Review: Guns on the Roof - "Shattered Feeling"

Label: Glory Glory

Released: March 2, 2009

Guns on the Roof have spent the last two years playing with the likes of Rancid, the Misfits, Stiff Little Fingers, UK Subs, the Briggs and others, all bands that mix their punk rock sneers with unbeatable hooks. Their touring company along with the band from who they lifted their moniker have all left a mark on Guns on the Roof, but none to the point that it makes these guys a knock off. Strong production gives a hard rock punch to "Shattered Feeling" that mixes nicely with all those infectious whoa-ohs.

Ratings
Satriani: 6/10
Zappa: 6/10
Dylan: 6/10
Aretha: 6/10
Overall: 6/10

Website

Myspace

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Review: Shirock - Everything Burns

Label: self-released

Released: February 3, 2009

Everything Burns kicks off as a fairly typical post-emo mainstream rock album. There are bits of alt rock and emo tidied up in a nice, easily digestible package and yet...there's something else, something deeper going on with this record. Underneath what seems at first to be a solid, but uneventful set of songs, there's an exuberance that is a true rarity. This band has a message and in their earnestness, they will save the world (or do their best at least). Once the message hits, the songs seem larger, truer, better. And by half way through, something else becomes apparent: They love U2. Their best songs filter mid-80s U2 through the subsequent alt rock and emo explosions and come up with something unique, yet familiar. Like their mentors, they have, at least on their best tracks, marry memorable, moving rock n roll with a message of hope. In case this message might be lost on some, the spoken word part of title track's intro spells it out. They are going to "love people." It's that love that permeates the album and changes it from a solid release to a magnificent experience.

Check out their site for tour details. This band isn't just singing about living life the right way; they're actually doing it. They've partnered with local charities at each stop and all proceeds help the communities in which they're playing. Mark one for the good guys!

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 6/10
Dylan: 8/10
Aretha: 9/10
Overall: 9/10

Website

Myspace

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Review: Buried in Leather - We Are Gone

Label: Teenage Heart Records

Released: August 11, 2008

Perhaps nowhere did the earliest marriages of punk and metal produce better material than in Boston. The early 80s found the likes of Gang Green and the FUs infusing their street punk with more than just a hint of metal. A lot of this was forgotten later in the decade as thrash became the principal vehicle for the punk/metal crossover, but it's nice to see that the same spirit that produced these bands is still alive in Boston. Buried in Leather pour on an intense, yet fun attack of thrashy punk rock with just a little metal riffage for good measure. Even on mid-tempo tracks like the somewhat hard rock-influenced "More Dirty Places," they manage to amp things up to the max. On others, like the album closing "No Ninjas," they move from a lumbering start right into the breakneck energy for which punk has long been known. While We Are Gone may not exactly be a bold new future, it injects fantastic energy into a genre whose day was way too short the first time around. It feels just as fresh as This Is Boston Not LA did 25 years ago.

Ratings
Satriani: 6/10
Zappa: 5/10
Dylan: 6/10
Aretha: 8/10
Overall: 7/10

Myspace

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Review: Fun Machine - Sonnenhuhn

Label: BNS Sessions

Released: February 24, 2009

Story problem: If King Crimson and ELP were together heading south at 75 mph, Art of Noise was heading north at 102 mph and Hawkwind was heading west at, well the speed of the Silver Machine, what would you call the force where they met?

Answer: Fun Machine.

If that isn't enough in the mix for you, others stroll into this madness as well. The psychedelic ghost of Syd Barrett materializes on "Flaking Reality." "Family Vapor" dives into sections of unabashed punk rock. A not-so-metal Voi Vod rears its head throughout. Most importantly though, Sonnenhuhn doesn't suffer from the cold stoicism and pure experimentalism that often bogs down prog albums. Instead, it has the quirky earthiness of nerdy indie rock. It's this sense of humanity, even more than the bold mix of musical flavors, that allows the album to really take off and get wild. Frantic psychedelia, angular prog rock, eclectic influences and general craziness are all found in beautifully natural abundance on Sonnenhuhn.

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 8/10
Dylan: 6/10
Aretha: 7/10
Overall: 8/10

Myspace

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Review: JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound - Beat of Our Own Drum.

Label: self-released (CD Baby)

Released: February 24, 2009

JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound hail from Chicago, have a song about Baltimore and sound like Detroit...in the 60s. That was the time and place where the local airwaves were a battleground between Motown and garage rock. While not the greatest to emerge from that scene, it was probably Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels that best embodied that clash. And it is that same collision of sound that the Uptown Sound tap.

Beat of Our Own Drum certainly leans more toward soul than garage as Otis Redding or Booker T & the MGs will come to mind quicker that the MC5 or the Stooges, but it doesn't take a very discerning ear to hear the latter nonetheless. The album almost seems as if it came out of that swirling confusion as previously disparate genres clashed. It's like a soul record that discovered rock n roll and added the best elements it offered.

The only difficulty this album really runs into is that it is often too smooth. A song will build and just as it seems ready to really break out, JC and company throw in a hook rather than an explosion. It's not a killer, but it tones down the crazy that both great soul and great garage rock always have. Beat of Our Own Drum is in fact so good that it hints at the greatness that it doesn't quite achieve. They simply need to trust the music enough to let it run wild at times. There are points when it seems like a James Brown moment is ready to happen and when it doesn't, it can be more disappointing than a record that never even comes close to those heights. That is the one missing ingredient that stands between this being really good and flat out fantastic.

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 7/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 7/10
Overall: 7/10

Myspace

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Review: Paula Sinclair - Steadygirl

Label: Old Sombrero Music

Released: March 17, 2009

Some albums are amazing in the way they push the boundaries and change the rules while others are amazing in the way they perform within existing boundaries and prove long established rules. There isn't much that's new in Paula Sinclair's music. She plays something that walks a fine line between country and folk so much so that it's difficult to tell whether it's country-tinged folk or the other way around. The rough edges hints at the garages of the mid-60s and Sinclair's voice is the perfect mix of raw and rich to broaden her appeal well into the realm of rock music. While all of this has been done by artists from the Indigo Girls to Gillian Welch, it still sounds fresh for Sinclair, because her delivery rings true. There is both honesty and trust in her music that is best summed up in the words of Steve Earle that she sings on Steadygirl, "I've got me a fearless heart/Strong enough to get you through the scary parts." These same words also reveal another great truth about her songs. The love she writes of is a giving love and what could be more true than that?

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 5/10
Dylan: 6/10
Aretha: 8/10
Overall: 7/10

Website

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Review: Thin Lizzy - Still Dangerous

Label: VH1 Classic Records

Released: March 3, 2009

Probably the biggest trap into which a live album can fall is that of sounding too much like a studio album. After all, if it sounds pretty much like the studio cuts with crowd noise in between, what's the point? A live album should inject different energies or arrangements into the songs we already love, not just rehash them. It's an all too common disaster and any band on the verge of it would be wise to use Still Dangerous as a guide toward righteousness (just as much as Lizzy's established classic Live and Dangerous).

Lizzy's soulful hard rock takes on a looser feel right from the start. The sound is bright and clean, but also unmistakably live, with even their best known tracks taking on new life. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than on the blistering "Massacre" which is all the evidence needed to explain why this line-up is considered Lizzy's best. Phil Lynott's channeling of fellow Irishman Van Morrison into a hard rock format on "Dancing in the Moonlight" makes it hard to understand why something this good remained on the periphery of big time success. Every track provides a new look at Lizzy that never came from the studio albums, good as they were.

Still Dangerous isn't quite a perfect album though. At just over 45 minutes, it certainly finishes the set before it's really ready. And it does take a little bit to get going, with a second half that makes the merely very good start seem a little slow. Nonetheless, it does everything a live album should. It provides a different angle on some great songs. It might not be the same as being there, but it certainly makes those of us who weren't realize that we missed something pretty great.

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 7/10
Dylan: 8/10
Aretha: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

Website

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Interview: MySon

The Netherlands' MySon takes sound quality and precision very seriously. They eschew it, concentrating instead on the raw art and energy that is at the heart of great rock n roll. They recently released a second demo that may have a more focused sound, but doesn't compromise their principles of noise. Check out the new tunes on their Myspace page.

RnRnMN: One thing that struck me about your demo was that the crazy factor was pretty high. How do you seek out an audience for your brand of rock n roll?

We don't seek an audience, we let the people find us. We just try to play as much as possible, in as diverse places as possible. We play squats, we play small bars, we play "regular" venues. We just try to reach as many people as possible, and hopefully, for some, we will be like a flycatcher and they will stick to us.


RnRnMN: You seemed to bask in the rawness of that demo. Will you take the same approach on the new one or will you try to refine your sound?

We feel the rawness is definitely a part of our sound. However we do try to play our songs as we intended them to be. Listening back to the old demo and then listening to the new one, there is definitely a progress in that respect. Maybe it might come across as a bit less raw, I don't know, but I think to most people it will still be raw as hell. We don't do any studio tricks, don't overnormalize our recordings (though we did run it through a tape recorder with pretty high record levels, this time), and just basically try to capture what is going on. Hell, the only real effect we have used on our vocals is a delay on the last note of 'Call A Delay', as we though it would be pretty funny there.


RnRnMN: It seems you've abandoned many of the traditional rock conventions, relying more on chaos than structure. With that unconventional approach, what direction do you see MySon taking as you grow as a band?

There is actually a surprising amount of structure when you really examine the songs. At least that's what I feel. It's basically still the Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Chorus, that we use most of the time. But I guess we are pretty good at masking that. On the new demo there definitely are some new songs that are more structured, or more recognizably structured, I should say. But on the other hand there are also songs that are less structured than those that are on the first demo. We just try to do as many different things as we can come up with. We always try to do something we haven't done before in our new songs. If we will be able to keep that up? Who knows? We'll just do our best not to recycle too much of what we've done before. Trying to keep it fresh, and in that regard also open for a broader group of people, I guess.


RnRnMN: You're wild enough in the studio. What goes in your live show?

Check out our YouTube videos, I'd say! We are actually surprisingly calm while recording, in regards to playing. Except for those little freak songs where you can just bash it out, and get rid of all the frustrations that have build up while recording all the other songs. But live pretty much anything goes, we just do what pops into our mind at the time. Playing live is almost like one big brainfart, just do what you like. We definitely are more noisy live, and we just try to put on a big explosion of energy, which we don't really see enough of anymore in other most bands, nowadays. What we do hope, is to get the audience going as well (but which band wouldn't?), but that has proved quite a task on some occasions. Though when it does happen, everything goes into overdrive and you really get a great buzz out of it, making it even more energetic. You just feed of each other, you know? However when we don't have that luck, we definitely will just keep on trying, pouring out as much energy as we can. If just one person is able to receive it, that is enough. We do also hope to be a bit more jammy on stage, but that is rather difficult with a drumcomputer. Now that we do have a stand-in drummer, that is made a little easier. But still it could be a lot more if we just were to find our own, fixed, drummer.


RnRnMN: Do you think you take people by surprise or do most people know what to expect when they come to see you live?

I've never really seen anybody that knew what they could expect, except for the one fan we do have, haha. Most of the time people are pretty flabbergasted. Sometimes they are able to get over that and just go with the flow, and sometimes they just stay in that state. In the end we do try to play what we like, we don't try to please the audience. We are playing for ourselves, if more people like it, that's a great bonus. I don't think any of the great bands, like Flipper, Black Flag, Sonic Youth, etc. played to please the audience in their original intention. It definitely makes for a much more timeless band when you don't try to please the audience too much. After all, if you try to please the audience all of the time, you are most likely to just rehash everything that has been done hundreds of times before, and better. In the end we are our own audience, and there have to be some more people
like us, right?


RnRnMN: Have you been able to stir up interest outside of the Netherlands?

Hell, we haven't even been able to stir up all that much interest inside of the Netherlands. Maybe only a bit in 's-Hertogenbosch, but that has more to do with all the stickers we have put up everywhere around the city. Usually when we meet somebody in our city, and we show them our logo, they know it already. We usually also get the comment "So you are the band with all those damn stickers everywhere" which is pretty cool. Anyway, it almost looks like we have been able to get more interest going outside of the Netherlands then inside. But I guess that has to do with the culture here. Everything has to pay off, if you don't get big bucks out of it, what's the point? That's pretty much the standard reaction we get when we tell people how focused we are on our band. We definitely want to play anywhere in the world, just try to get the music out to more people. Hopefully we will be able to tour as openers for some other bands, like Bromheads Jacket from England, and that will help us set a bigger foot outside of the Netherlands. However we will first start our conquest of the universe by ourselves, as you shouldn't keep waiting for other people to do stuff for you. Not unless you don't want anything to happen, that is. But of course every helping hand is very, very, welcome.


RnRnMN: If so, what has helped you spread the word? If not, what do you
> think stands in your way?

First speaking nationally we are a very active band in getting gigs. When we want to get some new gigs, we usually try to go to a couple of cities, and go to various venues there. We try to speak to the programmer and give them our demo, and also tell them what we are about. We get quite a mixed reaction out of that, some really dig it, while others think we're shit for trying to meet them in person, but that's their prerogative, of course. But usually we get at least one or two gigs per trip that way. It's much more successful than sending out hundreds of e-mails. And it's a lot more fun, seeing all those places and meeting all the people. Unfortunately internationally we won't be able to do that everywhere. But we will definitely take a first step in that regard heading out to Belgium, Germany, etc., etc. Maybe there we can get the ball rolling. What definitely has helped us spread the word to the normal people (are there any?) is Myspace and YouTube. We wouldn't have been able to get in touch with a whole lot of people if it weren't for those two outlets.


RnRnMN: Pick your favorite band from each pair:

Damn, some of these are hard.

Beatles vs Rolling Stones
Raymon: Rolling Stones
John: Beatles

Flipper vs Meat Puppets
Flipper

Black Flag vs Minor Threat
Black Flag

Fantomas vs Tomahawk
Raymon: Fantomas (after long consideration)
John: Tomahawk (ditto)

Hank Williams vs Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash

Video: Tippy Canoe & The Paddlemen - "Mass Transmissions"

Tippy Canoe & The Paddlemen - "Mass Transmissions" (2009) from Skizz Cyzyk on Vimeo.