The Frequency
The Frequency
Noreaster Failed Industries
Call it "synth rock," "nà…-wave," or whatever you feel like calling it, the music The Frequency makes will put a gigantic smile on your face and make you want to do The Robot until the wee hours of the morning. Some of the songs are straight programmed, while others are energetic rock that's teetering on sounding like old punk rock similar to Washington D.C.'s Bad Brains. Well, like Bad Brains, The Frequency also hails from D.C., and the band is definitely into making and recording unique music that stands apart from everything else. It should be noted that the man behind The Frequency is Sebastian Thomson, the drummer for Trans Am. This time Seb plays guitar, sings, plays keyboards, programs 80s industrial (think the music from the train scene in Risky Business with Tom Cruise and Rebecca DeMornay) along with his friends Grant Tenille and Aaron Claxton and his brother Julian, who rips it up on a couple tracks with the tenor and baritone sax. If you're into bands like The Cars, Devo, Rush, and, of course, Trans Am, then you'd be silly not to head on down to your local music watering hole to pick this up.-Aaron Schmidt
Ween
Live In Chicago
Sanctuary Records
Depending on who you talk to, Dean and Gene Ween are the perpetrators of a long-running, beloved inside joke, or they're just two heartily reviled dudes beating the same dead horse year after year. Either you love listening to them mimic your favorite artists or you just cannot bear the band's inane jams and the hilarious insincerity of every word passing their smirky rose-petal lips.
It's difficult to address critically whether Dean and Gene make "good" music or not, as the whole point of their existence is to mock and one-up every popular musical genre known to Western civilization. In doing so, the have nothing to lose and everything to gain. And gain they have! Indeed, their legions of fans span every demographic you can possibly imagine. Old, young, gutter punk, homemaker, Harley dude, and Hessian alike all love Ween. Why? Likely because nothing is spared: punk, disco, funk, metal, country, R&B, and classic rock all have had their asses handed to them by the likes of Ween.
Now, in gloriously raw form, you can hear them do it live on the new release, Live In Chicago. Recorded at the Vic Theatre in Chicago, Illinois on November 8 and 9, 2003, this double-disc set features a seventeen-song live CD and a 26-song live DVD. If you were a Ween-hater all along, this will only further cement your bias. However, if you loved them before, god help you after seeing/hearing this thing-you may as well die. It comprehensively illustrates everything so good and so wrong about Ween's world. Once again armed with their army of top-notch studio musicians, Dean and Gene Ween have proven they're quite possibly the smartest idiots in popular music.-Arlie Carstens
The Cure
The Cure
Geffen Records
I didn't want to like this album. I had it set in my mind that The Cure could do no better than its late 80s Disintegration album, in part because they haven't put out anything to prove me wrong-until now. This album has all the greatness of The Cure that has been emulated by so many new bands (e.g., Interpol). The music is loud (louder than past albums) and more goth than pop-this time echoing sounds of Joy Division and The Mission. The Cure was produced by Ross Robinson (Korn, Slipknot). I mention this simply because he, unfortunately, butchered many of the songs with his overproducing and drowning of the melodies. I imagine this is because the bands he's produced in the past are awful nà…-metal bands. The guitars were turned up and Smith's voice was turned up, yet you can barely hear all the great melodies from the synthesizers-"Anniversary" is a prime example. "Before Three" and "Taking Off" are great songs that have all the mood and emotion you'd expect from frontman Robert Smith. In the end, theroducer killed this album for me. It has some good songs, but they would've been better had they not been drowned out by an overzealous knob twister.-Greg Harris
Keane
Hopes And Fears
Interscope Records
Keane is the perfect band to listen to with your girlfriend-stare into each other's eyes and make out all night. Hopes And Fears is the debut album from this British trio, and you might even mistake Tom Chaplin's vocals for Thom Yorke if you don't listen carefully. "Somewhere Only We Know" and "This Is The Last Time" are both great songs, but "Everybody's Changing" is easily the loveliest song on the album-very early Radiohead-esque. It could very well find its way onto the radio waves accompanied by a video on MTV. Enough about the band, let's go back to making out with our girlfriends. The tenderness of the vocals will have her melt in your hands. She may even think you're a sensitive guy and won't be able to resist your undeniable charm.-Eric Sentianin
The Hives
Tyrannosaurus Hives
Interscope
Why are there so many garage bands coming over to the U.S. from Sweden to make their mark here? The Hives, Sahara Hotnights, The Hellacopters, and The Sounds are but a few. Is it because the American music industry is incapable of putting out bands that actually sound halfway decent? I should know, I get their crap sent to me almost every day (I'm not complaining, though-the CDs come in handy when you need extra cash!). Frankly, aside from The White Stripes, Modest Mouse, Built To Spill, and a few others, the big labels just don't know shit about what sounds good anymore-yeah, like they ever did in the first place, right? These days, it's just "grab a couple of artsy-fartsy dudes with shaggy hair and clever tight T-shirts, give them some instruments, and then flood the market with their bullshit." What a great formula! You gotta hand it to major-label record execs, they're such a thoughtful breed of human being, aren't they? Get it while you can, boys and girls, 'cause your days are numbered. At least you can go get the new Hives album and sort of be stoked, that is until you see and hear the band all over the airwaves and get sick of them. Then you know it's time to take that CD skeet shooting.-Aaron Schmidt
Fingerbangerz
Virus
Zebra Records
Hailing out of San Jose, California, the Fingerbangerz do it up right with their debut album Virus. Taking the Invisible Skratch Piklz approach, the six-man DJ team handles all of the sounds, samples, and scratches on their own, producing a wonderful fifteen-song release. While boasting many special guests (Vinroc, Illtraxx, Shortkut) and a tight sample of Jhelisa's early-90s acid-jazz hit, "Friendly Pressure," Virus climaxes early in its sequence of songs. The tracks never lose their appeal and sit well with all of their contemporaries, making Fingerbangerz a forceful voice on its first release. Fingerbangerz's mission is "promoting beats for your butt cheeks!" Look into it and listen with open ears, but first you better order yours from www.fingerbangerz.com.-Ray Stevens II
Jesse Malin
The Heat
Artemis Records
Following his first solo album Fine Art Of Self Destruction, Jesse Malin has provedn that he has staying power much like his idols Joe Strummer (The Clash), Paul Westerburg (The Replacements), and Bruce Springsteen-all of whom have been close comparisons for Malin's sound. Being best friends with Ryan Adams can't hurt, either. Adams produced Malin's first album, and Malin produced this album himself because of Adams' busy tour schedule.
Like his first album, The Heat is a dog-eared diary of bruised NYC hearts swimming in booze. This album has more layering of guitars and is slightly more produced, but still retains all the great storytelling and clever lyrics. It opens with a Byrds-esque "Mona Lisa" that has a Lou Reed-like vocal flow. With Malin's monotone voice on "Swinging Man," he sings, "We never had a baby, but she got more tattoos and I got more material for the blues." My favorite songs on the album are "Silver Manhattan," which is filled with layers of distorted guitars sounding more like a Dinosaur Jr. song, and "Since You're In Love," which open with a Smiths line, "The rain came down on a northern town," and ends with a great guitar solo. Aside from the rock- and roll jams, there're also some great acoustic songs like "Going Out West," as well as some piano pieces.
The Heat is a great record and proves that Jesse Malin gets better with age. And anyone with a heart can relate to his post-punk acoustic confessionals. Or maybe just check him out at his day job-he's a Manhattan bar owner.-Greg Harris
Carcass
Choice Cuts
Earache
With lyrics and song titles that'll make most doctors blush, Carcass was one of the biggest and most popular death-metal bands of the late 80s/early 90s. The band was one of the first to adopt "gore" into its melodies (or anti-melodies) and basically influenced about a dozen or so copycat "gore" bands for the next fifteen years. What makes Carcass so special is the fact that the shit is so raw, the music's like a sped-up Sabbath album recorded with vocals that sound like someone is trying to sing with their throat slit, with lots of gurgling and harsh vocal wipeouts strewn about each song. Plus, each and every song could've been the subject for cadaver research study in pathology. My god, what beautiful music Carcass made! The band is long dead and buried now, and Choice Cuts is a 21-song collection of all the best songs off all the band's best albums-including the infamous Carcass Peel Sessions. If you were into grindcore and death metal as a kid back then, then you definitely owned that album. This is one of those must-buy albums for true fans and no one else, so forget everything you just read and stick your head back into the toilet.-Aaron Schmidt
ARTSF
Bay Area Electronic Underground
ARTSF
The electronic underground is kicking hard in the San Francisco bay area. This compilation put out by ARTSF, located in the heart of San Francisco's Mission district, slices the whole scene open with a slew of recording artists. One of the highlights of this compilation is the very unelectronic Extra Action Marching Band. These crazies are known to take over the neighborhood streets and draw people out of their homes and bars like the Pied Piper! Its beats have a hard go-go feel with rolling snares, toms, and heavy bass drums known for thumping the chest and pulsating eardrums. Of course, if your main interest is in the electronic realm, artists such as Xcaliber, Nommo Ogo, Xeno, and Pangenitor will not leave you hanging. Check out www.artsf.org for critical information overload.-Ray Stevens II
Wilco
A Ghost Is Born
Nonesuch Records
The best way to describe Wilco's sound would be to call it safe taste. You're not going to offend anyone by telling them you like Wilco. It's like saying you like U2 or Coldplay (without the politics). With this said, Chicago's favorite alt-country-rock quintet has released its fifth album titled A Ghost Is Born. The album was once again coproduced and coengineered by Sonic Youth's own Jim O'Rourke, which is probably why the complicated guitar arrangements sound so minimalist and laid-back (much like Sonic Youth in their older age). Although the album does have some ten- and twelve-minute songs that play more like an epic, it has many great moments. "Handshake Drugs" and "Wishful Thinking" are two of the highlights of this album. A Ghost Is Born has more experimentation with electric guitars and electronic sounds than past work, but is mixed in well with Wilco's signature rock/country sound. This is an album to be listened to when you can really focus on the music and you're relaxed. Not to say it's boring, just that it needs to be listened to in the right mind-set, not sitting in traffic in a hurry to get somewhere-like I always seem to do. So if you're ready for some le I got more material for the blues." My favorite songs on the album are "Silver Manhattan," which is filled with layers of distorted guitars sounding more like a Dinosaur Jr. song, and "Since You're In Love," which open with a Smiths line, "The rain came down on a northern town," and ends with a great guitar solo. Aside from the rock- and roll jams, there're also some great acoustic songs like "Going Out West," as well as some piano pieces.
The Heat is a great record and proves that Jesse Malin gets better with age. And anyone with a heart can relate to his post-punk acoustic confessionals. Or maybe just check him out at his day job-he's a Manhattan bar owner.-Greg Harris
Carcass
Choice Cuts
Earache
With lyrics and song titles that'll make most doctors blush, Carcass was one of the biggest and most popular death-metal bands of the late 80s/early 90s. The band was one of the first to adopt "gore" into its melodies (or anti-melodies) and basically influenced about a dozen or so copycat "gore" bands for the next fifteen years. What makes Carcass so special is the fact that the shit is so raw, the music's like a sped-up Sabbath album recorded with vocals that sound like someone is trying to sing with their throat slit, with lots of gurgling and harsh vocal wipeouts strewn about each song. Plus, each and every song could've been the subject for cadaver research study in pathology. My god, what beautiful music Carcass made! The band is long dead and buried now, and Choice Cuts is a 21-song collection of all the best songs off all the band's best albums-including the infamous Carcass Peel Sessions. If you were into grindcore and death metal as a kid back then, then you definitely owned that album. This is one of those must-buy albums for true fans and no one else, so forget everything you just read and stick your head back into the toilet.-Aaron Schmidt
ARTSF
Bay Area Electronic Underground
ARTSF
The electronic underground is kicking hard in the San Francisco bay area. This compilation put out by ARTSF, located in the heart of San Francisco's Mission district, slices the whole scene open with a slew of recording artists. One of the highlights of this compilation is the very unelectronic Extra Action Marching Band. These crazies are known to take over the neighborhood streets and draw people out of their homes and bars like the Pied Piper! Its beats have a hard go-go feel with rolling snares, toms, and heavy bass drums known for thumping the chest and pulsating eardrums. Of course, if your main interest is in the electronic realm, artists such as Xcaliber, Nommo Ogo, Xeno, and Pangenitor will not leave you hanging. Check out www.artsf.org for critical information overload.-Ray Stevens II
Wilco
A Ghost Is Born
Nonesuch Records
The best way to describe Wilco's sound would be to call it safe taste. You're not going to offend anyone by telling them you like Wilco. It's like saying you like U2 or Coldplay (without the politics). With this said, Chicago's favorite alt-country-rock quintet has released its fifth album titled A Ghost Is Born. The album was once again coproduced and coengineered by Sonic Youth's own Jim O'Rourke, which is probably why the complicated guitar arrangements sound so minimalist and laid-back (much like Sonic Youth in their older age). Although the album does have some ten- and twelve-minute songs that play more like an epic, it has many great moments. "Handshake Drugs" and "Wishful Thinking" are two of the highlights of this album. A Ghost Is Born has more experimentation with electric guitars and electronic sounds than past work, but is mixed in well with Wilco's signature rock/country sound. This is an album to be listened to when you can really focus on the music and you're relaxed. Not to say it's boring, just that it needs to be listened to in the right mind-set, not sitting in traffic in a hurry to get somewhere-like I always seem to do. So if you're ready for some lengthy songs by some great musicians that create a feeling like they're playing to only you in the room, this album is for you. Hopefully singer Jeff Tweedy can stay out of rehab and hospitals for his anxiety long enough to play live sometime soon.-Greg Harris
Laurel Aitken
Live At Club Ska
Trojan Records
Laurel Aitken has been dubbed "Godfather Of Ska," and by the sounds of the smooth jams flowing on this album, it's easy to believe. Laurel, or Mr. Aitken as he should be addressed, was revered as one of the most popular statesman of Jamaican music throughout the 60s, and at the tender age of 74, he appeared at West London's Club Ska on July 7, 2001 to record this twelve-song set with his band Freetown.
Laurel Aitken's music has an original style and approach to ska, and doesn't sound like more contempory ska bands like The Specials, or even more recently, the punk-infused Bosstones or Dropkick Murphys. His music definitely grooves with ska-hopping guitar, walking bass lines, simple drums, a smooth voice, and it's all accompanied by a tenor sax and trumpet. If you ever wondered where ska gets its roots, check out some Laurel Aitken and Freetown.-Eric Sentianin
Sean Smith
Volume 2
Russet Records
Sean Smith is an acoustic-guitar-playing wizard who's used to playing street corners in Monterey, California. His album was recorded with a mini disc and a sock-covered microphone strapped down on his leg with a belt. Sean's music can easily be compared to Leo Kottke's early work, which basically means he's brilliant. He writes songs with nervous/interesting titles: "It's A Wonder My Dreams Still Seem Like Dreams" or "Here's To All The People We'll Never Become." But the pure instrumentals can be interpreted however you like. The booklet is pretty cool, laid out like a small illustrated 'zine with artwork by Scott Partch. Mr. Smith's twelve-string virtuosity can be easily enjoyed by music lovers internationally via Russet Records, P.O. Box 2942, Carmel, California 93921 or at seansmithlives.com. Support great music and check it out!-Ray Stevens II
e lengthy songs by some great musicians that create a feeling like they're playing to only you in the room, this album is for you. Hopefully singer Jeff Tweedy can stay out of rehab and hospitals for his anxiety long enough to play live sometime soon.-Greg Harris
Laurel Aitken
Live At Club Ska
Trojan Records
Laurel Aitken has been dubbed "Godfather Of Ska," and by the sounds of the smooth jams flowing on this album, it's easy to believe. Laurel, or Mr. Aitken as he should be addressed, was revered as one of the most popular statesman of Jamaican music throughout the 60s, and at the tender age of 74, he appeared at West London's Club Ska on July 7, 2001 to record this twelve-song set with his band Freetown.
Laurel Aitken's music has an original style and approach to ska, and doesn't sound like more contempory ska bands like The Specials, or even more recently, the punk-infused Bosstones or Dropkick Murphys. His music definitely grooves with ska-hopping guitar, walking bass lines, simple drums, a smooth voice, and it's all accompanied by a tenor sax and trumpet. If you ever wondered where ska gets its roots, check out some Laurel Aitken and Freetown.-Eric Sentianin
Sean Smith
Volume 2
Russet Records
Sean Smith is an acoustic-guitar-playing wizard who's used to playing street corners in Monterey, California. His album was recorded with a mini disc and a sock-covered microphone strapped down on his leg with a belt. Sean's music can easily be compared to Leo Kottke's early work, which basically means he's brilliant. He writes songs with nervous/interesting titles: "It's A Wonder My Dreams Still Seem Like Dreams" or "Here's To All The People We'll Never Become." But the pure instrumentals can be interpreted however you like. The booklet is pretty cool, laid out like a small illustrated 'zine with artwork by Scott Partch. Mr. Smith's twelve-string vvirtuosity can be easily enjoyed by music lovers internationally via Russet Records, P.O. Box 2942, Carmel, California 93921 or at seansmithlives.com. Support great music and check it out!-Ray Stevens II
