A reformatting of the review system here is in order. Seems to me the idea of a review system is more helpful if I stick to some capsule reviews. I can cover more records, and you don't waste your time reading some long-ass essay that'll waste your time. I can give 'yall some invective whenever I feel like it.
In the mean time, I just want to let you know that I pre-ordered RADIOHEAD'S NEW ALBUM, KING OF LIMBS. It's pricey, comes with a download key, a CD, two 10" records extensive artwork, and vague statements about it being "a newspaper album." The album is terrific. It's relatively brief, but every track is a standout. I've listened to it five times in a row, and plan to play it non-stop for the rest of the night. Below is the review.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Radiohead - King Of Limbs
Band: Radiohead
Album: The King Of Limbs
Label: Self-released
Year: 2011
If 2007's In Rainbows was marked by the relative dominance of guitarists Johnny Greenwood and Ed O'Brien, King Of Limbs is definitely Thom Yorke's album. There are no straight ahead rockers or guitar freakouts to be found here. It mirrors his Eraser solo album far more closely the digitally-enhanced space rock of past records. "Bloom" flutters along on synths that wouldn't sound out of place on a Flying Lotus track. It turns into the kind of glitchy tripout meditation that Radiohead has has excelled at since "Idioteque," only now the band sounds far more confident in its melding of digital and analogue instruments. The unit moves as a coherent whole, shifting gears from electronic breakbeats to analogue symphonic swells. Also present is the ghost of drum & bass Radiohead enthusiast Spor amid the disjointed Yorke harmonies on "Give Up The Ghost". "Little By Little" and "Seperator" contain ethereal vocal textures and spacious layered guitars, panning gorgeously like twin comets. As usual, Nigel Godrich's production is impeccable. A typically visually arresting video has been produced for "Lotus Flower", although I would name the stately piano march "Codex" as the record's emotional centerpiece. Each new listen reveals greater sonic detail and complexity, but this isn't really a difficult album to get into. A fine latter-day effort from an experimental rock group that experiments far more than it rocks. Hardcore Radiohead fans (are there any other kind?) will find much to love here.
Album: The King Of Limbs
Label: Self-released
Year: 2011
If 2007's In Rainbows was marked by the relative dominance of guitarists Johnny Greenwood and Ed O'Brien, King Of Limbs is definitely Thom Yorke's album. There are no straight ahead rockers or guitar freakouts to be found here. It mirrors his Eraser solo album far more closely the digitally-enhanced space rock of past records. "Bloom" flutters along on synths that wouldn't sound out of place on a Flying Lotus track. It turns into the kind of glitchy tripout meditation that Radiohead has has excelled at since "Idioteque," only now the band sounds far more confident in its melding of digital and analogue instruments. The unit moves as a coherent whole, shifting gears from electronic breakbeats to analogue symphonic swells. Also present is the ghost of drum & bass Radiohead enthusiast Spor amid the disjointed Yorke harmonies on "Give Up The Ghost". "Little By Little" and "Seperator" contain ethereal vocal textures and spacious layered guitars, panning gorgeously like twin comets. As usual, Nigel Godrich's production is impeccable. A typically visually arresting video has been produced for "Lotus Flower", although I would name the stately piano march "Codex" as the record's emotional centerpiece. Each new listen reveals greater sonic detail and complexity, but this isn't really a difficult album to get into. A fine latter-day effort from an experimental rock group that experiments far more than it rocks. Hardcore Radiohead fans (are there any other kind?) will find much to love here.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Bovine
One of my favourite sub-genres of rock music is cowbell rock. This is not a real type of music, it just loosely refers to songs that rock a cowbell. Many bands try their hand at the cowbell at some point or another, probably because it is awesome. Most of them succeed, because it is hard to be disappointed with anything after someone beats a cowbell in your face.
Here is a playlist that will get you banging the bell like Will Farrell.
1. The Beatles - Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey.
2. The Rolling Stones - Honky Tonk Woman
3. Deep Purple - And The Address
4. Led Zeppelin - Good Times, Bad Times
5. Black Sabbath - The Wizard
6. Mountain - Mississippi Queen
7. Free - Alright Now
8. The James Gang - Funk #49
9. Leaf Hound - Freelance Fiend
10. The Groundhogs - Cherry Red
11. Humble Pie - Stone Cold Fever
12. Sir Lord Baltimore - Loe and Behold
13. Captain Beyond - Raging River Of Fear
14. Dust - All In All
15. Queen - Liar
16. Grand Funk Railroad - We're An American Band
17. Montrose - Rock The Nation
18. KISS - Nothin' To Lose
19. Nazereth - Hair Of The Dog
20. The Dictators - The Next Big Thing
21. Aerosmith - Last Child
22. Blue Öyster Cult - Don't Fear The Reaper
23. Scorpions - Pictured Life
24. Pink Floyd - Pigs (Three Different Ones)
25. Van Halen - Dance The Night Away
26. Bad Brains - Pay To Cum
27. Warlord - Lucifer's Hammer
28. Def Leppard - Rock Of Ages
29. Twisted Sister - We're Not Gonna Take It
30. Guns 'n' Roses - Night Train
31. The Beastie Boys - Hey Ladies
32. Guided By Voices - Rhine Jive Chick
33. The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Monkey Puzzle
34. Spiritual Beggars - Magic Spell
35. Cathedral - Heavy Load
36. Radiohead - Electioneering
37. Pantera - Drag The Waters
38. Clutch - Wishbone
39. Fu Manchu - Blue Tile Fever
40. The Queens Of The Stone Age - Little Sister
41. Priestess - Run Home
42. Sloan - Live On
43. Dungen - Mon Amour
44. Snail - Cleanliness
45. Boris - Statement
Enjoy. Don't blow this for us, Gene.
*I've revised this note somewhat, and may continue to do so in the future. My lust for cowbell knows no bounds. May plan is for this playlist to be definitive, with a limit of one song per band. Once you've used the cowbell once, its basically assumed that the instrument becomes a mainstay of your sound anyways. It's just as important when its not playing as when it is, except less awesome.*
**I've discovered this list of songs that feature the cowbell. It's far more definitive than mine, but there is a lot that is irrelevant to the kind of cowbell rock I'm talking about here. I guess the Beastie Boys song on my list is hard to fit in with the context of the rest of the list, but it's my blog and that song fucking rules.**
*** I added GBV's "Rhine Jive Click" for my buddy J.P. A classic cowbell rocker. Mr. Pollard knows what he's doing.***
Here is a playlist that will get you banging the bell like Will Farrell.
1. The Beatles - Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey.
2. The Rolling Stones - Honky Tonk Woman
3. Deep Purple - And The Address
4. Led Zeppelin - Good Times, Bad Times
5. Black Sabbath - The Wizard
6. Mountain - Mississippi Queen
7. Free - Alright Now
8. The James Gang - Funk #49
9. Leaf Hound - Freelance Fiend
10. The Groundhogs - Cherry Red
11. Humble Pie - Stone Cold Fever
12. Sir Lord Baltimore - Loe and Behold
13. Captain Beyond - Raging River Of Fear
14. Dust - All In All
15. Queen - Liar
16. Grand Funk Railroad - We're An American Band
17. Montrose - Rock The Nation
18. KISS - Nothin' To Lose
19. Nazereth - Hair Of The Dog
20. The Dictators - The Next Big Thing
21. Aerosmith - Last Child
22. Blue Öyster Cult - Don't Fear The Reaper
23. Scorpions - Pictured Life
24. Pink Floyd - Pigs (Three Different Ones)
25. Van Halen - Dance The Night Away
26. Bad Brains - Pay To Cum
27. Warlord - Lucifer's Hammer
28. Def Leppard - Rock Of Ages
29. Twisted Sister - We're Not Gonna Take It
30. Guns 'n' Roses - Night Train
31. The Beastie Boys - Hey Ladies
32. Guided By Voices - Rhine Jive Chick
33. The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Monkey Puzzle
34. Spiritual Beggars - Magic Spell
35. Cathedral - Heavy Load
36. Radiohead - Electioneering
37. Pantera - Drag The Waters
38. Clutch - Wishbone
39. Fu Manchu - Blue Tile Fever
40. The Queens Of The Stone Age - Little Sister
41. Priestess - Run Home
42. Sloan - Live On
43. Dungen - Mon Amour
44. Snail - Cleanliness
45. Boris - Statement
Enjoy. Don't blow this for us, Gene.
*I've revised this note somewhat, and may continue to do so in the future. My lust for cowbell knows no bounds. May plan is for this playlist to be definitive, with a limit of one song per band. Once you've used the cowbell once, its basically assumed that the instrument becomes a mainstay of your sound anyways. It's just as important when its not playing as when it is, except less awesome.*
**I've discovered this list of songs that feature the cowbell. It's far more definitive than mine, but there is a lot that is irrelevant to the kind of cowbell rock I'm talking about here. I guess the Beastie Boys song on my list is hard to fit in with the context of the rest of the list, but it's my blog and that song fucking rules.**
*** I added GBV's "Rhine Jive Click" for my buddy J.P. A classic cowbell rocker. Mr. Pollard knows what he's doing.***
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Eulogy
Sadly, the White Stripes have decided to call it a career. Although this doesn't come as much of a surprise as they've been on hiatus for the last three years, it's still disappointing to see a truly great rock band hang 'em up. Beginning with a mutated hybrid of Mississippi delta mud and Motor city muscle on their eponymous debut and morphing into proto-Zeppelin super rock behemoths on their classic main sequence of De Stijl, White Blood Cells and Elephant before indulging Jack White's restless id and taste for country and folk arrangements on the schizophrenic and unfocused Get Behind Me Satan and finishing strong with 2007's gloriously eclectic and endearingly weird Icky Thump, the White Stripes have fashioned a body of work which artistically rivals anything put to tape this decade. Moreover, the band's skillful handling of its image combined with Jack White's unadulterated musical genius fashioned a media profile just as intimidating as their music. While I feel that given White's restless spirit it makes sense to retire the Stripes brand, it is a little bit upsetting to see one of the world's only superstar rock and roll groups ride off into the sunset. The White Stripes fill a need in the public consciousness for the transcendent mass cultural euphoric experience that can only be gained by blowing apart a stadium full of screaming fans with pure rock fury. With the Stripes gone, where can we turn to get stadium-filling, rock radio-ruling, car stereo-blasting rock and roll that you can get behind? Not Coldplay, that's for sure.
Unfortunately, I never was able to experience the Stripes in all of their live shit-kicking glory, although it wasn't for lack of opportunities. I'm pissed at myself now. Guess I'll have to be content with last year's blistering live career retrospective, Under Great White Northern Lights.
Here's a little something to remember them by. I first saw this video on Much Music's The Wedge when I was in about Grade 8. How time flies. Still a great track, awesome video.
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