Norfolk and Rider – "13th Century" b/w "Hegira" 7"

Now this is a unique concept. Norfolk & Western are from Portland, OR, and Shoes & Rider are from Brooklyn, NY. Each of the two bands’ frontmen, Adam Selzer and Mark Wyman respectively, recorded guitar and vocal tracks and then sent them across the country to be finalized by the other band. That’s a fantastic concept, and combining the band names into one shows a powerful mutual respect and admiration for the final result.
On “13th Century,” Selzer takes Wyman’s quiet and moody vocals and gives the songs a rich yet sparse feel. The song is bare, yet there are a host of sounds here. Bells, booms, the sound of wind way in the background, a softly strummed banjo, and more fill in this song, but not all together and never overwhelming the almost plaintive vocals. Rachel Bloomberg of the band Boycrazy and back-up vocalist for The Minders adds her backing vocals to Wyman’s, just a touch to provide a lovely accompaniment. The vocals and soft guitar are the focus here, but without Selzer’s unique instrumentation and atmospheric approach, who knows what this song would sound like?
“Hegira” is Wyman and Shoes & Rider taking a stab at Selzer’s vocals and guitar. Shoes & Rider add an almost electronic buzz, but the focus here is Selzer’s more melodic voice and some softly strummed acoustic guitars. The song has this bare, lovely feel, made more so by touches of cello and the combination of Wyman’s backing vocals to Selzer is perfect. The song builds, and distorted electric guitar comes in behind the acoustic, giving the song a more vibrant, almost explosive feel. Yet it never does explode, instead continuing on this level before quietly dying out.
This is truly a unique release, even if you’ve never heard of either of these two bands. The songs are quiet and lovely, yet moody and urgent, as each respective band adds their own flare for atmospherics to the others’ work. And yet the final results meld, truly giving the impression of one unified band. With artwork on heavy stock and the vinyl being heavy peach, this limited release is a rare gem.

Weights and Measures – Tonight, the Lower Abdominals EP

I’d like everyone reading this to imagine the upcoming five words as spoken by the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons: Best … Song titles … Ever. EVER.

When I first looked at Tonight, the Lower Abdominals, my co-workers and I laughed for a good 10 minutes over tracks names like “My God Can Beat Up Your God,” “A Most Efficient Method of Removing the Pants,” and “The Weekend is for Making Babies.” The rest of the cardboard packaging is just as crazy, ranging from old style images of women in girdles and working out to proclamations of “Don’t Be Skinny!” The wonderful picture of a man and woman dancing is accentuated by his declaration, “Gosh, Jean, you sure are popular since you put on those extra pounds!” Plainly put, this CD packaging rocks harder than Wesley Willis after a three-day medication-less bender.

Unfortunately for Weights and Measures, though, the music contained therein isn’t quite as attention grabbing. It’s not that the band doesn’t have something cool going here, because the disc sounds good and the music is well-played. For some reason, though, this EP just seems to be missing some sort of spark. The band does manage to pull everything together for a nice listening experience with “A Most Efficient Method of Removing the Pants,” which is the longest and most decidedly ‘emo’ track on this release. The guitar and bass parts create a slow sense of tension in the first minute before changing up to a solid groove that ends in a mess of random chords. The track meanders a bit, then slows down to create a dreamy two-minute ending piece with delicate guitars and lulling bass. The drums, of course, are all over the place and then some for the slowdown, creating an intense, yet strangely relaxing vibe. When the drums finally settle down, the guitars take control and lead the song into a soft wind down.

Although nothing on this EP is unlistenable, nothing else really compares to “Pants.” “My God Can Beat Up Your God” and “The Overstated Drummer is Always Given to Hyperbole” are sub-two minute guitar flurries that ultimately go nowhere, and while “The Economics of Looking Good” rolls along at a crisp pace, it never really reaches out and grabs the ears. “Yes As In Meaning No” is a little harder than the other tracks, creating a cool texture swirl when the song smoothly switches to a dreamy guitar sound mid-track. “The Weekend is For Making Babies” ends things on a fuzzy note, featuring some cool guitar work and a bit more of the ‘dreamy’ feel that worked on “Pants.”

All in all, Tonight, the Lower Abdominals is a decent enough listen, though I doubt anything the band could have recorded would have been more interesting than the song titles and CD packaging. It just seems as if something is missing from these songs, because something about them is just too docile to reach out and pull a listener in. Judging by the tone of the songs, I’m not exactly sure Weights and Measures was going for a passive approach here. Yes, there’s one really good track and two others that are worth a listen or two, but with only 14 minutes of material, there really shouldn’t be any low points. My official opinion? Eh. Instrumental junkies would probably ‘get’ this release a lot more than I did.

Various Artists – Sympathetic Sounds of Detroit

So, the basic story behind this compilation is simple. Long Gone John from Sympathy for the Record Industry was working on having a compilation of the Memphis music scene put together. Jack White of the White Stripes liked that idea, so he beat Memphis to the punch by piecing together (literally) this audio snapshot of the current Detroit garage rock scene. Calling upon his friends in the Detroit scene, White recorded and produced all the material here, as well as co-mixing the tracks with Detroit studio guru Jim Diamond.

The result is a most unique compilation, indeed. Unlike most comps, SSoD is a uniform sound quality going for it, thanks to the fact that White personally recorded every band in the same studio with the same equipment (a reel-to-reel 8-track). Also, White had each band hammer out a few bars of bluesy numbers and literally cut and pasted random edits of the blues licks as track dividers. It sounds strange, but the concept gives SSoD a really cool ‘disjointed jigsaw puzzle’ swagger.

The music, of course, is vintage Detroit barroom-meets-garage rock. The Paybacks offer up “Black Girl,” a Rolling Stones-esque rocker that showcases Wendy Case’s soulful and gritty vocals. The Dirtbombs offer up the hilarious “I’m Through with White Girls,” which manages to seriously rock in a bass-heavy way despite lyrics like, “Open the door and what do I see? / A lot of white girls trying to Smurf like me.” The Hentchmen’s “Accusatory” kicks out a serious 60′s farfisa organ-drenched tone, while KO and the Knockouts’ “Black and Blue” lays a serious sense of guitar-pop sensibility on the disc (led by the incredibly cool vocals of Detroit ultra-gurlie Ko). The Come Ons’ “Sunday Drive” continues the boppy gurl pop portion of the disc, which comes to a screeching halt with the Soledad Brothers’ harmonica-laced, juke jiving “Shaky Puddin’.”

The Von Bondies’ “Sound of Terror” sounds like spook rock thrown in a blender with the MC5 and the Stooges, while the Buzzards whip out an ode to snotty folk with the jangly “High Class.” The Detroit Cobra’s rousing piano saloon take on Otis Redding’s “Shout Bamalama” is a complete barn-burner – a toe-tapping, sing-along inducing feel-good track that really steals the spotlight from most everything else contained here. Guitar-and-bass rockers Bantam Rooster follow up with a killer scream-along in “Run Rabbit Run,” while The Clone Defects’ “Whiskey ‘n Women” brings to mind a sedated Mudhoney. Whirlwind Heat takes the crown for creepiest and darkest track with “Decal on My Sticker,” which somehow manages to take a perfectly standard rock band lineup and create a truly indescribable mood. The White Stripes, of course, close out the ‘standard’ tracks on the comp with the unbelievably rockin’ “Red Death at 6:14,” which is about as good of a straight-ahead rock song that the Stripes have ever committed to tape. Notable is the fact that this track features a completely clean, straight guitar solo from Jack White.

As far as garage rock stuff goes, this compilation is pretty much essential. White put together a very diverse mix of different bents on a common sound here, and everything works quite well. At first, the blues snippets were a bit distracting, but after a few listens, they establish themselves as a calling card for the comp. With no real clunkers in the bunch, I’ve gotta give this one a distinct thumbs up. Man, I feel like such a White Stripes fanboy anymore.

Loscil – Triple Point

This is some trippy, trippy stuff. I really didn’t know what to expect from loscil, and I have to admit that I was a bit thrown for a loop by the project’s one-sheet. *Ahem* …And I quote:
“The album is based on the concepts of thermodynamics, the physical science which investigates the conversion of heat into mechanical force or energy or vice versa.”
Of course, being the eternal pessimist that I am, I figured I was in way over my head for this review. Pleasantly enough, though, I found Triple Point to be an interesting listen.
The loscil project is actually Vancouver’s Scott Morgan, who uses samplers, synths, effects, and computer programming to piece together loscil’s output. The sounds on Triple Point are very sparse and rhythmic to the point of hypnoticism, droning on with slight synth bass sounds and a scattering of effects that sound like they were brushed on the recording with a feather duster.
The key to loscil is definitely its minimalism. If Triple Point was overloaded with effects, the slow, methodic drone of these compositions wouldn’t seem so enchanting or so able to lull the mind into droning along. If the lulling drones were any louder, they would establish too much dominance over the simple, hushed synth bass pieces, which would kill the incredible boost the bass tone gives to the already mind-consuming lull of the basic track.
Everything works in cycles on Triple Point, where every recording is only this good because of the restraint Morgan showed in mixing the individual elements together. The disc doesn’t actually feature a whole lot of ‘beats,’ per se, which makes these compositions incredibly laid back. Only the album’s final track, “Absolute,” deviates from the somewhat mellow mood created, as it seems to musically represent the actual physical conversion of heat to energy. The track’s ominous buzz comes across to the ears much more forceful than it actually is, thanks to the atmosphere created by the rest of these tracks.
I’ve already spent quite a few productive hours reading or writing while listening to Triple Point, and it also makes great music to just lay back to. I wish loscil would’ve put this disc out six years ago, as it might’ve helped make college a less stressful experience for me. I’m imagining that once I actually get off my lazy duff and study up on the scientific terminology that makes up the track titles, I’ll better understand the relationships between the tracks. Until then, my scientific ignorance and I are perfectly content to just enjoy the sonic marvel that is Triple Point. Two thumbs up, with a twist, a kiss, and a Sprite on the side.

The Album Leaf – Detroit – The Gem Theater, MI – 2001-09-19

(Jeff contributes after seeing the same show the next evening in Toronto)

In one of the strangest occurrences of my entire life, my ticket to see Sigur Ros managed to mysteriously disappear just days before the event. I have no idea what in the world happened, but it went a little something like this. The Friday before the show, I checked my desk drawer to make sure my ticket was still there (which it was). I didn’t bother taking it home because my plan was to head to the show straight from work, and my dumb ass would’ve just lost the frickin’ ticket if I’d have put it anywhere else. Blah. Monday night, I’m leaving work and I notice that my ticket isn’t in the drawer anymore. I freak out. Thinking I may have mistakenly put it in my backpack, I ransack it to no avail. I head home and search my apartment high and low with the same negative result. By now, I’m spazzing. Tuesday morning, I tear my desk apart again in-between being swamped with work, but I still can’t find the ticket. Last resort, I take off from work early for lunch and head to pillage my apartment again. Eventually, I do find my ticket, sitting with my girlfriend’s Tori Amos concert tickets on the living room bookshelf. Now, how in the world my ticket materialized from point A to point B without me realizing it was so far beyond my comprehension that I almost burst a vein in my head trying to figure it all out. After getting stuck at work with an hour-and-a-half of overtime tacked onto the end of my day, my fellow show-going buddies decided it was beer-o’clock for me …

… And that finally leads me away from my tirade and into the show. The Gem Theater turned out to be the nicest place I’ve ever seen a show, hands down. The rumor is that the Gem is a refurbished jazz club from the 50′s, and the place is just completely SWANK. There are elegant wooden staircases, polished wooden bars, and cute little tables with cool looking (but uncomfortable) wicker chairs that really added to the small club feel. This place was intimate with a capital “I,” as it probably only seated 400 people or so between both the main floor and the balcony combined. The neighborhood was good, too – The Gem is conveniently located only about a city block away from the Detroit Opera House.

It took about 20 minutes to shake off the “I don’t belong in a place this nice” vibe, which pretty much filled the void between our arrival and the opening act, The Album Leaf. This instrumental quartet fell somewhere between Mogwai and Sigur Ros sound wise, only with a little more emphasis on keyboards. The band opened with a gorgeous track that laced a slow, solemn bass line and cautious drumming with two delicate guitars that intertwined with each other in various ways throughout the song. From that point on, though, the guitars were set out of the way as soft keyboards became the focal point for the rest of the set. The Album Leaf fellas fashioned a nice little groove with their set, and they appeared ready to strap on the guitars again before deciding instead to thank everyone and end their set. The finish seemed really abrupt, but the band’s set was pretty fly, to say the least. After the fact, Editor Jeff informed me that The Album Leaf is actually the side project of Jimmy LaValle from Tristeza (just thought I’d throw that in there).

Now Sigur Ros … Wow. The Gem Theater was literally quiet enough to hear a pin drop when the band hit the stage, and it was probably a good thing. At times, the band was so quiet that I swore I could hear the singer exhaling when he was standing five feet behind the mic. Seeing Sigur Ros live is truly an ethereal experience, just because the sound is so incredibly honest to what you’re seeing in front of you. On disc, it can be assumed that a lot of production work was probably spent on making Sigur Ros sound what it is. However, when the band members step up on a stage and pull out performances that are even more stark and touching than the records (which is quite an accomplishment in Sigur Ros’ case), it’s time to just sit back and say, “Damn.”

The only song anyone recognized was “Svefn-g-englar” (from Agaetis Byrjun), but recognition hardly mattered at a show filled with such amazing textures. Frontman Jon Thor Birgisson delicately dragged a bow across his guitar strings for much of the night while punctuating the almost ghost-like sounds with a timid voice that somehow found the strength to cut straight through the few sonic swells the band let loose. The band’s entire set felt like being privy to an actual concert of true angels, with Birgisson’s cherubic voice leading a movement to show that sometimes the quietest shows can be the most powerful. There were portions of the night where there was no sound at all except Birgisson deftly pulling at his guitar strings with his bow … and even though it was the most hushed sound, it came across like a landslide to an audience that was so awed that it literally held its collective breath while admiring the beauty in the muted tones.

Of course, not everything went quite as planned during the performance. Someone in the band was using wireless equipment that kept picking up a Detroit soul station in the dead space between songs. Birgisson made a casual joke about everyone coming to a concert to listen to the radio, and the keyboard player mockingly stared down the offending equipment until a solution was finally found, drawing applause from the crowd. Undaunted, the band simply waved and continued on as if nothing had ever happened. It was a cute running joke of sorts for the first three-quarters of the show, and from that I drew the startling revelation that such angelic tones were actually coming from real people, just like everyone in the audience. It seemed odd that such grace and beauty could evolve from such a young group of musicians so fluidly and, seemingly, so easily. In my eyes, Sigur Ros live is as close to a religious experience as I’ll ever get.

– ——————————————————————————

It just so happens I caught Sigur Ros in Toronto the night after Gary caught them in Detroit, so I figured I’d add my own input and mini-show review. Massey Hall was much bigger, it sounds like, than the Gem Theater. I guess it seated about 2,000, but it was only about two-thirds full. We kept moving around, eventually sitting in almost the top row on the highest balcony to get a full, unencumbered view of the four-piece band. Odd that moving back and higher gains you better seats.

The Album Leaf apparently wasn’t scheduled for this show, which was disappointing. I was told that the opening act would be another project that was, apparently, the members of Sigur Ros. Oh well, they decided not to open for themselves, and instead they played two hours of music that left me firmly convinced that they are today’s Icelandic version of Pink Floyd. In a good way, really.

On album, Sigur Ros are beautiful and atmospheric, but it’s easy music to use as calm background music. Live, they are so much better. Even without the string quartet they occasionally tour with, the four-piece band is stellar. Birgisson’s voice is so high and gorgeous, another instrument, really, as he doesn’t sing in English, and he holds notes for an amazingly long time.

What blew me away was the intensity that the band played with. There were a few songs that were very calm and gentle and soft, but most flowed from almost minimalistic to powerful and rocking. The drummer struck the drums with more force than any drummer I’ve seen, pounding out unbelievable volumes, and the haunting bowed guitar is an amazing sound coupled with Birgisson’s voice.

The band played at least three songs from Agaetis Byrjun, but they didn’t speak to the audience even once. Just played with barely a break between songs. At one point, the singer sang into his guitar’s pickup, creating a more electronic, echoed vocal approach that was completely unique. And while I thought originally they should have ended with my favorite song from that album, they went on to play two more. The closer was easily one of the most amazing experiences I’ve heard live. Building throughout, by the end of it the band was playing louder and more intense than any hardcore band I’ve heard. Pounding drums, driving guitar and bass, all swirling around Birgisson, who someone kept playing soft and crooning out those gorgeous vocals. Even by the end, when he pulled away from the mic, the song built to an incredible crescendo and then dropped to nothing, as the band left the stage in silence.

There was no encore, but the band had to come back out on stage twice to satisfy the crowd, who were giving a standing ovation. Both times, they linked arms and bowed, which was cute at first but kind of silly the second time. I think they had no other idea what to do. Odd and slightly mysterious, Sigur Ros play certainly the most beautiful music I’ve heard and put on an amazing live show.

Fivehead – Big Mistake Factory EP

Indie rock is what got me into music. Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh, and Pavement from the late 80′s and early 90′s changed my casual music listening into an obsessive habit. And the six songs on Fivehead’s Big Mistake Factory are as indie as it gets. The songs are either laid back and loose, or raw, rocking, and fractured. Additionally, Fivehead released their 1999 debut full-length It’s Not All Good and It’s Not Right On on Big Bucket Club Records, the band’s self-constructed label, before moving to the independent Tight Spot Records for this release.
While Fivehead’s sound is undoubtedly influenced by the bands that changed my perspective on music, Big Mistake Factory has enough musical variety to not sound tired. And Fivehead — composed of John Hunt on vocals and guitar; Beaty Wilson on guitar, vocals, piano, and nord lead; Davis Comeau on drums, cello, hammerhead, skillsaw, and vocals; and Jeff Jones on bass, lap steel — is not a big Sebadoh rip-off. The album opener, “Cape Codders,” seems darned familiar, but I cannot pin down exactly why. It is one of the more subdued numbers here, lulling along with cello and vocals mellow. The dual guitar playing has quite the Pavement feel, but the almost baritone chorus “she is losing her lunch” is not Malkmus in any way. And the constant repetition of “and so on and so on and so on, and so on” that closes out the song wipes out the Pavement comparison, sounding more like that old Longpigs song from 1996, “On and On.” You hear me.
Next up: “Mo Elling,” a one minute and forty-three second rocker. The rough Dinosaur Jr. guitars employed in this song make it not terribly original. But the song is nonetheless thoroughly enjoyable, bringing me back to the best of the early 90′s, along the lines of Sebadoh’s III. “Halftime Show” is the choice slacker song of Big Mistake Factory. Jeff Jones’ melodic bass lines again bring to mind Sebadoh’s finest, circa Bakesale. Halfway through the album lies the beautifully moody “#1 Heart.” Hunt’s almost whispers “I miss the way that you laugh / and I miss the way that you felt” before the cello and piano chime in next to the guitar picking. The slowest song on the album, “#1 Heart” screams Death Cab for Cutie’s “405.”
The standout track on Big Mistake Mystery, “Young and Compliant,” begins with a Little House on the Prairie cello intro before breaking into a drum-heavy song of force that Lou Barlow could have churned out had he lived in Austin, Texas as well. The chorus, “I was just showing off,” is sung repeatedly, stressing different words each time. But perhaps the real clincher of the song is the synthy sounds at the close that provide that atmospheric, spacy ambiance that we all know and love. The most aurally challenging music is found in “Last Vegas Stance,” an acoustic, almost folk song that still somehow fits with the previous five songs. The use of the lap steel, more synth sounds, and spoken words allows for a less instantly accessible song structure. Nevertheless, the song closes the album in style.
I will be the first to look into Fivehead’s sophomore full-length, as really the only thing wrong with this EP is its 17-minute running time. And while there is nothing groundbreaking in the lyrical content, lines like “she’s jamming to the oldies / but she’s rocking to the nineties / she’s falling through a thrift store looking for someone / to kiss” are at least engaging. An album with twice the number of songs of this caliber will surely be a contender along with Preston School of Industry’s All This Sounds Gas for the “most indie in a good way” album of 2001-2002.

Rival Schools – United By Fate

Let’s be honest, biographical information regarding a band can often be tedious and boring. However, with Rival Schools, that information is quite extensive and tells a great deal about the band’s sound. Singer and guitarist Walter Schreifels was an integral part of Gorilla Biscuits, the highly influential late 80′s hardcore band that sold well over 100,000 copies of their debut indie release, Start Today. Schreifels also contributed guitar and bass tracks to the work of bands from the same New York scene, such as Youth of Today. He moved away from the hardcore scene in the early 90′s to form Quicksand and released two albums (Slip and Manic Compression and one self-titled) before turning to produce CIV’s debut release, Set Your Goals, which spawned the MTV “Buzz Bin” single, “Can’t Wait One Minute More.”

As far as producing, he also took the reigns on an album from Hot Water Music, released on his own record label, Some Records. After assorted demos and side projects, Schreifels gave birth to Rival Schools while simultaneously playing in a band called Pearl Harbor, which records for his own label. Rival Schools’ bass duties are handled by Cache Tolman, who has spent time with the bands Iceburn and CIV, as well as releasing a solo project or two. Drummer Sam Siegler, who, along with another friend, is Schreifels’ partner in Some Records, worked with Schreifels in Gorilla Biscuits and Youth of Today. He has also played with the bands Judge, Shelter, and was another piece of the CIV puzzle, as well as playing on the most recent album from friends Glassjaw. Guitarist Ian Love spent some time on the New York hardcore scene as well, playing in bands like Burn and Die 116. Rival Schools, originally called Rival Schools United By Fate (inspired by a video game and later changed for legal reasons), toured Europe and the United States before ever actually releasing anything. In July, they released a split EP with Jonah, previously of Far, currently of Onelinedrawing. And that pretty much brings us up to date.

So, now that you know all of that, we have Rival Schools’ new album, United By Fate. Despite the list of heavy and aggressive bands these guys have previously been a part of, United By Fate is a turn in a more melodic direction. There’s big chunks of post-hardcore aggression, mixed with touches of emo, pop, and alt-rock. There is definitely an “emo-core” sound here but in a far from bland and predictable fashion that even the strongest anti-emo kids won’t find objectionable. It isn’t quite as obscure or avant-garde as most of your favorite indie rock, but it is far from manufactured or conventional. There is a certain uniqueness to the combination of stripped-down, raw power with the more layered effects and beautiful harmonies. Schreifels’ raspy vocals demand attention as usual, showing off songwriting skills that have only gotten better with age, managing to be both emotive and aggressive without succumbing to the nauseating pretty-boy vocals so often found in music that tries to be anything like this.

Perhaps the best part about the album is the way it will get you bouncing along one minute and promptly knock you on your ass the next. Songs like “High Acetate,” “Undercovers On,” “Good Things,” and “World Invitational” are slower, more hook-laden, and spastically melodic, while others like “My Echo” and “So Down On” will make it hard for you to keep from bobbing your head and rocking out on your air guitar. In between come heavier tracks like “Travel By Telephone,” “The Switch,” and “Holding Sand,” which force you to take a step back for breath. “Used For Glue,” which is the first single from the album, sounds the most like anything Quicksand ever did, showcasing the dissonant riffs and grooves Schreifels’ previous project was known for.

Only time will tell if Rival Schools turns out to be just another come-and-go project from Schreifels and company, but for now, I am more than willing to not worry about it, opting instead to enjoy what the band has already accomplished. Even if they were to disappear tomorrow, United By Fate would be reason enough to remain a fan.

Makeshift 3 – Game Day

Makeshift 3 are a Christian punk/pop band. I wouldn’t even mention the Christian part if I didn’t think it had direct bearings on this review. There’s nothing wrong with using music as a way to call attention to your religious beliefs, after all. But the problem I’ve had with music specifically marketed as “Christian” is that most of it seems to be a way for teenagers with uptight parents to listen to popular music without having to hide their records under the bed like so much contraband, and too many musicians concentrate on repeating what’s been done in the interest of spreading the word of God. To this end, there’s a Christian version of pretty much every sound available in popular music. Does your teen enjoy Radiohead? There’s a band that sounds very much like them in every way, except with lyrics about the Christian faith. Is Death Metal your kid’s thing? They’ve got you covered there too – death metal with an uplifting message. Is the music of Blink 182 somehow too subversive for your children? If this is the case, Makeshift 3 is one of your options. And as long as the message doesn’t overshadow the music, (in other words, if the music can stand on it’s own), I don’t have a problem with it. After listening to Game Day, though, I can’t come up with a reason why this is preferable to their heathen counterparts.
This disk has most of the elements of pop-punk stalwarts such as the Ataris, NoFX, Green Day, and of course, Blink 182. Although these are the primary bands that come to mind, that’s not the only place they’re coming from. Both “Rising Son” and “Snapper” feature some big-time metal influences, giving tips of the hat to Iron Maiden and vintage Metallica riffing in their extended outros. The drumming is high-energy and tight, the distorted guitars are thick and meaty, and the bass playing propels the whole thing along with glee. In fact, everything is really well played. But there’s still something missing.
My major criticism? The record has very few hooks. The element that makes the pop/punk of bands such as Blink 182 interesting, the pay-off hooks that guarantee listeners will remember the songs, is lacking. Even though the breakneck riffing and perky chord progressions are strong, I’m not left with enough that is memorable. The songs all start to sound the same after a while, especially after 13 tracks of 3-minute uptempo punk tunes. It’s obvious the band places a lot of value on their lyrics and message, but they shouldn’t forget what we’re all here for: the songs. When you’re working with pop/punk music, the hooks are crucial. They are what make you want to hear albums over and over again. This deficiency is what keeps this record from reaching it’s potential.

Esther Lee – Fifty Eight Now Nine

Sometimes it seems as if everyone with five-string banjo and rudimentary guitar strumming capabilities can make an album of rustic, pseudo-Appalachian singer-songwriter folk. Toss in some surreal or primitively symbolic references and you have a modern approximation of those almost otherworldly recordings accumulated and compiled by Harry Smith in the Anthology of American Folk Music all those years ago. Still, the context that gave rise to the folk music of bygone eras is largely gone. The music business has always been built to make money, and it’s debatable as to whether music conceived with commercial distribution in mind can even be considered folk music at all. While Rob Jansen, who for all points and purposes is the driving force behind Esther Lee, isn’t trying to pass himself off as a folk revivalist, he walks with more than a little of that rural Americana murk clinging to his musical pant legs.
From the first vocal creaks and banjo plucks of the opening “Prologue,” images of Will Oldham are clearly evoked, with a similar shaded emotion and broken down musical presentation, though with provocative imagery. Dark and altogether uneasy, Jansen uses the banjo as most modern players in non-traditional forms do, using neither a clawhammer nor Scruggs-style bluegrass approach, but spraying notes around an ominously subdued din of minimal percussion and guitar chords. Vocals rarely raise much above a whisper, rendering them all but indecipherable, which is really a shame with titles like “No Wings Or A Barrel” and “Tone-Deaf Heifer” promising the strange cryptic references that often provide the unsettling honesty of the best of this kind of songwriting.
When the world-weary tones are broken for more clearly expressive sounds, Jansen can almost sound like a more rustic Kind of Like Spitting, wringing emotion out of slightly skewed arrangements of acoustic and electric guitars. Providing a counter-point, “Call to Worship” shuffles along with a more nasal Appalachian pace, recounting the story of a mountain man coming out of seclusion to “give thanks to the Lord who sets the captives free.” An even further divergence, the swirling crypto-blues stomp of “Neskowin” swings the obscurity quotient to even higher levels with ringing metal-on-metal screeching joining the general caustic rattle.
No doubt, a “less is more” philosophy is employed to a certain extent here, but surprisingly rich textures arise nonetheless. Grave piano joins chirping banjo in licking around the edges of the funereal “No Wings Or A Barrel,” altogether reminiscent of Vic Chesnutt for its disinterested delivery and surreal bent, just as the lo-fi hairiness of the xylophone-tinged “Christmas Eve Ballad” finds a similarly displaced feel. And while Jansen rarely takes the overtly tuneful route, the languidly lilting “One to Be Returned By” and the unfurnished, slightly Eastern feel of “At the Amargose” find a more approachable unpolished melodicism. You can occasionally even hear echoes of Elliott Smith’s early stripped-down recordings.
Overall, Esther Lee falls into a musical landscape already populated by a number of like-minded artists. That Jansen manages to find enough of his own land to plant a slightly different flag is a testament to his willingness to explore beyond the normal parameters of the genre, though he doesn’t make the giant musical statement that pulls all the slightly disparate elements together as of yet. Of course, the true beauty of folk, or in this case folk-leaning, music has never been to view that world with a tight all-encompassing focus but to express what the world looks like to a certain person at a particular place on time and to hopefully forget your trouble while you do. And while Jansen doesn’t really let us know what he’s seeing, trying to figure out what he’s looking at is a pleasant diversion at the very least.

Superstitions of the Sky – Things Said in Passing

Josh Jakubowski and Kevin Hardy are Superstitions of the Sky. Their debut, Things Said in Passing, features the acoustic duo grappling with guitars and emo songs about you and I. Safe to say that an album in which every song with vocals contains (subject a) you just having dumped, broken up, or something similar with (subject b) is going to be considered emotional. Is it difficult to write a song without those two words defining the subjects involved? Many indie-rock bands today would say “yes” and agree that this is indeed a lyrical pit fall subjecting them to an immediate genre classification by lowbrow critics like myself.

Avoiding lyrics all together by playing voice-less guitar songs with folk-rock riffs and harmonizing rhythm chords, “Summary and Solution” opens this short eight-song LP as the first of two instrumental recordings that displays the two members tangible abilities as musicians. The second, and final song of the CD,”The Sound of Pieces Falling Together…and Us Falling Apart” fades out to reveal a hidden track of recording spontaneity some six and a half minutes later. On this more matte than mastered release, what sounds like one or two microphones in a budget recording environment, Steve Roche captured Josh and Kevin’s guitar structured songs that sound similar to most of Matt Pryor’s material on The New Amsterdams Never You Mind: a more acoustic spin-off release from Pryor and company’s normal Get Up Kids rock. “This is not the first time / I’ve been though all this before / Such a familiar place to be…stuck always wanting more / Do you remember this time last year?” is an emotional lyric for SOTS on “Hearts Break They Don’t Bend,” but an ever better statement for this critic’s reaction to the flood of emo bands bent on making each and every indie-rock song they write sentimental.

Now that Vagrant Records has been featured in Rolling Stone in an article about the independent label’s ability to profit and thrive, upstart labels like Robodog Records are releasing CDs and vinyl and developing band rosters in a similar manner with a definite listening audience. On that rookie roster list, Superstitions of the Sky foreshadow the potential future on Things Said in Passing.

« Previous Page — Next Page »