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1208
Turn of the Screw
(Epitaph)
B+
Website: www.1208music.com
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This is the second effort
from SoCal rockers 1208, and the followup to 2002’s Feedback
is Payback is a pretty good punk record. Vocalist Alex’s
uncle is Greg Ginn of Black Flag infamy, so the band boasts a
pretty solid pedigree — and perhaps it’s this connection
that makes 1208’s sound (thankfully) more akin to the punk
of the ’80s and ’90s than that of the new millennium.
Many of the songs — From Below and Smash the Badge, for
example — are catchy without straying into the realm of
Sum 41 and other bands cashing in the allowances of 15-year-old
pseudo-skateboarders. The music is solid, power chord punk chop
and, while the standard vocal patterns turn up pretty often, they
don’t detract from this disc’s appeal. If you decry
the current state of ‘punk’ music, 1208 is a band
you’ll want to check out.
Mike Warkentin |
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Damage
Plan
New Found Power
(Elektra)
B+
Website: www.damageplan.com
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While the music world
doesn’t necessarily need another band that cranks out songs
titled Fuck You and Blunt Force Trauma, Damage Plan does manage
to put a pretty forceful sonic boot to your throat. The vocals
are harsh — but less so than you might expect — and
there are some great heavy, driving, detuned riffs to set the
head thrashing. What else would you expect from an effort produced
by Dimebag Darrell? You get a little taste of Korn here, but these
hairy boys are just a little bit more pissed off than that nü-metal
band. Damage Plan knows how to carve some heavy, heavy chunk without
descending into the ninth-ring-of-death-metal-noise hell, making
this disc a hard-rock keeper. Put it in and go 14 rounds with
a punching bag; it’s cheaper than seeing an anger management
therapist.
Mike Warkentin |
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The
Flatlanders
Wheels of Fortune
(New West Records)
A
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Some critics are declaring
that the new album from Austin’s Flatlanders (Butch Hancock,
Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore) is something less than their
previous release, 2002’s Now Again, but that’s damning
it with faint praise. That this trio of excellent songwriters
have produced yet another album together is reason enough to celebrate.
Indeed there are fewer tracks featuring the Texas group writing
as a unit, but that doesn’t really mean anything when the
quality of songcraft reaches the brilliant heights these cats
easily attain. They do dredge up some oldies from their dusty
past, but hearing revamped versions of familiar songs by this
crew is like coming home to a warm fire and long shot of smooth
whiskey. Ely brings the best rockers as usual, Hancock can still
twist his imagery into beautiful shapes, and Gilmore’s natural
vibrato is a thing to behold. This wheel is definitely on fire
again.
Jeff Monk |
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Horrorpops
Hell Yeah!
(Hellcat Records)
C-
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Genre-intense music is
a good thing. Give the kids some easily classifiable style and
they’ll line up behind it like herds of fashionable sheep.
Denmark’s Horrorpops style themselves as psychobilly nasties
and they’ve got the requisite old-school tattoos, thick
Gretsch guitars, perfect pompadours, brilliant Bettie Page ’dos
and snarly faces. Superficially they’re firing on all cylinders,
and that’s pretty much as deep as it goes. Sonically they
achieve a moderately listenable blend of mild psychobilly, but
it’s nowhere near as severe as their stylists would have
you believe. The biggest hook in this tired tacklebox is lead
singer/upright bassist Patricia who pouts her way through 13 (of
course!) tracks of unrelenting mediocrity. But hey, this band
is dangerous because Patricia’s giving the photographer
the finger on the back cover and the guitarists all wear kohl!
If listening to watered-down, fifth generation rockabilly turns
your crankcase, then hell yeah!
Jeff Monk |
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Various
Artists
Hi-Fidelity Dub Sessions -
Chapter 5
(Guidance/Fusion 3)
B-
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Long seen as electronic
music’s distant second cousin, dub has always played an
important role its sonic makeup. From the deep echoes of Basic
Channel-style techno in the mid 1990s to the current group of
downtempo and world beat-influenced producers who have embraced
the spacey rhythms and smoky grooves of dub, electronic music
is heavily indebted to the blueprint laid out by Jamaican producers
in the 1970s. The 5th chapter of the Hi-Fidelity Dub Sessions
may be focused on recent experiments with the genre, but it is
hard not to hear other influences such as dancehall, 2-step, reggae
and downtempo playing a big part in many of the tracks. If you
are interested in hearing traditional Jamaican dub you may be
a bit disappointed. But if you are looking to hear where dub is
heading in the future, this compilation is worth checking out.
Anthony Augustine |
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Nerissa
& Katryna Nields
This Town is Wrong
(Zoë)
B+
Website: www.nields.com
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Two-fifths of the folk/pop/rock
band which bedazzled fans at a couple of Winnipeg Folk Festivals
in the ’90s, Katryna and Nerissa Nields have put together
a concept album based on a novel written by Nerissa, also called
This Town is Wrong. Essentially this is the story of two 13-year-old
girls, too old for the playground, on the cusp of womanhood, and
the world in which they live. As a concept it hangs together,
though not quite in linear fashion. Each tune is an evocation
of a moment, a feeling, a thought — creating a sense of
the endless, aching summers of the early teens. Musically this
is relatively straightforward, acoustic rock which floats shimmeringly
on the out-of-this-world soprano of Katryna — absolutely
one of the most unique and spine-tingling voices in music today.
John Kendle |
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Sweatshop
Union
Natural Progression
(Battle Axe)
B+
Website: www.sweatshopunion.com
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The notion that commercial
hip hop is big enough that it requires a humanistic, independent
alternative is rapidly gaining steam. And baby, that’s a
good thing. As much as I may like In Da Club, The Chronic or Missy
and Eminem, any musical movement that is co-opted into the mainstream
is bound to foster a reaction. Consider the local Peanuts &
Corn crew, Mood Ruff, or this mult-racial outfit from Vancouver
— a seven-man collective which takes a decidely gentle approach
to the form. This is hip hop that’s about something —
decrying the rat race of life, upholding concepts such as truth
and honour, and criticizing the “soliloquies of stupidity”
that so many emcees seem stuck on. That they’re honestly
on an R&B groove and even use real musicians is an added bonus.
So is the fact they’re from Canada. It’s about time.
John Kendle |
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Various
Artists
Shite ’n’ Onions Volume 1
(Omnium)
B+
Website: www.shitenonions.com
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This disc gets a nod just
for its laugh-out-loud title and, even though a collection of
Celtic punk might sound a little weird, this compilation is a
pile o’ fun. Featuring 22 tracks from 15 bands — including
The Mahones, The Steam Pig and The Devil’s Advocates —
Shite ’n’ Onions is characterized by frantic drinking
songs that will make you want to hoist a pint just to join in
the irreverent fun. Vocals are ragged and accented, tin whistles
are brightly piping, and punk rhythms are driving the mix. There
is also enough variety here to ensure this disc isn’t one
65-minute song. Standout tracks include Queen & Tequila, Wasted
Years and Never Say Never. It’s the sort of thing liquored
leprechauns might use as the soundtrack to a St. Paddy’s
Day bender. You might want to pick up a copy for March 17.
Mike Warkentin |
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Tarbox
Ramblers
A Fix Back East
(Rounder)
A
Website: www.tarboxramblers.com
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It’s hard to know
where to start when you want to write a rave review: With Michael
Tarbox’s open-tuned slide guitar, which is by turns raucous
and seductive? Or how about his razor-burned throat, a guttural
instrument all its known? Perhaps I could mention the thumping,
primal beats (provided by three different drummers here) which
pin this music down yet let it pulse and throb with palpable vibrancy?
Then there’s the atmospheric texture and colour provided
by violinist/percussionist Daniel Kellar, who gives a vibrant,
otherworldly feel to songs such as Were You There? Add this addictive
mixture up and you’ve got a band capable of gettin’
down ’n’ dirty with what the Chicago boys might call
‘gutbucket’ blues, yet one which can also offer a
traditional, Appalachian folk-tinged reading of traditionals such
as No Night There. Early contender for album of the year —
without a doubt.
John Kendle |
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