Author: James B. Eldred (Page 8 of 21)

We Are Wolves: Invisible Violence

March 18, 2010 /


RIYL: Handsome Furs, New Order, The Rapture

On their third release, Montreal trio We Are Wolves polish and refine their unique brand of indie, post-punk and electro to such a shine it’s hard to find another band to compare them to. They’re most reminiscent of It’s Blitz!-era Yeah Yeah Yeahs but they are still strikingly different in the way they combine punk and electronic music. While the YYYs practically abandoned their punk influences to create their dance-happy indie rock, We Are Wolves still embrace it, combining scuzzy garage rock riffs with Moroder-influenced synths in a way that shouldn’t work as well as it does. Invisible Violence is a pendulum of a record, swinging back and forth between rock songs with an electronic edge like the opening track “Paloma” or electronic numbers with a slight rock edge, such as the epic “Reaching for the Sky.” It’s cold and detached while being energetic and in-your-face, like someone gave Gary Numan and fuzzbox and had him go to town. The term “dance-punk” doesn’t fit these guys, they could probably best be described as garage-electro; everything about them is lo-fi, with their wonderfully retro-sounding synths melding perfectly with their scuzzy guitars and howling vocals. This has to be the most hard-rocking, punk-friendly album ever to be obviously influenced by late-’70s disco. (Dare To Care Records 2010)

We Are Wolves MySpace Page

Alternative, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Dance, Electronica, Punk, Rock

The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights

March 17, 2010 /


RIYL: Going to White Stripes concerts

Recorded throughout their 2007 Canadian tour, Under The Great White Northern Lights doubles as the White Stripes’ first live album and as the soundtrack to the tour documentary of the same name. A Canadian tour may be an unlikely source from which to cull live material, but it’s clear that Jack and Meg have enthusiasm for their neighbors to the north, since they absolutely shredded it for them.

Under Great White Northern Lights accurately conveys the manic, almost primal, energy of a White Stripes concert. The way the two tear through “Let’s Shake Hands” and “Blue Orchid” is brutal, Meg pounds every beat like it’s her last and Jack practically tears the guitar to pieces with every riff and yells every line with such sincerity and intensity that they all sounds like personal insults directed the person whom he hates the most. The spiteful “Citizen Kane”-inspired jibes of “The Union Forever” sound just as scornful and hate-filled as they did when they first recorded that song nearly 10 years ago. If Jack and Meg are sick of this material, they sure as hell aren’t showing it.

But when they are sick of a song it sure shows. Rightfully tired of “Fell in Love with a Girl,” they try to turn it into a slow jam to mix things up, but without the manic riff that’s present on the album version, that song just falls apart. They also try to turn it into a sing-along during the chorus but throughout most of the album the Canadians suck at audience participation. Their delays in prompted singing cause more than one stumble in Jack’s pacing and when it comes time for quiet songs like “We Are Going to Be Friends” they just don’t know when the hell to shut up. A gaggle of screamers ruin that recording, drowning out Jack’s heartfelt lyrics with constant high-pitched squealing. It’s unbearably annoying.

But when the audience shuts up and when Jack and Meg don’t radically deviate from the source material in distracting ways, there’s little to complain about on this album. Sure, it’s easy to whine about some notable omissions (no “Hotel Yorba,” “The Hardest Button to Button” or “Dead Leaves On The Dirty Ground,” for instance) but instead focus on the rarities that are included. The Dolly Parton classic “Jolene” has been a live staple for the White Stripes since their inception, and this marks the first time it’s been included on an album proper. Same goes for “Let’s Shake Hands,” which was the band’s first release as a single back in 1998. Hardcore fans will more likely care about that than the bigger well-known tracks that are excluded. In fact, what’s probably most maddening about Under Great White Northern Lights is that it’ll have you jonesing even more for new White Stripes. The Dead Weather and The Raconteurs just aren’t cutting it anymore. (Third Man 2010)

The White Stripes’ MySpace Page

Alternative, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Concert CDs, Punk, Rock

Rob Zombie: Hellbilly Deluxe 2

February 16, 2010 /


RIYL: Rob Zombie, White Zombie…other zombie related culture

Rob Zombie’s 2006 album Educated Horses was a shocking departure for the shock rocker where he dropped the industrial dance beats and heavy production in lieu of classic rock riffs and heavy metal grooves. It was mature, experimental and a brave move for the man who hadn’t really advanced his musical style since 1992.

Hellbilly Deluxe 2 is not a brave move. Coming 12 years after the original Hellbilly Deluxe, this album finds Rob Zombie forcefully stripping away every development and evolution in his sound to deliver an album that is intentionally uninspired and derivative, but is that a bad thing? Because even though Educated Horses was a bold move for Zombie and it showed he could do more than he did in the past; the brand of rock he first showed us with “Thunder Kiss ’65” is still the what he does best. And while nothing here is original, it’s still a hell of a lot of fun. The industrial beats and distorted guitars that worked in 1998 on tracks like “Dragula” and “Superbeast” still work fine on “Dream Factory” and “Werewolf Women of the SS” (the latter of which named after Zombie’s mock trailer for “Grindhouse”). About the only thing that doesn’t work on this belated sequel is the closing “The Man Who Laughs,” which is a bloated overblown production complete with string arrangements by film composer Tyler Bates and a (very) extended drum solo. Prog rock excess does not belong on a Rob Zombie record.

There are artists who change and evolve their sound over time (REM, U2), and there are artists who discover that they are only really good at one thing early in their career and they stick to it, prevailing cultural winds be damned (Motorhead, AC/DC). It’s becoming apparent that Zombie is more than happy to be in the latter group, and Rob Zombie sounding like Rob Zombie for 20 more years is preferable to someone else trying to instead. (Road Runner 2010)

Rob Zombie MySpace Page

Alternative, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Industrial, Metal, Rock

Buzzcocks: Love Bites (Reissue)

February 9, 2010 /


RIYL: Stiff Little Fingers, Sex Pistols, The Clash

https://www.esdmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/buzzcocks-love.jpg Love Bites is the Buzzcocks’ second album. When it first came out in 1978, it was probably the closest punk rock came to a concept album at the time, the concept being just how much love can bite. Almost every single song on Love Bites is a blistering pop-punk piece of bitterness about the darker side of love and lust. Screw Morrissey and the Cure – no one has ever laid pop misery down like Pete Shelley and crew do here. If songs like “Just Love,” “Real World” and the immortal masterpiece “Ever Fallen in Love” don’t move you on some level emotionally, then you have either never faced the pain of a broken relationship or you are dead inside. Love Bites is a brutal trip to the dark side of love, but it’s one that sounds so damn good that it’s impossible not to revisit it again and again. Being miserable never sounded this good before or since.

And as if you needed another reason to own this classic of pop-punk, Mute’s new re-issue adds a whopping 30 bonus tracks, including several Peels Sessions, over a dozen demos and a live concert from 1978. Shockingly, none of these add-ons sound like filler, even though you’re getting some songs two or even three times. The Peel Session function as great mini-concerts, the demos (which sound amazing) work both as quality performances and as a study in how songs can change from conception to final recording, and the concert is a high-energy set that includes non-Love Bites classics like “What Do I Get” and “Autonomy.” If you like punk rock and you don’t own Love Bites already, you’re doing it wrong and you have even less of an excuse not to own it now. If you’ve already bought Love Bites you can re-purchase it feeling confident that you aren’t being bilked out of your cash for a cheap double-dip. This is the real-deal, a must-own no matter what. (Mute 2010)

Buzzcocks’ MySpace Page

Artists, CD Reviews, Punk, Rock

A Tale Of Two Singers: Creed vs. Alter Bridge

February 5, 2010 /

Creed: Live (DC3 Global)
RIYL: The sound of dogs being murdered underwater, Nickelback

Alter Bridge Live In Amsterdam (DC3 Global)
RIYL: Seether, 3 Doors Down, Daughtry

Remember Creed? Yeah, me too. In fact I’m still in the support group. Their reunion tour was the first in an unholy trinity of ’90s reunion announcements (the other two being Blink-182 and Limp Bizkit), and this live DVD captures the band’s Second Coming in all its horror. It’s been a few years, but Creed still sounds like Creed, a plodding combination of Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam and every mid-’90s Christian rock band you never heard. However, the downtime has not been kind to singer Scott Stapp; he can’t hit the notes like he used to, and is frequently flat and out of tune. However, Stapp never sounded all that great to begin with, so you might not notice. What you will notice is that he looks horrible. Easily 20-30 pounds heavier, and before the end of the third song, the man is just drenched in sweat. He doesn’t look fat (hell, he’s thinner than I am, so I’m not one to talk), but he looks unhealthy as hell, as if he needs a tank of oxygen and an adrenaline shot at any minute or he’ll keel over the second he stops his guttural whaling. Behind him the rest of the band just seems like they’re going through the motions, dealing with a frontman they’ve long tired of. Stapp’s lack of endurance means that he takes frequent breaks between songs to talk to the audience and at one point proclaims that “You can change your legacy and destiny, man.” And that may be true, but this DVD sure as hell won’t do it. Hell, even if you liked Creed back in “the day” (the day being the late-’90s/early-’00s) you won’t want to hear/see this incarnation of them. This is a horrible excuse for a concert video and is even below the low standards that Creed fans undoubtedly have.

When Creed got back together, the future of Alter Bridge, the band made up of everyone from Creed except Stapp (with Myles Kennedy replacing him), was immediately called into question. However, they let everyone know right away that they weren’t going anywhere no matter how successful the Creed reunion turned out to be, and after watching their “Live in Amsterdam” DVD, it’s easy to see why. They actually like being in this band. Say what you will about Alter Bridge – they certainly aren’t original and at their best they’re just slightly above average, but their brand of classic rock redux is light years above anything Creed ever put out. And the band seems to know it, as they happily strut around stage, play to the crowd and just seem to have a good time. One can assume that Kennedy is to thank for this; he is a great front man with boundless energy and enthusiasm and he even seems to like his bandmates. And while the songs he’s singing may not always be great, he can sure as hell sing. So, Alter Bridge is a great live band, but their songs are not – and that’s a bit of a bummer. Still, if you like Alter Bridge this is a must-buy, as it showcases a band at the top of its game, happy to perform and happy to be with a lead singer who isn’t a pompous, bloated has-been who’s more suited to front a Meatloaf tribute act.

Alternative, Concert DVDs, Rock

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