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Saturday, February 11, 2006 Saturday, February 11, 2006
Reviews should be about 200 words. Site staff reserve the right to edit submitted reviews. P.O.D. - Testify (Atlantic, 2006) DangerDoom - The Mouse And The Mask (Epitaph, 2005) Sufjan Stevens - Come On Feel The Illinoise! (Asthmatic Kitty, 2005) Matthew Good - In A Coma (Universal/Interscope, 2005) Our Lady Peace - Healthy In Paranoid Times (Columbia, 2005) Scratch - All The Way Live DVD ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Let's not kid ourselves, the self titled release, Payable on Death, was the worst thing that ever happened to P.O.D. Rather than capitalizing on what made Satellite shine among the now obsolete nu-metal genre, P.O.D created a record that had been done, and redone to death by their contemporaries. With Testify, we find the band returning to form. Rap is king once more on Testify, which may disappoint some but anything is better than the embarrassing vocals found on the previous disk. Perhaps more importantly, guitarist Jason Truby has finally earned his keep, providing riffs that are more suitable to the bands style while still maintaining his own. Tracks like "Roots In Stereo" featuring Hasidic rapper, Matishyahu and "Mistakes And Glories" easily stand as some of the best material P.O.D has put out. While the record isn't able to match the intensity shown on much of their earlier work, it's worth the listen. To bad no one seems to care anymore. >Taylor Summach< ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ For a first time on this here website, I am actually reviewing something that I am listening to on vinyl as I write the review... So my brother needed this USB Headset for his computer. Yeah, he lives in El Salvador and we needed it for sending off Monday through these people we know through my parents' church. So I bought the headset and moved towards the car. At this point I am in the vicinity of the Vinyl Exchange. This is good, but means I am gonna be late for the potluck I am going to. No worries though, if I'm lucky I'll find a good piece of wax. I also figure if anybody has the DangerDoom record it will be them. Besides I had already been to phonographique that day and did not see DangerDoom at that location, so when I was at phono I picked up some Amon Tobin, Grits and doubles of a Murs record...besides just buying doubles of that Kanye 'Diamonds...' single from A and B sound. I wasn't sure I wanted to spend more money at this point. Records ain't cheap...even considering it was all good deals today. So I get in Vinyl Exchange and I walk past the Evens record that Ian MacKaye released. I can't justify buying it. It's not really mixing friendly. Sure I buy the odd non-mixing records. Most of my records aren't for public exposure. Then I get to the new hip-hop records rack. I see a Casual full length record. I check the back. It looks cool. I flip through some Breaks and Beats records too. You have to be careful with those breaks records. Next up I check out the DangerDoom record. At 17.98, I think it's looking like a promising purchase. Besides, this was on my list of must haves. So I pick it up. I cruise through some bins. I check some other stuff. I don't buy any of the other stuff. That Guru record always is enticing but only if I get doubles of it. I bring it to the desk. The dude at the counter isn't the dude I expect to make comments on the record. He says stuff like.."I shoulda brought in more of those" and "I have been really digging the stuff he does with Madlib." Ridiculous I think. I am talking hip-hop with a dude in a Black Flag shirt. Killer actually. I feel like I am in good company. I get out of the store cruise back to the car. I throw it in the trunk. I cruise to a friends place and have a good potluck. I meet some people. I give a couple well-received jokes. It's a good time. I have a few good laughs. I have some good food. About 3 and a half hours later I listen to about 3 quarters of the album and think...this is great. Besides, MF Doom has one of the best voices in Hip-Hop. Dangermouse is famous for his mash-up masterpiece the grey album. Dangermouse isn't a one-trick wonder either. Not everyone gets to produce one of the Gorillaz records. Oh yeah, no hack at all. What the heck. Now I go online and tell a friend who I never talk to hardly ever that I am listening to a great album...it's put out by Epitaph and adultswim(cartoon network)...I kid you not >Kirk Trew< ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Come On Feel the Illinoise!', the second of 50(!) records from Sufjan Stevens in the impossibly ambitious 'Fifty States' series, opens, closes and middles with impossibly beautiful, impossibly repetetive, impossibly smothering indie orchestrations. 'Illinoise' suffers and succeeds in the same ways that are common to nearly all great concept albums; in which moments of brilliant clarity can be achieved at the cost of drowning in oceans of filler. This record deserves superlatives: it succeeds so perfectly at times that its failure is all the more spectacular. When it does work, this album contains some of the most sublime melodies and emotions ever put to tape. 'John Wayne Gacy, Jr.', a biographical exegesis of the life of Illinois' most notorious serial killer, eerily and beautifully paints the deep sadness of this undeniably evil man. The conclusion sets this song apart from mere hero-worshipping crime-chanties (a la 'take the money and run') with the lines, "In my best behaviour/I am really just like him/Look under the floorboards/for the secrets I have hid." The almost blatant sexual overtones set against the most perfectly frail of melodies makes this song almost as uncomfortable to listen to as it must have been to record. Other highlights include the fanciful images and apalachian harmonies of "Decatur, Or, Round Of Applause For Your Stepmother!", the delicate but powerful broadway-style layering of "Come On! Feel The Illinoise!", the awkward pubescent dissonance of meter and subject in "Casimir Pulaski Day", the turn-of-the-century naivete of "Prairie Fire That Wanders About", and the triumphant overflow of "The Predatory Wasp Of The Palisades Is Out To Get Us!" (the song-titles, however, are trying a bit too hard). Coming in at a mere second under 74 minutes, 'Illinoise' is not for the faint of heart. It is long and loud and self-indulgent, and rarely takes a break, sometimes taking my frayed patience to the breaking point. Most of the songs don't end at all; they merely flow into eachother with beautiful but utterly meaningless waste-of-time segues. I'm all for a good segue, but seriously, I have my limits. In the end (finally), I am a firm believer that with 20 minutes thrown in the cutting-room trash-can, this album would've, could've, should've been nearly perfect. Instead of rewarding me for spending my cash, Sufjan Stevens punished me, and didn't stop until the physical limits of the CD medium forced him to. Proving that concept albums, though a great idea at the time, are better left to movie soundtracks and broadway shows. Stevens' songwriting and arrangement need no improvement, but here's hoping that the next 48 installments improve his self-control. >scott in the way< ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ For years now The Matthew Good Band, and later Matthew Good himself, have been a staple on the Canadian music scene. With the release of In a Coma, Good reminds us of why we've paid attention to him all the years. By itself, In a Coma is merely a "best of" CD, highlighting the songs that have put Good on the map. As a bonus, two new songs titled "Oh Be Joyful" and "Big City Life" are also included. While good in their own right, they simply don't compare to the company they've found themselves in. To a casual fan unwilling to commit himself to Good's fairly broad library, In a Coma provides a nice introduction. However, those looking for the real gold will find it on the 3 disc Deluxe Edition. Perhaps the most valuable portion to a Good connoisseur is included on disc 2. The CD, which is broken into sections, contains a total of 19 songs. The first of which, make up section called "Rooms." In it are 9 beautifully redone acoustic versions of some of the more atmospheric songs of his career, making a strong case that Good does indeed write better ballads than he does rock songs. While some of his more more upbeat tracks like "North American For Life" and "Hello Time Bomb" don't transition to acoustic very well, they still stand as interesting takes on the originals. The last ten songs on disc two are made up of two early EP releases by Good. The first of which being Loser Anthems and the last being Lo-Fi B-sides, an extremely rare set of three songs that often draws over $100 on Ebay. Each is enjoyable in it's own right and provides interesting insight into Good's earlier days before being signed to Universal. The set continues with disc three, a collection of every Matthew Good video made thus far, and a selection of photographs taken on tour. Matt's commentary on his own videos, while insightful, is rather dull. That's not to say that it's a total loss. His videos tend to be quite good on their own and often have substance not found in most of today's offerings. Easily the most interesting of the bunch is the hidden video for "While We Were Hunting Rabbits." A video completely unlike anything Good has ever produced. Completely animated and not unlike a Gorillaz video, it provides a very haunting take on the song itself. Simply put, the Deluxe Edition of In A Coma provides enough extras and rare content to satisfy any fan, and sets a standard for what exactly a "Best Of" CD should look like. > Taylor Summach < ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ To put it bluntly, Healthy In Paranoid Times is the album Gravity should have been. With the departure of guitarist Mike Turner in 2001, Our Lady Peace was left without one of it's most important driving forces. Turner, sighting creative differences, left the band, wanting nothing to do with the bands vision for the future. After acquiring replacement guitarist, Steve Mazur, the band set out to "simplify" their work. Layer upon layer was stripped away from their sound leaving only a guitar to drive the music. The wailing vocals of singer Raine Maida were toned down, and the once cryptic lyrics were abandoned in favour of more relatable, cliche writing. The result was Gravity, an album that produced more commercial success state side then any previous record, but alienated the bands core fan base as a result. With the release of Healthy In Paranoid Times, Our Lady Peace finally accomplish what they had originally set out to do with Gravity; create a simple, solid "rock album." The cut and dried approach taken in Gravity has been largely abandoned, allowing the band to explore their songs freely. "Where Are You" moves along quite typically before breaking down into full blown band sing-a-long, choir included. "Boy" takes a page from U2 and slowly builds from a humble beginning into an orchestrated anthem. For the most part, their dabbling work for the better. While not flawless, the record is more interesting and engaging than Gravity, sitting right along side Spiritual Machines in terms of song diversity. Also notable is the return of Maida's love-it-or-hate-it falsetto. While not nearly as evident as it was in the bands earlier records, it's appearances are welcomed and especially haunting on the album's last track, 'Al Genina.' Lyrically, the album finds a middle ground between Maida's obscure writing of the past, and his trite writing on Gravity. Thematically, his lyrics deal much with the political events over the last few years and his experiences in Darfur as a spokesperson for War Child. "Wipe That Smile Of Your Face" is aimed squarely at an unknown politician, with Maida declaring "The time has come, to drop the bomb, on the pain you've been selling." In "Angels/Losing/Sleep," Maida questions where God is in the middle of a horrible circumstance, singing "Looks like the Holy Ghost is gone, now your afraid of yourself, over your shoulder you have to watch, Heaven fall into Hell." Thankfully, the album is ultimately hopeful and a nice change from the darker tones of previous records. In all likelihood Our Lady Peace will never return to the sound they had before Gravity. Mike Turner left too much of a mark on the music for it to be replicated by another guitarist. But as Healthy in Paranoid Times illustrates, it's still possible to create good music, regardless of the missteps that occur and the adjustments that have to be made. Ultimately, Healthy..., marks OLP's return to form, while maintaining the accessibility that sent Gravity bursting across the airwaves. > Taylor Summach < ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is a must see for the Scratch DJ. It features performances from the Scratch Tour at the House of Blues in Los Angeles with Jazzy Jay, X-ecutioners, DJ Z-Trip and Mixmaster Mike, whom you remember from the last two Beastie Boys albums. It's biographical as well as a performance based disc. If you enjoyed the documentary Scratch, this will help complete the picture of what hip-hop DJ's are doing. The original Jazzy Jay's set is hot. It is a legendary trip through old school breaks and hip-hop. His DJing career is a testament to the origins of hip-hop. His set is also a view of where DJing is going technologically. He uses a set-up that has a computer interface involved (Final Scratch I believe is the program). Some of his set is done with records from his exhaustive record library and a few are from converted mp3s. He also uses the Pioneer efx-500. It is a fitting intro to the movie. DJ Z-Trip is next with a typically unusual DJ set featuring tracks from Zeppelin, RATM, Talib Kweli and Pantera among others. Z-Trip is such a party rocker with great mic and crowd control. The X-ecutioners set is nothing short of well thought out and choreographed. The finale with Total Eclipse and Roc Raida flipping 'rock the bells' with body tricks and intense juggling that is mind bending. Their set is closed with Rob Swift juggling the LL Cool J classic at break neck speed. Finally, Mixmaster Mike takes the stage and proves how much of a nut he is. He speeds through a set with tracks that range from White Zombie, DJ Shadow, Chemical Brothers, KRS One and so many more. His techniques are incredibly next level. It is like nothing we've seen before. A jaw dropper for sure. The bonus features are also terrific. Included is a commentary by Doug Pray, the hilarious DJ Z-trip and the Scratch Tour Producers. A 'how to wheat paste' and interview with Shepherd Fairey of Obey/Giant is unique. Sheperd Fairey is seen throughout the Scratch Live disc doing a piece of work that is dynamic and adds a fresh dimension to the show. There is a scratch all-star jam that features Scratch(of the roots), Q-bert, the X-Men, Jazzy Jay Z-Trip going off. A very well put together DVD at a reasonable price. > Kirk Trew < | |||
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