tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39030901149161568232024-03-20T04:50:43.037-07:00A Bad Idea Turned FunnyA random aggregation of pop culture related stuff, mostly centered around music with occasional movie and TV digressions.Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.comBlogger255125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-87065910141577465412011-05-26T11:00:00.000-07:002011-05-26T11:00:30.229-07:0098 the Hard Way: Borderline 4s Week 5<b>WEEK 5</b> (May 19th-25th)<br />
<br />
<b>Total Albums Revisited: </b>17<br />
<br />
<b>Albums Dropped to 3 Stars:</b> 1<br />
<ul><li><b>Maquiladora</b> <i>The Lost Works of Eunice Phelps</i> (Tectonic) Nice enough on the whole, but outside of a few stellar uses of atmosphere it seems a bit more incomplete and lacking than I had remembered it being. [6.6]</li>
</ul><b>Albums Remaining at 3.5 Stars: </b>12<br />
<ul><li><b>Emmett Swimming</b><i> Big Night Without You</i> (Elektra) It's amazing how much this sounds like the entirety of modern rock radio circa-1998 without having actually been part of that tapestry to any notable degree. [7.6]</li>
<li><b>Boubacar Traoré</b> <i>Maciré</i> (Label Bleu) Everything sounds great, but the songwriting isn't quite there and the performance seems a little distant. [7.4]</li>
<li><b>Vidna Obmana</b> <i>Crossing the Trail</i> (Projekt) Wave upon wave of peace. Not transcendent or anything but perfectly immersive. [7.3]</li>
<li><b>Jarboe</b> <i>Anhedoniac</i> (Self-Released) Evil, beautiful music that could stand a little bit of editing. [7.2]</li>
<li><b>Paul D. Miller</b> <i>Viral Sonata</i> (Asphodel) As with 90% of Illbient music, the second listen reveals a much less rewarding album than initial impressions would have given. [7.0]</li>
<li><b>Loren MazzaCane Connors</b> <i>Evangeline</i> (Road Cone) The thing with MazzaCane is that even at his subtlest - which this approaches - there's so much feeling in his playing that the results are eminently fascinating. [7.8]</li>
<li><b>Nature and Organization</b> <i>Death in a Snow Leopard Winter</i> (Snow Leopard) I stand by my 'I Can't Believe it's not Eluvium!' assessment, but that implies far more good than bad. [7.6]</li>
<li><b>Lee Ranaldo</b> <i>Dirty Windows</i> (Barooni) A travelogue of unparalleled unease. Beat poetry meets destructive noise rock. Spoilers for <em class="rymfmt">One False Move</em>. [7.7]</li>
<li><b>Archbishop Kebab</b> <i>Bellyhunting</i> (Zorlac) May as well be Dog Faced Hermans demos, for all the good and bad that that implies. [7.3]</li>
<li><b>The Chasm</b> <i>Deathcult for Eternity: The Triumph</i> (Oz) There's definitely something worthwhile going on here, but not to the degree I initially thought there was. [7.4]</li>
<li><b>The Third Eye Foundation</b><i> You Guys Kill Me</i> (Domino/Merge) Transitional record, eschewing the all consuming darkness of <em class="rymfmt">Ghost</em> without fully realizing the genre-mashing grandeur of <em class="rymfmt">Little Lost Soul</em>. [7.8]</li>
<li><b>Herbert</b> <i>Around the House</i> (Phonography) Without the novelty of its sources it's just another nice but not exceptional house LP. Still much better than the average though. [7.6]</li>
</ul> <b>Albums Being Elevated to 4 Stars:</b> 2<br />
<ul><li><b>The Renderers</b> <i>A Dream of the Sea </i>(Ajax)</li>
<li><b>The Loud Family</b> <i>Days for Days</i> (Alias)</li>
</ul>More on these in the next section.<br />
<br />
<b>Albums in the Upper 3.5 Star Area: </b>2<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?ryzch2cmitz"><b>Bassholes</b> <i>When My Blue Moon Turns Red Again</i> (In the Red)</a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6tIDw29Re2iepMmDIMVLXRyfs-OG1iuqoWks9c-JhPg3zvcgKTeb5XuaNYJVnqFd4cATzVzHUJYm73ToFNh7k1Kk3ixAA-Tc1DrOiyYNmjrzBj7OAiByRyNgdK5HKyXHJG3kDBF8x4TY/s1600/bassh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6tIDw29Re2iepMmDIMVLXRyfs-OG1iuqoWks9c-JhPg3zvcgKTeb5XuaNYJVnqFd4cATzVzHUJYm73ToFNh7k1Kk3ixAA-Tc1DrOiyYNmjrzBj7OAiByRyNgdK5HKyXHJG3kDBF8x4TY/s320/bassh.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><em class="rymfmt">When My Blue Moon Turns Red Again</em> should be a simple album. There are only two men involved in its creation, and its rare that they sound like anything other than that, and on each of the album's 21 (!) tracks they stick to the tried and true garage-blues formula. Really, not only should this album be simple to sum up but it should be pretty fucking boring. And yet it's anything but.<br />
<br />
See, while on paper there's nothing going on here that differentiates Bassholes from any number of their label-mates and other contemporaries, there's something in the delivery and formulation of <em class="rymfmt">When My Blue Moon Turns Red Again</em> that makes it into one of the more compelling entries in the field. It's in the fact that the band are rarely content to leave these songs as standard shards of high energy blues, instead opting to pile on the weirdness, the surreal imagery, the caustic mindset and the badass harmonica and saxophone to set them apart. It doesn't hurt that drummer Lamont Thomas is able to perfectly balance the rudimentary time keeping with the interesting flourishes that give even the least individual track on here an identifiable personality of sorts. It also doesn't hurt that Dan Howland sounds like he's about 2 hours off his meds and on the verge of going postal at any minute no matter what he's singing about.<br />
<br />
Consider that the secret at work here - the album sounds like it's right at the edge of insanity but never quite falls over into it full on. It's unpredictable in a weirdly comforting way, never quite letting you know where it's headed next other than assuring you that it'll still be unhinged. It may have a few faults working against it - any 21 track album, even one like this where the songs all sit comfortably around the 2 minute mark, is bound to have a few duffers, and the aforementioned unpredictability doesn't necessarily stop it from covering the same ground a few times with diminishing returns - but it more than makes up for them by virtue of having enough of a distinct personality to keep me listening, and invested in listening. <i><b>[7.9/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?9xymwywg3zg"><b>Arab on Radar</b> <i>Rough Day at the Orifice</i><b> </b>(Oppoppop)</a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9FgJzu1E564Ycdpn_hbjoy_dBnxQowTgqeABIMFJSORU6behGY2t055nNO2fTkNdtRFTo0Dx9eoLZkBSOQDSnMEjOjz-PPIu3oJyiKjtdq_8dE-U2U9oLBa0wIuqSergts-ewZCe2o94/s1600/aor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9FgJzu1E564Ycdpn_hbjoy_dBnxQowTgqeABIMFJSORU6behGY2t055nNO2fTkNdtRFTo0Dx9eoLZkBSOQDSnMEjOjz-PPIu3oJyiKjtdq_8dE-U2U9oLBa0wIuqSergts-ewZCe2o94/s1600/aor.jpg" /></a></div>There are bands who work for years and years to become compelling as artists. There are bands who just seem to have that quality from the get go. There are many more artists who never reach that level.<br />
<br />
Arab on Radar seem to have stumbled onto it by sheer drunken dumb luck and I fucking love them for it.<br />
<br />
Nothing on <em class="rymfmt">Rough Day at the Orifice</em> sounds planned out. The few times they hit on a riff it almost seems accidental, like a weird byproduct of what up til that point could very easily have been 4 people playing their instruments with no idea of what anyone else is playing. It's an ugly, juvenile, shambolic mess of an album that nonetheless ends up sounding frighteningly great in small doses. It's the weird case where nothing should fit but everything does when you get attuned to its wavelength. The drumming is haphazard and spurty, the guitars are dialed in for maximum trebly dissonance and never play in time or key with each other, the lyrics are best left alone since I'm predisposed towards being kind to this album and they can be a detriment if you look at 'em too long. None of that sounds like a formula for anything but derisive giggles in the band's general direction - aw, how cute! they think they're making music! - but somehow it winds up making a uniquely fucked up kind of noise rock that no one else can come close to replicating.<br />
<br />
I'm not saying that Arab on Radar's novelty should necessarily be a point in their favor since said novelty ties in pretty heavily with the parts of their sound that can make them incredibly annoying in the wrong circumstances, but every time that I hear them I get the weird 'what the fuck was <em class="rymfmt">that</em>?' twinge that all but guarantees that I'll be coming back in the near future. <i><b> [7.9/10]</b></i>Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-35155535676137916682011-05-18T22:00:00.000-07:002011-05-18T22:43:09.503-07:0098 The Hard Way: Borderline 4s Week 4<u><b>WEEK 4</b></u> (May 12-18th)<br />
<br />
<b>Total Albums Revsited:</b> 23<br />
<br />
<b>Albums Dropping to 3 Stars: </b>3<br />
<ul><li><b>Pelt</b><i> For Michael Hannahs </i>(VHF) A much more scattershot release than I remembered, and given how much consistency there generally is across a given Pelt release it seems even more disappointing. [6.5]</li>
<li><b>Les Joyaux de la Princesse</b> <i>Exposition Internationale Paris 1937</i> (Les Joyaux de la Princesse) On first pass it toed the atmosphere-tedium boundary gracefully. One revisit it seems to not even realize that there is a line. [6.3]</li>
<li><b>Wunder</b> <i>Wunder</i> (Karaoke Kalk) Downtempo, jazzy electronica that falls into the slightly boring category all too quickly after a great start. [6.7]</li>
</ul><b>Albums Remaining at 3.5 Stars: </b>13<br />
<ul><li><b>Southpacific</b> <i>33</i> (Turnbuckle) The ideal midpoint between Blind Idiot God and Tortoise. A bit hesitant but worthwhile all told. [7.5]</li>
<li><b>Tiere der Nacht</b> <i>Sleepless</i> (Captain Trip) <br />
When Archetti and Neumeier re-interpret big beat through the lens of krautrock it's a damn good album. When they just settle into second rate krautrock things get sketchier. [7.3]</li>
<li><b>Home </b><i>13: Netherregions</i> (Arena Rock) Every Home album comes close to making that leap to the other level that i look for, but it never seems to happen enough to merit a higher rating. [7.6]</li>
<li><b>Gate </b><i>The Lavender Head</i> (Hell's Half Halo) Gone are the aimless feedback excursions, and in their place we have proto-dubstep. Seriously, tell me that "Mary and Mars" wouldn't fit in perfectly on a Burial LP. [7.8]</li>
<li><b>Taku Sugimoto</b> <i>Opposite</i> (Hat Hut) Subtle music that no matter how near to silence it is always beckons far you to listen more closely. [7.4]</li>
<li><b>Six Organs of Admittance</b> <i>Six Organs of Admittance </i>(Pavillion) The noisier atmosphere really suits these tracks, and Chasny's playing is great, as always. [7.5]</li>
<li><b>Hannah Marcus</b> <i>Faith Burns</i> (Normal) Often hints at being something more than half-good, but just as often makes me wonder whether I'm being overly generous. [7.1]</li>
<li><b>Dissecting Table</b> <i>Life</i> (Release) Really not my thing as a rule, but the weird Merzbow meets Godflesh territory that this inhabits is fascinating even if it's not essential. [7.2]</li>
<li><b>Dave Douglas </b><i>Charms of the Night Sky </i>(Winter and Winter) Figures that the first thing that came to mind when re-listening to this was that it was very Masada-y, but the violin and accordion added a much more mournful texture to the proceedings. [7.4]</li>
<li><b>Terry Bozzio</b> <i>Drawing the Circle</i> (Self-Released) Bozzio's drumming is enough to maintain a whole release on its own. That's praiseworthy in and of itself, but there's also the fact that the pieces are actually catchy, variable and memorable. [7.7]</li>
<li><b>The Jazz June</b> <i>The Boom, the Motion and the Music</i> (Workshop) I like to think of this as what Cap'n Jazz might have sounded like if they were around for long enough to get epic and vaguely experimental on their second or third LP. [7.4]</li>
<li><b>High Rise</b><i> Desperado</i> (PSF) Straightforward psych-rock'n noise, like Fushitsusha focusing on riffs n solos instead of bludgeoning. [7.4]</li>
<li><b>Knapsack</b> <i>This Conversation Is Ending...Starting Right Now</i> (Alias) The fact that it's formulaic and kinda same-y only slightly detracts from just how good of a formula it is and how consistency is a nice by-product of the saminess. [7.8]</li>
</ul><b>Albums Being Elevated to 4 Stars:</b> 3<br />
<ul><li><b>The Hangovers</b> <i>Slow Dirty Tears</i> (Kill Rock Stars)<b> </b></li>
<li><b>Species Being </b><i>Yonilicious</i> (Grauspace)</li>
<li><b>Duotang</b> <i>The Cons and the Pros</i> (Mint)</li>
</ul>More on these in the next section.<br />
<br />
<b>Albums in the Upper 3.5 Star Area:</b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?x4mnjdtwatj"><b>Angry Johnny and The Killbillies</b> <i>What's So Funny?</i> (Tar Hut)</a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYRsLqhMBdH1y3NgkmnvMj0EydLiCnRuiXh99t_AkWNLWFTFc_DUp81NwpPa8hGVQ5Kx3JOA9IEZKkRo8W-M4bl11oaFaojgtGXuMu3t83KdZSh-9Qejho18AYijtGIOT7zb3DUaR7bW8/s1600/ajk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYRsLqhMBdH1y3NgkmnvMj0EydLiCnRuiXh99t_AkWNLWFTFc_DUp81NwpPa8hGVQ5Kx3JOA9IEZKkRo8W-M4bl11oaFaojgtGXuMu3t83KdZSh-9Qejho18AYijtGIOT7zb3DUaR7bW8/s1600/ajk.jpg" /></a></div>It's hard to justify this opinion, but the biggest thing that I find this album has in its favor is its sense of humor. Keep in mind that I'm saying this about an album whose first track details the willful sexual exploitation of an underage girl who ends up HIV positive and where every other song features as much bloodshed, implied or explicit, as a classic Peckinpah western. But underneath all that seeming shock value lies more than enough cleverness and actual wit to counteract the wanton unpleasantness of the proceedings. It's in Angry Johnny's lyrics, sometimes overtly ("Daisies," "My Ghoul Maggie") and in its more lasting moments in simple word choice at key moments. It even bleeds into the arrangements and the backing vocals which are more than up to providing jaunty harmonies to grim stuff like the blood feud of "Jonses." It's just a very darkly funny album at its core, and that's what gives it a great deal of its replay value<br />
<br />
Of course that would all be for naught if the music itself wasn't as arresting as the lyrics. While there's a definite quality gradient to the songs depending on their pace - the band in shit-kicking hoe down mode is truly spectacular while their less upbeat material is much less special - there's still a high base-level quality to the band's playing that would elevate the material even without the added kick of the lyrics. What's most impressive is that they manage to do so much more than your average underground country act in terms of tone, mostly thanks to the addition of a truly badass sounding saxophone to their arsenal. Even without that though, they seem to touch on every type of country song you can imagine, from the straight up tear in your beerisms of "Shitty Day" to the funeral march of "A Love More True" on the slower side and from the lighthearted playfulness of "Daisies" and "My Ghoul Maggie" to the hellishly dark atmosphere of "Kill Again" on the faster tip. This sub-genre hoping may rob the album of coherent flow, but it shows a band that's extremely comfortable in just about any style of their chosen genre, which is appreciated in a genre where monotony tends to reign supreme far too often. <i><b>[8.0/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?g6er05f0vo8ugn1"><b>The Grassy Knoll </b><i>III</i><b> </b>(Antilles)</a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCh9ziwZ1yAsN31eXdKsO_EFJ4m0mQO8onDDX65RjxG45PbhqqSAy7SHpKXnIzk9MB5xC2-mc3kJgt8K4DW0SBdKykAnu8ggsuGyUTzzzm9U902FMG0qZ78bsItIBUPKgnRZ0CqXCxYBI/s1600/gk3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCh9ziwZ1yAsN31eXdKsO_EFJ4m0mQO8onDDX65RjxG45PbhqqSAy7SHpKXnIzk9MB5xC2-mc3kJgt8K4DW0SBdKykAnu8ggsuGyUTzzzm9U902FMG0qZ78bsItIBUPKgnRZ0CqXCxYBI/s320/gk3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Nu Free Jazz?<br />
Free Nu Jazz?<br />
Jazz Nu Free?<br />
<br />
It's an interesting combination that Bob Green works with on the third Grassy Knoll release, but the way he plays the unpredictability of free jazz against the rigid formality of nu jazz makes for some great music in the end. Green's assembled cast of contributors - everyone from Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore to free jazz saxophonist Ellery Eskelin to future Sleepytime Gorilla Museum violinist Carla Kihlstedt - are allowed to run loose across their various tracks while the core elements remain in a strict, locked groove. The end result should by all rights be a mess, but the way it's assembled makes it more fascinating than messy.<br />
<br />
It helps that even if you remove the free-er moments from the album, at its base <i class="rymfmt">III</i> is still one of the better nu jazz releases of its time. There's something to the grooves that the album is built upon that instantly grabbed me; the dark tone of the bass and the crisp, rigid feel of the drums is basically the ideal midpoint between trip-hop and cool jazz, making it one of the few albums in this style to understand that balance. The rest of the elements may be what gives the release its true character, but without that solid base to work from it would be difficult to give them their proper due. And boy do they deserve their due, whether its for the way that they enhance the grooves as they do for the better part of album standout "The Violent Misery of All Things" or rub against them in all the right ways as they on tracks like "Paul Has an Emotional Uncle" the way that Bob Green pieces the tracks together is always interesting and at its best totally unexpected.<br />
<br />
It's also worth noting that another thing that <i class="rymfmt">III</i> excels at where so many similar releases fail is that its slower, more minimal sounding tracks rarely some off as boring. I can't imagine any other project in this genre pulling off a track like "A World Reduced to Zero" with anywhere near the aplomb that Green does, honing in on the parts of the minimal soundscape that enhance the atmosphere and ensuring that the track comes off as being just as 'crafted' as anything else on the album despite seeming to be made up of so much less. It also furthers the sort of juxtapositions that green seems so fond of on a sonic level by ensconcing i between the most darkly layered piece on the album and one of it's most chaotic and free, giving it the feel of a necessary 'breather' of sorts without shortchanging its own quality. That's also a testament to how well arranged the album's tracklist is, letting the variously toned pieces co-mingle in a way that enhances their variety without distracting from each track's quality.<i><b> [8.1/10]</b></i><br />
<i><b><br />
</b></i><br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?mm2mdfqzkmd"><b>Order From Chaos</b> <i>An Ending in Fire</i> (Osmose)</a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKOd9JTFbxx3vEuzZ3DNOlp2L-BrbRkN0gW9sVlxYE59ehJABWIUP7goMeKyulM9btgtSLQmHpEUK7MScqAptQrQk9Y-syU3OF_YFILZEOE-bZPxWheXDt2SPDTuCD7M_EWgZWtThnJFg/s1600/ofc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKOd9JTFbxx3vEuzZ3DNOlp2L-BrbRkN0gW9sVlxYE59ehJABWIUP7goMeKyulM9btgtSLQmHpEUK7MScqAptQrQk9Y-syU3OF_YFILZEOE-bZPxWheXDt2SPDTuCD7M_EWgZWtThnJFg/s1600/ofc.jpg" /></a></div>A few things that make me feel much more fondly towards <i>An Ending in Fire</i> than I do towards a lot of death metal albums:<br />
<br />
- Brevity. I am saying this about an album whose centerpiece is almost 12 minutes long, but the fact that the album proper doesn't quite reach the 40 minute mark does it a lot of favors. Namely, it means that the things about albums like this that I tend to have the hardest time dealing with don't wind up being around for long enough to begin to actively bother me.<br />
<br />
- Flow. There's a sense that the band was pulling off the rare trick of composing both songs that stand in their own right and songs that work so perfectly in their intended place on the album that bringing them out of context makes them feel incomplete somehow. It's in the way that "Tenebrae" subtly twists the riff from "Dawn Bringer Invictus" into its own core riff, then twists it again to form the basis for "The Sign Draconis." Essentially, the fact that there was a modicum of thought put into the sequencing of the album.<br />
<br />
- Micro-Solos. I may be overstating this one a bit, but the fact that Order From Chaos guitarist Chuck Keller seems to be content with <i>tasteful</i> and brief solos rather than long-winded bouts of instrumental wankery does more for this album than anything else. Hell the fact that he'll occasionally let a song go by - a six minute song at that - without feeling the need to solo at all is pretty much the reason that I'm close to giving this 4 stars. My main gripe with death metal is that the guitarists seem to think its their Satan-given duty to dazzle the listener with their ability to playnotesreallyfast at every opportunity, so whenever I come across one who understands that this sort of thing works so much better when it's a) properly integrated and b) not overlong, I tend to heap on the praise.<br />
<br />
- Complexity over technicality. A related point here, but the fact that more often than not the times I find myself saying 'man, these Order From Chaos dudes are incredibly talented players' are when they're simply letting their riffs evolve rather than displaying how well they can play on their own. Sure, Keller's solos are impressive enough, but I'm more impressed with the way he and his bandmates can subtly alter their riffs without disturbing the flow of the songs.<br />
<br />
- Vocals that aren't comically overdone. This is a comfortable level of growliness for me I guess, not so polished that it's at odds with the music but not so incomprehensible that it toes its way into unintentional comedy.<br />
<br />
All in all, this is a testament to how well a certain level of tastefulness can be used to make a somewhat great album in a genre I find it so easy to be annoyed by. Order From Chaos don't forgo the traditional death metal elements so much as they dial them in at just the right levels to work better for me, personally, than so many in their genre. The fact that they do it all without fundamentally distancing themselves from the genre the way a band like Gorguts did around this time is pretty commendable as well, proving that you don't necessarily need to go weird in order to make a compelling case for this type of music. <i><b>[7.9/10]</b></i>Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-61494753105545987762011-05-11T23:00:00.001-07:002011-05-18T21:48:37.887-07:0098 The Hard Way: Borderline 4s Week 3<u><b>WEEK 3</b></u><b> </b>(May 5th-11th)<br />
<br />
<b>Total Albums Revisited:</b> 17<br />
<br />
<b>Albums Dropping to 3 Stars: </b>3<br />
<ul><li><b>Sasha Frere-Jones / Loren Mazzacane Connors</b> <i>Subsonic 5 </i>(Sub Rosa) Pains me to drop it since Connors' material is about as good as he's done outside of <i class="rymfmt">Long Nights</i>, but Frere-Jones' isn't anywhere near that good even at its high points. [6.4]</li>
<li><b>PsychophonographDISK</b> <i>Ancient Termites</i> (Bomb Hip Hop) What was invigorating the first time around became annoying upon revisit. Frustrating since there are times I found myself getting into its fucked up groove. [6.7]</li>
<li><b>Judy Dunaway</b> <i>Balloon Music </i>(Composer's Recordings) I can't outright hate this even if it annoys me/physically pains me to hear it at times...and you gotta respect that this was done mostly with balloons yet at times sounds like Merzbow. [6.2]</li>
</ul><b>Albums Remaining at 3.5 Stars:</b> 10<br />
<ul><li><b>Junior Kimbrough</b> <i>God Knows I Tried</i> (Fat Possum) <a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/fatpossum_production/public/system/release_products/images/393/crop_290.jpg">Look at that cover</a>, it explains the music herein so much better than words. [7.7]</li>
<li><b>Glassjaw</b> <i>The Don Fury Sessions</i> (Self-Released) Rawer (yay!) versions of the best stuff from <i class="rymfmt">...Silence</i> (read: minus the troublingly misogynistic lyrics for the most part). Cut out the repeated material between the two discs and You've got a much better debut record than Ross Robinson managed to give them. [7.4]</li>
<li><b>The Sadies</b> <i>Precious Moments</i> (Bloodshot) Their most playful and surf-rockin' LP, masterfully recorded by Albini no less. I definitely prefer some of their later stuff but this is a mildly auspicious start. [7.5]</li>
<li><b>Other Dimensions in Music </b><i>Now!</i> (AUM Fidelity) Like a less well heeled companion to <i class="rymfmt">The Peach Orchard</i>. Stimulating but never transcendent. [7.3]</li>
<li><b>Mr. Dibbs</b> <i>Turntable Scientifics</i> (4 Ways to Rock) Skilled as fuck, as in it doesn't rely on the obvious/readily recognizable samples to draw you in so much as the way its put together and complimented through Dibbs' scratching. [7.6]</li>
<li><b>Boris Kovač</b> <i>East Off Europe-Closing the Circle</i> (Les Disques Victo) Another one with more moments of greatness than anything sustained, but there's more than enough of those moments + an over riding atmosphere that keeps it from falling too sharply in my estimation. [7.1]</li>
<li><b>Ennio Morricone</b> <i>La leggenda del pianista sull'oceanao </i>(Sony Classical) Extremely evocative, lyrical piano pieces that make me want to see the movie more than anything (this is a compliment from me in terms of soundtracks). Shame it had to be topped off with that wholly out of place Roger Waters track. [7.8]</li>
<li><b>Pele</b> <i>Teaching the History of Teaching Geography </i>(Star Star Stereo) Half the time the keyboard adds to the songs and makes them into upper-middle tier post/math rock. Half the time they seem to be there for the sake of being there and add nothing. [7.2]</li>
<li><b>Quetzal</b> <i>The Messenger Lies Bleeding...</i>(Conspiracy) On the one hand it's pretty much a standard post-hardcore/emocore release. On the other it's attacked with such ferocity that it begs to be noticed. On the other other hand, it's pretty much the love child of Unwound circa-<i class="rymfmt">Fake Train</i> and McLusky. [7.5]</li>
<li><b>Albert Marcoeur</b> <i>M, A, R et Coeur comme Coeur</i> (FRP Music) Avant-quirk pop with more than enough substance behind the quirk to cause actual resonance. [7.6] </li>
</ul><b>Albums Elevated to 4 Stars</b>: 2<br />
<ul><li><b>Alvarius B. </b><i>Alvarius B.</i> (Abduction)</li>
<li><b>Guapo</b><i> Hirohito</i> (Cuneiform)</li>
</ul>More on these in the next section.<br />
<br />
<b>Albums in the Upper 3.5 Star Area: </b>2<b><br />
</b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?unkd7qabzqsvwdr"><b>Nguyên Lê</b><b> </b><i>Mahgreb and Friends</i> (ACT Music and Vision)</a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwDpuLoHkfuJ4XrELoJxJ9nKXxLai0ijk33MZ0g9rDvrXCemQy8f1uhI-GZB_Az6fioLqwj3_p6M_3X97URqSIH4-EL7vunmCh4VFdurFuliBqTMDhomBFa7FGWVOp8WitG4kUhKy8-cA/s1600/Maghreb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwDpuLoHkfuJ4XrELoJxJ9nKXxLai0ijk33MZ0g9rDvrXCemQy8f1uhI-GZB_Az6fioLqwj3_p6M_3X97URqSIH4-EL7vunmCh4VFdurFuliBqTMDhomBFa7FGWVOp8WitG4kUhKy8-cA/s1600/Maghreb.jpg" /></a></div>For a percussion and bass fiend such as myself, this is an incredibly diverse and layered album to dive into. It's not just in the complexity of guitarist Nguyên Lê's compositions and arrangements, but in the scope of his inspiration, drawing on his own Vietnamese heritage, various stripes of African music - mostly in the frequent involvement of Moroccan vocal/percussion quintet B'net Houariyat - Arabian touches and a deep fondness for 70s jazz-fusion. This mix gives the album's best moments a density and scope that very few of his peers can claim, mixing the varied percussion arsenal of B'net Houariyat and his own drummer Karin Ziyad with bassist Michel Alibo's funky, complex fretless runs, Lê's own tasteful soloing and a shifting ensemble of both traditional jazz instruments and more indigenous ones to breathtaking effect.<br />
<br />
I'm not gonna claim that Lê is the first one to do this sort of globe-trotting mish-mash, but based on the contents of <i class="rymfmt">Mahgreb and Friends</i> I won't hesitate to say that he was doing it at a higher level than any of his peers. The way he navigates these tricky waters, balancing a half dozen distinct styles within some songs without the mix ever sounding forced, is something to be praised. I'm thinking specifically of "Louanges" where a procession of vocalists from assorted countries meld seamlessly with the always evolving arrangement that at once never seems to bend at the will of the vocalists' distinct cadences but compliments them all the same, coming to a head with a frantic rush of choral vocals underpinned by some of Alibo and Zaid's most uninhibited playing. It's one of a few truly stunning numbers contained here in, from the dark, twisty "Constantine" to the emotional "Nora" and the calm and soothing sound of "Guinia" that makes it plain to see that while Lê isn't a very well known name in the jazz world he probably should be.<br />
<br />
It also makes it all that much more painful when he falls into a more standard style a few times. None of that stuff is bad per se, it's still as involved compositionally as anything here and the core quartet of Lê, Alibo, Zaid and pianist Bojan Zulfikarpasic acquits itself admirably, but in the midst of the effortless cultural synthesis I talked about above stuff like "FunkRaï" comes off as an afterthought, a half-hearted attempt to Africanize a basic 70s fusion piece. Luckily, these unnecessary detours are few and far between on <i class="rymfmt">Mahgreb and Friends</i>, leaving a two-thirds brilliant album of nearly unparalleled cultural breadth and depth. <i><b>[8.0/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?t8mf8lrpaw08tkl"><b>Closed Caption Radio </b><i>Slang X Generator</i> (Brickyard)</a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrvPOtrs4xsVs89A4qx4gUHN3XI6mRX7rYmRtbTGtkN0r9uV877lBlWeDRtPSsUX4W7GMzMeHAs-o0n6AyEw-xyyZG240sO1ChfBU1izqkB8zJFlOgpc7C-M21HK13iRI2wapKqtIZ18A/s1600/slangx.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrvPOtrs4xsVs89A4qx4gUHN3XI6mRX7rYmRtbTGtkN0r9uV877lBlWeDRtPSsUX4W7GMzMeHAs-o0n6AyEw-xyyZG240sO1ChfBU1izqkB8zJFlOgpc7C-M21HK13iRI2wapKqtIZ18A/s320/slangx.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span id="myreview_review">You've heard all the things that Closed Caption Radio do on this album before. You've probably heard them done better, lord knows I have. <i class="rymfmt">Slang X Generator</i> isn't a holy grail for post-hardcore/noise rock aficionados by any stretch of the imagination, but all the same it's a lost gem in its own way. It's hard to explain why that is, because on paper all the elements in play here look like a 'Now! That's What I Call Post-Hardcore' checklist - tense, agitated vocals, crunchy guitar tone dialed in with just the right amount of feedback, involved but not complex drumming, bass mixed to be equal with the guitars, structure that effectively contrasts the loud and the quiet, appropriate additions of samples and keyboards to broaden the palette - but all the same, the way that the elements come across here is welcomingly familiar without being insultingly derivative.<br />
<br />
Put another way, this is a prime example of why being original isn't necessarily paramount to creating a great album. Like I said, there's nothing here that you haven't heard before, but it's all performed so solidly and confidently that it's hard to really fault the band for playing it so close to the chest in that respect. I mean, it results in an album that I have a hard time finding a low point on, and the consistency that that implies is probably a good portion of the reason I'm so taken with <i class="rymfmt">Slang X Generator</i> while many other more adventurous post-hardcore releases don't leave much of an impression. Each of the seven actual songs here is as fully developed and memorable as the last, from crushing "People of the Lie" and "Whoa Magellan" to the vaguely mathy "For Science" to the jagged "In the Black" and "Strangers in Unison." "All Put Away" is probably the highlight if only for that ridiculously catchy harmonic riff that punctuates the verses and its book-ending, almost post-rocky movements, but there's such a low dip in quality between it and the rest of the material that it's hard to qualify it as such.<br />
<br />
It also helps that even though the band deals almost exclusively in tropes, there's a sort of personality to the release as a whole. It's something in the production's cold, clinical texture and the way it rubs against the band's energy, almost making them seem defiant of the sound they've created. It gives the whole album a different kind of tension than many of the albums it so clearly follows in the footsteps of - <i class="rymfmt">Fake Train</i> and <i class="rymfmt">Exploded Drawing</i> to name a couple - despite not sounding remotely novel. I really hate that I keep coming back to that point, but I don't want to oversell this album even though I really do like it. It may come across as little more than an exercise in extreme competence, but it gets under my skin in a way that kinda defies logic. <i><b>[8.1/10]</b></i></span>Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-17701359341543416162011-05-04T22:00:00.000-07:002011-05-04T22:00:00.339-07:0098 The Hard Way: Borderline 4s Week 2<u><b>WEEK 2</b></u> (April 29th-May 4th)<br />
<br />
<b>Total Albums Revisited:</b> 26<br />
<br />
<b>Albums Dropping to 3 Stars: </b>5<br />
<ul><li><b>Jim O'Rourke, Zeena Parkins, Toshinori Kondo, David Shea, DJ Low & Dirk Wachtelaer</b> <i>Fear No Fall</i> (Lowlands) One thing I'm noticing here is that I tend to focus a lot on the best moments of albums on first pass without fully realizing how much space there is between them. [6.3]</li>
<li><b>Peter Scion<i> </i></b><i>Tree Music</i> (Domestica) I think the big issue I wind up having here is that it's just too brief - under half an hour - to really make its mark. Given that <i class="rymfmt">Devachan</i>'s defining moment is only 7 minutes shorter than this entire release... [6.8]</li>
<li><b>Parmentier</b> <i>Luxsound</i> (Sigma Editions) For all the good aspects - the insidiously dark vibe mainly - there's not enough to grasp or to get lost in at the heart of this one. [6.6]</li>
<li><b>Jean Derome et Les Dangereux Zhoms</b> <i>Torticolis</i> (Ambiance Magnétiques) Another case where the moments of greatness - or pure uninhibited insanity as the case is here - are far more sporadic than I recalled. [6.4]</li>
<li><b>Marc Ducret and Bobby Previte</b> <i>In the Grass</i> (Enja) Far more standard than I remembered. The people involved here can do so much better than this. [6.2]</li>
</ul><b>Albums Remaining at 3.5 Stars:</b> 17<br />
<ul><li><b>Kočani Orkestar</b> <i>L'orient est rouge </i>(Cramworld) Gets the right balance of frantic and smooth. The best stuff here is truly exciting in a way that few jazz groups are able to get. [7.7]</li>
<li><b>Sephardic Tinge</b> <i>Morenica</i> (Tzadik) Much more exciting than Coleman's other RJC entry from this year - the previously RAIed Selfhaters album - which given the heavy Masada overlap doesn't shock me, but outside of a few moments it doesn't seem to fully realize the potential it has. [7.6]</li>
<li><b>Alvin Curran</b> <i>Theme Park</i> (Tzadik) First track on its own might have gotten a plus distinction if not a 4 star mark, just the right kind of percussive racket for me. The second track doesn't hit even the lowest points of its predecessor thus it drags. [7.0]</li>
<li><b>Milford Graves</b> <i>Grand Unification</i> (Tzadik) Impressively varied and at times downright weird for an album of nothing but pure, untreated percussion. At times it almost sounds of a piece with Ruins in terms of energy and variability, but more often it just doesn't make the jump. [7.5]</li>
<li><b>Joe Hisaishi</b> <i>Hana-Bi</i> (Milan) Might have more of a reaction to this if I'd seen the movie it comes from, but even on its own it stands as a great piece of music. Effortlessly dramatic without falling into needless bombast or the realms of the maudlin. [7.6]</li>
<li><b>Golden</b> <i>Golden</i> (Trans Solar) Fleetingly great if that makes sense...the kind of album that sounds like 4 stars when you listen to it but leaves you hard pressed to remember why after its over. [7.1]</li>
<li><b>Stefano Scodanibbio</b> <i>The Voyage That Never Ends</i> (New Albion) Sustained menace and interest with just an upright bass at his disposal. Minimal and repetitive but never boring. [7.8]</li>
<li><b>Peter Scion</b> <i>Devachan</i> (Domestica) Blessed with personality and an overriding sense of doom. The best of his releases in this time period. [7.6]</li>
<li><b>Joëlle Léandre </b><i>No Comment</i> (Red Toucan) Freewheeling solo bass explorations where half the enjoyment comes from the unpredictability of Léandre's playing. [7.6]</li>
<li><b>David Shea</b> <i>Classical Works </i>(Tzadik) "The 'Voice' Suite" is breathtaking, probably the best thing I've heard Shea do in any context. Unfortunately, "Chamber Symphony" is nowhere near the same level. [7.8]</li>
<li><b>Creation Is Crucifixion</b> <i>In_Silico</i> (King of the Monsters) The general vibe of this one - weirdly technological and foreboding - gives it a distinct flavor that I appreciate even when the songs don't quite stick. [7.4]</li>
<li><b>Nels Cline and Devin Sarno</b> <i>Edible Flowers</i> (WIN) As with the previous Cline-Sarno joint, the atmosphere is there in great portions but beyond that there's precious little to hold on to. This one has a few more weirdly pretty moments to spice it up at least. [7.6]</li>
<li><b>Dumb Type</b> <i>[OR]</i> (Foil) Call it glitch done right. Shards vs slabs, huge sound that allows the nuances to shine, clinical precision. [7.5]</li>
<li><b>Hasidic New Wave</b> <i>Psycho-Semitic</i> (Knitting Factory Works) A bit weirdly mixed - guitar in particular is WAY too loud - but the overall Bar Kokhba homage never trips into rip off territory which is admirable. [7.2]</li>
<li><b>Nostromo</b> <i>Argue </i>(Snuff) The answer to the question 'What would Agoraphobic Nosebleed sound like if they wrote actual songs?' A bit of a hidden gem in ways, but also kinda monotonous. [7.6]</li>
<li><b>Ivor Cutler</b> <i>A Flat Man</i> (Creation) So compellingly odd that nothing else really matters. I want to go around quoting this just to see how many odd looks I receive for it. [7.8] </li>
<li><b>Pangolin</b> <i>Beneath These Darkened Trees</i> (Domestica) While Peter Scion's solo material explored facets of dark folk, his band from the same time frame gives it all to full bore acid-drenched psych rock of a high enough order. The title track is a real gem. [7.7]</li>
<li><b>Keith Jarret, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette </b><i>Tokyo '96</i> (ECM) Three old pros take on a variety of standards and make them sparkle without necessarily making them their own. If it weren't so damned well played I might be annoyed by that last part. [7.6]</li>
</ul><b>Albums Elevated to 4 Stars</b>: 2<br />
<ul><li><b>El Hadj N'Diaye</b> <i>Thiaroye</i> (Siggi Musique)</li>
<li><b>The Shadow Ring </b><i>Hold Onto I.D.</i> (Siltbreeze)</li>
</ul>More on these in the next section.<br />
<br />
<b>Albums in the Upper 3.5 Star Area:</b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?hgd41j8miqzoekm"><b>Joe Morris, Ken Vandermark and Hans Poppel</b> <i>Like Rays</i> (Knitting Factory Works)</a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5V66RFAfHsQN8Wz6JR0AuipA79-VdvMYmJd2Ji3V-8DWD4VXYqujem4EEAbJqwzTqetJOt2RfSyAdJ1fpn7cirYaTkk4xGcow66e47kYwOnYBL7RaL-B3Tk_kEkhNpqq37eHX8MAseWg/s1600/mvp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5V66RFAfHsQN8Wz6JR0AuipA79-VdvMYmJd2Ji3V-8DWD4VXYqujem4EEAbJqwzTqetJOt2RfSyAdJ1fpn7cirYaTkk4xGcow66e47kYwOnYBL7RaL-B3Tk_kEkhNpqq37eHX8MAseWg/s320/mvp.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><b> </b>The word that I keep returning to whenever I listen to this album is 'playful.' Even in its most forceful moments there's a decided lightness of touch to the playing that gives it the sort of replayable quality that I find very rare in the scope of free improvisation. There's an air of tossed off effortlessness to the proceedings that you might think would undercut the dazzling displays of instrumental pyrotechnics that Ken Vandermark (on reeds) Joe Morris (on guitars) and Hans Poppel (on piano) are prone to indulge in, but in the end it's the fact that this feels so breezy and uninhibited that gives it the extra push that so many in this style seem to lack.<br />
<br />
But let's be fair here: this is an album on which everyone plays like a motherfucker. Vandermark's the biggest name here and thus the most known quantity, but his distinctive tone and style shines through as usual without obscuring either of his two collaborators. Morris acts most like a foil to Vandermark, underpinning his flights of fancy while adding subtle counter-melodic shades to his more straight playing, but when he getsthe spotlight he makes the most of it. He never descends into cliched jazz-fusion shredding or overt McLaughlin worship like so many jazz guitarists seem to do, opting for a clean, precise tone that makes each note stick, even when it comes in the middle of a formidable run of them. Poppel, though, winds up being the disc's MVP. He acts as the defacto rhythm section for the Morris/Vandermark duo, but at the same time adds so many nuanced fills and occasionally crashes through with a perfectly placed solo - the title track in particular illustrates this so much better than I can explain it - without ever neglecting his backbone duties as it were. It's a shame that he doesn't seem to have many other credits to his name because given what's on display here he might be up there with the bigger names in free jazz piano of our times.<br />
<br />
The real joy, though, comes in the moments where all three players are at once seemingly going off on their own tangents but doing so in a way that perfectly compliments everything else that's occurring at the same time. It's the sound of three players who seem uniquely attuned to each others' frequency for the whole album's length without ever letting that synchronicity develop into complacency. On top of that, they do this all like it came to them as naturally as breathing. There's no moments that sound forced or overworked, everything flows with a degree of self-assuredness that makes the album feel so light and playful. The players' skill might make for the best moments - and if we're gonna name 'em they would be "Like Rays" and "Life Stuff" - but it's their ease of interaction that makes for a great album. <i><b>[8.1/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?gnz1k19e83j2ird"><b>Gary Lucas</b> <i>Busy Being Born</i> (Tzadik)</a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWBbt1kWwTL1IqJ5WZt3HiBj4v20oG2_DCPjrfMa3Aze1FZixhaNACmqSV0FhPTFryCgUi1r0D6IvO2homDylxrUw-ZHetJX2YzqNVUyRtSDBo7KZcLYn3h9vYFp8G8SbGXBWukJ9TDZo/s1600/lucas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWBbt1kWwTL1IqJ5WZt3HiBj4v20oG2_DCPjrfMa3Aze1FZixhaNACmqSV0FhPTFryCgUi1r0D6IvO2homDylxrUw-ZHetJX2YzqNVUyRtSDBo7KZcLYn3h9vYFp8G8SbGXBWukJ9TDZo/s1600/lucas.jpg" /></a></div>Maybe it's just indicative of my own preferences above anything else, but the best moments in Tzadik's Radical Jewish Culture series seem to be built around at times radical re-interpretations of traditional numbers. Ignoring John Zorn's entries in the series, my undisputed favorite release so far has been Kletka Red's <i class="rymfmt">Hijacking</i> where a who's who's of art punk luminaries set about dismantling any number of Jewish standards and re-building them as fractured shards of art punk. While <i class="rymfmt">Busy Being Born</i> isn't quite at that level of re-invention, it's certainly of a certain piece with it all the same, warping an array of standards through Gary Lucas' unique sensibilities and coming out with an album that for all its reliance on familiar material feels somewhat fresh and new.<br />
<br />
A lot of it comes down to the fact that no matter what he's playing, no one else in the game plays guitar like Gary Lucas does. Even if you've only heard him once or twice, it's hard to imagine that you've come away thinking that he's just another guitar slinger. Something in the tone of his guitar and his loose, ambling style of playing sets him apart from any of his closest peers. As a result, even when he's riffing on the hoary likes of "A Hundred Ponds of Clay" or "The Mensch in the Moon" the results are much more individualistic than you might expect. He doesn't even do as much to reinvent them as you might think, but the mere act of applying his own style to them gives them a decidedly Lucasian vibe that over-rides their familiarity.<br />
<br />
But the fact that the best moments don't just stop there is the real joy of <i class="rymfmt">Busy Being Born</i>. I'm thinking of "Sandman"'s twin devolutions into skronk punctuating the incredibly creepy vocals that Lucas adopts, or the three sides of "Adon Olom" explored as the CD's bookends, or the punkish fervor of "Crawlspace." It might be enough to pique my interest with just Gary Lucas re-interpreting the Jewish songbook, but it's the other avenues that he and his cohorts take that idea down that give <i class="rymfmt">Busy Being Born</i> a lot of its residual charm. It may not be his best solo outing - really, he has a long way to go to recapture the magic of <i class="rymfmt">Skeleton at the Feast</i> - but it's certainly an interesting detour for him to take, and the results more than justify it. <i><b>[7.9/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?gnz1k19e83j2ird"><b>Kramer</b> <i>Let Me Explain to You Something About Art</i><b> </b>(Tzadik)</a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPS8U1RHYqyzEsFqi2KVUywyxDchMjs1a9DIVWngT9x8kkfNSf6gao0jy5TFChWwbyriPd6kd4WvQd5HfCI5NnTHq61Jm14iJhZeyQ4V8OuywGyiFnLSrSw86qGt5d4xbO2Doz7Y0Jp3Y/s1600/kramer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPS8U1RHYqyzEsFqi2KVUywyxDchMjs1a9DIVWngT9x8kkfNSf6gao0jy5TFChWwbyriPd6kd4WvQd5HfCI5NnTHq61Jm14iJhZeyQ4V8OuywGyiFnLSrSw86qGt5d4xbO2Doz7Y0Jp3Y/s1600/kramer.jpg" /></a></div>It's hard to put into words, but the closest I can come to describing the experience here is this: Imagine if The Fiery Furnaces' <i class="rymfmt">Rehearsing My Choir</i> was re-imagined as a tragedy instead of a surreal comedy. Translate the album in that way and you might come close to the feeling that <i class="rymfmt">Let Me Explain...</i> gives me. Kramer - yes, the same guy that was at the heart of Bongwater and Shimmy-Disc Records - describes it as a meditation on the dying process, and that shines through even without having his word for it. It's in the foreboding accordion and bass pulse that backs what appears to be a series of bar mitzvah guests congratulating the birthday boy on "Jupiter and the Infinite," the various snippets of history that he loops and returns to during "Odds Against Tomorrow," the very sound of the voices on "Umberto D." It's never full on bleak, thankfully, but it's not exactly a laugh riot either. <br />
<br />
If I described the basic elements that <i class="rymfmt">Let Me Explain to You Something About Art</i> is based upon, you might not understand why I'm so hung up on it. The major elements at play are a series of oral histories from aging Jewish men and women and a static yet shifting bed of dark classical music. That's it really, and yet something in the way that Kramer manipulates them, the oral histories especially, that makes it resonate a lot more than I'd have thought it would. I'm not invested in the stories, but they stick with me because Kramer takes a particular line or two and loops them to almost devastating effect. I'm hard pressed to say that the instrumentals are great in any way, but the way that they evolve and shift so subtly underneath the samples is perfectly evocative. The two elements don't interact too much, but they imbue each other with qualities not inherent to them on their own.<br />
<br />
Like I said, it's hard to explain this album since so much of it defies verbalization. It's all about the feeling it evokes, the subtleties of the mix and Kramer's treatment of the material more than any show-stopping element that I can point to and say 'that! right there!'. Nevertheless, it's an album that sticks with me in an odd way, a way that very few albums do to be quite honest. I may not be able to do it justice here, but it's hard to hold that against the album itself. <i><b>[7.9/10]</b><b> </b></i>Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-66489155209125400042011-04-27T22:00:00.000-07:002011-05-04T10:58:10.131-07:0098 the Hard Way: Borderline 4s Week OneRather than do the whole daily update thing for this portion of the project, I'm going to do a weekly post summing up the albums I re-visited and the results of that re-visitation. That way there's some meat to the posts - especially the ones from days that I work when I only have time to really listen to a couple of albums - and a set format that's easy to replicate each time.<br />
<br />
So, what's the purpose of this section of the project? Well, like I said in my EP summary post, the ratings I'm working with are basically gut instinct first pass ratings. These had proven to be a bit unreliable in the past, so to try and normalize things and ferret out the growers that I hadn't given enough time to I'm going to give all the borderline 4 star rated albums I flagged another listen. There are a few possible outcomes from that process; either I was overly generous on first pass, was in the general ballpark or hadn't let the given album work its charms on me for long enough. As a result, these posts will summarize the week's listening into four headings...<br />
<br />
<ul><li>Albums that are getting bumped up into the four star category. These will be further revisited in that section of the project.</li>
<li>Albums that aren't getting bumped up, but which would populate the very uppermost tier of the 3.5 star rating. These will get the review and download link treatment as seen in the EP section.</li>
<li>Albums that are remaining at the 3.5 star rating's lower tiers. These will just be summed up briefly.</li>
<li>Albums that are dropping down to a 3 star rating. Once again, these will be summed up briefly with more emphasis on how they fooled me initially.</li>
</ul>So without further ado<br />
<br />
<u><b>WEEK ONE</b></u> (April 21st-27th)<br />
<br />
<b>Total Albums Revisited:</b> 28<br />
<br />
<b>Albums Dropping to 3 Stars:</b> 7<br />
<ul><li><b>Song of Kerman</b> <i>The Unamerican Sounds of Song of Kerman</i> (Moo Cow) The passion is there in spades, but the execution isn't. Sometimes an excess of the former can cancel out the latter but not in this case. [6.6]</li>
<li><b>Griver / The Exploder</b><i> A Split Twelve Inch Recording </i>(Skylab Operations) Griver's side held its ground admirably, but The Exploder's never came close to being very noteworthy. [6.4]</li>
<li><b>Mark Helias' Open Loose</b> <i>Come Ahead Back</i> (Koch) The interplay was enough to convince me that this might be fairly great, but the songs never quite connected.[6.5]</li>
<li><b>Clemencic Consort</b><i> Troubadors</i> (Harmonia Mundi) Fundamental otherness drew me in on first pass, second pass didn't turn up anything truly noteworthy besides said otherness. [6.2]</li>
<li><b>Michel Doneda</b> <i>Anatomie des clefs</i> (Potlach) I remembered the sporadic bursts of horn playing adding up to a fairly satisfying whole. That doesn't seem to be the case. [6.1]</li>
<li><b>Brass Knuckles for Tough Guys</b> <i>Noise Man Kills Him</i> (Divot) I was swayed enough by the most propulsive moments to overlook the fact that most of the time the songs are weirdly incomplete. [6.4]</li>
<li><b>Teodoro Anzellotti</b> <i>Erik Satie Compositeur de Musique</i> (Winter & Winter) The pieces are still exceptional, especially the Gnossiennes, but the translation to accordion robs them of a lot of character somehow and doesn't imbue them with enough new character to compensate.[6.7]</li>
</ul><br />
<b>Albums Staying at 3.5 Stars: </b>15<br />
<ul><li><b>Marteau Rouge</b> <i>...un jour se lève</i> (Self-Released) Very, very Ruins-y improv with a decidedly darker tinge to its production. The parts that hit hit hard, but they're broken up by material that's just not quite there yet. [7.4]</li>
<li><b>Fabulous Trobadors </b><i>On the Linha Imaginot</i> (PolyGram) Comes damn close to being elevated if only because of the loose, zydeco-influenced vibe of the production gives it nice degree of ramshackle charm. Shave it down to 45 minutes and we'd have a much better contender. [7.7]</li>
<li><b>Selfhaters</b> <i>The Abysmal Richness of the Infinite Proximity of the Same</i> (Tzadik) Minimalist jazz that I always come away from thinking 'that should have been boring...' yet never reveals itself as such. May not be exceptional but is certainly recommendable. [7.0]</li>
<li><b>Bruce Ackley Trio</b> <i>The Hearing</i> (Avant) No matter how formulaic it becomes, the juxtaposition of the straight bass lines and Ackley's more uninhibited flights of fancy works consistently for me. [7.2]</li>
<li><b>KCE Japan Sound Team</b> <i>Metal Gear Solid</i> (King) If not for the (necessary given its origins but still irksome to me) recycling of the same general themes in new tempos this might get the plus distinction. What's here is interesting enough though, more Martial Industrial than Video Game Music to my ears. [7.6]</li>
<li><b>Krzycz</b> <i>Trauma</i> (Nikt Nic Nie Wie) At points it's more interesting in theory than in practice, but when the sludge/noise rock/screamo hybrid works and works for sustained periods of time it's incredibly noteworthy. [7.3]</li>
<li><b>Hellworms</b> <i>Crowd Repellant</i> (Alternative Tentacles) Same issue that I have with Victims Family applies here: for all the skill apparent the songs never quite stick. [7.2]</li>
<li><b>Nels Cline and Devin Sarno</b> <i>Rise, Pumpkin, Rise</i> (Volvolo) There's a lot to be said for the atmosphere - tense as hell, sonic equivalent of looking at a nuclear wasteland - but it doesn't get to the sort of queasy-making grandeur that Cline's other albums in this vein achieve. [7.7]</li>
<li><b>The Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra</b> <i>Live in Japan '96</i> (DIW) The one-two punch of the Dolphy medley and Schlippenbach's "The Morlocks" sets the bar too high for the rest of the material to reach. [7.8]</li>
<li><b>The Keller Quartett</b> <i>Die Kunst der Fugue (Bach)</i> (ECM New Series) Perhaps I've just been spoiled by Yo Yo Ma's Bach cello suites, but this seems far too cold and distant. Excellent composition and performance, but the piece itself doesn't do much for me. [7.3]</li>
<li><b>Komeda</b> <i>What Makes It Go?</i> (North of No South) Comes across as the Swedish version of Stereolab in both good - impeccably crafted lounge pop! - and not so good - no sexy French vocals! - ways. [7.6]</li>
<li><b>Joel R.L. Phelps and The Downer Trio</b> <i>3</i> (Pacifico) Phelps is still one of my favorite vocalists, but bar a few songs here he doesn't seem to be as invested as previously. Still makes his mark, but nowhere near as deeply. [7.1]</li>
<li><b>Black Box Recorder</b><i> England Made Me</i> (Chrysalis) Slight musically, but Haines' wry, mordant lyrics coupled with Sarah Nixey's vocals give it a certain cachet for me. [7.8]</li>
<li><b>Denman Maroney </b><i>Hyperpiano</i> (Mon$ey Music) Incredibly interesting sounds come out of this one, but they're also kind of annoying and haphazard at times. [7.5]</li>
<li><b>Susie Ibarra and Dennis Charles </b><i>Drum Talk</i> (Wobbly Rail) These were two of the most dynamic and exciting drummers in the jazz world at the time, but while they both thrived in ensembles putting the focus on them isn't all it should be. Some splendid moments though.[7.3]</li>
</ul><b>Albums Being Elevated to 4 Stars:</b> 2<br />
<ul><li><b>Shpongle</b> <i>Are You Shpongled?</i> (Twisted)</li>
<li><b>Franklin</b> <i>Building in A and E </i>(File Thirteen)</li>
</ul>More on these in the next section<br />
<br />
<b>Albums in the Upper 3.5 Star Area:</b> 4<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?yj2g2ngzoto"><b>Sea of Cortez</b> <i>Age of Anxiety</i> (Voice of the Sky)</a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKzCPwxuZxhAs-aIenarzv8dBTXxLpr-tKUBy6Bfs2qvpELUnu-5IJLWE0bRbVYpmesCUM7O5nEYWBGMNxqMRT-3IOhnml0EARjjWKbV-TUIw1oM65CGekAFDYqqYjnO4xCDIQz-rfuRg/s1600/seaofcortez.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKzCPwxuZxhAs-aIenarzv8dBTXxLpr-tKUBy6Bfs2qvpELUnu-5IJLWE0bRbVYpmesCUM7O5nEYWBGMNxqMRT-3IOhnml0EARjjWKbV-TUIw1oM65CGekAFDYqqYjnO4xCDIQz-rfuRg/s1600/seaofcortez.jpg" /></a></div><span id="myreview_review">There are three bands at work here. All three bands are heavily indebted to Unwound and Shotmaker in various proportions. All three bands are anchored by some fast-paced but not overly busy drumming. All three bands have a slight desert-baked vibe that makes them sound at a bit of a remove from the rest of their obvious peers. Basically, all three bands are decidedly the same band, but they come at it from three different angles. This is at once the best and worst part of <i class="rymfmt">Age of Anxiety</i>, because while it ensures that there's enough variety to keep things interesting it also gives the album a bit of a hodge-podge feel that detracts from the experience a bit.<br />
<br />
The first band is the most Unwound-indebted of the lot. Hell, the vocalist in this band may as well be Justin Trosper for all I can tell - same detached, slightly hoarse voice, same inflections. This is the band that gives <i class="rymfmt">Age of Anxiety</i> its biggest triumphs, namely the fluidly shifting opener "Break Right Now" and the slow building yet frantic "Reset All Controllers." This is the most consistent of the three units at work here, and given that it's the mode that Sea of Cortez operate in about half the time they're the biggest reason I might hold this up as a high quality hidden gem of a release. If you pared back <i class="rymfmt">Age of Anxiety</i> to an EP containing the material in this vein it would be an easy 4 stars from me.<br />
<br />
The second band is the most problematic aspect of the release. This is mostly due to the vocalist residing in that weak, thin, reedy range so prevalent among the most run of the mill emo acts of this time period. The band behind him is decidedly on a different level from those acts, but any time that this particular vocalist rears up in the mix it drags the album down enough to be noticeable. Essentially, the tracks on the album that I have the least trouble skipping past if I'm in a more cursory mood are courtesy of this make of the band.<br />
<br />
The third band is the most Shotmaker-leaning of the three. They're the one whose songs are the most energized, frantic, driving and focused of the whole album. They're the side of Sea of Cortez that gives them the most character out of the three we're talking about. Unfortunately though, this is also the band that shows up the least often, only really rearing up on the excellent album highlight "Negative Space" and the brief "Discovering the Wonders of the Universe." Actually, scratch that 'unfortunately' - really, the fact that this side of the band is relegated to the background more often than it's given the spotlight is its biggest asset. While I'd appreciate more stuff in that vein all told, the fact that this side of the band is kept on a leash as it were makes their brief moments in the sun that much more powerful.<br />
<br />
In the end though, it's the fact that all three of these bands are sides of the same coin that makes <i class="rymfmt">Age of Anxiety</i> stand out from the rest of the late 90s emocore scene. The disjointedness it creates aside, it gives the album a degree of depth that so many similar bands of this era would kill for, and a degree of unpredictability that makes each listen that much more exciting. It may be the reason I don't give the album a higher rating, but it's also the reason I find the album much more replayable than most of its peers. <i><b>[8.0/10]</b></i></span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=10&sqi=2&ved=0CFcQFjAJ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mediafire.com%2F%3Ftg5xjxmlxmd2nbb&rct=j&q=dose%20one%20hemispheres&ei=Itu4TZjpBcbGgAf56IVz&usg=AFQjCNGiITz2evuHFUeWGogDBVoUV1D3fA&cad=rja"><b>Dose One</b> <i>Hemispheres</i> (Self-Released)</a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijLxKuZUYgtNLAUjI4lTQpzFa7bFEXBtjwXECdxd0Sl6M5CPZU0d0BnK4wSpNbAPOdIA9BmTpGD_HvIM8fO9UxJLVPJdtRCAZidbtGUx9s6r27jZYKipAKIvLFU8eP__NKQYBvXgaM5Xg/s1600/doseone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijLxKuZUYgtNLAUjI4lTQpzFa7bFEXBtjwXECdxd0Sl6M5CPZU0d0BnK4wSpNbAPOdIA9BmTpGD_HvIM8fO9UxJLVPJdtRCAZidbtGUx9s6r27jZYKipAKIvLFU8eP__NKQYBvXgaM5Xg/s320/doseone.jpg" width="196" /></a></div>Dose One is an acquired taste. His voice is so nasal that it makes Aesop Rock sound like DMX by comparison. His flow comes across as haphazard and jagged at first. His lyrics are abstract to the point of impenetrability. He's not normal, in other words. In fact he's incredibly odd even in the realm of the most abstract hip hop. You won't like him, but you will never have heard any thing like him either. Even if you hate him with a fiery passion like some seem to, you can't exactly accuse him of being lazy or formulaic.<br />
<br />
The thing is that, underneath all the impenetrable weirdness there's a skilled craftsman at work. That's probably more clear here than on his later output if only because he's front and center for most of the release. It's also his most normal sounding outing, very much rooted in his history as a battle rapper rather than the abstracted realms he favors nowadays, which might make it the most palatable entry point for the uninitiated. Sure, a lot of the beats are a bit substandard and overly minimal for my tastes at times, though the ones that are more carefully constructed - "Spitfire" and "Etherial Downtime" namely - make for album highlights, but the unadorned quality puts more focus on the skill that Dose has as a rapper. <br />
<br />
He's verbally dextrous to a fault for one. Just listen to "Spitfire" where he and show-stealer Lionesque - seriously, why has she not done more shit since this? - wind around each other wit ha sort of practiced fluidity that elevates both of their performances if you want an example of that. On the other hand though, he also has a facility with finding these weird inflections and phrasings that sound fundamentally wrong if you remove them from context but sound absolutely perfect in the sphere of the song itself. That's what i mean when I talk about him as a craftsman first and foremost; he's not going to use every moment of this tape to demonstrate his skill in straightforward ways only, he's going to find the best way to work within the song even if it might sound weird or, well, wrong if you pull-quote it. And while this is his "normal" album, it's not without hints of his more avant leanings either. "Etherial Downtime" especially seems like the template for his later triumphs, with its moody piano loop and overlapping vocals that make it stand out from the rest of the album.<br />
<br />
So this is probably the least representative Dose release on the whole, but that's probably why it's the one I'd suggest trying first. Think of it as acclimatization; you need to see if you're on the right wavelength to dive deeper into his stuff, so it makes sense that you should go with the toe dip of weirdness that is <i class="rymfmt">Hemispheres</i> over something much more rewarding as an album but also much further removed from normalcy like <i class="rymfmt">Ha</i> or <i class="rymfmt">Circle</i>. You'll probably come out of this with an idea as to whether or not you even want to continue on or not, and it's easy to see why you might not, but you won't go into shock from the outre if you start here. <i><b>[7.9/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?wzdxt2mk2n1s8q7"><b>Jackie-O Motherfucker</b> <i>Flat Fixed</i> (IMP)</a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTIyuIaSeg9jDt_tzLOsg7xcGXQeo5FBMeu4gH_hjqfuOR9WRl4OuUFVl0LN8Kd8agS2QZ4JxbtvpXpPAt_VIjxz8GESmW8683MDl_pM9wSjpR9QwlZHyIfOT5snVg9stAsY8a3pqVNKc/s1600/jomf.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTIyuIaSeg9jDt_tzLOsg7xcGXQeo5FBMeu4gH_hjqfuOR9WRl4OuUFVl0LN8Kd8agS2QZ4JxbtvpXpPAt_VIjxz8GESmW8683MDl_pM9wSjpR9QwlZHyIfOT5snVg9stAsY8a3pqVNKc/s200/jomf.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>The main word that comes to mind as I'm listening to <i class="rymfmt">Flat Fixed</i> is 'transitional.' After two LPs of very, <i class="rymfmt">very</i> weird, all over the map freak folk/post-rock experiments, this double LP finds the boys and girl at the core of JOMF honing in on the parts of those albums that worked the best and developing them as best they can. As such it feels like the sort of missing link between the more freewheeling early material and the more expansive and focused stretch of albums that the band released between 1999 and 2005 - which is probably the best six album stretch any artist even tangentially related to post-rock can be said to have. It also feels very much like a dry run for the material from that era, the album where they figured out exactly what worked in what proportions by fiddling around with it more than usual.<br />
<br />
What I'm trying to say is that while <i class="rymfmt">Flat Fixed</i> could probably be said to mark the beginning of JOMF as I know and love them, that is as the makers of an intensely atmospheric and evocative post-rock/free-folk/jazz hybrid that so few can be said to even begin to approach, it's also oddly incomplete as it were. It's the album where they figured things out, and the process of the figuring was laid out quite plainly in the record itself. You can hear them trying various degrees of the alchemy from their earlier days, most notably on the almost electronic sounding "Dot Riot," in the attempt to get the balance just right. It's the very essence of a transitional album, at once very much a step in the right direction but still a bit too hesitant to pull it off with the right degree of aplomb or consistency.<br />
<br />
That's not to say that its a write off though. Even if the early going is a bit choppier than I'd come to expect from this gang, there more than enough to recommend therein. "Turtles" is straightforward and pretty, almost like the material that would make up <i class="rymfmt">Flags of the Scared Harp</i> a full 7 years later. Both "Bewitched" and "Ferrarris" are worthwhile even if they don't have the room to breathe that JOMF benefits from the most. "Honey" is almost there, as close as the album has come so far to properly dialing in the right mix of elements, but it hold s back where it needs to push forward and winds up feeling like a missed opportunity. "Dot Riot" is a definite step back into their older style, though it's played much more low key and subtle than that might indicate. The thing is that, "Dot Riot" aside, none of the tracks are bad at all, in fact most of them are great in comparison to the last two albums' material. They're just not quite there in light of what the band could do so effortlessly not even two years down the road.<br />
<br />
That said though, when they do get the balance right on the album's final two tracks it's breathtaking. "Wolf Brother Blues" is a seventeen minute suite that would sit proudly next to any of the best songs from the forthcoming run of albums, pretty much defining the JOMF sound from here on out with its seamless blend of free jazz saxophones over an epic folk base. "Crazymaker" takes that blueprint in all manner of new directions over the course of its 24 and a half minute run time, but never goes so far afield that it loses the center. The build up to these two tracks is mildly frustrating at times, though the first 5 tracks are not without their charms, but the payoff is 40 of the best minutes of material JOMF have ever laid down and it's more than worth the effort to get there. <i><b>[8.1/10</b>]</i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?hpsclcn4md275e1"><b>The Stickmen </b><i>The Stickmen </i>(Self-Released)</a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY0MshH_eKoMgPjnlY9bqDKs92rKGtg-ytvn78B4fAPze9C72ZgbRn2e5wisdlGGfI4xUyzaXi3PsL-_gY2m7U6-kIjEGWVP2_-QN2BeWESxDC97Tkli2ZMoFR2XqZUWnvfdEy7wtM5g4/s1600/stickmen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY0MshH_eKoMgPjnlY9bqDKs92rKGtg-ytvn78B4fAPze9C72ZgbRn2e5wisdlGGfI4xUyzaXi3PsL-_gY2m7U6-kIjEGWVP2_-QN2BeWESxDC97Tkli2ZMoFR2XqZUWnvfdEy7wtM5g4/s200/stickmen.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span id="myreview_review">As far as I'm concerned, the key to good noise-rock is that you don't shortchange the rock half of the equation in favor of the noise. It's all well and good to be punishing, feedback drenched noise-mongers, but if you're not also doing something akin to rocking as you do that you've missed the point. In a nutshell, that's why The Stickmen work for me so well. Underneath the intoxicating haze of psychedelic/bludgeoning guitar fuzz and incredibly well integrated turntable scratching that resides at the forefront of their self titled debut album there's an honest to goodness rock band that's pushing things forward in the most driving, insistent but not flashy way possible. It's a balance that's difficult to maintain, and at a few points herein they don't quite get it right either, but when they do it's utterly fantastic.<br />
<br />
Let's just get back to that turntable thing though, because that's about where these guys separate themselves from the pack on their best material. You wouldn't necessarily think that turntables would make for a great addition to noise rock, but the way that Matt Geeves works it into the fabric of the band's sound, almost acting like its a second guitar more than anything remotely DJ-ish, allows for the songs to really come alive. More specifically, it lets guitarist Aldous Kelly push out riffs while Geeves provides the texture thus satisfying the noise and rock halves of the equation without stepping on each other's toes. Take "Creep Inside" for instance, where Kelly can devote his guitar solely to the double-picked surf riff at the song's core while Geeves can fill the background with just the right amount of percolating noise to act as an ideal backdrop. It's a unique set up, but it doesn't rely solely on that novelty to get its point across. Add in the perfectly propulsive rhythm section and you've got a recipe for some interesting, inventive times ahead.<br />
<br />
Given all that, it's hard to say why I don't like this more than I do. Maybe it's the degree of sameness that can seem to overtake things towards the end, or the fact that the slower tracks don't play to the band's strengths and kinda drag things to a halt. Fact remains that when the band's working on all cylinders, and they are doing that for about half the tracks here, they make some of the most unique and peerless noise rock of any time period. It's a crime that it's so hard to come by - only 500 were made, self released by the band in their native Tasmania and given the reverent tone that everyone in <a href="http://www.messandnoise.com/articles/10317" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this article</a> adopts when speaking about the band I'd wager that the people who own those 500 copies aren't about to let go of them - but when you do get your ears on it you'll be in for a real treat. Trust me. <i><b>[8.0/10]</b></i></span>Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-45323737449552146412011-04-20T23:15:00.000-07:002011-04-20T23:15:00.301-07:0098 The Hard Way: Rock Week Part 5 - 'A golden bird that flies away, a candle's fickle flame'<i>So, thanks to a persistent sinus infection that made concentrating on writing and posting difficult plus a full work schedule, ROCK WEEK lasted a few days longer than I had initially anticipated. So here be the final sections of that so as to get it done with and move on to bigger, brighter things in the re-listening of all my borderline 4 star albums. Enjoy.</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>The Flys “Got You (Where I Want You)”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Weirdly low. Don't get me wrong I liked it a lot when it was gaining traction, but not in a way that made me remember it as a particular favorite. [7]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: I's spend the better part of the few minutes after I heard it trying to fathom how it was a hit of any size at any time, but in a good way. [10]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> Ten reasons why this is probably my single favorite modern rock hit of the late 90s:</div><ol><li><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> The lurching, mysterious and creepy vibe that it carries from the first bars.</div></li>
<li><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> The weirdly chorused vocal effect that singer Adam Paskowitz' voice is treated with.</div></li>
<li><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> The lack of aggression in what is pretty much an unabashed stalker song.</div></li>
<li><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> The subtle shift between the verse and the chorus vs the jarring transitions that post-grunge favored.</div></li>
<li><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> The far too well considered lyrics. They don't read as predatory until it's far too late to turn back.</div></li>
<li><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>'I think you're smart'</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> for example. Subtext abounds.</span></div></li>
<li><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> The jarring shift into the bridge section that actually carries through for the rest of the song instead of receding.</div></li>
<li><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> The integration of the rap from the bridge into the final chorus.</div></li>
<li><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> The bass solo that it ends with...and the fact that only then do you realize that it's been driving the whole song with the guitars as window dressing.</div></li>
<li><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> The fact that it sounds like nothing else from the radio landscape of 1998.</div></li>
</ol><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> Hard as it is to believe considering that I don't recall liking the song this much on its initial release, this is pretty much the blueprint for the modern rock songs I've loved for more recent years. It's dark, moderately menacing, subtle and well considered on almost every single level – hell, even the rapped bridge that should be a detriment to it works in its favor in the end – so much so that I can't help but love it more and more every time I hear it now. But really it boils down to the fact that this sounds about as far removed from the rest of the songs I'm tackling here as you can get without leaving the confines of rock radio. That sort of black sheep quality allows it to stand out in a way that's easier to appreciate in hindsight than it would at the time. You could also say that this would be ground zero for my love of stalker songs/the tendency I have to read more predatory vibes into otherwise innocuous songs, which counts for a lot since this is my list and everything.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>KISS “Psycho Circus”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Comically low. Another one that I recall inspiring a large eyeroll upon hearing it. [3]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i>: My eyes would roll so hard that I'd be looking at my brain. [2]</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> There is literally no reason I can think of for this song to exist, let alone for it to have been remotely popular, other than the fact that KISS diehards will eat up anything the band offers to them like it was manna from heaven. I'd like to think that this wold be a sort of breaking point for a good portion of those people as well though, because even by the alarmingly low standards that KISS has this is impressively awful. It's also 5 and a half minutes long, which no KISS song should ever be even if it's not a fucking wormburner like this one.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Rob Zombie “Dragula”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Moderately high. Zombie at his campiest was right up my alley at age 13 since it involved horror imagery and scantily clad ladies. [8]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i>: I'd appreciate the catchiness of the whole thing, but not enough to over ride how cheesy I find the whole endeavor. [5]</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> This is the sort of thing where the nostalgic aspects don't wind up having any bearing on my appreciation of the song now. I loved it when I was 13 because it was made for me when I was 13. It was camp horror pop-metal with gratuitous dancing ladies in the video, basically the stuff that every red blooded 13 year old lives and breathes until he actually gets laid. With the distance I now have from that age it becomes more and more obvious that the appeal this held for me at one point wasn't due to the music itself but the image associated with it. That said, the song isn't exactly bad or anything, just base-line catchy and nothing more. It really doesn't help that the lyrics don't make a lick of sense even in the scope of Zombie's horrorshow ethos.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Lenny Kravitz “Fly Away”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Low. This song always seemed incredibly lazy and underwritten even before I knew how to verbalize that thought. [4]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i>: My hatred of the entity known as Lenny Kravitz would literally know no bounds. [2]</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> This is yet another of my 'there's no excuse for this' reviews, because literally, there fucking isn't. It seems to have a level of contempt for the concepts of originality and depth that few songs can be said to possess, from the first verse where the rhyme scheme is pretty much plagiarized from a 5<sup>th</sup> grade rhyming dictionary on through the chorus which seems to think that 'yeah, yeah, yeah' is an acceptable way to make up for a lack of lyrics. To be brief, there's is absolutely no redeeming quality to this song, not one moment that convinces me that there's even an illusion of anything below the surface here. It's just Kravitz testing the waters to see how little effort he can get away with putting into a song and still have it be a hit. The answer, considering how ubiquitous this still is 13 years later, was a resounding 'none, at all' from the part of humanity that I routinely tell to go fuck itself.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Goo Goo Dolls “Slide”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Low. The Goos were always a bit of a nothing band for me, never really hitting but never really aggravating either. [5]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i>: I'd definitely like it a bit more than “Iris” but I'd still be at a loss as to why it's even moderately adored. [5]</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> To be fair, there's a lot more to like here than I might have claimed even a month ago. Even the fact that its oddly hookless winds up reading as a good point, as not letting the need for a showstopping chorus get in the way of the story that the song's trying to tell is at least modestly admirable. That said though, it's still a bit of a cipher on melodic level, which is at once frustrating and refreshing since even the worst songs here have some sort of melodic thread to follow. It's repetitive, sure, but the repetition doesn't seem to have any sort of reasoning behind it other than formula. It makes for a strange reaction on my part, where I find myself more intrigued by how this sort of a song could be so widely adored than having any opinion of the song itself.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Jon Spencer Blues Explosion “Do You Wanna Get Heavy”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Nonexistant. Weird shit went on with the RPM Alternative 30 at the end of the year leading to quite a few really left field “hits.” [n/a]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Really? This was the lead single? Not “Attack” or anything with an actual hook? [5]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So yeah, at the end of 1998 something really weird happened to the RPM Alternative 30. What was generally a can-con heavier shuffling of the two concurrent American rock charts took a very decisive left-field turn for the final two months of the year, during which time Skinny Puppy, Flipper, Scratching Post (an independent metal band) and Talvin Singh all had singles in the top 10. At the helm of this time period? A middling track from JSBX. “Do You Wanna Get Heavy?” never struck me as a good album track, let alone one that would be a single under any circumstances, but for all of November and December it was the #1 song on the Canadian alternative charts, even securing itself a #6 position in the year end top 50. It's baffling to be honest, because like I said this sounds like a mid level filler track, not a hit single.</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Kittens “Moose Jaw”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Nonexistant, once again. Really, the weird shit that went on in the Canadian charts at this point is almost comical. [n/a]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Really? This was a hit? Even in the weirdness of late 1998 I find it difficult to fathom that this sort of grinding, sludgy noise rock had any audience at all...but I'll take it regardless. [7]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> Even less hit single sounding than JSBX, but that has less to do with its quality than its unrelenting ugliness. Seriously, this sounds more in line with <i>Children of God</i>-era Swans and early Unsane than anything remotely popular at this point in time, which just goes to show you how fucking weird the Canadian alternative charts decided to get a year's end here. But aside from its decided lack of mass appeal there's a lot to enjoy here, particularly the grinding/driving main riff and breathless delivery that anchors the track. Of course to really get into it you probably need at least a passing familiarity with the more uncompromising end of noise-rock, and in that realm it's a bit less than worthy, but overall there's nothing much to hold against it.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Metallica “Turn the Page”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Moderate. This would have been around the time that I started to actively despise modern Metallica (read: I'd finally heard </span><i>Ride the Lightning</i><span style="font-style: normal;">) but this one didn't aggravate me all that much. [5]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i>: I'd be plenty aggravated by it if only because it's so over-done compared to the original. [4]</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> Oh James Hetfield's alternative voice, how easy you are to mock. Your lack of emotion, your purposeful ugliness, your “attitude”...it's difficult to get past you in the best of circumstances is what I'm driving at here. You certainly have your place, but a cover of Bob Seger's ambivalent ode to touring life isn't it. You seem to invert the meaning of the song, turning what was actually a fairly subtle dissection of the touring rock star persona into a celebration of the same. You don't seem to get that “Turn the Page” is supposed to be a moderately sad song about the emptiness of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle. When Seger sang <i>'Here I go, playing the star again' </i>the undercurrent was 'why do I even bother anymore?' When you sing it, that meaning is totally lost in favor of needless bombast. The blame isn't wholly in your corner though, really the whole band seems to have missed the point of the slight, subtle arrangement that the original had and instead seemingly felt it necessary to bludgeon it into a mid-level modern day Metallica rocker. Really, the whole cover is misbegotten after the first few lines, but I can't help but lightly praise it in light of what was to come from you guys...that's to say the production is actually moderately real sounding vs the processed to hell shit that we'd be faced with soon.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Cake “Never There”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Moderate. I didn't hear this song all that often upon its release but the few times I did I do recall enjoying it. [7]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <i><span style="text-decoration: none;">If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</span></i>: I'd feel more than kindly towards it. It's certainly different from the rest of this batch which certainly lets it stand out a bit. [8]</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> The real charm here comes from the small touches. The backbone is the usual Cake thing of detached delivery over vaguely mariachi tinged alt rock, but things like the brief intrusions of phone sounds or the full band <i>'HEY!'</i>s that pop up occasionally are what really make this one of the band's better moments. Essentially, if you like one Cake song you're gonna like 'em all, but its nice to see that even within that formula there's room for variation, no matter how slight it may seem.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Everlast “What It's Like”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Moderate. I was too young to have any residual nostalgia for House of Pain – though I was at least passingly familiar with “Jump Around” - so this just struck me as a fairly good song. The whole acoustic rap thing gave it a bit of a novelty appeal as well. [6]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i>: Well meaning as it may be, the whole ISSUES! tone of the song kills my enjoyment of it to some degree. [4]</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> I am about to make a comparison that you can pretty easily disassemble, but that won't stop me: this song is like the movie <i>Crash – </i>not the Cronenberg one – in all the wrong ways (not that there are many right ones but that's another rant for another time.) It's a surface-level examination of various social issues – homelessness, abortion and street violence – that assumes that by merely bringing the issues to light it can be said to have depth. In some ways it's even worse than <i>Crash</i> because it boils all three vignettes down to the trite notion of 'if you haven't been there you can't say anything about it.' It's moderately infuriating on that level to be honest; it may mean well but it doesn't really say anything about the issues it wants to shed light on. Once you get past that, or just ignore it like I do most of the time now, there's not much else of note to discuss. It's refreshingly simple but not to a degree that that's necessarily an asset, and Everlast's flow is much better suited to this type of thing than it ever was to full on hip hop. If only it were a bit more objective and exploratory than clearly biased and cliched that might give it the makings of a great song, but such is not the case and we end the year on a bit of a dud.</div>Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-18974916248677366072011-04-20T23:10:00.000-07:002011-04-20T23:10:02.917-07:0098 The Hard Way: Rock Week Part 4 - 'Beautiful garbage, beautiful dresses'<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>So, thanks to a persistent sinus infection that made concentrating on writing and posting difficult plus a full work schedule, ROCK WEEK lasted a few days longer than I had initially anticipated. So here be the final sections of that so as to get it done with and move on to bigger, brighter things in the re-listening of all my borderline 4 star albums. Enjoy.</i></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Eve 6 “Inside Out”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Pretty high. The fact that the band was barely older than I was at this point in time and were all over the place weighed pretty heavily in the song's favor. [8]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: The whole 'band being not much older than I was' thing would turn into a detriment pretty quickly. [4]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> Yeah, it's obvious now that these lyrics are nothing more than a high school kid trying to write something deep. It's almost laughable how badly this has aged on that front, but otherwise it's still a decent if fairly faceless slab of pop-punk of that distinctly late 90s/early 00s variety. It's definitely easy to see why it caught on though, because even if the lyrics are utter shit the melody is incredibly catchy, so catchy that occasionally I find it distracting me from the lyrics. That's as good a quality as you can expect this to have, honestly.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Fuel “Shimmer”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Moderate. Another one that I remember fairly well but can't say for sure whether or not I had any strong reaction to. [5]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: I'd know in my heart that this was extreme middle of the road post-grunge...but I'd still like it more than most things on this list. [7]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> Look, I can't not give this an inflated grade. Three reasons: 1. Cellos. I'm not immune to well-deployed cello even in the most faceless of circumstances. 2. Knowing where the band went hereafter I appreciate the restraint on display. 3. The fucking cello. I'M ONLY HUMAN GODDAMMIT! LET ME HAVE MY FAULTS!</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Barenaked Ladies “One Week”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: High. I loved this song when it first came out, probably for all the reasons I'll go into below for hating it because... [9]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: HATE. HATE. HATE. HATE. HATE. HATE. [2]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Oh dear...well let's just get it done with; I hate this song. Hate hate hate this song. I hate it not because it's a novelty but because it holds that novelty up like it's something to be congratulated for. I hate it because it thinks it's clever when all it's really doing is making pop culture references. I hate it because the verses have no logical connection to the rest of the song on a lyrical level. I hate it because it's still inescapable 13 years later when you'd have thought that the 'lol white nerds trying to rap!' thing would have aged as well as a piece of gouda that you left out on the counter for 13 years. I hate it because 90% of the time when people say they hate BNL it's because of this song and this song only. I hate that this was the song that broke the band in a big way when </span><i>Stunt </i><span style="font-style: normal;">has, by my count, twelve infinitely better songs. But most of all, I hate the fact that I can still sing along to every. God. Damned. Word of it like some sort of involuntary reflex.</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Watchmen “Any Day Now”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Mild. I had much stronger feelings for “Stereo,” their previous single, because it actually rocked the fuck out. [5]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>:</b></span><span style="font-style: normal;"> It might be a revelation on a small scale. [8]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> The key difference between the two Watchmen singles form this era is as simple as this: one actively strives for some sort of anthemic quality while one effortlessly achieves it. The key to why “Any Day Now” works much more easily than its counterpart comes down to the fact that Daniel Greaves' vocals are much, much better suited to the band's less rocking songs. On their rockers Greaves has to stretch his voice to fit in with the surroundings, but on songs like this he glides in effortlessly and gives the song an added depth that can't really be summed up in words. </div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Smashing Pumpkins “Perfect”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Moderate. I wasn't as vehemently against it as I was with “Ava Adore” but I still just thought it was an inferior retread of “1979.” [5]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Actually, 'inferior retread of “1979”' still sounds about right. [5]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> It's weird that despite my new found appreciation for <i>Adore</i> as a whole the singles that were chosen for it still ring a bit hollow to me. I understand why they were chosen, but that doesn't stop them from being among the lesser lights of the album. This especially feels very much like a barely disguised sttempt to repeat the success of “1979” only replacing the manufactured nostalgia with swooning romanticism and maybe adding a bit more of an electronic vibe if only to remind people that the band isn't the same as they were a few years prior. It's perfectly serviceable but also inherently forgettable.</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Beastie Boys “Intergalactic”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: This would have been my first exposure to the B-Boys – I missed the whole “Sabotage” thing by a year or so and was still 2 years from discovering </span><i>Licensed to Ill</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> – so I'm pretty sure I loved the shit out of it. [8]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Beastie Boys are one of those bands that I can't appreciate that much now that I'm not a teenager. Sorry. [4]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> Even in their more mature albums there's still a great deal of inherent immaturity to the Beastie Boys' songs. Maybe it's that on some level I will ever not see them as the same guys who made stuff like “Fight for Your Right to Party” or “Girls,” but I find it hard to really relate to any of their stuffas anything but some soret of tossed off juvenile lark. Maybe there are a few exceptions to this along the way, but “Intergalactic” certainly isn't one of them. Despite some interesting things on the production side of things – that pitch-shifted 'another dimension' loop single-handedly justifies the song's existence – it's still just another in a long line of Beastie Boys songs that don't connect on any level.</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Creed “What's This Life For”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: I hated it. I couldn't tell you why I hated it but I distinctly remember finding it utterly insufferable. [3]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Urge to kill...rising....rising...[2]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> It's far too easy to hate Creed. They're just a trainwreck of all the worst traits of post-grunge – the Vedder wannabe baritone, the predisposition to maudlin ballads, the lack of interesting instrumental choices – but a trainwreck that isn't even compelling to analyze beyond the fact that it's a fucking trainwreck. It's impossible to analyze where things went wrong because it was all wrong from the start. And that's before you get to Jesus-pose purveyor Scott Stapp and his incredible lack of subtlety on either a lyrical or a vocal level...it's a misbegotten venture that only yielded pain for all involved.</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Everything “Hooch”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: High. It very much sounds like the summer of 1998 as though that sort of thing could be bottled into a 4 minute song. [8]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: It would still sound distinctly like summer, and that sort of vibe really works for me. [8]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> Any song that can be summed up as 'summery' will get an automatic pass from me. I'm not even a huge fan of the season itself – autumn's more my thing all told – but if a song can put me in that sort of mind state it usually winds up being a favorite. “Hooch” could be a failure, an amalgam of all the things that I hated about Dave Matthews Band and their HORDE counterparts, but the fact that those opening chords automatically make it seem like its 21 degrees Celsius and I'm lounging around a hastily assembled campfire with a few empty bottles around me, one more on the go and my friends nearby in similar states of contentment. That's saying a lot of the song because those aren't exactly specific memories I associate with it, but ones that come to mind when I think of summer. It's all in the weird connections my mind makes, but that doesn't diminish the song's quality at all.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> <br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Big Sugar “The Scene”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Moderate/High. I think Big Sugar were one of the few classic-rock-indebted bands I dug even a bit in my younger days, mostly because the swagger was at the forefront. [7]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: I'm still not immune to the swagger, though I find it a bit stilted nowadays in this context. [7]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> In some ways you could argue that Big Sugar were pretty much the mainstream version of something like Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, taking most of their cues from old school blues rock but updating key parts of that ethos to reach their intended audience. In Big Sugar's case those updates are at once less invasive and more distracting, since on a sonic level this doesn't sound like it could be from any time except the late 90s but in terms of style it's decidedly trowback-y in its Stones at their most blues-indebted tone. It works far better here than in a lot of other Big Sugar singles though, and like I said earlier, the swagger is irresistible even when the lyrics hedge decidedly towards the nonsensical. Plus it's got those bad ass guitar solos to elevate it, and I'm nothing if not a sucker for a badass guitar solo.</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Korn “Got the Life”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: The fights I got into with my mom trying to convince her that there wasn't a problem with me owning </span><i>Follow the Leader</i><span style="font-style: normal;">...yeah, says it all right there. [8]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: I'd be surprised at how well it holds up to be honest. It's easy to see how this would break the band in a way that their previous singles didn't, and I'm perfectly OK with that despite my lukewarm stance on the band as a whole. [8]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> This would probably be ground zero for the shift in alternative rock radio that occurred at this point in time, the shift from post-grunge to nu-metal that marked a notable downturn in overall quality for the format as a whole. If only the subsequent deluge had even a fraction of the quality present here...I really wish I could just dismiss this as not only the cause of the most problematic of nu metal's crossover material but as part of it but I just can't. This is a massive, massive track, wedding elements that should not work together – a disco beat, a Mr. Bungle bass line, chaotic yet precise guitars, Davis' usual raging vocal – into a fully functional whole that I could understand causing the shift I'd probably spend the better part of next year's overview raging against. Yeah, it's good enough that I can forgive it for letting Fred Durst become a superstar, that's the type of thing we're dealing with here. </div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Hole “Celebrity Skin”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Moderate. I seem to recall thinking it felt a bit incomplete, almost like it was missing a verse at the end or something...other than that I can't remember finding it too good or bad overall. [5]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: I'd be shocked at how much better Hole worked as a pop-rock band than they ever did as a grunge one. [7]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> Minority opinion here, but I honestly think that Hole were a much better band when they finally decided to stop trying to be even remotely punk influenced. Both of their previous outings were third tier efforts in their respective sub-subgenres, but <i>Celebrity Skin</i>, while not exactly earth-shatteringly great or anything, was a damned good slice of straightforward pop-rock. The title track is pretty much emblematic of all the things that this version of Hole got right, trading in their rough edges for a more glammed up sound, concealing the bitterness with an excess of melodicism and masking world-weary resentment of the star lifestyle with angelic harmonies – a department where new recruit Melissa Auf der Maur proves her mettle admirably. The layers that the band's sonic makeover adds to the process really gives the material here the sort of staying power that even their previous best material could only dream of achieving.</div>Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-65157179629969231092011-04-20T23:00:00.000-07:002011-04-20T23:09:05.594-07:0098 The Hard Way: Rock Week Part 3 - 'Oh I couldn't bee more obvious'<i>So, thanks to a persistent sinus infection that made concentrating on writing and posting difficult plus a full work schedule, ROCK WEEK lasted a few days longer than I had initially anticipated. So here be the final sections of that so as to get it done with and move on to bigger, brighter things in the re-listening of all my borderline 4 star albums. Enjoy.</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Semisonic “Closing Time”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Fairly high. I even remember that at one point we had an unknown French-Canadian chanteuse come to our school to perform and she closed her set with a fairly good rendition of this. [9]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: That's an impossible parameter to hold this up to, honestly...but I'd at least think it was decent power pop instead of feeling oh so burnt out on it thanks to overexposure. [7]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Like I said back in the one-hit wonder write up, the law of diminishing returns rears up on this one hard. I won't deny that it's a good song by any stretch, but every time I hear it nowadays my first thought is more along the lines of 'man, I never want to hear this again' than on its objective quality. A note to radio programmers: some songs just aren't made to stand the test of time.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Brother Cane “I Lie in the Bed I Make”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Nowhere near as high as for “And Fools Shine On” but I remember enjoying it well enough.[6]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: I'd find it highly serviceable, maybe even slightly noteworthy. [6]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">This is almost another one where I'm hard pressed to understand why it was a multiple week number one in the mainstream rock world. There's nothing here that screams 'I am a song that represents the state of radio rock in 1998, play me multiple times you fools' but then again there's also nothing that makes me feel all that unkindly towards it either. I almost wish that more of it was in line with the first </span><i>'I couldn't be more obvious'</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> in terms of delivery, but there's also a modicum of restraint on display along with a weirdly paranoid sense of humor that gives it a bump in my estimation. It may not scream 'hit single' but I wouldn't hold that against it.</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>The Wallflowers “Heroes”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Given that I hadn't heard the Bowie version at all I remember thinking this was pretty great actually. [7]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Given that I now know the Bowie version...[4]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Now that I understand exactly how watered down this is compared to Bowie I get the backlash that this received almost instantaneously. Transforming the near-breathtaking emotional nakedness of the original into a detached, tossed off mumble, re-casting the immense synths and Eno's marvelous production as a simple pub rock progression...there's really nothing that this version gets right. Being attached to that shit-pile of a Godzilla remake probably didn't do it any favors either.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Smashing Pumpkins “Ava Adore”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: High, but not in a good way. Let's just say that I didn't have much love for this at age 12 given that I had </span><i>Mellon Collie</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> in my veins where most people had blood. [4]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: I've come around to </span><i>Adore </i><span style="font-style: normal;">in the interim, but I still think this is one of its weaker cuts. [5]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Here at least I understood the backlash. This certainly doesn't sound like the Pumpkins we knew and loved, but as with its parent album I've come to see that as a strong point here. It still feels weirdly off in a bad way though, the lyrics especially seem very first-draft like even for Corgan, but it ends up having some kind of awkward charm to it in the end. I like it a lor more now tha nI did at 12, but that's not to say it's without its problems.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>54 40 “Since When”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Mild. I was much bigger on 54 40's earlier material and this struck me as a bit..well, wussy. [5]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: I'd have a much greater appreciation for the heavy retro vibe this one was based on at the very least. [7]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">I get what happened here now. After the failure of </span><i>Trusted by Millions</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> – at least I recall it being seen that way – Neil Osborne realized that it was time to grow up. Gone are the bratty over-enunciated vocals, ditto the more alternative rock leanings of their past successes and in their place we get a nice 60s electric piano riff and much more mature vocals and harmonies. It makes so much sense that the band had to head in this direction to remain viable because they could actually pull it off with style and grace vs the stilted awkwardness of their previous outing. It's a good song too, but one I respect more than I enjoy.</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Goo Goo Dolls “Iris”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Moderate. Was never a big fan of Goo Goo Dolls on the whole and was even less of a fan of ballads, so despite it's omnipresence it never really registered all that much. [5]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: I would humbly request that you kill it. Preferably with fire. [2]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">This is just the worst...OK, not the absolute worst I'll have to put up with here but certainly one that I really wish I didn't have to remember at all. Take your big book of ballad cliches, throw them all together, set the production to 'heartstring tugging earnestness' and let it sit at room temperature for an hour. The results will be very much along the lines of “Iris.” I can't even begin to see a trace of originality, genuine emotion or even thought that wound up in this song, and yet it's one of the few enduring hits from this batch. Goes to show that when your music basically throws up a neon sign saying 'CRY NOW!' every time the chorus arrives you don't need much more to capture anyone's attention.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Days of the New “The Down Town”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Moderate. Unlike “Touch Peel and Stand” this one was actually popular in my neck of the woods, but I don't recall having strong feelings about it one way or the other. [5]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: I'd have a hard time reconciling its apparent megahit status with just how faceless and uninteresting it is. [5]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">I guess that the lesson to be learned from this endeavor is that the phrase 'multi-week #1 on the mainstream rock chart' is pretty much interchangeable with the phrase 'song you will have a hard time remembering not even 5 minutes after you listened to it.' Now you know why Three Doors Down and 00s Foo Fighters are the chart's biggest success stories.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>The Tragically Hip “Poets”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: I'm Canadian. That should tell you all you need to know. [8]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: I'd at once appreciate it more and find it more insufferable. [6]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">There's a certain balance that The Hip have to maintain in order to keep from aggravating me. They can rely on Gord Downie's lyrics and vocals to an extent but not to too large of one. They can indulge in The Band-aping classic rock a la Canada to some extent, but they need to temper it with some darkness or moodiness to make it stick. They can go for anthemic or literate, but they can't really try for both simultaneously. “Poets” basically exists to toe all of those lines, and as such it's the quintessential Hip song while also being one that I'm remarkably lukewarm on. While it's definitely far from being horrible, it does accentuate all the qualities of the band that make them very much an acquired taste for those who haven't been indoctrinated to them from an early age.</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Harvey Danger “Flagpole Sitta”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: High. I could actually say that 13 year old me </span><i>did</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> consider this his favorite song of all time at one point. [10]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: One of the few things that 25 year old me and 13 year old me would be able to agree on the relative awesomeness of. [9]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Consider this one of the last gasps of alternative rock before nu metal became the new standard for the modern rock charts. Or at least one of the last quality tunes to tread as close to the top spot as this did. Also considertaht if you look at it on paper it should be a tonal mess; misanthropic but not angry, negative but fully major key, decidedly anti-humanity but welcoming and inclusive all the same – hell, even my mom likes it. That sort of mix-n-match should not work anywhere near as well as this does, and yet here we are a full thirteen years past its initial ascent and it's still one of the best songs you'll hear on your local rock station occasionally. Usually this sort of qulaity one-off fades into obscurity, but “Flagpole” is still in the zeitgeist and it still hasn't worn out its welcome. Good on it I guess.</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Sloan “Money City Maniacs”</b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>The Nostalgia Factor</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: Once again, I'm a Canadian. We're constitutionally obligated to love Sloan at all ages. [8]</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</i><span style="font-style: normal;">: I'd think it was one of their best singles, honestly. It holds up remarkably well. [8]</span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">The key is the third verse. Until then it seems like you're working with two separate songs joined by a nonsensical but incredibly catchy chorus, two songs that share a chord progression and nothing else. It makes the song feel totally disjointed...but then the two songs come together without a hitch. Then the next time you hear the song it stands out from the start that Sloan know exactly what they're doing. They've got all the elements in place, the slow building intro, the established theme, the wah-infected guitar solo, the handclaps to make this feel familiar rather than specifically derivative. More importantly, they've got the rapport that can only come from years of playing together to pull it off with aplomb.</div>Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-35816053489688728952011-04-13T22:00:00.000-07:002011-04-13T22:00:08.724-07:0098 The Hard Way: Rock Week Part Two - 'The noise that keeps me awake'<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>The Rolling Stones “Saint of Me”</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Nostalgia Factor</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: Low. I do remember it quite clearly but I never had strong feelings for it one way or the other. [5]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: Those not-strong feelings are quite resonant, actually. [5]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Look, late period Stones is what it is. 'What it is' to me is a weird mix of past their prime rockers justifying their existence as a touring outfit and well-aged rockers who can still write a decently catchy tune without much effort even a few decades past their heyday. I respect their later works a lot more than some, essentially, but I still can't say that it's essential on any level. “Saint of Me” is pretty representative of this divide; it's a decent tune all told, a bit of a lazy hook but otherwise solid, but it's in no way necessary, nor deserving of the success it garnered. It's not bad though, and that does count for a bit in the grand scheme of things.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Our Lady Peace “Clumsy”</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Nostalgia Factor</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: So, so high. Grade 7 was the year that I lived and breathed </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Clumsy</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">, and this was the highlight of the album at that point. [9]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: I'd probably get too caught up in the moodiness to realize how much Raine Maida's vocals grate at my nerves. [8]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that subtlety is the key to making post-grunge above average. Compare this to the rest of OLP's single output; it doesn't even try to go big, instead remaining low key and actually somewhat insidiously creepy – the pre-chorus section especially – which in turn makes me much kinder towards it. The song essentially underplays the elements that have made me turn against the band in these post-</span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Gravity </span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">times, namely Raine Maida's ridiculously over-emoting, en route to making the one single off </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Clumsy </span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">that holds up to scrutiny 13 years on. That's what subtlety earns you.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Chris Cornell “Sunshower”</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Nostalgia Factor</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: Low. Once again, I definitely remember it but outside of a 'wtf is the dude from Soundgarden doing with an acoustic ballad' reaction I never cared much for it either way. [5]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: I'd see it as preferable to most of Cornell's solo output, but pretty slight on its own. [6]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Speaking of going off-model to different results, who'd have thought that going acoustic would lead to better material for Cornell than anything else he tried post-Soundgarden? That's far more damning of his solo material than it is indicative of “Sunshowers”' quality, unfortunately, but that's neither here nor there. If anything, this is as good a vocal showcase as Cornell would be given for a while, and while the acoustic format doesn't fit his style all that well it's still a solid performance. Yeah, I'm struggling to come up with anything terribly nice to say here, but once again, this is about as good as Cornell solo got, so you should just take it and be happy-ish, I guess.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Everclear “I Will Buy You a New Life”</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Nostalgia Factor</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: Moderate. I thought of it as the awkward middle child single from </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Afterglow</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">, nowhere near as universal and bombastic as “Everything to Everyone” or as DADDY ISSUES as “Father of Mine” but quite nice in its own right [6]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: I'd want to punch Art Alexakis in his stupid, smug face. Multiple times. [3]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I think I hate Art Alexakis. It's hard to come to this conclusion having never actually met the guy, but the way he comes across on roughly half of Everclear's singles bears the distinct hallmarks of utter jackassery by which I can not abide. This, for example, is not only incredibly lazy on a lyrical level (a lot of it sounds like a first draft that no one bothered to improve upon, particularly </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">'I will buy you a new car/perfect, shiny and new'</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">) but falls into the rock equivalent of the 'country folk are real, y'all' trope I find so reprehensible in country music: poor, starving artists are inherently better people than anyone else. They may not be able to take care of you, but they're PASSIONATE about something. It's in the cheap shots that the song takes in its second verse, in the dismissive way that the chorus reads, Alexakis' smmug, smug delivery. It's hard to defend it on any level, even as a pop song where past Everclear songs have won points with me thanks to their craft. This is just tossed off and hackneyed.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Fastball “The Way”</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Nostalgia Factor</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: High enough. I loved the song but I never really felt that invested in it as I recall. [7]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: I'd wonder how a chorus that damn good could have escaped my attention for so long. Also, I'd probably throw around the phrase 'perfectly crafted pop song' multiple times. [9]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Yeah, I'll say it again: perfectly fucking crafted pop song. Try to deny it. The best part is that even though it's perfect it never feels like it was specifically engineered to be. The effortlessness of its charm is at least half the reason that it's one of my favorite rock songs from this era, because what good is being perfect if you have to reach for I all that obviously? It's also probably the most upbeat song about death that Mark Everett never wrote, painting the old couple's journey into the afterlife as a sun-soaked fantasy even in the midst of all the uncertainty. And then there's the chorus melody, anchored by that relentless piano figure and the oddly expressive yet also slightly monotone vocals but taking on a life of its own without any prompting whatsoever. So yeah, perfectly crafted pop song. It just rolls off the tongue so easily in this circumstance.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band “Blue on Black”</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Nostalgia Factor</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: Mild. This sort of revivalist blues rock went right over my head at a younger age. [4]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: I'd have forgotten it already. [4]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">This was #1 on the mainstream rock charts for 6 weeks. A month and a half. Yet it leaves so little of an impression that I'm hard pressed to bother reviewing the damn thing.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Dave Matthews Band “Don't Drink the Water”</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Nostalgia Factor</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: Pretty high actually. I remember thinking this was pretty badass at the time as compared to DMB's usual stuff. [7]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: I wouldn't find it quite as badass, but I'd still think it was decidedly better than the likes of “Crash into Me”. [8]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">When the first thing that comes to mind is just how much this reminds me of The Tea Party's “Save Me” I know I'm in good hands. Once again, we're faced with a song that has me using adjectives I'd never have thought to place in the vicinity of DMB – unsettling, frantic, vaguely badass, not at all jam-bandy – and at the very least that piques my interest, but the whole song is definitely a cut above anything that they'd done before or have done since. When it gets to the end where Matthews sounds legitimately threatening for a minute or so – I'm as shocked as you are, but he literally sounds like he's got blood on his hand in that final section – with Alanis Morissette underpinning that mania with a similarly frenzied vocal it's clear that the song is actually able to cash the cheque the first part had written.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Garbage “Push It”</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Nostalgia Factor</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: High as fuck. </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Version 2.0 </span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">was among the first CDs I bought with my own money, mostly because of just how much I adored this song. [10]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: I'd still dig it in spite – or perhaps in part because – of its insane amounts of overproduction. [9]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">If anything, having a better grasp on just how much goes into making this song what it is, all the little tics and twitches that the bevy of producers at the heart of Garbage engineered into it, makes me appreciate it a lot more than I did back when I just loved the song. Back then I just loved the threatening pulse and Shirley Manson's half deranged psychopath half sex goddess presence, and while that's still a huge draw, the latter half of the equation especially, there's a whole array of other things that go into making the track so irresistible. For one, that ingenious Beach Boys sample that's used as a call and response with Manson's vocal. For another, the distortion that enhances said vocal during the chorus lead in. For another, the little almost inconsequential non-bass sounds throughout the whole track...really, it's a testament to what having three producers as your backbone can do for a your band, even if one of them is Butch Vig.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Page and Plant “Most High”</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Nostalgia Factor</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: Low. In case you haven't already noticed 1998 me wasn't so much for the classic rock-sounding stuff and even if this was an Albini recording that doesn't exactly disguise its roots at all. [5]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: I'd think is was pretty good for Zep redux. I'd also recognize the value that Albini's production adds to the venture. I'd also really resent the excessive bagpipes. [5]</span></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">As unlikely of bedfelows as you'd assume them to be, the merger of Page and Plant with Steve Albini did actually yeild some decent results. At the very least the classic rock excess you'd associate with Zeppelin doesn't get in the way of Albini's naturalistic production work at all; if anything this sounds just as vital as the stuff from </span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">III</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> albeit in a very different way. The problem comes from the decission of someone to give the track over to a long-winded pipe solo at the end, which may fit with the vibe of the track – the pipes during the song proper add to shat is at its heart a very slight song – but cross into too much of a decent thing after about 45 seconds. A shame really because up to that point I could have easily given this a solid six.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Alanis Morissette “Uninvited”</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Nostalgia Factor</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: Higher than for most other Morissette songs, actually. This was actually a huge favorite of mine at the time – not enough of one to convince me to buy the C</span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">ity of Angels </span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">soundtrack but enough that I actively looked forward to it being played. [8]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: In spite of the overblown nature of it, I'd probably still hold in higher than Alanis' other singles if only because it's one of the best vocals she ever laid down. [8]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I still find this song endlessly fascinating honestly. It's at once a very simple song, anchored by a minimal piano motif, Morissette's vocals and not much more, but at the same time squeezes in a dizzyingly dissonant string interlude and a guitar solo that doesn't seem beholden to its surroundings. It's the fact that it can be both of these things simultaneously and never feel overstuffed is a testament to just how well rendered a song it is. And I just need to reiterate that Morissette's vocals here are among the best in her career, getting the strong/vulnerable quality just right without going too far into either camp. It's better than pretty much anything on </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">, but I can understand why it was kept apart from the album tonally; this isn't obtuse or personal enough to fit in there, even if it is both obtuse and personal in its own way. Still, quite a great castoff single.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-style: normal;">Pearl Jam “Wishlist”</span></b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Nostalgia Factor</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: A bit higher than for “Given to Fly” but still not much outside of a minor blip on my radar at the time. [6]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: I'd label it as pleasant and unassuming and be on my way. [6]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Two moments stand out here; the line </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">'I wish I was the verb 'to trust' and never let you down'</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> which is perfectly Vedderian if such a term exists, and the fact that the line </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">'I wish I was a radio song, the one that you turn up'</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> is uttered during the fade out, which is at once far too cute and a perfect way to end a song that could – and apparently did at one point – go on for a while with a continued list of obtuse wishes. Other than that there's nothing to grasp on to here; no hook, no interesting arrangement, nothing but the charm of its simple, unadorned nature. Sadly that's not enough to work for me even if I do end off with a relatively positive opinion of the song.</span></span></div>Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-36578959134223015902011-04-11T12:00:00.000-07:002011-04-11T12:00:09.739-07:0098 The Hard Way: Rock Week Part One - 'Devious stares in my direction'<div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Unlike the country charts, where for the most part I was coming to the songs fairly fresh and unimpeded by past opinions, the songs that were hits on the various rock charts I have access to were basically the soundtrack to my youth. I kept the radio in my room glued to our local rock station and reveled in the much heavier alternative leanings of the radio stations in my Dad's area whenever I went to visit him. I'm pretty sure that at this point a full half of my CD collection was made up of Muchmusic's <i>Big Shiny Tunes</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> compilations, which were pretty much </span><i>NOW That's What I Call Alternative Music!</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> samplers. So when I went into research mode to compile the list of songs I'd be tackling here I found that more and more often I had a single thought cross my mind.</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>Aw man, I fucking LOVED this song!</i></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">This makes the week's reviews a much more dangerous proposal for me. If I revisit these songs and hate them, I feel like I'm betraying myself – a version of myself I actually like nonetheless, a few years down the line this wouldn't be an issue – but if I kowtow to my memories of how much loved it when I feel just as disingenuous. What to do, what to do.</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So consider this week an experiment, where both halves of the equation – 1998 me and 2011 me – will get their say. I'll start each review with a summary of where those two differ or align and a much more backwards-looking review than I would usually go for, especially in cases where the two opinions differ quite radically.</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">As for the songs chosen...well here's how that goes.</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">-Songs that were #1s on either the Billboard Modern Rock, Billboard Mainstream Rock or RPM Alternative 30 get reviewed, no questions asked.</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">-In order to fill out the roster to one entry per week of the year, runners up from said charts will be slotted in based on highest charting song that hasn't already been earmarked for review on the week in question.</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">-In the case of a tie – ie all #2 songs for a given unfilled week are possible candidates – nostalgia wins out over any other factors.</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Now, let us begin ROCK WEEK!</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Marcy Playground “Sex and Candy”</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Nostalgia Factor</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: Off the charts, really. I'm not sure if 12 year old me would have called this his favorite song ever or not, but it would definitely have been close, as embarrassing as that is to say. [10]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: I'm jaded by this, honestly. Given how derivative it is of the entire 90s indie scene it's easy for me to just write it off as boring, trite shit. [4]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The reason that I decided to do this particular set in this format was inspired by the two-mindededness I have about this particular song. No matter how much 2011 me wants to dismiss it, there's little old 1998 me waving it's arms in the air going 'but...but..but...' and preventing that from happening. A part of me will always love this song, no matter how much the rest of me wants to hate it. So I'll hedge and say that more than anything else, I'm glad that Marcy Playground prepared me to be blown away by Pavement and Archers of Loaf a few years later.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Days of the New “Touch, Peel and Stand”</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Nostalgia Factor</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: Mild. Honestly this didn't make anywhere near as much impact in my neck of the woods as either of the band's subsequent singles did – and that's including those from </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">II</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> – so if I heard this at all it didn't really register. [n/a]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: I'd be thankful that anyone used </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Jar of Flies </span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">as their main source of inspiration since that's never not gonna be the best Alice in Chains release. [7]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In light of how staid and frankly boring the other singles from the first Days of the New record came across as on revisit it's nice to see that the biggest one is also the one that holds up the best. That's probably because it lets the rest of the band come to the fore far more often instead of just confirming that this was a glorified solo project for Travis Meeks. Think about it, the rhythm section drives the track far more than the guitar, Todd Whitener's guitar solo is the highlight of the whole song and other than the last chorus Meeks' vocals are impressively understated. The fact that this is all done with acoustic instruments barely registers at all, which for something that could have been a huge gimmick/crutch is saying a lot about the song at hand.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Matchbox 20 “3 AM”</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Nostalgia Factor</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: Much higher than you'd think. </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Yourself or Someone Like You </span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">was one of the first CDs I owned so needless to say it had the shit played out of it in my younger days. This wasn't necessarily my favorite of the songs there, but it was definitely one I remembered. [6]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: I'd finally know when post-grunge morphed into the shit pile that is adult alternative. [4]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">OK, maybe that last pronouncement isn't fair on either count...you could easily say that “One Headlight” marked the real birth of AA and that the whole genre isn't necessarily a shit pile, but the point still stands. The whole sound and feel of the track lays the groundwork for the qualities of so called adult-alternative that I find the most trying on my patience; it's plodding, overdramatic, and most importantly of all, it's really uninteresting on a melodic level. Pleasant? Sure, but in a way that seems to actively discourage you remembering anything about it once its over.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Pearl Jam “Given to Fly”</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Nostalgia Factor</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: Moderate. In my radio rock days Pearl Jam were out of my preferred sphere so even though I probably heard this a lot it never sunk in. [n/a]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: I'd want a time machine to get my younger self to give it a better listen at the very least. [7]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It's oddly fitting that I only had vague memories of this song, because the whole enterprise here is incredibly vague in terms of...well, any aspect you could name really. The lyrics are obtuse and fragmented, the music is more evocative than relentless and the whole structure gives the illusion of grandeur without really going for it. Of course I'd have found it inscrutable at age 12 and more fascinating and replayable at age 25 – that's how things are meant to go here.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>The Verve “Bittersweet Symphony”</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Nostalgia Factor</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: Cruel. Motherfucking. Intentions. [9]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: I'd appreciate the grandeur and the downtrodden anthem angle, but would easily call bullshit on it being the band's masterpiece since I'm in that niggling minority that thinks that </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Urban Hymns</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> was a huge step down for them. [6]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">While my two-mindedness here is nothing compared to “Sex and Candy” there's still an inner war as far as the rating goes. This wasn't just a good song from my youth, it was a fucking </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">iconic</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> song, one that was inexorably linked not only to its video – everyone's favorite at the time – but later on to the final moments of </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Cruel Intentions – </span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> once again, everyone's favorite at the time – and countless other small moments. It's basically a symbol of my tween years in a few ways, so revisiting it bound to stir up more that its fair share of memories and any sort of dismissal, no matter how well founded, will be met with an internal round of 'but's from my inner 12 year old. And since I don't want to kick my inner twelve year old's ass the way I do my inner teenager, I have to listen a bit.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Green Day “Time of Your Life (Good Riddance)”</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Nostalgia Factor</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: Seinfeld finale. Need I say more? I think it was also the de facto theme for my final scout camp around this time too so there's that. [7]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: I'd probably just dismiss it out of hand like I wind up doing with most non-resonant acoustic plinking. [4]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I appreciated the implied subtext that the parenthetical title gives what could easily be a simple, hell almost emo if you wanna go that far, 'I'll miss you baby' song. But without that extra detail, one that's been glossed over by history (when was the last time you heard this referred to as anything but “Time of Your Life”?) there's really no </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">there</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> there if you get what I mean. It's another one of those songs that I chalk up as being perfectly pleasant – though this one has that overdramatic, unnecessary string section to negate that qualifier a bit – without really having anything resembling strong feelings towards it.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Sarah McLachlan “Sweet Surrender”</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Nostalgia Factor</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: High enough. </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Surfacing</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> was one of the only CDs that my dad owned for a while there, so any time we went out to visit it was the main spin given that my sister was a fan as well. It was probably the best song on there, but that isn't saying much. [6]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: I'd wonder how the same person that made “Possession” fell so far so fast. [5]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The points in this one's favor are there, namely the insidious sense of mystery that the production gives it, but they're undercut by how safe the whole venture comes off as. Given that McLachlan was unafraid to go to darker places lyrically even as recently as “Building a Mystery” there's really something about this one that feels like a pulled punch. The song sounds threatening and unknowable, but the words that are put to it don't add up to much of anything really. What a shame...</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Loreena McKennitt “The Mummer's Dance”</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Nostalgia Factor</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: Medium-high. This was another of the few CDs that my dad owned though it got a lot less play as far as I remember. Even then it struck me as a bit watered down though. [6]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: I'd have similar 'how the mighty have fallen' reaction because her earlier material is much more resonant, but I actually appreciate it a bit more now than I did back then possibly because I'm more attuned to McKennitt's wavelength [7]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I think my dismissiveness towards this in my youth was a product of being Canadian and having a much greater wealth of moderately popular Celtic music to compare it to. And really, when you look at it next to Ashley MacIsaac's singles it comes off as a far too basic and unremarkable to make an impact. That said, in hindsight it's a much better song than I'd have given it credit for back then. It may not have the depth and swell of McKennitt's earlier material but there's a definite charm to its simplicity. And McKennitt's vocals are just as amazing as ever, which counts for a lot.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Black Lab “Wash It Away”</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Nostalgia Factor</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: High, actually. I remember this being an infrequent but always welcome addition to our local rock station's playlist, so I was actually moderately excited to revisit it. [8]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: I'd wonder what kind of crack I was smoking at age 12 to think that this was welcome. [3]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">This one gets into the follies of memory. Like I said, in my mind this was a highlight of the radio landscape of early 1998 – a landscape I was much more in sync with then than I am now – one of those songs that was played infrequently enough to make each play count while popping up enough that I remembered it without much prompting. I don't know exactly what about this screamed 'great damn song' to 1998 me, but whatever it was it has the opposite effect on 2011 me. This is just plain dull. There's no memorable lyric, instrumental hook or even small moment that speaks to me as if to say 'THIS is why you remembered me'. There's a void, that's all I see in here now.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Van Halen “Without You”</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Nostalgia Factor</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: Moderate. Even though my history with VH only went back to </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Balance</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> I was well informed enough to know that the whole </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">III</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> debacle was laughable. [5]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">If I'd Only Just Heard It Today</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: I'd probably just think this was a lower level Extreme song. [4]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">My capsule review up there pretty much sums it up: it doesn't matter if you look at this as a misguided attempt for Van Halen to recuperate from the split with Sammy Hagar or if you look at it as a bizarro world version of Extreme circa </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Waiting for the Punchline</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">, it's just a really weak song. The chorus at least tries to do something of moderate interest, but the rest of the song is just...there. Even the solo is impressively faceless, almost as if Eddie had checked out already and was just marking time until they could reunite with one of their better frontmen. </span></span></div>Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-33017443985404044942011-04-08T23:00:00.000-07:002011-04-11T11:36:54.527-07:0098 The Hard Way: The Year i nCountry Music, Quarter Four<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Tim McGraw “Where the Green Grass Grows”</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (#1 US & CAN Country, #79 US Pop)</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">I think that this confirms my suspicions about McGraw checking out at this point of his career. Even if this wasn't the potential slam dunk that “Just to See You Smile” was, there's still that niggling feeling that he's not giving it his all at this point. Not to say that this would have been saved by him investing in it a bit more – it's in that 'country folks are real, y'all' subset that I have so little use for, although not as jingoisitic as those tend to be so it's got that going for it – but it might have been something beyond the serviceable nothing it comes off as as rendered here. [5]</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Alan Jackson “I'll Go on Loving You”</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (#3 US Country, #2 CAN Country)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">OK, I was not expecting something like this at all. The words that are coming to my mind as I listen to this are a litany of adjectives I'd never imagine being places in the vicinity of Alan Jackson – sensual, tasteful, moody, understated. I feel like I've entered bizarro world here, but once the oddness of it wears off it reveals an odd truth: if you translate an R 'n' B slow jam to country radio, it makes it better. Jackson – man it feels odd typing this – isn't doing anything that your run of the mill R 'n' B loverman crooner hasn't done umpteen times before, but in this format it's surprisingly great, not only because it's not done in an overbearing manner but because the backdrop is oddly austere and evocative vs the more slow-jam-centric style you'd be expecting. And once again, this is done by possibly the most whitebread of all whitebread country artists. I'm still in shock. [8]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Shania Twain “Honey I'm Home”</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (#1 US & CAN Country)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Much as I appreciate that this is not a treacly ballad, it nevertheless highlights the things that annoy me most about Shania as a performer. </span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In short, it's the fact that there isn't a performance so much as there's a stilted approximation of one. The track is energetic and sprightly enough to work on a musical level, but there's nothing added to it by Shania, no attitude or even emotion. The performer shouldn't be just another form of plastic top coat for a track like this, but Shania seems to strive on proving that you can make a living off of it. [4]</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Mark Wills “Don't Laugh at Me”</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (#2 US & CAN Country, #73 US Pop)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Well meaning schlock. Nothing more, nothing less. Sure it's an understated performance, but it's the sort of song that sets my teeth on edge by trying to get a trite and overly reductive message across – in this case 'be nice to outcasts.' The vaguely Christian pandering of the chorus doesn't do it any favors either. [4]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Garth Brooks “You Move Me” </b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (#3 US Country, #1 CAN Country)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Now you know how I feel about more upbeat love songs. [4]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Dixie Chicks “Wide Open Spaces”</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (#1 US & CAN Country, #41 US Pop)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Is it a coincidence that the Chicks' least fiery/sassy single so far is the one I find the least interesting? Sure, it retains the rootsy sound of its predecessors and kicks up the harmonies – always appreciated, ladies – but it seems somewhat listless and purposeless next to the previous two hits that its album spawned. I still think it's one of the better things to grace this project, mostly on account of the group's sound and overall dynamic, but at the same time it's one of the most forgettable of my upper tier singles here. [7]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Lee Ann Womack “A Little Past Little Rock” </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">(#2 US Country, #11 CAN Country, #43 US Pop)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Lee Ann Womack has always seemed a bit out of step with the times, and I mean that as a huge compliment. In a time where the most successful of female country singers were heading into more and more pop/AC leaning directions she was almost defiantly traditionalist in her approach. Hell, even her own big pop break through was more Reba (classic version) than Shania, and this one is even more classicist in its framework. From the deep, resonant upright bass that introduces it on down through the deft production that – much like Dixie Chicks at this point – makes its lack of 'production' in the modern Nashville sense into a great asset. Womack's dead-ringer-for-Allison Krauss vocals on top of it are just the icing on the cake. [9]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Paul Brandt “Outside the Frame”</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (#3 CAN Country)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Yet again, we have a single that uses lack of studio-fuckery to its advantage. To be fair, I'm really not a fan of Brandt's vocals or of the lyrics themselves, but the overall sound and arrangement of the song almost makes me want to bump it up a few spots. I know it's not deserving of that boost, but at times it tricks me into believing that it is...especially towards the end when I expect the track to climax anew but it just fades away instead. [6]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Prairie Oyster “Canadian Sunrise”</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (#5 CAN Country)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Not one of their better tunes to be honest. It's got the right kind of vibe going, with the full band dynamic reigning supreme and a nice helping of old school piano, but even with that in its favor there's something unremarkable about the song itself. Maybe it's that it veers uncomfortably into unnecessarily patriotic waters – see, I get annoyed when my own people do that shit too – but something about just doesn't quite hit for me, despite it sounding right up my alley on paper. [6]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Ty Herndon “It Must Be Love”</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (#1 US Country, #10 CAN Country, #38 US Pop)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Like I said when I was talking about it in the one-hit wonders section, the way that Herndon sells the rush of infatuation absolutely makes this track. The more I think on it, the more I would expect certain parts of this to register as creepy and/or stalkerish, yet there's nothing in the vocals but pure puppy love, and it's borderline adorable. [8]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Faith Hill “Let Me Let Go”</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (#1 US & CAN Country, #33 US Pop)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The biggest gripe that I have with the songs I'm either raging against or dismissing out of hand here is that all the character is buffed away in favor of a smooth finish that may play well to the genre's fanbase but leaves me cold unless the singer is particularly charismatic. Now, Faith has it in her to be charismatic enough to elevate the material, but at this point she seems so determined to grab that bright, shiny AC crossover medallion that Shania paved the road towards that she gives that character up in favor of utter blandness. This shines through especially on her ballads, which I'm never that enamored with anyways even when she is imbuing it with some sort of personality, which makes something like “Let Me Let Go” a particularly tough slog. Keep in mind that I do go into each of these songs wanting to find the good, I really so. Track like this just make the good far too difficult to find. [3]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Brooks and Dunn “Husbands and Wives”</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (#1 US Country, #2 CAN Country, #36 US Pop)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The midtempo number is and always will be the Achilles heel for Brooks and Dunn. They can sell their rockers and even their sappiest of ballads with some degree of skill, but the middle ground is often where they falter the most obviously. In that light it figures that this is their worst entry of the year, but it actually goes beyond that his time. The whole song just sounds incredibly awkward, like it should either be played slower or faster...any tempo besides the one its in would probably do. Furthermore it's seemingly at odds with the vocal melody in a way that seems downright amateurish. I dunno what went wrong here, but the version we have just doesn't sound right, and not in a good way. [4]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Terri Clark “You're Easy on the Eyes”</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (#1 US & CAN Country, #40 US Pop)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It's just occurred to me what it is that makes me like Terri Clark more than I'd assume I should; her vocals don't have that practiced, smoothed over sound that so many Nashville females adopt. Not that we're in pure raw untrained vocal territory here, but they've still got an edge to them that gives a song like this an extra degree of bite than it would probably have in other hands. So once again, we have an instance where the performance elevates the material – fittingly stock ending to the saga of the country charts in 1998 isn't it? [6]</span></div>Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-49169360200431901592011-04-07T12:00:00.000-07:002011-04-07T12:00:04.689-07:0098 The Hard Way: The Year in Country Music, Quarter Three<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Terri Clark “Now That I've Found You” </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">(#2 US & CAN Country, #72 US Pop)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It may be an overly facile comparison, but given their similar roots and the similar timing of their respective rises to popularity, I've never been able to think of Clark as anything besides the better case version of Shania Twain. At the very least she's a much more open and genuine performer than her counterpart there's not that pesky layer of artifice to her performances that Twain gets bogged down by at the very least. As such, while I'm getting increasingly frustrated at the tone of Shania's ballads this one comes across as much, much defter in its execution and delivery. It's still slightly corny, but it's also grounded in identifiably real human emotions, not just facsimiles thereof, and that counts for a lot. [6]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Clint Black “The Shoes You're Wearing”</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (#1 US & CAN Country, #118 US Pop)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">As with his last song that I tackled here, there's the problem of this being faceless to an almost insulting degree. What's worse, it's steeped in cliché and barely even holds my interest on a musical level – almost a given with the level of production detail in this genre – which you'd think would lead to a haeful screed against it. The thing is that I mostly find myself looking for new levels of indifference as it plays, and after it's done it doesn't stick around...it's probably the most easily forgettable of the mediocre entries I'm faced with here which counts for something. [5]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Collin Raye “I Can Still Feel You”</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (#1 US Country, #2 CAN Country)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I can't shake the feeling that in an earlier incarnation this was a sappy, string-drenched ballad. It's got the lyrical hallmarks of that style at least, the whole missing a long gone lover trope that all but requires a helping of melodrama of the lest effective variety. So it's in great service to the song itself that Raye picks up the pace of that theoretical version and turns it into a much more sprightly borderline-rocker that still gets the point across but turns what could have been a maudlin ode to lost love into a bit of a sick cosmic joke that keeps being played on the protagonist of the song. The change is for the better, and it also allows for some excellent violin/guitar trade offs during the bridge. It's the rare track in this project that I find myself liking more the more I hear it, which should tell you enough. [8]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Shania Twain & Bryan White “From This Moment On” </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">(#6 US Country, #1 CAN Country, #4 US Pop, #13 CAN Pop)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">My roommates are getting married in the fall. I've made two requests of them as far the ceremony goes; number one, no fucking wedding dance down the aisle and number two, they are not allowed to play this song. At all. Because seriously, this doesn't sound like a song that was ever meant for any purpose but to be the soundtrack to any wedding that lacks in imagination. Hell I'm sure there have been couples who traded its verses as their fucking wedding vows. Worst of all, the song is really just egregiously awful, syrupy, facile and coma-inducingly boring. There's nothing there besides a transparent plea for wedding DJs to put it into infinite rotation until something more pandering comes along. Fuck this and fuck everyone involved in its creation. [2]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Garth Brooks “To Make You Feel My Love” </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">(#1 US Country, #7 CAN Country)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Now you know how I feel about excessively maudlin ballads.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">OK credit where it's due, the minimal accompaniment does work in the track's favor on a musical level, but it also gives me less to draw my focus away from the banality of the lyrics and their delivery. It all evens out in the end though. [3]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Dixie Chicks “There's Your Trouble”</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (#1 US Country, #3 CAN Country, #36 US Pop)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I'm trying my best to not over-praise this one, but given its surroundings at this point in time it's hard not to heap on the hosannas for the sheer fact that there's tangible energy to be found herein. That's the thing that makes this stand out the most now. Not the spunky delivery from Natalie Maines, not the naturalistic, rootsy production, not the lack of 8 coats of studio finish, the fact that it actually moves. I just need to keep telling myself that while it feels like 5 star material in context it's a bit of a step down from their previous single – lack of harmonies mostly makes it so – and that it's got a bit of the whole 'too clever' thing going on in the lyrics. All that said, god damn was that what the chart needed at this point in time. [7]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>The Wilkinsons “26 Cents”</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (#3 US Country, #1 CAN Country, #55 US Pop)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">So of course we descend right back into the maudlin. That's s bit of an overstatement I guess...sure the song is manipulatively sentimental to roughly the same degree as any ballad I've talked about here, but it's also a much more nuanced and down to earth version of that sort of thing (figures that it's Canadian I guess.) That aside though it's definitely not my cup of anything, from the vocals on down it's a laundry list of the kind of thing that leads to excessive amounts of indifference on my part. [4]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Jo Dee Messina “I'm Alright”</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (#1 US & CAN Country, #43 US Pop)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The second Vassar-Messina collaboration to break through this year lacks a bit of the driving aggression of “Bye Bye” but their creative alchemy still makes for a great song on the whole. There's something in the way the Messina interprets his words and delivers them that gives even the most hoary of the turns they take – the stop-short-of-saying 'ass' in the second verse particularly – a certain charm that I don't think many of her contemporaries could imbue them with. It's a shame that they don't seem to have any further tracks together in some way, because they seem to get each other's quirks in a way that elevates each of their games quite a bit. [8]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>George Strait “True” </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">(#2 US Country, #1 CAN Country)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">(The author contemplates copy and pasting parts of both previous Strait reviews he's written to give you an idea of how little there is to say about later period Strait singles. He instead decides to cop out in a different, yet equally familiar way.)</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Now you know how I feel about George Strait songs. [5]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Faith Hill and Tim McGraw “Just to Hear You Say That You Love Me”</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (#3 US Country, #4 CAN Country)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">OUR LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE IS AN AWESOME LOVE! IT MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKES YOURS LOOK LIKE SHIT! Fuck both of you. [3]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Vince Gill “If You Ever Have Forever in Mind” </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">(#5 US Country, #1 CAN Country)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Old school charm and class. How the hell did this become a hit in 1998? Those things seem so antithetical to the modus operandi of country hitmakers from this era. This sounds like it was ripped straight from the 50s musically – not drenched in studio fuckery, anchored by old school piano – and Gill's voice melds so smoothly with those surroundings that it makes his already great pipes seem that much more timeless. Consider it the remedy to the schlock -merchant balladry that's become so omnipresent in this format since around this time. [7]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Brooks and Dunn “How Long Gone” </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">(#1 US & CAN Country)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Unlike a lot of the older guard that were still active at this point in time, Brooks and Dunn seem to have started to change with the times rather than stick to their tried and true sound. This isn't the sort of departure that their more recent stuff was, but it's certainly updated from the more traditionalist leanings of their best material. The weird thing is that it works quite well at this point; they've still got enough of their old style in there to be recognizable but the foot they've pointed towards more modern touches doesn't drag them too far off course. Really though, any excuse to throw out a few tasteful guiitar solos is appreciated by yours truly, and Brooks lets a few of them fly here that make the song that much better. [7]</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>John Michael Montgomery “Cover You in Kisses”</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> (#3 US Country, #2 CAN Country)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Fitting that the guy who I mostly remember for originating my theory that any song faceless enough can translate across genre lines with little effort on anyone's part (remember All-4-One? Their biggest hits were originally recorded by this guy) has one of his last hits with the same sort of faceless, cheesily romantic schmaltz that's only a dropped steel guitar track away from making waves on your local AC station. [4]</span></div>Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-53149875602932947242011-04-06T11:30:00.000-07:002011-04-06T11:30:00.665-07:0098 The Hard Way: The Year in Country Music, Quarter Two<b>Trisha Yearwood "Perfect Love"</b> (#1 US & CAN Country)<br />
Yeah, this is a country song. It's doing nothing more than a country song does. Doesn't bother with personality, just decent melody...it's a country song. [4]<br />
<br />
<b>Dixie Chicks "I Can Love You Better"</b> (#7 US Country, #3 CAN Country, #77 US Pop)<br />
At this point in time, Dixie Chicks were an anomaly. It wasn't their brashness, the thing that would sink their ship a half-decade later, that made them stand out so much as the fact that they were an actual group. Look at the songs I've been reviewing so far; outside of duets we're looking at a lean, lean time for country groups in terms of hits. So of course, the minute those pitch perfect harmonies started up it was a bit of stand out. The fact that it continued to get better as it went on cemented it's place as a favorite here. It may be your stock 'fuck her, I'm more awesome' song, but between the girls' harmonies, Natalie Maines' soulful yet bratty voice - it's annoying in theory but she makes it work - and the least worked over production of any song so far it manages to find that sweet spot for me. Shame it wasn't as big as their next couple because it's easily their superior in pretty much every way. [8]<br />
<br />
<b>Jo Dee Messina "Bye, Bye"</b> (#1 US & CAN Country, #43 US Pop)<br />
Phil Vassar strikes again, but unlike "Little Red Rodeo" he's not the best thing about this one. No, that would be the overall level of bad-ass that it compresses into its 3 minutes. Sure, Vassar's lyrics are a part of that - the first part of the chorus is distinctly his style and also perfectly realized in practice - but there's also the arrangement, which is much rawer and more driving than the norm, even for this kind of song. The guitars bite as much as they twang, the drums kick where they usually just push...it's the closest to a full on rock song that the country hits of this year get. Of course there's also Messina, possibly the Miranda Lambert of the late 90s, giving the song an extra kick of attitude just where it needs it. It's the perfect collision of all these elements, essentially, and the rest of the year's hits have a remarkably high bar to clear before they can better this one. [9]<br />
<br />
<b>Jason McCoy "A Little Bit of You"</b> (#3 CAN Country)<br />
The reason that the timeliness of the sound in the last few Canadian hits I talked about was so surprising is that usually we're a few years behind in terms of development. Thus I was really expecting the Canadian contingent here to sound more like this; basically co-opting the sound of country music from the late 80s/early 90s - lotsa Dwight Yoakam influence, basically - and parading it around like it was still relevant in the post-Shania/Garth/Tim landscape. I appreciate that, even if it's still about as produced as everything else here it at least has the decency to apply that style to an early make of the genre. It also helps that it would have stood out as a great addition to the era it clearly belongs in, mostly due to McCoy's roguish, raw vocals and the vague zydeco vibe that the track has. [7]<br />
<br />
<b>Shania Twain "You're Still the One"</b> (#1 US & CAN Country, #2 US Pop, #7 CAN Pop)<br />
Crime against music territory here. One count of perverting the fine art of the introductory monologue in such a way that the deep voiced guy from Boyz II Men probably died inside just hearing it. One count of excessive ukuleles to denote cutesiness/whimsy. One count of unnecessarily forceful backing vocals that don't even seem to have a coherent harmony scheme. One count of recording a song about how special her love is, which is just never a thing you should do ever. If I keep thinking I'm sure to come up with more, but let's just leave it at that before I start getting too spitey.[2]<br />
<br />
<b>Garth Brooks "Two Piña Coladas"</b> (#1 US & CAN Country)<br />
Now you know how I feel about shitty Jimmy Buffet wannabe songs. [2]<br />
<br />
<b>Faith Hill "This Kiss"</b> (#1 US & CAN Country, #7 US Pop, #24 CAN Pop)<br />
"This Kiss" is stupid without being stupid, if you understand what I'm driving at. It's devoid of substance, so light and frothy that it's poised to to disappear at any moment, but it's not stupid. It's also ecstatic enough that even the moments that hedge closer to actual stupidity escape that classification. The result is a song that is exactly the right kind of stupid and the perfect kind of stupid to give Faith her big pop crossover. It probably helps that unlike a lot of her more lovey-dovey material at this point this is more about the rush of infatuation than rubbing how great her and Tim McGraw's love is in your face. That's a love song trope that I can tolerate at least. [5]<br />
<br />
<b>Steve Wariner "Holes in the Floor of Heaven"</b> (#2 US & CAN Country)<br />
I respect this song a lot more than I enjoy it. I mean, it's very clearly a personal song for Wariner - one of the country old guard from my days of actively paying attention to this stuff - and in the landscape of country radio, where the songs are all about impersonality so that the listener can project themselves onto them more easily, that counts for a lot. But that aside, this is just a bit too maudlin for my liking. It's the whole cry-while-smiling thing that I just never have much use for, though this is a better version of it than most. [5]<br />
<br />
<b>Randy Travis "Out of My Bones"</b> (#2 US Country, #1 CAN Country, #65 US Pop)<br />
Speaking of the old guard, I can't think of any artist from that era that I'd be more surprised to see to see with a hit in the climate of 1998 country, yet here we are. The best thing is that in getting that late career hit he didn't seem to sacrifice any of his usual style; this stands proudly alongside any number of his older hits without sticking out like a sore thumb. Plus that introductory violin/guitar figure is striking in its beauty even before you've been clued in to the fact that this is Randy Travis doing what he's done best for a long while now. [7]<br />
<br />
<b>Tracy Byrd "I'm from the Country"</b> (#3 US Country, #1 CAN Country, #63 US Pop)<br />
There are plenty of things I hate in country music, but I don't think any other song type irritates me more than the 'country folk are REAL, y'all' song. The fact that you could easily slot this into a fucking Rodney Atkins album and not disrupt its feeling is a testament to the level of schlock we're talking about here. [3]<br />
<br />
<b>George Strait "I Just Want to Dance with You"</b> (#1 US & CAN Country, #61 US Pop)<br />
I'm trying to limit my cop out reviews to Garth Brooks here, but like Brooks there's only so much you can say about later period George Strait that goes beyond saying that it's exactly what you expect. This is lighter and more island-tinged - not Buffet-y in a way that raises my ire but there's a bit of him in here for better or worse - with some nice violin/guitar work in the bridge, but in the end it doesn't go beyond being exactly what you'd expect at this point. Like I said, you're not gonna be surprised by anything Strait does at this point because it's impossible for him to deviate that far from what he does. [5]<br />
<br />
<b>Tim McGraw "One of These Days"</b> (#2 US Country, #1 CAN Country, #74 US Pop)<br />
I'm beginning to think that the Everywhere era was McGraw's least compelling in a lot of ways. So far all of the singles have an air of 'whatever, people will eat it up no matter how much I invest in it' to them, and while he'd have been right it doesn't mean that the material isn't pretty awful. Once again, this should have been a gimme of a song for him, but there's nothing to his performance that suggests anything beyond going through the motions and cashing a check. Luckily his next few albums had more vigor in them, because to see an not-inconsiderable amount of charm and personality wasted on such mediocre performances is mildly depressing. [4]<br />
<br />
<b>Reba McEntire with Brooks & Dunn "If You See Him/If You See Her"</b> (#1 US & CAN Country)<br />
Would it be overstating things too much to call this collaboration ideal? I'm lukewarm on the song itself, but in theory I can't think of a more logical pairing than McEntire and B&D; both McEntire and Dunn have an ease with dialing in just the right amount of drama to their performance, and B&D's over-riding sense of harmonizing should carry over well to collaborations like this. And it does work much better in these hands than it probably would in any other duo's, but that doesn't quite bring it to the level I expected given the people involved. That said, the last verse is vocal interplay nirvana for the purpose of this arena. [6]Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-89014754435395616142011-04-04T23:00:00.000-07:002011-04-04T23:00:07.630-07:0098 The Hard Way: The Year in Country Music, Quarter OneThe thing that I realized as I was listening through to the first batch of country #1 hits from 1998 is that in terms of genre charts, the country chart has a certain base level consistency that I don't see elsewhere. Now when I say 'consistency,' I mean it in a mildly pejorative sense. While the consistent nature of the chart has some positive bearing on its overall quality - my first pass at rating the initial batch yielded a plethora of [6]s with very few deviants, which I'll bet the rock charts would kill for when their time comes - it also makes for a very, VERY samey group of songs in the end. There's so much standard issue Nashville paraphernalia on each of the year's biggest hits that makes them hard to tell apart on a cursory level, which essentially means that if I like one song I wind up liking them all.<br />
<br />
That's where I'm glad I have a bit of an outside standardizing force to judge things against. Knowing that Ty Herndon's "It Must Be Love" was a solid [8] in terms of the less insular confines of the one hit wonders section meant that, in the early goings, I found myself mostly thinking about each song matched up to that. As skewed as that methodology is, it means that in the end I'm at least placing the songs in a more generalized context in a round about way. Even then, though, there was a certain base level quality at least in terms of the craftsmanship that goes into the songs. Yes, I'm saying that the mass-produced sound of the Nashville machine is a good thing in the end, because even songs that are objectively lesser still sound fantastic on an aesthetic level.<br />
<br />
The deciding factor, then, comes in the form of the performance of the artist in question. Like I said way back in my top 150 singles of the 00s series, when it comes to country music, performance is absolutely key. The more factory-issue the genre, the more it depends on the artist to imbue the songs with any semblance of personality. The ones that do this best are by default the ones that I gravitate towards. Serviceable may result in a higher rating here than it does in other fields, but that also makes those outliers particularly noteworthy.<br />
<br />
So, without further ado...<br />
<br />
<b>QUARTER ONE</b> (Week of January 3rd - Week of March 28th)<br />
<i>Note: I'd generally provide YouTube links for these, but since only about half of them seem to have even lyric videos up at this point - and those that have videos up are often in very low quality - that's not gonna be an option 100% of the time.</i><br />
<br />
<b>Garth Brooks "Longneck Bottle"</b> (#1 US & CAN Country)<br />
Speaking of serviceable...well, Garth might as well be the poster boy for that particular term as we'll apply it here. If we're using "It Must Be Love" as the standardizing agent for this stuff in the larger picture of 1998's pop music, we might as well call Garth the internal standard - putting that Chem degree to use here guys - since, with a few exceptions, when he does a song of a particular style, it'll fall prety much dead center of my estimations of that particular form. Thus, when I rate this you'll know that my opinion of the upbeat drinkin' song is slightly higher than my opinion of certian other styles we'll get to as we go on. [6]<br />
<br />
<b>Martina McBride "A Broken Wing"</b> (#1 US Country, #17 CAN Country, #61 US Pop)<br />
Overwrought ballads are the norm for country music. I accept that while not being necessarily thrilled by it...but there are limits to what I'll grit my teeth and sit through. Normally I love Martina McBride - hell, if I were to go back and do this for '94 I wouldn't be surprised if "Independence Day" would get a solid [9] out of me - but while this does give her ample opportunity to show off her pipes. outside of that it's just a plain, underwhelming overwrought ballad. Then they feel the need to add in a fucking gospel choir. Because the song wasn't over the top enough. [3]<br />
<br />
<b>Shania Twain "Don't Be Stupid"</b> (#6 US Country, #1 CAN Country, #40 US Pop)<br />
I'll give Shania her fair share of shit for the overwrought ballad thing later on, so I might as well give her a measure of praise here while she's kind of earning it. Well, she's not earning it by herself I guess, since most of my goodwill towards this number comess from the nimble fiddling choir that props it up. Shania's doing her usual thing, which is to say making calculated attempts at imbuing the track with this whole "personality" thing that she used to possess at one point but can't quite form anymore - seriously, 'Relax...Max!'? That's the sound of someone trying so hard that comes around to sounding like she's not even trying. <br />
Oh, and I'd be remiss to not mention the godawful remix that this got. It's so bad that it makes me like the original that much more by sheer virtue of it not deserving that kind of treatment. [5]<br />
<br />
<b>Tim McGraw "Just to See You Smile"</b> (#1 US & CAN Country)<br />
This is a gimme of a song. It could have been given to pretty much any contemporary of McGraw's and they'd have hit it out of the park. Hell, even when Will Oldham covered it a a piss-take on his More Revelry EP it shone through as a great piece of songwriting. So why do I feel that McGraw sells it a bit short? I could commend him for sitting back and letting the song shine through, but it winds up feeling a bit lacking because he doesn't do more with it. There's that moment in the second verse where he allows a bit of a laugh into his voice as he delivers the 'and given the chance I'd lie again' punchline, but other than that he seems to be on autopilot, which is rarely becoming of him. It also doesn't help that the arrangement here goes a bit overboard with showing just how many instruments can be added to a country song. I mean, that's probably the case on a lot of these songs but it stands out here for some reason. [6]<br />
<br />
<b>Chris Cummings "The Kind of Heart That Breaks"</b> (#50 US Country, #1 CAN Country)<br />
So pervasive is that textbook Nashville sound that even the Canadian detours I'll be taking at various points here feel like they were cranked out of the same machine as any other song in this project. I mean, look at this song in the abstract; pleasant, unobtrusive vocals, heavy steel guitar and dobro overlay, lots of production, lyrical twist that thinks its more clever than it actually is...it's all textbook Nashville 1998 despite it's much more northern pedigree. So it's only fitting that it's most notable feature is Cummings' delivery, which stands out as uniquely Canadian in a way. I think I mostly like that aspect because it underplays the aforementioned twist rather than underlining it the way I'd expect most others of this time to. Plus the odd hitch in his voice on the 'easy does it for goodness' sake' parts is the sort of personality-driven touch that I appreciate so much in this type of song. [7]<br />
<br />
<b>Brooks and Dunn "He's Got You"</b> (#2 US Country, #3 CAN Country)<br />
Consider this an overwrought ballad done right. All the pieces are there for me to absolutely hate this song, yet in practice it doens't come across as over the top or irritating. Credit the relatively light touch in the production, and - say it with me - the vocal performance which may be a lot less subtle than the ideal, but certainly doesn't go to the lengths that so many others would to make it artificially sad. Really this is right in B&D's wheelhouse, Dunn can sell the shit out of a broken-hearted screed and Brooks knows how to properly deploy a good harmony in these situations. They don't hit it out of the park, but given where it could have gone they pull it off admirably. [7]<br />
<br />
<b>Bruce Guthro "Walk This Road"</b> (#1 CAN Country)<br />
There's really no excuse for this to sound as faceless as it does. Given that right around this time Guthro was also part of long-running Celtic rockers Runrig it doesn't seem like much of a stretch to expect some sort of cross-contamination between that project and his solo work, but aside from a nice touch of accordion during the chorus there's nothing that sets this apart from the rest of the country landscape of this time. It's one of those songs that I'd label as being aggressively mediocre, seemingly making every effort to void itself of individuality so as to better meld in, and while it did get Guthro a hit up here it feels a bit unearned. [5]<br />
<br />
<b>Lila McCann "I Wanna Fall in Love"</b> (#3 US Country, #1 CAN Country)<br />
There's something about the way that the vocals on this one are mixed, especially during the chorus where the background vox seem to be mixed higher up than the ostensible lead vocals. Or it could be the fact that McCann is a bit of a cipher so the character that those backing vocals contains easily overpowers her. Yeah, once again we're in total faceless territory. It's easy to see why this was a hit in general, but there's never anything that indicates why it was a hit for McCann in particular. [5]<br />
<br />
<b>Anita Cochran and Steve Wariner "What If I Said"</b> (#1 US & CAN Country, #59 US Pop)<br />
OK, the vocal interplay on the chorus is the deciding factor here. Outside of that it's a standard issue duet, perfect for a Valentine's Day bump in the charts. That chorus though...that's the sort of touch I look for in this type of song, something that may be overly obvious to some extent but stands out by virtue of not sounding like anyhting else in this sphere at the time. [6]<br />
<br />
<b>George Strait "Round About Way"</b> (#1 US & CAN Country)<br />
Consistency is the watchword for Strait the same way that that serviceable is for Garth Brooks. Similarly, you know exactly what you're getting with every new Strait single, so you know exactly what this sounds like when I tell you that it's an upbeat ode to heartbreak. You know this even before I tell you that it quotes his own "Unwound" lyrically. And you know how good it is, because really he doesn't know how to be either better or worse at this point. [6]<br />
<br />
<b>Garth Brooks "She's Gonna Make It"</b> (#2 US Country, #1 CAN Country)<br />
Like I said, my ratings for Garth Brooks singles will, by and large, show you the hierarchy of the various types of songs that become hits on country radio. You now know how I feel about ballads. [4]<br />
<br />
<b>Clint Black "Nothin' But the Taillights"</b> (#1 US & CAN Country)<br />
The downside of the whole consistency thing I'm noticing here is that as I get deeper into the writeups, I find that I'm running out of things to say about the most average of the ranks here. And thus, we get to this particular song, which the only thing I can think to say about it is that it's perfectly serviceable, moderately clever - actually clever, not more clever than it thinks it is like 90% of songs of this ilk - upbeat country shit. Really outside of the chorus there's very little that stands out here, but that's OK since the chorus is all that really matters. [6]<br />
<br />
<b>Collin Raye "Little Red Rodeo"</b> (#3 US Country, #1 CAN Country)<br />
And then came the advent of Phil Vassar. Given how much emphasis I wind up placing on the performers it may seem odd that i'm all of a sudden turning my focus on to the songwriter at work here, but as much as Raye's performance works in the song's favour it's Vassar's songwriting that gives this a lot of its charm. He's also one of the few people in the Nashville songwriting game that has anything resembling his own personal touch to his material, so it's easier to give him praise than anyone else in this game. It's also no coincidence that three of the best songs I'm gonna be talking about here are all Vassar-penned. While this might be the lesser of those three, it's certianly the highlight of the hit parade so far. Or maybe it's just that the writing and delivery of the third verse's <i>'I'm a man, I'm in love and I'm desperate'</i> that cinches my love for it. [8]Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-34756115070214747932011-04-01T12:00:00.000-07:002011-04-01T12:00:01.020-07:0098 The Hard Way: EPs - The final list.So it's a day later than what I had anticipated it taking, but it's done. Each of the EPs I'd given at least a 3.5 star rating (7.6/10 in terms of rating I'll be using on here) has been reviewed and ranked - hell, even a couple of late comers have made their way in here. So of course that means that it's time for a summary post - the top 20 EPs of 1998 and some reflection on how this month went (usually there'd be a mix CD to go with it, but that'll have to wait until my main computer is better)<br />
<br />
So, without further adieu....<br />
<br />
<b>The Top 20 EPs of 1998, According to Me at Least</b><br />
<br />
<b>20: </b>Third Eye Foundation / v/vm - Split #1 (FatCat) <i><br />
</i><br />
<b>19: </b>The Gloria Record - The Gloria Record (Crank!)<br />
<b>18: </b>Boredoms - Super Roots 7 (Warner Music Japan)<br />
<b>17: </b>The Day of Man as Man - The Day of Man as Man (Ricecontrol)<br />
<b>16: </b>Super Furry Animals: Ice Hockey Hair (Creation)<br />
<b>15: </b>Art of Fighting - The Very Strange Year (Half a Cow)<br />
<b>14: </b>Ganger - With Tongues Twisting Words (Domino)<br />
<b>13: </b>Coil - Spring Equinox: Moon's Milk or Under an Unquiet Skull (Eskaton)<br />
<b>12: </b>Bästard~Tiersen - Bästard~Tiersen (Ici d'ailleurs)<br />
<b>11: </b>Modest Mouse - Neverending Math Equation (Sub Pop)<br />
<b>10: </b>The Legendary Pink Dots - The Pre-Millennial Single (Soleilmoon)<br />
<b>09: </b>Clinic - Monkey on Your Back (Aladdin's Cave of Golf)<br />
<b>08: </b>Fridge - Kinoshita Terasaka (Go! Beat)<br />
<b>07: </b>Modest Mouse and 764-HERO - Whenever You See Fit (Up/Suicide Squeeze)<br />
<b>06: </b>Lifter Puller - The Entertainment and Arts (Threatening Letters)<br />
<b>05: </b>Fridge - Orko (Output)<br />
<b>04: </b>Penfold - Amateurs and Professionals (MilliGram)<br />
<b>03: </b>Coil - Autumn Equinox: Amethyst Deceivers (Eskaton)<br />
<b>02: </b>The Dillinger Escape Plan - Under the Running Board (Relapse)<br />
<b>01: </b>Belle and Sebastian - This Is Just a Modern Rock Song (Jeepster)<br />
<br />
<b>Other Observations</b><br />
<br />
The whole process of revisiting and reviewing these releases has made me realize a few things, namely that my gut reactions are far more generous than I'd anticipated. I started this off with the following subsets<br />
<br />
-29 releases at the 3.5 star level<br />
-32 releases at the 4 star level<br />
-9 releases at the 4.5 star level<br />
-7 releases at the 5 star level<br />
<br />
After this month those releases now fall as such:<br />
<br />
-4 releases at the 2.5 star level<br />
-7 releases at the 3 star level<br />
-24 releases at the 3.5 star level<br />
-27 releases at the 4 star level<br />
-9 releases at the 4.5 star level<br />
-6 releases at the 5 star level<br />
<br />
All in all, of the 77 releases I started with 24 wound up falling by at least a half star vs 4 that wound up going up that much. So if the pattern holds when I get to albums, I'll have one underestimated release for every 6 that I was overly kind to on first pass, not counting the ones that stayed within their initial rating but wound up much lower in that subset than I'd have assumed on first pass. That's a bit of a damning figure, but it's also the reason that I decided to go about this process in such a painstaking manner - my gut is unreliable. Depending when I listened to an album, what mood I was in, whether I heard it on headphones or on speakers, whether I was fully engrossed in other things at the time and only got a rough idea of the release's make up, all kinds of other variables, my perception was skewed. More often than not it was skewed in the album's favor.<br />
<br />
This affects the way I'm going to approach the albums when I get to that - in a week or so, depending on the state of my PC . Basically, I'm not going to do the sort of in depth review process I did here. That game plan worked for EPs because, by virtue of their length, I could easily tackle multiple listens to anywhere from 2 to 8 in a day complete with reviews for each one. Albums are more problematic in that regard, really if I expected to properly relisten to and review each of the albums I've rated 3.5 stars and above..well, we'd be here for a long time. So here's the game plan for albums, revised and ribbed for your pleasure:<br />
<br />
<b>3.5 Star Albums</b> - I'll give each of these <i>one</i> extra listen. If the stand out as deserving of a more in depth revisit, I'll review them. If not they'll just get a brief blurb.<br />
<br />
<b>4 Star Albums</b> - Each of these will get <i>two</i> extra listens. Once again, if the inspiration fairy hits me over the head I'll do reviews but it won't be for every single one (though probably more frequent than for the 3.5 star releases).<br />
<br />
<b>4.5 and 5 Star Albums</b> - These will all get the in depth treatment, even if I find myself dropping them down to the lower tiers. Probably wind up eating, breathing and sleeping the particular albums for a couple of days each.<br />
<br />
That seems a bit more manageable, especially since the 3.5 and 4 star albums make up about 90% of this section and enforcing a strict limit on how often I revisit them will certainly help make<br />
sure I can finish this up by year's end.<br />
<br />
<b>UP NEXT: </b>1998 in Country and Rock singles. Expect the first post in this series sometime tonight or early tomorrowBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-89313350655449538402011-04-01T11:45:00.000-07:002011-04-01T11:45:00.306-07:005 Star Corner: Belle and Sebastian - This Is Just a Modern Rock Song (Jeepster)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBUQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mediafire.com%2F%3Fymdmzzt4hzz&rct=j&q=this%20is%20just%20a%20modern%20rock%20song%20mediafire&ei=HhCWTeDOK6LfiALe9O2cCQ&usg=AFQjCNHUK-A_FYn3MoP2dhC8GmrVpy-Kgg&cad=rja"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_1HsmlaHHagAdMqpLoQM_NBsZ9dhd8xJleirFLyovgcn8zheDoySvdloLq8sBAw3z_MY0MOT3U1F3KXjpEKfm16GDWHnn3al_33EXLObzh6-qXpJHFVoY8F9IOzYdMDs3tigWTfKwfZg/s400/ThisIsJustAModernRockSong.jpg" width="398" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5eC98JC6VVI" title="YouTube video player" width="480"></iframe><br />
<br />
Oh Belle and Sebastian, I could never stay mad at you...<br />
<br />
Sure in the years since this was released you've fallen on hard times. Neither <i class="rymfmt">Fold your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant</i> nor <i class="rymfmt">Storytelling</i> were as warmly received as the untouchable streak you enjoyed from 96-98, and even the albums hailed as being your return to form have left me, well, frustrated. Even angry at times. Hell, my review of <i class="rymfmt">Dear Catastrophe Waitress</i> is one of my more venemous screeds...but I can't stay mad at you even after that crushing disappointment. You know why?<br />
<br />
This EP is why. Hell, the title track alone forgives so much water treading, so much overly cutesy pandering, so much overbearing 'cleverness.' It's remarkable that despite how involved and production-indebted it is that "This Is Just a Modern Rock Song" sounds like it was hammered out in one take, just a lark that the band took one day in the studio that wound up resulting in their best overall song. Everything about it feels completely effortless and spontaneous; the entry of the various extra instruments during each of the climaxes has no calculation to it at all in my ears, it just feels like a split-second decision by that player to jump in. Even Murdoch's lyrics, which often seemed overworked and stilted even at their best feel much looser than normal. They're still quotable and clever - not 'clever' like a lot of his later material - but thy somehow seem more genuine this time. It probably helps that he gives the song's best passage over to Stevie Jackson, whose much less effete performance works just as many wonders as Murdoch's resurgent harmony does in the penultimate stanza.<br />
<br />
Yet for all that it could just as easily be seenas a heavily calculated 'Belle and Sebastian do Post-Rock!' move. If not that, then at least the sort of one-off genre exercise that EPs are generally made to contain, keep separated from the album that they might stick out from like a sore thumb. The thing is that even if it does feel like the band trying on a different set of clothes to see how they fit, it's still the same basic body underneath. And truthfully, the post-rockier flourishes are what make the song stand out in all the best ways, amplifying the things about B&S that I loved most from this era and giving them room to build and shine. Even the best material from their albums can't compare to the scope that "Modern Rock Song" allows for, and the band use it to their full advantage while still making sure that you never forget who they are. That's why it makes me willing to forgive their recent transgressions; it shows all of the best aspects of the band in one place, and makes me remember exactly why I love them.<br />
<br />
But it doesn't stop there, thankfully. One great song, even one as great as the title track, isn't enough to make this EP the sort of full blown classic that makes up for every sin the band committed to tape in the year since. The truth is that unlike the string of EPs they had released the year before, there isn't a duffer in the whole set here. "Slow Graffiti" is everything I love about the title track transposed onto a smaller scale, and while it's no match for the epic sprawl of "Modern Rock Song" it's still a highlight in the band's catalog. "The Gate" might feature Isobel Campbell's best performance in the band's history over top of a similarly spontaneous feeling number. Even "I Know Where the Summer Goes," which is about as close to the 'overly cute' side of the band's personality as the EP gets, is buoyed by a great set of lyrics and a breezy, charming performance. They may not merit the full two-paragraph treatment I afforded the title track, but they're all examples of the band at their peak in various guises. More importantly, they all maintain a similar mood, making for a much more cohesive statement than...well, any other B&S release.<br />
<br />
So yes, Belle and Sebastian, I forgive you. You did this, and that makes up for everything you've squandered since. That's how good it is. <i><b>[10/10]</b></i>Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-4144845815642876622011-04-01T11:30:00.000-07:002011-04-01T11:30:00.932-07:005 Star Corner: The DIllinger Escape Plan - Under the Running Board (Relapse)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?w3jf3igqczcwl7q"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0HdrB4Id3FTrtGKCuV4_waIm5ocI6pQl3JIaCn6EIT4yWl9tYUcYbUt7rn5Y4AgVs8YNhkLTRKyhrvtM8NFlnfLlBvKyOMl8tHwq39-JL5GVabb8-MkA-3P0rio86Nz-Frn5wG1F_lc4/s400/unda.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Seven-and-a-half minutes.<br />
<br />
Four hundred and fifty-three seconds.<br />
<br />
In the half hour I dedicate to listening to a given EP when I'm sitting down to review it, I can listen to <em class="rymfmt">Under the Running Board</em> four times.<br />
<br />
If I did my usual thing and wrote the review as I listened to it one final time, I doubt the review would make it to 200 words (I'm a slow typer, so fucking sue me)<br />
<br />
Seven-and-a-half minutes, and yet this is the standard bearer for an entire subgenre.<br />
<br />
Is it wrong to heap that sort of a plaudit onto a release so small? Well, keep in mind that the subgenre we're talking about here is one where quick-change acts are the raison d'être, or at least the dominant feature. So a seven-and-a-half minute stretch in mathcore circles is more than enough time to get all manor of ideas across. Hell, even in the sub-two minute ball of fury that kicks off <em class="rymfmt">Under the Running Board</em> there are at least a half dozen distinct movements, and that's the shortest of the release's three tracks. So in terms of ideas, there's more than enough time here to assert your dominance over your peers, to provide a sort of benchmark for your followers, to create a release that even you can't ever match up to as you go on. A release like <em class="rymfmt">Under the Running Board</em> would be an appetizer for most other artists, for The Dillinger Escape Plan it's a challenge.<br />
<br />
The gauntlet is pretty handily laid down by the opening track, the aforementioned "The Mullet Burden," which lays out everything that this EP will be doing in less than two minutes. As I said, there's a wealth of distinct movements herein, but the key is that they all work together to create a compelling whole. It would be one thing to lay out the various pieces that make up the track and play them as is - this is the sort of thing that I think Coalesce did at this point, one of the reasons they never really worked for me - but another to find ways to integrate them into each other, to make them work as a song and not just as unrelated pieces. There's also the fact that even though the various movements barely last more than 20 seconds apiece on average, they all make an impression. Whether it's the interlocking scales that end the song or the weirdly arrhythmic solo that's underpinned by chords that wouldn't sound out of place on a jazz album, each tiny piece of the whole leaves a mark.<br />
<br />
That's even more true on "Sandbox Magician," where my single favorite part of the song is the unprecedented clean guitar break that interrupts the burgeoning rhythm riff at the start. It comes almost out of nowhere, it's never even hinted at again, but it winds up being the song's defining moment for me. Maybe it's just that it distills the thing that I love most about this EP, the sense that anything can happen, and will happen, if only for a few seconds. There's similar interruptions at other points in the song too, but that first one stands out most, probably because it's never explained or revisited. It could also be a function of the more straightforward nature of the song. Sure, there's still an array of distinct pieces in play, but they're much more uniform in their tone. Of all the tracks on there it's the closest to straight up metalcore, heavily rhythmic and breakdown-y though not without its flourishes. <br />
<br />
Similarly straightforward, but better overall, is "Abe the Cop." In the scope of this EP, "Abe" is epic and sprawling, a whopping three minutes long, which does something that the other tracks can't do: it lets the movements breathe. There's also a greater sense of escalation, building up to a slightly more intense, oddly timed breakdown from a less grandiose set of early movements. It's also the EP's best showcase for vocalist Dimitri Minakakis, whose intense, foreboding vocals carry the song much more so than the tightly interlocking instrumental underneath. More than that though, it's the biggest hint that the band's compositional style has more to it than being well executed riff salad. The way that the song loops back around to the initial theme after it climaxes shows a lot more thought that those who write this off as complexity for its own sake would believe.<br />
<br />
So yeah, in less time than it takes to properly barbecue a burger, Dillinger Escape Plan made the entire nascent mathcore genre their bitch. I don't think any other release in this particular arena has come close to the sustained level of quality that this EP offers - even <em class="rymfmt">Calculating Infinity</em> has a couple of moments that just don't quite work - and even if its a slighter offering timewise it more than makes up for that with just how much it gets done within that period, and how well it makes excess of information work as individual songs. It's still hard to believe just how much this accomplishes in so little time, but any time that I convince myself that I'm over-praising it, one listen sets me straight. <i><b>[9.7/10]</b></i>Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-88571795739117286362011-04-01T11:00:00.000-07:002011-04-01T11:00:05.922-07:0098 The Hard Way: EPs, Final Days<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?awj222ienow"><b>Art of Fighting: The Very Strange Year (Half a Cow)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/219E5B8K67L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/219E5B8K67L.jpg" width="312" /></a></div>It always mystifies me that in the realm of slowcore we never had many bands that followed in the footsteps of Bedhead more rigidly. That could just be my personal bias though, I always thought that the Kadane brthers' take on the genre, where the 'slow' part of the genre moniker didn't get in the way of the heaviness they could bring, almost like a miserablist take on sludge metal. So to hear a band like Art of Fighting pretty much amplify both of the best qualities of <i class="rymfmt">Whatfunlifewas</i> - the epic streak and the dynamic tension - to their breaking point, it always makes me smile a bit. The fact that they manage to pull it off even better through that amplification is just the icing on the cake.<br />
<br />
Think of it this way: this EP is over 40 minutes long. No song is less than 5 minutes long. The songs utilize that length to their advantage - "Wild Beast" in particular uses all of its 7 and a half minutes perfectly, building to a crushing, exciting conclusion after 5 minutes of tension build up. This is a band that knows what they're doing from the first moment, expertly deploying light touches of piano, subtle strings, epic crescendos, dueling vocals and melodic bass at just the right moments. Even the lesser pieces on this EP have a certain spark to them that indicates that given time the band might even make these types of songs work - I'm thinking mostly about "The Unappreciate" which comes closest to being textbook slowcore but still makes great use of the band's more unique features in the background. Even the theoretically overlong "Twenty-One and Eighty" manages to hold my attention during the stretches of sameness because there's so many subtle, interesting things that are going on in the background. And the scariest thing is that this is what they pulled off on their debut recording, bar a couple of demos. They got it almost completely right their first time out, which has me more than excited to see where they headed to next. <i><b>[8.7/10]</b></i><b> </b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?nm4mjmmomzi"><b>Idlewild: Captain (Deceptive)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://emilysalbumsatoz.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/idlewildcaptain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://emilysalbumsatoz.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/idlewildcaptain.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><b> </b>There's a definite pattern here. Idlewild operate in three modes: short, jagged punk bursts akin to their early singles, anthemic, mid paced rockers and dark, brooding post-punk. Each set of three songs on <i class="rymfmt">Captain</i> lays out one example of each type, almost as though the band were going for a Side A/Side B feel despite this only ever being released on CD from what I can discern. This of course leads me to two observations:<br />
<br />
<b class="rymfmt">1. "Side A" is far better than "Side B"</b><br />
<br />
Just matching up the representative slice of each of the bands modes it's easy to see that the EP is heavily frontloaded. "Self Healer" edges out "Last Night I Missed All the Fireworks" thanks to a much more developed set of riffs and lyrics in the sub-two minute range. "Annihilate Now!" is a big step up on "Satan Polaroid," arguably coming off as a dry run for <i class="rymfmt">Hope Is Important</i>'s crowning glory "When I Argue I See Shapes" in all the best ways. And "Captain" handily destroys the overlong, messy "You Just Have to Be Who You Are" without much question at all. It's not an issue of the second half being bad - you'll notice that "You Just..." aside I didn't indicate that the matchups were incredibly lopsided - so much as the first half containing some of Idlewild's best material, full stop, even a full decade plus later.<br />
<br />
<b class="rymfmt">2. The mild identity crisis is actually a selling point rather than a detriment.</b><br />
<br />
Usually when I hear a band with more than one clearly defined style at this point in their career, I wind up saying to myself 'I really hope they keep going with style A over style B/C/D etc.' Strangely, even though the hierarchy is pretty clearly in the mid-paced anthemic rockers' favor in the end I don't find myself wishing that they eschew any of the tones offered here for more of another. Each of the band's modes is equally well defined and well played, such that I find myself wishing for more of everything from every subsequent Idlewild release. This is odd, especially for someone like me who values flow in his albums, but somehow the band makes me glad that they aren't stuck in one particular mode all the time, even though it makes the EP sound haphazardly arranged. I'd usually consider that a cardinal sin on any release, so making it into a slight advantage gets the band a lot of points in my book. <i><b>[8.5/10]</b></i><br />
<b> </b><br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?cwlbffrmlmz"><b>The Promise Ring: Boys and Girls (Jade Tree)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMi_6rU86UWrt4EEYxqvXa1b2p64ZqwHS4LUm-jXlMRZo1jm39ncwjowtNsd7W5wFc_aHytf3YpSpJ7jGmmOJq0Z1SgYAynNUeALmJv9XnH11NsVEOrpHBWjJjK_F4SbhO7Cv1oyu49C8/s1600/The_Promise_Ring-Boys_and_Girls_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMi_6rU86UWrt4EEYxqvXa1b2p64ZqwHS4LUm-jXlMRZo1jm39ncwjowtNsd7W5wFc_aHytf3YpSpJ7jGmmOJq0Z1SgYAynNUeALmJv9XnH11NsVEOrpHBWjJjK_F4SbhO7Cv1oyu49C8/s320/The_Promise_Ring-Boys_and_Girls_3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><b> </b>It's tough to go into much detail here, really. Both songs are great - all three if you're looking at the CD version - in the same way that other good Promise Ring songs are great. The big deciding factor is that they're isolated. The band's albums have always been very hit or miss with me. For every song that stands out and says 'Yes, we're a worthy addition to the indie emo canon' there's another that just sits there listlessly and another that's actively trying to sit though. Here though, you've got no fat to wish to trim off. "Best Looking Boys" is sprightly, poppy and addictive in ways that these guys didn't get that right previously (and only got consistently right when they morphed into Maritime). "Tell Everyone We're Dead" might be even better, it's definitely their best mid-paced number outside of "A Picture Postcard" if only because there's actual build to it. I guess that's the thing with both of these songs: they go somewhere when a lot of previous PR songs were content to stay in place, and while some bands can find the glory in water treading promise Ring could not. It could also have something to do with new bassist Scott Schoenbeck, who carries over more than a little bit the fluid, jazzy style that marks his other band from this period, Pele. Whatever the case, it's my go to Promise Ring release and barring a radical revision of my thoughts on their full lengths I don't see that changing anytime soon.<i><b> [8.5/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DXINRNBB"><b>Dødheimsgard: Satanic Art (Moonfog)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy59mvzKdXYkiSz02KHOCYL45jR3r4YhSUzGiVebfO-x6WmypAVh7qQEksBLOVQz_XJvK537fDWtZIikbPO9iIZAhjL3xls_FyP5T660yz2aTAwr9Kweysli9cyRLOmoCJJDqBBR26pllS/s320/Image+Dodheimsgard_SatanicArt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy59mvzKdXYkiSz02KHOCYL45jR3r4YhSUzGiVebfO-x6WmypAVh7qQEksBLOVQz_XJvK537fDWtZIikbPO9iIZAhjL3xls_FyP5T660yz2aTAwr9Kweysli9cyRLOmoCJJDqBBR26pllS/s320/Image+Dodheimsgard_SatanicArt.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><b> </b>I'm willing to bet that the reaction most people will have to this EP will go something like this:<br />
<br />
<b class="rymfmt">"Oneiroscope</b>: OK, mood setting, can't fault that.<br />
<br />
<b class="rymfmt">"Traces of Reality"</b>: Holy shit, intense progressive/My Dying Bride/black metal! More please!<br />
<br />
<b class="rymfmt">The rest</b>: You know, I liked <i class="rymfmt">In the Nightside Eclipse</i> too...<br />
<br />
So why doesn't this get cast aside like any number of albums I've heard with one stellar track surrounded by filler? Well, the fact of it is that that one track makes up almost half of the EP's running time, so even if the other material was incredibly dire - which it isn't - this would still hit the top half of my rating scale. There's also the fact that while the other two songs on here - discounting the intro/outro portions - could easily be written off as emblematic of the band's songwriting process, just stopping halfway to the point that "Traces of Reality" reaches instead of continuing onward.It also helps that in the real of one song wonders, "Traces of Reality" is exceptional in terms of quality. Sure it makes the rest of the EP look half-assed by comparison, but the end results are worth it. <i><b>[7.6/10]</b></i>Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-85601886395729025212011-03-27T23:00:00.000-07:002011-03-27T23:00:04.137-07:0098 The Hard Way: EPs, Days 24-25<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?xwkl7whxhqssxol"><b>Isis: The Mosquito Control EP (Escape Artist)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSNNXrjhVIZXuJ6GM_UPOebAWj1OU7d8yFhi5TRJOUEUgtYEivcbDIyo9v0g-rJ0SAdlLoETPTSG4-2mMPACG8eSF17tBAaXH7nVOVxZ1VqL7dav-50iC1hEp3RXLqs8jXAtKrPzkp-bE/s1600/Isis_Mosquito-Control.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSNNXrjhVIZXuJ6GM_UPOebAWj1OU7d8yFhi5TRJOUEUgtYEivcbDIyo9v0g-rJ0SAdlLoETPTSG4-2mMPACG8eSF17tBAaXH7nVOVxZ1VqL7dav-50iC1hEp3RXLqs8jXAtKrPzkp-bE/s320/Isis_Mosquito-Control.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>At this point in time, Isis weren't quite as comfortable with the 'post' half of the post-metal tag. The calmer moments don't necessarily feel out of place, but they aren't a fully integrated part of the band's sound yet. As such, what <i class="rymfmt"><a class="ml-smartlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_control">Mosquito Control</a></i> amounts to is about a half-hour of crushing,abrasive sludge metal, like peak period Neurosis' heaviest moments, that rarely lets up but never gets stagnant. Really, that last part alone makes this the highlight of the band's early years - as they started integrating electronics and ambient sounds into their overall aesthetic, they overdid it to a certain extent before things fell into place almost perfectly on <i class="rymfmt">Celestial</i>, so this EP, which just bludgeons the shit out of you for 28 minutes, comes off smelling like roses even if it's the least 'progressive' of the bunch.<br />
<br />
Yes, I'm saying that their concept EP is their least progressive material. Besides that little wrinkle, this is very much a straight ahead <a class="ml-smartlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sludge_metal">sludge metal</a> album. That doesn't stop it from being a very good one though, I mean just listen to the confluence of elements near the end of "Life Under the Swatter" where the tribal drums collide with the chunky rhythm riff as a wash of treated, dissonant guitar descends on the track, that sort of thing doesn't happen on lesser albums for sure. There's also the fact that, as a concept record, it really does get the feeling of a giant insect invasion across through sound alone, even without Aaron Turner's rasped lyrics. Once again, not exactly the hallmark of a lesser release. The only real criticism I could level at it is that it's a bit too derivative of Neurosis at times - "Hive Destruction" could pass for a "Locust Star" sequel if not for the vocal style - but that's not exactly a bad thing when you get down to it. All in all, while this doesn't go as far into the post-metal realm as the band's best known material, it provides a solid foundation of balls out rocking that grounds even the band's most experimental material from here on out. <i><b>[8.3/10[</b></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?k5271mvw9553c46"><b>Arab Strap: Here We Go / Trippy (Chemikal Underground)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEkdv35FCiw3P1w_eij9MijihZGyQhfwF-XsaIHlUEbyB3_QZP-RVC4Rckufr4G2DQe5fS-bmlkQrHQodVS_7bzA__i09PFCzNAPjJv11Y55LugWhD0aqP92Yb5MHxr8JPTWuZb_wGfXg/s1600/arab-strap-here-we-go-trippy-album-art-8174.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEkdv35FCiw3P1w_eij9MijihZGyQhfwF-XsaIHlUEbyB3_QZP-RVC4Rckufr4G2DQe5fS-bmlkQrHQodVS_7bzA__i09PFCzNAPjJv11Y55LugWhD0aqP92Yb5MHxr8JPTWuZb_wGfXg/s320/arab-strap-here-we-go-trippy-album-art-8174.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><b> </b>I've never had a very bad drug experience, truth be told. Probably owes a lot to the fact that even in the wildest days of my youth I never went further than alcohol, pot and mushrooms when it came to drugs - no <a class="ml-smartlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prescription_drugs">prescription drugs</a>, nothing inhaled or injected, not even ecstasy - but nevertheless, I have no 'bad times on drugs' stories like a lot of my friends did. Worst I got was a few mildly disturbing hallucinations the first time I did 'shrooms, but after that nothing stands out besides being able to actually come out of my shell a bit more at parties when I had a little more chemical courage in me. This really just a long-winded way of saying that if "Trippy," both on a lyrical and sonic level, is anything like a bad drug trip I'm very, very glad that I kept it pretty vanilla in my partying days.<br />
<br />
"Trippy" adds a new layer to Arab Strap's sound, one that I don't think they ever re-discovered thereafter and definitely not one that has any precedent on their previous outings: menacing. Malcolm Middleton's guitar, even before it gets distorted towards the middle of the track, sounds much more threatening, Aidan Moffat's vocals are frantically ranted in a way that even his most desperate moments couldn't approach, and the addition of what sounds like an actual live rhythm section - there aren't credits on the EP itself to confirm or deny that speculation, but it sounds very live in comparison to the obviously synthetic rhythm section on "Here We Go" - adds a lot more depth to the proceedings. That's all before you get to the song itself, the way it progresses from a normal, albeit darker tinged, Strap track and slowly, but surely evolves into something far removed from that. First, it gets vaguely mathy as Middleton's basic arpeggio starts to slip into 5/4 occasionally, then the straight 'chorus' pattern slides into 7/4 giving the track an unbalanced quality. Then the second guitar, relegated to moderately creepy marginalia for the first bit, becomes more and more present encroaching on the song until it merges with the main riff. Then the song goes into overdrive, becoming increasingly frantic as the bad trip at its center reaches its breaking point, eventually breaking into a much more 'modern rock' styled palm-muted power chord section that I don't think anyone would have thought would fit in an <a class="ml-smartlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_strap">Arab Strap</a> song, never mind fit in logically. All the while Moffat's describing the recipient of the drug fairy's menace as he becomes more and more paranoid - the first time the second vocalist jumps into the mix screaming 'GET AWAY!' is frightening beyond compare - until things get even weirder.<br />
<br />
Arab Strap have thrown caution to the wind before and allowed their songs to devolve into techno interludes before - think of legendary b-side "Drug Song for Paula" - but the one they go into on "Trippy" is something much, much better than they usually get to. It's not just that it flows so logically out of the previous song, or that it really does approximate a faceless rave DJ to a frighteningly accurate degree, but that as it happens the song never goes out of focus; The bass <a class="ml-smartlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIFF">riff</a> never lets up, and eventually the guitar adds a modified version of one of the main riffs to the margins of the mix. It's a little thing, but it makes the track that much more engrossing to me; here was the left turn of the track, the moment that the build up turned into instead of exploding like the Mogwai song this seemed to be aiming towards, and yet instead of it sounding like that it remains grounded in the basics of the track up to the point. It also helps that it lasts long enough that it's actually a tangible episode of the saga as opposed to a minor detour.<br />
<br />
"Trippy" might be the one song I remember Arab Strap for if I limit myself that way in the future. It may not be their quintessential moment, if anything it's the antithesis to their normal style, but at the same time it brings the two core elements of the band to the fore: Middleton's ease with naturalistic, seemingly unpracticed playing and Moffat's storytelling ability. It highlights both in a way that's at once unexpected and yet perfect, allowing the darker tone of the track - I think I saw a review that referred to it as a lost chapter of <i class="rymfmt">Trainspotting</i> and that's as accurate a description as exists - to let the <a class="ml-smartlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_Duo">core duo</a> indulge in a variation of their normal schtick without it sounding too out of place in their oeuvre. It's the ideal fodder for a b-side, as this definitely would not have fit on <i class="rymfmt">Philophobia</i> tonally yet is as high quality as any of the band's best moments.<br />
<br />
I suppose I should mention the actual A side at some point, so here it is: "Here We Go," one of the better tracks off <i class="rymfmt">Philophobia</i> though not a highlight. Your basic Arab Strap tune. The drum machine makes me want to kill myself. Gets slaughtered by the flip side. Almost wish that this was a single sided addendum to <i class="rymfmt">Philophobia</i>, but any vehicle for giving "Trippy" to the general public is a good one in my estimation. <i><b>[9.3/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?mezmxjl15jd"><b>Samael: Exodus (Century Media)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSghCxD8GQyjL6bYYdK3EMvADibcXV_PgANQeS-ZBXdet2JS5Qp&t=1" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSghCxD8GQyjL6bYYdK3EMvADibcXV_PgANQeS-ZBXdet2JS5Qp&t=1" width="320" /></a></div>Blame/Thank the rise in prominence of keyboardist Xytras, I guess. After a few albums of solid if not exactly noteworthy death metal the direction of the band seemed to be driven by giving Xytras more input. <i class="rymfmt">Passage</i> was the first step, fully integrating electronics into the band's sound where they'd been a shading before. <i class="rymfmt">Exodus</i> is the next logical step in that direction, testing just how much the two sides of the band - the synthesized, industrial textures that were coming to the fore and the mid-paced black metal roots that they were pushing aside - could peacefully coexist without ruining the band's sound. You can hear that duality quite clearly on the title track, and more importantly you can hear why the industrial edges were to the band's advantage at this point. Really, any track here would be a mid-level black metal track without the extra layers added by the synthesizers, whether they be overt ("Exodus" and especially "From Malkuth to <a class="ml-smartlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kether">Kether</a>") or more subtle ("Mark of Caïn.") It's the synthesis that manages to elevate the material to a slightly higher level, and while there's nothing as great as "Rain" or the forthcoming "Infra Galaxia" to be found here, the EP is probably the band's most consistent release on the whole, never really knocking any of the tracks out of the park, but also never faltering too badly the way that its surrounding albums did. <i><b>[7.6/10]</b></i><b> </b><br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_850235583"><b><br />
</b></a><br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?izqgdzn1zza"><b>Coil: Summer Solstice (Bee Stings) (Eskaton)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfYgFu1MK9bnmNfIP8eYdw5hAwKI_c4xn_NLc5a7IG5tksytzIhRBtbCIm3CQQNRWVmc9IYIeCB3LYA0hQP_pqoZbFSdxmmkbyBhXENeVvNqS-wlowB5d6xCp5GmVkpvFBlUkILn-ANHq_/s400/1998+-+Summer+Solstice+Bee+Stings.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfYgFu1MK9bnmNfIP8eYdw5hAwKI_c4xn_NLc5a7IG5tksytzIhRBtbCIm3CQQNRWVmc9IYIeCB3LYA0hQP_pqoZbFSdxmmkbyBhXENeVvNqS-wlowB5d6xCp5GmVkpvFBlUkILn-ANHq_/s320/1998+-+Summer+Solstice+Bee+Stings.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><b> </b>The issue I have with this release, easily the weakest of the Equinox/Solstice series, is that it feels more like patchwork than like a real album. It's a weird case where the individual songs are fairly good, "Summer Substructures" in particular, but they don't connect in the way the vast majority of Coil's releases do. You've got a proto-MtPitD number, a throwback <i class="rymfmt">Love's Secret Domain</i>-style track, a full on organic ballad that bears more in common with the resurgent Throbbing Gristle material than anything and a weird sound collage, all great entries into that particular mode of Coil's output but they feel very out of place next to each other. Unlike the rest of the series there's no through line, no unifying concept that draws the disparate parts into a tighter whole. I mean, I don't expect them all to be as unified as the Equinox EPs were, but I do expect a certain attempt at tying the songs together - this is Coil after all, and even their least essential releases are made of material that feels like its of a piece with its surroundings. This feels far too disjointed even if the material is more than adequate. <i><b>[7.7/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?jymghcymmim"><b>American Football: American Football EP (Polyvinyl)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9KjlWamWDSdsrVAnweIrpBRdOUIHG5-9vgwVuyRXd9D7GHRjoHUeG7eQsJXyfY5LvSATDHVtvumH2d-NYdOgf4tNaArA8n8iq2W-5WHFqq62DutGMj8yCkyrCID7V2xxeJreJDEYK5Hw/s320/american+football+-+ep.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9KjlWamWDSdsrVAnweIrpBRdOUIHG5-9vgwVuyRXd9D7GHRjoHUeG7eQsJXyfY5LvSATDHVtvumH2d-NYdOgf4tNaArA8n8iq2W-5WHFqq62DutGMj8yCkyrCID7V2xxeJreJDEYK5Hw/s320/american+football+-+ep.bmp" width="320" /></a></div>Something happened between the recording of this and the recording of the American Football LP a year or so later: the band got really, really good. There's hints of that here, particularly in the vaguely mathy guitar patterns that Steve Holmes lays out during the bookending tracks, but even the best stuff here feels so slight and ill-conceived next to even the lesser tracks on the LP. I really hate to trash this retroactively, but in light of the easy grace that the band conjured up on their next releases, the stuff here feels awkward and unrealized. In short, there's no ease to the proceedings, everything feels forced from Mke Kinsella's overly high-pitched wails to the instrumentals' attempts at something more complex. It's he band finding its feet basically, nothing to be ashamed of but definitely not something I'd hold as highly as the LP either. <i><b>[7.2/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<i>Download link and image courtesy of <a href="http://eatdogs-awolfatthedoor.blogspot.com/">A Wolf at the Door</a>.<b> </b></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?d5tr4blro6t5f42"><b>Mogwai: No Education = No Future (Fuck the Curfew) (Chemikal Underground)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjop2MPGyB8eoKgJZvZAEfZm4BB-qsi6-Sh2ncgv_M9igF4vkcPwghZuRIFLRH_2FIQG4fAo95aT4o0Y1KZPHxY3Fso6qRaSTzYpyuPwwk-ZeOthYqYcMdfwsZ6ehoe4T_yqvn06V3LjJnz/s320/fuck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjop2MPGyB8eoKgJZvZAEfZm4BB-qsi6-Sh2ncgv_M9igF4vkcPwghZuRIFLRH_2FIQG4fAo95aT4o0Y1KZPHxY3Fso6qRaSTzYpyuPwwk-ZeOthYqYcMdfwsZ6ehoe4T_yqvn06V3LjJnz/s320/fuck.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><b> </b><br />
Every change that Mogwai made between "Xmas Steps" here and "Christmas Steps" on <i class="rymfmt">Come On Die Young</i> was for the better. That's not to say that as it was presented here it's bad <a class="ml-smartlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_se">per se</a> - I mean, if this was the only remnant of the song ever recorded I'd be perfectly fine with it. But being confronted with it after already having "Christmas Steps" stamped onto my cerebellum it's easier to view it as a rough draft of one of Mogwai's best compositions. Hell, it's not even like the differences are all that drastic bar the big change in the second climax, where the lurching, feedback-punctuated sludge of this version is replaced with an actual discernible <a class="ml-smartlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chord_Progression">chord progression</a> that's more distorted than the preceding guitars. In the end it's nice to have an embryonic version of the song, if only to demonstrate how pieces evolve in Mogwai's world; minor changes that result in a much better final product than even the fairly good demo versions could provide.<br />
<br />
Outside of that, the EP contains a pair of shorter pieces that show the evolution that the band was going through at this point, between the more aggressive tone of <i class="rymfmt">Young Team</i> and the tighter, more extravagant sound of <i class="rymfmt">Come on Die Young</i>. More specifically, they showcase how vital pianist Barry Burns was becoming to their overall sound as they moved forward. Both "Rollerball" and "Small Children in the Background" feel like the band took stuff in the vein his solo pieces from <i class="rymfmt">Young Team</i> and arranged it for the whole band this time around. The results still have Burns front and center, but feel much more complete and inclusive than their obvious predecessors. While neither is top shelf 'gwai material, they're damned good for what could just be written off as 'transitional' pieces. <i><b>[8.4/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?hanabdninc69ntu"><b>Dirty Three: Ufkuko (Bella Union)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieRtQWfI-fPE5eSXjp8PRKxoDhfhwNxOHzhkvbIWYwPQddgeHVdVelG3klA1wFo0JM9lAVysuAYzPUoLGb-9R03BjW6KkfaDUEVs2eM5sZpgR0cjXD0-GElH_t_SHnjWm5A5Lx4MB87mQ/s1600/61JWkKKXalL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieRtQWfI-fPE5eSXjp8PRKxoDhfhwNxOHzhkvbIWYwPQddgeHVdVelG3klA1wFo0JM9lAVysuAYzPUoLGb-9R03BjW6KkfaDUEVs2eM5sZpgR0cjXD0-GElH_t_SHnjWm5A5Lx4MB87mQ/s320/61JWkKKXalL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Oddly enough, the two pieces here that feel the most like they were meant to go with Ocean Songs are the two that weren't actually on the bonus disc that came with that particular album. The three that were - the rollicking "To Aster!," the more jagged "Mihelkos Arm" and the accordion assisted "Cast Adrift" - all sound like the sort of thing you'd hear on Sad and Dangerous or the band's self-titled album; much harder and more upbeat than the meditative edge that took over on Ocean Songs. "Wish I Could" and "Three Wheels" on the other hand feel much more of a piece with the material that Dirty Three were pushing out at this point in their career. They're the sort of drawn out, evocative pieces that the band made its specialty after Horse Stories, not quite on the same level as Ocean Songs' stuff but certainly much more in line with it than the previous tracks. The oddity of what ended up where aside though, this actually feels like it's own release, much more so than the concurrently released Sharks EP. The gradual easing up that occurs as the EP progresses works very much in its favor, moving from the much more energetic and fiery "To Aster!" through to the much more languid and ethereal "Wish I Could" with a gradual decrease in energy that lets the whole EP hang together as a unit. <i><b>[8.4/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?kwzy23zwngg"><b>The Seatbelts: Cowboy Bebop - Vitaminless (Victor)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSi7-4zx7ntTzjBrG73ihMIozPQ9IiT2UmBPma-0SzC8iCWlw0PGw&t=1" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="318" src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSi7-4zx7ntTzjBrG73ihMIozPQ9IiT2UmBPma-0SzC8iCWlw0PGw&t=1" width="320" /></a></div><b> </b><i><b> </b></i>Disclaimer: I have never seen Cowboy Bebop. At all. It's one of those things that lingers on my mental 'Oh I should really watch that...' list, which is very much like my mental 'Oh I should really listen to that...' list in that there about five items I add for every one that I watch. So it's not something I will sit down with any time soon...but the music that I'm hearing from it has my interest even more piqued.<br />
<br />
Specifically here we're talking about "The Real Folk Blues," which is equal parts pastiche of cheesy action show theme song and legitimately entertaining and layered song in its own right. It's and endlessly listenable song, one that seems to encompass all the other aspects brought in at various points on this EP - jazz, rock, humor - in one barnstormer of a 6 minute track. The rest of the material here isn't anywhere near that good, but it still paints enough of a picture - one confirmed by the full lengths that came out around the same time - of a composer and a set of musicians that are able to handle all manor of moods, styles and tones without any sense of strain. You want straight up jazz? Here's "Odd Ones" and "Cat on Mars." You want lounge music? "Piano Bar 1" coming right up. In the mood for some trip-hoppy French music? "Fantaisie Sign" looms on the horizon. It's an impressive array to cover in such a relatively short release, but unlike "Real Folk Blues," none of them reach that other level - OK, "Fantaisie Sign" comes damn close - that makes them classic material. <i><b>[7.9/10]</b></i>Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-46555372744452628862011-03-27T12:00:00.000-07:002011-03-27T12:00:03.336-07:005 Star Corner: Coil - Autumn Equinox (Amethyst Deceivers) (Eskaton)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?kgcjjimgyne"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv6AjY3vlU2RP4QTB8Tf2nHgIb1lPeAo0gMHxkI7-bipTz1pgReTc5-nNYQ_cHHqfvv9JllRXw0LYiaxKLeoPW9X5RUFYXaNcvnc4KQGlX7CtClyEeZU1x7huTUY4du-HoCAsMCWeFqj2t/s320/1998+-+Autumn+Equinox+Amethyst+Deceivers.jpg" width="320" /><span id="goog_1868161263"></span></a><span id="goog_1868161264"></span></div>I urge you to do the following:<br />
<br />
1. Procure a copy of this EP. I won't tell you to shell out the 100$+ I've seen it go for on eBay - though it might almost be worth it - but get it somehow.<br />
<br />
2. Turn off the lights.<br />
<br />
3. Put on some headphones - good headphones - and hit play.<br />
<br />
4. Close your eyes. Do NOT open them until the EP is over.<br />
<br />
Why go through all this? Well, it's all about the experience with any Coil album, the process of letting the overall feeling of things enfold you and put you somewhere that you'd never think music can take you. This is especially true of the era that this EP fully ushers in after having it hinted at on the previous two Equinox/Solstice EPs: the <i class="rymfmt">Music to Play in the Dark</i> era, or my favorite era of the band's output. The most moody, the most evocative, the most layered, the most transportative. <i class="rymfmt">Autumn Equinox</i> might actually be the highlight of this particular model of the band; at the very least it's the most gently evocative 20 minute span that they can claim responsibility for, and that's definitely a feat for these guys.<br />
<br />
The word that I keep coming back to when I think of this album is 'regal.' The mood may be gentle, but the execution is lush, opulent and full of splendor. "Rosa Decidua" lets a trio of vocals - one angelic, one sinister and one soulful - bounce off each other as if they're at opposite walls of a great hall, echoing over and through each other. The subsequent instrumentals are equally open, if that makes sense. I mean that they sound like they've got more breathing room than your average Coil nightmare piece - "Switches" in particular is full of powerful moments of near silence that punctuate the escalating intensity of the various odd sounds that the instrumentalists are throwing at you. It's a necessary breather before the much more grand and stunning "The Auto-Asphyxiating Hierophant," which even more so that "Rosa Decidua" plays with the openness of the EP's sound. At its core there's a sinister orchestral fanfare, around that, there's complimentary vocals coming from either side, and no matter what they're saying the message is that you should be afraid by now. That orchestral fanfare? It's coming for you on heavy feet that sound like they're getting closer. You should run now but you don't know where you are.<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/W4b5tendB_I?rel=0" title="YouTube video player" width="425"></iframe><br />
In this scope, the finale of "Amethyst Deceivers" represents a peaceful death. It's a stunning piece - even more so here than on <i class="rymfmt">The Ape of Naples</i> - of effortless, soothing beauty as if to calm you down after the nightmare fuel of the previous track. Instead of telling you to be afraid, the vocals are now telling you that you'll be alright. The music is spare yet full, driven along by a simple upright bass and a meandering harpsichord that never quite become a unit, but somehow anchoring the track when put together. It's as free as the EP gets, never seeming to repeat itself but still getting to the hypnotic, lulling place that the calmer parts of the <i class="rymfmt">Music to Play in the Dark</i> series occupied. And then it ends on a soothing yet spooky note with Jhonn Balance whispering the title while panning from one ear to the other. All in all it might be my favorite Coil track of all time, or at least the one I'm most likely to have played at my funeral. <i><b>[9.6/10]</b></i>Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-29942749718162100132011-03-24T23:00:00.000-07:002011-03-24T23:21:30.771-07:0098 The Hard Way: EPs, Days 22-23<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?den9wlud7h5lcxb"><b>Hurl: We Are Quiet In This Room (My Pal God)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr_cmARpRs6ghumT3y5VEqkuYBL6uyB0hQ4KaRsL-0avq20FUR3U-4rk-VPidpJUAhgVqfjgmQ3obi3Z7RwBUSL1rc3whgbk9KW9Gtv9xMq5u8uhg821cexVLCduEpIQNmPMZXkWYE2xo/s1600/s05.zrhuiajl.170x170-75.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr_cmARpRs6ghumT3y5VEqkuYBL6uyB0hQ4KaRsL-0avq20FUR3U-4rk-VPidpJUAhgVqfjgmQ3obi3Z7RwBUSL1rc3whgbk9KW9Gtv9xMq5u8uhg821cexVLCduEpIQNmPMZXkWYE2xo/s320/s05.zrhuiajl.170x170-75.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Any band can take some songs and throw them together on a CD. Any band can realize that those songs play better in a certain order. Very few bands go to the trouble of making the songs work together in such a way that they must be played in the order they've been laid out. Even fewer bands seem to compose songs with the express intent of them leading into each other in organic, meaningful ways. For this fact alone, Hurl win me over. They've gone to the trouble of making the loping, minimal "This Numbness" build into the frantic, angular "Test the Waters" in such a way that the two tracks are both inexorably connected and each their own entity. They've done this for pretty much the length of this EP, even including their cover of Nice Strong Arm's "Amnesia" in the tapestry, and they've made it sound effortless all the while.<br />
<br />
This EP is a definite grower. At first I was just moderately respectful of both the band's chops and the sense of unity the EP had, but every subsequent listen has pulled out new things to be awed by. All this before it became more than obvious that the songs themselves were all great examples of extremely mathy indie rock, like what would happen if Minus the Bear's DNA was mixed with Don Caballero's. The two guitarists expertly wind around each other without stepping on toes, bassist Matt Jencik - sometime Don Cab member, and it shows - ably handles the more melodic playing over the guitars' scenery and while the drummer isn't a virtuoso he navigates and directs the changes with a nice, deft touch. I still wouldn't call this a sterling example of the form, but it's certainly one that keeps me coming back. <i><b>[8.4/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?jup2pwg5n3wgaq4"><b>The Azusa Plane: Cheltenham (Ochre)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG0mRqGrmG67fyVr_-mDI3k3RA1zmUqiQONmiSuE_xVDkbeOsa307czB6NDDBWy4TGJK-R_QnwDU6DSQD3w-4hmoHQwy8mNyZzPA9bTx6IJvokE-xm19O1oeYjE7iLaIZ8qCCl-pTzEOM/s1600/51kBmNC35SL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG0mRqGrmG67fyVr_-mDI3k3RA1zmUqiQONmiSuE_xVDkbeOsa307czB6NDDBWy4TGJK-R_QnwDU6DSQD3w-4hmoHQwy8mNyZzPA9bTx6IJvokE-xm19O1oeYjE7iLaIZ8qCCl-pTzEOM/s320/51kBmNC35SL.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>If Cheltenham is anything like it is portrayed by <i class="rymfmt">Cheltenham</i>, I don't think I'd put it on my travel itinerary whenever I get around to visiting England. This EP sounds like failure. It reeks of a dead industrial plant that used to provide jobs but has shut down and begat an unemployed massive. In the background, you can almost hear a child's spirit breaking as he realizes that he's stuck here forever. That's the level of detail that The Azusa Plane imbue this piece with. The beauty of it is that that detail is spawned from as few elements as possible; two heavily treated guitars occupy either channel and play very few notes, each is stuck against a stark drone. It's almost like the more minimalist-leaning pieces of Steven R. Smith's catalog, but played for depressing effect moreso than anything Smith's done, or Jackie-O Motherfucker if they were stripped down to just the guitar figures. Essentially, it's droney space rock with a heavy negative streak that rewards a close listen just as well as it fills the role of background music. That's as much as you can ask for with this type of thing, really. <i><b>[8.2/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?jewwymdn4tn"><b>90 Day Men: 1975-1997-1978 (Temporary Residence)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPZ0oHMfj9COTqI0_ZG2vu8rLUveje5-HOc2S8_wBPQS3SuV_-_zYFmdZQTyqZogdDJFKJgsJhuO_bD_jMirbbaeik6NFCxN_rueCCVLx6wdTNlhzmFs2tLo3dx7EbADE9TsdldAMwPxY/s320/81618.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPZ0oHMfj9COTqI0_ZG2vu8rLUveje5-HOc2S8_wBPQS3SuV_-_zYFmdZQTyqZogdDJFKJgsJhuO_bD_jMirbbaeik6NFCxN_rueCCVLx6wdTNlhzmFs2tLo3dx7EbADE9TsdldAMwPxY/s320/81618.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><b> </b><br />
I struggle with what to rate this one, honeslty. On it's own terms it's definitely upper-middle tier post-hardcore imbued math rock - think the intersection of Unwound and U.S. Maple - with fantastic bass playing and hints towards bigger, brighter things based on the ease with which it uses atmosphere. In the scope of what 90 Day Men would become shortly hereafter, once they brought on keyboardist Andy Lansangan and moved into much less abrasive waters, it's significantly lacking and utterly juvenile. So how to proceed? Do I rip into it for not being anything like the band that, quite frankly, I don't think they knew they could become, or do I set aside the future greatness and offer it praise for being what it is? <br />
<br />
If the rating wasn't a big enough clue, I lean towards the latter quite decidedly in this case; regardless of how it fails to measure up to the twin triumphs of <i class="rymfmt">To Everybody</i> and <i class="rymfmt">Panda Park</i>, this doesn't even seem to be the work of the same band. This is a group of young, angry guys who worship at the altar of Steve Albini ("Streamlines and Breadwinners" couldn't sound more like Shellac if it tried) but have a nascent sense of songcraft that occasionally rubs against their more abrasive instincts ("My Trip to Venus" is incredibly catchy, especially that little guitar break in the chorus, for all its dissonance.) They probably spent a bit of time digging through the Gravity Records back catalog ("Sweater Queen" calls to mind Clikitat Ikatowi until it builds up to that half-speed breakdown) but might have eyes towards Chicago-bred post rock even before they know how to harness that sound ("Sink Potemkin" and especially "Hey, Citronella!" seem to have appropriated an epic streak or two from that lot, even as they thrive on uncomfortable levels of abrasion.) It's a very young sounding release, but at the same time it's incredibly practiced and polished. It's of two minds, but never sounds like an identity crisis. It doesn't hint towards the melodic beauty that they'd unleash a few years later, but it works its own kind of magic within its own confines. <i><b>[8.1/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<i>Download link and image courtesy of <a href="http://last-train-tocool.blogspot.com/">Last Train to Cool</a>.</i><br />
<i><b> </b></i><br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?ezjm33nnf0d"><b>Clinic: Cement Mixer (Aladdin's Cave of Golf)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKXXyTds0WcwmUd4OPcaR-jM4ECOHG5CGmK3IZFN8avqCiZfMSxOhk68hEyu7m0CrfX5l0Foyp9IbA-MdnAdeInPujOVXpTBjsvqR4sPVOOVowFbO3f5tq8nWO3sgAR15sfAu_mIariug/s1600/clinic-cement-mixer-aladdins-cave-of-golf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKXXyTds0WcwmUd4OPcaR-jM4ECOHG5CGmK3IZFN8avqCiZfMSxOhk68hEyu7m0CrfX5l0Foyp9IbA-MdnAdeInPujOVXpTBjsvqR4sPVOOVowFbO3f5tq8nWO3sgAR15sfAu_mIariug/s320/clinic-cement-mixer-aladdins-cave-of-golf.jpg" width="318" /></a></div>If you look at them in the abstract, each of the first three Clinic singles follows a similar pattern; the A-side is usually a fairly energetic rocker while the two B-sides are some combination of a moody instrumental, an even more energetic punk approximation and a slow, atmospheric ballad. In the case of "Cement Mixer" the punkier number is eschewed leaving a pair of moody number on the B-side, but the title track is probably the hardest rocking of the A-sides from this period. "Cement Mixer" almost sounds like a reprise of the previous single's "D.P.," except it feels much more relentless. Everything from the driving guitar line to the vocal delivery seems to push the track onward at a relatively breakneck pace while still maintaining the hookiness that all three A-sides had in spades. It's nowhere near the perfection of "Monkey on Your Back, but it's easy to see why it's the one that led to their breakthrough.<br />
<br />
The B-sides aren't as much of a letdown this time out, probably owing to the whole not having to live up to "Monkey on Your Back" thing. "Kimberly" especially seems like the blueprint for most of Clinic's better ballads from here on out - unsettling as fuck, but with a weirdly sweet undercurrent. "Voot" fills the instrumental requirement, and while it doesn't quite match "Evil Bill" in that department it's a nice enough way to end the single. <i><b>[8.5/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<b>Clinic: Monkey on Your Back (Aladdin's Cave of Golf)</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpdVfAdagoS_YQfzQTV7KILlO_Bf9vFhluSKVT1XRTfBZ8fHTTS-zy8foRciFZmTYH1euLG3AZxfm1xIlctjEqbvVgKxxuLNYfAn_LooAxs6y4L1jaEXEWYztmLBAULiqMM2OR49srgLg/s1600/clinic-monkey-on-your-back-aladdins-cave-of-golf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpdVfAdagoS_YQfzQTV7KILlO_Bf9vFhluSKVT1XRTfBZ8fHTTS-zy8foRciFZmTYH1euLG3AZxfm1xIlctjEqbvVgKxxuLNYfAn_LooAxs6y4L1jaEXEWYztmLBAULiqMM2OR49srgLg/s320/clinic-monkey-on-your-back-aladdins-cave-of-golf.jpg" width="319" /></a></div><b> </b>Why is it that the way that Ade Blackburn snarls the word 'nervous' during the first verse makes it sound so damned unnerving? Is it the scuzzy, VU-ish organ backdrop? The delivery, with that first syllable extended to the perfect point to induce spine tingles? Is it just that the whole song is so weirdly engrossing yet unbearably tense that every word carries menace not exactly inherent to it? Whatever it is, every time he says it, my back feels like it's been bombarded with tiny shards of ice. That's what one word does in this song.<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FaC1U3LOI-o?rel=0" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><br />
So yeah, without extending myself into further hyperbole, "Monkey on Your Back" is absolutely perfect. It's perfect in the macro, it's perfect down to the tiniest details, like that bass swoop that kicks in during the second verse then becomes part of the main riff for the third, or the weird 'frame missing' vibe that the instruments dropping out before the third verse lends to the song. It's not the first time the Clinic showed just how good they could be - "Porno" was equally noteworthy if not as perfect - but it's the first time they hit the nail right on the head without any reservations. It's their mission statement, really: take Spectorian grandeur, add Velvet Underground abrasion, let the atmosphere do the rest. Really, even if the rest of this single was utter gash there's no way that I could hand it less than 4 stars.<br />
<br />
Luckily though, both of the B-sides deliver even if it's on a much lesser scale than the A-side. "Evil Bill" in particular re-affirms the band's ease with mood and atmosphere as it takes about half the running time of most post-rock tracks to develop a similarly deep reserve of mood and tension. "D.T." is much more slight than either of its bookends, but in terms of displaying the band's versatility it does a decent job of showing how well they take to noisier material while still retaining their core Spectorian vibe. Neither lives up to the standard that "Monkey" sets, but both are integral parts of the band's canon nonetheless. <i><b>[9.1/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<i>Download link courtesy of <a href="http://amorloucobr.blogspot.com/">Amor Louco</a>.<b> </b>Contains the full self-titled compillation with all three of Clinic's early singles.</i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?2kngozzdyyt"><b>Tintoretto: The Sound of Someone You Love Who Is Leaving...And It Doesn't Really Matter (Highwater)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIm9hnd2mLdTbuqjecVYNSiEGNhofrhXjQbfeyaJuzjvqNeNd-2NIoIhocsY7e3bMalV4BzWHPXwHPeBD3Vov-MTSKrkOj0i0CrASRstIBhmK9YamNVt7qU7MN9QoCd5HFWyqrjwTYAkE/s1600/s2204515.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIm9hnd2mLdTbuqjecVYNSiEGNhofrhXjQbfeyaJuzjvqNeNd-2NIoIhocsY7e3bMalV4BzWHPXwHPeBD3Vov-MTSKrkOj0i0CrASRstIBhmK9YamNVt7qU7MN9QoCd5HFWyqrjwTYAkE/s1600/s2204515.jpg" /></a></div>Ever wished that someone would take the Shotmaker / Max Colby split and combine the two sides into one EP? If so, your wish is Tintoretto's command. They've taken Shotmaker's aggression and drive and married it to Max Colby's tight, intricate playing and math-rock inclinations, essentially giving you the best of both worlds in one fairly excellent package. It's far from being at their influence's quality level for the whole 21 minutes, but there are moments, particularly on the raging, intense "Rifle Merit Badge" and at various points during the two longer numbers, that suggest that had they kept going long enough they might have gotten there eventually. What's here is good enough to keep around though, definitely an overlooked entry in the later day emocore scene. <i><b>[8.0/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<i>Dowload link courtesy of <a href="http://wisconsinsickness.com/sick/">Wisconsin Sickness</a><b>. </b></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?m2nkl5jd1iz"><b>Clikatat Ikatowi: River of Souls (Gravity)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikz6AEopGUmHpBuA-4vv7rQPAjr1QlGFp3B2rONK43S8vHJf5-HjqCjLO3c4md2TkPNHB22c8RlY9srfiCbCVpC3g9HKZ129YvWEMw6AfMjjm89ryscbiCQvhTwL66TQgE1HeBzXA280ER/s1600/clikatatriver.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikz6AEopGUmHpBuA-4vv7rQPAjr1QlGFp3B2rONK43S8vHJf5-HjqCjLO3c4md2TkPNHB22c8RlY9srfiCbCVpC3g9HKZ129YvWEMw6AfMjjm89ryscbiCQvhTwL66TQgE1HeBzXA280ER/s320/clikatatriver.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I don't know what exactly it is about this particular release that catches my fancy while the rest of Clikitat's discography never did much for me. At any rate, this release basically stations Clikitat Ikatowi as the Public Image Ltd. of the San Diego hardcore scene. The guitars are icy and distant, the bass is warm and almost dubby, the drumming is amazing - Mario Rubalcaba can be a beast when the mood strikes him - and most importantly, the songs are intricate without being too proud of that fact. Take closer "Pleiadian Dance" for example; it winds through about a half dozen themes, all in different times and tempos, but it doesn't call attention to that fact the way a lot of math-rock inclined bands do, it just feels like that's the way the song should logically go. At the same time though, it almost feels like they're holding back to some degree. "The Appliance" feels incomplete, like they had another 4 minutes of material that went with what was presented but just decided to cut it off. Likewise, there are a few tracks that hint towards a much heavier jazz influence than they ever manage to show, like the shuffling rhythm of "Ramble on Candywrappers" or the drumming on any given track - like I said, Rubalcaba's among the best drummers I've heard in this type of band. That restraint stops this short of being a necessity unfortunately. It's a big step up for the band - just as they dissolved, natch - but it feels like it could have gone even farther and been even better. <i><b>[7.9/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<i>Download link and image courtesy of <a href="http://www.shinygreymonotone.com/">Shiny Grey Monotone</a>.</i><br />
<i><b> </b></i><br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?cui9in46dw6cir3"><b>Three Mile Pilot: Three Mile Pilot (Gravity)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpVORqKKU6t7jAGet32SbmHoSa0cPOfFA0o5tRKs7mdwGZ1pp3-fqotDjDDZzAcWWbzl6R87OIlX_mnr78KOPSOU8y2iKxhvaZVwVfraiIrvOpq6jZaBKJNv-NHRA0SjXzvMi2gN8Q8Qs/s1600/3milepilot_st_%2528big%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpVORqKKU6t7jAGet32SbmHoSa0cPOfFA0o5tRKs7mdwGZ1pp3-fqotDjDDZzAcWWbzl6R87OIlX_mnr78KOPSOU8y2iKxhvaZVwVfraiIrvOpq6jZaBKJNv-NHRA0SjXzvMi2gN8Q8Qs/s320/3milepilot_st_%2528big%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><b> </b>While the rest of Three Mile Pilot's output post-<i class="rymfmt">Another Desert</i> seemed much geared towards where the various members were heading afterwards, this EP finds them looking decidedly backwards. I'm not just talking about the elegaic cover of Brian Eno's "By This River," though that is a highlight here, but the material here feels very much like it was meant to come in between <i class="rymfmt">Chief Assassin</i> and <i class="rymfmt">Another Desert</i>. "Worry" especially feels like a transitional piece, working both the unsettling, cold aggression of the former and the art-pop of the latter simultaneously to glorious, if slightly muddled effect. "Wahn" has it's toes even further back in to <i class="rymfmt">Assassin</i> territory, almost dropping the piano that became so integral to the band's sound towards the end of its run. Really, this functions more as the last gasp of Three Mile Pilot before the main members started to lay out their post-break up course, and while it's not as consistent a farewell as I might have hoped for - it's probably their least unified release overall - it still manages enough quality material to keep from breaking the streak of 4-star level greatness that the band ran with through their whole first run. <br />
<br />
Oh, and "On a Ship to Bangladesh" is the least 3MP thing they've ever done, and it's also awesome in all its cheesiness. Not a highlight so much as an interesting side-trek that merits note. <i><b>[8.2/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CBwQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mediafire.com%2F%3Fzkmm43s3vlxygha&rct=j&q=%22jaga%20jazzist%22%20%22magazine%22%20mediafire&ei=VByMTf87iMSwA96YzIsJ&usg=AFQjCNGpS1JlxZXftOf8nM1qcATkkQ5Fmg&cad=rja"><b>Jaga Jazzist: Magazine (Smalltown Supersound)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.thesirenssound.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/magazine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.thesirenssound.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/magazine.jpg" /></a></div><b> </b>Given how much they'd refine, expand and improve upon the ideas that show up here, it's easy to write off <i class="rymfmt">Magazine</i> as the embryonic stages of what would become one of, if not the, most interesting and forward thinking jazz ensembles of modern times. Really, you'd be half right to ignore this and go straight to <i class="rymfmt">A Livingroom Hush</i> - the electronics that would become their trademark isn't fully integrated into their sound, the music is nowhere near as dynamic and multifaceted and they throw in a random, incredibly forgettable slice of singer-songwriter piffle in the form of "seems to Me" that sticks out like a sore thumb. But at the same time, this gives context to the greatness that came only a couple of years later. You can look at this less as a piece of the puzzle than as a rough draft. I can easily picture the core members looking at this after it was completed and parsing out exactly where they got it right - "Serafin i Junglen," most of "Swedish Take Away" - and what just didn't work - "Seems to Me," the overly repetitive first couple of tracks - before starting up on their next album. In that light it makes sense, but as it is it's a flawed first step for one of the most reliably forward looking group of the last decade and a bit. <i><b>[7.6/10]</b></i>Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-45211909134323881932011-03-22T12:00:00.001-07:002011-03-24T20:42:46.472-07:005 Star Corner: Fridge - Orko (Output)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?8or89nuj5rmhhep"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirWF1K9J6z_MoaV4mgtRG3csJnRW7mCfCGzUMX_tS5sx4Zee6eXIZuwHLQxtcWezrLYI5dik5IuHEQUcQTNtXOHzHu2g-qPRHpOGWNZ4krSUH5Udlu1fI6gDdeq1pGDwBxfUfbWq3bMs4/s400/R-1445803-1245400688.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>Choose chaos. Choose to let Keiran Hebden indulge in a couple of minutes of Branca-worship towards the end of the otherwise staid groove of "Distance." Choose to let free jazz interludes take over the mix of "Jessica." Choose to let things run wild.<br />
<br />
This EP is a minor masterpiece of post-rock as it should be, not post-rock as it is. The tracks here are held down by impeccable grooves courtesy of the band's rhythm section but not dictated solely by their whims. Each of the tracks has room to breathe, room to let the trio's various odd whims run wild. These pieces are fluid, unrestrained compositions that have the intimacy and unpredictability of a live jam session. Every time I think that a given track will keep going in one direction, stay the course laid by Adem Ilhan's impeccable bass grooves and Sam Jeffers' precise time keeping, a new element pops into the mix to drag it away from that course. <br />
<br />
Take "Distance as the template for this; starting out with a simple, hypnotic groove it abruptly devolves into arrhythmic jazz for a few minutes, destroying the established rhythm only to have it resurrect itself with just as little fanfare as it was dropped with. Not all the tracks are as self-destructively inclined as that - "Jessica" skips the formality of an establishing groove altogether - but that sort of unpredictability permeates the whole release, keeping the listener on edge while never giving the impression that these guys don't know what they're doing. It's a tough balance to pull off, but Fridge at this point in their evolution had mastered it.<br />
<br />
I think the biggest thing in the pro-column for this EP is that you can hear the trio getting as bored with post-rock as a lot of listeners became not too long after this. You can hear the restlessness, the desire to branch out beyond the sound they'd established on <i class="rymfmt">Semaphore</i> being channeled into some exceedingly creative directions. In other words, it's the sound of a band destroying the box they'd been placed in, carefully hinting at the dancier direction they'd take on their next releases without fully revealing it while forcing their way through jazz to get there. Listening to the evolution of Fridge through their 1998 releases alone is like watching Neu become Squarepusher over the course of 90 minutes. It's not the direction I might have expected to hear them take, but the results make for one of the best strings of releases that the whole post-rock scene has to offer. <i><b>[9.5/10]</b></i>Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-88994469449432095792011-03-22T12:00:00.000-07:002011-03-24T21:29:24.538-07:0098 The Hard Way: EPs, Days 19 and 20<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?i13a9l74mtr21jt"><b>Arab Strap: Afternoon Soaps (Chemikal Underground)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyoiAu5mAknsIw-FIs-ej6CZCQLEJ3rq_ASNTj_lUHwRVYE3w52-sUmFE14NkJe5dJmNgfMtTAtvPLQU-kQ9pFlyNso-b68DNox12yXlIgrl5E-x0zXVfk1RH0f1MM_-P6K93cXa1hAno/s1600/11785440.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyoiAu5mAknsIw-FIs-ej6CZCQLEJ3rq_ASNTj_lUHwRVYE3w52-sUmFE14NkJe5dJmNgfMtTAtvPLQU-kQ9pFlyNso-b68DNox12yXlIgrl5E-x0zXVfk1RH0f1MM_-P6K93cXa1hAno/s320/11785440.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The reason I think I find <i class="rymfmt">Philophobia</i> to be a bit of a slog on the whole is that it gets lost in its own world towards the end, becoming more insular without ever quite drawing me in. It's a function of its length more than anything, so it makes a lot of sense that the EPs that surround it fare a lot better, or at least call for more repeated listening, than the album itself. Here, for instance, you could say you're getting more of the same, even reprising one of the album's highlights in "Soaps," but the end result is that 15 minutes worth is easier to stomach than a full hour. It also helps that a great deal of the time is spent letting Malcolm Middleton shine over Aidan Moffat's rambling misery. The last part of "Forest Hills" especially reminds me why Middleton is one of my stealth favorite guitarists; it's one riff repeated over and over for 5 minutes, but each recurrence has these subtle differences - a stray note here, a seeming miss-hit there - that give the track a strange new layer to its already hypnotic atmosphere. It's a distinctly human element of their sound that often cuts against the inhuman, programmed drumming to give the tracks life in an unexpected way. It's almost too bad that such a great example of what the band are capable of when things turn out right shares space with an overly maudlin re-imagining of "Soaps" though. There was a bit of a miscalculation in the decision to ramp up the drama of the song when its charm lay in its deliberate small scale. "Toy Fights" fares much better, borrowing the riff from Mogwai's "Summer (Priority Version)" to back up a sweet duet about the joys of simply vegging out for an afternoon with your woman. It's a nice touch to have the overlapping 'you' and 'I' halves of the song deviate form each other so frequently while maintaining the same overall lyrics for both. <i><b>[8.1/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?i83c8tk4d2kt7fi"><b>!!!: The Dis-Ease (Sound Virus)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX3NqEJrGwf1RDNdssdJsJK6IfxE5v0DtF3jKetSvpOvDj7Xo12m-gNtSVDOZZKA2zon0AONDiAGuAmT0yVKJ-iokwgYNMnJwTlo2J3Y5uyXL2s6MtcrLCJvy6SVhbyLHzLp_m_gic0as/s1600/title-417570257-the-dis-ease-disc-cover-1253.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX3NqEJrGwf1RDNdssdJsJK6IfxE5v0DtF3jKetSvpOvDj7Xo12m-gNtSVDOZZKA2zon0AONDiAGuAmT0yVKJ-iokwgYNMnJwTlo2J3Y5uyXL2s6MtcrLCJvy6SVhbyLHzLp_m_gic0as/s1600/title-417570257-the-dis-ease-disc-cover-1253.jpeg" /></a></div><br />
Given how far they've come from this little 7" in addition to how under-known it is, it's easy to forget that !!! once had their toes much, much further into the punk side of dance-punk than the other way around. Of course, given the fact that the backbone of the band - vocalist Nic Offer, Guitarist Tyler Pope and drummer Mike Gius - were recently the core of The Yah Mos, a strict post-hardcore outfit, the punkier shades of this single don't come as much of a surprise. What might come as a surprise though is just how well they pull it off. Both of the songs here are miles ahead of anything that The Yah Mos did, seamlessly fusing the energy of that outfit with funkier bass playing, well deployed saxophone and trumpet and a much improved sense of structure. "The Dis-Ease" in particular benefits from the latter, threatening to collapse through two chorus of off-kilter, herky-jerky guitar rhythms before it pulls itself into focus fora minute or so, the rebuilds itself back to its former chaos all without losing an ounce of energy. Plus there's all manner of colourful detail at various points - that panning guitar that punctuates the choruses should not work, but it's always mildly exhilarating to hear - which give the song endless replayability. "The Funky Branca" is much more straightforward and melodic, though no less invigorating. I could swear that I almost hear tinges of (very white) afrobeat in the chorus, with the tandem trumpet and sax stabs between spiky, clean guitar rhythms, though once again the band pulls that into chaos as the chorus finishes (kinda like the descent at the end of the theme in "Theme de Yoyo" and yes I am comparing !!! to Art Ensemble of Chicago deal with it). It's too bad that they shed this side of their sound almost immediately because while their later material may be much more polished very little of it is this immediate and forceful. <i><b>[8.3/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?ga37cfseqi2g7bz"><b>The Gloria Record: The Gloria Record (Crank!)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8HmdR2e87TvUToFhxj7xbFZcj5UMUmo0cV_t-53w0jDT7Qe7vqEkpG5T9HBkQP4fnCqNPLeqaN8IC95tgX6rv6sd7c8jhX9BKMLVSWz0SBGOGn4noj_167rWaxh3_P6Rx-NfbiJms4QU/s1600/114849.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8HmdR2e87TvUToFhxj7xbFZcj5UMUmo0cV_t-53w0jDT7Qe7vqEkpG5T9HBkQP4fnCqNPLeqaN8IC95tgX6rv6sd7c8jhX9BKMLVSWz0SBGOGn4noj_167rWaxh3_P6Rx-NfbiJms4QU/s320/114849.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><b> </b><i><b> </b></i><i class="rymfmt">'I just want something beautiful to happen here'</i><br />
<br />
When I was doing my initial toe-dip into emo a few years back one of the biggest disappointments I'd come across was Mineral's two albums. I know, 'sacrilege!' 'heretic!' blah blah blah, but there was a fundamental disconnect between the band as they were sold to me and the band I finally heard. The big turn off was the vocals though, something about Chris Simpson's drawn out phrasings and overall dramatics just rubbed the wrong way against the music. So when I finally got around to hearing his second band, The Gloria Record, I was a bit apprehensive. Luckily though, the band here seems to understand what kind of music is needed to compliment and elevate Simpson's vocals; give it a lighter touch, a more acoustic base and a hell of a lot of room to build and recede. Essentially, make the music as dramatic and sweeping as the vocals could be.<br />
<br />
It's obvious from the first short track here that I'd be much kinder to this band than I was to Mineral, but it's not until the grandiose, 8 minute centerpiece of "Torch Yourself" that it was obvious just how much of an improvement I was witnessing. The song couldn't be simpler on its surface, a basic acoustic rhythm with some light electric riffs over top, but as it moves along it gains so much urgency that the eventual climax - one of the best in the genre for my money - feels appropriately epic, not unearned at all. None of the other tracks reach that height again, but they carve out a nice little sound, halfway between Lullaby for the Working Class' chamber folk and standard indie emo a la Emo Diaries. Most importantly though, the sound fits with Simpson's vocals <i class="rymfmt">perfectly</i>. The drawn out vowels he favors glide effortlessly over the heavy acoustic rhythms and slight riffs in a way that they rarely did in his previous band. Hell, the one track here that feels most Mineral-esque, the headlong rush of "Grain Towers, Telephone Poles," is the one moment I find most problematic on the whole release, and even that is tempered by the fact that it retains the core sound of the rest of the EP while trying to apply it to a more driving tempo - though to be fair, the climactic cut off is excellently handled. It's almost as though Simpson and fellow Mineral alum Jeremy Gomez understood the problems I saw in their previous band and gathered this group of musicians to go about correcting them, and in the process created something beautiful and lush in ways that Mineral could only dream of reaching. <i><b>[8.6/10]</b></i>Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-32241471898719550682011-03-20T23:00:00.001-07:002011-03-20T23:00:08.760-07:005 Star Corner: Lifter Puller - The Entertainment and Arts (Threatening Letters)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?oz6y4644uhvcl0t"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5t32x5axMCE2VZ44EGgKfIfxxKXFuFvEZYE6wBpetEmJxHGPlw_MJ1JYWQhf0KwU1t-lJ8ASb-trklCyOJSCsZKuN5q5PSaH64IIN8rrBaYbxHLQiBZkHy-31-6HmlUloo-wThJA1Zc8/s400/51n-KS5PbCL._SL500_AA280_.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><em class="rymfmt">'She says it's great getting high<br />
She says it's lame to get fried'</em><br />
<br />
"<a class="ml-smartlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Rock">Plymouth Rock</a>" is, appropriately, the touchstone for everything Craig Finn did in Lifter Puller. It's the microcosm of the insular world that he's created, part <em class="rymfmt">The Rules of Attraction</em>, part getting drunk on words, and it takes less than a minute to go by. Yet in that glorious 49 seconds everything gets laid up as bare as the verbose style can accommodate. The boundaries that his protagonists can never keep within, the reasons for their constant excess - think of it as a prologue to the whole Lifter Puller mythology. <br />
<br />
Actually, think of <em class="rymfmt">The Entertainment and Arts</em> as the Readers Digest version of that mythology; it gets the broad strokes right, the world of college/high school kids who live party-to-party and get in over their heads as they get deeper into the scene, but skimps on the specifics. Hell, there's only one song of the six that mentions any of Finn's catalogue of recurring players by name, and that's a re-recording of a song from the bands' debut ("Star Wars Hips.") For a guy who spent this band's whole recorded output Tarantino-ing the tale of Juanita, Special K, Nightclub Dwight, Eyepatch Guy etc. seems especially stingy, but it also gives a bit more detail to the scene itself. There's shoutouts to the unsung denizens of the various locales ("Let's Get Incredible" - apparently built on a joke Finn made about recording a rap album that was 100% shoutouts), details on the anonymous sex at foam parties ("Roaming the Foam") and even a one-off character study for someone who doesn't show up anywhere else in the band's mythlogy ("Sangre de Stephanie.") Essentially, by forgoing the specifics it gives additional depth to the world Finn had spent two albums populating prior to this, which is a very neat trick especially when coupled with the fact that, on the whole, this might just be the best - well, most consistent - release in the LP canon.<br />
<br />
In keeping with the idea that this is a summary of what LP are all about, it manages to cover a lot of ground with relative ease. On a lyrical level you've got all the touchstones deftly checked off by the end of "The Candy Machine and My Girlfriend" - 80s pop culture references, abundant <a class="ml-smartlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assonance">assonance</a>, parallel structure in lieu of/enhancing repetition, Finn sounding he's getting drunk off each successive syllable when he gets into a run...other than ignoring the meta-narrative it's exactly what you expect at this point. There's also the usual bounty of Finn's bon mots and gift for strings of words that just sound perfect together - <em class="rymfmt">'My advice is to dye your eyes and stay inside'</em> especially seems like the best set of words ever assembled by anyone - in addition to actually making sense as a sentence. "Sangre de Stephanie" might even be the best set of lyrics that Finn ever wrote, almost reading like a short character study more than a song. It's also as good a place to comment on the band displaying a greater sense of composition on here than they had previously, "Nassau Coliseum" excepted, letting the song flow perfectly from jagged post-punk to near silence back to full on rock out mode in response to the progress of Finn's lyrics. So not only does the album do everything you expect a <a class="ml-smartlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifter_puller">Lifter Puller</a> album to do, it manages to do some of them better than they had before. <i><b>[9.4/10]</b></i>Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3903090114916156823.post-56795584195566790262011-03-20T23:00:00.000-07:002011-03-20T23:00:05.071-07:0098 The Hard Way: EPs, Days 17-19<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?j1ih3wyymmx"><b>Coil: Spring Equinox (Moon's Milk or Under an Unquiet Skull) (Eskaton)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrF8f24FGJSvBVQe1RRQOnd6adFEQ7Znn6sz_2mQNSyz-dXXERjbPPBe6NF7uOxF76HYRP0WMRTmE-7jOBaaR4zsTGBllO_yRTyEU52flEUKiwV1owjY2lc1w6ePGMJXFbcDZ6BVCtbpk/s1600/eskaton11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrF8f24FGJSvBVQe1RRQOnd6adFEQ7Znn6sz_2mQNSyz-dXXERjbPPBe6NF7uOxF76HYRP0WMRTmE-7jOBaaR4zsTGBllO_yRTyEU52flEUKiwV1owjY2lc1w6ePGMJXFbcDZ6BVCtbpk/s320/eskaton11.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Spring might actually be my least favorite season if I were to rank these things. It could just be that the comedown from winter in my particular area is quite harsh and uneven - this year alone we've had 3 thaw outs that then refroze making the roads extra hazardous - but more than that, it's a transitional season. One where you can't go out and do much. It's too damp to start thinking about a game of touch football with your friends or softball. Outdoor volleyball's out of the question unless you like frequently slipping onto partly frozen ground. It's the one season where it's possible to feel stuck inside - the weather's nice on the surface, but underneath it's not ready for you to do much with it.<br />
<br />
Coil get that feeling. The first of their 4 Equinox/Solstice EPs is the most uniquely foreboding, the most claustrophobic. The mix is simple and uncluttered, letting the usual elements of this era of Coil have ample room to breathe and resonate, which pays off wonderfully in the second part when William Breeze's acoustic guitar and violin enter the mix to add a soaring melody yet can't stop the tension that's been built up for the previous ten minutes or so. Jhonn Blanace's vocals are used as an unsettling underlayer to the mix, swirling around Peter Chrisopherson's ambient synth pads like a ghost in the machine. The pump organ that acts as a hook to both parts is just as haunting, sounding like a relic of a time long past that can't bear to never be heard again. Everything comes together in a quietly unsettling package, like a microcosm of all the things that would make the <i class="rymfmt">Musick to Play in the Dark</i> LPs so wonderfully frightening. It may not sound like spring in the classic sense, but it captures something about the season that I can relate to; this is a season where you can't quite get to doing what you wish you were doing. This is the one season where you are trapped. <i><b>[8.9/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<i>Download link courtesy of <a href="http://popstalinist.blogspot.com/">The Pop Stalinist</a>. Contains the full series of Equinox/Solstice EPs, all of which are worth your time and the others of which I'll be discussing a bit later</i><i><b>.</b></i><br />
<br />
<b>Modest Mouse: Other People's Lives (Up)</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPrGuVjOZjhBsN9aSxGRu6YPQGBrPB5BTczPZYN-VmAAMPeCI73baEw6j03bfNy94mSh2WMCT70xBo1qHSQHhPlUD9C-cbc6ckm69HDVpkUsFPR5gWmm4rhqJhSoJ_jIWpBnKGsXI78ik/s1600/opl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPrGuVjOZjhBsN9aSxGRu6YPQGBrPB5BTczPZYN-VmAAMPeCI73baEw6j03bfNy94mSh2WMCT70xBo1qHSQHhPlUD9C-cbc6ckm69HDVpkUsFPR5gWmm4rhqJhSoJ_jIWpBnKGsXI78ik/s320/opl.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>This one's a moderate disappointment. Think about it, all the other <i class="rymfmt">Lonesome Crowded West</i>-adjacent singles were either <a class="album" href="http://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/modest_mouse_and_764_hero/whenever_you_see_fit/" title="[Album40001]">epic</a>, <a class="album" href="http://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/modest_mouse/broke___whenever_i_breathe_out_you_breathe_in_%E2%88%9E_positive_negative__positive_negative_%E2%88%9E/" title="[Album128031]">godly</a> or at least <a class="album" href="http://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/modest_mouse/never_ending_math_equation___workin_on_leavin_the_livin/" title="[Album129693]">featured one utterly transcendent moment</a>. This one tries to have a bit of each in it, but it fails a bit. Neither "Other People's Lives" no "Grey Ice Water" are as good as they want to be. The former is too long without any of the interesting rhythmic flourishes that a lot of MM's longer tracks did, the latter is too slight and ephemeral to make any sort of impression. Both have their good elements - the harmony vocals on "Grey Ice Water" and the feedback rhythm of "Other People's Lives" - but they don't do enough with them to really cause me to consider either song a winner on any particular level. They're still good songs, but when the band had been on such a roll leading up to this one it stands out like a bit of a black mark by stopping there and not making the leap into being extraordinary. <i><b>[7.7/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<b> </b><br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?dzgi2bdhamw"><b>Third Eye Foundation: Fear of a Wack Planet (Domino)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7xk7ICP8zZIqE-c3N2958KAg0goWQSsywl4VuzIgF76Z-8UrEZa0JPHZN_RCPY7hyphenhyphen_GhdQu5AyB5XW73u9Wlwx3_MC7kOoxTanNPJJWghyjzOpUQuTK4oIqj0LRRYW2P9HzMQY2HbDPU/s1600/ShowImage.aspx.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7xk7ICP8zZIqE-c3N2958KAg0goWQSsywl4VuzIgF76Z-8UrEZa0JPHZN_RCPY7hyphenhyphen_GhdQu5AyB5XW73u9Wlwx3_MC7kOoxTanNPJJWghyjzOpUQuTK4oIqj0LRRYW2P9HzMQY2HbDPU/s320/ShowImage.aspx.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>Think of this as a step into the light. After the suffocating darkness of <i class="rymfmt">Ghost</i> it's only logical that <a class="ml-smartlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_elliott">Matt Elliott</a> might make overtures towards a slightly less downtrodden sound, and while this is still in his moderately foreboding wheelhouse it's infinitely sunnier than the material that came before. Part of that comes from it being much, much less oppressive in its darkness. <i class="rymfmt">Ghost</i> was a suffocating album, one where any time you thought you'd found a patch of sunlight, Elliott would conjure up a cloud to mask it before you noticed. This EP though is much more open and dare I say inviting. The elements of Elliott's sound are still there, but there's space between them this time out. The trip-hoppy percussion skitters where it used to crash. The melodies that used to crawl along like they'd just washed down their uppers with Nyquil here soar almost angelically, be they the choral vocals o nthe title track or the string loop on the extended take of <i class="rymfmt">You Guys Kill Me</i>'s "A Galaxy of Scars." The atmosphere that used to roll in like a dense fog is reduced to a fine mist. And yet at its heart this couldn't be anything but a Third Eye Foundation release. It's still foreboding, but it forebodes with a much more subtle touch than previously. <i><b>[8.4/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?1gftlbenv9ftldr"><b>The Beta Band: Los Amigos del Beta Bandidos (Regal)</b></a><br />
<b> </b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0y53_RZwux2jqBgYTTQIHlaKaKROd_WO49fpNyM7SiyoD30y9VfW1ogS5qd3Qkq-eCst1q38BsBi68TPZ2-9h3BdZMe-3iHagdka5Sg2ur7k3JiYGw3muGsYXxQfcrsByhHRkgqEN8SI/s1600/17281669.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0y53_RZwux2jqBgYTTQIHlaKaKROd_WO49fpNyM7SiyoD30y9VfW1ogS5qd3Qkq-eCst1q38BsBi68TPZ2-9h3BdZMe-3iHagdka5Sg2ur7k3JiYGw3muGsYXxQfcrsByhHRkgqEN8SI/s320/17281669.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><b> </b>This is probably the most overlooked of The Three EPs. I can understand why at least; if you're listening to the whole compilation it's the final set of songs, and since there's no real stand out track here there's nothing to draw you into it the way that "Dry the Rain" did for the <i class="rymfmt">Champion Versions</i> section or "Inner Meet Me" did for <i class="rymfmt">The Patty Patty Sound</i>. I know that when I first got <i class="rymfmt">The Three EPs</i> none of these songs stood out no matter how I approached them, but in the end that becomes their charm to me. This is the most unassuming of the set, I guess. The one that goes about its business with a sort of quiet, professional confidence that doesn't need those big moments to assert itself. It's by far the most consistent of the set too, not having a high point as towering as "Dry the Rain" that the rest will never reach, nor a point as low as "The Monolith" to drag it to a halt. On its own it's probably the most fully realized EP of the bunch too, much more unified than <i class="rymfmt">Champion Versions</i> but much less one-note than <i class="rymfmt">Patty Patty Sound</i>. All that's a way to say that it's definitely better than many would give it credit for on first go round. Each listen makes it rise a little bit in my estimation, and while I doubt it will ever usurp <i class="rymfmt">Champion Versions</i> as my favorite of The Three EPs, the much more subtle joys it offers are well worth revisiting. <i><b>[8.4/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?y32zn4v15iz"><b>Boredoms: Super Roots 7 (Warner Music Japan)</b></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxHe_FefjzXq-SJy2yciAeJMRvcD3Ke-lHDXa6Bca0isjrNJlAqWuIQ3pQm54F9vIXcpIMhxw777lInaaBFSHIiFfO0kBhzQZzF7TmmMYifx29ZWw72qQgeT2V38vk_ZxKkIUkKz6u4Xw/s1600/Super+Roots+7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="309" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxHe_FefjzXq-SJy2yciAeJMRvcD3Ke-lHDXa6Bca0isjrNJlAqWuIQ3pQm54F9vIXcpIMhxw777lInaaBFSHIiFfO0kBhzQZzF7TmmMYifx29ZWw72qQgeT2V38vk_ZxKkIUkKz6u4Xw/s320/Super+Roots+7.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Step One: Don't think of the remixes as such, think of them as the build up (EWE) and comedown (EYE) necessary to make the centerpiece (Boriginal) have the impact that it does. Think of the EP as one 33 minute piece, not a mammoth, all destroying 21 minute slice of manna from Yamatsuka Eye's heaven bookended by pointless remixes thereof. I won't ever claim that they're teh best parts of the EP, but I will also never claim that they aren't essential to my enjoyment of it.<br />
<br />
Step Two: Know your context, part one. The concept of this release pulls it into focus a bit. It's one riff, explored for all its worth for 33 minutes. That riff, from <a class="ml-smartlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mekons">Mekons</a>' "Where Were You" pops up in various contexts, forms and variations over the course of the EP, but it's never not recognizable. The core repetition announces itself quite clearly, but the variance therein gives the release an out from being dismissed as too one-note. It's almost like the original song was handed to bands as diverse as Neu, <a class="ml-smartlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boards_Of_Canada">Boards of Canada</a>, Talking Heads and Sick of It All to cover, themn those covers were played sequentially by Boredoms as they would interpret them. Yet for all the jarring changes of pace and mood it plays out as a unified piece. Quite an achievement, really.<br />
<br />
Step Three: Know your context, part two. Think about where this falls in the Boredoms chronology; they've just released <i class="rymfmt">Super Ae</i>, which was a big departure from the noisy, ADHD punk of their early material (and even from the refinement thereof that gave us <i class="rymfmt">Pop Tatari</i>) into the fields of rhythm heavy nirvana. After that would come <i class="rymfmt">Vision Creation Newson</i>, which might be the most trance-inducing album ever made by humans. This is the bridge between the two, taking the somewhat rudderless exploration of <i class="rymfmt">Ae</i> and giving it a focal point. The results from the basis for what the band would do on <i class="rymfmt">VCN</i>; go far afield but keep it all in focus and tied to something tangibly of that song.<br />
<br />
Step Four: Listen to it on headphones. Like with all later period Boredoms, this is the key. <i><b>[8.7/10]</b></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?5u3s1a0y7x297mw"><b>Can Can Heads: The Formation of Oxen With Fire (Bad Vugum)</b></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtOSMiHrtM9VVfLpWepsvNHfL6i7Eesk2mJ4Mne97dcwdhUTcZvuBz3QwSoIFCL58v1ZBuZdor3Z6leWPA-AO68BiTpidXeDyM7EZMjpBH0_d6XeR4C28OnNYuJsRxr0-TRqYXsp8O_sg/s1600/o93857.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtOSMiHrtM9VVfLpWepsvNHfL6i7Eesk2mJ4Mne97dcwdhUTcZvuBz3QwSoIFCL58v1ZBuZdor3Z6leWPA-AO68BiTpidXeDyM7EZMjpBH0_d6XeR4C28OnNYuJsRxr0-TRqYXsp8O_sg/s320/o93857.jpg" width="320" /></a> Putting it bluntly, this EP sounds like shit. It's impossible to describe the sound of this particular release without the descriptor 'as recorded on a late 70s model tape deck' being tacked on to any sort of comparison point. Those comparison points, however help redeem the whole endeavor; it's obvious from the first blast of "Happy Birthday Jesus" that these guys studied their Dog Faced Hermans and Contortions albums about as diligently as they could before they recorded anything, and that dedication to the right influences gives even the most tape-hiss addled, overly trebly moment of this release a high enough base value that the irritation of the recording method is minimized somewhat. It also helps that the recording style has a bit more charm in this context than in most others. Noisy no-wave is one of the few genres out there where horrible recording quality can come close to enhancing the experience, and on a particularly forgiving day I might even say that the 6 songs here benefit from the lack of production value - "Deep Bed Granular" especially has a high degree of grit in this circumstance that makes it bite a bit more than might be expected in a better recorded format. So let it be said that even I, who rails against the purposeful fucking up of a recording by means of tape deck recording, can find a circumstance where I'm grateful for its presence. Just barely. <i><b>[7.7/10]</b></i>Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07059120572331918935noreply@blogger.com0