Faber is a punk rock band from somewhere in between Carteret and South Amboy, NJ. These guys are not your average ‘punk’ band though; in their music is some intense amalgamation of punk, ska, metal and a touch of ‘It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.’
The band consists of Alex Heyer on the bass and backing vocals, Mike Fritz on the drums, Joe Porta playing rhythm guitar and singing lead vocals and Tim Rager on lead guitar. Travis Novack is also a part of the band, and is currently rockin’ it from the Middle East with the Marines.
On Saturday, November 7th, Faber played an intimate, invite only, basement show in South Amboy, NJ. The set consisted of seven of the band’s finest songs. To start, the band rocked out J+H(Jekyll and Hyde). This is a really fantastic song, and a perfect way to start a set. It started off with Joe and Tim both hammering on and pulling off notes on the high and low E strings on their guitars. Mike slowly increased the tempo with quicker and quicker drums hits and then Alex slid it on up the neck and brought us into the song. The lyrics of the song are also quite entertaining, as inverse as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Next up the band rocked one of their most intense love ballads of all time: ‘Lagoda’s.’ A little background: Lagoda’s is the most fantastic bar in all of New Jersey, possibly the entire universe. It is located in South Amboy, home (kind of) of Faber. The song features a call to arms to all who appreciate Lagoda’s: “GO! GO! GO! GO! / Let’s all go to Lagoda’s!”
After ‘Lagoda’s’ the band started up with the masterful ska/hard punk fusion song, ‘Living Tragedy.’ The song started up with some ska style up-strumming on the guitar, a solid drum beat and a fancy bass line to get everyone moving, then switched into distortion to get everyone’s heads banging. By the end of the song nobody is quite sure how to dance to it, but they know they enjoyed it.
‘Dismemberment’ poked its head out after ‘Living Tragedy.’ The intro of this song displayed an obvious metal/hard punk influence, but flowed into a more ska/hard punk feel afterward. The lyrics in the song have a fantastically evil feel and growling vocals to put them to the test: “Break out the scalpels, / Break out the chains, / Break out the intricate cutting of blades!” If the name of the song didn’t give away the idea here, the lyrics sure will.
The next song Faber broke out is a cover that should be on the list of ‘Most Awesome Songs a Band Could Ever Cover,’ is a crowd favorite, and it’s where the band gets that little touch of ‘Always Sunny;’ Ladies and Gentelmen, Faber then performed the epic tale that is: ‘Dayman.’ Faber has taken this song and created a slow starting version that speeds up verse after verse and eventually explodes into awesome at the end. Although a short song, and one with simple lyrics, it really brings out the best in the crowd with a lot of ‘Ohhh OHHHH’ing.
The second to last song the band played is called ‘No Void To Fill.’ This is a solid, ska/punk rock song anybody could enjoy; with Mike and Alex, a real solid rhythm section, providing a sweet, skankable, groove, Joe belting out the lyrics with Alex on backup and, and Tim coming through on the breakdown with a sweet lead riff, who could not like it? The final song in Faber’s set was a fantastic number called Carteret City Limits/South Amboy Rock City, or C-Town for short. Essentially the song is about why Carteret sucks as opposed to South Amboy, which rocks.
Faber played a fantastic show on Saturday, Friday also, but that’s another story altogether. These guys really push it to the limit, and put a lot of love into their craft. For more info on them, and to hear some songs including ‘No Void to Fill’ and ‘Dayman’ you can visit their MySpace at www.myspace.com/faber. Also, supporting Faber is supporting the Marines, since one of their band members is over in the Middle East, so check these guys out!
Sunday, November 29, 2009
The Swimmers - People Are Soft
The Swimmers are an Indie synth-pop band from Philadelphia. Their recently released ‘People Are Soft’ is a sophomore effort, recorded in the band’s newly built studio.
‘People Are Soft’ is a relaxing, soft, entrancing album. It starts off with ‘Shelter’ and ‘A Hundred Hearts.’ These two are both heavy on the synthesizer riffs. The Swimmers have essentially taken the guitar out for synthesizer in many places on this album. That’s not to say it doesn’t work however. The rhythm section, drums and bass, does a great job for support and keeps it real, while the synthesizer just multiplies.
‘What This World is Coming To’ is a nice mellow piece. The guitar and synthesizer share beautifully in this song, with some simple drumming and bass playing to even everything out. The song slowly builds in the end with more and more synth layering on to drop off back to just the guitar. After a false ending, the track explodes with sound to fade out once more.
‘Give Me the Sun’ starts off with some vocal harmonies running through a vocoder: “Gimme gimme the sun,” over and over again, sticking around even for the verse. A steady drumbeat accompanies the bass which is running through some fun filter/overdrive effects.
‘Save Me From The Brightness’ sacrifices some of over-abundant synthesizer for real pinao, half of the time. Guitar is also popping its head back into the mix. The song brings about some sort of nostalgia in its lyrical content, a longing for a time when hanging out at the park late at night was the thing to do on a school night: “Hiding out late at night / at the edge of the park.”
‘Nervous Wreck’ is a ballad for the nervous musician. The lyrics reflect the trials and tribulations of performing: “The lights go down and I’m a nervous wreck / crashing on the cymbals and the hiding in the shadows.” This is one of the songs on the album that breaks away from the over-use of synthesizer and instead keeps it in the background to back everything else up.
‘To The Bells’ includes one of the more interesting drum pieces on the album, going beyond just keeping time like a metronome. ‘Dress Don’t Fit’ starts again with the simple rhythm section backing some guitar and really low volume, backing synthesizer riffs in the background.
‘Anything Together’ and ‘Try To Settle In’ continue on with a lot of synthesizer, harmonized vocals and simple rhythm section droning. ‘People Are Soft’ is fun to listen to, and very accessible and easy to enjoy, but it lacks a lot of ‘meat.’ For anyone who is a fan of the sound of Eighties pop-rock’s heavy use of corny synthesizer sounds(think ‘The Final Countdown’), this is something to be treasured. All together the album is a solid listen, and very relaxing, but leaves one wanting more.
‘People Are Soft’ is a relaxing, soft, entrancing album. It starts off with ‘Shelter’ and ‘A Hundred Hearts.’ These two are both heavy on the synthesizer riffs. The Swimmers have essentially taken the guitar out for synthesizer in many places on this album. That’s not to say it doesn’t work however. The rhythm section, drums and bass, does a great job for support and keeps it real, while the synthesizer just multiplies.
‘What This World is Coming To’ is a nice mellow piece. The guitar and synthesizer share beautifully in this song, with some simple drumming and bass playing to even everything out. The song slowly builds in the end with more and more synth layering on to drop off back to just the guitar. After a false ending, the track explodes with sound to fade out once more.
‘Give Me the Sun’ starts off with some vocal harmonies running through a vocoder: “Gimme gimme the sun,” over and over again, sticking around even for the verse. A steady drumbeat accompanies the bass which is running through some fun filter/overdrive effects.
‘Save Me From The Brightness’ sacrifices some of over-abundant synthesizer for real pinao, half of the time. Guitar is also popping its head back into the mix. The song brings about some sort of nostalgia in its lyrical content, a longing for a time when hanging out at the park late at night was the thing to do on a school night: “Hiding out late at night / at the edge of the park.”
‘Nervous Wreck’ is a ballad for the nervous musician. The lyrics reflect the trials and tribulations of performing: “The lights go down and I’m a nervous wreck / crashing on the cymbals and the hiding in the shadows.” This is one of the songs on the album that breaks away from the over-use of synthesizer and instead keeps it in the background to back everything else up.
‘To The Bells’ includes one of the more interesting drum pieces on the album, going beyond just keeping time like a metronome. ‘Dress Don’t Fit’ starts again with the simple rhythm section backing some guitar and really low volume, backing synthesizer riffs in the background.
‘Anything Together’ and ‘Try To Settle In’ continue on with a lot of synthesizer, harmonized vocals and simple rhythm section droning. ‘People Are Soft’ is fun to listen to, and very accessible and easy to enjoy, but it lacks a lot of ‘meat.’ For anyone who is a fan of the sound of Eighties pop-rock’s heavy use of corny synthesizer sounds(think ‘The Final Countdown’), this is something to be treasured. All together the album is a solid listen, and very relaxing, but leaves one wanting more.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
By a Thread - Gov't Mule
Gov’t Mule blow it out again with their new release ‘By a Thread.’ Spanning all sorts of fantastic rock amalgamations such as blues , country , and classic(even the acoustic ballad), By a Thread adds a wonderful mix of tunes to Mule’s repertoire.
‘Broke Down on the Brazos’ features a special guest, Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top. You can feel Mule’s bluesy rock-out clashing with Billy’s awesome playing and creating some wonderful music. The song chugs along, with intermittent solos and jamming, to fade out in the end, giving way to Steppin’ Lightly, another high powered number. ‘Steppin’ Lightly’ starts out pretty loudly, but proceeds to get a little funky through the verse. The chorus also totally blows it out in an unexpected chord progression that varies so much from the rest of the song it could be a totally different track, but Mule is skilled and creative enough to pull it off brilliantly. ‘Steppin’ Lightly’ is also equipped with a false ending about two minutes out, that gives way to a fantastic guitar solo.
‘Railroad Boy’ tones it down a bit to start, but after the introduction regains massive energy. The guitar bit in the beginning accompanied by Warren Haynes’ vocals is hauntingly perfect for this traditional folk song, but when the whole band comes in, the flavor of Gov’t Mule takes effect and does a fine job. The middle of the song gives way to a powerful jam, including awesome slide guitar and keyboards, taking total advantage of the space these traditional folk songs provide for a fun jam. The song drags out with some eerie keyboard sounds and gives way to a delayed and highly effects driven guitar to start ‘Monday Mourning Meltdown.’
‘Monday Mourning Meltdown’ really does seem to illustrate its namesake in the music. The soul and emotion contained in this song are oozing over the top. The entire song escalates to the keyboard and guitar solo at the end, which is followed by a yet again haunting Warren chanting ‘How do you like me now that I’m not around.’
‘Gordon James’ goes into a totally different direction than the previous songs, with a light organ piece in the intro followed by some acoustic guitar and lyrics. The acoustic guitar continues until the entire band explodes onto the scene, working their magic. The slide guitar is superb and heartfelt, perfect for the song’s feel. ‘Gordon James’ falls out the same way it came in with some acoustic guitar and organ.
‘Any Open Window’ rocks it out right away, almost too high powered to follow ‘Gordon James,’ but still perfectly placed. The song has some lyrics but focuses heavily on guitar solos. Warren does a fantastic job (expect nothing less), and the rest of the band backs him like a brick wall.
‘Frozen Fear’ is really toned down and mellow, definitely an element of reggae music mixed in with the bluesy-rock which produces something beautiful. The song is just so positive, musically and lyrically. Warren gives some good advice in the song: “Don’t be afraid, to live your life my dear.”
‘Forevermore’ is a gorgeous love ballad. It starts out as only acoustic guitar and lyrics, and escalates into an amazing piece. Mule comes together on this one to create a fantastic love song. The lyrics totally take the foreground at points in the song, which is hard to do with the instrumentals these guys produce: “Can’t ya see, my whole world is nothing without you / I can feel the rain fall down / like tears upon my shoulders / but I can’t feel my love / she’s gone forevermore.”
‘Inside Outside Woman Blues #3’ is the heavy weight on the album, coming to nine minutes and three seconds, not a moment of which is wasted. Both musically and lyrically this song gets to the heart of the blues. The lyrics are brilliant throughout the whole composition, even hilarious at times: “At the end of the day want someone to keep him warm / somebody to keep him warm and somebody to set him on fire / Ya know what I’m talking about!?”
‘Scenes from a Troubled Mind’ is a highly structured track, a suite even, comparable to maybe an ‘Achilles Last Stand’ or ‘Terrapin Station.’ You can tell the band put a lot of work into this song. The instrumentals are key, and while it is set up very tightly, there are still fills and riffs around every corner.
‘World Wake Up’ is the final track on By a Thread. It ends the album perfectly, and inversely to how it began. The song is very mellow and has a lot of beautiful keyboard in it; Danny Louis is masterful in the creation of his tone and use of it. The song ends on an eerie note, all instruments ringing out while the song fades out.
‘Broke Down on the Brazos’ features a special guest, Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top. You can feel Mule’s bluesy rock-out clashing with Billy’s awesome playing and creating some wonderful music. The song chugs along, with intermittent solos and jamming, to fade out in the end, giving way to Steppin’ Lightly, another high powered number. ‘Steppin’ Lightly’ starts out pretty loudly, but proceeds to get a little funky through the verse. The chorus also totally blows it out in an unexpected chord progression that varies so much from the rest of the song it could be a totally different track, but Mule is skilled and creative enough to pull it off brilliantly. ‘Steppin’ Lightly’ is also equipped with a false ending about two minutes out, that gives way to a fantastic guitar solo.
‘Railroad Boy’ tones it down a bit to start, but after the introduction regains massive energy. The guitar bit in the beginning accompanied by Warren Haynes’ vocals is hauntingly perfect for this traditional folk song, but when the whole band comes in, the flavor of Gov’t Mule takes effect and does a fine job. The middle of the song gives way to a powerful jam, including awesome slide guitar and keyboards, taking total advantage of the space these traditional folk songs provide for a fun jam. The song drags out with some eerie keyboard sounds and gives way to a delayed and highly effects driven guitar to start ‘Monday Mourning Meltdown.’
‘Monday Mourning Meltdown’ really does seem to illustrate its namesake in the music. The soul and emotion contained in this song are oozing over the top. The entire song escalates to the keyboard and guitar solo at the end, which is followed by a yet again haunting Warren chanting ‘How do you like me now that I’m not around.’
‘Gordon James’ goes into a totally different direction than the previous songs, with a light organ piece in the intro followed by some acoustic guitar and lyrics. The acoustic guitar continues until the entire band explodes onto the scene, working their magic. The slide guitar is superb and heartfelt, perfect for the song’s feel. ‘Gordon James’ falls out the same way it came in with some acoustic guitar and organ.
‘Any Open Window’ rocks it out right away, almost too high powered to follow ‘Gordon James,’ but still perfectly placed. The song has some lyrics but focuses heavily on guitar solos. Warren does a fantastic job (expect nothing less), and the rest of the band backs him like a brick wall.
‘Frozen Fear’ is really toned down and mellow, definitely an element of reggae music mixed in with the bluesy-rock which produces something beautiful. The song is just so positive, musically and lyrically. Warren gives some good advice in the song: “Don’t be afraid, to live your life my dear.”
‘Forevermore’ is a gorgeous love ballad. It starts out as only acoustic guitar and lyrics, and escalates into an amazing piece. Mule comes together on this one to create a fantastic love song. The lyrics totally take the foreground at points in the song, which is hard to do with the instrumentals these guys produce: “Can’t ya see, my whole world is nothing without you / I can feel the rain fall down / like tears upon my shoulders / but I can’t feel my love / she’s gone forevermore.”
‘Inside Outside Woman Blues #3’ is the heavy weight on the album, coming to nine minutes and three seconds, not a moment of which is wasted. Both musically and lyrically this song gets to the heart of the blues. The lyrics are brilliant throughout the whole composition, even hilarious at times: “At the end of the day want someone to keep him warm / somebody to keep him warm and somebody to set him on fire / Ya know what I’m talking about!?”
‘Scenes from a Troubled Mind’ is a highly structured track, a suite even, comparable to maybe an ‘Achilles Last Stand’ or ‘Terrapin Station.’ You can tell the band put a lot of work into this song. The instrumentals are key, and while it is set up very tightly, there are still fills and riffs around every corner.
‘World Wake Up’ is the final track on By a Thread. It ends the album perfectly, and inversely to how it began. The song is very mellow and has a lot of beautiful keyboard in it; Danny Louis is masterful in the creation of his tone and use of it. The song ends on an eerie note, all instruments ringing out while the song fades out.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
White Denim - Fits
White Denim are an unclassifiable, musical entity out of Austin, Texas. Their recent album Fits was released on Tuesday. This is an awesome band that everybody should be checking out. This album alone encompasses everything from folk, to filthy raw beats and sounds to 60’s style psychedelic rock, to the acoustic love ballad.
Fits starts off with a song called ‘Radio Milk How Can You Stand It.’ This piece is a power packed high energy song that feels a lot like Geezer Butler and Frank Zappa playing in a punk band. It has a strong driving bass, loud drums and some vocals that seem to just be asking ‘how can you stand it?’
‘All Consolation’ carries the same garage vibe and repetitive vocals as it’s predecessor but feels a bit more like it came out of a time machine. You can already tell White Denim have a thing for a sick, driving rhythm section. The song fades out on a strange drum solo at the end.
‘Say What You Want’ is a pretty standard rock tune to start, but alas, deception. The band breaks out into an instrumental jam that is accompanied by either a sitar, or someone who can make their guitar sound like a sitar.
‘El Hard Attack DCWYW’ blasts out of the ashes of the previous song, and is the most erratic one yet with its all over instrumentals. As well as erratic, it’s exotic. There are some seemingly Spanish lyrics shouted in the first break, going back to English in the second.
‘I Start To Run’ would be a Primus song if it didn’t know any better. The bass is thumping and technical at times, leading the pack while the guitar inserts little bits of flavor over the intense funky jam. The song goes out with some harmonized vocals and eventually some strange guitar part that leads into ‘Sex Prayer.’
‘Sex Prayer’ reaches back into the same time machine ‘All Consolation’ came out of. The song has a really psychedelic feel, and is totally instrumental. The bass keeps it on the high end of the octave while the guitar chimes through even higher with an amalgamation of effects that make it sound like a keyboard. The song on the whole is very trance inducing and cuts off very abruptly at the end.
‘Mirrored and Reverse’ starts off with more trance inducing instrumentals and adds another layer of harmonizing vocals on top just to make it that much better. This is the last song on the album that sounds similar to its preceding songs. ‘Paint Yourself’ while still holding onto the garage feel, becomes more poppy and upbeat. This feels like a love song, with a fitting acoustic guitar, as well as some parts on an electric guitar. The drums are wholly different here than from the rest of the album, very refined and consistent.
‘I’d Have It Just The Way We Were’ continues in the smooth, poppy romantic song trend but regains the drumming that really sets this band apart. Strangely, the bass seems to be way down on the volume scale, or absent entirely. The intensity picks up for a bit at the end, but finishes on a nice, classy cymbal crash.
‘Everybody Somebody’ opens up with an amazing guitar run going until the lyrics pick up. The rhythm section is again rocking it, bass seemingly running through effects and the drummer seemingly playing with more than two arms. Towards the middle of the song there is a really clean, spot on guitar solo that builds off what it introduced us to in the opening riff.
‘Regina Holding Hands’ is a really beautiful ballad starting with acoustic guitar and those awesome, creepy, multi-track vocals that always add another dimension to a love song. It takes about halfway into the song for the rest of the band to start up, and the chorus kicks in moaning ‘Ohhhh Regina.’
‘Regina Holding Hands’ gives way to the last song on the album, ‘Syncn.’ ‘Syncn’ starts off light with some low guitar and muted cymbals eventually building and falling off with about a minute left to reveal an awesome jam with lots of ‘La La’ing that will surely get the crowd going when played live. Keep White Denim in mind for your next CD buy, this is a highly entertaining album that will not disappoint.
Fits starts off with a song called ‘Radio Milk How Can You Stand It.’ This piece is a power packed high energy song that feels a lot like Geezer Butler and Frank Zappa playing in a punk band. It has a strong driving bass, loud drums and some vocals that seem to just be asking ‘how can you stand it?’
‘All Consolation’ carries the same garage vibe and repetitive vocals as it’s predecessor but feels a bit more like it came out of a time machine. You can already tell White Denim have a thing for a sick, driving rhythm section. The song fades out on a strange drum solo at the end.
‘Say What You Want’ is a pretty standard rock tune to start, but alas, deception. The band breaks out into an instrumental jam that is accompanied by either a sitar, or someone who can make their guitar sound like a sitar.
‘El Hard Attack DCWYW’ blasts out of the ashes of the previous song, and is the most erratic one yet with its all over instrumentals. As well as erratic, it’s exotic. There are some seemingly Spanish lyrics shouted in the first break, going back to English in the second.
‘I Start To Run’ would be a Primus song if it didn’t know any better. The bass is thumping and technical at times, leading the pack while the guitar inserts little bits of flavor over the intense funky jam. The song goes out with some harmonized vocals and eventually some strange guitar part that leads into ‘Sex Prayer.’
‘Sex Prayer’ reaches back into the same time machine ‘All Consolation’ came out of. The song has a really psychedelic feel, and is totally instrumental. The bass keeps it on the high end of the octave while the guitar chimes through even higher with an amalgamation of effects that make it sound like a keyboard. The song on the whole is very trance inducing and cuts off very abruptly at the end.
‘Mirrored and Reverse’ starts off with more trance inducing instrumentals and adds another layer of harmonizing vocals on top just to make it that much better. This is the last song on the album that sounds similar to its preceding songs. ‘Paint Yourself’ while still holding onto the garage feel, becomes more poppy and upbeat. This feels like a love song, with a fitting acoustic guitar, as well as some parts on an electric guitar. The drums are wholly different here than from the rest of the album, very refined and consistent.
‘I’d Have It Just The Way We Were’ continues in the smooth, poppy romantic song trend but regains the drumming that really sets this band apart. Strangely, the bass seems to be way down on the volume scale, or absent entirely. The intensity picks up for a bit at the end, but finishes on a nice, classy cymbal crash.
‘Everybody Somebody’ opens up with an amazing guitar run going until the lyrics pick up. The rhythm section is again rocking it, bass seemingly running through effects and the drummer seemingly playing with more than two arms. Towards the middle of the song there is a really clean, spot on guitar solo that builds off what it introduced us to in the opening riff.
‘Regina Holding Hands’ is a really beautiful ballad starting with acoustic guitar and those awesome, creepy, multi-track vocals that always add another dimension to a love song. It takes about halfway into the song for the rest of the band to start up, and the chorus kicks in moaning ‘Ohhhh Regina.’
‘Regina Holding Hands’ gives way to the last song on the album, ‘Syncn.’ ‘Syncn’ starts off light with some low guitar and muted cymbals eventually building and falling off with about a minute left to reveal an awesome jam with lots of ‘La La’ing that will surely get the crowd going when played live. Keep White Denim in mind for your next CD buy, this is a highly entertaining album that will not disappoint.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Flaming Lips - Embryonic
Wayne Coyne is back with the Flaming Lips and ‘Embyonic,’ their newest material since the release of ‘At War with the Mystics’ in 2006, and this time he’s not only being joined by his friend weird, but dark and experimental are also hanging out on the new CD as well. ‘Embryonic’ is one of the most experimental Flaming Lips works ever, excluding ‘Zaireeka,’ but most people haven’t really ‘listened’ to that anyway.
‘Embryonic’ is truly what it must sound like to drip into insanity. It starts off with some strange blips and sounds from the song called ‘Convinced of the Hex.’ This song is quite trance inducing, as are some of the other songs on the album. ‘The Sparrow Looks Up at the Machine’ continues entrancing, and leads into an infinitely calmer song, ‘Evil.’ ‘Evil’ is as smooth as butter to start off but gets very dark instrumentally somewhere near the middle, but reverts to is original state soon after. All over the song are desires for time travel and understanding. ‘Evil’ leads into ‘Aquarius Sabotage’ (one of five zodiacally named songs on ‘Embryonic’) and ‘See the Leaves,’ two hard hitting, psychedelic rock songs that both taper off into eventual silence, foreshadowing ‘If,’ ‘Gemini Syringes’ and ‘Your Bats,’ which just chug along and drip so slowly and quietly, the equivalent of some new age, psychedelic folk songs. Eventually ‘Powerless’ starts up to end the first disc. ‘Powerless’ is as awesome a disc ender as ‘Convinced of the Hex’ was a start to the album. It maintains essentially the same backing instrumentals but slowly builds and gets louder, with more intense soloing over until it drops off into a strange whirring static.
‘The Ego’s Last Stand’ starts the second disc with a strange, dark, guitar that slowly builds with the bass, drums, keyboards and an eerie harmony fronted by Wayne Coyne’s extremely dark lyrics: “The only way out / Is to destroy all traces / Oh, destroy yourself / There's no way back / There's complete devastation.” ‘I Can Be a Frog’ is one of two songs featuring Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s. Throughout the song Wayne Coyne is naming animals he “can be”, and Karen O is making animal sounds and laughing in the background. ‘Sagittarius Silver Announcement’ is another entrancing song which keeps a steady bass riff and a haunting moaning and counting along with some complimentary ‘other sounds’ (for lack of a better word, Lips fans will understand). ‘Sagittarius Silver Announcement’ leads into ‘Worm Mountain’ featuring MGMT. First thoughts upon listening to this song might be ‘Geezer Butler?’ or ‘awesome!’ or probably both. It’s a very intense song, and it is awesome to hear the boys from MGMT getting together with the Lips. The song ends with some keyboard type sounds to calm everyone down and fades out very quickly. ‘Scorpio Sword’ literally cuts through like a sword with its first few guitar notes and quickly turns strange. The song is seemingly devoid of any structure and sounds something like a monster attacking with a drum solo playing in the background. ‘The Impulse’ takes it down quite a few notches. The lyrics seem to be run through some sort of vocoder akin to ‘Daft Punk.’ ‘Silver Trembling Hands’ starts off with a lot of ‘Ah’ing and a really solid rhythm section. Similar to many songs off of ‘Embryonic’ it totally morphs into something different towards the end, but regains it’s intense bass and drums just in time to end. ‘Virgo Self-Esteem Broadcast’ consists mostly of ‘ah’ sounds, almost inaudible jungle sounds, and strange, sharp, bursts of sound. The jungle sounds keep going into the final song, ‘Watching the Planets,’ the other song featuring Karen O. The song builds up with lots of drums and Wayne and Karen singing together (Karen is mostly making sounds, but it counts). Lyrically the song ends the album perfectly with the line “finding that there ain’t no answer to find” and sums up the work pretty perfectly.
‘Embryonic’ is truly what it must sound like to drip into insanity. It starts off with some strange blips and sounds from the song called ‘Convinced of the Hex.’ This song is quite trance inducing, as are some of the other songs on the album. ‘The Sparrow Looks Up at the Machine’ continues entrancing, and leads into an infinitely calmer song, ‘Evil.’ ‘Evil’ is as smooth as butter to start off but gets very dark instrumentally somewhere near the middle, but reverts to is original state soon after. All over the song are desires for time travel and understanding. ‘Evil’ leads into ‘Aquarius Sabotage’ (one of five zodiacally named songs on ‘Embryonic’) and ‘See the Leaves,’ two hard hitting, psychedelic rock songs that both taper off into eventual silence, foreshadowing ‘If,’ ‘Gemini Syringes’ and ‘Your Bats,’ which just chug along and drip so slowly and quietly, the equivalent of some new age, psychedelic folk songs. Eventually ‘Powerless’ starts up to end the first disc. ‘Powerless’ is as awesome a disc ender as ‘Convinced of the Hex’ was a start to the album. It maintains essentially the same backing instrumentals but slowly builds and gets louder, with more intense soloing over until it drops off into a strange whirring static.
‘The Ego’s Last Stand’ starts the second disc with a strange, dark, guitar that slowly builds with the bass, drums, keyboards and an eerie harmony fronted by Wayne Coyne’s extremely dark lyrics: “The only way out / Is to destroy all traces / Oh, destroy yourself / There's no way back / There's complete devastation.” ‘I Can Be a Frog’ is one of two songs featuring Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s. Throughout the song Wayne Coyne is naming animals he “can be”, and Karen O is making animal sounds and laughing in the background. ‘Sagittarius Silver Announcement’ is another entrancing song which keeps a steady bass riff and a haunting moaning and counting along with some complimentary ‘other sounds’ (for lack of a better word, Lips fans will understand). ‘Sagittarius Silver Announcement’ leads into ‘Worm Mountain’ featuring MGMT. First thoughts upon listening to this song might be ‘Geezer Butler?’ or ‘awesome!’ or probably both. It’s a very intense song, and it is awesome to hear the boys from MGMT getting together with the Lips. The song ends with some keyboard type sounds to calm everyone down and fades out very quickly. ‘Scorpio Sword’ literally cuts through like a sword with its first few guitar notes and quickly turns strange. The song is seemingly devoid of any structure and sounds something like a monster attacking with a drum solo playing in the background. ‘The Impulse’ takes it down quite a few notches. The lyrics seem to be run through some sort of vocoder akin to ‘Daft Punk.’ ‘Silver Trembling Hands’ starts off with a lot of ‘Ah’ing and a really solid rhythm section. Similar to many songs off of ‘Embryonic’ it totally morphs into something different towards the end, but regains it’s intense bass and drums just in time to end. ‘Virgo Self-Esteem Broadcast’ consists mostly of ‘ah’ sounds, almost inaudible jungle sounds, and strange, sharp, bursts of sound. The jungle sounds keep going into the final song, ‘Watching the Planets,’ the other song featuring Karen O. The song builds up with lots of drums and Wayne and Karen singing together (Karen is mostly making sounds, but it counts). Lyrically the song ends the album perfectly with the line “finding that there ain’t no answer to find” and sums up the work pretty perfectly.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Everclear's In a Different Light
Everclear’s In a Different Light is an acoustic rerecording of many of the band’s past hits and some new songs as well. Art Alexakis reformed Everclear and signed to a new label, 429 Records, with this album.
In a Different Light starts out with one of the band’s most recognized hits off the album So Much For The Afterglow, ‘Everything to Everyone.’ The song starts off with its signature keyboard droning and kicks in with acoustic guitar and simple drums. The song itself is very stripped down from the original version, and the maturity in Art’s voice can be heard after twelve years since the song was originally recorded.
The second rerecorded song on the album is a heartfelt version of ‘ Wonderful.’ The song itself is quite powerful in its original form on Songs From an American Movie, Vol. 1: Learning How To Smile, but the stripped down acoustic and again an older Art Alexakis creates a very different experience of the song.
‘At The End Of The Day’ is a brand new song that was never included on an album. It was written by art in 2004 but didn’t make the cut until now. It features some very gospel singer style backup vocals and great acoustic piano pieces. The lyrics are very different from classic Everclear, and more reflective on Art and his past: “I know / I would do it all again / At the end of the day.”
‘Santa Monica’ is one of the songs that put Everclear on the map back in 1995 with the album Sparkle and Fade. The song starts off with a nice little keyboard piece and continues with the acoustic guitar. The drums kick in at the second verse and the song really takes off after that. The acoustic rerecording hasn’t taken any of the original flavor away, just twisted it around.
‘Summerland’ comes after ‘Santa Monica’ on In A Different Light just as it did on Sparkle and Fade. ‘Summerland’ is a classic example of the dark lyrics Art has installed into many of the older Everclear songs: “I think I lost my smile / I think you lost yours too / We have lost the power to / Make each other laugh.”
‘Here Comes the Darkness’ is the other song on In a Different Light that is new. It was originally going to be recorded for 2006’s Welcome to the Drama Club. This song seems to be a middle ground between older Everclear and the new Everclear. It still holds on to some of the darkness but has a little of the maturity of the Art Alexakis of 2009.
‘Father of Mine,’ quite possibly one of the most well known Everclear songs, has also made the cut for the new album. The stripped down version is a noble attempt, but the original recording from So Much For The Afterglow contains so much more power and emotion, something that this song is built on.
‘Rock Star,’ originally off of Songs from an American Movie, Vol 2: Good Time for a Bad Attitude, is one of those forgotten songs. Good Time for a Bad Attitude never came to much recognition, even though ‘Rock Star’ was one of the singles released for the album. In the song Art sings “I don’t want to be a loser / I don’t want to be an almost was / I don’t wan to be a white trash working class chump / I don’t to be a loser anymore.” It seems quite ironic the song declaring this never made it while Everclear themselves did become rock stars to some degree.
‘Learning How to Smile’ is another one off its self titled album. It’s something of a country music style story song for alt rock. ‘I Will Buy You a New Life’ is another awesome hit off So Much For The Afterglow. While the song has lost some of the energy in the stripped down version, it has gained a lot of sincerity. Acoustic guitar is a perfect transition for this song.
It’s awesome that Everclear is back, but it is a bit sad that In A Different Light is the last album that will be featuring the old Everclear lineup. Art has unfortunately totally recreated the group after this recording and will be touring and recording with the new Everclear. So long 90’s Alternative Superheroes, hello Adult Alternative hits list.
In a Different Light starts out with one of the band’s most recognized hits off the album So Much For The Afterglow, ‘Everything to Everyone.’ The song starts off with its signature keyboard droning and kicks in with acoustic guitar and simple drums. The song itself is very stripped down from the original version, and the maturity in Art’s voice can be heard after twelve years since the song was originally recorded.
The second rerecorded song on the album is a heartfelt version of ‘ Wonderful.’ The song itself is quite powerful in its original form on Songs From an American Movie, Vol. 1: Learning How To Smile, but the stripped down acoustic and again an older Art Alexakis creates a very different experience of the song.
‘At The End Of The Day’ is a brand new song that was never included on an album. It was written by art in 2004 but didn’t make the cut until now. It features some very gospel singer style backup vocals and great acoustic piano pieces. The lyrics are very different from classic Everclear, and more reflective on Art and his past: “I know / I would do it all again / At the end of the day.”
‘Santa Monica’ is one of the songs that put Everclear on the map back in 1995 with the album Sparkle and Fade. The song starts off with a nice little keyboard piece and continues with the acoustic guitar. The drums kick in at the second verse and the song really takes off after that. The acoustic rerecording hasn’t taken any of the original flavor away, just twisted it around.
‘Summerland’ comes after ‘Santa Monica’ on In A Different Light just as it did on Sparkle and Fade. ‘Summerland’ is a classic example of the dark lyrics Art has installed into many of the older Everclear songs: “I think I lost my smile / I think you lost yours too / We have lost the power to / Make each other laugh.”
‘Here Comes the Darkness’ is the other song on In a Different Light that is new. It was originally going to be recorded for 2006’s Welcome to the Drama Club. This song seems to be a middle ground between older Everclear and the new Everclear. It still holds on to some of the darkness but has a little of the maturity of the Art Alexakis of 2009.
‘Father of Mine,’ quite possibly one of the most well known Everclear songs, has also made the cut for the new album. The stripped down version is a noble attempt, but the original recording from So Much For The Afterglow contains so much more power and emotion, something that this song is built on.
‘Rock Star,’ originally off of Songs from an American Movie, Vol 2: Good Time for a Bad Attitude, is one of those forgotten songs. Good Time for a Bad Attitude never came to much recognition, even though ‘Rock Star’ was one of the singles released for the album. In the song Art sings “I don’t want to be a loser / I don’t want to be an almost was / I don’t wan to be a white trash working class chump / I don’t to be a loser anymore.” It seems quite ironic the song declaring this never made it while Everclear themselves did become rock stars to some degree.
‘Learning How to Smile’ is another one off its self titled album. It’s something of a country music style story song for alt rock. ‘I Will Buy You a New Life’ is another awesome hit off So Much For The Afterglow. While the song has lost some of the energy in the stripped down version, it has gained a lot of sincerity. Acoustic guitar is a perfect transition for this song.
It’s awesome that Everclear is back, but it is a bit sad that In A Different Light is the last album that will be featuring the old Everclear lineup. Art has unfortunately totally recreated the group after this recording and will be touring and recording with the new Everclear. So long 90’s Alternative Superheroes, hello Adult Alternative hits list.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
blast from the past- London Calling
London Calling is a landmark album release by The Clash in 1979. It marks a big change in the style of music being written by the band, and is influential for many bands in a wide style of genres from punk and pop to third-wave ska.
The title track for the album, ‘London Calling’ blasts through right away with a powerful and very recognizable bass riff. Even if you think you don’t know The Clash, you know ‘London Calling’. The lyrics of the song powerfully invoke images of some post-apocalyptic, war zone London: “London calling to the faraway towns / Now that war is declared and battle come down.”
Just a couple tracks later, the band takes a complete one hundred and eighty degree turn with the song ‘Jimmy Jazz.’ Where ‘London Calling’ was a bit of a harder punk song, the influence for ‘Jimmy Jazz’ lies quite clearly on the shoulders of reggae. A powerful walking bass-line, some up-strummed guitar chords and fantastic horns really keep it mellow.
‘Rudie Can’t Fail’ is another song heavily influenced by early Jamaican ska and reggae, with a bit of punk flavor. The heavy Jamaican influence is not only heard in the music of the song, similar to ‘Jimmy Jazz,’ but also in the spoken and written lyrics. The song itself is about a ‘rudie,’ or a delinquent Jamaican youth heavily involved in the early ska scene. Aside from all the Jamaican lyrics influence, it seems as if they may also be poking a bit of fun at organized society; In this you can see the early ska and reggae music being fused with punk ideals.
A lot of punk and pop sound shines through in ‘Lost In the Supermarket,’ musically and idealistically. In particular the lyrics of this song are quite powerful, touching on psychology and mental disorder, the mark of the educated punk deity who is Joe Strummer. Stuff like “I wasn’t born so much as I fell out” and “I heard the people who lived on the ceiling / Scream and fight most scarily / Hearing that noise was my first ever feeling / That’s how it’s been all around me” reveals a certain air of a distorted childhood, a hallmark of modern punk music. This song also pokes some fun at society like ‘Rudie Can’t Fail.’
‘The Guns of Brixton’ is an awesome anthem of civil unrest with lyrics that depict a rough time in London: ‘When the law break in / How you gonna go? / With your hands on your head / Or on the trigger of your gun?” The tune is the only Clash song written solely by bassist Paul Simonon, featuring him on lead vocal duties, that was released by the band. Simonon drew his influence for ‘The Guns of Brixton’ from growing up in Brixton, South London and the civil unrest of the people versus the brutal police activity that was taking place at the time of the song’s writing.
With all the other serious themes like drugs, revolution, sex and society going on in ‘London Calling,’ The Clash still had the time to throw in a classic song about heartbreak at the end called ‘Train in Vain (Stand by Me).’ ‘Train in Vain’ was originally not going to be included on the original 1979 release of ‘London Calling’ but was a last minute addition and therefore is not included on track listings for the original album.
The Clash are one of the most recognizable bands in the beginning of the English Punk movement and ‘London Calling’ is one of the most powerful albums released by the band, and even one of the most fantastic albums to come out of the glorious 1970’s. The influence of this band and album can be seen in so many different musical groups of many genres. In the punk scene it’s clear that guys like Rancid were heavily influenced by The Clash with such ballads of unrest as ‘Arrested in Shanghai.’ In the third-wave ska scene, a band that is heavily influenced by the Clash is the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. You can catch this band’s level of appreciation by the spirit with which they cover ‘Rudie Can’t Fail’ at their live concerts. It’s clear Sublime has also drawn from The Clash’s rich infusion of punk, ska, and early reggae music. These are only a few examples of the wide effect ‘London Calling’ and The Clash have had on music as a whole, never mind the effect they have had on society and culture from their heyday through the times we live in now.
The title track for the album, ‘London Calling’ blasts through right away with a powerful and very recognizable bass riff. Even if you think you don’t know The Clash, you know ‘London Calling’. The lyrics of the song powerfully invoke images of some post-apocalyptic, war zone London: “London calling to the faraway towns / Now that war is declared and battle come down.”
Just a couple tracks later, the band takes a complete one hundred and eighty degree turn with the song ‘Jimmy Jazz.’ Where ‘London Calling’ was a bit of a harder punk song, the influence for ‘Jimmy Jazz’ lies quite clearly on the shoulders of reggae. A powerful walking bass-line, some up-strummed guitar chords and fantastic horns really keep it mellow.
‘Rudie Can’t Fail’ is another song heavily influenced by early Jamaican ska and reggae, with a bit of punk flavor. The heavy Jamaican influence is not only heard in the music of the song, similar to ‘Jimmy Jazz,’ but also in the spoken and written lyrics. The song itself is about a ‘rudie,’ or a delinquent Jamaican youth heavily involved in the early ska scene. Aside from all the Jamaican lyrics influence, it seems as if they may also be poking a bit of fun at organized society; In this you can see the early ska and reggae music being fused with punk ideals.
A lot of punk and pop sound shines through in ‘Lost In the Supermarket,’ musically and idealistically. In particular the lyrics of this song are quite powerful, touching on psychology and mental disorder, the mark of the educated punk deity who is Joe Strummer. Stuff like “I wasn’t born so much as I fell out” and “I heard the people who lived on the ceiling / Scream and fight most scarily / Hearing that noise was my first ever feeling / That’s how it’s been all around me” reveals a certain air of a distorted childhood, a hallmark of modern punk music. This song also pokes some fun at society like ‘Rudie Can’t Fail.’
‘The Guns of Brixton’ is an awesome anthem of civil unrest with lyrics that depict a rough time in London: ‘When the law break in / How you gonna go? / With your hands on your head / Or on the trigger of your gun?” The tune is the only Clash song written solely by bassist Paul Simonon, featuring him on lead vocal duties, that was released by the band. Simonon drew his influence for ‘The Guns of Brixton’ from growing up in Brixton, South London and the civil unrest of the people versus the brutal police activity that was taking place at the time of the song’s writing.
With all the other serious themes like drugs, revolution, sex and society going on in ‘London Calling,’ The Clash still had the time to throw in a classic song about heartbreak at the end called ‘Train in Vain (Stand by Me).’ ‘Train in Vain’ was originally not going to be included on the original 1979 release of ‘London Calling’ but was a last minute addition and therefore is not included on track listings for the original album.
The Clash are one of the most recognizable bands in the beginning of the English Punk movement and ‘London Calling’ is one of the most powerful albums released by the band, and even one of the most fantastic albums to come out of the glorious 1970’s. The influence of this band and album can be seen in so many different musical groups of many genres. In the punk scene it’s clear that guys like Rancid were heavily influenced by The Clash with such ballads of unrest as ‘Arrested in Shanghai.’ In the third-wave ska scene, a band that is heavily influenced by the Clash is the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. You can catch this band’s level of appreciation by the spirit with which they cover ‘Rudie Can’t Fail’ at their live concerts. It’s clear Sublime has also drawn from The Clash’s rich infusion of punk, ska, and early reggae music. These are only a few examples of the wide effect ‘London Calling’ and The Clash have had on music as a whole, never mind the effect they have had on society and culture from their heyday through the times we live in now.
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