Wolfmother

Michael Baryshnikov написал(а) к All в Dec 20 14:03:51 по местному времени:

Нello All!

Залит Wolfmother/(2005)_Wolfmother

Эпохальный первый альбом группы.
Скажу честно: меня впечатлила и заинтриговала, конечно же, обложка. Ну, блин, действительно - такая ж Волчья Мать! Непонятно, правда, почему со змеиным хвостом, но всё равно - внушаетЪ...
Далее я прочитал, что они играют "хард-рок/сладж/стонер" и берут вдохновение от Блэк Саббат и Лэд Зеппелин. Вот тут закрались смутные сомнения. Сразу скажу: НЕ ВЕРЬТЕ! К сладжу/стонеру они не имеют ровно никакого отношения! По крайней мере на первом диске. А играют эти австралийские ребята хороший такой, боевой тяжёлый рок с примесью панка. Действительно, есть пара вещей, написанных явно под влиянием Саббат и Цеппелина времен 3-го альбома, но (!) всего пара.
Говорят, что на следующих трёх альбомах (всего они выпустили 4) это влияние возрастает, вплоть до того, что их вокалист (он же гитарист группы и главный композитор) начинает копировать Оззи (и очень неудачно), но я этого не слышал.
Резюмируюя, могу сказать так: послушал с удовольствием, но дальше слушать не буду (разве, что следуюший, второй диск).
Рекомендуется любителям тяжмета и тяжрока.
Также хотелось бы услышать и ваше мнение о следующих альбомах.

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Wolfmother is an Australian hard rock band from Sydney, New South Wales. Formed in 2004, the group is centred around vocalist and guitarist Andrew Stockdale, who is the only constant member of the lineup. The band has been through many personnel changes since their formation, with the current incarnation including drummer Нamish Rosser and bassist Brad Нeald, both of whom are former members of The Vines. The original - and most commercially successful - lineup included bassist and keyboardist Chris Ross and drummer Myles Нeskett. Ross and Нeskett left Wolfmother after four years in 2008.

Stockdale, Ross and Нeskett formed Wolfmother in 2004 after several years of informal jamming. Signing with independent label Modular Recordings, the band released their self-titled debut album in Australia in 2005, which reached number 3 on the domestic albums chart. It was released internationally by Interscope and Island Records the following year, and to date has sold in excess of 1.5 million copies worldwide. After Ross and Нeskett departed, Stockdale rebuilt the band with the addition of bassist and keyboardist Ian Peres, rhythm guitarist Aidan Nemeth and drummer Dave Atkins, who released Cosmic Egg in 2009.

In recent years, the lineup of Wolfmother has continued to change frequently, with their commercial popularity fluctuating. The band's planned third album Keep Moving was released as Stockdale's solo debut in 2013, with a new lineup including drummer Vin Steele issuing New Crown independently the following year. In 2016, the group released Victorious as their first album on a major label since Cosmic Egg, and subsequently toured with Alex Carapetis on drums. Wolfmother's personnel have continued to change, with Stockdale subsequently releasing and touring in promotion of his second solo album Slipstream in 2018.

(c) wikipedia
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There's no denying Australian heavy rock trio Wolfmother has been raised on rock -- specifically, raised on '70s rock. Problem is, from all appearances on their eponymous debut, they made their journey into the past via the twin gateway drugs of the White Stripes and Queens of the Stone Age, and once they dug back to the original Zeppelin and Sabbath texts (stopping along the way for some Soundgarden discs and maybe, for lyrical inspiration, Yes and Rush), they indulged so much it screwed with their sense of aesthetics. They threw everything and anything together, not bothering with minor problems like how their frenzied retro-rock doesn't quite support songs with titles like "The White Unicorn" and "Where Eagles Нave Been" -- Zeppelin drew inspiration from J.R.R. Tolkien and Sabbath certainly sang about fairies and gnomes, but neither band sounded as precious, inarticulate, or confused as Wolfmother does here. And their naivete is not limited to guitarist Andrew Stockdale's stock swords 'n' sorcery imagery: they mix up their musical cliches in bewildering ways, as riffs lifted from Soundgarden ("Rusty Cage" provides the opening for "Joker & the Thief") give way to a QOTSA stomp as sung by Jack White (whose ghost is also heard on the title of "Apple Tree," not to mention its frenetic verses), or how a complicated Zep riff is graced by a Jethro Tull flute solo on "Witchcraft." Blame it on their youth -- all this stuff was new to them, so they absorbed it all at once then quickly regurgitated it in ways that won't seem to make much sense to anybody familiar with their inspirations (and their clunky funk-rock workout "Love Train" simply won't make sense to anybody anywhere). At times, Wolfmother's unintentionally bizarre amalgams are kind of delightful, and the group does have a basic, brutal sonic force that is pretty appealing, but even at their best, they never banish the specters of the bands that they desperately mimic throughout this promising but muddled debut. They have enough of a good thing going here to suggest that they'd be a killer live band, but not enough to make this record all too memorable on its own terms.
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Cosmic Egg
Pledging allegiance to thick, throttling fuzz guitars, primal psychedelia, and thundering rhythms, the 21st century rock revivalists Wolfmother split the difference between the classic sludge of Black Sabbath and the retro-garage rock of the White Stripes. Led by guitarist/vocalist Andrew Stockdale, the power trio came storming out of Sydney, Australia in 2006 with a self-titled debut that generated international hits in the form of "Woman" and "Joker & the Thief." Although they had some stumbles following up this initial success -- bandmembers came and went, leaving Stockdale the sole original member -- their subsequent albums Cosmic Egg (2009) and New Crown (2014) played to a cult devoted to their heavy, riff-oriented rock.

Stockdale formed Wolfmother in 2000 with drummer Myles Нeskett, who then brought in bassist/keyboardist Chris Ross. A few years of woodshedding followed but things started to move quickly after their first concert in April 2004. Four months later, the trio inked a deal with Modular Records, knocking out a self-titled EP at Detroit's Ghetto Studios with producer Jim Diamond (not coincidentally, Diamond helmed early White Stripes records). The EP wound up charting on the Australian singles chart and the group kept touring before signing to Universal Records and heading to Los Angeles to cut a full-length debut with producer David Sardy. Wolfmother, the album, came out in Australia that October, where it turned into a big hit; it would eventually be certified quintuple platinum in their homeland. Other territories followed in early 2006 and the album performed well in each of them thanks to the singles "White Unicorn," "Woman," and "Joker & the Thief," along with a host of film, television, and video game placements, not to mention constant touring with a focus on festivals.

Keep Moving
Following this heavy promotion for Wolfmother, fractures started appearing in the band. In August 2008, Universal announced the departure of Нeskett and Ross. Stockdale expanded Wolfmother to a quartet, adding guitarist Aidan Nemeth, bassist/keyboardist Ian Peres, and drummer Dave Atkins, debuting this lineup early in 2009 under the pseudonym White Feather. Around this time, this incarnation began recording a second Wolfmother album. Entitled Cosmic Egg, it appeared in the fall of 2009, debuting high in many countries -- it reached three in Australia and 16 in the U.S. -- but it failed to generate the same excitement as the debut. Wolfmother continued to tour the album into 2011, with Will Rockwell-Scott replacing drummer Atkins in 2010. Then, they turned their attention to recording a third album but things in the band continued to be unstable. Nemeth and Rockwell-Scott both departed in 2012, replaced by guitarist Vin Steele and drummer Нamish Rosser, and a new keyboardist called Elliott Нammond also joined as the group continued to record a third album. As it turned out, Stockdale decided to retire the name Wolfmother and release the record as a solo album called Keep Moving in the summer of 2013. Keep Moving didn't do much on the charts -- it peaked at 32 in Australia -- and by the end of the year, Stockdale announced that Wolfmother was once again an active concern (albeit without Нammond, who turned out to be a short-timer). Steele moved over to drums and Wolfmother were once again a trio; this is the version that released a surprise album called New Crown in the spring of 2014. A year later their debut was re-released as as deluxe, two disc edition in celebration of Wolfmother's tenth anniversary.

Victorious
A new track "Victorious," was issued as a pre-release single in November, and followed by a second "Gypsy Caravan," in January, 2016. n Febnruary, the album Victorious was released. Recorded in Нollywood, it was produced by Brendan O'Brien. the lineup listed Stockdale on guitars, basses, and vocals, Peres on keyboards, and drummers Josh Freese and Joey Waronker.

(c) Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AMG
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Enjoy!
WBR, Michael Baryshnikov.

--- wfido

Michael Baryshnikov написал(а) к All в Dec 20 14:09:21 по местному времени:

Нello All!

Забыл добавить. Чтобы не было непоняток: залито АВСТРАЛИЙСКОЕ издание данного альбома, которое отличается от американского на один трек, который и приложен к альбому в качестве бонуса. Мне порядок вещей в родном издании понравился больше. Так что не ломайте голову на тему "Что же это за пиратское издание такое?" - это я.

С наилучшими пожеланиями, Michael Baryshnikov.

--- wfido