Friday, February 29, 2008
Skål!
aka Pining For the Fjords
A few weeks ago I found out I'd been selected to represent PopMatters at the annual By:Larm conference in Oslo, Norway. Considering how my quick trip to Sweden in October 2006 had me jonesing for Scandinavia as soon as I got back, I was elated. And because I had a lot more time in Oslo than I did in Stockholm, including a full bonus day at the end, I was able to do a ton of stuff to go along with the music festival. Needless to say, I had an incredible four days there.
Unlike some of my fellow writers, I didn't have the luxury of a direct flight to Oslo, instead having to take three flights over the course of 16 hours, just like my Sweden trip. The big difference here was that I flew right out of Canada instead of going through the unnecessary inconvenience of connecting through the US, and believe me, flying on Air Canada and Lufthansa is infinitely better than Northwest Airlines! Not only does Lufthansa give you a little bit more leg room than Northwest, but on my afternoon flight out of Toronto, I wound up with three empty seats beside me, allowing me to stretch out more than usual. So the trans-Atlantic flight to Frankfurt was actually pretty tolerable. Frankfurt's airport wasn't much fun at all, though, cramped and claustrophobic, a far cry from the spaciousness and comfort of Toronto, and I was stuck there for nearly five hours thanks to a delay on the Oslo flight. But aside from that, there were no hassles at all.
At Oslo's Gardermoen airport (a really nice place), it was easy to find the Flytoget express train to Oslo's Central Station, and after a comfy 20 minute ride, I found myself smack dab in the bustling little city at four in the afternoon. I got a quick hint at how well organized By:Larm was as soon as I stepped off the train, running into a pair of convention greeters who handed me a map and showed me the way to my hotel. As easy it is to memorize on paper, nothing can prepare you for real European streets, and I was instantly thrown for a loop finding the hotel. I got there without trouble, but after I headed back out to check in as a delegate and strolled through the busy Oslo City shopping centre, I instantly got lost. Jet-lagged and deliriously tired, I thought I'd never find my way back, but after 20 minutes, I made it back, and flopped on my bed.
Little did I know that I mistakenly set my alarm for AM instead of PM, and I woke up at 8:30. Considering I had to be at my first club show at nine, I was in a bit of a panic, cos this first show happened to include the heavily-hyped Lykke Li, who was riding a wave of critical adulation and chart success in Sweden, and was certain to pack the place out. So I groggily made my way to the Blå nightclub, and was quite amazed to find I was one of the first people there, this despite a 9:00 start time. After the first band, the place started to fill up really, really quickly, and by the time Lykke Li and her band took the stage, the place was packed to overflowing. I had a great spot in the front off to the side, though, and thoroughly enjoyed what would be the best set I'd see during the entire fest. I had high hopes, but was floored by Lykke Li's charisma, not to mention the versatility of her band.
With so many clubs situated so close to each other, I soon found out how incredibly easy it was to hop from venue to venue. So well-organized was the entire event, that everything started exactly on time, so no sooner did one set end, that you'd dash to another club and catch another band. It went like this for a good five or six hours every night. Exhausting, but considering how many great bands I saw, it was huge fun. While Lykke Li was the best of the lot, other artists that hugely impressed me were Ida Maria (who won the festival's top prize of 20,000 dollars), Swedish singer-songwriter Anna Järvinen, brilliant jazz metal dudes Shining, the energetic and charming Katzenjammer (think Dixie Chicks crossed with Gogol Bordello), retro metalers Sahg, indie pop outfit Lukestar, and avant-garde jazzbos The Thing.
One of the neatest events was when a dozen of us were taxied out to Propellor Studios to meet Norwegian singer Hanne Hukkelberg. She, her band, and management were very hospitable and friendly, treating us to nice hors d'oeuvres, champagne, and beer, and then packing us into a cozy, candlelit studio to hear them play songs from the wonderful album Rykestrasse 68. Rarely does one get to hear live music in such a startlingly intimate setting.
So that's how it went every night, running around like mad hearing new and fascinating bands. But I also had a lot of free time on my hands, and took full advantage of it every morning, exploring Central Oslo and neighboring Grunerløkka, going to the royal palace, the waterfront, Akershus fortress and castle, busy main drag Karl Johans Gate, record stores like the amazing metal mecca Neseblod Records and the more mainstream Platekompaniet (where I saw Lykke Li do an unplugged set the day after I saw her show). After By:Larm wound up on Saturday night, I found myself with a full day to kill on Sunday, and I took full advantage, heading out by bus to scenic Bygdøy to see the astounding Viking Ship Museum, which houses three Viking ships from the ninth century, two of which are fully intact. An incredible sight.
After that I hopped on the T-Bane (what they call the metro) up the hillside to the outskirts of the city, towards the famous Holmenkollen ski jump, which overlooks the entire city. The train climbed and climbed, and once I got off I had to climb a steep road to the base of the jump. Then cane ramps, steep steps, an elevator, and three terrifying flights of wet, slippery, steel grate steps up to the top. Once you made it up there and came to the realization that you in fact were not going to die, you were left with a stunning 360 degree view of the entire city and fjord. You couldn't find a more fitting end to a wonderful stay in the city.
While the prices of goods were expectedly hefty, generally about 50% higher than Canada, it's livable. However, the food prices are another story altogether, as everything costs at least four times as much as it does at home. A pint of beer is 12 dollars. A McDonald's meal costs almost 30 bucks. A pizza costs 40. A good sit-down meal will set you back 100. I'm talking devastating prices here, and pretty much the only options were to take advantage of any cheap food you could get, like hotel buffets, or that amazing Norwegian delicacy, pølse. Seriously, I quickly became addicted to pølse, the country's version of the hot dog, whether with a bun or wrapped in a lompe. Seeing that pølse and Pepsi at 7-11 or Narvesen stores went for a mere (ha) eight bucks, it was the cheapest good eats around. But yummy enough to seem worth the price.
I was so drained from everything, that I went to bed at 7:30 pm Sunday, which turned out well, as I woke up eight hours later, checked out at 4 am, and headed out in the dark to the train station to catch the first express train to the airport. Munching on a tasty boller (a sweet raisin bun I also came to love) waiting for the 4:45 to arrive, I had a long journey ahead of me, but all the exhaustion and severe jet lag was worth it. I sure hope I return to Norway someday!
Lykke Li
Karl Johan's Gate
Norwegian Parliament; National Theatre
The Royal Palace; statue of King Karl Johan; looking back eastward on Karl Johan's Gate
Grunerløkka
Neseblod Records
The waterfront from Akershus fortress
Exploring Akershus
Christiania Torv Square; View east toward Central Oslo from Bygdøy
Viking ships!
Holmenkollen from the T-Bane stop; approaching the entrance to Holmenkollen
The terrifying steps; The equally terrifying jump
The view
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Well, I'm back from four crazy days in Oslo and two full days of traveling, trying to sleep off some massive jet lag. Obviously I wasn't able to post here...my time was very limited over there, always something going on. But the entire trip was huge fun, By:Larm was outstanding and the city was very nice. As soon as I upload some pics onto Photobucket, I'll post a trip recap, but in the meantime, I suggest you take a peek at the three blog entries I did for PopMatters, recapping Days One, Two, and Three of the festival. I'll be writing a much more thorough feature piece in the next day or two as well, so watch for that. But for the record, the best artist there, as I'd hoped, was Lykke Li. But there were plenty of big surprises, too.
On a side note, I was quoted on a Norwegian website, which is pretty cool. And be sure to read Shawn Smith's own By:Larm recaps from over at Radio Exile, which are thoroughly entertaining.
One thing I touch on in the blogs is just how expensive Norway is. I can live with the steeper prices of most goods, which is generally 50% higher, but the food prices are exorbitant, to the tune of a minimum of four times what it costs here. The cheapest thing to eat is pølse, the incredibly addictive Norwegian version of the hot dog, but still, that and a Pepsi costs eight bucks. The best thnig to do while there is to keep the eating to a bare minimum, take full advantage of any complimentary eats you can find (hotel breakfast, for instance), and just try not to think too much of how much your bank account is being gouged when you do pay for a meal.
But despite that, Oslo is a great little city. Not overly huge, surrounded by mountains and water, so the urban sprawl is minimal. Very hip and cosmopolitan, too, with outstanding shopping and a very lively nightlife. Plus some great touristy spots, which I'll touch on in the coming days.
Two new reviews are up that I should mention. First is my piece on the wonderful new Goldfrapp album, which leaked so long ago, three months or so. Over that time it grew on me in a huge way, and its first single "A & E" is an early contender for my favourite single of 2008. Some people are skeptical towards its acoustic direction, but I like the more simplified approach. It's a nice change from Supernature's predictability, and Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory add their own typically classy touches. The review was actually written longhand on the plane to Frankfurt, partially copied out in the minutes before I left for the Oslo train station at 4am on Monday, and finished when I was back at home dizzy with exhaustion. I just hope it reads well.
Also appearing last week was my rather late review of Botch's 1999 classic We Are the Romans, arguably the most influential metal album of the last decade. Noisecore, metalcore, whatever you want to call it, that record set the template for a sound that would be copied by countless, far inferior acts. Nothing since has ever measured up to this album, and it's great to see it re-released in this expanded format.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Okay, time for the big news. I'm going to Norway in two days. Oslo, to be more specific, to cover the big By:Larm conference for PopMatters...it's basically the Scandinavian version of South By Southwest, only on a considerably more manageable scale and with a lot more Scandinavian indie pop.In other words, right up my alley, so it should be great fun. Considering how my very first trip to Europe involved one night on a yacht, another night in a really old mansion, and absolutely no opportunity to actually enter a place of business and spend money, I'm looking forward to having a much more "normal" trip, as incredible as the Sweden thing was (but yikes, is Norway ever expensive). I'll be stationed in downtown Oslo for four days and four nights, and if things go right I should be blogging both here and on the PopMatters site, so watch for that.
Of course, there are tons and tons of bands, and it's going to be impossible to catch all the bands I want to see. At the top of the list is Swedish singer Lykke Li, whose debut album is shaping up to be one of my favourites of the early year..."Little Bit" is quite the gem of a single, but the real keeper is "I'm Good, I'm Gone", in which she shows some real inventiveness, sort of combining the enigmatic quality of The Knife with the mass appeal of Robyn (Robyn's in the awesome video). her album is currently #3 over in Sweden, so it's clear going in this is a can't miss show. Another one I have to check out is Ida Maria, who I first found out about in the wake of last year's CMJ thing last October, and whose song "Oh My God" has been on my MP3 player ever since. Also, Norway's Shining is a cool post rock band that I've heard a lot about over the past year but never really checked out, sort of in the same lines as Battles. Other artists I'm interested in: Anna Jarvinen, Rebekkamaria, Bandit, Cyaneed, Diskjokke, Dylan Mondegreen, FM Belfast, Harmonica, Kleerup, Lukestar, Madcon, Sahg (the only metal band of interest playing there), Serena Maneesh, and Animal Alpha. Plus there will be a ton of surprises, I know. Expect a full recap with lots of photos sometime next week! Oh, and just in case you were wondering, "By:Larm" translates to something like "city noise" or "city clamour".
My review of Iron Maiden's Live After Death DVD is up at PopMatters. Us old fans have been waiting for a proper DVD release of the classic concert film for the last decade now, so it's great to be able to retire those old VHS tapes. As I mention in the piece, it was worth the wait...the surround mix is great and the extras are fantastic. This DVD isn't just recommended, it's simply mandatory viewing. Classic metal at its very best, a portrait of a legendary band at its very peak.
Also, I'm one step closer to ending a 24 year wait, snagging a ticket to Rush's stop in Regina on May 25th. I decided to forgo the Rush.com presale and try the regular presale on Friday, and it paid off with a fifth row seat on the floor. Rush is the one (existing) band I'd been waiting the longest to see, so it's a huge thrill to be finally going. And interestingly, they have a new live album coming out in April, featuring the full set of the 2007 tour, so hopefully they'll tweak this year's setlist a bit.
One more interview to do today (a short piece on a very noteworthy artist, so watch for more about that one), hopefully a Goldfrapp review, and then the trip preparations will kick into overdrive.
One thing I fully intend to do: return with some quality Norwegian black metal. You can't go to Norway and not get any black metal...
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Things are getting, really, really, really hectic and nerve wracking this week, I'm on pins and needles for reasons too numerous to mention at the moment, but hopefully everything works out in the next few days. More on that when it's finalized. Vague enough?
After nearly two months, my column is back up, the 25th so far. After Christmas and New Year's I was dead tired, and once I got going in January, I just couldn't find the right time to put together a column, let alone find a decent subject. But we're right back on track right now, with plenty of cool ideas for the next few months. Anyway, this new column centers around a very enjoyable interview I did with Jarboe a couple weeks ago, which I think I mentioned here. She's very friendly and incredibly cool, and was a pleasure to talk to. The piece centres around the upcoming J2 album she made in collaboration with Justin Broadrick, which comes out in March...I was originally going to save this piece for March and do something else this month, but with a couple of big releases worth writing about next month, I pushed the Jarboe article up a few weeks. When I first heard the album when reviewing it for Decibel (appearing next month), I was rather lukewarm towards it, but over time, the thing got in my head, and now I love it, and I appreciate it even more after hearing Jarboe give in-depth comments about it.
Even more exciting, though, is her upcoming solo album, due out on The End Records in June, and from her description, that sucker is going to sound massive. I didn't have enough room to include her quotes about the new record, so I'll post a couple excerpts here:
"It's very detailed, I wanted to do something different this time around, because I always like to do things that are different. I like working with a variety of people and exploring a variety of musical styles. I've been that way since the very beginning of my career. So with the album it was an opportunity to work with recording on reels of tape as well as utilizing the computer, and that's pretty unusual in this day and age. Also to have different people come in and build it up in an organic way, live drums, live guitar, live bass, and live cello, to just really kind of build it up in more of a purist way was the intent. So that's kind of been amazing, this whole exploration of the wall of sound type thing, so that was very, very elaborate and detailed, and a lot of people coming and going from the studio, just living in the studio and just kind of immerse myself in the world of that thing. [laughs] I'm still immersed in it in terms of finishing it, in terms of actually deciding the order, the flow, the mix and all that, but I'm very happy with it, and I think there are going to be some surprises on it, as there always is in my work. I have Atilla from Mayhem and Philip Anselmo from Down and of course Pantera. They were just wonderful gentlemen to work with, and they did some incredible vocals and really enjoyed talking about what I wanted and what they wanted to do, their ideas, and it was really kind of interesting to have two singers from different worlds of music to come together and become my vision, as it were. So that was very, very exciting for me.
"In terms of Decibel level, we AVed it and it's heavier than Neurosis, so I guess it's heavy. [laughs] It's multi-tracks, many, many layers of guitars and many, many layers of bass, and many, many layers of heavy organ that I played, and piano that was run through an amplifier and distorted. So to build up the wall, the architecture involved in that, there are things that may not be discernible up front to the ear, but they're embedded in the mix, and that's what gives it that wall, and that's what I was going for. I would say that it's definitely very intense and very extreme, in a very real way. And I'm kind of doing my trademark voicings at this point, where some songs are in full character mode, as opposed to singing, more portraying demons or portraying characterizations. One song, a lot of my vocal on that was heavy kind of breathing like a beast, so instead of words and a lead vocal, I'm doing percussive, full-body panting. Just things like that."
I also have a new review up at PopMatters, and this time it's a title that I'm really sad to have gotten to so late. I loved the last album by Ireland's Primordial, and had I heard their excellent new one, it would have made my year-end metal list, but I just didn't get it in time. But better late then never, as To the Nameless Dead is the kind of epic, heart-swelling pagan warrior metal that oozes drama and adrenalin, but it never flies off the handle, the music is always very controlled and deceptively simple. A tremendous piece of work.
I find it very difficult to get into the folk side of indie. Iron & Wine is good in small doses, and I like how Akron/Family toys with folk elements until it's completely twisted and convoluted, but when it comes to bearded hipsters navelgazing with an acoustic guitar, I rarely have the patience for such stuff. But Bon Iver is a different story. I heard about him sometime late last year when the indie buzz was just starting to build, but hadn't actually heard him until yesterday when his album arrived in the mail. A Wisconsin singer-songwriter by the name of Justin Vernon, he holed himself up in a cabin over a winter, recording on old tape machines all on his lonesome, and emerged with For Emma, Forever Ago, a haunting, beautiful solo debut that avoids pretentious affectations, choosing to bleed sincerity instead. Singing in a falsetto, which is often overdubbed several times, and accompanied by only the sound of his guitar, sparse drums, and the odd creak of the house, it's a disarmingly intimate piece of work, songs like "Sunny Love", "Blindsided", and "Creature Fear" displaying the kind of warmth and intimacy you can only arrive at when recording in a lonesome shack in winter. It's out next week on Jagjaguwar, so watch for it. Oh, and Bon Iver is a play on the French bon hiver, so you actually pronounce it the French way.
And I've been meaning to post about the ridiculously hyped Vampire Weekend, but kept forgetting...I don't mean to get all backlashy or anything, but when it comes to these young guys, I just don't get it. "Oxford Comma" is a good song, but the rest of the album bores me. I just don't dig the reggae stuff at all. And forget what some of the more glassy-eyed critics say....this band doesn't hold a candle to the Strokes.
And lastly, I loved I'm Not There. Clever, lighthearted, profound, heartbreaking, inventive, and as bold as all get-out. Of all the Dylans, Cate Blanchett and the late Heath Ledger are the best, and Charlotte Gainsbourg as Sara was a nice touch. I don't really know if someone who doesn't know Dylan's story will get anything out of this, but I just love all the not-so-subtle references all over the place. And the music, of course, is amazing. And man, is David Cross ever a dead ringer for Ginsberg...
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Finally, some new reviews to plug. Four from Decibel, in fact...I don't think I wrote any features that month, it's so hard to remember. Anyway, at the top of the list is the second lead review I've done for the site, and what an album to cover, too: the new massive, monstrous, monolithic masterpiece by death metal geniuses Hate Eternal. Death metal's been getting a little stale as of late, with formulaic bands like Job For a Cowboy getting far more recognition than they actually deserve, but yikes, does Erik Rutan ever reinvigorate the genre with the immediacy of an adrenalin shot. The album's mix is just unreal...Rutan is one of the most in-demand metal producers these days, but it seems like he was saving his best work for his own band, because this sucker sounds huge. And his new drummer, Canadian Jade Simonetto, is just psychotic behind the kit, plus there are some very cool subtle melodies lurking throughout the thing. Just an amazing piece of work. Interesting story about this one, I was asked to review it right before Christmas, and had to go through the holidays, with all the family fun and niece nuttiness, and familiarize myself with the music, and then churn out a 450 word lead review on the 27th at three in the morning. I've written a ton of stuff over the last six years, but this was definitely the hardest, most taxing review I ever had to do. And I'm pretty darn pleased with the end result, I have to say.
I was also fortunate enough to snag the assignment for The Gathering's A Noise Severe DVD. They're one of my favourite bands, and I'd been eagerly anticipating this live package for quite some time. The band is insanely popular in South America, and they went to Chile to record and film a full live set...not only is the crowd absolutely goofy with enthusiasm, but the band pulls out an incredible two-plus hour set, playing such nuggets as the prog rock epic "Black Light District", "On Most Surfaces", and my all-time fave, "Third Chance". Two months after writing the piece, I have both the finished CD and DVD packages, and the band did a fantastic job putting everything together. It's a fitting end to a remarkable period with singer Anneke van Giersbergen, and I look forward to seeing what the rest of the band plans to do. They're an exceptionally talented bunch.
Another good one I reviewed is the very fun debut album by SoCal nu-thrashers Warbringer. I was sent their debut EP sometime last year, and War Without End is a considerable improvement, very indebted to the old sounds of early Slayer and Kreator. I've listened to it a lot over the last couple months, and although it's not exactly innovative, it's one of the more genuinely fun new metal discs out there right now. I sure would like to see them when they pass through Regina in a couple weeks as part of the cool Exodus tour (with Arsis and Goatwhore also opening), but when it comes to driving in Southern Saskatchewan in February, it can get a bit dicey, so I don't know if I'll make it. Anyway, back to the music, nowhere near as much fun as Warbringer is the new Winds of Plague album, however. In fact, the way this band goes from inspired to just plain dunderheaded is hugely frustrating, something I try to convey in the piece.
I sometimes attempt to write funny reviews, but try as I might, it rarely works well. Fellow writer Scott Seward has no such problem, however...he's one of the best writers on the decibel roster, and his review of the new Ayreon album is the funniest, most entertaining record review I've read in a long while. Unlike other snarky scribes, he's smart enough to not go overboard and make the review more about himself than the record, and this piece is just note-perfect. The bar is continually raised at Decibel...it's a great environment to be in, let me tell you.
And while I'm on the Decibel subject, the Deciblog's Haikus For Hakius post from yesterday, in honour of drummer Chris Hakius, who left doom greats Om the other day, is pure genius.
If Opeth's reported cover of Alice in Chains' classic tune "Would?" will have fans raising their eyebrows, the band's cover of a tune by the singer from Roxette will have them completely up in arms. Personally, I love it when a band gets so eclectic...
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Sorry for the lack of posts, but I spent last week writin' and interviewin', so I was a little preoccupied. Plus, I'm waiting for new published reviews to surface, but that's not happening yet. Also, the next ten days are going to be absolutely nuts...interview features (four), blurbs (five), reviews (eight), plus proofreading, waiting anxiously for advance CDs to arrive in time, etc. Plus I now have a mildly sprained wrist, so I can barely type. That's right...excuses, excuses...
One of my upcoming interviews is a biggie, though, and I hope to be posting about that around the end of the week. Last week I talked to Jarboe about the excellent new J2 project she has going with Justin Broadrick of Jesu. She's easily the coolest person I've ever interviewed, very friendly and a total quote machine. It made for a good article, which will appear as my February column, so watch for it. I'll post about it further when it's published, but I will say that Jarboe's upcoming solo album (due out in June), sounds incredibly exciting.
Speaking of upcoming albums, the one I'm most excited about is Opeth's new disc Watershed. Last week my esteemed editor (one of several esteemed editors I work with) Phil Freeman posted at length about it on his blog, and yesterday the Opeth fans on the internet picked up on it, and considering the high praise he gives the album, that will only get the geeks even more excited. The band continues to emphasize how much of an influence Scott Walker's astonishing album The Drift was during the songwriting process, and when a band as talented as Opeth is so profoundly influenced by such a monumental, riveting, highly disturbing album like that, the mind boggles at the possibilities. Seriously, I like that album even more, more than a year after first buying it, and "Cossacks Are" ranks as one of the most chilling opening tracks I have ever heard. And it only gets scarier from there...
In honour of Super Tuesday, I suggest trying out this cool electoral compass. Not surprisingly at all, I'm closest to Obama, with Hillary a very distant second. Hopefully the rest of these ridiculous primaries (ironic how the one country that boasts the most about its democratic process finds the absolute, most complicated ways to elect its leader) will yield a similar result...
Monday, January 28, 2008
I wasn't aware until just the other day that Metal Edge is now posting album reviews on its vastly improved website, which is cool, since I have five appearing in the current issue. I was pleasantly surprised by the new album by New York hardcore legends Agnostic Front; I tend to be a bit picky when it comes to simple hardcore, but this record has a lot more energy to it than their last one did, earning a well-deserved, respectful recommendation. Animosity is one of the more interesting deathcore bands out there, and Animal, while not a huge step forward from their last CD Empires, is still solid enough to stand out among the hordes of sound-alikes out there. I sort of have a soft spot for the Autumn Offering, as they were my first review assignment for Decibel, and their last album was a rather good bit of metalcore tunage, but on the new one they wind up copying Trivium to an often ridiculous degree, making it an even more pointless paint-by-numbers effort than they've ever done before. And speaking of disappointing, that recent new CD by Helloween is just plain awful. Awful cover art, awful song titles ("I.M.E."...I am me, get it?), often awful songwriting, and awful lead vocals. Seriously, the vocals really stuck in my craw, especially on "Can Do It", which as I mention in the review, has whatshisname sounding exactly like Grover. Sesame Street Grover. Unbearable, I tell you.
My favourite album of the bunch, though, it the two-disc best-of compilation by Swedish power metal goofballs HammerFall. If ever there was a band made for such a career-spanning collection, it's these guys...after all, their albums tend to be a) repetitive and b) inconsistent, and Steel Meets Steel is thorough enough to make it pretty much the only HammerFall release you need to own. With all the filler weeded out, it's great fun, highlighted by the classic fist-pumping anthem "Hearts on Fire". And speaking of which, if you haven't seen the curling video the band made in support of the Swedish women's Olympic curling team in 2006, do so now. Fittingly, the Swedish team won the gold medal that year...you can never underestimate the power of a good metal anthem! Hearts on fire, hearts on fire, burning, burning with desire...
Cosmo Lee over at Invisible Oranges mentioned a very cool website devoted exclusively to the gear shift change, the little key change near the ends of pop songs otherwise known as "modulation". It's by no means an official list of songs that boast gear changes, but it's a fun celebration of an aspect of pop songwriting that always sucks me in, whether it's Ash's "Shining Light" (one of my favourite songs of 2002), the Beatles' "Penny Lane", the Ramones' "Rock 'n' Roll Highschool" and "She's a Sensation", or Gary Moore's "Over the Hills and Far Away" (a longtime fave of yours truly). But if there's a band that abuses the modulation gimmick more than anyone, it's Nightwish (who, coincidentally, have famously covered the aforementioned Gary Moore tune). It's practically a songwriting crutch for Mr. Holopainen...but that said, whether it's "Nemo", "Ever Dream", or "Amaranth", they always do it extremely well. So well, you can't get their songs out of your head for days. The whole modulation thing makes me want to compile an all-time "gear shift" top ten sometime...
Thursday, January 24, 2008
And so the year-end season officially comes to an end with the gazillionth (okay, more like 35th) edition of the legendary Pazz & Jop poll. What's most surprising about it is just how much it resembles the Idolator poll, with the odd tiny exceptions like slightly higher placings for more mainstream acts like the White Stripes and Wilco. I really thought Radiohead would take this one, but despite LCD Soundsystem's (deserving) win, the top three, which includes MIA, was very tight. Anyway, this marks the fourth year I've participated, and my ballot can be found here. Like every other top ten list I submitted in December, this ballot is the same as all the others.
Just like a year ago, the always very intriguing P&J/Idolator aggregator was posted yesterday as well, combining the results of the two massive polls to make what turns out to be a good, definitive list of the critics' picks for last year. Especially fun is the ability to compare certain ballots to others. Interestingly, my own ballot most closely resembles three fellow Decibel writers, as well as Phil Freeman, my Metal Edge editor.
Oakland band Saviours were one of my first interview assignments for Decibel, and their 2005 debut Crucifire was a very enjoyable bit of rampaging, old school-inspired metal. Well, just this week their new album Into Abaddon was released, and it's a big improvement over the previous record. The last one was tight and catchy, but this sucker goes for epic, similar to what High on Fire has done (one of the guys in the band used to room with Matt Pike, so their current direction isn't much of a surprise), and with the help of producer Joe Barresi, as well as improved lead vocals, they do a fantastic job of it. My review went up today, so go take a look, and download "Cavern of Mind" at the bottom. 2008 has gotten off to a great start.
The new issue of Decibel is a good one, having finally arrived in the mail the other day...the Opeth Hall of Fame piece is a fine, fine choice and the Most Anticipated Metal Albums article is great, but unfortunately there's no link to either article. So instead, I suggest you go take a look at Cosmo Lee's 2008 preview for some good picks. As for myself, I always have a tough time keeping track of what's coming out, but if I were to make a list of new metal albums I'm most looking forward to hearing, it'd probably be: Opeth, Meshuggah (heard it, it's great), Genghis Tron (heard it, it's great), Death Angel (heard it, and yup, it's great too), Nachtmystium, Arsis, Torche, Mastodon, DragonForce, Katatonia, Ihsahn, Amesoeurs, Wold, Boris, and Neuraxis. And Metallica. The vultures are circling those guys as they try to restore any remaining credibility with aid of Rick Rubin, and I feel like the only metal writer around who's still hoping they can pull it off with some degree of respectability. But with so many people ready to write them off no matter what the album sounds like, it's going to be a huge, huge uphill climb.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
As expected, my Drive-By Truckers review went up yesterday. As mentioned the other day, if you like the band, it's definitely a buyer, but the album is not without its faults. I'm a bit baffled by the ecstatic rating AMG gave it...after all, any album with "You and Your Crystal Meth" on it can never deserve a whopping 4.5/5 rating. But really, it's better to just focus on the good stuff, of which there is plenty. As I say in the piece, it's too bad they're leaving it up to us to weed out the subpar material when transferring it onto our MP3 players. Man, pare this down to 50 minutes, and you'd have an album of the year contender...
"A-one, and a-two, and a-chick-a-boom a-chick.."
I have a new favourite song of the moment..."Elvis", the new single by UK post punk electro post rock eccentrics These New Puritans. A fierce bassline, a thumping dance-inspired beat, the requisite choppy guitar, and the wickedest, catchiest Mark E. Smith style lead vocal since "Sparta FC". "Elvis. I wasn't talking 'bout that king. I wasn't talking 'bout that king. It's confusing." Watch the video here. Find the track here, and play over and over for an hour.
So our wonderful little local alt-weekly Planet S has been pulled from Liquor Board stores. The SLGA claims it's not appropriate material for their customers, but they're not fooling anybody. Not only does the whole mess bring up the usual freedom of speech can of worms, but most transparently, the SLGA is so blatantly kowtowing to the new conservative provincial government. Oh, they can candy-coat it all they want, but to no one's surprise, the Sask Party are turning out to be just like the notorious ad claimed.
On a brighter note (ironic, considering the extremely depressing subject matter Jamie Stewart always sings about), the new Xiu Xiu album sounds pretty darn good so far, especially "I Do What I Want When I Want" (watch the video here), which just might be their best song in a few years.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Out of all the year-end lists that come out annually, one I always look forward to is PopMatters' Slipped Discs, in which we writers plug a bunch of our favourite albums that didn't make the big albums list the previous month. A lot of good choices, but I think the fuss over that Burial album is hugely overblown, a merely good album that folks will have forgotten a year from now. Anyway, this year I wrote about three such overlooked gems: Richard Hawley, Paramore, and Rush.
The toughest record reviews to write are the ones dealing with albums that have both great and mediocre material on it, where the difference between the album's strongest and weakest moments is massive. I had this problem when reviewing the Killers' Hot Fuss way back when...some songs were fantastic, absolutely brilliant, while others were just awful, embarrassingly so. With that CD, since there it was pretty much evenly divided between phenomenal and crapola, I gave it a five out of ten. With the new Drive-By Truckers album, it's not so clear-cut. The band's seventh studio album has a good dozen tracks that are terrific, some of them ranking among the best stuff they've ever done. The big problem, though, is that there are seven songs that are either middling, mediocre, or just plain terrible. So the question that came up this past weekend when reviewing the CD was, how much does one penalize an album for suffering from such sloppy editing? Do I take the glass-half-full stance or the glass-half-empty perspective? The album sinks to a rather dreadful low with "You and Your Crystal Meth", but on the other side, "The Home Front", "The Righteous Path", "3 Dimes Down", "A Ghost to Most", "The Purgatory Line", and especially the astonishing "That Man I Shot" are instant DBT classics. How much of a disappointment is a record that gives us twelve great songs out of 19? It's easy to be tempted to be lenient, but with this band, who has put out four consecutive albums that I would deem near-perfect, it's abundantly clear that they really should have known better. So in my review, which should be appearing in the next couple days, I had to give it a reluctant, but still quite positive, six out of ten.
So that also means that for the first time in ages, a DBT album won't grace my year-end list, which is disappointing, DBT being one of my favourite bands and all.
While it was initially, a big disappointment this weekend that Rush passed over Saskatoon in favour of Regina, the bottom line is that after close to 30 years, Rush is finally returning to Saskatchewan. Making the 15 minute drive to Credit Union Centre would have been preferable to doing the four hour round trip, but if that's what I have to do, I'll gladly take it. Been waiting to see these guys for nigh on 24 years now, and I'm determined to see that streak end four months from now. besides, a show in the dinky Agridome (or whatever they want ot call it these days) might have a better vibe and sound than the more cavernous CUC.
During last Thursday's crazed CD trading spree (a total of 17 CDs gotten rid of, hardly a solution to my severe storage problems, but at least it's something) I picked up one of the few Can reissues that I still didn't have, that being the ban's final album of the 70s, the eponymous Can. It's quite the unfairly maligned little rekkid...after all, by 1978, the venerable band was a shadow of its former self. After the brilliance of 1974's Soon Over Babaluma, their last classic album, they seemed to plateau creatively. Arrangements started to become less challenging, often adopting disco-inspired themes (as on the very weird but oddly endearing hit single "I Want More"), and complacency started to set it. Holger Czukay became bored with playing bass, so he started contributing by editing tapes and adding effects from transistor radios, and the band brought on a couple of new members in bassist Rosko Gee and percussionist Reebop Kwaku Baah. 1977's tired Saw Delight was a real nadir for the band, and the out-of-print (and intentionally ignored) Out of Reach was greeted with outright hostility by critics, but while the follow-up Can would receive just as hostile reviews, I actually sort of like the thing. It focuses on pure groove more than the previous few albums, led by the always fluid guitar work of Michael Karoli, who had slowly become the focal point in the band, and while it's still nowhere near on par with Can's first six albums, the first five tracks are actually really good, especially opener "All Gates Open" and the more complex yet funky "Aspectacle". In fact, checking Simon Reynolds' essay in the Spin Alternative Record Guide, he too claims that Can is better than some folks claim, going as far to theorizing that the organic dance grooves predate the Happy Mondays (and he's kind of right, Karoli goes all Shaun Ryder on "Aspectacle"). In what has to be one of the biggest headscratchers in the band's career, the album ends with a pair of punky/electro interpretations of Offenbach's "Can Can". It's both incredibly stupid and endearingly whimsical at the same time, a very strange way to cap off a decade in which they influenced rock music in such a huge way. So I'm quite glad I picked this album up...if I didn't have so much store credit to use up, I probably never would have bought it. Surprisingly enjoyable purchase. Now if I can only track down Delay 1968...
On a Can-related note, here's a cool look at the band during those waning years, 1977 to be specific, as they deliver an energetic performance of Saw Delight's "Don't Say No" which slaughters the original album version.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
As expected, Eye Weekly's Canadian Critics Poll went up yesterday, and I should have known better than to predict Radiohead. We Canadian scribes love to tout our own, but it comes as a bit of a surprise that Feist not only topped the albums list, but won it by a considerable margin. If there was one album that seemed to decrease in impact for me over the course of 2007, it was The Reminder. It tries to duplicate the charm of Let it Die, but seems to fall short, settling for Starbucks-friendly crooning instead of real inventiveness. I love a lot of the disc, especially "My Moon My Man", but for all the attention "1234" has been getting, it's just a low-rent "Mushaboom". Though I'd sure like to see her live again...it was quite a disappointment she passed my city over last year. Maybe it was payback for all the chatty idiots at Louis' last time.
Anyway, one of my hastily-written comments appears, appropriately enough, in the comments section (the bit about the White Stripes). I should have written more than the few blurbs I sent in, but this was right around the time when I was deathly ill.
I think the new Black Mountain album just might be a big-time contender for both my year-end list and my Polaris Prize ballot. I thought their bombastic, hippy-dippy prog rawk was good before, but they've simply outdone themselves with In the Future. Epic, massive, trippy, with artwork that's a brilliant homage to Hipgnosis. I am so seeing these dudes (and lady) in March.
Try as I might to stay on top of things musically, there are always titles that I always miss out on, which is where stuff like Idolator and Pazz & Jop come in handy. Especially Idolator, which was smart enough to have a reissue category. At the top of that list was the three-disc reissue of Colossal Youth, the classic 1980 album by Welsh post punks Young Marble Giants. One of my post-Christmas gift card orders was canceled on me, so on the spur of the moment I made a few mouse clicks and ordered the album. Incredibly, it arrived less than two days later (someone at Chapters-Indigo is on the ball), and although I had plenty of writing to do, I was completely distracted by this album's stark beauty. Rarely does such an intimate arrangement of guitar, bass, and a pretty female voice come off as both winsome and chilly as Colossal Youth does. And it's amazing how the original "Credit in the Straight World" is just as ferocious as the famous cover version that Hole did, even though it's completely stripped down in comparison. There's something about Stuart Moxham's choppy, precise, economical guitar work (you can sort of hear a similarity in Billy Bragg's approach from a few years later) and especially Alison Statton's pretty yet oddly impersonal vocal delivery that's just spellbinding...like the greatest albums, it defies description, sounding unlike anything released at the time, and which holds up astonishingly well today. I haven't gotten around to reading Simon Reynolds's extensive liner notes (but you know they're going to be well worth the read)...for the time being I think I'll just play "Brand-New-Life" on repeat for an hour.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Idolator's 2007 Critics Poll went up yesterday, and it was nice to see LCD Soundsystem and MIA go 1-2. Other than that, no real surprises, though Against Me! had an admirably strong showing at #21. Metal's exceptional year was ignored as expected, with only Jesu making the top 100 (#68). But at least I did my part...my ballot is here (the same as the top ten I posted here last month). Interestingly, there were fewer voters in this poll than last year...have people become listed out? One look at Largeheartedboy's EOY master list is enough to turn anyone off, but I still enjoy doing these polls. The Pazz & Jop poll and Eye's Canadian Critics poll should both be appearing soon...the next week, I think, but don't hold me to that. I'll bet right now that Radiohead will top both polls.
I forgot to mention that Continuum is offering a free excerpt from John Darnielle's book about Black Sabbath's Master of Reality for anyone who sends an email to sabbathsampler(at)yahoo.com. Be sure to check it out...instead of the usual dissection, Darnielle has written a short novel, written from the point of view of a teenaged boy in a mental hospital. Judging by the 32 page excerpt, this looks to be every bit as good as I've been expecting it to be. Darnielle's an exceptionally gifted writer, and for all the attention his band The Mountain Goats get, is one of the most knowledgeable metal fans around. Not to mention as funny as all get-out, as his monthly South Pole Dispatch column in Decibel attests. The book's out in April, so watch for it.
And while I'm nattering on about the 33 1/3 series, which I'm hopelessly addicted to, I finally got this title the other day. I've been meaning to read that one for ages.
Speaking of Idolator, by the way, their assessment of the new In Flames cover artwork pretty much says it all. Then again, In Flames has never had good cover art. And speaking of In Flames, They're appearing on this spring's upcoming Gigantour, along with High on Fire, Job For a Cowboy, Children of Bodom, and headliners Megadeth. I mention this only because the tour is stopping in my city...it'll be great to see MegaDave, In Flames, and best of all, the mighty High on Fire again. Bodom's incredibly overrated, and JFAC is death metal at its most unimaginative, but that's a small price to pay. I'll be there come Mother's Day...
British Sea Power is a band I've always kind of liked, but wow, have they ever put out a knockout of a single in "Waving Flags", which bears a strong similarity to early Doves. Watch the video here.
Monday, January 14, 2008
I'm trying to get back into the rhythm of review writin', after being sidelined by illness and post-illness related exhaustion, and my piece on the recent Jesu EP, written a day before I came down with the nastiest fever, has appeared. Justin Broadrick is so prolific these days, and while some of his stuff has been hit-and-miss (Pale Sketches, for instance), Lifeline gets it right from start to finish, the highlight being a collaboration with former Swans singer/keyboardist Jarboe. Speaking of which, Broadrick and Jarboe have collaborated on a new project calling itself J2, and the new CD is pretty good, a departure from the usual Jesu sound. More on that when my review appears in a couple months. If it ever gets written...it's a difficult album to write about.
I've long enjoyed exploring the many New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands, but with so many key releases so incredibly hard to find, I couldn't help but miss out on a key band or two. Or three. Tank is one such band. I first heard of Tank when the album Honour and Blood came out in 1984 on Attic Records in Canada (I never forgot that cover), but aside from the album cover and band logo, that was pretty much the extent of my knowledge for a couple decades. One of the more popular NWOBHM bands of the era (the first such band to crack the UK top 20 singles chart, apparently), Tank has not been canonized on the same level as Diamond Head or Angel Witch, instead relegated to cult fave status, and a big reason was the complete unavailability of their back catalogue. That's all changed, though, with the release of the huge, exhaustive, nine-disc box set Still at War: 1981-2002, and when the chance came to do n article on the band and the set, I was game for it immediately, as I'd been meaning to get into Tank for ages. And when I got the box set in the mail about a month ago, and popped in the 1981 debut Filth Hounds of Hades, it was one of those moments where you immediately want to exclaim, :Where have you been all my life?"
Filth Hounds is an incredible album, as well as quite the anomaly when compared to the more cutting-edge NWOBHM discs at the time. Lead singer/bassist Algy Ward was a member of punk greats the Damned and the Saints in the 1970s, and when he formed the much heavier, aptly named Tank, he brought with him a punk swagger to the music, which bore a striking similarity to the straight-ahead rock 'n' roll of Motorhead. Unlike Motorhead, though, the songs were more creatively arranged, with melodies that gave the songs more depth, and while the band itself wasn't exactly the tightest, most talented outfit, the little touches Ward brought to his music, be it the snappy riff of the supercool "(He Fell in Love With A) Stormtrooper", the lithe boogie of "Blood Guts & Beer", or the vocal melody of a track like "T.W.D.A.M.O.", made the band sound better than they really had any right to be. Fast, to the point, with nary a second wasted, Filth Hounds is a phenomenal first album. And a tough one to top, too, as Tank never really did come as close to perfection as they did there. That said, the next three albums, Power of the Hunter, This Means War, and Honour and Blood, all have their moments (including a shockingly good cover of the Osmonds' "Crazy Horses"!) and are strong in their own right. Only does 1987's dismal Tank really fall short. And even 2002's Still at War is impressive. In addition to the six studio albums, the box set comes with a pair of live CDs, as well as a DVD full of rare performances, and while it may seem like unnecessary padding, the recordings, spanning the last 27 years, are all worthwhile. I've had so much fun listening to it all, and after immersing myself in Tanks music for a month, I did an interview with guitarist Cliff Evans last week, which went well (nice fella), which has led to a thousand-word article that should be appearing in Metal Edge in the coming months. According to Evans, they hope to be putting out each reissued album individually, but if you can spare the cash, the Dogs of War set is absolutely worth it.
In the meantime, here are some free downloads that I highly recommend you try out:
"Turn Your Head Around"
"Walking Barefoot Over Glass"
"This Means War"
"Honour & Blood"
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Another review of mine has popped up on the Decibel site...I haven't seen this month's actual issue yet, but it appears I have five pieces in the mag instead of four. Which is always good. Anyway, I reviewed the new All That Remains DVD waaay back when, so far back I can't remember. September, perhaps? It was bumped so many times I'd forgotten it had yet to appear in print, but it's cool to see it at last. As for the DVD, it's the usual live dealy, with a pair of concerts, the band's videos, and interviews, but these guys (and girl, can't forget about Jeanne) are a very fun live band with some good, catchy metalcore songs (not to mention an ace shredmeister in Oli Herbert), and they're a charismatic bunch, the interview segments are entertaining. If there was one disappointing thing, it's that Phil Labonte, who made great strides strengthening his singing on The Fall of Ideals, often lets the fans sing the choruses...unless you're filming in South America (where everybody sings along with gusto), it's never a good idea to let the fans dot he work for you, especially on a live DVD. Still, when it comes to getting plenty of bang for your buck, this disc does a great job. Here's a clip of "Six" if you need more convincing. One of my favourite songs to play on Guitar Hero 2, I might add...
Nick Cave's new video for "Dig, Lazarus, Dig" is killer, 'stache and all. And what a great little song, too. We can only hope to be half as cool as he is when we turn 50.
Goldfrapp's "A&E" is one of my favourite singles of the early year, and the new video is typically quirky, complete with dancing plies of leaves. The new album, though, is really polarizing folks, as some (like yours truly) enjoy the mellower side of Alison and Will, while others consider it boring adult contemporary stuff. Parts of Seventh Tree do play it safe, but at least it doesn't coast like the last Feist album did (talk about a record that wore out its welcome quickly). Besides, they took that whole glam/electro/schaffel thing as far as it could go on the last two albums, so I'm glad they went for a radical change. You can count perpetually snarky Idolator as one of the detractors, as they are none too taken with their new direction.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Got a new crop of Decibel writin' to mention, as I close in on the 100 article mark for the mag. Or have I hit it already? Anyway, I keep on churning out the stuff...this month, there's a cool in-the-studio report I did featuring Colorado black metal greats Cobalt, more specifically guitarist Erik Wunder, who turned out to be a really cool guy. The interesting thing about Cobalt is that the other member of the band, vocalist Phil McSorley, is a soldier in the US Army, stationed in South Korea, so he can only contribute to the recording process when he's on temporary leave. Although the follow-up to the superb Eater of Birds won't come out until next year, I didn't have enough room to mention in the piece that the band is putting out an EP later this year on Profound Lore Records, which will consist of a new track, a cover, and a half-hour instrumental piece called "Ritual Use of Fire", snippets of which were featured on the last album as interludes between songs.
As for new reviews, the best of this month's lot is the new live album by Montreal death metal greats Neuraxis. Not only is it a good way for fans to get accustomed to the band's new vocalist, but the recording absolutely scorches. The band is ultra-precise, and the mix is impeccable..it's one of the best live albums I've heard in recent memory actually, and if you're into Neuraxis's cool, melodic variation on death metal, you have to hear this. I hope they come back to my city soon, I missed their show last year...
I couldn't stand the 2006 debut by Memphis metalers Nights Like These, giving it a pretty good trashing back when it came out, and I had zero expectations concerning their new one, but Sunlight at secondhand turns out to be a very pleasant surprise, the band ditching the Mastodon/Red Chord shtick in favour of a more sludgy, crust-derived sound. "Bay of Pigs" is especially good...oh, and the artwork by the ubiquitous Paul Romano is oustanding. And wanna know what's not outstanding, and is just plain mediocre? The new one by Toronto metalcore goofs Arise and Ruin, who show promise every so often, but lazily revert to boring metalcore cliches too often, as we lose our interest after just a few minutes.
One song that's crept out from under the massive 2007 pile on my floor to grab me by the throat and compel me to play it over and over is "Vomiting Mirrors", by Philly goth/noise/whatever band Clockcleaner. The four-on-the-floor beat, the screeching guitars, the piano in the background, tons of reverb on the vocal track, it all smacks of mid-80s goth, the kind of stuff I found way cool back in high school, but infused with a ferocious MC5/Stooges style garage rock influence as well. Killer!
One of my Christmas highlights was getting Rhino's four-disc The Brit Box, the nifty Britpop retrospective put out specifically to cater to those, like yours truly, who look back on the whole era with great fondness, and relish any chance to remember just how great a musical era it was. And they've done a very good job putting the whole thing together, creating a thorough look back at British rock music from the late-80s to the late-90s. Starting with the Smiths, Cocteau Twins, the Cure, Echo & the Bunnymen, and the Jesus and Mary Chain, and with a polite nod to Madchester on the first disc, the set swiftly dives into shoegaze and the insane Britpop explosion, climaxing with the obvious (but still timeless) pair of "Common People" and "Live Forever", and ending with the increasingly more diverse sounds of the late-90s. A lot of the stuff I already had, but the real attraction of the set is all the lesser-known bands, or at least the ones I didn't pay enough attention to back then, like Rialto, Pale Saints, Hurricane #1, etc. Of course, one could easily put all this stuff together via downloading, but all the searching, sorting, and tagging doesn't look very attractive when you have a snazzy set like this all wrapped up neat & tidy in a rather silly telephone box with flickering lights, and accompanied by a well-written book of liner notes. So just ignore Simon Reynolds' moaning and groaning, forget about the obvious exclusions (Radiohead, Belle & Sebastian), and spend five and a half hours being reminded of just one reason why the 90s was such an exciting time for music.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
True enough, Juno is as good as Ebert declared last month. Some people, namely hipsters who are turned off whenever they hear their affectations cranked up to an hilarious degree, are knocking the writing, but personally, I found it brilliant from the get-go ("That ain't no etch-a-sketch. This is one doodle that can't be un-did, homeskillet"). For all the silly lingo, it never comes close to sounding precious, and unlike so many movies that make their teenaged protagonists smarter than they have any right to be, there are plenty of chinks in Juno MacGuff's cooler-than-thou armor, enough to remind us that she's still a 16 year-old girl who still has plenty to learn about life, not to mention music. Seriously, was there any better-timed line than her crack about Sonic Youth? And an interesting thing about the music, back in 2001, I hated the Moldy Peaches, they symbolized everything despicable about indie rock at its most contrived and self-aware, but here, the songs work. It's amazing, really, how the film transforms such a craptacular tune as "Anyone Else But You" into a sweet little tune. And I'll contend that the version Ellen Page and Michael Cera sings at the end destroys the Moldy (and do I mean moldy) Peaches original, as they strip the song of its pretension and deliver it with genuine sincerity.
As I mentioned last month, Los Campesinos!'s "You! Me! Dancing!" was my favourite single of 2007...well, the Welsh band's debut full-length leaked yesterday, and for the most part it holds up well. Being such a hopelessly obvious, but joyously rambunctious imitation of Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene, I thought it would be a challenge for the band to sustain the crazy energy of Sticking Fingers Into Sockets for 40 minutes, and they do struggle at times, but overall, the album works quite well. Two tracks from the EP are present, the aforementioned "You! Me! Dancing!" and "Don't Tell Me to Do the Math(s)", and they appear to be the same as on the EP (perhaps remixed a bit), and the rest of the new tracks hold up well, especially "Death to Los Campesinos!" (take a look at the murderously cute video), "Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks", and "2007, the Year Punk Broke (My Heart)".
On the metal side, the biggest new release of early 2008, in my opinion anyway, is the new one from the insane grindcore techno band Genghis Tron, and wow, what a departure they've taken on Board Up the House. Here are my first impressions, which I jotted down a couple days ago: Really, really strong, as the MySpace samples have indicated. Exceptional sense of melody and groove, they've come such a long way from Dead Mountain Mouth. "Board Up the House" is the obvious highlight, since we're familiar with it already. "Things Don't Look Good" is total balls-out metal, albeit with the odd GT idiosyncrasy, as well as a cool Tool-ish middle bit (really). Eight minute suite "Recussion"/"I Won't Come Back Alive" is right on par with Dillinger Escape Plan's "Sick on Sunday"/"When Acting as a Particle", with that wicked blend of glitch, melody, and aggression. The further into this album I get, the more amazed I am by how streamlined the overall sound is, again, like DEP. The discipline and subtlety is just amazing, it's not just on-off-on-off all the time, the noise doesn't overwhelm, it accentuates the music. "Colony Collapse" reverts to Dead Mountain Mouth chaos, but again, the ambient touches keep it from flying off the handle. The downtempo ten-minute epic "Relief" is a great way to end the album, their most organic-sounding tune to date, built around a cool, jarring riff, and going into an extended coda at the end. Drums sound organic, but apparently it's all machine. It's already a year-end contender, so watch out for it. The metal media is going to flip over it, and so will the fans.
Australia has had a weird habit of sending over rock bands that start out sounding fresh and energetic at first (Wolfmother), but then quickly become increasingly overbearing (Jet), and in some case, just plain awful (The Vines). But for a while, it's good, disposable arena rawk, and the latest export is more of the same, albeit with a twist. They're called Airbourne, and they shamelessly follow the lead of fellow countrymen AC/DC and Rose Tattoo, churning out good, catchy, songs. Actually, what they remind me of most is that sleaze rock trend back in the late-80s, when band after band played up the biker shtick and Angus Young riffs, like Dirty Looks (seriously, if you want to hear a killer sleaze tune, check out "Oh Ruby"), Dangerous Toys, the Four Horsemen (rockin' was their bidness), and Circus of Power. Anyway, these boys do it quite well, although the album stretches the gimmick as far as it can go. But for now, it's good harmless fun, nicely exemplified by "Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast" (here's the video). But what's weird about these guys, and which sticks in my craw just a bit, is that they all play instruments. Sleaze rock bands always have lead singers that played up the whole flamboyant shtick, so it's really strange to see Airbourne's singer do his thing while playing a Gibson Explorer. It just don't look right.
And is it me, or does the new Drive-By Truckers album sound rather uninspired? I'll give it some more time, but I'm not hearing any grabbers...
Thursday, January 3, 2008
When the folks at Continuum, the publishers of the outstanding 33 1/3 book series, announced their latest block of albums to be subject to thorough deconstruction and analysis nearly a year ago, a few titles jumped out at me, ones that I knew I had to have at once: Sabbath's Master of Reality, Slayer's Reign in Blood, Pavement's Wowee Zowee. But the one title that everyone was curious, and most of all, skeptical about, was the book about Celine Dion's 1997 album Let's Talk About Love. It was to be written by Carl Wilson, one of the best music writers in Canada and the creator of Zoilus, one of the best blogs around, so we knew there was a talented guy writing it, but why that album? A few months later, when the real title of the book was announced, Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste, then the sentiment from music geeks shifted from scoffing to genuine interest, as Wilson promised to "face the question of what drives personal taste - and whether it's possible to change it." An absolutely fascinating idea, it was easily the boldest idea in the entire series., and I couldn't wait to read it.
Well, it came out a few weeks ago, and I'm glad to say the book delivers on all fronts. Wilson does analyze the actual album (you know which one, the one with the Titanic song), but only very minimally, as he focuses on his own abhorrence to Dion's oeuvre, her unique Quebecois background and how she fits in neither the typically American race-based pigeonholes oh white bread pop and black R&B, and why exactly she is reviled by so many people, yet loved by many, many more. At the same time, Wilson delves even deeper, into the analysis of taste itself, bringing up such philosophers as Immanuel Kant and Pierre Bourdieu, and relating it to today's audiences, primarily the typical indie geeks whose favourite music is the stuff that no one else listens to (recently illustrated by the brilliant Venn diagram t-shirt...but I digress), ultimately wondering if it's possible for hipsters, critics, or anyone at all, to admire each others' individual tastes instead of always trying aesthetically superior. In the end, Wilson still can't fully embrace Dion's album (and neither can I...that record is nauseating), but it will forever change how you judge music, be it cutting-edge or tacky, and it might even change how you listen to music. Death to the ironic punk cover! Embrace the cheesiness of the real thing, enjoy novelty pop while it lasts! And don't worry about the stench, something fresh is always lurking around the corner.
There was one bit in the book that I really liked, how Wilson says that Dion's primary musical style is the power balad, and how she is merely continuing where the pop metal bands of the 80s left off:
"It's been said that 'pro wrestling is soap opera on steroids,' so maybe Celine Dion is metal on estrogen. And metal, remember, has now been admitted to the critical sanctum. Metal is all darkness and rebellion and Celine all candlelight and communion, but note how hypermasculinity and hyperfemininity in this way can meet, like plutocratic capitalism and command-economy communism."
That's more true than Wilson actually thinks...in fact, that collision of the muscular and the flitty is still going strong in European metal, as power metal ballads have gotten softer and softer, to the point where yes, they do resemble Dion tracks. Uncannily so, as bands like Nightwish and former singer Tarja Turunen, Sonata Arctica, Blind Guardian, and even Manowar offset riffcentric tunes with syrupy, overtly sentimental pop balladry. Conversely, the closest Dion has come to putting out something remotely close to tolerable was Jim Steinman's ultra-bombastic "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", which did the power ballad thing straight to the hilt. So maybe instead of courting such uber-cool producers as Timbaland and The-Dream, perhaps she should really be working with a songwriter like Nightwish's Tuomas Holopainen and a famous Euro-metal producer like Waldemar Sorychta. That would really throw the gauntlet down to the rocker crowd, and challenge their own idea of what constitutes good or bad taste.
Oh, and if you haven't seen it yet...12 reasons why Celine Dion is amazing.
Anyway, on that whole subject of taste, reading the book brought me back to my perpetually wavering feelings toward Radiohead. I've admired the band for more than a dozen years now, but as I hinted at yesterday, the obsession of the band's fans and their desperate desire to canonize them like our generation's Pink Floyd or whathaveyou is such a major turn-off. When they put out Hail to the Thief, a record I found repellent, the sound of a band trying to sound profound but making it all a hollow artistic exercise, the one response that was spouted the most was, "But you should hear these songs in a live setting." To which I always retorted, if they sound so great live, yet can't be bothered to play more than a few densely populated markets across North America, leaving hundreds of thousands of potential punters wishing they'd come to their own city, why can't they bring that magic to the actual recorded product? It's that kind of exclusionary, elitist sentiment that I find so off-putting, and using the "Oh you should hear it live," is the lamest excuse in the book. So when the praise for In Rainbows went so completely over the top yet again, although I genuinely liked the album when I listened to it that night in October, I had no desire to revisit it. I didn't want to lower myself to the caterwauling hordes who think Thom Yorke's typing skills are brilliantly ironic or that their vinyl run-out groove etchings are profound ("RIPPLES ON A BLANK SHORE...ooooh!). I try not to be a music elitist; I like it when artists I like get the attention they deserve. But at the same rate, I'm still a musical loner deep down, and following the herd makes me feel uneasy.
So the key with In Rainbows was to wait for a chance to listen to the album cleanly, unfettered by fanboys and misguided writers, and yesterday was as good as any, as the album finally hit stores this week. In yet another case of the band trying to look artsy and coming off as downright silly, the packaging is interesting albeit ludicrous, a cardboard envelope containing the CD, a booklet, and stickers for you to label a jewel case yourself. For all the cumbersome qualities of the art design, however, it's all about whether the music still holds up, and after spending a quiet night with it, I have to say I'm even more impressed than I was three months ago. Unlike Hail to the Thief, the frustrating half of Insomniac, and for that matter even the otherwise genius Kid A, Radiohead has learned how to write an actual song again. It still takes them time to get going, as the first four tracks sound too tentative, still preoccupied with experimentation instead of song craft, but after that, somethnig rather magical happens. "All I Need", "Faust Arp", "Reckoner", "House of Cards", "Jigsaw Falling Into Place", and closer "Videotape" all rediscover what made this band so great seven long years ago. It's still decidedly low-key, but Yorke sounds sincere instead of whiny, hopeful instead of miserable. The last two thirds of the album is extraordinary, and on that first listen since October, I was really thrown, because all I could remember was my annoyance of all the overpraising going on. I still think the album is imperfect, as the band is just starting to get its footing after the debacle that was Hail to the Thief, but now there's a genuine affection for In Rainbows, as well as for the band for the first time in a good six years or so. I still have to learn to be more comfortable among the fanboys, but for now, as long as I stay away from message boards and whatnot, and enjoy this solid, respectable at times gorgeous, seven-outta-ten album quietly in private, I should be fine, not to mention accepting of the fact that it's going to top the Idolator and Pazz & Jop polls by the time they're announced.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Another new year, another subtle change to this blog...that's right, that little orange dealy on the left is no lie, I've joined the 21st century, and am doing the RSS thing. Talk about long overdue...but not only did it take me a long time to learn just what RSS feeds are (when I did, I became hopelessly addicted), but pitas, which predates the more user-friendly blogspot, requires you to add the application yourself. Thankfully there are some user-friendly free RSS things out there, so it's a piece of cake. So please, subscribe away, so you can keep better track of my (mostly) music-related rants.
Whenever I do my December countdown, that always means I can't blather on about the usual goings-on, so come January, there's always a ton of catching up to do, and I never have any idea where to start. So 'scuse me while I run through some things off the top of my head...
First of all...Rush! According to the reputable blog Rushisaband, a date has been penciled in for my city, so after 24 years of craving seeing the Canadian prog rock legends, it's going to finally happen. The official announcement is next week, I believe.
I'm very, very proud of my entire 2007 albums list. In past years, I've been guilty of taking the "what's the best?" route instead of the "what's my favourite?" route, but this time, I wound up with a list which turned out to be the truest to who I was that year than any previous list I've done, especially since starting this blog. There's not one title I think I'll regret including. As for titles I'll regret including, there will probably be a few close calls, but no, I think the 35 I listed are pretty much untoppable. Except for Grinderman. I missed out big time on Grinderman.
As for my writing, the piece I'm most proud of from December is my 24th column, a gigantic feature on Profound Lore Records, which if you've been paying attention to this page, has become my favourite record label of the past year. Release after outstanding release came out, and by July, I had decided to dedicate my year-end column to the imprint, and Chris Bruni was very accommodating, and was a fun interview. There's some great-looking stuff on the horizon for 2008 (new Nadja, which I'm excited about), so hopefully Profound Lore's hot streak will continue well into the new year.
When I first saw PopMatters' list of the best albums of 2007, I groaned at my fellow writers' continued blind worship of Radiohead (a respectable album nonetheless, one I really should pick up today), not to mention the almost self-parodying praise of some of the most cloying (or often just plain dull) indie rock music out there, but the more I let it sink in, the more unique it turned out to be, especially compared to other year-end lists from webzines. Unlike the reputable Pitchfork and its lesser clones, it's much more diverse, unafraid to embrace everything from mainstream pop (Amy Winehouse), mainstream country (Miranda Lambert), world music, Americana (Lyle Lovett), R&B (Mavis Staples), electronic (Gui Borrato), and metal (Alcest). In fact, PopMatters was one of the only music publications to single out metal, but still, the band in question was one that skittered along the line between black metal and early-90s shoegaze.
Which leads me to this recent blog from the Guardian which rightfully asks, if metal had such a huge year (and trust me, it sure did), where are all the accolades that followed bands like Sunn O))) and Mastodon over the past few years? It's a good question, one that's resulted in a series of unintentionally comical replies on the blog itself, as well as a good discussion on ILX. My answer? Metal was never cool among my fellow writers, and it never will be. I only know of just a few writers who, like myself, keep an eye on both indie rock and metal, and while we're the ones who write the bulk of webzine reviews of metal albums, the overwhelming majority of our peers simply couldn't care less. So while sites like PopMatters and Pitchfork are brave and open-minded enough to include metal in its music coverage, come year-end time, there simply aren't enough tallies in the writers' polls to get any heavy titles into the EOY list. If there's an electronic or hip hop record that gets overwhelming praise, I always try to give it a listen to see what the big deal is, but it appears when it comes to metal, most indie writers couldn't be bothered. We just have to live with it, the stigma will always be there, the same old outdated, narrow, geezer comments of, "It'll never top Black Sabbath," will continue to be blurted snidely from some dude wetting himself over the new Of Montreal disc...metal has always been, and will continue to be the one true outsider genre in popular music. It's thrived there for close to 40 years now, so the accolades from more mainstream press hardly matters. But I'll still be doing my part to try to turn at least some of the more open-minded readers out there, the ones who are more adventurous than most of my fellow writers...as I try to keep drilling into people's heads, there's something there for everyone, if you're willing to just give it a try. Metal's never been more diverse, not to mention exciting. The decision to focus more on metal in my writing was the best choice I ever made. The indie scenesters can keep their Animal Collectives and Spoons...I'll take Pig Destroyer and Genghis Tron anytime.
By December, I was still doing some major catching up in the metal department, seeing as it was the most fruitful year for the genre since the mid-90s, so to properly do 2007's metal output justice, here's one last attempt at a definitive list of the best metal discs the year had to offer:
1. Alcest – Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde
2. Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works
3. Pig Destroyer – Phantom Limb
4. Baroness – The Red Album
5. Jesu – Conqueror
6. Between the Buried and Me – Colors
7. High on Fire – Death is This Communion
8. Witchcraft – The Alchemist
9. Neurosis – Given to the Rising
10. Machine Head – The Blackening
11. Clutch – From Beale Street to Oblivion
12. Om - Pilgrimage
13. Caina - Mourner
14. Portal – Outre
15. Deathspell Omega - Fas – Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum
16. The Angelic Process - Weighing Souls With Sand
17. Akercocke - Antichrist
18. Watain – Sworn to the Dark
19. The Howling Wind – Pestilence and Peril
20. Ulver – Shadows of the Sun
21. Wolves in the Throne Room – Two Hunters
22. Bloody Panda – Pheromones
23. Cephalic Carnage – Xenosapien
24. Hacride – Amoeba
25. Rwake – Voices of Omens
26. Municipal Waste – The Art of Partying
27. 3 Inches of Blood – Fire Up the Blades
28. Cobalt – Eater of Birds
29. Electric Wizard – Witchcult Today
30. Agua de Annique – Air
31. Boris w/ Michio Kurihara – Rainbow
32. Arch Enemy – Rise of the Tyrant
33. Earthless – Rhythms For a Cosmic Sky
34. Trap Them – Sleepwell Deconstructor
35. Symphony X – Paradise Lost
36. Within Temptation – The Heart of Everything
37. Wold – Screech Owl
38. The Red Chord – Prey For Eyes
39. Dimmu Borgir – In Sorte Diaboli
40. Behemoth – The Apostasy
41. Zoroaster – Dog Magic
42. Korpiklaani – Tervaskanto
43. Therion – Gothic Kabbalah
44. Dethklok – The Dethalbum
45. Graf Orlock – Destination Time Tomorrow
46. Atavist – II: Ruined
47. Evile – Enter the Grave
48. Amber Asylum – Still Point
49. The End – Elementary
50. Year of No Light – Nord
What a year.
