Bang Bang Jet Away – Long For This World
Bob Dylan arrived in the world of rock music as a fully fleshed-out character. With a fresh name, new identity, and a voice that seemed to come from the body of a 50-year-old gold prospector obsessed with Woody Guthrie, Dylan was compelling from the very first time he uttered a word backed by his guitar inside of a hipster coffee shop.
Decades later and Dylan’s work resonates and creates new supporters all the time. Some honour him as the greatest poet alive, even bestowing on him honours as the Nobel Prize. Even more, interestingly, others are inspired by his rough vocal inflexion and his way with words.
One such singer-songwriter has taken his passion, obsessions, and insomnia and mined them for a fresh batch of songs that feel like unreleased work from the Basement Tapes. Bang Bang Jet Away’s Long For This World is classic rock, filled with modern-day confusion. A well-written, nicely-orchestrated song about confusion and over-stimulation.
Sincerely, Iris – Carry the Fire
Even in this day of technical excellence involved in music production, the sound of the slide guitar is a wholly unique thing. We’ve heard dive bombs, razor-sharp riffs, and solos played at a million miles an hour, but the slide guitar accompanied by a distortion guitar pedal still is the closest sound to someone physically taking your body and slamming it through a glass window.
Now, slide guitar is certainly compelling, but it’s all a matter of what you do with that attention once you have it. Some meander in psychedelic-blues excursions believing themselves to be the reincarnation of Duane Allman.
Others take their chances when they get they get them. Sincerely, Iris though, has sat on the sidelines long enough watching and hearing groups like the White Stripes and the Black Keys to understanding what damage the blues can do when accompanied by modern production and a good danceable groove. The proof is Carry the fire, a menacing yet groovy affair.
