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Check
out what’s going on
around Winnipeg tonight! |
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Check
out this week’s
online CD reviews by our
music staff |
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Frank
Black and the Catholics
Show Me Your Tears
(Sonic Unyon)
B+
Website: www.frankblack.net |
Frank Black needs
a hug. The ex-Pixies frontman croons and hollers on this,
his latest release with backing quartet the Catholics. Recorded
without edit live to two-track, the raw feel of the album
echoes on tracks like the opening “Nadine,” which
quivers with Black’s tortured cries and is filled out
by a relentless barrage of wailing guitar solos. The soothing
“Manitoba” groans with lyrical reminiscence and
swells with gorgeous instrumentation, highlighted by a meandering
pedal steel guitar track. FB & the Cs got by with a little
help from lots of friends: guest musicians on the album include
pianist Van Dyke Parks and guitarist Joey Santiago. Contributing
was made easier through the use of the band’s portable
studio, which was parked in L.A. for the duration of recording.
The grit of the city soaked into the 13 tracks on Show Me
Your Tears and helps characterize the feeling of the moment:
a lonely, shadowy trip into Black’s current state of
mind.
Kari D.
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Various
Artists
Northern Faction 2
(Balanced Records)
A
Website:
www.balanced-records.com |
Local electronic label
Balanced Records graces us with its fifth release of the finest
in Canadian electronic production. Northern Faction 2 finds
the label expanding its horizons with a broad and varied cross-section
of artists and tracks. You’ll find everything here from
the gently beautiful and blissed-out SohCahToa, the glitchy
fun of Modulation Parlour Orchestra, the delicious dramatic
morsels of DJ Brace, along with Solidaze kicking up the percussion
and gorgeous soul in the remix of The Hummers’ “Green
Green,” plus loads more. While the tracks run the gamut
of styles, from hot hip-hop beats to cool downtempo jazz,
the selections work remarkably well with each other, never
jolting you during the transition from one to the next. Northern
Faction 2’s charms are many and its heady delights make
an excellent case for the existence of a Northern Faction
3.
Barb Stewart
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The
Singles
Better Than Before
(Rainbow Quartz)
A
Website: www.rainbowquartz.com |
If a band is “informed
by the Beatles” these days it can mean anything from
simplistically twee pop to pseudo-Sergeant Pepper-informed
nostalgia. Detroit’s Singles, however, have crafted
a wonderful album full of choice Mersey Beat reference points
that looks forward rather than back. There are plenty of girl-guy
dynamics in the songs – a topic that naturally lends
itself to the kind of powerful, straight-ahead pop that this
band handles so effervescently. Track for track, Better Than
Before employs the kind of singalong harmonies and driving
guitar hooks that put it a mop-top ahead of any competition.
Comparisons to the brilliance of The Rutles seem more appropriate
in that The Singles weave just enough musical clues into their
crafty songs to remind you that they have a pretty tight handle
on their muse. File under: pure pop for now people.
Jeff Monk
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Siouxsie
and the Banshees
The Seven Year Itch Live
(Sanctuary/EMI)
B+
Website: www.siouxsie.com |
Seven years after
announcing they would rest in peace, Siouxsie and the Banshees
took to the road one more time to prove themselves wrong.
The aptly titled Seven Year Itch tour hit London for two nights
in the summer of 2002 and this live disc culls the highlights
from those performances (which can also be caught on DVD,
sold separately). With the addition of former Psychedelic
Furs-man Knox Chandler on guitar, Siouxsie Sioux, bassist
Steven Severin and drummer Budgie prove that seven years was
worth the wait for fans who thought they would never see or
hear the band again. Siouxsie is at her growlingly sexy best
and the music still possesses the intense power of its angular,
sharp darkness, proving that there’s no such thing as
mellowing with age in the domain of Banshee – and thank
goodness for that.
Barb Stewart
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Yy
Hold the Fort Down
(Peanuts & Corn)
A
Website: www.peanutsandcorn.com |
As a member of vaunted
Winnipeg hip-hop crew Your Brother In My Backpack, Yy (pronounced
Yie, sounds like lie) has been a frequent guest MC and contributor
on some of this city’s finest releases, dating back
to 2000. With the release of Hold The Fort Down, his solo
debut EP, Yy has stepped to the forefront, releasing a socially
conscious album that’s certain to enlighten and entertain.
Label honcho mcenroe and Yy’s YBIMBP partner The Gumshoe
Strut share production duties, deftly creating beats that
serve as the perfect backdrop to Yy’s heartfelt lyrics.
Whether he speaks on the life changes that came with the birth
of his daughter on “L’il Tykes” or about
the gross mistreatment of Canada’s aboriginal population
on the clever “Take As You Will,” Yy is the consummate
storyteller, his message always on point. As fine a debut
as you’ll hear this year.
Jared McKetiak
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Baby
Anne
Mixed Live
(Moonshine)
B
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Baby Anne is the latest
DJ from the Moonshine crew who’s getting a shot at the
coveted Mixed Live series. Recorded in February at Club Ra,
located in the Luxor Hotel on the Las Vegas strip, Baby Anne’s
mix of thumping basslines and tough, knock-down-your-door
breakbeats is unsurpassed. While the Florida native takes
a passive approach to her mixing style, she makes up for it
by programming a well-thought-out set. The pressure of having
to live up to the last couple of discs in the series has been
a good thing for Anne, as she’s definitely raised the
bar for breaks CDs in 2003. It’s easy to see why she’s
one of the busiest DJs on the party circuit. Her bass-heavy
breakbeats are a sure bet in any setting and sound fantastic
in the 5.1 surround mix that is also included.
Anthony Augustine
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The
Neptunes
The Neptunes Presents… Clones
(Arista/BMG)
A
Website: www.startrakmusic.com |
Having produced a
slew of hits with the likes of Britney Spears, Jay-Z and pop’s
golden boy Justin Timberlake, Virginia-based NERDs Pharrell
Davis and Chad Hugo’s debut is sure to enhance the already
deafening buzz surrounding the dynamic duo. The 17-track disc
not only showcases the pair’s diversity and competence,
but the obvious clout that goes along with the Neptunes moniker.
On tracks from the likes of Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Nas,
Ludacris, Nelly, newcomer Kelis and even a few rock bands,
the Neptunes successfully capture each emcee and act’s
individual sound while giving them their own flavour. While
the album tends to lag a bit in the beginning, things eventually
build up steam to the point that upon completion, you’re
left wanting more. Each track’s a veritable masterpiece.
Shayne Stephens
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Alien
Ant Farm
TruANT
(El Tonal/ Dreamworks/ Universal)
B-
Website: www.alienantfarm.com |
After the tongue-in-cheek
curiosity of 2001’s smart cover of Michael Jackson’s
“Smooth Criminal,” Alien Ant Farm wants to earn
some staying power. And while nü-metal dies a slow and
appropriately uninteresting death, they are clinging to life.
Crisp rhythms are borrowed more from Cheap Trick than Linkin
Park, and Dryden Vera Mitchell’s wiry vocals are engaging.
But although the band has a refreshing sense of the modern-rock
lyric, there isn’t necessarily anything timeless on
TruANT. While the bouncy Violent Femmes-esque “Glow,”
the biting ska riffs of “Never Meant” and the
Latin-inspired “Tia Lupe” are moderately successful
attempts to expand their sound, those attempts are transparent
at best and seem too calculated for wider appeal. TruANT is
certainly not an offensive album, and is even an enjoyable
one. Just don’t expect AAF to be around in another five
years.
Melissa Martin
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Thrice
The Artist in the Ambulance
(Subcity/Island/Universal)
B
Website: www.thrice.net
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Is this really a major-label
record? No wait… really? Perhaps operating off a radio
and video market more friendly to hardcore than ever before,
on their third full-length record (and first since signing
to Island Def Jam), underground hardcore act Thrice hasn’t
gone the easily marketable route. That said, The Artist in
the Ambulance isn’t a particularly heavy, or innovative,
hardcore record; healthy doses of ear-friendly harmonies and
more traditional song structures see to that. But the dark
and commanding riffs (“All That’s Left”)
and bleakly poetic, not-too-emo lyrics (“you’re
a smart kid / never work without your gloves / if you’re
a smart kid / you’ll stay the hell away from love,”
Dustin Kensue sings on “Don’t Tell and We Won’t
Ask”) inform a record that is substantially more meaty
and satisfying than the majority of major-label “punk”
records.
Melissa Martin
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