Little Moon – Grant-Lee Phillips (Yep Roc)

Grant-Lee Phillips would have to be one of the most reliable recording artists of the past fifteen or so years. From his band records under the Grant-Lee Buffalo banner to a string of solo albums, he has barely put a foot wrong. He hasn’t ever threatened to become a monster act either but for his loyal legion of admirers that’s probably an acceptable state of affairs.

I hope his bank manager shares the comfort of his fans about his place in the contemporary music hierarchy.

Little Moon is another fine example of Phillips main attributes – thoughtful, enlightened songwriting, a command of various attitudes (from the wryly humorous to sweetly melancholy to gently provocative) and a very good taste in music collaborators.

As usual with Phillips there’s a number of layers to this album. He offers up a couple of the jaunty vaudevillian tunes of which he specialises. These are the opening track Good Morning Happiness which is as cheerful as you would like him to get (before becoming a commercial for butter) and the albums closer The Sun Shines on Jupiter which sounds like the sort of tune you’d hear in a quaint old fashioned English village pub, complete with a sing-a-long finale.

Sandwiched between these bookends are some very fine songs. Strangest Thing is perhaps the “biggest”, most bombastic song on the album and it evokes the sonics of early Waterboys.

The title track is one of those ‘small pure object’ songs that Phillips usually manages to include. He likes to take an aesthetically pleasing image and twist it around and hold it up to the light to find its most appealing angle.

It Aint The Same Old Cold War Harry is another jaunty song but this one is less vaudeville and more like a song that Phillips compatriot in Largo based song Aimee Mann may have written.

If this album was to have a single (and in fact if such a thing as a single existed any more!) it would probably be Seal It With a Kiss. It’s a song that wouldn’t be out of place on most of Phillips previous albums but its instant familiarity isn’t a drawback.

Nightbirds, Violet, Buried Treasure, the poignant Older Now and One Morning are all quiet, alluring songs build around Phillips subtly delivered languorous vocal. They are all different to each other but all clearly the work of the same focussed artist. The latter in particular benefits from a bravely defiant lyric that captures the fading dreams of the everyman with respect and sympathy.

But perhaps my favorite song on the album is Blind Tom – the true life antidote the Piano Man! It’s an observation and a fable and litany all at once and it contains the heart rending lyric “Here’s a little song, I learned it from the wind, I heard it on the wind last night”. It’s delivered in such an affectionate way that you can almost hear the song referred to. Blind Tom is a little gem hidden away at Track 9 and it elevates Little Moon from a good to a great Grant-Lee album.

Grant Lee Phillips Album Close

Grant Lee Phillips new album Little Moon is released in the US on October 13 and hopefully will find its way into record stores (what’s a record store?) here not long after.

But if you cant wait you could order the album from the Yeprock Records website. Every pre-order of Little Moon will receive an additional bonus disc featuring five demo versions of songs from the album. The bonus CD is available exclusively from the  Yep Roc Webshop. But that?s not all!

Pre-Order Little Moon by the street date (10/13/09) from the Yep Roc Webshop to be entered to win a prize in the “Little Moon Pre-Order Contest.” The First Grand Prize Winner takes home an Autographed Schecter “Corsair” Model Guitar. Five winners will receive an autographed copy of the Little Moon LP on vinyl!

Phillips will be playing some dates in the US to support the release.

In his latest newsletter Phillips sounds very upbeat about the release and tour.

“I’m all revved up to play having  just got back from the Bod Festival in Bod Norway. Drummer Jay Bellerose and bassist Paul Bryan joined me for this extreme one-off. The travel and  sleep deprivation were well  worth it, given the great crowd and the tasty halibut. This week, the boys and I are setting up shop for a living room concert that director  Andrew van Baal will be filming for an upcoming  promotional piece. We hope to air the film online in the weeks to come. Keep an eye out for it on my own youtube channel www.youtube.com/user/GrantLeePhillipsTV.”

Grant Lee Phillips Update

Grant Lee Phillips is a favorite of this website and I am always happy to pass on his good news.

Here’s the latest from his newsletter – in his own words.

“ I’m thrilled to announce that my new album,” Little Moon” is nearing completion. In fact we’re presently looking at a late September release here in the US with other territories following close behind.
Thirteen tracks have been recorded. The final mixes, mastering and artwork are all that remains before it’s off to the plant and in your hands. The actual time spent in the recording studio has been quite short. Everything went down in about five days. The band was all cut live in the studio, including vocals, drums, guitar, bass, keys and percussion, Even the song “Older Now”, which is a vocal, piano, and string quartet arrangement was recorded  with everyone performing live in the same room. It’s a way of working that suits my aim for capturing something natural and inspired.

There’s nothing like that feeling when a band locks in and the mics are on. It’s an old idea that’s almost been lost in modern recording.  Overdubs, such as the pump organ, backing vocals, banjo and baritone guitar were done as we went along. Some parts, such as the  brass and string quartet were added to the mix on the final days. An undertaking like this would seem daunting, had it not been in such  capable hands.

To begin with, let’s meet the band. Jay Bellerose on drums. He’s a one-man drum orchestra whose sensitivity to  what a song needs is unmatched. At Jay’s urging, we also brought in drummer Sebastian Aymanns to play percussion. The result  was groove for days. Nuclear groove actually — the kind that lasts for thousands of years.  Then there is Paul Bryan who played bass and produced the album. As with Jay, Paul plays with a sense purpose and feeling.  He’s always coming at it as an arranger taking in the song in as a whole. It’s little wonder that his producer sensibilities are so  finely tuned. He gets inside the songs yet is always conscious of the big picture as well. He’s an awesome producer.

The three of us, Paul, Jay and myself, did a short tour together in 2007, on the heels of “Strangelet”. It was then we all agreed there was something special there. We waited a few years before the stars aligned before we could record together. Jay’s a highly sought after  musician, who among his many recent projects, has been recording and touring with Robert Plant and Alison Kraus.  Paul has been an integral part of Aimee Mann’s group and even produced her latest CD. I was so impressed by his work that  I asked him to produce a song of mine called “Winterglow” as a holiday single for ’08. I loved the way the track turned out and how  we clicked in the studio. Naturally, I asked him to produce the album.  What a great call that was. Paul brought so much focus to the  album.

Rounding out the lineup is Jamie Edwards who plays everything from piano, organ, Wurlitzer and moog on the album. The two us did “The Ballad Tour” in Europe last year. Jamie is also a member of Aimee’s group. He’s one the finest musicians  I’ve had the pleasure of working with. Some of the songs, we were tossing into the set during “The Ballad Tour”. The ground for  this album was being tilled all along. I’ve never felt so close to the songs as I do on this one. I supposed it’s because I’ve lived with them longer but also raising kids has a way of keeping you in the moment. I really didn’t have the luxury of over-thinking  things this time around. There’s a point where you just go “Geronimo…” and then you jump.

Other guests include The Section Quartet, sounding majestic as ever. Paul Bryan, wrote several string arrangements in addition to parts for trombone and tuba,  I’m guessing some kind of musical image is beginning to swirl in your mind’s ear at this point. “Little Moon” represents the coming together  of so many things. The songs, the players, production, the sound, state of mind, all of those seemingly simple things you can chase after for years.

I also have to thank engineer Ryan Freeland who recorded and mixed the album. We did the whole thing at his facility, “Stampede Origin”. He did such a  superb job capturing the whole thing and dialing it in. I’m thoroughly blown away by the sound he got.

Presently we are getting into the art phase, something I always enjoy. My wife, Denise Siegel, is a fine artist/photographer. She and I are putting our heads together.  As the release of /Little Moon/ draws near I’ll be sure to keep you abreast of the process. Meanwhile I’ll be continuing to perform  solo acoustically at Largo in Los Angeles this summer. In addition, selected dates abroad are in the midst of being booked.

Fuzzy – Grant Lee Buffalo

Fuzzy was one of the great debut albums from the heyday of alternative rock.

Released in 1993 on the Slash label it introduced me to the talents of Grant Lee Phillips, and in so doing provided me with a subsequent catalogue of music that I rate almost second to none.

Grant Lee Buffalo was actually a trio though. Along withy Phillips the band boasted the talents of bass player and producer Paul Kimble and drummer Joey Peters. The contributions of both of these players should not be over-looked. In particular Kimble’s production paints a sonic landscape for Phillips remarkable songs to flourish.

Fuzzy simply does not have a weak link. It opens with the undeniably great The Shining Hour which manages the duel feat of being both uplifting and foreboding in one soaring song.

Phillips sets himself apart as a lyricist quickly with references that you just didn’t find in alt-rock songs at the start of the 90’s.

Jupiter and Teardrop follows with its understated Bonnie and Clyde storyline and aching alt-country styling. It’s followed by the title track Fuzzy which had previously been a single on Bob Mould’s singles –only label, if I remember correctly.

The musical textures on the Fuzzy album are enchanting. There is an acoustic basis to many of the songs while the colours are provided by desert – desolate electric guitar and the period sounds of pump organ and bar-room piano. This gives the album a sometimes dusty, decayed sound that seems to match Phillips fascination with the underbelly side of the Americana imagery that he employs.

Dixie Drug Store is a southern gothic fable while Grace becomes more of a David Lynch-like take of the spurious glamour of small town dreams. Perhaps the most overt song is America’s Snoring in which Phillips openly rails against modern America going to the dogs.

Perhaps the albums most personal song is The Hook, which drags at the heartstrings and stimulates the brain at the same time.

Listening back to Fuzzy now is enlightening. I doesn’t sound even slightly dated largely because it was timeless at the time of its creation. The music is honest and performed with a spirit that was all about providing the songs with their best chance of resonating, not their best chance of selling multitudes of copies.

It remains a completely successful album at fulfilling that objective.

Grant Lee Phillips Album In 2009

The extraordinary Grant Lee Phillips has completed a busy 2008 and is looking forward to 2009 with cautious optimism. In a newsletter posted on his website Phillips reports that he has been working on new songs during the last year and anticipates recording and releasing them this year.

That is good news for his solid Australian fanbase. Since releasing a string of extraordinary albums with his band Grant Le Buffalo starting with Fuzzy in 1993 Phillips has continued to fulfil the highest standards as a solo artist.

His solo albums Ladies Love Oracle, Mobilize, Virginia Creeper,  Nineteen Eighties (a covers album) and Stranglet have added to a superb body of work and his tours here have met with a rapturous response.

Recently Grant Lee Phillips has been touring with Aimee Mann as a part of her now traditional Christmas tour.

“It’s always a hoot to be among Aimee?s traveling troupe.” He says on his website.  “This year the caravan consisted of Aimee, her band, singer  Nellie McKay, comic Morgan Murphy, along with myself and the always funny Paul F.Tompkins. Other special guests along the way included comic Patton Oswalt, actor John Krasinski, comic Todd Barry, singer Amos Lee, and comic Fred Armison of SNL.”

Aimee Mann has never toured Australia and we can only hope that both Mann and Phillips see fit to visit our shores in 2009.

Phillips is now an artist very much in the independent mode and he seems satisfied with his way of doing things.

“I’ve seen the face of the music business change a great deal over the last few years and it’s been a challenge to wade through it all. That said, it’s deeply heartening that beyond the smoking wreckage of what was once the music business, there are still people who long for and appreciate new and interesting music. That faith
drives me onward.”