Review: Tia Carrera - The Quintessential

Label: Small Stone Records

Released: October 27, 2009

Over the course of just a few releases, Tia Carrera has proven not only to be among the best of the modern stoner psych bands, but also one that has paved its own path through the influences that permeate the genre.

Their latest album (and first for stoner haven Small Stone Records), The Quintessential, may seem like they have perhaps mellowed a bit, shying away from the heavy helpings of Black Flag free punk that gave their earlier releases an explosiveness that can elude the stoner set. A good listen though, shows that this "mellowing" doesn't mean less intensity, only a different intensity.

Any concerns about this slight shift in direction are quickly allayed by "Home," the album's opener. Waves of the spaciest space rock easily take the album to new destinations. Heavier, bluesy acid rock takes hold on "The Unnamed Whole" where driving rhythms and exploding riffs both elevate and ground the 20+ minutes of psychedelic exploration. The albums other expansive jam, "New Orleans," walks, runs and wanders in that space between Zeppelin and Hendrix, where so many great rock songs have taken root, exploring both the mellow and the manic fringes of sanity. The phased vocals and acoustic guitars of "Hazy Winter" let the album down easy, but it's another kind of easy that you've ever experienced.

The Quintessential isn't quite as overtly crazy as Tia Carrera's earlier work, particularly the mind-boggling You Are the War 7", but to say that it takes a step back to sanity misses the point. The spacey madness of the record simmers more than boils, but in the end, you're head will feel just as cooked. Be careful listening to this one, because it's such a trip that the DEA might come knocking on your door when Tia Carrera is declared a controlled substance.

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

Website

Myspace

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) - What It Takes to Move Forward

Label: Count Your Lucky Stars Records

Released: September 29, 2009

Empire! Empire!'s previous release, last year's Year of the Rabbit 7", had some interesting musical moments that were drowned in a sea of emo drama. Their latest, What It Takes to Move Forward, still has its fair share of the dramatic and sometimes it still supersedes the adventurous nature of the music. However, unlike last year's EP, this set of songs is just leaps and bounds stronger and, where the EP took some subtle musical chances, this time those chances are bold, bold enough, in fact, to make a now tired genre exciting again. While a few songs do fall into the same humdrum of Empire! Empire!'s earlier work, polyrhythms and swelling layers dominate most of these new songs. While the point of it all hasn't changed, it is now communicated much more effectively. It seems odd that, at this late stage of the emo game, someone has just made what may be one of the genre's best records, but Empire! Empire! has done just that.

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

Website

Myspace

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: Incite - The Slaughter

Label: I Scream Records

Released: October 20, 2009

Considering they're fronted by Max Cavalera's stepson Richie, there's probably no way that Incite can avoid comparisons to Sepultura. That has to be a bit daunting for a young band on their debut album. After all, they're going to measured against one of metal's most intense and creative bands.

Incite, however, doesn't seem to be all that intimidated. On The Slaughter, they unleash 12 tracks of untempered intensity. Overflowing with the blast beats, lightning riffs and waves of heaviness, the album never holds back. It's rhythmically dynamic, but whether the pace is explosive and blistering or slow and churning, the music's potency is undeniable.

Does Incite live up to the inevitable comparison to Sepultura? Well, no. However, their debut has the raw passion of a hungry young band. That coupled with their abundant technical skill, still makes for a fantastic record. It also makes it clear that what is now an unfair comparison may be much more equitable in the near future.

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

Website

Myspace

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: Elin Palmer - Postcards

Label: Suburban Home

Released: October 23, 2009

When I think of an album that tells a story, I tend to think of concept albums where the story often takes precedence over the music, resulting in weak, but often needed filler. Elin Palmer's Postcard has a very narrative nature to it, but in a far different way than a concept album or a rock opera. Instead of imposing narrative conventions on the music, Palmer's music itself seems to be a story.

Postcard wanders between folk and post-rock, visiting chamber music and jazz and dabbling in polka, cabaret and even twee pop along the way. Palmer draws on these traditions almost like sub plots that are interwoven throughout, peering out subtly at times and taking center stage at others. Like any good story, this one has many pulses that at times are in sync and at others run counter to each other and Palmer's ability to both sensual and vaguely eerie leave the meaning of this work ultimately in the ears of the listener. She facilitates this by letting the songs, and the album as a whole, follow their own muse. Even the final track, which seems at first to be the album's dénouement, ultimately runs its own course and becomes the climax.

Even an album with an explicit story often fails to really tell it well. Music is simply more engaging when the listener participates in the art. Few albums do that as successfully as Elin Palmer's Postcard.

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

Website

Myspace

Elin Palmer: Swedish folk by a Denver rockstar from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

DVD: Jethro Tull - Live at Madison Square Garden 1978

Label: Virgin/EMI

Released: October 20, 2009

Jethro Tull live in 1978? Haven't we already heard that? The ill-timed Bursting Out was from European dates of the same tour and that immediately begs the question, of all the live Tull recordings sitting in the vaults, why release yet another form the Heavy Horses tour?

Depending on your feelings about progressive rock, this concert could be seen as either a high point of the genre or as an example of the overindulgence that forced it to collapse under its own weight (with a little help from the simple DIY ethos of punk). Certainly no other prog band brought rock, classical and folk together in quite as dynamic a way as Jethro Tull. This concert proves that they were a tight and musically adventurous group who could move deftly between pastoral folk and grooving heaviness just as easily live as they could in the studio.

One true advantage of this package over the aforementioned Bursting Out is the inclusion of the DVD. More than most bands, Jethro Tull, or Ian Anderson more specifically, is a visual spectacle. The engaging and eccentric Anderson, whether as vocalist, flutist, percussionist or simply frontman, walks the line between theatrical and simply insane throughout. However, he's anything but aloof (his crack about the balding Martin Barre being "close behind Elton John" was great). He somehow brings his outlandish personality down to earth, resulting in a performance that is both over the top and completely accessible.

The concert was filmed for satellite broadcast (the first from America on British TV) over 30 years ago, so the video quality isn't superior by today's high def standards, but complaining about it would be nitpicking. The concert is a real gem for prog fans and even entertaining to all but the genre's true naysayers. Does it warrant release despite being from a tour already documented with an official release? If this package only included the CD, the answer would be, "Not really," but seeing Anderson and company in action is another story altogether.

Rating: 8/10

Review: Victor! Fix The Sun - Person Place or Thing

Label: Friction Records

Released: October 20, 2009

Albums that rely heavily on noisy dissonance and angular rhythms as a means of expression seldom even dabble in accessibility, but Person Place or Thing, the latest from Michigan's mathy post-punkers Victor! Fix the Sun, is clear evidence of what's missing from that narrow view.

From the ringing guitar and wild, frantic drumming that opens the album, it's obvious that this isn't just another post-punk exercise. The album constantly soars on one hand while grounding itself at the same time and this tension is its energy. "We Come from the Northwoods" breaks free of its simple, agitated roots into an amazing progressive flight. Early on, "Blind Man's Bluff" gives a nod to CCR before turning the corner into a wild punk tune. The title track's hard rock groove tugs firmly on its frenetic undercurrent. The laid back bass line and mellow hooky guitar part on "Paperthin Feather Fuck" is in direct contrast to the raw emotion that drops in and out with masterful aplomb. "Infested, Mother Approved" has gentle layering and airy, trippy passages while the rhythm wraps it as tight as a straight-jacket.

Throughout, Victor! Fix the Sun shows an innate sense of where the songs themselves want to go and they follow that rather than leading and overthinking. Person Place or Thing follows a fine tradition of bands that use style and genre in the way other bands use instruments. Rather than taking the narrow road, they explore the broad vistas that view music without limits.

Don't miss this one on vinyl. It comes in either amber or maroon (the maroon is beautiful) and the album art looks great in its full 12 inches. A free download offers the best of both worlds, so you can't go wrong.

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

Myspace

Victor! Fix the Sun at the VFW (April 24th, 2009)
by lexen1

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: Admiral Browning - Magic Elixir

Label: Dancing Sasquatch Records

Released: April 2009

So much stoner and doom rock tends to be an exercise in heaviness alone. While that certainly has its place, few people can take the steady bludgeoning that it offers even as it fills that need in all who really love heavy metal for the mind-numbing weight of slow, trudging riffs that take Tony Iommi to the extreme. Sometimes, however, a band offers such crushing power in a more dynamic form that respects the song as well as pushing the limits of the heavy in metal.

Like Kyuss and Clutch before them, Maryland's Admiral Browning is just such band. The five tunes that make up Magic Elixir are quite a ride. Sure, there's the standard downtuned sludgy riffs, but, unlike most of their peers, that's only a small part of what Admiral Browning has in their heavy bad of tricks. Instead of going on ad infinitum, songs will suddenly take off with wild, frenetic energy or slip into spacey, psychedelic ramblings. They even through in some brighter, more colorful progressive hard rock, à la Rush, and it fits with strange perfection in the same song with hard rock freakouts.

The whole album really builds up to "Speaking in Tones," the 13 minute opus that closes the album proper. All the parts, stoner rock, psychedelia, prog, come together into Admiral Browning's unique vision of what heavy metal can and should be when its limits evaporate in the ground zero where they split musical atoms.

The untitled coda is a less structured jam that lets Magic Elixir down easy after an exhilarating ride into what can be. Its vaguely incomplete nature just begs the question, "What's next?"

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

Website

Myspace

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: Girl in a Coma - Trio BC

Label: Blackheart Records

Released: June 2, 2009

Coming two years after their promising debut, Trio BC shows a young band that has done some significant maturing as musicians. The album maintains their early punkish edge, but expands the sound well beyond that. Nina Diaz elevates herself to a rough-around-the-edges Patsy Cline, particularly on the yearning, tender melancholy of "El Monte." They dabble a bit in T Rex's glammy boogie on "Slaughter Lane" before moving into more straightforward punk. "Joanie in the City" dips deep into the well of the Buzzcocks and the Jam so successfully that vocal help from Joan Jett herself doesn't overpower the band's sound. They even find interesting common ground between the Shangri-Las and the Smashing Pumpkins on "Trail". All of this is mixed with explorations of their own Mexican-American background that will surely draw comparisons to Los Lobos and the Plugz. But don't be fooled, because GIAC are paving their own road to the destinations previously visited by those bands.

The end result is a very good, comprehensive rock n roll album that draws from many things, but maintains a strong identity. It stems from growth in both songwriting and musicianship that doesn't compromise on the heart and soul that is the basis of the band. Girl in a Coma has adapted well to this musical growth, making Trio BC a sophomore album that's really good in the moment and also leaves open great possibilities for the future.

It's probably best to pick this one up on LP, because it'll be easier for the tattoo artist to copy it onto your body after you spend some time listening. Seriously though, the tattoo style artwork looks great on the 12" LP.

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

Website

Myspace

GIAC has also made two really cool videos from this album, so check 'em out:





If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: Rapid Cities - Machinery Saints

Label: Love/Hate Records

Released: May 2009

In some cases, albums where a band knows exactly where they're going and how they'll get there deliver a level of perfection that earlier albums hadn't. However, there is an urgency that blossoms from the creative free-for-all of a band finding their way as they go. There's a visceral energy that perfection just can't achieve. Rapid Cities may not be conscious of this fact, simply because they're in the thick of it.

Machinery Saints flows with the wild abandon of creativity that can't be restrained. They travel the roads of post-hardcore without regard for safety, attacking the sharp angles and starts and stops and stutters with more rage than plan. Oddly enough though, they remained focused, probably by sheer inertia, and their creativity delivers even as it evolves. While there is more than a hint of math rock throughout the album, the band does their math in their heart, not just their head. Feeling their way rather than planning it doesn't dispel their confidence, but rather bolsters it by simple force of will. Amazing.

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

Website

Myspace

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: Latin for Truth - We Are Sick of Not Having The Courage To Be Absolute Nobodies

Label: Pitfall Records

Released: Summer 2009

Some bands can get by on simply having big, open, honest hearts to fuel their music. They don't have to be particularly creative as their appeal lies more in soul than songwriting. Latin For Truth is like that...except, despite having more than enough in their hearts to make just about anything compelling, they don't rely on that alone. Instead, they fill (and I do mean fill) this three song EP with melodies that wrap their arms around you and proceed blast them out with a wild rhythmic ride beneath. We Are Sick of Not Having The Courage To Be Absolute Nobodies rolls laughter, tears, anger and every other human emotion into what is ultimately the joy of being alive.

You can download the EP for free here.

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

Myspace

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: JFA - To All Our Friends (live)

Label: DC-Jam Records

Released: July 21, 2009

Back in 1985, I bought JFA's Live 1984 Tour LP. It's energy was as unbounded as the possibilities of my new found favorite genre and it quickly found itself in steady rotation on my turntable. Nearly a quarter century later, a new piece of live JFA vinyl is spinning in my basement and it's hard to believe that it still has much of that same thrashy skate punk energy. Sure, the pace isn't always quite so breakneck, but they make up for a more restrained "Johnny D" by blasting through "You Suck" and the still amusingly stupid "Cokes and Snickers." Of course, it does seem a little odd for guys in their 40s to be playing "Out of School" or for anyone to still care about preppies in 2009, but even those songs they still pull off with conviction. The couple of newer (meaning after the 80s) tracks on the album are no substitute for some of the crazy covers on their earlier live release, but considerably better recording quality makes To All Our Friends an essential for anyone who still loves JFA and old skate punk.

By the way, the LP comes on beautiful blue vinyl that just adds to the fun of having this one in your collection

Ratings
Satriani: 5/10
Zappa: 7/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 9/10
Overall: 8/10

Myspace

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: Jazz Re-issues from Sonny Rollins, Clifford Brown, Max Roach, Red Garland, Art Tatum and Ben Webster

Label: Essential Jazz Classics

Released: June 2, 2009

The mid to late 50s was a near perfect time for jazz. As post-bop and cool jazz emerged from Charlie Parker's bebop shake-up, the genre's top artists were refining the sound. In a few short years, jazz would be set on its ear again by Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane and Charles Mingus among others who once again pushed the very definitions of the genre, but this period in the 50s produced some astoundingly good music even if, and perhaps because, it was perfecting the current state of jazz rather than running off to totally new horizons. Essential Jazz Classics has recently released a set of CDs that collects some of that period's best albums along with some interesting bonus material.

The Clifford Brown/Sonny Rollins/Max Roach Quintet's Complete Studio Recordings collects two classics, Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street and Sonny Rollins Plus Four. As good as Rollins is, he's simply overshadowed by Brown and Roach here as they bring much needed punch that makes these albums real standouts.

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

Art Tatum and Ben Webster's The Album features the lone studio collaboration between these two giants (and Tatum's last session before his death). The mastering doesn't do much to clean up this recording, but, while that's a shame, the bonus material featuring Tatum playing many of the same songs as a soloist more than makes up for it. The man was just a monster on the piano and it's nothing short of incredible to hear that fully exposed in this way.

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

The best known of the re-issues is Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus. This Rollins classic is a great example of his smooth playing, but at times is upstaged by Max Roach's drumming. Roach is just a monster on the drums and that really makes this one a must hear album. This re-issue also includes Work Time, not considered one of Rollins' very best albums, but it certainly doesn't miss by much.

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

Perhaps the most interesting of these re-issues is Red Garland's The 1956 Trio, which features the A Garland in Red album with selections from Groovy and Red Garland's Piano. Of the four albums, I was least familiar with Garland's playing and that may be what made this album really stand out. He gets so much out of the piano and is equally dynamic on slow tunes as he is on the more upbeat material. Add some monster bass parts from Paul Chambers and it's clear why this album is worth re-issuing, particularly for those unfamiliar with Garland's work.

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

All in all, this is a fine set of re-issues, particularly for younger or more cursory jazz fans who haven't heard these great albums. All include liner notes with a lot of information that add a little education to these great listens.

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: The Reptilian - Boys' Life

Label: Count Your Lucky Stars

Released: March 3, 2009

Any post-hardcore album worth its grooves (or bits and bytes as the case may be) ought to make one think of Fugazi, right? Well, this EP from Kalamazoo, Michigan's The Reptillian reminds me of...well...Cake. Yeah, the quirky, jazzy, hipper-than-thou hipsters of the 90s. Now, don't get me wrong though. The Reptilian doesn't compromise intensity for cleverness by a long shot. Instead, they enfilade the listener with quirkiness while rolling forward with a full-frontal, post-hardcore assault. Do you think a song titled, "I'll Ram My Ovipositor Down Your Throat And Lay My Eggs In Your Chest But, I'm Not An Alien!" sounds crazy? Wait 'til you hear it. Yeah, it's that good.

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

Myspace

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: The Mars Volta - Octohedron

Label: Warner Bros

Released: June 23, 2009

Straightforward. Subdued. Accessible. If Octohedron had been recorded by just about any other band, those words would never cross anyone's mind. However, the Mars Volta has pushed the boundaries of their music and their mania time and again, leaving the expectation that each album will be a further exploration of psychedelic insanity. This album explores to be sure, but in a different way than they have previously.

After the very, very quiet first minute and a half, the largely acoustic opening track, "Since We've Been Wrong," is practically radio-friendly. By the time they get around to "Cotopaxi," the first song to enlist their signature bazillion notes per measure approach, the album is in its back stretch. While the wide musical expanses and dabbling in free jazz is missing on Octohedron, the album is, in the end, more human. Their esoteric ramblings aren't altogether absent mind you, just significantly scaled back.

They have proven once again that their direction is as cryptic as Cedric's lyrics. Compared to most, they're still living in the prog rock ivory tower, but Octohedron reaches down and touches us in a way that is at once concrete yet fleeting.

You can pre-order the vinyl here.

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

Website

Myspace

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: Elvis Costello - Secret, Profane & Sugarcane

Label: Hear Music

Released: June 9, 2009

Elvis Costello has had quite a long and varied career to say the least, making albums bordering on punk on one hand and working with the likes of Burt Bacharach and Allen Toussaint at others. The genres he's avoided, like metal or hip-hop, are surely more by choice than inability. There's no question that as both a performer and a songwriter, he has few peers in terms of the breadth and quality of his work. That's not to say he's all things to all people, but that, as particularly evidenced on Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, he's Elvis Costello to whatever audience he chooses.

This time around, Costello takes on a particularly rootsy, unabashedly American form, dabbling in folk, country and bluegrass throughout. What he displays here, as he has so often in the past, is that he really doesn't play in each of the genres he engages so much as he adapts those genres to work with his distinct songwriting.

This works particularly well here for two reasons. First, Costello can write some great songs. There have been plenty of points in his career where the songs weren't up to the standard he had set, but they certainly are here. This is the strongest set of songs I've heard from him in some time and many could just as easily have been performed in a style he explored on another of his albums. They just work fundamentally, maintaining that which makes them distinctly his work.

Second, he understands the subtleties of the style in which he's working. These aren't just pop songs with some sting band instrumentation and a twang in his voice. The arrangements are careful to both evoke country music's vivid history and retain Costello's unique qualities. In addition to that, Secret, Profane & Sugarcane demonstrates an understanding that goes deeper than the music itself. It walks country's fine lines between the secular and religious and the happy and the sad.

The album succeeds largely because it isn't a superficial carbon copy, but a continuation of a long tradition. Elvis Costello hasn't inserted old-time country into his repertoire, but rather inserted himself into country's rich history.

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

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: Spirits of the Dead

Label: White Elephant Records

Released: September 29, 2008

Even those who love prog rock often understand that its shortcoming stems from putting the head before the heart. While no genre in rock can compete with prog's technical prowess, it's still often dismissed as self-indulgent and lite where the true spirit of rock n roll is the exception, not the rule. That leaves any band that takes the prog road with quite an uphill haul.

Enter Spirits of the Dead and their self-titled debut with its own flavor of prog that endeavors to remedy some of these musical ills. They open up the prog sound with psychedelic meanderings and then ground it with 70s hard rock fuzz, giving it a spaciness to freak out to as well as a grittiness to hold on to. When they drift away from that hard rock basis, the music can wander a bit as on "The Waves of Our Ocean," but a dose of stoner rock on "Red" and the super-sludge of "Spirits of the Dead" make for a wild album that can be both light and agile as well as crushingly heavy.

Most importantly, Spirits of the Dead don't get overburdened by their own technical abilities. They show off their chops when needed, but they're just as given to slow, plodding rumblings as they are to elaborate, precise passages. They can be jarring or lulling and that fuller sound is simply the result of a willingness to get outside of the accepted boundaries of their chosen genre. While their influences lie in the past, their vision looks to the future, setting them apart from so many of their peers.

The album will apparently be re-issued on vinyl (in Europe at least). The silver foil stamped image has beautiful, intricate detail that deserves 12 inches square at least to adequately enjoy.

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

Myspace

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: City of Ships - Live Free or Don't Tour

Label: Forcefield Records

Released: January 27, 2009

This vinyl-only release collects two earlier City of Ships EPs from 2006 and 2007 that are clearly worthy of being issued on this superior format. Both EPs feature monstrous waves of dissonance underscored by shockingly melodic lines. The tension created isn't pleasant, but reflects that nice is a minor virtue next to truth and truth isn't always pretty. The influence of two 90s phenomenons, progressive metal and post-hardcore is clear, yet City of Ships is not of the past, but the future. There are metal elements, but absent is the flashy riffage that makes much metal a bore. In its place is an intensity that has few rivals. Call it post-hardcore, post-rock or whatever, one thing is clear, it's post-something. The tension it creates is constant even as the music ebbs and flows. It's not pleasant, but a rewarding exploration of the tensions of life.

The vinyl itself is as striking as the music. The black and yellow swirl looks like it might glow in the dark and it certainly could be dangerous to those given to seizures. Seriously, cool stuff.

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

Website

Myspace

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: Landing Project

Label: self-released (available at the bands Myspace and at shows)

Released: January 31, 2009

In recent years, there have been a number of bands who have returned to punk's old loose hooks and gritty melodies. Against Me is at the top of that pile with bands like Gaslight Anthem quickly climbing up behind them. Many voices are screaming to be heard behind these front runners. Not all are worth hearing, but among those that are is Landing Project. Their "three chords and the truth" approach is attempted by many. The three chords part is easy. Rock and roll has a long tradition of simplicity and even turning simplicity into great hooks isn't terribly unusual, but it's the truth part that stumps so many.

Landing Project turns out to be everyman poets (or more appropriately every-misfit/misplaced/misunderstood-man poets) to whose truth anyone with a beating heart should be able to relate. The album opens with the words, "I remember how I felt in my teens..." Don't we all remember? But this song, as the title "Keep Going" suggests, looks forward. It's this combination of examination and expectation that gives these songs the roots with which to connect and the open future into which to fly. Without that, their three chords would just add up to a handful of catchy tunes. With this truth, this honesty, they're a handful of catchy tunes that mean something.



If that's not enough (though it should be plenty), check out the packaging. Rather than package the CD in a jewel case, digipak or cardboard sleeve, the guys in Landing Project made unique sleeves out of old 5 1/4 inch floppy disks. In an age when the CD is dying off in the face of digital releases, packaging is more important than ever and this is one band who found a great way to make the hardcopy worthwhile. It even steals a bit from the digital age for irony's sake (or was it a happy accident?). Get yours quick, because the "floppy disk sleeve" edition is limited to the number of old floppies they can dig up. Once the floppies are gone, so is this great package.

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

Myspace

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: Oceans - Nothing Collapses

Label: Copper Lung Records

Released: March 24, 2009

I have long believed that artists only are only half of the creative force behind art. The other half of the creation is the interpretation. Often, the greatest art allows for significant breadth of interpretation even as it guides the very same. Most often though, the artist errs on the side of doing too much and closing too many doors.

This is particularly true in music, but every once in awhile, an album comes along that acts in a sense as an open-ended soundtrack to a movie that will play in the listener's head. Nothing Collapses is one such album. In a sense the music is in the background, but not in a passive way. It's twisting, turning rhythms and layered sound paints a vivid scene with both a clear point and endless possibility. What's best is that Oceans trusts its listeners to do their part, to participate in something great, to not just listen, but to act (at least on the stage of their own minds).

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

Myspace

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.

Review: The Weather Station - The Line

Label: self-released (distributed by Fontana North/Universal)

Released: April 28, 2009

Terms like lo-fi and DIY have become quite commonplace these days. Unfortunately, these terms are often applied to music that could also be described as contrived or just rotten. The Weather Station is certainly the epitome of both of those common terms, but not of the descriptions which often destroy them.

The Weather Station is both a band and not a band at the same time. Really, it is self-taught multi-instrumentalist Tamara Lindeman with a revolving cast of characters (including her live band). Recorded in bedrooms and living rooms rather than studios and on equipment Lindeman was learning how to use as she went, the album is raw and often quite sparse. However, it's rawness doesn't overshadow a strong sense of both tradition and experimentation. On one hand, The Line is folk music as it's been played in living rooms and on front porches for decades. It captures the primal need we have to make music, to explore and expose the darkness. The album is sparse and dark to the point of being difficult, yet is carried by the honesty of those very same qualities.

At the same time, Lindeman's arrangements push the limits of what folk music can be. Droning strings, Moog, household items and "found sound" all contribute to its boldness and create tension between what folk music has long been and what it could become. As much as she pushes these songs to their limits, they are still as natural as being uncomfortable in one's own skin. Her innovations are not merely a veneer on top of traditional folk either. Instead, experimentation and tradition intertwine throughout the album to create something entirely unique.

The Line is by no means an easy listen, but then neither is any true human story. At times, it is incredibly low-key and then something, a guitar, some random noise, will pierce the lull. Likewise, there is anger and pain here, but beauty also pierces through that. It is both the confusion and the affirmation of being alive.

mp3: "East"

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

Website

Myspace

If you're curious about my rating categories, read the description.