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Check out
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around Winnipeg tonight! |
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Check out
this week’s
online CD reviews by our
music staff |
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Einstürzende
Neubauten
Perpetuum Mobile
(Mute)
A
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It’s been a few
years since Germany’s Einstürzende Neubauten has offered
the world a taste of their haunting, teutonic industro-din. Leader
Blixa Bargeld is a regular member of Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds
when he’s not making this kind of dizzyingly intense hubbub
with his pals at their aptly named studio The Bunker. For a 35
euro fee fans could watch the band record this album live (the
Mute release is different) and even vote on which songs the band
should continue working on during the process. Perpetuum Mobile
is more about sound as art and EN still uses items such as amplified
metal springs, plastic tubes and dried linden leaves as “instruments.”
The band is nowhere near as cacophonic as its early days; airguns
may have replaced pneumatic hammers but the effect is no less
dramatic. Bargeld’s deep, Lucky Strike-enhanced intonements
add the perfect amount of cold menace to Ich Gehe Jetzt and the
super groovy Self-Portrait with Hangover. Definitely not for waltz
fans.
Jeff Monk |
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Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand
(Domino Records)
A
Website: www.franzferdinand.co.uk
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Franz Ferdinand, named
after the archduke whose murder sparked the First World War, hail
from Glasgow and even though they do sound a little bit like Scottish
counterparts Belle and Sebastian, they show that they have a lot
going for them on their full-length, self-titled debut. This is
one of those rare albums you fall in love with during the first
song. Sure, it’s not hard to tell this art-rock quartet’s
influences, but that’s the thing that makes this 11-song
disc so endearing. In one sitting you hear the best of The Strokes,
the Pixies, the aforementioned B&S and even the almighty Clash.
Standout tracks include the straight-up, throw-down rock ’n’
roll of Jacqueline and the new-wave splendour of Take Me Out.
You might have to buy a second copy of this because you wore your
first one out — it’s that good!
Sean Allum |
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Von Bondies
Pawn Shoppe Heart
(Sire/Warner)
B+
Website: www.vonbondies.com |
Never mind ‘The
Fight.’ Jason Stollsteimer’s two boys, two girls rock
’n’ roll band from Detroit Rock City still kicks ass.
There’s certainly nothing here that most fans of Cramps,
early Blondie, early Talking Heads and, ahem, early White Stripes
haven’t heard before. But this synthesis of pop melodies,
fat bottom-end, echo-chambered fuzz guitar and Stollsteimer’s
almost tortured vocals still kicks up a fuss in a way most bands
can only dream of. Stollsteimer even conjures The Doors on Been
Swank and Mairead before he builds these tunes to white-hot blues/rock
crescendoes. So yes, this band’s influences are classic
— but their take on these sounds is expressive and oh-so
rockin’, and reveals more and more with every listen. So
who cares if Jack thinks they’d be nothing without him?
John Kendle |
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Various
Artists
Crucial Live Blues
Crucial Slide Guitar Blues
Crucial Texas Blues
(Alligator Records)
B+
Website: www.alligator.com
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Created in 1971 by 23-year-old
Bruce Iglauer to capture the energy of Hound Dog Taylor and the
Houserockers, Alligator records is now the world’s largest
independent blues label. With a catalogue featuring such blues
artists as Albert Collins, Johnny Winter, Lil’ Ed and the
Blues Imperials and many more, this grassroots label knows its
licks in putting together the Crucial Blues series. A six-disc
set (the others are Crucial Harmonica, Crucial Guitar and Crucial
Chicago Blues), the most recent three are a searing mix of the
best Alligator has to offer. On Texas we’re served a heap
of southern-fried blues highlighted by albino dynamo Johnny Winter’s
Tin Pan Alley and Albert Collins’ smoky and clever Too Many
Dirty Dishes. The Live disc takes us stageside to where the blues
are best heard, but Slide Guitar is the best of the bunch here,
featuring 12 slippery slopes plumbing the deepest depths of the
genre. Led by Sonny Landreth with Taylor’s Rock, these high-energy
tracks are pure, guitar-ringing virtuosity. Besides being a great
place to start learnin’ about the blues, this set is a prime
opportunity to dig a little deeper than well-known masters B.B.
King, John Lee Hooker and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Mike Warkentin |
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My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult
I See Good Spirits and I See Bad Spirits
Confessions of a Knife
(Rykodisc)
B-
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Chicago’s MLWTTKK
are credited as one of the first bands to create industrial dance
music. These three handsome re-issues offer a coffin-full of My
Life’s trademark brooding electrobeats fashioned around
some of the coolest shlock-horror, spoken-word snippets ever committed
to plastic. Co-leaders Groovie Mann and Buzz McCoy spared no excess
when it came to blasting the most intense grind of the mid-1980s,
and it shows. Their brand of dark disco wears a bit thin over
the course of three albums, but fans of Rob Zombie’s patented
trashmetal-a-go-go will be pleased as punch to have what amounts
to a nightmare full of this similar campy thrash. If tracks with
titles like Kooler Than Jesus, Gateway to Hell and The Days of
Swine and Roses tickle your evil imagination, then bow down and
worship with this Kult.
Jeff Monk |
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Joe
Jackson Band
Afterlife
(RykoDisc)
B
Website: www.joejackson.com
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This is already the second
live release from Joe Jackson this year, and it certainly surpasses
its predecessor, Joe Jackson: Two Rainy Nights in Seattle and
Portland by a country mile — maybe two. It was only a matter
of time before a live disc with the incredible lineup of Jackson,
Graham Maby, Dave Houghton and Gary Sanford showed up on record
shelves. After all, this was one of the best live bands of the
early ’80s and from listening to this 13-song romp, it’s
evident they’re still in rare form. Jackson and the fellows
play standards such as Is She Really Going Out With Him and Got
the Time with such gusto you’d think they were teenyboppers.
They also play some of the new tunes from last year’s reunion
album, Volume 4, such as Awkward Age (the standout from that recording)
and Fairy Dust, both of which stand up well.
Sean Allum |
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Katy
Rose
Because I Can
(V2)
C-
Website: www.katyrose.net
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What do FeFe Dobson, Avril
Lavigne and Alanis Morissette all have in common? Well, it could
be that they’re all from Canada, or perhaps it’s that
they all represent these new scooter trash/ skater park grrl rockers
taking over the music scene. Alanis, the prototype, laid the groundwork
for all the up-and-comers to stand on. And here comes Katy Rose,
gracing us with Because I Can. One thing that’s clearly
evident from the get go is that young Katy struggles with her
own identity and her own unique place in the world. Questions
abound here: What’s expected of me? What will my parents
think? Other such issues torment Katy throughout the disc and
you can’t help but feel sympathetic to the confusion and
ranting of a 17-year-old. But Rose masterfully turns this into
a positive by weaving vocals and instrumentation together so that
the result is actually quite rhythmic, even pleasant — distracting
her audience away from her perplexity. So, all you teenagers and
young adults out there — go spend your allowances!
Horace Carrington |
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The
Master Plan
Colossus of Destiny
(Total Energy)
B+
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There’s nothing
like a heavy dose of big dumb rock ’n’ roll to set
these cold, late-winter nights a-jumpin’. The Master Plan
is a garage rock supergroup of sorts sporting two members of the
still-going-strong Fleshtones (guitarist Keith Streng and drummer
Bill Milhizer), a former Dictator/Del Lord (Andy [Adny] Shernoff)
and loose nut Peppermint Johnson. The quartet throws down some
über-fine rockin’ bidness on this 13-tracker that leans
heavily on tight jumpers like Dead Horse and Kickin’ It
Old School. These cats aren’t shy about letting their roots
show on nostalgic gems like Annie Had a Baby, Just Because and
the cute Chuck Berry groover Broken Arrow. Johnson, Streng and
Shernoff each take lead vocal duties on four tracks, and the variety
keeps things rolling perfectly. Stupid fun with guitars never
sounded so righteous. A master plan indeed. Rave on this one folks.
Jeff Monk |
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