicago blues style horn section than the Sonics had but it the extra added flavor of horns makes the transition from Side 1's furious funk ender "Come to My Party" to the heavy hitting blues riffs of Side 2's "Vampire" and "Make Dat Money" without skipping a beat. There is a great deal going on throughout the record without even a hint of pretension or self indulgence. It's just jumpy, full force party music!
While it sounds like a lot of change has happened BJL has not so much moved out of a style as evolved into something a little more his own. The soul is still there it's just been turned up so loud and pushed so fast it doesn't come across as quite as soulfull. That's not such a bad thing though! This is house rockin' music, what it lacks in smoothness it doubles up on in energy. This doesn't mean they just blindly speed they're way through 40 minutes of jangled four chord slop. There is a great deal of attention to guitar tone here and when you're playing this kind of amped up blues that's a must. You've got your thick fuzz on some riffs... you've got your sharp/cutting funk sound... and then there's an over driven solo tone to push the guitar up above the band. This kind a thing is sorely missing in the realm of rock n' roll these days and it's about time someone who can play the hell out of a guitar also new how to tailor their tone to songs and parts of songs. I also wish more garage bands would take a queue from the sounds on Electric Slave and add in some solid rocking horns and or keys to fill out their sound and make it more interesting. Shit... the Sonics were doing it in the 60's! What made everyone forget how cool that sounded? Granted this is a much funkier Chicago blues style horn section than the Sonics had but it the extra added flavor of horns makes the transition from Side 1's furious funk ender "Come to My Party" to the heavy hitting blues riffs of Side 2's "Vampire" and "Make Dat Money" without skipping a beat. There is a great deal going on throughout the record without even a hint of pretension or self indulgence. It's just jumpy, full force party music!
Citra Saison
5.7% ABV
There are a few semi-famous Portland breweries, Allagash and Shipyard are the first 2 that spring to mind. If you look harder though there is craft-brew scene that is just bursting at the seams with talent. Foundation Brewing Co is one of that scene's participants. Focusing on Saisons, (a lighter, tangy Belgian style of ale), they're not so much confining themselves but rather taking that template and seeing how far they can push it. The particular variety of Saison we're talking about here is Citra. It's named after the variety of hops they used to dry hop this particular beer. Belgians are not known for their use of hops so this particular notion of adding hops to beer in it's secondary fermentation stage is quite novel. Citra pours a hazey yellowish-orange color which is slightly darker than a traditional Saison but the haze is quite normal. Belgian yeast strains and the process of dry hopping will cause haze in a beer so that's par for the course. The nose is mostly a tart fruit smell that is curbed by a fresh and floral hop smell. This light bodied easy drinker comes on sweet at first with a good amount of honeydew at the swallow. There is a bright hop flavor, not overly bitter but fresh and green, in the finish and aftertaste. The warmer the beer gets the more pronounced the floral and fresh hop notes get, especially in the aftertaste. Without being dubbed a summer beer, (which usually mean heffenwiesen's with lemon zest which are 2 of my least favorite beer things), Citra is a perfect summer beer. At 5.7% ABV it's not going to knock you sideways and with the tart refreshing nature of Saisons you've got a sure fire winner.
Thief of Thieves: Vol. 1 - "I Quit"
Image Comics
Writer: Nick Spencer
Artist: Shawn Martinbrough
It should be no secret by now that I'm quite a fan of Image Comics. They've got a wide variety of interesting things going on and with much more of an exploratory feel than Marvel of DC. These are not time tested and much beloved characters, these are people telling stories they want to tell. But enough about why I like the publisher, let's discuss the book. Thief of Thieves is about just what you'd think it's about from the title. Yup, a professional thief. Also as you may have guessed from the title of the volume it's about said thief's "last job". I don't believe I'm truly giving anything away by telling you 
that it's not in fact his last job. I mean is it ever really your last job when you're a professional thief? The plot to this book is as old as dirt but they wouldn't keep telling it wasn't still compelling. There is a general 2 step process to these kinds of books; thief wants out to make up with family he's put aside in order to be a thief, thief has to continue to be a thief in order to save his family from some peril he got them in being a thief in the first place. Dear God what will they think of next! Obviously I'm oversimplifying it but I'm not that far off.
that it's not in fact his last job. I mean is it ever really your last job when you're a professional thief? The plot to this book is as old as dirt but they wouldn't keep telling it wasn't still compelling. There is a general 2 step process to these kinds of books; thief wants out to make up with family he's put aside in order to be a thief, thief has to continue to be a thief in order to save his family from some peril he got them in being a thief in the first place. Dear God what will they think of next! Obviously I'm oversimplifying it but I'm not that far off. As with all familiar stories Thief of Thieves is about connecting with the characters and how they actually pull of these amazing heists. The trick is to make the bad guys sympathetic characters and the heists seem just plausible enough to be believable but so elaborate and risky that no one would actually try them to find out. Spencer does both of these things very well. You want the bad guy to win because he's got a code, his family is in jeopardy, he's charming and honestly because the good guys seem like real jerks. He also takes great care with the heists and kind of runs you through the Oceans 11 drill of introducing characters and their skill-sets. Every scene change also has it's own title, like "Stay in School. How Augustus Fucked Up." or "The Unexpected Meeting. or, An Uncomfortable Moment." which adds a little extra fun to the book. The art is similar to "Sex Criminals" only a tad darker. Very much a old school American cartoon style that's been tightened up for a new audience. Similar to Darick Robertson's style if you muted it a bit and told him to chill out with the line work and fine detail. So Thief of Thieves isn't breaking down any barriers or reinventing the wheel but they are bringing an unfamiliar genre to the realm of comics. So if you're sick of super-humans and space-elves than this is a great alternative. As a final note; I'm not saying all comics should be made into movies but if this one is and John Hamm doesn't get the lead role then something is seriously wrong.
