Category Archives: Review

Sound of Urchin: “Rejoice”

Posted on October 25, 2007 by Andrew Patton | 2 comments

MP3: Go To Your Room by Sound of Urchin

For the uninitiated, the sound of Brooklyn’s Sound of Urchin is a bit hard to describe and always prone to evolution. Through their 2002 debut (major label) full-length You Are The Best and onto its 2005 (not major label) follow-up The Diamond, lead singer/drummer Tomato and his merry band of miscreants have seemingly fought to mash their influences and desires into something that rocks hard but finding cohesion has sometimes been difficult.

Their new release, Rejoice, builds on the progress they made on the second album, resulting in their most accomplished statement to date. While the proceeds never reach monotony, the quartet has honed a solid base of anthemic hard rock that is colored by some extended jams, some thrash-outs, and even some good ol’ fashioned cowbell. Tomato’s lyrics are just as whimsical as ever and rather idealistic for a dude that hates hippies, but you know, life is complicated. Some highlights include the pleading 808 jam “The Last From Me,” the gentle wake-up anthem “The Rooster Says Good Morning,” and the pleading “Don’t Walk Me Down That Road,” anchored by Doo Doo‘s sturdy bass. “Disappointment Has Come Upon Me” features some twin guitar shredding courtesy of co-lead guitarists Reverend B-Ill and Seahag ala Thin Lizzy (their myspace page describes their sounds as a combination of Thin Lizzy and the Bee Gees, which I can’t argue with much). A few of the songs are a tad overdone, and I could really do without the last track, but the complaints are few and far between here.

Sound of Urchin is in the last week of their album launch tour and will be touching down Thursday night (today) at the Ravari Room. Your paid admission includes a copy of Rejoice, which is quite a benefit. The album doesn’t officially drop until 2008, so the boys want the jams in the hands of the fans pronto. Opening are their Columbus pals The Brown Notes and Dobbs, a new Columbus trio featuring ex-Salthorse drummer Chris Cox. If you need any more convincing, here’s a vintage SOU show review from yours truly.

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Posted in Columbus, MP3, Review

Tagged Ravari Room, Sound of Urchin, The Brown Notes

Shout Out Louds at the Basement Saturday

Posted on October 19, 2007 by Stephen Slaybaugh | 1 comment

Shout Out Louds

After seemingly finding success in the U.S. on Capitol, Sweden’s Shout Out Louds have found a home on mega-indie Merge for their second album, Our Ill Wills. It’s a good fit; their smart pop-rock fits alongside that of labelmates Arcade Fire and Spoon. Downplaying the garage guitars featured on debut Gaff Gaff Howl Howl, the new record is drenched in majestic melodic sweeps and bouncy ornate pop. From the building lead of “Tonight I Have to Leave It” to the whirring denouement of “Hard Rain,” the album is a near-perfect mix of melancholic emotion and musical euphoria. Singer Adam Olenius wears his heart in his Robert Smith–like warble, similarly evoking a certain amount of sentimentality in simple lines like “On my way home in the car you held my hand” (“Your Parents’ Living Room”), or loss more directly with “Your love is something I cannot remember” (“Impossible”). He’s backed by a confluence of twinkling piano lines, reverbed guitar riffs, cracking beats and strings that make each song at once epic and epochal. Our Ill Wills is nothing short of brilliant, and thus the only thing one could wish for is that the band was playing somewhere other than the Basement.

MP3: Tonight I Have To Leave It
LISTEN: Full Album Stream

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Posted in Columbus, MP3, Review

Tagged Merge Records, Shout Out Louds, the basement

Deadsea: Rising

Posted on October 19, 2007 by Kevin J Elliott | 3 comments

MP3: Killing Faith by Deadsea

I’ve been known for saying that Deadsea are the world’s greatest metal trio and even if sophomore album Rising is a slight disappointment, I’ll stand by that proclamation. The hesher subculture has become increasingly fragmented over the years – there are so many genres of metal it’s hard to keep track. Somehow Deadsea gobble up all of it and use it to fuel their dark aural empire. It was that fusion of extremes that made Desiderata a punishing and transcendent maze.

Here things sound a bit frantic, as Rising has a heightened awareness of thrash. “Killing Faith (Crying Death)” in particular could be Sepultura on a meth binge as guitarist Adam Smith plays with unmatched speed leaving dizzying trails in his wake. The same agility propels “Assault,” another relentless sprint that manages to tap the spinal fluid of hardcore punk. Few bands keep their melodic leanings intact among such tenacity, but Deadsea seem to thrive in the midst of technical challenges.

My only hesitation with Rising, and this is really nitpicking, comes with song choice. The first two tracks, “Northwitch” and “Coming Home,” are longtime live staples and “Frozen Rivers” a tale told many times from the stage. I’m assuming though that Smith didn’t want these masterstrokes to remain buried and in the context of Rising, the newly recorded “Frozen Rivers” is a perfect fit as the album’s penultimate epic. Regardless of my qualms, connecting with Deadsea is a spiritual link. What Rising may lack in maledict adventure it easily makes up for in sheer power. It’s an altogether different mass.

Deadsea, 333, and Nightsoil are all releasing albums tonight at Ruby Tuesday’s in Columbus OH. Click here for more information.

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Posted in Columbus, MP3, Review

Tagged deadsea

Pinback: Autumn of the Seraphs

Posted on September 25, 2007 by Ben Chenoweth | Comments Off

MP3: From Nothing to Nowhere

I’ll admit that I haven’t kept track of each of Pinback’s zigs and zags over the last couple of years as they’ve put out a handful of tour Eps and a single or two. They even had a full length in 2004, (Summer in Abaddon), which despite marking their rise to prominence with Touch and Go, went all but ignored by me. I was perfectly content to listen to the earlier Blue Screen Life over and over, and even recently the track Boo has found its way on to an embarrassing number of my mix tapes. That particular song however, embodies much of what I found attractive in the band- a chilly, almost haunted beauty created by airy vocals over layered, sometimes mechanical guitar and bass. Programmed drums and beats added to the math-y strangeness, and only augmented by the inclusion of sci-fi sound bites.

While no real diversion in terms of technique, Pinback’s Autumn of the Seraphs is a much more overt indie rock record, where some of the cool disassociation is replaced with a crunchy staccato. The opening track seems to set the tone, with snappy drums figuring prominently where they might have previously constituted little more than a metallic tinkle. There’s a punchy rhythmic quality that reminds me of Dismemberment Plan or, dare I say it, Modest Mouse. The more poppy notion is clear on tracks Good to Sea and Blue Harvest, which sound darn near happy. Bass and guitar share almost equal responsibility for creating melody, much as co-leaders Zach Smith and Rob Crow split, or rather cooperate on vocal interplay. Seraphs is not completely devoid of the spooky treatment though, as How We Breathe is a whispered journey into the prevalent oceanic theme and would have been perfectly at home on earlier releases.

This most recent collection of Pinback songs seems to make their eeriness a bit warmer, more accessible, and varied. It also may have lost some of the sort of singular hook that initially made me a fan. Like plenty of other records though, this one is a grower, and with familiarity comes favor. And without exception, Pinback has an ability to create atmosphere out of precision, an organic quality out of beats and programmed drums. This continued craftsmanship, while perhaps resulting in structure that is more space than mass, is the real endearing quality.

BUY: Amazon

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Posted in MP3, Review

Reviews: Brian Jonestown Massacre in Columbus Last Night

Posted on September 23, 2007 by Robert Duffy | Comments Off

Brian Jonestown Massacre played a free show last night at the Carabar in Columbus OH. Reviews are coming in from the donewaiting.com message board:

The worst BJM show I’ve seen.

and

i knew he was a bitch, but i had no idea he was such a baby. how many songs did they play, 5? and they were up there on the stage for an hour or more doing who knows what between songs?

and

That was the worst I have ever seen Anton act. It was hard to watch.

Read all the reviews, or write your own, here.

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The Return of Black Francis.

Posted on September 17, 2007 by Tankboy | Comments Off

By now it’s such a fucking cliché to say, “singer X has reclaimed their glory days on this solo album … it’s a COMEBACK!” But, as Frank Black has shed his “given” name to reclaim the persona of Black Francis on his latest, BlueFinger, that previous statement is no cliché.

I was wary when the Pixies reformed, and even more wary when I heard they might record together again. So far, so good, as the band has remained silent and hasn’t attempted any new output. But that doesn’t mean the world is wanting for a new Pixies album, because with the resurrection of Black Francis comes an album that would make the Pixies proud.

The urgency is back. The propulsion is back. The melodies are back. “Threshold Apprehension” surfaced a few months back, and is included again on this disc, and proved again that Black Francis could write a tune that grabbed the listener by the throat and throttled until the gave in to a sweet asphyxiatitive state rife with the dark pleasure of chaotic atonality running head on with the girl-group arrangements that only Black Francis’ furtive and screeching falsetto can deliver.

I’ve always admired Frank Black’s solo output, even if it didn’t really hit me in the solar plexus, but Bluefinger delivers a double fist-punch right below the heart, failing to break the breastplate in all the right ways, and leaves me gasping breathless for more.

P.S. If “Angels Come To Comfort You” isn’t a sequel to “Alison” then, well, I’m not gonna double-think the master so I won’t make a sweeping claim to tie up everything into a nice neat package, but I will say if it ain’t, then maybe (perhaps) I’m a monkey’s uncle.*

Which, given Darwin, is probably true anyway, right? Fuck it, listen to the lyrics and you’ll see what I’m getting at.

*Mose, by the way, not some random gal or other crush, duh.

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Posted in Music, Review, Tankboy

“My gift for the geeks … a Rush review”

Posted on September 4, 2007 by Chip Midnight | Comments Off

Donewaiting message board member Gonzo provides a gem of a Rush concert review lovingly titled “My gift for the geeks … a Rush review”. The instant classic contains such great observations as

“Now I don’t know what it is about Rush fans that I associate them with the same people that would play Dungeons and Dragons. (probably because they are the samel) So my theory is that if, by chance there are hot girls that are also geeky enough to be in to Rush, they would surely be wearing a cloak of invisibility (+2) in this crowd.”

and

“I told my buddy that Rush is known for coming out and collecting up all of the empty bottles and hauling them back to Canada where they get a bigger deposit refund. They actually finance their tours that way.”

Read the whole thing here.

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Aesop Rock: None Shall Pass

Posted on August 29, 2007 by Wes Flexner | 6 comments

MP3: None Shall Pass

Similar to Atmosphere finding pop-punk fans, Aesop Rock‘s buddying up with suburbanites most favored pastimes (video games, cartoons) without much edge were prolly big points in indie-raps ability to make fiscal ends meet, but also allowed most critics to convince themselves that Paul Wall, and Cam’ron were more avant-garde than those had been championed as the Bukowskis and Shoepenhaurs of their genre.

Thats how I took “Fast Cars, Daggers, and Knives”, Aesop’s last ep, and to a lesser extent “Bazooka Tooth”. He became a middle class guy whose most interesting thing about him was that he could be a cynical dick and he prolly owned the Japanese version of the Playstation 5 and a Sex Pistols album.

Now in the past, Aesop had been a paranoid post-modern, fatalist/scratched idealist, who had realized the high standards of work ethic and existential willpower can have some fatal crashes.
Like how he went from “Labor Days” Daylight’s proclamation, “Life isn’t a bitch, Life is a beautiful women. You are just mad cause your just an asshole that can’t sweet-talk the princess.” to “Maybe your just to asshole. Maybe I am just asshole” of Nightlife.

What a difference 9-11 and the ending of a serious relationship meant to ones concept of what was possible.

So after the Nihilism from heavy trauma came the video games, Nike and prolly a cartoon channel. He prolly got happy because he was getting money. Can’t fault a guy for getting happy, and healthy. But in my opinion he became a parody of himself, and possessing a complete lack of urgency.

Well, “None Shall Pass” bucks this trend.

Continue reading →

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Posted in MP3, Review, Wes Flexner

Tagged Aesop Rock, Def Jux

Challengers / The New Pornographers

Posted on August 23, 2007 by Han Q Duong | 1 comment

Just to show you I don’t hate change, I fuckin’ LOVE The New Pornographers‘ Challengers, and sometimes I get the feeling I’m the only one. For years now, absolutely nobody has done the hyperdense hyperactive pop monstrosity as well as the New Pornographers, and a first pass at Challengers is going to feel bizarrely calm.

Besides the immediacy of “Mutiny, I Promise You” and “All the Things That Go To Make Heaven and Earth,” most of the tracks are mid-tempo meditations with slow builds and modest climaxes, much more in tune with Carl Newman’s “Slow Wonder” than say, the cranked to 11 hookishness of Electric Version. The three Dan Bejar efforts are distinctively Destroyer, with loopy vocal reads of Bejar’s unique lyrics, with “Myriad Harbor” being a particular standout. The arrangements have a little more room to breathe, and both Kathryn Calder and Neko Case provide a sensuous lilt to their vocals. Case’s waltzy “Go Places” is positively stunning, and the instrumentation’s as bare as any New Pornographers track ever. This is probably the least Neko of any of their records, with Calder slowly growing into the role of lead vocalist. The crawling build of “Adventures in Solitude” is exquisite, and Calder’s subtle vocal turns are why.

If you’re waiting to be slammed in the face with overlapping vocals and soaring instrumentation you’ll finish the record with a frown on your face. I found the record to be a grower though, with seductive melodies that came at me sideways and backwards, insinuating themselves in my life just as insidiously as “Letter to an Occupant” did so many years ago. Are there faults? Sure. The album art is fucking awful, for one thing. Even still, no album has spent as much time in my head and my heart this year as Challengers, whatever that’s worth.

MP3: My Rights Versus Yours
MP3: Myriad Harbour
BUY: Amazon.com

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Under the Blacklight / Rilo Kiley

Posted on August 22, 2007 by Han Q Duong | Comments Off

RiloKiley_01%282%29.jpg

The transition from indie darling to major label players is never an easy one, and Rilo Kiley’s newest release Under the Blacklight shows a band struggle to diversify and increase its accessibility. Their last album, More Adventurous, was a terrific set of songs that read like their earlier release polished up with a bit of technical sheen. The band’s transformation for Under the Blacklight is greater, to the point where they seem almost unrecognizable.

Songs like “Silver Lining” and “Under the Blacklight” are classic Kiley, with melodies sweetly sung and lyrics beautifully strung. Country twangers “15” and “The Angels Hung Around” evoke Jenny Lewis’s gorgeous solo effort Rabbit Furcoat. The problems lie in their dalliances with disco, pop and funk with tracks like “The Moneymaker” and “Dreamworld.” Musically most of this stuff is danceable and fun, but feel unfinished and unsatisfying as the hooks repeat ad nauseum without any turns or surprises.

It’s a shame, because there is a lot to like on the record. The bands off-kilter efforts at world-beat in “Dejalo” and go-go psychedelia with “Smoke Detector” are surprisingly good. The out and out disco of “Breakin’ Up” has its own Bee-Gees appeal. But even those songs are betrayed by a lack of nuance or a conspicuously awful lyric.

Play Under the Blacklight in the background as you do your chores and it’s an appealing record. The beats are strong and the basslines groovy. It’s when you sit down for an in-depth read that it starts to feel a little empty compared to old Rilo Kiley records. The disappointment isn’t that it’s an awful, hateworthy album, but that the band seems capable of doing so much more.

Stream: Entire Album Stream
Video: Silver Lining
Buy: Amazon.com

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