Let me be honest here. I grew up in Queens, so I like my rap to sound a certain way. While I can appreciate the insanity of groups like Outkast and southern production geniuses like Timbaland and the Neptunes, I'd rather be listening to Cam'Ron, Nas, Jay-Z, Cormega, or the Wu-Tang Clan.
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Peter Glantz and Nick Noe have managed to brilliantly document the
worlds most phenomenal hardcore drum and bass duo on a brief 2001
streak across the USA. Providence, Rhode Island's Lightning Bolt have
been playing and touring for only a few years but have built up a
thunderous steam simply because their shows are beyond intense and
their style is void of rock star attitudes and similarly retarted
bullshit. Between songs and sets, this 75-minute film shows a window on
the world of the smelly, loud, but charming and sincere world of the
travelling Brians, playing in various rock venues, houses, and even
somebody's kitchen in the sweltering heat of Lubbox, Texas nearly
inside a refrigerator! If you're unfamiliar with Lightning Bolt's
vicious onslaught, Brian Gibson's drums are fast and furious with a
ratta-tatta-tap only matched by the precise execution of the heavily
amplified three-string bass guitar by Brian Chippendale. A superb
editing job by Nick and Peter effectively keep up with their ferver and
make me long for the chance to see them again rather than sitting on my
couch in front of the TV! I will even go as far as to say this
documentary is miles better than a ton of things I've seen on the
Sundance Channel, IFC, or the MTVs. Rockumentaries are not for the rich
and famous any more thanks to the competitive digital video and DVD
markets these days, and after seeing this, I'm completely surprised
more indie labels aren't doing similar projects. I wholeheartedly
welcome more adventurous labels and artists that want to share their
personalities with their fans. With any luck, others will be smart and
contact Peter and Nick to do the work... For a preview, check out
Load's website.
Over the past 10 years, Silkworm has released some pretty uniquealbums. Always abrasive while catchy, with odd lyrics and situations toread between the lines, they always bring it across with fervor andpassion. 'Italian Platinum' was again recorded with Steve Albini, andthe results are certainly Silkworm, but after ten years, the chinks inthe armor, or at least in this style, are starting to show. Yes, it's agood record. Yes, it would make your mother cover her ears (my mother,anyway). Yes, it's got great songs. But it's classic Silkworm. There'sless slower material this time out, and the guest vocals by Bloodshotartist Kelly Hogan add this album's freshness. But is it the bestSilkworm CD ever? Nope. Would you listen to it more than otherreleases? Nope. Would you love it just the same? Absolutely. The albumstarts of with '(I Hope U) Don't Survive', a song with the catchiestchorus I've heard in recent history ("And 'I love you' means 'I hopeyou don't survive' tonight"). And I dare say that's what's moststriking here, in that Silkworm is their catchiest on more than onesong, which could equate to them being more ((shudder)) "accessible."'The Brain', 'The Third', 'Dirty Air' and 'A Cockfight of Feelings' arepure pop splendor. 'Is She a Sign' and 'Young' are fantastic songs,ones that could easily cement the band's reputation as love songballadeers, if this were any other band than Silkworm. They never letit get that sappy, letting the guest vocalist shred the end of the songlike Marcy Mays on an Afghan Whigs number. And the ever-present storiesof drunkery are here again on 'White Lightning' and the fantastic'Bourbon Beard'. But overall, it's just another great Silkworm album.That's not a bad thing, but I keep waiting for something new to comeout of them. Something avant garde and noisy. Something defining. Andit's not here. But something tells me it's coming.
Calla's next studio album 'Televized' is due September 24th via ArenaRock Recordings. In the meantime here's a couple catch-all discs.'Custom' is a remix album with two live tracks tacked on the end.I-Sound, Tarwater, Metrotech, Datach'i, Couch, Pan American, Dan Matzand Calla themselves all take a turn. Most of them with the sameapproach: add more stuff. Extraneous beats, electronics and effects areused to putty in and over cracks that didn't need filling. More is doneto selfishly apply a sonic signature than to preserve the certainsomething of the originals. On the other hand, Couch don't do much ofanything to "Fear of Fireflies" while Pan American reduces anunidentified track into an appendum to his latest album. Part of DanMatz's two-fer serves up a slowed down cover of Steve Miller's "DearMary", giving the simple love ode a creepy stalker vibe. "Trinidad / IShall Be Released" (the latter by Bob Dylan) and "Only Drowning Men"are the live ones and they prove that Calla do occasionally swell theirslow and sultry sound up into a powerful din. But altogether, "Custom"reinforces my general attitude that most remix albums just aren'tnecessary. I'd rather the originals. Or this next disc.
Let's pretend that the copyright infringement/artists' rights debateabout these bootlegs doesn't exist here; we all have our opinions onthat issue, so let's get past it and talk about whether or not thesemixes are any good. The general theme of this mash-up mix is thepairing of an a capella hip-hop/r&b track with music from aseemingly incongruous rock song (or another distant genre). The mostfamous of these 17 tracks is probably Freelance Hellraiser's "A Strokeof Genius," the pairing of the Strokes' "Hard to Explain" with the acapella version of "Genie in a Bottle." Popular opinion is that the miximproves both original songs, and I tend to agree. Freelance Hellraiseris the most consistent DJ on the disc; his songs are the most seamlessand flow more naturally than most, particularly theNirvana-meets-Destiny's Child "Smells Like Booty. Pairing Eminem's D 12with Depeche Mode is pretty clever too. The cleverness of all thesesongs becomes the double-edged sword with this CD - do we like thesesongs for the skill and creativity that went into mixing them, or fortheir eye-rolling cleverness? If it's the latter, then at least you canregard this disc as a guilty pleasure. There are some decided duds -pairing "Satisfaction" with Fatboy Slim does absolutely nothing for me,and layering Public Enemy with Herb Alpert is too cutesy and doesn'talways sync up. But for every stinker there's a nice surprise, like DJFrench Bloke's bonding the Dead Kennedys' "California Uber Alles" withDestiny Child's "Jumpin Jumpin," which comes across more eerie thenclever, giving it more of an edge. Girls On Top have two tracks on thedisc that distinguish themselves from the rest by making moreinteresting musical choices, namely Gary Numan ("Are Friends Electric?"with Adina Howard's "Freak," I think) and Human League ("Being Boiled"with TLC's "No Scrubs"). An interesting note - mixing Celine Dion withSigur Ros sounds horrifically flawless. I don't think I'd realize itwas a mix if I didn't know any better, I'd just assume it was a badadult-contemporary hit.
Is it just me, or is indie rock losing all of its edge these days? Itseems in recent months that the indie rock being released lately issuffering from the same illness that affects most genres over time:lack of inspiration. New albums from indie rock bands sound like otherbands from five years ago, but with a different singer, or with alittle more energy on the drums or guitar. They're running out of freshideas, and we all feel it. This new release on Sub Pop, the solo debutof Jason Loewenstein, former drummer of Sebadoh, has it all. The albumis original material, Loewenstein writes jangly, affecting rock, playsalmost all of the instruments, and has a capable voice. It'sunfortunate that it's so goddamned mediocre. It sounds like it was allrecorded with the exact same setup in the exact same room over a weekfive months ago. The guitars sound almost identical on every track, thevocals are at the same level with just a little reverb, and all thesongs rollick right along. But none of it stays with you past the firstfew listens. Nothing here is entirely memorable. Even the "fun tracks"- one is called 'Crazy Santana', and, yes, listening to it producesthat exact response - is stale and not even all that amusing. Iremember five or six years ago when bands like Devilhead were makingmusic that was altogether quirky and odd and had strange subjectmatter, and it was funny and just a little brilliant. You knew everyoneinvolved had taken loadsof drugs, but dammit it was good music. This is like Devilheadmellowing out, making most songs coherent (read: not singing about gayaffairs or covering 'Chocolate Bus' ever again), and just basicallybecoming lame. 'I'm a Shit' doesn't even touch the glory other bandshave perfected when it comes to self deprecation. And the token '80shair metal moment on 'Metal' is carbon copy perfect from bands likeHelloween and Heathen (why did most of those bands start with H or W?),but it goes nowhere, so it isn't even good filler. It's unfortunate,because Loewenstein is incredibly capable and has a lot of potential.And the Sebadoh influence is felt here, but I want him to get out fromunder its shadow. Maybe next time he can bring something fresh to thegenre and surprise us all.
Giant green cyborg squelching through swampland suddenly soars skyward.Distant echoes of sad cornfields fluttering in late summer breeze. Theaftermath of destruction "World Remains" revolve in forlorn beauty."Ruin Her Slowly" pumps a chuggging fat mutant bassbeat for wistfulpiano chops to chime into the haunted night. Then again maybe its amusic box merry go round drowning slowly in molasses. If you haven'tyet got Bored of Canada and get a kick out of the Fennesz guitar /laptop interface, then the duo called Désormais are definitely makingthe kind of noise you should hear. Yes, I'm harping on the Fenneszcomparisons again, but those abstracted My Bloody Valentine noiseloopsvia laptop glitchscrapes are hard to place without reference to himthese days. This has the same heart tug melodic pull that 'EndlessSummer' had, but with a maybe more desolate and mournful feel, perhapsan endless autumn for leaves to flutter down from now on? Based inMontreal, Mitchell Akiyama began making this album with Cincinnatiresident Joshua Treble in the fall of 2001 and it seems that part ofthe year had at least a partial influence over the luscious sculptingsof their sound file exchanges. Most tracks spin revolving loops andslowly let more distorted melodic waves and dense static sheets unfurl,although occasionally a quick shift in pace occurs. Some of the titlesseem to imply a connection with restless internal states - "ViolentFeelings Often Pass" starts out calm but a tense heartbeat pulses andpumps the track to its ultimate escape. There's also a few nods tofailure, as if contemplative regret is the mood they were trying tocapture. "Just in Case We Lose" seems like a head on collision betweenthe classic abstraction of Stockhausen's 'Kontakte' and theaforementioned Fennesz, but it's over pretty fast. The following"Suspense de Vent" has a windblown oriental feel. "As Though" has adistant vinyl crackle atmosphere through which ghostly hymnal voicescall, as if Philip Jeck was in the house but the tape machines were onthe roof and a light rain was falling. It drops out drainwards, butthen crunches back in a faster echotechno canyon. 'Climate Variations'is a fine disc for all weathers as the title implies. Cranked up loudit rocks in a sublimely mind altering futurist fashion. Low levellistening allows total immersion in endless imaginative loops, a lovelyway to drift away. Each listen reveals more detail in the cracklingether variations, and each time the disc spins it just gets better. Myradar will certainly now be tracking Akiyama, who runs intr_version andhas released an album on Alien 8 sublabel Substractif, and Treble, whoruns aii and has previously released an album on Pitchcadet. Theintr_version website had a bubble movie that goes well with the music,but was bereft of information last time I looked.
This EP is one of my favorite releases of 2002 so far. "Shanghai" is amonster shanty with a hypnotic desert groove. Heavy bass-lines arepaired with dead-pan vocals in a timeless electronic frame. The lyricsare about sailors without pity, capturing the innocent, lonely and lostwhile the harbor theme is omnipresent the whole duration of thisrelease. The title track is featured twice - over 9 minutes long on theA Side and in a shorter version which differs only slightly. The track"Valse Brute" is actually an instrumental waltz, pushing the seaman'satmosphere with an massive accordion melody even further while"Pasteuse Elegiaque" is more a chill-out ambient piece for the veryearly morning hours after a night out when all else are asleep.Kallabris have musical craftsmanship, artistic vision and a sense offinding the balance between humor, entertainment and melancholy thatmakes them rather unique.As the first release I heard by them I think they're definitively oneof the most outstanding acts of current German music and not to miss.
The Melodic label started in 1998 after hearing a demo tape from JamesRutledge, and releasing his Pedro EP in June of 1999. Over the pastthree years, they have released a dozen vinyl EPs and singles, and afew full-lengths on vinyl and CD. This is their first compilationrelease, and it's a collection of songs from artists with releases onthe label, and artists that they have received tracks from these pastthree years. Designed to be a cohesive listening experience - verysimilar sounding and feeling tracks from all artists - you're supposedto just put this on at a party or in your house and experience it. Andmost of it is pretty even and worth listening to. All tracks haveelements of electronics, and move along at a medium pace. And eventhough they're very similar, there is a diversity here underneath itall when you consider that these bands are from different backgrounds.Pedro is the only artist featured twice, and since he was the label'sfirst signing, it makes sense. But he is not the most enchanting artistthis CD features. Minotaur Shock, whose track 'Lady Came From BalticWharf' is gorgeous and moving, is a consistently worthwhile listen, andthere is great anticipation for the Lucky Pierre full-length later thisyear. But I was most impressed by the Empire State track, who are onWarm in the US. Having never heard them before, I liked the grooves andbeats from three guys in Athens, GA. The sampled strings and xylophonesmake it sound like one of those Dolby test discs at one point, withnoise coming from places that almost scare the shit out of you. Then,at the end, it just breaks into a fast-paced sound collage. Good stuffhere from Melodic, worth listening to if you're not familiar with anyof the artists, as it's a low-priced introduction to them all.
Reviewing something like this is almost completely pointless, as thefans will have jumped at the opportunity to buy this while the peopleon the fence probably couldn't care less. I, personally was a bigPixies fan during their heyday and am completely thankful to them forhelping end the reign of hair bands with makeup. This CD is the muchpassed around untitled 'purple tape' which includes nine songs fromtheir demo cassette not appearing on the eight-song album 'Come onPilgrim,' first released by 4AD back in 1987. The recordings match upperfectly together and the songs present a fine archive, released herein stunning demo tape glory without the wear of a cassette passedaround for over a decade. Much of the tunes are in an embryonic stage,just as raw as 'Come on Pilgrim' and more ballsy than anything FrankBlack Francis has ever recorded since their split. This may be thedownfall, however, as all of these songs (with the exception of oneexclusive: "Rock My Soul") were recorded and improved upon and releasedmuch later. In addition, the 18 minutes of music contained hereinalmost doesn't justify the $12 sticker price, so I say give it a whilebefore it pops up in the used bins. It's not going anywhere fast.
