The Band Focuses on Ramshackle Alt-Country. They

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE BNobody’sAND OF HORSES Daughter [Universal] Mirage Rock [Columbia] The first album released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really frontwoman Courtney Love’sBand of Horses wasted no time following up 2010’s Grammy-nominated second solo album—co-founder,Infinite Arms, and on Mirage Rock, the intention to move forward is clear. songwriter and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson isn’t involved,The band focuses on ramshackle alt-country, seldom playing straight rock nor is any other previous Hole member. So it’s Love andsongs three and occasionally forgoing the “alternative” altogether. After recording ringers on 11 new songs—10 of which Love wrotetheir with first three albums with Phil Ek, the group recruited producer Glyn Johns. collaborators like Billy Corgan,The slight Linda country Perry and twang new frontman Ben Bridwell has always exhibited is more guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perry gets full credit on one tune, “Letter to God.”) pronounced, and it’s now echoed in the guitars—particularly on the acoustic Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s heyday appears to have“Long left along Vows” with andher former lead singleDaniel Jackson “Knock Knock.” But even if the group has bandmates, but there are fl ashes here of the snarling Too often, though, the slower songs trip her up. While once fury Love deployed to suchembraced devastating Americana effect back in in the a bigday. way,they their were lyricsshowcases center for harrowing on the responsibilitiesdisplays of naked emotion, of She spits out her vocals 30-somethingswith vengeful disdain in on the “Skinny modern Little world—andLove sounds the more question dispassionate of whether these days. this The modern production Bitch,” overdriven guitars roiling atop an elastic bassline that doesn’t help—the songs have an airless, sanded-down feel that speeds up as the song worldraces toward is hurtling a climatic toward pile-up at destruction. the doesn’t fi tBand with her ofvisceral Horses persona. haven’t Courtney completely Love’s tumultuous end. She shifts tempos and attitude on the more contemplative history suggests that she has a compelling story to tell, and “Pacifi c Coast Highway,”shifted taking stock away as layers from of theiracoustic indie and rockperhaps roots. she does.They’ve It’s just honed not the onein on she’s their telling country on Nobody’s electric guitars chug along behind her. Daughter. –Eric R. Danton heritage with affection rather than affectation. –Amanda Farah COURT YARD HOUNDS A side project of new offering suggested that its creator was a few strides closer to Dixie Chicks’ Martie crafting something truly monumental in both musical and social terms. Court Yard Hounds Maguire and Emily This cold and private set isn’t it, although that’s probably due more to [Columbia] Robison, Court Yard personal circumstances than anything related to talent. Wainwright Hounds delivers wrote All Days Are Nights while his mother, Kate McGarrigle, was much-anticipated dying of cancer, and there is a quiet, complex sadness even in its insight—both musical and personal—into the sisters who have less autobiographical material. There’s nothing here except piano for so long ceded center stage to Chicks singer Natalie Maines. and vocal, and Wainwright doesn’t project his words in the way Though steeped in familiar instrumentation, the album offers little we’ve come to expect from him. Instead of serenading the person of the barn-burning brashness that made the Chicks famous (save in the farthest corner of a packed theater, he’s singing to himself in perhaps the gutsy “Ain’t No Son”). Instead, its delicate folk-pop an otherwise empty room. –David Styburski prettiness perfectly suits Robison’s more-than-capable voice and the jumble of emotions, sunny and melancholy, that emerge in a song Ozomatli’s music has been called a collision cycle inspired by her 2008 divorce. Maguire’s weeping fi ddle and OZOMATLI of styles, a cultural mash-up, and a 20-car seamless harmonies are welcome as always, and her one turn on pileup of genres. It’s also some of the most lead vocals (“Gracefully”) is so warmly affecting that listeners may joyfully energetic music you’ll ever hear. On wish‘The she stepped band to the mic focuses more often. Court Yardon Hounds ramshackle ably its fi fth album, the L.A.-based band stirs its demonstrates that, whether with their fellow Dixie Chick or without, blend of salsa, ska, samba, funk, and hip-hop these ladies’ talent runs deep. –Katie Dodd in ways few groups could conceive. Imagine alt-country. They’ve honed inFire on Away their tossing the English Beat, Herb Alpert and the For a dozen years, the [Mercer Street/Downtown] Tijuana Brass, Caetano Veloso, and Sly and RUFUS arrangements on Rufus the Family Stone into a magical blender and country heritage withWainwright’s affection albums got you get rathersome sense of Ozomatli’s eclectic approach. High points WAINWRIGHT busier and his sometimes on their latest, Fire Away, include “Are You Ready?,” a horn-and- All Days Are Nights: Songs naughty, occasionally percussion-driven blast of salsa-fl avored ska; “Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah,” for Lulu than affectation.’angry declarations of gay an exultant Latin pop anthem fi tted with shrieking sax; and “Gay Vatos [Decca] pride got louder. Each in Love,” a rockabilly-tinged tune with a soaring chorus. Even when 70 MAY 2010 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE M3_v10.indd 70 5/14/10 3:37 AM.

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