Transfigure Yourself a New Perspective, Son! A Review of Songs for Eluard, by Cloud Lantern

Opening up the first real recorded exploit by Cloud Lantern, Songs for Eluard, is “Posted Up in Phonebooths”, which punches in with a brisk, dreamy guitar doodle immediately after a time-travelling ghost tries to restore control of the space craft.  Does that sound preposterous?  It ought to.  This drippy, Dadaist audio document rescues you from the burdens of logical impossibility without sacrificing totally tubular surf riffs.  More mammals could learn from their example. 
            Like a crime-fighting duo the vocals and guitar leads push the tracks forward together in a perfectly mismatched sense.  In this unnecessary metaphor the vocals are like Batman, who is way too serious for a guy dressed up as a bat, and the guitar lead is like the plucky Robin, who is often too naive and joyful given the fact that he’s a martial arts master and a vigilante.  These two tones might be ridiculous on their own, but together they balance each other in a very pleasing way.  Rather than shoot for the middle anywhere on the album, it seems that Cloud Lantern has instead chosen to expertly balance incongruous parts, crafting a middle path from unconventional pieces.
            With the exception of the final track, “Puritans on a Boat”, the album could almost have been one long song. The guitar parts metamorphose while a sweet, Smiths-esque voice and warm bass lovingly embrace the listener.  The various parts of these songs are in harmony and move from one to the other with featureless transitions to distinct sections.  There is very little on the album that has its own space.  It’s really more of a soup than an album.

And there it is.  The one thing every mammal should take away from this review: Songs for Eluard is really more of a soup than an album.

You’re welcome.

Cloud Lantern: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cloud-Lantern/123327424371136

Album Review: Emergency Ahead, Self-Titled

Last week, I saw the 5 year anniversary show of one of the flagship local bands here in Albuquerque, Emergency Ahead.  It was there second show in celebration of a special event for this band in just a few months, the first show being their CD release show. 

Now, lots of local bands put out albums.  It’s normally a pretty special event.  Not many bands have been together for over 5 years and have only recently put out their first full-length.  Emergency Ahead self-titled first release is 15 tracks long, several of which top the 6 minute mark, one even shooting past 11 minutes in length.  They’ve put in a lot of time on this project and it shows.  Having played more concerts in the last 5 years than probably any other local band, it was about time Emergency Ahead graced us with recordings, and they do not disappoint.

From a doom-y intro with high shrieking feedback undercurrents, Emergency Ahead blasts ferociously into their next song, “Messianic Mission”.  What immediately gets me about Emergency Ahead and this recording of theirs in particular is how piercing and high-pitched the screams are.  This vocal style permeates the album and in a few spots they have a nearly (gnarly) black metal quality to them.  The timber of the vocals keep this album from sounding brocore at any point while still allowing it to be punchy, have a few break-downs, and gang-vocals.  The quality of the vocals do something else as well.  They lend a subtly youthful, roguish quality to the music, which works wonderfully.

The guitar riffing throughout the tracks is reminiscent of Dead Kennedys in the way that it’s a bit surf-y while maintaining a hard-hitting punk sound.  At other points the guitaring sounds almost as if it was being performed by The Ramones, but mixed more clearly.  The song “Whining” has a really blistering and strange solo which I like a lot.  The solo/lead bit on “Bad Day” is absolutely blistering.

The album really reminds me of late-70’s and early 80’s punk rock.  In the middle of “Fun at the Mall” I feel like they should bust into “TV Party” because the notions being expressed and the tone they are presented in line up so perfectly with that song.  The beginning few seconds of “Road Rage” sound like some amazing, bleak musical fossil from 1983.  For much of the album this stylistic theme stays constant but then Emergency Ahead slaps you in the face with something like “Mountain Jam” (a song that would as easily be an electrified cover of a Planxty song as it could be a punkier version of 60’s hippie jam) or “Surf Run Away” (that on the quieter bits could be a Dick Dale track if Dick Dale hated society) or “Incephalicitus” (which has lots of weird vocal looping, talking, and strange singing with vocal effects and vocals changing levels in between pretty savage breakdowns) or the verse part of “Dead to the World” (which is uncomfortably bluesy and Will sounds really drunk here).

They’ve got brutal hardcore parts, thrilling and immature punk magic-tricks, strange and aimless grim noise bits, evil ska sections, and when they really go for it, the high timber of their screams seep into some really dirty places.  When the members of this band aren’t playing a show (which is unusual because they play every show) they’re in the audience thrashing around.  This is street punk at its absolute finest.  You could drop Emergency Ahead onto one of those big street punk labels like Hellcat or Fat Wreck Chords and they’d be totally fine.  In fact, they’d be a lot more fun to watch than The Unseen or The Casualties ever have been.  Here’s to 5 more years.

4 more years!  4 more years!  4 more years!

3 word chant!

5 0 5

up the punx!

Linx the shtuff!
http://www.facebook.com/EmergencyAhead/app_2405167945

Review of Logan Greene and the Bricks, Soylent Greene

I am unsure whether I have ever perceived the identity of a person as clearly through listening to their music as I have while listening to Logan Greene and the Bricks' most polished recording, Soylent Greene. The album is fun, funny, vital, and surprisingly unique for a country-influenced album consisting mostly of love-songs.

Throughout the album Logan and his 'mates craft a very pleasing blend of pop-punk and country which would absolutely please fans of either. The country sound that bleeds onto every track the Bricks offer up has more in common with Patsy Cline and Hank Williams Sr. than it does with the auto-tuned, right-wing, par for the course, boring as hell pop-country you'd hear on the radio. The album isn't as plodding or mopey as a lot of country can be though. This album has a pulse! So much so that it's clear the songs were not intended to be played at the tempo they are played here. This strange little aspect is probably my favorite characteristic of this album, as it really makes it stand out, not just in its genre, but in my entire music collection. The vocal parts on many of the songs were clearly written with a milder BPM in mind but the rushed tempos really give the album a distinct energetic feel. It brings it beyond country. It makes it fun and vigorous. It makes it punk. I fucking love it.

The album gifts the listener with things that are both expected (and very enjoyable) alongside a few surprises in which Logan almost seems to have used the presumption of the listener of the straightforwardness of his love-songs to sneak in some unusual treasures. Upon first listen, the second track "Your Love for Me" doesn't really stand out thematically from any other love-song.  A few months after the first time I had heard it I was riding in a car with Troy (the vocalist of The Hunger Artists) and he shared with me that he believed that the song was about Logan's mother.  When I heard that my head completely exploded.  I believe that interpretation to be dead on, and it makes this song one of the best and most unusual tracks on the album. 

Another stand-out track on this album to me is "Hold Me Close". There is a Dr. Dinosaur version of this song which I dearly loved during many late-night runs, and was at first turned off by this version of the song.  It has really grown on me though, and sets a more appropriate mood for the tune than the other version.  Logan sounds like he's singing from the cavernous depths of the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine while bleeding out from a dusty gun-shot wound in his chest on this one.  It's pretty great.

For a country album, it's fast paced, light-handed, subtly seditious, and existentially joyous.  For a pop-punk album it's rather genuine, tender, differentiated from track to track, and well composed.  Give Logan and his talented 'mates a chance!

Listen here: http://logangreeneandthebricks.bandcamp.com/

Album Review: The Hunger Artists, 2 Shots for Bad Timing

           The Hunger Artists are a band that has gone through a lot of changes.  Almost every time I had seen them until recently they had a different line-up (which is something I can thoroughly relate to). Almost every time I’ve seen them I’ve felt and thought very different things about the performance I had just witnessed.  It was with great curiosity then that I approached 2 Shots for Bad Timing, their first full-length, because it would be an unchangeable performance and I was interested in how they would approach putting forth a single unchangeable entity.  Which of the incarnations of The Hunger Artists would it be most like? 

            During my first cursory listen I liked it, but what immediately jumped out at me was that it was much slower than their live performances are known to be.  I sort of fetishize fast music (and really slow music), and 2 Shots for Bad Timing seemed almost dispassionate to me when I first heard it.  I felt like it was nice to hear these songs, as I liked many of them, but also that it was an inferior version of what they do live.
            I put the album down for a few weeks and my life changed significantly.  Many of the fundamentally stable aspects of my life were drastically changed in a very short time and I found myself lonely for the first time since I was 17 years old.  I was driving a long distance at night when The Hunger Artists’ 2 Shots for Bad Timing came on.  What had been a night of dark blues and silvery grays out on a snow straddled I-25 blossomed into an onslaught of tropical pastels.  Soft, opaque lime greens, sunset pinks, and powdery oranges filled my head for much of this album. 
            It wasn’t just the palette change which I appreciated on this second listen.  It was the companionship that the album provided.  No matter what incarnation The Hunger Artists are currently in two people form a constant unchanging core:  Troy (lead vocals) and Thomas (guitar and back-up vocals).  Recently, their shows have really only involved Troy and Thomas, and although they might feel less impressive as two people with just one instrument between them, that has always been my favorite way to see them.  I think that is The Hunger Artists at their best.  Despite the lush instrumental backgrounds present on 2 Shots of Bad Timing, Troy and Thomas sit nicely atop the sonic pile, their voices very present and very immediate.  That’s really what makes this album shine, the strong presence that Thomas and Troy have on the album.  If I had to describe this album in a single phrase it would be “pleasantly conversational”.  It’s a perfect album for road trips, or long walks alone, because you’re not alone.  They’re sitting in the car with you just saying whatever comes to mind.  They are your commiserators for the evening.

Troy has one of the most inimitable voices I know of.  It’s bombastic, cutting, and deeply textured.  He keeps it light though, and generally doesn’t drag notes on forever.  Thomas as a vocalist is one of those rare and wonderful people who can somehow always pick out a harmony and sing it confidently.  You might not notice how much of an impact those back-up vocals have on the tracks right away, but his parts really give the songs on this album their hooks.  I even find myself singing his background melodies and harmony parts to myself without even realizing I’m not singing the main part.

This is a really good album, one that has been long awaited and now that it exists it’s definitely something I’m keeping in my car.  The whole thing is well recorded and perfectly mixed to allow The Hunger Artists to do what they do best, act as a nice backdrop for the memorable vocals that Troy and Thomas deliver.

more information on The Hunger Artists can be found here (because you don't know how to use google): http://www.facebook.com/pages/the-hunger-artists/124207332889?sk=info

Album Review: Days N' Daze, Ward Off the Vultures Full-Length

So, a couple of months ago I was given a copy of Ward Off the Vultures demo CD.  I was a huge fan of their previous releases, specifically Here Goes Nothin'.  I immediately wanted to write a review for the new demo but was told to wait by Whitney until the full-length version was out, and although it took me a while to get a hold of the full-length (as I do not live in Texas, where this band is from) I am now pleased to write my second review of a Days N' Daze album.

Torches are Calling, the first track, starts Ward Off the Vultures ferociously.   It's only a minute long, but I think I could dance to this track for hours.  It quickly transitions to Coin the Phrase which seems written as a companion song, and I believe they are played together in this manner live as well.  These tracks rip.  They are fast.  They have breakdowns.  The vocals are ridiculously fast.  Jesse (primary vocalist) should consider taking up a hip-hop side project as he would absolutely shame most MCs.  The two-song movement climaxes in some doom-y, encompassing, translucent shrieking.  I wish more folk punk bands were half as ambitious with their vocals.

The third song, Canary in the Coalmine, grooves and is as influenced by ska and punk as by western/southwestern folk music, like most of their songs.  As one of the tracks not on the original demo the recording quality is different here slightly but absolutely good enough to hear what is happening.  I'm really into  the vocal part on this song.  It also brings Whitney in more seriously on the vocals, which I love.  Jesse and Whitney's voices blend wonderfully. 

Asleep at the Wheel introduces fans of the band to the first recorded example of Jesse's expansion to banjo from guitar.  The banjo over-powers a bit, but the haunting gang-vocals provide a meaningful counter.  Fighting against the weight of this other sound the vocals soldier on, seemingly lamenting that you can not hear them as clearly as they deserve to be heard and mirroring the sonic struggle acoustic punk bands face as an inherent part of their identity.

Kick Your Lawyer in the Face totally surprised me.  I was unprepared for the ska-mandolin.  This song also has a lot more empty space in it than a lot of their other songs, which comes as a relief.  This is a really fun song.  This song will make you smile.  This is perhaps the only non-love song by Days N' Daze that is so lighthearted.

Thousands of Fists is almost 6 minutes long, making it the longest the Days N' Daze song (though it's technically two songs), to my knowledge.  Another really beautiful vocal part from DND.  It's rare to find a band that combines such heart wrenching melodic parts with such untamed rage.  The second song on this track was such a pleasant surprise.  It's a rerecording of one of my favorite tracks from Here Goes Nothin' but in a different style and with different instrumentation.  The banjo picking on the second half of this track is classic Kentucky two-finger claw-hammer, or that's my best guess at least.  I'm not sure I've ever heard Whitney's vocals so clearly before, and it's great to be able to hear them. 

Marissa plays piano in DND for the first time on Life in the Vultures Nest, and it's a welcome deviation from their normal fare.  As it is an interlude, I did not expect vocals, but they are totally awesome.  They're arranged in a whispery round over the piano which is both creepy and hopeful.  Creepy is something I'd like to see them do more of.

If you're not dancing through Ties To Another you should probably just go home. You get to hear tonal qualities in Jesse's voice that you normally don't get to.  This is an exciting song.  It's bold.  The tiny choir that makes up DND is what gives it it's most constant indentifying characteristic and also is one of the most exciting things about this band.  They can all sing and scream and do it better than most other people in this genre.

Ah!  The amount of instrumental variation on this album is awesome.  This is definitely not the kind of album where a folk-orchestra was brought in to make thin songs sound lush.  DND already has a thick sound, especially for only having 4 members and being exclusively acoustic.  The variations in tonal qualities that the instrumental arrangement provides lends a gentler hand to what is normally pretty rough fare.  It gives tracks like Highest Bidding Shepard a tenderness that is absolutely appropriate.  This song glitters, but it's still got  teeth. 

Wake Up and Rage! feels tight and shows how well put together this band is.  The quick stops and starts and rhythm changes seem effortless.  Each rhythm change breaths more air into the song.  This is legitimately impressive music.

New Gangland is a good song to have a recording of.  Partly because it's a great song with a great message, but also because at every single live show I've heard this song played at the audience has sung along and gotten the "woah" part wrong.  We can now listen to it in our own spare time, and not suck the next time we decide to sing along (which you undoubtedly will be doing after hearing it).  This song was partly inspired by run-ins that the members have had with gangs and how horrible the phenomenon of modern organized crime can be.  "We're all against the cops but they are not the only ones" are important words that more people in the movement need to hear.  Just because a person breaks the law does not make them an ally. 

Ward Off the Vultures is a song that deserves to be screamed along to.  A beautiful vocal part with Whitney, Marissa, and Jesse singing quickly crescendos to what must be close to the absolute limit of strain for the human voice.  Whitney and Marissa go into this vulture-esque harpy cry which is absolutely distinct, inimitable, and deserves to become legendary.  This is just another reason why DND are easily in the top 5 bands making this kind of music.  This isn't imitation, it's innovation.  If other, more popular folk punk bands have done things which have left a bad taste in your mouth I don't know why you're not already listening to DND.  If you're tired of one guy with an acoustic guitar singing a-tonally who is unaware he's doing a slow Body Count cover, do yourself a solid and give this band a chance.

My favorite song on the album absolutely has to be Now I.  It's great to have such a crisp sounding recording of this song.  For me, this song embodies this period for the band and would be the one song, if I had to choose, that I would play to introduce someone to this band.  It's got lovely slow parts, their signature waltz transition, captivating singing from Jesse and Whitney, and a bit of screaming.  This song has it all.

Finally, Ward Off the Vultures closes after a whopping 14 tracks with Over the Yardarm.  It's a little pirate-y which is something I'm tired of in this genre, but most songs composed in this style are not so well put together or so charismatic.  This song relies not on the style its in to convey feeling and get your attention, but the obvious talent and passion these people have for this style. 

Overall, this is absolutely a step forward for this band, which is astonishing considering where they were stepping from.  This band's ability to grow and innovate dumbfounds me.  This is required reading, kids. 

P.S. Whitney, I miss the ukulele.  It characterized the sound on Here Goes Nothin' and I want more uke.

More info on Days N' Daze can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Days-N-Daze/285673399170