Published by James April 19th, 2006
in Free Tracks, Review and 2006.
Like a mudslide of gravel and chainsaws May You Only See Sky startled me out of my laconic stupor of Electro beats and Hip Hop rhymes. Refreshing like that moment of breathlessness after a hard punch to the gut I welcomed the change to my aural diet because I’m soft. Wolf & Cub remind me, in their not so gentle way, “that it’s still cool to fucking headbang.”
With tight rhythms, cascading modes, and rapidly shifting tempos Wolf & Cub provide tongue in cheek titles like “I Swear I’ve Been To This AutoZone Before” to wrap their songs in. Their music reminds me of a throwback to the heydays of metal in the 80’s, the sort of music that my friends and I would fire up before hitting the storm sewers on our skateboards. Their music blends a double-time grind where the guitar licks will occasionally soar out from the buzzing swooping on angular melodies like they do on “If I Were A Snake I’d Be A Belt By Now” accompanied by crisp drum work.
May You Only See Sky is rapid fire, with its five blistering tracks coming in under nineteen minutes. If you like your metal less glam and more muscle or enjoy a good kick to the kidney’s now and then than this release is for you. It is a great flash back to my testosterone fueled days of youth, leaving me invigorated to tackle my wage slave days under fluorescent lighting.
You can sample some free tracks or grab the album over at eMusic or at He Who Corrupts, Inc.
Published by Scott April 18th, 2006
in Meta-Chatter.
With more hours of daylight and gorgeous spring weather over the past few weeks, I’ve been spending a lot of time outside. I was getting a little frustrated because suddenly I didn’t have many opportunities to listen music. My commute is only twenty minutes each way, I can’t really listen to anything at work, and aside from alienating the fam by sticking some headphones on, I had no way to listen to music on the deck or in the yard.
Well, let me amend that slightly. I was hearing music, alright, but nothing from my collection. Just about every other day our neighbors hang out in their garage/driveway and crank out the “Mexican Polka,” as my wife and I call it. They obviously enjoy it but to me it’s totally squaresville. And I knew I had to do something when my kids started whistling and humming along to those songs.
I had an extra pair of computer speakers kicking around but didn’t feel like juggling them along with my mp3 player and a tangle of wires every time I wanted to hear some tunes. So I took an old wine crate that spent the last decade as a CD rack and cut it down to size. Drilled some holes in the back so I could connect it all and conceal the wires. My wife happened to be spray painting some stuff at the time so I had her slap some color on as a bonus. Voila! I’ve got a nifty little portable unit. Now I can fulfill my music jonez, drown out the neighborhood polkas and leaf blowers, and regain mastery of my children’s hipster musical education.
Published by Scott April 17th, 2006
in Album, Review and 2006.
It may be a tad too early to declare the summer album, but Desert Ocean may well fit the bill for me. It certainly is warming up in Georgia anyway. The weekend’s highs were in the upper 80’s, so really not that far off from feeling like summer. At the very least, this would be a fantastic summer road trip album. And with song titles like “Venture,” “Summer Break,” and “Cross Country,” Lanterna’s main man Henry Frayne must have had a similar frame of mind. These songs all have an early morning, striking out on multiple hundred miles of road feel to them. Bright sounding guitar-based instrumentals, they each manage to retain a sort of quiet solitude. I can easily visualize eating up close to an hour’s worth of highway with this playing while my traveling companions doze off drooling behind and to the side of me. But then again, with gas prices soaring, I will say Desert Ocean also works pretty well with the sun shining brightly through the window while folding laundry too.
Published by Scott April 16th, 2006
in Random, Album, Review and 2006.
Okay, it’s actually Sunday. The Easter morning egg hunt and excitement is over, so I’ll take a moment to reflect on some things I listened to yesterday.
Soul Asylum - Closer To The Stars: Best Of The Twin/Tone Years (2006)
I thought I’d be familiar with some of this early stuff but it turns out I only know back through 1988’s Hang Time. This is an excellent anthology, full of fast, raw songs. They were a lot more punk early on than I would have imagined.
Mogwai - Mr. Beast (2006)
There’s plenty of their trademark slow build to a roar on this latest, but I notice it’s not always on a quiet to loud arc. For example, on some tracks the guitars becomes increasingly intense over a strong, melodic piano line. I tried to work in the awesome “Travel Is Dangerous” on a recent mix but it didn’t fit with the character of the rest of the songs. Mogwai is a bit on the dour side in case you hadn’t noticed.
Built To Spill - You In Reverse (2006)
I won’t harp on how disappointed I was with their last album but this is by far a superior effort. There’s plenty of weird song structures, tasteful guitar workouts, and a even a few idiosyncratic pop songs. I’m especially hooked on “Mess With Time,” which starts out with a Middle Eastern flavored lead and radically changes to an upbeat reggae vibe for the last couple of minutes. World Music, BtS style!
Published by James April 14th, 2006
in Album, Review and 2006.
Partnering up with RJD2 to provide the beats and production Aceyalone has delivered an album that sizzles. Granted when I first listened to it I had some reservations, some vocal passages sounded underproduced, but after several listens the vocal parts are spot on with Aceyalone proving that he is nimble, able to slip in and out of double-time with each syllable as clear as the preceding one. Magnificent City stitches together several vignettes of street life interspersed with tracks about life, relationship, and requisite honorific to The Herb.
Magnificent City opens up the the funky bounce of “All For U”, setting the tone of the tracks to come. Built on a rubbery bassline, overblown horns, and double-time guitar riff Aceyalone is free to be loose and laid back with his delivery. It is a refreshing take on the braggadocio which instead of rhyming about beating down haters with spit he builds an altruistic persona who is willing to pitch in where necessary, remember the fallen, and give what he can. It is a solid opener that will get your neck loose and ready to nod to the disco tinged “Fire” that follows.
“Junior” features a hustlers bass line altering between quick walking doublebass with distortion rounding out the top and loose and fat downbeat strut all working under an ethereal choral loop that sounds like Lt. Uhura from Star Trek, and a warm flute sample. RJD2 nail the mood of Aceyalone’s story of a young street hustler who worked his way up through the streets with a quick smile, easy attitude, and sharp mind. It is an engaging story which has not gotten tired with each listen and reinforces Aceyalone’s ability to use rap as a medium for telling deep and nuanced stories in under four minutes.
From the cock rock leanings of “Heaven” to the 70’s prog rock influenced “Supahero” the partnership between Aceyalone and RJD2 is a fruitful one resulting a in a string of tracks that are strong alone but even better strung together. Magnificent City is at the top of my list for this years best albums and I hope that it also proves to be the start of more efforts between the two. Very highly recommended.
You can pick it up at either Amazon or eMusic.
Published by James April 12th, 2006
in Free Tracks, Singles, Review and 2006.
Damn. I really wish that I could write a scintillating review, one all filled with kittens and rainbows extolling my love for Shadow. I pounded this track into my head for over an hour hoping for a glint of something praiseworthy. I am empty handed.
Scissorkick flagged me down via the RSS expressway so that I could listen to this track and I almost want to kick him in the head for it but hey I’m the one who listened to it. I’ll agree with Steve that I too must be entering that geriatric stage in my life as I find the hyphy thing a touch silly. But there our opinions diverge as I find “3 Freaks” to be insipid. Sure the production is tight but hell there isn’t much to be loose about as there is not much that sounds either fresh or new. Bland, boring, and not at all what I expected to hear from him.
The track makes me think that Shadow is doing it to satisfy a debt to his meth dealer and that the only way he could bring himself to lay it down was by huffing three or four cans Krylon Gold Metallic. Seriously, some one needs to stage an intervention before he cuts another track like this.
Published by Scott April 11th, 2006
in Free Tracks, Album, Review and 2006.
I’ve played this a zillion times in the week since I grabbed it from eMusic and can see no end to its heavy rotation in the foreseeable future. Are we talking album of the year material here? No. More like the borderline guilty pleasure of The Capes. As undeniably catchy and enjoyable as Death in the Garden, Blood on the Flowers is, Irving strikes me as kind of a generic band. I’d be hard pressed to pick them out of a musical lineup if someone played me a song I hadn’t heard before.
This lack of distinctiveness is probably due to the democratic nature of the band, with all five members contributing as songwriters. From The Cure meets Duran Duran new wave of “She’s Not Shy” (and if those opening chords don’t make you think “Marquee Moon,” there’s a major gap in your hipster musical education!) to the Beulah-esque E6 guitar pop of “Situation” to the REM-ish “Care, I Don’t Care,” Death in the Garden is filled with winners that all in some way remind you of other bands. That nagging sense of schizophrenia also prevents it from working as a cohesive whole, feeling more like a loose collection of tracks.
Despite these negatives, there is a whole lot to like. Did I mention I’ve been playing it around the clock? You can check out a free mp3 of “Situation” at the Eenie Meenie page or stream it along with “Jen Nothing Matters To Me” at MySpace.
