Green Cookie records

CDs/LPs/Singles – Reviews

GRAVES BROTHERS DELUXE  “San Malo”

Format: CD | Label: Green Cookie | Spielzeit: 41:03 | Genre: Rock’n'Roll/Garage

Wertung: 7/10

Eine wilde Mischung aus Psychdelic, Psycho, Rock, Surf und Konzept liegt dem Album zugrunde. Vor allem gibt es sogar eine Story, die die Songs nacherzählen, sie berichten von der versunkenen Piratenstadt San Malo.

Dabei sind die Geschichten der Songs sehr schräg, könnten manchmal ein wenig mehr zurücktreten hinter dem Sound. Am besten sind die zurückgehaltenen Gitarren, die auf einen Einsatz warten, zögern und sich dann langsam in den Vordergrund spielen und mit ihrem Sound manchmal unberechtigterweise hinter dem Gesang zurückbleiben.

Und dann sind da die Tracks, wo die Gitarren sich fast wie THE SURFARIS anhören, und dann wieder so freie Improvisationen, dass man an Noise erinnert wird. Eigentlich müsste man es unter Psychedlic-Surf einordnen, wenn es die Kategorie geben würde.

Ein cooles Fusion-Album der skizzierten Genres, für jeden Geschmack ist etwas dabei und zu einem neuen Süppchen zusammengebrutzelt. Manchem mag es vielleicht ein wenig zu viel an Zutaten sein, aber man kann es gut anhören!

Thomas Neumann

© by Ox-Fanzine / Ausgabe #88 (Februar/März 2010)

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03 March 2010

the graves brothers combine near-suicidal excess with hairpin-turn discipline to create the most confounding and commanding rock album of the year.
thanks mike and nikos. shelton

John Shelton Ivany

http://www.jsitop21.com/

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Graves Brothers Deluxe – San Malo (Greek import CD, Green Cookie, Progressive)

So many bands either go for a total pop/rock approach…or experimental music so weird that it alienates most listeners. The guys in Graves Brothers Deluxe manage to tread on the fine line that separates both worlds. The band has been very busy over the past few years recording their own music and working with a wild array of different artists in all kinds of different mediums. San Malo is right up there with the Brothers’ best recordings. Some of these tracks are moody distorted pop/rock…while others feature more abstract sounds and ideas. Interestingly, the album is being released on the Greek Green Cookie label. Strange how many cool credible American bands find far more support in other countries (?). Ten groovy cuts here that glide all over the audio map. Our favorite tracks include “I’m Fine,” “My Heart Burned Down Today,” “The Ballad of San Malo,” and “Noisy Kind of Nothing.” Another killer release from one of the true American classic underground bands. TOP PICK.

http://www.babysue.com/2010-March-LMNOP-Reviews.html#anchor80612

babysue® | March 2010

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Schwindy’s indie music spotlight: Graves Brothers Deluxe

February 26, 5:07 AM | Orange County Music Examiner Gary Schwind

Orange County Music Examiner rates this: 4/5

Let’s start this off with a little quiz. Choose the best answer. You know you are an indie music artist when:

a. You play a gig for a dozen or fewer people.

b. You sell your merchandise from the back of a van.

c. You end up on a Greek record label.

OK, I don’t know exactly how Graves Brothers Deluxe ended up on Green Cookie Records from Thessaloniki, Greece. However, it’s not surprising to me that the band couldn’t find a label in the US. This is a band that plays the antithesis of 3-minute pop songs. San Malo is a collection of songs that includes a lot of heavily distorted, hypnotic guitar, and skronking saxophone. Oh, and lyrics that sound like they should be recited by some beat poet smoking a French cigarette and topping off an all-black outfit with a black beret. Either that or Captain Beefheart. A couple examples of the sort of far-out beat feel are “Splinters” and especially the last song on the album, “Song for Mating Mailmen.” Yes, someone wrote a song for mating mailmen. (It’s about time.) And yes, it’s easy to imagine this song being the backdrop for someone’s poetry reading.

But that isn’t even the song I would classify as the most unusual on the album. That designation belongs to “Papio Papio (the Swamp Ape Again).” This song has tremendous energy. And tremendous discord. This is not the sort of song you play for people who enjoy the Grammys. Well, it is if you want to chase that person away. Trust me, I don’t mean that in a negative way. I mean, quite simply that this song is the perfect antithesis of all things Grammy and pop.

I have never seen your music collection, but I think it is fair to assume that you don’t have many albums like this in your collection. According to the one-sheet, this is a “post-Katrina retelling of St. Malo, Louisiana, a swamp village founded in 1763 by Filipino deserters of Spanish galleons.” All I can say is that if this is the soundtrack of a village, it must be one really unusual place. WARNING: This album will take some getting used to. It’s not one that you can sit down with and immediately start singing along. But if you ask me, it’s this sort of album that makes music worth exploring. The musical world would be pretty dull if every band played easily digestible pop songs. Graves Brothers Deluxe most certainly does not. If you are looking for something different, and a little challenging, give this album a try. I think you’ll find it’s worth the challenge.

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February 20, 2010

NEW MUSIC REVIEW: THE GRAVES BROTHERS DELUXE San Malo CD

Filed under: Album Reviews, Reviews — russelforster @ 12:01 pm | Pirate Cat Radio 87.9 fm, USA

THE GRAVES BROTHERS DELUXE / San Malo CD / Green Cookie Records / 2009

Brilliant bad-attitude rock expertly produced by L.A. legends Geza X and Paul Roessler. World-weary in a totally pissed-off way that’s also very funny, with some of the tastiest slide guitar I’ve heard in years. BONUS: Features PCR ace DJ STOO ODUM on stringed instruments, vocals, and way-offbeat songwriting.

SOUNDS LIKE: RADIOHEAD, NOMEANSNO, GUN CLUB

SUGGESTED TRACKS:

1 “San Malo National Anthem” (instrumental goodness)

4 “Five Foot Category Five” (ambivalence defined)

6 “My Heart Burned Down Today” (catchy and danceable – a hit!)

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The Graves Brothers Deluxe, “San Malo” (Green Cookie Records) Rating: 4 TCB’s ****

I kept scratching my head on this one. I love it, no question about it, but I was puzzled at why I was so drawn in. Then it hit me. The stripped down, beat driven arrangements and haunting lyrics remind me of the late great Mark Sandman and his jazz/experimental work with Morphine. If you can imagine a musical stew of Morphine, Beck and Wall of Voodoo with a pinch of Gang Of Four and the Sex Pistols thrown in. Now picture Frank Zappa stirring the pot then you’re about halfway there.

This album is the musical re-telling of a swamp village in Louisiana founded in 1763 by Filipino deserters of the Spanish galleons. Heady stuff indeed but these guys not only pull it off, they’ve created an album that the listener can really sink their teeth into for years to come. This isn’t disposable music that loses its flavor after a few listenings.

“Five Foot Category Five” has an eerie swamp groove that will have you checking the skies and battening down the hatches. “My Heart Burned Down Today” sounds a bit like the Sex Pistols “Submission” covered by a young Talking Heads. “The Ballad Of San Malo” is a mesmerizing personal favorite. Highly recommended stuff.

Review by J.R. Oliver | Ear Candy magazine  http://www.earcandymag.com/reviews-0210.htm

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The Big Takeover > essays

Nara Denning (featuring Stoo Odom of The Graves Brothers Deluxe), Part II

by Chris Stroffolino | 16 January 2010

The Graves Brothers Deluxe were one of the first three rock bands I got into when I moved to the Bay Area, the only one not named after a front-man (in contrast to Kelley Stoltz and fellow Mississippi Exile, Hudson Bell), and the only one for which I jumped around in an Apesuit, on our package shows for the now defunct Good Forks record label (before my accident).

Always one of the most danceable of the Bay Area bands, the band’s first release in 5 years, SAN MALO, and their first on Greece’s GREEN COOKIE records (an implicit commentary on the paucity of quality/viable Bay Area independent labels), has even tighter grooves, from the rhythm section of Marco Villalobos and Stoo Odom, while
stepping their “noise rock” jams up a notch; the glorious melodic cacophony of Willie The Mailman’s (ex-Residents ) sinuous and jagged guitar/saxophone lines recall Albert Ayler, as “backed” by the rhythm section of The Minutemen, if not Firehose). Perhaps it’s a result of 5 years of touring since 2005’s FILTER FEEDERS, or their work on the MAHIKARI album (Birdman 2008), with Japanese noise-rock legends SEIICHI YAMOMOTO and MAKOTO KAWABATA, but many of the tracks on SAN MALO have a much more expansive instrumentalization, while the words —never a central aspect to GBD— take even more of a backseat. Perhaps because GBD’s singer is first and foremost its bassist, the words are usually only important insofar as they call attention, often playfully, to the inadequacy of words, as on FILTER FEEDER’s “…And The Conversation Turned To Sex” or SAN MALO’s “Noisy Kind Of Nothing.”

At the same time, San Malo is the most melodic, and tuneful LP in the GBD’s catalogue —not that melody was ever that important for GBD. But, with the addition of Allison Lovejoy on keyboards, many of the new GBD compositions are much more “college radio” friendly, without sacrificing anything about what makes them such an engaging live band. I recently sat down with Stoo Odom to talk about GBD and his work with Nara Denning. Here’s some videos.

“It came from the Id,”

Interview, with Stoo and Nara

And here’s the information about their San Francisco Release Party
Pirate Cat Radio co-presents: “San Malo” CD release party!
WINSTON TONG (ex-Tuxedomoon) & LX RUDIS
THE GRAVES BROTHERS DELUXE
MARK MATOS & OS BEACHES+ original films by Winston Tong and Nara Denning

Wednesday January 20, 2010
8pm, $8, 21+
Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., San Francisco, CA USA

GBDLX’s long-awaited 4th full-length album comes out next week! It’s (almost) a full-on rock opera about the village of St. Malo, Louisiana. The Asian-American experience began there in 1763 when Filipino indentured servants escaped Spanish galleons and founded the town in the remote swamps east of New Orleans. GBDLX retell the village’s isolation, struggles, and eventual destruction-by-hurricane through a post-Katrina, post-lumpia filter. Beautiful violent art by New Orleans institution Bunny Matthews graces the CD cover.

Headlining the show is legendary Tuxedomoon frontman WINSTON TONG, performing with LX RUDIS and members of the Graves Brothers Deluxe themselves! Porto Franco Records artists MARK MATOS & OS BEACHES open the show, and original films by Winston Tong and Nara Denning will punctuate the evening.

“San Malo” is brought to you by Greece’s GREEN COOKIE Records. It’s available in the USA through Super D Distribution (www.sdcd.com) and CDBaby (cdbaby.com/all/mikesurf); in Europe through Clearspot (www.clear-spot.nl), Soundflat (www.soundflat.de), and Hands & Arms (http://handsandarms.com) – and very soon through www.gravesbrothers.com …

Thank you! More info:
www.winstontong.com
www.markmatos.com
www.bottomofthehill.com
www.piratecatradio.com
www.greencookie.gr
www.gravesbrothers.com
www.myspace.com/thegravesbrothersdeluxe
www.facebook.com/pages/The-Graves-Brothers-Deluxe/195063714889

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ANTIMUSIC: http://www.antimusic.com/reviews/10/Graves_Brothers_Deluxe_-_San_Malo.shtml

Graves Brothers Deluxe – San Malo
by Gary Schwind

I first encountered Graves Brothers Deluxe a couple years ago on a split with Boxcar Satan, so I kind of knew what I was getting when the new album San Malo arrived. That being said, the band is not any easier to classify than it was at first. I know this much. If you are looking for 3-minute pop nuggets, keep looking.

The guitar on this album is rather hypnotic, particularly in the first couple tracks. Frankly, if you can think of a better word for the guitar on “I’m Fine,” I’d love to hear it. When this song is playing, it doesn’t feel so much like you are listening to it, but rather that it is washing over you. The distorted guitar and the uptempo drums seem to surround you. The band follows that with “Splinters,” one of a couple songs that features some skronking saxophone. Maybe it’s the saxophone, and maybe it’s the lyrics, or quite possibly, it’s the utter chaos, but something about this song feels a bit like beat poetry. Performed by Captain Beefheart. An even better example of that beat poetry feel is “Song for Mating Mailmen.” (And you thought no one would ever write a song for that particular group of people.) It is real easy to imagine some guy in a beret with a French cigarette hanging from his lips reciting a poem while this song plays in the background. Perhaps there is no better example of the difficult to describe quality than “Papio Papio (the Swamp Ape Again).” This is just a song with all-out blazing energy and a fair amount of discord. I doubt you have too many songs like this one on your iPod.

The thing about this band and this album is that as you go through it, you realize you’re hearing something completely different. You’ll probably also realize that you won’t really know how to explain this album to your friends. But let’s face it, that’s one of the great things about music: passing along music that is truly different and perhaps a little challenging to listen to. I mean, if everyone sounded like a Grammy winner (that is to say, bland and safe), music wouldn’t be worth exploring. Suffice it to say that if you explore music that is not easily pigeonholed or compared, this is a band and an album that you’ll want to check out.

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JERSEYBEAT:

The Graves Brothers Deluxe – San Malo (gravesbrothers.com)

Jim Testa

Not only is “San Malo” inventive, but it’s also an enjoyable throwback to bands like Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Southern Culture on the Skids, or any of those cool-as-fuck, demi-punk garagey bands. You know what I mean, like the bands who’s vinyl albums you have a hard time trying to get rid of, because you know they’ll never come up with a band as eclectic as they are.

Enthusiasm and melody are certainly not a problem here. Songs like “I’m Fine,” “Vulture Sing,” or “Noisy King of Nothing” are low-brow, compressed with high energy, and have a polite blowtorch vocals that could boil over at any minute.
When the tempo slows down on numbers like “Vulture Sing,” or “My Heart Burned Down Today,” they draw you in like a hypnotist.- Tantalizing, taunt, and tight.

The Graves Brothers Deluxe’s pull out all the stops for the neo-psychedelic, spiderwebed sound of “Noisy Kind of Nothing.” A running bass line (just about every song here), is dominate, but not forceful, and is well supported by a pulsating drum kit, marked by cymbal rolls and floor tom flourishes.
Playing with punky venom, but without pop slickness, the band’s goth-horror edge offers doses of humor, and tongue-in-cheek-truths.

Bands like The Graves Brothers Deluxe are sometimes viewed as a novelty act, but they easily avoid such trappings by remaining uniquely cool. “Song for Mating Mailmen” squashes any thought of pigeon-holing this band. Creative and fun, it’s time to turn off the TV, unplug the video games, and tune into something unique and original!

http://www.jerseybeat.com/philrainone.html

Jumpin’ Quails – What’s Your Jump Like?

( Green Cookie / Clearspot)

De globalisering kent geen grenzen: waar surfmuziek voorheen vooral bekend was aan de Amerikaanse westkust, kregen wij in Nederland halverwege de jaren negentig onze eigen surfers in de personen van The Treble Spankers. Hun “Red Hot Navigator” is nog regelmatig op de radio te horen. En nu is er zelfs een surfpopband uit Torino, Italië: Jumpin’ Quails. Zij mixen hun surfpop met o.a. The Doors-achtige orgellijntjes (in “Blue Hot Sauce”, een titel die verdacht veel lijkt op de titel van de single van The Treble Spankers trouwens), vrolijke gitaarlijntjes en pianolijntjes (“Liza”) en een toefje jaren-zestigrock (“Pet So Beat”). Dat de Jumpin’ Quails het Engels niet als moedertaal hebben, is wel te horen aan de uitspraak, maar dat ze uit Italië komen, is echt alleen te horen in “Ginger Quails”, dat dan ook in het Italiaans gezongen wordt. What’s Your Jump Like is een vrolijke plaat, die in deze donkere dagen voor kerst een beetje vrolijkheid en ook licht in de duisternis brengt. Muzikaal heeft de plaat echter verder niet al te veel om het lijf. Het genre is helaas veel te weinig te horen, maar juist daarom verdient het wellicht betere vertegenwoordigers. Het wordt tijd voor een comeback van The Treble Spankers!

File: Jumpin’ Quails – What’s Your Jump Like
File Under: Italosurf
File Audio: [MySpace]

#| | | Joice | 11 december 2009 – 16:57 | reacties (0)

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JUMPIN’ QUAILS “What’s Your Jump Like?”CD

Green Cookie Records Cat#GC019 | International Release Date: 1 September 2009

Από τον Nofunkydrummer | 21-09-2009

To layout του cd  είναι φοβερό, με ένα πολύ όμορφο «εξώφυλλο», μικρό booklet με στίχους και φωτογραφίες, μια σούπερ παρουσίαση από την δική μας Green Cookie Records  δεν έχει να ζηλέψει τίποτα από τα λεγόμενα “major-kiss-my-ass” labels. Μη γελίεστε η Green Cookie  υπάρχει εδώ και αρκετό καιρό και θα υπάρχει για πολύ ακόμα καθώς πρόκειται για ανθρώπους με αγνή αγάπη για το Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Οι Jumping Quails, από το Τορίνο της Ιταλίας ορμόμενοι, και από τα 60’ς και την mod σκηνή φανερά εμπνευσμένοι, μας έχουν ένα καλούδι για να σας πούμε καλό φθινόπωρο. Έχουν αναμείξει όλα τα καλά στοιχεία από την αγαπημένη μου μουσική δεκαετία σε μια σφιχτοδεμένη συνταγή με κύριο γνώμονα την power pop. Τουλάχιστον έτσι  μου ακούγονται στην πλειοψηφία τα κομμάτια τους με εξαίρεση το Contis που ανοίγει το cd (σούπερ σπαγγέτι σερφ), το Ginger Quail που αποκαλύπτει πόσο επηρρεασμένοι είναι από το ιταλικό Beat της δεκαετίας του 60, και το Merry Go Round που είναι ένα σούπερ χορευτικό κομμάτι και βεβαίως το Les Sucettes του Gainsbourg!. Οι Jumpin’ Quails ξέρουν πολύ καλά τα όργανα τους, παρουσιάζουν πολύπλευρους ρυθμούς (Ska, Surf, Beat, Power Pop) και κοφτά ορθά riffs  αλα Jam  και έχουν το σωστό attitude  για να είναι αρεστοί και σε πιο σύγχρονα αυτιά από τα δικά μου, με εξαιρετικά φωνητικά και μια καλοπαρουσιασμένη δουλειά. Θα τους ήθελα πιο παλιακούς αλλά δεν μπορούμε να τα έχουμε όλα σε αυτή τη ζωή! Άλλωστε ο σκοπός που νομίζω πως είναι να κάνουν  το κόσμο να χορέψει επιτυγχάνεται πολύ πολύ εύκολα! Βάλτε το  cd  σε φουλ γκάζια και θα δείτε πως το φθινόπωρο ξεκινάει καλά και με λιγότερη από εκείνη την μελαγχολία από το φοβερό και τρομερό βίωμα που όλοι έχουμε με το τέλος των διακοπών και την αρχή της σχολικής χρονιάς!(παλιμπαιδισμός στο έπακρο). Τα πηδηχτούλικα ορτύκια (ελληνιστί για το Jumpin’ Quails)  σας προσκαλούν σε ένα πάρτυ κοκταίηλ με 14 εκρηκτικά συστατικά γεμάτα φωνούλες , φαρφίζες, κιθάρες προκαλώντας και τα πιο δυσπιστά οπίσθια σε παλινδρομικές κινήσεις!

http://www.myspace.com/jumpinquails

http://www.greencookie.gr

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THE DADDS
THE JUMPIN’ QUAILS
The Real European Union

European garage bands. Do they even have garages in Europe? And more importantly, do The Dadds and The Jumpin’ Quails qualify as garage? Not in my neck of the woods, but I was raised by wolves in the then isolated, dank and rain-soaked region of the Pacific Northwest where garage was rule rather than exception. We’re talking The Wailers, The Sonics, Mr. Lucky & The Gamblers and a whole host of other popular headliners at teen clubs and armories on the Oregon/Washington/Idaho circuit ―not exactly top of the line, but home to the dancing Pirates, Warriors and Bulldogs who sometimes needed to shake off the home team loss. The sound was loud and more than likely muddled, the venues at times housing military vehicles behind or to the sides of the stage. Think M*A*S*H with loud music and a concession stand.

When Europeans attach the term “garage” to various band styles, my ears perk up. Sonics? Wailers? These guys are not even close. But Seeds, ? & and the Mysterians, The Count Five and Blues Magoos? Oh, yeah. Toss in a little surf/hot rod and white bread R&B and I get it. Power pop. What you call it is just a matter of semantics anyway. It’s what’s in the grooves that counts.

Kids in the States are now listing French Pop among their favorite listening genres and I shall assume that The Dadds qualify with what they give us on Idees Choc & Propos Chic, but maybe not. Dipped in a vat of Seeds, ? and the Mysterians and many other farfisa and organ-fronted bands, they are drizzled over helpings of late ’60s pop ―not with the normal Hollywood slick production but the vibrant and in your face sound. Driving, intense and yet wimpy (it has to be the organ), they bounce from track to track like a runaway train ―narrow gauge, not standard (for model trains, that would be HO)― putting their thumbprint on each one and pressing, pressing. Even when they lighten up a bit, the focus is still there and you begin to wonder if they are having fun or are just driven. There is a difference among cultures, musically, or we wouldn’t have French Pop and Kraut Rock as categories and maybe the French are a bit more intense than those of us in the States but my Gawd, it should be fun! Well, maybe it is. All but a couple of the songs are in French and all the French I know is what Charles Boyer put on the silver screen, so what do I know? I know that the song Sex a pile might not even be what I imagine, the singer repeating at the end of most lines, “Sex appeal, Sex appeal…” and I’m probably not even close. Sounding alike is not being alike and yet my mind cannot let go… even though the bio says their lyrics are seen as funny and literary how can I tell?

All that aside, The Dadds hit a chord with their lineup of guitar, bass, keyboards (mostly organ) and drums, the singer falling somewhere between Sky Saxon and Moulty of The Barbarians, the French Connection. When you pick this up, set yourself because you will be deluged with songs titled L’Amour avec Fenelon and Comme quoi parfois la demographie, and I guarantee you, it ain’t Frere Jacques.

A stone’s throw away reside Italy’s The Jumpin’ Quails and they’re a different kettle of fish, though they dip fingers in a bit of The Dadds‘ stew. What’s Your Jump Like? kicks off with a Ventures-with-organ instrumental composition titled Contis, a Grobschnitt electro-vocal clip run at twice-speed on the bridge, then step into a Standell’s/Barbarian’s rocker (Pet So Beat) and the ride is on. They pour the late ’60s over you like chocolate sauce on a fat man’s ice cream ―track after track of it and most of it in English. They excel on the instrumental side of things, keyboards and guitar stepping way beyond the norm of the genre. They not only get the sound, they get the feel and I find myself paying little if any attention to lyrics (much like I did in the actual ’60s, come to think of it). I mean, what good are lyrics when the music says it all?

When they step outside the English sector, as they do on Les Sucettes, it is The Dadds all over again. It is not the band’s fault, nor is their music less. It is a simple matter of being wired for English, and real English and not that King’s stuff. They can slang it up as much as they want in Italian, but when you don’t understand Italian you start paying attention. Get it? I remember my father shaking his head at Rock & Roll and saying, ‘but you can’t understand the words.’. It has taken me this long to figure out that maybe you’re not supposed to, but when you can’t understand the language…

There is a bit of Brit Rock to each of these bands as well. As much as I didn’t pay attention, the Brits did something right back then or us Americans would not have been emulating them so much. Most notable is The Jumpin’ Quails‘ Carnival Riot with its guitar riffs from another planet. It is Georgie Fame, Italian-style, with guitar evidently playing in another key most of the time, but who cares? They got the sound down.

To complete this European Union, the bands head to Greece to get it done. Both albums come courtesy of Green Cookie, a label ready to reach beyond borders to get the music they want. If The Dadds and The Jumpin’ Quails are any indication, they could easily build a niche label of note. Tell you what. Forget my narcissistic views and research the bands and the label. They may be a bit underground now, but there is a chance they won’t be for long. There are interesting things happening in France and Italy and Greece. Very interesting…

Frank O. Gutch Jr.

Rock and Reprise.net