This makes me smile a lot, some great tunes, loud noise and exciting twists and turns, thank Peel for some decent rock music at last.
It's not emo, it's not punk, it's not post-rock, it's not post-punk, it's not metal, it's not alt-rock, it's a bit of all of these, and is probably best just described as good noise.
I've seen this band compared to Pretty Girls Make Graves and Ikara Colt, but trust me they're far more interesting than those over-hyped bland promises. If I was going to make lazy comparisons, then I'd say think of At The Drive In and Fugazi, then think of something different. They have all the energy, all the interesting dark alleys and mysterious pathways, have the sonic intensity, the jerky rhythms, and the passion to make you sit up and take notice. And yet they also have that little something different, which is what really makes them worthwhile, I don't know if its the male/female interchangeable vocals, the melodies straining under two tonnes of fuzz, the way one song runs into another, or...or...umm...oh I don’t know what the hell it is. Which is probably why I like it so much. It just sounds like something new, that we don't already have.
Oh yes, and their name is a reference to hurricanes, so if you imagine a hurricane smashing through a rock club, swirling ferociously and destroying all the crap, then you just get to stand in its eye listening for a few minutes, before being swept away yourself, then that kind of works.
Review by Daniel Newmanwww.octoberallover.co.uk
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If evidence was ever needed that old punks don't die, they transform into singer-songwriters with an itch to scratch, Jeff Caudill personifies this. Cutting his teeth fronting acclaimed US pop-punkers 'Gameface', his solo career sees him ease his foot off the pedal and kick-back without losing any impact or bite.
Caudill's trump-card is his ability to craft instantly memorable songs that swing with an outrageously catchy hook. Combing this rare quality with a dash of great American acts like The Lemonheads and Jesse Malin, as well as adding a touch of Elvis Costello, this debut full length release is all the more rich and engaging for it. Although 'Here's What You Should Do' is most definitely Caudill's brainchild, that feeling of having a live band playing for you in your room owes a debt of gratitude to collaborator and multi-instrumentalist Robbie Rist.
Whether writing about his days in Gameface or from his personal experience, Caudill is always quick to deliver with an insightful comment or a playful quip. 'Worn Out Welcome' describes the indignity and difficulties that the constant touring forced upon the spirit as he discovers 'you sounded great and you almost made enough to get paid tonight', while 'Stop Writing Songs' reveals his true feelings on being a musician as he sings 'I don't need to write a hit, but I want someone to sing along with it.' Caudill isn't afraid to tackle the bigger issues that have had a profound impact on his life. The beautifully understated 'Destination' talks of his love for his native California while 'Change Everything' is a delicate acoustic ode to his young daughter.
The only thing that stops 'Here's What You Should Do' from being an out-and-out classic is that at 55 minutes long, a little more brevity would carry more impact. Some ruthless pruning would undoubtedly pare this down to a more focused set of songs. Although Caudill's undoubted strength lies in his ability to create three-minute mini-masterpieces, this gets a little lost in translation on occasion. However, the upside of this is that he isn't afraid to give record space to more experimental works like closing track, 'I Just Disappear', which with its drum loops and sparse instrumentation displays the influence of country-rockers turned avant-garde popsters, Wilco.
On 'Here's What You Should Do', Jeff Caudill has continued to evolve musically to produce an album full of emotive music that has real heart. It's his unique spin on combining power-pop, country and indie-rock that makes for such vibrant and exciting listening.
Review by Nick Quantrill
www.jeffcaudill.com
www.myspace.com/jeffcaudill
Read Joyzine's interview with Jeff
Caudill
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It's exactly what I thought it would be, but it's fun and listenable to the extreme.
I'm ignoring the horrible hair metal guitar solos, the cheesy sex lyrics intended to be shocking, and the fact that the singer makes me think of stylised rebellion like Pink, and instead I’m just finding that the insistent little songs are passing the time just nicely.
The tunes are tenuously there, the guitars have lots of fuzz, the choruses are repetitive and catchy and...well there’s not much more to say, you know exactly how it sounds, think Motley Crue, Guns n Roses, Skid Row mixed with Hole, The Distillers, and even Pink, and that mix sounds unholy and wrong, but this is just fun. The guys and gals making it just sound like they’re doing what they want, no pretensions to greatness and not caring who likes them, it just sounds like a band. Much as I wanted to despise it, I must admit defeat, and give in, it's pretty catchy, bouncy and just good time rawk. I don't hate it.
As the record goes on, rather than getting bored and irritated, I’m finding myself getting more and more sucked in, and convinced that I was wrong about this band, and that they’re far better than I’ve been giving them credit for. I'm just starting to believe their world, and yep they've won me over.
I think this point happened around the point of the Romeo Void cover 'Never Say Never', you know the song that goes on about how 'I’d like you better if we slept together', loads of bands have covered it, but that doesn’t stop it being an ace sexy song, nor take away from it being executed perfectly in the sleazy hands of this band. Slunt, god that name is bad, I’m just going to say this band.
Oh and now there's a song about a hog, or Hawg, where she’s singing about the guy making her squeal like a pig to a fuzzy guitar chug, ohh I really can't dislike this.
Right, so at this point, I’m forced to revise my comparisons to
Jack Off Jill, Daisy Chainsaw and L7, which is a whole different league
of sound alikes, than Guns n Roses and Pink, I can only apologise for
my crazy first impressions. This music really is something fun, good old
dirty fun, none too serious, but just fun.
And now I don’t just not hate it, but I’m actually really
enjoying it.
So if you want some dirty gravel voiced female L.A. sleaze rawk, then look no further than Slunt (oh I still hate that clunky name), you can't not enjoy this, and you’ll find yourself singing along and bopping your head in no time at all.
Fun.
Sex.
Rawk.
Roll.
Oh I'm such a miser sometimes, but this has melted my cold cold heart, which must say something very good about it.
I'll just add that the final listed track is called 'Cliché Rock N Roll Party Song', which is exactly what this whole album is, and while this initially put me off, now I can't complain with that at all; it does exactly what it says on the tin. And sometimes that's just what you want it to do.
Review by Daniel Newman
www.slunt.net
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It’s stadium-sized, but the size comes from the melodies, not from cheap tricks like just bolstering-up the volume of everything that sits behind them. The songs have that feeling of loss and loneliness to them that looks back to a band like Echo and the Bunnymen, but something triumphant to it aswell. This record’s gaze does not flinch from it’s shoes, but it sounds like the band are doing that so that the listener doesn’t have to.
There’s a fair bit of Radiohead in there aswell – Bends-era stuff, though, none of the high-tech world of OK Computer etc. And yeah, you can’t make music like this without a U2 comparison creeping in, so there you go. There’s no great surprise in this record, but it is very good at what it does.
Review by Chris Helsbywww.autumndivers.com
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"Cute fuzzed-out fun jangly stuff" is how this band's been described to me by various fans, who seem to hold them in disproportionately high esteem. Song titles like 'Ringalingaling' and 'Tay Tay Again' certainly bear out the 'cute' aspect.
Having only previously heard them do a live broadcast on the John Peel show, they were still (despite having been putting out records since 1997 on various indie labels) pretty new to me when their new (second?) album 'Electrified' swung my way. So I'm coming at this pretty much fresh.
And unfortunately "fresh" does not really describe this music. It mostly follows a formula that was somewhat stale by mid-1995 - imagine a toothless Veruca Salt, or Magnapop-lite (indeed, 'It Happens All The Time' is strangely reminiscent of the hook from Magnapop's 'Slowly Slowly'). The guitar fuzz stays fairly constant throughout, leaving you wishing for maybe a little bit of lead or melody (mostly the melody is carried by Tammy Ealom's vocal, which I find a little twee-fake-cutesy-affected). The majority of the songs just wash over in a wave of indistinguishability and indifference.
The disconcerting thing is that several of my favourite albums could be accused of the same charges that I'm leveling at 'Electrified', but it just seems that some bands can make the formula work, and some just make it sound, er, formulaic. That said, there ARE some nice standouts - 'Small' has a cute keyboard refrain lending it a more bubblegum-pop feel, and the final song 'Who'd Stop the Rain' has a bit of life and distinction to it.
A brutal 5/10 from this mean-hearted listener! There's just too much better stuff out there.
Review by Kenny Watson
www.dressybessy.com
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