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October Reviews Artist of the Month: Iron & Wine Although its been sometime since Iron & Wine’s last full-length, 2004’s Our Endless Numbered Days, Sam Beam and company have not been very far from our minds. Along with the 2005 Woman King EP and the 2005 collaboration with Calexico on In the Reins, Iron & Wine’s music has been heard and featured in numerous films and commercials. In no small way this is exemplified by the extensive use of Iron & Wine material in the fabulous In Good Company – with the smashingly brilliant “Trapeze Swinger.” With a family relocation and a new perspective on things, Beam and his troubadours are back with the spectacular The Shepherd’s Dog. Miami never seemed to fit Beam and Iron & Wine – the music is indie folk with Beam’s amazingly soft and intimate vocals leading the intertwining strings and light percussion; while Miami is bright, hot, loud, crazy, and dangerous. Now Beam and family reside in a rural spread outside of Austin, TX – a place and setting that seems perfectly suited to his music and personality. With abundantly more opportunities for interactions with phenomenal like-minded musicians, even though his place is isolated, and his previous work with Calexico, the twelve-song The Shepherd’s Dog takes a turn towards more exquisite and eclectic sounds while remaining quintessential Iron & Wine. With the usual cast of characters helping Beam realize his music – his sister Sarah Beam, Patrick McKinney, and EJ Holowicki – and guest/additional musicians Rob Burger, Matt Lux, Jim Becker, John Katke, along with Calexico’s Joey Burns and Paul Niehaus, The Shepherd’s Dog is a consistently strong album than past offerings where the differences between highs and lows is ironed out, and enjoyment takes slightly more effort to attain than from simply repeating a single track. “Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car” begins The Shepherd’s Dog with what you might consider standard Iron & Wine stylings. Acoustic guitars matched with Beam’s soft vocals and light percussion float the way for four minutes on the opener; while you are initially introduced to the slight underlying additions of strings. With a hauntingly, quasi-psychedelic opening “White Tooth Man” follows in form, before the African/Caribbean-felt percussion of “Lovesong of the Buzzard” rides out as a shining example of excellence. Among the highlights, “Lovesong of the Buzzard” slinks along with slide guitar, organ, and a matching of voices. Beam has been quoted as saying that he wanted to take Iron & Wine’s sound to a different place and not just repeat what he did in the past. Part of that movement is towards more electric and more rock-orientated songs. Though you don’t encounter anything too divergent, “Carousel” is the first instance of coming across something a bit different. With watery instruments and quicker paced vocals, “Carousel” sounds like a lost, soft Shins’ number. The switching continues on the electronic-infused “House by the Sea,” while “Innocent Bones” may be considered a forward-looking banjo rocker by Iron & Wine standards. Channeling 80s pop rock, “Wolves (Song of the Shepherd’s Dog)” funks out with wah-wah pedal and multitude of slight instrumental inclusions. Even with such flourishes of excitement, the shining beacon of light on the album is “Resurrection Fern,” where Beam continues his past mastery of soft, light acoustic singer-songwriter craft with the help of pedal steel. A staple of Iron & Wine shows, “Resurrection Fern” is pure phenomenal music and continues to demonstrate what and where Beam is the champion of. The dubious task of following “Resurrection Fern” falls to the first single put out by the band and Sub Pop – “Boy with a Coin.” A strong song in its own right with more rock emphasis, it feels impotent following “Resurrection Fern.” Rocking piano meets you on “The Devil Never Sleeps” where vocal harmonies parallel early-mid 60s pop rock. The Shepherd’s Dog closes on the austere “Peace Beneath the City” and “Flightless Bird, American Mouth” – another example of classic Iron & Wine soft acoustic magic. By fluttering with the edges of his sound, Beam and Iron & Wine evolve from earlier material but still maintain the core of what makes the music so special. With supporting tours in tow, check out Iron & Wine and hope for crickets from the crowd.
50 Cent Admittedly, most contemporary rap, hip-hop, etc., befuddles me to an extent that the appeal passes right on by. But for whatever reason I find the artists of the Shady/Aftermath extended family quite compelling. And such is the case with 50 Cent. With the crazy publicized sales contest between Kanye West’s Graduation and 50 Cent’s Curtis – which West ‘won’ – it seemed that nearly everyone that pays attention to music knew about when Curtis came out (as well as Graduation – both on 9/11). As with many contemporary rap records, Curtis is massively hit-or-miss – some amazing songs and some songs where you literally want 50 to shoot you. As with his debut record, 50 Cent is best on tough, hard songs such as “My Gun Go Off,” “I Still Kill,” and “Man Down,” while a smattering of softer numbers make you vomit in your own mouth (e.g., “Follow My Lead” and “Amusement Park”). The offerings of Timbaland and Justin Timberlake makes “AYO Technology” digestable, but still the soft excursions simply illustrate 50 Cent’s true path of hardcore songs. Though 50 Cent is not going to retire – which he said he’d do if West won – but if 50 wants to continue to dominant the music scene, and not just rely on other business interest, he needs less music diversity more focus on what he knows best.
A Perfect Murder Following up in rather quick succession Strength through Vengeance and Unbroken, the ten-song War of Aggression finds A Perfect Murder significantly improving on their version of metalcore mixed with Earth Crisis grind. With Kevin Randel on throat, Carl Bouchard and Kyrill Ducharme on guitars, and Yan Chausse on drums, the Montreal group kicks off War of Aggression in brilliantly fashion with the title-track. A Slayer-esque opening leads into drilling double-bass, screams, and pit smashing, before APM move into the heart of the five minute song. If all of the songs on the album had the intensity and construction of the title track it would constitute one of the best of the year. While still prone to testosterone manly vocals and generic heavy music breakdowns, APM improve on the state of things with songs like “Within,” “Rapture,” “Sadist,” and the skull crushing “Disconnect.” Whoever decided to include the acoustic “Fortunate Son” with Wind-up vocals should be shot; beyond horrible.
Beowulf With a name like Beowulf, you are forgiven for thinking these beach greaser punks from Venice Beach would sound like epic, grandiose, theatrical metal. Started in the early 80s as an expost of youthful aggression and confusion, Beowulf have continued in their sound through ‘till the sixteen-track Westminster & 5th. Like many old school punk bands from SoCal, Beowulf play simple, fast-tempo punk anthems that fit well within the early Epitaph catalog. You aren’t going to be blown away by anything here, but the record is fairly consistent and extends across time to past endeavors.
Child Bite Following on their impressive performance on the split with Stationary Odyssey, Detroit’s Child Bite are back with a noisy technical indie dance punk rock splitting out in every direction with Shawn Knight’s 31G vocals spewing on this seven-song offering. In songs such as the moving opener “I Like Friends,” the uber-fuzzed bass lead on “Gudavia,” and the terrific riff-centric “Ape Along,” Child Bite establish themselves as minimally local rock heroes if not on a crash-course with underground notoriety in the punk world. Given some predilections, Child Bite might be best served flashing across the country with some of those 31G folks.
Deathkiller Immediately as Deathkiller rips into opener “Take Me to Your Bleeder,” you are struck by the presence of the band. Mixing heavy post-hardcore with harder punk edges, Deathkiller trample through the twelve-song, half-hour long debut New England is Sinking. With Matt McIntosh varying his vocals (and guitar) between standard hardcore, aggressive dirty punk, and Lou from SOIA, drummer Anthony Realbuto (both did time in Hatebreed and Most Precious Blood), and bassist Christina Chiaramonte, Deathkiller are only a couple steps from epic shit. It is surprising that a three-piece can make such emotive, intense music – calling out all these new six-member pop hardcore bands – but however they create the music it is glorious. If Deathkiller moves more towards the dirty punk angle (like a hardcore version of Hot Water Music) they may find converts lining up and down the street and around the corner.
Die! Die! Die! It is up to you to decide whether considering Die! Die! Die! as one of the best bands out of New Zealand in the past few years actually means anything? Is it the equivalent to calling some band the best one out of North Dakota in a decade? Either way, DDD fly the NZ flag and have been rambling along as world travelers making hay in NZ, Australia, the US, and the UK; basically the English speaking locales of rock. With high profile action via SXSW, supporting Wolfmother, and a residency in NYC, DDD signed with SAF Records and this is their first release on the label; even though it was recorded in 2005 with Steve Albini. In the life of a punk, spastic rock band, two years is a lifetime. So, quite possible the energetic, kinetic, and dirty punk heard on this short ten song album is light years away from what the band sounds like now. What is clear is that DDD make their name on a live show and that magic is hard to translate onto disc. The lead single/song/whatever from the film Into the Wild is from everyone’s favorite newer American rocker Eddie Vedder. Along with the big sky Alaskan ambience and motif of the Sean Penn-directed film starring Emile Hirsch, Vedder’s vocals matched with the acoustic guitars and slapping percussion of “Hard Sun” uniquely fits the storyline, and its utterances make you feel lost in the great northern expanse.
Far From Finished From word go on opener “Disaster” it is clear that Far From Finished are out to kick ass, throw f-bombs, and rock your little punk baby. With their latest full-length, this Boston punk outfit channels the prowess of citymates Dropkick Murphys splicing it up with more pop and catchiness. At heart, Far From Finished has a classic northeast punk sound that reminds you of dozens that have come before, but they still manage to maintain their own distinctive sound. Though the band did a split with Left Alone (Hellcat Records), the obvious question is why aren’t these guys a million times bigger? Though my ear varies on the music grindstone, I’m fairly shocked that FFF hadn’t come through my province over the past couple of years. With that in mind check out ass kicking songs like the aforementioned, “Roses & Razors Blades,” “Living in the Fallout,” “Watch Your Back,” the hard hitting “Broken,” “A New Tune,” and “Twenty-One Guns.” You are now armed with a new album full of punk anthems – so get set to launch!
Fast Computers The opening song on Fast Computers’ Heart Geometry, “Sweden Hasn’t Changed, You Have,” is fucking A+ material all the way; hot pop, indie electronics led by catchy vocal and choruses – absolutely monumental. Unfortunately, the following ten songs don’t come anywhere near “Sweden” and that makes you sad. Seriously, I had to double-check that “Sweden” was as awesome as it is after hearing the rest of Heart Geometry. At least Fast Computers can capitalize and be proud of offering such a star in “Sweden;” as well as album art of a library that satisfies indie nerd dreams. Moving song to song, you feel anguish from lead singer Paul Dean’s vocals that somehow veer from the appealing on the opener and often are flailing near-off key. The central component of most of the ten other songs here is piano indie rock lacking catchiness. The odd part is that they deviate just enough from “Sweden” to be nearing another band all together; not far off but just enough to question why they would drop pop fun. “Lives of the Stars” comes near to “Sweden” touching, with an all-too familiar piano riff, but otherwise Heart Geometry is lacking. So, add “Sweden Hasn’t Changed, You Have” to all iTunes list and mixtapes, and skip on the rest until Fast Computers crank up the ingenuity that shows itself in glimpses.
Guff Flying out of the off-and-on NYC punk label Go-Kart comes the uptempo punk rock of Guff and their thirteen-track Symphony of Voices. Whether it’s a symphony or not certainly depends on your level of deafness, but Guff manages to corner the melodic-dirty punk thing. Guff’s sound merges 90s Fat Wreck bands with a guitar attack that often nears Sick of It All. The impression you get as you move through the album is of an older band that expertly knows how to execute on a sound, without actually landing on an exemplar of their own sound. As such, you are pleased and satisfied listening to Symphony of Voices, but you don’t leave the listening session with the songs burned into your memory. However, some songs such as “Hard to Remember,” “Saving the World,” “Rejected,” and the title track do stick with you thanks to the employment of super catchy moments. For your own sanity please refrain from listening to acoustic closer “Just Like It’s Supposed To Be,” otherwise you may wish you were deaf. Seriously.
Helen Money Quite possibly Alison Chesley debut solo instrumental album Helen Money can best be described or at least hinted at by the record label Cellobird. Chesley is an amplified cello player who has performed in scores of environments and situations including traditional and more rock-orientated with her former band Verbow, and now has launched out on her own. Naturally a wildly cool cello player will be featured on scores and helping out other bands, and so is the case with Chesley who has added strings to such outfits as Bob Mould’s solo act and the uber-cool Japanese instrumental band Mono. Under the moniker Helen Money, Chesley launches into an eleven-track, forty minute treatise that will surely garner significant interest and attention. Whatever is the future for Chesley there is little doubt that she’ll stay gainfully employed.
John Bustine On the lengthy, multi-sectioned opener “This Guitar Says I’m Drunk,” John Bustine illustrates a haunting appeal that covers all manners of alt-country. This draws you into Bustine’s traveling vagabond life where scripture and musical guests help etch out memories and the importance of life. Some moments are considerably more enticing, successful, and enjoyable than others in this regard; not the least of which coming from the male-female vocal combo on “Jesus, Jesus Not Again,” “Outlaw’s Lullaby,” and the children-feeling “The Ballad of Big Snake and Mister Frog.” Bustine has the foundation for alt-country dreams to come true…and maybe such enlightenment will be provide by the God he keeps talking about.
Le Loup As the second release on the highly-touted Sub Pop sister label Hardly Art, Le Loup’s quirky, organic, random vocal and string folk pop collective may either cause you great joy or compel you regurgitate your deep dish stuffed pizza; and thus potentially being a perfect representative of the label moniker Hardly Art. It is more like Le Loup offer songs that hook your ear while placing rubbish rubbles immediately adjacent. Those on the high side for this DC act include the poppy “Outside of this Car, the End of the World!,” the electronic blippy “We are Gods! We are Wolves!,” the banjo-led “Breathing Rapture,” and the most moving “Le Loup (Fear Not).” Those who prefer to molest the indie folk of such acts as Sufjan Stevens will likely enjoy Le Loup’s debut.
Midway State On this four-song teaser EP, Midway State attempt to stake their claim as the next smart pop rock act. Hmm, in some ways Midway State are successful as the four-piece walks through moderate tempo, standard rock construction songs where spacious guitars do their best to complement weaker-than-anticipated choruses. Midway State need a producer who will push them to catchiness in order to maximum their appeal.
Nedelle If you take a quick glance, smidgen listen, or are in a critical mode, you are likely to pass right on by Nedelle’s The Locksmith Cometh. You may need a can opener to uncover the goodness in Nedelle, but cutting through quirky, eclectic spoken word motifs and music to the gorgeous moments is likely discovering a pair of jeans that you didn’t even know you owned and now they’re your favorites. After her two records on KRS, Nedelle employed the Curtains’ Chris Cohen and Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart (both of which make a lot of sense, particularly with regard to Stewart’s songwriting) to help transform her ideas to recorded song on her debut full-length on Tangram 7s. Some of the material is dense, though moments of shine include the meandering, building opener “Ex-Priest,” the chorus on “I Hate a Mountain,” the more uptempo “Ghost Ships,” the waltzing “Friedns & Ancestors,” and “The Last Thing I Do.” Even though Nedelle’s music suggests coffeehouse, she and the music are way too cool to be distilled to such simple characterization.
No Hollywood Ending It’s not clear or obvious why a punk hardcore band would need to have a fifteen-track sixty-six minute album; though the fifteenth track makes up a substantial portion of album’s length. This New Jersey outfit blends northeast hardcore with Avenged Sevenfold punk metal with tons of operatistic underlying synths. No Hollywood Ending rush headlong into Everybody’s Talking on opener “ATM” (with triple-meaning lyrics) and barely lift their head up as they chug through “Hot Without a Heartbeat (Part 1),” “ChaChaChastity,” the short pop-metal ditty “Here We Go” that melds riff-wise into follower “Do You Copy?,” “I Guess That’s It,” and “Obituary Cover Girl (Part 2).” Reflecting their moniker No Hollywood Ending aren’t going to blow your pants off and wind up living high on the hog in mega-mansion, but they have enough stuff to make it fun for a few years.
Rooney Whatever your immediate, visceral reaction to Rooney, it is difficult to deny they have absurdly catchy and well-conceived pop rock songs. Indeed crafted for super mass appeal, one must be dared not to catch themselves bouncing their head and taping foot along to Rooney; only the truly nihilist-infected amongst us can fight such a dare. Now considerably more grown-up and wise than when they released their 2002 debut record (when their median age was 19), Rooney spent considerable time creating a monumental sophomore record that would not slump but rocket; and rocket with a healthy dose of 60s pop rock matched with contemporary alt rock. Channeling the Beach Boys’ legacy from cover art, liner pictures, to a mind-altering sound, Calling the World surely takes Rooney to another level; a classic record of our time that will be difficult for the band to trump. Beginning on the title track opener, Rooney sets out with hypnotic riffs, choruses, and piano man rock flow, and such matching is continued through the next eleven songs with varying tempos and moods. The album’s first single “When Did Your Heart Go Missing?” hints at 80s new wave while hand claps and downstroking guitars lead the chorus. “I Should Have Been After You” comes off like California sunshine, “Tell Me Soon” opens with a classic guitar riff before the strong verse interaction, and “Don’t Come Around Again” breaks into an insanely appealing chorus that is sure to stick to your gut like 24 hour BBQ rips. After the average softer “Are You Afraid?” comes the rocker “Love Me or Leave Me.” With muting fuzz guitars chugging along with the verse and electronics adding to the prowess of the repeating title on the chorus, “Love Me or Leave Me” stands out as a potential single. “Paralyzed” holds via chorus, while “What For” stands only by a quick cadence of compelling lyrics in spots though slips some from the heights. Did I mention 80s new wave before? Oh yes, and if you didn’t believe me then all you have to do is check out “All In Your Head.” Save for the chorus, the song has you looking around for a John Hughes or Michael Douglas movie soundtrack. To make sure that the 70s is properly represented, Rooney includes the prog-synth “Believe in Me” where the band channels the faulty memory of Ric Ocasek, as well as a brilliantly chorus. Call the World closes on “Help Me Find My Way” – a heartfelt ode to lead singer Robert Schwartzman’s dead father. You may want to hate on Rooney, but Calling the World is so good it is nearly impossible.
Silverstein Even though Silverstein has been part of the heart of the melodic punk/hardcore movement (um screamo?), they have been able to keep their head above water for the past few years and continue to offer above compelling records for Victory. When Victory released the Ontario-based five-piece’s early material with 18 Candles: The Early Years, it illustrated a band with a more complex and deep sound than their previous record Discovering the Waterfront illustrated; and showed why their Victory debut When Broken Is Easily Fixed rocked. Silverstein’s early material comes across like early Get Up Kids – which equals awesome – and some of that is reflected on the eleven-song Arrivals & Departures. It is easy to push the record to the side when Silverstein does the standard screaming-to-melodic singing bonanza that’s been beaten to death. But, with excellent guitar work, decent vocals, and abundance of catchy vocal sections, Arrivals & Departures reaches above the norm, squarely hitting the notable realm. Among the songs to get rocked to are the superb opener “Sound of the Sun,” “If You Could See Into My Soul,” “World Apart” which rocks your balls off soon after you move past the quasi-lame opening, “Still Dreaming,” and “Love With Caution.” So, take a chance of Silverstein new record and don’t be too jaded as the rock penetrates your brain.
Sunday Drivers In the back of your head, you are thinking that you know Sunday Drivers, you’ve heard of them and everything; particularly given a quick glance at the EP. But, you don’t, not really; and even if you really do, you need to make sure everyone else knows what’s what. See, in the universe of a billion bands, names all get mixed together like a giant dyslectic mind-fuck. The three-piece of Sunday Drivers immediately knock you in the head on opener “The Sweetest Disguise” with dark new wave pop with atmospheric undertones – riding on the past and melding the future. Such spacing continues for the following three songs – “Endless Summer,” “Arms,” and “Lions of the Empire” – all solid, strong songs but none that take the band to the next level. Even if this revival soon gets short-circuited Sunday Drivers’ sound will still resonant in the future.
The Fire the Flood On their debut full-length, this Charlotte hardcore outfit unleashes dirty hell wild assaults on your ears in vein of Coalesce and Botch. As the Fire the Flood flash through thirteen, one-minute or so songs, you clearly feel their intensity and drive, but what gets left behind in the mayhem is a brilliantly enticing sound. The screaming mixed with swirling distorted guitars being paced by standard double-bass hardcore playing is solid but reeks of been-seen before in a much better display. For those into the Charlotte local scene, the Fire the Flood are surely a standard bearer of throwing down.
The Flying Luttenbachers As if clearly obvious but not said often enough, it takes a certain type of person to love noisy punk free-form jazz. Without experiencing a mind-blowing live set, many tend to hear ‘random noise crap’ instead of a joyous combination of skill, feel, and spontaneity. And that’s the problem that bands like the Flying Luttenbachers are faced with. Skin Graft is re-releasing the band’s 1994 album – which has already been reissued by Skin Graft in 1998 – with an extra seven songs and some more retrospective looking. This begs the question of the relevance or importance of taking such extensive reissuing practices. Clearly, the folks in the scene and at Skin Graft consider Destroy All Music as essential, and those fixing for more material from the band may feel the same way.
The Mishaps Baltimore’s the Mishaps go balls-out for the old school, garage punk sound championed in the US by such outfits as the MC5 and Detroit crew on the 7” Rock and Roll. Unlike many bands who want to live 30 years ago, the Mishaps manage to combine a slurred, dirty sound into something cleaner that maintains authenticity. The vinyl version includes the strong title track and the more fleshed-out “Woke the Devil Up.” The CD version also adds similar-minded but so-so “Mamma Jamma” and the hard working “Children of the Sun.” For a band shooting for a particular sound, the Mishaps are fairly proficient in conjuring up Detroit punk.
Token Entry Everybody with a decent knowledge of punk and hardcore has at least heard of Token Entry; minimally people have read interviews with bands citing them as an influence as well as TE being listed in RIYL lists. This conveniently named The Re-Issues is the re-release of the NYC band’s two records Jaybird and Weight of the World, originally released in 1988 and 1990 on Hawker Records (imprint of Roadrunner). Token Entry represents the later part of the golden era of old school hardcore punk where DC bands dominated the sound and other hot beds like NYC, Boston, and LA were virally growing, and spawning bands like the Gorilla Biscuits and Youth of Today. Well separated by the mid-90s, what is immediately shocking is how damn good Token Entry are. We know all know that the sound is highly formulaic, as evident by new bands simply and dumbly aping the past, but TE were able to add intensity to the skate punk insanity; making them both an entertaining live and recorded band – something that’s often difficult to pull off. Whether you have these records on their original vinyl, have cassettes, or have barely heard of Token Entry, if you are a fan of punk and hardcore these re-issues are a must have.
copyright exoduster.com 2007
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