folk rock

On her new solo record, Laura Jane Grace goes back to her two most trusted partners in crime: her voice and her acoustic guitar.

Photo by Travis Shinn

On her new solo record Hole in My Head, the folk-punk singer and Against Me! founder gets back to basics: her voice and her guitar against the world.

Laura Jane Grace’s schedule from last December through the first month of the new year was, to put it gently, busy. She performed with Dinosaur Jr. at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg, then spent some time in the studio working on a top-secret cover project. She got married in Las Vegas, and flew to Mississippi for a week of recording with Drive-By Truckers’ Matt Patton. She hopped up to Memphis for Lucero Family Christmas, then played solo dates in St. Louis, Denver, Omaha, Minneapolis, and Lawrence, Kansas. In early January, she performed at a star-studded fundraiser in Wisconsin before jetting to Greece for a string of solo shows. Grace doesn’t take the intensity for granted. Over her 25 years as a professional musician, she’s learned the value of momentum.

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Thankfully, on his third solo album World Wide Rebel Songs, The Nightwatchman (Morello’s acoustic Johnny-Cash-meets-Che-Guevara alter ego) embraces his amplified roots and tracks with his touring band, the Freedom Fighter Orchestra.

Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman
World Wide Rebel Songs
New West Records


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Tom Morello playing the acoustic guitar is like Michael Jordan leaving basketball to play minor league baseball. It’s not that Morello is destined to be on the Mount Rushmore of guitarists, but as an electric guitarist he’s forged an undeniable style and influenced a generation of guitarists through his Whammy-slamming work with Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. Thankfully, on his third solo album World Wide Rebel Songs, The Nightwatchman (Morello’s acoustic Johnny-Cash-meets-Che-Guevara alter ego) embraces his amplified roots and tracks with his touring band, the Freedom Fighter Orchestra. This ensemble adds much-needed firepower to Morello’s pro-union, freedom-for-all anthems.

From the opening licks of “It Begins Tonight”—a fiery Audioslave “Cochise”- style riff on steroids—you instantly know this isn’t the same workingman troubadour. The song’s solo has the Grammy-winning guitarist going back to his wah-tastic ways creating a solo fit for Evil Empire-era RATM. The album’s first single, “Save the Hammer for the Man,” features soulful keyboard laced with steadfast strumming by Morello and guest guitarist Ben Harper. The song climaxes with dueling solos: Harper on lap steel and Morello working his pedalboard pyrotechnics. “Stray Bullets” depicts embittered American soldiers in Iraq accompanied by Morello’s version of Duane Eddy twang. Fist-pumping songs like “Black Spartacus Heart Attack Machine” and “World Wide Rebel Songs” offer a familiar Nightwatchman-esque folk-rock vibe with sing-along choruses and vigorous strumming on his “Whatever It Takes” Ibanez Galvador nylon-string. Slowpaced tracks like the sparse, remorseful “God Save Us All” and the downtrodden warning of “The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse” counterweigh the album’s bombastic rockers.

The instrumentation and compositions on World Wide Rebel Songs show off Morello’s abilities as an electric wizard and a soulful singer-songwriter, and the music’s dynamic range makes this the most muscular, well-rounded Nightwatchman album yet.

This record draws on rich and dynamic folk rock with subtle backing beats, all held together with hypnotic crooning by Andrew Kenny and other members of the band.

The Wooden Birds
Two Matchsticks
Barsuk


Andrew Kenny has not slowed down since indie-rock favorite, the American Analog Set, disbanded after nearly 10 years in 2008. After leaving his spot in Columbia University’s Ph.D biochemistry program in 2003 to devote a full-time schedule to music, he’s also toured and worked with the likes of Broken Social Scene and Ola Podrida. With a recent move from Brooklyn back to his Texas roots in Austin, Kenny is now fronting the Wooden Birds, who are embarking on a North American tour in support of their sophomore release, Two Matchsticks.

While the Wooden Birds’ sound is a departure from the layered, drone-pop styling of the American Analog Set, Andrew Kenny’s marquee guitar work, progressions, and storytelling about life, love, and heartbreak are omnipresent. This record draws on rich and dynamic folk rock with subtle backing beats, all held together with hypnotic crooning by Kenny and other members of the band.

The Wooden Birds boast a solid lineup of three other Austinites—drummer Sean Haskins, and guitarists-singers Leslie Sisson and Matt Pond. Magnolia, the Wooden Bird’s first release, was conceived by Kenny before the band actually existed. In the case of Two Matchsticks, the majority of the songs were played and worked out live before going into the studio—a methodology the band was pleased with as it allowed them to set the songs’ tempo and styling before rolling tape.

That said, one beauty of this album is that the live sound of the Wooden Birds is not necessarily captured on the recording. Yes, Kenny’s trademark guitar sounds ooze from the album, but he is the bassist for this collaborative effort while on tour. Additionally, you won’t hear any drums on this album—like Magnolia, most all the backing rhythm beats were created by banging on Kenny’s “world’s most poorly cared for” Gibson J-45, along with some maracas and tambourine.

The Wooden Birds have concocted a superbly blended elixir of vocal harmonies and atmospheric twang with a spot-on balance of folk-pop, country, and indie flavor. Movingly catchy, soft, and beautiful, this record will quickly inspire the need to take a summer road trip.