A Reasonable Good Ear

The 80s: "All Through the Night"

2013-01-02T23:50:00.001-05:00

This past New Year's Eve, just before my wife and I headed out to partake in some New Year's Eve festivities, I caught part of the Dick Clark's Primetime New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2013 special that was going through a list of the top 30 or so music performances hosted by Clark over the years on his signature program American Bandstand and others. From Jefferson Airplane to INXS there were many performers featured. One performance in particular started me on an enlightening trip down memory lane that I still haven't completely recovered from yet. That performance was of Cyndi Lauper singing "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" on Clark's American Bandstand.

I haven't listened to much, if any, of Cyndi Lauper's music since I was under the age 9, and anything I heard came from the early MTV days (when they actually showed videos) or from the radio (I was living in Western Pennsylvania at the time with my parents and brothers and THERE we had MTV). At the time pop music was pretty much all the then contemporary music I was exposed to since it was pretty much all around, and it was a few years before I discovered U2 (which lead to my affinity with alt-rock and the rest, as they say, is history-at least in my case). Needless to say, I was in love with music, and particularly rock music, at that point...what did my parents expect after all those rainy and snowy Saturday afternoons spent listening to their old Beatles, Doors, and Animals LPs? I remember Lauper and Madonna being pretty big at the same time and, for the most part, both the singers' music was pretty much off limits. Their lyrics were too sexual and their images were too "slutty." There was a problem though. While Madonna was pure mystical sex to my under knowledged and sheltered brain (enough to keep me more than interested in her), Cyndi Lauper's pop music was much more pop-rock, therefore much more appealing sonically and visually. I'd heard that Lauper looked like a punk. I didn't really know what punk was yet, but whatever it was, if it was, at the least, what Cyndi Lauper looked like, it was awesome.

My family was going through a bit of a religious extremism during those years though, since times were extremely hard financially due to what was basically the nationwide shut down of the US steel works industry for which my father worked for nearly 20 years. No matter how much one denies it, when times are hard people do cling to their God and guns a little more tightly. I know. I saw it. Being only a nine year old boy though, I thought that these two performers were two of the most beautiful women I'd ever seen in my life, so no matter how much it became more and more likely that I'd burn in hell as a result of watching their videos...I couldn't get enough of them. It was hard though to sneak around and change the TV channel to MTV or American Bandstand (when it was on-and my parents weren't in the same room) and hope to catch a performance...

...but catch a performance I did, and it was a doozy. I managed to catch the episode where Lauper and her band performed "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" and "Time After Time." I don't know if it was a repeat or if it was new, but it was not long after Lauper performed for an MTV New Year's Eve show (one that I caught at a friend's house while staying over for a parent supervised-but much more liberal as far as the TV watching was concerned-New Year's Eve party). Anyway, seeing the replay of her and her bands' performance on American Bandstand a few nights ago during the broadcast of the New Year's Eve special brought back these old memories, most of which were pleasant, but some of which were pretty terrifying too.

On November 20th, 1983 a little film called The Day After aired. It pretty graphically and frighteningly (for its time) portrayed the aftermath on the United States of a full scale global thermal nuclear war with The Soviets. Of course I wasn't allowed to watch this TV movie. We were all at home that night and not allowed to watch TV at all after it started. My brothers and I were even made to go to our bedrooms and play or read while it was on, and while my parents watched it in their bedroom, so that we wouldn't be exposed to it or sneak a peak of it on the living room TV. As is usually the case when something is left up to one's imagination though, anything that the movie might have showed paled in comparison to the images my considerably well developed imagination conjured up for me. I'd been in a pretty big state of anxiety over everything that I'd seen on the news about Regan's claim that the Russian Communists were putting nuclear missiles in Central America, which of course just ended up being more right-wing sabre rattling in order to boost the economics of the military industrial complex-of which most right-wing sabre rattlers profit quite well off of. It scared the living hell out of me though. I remember lining up my early 80s collection of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero action figures and praying that they would come to life and help defend my family against the Commies lurking just outside the house. Yes, the boogeyman wasn't Freddy or Jason to me when I was little, they were stupid and fake in my mind. The boogeymen were The Soviets, their missiles, and of course the impending nuclear holocaust. The fact that my father was pretty paranoid and more and more apt to believe, and vehemently share, his belief that the end was soon anyway didn't help matters (He eventually recovered from his foray into extreme Jimmy Swaggart type of religious idiocy though, thankfully.)

Anyway, during the 1984 New Year's Eve countdown on MTV featuring a pretty rockin' concert by Cyndi Lauper, a short "year in review" of Lauper's first year on MTV segment aired during which she commented that she believed we needed peace to come back into style and that "we should have the day before instead of the day after so we can talk about it first," obviously referencing the recent airing of The Day After. (Awesomely this segment and the concert are preserved on YouTube). That moment forever fused Lauper's music with my fears of nuclear war, not in a way that made me cringe every time I'd ever hear it again, but in a way that wouldn't really solidify logically for a few more years. Lauper, with all of her silly sexiness and pleas for wanting to have fun' and cherish and be there for you "time after time," once I began to deal with my burgeoning adolescent hormones that took off-and over me-every time I saw her in one of her videos, came to represent a sense of tempered hedonism in the face of possible annihilation and perhaps a veiled plea, in a performance art kind of way, for some existential sanity. Maybe living "all through the night" with a love "that feels the same without saying" was about more than just her and her lover's plight, or flight of passionate sex. Maybe Lauper was crooning about making it all through the night of the horrors of the early 80s fears about nuclear holocaust, economic meltdown (the likes of which my family were living though), the emergence of the AIDS crisis, and the uncertainty that, just as now, was a part of daily life in a messed up world. Maybe not. Either way, seeing that American Bandstand performance again for the first time in almost thirty years, which awakened the memories (auditory, visual, and emotional) of a time in my life full of frightened innocence (which in turn birthed a nascent desire to do something about being frightened), and sexual awakening (through being turned on by the, to me at least, forever beautiful looks AND personality of Cyndi Lauper) finally allowed me to link, and finally describe in adult terms, just what it was that I was feeling at the time, and felt (at least the memory of) again.

A few years on, as I began to grow more educated and mature, and finally found music (mostly from U2 which lead to an affinity for Pearl Jam and RATM) that, to me at least, lived up to the importance and brilliance (poetically and politically) of the messages I gleaned from those rainy and snowy Saturday afternoons lying on the living room floor listening to my parents' old Beatles, Doors, and Animals LPs, I pretty much forgot about Cyndi Lauper...I know now though that I will never again be able to forget the songs she sung, now that I know that it was her and her few hit songs that year that unconsciously planted, however subtly (and ironically), my lifelong interest in the intersection of music, emotional strength and fragility, intelligence, sex, and social and political activism as expressed through moving music.

Garbage on The Tonight Show 12-7-12

2012-12-09T21:27:00.000-05:00

Seems like the 90s music revival is continuing. Not only did Soundgarden get back together and release one of the best albums of the year this year, but Smashing Pumpkins and Garbage also dropped some fantastic new work on us. With bands like Silversun Pickups, Joy Formidable, and Tribes leading the 90s rock revivalism it's only fitting that these bands start showing up on the late night circuit.

Garbage – “I Hate Love” 12/7/2012 Jay Leno by screeps

Like I've mentioned before in posts here at A Reasonable Good Ear, for most of the 1990s (especially the early 90s) the small, ultra-conservative, deep south town I lived in didn't allow MTV to be offered by the local cable company. Back then MTV wasn't all reality and crap programing like it is now. They did have rock video shows like the legendary 120 Minutes that I sadly didn't get to see...ever. Instead, all of us alt-rock fans had to wait for our favorite bands to guest on Saturday Night Live or make an appearance on Letterman, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, or The Tonight Show. I still have that dusty old VCR tape of recorded performances off these shows. Anyway to make a long story short, I still enjoy tuning into the late night shows to catch bands I like when they perform on them. Garbage performed on The Tonight Show on 12-7-12. Promoting their new album and being in LA for a local show, the band took time out to perform "I Hate Love" off of Not Your Kind of People.

Garbage has always been one of those bands that sounds almost too good to be true on their albums and with uber 90s alt-rock producer Butch Vig drumming for and producing the band one would expect their studio albums to sound flawless. One might not expect them to sound as flawless (or polished) on stage, but they do. Man I miss the days of authentically talented and hard working musicians who actually mastered their craft and really could write, sing, perform and produce their own material without needing studio magic. I also miss the edgy alt-rock female lead singers like Shirley Manson. They used to dominate the musical landscape. Where are they now? Oh well, at least we know where Garbage is: still here and still rocking.

Soundgarden: Been Away Too Long (Review)

2012-09-30T13:15:00.002-04:00

"I've got nowhere to go since I got back," wails Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell on "Been Away Too Long," the lead single off of Soundgarden's first new album since 1996's Down on The Upside, but it appears that (finally) Soundgarden found somewhere to go. For the band, it's full steam ahead into the battle to reclaim hard rock from the awful likes of Nickleback and Three Days Grace. "Been Away Too Long" embodies everything that is good about Soundgarden's sonic stylings and makes the most of Kim Thayil's droning guitar sludge, Cornell's powerful vocals, Matt Cameron's inspired drumming (I'm still convinced he's the best drummer to emerge from the whole Seattle scene), and longtime bassist Ben Shepherd's thick bass lines. Finally, a high profile rock song worth listening to in the vein of 90s grunge has arrived.

Thick and hard hitting, "Been Away Too Long" has a tempo that belies the perceived lethargy of the band. Soundgarden announced that they had reassembled back in 2010, but it took them two full years to put together their comeback album King Animal. Moving at a quicker tempo, and a shorter play length, than most of their previous (and chart topping) singles, "Been Away Too Long" is indicative of the band's sense of urgency and new found energy. The few new songs that long suffering Soundgarden fans have been treated to since their return, "Black Rain" (a re-recorded outtake from the Badmotorfinger days) and "Live to Rise" (the signature song of Marvel's The Avengers' film and soundtrack) were mid tempo slow burners that rekindled the thick smolder and drone that form the heart of Soundgarden's overall sound, but "Been Away Too Long" launches into the high octane type of slamming and fast played wall of guitar sound that is sure to rekindle the flame of the slam and bang of Soundgarden's early 1990s mosh pits. The song is so good, it's almost enough to make me forgive Cornell for working with Timbaland and breaking up Soundgarden (and Audioslave) in the first place.

The aptly titled "Been Away For Too Long," if any indication of what the rest of King Animal is going to sound like and play off of, is the harbinger of the return of everything that was great about the new rock revolution of the early 90s. Now if the reunited and reinvigorated Alice in Chains could get their follow up of Black Gives Way to Blue released in time to allow for a monster of a tour with Soundgarden (which is sure to follow King Animal's release), there might just be hope for the future of rock.

Muse: Madness (Review)

2012-08-28T23:42:00.000-04:00

Muse's new album, The 2nd Law is due to drop on October 2nd this year, but three songs have already been released/teased off the new album. "Survival" was the official song of the London 2012 Olympic Games, "Unsustainable," a brilliant dub-step like song created through traditional drum, bass, and guitar is visible and audible all over the web, and "Maddness," the album's latest single is now available through iTunes as part of the new album's pre-order. Like nearly everything that Muse does, it will perennially be compared to whatever Radiohead does, but at this point Muse is light years ahead of Radiohead sonically.

Drawing inspiration from everyone from Queen to David Bowie (as reported at muselive.com), with lead singer/guitarist Matt Bellamy citing Skrillex as a major influence on the album's last two tracks (one of which "Unsustainable" is one), The 2nd Law (referring to the 2nd law of thermodynamics), is promising to be something both new and familiar from Muse. While "Unsustainable" is unique to the band's repertoire, "Maddness" sounds like a track that would have been at home on Uprising or Black Holes and Revelations (if not quite at home on their masterpiece Absolution). A wavering heavy synth drone backing the danceable beat over which Bellamy sings (more clearly and solidly than he usually does) opens the track. Soon though it builds into the full on sonic grandeur that is Muse. The out of nowhere guitar solo about two thirds of the way through the song is a blast of pure Bellamy guitar heroism. The ever expanding and elevating entrance of Christopher Wolstenholme's base and Dominic Howard's live drums is simply transcendent and, again like most Muse songs, lifts you up while enveloping you in colorful sonic waves while Bellamy's voice serves as the guiding light through the nebulous sonicscape.

Muse is one of the most consistently listenable rock bands with the most interesting, truly intelligent, and brilliantly expanding sound out of all their peers, which are growing fewer and fewer daily. They never waver too far from their hard rock origins, yet they manage to conjure sounds yet unheard of from a trio of hard rockers. The Ear really, really digs this band. You should too.

5 out of 5 MUSES

The Darkness: Hot Cakes (Review)

2012-08-22T19:36:00.001-04:00

Several months since The Darkness won the Superbowl, we finally get their new album, and it's a good one. Is it Permission to Land? No. Is it just as good a rock album as Permission to Land? Yes. That's the thing that many people forget about The Darkness. They are some of the best note for note and riff for riff no frills straight up '70s inspired hard rocker song writers. Front man Justin Hawkins' Freddie Mercury meets Johnny Rotten voice, coupled with his brother Dan's guitar, Frankie Poullain's base and Ed Graham's drumming make for the best '70s arena rock that was never played in the '70s. Their more than that though. These cheeky English bastards have the best sense of humor in rock next to Dave Grohl's. Hot Cakes doesn't skimp on the humor, or the riffs.

The album's opening track "Every Inch of You" starts the album's rock and humor off right. Autobiographically tongue in cheek in nature, "Every Inch of You" tells Justin's story of where he came from and how he got where he is now is punctuated by the opening verse:

Baby I was a loser
Several years on the dough
An Englishman with a very high voice
Doing rock and roll

There are seas of sleeveless T-shirts
And queues around the block
And every man wanna try
Wants to
Suck my cock!

The whole song is an ironic send up of poor beginnings, super rock stardom, and egotistical rockers. In other words its brilliant. The album continues on to display some of the best kind of rawk guitar soloing in "Nothin's Gonna Stop Us Now," to the bluesy rock of "With a Woman" to the chugalug rock of "Keep Me Hangin' On" to the "Love is Only a Feeling"-ish rock balladry of "Living Each Day Blind" and that's only the first half of the album. "Everybody Have a Good Time" recalls their biggest hit "I Believe in a Thing Called Love." The song is also the home of their best video since the one for the aforementioned biggest hit. It also has some of the best guitar work on the album in it. The rest of the songs from here on out go downhill with the exception of the hard thumping "Concrete" and the equally hard thumping and well constructed songsmanship of "Love is Not the Answer."

The Darkness are the most serious and talented musicians to come off as totally tossers...by design. Their full bodied sound and their lead singer's voice are unmistakable, making them the most recognizable of bands as well. Hot Cakes, even though it doesn't match the hilarious glory of Permission to Land, is a solid and thoroughly enjoyable rock album.

Rating: 4.5 our of 5 Hot Cakes

Flea: Helen Burns (Review)

2012-08-15T21:59:00.002-04:00

Red Hot Chili Peppers founding member and bassist, Flea, has put out an EP of music intended to help raise money for his Silverlake Conservatory of Music. At the Conservatory's website, Flea makes it very clear that the music contained herein is very much NOT like anything that the RHCP would make and release. He's definitely right on that account...in part. Helen Burns sounds like a mashup of progressive and, in some cases regressive, music that a music theory major would indulge in. (Flea attended music theory classes as USC over the past few years.) It's interesting, but nothing that you'll replay over and over like most RHCP songs.

The opening track of Helen Burns is the slightly 8 minute plus long "333." It's a sort of progressive experiment where Flea gets to wail a little bit on his original instrument, the trumpet, while crafting approaching and receding train whistle sounds. The album quickly gets better with "Pedestal of Infamy" which follows and opens much like a regular soft rock song with a solid baseline backed by some pipes, synthed vocals, and some sparse percussion interlaced with piano. It picks up the tempo as it progresses, and even manages to slide some weirdly distorted electric guitar into it. "A Little Bit of Sanity" is a short, 1 and a half minute long, progressive jazz type song that is interesting, but flies by way too quick.

The title track "Helen Burns" is quiet piano song with Patti Smith vocals. The 7 minute and 32 second long "333 Revisited" reprises the base lines of "333," but weaves some new wavy and far out synth sounds into it. Piano and trumpet are reprised here as well. The EP's final track, "lovelovelove" glides along softly with some massively distorted (or synth washed) electric guitar which hovers over a solid baseline. Towards its end, a chorus of young voices revels in the joyous assertion that "We're alive just for a while/Soon we'll die/and that will be it/so let's love/love everything in our way today." It's akin to the kind of spiritually existential theme that flows through most of the RHCP's music, so in theory, Helen Burns isn't as far removed, at least spiritually, from the RHCP music as Flea would have us think.

Rating: 2 out of 5 Fleas

The Beatles: Tomorrow Never Knows (Review)

2012-07-29T03:06:00.002-04:00

Do we really need another Beatles compilation? Well, where The Beatles are concerned, I have to admit that the word on and sound of these original rock and rollers can’t be spread about too much. Even though The Beatles is a brand now, hence the need for ever recycled and repackaged compilations of their music, more than a fondly remembered and insanely influential group of four guys from England who changed the music world, the songs that they wrote are truly timeless. Recently though, there has been a great deal of Beatles music repackaging that touted them as the original “boy band” or pop stars whose most edgy music was the mass consumable “Love Me Do” and “Hold Your Hand.” While these songs are great little pop-rock ditties, other songs like “Helter Skelter,” “Revolution,” and “It’s All Too Much” are rock tour de forces that the likes of everyone from U2 to Pearl Jam to Metallica to Nirvana to The Flaming Lips have tried with varying success to emulate and build upon. So a collection that focuses on and compiles a powerful cross section of The Beatles most discernibly guitar rock/hard rock songs is welcome, if only for the fact that it helps point out that The Beatles could really, really rock when they wanted to.

Opening with “Revolution,” the amped up and distorted guitar version, and closing with “The End” from the Anthology 3 collection, The Beatles: Tomorrow Never Knows is packed with 14 of The Beatles’ most guitar driven and harder sounding rock songs. A few, including the title track “Tomorrow Never Knows,” are a little more on the psychedelic side, but nonetheless are driven by more or less straightforward rock guitar. The hardest rock song ever recorded by The Beatles, “Helter Skelter,” written by Paul McCartney and stolen from The Beatles by Charles Manson (whom Bono has tried to steal back many times in concert and most noticeably on U2’s Rattle and Hum) just might be the first grunge song ever written. In its massively heavy chords and percussion one can hear sounds that foreshadow both punk and metal, what grunge was pretty much an amalgamation of. Everyone from Chris Cornell to Jerry Cantrell would try to write a song as heavy and hard hitting as this while retaining some semblance of the melody that McCartney infused “Helter Skelter” with. “I’ve Got a Feeling” from Let it Be would be one of Eddie Vedder’s personal favorite Beatles song and he and his band Pearl Jam would cover it from time to time. “Paperback Writer” with its dirty, bluesy guitar is the classic rock song and a worthy inclusion here.

Other tracks like “I’m Down,” “Savoy Truffle,” “Back in the USSR,” “You Can’t Do That,” and a handful of others complete the compilation. All of them are moderate to hard rockers loaded with guitar, drum, bass, and in your face vocals that any other rock band in history would be happy to have written. While we might be subjected to a never ending repackaging of Beatles songs put together to keep the corporate Beatles machine rolling along, if they are as unique and rockin’ as this one, that’s just fine by me.

Track Listing:

1. Revolution

2. Paperback Writer

3. And Your Bird Can Sing

4. Helter Skelter

5. Savoy Truffle

6. I’m Down

7. I’ve Got a Feeling (Let It Be…Naked version)

8. Back in the USSR

9. You Can’t Do That

10. It’s All Too Much

11. She Said She Said

12. Hey Bulldog

13. Tomorrow Never Knows

14. The End (Anthology 3 Version)

Rating: It’s the freakin’ Beatles! It’s freakin’ great!

Fear Factory: The Industrialist (Review)

2012-07-15T18:39:00.001-04:00

Way back in 1992 to 1995 Fear Factory were something to behold. Fast and hard metal riffs backed by some techno-industrial noise of the type that Trent Reznor would agree with, double bass throbbing drums, and alternatingly death and melody metal inspired vocals coalesced to give rise to some of the most harsh and at times frightening metal on the market. Now, Fear Factory, despite being all of those things still (in addition to once again being composed of its core members Burton C. Bell and Dino Cazares) is just a tad repetitious. That’s great if you are a Fear Factory purist, but for the average metal fan, repetition can be the touch of death…at least as far as sales are concerned. That being said, The Industrialist is probably the best Fear Factory album since Demanufacture, simply because this Fear Factory purist is quite happily reminded of Fear Factory’s glory days when listening to The Industrialist.

Soul of a New Machine (1992) and Demanufacture (1995) established Fear Factory as a dark fantasy/sci-fi fan’s favorite band. Musically anticipating hard R types of techno-industrial sci-fi/horror like The Matrix (1999), Fear Factory often dealt with dark lyrics that obliquely address the potential evils that mankind’s rampant abuse of technology might unleash upon itself as well as its machine children. The Industrialist delves most deeply into this long standing, and oft revisited, theme in Fear Factory’s music. Being a concept album, The Industrialist tells the story of an automaton (The Industrialist) that is slowly gaining sentience as it gathers more data and suddenly finds itself striving to live in opposition to the desires of its creators. Obviously there is much, much more to the story and its inherent metaphors, but no matter how interesting a concept album’s story is, if the accompanying music doesn’t deliver the story in a worthwhile capacity all is for naught. So how do Burton and Dino do putting the music together this time out after the decent but lacking reunion album Mechanize?

The answer is that The Industrialist, despite being a solidly composed and executed album, it suffers from the type of repetition that most of Fear Factory’s albums do. Dino plays the same lighting riffs over and over with the only varying factor in the composition being the speed at which he plays them (or so it often sounds). Again, like the story to The Industrialist, Dino’s riffs are a little more varied than that simple description, but honestly not that much. That’s where Burton’s growl come overdubbed harmony manages to make the music palatable after just a few songs. Also, producer/programmer Rhys Fulber rounds out the sound with some well composed and inserted industrial noise, beats, blips, and blats. Perhaps the most interesting thing about The Industrialist is that Burton and Dino jettisoned live drums for a drum machine. The change isn’t terribly noticeable at first, mostly because since their inception, Fear Factory’s music has been filled with machine and staccato like drumming. The various drummers that have been part of Fear Factory over the years have been nothing short of amazing practitioners of their craft, but with the advent of the drum machine, the beats and speed can be taken to the next level, albeit with a definite loss of the human factor in the music.

Perhaps that’s part of the point here though as the story behind The Industrialist is about a machine that makes the harrowing journey into human like consciousness. The Industrialist himself is a spiritual cyborg, just like Fear Factory themselves are. Regardless, for dark sci-fi inspired metal, you can’t beat Fear Factory, and my guess is that you wouldn’t really want to try to.

Essential Tracks: “New Messiah,” “God Eater,” “Depraved Mind Murder”

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Industrial Beats

Orbit: Libido Speedway (Retro-Review)

2012-07-09T23:31:00.000-04:00

The best thing about late ‘90s rock was that it all vaguely sounded like early ‘90s rock, mostly Nirvana. The worst thing about late ‘90s rock was that it all vaguely sounded like early ‘90s rock, again mostly Nirvana. There were a few bands out there that formed around the same time (or 5 years or so later), but ended up getting caught up in the backlash that most grunge/’90s alt-rock purists unleashed against these bands for “ripping off Nirvana” though. One of these bands, that was pretty much on the receiving end of my scorn, was Orbit. A three piece comprised of fuzzy, distorted and feedback drenched guitar, bass, and drums from Boston, MA (home of The Pixies-Orbit’s main influence-and the band that Nirvana ripped off), Orbit would actually win me over with their one and only major modern rock hit, “Medicine.” It was one of those rare songs that I could just listen to over and over again without getting tired of. It still is…

The only real hit for the band, and off their 1997 album Libido Speedway, “Medicine” is one of those simple, repetitive and cyclical rock songs that really doesn’t do anything innovative musically or lyrically, but it has a beat and structure to it that is almost trancelike in its ability to lull you out of any funk or rut you are in and take you somewhere. This isn’t because it is particularly enlightening or uplifting like Pearl Jam’s “Given To Fly” or U2’s “Walk On.” It reaches you on a deeper level. It taps into the reptilian brain that buried under all the meta-cortex and cerebellum-ous gray matter that bogs us down most of the work-away day. The rising, falling, and, there’s no other way to put it, orbital sway of the bass and drums around each other with the requisite ‘90s alt-rock sounding guitars weaving in and out, conjures up images of cyclical movement and balance. I don’t know how else to describe it. A song that should be pretty boring is in actuality a ‘90s alt-rock version of trance (the music). I never tire of this song.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the case with the rest of the album. While there are some great mosh worthy songs that the Kool-Aide hair dyed kids, and the me, of the ‘90s would have really had a great time moshing to, having sex to, and generally being a wide eyed twenty-something with no idea on what to do with their lives to (as opposed to a wide eyed thirty-something suffering from the same affliction), the rest of the songs on the album don’t really hold up to the power of “Medicine” or any of Kurt’s or Black Francis’ songs.

The me of the ‘90s is long gone, but sometimes late at night when I can’t sleep, I’ll cue Orbit up on the iPod and program repeat on “Medicine” and I’ll float away in an orbit of late night reminiscing over the good ole’ days of rock…and life. Then I’ll fall dead asleep dreaming I was that ‘90s twenty-something who could have taken off work to see them at SXSW last year…

Bruce Springsteen: Wrecking Ball (Review)

2012-06-30T01:24:00.000-04:00

Acoustic and electric guitars, live drums and drum machines, banjos and mandolins, violins and fiddles, rock and R&B, spirituals and gospel, Celtic rhythms and Irish jigs, choirs and choruses, samples and a rap (not by The Boss-Thank God), hushed vocals and loud exaltations, hope and despair, resilience and pride, the American Dream and Nightmare: all of these sounds, genres, and cultural cross samplings of American music combine, sometimes gloriously and sometimes not, to comprise Bruce Springsteen’s most populist album to date, both musically and thematically. Despite the highly slick production, which is a poor step in the wrong direction after Brendan O’Brien’s (Rage Against the Machine, Pearl Jam) stint with The Boss throughout the ‘00s, Wrecking Ball, with all of its mashed up diversity and, again, occasional stumbles is strangely Bruce Springsteen’s most consistent album since the jewel in the crown of the O’Brien years’ The Rising.

With Wrecking Ball America’s rock poet laureate eschews the stripped down and live sounding approach he brought to The Rising, Magic, Devils and Dust, and Working on A Dream (and that O’Brien’s production brought to The Boss’ sound) for the complicated and overdubbed sound that current producer Ron Aniello, and Springsteen himself (he’s credited with production as well) felt was more representative of this album’s need to incorporate the multifaceted sounds of the above listed genres and instrumentation effectively enough to mirror in Wrecking Ball’s sound the metaphorical populist theme that Springsteen employs in his lyrics. This album tries hard, and at times too hard, to sound like a cross section of American music, anchored by The Boss’ rasp, yelp, and guitar, and nearly all of American music’s diverse sound shows up again and again throughout the album. This is an album about the people, for the people, and by the people.

Springsteen has always employed populist themes in his music, but with Wrecking Ball he takes his love of, empathy for, and belief in the common men and women of all walks of American life to new heights. It’s no surprise that Tom Morello, quite the populist himself, makes prominent guest appearances on two tracks, “Jack of All Trades” and “This Depression.” Thematically, Morello and his former group Rage Against the Machine have much more in common with Springteen’s populist leanings that one might at first realize. Morello and RATM did cover “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” a song that many at the time didn’t realize or know was a Springsteen song. Morello himself has morphed into a protest folkie in a way himself with his acoustic outings and The Nightwatchman. His collaboration with Springsteen seems a no-brainer and its surprising it hasn’t happened before now and his soloing on “Jack of All Trades” and atmospherics on “This Depression” show just how far the former member of RATM and Audioslave has come as a master of varied guitar playing genres.

On “Jack of All Trades,” the album’s slow song standout, Springsteen demonstrates that he still has the powerful ability to empathize with a cross section of the American populace that he’s been out of touch with economically for decades. The hopeful, yet tentative, reassurance that “We’ll be alright honey,” a sentiment that Springsteen communicates with his hushed vocals, is truly touching. Maybe I’m personally affected by this song because, as a child, I witnessed my father, a victim of the overseas shipping of labor that occurred during the Regan years, perform the odd jobs like the cleaning of drains, mowing of lawns, and the “pull(ing) (of) that engine apart and patch(ing) her up ‘til she’s runnin’ right” to make ends meet during the lean times while assuring my mom that “we’ll be alright.” Springsteen goes further though with his closing remarks that “If I had me a gun, I'd find the bastards and shoot 'em on sight,” veering into Morello and RATM similar rage without ever consummating the desire while giving a cathartic voice to the unemployed victims of the “fat cats.”

Not every song as powerfully communicates the desperation and hope that songs like “Jack of All Trades” does. “We Are Alive” and “Easy Money” both of which are well crafted and performed songs border on triteness with their lazy lyrics and rhymes. Other songs like “Death to My Hometown” and “Rocky Ground,” despite its earnest but flawed attempt to incorporate a short rap, soar emotionally and sonically. “Shackled and Drawn” another foot stomping and rockin’ ditty about the sweaty difference between the bankers and laborers stands out as well as a strangely feel good song with some dark overtones.

I was really worried that the new love stirred in me for Bruce Springsteen’s music would fade and wither once he decided to move on and work with producers other than O’Brien. O’Brien’s work is close to my heart and only he and his close second favorite of mine, Rick Rubin, have brought the music of some of the greatest bands and performers to brilliant life. I’m happy to say that Wrecking Ball, while not as strong as Springsteen’s magnum opus The Rising, is a wonderful musical step in another direction that stays true to The Boss’ sound while expanding it into interesting new territory. At 62, I don’t know how much more gas in the tank Springsteen has, but I hope its enough for a few more musical miles, and albums.

Rating: 5 out of 5 Bosses

Soulfly Enslaved (Review)

2012-06-30T01:04:00.001-04:00

Max Cavalera has more or less abandoned the sound that he seemingly started Soulfly in order to expand upon. His last album as the front man for Sepultura, titled Roots, was spiked with the tribal, Brazilian, and world folk type of sounds that early Soulfly smartly made further use of. The middle three Soulfly albums, Primitive, 3, and Prophecy, were full on metal albums that incorporated these unique rhythms and sounds into its crushing metal drive to produce something that was, well, unique sounding. Ever since Dark Ages though, Max has reverted to his early Sepultura sound, i.e. fast riffs, double bass pounding, and straightforward blood and fire lyrics. In other words, Max and company’s newest effort, Enslaved, pales in comparison to the innovation of Max and then company’s previous outings as Soulfly, but that isn’t to say that Enslaved is a bad metal album. In fact, it is a very good metal album. It just isn’t a very interesting metal album.

Buried under the noise is Max’s usual, and lyrically straightforward, message of good vs. evil and just how bad men and women are to other men and women. Unlike earlier Soulfly though, there isn’t much of a direct lyrical appeal to the good in our nature. Now the emphasis is on just repeating the bad. “Blood scum, JFK shot in head-conspiracy, Auschwitz-they breath Zyklon B, the brutal human spirit, Holy War-death knell tolling, The final war-antichrist and Jesus” growl/screams Max during “World Scum.” indicting man’s evils through recitation, but offering the only answer as Armageddon. Guest vocals by Travis Ryan of Cattle Decapitation lends a more ominous death metal feel to “World Scum,” which really sets the stage for the album as far as the heaviness goes. “Gladiator” and “Legions” (Max must have been in an Ancient Rome kinda mood) are both heavy hitting speed metal and double bass explosions of songs with some softer parts that show off Mark Rizzo’s fret fingering technique, and new drummer David Kincade’s (Borknagar) speed metal drumming chops. “Redemption of Man by God,” one of the albums strongest tracks, which also happens to feature Dez Fafara (Devildriver, Coalchamber) on guest vocals, is a powerhouse that knocks down most of the other weaker tracks on the album and in fact, ironically, redeems Enslaved as a work overall.

Max still has the metal mechanics to write and put out some powerful and hard hitting metal. One has to wonder though if he still has the mechanics, or simple ability, to stretch that sound and come up with something more than simply background, mosh ready, rather bland metal. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s just cool to sometimes be inspired to think while listening to your metal, not just to bash someone else’s face in.

Rating: 3 our of 5 Headbangs

Ringo Starr: Ringo 2012 (Review)

2012-06-30T00:58:00.000-04:00

Whether you are a punk rocker, alt-rocker, metal head, or auto-tuned boy band bopper, you owe a debt of gratitude to the band that was all of these things first, The Beatles. Lennon laid the punk and alt-rock foundation (Strawberry Fields, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, Revolution) and McCartney covered the rest (everything from Helter Skelter to Yesterday) while Harrison filled in the gaps, but it was Ringo who supplied the beat, and the musical membrane, that held it all together. At 71, the world’s most famous drummer is still writing songs and pounding out beats that many a would be rocker should be jealous of.

Ringo Starr’s solo albums, of which there are 17 now, are all pretty similar musically. They are, for the most part, upbeat and uplifting pop rock collections. Often they are pretty short and to the point as well. Ringo 2012 clocks in at 28.8 minutes, shorter than Green Day’s tour de force Insomniac. Ringo won’t hesitate to tell you that, like his late band mate, all he really needs, and believes in, is love, and a healthy dose of peace. All he really needs is a good beat too. The type of beat pounded out on the same type of drum kit that he famously popularized during his days as a mop top. Finally, a little help from his friends rounds out all that Ringo needs to record an album. Ringo 2012 definitely showcases a good many of his friends. Dave Stewart, Joe Walsh, Michael Bradford, Charlie Haden, Van Dyke Parks, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Benmont Tench, Don Was, and Edgar Winter all guest star on Ringo 2012.

As is often the case with Ringo though, despite all the collaboration, Ringo is a little too short and to the point. In the opening track, titled “Anthem,” Ringo announces “This is an anthem. We know. We know what we got to do.” Well, duh. There’s something to be said for the direct approach though too. In this aspect, Ringo displays a tried and true punk ethic, if thematically instead of musically. The sound of marching boots, which leads into his signature thumping and Beatlesque sounding opening guitar line, demonstrate that Ringo is deadly serious about continuing his steady and career long march into the realms of continuous protest in favor of peace and love.

In the process of covering this familiar territory, he manages to cover Buddy Holly (“Think It Over”) as well as himself. “Step Lightly” from his 1973 album Ringo, and “Wings” from Ringo The 4^th get reworked and updated here as well. His cover of Lonnie Donnegan’s hit “Rock Island Line” pays tribute to, as well as bringing attention to, the influential skiffle movement of the 1950s that is quickly fading from pop culture memory. “In Liverpool,” another one of the album’s standout tracks, showcases Ringo at his most misty memoried. Reflecting on his days as a kid in Liverpool, England he seems to be speaking to his fellow Beatles, both living and past, when he asks “How was it for you?” It’s pretty obvious how it was for Ringo judging by where he is now. Ringo is still drumming, spreading the love, and most importantly still rockin’. His formative days in Liverpool with the boys, “acting like fools” and “breaking the rules” aren’t much different from his days now, some five decades later. Ringo is a little less foolish, obviously, but he’s still breaking the rules. No 71 year old should still be able to rock this ably or joyously. As has often been the case with Ringo though, the regular rules don’t often apply.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Starrs

Smashing Pumpkins: Oceania (Review)

2012-06-17T19:22:00.000-04:00

A quasar is “among the most luminous, powerful, and energetic objects known in the universe.” So is the first song on The Smashing Pumpkins’ long awaited new album Oceania, the aptly titled “Quasar.” In fact, the entire album stakes a claim at being the most powerful and energetic sounding object of the decade, which suffered from a serious lack of good music in the loud and guitar driven alt-rock vein. At the outset of “Quasar” Billy Corgan boldly declares "God, right on!/Krishna, right on!/Mark, right on!/Yod He Vau He Om/Let's ride on!" alluding to some of the most recognizable metaphoric quasars ever believed in, prayed to, or relied upon along with some of his interest in the Christian, Hebraic, and Oriental mysticism that he’s allowed to bubble up to the surface of his songwriting recently. All the references though are towards powerful, beneficent, and powerfully uplifting and life changing entities, both esoteric and common. The music that Corgan wraps these ideas in beautifully brings these entities to life in a vivid, multi-textured, “luminous, powerful and energetic way” not just during “Quasar,” but throughout the album. Oceania is easily the best Smashing Pumpkins album since Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness, and those were two of the best alt-rock albums ever written and released.

There isn’t much melancholy or infinite sadness present on Oceania though, and that’s a good thing. I once alluded to Zwan as being “the Smashing Pumpkins but happy” when describing them to a friend of mine. Happily now we have a Smashing Pumpkins that sounds like “Smashing Pumpkins but happy,” and there’s very little that this Xer could have asked for from one of my generation’s most prolific songwriters and guitarists. The absence of Jimmy Chamberlain, James Iha, and D’arcy, the long departed and lamented founding members of the band, honestly is not a turn off here as Mike Byrne (drums), Nicole Fiorentino (bass), and Jeff Schroeder (guitar) envelope Corgan in the same wall of sound and polish that his old crew did. The sound is slightly different, and has been described over and over again in just about every review of this album on the web as “Smashing Pumpkins but modernized.” It is instantly recognizable without being a retread of Smashing Pumpkins past.

For an album that has no released singles, it is an album packed with the type of distorted guitar songs (singles) that Billy Corgan built his career with the Smashing Pumpkins on. The aforementioned “Quasar” is a thick and loud throwback to the glorious guitar laden hits of both Gish and Siamese Dream. The warm acoustic guitar and synthed out strings that open “The Celestials” is reminiscent of “Disarm,” but “The Celestials” soars into sonic territory that “Disarm” never took us. Corgan’s knack for powerful songwriting and excellent guitar playing are on full display here. “Violet Rays” sounds like the best song off of Adore that never was, but could have been if included on that album. It’s thick and heavy bottomed yet uplifting. “My Love is Winter” is the highest charting single off of Oceania that never will be and showcases Corgan’s brilliant soloing, the likes of which we haven’t been treated to since “Soma” off of Siamese Dream. “One Diamond, One Heart” is almost U2-ish sounding with its clean but not clear guitar jangles. “Pinwheels” builds a sonic landscape of synth, acoustic, and George Harrison-esque electric guitar that doesn’t even feature Corgan’s vocals until almost halfway through the song. “Oceania,” the album’s title track, weighs down the middle of the album with some introspection (“I’m so alone, so alone, but better than I ever was” croons Corgan), some fantastic “grunge in furs” guitar work and demonstrates that Corgan can still write a ponderous song (“Oceania” clocks in at 9:05 minutes) that is as epic as it is uplifting. “Pale Horse” is the second best single off of Adore that never was but could have been if included on that album. “The Chimera” is the younger brother of “Bury Me” off Gish. They share the same energy and grungy guitar sounds. “Glissandra,” my least favorite song on the album, recalls the strange guitar sounds and groves of my least favorite Smashing Pumpkins album Machina (the album that oddly enough is home to two of my favorite Smashing Pumpkins’ songs: “I of The Mourning” and “Stand Inside Your Love”). “Inkless” features more of Corgan’s signature guitar soloing that once again recalls the best guitar soloing moments off of Siamese Dream. It’s an incredibly powerful song. It's the type of song that would highlight a lesser talented artist's album, but for Corgan is a late album track. “Wildflower” will remind Smashing Pumpkin fans of the light and airy final songs of Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness. It’s a gentle landing to an album that soars to the edges of the universe, beyond, and back.

Oceania is the type of album that we long suffering Smashing Pumpkin fans never thought that we would get to experience. Zeitgeist wasn’t a bad alt-rock album by any stretch of the imagination. It just wasn’t a good alt-rock album from The Smashing Pumpkins. Yes, it too had its moments (“Bleeding the Orchid” and “Doomsday Clock”), but Oceania is a moment. It’s a moment in musical history that can, and needs, to be savored over and over again. It leaves you wanting more from The Smashing Pumpkins, and hopefully with Corgan sounding more re-energized, and happy, than he has in years, more won't be far behind.

Rating: 4.5 our of 5 pumpkin seeds

Neil Young and Crazy Horse: Americana (Review)

2012-06-06T23:55:00.002-04:00

I really got into Neil Young’s music in 1989 when he released Freedom and its legendary single “Rockin’ in The Free World.” That song would go on to become an even bigger hit when Pearl Jam went on to cover it with him on The 1993 MTV Music Video Awards show (probably the last watchable one) and at the end of nearly every one of their concerts. Over the years I’ve continued to follow and deepen my appreciation for Neil Young’s music. His work with Crazy Horse, his long term backing band, has always been especially strong. Young isn’t afraid to experiment though, both with Crazy Horse and others (Pearl Jam was his backing band for Mirrorball, one of his strongest albums ever). On Americana, his first album with Crazy Horse in nine years, Young dusts off some elementary school-folk songs that used to be more than just elementary school-folk songs and digs out their deeper, and sometimes darker, gravitas by washing them through his trademark distorted and grungy guitar. Canadian by birth, American by spirit, and Godfather to grunge by trade, Neil Young not only reinvigorates a powerful cross section of American music, he invigorates the Americana that is Crazy Horse as well by delivering their best album together since 1996’s Broken Arrow.

“Clementine,” “Tom Dula” (after the original spelling of “Tom Dooley”), “Gallows Pole,” and even “Oh Susanna” are heavily, and slightly darkly, reworked here bringing out their underlying themes about the struggles that so many Americans in the 18^th and 19^th faced. Most of these songs are about death and its consequences. Sometimes the protagonists end up moving on, “So I kissed Clementine’s little sister and forgot about Clementine” is the last line of “Clementine” but most of the time the result isn’t as happy. Young’s guitar playing soars on most of these songs and even approaches a bit of old school Hendrix –like joy and ecstasy. Smack in the middle of all of the gloom (the reworked and harsher sounding “Jesus’ Chariot,” i.e. “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain” and depressing “High Flyin’ Bird” round out the album), Young drops in a joyful rendition of The Silhouettes’ 1957 hit “Get a Job.” It serves as a stark contradiction in subject matter to that of the other, and much older, songs on the album. It reminds one how easy everyday life in the 20^th Century was compared to that of the 18^th and 19^th Centuries.

Young and Crazy Horse finish the album with a rousing and slightly protest and left-leaning rendition of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” and the traditional “God Save the Queen” whose melody is the foundation of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.” Here Young mixes up the lyrics of the original song with the traditional lyrics. The mash up reminds one that America’s music and political heritage owes as much Great Britain’s as it does the Ancient Roman Republic’s. The song though is much more known these days as “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” rather than “God Save the Queen.” Fittingly, the newer lyrics to the song finish Young’s version. Neil Young, before becoming the Godfather of Grunge, was the Godfather of Rustic and Grungy Sounding American music, and Americana simply reinforces this fact. Released on the cusp of summer, Americana is just the type of patriotic yet introspective album that can serve as the perfect thinking man’s soundtrack to summer.

Rating: 4 of of 5 grungy riffs

Prometheus: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Marc Streitenfeld (Review)

2012-06-03T19:48:00.001-04:00

The Avengers ruled and The Dark Knight Rises will dominate, but the movie that I’m dying to see this summer is Prometheus. Ridley Scott’s return to science fiction and the world of Alien (1979) in this quasi-prequel of sorts to his legendary film is itself reason enough for me to want to see this film, but the story that he will be directing piques my interest even more than his incredibly directing skills and the sure to be top notch special effects. The story behind the Space Jockey (the massive alien creature pictured in Alien (1979) in the derelict ship where the pods with the face-huggers were originally found by the crew of the Nostromo), and their connections to life on Earth and the xenomorphs themselves is hopefully going to be a story akin to the brilliance of other sci-fi art films like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Sunshine (2007). Even if it doesn’t though, its dark and powerful original score by Marc Streitenfeld at least matches the sonic power of those other two films, with only the score to Sunshine (2007) possibly edging it out.

Unlike the soundtrack to Sunshine (2007), Prometheus’s soundtrack makes use of more traditional arrangements and instrumentation. It does though mix in some subtle electronic/industrial sounding noises to great affect where such sounds will serve to heighten either the frightening aspects of the scene it accompanies or relate the industrial grind that the whole mission and the Weyland-Yutani Corporation represents. One standout track “Engineers” (another rumored name for the Space Jockeys), employs both traditional and non-traditional sound to beautifully, and a little frighteningly, convey the work that the Engineers are doing during the film (possibly creating the xenomorphs?). Other standout tracks like “Discovery” and “Not Human” are darkly frightening and suspensefully orchestrated. The low strings and heavy tuba sounds create a heavy atmosphere that one can just picture in their minds if they’ve seen Alien (1979) and the trailers for Prometheus.

Swiss surrealist artist H.R. Giger once again designs Scott’s sets and creatures, both bringing to life the until here lifeless Space Jockeys and whatever new horrific xenomorphs the film will showcase. His art is dark and heavy and displays a strange, but somehow sublime, amalgamation of both the mechanical and the biological. Bio-mechanical sounding is a good way to describe Streitenfeld’s score. The track “Too Close” is a perfect sonic description of this. The pulsing and oscillating undercurrent of sound in the track is reminiscent of the pulsing and oscillating biological rhythms of a living thing, and the over laying sounds of strings and percussion are reminiscent of the clanging and banging of industrial machinery that seems to be generated from the underlying rhythms. It’s a track that sends chills up your spine and captures the imagery of Prometheus sublimely.

Even if Ridley Scott’s return to sci-fi is disappointing and forgettable in its final composure, the accompanying soundtrack to Prometheus will definitely go down as one of the greatest and most memorable soundtracks of all time.

The Bombpops: Like I Care/Stole the TV (Review)

2012-05-28T23:35:00.002-04:00

Playing loud, fast, and hard skate punk in the vein of early Bad Religion and The (late great) Soviettes, The Bombpops make some of the most infectious punk rock music with female vocals since…well The (late great) Soviettes. Frontwomen Jen Raz and Poli Van Dam not only thrash their six strings faster than most skate punk veterans, they sing better than most of them as well. With well-crafted and well-executed songs that you can bounce AND mosh to, their debut EPs Like I Care and Stole the TV will be looked back fondly upon one day as the hard core-ish humble beginnings of what just might be the next, hopefully long lived, great skate punk bands.

Rounded out rhythmically by Josh Lewis (drums) and Neil Wayne (bass), The Bombpops might be easy to mistake as a band trading on the hotness of their two singers/guitarists, but after one listen to their EPs this illusion is dispelled. Yes, Jen and Poli are hotties, but they are also accomplished punk guitarists and singers with the type of mature and competent sound that one would expect from a band that’s been around much longer. In fact they cheekily play with the superficialities of their looks (as a band and women) in their video for “Outta Hand” off the Like I Care EP. It took No Doubt a while to get to that point, but The Bombpops wisely decided to tackle it early on, if only a bit more obliquely.

While it would be easy to go on and on about Jen and Poli’s looks, guitar playing chops, and singing ability, it would be more than remiss of me to not give the props due to their great rhythm section. It doesn’t matter how fast, loud and hard you can shred or sing, if you don’t have a drummer and bass player that compliments the out in front sound of a punk band like The Bombpops it's all for naught. Standout tracks like “Outta Hand,” “Open Ended,” “Stuck On Repeat,” “Paranoid,” and “Crazy” (my personal favorite- and not just for its hilarious voice over at the end) can’t be pulled off with good looks and fast licks alone. In fact, on “Crazy” the rhythm section launches and drives the song to heights that are rare for a song that’s only 1 minute and 48 seconds long.

Sadly though, both EPs combined are only 10 songs and 26.7 minutes long. They might be able to pull off a masterful skate punk song in only 1 minute and 48 seconds, but the whole experience goes by too quick. It leaves you wanting more. Happily though, there’s nothing better that can be said about a musical outfit than that. The Bombpops growing numbers of fans are thirsty for more. Hopefully there will be more soon.

Slash: Apocalyptic Love (featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators) (Review)

2012-05-22T23:57:00.002-04:00

In addition to serving up the thick, juicy, and blues dipped guitar sounds that he’s been a master of since his days in Guns n’ Roses, Slash has finally found a voice with the ability to keep up with his guitar playing on Apocalyptic Love. Myles Kennedy, formerly of The Mayfield Four and Alter Bridge, while not necessarily sounding like Axl Rose, definitely displays the vocal chops that Axl employed that rounded out Slash and Guns n’ Roses’ overall sound and package. Not only does Kennedy’s voice mesh with Slash’s guitar playing better than anyone since Axl’s did (including Scott Weiland’s), he also brings some newfound cred to Slash, showcasing him as more than just a party time rock guitarist. Kennedy’s lyrics, while not quite being poetry, harken back to some of the more thematically strong Guns n’ Roses song lyrics from Use Your IllusionI and II, without the stupid cussing and whining. It’s easy to forget that this is a Slash “solo album” instead of the birth of a new and exciting band that has the potential to easily leave what Velvet Revolver did in the dust. That’s how strong Myles Kennedy’s contribution to Slash’s album is.

Not only is Myles Kennedy the voice and lyricist of Apocalyptic Love, he’s the co-writer of every song on the album with Slash, and the combination of the two’s musical talent is substantial. Songs like “No More Heroes” and “Halo” rock louder, grind harder, and simply sound better than anything off of Contraband or Libertad. Where Velvet Revolver repeated itself, often over and over again on the same album, Slash, Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators do not. This ends up being the case on Apocalyptic Love because both Kennedy and Slash meld their styles together instead of pulling each song in either one way or the other. On Contraband in particular, every other song either sounded like a Guns n’ Roses B-Side or a Stone Temple Pilots B-Side, and nothing sounded like a meshing of the two’s equally interesting rock sound. Here, the melding of the minds is complete and something familiar, yet original and interesting is the result. On tracks like “We Will Roam” we’re treated to some hefty soloing by Slash reminiscent of his best work with Gn’R, but it compliments instead of combats Kennedy’s vocal and emotional landscape. The result is another in a powerful line of great rock songs that fill the album. Even when these guys sound their most Guns n’ Roses-ish, like on “Standing in the Sun,” the result doesn’t sound forced or contrived. It simply reminds one of the good ole days of Gn’R while paying homage to it.

So if Slash and the rest of the Velvet Revolver crew decide to finally, and permanently, drop Weiland yet want to soldier on as Velvet Revolver, they could do a lot worse than bringing Kennedy into the fold. With he and Slash co-writing the songs, Velvet Revolver might actually turn into a band I care to listen to. If not, then hopefully Slash and Kennedy will keep the “solo” albums coming till they quit playing music, which also hopefully won’t be for a long, long time.

Red Hot Chili Peppers: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Covers (Review)

2012-05-16T16:28:00.000-04:00

Culled from exclusive official bootleg releases, various B-Sides, and special tribute contributions spanning decades, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Covers is as fun to listen to as it is bittersweet. The EP contains Chili Pepper covers of “Teenager in Love” by Dion and The Belmonts, “Havana Affair” by The Ramones, “Search and Destroy” by The Stooges, “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere (live)” by Neil Young, “I Get Around (live)” by The Beach Boys, and “Suffragette City” by David Bowie. The songs are fun because we get to hear all of these (some rarely available anywhere else) great covers in one place. The songs are bittersweet because on some of them, particularly “Teenager in Love,” which originally appeared as a B-Side to the “By The Way” single, John Frusciante’s voice and guitar playing is very evident. Nothing against their new guitar player, Josh Klinghoffer, who is great in his own right, but the Chili Peppers were and always will be considered to be at their peak when Frusciante was in the fold.

The collection really demonstrates the wide range of influences that ended up making The Chili Peppers who they are today, with two exceptions. There are no funk covers on the album, and their cover of Hendrix’s “Fire” is left out. Nothing and no one are perfect though, and the inclusion of “I Get Around” which was hitherto only available on the DVD Brian Wilson’s MusiCares from 2005, almost makes up for the offense. The rest of the tracks are definitely well deserving of honor of getting covered by The Chili Peppers. From Dion to Bowie, the influences on the Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Chad Smith, and John Frusciante were as varied as they were great. The Chili Peppers always were a bit of a melting pot as far as their rock sound has been concerned, and listening them trip through Golden Oldies, Beach Music, and some of the best of from the world of Punk and Glam Rock demonstrates not only The Chili Peppers' range of musicianship, but their being some of the biggest rock fans alive. Any any rock band worth listening to knows, reveres, and most of all, enjoys of the classics that preceded them. The Chili Peppers are and do.

Garbage: Not Your Kind of People (Review)

2012-05-15T00:55:00.000-04:00

Legendary producer Butch Vig’s techno-rock band Garbage is one of best produced and unique sounding bands recording right now, mostly because no one else sounds like them. Their edgy alt-rock cred is long gone though. In fact, they are not even considered “alt” anything anymore, just as any band that might remotely sound like them in any way would not be considered alt anymore. There really isn’t an “alt” rock tag that is viable these days. Mostly, anything that is “alternative” (at least according to iTunes) has nothing in common with Garbage, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, or any of the old “alt” 90s bands. Browse the “alternative” page of iTunes and you’ll see bands like The Decemberists, Jack White, The Black Keys and Keane. Yes, Garbage is still listed as an “alternative” band in iTunes, but c’mon, really? So, to hell with the tags, the rock camps, and the punk vs. metal vs. grunge vs. indie bullshit. If something rocks it effin’ rocks, and Not Your Kind of People definitely rocks.

The sexiest vocalist of the 90s, Shirley Manson, still has it. Her voice, backed by Vig’s drumming and programming, Duke Erikson’s bass, and Steve Marker’s chunky guitar is as sexy and dangerous as it ever was, even if Not Your Kind of People doesn’t break new ground for the band as much as return it to its roots as a hybrid electronica/rock band. The band broke new ground already on their unjustly overlooked and underappreciated 2005 album Bleed Like Me, where raw guitar and live arrangements ruled (and rocked) the day. NYKOP relies a little more heavily on the super-production, syncopated beats, and electronica atmospherics than Bleed Like Me did. That doesn’t mean that Marker’s guitar gets lost in the mix though. It’s as loud, heavy, and powerful as ever, especially on tracks like “Control.” One of the album’s strongest tracks, “Control” throbs with heaviness while conjuring the spirit of Love and Rockets with its harmonica and simple, yet strong, beat. “I Hate Love” conjures the waves of electronic/dance floor heaviness Garbage hasn’t indulged in much since the brilliant “Temptation Waits” from 1998’s Version 2.0. Acoustic guitar strummings, backed by atmospheric electric guitar notes, shimmer beautifully on “Bright Tonight” while Manson coos “you’ll be who you are/the brightest star across the sky.” The surprising, well played, and well showcased blues guitar on the album’s final track “Show Me” wraps up the whole affair with nods to the past and the future with its blues-lite riffs and its programmed opening.

Garbage themselves continue to be just who they are with Not Your Kind of People, which is a hell of a rock band that’s brave enough to continue to forge ahead into an era that is desperately in need of a bands that not only know how to rock, but how to make sterling rock albums. This is something these a little older, a little wiser, but nevertheless consummate rock musicians continue to do. 90s rockers, like Garbage, and their followers (Silversun Pickups, The Joy Formidable) just might end up saving rock…again.

Silversun Pickups: Neck of The Woods (Review)

2012-05-08T23:01:00.003-04:00

Packed with the Silversun Pickups’ signature guitar sounds, which oscillate from warm and enveloping to darkly sinister, their new album Neck of The Woods, which is designed to expand their sound slightly, ends up simply giving us more of the same instead. If you’re a Silversun Pickup fan though, then this is right up your alley. I must confess that I am a fan, not in the least because of their unflinching nostalgic ‘90s sound. It’s a sound that is reminiscent of the band they are most oft compared to, The Smashing Pumpkins (another of my ‘90s favorites), but is unique enough to be their own. Produced by Jacknife Lee (U2, REM, Weezer), Neck of The Woods has a tighter and louder sound than both Carnavas and Swoon and dabbles in electronic beats and synths here and there, but the fuzzy, and at times pretty hard hitting, guitar work is still front and center, as it should be on a Silversun Pickups album.

It’s the Pickups' loyalty to the axe (of the type that defined Generation aXe) that makes them most endearing to their multigenerational fans. The ‘90s were all about raw, loud, and at its best, experimental guitar playing and sounds. The Pickups (along with The Joy Formidable) proudly keep alive the sound of their progenitors My Bloody Valentine, The Smashing Pumpkins, and The Jesus and Mary Chain. In the process, The Pickups end up sounding like those bands in the sense that not many of The Pickups' contemporaries sound like them, just like not many of The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Pumpkins, and My Bloody Valentine's contemporaries sounded like them. I’m all for ‘90s revivalism, especially when "'90s revivalism" has sadly become synonymous with creative.

Unlike both Carnavas and Swoon, which both had their spooky moments, Neck of The Woods, from its creepy cover image of what could easily be a house of childhood horrors, to the album’s first single “Bloody Mary (Nerve Endings)” is drenched in psychological dread. This dread is not the kind of supernatural, Friday the 13^th type, but rather the all too real childhood horrors (which are never directly addressed per se, but linger in the background) like abuse, poverty, and the like that can haunt one into adulthood. Lead singer/guitarist Brian Aubert elaborates upon this in the short promotional video the band made in support of “Bloody Mary (Nerve Endings):”

The other songs on the album, from the powerful and alarum blaring opener “Skin Graph” to the New Wave background structures of the surprisingly hard and heavy “The Pit,” childhood fears and urban legends like Bloody Mary and night terrors allegorically serve as the psychological backdrop in which the band ambiguously addresses the things that affect our young, and internal, psyches. The opening arpeggiato guitar notes of “Busy Bees” builds the song’s sonic tension to a near fever pitch until it cascades into a repeated, succulently distorted, and almost sampled sounding full chord. “Busy Bees” serves as an example, in and of itself, of the album's flirtatious back and forth play between those aforementioned urban legends and night terrors and some truly uplifting and transcendent sonic atmosphere.

Neck of The Woods, while frightening at times, is at its heart a hopeful album. Aubert might feel that “all I think about is why/the skin I’m in feels ordinary” like all kids on the cusp of adulthood do, but the “one chance to move you” (the “you” most likely being his allegorical first love or lover), might be a bit nerve-wracking in its build up, but the results, like so many of life’s firsts, can fill one with hope for the future.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars

Adam “MCA” Yauch 1964-2012: “Glad If It Helps Anyone Else Out Too”

2012-05-06T01:38:00.003-04:00

Unlike most of those offering commentary on the death of Adam “MCA” Yauch, I can’t say that The Beastie Boy’s music changed my life, changed the way I listened to music, introduced me to a new musical genre, or changed my way of thinking. I can’t even say that The Beastie Boys are one of my favorite rap/rock/alternative groups of all time. I can’t say that I own every one of their albums. I do own the ones I like, namely Check Your Head, Ill Communication, and License to Ill (I own To The Five Boroughs too, but I don’t particularly like it). What I can say though is that I do like a large amount The Beastie Boys’ music, and MCA was my (and many others’) favorite member of The Beastie Boys. I know musical talent when I see it and hear it, and The Beastie Boys, MCA in particular, were just oozing talent. Their talent as musicians, rappers, and performers is paralleled only by the greatest of the popular music world’s most talented. They were groundbreakers and did introduce millions of kids and adults to a genre of music that they most likely knew nothing about, and in their later days, as lead by MCA, supported many just causes and introduced enlightening messages into their music via MCA’s interest in Tibetan Buddhism, the plight of Tibet, and other socially conscious ideas and movements. For such a great talent, and soul, to be laid low by such a common, yet no less horrific, disease at such a young age is truly one of the most sorrowful events that the music world can experience. Even more so, it is a sorrowful blow to the human spirit.

Yauch rapped on “Bodhisattva Vow” from, my favorite Beastie Boys’ album, Ill Communication: “Knowing only love can conquer in every situation…I pledge here before everyone who's listening to try to make my every action for the good of all beings,” and he truly did try to do what he could for the “good of all beings.” He took the time to dedicate his gravelly voice to some positive and enlightenment directed raps on nearly all of the Beastie Boys’ later albums. He was instrumental in organizing The Tibetan Freedom Concerts that ran from 1996 thru 2001. He was the subtle force behind The Beastie Boys’ maturation from party-hardy fun time worshippers to truly socially conscious engagers of the world, its injustices, and the potential solutions to its problems. The Beastie Boys would eventually get behind the ASPCA, Habitat for Humanity, The Food Bank of NYC, and respect and equality for women. Ill Communication was the album, and MCA’s was the voice, that announced the new direction The Beastie Boys’ would be taking: “I want to say a little something that’s long overdue/the disrespect to women has got to be through/to all the mothers and sisters and wives and friends/I want to offer my love and respect to the end.” The huge inflatable penis was put in storage, Buddhist monk chants began to serve as backdrops, and The Beastie Boys’ showed the world they were more than party boys with nothing but good times on their minds.

This didn’t mean that the boys were abandoning the party. It was still okay to party, but the message became: party responsibly. Adam Yauch was the driving force behind this spiritual evolution. The change is evident to anyone who listens to Ill Communication. Fully engaged as musicians, artists, and rappers, Ill Communication would feature everything from the aforementioned Buddhist chants to loud and heavy guitar and bass. The intelligently crafted and live played beats and intoned rhymes would be unlike anything heard or crafted on any other Beastie Boys’ album before or after Ill Communication. It was, in my humble opinion, their crowning achievement, and that album alone would make them worthy of inclusion into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This is not just because of the music on the album, but the message.

I lost someone close to me from cancer not too many years ago, so I have an idea of the pain that Adam’s family is going through. It’s easy to label something like cancer as evil when it strikes someone you hold dear. Unfortunately, cancer isn’t evil. It just is. Like many things that are destructive though, like areas of the world where freedom is still just a dream, poverty reigns, or human rights are oppressed, cancer can be fought. I think that Adam wouldn’t mind my suggesting that you take his words to heart and if you too are “glad if it helps anyone else out too” check out these sites below. Thanks Adam for all the rhymes, beats, riffs, and enlightenment.

The American Cancer Society

http://www.freetibet.org/

Marilyn Manson: Born Villain (Review)

2012-05-01T20:34:00.001-04:00

I hated Marilyn Manson and his shtick for a long time. Mostly because it was over the top silly in an effort to be frightening, he showed his ass (literally) at the MTV Music Video Awards, and scores of pre-adolescent and early adolescent kids dressed up like him and his band and hung out at amusement parks as if they were doing something truly rebellious or revolutionary. His lyrics were of the garden variety “I hate myself and the world” and “I’m the antichrist” themes. Manson’s only redeeming quality was the way his music sounded, but it took Trent Reznor (Manson was a former NIN collaborator) to give it some sonic punch by turning up Manson’s guitars. I started warming to Manson’s music, and some of his message, when I heard “The Fight Song” off of Holy Wood (In the Valley of The Shadow of Death). Manson’s refrain “The death of one is a tragedy/The death of a million is just a statistic,” (I don’t know if he came up with that or not) really captured my attention. I finally found an excuse to justify my listening to Manson, after all, someone with that much anger must care about what’s going on in the world to rail against it so. Later on, I would be ashamed to admit that I really, really liked Golden Age of Grotesque. It wasn’t lyrically expansive or anything, but it did rock. Now comes along Manson’s eighth album, Born Villain, and I wondered how I would react to it…if I would react at all…

Born Villain is actually good. In fact, to me, it is just behind Golden Age of Grotesque and might even, after a few more listens, overtake that album as my favorite Manson album. Sounding a little more stripped down and straightforward than Grotesque, there is nevertheless no lack of hard hitting percussion, bass, and metal guitar on Born Villain. Over the course of Manson’s career his music has steadily progressed from industrial metal to metal tinged with some industrial flourishes. On Born Villain, Manson goes for a little more of an expansive rock sound, and even sounds downright grungy on “Lay Down Your Goddam Arms.” The main riff almost sounds like a tribute to Kim Thayil of Soundgarden.

Lyrically, Manson is up to his same old tricks and themes: God as and evil, or at least an amoral, force as portrayed on ‘Hey Cruel World” and self-effacing lyrics dominate the album. There is a bit of world weariness creeping into his voice here and there though. You have to look hard for anything hopeful, but when you finally get the sarcasm, it’s not hard to find. He also seems to get a little more personal and inflective here and there as well. "I'm not man enough to be human but I'm trying to fit in and I'm learning to fake it” bewails Manson on “The Gardener.” Honestly, though he might just be trying to connect with a whole new legion of disaffected youth. There isn’t much of a market for this kind of shock rock with most Millennials though. Their attention span is too short to properly absorb what Manson is, and always has been, up to. Namely, he’s a punk who likes metal and goth. He just wants to scream as loudly as possible the world while revealing its hypocrisy. At least he quotes some Shakespeare along the way this time.

Yes, the spoken word intro to “Overneath the Path of Misery” is the famous “Sound and Fury” soliloquy from Macbeth. I know this not only because I’m a lit-geek myself, but because I had to memorize this little poetic musing when I was in 9^th grade. It has always remained with me. Macbeth was, and is, one of my favorites of Shakespeare's plays. Any musician who quotes Shakespeare, and Macbeth in particular, can’t be that boring (or bad) lyrically and artistically. On Born Villain, Manson is anything but boring musically. I just wish he’d distance himself a little further from the shock shtick. It’s really run its course, and it detracts from the artistry of his music.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars

Howlin’ Wolf: Smokestack Lighting/The Complete Chess Masters 1951-1960 (Review)

2012-04-27T23:43:00.000-04:00

Every form of guitar based rock music, from metal to alt-rock, owes its existence to the Chicago bluesmen of the mid-20^th Century, and Howlin’ Wolf (Chester Arthur Burnett) was one of the Chicago blues’ biggest and most influential names. A hulking figure with an alternatingly booming and scratching voice (that would later be emulated and popularized by the legendary DJ of the nascent rock and roll era, Wolfman Jack), and whose guitar player, Hubert Sumlin, would inspire everyone from Eric Clapton to Jeff Beck to Jimmy Page to Jack White, Howlin’ Wolf was truly a legend amongst the many legendary blue guitarists and singers that came out of Chicago during 1950s. Over the years Howlin’ Wolf’s recordings have been packaged and repackaged over and over to varying quality and results. With the release of Howlin’ Wolf: Smokestack Lighting/ The Complete Chess Masters 1951-1960 though, anyone with an interest in or love of this long gone, but never forgotten, legend finally has one definitive collection of Wolf’s masterworks at their fingertips.

After signing with Chess Records, the Chicago based label responsible for popularizing Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry, Wolf went on to record his most widely recognized and listened to music, including “Smokestack Lighting,” which was a popular, well loved, and masterful blues track before it was corrupted into a Viagra promotion. Some argue that the more exposure Howlin’ Wolf can get the better, especially with the short attention spans and memories of today’s youth (who think Kurt Cobain invented the electric guitar) dominating pop culture trends. Some argue that it’s the ultimate insult to a penultimate artist. Whatever one thinks (I think its use is pretty sad), at least Wolf’s music is still alive pop-culturally somehow.

The many different takes on some of Howlin’ Wolf’s other famous tracks makes this collection worth the money and repeat listens. The collection’s three version of “I’m Leaving You,” especially the captured studio banter and starts and stops on “I’m Leaving You (Takes 7-10),” are priceless insights into Wolf and his band’s recording process, not counting the fact that one of Howlin’ Wolf’s strongest tracks gets a full 12.41 minutes (and three of the 97 tracks on the collection) devoted to it. “I’ve Been Abused” gets a similar treatment with 9 takes, one full final track, and 7.17 minutes devoted to it.

Wolf’s haunting track “Evil (Is Going On)” might be one of Howlin’ Wolf’s most referenced tracks as to the spiritual side of the blues and the dread that often surrounds it. The blues were born out of the many years of struggle the African-American community suffered through over the preceding centuries and was the result of a co-mingling of “spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads,” but tracks captured here like “I Have a Little Girl,” with their zest for life and love demonstrate that even though Howlin’ Wolf himself described the blues as something you got “when you got no money and evil is on your mind,” there was, and is, another side of the existential coin where life is beautiful and bountiful. Very few bluesmen capture this dichotomy of life in their music like Howlin’ Wolf does, and no other collection of Wolf’s music, that I have come across at least, captures that music as well as this one does.

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Soundgarden: Live to Rise (Review)

2012-04-21T01:20:00.000-04:00

Original grunge pioneers Soundgarden are back with their first new music since 1997. Unfortunately, it’s only one song, and it’s for a mega Hollywood blockbuster’s soundtrack, but there’s no denying that “Live to Rise” is something that this Gen X’er has been dying to hear. So, without further ado…has the wait been worth it?

Putting aside the simmering contempt that I have for Chris Cornell for going hip-hop on us, disbanding Soundgarden back in the late ‘90s, and bringing Audioslave to an end a few years ago, I have to admit that he not only does he sound at home with his old band mates, he sounds pretty good, albeit a bit weathered. What else would one expect though from one of grunge, and rock in general’s, most powerfully wailer. I hate to think about that fact that some “studio magic” probably helped his aging voice somewhat, but at least there’s nary a hint of auto-tune anywhere in “Live to Rise.” The only real detractor from Cornell’s part in “Live to Rise” is that once again, for about the millionth time, Cornell revisits his favorite metaphor of all time: the sun. “Like the sun we will live to rise/Like the sun we will live and die/and then ignite again.” We’ve heard this type of lyric from Cornell before, and we’ll probably hear it again. I can live with it because everything else about the band is still top notch. In fact, this one track sounds better than almost everything released from their last album Down On The Upside.

Kim Thayil might be a little grey in the beard now, but he still has the guitar chops to reassert his claim to the god of grunge guitar. His detuned drone is instantly recognizable and, once again, conjures enough uniqueness to stand apart from the legions of his imitators, much like Jerry Cantrell’s reinvigorated AIC guitar sound does. Cantrell and Thayil ARE grunge, and I challenge anyone to successfully argue otherwise. When Thayil launches into his first Soundgarden solo near the end of “Live to Rise” I quite simply break out into goose bumps, just like I do every time I hear his solo during “Drown Me.” I had forgotten how much I missed my favorite grunge guitarist (next to Cantrell) and it really is heaven hearing him playing and recording again.

The rest of the band, which comprises Ben Shepherd and Matt Cameron, i.e. the rhythm section, is just as powerful as they were during Soundgarden’s first run. Cameron has been pounding the skins for Pearl Jam for about a decade or more now, so he’s never really been out of the grunge/rock picture, but it’s great to hear Shepherd back on the four string. Like Thayil equals grunge guitar, Shepherd equal grunge bass. Cameron has long, as easily, proven himself to be the best drummer to emerge from the Seattle scene of the early ‘90s, and he just simply continues to prove this fact with his drumming on “Live to Rise.”

“Live to Rise” simply whets our appetite for Soundgarden’s new album, due later this year, and I for one cannot wait for it to drop. Long live the grunge!

4 out of 5 Stars

Garbage: Blood for Poppies (Review)

2012-04-10T22:58:00.000-04:00

1990s alt rockers Garbage are back with the first release off of their highly anticipated album Not Your Kind of People (due May 15^th). Garbage is definitely not your kind of people (or music) if you like the regurgitated and processed pop, watered down trip hop, and formulaic rock that dominates Top 40 these days. Even though at their height (and introduction actually) Garbage wasn’t very alt anything and many decried legendary producer Butch Vig’s project as a watered down NIN rip off with a sexy and trashy sounding and looking alterna-chick for a front man (uh..woman), but then again who in the ‘90s wasn’t compared to Trent Reznor if they employed any type of electronic/industrial sound in their music? Garbage was one of the most unique sounding rock acts that hit the airwaves nearly twenty years ago, and still are today. In fact, no one sounds like them right now. Perhaps an injection of “NIN rip offs with a sexy chick singer” is just what “modern rock” needs.

Speaking of that sexy front woman, Shirley Manson might not have the bloom of youth upon her cheek anymore these days, but her voice is just as sharp, powerful, and sultry as it was in days of youth gone by, and she’s still plenty hot in the looks department… Vocally weaving in, out, and between Butch Vig’s beats and guitarist Steve Marker’s chucky riffing, Manson ties us listeners up in sexy yet comfortingly reassuring sonic knots. Masterfully delivering jumping, staccato, up and down tones, nearly rapped lines, and expansive overdubbed choruses, Manson once again proves that she is one of the most talented and recognizable female rock/alt rock vocalists of all time.

Coming off producing The Foo Fighters latest multi-Grammy winning album Wasting Light, mastermind Butch Vig must have been feeling reinvigorated as “Blood for Poppies” is one of the most catchy, yet completely recognizable as a Garbage song, Garbage song he’s written in some time. Garbage’s 2005’s highly underrated and totally excellent album Bleed Like Me, with its monstrous and hard rocking tracks like “Why Do You Love Me” and “Bad Boyfriend,” was a departure from the usual electronic laced sounds of Garbage’s earlier albums. Vig returns the band to original form here. While “Blood for Poppies” is its own unique composition that heralds Garbage’s new/return to form era, it would have fit well on Version 2.0.

Basically, if “Blood for Poppies” is simply a taste of what we’re to expect from Not Your Kind of People, May 15^th can’t get here soon enough.

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars