CD Reviews

Easy Star All-Stars | Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band

Easy Star (2009)

By TED DROZDOWSKI | May 12, 2009

4.0 Stars

A dub-wise version of the Beatles' classic album seems a novelty concept, but this madly entertaining disc is a buoyant tribute to the flexibility of the Fab Four's open-ended vision of pop, as well as the low-tech sonic trickery perfected in Jamaica's famed Studio One.

What makes Frankie Paul's delivery of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" work as it chanks along merrily is the same quality that transports the Mighty Diamonds' delicately harmonized "Getting Better" and keeps Kirsty Rock's "She's Leaving Home" sweet: unwavering faithfulness to the Beatles' winning melodies.

After that, the drunken reverb effects on the cracking snare drums and the voices of the cast — which also includes Luciano, Max Romeo, Ranking Roger, Steel Pulse, and Sugar Minot — just add playfulness to a chilled-out vibe that's knit together by plenty of slinky bass and muted guitar scratching. Great for kouchie passing, but lovely on its own terms, too.

EASY STAR ALL-STARS + GIANT PANDA GUERILLA DUB SQUAD | Middle East downstairs | May 15 at 8 pm | www.mideastclub.com

Slideshow: Easy Star All-Stars at the Middle East downstairs
Easy Star All-Stars at the Middle East downstairs
Interview: Steve Swallow on the Gary Burton Quartet
DO YOU REMEMBER EXACTLY HOW YOU GUYS FIRST GOT TOGETHER? I have a memory. I tend to distrust them, but my recollection is that I met Gary when he called me up and asked me if I would consider playing in Stan Getz's band, which he was already in.
What of the Beatles?
Spouting off during downtime in an interview with jazz drummer/composer Steve Grover, I once put forward my ill-researched idea that the third song is almost universally the best song on a great album.
The Big Hurt: The decade ahead
As a new decade dawns, it's time to cast a curious eye toward the future.
Oddballs
Even if they had closed up shop 15 years ago, the Residents would go down as some of rock's most prolific pranksters. They aped the Beatles on their 1974 debut, Meet the Residents , tormented short attention spans with 40-minute songs on 1980's The Commercial Album , and skewered standards by everyone from James Brown to John Philip Sousa along the way.
Spring fever
As action-packed as the holidays are, they can be a real dead zone when it comes to decent shows.
Fresh legends
Nine out of 10 rap legends prefer People Under the Stairs. (The holdout is a crackhead.) That's no joke — in my hundreds of interviews with dudes who brought the noise and funk before the big ship sunk ( circa 1997), California underground heroes Thes One and Double K have been as popular a subject as the exploitation of old-school luminaries.
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The Walkmen live at the Middle East downstairs, September 18, 2009
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"When J switched to guitar [from drums], he wanted to feel that same power. and the only way he could do that was to be, like, super loud. . . ."
Photos: Dinosaur Jr. at the Middle East downstairs
Photos of Dinosaur Jr. performing on their 2009 reunion tour
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