Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Strange Storm out of Brooklyn
The Darrin James Band's latest is blues-rock tempered to our times
It’s not just lyrics that characterize the outrage on Strange Storm, but also the music.
Strange Storm, the third album from the Brooklyn-based Darrin James Band, is truth-telling of the bitterest sort, ten tracks naming the slights we do each other, intended and otherwise. Following suit, Darrin James, principle songwriter and singer, growls, rasps, sneers, and bellows through the trouble-minded lyrics. James, of course, hasn’t the market cornered in outrage, but he’s not one to wring hands and resign himself to regret and rumination.
Video:
"Had Enough of Me"
...by the Darrin James Band
The band is adroit, with mastery of varied grooves and rhythms. Generous chunks of hard-rock guitar balance against the quick reflexes of a funk, and a fusion-honed rhythm section underpins James’s snarled ire. Hardly a droning list of the evils of wealth, power, and status-seeking, the songs are varied and the rhythms sharply executed, venturing from more traditional folk protest style, as in the opening “Walking in the Footsteps,” through the hammering downbeats and stuttering Meters-style funk of the title track.
Suitably, it’s not just lyrics that characterize the outrage, but also the music, especially in two instrumental tracks, “Downdrafts Cold Fronts” and “Covert Mission Anthem.” With nods to P-Funk, Zappa’s more crowded orchestrations, and the anguished improvisations of Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, this is a swerving ride between overlapping modes and moods, subdued textures, and light embellishments morphing into angular, off-center progressions, with sharp guitar riffs and arguing horn and reed solos traipsing through the coarse density. The abrasive layering of trumpet and sax effectively match James’s excoriations. Strange Storm has impressive brilliance in its harnessed anger as it rails against injustice.
- Record: Strange Storm
- Artist: The Darrin James Band
- Label: Ravine Records
- Songs: (1) Walking in the Footsteps (2) Strange Storm (3) All Around Us (4) Slow Trickle or the Rising Tide (5) Dangerous Kind (6) You Never Know (7) Downdrafts Cold Fronts (8) Bombs Away (9) Covert Mission Anthem (10) Still Believe in Love
Here's something you might be interested in.
Strange Storm out of Brooklyn
The Darrin James Band's latest is blues-rock tempered to our times
Strange Storm out of Brooklyn
The Darrin James Band's latest is blues-rock tempered to our times
It’s not just lyrics that characterize the outrage on Strange Storm, but also the music.
Strange Storm, the third album from the Brooklyn-based Darrin James Band, is truth-telling of the bitterest sort, ten tracks naming the slights we do each other, intended and otherwise. Following suit, Darrin James, principle songwriter and singer, growls, rasps, sneers, and bellows through the trouble-minded lyrics. James, of course, hasn’t the market cornered in outrage, but he’s not one to wring hands and resign himself to regret and rumination.
Video:
"Had Enough of Me"
...by the Darrin James Band
The band is adroit, with mastery of varied grooves and rhythms. Generous chunks of hard-rock guitar balance against the quick reflexes of a funk, and a fusion-honed rhythm section underpins James’s snarled ire. Hardly a droning list of the evils of wealth, power, and status-seeking, the songs are varied and the rhythms sharply executed, venturing from more traditional folk protest style, as in the opening “Walking in the Footsteps,” through the hammering downbeats and stuttering Meters-style funk of the title track.
Suitably, it’s not just lyrics that characterize the outrage, but also the music, especially in two instrumental tracks, “Downdrafts Cold Fronts” and “Covert Mission Anthem.” With nods to P-Funk, Zappa’s more crowded orchestrations, and the anguished improvisations of Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, this is a swerving ride between overlapping modes and moods, subdued textures, and light embellishments morphing into angular, off-center progressions, with sharp guitar riffs and arguing horn and reed solos traipsing through the coarse density. The abrasive layering of trumpet and sax effectively match James’s excoriations. Strange Storm has impressive brilliance in its harnessed anger as it rails against injustice.
- Record: Strange Storm
- Artist: The Darrin James Band
- Label: Ravine Records
- Songs: (1) Walking in the Footsteps (2) Strange Storm (3) All Around Us (4) Slow Trickle or the Rising Tide (5) Dangerous Kind (6) You Never Know (7) Downdrafts Cold Fronts (8) Bombs Away (9) Covert Mission Anthem (10) Still Believe in Love