Review: Franz Nicolay - Major General

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.

Franz Nicolay - Jeff Penalty

Franz Nicolay - Confessions Of An Ineffective Casanova

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Franz Nicolay

Review: Shorebirds - It's Gonna Get Ugly

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.

Shorebirds - Sleeping In
Shorebirds - The Ballad of Marvin Heemeyer

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Shorebirds

Entry Number 100

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!

Kid Omega - Sununu (not the real title)

I'm Done!

So as of yesterday, I have handed in what is hopefully the last papers of my college career. I'm very excited about this. In addition to lots of other things, it means that I will now have tons of time to start cranking out those reviews I've been threatening you all with the last couple of months. However, I haven't started 'cranking them out' just yet. To help you pass the time, here's a really awesome video by a band I would have loved to review but I kind of missed the boat on. Despite this, the video is too cool not to post.


Living Saints

Polar Bear Club | MySpace Music Videos

Bruins Postseason Discussion (4 games late)

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, Tuukka Rask. 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.

Dropkick Murphys - Time To Go

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Dropkick Murphys

Serbian Celts for the win

Do you ever get into one of those youtube-fueled, productivity death spirals? You go to watch one, just one god damn video and then something in the related videos queue catches your eye and you watch that, and then another and another and suddenly it's Tuesday. I've been told it's kind of the same way with meth. Anyway, I was watching videos of the Pogues playing Fairytale of New York (like you do) and one thing led to another and I found a treasure hidden amongst the rubble that is youtube. That treasure was Orthodox Celts, one of the most popular Irish and Celtic music groups from.....wait for iiiiiiiit.... BELGRADE, SERBIA. How awesome is that? What makes it even more awesome is that they're actually pretty good. The music is straightforward and well played, and if they left it at that, they'd be kind of unremarkable, but the lead singer has his awesome little eastern European accent that just keeps reminding you of what's what. Please enjoy, also click through to youtube because there are more videos by the band, this one was just the best.



I'd post music here, but both my versions of Star of the County Down are a wee bit suspect. So I dunno, look it up on groove shark or something or even take a flier on a serbian celtic band:

Orthodox Celts

Review: The Riot Before - Fists Buried In Pockets

I have a huge number of albums sitting on my computer, just waiting to be reviewed here for my beloved readers. A huge number. And I'm going to try to do all of them, in some semblance of chronological order. Most of them will be from last year and eventually we'll get to this year and we'll be all up to date and awesome. Today's offering will be the only album from all the way back in 2008.

I've talked about Richmond, Va's The Riot Before on the blog before, back in march. At the time I referred to them as "straight ahead, no-frills, punk rock." I've listened to a lot more since then and good lord was I wrong and my god did I undersell this band. TRB if you're out there, I'm so sorry I doubted you.
There's a huge amount going on in this album. To abuse a cliche, this isn't your daddy's punk rock band. The lyrics are subtle and articulate and the subject matters vary from the staunchly political 5 To 9 to the practically acapella, shouted love song that is I have My Books. Words Written Over Coffee even has harmonica and as tempting as is it to make a 'Gaslight Anthem watch your back' joke, I don't think there's a reason to sully this.
For those of you reading this and thinking "But Keegan, I'm a punk, I don't like acapella or Harmonica, is there something on this album for me?" Don't get your studded belt in a knot, the answer is a resounding yes. The bizarrely named They Rode On In The Friscalating Dusklight should provide your daily value of whoas while the "single" off the album We Are Wild Stallions is all the fist-in-the-air singalong anthem you could ever hope for, especially in its big final build. Rest assured that they'll get away with this.
In a final strange note this is the second album that I've really fallen in love with that has the intros to certain songs on the ends of the songs before them (the first was Lemuria's last full length, reviewed here). TRB does it best on Fists with the end of 5 To 9 which transitions into You Can't Sexy Dance To Punk Rock. Listened to back to back the first song ends, and then a kickin' drum intro starts, they throw in a little guitar feedback, and finally there's an equally kickin' pick slide (aren't they all?) and then the second song begins right at the verse. However, if you listen to Sexy Dance by itself, it just comes in at the verse and sounds all kinds of bad ass and awesome. Don't be surprised though, this is a bad ass and awesome album by a bad ass and awesome band. A band that maybe could play a show in the Worcester/Boston area soon??? Huh?

I'm going to post the video from the old post again, because you can never watch it too many times. Also I'm posting You Can't Sexy Dance To Punk Rock so you can all hear how awesome it sounds by itself. To hear how great it sounds with the intro, you're just gonna have to buy the album. Which you should probably do anyway.

The Riot Before - "We Are Wild Stallions!" from Dave O'Dell on Vimeo.

The Riot Before - You Can't Sexy Dance To Punk Rock

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The Riot Before