Category: CD Reviews (Page 392 of 399)

The guilt…THE GUILT!!!

December 7, 2005 / Will Harris

There are guilty pleasures…and, then, there are guilty pleasures.

It’s one thing to like an album that you know you really shouldn’t like when you can perform a lengthy rant about why it’s actually not so bad; for instance, I could write a lovely treatise on the pop goodness of former Spice Girl Melanie C’s solo debut, which you’d be prone to write off simply because she used to be a Spice Girl.

It’s quite another, however, to love an album and find yourself totally and utterly unable to defend it. You want to, of course…but when you sit down and listen to the record, you suddenly realize, “There is nothing I can say that will convince anyone that this disc is actually any good.”

I hereby open my closet of horrors, then, and submit to you my guiltiest pleasure:

Night Ranger, “Big Life.”

It was their last gasp as a viable commercial entity, but they were wheezing all the way, with only one semi-hit to be found among the record’s nine tracks, that being “The Secret of My Success,” the theme song to the Michael J. Fox movie of the same name. But I had seen the band in concert as part of an ostensibly-awesome double bill with Starship, I had all their albums – yes, I actually had them on vinyl – and, when I read in People that they had a new album out, I knew I needed to buy it right away. So I did. And I loved it. It was catchy pop-rock, albeit with more of an emphasis on a glossy sheen than a hard edge, but that didn’t matter one bit to me; if anything, it made it more accessible for me. By the time I realized that no-one cared about Night Ranger and that I was probably doing my reputation more harm than good by proclaiming the album to be “awesome,” it was too late; I knew the words to almost every song…and, to this day, still own it on CD.

Wow, that feels good. Anyone else got a guilty pleasure they’re willing to divulge…?

Rock

Bands/artists I love that will not get into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

December 6, 2005 / David Medsker

Last week, we had a rather spirited discussion about the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Class of 2006 (Black Sabbath, Blondie, Miles Davis, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Sex Pistols), after which I listed ten bands from the ‘80s that I want to see get into the Hall before, say, Paper Lace, who gave the world “The Night Chicago Died.” Most of my picks, admittedly, were no-brainers (the Mötley Crüe pick was more for fun than anything else), but the point I was really trying to make was that the music of the ‘80s should not be dismissed in favor of the bands from the youth of the majority of the voters, and I fear that it will take New Order and the Smiths a good five years of eligibility before they get the nod. I, for one, cannot wait to see the induction ceremony for the Smiths. You couldn’t find four people who hate each other more.

This week, I am going to run my white flag up the pole and list the bands that I dearly love that, in my not so humble opinion, do not stand a chance in hell of getting into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Most of these artists are people whom I feel deserve to get the nod. But I understand how the “biz” works, and that respect and credibility will only get you so far. The reason they’re not getting in, as far as I’m concerned, is because they didn’t sell enough records, which more or less makes this the American Music Awards Hall of Fame, but I digress.

And so, without further ado, bands I love, listed in no particular order, that will not get into the Hall.

1) Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry. These guys were a huge influence on a score of different bands, from the glam bands of the ‘70s to the New Romantics of the ‘80s. One thing’s for sure, a good chunk of Bowie’s best moves came from Bryan Ferry, and I think Bowie himself would admit that.

2) Neil Finn/Crowded House/Split Enz. The man pisses genius, as Q Magazine once succinctly put it. Neil’s presence in Split Enz forced brother Tim Finn to quit fiddling around and write something accessible, and Crowded House is one of the best pop bands in the world, ever. Finn’s solo stuff ain’t bad, either. Lord knows, his song “Turn and Run” is the best thing that Sheryl Crow will ever be involved with, but we’ll get to Sheryl Crow in a little bit.

3) Squeeze. They were smart, they were funny, and they wrote infectiously catchy songs. So why is it that they don’t have a prayer of getting in? I wish I knew. We’re now surrounded by scores of smartass singers who think they’re clever, but there hasn’t been a record since Ben Folds Five that comes even close to outsmarting East Side Story or Argybargy.

4) Aimee Mann. If she signed up for military duty, they’d make her a sniper. Mann has a way of disarming people so quickly that they don’t even know that she has taken their most powerful weapon away until she’s shoved it halfway down their throat. Meanwhile, Sheryl Crow writes songs that are barely good enough to be Aimee’s B-sides, and Crow will likely skate into the Hall on a silver platter. And why is that? Because Crow sold more records, therefore she must be better than Mann. But I know better. Hopefully you do, too.

5) George Michael. No one wants to admit that they like either a George Michael song in particular or George Michael in general, and yet, this guy wreaked unholy havoc on not only the Billboard Pop charts, but the R&B charts as well. And yet, unlike Finn, or Mann, or Squeeze, it’s that very success, or the inability to maintain it, that will cost Michael in the end. There was a point, when Faith ruled the world, that Michael was even bigger than Madonna. I admit that even I tried to resist his charms as long as I could, but the one-two-three punch of “Everything She Wants,” “Kissing a Fool” and, most importantly, “Cowboys and Angels” made me a believer. If they are holding his post-Listen Without Prejudice material against him (which is patently unfair, as there is some great stuff on Older), then I would like to submit Exhibit CH: The Pretenders, into evidence. They made one, one, good record, and they got in. For my money, George Michael has written more good songs than Chrissie Hynde has ever played.

6) The Hollies. I had planned on making this list about more current artists, but before I began, I went through Steve-O’s list of inductees, and couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that the Hollies are still on the outside looking in. WTF? These guys were incredibly popular and highly regarded. Isn’t that the magic combination? Shouldn’t they get in for “The Air That I Breathe,” “He Ain’t Heavy (He’s My Brother)” and “King Midas in Reverse” alone? If you need more examples on what’s good about the Hollies, I can give you about 20. I’m sure the Delays (whose album Faded Seaside Glamour is the best combination of the Hollies, Sundays, Cocteau Twins and the La’s that you’ll ever hear) could give you about 20 more. But sad fact is that if the Hollies were going to get in, it would have happened by now, and that is a crying shame.

7) Blur. They were bar none my favorite band of the ‘90s. I shoved Modern Life Is Rubbish, Parklife and The Great Escape down the throats of everyone within reach (didn’t I, Steve?). But after four superb records (1997’s Blur was their last hurrah), the blood started to spill between Damon and Graham, and neither has been the same since. Sure, Damon’s doing just fine with the Gorillaz, but you know that it’s killing him inside that the Gorillaz are bigger in the States than Blur ever was or will ever be.

Lists, News, Rock

Deep Cuts: R.E.M.

December 5, 2005 / Will Harris

Statistics show – and please don’t ask to see the statistics, because someone set their coffee down on them, it spilled, and now the ink’s all smeared, so you can’t read them, anyway – that there are essentially only two types of R.E.M. fans: those who discovered the band prior to the release of their 1987 album, Document, and those who discovered them when the band’s single, “The One I Love,” unexpectedly began its stampede into the Billboard Top 10.

Me, I cut it pretty close. I discovered them with Dead Letter Office, a B-sides and rarities collection that showed up in stores scant months before Document… but, still, if there’s a fence, I’m on the side where I can wave over it and point and laugh like Nelson Muntz, saying, “HA-ha!”

I first heard R.E.M. when “Fall On Me” scored some minimal mainstream radio airplay in 1986, but, on a field trip with my high school journalism class, I ended up hearing Lifes Rich Pageant – the album from which “Fall On Me” originates – in its entirety, which piqued my interest enough to invest in a cassette copy of the aforementioned Dead Letter Office. I must’ve read Peter Buck’s liner notes about the origins and histories of that album’s contents a hundred times – no small feat, given the tiny type in that tape cover – and I decided that I was definitely going to be picking up more of the band’s recorded output.

So I did.

It’s almost 20 years later now, and I’ve got all of the band’s studio albums, as well as a handful of CD singles, a best-of collection, a rarities disc, and – shhhhhhh, don’t tell anyone! – even a bootleg or two. I’ve seen them live three times, and even had a close encounter with Bill Berry as he wandered the campus of the College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, before the band’s show – with openers 10,000 Maniacs, no less – at William and Mary Hall. You may be familiar with the concert in question; Peter Buck immortalized it in the pages of Rolling Stone when he bitched about getting nailed in the head by a wet sweatsock…which, come to think of it, would explain why our encore got cut short.

So armed with that knowledge and experience, here are my picks for some of R.E.M.’s best deep cuts:

1. “Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars),” Chronic Town EP – From the get go, it was obvious that Michael Stipe was not going to be going out of his way to have his lyrics understood, but you can at least make out that this is where the title of the band’s first EP came from. Dig the creepy circus music that starts the song; it makes for a great mix disc opener.

2. “Perfect Circle,” Murmur – One of the loveliest songs in R.E.M.’s catalog, it remains a favorite of many fans…and, apparently, of the band themselves; even 22 years down the road, they still break it out in concert once in awhile.

3. “We Walk,” Murmur – It’s an inconsequential little number buried near the end of the album, but damned if your head doesn’t bob every time you listen to it.

4. “7 Chinese Brothers,” Reckoning – Peter Buck’s chiming guitar, with a little helping from the occasional plinking of a piano, is what drives the song. The track was revisited on the flip side of “So. Central Rain” in the form of “Voice of Harold,” where Stipe recited all new lyrics over the same music. But it’s the original that’s “a must.”

5. “Second Guessing,” Reckoning – It’s a pop song, pure and simple, coming in at under three minutes in length…2:50, to be precise. Stipe spends most of the time asking, “Why are you trying to second guess me,” but it’s the bit where he and Mills harmonize on the line, “Here we are,” that makes the track.
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To see the entire R.E.M Deep Cuts list, click here, and check out Bullz-Eye’s R.E.M. profile.

Artists, Deep Cuts, Rock, Songs

We got the Hives, and we’re gonna share them

December 5, 2005 / David Medsker

The Hives took a circuitous route to fame, recording a couple albums and EPs in the 1990s and getting the greatest hits packaged all together in one magic hit CD, Your New Favourite Band, a couple years ago. Last year the Swedish punks came back with the all-new Tyrannosaurus Hives, a clean, punchy set that clears the sinuses of music fans who’ve just about had it up to here with wussy stuff from the likes of Dave Matthews and Sheryl Crow. The band’s new concert DVD “Tussles in Brussels,” released in time for the Christmas shopping season, gets the Hives phenomenon down for the record: The hard licks, the black-and-white outfits the band wears, and of course, the singular sound of lead vocalist Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist, with whom we sat down for the following chat:

Bullz-Eye: Describe a Hives concert for those in our reading audience who haven’t been.

Pelle Almqvist: If you’ve been to a rock concert–I’ll assume that much–if you take what you’ve seen there and multiply it by ten, that’s pretty much it. It’s like a rock concert except there’s more of everything else. Except color, because we’re dressed in black and white. It’s a bid louder, more intense, a bit more energetic. The only thing it isn’t a bit more of is…calmer.

BE: I’m sure you’ve been asked this about 5,000 times, but here’s 5,001: why do you dress that way, anyway?

PA: It looks good, but also, we’re convinced it makes us sound better. Like some hippie bands had some statues on their amps and stuff because it made them sound better? This makes us sound better. The treble’s a bit clearer.

BE: I’ve been listening to your stuff for a couple years now….but describe your music for those who haven’t heard it.

PA: Well, it’s rock music, that’s what it is, I’ll tell you that much. Very very very energetic rock music. If you like the classic values of rock – first it has to be entertaining and exciting, and after that you can do different things with it – it’s fast and loud and fun.

BE: Does the DVD cover one show or a series of shows?

PA: We just recorded one show and we had to just trust that we’d be good enough to put it out, otherwise we’d have to record another show. It’s one show straight through, not edited. It turned out really well. We spent a lot of time cutting between cameras and making sure the sound was as good as it could be.

BE: What do you remember about the gig?

PA: I was going into the crowd and this guy was pulling on my leg and I fell and did a jump and I landed with my shins on the barrier. I think you can maybe see where it happens. My leg was bleeding and swelling up halfway through the show, and I keep getting stiffer and stiffer. But the good thing is that I was wearing black pants, so you can’t see the blood.

To read the read of the interview, click here.

Alternative, Artists, Concert DVDs, Interviews, Rock

The Hives The Hives interview

311 beats up Scott Stapp, lives out the dream of music critics everywhere

December 5, 2005 / David Medsker

Man, news reports don’t get any sweeter than this. Former Creed singer Scott Stapp and 311 threw down in a posh Baltimore hotel. The reports that are coming in vary somewhat, but this is what we have so far:

• Stapp entered the hotel bar, stepped in front of the TV that members of 311 were watching, and said, “311, I am ready to fight.” (They had met earlier in the day, although nothing happened in their first encounter.) 311 weren’t interested, and Stapp went to the bar and started drinking.

• Stapp then made a crude remark to the wife of 311 member SA Martinez. While the members of 311 then claim that Stapp sucker punched drummer Chad Sexton, who was at the bar with Mrs. Martinez, there are also reports that SA Martinez threw the first punch and had to be forcibly removed from using Stapp’s tongue to paint his boat.

So let’s recap: Here’s a guy who poses Jesus style on his album covers, then picks fights in bars and hits on married women. Never mind Stapp not being a good Christian, or singer, or lyricist; Stapp isn’t even a good drunk. Can’t he just be happy, a little sloppy and slur his speech like the rest of us? On top of that, it doesn’t sound like he’s much of a fighter, either.

In one song on Stapp’s (awful) new album, The Great Divide, he bellows, “I do not have to justify the way I live my life,” to which I say: you are getting rich off the money of good hearted people who find comfort and peace in your songs about God, and you are then spending that money getting drunk in a bar and coveting thy neighbor’s wife. So yeah, dude, you kinda do have to justify the way you live your life. But not to me, though. I never thought very much of you before this. 311, on the other hand, are instantly and permanently in my cool book.

News, Rock