Music Reviews - June 2011
Punk Rock Heart Transplant compilation
I was standing in line at the best Roberto's in town (next to what used to be the Aristocrat near Charleston / Rancho) after an early morning jaunt with the Amoroso clan to the Broad Acres Swap Meet, which I have never been to before. Yeah, I know, shut up. While I'm standing there pondering what to grub on, Brian from TheCore walks in, says Hello to me, and after a bit of chit chat he mentions to me that his band was just featured on some compilation thing, and gave me a copy of it.I thanked him for it, put it in my back pocket, forgot about it until doing my laundry weeks later, burned it to my hard drive and songs from it keeps popping up on shuffle, and it sounds pretty good. A bunch of bands from California, a token few from Canada, and a handful from Las Vegas comprise all of the music on here, and it all kind of goes in a Pennywise / Strung Out / Lagwagon / Death By Stereo kind of direction. What ever happened to diversity on compilations? LOL All kidding aside, there are some really good tunes on here, stuff from bands like The Regime, No Bueno, Guilty By Association, Bastard Suns, Eken Is Dead, Battle Born, and, my favorite song from TheCore, which I never knew the title of before, Scene Kid Sacrilege (Return Of The Shirt). Gawd, such a great song. Besides being a cool collection of some good songs, this compilation is also a great idea in getting bands music out to the people for free. All the bands involved paid for the pressing and recording of the songs, and because of that, the CD is absolutely free for the taking. Not bad. For more information go to punkrockhearttransplant.com or facebook.com/punkrockhearttransplant for more info on the project, and maybe to find out how your band could be on the next one. It's a good idea, and there's some pretty good stuff on here. |
Helmet - Seeing Eye Dog
Work Song Records Ya know, when the first 30 seconds of the 1st song on any Helmet record don't just make you want to stick your face through a glass window, then you know something's wrong, and there's definitely something wrong with this release. Lead off song So Long sets the mood for the CD and is a bit of an evolvement in the bands song writing style. It's kind of Foo Fighters-ish, which is not a good thing for Helmet. Gone are the snarling, heavier than Ununoctium guitar riffs for the most part - still a few Page Hamilton special style guitar solos, which are always sick, but as for the rest of the music on here, well, I dunno, it sounds a bit forced, lifeless and it's all over the place, with songs sounding like different eras of the band - the Betty era, the Aftertaste era, the Size Matters era, and the Monochrome era. A few of those eras were not very good for the band, to say the least, and I think that's what's keeping me from getting too much into this album. It's not focused and razor sharp. It's not pulverizing. It's not Helmet. I know they'll never be as God like as they were on Meantime, or as angry as they were on Strap It On, but to see them chasing after others instead of leading the pack is a bit of a bummer. Is having a radio friendly hit song that important? Guess so. There's a couple of OK songs on here, like White City, or In Person, but everything else is definitely 'iffy' if not just outright sucking. A Beatles cover? Really? Oh Bee Arf!! That thing is fucking embarrassing! LOL The only thing redeemable about this release is that it comes with a bonus CD with a live set recorded at Warped Tour a few years back. It's pretty sick and just a reminder of how far Helmet has strayed from what makes them good. Oh well. Better luck next time guys. |
Face To Face - Laugh Now, Laugh Later
Antagonist Records Well, it's better than what I thought it was going to be... heh heh. Face To Face comeback from a little self imposed 9 year break to bring us a batch of some newly minted tuneage that's got that 1990's So. Cal skateboard sound down to a 'T'. Sugar sweet words of Love, Cynicism and Apathy abound, along with the almost obligatory shout out backup vocals and well recorded musical instruments. All the essential elements are here, and it doesn't sound that much different than anything else the band has done beforehand, but I dunno. I just don't get it. It's not rocking enough for me to lose my shit over this release, and it's not written well enough to get all spazzmo about it either. It just kind of sits in the middle, bland, banal and not really standing above the dozens of other bands all doing the same thing as them. Checkout songs like What You Came For, Should Anything Go Wrong and Blood In The Water to see what I'm talking about. Good songs, but not great songs. People love this band, I don't. Face To Face can play, they can sing, they do the whole band thing well, but I just don't get it, but that doesn't mean you won't. If you're a fan of that ol' Pop Punk thing, then you might like what Face To Face are all about. Check this CD out and see if it's your cup of tea. Cover art is by some guy who's a big deal on some T.V. tattoo reality show or something. Pretty great work, but I don't know what it's doing on this release. Looks like it should be on an Excel CD... heh heh |
Jello Biafra And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine - Enhanced Methods Of Questioning
Alternative Tentacles Gawd damn do I love Senor Jello. I really do. The man could sing the phone book and I'd praise it, even if it sucked. Thank Gawd I don't have to do that with this EP though, because it's really, really good. Jello just gets preachier and more cantankerous with age, and on this release he's ranting and carrying on about San Francisco Yuppies, War, Cancer (I think) and Viagra, with a crack group of musicians behind him just powering through some intricate, powerful and LOUD ass songs that are always rocking and never boring. Calling themselves the Guantanamo School Of Medicine, they're part Beefheart, part Zappa and part hyperactive child with a meth addiction. The music soars and stops and turns on a dime, mixing equal parts Supersuckers stomp and swagger with Nomeansno like musical intricacy. Hell, that Invasion Of The Mind Snatchers song is totally built on the Santa Rita High riff. Totally. But even that little faux pas doesn't deter me one little iota to the goodness of this release. It's only 5 songs, but it's about 45 minutes of music. Yeah, I know that averaging out a 9 minute song range is something bands like Jethro Tull or the Moody Blues do, but Jello Biafra And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine can do it easily without making things boring. Well, except for that last song. 18 minutes of listening to Jello yell about how cool he is and how hes been into music since he was 7 and how he's better than all the rest of us, well, that I could of done without. LOL But still, this is a pretty rocking record, and I'm impressed that Jello still carries the vitriol around by the gallons to spew forth whenever he sees fit. Good stuff. |
Youth Gone Mad - Numbers
Self Released A new Youth Gone Mad release? What a shock! hahaha Not really, since I kind of knew about it but it's still quite a shock to think that I'd be reviewing a 2011 release from this long running group of bi-coastal musicians, but here it is. Ain't Life Grand? The songwriting Heart and Soul of the band, Ena and Tammi, have gotten back together with some drummer named Bob to craft 9 new songs of soulful pop punk ear candy goodness and I, for one, couldn't be happier. This is some good stuff. Long gone are the days of short angry blasts of noise made by barely competent musicians, because Youth Gone Mad 2011 are a little bit older, definitely a little bit wiser, and now cranking out their well written, catchy as all gets music for the masses in a much more accessible package. Same subversion though. ;-) Ena plays the stringed instruments, Tammy writes and sings the words, and Bob plays the drums. Sounds like a pretty good formula to me. Unfortunately, the best song on here is a Depeche Mode cover (Enjoy The Silence), but other songs like You Ain't Gonna Make Me, Monster and I'm So Plain are just as good, but damn, that Depeche Mode song is a killer. It's fucking haunting, and sticks in my head for days after I hear it. Listen for yourself and see. The CD can be downloaded @ the following link: youthgonemad.bandcamp.com or you can get it from the band at one of their upcoming shows. Yeah, Youth Gone Mad is gigging around again. How great is that? They're back and kicking things up again. Good for them! |
The Dwarves - The Dwarves Are Born Again
MVD Visuals Let's get high and fuck some sluts! -- now you know any album that starts with those words is gonna be A-OK in my book! 4-F Club for Life motherfuckers! hahaha Oh yes, those zany Provocateurs of Punk the Dwarves are back and in fine fighting form on this, what is probably their 5 millionth release ever. Playing just as vicious as they ever have, and still retaining their twisted pop sensibility, the Dwarves manage to sound familiar, yet never dated or tired. New elements are introduced, like electronic sounds, odd timed musical directions, samples, bombastic vocals, whatever, and they fit in seamlessly with what the band is stomping out musically. Nice to see that they still use voice mail recordings to segue way into one song from another... A No Cunnilingus Note? heh heh Everybody and their Mom who has ever played in the Dwarves shows up on this recording, but I'm not sure why. Same with the Special Guests that appear on here. Dexter Holland! Josh Freese! OooOOoooooOoo... Suck It! and Fuck Off! Some of the more outstanding tracks on here are We Only Came To Get High, Stop Me, Do The HeWhoCantBeNamed and The Band That Would Not Die. This shit comes with a free DVD of some Dwarves 25th anniversary shit, and is an essential viewing must. It's chock full of video goodness, covering the band in all their glorious eras; live stuff, interviews, promo videos, all from their ugly beginnings all the way up to their sexy happenings now. It's worth watching just to see how many times the Dwarves get into fights while on stage! LOL Still as Vicious, just as Sexist as ever, still as Angry and still just as damn good as they've ever been, the Dwarves come back to Intimidate and Inundate all you non-believers out there with their musical message of depravity and debauchery. Seek this CD out at any cost. You'll thank me for it later. |
Agnostic Front - My Life My Way
Nuclear Blast America Gawd damn I love these guys. If it wasn't for their bonehead 'Haaaawdcaaaawh' dooshbag following, I would see them live more often, especially when they release an outstanding CD such as this one. This shit is just fucking BROOOOO-TAAALLL, full of razor sharp, rapid fire guitar riffs, start-stop breakdowns, gang shouted back up vocals, fast and furious drum attacks and Roger Miret's 'I gotta take a shit' style of singing. Time has not diminished in any way the ferocity of Agnostic Front, and with songs like That's Life, Us Against The World and Self Pride, well, you can see why these guys are worshiped as the Legends that they truly are. Could of done without that A Mi Manera song though. Something about hearing Roger singing in Spanish is just a bit unsettling and plastique to listen to... heh heh It's good to hear the band not emulating the bands they influenced like Hatebreed, In Flames or Sick Of It All, which was something of a deterrent for me to liking their last few releases, and although this new CD is in no way, shape or form anything close to the epicness of Victim In Pain, it's good to see Agnostic Front making a turn in the right direction and getting back to their true roots, and that is being Leaders and not Followers of a Scene and Genre that they had a HUGE part in helping build up. Gawd damn this CD sounds good. It's well recorded and sounds great LOUD, which is how Agnostic Front is supposed to be listened to... heh heh Crucial release |
Social Distortion - Hard Times And Nursery Rhymes
Epitaph Records hahahaha Gawd this is horrible. What happened to these guys? I'm not even talking about the whole 'Sell Out' aspect, or the 'Used to be Punk' facet of them either, because I like some latter day SD stuff, but this crap? Phooey! Starting off with a weak as fuck instrumental called Road Zombie, the albums quick descent into banality is increased step by step with a batch of songs built around guitar riffs who's original point of origin Mr. Ness doesn't even bother to hide like he used to way back when. Stones, Eagles, Allman Brothers Band, they're all here. 70's garbage that old fucks can now come forth and acknowledge that they like without being ridiculed or sounding ironic. Yuck. The fact that people still get hyped on a new Social Distortion release just makes me wanna puke. Mike's pedantic nursery rhyme lyrics are almost embarrassing at this point, and the addition of pretty female back up singers and excellent production work can't polish this turd into anything remotely resembling anything good. I've fast forwarded through every song on here like 5 times already, looking for something, ANYTHING, redeemable to say about this release, and I just can't. There's just nothing here. It sucks. That's all I can say about this. Oh, and it's sad too. It sucks and it's sad. Perfect summation of this shitty release. |
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Vagrant Records I think anybody that knows me understands how much I truly love this woman. The word 'Genius' does her no Justice at all, and this release just verifies that fact even more so. Opening up with the title track of the album, Let England Shake is a catchy song built on a sample of Istanbul (Not Constantinople), flavored with bombastic drum charges and incessant harpsichord strumming, all going on while PJ Harvey is just wailing about gawd knows what but it doesn't matter because it sounds good. Really terrific. The rest of the album just ebbs and flows, never boring, and I'm guessing this is some sort of Protest record maybe, as songs like The Glorious Land, Battleship Hill, Bitter Branches and The Words That Maketh Murder are littered with numerous references to War and to England's part as both Instigator and Shelter in the whole play that is War, and the aftereffects that come from it all. Just fascinating stuff lyrically that leaves more questions than answers, but at least it makes you Think, ya know? Look - I know this album isn't for everybody, and there are some songs on here that are better than others (of course), and if you're waiting for 90's Riot Grrl PJ Harvey to come back, forget it. Let England Shake is a beautiful, melodic, soulful release from someone who truly deserves the title 'Artist', because that's exactly what she is. |
Dead Neon - Self Titled
Self Released Holy fucking dog shit! Dead Neon?? Where the Hell did this come from? And Local grown too?? Wowsers. This is some mind blowing shit. Sludgy as fuck, Punk Stoner Metal cooked up in the desert heat and siphoned into a dirty hypodermic needle and shot straight into your eyeballs gloom tunes to kill yourself by. This is some serious heavy shit here. After a super creepy opening diatribe about going back to somewhere after the nuclear destruction is over, the next song, Downwinder, launches into a terrific kick in the nuts song of ass shaking, face pummeling monstrosity. The singer is carrying on about gawd knows what, sounding like one of the many bastard offspring of Cronos, howling in pain and anguish through some pretty effects heavy microphone, shouting out words like 'radiation', 'fear', 'burning', 'destruction'. The Vokills are growled and screamed on top of some loud as fuck, feedback laden distorted guitar wails and squeals and the sound of boiling mud bass tones, slithering and climbing and racing downhill, prodded and accelerated but the simplistic, hard hitting tribal drum beats, sounding like what I imagine a landslide sounds like from the inside of it. Or maybe like a volcano boiling and exploding in a slow burn, I dunno. I'm reaching for a metaphor here that will put into words just how fucking powerful this Dead Neon release is, and I'm failing miserably. This is some fantastic shit. Listen to songs like Black Ash, Irradiated Heart, Cratered and Doom Town to see what the fuck I'm blabbering on about. The band put this out themselves, and you can go to deadneon.com to listen to it, buy it, download it, whatever you want, and I suggest that you do, because this is seriously some impressive music right here. If this is how the apocalypse is going to be in Las Vegas, then I for one can't wait for it to happen! Dead Neon. True Heavy Music. Amazing. |
Cobra Skulls - Bringing The War Home EP
Fat Wreck Chords The Cobra Skulls are one of those bands that I just don't get. It's not that they suck, per se, it's just that they don't Rock. They're a bit too Hillbilly for me, but they do have a few good songs in their repertoire, and I've never really seen them play a bad show, and I'm all about their Anti-Authority rants and raves but, I dunno. They're kind of a band that I enjoy more live than recorded, if that makes any sense. That last album of theirs was a stinker, little too slow and Rockasilly for me, but this ones a little better, although the songs on here sound a bit forced, like purposely trying to sound like something off of Sitting Army, but that could just be me. I dunno. Doomsday Parade, the first song off this 5 song EP, is probably the best song on here, the rest sound like filler and that Bad Religion cover was terrible. Gay and Terrible. In short doses, the Cobra Skulls are OK. It's more of a background music thing to me, but you should check them out, because lots of people think these guys are good, and I'm probably way wrong in my assessment of them... LOL. For fans of Against Me! or Rise Against. The Cobra Skulls are just as good as those guys, but I'll leave it to you to decide if that's a good thing or not. |
Moon Women - Live At WXPN EP
Self Released Somewhere in his transition between Las Vegas and Philadelphia, Pitt developed an ear for the Jesus And Mary Chain, Gang Of Four, Echo & The Bunnymen and the Velvet Underground, and once he settled down there in Love City he started this group Moon Women to play out his public love affair with effects laden guitar noises and creepy, moody music, and he's doing a pretty damn good job with it! LOL Bare, minimalistic songs with noisy rhythms that get sprayed around in random patterns and context intermixed with layers of spastic sounds of desperation all coming together to sound very unsettling and haunting. Hearing Pitt actually singing into a microphone as opposed to screaming into one takes a bit of getting used to, but other than that, this 3 song EP is a great release, capturing the band playing live on some College radio station and just letting things fly. An excellent release that you can get by going to moonwomen.bandcamp.com and looking for the Live At WXPN link to the right of the page. Check it out and get into some excellent Post, Post Post Punk Rock that will not settle to just be background noise. |
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