CD Review: Mickey Wynne – Running on Empty

We’re late in reviewing this one, but Mickey Wynne’s guitar playing and songwriting defy the ravages of time: the Liverpool-born rock vet delivers vivid, smartly played, smartly written Americana rock. As befits a guy with an Electric Ladyland/Abbey Road Studios pedigree, the song are superbly produced, blending rustic acoustic textures with a savage, electric, early 70s psychedelic bent, guitars swirling, bending, phasing in and out. Perfectly illustrative song: the lush ballad Against All Odds I’ll Do It, with its layers of acoustic guitar and mandolin that build to a big, sweeping crescendo before coming back down again with a majestic grace.

The tour de force here is the fiery, insistent Bush era parable All Quiet on the Eastern Frontier, funky acoustic guitar giving way to macabre, reverb surf guitar on the chorus and an equally nightmarish outro. It could have been an A-list Dire Straits album cut from 1982 or so. The title track is a shapeshifting John Lee Hooker-style blues with sparse, incisive slide guitar accents that morphs into pounding Led Zep style riff-rock; the hallucinatory, reverb-drenched French Blooze evokes recent work by Spottiswoode or Marty Willson-Piper. Wynne plays the usual UK roots music haunts: the 12 Bar, et al.; the live tracks up on Wynne’s site confirm his reputation as a dynamic, intense live performer.

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Top Ten Songs of the Week 7/20/09

We do this every Tuesday. You’ll see this week’s #1 song on our Best 100 songs of 2009 list at the end of December, along with maybe some of the rest of these too. This is strictly for fun – it’s Lucid Culture’s tribute to Kasey Kasem and a way to spread the word about some of the great music out there that’s too edgy for the corporate media and their imitators in the blogosphere. Every link here except for one will take you to each individual song.

1. Livia Hoffman – All My Imaginary Children

Bitter, brittle and brilliant. And unreleased – you’ll have to see this one live, assuming the underground rock legend keeps coming out of her lair to play it. It’s a fan favorite.

2. Mickey Wynne – All Quiet on the Eastern Frontier

Absolutely spot-on, darkly bluesy critique of war profiteering, Bush and Tony Blair-style. Roger Waters would approve.

3. Sabrosa Purr – One Weak Moment

Hypnotic and sad in a Sparklehorse kind of way

4. Billy Magee – The Happy Song

NOT. But it’s funny. He’s from the Statues of Liberty.

5. The Hellblinki Sextet – Indelicate Brew

Deliciously ominous oldtimey noir cabaret from this excellent, totally original Asheville, North Carolina band.

6. Romashka – Shimdiggy

Characteristically fiery balkan dance instrumental. They’re at Pier One on the upper West on 8/9 at 7 PM.

7. Skelter – Lucifer Sam

Classic Pink Floyd cover, not quite up to the True West version but pretty awesome anyway.

8. Mazarkabul – Behind the Veil

Classic Turkish metal. And here’s a cover of Fear of the Dark by Iron Maiden.

9. Lisa Burns – When You Walk in the Room

Irresistible Jackie DeShannon cover, totally retro 60s style.

10. The Whiskey Daredevils – Mickey’s Big Mouth

Barroom rock. “A six of Mickey’s Big Mouth and a half ounce of weed. I’ve got Mickey’s Big Mouth on ice, a buck ninety nine!” Scroll down the page and you’ll see it.