The CD Review Thread

[Ksyrup]

This is a regular feature I’ve been wanting to start on this board for some time, one that I think we will have enough participants in to keep going as new music is released, or even for older “undiscovered gems” you want to highlight for the rest of us. I’m such a music junkie that I often spend much of my free time rooting around on the internet for new music and sites where I can discuss music with other like-minded people. As many of you know, I’m a huge King’s X fan, but being that their fans are generally pre-disposed to liking particular kinds of music, I find their message board to be less expansive in musical tastes than a board such as this one, where music isn’t a common denominator.<O:p</O:p

We can use this single thread to describe a new/old release by a particular artist, provide some personal insight into the artist/album, etc., and maybe provide a snippet or two from reviews of the album. Basically, enough to give everyone a flavor for what kind of music it is and why you like it. For me personally, I like to have an outlet like this for two reasons : (1) I just like to talk about music; and (2) I have this compulsion to make people aware of music that’s out there but not in the mainstream.

So...post away!

[Ksyrup]

Therion - _Lemuria / Sirius B_ (Nuclear Blast, 2004)


Therion is a band I have only recently come to know. But it’s a natural progression from the type of music I have only now begun to listen to – Symphonic Metal, which also bleeds (depending on the particular band) into elements of Scandinavian Metal, Progressive Metal, Neo-Classical Metal, and Black/Death Metal. Essentially, Therion incorporates the basic elements of heavy metal, particularly power metal and some Rammstein-like industrial textures (German chanting over heavy riffs), with full symphony orchestras, opera singers, full choirs, layered textures of piano, flute, acoustic guitar, and string sections…you name it. Vocals on this album are about 75% opera/choral, with some band members or guests contributing clean ‘metal’ vocals, some death metal growling (very little), and some high-pitched metal vocals. They also sing in different languages.

For years, I purposely stayed away from European metal because of the death metal qualities to the vocals, but as I became more and more dissatisfied with the current state of US heavy metal (when the best bands are those that reformed from the 80’s, you’ve got issues), I started to relax my standards a bit. What I found was a complete shock, though. This stuff isn’t ‘just’ metal with bad vocals – it’s not just sonically challenging, but it challenges the very idea of what people think heavy metal is. Metal has always been rooted in classical music, and this just fleshes that out to a level never achieved before (and never heard of, in this country, anyway). Highly recommended for metal listeners who want something more than just riffs and screams.

Along the same lines are Dimmu Borgir (who is on Ozzfest this year), which I would describe as symphonic metal meets Marilyn Manson (the way they look and their cartoonish horror lyrics) with the standard ‘cookie monster’ vocals, and Winds, probably the most accessible of the symphonic metal band – heavy riffing, but calm, clean vocals with layers of classical piano and string quartet throughout.

Here is a portion of a review for Therion’s new double album that I found:

…Nine months in the making and featuring the contribution of some 171 musicians (yes, that's right), the _Lemuria / Sirius B_ double album is admittedly a band effort. Johnsson, along with Kristian and Johan Nieman and producer Lars Nissen have created a double-headed beast that quite frankly renders this review redundant after the first ten minutes of play. It takes ideas that were hinted at on _Theli_, _Vovin_ et al and elevates them to the nth degree, but such is the scale of this opus that these form only a part of its dense sonic tapestry. To aptly describe its sound would see one combing virtually the entire musical spectrum. Woven into the rich soundscapes that form the album are elements of opera, classical and neo-classical, progressive rock, folk, and jazz, all augmented to levels unheard of anywhere else. Similarly _Lemuria / Sirius B_ is a markedly heavier record. Where more recent efforts may have forsaken the harsher side of music, _Lemuria / Sirius B_ restores it to its former glory, and in this instance, Johnsson has stepped up to the plate and pushed himself to extremes that were last seen on the band's earliest demos -- even bringing back the odd death metal vocal.

In further listing its strengths, I could probably spend several more paragraphs analysing this album and honestly, if I were to do that, I'd more than likely find fitting superlatives in short supply. At the same time, it is very hard, if not impossible to find a flaw on this record. Every song is virtually note-perfect from start to finish, and in this sense, it is an effort that is able to not only equal its ambition, but one that ultimately ends up transcending mere musical expression, to become pure art.

[primelord]

Did you mean to have all the http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/tongue.gif emoticons?

[Ksyrup]

Sondre Lerche – Two Way Monologue (Toshiba/EMI)


Sondre Lerche is a Norwegian pop singer/songwriter, somewhat reminiscent of Rufus Wainwright, although Lerche dabbles in what I would call ‘lounge’ music, and is more melancholic than melodramatic, which is more Rufus’ style. Still, this guy writes terrific pop songs, and he’s barely 21.

This is from allmusic.com:


Sondre Lerche's first album, Faces Down, was bursting with promise. Two Way Monologue fulfills that promise and then some. Right from the beginning of the first song, "Love You" (a brief instrumental that hints at things to come with a sunbursting string arrangement and beautiful chords stacked together like bunches of flowers), it is clear that Lerche has lost some of the tentativeness that made his debut flawed, and has blossomed into a pop craftsman of the highest regard. The songs on Two Way Monologue are lyrically mature and sophisticated; the sound of the album is full and arranged perfectly; Lerche effortlessly twists his vocal into falsetto swoops and intimate whispers, and almost every song is worthy of starring on a mix CD made to impress your friends. Songs like the complex "Tore You Down" and "Wet Ground" point to a new level of sophistication, both in the songwriting and the performance. "Two Way Monologue" is a perfect distillation of Lerche's style and is probably his best song. Starting as an acoustic ballad that shifts into a rollicking pop tune and then into an Astral Weeks-ish ballad and back, it really is an amazing song. Lyrically it is a touch inscrutable, but that is part of his charm as well. What this record has that his debut didn't are the surprises that pop up at regular intervals and add richness to the arrangements: the honking sax on the wonderful "Two Way Monologue," the Beach Boys vocal harmonies throughout, the bongos on "Days That Are Over," the snaky pedal steel on the achingly beautiful "Stupid Memory." This is a record made by people who have a firm grasp on how to construct an album, from Sean O'Hagan and Marcus Holdaway's tasteful string arrangements to HP Gundersen, Andy Robinson, and Jorgen TrFen's arrangements, to Lerche's stellar production, there is not a weak moment on the album. In fact, if you hear a pop record with better songs, performances, or arrangements in 2004 than Two Way Monologue, then it will have been a great year for music. The record may get lost in the shuffle and noise of the music biz, but if you manage to find it, cherish it because it is a gold record, sales figures be damned.

[Ksyrup]

Did you mean to have all the http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/tongue.gif emoticons?
Are you still seeing them? I constructed these in Word, and they're not there when I paste it all in, but only when I submit. I've had to go back and reformat. Odd that I can't seen it like that in the window before I submit. You're not still seeing it, though, are you?

[QuikSand]

David and David
Boomtown

Amazon Link (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000002GH9/qid=1087324869/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/102-7787444-7634532?v=glance&s=music&n=507846)

From about 1986, this first-and-only album by this duo is just good, solid music. From the images of the two guys, I have the general sense that they pretty much made the record, got enough money to fill up their trailers with booze and whores, and retired happy from the music business. (Not quite true, but we never heard from them again, basically)

Swallowed by the Cracks is one of my very favorite songs - my favorite on the album, though the whole thnig plays very well front to back. They write and sing very well about loss - but not in a completely bluesy "oh, she done broke my heart" way. The title track got a bit of radio play, but never really caught fire. Ain't So Easy is the song that should have been a hit, at least a modest one, but I don't know of it ever getting anywhere.

If you're a fan of vocal-driven, guitar-based, well-conceived music... this is an absolute steal for twelve bucks. I have played my copy at least 300 times, no joke. This one goes to the desert island with me.

[Ksyrup]

Will Hoge – Blackbird On A Lonely Wire (Atlantic)


Will Hoge has a definitive American roots-rock feel to his music and lyrics, and writes the type of songs that would be perfect for the radio, but are sadly and noticeably absent from 99% of station playlists. Style-wise, this guy owes a lot to Tom Petty and artists like him (in fact, track 6, Doesn’t Have To Be That Way, appears to be his homage to Petty), but those influences don’t overshadow this guy’s brilliant ability to write catchy, emotional rock songs. Even more exciting is the fact that this album is, to me, a huge step forward from his first, Carousel, which was good, but not this good. Of the albums I’ve written about, this one is probably the easiest to digest and has the widest appeal. Highly recommended.


From popmatters.com:

If you believe the persona in the songs, he's not that cool and prone to loneliness and broken hearts. But in truth, once you hear that voice you'll know otherwise. This is the kind of strong roots rocker you've been hoping was still out there somewhere. Will Hoge is the real deal -- a talent that delivers even more live than in the studio -- and one that should have a long flourishing career if there's any sort of cosmic justice.

While 2001's Carousel was a fun and rowdy musical romp that impressed many (particularly with the hot guitar playing of then lead man Dan Baird), this sophomore effort is a major-label deal. Hoge continues to surrounds himself with fine musicians in Brian Layson (lead guitar, background vox), John Lancester (keyboards, background vocals), Tres Sasser (bass, background vox) and Kirk Yoquelet (drums), then leaves it to guitarist/producer John Shanks (BBMak, the Corrs, Chris Isaak, Sheryl Crow, Joe Cocker) to put that production right up front and in your face (as it should be). Having Chris Lord-Alge mix five of the tracks is another plus.

Blackbird on a Lonely Wire is good old-fashioned rock with a soulful, bluesy edge. Hoge's voice commands attention, and as such draws you in to his songs, stories largely about love and loss. Hoge knows you can sing about love without being wimpy. Modeling himself after singer/songwriters like Tom Petty or Bruce Springsteen, he aims to tell great stories through having a phenomenal band.

...[deleted song-by-song description]

There's no filler on Blackbird on a Lonely Wire, just lots of big musical heartache presented in a most convincing manner. There's joy in this earnest misery -- and when you hear it, you'll smile. Hoge and his band seem to have found the right combination of muscular soul and roots rock that gives them a somewhat harder edge than say, Counting Crows . . . now if only they can find the wide-scale audience that used to be there for this kind of true American rock and roll. The talent is there, but that's never a guarantee. I, for one, will keep my fingers crossed.

[Ksyrup]

Death Angel – Art of Dying (Nuclear Blast)


Death Angel and I go way back. It’s 1987, I’m out in San Francisco visiting relatives – one of whom (my aunt-in-law) happens to be a ‘veteran’ of SF’s metal music scene – and I am introduced to this band of, well, kids my age who have just released their debut album. I’m promised tickets and backstage passes when they come through Atlanta, so I run out and buy their first album – and man, is it rough. Immature, rough…but undeniably brilliant for a bunch of 14-16 year olds (!). In fact, they were even profiled in People Magazine of all places, because of their age (ironic, considering they had songs called Kill As One, Voracious Souls, Evil Priest, and Mistress of Pain on the album – I doubt anyone from People heard a note, just grabbed onto the fact that they were teens in a rock band). Not only were they young, but they were all cousins/brothers and Filipino, to boot. Basically, they weren’t anything like any other band going at the time.

Anyway, they released two more albums, including 1990’s brilliant (as in a personal top 3 thrash album of all time, right up there with Master of Puppets) Act III, before they disbanded, partly due to a Metallica-like bus accident in which the drummer was severely injured and the lead singer lost a toe or something. Several members regrouped as The Organization, then as Swarm, but they played a different style of music than Death Angel and frankly weren’t as good. But based on the amazing growth in the band’s songwriting from first album to Act III, many of us in the metal community have always lamented the fact that the band broke up way before their time.

Well, Death Angel is back and has released their first album in 14 years. Honestly, if you like metal – any kind of metal – you have to get this album. There are a handful of all-out thrashers, as good as the best stuff from their first couple of albums. There are more ‘updated’ mid-tempo metal songs, but none come close to sounding like nu-metal, and most end with a kicked-up thrashing that is amazing. It’s a good mixture of their early beginnings and their more mature, polished hard rock/metal leaning from Act III and beyond. Overall, it doesn’t quite match the masterpiece that is Act III, but for a band that took 14 years off, this is a brilliant return to form. And the best part is, these guys aren’t aging 40 or 50-something rockers – I don’t think any of them has hit 35 yet! Highly recommended for metal fans.


From allmusic.com:

Leave it to Bay Area thrash metal pioneers Death Angel to name their recording rebirth, 14 years in the making, The Art of Dying. Oh, the irony! Never ones to play it straight, Death Angel, like their first wave of thrash inspiration, Exodus, shocked their aging fans when they courageously shrugged off the years of rust and returned to active metal duty in 2004. And because they were merely teenagers during their first run, most of the band are amazingly still in their early 30s! More importantly, they've done so in style. The Art of Dying, even while bypassing the often Byzantine arrangements heard on the group's first two albums, manages to maintain the songwriting focus of their third (and heretofore last) effort, Act III, while arguably providing a better all-around thrash experience than the latter. The race is a close one, but there's no denying that everything about The Art of Dying's frenetic, scratchy-riffed first track (requisite acoustic guitar intro notwithstanding) "Thrown to the Wolves," as well as the brilliantly concussive highlight "Thicker Than Blood," positively screams "old-school" thrash. In fact, except for a few very discreet trad-metal tricks, and the odd hardcore vocal or two snuck into "Five Steps to Freedom," "The Devil Incarnate," and "Prophecy," so does everything else on display here. The reasons are clear for all to see: as in their previous life, Death Angel's sound continues to be anchored by the intense drumming of Andy Galeon, and the absolutely sterling lead guitar work of Rob Cavestany, who's so damn good throughout, it's almost easy to overlook his always eye-popping contributions. Curiously, Galeon tackles lead vocals (with moderate success) on the sprawling "Spirit" (featuring an uncommonly bluesy bridge section), while Cavestany takes over — and we mean takes over — on spectacular closer "Word to the Wise." Not about to be left out, bass player Gus Pepa jumps in with his own lead vocal for the hit-and-miss "Land of Blood," but it's unquestionably lead vocalist Mark Osegueda (often singled out as the band's weak link the first time around) who's benefited the most from the onset of age. Except for sporadic relapses to his irritating past ways during "Never Me" and the wobbly-paced "Famine," where both he and the band get a little lost in the slower momentum, Osegueda's performance on The Art of Dying is stronger, more confident, and more versatile than ever. And while we're taking a roll call here, let it be known that new guitarist Ted Aguilar acquits himself perfectly well in his first outing with the group. In summary, for a band whose potential had seemed disappointingly unfulfilled at the time of their original breakup, Death Angel have ensured that The Art of Dying serves as an act of speed metal closure.

[primelord]

Are you still seeing them? I constructed these in Word, and they're not there when I paste it all in, but only when I submit. I've had to go back and reformat. Odd that I can't seen it like that in the window before I submit. You're not still seeing it, though, are you?
Yes I still see them.

[Ksyrup]

Really? I see nothing but text. Effin' Word.

[Ksyrup]

Does anyone else see emoticons? I can't fix what I can't see.

[Mr. Wednesday]

I do not see emoticons.

Edit: Except in PrimeLord's post.

[Router Help]

I see them.

Edit: I see them in Firefox but not in IE.

[Ksyrup]

I'm in IE, which I guess explains that.

[korme]

i refuse to do any work in word before posting here because of those damn tongues. i can't even read these reviews

[Ksyrup]

OK, I just re-did the first review. Please let me know if you can still see the emoticons or whatever else is showing up, as I couldn't see them before so I don't know if I've changed anything.

[3ric]

Yeah the Therion review looks good (no smileys) and so does the second one.

[Ksyrup]

I re-did them all in WordPerfect, and saw a bunch of crap mixed in with the text that I hadn't seen before. I deleted it all and think I've reformatted them so that they are readable.

Man, I hate Word.

[korme]

Much better! Notepad could work, too, probably.

[Suicane75]

Matthew Ryan- May Day

I heard the first single, Irrelevant, in the the Fall of 97 and was immediatly hooked. He's been compared to Springsteen and Waits but I don't find that either of those comparisons are really valid, he isn't much on bluster or words for words sakes, he's straight ahead and he's dark, especially this album. The album breaks open with an absoloute blow the roof off the place riff and heads right into A gravely voiced lament on relationships and life gone bad hoping for redemption.

The next 2 tracks are perfect back to back "love gone bad" songs, Watch Your Step is an F you to a ex lover whom the author espouses "you can take it on the run now baby cause you're gonna throw it away, just like you threw me away".

Irrelevant continues the theme, a simple song about a guy looking out his porch pondering the girl who left him "every kiss has reeked of betrayel since my heroin jumped the guardrail and decided who she wanted to be once more", "now i'm always crying and smiling and hiding my intent, since I became Irrelevant".

The album continues the trend with the songs The Dead Girl and Chrome, "it's not everything ending as it begins or the lonliness that grins that destroys me, i've got a heart made of Chrome, it's been burned but it's still willing to shine".

Lights Of The Commodore Barry almost has an Irish folk song feel to it musicaly, it's about the death of a town and a reflection on youth, a real departure from the first 6 tracks and evokes the most Springsteenesque feeling of the album, lryicly at least.

Dissapointed picks things back up as the riffs are back and despite the title is actually a feel good song, "dissapointed, nevermore", where he proclaims that even though everything is fucked up, it's all ok afterall. Lyricly this is the funnest song of the album, "some things can't be explained, like the Cabbie that fell asleep in Hobokon and woke up Shirley McLaine", "When this ship finnaly sinks, when all this shit don't mean a thing, that'll be alright".

And then it's right back to soft, slow araingements and sadness as Beautiful Fool is a haunting, cryptic song about not being to handle someone who isn't happy with you, or maybe with anything.

Railroaded notches things up again with the narrator knowing he's a fool for hoping love but doing it anyway, "well i smoked my throat out last night, hoping you would call or just stop by, now im wheezing like the Oakland sky and feeling like the rusted tracks of the old train lines", "to say i miss you wouldn't be enough, i feel like Tom Waits singing Diamonds and Rust and i'm as pathetic as the junkie who knows what he does, your a perpetual stone in my shoe, one that i'll always be trying to shake lose, an ache in my chest and a thorn in my pride".

The 10th track, Damn is one of the prettier songs on the album, it holds the same vein as the first of the first 3 songs of the record but this time the narrator realizes that perhaps when the girl finnaly does leave, it may be for the best.

Comfort is the next track and perhaps the darkest of the album, it's basicaly a guy sitting in a bar contemplating a miserable life and the murder of his father (a theme touched on more vividly on later Matthew Ryan albums.)

The album closes out with Certainly Never, a touching song backed sparsley by a piano about a guy going to a house where an ex girfriend used to live and reminiscing about being left behind, "A trailer park tycoon last June, A telegraph and a flash and a boom, an Autumn like there never was, no why or because", "if i held you up, would that be enough, if i gave you all the I was capable of, would that be enough?" "The front porch, the long road, it's raining, listen, there she goes."

While the rockers are in there, this is an album less about bluster and more about soft arraingements that allow his wavery voice to do most of the emoting, and emote he does. There are a few up songs, but more than anything this is an album about sadness and the darkness that tends to fester underneath of it, a truly haunting and underapreciated album from a great songwriter. I read a review once that said that if Paul Westerberg grew up in a Pennsylvania steel town, this is the album he would make and I find that to be the truest comparison, it's hard to relate Matthew Ryan to another artist because while he has certain qualities of alot of them, the spirit and emotion he evokes are really all his own, he paints bleak pictures but he paints them brilliantly.


From the Sacramento News & Review
Have you ever woken up unshaven and raspy-throated on the floor with the realization hammering in your temples that your lover has left and taken everything that was ever worth a damn in your life but a guitar and a typewriter? And been driven to redeem the moment by creating something raw and beautiful out of it? Apparently Matthew Ryan has. "I need someone to save me," he cries in the opening "Guilty," and he sells the argument hard. A few stolen moments of joy hide in the drunken dreams of "Lights of the Commodore Barry" and the live-for-the-present sermon "Disappointed." But the darkness never gets pushed farther than the edges of the frame: "Here the conversation's always too loud / And we're as pathetic as the jumper who listens to the crowd." Springsteen and Dylan are obviously both huge influences; on this debut effort Ryan's creative voice and stripped-down sound is already as relentlessly honest as either. The truth hurts sometimes—but so does some of the best rock'n'roll.

[Fritz]

Okay, I will play a little. I could go into the vault where much of my listening happens, but I will start in 2004.

Grant Lee Phillips - Virginia Creeper

Virginia Creeper is Grant Lee Phillips 8th Album (4 with Grant Lee Buffalo). The Album has this dreamy acoustic americana sound that plays enough in the background to support but not overpower Phillip's strong and sometime sweet voice. I guess they call this Adult Alternative these days.

Many of the songs seem to revolve around women, but not neccisarily women in Phillips life. The music rolls from reflective to celabratory, but all tell a story in a not quite Springsteen kind of way. Some songs are rich with instumentaion and some are sparce. Some have a very traditional sound while others have a nice hook to them.

This isn't music for hefting a beer and shouting. it is the type of thing you would listen to on a sunday spring morning driving down a 2 lane road through a tunnel of trees with nothing to do but let your mind wander.

I find

Mona Lisa
Lily-a-passion
Susanna Little
Wish I knew

to be the best of album, but they may just be the most accessable.

All music says:

Grant Lee Phillips has scaled back the arrangements of his songs a great deal on Virginia Creeper, his third solo outing, and the starkness helps spotlight his remarkable singing voice, which sounds at times like John Lennon, sometimes like Michael Stipe, and increasingly a little like Nebraska-era Bruce Springsteen. Like Springsteen, Phillips centers his songwriting in a kind of mythic America, an approach he used as well in his former band, Grant Lee Buffalo. But it is an approach that works only if the songs and the characters in them are believable, and Phillips' carefully considered, ornate lyrics often work against that believability. It's an old artistic dilemma — finding a way to combine complexity and simplicity in a single stroke, and it took Springsteen a while to find that balance, too. The starkness of the sound on Virginia Creeper definitely moves Phillips closer to that aim, and there are some striking songs here that have a lean, powerful ambiance, most notably "Calamity Jane," which appears to be a song about Jane Fonda, and the epic "Josephine of the Swamps," a tune with overreaching lyrics that is just so damn good, it pulls you in anyway. Songs like these are the reason Phillips' fans are going to love this album. The poet Robinson Jeffers once said it was hard to set fire to too much thought. We wouldn't want Grant Lee Phillips to think less, but sometimes its best to not show it, to strip back some of the artifice and let the listener do the work. It's a balancing act that is within Phillips' grasp, and Virginia Creeper moves him closer. — Steve Leggett

From Pop Matters

Tangled Up in Creepers

At a recent show in Chicago, Grant-Lee Phillips and band performed his latest album almost in its entirety, playing 10 of 11 songs. This is not unusual for the promotion of a new album. What was unusual was they also played about half of Grant Lee Buffalo's 1994 masterpiece Mighty Joe Moon and 1993's debut Fuzzy. Only one song was pulled out from Grant's last album, Mobilize. The setlist kept traveling 10 years backwards and forwards like a time machine, skipping over most of the material in between.

The blend of old and new felt entirely appropriate. Virginia Creeper is a return of sorts to the pastoral folk and country-influenced rock of GLB's early days, but without the electric guitars. After Mighty Joe Moon, Phillips wrote the baroque, ornate, and cruelly underrated Copperopolis and the slick pop rock of their swan song Jubilee. After that band's dissolution, Grant's full-length solo debut (the aforementioned Mobilize) drew even further away from political/romantic Americana, and closer to the sunnier melodic pop of So-Cal cohorts Jon Brion and Aimee Mann.

Virginia Creeper eschews both the fuzz guitars of Grant's early days, and the sampled textures and digital sounds that have infiltrated his later work. The arrangements are mostly acoustic: fiddle, banjo, brushed drums, upright bass, mandolin, pedal steel. The warm production suits Phillips's voice, which sounds for all the world, as my good friend once put it, like "chocolate velvet." The lope and sway of "Far End of the Night" utilizes one of Grant's favorite rhythms (see "Mockingbirds") overlaid with haunting vibes (the instrument, dude) and one of his most gorgeous melodies. "Wish I Knew" is a jumpy, carnivalesque tune that showcases Phillips' vocal instrument not just for its timbre, but its ability to roll and skip, spitting out words rapid-fire in one instance, stretching them out the next.

Just as GLB's early lyrics often centered on heroes and heroines from history and mythology, Virginia Creeper is full of character-driven songs. The album begins with the playful "Mona Lisa". The lyrics reference the artifact of Da Vinci's painting, while treating its namesake as a partner in a long-term relationship, "Ain't nothin' that stays the same, won't ask it a' you / Just that burgundy smile you wore yesterday, say ya won't ever lose". The metaphor-play is clever, but endearing. The woman in "Lily-a-Passion" is "a piratey soul, full a' vinegar and glitter". She is also "a canary royal", "a fork in the road", and her smile is like "the apples of Pomona".

I've read reviews where Phillips is taken to task for being too smart, too literary. But the words seem chosen not simply to impress, but for their musical value. Phillips has perfected a way of singing intricate lines so that they glide with the song, instead of poking out in odd places. Sometimes it's nearly impossible to make sense of the words without consulting the lyrics sheet, but not because of any sloppy or mumbling delivery. Syllables are stressed to fit the meter -- which invites listeners to be lulled by the melody as much as the story.

There aren't many performers capable of singing (on "Josephine of the Swamps"), let alone writing, "Oh the slough winds all serpentine / Full of black delta peat / Yellow bronze grapes of muscadine / Grown wild and sweet", but Grant sure does, and with a crack band. "Josephine" is rhythmically buoyant, anchored in the percussion. The atmosphere mirrors the bayou itself, Phillips's banjo winding snake-like around the drums, his low and husky voice paired with Cindy Wasserman's apt harmony.

Although Virginia Creeper is a return in some ways to the days of "Dixie Drug Store" and "Lady Godiva and Me", the album is more about refinement than regression, comforting and fresh. The only obvious choice is the album's closer, a cover of Gram Parson's "Hickory Wind", a song that's been covered quite a bit in recent memory. Still, I want to give Phillips the benefit of the doubt. After 40 minutes of odes to ghosts, ancestors, and lovers, and Calamity Jane, we get to sink into a song about place and time, a song that has its destiny as an American classic pretty much nailed down. Mr. Phillips would appear to be making his way down that road as well.


------------

In passing, this is grant lee philli[s [laylist on itunes. a phenominal list.

Moanin' at Midnight 2:57 Howlin' Wolf
A Mansion on the Hill 2:34 Hank Williams
Waiting for a Train 2:44 Jimmie Rodgers
Blue Moon 2:39 Elvis Presley
Evil (Is Going On) 2:52 Howlin' Wolf
Me and the Devil Blues 2:36 Robert Johnson
Django Reinhardt & Stéphane Grappelli
Smokestack Lightnin' 3:08 Howlin' Wolf
Ramblin' Man (Single) 3:04 Hank Williams
Get Rhythm 2:33 Johnny Cash
Terraplane Blues 3:00 Robert Johnson
'Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do 3:30 Bessie Smith
Cry, Cry, Cry 2:24 Johnny Cash
Dead Man Blues 3:12 Jelly Roll Morton
Hesitation Blues 2:35 Leadbelly

[mordhiem]

Artist: Velvet Revolver
Album: Contraband
Label: BMG

And so they are here. After all of the hoohah and gripped anticipation of the lastest 'supergroup', claiming possesion of no less than Slash, Duff and Matt of GnR fame and Scott Weiland, marooned from his Stone Temple Pilots familiars (not to mention Dave Kushner of Suicidal Tendencies fame), can the result of their first work be anything other than anti-climactic? Apparently so.

This is far from a detraction of the album, indeed it is an excellent exposition of modern heavy metal with the virtuoso riffs and solos of old fashioned Guns n' Roses still present, if subdued. Weiland's vocal performance is a rough and raw as ever, but is the perfect accompaniment to the comparativley wispy guitars of Slash and Dave Kushner. In 'Set Me Free' Weiland is almost the anti-Axl, and the sound seems more complete for it. However, in their effort to hark back to the early 90's of the member's height, there is the foreboding danger of falling into the deadly 'power ballad' trap, one that 'You've Got No Right' falls bravely to, despite (or maybe because of?) a classic GnR solo, as does the cosy 'Loving the Alien'.

Ultimatley, if you are a fan of the members of the band, you will have very much to be pleased about. If you have never liked their work, you should probably forget about buying this album. Here, Velvet Revolver have gone out to prove the are a band and not an A&R man's dream. They are cohesive, imposing, brash and sometimes quite exciting. However they is nothing innovative or new encapsulated in this work. The debut single 'Slither' is a case in point; it is pure STP merged with two typicaly flamboyant Slash solos. It is probably too much to ask for a band who have been together for less than a year to reinvent the genre or push limits, but that was exactly what some quarters were expecting with this release. They will find nothing. Everyone else will find a very good rock n' roll album.

Verdict: http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~fof/forums/images/icons/icon14.gif http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~fof/forums/images/icons/icon14.gif http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~fof/forums/images/icons/icon14.gif 1/2

[Ksyrup]

I've got 3 bootlegs of Velvet Revolver, but I haven't even heard the band yet! I've got a backlog of stuff to listen to.

[thesloppy]

Spinal Tap -- Shark Sandwich

Shit Sandwich.

[DeToxRox]

they can't print that can they? you're making that up.

[Bad-example]

If you're a fan of vocal-driven, guitar-based, well-conceived music... this is an absolute steal for twelve bucks. I have played my copy at least 300 times, no joke. This one goes to the desert island with me.

300 times...well, that sells me. Looking forward to trying this one.

[Nwobhm]

Death Angel – Art of Dying (Nuclear Blast)


Death Angel and I go way back. It’s 1987, I’m out in San Francisco visiting relatives – one of whom (my aunt-in-law) happens to be a ‘veteran’ of SF’s metal music scene – and I am introduced to this band of, well, kids my age who have just released their debut album. I’m promised tickets and backstage passes when they come through Atlanta, so I run out and buy their first album – and man, is it rough. Immature, rough…but undeniably brilliant for a bunch of 14-16 year olds (!). In fact, they were even profiled in People Magazine of all places, because of their age (ironic, considering they had songs called Kill As One, Voracious Souls, Evil Priest, and Mistress of Pain on the album – I doubt anyone from People heard a note, just grabbed onto the fact that they were teens in a rock band). Not only were they young, but they were all cousins/brothers and Filipino, to boot. Basically, they weren’t anything like any other band going at the time.

Anyway, they released two more albums, including 1990’s brilliant (as in a personal top 3 thrash album of all time, right up there with Master of Puppets) Act III, before they disbanded, partly due to a Metallica-like bus accident in which the drummer was severely injured and the lead singer lost a toe or something. Several members regrouped as The Organization, then as Swarm, but they played a different style of music than Death Angel and frankly weren’t as good. But based on the amazing growth in the band’s songwriting from first album to Act III, many of us in the metal community have always lamented the fact that the band broke up way before their time.

Well, Death Angel is back and has released their first album in 14 years. Honestly, if you like metal – any kind of metal – you have to get this album. There are a handful of all-out thrashers, as good as the best stuff from their first couple of albums. There are more ‘updated’ mid-tempo metal songs, but none come close to sounding like nu-metal, and most end with a kicked-up thrashing that is amazing. It’s a good mixture of their early beginnings and their more mature, polished hard rock/metal leaning from Act III and beyond. Overall, it doesn’t quite match the masterpiece that is Act III, but for a band that took 14 years off, this is a brilliant return to form. And the best part is, these guys aren’t aging 40 or 50-something rockers – I don’t think any of them has hit 35 yet! Highly recommended for metal fans.


From allmusic.com:

Leave it to Bay Area thrash metal pioneers Death Angel to name their recording rebirth, 14 years in the making, The Art of Dying. Oh, the irony! Never ones to play it straight, Death Angel, like their first wave of thrash inspiration, Exodus, shocked their aging fans when they courageously shrugged off the years of rust and returned to active metal duty in 2004. And because they were merely teenagers during their first run, most of the band are amazingly still in their early 30s! More importantly, they've done so in style. The Art of Dying, even while bypassing the often Byzantine arrangements heard on the group's first two albums, manages to maintain the songwriting focus of their third (and heretofore last) effort, Act III, while arguably providing a better all-around thrash experience than the latter. The race is a close one, but there's no denying that everything about The Art of Dying's frenetic, scratchy-riffed first track (requisite acoustic guitar intro notwithstanding) "Thrown to the Wolves," as well as the brilliantly concussive highlight "Thicker Than Blood," positively screams "old-school" thrash. In fact, except for a few very discreet trad-metal tricks, and the odd hardcore vocal or two snuck into "Five Steps to Freedom," "The Devil Incarnate," and "Prophecy," so does everything else on display here. The reasons are clear for all to see: as in their previous life, Death Angel's sound continues to be anchored by the intense drumming of Andy Galeon, and the absolutely sterling lead guitar work of Rob Cavestany, who's so damn good throughout, it's almost easy to overlook his always eye-popping contributions. Curiously, Galeon tackles lead vocals (with moderate success) on the sprawling "Spirit" (featuring an uncommonly bluesy bridge section), while Cavestany takes over — and we mean takes over — on spectacular closer "Word to the Wise." Not about to be left out, bass player Gus Pepa jumps in with his own lead vocal for the hit-and-miss "Land of Blood," but it's unquestionably lead vocalist Mark Osegueda (often singled out as the band's weak link the first time around) who's benefited the most from the onset of age. Except for sporadic relapses to his irritating past ways during "Never Me" and the wobbly-paced "Famine," where both he and the band get a little lost in the slower momentum, Osegueda's performance on The Art of Dying is stronger, more confident, and more versatile than ever. And while we're taking a roll call here, let it be known that new guitarist Ted Aguilar acquits himself perfectly well in his first outing with the group. In summary, for a band whose potential had seemed disappointingly unfulfilled at the time of their original breakup, Death Angel have ensured that The Art of Dying serves as an act of speed metal closure.


This is an excellent "comeback" cd, and well worth checking out if you like thrash metal with clean vocals. I saw these guys in concert last month in a club venue in front of 300 diehards and they kicked butt. 5 steps to freedom is my favorite track, but the whole album is consistenly good.

[Ksyrup]

I wish Death Angel would tour the East Coast. I've got a bootleg from April in Arizona and it makes me want to see them even more.

[Ksyrup]

David Ryan Harris - S/T; Atlanta EP


OK, today's entry is a bit of a departure from any of yesterday's entries, but this is a guy who deserves tons of press for the incredible muisc he writes, yet no one has heard of him.

Harris started out in the Atlanta-based all-black rock group Follow For Now, which was like a soulful, underground, non-commercial version of Living Colour. They put out one fantastic album in 1991, but then had their second album permanently shelved due to record label issues having nothing to do with them, and consequently, they could do nothing but disband. Harris then became the major force behind Dionne Farris, producing her big hit (I Know) and playing guitar in her band, before releasing his self-titled first solo record in 1997. The review of that album is below - it's a drastic departure from FFN, not much rock, but a whole lotta soul and R&B. Just tremendous stuff, beautiful songs and lyrics.

After that, he joined forces with former Black Crowes bassist Johnny Colt and a drummer to form Brand New Immortals, a more hard-edged rock band (something between his solo stuff and FFN) that released the criminally-overlooked Tragic Show in 2001. No doubt exasperated by the lack of attention to the band, he went solo again, releasing the Atlanta EP in 2002, which gets back to the style of his solo record, but in a sparser acoustic setting. He recorded the EP in his bedroom, and played every note and sang every vocal part on the album.

Currently, he's touring (as he did last summer) with John Mayer's band, playing his solo stuff on a side-stage prior to Mayer's show. He's preparing a full-length CD for release some time in the near future. The Atlanta EP can only be purchased through his website (davidryanharris.com), but you can probably find a cheap copy of his first solo album, BNI, or FFN (I found his solo CD for $1!) at the local CD shop.

Well worth a try. I cannot recommend all of this guy's stuff highly enough.


From allmusic.com:

On his first solo album (recorded for old pal Brendan O'Brien (http://javascript<b></b>:z('Btnen97bjkrkt'))'s imprint at Columbia Records), former Follow for Now (http://javascript<b></b>:z('Btg0e4jj70wa4')) frontman David Ryan Harris pursued a far different path than his former band, although with no drop-off in musical variety. Where Follow for Now (http://javascript<b></b>:z('B3ifoxqe5ldje'))'s lone album crackled with a volatile mix of punk, funk, and ska, David Ryan Harris is a more restrained affair, showcasing the Atlanta musician's singer/songwriter leanings in several different settings. He certainly hasn't forgotten how to rock, as songs like "King Karma," with its piledriving, Hendrix (http://javascript<b></b>:z('B24jueay04xu7'))-style riff prove. But Harris smoothly shifts gears to offer the folky R&B of "If I Had a Dime" and the swinging, Stevie Wonder (http://javascript<b></b>:z('Btk9fs39ya3mg'))-ful "Tricks Up My Sleeve," even managing to replicate a bit of R.E.M. (http://javascript<b></b>:z('Bfmd0yl58xpnb')) jangle on the propulsive "Six Feet Off the Ground." If there's a weakness here, it's that — save for that latter tune — most of these songs are subtle constructions that need a few listens to sink in. That fact, combined with Harris' standard defiance of racial pigeonholing, probably combined to doom this album commercially, but it's a mature and thoughtful effort that history shows — given the crop of guitar-strumming new soul pinups who appeared a few years after its release — was simply ahead of its time.

[Ksyrup]

David and David
Boomtown

Amazon Link (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000002GH9/qid=1087324869/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/102-7787444-7634532?v=glance&s=music&n=507846)

From about 1986, this first-and-only album by this duo is just good, solid music. From the images of the two guys, I have the general sense that they pretty much made the record, got enough money to fill up their trailers with booze and whores, and retired happy from the music business. (Not quite true, but we never heard from them again, basically)

Swallowed by the Cracks is one of my very favorite songs - my favorite on the album, though the whole thnig plays very well front to back. They write and sing very well about loss - but not in a completely bluesy "oh, she done broke my heart" way. The title track got a bit of radio play, but never really caught fire. Ain't So Easy is the song that should have been a hit, at least a modest one, but I don't know of it ever getting anywhere.

If you're a fan of vocal-driven, guitar-based, well-conceived music... this is an absolute steal for twelve bucks. I have played my copy at least 300 times, no joke. This one goes to the desert island with me.
This is one of those albums that is instantly familiar to me, yet I don't know if I've ever heard anything off of it, even the one hit single. I'll have to track it down and give it a try...although I don't have much success with going back to the 80's for stuff I've never heard - it always sounds dated, and that ruins it for me. Now, stuff I liked back then, I can at least tolerate now, but for some reason, "new" stuff that comes from that era does not wear well with me.

Anyway, I checked them out on allmusic, and if you are that big of a fan, it appears that you should check out one half of the duo's solo career. One guy did disappear; the other seems to have done pretty well for himself, if not commercially:


After the quick dissolution of David & David (javascript:z('Bcxfibkr96akx')) in the mid-'80s, David Baerwald began a solo career, releasing his solo debut, Bedtime Stories (javascript:z('Au1ua6j2h71l0')), in 1990. As with David & David (javascript:z('B52d7gj4rj6ic'))'s sole album, it was an album of deceptively laid-back pop; the calm production and subtle, memorable melodies hid the fact that Baerwald's characters were either inflicting or suffering from emotional pain. It was a triumph, winning raves from critics, but it sold very few copies. With his second album, 1993's Triage (javascript:z('A61jeeai04xg7')), Baerwald decided to have the music match the message, creating soundscapes that recalled a subdued, more pop-friendly Tom Waits (javascript:z('Bridxlfae5cqu')). Again, the critical praise was substantial but the record sold even fewer copies than the first. A follow-up wouldn't be seen for nearly a decade, however; Baerwald took time out to work with other musicians and tweak his playing skills. He joined Sheryl Crow (javascript:z('1SHERYL|CROW')) for her monumental Tuesday Night Music Club (javascript:z('2TUESDAY|NIGHT|MUSIC|C')) debut and was later nominated for a Golden Globe for Moulin Rouge's swan song, "Come What May." Finally, Baerwald bounced back with Here Comes the Folk Underground (javascript:z('2HERE|COMES|THE|FOLK|U')) in 2002.

[lcjjdnh]

Swiss Movement: Montreux 30th Anniversary Edition-Les McCann/Eddie Harris (javascript:z('Bb95s8qxtbtq4'))

I picked this one up recently after hearing one of the songs on the local jazz station WBGO. I don't usually listen to jazz but was flipping through my presets and heard the song and just couldn't turn it off. I went out and purchased the CD and have listened to it probably 10 times in the past two weeks, it's just really good. I recommend it to you even if you're not a jazz fan. Bailey's trumpet play is very impressive and the fact that niether Bailey, Harris or the Les McCann trio had played together was just amazing considering the way the record plays.

From allmusic.com

One of the most popular soul-jazz albums of all time, and one of the best, although Harris (javascript:z('B6tknu3i5anok')) (and trumpeter Benny Bailey (javascript:z('Bumf2zfghehak'))) had never played or rehearsed with the Les McCann Trio (javascript:z('1LES|MCCANN|TRIO')) before, and indeed wasn't even given the music. Perhaps that sparked the spontaneous funk that comes through clearly on the tape of this show, recorded at the Montreux Festival in 1969. It's actually much more of a showcase for McCann than Harris (javascript:z('B88q8g40ttv4z')), although the tenor saxist's contributions are significant. The sole vocal, a version of Gene McDaniels (javascript:z('1GENE|MCDANIELS'))' "Compared to What," remains McCann's signature tune. It's worth picking up Rhino's Montreux 30th Anniversary Edition, as it adds a nine-minute bonus track ("Kaftan") and historical liner notes.

[Ksyrup]

Well, this went over well, didn't it? :)


Here's my entry for today:


Nikolo Kotzev's Nostradamus (Steamhammer/SPV)

This one is an old (2001) release that I stumbled on a couple of nights ago. I say stumbled upon, because it was only released in Europe and I've never seen it in the US. Nostradamus is a rock opera created entirely by one man - Nikolo Kotzev, who is an extremely (as I'm coming to find out) talented guitarist, violinist, arranger, composer, and mutli-instrumentalist from overseas. This is a true "rock opera" in the sense that each character is given voice by a different guest vocalist, the most well-known of whom are mentioned in the allmusic.com review below.

Musically, this is comparable to European melodic rock. The backing musicians comprise 3/5 of the band Europe (yes, the Final Countdown guys), and while there are some similarities in the style of the rock portion of the music, they are pretty much swallowed up by the 35-piece orchestra, choir, and guest vocalists' unique styles.

This is quite an impressive project. Considering the praise that has been heaped on this album, I'm even more surprised that I've never heard of this until now.



From allmusic.com:

There was a time in the '70s when rock operas were all the rage. Since then they have been pretty scarce, and many times with good reason. This rock opera is quite possibly the most successful attempt at the genre to have ever come around. The awesome results are probably greatly related to the fact that the CD's creator (Kotzev) is not only a rock composer, but also an accomplished classical composer. The result is a CD that combines prog metal work, progressive rock, and plenty of classical/operatic leanings to achieve a very potent mix. Kotzev also recruited a considerably impressive cast to fill out the roles in his creation. That cast includes such names as Alannah Myles (javascript:z('B52x7gjlrj6ip')), Sass Jordan (javascript:z('Bwpaxlfae5cqw')), Glenn Hughes (javascript:z('Bme7ibkj96akb')), and Joe Lynn Turner (javascript:z('B66r9282r054a')). The work is very powerful, emotional, and inspiring.

[Bad-example]

Virginia Creeper is Grant Lee Phillips 8th Album (4 with Grant Lee Buffalo). The Album has this dreamy acoustic americana sound that plays enough in the background to support but not overpower Phillip's strong and sometime sweet voice. I guess they call this Adult Alternative these days.

Many of the songs seem to revolve around women, but not neccisarily women in Phillips life. The music rolls from reflective to celabratory, but all tell a story in a not quite Springsteen kind of way. Some songs are rich with instumentaion and some are sparce. Some have a very traditional sound while others have a nice hook to them.

This isn't music for hefting a beer and shouting. it is the type of thing you would listen to on a sunday spring morning driving down a 2 lane road through a tunnel of trees with nothing to do but let your mind wander.

I find

Mona Lisa
Lily-a-passion
Susanna Little
Wish I knew

to be the best of album, but they may just be the most accessable.



I bought two cd selections from this thread. While I have not yet given QS's music any real attention yet, I have to say that Virginia Creeper is a very good disc that I am pretty hooked on already. Mona Lisa, Lily-a-Passion and Susanna Little are my favorites so far. Very sweet, easy to enjoy music with a haunting quality.

Thanks Fritz

[Karlifornia]

As you may or may not know, Omaha, Nebraska has become quite an oasis of superior Indie/Lo-Fi rock. An internet friend referred me to this record label called Saddle Creek based out of Omaha. Every album I have bought by bands on this label has left me more than satisfied.

Bright Eyes - This angsty, folk-driven group has a neverending revolving door of performers. The only constant is lead singer/guitar player Conor Oberst, who has been unfortunately labeled "The Indie Dylan" by pundits. Definitely the first SC act to garner any substantial attention (only partly due to Oberst's short romance with Winona Ryder).


Songs to try: "Haligh, haligh, a lie, Haligh", "False Advertising", "One Foot In Front of the Other"

Cursive - My current fave. A hardcore band that has a permanent cello player. Most songs are about lead singer Tim Kasher's divorce. The concept albums "Cursive's Domestica" and "The Ugly Organ" are both abrasive, yet melodic masterpieces.

Songs to try: "Some Red Handed Sleight of Hand", "The Recluse", "The Martyr"

The Faint - Paraphrasing Rhapsody "Ditched straight up hardcore in exchange for a purely 80's Synthisizer vibe. Break out the skinny ties"

Four ugly guys who make inescapable synth pop songs about sex, death, and dancing. A definite fun time.

Songs to try: "Agenda Suicide", "Worked up so Sexual", "The Conductor"

[Fritz]

I bought two cd selections from this thread. While I have not yet given QS's music any real attention yet, I have to say that Virginia Creeper is a very good disc that I am pretty hooked on already. Mona Lisa, Lily-a-Passion and Susanna Little are my favorites so far. Very sweet, easy to enjoy music with a haunting quality.

Thanks Fritz

hey, that is great. I am glad you are getting something out of it.

[Bad-example]

I would buy more stuff by Grant-Lee...have you any recommendations?

[Ksyrup]

Just got this one in the mail from Not Lame...


A.C. Newman - The Slow Wonder (Matador)


This guy's been in one underrated band after another over the past decade or so, but this is his first solo album. I'd call this indie pop, I guess. There are all sorts of influences on this, but the bottom line is that these are some strong pop songs. This one will be getting heavy rotation for the next couple of weeks.


From allmusic.com:

A.C. Newman is Carl Newman (javascript:z('Bs7d8vwdta9uk')). You may know him as the main dude in underrated pop heroes Zumpano (javascript:z('B8ojueat14xg7')); you may know him as the leader of the justly-rated New Pornographers (javascript:z('Bad3gtq7z9u4p')); you may even remember him as the lead screamer in the very weird heavy rock band Superconductor (javascript:z('Bi78e4j870wai')). Either way, his name on a project is like the "Indie Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval." This is his first solo record and it delivers all the things one has come to expect and rejoice in from Newman. Things like witty, engaging songcraft that is full of surprises and exciting twists and turns, expertly produced and arranged songs, his perfect rock & roll voice, songs with big, fat hooks that call to mind power pop legends like the Raspberries (javascript:z('B8zabqj4bojja')), Redd Kross (javascript:z('B2x68mpm39f6o')), and the Kinks (javascript:z('Bnx1m96ho3epc')), or plain old legends like Elton John (javascript:z('B0ifqxqe5ldse')), Harry Nilsson (javascript:z('Bqzanqj4boj6a')), or Todd Rundgren (javascript:z('B6q2tk6hx9krf')); songs that make you want to hit repeat as soon as the disc is over. Slow Wonder is undoubtedly Newman's most personal disc, not a shock given the format. Many of the lyrics have an intimate feel and there is also a wider range of emotions then on a New Pornographers (javascript:z('B7dqpg4a9tv3z'))' disc; some anger on "Town Halo," bitterness on "Better Than Most," and weariness on the aching "Drink to Me, Babe, Then." It also features some new instrumental textures like sawing cellos on "Town Halo," acoustic guitars and gritty slide work on "Drink to Me, Babe, Then," electronic percussion on "Most of Us Prizefighters," and autumnal chamber pop strings and horns on the utterly beautiful "Come Crash." Having made the case for how different this record is from his other work, now let it be said that the record is very much like his other work. Maybe even better. It certainly contains some of his catchiest, most exuberant songs like the crashing opener "Miracle Drug," "On the Table," "The Battle for Straight Time," and the jittery "35 in the Shade." The presence of the sunny, new wave-ish gem "Secretarial" is enough to make Slow Wonder essential. Sara Wheeler (javascript:z('Bb26m96oogep6')) is a perfectly perfect replacement for Neko Case (javascript:z('B1e67mpmf9f2o')). The production by John Collins (javascript:z('B6pkvu3q0andk')), David Carswell (javascript:z('Bisuh6j787190')), and Newman himself is flawless, sleek, and modern, but still warm and organic. It all adds up to one whale of a good record that fits in well with all his work leading up to it. In fact, barring the late arrival of another New Pornographers (javascript:z('B8h87gjwr26ia')) record, this is probably the best indie rock/pop record of 2004. Carl Newman (javascript:z('Btyez975jkr0t')) deserves every last bit of praise thrown his way. In a better world, he would be our Elton (javascript:z('B3zsqoayabijv')), our Todd (javascript:z('Bhq6ftr69kl2x')), our McCartney (javascript:z('Bjifyxqe5ldfe')), and Slow Wonder would be on everyone's iPod, rotating on M2 hourly, and his name would be on the lips of everyone from aged Royalty to teen-aged girls. Hmm, don't hold your breath, just sing along and be glad you discovered him.

[DeToxRox]

Clutch - Blast Tyrant

Clutch are either a band that hold some of the most faithful and dedicated fans in the world, and simply confuses the hell out of others. For over a decade, the Maryland based four piece act (Who are vocalist/guitarist Neil Fallon, guitarist Tim Sult, bassist Dan Maines and drummer Jean-Paul Gaster) have tried their hand at the major record label game, released a string of eclectic and at times indescribable albums, and somehow come out through the other end with both their sanity and credibility intact.

Blast Tyrant is their sixth official studio album to date, the follow up to 2001’s Pure Rock Fury and the first for independent label D.R.T. Records.

Although it can be hardly called a true concept album, Blast Tyrant (The full title being Blast Tyrant's Atlas Of The Invisible World Including Illustrations Of Strange Beasts And Phantasms) revolves around a dictator like character called the Blast Tyrant who’s in charge of a ship called the Swollen Goat, who’s in pursuit of Worm Drink and the character he interacts with called La Curandera. While the theme related storyline is confusing to say the least, the music is somewhat strange, but most definitely rocking all the time!

Clutch blasts open their new album with the frantic energy that is ‘Mercury’. The production is instantly raw sounding this time around, while the riffs are as usual, continually twisting and turning. Fallon’s lyrical genius is as captivating as his vocal performance, making this one hell of an introduction to Blast Tyrant.

The slower moving stoner groove of ‘Profits Of Doom’, ‘(In The Wake Of) The Swollen Goat’ and ‘Promoter (Of Earthbound Causes)’ kick with all the finesse of Black Label Society’s best, while the funk tinged first single ‘The Mob Goes Wild’ (Which is also the first promotional video clip from the album) and ‘Cypress Grove’ maintains the fun ‘up’ feeling that the album emanates throughout.

Elsewhere, the acoustic framework of ‘The Regulator’ and ‘Ghost’ are both haunting mixes of Tom Waits with Sixteen Horsepower, while ‘Worm Drink’, ‘Army Of Bono’, ‘Spleen Merchant’, the monolithic ‘(Notes From The Trial Of) La Curandera’ and the infectiously catchy ‘Subtle Hustle’ all rock with an effortless swagger of the truly experienced. The inclusion of the Hammond B3 organ and huge seventies inspired riffs really come together in the instrumental closer ‘Wysiwyg’ as well.

Blast Tyrant may not differ all that much from Pure Rock Fury or even Jam Room for that matter, but where this album really works is in it’s consistency of songs (Even at fifteen tracks long), their attention to dynamics and the restraint from drifting into overlong jam session passages of the past.

Clutch may be on an independent label once again, but it hasn’t stunted their creative juices or their determination to continue to do what they do best. Clutch rock, and Blast Tyrant is further proof of their undiscovered genius and vision of music beyond the corporate game plan or a need for hits and sales to determine success.

(blistering.com)


This is a great CD. Neil Fallon definetly has a blusey feel to his voice. It's a definite CD to pick up if you like rock. Clutch is definetly underrated, but hey, they do what they do and they do it awesomely, so more power to them.

[Ksyrup]

Ayreon - The Human Equation (Inside-Out)

This has been a good month for me for prog-metal opera discoveries...

Ayreon is the brain-child/alter ego of Arjen Lucassen, a Dutch multi-instrumentalist. The music of Ayreon, as well as Lucassen's Star One project, are characterized by grandiose themes played out by various "guest stars" who bring these stories to life. Musically, Ayreon maintains a '00's edge, yet is not as heavy as many prog metal bands these days, and has a keyboard/synth-driven sound akin to Emerson Lake and Palmer, or maybe Deep Purple.

The Human Equation explores the wanderings of the human mind while the main character ('Me,' given voice by Dream Theater's James LaBrie) is in a coma following a car accident. The CD is broken into 20 days, the first CD focusing on the immediate reaction of the mind to the situation Me finds himself in, and then plays through his life, while characters Reason, Agony, Pride, Fear, and Rage battle to convince him to give up on life or continue to fight for it. The second CD focuses on the back stories which lead to the accident, and which feature his Wife and Best Friend, as well as Passion, Love, and Father. The album alternates between heavy music, acoustic/celtic sounds, and ELP-ish prog rock.

It's simply a fantastic album and story, and the strength of the guest stars is integral to bringing this project to its full glory.


Here's a review from progarchives.com:

Some people have a gift and know how to use it. Arjen Lucassen is one of them. It was already obvious on his first album "The Final Experiment" that we could expect a lot more from this phenomenon. "Actual Fantasy" was a nice CD, but nothing more. The first highlight was without any doubt "Into The Electric Castle", the album with the most variation until now. This landmark should be known to everyone that claims to know a lot about this music style. From then on, every album by Arjen Lucassen was compared to “Into The Electric Castle” and until now no match could be found. There was always the feeling that you heard it before or that it was only a variation on the same theme. I don’t want to be detrimental to the later albums, but they missed the little extra that a music lover is searching for. But Arjen wouldn’t be AYREON if he wouldn’t surpass himself once more.

Of course there are some typical AYREON features in “The Human Equation”, and so there should be, because an artist must be recognizable. But there’s more, a lot more...

After the beautiful opener “Day one - Vigil” you already get such a typical AYREON song “Day two - Isolation”. It could come straight from “Into The Electric Castle”. And yet you feel a certain potential and this has certainly something to do with the ideal combination of vocalists. Eric Clayton (Reason), James LaBrie (Me) and Mikael Äkerfeldt (Fear) certainly attract attention. A floydian piece is followed by an unequalled synth solo by Joost van de Broek (AFTER FOREVER).

“Day three - Pain” is the first track that lifts this album to a higher level than “The Castle”. Again the choice of voices is great. Devon Graves (AGONY), or should I say ‘Buddy Lackey’, the singer of DEAD SOUL TRIBE and PSYCHOTIC WALTZ, together with Devin Townsend (RAGE) give this song the little extra with the brilliant musical finds. (#1)

The track “Day four – Mystery” contains the typical AYREON organ sounds and is just a common but very pleasant track.

“Day five – Voices” also kicks off in a very known manner, but once Eric Clayton (Reason) performs his part, the track goes to another dimension. This could be considered as a leading thread running through the whole album. The most intriguing singer is Eric Clayton (Reason). Without him, the album would have been completely different. Also the piece with Mikael Äkerfeldt in this track is a beauty.

The singer with the most differentiation is Agony (Devon Graves). The combination with Mikael Äkerfeldt in “Day six – Childhood” make it another extra special track. (#2)

‘Best Friend’ (Arjen) does an excellent job singing the track “Day seven – Hope”, a song with a very beautiful melody that reminds me a bit of BLACMORE'S NIGHT.

The combination of the voices does a great job on “Day eight – School”, but the highest prize goes to the classical sounding bridge together with the interaction between “Pride” (Magnus Ekwall) and ‘Reason’ (Eric Clayton).

The only instrumental on this album “Day nine – Playground” is a brilliant, nostalgic song. If it was meant to make everybody reminisce their schooldays, then it succeeds completely. Clever piece of music.

Although it’s not really a typical AYREON track, “Day ten – Memories” only gets to me from the quiet piece with ‘Passion’ (Irene Jansen) and ‘Reason’ (Eric Cayton) on.

The single “Day eleven – love”, a most enjoyable track, very well sung by every one but an extra feather on the hats of ‘Love’ (Heather Findlay) and ‘Passion’ (Irene Jansen).

The best track on ‘The Human Equation’ is, without any doubt, “Day twelve – Trauma”. Only the beautifully built tension would do, but the real kick comes after 3 minutes and 15 seconds: the vocals of ‘Reason’ (Eric Clayton) with a mini guitar solo, and after that ‘Fear’ (Mikael Äkerfeldt) who joins in at the right moment and brings the track to a climax on the right moment with a supergrunt. And that’s why grunts were invented. Not to roar for a whole bloody album (really pathetic) but to give that little extra at the right moment. High class!!! (#3)

‘Love’ (Heather Findlay) opens “Day thirteen – Sign” in a way that no one else is capable of. Goosebump time!!. That’s what Arjen’s art is all about. Knowing who has to sing when and use the vocalist in a style that is best for him. This is a Heather moment like no other. “Top Notch” MOSTLY AUTUMN. But also the great guitarsolo in combination with the violin deserves to be mentioned. After that the level of the song goes down a bit.

‘Me’ (James LaBrie) gets a typical DREAM THEATER part in “Day fourteen – Pride”, a heavy rock song. But this track is an exception, because on the rest of the album, James sings very laidback and quiet, really the way I like him the most. Superb judgement by Arjen.

The three strongest voices (Fear, Agony & Reason) open “Day fifteen – Betrayed”, a quiet track, with a strong chorus sung by Eric Clayton (Fear). It contains a very beautiful middle piece with amongst others the synth solo by Martin Orford. The song ends with an acoustic guitar and a very modest James LaBrie (Me).

The didgeridoo opens the most folky track “Day sixteen – Loser”. This exceptional strong track creates a fantastic atmosphere thanks to the combination of folk and metal. It reminds me of the Scottish Highlands, FISH, TEMPEST and SKYCLAD. And once more, the strong figures of “Rage” (Devin Townsend) and “Father” (Mike Baker) get a lot of credits. But the abolute highlight of this track is the organ solo by Ken Hensley. His typical URIAH HEEP organ sound sounds better than ever. Oh, guys, where have all those good times gone? But Arjen knows how to bring back these feelings. This is almost scary. And of course it’s one of the songs with the little extra. (#4)

“Day seventeen – Accident” opens again in a Floydian way with a very Bowie-sounding Eric Clayton (Reason). The voice of Marcela Bovio has been mixed to the background which gives a very special effect. A piece of drum’n bass is used, just before the guitar solo and the synth solo by Oliver Wakeman, to emphasize the musical variation. Also a snatch of ZEPPELIN (“No Quarter”) passes in review. This track is another tip. (#5).

Quite a lot of instruments are hidden in “Day eighteen – Realization”, even some classical ones. This track opens as a Focus song to change into a rock song in real DREAM THEATER style.

Arjen (Best Friend) and Marcela Bovio (Wife) give an explanation in “Day nineteen – Disclosure” but I keep the details for the listener to discover. The same for “Day twenty – Confrontation” that also has a more narrative purpose than a musical character. These are good songs, but no super tracks, but they are essential to understand the concept.

I almost forgot to mention drummer Ed Warby. I can be very brief about him. You were right Arjen. The AYREON drummer is Ed Warby and no one else!

The expectations for the new AYREON album were very high. After the super album "Into The Electric Castle" we had to wait and see if Arjen would succeed in matching or even exceeding this masterpiece. With “The Human Equation”, Arjen proves that he can do a lot more than he already revealed in the past. At least five tracks contain that little more. (see the #’s) He certainly has set the limits a little higher for himself. The technique and recording quality are an example for the whole musical world. With his skill to approach the right people and use them for the perfect musical atmosphere, he is capable of making exceptional great albums. He doesn’t make it easy for himself in the future. I’m curious to see what his next step will be. But one thing is certain. If your budget allows you only one album this year, then you shouldn’t have any doubts: AYREON: ‘The Human Equation’!

[Ksyrup]

A.C. Newman - The Slow Wonder (Matador)

I have been playing the hell out of this album and see no end in sight. I'f you're into indie pop, you've got to give this a try. Everything on this album is solid, but Town Halo is tops on my list of best songs of 2004. The cello-as-bassline is brilliant. But really, I'd be hard pressed to find a clunker on this one. The only downside is that it clocks in at just over 33 minutes.

Anyone else have something to contribute?

[thesloppy]

I have been playing the hell out of this album and see no end in sight. I'f you're into indie pop, you've got to give this a try.

Anyone else have something to contribute?

I've been hearing a lot of talk about this one, and have been tempted to give it a shot, but honestly I'm really not that big of a New Pornographers fan, so I've been hesitant....although I have done the walk-around-the-store-with-the-disc-in-your-hand-for-half-an-hour-only-to-return-it-to-the-shelf-right-before you-leave thing. Your positive review may be just enough to push me over the edge, but by God if it's not truly splendiforous you can expect trouble, sir.

And no, I obviously have nothing to contribute.....I have a couple old Will Oldham CDs that I picked up recently that are absolutely awesome, but I'm far too lazy to write anything more than I just have.

[HerRealName]

I also love the AC Newman cd. My favorite cd of the year has been The Walkmen - Bows and Arrows. It is just a garage rock that is solid from beginning to end. Here is the summary page from Metacritic - it seems to be a cd that most either love or hate. I can't really think of a good comparison except maybe The Strokes without the suckiness. Maybe the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club would be a better comparison.

hxxp://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/walkmen/bowsandarrows/

Another cd that I highly recommend is Menomena - The Fun Blame Monster. This one is a little different with many instruments drifting in and out of songs. Their website has a download page for anyone wanting to hear a sample. I can't really decifer what the hell they are talking about on this page but the sample from the cd is item number 1. This isn't my favorite song on the cd but you can get a good idea of the type of music.

hxxp://www.menomena.com/listeners.html

[Ksyrup]

A couple of recent purchases...



Scissor Sisters - S/T

Wow. This is one, in theory, that I should hate. Take Elton John, the Bee Gee's, some Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and shake vigorously. Despite that, I want to like this, and there's some good stuff here, but it's so campy, I'm having a difficult time wading through it. This album was (maybe still is) the #1 album in the UK, and now they're threatening the US with the same kind of "takeover" mentality that the Darkness possesses (although SS is actually from NY). Be on the lookout - I'm sure if you listen to the radio, you'll hear Take Your Mama, or - God forbid - their awful cover of Comfortably Numb, disco'd up to a dance beat. It's stuff like that that keeps me from fully embracing this band. Don't say I didn't warn you!


Big Kid - You Must Be Kidding

This is fun, straight-ahead power pop. Great melodies, above-average songs, competent playing...a good all-around album. The songs fall anywhere on the spectrum from Beatlesque compositions to straight-ahead punk/pop. Not too much to think about, but definitely a good summer driving album.


Monster Magnet - Monolithic Baby!

Yet another great album from the masters of overstated hedonism, 70's rock, sex, and drugs, and rock 'n roll. Although this one continues the move away from the "stoner/space rock" of the earlier albums to a more sex-driven content prevalent on the last couple of albums, there are a couple of tunes which pay homage to the psychedelia of MM's earlier work. This one's not quite up to their best work, Powertrip, but it's better than God Says No, which I really couldn't get into. I don't think this one will bring in any new fans, but those who already like MM will unddoubtedly love this album.

From allmusic.com:

Dave Wyndorf ("]Wyndorfian[/url]" is the only appropriate phrase to use when describing the rawk machine that is Monster Magnet. Yes, lead Magneteer Monolithic Baby![/i], which marks a couple of superficial transitions for Monster Magnet — off a major and back to an indie; new rhythm section (Bob Pantella ("]Jim Baglino on bass and Wyndorf's highly entertaining mass of contradictions and vices. Simultaneously whip-smart and cementhead-stupid, smirking and sincere, he can challenge your intellect with an inspired arrangement or pseudo-political left-field lyric, then bash you over the head with a fat, greasy guitar riff; such is his genius. While Monolithic Baby![/i] kicks off with four smarmy-charm, crotch-thrusting musical metaphors for the horizontal mambo in "Slut Machine," "Supercruel," "Unbroken (Hotel Baby)," and especially "On the Verge," which counteracts a nudge-nudge-wink-wink doomsayer lyric ("Take me Jesus, take me Allah, rape me in my room/Torch our days in paranoia while we gorge ourselves on gloom") with a propulsive arrangement that explodes with climactic fury. The air-guitar heaven continues with "Radiation Day," which could have been cribbed from Master of Reality ("]Black Sabbath's the MC5 boasting a scruffy, two-chord pre-punk riff, and "There's No Way Out" offers a Monolithic Baby![/i]'s pièce de résistance, "Ultimate Everything," seven and a half minutes of psychedelic wastoid thunder: its stomping, rhythmic trudge sounds flogged by cloven-hoofed beasts while Wyndorf ("]Wyndorf wails, "Lookin' up at the big sky, what do I see, a thousand years of bullsh*t comin' down on me!" and guitar solos flame out amidst a swirling whirlpool of acid-trip reality-escape. In other words, Wyndorf following up his titular boasts with yet another collection of undeniably Monolithic Baby![/i] featured two bonus tracks: "King of Mars 2004," a re-recording of a track from 1995's the Velvet Underground ("]Dopes to Infinity, and a cover of [url=")'s "Venus in Furs." A limited-edition version came packaged with a bonus DVD boasting two promo videos and live and interview footage.]

[cthomer5000]

As you may or may not know, Omaha, Nebraska has become quite an oasis of superior Indie/Lo-Fi rock. An internet friend referred me to this record label called Saddle Creek based out of Omaha. Every album I have bought by bands on this label has left me more than satisfied.

Bright Eyes - This angsty, folk-driven group has a neverending revolving door of performers. The only constant is lead singer/guitar player Conor Oberst, who has been unfortunately labeled "The Indie Dylan" by pundits. Definitely the first SC act to garner any substantial attention (only partly due to Oberst's short romance with Winona Ryder).


Songs to try: "Haligh, haligh, a lie, Haligh", "False Advertising", "One Foot In Front of the Other"

Cursive - My current fave. A hardcore band that has a permanent cello player. Most songs are about lead singer Tim Kasher's divorce. The concept albums "Cursive's Domestica" and "The Ugly Organ" are both abrasive, yet melodic masterpieces.

Songs to try: "Some Red Handed Sleight of Hand", "The Recluse", "The Martyr"

The Faint - Paraphrasing Rhapsody "Ditched straight up hardcore in exchange for a purely 80's Synthisizer vibe. Break out the skinny ties"

Four ugly guys who make inescapable synth pop songs about sex, death, and dancing. A definite fun time.

Songs to try: "Agenda Suicide", "Worked up so Sexual", "The Conductor"
Saddle Creek was really hitting a home run on every release when I was Music Director of my college station. I think everyone in the station was a huge fan of The Faint within a few months. I think Danse Macabre might be a more accessible first album to hear, but I probably like Blank-Wave Arcade better. Do NOT buy their first album. Sounds absolutely nothing like the latter releases, and not in a good way.

[Ksyrup]

Figured I'd dig this one up to mention the new CD I got today...


The Tea Party - Seven Circles

Canadian rock trio Tea Party is back with a new album, with a decidedly more accessible sound, although still very much in the Doors/Zeppelin vein with the familiar mystical lyrics and Middle Eastern influences the band is known for. This one's only available in Canada, and it has some sort of copy control protection on it, but I was able to convert to MP3, so I'm not sure what the deal is. I'm hoping for a tour and/or big break for the band in the US due to, ironically, the band working with ex-Creed singer Scott Stapp on his solo album. Should be interesting, to say the least.

Anyway, here's a review from the Edmonton Sun:

SEVEN CIRCLES

The Tea Party

EMI

3 1/2 out of 5

In Almost Famous, the Lester Bangs rock critic character tells his young protege, more or less, "Never become friends with the musicians you write about."

Now I know. Since I first hung out with the Tea Party's Jeff Martin more than a decade ago, reviewing his band has been tough. I started out loving them, especially live, but over the ensuing years rolled my eyes at their mystic hooey and have been repeatedly frustrated at their insistence on trotting out one weird musical instrument after another. The show comes to a grinding halt as we learn all about the haunting stringed oud of Babylon.

"Hire another musician!" I keep saying. "Har, har, no way," Martin keeps replying. Ego too big for that, he says, half-joking. So here we are.

Martin is a creative guy, but he's full of rock star baloney - which you need to be a rock star. He knows it, I know it and so what? It's a long-running joke. It was also quite amusing when those two punk bands ganged up on Martin at the Stage 13 festival - and all because of his offhand quote about Sum 41 we printed in the advance article. The ribbing was good for him. He needs to take himself less seriously - and in fact has in recent years.

So what now? Another new album - this one partially produced by Bob Rock? Gavin Brown, too? And Martin's recorded a song with Scott Stapp of Creed for the upcoming The Passion of the Christ DVD? Nooooo! Too far, man! Bring back the oud!

And all this before even listening to a single note of the new album. That's some unfriendly baggage.

Time to get down to it then. Four spins through Seven Circles - in stores Tuesday - and I conclude this is the most "mainstream" record the band has ever made. You can actually hear the work of the high-priced cooks in the kitchen. This is not necessarily a bad thing. While it's slightly disconcerting to hear these guys flirting with keyboards, sequencers and love songs in major keys, Tea Party's deep, esoteric interests filtered through a slick sieve of formulaic corporate rock results in music both accessible and challenging. It works beautifully - to a point.

The murky mysticism remains, questions without answers jumping out of lurching grooves awash in distorted guitars, eerie glockenspiels and too many violins: "Tell me where the stars sleep" or "Where do we belong?/Could you help us, Major Tom?" Nice nod to Bowie. Martin also appears to be talking to God in One Step Closer Away: "You speak in tongues, you read my mind. I'd give it all to see a sign, but it's taking forever."

Or maybe it's a woman ...

Martin is still a first-class rock howler, of course, his powerful Jim Morrison-like voice used to great effect in the first single, Writing's On the Wall. Luxuria and Overload should likewise appeal to fans of the Tea Party's "heavy" side.

But overall, Seven Circles isn't as dark or hellish as its title - or the band's history - suggests. That's about the worst thing I'm willing to say about my only rock star friends.

[Ksyrup]

I haven't updated this in a while, despite picking up some great stuff over the past month. However, I will post about 2 bands from the 80's who just released new albums yesterday, as strong as some of their best stuff from the "glory days."


Tears For Fears - Everybody Loves Happy Ending

Yes, THAT Tears For Fears. Admittedly, I was not a fan back then, and still can't really bring myself to go back and listen to stuff I got sick of in high school. Still, this one is phenomenal - it's like a combo of XTC, Sgt. Peppers, and Jellyfish. I can't believe how good this is, really.


From allmusic.com:

More than a decade has passed since Roland Orzabal (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=1:ROLAND|ORZABAL) and Curt Smith (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=1:CURT|SMITH) parted ways with their soulful and ambitious swan song, Seeds of Love (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=2:SEEDS|OF|LOVE). Orzabal (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=1:ORZABAL) released two records under the Tears For Fears moniker in the mid-nineties, but the band's signature blend of hook-filled anthems and art-pop excess seemed destined to reside eternally in the post-new wave graveyard of the eighties. Then came the film Donnie Darko, a left-field cult hit that featured California singer/songwriter Gary Jules (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=1:GARY|JULES)' chart-topping (in the U.K. anyway) rendition of the band's 1983 hit "Mad World." The renewed interest in the group found the boys ready and willing to set aside their differences and give it another go, and the resulting Everybody Loves a Happy Ending capably exhibits why that interest was there in the first place. Tears For Fears have always dabbled in the Beatle (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=1:BEATLE)-esque, but never as blatantly as on the full peacock-flush of the colorful title cut. Like ELO (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=1:ELO) re-arranging Wings (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=1:WINGS)' "Uncle Albert," it's the first flag in a sea of red signaling the return to form that many deemed unlikely. "Closest Thing To Heaven" builds off of "Sowing the Seeds of Love"' s blueprints—it even utilizes the mid-track reverse drum fill—without coming off as a carbon copy. This is the closest the band's come to crafting a possible hit single in years, and it's a testament to their "still flexing" pop chops they can meld a bittersweet piano-dirge with a sunny seventies soft-rock chorus without sounding contrived. "Who Killed Tangerine" continues mining the Beatles (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=1:BEATLES) vein, juxtaposing each spooky verse against a chorus reminiscent of "Hey Jude." They haven't abandoned the adult contemporary pop that began to creep in post-Smith (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=1:SMITH)—"Size of Sorrow" and "Ladybird" are nice and forgettable—but the dark experimental nature of songs like "Quiet Ones" and "Devil" make up for the occasional blandness. Everybody Loves a Happy Ending will do little to convert those that winced at Orzabal (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=1:ORZABAL) and Smith (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=1:SMITH)'s obtuse lyrics and over-the-top production the first time around, but loyal followers, fans of XTC (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=1:XTC)'s Apple Venus Vol. 1 (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=2:APPLE|VENUS|VOL.|1) and lovers of intricately arranged and artfully executed pop music will find themselves delightfully consumed by this enigmatic group's (final?) chapter.




Megadeth - The System Has Failed

I wrote off Megadeth with Countdown to Extinction. I remember precisely when, too. Right about the point in Foreclosure of a Dream where the "old" Megadeth would thrash out for a couple of minutes, this time, Mustaine introduced a kick-ass thrash riff, only to end it seconds later and get right back to the boring radio-ready (although admittedly pretty good) song. That was it for me. Following up the masterpiece Rust In Peace, which came out about a year before Metallica's dumbed-down The Black Album, with Megadeth's version of TBA, was too much for me to handle. And after that point, they got worse and worse anyway, so I wasn't missing much.

Then Dave lost the use of his left hand, broke up the band, found God, and got in the middle of a huge lawsuit with former bassist Dave Ellefson, and I figured the new Megadeth could possibly be even worse than what came before it.

Man was I wrong.

This CD absolutely shreds. It's the thrashiness of Peace Sells and Rust In Peace, combined with the best melodic elements of the more commercial Megadeth stuff from the 90's. The lone problem with this disc is the production - it's not St. Anger bad, but it's not great, either - otherwise, this would be damn near perfect album, and an amazing return for a once-great band. And to think this was just supposed to be the album that fulfilled the contractual duties of Megadeth, so that Mustaine could go solo.



From allmusic.com:

The System Has Failed marks a return from the dead for Megadeth — and quite a glorious return, it must be said. When bandleader Dave Mustaine (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=1:DAVE|MUSTAINE) was diagnosed in early 2002 with radial neuropathy — strained nerves in his left arm and hand — the snarling guitar shredder was forced to disband his once groundbreaking group after nearly two decades of activity. Granted, it wasn't that big of a loss at the time, chiefly so because Megadeth had long passed its prime. The band's key recordings date back to the speed metal era, from 1986 (the year of Peace Sells (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=2:PEACE|SELLS), Reign in Blood (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=2:REIGN|IN|BLOOD), and Master of Puppets (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=2:MASTER|OF|PUPPETS)) to 1992 (the year Megadeth, like Metallica (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=1:METALLICA) a year earlier, made a distinct, more commercial shift, releasing Countdown to Extinction (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=2:COUNTDOWN|TO|EXTINCTI) — to the dismay of many longtime fans). Following Countdown (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=2:COUNTDOWN), Megadeth struggled. The band continued to release albums, but they weren't well received and, very sadly, one of metal's once pre-eminent acts became a bitter has-been. So Mustaine (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=1:MUSTAINE)'s injury and subsequent disbanding of Megadeth didn't seem all that unfortunate at the time — it seemed overdue, some would argue. Then in 2004, shortly after an exemplary reissue campaign, Mustaine (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=1:MUSTAINE) resurrected Megadeth for The System Has Failed. And frankly, the band hasn't sounded this vital since Countdown to Extinction (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=2:COUNTDOWN|TO|EXTINCTI), if not Rust in Peace (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=2:RUST|IN|PEACE) (to risk overstating just how much of a return to glory this album is). Mustaine (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=1:MUSTAINE) is joined on guitar by Chris Poland (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=1:CHRIS|POLAND), the very talented guitarist whom he'd fired after the masterful Peace Sells (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=2:PEACE|SELLS) album back in the day. It's a surprise return, and no doubt a very exciting one for fans of Peace Sells (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=2:PEACE|SELLS) (note the shred-fest "Kick the Chair" in particular). That re-pairing of Mustaine (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=1:MUSTAINE) and Poland (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=1:POLAND) alone makes The System Has Failed worthwhile, but there are also the songs themselves. Put simply, they're ferocious! No, this isn't a good old-fashioned thrash album, but you can tell Mustaine (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=1:MUSTAINE) is going for that vibe, especially on songs like "Back in the Day," one in particular that should give dyed-in-the-wool headbangers a giddy sense of déjà vu. The System Has Failed is actually more of a synthesis, taking the reckless abandon of pre-Countdown (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=2:COUNTDOWN) Megadeth and infusing it with the melodic songwriting of latter-day diamonds in the rough like "Symphony of Destruction" and "A Tout le Monde." Add to this some especially thoughtful lyrics (archly political, nakedly personal, and shamelessly mature), and you have the recipe for an excellent, damn near perfect Megadeth album, up there with Peace Sells (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=2:PEACE|SELLS), Rust in Peace (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=2:RUST|IN|PEACE), and Countdown (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=2:COUNTDOWN) — as unlikely as that may seem. Regardless of where The System Has Failed ranks alongside Megadeth's other standout albums, however, it most certainly blows away practically every other aboveground metal album of 2004. No joke. This is the sort of latter-day masterpiece Metallica (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=1:METALLICA) struggled in vain for a decade-plus to record to no avail.

[rkmsuf]

This CD absolutely shreds

that's so dudish of you

[Ksyrup]

You haven't learned the Fine Art of Shredding, I take it?

[rkmsuf]

I'm shreddily challenged I guess

[rkmsuf]

somebody needs to review these guys:

hxxp://www.mandonna.com/

[lcjjdnh]

Since no one has posted in here in a while and over the past month I've picked up a few very different albums, I figured I'd post it here and see if we can get this thread up and running. None of these albums are really undiscovered but at least it will be something to start this back up:

SMiLE-Brian Wilson
Hailed by many for years to be the "best album never released" this album finally was finished by Wilson, who as you know has struggled with his own problems for years. While I think it's far from being the best album ever, it's still a very solid album. I would say it's probably perfect in arrangement, every note meshing perfectly along with the harmonies. But yet, there's just something missing when I listen to it, it just doesn't really hit me like the "perfect album" should and as Wilson's masterpiece Pet Sounds did. I would definitly recommend this album as it definitly one of the better arranged albums I've listened to, it's just doesn't have the same effect PS sounds did.

From allmusic.com
4.5 Stars



The white whale of '60s record-making, the Beach Boys' aborted Smile album gradually gained a legend that not only inflated its importance and its complexity, but gave credence to an odd notion — that completing it, then or ever, was impossible. In truth, Smile should have been released and forgotten, reissued and reappraised, and finally remastered for the digital era and ushered into the rock canon ever since Brian Wilson halted work on it in May 1967 (after an exhausting 85 recording sessions). Instead, it languished in the vaults and remained the perfect record — perfect, of course, because it had never been finished. Reports that the recording of "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" had caused a nearby building to burn down and whispers of "inappropriate music" gave it the character of a monster, one that cursed all those who approached it and claimed the heart and mind of its closest participant. Wilson's love of "feels" — short passages of cyclical music that could be overdubbed and rearranged countless times — had made 1966's "Good Vibrations" the ultimate pocket symphony, but had also quickly spiralled into the instability that consumed him during its follow-up, "Heroes and Villains," projected to be the centerpiece of Smile.

Happily, a new recording of Smile by Brian Wilson reveals the record as nothing more or less than a jaunty epic of psychedelic Americana, a rambling and discursive, playful and affectionate series of song cycles. Infectious and hummable, to be sure, and a remarkably unified, irresistible piece of pop music, but no musical watershed on par with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or Wilson's masterpiece, Pet Sounds. For the first time ever, the program for Smile was compiled, after Brian Wilson listened to the original recordings with his musical midwife, Darian Sahanaja of the Wondermints (which has long functioned as Wilson's live backing band), and worked them into a live show, then an album recording. The work that evolved divides into three sections: Smile begins with Americana, which takes the dream of continental expansion from the old Spanish town saga of "Heroes and Villains" to the landing at Plymouth Rock and the end of the frontier at Hawaii; it continues with a Cycle of Life that progresses from the virginal grace of "Wonderful" to the simultaneous peak and decline of the creative life on "Surf's Up"; and ends with an environmental cycle called The Elements, which includes "Vega-Tables," (Earth), "Wind Chimes" (Air), "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" (Fire), and "In Blue Hawaii" (Water). Since Wilson himself was previously the most opposed to Smile appearing in any form, it's a considerable shock that this new recording justifies even half of the promise that fans had attached to it. Everything that Wilson and his band could control sounds nearly perfect. Every instrument, every note, and every intonation is nearly identical to the late-'60s tapes; one has to wonder whether vintage hand tools weren't acquired for "Workshop" and Paul McCartney wasn't flown in to add chewing noises to "Vega-Tables." (The players did, however, book time at one of Brian's old haunts, Sunset Sound, and utilized a '60s tube console to record their vocals.) No, the harmonies here aren't the Beach Boys' harmonies, and Brian's vocals aren't the vocals he was capable of 37 years ago, but they're excellent and (best of all) never distracting. Aside from the technical acumen on display, Wilson has also, amazingly, found a home — the proper home — for all of the brilliant instrumental snippets that lent the greatest part of the mystery to the unreleased Smile. Van Dyke Parks' new (or newly heard) lyrics fit into these compositions, and the work as a whole, like hand in glove. (The former instrumentals include "Barnyard"; "Holiday," which is here called "On a Holiday"; "Look," which is now "Song for Children"; and "I Love to Say Da-Da," which is now part of "In Blue Hawaii.") Most surprisingly, nearly all of this thematic unity was accomplished by merely reworking the original material already on tape, which proves that Wilson was never very far from finishing Smile in 1967. (It's very likely that the gulf was psychological; Smile had few supporters among Brian's closest friends and family.) Hopefully, Capitol is readying a Smile Sessions box set to release all of the vintage material, but it's clear that nothing they dig up from the vaults will be able to match the unity displayed by this attractive new recording of Smile. It's up to the standards of anyone who's ever scoured the bootlegs to create a Smile tape, and it beats them all, which is the highest compliment. So, if you've never been burdened with a friend's Smile tape before, count yourself lucky that Brian Wilson's is the first you'll hear. And if you have heard a few, prepare to listen to them much less religiously.

Astral Weeks-Van Morrison

I picked this up a few weeks after picking up Moondance. It has quickly become one of my favorite albums of all-time. There's just something I real love about this album, although I can't really put my finger on it. What's even more amazing is that Morrison basically played the accoustic guitar by himself in one studio and got together a group of jazz musicians and told them to play along, without giving them any instructions on what to play. It's really an amazing album and I recommend everyone check it out.

From allmusic.com
5 stars

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=2>Astral Weeks is generally considered one of the best albums in pop music history. For all that renown, Astral Weeks is anything but an archetypal rock & roll album: in fact, it isn't a rock & roll album at all. Employing a mixture of folk, blues, jazz, and classical music, Van Morrison spins out a series of extended ruminations on his Belfast upbringing, including the remarkable character "Madame George" and the climactic epiphany experienced on "Cyprus Avenue." Accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, Morrison sings in his elastic, bluesy voice, accompanied by a jazz rhythm section (Jay Berliner, guitar, Richard Davis, bass, Connie Kay, drums), plus reeds (John Payne) and vibes (Warren Smith Jr.), with a string quartet overdubbed. An emotional outpouring cast in delicate musical structures, Astral Weeks has a unique musical power. Unlike any record before or since, it nevertheless encompasses the passion and tenderness that have always mixed in the best postwar popular music, easily justifying the critics' raves.

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=large-list-title style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 2px" align=left colSpan=2></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=2>Stanktonia-Outkast

Um, the Border's clerk convinced me to get this one over Speakerboxx/Love Below and I have to say I'm pretty disappointed. I guess it's okay, it't just not one of my favorite rap albums. Not much more I really want to say about it. Oh yeah, this disdain could also be from the fact I was forced to listen to Ms. Jackson about 10 hours a day for 5 days over one winter break when it first came out because it was our spring break from school and this one kid I played basketball with it insisted on listening to it over and over.

From Allmusic.com
5 Stars
Stankonia was OutKast's second straight masterstroke, an album just as ambitious, just as all-over-the-map, and even hookier than its predecessor. With producers Organized Noize playing a diminished role, Stankonia reclaims the duo's futuristic bent. Keyboardist/producer Earthtone III helms most of the backing tracks, and while the live-performance approach is still present, there's more reliance on programmed percussion, otherworldly synthesizers, and surreal sound effects. Yet the results are surprisingly warm and soulful, a trippy sort of techno-psychedelic funk. Every repeat listen seems to uncover some new element in the mix, but most of the songs have such memorable hooks that it's easy to stay diverted. The immediate dividends include two of 2000's best singles: "B.O.B." is the fastest of several tracks built on jittery drum'n'bass rhythms, but Andre and Big Boi keep up with awe-inspiring effortlessness. "Ms. Jackson," meanwhile, is an anguished plea directed at the mother of the mother of an out-of-wedlock child, tinged with regret, bitterness, and affection. Its sensitivity and social awareness are echoed in varying proportions elsewhere, from the Public Enemy-style rant "Gasoline Dreams" to the heartbreaking suicide tale "Toilet Tisha." But the group also returns to its roots for some of the most testosterone-drenched material since their debut. Then again, OutKast doesn't take its posturing too seriously, which is why they can portray women holding their own, or make bizarre boasts about being "So Fresh, So Clean." Given the variety of moods, it helps that the album is broken up by brief, usually humorous interludes, which serve as a sort of reset button. It takes a few listens to pull everything together, but given the immense scope, it's striking how few weak tracks there are. It's no wonder Stankonia consolidated OutKast's status as critics' darlings, and began attracting broad new audiences: its across-the-board appeal and ambition overshadowed nearly every other pop album released in 2000.

The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society-The Kinks
Just got this one and haven't really had much time ot listen to it. But one first listen it seems pretty solid. A nice collection of pop songs from a band that gets kind of overshadowed by many of the other British bands from the era.

From allmusic
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=large-list-title style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 2px" align=left colSpan=2>5 Stars

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=title align=left></TD><TD class=author align=right>by Stephen Thomas Erlewine</TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2>Ray Davies' sentimental, nostalgic streak emerged on Something Else, but it developed into a manifesto on The Village Green Preservation Society, a concept album lamenting the passing of old-fashioned English traditions. As the opening title song says, the Kinks — meaning Ray himself, in this case — were for preserving "draft beer and virginity," and throughout the rest of the album, he creates a series of stories, sketches and characters about a picturesque England that never really was. It's a lovely, gentle album, evoking a small British country town, and drawing the listener into its lazy rhythms and sensibilities. Although there is an undercurrent of regret running throughout the album, Davies' fondness for the past is warm, making the album feel like a sweet, hazy dream. And considering the subdued performances and the detailed instrumentations, it's not surprising that the record feels more like a Ray Davies solo project than a Kinks album. The bluesy shuffle of "Last of the Steam-Powered Trains" is the closest the album comes to rock & roll, and Dave Davies' cameo on the menacing "Wicked Annabella" comes as surprise, since the album is so calm. But calm doesn't mean tame or bland — there are endless layers of musical and lyrical innovation on The Village Green Preservation Society, and its defiantly British sensibilities became the foundation of generations of British guitar-pop. [Castle's 1998 CD reissue of Village Green Preservation contained both the original 15-track mono version of the album, plus the 12-track stereo album that was initially planned for release in September 1968, but scrapped. The stereo album contains a slightly different running order and features two songs — "Days" and "Mr. Songbird" — that didn't make the final album. The CD also includes the mono single version of "Days" as a bonus track.]
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=large-list-title style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 2px" align=left colSpan=2>Tracks


Magical Mystery Tour-The Beatles
The Beatle's are one of my favorite groups if not my favorite and this is just another example of why. A solid collection of songs, starting with the the rocking Magical Mystery Tour and ending with simple messaged song of All You Need Is Love. The especially great part about this version is songs 6-11 which include a bunch of great songs. I highly recommend this one.

From allmusic.com
5 Stars
The U.S. version of the soundtrack for the Beatles' ill-fated British television special embellished the six songs that were found on the British Magical Mystery Tour double EP with five other cuts from their 1967 singles. (The CD version of the record has now been standardized worldwide as the 11 tracks found on the American version.) The psychedelic sound is very much in the vein of Sgt. Pepper, and even spacier in parts (especially the sound collages of "I Am the Walrus"). Unlike Sgt. Pepper, there's no vague overall conceptual/thematic unity to the material, which has made Magical Mystery Tour suffer slightly in comparison. Still, the music is mostly great, and "Penny Lane," "Strawberry Fields Forever," "All You Need Is Love," and "Hello Goodbye" were all huge, glorious, and innovative singles. The ballad "The Fool on the Hill," though only a part of the Magical Mystery Tour soundtrack, is also one of the most popular Beatle tunes from the era.

Donavon Frankenreiter-Donavon Frankenreiter

A nice collection of songs from a former surfing pro. Although Jack Johnson produced this record and the two a great friends, I think that Frankenreiter's work here is much better than anything I have heard of Johnson's. It's obviously not a groundbreaking album and all the songs basically sound the same but it's a "nice" grouping of songs. It's very laid back and just kind of a fun album to listen.

From Allmusic.com
4 Stars

Donavon Frankenreiter is a surfing buddy of Jack Johnson. He also makes music that surprisingly isn't too dissimilar to Johnson's. Add to that the fact that Johnson produces and plays a variety of instruments and sings on Frankenreiter's debut CD and you have a record that is tailor-made for fans of Jack Johnson. Also for fans of laid-back, good-time music, that has much in common with jam bands like Phish (without the instrumental prowess and willingness to show it off) and also soft rock sounds of the '70s. Every song is built around acoustic guitar, quiet drums, and mellow percussion, and Frankenreiter never raises the tempo much past ramble, although on "Day Dreamer" he does dial it all the way up to lope. Frankenreiter has a good-natured stoned drawl of a voice that delivers his light and breezy lyrics perfectly and with slacker soul. The pure sweetness of the album may turn off some listeners as might the similarity of the songs, but those who are into it will be very into it. Perfect for campfires late at night on the beach, early Sunday-morning afters, and lazy days in the cubicle, Frankenreiter has crafted a fine debut full of friendliness and low-key charm. Unfortunately he has to be docked half a star for the moustache. Shave it off, dude!

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[Ksyrup]

Glad to see there's some interest in keeping this alive. Here's some stuff I've gotten since I last updated.....







Ken Stringfellow – Soft Commands

Wow. I was completely caught off-guard by this one. Stringfellow is formerly of the Posies, the critically-acclaimed power pop band from Washington that got far less attention than those “other” Seattle bands. This one isn’t power pop, more adult alternative/pop, but it is quite an ambitious recording. Pretty much every song on here is strong, and while there are a few piano-heavy ballads, the rest is all over the place. I’ve been spinning this for 4 weeks straight.

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Allmusic.com:


Ex-Posies (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED3C0EB5EF6D96E2D5DF0&sql=11:jtknu3u5an4k) frontman Ken Stringfellow returns for another round of intricate pop/rock confections with the FM-ready Soft Commands. This time around, the singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist broadens his horizons with forays into Burt Bacharach (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED3C0EB5EF6D96E2D5DF0&sql=11:twa9qj3bojfa) soft rock, soul, and even dub. Writing and recording all over the world — New York, Senegal, Stockholm, Seattle, Paris, Vancouver, and Hollywood — Stringfellow has concocted a frustratingly obtuse record that's as beautiful and bold as it is shapeless and erratic. Soft Commands plays like a compilation, taking on Jackson Browne (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED3C0EB5EF6D96E2D5DF0&sql=11:8s520r2ac48n) pop ("You Drew"), experimental reggae ("You Became the Dawn"), and heavily orchestrated Phil Spector (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED3C0EB5EF6D96E2D5DF0&sql=11:00ngtq9ztu4p) bliss ("When You Find Someone") with varying results — the latter sounds like a sequel to the Walker Brothers (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED3C0EB5EF6D96E2D5DF0&sql=11<img src=)' 1966 classic "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore." Stringfellow's crystal-clear vocals have always been among his stronger attributes, and they couldn't be any better on tracks like the gorgeous and epic closer "Death of a City," but when he attempts a multi-note soul croon on the bluesy "Let Me Do," the cool confidence that rings true within the confines of his pop material is rendered shaky and thin by a milieu he may be better off appreciating from afar. Soft Commands is full of the intricate arrangements and clever wordplay that power pop fans have come to expect from the artist, and nowhere is that more apparent than on the serpentine rocker "Don't Die," a heavy, complex, and blissfully Posie-esque (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED3C0EB5EF6D96E2D5DF0&sql=11:s7d5vw9va9ek) rumination on death that requires several listens before attaching itself to your brain like a remora to a shark. It's a reminder that despite the occasional deviation, Stringfellow is still capable of balancing beauty and danger within the confines of the four-minute pop song, and for fans of melodic rock everywhere, that's a damn good thing.
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Lamb of God – Ashes of the Wake

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Holy Piledriver. This is some heavy, brutal stuff. Perfect workout music for me. LoG is moving to the forefront of what is becoming known as the NWOAHM (New Wave of American Heavy Metal), a combination of 80’s metal with Y2K, and wholly apart from nu-metal. Admittedly, it has taken me nearly a decade to start accepting metal with “cookie monster” vocals, and the vocals here aren’t the worst I’ve heard, but there’s no mistaking that this is just gutteral screaming. The music, though, makes up for it, like a more demonic, furious Pantera for the new millennium. This is the kind of metal the die-hards have been wanting since grunge broke and we were left with picking and choosing from the mostly boring and decidedly less metal “nu-metal” genre.


Allmusic.com:


Come now, let us all genuflect before Lamb of God, for to them we owe our metal souls. In the fat rat-infested, decrepit tenement called Heavy Rock Manor, the Virginia-based shock unit is one of the few groups striving to keep the power on and the hallways clear of gluttonous rap-rock/post-grunge False Marias. Yes, yes, Ashes of the Wake arrives via Epic Records, but this only will inflame the ire of the ignorant. For the rest of us, Lamb's ascendance to the majors melts a little more of the crap rock golden calf. Where previous efforts were fully automatic hot LZs, they were also slightly muddled for the very same reason. They fired in all directions. With Ashes, producer Machine (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE56F6DE662D5DF0&sql=11:wzk9keftsq7z) has sharpened the corner of every riff and tightened the turns on classicist metal gallops. Best of all, Randy Blythe (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE56F6DE662D5DF0&sql=11:ct548qzzbtm4)'s furious yawp is more focused. Rather than simply being another scary voice shouter, Blythe (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE56F6DE662D5DF0&sql=11:5i6fmp9k9f2o) becomes Lamb of God's threshold of pain conduit. "Laid to Rest" begins with his measured statements — "If there was a single day I could live...I'd trade all the others away" — flanked by the at-odds guitars of Willie Adler (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE56F6DE662D5DF0&sql=11:48ri282l055a) and Mark Morton (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE56F6DE662D5DF0&sql=11:9i2m967okep5). But then Blythe (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE56F6DE662D5DF0&sql=11:5cpyxdgb4ol7) unleashes his demonic throat, and the guitars leap over and across one another like basilisks on a prowl for ibex kids. "Hourglass" offers more, its interlocking rhythms and breakdowns harking to the dark lands of Scandinavia. But it doesn't go all the way there. This is American metal, after all, meaning that, in the tradition of Pantera (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE56F6DE662D5DF0&sql=11:51uw6j6h7190) and Poison the Well (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE56F6DE662D5DF0&sql=11:51967ub010jw), large-form grandiosity is sacrificed in favor of a muscularity derived from hardcore and hard living. The aptly named "Omerta" begins with that code's reading. "Whoever appeals to the law against his fellow man is either a fool or a coward." It proceeds to stalk slowly into gear, the sound of a wounded man coming after his would-be murderers. "Blood of the Scribe" refits death metal's cadence for a leaner, meaner era; the less than subtle "Now You've Got Something to Die For" offers the kids a new unifying chant, not to mention some spectacularly martial instrumental breaks. Drummer Chris Adler (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE56F6DE662D5DF0&sql=11:4i6fmp9k9f2o) really shines here, with Machine (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE56F6DE662D5DF0&sql=11:bu65mp9j9f8o) ensuring his snare is a steely bullet fired by viscous double bass gunpowder. Instrumental freaks will swallow the title track whole. Guest soloists Alex Skolnick (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE56F6DE662D5DF0&sql=11:8r6ompmd9f3o) (Testament (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE56F6DE662D5DF0&sql=11:6q5tk6hx9krf)) and Chris Poland (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE56F6DE662D5DF0&sql=11:yh9fs33ba3dg) (Megadeth (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE56F6DE662D5DF0&sql=11:yt2uak3k5m3m)) each get a taste, alongside Morton (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE56F6DE662D5DF0&sql=11:yrf8zfg3eh8k) and Adler (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE56F6DE662D5DF0&sql=11:iz1uak5kam3l) — their insane fretting sounds like a city exploding. That's what Lamb of God does for us, what it does for metal in the 21st century. With the genre getting clogged by PVC goofs and Alice in Chains (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE56F6DE662D5DF0&sql=11:he8o1v0jzzxa) impersonators, Lamb of God balances the equation of power, rage, tradition, and craft. It kills the filler.


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King’s X – Live All Over the Place
<O:p</O:p

Finally, an official live album! I’ve been waiting for this one for years, even though I own about 75 bootlegs. The guys purposely left this one sounding raw, exposing warts and all, and took a slew of songs from different shows and recording techniques to create this 2-CD set. Included on the second disk is a set of “acoustic” tracks. The disparate recordings make for an uneven album (I have to turn it up and down because of the differing bass levels), but this album clearly captures the magic of a live KX show. Some odd choices for songs, including 4 songs from their latest album (which is nothing more than a re-recording of pre-KX songs), but since I’ve got so many boots, I can let the song selection slide.

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Pain of Salvation – Be

<O:p</O:p
The long-awaited follow-up to Remedy Lane from the band that many believe will challenge Dream Theater for prog-metal superiority is, well, almost too gigantic a concept to translate to CD. The concept here is the exploration of the existence of God, and whether God is, himself, nothing more than a man who has created us and is evolving in the same way we are. The album contains a number of spoken word and instrumental passages – too many, in fact, to make the album coherent. Musically, the album is nearly completely devoid of heavy metal, relying on acoustic guitar and different styles such as celtic, Negro spiritual, pop opera…however, overall, the album moves too slowly. And with the repetition of certain musical themes throughout, it almost feels like, in the 15 tracks, there are really only a handful of actual songs here. This is what progressive music I all about, and if you can get past the fact that this metal band has moved away from metal on this recording, you’ll appreciate it much more. Still, I’ll take Remedy Lane and Perfect Element over this.

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Sea of Tranquility:

<O:p

If you think you know Pain Of Salvation’s music and can guess what this one sounds like, forget it. This is like nothing you’ve ever heard before.

Be is a collection of contrasts, which makes it one of the most challenging records you’ll hear this year. It is brilliant, yet some parts are pure cliché. It is philosophical, yet some parts are utterly corny. It is deep, and serious, yet some parts are pompous and melodramatic. Those contrasts are deliberate, of course, but they’ll leave your head spinning.

The contrasts continue: There is excellent progressive metal, and there are down-home biblical blues. There is classical music and there are folk tunes. There are deeply philosophical voiceovers and there’s a silly skit with a boyfriend making puerile and inappropriate requests of his girlfriend while a radio talk show is playing in the background exploring philosophical issues (the contrast, you see!). There are power ballads, symphonic instrumentals, and traditional pieces. There’s a heavy Latin percussion passage, and spoken verses that border on rap. Classical instrumentation is never far from the surface, which contributes an important texture of credibility to the music, and there is a beautiful purely classical track starting with an interesting piano solo that builds into a full orchestral piece. It goes from baroque to blues, from hard rock to symphonic prog, and from gospel to country. And most important of all, thankfully, there are even a few tracks that will recall the band’s brilliant Remedy Lane.

And considering the band’s background it is interesting to note that metal is the style that appears least often.

The record starts with snippets of spoken voices, with a man and a teenage boy separately exploring their very existence. There’s a section that sounds like you’re in the National Security Agency intercepting peoples’ heartfelt prayers to an apparently unresponsive God. (Hi God, it’s me again, from Earth. I know you haven’t returned any of my previous calls, and maybe you’re simply not there – but …) There are radio newscasts, and counts of the world’s population at various times, and there is a thunderstorm.

Even though you’ve heard these types of inserts before, the collection of disparate elements here cannot be absorbed in one sitting. There’s so much going on in this CD that – rightly or wrongly –it is this range of elements that defines this album more than the excellent music itself.
Be is almost impossible to review accurately, and it is a fascinating listen albeit a challenging one. On the one hand, it may lack cohesion – yet on the other hand, there are flashes of genius that make it a must have for any adventurous listener.

--------------------------------------------

</O:p
Butch Walker – Letters
<O:p</O:p

Walker is formerly of Marvelous 3, and is well-known in power pop circles. This is a terrific set from Butch, now out on his own. Walker still maintains his quirky, witty lyrical edge, but adds some depth on a couple of piano-based, Ben Folds-sounding ballads. Solid, radio-ready music that likely won’t come anywhere near the FM dial.

Allmusic.com:

Back in 2002, Butch Walker made a record for Arista that placed him somewhere between '80s solo troubadours like Rick Springfield (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE5EF6D8672D5DF0&sql=11:67djvw9va9uk) and the distortion crackle of fin de siècle alterna-rock. Walker's a talented songwriter, so he largely pulled it off. Still, it did seem kinda forced, and the thing quickly disappeared. Walker's resurfaced in 2004 on Sony, and this time around things are much more comfy. From its handwritten liners to the obvious care with which its tracks were assembled in the studio, Letters feels like a direct communication from Butch's big Rundgren (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE5EF6D8672D5DF0&sql=11:u1uf6j6h71w0) and Cheap Trick (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE5EF6D8672D5DF0&sql=11:rghe4jn70waw)-lovin' brain. Like Pete Yorn (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE5EF6D8672D5DF0&sql=11:jbftxq9kld6e), he draws ably on the mustache rock of his youth to make this music stand out in the present — check the clever lyrics and subtle synth processing of "Mixtape" to hear what '70s pop sounds like in a 21st century light. "#1 Summer Jam"'s cheeky power pop has a definite (and welcome) ELO (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE5EF6D8672D5DF0&sql=11:51l67ue0h0j0) quality, and "Don't Move" figures out how to cross Radiohead (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE5EF6D8672D5DF0&sql=11:2gd7gjyrj6ia) with creepy old 10cc (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE5EF6D8672D5DF0&sql=11:eufm96bo3ep7). He fits in some ballads ("Best Thing You Never Had"), exuberantly cynical rockers (the anti-L.A. rant "Lights Out"), and gorgeous, vibe-toned dusk pop — is that the ghost of a young Jackson Browne (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B0FB6AB366ADFF2EA0160ED2C0EE5EF6D8672D5DF0&sql=11:4q6tk6kx9kra) floating through "So at Last"? There's no theft here. Rather, Walker sounds like a music fan given a golden opportunity to make a private gatefold masterpiece. Sure, "Mixtape" and "Summer Jam" can and should be hits. But it's likely true that Walker doesn't care if they are. Letters' ending proves this. "Promise" is a syrupy, achy, even funny little love song done up in drippy reverb and plaintive acoustic strum, while "Thank You Note" is just Butch and a piano and a strikingly personal tribute to a fallen friend. These quieter songs ground the album's more colorful moments; they help create the cycle that's so often missing from records these days. Walker's made an album for all the mornings after.

--------------------------------------------------

Seth Swirsky - Instant Pleasure
<O:p</O:p

Terrific singer/songwriter best known for writing songs for others, including the title track, which was recorded by Rufus Wainwright for the Big Daddy soundtrack. Swirsky is one of those songwriters who has spent his career writing for others, and finally has taken his turn behind the mike. Great album.


Pop Matter Review:

http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/s/swirskyseth-instant.shtml

[korme]

Only one.

Senses Fail - Let it Enfold You
Probably no one but mckerney, McSweeny, and the like's cup of tea. My brother got the CD for me figuring I would like them, and I must say I do. Reminds me of Boys Night Out, but catchy stuff at the same time. Hit up http://www.purevolume.com/sensesfail to sample three songs, though my two favorites from this CD are not available (FWIW, that'd be Lady in a Blue Dress and Choke on This). I don't agree with purevolume's listing that they are "Emo / Pop / Rock", I'd just say this is Hardcore / Rock with a touch of screamo. Of the three available to listen to on PV, Rum is for drinking, Not for Burning or Buried a Lie are both better than the CD's title track Let It Enfold You in my not so humble opinion but those don't do the best tracks on the album justice.

You can go here (http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/_/id/6479228/sensesfail?pageid=rs.Artistcage&pageregion=triple1&rnd=1099892972868&has-player=unknown) to listen to all the tracks, but you have to deal with realplayer and it's not as smooth as purevolume's.

So after all that rambling, jumbled, masterpiece of ranting, here's a real review (towerrecords.com - not their label just so you know it isn't biased):

On LET IT ENFOLD YOU, Senses Fail delivers a potent combination of tuneful pop-punk and thrashing emo-core ... The factor that differentiates the New Jersey quintet from many of its peers, however, is the band's uncommonly intelligent lyrics. Frontman/main songwriter Buddy Nielsen foregoes the lost-love-and-broken-hearts themes typical of most emo in favor of literary references and existential questions. In fact, inspirations for the songs include Hindu religious texts, Charles Bukowski, Joseph Campbell, and Taoist philosophy. Lest listeners' fear that this is music more suited to a library than the mosh pit, the group swathes the words in an energetic bed of aggressive, distorted guitars, soaring harmony vocals, and stop-start rhythms. An unusual take on the genre, LET IT ENFOLD YOU will rock fans' ears while engaging their minds.

[DeToxRox]

Only one.

Senses Fail - Let it Enfold You
Probably no one but mckerney, McSweeny, and the like's cup of tea. My brother got the CD for me figuring I would like them, and I must say I do. Reminds me of Boys Night Out, but catchy stuff at the same time. Hit up http://www.purevolume.com/sensesfail to sample three songs, though my two favorites from this CD are not available (FWIW, that'd be Lady in a Blue Dress and Choke on This). I don't agree with purevolume's listing that they are "Emo / Pop / Rock", I'd just say this is Hardcore / Rock with a touch of screamo. Of the three available to listen to on PV, Rum is for drinking, Not for Burning or Buried a Lie are both better than the CD's title track Let It Enfold You in my not so humble opinion but those don't do the best tracks on the album justice.

You can go here (http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/_/id/6479228/sensesfail?pageid=rs.Artistcage&pageregion=triple1&rnd=1099892972868&has-player=unknown) to listen to all the tracks, but you have to deal with realplayer and it's not as smooth as purevolume's.

So after all that rambling, jumbled, masterpiece of ranting, here's a real review (towerrecords.com - not their label just so you know it isn't biased):

On LET IT ENFOLD YOU, Senses Fail delivers a potent combination of tuneful pop-punk and thrashing emo-core ... The factor that differentiates the New Jersey quintet from many of its peers, however, is the band's uncommonly intelligent lyrics. Frontman/main songwriter Buddy Nielsen foregoes the lost-love-and-broken-hearts themes typical of most emo in favor of literary references and existential questions. In fact, inspirations for the songs include Hindu religious texts, Charles Bukowski, Joseph Campbell, and Taoist philosophy. Lest listeners' fear that this is music more suited to a library than the mosh pit, the group swathes the words in an energetic bed of aggressive, distorted guitars, soaring harmony vocals, and stop-start rhythms. An unusual take on the genre, LET IT ENFOLD YOU will rock fans' ears while engaging their minds.

Good review, though I don't like Senses Fail, it was a good review.

Jersey produces too many pussy bands :)

The Dillinger Escape Plan is the exception.

[korme]

well i am glad you don't like them because i instantly felt like a douchebag for not including you in the names of people who would like them.

;)

[DeToxRox]

well i am glad you don't like them because i instantly felt like a douchebag for not including you in the names of people who would like them.

;)

yeah well .. you're a bengals fan.

check AND mate.

[lcjjdnh]

Two albums I just got to add to the list, not necessarily new but new to me at least. Both albums are from "The Band", a group which for some reason I avoided and boy was that a mistake. I'm a big Bob Dylan fan but for some reason, I just never put in the time to listen to these guys and I regret that now because these two albums are really just amazing.

I'll let allmusic take it from here

The Band
Music From Big Pink
5 out of 5 stars
None of the Band's previous work gave much of a clue about how they would sound when they released their first album in July 1968. As it was, Music From Big Pink came as a surprise. At first blush, the group seemed to affect the sound of a loose jam session, alternating emphasis on different instruments, while the lead and harmony vocals passed back and forth as if the singers were making up their blend on the spot. In retrospect, especially as the lyrics sank in, the arrangements seemed far more considered and crafted to support a group of songs that took family, faith, and rural life as their subjects and proceeded to imbue their values with uncertainty. Some songs took on the theme of declining institutions less clearly than others, but the points were made musically as much as lyrically. Tenor Richard Manuel (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:wgde4jn71wae)'s haunting, lonely voice gave the album much of its frightening aspect, while Rick Danko (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:zl98b5m4tsqh) and Levon Helm (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:9lazqj4bojda)'s rough-hewn styles reinforced the songs' rustic fervor. The dominant instrument was Garth Hudson (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:7hq5g4sttv1z)'s often icy and majestic organ, while Robbie Robertson (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:56bsa9qgb23h)'s unusual guitar work further destabilized the sound. The result was an album that reflected the turmoil of the late '60s in a way that emphasized the tragedy inherent in the conflicts. Music From Big Pink came off as a shockingly divergent musical statement only a year after the ornate productions of Sgt. Pepper (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:r690s31ba39g), and initially attracted attention because of the three songs Bob Dylan (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:eihxlf0e5cqr) had either written or co-written. Soon, however, as "The Weight" became a minor singles chart entry, the album and the group made their own impact, influencing a movement toward roots styles and country elements in rock. Over time, Music From Big Pink came to be regarded as a watershed work in the history of rock, one that introduced new tones and approaches to the constantly evolving genre.

None of the Band's previous work gave much of a clue about how they would sound when they released their first album in July 1968. As it was, Music From Big Pink came as a surprise. At first blush, the group seemed to affect the sound of a loose jam session, alternating emphasis on different instruments, while the lead and harmony vocals passed back and forth as if the singers were making up their blend on the spot. In retrospect, especially as the lyrics sank in, the arrangements seemed far more considered and crafted to support a group of songs that took family, faith, and rural life as their subjects and proceeded to imbue their values with uncertainty. Some songs took on the theme of declining institutions less clearly than others, but the points were made musically as much as lyrically. Tenor Richard Manuel (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:wgde4jn71wae)'s haunting, lonely voice gave the album much of its frightening aspect, while Rick Danko (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:zl98b5m4tsqh) and Levon Helm (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:9lazqj4bojda)'s rough-hewn styles reinforced the songs' rustic fervor. The dominant instrument was Garth Hudson (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:7hq5g4sttv1z)'s often icy and majestic organ, while Robbie Robertson (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:56bsa9qgb23h)'s unusual guitar work further destabilized the sound. The result was an album that reflected the turmoil of the late '60s in a way that emphasized the tragedy inherent in the conflicts. Music From Big Pink came off as a shockingly divergent musical statement only a year after the ornate productions of Sgt. Pepper (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:r690s31ba39g), and initially attracted attention because of the three songs Bob Dylan (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:eihxlf0e5cqr) had either written or co-written. Soon, however, as "The Weight" became a minor singles chart entry, the album and the group made their own impact, influencing a movement toward roots styles and country elements in rock. Over time, Music From Big Pink came to be regarded as a watershed work in the history of rock, one that introduced new tones and approaches to the constantly evolving genre.

The Band
The Band
5 out of 5 Stars
The Band's first album, Music From Big Pink (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:f8ogtq4ztu46), seemed to come out of nowhere, with its ramshackle musical blend and songs of rural tragedy. The Band, the group's second album, was a more deliberate and even more accomplished effort, partially because the players had become a more cohesive unit and partially because guitarist Robbie Robertson (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:97rvadokv8w6) had taken over the songwriting, writing or co-writing all 12 songs. Though a Canadian, Robertson (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:x95s8qptbtx4) focused on a series of American archetypes from the union worker in "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" and the retired sailor in "Rockin' Chair" to, most famously, the Confederate Civil War observer Virgil Cane in "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." The album effectively mixed the kind of mournful songs that had dominated Music From Big Pink (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:v7rvad6kv8w3), here including "Whispering Pines" and "When You Awake" (both co-written by Richard Manuel (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:f83gtq9zbu4o)), with rollicking uptempo numbers like "Rag Mama Rag" and "Up on Cripple Creek" (both sung by Levon Helm (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:hq62mpm39f2o) and released as singles, with "Up on Cripple Creek" making the Top 40). As had been true of the first album, it was the Band's sound that stood out the most, from Helm (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:uc1uakjk5m3n)'s (and occasionally Manuel (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:2q4tk6rxlkra)'s) propulsive drumming to Robertson (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:w2jp7i6jg75r)'s distinctive guitar fills and the endlessly inventive keyboard textures of Garth Hudson (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:54jieal04xa7), all topped by the rough, expressive singing of Manuel (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:v7uvadzkt8w6), Helm (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:696tk65x9kr0), and Rick Danko (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:23620r1ac48z) that mixed leads with harmonies. The arrangements were simultaneously loose and assured, giving the songs a timeless appeal, while the lyrics continued to paint portraits of 19th century rural life (especially Southern life, as references to Tennessee and Virginia made clear), its sometimes less savory aspects treated with warmth and humor. The 2000 CD reissue featured seven bonus tracks.

[Ksyrup]

I admit, I've done a horrible job keeping this thread up-to-date. Probably due to the fact that I've been really busy the past several months (which seems to have died down), but also because I've bought so many new CDs, I'm not sure where to start. And once I get behind, I might as well stop trying to catch up and just begin with the most recent stuff.

I'm not entirely convinced that this is the best format, since we were able to sustain 4 separate threads on The Mars Volta's new one that probably wouldn't have generated 6 posts in this thread. However, in the interest of keeping the clutter to a minimum, I also don't think it is wise to create a separate thread for each CD. Maybe a monthly recap thread of new purchases (not necessarily new albums) would be better...?

Anyway, I'm going to try to redeem myself by starting fresh with my most recent purchases (tMV not included, since we've beaten that one into the ground).



Michael Lord - Sway

Above-average adult alternative Britpop, very good for a debut. I'm a sucker for lush textures and arrangements. A couple of these songs have been featured on Las Vegas, Laguna Beach, and Alias. Seems like more and more bands and singer/songwriters are finding an outlet on TV shows for music that radio won't play. Strange phenomenon.

The CD can be purchased at CDbaby.com.



Ed Harcourt - Strangers

This guy is flat-out great. Another adult/alternative pop/rock artist, Strangers is Harcourt's 4th release and, I think, his best. Let Love Not Weigh Me Down is an absolutely emotionally-charged piece, with a simple piano-driven melody that builds to a haunting violin/guitar crescendo. Although I'm not a big fan of Tom Waits, his previous work has drawn those comparisons - his voice can be alternatively crackling and clear, depending on how he wants to use it.

Here's the review from allmusic.com, which, ironically, mentions by comparison the two artists whose CDs are next up for a mini-review.

Can an artist be too talented for his own good? Multi-instrumentalist, multi-headed musical hydra, singer/song-summoner Ed Harcourt begs the question on his fourth studio effort, Strangers. From the opening guitar squelch that soars and cuts into the lead-off track, "The Storm Is Coming," it's apparent that Harcourt is on a creative rage. He layers piano, guitars, and keyboards all the while crooning and wailing. Similarly, "Let Love Not Weigh Me Down" builds weeping violin and smashing guitars on top of plinky piano as Harcourt cries on about how being in love is to affirm all that is positive about being alive. He even gets around to updating the Police (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D2CFE453FCCC0640&sql=11:57d4vw9va9ek)'s "Born in the Fifties" with "Born in the Seventies," a deceptively jaunty plea for older naysayers to give his generation a chance or get out of the way. The overall effect ends up sounding something like a reworking of "Under Pressure" featuring Ted Leo (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D2CFE453FCCC0640&sql=11:btfjzfj7eh8k) and Rufus Wainwright (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D2CFE453FCCC0640&sql=11:jzx1z85a8yvo) backed by the Flaming Lips (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D2CFE453FCCC0640&sql=11:46bsa9wgb23f). Needless to say, Harcourt's exploding arteries of emotion can get a bit tiring as he insists on building the volcano of tension track after track. However, just when you think it's about time to call "uncle," Harcourt lets go of your arm with tracks like "The Trapdoor," a Nick Drake (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D2CFE453FCCC0640&sql=11:0mpzefikhgf4) meets Neil Young (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D2CFE453FCCC0640&sql=11:3e8n1vsjzzba)-style harvest moon of a song that sinks into your gut. Despite being a crack melodicist with a knack for a catchy lyric and an iconoclast's taste for oddly disparate but somehow fitting musical influences that range from Chet Baker (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D2CFE453FCCC0640&sql=11:5ueyxdybjola) and Todd Rundgren (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D2CFE453FCCC0640&sql=11:47dovw9va9tk) to Sonic Youth (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D2CFE453FCCC0640&sql=11:ut7uak2k5m3n) and Screamin' Jay Hawkins (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D2CFE453FCCC0640&sql=11:5963tr69kl1x), Harcourt isn't a household name. Occupying the same deeply harmonic and beatifically sanguine post-Radiohead (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D2CFE453FCCC0640&sql=11:ygja7i2jg7dr) space in the music scene as similarly inclined cult figures Andrew Bird (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D2CFE453FCCC0640&sql=11:zgxvad1ky8wj) and Eric Matthews (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D2CFE453FCCC0640&sql=11<img src=), Harcourt seems the most obvious graduate of the post-rock class to succeed in a Badly Drawn Boy (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D2CFE453FCCC0640&sql=11:7fq8g40mtv6z) cum Prince (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D2CFE453FCCC0640&sql=11<img src=) kind of way. So, why hasn't it happened yet? Maybe it's because Strangers finds Harcourt in the uncomfortably enviable position of being something along the lines of a thinking man's Chris Martin (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D2CFE453FCCC0640&sql=11:de7zefrk1gf1), which is to say, Strangers is a devastatingly accomplished album.



Eric Matthews - Six Kinds of Passion Looking For An Exit

It's about freaking time - Matthews' last release was 1997. Sophisticated classical pop is probably the best description for Eric Matthews' style. This album is actaully quite a bit scaled back than his previous work, relying more on vocals and acoustic guitar than orchestra and horns. I'm not sure what to think of this one yet (it just came out today), but this guy's work is still a cut above the rest even when it's not clicking on all cylinders.



Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production of Eggs

I just discovered this guy about a month ago, coinciding neatly with the release of his new album. This is the third one I've bought already. It's hard to describe his style, since it seems to change from album to album, but the latest is more of a straight-ahead lush adult alt-pop sound than previous efforts. The Swimming Hour, the first of his I heard (released in 2001), is like a mixture of swing, jazz, soul, and pop. This one's not quite that varied. Bird is a violin virtuoso, so violin is featured prominently throughout. I've only been through this one a few times, but I'm really digging it so far.

The allmusic.com review seems to give a good history, so I'll leave my comments to a minimum:




It seems there is always a sort of acceptance of an artist's stability when the fifth album is displayed for the public, oftentimes displaying that artist's graduation from an extended flash-in-the-pan to a full-fledged institution, but when this time came with Chicago-based violinist Andrew Bird's Mysterious Production of Eggs, it was difficult to apply these adjectives to his career. It was not because Bird hadn't staked out his territory and proved his resilience in an industry that so quickly disposes and wears out its work force, but because over five albums, Andrew Bird has frantically, and capably, tackled different genres, giving his career over five albums the illusion of three careers.

Andrew Bird established himself as an expert within the retro-swing movement in the mid- to late-'90s with both his debut album, Thrills (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D1CFE457FDCC0640&sql=10:5zsyxdfb1ol0), and its follow-up, Oh! The Grandeur (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D1CFE457FDCC0640&sql=10:xkuvad5ki8w8) but when he released Swimming Hour (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D1CFE457FDCC0640&sql=10:j05gtq4zpu48), it was almost to say, "Oh what a fool I've been, backing myself into this retro-swing corner." That album mixed Memphis soul and lush pop with hints of radiating progressive folk and straight-up rock & roll, and likely destroyed, or at least completely boggled, much of the fan base he had built up, but a new direction, filled with open opportunity was set. It was as if Bird gave himself a "do-over" and debuted all over again. When he dropped both his band and his label for the introspective and beautiful Weather Systems (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D1CFE457FDCC0640&sql=10:d9ddyl44xpbb), it was hard not to think of the album as something of an experiment. Not only did he turn away from all the new possibilities to which he had hinted with Swimming Hour (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D1CFE457FDCC0640&sql=10:6kd5vwmla9lk), but he uncovered even more new possibilities for his musical path by truly making an album that sounded like nothing else. It was yet another kind of debut, one that truly excited fans and critics, but one that made Thrills (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D1CFE457FDCC0640&sql=10:ytanqj5iojta) and Oh! The Grandeur (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D1CFE457FDCC0640&sql=10:l7de4j174wat) feel as ancient as the time period they mimicked, and Swimming Hour (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D1CFE457FDCC0640&sql=10:kx60tr5rkl6x) feel like an abandoned island rich with forgotten fruit, waiting to fall and rot.

It was with all of this in mind that made the coming release of Mysterious Production of Eggs both exciting and terrifying. It is an album which mines similar veins as the deepest self-exploration of Weather Systems (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D1CFE457FDCC0640&sql=10:4ekqoatawijp), even making references to that album. Most obvious is the fleshed-out version of "Skin," this time with vocals and retitled "Skin Is, My." It is an album which takes some of the lush-pop, full-band feel from Swimming Hour (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D1CFE457FDCC0640&sql=10:4jzsa9ugq23g) and expands on that. Even more so, as damning as this may be to write, it is on this album that Bird seems to have found his comfort zone, his first fully realized album in concept and sound and even in the remarkably well-conceived artwork by Jay Ryan. It is his first album which sounds completely like an unfettered, consistent, and unforced journey, or rather his first album that displays these amenities so well that it enables the listener to hear his previous albums with a newer, higher standard, bringing out the previously unnoticeable, though minute, flaws of those albums. As always, Bird has enlisted the help of drummer Kevin O'Donnell (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D1CFE457FDCC0640&sql=11:as87gjer86ip) and vocalist Nora O'Connor (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D1CFE457FDCC0640&sql=11:qjuh6j7171e0) (the remnants of Bird's backing band Bowl of Fire (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D1CFE457FDCC0640&sql=11:3v851vy3zzca)) throughout, as well as a few guests here and there, but as stated, Mysterious Production of Eggs does reinstate some of the full-band feel showcased on Swimming Hour (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D1CFE457FDCC0640&sql=10:39pyxdab3olf). The majority of this comes from Bird's exploration of the guitar, an instrument until now he had yet to record himself playing. The most noticeable influence of this is the opening vocal track, "Sovay," which contains almost no violin adornment at all in exchange for a pair of finger-picked acoustic guitars, Rhodes, vibraphone, and drums. For the most part Mysterious Production of Eggs remains as a very laid-back affair, save the few explosive moments of tracks like "Fake Palindromes" and "Opposite Day," both ultra-compressed and urgent numbers alluding to something the Flaming Lips (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D1CFE457FDCC0640&sql=11:cx6ibkd96akn) could have stumbled across at a practice session. Also exciting about Mysterious Production of Eggs is Bird's first hearty employ of vocal multi-tracking, an unsurprising update considering Bird's and O'Connor (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57DAB7BAFFF2BE85805D1CFE457FDCC0640&sql=11:7k77gjlr26ib)'s amazing vocal abilities and instinctive interplay. The result is an utterly mesmerizing and magnetic album, almost unfair in how incredibly ambitious and impressively pulled off the whole thing is. Of course, the release of Mysterious Production of Eggs brings to mind the unfair question, "What could possibly come next?" before the album has had the chance to even completely sink into its own place in Andrew Bird's baffling catalog.

[Fritz]

The Band
Music From Big Pink
5 out of 5 stars


You like this better than Dylan's Basement Tapes?

[lcjjdnh]

You like this better than Dylan's Basement Tapes?
It's pretty close in my mind. I really like both of the albums, although if you told me I could only have one of them, I'd probably take Music From Big Pink but it would really be a toss up. But, the Basement Tapes are definitly ahead of "The Band".

[Lonnie]

Kritickill - Psalms

http://www.kritickill.com

These guys are friends of mine that are on their 3rd independent release. I'd say they are most similar to Sevendust and Killswitch Engage. Due to bad management they are still unsigned, but I doubt that will last long with the new manager and CD. After reading Ksyrup's posts, I figured I'd post a bit about them as they are a good fit to his interests.

Their song "Face to Face" from Psalms is playing on their website.

If you are in the Dallas area, they'll be playing at the Curtain Club friday night. I'll be there.

Bio snagged from localbandnetwork.com, it needs updating.

Music types: Rock, Metal
Description:
Exploding out of the Central Texas area, Kritickill has quickly established a strong reputation as one of the state’s hardest driving musical forces. Their unmistakable melodic style of hard-core metal and their precision-timed stage presence continue to increase their fan base and market penetration in exponential numbers. The four members, Dave Irons (Vocalist), Todd Gardner (Drummer), Donny Morse (Guitarist), and Bryan Koestens, originally found each other in 1997. In 1999, the band decided to pursue a more unique, harder-edged genre. After months of practice, re-writing, re-rewriting, and much sweat equity, the band unleashed their newfound style and name, KRITICKILL, upon the Texas music scene…. with newfound acceptance by the masses.

The name Kritickill spread rapidly, leading to invitations for the band to open for noted national acts such as FEAR FACTORY, ANTHRAX, KITTIE, DROWNING POOL, THE UNION UNDERGROUND, NON POINT, HATEBREED, NO ONE, and AMERCICAN HEADCHARGE, and many others. In 2002, the band completed their second recording project, "TRUST" which has been hailed by club owners, producers, radio program directors and fellow musicians as one of THE MOST IMPRESSIVE recording projects by an unsigned act.....EVER! TRUST was released for retail sale in 2002., with sales exceeding 5000 copies to date. In 2003, the band launched an all out assault onto the radio airwaves and A&R reps everywhere with FOUR new tunes (not yet available for resale) : "FREEDOM", "G.S.M.", "YESTERDAY", and "DONKEYBALLZ". The single "FREEDOM" has rapidly gained full rotation radio support at 107.3FM The FOX ROCKS, KEYJ, and several radio stations across the U.S. Cuts such as "Alienation", Fallen", "Indecision", and "Captured by the Water" have gained impressive requests at stations KNAC (Manhattan Beach, CA), WSUP (Platteville,WI), KIBZ (Lincoln, NE), KNDI (Honolulu, Hawaii), WYYX (Panama City Beach, FL) and ESPECIALLY on MUSIC CHOICE (New York, NY) on Direct TV and Dish Network Television.

Currently, the band is being shopped for a major label recording deal on the U.S. East and West coasts. The band also recently tied relations with David Zychek & Dave Prader (Dream Theatre)to produce their latest AND GREATEST recording project entitled Psalms. The new album is due for public release in JUNE 2004. For more information on kritickill, visit: www.kritickill.com or contact: Clifford Dyer (Manager)P.O.Box 3785 Temple, Texas 76505 [email protected]


Band Members:
David Irons: Lead Vocalist / Strong vocal background in Gospel & Blues genres. Avid acoustic guitarist. Influences include Jim Morrison & The Doors, Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Robert Plant & Led Zepplin, King's X, Pantera.

Todd Gardner: Drummer / Accomplished perfectionist in the percussionary arts (good drummer...good drummer!). ASE and MOPAR certified professional mechanic specializing in transmissions, into fast cars, fast bikes, and fast chicks. Influences include Iron Maiden, Pantera, SevenDust.

Deno Casino: Bassist / Bass and low end cacophony specialist (likes to create low end loud noises). Reputable afficianado of well prepared poly-unsaturated fat-emersed poultry & fowl (fried chicken). Influences include Bootsy Collins of Parliament, Testament, Incubus.

Trainwreck Morse : Guitarist / Well versed in all genres, notably in classical and extreme heavy riffs. Impeccable forte in the area of fine wines, a true connoisseur of complex Napa and Import wines and champagnes. Influences include Death, Glassjaw, Trans Siberian Orchestra.

Clifford Dyer (Manager) Far Beyond Driven to succeed!!

[tanglewood]

Two albums I just got to add to the list, not necessarily new but new to me at least. Both albums are from "The Band", a group which for some reason I avoided and boy was that a mistake. I'm a big Bob Dylan fan but for some reason, I just never put in the time to listen to these guys and I regret that now because these two albums are really just amazing.

I am also a huge Dylan fan whose collaboration on The Basement Tapes led me onto The Band and now I am a huge fan of them two. "The Band" is one of my favourite albums ever, top-5 probably.

[Kodos]

Don't have time to do a review, but Joan Jones - Starlite Criminal (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000AFBU/qid=1110331427/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-3690438-4364658) is an excellent CD by an artist I don't think most people have heard of. Amazon has samples of the songs, most of which I think are excellent. Probably the reader reviews on the site will provide more insight than my half-assed post, but I just wanted to suggest it. I think this album deserved a lot more success and airplay than it ever got.

[sachmo71]

I'm a sucker for lush textures and arrangements.


Ksyrup, what does this mean? Can you give me an example of a song with lush textures?

[Ksyrup]

Essentially, taking a basic song and layering it with multiple tracks of guitar, keyboard, and orchestration to create a full, almost symphonic, wall of sound. Check out pretty much anything Brian Wilson has done (Smile, for example, or some of the Beach Boys songs you're undoubtedly familiar with), or anything associated with Van Dyke Parks (Silverchair's Diorama, the tracks Across the Night or Tuna In the Brine are great examples), Rufus Wainright, the guys mentioned above (Harcourt, Matthews, Bird), Archer Prewitt, Jeremy Enigk, Richard Ashcroft...

[Kodos]

Like Mutt Lange's habit of layering music? (See Def Leppard's Pyromania and Hysteria)

[Ksyrup]

No, not really. This type of layering produces an additional depth to the music; his produces a coating of gloss or sheen to make the music slick(er) and more marketable.

[Kodos]

Well, that is Mutt's M.O. His goal is to make an album sell as many units as possible.

[Ksyrup]

I don't dispute that. But that doesn't make it similar to what Van Dyke Parks does.

[Kodos]

Okay. I was just asking. You've probably correctly guessed that I've never heard of Van Dyke Parks, nor most of the groups you've listed -- although I am familiar with the Beach Boys. And I believe Silverchair was one of the many "sounds like Pearl Jam to me" bands of the 90s.

I will happily crawl back under my 80s music rock now. :)

[Ksyrup]

They're pretty much all singer/songerwriter types that write varying types of alt pop/rock. I'm at two extremes now with my musical tastes - heavy/prog stuff and orchestral pop. This is the latter.

Silverchair used to be grunge. Then Daniel Johns got into his 20's, married Natalie Imbruglia, and started writing great pop/rock songs. Aside from 2 tracks on Diorama, the rest is quite different than what you'd expect from them based on their early grunge sound. There are 4-5 songs on that album that are unbelievably well-written and arranged, by Johns himself. And he brought in Parks to help orchestrate 3 or 4 of the tracks.

He also got really, really sick in 2003 and now Silverchair is up in the air. That album, almost 3 years old by now, is still on my "highly recommended" list.

Here's the allmusic.com review:


One of the few true shocks in life is when a young band with a seemingly short shelf life manages to somehow keep it together and continually improve. Take Silverchair, whose plodding angst anthems were the subject of much ridicule during their initial splash. But they somehow kept going and kept improving, and Diorama is the sound of a band finally growing into their own skin. The songs have a sense of space and tunefulness that was always missing from their previous efforts, and the production (by David Bottrill (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57CAB7BAFFF2BE85F05D2CFE455F9CC0640&sql=1:DAVID|BOTTRILL)) brings to mind everything from the charging anthems of Big Country (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57CAB7BAFFF2BE85F05D2CFE455F9CC0640&sql=1:BIG|COUNTRY) to U2 (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57CAB7BAFFF2BE85F05D2CFE455F9CC0640&sql=1:U2)'s first experiments with Brian Eno (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57CAB7BAFFF2BE85F05D2CFE455F9CC0640&sql=1:BRIAN|ENO). Singer Daniel Johns (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57CAB7BAFFF2BE85F05D2CFE455F9CC0640&sql=1:DANIEL|JOHNS) steps into the forefront here, showcasing his rich voice and shockingly catchy tunes with a gusto missing from their earlier albums. His efforts recall deceased singer/songwriter Josh Clayton-Felt (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57CAB7BAFFF2BE85F05D2CFE455F9CC0640&sql=1:JOSH|CLAYTON-FELT), utilizing a similar vocal approach and writing the same sort of psychedelic soul on tracks like "Tuna in the Brine." A song like "World Upon Your Shoulders" could have never been possible before, but in one song they take the washed-out symphonies of Soft Bulletin (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57CAB7BAFFF2BE85F05D2CFE455F9CC0640&sql=2:SOFT|BULLETIN)-era Flaming Lips (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57CAB7BAFFF2BE85F05D2CFE455F9CC0640&sql=1:FLAMING|LIPS) and the delicate falsetto pop of Jeff Buckley (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57CAB7BAFFF2BE85F05D2CFE455F9CC0640&sql=1:JEFF|BUCKLEY) and combine them into a digestible pop nugget. Although the song may not be as brilliant as the artists they reference, their simple willingness to even attempt that sort of song shows a remarkable maturity. The awesome guitar work from Johns (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57CAB7BAFFF2BE85F05D2CFE455F9CC0640&sql=1:JOHNS) also shows growth, as the songs often drift into Edge (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57CAB7BAFFF2BE85F05D2CFE455F9CC0640&sql=1:EDGE)-like noodling that compliments his voice much more than the chugging riffs of their first few albums. "Without You"'s Goo Goo Dolls (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781BDA46AD7120CF812656DCA453F708CC57F282172E411BD2B02554860478E64FEDD881B2E57CAB7BAFFF2BE85F05D2CFE455F9CC0640&sql=1:GOO|GOO|DOLLS)-lite is an unwelcome twist, taking their newfound sense of melody and giving it a blustery chorus that robs the track of its power. The thick "One Way Mule" is another minor disappointment, reverting back to their grunge sound for a song that has little of the intelligence and beauty of the rest of the album. But mostly this is a wonderful surprise from a band thought to have been finished in the late '90s. Being hesitant to give this a chance is perfectly understandable, but Silverchair has grown up and put together a fine mix of pop and rock on Diorama.

[Kodos]

As Ralphie Wiggins once said: "What's a diorama?"

[Ksyrup]

Ralphie listens to Def Leppard.

[Kodos]

"Miss Hoover? The Pyromania album tells me to burn things."