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May Music Reviews
A Ceasar Holiday On their debut release, the five-piece of A Ceasar Holiday waltz through six songs of densely constructed instrumentation led by Lauren Eison’s violin. Attaining a sound that combines acoustic atmospheric instrumental rock and indie rock paths, A Ceasar Holiday shift between the compelling and the hand-sitting average on the self-titled affair. For example, the first half of “Let Bygones” is the first spot where you hear vocals, to which point you didn’t know if they include them, and the soft spokenness fits the music smartly. Yet, half-way through the song, the vocals are dropped for simply average instrumentals. Another song that feels misguided is the on-the-highway rocker “Snoopy Takes the Cake,” which feels more guided by the Secret Machines. A Ceasar Holiday have a lot to offer and hopefully they’ll craft it into something truly magical in the future.
ASG All you have to do to figure out ASG’s sound is simply look at the album cover and know that the band’s moniker to ASG. That’s it! And what’s the sound that’s conveyed? Try uptempo stoner rock drenched with punk and catchy elements. So, you aren’t lulled into a slow burner fuck job of couch plastering, but you aren’t met with pop punk happiness; something more akin to commercially-pleasing stoner rock. From the pleasant and chill beach community of Wrightsville Beach, NC, riffs are aplenty on Win Us Over and Jason Shi’s vocals are typically coupled in a perfect fit. We reviewed ASG’s debut …The Amplification of Self Gratification, but not their 2005 sophomore, and clearly the sixteen-track Win Us Over is light years ahead of previous efforts. It may be working with producer Matt Hyde that transformed these mellow Carolina beach rockers, but whatever the reason Win Us Over is pleasing as hell; and one imagines Guitar Hero around the corner.
Baja Fans of disjointed ambient electronic music will love the latest from Baja (aka, Daniel Vujanic). On his third full-length Vujanic sprinkles and intersperses massively complex electronic bits into a disjointed ADD child’s dream; though a dream where a certain wavy mellowness exist. Probably the best comparison is to a more upbeat Kammerflimmer Kollektief; similar hums but brighter skies. Whether you could actually call the tracks songs, Wolfhour is comprised of nine of them with the highlight coming from the acoustic guitar riffing-filled with epic electronics “Go Wolpertinger! Go!” I prefer the instrumentals more thematic, but others may disagree.
DoF Red Pine Pasture features an EP worth of new material from Pittsburgh’s DoF – aka Brian Hulick – along with swath of remixes of past DoF songs from Low in the Sky, Crillix, Jason Corder, Phylum Sinter, and Set in Sand. DoF has been floating in the electronic folk background for sometime now; living mostly via Internet and word-of-mouth translations. You probably don’t want to exactly call DoF folktronica for all the negative connotations that can employ, yet you are easily swayed by such numbers as opener “Evening Wolves,” the first part of “Last Night Static,” and the heavy acoustic “Silence and Shame” that echoes an Elliott Smith or Nick Drake on happy pills. DoF has piqued our interest with Red Pine Pasture and we look forward to upcoming efforts.
Dot Tape Dot As their introduction to an American audience, Dot Tape Dot, essentially one Daniel Romero with various help, offer the twelve-track Tomavistas – a collection of rarities from varying European releases and one-offs. The Spanish Romero began his ventures in lo-fi electronic music with simple instruments and toys that could be cobbled together to form quirky ambient soundscapes. Tomavistas provides interesting and captivating background studying music, though will not hold you at bay on a dead listen. A nice introduction to Dot Tape Dot, though we’d like to hear more of the latest from Romero and friends.
Drag the River This indie country side project of those who formerly rocked the punk – e.g., guys from the Nobodys, Pinhead Circus, etc. – offer up their latest collection of quite short anthems on You Can’t Live This Way. Seemingly the best way to enjoy Drag the River is with some nice Kentucky bourbon and a drive through the Appalachians, and without such effect the brilliance dulls to I3 quality. We loved their previous record It’s Crazy, but the fourteen songs don’t rub our balls in the same manner. You Can’t might be more consistent, but It’s Crazy had a couple of rockers (e.g., “Leavin’ in the Morning”) that rocked your socks off. In their more uptempo moments, Drag the River fits such stalwarts as Limbeck without as much twang. And speaking of twang, Drag the River should hit up St. Louis’ Twang Fest held every summer; if they haven’t already (can’t remember). Anyway, You Can’t Live This Way is a nice, solid extension of past work, but won’t take you above and beyond. Look for the last track’s continuous play of the entire album…reason provided on one-sheet?...so that you can choose the track at a jukebox and get the whole album.
Dub Trio On Dub Trio’s latest for Mike Patton’s Ipecac Recordings, the boys continue their heavy low-end sludge rock across fourteen-tracks on the kitten-blood splattered Another Sound is Dying. As with past Dub Trio releases, there isn’t a ton to get excited about on Another Sound is Dying; the record is tight, well-executed, and great for what it is, but the sludgy instrumentals quickly wear on your consciousness. Like other bands that fit this caliber, Dub Trio is best experienced live, turned way the fuck up, and with a fierce blast of your hair moving backward.
Eat Sugar On this short four-song debut EP, the Cincinnati four-piece unleash uptempo electro-punk that flashes toward the Electric Six and like-minded acts. Obviously set to explode in the live setting Eat Sugar rifle through opener “I’m a Carrier,” the more emotive “Sixteen,” the spastic attacker “Black Eye,” and the electronic-driven closer “Brown Boots” which pales in awesomeness. This is an appealing debut for Eat Sugar and one should expect more from these folks.
Envy As a placeholder for their next full-length, Japan’s Envy provide the anxious and impatient listener with this four-song EP. Following past efforts, Abyssal features extended indie-metal epics of atmospheric soundscapes with a myriad of speaking and screaming parts. For some reason, the vocal contrasts on Envy’s past full-length Insomniac Doze knocked me wrong, but here I love them! It might be that all the crap music that’s out there made me realize when you have something exceptional. Case in point is the ten-minute opener “Road of Wind the Water Builds,” where Envy moves between soft and heavy, slightly marching drums a la Explosions, and at the end you feel exhausted and used. That’s what you want! The middle two songs here – “All That’s Left Has Gone to Sleep” and “Thousand Scares” – are more traditional in structure, while the closer “Fading Vision” is a bit soft as a closer to great EP. Unquestionably, this is an EP you should check out; particularly if you’re someone who’s only recently caught the ear of Explosions.
Envy So, this CD I’m talking about is actually just a sampler CD that TRL put out to illustrate Envy’s material from past records. Included here are seven songs that come from Envy’s All the Footprints You’ve Ever Left (2001), A Dead Sinking Story (2003), Compiled Fragments 1997-2003 (2005), and their most recent EP Abyssal. TRL is re-releasing the three albums, and thus this offering. As such, this sampler is a great tasting of Envy’s material and well worth a finding if able.
Kelley Stoltz Adding to his 2006 Sub Pop debut Below the Branches, the fourteen-track Circular Sounds builds on Stoltz’ rock piano by adding on a more traditional rock set – circa 1960s – with modern electronic enhancements. Similar to previous recordings, Stoltz recorded a large margin of Circular Sounds at home with finishing touches in a regular studio; again with the help of Kevin Ink and Shayde Sartin. Only hinted at in stretches on past efforts, Circular Sounds is drenched with pop in the vein of quirky indie rock and 60s acts. The album begins with horns screeching the sky on “Everything Begins” where Stoltz quick sings the verses to piano. The riff on “Tintinnabulation” sounds made for a movie – though it is not obvious the type of movie; possibly comedy; possibly drama; possibly action. As an ode to a hometown friend, “The Birmingham Eccentric” has a similar warm indie pop feel as the opener and sticks in the mind with a repetitive chorus. Pass on the marginal “Gardenia” and psychedelic pop “Mother Nature,” and take yourself to the sweet little pop rocker “To Speak to the Girl” – where the song moniker sung in the chorus is uber-catchy. The soft-spoken “Put My Trouble to Sleep” literally lulls you sleep while a distorted Beatles-esque guitar floats in the background. Stoltz picks up the piano pace on the entertaining “When You Forget,” before the album’s first single, “Your Reverie.” “Your Reverie” truly does sound like mid-career Beatles song, but sung on a beach with drinks. Skip the poor “I Nearly Lost My Mind” for the strong waltzing “Something More,” which could serve as background music for a longing drama set in a city like NYC. The instrumental “Reflecting” is similar in tone to “Your Reverie,” while “Morning Sun” is a simple short pop bit with a smiley chorus. Circular Sounds ends on the slow acoustic “You Alone,” where Stoltz works hard to close the deal but sounds lost. Circular Sounds makes you feel good about wearing nerdy flannel-paneled shirts on spring days.
Lafcadio Indiana’s Lafcadio enjoys the strange, off-kilter switches in sound that characterize the bulk of their sophomore record Kibosh; not willing to the kibosh on it just yet (had to say something like that). What is refreshing is that Lafcadio have massively improved over their debut Sham Duvet, which amounted to a steaming pile. Like their debut, Lafcadio scatter punk, hardcore, metal, and spazz within each song. Unlike Sham Duvet, the songs are considerably tight (with military precision) and excellently recorded. As such, Lafcadio are an enjoyable edition to the Mike Patton-styled world of heavy music. Yet, if you consider comparisons to bands like Converge, you begin to understand exactly how far Lafcadio is from being that good.
Pain Principle On Pain Principle’s third album, the hard-charging metal outfit craft a ten song collection that moves between the stereotypical metal and the entirely annoying lame metal moments. After the horrific short instrumental “The Death of Johnny Beans,” Pain Principle rocket through the next nine songs with solid competence but nothing that truly burns into your memory. Along with the double-bass, chugging and wildly riffing guitars, the most positive element of PP are the screamed vocals that are a respite from the often employed cookie monster or speaking vocals of some. One could imagine being down on PP after a live show, but on record it is simply more of the same.
Rolling Stones This is the audio version of the Martin Scorsese orchestrated concert film Shine a Light, which features the Rolling Stones rocking the small Beacon Theater in NYC on November 1, 2006. The word on the street is that the film is a phenomenal concert film – what else would you expect from Scorsese? Without such video display, the audio version is simply another recent Rolling Stone show taken from a tight sound board. Almost all of the songs here come from the Stones’ late 60s and 70s catalog, along with a cover of “Just My Imagination” and “Champagne & Reefer.” Hence, it is easy to state that all of the songs are ‘classic.’ A couple of guests join the Stones on stage – including Jack White on “Loving Cup,” Buddy Guy on “Champagne & Reefer,” and the surprisingly excellent Christina Aguilera on “Live With Me.” For hardcore Stones fans, this should be on your shelf. For the more casual fan start with the film and then move onto this if it moves you.
The Drift San Francisco’s The Drift first got our attention with their 2005 12” Streets/Nozomi before their official debut album Noumena. After a couple year gap in releases, the Drift are back with a vengeance. Recently offering Ceiling Sky (in 2007), Memory Drawings is a seven-song, extended listen for your instrumental jazzed-up ears. Featuring Danny Grody of Tarentel, along with Rich Douthit, Jeff Jacobs, and Safa Shokrai, the Drift tend towards instrumental soundscapes that are punctuated by jazz horns and 70s baselines. The heavier baselines are a welcomed addition to the Drift’s sound that can sometimes come across as strangling horns; akin to a bad 80s drama filled with off-putting saxophones. Some of the shifts the Drift make on Memory Drawings should draw a wide appreciation of their sound.
The Paper Champions This is sweet collection of b-sides, extras, and other early studio material from the splendid Atlanta-based the Paper Champions. Before PC smashed the walls with their terrific EP End.Transmission and debut full-length Weekend of Compromise, they were scratching and clawing through the steep climb of indie rock bands everywhere. The difference is that this four-piece actually do rock and their brand of uplifting, jangly indie rock immediately draws you in; even when the cuts are rough. In many ways, PC sound like a cousin of Chapel Hill’s brilliant 90s indie punk band Blankface – not exactly formed to perfection but with enough uniqueness to generate goosebumps on your neck. There is little doubt that if you are a fan of southern college town indie rock – such as from the locales of Chapel Hill, Athens, and Gainesville – you’ll love the rough cuts of Sounds from the Cutting Room.
V/A This CD/DVD compilation serves as a promotional device for the labels and bands, and a benefit device for Sub City and Hot Topic. As most people know, since their start in the early 90s Sub City Records has donated a small percentage of sales to various charities around the country. On this release, Sub City is donating 5% to the Hot Topic Foundation which works to help music education and the arts for young folks. Like many of these compilation releases, if you are a fan of punk, hardcore, and metalcore, you probably already have most of the songs. On the CD, bands include Chiodos, Silverstein, Fall of Troy, As I Lay Dying, Converge, Poison the Well, and Aiden. The seventeen-track DVD is a collection of music videos from nearly all the same bands; not exactly thrilling in the current times of the Internet. Still it is nice to have all these metalcore bands videos on one simply disc. This release is mostly ideal for those only beginning to walk into the darker side of the musical world.
Xiu Xiu Xiu Xiu’s recent releases have become about as enigmatic as the pronunciation of the band’s name. Save for one album (Fabulous Muscles), I’ve only enjoyed bits and pieces of Xiu Xiu’s albums. As many know, Xiu Xiu is actually just one person – the indelibly literate Jamie Stewart – and the band is filled in by various people including the more commonly used Caralee McElroy, Ches Smith, and Devin Hoff. As strange and eclectic as the fourteen-tracks of Women as Lovers are, there are a number of songs that actually can hook the ordinary listen. Besides from the excellent cover of Queen’s “Under Pressure,” look to “F.T.W.,” the very enticing “No Friend Oh!,” “You are Pregnant, You are Dead,” and closer “Gayle Lynn.” Now, there are also gaggles of songs – e.g., “Black Keyboard” and “Master of the Bump” – that will turn off almost any listener, so avoid those when trying to convert others. Women as Lovers is not a total loss of time, which is an improvement over recent offerings from Xiu Xiu.
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