Volume

By Transworld
Wed, May 2 2007 6:00 pm | Comments

Guest Reviewer Kevin “Spanky” Long

!!!
Myth Takes
Touch & Go
**
I have to be honest, when I first listened to !!!, I really didn’t get it. So I decided to give it another chance. After all, I had heard some really good things
about this band. It wasn’t until I sat down and really took it all in that I realized how much I completely despise this album. This sh-t hurts my brain. The sound is all over the place. But for the most part, it’s poppy, funky, repetitive, complex yet catchy dance music. I would like to think I’m fairly open-minded when it comes to music, but there are certain sounds that I simply don’t get down with. These guys nailed that sound. I guess that’s precisely why I’m not a music reviewer.
Maybe I’m being a little too harsh-!!! seem to be good musicians. This is a well-produced album, and as I said, the songs are catchy. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a hit on the club scene. Chances are you might really get down with this album. If I were driving in a friend’s car and they were playing this album, I might be able to tune out the first couple tracks, maybe even nod my head to the beat. But by the third song, I’d undoubtedly have to stop, grab their shoulder, and ask them what the f-k this is. The album goes from mildly tolerable to some confusing K-hole Euro-dance-club trash. Listening to this, I’m seriously in a K-hole right now.-Kevin “Spanky” Long

El-P
I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead
Definitive Jux
*****
I had an interesting coincidence about a month prior to getting this advance copy in my palm to review. I’ve been an El-Producto fan since the days of Company Flow, so I brought up El-P’s name in a conversation with Manik Amidst about artists who I hoped would drop an album soon. El-P, we both agreed, needed to drop another. Then a month later, C-Rad at TransWorld passes me I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead in my hand. I had dà‡jà– vu when it hit my fingertips. Track number seven, “Run The Numbers,” with Aesop Rock, alone is worth a five-star rating.
To sum up this album in less than 150 words is hard. So let’s put it like this: You ever have a record that is so good you never have to skip a track or fast-forward at all? This is that album. No filler, no preservatives, just raw music with mind-opening lyrics and beats. It’s so good to see El-Producto taking a break from running Def Jux to getting back behind the microphone. In a time of krunk and car-rims B.S., it’s a breath of fresh air to hear this CD.-Nate Sherwood

Wolf & Cub
Vessels
4 AD
***
Wow, this album out of Adelaide, Australia is a bummer (mind you, not a huge one, but still pretty much a drag). This is surprising given that Wolf & Cub is a recent addition to the seminal 4 AD (home to such luminaries as The Pixies and Cocteau Twins). According to the label’s Web site, “Ivo Watts-Russell (4 AD founder) has always claimed that his aim was to unearth music that was timeless, free of any trend, movement, or era.” Well, despite having an exceptional track record for signing vital, groundbreaking acts, in this instance 4 AD has decidedly failed. Every song offers two chords, numerous pedal effects, and a few adequately crooned lies. Sonically, Vessels is fun to listen to, thanks largely to producer Tony Doogan (Mogwai, Belle & Sebastian), but this isn’t going to start a revolution. Think Jane’s Addiction meets Jesus And Mary Chain. Done and done.-Arlie Carstens

Willowz
Chautauqua
Dim Mak
**** (3.5 out of 5)
Who exactly was it that brought the indie rock world’s attention back to fuzzy amps and straightforward songwriting? Go ahead and bandy about names like the White Stripes, as well as second-tier bands like the Strokes and Jet. Sure, give them credit. That’s fine. I’m not gonna quiz anyone on this stuff later.
Granted, I like the mopey, “garage-ification” stuff as much as the next dude with an existential/emotional crisis, but sometimes I just like to turn it up. d not in the way of Maiden or Mercyful Fate either. Is that so wrong? Sometimes, you just want to lo-fi fuzz-out and let the power chords do their healing work. This Willowz album is pretty all right, even though they sound too much like the White Stripes in places. But give them time-they’re young, they’ll find their own sound eventually. A weird mix of folk-garage-psych-much to the adulation of critics.
Sh-t, I can’t believe I brought up the Strokes in a record review.-Andreas Trolf

RJD2
The Third Hand
XL
*****
Taste. What is taste? My good friend Eric Berry told me that My Big
Fat Greek Wedding did better in ticket sales than the film Office
Space. This only proves that the populist opinion of mankind sucks-why else would sh-t like organized sports and NASCAR be more popular than fine art or stand-up comedy? They’ll pay a jerk 40-mil a year to make a three-point basket, but the six year old making baskets for Crate & Barrel in India only gets four cents a day.
To think Philly (the same city that brought us such hard-hitting cats as the Sub Zero shop crew and Vinnie Paz from Jedi Mind) could conceive RJD2 is just as baffling as a human like Dave Hupp coming from the nautical-compass-tat-rocking-black-hair-scenester-Pabst-Blue-Ribbon-cane-loving-snort-land life mentality in the city of Portland. So my point is that it’s rad to see people rebel against their surroundings. RJD2 is the Che Guevara of Philly.-Nate Sherwood

Call Me Lightning
Soft Skeletons
Frenchkiss
****
In every bit of press I’ve seen on Call Me Lightning, rock critics like to reference Shellac and Jesus Lizard as the band’s “obvious” influences, but the nerds are all way off the mark. These gents from Milwaukee, Wisconsin are serious fan-boys of Les Savy Fav. And really, why not? Aping NYC’s finest isn’t the worst idea. Moreover, in this instance, imitation truly proves to be the fondest form of flattery-the band’s now signed to Frenchkiss Records, owned by LSF bassist Syd Butler. Everything from the spazzy, single-note guitar plucking to the taut bass lines, hyperbolic drumming, and Tim Harrington-esque vocal freak-outs are dead-on approximations of their idols. In the hands of less-capable players, this might come off as banal hero worship, but in the case of Soft Skeletons, it feels more like homage and a passing of the torch. Looks pretty good on ya, mates.-Arlie Carstens

Antibalas
Security
Anti-
****
Once upon a time, in the mid 1960s, there was a magical place that was half Tokyo and half Rome. In this city, let’s call it Nuovo Japon, there were two feuding clans: the beatnik kung-fu gangsters and the robot-monster arch villains. The beatnik kung-fu gangsters operated a chain of Chinese-Italian restaurants and shook down the city’s merchants for protection money; they wore large Elton John sunglasses and simply huge bellbottoms. Plus they carried hatchets and nunchakus. The robot-monster arch villains built a series of ever-more terrifying giant robot monsters with which they would extort huge sums of cash from the government. They sported severe haircuts and black Nehru jackets, and all of them had at least one fake hand.
One day, the beatnik kung-fu gangsters and the robot-monster arch villains fought to the death at Nuovo Japon’s coliseum, but before they did, they enjoyed a huge meal at one of the Chinese-Italian restaurants. Fela Kuti was there, along with his 80-member band of African robots. They played an impromptu show for the two feuding gangs before their fight to the death.
As they would all likely die within a few hours, the meal became a celebration of life. The music swirled throughout the restaurant and people danced and danced, tears streaming down their faces, embracing each other as friends for the first and only time in their lives. Antibalas is the personification of that day.-Andreas Trolf

The Pierces
Thirteen Tales Of Love And Revenge
Lizard King
***
Here’s one that won’t win me any friends: While watching an all-girl group play a show one time, a friend of mine said, “You know, a girl band is kind of like a dog walking on its hind legs.” When I asked why, he responded, “Well, because it’s not so much that they’re doing it well, but just that they’re doing it at all.”
Yeah. Harsh. I mean, sure, there have been tons of god-awful girl groups to prove his point, but also just as many who disprove it. The real shame about The Pierces is that everyone always talks about how ridiculously attractive they are and their music gets kind of overshadowed by reference to their holy-crap good looks.
Sure, their hearts are in the right place: they make reference to gypsies and weird folk conventions, and they harmonize really, really well. And there are occasional moments where all that coalesces quite nicely into these bizarre pop songs that like to pretend they’re not pop songs. But, you know, to bring up my friend’s anecdote again, “It’s not so much that they’re doing it well…” but at least they do it kind of well.-Andreas Trolf

Big Business
Here Come The Waterworks
Hydrahead
**** (4.5/5.0)
Big Business is Jared Warren (bass/vocals) and Coady Willis (drums), formerly of Olympia’s Karp and Seattle’s Murder City Devils, respectively. Thanks in part to Warren’s epically distorted bass riffage and distinctive bellow, Here Come The Waterworks will appeal to hardcore kids and aging Karp fans alike. However, for those kitschy MCD enthusiasts out there, this band sounds absolutely nothing like them. Free of the constraints of style placed on him by his former outfit, Willis has become one of the most inventive percussionists currently making heavy music. Watching him play alongside Warren is a thing of astounding beauty and power. This time around, Big Biz have again tapped producer Phil Ek (Shins, Built To Spill), and it sounds incredible. Bass-heavy without being too brown sounding and bright without being brash, this is high operatic drama re-envisioned as post-hardcore. And if that isn’t enough of an endorsement, Warren and Willis have recently joined the Melvins. In the world of underground music, it doesn’t get any more vaunted than that.-Arlie Carstens

UPCOMING RELEASES
SPRING IS IN THE AIR, TOO MUCH MOUSSE IS IN YOUR HAIR

April 10
Blonde Redhead, 23
Brother Ali, The Undisputed Truth
April 17
Bill Callahan, Woke On A Whale Heart
April 24
The Electric Soft Parade, No Need To Be Downhearted
Detroit Cobras, Since Friday
Mando Diao, Ode To Ochrasy
Pela, Anytown Graffiti
May 1
Dungen, Title TBD
May 8
Mystery Jets, Zoo Time
Page France, And The Family Telephone
The Sea & Cake, Everybody

rd King
***
Here’s one that won’t win me any friends: While watching an all-girl group play a show one time, a friend of mine said, “You know, a girl band is kind of like a dog walking on its hind legs.” When I asked why, he responded, “Well, because it’s not so much that they’re doing it well, but just that they’re doing it at all.”
Yeah. Harsh. I mean, sure, there have been tons of god-awful girl groups to prove his point, but also just as many who disprove it. The real shame about The Pierces is that everyone always talks about how ridiculously attractive they are and their music gets kind of overshadowed by reference to their holy-crap good looks.
Sure, their hearts are in the right place: they make reference to gypsies and weird folk conventions, and they harmonize really, really well. And there are occasional moments where all that coalesces quite nicely into these bizarre pop songs that like to pretend they’re not pop songs. But, you know, to bring up my friend’s anecdote again, “It’s not so much that they’re doing it well…” but at least they do it kind of well.-Andreas Trolf

Big Business
Here Come The Waterworks
Hydrahead
**** (4.5/5.0)
Big Business is Jared Warren (bass/vocals) and Coady Willis (drums), formerly of Olympia’s Karp and Seattle’s Murder City Devils, respectively. Thanks in part to Warren’s epically distorted bass riffage and distinctive bellow, Here Come The Waterworks will appeal to hardcore kids and aging Karp fans alike. However, for those kitschy MCD enthusiasts out there, this band sounds absolutely nothing like them. Free of the constraints of style placed on him by his former outfit, Willis has become one of the most inventive percussionists currently making heavy music. Watching him play alongside Warren is a thing of astounding beauty and power. This time around, Big Biz have again tapped producer Phil Ek (Shins, Built To Spill), and it sounds incredible. Bass-heavy without being too brown sounding and bright without being brash, this is high operatic drama re-envisioned as post-hardcore. And if that isn’t enough of an endorsement, Warren and Willis have recently joined the Melvins. In the world of underground music, it doesn’t get any more vaunted than that.-Arlie Carstens

UPCOMING RELEASES
SPRING IS IN THE AIR, TOO MUCH MOUSSE IS IN YOUR HAIR

April 10
Blonde Redhead, 23
Brother Ali, The Undisputed Truth
April 17
Bill Callahan, Woke On A Whale Heart
April 24
The Electric Soft Parade, No Need To Be Downhearted
Detroit Cobras, Since Friday
Mando Diao, Ode To Ochrasy
Pela, Anytown Graffiti
May 1
Dungen, Title TBD
May 8
Mystery Jets, Zoo Time
Page France, And The Family Telephone
The Sea & Cake, Everybody