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December Reviews Artist of the Month: The Album Leaf Into the Blue Again is exactly what you need to decompress from that which is everyday life. Fifty-three minutes of glorious ambient soundscapes measured with bits of indie pop mouthing to satisfy the vocals-needed crowd. Satisfying relaxation is guaranteed on Into the Blue Again; and so is electronic droning on a positive wave. As a significant part of San Diego’s music scene, Jimmy LaValle – the one man that makes up the Album Leaf – has been plugging away on creating these sound collections since 1999. After 2004’s In a Safe Place, his debut record on Sub Pop and third overall, was released and scores of touring with basically every chic band you’ve (n)ever heard of, LaValle took a chunk of time off to recenter. Years as the Album Leaf as well as efforts in Tristeza, the Locust, and the Black Heart Procession had taken its toll. With success of In a Safe Place along with extra cash from The O.C. and other shows using his songs, LaValle’s was able to lock himself at home for six months and craft the ten-track Into the Blue Again. Unlike In a Safe Place and its noteworthy aid from the members of Sigur Ros, LaValle handles nearly all of the instruments here with only a smattering of string and engineering help. Recorded in Seattle and Iceland (where In a Safe Place was put to tape), LaValle moves the Album Leaf back to the original intent and modern day commonplace dream of one person constructing gorgeous music in (somewhat) isolation. Into the Blue Again opens on “The Light,” a pulsating, droning song that sets the mood, space, and basic structure for the next nine tracks. Beats, keys, and a terrific synth riff keeps pace to LaValle’s vocals on “Always For You,” providing one the most heavily endowed vocal track. Yet, you can also find lengthy doses of vocals on the repetitive indie “Writings on the Wall” and the slower, sweeping “Wherever I Go.” If “Shine” has an instrumental theme it is of transcendence or at least ascendancy from your current spot making for one of the highlights on the record. “Red-Eye” makes use of hip-hop beat as electronics and later strings are sprinkled across the seven-minute song – a song that might have made better use of varying crescendos. Providing a relative contrast to the languid “Red-Eye” is the instrumentally brighter “See In You” and the pleasantly dense “Into the Sea” where an aura of hope-restored lingers. LaValle rounds Into the Blue Again with “Wishful Thinking” and “Broken Arrow.” The piano-driven “Wishful Thinking” takes the coat of a Caroline track without the vocal pop, and offers uplifting strings midway through. LaValle brings back the droning ambience and kitschy-blipping electronics on “Broken Arrow” before warming up a wide closing. Continuing with and passing above previous material, Into the Blue Again is an album destined for many best-of lists this year. This is recommended if you can hear or at least feel music. And for those of the indie instrumental persuasion, Into the Blue Again is something to snack on before the next Explosions in the Sky record sees the light of day.
108 This two-disc record serves as a discography for the mid-90s Hare Krishna hardcore band 108. Launching off the success of Shelter and their Krishna-core, Vic Dicara helped found 108 in 1993 and soon after released the EP Holyname on EVR. The band’s story thereafter is exceedingly complicated and confusing, as dutifully described in the linear notes, where 108 lost members left and right, took hiatuses for pilgrimages to India, then would get back together for some hardcore thrash. The band finally split up after a final show in August 1996 at CBGB’s, and the recording and release of the Threefold Misery and Curse of Instinct records. Creation. Sustenance. Destruction. flips the chronology of 108 with their later recordings on the first disc and older ones on the second. The surprise of the discography is how good 108 had become on their later material compared to the thrashing, short songs of Holyname EP and Songs of Separation. You would expect a band to improve, but the shift is more dramatic than average. If nothing else 108 has influenced heavy music bands since the mid-90s and this collection will surely increase their spiritual mission.
AutoVaughn Nashville’s AutoVaughn are surprisingly adept at drawing you in with indie rock drenched in 80s pop rock. It is comforting both that Nashville is producing bands like AutoVaughn and further that AutoVaughn can survive in such a locale. AutoVaughn’s 80s new wave pop comes from Darren Potuck’s vocal cadence and emphasis along with the tempo. For those reliving their John Hughes’ days, this atmospheric rehash may be enticing. With stumbling guitar riffs, solid writing, and catchiness, songs to take note of include the opener “One More Time,” the mover “Rock Your Body,” and the two moods of “On the Radio.” Space is likely to be reissued with all the bells and whistles once AutoVaughn signs to some major.
Betrayed If you love classic punk hardcore that spews fast-paced blasts then Betrayed’s latest full-length and first on EVR is your ideal product. Featuring members of Champion and Carry On, this left coast contingent offer thirteen extraordinarily tight songs that stay on positive messages. Thankfully, Betrayed aren’t the over preaching straight-edge types who often incite more problems than they prevent. Continuing the path set on their Bridge Nine Addiction EP, though not making as much of an indent, the central problem with Betrayed and nearly all bands playing old-school hardcore is that it doesn’t sound any different than bands of the past 20 years. Substance is great for what it is. Just would like one of these bands to actually evolve from the early 80s.
Billy Talent As Billy Talent launches into their opening number “Devil in a Midnight Mass,” it becomes increasingly bewildering why the musical world has fawned over this group. The other thing that I somehow missed throughout the whole path to notoriety is that Billy Talent is from Toronto – what? Listening to the snarled quasi-Brit punk rock vocals of Ben Kowalewicz on their second album’s thirteen songs, you can only peg them as from the British Isles (possibly NYC if BT were playing retro-garage rock). This only adds to the whole derivative feel of II. There is nothing here that is different, novel, or interesting on its own ground. At the same time, with Atlantic’s studio budgets, it’s hard to deny that Billy Talent haven’t mastered the hard-fisted angry punk geared for mainstream audiences. Exceptionally tight and clean, Billy Talent seem to live on the ability to make themselves sound angry than the average punk band while appealing to radio. With songs like “Red Flag,” “Worker Bees,” and the opener one can expect further fawning for Billy Talent. Still if I was to select a band that achieves much more, I would stick with the legit Rise Against.
DJ Shadow For those, like me, not fully engaged with the hip-hop and urban music scenes, DJ Shadow’s name carries considerably more weight than actually knowing the songs he has created. On the eighteen-track The Outsider, DJ Shadow (aka Josh Davis) spans such an absurd range of sounds, influences, and atmospheres that it is nearly impossible to categorize. Further, DJ Shadow moves beyond the standard sampling processes and keyboard skills, and includes live instruments to round out several instrumental and rock tracks. As you might imagine vocal guests add to the eclectic nature of the Outsider including Q-Tip, Sergio Pizzorno and Christopher Karloff of Kasabian, David Banner, and Bay Area hyphy emcees Keak Da Sneak and Turf Talk. DJ Shadow’s modus operandi is wicked samples, beats, and keys with vocalists laying thick rhymes and lines over the top. And in that regard, “3 Freaks (ft. Keak Da Sneak and Turf Talk),” “Seein Thangs (ft. David Banner),” and “Enuff (ft. Q-Tip & Lateef the Truth Speaker)” are standouts. But, the listener should focus in on the tracks that aren’t the MO. There are the instrumentals “Broken Levee Blues” with a simple guitar leading the way, the hardcore beats of “Artifact,” and the minimalist moody “Triplicate/Something Happened that Day.” What really dazzles are the AM Gold songs including the funk soul “This Time (I’m Gonna Try It My Way)” and the gorgeous “You Made It (ft. Chris James)” where acoustic guitars and strings serve your needs. If nothing else, the diversity on The Outsider serves as a message to artists that DJ Shadow is a sick produce across genres.
Eric Matthews Foundation Sounds is one of those albums where one ambitious and talented guy decides to go it alone and overreach his… I mean record the whole thing solo. This is a gutsy move as it delegates all responsibility to success or failure onto one person’s shoulders, but the gutsiest moves are also rife with foolishness. In this case, Eric Matthews dishes out heavily layered ‘orchestral’ pop music that looks good from a distance (or at very, very low volume) but the louder you get, the more Foundation Sounds becomes a barely stitched together mess. The old adage: jack-of-all-trades, master of none—is here, the unfortunate cliché that proves the rule. Matthews is a competent guitarist, bassist, drummer, horn player, keyboardist, etc. etc., but demonstrates excellence at none of these instruments and comes across as more dilettante than seasoned professional. And then there’s his voice, which is a love it or hate it blend of smarmy sensitivity and tepid poetics—seriously affected stuff and I don’t buy it. In his (unintentionally?) hilarious ‘note from the artist’, Matthews states that “Foundation Sounds is the music of my today, made my way” that is “so heavy that [it] might actually change, just slightly, the tilt of the planet.” Cue up the epically lifeless horns of “The Death of In Between” and let the devolution begin! (- Andrew Pryor)
Great Lakes Brooklyn based Great Lakes’ third album Diamond Times has an immediately engaging warmth and earnestness that serves it well through the course of its short 35 minutes. At times tapping into an early Wilco vibe (“Night Hearts”) and at others, Grandaddy (“The Pinks and the Purples”), Great Lakes don’t want to change the world, just make it sound good with garage-fuzz power chords, churning garage drums, and solid, understated singing. Sometimes they break out the acoustic and go all jangled-garage on you with the pedal steel of “Precious and Reckless.” At other times they conjure a late 70s vibe, adding horns, scratchy guitar, and kitschy group vocals on the chorus of “Hot Cosmos.” But mostly there is an overall timeless quality to the music here, which works both ways for Diamond Times—there are songs that could’ve used more risk-taking, such as “The Moon and the Lunatics”, to push the album even further—but for the most part the approach on Diamond Times works for the band. (- AP)
Hundred Year Storm On Austin-based Hundred Year Storm self-titled EP from a couple years back, the band succeeded with space rock instrumentals that mixed quotes into extended numbers. On their debut full-length, Hundred Year Storm stick with that wise allocation of resources, only tripping up when appeasing the pop gods – or record company execs. How else do you explain the emo rock offerings on “Yesterday We Had It All,” the acoustic “Where Beauty Never Dies,” and the shockingly Goo Goo Dolls-esque vocals on the otherwise solid opener “00:01”? (Mostly) instrumental space rock band do not exactly sell a blitzkrieg of records (unless you’re Explosions in the Sky). At other times, Hundred Year Storm split their songs between extended instrumentals and solid indie rock. Among the latter to take note of include “Walking Away From What You Deserve,” the short, light electronic “August on Fire,” and “All This Time.” Yet, Hundred Year Storm’s true calling and appeal are their extended space rock soundscapes. Besides from moments on the opener, the first hint at this comes on the nine-minute “The Golden Record.” With a touch of vocals here and there, “The Golden Record” includes a speech from JFK on the space race and presents a similar ambience throughout the song’s journey. After the song ends, it should be clear to everyone what Hundred Year Storm should be focusing on. “Beloved” merges the instrumentals and indie rock in successful fashion, while the softer “Reach” is somewhat less inspiring. As on their self-titled EP, the band closes Hello from the Children of Planet Earth with the epic “Pilot’s Last Broadcast.” The near eight-minute “Pilot’s Last Broadcast” tracks moving instrumentals with the back-and-forth radio communication surrounding an aircraft crash. Unlike the EP, this song fits well into the overall motif of the record. Hundred Year Storm should be congratulated in walking the tightrope between the need of being commercially viable and their true calling of moving space rock instrumentals on Hello from the Children of Planet Earth.
Jenny Piccolo My first experience with Jenny Piccolo came courtesy of Skyler Peabody Le Fou, likely due to JP’s connection with Three One G and the Locust. The NoCal three-piece smashed songs of thirty-second spazz hardcore into your skull, helping to establish a foundation for future noise hardcore bands. This record, aptly named, contains fifty-two songs (at only thirty-seven minutes) of all of JP’s material including Three One G releases Information Battle to Denounce the Genocide LP, Lowest Common Denominator 7”, the 10” split with Asterick*, and the Locust split 5”. Along with the rest of their recorded material, this record is remastered by Dan Maier who does an admirable job with often noisy original recordings. Fans of Jenny Piccolo and Three One G will surely flock to this.
Kill Hannah On Chicago-based Kill Hannah’s second full-length for Atlantic, the dark new wave rockers try to infuse as much catchy lines and riffs into pop goth as possible. Like their Forever Never & Ever but with richer production and instrument denseness, the twelve-track Until There’s Nothing Left of Us at times dazzles and at other times dulls you to turn away. Though Kill Hannah and Atlantic are touting “Lips Like Morphine” as an anthem-dreaming rock fuck, the breakdown vocal line makes it sound like vampires are about to drop from the sky. The songs to really take note of include the excellent “Believer,” the surprisingly mellow “Black Poison Blood,” the rocker “Love You to Death,” and the 80s-infused “Songs That Save My Live.” Kill Hannah doesn’t say this directly but a close parallel is an indie version of 30 Seconds to Retarded.
The Lesser Scene
The Melvins On their eighth full-length release for Ipecac, drummer Coady Williams and bassist Jared Warren of Big Business join Buzz and Dale. What a difference a second drummer makes! But seriously, Senile Animal is the most invigorated and focused this band has been since the classic albums Stoner Witch and Houdini, and the new personnel serve as an obvious catalyst. Songs such as “Blood Witch”, “The Talking Horse” and “A History of Bad Men” seem to coalesce the ‘three Melvins’ of the earlier Ipecac trilogy (Maggot, Bootlicker, & Crybaby) into one unstoppable war machine. The stereo dual drumming layered with Buzz’s endless repertoire of guitar noise and chords makes this album worth it alone. Senile Animal is the Melvins in top form. (- AP)
Milton and the Devils Party If this is the ‘expanded and revised edition,’ what was the original like? Philadelphia’s Milton and the Devils Party lay down fourteen power-pop numbers on What Is All…. The irony, though, is thickly displayed once you learn a bit about them. Milton plays quirky 90s college rock, but with some of the worst lyrics you’ve ever heard. There are possibly worse lyrics out in the world, but their awkwardness on these songs is stunning. The irony is that two of the band’s members, Daniel Robinson and Mark Graybill, are English professors. Better at interpretation than coming up with lyrics? Or is it a case of writing academic papers and rock lyrics aren’t really the same?
Mono & World’s End Girlfriend Unlike Mono’s oft movements to heavy sections blistering the past ten minutes of soft soundscapes, their collaboration with modern electronic composer World’s End Girlfriend on the five-track Palmless Prayer/Mass Murder Refrain goes for velvet moods of emotion without raising the noise level. Recorded at various studios in Japan, Mono began working with WEG around the time of their recording You Are There in Tokyo.
The Muggabears Now as a three-piece, the NYC-based Muggabears pick up on this three-song EP where their 2004 Kim Berlin full-length left off: in 90s indie-rock heaven. With founder Travis Johnson on vocals/guitars, Emily Ambruso on drums, and Kevin Murphy on drums, the Muggabears open on the highly appealing “Married to the Moon.” Previously, the band has hushed comparisons to Pavement, but on “Married to the Moon” Johnson’s vocals and guitar play so parallel Pavement it’s unavoidable – and that is a good thing. If you miss the indie rock solace of grad school theme music then “Married to the Moon” is for you. “I’m Coming True” follows and besides from the first couple of lines fails completely to draw you in; it may be that Johnson’s vocals float too low under the music. The bass thumping, mostly instrumental “Sister Now” closes out the EP in not exactly glorious fashion. Still, Teenage Cop EP and “Married to the Moon” serve as a strong starting point for the Muggabears to draw on for the next few months.
Muse The new millennium has been particularly good to the Muse. The band has been growing and growing, topping those European summer festivals, and selling increasing numbers of records from Showbiz to Absolution. And like most bands getting warmed up and exploding, Muse was always rushed to finish records. For the eleven-song Black Holes and Revelations, Muse took their time recording in France and NYC. The end product is a merging of prog, atmospheric rock, and dance pop – all of which varies in quality to an extensive extent. Black Holes opens on the prog space “Take a Bow” before moving on to standout “Starlight” where drum and bass lead the charge to the soaring choruses. A string of commonplace if not weak songs follow before “Invincible” and “Exo-Politics” restore some sense of order before closing out the album on lengthy Queen-harmonies of “Knights of Cydonia.” Besides from the rather non-inspiring songs, another significant drawback of Black Holes is that Muse nearly sounds like a different band on each track. Not fun.
Scissor Sisters After the auspicious start of the hit single “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’,” the rest of Ta-Dah drops several steps below the immaculate. Still, there is enough Elton John-infused disco-drenched pop love on Ta-Dah to come back for seconds. Even if you’ve never actually heard the Scissor Sisters, you no doubt have come across them in references. A common line in describing other electroclash pop acts is ‘similar to the Scissor Sisters but less disco and less gay.’ If you live in Great Britain it’s even harder not to know SS as they sold over 2.5 million copies of their debut; that’s like one-in-five Brits. After their worldwide explosion, SS went back home to Brooklyn and found difficulty in settling into the norm. Beginning work on this record, Jake Shears (lead vocals), Ana Matronic (vocals), Babydaddy (bass, keys), Del Marquis (guitars), and Paddy Boom (drums) sought to make a statement song and that came from “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’” – with a little help from Elton John on piano. Though the song is a killer dance song, the message is about rather staying home and just relaxing – reflecting the band’s exhaustion after touring. So, it’s a great dance song, but the lyrics are all about not doing that – something sure to stop you in your tracks. Similar to their debut, but even more so, SS move on to an eclectic set of songs that typically are either grand or ho-hum. Standout numbers besides from “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’,” include the quasi-ragtime pop of “I Can’t Decide” with such choice lines as “Fuck and kiss you both at the same time” and “If lies were cats you’d be a litter;” the 70s dance pop of “Lights;” the surprisingly appeasing piano ballad “Land of a Thousand Words;” “Kiss You Off” where Ana takes over lead vocals; the awesome-to-play-at-a-party-really-loud “Ooh;” and the strong “Might Tell You Tonight.” Ta-Dah is solid record; just not as dance magnificent as one dreams.
The Slits Otis B. Driftwood said in the film, The Devil’s Rejects, “I set my standards pretty low, so I’m never disappointed,” apropos, as it’s never wise to get one’s hopes up for a reunion project such as Revenge of the Killer Slits. So it is with a heavy heart that I state the obvious: this is NOT the cult-like Slits that recorded Cut. That out of the way, the chief problem with this reunion is that the dub aspect of The Slits’ sound, which made songs like “Shoplifting,” sound fresh circa 1979, is now given a generic studio overhaul, with the result sounding way past the sell-by date. The crunk drum programming on “Slits Tradition” gets things started on a false footing and the EP never really recovers afterward. The Slits’ cleverness is now neutralized by a forced attitude that wants to be in-your-face punk, but actually comes off as almost restrained and tired. Ari-Up and Tessa Pollit want to get you all riled up with the swagger of “Number One Enemy” but the guitars sound dialed-in punk and the singing is by the numbers riot grrrl. “Kill Them With Love” returns to a dub vibe and is the strongest track here but fails to rise above the (again) stale production and karaoke vocals. (- AP)
Teeth of the Hydra With their evocative name, Teeth of the Hydra would have you believe that they are undead skeleton warriors sent from the underworld (or Columbus, OH) to rock you out with their self-described “1970s black metal”. While their indebtedness to bands like the Melvins and Celtic Frost are obvious, it is also no detriment to the band’s label debut. Greenland is a loose concept album with songs about a man who “falls through a crevice on a fishing trip” (Sawing Through the Ice) and a man who is sentenced to work in a nuclear facility (The Garden of Rotting Teeth). But back-stories aside, what makes the album work is that it is visceral and unadulterated in its musical approach. The guitars are raw and unaffected, the bass growls and the drums pummel. Album highlights are “Nine Heads” which culminates in a series of syncopated start-stops punctuated with microphone feedback followed by “Eruptin’”, which has a truly wicked (in a Tony Iommi/Buzz Osborne kind of way) guitar line that morphs from foreboding Sabbath to waves of sonic destruction. (- AP)
U2 Two words aptly describe both this record and its release timing: stocking stuffer. And for those who are U2 fans but may only have a couple of records, this collection of 18 singles serves an excellent purpose in that role. For the more involved U2 fans, the record only includes two songs that have not been released on previous records: the Green Day collaboration “The Saints Are Coming” and “Window in the Skies.” The “Saints Are Coming” has been put out through the usual single avenues (e.g., iTunes), and as has been extensively reported, all proceeds of the song go to the Edge’s Music Rising charity to help New Orleans’ musicians. The other sixteen singles span U2’s career from “New Year’s Day” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday” off of War to “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own” from How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. More or less a best-of, 18 Singles includes nearly every U2 song that has the power to get you going in the morning. Two surprising facts emerge from the liner notes and information. First, few of the singles were released as such in the U.S., while they were always released as single in the UK (with the exception of “Sunday Bloody Sunday” which was only released in continental Europe as a single). Second, U2 for all of their success only have a few #1 singles including “Beautiful Day” (UK), “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” (US), “Vertigo” (UK), and “Desire” (UK). This is more than most, but fewer than expected. Indeed an excellent collection of songs, but you may already own all of the songs.
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