Whatever album post-Dead Kennedys I have received that has been released by Jello Biafra showcases extremely long songs which sometimes push my patience (Timor Circus, I’m looking at you specifically). Jello has given up the punk fury of the past and moved into a way more kosher with rock and metal, all while still keeping the tremendous political content of the past. The first track on “Never Breathe” showcases memorable…
Prior to this recording, pretty much the only acoustic fifteen / Jeff Ott track I listened to was the acoustic version of “Welcome to Berkeley”, which has been reproduced to a t on this double-disc CD. While I was a big fan of “Welcome to Berkeley”, I was a little weary at some of the beginning tracks that are found on the first CD of this set, specifically the title…
The music created by Jed & Lucia is very sedate, and Jed’s vocals at the onset of ‘World on Fire” are of a level that Cat Stevens would be proud. There is not much in the way of instrumentation during this first track, but the harmonies that the two make during the track more than make up for that overset, whether planned or not. Having one of the disc’s longest…
“Combat Zone Girl” shows that JDJ is a big fan of individuals like Mick Jagger. This is not the punk music that was expected from eir previous act, The Destroyed, but rather JDJ’s thought about what rock music should be. This style comes back for “Cream My Dream”, to the degree that JDJ’s vocals are done at the same level, the same loudness, and honestly feel as if JDJ was…
The vocals of Hayley really obscure some of the best instrumentation that Paramore can muster, especially when the band opens the disc with their “All We Know”. What is most interesting about “All We Know” are the almost-perfectly sequenced drums of Zac on the track, which are so impeccable that individuals will think that a computer created them. When Paramore creates tracks like “Pressure”, one knows that they cannot be…
Pretty much what I thought, Jarboe’s style of pseudo-goth/electronic sound sounds a little dated in the fourteen years since this album first came out. However, when compared to some of the other goth-esque music from the period, Jarboe seems a fresh as a newly-created corpse. Some of the reversed instrumentation on “Red” provides a perfect backdrop for the heavenly tones of Jarboe’s voice. The sultry vocals of Jarboe’s present on…
Boy, has Jarboe been on a cleaning spree the last year, clearing our eir closet of practically all the demos and music that have been left to the wayside in the last fifteen years? Starting out the CD with “Song For Dead Time”, Jarboe’s pop-mentality allows this gothic-tinged track to soar above the fray, using ethereal vocals and continual piano lines to make for a delectable track. Following the delightful…
The cover of “Keep Quiet, They Might Hear Us” is fairly low-key. This low-key look really is perfect for hiding a brand of emo meets rock (think Samiam more than Coheed here), and really allows The January Taxi to hit the gates running. “Star Light The Sun” drops the vocal focus of the previous track for a more compelling brand of arrangements that, even in its guitar-heavy state is able…
The instrumental interlude that starts off “Like Cold Rain Kills a Summer Day” is something that I would never recommend a band to do. The minute of instrumental opening feels like eons whenever an act does it. Start from a 0 level, but don’t let a few minutes go by before kicking into the disc. Still, even with this early black mark against the band, Janez Detd is able to…
Janeska sings in a style that has manifested itself through much of dance culture, outwardly sounding like Jennifer Lopez and Gwen Stefani. To couch tracks like “On Your Knees” as anything besides feel-good music would be mis-contextualize Janeska. While “Moonlight” uses a much slower tempo for its backing beat, the same pop-pandering style is put forth by Janeska. Here might be a hint of techno present in the track, but…
Individuals who have any access to outside musical sources (whether they be popular radio or music video stations) have at least some idea who Jane’s Addiction were. Practically any discussion about the nineties will have a section about the band (or their biggest hit, “Been Caught Stealing”) due to the effect that the band has had on individuals and bands both contemporary and current. The fact that there had not…
Transcendent of any musical genre, Jane’s sophomore release begins with “Never Thought It Was Love”, a country meets Sheryl Crow-type of romp, which moves into the much more electronically-infused “Place To Find You”. Instead of overdoing it with the synthesizer lines in the aforementioned track, Jane is able to chart eirself as a more sedate alternative to Madonna. “Place To Find You” is a more sedate, nineties-themed dance track. The…
Coming off as a less Christian Crystal Lewis, Jane performs a very innocuous type of pop music that owes more to The Carpenters and Shania Twain than Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. While Jane does play acoustic guitar, another ten people join into the mix, but each individual (at least those who play instruments) sounds more like a program function of Cakewalk than an actual human being. Take the five-minute…
To be honest, it took me a few minutes to truly get into the type of music that Jaks played. By the time that the track “Damn Bloodsucker” started up, I knew that I would be a fan of their dance-noise style. The ever-present bass lines (which provide a groove all their own) and the Primus-like arrangement of “Dumbwaiter” show a band that liked to experiment with the boundaries of…
The Jai-Alai Savant’s “Thunderstatement” gives listeners the same general feeling as if they happened on a seventies rock band’s album that has been lost for the last thirty or so years. During tracks like “Scarlett Johansson, Why Don’t You Love Me”, the band’s music really comes forth as if it was born directly from the arena rock era. The band moves up a few years to the Police-sounding title-track. Where…
I thought when “Banned In America” started that Jade would be creating something that was an Avril clone. Don’t get me wrong, the vocal style of Jade is still something that is pop-based, but the backing instrumentation is something that is much more heavy and rock-based. This puts Jade in the position of being another Amy lee. The vocal style gives me more of a Celine Dion feel, so the…
“I Am The Light” starts off in a much different vein than the following tracks would indicate. This is because “Jaxbac” is a purely vocal track that rivals (but does not emulate) throat-singing, while both “Blood Doesn’t Lie” and “Nowhere To Land” approach the industrial, early-nineties goth sound without abandon. The music on tracks like “I Am The Light” seem to be drawn from the Middle Eastern tradition of music,…
Aside from the wonderful new-plastic smell of the CD booklet, Ivy’s Butterfly strikes me at the beginning of their CD for another reason : the rich layering of vocals and the guitars unafraid to be both explorative and to rock out. Ivy’s Butterfly also provides me with a slight problem, as with Go Rimbaud, the sheer work they do on each track renders it virtually impossible to assign a generally-acceptable…
The dreamy pop of Ivy is cultured, having been refined for the last decade over four albums. The music that starts off the disc, especially “Nothing But The Sky”, does not cut as deep as it could. Everything seems to traverse the same narrow swath during the 5:12 of the track, ultimately leaving a certain hollowness and lack of depth that plagues the band throughout the disc. “Thinking About You”…
Okay, so I went into It Dies Today’s “Sirens” pretty negatively. The first verse of the first song had me making my “Eww, all yelling metal crap.” But, you guys won me back over. The growls and yelling were used tastefully, backed by vocals I actually quite enjoy. And the yelling is pretty unique; I can still make out all the lyrics. “A Port in Any Storm” actually had some…