Honeymoon Suite ~ Racing After Midnight (album review) ... Bad ass Vinnie Vincent meets Deep Purple guitarist!

Style: hard rock, glam metal
Label: Warner Bros
Year: 1988
Home: Ontario, Canada
 
Members: Johnnie Dee ~ lead vocals
Dermot "Derry" Grehan ~ guitars/b. vocals
Dave Betts ~ drums
Gary Lalonde ~ bass
Rob Preuss ~ keyboards

Additional: Michael McDonald ~ b. vocals
Ted Templeman, Bobby LaKind ~ percussion

By the book '80's rock with a slight bluesy edge. I'd like to hear more of the bluesy edge. Actually, I'd like to just hear more personality, blues or whatever. The singer does break the '80's stereotype with a baritone & not a screaming tenor. Though, he sings a bit uninspired. I don't know if that's because a producer didn't push him emotionally, as singing is as much about expressing feeling as saying words, or maybe the lyrics didn't inspire him, or maybe he wasn't confident.  He's a good singer but sounds lost, like if this wasn't so over-stuffed & lacking any breathing room maybe he'd be better off. Which leads me to the one thing about this album I completely recommend hearing: the guitarist, Dermot "Derry" Grehan! For him alone you need to slog through this album. Wild, in your face, & messy in a Vinnie Vincent meets Deep Purple way that is madness in six strings. He is so good that I'd be interested in hearing his other bands the Dexrays & LoveJunk. Check out "Love Fever" with a funky R&B-esque guitar rhythm, soaring leads, & an equally funky synthesizer. It's a highlight of the album & has more personality than the other tracks combined. Which makes me wonder what the producer was thinking? If you have such a strong track, why not make more in its mold, versus just an album of bland imitative filler? "Love Fever" sounds nothing like any '80's band, yet the rest of the album dies a fast death due to the fact other bands have done this same sound with soundalike songs far far better. What's worse is how the producer decided to make the keyboards the focus on multiple songs, pushing the guitars away, to create some made-for-the-charts-but-not-much-else power ballads. Though, I do appreciate hearing keyboards higher in the mix overall, as rock keyboardists are unsung heroes, yet Honeymoon Suite has a guitarist who need not to be drowned under bad songwriting & music that isn't half as wild as his worst solo. Why do wet noodle ballad powers when you have a Vinnie Vincent in your ranks? That's like making Steve Howe the lead singer of Yes with Jon Anderson doing backing vocals, simply because there's others famous singing guitarists. What are you thinking? Formed in 1981 with their album debut coming in 1984, Honeymoon Suite had hits in both America & Canada largely buoyed by being featured on the TV show Miami Vice & in the movies Lethal Weapon, The Wraith with Charlie Sheen, & One Crazy Summer with John Cusak. This album was produced by Van Halen's producer Ted Templeman, but it was the first not to make waves in America. Likely because it sounds so much like so many other bands, but without the oompf outside of the guitars! This might be just over 30 minutes long, but its so lacklaster that its a slog. No wonder Grehan isn't more famous, as not everyone will have the patience to get through this. Not to mention "Love Fever" comes halfway in. I sometimes wonder what bands like this would have sounded like if they hadn't tried so hard to sound like a band that desperately wanted to sound like all the commercially successful bands, bands by the way who are successful as they have some personality or put forward what makes them unique. Hint hint. The band continues to this day, with their latest single coming in 2019, though with numerous line-up changes & no further U.S. impact.

RandyxLahey ~ Wasted Years (EP) (album review) ... A shitty short album of the not-Trailer Park Boys!

Style: grindcore, powerviolence, extreme metal
Label: self-released
Year: 2020
Home: Ontario, Canada

Members: n/a 

 

 

Albums like this make me laugh, because they are beyond absurd. Myself & everyone else likely spotted this band due to their name being a reference to partners Randy & Mr. Lahey on the great TV show Trailer Park Boys. I used to watch that show & loved it so much. I even saw Randy, Mr. Lahey & the boys twice in concert, with my belated girlfriend who introduced me to the show. The facebook page of the band describes this band as "drunk as fuck trailer park supervisor screaming about a bunch of stupid shit". There's nothing here lyrically that would paint this as ravings of a drunk trailer park supervisor, so that's bullshit P.R.. If the musicians themselves are drunk, only they know. As for screaming about a bunch of stupid shit? That's accurate. Screaming about stupid shit is the lyrical content of this album in a nutshell. Not creative TV related shit, but just shit. Their demo album actually has the word "shit" in every song title, which is Mr. Lahey-like, but that theme is dropped here. As for the music itself, its just pounding double bass & overly distorted guitars bursting through likely 3 chord songs underneath the screaming. There's very little variation among any of the songs. I can imagine the singer was hoarse after recording this, as there's no attempt to sing, just scream. As for what he sings? I'm not sure most of the time, as most of the songs are just a few couplets of rather unimaginative phrases. Think in terms of "School" by Nirvana with its handful of words. Its that level of lyric writing, which means absurd lyrics. As for the music its pure anger & energy with minimal creativity, honestly. Its metal at its most absurd & many would say unmusical, but I refuse to go that far. Many bands take this route though, but there is one more thing that makes this absolutely absurd beyond the norm. Wasted Years is the shortest full length album I've ever heard, for this blog or anywhere. The entire album is a total of 3 minutes  19 seconds. Its not an EP, nor 7", but a full length 10 song album. Yes, 10 songs in 3:19. The opener "Dressed All Over" lasts a whole 32 seconds, while "Shitnami Tidal Waves" clocks in at 7 seconds. My big question. If the band is asked to play a gig & told they get 20 minutes, do they say they don't have enough material or write another - if I've done my math right - 17 minutes worth of songs .... which would be 5 more albums worth of 50 songs? There's a joke here. Make up your own punch line. You can find this & the rest of their catalog on bandcamp.

Oriflamme ~ L'egide Ardente (album review) ... Vive le Canadian Death Metal Revolution!

Style: black metal, death metal, drone metal
Label: Sepulchral ProductionsYear: 2021
Home: Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Members: Verbouc ~ vocals/bass/keyboards
Mrtyu ~ guitars
Mortheos ~ drums

Oriflamme's debut is a brutal 45 minutes of pure death metal that will melt your face, but also grab your ears with interest. Extreme pounding double bass, riffing-like-your-life-depends-on-it guitar parts a la Cradle of Filth, a thick wall of sound & growled guttural vocals, though to their credit not undecipherable screams. All the pieces are here you'd expect from this style of music. Though, in French, with only one English title in "Sacrifices!". I don't speak French, nor do I have a translation of the lyrics or take the time to translate titles like "Ultime rempart", "Une nuite sans fin", "Un mal ancien", but I figure lyrically this is playing ball with all the same pieces that slab of metal like this usually has in play. Yet, there is one thing that pulls this album apart from other albums in this genre. No, it is not the French, as that's only unique from my English south of the border perspective, but I listen to lots of non-English music & lived abroad for many years. The interesting part is how they keep the growling vocals to a minimum to move to the focus on the music, which morphs slowly & unpredictably. This is where your ears are going to take interest. At times its raging black metal, but other times its drone meets sludge metal. One guitar line will be blasting away, while underneath it some instrument is taking up an almost unnoticed counter rhythm, while the parts eventually transform into something else before you've realized it. I'm reminded of Terry Riley, John Cage, John Adams & Phillip Glass if they should happen to play power chords on over-driven guitars. "Un Mal Ancien", a highlight of the album, is a good example of this where the guitar riffs away while underneath the bass creates this low droning rumble that comes & goes, before the whole thing settles on a groove different than where it started. Its a fascinating bit I confess I didn't hear on initial listen, as I found myself distracted while listening. So, let your ears listen to this band, don't just put them in the background.

Neil Young ~ Are You Passionate? (album review) ... But, is Neil Young passionate?

Style: soul, funk, classic rock, Canadian, folk-rock
Label: Reprise
Year: 2002
Home: n/a

Members: Neil Young ~ guitar/piano/vocals
Booker T. Jones ~ organ/vibes/b. vocals
Donald Duck Dunn ~ bass/b. vocals
Steve Potts ~ drums/bongos/tambourine
Frank Sampedro ~ guitar/b. vocals

Additional: Tom Bray ~ trumpet
Pegi Young, Astrid Young ~ b. vocals
Billy Talbot ~ bass
Ralph Molina ~ drums/b. vocals

For some reason the title of this album fills me with more worry than not. It's beside the fact it doesn't rate on the list of oft mentioned NY albums, as NY is indeed passionate in his music, though via his unique socially minded, sometimes spiritual & sometimes drug influenced lens. He is passionate by not being deliberately gushy love song passionate, so to let us know what he's feeling right with the title puts me on guard with worry. "You're My Girl" opens the album with a 1960's Motown/Stax guitar backbeat that rhythmically goes nowhere with all the melodic movement in the organ & bass line & is NY in an experimental moment that's a bit discerning. Yet for another album he's trying for something incredibly far from his comfort zone on so many levels & as has happened before & since the good results are few though the idea looks good on paper. You can't fault NY for always trying & not caring about his career with far more musical experiments that most bands attempt to the point of being more unpredictable than Madonna or Bob Dylan. "You're My Girl" is a nice filler song, but the fact that the rest of the album continues in the same musical vein & all songs basically end up sounding like this opener makes the anti-climactic factor & overall disappointment high. This is NY doing 1960's R&B/funk with very little to make it his own. His jagged guitar solos that go on endlessly are gone replaced by quasi-melodic tame little glimmers. Comparing this album to his later work with Pearl Jam NY doesn't even sound like he's having fun or feeling particularly creative beyond just wanting to share with his listeners his wonderment with classic funk rock, a genre far from his own folk rock roots. While any lyrical wonders, which is usually where NY can make-up for any bad musical choices, are completely lost in an arching melodramatic mood of too much passion for one album. NY has soul, but when he tries to play soul, even with a top notched band that are experts & pioneers in the genre, it's a strange sell that is too tame for its own good. The only thing that makes this album distinct is the fact of who that top notched band is. Co-producing with NY is part of the legendary Stax house band in famed organist Booker T. Jones & bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn, also known as Booker T. & The MG's & who were both featured in the Blues Brothers films as the house backing band & with the Motown crew in Chicago created the funk/soul sound. Drummer Steve Potts has been a member of the reunited band since 2002. For two funk musicians that decades earlier were trendsetters here they've played this style so much they can do it in their sleep & that's what it sounds like. Nobody is driving anybody anywhere overly creative, only overly old hat & passionately maudlin. This is sad as NY had been engaging Jones & Dunn as his backing band while touring throughout the previous decade, but there's not much interplay here to make that evident. Perhaps doing other songs from NY's catalog the trio grooves, but here the songwriting provides little creative space. It would be more interesting to hear a typical NY folk album with this line-up, instead of a one & only NY soul/funk album. But, when you play with the legendary Booker T. & The MG's who doesn't want to play soul? You kinda can't blame NY for trying.

Rush ~ Snakes & Arrows (album review) ... This will give you a rush!

Style: prog rock, classic rock
Label: Atlantic
Year: 2007
Home: Canada

Members: Neil Peart ~ drums/percussion
Geddy Lee ~ bass/mellotron/vocals
Alex Lifeson ~ guitar/bouzouki/mandola/mandolin

Additional: Ben Mink ~ strings


For anyone that thinks Rush is just a leftover band from the 70's, not just do these people not know their music history, but they also haven't heard this album from 2007. It may not be the first Rush albums folks talk about, but for a later era release this is a must own ... & I say this as someone who enjoys Rush but isn't a fan & doesn't listen to them a lot. It doesn't have any radio hits, those days are long gone, while some may say if you've heard one Rush song you've heard them all as outside flirting with keyboards in the 80's Rush has never varied its sound too much nor had the change in membership that causes a band to change in such way. So, if you like what you've heard from Rush this won't be too much of a surprise, yet while the classic hits every knows are indeed classic in their feeling there is nothing musically nostalgic here nor sounding out of date. It feels like Rush, it's got all the trademark Rush quirks, but sounds not like a band rehashing or tire but as in with the times as any band can be, or any prog rock band can be which is a lot more than one might think as the 3rd generation prog scene is a thriving international one. The guitars grind, distort, solos careen, the bass is heavy & busy. The end result is a prog album of epic proportions that just touches on the prog-metal arena, while being epic without being mind-numbing or over-the-top or unfocused. Drummer Neil Peart's lyrics continue to be what we know them for - heady, full of historical or cultural references & as complex as the music, while he also turns in a lot of heavy drumming that helps give this a harder edge than a lot of classic Rush albums have had. This is a dark album lyrically & the music reflects that. Though, it's heavily overdubbed & the bass sometimes gets lost which is a shame, while chorus's don't always jump out at the listener. It doesn't have the sing-a-long hits like the old days but provides a musical experience that those hits don't have. It's almost amazing that a band like Rush has been able to steadily keep sounding relevant when so many of their peers haven't or tried & failed. Few bands have a career like Rush & hearing this album makes one want to go out & buy a biography of the band. While some old fans might not like the harder edge of this album, which is understandable, it's really hard to find any major flaws here & the band has done much worse. There's a couple weaker tracks, but they do little to deter the power of the album on the whole. This would be their last studio album until 2012, followed by numerous lives albums including a two album set from the Snakes & Arrows tour.

Celine Dion ~ The Colour Of My Love (album review) ... Singing of the power of love!

Style: soft rock, pop rock
Label: Sony
Year: 1993
Home: n/a

Members: Celine Dion ~ lead vocals
Steve Piggot, Claude Gaudette, Simond Frangler, Ren Klyce ~ programming
Gary Cirimelli ~ programming/b. vocals
Walter Afanasieff ~ keyboards/synth bass/programming/synth guitar
Rich Tancredi, David Foster, Russ Desalvo ~ keyboards
Bob Cadway, Tim Renwick, Michael Thompson, Dean Parks, Bob Mann ~ guitars
Peter Zizzo ~ guitar/b. vocals
Andrea Proulx ~ violin
John Pierce ~ bass
Randy Kerber ~ synths
Guy Roche ~ drums/synth
Jimmy Greco, Jimmy Bralower ~ drums
Lenny Castro, Mike Fisher ~ percussion
Jean McClain, Pauline Wilson, Larry Jacobs, Maria Christensen, Claytoven Richardson, Skyler Jett, Pam Sayne, Laquan Carter, Eddie Stockley, Kenny Bobien, Earl Robinson, Jackie Rowe, Kitty Beethovan, Charlie Dore, Jeanie Tracy, Sandy Griffin, Terry Taylor ~ b. vocals

Guest: Aldo Nova ~ guitar
Clive Griffin ~ lead vocals


CD's third English album, back in the days when she had more French albums than English, was her international breakthrough moment. From now on she would be part of the definition of what 'Adult Contemporary' music means. There's a few songwriters whose appearance on an album signals nothing but that a big chart hit, or in some cases a comeback, is desired. Desmond Child is such a name, known for boosting at an important time the careers of Bon Jovi, Aerosmith & Alice Cooper, amongst countless others. While today T-Bone Burnett is the man everyone wants to work with. But, if you don't do hard rock or folk but more soft rock then you turn to songstress Diane Warren whose magic fingers have worked with Michael Bolton, Air Supply, Gloria Estefan, Cher & countless other softer edged crooners. With four songs here from Warren's pen is it safe to assume that CD was looking for increased chart success? There should be no doubt about that. The Warren equation works out to the end. Though, arguably, has CD ever aimed for music that wasn't incredibly slick with all rough corners trimmed, commercially as perfect as one can get, with heavily textured & melodic production & screaming make me successful? No, that's CD's default moniker. Actually, it might be to her detriment as it's hard to pinpoint what exactly makes her music distinct outside of her voice. What is the CD sound? So much of her output is as by the book as it gets, Warren penned & Ric Wake produced, potentially interchangeable songs & sound with any number of other singers. Sometimes I find it hard to imagine listening to this type of super clean keyboard heavy pop on a regular basis ... then I remember I like George Michael. At least with him an acoustic guitar shows up once in awhile. I realize then it's all about whose voice you connect with the most. Do you want something sly & playful like Michael, dance pop like Tiffany, bluesy like Taylor Dayne or Lisa Stansfield or mature like CD? She fits a nice niche in the soft rock spectrum aiming for the crowd that doesn't want any of the other choices. Due to the interchangeable sound of her music none of her albums really rate too high with critics in general & this early release is as good an album to pick up as any, & includes the hits "The Power Of Love" & "When I Fall In Love" featured in the movie Sleepless In Seattle. Personally, I find this album better than later releases because it's while her reputation was still untainted by: time, her husband's gambling, Las Vegas, an overblown career & was still a diva in the making, pre-motherhood, & might say before she wore out her welcome for a lot of the audience & became a bit repetitious musically. Though, while her voice is good, none of the songs really climax or go anywhere & their imitative nature of CD's peers is more obvious than not. While there's a lack of cohesiveness to the album as each track gets a different producer & while the band isn't too extensive & many faces re-appear it's an album done piecemeal, typical for this genre, leaving a cohesive sound out of the picture. My personal favorites are "The Power Of Love", "Misled" I enjoy though it sounds like Taylor Dayne, the pop ballad "Only One Road", "Everybody's Talkin' My Baby Down", "Next Plane Out" ... it's interesting that I would list so many favorites, considering this really isn't my style of music for regular listening ... but then I do like Lisa Stansfield, Dayne, Tiffany, so I shouldn't be surprised I end up liking more than I expect! "Refuse To Dance" is a personal favorite with its dance beat & violin. I've heard Al Pitrelli recorded guitars with CD, I assume it was an album & not a show, but I can't find any album with his name in the credits though, such as this album, I find many of the Rick Wake crew who he was working with post-Alice Cooper. If anyone can direct me to which songs I would be most appreciative. Your reward is free reading of this blog for a year.

Skinny Puppy ~ The Singles Collect (hits comp) (album review) ... Wag the tail!

Style: industrial, techno, greatest hits
Label: Nettwork
Year: 1999
Home: Vancouver, British Columbia

Members: Nivek Ogre ~ keyboards/guitar/vocals
cEvin Key ~ drums/keyboards/bass/guitar/vocals
D.R. Goettel ~ keyboards/sampler/bass

Additional: Dale Plevin ~ bass
Tom Ellard ~ tapes/samples
Wilhelm Schroeder ~ bass synth/b. vocals
Alien Jourgensen, Rave ~ guitar

I like industrial music, but the Marilyn Manson thrashing guitar type that verges on moody assaulting insanity. But, this ignores a whole spectrum of industrial where the guitars are replaced by synthesizers, loops, electronic drum beats, sound effects & odd vocals. The more ambiant, perhaps even dancefloor, end of the industrial genre ... though I'll let you try to define dance in this context, its not ballet anymore. A leader for the industrial goth movement is SP. Actually, they're more than a leader, but many consider them one of the founders of the electro-industrial genre back in 1984. I used to work with an industrial DJ here in NYC named DJ Angztek that loved this band, & introduced me to them. Now, he didn't make me a fan - I still don't know how to approach this music to truly appreciate it - but he introduced me to a wider range of industrial than I was familiar with. So, for him, I can't ignore the rest of the spectrum. For me, I still prefer the crunchy guitar industrial over this, as I hear too much of the synthesizer heavy New Wave in this ... for me New Wave brings to mind Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, Depeche Mode & countless others. But, I find that New Wave full of lush melodies while this is cold & repetitious where the music feels like a background to wanna-be shocking vocals with the casual sound effect or sample thrown in for variety. But, I can see how some might find enjoyment in the sparseness of this, the modern industrial society feeling, the almost do it yourself looping & sampling, the anti-dance dance beat. It's music of rebellion as much as punk was. My problem is I'm unable to connect emotionally to any of its message & the music is just too barren for me except for a few songs. But, for those that want to investigate further, this compilation is a generally considered a good starting point. It brings together all of SP's career highlights over seventy minutes. You probably won't be disappointed. Well, most of their singles, while a few alternative or remixed versions are substituted that were released as singles. SP is famous for extensive amounts of remixes, so including such here only makes sense. This compilatoin is also nearly comprehensive. Nothing from their debut, Back & Forth, is featured, though this may be understandable given it was self-released, limited to 35 copies, & was previously reissued as part of SP's Back & Forth album series of remixes & outtakes. While their 1996 release The Process is also absent. Though this album, panned by critics, feature the label pressuring for a more Nine Inch Nails goth sound, & led to the departure of Nivek Ogre because of it. After its release SP was dropped by the label, while keyboardist Goettel died of a heroin overdose just before release. It's the album that killed the puppy so its understandable that it would be left off of this compilation. But, it's inclusion would make this compilation truly a historically spanning set of songs for the first part of SP's life, considering liner notes on The Process wrote "The End". Though, that album should be heard on its own in complete as it's a concept album about a psychotherapy cult from the 1960's known as The Process Church of the Final Judgement, which Ogre was introduced to by Trobbing Gristle member & pan-sexual experimenter Genesis P. Orridge. In 2000 Ogre brought SP back to life with a new album in 2004, with three more following through 2011 forming the second part of SP's life ... to be chronicled, one hopes, on The Singles Tion. But, outside of these two omissions & a few singles - which the casual or new fan probably won't mind the loss of or even realize - there's only one other fault & that is that the songs are not in chronological order, which would make this more interesting in terms of hearing a musical progression from dance to industrial goth, telling society to screw off all along the way. But, I will say as a non-fan, repeated listeners do wonder for wearing off the coldness & getting into some of trance-like moments & the heavy sound effect bits ... though, its very Rob Zombie in that way, so a bit of a bridge to the industrial I prefer. So, I might not be listening to SP much in the future, but I've given them a chance & for me that goes a long way in discovering & appreciating music. I was paying attention DJ Angztek when you had the radio blasting & you were doing your silly dance, though you didn't think I was! Yeah, I could dance to this in a club, though if I ever make it to the club Friday night we'll see as I'm so lazy about getting out, you know!

Neil Young ~ Unplugged (live) (album review) ... Neil is the uncle everyone wishes they had!

Style: folk-rock
Label: Reprise
Year: 1993
Home: California

Members: Neil Young ~ guitar/harmonica/piano/pump organ/vocals
Nils Lofgren ~ guitar/autoharp/accordion/b. vocals
Ben Keith ~ dobro
Spooner Oldham ~ piano/pump organ
Tim Drummond ~ bass
Oscar Butterworth ~ drums
Astrid Young, Nicolette Larson ~ b. vocals

Additional: Larry Cragg ~ broom

NY's Unplugged live recording from the MTV show may not be an explicitly rock album, compared to some of NY's albums, recalling more his folksy-country side, but through an array of different styles over the decades NY has done his share of rocking out, let alone inspiring countless rock bands with the most prominent being Pearl Jam. This was the first NY album I ever bought, soon after it came out. I knew NY's greatest hits, a friend had played & explained to me the nuances of Tonight's The Night, but in terms of building up my own NY collection I didn't know where to start with him. He's gone through so many musical styles & backing groups, often in the same year, with some big hits & some big misses, & in the pre-internet age there was no allmusic.com to get advice from on what would make the perfect intro. I do remember when he was playing with Pearl Jam, but I was feeling more tuned into his acoustic folk side than the chaotic careening ragged electric guitar side. The glory of NY's appearance on MTV's Unplugged, showing the unplugged format at its magical best in my ears & the reason it became my first NY album, though I hadn't watched the episode, was that it collects many of the hits from his different musical faces & blends them together seemlessly with a new personality alongside some obscure tunes. It's not so much a greatest hits collection as a bit of a retrospective showing different sides of NY from his point of view. While NY might be known to many for his wild careless guitar playing, his real magic has always been for me his lyrics. I've also always liked his ragged folksy voice. That's the focus here, no doubt. It's not the guitar playing or the crazy endless solos he's known for taking. It's just the words & the emotion he puts behind them. Let me just say that I used to like learning to play & sing so many of the songs on this album on my acoustic guitar. I wanted to feel the words of "Pocahontas," "The Needle & The Damage Done" & even "Transformer Man", doing the backing vocals myself, roll over my tongue. For me, NY reaches the same heights as Dylan, Brian Wilson & Jim Steinman. "The Old Laughing Lady" & so many others might just show NY as one of the most depressing lyricists ever ... next to Lou Reed ... yet intensely personal at the same time. Oh, but how wonderful & rich those sad emotions are! The slimmed down instrumentation Unplugged also excited me, particularly the use of a broom as a percussion instrument in "Harvest Moon". It's moody & dark as much as any hard rock, yet less pretentious than I felt so much folk music suffered from in its quest to be seen as more pure. MTV's Unplugged might have been gimmicky & super trendy, the fad coming to shine a poor light on the original idea, while it had its shares of stumbles & some artists might have been unsuited for the format, but when it shone bright the glaring light was amazing. Of the over 100 episodes highlights worth watching over & over that come to mind include: Eric Clapton, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, 10,000 Maniacs, Kiss, Alice In Chains, Rod Stewart, The Eagles, Stone Temple Pilots, Page/Plant & obviously NY, who might have the most laidback relaxing output of all of them. Though, it's interesting to note that some critics have called it too relaxing & not ragged enough. But, if anything over his career NY is not predictable & he stays true to form here turning in something new. Yes, a couple songs were originally acoustically rendered & thus don't get a reinterpretation here, but that's what makes this enjoyable for me. You get some songs in their original format, even if it breaks the rule of thumb of what the show is supposed to be about, beside songs reinvented ... & they all sound like the come off the same album, blending into a new beast. Of note, Unplugged contains the previously unreleased song "Stringman" written in 1976, while four songs appear on the show but not on the album (i.e. "Dreamin' Man", "Sample & Hold", "War of Man", "Winterlong"). While, however powerful the result is, it's actually the second recording of the show. NY was not happy with the performances of anyone in the band & did the show over again. It would be interesting to hear the first take. Also, this review should get an award for mentioning "broom." That instrument isn't used enough!

Rudy Schwartz Project ~ Moslem Beach Party (album review) ... Kill for god!

Style: experimental, instrumental
Label: DC-Jam Records
Year: 1985
Home: Texas/Canada

Members: Joe Newman ~ all instruments

Every so often I come across some very strange release. I mean, very strange in the full definition of the word, yet also very creative. It may not be the greatest musically, but the artist in me is intrigued as I'm witnessing a musician going crazy & clearly not giving a shit what outsiders think. For example, see my review from some years ago of Xerophonics that is true heavy metal - its the sound of Xerox machines looped! RSP is a cacophony of blasphemy, satire & toilet humor lyrics sung in an array of imitative Gilbert & Sullivan operetta styles - not so bad actually - mixed with tinkling "Casio-toned" keyboards & guitars, as one reviewer describes it, assorted percussion & strange noises covering pretty much every strange fringe musical style you can think of. That is, the Tom Waits type of fringe styles from rock to Islamic singing to polka, surf, ska, calypso. Though, Waits creatives cohesive music, this is purely out for having some fun. Think more a one man Cardiacs or the more obscure Howie Pyro's Freaks but without the acid or the trippiest raunchiest Frank Zappa. Is this a Moslem album as the title belays? Far from it. It's not even spiritual. Some might say its not even listenable. Actually - tongue-in-cheek - I fear for my life reviewing it, as while there is some Muslim drum rhythms & singing, there's only one truly Islamic song ... but what a song it is! "Kill For God" is a satire in my ears, but might blasphemy in theirs ... or maybe they'll actually like it. Actually, it's the one song truly worth hearing, as its lyrically so over the top it'll make your eyes pop out ... or for the more conservative minded not getting the joke it'll make you do something you don't normally do as it joyfully sings about joining a jihad, killing Jews & visiting Allah with all the virgins. As I said, Muslims will either hate or take it up as their new anthem. Now, I've heard white supremacist music, I've heard true Satanic music - two of the most extreme styles out there. I know the views of those songs are honest & heart felt. Whether right or wrong, the musicians truly believe in their message. But, "Kill For God" doesn't have the same feeling. Those musicians are serious where this isn't. Those bands carry their message though each song, Islam is just touched on briefly here & there & not much of an overall theme. It's just a eye-raising title. Even crazy folks like G.G. Allin took it more serious than RSP ... though this is better musically even if in a state of an over the top constant musical personality crisis. Part of the proof is in the music. It opens with the sound of a drum overlaid with a couple of talking voices discussing sex & god, before going into a Chet Aktins style guitar line with bluesy horns, before getting some big band-esque vocals & a bit of a Hawaiian flavor & turning into something that might be heard on an old 78 in the 1930's. One can imagine hearing this over the radio during the war & thinking in that context its quite an amazing listen. All the songs follow thing morphing style of changes, though "Kill For God" is a true highlight & flows the smoothest. But, if you want music to shock your friends with ... I think I found it! As for the rest of the album, it verges between instrumental cuts & less interesting lyrical songs. The music, on all the songs & usually within a single song, covers every musical & vocal style you can think of with abandon. It's like a lounge pianist trying to play everyone's favorite music, but only knowing how to imitate styles not actual songs & not actually having any lyrics to follow. "Polly Wolly Doodle (P.D.)" is the only instrumental worth hearing as its a guitar & washing board that sounds like the Spongebob Squarepants theme song but going for seven minutes instead of thirty seconds & with a lot of strange sound effects from cranks, chains, banging to grunting. It's Spongebob's Halloween special. Personally, I love the music on the show so this caught my ear immediately. The lyrical songs are nonsensical & largely toilet humor obscene, more for the sake of it than actually having a message ... or even making sense or staying focused to fully carry the joke to the end successfully like "Kill For God". "An Orange Is Nothing But A Juicy Pumpkin" covers everything from Ronald Reagan to grandma, while "Asparagus Makes Your Urine Smell Funny" is the Howie Pyro's Freaks or more properly Frank Zappa moment. "Christmas Times For Assholes" is directed to all the people you don't like, particularly your boss, & starts funny before becoming too obscene for its own good. "Raspberry I.U.D.", based on an obvious song by Prince, is about going after a 16 year old slut & is super pornographic, but hearing someone sing like Prince is actually kind funny. "Coathangerman" follows a similar path as its brief lyrics, against the most pop sounding melody, discuss condoms before going into the Jackson 5's "ABC". This is one of those albums high school kids play at parties when their parents aren't home to show how cool they are. Like watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show to see about the sex they may not be having yet. One of the most cracked versions of "I Put A Spell On You" helps bring the album to a close. It's an odd inclusion & actually sounds like an early Rolling Stones outtake but with no guitars & Mick tanked up on something. Now, I understand, some reading this may ask why review an album like this? Isn't this better for a blog of strange music? Yes! But, at the same time even with all the musical styles, it does have a rock foundation & coherent songs, or at least pieces of them stuck together. This isn't just strange sounds like some art piece. Actually drone metal is far less coherent on some level & more sound than music compared to this. Personally, I get a kick out of finding stuff like this. I don't look for it. I stumble upon it. I'm not Dr. Demento ... though I did once have my name dropped by him on the radio. This blog started originally with the goal of finding & sharing interesting music, versus everything out there, & this fits the bill ... probably more than most of the things on this blog where I use the term interesting in a very liberal way. Honestly, listening to something like this gives my ears a momentary break from the norm. Though, I sadly won't be going as far as Metal Hammer magazine did a few years ago with their review of Pope Benedict XVI's album Alma Matter Featuring The Voice Of Pope Benedict XVI, reviewed by Cradle Of Filth's Dani Filth no less. Really, they did. You can google it. How's that metal? Dude, it's the music of God ... you can't get anymore heavy! As for wanting to know more about this RSP, there's a lot of youtube videos, while the facebook page simply describes the project as "More Floyd. Less Aunt Bea." But, doing some digging the man behind the curtain is a fellow named Joe Newman, originally of Texas but who emigrated to Canada, whose an admirer of Frank Zappa & supposedly includes Jello Biafra as a fan. It's also primarily a studio project with only one live show known. While the music might be strange the story of it becomes quite intriguing after stumbling through it on Joe Newman's website. Moslem Beach Party has been called by some the "cheesiest" of RSP's output, but others love it with "Kill For God" becoming a fan favorite. On cassette only, but was reissued as part of a Remembering A Summertime Rash best of compilation CD.

Exciter ~ Death Machine (album review) ... Crank the machine up & let it growl!

Style: thrash
Label: Massacre Records
Year: 2010
Home: Ottawa, Canada

Members: Kenny Winter ~ vocals
John Ricci ~ guitars
Rick Charron ~ drums
Clammy ~ bass

 

 

   Coming out the door as one of the first thrash speed metal bands Canada's Exciter would remain very much in the unsuccessful shadow of their peers Slayer & Metallica. Their first few albums built up a fan following, only for it to crumble at seemingly every turn as they moved away from thrash into more melodic & slower territories & brought in a non-instrument playing vocalist. After a self-titled 1988 release debuting these changes went down in flames the band broke up for the first of many times. Two reunions would bring out a series of less than stellar albums that were more unanimously panned than any band deserves. It wasn't until 2004's New Testament that things began to look up. Though, this was really a trick as New Testament was actually re-recorded early fan favorites with some of the 90's team. Their most recent album, Death Machine, finds them with the first stable line-up in a long time & solidifying their return to form. With a cover of a nearly naked woman strung up & about to start a one-sided conversation with a chainsaw that looks like a scene out a movie & would make Tipper Gore return to court for this one album alone ... warning ... this is the music your parents said would rot your mind. It may not actually rot your mind, but with a album length theme being torture & sadism, music that is brutal & but one step away from death metal, all the puzzle pieces are here for mom & dad to at least be nervous. The music is one thick slab of fast & furious riffs & slower paced growled vocals that don't fall into the decipherable realm. If Exciter's problem was a move away from thrash this is certainly a few steps back. Though, the catch is if one measures thrash by where Metallica & Megadeth are, then Exciter yet again falls into the shadows as this is nothing like those bands are doing today. It neither is highly technical, polished or slick, nor does it deviate far beyond the template into more musical experimental realms. It's also far darker than a lot of modern thrash fans might be accustomed to. This is the "Enter Sandman" Metallica wants to play but doesn't dare for fear of losing their fans. This is the Megadeth of Chris Poland. The reason this album succeeds is because its so dark, furious & adrenaline runs through with abandon. The album thrives on its pure energy.

Vulture Kult ~ Don't Let Rock'N'Roll Ruin Your Life (album review) ... Don't let this album pass you by!

Style: punk, hard rock, alt rock
Label: n/a
Year: 2012
Home: Saskatoon, Canada

Members: Hans Bielefeld ~ guitars/vocals
Bradley Friesen ~ drums/vocals

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First, I love the name of the album! There's just so many ways to interpret it, from the typical party lifestyle, to creative burn out, to the fan level in my own experience where I see arguments happen over bands & favorite music & whose the greatest. Second, I have to say that VK isn't going to ruin your life. They're not examples of their warning! I say that in jest, but I've come across many bands that the music churns your stomach & you can't wait for the album to end. VK is vibrant, heavy & dark, with a punk-esque churning guitar, some minimal lead overdubs & straight ahead rock drummer. Vocals, seemingly low in the mix but to good effect, recall something more akin to the bluesy psyched-out era of Blue Oyster Cult or Blue Cheer. There's without a doubt an out of time aspect to VK that I haven't heard in awhile. They've got a moody Black Sabbath plod underneath their guitar rhythms, like Geezer Butler's fast yet sounding mysteriously slow 16th note bass playing. Actually, I've been listening to the album repeatedly today as I can't put it down. It's an interesting band. At first I thought of Big Elf for comparison, but they sound nothing alike, yet the same out of time drugged out 1960's/70's moody feeling is here. Actually, taking a break to something else to rest my ears I suddenly went back to the album with the thought of the New York Dolls & imitators Hanoi Rocks. But, in comparison neither are a really a good match. I even thought I heard the Rolling Stones in one song (i.e. "Avenue H"). That's how odd yet interesting this band is. They sound so familiar but I'm at a loss how or who, in order to properly give a point of comparison or to lead you from who you the listener know to who you don't. With some band you immediately hear a similarity & that's it, you know what you've got. For example, Yngwie's keyboardist Nick Marino sings just like Graham Bonnett of Rainbow on his solo album. Listening to him again & again I never change my mind. But, with KV I'm now completely off wanting to call their playing punk. While the guitars may at first sound like punk playing there's so much more about their feel that I get on later listens that I don't even want to use the word punk as it now feels derogatory. Perhaps in a few minutes I'll be wanting to compare them to other guitar/drums outfits like the Black Keys, but I'd prefer not. That jump is much too large. What makes it all the more of an interesting & out of time release is the final two songs, a total of three minutes between them, which both are a coda to the album where the distortion is gone & the echo slightly tweaked up. "Movie Of Me" goes for a brushed country drum beat & Hammond B-3 organ playing. While "Checking Out" is an instrumental folksy flavor. When I used to work in a record store that specialized in 60's/70's albums this would have fit in perfectly. For fans of classic underground rock this is a new generation interpreting things. Highly recommended for the listener with a historical bent. Definitely an album I'm going to be returning to in my desire to figure it out, if I can. & I'd love to hear their first album to see where they've come from & where they might be going.

Sword ~ Sweet Dreams (album review) ... Sweet dreams with a sharp edge!

Style: heavy metal
Label: Aquarius Records
Year: 1988
Home: Montreal

Members: Rick Hughes ~ vocals/keyboards
Mike Plant ~ guitar/keyboards
Mike Larock ~ bass
Dan Hughes ~ drums

 

  The two albums by this Montreal area band have been lost in the shuffle in the landscape of 80's hard rock/heavy metal. As one reviewer said when they did a brief reunion & played a new song in 2011 ... who needs a Black Sabbath reunion when you have Sword? That just about says it all. A bit of Led Zeppelin & a lot of Black Sabbath in the guitar & arrangements & even the vocal stylings of both Ozzy Osbourne (i.e. "Sweet Dreams) & Ronnie James Dio (i.e. "Land Of The Brave", "The Trouble Is"), but without the distinctiveness of either singer. It's as if Black Sabbath skipped over their psyched out 70's days & Ozzy was singing the 80's songs that weren't so black & moody & a bit more of the era. It's fascinating, as there's a distinctiveness to the band, yet not at the same time. Perhaps the interesting thing is based on the fact that in 1988 a lot of bands were following the L.A. hair metal of Motley Crue with in your face teenage anthems. Sword are not a bunch of pretty boys in spandex. They are far more heavy & dark, yet not thrash or speed metal. Thus, in a strange way this becomes a great listen & a lost gem. It's imitative but not imitating what everyone else was doing. It's actually quite a solid & listenable album with some great riffs & interesting lyrics ... the Dio influence ... but they didn't find much success & the band folded soon after until a brief reunion. They've only released two albums & there's no regret in taking the effort to hunt them both up.

Three Days Grace ~ Live At The Palace 2008 (DVD review) ... Grace can be over-rated!

Style: alt-metal
Label: Zamba Label Group
Year: 2008
Home: Toronto, Canada

Concert location: Palace of Auburn Hills, Michigan
Year Recorded: March 2008
Length: 80 minutes
Bonus Features: behind the scenes footage/interviews with the band

Members: Adam Gontier ~ vocals/rhythm guitar
Neil Sanderson ~ drums/b. vocals
Brad Walst ~ bass/b. vocals
Barry Stock ~ lead guitar

In the 80's every band tended to follow the path of Motley Crue & so many of them are now found in yard sales & music store discount bins forgotten ... or written about in this blog. In the era of disco it was the same with the Bee Gees. Elvis had his share of bland imitators, though due to still being alive many get more recognition then their brief careers really deserve. Surprisingly, there hasn't been an influx of white rappers imitating Eminem ... Today the metal community has its innovators & imitators the same as always. Though, the current metal scene is more than just a revival but has a distinct feel from the past with a new generation of talented music makers. New bands encompass their metal forefathers but at the same time just as much draw from pretty boy bands such as Coldplay, the explorations of Stone Temple Pilots & the jagged rhythms of Green Day & Arctic Monkeys. & you don't have to have long hair & a moody angry look to be a metal rocker. It's hard to fully describe the metal scene now, particularly as it comes in the midst of a changing music industry that's essentially toppling ... though its been going on long enough that's its more than just a brief trend & may not have the mainstream impact of yore but its underground presence isn't going to die anytime soon. 3DG is one of the later day bands who, for the traditional metalhead, probably lack distinctiveness & metal clout. They're an amalgamation of the past & the outcome is metal lite, or metal for those that don't want the real thing or can't away from Nirvana & want everything with a user-friendly alternative tinge. & not a single member has hair below his shoulders! The name 3DG decries more Coldplay than Slayer. Song titles like "Animal I Have Become", "Pain", "Just Like You", "I Hate Everything About You" & "Gone Forever" harken of an abundance of cliched long songs. & the inclusion of the out of place Alice In Chains' "Rooster" does little to please. Maybe on one hand this harsh judgment might be right. & yet, maybe 3DG represents the new metal scene in a bottle. But, before giving up on them there is one way to check out their worth ... a test used for many bands ... the live concert. This is the hit or miss scenario to see what their chops are really like, away from the masking ability of the studio, let alone sense their charisma in the raw. No photoshopping here. Live At The Palace 2008 is the debut DVD from 3DG & gives us a moment to judge this band on their terms. One can often tell a metal lite band but from a metal band with some clout by looking at the audience. An all girl audience, while great for the band's ego, is metal lite. All male, as history shows, means they're hitting a hardcore nerve. 3DG, sadly for their egos & libido, get a mixed audience. They've got some hardcore clout but yet have a user friendly feeling. One of the problems with the distinctiveness of 3DG is the fact that they are categorized as a post-grunge band. This basically means they are influenced by the grunge era ... but what is grunge? Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains & Nirvana are very musically distinct bands with few similarities, but yet all get under the same musical category. Grunge is a location designation more than anything. It would be like saying 3DG are a post-70's band ... so does that mean Foreigner, Black Sabbath & Barry Manilow? An indistinct title for a band falling into indistinct times. Ironically, 3DG was formed as a quartet in the later grunge era of 1992 as Groundswell, breaking up temporarily in 1997 to return as 3DG with a modified line-up. While the timing might be right & as a nearly two decade career should show better, both the location across the border & only three releases have limited their exposure leaving them to build audiences through the touring circuit ... thus making discovering them via DVD versus CD potentially the better option. 3DG have been called one of the more accessible alternative metal bands, not that much better of a designation than post-grunge, with pretty choruses but not so much distinctiveness. Given this criticism 3DG put on a vibrant high energy show & the live energy makes up for their indistinctiveness with a sound filled with guitars charting out rhythms filled more with walls of distortion than complicated melodic lines or even solos, of which one wonders are even possible by the band there is a major absence of guitar solos. It's metal lite definitely, or metal for the suburbia set that still wants lyrics that are about something other than death, accentuated by a heavy ballad approach where the lyrics are upfront & even invite a sing along. The problem is the vocals are about as technically triumphant as the the rest of the band & on some level its obvious why the band hasn't become bigger than they are. In many ways they remind me of later day, post-costume, Stryper where it feels like the message of the music is the most important thing & thus its necessary to have every word clearly heard. Luckily, most of the songs are fairly memorable & it is a bit hard not to want to sing along to this cliched set of really unmemorable rockers ... unmemorable because days late you'll confuse the lyrics with another band. A highlight is "Rooster" by Alice In Chains with sexy frontman Adam Gontier taking both vocals & acoustic guitar & no other accompaniment. It's a nice intermission moment, even if it feels like it should be part of a bigger moment than just one solo song. Bonus footage includes behind the scenes footage & brief soundbites with each member of the band talking about the band, their history & the concert including at soundcheck & meet & greet. Positioned between some songs early in the concert it disrupts the flow of the concert & means that longer interviews that might be more introspective are missing. 

Dr. Moe ~ My Soul (album review) ... Not Doctor Who, but Doctor LightWorker!

Style: religious, experimental
Label: self-released
Year: 2010
Home: Ontario, Canada

Members: Dr. Moe ~ guitar/bass/keyboards/vocals

The numerous self-releases of Canadian guitarist-singer-songwriter Dr. Moe, aka Dr. Maurice Turmel, Ph.D., all share the theme of spiritual awakening. These are the musical wanderings of a retired psychiatrist who believes the world is in a spiritual & social crisis & about to be swept into either Heaven or Hell. Dr. Moe is a follower of the LightWorkers, or Starseeds or WayShowers movement that is preparing for Ascension in 2012. He's not the only one & we can only wait & see if 2012 is the spiritually uplifting year everyone says its going to be if there's not a cultural revolution first. Dr. Moe's music is music of healing through twinkling guitar playing, soft singing & ethereal electronic additions. If you've heard his other music My Soul isn't that much different. & don't be afraid of the specifics of his beliefs because, like his other releases, his lyrics are holistic rather than specific. My Soul opens with one of Dr. Moe's most upbeat & catchy songs "On My Way To Heaven" with an early 80's synth/bass background &, as I've described in a previous review, 50's style guitar playing for a little light space pop. This is followed by another highlight with "God Sings The Blues" with a 60's R&B foundation. However un-funky you may think LightWorkers may sound this is a great little piece that you could see being given a makeover by Bernie Worrell. The 80's electronica influence tends to set the template for much of the album ("My Soul", "Purple Haze Turning Blue", "A Little Place Called The Blues", "Coming Home"), but there's also a bit more funk ("Wrecking Ball", "I Am The Soul Man"), some basic blues ("You're The Oldest Dream"), a little calypso ("Come Down to The River", "Little Miracles") & reggae stylings ("Mother Earth"), giving My Soul an overall retro feel to what might be Dr. Moe's best albums, definetly his most diverse.

The Evidence ~ Currents (album review) ... Sweeping across the waves!

Style: pop, hard rock, alt rock
Label: Meter Records
Year: 2011
Home: Canada

Members: Casey Lewis ~ vocals/drums/keyboards
Tyler Pickering ~ vocals/guitar/programming
Dean Rud ~ vocals/bass

For many years, for me, alt pop meant a type of alternative rock that wasn't gritty & played a lot of overly sentimental ballads in the mold of Coldplay or maybe Oasis. It wasn't bad but I like my rock with a little bit of masculine energy not a bunch of dreamy eyed boys blowing kisses to girls in the audience or getting all overly sentimental & mystical. The Evidence is one of a new breed of alt rock bands combining a touch of Coldplay but with the energy of the Foo Fighters ... or giving more emphasis to the alt than the pop ... & realizing that the girls in the audience like to rock out too & not just listen to love songs. You can get the girls via both approaches. Further, after years dominated by the shadow of punk in terms of Green Day & three chord song alt rock rhythm sections are finally stepping back into the spotlight by providing lots of texture & changes independent of the guitar & put the variety & low-end attack back into the arrangement. Since 2000 the Evidence, starting as high school friends dubbed as the Failure, have sought to craft out a niche for themselves with highly skilled arrangements that sweep across numerous styles. A boost, & eventual name change, came after eight years as the Failure when the drudgery of band life moved the lyrics from the cliched to the personal. The Evidence know disguise mental dilemmas under a little bit of sing-along pop. I recently was talking to John Wetton of Asia/King Crimson about his new solo album Raised In Captivity & he said it sounded just like a full band, though it was actually only him & former 1990's Yes bandmate & producer Billy Sherwood. The Evidence sounds like a quartet if not bigger ... I'm even willing to bet that they really are but for legal rights are leaving off the other other band members in the linear notes. Though, I know that they've added a fourth member for their live shows. But, on album sound nothing like a trio as they've done a superb job layering drums, guitars, keyboards & programming in a mix that blows me away. It's almost illegal to have this much vibrant music for only three guys. What's your secret boys? I'm guessing its in the mix. The fact that the song-writing is great too combining rock with pop certainly is a contributing factor. & the three part vocals certainly boost things up a notch.

Subplot A ~ Tragic Romantic Mocku Fantasy (album review) ... Cranky music!

Style: comedy, pop rock
Label: Messy Desk Creations
Year: 2009
Home: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Members: Arun Lakra, Craig Newnes, Wes Sutherland ~ misc instruments
Scott Henderson, Bobby McAlister, Emre Unal ~ assorted instruments/vocals
Joel Schaefer, Paul Distefano, Clea Roddick, Irene Tuazon, Dana Crawford, Sonal Jogia ~ vocals

Hard rock ... folk & country .... techno ... world rhythms ... commercial power pop ... it's all here in a colorful 15 song cornucopia by Subplot A, a "virtual" musical collective led by producer/composer/musician Arun Lakra. It's the same musical cornucopia found in the output of Chumbawumba, Bare Naked Ladies & the Flaming Lips. It's colorful, catchy, crazy, creative, comical & completely fun ... & with enough lyrics to keep the word lover happy for an evening ... which is a subtle endorsement to buy the physical CD & not the download version. For example, in opener "Everyman" the male singer cries out in the chorus "Who do you long for/when I take your hand/when you've all alone/let me be your everyman" while the 30 verses of couplet pairs repeat "I want to be your ____" with the blank featuring a list of over 100 names of guys from George Burns to Dorian Gray to Citizen Kane to Jimmy Buffet to the Soup Nazi (my neighbor actually) to Jean Luc Picard! It's a game of trivial pursuit thrown on the ground & is delightfully repeated at the end of the album with 32 more couplets but now with a woman singer saying "You'll never be my ____"! The rest of the album refrains from such hearty pop culture lessons, though it does continue to favor the list approach in its lyrics ... but then so does Broadway icon Steven Sondheim if one listens closely ... only to throw the trials & tribulations of daily life into the listener's face with such songs as "Cranky" ... calling out everything that makes the hoarse voiced singer cranky ... to a bubbly electronica enhanced love song using references to the planet Pluto ... "we traveled different orbits/your night was my day". There's also the anthem in the making "I Puke Alone" about an all too romantic moment many of us have had too often ... "I don't need you to keep the hair out of my face/please remember before you close the door/I'll love you forever & I puke alone"... along with "Must Sell Screenplay" that's a direct letter to Misters Spielberg, Tarantino, Shamalama, Scorese, Eastwood, Reiner & ending with the lovely last ditch effort "Must sell screenplay.../or maybe ... sell a ... song about it/Please Mr. Eno/I got your number from the Edge...". Isn't this fun? Subplot A certainly want you to say yes with different musical styles channeled into the mix to match. But, they also are hoping you're paying attention cause underneath the fun are some incredibly intense social insights that would make Chumbawumba proud. It starts subtly with "I Don't Care" with the refrain "I got a hundred causes lined up at my door/enough is enough I can't bleed anymore" & moves to the shocking Rasta-esque rouser "Two Empty Seats" about an American with "black hair & dark eyes, my name is hard to say/when I reach out my hand, you just turn the other way" who is pleading to be treated equally & "why do I gotta prove/I'm not one of them/I'm one of you." It's a haunting message that seems to come out of nowhere for the listener, or at least for the listener whose not quite paying attention. It's then that one realizes that many of the fun songs are filled with a line here or there that's about making the listener think. Subplot A might be fun but they've got messages of social insight they believe many should hear. The message is not always fun. It's sometimes uncomfortable. It's also something that many of us can relate to. But, they know the best way to make an uncomfortable message friendly is to cloak it under something everyone can enjoy ... before you know it you'll be singing along with an anti-racism song. What could be better? Subplot A is rare breed of band that includes a collective of talented & super creative musicians that have crafted a wonderful ... mocku fantasy of music with a message,

Guys With Wives ~ Life Is A ... (album review) ... Give it up to this blues rock trio!

Style: hard rock, blues-rock
Label: self-released
Year: 2010
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Members: Travis Haugen ~ vocals/bass/organ
Len Milne ~ guitars
Todd Lesage ~ vocals/drums

Additional: Jaxon Haldane ~ saw

My initial thought within seconds of popping in the GWW CD is how much the singer & even the music sounds like former Rainbow frontman Graham Bonnet, particularly his outstanding solo album The Day I Went Mad. Bonnet has one of those very distinctive voices, often described as 'tuneful shouting', with a particular tone & phrasing that includes lots of stretched notes ... a technique under-utilized by rock's screamers outside of Bonnet, Nadir D'Priest & a few others ... with a sound & style that I've never heard anyone else come close to in a field where all rock singers sound like Robert Plant, that is, until now. It's almost uncanny the similarities. But, while Bonnet reaches into the upper tenor GWW's primary singer Travis Haugen is just as tuneful but deeper, more animalistic & bluesy & avoids some of the highs Bonnet likes to over-indulge in. Further, the music behind the voice avoids the 80's keyboard moments that hurt more than a few of Bonnet's albums aiming just for in your face hard rock with lots of melody & great arrangements with highs, lows & variety. One will be immediately addicted to GWW within a few songs. Warning: repeated listens will be unavoidable. Even after I write this review I plan to listen again, something I don't usually do as I move to the next band. The first time I heard GWW it was just a couple songs in a deliberately critical setting. I had some confusion over exactly what their lyrics were about. I knew it was socially focused but they were a bit too vague for me & I even misinterpreted them as being about racial issues & coming out of a band more akin to Living Colour, but they also had a visual appeal akin to Jim Steinman that I liked with such lines as "wing blowing ... land blowing again behind the empty sheds & you & I running ..." from "Give It Up". You can see it & feel it & that's far better than so many of the 'you & me forever, baby' lyrics that rock bands pour out with ... heartless ... abandon. I will also say that after hearing but two songs the only problem I faced outside of the lyrics was my embarrassment at not being able to criticize anything else though they asked for an honest criticism & I could only drag my tail & ask for a copy of Life Is A .... The band is amazing with lots of texture & just enough ornamentation. They draw on the same blues-rock feeling as Cream with a lot of modern rock thrown in, while not over-doing like many blues-rock bands that end up leaning too far to the downhome blues becoming the Eagles or Gov't Mule. Though, I will say, 15 songs does sound a bit long making the album a bit weaker than it really is. Sometimes 15 is a perfect number, but GWW knock you out so fast so soon that a few weaker tracks in the second half make it seem a bit long. You won't see GWW on MTV or in Rolling Stone magazine & they probably don't ever tour much outside of their immediate area, but hunting up their album will be well worth it as they are the reason that I split this review blog between mainstream & independent releases. You come at an unknown band with no expectations & get blown away far faster than the Hollywood based bands that spent way too much money on fanfare & cashing in on their reputation & should have put it instead towards playing music ... again. 

Neon Legion ~ Empire (album review) ... Art rock moodiness!

Style: electronica, experimental
Label: self-released
Year: 2011
Home: Germany/America/Canada/Argentina

Members: Philip Kurt Kressin ~ vocals/keyboards
Brett Caswell, Afie Jurvanen, Javier Bustos ~ guitar
Chris Lesso, Brad Kilpatrick, Kieran Adams, Alejandro Lopez ~ drums
Lincoln Hamlyn, Jon Hynes, Jeremy Little, Juan Huici ~ bass
Nicolas Ospina ~ keyboards
Daniel Bensi ~ cello/piano
Adam Crystal ~ violin/keyboards

NL is the rock ensemble encircling German composer/multi-instrumentalist Philip Kurt Kressin. NL is also more than a band but a cry for chivalrous moral living, painting this shout with rock, classical themes & electronica for their debut release Empire. Kressin comes from an electronica background with a reinvention of his music after a foray into classical music for a film soundtrack. With a partially deaf director Kressin was forced to add sub-bass frequencies so the deaf could feel the music, thus organically discovering new musical directions. A two year stay in Argentina added more musical dimensions leading to the first incarnation of NL. Kressin's project would eventually include both American & Canadian musicians transforming NL from just a band into an organically changing international ensemble. Recalling the art rock of the Flaming Lips, a little early Depeche Mode & other such avant-garde bands Kressin sings in a light almost tongue-in-cheek & slightly synthesized tenor over a background of generally soft electronica & beats that will recall for many fans the ballads of Erasure or other synth-pop bands of the past. But, what is absent is the heavy looping quality that dominates so much of electronica making the result more machine than human. For Kressin electronic loops are just one instrument among many & not the dominate sound as songs move from primarily electronic to live instruments including distorted guitars. Though some of NL would be welcomed on the dancefloor this is not dance music, though it might be welcomed in trance circles for its creative ethereal keyboards that reappear here & there between the guitars & beats. Empire is mostly an upbeat collection of three minute songs of hypnotic quality, never getting too maudlin or extremely moody though moments are there with the album getting darker as it progresses ... though the darker moments are, intentional or not, the definite highlights. But, everything takes a dive down with the seven minute coda-like concluding track "La Revolucion" that brings out all the moodiness that came before with its nearly instrumental mix of guitars/keyboards. It sounds like lonely soldiers going off to war. It doesn't attack but creeps while it opens up a whole new world just as the it lets the listener move on.

Dr. Moe ~ Now Is The Time (album review) ... When you need a doctor for your soul!

Style: religious, experimental
Label: self-released
Year: 2010
Home: Ontario, Canada

Members: Dr. Moe ~ guitar/bass/keyboards/vocals
Michael Keyes ~ keyboards/bass

There are many people who are surprised when they hear that the father of modern avant-garde John Cage was an expert scientist in mushrooms or Queen's Brian May has Ph.D. in astro-physics. I also once knew a high school algebra teacher who who was a folk guitarist & published poet ... & a more interesting artist than some of the professional poets that were teaching up the hill at the college. The scientific with the artistic are often seen as contradictory but this is really a stereotype that does little justice to how much one field bounces off & inspires the other. Dr. Moe, or Dr. Maurice Turmel, is a retired psychologist of 35 years who has continued his healing via his original compositions of spiritually uplifting easy listening music. Robin Hitchcock is one name that first comes to mind for Dr. Moe with his simple guitar rhythms against ethereal keyboards, electronic drums & soft singing on personal issues, though vocally he's more akin to a young Levon Helm. Many of the songs are slow & almost hypnotic 4 minute moments but a few (i.e. "Remember When", "Let It Begin", "My Vision Of Heaven") are more upbeat with almost a 50's R&B feeling ... imagine if Buddy Holly took to George Harrison chanting & not drawing from the Devil's blues. But, at the same time, the music isn't Holly or Harrison, nor R&B, nor particularly bluesy though the modest solos belay this as Dr. Moe's roots, while at times the electronic foundation is a cross between the lighter side, if there is a lighter side, of Gary Numan mixed with the feeling of modern New Age music. Following his professional work Dr. Moe has crafted a set of humble songs of personal self-discovery, including: "Breathless", "Feels Like Home", "On My Way Again", "Let It Begin", "My Vision Of Heaven", "Dreamer", "Diamonds In The Rough" & "Twilight Time". The titles belay the themes found in the album. Now Is The Time is uplifting as it can get, let alone spiritual. It's not Christian but much more New Age oriented, as the linear notes say it aims for "connection with Source" by the "spiritually hungry sometimes known as LightWorkers, Starseeds, WayShowers & Seekers in preparation for Ascention 2012." Though, considering the specifics of his audience the lyrics aren't incredibly specific aiming more for generic New Age holistic thinking of world peace & self-enlightenment through love, which is the essential idea behind the LightWorkers & other groups. "Can't wait until tomorrow/to find out who I am" Dr. Moe sings in "Diamonds In The Rough" & in many ways that's the message of the album. Don't wait until 2012 to see how your life can change or, hopefully, be better.

Bruce Cockburn ~ Humans (album review) ... Let the humans out of the zoo!

Style: folk rock, world rhythms
Label: Columbia
Year: 1980
Home: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Members: Bruce Cockburn ~ guitar/vocals/dulcimer
Bob Disalle, Benbow ~ drum
Bernie Pitters, Patricia Cullen, Jon Goldsmith ~ keyboards
Dennis Pendrith, Tony Hibbert ~ bass
Pat La Barbera ~ reeds
Brian Leonard ~ percussion
Hugh Marsh ~ violin
Murray McLauchlan, Rachel Paiement, Leroy Sibbles ~ b. vocals

Canadian icon Cockburn started his career as a folksy singer-songwriter with a strong Christian message, which was eventually tucked in the mix to distance himself from the American Christians, only to eventually move in a new direction with world rhythms & a socially conscience/critical lyrical position that found a climax with both fans & critics both then & now with 1980's simply titled Humans. It fully brought together everything he'd been experimenting with from the world beats to the Christianity to the folksy laid back sound along with a heavy criticism of the dysfunctionality of society & its institutions. But, unlike many similar themed albums, such as Paul McCartney's Off The Ground, Humans is so laid back it doesn't come as frightening & bonking- on-the-head condemning as one may expect given Cockburn's reputation. Part of this is due to the use of reggae rhythms that Cockburn discovered with a move to Toronto, considering that few expect reggae to accompany anything but political themes. But, while he's undoubtedly an activist he's also a storyteller no different than Jim Croce or Bob Dylan, calling upon the tradition of observation under the guise of harmless folk music. The difference though, besides having the best voice of the three, is that Cockburn is neither a middle-class working man nor a wanna Kerouac-esque bum/poet. Cockburn is a radio friendly balladeer in a way neither of them ever have been except in bits & pieces. Humans is an album of inner turmoil, as the opening "Grim Travelers" belays just with its title & the lines "Ministers meet/work on the movement of goods/also work on the movement of capital/also work on the movement of human beings/as if we were so many cattle" which deftly & quickly maps out for the listener Cockburn's spiritual & social worldview. We find ourselves falling into his welcoming words that sound more like gentle dreams than criticisms. There's no offers of solutions or comforts, just observations of a world falling down but under God's hand. He's not angry, though "More Not More" gets close with its I-can't-take-it-anymore attitude, & is just observing & at times at confused at what's being seen. He has the eye & wit of Dylan but without falling in into the world-play trap of unclear messages. The successive albums would largely follow Humans' template, though Cockburn would later return to his acoustic folk side in the 90's, but the benchmark was set. Though it was recorded in 1980 it sounds as timeless as the problems it observes, largely due to the mix of musical styles including Bernie Worrell-esque funky organ, violin, reggae, soft Joni Mitchell-esque folk, jazz saxophone & even 80's keyboards. Ironically, given all that & Cockburn's personal instrument, the album is unusually light on guitar solos. If you want an introduction to the wonder of Bruce Cockburn start here, & as another reviewer said you'll end up returning here too. I originally wasn't going to review this album as is a bit softer than my normal review choices but after two consecutive listens I couldn't resist not talking about it. Trust me that you'll not be able to put it down.