Some of y'all might remember my critically acclaimed review of "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" where I said that it was terrible...Well, they couldn't make an album that godawful without making one this bad before it.
Well, yes, I'll slow down. "But it's critically acclaimed!" "It speaks to the angsty teenager in me!" "I have poor taste in music!" - NONE of these are excuses for saying that this is CLOSE to the best FLips release. I mean, once again, stupid sounding hippy-dippy pop music with gawdoful harmonies and boring melodies.
I guess around here (and on that 4 disc thing), Stephen Drozd put on the Daddy pants and said "I'm writing all the music now!", and now we get, like, freaking harp glissandos? And 2 versions of the same song? TWICE?! And cheesy sounding string arrangements? I mean, c'mon, let's not try to hide your lack of being able to write a decent melody (something we learned you can't do on "Embryonic") by covering it in crap-funk grooves and overly bombastic horn parts. I mean, it seems like you (the Band, not the faithful reader) is saying "I'M MATURE! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! I CAN RIDE THE BIKE ALL MYSELF!", but really, you're still just a little kid from Oklahoma.
Now, some songs here are good, but for our purposes, we can say the decline of the FLips I know and love starts here. Plus, this thing's like an hour long. Where's the fun in that? An hour of some pretty arrangements and Wayne's exciting new lyrics about optimism and hope and all that other crap.
Here's a Flipper video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUsd2IKwzNI
OVERALL RATING - Whee! Whaaooo! Let's talk about Weezer!
KEY TRACKS - "Race for the Prize", "Waitin' for a Superman"
Monday, October 18, 2010
Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
Yesterday, I finally found a vinyl copy of this in a record store that Peter Prescott was hanging out in. I said nothing to Peter, but I got all excited about this and its $7.99 price tag, so with this and a Silkworm EP (for 99 cents), I was on my way.
This catches the Boss inbetween "The River" and "Born In The U.S.A." (a favorite of John Gargiulo and Evan Allen). And it's 10 songs. He's the only musician and it was recorded on a 4-track cassette recorder. And guess what? It's awesome.
Why?
Well read on, I'll tell you more.
So here, we see Bruce in a different state - lyrically, we always knew where he was coming from - running or going or freezing out or whatever. But he was often just drenched in the bombast of Clarence Clemons sax solos and Max Weinberg's pervert drumming and the only emotion we got was when Bruce would go "UGHHHHHHHHAA" inbetween vocals and stuff of that nature. Here, it sounds like Bruce is playing in your corner working on some unfinished hits. And yeah, these songs aren't "finished" - the goal was to have the E Street Band re-record these jams, but after doing it, Broose and management decided against it and THANK GOD.
Most people only know one song off this ("Atlantic City"), because that's the only one on the Greatest Hits, but all of these songs are fantastic. I mean, what'cha got here...well, the title track which is about some folks on a killing spree, then "Atlantic City" (which is awesome), then another one that sounds like the first one, and well, hell, I won't do this for the whole album. There's also a track that sounds like Suicide on here!
Did you know that the Boss was such a NO WAVE (LOLZZZ) fan?
Well, I did. He's even released a Suicide cover or two in his life.
Anyway, great album. Great mood (bleak and not optimistic 'til the last song). Great cover. Great release.
Here's Bruce doin' it right.
OVERALL RATING - Squiddily bop!
KEY TRACKS - "Atlantic City", "Open All Night", "My Father's House"
This catches the Boss inbetween "The River" and "Born In The U.S.A." (a favorite of John Gargiulo and Evan Allen). And it's 10 songs. He's the only musician and it was recorded on a 4-track cassette recorder. And guess what? It's awesome.
Why?
Well read on, I'll tell you more.
So here, we see Bruce in a different state - lyrically, we always knew where he was coming from - running or going or freezing out or whatever. But he was often just drenched in the bombast of Clarence Clemons sax solos and Max Weinberg's pervert drumming and the only emotion we got was when Bruce would go "UGHHHHHHHHAA" inbetween vocals and stuff of that nature. Here, it sounds like Bruce is playing in your corner working on some unfinished hits. And yeah, these songs aren't "finished" - the goal was to have the E Street Band re-record these jams, but after doing it, Broose and management decided against it and THANK GOD.
Most people only know one song off this ("Atlantic City"), because that's the only one on the Greatest Hits, but all of these songs are fantastic. I mean, what'cha got here...well, the title track which is about some folks on a killing spree, then "Atlantic City" (which is awesome), then another one that sounds like the first one, and well, hell, I won't do this for the whole album. There's also a track that sounds like Suicide on here!
Did you know that the Boss was such a NO WAVE (LOLZZZ) fan?
Well, I did. He's even released a Suicide cover or two in his life.
Anyway, great album. Great mood (bleak and not optimistic 'til the last song). Great cover. Great release.
Here's Bruce doin' it right.
OVERALL RATING - Squiddily bop!
KEY TRACKS - "Atlantic City", "Open All Night", "My Father's House"
Swans - My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky
It has been 13 years since M. Gira has released any new work under the Swans moniker. Since the group’s dissolution, he’s been active with groups like the Angels of Light and running his record label, Young God (title taken from a Swans EP from way back when). Earlier this year, he announced that Swans were returning with a new record and a tour in the fall. Until then, Swans were just a group I’d heard about in passing – their music, bleak; their albums being some of the most depressing musical artifacts ever recorded, live concerts being insanity – percussionists that banged on pieces of sheet metal with bike chains over pulsing bass notes for 8 minutes at a time at crushing volumes. Clearly, I knew I had to see this band.
Within a few days, I had absorbed as much of their music as I could, but I also saw the growth and change of the band. Early to mid 80s were dark, abrasive, claustrophobic examples that proved music was able to change one’s outlook on life within 2 minutes of hearing a song called “Stay Here” or “I’ll Cry for You”. The late 80s were still kind of bleak, but a few questionable personnel choices left us with albums that were over-produced and just lacking in about everything that made the early ones great. The 90s were interesting and confusing at first, but in the end, produced worthwhile stuff. So how does Swans 2010 stack up?
Well, you won’t be confusing this with your (or my) copy of Filth or Greed anytime soon, but it is, hands down, one of the finest albums I’ve heard this year, regardless of genre or band or whatever other consideration you might throw at me. And I’ve only had this album for a few days as I write this. The music sounds like Swans and doesn’t sound like Swans. Gira’s voice isn’t the low growl we used to hear 27 years ago, but rather has more of a crooner thing going for it (those who’ve heard any Angels of Light will know what I mean) and the music, oh my gosh, THE MUSIC. It starts with “No Words/No Thoughts” which begins with some church bell sounds then 2 and a half minutes of unrestrained bashing of guitar chords and cymbals THEN the actual song comes in. It comes chugging around like the train that could, building momentum until it again erupts into a wall of glorious noise to only come back all the way down and then repeat and repeat again after a band-less verse. “Reeling the Liars In” has a hymn-like quality to it with an almost campfire sing-a-long chorus of “I’m reeling the liars in/the only true thing, the place to begin, is to burn up the liar pile…” Gira might have toned down the some of his lyrics, but danged if the meanings didn’t stay the same. “Jim” is another one that starts quiet enough and once again grabs the listener in a pulls into noise, complete with a mandolin on top. “My Birth” has all the volume and tempo you’d expect with this awesome high 2-note guitar line on the top of everything.
Going to side two, we have a duet with Devendra Banhart (who released his music on Young God) and Gira’s son on a track whose name I probably can’t put in The Penguin, but know that the song is almost beautiful and the contrast of the two voices works way better than anyone could have thought. It’s not novelty, it works. “Inside Madeline” is 4 minutes of growing crescendos and pounding rhythms until it almost all drops out and we have some violin and mandolin with vocals for the last 2 minutes. Usually, I’d say that this was an example of poor track sequencing or laziness, but it all comes together. “Eden Prison” is the one that people who have been checking out this album would know as it was the one free download floating around. Once again, solid, and if anything, it sounds better in the context of the album rather than being a standalone piece. And last is the ditty entitled “Little Mouth”, a quiet number with acoustic guitars and ending with another Gira vocal.
There are a lot of factors as to what makes this a great album. There’s a cracker-jack group of players that have all played in Swans or Angels before (I got really excited seeing Norman Westberg on guitar) and Gira just wrote 8 fantastic songs. He also produced the thing and was able to release it by selling and album of demos and a book of his art and everything that he got from those went straight into the album. When he announced this, he also stated that anyone who pledged a certain amount would be credited as an “Executive Producer” on this release, and sure enough, there’s a list of names who believed in this project.
I never should’ve doubted this given the time and effort Gira put in, and by the time this review comes out, I will have already see the group (which is happening September 30th), so you could ask me if it was worth it. I can say I’ll say yes.
OVERALL RATING – All the monster trucks in the world .
KEY TRACKS – “No Words/No Thoughts”, “My Birth”, “Inside Madeline”.
Within a few days, I had absorbed as much of their music as I could, but I also saw the growth and change of the band. Early to mid 80s were dark, abrasive, claustrophobic examples that proved music was able to change one’s outlook on life within 2 minutes of hearing a song called “Stay Here” or “I’ll Cry for You”. The late 80s were still kind of bleak, but a few questionable personnel choices left us with albums that were over-produced and just lacking in about everything that made the early ones great. The 90s were interesting and confusing at first, but in the end, produced worthwhile stuff. So how does Swans 2010 stack up?
Well, you won’t be confusing this with your (or my) copy of Filth or Greed anytime soon, but it is, hands down, one of the finest albums I’ve heard this year, regardless of genre or band or whatever other consideration you might throw at me. And I’ve only had this album for a few days as I write this. The music sounds like Swans and doesn’t sound like Swans. Gira’s voice isn’t the low growl we used to hear 27 years ago, but rather has more of a crooner thing going for it (those who’ve heard any Angels of Light will know what I mean) and the music, oh my gosh, THE MUSIC. It starts with “No Words/No Thoughts” which begins with some church bell sounds then 2 and a half minutes of unrestrained bashing of guitar chords and cymbals THEN the actual song comes in. It comes chugging around like the train that could, building momentum until it again erupts into a wall of glorious noise to only come back all the way down and then repeat and repeat again after a band-less verse. “Reeling the Liars In” has a hymn-like quality to it with an almost campfire sing-a-long chorus of “I’m reeling the liars in/the only true thing, the place to begin, is to burn up the liar pile…” Gira might have toned down the some of his lyrics, but danged if the meanings didn’t stay the same. “Jim” is another one that starts quiet enough and once again grabs the listener in a pulls into noise, complete with a mandolin on top. “My Birth” has all the volume and tempo you’d expect with this awesome high 2-note guitar line on the top of everything.
Going to side two, we have a duet with Devendra Banhart (who released his music on Young God) and Gira’s son on a track whose name I probably can’t put in The Penguin, but know that the song is almost beautiful and the contrast of the two voices works way better than anyone could have thought. It’s not novelty, it works. “Inside Madeline” is 4 minutes of growing crescendos and pounding rhythms until it almost all drops out and we have some violin and mandolin with vocals for the last 2 minutes. Usually, I’d say that this was an example of poor track sequencing or laziness, but it all comes together. “Eden Prison” is the one that people who have been checking out this album would know as it was the one free download floating around. Once again, solid, and if anything, it sounds better in the context of the album rather than being a standalone piece. And last is the ditty entitled “Little Mouth”, a quiet number with acoustic guitars and ending with another Gira vocal.
There are a lot of factors as to what makes this a great album. There’s a cracker-jack group of players that have all played in Swans or Angels before (I got really excited seeing Norman Westberg on guitar) and Gira just wrote 8 fantastic songs. He also produced the thing and was able to release it by selling and album of demos and a book of his art and everything that he got from those went straight into the album. When he announced this, he also stated that anyone who pledged a certain amount would be credited as an “Executive Producer” on this release, and sure enough, there’s a list of names who believed in this project.
I never should’ve doubted this given the time and effort Gira put in, and by the time this review comes out, I will have already see the group (which is happening September 30th), so you could ask me if it was worth it. I can say I’ll say yes.
OVERALL RATING – All the monster trucks in the world .
KEY TRACKS – “No Words/No Thoughts”, “My Birth”, “Inside Madeline”.
Pylon - Chomp
So I've got something on my mind before this AWESOME Pylon review.
However, I can't seem to write it, so just ask next time you see me if you're so inclined.
Here, Pylon got back from touring America and it shows in well, only the packaging (which is full of pics taking around the grand canyon or some place). Other than that, this still sounds like Athens, GA and it's marvelous. I might actually enjoy this one more than "Gyrate".
Here, Pylon sounds even more crazy. Sound effects during songs, Vanessa's vocal delivery is even sharper, there's a solo in "K" (a song about Scrabble) that just completely falls apart, but PERFECTLY. And "Crazy" is on here which R.E.M. covered a bunch (this version is better), and tons more stuff. Musically, it's tighter and more inventive - songs like "No Clocks" start off like near-perfect pop hits then do a complete 180 with even more snapping vocals and crazy guitar parts. "Spider" does this thing where it's one song, then another song, then towards the end, the first part comes in and the two parts of the song play AT THE SAME FRICKING TIME!
Have I ever talked about Pylon's lyrics? Man, where they crazy! Like little poems, so finely crafted. Even in the song "Gyrate" (which is on this album, not the album "Gyrate") we have the "2-4-6-8 Why do we gyrate? 1-1-2-3 we don't need a recipie ABCDEFGYRATE". like HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!
My only complaint with the whole album is that there's too much chorus effect on the guitars. Most of the time, it's fine, but other times, it just seems like Randy forgot to hit the pedal off and didn't want to re-record his parts.
I listened to this album almost everyday this summer while driving to and fro work (along w/ Scratch Acid and "The Real New Fall LP") and I couldn't get enough of it, STILL. And I got it in January.
The CD version has some bonus tracks, like "Crazy" (single version) alt. mixes of two other songs, and "Yo-Yo" with pitch shifted vox.
Just go buy it. Super cheap. Super rad. Super awesome.
OVERALL RATING - WHITE CASTLE
KEY TRACKS - Crazy, Altitude, Spider, Beep
However, I can't seem to write it, so just ask next time you see me if you're so inclined.
Here, Pylon got back from touring America and it shows in well, only the packaging (which is full of pics taking around the grand canyon or some place). Other than that, this still sounds like Athens, GA and it's marvelous. I might actually enjoy this one more than "Gyrate".
Here, Pylon sounds even more crazy. Sound effects during songs, Vanessa's vocal delivery is even sharper, there's a solo in "K" (a song about Scrabble) that just completely falls apart, but PERFECTLY. And "Crazy" is on here which R.E.M. covered a bunch (this version is better), and tons more stuff. Musically, it's tighter and more inventive - songs like "No Clocks" start off like near-perfect pop hits then do a complete 180 with even more snapping vocals and crazy guitar parts. "Spider" does this thing where it's one song, then another song, then towards the end, the first part comes in and the two parts of the song play AT THE SAME FRICKING TIME!
Have I ever talked about Pylon's lyrics? Man, where they crazy! Like little poems, so finely crafted. Even in the song "Gyrate" (which is on this album, not the album "Gyrate") we have the "2-4-6-8 Why do we gyrate? 1-1-2-3 we don't need a recipie ABCDEFGYRATE". like HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!
My only complaint with the whole album is that there's too much chorus effect on the guitars. Most of the time, it's fine, but other times, it just seems like Randy forgot to hit the pedal off and didn't want to re-record his parts.
I listened to this album almost everyday this summer while driving to and fro work (along w/ Scratch Acid and "The Real New Fall LP") and I couldn't get enough of it, STILL. And I got it in January.
The CD version has some bonus tracks, like "Crazy" (single version) alt. mixes of two other songs, and "Yo-Yo" with pitch shifted vox.
Just go buy it. Super cheap. Super rad. Super awesome.
OVERALL RATING - WHITE CASTLE
KEY TRACKS - Crazy, Altitude, Spider, Beep
Butthole Surfers - Psychic...Powerless...Another Man's Sac
So let's chat.
It's 2010.
Cool, we made it this far.
No, but Dude, Seriously.
WHAT A WACKY ALBUM!!!
Here, is probably, my FAVORITE Surfers release. Why? Well, it doesn't sound like them trying to rip off Hendrix (that'd come later). Instead, you got TWO drummers, one bassist, a guitar bro who makes a lot of cool noises and the singer-guy who shouts through a megaphone and sings like a good-to-honest REDNECK in some parts.
Honestly, these Texans created some of the damned finest noise since 1984. I mean, from "Eye of the Chicken" to "Negro Observer" (which has a sax solo!), to the surf-rock "Butthole Surfer", to the weird twisted southern fried blues of "Lady Sniff" skipping back a few to "Dum Dum" (great one to play bass with), to the over 6 minute "Cherub" (with megaphone!), to the just completely screwed up "Cowboy Bob".
I mean, it's a shame this band just sucks. 26 years ago, they released a fantastic album and haven't done anything worthwhile since 1987 or so.
OVERALL RATING - Sonic Drive-In
KEY TRACKS - Dum Dum, Lady Sniff, Eye of the Chicken,
It's 2010.
Cool, we made it this far.
No, but Dude, Seriously.
WHAT A WACKY ALBUM!!!
Here, is probably, my FAVORITE Surfers release. Why? Well, it doesn't sound like them trying to rip off Hendrix (that'd come later). Instead, you got TWO drummers, one bassist, a guitar bro who makes a lot of cool noises and the singer-guy who shouts through a megaphone and sings like a good-to-honest REDNECK in some parts.
Honestly, these Texans created some of the damned finest noise since 1984. I mean, from "Eye of the Chicken" to "Negro Observer" (which has a sax solo!), to the surf-rock "Butthole Surfer", to the weird twisted southern fried blues of "Lady Sniff" skipping back a few to "Dum Dum" (great one to play bass with), to the over 6 minute "Cherub" (with megaphone!), to the just completely screwed up "Cowboy Bob".
I mean, it's a shame this band just sucks. 26 years ago, they released a fantastic album and haven't done anything worthwhile since 1987 or so.
OVERALL RATING - Sonic Drive-In
KEY TRACKS - Dum Dum, Lady Sniff, Eye of the Chicken,
Sonic Youth - 4 Tunna Brix
What a terrible waste of my time.
The Fall (one of the greatest bands ever) gets covered by Sonic Youth in a 1988 Peel Session and it SUCKS.
The Fall aren't an easy band to cover, and Sonic Youth can't seem to do any cover without screwing the tunings up and Thurston yelling like a donkey for the rest of the EP. I mean, what the hell Sonic Youth? You have such good albums, then you crap all over the legacy of one of the finest bands around. And the song choice sucks too! 2 early singles, the Kinks cover and "My New House" that just sounds gah!
Terrible!
And what the hell? He's singing "Psycho Mafia" wrong! That's not even possible!
OVERALL RATING - Trash it.
KEY TRACKS - Rowche Rumble
The Fall (one of the greatest bands ever) gets covered by Sonic Youth in a 1988 Peel Session and it SUCKS.
The Fall aren't an easy band to cover, and Sonic Youth can't seem to do any cover without screwing the tunings up and Thurston yelling like a donkey for the rest of the EP. I mean, what the hell Sonic Youth? You have such good albums, then you crap all over the legacy of one of the finest bands around. And the song choice sucks too! 2 early singles, the Kinks cover and "My New House" that just sounds gah!
Terrible!
And what the hell? He's singing "Psycho Mafia" wrong! That's not even possible!
OVERALL RATING - Trash it.
KEY TRACKS - Rowche Rumble
Scratch Acid - Scratch Acid
In 1984, some record was released with a guy who hits his drums hard, a singer who just kinda yells, some wicked sounding guitar and a bassist that's all like "I play the bass, do do do, playin' de bassz". That was THIS RECORD.
Or probably some other ones.
There were some other records released then and
OK. ENOUGH OF THAT.
Really, you're here because you know that Yow and Sims would later form the Jesus Lizard, and Sims and Washam would form Rapeman before TJL, and the guitarist did something at some time. So, you gotta go back and hear their old band, and THEY ROCK.
Yow screams and grumbles and stumbles around these songs (sample lyric: "Hey, don't eat my brain/yer eatin' my brain/stop eatin' my brain!!!"). I mean, totes Poet Laurete? I concur! The guitarist here has some crazy riffs up his sleeves. Sims plays the bass like a good boy, and Rey is all like "HIT DRUMS HARD ALWAYS" and even wrote a string part for "Owner's Lament", that while kinda generic, still sounds cool.
As for the JAMZ, you got some rockers and some ZZ Top sounding crap. Like "El Espectro" is just a hard-rockin' FANDANGO! jam. And as much as I like "Lay Screaming", I don't care for the beginning. It just sounds like it's all "DARK EDGY INDUSTRIAL", but the rest of the song rules. "Monsters" is a screech feast that goes FAST FAST YELL!
But, yes, GREAT EP.
OVERALL RATING - Brick House
KEY TRACKS - Mess, Owner's Lament, Cannibal
Or probably some other ones.
There were some other records released then and
OK. ENOUGH OF THAT.
Really, you're here because you know that Yow and Sims would later form the Jesus Lizard, and Sims and Washam would form Rapeman before TJL, and the guitarist did something at some time. So, you gotta go back and hear their old band, and THEY ROCK.
Yow screams and grumbles and stumbles around these songs (sample lyric: "Hey, don't eat my brain/yer eatin' my brain/stop eatin' my brain!!!"). I mean, totes Poet Laurete? I concur! The guitarist here has some crazy riffs up his sleeves. Sims plays the bass like a good boy, and Rey is all like "HIT DRUMS HARD ALWAYS" and even wrote a string part for "Owner's Lament", that while kinda generic, still sounds cool.
As for the JAMZ, you got some rockers and some ZZ Top sounding crap. Like "El Espectro" is just a hard-rockin' FANDANGO! jam. And as much as I like "Lay Screaming", I don't care for the beginning. It just sounds like it's all "DARK EDGY INDUSTRIAL", but the rest of the song rules. "Monsters" is a screech feast that goes FAST FAST YELL!
But, yes, GREAT EP.
OVERALL RATING - Brick House
KEY TRACKS - Mess, Owner's Lament, Cannibal
Mission Of Burma - The Sound The Speed The Light
And MISSION OF BURMA is BACK with a new record that came out last October! And I wasn't even going to buy it, but the LP was only $13 the day I went to Newbury to buy "Yank Crime" and "Crooked Rain Crooked Rain" on LP, so how could I resist??
Let's be honest, you can't help but be skeptical when a band gets back together after their guitarist quit due to his broken ears. I mean, how can he hear those songs? How can he tell silly new jokes that he HASN'T heard since becoming not-deaf? I don't know.
Wow!
but hey, Really, Like I said,
slightly
skept-
ical.
But then, after a romp to the Boston Public Li(Bill)berry with Evan "Magic Toes" Allen, I saw they had "The Obliterati" which was the second MOB reunion LP. I checked it out, threw it on and was like "Wow, other than the album being over an hour long, this is solid". So here, we have this new thing.
I actually knew about this thing BEFORE it came out. When I saw Shellac for the first time last year, someone asked Bob when the new MOB album would be out and he said "October, and it has a TERRIBLE title, "The Sound The Speed The Light". There you have it! Bob Weston hates doing tape loops, the bastard! And when I saw Burma on Mission of Burma Day (Oct. 4th, my mother's birthday) in Cambridge at MIT fo' free, they played this entire album, but in reverse running order (WTF LOLLZZZZ). So there, I gave a root canal to Mayor Menininoiono.
But that's beside the point. - - - ). That ")" was also beside a point. ZING!
So the songs?
Most are good!
I mean, here, Roger writes the bulk (6), Peter (3) and Clint (2, co-writing a 3rd with Holly Anderson, the one that also wrote a jam on "ONoffON" and wrote with Conley on some other stuff). And what do we get? Well, Peter's songs are all like "bloom-da-bomal-crash" and double tracked hollered vocals like a demented football coach. Roger sounds like a "dumb football player" according to Mark Prindle, and Clint sounds like a woman (hence, cheerleader or sportscaster), and there's your 2010 CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS. But really, Clint doesn't sound like a woman, ok? He sounds totally normal. And his songs are great!
But so where were we? Ah yes. I mean, I listened to this album, but I "got" it on a Saturday morning in my dorm. It was one of the last ones and it was raining out. Prep school was going on so I had no real reason to want to get up and actually get out and do anything, so I woke up, but this album on, and then just sort of lied down, half-awake, half asleep and at some point, "After the Rain" came on and damned if I just didn't get up and get all frantic, trying to find out what song it was. I listened to it and the one after ("SSL 83"), and then listened to all of side 1 again, this time, fully awake and involved and I don't know why but this Burma got to me somehow. Of course I flipped to side 2 and finished it and over time my opinions have changed on some tracks, but this is the most consistent and strongest Burma LP since "Vs". They finally reigned it in by having a digestible 12 jams instead of 15 or 16 and Bob's tape loops are actually doing more than repeating vocals - they sound like an INSTRUMENT, DAMMIT!
Granted, some songs like "So Fuck It" are silly - I mean, is there any reason Roger Miller needs to be singing "I often wonder what I'm really worth/and I won't take shit from you or anyone else/so fuck it". I mean, who's giving Roger such guff? He's a self-employed composer or something and plays guitar in Burma and he's in his 50s and stuff. Guess that old rebellious spirit never dies, does it...
But on the whole, this album is full of fully written and wonderful sounding songs that are now part of Burma's show. So if you plan to see them live like I did 2/3 weeks ago, get to know this. Burma's back and it's time you took notice if you didn't already.
OVERALL RATING - Mark Ibold's smile.
KEY TRACKS - "After the Rain", "SSL 83", "Comes Undone" and maybe "Feed".
Let's be honest, you can't help but be skeptical when a band gets back together after their guitarist quit due to his broken ears. I mean, how can he hear those songs? How can he tell silly new jokes that he HASN'T heard since becoming not-deaf? I don't know.
Wow!
but hey, Really, Like I said,
slightly
skept-
ical.
But then, after a romp to the Boston Public Li(Bill)berry with Evan "Magic Toes" Allen, I saw they had "The Obliterati" which was the second MOB reunion LP. I checked it out, threw it on and was like "Wow, other than the album being over an hour long, this is solid". So here, we have this new thing.
I actually knew about this thing BEFORE it came out. When I saw Shellac for the first time last year, someone asked Bob when the new MOB album would be out and he said "October, and it has a TERRIBLE title, "The Sound The Speed The Light". There you have it! Bob Weston hates doing tape loops, the bastard! And when I saw Burma on Mission of Burma Day (Oct. 4th, my mother's birthday) in Cambridge at MIT fo' free, they played this entire album, but in reverse running order (WTF LOLLZZZZ). So there, I gave a root canal to Mayor Menininoiono.
But that's beside the point. - - - ). That ")" was also beside a point. ZING!
So the songs?
Most are good!
I mean, here, Roger writes the bulk (6), Peter (3) and Clint (2, co-writing a 3rd with Holly Anderson, the one that also wrote a jam on "ONoffON" and wrote with Conley on some other stuff). And what do we get? Well, Peter's songs are all like "bloom-da-bomal-crash" and double tracked hollered vocals like a demented football coach. Roger sounds like a "dumb football player" according to Mark Prindle, and Clint sounds like a woman (hence, cheerleader or sportscaster), and there's your 2010 CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS. But really, Clint doesn't sound like a woman, ok? He sounds totally normal. And his songs are great!
But so where were we? Ah yes. I mean, I listened to this album, but I "got" it on a Saturday morning in my dorm. It was one of the last ones and it was raining out. Prep school was going on so I had no real reason to want to get up and actually get out and do anything, so I woke up, but this album on, and then just sort of lied down, half-awake, half asleep and at some point, "After the Rain" came on and damned if I just didn't get up and get all frantic, trying to find out what song it was. I listened to it and the one after ("SSL 83"), and then listened to all of side 1 again, this time, fully awake and involved and I don't know why but this Burma got to me somehow. Of course I flipped to side 2 and finished it and over time my opinions have changed on some tracks, but this is the most consistent and strongest Burma LP since "Vs". They finally reigned it in by having a digestible 12 jams instead of 15 or 16 and Bob's tape loops are actually doing more than repeating vocals - they sound like an INSTRUMENT, DAMMIT!
Granted, some songs like "So Fuck It" are silly - I mean, is there any reason Roger Miller needs to be singing "I often wonder what I'm really worth/and I won't take shit from you or anyone else/so fuck it". I mean, who's giving Roger such guff? He's a self-employed composer or something and plays guitar in Burma and he's in his 50s and stuff. Guess that old rebellious spirit never dies, does it...
But on the whole, this album is full of fully written and wonderful sounding songs that are now part of Burma's show. So if you plan to see them live like I did 2/3 weeks ago, get to know this. Burma's back and it's time you took notice if you didn't already.
OVERALL RATING - Mark Ibold's smile.
KEY TRACKS - "After the Rain", "SSL 83", "Comes Undone" and maybe "Feed".
R.E.M. - Out Of Time
Second major label R.E.M. record and check it out:
It has:
Their biggest hit.
One of their more annoying songs.
A wonderful song w/ Mike Mills doing more of the lead vocal.
A bunch of crap.
I mean, I lurv me some R.E.M., I mean, I invented Michael Stipe. I went into Athens, GA and pushed him out of my skull and into a grade schooler's facial mold and he came out born an 8 year old bald-headed boy. But that's beside the point. Most of the songs seem NOT COMPLETED. NOT FINISHED. HALF-ASSED.
I mean, obviously there's a reason people like this album. It's because people don't listen to full albums anymore. I mean, you got "Losing My Religion", then skip to "Near Wild Heaven" the go past all the slow dirge-y boring garbage to "Shiny Happy People" and then turn off the CD and listen to "Full Moon Fever" by Tom Petty. Gah! And I love me some R.E.M., after all, I gave Bill Berry a root canal with my feet while he tried to record back-up vocals during this album. But enough about my past with William.
See, here, R.E.M. just doesn't seem to be trying. I mean, one this album, you've got vocal spots my KRS-One (of rap fame) and Kate Pierson (of B-52's fame), and then a bunch of strings and garbage. I mean, "Endgame"? Really? A 4 minute song with no lyrics other than "La-da-da-da-da" then a frickin' FLUTE coming in and mimicking that? What the hell?? Such utter garbage. Some poor excuse for being all "ethereal" and "expanding boundaries". At what point did Athens, GA become Athens, Greece and did Peter Buck turn into Yanni? I mean, I remember when I first showed Peter Buck how to bowl using a fake hand crafted from a longshoreman's peg leg, but that doesn't MATTER. or VELOCITY. or VELCIRAPTOR. Christ! This fargin' song is still going??????
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
"Half a World Away" sounds like a crappy "Swan Swan H", "Texarkana" is worthless and is showing the uptempo "Rockers" you'd find on such BANGING albums like "Reveal" and "Up", which sucks because Mills takes the vocals again! And I love Mike Mills! He's my favorite member of R.E.M. I mean, I remember when I taught Mike about listening to Beatles albums backwards to find hidden meanings like "Do LSD" and "Start a race war" (to my suprise, those messages were already ON the Beatles LPs, but playing them backwards was much more amusing to the peach-fuzzed Mills).
And "Belong"? A song with a bass riff with some mumbling from Stipe and then a chorus of only backing vocals? Not inventive, but rather, STUPID.
Christ, did they actually write any SONGS here??
Honestly, there isn't much to like here. These songs are more ideas rather than fully formed musical statements and honestly, if you're going to say that R.E.M. "peaked" with songs like "Losing My Religion", I'd have to say you're as wrong as school on Sunday - NO CLASS.
Wait, that didn't work there.
OVERALL RATING - GREAT! If you like 2 or 3 songs and 37 minutes of metaphorical crapping on a band's previous legacy.
KEY TRACKS - "Near Wild Heaven", "Low"
It has:
Their biggest hit.
One of their more annoying songs.
A wonderful song w/ Mike Mills doing more of the lead vocal.
A bunch of crap.
I mean, I lurv me some R.E.M., I mean, I invented Michael Stipe. I went into Athens, GA and pushed him out of my skull and into a grade schooler's facial mold and he came out born an 8 year old bald-headed boy. But that's beside the point. Most of the songs seem NOT COMPLETED. NOT FINISHED. HALF-ASSED.
I mean, obviously there's a reason people like this album. It's because people don't listen to full albums anymore. I mean, you got "Losing My Religion", then skip to "Near Wild Heaven" the go past all the slow dirge-y boring garbage to "Shiny Happy People" and then turn off the CD and listen to "Full Moon Fever" by Tom Petty. Gah! And I love me some R.E.M., after all, I gave Bill Berry a root canal with my feet while he tried to record back-up vocals during this album. But enough about my past with William.
See, here, R.E.M. just doesn't seem to be trying. I mean, one this album, you've got vocal spots my KRS-One (of rap fame) and Kate Pierson (of B-52's fame), and then a bunch of strings and garbage. I mean, "Endgame"? Really? A 4 minute song with no lyrics other than "La-da-da-da-da" then a frickin' FLUTE coming in and mimicking that? What the hell?? Such utter garbage. Some poor excuse for being all "ethereal" and "expanding boundaries". At what point did Athens, GA become Athens, Greece and did Peter Buck turn into Yanni? I mean, I remember when I first showed Peter Buck how to bowl using a fake hand crafted from a longshoreman's peg leg, but that doesn't MATTER. or VELOCITY. or VELCIRAPTOR. Christ! This fargin' song is still going??????
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
"Half a World Away" sounds like a crappy "Swan Swan H", "Texarkana" is worthless and is showing the uptempo "Rockers" you'd find on such BANGING albums like "Reveal" and "Up", which sucks because Mills takes the vocals again! And I love Mike Mills! He's my favorite member of R.E.M. I mean, I remember when I taught Mike about listening to Beatles albums backwards to find hidden meanings like "Do LSD" and "Start a race war" (to my suprise, those messages were already ON the Beatles LPs, but playing them backwards was much more amusing to the peach-fuzzed Mills).
And "Belong"? A song with a bass riff with some mumbling from Stipe and then a chorus of only backing vocals? Not inventive, but rather, STUPID.
Christ, did they actually write any SONGS here??
Honestly, there isn't much to like here. These songs are more ideas rather than fully formed musical statements and honestly, if you're going to say that R.E.M. "peaked" with songs like "Losing My Religion", I'd have to say you're as wrong as school on Sunday - NO CLASS.
Wait, that didn't work there.
OVERALL RATING - GREAT! If you like 2 or 3 songs and 37 minutes of metaphorical crapping on a band's previous legacy.
KEY TRACKS - "Near Wild Heaven", "Low"
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Hi! I'm Radiohead!
In 2005, I was in a bad place. My last album wasn't very good, and the one before it was kinda "meh", and I knew it! But, I still released it. Why? Because I've got little Radiohead's running around to feed. But in 2005, I didn't know what to do. I knew that my best work was behind me (my "Kid A"), and it was too easy to tread upon the same electronic crap I'd been doing for the past few years. I mean, even Mark E. Smith knew that the techno stuff had to go at some point. So I decided that I needed more guitars. But after deciding that, I had the first song be a drum thing with some light fingerpickin' goodness just to show "Hey, who says you can't teach an old Radiohead new tricks?". I corrected myself and said "Well, we need a ROCKER!" so there's that song. Then I said "Man, I've been paying this song "Nude" since 1997, I might as well record it", so I did. And bam! It's there. But honestly, I feel the finest work comes with tracks 4-8. I mean, it's on there that I create the mood of the album and introduce cool sounds all up in the joint with this strangely weird atmosphere of it feeling warm but distant, LIKE A RAINBOW IN THE DARK! LOLZZZZZ.
I mean, I sing real good on those numbers and my drumming is all like "doom-dippity=bloosh!" with actual guitar in this joint! I also did some cool sounding backing vocals in there that are all like "oooooh yeaaaeaahh" and some lyrics that sound like "my mah ne hi man, house of cards, eergaahhhhhh oooo sspllosss ka". After that 4 song tour de forks, there's only 2 left. Some little rockin' ditty that's all tight and blows up in your face like a puffer fish. When I called it an end this time, I just took some piano chords and simple drum beat and my singing voice and finished the song. And I think it's quite nice. Subdued? Yessirs. But that's the idea of the joint.
So, as a growing, balding Radiohead, I've tried hard to give you a product that costs nothing and I have to say, is my second best musical attempt.
OVERALL RATING - Yeah, we know.
KEY TRACKS - Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, All I Need, Faust Arp
In 2005, I was in a bad place. My last album wasn't very good, and the one before it was kinda "meh", and I knew it! But, I still released it. Why? Because I've got little Radiohead's running around to feed. But in 2005, I didn't know what to do. I knew that my best work was behind me (my "Kid A"), and it was too easy to tread upon the same electronic crap I'd been doing for the past few years. I mean, even Mark E. Smith knew that the techno stuff had to go at some point. So I decided that I needed more guitars. But after deciding that, I had the first song be a drum thing with some light fingerpickin' goodness just to show "Hey, who says you can't teach an old Radiohead new tricks?". I corrected myself and said "Well, we need a ROCKER!" so there's that song. Then I said "Man, I've been paying this song "Nude" since 1997, I might as well record it", so I did. And bam! It's there. But honestly, I feel the finest work comes with tracks 4-8. I mean, it's on there that I create the mood of the album and introduce cool sounds all up in the joint with this strangely weird atmosphere of it feeling warm but distant, LIKE A RAINBOW IN THE DARK! LOLZZZZZ.
I mean, I sing real good on those numbers and my drumming is all like "doom-dippity=bloosh!" with actual guitar in this joint! I also did some cool sounding backing vocals in there that are all like "oooooh yeaaaeaahh" and some lyrics that sound like "my mah ne hi man, house of cards, eergaahhhhhh oooo sspllosss ka". After that 4 song tour de forks, there's only 2 left. Some little rockin' ditty that's all tight and blows up in your face like a puffer fish. When I called it an end this time, I just took some piano chords and simple drum beat and my singing voice and finished the song. And I think it's quite nice. Subdued? Yessirs. But that's the idea of the joint.
So, as a growing, balding Radiohead, I've tried hard to give you a product that costs nothing and I have to say, is my second best musical attempt.
OVERALL RATING - Yeah, we know.
KEY TRACKS - Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, All I Need, Faust Arp
R.E.M. - Fables Of The Reconstruction (25th Anniversary Edition)
R.E.M.'s Murmur and Reckoning are both undisputed classics. The material is all strong, the production perfect for the music - it's the sound of a young band with an already strong footing in what they want to do and doing it almost too well. So, what do you do to avoid making the same album again? You leave the country, work with a new producer and start with an almost fresh palate of songs that haven't been rehearsed for years. This is what R.E.M. had to do with Fables of the Reconstruction.
Granted, nowadays, reviews looking back on it have been generally positive, but imagine a semi-R.E.M. fan in 1985 and listening to this for the first time. The first two songs are slow. Unbelieavably slow for an R.E.M. song. Say you made it past the first two, then you had a single about riding on a train, another fast tune, then one more slow one that seems to go on forever. I imagine most folks maybe gave through one pass of side two and then never pulled it out again. It's no suprise that in most used record stores, you can find near mint vinyl copies of this for dirt cheap. It also doesn't help that drummer Bill Berry was once quoted as saying that the album "sucked".
So how do you get semi-R.E.M. fan to re-purchase this album he or she didn't care for? Offer a disc of bonus demos of the whole album, including 3 "bonus" tracks (early recordings of "Hyena" from Lifes Rich Pageant and "Bandwagon", a b-side to pop up on Dead Letter Office and some other "unheard" track called "Throw Those Trolls Away"), postcards of the band members (literally the pictures on the album cover), a poster, and a page of liner notes from Peter Buck. If they bite, they'll see what a great album they missed.
In his liner notes, Buck describes Fables as "a doomy, psycho record, dense and atmospheric", and he's right (he should be, he plays on it!). It's an album full of new territory for the band, with lyrical inspiration coming from stories of the south while progressing out of the Byrds-like progressions and arpeggiations we all grew to love. I mean, the first song has a string section, "Cant Get There From Here" has horns. In some ways, this, while being a dark and at times, murky album, also acts as their most polished. There are times in songs like "Green Grow the Rushes" where within the music, you feel as if you're whisked away to where this song is supposed to take place. "Life and How to Live It" is a fast paced tune propelled by Bill Berry's drumming and what sounds like a vocal that just goes "Ohhhhhhh!" during the chorus that sounds like R.E.M. while breaking new ground for themselves.
The last two R.E.M. reissues I didn't get too excited about - I already owned Murmur and Reckoning, and the extra material were just some live concerts - but when I read about this, I got giddy with excitement. An album that I've listened to a lot since the day I've heard it, complete with demos! How could I resist? The demos were all recorded in one day and add to the mythology that surrounds the album. The band has said that they went into the studio "unprepared" but this document proves them wrong. Sure, the songs got polished and a little more refined, but on this, you hear a band in their rawest state, which is pretty great considering it feels like a raw album to begin with. The remaster of the original sounds great as well. Certain little things like vibra-slap hits and extra string parts creep out of nowhere and add to the strange and exciting sonic world that Fables created for its listeners.
OVERALL RATING - Gelato and bowling.
KEY TRACKS - "Green Grow the Rushes", "Maps and Legends", "Good Advices".
Devo - Something For Everybody
The year is 2010.
To be honest, the state of popular music is dismal at best. Folks like Lady Gaga are headlining Lollapalooza while Eminem's "Love the Way You Lie" is topping the Billboard charts in the categories of the Hot 100, Digital Songs, and Ringtones. In some way, this seems strange that Devo has released an album some 20 years after their last (and universally un-acclaimed), Smooth Noodle Maps. Then again, maybe it's the perfect time for a new Devo album.
Anyone familiar with Devo is aware of the concept of "de-evolution", and in some ways, it could be aruged that some 30 years ago, they were seeing the future. The popular music now - filled with rudimentary beats, lackluster lyrics, clumsily thrown around melodies and mispelled titles - seems to be a decline from the popular music even 15 years ago, where the music wasn't exactly challenging to begn with. Devo, with their history of attacking the commercial culture that their music was a part of, has attempted to release an album filled with songs that please their audience, attract new fans, and critique this day and age while secretly blending in with it.
Anyone unwrapping the CD or LP from the shrinkwrap will notice stickers that say "88% Focus Group Approved" and slightly chuckle, not knowing this was actually the case. The tracklisting was determined by a "Song Study" held where Devo fans voted on the songs, picking from 16 and only being able to choose 12. Devo would later add 3 others, and when you do the math, you get 88%. This, coupled with the previous videos (most satirical) of fake focus group testing approving the new Devo "Energy Dome" color (for those unaware, those are the flower pot lookin' things they were ((for those curious they went from red to blue)). This way, Devo was able to drum up publicity for the album while giving the fans some control over the finish project (folks might remember Rivers Cuomo doing this for a Weezer album - the idea later got scrapped).
So, with some much emphasis on the presentation, the marketing and everything else, how is the music? Well, it sounds like Devo in 2010, which can be a mixed blessing. Much like Funplex by the B-52's, there's a sense of trying to hold on to the past, while embracing the technology of the future. Yes, there are synths all over the album, but there's also guitar - probably about the same balance as one would hear on Freedom of Choice. The production is slick, everything is LOUD and there were a few different engineers and producers having their hands in this. But it's Devo. It kind of works.
The music, while not rocking out in 7/4 or repeating chants for 4 minutes that some embrace and alienate others, is uptempo, catchy and to the point. It sounds like the second best dance party of 2010. "But wait!", you the reader might be thinking. "Didn't you just blast popular uptempo music with a straight 4/4 beat and no substance to it!", well yes, yes I did. I can't speak for Lady Gaga, but since the lyrical genius of "pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-poker face" has yet to put down the lyric "al-Qaeda and the Taliban/fundamentally out of hand/I keep trying to turn it all around/but the New World Order wants to take me down" and make it singable, I'll stick with these guys. The lyrics are rife with even more references to popular culture; "Don't Shoot (I'm A Man)" has a chorus of "don't taze me bro!", "No Place Like Home" is clearly lifted from The Wizard of Oz and is fitting given the parallels of the technicolor film to the vibrant musical world they've cleary strived at creating. And it's all over in some 38 minutes.
Given that 4 of the 5 members are the same folks that were re-working "Satisfaction" back in 1977 (session drummer Josh Freese has since become a full member of the band), it's fantastic that they still have this creative energy going. Whether this will turn out to be another great 21st century reunion like Mission of Burma, or a lackluster cash-in like the Butthole Surfers is still up in the air, but here's to hoping that this isn't the last we've heard of those boys from Akron, Ohio.
OVERALL RATING - I'd say 78% NM approved, +/- 10% given my mood, diet and holiday season.
KEY TRACKS - "Fresh", "Sumthin'", "Don't Shoot (I'm a Man)"
LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
Years ago, back when you were busy clapping chalk erasers together, I was up until the hours of the nite, the later ones, and listening to such FINE and FORWARD THINKING bands such as 6 Finger Satellite. Around that time, this sideways man above these letters was running sound for them. He later started a label and a dance-y doohick band that goes "bloop bloop bleep bleep boom boom chk boom boom chk chk chk chk crash!" or something. Ok.
So this is the 3rd LCD album, and boy, is it long! I mean, 9 songs and it's 65 minutes long. Of course by now you've heard "Drunk Girls" on XRT, and what with it's 3.45 time and fast tempo, it fits. But after that, the second shortest song is 5.54! Maybe James or whatever his name needs to work on quality control, because most people here won't make it through the first 3 songs. "Dance Yrself Clean" is great but gets repetitive as does "One Touch". And it's a damn shame that people will zone out after the first 20 minutes, because track 4 is AASEOME! It's called "All I Want" and its this little pop beat with this 2 note guitar line and it just chugs along and is so darln catchy! Like the swine flu! Max thinks it's too poppy, but he's a silly goose.
"I Can Change" just sounds kinda "meh". Not too crazy, the synths in the beginning throw me off. "You Wanted a Hit" is a 9+ minute dance beat with lyrics about record labels wanting hit songs, but the beginning sounds like Kraftwerk! YAY! GERMAN SYNTH MUSIC BY NIHILISTS! Oh! and there's that next one "Pow Pow", which quotes "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood with slightly stream of thought lyrics, but is pretty sweet. But once again, 9 minutes with little variation. "Somebody's Calling Me" is some flippidy slow thing that feels excruciatingly long as its 7 minutes long of "duh duh duh do-dahhhhhhh". The last track "Home" is great stuffs.
Let me make a statement here:
LCD Soundsystem in songs like "Home" and "All I Want" makes the music U2 wants to make these days - dancey, modern and an opportunity for Bono to stretch his voice. Maybe that's why I like these songs, because I like U2 when they write good songs.
But I'm goofballs for coconut jazz!
OVERALL RATING - Greg Kot's toe, painted by Jim.
KEY TRACKS - Home, All I Want, Dance Yrself Clean, Pow Pow
Thursday, July 15, 2010
LOU REED - METAL MACHINE MUSIC
So Beth McDonaaroooa sends me this link of John Oliver talking about this concert Lou Reed did called "Music for Dogs" with his wife, Laurie Anderson. I also thought that tonite would be a good time to talk about "Metal Machine Music".
This album is an hour of recorded feedback looped and played at various speeds. It never lets up (other than the few seconds between each track), and it might be my second favorite Lou Reed-related recording.
The sounds that come out here are just pure, unadulterated noise. Noise that sends family flying, eardrums bleeding, speakers shaking, wife's leaving and many many more. There's no rhythm, there's no melody, there's just oscillating noise for an hour (4 tracks, all about 15-16 minutes long).
To go with the topic of the Oliver bit, here's how Cabo (my dog) reacts to this album as I sit downstairs with her:
Part I - sleeping on fireplace, halfway through gets up, goes to sleep in living room, further away from me and the computer.
Part II - Cabo jumps on my lap, and begins licking my face while stopping my hand with her paw as I try to start writing this email. Eventually gives up, goes to lie down in the dining room. Now back on fireplace. (for those who don't know, the fireplace is two-way - one side is on the kitchen where I am, the other on the living room).
Part III - Still lying there. Eventually, I stood up while contemplating to get a piece of cake and she got up, ran to me, and looked at me while trying to jump on the counter, with a face that says "make it stop, please?". Now lying near the fridge.
Part IV - After the 4 seconds of silence in-between tracks, it kicks off, sounding just like the first 3 and Cabo looks at me like "JESUS CHRIST!". After this, just lies there and doesn't move until after it's stopped.
In other words, FANTASTIC ALBUM! "IV" ends with a locked groove and sounds like the dentist, and the other 3 are layers of sound that just keep going and going. Now to listen to "4'33"" for an hour...
OVERALL RATING - FREE SLURPEES!
KEY TRACKS - THE WHOLE THING
THE FLAMING LIPS - YOSHIMI BATTLES THE PINK ROBOTS
More like "Neal Battles The Urge To Not Fall Asleep While Listening to this Album"!!!
I mean, seriously! C'mon! What's all this dippy crap with the same beat, crappy Eno wannabe production, and whispered Wayne Coyne vocals! I mean, yes, you could argue that "Yoshimi Battles pt. 2" isn't any of this - but it sucks! It sounds like some guys trying to play funk under a bunch of sound effects of bubbles. WHY? the only redeming part of this is Yoshimi from the Boredoms screaming during the track.
I remember the first time I listened to this album - it was late, I was in my dorm, and like I would be for the rest of the year, I was sans-roommate. So on nites like this, I would just let music play and not wear headphones. And I got through the first song and figured I'd go to bed. Then the second song came on and that little instrumental part at the end happened, and it felt like it went on for 3 hours. Really, its about 80 seconds, but what the hell?! I don't want to hear guitar strumming and sound effects from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" - I want to hear Wayne Coyne ripping off the Butthole Surfers, trying to sing about Jesus, Michael Ivins to be CLEAN SHAVEN and WEARING SUNGLASSES, and well, I'd prefer it Drozd stayed off the heroin, for his own life, wife and child. BUT MAKE BETTER MUSIC!
Not to say it's all terrible - "Fight Test", "Yoshimi pt. 1" and "Do You Realize??" are all great pop songs. But most of the album sounds like easy listening Lips. And why? I don't know! That's why I'm asking YOU! Why, Oriana Dunlop, does this album bore me? Why, Joelle Wagner, is this a great album to sleep to, only to awake in a friends pool of dead animals? Why, John Gargiulo begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting, don't we watch "Family Feud" together? We could be good at it!
And honestly, the teaming up of a drum set and drum machine has been done before - just ask Pat Byrne and Roland.
OVERALL RATING - overrated rat sandwich.
KEY TRACKS - "Do You Realize??", "Yoshimi Pt. 1", the last instrumental track, mainly for the trumpet. all brass, some class, mowin' the grass.
MOS DEF - THE ECSTATIC
I'm gonna be honest - I don't listen to much rap. It's not that I don't like it, but oftentimes, I feel like the people that I might be around that listen to it, listen to it for novelty. I mean, there's only so much "Straight Outta Compton" I can hear with a bunch of punk rocker guys and not feel strange. Really, are most 11 year olds at Channahon Junior High toting copies of "36 Chambers" really LISTENING, or are they just going "HAHA! He said bitch!" or "All the songs are about KARATE or something". But there is some good stuff, and I'm glad to say that this Mos Def album is pretty great.
First off - Madlib produced 4 of the tracks! And remember how much I liked Madvillian? A lot! (Thanks again Seth Kaplan) J Dilla also did one other, but he's dead now (too many DONUTS!), along with some others I don't know - but Garret might. He can't stop listening to "The Dream"!
Really, here's what happens with the album - the first track is just, in all honesty, kick ass. The sampled guitar riff just fits the song perfectly and it's one of those where you are toe tapping or smacking puppies with a baseball bat. Then the 2nd track is this little ditty thing with a marimba thing and then it leads into the first Madlib track which is just like ARGHHHHH! AND THERE'S A VIBRA-SLAP! LIKE A VIBRA SLAP! IASDKNfafjd,fsdmfdjn jhjkgh hbhbhbh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111
"Quiet Dog" is solid with all kinds of percussions, but I'm not feeling "Life in Marvelous Times". "Pistola" is a jam! "Workers Comp" samples Marvin Gaye and gets better as it goes on. Oh! "Roses" has female vocals! "History" is the J Dilla track...and "Casa Bey" is a party! So much stuff! 400 MOS DEFS! ARSON! WEDDINGS! EAR PLUGS!
OVERALL RATING - worth your time, if you have any left!
KEY TRACKS - "Casa Bey", "Pistola", "Supermagic", "Auditorium"
JOY DIVISION - SUBSTANCE
Oh Joy Division, how I truly love and hate you.
I love you because you write songs that encapsulate so many moods at once - isolation, excitement, fear, worry, joyfulness.
I hate you because some of your songs sound like Ian Curtis singing 4 octaves too low while the rest of the band plays crap that's way too atmospheric and plodding to be enjoyed by anyone other than those that are clinically depressed.
So that's why I kinda like "Substance" - it's a compilation focusing mainly on the singles and none of that boring crap that stunk up chunks of "Unknown Lesions" and "Closer (to Me, by the Cure)".
It starts off with "Warsaw", their first little single thing - Ian sounds like a snotty little Mick Jagger-type repeating "3-1-G!" (where the label would get their name from), then "Leaders of Men" - WHAT? This doesn't even sound like Ian! Where's the synths?! Who cares?! Then "Digital", where Ian hit puberty, discovered his lower voice, developed epilepsy, and did silly dances - but it's a great song! Oh, crap, I lied - there IS slow boring crap - just listen to "Autosuggestion" - 6 minutes of ;< span>>hippidy doops. Oooh! But then there's "Transmission" - DANCE DANCE DANCE TO THE RADIO!!! Too bad this song ain't on the radio, but then again, if it was, I'd crash my car doing my Ian Curtis dancing impression.
I really feel bad - there's 4 other people in the band - Peter Hook on high-register bass, drummer Stephen Morris, guitar/synth MAN Bernard Sumner, and Martin Hannett on cocaine and recordings. And they can play their instruments!
Then, "She's Lost Control" in a different recording from "Unknown Erasers", then some pop thing called "Incubation", the "classic" "Dead Souls", pre-dating U2 ambient pop song "Atmosphere" which is actually kinda nice (in the parts without vocals), then "Love Will Tear Us Apart" - which despite all of it's hype, is actually worth it. The CD version has a whopping 7 more tracks - but to be honest, I don't really listen to them - it's silly to try to put more songs like this on a close to perfect (for Joy Division, anyway) album. But they aren't terrible, and might be worth your time - Me, I'll stick to crying while listening to "Atmosphere"...
OVERALL RATING - Dave Riley's weird eyebrows.
KEY TRACKS - "Digital", "Love Will Tear Us Apart", "Transmission"
SLINT - SPIDERLAND
What exactly am I gonna say about "Spiderland" that hasn't been already said?
Well, it was released on March 27, 1991. 18 years TO THE DAY later, I'd be doing my senior recital...on that day, Albert Oppenheimer would be turning 4 (if i'm correct)...
I'm not gonna lie - I got this album kind of late. It was probably junior year of high school...and while I thought it was fantastic, it didn't blow me away at the time. This whole idea of "loud-quiet-loud" instrumental passage crap was nothing new to me. Granted, I heard the lesser imitators of Slint, but still, one hears this album and they think the Earth shakes, the ground moves, the clouds part, Ray Liotta gets dentures, whatever - and for me, it's just a solid rock album.
Granted, I could go into the songs lyrical matter, but all I know about that is what I've read in other reviews. To be honest, I really don't care that "Good Morning, Captain" is based off of "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", or "Breadcrumb Trail" is about a fortune teller in a tornado, or even that "Nosferatu Man" is about the guy who was in that movie that Tortoise scored once. For me, there's key lyrics that stand out: "wash yourself in your tears/build your church/on the strength of your fear", "we said goodbye to the ground", "I MISS YOU!!" - and those aren't even GOOD lyrics - it's all within Brian McMahan or Britt Walford (depending on the song)'s delivery.
The music itself is solid - quiet stuff, LOUD stuff, stuff with time signatures (HUGE in the world of MATH ROCK LOLLOLLOLLOLZZZZZZ), and really great sounding drums. There's even a song without drums, and then another song without words (which seems to always be building up, but never exploding in your face like a pressure cooker on Christmas), and most of the words aren't sung, they are talked or screamed. It's like living with Ray Liotta.
I've been living with Ray Liotta for weeks now. I swear, he needs new dentures.
And to be honest, there are times I don't listen to the whole album - I mean, if I'm driving, I don't want to hear the six and a half minutes of "Don, Aman" - all 390 seconds of "Don stepped outside, it felt good to be alone" in a whisper with some guitar strumming. But perhaps this isn't a driving album...then again, it's pretty great to listen to "Breadcrumb Trail" or "Good Morning, Captain" because those songs are great.
OVERALL RATING - Santiago Durango's glasses.
KEY TRACKS - "Good Morning, Captain", "Breadcrumb Trail", "Washer"
BEAT HAPPENING - JAMBOREE
Beat Happening is a band I feel strange about.
Here's why:
A) songs like "Indian Summer", "Bewitched", "Drive Car Girl" and "In Between" are pretty close to perfect pop songs.
B) songs like "Ask Me", "The This Many Boyfriends Club" and "Jamboree" sound like a bunch of cocky non-musicians that are acting like 4 year old morons yelling and clapping out of time with lyrics like "I love you like a chocolate cake....but we both know that your my dream date!" over a tambourine and drum stick clicking for 63 seconds.
C) Calvin Johnson seems like an arrogant pervert who liked having pajama parties when he was 26 years old and writing lyrics like "Lori Lori what's the story?/Why do the boys think that you're so whore-y?".
D) On that same song, it's just guitar feedback for 3 minutes, which is pretty cool.
E) Calvin Johnson also feels like Ian Curtis by singing in a voice that is uncomfortably low, out of tune, and at times, stupid sounding (which was probably the goal).
F) The sparse nature of the songs serves them well.
G) Michael Azerrad clearly has a man-crush on Calvin.
H) There are two other people in the band - Heather and Bret.
I) There are times I love this album.
J) There are times I HATE this album.
K) Right now, I'm impartial.
OVERALL RATING - AWESSSSOOOTERRIBLLLEEEYYGREAT!
KEY TRACKS - "Crashing Through", "Indian Summer", "In Between".
LOVE TRACTOR - LOVE TRACTOR
Love Tractor is a band from a mystical land called "Athens, Georgia" - where people danced in backyards, ate barbecue, and formed bands like R.E.M. and Pylon. This here, their first album is 11 songs of purely instrumental, guitar driven hoopladashery. Some songs have a keyboard and others have a sax in there, but other than that, expect drums, guitars, and a bass guitar (note: bass guitar is a different instrument than a regular guitar - please consult the wikipedia article HERE for more information).
The guitars are all chime-y and the drums are just a constant dance beat that you can bop your head to or do the Peanuts dance to like I would (see example HERE). After a while, it's easy to confuse some songs with others, but since they are all fairly good, that's not a problem. There's also some whistling. As one listens more and more, it seems like the musick begins to grow (for a picture of music growing, click HERE). Err, something. Also, Bill Berry used to drum for them before this album. And the Feelies cover "Fun to be Happy" live sometimes...
So, what's the story?
Well, when I was in high school, I had this thing called the "Documentary Channel" and it was there I first heard the Pixies (in the doc. "Gouge") and then I saw one called "Athens, GA Inside/Out" where the description said "Profiles of early 80's rock scene in Athens. Featuring R.E.M. and B-52's" or something - so I watched it! And man, was it something! There was those two bands, Pylon and this band. There were a lot more, but I can't remember them. And I remember thinking "This Love Tractor band is kinda cool". Flash forward to this past March...after having some $43 in iTunes credit, I decided to buy an album and I thought of these guys because I bought some Pylon during winter break and that was awesome and I was probably listening to "Fables of the Reconstruction" a lot and crying while trying to figure out to do with the pile of dead birds in my 2nd closet in my dorm. So I bought it and thought "Man, this is cool"...Flash forward to today...I bought some stuff from Amazon this morning, including the "Athens GA" documentary and I listened to this while driving to Lil' Cher's Pist practice with Maques Stolarts, JB Holmesskillet and Davey "Crocker Pollard" Minnice. So I thought to review it.
OVERALL RATING - better than HARRY POTTER!
KEY TRACKS - Fun to Be Happy, Seventeen Days, Buy Me a Million Dollars
SHELLAC - LIVE IN TOKYO
Here's one for ya!
(grabs fish out of dog's mouth and hits it with a rake repeatdly)
Shellac of North America (feat. Stiveersea Albino, Robert Weston (of Fleetwood Mac) and Todd "Rifle Flour Dog" Trainer) recorded this in late 1993, MONTHS before "At Action Park" was released - so here's what you got - the entire "Rude Gesture" and "Uranus" singles and some choice cuts from "At Action Park". And the band sounds ON FIRE, mainly because Todd was smoking before a show and his mullet got singed. Honestly, this is a quite fine live recording. Most reviews I've read complain about Steve's vocals being too low (mainly due to mic trouble in the first three songs) but also the drums seem to lack the kick (no pun intended, actually it TOTALLY WAS! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! YUPPIE SCUM!) they do in the studio recordings. Also, Steve screams a lot more. And Bob doesn't sing lead on ANY of these songs! WHY NO BOB?! "Wingwalker" is stretched out for over 8 minutes, including a breakdown that goes like this:
"it shines like a forehead.
"
forget it, i'm not transcribing 3 minutes of him yelling about airplanes, but it's worth it. There's also lot's of funny banter, but I've got things to do.
Oh, and they do "Boche's Dick", but sans vocals.
All-in-all, a fine release from "Chicago big sound leaders SHELLAC".
OVERALL RATING - jimmy johns!
KEY TRACKS - Wingwalker, Billiard Player Song, Crow
THE BOTTLE ROCKETS - THE BROOKLYN SIDE
So yesterday, I was singing the lyrics to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and I switched the last line to "And let me introduce to you, the one and only Billy Mays". So here's a lyrical re-write of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "With a Little Help From My Friends".
"It was about a year ago today,
Mr. Mays went on a plane
It was bouncin' for a while,
But he still kept a smile
Then his faced done turned to red,
as a suitcase hit is head
Mighty Mend-It, Grip Wrench, Awesome Auger!
It's a Mighty Mend-It, Grip Wrench, Awesome Auger
We hope you like orange glo
It's a Mighty Mend-It, Grip Wrench, Awesome Auger
Grab your Zorbeez and let's go.
Mighty Mend-It, Grip Wrench
Mighty Mend-It, Grip Wrench
Mighty Mend-It, Grip Wrench, Awesome Auger
It's wonderful to pitch here,
it's ain't no mini-grill
It's such a lovely audience,
you've got to try my hercules hook, you've got to try my hook!
I'm not really gonna stop and show,
All the times I've drank Orange Glo,
But please don't think I'm wrong,
The Grater Plater's pretty raw,
So let me introduce to you,
The one and only Billy Mays!
Mighty Mend-It, Grip Wrench Awesome Auger!!!!
BIIIIIILYYYYY MAAAAAYS!
What would you do if I stained your new suit,
would you stand up and put Shout on it for me?
Lend me your ears and I'll pitch you a solvent,
and I promise that shipping is free
ohhh I get by with my Flies Away,
ohhh I get high not from my Flies Away,
I'm gonna try, gonna try to get by with my Flies Away.
Do you need anybody?
I just need an Anthony Sul -
Could it be anybody?
I just need my Anthony Sul -
What do I do when the dirt is away?
(it scares me when the kaboom doesn't work)
How do I feel when the grime is away?
(i love when i can use my Turbo Tiger)
ohhh I get by with my Flies Away,
ohhh I get high not from my Flies Away,
I'm gonna try, gonna try to get by with my Flies Away.
Do you need anybody?
I just need an Anthony Sul -
Could it be anybody?
I just need my Anthony Sul -
Would you believe it cleans at first wipe?
Yes, I've seen it happen all the time.
What do you do if you clap out the light?
Go to sleep crying and alone...
ohhh I get by with my Flies Away,
ohhh I get high not from my Flies Away,
I'm gonna try, gonna try to get by with my Flies Away.
Do you need anybody?
I just need an Anthony Sul -
Could it be anybody?
I just need my Anthony Sul -
ohhh I get by with my Flies Away,
ohhh I get high not from my Flies Away,
I'm gonna try, gonna try to get by with my Flies Away.
Oh I get rid of those bugs, get rid of those bugs with my Flies Awaaaaaay!
This Bottle Rockets album is 51 minutes of semi-southern fried blues rock.
To be honest, I'm kind of impartial to it right now - some songs are good, some are better. None of the album is terrible, but after a while the singer's voice starts to wear on me - as does the whole "We're from Middle America and proud dammit! Help me load my Ford". And why does the beginning of "Radar Gun" sound like it could be a Foo Fighters song with some redneck singing?
Ballads of $1000 cars, women and dead trash cans.
OVERALL RATING - hey, I'm not getting paid here!
KEY TRACKS - Gravity Fails, Thousand Dollar Car, Sunday Sports
"It was about a year ago today,
Mr. Mays went on a plane
It was bouncin' for a while,
But he still kept a smile
Then his faced done turned to red,
as a suitcase hit is head
Mighty Mend-It, Grip Wrench, Awesome Auger!
It's a Mighty Mend-It, Grip Wrench, Awesome Auger
We hope you like orange glo
It's a Mighty Mend-It, Grip Wrench, Awesome Auger
Grab your Zorbeez and let's go.
Mighty Mend-It, Grip Wrench
Mighty Mend-It, Grip Wrench
Mighty Mend-It, Grip Wrench, Awesome Auger
It's wonderful to pitch here,
it's ain't no mini-grill
It's such a lovely audience,
you've got to try my hercules hook, you've got to try my hook!
I'm not really gonna stop and show,
All the times I've drank Orange Glo,
But please don't think I'm wrong,
The Grater Plater's pretty raw,
So let me introduce to you,
The one and only Billy Mays!
Mighty Mend-It, Grip Wrench Awesome Auger!!!!
BIIIIIILYYYYY MAAAAAYS!
What would you do if I stained your new suit,
would you stand up and put Shout on it for me?
Lend me your ears and I'll pitch you a solvent,
and I promise that shipping is free
ohhh I get by with my Flies Away,
ohhh I get high not from my Flies Away,
I'm gonna try, gonna try to get by with my Flies Away.
Do you need anybody?
I just need an Anthony Sul -
Could it be anybody?
I just need my Anthony Sul -
What do I do when the dirt is away?
(it scares me when the kaboom doesn't work)
How do I feel when the grime is away?
(i love when i can use my Turbo Tiger)
ohhh I get by with my Flies Away,
ohhh I get high not from my Flies Away,
I'm gonna try, gonna try to get by with my Flies Away.
Do you need anybody?
I just need an Anthony Sul -
Could it be anybody?
I just need my Anthony Sul -
Would you believe it cleans at first wipe?
Yes, I've seen it happen all the time.
What do you do if you clap out the light?
Go to sleep crying and alone...
ohhh I get by with my Flies Away,
ohhh I get high not from my Flies Away,
I'm gonna try, gonna try to get by with my Flies Away.
Do you need anybody?
I just need an Anthony Sul -
Could it be anybody?
I just need my Anthony Sul -
ohhh I get by with my Flies Away,
ohhh I get high not from my Flies Away,
I'm gonna try, gonna try to get by with my Flies Away.
Oh I get rid of those bugs, get rid of those bugs with my Flies Awaaaaaay!
This Bottle Rockets album is 51 minutes of semi-southern fried blues rock.
To be honest, I'm kind of impartial to it right now - some songs are good, some are better. None of the album is terrible, but after a while the singer's voice starts to wear on me - as does the whole "We're from Middle America and proud dammit! Help me load my Ford". And why does the beginning of "Radar Gun" sound like it could be a Foo Fighters song with some redneck singing?
Ballads of $1000 cars, women and dead trash cans.
OVERALL RATING - hey, I'm not getting paid here!
KEY TRACKS - Gravity Fails, Thousand Dollar Car, Sunday Sports
THE DEAD C - HARSH 70'S REALITY
What a terrible band.
Their songs are all varying lengths (from 4 minutes to 22), everything is noisy, and they have funny accents since they're from New Zealand and they were signed to Flying Nun.
Actually, this all makes them kind of awesome.
In the 73 minutes it takes to get through the 8 songs, you go through a lot of different
Ok sorry, you know what? I can't write a decent review of this album. It's great. The first song is 23 minutes long and awesome. the song "Sky" is on here (sounding quite different from that goat piss to gasoline version I've been showing people on YouTube) and it's great. I have a feeling some stuff was recorded live, but its a lot of improvised noise-stuffs and other cool happenings. the last song has acoustic guitar.
just buy the fricking thing.
OVERALL RATING - tuna fish sandwich eat's my lettuce's hamstring.
KEY TRACKS- Sky, Hope, Constellation, Suffer Bomb Damage
DEVO - Q: ARE WE NOT MEN? A: WE ARE DEVO!
For decades I was afraid to listen to Devo.
It started when I was 13 or so...you see, I was really into this new synth-punk band called the Epoxies and due to them covering an Adam & the Ants song, I went and bought an Adam & the Ants CD, and boy did it suck! For years after, I was never listened to Devo because I thought they wouldn't be as good as their reputation made them out to be. Part of me wants to go beat up my younger self right now.
This is a great album. Hands down. Even now, these recordings made in 1977 still sound fresh, vital and just fantastic. And there aren't a lot of synths here, so it doesn't sound dated. Who knew that Devo were such 6-string slingers?!
These songs on here are all ones that are going to get stuck in your head for days - for example, as I went into my promotional, I had "Jocko Homo" stuck in my head, so whenever I was listening to comments, in the back of my head I kept hearing "ARE WE NOT MEN? WE ARE DEVO!" and other funny things. "Praying Hands" was also stuck in my head too. You see, this whole album is great. And it's fun to sing along to. And drive to. And cry to. Really, what more do you need?
And yes, as I drove through Ohio on my way home from Boston, I did listen to this album. And in the middle of it, we drove through Cleveand and next to Akron. It was great. You should've been there JB...
OVERALL RATING - slinkies? hell yeah!
KEY TRACKS - Space Junk, Jocko Homo, Sloppy (I saw my baby getting), Gut Feeling/Slap Your Mammy
THE OFFSPRING - IXNAY ON THE HOMBRE
Like a few people in the world, I was born in the 1990s. In these times, radio was pretty great, and no station like Q101 could hold a 5 year old's interest. I remember having Q101 window stickers and a Rock the Vote t-shirt witht the Q101 logo. Due to this, I was all for having my tastes be ruined as DJs force fed the latest "hard-rock" there was at the time. I mean, Q101 was EDGY man! That's probably how I heard this record...maybe.
You see, I was 5 when this came out and easily impressed. I mean, this was fast music! Fast and ROCKING! but also kind of dull...but how was I to know this music wasn't very good?! I had "Smash" and all that, so I was bound to love this. Complete with all of the "bad words" in the lyrics, this was an awesome album to listen to in the car that your parents also liked.
Of course being so little, there were some things that went over my head. For example, the first song is called "Disclaimer" which was shouted by some guy with a silly voice and it used to freak me out. Years later, I learned that was Jello Biafra of Dead Kennedys! how 'bout that?! And of course, there were lyrics that went over my head. Here's a few examples:
"Everyday, well it's the same, that bong that's on the table starts to call my name"
"Me and my old lady, suck each other dry"
"Watching as my mama becomes a little dot, now I'm like DeNiro, I'm Amarillo, and I'll never know when I hit the ground"
"And all the things you'll learn when you're a kid, you'll f**k up like your parents did"
"My friend was hurtin' for a girl that he could try, he saw one that looked like Pat on Saturday Night Live"
This also might be a good time to say that vocalist Dexter Holland has is PhD in micro-biology or something, so see what you can do Stolarski?!
All in all, the music is just fast-paced and sounds like it was enjoyed by:
a) little kids who didn't know better
b) Moutain Dew guzzling X-Games junkies
c) my parents, because while they were neither A or B, they were (and still are) pretty awesome.
OVERALL RATING - hot dogs and goldfish, OH MY!
KEY TRACKS - All I Want, Amazed, Meaning of Life
GUIDED BY VOICES - UNDER THE BUSHES, UNDER THE STARS
A weird GBV album...the last two before this, hell, the last 4 before this were great!!! But here, Boberts Pollardi decided that he needed to grow up and stop recording everything on a cassette in his mom's laundry room that smelled of Country Time and Tide. Jerk. So now, there's the mess of a GBV album. You got rockers, you got some sad songs, some slow ones, and hey! Kim Deal "Produced" part of it. And Stiv "Bators" Albini recorded part of it too!
To be honest, I was let down by this and it wasn't until I heard the live counterparts on the "Jellyfish Reflector" that I realized that it was a good album, but its so long! Granted, all copies have 6 bonus tracks that add on 18 minutes, but even there, there isn't much. You have Toby's "It's Like Soul Man", but it sounded better on "Carnival Boy". And "Take to the Sky" is clearly Robbie just drunk of his bejesus trying to sing while the rest of the band plays a song that they learned after they recorded it and later forgot they put it on the album. Some nice songs though.
Like these ones:
Cut Out Witch
Official Ironman Rally Song
No Sky
Don't Stop Now
Ghosts of a Different Dream (catchy pop nostalgic crap, but it makes me smile)
What, you gotta problem with me smiling punk??? HUH?! HOW ABOUT I BREAK YOU IN HALF, COMMIE?! YOU'D LIKE THAT WOULDN'T YA?! AS I grit my teeth, I know I'll smash a mouthguard into your pretty little face and make you dance like me, like a Peanuts character.
And those are 6 good songs on this 24 track disc.
Part of it was recorded where PAVEMENT (remember when I reviewed them?? Wasn't that AWESOME?!) did "Wowee Zowee".
To be honest, this is a hard album to get through all the way. Here, the skip button is nice, but I'll listen to the whole thing. It ain't like my neck's broken. And the beginning of the first song sounds weird to me, like it cuts in halfway through the first beat and that just throws off my stance on the album throughout it...gahh!
OVERALL RATING - well worth the $5 I spent at Reckless for it, but not much more...
KEY TRACKS - don't stop now,...ironman rally..., bright paper werewolves
PAVEMENT - CROOKED RAIN, CROOKED RAIN
Let's see here...
....I got this album in the summer between sophmore and junior year. I have a feeling that I bought it at Best Buy, and I know that I bought the deluxe edition. No wait!! AH HA! I got it from AMAZON! I remember now! It was early June, I was young and in love and we were building my dad a cornhole set for Father's Day, complete with a Rush logo that we spray painted on them (made by the amazing and talented Zack Grimmet) and this showed up in the mail. I remember working in the garge with mom, drilling pieces of wood, cutting out perfect circles for the bags to fall in and drinking water. To listen to this album, I put it in the stereo in the Tahoe in the garage so we could rock out while building this cornhole set. The first thing I thought, well, wait, this could be a paragraph break.
The first thing I thought was, "WHOA! Where's that tape hiss??? What's this not lo-fi crap?! There's a freaking cowbell!". But then, about 30 seconds later, I realized "damn, this is good!". Here, Pavement stopped listening to Flipper and put on their dad's copies of "Street Survivors" and went to town. Well, not really...maybe.
You see, Pavement wrote great pop songs and here, they are still great.
God I have a headache...but I should continue.
OK.
So southern rock, indie rock, slackers, and ok, well LET'S TALK ABOUT THE TRACKS HERE!
So, seriously, sequencing? TOTAL MESS. I mean, do we need "5-4=Unity"? A "clever" tribute to Dave Brubeck? Or "Newark Wilder" that sounds like a "creepy cabaret song" or some crap? (Sorry, I'm not pulling my copy of "Perfect Sound Forever" out of box to get SM's exact quote Garret.) Well, I mean, that's about it, the tunes are great!
For some reason I always liked "Gold Soundz", it's poppy and kinda sappy and when I was a young 15 year old I thought that it was a song I'd want to play at my wedding. But since even Mark Prindle's wife is leaving him, I shouldn't be too optimistic (about either getting married or finding a wife who also enjoys "Gold Soundz" - that'd be an amusing personal add)...and "Filmore Jive" is a 6.5 min. jam that is something about rockers and their long curly locks. And some fine soloing from the Malkman. And you ain't crazy if you think "Elevate Me Later" uses the same chords as "Loretta's Scars" cuz it duzz! "Range Life" is all countryfried and Silver Jew-ish and he says "Billy Corgan suxx!" or something.
OHH! And this is the first album where both Mark Ibold and Steve West are playing here. All of them, together, crying in a room. This also has that "Cut Your Hair" song that was really popular with morons who also listened to "Exile in Guyville" and watched Daria.
OVERALL RATING - Totally worth your time Holmes Gargiulo.
KEY TRACKS - Gold Soundz, Filmore Jive, Elevate Me Later
RUSH - CARAVAN
Rush just released some single thing and I decided to review it.
Good news - it's new Rush.
Bad news - it's recorded with that same guy that did the last album.
What does this mean for you?
Well, it means that the guitars are triple tracked and loud, there are few keyboards (only atmosphere type stuff), and suprisingly, the drums are pushed BACK in the mix for most of the song. Honestly, it seems like every time there was a fill, the producer made the drums LOUD and then brought them back down. Geddy is also double tracking his vocals again. Christ. It also sounds like they are doing the same thing where Alex and Ged record snippets of songs then paste them together in ProTools and record them after they arrange it in the computer box. I mean, how do you get that chorus of "Caravan" from that verse? I kinda doesn't make sense.
So Rush, what are we gonna do with you? You brought so many good albums to us in the past 30+ years, but please, don't get stuck in this boring modern rock rut for too long. The other song "BU2B" has some promise, but please, write some songs and strip it down a bit. There's so much going on it's hard to focus - and not in the cool way like MBV or something, but like a bunch of 50/60 year old men learning computers still and saying "oh yeah! put that there! oh yeah, do that! louder louder louder!". Also, this producer guy is pretty terrible at encouraging this of them - maybe they should make an album with the guy who recorded "Fork in the Road" or the guy who does AC/DC albums. Neil is saying the new album is a "concept" thing er something...has Rush done one of those before?
OVERALL RATING - new rush!
KEY TRACK - since there's only 2, the "b-side" "BU2B" wins out.
R.E.M. - AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE
This right here...this is the album.
Well slow down! I don't mean the best R.E.M. album...
I mean, this album is the reason why after nightfall, we don't listen to R.E.M. on long car drives. Seriously. It's long, slow, dragging, and depressing. Imagine R.E.M. trying to do Swans. But only for the first song. After that, it's some pop songs. "Try not to Breathe"? "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite"? "Everybody Hurts"? All are either really poppy sounding or just kinda silly or make you want to walk out of your car on a freeway.
Then there's some other stuff - an instrumental, another slow song, some song that sounds like kinda generic 90s rock, more 90s generic rock, a weird slow song, a song about Andy Kaufman, a slow, sweet song about swimming at night (I think they had a song like that 10 years or so before this..."Weeding at Night"? "Shrubbing at Night"? "Planting at Night"? "Disposing Old Bodies at Night"?) and some other song that some people like a lot. I like it too.
Really, this is a strange R.E.M. album - it has a certain "mood", but that "mood" isn't throughout the whole thing - honestly, it'd be better if they cut out the 2 generic rock tunes and made "Man on the Moon" 20 minutes long. And to be honest, "Everybody Hurts" annoys me sometimes - and it isn't because it was overplayed in my youth - it's because of Michael freasgking Stipe. It's due to that part 2 minutes in where they start rocking...where he says "don't hold/throw your man/hand" or whatever and his voice is just annoying. This album also needs more Mike Mills. Every R.E.M. album needs more Mike Mills.
OVERALL RATING - onion rings/straws
KEY TRACKS - Man on the Moon, Try not to Breathe, Sweetness Follows
THE CLASH - LONDON CALLING
When I was 12, I had heard of the Clash. Mainly it was due to me reading 3 books on the Ramones, and they were always mentioned. I knew the songs "London Calling" and "Should I Stay or Should I Go?", but they never sounded "punk". To me, "punk" was just...well, to be honest, I don't really remember what I thought "punk" was, except that I listened to it and everything else musically sucked. So on one fateful day, I was talking to a kid who had some Clash CDs that he got from his older brother - "Combat Rock" and "London Calling" and he said he'd burn one for me. I asked for "London Calling" because it had more songs and by that time, I'd heard a few more songs and I liked "Train in Vain". That day, I came home and excitedly put it on my SONY CFD-Z110 boombox (which I still own) and was faced with one of the biggest disappointments in my musical life.
I mean, where were the drums? It's a slow! They don't sound angry! What the hell?!
Then, I never listened to it again. Seriously.
Flash forward to today, June 20, 2010. I was having a conversation about bands that used to mean A LOT to me when I was 10-14 or so and I wondered "what happened"? Was it me or the music? I mean, those Anti-Flag albums from 1996 still sound the same - the Bouncing Souls still are producing anthems for people to cling to - Against Me!'s "Reinventing Axl Rose" still has "Walking Is Still Honest", a song that I would listen to every single day when I was a youngin' - but nowadays, these bands mean little to me other than a footnote in my musical pass (around this time, Garret Kriston posted on his blog that he was burning me CDs and described me as "some mall punk kid who likes Rush" in his Henry Cow review. Thanks Gary.) But now, I'm a little older, wiser and I have more gray hair and my hatred for "London Calling" never got better. Whenever I thought of it, I thought of some hour long album that was full of these songs I didn't like.
Tonite, I put it on and realized "Oh hey, this is pretty decent."
To be honest, I was planning to review this album and tear it a new throat hole with mah teeth. But here I am, totally wrong. I mean, it has it's flaws I bet...like the trumpets in "The Card Cheat", actually to be honest, the last few tracks all just seem kind of "OK" in comparison to the great beginning 40 min of the album, but I still like "Train in Vain". But other than that, there's all kinds of styles (rock, roll, reggae, white-guy reggae, some other crap) and it is fairly satisfying. Ohh, and I sure like "Rudy Can't Fail".
So, I'm a changed man. I can say that I enjoyed "London Calling" for the first time 3 weeks before I turned 19. Time for me to whip out my Sex Pistols CD for the Pilch guys to educate them in playing New York Dolls covers...
OVERALL RATING - Six by Seuss
KEY TRACKS - Train in Vain, Rudy Can't Fail, Lost in the Supermarket
SILKWORM - FIREWATER
So talk about a hole in one
of the LARGEST DONUTS EVER
to COEXIST with SANTA
and CRY with Nelson Mandela
's best friends
of joy.
Man, this album is delicious!
Let's see. This band had 4 people. Then one guy left and they released this and it's AWESOME. I mean, the songs all rock, and are catchy, and its like EERAAGHHH! Sorry, that razorback came in and ate my cinnamon toast crunch.
But, let's see - you got songs about:
friends
girlfriends
drinking
unemployment
public transportation
divorce
I mean, its an album that'll be great for when you want to get down with your better self, but also help you if you are extremely depressed. How do they do that?! Well, I don't know - ask Tim Midgett, their bassist! He's got hair and a nice guitar or two. What is meant to be from Montana, living in Seattle, to later move to Chicago in the mid-90s...
And since that other guitarist guy isn't here, the sound has a lot of space - there's parts where the guitarist is just hanging out as the bassist sings and then he solos and there's no filler! Just 3 guys making a rock and roll album.
And it's a double LP and just great! I mean, no filler! Did i say that? Did I mention, NO FILLER! That's right, No Minor Threat covers here! however, "Killing My Ass" has a chorus that sounds like they ripped it from The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" and blah blah blah blahafdkhadfgvffdhrthjr hrtsh
Sorry, I got lazy and didn't want to finish that last sentence.
I mean, these songs get ingrained in your head, and even though its an hour long, it goes by so fast.
I bought a brand new copy of the LP for $10, and man, was it worth it. Oh and do these songs get stuck in your HEAD. Especially if you put the records in the sleeve for HEAD by the Jesus Lizard, which I REFUSE TO DO. I have standards, you skip ropin' commies!
Later, Silkworm would release more and more albums. then, their drummer got killed in Chicago in a car crash since some model wanted to kill herself in a car accident and this guy died because he happened to be parked at the intersection. Nice. It's a shame, they were a damn good band. The only other album I have is "Italian Platinum", so send me some!!!
OVERALL RATING - Music for 18 Musicians
KEY TRACKS - Tarnished Angel, Don't Make Plans this Friday, Drunk, Cannibal Cannibal.
SIGUR ROS - HVARF/HEIM
You see, when i was a young man of 16, this came out. I remember saying "Oh, I gotta buy that", but at the time, iTunes was updating to iTunes plus, and i REFUSED to pay for a 128kb AAC audio file of these fine young tracks with slacks. So I told my 3rd wife at the time, "Millie, pack up the bags and sell the worm farm - we gotta buy a physical copy of the Sigur Ros album!".
Flash forward 2.5 years later - I'm at the Boston Public Library and I see this there and think "You know, Millie and I never bought that Sigur Ros album before I grew my legs back" so i checked it out and put it on my computer, along with Wire's "Object 47", Silver Jews' "Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea" and 6 others.
You see, here's what this is:
2 EPs.
One is like an odds and sods (kind of like the Who's "Odds and Ends" LP) and the other is live versions.
Let's go by disc:
1. HEY!! They're speaking in that funny fake language again!!! YEAAA! Oh man, here's the other thing - sophmore year, I was obsessed with this band. So, naturally, I downloaded a ton of mp3s from their site including one called 'The Rock song" - well guess what, a STUDIO version of that is here! But honestly, it lacks in comparison to that bootleg I had. It just lacks OMPH! There's also an outtake from the album ( ) and two re-recordings from the first album that I enjoy more. The only weak track is "I Gaer", in which they play prog rock and it sounds like the most boring Pink Floyd crap ever. Seriously. I'd rather watch Bob Geldof shave Bono's eyebrows than hear this hoopplanonsense. That's actually the name of the fake sigur ros language - hooppllaannelasnonse, which goes great with turkey on wheat.
DISK 2 is the live stuff. And man, is the fidelity GREAT! But first, what the hell?? You put two songs from ( ) on here, but you give them titles! Man, if I was icelandic, partially blind, and had a faux-hawk, you bet I'd leave those track names unlisted to have the listener be suprised when they heard the sweet sounds of the one that goes "da du duh duh duaaa daud duhda daa dada duh duhda da da da" with the ebow for 5 minutes. Or the one that goes "you sat on fire, heroo, you're so hello, the fire" for 5 minutes. Oh, and hopefully you liked that re-recording of "Von", because there's a LIVE one here too! That's right, 2 versions of the same song that was released in 1997. COOL! There are two songs from ( ), one from Takk..., two from Agaetis Byrjun and one from Von.
In all seriousness, it's a great release. If you enjoy Iceland, fake languages, and uplifting music, then you'll love Silkworm, who I'm reviewing next!
OVERALL RATING - Piano Phase
KEY TRACKS - Salka, Samskeyti, Vaka
THE FALL - YOUR FUTURE OUR CLUTTER
On March 16th, 1979, Manchester’s The Fall released their first album Live at the Witch Trials. By this point, The Fall only had two singles under their belts but in between them, the entire line-up changed, save for shouter, lyricist and occasional singer Mark E. Smith. Now, over 30 years later, The Fall have released their 28th studio album. In those past years, Smith has gone through some 43+ members, numerous record labels, and yet, has still held true to his vision of what The Fall should be in the Year “___”.
Where 2008’s Imperial Wax Solvent was a great album, it took some time to grow on you. The one before, 2007’s Reformation Post-T.L.C., was one that delivered immediately, but was criticized for material that consisted of two chords repeated for 6 minutes and also for being a recording with an almost entirely new band that he only worked with for a month or so. On Your Future Our Clutter, Smith and his band (all of which were surprisingly on the already mentioned Imperial Wax Solvent), deliver from the beginning rhythm of the first track, “O.F.Y.C. Showcase”. It starts with a garbled spoken introduction and then the drums come in, and one by one, the instruments trickle in until before you know it, the whole band unleashes and wrecks havoc with 2 chords. 2 chords?? Really? Well, that was The Fall, who on their first single had a song called “Repetition” (sample lyric: “The three “R’s”, repetition, repetition, repetition”) that would essentially set them up for years and years to come.
“Bury Pts 1 & 3” starts off with the song sounding like it was being played on the floor above you while practicing in Jordan Hall – kind of muffled, and all that’s really discernable is just the beat and the bass. This then changes 2 minutes in, and then we have the song at a normal fidelity that just smokes. “Mexico Wax Solvent” feels like the vaguely electronic songs Smith has been working into Fall albums since the early 90s. The next track, “Cowboy George” is a high point – a little two chord ditty with a slightly Morricone flair to it, that at random points has a sample of a song by Daft Punk in the middle for no apparent reason. But the sound is something new for The Fall that will hopefully be exploited later.
The next two tracks everyone has heard as they were on last year’s Slippy Floor EP. “Hot Cake” is your usual stomper that might’ve only been included just to bolster the length of the album, but it’s enjoyable enough, and like you’re too cool to have an extra Fall song? Of course you aren’t. “Y.F.O.C./Slippy Floor” is a far superior to its previous incarnation. For one, the introduction goes on about another 60 seconds and the Smith line of “We’re gonna get married” now sounds chilling as opposed to childish. As the bass comes in snarling like the one junkyard dog you never wanted to aggrevate, the rest of the band falls in and the entire time, it sounds like the band could be collapsing – imagine being on a poorly built bridge on a windy day. Luckily, they kept all of the little tape snippets in the end, which people might appreciate. I do at least.
“Chino” seems to be the weirdest but possibly the most exciting track on here. It’s dark, like something you’d hear on Bend Sinister. Smith keeps asking in the lyrics “When do I quit?” The guitar menacing and vicious – it wouldn’t sound out of place if Duane Denison was playing this riff. Once again, this is something new from The Fall. “Funnel of Love” is a cover that provides a stark contrast to the song preceding it. I’d say it’s one of the better Fall covers of the past decade, not on par with “Victoria”, but it beats “I Can Hear the Grass Grow”. The last song brings us to another new side of The Fall. “Weather Report 2” starts off sounding like this decade’s “Bill is Dead” – Smith being reflective, and a little snide, but the music is almost cute until about 2.30 into it. At that point everything drops out except a synth line, some heavily manipulated rhythm and Smith repeating the same lyrics as earlier. This time, it doesn’t sound nostalgic – it sounds like a man completely bitter repeating “you gave me the best years of my life…nobody has ever called me “sir” in my entire life”. It ends with Smith barely whispering “you don’t deserve rock and roll”.
And that’s how one of The Fall’s finest and most consistent efforts of the 2000s ends. Maybe it has something to do with the band staying the same, maybe it’s because Smith is coming up with better material, maybe there’s a third reason I’m unsure of. Regardless, the music is great and his lyrical material is something that is more personal that is something that will please The Fall fan.
OVERALL RATING – Kaboom!
KEY TRACKS – “Y.F.O.C./Slippy Floor”, “Cowboy George”, “Chino”.
DINOSAUR JR - YOU'RE LIVING ALL OVER ME
This is, hands down, the FINEST Dinosaur Jr album. Some people say its "Bug", others have no taste and say that 90s crap is, but here, Dinosaur Jr reached their peak and has not yet made a better LP.
Why?!
Well, first off - VARIETYY!!>!?!
I mean, you got rockers, stompers, and lo-fi trompers all in one. Solos? CHECK! Lou Barlow's tears? CHECK! Murph with hair? CHECK!
Here's the deal, in my old and bitter age, I find less to like about music every minute. Music is ruined by friendships and memories, as well as enhanced by. Music is like a beautiful dolphin. David Minnix is a vacuum (of space), and Garret Kriston should form a Who cover band (only "It's Hard' and "Endless Wire's 154"). More importantly, here's a list of stuff I bought on Record Store Day:
Sonic Youth (whose Lee Ranaldo sings backup on track 1) - EVOL LP reissue (pink)
Sonic Youth - Confusion is Sex LP reissue (white)
R.E.M. - Chronic Town LP reissue (blue)
Deerhoof - Apple O' LP reissue (blue)
Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted LP
Silver Jews - Starlite Walker LP
The Fall - Bury! pts 2 & 4 7"
and Weezer's "Happy Record Store Day!" CD for a graduation present for my sister. But don't tell her, its a suprise!
Not to add that in a month, I'm gonna be home. Weird. Already, our first year of college has gone by, and dang, that was fast. You see, this review is a time capsule - now throw in a Delorean because when this laptop its 88 miles per hour, you're gonna see some serious trampolines flying through the faces of young. Isn't "Blue Moon" by Big Star depressing, especially since Alex Chilton is DEAD now? Bummer. Guy didn't have health insurance...and then there's "SludgeFeast" - a jam complete with solos galore and a lyric that just soars. "The Lung" is probably my favorite Dinosaur track of all time. hands down. "In a Jar" has a little riff that would later be rewritten into "Beyond"'s "Been there all the Time". Lou even has a little Sebadoh sample in "Poledo".
I mean, there's no clunkers here. Their finest album. If you don't like it, then give up on Dinosaur because it's never better than this. If you disagree, you probably also like the current touring line-up of Thin Lizzy than the one on "Jailbreak", jerk. This is one album that I can listen to again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again v and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and never get sick of. It's that perfect.
OVERALL RATING - Mr. Pants
KEY TRACKS - The Lung, Little Fury Things, In a Jar, Poledo.
BLACK TAMBOURINE - BLACK TAMBOURINE
In my review of Black Tambourine’s Complete Recordings, I made a mention of the album soon being re-released with some bonus tracks and the whole nine yards – liner notes, unseen photos of the group, beautiful gatefold sleeve, and high-quality vinyl pressing etc. etc. However, this beautiful reissue is still not in my hands, but I have heard the bonus tracks and I know the album well enough. Besides, these are music reviews! If I wanted to spend hours talking about album artwork, I would probably just write another article, but who has time for that?
For those who aren’t on the Weekly Sunday Nite Record Reviews e-mail list (of which you can always be added, just ask), Black Tambourine was an interesting group. The members all came from some other bands (Whorl and Velocity Girl) and they drafted in a friend named Pam to sing for them. Throughout the brief two year existence they released two singles and a handful of compilation tracks until 1991 they broke up. 8 years later, the handful of tracks was compiled for the album Complete Recordings, featuring a whopping 10 songs in about 23 minutes. What is so amusing though is that even though Black Tambourine were by no means prolific songwriters or performers (throughout the 2 years they only did a couple of gigs), to this day you can hear their influence of groups such as Vivian Girls and pretty much the rest of the Slumberland Records catalog.
The music itself is hard to pin down – loud guitars and drums, vocals that sounded like they were recorded in an echo chamber and melodies that present a perfect and non-embarrassing pop influence. My friend Matt Verticchio says that it sounded like “the Vaselines recorded underwater”. While I might not agree 100% with that, I can say that it’s accurate enough.
Like the original Complete Recordings, all 10 songs from there are here, and they are still in the order they were on Complete Recordings, meaning non-chronological. This rubbed me the wrong way the first time as it’s harder to show the progression of the group. But since it was only a side project, and the sequencing is strong this way (another album like this is Switched On by Stereolab), it still works.
As for the bonus tracks, you have two demo versions (one of “For Ex-Lovers Only” and another for “Throw Aggi Off the Bridge”) and some cover songs. The demos aren’t necessary but the covers sound good enough. I mean, it’s all an added bonus to make sure that people would want to buy it, but since the material is high quality (in regards to reissue standards), and the fact that it’s been out of print for a few years now, I can say that I am eagerly awaiting the day Black Tambourine arrives in the copy center.
OVERALL RATING – Bag of hats/toaster strudel.
KEY TRACKS – For Ex-Lovers Only, Throw Aggi Off the Bridge, Pack You Up
MILEY CYRUS - THE TIME OF OUR LIVES EP
(REVIEW FOR APRIL FOOLS ISSUE OF "THE PENGUIN")
Am I allowed two word reviews? If so – sheer exhilaration!
If not, then prepare to listen. On this here EP, Miley seems to abandon those early country-rock leaning (undoubtedly influenced by Uncle Tupelo) and drops the acoustics in favor of slash and burn electric guitars. I mean, listening to the first track “Kicking & Screaming”, I was convinced that she hired Phil Manzanera (the man who played on Eno’s Taking Tiger Mountain (by Strategy) to play guitar throughout the album. Man, that would’ve been sweet!!!! But she did not. Turns out it’s some other guy, but I actually wouldn’t be surprised if Miley played guitar on the album herself. She’s quite a talented instrumentalist who spends months on end experimenting for the ultimate guitar tone for her little Wal-Mart brand FirstAct guitar.
Another unknown fact about Miley is that she actually has this power (much like Albert Oppenheimer) where she can sing in 4 different voices at the same time, making Auto-Tune non-existent on the entire album. And upon perusing Wikipedia, it appears that other people wrote these songs, but I have to disagree. I mean, what would Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald know about being a 16 year old girl trying to “Party in the U.S.A.”? He was a guitar player in the Saturday Night Live band for crying out loud! And while Hillary Lindsey has written songs for Faith Hill and Taylor Swift, I doubt she understands the heartbreak that Miley conveys in the tear-jerker “When I Look at You”. I mean, c’mon! Everyone knows that if anybody understands the true feelings of love and loss, it’s not going to be Steve Albini, it’s going to be some 16 year old girl who enjoys dancing on top of ice cream trucks.
The rest of the extended play is more of what you expect from her, but that’s not bad because it’s all SO GOOD! Both “The Time of Our Lives” and “Obsessed” are both lyrically witty, instrumentally strong and inventive and able to cut to the core of the American heart. Her lyrics are like a modern day Randy Newman, instead of writing about murderers, she’s writing about boys that she kind of likes, but not “like” likes, just, “likes”, you know? It’s with this you remember that she isn’t just some teenager that has within the same year, drawn criticism from families across the world due to her Vanity Fair photo shoot, candid photos taken in Japan, and the fact that she made this EP exclusive to only Wal-Mart. But me, I’ll stick with Miley thick and thin. It’s not even a guilty pleasure – as long as Albert Oppenheimer and I can dance and sing to these songs days on end, I’ll still reach for my old Hannah Montana 45s and relive all the days that I was a 11 year old girl.
OVERALL RATING – Rainbows and dirtbikes.
KEY TRACKS - Party in the U.S.A., Talk is Cheap, Before the Storm (with the Jonas Brothers)
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