Music (Short) Reviews
Weezer , Make Believe
Sounds Like: Early Weezer covering The Scorpions
Music's Good For: Reminiscing about how good Weezer was, back in the day, when you were driving your parents' Neon to school
7.5/10
What did you think of the last few Weezer CDs? Yeah, they weren't as good as the blue album or Pinkerton were they? They definitely disappointed a lot of the hardcore fans. The green album was just ok even though it was five years after Pinkerton and only half an hour long. But hey, even a bad Weezer album is still pretty good. Maladroit was better though, so things were starting to look up. They're getting back to their old form. If you've been on the Internet, you've probably read that the new one is much better than those and it's going to be the old Weezer that you know and love. It's going to be great like the first one. Well it's not. Sorry. But it's really good.
Don't assume anything about the record from the " Beverly Hills " single. It's still Weezer, but they've gone in a somewhat new direction. Make Believe has a vibe similar to Pinkerton although much less raw and not quite as broken-hearted. Rivers Cuomo's early guitar influences (the Scorpions and various shredders) have seeped into his guitar work on this record more than in the past and most of the tracks feature some kind of singing-sustain 80's metal lead. They've incorporated a surprising number of keyboard parts on this album, most notably on "This Is Such a Pity." The title is a bit ironic because that's what a many fans will be thinking when they hear it for the first time. If you thought "What the hell is this?" the first time you heard " Island in the Sun," you'll do that again when you hear this. It wouldn't be a true Weezer album without songs about girls so of course there are plenty of those. That goes without saying.
My initial review was simply "Make believe it's good," but after a few more spins it grew on me. Like a power-pop tumor filled with catchy guitar hooks. It's not as good as the first album, but that one is perfect so should you expect that anyway? But if you like Weezer, you will like this CD. It's just a question of how many listens it will take. It's got the sing-along melodies and loud guitars that made you like them in the first place and once you get used to the new sound, you'll be much less upset over the $50 that Sam Goody charged you for it.
-- John Daniels
Sage Francis, A Healthy Distrust
8.5/10
Sounds like: Dr. Dooom, The Living Legends, El-P, Aesop Roc, Grand Buffet
Music's good for: Going blind jerking-off to an eclipse; thinking about b lack music intertwined with the white man's line dance.
Sage Francis - a rapper with two college degrees (an AA in communications from Massachusetts ' Dean College , and a BA in journalism from the University of Rhode Island ) - sure makes Eminem's growth from Misogynistic Agitator to Gas Station Attendant Hero seem pretty banal. I mean, when Eminem sings about feuding with rappers, or the possibility he's contracted AIDS (ha ha . ha?) or the perseverance that has carried him through fame's evil clutches, it sounds very dry now, doesn't it? Why is that?
Well, I think it's because Sage Francis has finally matured into a more significant social commentator - more relevant, smarter.
See, while Francis' old releases had an inclination to be slightly inward-focused and whiny (Sage has often been dubbed, I'm not making this up, "emo-hop") this new disc takes an outward glance, concentrating less on himself than the world around him. "Gunz Yo," for example, dismantles firearm worship; "Sun vs. Moon" is built around the theme of a DJ battle between the sun and the moon; and "Jah Didn't Kill Johnny" is a tribute to the departed Mr. Cash, complete with acoustic guitar and harmonica.
So does this mean one needs to adopt the voice of a new, darkly poetic, unbound editorial columnist (of sorts) to be an impressive rapper in these cruel times? Hell fucking yes. I don't care about how much weed you smoked or how much pussy you got or how big your gun is or what you're going to do with the weapon after you've skull-fucked my mom.
Sage Francis represents something of an anomaly in rap music: That boasting can be done without marketing yourself as a two-bit thug, but rather by translating the world into words that hold meaning, hold truth, and represent analogies beyond the obvious. Because, at that point, not only are you effecting the person you're boasting to, you're also opening up the floodgates - those entryways to intelligence that might allow someone else in; someone who might learn from your ideas, your opinions, your chosen means of expression.
Even if it's rap. Even if you're only trying to express that Thought, thrown from the throat, represents old cages discarded by scapegoats.
- Murtle Faceloaf
Liz Berlin, AudioBioGraphical
4/10
Sounds like: Soma Mestizo, Garbage, Goya Dress, Liz Phair Oh Liz Berlin. Mmmm. Liz Berlin. Oh Liz, Oh Liz, Oh Liz. You are so hot. I just wanna, yeah, that's it. Mmmhmmmm. Liz. Oh yes Liz. Every time I put on this album, AudioBioGraphical , I think. this album. uh. uh.. Uh. Yeah. Oh, Liz, you nasty nasty girl. You are so hot. This album. yeah, that's it. Right there. ooh. Ooh. Ooh. No. Lower. Eh. A little higher.. No. come on. That's just not right. You can do it. Oh you are so hot. This album. ooooooh. Yeah. I love ya, baby. I love that body of work. Liz, baby, do it. Do it. Do it. But you could have done it a little better. This album. wasn't your strongest album. But you are so hot. Yesssss. I've heard you many times before. You've got such talent, baby. It just didn't show on AudioBioGraphical. The production was a little off. Some creative ideas on there. Oh yeah. I mean it had a groove. It just wasn't the hard groove I needed. It just didn't. Come on.. What's wrong. Did I say something? What happened? Oh come on. I didn't mean it in a bad way. Liz, I love you.
Dodging August, The Sore Eyes EP
5/10
Sounds like: Jimmy Eat World, Goo Goo Dolls, Screaming Trees
Music's good for: Going on a long, pleasant car ride to a place you hate .
To Dodging August's credit:
1) The only time I saw them live, they played some hole-in-the-wall South Oakland bar for an hour-and-a-half (an hour-and-a-half ), stopping only once for a minute-long pee/beer break. Kinda unusual for a tightly-woven, solo-free pop band. But anyway: At one point after the break, they did their best to fend-off a very drunk, very large, cover-hungry freshman college football player (DL = Drunken Lout) without interrupting their set tactfully. This is what happened:
DL would randomly stumble onto the foot-high stage, screaming into singer Andrew Gides' face. DL got angrier and angrier as the night progressed.
"Freebird!" DL was saying. "I said motherfucking Freebird!"
But Andrew played on. He was laughing, backing up and smiling, talking to DL in song as the band continued and everyone in the crowd of 8 people, tops, attempted to pretend nothing bad - read: violent or stupid - would happen. This went on for a good while. Then, after DL drank beer # 20 or so, Andrew sang the lyric: "Take me clear up / Toss me off the tower that is 40 stories tall / So I'm plastered to the floor / If you don't get away from me, I'm gonna kick you / in the testicles . really hard, ooh."
And instead of punching Andrew in the face - as he probably would've liked to - DL just sorta got this cross-eyed look on his face, tripped over something invisible, fell backwards onto the floor, then passed out.
This made me think Rock had, for once, prevailed over idiocy and alcohol abuse. Made me feel nice.
2) It's almost impossible to make a decent assertion about a band's music from a three-track disc.
However : These three tracks - Sore Eyes," "Song For Sarah," and "#27" - suffer from a lack of newness, a lack of excitement . a lack of the shoe-gazer ferocity Dodging August's live performance embodies. It's as if this disc was recorded with one take, on a 4-track at 9 a.m. Fills me with dread.
And so on.
My immediate suggestion, Dodging August, is that you stop listening to the Goo Goo Dolls (they're appallingly uncool). My second suggestion is that you record a new disc with a better producer. My third suggestion is to always understand that Maroon 5 really, really sucks. And that you want to move away from them, not toward them. Because you're getting close. You really are. And I don't want that for you. I really don't. Because then I'd have to do something terrible. Understand me?
- Dick Hurts
Animal Collective, Sung Tongs
8/10
Sounds like: Devendra Banhart, The Arcade Fire, Joanna Newsom
Music's good for: Thinking about loving music, forcing molecules of sound into a vacuum, liquefying them somehow, never letting them out, never sharing. It's all for you.
Strange tunes. Instead of conceptualizing music as an idea, Sung Tongs is an abstraction of songs as a concept - real words, but the focus is not on the words as much as the music that engulfs them. Words are less important than sounds, or the idea of words, or maybe the sound of the idea of words as sounds. I don't know. It's very organic - senseless, yet poignant. And not in a "Whole Foods" kinda way. More like a "crystal lost, buried in dirt for decades, stepped on, then found again" kinda way. Incredible. Like Brian Wilson's Smile - similarly constructed harmonies; same reaching mind-expansion - only crazier, freer, warmer.
- Rainier Corin
Dalek, Absence
9/10
Sounds like: Hieroglyphics, K-Rino
Music's good for: Wondering how significant the terror threat is when you're in Butler County , then wondering how you can better protect yourself from an extra terrestrial attack.
Deeply political hip-hop - heavy beats, deafening background noise. Hurts to hear. Fantastic nonetheless. Hits upon the same concepts as Sage Francis - the same constructs separating intelligent rappers from assholes - only angrier, dirtier, stronger, more experimental, less slam.
I doubt a major label would get anywhere near these guys, but they should.
- Gershom Onesiphorus
Gorillaz, Demon Days
8/10
Sounds like: Out Cake, Handsome Boy Modeling School , Deltron 3030, Dr. Octagon
Music's good for: Selling legitimate chocolate-chip muffins to hundreds of beautiful gay men in a warehouse.
Gorillaz, Damon Albarn cute little cartoon side project, are pretty annoying - less a band than a virtual supergroup comprising four cartoons conceived by the Blur frontman and his one-time roommate, illustrator Jamie Hewlett (creator of Tank Girl).
This disc (which also includes some impressive production handiwork by Grey Album creator DJ Dangermouse) is impressive, if only because, after a couple listens, it doesn't urge you to run your car for a month in a sealed garage while you paint my toenails in the driver's seat.
Constructed in bursts of blip-hop and harmonies, drum n' bass and strangely appropriate melody, what makes this record incredible are the transitions from one impossible flow to the next. The disc moves seamlessly - a cohesive organism of funk and pop and hip-hop that, for some reason, makes me not hate the British quite so much. At least for right now.
- Sibyl Carmen
John Digweed, Fabric 20
4.5/10
Sounds like: Paul Van Dyk, Sasha, Breeder, Tilt
Music's good for: Laying cable.
"Hey guys, I heard a really raunchy joke before I came home! Wanna hear it?"
"No!" Rock said.
"Okay. But I've gotta warn ya, it's pretty bad!" Blues said as he gnawed on his ice cream cone; the vanilla ice cream that had been on it a few moments earlier now nothing more than faint pieces of material within his robotic belly.
Rock nodded. "I said I don't want to hear it."
"Me neither," Roll added. "You're a real shit-eating horse's cock, you know that? Why would I want to hear something from you when I've got this monotonous rave bullshit playing in the background? Ass."
"Okay then. What did the gynecologist say to his wife when he got home?" Noticing that neither of his paid sex slaves had an answer for the question after a few moments of silence, Blues answered, "'Honey, I'm bushed.' Get it?" He suddenly burst out laughing at the sight of the slaves' expressions. "I told you it was bad! Ha ha!"
- Michael Cyrus Pockwill
Queens of the Stone Age, Lullabies To Paralyze
8.5/10
Sounds like: Kyuss, Soundgarden, Masters of Reality, Screaming Trees, Fu Manchu;
Music's good for: Realizing everybody knows you're insane.
Queens Of The Stone Age's position as rock gods has been a little shaky since the departure of founding member and bassist Nick Oliveri, and the rather predictable comeback single "Little Sister."
Yet, Lullabies To Paralyse soon obliterates any worries you might have that they're a spent force.
Mark Lanegan's somber introduction on Lullaby hardly reflects the ensuing tone of the record. Instead, Josh Homme fronts a fine hard rock band, packed full of driving riffs and crushing drum beats.
Three albums in and it's impossible to mistake a QOTSA record for anyone else - the devilish "Medication" and eerie "Skin On Skin" couldn't be the product of any other band.
The barrage of skull-shaking guitar parts is bordering on evil, but somehow the band has added some grace to their full-throttle live show.
In My Head is QOTSA to a tee, re-creating the sound of their previous works and adding an extra dose of angst.
QOTSA will be once again be one of this year's must-see festival bands.
- Richard Cheetham,
www.manchesteronline.co.uk
M83, Before the Dawn Heals Us
7.5/10
Sounds like: The Black Heart Procession, Four Tet, Of Montreal, The Wrens
Music's good for: Roaming downtown at night, walking the streets in a daze.
Now this is more like it. What was the big deal about Anthony Gonzalez' last M83 album? People went ballistic over it and I thought it was a half-baked soundscape that never took off. Before The Dawn Heals Us is an even more stripped down group, with Nicolas Fromageau leaving, making it pretty much Anthony's show. He let's loose big time here. He even rocks out pretty hard on "Don't Save Us From The Fames." It does lean into the 80s for a little bit of influence but it is a really clever song. The first real similarity I see to Dead Cities is "In The Cold I'm Standing." There are others but I think because there is a little more diversity here as well as the addition of vocals to some of the tracks makes it that much deeper and a better album overall. The opener, "Moonchild" sounds like next-generation Pink Floyd. "Farewell/Goodbye" might even be mistaken for a New Age hit with its ethereal vocals but it luckily results closer to an Air single.
• Dennis Scanland, www.musicemissions.com
Kid Koala, Live From the Short Attention Span Audio Tour
3/10
Sounds like: DJ Faust, Cut Chemist, DJ Shadow, Dan the Automator
Music's good for: Purchasing automobiles.
In the fall of 2003, Montreal based turntablist and sampler Kid Koala (aka Eric San), took his most ambitious show ever - the Short Attention Span Theatre Tour - on the road in support of his album Some of My Best Friends Are DJs and his graphic novel "Nufonia Must Fall." Those lucky ones who managed to see him live must have realized the Kid is unique: His tour was a combination of music, animations, comedy and, well, bingo.
This EP contains a 5 track audio CD and a DVD with the images of the London gig that took place in November 2003, plus short surreal films by Monkmus, the weird "Basin Street Blues" video, the trailer for "Nufonia Must Fall" and a bingo game (you'll find the bingo card in the CD package).
During the gig, Kid Koala presents a sort of turntable band made up of himself, P-Love and DJ Jester. The gig sparks with energy: Kid Koala jokes, nods his head to the rhythm and introduces his songs and the guest DJs. The tracks are a mish-mash of sounds and genres from jazz to rock, from blues to dance, the whole spiced up with hilarious samples: "Stompin' at le Savoi" is a funky track titled after the Montreal club where Kid Koala started DJing; the spaced out "Page 275" is inspired by a page of "Nufonia Must Fall," while the highlight of the night is the relentless ska of "Skanky Panky." The DVD images also give an insight on the turntable skills of the band: fingers run fast and agile on vinyl, alternating from the records to the cross fader, creating quirky funky beats.
"It only gets weirder from here," says a quote at the end of the DVD credits and you can bet Kid Koala's new album - on which he's at present still working - will definitely be even weirder and better than this. In the meantime, we can just wait and enjoy this new release.
Anna Battista, www.erasingclouds.com
Jimmy Chamberlin Complex, Life Begins Again
6.2/10
Sounds like: Primus, Yanni, Ghosts of the Canal
Music's good for: Drumming yourself completely mad (in the British sense).
The Jimmy Chamberlin Complex is a project spearheaded by former Smashing Pumpkins drumming prodigy Jimmy Chamberlin. "Life Begins Again," Chamberlin's debut, is a mix of instrumental tracks and vocals by committee, including Billy Corgan and ex-Catherine Wheel frontman Rob Dickinson. The tracks are tightly wound pieces with often somber and dark guitar work. While the record displays the obvious - that Chamberlin is one of the [most impressive rock] drummers in the world - it lacks a clearly definable purpose and niche.
The tracks are at their best when the guitars are less about playing elevator music, and more about getting to the point and rocking out. Tracks like "Love Is Real" and "Life Begins Again" are successful because their agenda is simple: play really hard and sound really impressive. Chamberlin is a magnificent drummer, and this record only makes me enjoy his work more, but Chamberlin can't do it all himself. A perfect example of this is on "P.S.A," where Chamberlin does his best to salvage the song by playing impressive fills, but the guitar work is completely forgettable. I think the idea a drummer-lead project is noble, and "Life Begins Again" is no slouch in terms of instrumental prowess, but there's no strong melodies, no ear-bending guitar solos, no screaming vocals. And Chamberlin is pretty much the only one rocking out.
Marty Slagter, www.musicunderwater.com
Origin aka Will Stanton , sixty forty
6.5/10
Sounds like: Roots Manuva, Das Efx, EPMD, Wu Tang Clan
Music's good for: Jumping rope in a missile silo.
Some of the beats are weak, some of the metaphors are absurd ("If you wanna run wit my team I'll lead ya / If not, ya get stomped like King Koopah"), and the production isn't exactly stellar, but the disc is tight as shit - unique feel, rhymes concentrating on paranoia, confusion, a lack of stability, constant uncertainty, love, life, emotion. Genuinely moving rap record; genuinely progressive; genuinely worth picking up, pursuing.
- Frenk Perniskis
Between Home and Serenity, Power Weapons in the Complex
5/10
Sounds like: Thursday, Pennywise, Motley Crue
Music's good for: Recognizing that you've grown old and bitter.
For some reason when I put this CD into my DVD drive, it makes this weird sound like my computer is being taken over by aliens. Makes me kinda nervous. Like I'm being watched; like there's a civilization of evil goons in outer space looking to attack me through my goddamn monitor; like they're using Between Home and Serenity - a tame, predictable, big-label, half-screamo, half-pop/rock; half Eighteen Visions, half Sugar Ray goofball outfit - as a medium into my brain so they can take over my office and force me to say . what, that corporate sponsorship isn't all that bad? That I've developed a serious love of "rock-emo with an alternative edge?" That I don't think life is all that valuable? That my soul is fungible?
Well, fuck . hold on. Let me get this CD out of my computer.
Ah, better.
Okay then:
Listen kids! Corporate sponsorship isn't all that bad! I've developed a serious love of "rock-emo with an alternative edge" and you should, too! I don't think life is all that valuable! My soul is fungible!
- Paul H. Monkey
Fantomas, Suspended Animation
7.846/10
Sounds like: Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Johnny Lang, Paul Butterfield
Music's good for: Sitting in front of the television Saturday morning watching "Tales from the Crypt," eating raw pork.
You walk into the backstage room of a rundown circus act, and your jaw drops. Monkeys, "Looney Tunes" characters, aliens, transvestites and serial killers are all dancing to a tune booming from the room's corner. You stand on your toes, look around and see a band - at least the instrumental portion of it. They look like your standard thrash-metal lineup ("That's one of the drummers from Slayer, right?"). You glance further, through them, only to find out that time and perception just went out the window. The band abruptly morphs from a mathy thrash-metal unit to a jazzy lounge act, then to a tribal circle. And in just a millisecond it all stops. Out of the rafters appears a monster - like a 600 pound Pit-bull in a bunny suit. He starts chanting a cleverly syncopated rhythm in Tazmanian Devil-speak. Then he stops his gibberish (before it really even started) and his head morphs into some sort of Franciscan monk. A huge operatic note emits from his mouth while he slams his enormous claws down on a synthesizer - a tiny piece in a giant conglomeration of machines that have recently appeared - just appeared - and are now covered in ectoplasm and vomit. The monster jumps on top of his contraption, and places a finger on a tiny Casio keyboard. A single cartoon-like BOINK pokes its way into your ears, and then the music ceases, you close your eyes. You keep them closed.
Quite a visual, eh? Doesn't make lots of sense? Well, you must understand that Fantomas gives its listeners more of a visual experience than anything. It delivers a soundscape - a series of movie trailers to a bizarre section of the brain that many songwriters target, but only Mike Patton can hit. It's a soundtrack to the best psychological horror movie ever made. While Fantomas' last album, The Director's Cut, remade theme songs from classic horror flicks, Suspended Animation is a score for its own movie. And as it contains plenty of theatrical elements, it brings its hardcore fans back to their debut, with short, sporadic onslaughts of what initially seems like noise.
Normal, sane people will simply react to this music saying: "What the fuck is this?" Less-sane people - inebriated, bored musicians mostly - will drool over the seemingly impossible yet perfectly executed time changes, the bizarre sound effects, and the sheer energy of it all. Loonies will find the place they call home, as they embellish in all the discomfort and disconnectedness of the music.
With a few listens, you start to feel that being nuts is great. You suddenly feel comforted. "There is someone out there who is more fucked up than me! Covering yourself in excrement while shouting obscenities at the moon isn't such a bad thing after all!" Or maybe not. But whatever:
Fantomas' music captures this mood and more. And no one else has ever done it so vividly. This is Mike Patton's representation of insanity and every lovely thing that comes with it - from forgotten childhood memories and fantasies, to the inner workings of Frances Farmer's mind.
Enjoy it.
Or forget it exists.
• Neil Yodnane
Kylesa, To Walk a Middle Course
6.5/10
Sounds like: Converge, Candiria, Dillinger Escape Plan, Meshuggah, Poop
Music's good for: Singing the Crowbar version of Gary Wright's "Dream Weaver" in a nasty metal growl, like: "Oooohhdrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeam weeeeeavr, ah beleeeeeve you can get me throooo tha nrrrright" et cetera.
Steve: What does this band sound like to you, Ang?
Angela: Hmm. They kinda sound like . um . like . like a butt!
Steve: What do you mean by that Ang?
Angela: [long silence while Angela takes a bite of her jelly doughnut] Dunno.
Steve: Well, just think, Ang. Do you mean like, a fart?
Angela [Angela finishes chewing]: No I don't mean a fart. Jerk!
Steve: How about 'fart or any other noise you could possibly make with two fleshy, plump butt cheeks?'
Angela: Steve . um . Steve?
Steve: What.
Angela: Steve, can we go home?
Steve: No. Let's dissect this, Angela. Are you saying that if butt had a sound, this would be it? That Kylesa would embody the idea of the butt as a sound? That it would be interesting if like, if Cannibal Corpse merged with a butt? That maybe they would make a CD like this?
Angela [confused, frowning, pouting, on the verge of tears. Shyly, she says]: No.
Steve [moves closer to Angela, threatening her [like an asshole]]: Or maybe that Cannibal Corpse would create a love child that would swallow the fucking entirety of metal as an industry? And that this idea - this Cannibal Corpse spawn - would really end all our misery?
Angela [starts crying].
- Guest review by Angela Fucari, 6, and her older brother Steve, 19, while waiting in the car for Steve's friend, Voodoo Ted, 26, who's absent (also: absentminded), and paying for gas.
We're Wolves, Welcome to the Childhood Home of Andy Warhol and Dan Marino
7/10
Sounds like: Violent Femmes, Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, Pavement, Built to Spill
Music's good for: Standing in a large grass area in a huge crowd outside a large university watching a band you're never really heard before that, when you about it, sounds a lot like Weezer; then popping on some headphones and enjoying the evening, since everyone you know is there and the weather is beautiful and you know something terrible is about to happen.
In contrast to Clinton Doggett's sultry, pink-techno-fart alter ego (Hotness), the We're Wolves' singer/guitarist shows a surprising amount of sincerity, clarity and creativity on WTTCHOAWADM, a promising disc that could, one would think, open doors to expanded possibilities for live rock/folk music in the Pittsburgh area and beyond blah blah blah.
I was always wondering if anyone was going to jump on the Built To Spill raft. Seems as though these cats have done it. Though I'm only being nice, since Clinton writes for Deek occasionally and he's fragile. I think he even has a piece in this issue. Yeah, he definitely does.
What the fuck!
Advertorial!
We're fired.
Standout songs: The Cigarette Basement," Conversationalist," "You Can't Have It," title track.
- Nova Keenan
Moby, Hotel
1/10
Sounds like: music to ignore
Music's good for : switching CDs
Boring. Lame. Terrible.
- Shine Rangoon
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