Three quarters and a dime
Well, looks like I blew my self-imposed deadline for the annual terrible summer movie. Boo hoo. Maybe I'll watch two terrible old films this autumn and get back to you.
Anyway, here's a look at some new songs I've enjoyed during the first 9/12 of the year. Lotsa metal, some covers, you know my steez. There will surely be more of these roundups to come, as I've kept up with music a lot better than I have cinema in 2008. Also, please check out my chats with Van Ghost and Lamajamal, two Chicago bands with admirable takes on roots music.
1. Woods of Ypres, "Your Ontario Town Is a Burial Ground" Woods III: The Deepest Roots and Darkest Blues (Krankenhaus) - I saw WoY perform this track in Toronto back in '05! Now that it's finally made it to disc, I can say it was totally worth the wait. My favorite unclassifiable Canadian metal act grew up a bit in its time away, as have I. Although founder/frontman David Gold debuts an entirely new lineup, his addictive, refined blend of doom, goth and black metal is intact, as is his intensely personal approach to lyrical introspection. The concept of III's lengthy, varied journey seems to be a struggle between stagnation and progression, staying "true" to something versus taking a risk on something else, with Gold repeatedly reproaching local metal scenesters and provincial stalwarts alike for hypocrisy and lack of vision. This is clearly spelled out in this spiteful yet ridiculously memorable number set to a dour Katatonia rhythm, which would be its "hit" if such a word were apropos.
2. drmanhattan, "To Feel Cozy Surrounded By Cats" drmanhattan (Vagrant) - Named after a comics hero (Dr. Manhattan of Alan Moore's "Watchmen," coming soon to a theater near you), this quartet is a suburban Chicago-area favorite. As can be expected from such a statement, they play a poppy, boppy, emo-ey sort of punkish rock, fractured songs glossed with new wavey keys and provided a patina of geeky intellectualism by weird titles, twisty structures and My Chemical Romance-ish levels of teen melodrama (look at how they spell their name). I'm not going to claim their scattershot self-titled debut LP really breaks any molds or has anything insightful to convey, despite its eventually overbearing attempts to assert that it does. Still, when drm's nervous energy and tunefulness click from time to time, as they do on this demo-era track, it's undeniably head-scratching fun.
3. Testament, "The Formation of Damnation" The Formation of Damnation (Nuclear Blast) - Hailed by many as the best thrash metal album released by anyone this decade, Formation is one of those platters that can make an old coot like myself glad to have been raised a headbanger. It's a story for the ages: at a time when the kids are busy scarfing up '80s tight-jeans-and-white-high-tops nostalgia, one of the original Bay Area mosh crews, which was at one time unbelievably dismissed as a Metallica clone, gets 4/5 of the classic lineup together with journeyman drummer Paul Bostaph (pedigree including Forbidden, Slayer and Exodus) and truly throws down like the old days. The disc is a perfect blend of Testament's nimble, heads-down '80s shred and the death metal vitriol of their celebrated previous album, 1999's The Gathering. Compare the anemic "dude, I read metal's back!" coda of the recent Metallica single with Bostaph's frantic drums, Greg Christian's burbling bass, Eric Peterson's rabid riffs, Alex Skolnick's fluid soloing and the mighty Chuck Billy's raw demon roar here. You tell me who's a pale imitation of who in 2008. So grim, so true, so real...
4. Man Man, "Mr. Jung Stuffed" Rabbit Habits (Anti-) - At first, I was disappointed with Man Man's follow-up to 2006's Six Demon Bag, one of the craziest, catchiest, most creative albums the new millennium has spawned. Habits sounds like the work of the same falsetto harmonizing, percussion abusing, fun loving lunatics as before, but sort of reined in and polished, with more linear compositions and less messy arrangements. The wild n' woolly Philadelphia-based quintet considers this their "pop" album, and once I got past its relative tidiness and apparent simplicity, I realized I'd listened to it about a dozen times and was totally hooked. This is due to the number of surprises hidden inside the seemingly simple ditties, which in true Man Man fashion don't reveal themselves via careful attention, rather at odd times when you're simply grooving along to their strangely sincere junkyard carnival jams. I'm still finding stuff, as Habits has earned many repeat listens, and I've come to regard it as deceptively rewarding (and, like their other discs, a bit too short). At any rate, I'm sure an uninitiated listener would find even their most straightforward numbers, such as this brief Danny Elfman-goes-surfing-with-Tom Waits opener, weird as hell.
5. Alestorm, "Captain Morgan's Revenge" Captain Morgan's Revenge (Napalm) - German geezers Running Wild are the only metal band which has ever really, um, run wild with a pirate image. OK, there are some jokey MySpace amateurs playing "pirate metal" out there, and maaaybe long-defunct Minneapolis glamsters Slave Raider, but that's it. This is strange, especially in a subculture that surely includes its share of dudes who made their own $20 Captain Jack Sparrow outfit so they'd have something to wear during the Renaissance Faire's off-season. Along comes Scottish power/thrash/folk metal act Battleheart, who fortuitously changed their name to Alestorm upon signing with Napalm so as not to be confused with cheesy labelmates Battlelore, and whose debut embodies the concept to ludicrous non-metaphorical degree. With stereotypical yo-ho-ho lyrics (two of the ten song titles contain the word "wench") delivered in a tuneless howl, hearty shout-along sea shanty choruses, Bal-Sagothian keyboard pomp straight out of a Saturday morning action cartoon and a real accordion for flavor, this is exactly what you'd want and expect "pirate metal" to sound like. All their originals are as cartoonishly one-dimensional as this title job, but make no mistake: I would love the opportunity to get real drunk on rum and see these scurvy dogs live. And did you know that to "dance the hempen jig" is pirate slang for being hung by the neck until dead? Neat!
6. The Dino-5, "What About Ten?" Baby Loves Hip-Hop Presents: The Dino-5 (Torque) - Not that I'm looking to spawn, but I've come upon some pretty cool children's records this year, from lullaby renditions of Pixies favorites to this project headed by Prince Paul, producer of such revered hip-hop albums as De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising, Gravediggaz' 6 Feet Deep and the Handsome Boy Modeling School discs. MCs Scratch (The Roots), Chali 2na (Jurassic 5), Ladybug Mecca (Digable Planets) and Wordsworth (eMC) all chip in for the latest in a series of albums intended to introduce very young kids to music beyond "Mary Had a Little Lamb," this one structured as a bedtime story about young dinosaurs who overcome their differences to create a hip-hop crew. It's all very safe and respectful, but the all-star lineup's old-school rhyme tradeoffs and Paul's bouncing beats ensure that The Dino-5 do the genre justice, even if merely tossing off a quick playground counting song.
7. Bloodbath, "Blasting the Virginborn" Unblessing the Purity (Peaceville) - On one hand, Bloodbath is a side project of two of my favorite bands - guitarist Anders Nyström and bassist Jonas Renkse are in Katatonia, drummer Martin Axenrot and recently returned vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt are in Opeth. On the other, they're a killer death metal band who fuse the minor key melody and desolate atmosphere of their European forebears with the steamroller authority and violent precision of the American death metal tradition. It adds up to a band which is much better than it has any right to be, one that has transcended its origins as a glorified tribute act to become one of the most dependable newer outfits for those who appreciate variety in their death metal. This galvanizing scorcher leads the charge on the Swedes' latest EP, blasting and stomping all over the faceless crowd of tech-grinders who have hijacked death metal in recent times. Bloodbath's new full-length, The Fathomless Mastery, hits next month.
8. The Mars Volta, "Ouroborous" The Bedlam in Goliath (Universal) - I'll admit I like prog heroes The Mars Volta as much for their meandering ways as for their towering instrumental prowess, but their last studio disc, 2006's Amputechture, tended to lag and lack focus in a frustrating way. Bedlam is a much better collection of songs, whether due to supernatural forces (the album's typically bonkers backstory includes a cursed ouija board that guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez claims he had to bury in the desert) or judicious editing. Not that self-control has much of a place in The Mars Volta's acid-soaked marathons, but the prolific Long Beach collective hasn't been this concise in a while. Even with shorter tracks like this one, there's plenty of time for bloodshot guitar solos, crazy Latin percussion, ghostly interludes and Cedric Bixler-Zavala's fluttering wail, which will from time to time morph into the voice of the insect/typewriter from Cronenberg's "Naked Lunch." These dudes are really more of a live band, so albums only mean so much, but wackily infectious stuff like this certainly sounds great live.
9. Sculptured, "The Shape of Rage" Embodiment: Collapsing Under the Weight of God (The End) - Another prog group from the West Coast, in this case the verdant state of Washington. The unique undulations of Sculptured are in essence the solo musings of guitarist Don Anderson, who is better known for playing in cult forest horde Agalloch. The first Sculptured album in eight years, Embodiment was first announced in about 2001 under the title The Liminal Phase. By the time it finally surfaced, the name had changed, as had the recording line-up. New vocalist Thomas Walling's deep/flat croon and whispery growl (I'd call it weak, but since I enjoy Sculptured, I'll consider it an homage to early Amorphis) are somewhat reminiscent of Brian Yager's on the earlier albums, but more momentous is the absence of trombone and trumpet, which were previously crucial in establishing the project's left-of-center identity. In their place are keyboards by Winds/Age of Silence dude Andy Winter, more typical instrumentation which would be a disappointment if it wasn't so freaky. With its jazzy twists, busy drums and harsh/clean dynamic, this tune is the most concise and easily digested tune of today's Sculptured. Cronenberg fans should already see the album's "mind over flesh" theme reflected in this song title. Everyone else: it's from "The Brood."
10. Cut Copy, "Feel the Love" In Ghost Colours (Modular) - OK, if you slogged through my epic Bloc Party review from a few months ago, you'll know I have a love/hate relationship with '80s-style pop music. The stuff is all the rage right now, with many groups like Australian trio Cut Copy mining the old new wave playbook. These dudes mostly sound like something that could be slotted among vintage Depeche Mode and New Order singles, that sort of dour but still poppy synth stuff you could once catch on any given minute of MTV's "120 Minutes." I like some of that stuff. Considering that Cut Copy's reproduction is not as crass as that of, say, She Wants Revenge, I like Colours, although this sophomore LP is too long and the material too samey to keep me engaged throughout. This lead track is actually my favorite, being one of a few that sort of sound like a rock band (it's the snatches of acoustic guitar) while retaining the synthetic dancefloor vibe, and its chorus is nowhere near as annoyingly repetitive as some others on the album. And who doesn't love the robot voice?
11. Boris, "KA RE HA TE TA SA KI -No Ones Grieve-" Smile (Southern Lord) - Once poised for hipster stardom thanks to a collaboration with Sunn O))), Japanese psychedelic doom metal trio Boris has somehow perforated the American mainstream. That's right, fucking Boris! The ridiculously prolific band whose ungodly tangle of releases is further confounded by several albums offering different track listings for different regions under the same title! They've already vaulted over the art gallery crowd that is for some reason currently embracing certain types of metal, which seems to be mainly anything endorsed by the label that is currently releasing Boris' stuff in the States. The token (and tokin') metal band of this past summer's Pitchfork Music Festival is now opening Nine Inch Nails' fall tour. Aside from hearing the aforementioned Sunn collab, I had no experience with Boris before hearing their latest, since I don't really keep up with experimental/stoner doom. I now realize that Boris' association with that scene sells them very short. Slow, loud, droning freakouts are only part of what they do these days, with odd punk and pop influences coming to the fore. Just dig this chaotic jumble of acid noise, Wata's squealing guitar cutting a swath through the smoke for a far more interesting tune than I'd ever assumed they could deliver. My bad entirely.
12. Murder By Death, "RumBrave" Red of Tooth and Claw (Vagrant) - Album number four finds Indiana's finest completing their transformation into gothic Western twangers. Beginning life as a indie/post-rock sort of combo a la The Appleseed Cast with a cello in place of a bass guitar, Murder By Death first stepped into the realm of cutthroat saloons, mining disasters and murders of passion on 2003's Who Will Survive, And What Will be Left of Them?, and honed the rootsy approach on 2006's excellent In Bocca al Lupo, on which vocalist Adam Turla fully unveiled his Johnny Cash fetish with a deep warble clearly aping the Man in Black. Vestiges of the old style remained until this new album, which is as singularly focused on the dust-choked fallen preacher aesthetic as Alestorm is on pirate cliches, and for that reason seems at times like a pantomime or self-parody. Maybe they've just finally stettled into the sound they've been traveling toward, but as is true in many cases, the roundabout journey was more rewarding than the familiar destination. That's not to say Red is a bad listen, with plenty of melodramatic sagebrush scorchers like this one begging for repeat spins. It's just predictable, something I've never considered Murder By Death before. Does that mean they've matured?
13. Kalmah, "Holy Symphony of War" For the Revolution (Spikefarm) - Speaking of predictable, here's a group who defined their style on record number one and, eight years later, have yet to deviate from it. The active bands nearest to my heart have all displayed transformation and evolution, but if that's not the kind of band you want to be, it's cool with me. Sticking to why listeners liked you in the first place is certainly a better route than changing your sound every couple of years in vain attempts at commercial fortune. It's therefore pretty funny to me that Kalmah is still considered clones of fellow Finns Children of Bodom, since CoB hasn't trafficked in this engaging type of keyboardy melodic death/thrash since around the time Kalmah's first disc came out. To anyone like myself who loved CoB's first two albums, but has grown increasingly hostile watching their popularity predictably increase in direct proportion to how dumb their music becomes, Kalmah does this shit right. No cock rock posing, no dated Pantera chug-a-lug guitars, just catchy, professional, rockin' melodies delivered with underground vigor and mud-caked Eurometal resolve.
14. Rue Royale, "UFO" Rue Royale (self-released) - Here is a real surprise, a self-released job by a husband-and-wife duo from Chicago. Well, Ruth Dekker is from England, which is where she and hubby Brookln moved shortly after releasing their self-titled album of atmospheric folk-pop and lovely vocal harmonies. The music is so sparse yet lush, so uniformly tuneful, I can't help but play it frequently when I'm confined to headphones. The lyrics definitely have a spiritual tinge, which doesn't really get me off, but thoughtful songs like this one are too warm and honest to be confused with sterile worship music. If you're all alone and see something as incredible as lights in the sky, you or someone you tell about it may doubt your perception, but in the end, you'll know what you saw, no matter how crazy it seems. I've heard about a million metaphors for faith more treacly and unrelatable than that. Bon voyage, Rue Royale, and may Europe give you your due.
15. Nachtmystium, "Your True Enemy" Assassins: Black Meddle Part I (Century Media) - Okay, back to the type of substance-addled sacrilege you'e used to seeing around here. Another Chicago group, Nachtmystium is our best-known black metal export... except founder Blake Judd, having dropped the corpsepaint pseudonym "Azentrius," has fucked around with the template a bit. Judd has gone on record as saying Nachtmystium is no longer a black metal band out of respect for the genre stalwarts that weaned him, and he's right. Assassins takes the psychedelia-flavored Norsecore of recent Nachtmystium to its next logical conclusion by mixing it with doomy post-metal aesthetics for the ultimate in genre-spurning, indie-welcoming, bong-huffing destruction. Sorry, Count Necro, no "let's go gang rape Jesus' corpse" idiocy to be found here. It's naturally been praised everywhere, and by year's end the band's profile will have been raised by tours with such like-minded acts as Boris, Opeth and Wolves in the Throne Room. Hometown pride aside, Assassins is a unique record, comparable to nothing else out there except the mighty Enslaved, accessible yet steeped in underground expertise. This is one of the few "black metal" tunes found on the album, and is of course not entirely orthodox.
16. Built to Spill, "Come Over" Awesome Record, Great Songs! Volume One (Williams Street) - If you've ever said "don't go there," "too much information" or "that's just wrong" for any purpose other than making fun of people who think they're evincing class and taste by parroting moldy clichés, you would not enjoy "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!" Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, creators of the Adult Swim sketch series and its equally divisive antecedent, "Tom Goes to the Mayor," are bemused by the most hideous corners of American life, the kind of stuff at which people who actually get offended by inept infomercials, disgusting meat dishes, outdated fashion, irresponsible parents or awkward karaoke singers can never laugh. I think "Tom" was one of the most deceptively brilliant shows Cartoon Network has ever unleashed, although T&E's cable access-gone-wrong follow-up is more hit-and-miss. The duo recently rolled out a CD with nearly every musical bit from the first two seasons of "Awesome Show," filled in with demos, remixes and a couple of cover versions. The album is oddly addictive, to the point that tunes from sketches I didn't get into on the air get stuck in my head for days. Indie guitar gods Built to Spill do such a great job covering this song (originally presented in a music video better seen than explained), only the lyrics give it away as a joke.
17. Decrepit Birth, "Diminishing Between Worlds" Diminishing Between Worlds (Unique Leader) - California's Decrepit Birth is emblematic of the "Guitar Hero" generation of American death metal musicians: prodigious young players with everything going for them except catchy songs. However, they don't make the mistake of cramming every last second of their sophomore disc with wild arpeggios, jazzy drum fills, fluctuating growls and other clattering noise. Recorded as a trio, Diminishing eschews the megabrutal approach of the band's debut and incorporates more progressive and melodic influences. The result's not what you'd expect, sounding more like Chuck Schuldiner rose from the grave and revived Death with a buncha young'uns than some overeager kids stealing 12 year-old Swedish riffs or tossing in kitchen sinks full of unfocused spazz/doom/breakdown elements. Being more of a Morbid Angel guy than an Obituary guy, I'll take instrument masturbation over lazy hanging chords any day, so while I'm unable to recall much of it minutes after listening, I find this title track anything but boring while it's on.
18. Tokyo Police Club, "Your English Is Good" Elephant Shell (Saddle Creek) - In the two years after their debut EP, Tokyo Police Club - who are Canadians - enjoyed enough praise to flatter the quartet into a corner. The hype was justified where A Lesson in Crime was concerned, its brevity concealing an appealing cornucopia of poppy indie rock moods, from desperate and restless to joyful and contemplative. Their live shows and second EP, equally short but exhuberant, only fed the buzz. By the time their debut long-player finally dropped this year, folks were getting antsy, and general reaction to the album seems to be, "eh, it's okay, but we expected more." I hate to agree with the blogosphere, but since Shell is as long as all their previous material put together yet feels like variations on the same song for much of its running time, I must. (Where did their trademark screamy background vocals go?) This spunky number is the album's first single, the most energetic tune of the bunch and a rare one that doesn't blend in with the rest. Here's hoping TPC mixes it up a bit next time and re-earns their hype.
19. Moonsorrow, "Back to North" Tulimyrsky (Spikefarm) - When metal bands cover other metal bands, you typically get an inferior carbon copy of a great song. Followers of this blog know Finland's Moonsorrow is not typical, even while embodying the pagan metal ideal. Their latest release is an EP, but its five tracks clock in at 68 minutes. That's one new song (the monstrous half-hour title job), two re-recorded demo tracks (which, thanks to modern and professional production, bear a curious resemblance to mid-era Dimmu Borgir) and two covers of other metal bands. The first is Metallica's wartime chestnut "For Whom the Bell Tolls," which has been done to death elsewhere but in Moonsorrow's hands becomes a rousing Viking call to arms. The second is this pro-Scandinavian/anti-Christian 1994 number by Swedish death/thrashers Merciless, an obscure but worthy choice that was already epic in its original eight-minute form but now sprawls out to a glorious thirteen. Fans of the original might be surprised to hear a central guitar refrain recast as a folksy jig, but I'll bet more people will hear Moonsorrow's version than Merciless'.
20. Black 47, "Stars and Stripes" Iraq (United for Opportunity) - Between many years of impotent anti-Bush preaching and all of this year's embarassing musical tributes to Barack Obama, I don't think there's ever been a time in my life when ideas I actually agree with were so widely but stupidly espoused in music. Already planning to kick Bono squarely in his pretentious Irish balls the next time I see him, I haughtily groaned when I saw the title of the new album by long-running Celtic rockers Black 47. I was pleasantly surprised that the eclectic New York band favored a documentary approach over whiny hang-wringing for their "war album." The lyrics on Iraq were inspired by correspondence with fans serving in the United States military's current occupation of its eponymous country, or with those otherwise affected by the war on the homefront. The sentiments expressed don't originate with some sap who got pissed and wrote a song after watching a ten-minute segment on cable news, or even with politically astute Black 47 vocalist/guitarist Larry Kirwan. It's refreshing in that it's not more old dudes trying to feel relevant with another belated round of Donald Rumsfeld bashing. The band seals the deal with a funky hodgepodge of rootsy rock, trad Irish, jazz, rap, etc. For instance, this opener recasts "Sloop John B" as if sung by Win Butler and played by the E Street Band... yeah, kind of like The Hold Steady, but interesting. Whistle this one all the way to the voting booth, gang.
Anyway, here's a look at some new songs I've enjoyed during the first 9/12 of the year. Lotsa metal, some covers, you know my steez. There will surely be more of these roundups to come, as I've kept up with music a lot better than I have cinema in 2008. Also, please check out my chats with Van Ghost and Lamajamal, two Chicago bands with admirable takes on roots music.
1. Woods of Ypres, "Your Ontario Town Is a Burial Ground" Woods III: The Deepest Roots and Darkest Blues (Krankenhaus) - I saw WoY perform this track in Toronto back in '05! Now that it's finally made it to disc, I can say it was totally worth the wait. My favorite unclassifiable Canadian metal act grew up a bit in its time away, as have I. Although founder/frontman David Gold debuts an entirely new lineup, his addictive, refined blend of doom, goth and black metal is intact, as is his intensely personal approach to lyrical introspection. The concept of III's lengthy, varied journey seems to be a struggle between stagnation and progression, staying "true" to something versus taking a risk on something else, with Gold repeatedly reproaching local metal scenesters and provincial stalwarts alike for hypocrisy and lack of vision. This is clearly spelled out in this spiteful yet ridiculously memorable number set to a dour Katatonia rhythm, which would be its "hit" if such a word were apropos.
2. drmanhattan, "To Feel Cozy Surrounded By Cats" drmanhattan (Vagrant) - Named after a comics hero (Dr. Manhattan of Alan Moore's "Watchmen," coming soon to a theater near you), this quartet is a suburban Chicago-area favorite. As can be expected from such a statement, they play a poppy, boppy, emo-ey sort of punkish rock, fractured songs glossed with new wavey keys and provided a patina of geeky intellectualism by weird titles, twisty structures and My Chemical Romance-ish levels of teen melodrama (look at how they spell their name). I'm not going to claim their scattershot self-titled debut LP really breaks any molds or has anything insightful to convey, despite its eventually overbearing attempts to assert that it does. Still, when drm's nervous energy and tunefulness click from time to time, as they do on this demo-era track, it's undeniably head-scratching fun.
3. Testament, "The Formation of Damnation" The Formation of Damnation (Nuclear Blast) - Hailed by many as the best thrash metal album released by anyone this decade, Formation is one of those platters that can make an old coot like myself glad to have been raised a headbanger. It's a story for the ages: at a time when the kids are busy scarfing up '80s tight-jeans-and-white-high-tops nostalgia, one of the original Bay Area mosh crews, which was at one time unbelievably dismissed as a Metallica clone, gets 4/5 of the classic lineup together with journeyman drummer Paul Bostaph (pedigree including Forbidden, Slayer and Exodus) and truly throws down like the old days. The disc is a perfect blend of Testament's nimble, heads-down '80s shred and the death metal vitriol of their celebrated previous album, 1999's The Gathering. Compare the anemic "dude, I read metal's back!" coda of the recent Metallica single with Bostaph's frantic drums, Greg Christian's burbling bass, Eric Peterson's rabid riffs, Alex Skolnick's fluid soloing and the mighty Chuck Billy's raw demon roar here. You tell me who's a pale imitation of who in 2008. So grim, so true, so real...
4. Man Man, "Mr. Jung Stuffed" Rabbit Habits (Anti-) - At first, I was disappointed with Man Man's follow-up to 2006's Six Demon Bag, one of the craziest, catchiest, most creative albums the new millennium has spawned. Habits sounds like the work of the same falsetto harmonizing, percussion abusing, fun loving lunatics as before, but sort of reined in and polished, with more linear compositions and less messy arrangements. The wild n' woolly Philadelphia-based quintet considers this their "pop" album, and once I got past its relative tidiness and apparent simplicity, I realized I'd listened to it about a dozen times and was totally hooked. This is due to the number of surprises hidden inside the seemingly simple ditties, which in true Man Man fashion don't reveal themselves via careful attention, rather at odd times when you're simply grooving along to their strangely sincere junkyard carnival jams. I'm still finding stuff, as Habits has earned many repeat listens, and I've come to regard it as deceptively rewarding (and, like their other discs, a bit too short). At any rate, I'm sure an uninitiated listener would find even their most straightforward numbers, such as this brief Danny Elfman-goes-surfing-with-Tom Waits opener, weird as hell.
5. Alestorm, "Captain Morgan's Revenge" Captain Morgan's Revenge (Napalm) - German geezers Running Wild are the only metal band which has ever really, um, run wild with a pirate image. OK, there are some jokey MySpace amateurs playing "pirate metal" out there, and maaaybe long-defunct Minneapolis glamsters Slave Raider, but that's it. This is strange, especially in a subculture that surely includes its share of dudes who made their own $20 Captain Jack Sparrow outfit so they'd have something to wear during the Renaissance Faire's off-season. Along comes Scottish power/thrash/folk metal act Battleheart, who fortuitously changed their name to Alestorm upon signing with Napalm so as not to be confused with cheesy labelmates Battlelore, and whose debut embodies the concept to ludicrous non-metaphorical degree. With stereotypical yo-ho-ho lyrics (two of the ten song titles contain the word "wench") delivered in a tuneless howl, hearty shout-along sea shanty choruses, Bal-Sagothian keyboard pomp straight out of a Saturday morning action cartoon and a real accordion for flavor, this is exactly what you'd want and expect "pirate metal" to sound like. All their originals are as cartoonishly one-dimensional as this title job, but make no mistake: I would love the opportunity to get real drunk on rum and see these scurvy dogs live. And did you know that to "dance the hempen jig" is pirate slang for being hung by the neck until dead? Neat!
6. The Dino-5, "What About Ten?" Baby Loves Hip-Hop Presents: The Dino-5 (Torque) - Not that I'm looking to spawn, but I've come upon some pretty cool children's records this year, from lullaby renditions of Pixies favorites to this project headed by Prince Paul, producer of such revered hip-hop albums as De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising, Gravediggaz' 6 Feet Deep and the Handsome Boy Modeling School discs. MCs Scratch (The Roots), Chali 2na (Jurassic 5), Ladybug Mecca (Digable Planets) and Wordsworth (eMC) all chip in for the latest in a series of albums intended to introduce very young kids to music beyond "Mary Had a Little Lamb," this one structured as a bedtime story about young dinosaurs who overcome their differences to create a hip-hop crew. It's all very safe and respectful, but the all-star lineup's old-school rhyme tradeoffs and Paul's bouncing beats ensure that The Dino-5 do the genre justice, even if merely tossing off a quick playground counting song.
7. Bloodbath, "Blasting the Virginborn" Unblessing the Purity (Peaceville) - On one hand, Bloodbath is a side project of two of my favorite bands - guitarist Anders Nyström and bassist Jonas Renkse are in Katatonia, drummer Martin Axenrot and recently returned vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt are in Opeth. On the other, they're a killer death metal band who fuse the minor key melody and desolate atmosphere of their European forebears with the steamroller authority and violent precision of the American death metal tradition. It adds up to a band which is much better than it has any right to be, one that has transcended its origins as a glorified tribute act to become one of the most dependable newer outfits for those who appreciate variety in their death metal. This galvanizing scorcher leads the charge on the Swedes' latest EP, blasting and stomping all over the faceless crowd of tech-grinders who have hijacked death metal in recent times. Bloodbath's new full-length, The Fathomless Mastery, hits next month.
8. The Mars Volta, "Ouroborous" The Bedlam in Goliath (Universal) - I'll admit I like prog heroes The Mars Volta as much for their meandering ways as for their towering instrumental prowess, but their last studio disc, 2006's Amputechture, tended to lag and lack focus in a frustrating way. Bedlam is a much better collection of songs, whether due to supernatural forces (the album's typically bonkers backstory includes a cursed ouija board that guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez claims he had to bury in the desert) or judicious editing. Not that self-control has much of a place in The Mars Volta's acid-soaked marathons, but the prolific Long Beach collective hasn't been this concise in a while. Even with shorter tracks like this one, there's plenty of time for bloodshot guitar solos, crazy Latin percussion, ghostly interludes and Cedric Bixler-Zavala's fluttering wail, which will from time to time morph into the voice of the insect/typewriter from Cronenberg's "Naked Lunch." These dudes are really more of a live band, so albums only mean so much, but wackily infectious stuff like this certainly sounds great live.
9. Sculptured, "The Shape of Rage" Embodiment: Collapsing Under the Weight of God (The End) - Another prog group from the West Coast, in this case the verdant state of Washington. The unique undulations of Sculptured are in essence the solo musings of guitarist Don Anderson, who is better known for playing in cult forest horde Agalloch. The first Sculptured album in eight years, Embodiment was first announced in about 2001 under the title The Liminal Phase. By the time it finally surfaced, the name had changed, as had the recording line-up. New vocalist Thomas Walling's deep/flat croon and whispery growl (I'd call it weak, but since I enjoy Sculptured, I'll consider it an homage to early Amorphis) are somewhat reminiscent of Brian Yager's on the earlier albums, but more momentous is the absence of trombone and trumpet, which were previously crucial in establishing the project's left-of-center identity. In their place are keyboards by Winds/Age of Silence dude Andy Winter, more typical instrumentation which would be a disappointment if it wasn't so freaky. With its jazzy twists, busy drums and harsh/clean dynamic, this tune is the most concise and easily digested tune of today's Sculptured. Cronenberg fans should already see the album's "mind over flesh" theme reflected in this song title. Everyone else: it's from "The Brood."
10. Cut Copy, "Feel the Love" In Ghost Colours (Modular) - OK, if you slogged through my epic Bloc Party review from a few months ago, you'll know I have a love/hate relationship with '80s-style pop music. The stuff is all the rage right now, with many groups like Australian trio Cut Copy mining the old new wave playbook. These dudes mostly sound like something that could be slotted among vintage Depeche Mode and New Order singles, that sort of dour but still poppy synth stuff you could once catch on any given minute of MTV's "120 Minutes." I like some of that stuff. Considering that Cut Copy's reproduction is not as crass as that of, say, She Wants Revenge, I like Colours, although this sophomore LP is too long and the material too samey to keep me engaged throughout. This lead track is actually my favorite, being one of a few that sort of sound like a rock band (it's the snatches of acoustic guitar) while retaining the synthetic dancefloor vibe, and its chorus is nowhere near as annoyingly repetitive as some others on the album. And who doesn't love the robot voice?
11. Boris, "KA RE HA TE TA SA KI -No Ones Grieve-" Smile (Southern Lord) - Once poised for hipster stardom thanks to a collaboration with Sunn O))), Japanese psychedelic doom metal trio Boris has somehow perforated the American mainstream. That's right, fucking Boris! The ridiculously prolific band whose ungodly tangle of releases is further confounded by several albums offering different track listings for different regions under the same title! They've already vaulted over the art gallery crowd that is for some reason currently embracing certain types of metal, which seems to be mainly anything endorsed by the label that is currently releasing Boris' stuff in the States. The token (and tokin') metal band of this past summer's Pitchfork Music Festival is now opening Nine Inch Nails' fall tour. Aside from hearing the aforementioned Sunn collab, I had no experience with Boris before hearing their latest, since I don't really keep up with experimental/stoner doom. I now realize that Boris' association with that scene sells them very short. Slow, loud, droning freakouts are only part of what they do these days, with odd punk and pop influences coming to the fore. Just dig this chaotic jumble of acid noise, Wata's squealing guitar cutting a swath through the smoke for a far more interesting tune than I'd ever assumed they could deliver. My bad entirely.
12. Murder By Death, "RumBrave" Red of Tooth and Claw (Vagrant) - Album number four finds Indiana's finest completing their transformation into gothic Western twangers. Beginning life as a indie/post-rock sort of combo a la The Appleseed Cast with a cello in place of a bass guitar, Murder By Death first stepped into the realm of cutthroat saloons, mining disasters and murders of passion on 2003's Who Will Survive, And What Will be Left of Them?, and honed the rootsy approach on 2006's excellent In Bocca al Lupo, on which vocalist Adam Turla fully unveiled his Johnny Cash fetish with a deep warble clearly aping the Man in Black. Vestiges of the old style remained until this new album, which is as singularly focused on the dust-choked fallen preacher aesthetic as Alestorm is on pirate cliches, and for that reason seems at times like a pantomime or self-parody. Maybe they've just finally stettled into the sound they've been traveling toward, but as is true in many cases, the roundabout journey was more rewarding than the familiar destination. That's not to say Red is a bad listen, with plenty of melodramatic sagebrush scorchers like this one begging for repeat spins. It's just predictable, something I've never considered Murder By Death before. Does that mean they've matured?
13. Kalmah, "Holy Symphony of War" For the Revolution (Spikefarm) - Speaking of predictable, here's a group who defined their style on record number one and, eight years later, have yet to deviate from it. The active bands nearest to my heart have all displayed transformation and evolution, but if that's not the kind of band you want to be, it's cool with me. Sticking to why listeners liked you in the first place is certainly a better route than changing your sound every couple of years in vain attempts at commercial fortune. It's therefore pretty funny to me that Kalmah is still considered clones of fellow Finns Children of Bodom, since CoB hasn't trafficked in this engaging type of keyboardy melodic death/thrash since around the time Kalmah's first disc came out. To anyone like myself who loved CoB's first two albums, but has grown increasingly hostile watching their popularity predictably increase in direct proportion to how dumb their music becomes, Kalmah does this shit right. No cock rock posing, no dated Pantera chug-a-lug guitars, just catchy, professional, rockin' melodies delivered with underground vigor and mud-caked Eurometal resolve.
14. Rue Royale, "UFO" Rue Royale (self-released) - Here is a real surprise, a self-released job by a husband-and-wife duo from Chicago. Well, Ruth Dekker is from England, which is where she and hubby Brookln moved shortly after releasing their self-titled album of atmospheric folk-pop and lovely vocal harmonies. The music is so sparse yet lush, so uniformly tuneful, I can't help but play it frequently when I'm confined to headphones. The lyrics definitely have a spiritual tinge, which doesn't really get me off, but thoughtful songs like this one are too warm and honest to be confused with sterile worship music. If you're all alone and see something as incredible as lights in the sky, you or someone you tell about it may doubt your perception, but in the end, you'll know what you saw, no matter how crazy it seems. I've heard about a million metaphors for faith more treacly and unrelatable than that. Bon voyage, Rue Royale, and may Europe give you your due.
15. Nachtmystium, "Your True Enemy" Assassins: Black Meddle Part I (Century Media) - Okay, back to the type of substance-addled sacrilege you'e used to seeing around here. Another Chicago group, Nachtmystium is our best-known black metal export... except founder Blake Judd, having dropped the corpsepaint pseudonym "Azentrius," has fucked around with the template a bit. Judd has gone on record as saying Nachtmystium is no longer a black metal band out of respect for the genre stalwarts that weaned him, and he's right. Assassins takes the psychedelia-flavored Norsecore of recent Nachtmystium to its next logical conclusion by mixing it with doomy post-metal aesthetics for the ultimate in genre-spurning, indie-welcoming, bong-huffing destruction. Sorry, Count Necro, no "let's go gang rape Jesus' corpse" idiocy to be found here. It's naturally been praised everywhere, and by year's end the band's profile will have been raised by tours with such like-minded acts as Boris, Opeth and Wolves in the Throne Room. Hometown pride aside, Assassins is a unique record, comparable to nothing else out there except the mighty Enslaved, accessible yet steeped in underground expertise. This is one of the few "black metal" tunes found on the album, and is of course not entirely orthodox.
16. Built to Spill, "Come Over" Awesome Record, Great Songs! Volume One (Williams Street) - If you've ever said "don't go there," "too much information" or "that's just wrong" for any purpose other than making fun of people who think they're evincing class and taste by parroting moldy clichés, you would not enjoy "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!" Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, creators of the Adult Swim sketch series and its equally divisive antecedent, "Tom Goes to the Mayor," are bemused by the most hideous corners of American life, the kind of stuff at which people who actually get offended by inept infomercials, disgusting meat dishes, outdated fashion, irresponsible parents or awkward karaoke singers can never laugh. I think "Tom" was one of the most deceptively brilliant shows Cartoon Network has ever unleashed, although T&E's cable access-gone-wrong follow-up is more hit-and-miss. The duo recently rolled out a CD with nearly every musical bit from the first two seasons of "Awesome Show," filled in with demos, remixes and a couple of cover versions. The album is oddly addictive, to the point that tunes from sketches I didn't get into on the air get stuck in my head for days. Indie guitar gods Built to Spill do such a great job covering this song (originally presented in a music video better seen than explained), only the lyrics give it away as a joke.
17. Decrepit Birth, "Diminishing Between Worlds" Diminishing Between Worlds (Unique Leader) - California's Decrepit Birth is emblematic of the "Guitar Hero" generation of American death metal musicians: prodigious young players with everything going for them except catchy songs. However, they don't make the mistake of cramming every last second of their sophomore disc with wild arpeggios, jazzy drum fills, fluctuating growls and other clattering noise. Recorded as a trio, Diminishing eschews the megabrutal approach of the band's debut and incorporates more progressive and melodic influences. The result's not what you'd expect, sounding more like Chuck Schuldiner rose from the grave and revived Death with a buncha young'uns than some overeager kids stealing 12 year-old Swedish riffs or tossing in kitchen sinks full of unfocused spazz/doom/breakdown elements. Being more of a Morbid Angel guy than an Obituary guy, I'll take instrument masturbation over lazy hanging chords any day, so while I'm unable to recall much of it minutes after listening, I find this title track anything but boring while it's on.
18. Tokyo Police Club, "Your English Is Good" Elephant Shell (Saddle Creek) - In the two years after their debut EP, Tokyo Police Club - who are Canadians - enjoyed enough praise to flatter the quartet into a corner. The hype was justified where A Lesson in Crime was concerned, its brevity concealing an appealing cornucopia of poppy indie rock moods, from desperate and restless to joyful and contemplative. Their live shows and second EP, equally short but exhuberant, only fed the buzz. By the time their debut long-player finally dropped this year, folks were getting antsy, and general reaction to the album seems to be, "eh, it's okay, but we expected more." I hate to agree with the blogosphere, but since Shell is as long as all their previous material put together yet feels like variations on the same song for much of its running time, I must. (Where did their trademark screamy background vocals go?) This spunky number is the album's first single, the most energetic tune of the bunch and a rare one that doesn't blend in with the rest. Here's hoping TPC mixes it up a bit next time and re-earns their hype.
19. Moonsorrow, "Back to North" Tulimyrsky (Spikefarm) - When metal bands cover other metal bands, you typically get an inferior carbon copy of a great song. Followers of this blog know Finland's Moonsorrow is not typical, even while embodying the pagan metal ideal. Their latest release is an EP, but its five tracks clock in at 68 minutes. That's one new song (the monstrous half-hour title job), two re-recorded demo tracks (which, thanks to modern and professional production, bear a curious resemblance to mid-era Dimmu Borgir) and two covers of other metal bands. The first is Metallica's wartime chestnut "For Whom the Bell Tolls," which has been done to death elsewhere but in Moonsorrow's hands becomes a rousing Viking call to arms. The second is this pro-Scandinavian/anti-Christian 1994 number by Swedish death/thrashers Merciless, an obscure but worthy choice that was already epic in its original eight-minute form but now sprawls out to a glorious thirteen. Fans of the original might be surprised to hear a central guitar refrain recast as a folksy jig, but I'll bet more people will hear Moonsorrow's version than Merciless'.
20. Black 47, "Stars and Stripes" Iraq (United for Opportunity) - Between many years of impotent anti-Bush preaching and all of this year's embarassing musical tributes to Barack Obama, I don't think there's ever been a time in my life when ideas I actually agree with were so widely but stupidly espoused in music. Already planning to kick Bono squarely in his pretentious Irish balls the next time I see him, I haughtily groaned when I saw the title of the new album by long-running Celtic rockers Black 47. I was pleasantly surprised that the eclectic New York band favored a documentary approach over whiny hang-wringing for their "war album." The lyrics on Iraq were inspired by correspondence with fans serving in the United States military's current occupation of its eponymous country, or with those otherwise affected by the war on the homefront. The sentiments expressed don't originate with some sap who got pissed and wrote a song after watching a ten-minute segment on cable news, or even with politically astute Black 47 vocalist/guitarist Larry Kirwan. It's refreshing in that it's not more old dudes trying to feel relevant with another belated round of Donald Rumsfeld bashing. The band seals the deal with a funky hodgepodge of rootsy rock, trad Irish, jazz, rap, etc. For instance, this opener recasts "Sloop John B" as if sung by Win Butler and played by the E Street Band... yeah, kind of like The Hold Steady, but interesting. Whistle this one all the way to the voting booth, gang.
posted by SoulReaper at 2:10 PM
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