American Gong by Quasi
Released by Kill Rock Stars

For most bands, 10 albums over 17 years is an achievement. For Quasi, it is more of a toss off—something to do in between the real gigs. Their 10^th album, “American Gong,” has a feel of a band that is sticking around just for the sake of longevity. Missing are any driving forces and what is left is a plodding, straightforward album that sounds as if what recorded solely out of commitment. For a band that has been together since 1993, Quasi doesn’t display any cohesiveness or passion but yet demonstrates all the trademarks of a band burning out.

The main duo—Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss—play with other bands full time and only occasionally play as Quasi, which may explain some of the scattered feel of this album. With more dedication to backing other people rather than forging an identity of its own, there is a lack of drive behind this album and nothing that defines it cohesively as a record. It comes across as a well-played album cobbled together with originally home-recorded tracks meant more for personal enjoyment than anything to engage the listener. In a way, it represents the apex of musician for the musician’s sake rather than the listener, complete with in-house references and first-person point of view lyrics that are only accessible and meaningful to the writer.

There is something that is just generally inane about the lyrics. On the first track “Repulsion,” the singers sings, “I didn’t mean to make you snore/I went out and got a whore/I had to run when I could not come/I bang on the drum like a dumb dumb-dumb.” The sloppy harmonies make the chorus nearly unbearable. It’s about as far as you can get from clever sexually fueled lyrics anyone can get. Instead opening about naturally about sexual liaisons, the lyrics sound forced and almost like someone imaging what a song with double-entendre lyrics should sound like.

Even though multilayered sounds can add texture to a song, the sound effects on the second track are the hallmark of an immature album written by over enthused songwriters still toying with well-tread electronic sounds. The composition of the track is also scattered and lacks a certain level of coherence with abrupt musical shifts that seem more haphazard and placed from a feeling of anxiety than well-crafted songwriting. “Grow up/settle down/make payments on a home/leave little messages on someone or another’s phone/if it’s not too loud/then you’re not too old/trust in your grup on you may never have to fold.” It sounds as if it is someone ralling against the middle class, office, suburban lifestyle with never experiencing it first hand. Where the Animals sang “We need to get out of the place” to escape the harsh realities of working in the mines in England, Quasi sounds like a passionateless observer toying with the idea of a lifestyle that doesn’t fit in with partying and late-night antics as opposed to a real philosophical difference in modern-day white-collar living.

The album sounds unfinished. The band might have been going for a more roughhewn sound, but it comes off as a first draft: thrown together without much thought. From the lyrics to the singing to the playing, everything sounds rushed and scattered. Sloppy playing is covered by nonsensical sound effects that really add nothing to the songs. The lyrics sound like they were quickly written on a notepad during someone’s 25-minute commute to work and never given a second thought. The guitar playing sounds like the pointless noodling of a high school quasi-metal band. Songs drag on for no particular reason, as if no one real understands their structure.

If more time and attention was given to the material and music, this album could have been much better. Considering that this is the band’s 10^th album in nearly 17 years, it might show that there isn’t much of a commitment to recording as Quasi. The members are spread among other projects, and here it shows. This sounds like a record that was created in the diminishing time busy musicians have with little thought about the actual making of the record.

]]> http://www.onekindradio.com/home/?feed=rss2&p=1623 0 http://www.onekindradio.com/home/?p=1595 http://www.onekindradio.com/home/?p=1595#comments Sat, 15 May 2010 13:08:09 +0000 JasonK http://www.onekindradio.com/home/?p=1595
Say Us by Zeus

Released by Arts & Crafts

On Zeus’ debut album, Say Us, you’ll hear a lot of the familiar: The Band, the Beatles, the Grateful Dead, Van Morrison, the Eagles and any type of 1970s rock. Perhaps it’s the piano-driven songs or the tight harmonies, but the album as a whole sounds like a modern take on a classic sound by a band that is unquestionably knowledgeable about the music and more than competent to create it.

This Canadian quarter was the backing band for Jason Collett of Broken Social Scene. They have likened themselves to The Band backing Dylan, Say Us is a testament to that sentiment. When listening to the album, it’s hard not to conjure sounds of John Lennon’s solo material. Much like Lennon’s songs, the instruments frame the vocals, adding support and finding their own space in the song. Nothing becomes too overpowering, with the guitars, drums and bass given their own time to take the spotlight before returning to the backing of the song. In a way, this album is more classically composed than much of the pedal-effect noise-rock music of its contemporaries. There are guitar solos. There are jingly bass lines. There are drum fills, harmonies, and backing vocals.

On the track “At the Risk of Repeating,” there is an extended electric guitar solo floating over piano and vocals. “The Renegade” has a Jerry Garcia-like vocal punctuated by a high-tone electric guitar. The track “River by the Garden” explores the band more laid-back, lazy roadhouse rock side, and “How Does it Feel?” echoes the upbeat efforts of Paul McCartney.

When it comes to the lyrics, Zeus steadily focuses on the personal and subjective, such as on “The Renegade” that repeats “I’m not telling you anything/I’m not giving them anything/I’m not losing anything/I’m not telling you anything.” Even though some of the lyrics are interesting, it would have been nice to hear some different stories or songwriting that strayed from the journaling approach seen throughout the album. Except for “River by the Garden,” most of the lyrics fall flat and are an afterthought to the music.

Perhaps the most admirable aspect of Zeus is the fact that it sounds like a band making music instead of a band trying to make an album. In a day where artists can generate a following by splicing well-known and popular songs together (e.g., Girl Talk) and any well-funded teenager can create slick studio production in his bedroom, Zeus sounds like musicians sitting around making music.

Even though Zeus doesn’t explore any new ground both lyrically and with its music, the album is solid enough to warrant a listen and to be appreciated on a musical level. They are a welcomed addition to burgeoning class of musicians that draw on an era where guitar and bass had a place in a band stage prop.

Check out Zeus here

Check out Arts & Crafts and pick up the album here

The best definition of this album is schizophrenic. It teeters, nearly track by track, between Radar Love and Neil Young. One track is dripping in ’70s radio-rock with bouncing bass lines, crunchy guitar-driven harmonies and slick lounge-style singing while the next is a sparse introspective folk acoustic driven song. The vocals also change to a raspy dead-on Neil Young style that fits perfectly along Young’s “Helpless.” It’s as if two different bands created a double album crammed into a single LP.

It creates, as expected, some disharmony, but it also keeps the album fresh even if a bit erratic. There is nothing fancy through here. It’s fairly straightforward with much of the instrumentation rooted solidly in the guitar rock of the 1970s and early ’80s. This isn’t by mistake. On Spiral Stair’s MySpace page it says The Reel Feel “has a vibe similar to 70′s albums by Fleetwood Mac, Captain Beefhart, and guitar god Richard Thomspon (not to mention Aussie psych-rock icons Died Pretty). This is exactly, if not ironically, correct.

However, this is not Pavement. Anyone expecting a continuation of that great band will be disappointed. This is, on its own, something completely different. Even though it says The Reel Feel is “the same rock that made Pavement the most influential band of the ’90s and the same strange, dischordant playful and melodic Spiral Stairs rock that your parents loved,” it is not. This sounds like a musician profoundly influenced during a particular era as a child and searchingly trying to recreate those sounds. To that end, it succeeds. To the end of making a singularly great indie rock album that carries on the tradition of Pavement, it fails.

However, should we expect this album (or any album by a well-known musician) to sound exactly like any previous work? No, we shouldn’t. Spiral Stairs is not Pavement, and as evidenced by The Reel Feel, it is not trying to emulate it. There needs to be room for an artist to branch out and explore regardless of our particular feelings for his previous work.

The slide guitar of a Mighty, Mighty Fall creates a lazy backroom bar feel. The lyrics float around with not-quite-in-tune harmonies that lend it a credence of believability. The extended guitar solos on tracks such as True Love hark back to a time when the guitar was the principal instrument. In an era of Vocoders, Casio beats and Pro Tools, Spiral Stairs creates an album that is first and foremost true to music, and in a sense, recreates a time when the musician—and not the producers—took center stage on a recording. When an album can have more producers than musicians, the Spiral Stairs can show us how a real album recorded by real musicians can sound. Is there enough here to set the world on fire? No. But when did we need to have a groundbreaking album to appreciate great musicians practicing their craft?

Check out the Spiral Stairs here

Released by XL Recordings

There is nothing about Elvis Perkins that sounds modern. There are no synths, no polish or sheen. By avoiding the lure to be modern or to sound cutting edge, Elvis Perkins creates something that is becoming rare in today’s music industry: a solidly crafted and well-played album based on true musicianship.

The Doomsday EP is a no-frills album steeped in musical styles ranging from early 20^th century folk, ’60s mysticism to ’50s rock and some ’70s soul. It is an album soundly rooted in strong American traditions. However, it doesn’t overly play on these sounds in an attempt to recreate some bygone era; instead, Elvis Perkins deftly uses the language from these times to say something new. For some, this album might be easy to dismiss as too folk, too quaint or too retro.

In the description for The Doomsday EP, Elvis Perkins says that the band has “subconsciously produced a collection speaking to/and or from several [facets of the American strain] at once.” For anyone with a minor knowledge of traditional American music (or someone who has seen O Brother, Where Art Thou?), this album should be a well-worn path of familiar sounds and themes.

The best example would be Weeping Mary. It starts out like a Mountain country hymnal: a few strains of guitar under a group acapella singing, “They crucified the Savior.” It does a nice turn into a sing-a-long with drums, harmonies and guitars, which gives it a fun, upbeat feel that feels it would be at home at a Saturday morning beginner’s folk session. “Stop Drop Rock and Roll” and “Stay Zombie Stay” are more steeped in 1950s-style rock’n’roll, with “Stop Drop Rock and Roll” sounding like a barroom band playing at a roadhouse. “Stay Zombie Stay” has a great chilled-out feel driven by treble guitar and a reverb voice.

The two strongest songs are the first two cuts: “Doomsday” and “Gypsy Davy.” As the first track, “Doomsday starts off with a slow, dying horn that is almost funeral-like. It draws into a nice Van Morrison Astral Weeks beat. Just as it seems this will be a folk-jam, the horn comes in with a sped-up tempo that gives it a marching band sound. “Gypsy Davy” has the quality of an otherworldly folk chant. The vocals draw in and out that borders between a lament and a warning. The atmosphere is like a underground religious ceremony buried deep in New Orleans lore.

An album such as The Doomsday EP is not explore new musical ground. There is nothing here that a well-rounded listener hasn’t heard before in mid-20^th century American music. Should Elvis Perkins be judged more harshly because he uses sounds and styles from another time? No, he doesn’t. Not all music needs to be new or novel to be considered good. Elvis Perkins sings about familiar themes and uses imagery and lyrics that are easily digestible by the listener. This could be seen as a copout, but the album is decidedly solid and in parts terrific. It’s best for the serious music listener that likes harmonies, guitar licks, multi-instrumentalists, and musicians plying their craft.

Check out Elvis Perkins here

The first is from Sad Brad Smith, the folk musician and Lincoln Square resident whose song “Help Yourself” is on the soundtrack to the new George Clooney movie Up in the Air. Not bad for a guy playing coffee shops.  There was a lot of buzz about Sad Brad winning an Oscar for the song, but stingy rules make it look like that’s not going to happen. You can visit his Web site at his band’s MySpace page. Read more about Sad Brad Smith at Time Out Chicago.

The next news comes from the awesome people at Laurie’s Planet of Sound. At the soon-to-open Late Bar in Avondale, Laurie’s is going to launch the new bar’s Wednesday night Mix-Tape Meltdown, which will showcase some of the record store’s collection. First show is December 30, which is the perfect warm up to New Year’s Eve. Of course, there is a MySpace page. Don’t forget Laurie’s awesome record collection.

As if we needed another excuse to go buy records, we now have Vinyl Saturday: a monthly event that promotes the buying of vinyl records from local, independent stores. Brought to us by the Record Store Day people, Vinyl Saturday will take place on the third Saturday of every month and feature new albums by some well-known artists, including a seven-inch release from Wilco.

This is great news for us vinyl lovers. Events such as Vinyl Saturday help to create a much needed buzz in an industry that is, frankly, floundering. It gives local music communities and independent record stores a shot in the arm, and it appears to be working. Last year, vinyl album sales passed 1.9 million. The most on record since SoundScan began tracking. With more events like Vinyl Saturday, those numbers are sure to rise.

So if you’re at Beverly Records on the Southside or Laurie’s Planet of Sound on the north, stop on out at your record store this Saturday, dive into the bins and pull out a record or two to spin at home.

You can find more information at http://recordstoreday.com/

The music at the Taste of Chicago has been a joke for years. Musical acts tended to bands on the downside of their careers (Hootie and the Blowfish, Moby, Steve Winwood, Santana, Dennis DeYoung) and trended toward bland XRT-style rock (XRT usually sponsors the 4th’s main acts) that draws big at Naperville’s RibFest or at a Payless in Schaumburg. There have been bright spots here and there, but since the city took over booking duties from Jam Productions in the mid-1990s, the musical acts have been downright awful. At least this year, the city is trying to make amends, albeit on a side stage.

This year features an “Indie Rock & Power Pop Friday” featuring The Eli Story, Wally Dogger, Kid, You’ll Move Mountains, Holding Mercury, BREAK, and Empires. June 27 is “Bloodshot Records Day” featuring Andre Williams, The Deadstring Brothers, Dollar Store, Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, and The Waco Brothers. “Thrill Jockey Records Day” will showcase Doug McCombs & David Daniell, Fred Anderson, Bobby Conn, Eleventh Dream Day, and 8 Bold Souls. The Hideout is presenting an “Independent Independence Day Extravaganza: Songs for Presidents” on the 4th. The rest of the days on the side stage are a grab bag from the potentially God-awful—Cover Bands Through the Decades and Tribute Bands—to the potentially good—Tuesday Bluesday and World Music Day. To be sure, these aren’t major indie acts coming to the Taste, but it is encouraging to see the city turning to local and independent outfits to showcase music at the city’s premiere event.

The city is still putting on suck at the main stage: Charlie Wilson of the Gap Band, Counting Crows, The Wallflowers, Lovehammers, Broadway in Chicago, Afrodisiacs, Radio Disney, Barenaked Ladies (WTF?). It seems that the booker for the Taste’s musical acts is a mid-30s housewife who stopped listening to music about 15 years ago. (I can’t get over the Barenaked Ladies. The Chinese chicken band? I would image Hammond Fest would have more dignity than that.) The fact that these bands are awful one-hit wonders riding out their meager notoriety much longer than they should just makes trying to figure why anyone would book them to play in front of tens of thousands of people is just mind-numbing. Why not just get the Smashing Pumpkins? At least they’re from Chicago and evidenced by their willingness to play a casino in Northwest Indiana will play pretty much anywhere. If the city can have Andrew Bird play the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, why not the taste of Chicago? With so much effort into planning and promoting the event, why does the music fall so short?

Thankfully, this year there are several Chicago and Illinois bands representing. Even though they aren’t on the main stage, it is great to see some local indie acts finally getting a chance to shine at a major outdoor festival. Let’s hope this is a positive trend of the city featuring local independent acts throughout the Taste of Chicago.

For Earth Hour 2009, the city of Melbourne is doing something pretty awesome: a people-powered music fest where all the electricity is generated by people biking. Hop on, hop off. The music keeps going if the people keep peddling. That got me to thinking, What’s going on locally that music fans can do to spend the time during Earth Hour? Even though there might not be anything as big as the Melbourne event in your neighborhood, there are still some music-filled ways you can enjoy Earth Hour while not giving up on the rock. Earth Hour advocates turning off or diming the lights; I advocate turning off all electricity for the entire hour. So, this Saturday from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. (local time), I have these three suggestions to go completely electricity free for one hour and to have a music-filled time at it.

1) Play music. Acoustic guitars, drums, violins, accordions. None of these require electricity. You can be the new Beirut or a hippie jam band. It doesn’t matter. Spend the hour dusting off that instrument you never get around the play. Have some friends bike over and start jamming. Have fun. Realize you need to buy new strings.

2) Play music trivia. Grab any board game. Have everyone write down music-related questions. Devise some crazy rules. It lets everyone test her knowledge of music while starting some good conversation.

3) Read a book. Here are some recommendations from the Book Cellar: Chris Connelly, a singer for the Revolting Cocks, Concrete Bulletproof Invisible and Fried: My Life as a Revolting Cock; Stephanie Kuehnert, a new novel about growing up punk, I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone; and Jolene Siana, her published teenage letters to Ogre, the singer from Skinny Puppy, Go Ask Ogre: Letters from a Deathrock Cutter.

If you have any events that we should know about or any other suggestions on how to spend Earth Hour in the dark enjoying music, let us know. Kumbaya!

In case you’ve missed it, vinyl is back (cue the L.L. Cool J music). It’s never really left us, but it’s moving beyond the realm of the hardcore collector (think Steve Buscemi in Ghostworld) back into the mainstream. To celebrate all things vinyl, the Chicago Independent Radio Project is holding its 7th annual record fair April 18 and 19.

For a scant $7 the Fair will have record vendors, artists, and DJs. The best is that it promises to offer a diverse selection of music from indie rock and punk to jazz, blues, and even classical. If you have a bit of the hardcore collector inside, you can plunk down the $25 to get first crack at all the goodies early Saturday morning.

Details:
April 18 and 19 (Saturday and Sunday); for those hippies pick up some good, groovy tunes for April 20.
Where: Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Union
Time: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Cost: You haven’t been paying attention have you?

Check out CHIRP’s Web site for more details.

A good record store is like a treasure hunt. Half the fun is just sifting through the crates, looking for something a rare find or taking a chance on something that turns out to be amazing. But, c’mon. The real reason anyone goes searching through the stacks is to find those crazy album covers, the ones that make you cringe, scratch your head, or just bust-a-nut laughing your ass off.

Luckily, the good folks at Laurie’s Planet of Sound put up some of their better finds on their Web site. Yultide Disco? A man dressed up as the Easter bunny giving a basket of eggs to a dog? Yep, there are some mighty strange finds out there. Big thanks to Laurie’s for putting some of these awesome gems online.

These bad covers also serve as a reminder: at some point Devastatin’ Dave the Turntable Slave was the baddest mother fucker on the block.