Sunday, November 30, 2008

Sound of Karma II

I told you I'd do 3 SoKs about boy/girl indie vocals, and I'm doing it. Here's Part 2. (PS - Yep. The formatting's fucked. I can't fix it.)




1. Lydia - This Is Twice Now

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

{Cough, Chinese Democracy, Cough}

Forget, just for a minute, about Guns N’ Roses. Forget about who Axl Rose is and what is wrong with him and forget about all the hype and waiting attention this album has got. Just let that ease out of your mind and take this as a singular grouping of songs on a disc called “Chinese Democracy.” It’s best treated standing alone; by itself with no specific expectations. Just start it and see how it comes out. It at least deserves that much after all the sweat, time, and money poured into it.

And there lies the biggest compliment that can be said here: the musicianship is fantastic. It really caught me off guard how layered and polished everything sounded (almost too much at times though). You can tell everyone involved was trying and trying really, really hard. That’s the biggest pro here, but thank goodness it’s not the only one. I didn’t buy this album, but I’ve listened to it a few times. After two or three listens, I can conclude there’s much more worse investments out there (especially nowadays). While there's no "November Rain" to be found here, at least there's no "Get In The Ring" either:

Cons: Starting out with the weaknesses, sometimes the material is too layered and too bloated. The effort to make it big is appreciated, but sometimes simple is better and much more coherent. Multiple listens must be experienced to get a real feeling for most of the tracks; which brings up some of the song’s life span’s. “There Was A Time”, while being a solid number, is far too long and runs out of steam quicker than estimated. Same thing for “This I Love“. It works well as a complex love ballad, but could’ve been cut a tad short. “Catcher In The Rye” is a pretty lifeless 6 minute track and the disappointing closer “Prostitute” has the sound of a band running on fumes. And even though it’s appeared to be the most popular song off the album thus far, I’m still not quite feeling the title track. It gets the blood going, but that’s about it. And that’s about it for the cons. Expecting more? So was I.

Pros: While sometimes too layered and BIG in sound, there are moments here that flow shockingly well. “Sorry” is a terrific song; a opus that sounds effortlessly created yet contains just a powerful emphasis. Then there’s “Madagascar” which is the complete opposite: It tries ridiculously hard to be epic and yet still works great; although it doesn‘t really pick up until the half way mark (the Martin Luther King Jr./Cool Hand Luke segment is wonderfully bombastic). “Better” overcomes a bad opening to become another high point and the heavy foot-stompers such as “IRS”, “Shackler’s Revenge”, and “Scraped” are fun listens just for that very purpose. I also have a feeling that “If The World” is going to become the underrated gem of this album when everyone looks back on it. It sounds like a cross between Alice In Chains and Steely Dan to me; no matter how weird that sounds. The most shocking pro though is the fact that you forget about the loss of Slash. The guitar play is very respectable and doesn’t try too hard to be what Slash was.

There are still a couple of things I gotta wrap my brain around and that will come in time with increased listens. “Street Of Dreams” keeps alternating between above average rock ballad and filler the more I hear it while “Raid N’ The Bedouins” sounds like a snapshot of a much larger Tool song. But all in all, this is an extremely interesting experience. And that’s a large pro in my book.

Friday, November 21, 2008

The Videos, Volume V

In case you've forgotten, there's actually more than one writer on this blog. I'm here now. But everyone else... I attribute their absence to simultaneous prolonged writer's block. Here's a new The Videos... fresh from the oven, hot off the presses, whatever metaphor you prefer.

1. "Race for the Prize" - The Flaming Lips

I recently downloaded The Soft Bulletin. Being a Flaming Lips album, it is, needless to say, a thoroughly creative collection of songs. Here's the opener.

2. "Hold On" - John Lennon

From the timeless John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album, "Hold On" is a relaxed track featuring an inexplicable impersonation of the Cookie Monster. Listen at 1:08. Not that you'll need to focus to hear it. It's pretty obvious.

3. "I've Seen Enough" - Cold War Kids

I was really into Cold War Kids' first album, Robbers & Cowards. I eagerly anticipated their next release, Loyalty to Loyalty which came out last September. Unfortunately, I was utterly disappointed by their sophomore effort. It's like they lost the desire to be a "rock" band, and instead, relied on Nathan Willett's vocals with a little guitar and snare to back him up (Booooo!). Robbers & Cowards was good because it had full instrumentation, and actually had some rockin' tracks. I have no idea why they abandoned that success. This song, though its title expresses my frustration with Loyalty to Loyalty, is also one of the bright spots of the album.

4. "Nancy the Tavern Wench" - Alestorm

Pirate metal. Kind of cool if you're in a swashbuckling mood, or if you want to be in one.

5. "Blood Red Summer" - Coheed and Cambria

I think the coolest thing about this song is the low-pitched guitar (I don't think it's the bass, but it could be) in the background. It's almost imperceptible at times, but it's always there, moving up and down with the chord changes. And as with most Coheed and Cambria songs, the chorus and vocals are great. "Wa-oh! Wo-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!"

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Impressions: What Sh/Could Have Been

On the fine evening of November 18, I've been primarily listening to Pearl Jam's Ten and Nirvana's MTV Unplugged In New York. I've never before heard either of these albums, and grunge is an undiscovered dirt mine to me. Nevertheless, even when not in the mood, I've forced the 90's alt-metal branch onto me all evening, and because of the records of my choice, I've come to this pondering:

Grunge should have gone acoustic.

Now I'm no grunge expert. Hell, I'm barely a grunge novice. But the subgenre appears to be little more than metal-like instrumentals with excessively detached vocals and bored and/or vulgar lyrics. Metal takes its stance in the rock world with its fist pounding, hormone drilling headbang quality. The vocal stylings of Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, etc. clearly do not allow their music to fit into this aesthetic. Theirs is the voice of bored passion, of hopeless want.

You can imagine how the poor to middle class children of the 90s would find a perfect niche for their economic and educational frustrations in the angry-yet-sullen monotones of grunge. But how much longevity does this polarizing subgenre have? A sorry fact it is that gruge is certainly not a timeless concept. It quickly grew old, and by the approaching of the 2000s, it was fading away quickly. In modern rock, yes, there are a lot of bands out there with heavey grunge influences, such as Seether and Velvet Revolver and Foo Fighters, but none can withstand the industry without packing in some new, commercially glamorized, expensive aspect to their music. The essence of grunge is in the passions of the members, and it no longer fits in modern society; it has been lost.

That is why, if one listens to Nirvana today, they are likely to pause and wonder why they just can't get into any of it, despite its nationally known success and historical importance to rock. It certainly was an awkward period for rock, in a way comparable to the Baroque Period for the classical world.

So it was that I sludged through Ten, finding lyrical bright spots in occasional songs like "Even Flow" and "Deep", but for the most part remaining entirely unimpressed.

Then it was that I flipped to MTV Unplugged In New York and felt a glimpse of what grunge must have meant to those of 15 years ago.

Acoustic, grunge becomes a whole new ballgame. The annoying guitar distortion is dropped, and the drumbeat is eradicated to concede to acousticism. With these impediments out of the way, the material crap is removed, leaving only the chords, the voice, the content and the music. It's grunge stripped to its rawest format, with all the time-relevant noise rock docked away. Without impediments, you can feel Cobain bleed his lyrics through his mouth even without active listening.

I bash grunge instrumentals only as a statement of the changing times, just as I appraise the acoustic music of MTV Unplugged In New York over normal grunge because of grunge's place on the timeline. I severely doubt Cobain knew it at the time, but his participation and performance in New York exactly 15 years ago today turned one grunge album from a temporary social staple into a timeless masterpiece.

It only leads one to wonder, what may have been if grunge had gone acoustic? Ideally, it would have pushed out a lot of the shit pop punk circulating today, but that's a speculation for another day.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Sound of Karma I

Ahh. It feels good to be back to the act of Sounding Karma. Tonight/today/this afternoon I'm going to begin a 3 part SoK where I show you a musical style that has become a phenomenon my life. Boy/girl vocal duets! Yes, if you think about it, this technique is very seldom used in rock, despite its simple nature. Contrary to common sense, it is actually quite difficult to find bands that A) do this on a regular basis and B) do it well. Here's a few that at least follow b, and some that follow a.

1. Stars - Your Ex-Lover Is Dead

Stars is likely the most famous of the boy/girl indie darlings. With a core made up of fellow Broken Social Scene members, man and ex trade off in describing the chance meeting of two people who may just have known each other in better days.

2. The White Stripes - Rag & Bone



The White Stripes aren't exactly a typical boy/girl duet band. In fact, they're not even a boy/girl duet band at all. However, on "Rag & Bone", Jack and Meg White sing, often in spoken format, of a junk collection trip.

3. Snow Patrol - Set the Fire to the Third Bar

Snow Patrol - Set the Fire to the Third Bar


Again. Snow Patrol, not a boy/girl band. However, in Eyes Open, Snow Patrol made the wise move to take this route in "Set the Fire". It made the already glowing album even more flawless. And yes, there are degrees of flawlessness.

4. The New Pornographers - Myriad Harbor



The New Pornographers are a very weird, foreign band. I don't really care where they're from, however, as long as they're still playing good music. I've never been a huge fan of them, but I always have to appreciate them.

5. The Moldy Peaches - Anyone Else But You



Recognize this band? If you do, there's a 99.5% chance that it's because you've seen Juno. Juno's legendary soundtrack made more fans and enemies of its soundtrack than any movie in memorable history. The star of the musical show was Kimya Dawson, better known for her part in The Moldy Peaches. "Anyone Else But You" is an adowable, innocent duet between two lovers.

These five songs make up the first part of the three part SoK. Two more issues of boy/girl loveliness will come in the near future.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Music and Travel: Cardsox

"Have any of you experienced this phenomenon?"

Yes.

A very, very exceptional blog by the good man Chrono Willister confirmed a testimony in my mind from a couple days ago. It's been a rather moody week, with all of the gears of life lately turning in me, and there's been plenty an occasion to reflect on anything and all things. Naturally, music is the tunnel man of these excursions in thought; the dynamite in the mines. Chrono's timely blog has inspired me to recreate his writing with my own memories.


|||November 2007, Lake of the Ozarks|||

In my brother's freshman year of college, he underwent panic attacks resulting from depression and general anxiety disorder. To give him some time off from life, my family took a weeklong November vacation to the Ozarks. Shockingly, it was warm the entire time. Go figure. Anyway, I lost my iPod on this fateful trip. Luckily, I brought some CDs along as well. So it was that, for about 14 hours a day, I listened to Rush's The Spirit of Radio, Queen's Greatest Hits, The Killers' Sam's Town, Band of Horses' Cease To Begin, and Modest Mouse's Good News For People Who Love Bad News. Every time Rush plays, every time Queen comes on, every time "Why Do I Keep Counting?" or "Ode to LRC" or "The World At Large" plays, every time I even smell smoke, I'm taken straight back here, to one of the most memorable weeks of my life.

|||August 2007, November 2007-March 2008|||

Aha heartbreak. The lowest, most embarrassing valley of life. Being the trustworthy, love-seeking pussy that I am, I know all about that. If any of you in the internet community could just see how long it takes for me to recover from these nightmares, none of you would consider me worthy of your inter-presences. Nothing makes it harder to recover than familiar music. Two relationships have really overturned my ship of collectiveness, and both have a few songs to accompany them. For the first, O.A.R.'s "Love and Memories", Aerosmith's "I Don't Want To Miss a Thing" and Gin Blossoms' "Heart Shaped Locket" know how to make me feel like crap. For the second, The Killers' "Read My Mind" and "Romeo and Juliet" and Ben Kweller's "Thirteen" make me feel like the dirt that the crap sits upon. Shake, heartbreak.


|||Summer 2008|||

Yes. That flaming skull-over-Confederate flag says Pantera. This last summer, my neighbors got tickets to go see a Pantera cover band called Cemetery Gates in St. Louis. They had an extra ticket, and when they told me they were driving there in a limousine, I was sold. Note to self: Never trust a redneck Pantera fan when told they have a limousine. Imagine the worst, most rundown limousine possible. That was ours. Anyway, on the way down, I listened to Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts I-IV, an instrumental experimental album by Trent Reznor. It wasn't the soundscape daydream that I hoped it would be (too hard and electronic), but that ride and abysmally metal show is ingrained in my memories. I'm glad I went.

|||A long time ago|||

Way back in the day, I had three loves. One was baseball. More importantly, the other two were ping pong and Bon Jovi. When I got Bon Jovi's then-new CD Bounce, I spun it in the CD player constantly. I remember practicing ping pong down in the basement, hitting the ball off the table with the opposite side perpendicular to mine while Bon Jovi's "Everyday" surged on in the background. Eventually I'll reach the Olympic table tennis level. Bon Jovi just has to keep producing new records.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Music and Travel: Linked in Memory?

I think many of us can agree that one of the best ways to pass time on long trips is to listen to music. Since I bought my first Mp3 player, I have used it on every trip I've gone on. My family travels rather often, so I get the chance to use it at least a couple times per year. I had never given any thought to the two being linked. However, recently I have noticed a trend involving music and travel.

When I recall a trip to a place that I had never been to before and have not returned since, I remember the music I listened to on the way to, at, and on the way back home from the destination. It's interesting, and in a way, it improves the memory, making it a fonder one because of the soundtrack accompanying it. It's a really intriguing idea. Here are a few personal examples from my travels.

Upper Peninsula of Michigan - Meddle, Pink Floyd
In August of 2007, my family took a short vacation up north through Michigan, looking around in Canada for a couple hours, as well. After visiting Sault Ste. Marie, we ventured west in the U.P. toward the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum near Lake Superior. The museum had a continuous loop of music, one song of which was "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," by Gordon Lightfoot. But while that song really stuck with my memories from that trip, I also recall the Pink Floyd album Meddle. Specifically, I remember listening to "Fearless" as we drove along in the wooded area bordering the lake and stopped to look at a lighthouse. I especially remember the echoing soccer chant at the close of the song. Nowadays, Meddle isn't really one of my favorites, but it is etched in my memory from that trip to the U.P.




Charleston, South Carolina - "Moonchariot," Elvenking
There are times when I find a song I really like, and I just listen to it again and again. On a trip to Charleston, South Carolina, during Spring Break this year, that song was "Moonchariot" by Elvenking. We spent our time visiting the Yorktown aircraft carrier (known as "The Fighting Lady") and Fort Sumter (which now has an ugly museum on it within its walls... it's nothing like the original fort, and there isn't much to do there). Anyway, when we had some downtime, I kept playing "Moonchariot" over and over. It wasn't too folksy, and it wasn't too metal. That's a formula for success for a folk metal song. If you feel like listening, go right ahead, but to be honest, I doubt you will like it.




Clarksdale, Mississippi - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, The Flaming Lips
Last summer, I began working on my school's 40 service hours requirement. My dad, my brother, and I went south with a Habitat for Humanity group to help with house construction. At the time, I had just acquired The Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. You must understand that on a Habitat for Humanity trip, there isn't much privacy at the place where everyone stays. We had twenty on our trip, so it wasn't easy to find a quiet space. I wasn't irritated by this, but when I felt like closing everyone out, I went onto my top bunk in the male bedroom (five sets of bunk beds), and listened to Yoshimi. I couldn't get over the clarity and creativity of the album, and to this day, when I hear the album, I think of being on that top bunk and soaking it all in for the first time. My favorite song was probably "In the Morning of the Magicians," a very mellow track.




Boston, Massachusetts - Houses of the Holy, Led Zeppelin
I love Led Zeppelin. Let there be no question about it. However, an album I had never really paid attention to was Houses of the Holy. I liked "Over the Hills and Far Away" and "The Ocean," of course, but I had never been too strong on "No Quarter," "The Crunge," or "The Rain Song." Well, we went to Boston over Columbus Day weekend this fall, and the night before we would fly back home, we stayed with a couple of my parents' friends. Before I went to sleep, I decided to listen to Houses on a whim. I had expected to listen to a little bit and then fall asleep, but I wound up listening to the entire album. I discovered "No Quarter" was subtly brilliant, that "The Crunge" was not as intolerably annoying as I had believed, and that "The Rain Song" was, in fact, a masterpiece. Now, when I listen to those tracks, I remember the feelings of revelation I had that night, realizing that Zep's fifth album was not as mediocre as I had previously believed.






Music being tied to memories is a very fascinating idea. I think the reason it occurs on vacations is because you are experiencing a new place. Whereas you may listen to hours of music at your computer, you won't remember the songs you heard after a couple days (at the most) because you listen to music there all the time. When you're in a new place for the first time, you absorb everything, and that includes the tunes playing in your ears. I'm sure there are other situations where music becomes part of a memory, but I can definitely testify to it occuring on vacations.

Have any of you experienced this phenomenon?

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Resourcefulness. Hop on the shopping cart bandwagon.

Rock has been around the block a few times in the past half century. It seems almost like every pop hook, guitar riff, and chord progression has been used a thousand times before. When artists come up with a great new melody, there's always a nagging doubt as to whether or not someone else has used it already.

So how do artists today deal with this kind of uncertainty? They get creative. Probably the best example of this in the modern day scene is Iron & Wine. Less known by his real name, Sam Beam, I&W made his name down in Florida by sharing his extremely lo-fi recordings of his plucking and whisper-singing, coupled with the great array of sounds intertwined. Take a listen to his newest album, The Shepherd's Dog. Then take about 5 more listens, and I guarantee you'll find new things each time that you didn't before.

Bands with this kind of theory layer their music with so many different instruments and every day objects that it becomes a journey to spin their album and pull out all the sounds. When used correctly, it has the ability to make the music tremendously enjoyable.

It isn't hard to look back in time and find the forefather of this technique. Pink Floyd pioneered this movement, utilizing airplanes, screams, cash registers, cuckoo clocks, spoken voices, children's choirs, and countless others to buffer tracks from Pink Floyd's extensive discography. How they were able to stay so far ahead of the times and still top the vast majority of contemporary acts is as far beyond me as that other side of the moon.

Smaller bands today have brought in this style and created a nice little niche for them in the scene. Arizona band What Laura Says essentially takes it, crafts it and molds it into their own genre of folk/blues/jazz/rock/alternative/too-many-genres-to-count reminiscent of querk-heroes Animal Collective. Lyrically, this band is far from as fluent as the aforementioned bands, but their debut album is a far cry from anything in the norm. The record sounds like a compilation; Each song sounds like it's from a different band. They change from every genre to style to up-the-sleeve trick with ease from song to song. The querkiness factor is enough to sit down and listen through it all with a perpetual smile.

Even when done subtly, such as the rolling of a film at the beginning and closing of a song, this layering can make all the difference. It makes Faded Paper Figures' "B Film" sound infinitely better. With mature lyrics that reflect the modern turn of music, the clicking beat and flim scrolls turn this into one to remember. Likewise, a tiny indie band from Germany that (surprisingly) no label will sign uses the film scroll. Museum, as they are called, call forth lyrics that would make Roger Waters proud. Many of Museum's sounds appear to be digitally edited instead of scrounged from the crawl space, but they break their music from the zombie pack regardless. It's a wonder why they haven't been picked up yet.

Let's face it. The guitar/bass/drum/vocal combination has been all but exhausted. These days, it takes an extraordinary voice or highly experienced, talent-laden instrumentalists to excel with this now-bland combination. This is why the keyboard and violin are speedily picking up momentum. This is why generic rock is slowing down, and it doesn't help dying major label record sales. With this new generation of small-scale local talents, you have to be bringing everything to the table to avoid the stereotypical pop hooks that attract teenage girls like flies and push away sophisticated listeners like lepers. Bands like Iron & Wine, What Laura Says, Faded Paper Figures, and Museum are doing that, sometimes literally.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Jay-Z's Beautiful Mooching

For the rockers and the rappers out there

Jay-Z is one of the most overrated rappers alive, in my opinion. As a businessman, however, it's hard to argue against his prowess. Fairly recently, a couple of Jay-Z mash up albums have come out.

If you're not aware of the term "mash up," it's when 2 or more songs are taken by a mash up artist, and the fragments of the song are used to make a new one. For example, you could take the instrumental line for Muse's "Hysteria" and cover it with the vocal tracks of Black Sabbath's "Black Sabbath". That would be a very basic mash up; most decent ones are far more complex.

Anyway, these albums were done by a company called Cookin' Soul, who makes its name with such productions. What's special about these is that they're full albums of Jay-Z + rock artist. Coldplay and Oasis, to be exact. Cookin' Soul released the Jay-Z/Oasis one a while back, whereas the Jay-Z/Coldplay one is quite recent.

They're nothing to write home about (although apparently they're worth writing a blog about), but they're a really fun listen. Mash ups aren't made to be lyrically profound (it's Jay-Z). They aren't made to blow you away instrumentally (it's Oasis and Coldplay). They're made to be a fun listen. They're made to sit back and appreciate the work of the mash up artist and marvel at how its possible with the use of computers to do what they do. Mainly, if you know the music that's being mashed beforehand, it's basically like hearing a brand new song, but with recognizable hooks, rhymes, and/or effects. When that point of recognition reaches you, it becomes a whole new listen. I have no doubt that the three artists used in these mash ups were chosen because of their recongizable qualities.

If you have the time/boredom, check 'em out. They're free.

OJAYZIS (Jay-Z + Oasis)

Viva La Hova (Jay-Z + Coldplay)

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

The T.V. Told Me To



I’ve found myself listening to a lot of grunge rock (Stone Temple Pilots and Soundgarden in particular) near this election day. Everything is about today’s election and rightfully so. Even ESPN chimes in with completely pointless halftime interviews; they’re about the last network to get an interview with those two. But today, I’m in a Roger Waters mood. Not Pink Floyd, just Roger Waters. While I don’t really agree with some of his views (he’s an atheist and a hard liberal), his music is always endlessly fascinating and Amused To Death is his solo pinnacle.

It’s the perfect record to put on and listen to straight through on this day. War, the media, religion, politics, greed, sex, and how many of people’s real opinion and daily thoughts are so far down the drain you can’t see them are all looked upon here. This election, many people are like the monkey watching the television. They look but don’t watch. They hear but don’t listen. Too many people base their opinions on what the man (or the woman) on the TV says. People should think for themselves. At least that’s my strategy for this time. I take most of what the media says with a grain of salt. I find CNN to be the fairest station for political coverage by a long shot, but that’s just me.

Anyway, to the actual album, this is not an easy or even fun listen sometimes. It’s very dense, dark, and brooding. It’s a work best experienced from start to finish while reading along with the lyrics. It has the unsettlingly odd ( Too Much Rope, It’s A Miracle) to the utterly chaotic (Perfect Sense Part 2, The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range) and even the deeply disturbing ( Three Wishes, the title track). On the music sense, the thing that makes this album better than Waters’ last two is this one is less wordy and has more of a commanding atmosphere. The background singer/s also work to a fantastic degree,; sometimes giving this odd album an almost twisted gospel sound. The “What God Wants” trilogy of songs is maybe the most puzzling factor of this record, if Roger is attacking the idea of God himself or how the media presents God is anyone’s guess (I like to think it’s the latter).
For those craving something challenging and different, I recommend this. And just remember to take it with a grain of salt.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Forgive Durden's pièce de résistance

The most important album since In Rainbows

Razia's Shadow


May 1969: The Who releases Tommy
November 1979: Pink Floyd releases The Wall
May 1988: Queensryche releases Operation: Mindcrime
May 2006: Forgive Durden releases Wonderland
October 2006: My Chemical Romance releases The Black Parade

October 2008: Forgive Durden releases Razia's Shadow

If you haven't figured out what the above five albums have in common, it's because you a) cannot read or b) are mentally retarded, meaning you can't read anyway. All of the above are rock operas, musicals, concept albums, whatever you want to call them. Tommy centered on a blind, deaf, and dumb boy who "led a messianic movement" (thanks Wikipedia). The Wall told the wrenching story of Pink. Operation: Mindcrime did something else, The Black Parade's classic rock-beefed musical focused on a dying cancer patient reflecting on his life, and Wonderland took you through the streets of lies, deceit, and corporate greed in the imaginary city of Wonderland.

Thomas Dutton has taken the rock opera idea of these albums and blown it into something of grandiose proportions for his new musical, Razia's Shadow.

Whoa.

This guy just compared Forgive Durden to The Wall and Tommy. This is the same person who showed off Brand New's Deja Entendu like a shiny new toy until everyone finally took the five minutes to listen to it and strike it down. The same person who called Dark Side of the Moon one of the most overrated albums in history. Yep, that guy.

Don't leave. Please. This will be different. I promise.

Forgive Durden is not a punk artist. Forgive Durden is not an emo bitch whining about his last failed relationship. Thomas Dutton is an entrepreneur of music, combining ridiculously far-reaching styles and genres of music into a unique, highly recognizable sound. If you don't like him, you damn well better cite his hate it/love it voice and nothing else, because this man truly is a genius at composition.

BACK TO THE POINT.

Razia's Shadow doesn't point out any revolutionary truths or question any societal beliefs. It doesn't break any boundaries or smash down any walls of lyrical conformity. It's a genuine musical, with epic scores of horns, strings, timpani drums, and cheesy lyrics.

Why is this a masterpiece, you say? The instrumentation is brilliant. A lover of any genre would be hard pressed to challenge this aspect of the hour long record. Every flute, every violin, every organ is right in its perfect place at every moment. The narration points between songs contain some of the coolest background instrumentation I've ever heard.

But that's not the kicker. The kicker is this:
Dutton the Mastermind signed on a different vocalist to play each character in the entire musical. Now, most of this reading audience probably won't recognize many of these names. Let me assure you, though, that nearly all of these names are highly respected names in the modern music scene. The ones that aren't make up for it with amazing vocal abilities.

No noted rock musicals have achieved this level of awesomeness. Many of these singers have ridiculously insane voices (Aaron Weiss [the white Morgan Freeman], Chris Conley, Greta Salpeter, Shawn Harris, Thomas Dutton) that do nothing except make the aesthetic even more dramatic.

I won't kill your next half hour with a track by track review, but the story line features two main parts, starring heroes, damsels, angels, light v. dark, and prophecies.

(SPOILER ALERT)
Part One centers on an angel, Ahrima, who shapes the world, but feels his powers are wasted by his father on trivial tasks that don't show off his full potential. In order to be noticed by his fellow angels, he creates giant, extraordinary lamps to light the world, and is met by lukewarm responses of jealousy. In spite, he is convinced by Barayas the Spider to smash the lamps and burn the world he's created. Once the earth is aflame, Ahrima is banished to his desecrated land (the Dark) while the survivors find a new place to begin existence (the Light). In doing so, he is eternally barred from his love, Nidria.

Part Two occurs much, much later in the world's history. Adakias, an inhabitant of the Dark region of the world, is shunned for believing in stories of angels and prophecies. Confident in his beliefs, he leaves the Dark world to fulfill the prophecy, meet his true love (Princess Anhura), and recombine the two worlds into one.
(SPOILER OVER)

Corny? Yup. But it's unbelievably well done. By track 3, I was engrossed in the story line. The lyrics are pretty straightforward in order to clearly convey the story line, just as in a regular musical. In between songs, Razia features the narrative stylings of Aaron Weiss of mewithoutYou, whose voice sounds like peanut butter mixed with velvet. By track 13, I was riveted to my seat, waiting for the conclusion. The Airborne Toxic Event may be one of my personal favorite albums of all time, but come December, I might have to hand it off to Razia's Shadow as Album of the Year.

Check it.

--> Cardsox

Sunday, November 2, 2008

11 - 3 - 08: The Videos -- Volume IV

Enjoying your pre-election day day? I am; cannot wait to vote for the first time. In the mean-time, there's Monday Night Football tonight, which will actually feature both Senators at halftime, being interviewed by Boomer, Chris Berman. And then of course, The Videos!

1. Slave New World - Sepultura

I reviewed Sepultura's album Chaos A.D. a bit ago, and this is one of the songs I am addicted to from it. The focus on musicianship rather than speed and more speed is really what hooks me on this album, and the fact that they didnt sacrifice the heaviness of their music makes it all the better. The best example being this one, I'd say.




2. Go - Common

I dont know too much about Common. It's as close to nada as it gets, with the sliver being what seperates it from no clue and barely a clue is that I keep hearing how he's one of the most respected men in the genre today. There's always the Game, Lil Wayne, T.I. and other various rappers, it's hard to find people like Common, a diamond in the rough, much like Eminem or Lupe Fiasco.




3. The W.A.N.D. - The Flaming Lips

If you havent heard this song on TV during commercials yet, you must not watch all that often. I didnt even know it was a FL song, mostly because I had never heard anything by or investigated them before. As always a passion of mine, checking out an album by an artist I have no previous knowledge of is looking like what's next on my to-do list with regards to the Flaming Lips.




4.Vicarious - Tool

2006's 10,000 Days was just one more classic record by an established art rock/progressive metal band, Tool. The opening track, this one, set the stage emphatically, much like "Stinkfist" did for AEnima. This one is a thunderous beast packed into just under ten-minutes of music, and the video really takes off on its own.



5. Summertime - Janis Joplin

Ah, the 60's. A time in United States history I wish I could've been apart of. I'd of loved to have been around in the 70's and more then one-year of the 80's, but the 60's have always been an interesting time to look back on in what was happening in society and musically. This performance is from 1969. It's the instrumentation that really clicks with me here. Joplin's waning, yet consistent vocals are her own, and for that matter, good touch, but the interludes inbetween her parts are great.




All done. Have fun voting for the next President. (or not)