Slices - Self-Titled 7"

WHO: Pittsburgh, PA Noisy Hardcore. According to their label: "Crossed Out playing My War side B."

WHEN: 2009

1) Nub City (1:00)

The most unenthusiastic intro in the history of hardcore (I'm willing to bet) explodes into a simple descending riff and completely maniacal vocals. The production is rough, and a little fuzzy. Just as it should be. Nothing new brought to the table of hardcore, but still accomplishing just what good hardcore should. RIFF.

2) Desert March (1:05)

The more jangly guitar allows this song to basically ooze slime everywhere. It almost makes me want to clean my speakers off. Slices' vocalist displays that he has quite a bit of attitude on this one. He sounds like the kind of guy who will spit in your face as well as yell in it, which I like. The bass tone is revealed to sound like your stomach digesting food aka ROUGH. A blast beat closes things. RIFF.

3) Coping Mechanism (1:30)

Between this and the new Pissed Jeans album, I'm really starting to think that Pennsylvania must be a really shitty place, if it continues to produce such willfully ugly music as this. This song just stomps everywhere like it's throwing a tantrum. This band's heavy bass tone really makes it seem like you're walking up a hill in the middle of a landslide as you listen to it. Completely oppressive, but in the best way possible. RIFF.

4) Cave Crawl/Bad Mask (3:57)

The final track on this release is longer than the first three songs put together, which I guess may account for the slightly confounding My War comparison that the label provides for this band. In the end, the comparison makes sense. Over a straight up dirgy instrumental background, the vocals rant and rave in a far more emotional style than the first three tracks. A complete instrument basher, and a worthy entry in hardcore/noise's apparent recent fascination with more crushingly slow tempos. RIFF.

Total:

4 Riffs v. 0 Flubs.

Score:

100%

I don't even need the formula to let it be known that this release completely slays. Not a bad song on it, and now I really want to try and track down whatever else they've released. A promising new band, definitely.

-Erik

Nøught - Nøught

Who?: Oxford, England instru-prog trio.

When?: 2000

1) The Fans (8:10)

-There's been nothing but guitar feedback, and I'm already thinking- "Shit, they're only a three piece?" It's huge, tuneful feedback, and then some jazzy drums come in.

-Only three minutes in, it's apparent that these guys are pretty good at the ol' bait-n-switch. After a melodic buildup, shit gets really dissonant for a second, with a guitar part that actually sounds like vocals being sung through a megaphone, and then-JAZZ GUITAR. Kind of reminds me of Karate a bit.

-After a big buildup where the guitar actually plays a riff a few times, there's a release. Sounds like there's a string quartet in the background. We've gone spy-rock. Opening credits music.

-Back to another buildup, where the strings get a bit sassy. Guitarist starts soloing a bit in the back, and it shreds.

-Oh shit, tempo change. FRANTIC.

-I could honestly do without the strings in the background.

After 8 minutes, I'm going to have to give this one a RIFF. It's an extremely multi-faceted piece, that although relies a bit on the buildup/release trick, throws enough curveballs in there to keep me surprised. Except the strings.

2) Nought I (1:53)

-YES. Fuzz-soaked guitar.

-FUCK. 30 seconds in, the rest of the band kicks in, and they kick in hard. Like, kick to your chest that sends you flying across the room hard. This riff is evil.

Consider this one another RIFF. The song serves the purpose a great instrumental on an album with vocals would. The closest comparison I can think of being "Electric" off of Boris' Pink album. It gets in, punches you in the face, then gets out before it's just bragging about it.

3) Cough Cap Kitty (3:13)

-Well, the strings are back. I'm beginning to wonder how frequently they'll be around.

-Reversing the previous dynamics, things start loud then get quiet, and then borderline Reniassance Fair-y

-Eesh, letting the strings take the melody entirely makes things sound a bit goofy.

- The guitar takes things back for a tantalizing second, before relenquishing things back to the strings again.

Cough up their first FLUB. This song treads a bit too close to "Hey, classical music can ROCK too!" territory for me. That, and I'm picturing it being too appropriate for some sort of "rock opera" that you may see on Broadway. All I'm seeing is jazz hands during this one.

4) Red Rag (7:04)

-First song with a bass intro. Nice.

-Around the bass intro, the rest of the band drops in. The strings return, except seem to be used for more chaotic purposes than before. I approve.

-Also, the first song that seems to revolve around some sort of set structure. There's something that I guess could be considered a chorus, or would refrain be the more appropriate term?

-Nearly three minutes in, shit gets inhumanely loud. Fuck yeah.

-Scratch my previous note, the second half of this song gets way different, offering a gradual buildup that ends with a great, wiry guitar part.

-But then, it just kind of repeats for the rest of the song. The outro more or less takes up nearly a third of the song's running time.

RIFF. Kept me guessing the entire time.

5) Goddess Awakes: I. The Tricks Of Strangers, II. Locker, III. Widow's Lament (10:47)

-Bracing for the multi-part suite.

-Starts off sounding like video game boss music. With horns. At least it's not the strings again.

Feel like I should be dodging fireballs or some other projectile weapon.

-I fucking love this band's drummer. Busts some total Max Weinberg 7 shit whenever he has room.

-Things got quiet. I think I've moved on to the second movement.

-Yep. A slightly ambient section? Sounds like a movement transition part to me.

-Second section was definitely a lot more low key. But, here comes some noise again, so I think I've made it to the final section.

-I never thought I'd ever have to say anything about "math-rock guitars with a string overlay," but I just did.

First two movements were pretty sweet, but the third didn't really go anywhere. Two out of three isn't bad though, so RIFF.

6) Stain Stones (7:33)

- Woah. Jazz. We have horns.

- AND WOODWINDS. Clarinet solo! This kind of reminds me of the first time I listened to the new Kayo Dot album, except I'm not bored.

- The band takes things back over, as if telling the horns to calm down a bit. Then the guitar kicks everyone's ass with a solo that crams as much rad into it as it can.

- Things actually get pretty, five minutes in. It's a rare moment on this album so far, where everyone just seems content to lay back a bit.

- Things speed up a bunch near the end, kind of like in the first track.

RIFF. I actually enjoyed the more jazz inflected part that served as the first third of the song, and the rest of the song proved that Nought don't force themselves to overstuff everything they do.

7) All The Time Ha-Ha (3:55)

- Uh-oh. I'm sensing a bit of a repeat of the third track. JAZZ HANDS STRIKE BACK.

Yeah, I'm going to have to call FLUB on this one. It doesn't really go anywhere, and seems perpetually stuck in frantic showtune mode.

8) Heart Stops Twice (5:44)

- There was a sense of foreboding to this song at first, before it exploded into a "LET'S GO ON AN ADVENTURE" soundtrack a minute in.

- Do I hear ghostly female vocals? Operatic?

- Someone had to break out the sitar/koto, didn't they? For a hilariously brief cameo.

- OH FUCK ADVENTURE TIME AGAIN.

- A slight storm of feedback concludes with a brief return to order in the last 30 seconds.

FLUB. I don't know. I'm starting to feel like this band would be a lot better if they ditched their more orchestral leanings. I'm all about ambition, but it's starting to feel a bit like overkill.

9) Nought II (1:41)

-Hoping for more titanic shreddage that the first "Nought" track offered.

-Holy shit. It's the same riff. Minus the snare hits before the huge crash that goes into the rest of the song.

-No really, this is the EXACT same song as track 2. I can't be convinced otherwise.

FLUB. Couldn't they have at least titled it "Nought (Reprise)" or something like that?

10) Ignatius (6:53)

- This song has potential already, because the guitar is just howling like an injured wolf.

- And continuing to do so, again.

- And again.

- OK, sweet. Now it sounds like a power drill.

- Fuck. The strings just had to show up again, didn't they?

They know how to end an album on a good note, I'll give them that. Plus, this song contained some of the most interesting guitar work of the album, despite it's occasional repetitious nature. I'll give it a RIFF.

Total:

6 RIFFS vs. 4 FLUBS.

Score:

(6 RIFFS/10 TRACKS) x 100% = 60%

So yeah, there were some really good moments on this album, and then there were some really goofy ones that prevented me from being able to handle certain songs on this album. Still, over half of the album was good!

-Erik

New Format

It's going on two months since I updated this thing, which kind of bums me out. So, in an attempt to kickstart this mule once again, I'm instituting a format change.

Instead of big, multi-paragraph reviews of albums, I'm going to get a bit scientific. Well, mathematical. Have you noticed how some albums start off really well, and then the back end sags a bunch? You sit there wondering to yourself, "Man, I only really like half of this album." No amount of flowery prose can really convey how much of an album is truly worthwhile. Therefore, I'm going to do the dirty work and break down each album I write about, track by track.

Each track will be evaluated on a pass or fail system- to be known as "Riff" for winning tracks, and "Flub" for those that aren't up to snuff. Riffs and Flubs will then be added up at the end, and then plugged into this totally unoriginal formula:

(RIFFS/TOTAL NUMBER OF TRACKS) x 100

Offering you, the reader/listener, an approximation of how much of an album is worthwhile listening. Keep in mind, this is still only my opinion, so who really cares? I'm still going to be covering things I've never heard before, so take my reviews as someone who is just getting into things for the first time- as some of you might be.

Anyway, I'm going to do the first album in this new format right now. Woo!

-Erik

Propagandhi - Supporting Caste

While I guess I would say I like Propagandhi as a band, I can’t really say they’ve released an album I like from beginning to end. I’ve found most of their past few releases to be way too front-loaded, and Chris Hannah’s vocal style begins to wear on me as the album progresses (especially on Potemkin City Limits)- most lines are delivered in the (caps denote a higher pitch) “duh nuh NUH NUH nuh NUH NUHHH!!!” style, and honestly, it would just get a little old for me after a while. Plus, I saw their transformation from skate-punk champs to a more thrash/metal inspired approach as a little dubious (and honestly, my eyebrows were a bit raised when the press release for this album cited Voivod and Rush of all bands as primary influences). Yet, the punk rock community at large continued to shit their pants over the foursome from Canada, so I figured I was just missing something.

That being said, Supporting Caste is the closest Propagandhi have come in recent years to crafting an entire album that I like. Sure, it may be a little front loaded. I would say the same thing about any band that decided to put a song as ferocious as “Night Letters” at the beginning of their album. Plus, there’s one song that just kind of bothers me, in the form of “Dear Coach’s Corner,” only because I wish they didn’t pull the old bait-n-switch and just let the entire song shred like its intro. That aside, it seems like Propagandhi’s metal-evolution has come to its full fruition- they’re comfortable in their new skin. Every song sung by bassist Todd Kowalski is an exercise in "how quickly can we shred ourselves to death," and they couldn't be better for it. It's no wonder dude's voice has been gone for the past few months apparently.

Lyrically, they’re still pissed as ever- but honestly, I’ve only been able to buy into their brand of sloganeering so much. This crosses over into my own personal beliefs: I believe what I do, and I keep it mostly to myself. I think that Propagandhi advocates a great deal of good causes, but should it be to the point where guilt may become present in the listener for thinking differently? There never seems to be any room for dialogue- all I ever detect is a message delivered so strong that it’s a little intimidating instead of inclusive. I don't know. It's something that will probably vary from listener to listener. At the very least, I'm thankful that they're a band that actually makes me think about what they're saying instead of just letting the lyrics fly on by while the music dominates everything.

My slight concerns aside, Supporting Caste is an album that I can comfortably file in my “Woah, I didn’t see this one coming” file. It took them five full lengths, but they’ve finally delivered something I now count among the better albums released in 2009.

-Erik

Black Mountain - In The Future

I first heard about Black Mountain back when they were opening for Coldplay in 2005. Maybe a bit unfairly, I immediately dismissed them as something I probably wouldn’t like due to their tour partners. It wasn’t until last month that I finally heard In The Future (an album that originally appeared on this blog in my “Albums of 2008 That I Wanted To Hear But Didn’t” list), and I was a little shocked as to how wrong I was four years ago.

On paper, nothing Black Mountain does here should work. They somehow manage to use some of the most hokey sounding keyboard tones I’ve ever heard and fuse it with titanic-sized riffs that touch on a great deal of classic rock giants, ie: the Zeppelins, the Floyds, etc. Keep in mind that I really don’t care for either of those two bands, at all. I don’t know. I can’t really put a finger on why this album is so good. It just works. Some of the shit on here wouldn’t sound terribly out of place at a Lord Of The Rings convention, yet I can’t detect a smack of irony or pretension throughout this album’s 57 minutes.

Stephen McBean isn’t the flashiest singer, but that’s probably for the better- if he pushed it too hard, I don’t know if I’d be able to handle this album. OK, just to mention Coldplay again, I guess he sounds like a boozier, Canadian Chris Martin, but just barely. Even in constant-falsetto mode, as exhibited on “Stay Free,” things just click. Even when the 80's-science-TV-show synth comes in about halfway through the song, I just nod my head. I don’t care for Amber Webber’s vocal contributions as much, but I understand their place in the album. “Wucan” has the type of riffs that force you to constantly hit your rewind button- not advisable if one is driving. Throughout it all, Black Mountain displays a knack for the ebb-and-flow, letting parts gradually build to a roar before demurring to quieter sections.

Let me re-iterate how much of a shock it is to me how into this album I am. I usually can’t stand classic rock, or most of the bands that were involved in making it. Black Mountain have somehow made the genre palatable to someone like me. How, I’m not exactly sure. All I know is that this is the type of music that makes me wish I was in Dazed And Confused, driving around while everyone else in the car smokes weed in extremely comical and exaggerated ways.

-Erik

Telepathe - Dance Mother

I'd say I get the most fickle when it comes to electronic music. There are groups such as Ladytron that I really like, but I really can't stand a lot of the vapid, soulless shit that people with easy access to laptops have been cranking out for the better part of this decade. I don't know, I guess I just don't really feel much connection to the "New York lifestyle" so many people at my college have come to idealize- the non-stop party life, the deep immersion in the world of fashion, irony, etc. Summed up in a word, but explained by others way better than myself = hipsterism.

So that's one reason why Telepathe's debut album does not connect with me on any level. It's just some cold shit. I mean, it'll probably get them a few features written about them here and there, but I really can't see anybody being WAY into this album a year from now, or it even popping up on any year end lists. It's completely disposable. At best, there are two or three good songs on this album, and wouldn't you know it, they're right next to each other in the tracklist ("Can't Stand It" and "Michael"). The rest of the album I truly have trouble remembering.

Despite being produced by TV On The Radio studio wizard/guitarist David Sitek, Dance Mother is a tinny sounding affair, far from the lush production Sitek has lavished upon his own band. Pitchfork pointed it out in their review of this album, and I actually agree with them, that Sitek kind of deserves a lot of the credit for this album, more so than the duo that make up Telepathe. Melissa Livaudais and Busy Ganges just sort of chirp their way throughout the album, quite amatuerishly at best. Sometimes being way out of tune can be endearing (see: Los Campesinos), but in this case it's just obnoxious. And don't get me started on the song "Devil's Trident," which almost dips into Mars Volta levels of WTF-ness with the lyrics.

Oddly enough, for a group that is being marketed as electronic, the songs where they sound like a full band come off the best- the two that I mentioned above. "Can't Stand It" sounds like it could have been a B-side from either Ladytron's Witching Hour or Asobi Seksu's Citrus, with its swirling synths and surprisingly nimble vocal hooks.

In the end though, those two songs aren't enough to save this album from being just...blah. Another entry into an increasingly oversaturated scene. Being friends with TV On The Radio can only get you so far, I guess.

-Erik

The Big Sleep - Sleep Forever

I missed seeing The Big Sleep when they were opening for Minus The Bear in early 2008, but for some reason I'm not really regretting it, because I feel like their live show would probably play out very similarly to how their second album, Sleep Forever does. A few opening tracks of shreddage, followed by quiter stuff, and ending not with a bang as much as an "eh."

I don't really know what it is about this album, but it just doesn't even seem like the band is totally interested in what they're doing. Most of the songs here are instrumental, which means it might fall under the blanket term of "post-rock." At the same time though, some of these instrumentals probably would have benefited from vocals. My other main gripe is kind of weird, and it's the lugubrious tempo that every song seems to follow. The band obviously has some great guitar tones, so why do they find it necessary to just plod through every song? I could see them sounding a bit more Fucking Am-ish if they sped things up a little bit, but dirty enough to retain their own sound.

The two previously mentioned problems I have with this album make it a pretty fucking frustrating listen, and at times, the band's name and album title almost come too close for comfort when it comes to stuff I'm listening to.

For a band that makes most of their songs instrumental, it's almost funny that the most memorable moments of this album come from the songs that feature vocals. It's not even that the vocals are that spectacular, it's just that the band actually seems like they give a shit at these moments. Take "Bad Blood." There are riffs for days in this song, and although the vocals make it a little hard to focus on the guitars, it's good to at least see The Big Sleep a little more invigorated.

But for every good song like that, there's one like "Organs," which seems like nothing more that studio tomfoolery gone wild. Like, "oh hey, here's this organ..woah that sounds kind of cool. Let's record an entire track based around like one or two riffs on this thing. Shit!" It's just filler, that's all.

Usually I can forgive a band if they at least seem like they're giving it their all (see my Sinaloa review), but I just can't get behind a group who seems almost, well, asleep during their album.

-Erik