Oh crap! A song by 65daysofstatic that I like!

That's worth blogging about!

Tony recommended 65daysofstatic a long time ago, and I think I have two of their albums. It's instrumental, kind of metal, definitely not jam band music or anything like that. A little bit of math rock. I thought it was too jerky and arrhythmic. But eventually Winamp on shuffle led me to "This Cat is a Landmine," a song as good as its title. I'd recommend it on free.napster.com if you have the time. Although I'm not even sure it's on there. It's a good song. Thanks, Tony!

Also, I think "That's worth blogging about!" will be my new catchphrase. If only...I talked to other people...

Love,

Steve

MtB defeats TMV in nearly every way.

Artist: Minus the Bear

Album: Menos el Oso

Label: Suicide Squeeze Records

Okay. Minus the Bear. I first heard of them from a girl who worked at Stuart Hall housekeeping--the one who came to be known as Crackhead Molly. She gave me a few of their old songs--"Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse" and "Monkey!!!!! Knife!!!!! Fight!!!!!" are the ones I remember best. And i thought they were cool, I guess.

Then Joe Weishampel gave me another of their songs ("Get Me Naked 2: Electric Bugaloo") and I got hooked.

So I bought Menos el Oso, a 2005 release with no songs I recognized.

AND IT ROCKS!

Minus the Bear is hard to describe beyond: they are a rock band. They have a slightly jam band quality, especially in thier Phish-like guitar tones, but their songs are really easy to handle. Every single song is really catchy. Sometimes I think they're a more indie version of Incubus, but about 20 times better. They have a similar sense of rhythm, though.

Each song is badass in its own way. The first, "The Game Needed Me," has a sort of guitar-based hip-hop rhythm through the verses. Guitar and bass drum thump through eighth notes to start and end the verses. The chorus shows off the quick changes of chords that Minus the Bear uses quite a bit.

Then there's "Memphis & 53rd," which has a nice verse that bumps along with the guitars dancing up and down the fretboard in the usual way. The drummer spices up the interludes nicely. And I just like the lines "I could barely sleep / I had this dream. / There was a man in a black car / With a man in the back seat." Somehow the repetition of "man" is funny to me. And you have to love when they bring the chorus back toward the end with more intensity.

My favorite might be #3, "Drilling." I'm not sure why. It might be the insistent eighth note muted strumming and snare drum. It's just funny that they can get away with it.

I could do the whole album, but the point is that every song is a winner. I would recommend it to anybody. Just try one of the songs--maybe "Hooray," "Pachuca Sunrise" (which has a chorus that reminds me of a Europop dance song) or the bouncy "The Fix." I'd say "Hooray" is best because I just love the chorus: "And I can feel my hands again / We're almost home." Simple, I know, but pretty awesome. The song with the best payoff is probably the last, "This Ain't a Surfin' Movie."

Just try it. I can't speak for their other albums, of which they appear to have three (and an EP with a song called "Drop It Like It's Hot," mysteriously). But Menos el Oso is definitely a winner.

Grade: A

Advantages: catchy, accessible rock; vocals you won't hate; complex songs that sound natural and fun.

Disadvantages: maybe just a little uncreative lyrically.

Okay that's all. Be back soon, I hope.

Love,

Steve

The Mars Volta: let us remember them as they were.

I bought my brother a CD for Christmas, but he already owns it. So I kept it. I'm writing a review of it now. I dedicate the review to Scott "Hoffy" Hoffmann, since I suspect nobody else will be interested.

Enjoy!






Artist: The Mars Volta

Album: Amputechture

Label: Universal Records







The Mars Volta. Oh, how the name used the thrill me. The possibilities! The complexities! They stood apart from everyone. They were untouchable. They were...a lot better than Amputechture.

This is their third album, following De-loused in the Comatorium and Frances the Mute. And, I am very sorry to report, I think it continues their downward slide.

As you know, TMV is the product of one half of At the Drive-In: singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala and guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. Omar writes the music, Cedric writes the vocals, and off they go. The group also features badass Jon Theodore on drums, Isaiah Ikey Owens on keyboard, someone awesome on bass, and (for some reason) John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. But basically it's Cedric and Omar's show.

As for the lyrics on this album: I don't know what they're about. It's a little sad, but the whole Cedric crazy lyrics thing is getting tired. All of it feels old and played-out already. Just the usual creepy techno-babble and body parts strewn around. Probably the worst example is "Day of the Baphomets," one of my favorite songs, because it just reuses words from the B-side "Plague Upon Your Hissing." Cedric receives a C for this album.

The music fares just a little better. Again, the slow, quiet verses and guitar-riff choruses: we've heard them before. When they take a new direction, it's often very bad. Take the first and last tracks, "Vicarious Atonement" and "El Ciervo Vulnerado": they try something different. They try staying quiet, slow and whispery all the way through.

Let me pause here to share Tony Storti's criticism of TMV: often the rocking moments are not worth it when compared to the non-rocking. All we want here is for you to rock. Do not stop and mutter. Do not stop and mellow. Do not stop. Do not give us songs like these. We do not want them.

This brings me to the good parts of the album: "Day of the Baphomets," parts of "Meccamputechture," "Viscera Eyes," a little bit of "Vermicide," and most of "Tetragrammaton." When TMV cuts loose and just rocks, man, it is really cool. I mean, "Day of the Baphomets" is essential 12 minutes of rocking out. It's great. For that reason, I'll give Omar a B on this album. When they want to, they can still bring the rocking. If only they'd make a whole album of it, straight through. Enough with the mellowing out.

So I guess overall the album gets a B-/C+. It's better than most stuff out there, but don't lose your copy of De-loused in the Comatorium.

Coming soon: a review of a superior album that I got for Christmas.

In other news: class has started. This semester looks so, so painfully easy. And I need to write about 1 1/2 monologues by tomorrow, or soon, for UD Monologues. We'll see how that goes.

Love,

Steve

Hold Steady fails to live up to their name. And it's not so hard to live up to that name.

I'm trying to settle down.

See. The Hold Steady came out with a new album, Boys and Girls in America (click to listen). It came out today, Tuesday, October 3.

And you know I love The Hold Steady.

But I don't know what to say about the album. It has some really strong songs, and it has some absolutely embarrassing songs. Let's break it down.

I would still say their best song is "The Swish," the second track on their first album, The Hold Steady Almost Killed Me. Yet their second album, Separation Sunday, was probably stronger than Almost Killed Me start to finish. It doesn't quite hit the highs, or the lows either.

This one never hits Almost Killed Me's highs, but it sure does strike new lows.

The best song is the first one, "Stuck Between Stations." It really rocks. It's got a Springsteen kind of feel, and some great Craig Finn lyrics.

Then "Chips Ahoy!," the second song, keeps it up. I like it, although I was not excited at first. It's a bit of a change, and it signals the depths to which the album will fall. This song is good, but ones like it aren't. Backup singers, hints of pop...this is not the Hold Steady of "Hostile, Mass." But just you wait.

Follow "Chips Ahoy!" with the swinging "Hot Soft Lights," which has awesome Craig Finn drug lyrics but this sort of swing + wah guitar that I'm not sure I believe in. Listen, you guys rock. So just fucking rock.

But "Same Kooks" is great. Fast blues rock. Craig Finn's lyrics get all confusing and crazy. I love this one about as much as "Stuck Between Stations." It's all sloppy and racing and bizarre. It works perfectly.

Okay, let's pretend the album ends there. I give it an A. Great work. Short, but every second counts.

Oh, what, more songs? And what's that? They're shameful? Fuck.

"First Night" got a ton of praise on The Hold Steady's MySpace page, so I was interested in hearing it. That was a mistake. The song sits there like a fucking lump, begging to be put out of its misery. It's not a good idea to write "Tears in Heaven" about your drug trips and failed relationships. Just a little hint there. Take "Sketchy Metal" on Almost Killed Me and stick a little more whine in it, and you've got "First Night." I could not be more disappointed. It tries to pick up toward the end, but I don't buy it. Chanting "Boys and girls in America" over and over just reminds me that this isn't Almost Killed Me or Separation Sunday. I DO like "When they kiss they spit white noise," though. Thanks for saying it eight times.

Next we have "Party Pit," which does have awesome drums. Otherwise, though, it just doesn't get off the ground and rock. I like the Craig Finn repetitiveness, and I usually think it's cool when he goes back over the same themes, but this seems like a little bit of a stretch. Too much Billy Joel, not enough fucking rock and roll, guys. Stop being in love and start doing drugs. "Gonna walk around and drink some more"? Really? Then do it and stop singing about the girl at the party pit.

"You Can Make Him Like You" is okay. I'll give it this: it's a good strong tempo, and it doesn't not rock. It doesn't quite rock, either, though. It just sort of bounces along. Craig Finn's lyrics are a little better on this one, though. This one is acceptable, but not great.

"Massive Nights" is really good, though. It's got a "Charlemagne in Sweatpants" feel, and the lyrics are great. It's about high school dances on drugs. Craig Finn lumbers around lyrically, making his crazy claims. I like it a lot. This one goes a long way to redeeming the weak second half of this album. Once again, the swing feel and the backup singers show up, but I can handle it. "She had the gun in her mouth and she was shooting up at her dreams when the chaperone said that we'd been crowned the King and the Queen" might be, lyrically, the best end to a Hold Steady song yet.

Don't take advantage of that momentum, or anything, guys. Just hit us in the face with something like "Citrus." Something, you know, abhorrently shitty. "I feel Jesus in the tenderness of honest, nervous lovers"? Fuck, man. Shut up. Do not tell me that. That is pretty much anti-rocking. And thanks for bringing up "fog and love and faithless fear" again. I appreciate you shitting directly on "Hostile, Mass.," which is one of my favorites. This song must be skipped every time you listen to this album. It's slow, it's boring, it's pointless, it's a big fucking rock in the middle of this river. It's more like a dam.

"Chillout Tent:" Do not listen to this song. Skip straight from "Massive Nights" to "Southtown Girls," or maybe from "Massive Nights" to a different album. What the fuck, guys? Why the different vocals in the chorus? Did you really believe this was a good idea, or did you owe some people a favor? My soul hurts. I listened to it once start to finish, and I pledge that will be the last time.

Last is "Southtown Girls." It starts "Southtown girls won't blow you away," and Craig Finn and whoever the fuck is singing along with him are pretty much exactly right. It's a song with cool lyrics in the verse and a flat-out annoying chorus. I swear to God The Hold Steady is from Minnesota, not Alabama, so get this country shit out of here.

I don't know what to say. The first part of the album gets an A. If it included "Massive Nights" it would be an A+. The second half of the album? Seriously, it gets a D. The thing just goes way off track. I expect the Hold Steady to rock hard and give Craig Finn lots of space to shout. Instead it feels cramped and forced, with all these ballad-country-swing bull shit songs clogging it up.

If you're starting on The Hold Steady, start with Almost Killed Me. If you think it's too plain, move on to Separation Sunday. If you think it rocks too hard, I guess Boys and Girls in America is for you.

Grade: C+