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CD Review, Entertainment, Music

CD Review: Clinging to a Scheme [2010]

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Band: The Radio Dept.
Release: 4/2010
Label: Labrador Records

1. “Domestic Scene” – B+
2. “Heaven’s On Fire” – B
3. “This Time Around” – B
4. “Never Follow Suit” – B+
5. “A Token Of Gratitude” – A-
6. “The Video Dept” – A
7. “Memory Loss” – A-
8. “David” – B+
9. “Four Months In The Shade” – B+
10. “You Stopped Making Sense” – A-

Comments: European band makes noise pop shoe-gaze music. It’s been done many times over. There’s the average, the good, and the great. I haven’t listened to many a particularly boring band of this style. I do hold bands that try these tricks and gimmicks to higher standards than bands with other sounds. I’ve found myself falling into the typical trap of overrating dreamy songs. Take “Never Follow Suit.” It sounds like a rip-off of Beach House, but with male vocals. I really love Beach House, but Beach House sound-a-likes? I ought to use some caution before dishing out an A. A rated songs should be at least a little memorable. I took a little break from this album and opened up what I thought was Radio Dept, but it was actually the Spaceshits and I thought to myself ‘dayum Radio Dept. really improved.” No, no, I’ll give this album the benefit of the doubt. The quality is shit, but then again that can be explained in two ways: A) this is a low quality two-months-before-official-release-date rip OR B) this is what noise sounds like. I’m going to go with B. At any rate, it’s hard to explicitly hate on this. It’s been done before and doesn’t really fresh. Yet, it’s pretty listenable. By most people’s count, I gave this album an awesome rating. It’s okay.

Grade: B+ (88)

Entertainment, humor, Music, pictures, Random, Video

Weirdest Dream Ever!

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Ok, so randomly, I’m at the Wakefield Bowladrome and I see some sexy hunny from High School, as she’s placing her bowling shoes on her cute feet. I ask her general questions, like “how’s school going?” and blah blah blah. For some strange reason, I’m not there to bowl, but to attend a concert?! I know wtf?! The arcade, vending machine section was all knocked down and instead there’s just a blank space for bands to play shows. As it turns out, this isn’t just any old concert, but it’s none other than America’s worst nightmare, himself…. G.G. Allin! So, a few friends (I don’t even know who) and I are in the front and the Murder Junkies are all ready to go, minus jeje, and some diehard, frightening fans are surrounding us and are going nuts! The place is packed and the “kill myself for you GG!” creeps are chanting what’s left of their lungs out for their messiah. He arrives and all hell breaks loose. Immediately, he smashes one of his follower’s in the face with the mic, there’s blood gushing everywhere. Moshing like crazy, I’m thrown from one side of the room to the other. My comrades and I are thinking, let’s get the fuck outta here! But, then again we don’t want to look like pussies! Shit. Amidst the mayhem, my lip is busted open, but not too too bad. GG starts getting pissed, for one reason or another and he heaves a bowling ball at the crowd. Fortunately, in his, drunken, sprung out on heroin state, he has awful aim and completely misses anyone. As he is, undressing himself, the Cops show up and arrest him.

That was my dream. We probably wouldn’t survive a real G.G. show haha.

Chris

Art, CD Review, Entertainment, Femmes, Music, pictures, reviews, Video

Classic Album Review: Misbehavin

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Artist: Spaceshits
Full Title: Misbehavin’
Year: 1998
Label: Sympathy For the Record Industry
Grade: A/A-
Tracks:

1) Can’t Fool With Me– 9
2) We Know Where the Girls Are– 9
3) C’mon Let’s Suicide- 8
4) Won’t Bring You Back- 8
5) I’m In Love– 9
6) Jungle Beauty- 8
7) Turn Off the Radio– 9
8) Piss On Your Grave– 9
9) She’s A Bad Luck Charm- 8
10) 60 Nights Of Boredom- 8
11) Creepy Says- 8
12) Kill Me- 8
13) Tell Me Your Name– 10 Saved the Best for Last!

Comments: Before the Shrines, before the King Khan & BBQ Show, hell before the names King Khan and BBQ meant anything to the music world, there was the notorious Spaceshits! I know some of y’all are familiar with their name because they were “crazy” and constantly blacklisted, which is true, but unlike most performers that rely on childish antics like food fights, the shits had the music to back it up, they had their shit together! Misbehavin’ opens with “Can’t Fool With Me,” a fast, catchy, Rock and Roll number, pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the record. Mark “Creepy” Sultan lol primarily takes care of the vocal duties and he demonstrates some of his best screaming, shouting, and straight up singing on this album. The soulful, delicate, “Into the Snow” like vocals are nowhere to be seen. The fun continues with the second track, “We Know Where the Girls Are,” a tune that must have got the Canadian, garage rock, femme enthusiasts racing to the dancefloor! Most of the songs are about the hunnies and rockin and dancing and what not, you know the good stuff, Chuck Berry style, but ocassionally you witness some fucked up, but hilarious themes relating to death, as seen in “C’mon Let’s Suicide,” “Kill Me,” and “Piss On Your Grave,” which has now become my new favorite insult. The LP closes on it’s highest note with “Tell Me Your Name,” a track not as fast or as loud as the previous rockers, but still heavy and tremendously danceable. All in all, this is one of the best Rock records you can find, it’s everything great Rock and Roll should offer. Essentially, we have sped up versions of 50s-60s Rock and Roll, definitely not the most original artistic expression out there, but certainly the funnest!

Chris

Drugs, Music, Quotes

“Jay Reatard Murdered Jimmy Lindsey”

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Take a look at this article by Anders Thode, a member of the Cola Freaks and also a member of the last Jay Reatard band.

When Jacob and I were asked to join Jay on what would become his last major tour we were a little concerned about what would happen. Though Cola Freaks had landed an opening slot on one of his previous tours, we had only spoken to him briefly and we didn’t really feel like we knew him that well. We had read a lot of nonsense in the music press about him being a bad ass drunk meanie with nothing good to offer to anyone. But that was only half the truth. When he came to Aarhus to rehearse before the tour he was the nicest guy we had ever met. We were so relieved since we were about to spend almost two months with him in a van driving across Europe and a large part of the USA. As the tour dragged on we got pretty close and naturally opened up to each other. And gosh! It turned out that under the surface the rock ‘n’ roll monster was a decent guy with a lot of empathy. Though he was a fun guy to be around (for instance when he played stoned and completely retarded answering machine messages he had received from Phil Anselmo, to the rest of the van) he also seemed a little bitter. It seemed like he had painted himself up in a corner. He was trapped in the role as the bad ass rock ‘n’ roller and he didn’t like it too much. He wanted to be more Jimmy and less Jay. It was as though he knew the lifestyle he was leading would eventually end up killing him and he was fucking scared of it. He tried to resist but sadly he didn’t try hard enough and Jay Reatard murdered Jimmy Lindsey with a cocaine overdose and the rest is history.

Click this sentence to read the full article.

CD Review, Entertainment, Music

CD Review: Our Inventions [2010]

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Band: Lali Puna
Release: 4/2010
Label: Morr Music

1. “Rest Your Head” – C+
2. “Remember ?” – C+
3. “Everything is Always” – C–
4. “Our Inventions” – B-
5. “Move On” – B-
6. “Safe Tomorrow” – B-
7. “Future Tense” – B-
8. “Hostile To Me” – C
9. “That Day” – B+
10. “Out There” – A-

Comments: I had a little electronic craze back when I was a youngster. I was into the Postal Service, Dntel, and Figurine. I also was really into Lali Puna’s “Faking the Books” (the song, not the entire album). It’s been about five years since that time and I’ve pretty much moved on from the genre, but every now and then I’ll give some electronic a shot. I like a lot of the tracks on here, but they aren’t memorable. Some of the sounds are interesting like those on “Future Tense” that really do personify the future. Generally though, the less electronic, the better. The songs that have a vocal focus are cooler than the instrumental driven ones. Check this out if you like Lali Puna or electronic/spacey music in general. Otherwise, take a pass.

Grade: B- (80)

concert review, Entertainment, Music

Concert Review: Editors

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Bands: The Dig, The Antlers, Editors
Venue: House of Blues Boston
Date: February 18, 2009

Act One – The Dig – Love this band, man. When I saw them twice back in September, they rocked. The bassist/singer again stood out as an absolutely slick musician, keeping a great rhythm to compliment his singing. The amplification at the House of Blues really did push the pulse over the limit and, in fact, made all the instruments sound louder and more impacting than at the Middle East. “Penitentiary” and closer “Just Wanna Talk To You” stuck out to me as the two best songs from the band’s 30 minute set. The audience took notice of the band’s genius, as I heard a few people next to me comment on how good they were.

Act Two – The Antlers – Okay, so the Antlers. I’d say they were a good fit for pre-Editors opening band. As opposed to Hot Hot Heat, the band that performed before Editors in 2008, the Antlers relied on epicness. Keyboards, guitar, no bass, and loud ass drums. Most songs started out sort of slow, but by the end the band was in a full out jam and things really came together. The singer’s voice is powerful and as one kid said “angelic,” so definitely I got to say I didn’t mind them at all. Would I listen to them again? Probably not. They are probably great on record, too, considering bitchfuck and friends gave their last album a really high rating.

Act Three – Editors – This band has been a consistent favorite of mine for the past couple of years. Their live performance on this night definitely proved why. The light show is fantastic as always and as expected. That’s nice and all, but at the end of the day all four members gave it their all and gave the audience a great time. Classics like “Blood,” “Munich,” “Bones,” “Racing Rats,” “Escaping the Nest,” and “Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors” simply got the audience into a frenzy as did new tunes like “Papillon” and “Raw Meat = Blood Drool.” In fact, the entire set didn’t really have a disappointment in it. Tom smoothly and effortlessly moved from synths to guitar to piano. It’d be a disservice not to mention his stage antics. He loves his mics, that’s for sure. Chris played a mean lead guitar as the guy next to me consistently noted. By the way, you don’t need to remind the dude that he has synesthesia by shouting “colors” after every song and demanding multiple picks. Russell’s a fun guy. The band added in several quirks that really pushed the limits on what I thought they could do live. I really realized how much fun I had watching Editors during the encore. I started to really miss what I had just listened to. That usually means I had a great time.

Set List
In This Light And On This Evening
Lights
An End Has A Start
You Don’t Know Love
Bullets
The Boxer
The Big Exit
Blood
Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool
The Racing Rats
Escape The Nest
Like Treasure
Bones
Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors
Bricks And Mortar

—-ENCORE—-

Walk The Fleet Road
Munich
Papillon
Fingers In The Factories

Note: Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to see the kiddie masses listening to good music. It’s kind of messed up to see them outnumber every other age group. I was once a kiddie who saw Editors so I can’t hate, but that was at a sit down venue. I don’t mind it; it’s sort of shocking since I’m used to being the youngest at most shows, 18+.

Grade: A – Definitely a Top 10 show.

CD Review, Entertainment, Music

Classic CD Review: Raw Romance

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Band: Nobunny
Release: 2009
Label: Burger Records

1. “Your Mouth” – B-
2. “Oh Cody” – B
3. “Mask’s On” – A-
4. “Monster Kiss” – B
5. “Apple Tree” – B+
6. “Hippy Witch” – B
7. “I Am A Girlfriend” – B+
8. “It’ll All Come Back” – B
9. “Tonight You Belong” – B-
10. “Mess Me Up” – A
11. “The Gutter” – A-
12. “Vicious Circle” – B+

Comments: Nobunny loves you! This piece of music was released on cassette, which is just about as outdated as Nobunny. Unlike Love Visions, Raw Romance is chalk full of slow and modest twee pop. You won’t have much luck finding something as energetic as “Chuck Berry Holiday” on this cassette. If you just want to chill in your chair and intake psilocybin mushrooms or the like then go for this thing. If you want to go up, down, north, south, east, or west then you’ll definitely prefer Love Visions. The sound quality on Raw exceeds Love, which is something I certainly didn’t expect. It’s funny hearing an extremely lo-fi demo version of “I Am A Girlfriend,” my favorite Nobunny song this side of “Chuck.” The demo of “Mess Me Up” is mad good. Funny Johnny Cash impersonation on “The Gutter.”

Grade: B (86)

CD Review, Entertainment, Music

CD Review: Big Echo

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Band: The Morning Benders
Release: 3/2010
Label: Rough Trade

1. “Excuses” – B+
2. “Promises” – B+
3. “Wet Cement” – B-
4. “Cold War” – B
5. “Pleasure Sighs” – B
6. “Hand Me Downs” – B-
7. “Mason Jar” – C
8. “All Day Day Light” – B
9. “Stitches” – A-
10. “Sleepin’ In” – B

Comments: Let’s get some shit straight: bands from California are pretty fun. I’ve said it a bunch of times, but it’s refreshing for a kid in Boston to hear some warm weather music. Don’t get me wrong though, The Morning Benders put together just an okay record. My favorite is “Stitches” so try checking that one out.

Grade: B- (83)