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August Reviews Artist of the Month: Against Me! As with their like-minded punk rock brethren (Rise Against, Anti-Flag), enormous questions loomed over Against Me!’s first record on major label Sire after being in residence at Fat Wreck Chords and No Idea. And like their brethren, Against Me takes the opportunity of massive resources to release one of their best records with the ten-song New Wave. Possibly not as raw and exposed as earlier material, the heightened production value on New Wave does little to lessen Against Me’s intensity and messages. Against Me initially started ten years ago as lead singer Tom Gabel’s solo acoustic punk project in Gainesville, FL. Playing wherever he could, it took Gabel and his later compatriots several years to become a lean, mean punk rock machine. After spittles of singles, comps, and EPs, Against Me’s first true full-length Reinventing Axl Rose came in 2002 on Gainesville’s No Idea Records. This was the first record where Gabel and company employed full electric guitars and structured themselves as a traditional rock band. After the 2002 EP The Disco Before the Breakdown, Against Me settled on the lineup that continues today: Gabel on lead vocals/guitar, Warren Oakes on drums, James Bowman on guitar, and Andy Seward on bass. Against Me then released As the Eternal Cowboy in 2003 on Fat Wreck Chords – causing the start of the grumps chanting about selling out. But, the band continued on Fat Wreck with 2005’s Searching for Former Clarity, even after majors were chasing them with full aggression. At the end of 2005, the inevitable occurred and Against Me signed with Sire – fully severing the chord with some fans but also creating a much wide spectrum of interest for the band. Before cutting ties with Fat Wreck, Against Me released the 2006 live record Americans Aboard!!! Against Me!!! Live in London!!!, in order to satisfy their contract with the label. Though the most curmudgeon and anti-major label listeners will take the album’s title as proof of majors pushing bands to release more poppy and radio-friendly anthems, the title from the band’s perspective speaks to their intent of sweeping out the riff-raff in the rock scene. Helping them in this endeavor is uber-rock producer Butch Vig; who helmed the boards of classic records from Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, and Nirvana, among others. The smart thing about Vig is that he maintains a band’s integrity while simultaneously increasing songwriting and production quality; basically a constant and consistent win-win for all involved. For a major label rock record, New Wave is rather short – ten songs at thirty-three minutes. Yet, the length and sequencing comes across as nearly perfect – hurrying you in some places, fixating in others, and always bringing you back for more. New Wave opens on the pulse-thumping title-track where Against Me are punching out their best Bruce Springsteen punk; or smoothing out and prettying up Avail. This stronger opener is quickly followed by the up-picking “Up the Cuts,” where Against Me rock Clash reggae into an agro-package. “Up the Cuts,” though succeeds mostly due to the hip-tapping chorus of “Are you restless like me?” However, the most attention-grabbing song on New Wave comes from the next song, “Thrash Unreal.” A somewhat odd title bringing images of metal crossed with a violent video game, “Thrash Unreal” is possible one of the best rock songs of 2007. Featuring a further dip into Bruce Springsteen/John Cougar Mellencamp American rock, the song is four-plus minutes of punk genius revolving around a washed up, junky mother in a burnt out town. After such a tremendous anthem it is hard for the record not to inevitably come off its pedestal. Not slipping too far, “White People for Peace” and “Stop” follow – both hook your ears but also feature slightly awkward lyrics. Gabel continues to place the lyrics into terrific melodies, but the chorus of “protest song in response to military aggression” on “White People for Peace” and the funk line of “Stop! Take some time to think” on “Stop” sound pedestrian by Against Me standards. Providing another high point on New Wave, Against Me teams up with Tegan Quin of Tegan and Sara for vocals on the slow mover “Borne on the FM Waves of the Heart.” “Piss and Vinegar” is just that – intense punk rock that’s grumpy, angry, and well-placed. As the only new song on their 2006 live record “Americans Aboard” speaks to Americans traveling the world in today’s climate of anti-American economic and foreign policy. New Wave closes on the average “Animal” and Brit-poppy “The Ocean” – not exactly the ideal way to close an otherwise impressive album. Although Against Me crosses several degrees of listeners – past, present, and future – New Wave has both the singles to keep Sire content without sacrificing the overall quality of the record. With such a set of powerful anthems look for Against Me to further explode in the coming year.
1997 Save for the absurdly long title, Since My House Burned Down I Now Own a Better View of the Rising Moon, there is little not to like on 1997’s debut for Victory Records. Featuring the usual cavalcade of members of past scene bands, this Chicago-area five-piece trade male and female vocals to upbeat, catchy indie punk dreams. Not unlike labelmates The Forecast, but with more pop production and instrument wrinkles, 1997 offer twelve songs that merely put a smile on your face and the hope of a better tomorrow. Among the fantabulous songs are opener “Water’s Edge” where Carolina is repeatedly mentioned (a girl, not the glorious state) and 1997 use a terrific string section to travel to the chorus, the strong chorus on “Garden of Evil,” the excellently composed sections on “Hey Darlin’,” “Patience, Prudence,” and the powerful “Enough Is Enough.” 1997 do experience dwindling powers as the album progresses, but there is enough to keep you tuned in. After so many non-inspiring, bland, and dull bands forming and leaking out all over the Internet, 1997 are like a shining gem stone.
Agnostic Front/Discipline Old school hardcore punk bands are both noted and not noted for their live shows. It is all about being at the shows, watching people lose their shit, and the bands giving everything they have as weekend warriors before everyone goes back to their day jobs. However, the sound quality is not like you’re listening to U2 or some shit. It’s dirty, ugly, and has the potential for no redeeming social value. With all that in mind, I Scream Records is re-releasing this live recording of Agnostic Front and Discipline from a June 2001 show in Belgium. Originally released in Europe by I Scream and licensed to GMM Records for US release, I Scream is bringing it back for US consumption. Working Class Heroes consists of fifteen songs from NYC’s legit OG Agnostic Front and fourteen songs from Holland’s Discipline. Surprisingly, the sound quality on Working Class Heroes is probably the best I’ve ever heard from live old school hardcore punk bands. As both bands progress through their decades-long catalogs, two things stand out. First, Agnostic Front make up the first fifteen tracks of the record even though they were the headliners; Discipline played before AF but come after them on the record. Understandably, Agnostic Front are the heavy hitters here, but sticking to the timeline would have been nice. The second thing that stands out is Roger Miret’s rant against the existence of rap and hip-hop; at first it seems like he’s just talking about rap-metal and wiggers, but with more listens it totally sounds racist. Like a politician screwing up, Miret probably would’ve like to have phrased his sentiments differently, but whatever. If you are super into these bands then of course this is a must have; otherwise just pick up Agnostic Front’s early, original records.
Alesana You got to at least acknowledge that Alesana are making a strong effort on their debut full-length On Frail Wings of Vanity and Wax. However, Alesana are an example of working hard but not necessarily smart. The six-piece essentially mixes every form of punk, metal, and hardcore into each and every song; and in so doing overly complicate a fairly simple musical form. This is no better illustrated then the myriad of vocal styles that are spitted forth by God knows who – melodic pop, punk snarls, cookie monsters, banshee screams…. For the attention-deficit, hyper-active this constant shifting of moods may be of lovely interest. While Alesana are moving all over the place, much of the instrumentation stays along the lines of melodic hardcore. At the same time it is easy to imagine scores of overly-caffeinated, energy drink-fixated kids jumping all over the place to Alesana. On Frails Wings was actually already released by Alesana and is now being re-released by Fearless. To make up for the re-release, Fearless and Alesana are including twelve million enhanced features to go along with a possibly too long record to begin with – fifteen songs coming close to an hour long. The enhanced portion includes four live videos from a show in San Antonio and an interview with the band. Alesana have a clearly squared-off marketability and will do well within that realm. For those of us wishing for innovation in staid product, we acknowledge Alesana’s efforts but wish for more than derivatives.
Annuals It is not often the case that record art paints a near-perfect image of what is lying within as ear candy. The massively eclectic indie pop six-piece of the Annuals craft twelve songs on Be He Me that swerve, weave, and flash moments of brilliance within a sometimes too odd sound. Led by multi-instrumentalist Adam Baker, Be He Me shines on opener “Brother,” the electronic-infused “Carry Around,” “Bleary-Eyed,” and “Father.” It is tough to get a precise bead on Annuals – probably by design – making full enjoyment of Be He Me a sometimes daunting task.
Army of Me DC’s Army of Me are about ten million times better than you expect; so, that’s low expectations going in and getting super-surprised. Utilizing Coldplay-like melodies, Army of Me rock twelve indie gems on Citizen. Fitting nicely into Doghouse Records’ new lineup of bands (e.g., All-American Rejects, Weatherbox), this trio have the chops to appeal to both fans of well-produced indie rock and follow-the-lead radio rock. Army of Me aren’t going to blind you with innovative moves or shake you into chills, but they perform their craft with expert analysis. Some may knock the band when they verge on generic melodic rock; yet, they hold it off enough to create space. Among the high points are the already heralded single “Going Through Changes,” opener “Perfect,” “Thinking It Over,” “How Long,” and the rollicking piano of “Better Run.” If you’re looking for something poppy for the summer sun, Citizen may be your thing.
Bayside After a bit of floating around following the death of their drummer John Beatz, Bayside have finally lived up the potential shown on their debut Sirens and Condolences, and offer by far their best record to date and one of the strongest melodic punk records of 2007. If the world hadn’t already seen the likes of the Smoking Popes, Alkaline Trio, and the rest of the Chicago punk scene, Bayside would be path blazers. But we’ve heard of those folks before. Still, the twelve songs on The Walking Wounded come off like something that the Popes or Alkaline Trio would have loved to have written. Led by the juggernaut of vocalist/guitarist Anthony Raneri, Bayside are bolstered by the guitar antics of Jack O’Shea and the well-measured rhythm section of Nick Ghanbarian and Chris Guglielmo. Raneri has clearly come into his own vocally and he has all the confidence in the world. The four-piece hit all the right notes on songs such as the opening title-track (featuring Vinny Caruana), “Duality,” “Head on a Plate,” the high-tempo, exceptional “Dear Your Holiness,” and “Thankfully.” The Walking Wounded has restored my faith that Bayside are legit contenders for the melodic punk heavyweight crown.
Brandon Butler On immediate inspection of the cover and etc. of Lucky Thumbs you instantly believe that Brandon Butler is some lame ass, chump, Nashville singer-songwriter that makes you wish death upon yourself and the artist in consideration. But, simply opening the case and seeing the tattooed Butler makes you slow down in that thinking. In fact, Butler used to front the late 90s punk band Boys Life – which varied in popularity depending on who you talked to. Musically, though, the characterization of something from Nashville isn’t so far off the mark as Butler offers his vision of Virginia countrified folk rock with tinges of punk flair with the help of drummer Brendan Canty (Fugazi) and cellist/pianist Amy Domingues. In this vein, Butler’s songs move between the exceptionally appealing to the ordinary to possible cringe-inducing. Those on the up-and-up include the strong opener “Sparks,” country-dark “Happy Sound (Dark and Pretty),” and the twangy pop from “Throw Back Rockers.” Let’s focus on the positive and leave songs like “Heaven Help Us” dying on the side of road trying to crawl to CMAs.
Child Abuse Out on Genghis Tron frontman Mookie’s label Lovepump, Brooklyn’s Child Abuse do indeed abuse children safety with this nine-track self-titled affair. Mixing electronic noise with violence and spazz, Child Abuse sprinkle assaults all over the place as your hit with such love songs as “Wrong Hole,” “Poor Snoo,” “Violent Utopia Part 1,” and “Penal Jihad.” In the vein of an East Coast 3.1.G. band – nearing Holy Molar but not in the metal realm of Genghis Tron – Child Abuse can trade on their art noise project in the cozy confines of Brooklyn’s noise crowd.
Cultural Amnesia You can give UK’s Cultural Amnesia some leeway for the anguish demonstrated on this reissue/re-release of the band’s recordings. The leeway comes from the fact that CA offered their electronic punk in the early 80s where the sound was still getting broken in. In actuality, the synth electronics on the nine songs here are pretty good; problems come from the horrendous vocals matched with odd song structures. CA are trying a recent resurrection and thus the cause for this re-release. Enormous Savages came equipped with the mini-CD Little Savage which includes a collection of recent material. The main differences with the new stuff are better vocals but worse electronics. Go figure.
David Shultz and the Skyline If you take a quick glance and listen to Sinner’s Gold there is a high probability of walking away with the impression David Shultz and the backing band the Skyline are another slightly-indiefied Nashville singer-songwriter crap brigade. Instead, a few listens in and a couple of repeats, and you find that these guys rise above the fray to offer Americana singer-songwriter material that induces head-nodding. Thankfully Sinner’s Gold is mostly devoid of painful acoustic strummers, and the ones that exist are endearing, conspiring to land between Dylan and Conor Oberst (e.g., “Natural,” “Apples,” and “Doctor Mother Mirror”). Songs that drive you close include opener “Free,” “Can’t Can’t,” the harmony-laden “Already There,” and the twangy “Two Hearts.”
Dear and the Headlights Continuing on EVR’s recent trend of releasing lighter records comes the thirteen-song Small Steps from Dear and the Headlights. Following the common path of treading water for awhile with things in flux before landing something big, this Arizona five-piece eventually hooked up with EVR. At heart Dear play piano indie pop with very soft edges where melodies lead the way throughout the songs’ progression. While on the whole a strong set of songs, some make you wish death against your person due to awkward pop including songs like “Hallelujah.” Other songs make you think Dear are the indie version of Coldplay – for instance, “Happy In Love” and “Grace.” At the end of the day, Dear and the Headlights have enough friendliness to warrant attraction from numerous ears.
Emmure Emmure is one of Victory’s attempts to absolutely, fucking heavy up their roster. Successful it is as Emmure open the ten-song Goodbye to the Gallows on “A Ticket for the Paralyzer” with ridiculously heavy distorted guitars that are barely contained by speakers and rhythmic-flowing double-bass, before launching into the first true song “10 Signs You Should Leave.” No one would mistake Emmure for top forty pop as guitars machine gun, chug to the epic extreme, and several cookie monsters make their appearance alongside banshees. Yet, as you progress through Goodbye you are struck by the fact that Emmure don’t demonstrate the technical skill to take their music to the next level; making them not simply a grinding hardcore band, but a legendary metal act. Emmure could really make use of the speaking lyric sections are scattered throughout, like a Texas beer and whiskey soaked metal act, but the instrumentation doesn’t take them to that level. Instead, Emmure has more in common with Earth Crisis than the free-wheeling Pantera. For those looking to test out their bass spectrum on the car audio system, Emmure’s Goodbye to the Gallows is one of the best to come along this year.
Eyes to Space Out of Chapel Hill, NC, Eyes to Space play quirky, nerdy synth rock that rubs you instrumental as Trans Am, Man…or Astroman? and thematically as They Might Be Giants and Devo, with bits of their own librarian hipness. The twelve-song From the Bureau of Robotic Affairs builds on the band’s strong 2005 self-titled EP, but may not take things as far as they should given the two years in-between. Somewhat annoyingly, Eyes to Space includes all four songs from the EP – “In An Unfamiliar Land,” “Roadkill,” “Destructive Behavior,” and “Dear Sir” – on Bureau, and even with the new set of songs around them those continue to be the highlights. I wish that the newer material stacked up to the older stuff, but there is definite slippage. Much of the newer material (e.g., “Pathways to Progress,” “Small Aisles…All Smiles,” “Chainlink Fence”) is stretched-out, acid-rimmed, proggy nerd synths; not entirely bad on its own but more kick-ass focused electro-rock tracks would’ve been nice. Eyes to Space need to think more dance party magic and less stoner paradise.
Fair to Midland With album art to suggest something along the lines of the Decemberists, Fair to Midland instead blend jam band stylings with heavy groove rock. Fair to Midland’s eclectic heavy music nature is not entirely unexpected given that the record is coming out on System of a Down’s Serj Tankian’s label. While the five-piece are extraordinary tight professionals, they also sound like studio pros you got free from the factory and try to be everything at once. A very simple strategy for whether you will like Fair to Midland: do you enjoy groove metal? Something that can appeal to big festival crowds, commercial radio listeners, and metal freaks all at the same time? If yes, then you will likely come away from Fables from a Mayfly with enthusiasm.
Garbage Shirley Manson was for many, the Karen-O of the mid-to-late nineties and beyond, her provocative and unpredictable nature made her captivating and intriguing in equal doses. This nostalgic and well put-together compilation contains material spanning Garbage’s colourful career, turning into a celebration of their uncompromising approach. Fitting opener ‘Vow’, from their self-titled debut album of 1994, is an apt reminder of the playful but destructive streak that has littered Garbage’s past. ‘I’m Only Happy When It Rains’, encapsulates neatly the catchy pop and light Goth crossover that many people fell in love with over the years and, Manson comes across as cocky, stern and flighty. Story of her life, eh? This album turns into a stark reminder of the potency of the band and the lurid anthem of ‘Stupid Girl’, is a case in point. This reminder is something that is sorely needed by many fans in the UK, as the outfit pulled out of a much anticipated tour last year. It is a release like this that shows up the variety that Garbage has proffered over the years, contrasting with the one dimensional tag that has oft been slapped on their backs. The slow bass induced and brooding ‘#I Crush’ from 1996, shows up their eerie darkness and Manson’s vocals slow down to haunting levels, something must have provided inspiration for the likes of PJ Harvey and Bjork. Garbage was never a one person group, the winding and drawn out accompaniments that are the combined efforts of Duke Erikson, Steve Marker and Butch Vig ties the songs together. Drawing attention to this fact is the compact and slightly atmospheric ‘I Think I’m Paranoid’. The Metallica riffs inclusive ‘Why Do You Love Me’, incorporates a hot and cold vocal drag. Showing the heavier, mosh inducing side of Garbage that used to annoy the hell out of the purists. For those who fear that a Best Of offering often signals the end of the band as they know them, new song ‘Tell Me Where It Hurts’, retains that slow-building and captivating climb to a tension releasing and tempo rising chorus. Whereby Manson embraces her pop-friendly side and so do her colleagues. It is a searching snippet, showing that this quartet’s mystique has not yet been lost. That alone, if nothing else makes this release worthwhile. (- David Adair)
Gleasons Drift As the standout band on Pennsylvania small indie label Blind Pigeon, Gleasons Drift offer a collection of live performances from weekend bar shows across the state and surrounding areas on this DVD. While the material here shows Gleasons Drift as a strong, tight alt-country bar rock band, the video itself is nearing futility. It is almost exclusively tight shots of the band in a narrow corner or small stage playing to seemingly tiny crowds who are more intent on drinking at the local watering hole than actually enjoying the music. As such, this is good material for a band to keep around for themselves, but maybe not the best thing to release for commercial distribution. You wish Gleasons Drift the best, but this isn’t the best thing to be floating out there; instead they should be focusing all energies on making rocking demos and studio albums.
Grails As the Grails’ first record for Temporary Residence and first full-length since 2004’s Redlight, the band’s marching instrumentals featuring world string music, sprinkles of psychedelic themes, and the more traditional western ambient soundscapes fill the eight-song Burning Off Impurities. Smartly, Grails kick off the album with the phenomenal six-plus-minute “Soft Temple” where a cadre of influences all crescendo for a fantastic close. Other tracks to pull your eardrums include the string plucking (sitar?) “Silk Rd,” “Outer Banks,” and the closing title track. If nothing else Burning Off Impurities provides perfect background music for your local scenester, falafel hang out.
Great Northern Following the lazy, hazy afternoon shoegazing tsunami out of the LA-area, Great Northern lay down ten songs of sleepiness calm on their debut Trading Twilight for Daylight. Featuring Rachel Stolte on vocals/keyboards, Solon Bixler on vocals/guitars, Ashley Dzerigian on bass, and Davey Latter on drums, Great Northern provide the perfect music to sweep along to while high in the late afternoon. The soft, whimsical vocals of Stolte come across as a caffeinated Mazzy Starr, with Bixler typically adding male backing vocals. A solid album throughout there is little to skip around to and instead Trading Twilight needs to be taken in as a whole. As such, Great Northern greatest asset may come from adding well-timed, emotionally-driven soundtrack material for indie films.
Green Lizard Las Armas Del Silencio opens up on the super poppy, catchy “All You Have” and you are thinking this is like Holland’s answer for Rise Against. But as you progress to the next song “Save Ourselves” and the follower “Walk Over Water,” the songs stagnant and you begin to get a weird feeling about Green Lizard. You think ‘these guys are from Holland, so there’s no way they’re part of the disturbing Christian punk/hardcore/metal scene.’ Without the usual thanking Jesus and all that, Green Lizard’s non-specific lyrics very much play to images of battling evil for the virtuous. If the music could overcome the awkward lyrics, then it wouldn’t be a big deal (witness our reviews of some Christian metalcore bands). But, the pain just continues as you progress through Las Armas and you wish that the ‘end’ that the Green Lizard keeps singing about would come earlier than later.
Illinois In the months since the seven-song What the Hell Do I Know? has been released, the four-piece Illinois has made their way through the indie rock cogfest to become an increasingly shinning light in a sea of mindless crap. Moving song-to-song through the EP you quickly get a sense of quirky, eclectic melody-driven indie rock where Illinois use a variety of instruments to achieve their reality. Besides from the normal set, favorites come from adding piano and banjo to such repetotories as the excellent “What Can I Do For You,” the harmony-laden “One on One,” and “Nosebleed.” If Illinois can focus their craft (and leave off the horrific closer “Bad Day”) into unleashing phenom indie love for the masses they will easily be a force to be reckoned with during our march towards enlightenment.
Iron & Wine This is a teaser single release from Iron & Wine’s (aka Sam Beam) new record The Shepherd’s Dog out on September 25th. The title track is phenomenal – replete with handclaps, acoustic strumming, Beam’s uniquely soft yet sure vocals, and ELECTRONICS. That’s right. Beam uses background ambient electronics to thicken the sound on “Boy with a Coin”; making the song rank right up there with his other classic tracks (e.g., “Naked As We Came”). “Boy with a Coin” is sandwiched between two songs: “Carried Home” and “Kingdom of the Animals”; both of which will not be on the full-length. “Carried Home” is a bit disparate six-plus-minute wanderer that sounds at home on Iron & Wine’s Woman King EP. “Kingdom of the Animals” is more texturally upbeat with Beam pushing his voice along to a picking piano and all manners of strings. Though “Carried Home” may slip a bit, the combination of “Boy with a Coin” and “Kingdom of Animals” makes this release worth your time and dollar.
Kaiser Chiefs Many of the super hyped British bands of the new millennium have died and withered like a testicle devoid of blood. And so when the Kaiser Chiefs pushed out the twelve-song Yours Truly, Angry Mob, many critics and skeptics were looking for cracks in the armor of this heavily lauded over band. However, the five-piece immediately answers the curmudgeon inside of all music lovers with the catchy opener “Ruby,” a song that would be the album centerpiece of most bands today. And with this strong opening, Kaiser Chiefs continue a juggernaut of an album with follower “The Angry Mob” that features a great chorus and breakdown of “we are the angry mob, we read the papers everyday…,” the solid “Heat Dies Down,” the commercially appealing but not terribly brilliant “Love’s Not a Competition (But I’m Winning),” the jaw dropping and possibly draw dropping “Everything Is Average Nowadays” (seriously it’s like the band made a deal with the devil for the poppiest song ever and this was the result), and the surprisingly strong piano ballad “Learnt My Lesson Well” (expertly primed as soundtrack material for Hugh Grant’s next comedy-drama). There is enough single power on Your Truly, Angry Mob to trump the simple act of single downloading and for folks to fork over cash for the whole fucking thing.
Klaxons Over the past year Britain’s Klaxons have gotten an absurd amount of attention and press for their early 90s dance punk explosions. They’ve also received a nice bit of visceral reaction on the other side – folks who wish death upon the next big thing. Klaxons don’t re-invent the wheel or serve as the second coming – as some may have you believe – but the eleven-track Myths of the Near Future is certainly a good time. Composed of James Righton, Simon Taylor, and Jamie Reynolds, Klaxons reel off song after song of tightly produced punk songs drenched in pop and dance, with just enough fuzz, distortion, and catchiness to pull you and make your feet move. Among the songs that truly maximize excitement are the simple, repetitive “Totem on the Timeline,” the modern rocky opener “Two Receivers,” the super dance house “Atlantis to Interzone” with siren segways, “Gravity’s Rainbow,” and the hot single “Magick.” Klaxons aren’t likely to blow you away, but you can easily hop on their train for a ride.
Land of Talk After someone expertly cut open the PR package and removed the CD during it’s journey in the mail, and a number of ‘it’ blogs raving about Land of Talk, expectations for this seven song EP ran higher than waiting on Barry Bonds next home run. Unfortunately, the swirling female-voiced indie rock of Land of Talk isn’t nearly the slam one would hope for. Originally released in Canada in April of 2006, the Montreal three-piece have the moxy and musicianship for fabulous indie rock but the songs on Applause Cheer Boo Hiss are a combination of average, ordinary, and uninspiring. Lead vocalist Elizabeth Powell has the uptempo pipes to launch beyond shoegazer comparisons, but they seem distracted into the commonplace. However, moments like “Summer Special” offer hope for a compelling future. Land of Talk’s notoriety juggernaut may have come as an temporary Montreal hot scene moments, instead of truly exciting your bored mind.
Limbeck I absolutely love the band Limbeck – there probably some of the nicest and coolest guys going. Patrick Carrie and Robb MacLean can talk your ear off and are comfortable in any crowd, with all types of people…just good folks. Besides from these character elements, their record Hi, Everything’s Great is simply an awesome traveling record; something that’s able to rival to rival traveling songs from artists like Bright Eyes and Ryan Adams. Limbeck’s previous record Let Me Come Home was strong, though demonstrated some slippage from Hi, Everything’s Great. Unfortunately the sliding trend has continued on this eleven-song self-titled full-length. Unlike the road themes that made past Limbeck material grand, this record is more focused on home and the people therein. MacLean’s vocal emphasis is still there and Carrie’s guitar is doing the twang splashes, but the combination of sporadically awkward lyrics and way too many instruments hits the songs in the quality and enjoyment sections. By including such instruments as horns and ukuleles, Limbeck take the simple and make it too complex. There are some moments here, but now I must cry myself to sleep in disappointment.
Love in October Love in any month is a grand thing; in October it may be extra sweet as it coincides with everything else dying. Though this Minneapolis four-piece gives you not much to latch onto on pure sight – no real label, a terrible photo – the degree of breathtaking indie rockness flowing forth from the five-song EP Words of Sound is wonderful. Somehow, likely through someone’s special cash reserve, Love in October got the magician of Eudora, Ed Rose, to produce and mix Words of Sound. On it, Rose seems to have worked his magic, after several off albums, as Love in October explode into your eardrums on the hand-clapping opener “A Day in the Life Of.” The sensation continues on “Method to Madness” and “Words of Sound,” before an annoying ‘hidden’ track ending. As this EP surfaced several months back, it would be shocking for the band not to be signed by now. Whether they are or not, Love in October have to continue to differentiate themselves from the masses of melodic indie rock bands on their next effort.
Low Low has all the respect and cred in the world, but the thirteen-track Drums and Guns is as boring as shit and just makes you want to go to sleep. Eschewing their first record for Sub Pop and seventh overall, 2005’s The Great Destroyer, Low has returned to their slowcore ways with dark, gurgling ambient indie walks that put in a downstate. While the ominous, foreboding death knell is swinging for your neck, a close listen reveals Alan Sparhawk, Matt Livingston, and Mimi Parkers richly constructed tracks that are filled with all manners of instrumentation underneath the slow glaze. Thankfully, all of Drums and Guns is not of the uber-slowcore mentality of mid-90s Low, and songs such as slow pusher “Dragonfly,” the Neil Young-parallel “Sandinista,” the electronic-filled “Always Fade,” the poppy “Hatchet,” and noisy closer “Violent Past” bring a smidgen of melody and appeal to the album. Fans of early Low who want more pop will find Drums and Guns as one of the best of the year.
Low Low Low La La La Love Love Love Oftentimes bands and publicity one-sheets compare their sound to Iron & Wine, but almost always the music resembles some type of pussyness filled out by acoustic emo fantasies. Low Low… also claim such comparisons, but unlike these other jokers they actually come close to Sam Beam’s glorious sound, as well as sprinkles of Elliott Smith, and in-between Low Low… add wrinkles of their own. This belief comes immediately in the form of the amazing opener “The Way You Play,” a four-minute, organic acoustic rambler. Perhaps as equally surprising as the quality of Low Low is that they are British and don’t have any bit of rustic Americana floating around. Initially started as a solo project of Kelly Dyson, he soon joined up with a group of musicians in Manchester and released the 2004 record Birds and Rodents. The twelve-song Ends of June is now the band’s second release, first in the US, and first for up & coming stellar indie label Other Electricities. As you waltz past the aforementioned opener “The Way You Play,” you are also struck by the harmonies on “Mayfly” (very Howard Hello-ish), the intense acoustic “Iron in the Soul,” the soft “Black Black Window,” and “Happiness at the New Day.” An impossibly long moniker, but also an impossibly bright future.
Mando Diao When the catchy pop moments are flowing through the veins of Mando Diao, there is magic afoot in their melodic garage punk. And when Ode to Ochrasy opens on the uber-catchy “Welcome Home, Luc Robitaille” (one of the few songs named after hockey plays that wasn’t from a joke band), you are thinking magical moments are to be draining into your ear like a broken fire sprinkler. Yet, as Mando Diao move to the next song “Killer Kaczynski” and to the next twelve similar-sounding songs, the magic begins to wear and you are left with the desire for only perfectly constructed pop songs. On Mando Diao’s third record you are left wondering why the hell did they include fourteen songs when a few are filler (e.g., “The Wildfire (If It Was True),” “You Don’t Understand Me,” and “Josephine”), which their exclusion would have made a tighter album. Besides from a collection of both killer and filler songs, one thing to take away from Ode to Orchrasy is the word Orchrasy; a band-invented word to describe the period post-show where the guys are hanging with randoms; it is late, things need to move on, and the next day is slowly approaching. Self-invented words are awesome and at the very least they can show up in ‘urban dictionaries’ if not eventually the OED.
Megadeth This brilliantly shot DVD comes from Megadeth’s October 2005 show in Bueno Aires – one of those places you initially wouldn’t think would be into Megadeth until you realize for some reason folks in South America love metal to death (sort of like Europeans fixation with electro). With Dave Mustaine at the helm, Megadeth stand in their metal statue, head banging positions to an eighteen-song, one-and-a-half hour set of absurdly tight musicianship. Even if you’re a fan of classical music, you got to admire how amazing the guitar work is from Megadeth. An interesting note about South American audiences that Mustaine points out in the beginning of the DVD is that they sing the guitar solos. That’s awesome! Among the Megadeth thrash metal offerings on this night are opener “Blackmail the Universe,” the speed metal “Wake Up Dead,” “Peace Sells,” “In My Darkest Hour” and “Reckoning Day” with all of the thousands of fans jumping and singing to the galloping guitar riffs, “Hangar 18,” and uber-classic “Symphony of Destruction” (where there is also an alternate version included). The main downside to the DVD is the lack of features – just the show in all its glory. However, this is one of the best shot live music DVDs I’ve ever seen and a must-have for Megadeth fans.
Nekromantix As the nth record for Kim Nekroman and his revolving door of participating musicians, Life is a Grave is a massively stretched fourteen-song psychobilly packing record. Only recently has Nekroman left his native Denmark for the U.S. and as the band approaches twenty years of existence, the songs are getting tighter and smarter. Not simply content at balls-out, speed psychobilly, Nekromantix mix their sound, tempo and themes up throughout. You do have the speed attack as demonstrated on opener “NekroHigh,” the title-track, “Rot in Hell,” and “Panic at the Morgue,” but you also more lounge swing numbers like “My Girl” and “Cave Canem” along with jazz creepers like closer “Anaheim After Dark.”
Nine Inch Nails As part of Trent Reznor’s muscled-up come back he’s been releasing a billion different records and DVDs. Beside You in Time is keeping in this recent tradition, focused as an otherwise non-impressive live performance from NIN’s 2006 North American tour. While the sound quality is superb, the camera angles and work is subpar during the band’s main ninety minute set. A vast majority of the video is shot from a distance or zoomed in from a distance. This is likely done to demonstrate the theatrics of a NIN show but on video it comes off as tame. Live DVDs only truly work when they make you feel like you’re in the middle of the mayhem and the excitement. In this respect, more on the stage, below the stage, and behind the stage shots would have made the live performance considerably more enjoyable for the average fan. The additional content material on Beside You in Time is nothing to write home about either. The material includes live songs that didn’t make it into the main show, a set of live rehearsals from 2005 (before Reznor shaved his head to match his toughness) that are actually much more enjoyable than the band in front of an audience, videos for “The Hand that Feeds” and “Only,” a collection of live photos, and NIN’s catalog. Usually I wouldn’t say this, but I would have loved to seen some interview material with Reznor. Naturally, Beside You in Time will be scooped up by hardcore fans, but there may not be enough here to lure in the middle crowd.
Oh No Not Stereo For whatever reason Oh No Not Stereo decide to open their self-titled six-song EP with the metalish, hardcore instrumental “Instrumental.” Normally this would be fine, except that the other five songs on the EP barely resemble this opening; maybe it was just a way to get aggression out of their system. The rest of the EP is full of melodic punk designed for bombastic arenas – like the Foo Fighters’ stepchild who got a little too fixated with early 90s alternative guitar rock. For the most part Oh No Not Stereo are enjoyable, though not thrilling, as they pierce through songs like “One More Thing I Love” and the stronger closer “Every Link in the Chain.” There are moments that cause distress (e.g., the retarded “Thirty-Two”), but the EP stands on its own.
Olympia Featuring former members of Fairweather and Brand New Disaster, the DC-based Olympia rocks harder than either of those bands ever could. And when we say rock, we mean Rock. Olympia maintains an indie punk edge while pummeling you with big rock guitars, melodies, and bombastity. In this respect, Olympia could fit in the biggest bands in rock, like the Foo Fighters, or rocking the local VFW. The only true downfall of Olympia is they lack a set of songs that stick with you after you turn off the record; whether it be a catchy chorus or memorable guitar riff, that little something is missing across the eleven songs. Still, songs such as opener “Chorus! Chorus! Chorus!,” “Olympia is a Motherfucker,” “This Ship Ain’t Gonna Sink Itself,” and “M-80” keep the faith. All Olympia needs are a couple of brilliantly appealing songs to jump that next hurdle.
Paulson Paulson first hit the music consciousness with 2004’s Variations on Initial Records. After Initial folded, the band went onto One Day Savior before, now, winding up on Doghouse Records. As One Day Savior re-released Variations, Doghouse is now re-releasing All At Once which was originally released on One Day. What you find on the thirteen-song All At Once is a steady diet of melodic indie punk that falls near the feet of a softer, more melodic Alkaline Trio and their derivatives like Bayside. At times, Paulson deliver on the goods as on the blippy “Slow Down,” the catchy chorus of “Calling On You,” the convincingly building “Break Me In,” and “Just Shy”; at other times the songs are standard fare and not likely to rouse you out of your stupor. As Paulson themselves say on the one-sheet – ‘write some new songs already!’
Ryan Adams One of the more amazing elements of Ryan Adams is that in his ridiculous productivity – seems about three records a year – he still keeps the song quality at a supreme level. Along with his four-piece backing band The Cardinals, Adams offers thirteen songs of terrific Americana rock on Easy Tiger; clearly one of his best records in the past couple of years. Furthering channeling Neil Young into a melody-drenched rock machine, songs such as “Two,” “Halloweenhead,” “The Sun Also Sets,” and the string-soaked acoustic-focused closer “I Taught Myself How to Grow Old” are a new batch of alt-country classics from Adams. The first three mentioned above in particular will carry Easy Tiger onto the radio and causes folks to buy the record. It is true that Adams slightly annoys when his vocals merge too closely to Young, but even in those moments the songs underneath are always solid if not breathtaking (witness: the soft acoustic “Off Broadway”). For those who want more country than simply alt-country, Adams includes the banjo-picking “Pearls on a String.” Many worry that releasing so much music would cause a diluted product, but instead such excessive songwriting has served to craft Adams into one of America’s best artists.
Shapes and Sizes At first glance, the Canadian Shapes and Sizes don’t seem to offer up much – disjointed, dissonant sounding jangly indie rock. Yet, spending some time pacing through the fourteen song Split Lips, you realize that Shapes and Sizes are purposefully disconnecting the music, often employing harmonies and melodies in non-obvious manners; in a way that’s harder to achieve than you may assume. Alternating female and male vocals, this now Montreal four-piece hits on tracks like the opener “Alone/Alive,” “Head Movin’,” “Teller/Seller,” the uber-segmented “Highlife (I had been duped),” the poppy “Piggy” with Curtains’ guitars and “Victory in War.” There are a bunch of filler tracks on Split Lips, some of which may make you go crazy, but the above mentioned songs hold things together. Originally from the Canadian west coast, Shapes and Sizes’ sound will fit in much better with the Montreal indie-rock juggernaut. The Montreal folks may even teach the band how to add a smidgen of catchiness to appeal to a wider ear.
Sirenia If you love complete fantasy metal where people get dressed up, and oddity and freakishness reigns supreme then Nine Destinies and a Downfall is simply perfect for you. With Monika Pedersen now singing the clean vocals to attain the hearts and minds of sailors on the ocean of metal, Sirenia push the operatic goth metal to a whole new degree. However, this entrance into further lameness generally makes you wish for death or at least some form of deafness. At best Sirenia can provide soundtrack music for online RPGs and goth clubs. Otherwise I’d run from the tackiness.
Small Sails If I didn’t know better I would think that Small Sails’ Similar Anniversaries was the latest and greatest Howard Hello record. The fact that it’s not provides us, the listener, another fantastic ambient electronic act to sink our frothy teeth in to. Small Sails is a film and music collective out of Portland who match their mostly instrumental music with accompanying films at live shows. Largely devoid of vocals, Small Sails provide gorgeous soundscapes of beats, electronics, and acoustic guitars across Similar Anniversaries’ ten songs. The minimal vocal work comes in the form of soft chants set to link up with the flow of the music; another reason why Small Sails comes off like Howard Hello. Highlights include opener “Somnambulist,” “Aftershocks and Afterthoughts,” and closer “No Spirit Animal.” With this record and Jatun’s self-titled release, Other Electricities is starting to become our new favorite label.
Sound the Alarm For a band that just graduated high school, Sound the Alarm are an amazingly polished and tight bombastic pop punk band. Out of Pennsylvania, Sound the Alarm trade on pop-friendly punk songs that come across like All-American Rejects without pianos. You’re not going to be shocked by Sound the Alarm’s innovation, but easy accessibility is likely to draw in fans by the truckloads. A couple of missteps on this twelve-song self-titled record make you cringe (e.g., “Until We Collide” and “Telling Lies”), but on the whole you have solid rockers from opener “Closer,” “Suffocating,” “Count on Me,” and “If I Told You.” The true test for Sound the Alarm is whether they can maintain their edge being on Geffen and working with pop producers…if they can’t they may wilt under commercial banality.
Sparks the Rescue Sparks the Rescue are all about rocking the melodic punk hardcore shit out of these six songs on this digital-only EP. In a contemporary world of one million melodic punk and hardcore bands forming a day, Sparks the Rescue are able to break out of the generic, average product and offer something to truly immerse yourself in. Ordinarily I make fun of melodic hardcore bands that have six members, but Sparks the Rescue actually use all six wisely. Within the mostly intricately structured and designed songs, you have synths flowing into dualing guitars that move between matching rhythmic solos and machine gunning, nearly all members offering (backing) vocals, and a simple feeling that the band is giving it all. The only knock on the rock here is for a wider use of synths and a pure avoidance of sporadic cookie monster growls. Imagine future good things from this Portland, Maine outfit.
Speaker Speaker This short five-song EP from Seattle’s Speaker Speaker would serve as a strong demo if it weren’t being already marketed as an actual release. We Won’t March features the title track and “Loveland, CO,” two live tracks from Seattle’s 107.7 The End, and a cover of Jawbreaker’s “Do You Still Hate Me?” Again, if the trio were using this EP only as a way to book shows or even if they just had them up as digital downloads it’d be okay, but not as is. A good base, but we need more production.
Stalkers Following in the city’s late 70s punk legacy, NYC’s Stalkers knock out superbly tight, garage punk anthems that can keep the pulse and booze flowing on the eleven-song Yesterday Is No Tomorrow. There no magic being offered here, but the excited, authentic sound of Andy Doocey’s voice matched with the dirty but sweetly pro guitars of Tristan Lowery and Ryan Cohn force you to take a second look at the band. Unlike many contemporaries throwing their rock and roll hat into the garage punk sound, Doocey doesn’t offer snarled, drooling vocals, but actually provides a modicum of melody in a drunk Beach Boys parallel. It’s not pop melody gold, but for dirty punk it’s about as close as you get without moving to California, wearing bright colors, and waxing your ass. Check Stalkers in your favorite bar/club and hear a band keep the music tight while everything else is loose.
STAR I must have missed the memo that Mazzy Starr got back together, and kicked up the tempo and fuzz guitars. Or, maybe a more precise characterization would be a female-fronted Jesus & Mary Chain. Either way that is image that’s provided by Chicago’s STAR on their twelve-song record Devastator. Featuring Shannon Roberts on vocals, Scott Cortez on guitars, and Theodore Beck on bass and beats, STAR powers through fuzzed-out shoe-gazing power anthems like “Exploding Order,” “Liars in Love,” “Bad Attention,” and “Champion of Love.” It is very easy to like STAR – they put a smile on your face and remind you of fuzz noise 80s modern rock.
The Brokedowns Elgin, IL’s The Brokedowns do the simple and knock out catchy, dirty, fast punk rock that rivals bands like Dillinger Four and the Lawrence Arms, but without that special something to push them over the edge towards greatness and legendary status. The four-piece trades in two-minute bursts of all-out drunken punk with multiple singers belt out scratchy, mouth-full-of-rocks vocals all designed to keep the party going. No individual glory here, just pure balls-out punk rock. Right now The Brokedowns aren’t out to blow your mind with originality, but in due time the band should be able to add wrinkles to their sound and move beyond being compared to bands and to the point where they’re the band compared to.
The Death of a Party Like Portugal the Man, The Death of a Party gets off to epically intertwined, complicated, moderately-paced indie rock madness. Unlike Portugal the Man, this band aren’t as successful in entrapping your attention and mind to their offerings. Not off, bad, or wrong, the twelve songs (really eleven) on The Rise and Fall of Scarlet City combine for a well-conceived thematic album around Scarlet City, but at the end of the day they don’t cause enough spine-tingling to get your off the couch. A strong outfit, I can’t imagine keeping one’s patience through a live set, though they may force your consideration through a sprawling show. The Death of a Party need someone to inject that bit of ball-tingling magic in order to receive a tsunami of praise.
The Fall of Troy After the Fall of Troy’s amazing 2005 debut Doppelganger on EVR, expectations ran crazy ass high for a follow-up that demonstrates both the awesomeness of Doppelganger and some level of maturity. Indeed, Manipulator provides an appropriate and strong follow-up. Bringing in an increasing amount of swirling, mind-brimming guitar acrobatics and less screaming your brains out vocals, this twelve-song, forty-seven minute record satisfies so many audiences that only the retarded would be turned away. The math metal precision is matched with Mars Volta-like, not to mention Coheed, bombastity comes in spades on such standouts as “The Dark Trail,” the superb “Problem?,” hard and psych “Sledgehammer,” and closer “A Man A Plan A Canal Panama.” But also check out the bluesy opening of “Quarter Past,” the somewhat jokingly shrieking on “Shhh!!! If You’re Quiet, I’ll Show You a Dinosaur,” and pop-filled album breakdown on “Oh! The Casino?” and “Caught Up” for a terrific genre mind-fuck. Now armed with the songs of Manipulator, the Fall of Troy will be able to destroy any place from the VFW, to small clubs, to Giants Stadium. Give these guys an opening spot on a huge tour and they’re going to rip some new holes of magic.
The Fratellis By this point in time you are intricately familiar with these uber-catchy garage punkers from Scotland. Their pulse-pumping single “Flathead” has been featured in one an iPod/iTunes commercials – where every song featured becomes a hit, both because they usually should and that the commercials are priming the songs. Along with “Flathead” are the hot opener “Henrietta,” “Chelsea Dagger,” super punk, four-on-the-floor “The Gutterati?,” “Creepin Up the Backstairs,” and the ska influenced “Got Me Nuts From a Hippy.” The Fratellis offer up a couple of slower moments on songs such as “Whistle for the Choir” and “Doginabag,” but clearly their strength is with high-tempo, catchy-as-all-get-out garage punk anthems. Watch the Fratellis try to take over the US while trying not to implode or explode simultaneously.
The Graduate The Graduate’s twelve-song record is both fortunately and unfortunately catchy, tight, and formulaic. The upside of Anhedonia is you can put it on and instantly jump in with both feet, dig, and understand the melodic punk appeal. Yet, beside from the spacey, atmospheric guitar work, The Graduate don’t rock you new and after a millennium of such melodic punk you’ve heard it all before. In some respects this places the Graduate in the realm of a more punk Mute Math. Don’t get me wrong, the melodies and harmonies placed in the punk framework are all solid, strong efforts as demonstrated by standouts like “Bet It All,” the convincing chorus on “The City that Reads,” and “Justified.” But to be truly shaken to your core and lay down for the Graduate, they need to take the ordinary to the extraordinary; it’s just that little bit extra.
The New Trust Without little doubt The New Trust is one of the coolest co-ed indie rock band going. Featuring husband and wife team of Josh Staples and Sara Sanger, guitarist Matt Izen and drummer Julia Lancer, Dark is the Path offers thirteen songs of highly complex indie constructions. Similar in form to something you would find on Jade Tree or Initial (or Piebald) back in the late 90s and early 2000s, The New Trust hit you smart lyrics and melodies on such standouts as “Absence Makes the Heart Go Wander,” opener “A Spoiled Surprise, A Cheap Reveal,” the rocker “There’s Been a Terrible Accident,” the poppy “Wake Up, It’s the Nineties,” and “The Body and the Brain.” A smidgen of a downfall comes from the similarities between songs that sometimes cause confusion in your overworked brain. The band is also fully committed to not having some of their songs played on the radio with various curses in the lyrics and such song titles as “Chill the Fuck Out” and “You’ve Got to be Fucking Shitting Me.” Good times for the whole family.
The Orangeburg Massacre Like many in their wake, Los Angeles’ the Orangeburg Massacre careen out of hardcore metal control on their debut full-length for Pluto Records. Preferring the mixture of screaming, talk-screaming, and straight-placed vocals laced in heavy guitar riffs, this five-piece sit well within the contemporary world of heavy music. A nice inclusion to the Orangeburg Massacre’s songs is a spattering of Southern guitar rock, most noticeably displayed in the stellar “Crooked Tooth Storyteller,” “Bryan V Darrow,” and the closer “The Great Western Train Chase.” Another feature that helps the band stand-out is their clear level of intensity; even on a recorded product you can imagine the group going ape-shit on stage. For some reason or another lame soft metal riffs come into play on a few songs including the horrible “Serenity Far Far Later.” This type of offering causes you to vomit all over yourself. By increasing their level of instrumental tightness, the Orangeburg Massacre will definitely create destruction in the future.
The Photo Atlas You can admit the fact that when you gander the moniker The Photo Atlas you are thinking they sound like whimsical, soft landscape indie rock. Instead, this Denver-based outfit is more akin to a danceable At the Drive In on the ten-song No, Not Me, Never. In so doing, The Photo Atlas can find acquaintances refreshed by the DC angular punk, ATDI aggression, and contemporary Brit dance-punk; the type of band that NME would be shitting themselves about if The Photo Atlas were from the UK. No, Not Me, Never opens with the strong “Electric Shock” and barely comes up for air as they blast with numbers like “Light and Noise,” the uber-dance “Red Orange Yellow,” “Little Tiny Explosions,” until the closer “Handshake Heart Attack.” With extensive, bombastic production, The Photo Atlas can widen and fill their sound to become the new dance punk cover boys; snatching the crown from the likes of Bloc Party.
The Rumble Strips Announces the slightly lurid and hearty voiced front engine, Charles Waller for the ska skirting upstarts The Rumble Strips. However, this slightly anti-social, blues-beat of a debut album opener shows that whatever they lack for in soul, they more than make up for in rhythm. This is something that has been amplified over the past twelve months, through their feisty live sets, the highlight of which being their lofty headline slot on the NME/Topman New Bands Tour. By far their most catchiest and proud ska leaning anthem is previous single, ‘Alarm Clock’ that eeks out beleaguering, adolescent bemusement. This is a theme that trickles through the album like blood and gives it some added colour. The good time indie tag that commentators have been placing on this full bodied, horn featuring gang from Tavistock, is a little misleading. However, it’s easy to get carried away by the free-spirited instrumentals and miss the cynical lyrical waves, such as those produced in the strolling pop number ‘Girls And Boys’. Rumbling drum-beats often warn of the torrent of blazing instrumentals and powerfully scattered vocals that often follow in the livelier stomps, like the fantasizing ‘Motorcycle’ and the funked out parade of ‘Time’. Feral, poetic longing and reflection slows things down for ‘Clouds’, making you want to put your arm around the persons next to you and sway like a boat on the rough seas. It is a number that is needed in an album like this and it allows you to take stock of the variety of da Strips. Seasoned set opener ‘Hate Me (You Do)’, provides floods of energy and defiance and represents that old teen angst formula to a tee. They now have the base of a rock solid debut all they need in order to fully cap their rise, is a Friday night interview from Jonathon Ross. (- DA)
The Tossers I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who thought traditional Irish music was crap; maybe they really did hate it but were always too drunk to express such tones. And with that in mind, Agony from the Tossers is enjoyable but it too long (17 songs), is not cohesive enough, and lacks songs that grab your ear and don’t let go. The eight-piece from Chicago, spearheaded by Aaron and T Duggins in the mid-90s, generally the walk the line of raucous Irish folk that’s pumped full of punk flair. Way more traditional than punkers The Dropkick Murphys or Flogging Molly, you always want a group like the Tossers to shine and just kick ass up and down the aisle. A possible indication of this lack of appeal is that after Chicago and New York, Boston is only highlighted as the tenth target market by the one-sheet. If you can’t govern the Boston crowds with Irish music then you are truly playing in the minor leagues. A couple of slow movers are offered on Agony, but clearly and obviously the Tossers magic and appeal lie in the uptempo rockers such as “Did It All For You,” “Pub and Culture,” “Siobhan,” “Where Ya Been Johnny?,” and “The Nut House.” I wish Irish music permeated the American scene considerably more and that’s why I tend to bust balls on acts that don’t knock it out of the park. And so are the Tossers.
The Twilight Sad It is not often that a band’s moniker can make you immediately depressed, but that’s an image easily conjured up by The Twilight Sad. But thankfully the Scottish accented vocals of James Graham on the opener “Cold Days from the Birdhouse” quickly rip you out of that valley and view the sky on a more upbeat note. Forming several years back near Glasgow, this four-piece have a smart sense about creating walls of indie-filled melodic jam noise that pulls in influences from far and wide, but continuously creating their own sound. Beside Graham’s unforgiving Scottish vocals are the sound-filling antics of guitarist Andy MacFarlane, bassist Craig Orzel, and drummer Mark Devine. As is soon evident as you progress through the nine songs on the Twilight Sad’s debut full-length, their standard song construction features an ambient opening followed by a simply sounding verse before exploding into something that sounds like you are going to ride in the cosmos with. Through this manner of songwriting, the Twilight Sad are actually eternally uplifting in an odd sort of way. Look to be mesmerized by such tracks as the opener, “That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy,” “And She Would Darken the Memory,” and the mostly instrumental “I’m Taking the Train Home.”
The Young Gods Sometimes Mike Patton comes off like a genius; other times he just seems crazy. With the signing of the Swiss electro-industrial band the Young Gods and the release of Super Ready / Fragmente, Patton seems a brilliant scout of talent for his Ipecac label. Of course, for Patton, releasing this record required very little risk. The Young Gods aren’t that young anymore; first forming in the mid-1980s and putting out a smattering of records since then, the band has influenced a myriad of artists looking to add electronics to heavy music (Patton for one). Throughout the twelve-song, fifty-one minute record, the Young Gods offer songs and passages that could easily be enjoyed simultaneously in euro-electro clubs and industrial music bangers, as the vocals shift between English and French. With hardly a bad song in the bunch, save for the short filler “Machine Arriere,” the Young Gods vary the instrumental content swerving the spectrum between heavy and dance. Those that raise their head above the bunch include rocking opener “I’m the Drug,” guitar-riff crazed “Freeze,” electro “C’est quoi C’est Ca,” the extended title track, and “Everythere.”
Unknown Instructors I can honestly say without loss of generality that The Master’s Voice has me choosing between vomiting my brains out or shooting my brains out. Not sure which way to go on this one. This all-star lineup is more of a good thing in theory than it is in practice. Unknown Instructors is composed of Joe Baiza on guitar, George Hurley on drums, Dan McGuire on vocals, and Mike Watt on bass; and Raymond Pettibon and David Thomas add vocals to this record. For those not in the know, UI songs generally feature someone reading poetry (roughly beat) over jazzy rock. This generally causes the reaction mentioned above.
Unsane Part of the early-mid 90s commercial noise scene explosion, Unsane is back in full-force with the eleven-song Visqueen on Mike Patton’s label Ipecac Recordings. Unsane started out in the late-80s NYC and had a series of releases on all different labels (including Atlantic and Amphetamine Reptile), before taking a break in 2000. Visqueen is the band’s second album post-reform, following Blood Run on Relapse, and features Unsane’s trademark low-tuning sludge rock. What Unsane now lacks in youthful enthusiasm, they make up for in tightness and excellently complex songs. If Unsane were just breaking today you might pass them by as a slowed-down generic heavy music band. Yet, even in that framework, Unsane possess that something special to take them above the ordinary and make them special. Fronting as a three-piece, Chris Spencer, Dave Curran, and Vincent Signorelli spit through such stellar numbers as “This Stops at the River,” opener “Against the Grain,” and “Disdain.” The band even includes the sludge instrumental jam “East Broadway” to close out Visqueen. In the 90s, Unsane were a delight live with enough low tunings slamming and spitting to garner your full attention; if that’s true today then you got to check them out.
Weatherbox The obvious question for Weatherbox is ‘how the hell did you get so good and unleash such a fantastic album as American Art?’ Seemingly infusing the powers of Stephen Pedersen (Criteria, White Octave, early Cursive), Weatherbox punch out thirteen complicated, earnest, guitar rich songs on American Art that have the touches to make Weatherbox one of your new favorites. For whatever reason, Weatherbox’s 2006 EP The Clearing had none of the resonance in our mind that American Art does – even though three of those songs are also here, “Atoms Smash,” “The Clearing,” and “Snakes, Our Ground.” As you progress through American Art and come across songs like “Armed to the Teeth” you take a double and triple look to make sure that Pedersen truly isn’t in Weatherbox. Instead this San Diego four-piece of Brian Warren, Ryan Hill, Justin Greene, and Lowell Helfin, simply channel Pedersen on American Art. This parallel immediately leads to Pedersen fans jumping all over Weatherbox; the band can’t rival Pedersen’s guitar work but they do a pretty damn good job as demonstrated on breakdowns on “Wolftank, Doff Thy Name” and “I Worship Raw Beats.” Weatherbox is a band to keep an eye on, particularly as Midwestern leaves fall from dying trees.
Witches with Dicks Witches with Dicks – otherwise known as Warlocks – unleash a crushing wave of dirty straight-up catchy punk that easily makes them the bastard children of Dillinger Four; and that is fucking awesome. Naturally, if WWD rocked the shit out of everything like D4 did, you would have heard of the Boston outfit already. Still you can get off to the D4 that never was on the excellent ten-song Manual. Are WWD doing anything that isn’t derivative of the past 20 to 30 years of the sound? Shit no, but they still rock it out and swagger like the best drunkard melody-smart punkers out there. Manual is only twenty minutes long, but there is enough here to take them under your wing.
Wooden Ghost On the opener “From a Cloud,” you get the vibe of noisy 80s college rock in the vein of poppy J. Mascis; something that’s pretty cool. However, as you progress through the following ten songs that image rises and falls to the eclectic nature of Wooden Ghost. By blending a million influences into their own version of noisy rock, Wooden Ghost succeeds in spots and bites ass in others. Those on the high end include the aforementioned, “Hurl,” “Dangerous Game,” and “World Keeps Turning;” the faults come from such mental lapses as the instrumental “Reconstruct” and psych-pop “Distorted Minds.” In the right atmosphere Wooden Ghost could be enjoyable.
Xiu Xiu In essence there is only a small difference between remixing and covering songs – that is, in the former you use only the original artists’ recordings and in the latter you record your own version. Jamie Stewart’s Xiu Xiu gets both treatments from friends and compatriots on 5RC’s double-disc release Remixed and Covered. Xiu Xiu’s material of the past few records has varied between the spectacular and the cringe-inducing. Whatever the original faults of Stewart’s compositions, they are mostly corrected across these eighteen tracks. One disc – the white one – has nine covers highlighted by Sunset Rubdown covering “Apistat Commander,” Kid606 covering the already fab “Fabulous Muscles,” and Good for Cows covering “Sad Pony Guerrilla Girl.” The other disc – the red one – is a strong set of covers featuring take-home moments from Kid606 on “Bishop, CA,” Gold Chains’ remix of “Hello from Eau Claire,” Xiu Xiu’s own remix of “Ceremony,” and Son’s remix of “Over Over.” Oh, you have to figure out which disc is which as you have no hint either way from the packaging.
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