Review: Girl in a Coma - Both Before I Die

Label: Blackheart Records

Released: May 15, 2007

Being a female band on Blackheart Records, the expectation would be that Girl in a Coma would follow in Joan Jett's footsteps. Unlike so many of Jett's followers though, Girl in a Coma didn't forget that attitude and hooks aren't mutually exclusive. Besides, they're a lot closer to Blondie's edgey punkish pop than to Jett's rather mundane punkish hard rock.

Girl in a Coma have more in common with Blondie or Concrete Blonde even than Jett. Like the former, they capture that same breathy sultriness and show that it can happen without coming across as weak or fragile. They also share Johnette Naploitano's ability to be touching yet dark. There is an unmistakable punk element on Both Before I Die, but unlike most pop-punk of today, these songs have deeper hooks that feel like more than just a facade. "Their Cell" taps into the early 60s girl group sound, yet extends well beyond the two minute pop song enough to exude a dark inner toughness that is the core of why the album is believable.

Girl in a Coma mixes gritty, raw richness with an abrasive edge that finds that happy (or not so happy) middle ground between punk and polish. Their mix of punk's angry aesthetic with pop accessibility rings truer than most in that same game these days.


Ratings
Satriani: 5/10
Zappa: 5/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 7/10
Overall: 7/10

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Review: Flatfoot 56 - Jungle of the Midwest Sea

Label: Flicker Records

Released: May 15, 2007

When a band merges punk and Irish folk, the first influence that comes to mind is the Pogues, but Shane McGowan and company were more a folk band with punk attitude. The real origin of the more punk-leaning mixture is the Stiff Little Fingers. While the bands today tend to wear their Irish hearts on the sleeves (despite not actually being from Ireland in many cases) with a bagpipe here or a tin whistle there, the gritty, honest folk nature of their brand of punk rock is what really ties them to the older folk tradition. It is people's music.

Flatfoot 56 are undoubtedly a punk band and have no small debt to the likes of SLF, but unlike their peers, they owe an even greater debt to the Pogues. They offer more than just a few nods to Irish folk music, with many centered on a tradition that goes back a good many years farther than "Alternative Ulster." It's a natural occurrence for Flatfoot 56, because punk itself has much in common spiritually with folk and they run with that instinctively. That being said, Jungle of the Midwest Sea does have its share of Oi singalongs and raw guitar melodies making it dominated as much by punk as it is by folk.

On "Hoity Toity," they sing, "There is a struggle between doing what you want and doing your own thing." Musically, they resolve the struggle, because they do fit into an old, old tradition where singalong choruses encourage a pub-like atmosphere of community. In the process of meeting that tradition, they have indeed found themselves though.

Ratings:
Satriani 6/10
Zappa 6/10
Dylan 7/10
Aretha 8/10
Overall 7/10

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Review: The Treat - Phonography

Label: Rockular Recordings

Released: 2007

On Phonography, the Treat not only incorporate a lot of British rock styles from the late 60s and early 70s, but they manage to do it seamlessly and make it fresh. They draw on everything from the raw bluesiness of Led Zeppelin to the grandiose prog of Genesis. Starting off an album with as much bombast as "Fanfare for a King," sets high expectations. In this game, there isn't much room between perfection and silliness and there's no doubt that the Treat are over the top, but what they pull off over the course of the album is rivaled today perhaps only by Bigelf.

The 70s are a curious time in rock history. In the wake of the Beatles-inspired experimentation of the late 60s, a lot of the music began trading its youthful energy for big, fat bombast. So often bands that rehash the 70s fail to correct that problem (and exacerbate it instead), but The Treat tap into only the very best and re-energize it. I can imagine a song like "Too Late," their homage to the Who and Faces, fizzling in the hands of the average purveyor of nostalgia despite being a fantastic song. But The Treat do more than just remake the sounds of the past, they relive them. And they live such a broad range too. They follow up "Too Late" by taking on King Crimson and Genesis. Earlier they live up to Sabbath and Cream and later to Traffic. "Black Cat Whites" jumps back and forth between Syd Barrett and Sweet without missing a beat. It just shows how good a handle they have on the music they love.

Their influences are a who's who of great British rock. Though they do occasionally slip into AOR flatness (for a few moments here and there, not for a few songs), but it's their energy and love that makes the album so exciting. Phonography does pretend that nothing has happened since 1975, but that's not the end of the story. Whether you like Zeppelin or Genesis, Cream or Procol Harem, Jethro Tull or Traffic, Syd Barrett or Sweet, the Who or Queen (I could really just keep going), the Treat has a reinterpretation that is more appreciation than copy.

Ratings
Satriani: 8/10
Zappa: 5/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 7/10
Overall: 7/10

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Review: Demolition String Band - Different Kinds of Love

Label: Breaking Records

Released: November 20, 2007

With a name like Demolition String Band, there's bound to be some preconceptions. The mention of "string band" certainly creates an expectation of a 30s/40s pre-electric country and bluegrass revival. "Demolition," on the other hand, implies breaking down barriers or rejecting rules. In the end though, Demolition String Band isn't really what their name implies.

Their brand of alt-country really stems from country's electric era, from 50s rockabilly to the slicker sounds of the 60s and 70s. There's no question that they're a technically capable group and that has them poised to make an amazing record. The part that's missing most of the way through though is that certain sense of self that gives a band its identity. "Wisteria," for instance, is a great tune, but DSB fails to really project it. Boo Reiners' vocals tend to give the music a quirky boost next to the technically superior though often under-powered voice of Elena Skye, but it's not until the last few tracks that things really come alive. Skye really finds herself in the dark melancholy of "Thank You Claudia." Oddly enough, the band really gets into full swing on a garage rocker, "Undone in Sorrow," and then accelerates into the instrumental "Boonanza" (which seems to be in that race with a certain hot rod Lincoln). Different Kinds of Love finishes strong with the psychobilly rumble of "Drinkin' Whiskey," leaving one to wonder what happened over the first two-thirds of the album.

DSB really comes alive over the last four tracks and more than anything, that just makes me wish that same fire had been lit under the earlier tracks, because there are some really strong songs in there that didn't quite get the treatment that they deserve (and that DSB is clearly capable of giving them). The "string band" misnomer is no big deal, but, the last few songs aside, I could use a little more "demolition."

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 5/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 6/10
Overall: 6/10

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Review: Mad Juana - Acoustic Voodoo

Label: Azra Records

Released: September 11, 2007

I'll make no secret that songs of hopelessness and despair that have no sense of redemption or salvation have an uphill battle to resonate with me. That's not to say that none do, just that it's harder for them, because they run against the grain of my soul. Mad Juana's Acoustic Voodoo is a dark record and runs counter to my nature almost throughout. It's also excellent.

The record is dark and mysterious and downright witchy. It draws heavily on Celtic, Eastern European and even Middle Eastern folk traditions. "Ecstasy" incorporates African jazz and "Steel Will" mixes blues and burlesque with a mantra-like chorus. Their cover of the Velvet Underground's "Venus in Furs" nails the song's sense of worldly depravity. Mad Juana manages to jump around without losing focus, because they maintain their thematic darkness which is more than anything maintained by Karmen Guy's voice. It is at times rich, full, breathy and sensual and always, with one exception, the comparatively uplifting "Ecstasy," vaguely tortured.

Featuring Sami Yaffa of Hanoi Rocks and now New York Dolls fame, one might expect a rock record, so Mad Juana requires a shift. However, despite influences and instrumentation that makes it non-rock, Acoustic Voodoo is very much a rock record. Better yet, it has soul which gives it an underlying hope, even in despair.

Ratings
Satriani: 8/10
Zappa: 8/10
Dylan: 8/10
Aretha: 9/10
Overall: 8/10

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Review: History - Ghosts in the City

Label: 24 Hour Service Station

Released: December 7, 2007

What happens when Fugazi meets Black Sabbath? History. Okay, so time will tell if History the band actually makes history, but there's no denying that the potential is there. Their album, Ghosts in the City, isn't just the result of these influences slapped together in some random fashion, but a natural meeting of the former's mathed up passion and the latter's heavy groove (tempered perhaps into a less sludgy though no less compelling hard rock sound). Add to this the airy effects of two keyboards and their sound finds an even more unique voice for itself. What really makes the album great though is that it provides both the frenzied excitement of calculated hardcore and the pumping, thumping heaviness whose legacy is at the root of pretty much any decent hard rock and heavy metal, all with more than a touch of madness.

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 8/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 7/10
Overall: 7/10

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Review: The Drift - Ceiling Sky

Label: Temporary Residence Limited

Released: November 6th, 2007

You shouldn't need this CD. After all, you should already have all of the Drift's albums and you should definitely have them on vinyl. However, if you've missed either boat, the kind folks at Temporary Residence feel bad for you and have released this collection of The Drift's non-CD tracks.

For those not familiar with the Drift, their music is a near perfect mix of ambient rock and free jazz, the former giving the latter a huge landscape on which to expand. This isn't some esoteric experiment, although lovers of art as experimentation can find plenty to painstakingly uncover here. The Drift can just as easily be taken passively. If music is a story, the Drift is the setting. That leaves the plot to the listener who can be as active or passive as they'd like in that role.

If this is your first taste of the Drift, you'd be best off checking out Noumena or their fantastic new Memory Drawings LP (with vinyl bonus tracks not on this CD) first, but you'll soon see that these tracks are every bit as essential.

Ratings
Satriani: 10/10
Zappa: 8/10
Dylan: 8/10
Aretha: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

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Review: Caleb Klauder - Dangerous Me's and Poisonous You's

Label: Padre Records (available through CDBaby.com)

Released: March 1, 2007

Caleb Klauder's band Foghorn Stringband is instantly contagious. Its authentic bluegrass instantly wraps you in its warm, genuine strings and heartfelt twang. Klauder's Dangerous Me's and Poisonous You's, on the other hand, takes some time to sink in, not because it isn't as good, but because it has more dimension and depth.

The album mixes old-time string band music with 50s rockabilly and the result has the rootsiness of the former and the energy and pop sense of the latter. Klauder's songs remain largely upbeat while maintaining a certain sadness and his voice has an imperfect beauty whose dissonance evokes a sense of country desperation. Lyrically, the songs speak to people in common themes that we all understand, but avoids silly truisms. Klauder mixes in hints of gospel, mixing the spiritual and the secular in a way that brings out both the joy and sadness in country music's heart.

The cover art is really the best clue to what is contained within. It depicts a man and woman dancing, wrapped up in ecstatic joy. But he's holding a gun and she a snake. Dangerous Mes and Poisonous Yous is a celebration of life yet a rejection of worldliness. It is the struggle between love of life and that sense that we must remain detached from its pleasures. It is the celebration of real lives, both good and bad. And it's a really good Americana record to boot.

Ratings
Satriani: 6/10
Zappa: 6/10
Dylan: 8/10
Aretha: 9/10
Overall: 8/10

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Review: Liam Finn - I'll Be Lightning

Label: Yep Roc Records

Released: August 6, 2007

Liam Finn has a Beatlesque knack for writing great pop songs. Perhaps that comes from his father Neil of Crowded House/Split Enz fame, but Liam walks his own path, making the connection to his father more trivial than musical. The singer-songwriter thing can be pretty limited, but Finn's generally folky pop has at different times elements of psyche, baroque pop and reggae. He even manages to incorporate the deliberate plodding of grunge as an undercurrent to some of his songs. His hooks are easy to get wrapped up in, yet they come as curveballs and change-ups as often as fastballs. Finn does borrow a bit from Elliot Smith's pleasant, sad melodies, but not without adding his own unmistakable mark that sets him apart. As catchy as I'll Be Lightning is, and it is very catchy, it is neither slick nor shiny nor maudlin. Finn covers a range of emotions from the soothing "Lullaby" to the wild "Lead Balloon" and everything in between. Over the course of the album, he gained such power over me as a listener that I suspect he's one of those rare artists who could hold an arena captive to his music just as easily as he could a small club.

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 7/10
Dylan: 8/10
Aretha: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

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Review: The Griefs - Throwing a Tempo Tantrum

Label: Spoonful Records

Released: 2007

The Griefs channel the Who's manic drums, big power chords and brutal loudness in a catchy package. Sometimes there's fuzz and other times there's jangle, but from start to finish, this is an album of loud melodies and rock n roll bombast that many have copied, but few have done this successfully. Throwing a Tempo Tantrum has the hooks of 60s pop without reining in any of garage rock's energy, creating a loud, abrasive vehicle for their wonderful pop songs. They do little if anything to update what came out of garages 40 years ago, but they capture the essence of that period's raw creative insanity as well as its sweet pop sensibility in a way that is seldom matched today. It kinda makes you wanna hum along and bounce off the walls at the same time!

Ratings
Satriani: 6/10
Zappa: 5/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 8/10
Overall: 7/10

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Review: Mouse Fire - Wooden Teeth

Label: Lujo Records

Released: November 6, 2007

If I tell you that a band reminds me of ELO in any way and you're turned off, it's understandable. When I say it this time though, don't tune out, because you'll miss something very cool. Here I go. Mouse Fire reminds me of ELO. Now let me allay your fears a bit. There's nothing on here that sounds like "Evil Woman." What Mouse Fire really learned from ELO was how to make slick pop, but they made that their own by maintaining an intimacy that often eludes even the most down-to-earth bands. In other words, Mouse Fire is slick without being bloated, fake or light. The music ranges from low-key ballads to guitar-driven rock to angular post-punk. They even take a few lessons, not from disco, but from disco's effect on rock music at times when their pop perfection becomes vaguely funky and danceable.

Mouse Fire builds lush layers that never become overbearing, because nothing, not even its synthiest moment, ever gets detached. They fit right in with the resurgence of post-punk's sharp corners, yet they even those corners out into something far easier to digest. "Slick" is so often a derogatory term that implies a style over substance approach is hiding something. Not on Wooden Teeth though. This slickness is a strength. Rather than hiding shortcomings, it enhances everything else that they do right. Mixed with the album's angularity, these hooks aren't the sort that let you know you're being hooked. They come from all sides too. Any layer is easy to get caught up in while another makes its move for attention. The album wraps its smooth and rough sides into a package that is at once more palatable and more satisfying.

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 6/10
Dylan: 9/10
Aretha: 7/10
Overall: 8/10

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Review: Clams - EP

Label: self-released

Released: 2007

Many bands take the Great Leap Forwards approach to modernization, taking an older sound and dragging it kicking and screaming through recent history into the present. Clams doesn't take that road though. Their self-titled EP channels 70s hard rock without forcing anything unnatural to happen. Whether the rhythms are driving or more laid back, the riffs are monsters with plenty of swagger and the vocals are emotional without overwhelming the music. They have plenty of crunch, but don't avoid hooks for the sake of heaviness. Even their nod to the 90s on the Alice in Chains-ish "Dead to the World" doesn't feel like they're alt rock-ifying their sound so much as just taking a natural path. "Fractures" is their most ambitious track, showing that they are equally adept at straightforward rock and prog meanderings. While this EP isn't breaking much new ground, it takes a pattern that is oft misused and sets it straight.

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 4/10
Dylan: 6/10
Aretha: 7/10
Overall: 7/10

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Review: Mike Seeger - Early Southern Guitar Sounds

Label: Smithsonian-Folkays Recordings

Released: 2007

New Lost City Rambler Mike Seeger (half-brother of Pete) serves up 28 traditional songs, some with vocals, some without. These are old songs, songs that have been around awhile, songs that Seeger probably learned from old scratchy 78s. Seeger approaches these songs with love, appreciation and authenticity. Some of the guitars he used are as old as the songs themselves, but Seeger does have a technological advantage over the past: recordings today are much better. On Early Southern Guitar Sounds, he doesn't rehash old recordings, he relives old performances, the way people heard them live decades ago, but could only be sufficiently recorded today.

These are the kind of recordings that a serious guitar player can appreciate. At times, Seeger sounds like more than one player. The liner notes include information about history, but also tunings and hardware. This is a guitarists' album. But it's not just a guitarists' album. For the rest of us, it's just beautiful, timeless music.

Ratings
Satriani: 10/10
Zappa: 6/10
Dylan: 10/10
Aretha: 10/10
Overall: 10/10

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Review: Voodoo Six - Faith

Label: White Knuckle Records

Released: 2007

England's Voodoo Six prefaced First Hit for Free, due out on March 24th, with this three song EP of their modern hard rock. "Faith" is the teaser's first and best track. It takes 70s hard rock and filters it through the 90s, largely influenced by Soundgarden's more mainstream, metally albums. The song isn't particularly original, but all elements are solid and Voodoo Six injects a fair amount of energy into it. They follow this up with "Feed My Soul" which is no more original, but lacks the previous song's electricity. The rhythms are lackluster, the riffs are flat and the solo is gratuitous. Like "Faith" though, it does display technical competence even if the songwriting and performance fizzle. "Crawl" splits the difference between the two, bringing back some of the punch of "Faith" without matching it. While I didn't find the Faith EP to be particularly compelling, it did show that the members of Voodoo Six are entirely competent even if they do struggle to standout. To their credit though, their skills are strong enough that they could be very flashy, yet they show quite a bit of restraint. Their biggest hurdle, even greater than a lack of any real originality, is their sacrifice of swagger for precision. Faith feels like everything is by the book rather than being elastic enough to show the band's personality.

Ratings
Satriani: 8/10
Zappa: 3/10
Dylan: 5/10
Aretha: 4/10
Overall: 5/10

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Review: Russians - s/t EP

Label: self-released

Released: October 2007

The Russians' founder Scott Janovitz is a veteran of the Boston music scene and recently lent his talents to Graham Parker as one of the Latest Clowns, so the well-crafted pop of their second EP should come as no surprise. They aren't shy about their love of the Beatles (even segueing each song into the next a la side two of Abbey Road), but they draw on a range from vaudeville and baroque pop to power pop to ambient. The best part is that they find their own voice in their hooks. They might draw a lot from some great bands, but in the end, it's their signature catchiness that makes this EP a great listen.

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 6/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 7/10
Overall: 7/10

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Review: Mistletoe - demo

Label: self-released

Released: 2007

Syracuse's Mistletoe plays some wild punk rock. It's not quite focused though. "Ghost Relatives" leans toward churning hardcore, "Poor Timing" toward angular Fugazi-influenced post-hardcore and "Stop Growing Up" toward the gritty rootsiness of Avail. Still, they do manage to find the commonality in all of that to make up their sound. That mixes with a great ability to throw change-ups in both tempo and heaviness and an innate sense of just how much noise will convey their passion without straying into chaos. All in all, this demo is a very promising start and it's worth hearing. Even more so, it makes Mistletoe a band to keep an eye on.

Ratings
Satriani: 6/10
Zappa: 6/10
Dylan: 6/10
Aretha: 7/10
Overall: 7/10

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Review: Dirty Penny - Take It Sleezy

Label: self-released

Released: 2007

Dirty Penny's clear love of Mötley Crüe might be hard to take had the Crüe not stopped making good records way too early (two records, good as they were, is a short legacy), but under the circumstances, it turns out to be a lot of fun. I'm not exactly the world's biggest hair metal fan. Sure I like early glam, but too few bands from the 80s tap into the New York Dolls or Sweet or T Rex. Dirty Penny manages to touch on that though, albeit via Crüe. Still, if you're going borrow heavily, do it from a good band, particularly one who either quit or got sidetracked before their time.

While Dirty Penny won't get any award for originality, they get plenty of points for enthusiasm. Particularly early and late in the album, they really have a great ability find that perfect line between heavy and hooky. The first few tracks are in a sense what I expected to follow Shout at the Devil and even 25 years later and from a different band, I'm happy to hear it. Oddly enough, Take It Sleazy trades its punch for slickness for a few tracks in the middle (beginning with "Take a Bite"), sounding more like later, lighter Crüe. The album regains both its energy and swagger (and just a bit of Judas Priest crunch maybe) on "Vendetta" which leads to a strong finish...except for the acoustic redux of "Sleaze Disease," whose grandiose strings and overly clean, cold playing are overbearing and underwhelming. That last track, even viewed as a bonus track of sorts, is a shame, because it taints an otherwise really good album.

While Dirty Penny's metally riffs are refreshing, the solos tend, as most solos do, to be mundane. The mandatory guitar solo is really a fault of the genre's formula, but Dirty Penny keep theirs thankfully short and to the point. Solos aside, they have a true band sound where the whole is greater than the individuals that comprise it. Considering the genre, I didn't expect poetry in the lyrics and lines like, "Pedal to the metal, I'm gonna go the extra mile; Whoa-oh, I'm runnin' wild" came as no surprise. Still, their clever play on Elvis' "Love Me Tender" in "Black n Blue" brought a chuckle and I got more than I'd hoped right there. Another source of the album's strength is solid production. Dirty Penny, even on this studio recording, has a lot of live energy and that's captured here without sacrificing quality.

At this point, hair metal is a niche market (albeit a growing niche). While it will never reach it's commercial heyday again and it has more than a few lackluster practitioners, there are a handful of bands that actually breathe some life into it. There's nothing new on Take It Sleazy, but in this case that's not the end of the world. Had this come out 25 years ago, it would have been outstanding. Now, it's just very good...and very fun.

Ratings
Satriani: 6/10
Zappa: 4/10
Dylan: 5/10
Aretha: 6/10
Overall: 6/10

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DVD: Kurt Cobain - About a Son

Label: Shout Factory

Released: February 19, 2008

It's hard to ask someone to talk about themselves over an extended set of interviews and not seem self-absorbed. For Cobain, it would probably be impossible to ask that over a twenty minute sit-down let alone something this extensive. Cobain comes across as a whiner, whether he's crying about his childhood, his health issues or his fame. It makes it clear why he struggled so much with fame. It was so counter to all that he wanted to believe in. And it was counter to who we wanted him to be. He says that punk rock fed his low self-esteem, because punk didn't expect him to be a rock star. Things sure did change.

The interviews aren't what makes this film special though. About a Son recognizes that the story is about more than Kurt Cobain. Other than a few old stills scattered throughout, there isn't a picture or a video of Kurt or Nirvana. Instead, it focuses on places and the everyday people in those places. We've all seen live footage of Nirvana at all phases of their career, but here we get to see what Aberdeen and Olympia and Seattle were really like. There are no Nirvana songs here either. Instead, it's filled with the music that was part of the environment that made Kurt and everyone in that scene who they were as people and artists. That music is filled in with scoring by Ben Gibbard (a master of both mood and simple honesty) and Steve Fisk.

About a Son takes a common though extensive set of interviews and turns them into a work of art all their own. This tells more than Kurt's story. It tells the story of the towns, the scenes and all of us in the process. I've often wondered, "Why Nirvana? Why were they the voice of the musical revolution? Of a generation?" I don't know if there will ever be a good answer to that, but this film at least gives some insight by reflecting not Cobain's image back, but that of the people and the times.

Rating: 10/10

Review: Crash Street Kids - Chemical Dogs

Label: Hot City Records

Released: 2007

As their name implies, Crash Street Kids are big fans of Mott the Hoople. Even without that reference though, it would still be pretty clear. Their ability mix sugary pop with hard rock edge also raises the specter of early Sweet, but some of those guitar lines are unmistakable homages to Mick Ralphs. Throw in some of Thin Lizzy's grit, a healthy (though not compared to Queen themselves) dose of Queen's theatrics and a (surprise) rock star storyline and you have Chemical Dogs.

Does it sound derivative? In a sense, it does, but it also breathes some life into the original glam sound that often stands in the shadow of its inferior bastard child from the 80s. The vocals are down-to-earth, but lack power and range. The guitars are gritty and the rhythms straightforward. Sometimes, the Kids drift into a bit of AOR territory, but more often they're just enough over the top with grandiose string arrangements and flamboyant vaudeville piano parts. Sure, they aren't great technicians, but they play with heart and swagger...and it works! Crash Street Kids might not live up to their influences, but hearing them try is a good time nonetheless.

Ratings
Satriani: 5/10
Zappa: 4/10
Dylan: 6/10
Aretha: 7/10
Overall: 6/10

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Review: Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - 100 Days 100 Nights and Angie Stone - The Art of Love and War

Label: Daptone Records

Released: October 2, 2007


Label: Concord

Released: October 16, 2007

It would seem that the essential component of soul music (old school or new) would be the soul itself, yet that is often just what modern soul and R&B lack. Too often even a good R&B singer has a tough time overcoming assembly line songwriting and synthetic backing tracks. It is this old versus new soul difference that separates the new releases from Sharon Jones and Angie Stone.

Without question, both singers have great voices. In fact, Stone's is probably technically superior, but that is the only place that she manages to measure up to Jones on these albums. When you strip away that sheen, what's underneath, the soul, isn't even close.

Years ago, Sharon Jones was told that she was too dark-skinned, too short, too fat and once she passed 25, too old. Jones didn't get a break until she was 40 (singing backup on a Lee Fields record). In the meantime, she worked as a Wells Fargo armored car guard and a corrections officer at Rikers (!), but she kept singing. Angie Stone's break came much earlier, having a hit record as a member of The Sequence before her 20th birthday as well as at least middling success until taking off in the last decade. I can't help but wonder if the "business" hasn't robbed Stone of something that it in turn augmented in Jones through her struggles. While that may not explain why, these two albums leave little doubt that Sharon Jones just has more soul.

Sharon Jones' voice is everything that a good soul voice should be. It can be bold, soft, sultry, strong, defiant. She connects on a human level, because she sings with more than just her voice. After all these years, there's no going through the motions. She has hunger and confidence despite being ripped off. Her energy isn't angry though, just righteous. Her backing band, the Dap-Kings, whose horns helped light the fire on the otherwise soul-deprived Amy Winehouse's debut, is the kind of natural, organic band that has crossover appeal in the rock world. They have more in common with the Family Stone or even the Allman Brothers and Black Crowes than they do with modern R&B sounds. Rhythmically, they propel the music, giving Jones even more force. The horns are so natural that they work in the capacity of background vocals. They're just that rich. The intense interaction between Jones and the band is what makes the album so big and bold, so natural and alive. 100 Days, 100 Nights is essentially a 60s soul album, but it doesn't come off like a revival. The record is very much in the here and now despite its vintage approach.

There's no doubt that Angie Stone has the voice to make a great record, but The Art of Love and War is just formula R&B. The beats are measured and precise. The piano has all the emotion of light jazz. The background vocals are generic. The result is an album that sounds as if all the pieces were recorded in isolation and queued up to have Stone's vocals recorded on top like karaoke. There's none of the human interaction that makes Sharon Jones soar. Instead, it's just cold, synthetic music that robs Stone of any emotion she may have brought. Neither Stone nor the backing tracks have any touch, any feel, any swing. While this might be acceptable fare for an indiscriminate modern R&B fan, anyone looking for real soul, the kind that would crossover into other genres, will be sorely disappointed. This is a superficial soundscape and you don't have to poke very hard to find that it's paper-thin.

Whether it's their past or their present or some combination of the two, there's a world of difference between these two very talented singers on their latest albums. Quite simply, Sharon Jones has made an album that knows the true meaning of soul and Angie Stone has not.



Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
Ratings
Satriani: 8/10
Zappa: 5/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 10/10
Overall: 9/10

Website

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Angie Stone
Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 2/10
Dylan: 4/10
Aretha: 4/10
Overall: 5/10

Website

Myspace

DVD: Nirvana - Unplugged in New York

Label: Geffen Records

Released: November 20, 2007

I have long felt that Nirvana is grossly overrated. Bleach was a good grunge album and Nevermind managed to both transcend the genre and be in the right place at the right time, exploding into the faltering world of commercial rock. Even so, it's more commercially important than musically. In Utero, however, is one of the two "Emperor's New Clothes" of 90s rock (the other being U2's Zooropa). After all, who wants to admit that they don't get it? Well, I get it...all too well. It's the bloated ramblings of someone selling their punk rock soul for self-importance. Sure, I'll give Cobain credit for not just spitting out another Nevermind, but it would have been nice if he hadn't believed the hype about his genius, because if In Utero proves anything, it's that Cobain is no genius. His death cemented the album's inflated legacy and protected it from ever being reconsidered outside of the euphoria of having mainstream rock finally say something other than "let's party." To me though, Nirvana was a dead end street at this point, a one trick pony who couldn't learn something new, but was too . Nothing anyone has written or said has ever made me reconsider this. Giving In Utero countless second chances hasn't either. But one thing has: Nirvana's Unplugged in New York.

For such a good idea, MTV's Unplugged had been a spotty affair. There were some great ones to be sure, but most were mediocre reworkings of hts and covers. So, when the broadcast of Nirvana's Unplugged session was on the horizon, recorded just a short time after the release of the, to me, very disappointing In Utero, I wasn't exactly jumping up and down. All of that changed when I saw it. Kurt Cobain's struggles with fame were absent. He seemed comfortable in his now famous skin for the first (and perhaps only) time. The band's ability to translate their loud, abrasive music into this more refined environment and be more powerful speaks volumes about them. Even the three songs they perform from In Utero have that power. The guest appearance by the Meat Puppets doesn't stink of rock snobbery. Instead, it's a natural collaboration that likely would have failed (much like the Meat Puppets' next album) had it appeared on a regular studio album. They didn't play all the big hits. It was intimate. Quite simply, Unplugged in New York was the creative pinnacle of both MTV's and Nirvana's existences. It all went down hill from there.

The original MTV broadcast is on here, but the main feature is the full concert as those lucky enough to be there saw it. The MTV News: Bare Witness feature has some interesting moments, but is largely full of stupid memories colored by years of Cobain worship following his death. The rehearsals show a bit more of the band's personality, a nice bonus, but are certainly not essential. While the bonus material isn't great, it doesn't have to be, because the main feature is still amazing, even for those who, like me, aren't caught up in the cult of Nirvana.

Rating: 10/10

Review: Mongrels - Oshawa

Label: WeirdBeard Records

Released: November 2007

Before they had an album out, I wrote about the material Mongrels had up on their Myspace page. It was a raw, manic mix of garagey soul (or soulful garage). Either way, they tapped into the excitement of the late 60s Detroit that would profoundly influence much of 70s hard rock, even if few bands down the road had proven capable of keeping pace.

On Oshawa, they've become a little more tame, perhaps tapping their old sound and refining it into something with a broader appeal. Don't be fooled, because the energy is still there, but it's no longer channeled through the MC5 and Mitch Ryder, so much as Deep Purple and Heart. The nice thing about Mongrels is that they don't lose all of the craziness of their pre-Oshawa recordings. Instead, a song like "All in My Head," with a great pop chorus, is even bolder than before. Plus, they further capitalize on Amy Torok's fantastic wail and a drummer for each channel (yeah, you get Tim Dwyer in the left speaker and Dusty Rails in the right) as well as the whole band's recognition of the role of soul in great rock music.

On Oshawa, Mongrels have found a way to both clean up their sound and make it bolder. Gone is the wild garage noise, but the cleaner sound has greater breadth and intensity. There is a certain retro hard rock appeal to Oshawa, but Mongrels manages to bring the 70s with them as a part of their sound rather than returning to the past and being contained by it.

Rating: 8/10

Myspace

Review: Lafcadio - Kibosh

Label: Joyful Noise Recordings

Released: January 22, 2008

In a nutshell, Lafcadio could be described as King Crimson meets Dillinger Escape Plan meets Black Flag meets Black Sabbath meets Shel Silverstein. If you're not immediately turned off by the threat of that, then their new album Kibosh is probably for you. At times, they are as refined (though not quite as safe as) late 70s/early80s King Crimson jazz/prog. At other times, they play what sounds like noise, except...there's something to it. In between these two extremes is the heavy, discordant noodling that can likely only be picked up by locking oneself in a room and listening repeatedly to side 2 of Black Flag's My War. Just in case you're tempted to take all of this too seriously, check out that album cover with its 70s catalog spoof and the track list with the likes of "freewillynelsonmandela." That's right, on some level, it's all supposed to be fun. The result is hardly accessible, but for the brave and silly alike, there's something here that will catch you when you're not looking.

Rating: 8/10

Myspace

Review: A Wilhelm Scream - Career Suicide

Label:

Released: October 9, 2007

A Wilhelm Scream doesn't exactly break down all the walls on Career Suicide, but they do manage to put forth a solid album that isn't the same old fare over and over again. The album is largely a metally hardcore affair, but its layered sound (particularly the guitar parts) gives it far greater dimension than their average peer in the genre. This layered approach and their melodic moments do give them a bit of an emo feel at times, but they usually attack the songs with rhythms too blistering to be sappy. In the less metal moments, they tend a bit toward the agility, though not the fun, of late Descendants material (which is no surprise as the album was co-produced by Descendants drummer Bill Stevenson). Already a cut above the average hardcore/emocore band out there, A Wilhelm Scream get another step on the competition with lyrics that are a bit more clever than most that deal with the common theme of disillusionment. They may not be on the verge of greatness here, but you could do a whole lot worse than to pick up a copy of Career Suicide. Actually, in hardcore, you couldn't do much better.

Rating: 7/10

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DVD: Yes - Their Definitive Fully Authorized Story

Label: Image Entertainment

Released: January 15, 2007

I'm a fan of Yes. I understand that they have serious flaws from Jon Anderson's esoteric, eastern-philosophy-lite lyrics to their frequent substitution of calculation for emotion, but somehow, they manage to get away with it in my book.

Like Yes' better moments, this DVD often finds itself short on thrills, but long on quality nonetheless. The biggest problem is that the whole thing is 95% interviews. There is very, very little live footage and only slightly more vintage images. While that makes it rather dull and difficult to connect to the music (isn't the music the point?), there is still value here. Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Peter Banks, Steve Howe, Bill Bruford and Alan White as well as managers, journalists and other insiders all share their point of view quite honestly. They deal frankly with firings, members quitting and the pressures of the business end of music. You also get to see Steve Howe looking like a mad scientist these days and that's kinda cool.

The second disc provides more interviews (probably overkill after the 204 minutes of disc 1) and three music videos. "Owner of a Lonely Heart," while perhaps not a true Yes song to prog purists, is a classic video, but the "Wonderous Stories" video doesn't add much value. "Tempus Fugit" is a strange inclusion, because there is a camp for classic Yes line-ups and another for the Trevor Rabin era, I doubt there's anyone who runs to the defense of Drama. Disc 2 also includes a still photo gallery, but I for one have never found the galleries on DVDs to all that interesting and this one is no different.

Yes - Their Definitive Fully Authorized Story is interesting, but that hardly qualifies it as a great rock film. For the die hard Yes fan, there is plenty of good information, but it might be more enjoyable to get your old Yes album out and listen while you watch, because there's just too little music here. If you're a casual Yes fan, there's just not a lot here.

Rating: 5/10

Review: Zolof the Rock and Roll Destroyer - Schematics

Label: Flight Plan/Reignition Records

Released: September 25, 2007

Zolof the Rock and Roll Destroyer is yet another power-pop band among what seems like an endless stream coming out these days. So, what sets this female-fronted hook-fest apart from the others? For one thing, energy. In a genre that seems to go through the motions, Zolof is engaged in what they're doing. Straightforward rhythms are augmented by solid hooks, sometimes in the vocals and sometimes on the organ. Unlike so many power-pop and pop-punk bands, the vocals have a bit of edge, just enough to keep the songs out of that sappy territory in which most of their peers tread, but not enough to suck the pop out of the power. Zolof is a band in every sense of the word. From the rhythms and the the power chords to the sweet edgy vocals backed by plenty of "whoa-oh-ohs," nothing gets all that complex and piece steps on another. The result is both a raw energy and a refined catchiness that is tough not to like.

Rating: 6/10

Website

Myspace

Review: Watts - One Below the All Time Low

Label: Self-released; buy it at CD Baby or Not Lame

Released: September 4, 2007

Watts took their name from the drummer of perhaps the most over-rated rock band in history. However, the part of the Stones that they tap into is that of the band in its hungry 60s prime, not the bloated dinosaur of the last 35 years. And the Stones aren't the only band that Boston's Watts channels. Occasionally, they stray into the catchy punk territory of the Descendents, but most often, they hit up the Replacements, not just in sound, but on a deeper level as well. One Below the All Time Low might not live up to the Replacements very best work, but it's certainly on par with the 'Mats album cuts and that's not half bad. Most importantly, they play that down-to-earth rock n roll that resonates in our hearts. This isn't an album of optimism or cynicism, but one about that place where we all live, not romanticized, just reality in all its gritty here-and-now glory.

Rating: 7/10

Myspace

Review: Hackman - The New Normal

Label: Small Stone Records

Released: May 29, 2007

The heavy sludge that is the principle ingredient in Hackman's sound isn't necessarily a hot commodity these days. In order to stand out, bands have to incorporate more than just a love for Black Sabbath and Hackman does just that. The album starts off slow and heavy, but doesn't stay that way. It really opens up with "You Can't Ever Get What You Want," keeping the heaviness, but with a quicker, upbeat rhythm. From there, they dabble a bit in Helmet's post-hardcore rhythms and even touch on the slow end of 80s thrash. The vocals are sparse, but they tend toward a hardcore growl that might be overbearing if they were as dominant as they are on everyone else's albums. Hackman has the good sense to not let the vocals drive their sound, making what might be a weakness into a strength. On top of all this is a space rock freakiness that, though common in the stoner scene, adds yet another dimension. Hackman doesn't cross their genre line, but they at least make it interesting.

Rating: 7/10

Myspace

Review: Steve E. Nix and the Cute Lepers - Terminal Boredom b/w Prove It

Label: 1-2-3-4 Go! Records

Released: July 3, 2007

Steve E Nix and the Cute Lepers serve up a fun little slab of old-school punk and new wave on this EP. "Terminal Boredom" is '77-style punk rock that borrows heavily from the Clash and Ramones, while "Prove It" could almost be a outtake from Elvis Costello's "Armed Forces." If you're gonna borrow, borrow from the best and Steve E and company certainly do that with just the right amount of snotty punk rock swagger.

Rating: 6/10

Myspace

Review: Avett Brothers - Emotionalism

Label: Ramseur Records

Released: March 15, 2007

Americana's return to the distant roots of rock music can be both a strength and a limitation. The genre often taps into the stripped down honesty of early music, but is also limited in its influences. The Avett Brothers, however, capture the genre's strengths without being held to its limitations.

The band, Scott and Seth Avett on banjo/kick drum and guitar/high-hat respectively, and Bob Crawford on bass, along with a variety of guests, stick to traditional string band instrumentation and that both keeps their sound rooted in tradition and makes their broad sound more surprising.

While "Shame," one of the album's strongest songs, largely fits the traditional mold, it's the Avetts' ability to add a pop hook that is the cream rising to the top. They stray even farther from the old-time, down-home sound as they dabble in cabaret on "Paranoia in Bb Major" and Latin music on "Pretty Girl form Chile." They nearly cover "All My Loving" with "Will You Return," but that very Beatlesque charm pops up throughout the album in less obvious ways.

Because the arrangements are so traditional, Emotionalism never crosses the line into the ridiculous despite its boldness. The vocals in particular have a charming imperfection, adding both color and warmth. Instead of being sold on itself, the album remains down to earth, allowing low-key tunes like "The Ballad of Love and Hate" to speak directly to the listener, like a friendship rather than a performance. The Avetts' ability be simultaneously rooted in tradition and stretching their legs with eclecticism allows them to translate genre-specific work into broad appeal.

Rating: 9/10

Website

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Review: Steel Train - Trampoline

Label: Drive-Thru Records

Released: October 16, 2007

Trampoline is aptly titled, because the album has a lot of bounce and not the teeny-bopper kind of bounce either. This bounce is the combined force of Steel Train's energy and elasticity. The band's biggest influence is perhaps the Beatles (and who would complain?) and they draw on everything from early jangly pop ("Dakota") to psychedelic experimentation ("A Magazine") to the soulful leanings in the Fab Four's later recordings ("I've Let You Go"). They also hit up U2 and the Clash ("Firecracker" might be a little too close to "Hitsville UK") at times as well. Steel Train even draws just a bit out of arena rock and 90s alt rock to fill their sound out, but not so much as to become generic themselves. Despite clear influences, each song takes off and soars in its own way. Steel Train knows the formula for a very good pop song, but they also know how to tweak the formula just enough to make it their own.

Rating: 6/10

Website

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Review: Bad Habit - demo

Label: self-released

Released:

Like many great punk records, this one's almost over before it starts. While this isn't quite great, it does cover all the hardcore bases: fast, loud, aggressive. The four song demo clocks in at just 5:39, but it lets up very little over that time. Bad Habit draws a lot from Minor Threat with just a slightly looser approach a la early Black Flag. They throw in a bit more melody on "Cancer" and it sows the seeds of being more than just another young punk band playing fast and angry. Remembering that this is a demo, a preview of the future so to speak, and that they've only been together about six months, it's an exciting listen. The production is acceptable, but not exceptional and the performance is passionate and honest. Lyrically, they cover the typical topics of frustration, alienation and family breakdown and while the lyrics aren't poetry (c'mon, it's hardcore not folk music), they're heartfelt. To keep things from getting too serious (something so many hardcore bands forget to do), they also throw in "Israeli Girl," an ode to the girl of their dreams, Natalie Portman. I wonder if she's heard it...

The entire demo is available on their Myspace page, but contact the band for a hard copy with lyrics (and a funny drawing of a hot dog).

Rating: 7/10

Myspace

Review: Free Diamonds - By the Sword

Label: Deep Elm Records

Released: August 27, 2007

Anything with any post-punk influence is bound to be pretty angular, but Free Diamonds take it to a new level. They focus on rhythm to the point that everything, voice included, is a rhythm instrument, giving the entire album a very polyrhythmic effect along the lines of Sound Affects-era Jam and the jazzier moments of the Minutemen. This band isn't a one-trick pony either. In addition to post-punk, there is clear evidence of ska and jazz and, in a peculiarly modern way, rockabilly. That last influence is the most subtle, yet perhaps the most interesting, because it, along with the folky closing track, serves to tie their very modern sound back to the roots of rock n roll. There's also hints of dance (albeit a pretty frantic dance) and English hip-hop that conjure up a fair amount of fun in the midst of the album's angst and serve to move both the feet and the soul. The vocals are likely the one think that may divide listeners. The screeching, fast talking style is a key part of the band's skewed approach and it certainly prevents anyone from enjoying the music passively, but its grating nature is likely to alienate as many people as it embraces. Still, By the Sword, with all its beautifully jagged edges and irrepressible frenetic energy, stands head and shoulders above the masses of other bands schooled on similar record collections.

Rating: 8/10

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Review: The Sailplanes - A Second, or Ten Years Later

Label: Red Headed Stepchild Records

Released: July 1, 2007

In listening to A Second, or Ten Years Later, two influences kept cropping up: New Model Army and Joy Division. There really couldn't be two things more different than New Model Army's warm, human, folky anger and Joy Division's cold, stark, dark emptiness, yet the Sailplanes manage to work both into their music. That ability to juxtapose such seemingly different things is a subtle, yet powerful strength. It's not just passion and desperation that they place side by side either. They align fuzzy, sludgy bass and ringing guitar with the driving precision of the percussion. Their sharp, angular sound sits on top of smooth, ambient keyboards. They butt the harsh up against the clean. They even alternate between male and female vocals. All of these contrasts run parallel to one another as if the two sides of the music are the two sides of the human heart and soul. The album's weakness is that it wears its influences a bit too much on its sleeve. However, hints of Berlin-period Bowie/Eno (and a recent move to that city) might be just the thing to bring their sound together without inhibiting the natural conflicts that makes it so good.

Rating: 7/10

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Review: Soho Roses - Whatever Happened To...

Label: Full Breach Kicks

Released: August 21, 2007

Here in the US, when most people think of glam, they think of Sunset Strip scene of the late 80s where hairspray had more to do with a band's success than their music. Little known to so many on this side of the Atlantic, there was another glam scene across the ocean that ran concurrently. With Hanoi Rocks as its kings, bands like Dogs D'Amour and (London) Quireboys were only known by a handful of rocks fans over here. These bands weren't just a bunch of pop bands with big hair and over-indulgent guitar solos. They were rooted in real glam like T Rex, Sweet and Slade as well as the punk rock of the New York Dolls, the Sex Pistols and the Buzzcocks. Many of these bands did just fine for themselves in the UK and Europe, but failed to make a dent over here. One of these bands, Soho Roses, was an almost complete unknown in the US, much like their highly influential predecessor Slade was during glam's first wave.

During a short run in the late 80s, Soho Roses recorded two EPs (a 7" and a 12") and one LP, all of which are obviously out of print. Almost 20 years later, the material is finally being re-issued. Don't be put off by the glam tag if you associate it with LA, because Soho Roses' music is dirtier and grittier. As they say themselves, it isn't "Sunset Strip crap." While the subject matter isn't exactly rocket science, the music is played with true rock n roll swagger rather than silly staged theatrics. Their cover of the Buzzcocks' "What Do I Get" shows that they were, as glam truly was, more at home with punk than metal. While they aren't the caliber of Hanoi Rocks, they're at very least in the ballpark of Dogs D'Amour. They're a fine treat for anyone who prefers a little bit of real rock n roll over the corporate business rock that put on some lipstick and eyeliner over here in the 80s and they're downright essential for fans of real glam.

Rating: 7/10

Website

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Review: Untitled Musical Project - s/t

Label: Tigertrap Records

Released: October 29, 2007

Unbridled. Unrefined. Uninhibited. Those can be the qualities of great rock and roll or a complete disaster. Untitled Musical Project is like a band with Keith Moon as every member, so they're clearly the former. Don't get me wrong, they don't play at Moon's technical level, but they do have his complete sense of abandon in their performance. There is little focus on melody or groove. The album works because it's all about visceral energy. It's as if they took Discharge, Gang of Four and just a dash of industrial, threw it in a blender and then recorded the blender! To say the album is deliberate is an understaement. Thick, fuzzy bass, noisy guitars and snotty vocals are driven to the very limit by relentless straightforward drumming. Even the song titles are extreme. "I Don't Need You Honey! All I Need is Rock n Roll!" and "I May Not Be Jimi Hendrix But At Least I'm Still Alive" meet even the high expectations that such titles raise. The latter is particular compelling, because of all the tracks, it has the most melodic elements yet doesn't break stride. In fact, each hint of melody stands out simply because there aren't that many over the course of the album. If Untitled Musical Project has a fault, it's that the songs can't stand on their own. These aren't the kind of songs that you could change up a bit and cover in another genre or sit down and play on your acoustic guitar. Changing the extreme intensity of the performance would rob the music of everything that's great about it.

Rating: 8/10

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Review: The Ark - Prayer for the Weekend

Label: Roxy Recordings

Released: April 16, 2007

The Ark don't do a single original thing on Prayer for the Weekend, but how many bands really do? To understand a band like the Ark is to understand their influences. In their best moments they channel the likes of Queen, Sweet and T Rex. They have a huge arena-sized sound and all the necessary bombast to pull that off. Whether they're recreating the dance-infused rock of Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" on the title track or the simultaneously silly and heartfelt teen anthem of Sweet's "Teenage Rampage" on "New Pollution," the Ark can can bring the best of big 70s rock into their tunes. Like their early glam influences, the Ark also successfully marries a big rock sound with candy-coated pop hooks and even the heavy hints of ELO's slick strings work well for them. Oddly enough, the Ark is at their best when they're completely over the top just like the early arena rock bands they emulate. At times, they rein themselves in and the more subdued approach hurts the album. More often though, they draw enough from the best of some of rock's most grandiose bands and package it together in a way that makes their revival pretty easy to buy into. Frankly, this is not typically my thing and yet I found myself engaged by Prayer for the Weekend rather than appalled by it.

Rating: 7/10

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Review: Various Artists - Vancouver Complication

Label: Sudden Death Records

Released: 2007

Sudden Death Records has re-issued the classic 1979 compilation that served as a state of the union for the early Vancouver punk scene. The Vancouver Complication is as much an historical document as it is a great punk album. In addition to the first rumblings from now legendary politico-punks DOA and the Subhumans, there are many other gems from the days when, as the liner notes put it, "D-I-Y was really a matter of having to D-I-G." In addition to the original 21 tracks, Sudden Death has included five bonus tracks and in true punk fashion, it still clocks in under one hour.

One of the things that's really amazing in retrospect is how different all these bands sound. From the raw melodies of Shades and Pointed Sticks to the cold, angular Devo-influenced pop of Exxotone to the pre-hardcore of the Dishrags, it's clear that the scene was still in its nascent creative period. You can even hear the T Rex influence on No Fun. At that point, punk was more of an ethos than a sound and these bands shared a common interest in living differently while bringing a tremendous variety of musical influences to the scene. It seems odd today in an era when punk rock is as pigeonholed as even the most commercial genres. The squalor described in the notes certainly makes it seem as though these weren't the "good ol' days," but they must have been fascinating beyond most of our imaginations.

Being a faithful history, the CD comes with reproductions of the original artwork for each band, handwritten or typed, cut out and pasted together the way it was done before Myspace. It also contains some enlightening liner notes that dig into what it was look in the days before punk was cool.

Rating: 8/10

Review: The Bowmans - Far From Home

Label: Mother West

Released: April 10, 2007

The Bowmans aren't your typical Americana band. Like the more widely known Avett Brothers, they work from a broader palette than many of their peers. The Bowmans maintain a rootsy feel throughout despite breaking away from traditional folk style and augmenting their sound at times with electricity.

The vocals are the centerpiece of the music. Sarah and Claire Bowman's harmonies are rich and colorful. Best of all, they really use those harmonies to make the songs bold. It's not just something they save for the chorus, but something they use to create the ebb and flow of their music. They often incorporate a hint of jazz and it's the cadence of their voices that makes everything swing. While it may all revolve around their voices, the music behind is often responsible for some of the subtleties that make the album shine. Much of the album's understated catchiness and quirkiness is in the backing band. It is these very things that make it sneak up and grab you. In addition to the indie folk of their Americana base and the jazziness that runs through it, the Bowman's also manage to throw in some rock, with one flat out rocker, and even dabble in chamber music and vaudeville at times. They finish it all off Abbey Road-style with a fun little ditty called "Porker Song" (although unlike "Her Majesty," this one actually has a message).

Far from Home is essentially a rootsy Americana record, but it isn't old-timey by any means. At its worst, it's still fine folk music for the indie crowd, but at its best, it brings a lot more to the table and has a much broader rock appeal that throws out the limitations typically seen in the genre.

Rating: 7/10

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Review: Paul McCartney - Memory Almost Full (Deluxe Edition)

Label: Hear Music

Released: November 6, 2007

I reviewed the standard release of Memory Almost Full already, so this review will focus on the additional material: three bonus tracks and a DVD.

The bonus tracks are all clearly B-side material. The best of the bunch, "In Private," is an instrumental that might work as an album track, but certainly doesn't add value to the package. The other two tracks didn't make the cut for the standard release for good reason. "Why So Blue" has a few moments of potential, but is generally flat in both writing and performance and overwhelmed by the string arrangement. "222" just stinks of light jazz and should have been scrapped before being committed to tape.

The DVD offers some value. Excerpts from a show at London's Electric Ballroom include "Drive My Car" and four songs from Memory Almost Full. Since McCartney is usually an arena attraction, there is a nice intimacy to the performance. Unfortunately, there are hard breaks between songs that counteract that intimacy. There's also videos for "Dance Tonight" and "Ever Present Past." The former is a typical corny McCartney video, but the latter is almost like his take on "Addicted to Love," sufficiently less suave to fit with McCartney's personality rather than Robert Palmer's (and better filmed).

The trouble with this set isn't the price (it lists for a mere dollar more than the standard edition), but that it came out five months later. McCartney fans already bought their copy and then the record company parades a deluxe version out to milk them for their loyalty. Memory Almost Full is worth hearing and if you didn't buy it already, there's no reason not to pick up the deluxe version. If you ran right out to buy the standard version in June though, don't waste your money on substandard bonus tracks, some live footage and a couple music videos. There's nothing all that deluxe about it.

Review: Dusty Rhodes and the River Band - First You Live

Label: SideOneDummy Records

Released: October 9, 2007

With the popularity of the whole folk-punk thing, whether it draws on American folk music like Defiance, Ohio or European folk like Gogol Bordello, it isn't surprising to see another band throw their hats into the ring, but it does beg the question, "What does this new band bring?"

Dusty Rhodes and the River Band tap into a variety of rootsy lines, from folk to country to zydeco to cabaret to gospel even. But instead of just throwing it all together in a ramshackle way or simply speeding it up and adding electric guitars, Dusty and company add the sloppy rock n roll of the Replacements and even enough arena rock to create a big sound ("Street Fighter" even borders on prog). Instead of pulling it off in a traditional manner, they bring their old influences into the present and create what is essentially a rock album with a roots feel. As they incorporate all of these influences, it is the folk nature behind it all that makes First You Live such a cohesive album.

Rating: 7/10

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Review: Seizure Crypt - Hello My Name Is Madness

Label: 316 Productions

Released: 2007

At their best, Seizure Crypt is a rehash of 80s New York hardcore, wavering between its earlier thin punk and later more metallic veins. Those high points are energetic, aggressive songs with the typical trappings of the genre: unbridled speed alternating with slow churning grooves, metallic riffs, growls, infectious anger. Both "The Deadend" and "Thankless" channel at least a little bit of Age of Quarrel-era Cro-Mags, but these are the exception. Most of Seizure Crypt's songs are mediocre hardcore tunes that fall well short of those they are emulating. Their dual vocal approach should serve to add some depth and color, but frankly, it's hardly noticeable. Sure, there are two voices, but they don't work together as a sum greater than its parts. There's just two separate singers, but nothing dynamic that results from them. To make matters worse, they throw in a bit Black Sabbath heaviness on "Herein the Problem Lies," but the song is so flat that it's stagnant next to the fast pace of the rest of the album rather than being a successful change-up. Inexplicably poor production courtesy of Don Fury, who's worked with a hardcore who's who from Agnostic Front to Youth of Today, may have hidden some strengths, but not likely enough to make this a must hear album even within the purist hardcore community. If Seizure Crypt were just a small scene local hardcore band, they might be a stand out, but not on the NYC or national stage. There's just too much competition and Hello My Name Is Madness doesn't offer enough to compete at that level.

Rating: 4/10

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Review: Clare and the Reasons

Label: Frog Stand Records

Released: September 4, 2007

Clare and the Reasons find their inspiration somewhere between the old pop standards of the 40s and 50s and a vaudeville show, but their music is only partially a revival because they bring their modern selves into the mix. It's clearly intended to have a retro feel, yet all the years of pop music that have intervened are not ignored. There is a shiny, happy veneer and there's a darker side with a kind of film noir feel beneath (that's a bit less obvious than it is on the cover art). This duality runs throughout, but is most prominent in Clare's voice which is sexy, but more coy on the surface than overt. They avoid being too slick and occasionally little oddities give them a sense of independence and rebelliousness. With The Movie, Clare and the Reasons have gone back through pop music's past and applied an off-kilter sense of modern indie music that turns it slightly away from center. The result is is an album with a subtly dark undercurrent that successfully plays to both the past and present.

Rating: 7/10

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DVD: Blackmore's Night - Paris Moon

Label: Steamhammer

Released: November 6, 2007

At its very best, this DVD hints at Spinal Tap's "Stonehenge." Of course, that's the last thing Blackmore and company were going for, because they actually take this stuff seriously. Sure, he could get away with this kind of fantasy crap when Ronnie James Dio sang with him, but Candice Night is no Dio and the music makes breeze rock look like speedmetal. Night comes out looking like a young Stevie Nicks, but her sappy demeanor coupled with the dull, overwrought songs quickly dispels that illusion. Night isn't a strong singer by a long shot and while the others seem to be entirely competent players, they are no more interesting. I think Blackmore's Night would like us to believe that they've wedded renaissance music with rock, but if that is in fact their goal, they're sorely lacking on the rock end of that marriage. This makes pretentious nonsense like the Trans Siberian Orchestra look like real rock n roll. I guess I should have seen it coming when the package looked like the Lord of the Rings special edition DVDs!

Rating: 2/10

Just as a funny aside, Candice Night made an appearance at the Spoutwood Farm Fairie Festival in 2007. I've taken my kids to this thing and it's basically like a Star Trek convention for fairie fanatics. Yep, people over the age of 10 dressed like fairies and wizards and trees and other goofy stuff. If that's your thing, fine, but it certainly doesn't bode well for good rock n roll. Here's a silly video from the festival. Ms. Night makes an appearence about 3:15 into it.



Oh, one more thing. If someone would like a copy, I have one to give away. Contact me (there's a link in the menu to the left) if you're interested. First come, first served.

Review: Chuck Dukowski Sextet - Reverse the Polarity

Label: Nice and Friendly Records

Released: October 16, 2007

Those with a superficial appreciation of Chuck Dukowski's old (and considerably more famous) band, Black Flag, will be rather shocked to hear his new material. However, anyone with a deeper understanding of Black Flag will see CD6 as a logical progression. Black Flag was, after all, essentially a psychedelic band. Not in the sense that they sounded like Sgt Pepper's or the Seeds even, but in the sense that they were mind-altering. And that is the very quality that persists in CD6.

Reverse the Polarity is a more cohesive affair than "Eat My Life," CD6's last release, but that does not come at the expense of its manic power. The rhythms run across rock, jazz and blues and along with Dukowski's fluid bass lines manage the album's energy while horns and the wild play of new guitarist Milo Gonzalez raise the stakes to a mind-bending level. Gonzalez may be the factor that really pushes this album to a new level. Not only are his trippy riffs deceptively strong, but he also brings a consistency that gives the album better flow than their first album. The really striking thing about CD6 though is Lora Norton's voice. Her rich, dynamic voice is both sultry and frenzied and it's so striking that it makes the music more accessible without leveling its emotional peaks.

CD6 has created quite a masterpiece of real psychedelia. Its sense of abandon drives it to the edges of sanity, yet it is grounded in a simplicity that reflects the DIY punk ethic out of which it has grown. There are plenty of bands that are tapping old psyche energy, but none are able to truly capture that spirit and release it in a current sound in the way CD6 has.

Rating: 8/10

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DVD: Kiss - Kissology Vol 3 1992-2000

Label: VH1 Classic Records

Released: December 18, 2007

Frankly, I expected the third volume of the Kissology to be the least essential. While the Revenge tour material was likely to be decent and the Unplugged reunion with Ace and Peter shouldn't be missed, the rest followed them through their years of touring with the make-up back on and the stage show back in all its supposed splendor in what can only be explained as an attempt to milk both their first generation fans for another go around as well as a new brood of mesmerized adolescents. I mean didn't they bring back Eric Singer at one point and have him put on the cat costume?

So, my hopes were low, but I had forgotten how exciting the Unplugged performance was and how that electricity extended into the initial reunion tour in 1996. Whether it was a money-grubbing scheme or not, they did bring their best and those performances show it, particularly the MTV VMA awards show under the Brooklyn Bridge. Disc three shows them at their worst (at least since the Elder) as everyone but Paul seems to be going through more of an ordeal than a good time. To Paul's credit, despite Kiss' numerous blatant money-making ploys, he seems to have always tried to adhere to the old Motown model of making a fortune by making the best product possible. However, his audience had become nostalgic middle-aged guys, evidenced by the crowd shots (did you see that goofball with his one sleeve rolled up to show off his the Kiss Army tattoo?) and that almost never produces good rock n roll.

Disc four was a nice surprise. It's Kiss' earliest filmed performance from December 1973. Why wasn't it included on Vol. 1? In typical Kiss fashion, they're more concerned with presentation than anything else and it was felt that the footage was too raw to kick the project off. It ended up being a good decision. Kiss, love them or hate them, had a long, successful run and it would be sad to see it end with a farewell tour where their hearts weren't entirely in it (once again with the exception of Paul). After the waning energy of the Farewell Tour show from 2000 which shows them as innocuous as apple pie (though not nearly as good), it's nice to be blown away by how shocking they must've been 27 years earlier. Can you imagine having been there?

None can compete with the first volume which finds Kiss first hungry to succeed and then at their peek where they still believed that the best way to make money was to produce a quality product, but Vol. 3 really does have some essential moments, even for the cursory fan.

Rating: 7/10

DVD: Kiss - Kissology Vol 2 1978-1991

Label: VH1 Classic Records

Released: August 14, 2007

I'd be surprised if anyone expected the Kissology installments to get better as they progressed just because the band clearly peaked during the period covered by Vol 1. I didn't find it odd that Vol 2 didn't have the thrill of the first one, but I was surprised at what a step down they took in the 80s. I really don't remember it being quite that bad. Where they were once innovators (as performers, not musicians), they were followers during this second period and while they brought in several more skilled players during this time, they became a great example of why the best technical skills aren't always what gets the job done.

While they may not have been able to survive with Ace and Peter any longer, Eric Carr, Vinnie Vincent and Bruce Kulick all exemplify why some bands are better off with less technically proficient players. There is no doubt that Carr and Kulick and even Vincent were better technicians, but the resulting cleaner sound was generally as dull as the new hair metal glory they were chasing.

After the Creatures of the Night material, there is little here that needs to be seen by anyone not blinded by a mindless love of Kiss. Nostalgia did make me want to see Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park again, but good sense made me turn it off and leave it in the memories of my Kiss-obsessed childhood. The unmasking on MTV may seem like a big moment in rock history, but it doesn't have any heart like the reunion did in the next decade even if both were strictly about maximizing their profits.

The make-up may have run its course, but once Kiss took it off, they also became followers, walking through the hair metal door that they may have opened, but that they had previously avoided walking through by being uniquely Kiss. Their music never broke down any barriers like their performances did, but through most of this volume, even their performances weren't over the top.

Like the other volumes, it is a nice package for the money (probably due to their marketing teams cost benefit analysis), but it isn't essential for anyone except die-hard fans.

Rating: 5/10

Review: The Wildbirds - Golden Daze

Label: PRC

Released: August 14, 2007

The Wildbirds draw on a variety of late 60s and early 70s influences on Golden Daze. At times they turn it into their own sound, but at other times, they filter it through more recent regurgitations, most prominently the Strokes.

The first few tracks on Golden Daze get old quickly. The driving rhythms of 70s hard rock mix well with the ringing guitars, but the whole package, particularly the vocals, gets there via the Strokes rather than the Wildbirds' own path. However, "It's Alright Now" marks a change in the album. It's low fluid bass line, airy vocals and fuzzy riffs tap directly into the trippiness of 60s psyche. From that point forward, the band finds a sound that filters the retro sound through themselves rather than some band that taps into the same vein. That isn't to say that we hear no more of the Strokes on the album, because they're still prominent, but even their influence passes through the Wildbirds' own creative spin and a healthy dose of chaos to keep the album from feeling too settled.

The Wildbirds' trouble isn't their choice of influences. From the Velvet Underground to the MC5 even to 70s arena rock and even to the Strokes, they bring it all together in a cohesive package. The real difficulty is when they wear those influences on their sleeve. When they inject enough of themselves into the sound, the result is a top-notch modern take on a bit of the past.

Rating: 6/10

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Review: Love and a .45 - Too Blonde For You

Label: Cheapshock Records

Released: November 5, 2007

Here's a short list of some of the bands I can hear in Love and a .45's music: Bad Religion, Rancid, Hole, Avail, Face to Face, a bit of the Replacements, even. The thing they all have in common is that they're American. What's odd is that Love and a .45 isn't. They're British. That's not a bad thing in its own, but it is indicative of the band's biggest problem: they can't really find their own voice.

That being said though, Love and a .45 does do some good things. First, they have a very good sense of hooks, making them a solid pop punk band. While most pop punk today seems to err on the side of emo, with whiney singers and cry-baby Sally songs, Love and a .45 stay clearly on the punk side of the line. They tend to be a bit too clean a bit too often, but even then, they certainly aren't sappy. When they're looser and grittier, they're able to dig into the song more and the result is some very good punk rock.

The sound definitely benefits from Kate Moritz's voice. She maintains a sense of melody, but keeps the rough edges that play into the album's high energy level. On occasion, she also shows that she can take the edge off, but never overuses the smoother side of her voice. At the opposite end of her spectrum, she proves to be a very good screamer, an art form all its own. She also uses this upper limit of her vocal power at only the right times.

Too Blond For You is not going to break any new punk rock ground, but it does avoid blurring the line between pop punk and emo. It would be nice if it had a better defined identity, but it thankfully hits all the hooks, showing that the price of pop isn't always the music's edge and energy.

Rating: 6/10

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Review: Thrice - The Alchemy Index Vols I & II: Fire & Water

Label: Vagrant Records

Released: October 16, 2007

Some bands seem to have potential, but early on, it's unclear whether they'll fulfill that. When I first heard Thrice open for Hot Water Music at the 9:30 Club back in 2002, that's exactly the way I felt about them. The live show was dynamic and energetic, but the two studio albums were trying too hard and the result was disjointed and messy. They certainly had the potential and the big ideas for their own sound, they just hadn't brought everything together yet.

Five years later, Thrice has shown that those weren't just random ramblings on their early releases. They were in fact up to something big and that something begins to really pan out on these first two volumes of The Alchemy Index. The first two of the four EPs that make up their concept album about the medieval elements focus on Fire and Water.

There may not be a better explanation of the success of these volumes than the one-word descriptions that easily came to mind with each. Fire simmers, burns, explodes and ignites. It is the heavier of the albums and its churning rhythms and chunky riffs scorch the ground between hardcore and hard rock. Fire finds the band excelling at what they've been doing for years, turning up the heat enough to make it standout from its post-hardcore peers for both the standalone music as well as its ability to nail the concept.

Water is new ground (or sea) for Thrice. It's very fluid and moves in waves. It's much more low-key, but like water itself, probably more than fire. It is easy to become enveloped in the ebb and flow of its soundscapes which will carry you, pull you under, let you up. It's a cold sea, with ambient electronics and quiet echoes and the very distinct sense of the lapping waves on the surface. Sometimes the waves are big and heavy and others they are calm and gentle, but they are always present. Water's musical pictures are painted with a palette that includes Pink Floyd and King Crimson, but also colors that are distinctly Thrice.

On both EPs, the song titles hide nothing about their theme and in that sense, they may border on telling rather than showing their purpose. The music is never so blunt, yet leaves no more doubt about what it has to say. Concept albums are always a tricky game that can lead even good bands astray. Thrice, however, may have found their true calling with an album that is brilliant, challenging and listenable, a trifecta seldom achieved.

As if making a great record wasn't enough, Thrice is donating a portion of their proceeds to Blood:Water Mission which partners with local villages to build sustainable wells for the thousands of Africans without access to clean water. As little as one dollar can provide water for one person for one year. You can't beat that, so check out their site.

The band will follow this release up with a companion double EP in 2008. Obviously, it will address the elements of air and earth.

Rating: 9/10

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Review: Pomegranates - Two Eyes

Label: self-releassed

Released: 2007

Pomegranates have crafted an EP that knocks on the doors of Casiotone indie pop, pop punk and everything in between. The first few bars of "The Children's Progress" sound an awful lot like Postal Service, but before you can get settled into that, it takes a turn down a crooked post-punk street. They follow that with the core of their indie pop sound. There are more layers than it's worth counting, because the place they meet is so satisfying it doesn't matter how they got there. Just when the sweet melodies lull the album into complacency, ringing guitars and quirky rhythms keep everything from falling into that misplaced comfort.

Two Eyes is the kind of record that shakes you, but gently. As it meanders from happy to dark, from melodic to noisy, it avoids typical pop conventions to invent its own direction. Such endeavors often spell disaster, but not here. Pomegranates have found a way to make the gentle every bit as wild a ride as many more jarring albums. Even after multiple listens, I'm still not quite sure how they managed that.

They've already recorded their full-length debut, due out in Spring 2008 on Lujo Records.

Rating: 8/10

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Review: Sound Neighbors

Label: Smithsonian Folkways

Released: October 23, 2007

When listening to a Smithsonian Folkways release, it's important to keep in mind that their mission is far different from a strictly commercial label. Their eyes aren't on Billboard, but on culture. There is always a clear educational goal on their albums that is incidental at best when it exists elsewhere. Still, they must straddle the often not insignificant gap between education and entertainment and they do it with far more success than could possibly be expected.

Considering the difficulty of their task, Sound Neighbors, Smithsonian Folkways' collection of contemporary music from Northern Ireland, is successful, but is also a bit of a mixed bag. It is a bit misleading that it claims to be "contemporary" music in Northern Ireland when in fact it is largely traditional music performed by contemporary artists. I had the expectation that it might tap into more than just the folk scene in Northern Ireland and give a broader picture than a single genre, even as integral as folk is for the Irish. Because of the narrow focus, it lacks the broad appeal that might make it more palatable to those of us who aren't passionate about Irish folk.

The collection's strength lies in it's ability to capture current groups making authentic traditional music. The recordings are warm and they take you to the pub or the fireside; they bring both the joy and the melancholy of the country; they are very much alive, much like the culture of Northern Ireland that has survived so much adversity. While some tracks are more accessible than others, there are no miscues and each contributes to the album's snapshot of a increasingly hopeful though still sometimes somber people. Tommy Sands' "There Were Roses" is a standout. In a song about sectarian violence that cost two families a loved one each, Sands recognizes the common human experience of beauty. It comes as no surprise that Sands has worked with Pete Seeger, because his protest is a very human one which sees that people have been divided against each other, against love and against even their own best interests. It is this recognition that brings hope and it is this hope that makes this music, which is a vital part of American music history as well, even more important today.

With Northern Ireland in a position to puts its violent past behind it, this compilation shows why we feel such a close connection to this peace versus other potential accords throughout the world. The Irish musical tradition is ultimately our own, whether we are Irish or not, and at least subconsciously we all have an affinity for these people and a particular interest in an end to their plight. While you may not care for Irish folk music in its purest form, Sound Neighbors provides a good education about the musical roots of something you do like, no matter what that something is.

Rating: 8/10

DVD: Paul McCartney - The McCartney Years

Label: Rhino

Released: November 13, 2007

Like Paul McCartney's post-Beatles career, this collection is erratic. Some of it is amazing, some is trite, some is timeless and some is dated. The first disc is by far the least interesting. While some of the very early classics are on there, the videos generally show Paul's escape to a pastoral life that may have been very refreshing for him, but makes for dull music videos. The second disc picks up with the shallow visual interpretation of "Pipes of Peace," but also contains a lot of McCartney's best solo work, from the Flowers in the Dirt singles on. Plus, there's a really interesting tour of Abbey Road studios from Paul as a bonus.

The real gem is disc three, the live shows. It includes 1976's Rockshow, excerpts from his amazing Unplugged appearance, his Super Bowl show and "Let It Be" at Live Aid. While it would have been nice to see the whole Unplugged show, the commentary on that set as well as Live Aid went a long way to make up for it. The real gem on this disc though is his headlining gig at Glastonbury in 2004. Thirty-five years and so many sappy silly love songs later, he shows that he's still quite relevant, particularly with a version of "Helter Skelter" that he may just steal back from Charles Manson.

Because McCartney's solo career is imperfect, this DVD too is imperfect. However, the highs are high enough to carry it and the live performances show that McCartney isn't the lightweight that he's often accused of being. In addition to being very comprehensive, the restored original films look fantastic and the menu gives you the opportunity to view the videos chronologically or in McCartney's hand-picked order. Obviously, it's a must-have for McCartney fans, but the collection also has a lot of value for anyone who appreciates McCartney's career.

Rating: 8/10

Review: Grayceon

Label: Vendlus Records

Released: February 14, 2007

Prog rock's faults aren't usually related to technical skill at any stage of the process, from writing to playing to producing. In fact, the genre's greatest difficulty stems from its artists being too good, too musical. Prog bands have a tendency to lose the emotional connection with their audience that is essential in rock n roll. Sure, some bands were successful in incorporating pop elements and others just dummied everything down to nothing more than a grandiose version of pop, but so many of them still had that problem with emotion.

Grayceon is not purely a prog band, but their music, a successful amalgamation of metal, punk, classical and folk (particularly of the Eastern European variety), is complex enough to at least overlap significantly with prog. What Grayceon does that so often eluded even the top bands in rock's most complex genre is to simply connect with listeners. While prog plays at its audience, Grayceon plays too them. Their music, despite being the work of a trio, is every bit as complex, but it remains in a raw, emotive form than envelops rather than alienates the listener. Cello might not be a standard rock instrument, but it never feels like a novelty on this album. It's smooth lines are often juxtaposed with heavy, plodding guitar and wild percussion. Instead of taking those elements and streamlining them into a neat package, Grayceon allows them to remain loose and raw, giving the music both a chaos and freedom that feels more like a reflection of life than an esoteric musical exercise.

Grayceon's appeal is two-fold. First, their musicianship is so strong that their possibilities have few boundaries and second, they still play music that is very human and easy to take to heart. If that's not enough, this four track album has songs of 12 1/2 and 20 minutes in length and neither gets tedious even for a second. Few bands can say that whether they dabble in prog rock or not.

Rating: 8/10

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Review: Brian Dewan - Words of Wisdom

Label: Eschatone Records

Released: November 13, 2007

Clearly, some novelty records are just silly and others are, at least on some level, actually quite serious. Words of Wisdom is certainly of the more serious variety. That's not to say that it isn't light-hearted, just that it has a real purpose.

Brian Dewan apparently found these songs in old schoolbooks, garage sales, attics and basements and some date back 200 years. While the songs themselves seem rather traditional, the performances with their odd instrumentation (autoharp, electric zither, organ and accordian) and Dewan's quirky delivery, are anything but. Dewan sings these peculiar little lost pieces as if he's singing to children and perhaps it is with a child's innocence that they are best approached. Still, the topics are at times dark like a Grimm fairy tale. In a sense, Dewan plays this like Berl Ives with a dark side.

Words of Wisdom is not for everyone. It's certainly not slick or pop-oriented and makes no effort to fit into any mold. Even for those who will find his folk oddities interesting, it won't be in constant rotation. Nonetheless, it's an healthy diversion into some unknown folk music that Dewan is able to justify with his silly, yet somewhat compelling recordings.

Rating: 6/10

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Review: The Mystix - Blue Morning

Label:

Released: October 9, 2007

While the resumes of some members the Mystix may look impressive (Jerry Lee Lewis, Ben E King, Peter Wolf, even studio work at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals), don't be fooled. This is a group of session players, not a real band. They do play well together as session players often do, but there is little originality or real heart in the music.

Sure, Jo Lily's voice is perfect for their light blues and it's hard to find any technical fault in the guitar parts or the rhythm section. The trouble is, the blues shouldn't be perfect. That's its beauty and the Mystix rob it of that. A few tracks do come off better than others. "Change in Jane," for instance, is more of a ballad than it is straight blues, but they drop a bit of emotion on it and it's believable. Then they follow it up with "New Orleans," a song so chock full of cliches that I suspect they've only been there as tourists. That really illustrates their biggest problem: They do what's expected of them. There are no surprises on Blue Morning. Even though everyone in the band plays at a level where they could take off at any time, they choose instead to play it safe.

For those that have some fondness for bluesy pop and don't want any challenges, the Mystix are for you. They're the Fabulous Thunderbirds without the heart or the charm. They're George Thoroughgood without a sense of humor or a real appreciation for the emotive nature of the blues. I'm sure this album is for someone, but not me.

Rating: 4/10

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Review: Dartz! - This is My Ship

Label: Deep Elm Records

Released: November 13, 2007

Dartz! mix agitated math rock with a punk edge and British quirkiness (or is it quirky Britishness?). They produce songs whose layers are the many moving parts of an efficient machine. The parts feel loose and rambling when they're really quite tight if you concentrate. But that's not the point. They're meant to be a ride. At some points the music is closer to something that may be sung in a bar and that belies the care that was surely taken in constructing it. Even the angular guitars, bass and drums have a certain pop appeal that adds to their accessibility. The whole thing barrels along, but not at a single breakneck pace. The time changes keep the whole thing slightly off-balance.

While there is a certain post-punk/new wave influence on This Is My Ship, this isn't simply the common hipster new wave revival that flies off the shelves. It has all the pop quality of the big sellers, but mixes it with more challenging fare on another level. Depending on which level you choose, this can be easy or difficult, but either way it's rewarding.

Rating: 8/10

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DVD: Rat Skates - Born in the Basement

Label: Kundrat Productions

Released: December 11, 2007

Born in the Basement is original Overkill drummer Rat Skates' documentary about the early days of thrash metal, from its punk rock and New Wave of British Heavy Metal roots to the days of its major label success. While there is some mention of other thrash bands like Metallica and Slayer, Skates focuses his attention on his own scene in NYC. And that focus is narrowed even further, because the documentary is really just an extended interview with Skates himself interspersed with video and stills. That limits the film's breadth, but also allows it dig deep into its limited subject matter and touch on details and bands that are likely unknown to anyone who wasn't there.

Because the film only shows the perspective of one man, albeit one who was as thoroughly involved in the birth of thrash as anyone could probably be, its total truth comes into question. At times, Skates almost seems to imply that his hard work and go-for-it approach were the primary factor in Overkill's and thrash's success. It's difficult to tell if he's trying to overstate his role or if this is simply the result of the same personality that drove his success the first time around. The production is amateur, but it would likely seem disingenuous to make a slick film about the DIY ethic.

Despite a few obvious weaknesses, Born in the Basement has plenty of real value. It provides a view into just how much effort was involved in making the music that many of us felt so close to at the time by making us privy to everything that happened behind the scenes. These guys worked like crazy for something they loved, regardless of whether it would ever pay off. It also shows how things have changed. Gone are the days of the Xerox machine. They've been replaced by the advent of iTunes and Myspace. While there are still bands that put their own album art together and screen print their own shirts, they do so by choice. Skates and his peers did it out of necessity.

Rating: 7/10

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Review: Sebastian Bach - Angel Down

Label: Get Off My Bach/MRV/Caroline/EMI

Released: November 20, 2007

In light of the number of 80s hair metal has-beens trying to cash in on a sadly nostalgic public, I didn't have tremendously high hopes for Sebastian Bach's latest, his first album in eight years. The upside of this record is that Bach didn't entirely bow to the past. From the opening track, it's pretty clear that Angel Down isn't just a cash-in on the sound of the first and most successful Skid Row album. It's a pretty heavy affair that taps more into his Slave to the Grind-era work along with some of the churning crunch of metal's more recent practices.

The downside is that while the songwriting and playing is soild, it's also largely uneventful. There were five tracks that Bach didn't contribute to as a writer and he wrote the rest...with help. Unfortunately, that help streamlined everything into a very generic hard rock format. What do you expect when the producer co-wrote four tracks and another one got "help" from Desmond Child who wouldn't know innovation if it hit him over the head. Even the songs written by band members don't show any desire to establish their own sound rather than just rely on Bach's voice and waning starpower. As I got further into the album, I became hopeful that he may have forgone the ballad. You can imagine my disappointment when "By Your Side" began. On top of the writing, the band is tight, but not all that enthusiastic. Technical skill is seldom a substitute for actually feeling the music and the difference between those two becomes more and more evident over the course of the album. The over-hyped presence of Axl Rose on three tracks was completely forgettable.

None of this made the album outright unlistenable, but it did keep it from reaching the level of a few other hard rock/heavy metal blasts from the past that came out this year. The one thing that really did the most to point out what's wrong with Bach's work is his cover of Aerosmith's "Back in the Saddle." If you're going to take the swing out of an Aerosmith song, you better have something good in its place. Bach and company have nothing. They play it entirely safe, straightening the shuffle right out and robbing it of its swagger. This really sums up the album well. On the songs that don't have to measure up to Aerosmith's prime, Bach's conservatism isn't as clear, but the cover lays it all out in the open.

Rating: 5/10

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Review: Crashdïet - The Unattractive Revolution

Label: Universal Music AB

Released: October 3, 2007

Even as an undercurrent to mainstream rock, a glam revival was one of the last things I expected to see. But this year has proved that a genre that was crumbling under its own bloated self twenty years ago might still have a little bit to offer. Sure, it's full of "reunions" where one original member is trying to cash in on past success that they often never deserved in the first place. The big glam event of the year, Rocklahoma, was a nostalgia fest at best despite its commercial success, because it focused on the has-beens. What it ignored was that some things going on in the glam scene have more to offer than just the past. The latest Hanoi Rocks is a change in tone, yet one of their best albums, the Gypsy Pistoleros have infused old sleazy hard rock with a Latin flair and now Crashdïet has shown that a little youthful energy goes a long way even when rehashing the stupidity of a shallow genre.

Silly stage names and umlauts didn't bode well for Crashdïet and while there's nothing musically new about The Unattractive Revolution, it's clear from the opening track that they have enthusiasm for what they're doing. Granted the revolution is a fake and the lyrics, while pretty literate by hair metal standards, are an inane treatise on hedonism, but that does little to interfere with their high-energy rock experience. At their best, they mix the heaviness of metal with the swagger of sleaze, walking a line that most of their predecessors never attempted in lieu of the slick soulless formula. They do get off track at times, sounding a little too much like Motley Crue here (minor flaw) and drawing a little too much from Bon Jovi there (major flaw), but these moments are the exception rather than the rule. It may be of note to some that Mick Mars helped out on two tracks, but his skills being what they are, it isn't really noticeable.

While I don't think you can trade intoxication for salvation as Crashdïet would propose, you can trade passion, even somewhat misplaced, for a new sound...at least sometimes. For whatever reason, Crashdïet gets away with it on The Unattractive Revolution. If you like to spend a lot of time in the superficial world of glam, Crashdïet is a much better alternative than the Bang Tangos and Faster Pussycats of the world who stake their claim to the past on one original (often old and tired) member.

Rating: 6/10

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Review: Tia Carrera - You Are the War 7"

Label: Arclight Records

Released: 2007

Over the course of rock history, "Louie Louie" has been covered countless times. Its simplicity and infectious hook make it an easy task for even the most pedestrian bands. On the other hand, to my knowledge, only one band has covered Lungfish's "You Are the War." There's a few reasons: Lungfish is fairly far outside of the mainstream, "You Are the War" is far from a pop song, and most importantly, how would one go about it? The song is a great example of Lungfish's seething, yet oddly subdued psychedelic art punk. Where to go with a song that already pushes the edges of sanity?

Enter Tia Carrera, a band who's captured the trippy energy of Hendrix and the musical insanity of instrumental Black Flag on other outings. Even for them, "You Are the War" had to be such a challenge. Where could they take it? Well, first, they take the three minute original and expand it to a twelve minute epic (splitting the song over both sides of the 7 inch). Then they take the psychedelic power that churns under the surface to the forefront, rounding off its angular punk edges with waves of fuzzed out guitar and organ. The extended interplay between these two over the thunder of the rhythm section is one of the best excuses not to do drugs. Who needs anything else with a freak-out like this? This is what true psychedelic music should be. This is the trip. And it just keeps going...and going...and going. Even having to flip the record won't break the spell they cast.

If I had any doubts remaining after hearing November Sessions and Heaven/Hell that Tia Carrera was the best heavy psyche act going, this EP, this one song, a cover even, dispels them. Tia Carrera take an almost uncoverable song, shake it free of its moorings and fly off on a new trip.

Rating: 10/10

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Review: Magnet School - Tonight...We Drink

Label: Arclight Records

Released: November 13, 2007

Some bands cover songs, others rename songs, but Magnet School has made an album out of a song. At no point do they play or even directly lift anything from "Bullet the Blue Sky," but its presence is profound throughout. Magnet School captures the blues, rock, psychedelia and even the passion of U2's classic and stretch it to album length. That they do so successfully is a tribute to both the song that seems to play in their heart as well as Magnet School themselves. Sure, other influences can be heard, most prominently the Foo Fighters, but none supersedes the one song they must love the most.

One of the best things about Magnet School is how they act as a unit instead of individual players. While it means that no one stands out, it also means that no one stands in the way of the total picture. Throbbing rhythms, ringing guitar and airy vocals work together in a single vision that runs from pop to cacophony.

While the point about "Bullet the Blue Sky" may seem to indicate that Magnet School are either creatively limited or senselessly experimental, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Tonight...We Drink, for all its boldness, is still an amazingly easy listen.

Rating: 8/10

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Review: Van Morrison - Still on Top - The Greatest Hits

Label: Exile Productions Ltd.

Released: November 6, 2007

In over 40 years of performing, Van Morrison has released records on a variety of labels. Until now, there has apparently not been a best of culled from his entire catalog. Still on Top is a single volume anthology of Van the Man's hits ranging from his time in the mid-60s with Them up to 2005's Magic Time. As such, it is a bit inconsistent as were the times.

The album is organized chronologically and while that isn't terribly creative, it avoids the trap of using some indecipherable organization into which so many anthologies fall. Without a doubt, the best material on the album comes early. There are no surprises in the track selection other than the absence of a few favorites like "Into the Mystic." The first batch of songs ends in 1973 and the next picks up in 1978. A lot changed in those intervening years, for Morrison and music in general. He still sounds great, but the songs, both the writing and arranging, date themselves, making that period, which runs up into the late 80s, his weakest. Morrison did return to form in the 90s and 00s and happily some of that is reflected on this collection, providing a strong finish.

Because it's only a single disc, there are plenty of great songs left out and because it tries to be career-spanning, there are some weaker ones included. However, this isn't some hack stumbling his way through the material, the is Van Morrison. So while there is a lull in the middle, it's largely only because he's reached deep into his soul for so many of the songs on either side.

Rating: 7/10

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Review: Paris Luna - City Lights

Label: Severe Records

Released: December 4, 2007

A superficial reaction to Paris Luna's City Lights might be to dismiss it as light folk rock. While it does have a few nods to bands best left forgotten like America, there is more behind it. Over the course of the album, Paris dabbles in folky pop, bluesy rock, light funk and soul as vehicles for her rich voice. That alone isn't going to sell anyone on this album though. The thing that makes it stand out is that while she sounds a bit like Natalie Merchant, she feels more like Chrissie Hynde. What does that mean, you ask? It means that her voice is technically strong, but more importantly, she has the ability to sing to you and not just at you. She has the ability to cross gender barriers and touch everyone. She makes her songs personal, not just to her, but to her audience as well.

She does make the all too common mistake of re-writing "Sweet Jane" on "Someday," her voice tends to call 10,000 Maniacs to mind a bit too often and she occasionally sounds like she could be an opener at a Dave Matthews show, but she also dabbles in Tom Petty and occasionally even conjures up the ghost of Zeppelin III (or at least the Black Crowes). The band's playing is generally sparse though bright and clear, but their purpose is clearly to support and they do that well. While her tendency toward breeze rock might be disconcerting at times, she always manages to dispel that lightness when her earthy voice reaches right out of the song.

Rating: 6/10

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Review: Gang Green - You Got It, Older...Budweiser, Can't Live Without It

Label: Metal Mind Productions

Re-issued: 2007

Metal Mind Productions has recently re-issued Gang Green's Roadrunner catalog on limited edition CDs. While this period may be just past their prime (1985's Another Wasted Night), they still find Gang Green in high gear. You Got It is a lot closer to its predecessor than I remembered and it remains one of the best albums in the skate rock sub-genre. 1989's Older...Budweiser finds the band drifting a little further down the metal path, but not to the point of being bloated and lethargic as many punk-cum-metal outfits had. The bonus tracks are none other that the hilariously-titled Van Halen parody, I81B4U EP. The only trouble is that it fits better with the punk-oriented You Got It, but that's just a minor complaint. Can't Live Without It, their 1990 live album and their last release for Roadrunner, was a first time listen for me and it reminded me of why I regret never having seen Gang Green live. All of their wild rebellious fun is captured here in all its glory. The album errs on the side of energy rather than quality, but I can't imagine anyone who would want it otherwise.

These three re-issues are a reminder of a band that may have been lost in the historical shuffle over the years, but not so easily forgotten by punks and skaters who grew up in the 80s. Gang Green should have no trouble resonating with a new generation of kids as, for better of worse, punk, skateboarding, beer, anger and fun seem to be as popular as ever.

Rating:
You Got It - 8/10
Older...Budweiser - 6/10
Can't Live Without It - 7/10

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Review: Led Zeppelin - Mothership

Label:

Released: November 13, 2007

Is there really such a thing as a comprehensive Led Zeppelin box? Yeah, it's nine discs and includes I, II, III, IV, Houses of the Holy, Physical Graffiti, Presence and In Through the Out Door in their entirety (I think we can let Coda and The Song Remains the Same slide). Of course that's the whole studio catalog, but it's pretty much all essential. I suppose, if forced at gunpoint, I could narrow it down to seven discs (the first five albums, the one great album's worth on Physical Graffiti and the best tracks from the final two releases), but to narrow it down to a double CD is ludicrous. Just looking at the track listing, I notice immediately that my two favorite Zeppelin tunes ("Tangerine" and "Out on the Tiles") are absent. Of course, I can't exactly figure out what I'd remove to make space for them though, because everything here is essential, the collection is just woefully incomplete.

Having established that Mothership falls well short of what would make up an essential Zeppelin collection, I do want to note that two things were really done right. First, the remastering (under the watchful eye of the three living members) is very good. I've been listening to these on vinyl, so this may be a step down for me, but for those who've spent their days listening to Zeppelin on CD, Mothership should prove to be a richer experience. Second, the package is beautiful and over ten pages of liner notes from David Fricke certainly adds value.

In addition to the regular two CD set, there is a limited edition set that also includes a DVD with a collection of live videos. The footage is decent and the performances are strong, but it is marred by the insertion of stills and cheap effects that interrupt the raw power of Zeppelin's performances. Still, the limited edition is only $5 more, making it a no brainer if you plan to pick up a copy of Mothership.

Rating: How do I rate this? The music is clearly 10/10 and while the package is a nice one, it isn't essential since you already own all the albums. You do have them all, don't you?

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Review: Lizzy Borden - Appointment with Death

Label: Metal Blade Records

Released: October 2, 2007

When I saw that Lizzy Borden had a new album coming out, I had mixed expectations. While I liked several of their early albums despite the silly theatrics, I began to lose interest in the late 80s and didn't even pay attention to their thin output over the last 17 or so years. Face it, odds are that a band who faded out of their prime and then had huge recording gaps in their catalog isn't going to put together anything all that exciting. Still, I had some hope and that hope was rewarded with Appointment with Death.

This is the first Lizzy Borden album in seven years (unless you count the Starwood album from 2004) and all I know is they must've been resting up for this one, because it flat out rocks with a nearly live energy. It isn't without its flash, especially some of the Maiden-esque dual guitar leads and Lizzy's still strong voice, but none of that feels gratuitous as it does with so many metal artists. While a lot of metal has become more angular, only using melody to counter dissonance and crunch, Lizzy Borden walks the fine line between metal heaviness and hard rock melody. With little exception, it is an 80s metal album, yet the band's enthusiasm keeps it from feeling old.

While it's solid, it may not brilliant musically and it certainly is not brilliant lyrically. The album's theme obviously revolves around death which is frankly rather silly. However, despite its attempt to bare Lizzy's dark side, it's more fun than anything else. There's no doubt that it's a one-dimensional album, but the band does thrive in that dimension. It's unusual for an album to not offer anything new and still be worthwhile, but Lizzy Borden has served up an exception with Appointment with Death.

Rating: 7/10

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Review: DJ Axel - Breakin' the Law

Label: Holden Records

Released: 2007

There is no real question that mash-ups are a novelty. Unlike a song that merely contains samples, a mash-up relies strictly on the strength of the songs that are colliding. True, there is some talent to hearing that two songs will work together and then mixing them into one. However, the result is never greater than the sum of it's parts. In fact, it seldom results in something that equals the quality of even one of its parts. Still, if the tunes going into the mix are good and it isn't forced, the result can extract a little bit of extra fun. DJ Axel doesn't nail all that he attempts, but he gets enough of them to make Breakin' the Law better than the average novelty album.

I don't think anyone would be surprised that Queen's foray into disco could work with Clipse on "Another One Bites the Last Time." Likewise, it's no shock that Bob Marley and Lupe Fiasco can find common ground with "Could You Be Kicked, Pushed & Loved." A little more surprising is Dj Axel's marriage of Jay-Z with GnR on "Guns N' Hovas" which actually adds a healthy dose of energy to Jay-Z's generally dull delivery.

Since fun is really the name of the game with this light fare, the best track here is "Control Myself After Midnight." As if it wasn't enough of a good time to get Judas Priest, LL Cool J and J Lo on the same page, DJ Axel also throws in a few samples from the hilarious cult classic Heavy Metal Parking Lot. Along with "Shorty Wanna Feelgood," which brings Motley Crue and G-Unit together, Axel demonstrates that he actually has some real love for metal (even if it doesn't go into any deep cuts). He has sufficient understanding to weave it in rather than simply throwing a few guitar riffs at a hip-hop song.

A few fail to bring the two songs together. "Lil' Brick House" is sometimes the Commodores and sometimes Lil' Kim, but never truly both. "What You Know About Drop Dead Legs" is never the hip-hop Van Halen that it should be and I certainly hoped for more when Peggy Lee met Ludacris on "Stand Up Fever." The difference between this and most mash-ups though is that falling short isn't the rule. While none really expands on anything the original tracks offer, they do succeed in bringing the songs together for a novel good time.

Rating: 6/10

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Review: Cheater Pint - Dark Side of the Pint

Label: Kinger Recordings

Released: September 11, 2007

Considering the album cover, a not-so-clever Pink Floyd parody, I had relatively low expectations for Cheater Pint. It didn't take long for the music to change that though. Cheater Pint play raw tunes that at times conjure up images of X, the Replacements, the Ramones, Cheap Trick and late-Angry Samoans even. The common denominator is that all of these influences strip away the pretensions of more complex bands, exposing honest what-you-see-is-what-get music.

The simple melodies are delivered with an edge that is engaging and even angry at times, but never bitter. The musicianship isn't what comes from a book or a school, but from playing together and knowing each other and its loose ramblings must work even better live. Like the cover implies, there's a drunken, devil-may-care nature to Dark Side of the Pint, but while that's often shakey ground, Cheater Pint manages to stay on solid footing throughout. This isn't an album that will change the face of rock music, but it may just remind you of why you started listening in the first place.

Rating: 7/10

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Review: Queensryche - Take Cover

Label: Rhino

Released: November 13, 2007

A cover here and there isn't a bad thing and often playing covers helps a band know itself. But there's a big difference between the occasional cover that pops up on an album or a live set and releasing a whole album of someone else's songs. This trend, similar to the current trend of Hollywood remakes, made me fear for the creative future of rock n roll until I realized that the bands making these albums are generally those whose creative force have either never been strong or are so far in the past that they may just as well not have existed. While most who can take honest stock of Queensryche today would argue that they are the latter, I tend to think of them as a band who was, despite a good deal of technical prowess, not all that interesting in the first place.

Needless to say, I didn't expect Take Cover to be very compelling and it wasn't. The covers on this album range from uninteresting to unlistenable. Of all the tracks, I suspected a band as emotionally crippled as Queensryche had the best shot at success with the deliberate coldness of Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine." Instead of allowing their weaknesses to work as a strength, they feebly attempt to make it emotional. Of course, they fail, but success wouldn't have been much better. It's as if they never understood the song in the first place.

When I saw "For What It's Worth" on the track list, I was surprised, but Queensryche did kind of fancy themselves social commentators. Unlike Buffalo Springfield though, they failed to recognize that love is a big part of social protest and their cover doesn't have a drop of it. In most cases, I'm pleased when a band tries to add their own flair to the interpretation, but there's one caveat: the change has to work. This one doesn't. A band with all the political import of the Candyskins was able to move me more with their lite jangle pop version.

They go on to rob "For the Love of Money" of its groove (it's sad when you're outdone by the Bullet Boys), "Innuendo" of its power (Geoff Tate is a sad excuse for Freddie Mercury and he's closer than any of his band mates are to their counterparts in Queen), "Synchronicity II" of its urgency (did they read that one right off of the sheet music?) and "Red Rain" of its poignancy (I didn't think it was possible not to be moved by that song). I don't think I can even bring myself to talk about their misdeeds on "Bullet the Blue Sky," but it certainly would have been bad enough without extending it past 10 minutes. Were they being serious with that one or was it supposed to be funny? Even though I couldn't bring myself to laugh, I hope comedy was their goal.

The bottom line is that a good cover should do more than just a reinterpret the music. It should show an understanding and, more importantly, a love for the song. Either Queensryche doesn't love the songs on Take Cover or they are completely incapable of conveying their love. Either way, this album is a failure even among all the failures that make up this sad new convention practiced by bands that are desperately trying to show their relevance.

Rating: 1/10

One Sentence Review: Queensrÿche - Take Cover

Listening to Take Cover reminds me that the word "good" cannot be made from the letters in "Queensrÿche," but the word "cheesÿ" can.

Review: Greenleaf - Agents of Ahriman

Label: Small Stone Records

Released: June 11. 2007

Despite all of its tackiness, the 70s seem to have provided quite a well to which bands seem to return again and again, some for a small drink before moving on and others for their very sustenance. Sweden's Greenleaf is among the latter group.

Stoner bands and their 70s hard rock influence may seem to be coming out of the woodwork these days, but while Greenleaf is among them, they stand just enough taller to be worth noting over many of the others. They do tap into the rich riff-laden grooves of early Wishbone Ash and fill out their sound with some heavy organ in the Deep Purple mold. Often the basic but catchy riffs are reminiscent of Ace Frehley. They even have that Zeppelin-like ability to push rather than punch. All of this would only add up to so much though if they were just a mix of the best 70s hard rock had to offer, but Greenleaf offers more. They have filtered the 70s through their own eyes, giving it their younger, hungrier excitement. Unlike their influences, they haven't become big and bloated and they offer a glimpse into perhaps what some of the great rock acts of the 70s were like before they signed their big contracts.

Greenleaf do not go down the road of extensive digital effects that plagues so many bands today. Instead they rely on the rich, full sounds of the old analog equipment. Not only does this tie into their retro leanings, it also helps beef up their sound. Their vintage sound with a youthful energy moves smoothly from bold to subtle and their quieter sections never feel like they're taking a break so much as laying plans for the passages to come. A superficial listen might assume that Greenleaf is merely a revival, but they're actually very much a modern band with an appreciation not for the past as a whole, but for the best the past has to offer.

Rating: 8/10

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Live: Niki Barr Band, Action Action, The Cult

November 12, 2007, Rams Head Live!, Baltimore Maryland

Surprises at a show are a mixed bag. Most often they're of the unpleasant sort when the band you go to see doesn't live up to your (often over-hyped) expectation. Every now and then though, there's a good one. On Monday night at Rams Head Live, I got three of them.

The opening act was the local Niki Barr Band. Most small bands would play this opportunity safe. It seems so seldom that a local band throws caution to the wind and goes all out in the shadow of a headliner with the Cult's stature. Surprise #1: Niki and company played their all too short set as though they were the main attraction. Their performance had that intangible strength that comes from confidence. It wasn't the songs themselves so much as how they dug deep to play them. Their infectious energy didn't go unnoticed: The next day, they were invited to join the tour for two more dates in Buffalo and Indianapolis.



Next up was New York's Action Action and their angular neo-new wave. This is a fairly overloaded genre right now, but theirs is a better than average take on it. They didn't get bogged down in the synth parts (even though each band member contributed his share of electronic accents) and had a particular knack for smoothing out the right edges at the right time with nice melodic riffs. That being said, their performance was safe and planned even to the extent that they took a Jagermeister break served by a pair of over-sexy young women. I know that's the tour sponsor, but I didn't go to the show for a commercial break and any inroads Action Action had made with me were largely undone at that point. As the set moved into the its final song, I was left feeling pretty empty. Good music just doesn't amount to much live without at least a little heart. Surprise #2: Instead of limping across the finish line as I was expecting at this point, Action Action instead lived up tho their name and then some. The song rose in manic intensity as it went on and the previously lackluster band exploded through their last minutes in front of us. I'm not sure what held them back during the rest of the set, but that final barrage made up for everything else (even the Jager commercial).



The Cult are one of those bands that I've always wanted to see, but just never have. Based on the strength of their last two albums, I had high expectations that they would not have lost much over the almost 20 years since their popularity peaked. The Cult delivered. After some minor sound adjustments, the Cult hit stride a few songs in. Their set focused on both the new album as well as their 80s peak, ignoring their 90s releases entirely (except for "The Witch" from the 1992 Cool World soundtrack). I fully expected them to be able to pull off the old tunes every bit as well as the new and they certainly didn't disappoint. Ian Asbury's voice was as powerful as ever as was his Jim Morrison impression. What's amazing is that, as contrived as it seems when talking about it, the raw power and sexuality that Astbury exudes seems natural. Likewise, Billy Duffy's mastery of every conceivable guitarist pose would seem like idotic rock star ego from just about anyone else, but Duffy turns it into a natural extension of his performance. There were no surprises in the songs themselves. The Cult was every bit as dark and mystical as their music has been at its best. "Edie (Ciao Baby)" and "She Sells Sanctuary," for instance, were every bit the surreal experiences I'd hoped they'd be. Surprise #3: What I didn't expect was how down to earth they were at the same time. Astbury engaged in enough genuine banter with the crowd to translate into a more fundamental connection than just a band on stage would ever allow. Between the regular set and the encore, they showed their video for "Tiger in the Sun" that showed the upheaval in Burma as the people struggle to free themselves from a repressive regime. I'm not fan of planned encores, but this was an impressive use the otherwise tired convention. Unfortunately, the poignant moment was largely lost on the Baltimore crowd who engaged in the typical chanting as if the band's return to the stage wasn't a forgone conclusion. The encore, "Holy Mountain" and the title track from their latest as well as the still-etched-in-our-brains "Love Removal Machine," was looser and more relaxed, but unleashed every bit as much power, providing a fitting finish to a set that moved over the crowd in waves of sonic magic. Their ability to be both otherworldly and populist, to use rock cliches without being cliched themselves and to have all power of their younger years shows that the Cult may just be a perfect rock band.

It was a night of surprises: a bold opener, a strong finish to a lackluster set and a human connection with a band of almost transcendental power. But one thing was not a surprise: The Cult still have it.

Review: Hellcity 13 - s/t

Label: Break a Leg Entertainment

Released: October 24, 2007

Going into this review, I was under the impression that Helsinki's Hellcity 13 was just another Scandanavian glam band, but unlike the rest, they don't just want to revive hair metal, they want to revive the 80s almost as a whole. There is hard rock bombast that runs throughout the album, but I thought of Dead or Alive as often as I did Def Leppard. In many ways, they are able to bring AOR, glam, goth and synth pop together into one retro package. The trouble is that this combination, as seemlessly as they pull it off, is making music out of the least common denominator. Sure, they occasionally muster up a little bit of swagger and once in awhile they might even make you want to dance, but mostly they're just a reminder that rock and pop had hit a creative low point in the 80s.

They capture the musical aspects of the Reagan-era at all levels, from the writing to the performance to the production, and for those who aren't bothered by the decade's shallow veneer, Hellcity 13 are entirely competent to help them live in the past. For those who want anything more, move along. That's as much as this album offers.

Rating: 4/10

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Review: The Flairs - Shut Up and Drive

Label: Bad Reputation

Released: November 2007 in Europe (June 13, 2006 in North America)

The Flairs play a brand of hard rock that falls somewhere between glam and punk. Shut Up and Drive is a peppy album of chunky rhythms and snotty vocals that seldom lets up. Aside from a 3/4 female line-up, it's nothing out of the ordinary. The music falls somewhere between the Donnas and the Pandoras, but lacks the light-hearted bluster of the former and the gritty toughness of the latter. Aside from their cover of Skid Row's "18 & Life," they are entirely listenable even if uninspiring. However, the cover is poor enough to drag the whole album down a notch. It does nothing aside from regurgitate the original only without the ability to sell its contrived nature as reality. There is nothing difficult about the Flairs and once the album is playing, there's no reason to turn it off. The trouble is there's nothing compelling to come back for another listen.

Rating: 5/10

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Review: Paul Robeson - On My Journey: Paul Robeson's Independent Recordings / Pete Seeger - American Favorite Ballads, Vol. 5

   
Label: Smithsonian Folkways

Released: August 28, 2007 (Paul Robeson) & October 9, 2007 (Pete Seeger)

On the surface, these two albums have little in common. But I happened to put them both on my iPod, and by hearing each artist's songs randomly mixed with Primal Scream and Pedro the Lion and Picastro (it was a "p" kind of week), I heard similarities that were wonderful and surprising.

Before I get to the review, I'm going to try to encapsulate two amazing lives in one paragraph. In addition to having a voice that's as full and rich as any in history, Robeson played pro football, earned a law degree, spoke multiple languages, acted in movies, and tirelessly fought for human rights. Seeger's reedy voice may be the antithesis of Robeson's, but Seeger has the same kind of powerful mind and personality that enabled him to accomplish things that are impossible for most of us to even imagine: he attended Harvard, served in the Army, protected the environment, and tirelessly fought for human rights. (Ironically, both men lost their own rights when they were blacklisted by the U.S. government during McCarthy's Red scare.)

They traveled in some of the same circles, so similarities in their music aren't that surprising. What's really interesting is the biggest difference between the two albums. Paul Robeson sounds like he's singing about the people he loves, while Pete Seeger sounds as if he's singing for them.

The spirit behind Robeson's work on these recordings is incredible and inspirational. Every song was recorded while he was blacklisted and unable to either work or leave the country. Each recording testifies to the strength of Robeson's conviction and character. But there's a problem. On nearly every performance, Robeson is accompanied by a talented, classically trained pianist. That would be fine if these were songs for concert halls and parlors, but most of these songs are about desperate and faithful people who struggled in the fields and fought in the streets. While Robeson's life at this time surely contained amazing amounts of both desperation and faith, the music here reflects very little of that.

The single exception is "Hammer Song," which was recorded in 1957 with Sonny Terry on harmonica and Brownie McGhee on guitar. Like all musicians who played with Robeson while he was blacklisted, Terry and McGhee ran the risk of losing their right to work in the music industry, but they wanted to make music with Robeson. And on this song, the only one that belongs in the bright daylight of the outdoors rather than the twilight glow of an Upper East Side mansion, Robeson made music whose passion shines.

Compared to Robeson, Seeger's voice is... well, it's awful. (That's not fair, of course, because pretty much everyone's voice is awful when compared to Robeson.) But the man has passion. Every song on the disc -- most of which are just Seeger and his banjo -- could've been recorded under a tree with a bunch of kids, outside a California farm with a crew of laborers, at a peace march in the South, or even in the twilight glow of an Upper East Side mansion. Seeger's performances exclude no one. He reaches out to every single person within singing range, and invites them to come hear some music.

American Favorite Ballads Vol. 5 is the last in a series of expanded CD re-issues of some of the most popular albums that Seeger recorded for Folkways between 1957 and 1962. Most of these songs focus on the American frontier, and they embrace everything from class war anger to drunken desperation. No matter how dreary the subject matter, though, Seeger is a masterful storyteller whose lighthearted touch provides balance to the often dark music.

Both On My Journey: Paul Robeson's Independent Recordings and American Favorite Ballads, Vol. 5 have an enormous amount of heart, but Robeson -- intentionally or not -- erected a barrier of intellectualism and refinement around his music. Seeger is the one who reaches his hand out and invites you to come in for a listen, no matter who you are or what you know.

Rating:
Paul Robeson, On My Journey: Paul Robeson's Independent Recordings: 6/10
Pete Seeger, American Favorite Ballads, Vol. 5: 10/10

Website (Paul Robeson)
Website (Pete Seeger)

Review: Agnostic Front - Warriors

Label: Nuclear Blast

Released: November 6, 2007

One of the earliest NYHC bands, Agnostic Front was also one of the first to cross over into metal back in the mid 80s. The 90s found them getting away from the heavy riffs and more into the singalong Oi! that influenced hardcore in the first place. Their latest release finds them returning to their early hardcore and crossover roots.

Warriors actually finds itself somewhere between the pure hardcore of Victim in Pain and its metallic follow-up, Cause for Alarm. Despite being almost 25 years since they first got together, Miret, Stigma and company are relentless on this album. Driving rhythms, chunky power chords and Miret's now deeper growl unleash AF's positive force. Their strength is still their self-reliance which came from the streets and stays with them to this day. Production courtesy of Miret's brother, Madball vocalist Freddy Cricien is crisp without toning down the raw power.

Agnostic Front has been able to pull off just about everything they've tried over the years from hardcore to metal to Oi! without raising questions about their conviction. Warriors finds them coming full circle back to their hardcore roots with a dash of metal to account for the other side of their early sound. They do it without missing a beat.

Rating: 7/10

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Review: Prize Country - Lottery of Recognition

Label: Exigent Records

Released: 2007

Prize Country's Lottery of Recognition comes off as a mix between the post-hardcore leanings of Fugazi and the dense hardcore of Quicksand. Or perhaps as the dark side of Hot Water Music. However, you describe it, their music is simply unrelenting. Its noisiness belies the band's tightness. They are riffy, but without any of the hard rock connotations that riffy typically implies. Instead, they are as odd and angular as the Fall or Bauhaus, yet nearly as heavy as modern hardcore. A melodic undercurrent adds texture to music that seems to be bursting at the seams throughout.

Prize Country have rightly focused on anger and emotion, allowing focus to fall upon their art as a whole, not its component parts in isolation. Like so many great rock n roll albums before it, Lottery of Recognition doesn't hold anything back. It's pure visceral, angry energy.

Rating: 7/10

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Review: Awake and Alert - Devil in a Lambskin Suit

Label: Five One

Released: September 11, 2007

Awake and Alert's music centers around Maya Peart's voice. She has great range and movement and is as dynamic and smooth as a jazz vocalist, but at the same time, her voice is down to earth as if she's singing right to you. Unlike many gifted singers, she also trusts her voice enough to let it sneak into and around the music rather than showing it off selfishly. That's what really makes Awake and Alert special. Peart's voice may be the core, but it never tries to stand alone. It works with the band and is inseparable from it.

Like the subtleties of Peart's voice, the music is surprisingly intricate when you listen closely. Blake Kimball's atmospheric echoey guitar has shades of the Edge and its interplay with the rest of the band is often delicate, but never safe. The music moves around a lot, with parts coming and going. They facilitate this by abandoning the standard verse-chorus-verse structure and instead packing a lot of music into average length songs. The various parts don't have clear boundaries, but transition smoothly, almost unnoticed. It's interesting that each great component becomes clear while something else great is occurring and they manage to fit it all in without overload.

Awake and Alert have managed to create something complex without being ponderous. If I had to peg it, it'd be indie rock, but that definition, as much of a catch-all as it is, is just too limiting. It fails to account for jazz and blues and their sheer ability to ignore barriers and go where the music takes them. It is living music that flows within itself like blood flows within the body.

Rating: 8/10

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Review: Papertrigger - Riot Lovers

Label: self-released

Released: 2007

Papertrigger's Riot Lovers EP is an odd pop record that does more than just dabble in cabaret music. It is dense and often organ-dominated with jazzy rhythms and a dark, seedy undercurrent. While they play it loose and perhaps even a bit sloppy, the album shows their innate sense of being a band instead of a group of musicians operating independently. They do tighten up a bit at times, but even the fuzzy, psychedelic guitar breaks of "Fox Hunting" don't stray outside of the album's musical motif. Any bits of polish don't constrain the album's random feel either. They are in particularly fine form as the dragging rhythms of "The Inner Party" pull on the crescendo that tries to soar as the song draws to a close. It is this tension that makes the music so vivid. As if the album wasn't a peculiar enough affair, they close with a quiet piano piece whose false ending segues into a hidden track. That little bonus sounds as though it could be straight out of a documentary about deep space. It's an finale that is about as open-ended as they come.

In a way, Riot Lovers has the same spirit as the Doors' version of "Alabama Song." Papertrigger takes a very un-rock style and make it rock in their own way, not by making it loud or throwing guitars at it, but by shaking up its core with their own quirky point-of-view.

Rating: 8/10

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Review: Long Distance Calling - Satellite Bay

Label: Viva Hate Records

Released: September 21, 2007

When dealing with any of the post-this-or-that sub-genres, you're almost always going to have music that is a challenge to even the most patient ear and largely inaccessible to most everyone else. There are, of course, exceptions and Long Distance Calling is one of them. Their strong layered approach can be spellbinding both with a quick listen or a critical ear.

Throughout Satellite Bay, Long Distance Calling creates layers ranging from ambient noise to metal crunch, varying the music by subtly adding and removing elements. The care taken in constructing their music is evident from the first track which takes five minutes to build from it's quiet beginnings to its heavy climax. A pop song is over in less time than Long Distance Calling merely sets the stage. In both the airy and the dense sections, each component seems to be encapsulated as a standalone object that is nonetheless integrated perfectly into the whole. The ambient noise, seemingly multiple layers of drums and bass, echoy and crunchy guitar layers and voice samples in lieu of traditional vocals come and go as the music swells and recedes. This approach relies very little on any but the most subtle melody.

Half way through the album, it could end without complaint, yet the two truly heavy songs are yet to come. "The Very Last Day" begins as an ominous war march that ultimately becomes a crushing heaviness and "Built Without Hands" compresses that dense sound even further. Just before the intensity becomes too much, Satellite Bay draws to a close in much the way it began.

Long Distance Calling calls on the work of a number of experimental bands, from Isis' droning weight to Explosions in the Sky's noddling expansiveness to Husker Du's controlled noise. In the end though, they've concocted these ingredients into something quite its own and that something both pushes the limits for those who would takes its path and carefully pulls along the less adventurous listener until they can't escape.

Rating: 9/10

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Review: Steve Grimmett - Personal Crisis

Label: Metal Heaven

Released: October 26, 2007

Time changes some things, but not all. This is certainly true of Steve Grimmett. The music hasn't taken any great strides, but time has tempered his once distinctive voice. Other than an occasional hint of modern metal (and I do mean hint), Personal Crisis doesn't explore any new territory. It is a fine mix of melody, tight riffs and solid 80s heaviness that crossed the Atlantic as the NWOBHM. Grimmett's voice, which certainly had its grating moments back in the Grim Reaper days, is toned down. While it isn't quite as distinctive, it is a lot more consistent, making the album more palatable than his past work. The band is capable of reaching technical heights, but never sacrifices the whole sound for the sake of the individual spotlight. While there may not be a truly new moment on the album, there's also not a dull one either as Grimmett and company rip through almost 50 solid metal minutes. For those who relish in the heavier side of 80s metal, this should be a treat, but don't expect to hear the future, because you won't find it here.

At this point, Personal Crisis is not available in the US, so you'll have to pick up the import.

Rating: 6/10

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Review: The New Dress - Where Our Failures Are

Label: Red Leader Records

Released: October (?), 2007

One of the best recent trends in punk rock is the burgeoning punk/folk (or punk/roots or punk/country) movement. While this may seem to have its roots in bands like Uncle Tupelo and the Violent Femmes, that's only partially true. Bands like This Bike is a Pipe Bomb and the amazing though little known Defiance, Ohio are at the forefront, but they aren't the only game in town. The latest band to fuse punk rock not with early rock n roll, but with its deeper roots is Brooklyn's the New Dress.

While some of the other bands have become so rootsy that they will likely alienate at least some listeners, the New Dress seems to strike a happy medium between accessible pop punk and the loose ramshackle folk whose spirit and technique they capture. Where Our Failures Are features nothing but two voices, of Bill Manning and Laura Fidler, and electric guitar. The simple guitar parts and lo-fi recording fit perfectly into the discord of their vocal harmonies.

The male-female vocal trade-offs at times butt up against each other like Shane MacGowan and Kristy MacColl's "Fairytale of New York," yet at others they work together in a strange out-of-sorts harmony. The influence of early Billy Bragg is clear even before the cover of "I Don't Need This Pressure Ron" comes up. They certainly have adopted some of Bragg's phrasing and simplicity, but more importantly, they have captured his ability to write very human social commentary.

It is their old time approach that focuses on feeling rather than technique that makes this plugged-in album more traditional than many albums with all acoustic instrumentation. They aren't a copy of the past. Like the best of their peers, they have brought the essence of the past into the present.

Rating: 8/10

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Purevolume

Review: Patty Winters Show

Label: Vacuous Pop Recordings

Released: October 29, 2007

This two song limited edition white vinyl 7" features two songs that straddle post-punk and indie pop. "You Are Wrong" contrasts quick rhythms and grating guitar with the low-key melancholy of indie pop vocals. At times, it has shades of Joy Division, but doesn't fully tap into the cold emotion that characterized that band. "You Can't Force People to Care" sticks more to the indie side, but edgy guitar crops up almost insidiously to poke at the superficial sweetness. The second track doesn't seem to explore its musical possibilities in the way the first one does, making it consistent, but unspectacular.

Rating: 5/10

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Review: Avenged Sevenfold - s/t

Label: Warner Bros.

Released: October 30, 2007

Avenged Sevenfold are one of those bands that makes me wonder what all the hype is about. It's not that they're bad, just that they don't seem to really separate themselves from the pack so to speak. Their self-titled follow-up to their major label break-though, City of Evil, both justifies my question about them and answers it.

The album jumps right into their metalcore bread and butter, but by the second track, they bring a sense of hooky melody that begins to show just why they may have a platinum record on their hands this time. They incorporate everything from hardcore to melodic hard rock to pop to classical. They even close with a country-tinged ballad that only works based on the strength of the rest of the album. Extremely tight throughout, they show that their music works with delicate string arrangements as well as harsh, aggressive rockers. They do have a miscue on "Lost." The song itself fits well, but no one who wants to be taken seriously should employ an effect that reminds anyone of a bad Cher song (you know the one). Still the album shows that Avenged Sevenfold graduated into being a versatile rock band that plays music big enough for arenas, not just another run-of-the-mill metalcore act. The music is certainly grand, but it's also fairly safe.

Other bands are out there taking their small sub-genre and making great big rock records. If bands like My Chemical Romance and Chiodos are the Queens of this generation, then Avenged Sevenfold are the Foreigner. That doesn't make them a bad band, it just means that they aren't pushing the limits of what a rock band can do. While MCR and Chiodos are both the present and the future, Avenged Sevenfold are simply the here and now, so enjoy them while you can.

Rating: 7/10

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Review: Remove the Veil - Another Way Home

Label: Facedown Records

Released: October 16, 2007

Unlike most of the Facedown stable, Remove the Veil takes it's cues from gritty hard rock, grunge and stoner rock rather than more technical metal. Interestingly enough, the album still fits well with the label's catalog. Their ability to use this in a powerful hardcore format sets them apart from their peers.

The album's nod to hard rock shouldn't be taken as an indicator that they're lite compared to other bands in the scene. Their down-to-earth riffs and heavy grooves make the album more accessible, but no less intense. Their use of vocal harmonies is reminiscent of the interplay between Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell that made Alice in Chains a stand-out in the 90s. Vocalist Mark Hendrix's voice does have a tendency to get witchy in the more frantic sections where he isn't harmonizing, but while it's grating at first, it settles in with the music over the course of the album. Unlike the cold technical riffs of their contemporaries, Remove the Veil mixes in southern rock licks that make a more direct connection that the esoteric noodlings that are so prominent today. They get a little too pedestrian on the title track which all but rips off "Wanted Dead of Alive," but they otherwise walk the line between melodic accessibility and sludgey heaviness with much success.

The result is an album that is equal parts Black Sabbath, Alice in Chains and generic hard rock with perhaps a dash of the Allman Brothers. Another Way Home maintains a consistent energy level across pace changes, giving it both punch and passion that easily connects with listeners.

Rating: 7/10

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Remove the Veil is currently on tour to support the album:

Oct 31 - Phenix City, AL @ Halloween Ho-down @ Champion's Den
Nov 2 - Elizabethtown, KY @ Reno Starks
Nov 3 - Herrin, IL @ Hitts
Nov 5 - Ocala, FL @ The Capitol
Nov 6 - Tampa, FL @ Transitions Art Gallery
Nov 7 - Homestead, FL @ Life Pointe Church Homestead, FL
Nov 9 - Mobile, AL @ The Mug
Nov 10 - Cleveland, GA @ Real Hope Fest '07
Nov 12 - Oklahoma City, OK @ The Factory
Nov 13 - Bartlesville, OK @ The Warehouse
Nov 15 - Memphis, TN @ The Dregs
Nov 17 - Douglasville, GA @ BBQ Fest '07 @ the 7 Venue
Nov 18 - Greenville, SC @ The Unknown Venue
Nov 19 - Kernersville, NC @ Creation Skatepark
Nov 20 - Berea, KY @ Berea Folk Center
Dec 1 - Greenville, NC @ Silver Bullet
Dec 2 - Raleigh, NC @ The Brewery
Dec 4 - Melbourne, FL @ The Melbourne Jaycees
Dec 5 - Winter Park, FL @ Island Oasis
Dec 6 - Ocala, FL @ The Capitol
Dec 7 - Buchanan, GA @ The Hangar
Dec 8 - Mobile, AL @ The Chiropractor Building
Dec 10 - Baton Rouge, LA @ The Darkroom
Dec 11 - Corpus Christi, TX @ The Compound
Dec 13 - San Antonio, TX @ The White Rabbit
Dec 15 - Stockbridge, GA @ The R.O.C.K. Show at First Christian Church
Dec 18 - Corinth, MS @ Cruzin' Cones
Dec 19 - Douglasville, GA @ The 7 Venue
Jan 1 - Fredricksburg, VA @ Revelation Fest
Feb 16 - Clyattville, GA @ WoodFest @ War House Of Prayer

Review: Fell Far Behind - Reaching the Red Line

Label: self-released

Released: September 18, 2007

There are bands that do most things right, but the few things they lack make all the difference between being good and lousy. Fell Far Behind is just such a band. They have many of the pieces in place: They're tight, they understand hooks, they're polished and the production on Reaching the Red Line is very good for a self-released album. However, they forgot to add emotion and they forgot to have original ideas. They play emo by the book and their only innovation (if you can call it that) is to bring the big guitar riffs of the 80s forward to the 00s. Like the melodic hard rock bands that influenced their approach, they too want to draw some of the energy from the edgier music of their time, water it down and pretty it up. While some songs do kick off with a burst of excitement, that feeling is short lived. They all quickly degenerate into dull repetition, sounding not just like every other song on the album, but every generic emo song on the planet. Mixing it up with a few ballads doesn't help them any more than it did their lackluster 80s forebears.

Fell Far Behind may well make it to the big time, but it will be for all the wrong reasons. They are easy and palatable, but never challenging, never even approaching the "red line" the title suggests. In a certain sense, they are good, but good at the things that can be learned, not the intangibles. Their music is carefully constructed, but only in an effort to mimic the vision of others. It's as if their heads are in the right place, but not their hearts.

Rating: 3/10

Website

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Review: Chain Shot - Black September

Label: Irish Voodoo Records

Released: October 31, 2007

Chain Shot plays hardcore like they don't often make it anymore. It isn't overly metally or technical, just fast, hard and angry. They forgo the indulgent solos and the now dime-a-dozen growls. Instead, they stick to the raw passion that made hardcore exciting in the first place. The sons aren't complex, but they have a structure that holds them together and keeps them from falling into chaos. Chain Shot does have a tough time getting a groove going and that's the biggest thing that separates them from top tier old school hardcore like Madball. They end being fairly one-dimensional as a result, but that isn't exactly the cardinal sin of hardcore.

Unfortunately, the production on Black September leaves a lot to be desired. The minor success it has in getting a generally good hardcore guitar sound is more than canceled out by overbearing drums. It's never good to be bludgeoned by the snare (yeah, I did say the snare, not the kick drum or the toms).

All in all, Black September is a visceral album that is meant to be a release of anger and energy. It isn't meant to be over-analyzed. While it won't change the face of hardcore, it is a healthy escape from the riffs, growls and breakdowns that dominate the genre today. Using Thomas Tew's pirate flag for the cover doesn't hurt either. Arghhh!

Rating: 7/10

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Review: Black Lips - Good Bad Not Evil

Label: Vice Records

Released: September 11, 2007

The Black Lips exude the dark undercurrent of lo-fi 60s garage rock, but unlike other revivalists, they haven't filtered it through the present. Good Bad Not Evil is a minimalist affair with a harsh, thin sound made up of tinny guitar, echo-laden vocals, wild, loose rhythms and production right out of some hole-in-the-wall studio 40 years ago. This album is as lo-fi as it gets and the technical skills displayed are nothing to write home about, yet Black Lips' pop sense shines through. Over the course of the album they tip their hats to early Who, country rock, early 60s AM pop, punk and psychedelia without straying from their course. This ability to capture moods and styles without much in the way of measurable skills shows an intangible talent that cannot be taught or acquired in simple practice. The hipster cleverness would derail most albums, but they actually turn that annoying quality into a mild comedic effect that squares off nicely against the album's subliminal darkness. There are plenty of revivals, but few have Black Lips' ability to recreate the past without being old.

Rating: 8/10

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Review: De Novo Dahl - Shout

Label: Roadrunner Records

Released: 2007

I'm gonna cut to the chase here. "Shout" is the biggest slice of musical joy I've heard since U2 released "Beautiful Day" seven years ago. The song bursts with unadulterated happiness. It's hooks and harmonies grab you right from the start. A tide of pop beauty rolls in on driving rhythms, infectious bass lines and waves of guitar, organ and voice and it flows out on low-key verses whose soulful vocals clear the way for the tide to return.

"Shout" acts as the mission statement for the EP (and perhaps the band as a whole), but the other two non-remixes don't give up any ground. They follow the same undeniable plan that makes the whole experience nothing short of exhilarating. Their mix of pop and soul in the vocals and keys with a rock edge, courtesy of a big guitar sound and an animated rhythm section, and the electronic details of the omnichord rocks as hard and passionately as the White Stripes, yet is as quirky and fun as Devo or They Might Be Giants. While the songs build from quiet to explosive, the actual energy never lets up, not even for a moment.

The second three tracks on the EP are remixes of the first three. While they do a few interesting things, the originals cannot be contained by their tricks and therefore the remixes never seem to capitalize on the strengths of the originals. The quality of the songs in their purest form makes the remixes expendable.

Let me leave you with one warning about this EP: If you play "Shout" really loud, be careful. You're liable to experience pure ecstatic joy.

Rating: 9/10

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DVD: U2 - Popmart: Live from Mexico City

Label: Island Records

Released: September 18, 2007

Popmart finds U2 at their most bloated. The set is absolutely huge and probably has enough lights to illuminate a mid-size town. The grand entrance with the band entering as a boxing entourage heading to the ring of a championship bout (with Bono as the fighter) all set to the tune of M's "Pop Muzik" is about as over-the-top as it could be. They had costume changes. At one point, they return to the stage in what appears to be a UFO. With all this superficiality, how could they possibly connect with the fans?

Certainly, they could reconcile this show with much of their 90s material with its Eurodance angle, but they can't avoid their older selves, the more organic U2 that saved the 80s from synthesizers and hairspray. They seemed to falter on these songs at first. "I Will Follow" gets lost in the lights. "Pride," a song that usually gives me cold chills, doesn't resonate in the way it typically does. However, by "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," they start to scale back some of the extremes of the show and let these songs stand on their own, the way in which they were intended. From that point on, they seem to reconcile the sheer size of the performance with the personal nature of their music. When the crowd sings along to "Sunday Bloody Sunday," it's downright moving. When Bono brings a girl from the audience on stage during "With Or Without You," he might as well have brought the whole audience up. It was that kind of universal moment. And hugging that girl was in sharp contrast to how he played to the cameras early on. Sure, I could have done without "Lemon," but in context, it worked. They sandwiched "Please" between "Bullet the Blue Sky" and "Where the Streets Have No Name" as seamlessly as if they all came from the same album. The one big disaster is the credits rolling over the last song, "Wake Up Dead Man," and excellent and unexpected choice by the band, ruined by the producers.

Popmart probably finds U2 at just about their worst. Amazingly enough, the show was still phenomenal. They found a way to marry huge, contrived sets and rock star bombast with music that makes real human connections. They reached out and touched tens of thousands in a way that bands struggle to in clubs that hold a few hundred. While this might not be their finest moment, it leaves little doubt that they are the greatest rock band since the Beatles.

Rating: 9/10

Review: Radio Moscow - s/t

Label: Alive Natural Sound Records

Released: February 27, 2007

Radio Moscow is a modern day power trio whose influence reaches back to the days when the sub-genre first reared its head with the likes of the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream. Radio Moscow don't ignore everything that's happened since the late 60s, but their influences don't stretch too far beyond that time.

The thick fuzzy sounds of Hendrix are the biggest influence on Radio Moscow's debut and like their mentor, they have that innate ability to really feel their music. They play as a band not as individuals. The vocals aren't superb, but they don't hold anything back either and while no one is a great technician, the songs' riffs and grooves are monsters. They also draw some of their fat guitar tone from early ZZ Top and Wishbone Ash (when both were good) and throw in some of the bluesy trippiness of LA Woman-ear Doors for good measure. The acoustic blues of "Lickskillet" is as good as anything this side of Zeppelin III. Radio Moscow also brings a bit of swing to their rock n roll swagger, giving the album very subtle hints of jazz. In general, Radio Moscow plays loosely, but hold everything together in a strong groove. But the album's finale, "Fuse," just rips loose and instead of drawing to a close, they explode! It makes the whole album seem like a live set rather than a studio album.

This is blues rock as it was meant to be played, not as it was watered down by the hairspray-conscious acts of the 80s. The production, courtesy of the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, is deliberately raw and the album has a decidedly live energy. However, unlike a lot of lo-fi recordings, this one is masterfully done, rough but free of noisiness and clipping.

If this was Radio Moscow's third or fourth album, I'd still be impressed with both their energy and their execution, but this is the debut! It may be a revival, but it is most certainly worthy of the past into which it taps. It's down to earth approach makes it easily accessible for anyone who simply likes their rock n roll a little on the raw side.

Rating: 7/10

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Review: A Plea for Purging - A Critique of Mind and Thought

Label: Facedown Records

Released: October 2, 2007

Twenty years or so ago, most hardcore bands relied on raw aggression rather than technical prowess to drive their point home. Over the intervening years however, likely under the influence of metal as much as anything, many hardcore bands developed more and more chops. The result has been a mixed blessing, with some bands pulling it off and others failing dismally, but no one has upped the technical ante like A Plea for Purging does on A Critique of Mind and Thought.

From the start, there is little question that the album will be brutal. Wailing guitars, bludgeoning rhythms and growling vocals make it clear that this is not to be taken lightly. However, all elements throw themselves into the mix without direction and the result has no sense of cohesiveness or structure.

A Plea for Purging are trying to merge the musicianship of prog-metal with the raw energy of hardcore. It seems like a noble effort, but never comes together. Andrew Atkins is not a particularly gifted singer (or growler rather), but he throws everything he's got into each song. The dual guitar approach from Blake Martin and Lyle Paschal on the other hand sounds like it was recorded for an instructional video. The transitions between the Maiden-esque guitar passages and the hardcore substance of the songs is often clumsy, adding to the troubles.

Occasionally, especially over the second half of the album, they do manage to bring the pieces together into a singular vision, where the riffing is scaled back and the songs don't seem so forced and awkward. These are the moments that offer hope that A Plea For Purging's vision of super-technical hardcore can be a reality. At this point though, there isn't enough tangible evidence that they already have the answers.

Rating: 5/10

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Review: Inked in Blood - Sometimes We Are Beautiful

Label: Facedown Records

Released: October 2, 2007

If I had to make up a name for Inked in Blood's music, it would be "pop-punk-core." They play a brand of hardcore that is a strange marriage of the Descendants and Gorilla Biscuits and they have varying success with it.

On one hand, Sometimes We Are Beautiful is typical of hardcore over the last decade or so. The growling vocals and choppy, chunky music with churning rhythms and metallic riffs is nothing new. However, Inked in Blood do a better job than most of their peers of incorporating melody. The trade-off however is a lack of punch. Some of that can be blamed on mediocre production which takes some of the crispness out of their sound, but a lot of it falls in their lap. They haven't quite brought the two sounds together. They clearly nail the melodic side as evidenced on the indie rock delicacy of "Instrumental" and the sappy emo of "This Moment" and they have moments of unbridled hardcore as well, but the two never seem to quite meet. Of course, even the near misses aren't without merit and the album overall is listenable. Better yet, it's very nature is hopeful and that positivity is contagious. Lyrically, it's open and honest without being dramatic, which further buoys its optimism.

Sometimes We Are Beautiful might not be the answer to the future of hardcore, but it could be standing at the first steps on that road. It clearly lays groundwork for growth which makes Inked in Blood a band to watch.

Rating: 6/10

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Review: The Cult - Born Into This

Label: Roadrunner Records

Released: October 2, 2007

In the late 80s, the Cult released a string of amazing records: Love, a psychdelic goth-rocker; Electric, their simple hard rock riff factory; and Sonic Temple, the album that exploded into the middle ground between its two predecessors. As successful as they were, several misguided, unfocused efforts in the 90s derailed their progress. That made 2001's Beyond Good and Evil such a huge surprise and that surprise in turn made the follow-up, some six years later, a tough act to chase.

On Born Into This, the Cult don't quite bring the same energy level that they shocked us with six years ago (or at least they don't bring it in the same way) and that makes the first listen a little disappointing. However, subsequent passes leave that last album in its time as the Cult rediscover a more distant past. This album isn't as consistent as most Cult albums. Instead of really melding their hard rock and goth egos, they alternate with one side dominating and then ceding control to the other on the next track.

Those expecting a primarily hard rock album (i.e., the Electric fans) might be disappointed, because the songs that lean their direction are the the weakest tracks. Songs like "Dirty Little Rockstar" only work because the Cult can bring their tremendous performance power to bear on even a mediocre song. It's really the songs influenced by their pre-Electric recordings that shine the brightest along with "Holy Mountain" which finds Ian Astbury doing '68 Comeback-era Elvis with conviction. However, the Cult's half step back from the hard rock with which they'd found so much success doesn't mean the album doesn't rock every bit as much once you get on board with the new (old) direction.

Although the production is weak and doesn't help the album really take off and while Duffy and the new members may not be quite in peak form, Astbury still walks that line between the dark poetry of Morrison and the cartoonish bombast of Danzig. Overall, the Cult finds its groove and captures the shamanistic feel that has made their best work seem more like a tribal experience than just a rock record.

Rating: 7/10

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DVD: Ramones - It's Alive 1974-1996

Label: Rhino

Released: October 2, 2007

I have but one complaint about this DVD although I have no reasonable solution to remedy it: I wish the DVD was made up of complete concerts rather than songs culled from various shows over the years. Of course the sacrifice would be the variety of shows that a career overview should cover, so it's a fair trade-off. That being said, I can find no other fault with it.

The double DVD captures the Ramones from their earliest days at CBGB's up to their final months playing together. Just as the Ramones best and most important albums came out in the 70s, so this compilation of performances also focuses on that decade with well over half of the performances culled from those years. Obviously, some of the early footage is extremely raw, but what it lacks in quality, it makes up for in historical significance. The earliest clip shows an almost entirely incompetent band with such confidence nonetheless that it's no wonder they went on to become one of the most influential bands in rock history. As time passes over the course of the video, the Ramones seem never to grow old. Even as their significance waned over the latter part of their career, they seemed to never be at the end of the road. That makes it even more shocking now that not only is the band defunct, but 3/4 of the original members are no longer with us. It's weird when they always seemed like a bunch of kids just beating the crap out of their instruments in true rock n roll style. In addition to the concert footage, there is also a few music videos and some goofy, but insightful interviews provided in the bonus section. It's Alive 1974-1996 is essential viewing not just for Ramones fans, but for anyone who enjoys rock n roll distilled into its purest form.

Rating: 9/10

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Review: Skitzo Calypso - Between the Lines and Beyond the Static

Label: Bi-Polar Records

Released: 2007

Between the Lines and Beyond the Static is a solid rock album. It has riffy guitars, crunching rhythms and vocals with nice range and movement. The production is crisp and clean and brings out the best in the band's abilities. This largely straightforward hard rock album is heavy, but not too heavy and polished, but not without feeling. They apply the standard formula for the genre very well and that's both their strength and their weakness.

The songwriting and production both play into this. There's nothing technically wrong with either, but the result is a collection of songs that are memorable more because, in a sense, you already know them than because they're instantly captivating. While this is the eighth album under the name Skitzo Calypso, it's only the second with the full band and the first to be a truly collaborative effort. The result of working together seems to have tempered their creativity rather than expanded it. Perhaps they're just getting the feel of their common direction, but their first shot at it seems to be something along the lines of Bang Tango meets Alice in Chains meets Godsmack meets System of a Down. Occasionally, an inkling of goth insinuates itself into the music and that is, despite it being goth, hopeful. "Hello Mother, Hello Father" even finds the band moving beyond the formulas and into more organic territory. The lyrics are also a saving grace. Their peculiar subjects and interesting imagery are refreshing in a hard rock context where we usually get nothing but misogyny and insobriety.

Skitzo Calypso still has a way to go in order to establish something that is truly their own, but they have the technical ability once they find their direction together. They've established that they have solid skills and now they need to free those skills in order to unlock their power. When the music does stray from the standard, they appear ready to fly and the lyrics display an interest in being rather skewed, but too often this album feels planned and hesitant. They have every possibility of breaking out if they use their new collaborative to spin free of the hard rock center of gravity.

Rating: 6/10

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Check out the Myspace review of Skitzo Calypso side-project Niki Thunders and the Temperamentals.

Live: De Novo Dahl, Bedouin Soundclash and Hot Hot Heat

October 15, 2007, Rams Head Live!, Baltimore, Maryland

I hadn't heard of De Novo Dahl prior to seeing them on the bill for this show. Other than a few tracks I sampled to get an idea of what to expect, this show was my first exposure. That being said, I don't think there was much that could have prepared me for their set. They sported bright, tacky, sequined outfits that matched their apparent love of cheap, tacky 70s pop. However, both of these seeming improprieties are part of a broader whole that is predominately made up of rock and soul. The core of the band's performance is singer/guitarist Joel J. Dahl, whose mixture of rock guitar flourishes and soulful vocals (including a nice falsetto) is the flag around which the band rallies. They would have done well to incorporate more background vocals from percussionist/omnichordist Serai Zaffiro whose breathy voice goes so well with Dahl's, but that's a minor complaint. Most interesting of all was how this quirky pop band was able to achieve two things that elude most of their peers. First, they rocked. Not just in the generic sense, but in the broken strings and drum sticks sense. They were powerful...and sweet. Second, they were down-to-earth. Bassist Keith Lowen's nervous speech about their upcoming video shoot put the band on a plane with the crowd. After the set, drummer Mixta Huxtable walked over and gave a broken stick to a kid up front. Even without these overt examples, De Novo Dahl connected with an audience that wasn't even there to see them. People danced. The crowd was excited. They won us over on their own terms, without even asking.

Bedouin Soundclash is the band I was there to see. After hearing Street Gospels, a huge step forward in songwriting and performance, I had very high expectations for the live set. I was certainly hoping that the set list would concentrate on their recent release, but only three songs came from that album. That being said, the songs from Sounding a Mosaic incorporated everything Bedouin learned between the two albums and sounded every bit as good as the new ones, muting my disappointment in not hearing "St Andrews," "Trinco Dog" or the a cappella "Hush." Everything that made Street Gospels great, tightness, flow, energy and soul, made their live set just as good. The problem was simply that they capture so much of that on the album that the live show can't provide much more, making them victims of their own success.

I'm not a big Hot Hot Heat fan. They're a middling band who's released some decent material, but has never really found their own thing at which to excel. Unlike Bedouin, I had only moderate expectations for the headliner and by and large they failed to hit even that meager mark. Overall, their performance was as thin and dull as their imitation of the Strokes. They kicked off the show with a bombastic entrance that would have been cool had they either been an amazingly simple band (the irony angle) or as good as such an entrance suggested (the arrogance angle). Instead the band lazed through the set while frontman Steve Bays overcompensated, prancing around like Mick Jagger in a Broadway show. Interestingly, when the band finally kicked in on the last two songs of the regular set, Bays' antics no longer seemed so affected. It was as if he was free to actually perform once the weight of the show was off his shoulders. Had Hot Hot Heat played the whole set like they did the last few songs, they would have lived up to their entrance and their name. Instead, they seemed more like Lukewarm Lukewarm Heat.


Bedouin Soundclash photos:

Review: Hanslick Rebellion - The Rebellion is Here (live)

Label: July 10, 2007

Released: Eschatone Records

The Hanslick Rebellion was once heralded as "possibly the finest band to ever call Albany home" (by a writer from the local paper). I suppose that might be true, but it's still not much of a case for greatness. Neither is the re-issue of this ten-plus-year-old live recording. Back in the 90s, the band established themselves as a regional college crowd favorite and for good reason. They play a loose, jam oriented brand of rock that seems to thrive in every college town. Their originals have that kind of inside-joke rapport with the crowd that makes a band very popular with the locals, but never seems to translate out in the big wide world. Like every local college favorite, they do their share of covers and they do them well. They add funky energy to the Modern Lovers' "Pablo Picasso" and do the B-52s doing Syd Barrett on "Vegetable Man." They throw in a medley that mixes the Archies and Mighty Mighty Bosstones into "Heroin" which has some tongue-in-cheek charm. The covers are certainly more fun than the originals, but not a single one is even remotely essential.

While the album does capture the live experience well, the Hanslick Rebellion merely manages to give their spin on the forced quirkiness of bands like Barenaked Ladies, just a little angrier and a little less clever. People who enjoyed the local scene around UAlbany in the mid-90s will probably find this to be a fond memory, because the show was clearly a fine time, but that charm is lost on the rest of us.

Rating: 4/10

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Review: Hematovore - Untitled

Label: Acerbic Noise Development

Released: 2004

Hematovore is what you'd get if really heavy, technical bands scored movies. Untitled is a constantly changing landscape, yet the songs flow together into a single piece of work. The band combines layers of the technical thrash of Prong and difficult to nail down avant-garde experimentalism with the melodic theatrics of Queen and Maiden and occasionally even straightforward hard rock for contrast. Just like the flow of a film, the album alternates between calm surfaces with churning undercurrents and all out assaults, sometimes with smooth transitions and other times with agitated mathy shifts. Often drawing comparisons to Pelican, Hematovore actually found their own niche with a grander sound that more tells a musical story than sets a musical mood. While the album is highly technical, it still maintains a rich warmth, making it more a piece of art than the artistic exercise that similar projects often devolve into. It would be an overstatement to say that Hematovore is the John Zorn of metal, but such a sentiment is not without any basis in truth.

Rating: 8/10

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