Review: The Dead Weather - Horehound

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****

Financial Support Goes Here

The Dead Weather

I Think Joseph Conrad Said It Best

The horror, the horror:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GncK6IuY8OA&ob=av2e

I'm almost glad that it wouldn't let me embed it on the page. There's enough ugliness in the world. But seriously click through and feel a little bit of yourself die.

Review: Castevet - Summer Fences

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

Financial Support Goes Here

Castevet

A Few Tidbits

So I just got back from visiting my friend Matt in Milwaukee (which is apparently in Wisconsin) and I'm happy to report that it is a seriously cool city. I wasn't expecting a whole bunch so I was really pleasantly surprised. In other news, a quick search through the past couple of entries will reveal that I have had to remove the music links for one of my reviews. I got a couple of those threatening emails. Let me take this opportunity to reiterate people: If you don't like me promoting your music by posting some of it, just tell me. I'll be more than happy to take them down and honestly, I think we'll all be the better for the communication. You can be my friend and I'll be yours. The legal-talky emails on the other hand are like a wall which allows for no communication or friend-making whatsoever. The end result is the same for both but the last one leaves me feeling bummed out.

On now, to happier topics. I'm leaving on my proper vacation (Milwaukee was the warm up) at the end of this week and I figured I should post something before I left to try to keep everyone's (anyone's?)interest as long as possible in my absence. So I thought I'd share a couple of cool things that have come to my attention in the last couple of days. The first of these is Flick Chart. If you're like me and by that I mean you have just an obscene amount of time on your hands and a strange desire to know what your favorite movies are then this site is for you. But Keegan - I hear you saying - I'm pretty sure I can tell what my favorite movies are for myself thank you very much. And you might think that, but sometimes our pretensions get in the way. As much as you might want to think that Il Postino is your favorite movie of all time (and it is a good one) the truth is that with a couple of hours to kill you're far more likely to reach for say, Anchorman. Flickchart is a good way to figure out the naked truth about your taste in movies through a mindlessly simple binary process. It's actually simpler than the sentence I just used to describe its simplicity. So go check it out, have a ball, lose six or eight hours off your life that you'll never get back.

My other new and exciting discovery comes from the woman sitting next to me on the airplane to Milwaukee. She was doing this puzzle kind of like a crossword, but without clues. Being the kind of obnoxious nosy person that talks to you on an airplane, I asked what it was and she explained that it's called a Code Cracker and it's a popular puzzle in New Zealand. You can find a daily one here. Get on this one early folks because honestly I think it's going to blow up and you'll be happy to say you were there at the beginning. This will be the next Soduko or Kenken. And trust me, I love Kenken possibly more than life and these are better. If you like Soduko but miss letters and Crosswords are just a little to knowledge based for you then Code Crackers are for you.

This is usually the place where I would post a couple songs related to puzzles and movies. But I'm still a little jumpy so no music today. See nameless/faceless lawyer-talk man? You've spoiled the fun for everybody. You and maybe Google a little bit.

Review: Dear Landlord - Dream Homes

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

Financial Support Goes Here

Dear Landlord

Review: iwrestledabearonce - It's All Happening

When I was in high school and I first heard the band The Distillers, I was very fond to getting people to listen to 'The Hunger' and asking what gender they thought the lead singer was. People would invariably answer "A dude?" and I would laugh that they had been taken in by Brody Dalle's guttural vocals. I tell you this because iwrestledabearonce's singer Krysta Cameron makes Dalle sound a touch castrati. This girl is brutal. Those of you who attended Clark University's Noise Day event last year will be put in mind of Providence's Tinsel Teeth.

Let me be frank; if you don't like hardcore music, iwrestledabearonce's first full length It's All Happening is not going to be the album that opens that particular horizon for you. This album is gnarly. In places it's more grindcore than anything else and by that I mean many people will find it un-listenable. That said, there's some interesting stuff to be had here. The band is clearly drawing from some seriously diverse influences. Witness the country break in "You Ain't No Family" complete with fiddle and slide guitar, the dance beats in "See You In Shell" or the techno beats sprinkled liberally throughout the album. As throaty and terrifying as Cameron's screaming is, her voice is surprisingly nice when not being shredded and she does her fair share of clean vocals on a majority of songs. Other than that, this album is decently standard hardcore fare. There's some guitar pyrotechnics, there's a crushing breakdown or two. The songs all have clever offbeat names that are quirky pop culture references ("Tastes Like Kevin Bacon") and there are little moments of ambient music here and there as is currently the style in some areas of hardcore. If I had to pick a single band to share fans with this I would probably say Horse the Band. Or Band of Horses because they're basically the same thing (but seriously, only that first one).

Mp3's removed upon request.



iwrestledabearonce - Tastes Like Kevin Bacon ****

iwrestledabearonce - You Ain't No Family***

Financial Support Goes Here

iwrestledabearonce

Review: Austin Lucas - Sombody Loves You

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:



Austin Lucas - Somebody Loves You

Austin Lucas - Go West

Financial Support Goes Here

Austin Lucas