Hello and welcome to a brand new segment of The Chesterfield King that I'm calling "A Spoonful of Local Flavor." It will join the wildly popular "Songs to Blow Your Mind" as well as the decidedly less popular "Keegan Rants About the Bruins at Great Length" as a (hopefully) recurring post where I discuss bands that are from around the Worcester area or have people I know in them. Really sharp-eyed readers may have noticed that I have begun tagging appropriate posts with the 'Local Flavor' tag which included last month's review of Goddard's Ep. I'm counting that review as the first installment hence today's post being labeled Pt. 2. And what of today's post you ask? Today we're talking about a little Worcester band called Tremarche.
Back when Britney's Spear was alive and kicking, we played a couple of shows with Tremarche and they were pretty good guys. They gave me a pin and a copy of their record once which totally made up for the fact that I've never felt fully comfortable with how I pronounce their name (You'd have to ask them, but I tend to pronounce it like Tree-Marsh, but I'm naturalistically inclined that way).
Musically, their Ep contains six songs of tight, hardcore punk. Good screamy vocals and instrumentation that's more interesting and off-beat than I was expecting. The bass especially departs from the usual eight-note on the root to emerge as force with interesting lines and runs up and down the neck. Some standout tracks on the Ep are "Spraynard Kruger" and "Job Performance Self Evaluation" whose breakdown features an almost Clash-like ease of transition into funk licks and alternative rhythms. It might be the straight ahead hardcore of "Snap King" that is my favorite though. If you'd like to make your own call, you can download the whole Ep here.
It's fairly rare for me to get into a band after seeing them live. I'm not really taken in by a crazy-wacky stage show and it's rare to have the sound quality at a venue good enough that you can really get a good impression of a band from how they sound live. I'm more likely to find a record I love and then go see the band live rather than the other way around. I tell you all this so that you know how big a deal it is when I say that I saw Goddard play once and I was hooked. It's even more impressive since two thirds of them were incredibly sick when I saw them.
Goddard is a Worcester- based band that's a little hard to nail down genre-wise. So why try you ask? Because categorizing people is something we do here. I'd like to call them emo because they sound like they would fit right into the revolution summer with bands like Embrace, Rites of Spring and Fugazi. But no one really uses 'emo' like that anymore so I guess we can settle with indie. It's intelligent sounding, they aren't afraid to throw plenty of effects on the guitar or even the vocals (lotta reverb up in this one) and nobody's parts seem to be taking the easy ways out. There's an nice back and forth between aggression and atmospherics which puts me in mind of bands like Sunny Day Real Estate that you could just as easily mosh and head-bang to as play while you doze off.
A lot of this seems to be thanks to the guitar which veers wildly back and forth between heavily distorted crunch and single note explorations past the twelfth fret mixed with effects-laden washes of sound. The bass on the other-hand is a little harder to nail down description wise. It reminds me a lot of Chris Bauermeister's playing on the Jawbreaker records that aren't produced all to hell (cough, cough, Dear You cough). She isn't just playing 8th notes on the root, but the bass is omnipresent and driving like a root note line. And it has this nice crunchy but not to crunchy sound that you hear on a lot of melodic punk albums but without the metallic edge they sometimes get. The drums follow suit in eschewing stock beats and really pulling their weight in what is a really full sounding trio.
Have you noticed that I seem to gush even worse than usual about local bands? There was that time I said Britney's Spear was the future of punk rock (which looks biased in hindsight but wasn't I swear) and now Goddard. But the point is that these guys deserve all the success they can get and their Ep is only three songs so there's really no excuse for the five people out there who read this to not give it a listen, or if you happen to be in Easthampton tonight, head over to Flywheel and catch them live with Motel Mattress as well as another Worcester band, Tremarche (who I might be talking about as soon as tomorrow!). I'll leave you with a video from the show I first saw them at as well as a link to their bandcamp page and maybe even an mp3 here for those of you who are too lazy to click on through.
First of all, let's get through the obvious: Sorry I abandoned the blogosphere (sp?) for almost an entire month. But I'm back now with a vengeance. Literally. And what better way to return than with a band that for my money (little as that may be) sets the curve for all contemporary metalcore: Converge. Almost every band talks about trying to push themselves from album to album but I don't think any band accomplishes it like Converge. Every album they put out is the most brutal and out there album I've ever heard, until their next album. Axe to Fall fits right into this pattern, a little harder and different than 2006'sNo Heroes.
Which isn't to say that there isn't plenty for the old-school Converge fan to love. The title track especially should take anyone back to the halcyon days of Jane Doe and You Fail Me. 'Dead Beat' is another throwback especially vocally. Other tracks vary widely from the more straight-ahead metal of 'Reap What You Sow' to the driving thrashy riffs in 'Cutter.' A more sludge-y side of the band reveals itself on 'Damages' as well as the delightfully named 'Worms will Feed/ Rats will Feast.' The album opens with furious guitar riffs that, to me, sound like nothing so much as Horse the Band synths.
Speaking of other hardcore bands, this album saw a great deal of collaboration between Converge and various other bands and artists especially Cave In. Two of the songs on the album, 'Effigy' and 'Cruel Bloom' were adapted from a shared project Converge had done with Cave In. While 'Effigy' fits fairly seamlessly into the album, 'Bloom' is going to out to most listeners with its piano intro and sung vocals (courtesy of Steve von Till of Neurosis). It's a good warm up for the closing cut 'Wretched World' though, with its long plodding build and heavily layered instruments and vocals. It's overall effect could best be termed unnerving. Converge - Dark Horse
My Roaring 20s, the sophomore release from Lansing, MI's Cheap Girls was at first a little hard for me to pin down. It was Punknews that first brought them to my attention but they certainly aren't a punk band. They also don't really fit in the current (twee-ish) indie rock scene. Instead they're kind of throw-back indie rockers combining plaintively voiced songs of liquid excess and despair with musical grit and bombast borrowed from heavier genres. To me this echoes indie stalwarts the Weakerthans or even more impressive godfathers of the genre like Superchunk or The Replacements.
These guys could be on the brink some well deserved success with this album. They have that universal appeal to a broader audience that you can see (certainly in a much larger degree) in the currently skyrocketing Gaslight Anthem. Every song on the album is head-nod and toe-tap inducing in the extreme. More than that they sound as if they'd be just as at home playing to a few bar-flies at a corner dive as headlining at an SXSW or a Bamboozle. I'm just saying that if these guys get a toe hold, don't be surprised to see them climb and climb quickly.
Every song on this album is catchy and you'll have the choruses to most down by the second listen. The themes are pretty easy to get into as well. These are tales of languishing in your small town, ('Modern Faces') with big dreams ('Ft. Lauderdale') watching your friends leave you behind ('All My Clean Friends') while you sit around and drink heavily (pretty much all of them). Even the last song on the album, 'One & Four,' is insanely catchy and could probably be a hit on commercial radio RIGHT NOW. 'Ft. Lauderdale' however, is the one I think they'll ride out of here. They think so too I'm assuming which is why they made it the single. Now often I think the single is literally the worst song on a given album (Senses Fail I'm looking at you. 'Buried a Lie' was terrible. Just terrible, but I digress) , but on this one they got it just right. This song is one tenacious sumbitch. Hear it once and you should probably just go buy the album because you're not going to stop singing it to yourself until you do. And on that note, the video:
Musically, Mike Kinsella doesn't have to prove anything to anyone. His roster of former bands reads like a Pitchfork list of the best experimental emo bands: Joan of Arc, Cap'n Jazz and American Football. His solo project, Owen sounds like he knows that. There's no reinventing the wheel here, just a guy and his guitar, with some light orchestration, playing guy-with-a-guitar songs. And doing it well I might add.
This is a soothing album. Kinsella's voice and his finger picked guitar are like a blanket that surrounds you with warmth that smells vaguely of whiskey. The drums are sparse and low strings make up a good portion of the instrumentation. Lyrically the songs range from paeans to poetic intoxication to odes to his current love like the strangely beautiful 'Amnesia.' It seems to me though that the theme tying the ironically named New Leaves together is one of looking back. Missing your old friends, or who you were when you were younger or the place you used to live. Unless you've stayed in exactly the same your whole life, I defy you to listen to 'Good Friends, Bad Habits' without missing at least one person or place that you've left behind. Lest you think this album is a total sap-fest, I would like to direct your attention to the penultimate track "Ugly on the Inside." An acid bitter recrimination of someone we can only assume to be a former lover. If you like a little snarl to your haunting beauty then this is the song for you.
In all though, this is a lushly beautiful sounding album with lyrics that will help it stand up to plenty of repeat listens. Put it on in the background to set the mood on date night but when things go south, it's time to dig into the lyrics. Plus, if you've ever had a friend, the video for the single will make you want to spend more time with them.
If I had written a Top Ten Albums list for last year, this album would have battled Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts for the top space. Of the 14 songs on this album 12 are absolute home runs. Out-of-the-park, onto Landsdowne Street, home runs. I know that certain people think that Teenage Bottlerocket are too poppy and I won't deny that these guys certainly put the pop in pop punk. But it's that awesome kind of pop punk that takes it cues from the Ramones and lives in the great tradition of The Queers, Mr T Experience, and Cletus. Actually if you like the Ramones, there is no excuse for you not to own at least 3 albums by Teenage Bottlerocket and They Came From the Shadows is probably as great a place to start that collection as any.
I talked before about the song 'Skate or Die' and great I thought it was. Remember that? Well it's just the opener on this album. Some of them are more offbeat and goofy like 'Bigger than Kiss' while other seem to tackle real issues like lead singer's body image problems in the amusingly named 'Fatso Goes Nutzoid.' That song also has the greatest departure from the pop-punk song of the record with the band lapsing into 80's hardcore style riffs on every chorus. Another thing TBR shares with bands like The Ramones and The Misfits is their obsession with horror and B movies. Both the title track and 'Forbidden Planet' typify this with their descriptions of extraterrestrial invasion. Seriously though, they're all fun and tongue in cheek as opposed to creepy (Jerry Only I'm looking at you).
But the real surprise on this album, and it is a pleasant, is how capable they are of poignancy. There are songs from both sides of a break up and a love song that are as good as anything a more serious band would write. I should say that when I say serious band, I mean in terms of lyrical content, not dedication to craft. Don't be offended guys from TBR, I feel like we would be awesome hang out buddies if we met. Anyway, if you just got dumped and you want to be angry about it, 'Not OK' is the song for you. If on the other hand, you want to wallow and be sad, then go with 'Without You' or the absolutely perfect 'Don't Want To Go.' For all the break-up angst though, the album wraps itself up with the closing track 'Todayo.' If the last song I recommended for all the punk rock couples out there didn't float you, then this one will. It also ends the album on a fun note with a false ending that then builds into a sing along outro.
When I first posted about these guys (for my smash hit STBYM series) I called them pitch perfect pop punk (I think, I'm too lazy to go back and check). I stand by that description as well as the stellar alliteration it contains. This is exactly what pop punk should be. Every song, every riff, every subject. So if you like your punk a bit pop-y then you need this album. If you don't (i.e. you aren't a fan of sunshine, happiness or fun) then you should still give this a shot and see if it can't brighten your day at least a little. And by brighten I mean make exponentially more awesome.
I feel like, without my noticing, Fat Wreck Chords has really upped their game. Back when their big rising-star-workhorse was a traction-gaining Against Me! it felt like a majority of their label-mates were kind of cookie cutter pop-punk bands. The Soviettes, Smoke or Fire (who have since elevated their game) etc were great for comps and you could definitely enjoy a song or two but you looked a little askance at people who seemed to be actual fans of these bands. But suddenly my cup runneth over with solid punk bands that can stand out from their peers like American Steel and Banner Pilot, and wouldn't you know it? They're all on Fat Wreck. Well played Fat Mike, but I still don't get Cokie the Clown.
That was my long-winded introduction to Collapser, Banner Pilot's Fat Wreck debut. My other planned intro was to talk about how I went to a certain frozen-rock ice cream parlor for the first time ever last night. I was not a big fan. I don't like having to say cutesy shit in order to get food. They had a flavor that was cake batter ice cream with cookie dough and heath bar. This hits most of my happy places so you might assume it was what I got yes? NO. Because the name of the flavor was "More lovin, less oven" or something similarly nauseating and I refused to say it (I also didn't tip cause I didn't want to hear them sing). So I got coffee ice cream instead. Adam has pointed out that this is similar to a certain southwestern grill's policy of naming dishes after Seinfeld references. He is 100% right. If you're out there mexican food place: you know who you are, now knock it off. A fajita is a fajita which is to say one of the greatest food stuff in the history of ever. At this point some of you are probably turning away from your computers saying "If I wanted to hear a random rant about food, there's a Jim Gaffigan special on tv that would be a better, funnier use of my time" and to you I say that this whole thing was actually on point because in my mind Collapser is like cookie dough ice cream.
By this I mean that the whole album is solid. Especially the bass sound, which is that awesome clanking metallic Latterman sound. God I love that. But yeah the vocals are gruff enough to suit you org-core punkers but still clear enough that you aren't missing out on the lyrics and the vocal melodies which are solid as hell. On top of that the album strikes a nice balance with all the songs hanging together nicely but at no point did I think 'these all kinda sound alike.'
So that's the ice cream. Ice cream in general is good and this album in general is good. The cookie dough is that sprinkled liberally throughout the album are really great songs that in addition to being great songs, elevate the rest of the album (like how raw cookie dough makes something transcendent out of what was previously basic vanilla). These include the opening track 'Central Standard' and suprisingly the closing track 'Write It Down.' There are some massively catchy choruses lurking in 'Starting at the Ending' and 'Farewell to Iron Bastards' both of which are also surprisingly sweet when you get into the lyrics. But if you and your punk rock girl (or boy) need a new song to be 'your song' then look no further than 'Skeleton Key.' Sitting almost dead center on the track list this was the first song on the record to grab a seat in my head and refuse to leave. There also something touchingly poignant about the line "It ends so soon, the night and the fading moon. / I put my hand inside yours. The city looks strange and significant." every time it makes me wish I had written it.
Bottom line, this is a good punk rock album with some great songs on it. In my head I've termed it 'hang-out punk.' It doesn't want you to go out and stir up revolution, it doesn't need to air out some grievances with an ex (not that there's anything wrong with either of those) it's just a record for being, like hanging out with a really old friend, nobody needs to try too hard, nobody needs to change just put this record on and enjoy it.
I've kind of been avoiding writing about Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts, last year's offering from Oakland's American Steel for two reasons. First, I'm a little embarassed to be so behind the ball on these guys and this album. American Steel has existed in some form or another for 15 years. I've had since 1995 to find this band and I'm only doing now. Also Dear Friends was one of last year's sort of break-out hits and I'm only reviewing it now. The other reason I was hesitant to write about this album is that I'm a little nervous about whether or not I can do it justice, it's that good. Really.
This album is the kind of good, that it should make you despair of ever making music that's comparable while at the same time inspiring you to try. It's like nothing you've heard before while at the same time it's that comforting punk record to which you can always rock out. The hooks are razor sharp and fishing-worthy, the bass thumps along, the drums drive hard non-stop and the guitar veers from clanging punk guitar to lightly jangling delayed leads that would sound right at home on a Cure record. Lyrically this is a superb effort with poignant verses tackling a range of topics to shout along choruses that you have memorized by the end of the song.
The album opens perfectly with two undeniably danceable numbers 'Emergency House Party' where singer Rory Henderson assures us that "We only need a song to dance to, We only need a chorus to sing a long to" and 'Tear the Place Apart' which sees him exhorting us to "Get your ass up on your feet now baby, and tear the place apart." The album goes five songs without letting up once with could-be-hits like 'Safe and Sound' 'Your Ass Ain't Laughing Now' and 'The Blood Get's Everywhere.' That last is a strange little horror movie ditty which might put listeners in mind of old Alkaline Trio which was nice for me, because I can't help hearing a little of Matt Skiba in Henderson's voice.
'From Here to Hell' takes the foot off the pedal just long enough to get through the first verse and then puts it right back down for the next four songs. The final two songs however are departures each in their own way. 'Finally Alone' is a massively epic sounding song complete with a chorused vocal that will remind some people of the end of 'Welcome Home' by Coheed and Cambria. The last track is an odd little, down tempo number that might seem like a throwaway on a lesser album but on Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts it seems like a necessary cool-down period, you can't quit something this good cold-turkey.
You know I mean business when I say the appeal of American Steel is easily on par with that of Lemuria and almost on a Gaslight level (insert gasps and 'oooh's here). The only one keeping Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts from being one of your favorite albums is you. And that's a problem I seriously suggest you remedy.
Many, many years ago when I was a lad in high school I was in a band called Modern Theory. It was a sort of Prog-Rock and while it was good fun, eventually we parted ways cause I wasn't really all that into Prog nor was I proficient enough at bass to really hold my own in a Prog band (to this day I'm not a huge fan of playing with out a pick). We should be clear, it's my memory that it was a mutual parting of ways, but it's also entirely possible that I was well and truly sacked.
Either way, the drummer for that band was a kid named Ben Smith who was more than slightly decent at what he did. He would end up going to school in Potsdam and starting a band called GroupThought. See why that gratuitously long anecdote was necessary? So now I'm going to reveiw GroupThought's Ep, a good year and half after it was first brought to my attention. Ben if you're out there....sorry about that.
The five song ep is a little bit prog-y and a little jammy. There are some serious grooves on here that even got my head bouncing around and at the same time a lot of shredding goes on. The album's opener "Sleep Machine" is a nice little microcosm of this as it switches between more wandering jammed out parts with elaborate instrumental work and solid grooves that see the band lock in together nicely. The next two songs show off the band's diversity with "Silent Scene," essentially a piano ballad, and the tersely-titled "III" which is a sort of ambient interlude.
"I Wish I Were Green" is a return to the formula of the opener of bipolar instrumentation going back and forth between a delay-laden guitar part intro and a grooving Flanger-ed and distorted riff. I have to say though I would like this song a lot better if it had been left as an instrumental. That's all I'm going to say about that, you'll just have to listen to it and see what I mean. Finally the record closes with the strangely named "ESPhunky" (I would love to know what the hell that means), an effects heavy meandering tune which, like 'Green; shows that each of these guys has some serious talent which they put to good use. These songs are dynamic and well executed and if you like your jam music a little technical or you like your prog-rock to groove a little then this might just be your favorite new upstart band.
I'm going to post a song here, but it's worth noting that all the songs can be acquired for free at the band's myspace here.
Long time readers of this blog will remember Alison Mosshart from her ill-fated head-to-head battle with Jenny Lewis (if not I certainly have your attention now). Now she's back with the super group (sort of) she formed with Jack White of The White Stripes. Jack has made the exciting switch to drums relinquishing guitar duties over to a guy from Queens of the Stone Age. The weird looking bass player from the Raconteurs rounds out the line-up. Yes, a better journalist would have told you their names but we do things a little differently here at the King. Musically, the Dead Weather's first album, Horehound has its daddies' lying eyes, neatly combining almost unsettlingly offbeat sounds of Mosshart's post-Discount project The Kills with the fuzzed-out bluesy bombast that Jack White made his money with in the White Stripes. To be fair White is bringing more bombast than blues fuzz owing to his switch to drums but this still smells more like his project that anyone else's.
I'd like to take a minute here to talk about Jack White. First of all, why did it never occur to him when he began putting together a super group that it would have been way funnier if he had gotten Jack Black in on it. Get it?? Jack White and Jack Black?? It'd be hilarious. All kidding aside, I have to confess that musically Jack White has never really blown my skirt up. I could really only tolerate the occasional chorus of that one single the White Stripes had and I ignored the Raconteurs for the most part. That said, I find I actually have a lot of respect for Jack White. With every move he's made in his career, it's seemed clear to me that it was something he genuinely really wanted to do and he did it with no concern for whether or not it would meet with financial success. I think he makes the music he wants to make and listen to and he's not really concerned with how many other people will want to listen to it and that's always commendable. Also my dad says he was great in that movie he did with Jimmy Page and the Edge.
But back to the music. Horehound is filled with the kind of bluesy weirdness you'd expect and also like you'd expect with the caliber of talent assembled, it hits the target a decent number of times. First of all, '3 Birds' is one of the more listenable instrumental tracks I've heard in a while. It's not 'Green Onions' good, but it's interesting, kind of sounds like the soundtrack to a spy or a heist movie. The third track, the bizarrely named 'I Cut Like A Buffalo' is another standout. Contrary to what the title might lead you to believe this is the song where the weird gives way to some serious hooks that make the song stick with you long after you've returned to your old Discount LPs. Actually a good rule of thumb with this album is to go with titles that include similes since the other track I really loved (and oddly enough the other single) is "Treat Me Like Your Mother" which, again, has some seriously tenacious little hooks. My favorite moment is when newly converted drummer White starts playing with the rhythm and the band breaks only to come back grooving harder and faster than they went out for what is easily the best and most dynamic moment on the album.
So if you liked Jack White's other projects, this one probably won't disappoint you. If you liked Alison Mosshart's old projects on the other hand, you're looking at a bit more of a crap shoot. It's definitely worth a spin or a listen though and I'll be reveiwing their more recently released album the minute it comes up in my queue I promise.
I would also recommend looking up the video for 'Treat Me Like Your Mother' It wouldn't let me embed it, but it's worth seeing. The Dead Weather - Treat Me Like Your Mother****
First of all, can we just talk about how truly awesome this album cover is?? It's a disgruntled deer! Or maybe an imperious elk. It's not really an elk, I just wanted to maintain the alliteration thing I had going on. On a more pertinent note Summer Fences last year's release by Chicago's Castevet (not to be confused with a black metal band from New York of the same name) is like being taken to school on 90's emo (the good kind). The guitars are all chime-y and layered and do that 'quiet loudness' that envelops you and reminds me of bands like Appleseed Cast, Sunny Day Real Estate, or maybe American Football. They aren't all atmosphere either the parts are interesting and varied and there's clearly talent here in spades. Vocally, the record is a little sparse, several of the songs have less than 10 lines of lyrics and the words themselves are hardly intelligible since they are delivered with a rough yell reminiscent of early Hot Water Music or maybe a less punk rock Latterman. But a quick google of the actual lyrics reveals that while we aren't missing Byron or Keats here, they are far from the sort of banal crap that usually finds itself much higher in the mix. What I'm saying is, if you could understand the words, they wouldn't drag you down.
Castevet appear to be an excellent product of their heritage with the vocals of the more rough voiced punk rock we're currently seeing and the excellent instrumentation of a legion of their midwest-dwelling peers most of whom ended up on Deep Elm at some point or another. In fact I'm surprised that Deep Elm hasn't grabbed these guys yet since they seem like they'd be right in the ol' wheel-house. Also, I feel like I need to mention Braid at some point in here since they are Midwestern, technical, and indie/emo-y goodness. Other than that I apologize for one of those reviews where I just list other bands I promise to improve and I encourage everyone to pick up Summer Fences by following the link at the bottom. Castevet - Plays One On TV
Dream Homes by Illinois own Dear Landlord was one of last years breakout punk rock albums if such a thing is possible. Since it's now more than a year old, it seemed like as good a time as any for me to talk about it and I can tell you, it's worth the hype. This is pitch-perfect punk rock. And by that I mean not super 'pitch-perfect.' Songs are short (fifteen songs in under thirty minutes) and fast, vocals are gruff and there's choruses aplenty. These guys deserve to have their names included with the No Idea army of big name, rough voiced pop-punk bands.
Lyrically however, I think Dear Landlord is a little different from their sub-genre-ed brethren. There's a lot more personal politics on this album than you would expect. By personal I mean, there's no song calling for an end to the Iraq war, there are songs about being poor, looked down on and generally living in less than ideal conditions (hence the title). Track 2, 'Rosa' is about a drug addict, 'Park Bench' is about being homeless, and the penultimate track 'Begging for Tips' reminds us that in some ways we are all living on the generosity of the wealthy. 'Door Mat' is an ode to an abused woman that would go nicely alongside 'Lean on Sheena' on a mix of catchy songs about domestic violence. It would be a mistake though, to think that this album is a downer or preachy. Content aside, this album is catchy as hell. More than half the songs have the kind of chorus that you can sing along to the second time it comes around in the song. The opener 'I Live in Hell' is a perfect example of this, as are 'Lake Ontario' and 'Landlocked' whose singalong chorus saves it from kind of a wordy verse.
Musically, there isn't a whole lot of diversity on the album. It's not bad like the Marked Men album I reviewed, you can tell which songs are which, but you aren't going to hear any arrangements, there aren't acoustic breaks. The tempos range from fast (any of them) to blisteringly fast ('Three to the Beach') and the vocals go from throaty singing to gruff yelling. With most of the songs coming in at under 2:30 there isn't a lot of room for jamming. The sole exception to this is the last track, 'A World We Never Made,' that eats the last 4+ minutes of the album and ends with a long instrumental stretch that finds the band working its way back to the riff from 'Landlocked.' It's almost the perfecting ending for the album and might hint at more that they have to offer in future. Final thought: I bet this band is amazing live. Dear Landlord - I Live In Hell Dear Landlord - Lake Ontario
So this is what might best be described as a bluegrass album and I don't know a whole lot about bluegrass, and while my ignorance has never deterred me before, I'm probably going to keep this relatively short. Somebody Loves You is the newest album from Austin Lucas who skyrocketed to the attention of the world (sort of) with his participation on the Revival Tour alongside such greats as Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music), Tim Barry (Avail), Ben Nichols (Lucero) and Tom Gabel (some other band).
As for the music on the album, as I said before, I'm not the biggest fan of bluegrass-y type music, but even I think it's pretty great. Austin can play guitar pretty well, he's got a strong voice that he can really work and he writes a decent song musically and lyrically. That's pretty much all you need isn't it? It doesn't hurt that his daddy used to work with Alison Krauss and helped him with making the album. Some of these songs are kinda slow and don't stand out to me as much but about half of them are real barn-burners. I've never really understood quite what a barn-burner was besides a rural arsonist. I imagine it's the sort of song that makes you spill your mason jar of moonshine over the lantern flame causing a conflagration. If that is the case than I think you'll find my usage was correct. Anyway, there's not much more I can say about this album that Austin himself, and his big ernest face can't tell you better. Here he is in the video for what I think is far and away the best song on the album, if not in his catalogue:
I was not looking forward to when this album came up in my list of things to review. Not reviewing it was not an option: Cursive is one of my favorite bands of all time. Actually, that's what made it so hard. I keep holding out hope that I just don't understand this album, that one day I'll play it and just realize the genius that I just know Tim Kasher packed it full of. Unfortunately, that day hasn't come yet and so with a heavy heart I have to admit, I think this is probably the weakest Cursive offering to date.
That said, this isn't a terrible album. Almost any of the songs on it would be fine down-tempo numbers on a different Cursive album surround by bigger, screamier, more dynamic songs. They wouldn't be our favorites and when we talked about the album and someone mentioned them we'd be like "oh yeah, that song's on there too," but they wouldn't be bad. The problem with Mama, I'm Swollen (I hadn't actually gotten around to saying that yet had I?), is that it's a whole album of what I would hesitate to call 'filler tracks' but that's really the only word for them. When I talk to other people about Cursive we usually agree that as Tim Kasher cleaned his life up, the songs took a hit. Where the hard drinking, self-loathing Tim cranked out the truly awesome Domestica and The Ugly Organ, it was a much better situated Tim that gave us Happy Hollow and I would hazard a downright stable guy who wrote Mama. He can't even get it up to rage about religion anymore. Sure the album takes a few swings here and there ('We're Going to Hell' and 'Mama, I'm Satan') but they lack the teeth and claws of even an interlude from back in the old days.
The album opens with a rocker (it's only rocker, really) "In The Now" and then promptly hits its high points in "From the Hips" and "I Couldn't Love You." The latter is probably the closest this album gets to form with Kasher screwing up his face to scream "I couldn't love you anymooooooooore" (if you don't believe me just watch the video). After these three, the album just kind of coasts for seven tracks. Again, these are all fine songs. They're Cursive songs, they just aren't the best we've seen. And you know what? That's fine. Tim, if you're out there, you been through some stuff and it seems like you're coming out of it now and if that means you have to take your foot off the gas pedal a little bit then go for it, you've earned it. You don't have to prove anything anymore. This album is fine, I'll just mix in 'The Great Decay' 'The Recluse' and 'Tall tales' when I need a jolt. But for those of you who have never listened to Cursive, please don't make this the first album you listen to.
And now, the videos for the album (there were three. anyone else think that's a little excessive?)
It has been toasty here in Worcester, and I mean hot like you read about. You what else is hot though? Some of the sweet news items I have to share, all of which are courtesy of the fine, fine, unknowing individuals over at punk news. The first and most awesome of these is the news that Desaparecidos, the greatest thing that Conor Oberst has ever done with his life, will be re-uniting. They are playing a benefit show to raise funds to combat a Nebraska cities new policy which is similar to AZ new (and now under litigation!) immigration law. We can only hope that the boys will remember how great it feels to play together and maybe think about a whole tour or even -gasp- a follow-up record to Read Music/Speak Spanish. This would be awesome, since with Hot Water Music alive and kicking my short list of bands I'd like to see re-form gets down to Jawbreaker, Refused and the boys from Omaha.
Speaking of Refused, here's a fun video of Dennis Lyxzen from Refused performing a Minor Threat cover with Rise Against (Brian Baker from Bad Religion is there too, but I'm less excited for him). Doesn't Dennis look like he's having fun? Running around getting to be hardcore again after the colossal snore-fest that is International Noise Conspiracy?
I had a third thing, but now I don't remember what it is. Hot Water Music is recording a 7" with Bouncing Souls, but I got less excited about that when I heard that they were just going to be covering each other.
The first time I ever heard of the Denton Texas punk band Marked Men, was when Mitch Clem (internet comic artist extraordinaire) put their album "Fix My Brain" at number one on his list of best albums of 2006. Now, three years later, the boys are back with 2009's Ghosts, which weighs in at 15 tracks and not a single one touching 3 minutes in length. I know I harp on short songs a lot in reviews, but I think Shakespeare said it best when he wrote in Hamlet "As brevity is the soul of punk rock, keep thy hardcore and pop-punk songs under 3 and a half minutes." I might be remembering that wrong put the point is that gettin' it done in a timely fashion is for the most part a virtue I look for in bands like this and Marked Men deliver in spades. Listen to this baby end to end and you barely sacrifice a half-hour of your day.
As for actual substance, it's pretty standard, better-than-average pop-punk (lotta hyphens there). The guitars are angular, distorted and played with down-strokes; the drummer's mostly doing high-hat and snare; the vocals are a little rough both in recording quality and delivery and everything is moving along at a pretty good clip. The band apparently has a policy of not publishing lyrics which as a lyrics-oriented kind of guy, I found a little annoying, especially when I turned to write about the album (grrrrr). Combine this with the vocal quality and you could go a decent amount of listens and never have a clue what you were hearing. Besides the lack of published lyrics, my only complaint would be that the guitar sound doesn't change much song-to-song which means that a lot of the songs kind of seem indistinguishable from each other. It's all good, but at times a song will end and the next will start and you think "didn't I just hear this?"
The title track and Red Light Rumors seem to me to be the two songs that really stand out as different from the others but even that is only a slight shift. While all the songs are pretty good, the best two (as opposed to the two that stand out) are Ditch and Stay Away. Strangely enough, those two are the ones I'm going to post.
I regard Franz Nicolay's musical career with mixed feelings. He rose to prominence as a member of World/Inferno Friendship Society, a band I'm hard pressed to find any redeeming value to (and yes, I have witnessed their vaunted live show. They were assholes.) before going on to be the keyboardist and and back up singer in The Hold Steady. I like the Hold Steady and I really liked what he brought to them (it's his rough voiced- back up on "Stuck Between Stations") . Now he has announced that he's going out on tour with Against Me! as their keyboardist. The very fact that they need a keyboardist is proof that they are no longer a band to be excited about joining (he says, like he wouldn't take that call). The reason I outline my feelings on Franz's career path is that I have similar mixed feelings about his first solo effort 2009's Major General. There are some great songs on this album, and some friggin' terrible ones.
The album kicks off with what is easily the best song on the whole thing: "Jeff Penalty" and song about a man who was briefly the lead singer of the Dead Kennedys. This is a great song, it rocks, has dynamics, a great little group part and it builds like a sonofabitch. It also has a pretty nifty video:
Sadly, after "Penalty," this little wagon starts rolling down hill and never really climbs that high again. The second song, "Hey Dad" isn't bad but doesn't really hit enough anywhere for my taste. He transitions to piano for the next two, the unfortunate "World/Inferno Vs. The End Of The Evening" (suprise, suprise) and the piano-tango of "Dead Sailors." Despite its slow start, 'Sailors' has some gas in its tank and pulls it out at the last minute with a huge chorus. The promise of a simliar payoff is a lie which keeps you going to the dragging, insomnia-banishing, guitar and clarinet jazz of "Do We Not Live In Dreams?" Seriously, it's not good, but like a typical season for J D Drew, after you wade through the waist high mediocrity, there's a couple of hot streaks in there someplace. This particular streak opens with the crashing drums of "Confessions Of An Ineffective Casanova" and follows that up with a pretty solid chorus (this is where a better reviewer would quote lyrics but I'm too lazy). Nicolay doesn't take his foot off the gas and charges straight into the pretty great "Quiet Where I Lie" before nose diving into the godawful "Note on a Subway Wall". This swing and miss is the first in a trio of songs that leave me thinking maybe this should have been an Ep.
The last three songs are a microcosm of the entire album. Uptempo rocker "This World Is An Open Door" is just great. The next is an acceptable down-tempo number (possibly the best slow song on the album) and then the last song is a convincing argument for the album being just one song shorter. Don't get me wrong, this album has some really good songs on it, but it also has some serious fat that needs trimming. You could honestly lose about half this album and you'd be left with a really great product. It's fine as it is now, but you have to do some digging before you hit the gold.
In the last couple of years, PME's (that's Punk Music Enthusiasts, for those of you not in the know) have been blessed with a myriad of bands features members of two truly great and now-defunct punk bands: Jawbreaker and Latterman. As regulars of this blog know by now, Jawbreaker's lead singer, Blake Schwarzenbach was briefly in band called Thorns of Life, before starting his current band forgetters (for whom we are very excited), while the Latterman guys have cropped up in a huge number of bands including (but not limited to) Iron Chic, RVIVR, and the (I'm sorry for this) sadly underwhelming Bridge and Tunnel (somebody has to say it). Now at this point some of you may be saying "Keegan, I thought this review was of some band called Shorebirds, why are you going on at great length about Jawbreaker and Latterman?" And I'll tell you, dear but impatient reader, Shorebirds represents the overlap in the Venn diagram of ex-Latterman and ex-Jawbreaker bands as it features Chris Bauermeister of Jawbreaker on bass, and Matt Canino of Latterman on guitar and yelling.
Fans hoping for a follow-up to Dear You should probably look elsewhere, but people looking for a record to fill the Latterman void, could do a lot worse (they could do Bridge and Tunnel for example). It's Gonna Get Ugly has everything you loved in a Latterman record, just a little less of it. Shouted/sung vocals? They're there but the only time they really get cranked up and raw is on the driving "Circles" which sees Canino spitting out his lyrics as fast as he can over a drum beat that Black Flag is probably still looking for. The political lyrics from Latterman are still there, but they're subtler and less insistent. What I miss most is the anthemic tracks and the fist in the air "everyone-goes-'yeah'-on-this-beat" moments which seem to be lacking on this album. Weirdly enough I have a similar complaint about the new album from The National, but more about that in a couple months.
If you're only going to listen to three tracks off this album (I don't know why anyone would have this rule) they should be:
Track 3: "Upside Down" - Possibly the most anthemic song on the album, also the most feel-good, pump up song. Though in reading the lyrics, I have a sneaking suspicion its about suicide, so what do I know?
Track 4: "Sleeping In" - It has a fun false beginning, it has the same basic idea as the Post Service song of the same name (the world sucks so why wake up) and the F-word gets used about 100 times over the course of just over two minutes.
Track 10: "The Ballad of Marvin Heemeyer" - It's the story of a man who drove an armor-plated bulldozer through several buildings in his town in response to God and a zoning dispute. I think the boys are taking an anti-government message from this one, which works if you don't look too closely.
In all its 12 tracks, weighing in at about 26 and a half minutes with only one song over 3. Solid west coast, rough vocals, pop-punk (the good kind). Shorebirds has an impeccable pedigree, but they don't really need to rely on it, the album stands as a great punk record all on its own.
Today is a special day because it marks the hundredth (is that a word?) post I've made here on the blog. Very exciting. The title gave it away a little didn't it? Anyway, I thought it would be nice to just for one post, go back to what this blog originally was, back when it was called 'Recording a Day' and it was just crappy recordings of my mostly doing bad covers with the occasional original thrown in when I thought I was getting a little too close to being tolerable. So in that spirit, today's post is pretty simple just one song for you listening pleasure, but it's a Kid Omega song so you can see how it hearkens back. This recording is off of a Clark University bands comp called Cougar Tracks which was put together by Adam among others. This song will also appear on KO's upcoming full length, though with a bit more production and better vocals. Oh yeah, and it won't be named for a god damn republican. Enjoy!
So yes, I admit perhaps I should have written my thoughts about the Bruins post-season run before it actually started because it will be a lot easier for me to be optimistic here on the day we will have a chance to win the series (knock on wood) and the word on Savard is that he'll be up to wrestling mountain lions tomorrow. But I didn't write anything before now and now I am so that's the end of it. First of all, I'm thrilled with the way the B's have played so far in this series. You can tell Claude Julien has his inspire on these days because it seems like the boys come out of the locker room every period, more jacked up than the last time. They've made every possible hit bone-crushingly hard and have rained shot after shot in on Ryan Miller. Speaking of Ryan Miller, good lord can that man stop a puck. Even that though, is a credit to the Bruins because for every play where they burst through the defense, gone one on one with him and watched Miller pull off an incredible save to rob them, the Black and Gold haven't gotten discouraged, they've simply regained the puck and tried again and again until it goes in. If they win this series, the professional analysis for why should simply read "Bruins wanted it more." They've played like it, 60 minutes (or more) of effort every night. It also doesn't hurt that we took Thomas Vanek out with a slash in the second game, just sayin' that was well worth the two minute penalty. So anyway, I'm very pleased with the way the B's have been playing and if they keep up this intensity level there's no telling how far they could go. I'm not sure you can get the big silver bowl with intensity alone, but if Savard does come back all healthy and with his wits about him, who knows we'll suddenly have a team with a lot of fire-power to go with that survivor mentality. Now if you'll recall, at the beginning of the regular season, I named some young players that I thought could be serious difference makers for the Bruins this season (you recall that don't you? I swear it happened). I thought it might be fun for all of us (but mostly me) to go back and look at how I did with some of those predictions, starting with where I was wrong, then covering my good calls and finally looking at some guys I missed. Swings and Misses Let's get this out of the way: I said Byron Bitz was going to be huge and we drop-kicked his ass at the trade deadline. This bummed me out like whoa. Not just because I was wrong, but because I genuinely really liked Bitz. Turns out he just wasn't getting it done numbers wise and now he's a Florida Panther. That's what happens, half a season of just not getting it done and WHAM you're playing an winter sport in the 95 degree 100% humidity of where American goes to die. I'm also going to put Matt Hunwick in the miss category if only to reflect his less than stellar +/- this season. He lost a bit of time to Dennis Seidenberg when he showed up and a little more to Johnny Boychuk (but more on him later). I will say however, that Hunwick has really stepped up his game this post-season, flashing his offensive talents as a defenseman who can give his opposing counterparts a bit of trouble. Hits First of all, TuukkaRask. How far did I crush this one out of the park? To be fair, I didn't foresee him wresting the starter's job from Thomas, but I did say he was going to come up big. I have to say though, the kid need to learn to control a god damn rebound. But he's young, he's Finnish, and he's only going to get better. I'm also going to go ahead and count Blake Wheeler as a good pick for me. He stepped up to help fill the hole left by Phil Kessel and then by Savard and ended up with the fifth most points on the team (to be fair, for the 09-10 B's that's not super impressive). Guys I Missed Entirely (I guess if I'm continuing my metaphor, these would be called strikes) We'll start small with Johnny Boychuk. Boychuk, in addition to having an awesome last name, did a lot to stabilize the B's defensive situation this season. While he hasn't been crazy good at anything in particular he has seriously helped with the big and bad sides of the Bruins this season (that injury to Vanek? you have Boychuk to thank for it) and of course this hit on Matt Ellis:
You know what those are Mr Ellis? Those are the lights of the Boston Garden that you are suddenly looking at. Next a couple guys who I didn't really notice in the regular season but have really shown up to the playoffs. Daniel Paille actually racked up a cool 20 pts in the regular season but didn't catch my eye until now. Boy can he stick handle. I don't think there's a player on the Buffalo Sabres that hasn't had Paille make him look stupid. The kid skates fast and can move a puck wherever he wants it to go (except past Miller). Vladimir Sobotka on the other hand, at the tender age of 23 is proving that sometimes a Czech is money (see what I did there?). Catch a glimpse of his team photo and you could be forgiven for thinking that this pretty wouldn't have much to bring to a physical team like the B's and you'd be painfully wrong. To borrow from one of the fine NESN commentators, Sobotka has been a one man wrecking crew this series; throwing his body around to gain position, pick up the rebound or put the hurt on a Sabre. He plays with a wild abandon that recalls the early days of of Milan Lucic, is fantastic to watch and I'm guessing, hell to play against. The part that this kid has played in maintaining the physical tone of the Bruins play this round cannot be ignored or downplayed. His is one of those jerseys you want to buy now so you can say later you've had it for years. That's all for now. Here's hoping that B's keep rolling and that it takes less than 90 minutes tonight. In a final note the Bruins will be getting Toronto's second overall pick in the draft this year so look for the parade of young stars to keep right on coming.
I play bass and occasionally guitar in a band called Kid Omega. I also play bass in a band called Britney's Spear. I live primarily in Worcester, MA. Sometimes in Vermont.
Back when Britney's Spear was alive and kicking, we played a couple of shows with Tremarche and they were pretty good guys. They gave me a pin and a copy of their record once which totally made up for the fact that I've never felt fully comfortable with how I pronounce their name (You'd have to ask them, but I tend to pronounce it like Tree-Marsh, but I'm naturalistically inclined that way).
