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Belly Up to Clemson’s 356 and Sol Driven Train

By Michael Staton

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Consisting of 10 road tested tracks, the carefully crafted music and philosophical lyrics of Perfect World shows off U-Melt’s inimitable skill in its finest form. It is a rare band indeed that can navigate the intricate twists and progressive rock turns of “Panacea,” “Question Matters” and “Elysian Fields,” offer up the eminently danceable riffs of “Pura Vida” and “Clear Light” and gorgeously imbue the title track with a warily optimistic idealism. With a national release date of February 23, 2010, the inescapable rock and roll energy and dance grooves of U-Melt’s Perfect World will move your psyche as well as your feet.

www.umelt.com

http://www.myspace.com/modaddysbar for more information

featuring Velvet Truckstop

October 16, 8:29 AMHouston Entertainment ExaminerZac Bodner

You know, a friend of mine lent me a cd recently.  I was so inspired by how bad @ss it was that I decided to give a fake lecture – a mock lecture, if you will – about the elements that comprise a way gnarly rock and roll album, as if I myself were the band responsible for making it.  F*ck yeah dude!

Alright settle down, everyone take your seats.  There will be no texting or chewing gum while class is in session.  If you have to go to the bathroom, just go ahead and go.  We’re all adults here.

First topic of discussion today will be BAND NAME.  Gotta have it its your key to everything.  Head and Shoulders says, or used to say, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”  This is true for most things, including rock and roll bands.  The first thing people hear before they hear your music.  In most cases.  The name of the band we will be discussing today is Velvet Truckstop.

Now velvet is a silken fabric known for how smooth and comfortable it is.  A truckstop is a gas station on the side of the highway.  It would seem that the two don’t necessarily complement each other.  By the end of this lesson, we will see whether they do or not.  For now, lets move on.

Next on the agenda, SONGWRITING.

Songwriting.  People write songs too why?  Too why?   Bueller?  Come on whose with me?  To relate? So they can say, hey man, this is whats going down can you dig it?

So, what is good songwriting?  I would say, any song or words that involve one more of the following ideas – A) The love of a good woman, B) A good woman breaking your heart, C) Killing said woman (Jk dude), D) The darkness and the light, E) The highway, F) The journey, G) Good booze and fast women, H) Your family, I) Your friends, J) Your dreams K) Heartache and pain, L) Coming back home.

Take the song Carolina Way for example.  Its about a man and a woman and the road and trying to make a living while balancing a life in there somewhere.  The opening riff is incendiary.  Burnin.  “I play it loud so they can sing,”  says Jamie Dose, the lead singer of the band.  IMO, This is all you need to know about singing a song.

Next on the docket, ALBUM COVER.  The first thing you see.  Not one person on earth could look at that baby in the pool swimming towards the dollar on a hook and not know what it is.  Gracing the cover of the album is the throat, neck, shoulders, head, face and red hair of a very good looking woman.  Beneath the picture, the name of the album – Sweet Release.  Her skin looks like candy.  Like velvet.  HEY-O!  I’m no vampire, but I’d bite the sh*t outta that.  The sheeeee-y*t out of it.

Next up as we keep rolling, “SOUL.”  What is soul.  Anybody?  Soul is, well, I don’t know.  I know a guy who might know, though.  His name’s John.  He’s a rocker.  He said in a song he sang once, I don’t remember which, he said, “Music only knows what the people feel.”  What does this mean?  I don’t know.  But perhaps it has something to do with this “soul” thing.

Moving along.

It would seem, that a truckstop is a place on the highway you can bring your car or truck to put some gas in it.  You can also go inside and use the bathroom.  You can also buy a shirt that says “Dixie,” or purchase some chips and a soda.  Music is like a truckstop.  It fills you up so you can keep trucking.

Velvet is a material that is smooth and silky.  When the ladies see you wearing it they go, Ooh. When I first heard this album, I was driving around my neighborhood looking for something to eat.  It felt for the most part, that I was gliding along a freeway.  Like a crow.  Like I was riding on velvet.  HEY-O!  Music is like velvet.  You wanna make a couch out of the stuff.  Or a sweater.

Alright we’re running out of time here.  Last thing.  The Music!

Music is like a gift from the Lord above, hallelujah.  It knows what the people feel.  And that means, it knows a whole f*ckin lot.  It takes a special group of people to make good music.  Everyone can’t do it you know.  As a beginning guitaristo, I can tell you this from experience.

When I listen to this band, I hear some of my favorite musicians,  as well as theirs.  I hear some of my favorite and most outstanding rock and roll and country music bands of all time.  Like Marshall Tucker Band.  And Neil Young.  And Lynyrd Skynyrd.  And Widespread Panic.  These are excellent teachers, but the sound and play of this band is theirs alone.  Specially when they bust out that pedal steel for ya, YEEEEOOOWWW!  Or that slide geeee-tar.  Watch out now.  Nothing quite pulls on the old heartstrings like that pedal steel.

This band takes its identity from the two nouns that comprise it’s name.  Velvet, and Truckstop.  The result is highway music.  Beer drinking music.  Rob a liquor store music.  Kidding!  Just wanted to wake up all the sleepers out there.

One last thought before the bell…

Buy the cd you communists!  www.velvettruckstop.com

visit www.therocketclub.net for tickets and details.

Bujak is someone who combines jazz with electronic based production, not beat driven nor it it new age, but it’s definitely something somewhere along the middle. I don’t mean new age in a corny sense, but… let’s just say that if labels like ECM and Kudu were at their peak in the 90’s with some of the electronic music innovations, they might create the kind of sounds that Bujak is exploring in his music. There are eight tracks on the album, the shortest one being 5:47. Even when the musical journey feels comfortable, he throws something into the equation to disrupt it for the better. For example, “Sea” is very tranquil and indeed fluid, but right before the midway point he starts playing the electric piano as if he was Ramsey Lewis circa-1974. Before that, you hear Latin rhythms and then it might move into something that borders on smooth jazz, that is until the unexpected is thrown in again. “Nomadd” might be more on the progessive side of things, if only for the fact that the sound he uses for the keyboards is unlike anything that resembles. Same for “Mutator”, it’s as if Bernie Worrell entered the machine with Jan Hammer and they had synth babies. In fact, consider this an electronic interpretation of Jeff Beck’s Blow By Blow and Wired, as Bujak makes music that is meant to be listened to on an intense level but can also work for atmosphere.

Fans of Jazzanova are sure to get into this for the way it gets into a groove without even trying, plus add to this the fact that these are very good songs. “Yogoque”, with a soulful performance from vocalist Christine Devlin Eck and harmonies from Jistin Eck, could easily be used as a lure for people to hear more from Bujak (I was going to say single but in a better world everyone would still be buying singles) and of course the Eck’s. Electronic music enthusiasts will find a lot to grip on with Alive Like The Spine. One of the best albums of the year.