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CITIZINE REVIEWS Plus: From First To Last, The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower. ---
The sound of The Blood Brothers is ultimately difficult to explain. Think of it as a pizza: hardcore is the crust, post-punk is the tomato sauce, emo is the cheese (ha ha) and little slices of glam rock represent the toppings. Their music has always been utterly chaotic. At the center of all the madness, front men Johnny Whitney and Jordan Billie consistently spit venom in every direction, and this uniquely exciting vocal catfight is the key ingredient that gives The Blood Brothers their haunting and alarming edge. The Brothers have begun to embrace the idea of appropriately milking their best sound creations, instead of attempting to squeeze an uncomfortable number of riffs into one song. The result is a more powerful yet accessible collection of songs. This time out, piano and synth are more heavily incorporated, and help complement the dark, yet playful, atmosphere of certain tracks. The Blood Brothers have created their own frighteningly unique voice in the midst of an unattractively aging hardcore scene, and Crimes is the band's most focused album to date.
Dogs Die In Hot Cars have more than just an amusing name. They also have an undeniable knack for churning out incredibly catchy, '80s influenced pop tunes. Think of early Elvis Costello, XTC and a bit of Dexy's Midnight Runners. If any of these names appear in your record collection, Please Describe Yourself will be an album that you'll at least enjoy, if not adore. This is not necessarily a perfect album by any means, but it definitely makes me long for the days when pop albums were thin on filler and heavy on melody and charm. Dogs Die In Hot Cars maintain a tongue-in-cheek pop sensibility that is difficult to deny, and definitely keep their Scottish wit on full display for the duration of Please Describe Yourself. Dogs Die In Hot Cars stand out as an original and entertaining tribute to the '80s sound, a musical style that seems to become more attractive with age.
Grandaddy has always seemed like the more responsible and practical older brother of The Flaming Lips. Maybe it's because their music has always had a whimsical quality that is as focused as it is wandering. Excerpts From The Diary Of Todd Zilla is the newest offering from Grandaddy. Technically classified as an EP, this new collection of songs is sufficient enough to please any Grandaddy fan. But it's obvious that they are saving their best new material for the next full length. The one pure gem that they have let slip for this EP is "At My Post." This track finds the band as spacious and epic as they have ever been. The remainder of the EP falls at various levels below this song. But if this one shining light is any indication of things to come, it's obvious that Grandaddy still have a great deal to offer.
Leave No Ashes is a textbook example of the "sophomore slump." Burning Brides' debut album, Fall Of The Plastic Empire was an energetic and playful hard rock romp that crash-landed somewhere between Black Sabbath and early Nirvana. Leave No Ashes is an uninspired rehash of the previous album. The playful energy is, for the most part, still there. But, the overall songwriting is much weaker. At times, it almost seems like the band is selling its soul to be more accessible and less evil. But, I guess you can't blame a band for trying to reach out. The only real standout track, "King Of The Demimonde", maniacally rocks out like the bastard son of Sabbath and Slayer. In fact, this song is so good that Leave No Ashes does not deserve it.
Sometimes it occurs to me that I may not be as musically knowledgeable as I'd like to think I am. The name Mercury Rev has been haphazardly tossed around me for many years. They have been making music for a decade and yet their newest release, The Secret Migration, is my first taste of what they have to offer. So, what's the verdict? Guilty. Yes, Mercury Rev have been charged with attempting to recreate someone else's work and pass it off as their own. I'm not entirely positive that Mercury Rev were intending to rip off The Flaming Lips, but The Secret Migration comes across as a desperate masquerade of The Soft Bulletin. There are just too many similarities. Let's not even get into the fact that the songs all sound like they were scraped off of The Lips' cutting room floor. Don't get me wrong, Mercury Rev are not an awful band. Actually, they appear to be quite talented. But with a decade under their belt, I would expect a bit more originality than The Secret Migration has to offer.
Nada Surf have now successfully cleared themselves of "one hit wonder" status. If you remember the song "Popular," a quirky Pavement-esque pop song that graced the airwaves while I was still in high school, then you are probably old enough to appreciate the evolution of Nada Surf as well as the pop purity of The Weight Is A Gift. Following the critically praised Let Go, the band returns with a gently polished celebration of melody. There is no new ground broken here. Nada Surf have expertly honed their indie-rock skills and are offering us their version of a classically pleasing listening experience. One track in particular, "Do It Again," is the closest thing to a perfect pop song that I have heard in years. Like other perfect pop albums, The Weight Is A Gift is an engaging and satisfying album that somehow continues to resonate in your head long after the last note has faded.
If I could invent a time machine, travel back to 1995 and meet myself, after marveling at the many technological advances, my former self would most likely ask about the music of the next century. In this scenario, I offer him Stereophonics' Language. Sex. Violence. Other?. After giving cautious attention to the first three tracks, the decade-younger me removes his headphones, wrinkles his forehead and asks, "All of these amazing accomplishments and yet music hasn't evolved at all?" Fortunately, it has. But Stereophonics don't seem to have realized that. Language. Sex. Violence. Other? would have been an easily dismissable alterna-rock album a decade ago. It would have most likely been lost among Bush, Live, and the other embarrassingly pretentious also-rans that plagued the mid-'90s rock scene. If this was Stereophonics' intended result, then this album is nothing less than a masterpiece.
As much as I yawn at the current trend of emotionally driven pseudo-hardcore bands, there is occasionally a name that will emerge from my lips followed by the qualifying phrase, "unusually bearable." From First To Last are not only unusually bearable. At times, they are downright enjoyable. Despite the rather unimaginative title, Dear Diary, My Teen Angst Has A Body Count has an unmistakable energy that drives it from beginning to end. There are, of course, the normal genre-induced clichés that are near impossible to avoid, but From First To Last seem to know how to use these to their advantage. The passionately angst-ridden vocals and metal influenced rhythms are successfully complemented by uncharacteristically unique arrangements. The only negative aspect of Dear Diary… is that the vocals do occasionally take whining to an annoying level. But that comes with the territory. If teenage angst-ridden emo is what you are looking for, you could do a lot worse.
If, for some reason, you ever decide to excessively speed down the highway in your car, there is usually a moment when you suddenly feel like you could realistically lose control. That moment pretty much sums up Love In The Fascist Brothel. The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower are a San Diego quartet that excel in energy, volume, and attitude. And when I say "attitude," I mean the kind that doesn't exist solely in hairstyles and bad-boy stage personas. The Plot create a technically discordant chaos and almost never leave any room for the listener to catch their breath. It often seems to me that this generation of rock music is badly in need of an adrenaline shot, and Love In The Fascist Brothel is exactly that. In fact, if someone were to ask me what I think the term "punk" means in relation to music in the 21st century, I would immediately refer them to The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower. ---- Reader Comments No Comments. |
-- ELSEWHERE ON CITIZINE -- Public
Enemy DVD Performances by Government Issue, Iggy Pop, X, and Circle Jerks now available on digital video disc. By Mark Prindle
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