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March Reviews Artist of the Month: Johnathan Rice You likely know who Johnathan Rice is or have at least heard him before but didn’t realize it. Besides from existing in the hip LA indie rock scene, Rice played the role of Roy Orbison in the Johnny Cash-biopic Walk the Line; and most folks have seen that movie. On Further North, Rice’s second full-length, the DC native opens up his sweet alt-country indie rock love to extents not previously seen, and in so doing makes converts of the uninitiated. As a solo troubadour, Rice took a common path of heading to NYC to pursue rock dreams. In Rice’s case those dreams consisted of updating the sounds of Neil Young, the Band, and Gram Parsons, while scrapping a living in the city. Scrapping in NYC is as common as breathing as Rice realized soon. With the support of the indie scene, Rice released the EP Heart and Mind, and such started a spin into the arms of Reprise/Warner Brothers. For his debut full-length, Rice headed into Saddle Creek mainstay Mike Mogis’ Nebraska studio and came away with the grandiose Trouble is Real (released in 2005). Trouble is Real spans numerable styles with the heart laying in a type of psychedelic indie country pop. Though a different time and mentality for Rice, Trouble is Real set the stage for Rice to tour with acts such as Jenny Lewis and Wilco. For Further North, Rice decided to take a more stripped down and simple approach to the eleven-track offering. It is quite possible that Rice’s ramblings with touring partners and his hanging out in the LA scene (where he is rumored to be dating Lewis) may have influenced Further North’s rooty alt-country pop. Producing the album in LA with Jason Lader and (Farmer) Dave Scher, Rice used an ensemble cast approach to the recording. Among the individuals offering their talents besides from the producers are Lewis, Rilo Kiley’s Jason Boesel, Brian Geltner, Davey Faragher, among many others. In fact, seven of the eleven songs here were written by Lewis and Rice – a powerful duo indeed. Further North begins on the pedal steel-fused “We’re All Stuck Out In the Desert” – the first single – where Rice calls out such lines as “We’re all stuck out in the desert and we’re all going to die” in a manner that you embrace. What carries Rice is his powerful, trance-creating voice mixed with a terrific set of lyrics. Some of the phrases and vocal cadences throughout the album remind you of Lewis’ solo work and Rilo Kiley adventures; it may be that the knowledge of the songwriting credits tempers this belief. The title-track starts like a big dirty mess before getting round up into an alt-country pop number with dirty electric guitar from Black Mills rocking the intermittent riff. Moving to a pop duet, “End of the Affair” features Lewis and Rice combining and trading off lines, but Lewis’ voice is equally balanced against Rice and doesn’t stand out like usual. “Middle of the Road” is a moderate tempo mover where Rice’s voice shines against acoustic guitars and a catchy chorus. Thankfully, someone has finally written a song regarding the weed that isn’t a rap, stoner, or gangster-metal anthem, though “THC” is the trippiest song on Further North. “It Couldn’t Be Me” meanders around dusty mountains, while “Giving It Up” is a straight up, kick drum-driven rocker – and what a punk band of Rice, Lewis, and Boesel might sound like. “The Ballad of King Coyote” has a trippy feel, but more southwestern than the acid of “THC,” and “What Am I Going to Do?” pushes the fun button on the vox organ. Further North closes on the wordy hard rocker “Hard to Believe” and the darker acoustic “It is Best to Keep it All Inside.” The more and more you listen to Further North, the more endearing it becomes. It is not an issue of familiarity, but of excellence. From the first echoing of the opening “We’re All Stuck Out in the Desert,” Rice gives you the contemporary Americana feel you dream about.
Ambitions Forming from the ashes of the heavier old-school hardcore band With Honor, Ambitions mix up that classic hardcore sound with SoCal 80-90s punk and a freshness that holds its own. The fast tempo, direct playing of B9 bands are here on Stranger, but Ambitions enhances the sound with melodic sections, actual singing, and drums that move rhythm all over the places. This actually makes Ambitions stand out as unique on the B9 roster. Therefore, fans of punk and lighter hardcore will find much on Stranger. Listen to the awesome opener “The Illusion,” “Fact Remains,” the mildly extended “Rapid Succession,” “Overstep,” the more straight-up hardcore “Losing Control,” and “Culmination (of my life’s work).”
Capital As part of Revelation Records recent push to put themselves back as a dominating force in hardcore punk, the label releases the hard hitting old school Homefront from Long Island’s Capital. Essentially Capital is the members of The Reformation with Tommy Corrigan (Silent Majority/Blood Red) on vocals. Where Corrigan’s vocals could grate you on LI’s (in)famous Silent Majority, he’s come to understand how to balance and truly provide a solid, powerful rock voice through Blood Red and now with Capital. Relating back to SM, who loved the heavy Quicksand sound, Capital has more punk styles and anthems – providing a strong mix of melodic hardcore. Possibly a bit of Avail, but with stronger nods to northeastern hardcore punk, Homefront is an enjoyable evening. Songs such as “Crossroads,” “Dead Children,” the serious guitar work on “On a Mission,” “Mosh Parts,” and the title-track closer truly excel and quickly make you a fan. With Capital, Tommy Corrigan may achieve the success he’s sought for the past decade plus.
Crime in Stereo The first Crime in Stereo material I heard was small snippets off their acclaimed 2006 album The Troubled Stateside – an awesome maelstrom of contemporary melodic hardcore in a similar vein to Lifetime. Further, that CIS is from LI stoked my interest even further. And thus, curiosity ran quite high for this eleven-song offering on their new label Bridge Nine Records. Given CIS’ past material and that B9 has a swath of tough-guy hardcore bands on their lineup, you’d figure to find harder edge songs. And yet, Crime in Stereo is Dead is considerably more tempered than past albums with a concentration on song structures, rhythms, and melodies. You still find the balls-out melodic hardcore rockers such as the splendidly brilliant “Nixon,” opener “The First Thousand Years of Solitude,” the more poppy “Animal Pharm,” and closer “Choker.” But there are also complicated, multi-tempo songs such as “But You Are Vast,” “Small Skeletal,” and “Vicious Teeth.” Even though “Nixon” with its tremendous rhythmic solo is most reminiscent of past songs (and bands like Lifetime), the catchiness and magnetic powers also will draw every listen to press repeat over and over. With the members of Crime in Stereo moving in different directions in their lives, check them out while you still can.
Haram Now a five-piece, the indie rock provacateurs Haram richen and enliven their angular attacks first established on their self-titled debut for Lovitt. Employing three guitarists and cadre of vocalists, the nine songs on Drescher are immediately instrumentally denser and stronger than past material. As before, none of the attacking jabs leaves enough of an indentation continuously to hit repeat but instead this is a solid rock album to be enjoyed in whole. Progression through Drescher brings to mind past and current Lovitt acts living and working the southern college town clubs where sweaty nights mix with sweaty indie hipster bodies. Drescher is a legitimate follow up to Haram’s debut.
Hot Springs Perhaps it’s my myopic musical viewpoint, but a couple of months back it seemed that the indie press were wetting their pants to Montreal’s Hot Springs. And thus, expectations were high for the ten-track Volcano. Hot Springs tackle their sound with the pure aggression of wolves on dance punk prey – helped to an absurd degree by the belting vocals of Giselle Webber. Webber’s Joplin-meets-Ditto vocal intensity carries Hot Springs through any tough moments and imprints their sound onto your brain. To find the full effect of the richness of Hot Springs a headphone listen is necessary – without you’ll miss the aching, depth, and range of Webber’s vocals, like how they crackle on “Fog and the Horn.” “Fog and the Horn” also establishes that Hot Springs aren’t a one-trick pony of sound – where here the tempo slows to a crawl on the slithery ballad. Hot Springs are catchy but not to such a degree that you lose yourself in them, which is both good and bad. You want to lose yourself, get chills, and find joy from hitting repeat over and over from absurdly catchy numbers. But also these songs may overshadow an otherwise stellar record. For the most part I find the ‘it’ maker indie music sites to be off the mark too many times for anyone’s good, but they might actually be onto something with Hot Springs.
Ramones To put it in the simplest of terms, you are a fan of punk music or bill yourself a rock historian then you should buy this double-disc of live Ramones material immediately, if you don’t already have it on the shelf. The focus of the DVD is on the 1970s Ramones and their initial assaults in NYC before taking on the rest of the U.S. and then the world. Thus, the quality of the first disc especially is often suspect, but you can’t really blame the band or anything – for people to have their own cameras at that time was crazy on its own. There is a progression of quality throughout however, likely linked to how popular the band became. Most interesting from this early set of songs is how Joey Ramone looked the same as a youngster as he did right before he died. Since all the Ramones’ songs are like 2 minutes, the number of included songs on the DVDs is absurd and voluminous. The second disc is filled with late 70s and then 80s material with bits of 90s thrown in; well, up until 1996 as the title dictates. Much of this material on the second disc is from around the world including Germany, England, Sweden, Argentina, Spain, and Finland. And this second one is roughly 2-and-a-half hours of material so you’re set. So, again, pick this up now.
Scarpoint The obvious may have just hit me with respect to Scandinavian metal bands – all of these bands are absurdly talented musicians playing speed, thrash, etc. metal that isn’t all that appealing to the masses and yet the bands often take years and years between albums. Why? The damn quasi-socialist state up in Norway, Sweden, and Finland! These bands are often paid by the government to be in a band, thus helping the ‘culture.’ So, the bands have little incentive to tackle popular music and can choose instead to play the music they actually want to. Well, it’s a theory at least. But this may explain why Sweden’s Scarpoint took seven years to release their debut record, where the musicianship is mind-blowingly technical and tight. For metal fans, Scarpoint hit the sweet spot across the ten-track The Silence We Deserve. What is missing though are gianormous metal anthems that knock you on your ass even on low volume – may be they’ll be here in another seven years.
The Forms If you can get indie producer-extraordinaire Steve Albini to work your record, you know that you’re doing something right. The New York-based quartet offers twelve atmospheric indie pop love gems on Threespheres – appealing enough to reach the pop drooling, indie nerds, and the hipsters all at once. Setting the stage for excellence with the amazing opener “Knowledge in Hand,” The Forms progress through such strong numbers as similarly touched “Red Gun,” the riff on “Bones” keeps you busy nodding, the electro swirl of “Blue Whale,” the tight pop of “Oberlin,” and atmospheric closer “Getting It Back.” The Forms are a band that are fun to get used to – try them out for a spin.
The Kindness Kind Coming from the saturated Seattle rock scene, the recently formed the Kindness Kind follows fuzzy indie pop that resembles Stars and the like – though is largely a function of Alessandra Rose’s vocals. Bouncing between pop and rock, where KK come off like Denali, the twelve tracks on A Novel keep a good pace and amenable atmosphere. The five-piece mix things up with slight touches, like piano on “Quiet Words are Quiet Words,” but knock-out punches come full lacking. None of the songs on A Novel blow you away, but none make you want to turn the record off. Once the Kindness Kind locate their song appealing powers they’ll be a band to be reckoned with.
The Playing Favorites Following the pop-punk tradition of their former and current bands, The Playing Favorites rock out fourteen catchy punk songs on their debut I Remember When I Was Pretty (which pictures of the past often do help you remember, unless you are prettier now). The five-piece consists of SoCal guys that populate and have populated bands such as Lagwagon, Me First, Sugarcult, The Rentals, Summercamp, and Penfifteen Club. That lineup of bands should give you a pretty good sense of The Playing Favorites’ sound. Quickly recorded over the course of a week, none of the songs here are dumb throwaway punk songs but none are knock you down with pure awesomeness. You can’t really expect breakthrough moments from a quick side project of dunken pop punkers. One can see The Playing Favorites opening on a tour for their respective regular bands; and in that sense checking them out should be a good time.
Thrice The power metal hardcore Thrice have been offering for longer than most and have played in such vastly different environments that we as listener should applaud their longevity. At the same time, the music needs to grab your collar and make you take notice if you want to continue to be a believer. And that is the problem with the double-disc The Alchemy Index. Certainly, The Alchemy Index is one of the best packaged albums of the year with a two-disc, gate-fold CD case where each disc boasts 6 songs. This initial offering is actually being billed as the first two EPs – Fire & Water – out of a total of four – the next being Earth & Air. The thing that drives the listener crazy is the moderately paced heavy music that is atmospheric and grandiose of those currently stoned, but doesn’t inspire the ordinary listener. Thrice’s sound has evolved over time, as most bands do, but this generic brand of commercial heavy rock is maddening. Perhaps this record is best enjoyed under some type of numbness.
Upsilon Acrux Unlike the swath of bands making avant-garde punk noise these days, Upsilon Acrux have been paying their dues with recordings up and down since 1997. UA’s material falls into the lathery world of ‘free jazz noise,’ but the execution makes for an album that doesn’t sound like random shit thrown together just to sound hip and cool, allowing for the stroking of masterful goatees. Admittedly for most the ten-track Galapagos Momentum is going to sound like random noise, but for fans of the style and those initiated to varying degrees, the album is considerably more enjoyable than anticipated; this latter observation may be due to GM having stronger nods to traditional rock structures. Possibly cliché, but the best moment on GM comes with the opening song “Who’s Running Shit (Son of Destiny’s Child)” – specifically, the atmospheric guitar attack towards the end. Rock.
White, Blue, Yellow, and Clouds If you’re looking for a 1950’s pop contemporary novelty act then you just met your match in White, Blue, Yellow, and Clouds. The twelve tracks on Introducing are fun for a listen once in awhile, but on the whole you are more like ‘wtf?’ If you happen upon WBYC playing near you, they may be worth checking out to have a bit of a good time.
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