BLOODY RED BARON

SEPTEMBER REVIEWS

by Mike Baron

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SUPRALUXE: Morphine Creek

If Supraluxe were a car they’d be a gold, candy-flake futuristic custom by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth or Dean Jeffries, all complex curves seamlessly molded into a cohesive shape powered by a big, stonkin’ V8. They have a unique, instantly identifiable sound spearheaded by main writer and guitarist Jim Risser blending exquisite, bent vocal harmonies with jangle. There’s a stylistic link to the Classics IV’s “Stormy,” as well as The Hang-Ups or Sloan. Most of these songs begin acoustically and segue electric. “Divine Savage” starts as a pebble rolling downhill gathering mass like a avalanche until that hook hits you like Mike Tyson. “Holy rollers and cocaine strollers…”

“Circles’” is a minor key charmer with a killer hook. In fact, all these songs have killer hooks and leave a haunting after-image. The synth flute on “Silver Colorado” raises Blues Project hackles while the title track takes a feather from The Byrds. Their songs are both dreamy and galvanizing.

Four and a half stars.

RENO BO: Lessons From A Shooting Star

Reno’s mostly a one-man band like Greg Pope, with whom he shares a power pop esthetic. “Sweetheart Deal” has a soupcon of Nashville, where the record was recorded and might have been written by Tom Petty but Reno works his way into his own steady-rockin’ groove on the Pope-like “How Do You Do.” “Strange Maps” shares chords with Jackson Browne’s “Running On Empty” while “The Brighter Side” channels “Dear Prudence,” but these chordal similarities don’t detract from Reno’s excellent dynamics. His guitar playing on the title track sounds like Clapton, while his song-writing compares to the afore-mentioned Pope as well as Corin Ashley and a touch of Bill Lloyd. By the time you’ve listened to the whole record you have forgotten other artists.

Four and a half stars.

www.RenoBo.com

GARY FRENAY: File Under Pop Vocal (Northside)

Frenay was part of the seminal late-seventies power pop group The Flashcubes, a bright, poppy band reminiscent of The Hawks or the Raspberries. Thirty years later Frenay retains his pop smarts and aspirational chords, enriched by wisdom and a lusher, almost orchestral sound. Beginning with the achingly sweet “Blue Topaz,” Frenay offers a master class in pop smarts and sophisticated melodies often reminiscent of Burt Bacharach. “Forgot How Good Love Feels” could have come off the last David Myhr album while “It’s Like Heaven” combines a Phil Spector-ish wall of sound with a touch of Beach Boys. But it’s “Winterview” that puts him squarely in the Bacharach camp. Dionne Warwick would have snapped this up as well as the Bacharach-like “It’s Your Heart.”

Five stars

GORDON WEISS: It’s About Time

This feels like a George Martin production with dynamic pop smarts that keeps the brain at attention. Weiss knows when to switch from major to minor and back and he does it in nearly every song, beginning with the Rolling Stones-like “The Ugly Inside,” using Stones whoops and horns with a touch of Southern rock grandiosity. “I’m Your Fan” is unctuous, creepy, and oddly uplifting, capturing the ambivalence many of us feel when we actually meet our idols. “Sticky Thoughts” starts with New Orleans piano and soon enters Wanderlust territory with bent notes and Beatlesque flutes. “The Great Imitator” is an epic reworking of “The Great Pretender.” Not a bad song here.

Five stars.

www.gornpop.com

CADDY: The Better End (Kool Kat)

Tomas Dahl returns with another collection of dense, guitar-driven pop but this album is softer-edged than the munching guitars of Electric Hero. The Better End amps up the Byrds and Teenage Fanclub elements in songs more reminiscent of mid-tempo Rembrandts. The Byrds influence is most prevalent on “Siomething about Carina” and “One Year Off,” which starts off like “Tambourine Man” but slides into its own groove, and the “Chestnut Mare” sounding “Saint-Cyr-Sur-Mer.” Byrds-like harmonies predominate. As always, Dahl writes complete songs with hooks and bridges. Recommended.

Four stars.

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Mike Baron is the creator of comic books Badger and (along with Steve Rude)  Nexus.  His latest book is “A Brief History of Jazz Rock” – more on Amazon CLICK HERE.

He has written five novels in the last few years, all available on Amazon here:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1/184-5348781-8830168?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Mike%20Baron.  Visit his website here:  http://bloodyredbaron.net and on Wikipedia here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Baron