Category: CD Reviews (Page 274 of 399)

Ruby Tuesday: Bis, “I’m a Slut”

November 13, 2007 / David Medsker

When I first heard Bis, I was pretty sure I hated them. I mean, it was on a tribute album to the Smiths, fer crissakes. What on earth were they doing there?

I still don’t have a good answer to that question. Bis, after all, were the ‘90s equivalent of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, which means they were the ‘80s equivalent of Berlin and the Human League. Do any of those bands have a single thing in common with the Smiths? No, which is what made their version of “The Boy with a Thorn in His Side” both fascinating and maddening. On the plus side, they gave the song the danceable beat that it begged for all along. On the other hand, they also stripped Johnny Marr’s lovely chord progression out, effectively turning the song into a dub mix. Not what this Smiths fan was looking for.

Fast forward three years, and Bis releases their second album Social Dancing. Somehow, it catches my ear – I’m guessing they landed a track on a CMJ compilation, as I was a subscriber at the time – and I find a promo copy cheap…and in the process discover a song that still pops up on Medsker mix discs. Short, fast, funny and insanely catchy, “I’m a Slut” gleefully pokes fun at gender roles – “Have I done something to upset you / Was my dress a bit too see-through” – but had a Shirley Manson badass-ness to it as well. In a musical climate that was still suffering a hangover from what Alanis Morissette hath wrought, it was a most welcome breath of fresh air.

The band’s 2001 EP, Music from a Stranger World, was even better than Social Dancing, but it wasn’t good enough to stop them from breaking up two years later. Wikipedia says that they recently reunited for a few gigs in England. You have to think that they’re watching this whole ‘80s retro thing and thinking, “WTF?”

Bis – I’m a Slut.mp3

Alternative, External Music, Pop, Rock, Rock Babes, Ruby Tuesday, Songs

Road Warriors 39

November 9, 2007 / Mike Farley

John Mellencamp is vowing to make his current tour more about the songs and songwriting than about doing rousing choruses of certain songs. What? Does that mean he’s going to take that horrible “This is Our Country” song out of his set, or at least play a short version of it? How about just a verse and a chorus?

UK Brit Pop band Polytechnics are unsigned but have quite the buzz going, and this month will showcase for labels in both New York and Los Angeles. Here are the dates where you can check them out:
Nov 16 @ Mercury Lounge NEW YORK
Nov 14 @ Spaceland LOS ANGELES

Matchbox Twenty has just announced tour dates and their schedule is posted on the band’s MySpace page at www.myspace.com/matchboxtwenty.

Former Tonic lead singer Emerson Hart is on tour and playing acoustic sets with a stripped down three-piece band. According to Hart, this helps him relate to his own music, and offers a better concert experience for his fans.

The Donnas are on tour in support of their seventh album, Bitchin’. This month they are in Europe after finishing a two-month leg of US dates. Here is the current Continue reading »

Alternative, Concerts, Electronica, Hip Hop, News, Pop, Rock

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Spice MILFs

November 6, 2007 / David Medsker

If you’re anything like us – though with any luck, you’re less cynical – you heard the news about the Spice Girls reforming and your first thought, after the obligatory “Why?”, was something along the lines of “Hey, I’d reform too if the price was right.” And the price is most definitely right, with each Girl bringing home $20 million for participating. That seemed a rather exorbitant paycheck for: a) a band like the Spice Girls, and b) what was at the time only a seven-city tour. The tour promoters, however, clearly knew what they were doing, because several dates on the band’s tour, which is now headed for Australia, South Africa, Argentina and China, sold out in 18 minutes. Eighteen minutes? Really? Are we missing something?

Clearly, we were. The video.

The Girls are releasing a hits album November 20, and the video for the first single, “Headlines (Friendship Never Ends),” is, um, very revealing. For example, it reveals that the Girls are actually hotter now than they were at their peak, and that Ginger Spice is ripped, baby! It doesn’t reveal much in the way of poignant songwriting, but the song isn’t what we would call terrible, either. To be honest, we weren’t paying much attention to the song. We were more interested in when Posh’s eyes flash red and she beats Sporty to death, mistaking her for Sarah Connor. And speaking of Sporty, is it just us, or does she look completely different, like ‘secretly replaced’ different? Must be the teeth.

Oh, and we haven’t even gotten to the best part about the Spice Girls tour: they’re going to get naked onstage. Now that is something with a definite awesomeness problem.

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Artists, Pop, Rock Babes, Songs, Videos

Less Talk, More Music: Husker Du on “The Late Show with Joan Rivers”

November 6, 2007 / Will Harris

Yes, you read that subject line correctly.

Husker Du were winding up their career right around the same time Joan Rivers was losing steam as a talk show hostess, so it’s only appropriate that their lines on the flowchart should have met up. As many times as I’ve seen this clip, I never fail to get annoyed when Rivers mucks up the title of the first song…it’s “Could You Be The One,” goddammit!…but I love the way the band changed the arrangement from the studio version. Stay tuned for the completely surreal interview segment which follows the first song – when Rivers finds out that the band’s name is Danish for “do you remember,” she finds it inexplicable that no-one in the band has any familial connection to Denmark – and then get your ass rocked by “She’s A Woman (And Now He Is A Man).”

Alternative, Artists, External Music, Less Talk, More Music, Rock, Videos

Ruby Tuesday: Duran Duran, “Breath after Breath”

November 6, 2007 / David Medsker

My childhood idols are releasing a new album next week, and I am fearful that it is going to suck donkey donkey donkey donkey. I base this concern on two things: the flat-as-a-pancake lead single “Falling Down,” and the album’s title, Red Carpet Massacre. One of these days, Duran Duran will learn not to write the punch lines for their critics. You’d think they would have learned that lesson after the dismal 1995 covers album Thank You, but no, they called their 2000 album Pop Trash, to which most reviewers said, “Yeah, that sounds about right.”

The band’s last album, 2004’s Astronaut, was better than it had a right to be, since it had been almost two decades since the original band had written together. We should have known not to get too optimistic for a second helping: Andy Taylor, once again, wasn’t happy with the direction the band was headed – and anyone who’s heard “Nite Runner,” the band’s collaboration with Timbaland and Justin Timberlake, knows exactly where those fears surfaced – and he left in the middle of recording. Hello, 1985, nice to see you again. Your hair seems…bigger than I remember.

Nevertheless, I will eagerly await the arrival of Massacre in my mailbox, hoping against hope that the band merely chose the wrong song as the lead single. It’s happened before – “Electric Barbarella,” wow, was that song awful – so you just never know. In the meantime, I’m paying tribute to my favorite song from the band’s 1993 second eponymous album, a.k.a. The Wedding Album. Unlike anything the band has recorded before or since, “Breath after Breath” shows the band dabbling in Latin music a good three years before it was trendy to do so. Plus, Milton Nascimento has a voice like butter.

Duran Duran – Breath after Breath.mp3

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