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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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Bocephus
King
All Children Believe In Heaven
(Tonic)
B-
Website: www.bocephusking.com
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Jamie (Bocephus King)
Perry is one of those staunchly unclassifiable artists who
throw so many styles of music into their songs that their
work becomes difficult to categorize. For the latest album,
King and his kooky cohorts have delved deep into their special
trunk of magical arrangements and come up with a very fine
and unique album. Wreck of the Century is a bombastic pop
treat full of exciting crescendos that just keep coming. We’re
All Here (cause we’re not all there) is a downturned
lament that perfectly shows Perry’s skill at creating
a kind of streetsmart, wiseass persona similar to Tom Waits
— without the gallon of bourbon and carton of cigarettes.
Perry’s wilfully weird, beatnik worldview will have
you scrambling for the lyric sheet to check if any of his
sweet ravings make sense. It’s a demanding listen, and
entirely worth the effort.
Jeff Monk |
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DEK
Boner
(Finger Records)
A+
Website: www.dekpunk.com
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This album has lots
of flavour, bringing you back to old school punk rock easiness,
power chords and rockabilly yelling. With a Blood Brothers
vocal thing going on and a huge budget, this garage band has
made its sound very alive, fast and established. You could
fit DEK in a box with Rancid and throw in Brody Dalle from
the Distillers. Before the end of this album, these Californians
will swing you around from weird drunken chants to ska-ish
metal riffs. The girl yells a soothing mayhem chord like a
ShitList song and, all in all, this album deserves some street
cred. But if you’re looking for something completely
different from all the other good speedy-punk bands, then
Dek might not woo you. However, if you need to rock out after
a bad day, pick this one off the shelf and do yourself some
good.
Erin Chatelain |
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Papa Roach
Getting Away with Murder
(Geffen)
C-
Website: www.paparoach.com |
“Let them paint
an inch thick, but to a sad end they must come.” So
said Hamlet of mascara-wearing alt-metal bands who are more
about posturing and radio hooks than actual substance. The
latest effort from this California band is produced all to
hell and just sounds so clean and formulaic. Papa Roach was
previously able to communicate their angst and anger to others,
but this disc feels calculated and empty. The whole death
fetish thing is trite, and little here stands out and warrants
repeated listening. Sure, this is polished music full of thick,
layered riffs and wailing, but it’s also tailored and
emasculated. As such, all the visceral content is lost and
we’re left with four dudes who got a big-name producer
and a new shipment of Death Black No. 666 eyeliner.
Mike Warkentin
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El
Nada
Nothing For Nobody
(Finger Records)
B
Website: www.fingerrecords.com
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This surfin’,
skatin’, drinkin’, sun-bleached band made me wonder.
When you grow up in a place called Orange County, surfing
in the California sun all day, there must be some trouble
you can’t help but get into. With fast and raunchy songs
such as Punk Porno or Police Chase, I’m guessing this
band has an outlet for its mischief. These are good songs,
with some Mexicali-influenced, traditional Ska vibes. El Nada
will remind you of the harder punk songs that Sublime did.
I see these boys sitting in San Miguel writing songs. “Let’s
start a punk rock band… Dude-man that’s a great
idea! Pass the beer, man.” And these partiers have the
audacity to write about how girls who sleep around and get
diseases are the best lay. Check it out if you have money
to waste. Oie!
Erin Chatelain |
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Janiva Magness
Bury Him At The Crossroads
(Northern Blues Records)
B+
Website: www.janivamagness.com
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Los Angeles-based
blues-belter Janiva Magness bonked into roots-rockin’
Canadian homeboy Colin Linden at yet another music festival
north of the 49th, leading them to eventually hook up to record
what became the very fine Bury Him At The Crossroads. Magness
has been around the block, you might say; she has had numerous
awards pitched at her for doing good blues work over the course
of her last five albums for various labels. Her latest testament
throws back to the wall-shaking blast of late-night L.A. blues
clubs — places where Magness toils regularly. Linden
plays mean and moody guitar and with an ace support band has
created a minor masterpiece of an album that gives Magness
a perfect musical base from which to wail, croon and shout
freely. Contemporary blues albums rarely get much better than
this.
Jeff Monk |
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Electric
Frankenstein/El Nada
Electric Frankenstein meets El Nada
(Finger Records)
B
Website: www.electricfrankenstein.com
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This short split EP
featuring Electric Frankenstein and El Nada is a very rock-filled
album. Releasing punk rock tunes every once in a while, Electric
Frankenstein leans more towards rock ’n’ roll
with a screaming, frustrated singer — they remind me
of ’80s bands such as Nelson or Def Leppard. Carnies
will be playing this album loudly as you get on the Rocko-plane.
EF checks out after 12 minutes and El Nada breaks in to finish
of the set. What’s cool about this split is that the
bands decided to write lyrics for each other’s songs.
All the lyrics in the El Nada songs were written by Electric
Frankenstein and vice versa. It seemed to have worked out,
because without El Nada’s crude lyrics EF actually sounds
like a tight punk rock band singing about normal things such
as not wanting to go to school. Let’s surf!
Erin Chatelain |
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River City Rebels
Hate to be Loved
(Victory Records)
B-
Website: www.rivercityrebels.com
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Ah, the cover features
a trio of heads gathered around the crotch of frontman Bopper
— this oughta be a real great listen. No seriously,
despite the Rebels’ attempts to be dumbasses, the Vermont-based
band actually succeeds in producing a great mix of retro rock
(as in ’50s or ’60s) mixed with old school punk
and some horns. Whatever the hell that mix is called, it’s
a whole lotta fun. This is raucous music to party to, and
perhaps it’s because these guys look like four Robert
Smiths and three Village People that Hate to be Loved is so
unrestrained. Bopper’s vocals are delivered with Mick
Jagger pomp and enunciation (lack thereof), and Chuck Berry
riffs and shouted punk backing vocals fill the speakers. Check
out Cloudy Times and the title track — and try not to
dance.
Mike Warkentin |
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The
Marble Index
The Marble Index
(Death of Records)
B+
Website: www.themarbleindex.com
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Taking their name
from an album by Nico, this Hamilton, Ont., three-piece claims
to play something called “millennium punk.” So
what the hell is that? Well, think of Radiohead done lo-fi
and with more energy. This is really an engaging effort —
not slow enough to lose momentum but still dreamy enough to
create atmosphere. And that’s the best part of this
album: Songs drift around on the vocals of Brad Germain before
diving into energetic instrumentation (check out We Can Make
It for an example). This trio can layer tracks to create more
depth but always maintains a stripped sound that lends itself
well to the material. Standout tracks include I Believe and
On the Phone, the latter of which features neat-o Lou Reed
jangly guitars and layered vocals. So this is millennium punk
— pretty cool, indeed.
Mike Warkentin |
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Paul
Westerberg
Folker
Vagrant
A
Website: www.vagrant.com
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At last. After a few
scuffling years of inconsistent albums, both under his real
name and as the enigmatic Grandpaboy, everybody’s favourite
rock ’n’ roll (well, mine anyway) anti-hero has
finally put together a full-length unit which captures all
his ragged glory. Part of this glory lies in Paul’s
penchant for defiantly giving the finger to the world, as
he does with this album title and the disc’s first track,
Jingle, a smarmy take on modern music marketing. The flipside
is Westerberg’s ability to write some of the best heart-on-his-sleeve
songs you’ve ever heard, full of aching love, unadorned
sentiment and remorseful regret. Now I Wonder and My Dad are
two of his best outings in a decade. Add in his talent for
creating and revering the kind of shambolic outlaw that he
actually is, as in $100 Groom, and it’s no wonder we
love Paul the best.
John Kendle
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