SPAZ Reviews DOG TRUMPET's Medicated Spirits!

DOG TRUMPET

MEDICATED SPIRITS

BUY at IMPORTCDS.COM

BUY at DEEPDISCOUNT.COM

For a quick rundown on Dog Trumpet, please see my earlier post about them HERE.

         For over 35 years, Reg Mombassa and Peter O'Doherty have been creating some of the most distinctive music in Australian history.  While they were two-fifths of Australian legends Mental As Anything from 1976 to 2000, they were crucial to that band's success. Martin Plaza (guitar and vocals) and Greedy Smith (keyboards and vocals) may have been in the spotlight a bit more, but Reg's slide guitar and Peter's inventive bass playing helped to create and fuel the Mental's unique sound.  The fact that Reg and Peter wrote plenty of songs for the band only solidified their standing as two of Australia's premiere talents.  When The Mentals went on hiatus at the end of the '80s, Reg and Peter formed Dog Trumpet. Their debut album, Two Heads One Brain (1991), continued in the Mentals tradition of expertly produced Roots Rook/Pop.  The Mentals got back on track in the mid '90s but that didn't stop Dog Trumpet from releasing their next album, Suitcase, in 1996.  Reg and Pete left Mental As Anything in 2000 in order to focus on Dog Trumpet and their art projects.  The duo released three more albums from 2002 to 2010 (Dog Trumpet, Antisocial Tendencies and River Of Flowers), all of which were gloriously unique and inspiring. 

Now, three years on from River Of Flowers, Reg and Peter have released their masterpiece - Medicated Spirits.

While it's not entirely different from their last few albums, the duo have come up with their finest batch of songs to date and released in as a double album... on two CDs! It doesn't get much better than this, to be honest.  19 songs and every one of them a gem. Reg and Peter don't just write Pop songs - they paint aural pictures that they fill in with different shades, colors and genres. But with that being said, the tracks are still very earthy and warm. The charm in Dog Trumpet's music is that there is such beauty in their simplicity.  Dog Trumpet sound like no one else and that is a rarity in this day and age. The album is awash with acoustic instruments and delicious harmonies that offer up an almost magical feel to each track. This isn't music created to shift units - it is music that connects with the listener on many different levels.  Shifting units is just a plus. Fans of Alt-Country, Pop, Rock 'n' Roll, Blues and Folk would do themselves a favor by clicking on one of the links above and buying Medicated Spirits immediately

Highlights: 

     The album's opener, the instrumental "Elizabethan", is similar in spirit and style to some of Paul McCartney's early '70s instrumental pieces on the McCartney album. Yes, it's that good.  

     "Speed Of Light" kicks things up a notch with it's heavy fuzz bass and Psychedelic Folk groove. Peter's affinity for Psych-influenced melodies is immediately apparent here.  

     Reg's "Made In The World" is a catchy Blues/Folk ditty with a keen Pop sense to it  You will find yourself singing this track to yourself and your friends for weeks afterwards (and MY friends can verify because that's just what I've been doing since I first played the album!)

      "Bored Wife" has been one of my favorite Dog Trumpet songs since it appeared on an EP two decades ago.  They've re-recorded it for this project and it has lost none of it's emotive power in this new updated version.  It is touching and melancholic, although a bit more raw and loose.  

     "Ray Davies And The Kinks" sounds nothing like Ray Davies and The Kinks although the lyrics paint a glorious picture of a road trip listening to Ray and the boys, and that is just as fun.  More Muswell Hillbillies than Kinda Kinks, its a track that will earn repeated listenings on your next road trip.  Who needs Ray when you have Reg?

     "Methylated Spirit" has a wonderful hook that is accented by some fantastic harmony vocals that sound almost other-worldly. 

     "What Falls Away" is a splendid Pop song from top to bottom.  Again, the backing vocals really help make the song the perfectly constructed recording that it is. 

     "Camel Rock" features fantastic lead vocals by band member Bernie Hayes, a performance that now has me trying to track down his two solo albums. Hayes gave a stellar vocal performance on "Bloomsbury Birds" from their album Antisocial Tendencies as well.  

     "Broke In Many Parts", "Tell Me" and "Moon And Star" have some of the prettiest melodies that Peter has written.

     While they don't sound like old Mentals recordings, songs like "Telegraph Pole" and "Arriving At The End" wouldn't sound out of place on their albums Get Wet and Espresso Bongo. 

     I could go on and talk about every single track on the album, but my goal here is to inspire you to run out and buy Medicated Spirits, not to bore you with my personal love affair with this double disc delight.  Dog Trumpet have recorded the best album of their career thus far as well as one of the best albums of the year.  Not bad for a couple of fellas who've been doing this for nearly 40 years... not bad at all!

Peace, love and puppies,
Stephen SPAZ Schnee

10 Reasons Why You Should Be Excited About A NEW Album From DOG TRUMPET!

DOG TRUMPET 

Is

REG MOMBASSA

and 

PETER O'DOHERTY

Dog Trumpet has a NEW double (2CD) album due on August 12th, 2013. It is called Medicated Spirits. You can purchase it through their website HERE. 

Why should you care?  

Here are 10 very valid reasons:

• Because Dog Trumpet features two enormously talented singer/songwriters who also happen to be two of Australia's finest artists. 

• Reg did the artwork for PiL's Greatest Hits album!

• For 20+ years, Reg and Peter used to be members of one of Australia's finest Pop combos, MENTAL AS ANYTHING. 

•  Mental As Anything did THIS song (btw, that's Reg on slide guitar and Peter on bass):

• Reg and Peter are brothers. 

• Reg Mombassa is one of the coolest names in Rock. But alas, it is not his real name.  I reckon those who have known him since he was a wee lad probably still call him Chris O'Doherty.  

• Peter O'Doherty is NOT Pete Doherty, the drug addicted dickhead from The Libertines and Babyshambles.  Peter O'Doherty is the melodically-gifted basshead from Dog Trumpet. And formerly of Mental As Anything. 

• Dog Trumpet has already released five albums:

Two Heads One Brain (1991)

Suitcase (1996)

Dog Trumpet (2002)

Antisocial Tendencies (2007)

River Of Flowers (2010)

• Their 2013 release, Medicated Spirits, is a double album (on two CDs). Not many bands have enough quality material for one album, let alone a double.

• Dog Trumpet has released some amazing material in their 20+ year career.  Including songs such as these: 

So, what are you waiting for?  Time to head over to www.dogtrumpet.com and order Medicated Spirits.

You can purchase it through their website HERE. 

COLIN HAY/Gathering Mercury: Available NOW!

COLIN HAY

GATHERING MERCURY

AVAILABLE NOW

Gathering Mercury is the 2011 solo album from singer/songwriter extraordinaire Colin Hay.  While many may best know him from his days as frontman for Men At Work, his solo career, while not exactly prolific, has shown more sincerity, depth and maturity than anything he did with the band.  And besides, that was then, this is now! 

Gathering Mercury is a portrait of Colin Hay the performer, songwriter, and recording artist and perhaps most importantly the man behind the persona. The lyrics reveal the emotional peaks and valleys of the past year during which time Hay lost his father, but Hay stands the test of a true artist and demonstrates his ability to marry immediacy and depth without being maudlin or sacrificing the pop accessibility for which he is known.

MENTAL AS ANYTHING/Tents Up Review

Three decades after they released their debut album, MENTAL AS ANYTHING are still around, thank goodness. Even the most mundane Mentals track is better than half the stuff out there... not that there are many mundane Mentals tracks to begin with!

Just out is their BRAND NEW album, Tents Up, and here's what I had to say about it on All Music Guide!

" On August 16th, 1977, Elvis Presley died. On that same day, in Australia, Mental As Anything played their first gig. So, here it is, 32 years later and the Mentals are still touring and releasing new music, but things have changed. At the beginning of the millennium, bassist Peter O’Doherty and guitarist Reg Mombassa left the band, the first Mentals line-up change in over two decades.
Following 2001’s uneven Beetroot Stains album, drummer Dave Twohill was ousted from the band and vocalist/guitarist Martin Plaza and keyboardist/vocalist Greedy Smith remained the Mentals’ only original members. Their next release, Roadcase in 2002, suffered the same unfocused fate as the previous year’s album.
The band began to slowly recover by issuing Plucked in 2005, an album of acoustic renditions of their past hits, and they continued to tour. Now, seven years after their last real studio album, the band returns with Tents Up, an album that may not return them to their glory days (’81-’85), but is certainly their best album since 1995’s Liar Liar Pants On Fire.
Martin and Greedy remain masters of the pop song, able to knock out wonderful melodies and make it sound so damn easy. While there doesn’t seem to be a bonafide modern Top 40 chart hit on the album, that’s only because the band are sticking to their guns and recording a Mental As Anything album and, for the first time in a decade, aren’t trying to mess with the formula. “Moaning Lisa”, “Covered In Women”, “Lazy”, “She Could’ve Been Mine”, “Blues Guys” and “Karaoke Hostess” are all worthy additions to the band’s vast catalog.
On the band’s two previous studio albums, ‘new’ recruit David ‘Duck’ Barraclough was allowed to contribute songs and, while he was obviously talented, his style didn’t fit the typical Mentals sound. On Tents Up, his contributions (“I Know You Will” and “Easy”) fit quite nicely into the Mentals mix and are also standouts on the album.
While the band are not as musically playful as they were on albums like Cats & Dogs and Creatures Of Leisure, they make up for it lyrically with plenty of witty moments that hold up over repeated listens (“Loving you is like a rodeo/Bucking hard all the time”). Old mate Reg turns up to play guitar on a few tracks, sounding as great as ever (he’s now in Dog Trumpet with O’Doherty, his brother).
I must admit that, on first listen, the album sounded a bit too safe, but it really opens up after a few spins and takes the listener for a fun ride. Welcome back, Mental As Anything!"

Stephen SPAZ Schnee