Franz Ferdinand
Domino Records
Okay, kids, Music Reviewer School, day one. Pay attention:
First classify the album quickly. Use no more than the 35 words about the band's influences and musical antecedents-that way people know what they're dealing with right away. Second, it's very popular these days to proclaim certain bands "saviors" or their respective scenes, or maybe you can liken them to some hugely popular band from another era. Calling someone the "new Beatles" always works. You can also tell an interesting anecdote about the band's name or something funny that you heard went on during the recording of the album, but that's kinda superfluous and should only be done when you really need to reach a word quota for the review. Third, always write how long the CD has remained in heavy rotation on your stereo. Music reviewers love to write shit like that. It makes it seem as if they sit around all day, completely preoccupied with music and music theory and trivia and they, like, live the music. Lastly, if you're writing a good review, tell the reader to go buy the album with all possible haste. If it's a bad review, tell the readers to go out and buy the album and decide for themselves if it's good. Never write a "real" bad review, because you want to stay on the record company's mailing list, right?
Okay, here goes: Franz Ferdinand is catchy, danceable post-punk from Scotland. Although if you want to be correct about things, post-punk was technically a musical movement of the early 1980s, so this, I guess would be post-post-punk, or more aptly, neo-post-punk. They are obviously influenced by Gang Of Four, so if you like Gang Of Four you're going to be stoked on Franz Ferdinand. I totally like Gang Of Four, so, umm, you know. Yeah. But so, Franz Ferdinand's eponymous album has totally cemented its reputation as the saviors of Glasgow's neo-post-punk scene. It's totally the new Beatles, but with different music. The stark guitars and minor chords, danceable beats and smart lyrics are going to stoke you out for sure. Man, this album's been in my CD player for so long. You should totally buy it with all possible haste and keep the boys in Franz Ferdinand dressed in fancy clothes.-Andreas Trolf
Bobby Bare Jr.'s Young Criminals' Starvation League
From The End Of Your Leash
Bloodshot Records
Bobby Bare Jr. may never become a household name, but after this album drops, certain people will surely believe he ought to be. Chiefly, the country-punk set will love From The End Of Your Leash-particularly those tired of Ryan Adams' tantrums and genre-hopping flights of fancy. No doubt about it, fools are going to crash pickup trucks drivin' and cryin' to this. Bare's plainly got the heart, pipes, and lyrical wit to become a shining star in some dim, beer soaked and flannel-clad alt-country universe. And hell, why not? He even has the requisite pedigree.
His father, Bobby Bare Sr., was a heralded studio musician/songwriter on the celebrated 1970s Nashville scene. Which means, unlike a lot of jackasses gunning to become big "country" stars, this music's genuinely in Bare Jr.'s blood. Just listen to "Visit Me In Music City." This is no wide-eyed hopeful clambering to make his way onto the charts and up the music-biz ladder. Indeed, Bare pens darkly sarcastic lyrics having more in common with Dorothy Parker and Johnny Cash than Garth Brooks and Shania.
Frequently, the songs are brash, up-tempo numbers done in a surprisingly lame-free show-tunes-meets-roots-rock fashion. Several feature Bare on guitar and vocal, with a host of backup musicians providing piano, horns, strings, and vocal accompaniments. On "The Terrible Sunrise," he unleashes a mournful yelp so dead-on Westerbergian, you'll swear he lifted the lament's delivery from "Here Comes A Regular." Standout track "Don't Follow Me (I'm Lost)" is another Replacements-esque tearjerker, providing only the second example in the history of rock when a saxophone tro actually works. Oddly, indie folk hero Will Oldham makes a singing appearance on "Valentine," the most unrepentant (and least interesting) countrified pop song of the whole affair.-Arlie Carstens
Pinback
Summer In Abaddon
Touch And Go Records
Ah, the wonderful flowing sounds of one of San Diego, California's finest indie rock bands. Pinback is a very special culmination of sound created by two very crafted musicians-Armistead Burwell Smith IV (Zach) and Rob Crow-originally from equally as talented SD bands of yesteryear that include Three Mile Pilot, Thingy, and Heavy Vegetable. The last Pinback offering was 2001's Blue Screen Life, which was the band's amazing second full-length album. With this new one, Summer In Abaddon, the guys couldn't have followed it up with a better, even more monumental album. All of you Pinback fans out there will know what I'm talking about.-Aaron Schmidt
Ghostface
The Pretty Toney Album
Island Def Jam Records
The Ghost is back to haunt the 'hood with some gangster shit for the earlobes. Hard, angry beats with rugged flow strewn about like an M-60 machine gun rippin' fools in half. Pretty Toney? Nothin' pretty about this joint. This ain't the Tony Starks you might remember from a few years back, this muthaf-ker right here came back out swingin' like he's Joe Frazier or somethin'. Rough, rugged, and raw. That's what this is, I tell you. Life can get hard in the big city. This new ghost will definitely make the hair raise on your arms like when you were a kid and you saw that strange shape appear at nighttime in your bedroom closet. Straight scary shit.-Moe Money
The Velvet Teen
Elysium
Slow Dance Records
Listening to The Velvet Teen's Elysium, you tend to want to draw comparisons. That's understandable. You'll think, "Okay, Radiohead? Is that it? A less hook-driven, less electronic Grandaddy? Where do I know this from? Jeff Buckley! That's it. No, no, no. Wait, did Coldplay suddenly get smarter?"
Comparisons and finger-pointing at the band's influences do not do this album any justice, and I don't know how apt any of those comparisons are, but if you draw the common elements from all of them, you're left with this: meandering, soft, piano-driven songs; rich strings; and a haunting voice that in places borders on an outright lament.
The album opens with a series of layered computer and modem beeps and whistles, which manage to belie the fundamental lo-fi sound of the rest of Elysium, which is an intelligent and refreshing incongruity. The remainder of the album sets you afloat.
Elysium is smart and complex without being smug; slow and deliberate without being tiring. Although the album is primarily a showcase for Judah Nagler's piano and voice, when drums and bass come in they perfectly complement the composition, and you're left with something that's not one thing or the other. And that is a good thing. In fact, it's excellent.-Andreas Trolf
RJD2
Since We Last Spoke
Definitive Jux
Hey, Mr. DJ! I'm down here! Right in front of you. Yo, can you play some outer-space jams? Okay, cool. How about some vintage funk? Yeah, right on. You got anything that sounds like a car-chase movie soundtrack? Really? Sweet. Yeah, that's cool. What is that, Curtis Mayfield? Oh yeah, I can totally get down to this. Nice. Oh, it's not? Whoa, sounds awesome, though. Those girls over there are so feeling me! Wait, do you have any flamenco guitar tracks? Seriously? Play that, yo! Is that the new Spiritualized album? No? Where'd you get those old soul records from? Oh man, what a great bass line. And those beats are off the hook, son! Now hold up, what is that, a little new-wave keyboard? That works. I can move to this. Look out!
Wait, how come I don't see you spinning any records? What? This is all one album? That's so killer. Who is this? RJD2? Like that little robot on Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace? I didn't know he had an album out. Rad.
Dude, this is totally the best Bar Mitzvah I've ever been to!-Andreas Trolf
Sparta
Porcelain
Geffen Records
After Sparta's impressive debut album Wiretap Scars-a tightly layered, complex album full of fantastic hooks, choruses, and personality-Porcelain was maybe destined to fall short. After all, Sparta walks a fine line between emo and post-punk hardcore, which tends to be dangerous territory, not leastwise because by doing so they tend to court the "screamo" label-which I don't think any band wants attached to themselves. But when Sparta gets it together, it really hits home: you forget about labels and you forget about At The Drive-In, the band that spawned Sparta.
Porcelain is kind of indicative, though, of what plagues the band on this follow-up. When Sparta pulls it off, the music is fine and delicate, despite its fever-pitch tendencies. But when the members of Sparta blow it, they blow it big time. When your songs are made of porcelain, they're easily broken and can't be patched back together by formula and routine, which is exactly what Porcelain amounts to. All the elements are there, though not in the proper combinations, and the results seem like songs put back together with Krazy Glue and placed back inside your Mom's china cabinet in the hopes that she won't notice. Everything seems to be thrown together slapdash with none of the emotion and care that is necessary to make something good and true, rather than just boring and regrettable. Sorry, boys, I really wanted to like this.-Andreas Trolf
!!!
Louden Up Now
Touch and Go Records
This is what passes for a band name these days-!!!? You're supposed to pronounce it "chk chk chk," but I don't know about that. If it's pronounced that way, why not spell it that way? Phonetics, man-seriously.
Anyhow, this is straightforward dance music. Which, with the exception of, like, new garage bands and new "punk," is the newest and hottest music revival. !!! is this bunch of seven Brooklyn hipsters. I think one of them even drinks at the bar down the street from my house where they serve 30-ounce beers in Styrofoam cups. It's called The Turkey's Nest, and they have video bowling and let you gamble.
But anyways, !!! is huge out here right now. It's nuts. Most of this album, especially the song "Hello? Is This Thing On?" sounds very much like Sandinista-era Clash, which can be a good thing or a not so good thing, depending on what you're into. But that can be said about anything, right? So if you like, say, London Calling-era Clash, you may be in for a disappointment. But then, you're not going to buy this album looking for seminal punk rock with sweeping political and social commentary, right? That type of album doesn't even exist in 2004. Punk's totally dead. But if you're into dance music that isn't really "dance" music, like the Clash's often underrated triple album Sandinista, then, oh man, go for it and buy Louden Up Now now. !!! doesn't have the same penchant for intelligent, passionate lyrics that Joe Strummer and Mick Jones did, but the band sure tries hard in places. Sadly, !!!'s immature efforts at sociopolitical commentary fall well short and end up sounding like the disenfranchised rants of kids who aren't even old enough to vote. But they do let George W. Bush know that he can "suck my f-king dick," which counts for something. But man, don't buy this for the message, just go dance and pretend that everything's all right.
While I'm at it, can I take this opportunity to let everyone know how dumb that band Hoobastank is? Oh man, don't get me started.-Andreas Trolf
Hightower
Hightower
Manbaby Records
Is there still such a thing as skate rock? I mean, in the accepted sense of the term, I guess the only "name" skate-rock bands that exist anymore are ones that have gotten back together, like the Faction, or ones spawned from earlier incarnations of other skate-rock bands. Then there are bands that claim "skate," even though theyhis is totally the best Bar Mitzvah I've ever been to!-Andreas Trolf
Sparta
Porcelain
Geffen Records
After Sparta's impressive debut album Wiretap Scars-a tightly layered, complex album full of fantastic hooks, choruses, and personality-Porcelain was maybe destined to fall short. After all, Sparta walks a fine line between emo and post-punk hardcore, which tends to be dangerous territory, not leastwise because by doing so they tend to court the "screamo" label-which I don't think any band wants attached to themselves. But when Sparta gets it together, it really hits home: you forget about labels and you forget about At The Drive-In, the band that spawned Sparta.
Porcelain is kind of indicative, though, of what plagues the band on this follow-up. When Sparta pulls it off, the music is fine and delicate, despite its fever-pitch tendencies. But when the members of Sparta blow it, they blow it big time. When your songs are made of porcelain, they're easily broken and can't be patched back together by formula and routine, which is exactly what Porcelain amounts to. All the elements are there, though not in the proper combinations, and the results seem like songs put back together with Krazy Glue and placed back inside your Mom's china cabinet in the hopes that she won't notice. Everything seems to be thrown together slapdash with none of the emotion and care that is necessary to make something good and true, rather than just boring and regrettable. Sorry, boys, I really wanted to like this.-Andreas Trolf
!!!
Louden Up Now
Touch and Go Records
This is what passes for a band name these days-!!!? You're supposed to pronounce it "chk chk chk," but I don't know about that. If it's pronounced that way, why not spell it that way? Phonetics, man-seriously.
Anyhow, this is straightforward dance music. Which, with the exception of, like, new garage bands and new "punk," is the newest and hottest music revival. !!! is this bunch of seven Brooklyn hipsters. I think one of them even drinks at the bar down the street from my house where they serve 30-ounce beers in Styrofoam cups. It's called The Turkey's Nest, and they have video bowling and let you gamble.
But anyways, !!! is huge out here right now. It's nuts. Most of this album, especially the song "Hello? Is This Thing On?" sounds very much like Sandinista-era Clash, which can be a good thing or a not so good thing, depending on what you're into. But that can be said about anything, right? So if you like, say, London Calling-era Clash, you may be in for a disappointment. But then, you're not going to buy this album looking for seminal punk rock with sweeping political and social commentary, right? That type of album doesn't even exist in 2004. Punk's totally dead. But if you're into dance music that isn't really "dance" music, like the Clash's often underrated triple album Sandinista, then, oh man, go for it and buy Louden Up Now now. !!! doesn't have the same penchant for intelligent, passionate lyrics that Joe Strummer and Mick Jones did, but the band sure tries hard in places. Sadly, !!!'s immature efforts at sociopolitical commentary fall well short and end up sounding like the disenfranchised rants of kids who aren't even old enough to vote. But they do let George W. Bush know that he can "suck my f-king dick," which counts for something. But man, don't buy this for the message, just go dance and pretend that everything's all right.
While I'm at it, can I take this opportunity to let everyone know how dumb that band Hoobastank is? Oh man, don't get me started.-Andreas Trolf
Hightower
Hightower
Manbaby Records
Is there still such a thing as skate rock? I mean, in the accepted sense of the term, I guess the only "name" skate-rock bands that exist anymore are ones that have gotten back together, like the Faction, or ones spawned from earlier incarnations of other skate-rock bands. Then there are bands that claim "skate," even though they're clearly Hot Topic. Those are the worst and are to be avoided at all costs.
Wait, I have to reconsider this. I was all lined up to talk about skate rock and how the world needs more Screaming Lord Salbas and Los Olvidados, like we had fifteen years ago. JFA and Drunk Injuns would be nice, too, I guess. But then I got to thinking about concepts like musical progression and crap like that and also about how diverse skateboarding itself is, and so, shouldn't skateboard music be diverse, too? Then I realized that I didn't want to turn a simple album review into a tirade on the state of skateboarding and once again become Bitter Old Guy, like my friend Mikey.
So in the interests of sticking to the task at hand, I will say this: Hightower is skate rock in the purest and best sense, or as they prefer, San Francisco street metal. It's also stoner metal in the vein of Black Sabbath-speed metal maybe like Celtic Frost at times, too. The band's also hilarious because they name their songs after cartoons and Muppets sometimes. Just listen to standout tracks like "Space Madness," "I Am The Wallride," and "That Tree." Jesus, they gave me a serious case of metalitis. And they skate, the whole lot of 'em. I saw them play recently at a skate jam and Shane, the drummer, took a few runs on the mini ramp during a drum-free interlude, while Jake and Dave, the remaining two thirds of Hightower held it down. He crailslid right in front of me and then ran back to his drum set and threw it down.
In fifteen years, I'll be even older and more embittered by skateboarding and I'll be writing about how the world needs more Hightowers. No, wait. The world needs more Hightowers right now.-Andreas Trolf
Los Lobos
The Ride
Hollywood Records/Mammoth
Maybe you remember Los Lobos from the days when the band garnered its first hit "La Bamba" (as featured in the 80s film of the same name). Or maybe you weren't even born yet. Either way, the 80s happened a long time ago. However, little do you know, prior to the success of "La Bamba," Los Lobos had already developed a substantial fan base in the Los Angeles area.
Forming when the core members were still just five kids in high school, they wrote songs fusing traditional Mexican music with the revved-up swagger of So Cal-style punk rock. Try to imagine mariachi sung in Spanish and English, and played with the angst of Black Flag. Yeah, pretty much awesome. But as the band members have matured, the Los Lobos musical palette has grown to incorporate jazz, classic rock, and Latin American influences. Accordingly, they've ceased to sound anything like their earliest snarling, young punk anthems. However, neither have they washed out, happy to endlessly rehash the heady days of their La Bamba-era mainstream works.
Adept at playing skillfully across the musical spectrum, they comfortably inhabit a space somewhere in the middle, often collaborating with a who's who of fellow lifer musicians. This time around, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Martha Gonzalez, Cafà‡ Tacuba, Little Willie G, Dave Alvin, Bobby Womack, Richard Thompson, Elvis Costello, Ruben Blades, and Mavis Staples have come along for the ride.-Arlie Carstens
they're clearly Hot Topic. Those are the worst and are to be avoided at all costs.
Wait, I have to reconsider this. I was all lined up to talk about skate rock and how the world needs more Screaming Lord Salbas and Los Olvidados, like we had fifteen years ago. JFA and Drunk Injuns would be nice, too, I guess. But then I got to thinking about concepts like musical progression and crap like that and also about how diverse skateboarding itself is, and so, shouldn't skateboard music be diverse, too? Then I realized that I didn't want to turn a simple album review into a tirade on the state of skateboarding and once again become Bitter Old Guy, like my friend Mikey.
So in the interests of sticking to the task at hand, I will say this: Hightower is skate rock in the purest and best sense, or as they prefer, San Francisco street metal. It's also stoner metal in the vein of Black Sabbath-speed metal maybe like Celtic Frost at times, too. The band's also hilarious because they name their songs after cartoons and Muppets sometimes. Just listen to standout tracks like "Space Madness," "I Am The Wallride," and "That Tree." Jesus, they gave me a serious case of metalitis. And they skate, the whole lot of 'em. I saw them play recently at a skate jam and Shane, the drummer, took a few runs on the mini ramp during a drum-free interlude, while Jake and Dave, the remaining two thirds of Hightower held it down. He crailslid right in front of me and then ran back to his drum set and threw it down.
In fifteen years, I'll be even older and more embittered by skateboarding and I'll be writing about how the world needs more Hightowers. No, wait. The world needs more Hightowers right now.-Andreas Trolf
Los Lobos
The Ride
Hollywood Records/Mammoth
Maybe you remember Los Lobos from the days when the band garnered its first hit "La Bamba" (as featured in the 80s film of the same name). Or maybe you weren't even born yet. Either way, the 80s happened a long time ago. However, little do you know, prior to the success of "La Bamba," Los Lobos had already developed a substantial fan base in the Los Angeles area.
Forming when the core members were still just five kids in high school, they wrote songs fusing traditional Mexican music with the revved-up swagger of So Cal-style punk rock. Try to imagine mariachi sung in Spanish and English, and played with the angst of Black Flag. Yeah, pretty much awesome. But as the band members have matured, the Los Lobos musical palette has grown to incorporate jazz, classic rock, and Latin American influences. Accordingly, they've ceased to sound anything like their earliest snarling, young punk anthems. However, neither have they washed out, happy to endlessly rehash the heady days of their La Bamba-era mainstream works.
Adept at playing skillfully across the musical spectrum, they comfortably inhabit a space somewhere in the middle, often collaborating with a who's who of fellow lifer musicians. This time around, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Martha Gonzalez, Cafà‡ Tacuba, Little Willie G, Dave Alvin, Bobby Womack, Richard Thompson, Elvis Costello, Ruben Blades, and Mavis Staples have come along for the ride.-Arlie Carstens
