2008/10/07
I have been remiss in writing about music. I have written a few reviews in TextEdit, and they have been sitting on my computer. The truth is that I have not been listening to a lot of music lately, and I haven't even been paying a hell of a lot of attention to the current music pages. I've been downloading a lot of music, and I keep thinking that I want to write about it, but I'm always distracted by other things. I also have a tendency to use music as background noise and not actively listen to it, which becomes a problem for this sort of endeavor. Whatever the case I have not forgotten.
Whatever, I have reviewed two old albums, because I can't think of anything that came out very recently that I particularly care about. There's the new SlipKnot album, but I'll get around to that eventually, and I should probably review the One Day As a Lion EP, but I'll get to that when I get to it too. Oh, maybe the new Juno Reactor album, but that's been out for a while, and it is good. All in due time.
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Loveless is THE shoegazer album. If you want to define the sub-genre of shoegaze to your friends all you have to do is hand them a copy of Loveless and tell them to give it a spin. The warbling guitars, the understated vocals, the heavy distortion and reverb, those are the key elements of shoegaze rock. This album is also the pinnacle of the movement. Until the re-emergence of shoegaze in the past few years this was it what had defined the genre for more than a decade. Loveless was also the first indie rock album to cost upward of one million dollars to record.
The thing about My Bloody Valentine is that there isn't really a lot of talent in the band, but there is great deal of innovation, and creativity. Kevin Shields is not shy about his lack of guitar expertise, and his untrained method. He knows that he isn't ever going to be the best guitar player in the world, but he still does things with his instrument that are stunning all these years later. He makes noises with his Fender that make that fiddle into a third vocalist. Unlike some genres where the vocals become another instrument, Shields has turned his instrument into a new voice.
A lot has been said and written about this album. I don't know that my drop in the barrel is really worthwhile. What I do feel I can contribute is that the sound of Kevin Shields' guitar on This album, and Isn't Anything have more to do with the sound of my guitar when I play than anything else I can think of in recorded history. My second largest influence is Chino Moreno of Deftones, and it makes sense when you listen to them both. It is simple, but seemingly layered and complex.
I saved this and put it away, because I was listening to the album while I was writing this. I was going to let it settle in a bit, and then come back to it, but I think I've waited a bit too long. All I have are my notes scratched at the bottom of the document. Most of which are the names of other bands in the genre whom influenced My Bloody Valentine in the first place. Were it not for Dream Pop and Gothic Rock I doubt that Kevin Shields would have been inspired to do what he did in this band. Without bands like Sonic Youth, and The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Cocteau Twins Shoegaze might never have emerged, and bands like The Smashing Pumpkins would have been very different creatures.
I am always astounded by the small ripples that create huge waves in the music community. Some little indie band will influence some other indie band that will accidentally make it big. In this case Sonic Youth were inspired by John Cage, and Einsturzende Neubaute, and The Ramones, and they in turn influenced Dinosaur Jr. Who were the favorite band of Kevin Shields, the mastermind behind My Bloody Valentine. My Bloody Valentine in turn influenced The Smashing Pumpkins, and who inspired My Chemical Romance. In an even more esoteric turn of events The Wipers, The Vaselines, The Sonics, and Pixies influenced Nirvana who were the closest the america ever had to The Beatles, and they in turn influenced every band that released a record between 1991 and 1996. Sure no band is ever influenced by just one thing, but there are prevailing influences, and they become very obvious in some cases. Loveless is one of those far-reaching influential albums that not a lot of people listened to, but a lot of the ones that did became musicians and started their own bands.
9.8/10 Nothing is perfect.
Fear Factory - Concrete
Fear Factory didn't begin their career as an Industrial-Metal band. Their original sound was akin to early grindcore acts like Godflesh. It could have been described as death metal if it didn't break down into a plodding sludgy mess as often as it does. A number of the songs recorded for Concrete were rethought, and recomposed for later recordings. A lot of the more intricate themes that Dino Cazares began developing here became the (ahem) Lynchpin for the band's later sound. Raymond Herrera was already a good drummer, but he had yet to approach his later metronomic state. Former bassist Andrew Shieves did what he did, and was, like in a lot of metal bands, especially of that era, largely buried in the mix. Burton C. Bell showed some of the promise he would later exhibit with his singing/screaming style, but mostly he was stuck with the "cookie monster" vocal style that had yet to become associated with both grindcore and death metal.
For an album that's release was delayed for more than a decade it had a sound that would seem to be very influential. Concrete is rough garden stones, and was scrapped for just that reason. The Band's next effort, Soul of a New Machine wasn't a lot better, but it was a more polished attempt. They finally got it right when they recorded their third album Demanufacture which WAS hugely influential in both the metal and industrial communities. The band continued to grow and change and in most cases improve until they decided to break up due to conflicts with everyone in the band and Dino Cazares. After Burton quit Raymond and Christian kicked Dino out and reformed without him. The later efforts are less industrial and more metal, but they never recaptured the rawness of Concrete or the firey paranoia of Obsolete. It is too early to say, but thus far they have not been able to top themselves.
Concrete was more concerned with religious issues than the sociopolitical themes that the band would later confront. Instead of having a vague story line detailing the struggles of man against machine, and man against man the album focused on man against his creator. Conflict has always been the epicentre of Fear Factory's musical, and lyrical themes, and I assume they always will be. But before they had found Rhys Fulber, Macintosh computers, and Keyboards they didn't have a skew against them. What they knew was that at the time they were young, they were angry, and they only had themselves or the etherial to blame, so the latter became their target.
This was the first album to be recorded by both Ross Robinson and Fear Factory, and the rough edges are all there, but one would certainly expect to hear them. I think it is telling that a band like Fear Factory would be the first project taken on by a producer who would become a legend in his own time. They would both go on to make things that would revolutionize the heavy music world, and they would never work together again. They had the impact on one another that each needed.
Probably a 6.1/10
2008/09/17
I'm going to be honest here, the last complete Metallica album of new material I listened to was Metallica (a.k.a. The Black Album). I heard snippets of Load and Re-Load, and I heard Garage inc., but that was a covers album. I missed St. Anger entirely, mostly because of reviews, but I own the Some Kind of Monster DVD, so I've got a taste of that. What I mean to say is that I am not well versed in modern Metallica, but I own ...And Justice for All on vinyl and the black album on CD, and I have borrowed the previous three records from friends. So I know from fucking thrash. I know Megadeth, and Slayer, and Anthrax, and together with Metallica they made the holy quartet of thrash metal.
Death Magnetic is fucking thrash. No, it probably isn't Metallica's best album, Justice... will forever hold that title. What Death Magnetic IS is a return to form. I put the CD in, heard the first bar of super fast buzzsaw guitar and cranked that shit to eleven. If you want to compare Metallica to their contemporaries, they are doing better work than Slayer has done since the mid 90s, and than Megadeth has done since 1991. I think Anthrax is playing a few shows here and there, but they are still basically dead.
What seems to have happened here is that Rick Rubin re-invigorated the the band with the venom of metal. That bearded guru injected quicksilver into the blood and bones of each and every member of this band. The introduction of Robert Trujillo as a songwriting partner certainly didn't hurt either. I think the guys went home after touring on St. Anger and pulled out their old Mötorhead and Thin Lizzy records and remembered what it meant to rock again. And let's be honest, St. Anger was probably a "recovery record" for James anyway. Everybody gets one.
The track sequencing on this album is great. there are two almost down-tempo songs on here: "The Day That Never Comes" and "The Unforgiven III", yes another fucking Unforgiven song, but it's not all that bad. They are spaced three tracks apart, and create good breathing room between the brutality of the tracks that come before and after them. There is one instrumental track: "Suicide & Redemption" which is the band's first instrumental since "To Live is To Die" off of ...Justice... and at goddamned near ten minutes it has all of the ins and outs and intricacies, and slowness, and speed you could want from a Metallica Instrumental.
On the subject of negative fan reviews: I just don't get it. (shh don't mention that this is ostensibly a fan review too) I might be a bad barometer for this sort of thing because I have and listen to such a diverse selection of music, but my home base is always in metal and industrial. Maybe the problem is that the kids don't remember what Metallica was back in the 80s, and they only know post Black Album material. Which makes me wonder how people hated St. Anger and the loads so much. Hell, even the self-titled album was panned by hard core fans for being "too accessible." Let me tell you, "Death Magnetic" does not suffer this fate horrible fate of accessibility, and there was not a single bad song on Black. Then again Lily Allen's Alright, Still topped my best of 2006 list, so take that as you will. The fact of the matter is that metalheads hate everything. I'll bet you a dollar that they are all at home rocking this record every night for the next three months.
The one place Death Magnetic does suffer, however is that it is another victim of the "Loudness War". The Songs are good, they are heavy and they are loud; too loud. So loud in fact that no matter what I do with my equalizer I still get clipping on certain channels. Mostly in the high pitch of guitar solos and the bass drum. I am in no way an audiophile. As a matter of fact I have permanent hearing loss in both ears, but I can still hear the waves warping around the edges, and it isn't a pretty sound. It isn't hyper prevalent in every song, but there are solos in at least half of the songs in the album that just sound wrong because they are pushed into the mud of the rest of the mix.
You want a rating out of ten? 8.3/10 which is a passing grade on any scale.
2008/09/16
I haven't listened to any music for about two weeks, but I have been listening to, and reading a lot about the culture of the music business. I am somewhere around the bottom rung of the music business. I am a consumer. I also used to run an independent record label that managed thirteen artists. The bands were mostly death metal acts, but there were three industrial groups on the roster as well. The Label was also more of a co-op than a traditional label. We had distribution rights for the music we released, but we did not actually own the songwriting credits. Though I'm not sure that more than two of our groups were smart enough to register with ASCAP either, but that's neither here nor there since the publishing wasn't really our concern. Get an entertainment lawyer to explain it to you; I don't have the time, motivation, or expertise to do so myself.
Suffice it to say I know a little bit about the industry. I've made some money selling other people's work, and I do not feel bad for doing so. I am also a strident supporter of independent music, and also a massive downloader of "illegal" files. The funny thing is that the amount I download has very little effect on the amount of music I purchase on CD or Vinyl, but a huge effect on the specific artists and albums I buy. I am also not a fair weather music fan. If a group I like records a shit album I am still likely to buy it even though I don't like it, because I hope that the next thing they record will be better, and I want to give them a chance to do that. I should probably go to more shows than I do, but I live in a place where very few bands that I like will ever tour. I can go to Chicago or Indianapolis for shows, but it is a task to do either.
I do not think that I am in a particularly odd situation, being a person that buys music, goes to very few shows, and downloads a ton of music. I do think I am somewhat unique in my auditory consumption, however. At least in today's culture I am somewhat of an anomaly. When I listen to music I don't listen to a smattering of songs here and there from some artist or other, whatever, in the shuffling capacity that seems to have become the norm for average music consumers. I listen to albums. I have a very short attention span, so I have trouble buying this shit that attention spans are too short, and demand is only for one or two tracks, and no one cares about the whole anymore. Fans care about well constructed albums, and collective ideas. Those people downloading the "radio single" from iTunes are fair-weather, and don't place any real value on the music they are listening to. If those are the type of fans that a musician is going to have, I would say good riddance. But I keep hearing stories from musicians about how every kid in the crowd is singing the words to every song. So someone is listening the right way. Even the kids that aren't going out and buying the record are looking to their favorite band, and paying attention to everything they release.
I am being a bit convoluted, but that is my style. I keep hearing from artists, and I have heard this consistently since the day Kurt Cobain was murdered, that "Music is Dead", or that "the industry is dying." The latter might be partially true, but I think it is just altering. The former is something I think has been said about music since time immemorial. Because the next thing that comes along is either completely different, or exactly the same as something that happened however many years ago. Surely when change occurs in "the scene" it is on its deathbed. This is utter bullshit. There is no more or less good music being produced today than ever before, and the music of the past was no better or worse than what is being produced today. Tastes will absolutely vary, but the truth is that 90% of everything is crap. When consumers come realize that simple fact things start to align in ways that they never before thought possible. The impetus is on the purveyor of the arts to weed the good out from the bad.
A large part of the problem with modern youth is that they expect everything now. I think that as a result of the late 90s technology boom and instant access to good information the new generation expects good material right now for free. I am guilty of this to an extent, but I tent to let gatekeepers make a few decisions for me. I read a lot of interviews, and reviews, and blogs, and news sites. Then I download a lot of albums, but I get on board with some things pretty late in the game. I have this indie streak that makes me believe the bullshit lie that "nothing is any good if someone else likes it." I'll be honest, this is actually a decent metric by which to pick and choose what to listen to, it works a lot, but there are some exceptions to the rule. A few years ago I kept hearing about Interpol in the music press. They were touted as the saviors of indie rock, which wasn't really a big deal back when they were first releasing EPs, but has since become BIG business. So it wasn't until they were in the studio recording Antics that I finally bought Turn on the Bright Lights. In that instance I should have gotten on board earlier, as Interpol are now one of my favorite bands. Last year the new big thing was Vampire Weekend, and I didn't listen to their album until this summer, and well that I didn't because it isn't very fucking good. Yet again, taste is subjective, but how would I have known what to look for without someone "in the know" to tip me off to it.
I read an article, or a blog post, or an essay, or whatever by the lead singer of Hawthorne Heights today, and he espoused his distaste for the current culture surrounding music. I agreed with him on a lot of points, but I think he missed the mark in a few places. For one thing he didn't seem to express himself in a particularly cogent manner. Which doesn't surprise me because he's a Jesus freak from central Ohio, but I also think he wanted to make the world change its behavior. Which is something that is not going to happen. Listen, I think that licensing songs to Rock Band, and video games, and ring tones is hurting the industry too, but it isn't going to stop, at least not today. The simple fact of the matter is that these bands (and their labels) are fighting for every little scrap of exposure they can get in a rapidly decreasing market. Radio plays R&B/Hip-Hop and Top-40 (which equates to least common denominator pop in most cases). Radio no longer plays new music, or rock, or metal, or alternative, or jazz, or whatever else. This is a shame, radio was the primary outlet for new music in the past and it has become a dead end in my lifetime. I remember back in high school I could turn on the local "alternative" music station, and occasionally hear something new and very cool, but they mostly had a pre-gen playlist that was the same for a week or more.
There is no quick fix for the current woes of the music industry. No I will not deny that there are woes. Sales have been down dramatically for the past eight years running and Shawn Fanning and Napster are largely to blame for this current trend, but I do believe that it is just that, a trend. I also think that digital distribution is going to usher in a new golden age for music. The cream will always rise to the top, and the dead yeast is always going to filter to the bottom of the barrel. It is unlikely that bands will be selling ten or twenty million copies of their record, but I do think that people are willing to pay for something they like once a real value is ascribed to it. At this moment in history a lot of music is valueless, but I think that this trend will turn around in the next few years when your favorite band breaks up to go work at Baskin Robins to pay their fucking bills. When that happens a few hundred times and the culture starts to unconsciously understand what is happening the culture will start to course correct. Fare well to your favorite band that got crushed in the rise of the machines, but someone will be there to take their place. Then one of these days we will understand what it means to value art again.
By the way, I listened to Until There's Nothing Left of Us by Kill Hannah, in its entirety while writing this post.
2008/09/07
Everyone seems to be all fucking atwitter about Metallica's new Death Magnetic. I haven't listened to it yet, but I hear good things. The last good thing that Metallica did was the S&M album about ten years ago, and before that, well the black album. So I am understandably weary of this new one. What I have read is that it seems like a missing album from between And Justice for All... and the black album, which bodes well for the release.
In other news I spent all of yesterday watching episodes of The Sopranos, and the only music I listened to on Friday was Fall Out Boy's From Under the Cork Tree and half of Be Here Now by Oasis. I could post reviews, but I've reviewed both albums before. Suffice it to say they are both good records and if you like rock music there is space on your shelf for both.
2008/09/05
I am apparently listening to a lot less music this week. I have been watching football, and the Republican National Convention, and random YouTube videos. I'm also suffering from insomnia and my brain isn't working correctly. So these reviews, at least for today, will be very brief. I assure you I will expand upon them when I am feeling a little bit better.
Deerhunter - Turn it Up Faggot
Good, Shoegaze, owing a lot more to Sonic Youth than Slowdive. This album is better than their later releases with the possible exception of the Florescent Grey EP.
Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
Indie rock cum alt-country. A better album than their debut. It is different, more varied, and more interesting. The country influence is less prevalent than they claimed they would be, but it is a better album.
The Kooks - Konk
Cockney Cock Rockers grow up. I doubt that the band would really deny being called cock-rock. I also doubt that the band are intelligent enough to berate you with any real stinging insults, but Konk is much more grown up than Inside In/Inside Out There is nothing like "Jackie Big Tits" on this one. The songs are more relationship oriented.
2008/09/04
I somehow managed to listen to only one album today. The good thing is that it was an album by my favorite band. With Teeth was released on April 27, 2005 in the United States. Fans of Nine Inch Nails know that the band take five years between Studio albums. Trent took six between The Fragile, and With Teeth. He cited the reasons for the greater than usual gap being his recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, and being burnt out on the music business. Trent stated in many interviews that he wasn't sure if he had a point of view anymore, or even if the public would care if he did. In interviews for his next album Year Zero he would claim that he let his insecurities get the better of him, and allowed too many people to have input into the creative process of this album, and that the overall album suffered due to this insecure wavering.
The albums recorded by most post-rehab musicians tend to be weak, and ill-defined. A lot of artists go through rehab to find jesus, and lose their perspective. They just aren't sure what to do, and they don't know where to go from their "new beginning". Although Mr. Reznor seems to think he suffered this same artistic fate I don't agree. I also believe that the reason that he didn't suffer the horrible distress of recording an album lost in the emotions of "getting clean" is that he took three years to decompress before he stepped back into a recording studio. Reznor claims that his last encounter with illicit substances was July 11, 2001. In 2004 he decided that he still wanted to create music, and that he did have a voice.
The original working title of With Teeth was BleedThrough. Which one assumes is something of a double entendre having to do with the entrance of blood into a syringe after opiate injection, and the bleeding of noises from one channel to another. There are various other meanings that can be taken, and many of them are represented in the lyrics of this album where the most commonly repeated set of words is "bleeding through". It is an apt title, but Reznor scrapped it because "it was supposed to be about different layers of reality seeping into the next, but I think some people were thinking about blood or a tampon commercial." The new title fit just as well because on his way beck to the music world Trent came out with teeth bared.
I preordered With Teeth along with "The Hand that Feeds" single in March on Amazon. The album leaked to torrent sites about two weeks before the street date, so of course I downloaded it, but I did not listen to anything from the album until I had the DualDisc in my hand. The first time I listened to 2005's new NIN album was in 5.1, and I blew out a pair of my front channel speakers. I sat on the floor in my mostly empty living room of my luxury apartment in Orlando, FL with my PowerBook displaying the .pdf lyrics sheet in front of me in a dark room. That initial listen influenced every future listen I would ever have to this album. It ingrained a time and a place on my primary audio cortex.
From beginning to end With Teeth is a wave that lulls and crashes. The album opens with watery beats, and quietly sung lyrics wondering about who the singer is, and increases to a crescendo of guitars and heavy drumming. The next track "You Know What You Are" is the loudest, and heaviest song on the record. It begins with heavy programmed drum beats and then an arpeggiated synth line that cuts to the bone. Screams the words "Don't you fucking know what you are?" that might be directed at Trent Himself. The third track "The Collector" is a song about the peculiar habits of addicts. We have this tendency to start collecting random items for no apparent reason. It is simply a trait that many addicts have, and this simple fact made me connect with this song in a very personal way. "The Collector" is a bass and piano driven rock song, with less to do with industrial than Trent's adoration of tunesmithing.
By track four we reach the album's first single, and Nine Inch Nails' first No. 1 single in the United States "The Hand That Feeds" I'm not going to continue with this track by track description, it is unnecessary and it has been done better elsewhere. "The Hand That Feeds" is also where this album begins to fall apart for me. After three incredibly emotional songs a politically charged song strikes out at me. The song is also not all that great. It is a synth-rock song and is probably better than ninety per-cent of everything else at the time, but that isn't good enough for Nine Inch Nails. The album also had two other No. 1 Singles "Only" which was a kind of new-wave rocker was entirely deserving of the ranking, as was "Every Day is Exactly the Same" Which is another song about the daily behavior of addicts.
Most of the rest of the tracks on the album are very introspective, and downtempo. They are, in some ways, more interesting, but they rock less. Depending on my mood I really like "Sunspots" and "Beside You in Time" but they have a more experimental vibe to them than a lot of the rest of the album. Foreign releases had a few remixes tacked on "Right Where it Belongs v2" and "The Hand that Feeds (Ruff mix)." The former is an even more sedated version of "Right Where it Belongs" and the later is a Photek remix of "The Hand That Feeds" that makes the song worth listening to.
I have very mixed feelings about this album overall. While I'm listening to it I almost always like it until I get to around track ten. After that it sort of falls off into an endless abyss of lost focus and what was almost certainly Trent's "too many people giving input into how the record should sound" I think that he recorded these songs as a backlash to the "weakness" he had showed in the better songs that came before them. Some days I love tracks ten through fourteen with all of my heart, but it is a matter of mood. On that first listen "Beside You in Time" broke me down, but these days it seems like it is missing something and meandering. I still come back to this album more often than any other Nine Inch Nails album, though I wouldn't ever call it my favorite. I like Pretty Hate Machine, The Downward Spiral, and The Fragile better, but this album has an immediacy and a certain consistency that the others don't.
2008/09/03
I have been remiss in my music listening duties. I have been watching a lot of YouTube videos, and for some reason reading without musical accompaniment. I've also had a horrible bout of insomnia, which makes me less motivated to do anything than I would be if I had a good night's sleep behind me.
Droid - Droid
Droid are an L.A. metal band who are signed to Korn's guitarist's vanity imprint record label. Their bass player is the former lead singer/rhythm guitarist of The Deadlights, who were one of my favourite one-off bands of the Nü-Metal era. The problem with Droid is that they don't seem to have any of the variety, melody, or intelligence of the former band. If You are down with forty-six minutes of homogeneous screamy metal then by all means listen to Droid. But if you prefer a more dynamic sound in your heavy music this might not be quite the thing for you.
KMFDM / My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - Naïve/The Days of Swine & Roses (single)
Back in the day there was a magical record label named WAX TRAX!. The WAX TRAX! artist were a tight knit group of Chicago-based industrial artists. There was a strong thread of performance art, and collaboration among the WAX TRAX! family. The side project between TKK and KMFDM was Excessive Force. In 1991 the album Conquer Your World was released. The Work that Sascha Konietzko did with Buzz McCoy on that album spawned this split remix single. The TKK remix of "Naïve" isn't that great. It sounds like a funkier, swankier, dirtier version of "Naïve", but it wasn't a great song to begin with, so I think it is more a mater of source material than ineptitude in remixing. "The Days of Swine & Roses" is a great song, and Sascha came in to KMFDM it up. The guitars are a lot harsher, the bass isn't as prevalent, and the song sound a bit more muted than the original, but it is still a good remix, just not as good as the original. Both songs are extended from their original length to 10:00 opuses.
Prince & The Revolution - Purple Rain (soundtrack)
The 80s were great, weren't they? At least the nostalgia of the 80s is great. In the 80s Prince was great, but he didn't really stand up over time, much like this album. "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy" still hold up remarkably well, but the rest of the album is very dated. There was a very distinctive sound to New Wave music in 1984, and while the band is tight, and the musicianship is strong this album sounds like 1984. I have never seen the movie Purple Rain, but I'm sure it's a fin picture. At this point, however it is stuck in time, and not timeless like good art really should be.
Portishead - Dummy
Portishead are the second best trip-hop band after Massive Attack. Fortunately both bands are friendly, and they don't even really take up the same market-share. Massive Attack tend to be very outwardly political, and Portishead have a tendency to be introspective and emotional. Back in 1994 it was hard to find a copy of Dummy in the stores, but in the past 14 years Portishead have become a cultural phenomenon. With their new album (Third) debuting at no. 7 on the US billboard chart, and no. 2 in the UK album charts. Aside from having a very strong start Portishead had to travel a long and winding road to get public notice. After being away from the band for ten years the public was finally ready to accept Portishead, which seems like the epitome of ahead of their time to me. The Critical press has already lauded Dummy, and I don't know what I can add. This is a fantastic album, and probably the second best trip-hop album ever released. Again after Mezzanine by Massive Attack. It is down-tempo, and sad, and compelling. The samples come from music from old spy movie soundtracks, and blues and soul records. This is what it sounded like when you let English kids that lived by the sea get ahold of hip-hop music and do their thing.
Marilyn Manson - Eat Me, Drink Me
I got into Marilyn Manson back in 1994 around the first time I heard "Lunchbox". I am always excited when a new MM record is announced. Which means that I am kind of excited about the new MM album that he is going to be recording with Twiggy later this year, even if Steven Baird isn't going to be involved this time. Manson was always best when he was angry about something, and screaming about individuality. When he got depressed and lost his will to live and create that made his music a lot harder to listen to. There is a track on Eat Me, Drink Me that hearkens back to lunchbox by using a very similar guitar riff, and there is a song or two that are loud rockers, but this album suffers like its creator. The music is not the industrial-metal that most of the rest of Manson's back catalog is. The song structures are a lot more traditional, and I blame this mostly on Tim Skold not really wanting to reach into Manson's depressed headspace. The allusions to Alice in Wonderland aren't very helpful to the theme either. This is not a bad album, but it is Manson's worst.
2008/08/30
I was going to update this Friday night, but I got drunk. Then I was going to update it Saturday, but I was both drunk and lazy, and I spent all day watching YouTube videos of Marilyn Manson and Henry Rollins. I think I got all of them. So I've decided to finally update it today. I didn't really listen to any music the past two days, so nothing there, but I did listen to a bit on Friday.
Rammstein - Du riechst so gut '98 (single)
Rammstein got famous because they had a couple of tracks on the Lost Highway soundtrack then they released "Du Hast" as a single. They sing exclusively in Deutsch, and they don't give a fuck what they think about them. They also love fire, and homoerotic imagery. After they got famous they decided to re-release their first single with a lot of remixes, and new artwork. There are three KMFDM remixes on this single, all of which are good, one by Rammstein's longtime studio collaborator Jacob Hellner, which is impressive, and good for the dance floor, the best by Olav Bruhn is a scathing industrial version of a good heavy metal song. The first remix is a Mike Patton (of Faith No More) minimal mix. Patton's remix strips away all of the instrumentation and leaves us with something that sounds like Deutsche opera, which is a pretty powerful effect with Till Lindemann's voice. If you don't like the song the single is obviously not going to be your thing, but if you do it is well worth the effort.
We Are Scientists - Crap Attack
We are scientists broke through my boring indie rock barrier by being good at what they do. Their music sounds similar to that of their contemporaries, but their guitar tone is different, and the words are more interesting. Crap Attack is a collection of b-sides, covers, and remixes complied from their very early career. There really isn't a bad song on this collection, and I always have to commend a band that's willing to cover a Sigur Rós track. (Thursday is the only other band that comes to mind that has also done so). The remixes are good, and not overly electronic. It is indie rock for people who like music, and not just elitist assholes.
Gescom - A & B (EP)
Gescom might as well be Autechre except for the fact that their music is more structured and almost melodic. This was the first EP Gescom ever released and it is incredibly hard to come by, and it isn't necessarily representative of the later glitchy output from them. There are four tracks of well structured ambient electronica on this EP. It is downtempo, but not dark or even chillout. It is complex enough for active listening, but also suited to background music, because it is not as abrasive as some of the group's later output.
AFI - A Fire Inside (EP)
1998 was the year that AFI let their fans know what those three letters stood for. It was also nearly the end of their tenure as a Hardcore punk band. They went out with a bang. This is fast-tempo punk-rock with obvious goth overtones. The last two tracks are covers; "The Hanging Garden" by The Cure and "Demonomania" by Misfits. AFI were letting their goth flag truly unfurl for the first time, and this was an indicator of their new direction.
Error - Error (EP)
I probably listen to this EP more than anything else in my collection. There are two reasons for this: The EP is Seventeen minutes long making it easy to consume quickly, and two it is some of the best electroclash/industrial I've ever heard. It is an absolutely brutal five song collection. "Nothing is Working" opens up the record with swirling synth line that starts repeating quickly then becomes a bass and microbeats combo until the drums, guitars, and hard synths set in. It is rip your face off electroclash. "Homicide" is a cover of a 999 Song, which is pretty good. "Burn in Hell" is a thumping bass-driven track that is incredibly heavy. "Jack the ripper" has an awesome ambient intro that terminates with the sound of knives sliding blade against blade then breaks into the murderous meat of the song. "Brains Out" is an altered version of "Nothing is Working"; It is almost a remix, but different enough that it is another song in the same vein. The lyrics "Let's just fuck our brains out motherfucker" is repeated ad nauseam. I was attracted to Error because they're comprised of Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion, Atticus Ross of 12 Rounds, his brother Leapold Ross, and Greg Puciato of The Dillinger Escape Plan on Vocals. An absolutely bone crushing combination.
Zebrahead - Playmate of the Year
Zebrahead are a kind of under-rated band. You might have heard of them back in 1999 when they had the hit single "Get Back". The video aired on MTV, and "alternative radio" glombed onto it for a few weeks as well. About a year after their second album Zebrahead released their third album Playmate of the Year Which is probably their best album. They play a Pop-Punk hip-hop hybrid, but it is good. Their lyrics are witty, and the music is catchy. They sound a lot like Goldfinger with a lot more funk.
Eels - Electro-Shock Blues
I really like Eels; they are one of my favourite bands. I started listening to them in 1996 when Beautiful Freak was released, and I liked "Novocaine for the Soul" but I didn't really get into them until around the time that Blinking Lights and Other Revelations was released. Then I got sort of obsessed and acquired their entire back catalog. Electro-Shock Blues is Eels darkest, most touching and best album. The album was recorded after Mark Oliver Everett spent a stint in a mental institution after his mother's death from a long battle with cancer and his sister's suicide after years of battling with schizophrenia, and Mark finding his father dead in his bed when he was 19. The album starts out with a song about finding a corpse in the bathroom and winds through songs about childhood, depression, desperation, and works its way To a song about falling in love at a funeral. It never quite makes it to the light of day, but it does terminate on a positive note. In the sea of music that I have to listen to this album pops up a lot.
MuDvAyNe - L.D. 50
Mudvayne's debut album is also their best. I like Mudvayne, I really do, I have all of their albums and DVDs and one of their singles on 10" blood-red vinyl. The problem with Mudvayne is that they never matched the quality of their first release. L.D. 50 is an album about human consciousness being an ape with a symbiotic relationship to a mushroom. The band watched 2001 A Space Odyssey every day that they were in the studio recording this album. There is a spacey feel to some of the songs, and there is definitely a sterile clinical feel to the entire record. Even the song about Ed Gein feels clean even through the grit of the subject matter. L.D. 50 is a prog-funk-metal album with a definite point of view. It is smart, it is heavy, it is complex and interesting, and it makes you want to get into the pit. If you are into metal, and I mean real metal and not that Glam shit, there isn't much not to like about this album. The Bass sound is unique, the guitars are awesome, but not too fast, the vocals are good, and the drumming is polyrhythmic.
White Zombie - Astro-Creep: 2000 Songs of Love, Destruction, and Other Synthetic Delutions of the Electric Head
I sometimes forget that I like White Zombie. This usually happens when I haven't listened to them for a while. I'll look at the CD on the shelf and say, eh, well I like "More Human than Human" but what else is worth a shit? The answer is that almost every song on this album is really good. It all sounds basically the same, but it is good. Rob Zombie et. al found a formula for making cool horror movie inspired industrial-metal and they stuck to it. It is probably a good thing that this was the last White Zombie album though. I don't know where else they were going to go with the band. Except that Rob Zombie's solo career never strayed too far from the themes in White Zombie.
Iron and Wine - The Shepherd's Dog
I am a really bad judge of indie rock. This shit is just not dynamic enough for me. You could play me songs from fifteen different bands on those pacific northwest labels and I'd think they were all the same fucking band. Great, you've got acoustic guitars and a sincere attitude toward your art, I can respect that. I am just not on the same page you're on. Listen your songs show that you have an obvious talent with your instrument, and you probably write decent lyrics, but I'm not listening to them because you're not putting them into a context that makes me care. All the critics seem to rage about Iron and Wine, whatever.
War of Ages - Fire from the Tomb
Christian metalcore is a totally acceptable genre classification. Hey, I love Jesus Christ too. I mean, not really, I'm an atheist, but I can feel your determination to help save the souls of everyone who hears your music. Fire from the Tomb is a re-recording of War of Ages debut self-titled album, and it is really heavy. I read the lyrics sheet and I was put off, but the music is pretty heavy, and the words seem to fit well. So, as long as you don't take too much to the message, or if you also think that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the savior of the world this is probably a record for you.
Helmet - Betty
Somehow this album got funky when I wasn't looking. I'm used to helmet being very riff-heavy and something between hardcore and metal, but not metalcomre. But I put Betty on the other day and I was astounded by how fucking cool the bass work was and how funky the sound was. It sounded like groove metal to me. I guess I don't listen to Betty very often, and that's my fault. I usually listen to Meantime, and Size Matters which are both more straight up rock. Betty is also the only Helmet release to sort of show off Page Hammilton's Jazzy chops. Good record. I also noticed that the N*E*R*D song "Lap Dance" uses it's main sample from the song "The Silver Hawaiian". Which is kind of interesting given the divergent styles of both groups.
Bloc Party - Intimacy
The new Bloc Party album isn't available in any physical format yet. It's a us$10.00 fee for the download and a pre-order of the CD, which is basically the right price. I always think that anything more than about us$12.00 for a CD is way too much. As to the content of the new album, it is good. It isn't Silent Alarm, but that album was that time and that place. It is five times better than A Weekend in the City though. The music is a lot more electronic in nature. There are a lot of keyboards and samples scattered about on this album, and they're used to great effect. The change in instrumental inclusion does not change the essential Bloc Party Sound. Kele Okereke has said that this is his break-up album. So get ready for songs about ex-lovers, but I think we all need a few of those records on our shelves.
KMFDM - Ruck Zuck (EP)
Check it out, KMFDM released another remix album. The first track "Free Your Hate (Käptn's Krunch mix)" is fucking great, but only because the initial sample is "The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves" the other six remixes are fine, but they're nothing special. The cover of "Der Mussolini" is okay, and the b-side "Ansage" is boring. This is probably the least inspiring KMFDM release since they "re-formed" int 2002.
The Cops - Free Electricity
I go to my local public library about once a week. While I'm there I scan through the CD rack and see if there's anything I don't have, and I occasionally come across something I've never even heard of before. The Cops are a punk band from Seattle. They're pretty good. I couldn't find much information about them anywhere, which makes this a little bit harder. They seem to be an anarcho-punk band. They're socialists. The music reflects this. They have occasional reggae influences. It is decent stuff.
Queens of the Stone Age - Era Vulgaris
I can't bring myself to really like Queens of the Stone Age, and it's my own biases that prevent me from doing so. See, Queens... were formed from the Ashes of Kyuss, who were also a stoner-rock band. That's the thing I have a problem with, the Stone part of the rock. Bands that actively advocate drug use really turn me off. Josh Homme makes these "desert sessions" albums, where he and a bunch of his friends go out to the Arizona desert, get really fucking wasted, and jam. He will often bring ideas for QoTSA songs back from those sessions, making the band a "drug band." I really can't get behind that message. Blame Nancy Reagan. Era Vulgaris is totally listenable, but Rated R is still their best album. There are a couple of pretty good rockers on this album, they are the tracks with two commas apiece. "Run, Pig, Run", and "Sick, Sick, Sick". The rest of the songs are decent, but those are the standouts.
Band of Horses - Everything All the Time
That thing I said about how I don't really pay attention to a lot of the indie rock I listen to, well it is still true, but I liked Band of Horses debut effort. They stand slightly to one side of the indie-rock horde because they use steel guitars. They have a slight alt-country vibe, and it makes all of the difference. Really all your band needs is some little fucking gimmick. If you write country songs for a rock band you are automatically going to be different from, and therefore more interesting than 96% of the other shit out there.
Puscifer - Cuntry Boner (single)
Puscifer are another side project of Maynard James Keenan. It is his humorous side-project. No holds barred, nothing is off the table, and he is willing to work with anyone in any genre. "Cuntry Boner" is my favorite Puscifer song by a long shot. There is this walking bass thing and a country rhythm. Then Maynard starts singing about all of the country stars he's fucked. Included are Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley's Little girl, The Judds, and Johnny Cash. The b-side is another country song titled "World Up My Ass." I think Maynard has a joking streak in him. Especially since he thinks that Tool is actually his funniest band.
Black Light Burns - Cover Your Heart
Black Light Burns are rapidly becoming my favorite band of the month. Cover Your Heart and the Anvil Pants Odyssey is a collection of covers, b-sides, and instrumental tracks, and a DVD containing the videos from Cruel Melody and a documentary about the current band. Any band willing to cover "Forkboy" by lard has my fucking vote. There are a few unexpected covers on this record. "On the Bound" by Fiona Apple is the standout. She has a unique vocal delivery, and Wes tries to emulate it to good effect. "Rid of Me" by PJ harvey is an even better version than the original. The instrumental tracks are well textured and interestingly structured. They are a bit more ambient than some rock fans like, but I'm a big fan of ambient music. If this is a template for the further direction of the band I am on board 100%
I will give you a double dose tomorrow, but I apologize for my lax behaviour. Yesterday I was drinking and jamming with friends. Tonight I was performing a taste-test comparison between Sam Adams' Octoberfest, and Blue Moon's Harvest Moon. Both Autumn Lagers. Also Both Good, but Octoberfest wins by a good margin. If I were a star rater, and I am, I'd put Octoberfets at *******3/4, and harvest moon at around ******1/4. Consider my rating system a 100 pt. scale because that always seems to make the most sense. anyway, I promise to give you info about Eeels, Helmet, and White Zombie, AND MORE tomorrow. I also spent a good deal of time with my fiddle and the distortion pedal collection.
2008/08/28
I just found out that I am a liar. I claimed that I'd never heard of Emilie Autumn before, but I did in fact have two compilation albums with her songs on them. She contributed music to both the Saw III,and Saw IV soundtracks. I largely glance over both of them because they are mostly comprised of uninteresting metal. I mostly have them because Charlie Clouser scored the films and has some of his tracks on each album. There are also a few decent tracks by other bands. For example I found out about Dope Stars Inc. Through the saw records. Other than a few standouts they are raucous and jarring. The Emilie Autumn tracks are "Organ Grinder" on Saw III and I can't really remember how that goes, and "Dead is the New Alive" on Saw IV Which is one of the better songs on Opheliac.
Today's wrap-up is going to be slightly different. I'm figuring this shit out as I go, so it could be a crap shoot. Yesterday I was listening to an album shuffle of random shit out of the 70GB of stuff that is on my iPod; None of which is still on there. Today was a much more deliberate listening experience. The only playlist I listened to today was titled "long overdue"; which is my playlist for albums that I love and haven't heard in a long time, or new music that I have not yet listened to. Sometimes I'll get the special editions of an album and throw the whole thing in there to see how it all sounds in context. I often find that bonus tracks don't quite jive with the rest of the album, and should probably have been b-sides on singles, or left for compilation tracks. There were two such albums on today's list. One of them felt tacked, on, the other felt fluid. Anyway, Without further Ado, the list:
She Wants Revenge - Save Your Soul (EP)
Save your soul is a four track EP released after This is Forever. All four tracks are previously unreleased, and none are remixed. That means four brand new She Wants Revenge songs for consumption. I was all over it. I really dig She Wants Revenge; They are a kind of vaguely electronic almost Gothic Rock band. They tend to have great, very associative lyrics, and interesting melodies. This release was no different; it contains two decent tracks, and two good songs. Unfortunately there is nothing truly great on here, but it is wholly listenable. I think of this band as my generation's reply to The Cure.
Reggie and the Full Effect - Last Stop: Crappy Town
Reggie and the Full Effect started out as a joke side project for James DeWees while he wasn't playing keyboards for Collide or The Get Up Kids. He had three fairly humorous albums: Greatest Hits 1984-1987, Promotional Copy, and Under the Tray (wherein the disc was literally under the tray, and under a glossy black card). Then all of a sudden He got serious. James had some personal issues problems and got a divorce spawning a much heavier album that relied less on the synthy sound fans had grown accustomed to. No more songs about "Megan 2Kwhatever". Then Mr. DeWees hooked up with My Chemical Romance to play keyboards on their The Black Parade tour. Somewhere along the line he meets Sean Beavan who is famous for producing albums by the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, God Lives Underwater, and Slayer. In between his personal turmoil and his changing genre affiliations Jim acquired a drug habit. Rehab came and went, and out of all of the emotional baggage that causes addiction, and the struggle to free oneself from it came this album. This record is HEAVY. Both in content and in sonic structure. Reggie has eschewed a lot of the keyboard parts and replaced them with guitars, many of which are provided by Frank Lero of MCR. I like the different eras of Reggie for different reasons, but I think this is his best album to date.
Interpol - Our Love to Admire
Interpol are basically the reason I gave indie rock a chance. I kept reading articles in hip zines about this band from NYC who were the coolest of the cool, and had the chops to back up the fashion. Eventually I picked up a copy of Turn on the Bright Lights and I was hooked. A few years later Antics was released, and I didn't get around to buying it right away. I finally bought the special edition with the remix EP and I was slightly less impressed, but I really liked the remixes, and the record grew on me. There was not a bad song on either record, nor on any of the EPs they had released before the albums came out. I heard about Our Love to Admire and I waited with baited breath for it to be released. I had a few fears about this album though. Interpol had abandoned Matador records for Colombia, so they were no longer an indie rock band they were a Rock group. My fears that the band weren't unfounded; the band's sound had changed. The change, however, was a natural progression, it was a maturation of their sound, and experimentation with new techniques. The music had grown, and the band had grown, they needed that bigger stronger structure beneath them to support that growth. Our Love to Admire reminds me of a re-potted plant; the band in it's new pot is free to expand and flourish, while if left in that smaller space they would have become root bound and been suffocated by indie guilt. The reason that I listened to this album today is because I finally found a copy of the bonus track "Mind Over Time." The track fits right in with the tone and texture of the album, but it is not nearly as good as any of the other standard tracks. Interpol's first album as a full-fledged rock band is more inspiring than their second attempt as a group of indie rockers. I'm sure they'll continue to grow and improve in the future, but they have small margins in which to improve. This is about the fourth time I've written a review for this album, see how much I believe in this band.
The Faint - Fasciinatiion
Check it out, The Faint made an ascii joke. I dig the faint, but I wasn't sitting by the phone waiting for Todd Fink to call me up and let me know the street date for his new record. I did, however, have Wet from Birth in my minidisc player for the better part of a year and a half though. That shit was awesome. "Drop Kick the Punks" Dance-Punk doesn't get much better than that. Some girl I was dating turned me on to them around the time Dance Macabre was released, and it was right up my alley; it was great Electronic Rock music. For a while I didn't think the band had a guitarist, but I turned out to be wrong, they just use a lot of awesome effects. Everything sounded like Bass, Drums, and Keys to me. Of course Connor Oberst was an original member, but that might have been when they were still named Norman Bailer. Fasciinatiion isn't as good as either of the previous two albums. I'm not even sure if it is as good as Blank Wave Arcade (the band's first real foray into electronic rock), but it is decent. "Fulcrum and Leaver" was the only song that I really liked on this album, the rest of it was decent, but not the quality I expect from this band. Maybe the album will grow on me, but my first impression wasn't very impressed.
Black Light Burns - Cruel Melody
Cruel Melody did not make my best of 2007 list. It was the only album in my honorable mention category, because it was the only standout debut album that I heard last year. Since I made my end-of-year list I've had more chances to listen to this album and it keeps getting better and better. The basic reason that I listened to it today is that I got the bonus tracks for the album. There are two b-sides, a remix, and two instrumental tracks. None of the bonus tracks stack up with the rest of the album, but the remix is by Daniel Anderson of Idiot Pilot, who are a great electronic/hardcore duo from Washington. The music on Black Light Burns debut effort is intriguing and complexly structured. The band is like an all-star line-up of former nine inch nails members, and a member of Telefon Tel Aviv. Making them one of the most proficient, and intense groups of sonic artists in the country. Wes Borland, Founder, Frontman, Vocalist, Guitarist, Idea Man, was the only truly talented member of Limp Bizkit, and he couldn't stand being in that joke of a band anymore. After a thick fistful of failed projects with other artists he took creative control and made a group of his own. The band as it exists today is entirely different than it was in the studio two years ago while Cruel Melody was being recorded, but I have high hopes. The lyrics are approachable and entirely relatable. When Wes sings "You Can't, You Can't/You Can't Stop a Bullet/I'm giving you my trigger/But you better never pull it" I get it. When he sings "You're Living a Lie/Just Like Me!" I get it. No, the lyrics aren't dense, and I don't want or need them to be. The sonics are dense enough for everything. But the lyrics are heartfelt and soulful; they speak to anyone who has experienced broken trust, or lost love, and a whole range of emotion. Even after my subsequent listens I doubt this would make my best of list for 2007, but it's honorable mention is a bit more fawning. We might have to wait a little while for a followup to this album, as Wes Borland is currently playing guitar for Marilyn Manson's world tour.
Bloc Party - Mercury (single)
Bloc Party were the first, and only, band that I was introduced to via ringtone. I was browsing the Verizon ringtone site on my phone one day when I came across "Blue Light" and "Like Eating Glass" from Silent Alarm. The words "Like drinking poison/Like eating Glass" spoke to me (Check out the tautology). Dealing with everyday life was just that for me when I first heard Bloc Party. Then when A Weekend in the City was released I was at my local indie record shop day one to pick it up. Bloc Party are somewhat prolific. There are collections of b-sides for both of their full length albums that rival the albums proper in both length and quality. I imagine that the same will be true for Intimacy. They are also unafraid of pushing the boundaries of their genre. Yes, Bloc Party are ostensibly an indie rock band, but they love the remix, and they incorporate electronic elements into many of their songs. "Flux" was the first example of an original Bloc Party song with a strong keyboard presence. "Mercury" follows in the vein of "Flux" and expands the theme by incorporating a vocoder, and a host of remixes. The b-side to this single "Idea for a Story" continues this trend. I have yet to listen to Intimacy the album from which this is the first sings, but if "Mercury" is any indicator I will be pleased with the results of this slightly altered direction.
Eels - Useless Trinkets: B-Sides, Soundtracks, Rarities and Unreleased: 1996-2006 (disc 1)
Generally speaking I am not much of a lyrics guy. Yeah, I like words, I like prose, and literature, but I tend to put less emphasis on the lyrical meaning of a song than I place upon my emotional response that the sonic tone of a song. Mark Olive Everett is one of the few men who writes lyrics that I always want to listen to. I only listened to the first disc of this today because it is an hour and a quarter, and so is the second disc. Some of these songs are present on the album 1996-2006: B-Sides and Rarities, but I have no qualms with doubling up on the material because it is so good. There aren't a lot of artists who write truly inspiring and truly heartbreaking songs, but E is one of them. I think I'd heard all of the songs on this album before I picked it up, but some of the new versions are great. There isn't a single skippable track on this disc.
Sigur Rós - Hvarf-Heim (disc 2: Heim)
This is the second disc of material released in CD format as a soundtrack to the Sigur Rós documentary of the same name. Heim Consists of live acoustic, and orchestral versions of the tracks used in the film. Six tracks clocking in at around thirty-six minutes, the first disc is around the same length. I don't know, I like Sigur Rós, and I'm into the post-rock thing, and their exclusive use of Icelandic and whatever made up language it is that they use, but these versions weren't any better than the album versions. Truthfully I like the studio versions better in every case. I listened to the first disc at some point last week, and I had a similar reaction. It is okay, but nowhere near as great as () or Ágætis byrjun.
Datarock - Datarock Datarock
Datarock are fun Norwegian Dance-Punk. I'm into Norway, I'm into DP, so this piqued my interest. The only track that really stood out to me on this album was "The New Song". Everything else on the album was sort of meh. Yeah, it's fun, sure it is dancable, but in the end it is forgettable. I would probably throw a few tracks from this album on a playlist for a party because it's something that you can shake your ass to, but that's about all it is good for.
The Birthday Massacre - Looking Glass (EP)
I can't remember where I first came about The Birthday Massacre. It was probably on a Deadsy message board a few years ago. What I know is that I heard a few remixes that they did for Combichrist, and Mindless Self Indulgence and I wasn't knocked over by them, but they were interesting and better than average. So I picked up Walking with Strangers when it Came out, and I got copies of Violet, and Nothing & Nowhere. Yet again, they aren't great, but they are better than average. They are and electro-pop band with a female lead singer and they have a unique perspective. The Looking Glass EP is an expansion upon the Walking with Strangers era sound. The title track itself is a new song, and there are a few good remixes of "Red Stars" which was itself a standalone single. The high point of this release is a cover of Tommy James and the Shondells "I Think We're Alone Now", which was popularized by 80s teen idol Tiffany. The new version doesn't venture too far from the source material, but it puts a cool spin on the old idea, and everybody knows that retro kitsch is always in.
Roadrunner United - The All-Star Sessions
You would do well to click the first link to get a good idea of what this album is. I was actually pleasantly surprised upon listening to this record. I had been putting it off, and putting it off since it was released, and I finally bit the bullet today. I thought, I hate half of the team leaders on this, and I don't think they can do anything interesting songwriting-wise. And I was fucking right about half of them, but it was a different portion than I expected. I assumed that Matt Heafy could only write songs like Trivium. Because I knew that dude when I lived in Orlando, and motherfucker doesn't have a lot going on other than loving the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and writing staid solos and riffs. But he came up with a couple of pretty interesting songs. One of his tracks is a straight-up hardcore punk tune, and another is a good strong rock song. Joey Jordison was the other stand-out, but I knew he would be. That dude wrote a ballad, and a rock song, and a brutal face crushing black metal song, and a synth addled tech-metal song, and a post-hardcore rumbler with Daryl Palumbo of Glassjaw and Head Automatica. Rob Flynn went for the metal and didn't look sideways, let alone back. Disappointingly Dino Cazares, whom I had assumed had some versatility in him just went for speed and thrash tunes. All in all this is a pretty good fucking album, but I hoped for a little bit more versatility from it. I knew there wouldn't be which is why I waited so long to listen to it, but what have we if not for dreams? If I had access to any Roadrunner artist ever I think I could come up with something more inspired.
HUM - Fillet Show
This is HUM's debut album on Twelve Inch Records. It shows none of the polish found on the later albums You'd Prefer an Astronaut or Downward is Heavenward (which are both space-rock masterpieces), and it doesn't have the heaviness of Electra 2000, but it does show the seeds of the "Pioria Sound." It is loud guitar rock by a band of midwestern kids who like space. Basically the only reason I even have this is that I am an obsessive completist, and I hadn't heard everything HUM had ever released. While it isn't a great album, it does show the promise of who HUM would eventually become.
Emilie Autumn - Opheliac
I only learned about Emilie Autumn about a week ago, and I was intrigued. I probably clicked on a link from some other gothic-industrial something or other, and came about this cute, pink haired, white faced, corset-clad, violin brandishing girl from Malibu, CA who relocated to Chicago, got a bad attitude, and started making interesting electronic music. I have a soft spot for strings, with the guitar being my favourite instrument, but Cello coming in a very close second, and the music of Antonio Vivaldi being my favourite classical music essentially because he wrote primarily for strings. Which is also the reason I really like chamber music, well that and the presence of Harpsichords. Emilie has dubbed her particular brand of sonic expression "victorian-industrial" and she is spot on. There are some guitars on the album, but it is largely synthesizer based and accented with her violin. The songs deal with suicide (obviously), broken relationships, and emotional hardship. The lyrics are interestingly expressed, and obviously heartfelt. There does seem to be a false moment on either disc of this album. The second disc is comprised of a couple of instrumental tracks (one of which is a Bach composition), a few b-sides, and three poems with distorted backing sounds. This is not Ms. Autumn's first, album, but it is good, and it makes me want to look into more of her material.
Now that I'm done with the wrap-up, yeah, I'm not going to do the full thing anymore. It is a long process to review every album I listen to in a day. I started writing this at around 01:30 and completed it a 04:50, so obviously a lot goes into it. I am going to have to be more selective. I do like that I have to think about what I've listened to. I think it gives me a greater appreciation of what I've experienced, and it gives me a more well formed, better informed opinion about what I am listening to. If I were a betting man, and I'm not, I would expect one or two reviews a day.
I also intend to get more into my personal music projects. I lost all of my multi-tracks and finished recordings when my PowerBook died on me, so now I'm starting from scratch. Go me for backing up everybody else's shit but nothing of my own creation. I have some better software now, and I'm always improving my playing technique, and my personal creative point of view. It is Post-Electro-Metal-Gaze-Core or something along those lines. Have a day.
2008/08/26
Probably because I just started this thing I'm going to do a daily wrap-up of the albums I listened to today. I don't expect this to last. Though I do expect that I'll continue with the mini-review thing I'm going to do for this.
The Future Sound of London - Accelerator
The First album I listened to this morning was The Future Sound of London's Accelerator. I haven't listened to this album for about two years, but I love FSOL. This was their first album and spawned their biggest "hit" "Papua New Guinea." Which is actually my least favourite song on the album. I really prefer Lifeforms, and especially Dead Cities, but all in all it is a good album for a debut effort. It was recorded at the height of the Acid House movement, but didn't quite have the wonderful soundscapes that FSOL later perfected.
KMFDM - Rules (single)
KMFDM are one of my favourite industrial bands. The Rules single is comprised of three tracks, one unaltered track off of XTORT and two remixes of songs from the same album. All in all it's decent, but if one weren't a huge fan of the band I'd leave it be. It is basically standard fare for 1996 KMFDM. Which is to say that it is pretty much straight up industrial-metal that's heavy on the sampling.
Collide - Chasing the Ghost
Collide's Chasing the Ghost is standard fare early 2000's dark electro. A lost of people categorize them as Industrial, but they are really just standard issue electronic rock with female vocals. It isn't bad, by any means, just not incredibly remarkable. The reason I listened to them was because Amazon put them high on my list of recommendations. There is a cover of Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" on the album, but that is really its only stand-out feature.
Pixies - Bossanova
(see below)
Marilyn Manson - Coma White (promo)
I don't remember where I came about this, I probably downloaded it with a bunch of other MM singles. "Coma White" is a great fucking song. The disc itself has the album version of the song, and an acoustic version, that's it. The song is about both drug use, and the troubles of fame. Really the entirety of Mechanical Animals is an extended metaphor for the dangers of celebrity culture told through the guise of drug addiction. It is "Glam-Industrial" at it's best. I am actually more impressed with Apoptygma Berzerk's version of this song than I am with Manson's. I didn't really like this song when I first heard it ten years ago, but it has grown on me over time.
Current 93 - Crooked Crosses for the Nodding God
If you're a fan of neo-folk, or gothic music C93 is a group to get into. This is another of David Tibet's collaborations with the UK industrial underground. Members of Throbbing Gristle, HÖH, Coil et. al provide music, and lyrics to this outing. A lot of songs about rape and a disparaging god. Almost everything by Current 93 is very dark material, and certainly mood music. But I dig it. Then again, I'm really into ambient, shoegaze, post-rock, and experimental noise, which this isn't.
Fugazi - The Argument
Fugazi have always been a mainstay of indie rock, and for good reason. They are the product of the dissolution of several early 80's DC Hardcore bands. The band is known more for their stance on merchandise, and the cost of shows and albums. They are the epitome of indie attitude, literally. The Argument is their best album. It is also their last album. So, maybe I only like it best because it is more accessible than Red Medicine", but so fucking what. Sometimes you want to listen to music because it is well written and pleasant to listen to. I don't always want to listen to dense, or complex fucking sound. This is that album by Fugazi. Ian and Guy have different writing styles, and both of them are well represented on this album. They are a good point and counterpoint of the best aspects of Fugazi.
AFI - Black Sails in the Sunset
Black Sails in the Sunset is the first AFI record that Jade Puget played on. The band's sound became remarkably more sophisticated, and more interesting. This is also the last AFI record that can really be called Hardcore Punk. The Band's themes have always been dark, but this record took them to a different level. The album isn't anywhere near as good as decemberunderground, or Sing the Sorrow, but it is a far cry better than the three albums that came before it. It seemingly took a group of young punks four albums to hit their stride. I think Jade had A LOT to do with their improved sound.
The Daylight Curse - Black and White Memories
Standard-issue Metalcore. There is nothing remarkable about this album. It is listenable for a few tracks, but then you just want to skip the rest of it. It is technically proficient, and loud, and heavy, but who fucking cares, it gets grating after six minutes. I'd rather listen to an Evergreen Terrace album.
Nine Inch Nails - Fixed (EP)
Fixed is the remix record to NIN's best release. Every song on Broken was absolutely fucking brutal. The problem is that the remixes didn't keep with the spirit of the originals. Sure the remixes on this EP were created by Coil, and J.G. Thirwell (aka Foetus), but they're just not as heavy. That being said, I really like the canonical release of Fixed. The songs are industrial, they are dark, they are experimental, they are grating, and they are electronic. 1992 was several years before Trent Reznor signed Coil to Nothing records, but it was the first time he worked with them in an artistic fashion. With Songs like "Screaming Slave" (a remix of "last"), and "Fist Fuck" (a remix of "Wish") this is not for the feint of heart, but is a must-have for fans of industrial music. The remixes left off of the EP were left for good reason. Butch Vig remixed "Wish" and missed the entire point of the song, and Paul Kendall remixed "Happiness in Slavery" to slightly better effect.
Toad the Wet Sprocket - Acoustic Dance Party (EP)
Toad the Wet Sprocket were a pussy sort-of-rock band from the 90's. Glenn Phillips wrote songs that, I assume, were intended to make girls take their panties off. I suppose there's nothing wrong with writing songs to get pussy, but I'm not really into vag-rock. It's just... It is missing something essential. There is a certain heart that can be felt in music that comes from an artistic place. This is not that music.
Jay-Z - The Black Album
This is a great fucking album. There is a reason that there are hundreds of mash-ups of this record. The lyrics are smart and interesting, and the album goes from weaker songs to stronger songs. It only gets better until it finally ends. The samples and backing tracks are from interesting sources, and the words are meaningful and from the heart. Sure, the first few songs are full of thuggish braggadocio, but Sean Carter comes out a few songs later and becomes a man that you is easy to empathize with. Sure the statement of this being the last Jay-Z album was a lie, but that hardly detracts from the social impact of this album, and the fact that it is a great album despite all of the hype.
Hole - Celebrity Skin
Celebrity Skin is Hole's Worst album by far. Oh, it isn't a bad album. Celebrity skin is a totally listenable album, and it even has like two really good songs. The title track is an undeniably powerful pop song. What you might not know about this record is that it wasn't really written by Hole. None of Hole's records were actually written by the band. Courtney Love is not a musician, she is an opportunist. She dated Billy Corgan around the time that her band was recording Pretty on the Inside, and then later when Celebrity Skin was recorded. Corgan was the primary songwriter on the latter, and an important songwriter on the former. When Courtney married Kurt Cobain he became the primary songwriter on Live Through This. All of those allegation being made, Celebrity Skin is a Billy Corgan album. The album was Billy writing a pop album after he got over his Adore phase. He has always been a prolific songwriter, and has never taken issue with playing songs written by others or writing songs for other musicians to play. If Corgan had not been involved this record would have been absolute shit. His involvement saved Hole from Utter failure, but only by a slim margin.
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