2009/01/22
Hardcore is a lot like the mob; it may have found its roots in New York City, but it moved to Jersey to keep the business alive. They diverge in the fact that the mob got soft, while hardcore bands kept getting harder and more calloused until they had skin like leather. Make no mistake, kids from the suburbs are even more pissed off than the kids in metropolitan areas. They live in cultural wastelands where the future is grim and the present is a joke.
LeATHERMØUTH formed in 2007 and soon came to the notice of My Chemical Romance guitarist Frank Iero. Iero talked to the band about signing to his personal label, but then the band fired their original vocalist for not writing any lyrics and invited Iero to join the band. Fearing that he wouldn't be able to properly promote the band from the inside Frank decided to sign the band to Epitaph records. Epitaph has been a bastion for Hardcore for years, and the band were praised by Brett Gurewitz for the "intensity of their songwriting and music."
Make no mistake, LeATHERMØUTH sound nothing like Iero's other band. They are raw, abrasive, and emotional. The songs are about broken childhood, and deteriorating mental health. While the music itself owes as much to Minor Threat as it owes to contemporaries in the Hardcore scene, it is still on point, and precisely executed. Absent are the Queen-like harmonics, and the modern emo caterwauling of Iero's bill-paying gig. XØ marks the first time that Frank has penned the lyrics and contributed primary vocals for a band.
Side-projects have become all the rage in the past decade for good reason; musicians need more than one outlet. Good artists are multi-faceted. One could argue that it's all rock music, but they serve different purposes. The girl in you sixth period English class that really liked "Helena" just isn't going to get these songs. She'll hear the first bar of the first song and bitch about how it is just noise. Which is fine, this music isn't for her. This is music for the disaffected. This is music made for catharsis.
I would liken XØ to United Nations' Self-Titled debut album in both intensity, style, and brevity. They are two of the best hardcore albums that I have heard in the past few years. It is sad to see such potent music relegated to the sidelines of the scene, but I suppose that is where it always lived. It would be nice to see these things rewarded by being the primary focus of their creators, but maybe that would reduce the impact.
8.8/10
2009/01/21
She Wants Revenge write breakup records. Their first record was about lost love, and broken hearts, this new record is no different. Sure it feels like songs about a high-school boy who just lost his first girlfriend a lot of the time, but I don't know anyone who doesn't feel that way for at least a few minutes after they've broken up with someone they cared about. Everyone needs to own at least a few good post-breakup records, and She Wants Revenge are right there to fill the gap. I'd probably suggest a Stabbing Westward album or two as well.
This is Forever can be best described as modern darkwave. There are a lot of elements of The Cure and Bauhaus in the music, as well as tributes to new wave synth-pop. Adam Bravin and Justin Warfield were (are) both world renowned club DJs, they both got their start in the industry as electronic musicians, and disc spinners. While they use guitars in lieu of turntables, but the electronic sensibility is ever-present. They would have fit in well with the new-wave trend of the early 80's and I feel that they fit into the current trend of synth-rock, post-new-wave that sprang up a few years ago and still has a slim following. The problem with writing niche music is that it is quickly forgotten no matter how good the songwriting is. The other thing that She Wants Revenge suffer from are that they are a double niche band. Songs about unrequited love are great, but branching out would be advisable. I suppose their theory is that one should stick to what he knows.
One of the more interesting things about She Wants Revenge are that they were signed to Fred Durst's record label after Durst met them and saw them play. Most people would put that fact in the strike column, but Durst truly has an ear for talent. The other group signed to his label are Ringside another synthy indie rock band who are fronted by the actor Balthazar Getty. Say what you will about Fred Drust as a musician, or even as a public figure in general, but he man has a thirsty ear for under-appreciated talent.
I will continue to purchase She Wants Revenge albums as long as they continue making them. The music is good, and I am usually in a bad mood. It is, however mood music. I'm not going to put this record on during a bright summer afternoon kicking back with my friends, but alone at home on a bitter-cold winter morning it is the soundtrack to life. This is Forever isn't nearly as strong an effort as the Self-Titled debut, but as far as sophomore albums by small bands go it's a knockout.
6.7/10
2009/01/20
God Lives Underwater were a drug band, but it seems more incidental than by design. David Reilly was a heroin addict who stopped his heart a few too many times until the day it stopped beating from abuse due to hyper-stimulation. Both permanent members of the band battled with drug addiction, and that all comes out in the lyrics. They never glorify their addiction, rather it informs the way their relationships have been ruined.
Because the band's record label went under this album sat on the shelf for several years, eventually being re-mixed, and poorly re-mastered, then having tracks removed. At some point before the album was released in 2004 the band, who had already broken up, posted the original mix and track list of the album on their website for free download. This is the only version of the album I have ever heard.
It can hardly be said that GLU songs were ever fun, the were sort of sweetly fragile. They were heavy in tone, and lyrical content, but there was an underlying failing humanity. I had heard that GLU sounded like a metal band when they played live, though I never got the chance to see them. While they are an electronic rock band in the studio. The Keyboards and synthesizers aren't cold like they can be in some other bands, they are just another musical element, they compliment the guitars, they don't overpower them.
By the time they got around to recording Up Off the Floor though, I think that both Reilly, and Turzo were tiring of the drudgery of being in the band, touring, and dealing with one-another. Many of the songs on Up Off the Floor are about the conflict between the band-mates, and the decayed relationships in their personal lives because of what they had done as a band. This wasn't the first time that GLU had espoused their difficulty with being in the small spotlight they had. On "Alone Again" from Life in the So-Called Space Age Reilly laments "the drugs, and the drinking and the touring", but at that point he had caused himself fewer heart-attacks, and been to rehab fewer times. by the time he wrote "72 Hour Hold" He had spent a lot of time in a rehab center in Pasadina, and believed himself not to be " a threat to myself of others", but the rehab center felt otherwise and placed him under a three day suicide watch.
Up off the Floor is the strongest of God Lives Underwater's three albums, the song writing is tight and effective, the lyrics are well composed and heart-wrenching, and the cover of David Bowie's "Fame" puts it into a different light than Bowie's rendition. Make no mistake, though, this is a drug album. There is not a word glorifying the drug use, but the battles that the members of the band had with substance abuse inform every crevasse of this record. It is also one of my favorite albums of the new Millennium.
9.5/10
2009/01/15
Ambient Rock, Experimental Metal, Drone Metal, Post-Rock, Post-Metal, Noise Rock, or whatever you want to call it, this form of loud dissonant aggressive music has become my new favorite genre. It started out Innocently enough when I was in high school and I picked up my first Neurosis album Times of Grace. Then I found out that they had a side-project that made experimental ambient music to play along with the record. The other band is named Tribes of Neurot, and the partner album was titled Grace. All I really knew were that Nerosis, although not very popular were wildly "influential" in the metal community. I would see them name-dropped in the press by very popular, and straight-forward bands like DevilDriver.
I did not really think to start classifying their music as anything but Metal for years until I started finding other bands that were being called disciples of Neurosis. At the time I was afraid that it would sound more like a cheap rip-off than an original re-imagining of a true classic. I was expecting a shot-by-shot remake of Psycho starring Vince Vaughn here. Eventually I broke down and let myself listen to Isis, Cult of Luna, and Jesu. Who are probably the biggest names in the "Post-Metal" genre. I also started listening to a lot of other "experimental" music in the interim, which helped to guide me to these other acts. What I found was that they are good. All four bands are Genius, and they do their own thing without stepping on the toes of any of the other bands in the Genre.
I was afraid of listening to Jesu most of all because the band was founded by the former guitarist/vocalist of Godflesh, who were often touted as the godfathers of Grindcore, and grindcore had gotten a bad name because it was usually basically noise, growls, and barks. There was no real musicianship to it. Thought, I have to admit that I never listened to Godflesh, and I've barely heard more than a song apiece by ten or a dozen grind bands. When I saw labels like "Shoegazing" attributed to this act I was much more interested. To hear something equally influenced by the Cocteau Twins, and Carcass finally seemed novel. Not to say that Jesu are a novelty act, they are anything but. I can hear the heart and soul of the musicians being hammered into every note like a Niponese sword-master banging out a Ninjatō.
Jesu are difficult to describe due to their amorphous nature, but they owe a lot to Slowdive, and to Neurosis. Their sound is at once crushing and beautiful. It is open and haunting. The vocals are sparse, but intelligible, used, much like they are in Shoegaze, more as another instrument than an expression of the words themselves. While the lyrics deal mostly with personal frailty this is something that could be garnered from the structure of the songs themselves, and the way the instrumentation is used.
The guitars are distorted, and the bass is deep and heavy, and the songs are slow and dirge-like, but there almost always feels like there is a bright spot off in the distance, rather than a sinking black hole. Jesu stands out in there genre by being a bit more open, and seemingly inviting with their music. It isn't as dour and depressing, or as overtly aggressive as some of their contemporaries. Time will tell, but I see a line of new acts dropping the name Jesu when asked about influences. The curse of this is that they will never be very popular among a larger audience. It seems that all of the best bands are groups who are only listened to by musicians.
8.9/10
2009/01/12
I thought about eschewing my best of 2008 list, because end-of-year lists are somewhat trite, and a lot of people start trying to either one-up everyone else or they get very same-old, same-old. But the fact of the matter is that I haven't listened to the same shit that every other indie music critic has, and I have a self-selected sample of around 200 records that were released last year that I listened to. There was some really good music released in 2008, and of course, as always a ton of shit.
The situation as it stands is that I have heard one of, but not both of the albums that keep showing up on every indie critic's best of list. I have heard the self-titled release by Vampire Weekend, and was not impressed, but I have not heard the self-titled release by Fleet Foxes, which I'm not convinced I would like if I listened to it, even though it is on the list to get around to "eventually."
There is also the situation that there are two albums from 2008 that I have in my possession but have yet to listen to. Those would be "Eternal Kingdom" by Cult of Luna, and "Mountain Battles" by The Breeders. I do not anticipate either of these records being wrecking-balls to my current list, so I'll just ignore them for now, I might review them both at some point, even though post-metal is a very difficult genre to truly criticize due to its amorphous nature.
On to the list:
01.
One Day as a Lion - Self-Titled EP
The Best fucking thing released last year was the Self-Titled debut EP by One Day as a Lion. It is a very powerful keyboard and drums record recorded by Zach de la Rocha of Rage Against The Machine and Jon Theodore, once of The Mars Volta. It feels like punk with a taste of Hip-Hop and the CD cost me less than eight dollars all told. The vinyl version of the EP is a bit more expensive, but is on 180gram audiophile grade virgin vinyl, it is a must-have. Theoretically there is a full-length album coming. Which I will believe when I have it in my grubby hands.
10/10
02.
Portishead - Third
I have been a Portishead fan since way-back-when. The first time I saw the video for "Sour-Times" on MTV after-hours I was hooked. The new album is the first to ever hit the Billboard charts in the United States, for whatever that counts for these days, which isn't much, but it is a step. Third was an album that was many years in the making, and anticipated since 1997. To come out as strong as Misters Barrow, and Utley, and Ms. Gibbons did on this long-anticipated album is amazing. Portishead did everything right for a long-anticipated record, where Guns N' Roses did everything wrong. Though the scope of the bands' radars is vastly different. I'm still shocked by the abrupt ending of "Silence" when I listen to the album.
9.6/10
03.
Meat Beat Manifesto - Autoimmune
Yet again, I have been a MBM fan for along time. I think I started listening at Subliminal Sandwich and went retroactive. I actually let my expectations for this album fall because I hated At the Center which I felt was a failed piece of dubstep filth. I bought Autoimmune not knowing whether to expect more of the same or if it was a return to form for Mr. Dangers and company. Luckily, it was as good as, and probably better than Subliminal Sandwich and Actual Sounds + Voices. Both of which I found to be brilliant techno-industrial records, if not as dubby as some of their other work. However, "I Grab the Mic" is an awesome dub song.
8.8/10
04.
Meshuggah - Obzen
I am a metal fan, and I am a progressive rock fan, and almost everything Meshuggah does is right up my alley. Obzen was a continuation of their technical Progressive-Metal masterwork. Since they migrated away from their Thrash-Metal roots I do not think that this band has made a single mis-step. Re-recording Nothing with eight-string guitars to tighten up their sound was one of the better Ideas they've had, and I'm not usually a big fan of re-recordings, Dimmu Borgir's re-recording of Stormblåst seemed a bit overwrought to me as did Cradle of Filth re-recording everything from their early catalog to put onto a double-CD cash grab. But I feel that Meshuggah were making, and have again made the most brutal music I have ever heard. It is heavy, and angry, and technically proficient. The only gripe I have, and I can't truly gripe about this one, because I love electronic music, is that none of the drums on the album are live. All of the drums are programmed, but luckily they do not feel that way.
8.7/10
05.
Bloc Party - Intimacy"
A lot of people get offended when their Indie darlings veer off into a direction of which they don't particularly approve. This seems to be the case with the latest Bloc Party. Record, but I loved it. I think that everything about Intimacy was a stroke of genius, from incept, to final release. I've already reviewed this album, so I'll let that stay where it is, but the band's technique for release was wonderful. Once the album was recorded, mixed, and mastered they offered it for sale on their website for a very fair price, and the purchase netted you both a digital download and a physical copy. Then the band decided to add a bonus track, and gave that out to those who had already download the album. Then in the U.S. they put a number of bonus tracks and remixes on the record that was shipped to indie record shoppes, but not those shipped to Wal-Mart, Best Buy, or Target. Seeing that I only shop at my local indie shoppes this mightily impressed me. I like your business plan indie band from England, and I also like your music.
8.2/10
06.
Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip - Angles
This album was a great mix of very clever lyrics, and incredibly good turntableism. I was turned on to this record by the single "Thou Shalt Always Kill" which renewed my faith in music that gets popular in Britain but never quite makes it to our sorrier shores. Somehow that big island in the north-Atlantic keeps producing incredibly interesting interpretations of what us "colonists" have been doing poorly for years. The best thing about Angles is the lyrics that Scroobius Pip spits at a fair beat. There is a lot of insight into the human condition, and the state of modern-art in those words.
7.7/10
07.
Slipknot - All Hope is Gone
I have been a Slipknot fan from the first time I saw one of their records, and I have written a lengthy essay/revew about their first self-titled album. Yet again, I love metal, and I love variety, and I love technical proficiency. Slipknot have very obviously mellowed since their inception in the mid-90's but they have also deepened. The message is no longer simply a first-person espousal of rage and anguish, it has become something more. The rage and suffering are still there, but they vary in form. The music is still brutal, but it is more layered and complex and interesting. The band has had nine members since they began releasing albums, but they've learned to use that to much greater effect. I doubt that they'll ever become the next great progressive-metal band, but they'll certainly record a great progressive song at least once in their career. They had to fight The Game (of G-Unit) for their #1 spot on the Billboard charts, but I think they deserved it. Also, who says pop-music can't break your neck?
7.5/10
08.
TV on the Radio - Dear Science
TV on the Radio released a new album this year, it was fucking awesome. next. No, seriously, there should not need to be an explanation for this sort of thing. They went on tour with NIN for Return to Cookie Mountain and did sound-checks with Peter Murphy, they recorded with David Bowie, how much more convincing do you need that TVotR are the best Indie band of their generation? oh, and guess what, they're still on 4AD records.
7.4/10
09.
Kings of Leon - Only by the Night
I keep reading shit from "fans" about how Kings of Leon only go downhill with every release, but I think this is that typical indie guilt thing where everybody thinks that "I really liked their early material." What keeps happening with Kings of Leon is that their songwriting gets tighter, and more mature with every album they release. Sure, they might have hit a peak with Because of the Times but only just barely. Only by the Night is smarter, and wiser than their previous recordings, even if "Sex on Fire" seems juvenile.
7.3/10
10.
United Nations - United Nations
I didn't actually buy or hear this album until after the new-year but it is fucking amazing. The band which is comprised of Geoff Rickley of Thursday, Daryl Palumbo of Glassjaw and Head Automatica, and a cast of unknowable characters is amazing. You are not allowed to know who is in the band because of contractual issues with their respective labels, but they are a hardcore powerhouse. Think Converge, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and early Cave-In. Everything about this band is brutality incarnate. from the opening bar to the fading crescendo this album is amazing. They would like to bill themselves as a Grindcore band but I think that they are doing themselves a disservice with that label. It is heavy, it is mostly indecipherable, but it is hard and it is great. There are melodic moments that are nearly breathtaking, even if they only last for 15 seconds. Ask yourself this, if you hear an album that takes twenty-five minutes to listen to how do you feel at the end? if the answer is exhausted you have the right record.
9.1/10
Honorable Mention:
Here's the thing, I give 10 albums their places in my list, and this year they're roughly in the correct order of best to not best from what I've heard. Honorable mention is reserved for records that I liked, or in some cases loved, but just don't deserve a spot in the top ten for whatever reason. This year it is an experimental album and a covers record. Draw your own conclusions.
I probably would have put Last Stop: Crappy Town by Reggie and the Full Effect at #11, so I did.
Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I-IV
This is a great record for what it is, but it isn't truly a record. I liked Trent's idea to release a quarter of the thing as a free download, then put two additional tracks on the DVD multi-tracks. it's brilliant, but ultimately it is a lot of experimental ambient drone. He gets an A for effort, and even an A for execution, but it is what it is and that's an experiment.
6.4/10
Black Light Burns - Cover Your Heart and the Anvil Pants Odyssey
Two years in a row Black Light Burns make my Honorable Mention list. This year it isn't for lack of effort so much as the fact that they released a record of covers and instrumentals. I really like this record, but covers can't net you a real spot in the list, and instrumental out-takes from your album, no matter how good they might be, don't win the race either.
8.2/10
Katy Perry wins the Boner prize, do you really have to ask why?