There are times when I think I really shouldn't be enjoying this record. I mean, the cover features cartoon monster versions of the band rising from the grave, and the songs have titles like 'The Importance of Being Evil' and 'Really Dead Dolls' - 'Danger Man' even features a chant of "S - A - T - A - N", all delivered, you assume with an ironic smile.
But it's no use, regardless of how much the indie snob in me wants to disregard this as a semi-comic pop kids playing at being goths, the sheer infectious quality of the songs hammers through my skindeep uptightness like a power pop juggernaut. The girl boy vocals of 'Massive Crush' are delivered with devestating charm, swapping lines through the verse before launching into a shout along stop start chorus, pushed on all the while by a runaway rock n roll guitar line.
That's not to say that this album is one dimensional though, 'Bury You' sparkles past in a melodic flourish of soft focus keyboards, and 'About Her' builds from a low-key guitar jangle, to a bouncy mid-pacer, but The Barbs are at their best when they throw off all inhibtions and just plain rock - 'Danger Man' and 'Nowaitaminit' do this in impeccable style, perhaps better than on any other record released this year, and will have you bouncing around your bedroom, indie disco or place of work if played at the requisite volume, while 'GO!' stops and starts in all the right places, offering delayed gratification of the highest calibre.
So cast off your preconceptions, and find out the importance of being evil for yourself.
Review by Paul Madden
Sightings are a New York based trio formed in 1998 who make some real far out music considering the sources of their sound. Their songs are fundamentally abstract and noise-based, they often sound like they are battling against any conventional sounds they can make from their instruments which gives the impression of an aural attack upon your senses, but despite the abrasive, manic and chainsaw-like qualities in their music there lies a realm of sonic magnitude. Sightings number Mark Morgan on Guitar/Vocals, Richard Hoffman on Bass, and Jon Lockie on Drums. Lockie’s Drums are often somehow rigged up to an amp to totally distort the sound thereby making them more electrified and totally unlike anything you would expect. Listening to their stuff, you can detect a wide array of influences from the No Wave movement to Electronica, taking in Japanese underground stuff, Krautrock, Einsturzende Neubauten, Silver Apples, Free Jazz, Punk and Captain Beefheart as well as Noise musicians like Merzbow. Arrived in Gold is their fourth album and the third for Load Records, the previous two being Sightings and Absolutes (in between these releases they released Michigan Haters for Psych-o-Path Records). They have also released a single on Freedom From Records.
Arrived in Gold is perhaps, a point of departure for Sightings as it displays certain subtle qualities and influences one wouldn’t necessarily expect from them. There is definitely a more mechanized robotic feel to Arrived in Gold than in any of their previous albums. It is quite a long album for them as it clocks in at just over 38 minutes. The first song ‘One out of Ten’, starts off with some programmed beats which gives it a techno-y feel, then there’s some speaking before the song unravels into mechanistic drones of the sort you wouldn’t normally associate being produced by a Guitar/Bass/Drums set-up; this is accompanied with the sound of lava bubbling and also with a bit of yelling and mumbling over the top. Submerged within this noise is someone plonking about on a piano and then a minute or so later it comes to an abrupt stop. Song number two- ‘Sugar Sediment’ is more industrial sounding as it has a reciprocating engine-like riff going the whole way through it with what sounds like a cross between a pneumatic and a dentist’s drill accompanying it while Krautrock-like drums beat this constructive chaos into a trance. Track three, ‘Odds On’ continues this abrasive mechanical theme. Machines grind and scrape while what sounds like a snippet of an industrial Electronica sample that has been looped, cutting all the way through it. Next up, ‘Internal Compass’ is more coherent and rocking, a muffled riff is picked (with plectrum) and then scraped out before degenerating into a wavy barrage of distortion. An audible earthy bass line bounces along to it, and the drums?- well, they are there for sure, but they are so incomprehensible, (apart from the bass drum), that you are not sure exactly what they are doing except somehow helping to create this sonic maelstrom. Morgan’s delivery of the lyrics here are drawn out and are the most understandable so far if you listen to them carefully. Next up, ‘Switching to Judgement’, reverts back to metal scraping and gnawing at, what brings to mind, an angle-grinder, with the bass bouncing along to the mechanism which propels the grinder. Morgan’s mumbling making him sound like he’s wandering around having a bad introspective trip in a machine shop before walking into the angle-grinder, knocking himself out in the process, whereupon the song ends with his guitar jingling like bells around his head. The Sixth song, ‘Dudes’, is more loud and clear sounding. It features guitars that stab at and thud along to drugs induced spasms before being further contorted by various pedals. The drums here sound at their most acoustic so far. This is like being out of your head with someone screaming at you as you splutter about trying to make sense of things. It stops very briefly for a Bass solo and then it’s back again to this convulsive state. The penultimate track, ‘The Last Seed’, is in some ways similar to the first track with programmed beats, insect clicks and what sounds like someone blowing over glass opening up the song, before the bass weaves in and out playing the same note over and over as its met with blasts of feedback stuttering along side it. This too has a vague Electronica feel, but it also reveals an interest in Electroacoustic’s. The final track, ‘Arrived in Gold, Arrived in Stone’ is the longest song on the album at over 10 minutes. It starts up with a steam engine huffing and puffing away- sounding a bit like a coffee machine in a café. It is then driven into a giant guillotine before being cut up into many pieces. As the engine slowly meets its demise it still continues to keep its motor spinning in and out of our consciousness. The bass at this point becomes more pronounced and is joined by various wafts of feedback and together they perform a solemn dirge for the aforementioned engine as it fizzles out.
Arrived in Gold is my favourite of all Sightings’s albums. It is probably the most accessible album for a group which, to the vast majority who have uninitiated ears concerning this kind of music, would be very inaccessible. If you can accept noisy or industrial sounds as music then you’ll probably dig it. Yeah, it does have some dark qualities and if you are looking for ‘feel good’ music you probably won’t find it here. However this doesn’t mean that it should be disregarded; it is a very interesting album and if you listen closely enough you will always find something you previously overlooked, it is in this sense a very deep album. It is good to listen to if you want to clear your head from the day to day vapid and vacuous debris which ‘popular culture’ forces upon us, and so it cannot be considered as a negative album; it’s just one that demands open minds and ears to hear what these freethinking individuals have to say. Anybody who takes the sound of a standard rock n’ roll instrument and turns it into something completely unrecognisable and untameable cannot, then, be said to be lacking in talent and should, at least, have their individuality recognized.
Review by Tristan Deane
California’s
Battery Life have had plenty of years’ experience on their state’s
roots-rock scene. Their album ‘Shotgun Loudmouth’ is a pretty
uninspiring affair.
There are hints of early REM and even Soul Asylum here, but with none
of the flair of either. Paul Almanza’s gravely vocals grate their
way through fourteen tracks of country-punk er, averageness. The feeling
that his voice would be best employed demanding last orders in a crowded
bar is backed up by such boozy songs as ‘Beer Rights’, ‘Pay
My Dues’ and ‘Deep In The Crowd’ (to be fair, the latter
features some great harmonica).
And there are some nice 60’s-esque harmonies, particularly on ‘I
Am The Trade’, but the overall impression is of a hard working bar
band toiling their way through a set that loses all excitement and originality
after about fifteen minutes. Which still leaves you with a lot of samey
jangling guitars and crap rhymes to get through.
Battery Life are probably best enjoyed live while jumping around in the
pit with drunken rednecks who like hearing the same thing over and over
again.
Which at least has some fun appeal…
Review by Peter Dodds
>BABES IN TOYLAND & KAT BJELLAND - BEST OF
It is undoubtably true that Kat Bjelland is a massively influencial figure in the Riot Grrl/Grunge/alt rock genres but even bearing that in mind I struggled to 'enjoy' this collection of twenty five angst fuelled and abrasive songs. Having more musical credability than Courtney Love (who was in a band with Bjellan before Babes In Toyland) she has never turned away from playing what she wants and at times some of her material can be quite painful to listen to but tracks like 'He's My Thing' throw some good old fashioned and dirty rock 'n' roll into the mix to give the ears a break from songs like 'Vomit Heart' and 'Handsome & Gretel'.
To me this collection of songs needs to be filed under worthy and influencial rather than must hear, if you have never heard any of Babes in Toyland's material this CD would be a good starting point to find out why she is so highly spoken of and if you need to go and hear more of her material. 6/10
Review by Darren Bunting
My introduction to Hound Dog Taylor and his HouseRockers (Brewer Phillips-guitar, Ted Harvey-drums) was around last Xmas when I heard a compilation of their stuff- Deluxe Edition, it totally blew me away, it was what I’d subconsciously been wanting to hear for ages. They sounded like a bunch of supreme cats- laying down shit-kicking licks that just curl up and linger inside yr mind.
Fueled by Canadian Club Whisky, they were a hardcore bunch of old Blues/Rock n’ Roll motherfuckers. Hound Dog, the oldest of the trio, would sit down on his folding chair, hammering out high pitched riffs and using a brass-lined steel slide (from an old kitchen chair) up and down the fret-board; and describing both his joy and his shortcoming’s regarding life with his high tenor vocals, punctuated with various cries encouraging both his fellow band members and the audience on. In between songs he’d incomprehensably try and crack jokes- but most of the time he’d just fall about laughing halfway through the joke. Phillips would play second guitar-his guitar being tuned to sound like a bass- pulsating along with walking bass riffs (like Judah Bauer in the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion- Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers being a major influence for them), occasionally they’d switch over- with Phillips playing lead. Ted Harvey was a very competent but fairly minimalist drummer, being restrained in his approach keeping the beat he’d often fall asleep behind the kit- though apparently he could still keep the groove going! However for the tune “Walking the Ceiling” he is most definitely not drifting off giving an astounding drum solo- sounding like he is, totally, walking the ceiling. They most definitely had their fair share of hard times (as reflected in the raw intensity of their music and in Hound Dog’s lyrics) and were constantly bickering with each other, normally this was fairly good natured- who’s the most bad-ass motherfuker, that kind of shit- but one time, just before the old Dog passed away from cancer, he got real mad at Phillips and shot him, though he survived, pressed charges and subsequently left the band. However they made up just before Hound Dog died.
Hound Dog Taylor (real name Theodore Roosevelt Taylor- 1915-75) was born in Mississippi and took up the guitar aged 20, moving to Chicago in 1942 doing a series of day jobs and getting his kicks by busking. In 1955 he decided to become a full-time musician, hooking up with Phillips, (also from Mississippi), in 1959 and Ted Harvey, (a Chicagoan), in 1965 who were then inaugurated as his official ‘HouseRockers’. They initially played only in Chicago- pricing themselves as the cheapest blues band in town which meant they got a hell of a lot of gigs- 5 or 6 a week! In 1971 Alligator records was set up with the sole intention of recording them- (though they’ve grown substantially since then, recording and re-issuing many other Blues artists). Two albums were released during the Hound Dog’s lifetime: Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers (1971) and Natural Boogie (1973) with a live album Beware of the Dog being released after his death. Prior to being recorded for Alligator he’d only cut two 45’s in the early 1960’s. These two albums took them out of Chicago and onto the road- touring across North America and to Australia and New Zealand, though they never made it to this country. However, in North America they still remained fairly underground- Ted Harvey still needed a day job for his bread, due to this he is replaced on certain songs during a New England tour by Levi Warren (who Harvey replaced in the HouseRockers). Since they had an element of being raw and were happy well established locally they never found much in the way of success, especially as they were on an independent record label. This is also partly because Hound Dog Taylor never put out any stuff in the 50’s when R&B (Rhythm and Blues) was really popular so he never got the chance to be nationally known- let alone internationally known- besides he seemed content to ‘keep it real’ playing his raw style of bar blues for kicks not to acquire any immortality.
Release the Hound is a compilation of 14 tracks which clocks in just under 70 minutes, some of which are like long jam sessions but most are under 4 minutes long. They consist of previously unreleased live performances plus a few studio pieces It is, according to Hound Dog, made up of the two types of songs he played: slow ones- blues, and fast ones- rock n’ roll, with the majority being ‘rock n’ roll’. The more blues-like songs being fairly reflective stuff but the more rocking ones are real uplifting and are bound to get you going. The stand out tunes for me are the more energetic stuff, like: ‘What’d I Say’, ‘One More Time’, ‘Walking the Ceiling’, ‘Phillips Screwdriver’ and ‘Gonna Send You Back to Georgia’. If there is any down point to this album its because most of the tunes were recorded live the sound quality isn’t quite as good as a studio-produced album would be. However if you are curious about old electrified blues or just want to hear some shit-kicking music then this is a good album to start with. If you want to hear some decent contemporary blues then I recommend the stuff on Fat Possum records as well.
Review by Tristan Deane
Fantastic Plastic has spawned some of my favourite bands of recent years but it seems gone are the days when I could count on their product being innovative and pioneering, in fact the opposite appears to be true. The latest sampler contains efforts from Help She Can’t Swim- Brighton’s very own anti-scenesters, Ikara Colt – One of said favourite bands of recent years and The Beat Up who were formally known as a The Beatings but for no apparent reason decided it wasn’t hip enough (In their defence, they were forced to by a court order from an American band, also called The Beatings – ed). Help She Can’t Swim are every pretty danceable indie rock band you’ve ever heard and didn’t actually think were that great. The song in itself isn’t that bad but this reason makes me dislike them more. No reaction is provoked by the empty vocals which seem to thrive on the wirey guitars until the realisation sets in that they’re not actually doing anything different from everyone else and not really doing it that well.
It always comes back to this but then how could it ever not. When you make a record as brash and snotty as Ikara Colt’s debut ‘Chat and Business’ every song recorded after it is destined for disappointment. On a very rare occasion there is a chance to surpass the ferocity encapsulated on a superb debut record but the examples are few and far between. ‘Jackpot’ taken from Ikara Colt’s second record ‘Modern Apprentice’ is a half arsed attempt to smarten up the distorted genius of anything prior to it. It confuses me greatly after hearing ‘modern apprentice’ as to why Fantastic Plastic selected this song as an example of one of their most successful bands new efforts. Throughout the album there are signs that the brilliance which sat so comfortably with them is not totally lost but unfortunately it seems this has been overlooked.
I never really liked the Beatings. Friends with London gangsters and better than the Libertines. So what? If you talk like you’ve got balls the size of watermelons then you need the songs to back it up. The Beatings touted themselves as the next big thing and it doesn’t take much more than that for the NME to jump on the band wagon but unfortunately for them even this didn’t help. It appears that taking ‘ing’ of the end of your name and adding the word ‘Up’ doesn’t actually make you any better, in fact it appears to make you worse. ‘alright’ is a very poor effort and Fantastic Plastic’s biggest mistake to date.
Review by Barry Bennett
This is the kind of band you want to tell all your friends about and pride yourself on the fact that you ‘discovered’ them. It’s so rare to hear a CD for the first time and immediately think “Wow, who are these guys, they’re amazing!” Everything about Nutronstars screams cutesie-kitsch. Ok, a lot of people would roll their eyes at this point and not read on. Nutronstars are definitely not ‘kooky cool’ in a stereotypical pretentious, boring, poser way; it’s obvious that the noise they make comes very naturally to them. Listening to it, I keep thinking the sort of person who’d love this music would be a bit goofy and incredibly shy who always wears mismatched clothes by mistake and scuffs around a lot staring at their shoes. ‘Melodyruleseverything’ is an incredibly fun; catchy; poppy, album comprised of electronic beats intermediated with keyboards, bass and guitar. Additionally, if I were to compare the lead singer to anybody, then it would be Dougal from Father Ted complete with massive scared-looking innocent eyes.
At this point, I would take time to mention some of the more outstanding tracks on the album but, in all honesty, I can’t choose between them! At a push, ‘Start the Week,’ ‘The Psychic Fire Brigade,’ and ‘Vanishing Girl,’ are perhaps my most favourite. This album has got the sweet charm of The Mouldy Peaches; the seedy undertones of Pulp and the childlike naivety of The White Stripes. I bet Nutronstars get their inspiration from hanging around ice-cream parlours all day, sucking lollipops and wearing brothel-creepers. This is a band definitely worth looking out for in the very near future.
Reviewed by Helen Thornton
Finally ‘The Hair LP’ gets its long overdue UK release. It’s been over a year since the album was released in North America, so it’s safe to say that most fans have probably already purchased it on import. However new Unicorn apostles will be able to avoid those nasty import fees, instead handing over the extra couple of quid to HMV. TOP DOG! …indeed.
The Unicorns are a multifaceted three piece from Canada who play just about any instrument you put in front of them. This record is a celebration, a celebration of lo-fi and hi-fi, guitars and keyboards, rock and pop, love and hate, the living and the dead, the people and The Unicorns. The tunes are so catchy that you will be practicing the Charleston within minutes. But they’re also crammed with the type of elusive intricacies that will take you months to digest. The lyrics are of similar esteem, combining ‘the wit of the random’ with mirthful tales of ghosts and car accidents. They have this folky appeal like a Bob Dylan raised on jellybeans and Scooby Doo.
Its hard to extract highlights from such a consistent album but ‘Ghost Mountain’ might be one for its utterly beguiling keyboard effects and ‘Inoculate The Innocuous’ must also be mentioned if only for the closing lines ‘Bananas help me unwind/ watermelons make it awesome’
I advise all to listen to this constantly for a decade before dismissing it.
Review by Daniel Taylor
Having said that though ‘Tell The Truth Part 1’ and Part 2 and ‘The Hidden Track’ are the real highlights, the latter using some violin effects (possibly violins) to cap it off in an Ashcroft style that will always work.
My real beef with 'Treble & Tremble' is the lyrics. The words seem undernourished, tiresome and predictable, littered with the type of pop clichés that will make your eyes do summersaults.
This is certainly not an awful record. There are a lot of touching melodies. It’s just all so very very bland.
Review by Daniel Taylor
Mood music. No, wait, give it a chance. When I say mood music I do not mean those standard after club/Sunday morning compilations where ‘chill out’ signifies bland, and the half decent tracks are included on every similarly titled cd.
In this particular case the mood music comes in the form of ‘Astralator’ by Shannon Roberts. To me, this album title conjures up images of star gazing in the night time, relaxed, dreamy and content. This is in fact, pretty much the impression that the music gives too. Instruments come together to hint at indie and electro sounds. Vocals are ever present, yet sparse and unobtrusive. An air of singer songwriter lingers, though doesn’t stain, and there’s a nice, innocent and naïve touch to the work.
Strangely, the more delicate tracks, such as ‘Galaxy Strong’ stand out rather than the numbers with more direct vocals. Saying this, the music is still something you are most likely to listen to as an entire album, rather than picking out individual tracks to play on repeat.
My favourite thing about this release has to be the effort that has gone into its presentation. The artwork embodies a personal feel, a human touch, and the added extras including stickers, and ‘Magic Spectrum Specs’ serve to make things all the more special.
The only problem seems to be that there is nothing in this album to grab hold of and to captivate the listener. You would really need to spend some quality time with this music to for it to grow on you, and with so many other records available today, why should you feel any obligation towards this one? After all, it’s not your child, it’s just music. Some however, would beg to differ.
Review by Nathania Hartley
Nearly 10 years ago Garbage burst on the scene. Their eponymous debut album got rave reviews and Shirley Manson was crowned the Queen of dirty rock. Their music was a world away from the Britpop that was dominating the music scene at that time. Clever lyrics and epic tunes like 'Vow' and 'Queer' were embraced and still sound sexy and today. So here we are at the tail end of 2004 and I’m listening to the debut of McKinney and 3 tracks in I feel that I’m listening to songs that Shirley would have left on the cutting floor for not having enough dirty attitude. They could be good if they were more original and stopped sounding so contrived and trying hard to sound like other people. Far from it feeling fresh and fun, this sounds dated and dull. It’s not bad but it’s just not very exciting. Maybe given time they might just find originality in all that Garbage!
Review by Sonia Pagliari
As far as art-blues-glam-punk-rocking trios go, Fleeing New York are about as exciting and accomplished as you can get – a feat made even more astounding when you consider that they’ve only just released their debut mini-album on their own Stuck-Up Music imprint. 8-tracker ‘AOK’ is said release, a half-hour glitter-and-scarf whistle-stop tour of handclapping, climactic melodies and a fair dosage of The Bloody Great Big Riffs.
At times they echo the garage danceability and harmonious hollerin’ of The Von Bondies (‘Hollywood Bowl’, ‘AOK’), making you think of Detroit when the reality is Southampton. Other times display the six-string athletics of latter-day Jane’s Addiction (‘Scandinavia’, ‘Sun Is Low’) and thus proving that their speciality, for now at least, is slow-burning boy/girl scuzz anthems that suggest a stealthy cartoon Pixies. When they’re somewhere in between (Jane’s Bondies? Von Pixie Addiction?) the tunes still have enough groove, gusto and/or huge choruses to be more than the sum of their parts. Even the gentle balladry of ‘Blind Fever’ – it’s got a trumpet and everything – does not from the disc’s adrenaline and exhilaration, whilst the ending of ‘Surefire’ isn’t half helpful in galvanising the rock n’ roll intent.
Not a duff track, never a dull moment and little reason to deny their classic song-writing skill already. Meet you on the dance floor, then.
Review by Thomas Blatchford
I intended to use this opportunity to write something about the death of ‘indie’…about Creation Records being one of the labels who nurtured the janglepop sound and then dealt it the death blow by foisting Oasis on us – since then ‘indie’ has meant acoustic guitars and downbeat introspective miserabilism, when to me, as a teenager, it was a broad church encompassing a plethora of musical styles. About the fetishisation of the 7” single – coloured vinyl, free badges, limited to a few hundred copies. I wanted to write something about how the romanticism of indiepop was well suited to the heightened emotions of adolesence; about lying on my bedroom floor swooning to the plainly spoken heartbreak of the Wedding Present, taking acid and getting lost in the delicately creepy world of the Vaselines, psyching myself up to the Jesus & Mary Chain. And then I remembered Primal Scream’s ‘Loaded’ going Top Ten, and realised I was kidding myself in the classic tradition of old-skool indie preciousness.
Indiepop/C86/twee was a backlash against the more macho sounds of the aftermath of punk, leaving aside the politics, and the fashionable nihilism of the era in order to focus on a naïve, almost childlike view of the world. This compilation is a comprehensive overview of the genre, from the Postcard records era Josef K (for the Franz Ferdinand kids out there), through the flexidisc frenzy of Sarah records bands (The Field Mice, Pooh Sticks) , to quasi-riot grrrl electro bands such as Helen Love and Bis, culminating in a few new songs (Love is All ‘Spinning and Scratching’ is a revelation of X-Ray Spex saxamophone and grrrlpunk vocals). I can complain very little about the tracklisting– mostly complaints of the sort ‘I wouldn’t have picked that Pastels song…and where the fuck are the BMX Bandits?’. Standout moments – God, they’re hard to pick, there are several songs that make me glow (but perhaps in a nostalgic kind of way?) – the Mary Chain, Monochrome Set, the Shop Assistants, the Vaselines. I, Ludicrous’ ‘Preposterous Tales’ and the TV Personalities illustrate the path from shambling post punk (a la Swell Maps in the case of the former) to a storytelling aesthetic. The inclusion of early singles from Primal Scream and Pop Will Eat Itself will amuse fans of their later output.
Downsides? Well, generally, this is the genre that caused me to claim to hate female vocals…there are a lot of insipid, ethereal, fey voices from both genders, but they are generally set to gorgeous backings. I personally prefer a bit of fire in vocal delivery and find that I switch off from time to time when it becomes dull. But the regional accents on show make this a bit special for me in these days when vapid Americana rules the airwaves.
Overall, I think this is a great compilation and I sort of hope that it spawns a renewed interest in indiepop. But only because my 7”s will be worth more that way. I was 15 when the crass comercialism of BritPop swept away my subculture and I’m still slightly bitter about it. But its hard to remain bitter when faced with the open faced charm of music which has the power to give me a shiver down my spine.
Review by Sarah Glass