Wednesday, November 30, 2005
It starts tomorrow...
...Which means this is my last random post of 2005. So a few quick quips before we go head-on into retrospective mode:
If you know what's good for you, you'll go download Garret Kriston's album before he becomes famous on Saturday.
The new Girls Aloud album Chemistry is very, very good, although it seems to lack the kind of knockout singles that their previous disc had. Still, they're as fun and sassy as ever, the CD highlighted by the Devo-esque "Models", the three-songs-in-one "Biology", and the rather audacious "Wild Horses".
Psst...do you like Isis? Explosions in the Sky? Cult of Luna? If the answer's yes, you have to hear the very ambitious debut double album by Rosetta. Like all the other NeurIsis bands, The Galilean Satellites has the usual blend of deep, rumbling chords, tribal drumming, death/hardcore vox, and shoegazer melodies/dissonance. Plus, there's a bit of an orch pop element appearing every so often (not unlike GYBE)..."Itinerant" is gorgeous. Not quite as impressive as the new Minsk disc, but this one's right up there.
Yikes! I've been so busy, I completely forgot the Behemoth show is Thursday. It should be a great night of metals death and black.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Two days until the madness begins! The list is going to be bigger and better than ever. Well, slightly bigger, and with a little interactive twist I hope you guys like.
I realized that once I get going full-bore with the countdown on Wednesday night, I won't be able to make anymore of my usual blog posts, so I'd better make the next couple days count, because I have some catching up to do.
First, the second installment of my Blood and Thunder column is now up. There were a couple of publishing delays in November, so it appeared a little later in the month than the first one did. Anyway, I touch on the seemingly ageless quality of the genre, as the older a metal band gets, the more resilience they seem to have, citing various examples, and tossing in little reviews of their recent releases along the way.
Over at Static, my review of the new Bob Mould album has appeared. I was a bit late to the aprty with this one, but better late than never, because it's his best album in years. He's working with a full band for the first time since the Sugar days, and we hear him combining elements from his early work with the more electronic elements he's been so enamoured with lately. It's eclectic, but consistently good, and it's glad to have the guy back in top form.
The Darkness's One Way Ticket...To Hell and Back comes out tomorrow. As you probably know, I was a huge fan of Permission to Land more than two years ago, so I had high expectations, but my worst fears were realised when it became painfully apparent that the band tried much too hard to impress everyone. With Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker adding layer after layer of veneer to the sound, it makes for a nice-sounding, but ultimately charmless disc. It does have some very good sons, like the title track, the hilarious "Knockers", the catchy "Dinner Lady Arms, and the bagpipe-squealing "Girl With Hazel Eyes". Instead of the UFO/Boston influence of the first album, the band take those strange Queen comparisons by the press and go nuts with the layered falsetto harmonies, mixing it with a more light, powerpoppy, Cheap Trick feel. It's a near-miss for me, as "Bald", "English Country Garden", and the power ballads "Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time" and "Blind Man" just don't measure up. Call it an affectionate thumbs-down. Justin Hawkins will right the ship the next time around, I'm sure.
Spotted at pop (all love): Rex Murphy on gangsta rap, in what turns out to be a brilliantly-written, often hilariously biting piece.
Quick metal round-up: The new Judas Priest DVD is a fantastic souvenir for those of us who witnessed the recent tour. The new Cradle of Filth DVD is pretty good, featuring an enjoyable concert filmed in Paris, where the kids all yell, "Crah-del! Crah-del!" The new Bolt Thrower album is some impressively powerful, no-frills death. The Slipknot live album is imperfect, but still good misanthropic fun...save for the drum solo. And the new odds and ends compilation by The Gathering is rather excellent (rare for a contractual obligation album), which gives me good reason to devote my January column to my favourite Dutch band.
Friday, November 25, 2005
Six days until the Big 2005 List begins...are you ready? 'Cause I'm not. Well, not really, because my lists are all finalized, but I still have a ton of preparations to do. But fear not, everything will be up and running next Thursday. My month-long illness (very bad bronchitis triggered by asthma, a chest cold, and freezing weather) is finally going away, so the energy to write is returning just in time.
Plenty of catching up to do, in the meantime. My review of the new System of a Down CD appeared back on Tuesday. If you were reading last week, you know full well what I think of the thing, but my review hopefully elaborates a bit more. It's good, but not as great as I was hoping it would be...as it is, it's a mighty fine double album. And I get a real kick out of the inventive packaging...the way both CDs attach is very cool, and rather ingenious. Makes for a very snazzy package, I have to say.
Over in Staticland, my review of the recent fun, but kind of pointless Iron Maiden tribute and the good new Rogue Wave album have appeared. The Rogue Wave is enjoyable, but I find it can't quite match the absolutely spectacular "Publish My Love", which towers over the rest of the album...it's almost as if Zach Rogue wrote a song that's too good. Can he duplicate this more consistently in the future, or is he overachieving on the song? Only time will tell...
I got the new Judas Priest concert DVD Rising in the East the other day, and love it to bits. A tremendous memento to have, especially coming a month after finally seeing them in person (these guys never change, so it's exctly like any other show they did this past year). What's really cool is that they play four additional songs that they didn't do in Edmonton, including a good version of "The Ripper", a chugging "Exciter", and the always fun "Hot Rockin'". There are no extras, but considering the plethora of pointless, self-indulgent home movie footage that I keep seeing on music DVDs, this is actually a good thing. My only gripe: why the full-screen instead of enhanced widescreen? Seems kind of silly.
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Before I begin my account of last night's highly, highly anticipated Broken Social Scene, I have to mention first that my review of Jens Lekman's latest compilation, Oh, You're So Silent Jens, appeared on Friday. An excellent compilation of three 2004 singles, plus a handful of other odds and ends. "Black Cab" is worth the price alone...don't hesitate to pick it up. The guy's a tremendous talent.
So why is it that every time I see the Most Serene Republic, I get a strong urge to run onstage, interrupt their inoffensive, but ultimately pointless indie rock noodling, and strangle the lot of them? At last month's Metric show, they were energetic, but unbearably dull musically (spewing indie collective cliches left and right), and last night, they bugged me even more as they opened for Broken Social Scene.
I find the band annoying, so I intentionally arrived late so I wouldn't have to endure their set. Problem was, when I got there at 10:25, they hadn't started playing yet. A big problem, which only got bigger when they finally took the stage at 10:55, and proceeded to play an interminable 35 minute set. The problem was, with every song MSR played, the later it became, and by the time they finished at 11:30, I knew we were going to get shortchanged in the BSS department, as the band had played for two hours and 45 minutes in Calgary the other night. Seriously, couldn't they have cut three or four songs from their set? Broken Social Scene concerts are few and far between in Western Canada, and meanwhile, we had a bland group, who was playing their second show in Saskatoon in a month, depriving us all of valuable Brokensocialsceney fun the longer they played. Gah, it was frustrating. And the singer's remarks about us "Skatchatonians" and how cold it was here (what, he thought 4 degrees Celcius was cold? The wimp...) were completely unfunny.
Anyway, as the floor thinned out after the opening set, I made my way to the front, and got a great spot at stage right, right in front of Andrew Whiteman's monitor. It was quite funny watching the ten members of the band try and figure out where to put their equipment. That was one crowded stage...at one point, John Crossingham could find no place to put his tom/cymbal kit (he was left to improvise, hammering on Justin Peroff's kit during "Bandwitch"). After about a half hour of trying desperately to get things organized, it was about as good as it was going to get, and everyone clambered on the tiny stage, trying to stake out a spot. As Brendan Canning would remark, it was a bit claustrophobic, but they quickly made things work, starting off with two of the new album's strongest tracks, "7/4 (Shorelines)" and "Ibi Dreams of Pavement". It wasn't the longest of BSS shows, but they made every moment count, churning out song after great song, with nary a weak moment. It was cool being in front of Whiteman and Ohad Benchetrit, a couple of ace guitarists, and their dual solos during "Cause=Time" was a real highlight. Frontman Kevin Drew, all hoodied up, was in good spirits (much different than their April 2004 show here), and shone on "Ibi" and "Lover's Spit". Peroff proved yet again why he's such a great drummer (just watch the guy during "KC Accidental"), and Charles Spearin and Crossingham set up camp on stage left switching instruments with every new song. New singer (and uncanny Whoville lookalike) Lisa Lobsinger was very impressive...my Chicago buds talked about how she seemed awkward onstage a few weeks ago, but last night, she looked very comfortable onstage, singing on such songs as "Anthems For a Seventeen Year Old Girl" and "Almost Crimes". Turned out it was a bit of a homecoming for Lisa, as she said she grew up in Lawson Heights, which started a very funny interruption where a kid in the crowd claimed she had babysat him when he was little, prompting an onstage interrogation by Drew to the kid and a clearly flabbergasted Lobsinger.
As expected, it was a very hot, very cramped performance, but Canning, who insisted specifically that they play Amigos in Saskatoon or nothing at all, said it was "still better than playing at that f**king mall in Edmonton." The venue was absolutely packed, but there were no idiots in the crowd at all, and everyone was just having a good time...it was one of the best indie rock crowds I've been smooshed among in quite a while (due in large part to the fact that there were no bratty high school children in attendance). Favourite moments of mine were the clap-happy "Stars and Sons", the chuggin' version of "Major Label Debut", the very good, upbeat "Where's Your Heart, Where's Your Mind", "Lover's Spit", and most notably, "Bandwitch" and the stunning "Hotels" which were both transformed into energetic, dance-oriented numbers. Because of the shortened set time, the band had to cut a few songs from the setlist (I think Drew said something about being sick, which might have been another reason the set was shorter than usual), the most notable one being "It's All Going to Break", which I was dying to hear, but other than that one mildly sour note, the whole show was as great as I knew it would be, one that will rank as one of the year's best. I snagged a setlist after the show, so here's the full list, including the songs they weren't able to play:
7/4 (Shorelines)
Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day)
Cause=Time
Backyards
Fire Eye'd Boy
Superconnected
Stars and Sons
Anthems For a Seventeen Year Old Girl
Almost Crimes
Major Label Debut (fast)
Where's Your Heart, Where's Your Mind
Bandwitch
Lover's Spit
KC Accidental
Encore:
Hotel
It's All Gonna Break
I'm Still Your Fag
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
One week before it hits the stores, I've heard System of a Down's hugely anticipated Hypnotize. Actually, I've heard it four times now...and the verdict, you ask? Well, the good news: it's good. The bad news: it's not great. In fact, in a sense, it's quite a significant disappointment, especially when compared to Disc One of this strange double alnum, Mezmerize.
What went wrong on Hypnotize is simple, and painfully obvious, but before I start complaining, I have to address the good moments on the CD, because there are still a whole heckuvalot of them. In fact, the first 28 minutes are excellent. "Attack" opens the disc mid-stride, sounding like Side Three of a double album would, a straight continuation from Mezmerize, like the last six months never happened. Sharp staccato riffs, a ferocious drum beat that borders on grindcore, and shifts from mellow, midtempo, doubletime thrash, and back to that initial, superfast tempo...it's SOAD at their most thrilling, musically powerful, and lyrically much more angry than the satirical "BYOB". "Dreaming" sustains the momentum, featuring some soaring vocals by Serj Tankian. "Kill Rock & Roll" is an oddball track, but not overly so, the band displaying more of a hardcore punk sound instead of their trademark crunch, the ska-infused bridge subtle, not quirky for the sake of being quirky. The title track, which most of you have probably heard already, is an effective slower tune in the same mold as "Question". "Stealing Society" returns to the uptempo power, with Daron Malakian providing some of his most effective vocals yet, during the punk-inspired bridge. The solid "Tentative" is bolstered by a beautiful breakdown, with layered vocal harmonies, synths, and the mantralike line, "Where do you expect us to go when the bombs fall?" "U-Fig" teeters a bit, mostly because of a rather moronic chorus that goes, "You and me/Should go outside and beat 'em beat 'em beat 'em beat 'em beat 'em beat 'em/All pathetic flag-waving ignorant geeks/And we'll eat 'em eat 'em eat 'em eat 'em eat 'em eat 'em," but the pure catchiness of it all rescues the song. "Holy Mountains", meanwhile, is the best song on the entire double-disc set, a highly emotional account of the slaughter of one and a half million Armenians at the hands of Turkish soldiers in the early 20th century. The band is of Armenian descent, and the combination of mournfulness and blind rage ("Liar! Murderer! Sodomizer!") packs a massive punch. That moment of high drama should have marked the climax of the double album, but it isn't, and when the song's fadeout is interrupted by the harsh tones of the following track, the real problems begin.
To put it bluntly, Hypnotize is completely derailed by three successive tracks during its last quarter. The dignity of "Holy Mountains" is interrupted by the moronic "Victim of Obscenity", and while its chorus of "BANANA BANANA TERRA COTTA PIE!" is good for a larf, the abrupt shift in mood destroys the cohesiveness of the first half hour. "She's Like Heroin" does not help things, in fact, it's by far the worst song on the two discs, as Malakian's vocals sound grating, his lyrics sophomoric, the structure of the song seeming haphazardly arranged, each style shift sounding arbitrary. Lastly, Malakian's overwrought ballad "Lonely Day" is maudlin tripe, containing his dumbest lyrics yet ("Such a lonely day/Shouldn't exist/It's a day that I'll never miss"). Now, I was lenient enough to let the obvious spelling mistake on Mezmerize slide, but I cannot say the same for the chorus of this dumb song, in which Malakian sings repeatedly, "The most loneliest day of my life." I can't tell you how much this annoys me. This song is a sad attempt at poetry, containing a third grade grammar mistake. Infuriating.
The full version of "Soldier Side" does return to the form of the more sober first half hour, but egads, that nine-minute lapse in judgement sticks in my craw. So the coomun fault of the double album does indeed rear its ugly head on Mezmerize/Hypnotize, that being a serious lack of restraint. It was a very close call, as the vast majority of the work is of very, very high quality. That said, if Mezmerize was a nine, Hypnotize is either a six or a seven, which means instead of being a revolutionary hard rock double album, it's merely a very good one. I wanted to wait until I heard the new disc before I decided my album of the year. Now, after finally hearing it, there's no question what my Number One is going to be, and it sadly will not be System of a Down.
Monday, November 14, 2005
New review, kids! My piece on the Feel Bad Hit of the Fall, Sunn O)))'s spectacularly grim Dark One, appeared on Friday. Scary, scary stuff. Seriously, it's not for the squeamish. Oh, and I squeezed a little mention of the new Oren Ambarchi album in there as well, because, well...oh, just read the thing, you'll see.
Last night, for some reason, I went to a concert with pretty much zero expectations. I'm entering Week Four of my ongoing health problems (even with Canada's public heath care system, I'm still ridiculously stubborn when it comes to going to the doctor), and I just didn't feel like going out on a Sunday night. I just wanted to lie on the couch, doze a bit, and watch Rome on TV. I didn't really want to drag myself out into the subzero weather to see three hours of bludgeoning Eastern European death metal, but after saying, "I'll go right away," for about an hour, I finally made the ten minute drive out to The Roxy.
Now, I know that Poland's Vader is a renowned live act, that their contrymen Decapitated are a bunch of young phenoms, and I really liked the most recent album by Germany's Dew-Scented, but my heart just wan't into it as I entered the place, right as local band Cessate were finishing their set. All that changed pretty quickly, though, as Dew-Scented came on, and delivered a very fun half hour set of their no-frills thrash. I'll be the first to admit that their music is really nothing special, but it's the type of speedy stuff that goes over well, and the people got into the music very quickly. They played about four songs from their Issue VI album, as well as some older stuff, including "Cities of the Dead" and "New Found Pain". Decapitated were next, with new lead singer Covan in tow, and their set was a complete shift in style, from the straight-ahead frenzy of Dew-Scented to some serious, serious death metal, the kind of technical stuff that has everyone just standing and watching. They were solid enough, but the tone of the guitar bugged me, and I couldn't really hear enough of it. At death metal shows, I hate it when I can't hear the guitars clearly. Guitarist Vogg's fingers were moving like mad all over the fretboard, but I could barely hear it.
I had heard about how Vader was supposed to be a good live band, but when they came on, they pulled the rug out from under me. I was absolutely floored...they're style is a simpler, more accessible style of death metal than that of, say, Cryptopsy (if Cryptopsy are a maelstron, Vader are simple thunder), and Vader use that to their advantage in a live setting, shifting from insane death churning (complete with those astounding 64th note snare beats) to tribal breakdowns, to midtempo chuggers. That building of tension and the subsequent release is done so brilliantly, and the band overall was so incredibly tight, that their hour-long set flew by. As a final flourish, Vader blew us all away by closing the night with a BLISTERING cover of Slayer's "Raining Blood", and if our jaws weren't already on the floor, they were now. If I can find out what the setlist was, I'll post it...for the life of me, I can't remember everything they played. Anyway, after coming really close to backing out of going, I wound up having the most fun at a concert in months.
Four days until the big, big Broken Social Scene show over at Amigos...
Friday, November 11, 2005
Two new reviews to mention. There's my piece on the new Early Man album, which I mentioned just the other day, and which reiterates my opinion stated therein. A good CD, but not a great one, and it's time the indie kids were set straight.
I also reviewed the recent debut by London's Art Brut. I've had the album on my hard drive since late April or early May, and because I've been without an actual hard copy of the thing, I kept forgetting about it when compiling my year-end contenders. But yeah, it's quite a good album, and benefits from its 35-ish minute length, for if it went a minute longer, it would have pushed a little to close to overkill. While the songs are all clever, they still sound a touch limited as a band, so economy is the key. As a result, a quick, snappy little disc that makes you wonder if these kids actually have potential. If "Emily Kane" is any indication (watch for that one on my year-end songs list), the potential just might be there, after all.
I've been racking my brain in recent weeks, wondering which 2005 titles I should pick up before I make my Best of the Year list final (cos man oh man, did I miss out on a bunch of good stuff a year ago), and I got the perfect reminder yesterday afternoon. Sitting among the pile of mail was the new reissue of Stadsvandringar, the 2002 album by Swedish psychedelic-folky dudes Dungen. The proverbial lightbulb appeared over my head, and I thought, Of course!, and later that night, I ran out to the local record emporium, and bought Dungen's freakydeaky masterpiece Ta Det Lugnt. Now, I know full well I'm horribly late with this album...I remember first finding out about the album on none other than the PopMatters Best of 2004, and going, "why didn't anyone tell me about this band?" I apparently wasn't the only one, and in January, I downloaded some tracks, and was mightily impressed by the soaring guitar licks, late 60s melodies, and impenetrable Swedish lyrics. Thanks to fake indie label Kemado (who really have been putting out some good stuff lately), the album was released domestically in North America this year, thus making it, by my own rules (which I'm always guilty of bending), eligible for this year's list. So yeah, now I have the thing, it's excellent by the way, and I'm happy. Though I know I'll be kicking myself for having missed a handful of records come January, I'm convinced. Always happens.
As for Stadsvandringar, it's a very nice album, full of more of a folky air than Ta Det Lugnt, with plenty of pastoral sounds, like acoustic guitars and flutes, with organ and electric guitar swooping in every so often, but I can see why some folks think it's a bit too nice, as it's nowhere near as bold as its follow-up. Still, it's a rather enjoyable disc, as it offers us glimpses of Gustav Ejstes's mad retro genius.
Tuesday, November 8, 2005
Quick...try to guess the name of the band I have seen the most times in the past twelve months. Give up? It's none other than Antarctica's own GWAR. Which is, quite frankly, very strange, and just a touch disturbing.
GWAR now has strong sentimental value to yours truly, because my little niece was born twelve hours after I saw them for the first time last November...my ears were still ringing a bit and my arms still bore the faint stains of green GWAR goop as I held her for the first time. Anyway, last night's show, two weeks away from the little girl's first birthday, seemed oddly apt...it'd be fun to see this become an annual tradition!
I was still feeling under the weather and exhausted, so I decided to rest at home, intentionally miss the otherwise cool DevilDriver, and leave after nine to catch the main show. I got to the Odeon right on time, just minutes before the band took the stage...I was struck that there weren't more kids than there were in attendance. It was an all ages show, so I expected a huge number, but while it was still a well-attended show, there was still plenty of space for those of us on the main level at the back, and the upstairs lounge was cordoned off. Anyway, GWAR came on, and did their GWAR thing, and to their credit, it was a slightly different show than a year ago, as they had new "victims" to murder, like Sharon Osbourne, the new Pope, Dick Cheney, and a weird little monster guy. They did bring out Bonesnapper the cave troll, but they didn't have any of the hilarious cartoony banter. And most surprisinly, they didn't play "Sick of You", their one signature tune. Plus, the sound wasn't quite up to snuff...it looked and sounded like they had half the PA the building normally supplies. But the blood and goop was plentiful, as tons of people (not I, though) got drenched, which is what they all came for. The kids went home happy, which was good to see, but as I left, a mere hour and a half after arriving, I knew those of us who endured the madness at Ryly's last year saw a much better, much more intense, and fun show.
And on a side note, Dave Brockie, AKA Oderous Urungous, bought the new U2 album and a cheap plastic bong at the Vinyl Exchange. Weird.
Sunday, November 6, 2005
First of all, just a quick little reminder that we're only 24 days away from my fifth annual Best of the Year countdown! Hard to believe I've been doing it that long already. The top three appears to be set, but as for the top twenty or thirty, it's anyone's guess right now. I have a whole mess of albums to sort through in the next few weeks...
So sorry about the lack of updates here, but this past week has been especially brutal, as I've been literally overwhelmed by illness, and could barely sit at the computer for a four-day stretch. Whether I'm improving is anyone's guess (felt slightly better Friday, had a terrible relapse Saturday), but I thought I might as well briefly take care of some bidness over here while I had a brief moment to spare from trying to catch up my writing assignments after a lost week.
First of all, my huge feature piece on the recent Palm Directors Label DVD series, which I worked doggedly on the week beofre last, has appeared. As I wrote here on this page (it's there in the new October archive), I was most surprised at how much I enjoyed the Sednaoui and Corbijn DVDs. Anyway, I like how the piece turned out. And many thanks to Karen for the title help.
On Tuesday, I got the new album by Early Man. It's an odd release, in that it's being heavily touted by the otherwise indie rock-lovin' Matador Records, when the music is nothing but straight-ahead, no-frills, NWOBHM metal (think Witchfinder Genral mixed with a touch of Diamond Head). Reviews are decidedly mixed, as some people don't know what to make of it...metal fans are trepidatious because it's on Matador, and the indie set seem to be confused about the album's lack of irony. That afternoon, as I was listening to the album, I went off on the SOMB about how indie rock fans seem to be unable to enjoy good, riff-heavy rock on a completely unironic level (see Diamond Nights), and later that night, what does the always-great Questionable Content do, but post a comic that completely supports what I was saying, albeit in a much more clever, funny way? Anyway, to clarify things, yes, the album is good, a fun slice of retro metal, similar to other bands like Wolf and Falconer. However, as any metal aficionado will tell you, there are a lot of albums from 2005 are much better than this one. So please, listen before you buy. Start with "Death is the Answer" (download here), a great little tune.
