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London Bridge Studio & Norrish Reaction
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March on Egypt
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Frank Gutch Jr: The Best of the First Half of 2013
Like sixties and seventies psych? Folk rock? Pop? Straight rock? You could throw in a few more genres, put it in a mixer and you might come close to Norrish Reaction, yet another of the Seattle entries into the album of the year pot. Unlike many bands attempting to lean on the past, this band digests the period rather than copies it, coming up with an incredibly fresh… not sound, but feel. I wish I could point to a few superstar bands of the past for comparison, but I can’t find a single one that will do the job.
Thank the gods! I am so tired of the rehashed look into the past with nothing to back it up that I could puke. This whole cover and tribute thing has got my goat. But everyone is doing it. It’s co-o-l, I suppose. To them. It’s not much more than buckets of vomit to me. Well, I shouldn’t put it that strongly. Let’s just say that fifteen musicians of stature playing Journey is not my idea of music, and it still isn’t when they play anyone else, Big Star included. That’s one reason I love this album so much. Norrish Reaction is not playing someone else’s music nor are they paying tribute unless it is to the spark within them. The musical spark. The same musical spark that Zeppelin had when they started. And the Stones, even if the Stones did rely a lot on classic R&B tunes. Old bands are old bands for a reason and that reason is that they are old, people! Not the musicians but their music. I will take a Norrish Reaction to any one of your star-filled stages rehashing music which is not theirs, whether it influenced them or not. These guys are original. These guys have the spark. And this album, as much as I have listened to it (and I have listened to it a lot), has not even begun to lose its edge. This is music. This is what you should be listening to. Frank Gutch Jr: Up-and-Comers for 2013, Why All the Covers, Mental Tracks, and Notes |
International Pop Festival Seattle
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