MILK MONEY (the Borderland All-Stars): The latest from these Boston-area vets is a simmering, blues-tinged bastion of party funk, and pure, unfiltered rock marked by smart -- and sometimes smart-ass -- lyrics, casual cool horns and flutes, snarling guitar licks and a vicious backbeat. Vocals sound perfect, production is tight and the band sounds like a well-oiled machine. Hell yeah.
"Milk Money" is a collection of songs that these hombres from
Borderland can ride into town and perform with facility and verve
at their live gigs... sell a few copies at the door while at the same
time promoting strong teeth and good bone structure. All you need
is a piece of pie to go with that cow. With this here "Milk Money"
disc, you can have some... and seconds, if you like. What
you get is a healthy slice of "all grown up" rock 'n' roll that
captures
the band's collective sound and persona - competent players with
a sweet tooth for solid rhythm, wah-pedal guitar licks and jazzy
woodwind swirls drizzled over the top. It all goes down quite nicely.
And very satisfying, indeed.
Monday, October 08 2007 @ 02:20 PM EDT
Summer’s over and it’s time to get serious. I for instance parted with my longtime taxicab driving job and scaled back on my carnival job to begin working as a substitute teacher. If you’ve read my writing, don’t like it and are from Southbridge, well get your kids the hell out of Southbridge High School before I corrupt their poor impressionable young minds. This month Wormtown has received CDs from bands that got serious when it came to making a damn good Cd., fun loving locals Borderland, Carry the Zero, and Boston visitors, Scuba. Enjoy. – Phil McNamara
BORDERLAND ALL STARS – “ONE SPORE FOR THE ROAD” (SELF RELEASED)
(Produced and Engineered by Jason Buhl and Borderland at Artist Fall Sanctuary and Rutland Remote Recording Facility, New Hampshire; Mixed By Jason Buhl and Borderland at The City of Champions; Mastered by Bob Katz at Digital Domain)
Borderland formed out at UMASS/ Amherst back at the very end of the 1980s. Over 17 years they’ve established and kept up a reputation for sweat filled smokin’ hot live sets with one ear towards soulful, danceable, funky jams, and the other towards improvisation, and a…um … third ear towards witty social commentary. Along with their penchant for high energy and soulful tunes came a penchant for mind-altering substances. Their album’s title is a drug reference, but if you don’t know it, I’m not going to explain it to you.
This time around along with their rock and funk influences I hear Stax/Volts soul, 50s doo wop, and old school gospel reggae influences. On the opener “So Fine” lead singer/ guitarist Dave Spagone comes up with a Sam Cooke-like croon for a great soulful love song. “A Little Longer” conjures up a classic soulful Percy Sledge tune meeting with the soul/gospel/reggae of early Bob Marley and the Wailers. It will make you want to find a partner and turn the lights down low. “Again and Again” keeps it at slow ballad speed. Spagone’s voice wails James Brown style as he comes up with a seductive slow jam that would give Barry White a run for his money.
“Follow” opens with a flute solo from Jason Buhl that gives the song an early 60s feel. The band brings on classic sounding jam mixing grooving keyboards, psychedelic guitar soloing, and a super funky backbeat from drummer Jeff Woods and bassist Chris Houston. Spagone mixes his soulful voice with Zappa like political commentary, knocking television, consumerism, and conformity. It’s my favorite song on the disc so far. “The Hard Way” slows things down with a bluesy jam and Spagone stretching out his soulful voice for this ballad. As pleasant as it is, at five and a half minutes, it starts to drag towards the end.
The title track is a jazzy calypso influenced instrumental that would get folks to samba if they knew how. A blast of flute and saxophone propels the song along. As cool as this would be to see at the local bar, I could picture it being done by a high school orchestra, one that had its chops up. “The Day Ken Lay Died” comes in subtly as Spagone offers his commentary on modern day greed and hypocrisy. Borderland closes it out with the memorable bouncy calypso tune “Nieves.” Funky guitars, whimsical flute solos, and airy group vocals that remind me of something from Steve Miller make this song memorable. On first listen I was thinking that I would be disappointed by the lack of funk jams, but the more I listen to it, the more I like everything else that Borderland has to offer. After almost 20 years, you can still teach old dogs new tricks.