Review: Pretenders: Break Up The Concrete

My Pretenders review can be found (click here) on treblezine.com

The Pretenders
Break Up The Concrete
Shangri-La Music
2008

My first introduction to The Pretenders was seeing Chrissie Hynde play the waitress, and her band the customers, in the early video for "Brass in Pocket." But the video that I waited to see over and over again was the one for "Tattooed Love Boys." Seeing Chrissie all dressed in black, caressing that guitar like a machine, in my excited mind that made into a soldier of lust as she seductively tossed out lyrics like "Little tease, but I didn't mean it/ but you mess with the goods doll, you gotta pay." That was only the beginning, but Chrissie Hynde and her Pretenders had already won my little rebellious heart over.

To me, Hynde always had an air of timelessness to her music and on-stage persona. She's always been my ultimate dream rocker girl. She's rarely shown skin but there's definitely something sexy about Chrissie Hynde. It has to be her enticing and powerful stage presence that's matched with her lyrical tongue that's sharp, sultry and cerebral. I've grown and now have fond romantic memories that are linked to Hynde and her songs with The Pretenders. Longing love is a theme that has been a constant in many of my favorite Hynde-sung songs. I have a connection to these lyrics that mirrored the pining for a romantic connection in my life. "2000 Miles" was the theme for a long distant flame that moved to Portland. "Back on the Chain Gang" was the soundtrack of a wintertime love that was sparked on a drive through Lincoln Park, Chicago. Her cover of Ray Davies' "I Go to Sleep" from Isle of View, my favorite Pretenders album, reflected the yearning of a distant San Antonio lover who kept her kisses at a passionate distance.

I do have to say the ultimate Chrissie Hynde love song has to "Hymn to Her." Written by Meg Keen, a childhood friend in Akron, "Hymn to Her" is her personal "Hallelujah." Her lyrics reveal a timelessness of love. There's romantic passion, from the "let me inside you" line and especially in the amazing vocal delivery by Hynde in naked harmonium version from Isle of View. That version matches the lyrical intensity of the "Remember when I moved in you…" lyric from Cohen's. Both songs deal with intimacy. It's as if the lyrics connect the emotions of being in the moment of vulnerability being tied to the eventual loss of love. You can hear this clearly when Hynde sings:

"…something is lost
but something is found
they will keep on
speaking her name
some things change
some stay the same."

This same evolution of love is a theme that is heard in The Pretenders latest, Break Up the Concrete. Throughout the lyrics of this dynamic release, Chrissie Hynde is on a lyrical journey searching for the reasons why she always ends up lonely within the arms of amor. The opening number sounds like Chrissie and The Pretenders have been hanging out at Memphis, Tennessee's Sun Records. "Boots of Chinese Plastic" is a rockabilly number that has a John Entwistle-like "My Generation" bass line with a rolling, riffing backbeat that echoes Pixies "Isla de Encanta." When Hynde sings "Every drop that runs through the vein always makes its way back to the heart again…"the lyrics reflect her searching for faith to help her find understanding of heartbreak.

You will hear the return of this rockabilly vibe on the title track in which reverberates within Hynde's optimistic mindset of being alone. "The Nothing Maker" has Hynde singing a sympathetic number for the typical man she attracts. This is an ode to falling for the Lloyd Dobblers of the world or as John Cusack eloquent said, in Say Anything, "what I want to do for a living - is I want to be with you." I'm paraphrasing but it has the same effect about a man who wants no other fate than being with the object of his affection.

Hynde still tries to cling to these dysfunctional relationships on the next track. "Don't Lose Faith in Me" is Hynde trying to hold on to a failed relationship, crooning with a bit of Southern soul as she sings "If you lose harmony, you won't need me." It sounds like some of these flames are jealous of the connection Hynde has for her creative music. All they have is the love for her. I imagine that these guys can't get over the fact that Hynde's a rock artist and her music becomes a contention within the relationship.

Even with a song like "You Didn't Have To," when Chrissie sings "thank you boy for the time that we wasted…the things that you said," it's still a celebration of another broken affair. It goes back to the advice she sung on the opening number, everything makes it back to the heart.

I've fallen for the slide guitar sound in "Love's a Mystery." This is the definitive song on Break Up the Concrete. The key line in this lovely song is "A multiple offender should learn from his mistakes/ I'm ready to surrender if that's what it takes." It sounds like after a number of failed marriages, Chrissie still believes in love. You can feel it in her voice, which sounds as alive and passionate as ever. It's as if Hynde wanted to capture the spirit of her romantic inspirations on tape. You can hear it on each of these vibrant songs.

My favorite song, however, is Hynde's lusty "Almost Perfect." She is telling her new lover to never change. You know that feeling—the spark of a new love—Hynde brings these emotions to life when she instructs him to "come inside my hive." I love the feel of this song; it has an almost jazzy arrangement reflecting the romantic nature of Hynde's lyrics. Listen for Chrissie clearing her throat before the last verse. It brings a sense of nervousness as she's trying to seduce her new flame.

Break Up the Concrete ends with the bluesy heartache of "One Thing Never Changed." Eric Heywood's pedal steel guitar is showcased once again in this aching number in which Hynde sings about the boy that she loved, having to "go back to a world where I don't belong."

That lyric is why after all of these years, the older I become, I will always be a devoted follower of Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders. Hynde doesn't just sing these songs, she's lived them. Her life has been all about reaching for something greater while falling in and out of love. When she sings, it's if her lyrics reveal the truth inside all of us. We hear the pain and pleasure in Hynde songs that are familiar tastes in our own lives.

Break Up the Concrete is an album about growing older and still learning about love in a voice and a feeling that's pure Chrissie Hynde. This is the same Hynde whose only consistent bond has been with the creative callings of her band The Pretenders. Traditionally, The Pretenders' sound is born from her two backgrounds—the classic American pop songs with a punk rock aesthetic. Hynde and The Pretenders have evolved into a band that has aged like a fine wine. After all these years, Hynde and her messages of Love are some of the most personal that I've consistently craved. One trip inside Break Up the Concrete and be prepared to fall once again. She's still the most passionate rocker I've ever had the pleasure to have grown up with. Since 1976, Chrissie Hynde has been someone whose lyrical heartstrings have been exposed in all that we desire within the glory of her songs.

Adrian Ernesto Cepeda
10.21.2008

Review: Nina Simone: To Be Free

My Nina Simone review can be found (click here) on treblezine.com

Nina Simone
To Be Free
Legacy
2008

In the original era of 1960s political correctness when entertainers toned down their personal rhetoric to continue their careers as performing artists, Nina Simone could never be silenced. She was the voice of freedom. The original chanteuse channeled passionate reasoning and emotional fire to sing about growing up and living in a racially segregated United States of America. Nina stood on stage as a warrior queen with her sultry song whispering, moaning and roaring behind the piano. She held the keys to her independence during her concerts inside her protest songs that rallied against the injustice and mistreatment of her skin, her sex in the age of societal intolerance.

Throughout her multifaceted and ever changing career, Nina Simone was manipulated by record labels, mistreated by handlers, husbands and managers and wholeheartedly misunderstood and disrespected in her homeland. During her years in exile from America, this soulful siren had a spark that could never be extinguished by any type of discrimination. Any sign of exploitation only fueled Nina's rage and inspired her to sing out seductively louder and prouder than ever before.

As a confidant of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Nina Simone believed in his dream but the reality of coming of age as an outspoken African American female artist in the '60s was anything but luxurious. Fame eluded her and unfortunately infamy followed her everywhere she went. Nina's candid views were unheard of—she was a revolutionary ahead of her time. Even the Beatles refused to speak out against social injustice; Nina Simone considered it her duty to as a creative activist to criticize the powers that be about the injustice in America.

Throughout this tumultuous time and fueled by energetic fervor, Nina recorded some of the most memorable music of the 20th century. Prolific is an understatement; Nina Simone was a virtuoso on stage and in the recording studio. Between 1957 and 1973, Simone completed 27 albums for four different record labels. Unlike her personal heroine Billie Holliday, not only could Nina sing exquisitely, she, herself was a classically trained pianist. This made her a creative force as composer and lyricist. Because of this, Nina had a musician's ear and knew how to craft classic originals and adapt famous standards of her day.

It's the voice in such songs as "Wild is the Wind" that I first discovered thanks to David Bowie, "My Baby Just Cares for Me" and "I Want A Little Sugar in my Sugar Bowl" that first put a spell on me while living in the southern paradise of New Orleans.

I wish I could tell you that I've been a Nina Simone fan my whole life but in reality I first discovered her in the movies. Simone's music made her resurrected icon with songs that appeared in such films as Point of No Return, Stealing Beauty and the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. Even then, it took Jeff Buckley's elegant cover of "Lilac Wine" and the appearance of Nina's spectacular rendition of Sandy Denny's "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" in the film The Dancer Upstairs to make me a full fledged Simone devotee while living in New Orleans.

The Mississippi River in the heart of America's South was the perfect place to fall for the voice that was Nina Simone. Even though she lived and recorded more than 30 years ago, her songs and vocal style are as timeless and legendary as ever. Unfortunately, the unspoken racism that existed in my modern-day New Orleans perfectly reflected the life and times that Nina Simone wrote and recorded about over three decades earlier. I saw it, lived it, and breathed in the silent stench of discrimination, poverty and disillusionment within the city that I loved so much. It was as if the world may have technologically improved but the bigoted traditions of the past were ingrained with the Southern culture of Louisiana. This was the type of inequality that Nina Simone sung and spoke out about. What would have been Nina's thought on America's passive ignorance towards New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast after the devastation left by Katrina?

"Mississippi Goddamn," the song she performed after Dr. King's assassination, would be the song that mirrors that outrage and disgust of post-Katrina New Orleans. This and many others are found in the new dynamic four disc (3 CD and 1 DVD set) To Be Free. Not only is this a collection of vintage songs written and recorded by Nina Simone, this is the soundtrack to American history from an artist that is unknown by the majority of modern music fans. It is a criminal shame that Nina Simone is rarely mentioned up there with Billie Holliday, Aretha Franklin, and Patsy Cline as queens of American music.

To me she surpasses all of those incredible singers because Nina composed the majority of the music and lyrics to all her originals. And Simone came up with the arrangements of her favorite artists that she covered, like Gershwin's "I Love's You, Porgy" Jacques Brel's "Ne Me Quite Pas," George Harrison's "Here Comes the Sun" and Bob Dylan's "Just like a Woman."

Although To Be Free may not include all of my beloved Nina Simone songs ("Lilac Wine," "Sinnerman" and her brilliant cover of "House of the Rising Sun" among others are missing), you will hear live versions of "Wild is the Wind," the Langston Hughes-penned powerhouse "Backlash Blues" any my personal favorite "Who Knows Where the Times Goes." The 30 minute DVD, Nina: A Historical Perspective is a breathtaking insight inside the mind, the music and the voice of Nina Simone told in her own words.

Inside the music and film of To Be Free, you will see and hear why and how she inspired a generation of artists and bands. Thanks to Mary J. Blige, Lauren Hill, Alicia Keys, Cat Power, Bowie and Buckley, the legend of Nina Simone sings on within them, their vocal styles and covers of her originals. We must not forget the many films that have showcased Nina's voice and songs and helped introduce her music to a new generation of soulful enthusiasts. If you're a novice and searching for a place to start your education of Nina Simone look no further than To Be Free. This box set captures the beauty, power and essence of all that encompassed the artistry and myth that was Nina Simone.

We all have hurt, loved and lost but nobody knows this more than Nina Simone. To Be Free captures the passion, the glory and the pain of life, love and dreams. It's time to feel the spark that was as electric as the wind was wild. She was an icon. She was an artist. She was a lover. She was a fighter. She was a mother. She lived for the art of the song, and nobody brought the music of her time to life like Nina Simone. You will be moved. You will be seduced by a voice who sang for us with a soulful revolutionary spirit that thrives inside these heartfelt songs of emotional empowerment. We hope to one day rejoice in her sounds of freedom that Nina desperately desired to believe throughout her defiant life and beyond.


Adrian Ernesto Cepeda
10.14.2008

Review: The Jesus and Mary Chain: The Power of Negative Thinking

My Jesus & Mary Chain review can be found (click here) on treblezine.com

The Jesus & Mary Chain
The Power of Negative Thinking
Blanco y Negro / Rhino
2008

"Do you remember the JAMC?"

Who could forget those immortal lyrics sung so eloquently by Death Cab's Ben Gibbard on their song "We Looked like Giants?" Ben, like many of us who grew up JAMC fans, knew the importance of this band born from Glasgow, Scotland, whose feedback fury and three minute love pop symphonies shook our world from the mid-'80s and on.

Some of you may have first heard the name Jesus and Mary Chain in the film High Fidelity when Jack Black's snobby record store clerk Barry scolds a customer for not owning any JAMC albums. "They always seemed really great is what they really seemed, they picked up where your precious Echo (& the Bunnymen) left off…"

In all reality, the JAMC were created by the brothers Jim and William Reid because, "…we couldn't find records that we liked to buy." It reminds me of something pompous I used to say to too many ex-girlfriends: the reason I couldn't find any good books to read was because I haven't written any yet. Unlike me, JAMC put their foot to the distortion pedal and created a band with a sound both Reid brothers desired.

Unlike the way out cacophony of the noisy resilience of Creation labelmates My Bloody Valentine, JAMC didn't just blow the guitar amps to make sound crafted songs. The brothers Reid incorporated, "the pop sensibilities of The Shangri-Las with the production values of (Nick Cave's) The Birthday Party...and that's us…psycho and candy two extremes on the same record." Mix in a little surf guitar inspiration and you have the JAMC sound in full effect.

The Power of Negative Thinking is not a greatest hits collection. These 82 songs are b-sides, covers, alternative versions and unreleased songs make up the essence of the sound the Brothers Reid had in mind when they first formed JAMC. I've said it before and I'll state it again, you can tell the greatness of a band by the quality of their b-sides. You can trace the evolution from the Joy Division inspired darkness of the never before heard demo "Up Too High," acoustic versions of "You Trip Me Up" through blistering covers like Prince's "Alphabet Street." You will also hear one of their last songs created as a duo, "Easy Life, Easy Love" that preceded their much publicized spilt on stage at the House of Blues in L.A. There are hints of the up and coming dissolution of the band in the lyrics.

"Goodbye to fame and goodbye to Jane,
Goodbye to yesterday.
I've been around, I hit the ground,
There was a price to pay."

Even before their eventual demise, The Jesus and Mary Chain crafted pop songs were stoic and romantic by nature.

There are so many jewels on The Power of Negative Thinking. Those who believed that The Brothers Reid went soft with help from Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval on Stoned and Dethroned must have not been paying too much attention to the ever evolving careers of these Glasgow guitar gurus. You can hear sparks of their intimate stripped down flavor on the acoustic versions of "Teenage Lust" and "Taste of Cindy."

I, myself, love the Velvet Underground-inspired echoing beauty of "Psychocandy." It sounds like the best song that Reed, Cale, Tucker and Morrison never created. I can't forget the siren sounding and bluesy guitar ode brilliance of "Bo Diddley is Jesus." I dig the blow up of "Kill Surf City." What about two killer covers of "Surfin' USA?" There are so much more, the very romantic pop ditty "Till I Found You." I'm sure Leonard Cohen is smiling somewhere with JAMC's powerful cover of "The Tower of Song." I have to say "Little Stars" and the lyrics of "I'm gonna kiss your blues away" is my personal favorite.

There are way too many and with every other track I am finding new gems that I adore. I know I shouldn't have done it, gone out during these days of economic uncertainty but I had to buy this hefty priced 4-disc collection The Power of Negative Thinking. This is freaking JAMC, the band whose distorted pop crafted beauty was the soundtrack of my disorientated youth.

The brothers Reid inspired a generation of wanna be rockers to pick up guitars. You may have heard The Pixies cover of "Head On," but it's not better than the real thing. Crank it up, The Jesus and Mary Chain's b-sides and rarities will simultaneously blow your eardrums and mind. Take it from yours truly, fuck the stock market, make the wise investment by purchasing this soon to be classic The Power of Negative Thinking, and discover what you may have missed from their 21 Singles. The other side never sounded this beautifully sinister.

Adrian Ernesto Cepeda
10.06.2008