Showing posts with label Claudettes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Claudettes. Show all posts

Thursday, September 24, 2015

The Claudettes - No Hotel

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 44:18
Size: 101.4 MB
Styles: Piano blues, New Orleans blues
Year: 2015
Art: Front

[2:29] 1. Big Easy Woman
[3:00] 2. California, Here I Come
[3:36] 3. You'd Have To Be Out Of Your Mind (To Play These Blues)
[3:31] 4. Southbound Stroll
[2:12] 5. You Busy Beaver, You
[0:56] 6. Yana Arrives (Theme)
[3:43] 7. She's So Imaginary
[2:41] 8. Laisse Tomber Les Filles
[2:21] 9. Mirza
[3:05] 10. Ne T'en Vas Pas
[3:53] 11. Chez Les Ye-Ye
[0:44] 12. Yana Departs (Theme)
[3:25] 13. The Swinger Goes Straight
[2:43] 14. There's No Business Like Show Business
[3:30] 15. Summer Finally Came
[2:21] 16. Like Is Such Fun, And Then Seems To Disappear

Piano - Johnny Iguana; Drums - Michael Caskey; Vocals and dancing - Yana.

Chicago and New Orleans piano blues get a shot in the arm and Tin Pan Alley gets the hot-rod treatment, while ’60s pop-soul and French Yé-Yé make ravishing returns on the Claudettes’ second Yellow Dog Records album NO HOTEL. Chicago piano crusher Johnny Iguana (who has pounded keys for Junior Wells, Buddy Guy and rock cult heroes oh my god) and absolute wacko Michael Caskey (who has drummed with giddy glee for everyone from Chuck Mangione to Balkan fusion band Eastern Blok) make even bigger waves with the bravura instrumentals on NO HOTEL than they did with their 2013 debut Infernal Piano Plot…HATCHED! (“Like Keith Moon chasing a crazed, punked-up Little Richard”—Blues Music Magazine). Piano licks inspired by Otis Spann, Mose Allison, Ray Charles and Bobby Timmons meet Minutemen’s “jam econo” ethos and Meat Puppets’ trippy echo as the band packs 16 tracks into the sonic whirlwind that is NO HOTEL. And at the eye of the hurricane: a mid-album set of sultry vocal songs sung in English and French by the band’s mesmerizing new member, Yana.

Though just 24, Nigerian-American vocalist Yana recalls Josephine Baker and Eartha Kitt. An alluring singer/dancer on stage, decked out in stunning dresses, jewelry and head wraps, Yana brings her seductive powers to the studio here. She casts a spell with the throwback ’60s pop-soul (punctuated by a grinding blues-rock bridge) of She’s So Imaginary, then puts her own authoritative stamp on hand-picked ’60s French Yé-Yé classics.

With NO HOTEL (named after the cruel phrase that appeared on the band’s most deflating venue contract offer yet), the Claudettes use drum sticks, piano hammers, style and swagger to strut from vintage landmarks to someplace new.

No Hotel mc
No Hotel zippy

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

The Claudettes - Infernal Piano Plot... Hatched!

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 39:18
Size: 90.0 MB
Styles: Piano blues
Year: 2013
Art: Front

[2:52] 1. Stumblin' Home Satisfied
[3:12] 2. Big Sucker Punch
[3:18] 3. Hammer And Tickle
[3:13] 4. Tide Pool
[2:39] 5. Deep Soul For High Society
[2:48] 6. New Orleans Yard Sale (New 11-Bar Blues)
[3:06] 7. Infernal Piano Plot...Hatched!
[3:58] 8. Serenading The Clean-Up Crew
[3:08] 9. Tremblin' Blues
[2:38] 10. Motorhome
[2:30] 11. Land Of Precisely Three Dances
[3:16] 12. Chin-Up Tango
[2:33] 13. Do You See It Too

The White Stripes and Black Keys rock the blues with a guitar attack. Like the Bad Plus, the Claudettes brandish a piano instead. But the Claudettes have created their own fanatical fusion of blues and soul-jazz—like Ray Charles on a punk kick.

Imagine an amped-up piano hybrid of Otis Spann, Vince Guaraldi, Ray Charles and Mose Allison, joined by a jolly madman of a drummer and conducted in gonzo fashion by Raymond Scott. File under: post-burlesque? Neo-vaudeville? Cosmic cartoon music? You've never seen a piano-drums duo like this.

In addition to touring internationally and recording six albums with his cult-favorite rock band oh my god, pianist Johnny Iguana has played live or recorded with Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, Koko Taylor, James Cotton, Lil’ Ed, Carey Bell, Billy Boy Arnold, Lurrie Bell, John Primer, Billy Branch, Carlos Johnson, Sugar Blue, Dave Myers, Eddie Shaw and more. He has played on Grammy-nominated albums with Junior Wells and Chicago Blues: A Living History, has performed everywhere from Beirut to Buenos Aires to the Montreux Jazz Festival and has had strange musical encounters with Van Morrison and Jeff Healey that he'd love to tell you about.

Drummer Michael Caskey (a.k.a. Bunny Patootie) graduated magna cum laude from Western Michigan University's school of music. He has played with everyone from Koko Taylor to Chuck Mangione to Marvin Hamlisch to John Sinclair. A Downbeat magazine award winner and five-time Detroit Music Awards recipient, he currently plays with Balkan fusion band Eastern Blok and teaches Music and Rhythm in Dance at Columbia College in Chicago. Michael has performed all across the U.S. and in France, Poland, Germany, Denmark and other countries.

Nigerian-American singer/dancer Yana now accompanies the band on tour, managing their stage, reading Claudette's announcements and entertaining their crowds along with the musicians.

Infernal Piano Plot... Hatched! mc
Infernal Piano Plot... Hatched! zippy