Tsar Bomba by Bride
Bride’s last album, and what an album it is! It pulls sounds from throughout the history of the band creating a new sound. It’s one of the most dynamic and raw albums these veterans of rock have released, a very live feel to this album, but there is a lot of great studio moments all over the record. The opener “Industrial Christ” hits you hard right away with the heavy grooves Troy Thompson is known for. “All We Are” takes you places you weren’t expecting to go to during the solo section, grinding hard rock into classic British metal – fantastic. “Love Shine” reminds me of the heavier parts of Bride’s overlooked Oddities album, also has a great solo section. “We Are Together” is a little reggae/rock mesh up with a catchy sing along chorus. “Never” and “Separate” are two of my favorites, changing from a melodic alternative to some of the heaviest riffs on the album. “Nothing Means Anything To Me”, “Look In My Head” and “Last Thing That I Feel” are classic Bride. “Downward” is one of the best ballads these guys have ever recorded. “When I Was A Kid” is a happy number with a kickin’ AC/DC vibe. “We Are The People” closes the album much like it opened, HEAVY! All this is padded with some amazing classical acoustic numbers performed by guitarist Steve Osbourne including an acoustic instrumental of Queens “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Awesome bass playing from Glenn Watts – very in the pocket. Jerry McBroom, amazing drummer, my favorite for this band. Dale hits the lyrics deep, hard, and spiritual as always. Bride’s been around a long time, so if you’re a fan, this is for you, you’ll love it beginning to end! If you’ve never checked Bride out… well there’s a lot of material to check out, this might be a good place to start and back track… it’s all good.
While Rome Is Burning by While Rome Is Burning
While Rome Is Burning is another project from the multi-talented Rick McDonough. His partner in this band is Peter Kusek, who also plays with a great group called the Sad Accordions. The MySpace for While Rome Is Burning has been the only place to check out songs up until now and this little gem has been well worth the wait. This recording is a beautiful landscape of sonic textures and sounds, complimented by the vocals that deliver a poetic response to the listener. This is another great recording in the ever expanding arsenal of Rick McDonough’s work which has a standard of quality and uniqueness with each offering. Definitely give this one a try, and also check out Rick’s solo project Hidden From Blackout if you enjoy this record!
http://whileromeisburning.bandcamp.com/
http://www.myspace.com/whileromeisburning
http://www.myspace.com/thesadaccordions
http://www.myspace.com/hiddenfromblackout
http://hiddenfromblackout.bandcamp.com/
http://www.hiddenfromblackout.com/
http://rickmcdonoughphotography.blogspot.com/
The Shawl by Doug Burr
The Shawl finds Doug Burr setting Biblical Psalms to music. Now, before you skip to the next review and write this off as some cheesy kid’s lullaby muzak or even some peppy youth group praise album that wants to make you all “happy in Jesus” – hold on a second. This is a serious attempt to capture the full range of emotions covered in the Psalms. Sadness and grief are just as prominent as hope and joy. “I Am Weary With My Singing” sits next to “Surely God is Good to Israel.” This is not rah-rah “look at my very real fake smile here” kind of music. The joy expressed here is earned after wrestling with the struggles of life. This is true worship, in a sense.
The music behind the words is sparse, acoustic, and melancholy. The Shawl was actually recorded in the building that you see on the front cover. It is almost as if that old building impressed it’s weighty history on each breath of Burrs – every note and vocal inflection are filled with a certain depth that you normally don’t get in most albums containing so much holy scripture.
Doug Burr is accompanied by a whole slew of musicians that play all of the istruments you have come to expect from Amerciana/folk music. This release has been around for a while, but pick it up if you haven’t.
[2008 Velvet Blue Music | Purchase: VelvetBlueMusic.com]PTSD by L.S. Underground
This release was soooooo well worth the wait for me! I think this is the best LS Underground to date! Michael Knott is not only forerunner in the alternative scene, he is about as progressive as they come in terms of new, fresh and original material (remember Struck Last May). This disc finds new blood infused into the band with stellar playing by Josh Lory, Rick McDonough, Matt Biggers, Daniel Sonners, Casey James Prestwood, Jim Chaffin and the return of Brian Doidge… whew! This was a huge effort with many top notch musicians and it shows through and through. Knott has crafted this as another concept album, one that deals with the issue of PTSD and what troops encounter as they return home from the battlefield. The one thing that really struck me about this album was how well the music flows in conjunction with the lyrics. The music here tells a story as well. There are surprising gems here like the remake of “Shaded Pain,” done here acoustically and called “A Shade Of Pain.” This is a must have for any fan of Knott!
For a hard copy: Send money through PayPal to gerardartwork@yahoo.com ($15 in US, $17 out of US shipping included)
For a digital copy – http://lsunderground.bandcamp.com/
[2010 Independent | Purchase: MySpace.com]Strum Sum Up by dUg Pinnick
dUg Pinnick’s last solo release Strum Sum Up is a heavy, heartfelt rocking good time! I am as much a fan of Pinnick’s solo material as I am of the Kings X band efforts. In many ways they are stylistically the same, but Strum Sum Up has a crisper heaviness to it. The thing that dUg does so well is that thick funky bass groove that he lays down just underneath the guitars in many songs, but then in songs like “Coming Over” that funka funka thumpa thumpa is the vehicle that drives the song. Lyrically my favorite track here was the opener “Perfect World Part 1,” which deals with the fact that we are all living under the same sun, dealing with the same junk, and no one is any different from the next person.… dUg does not confess Christianity, but thematically the lyrics here could be a very well crafted “for all have sinned” type song, and it works well. Pick this one up and play at maximum volume! Headphones are recommended 🙂
DTL Live Report U2 10-12-2009
Finally – my first U2 concert. I have always lived too far away to make it to any previous U2 tours. But when they started building Jerry Jones’ Mothership (aka The Dallas Cowboys Stadium) around the corner from where I work – I only had one thought: when U2 tours, they are going to stop there. I just knew it was going to happen, and sure enough, my speculation proved to be true. And thanks to having an uber-U2 fan for a friend and a glitch in the Ticketmaster system, I was able to get floor seats before most fan club members could snatch them all up.
The opening act for the night was Muse. I really like Muse’s albums, but I can’t really say if they are good in concert. The mix for their set wasn’t good, and I couldn’t see thanks to some drunk Muse fans that shoved us out of the way to get a better view. They were fans, they told us. Now, I am not a short person, so if I can’t see the stage because some dipstick in front of me is acting like a fool, then you know they were pretty drunk.
I forgot to mention that we did get a good spot on the floor, about 3 rows back from the outer stage ring. So, once U2 came on – we got some up close views of everyone in the band. The mix got better for U2, but I have heard it was pretty bad in the upper sections. All that money sunk into a state-of-the-art stadium, and they can’t eve get basic acoustics down.
U2 know how to put on a great show. Whoever designed their stage deserves an award – that thing was huge and awesome. It had this ring made of hundreds of widescreen TVs that were strung together to be a 360 degree widescreen. But during some songs, they actually all expanded away from each other in this cone shape that was, well – really cool, but hard to describe… see the pics.
The set lists from this tour are all over the net. I thought it was a good mix of older and newer songs. I was a little disappointed that they left out my favorite U2 song: “Pride (In the Name of Love)”. But they did play “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, so that made up for it. It was almost insane how comfortable u2 is in front of such a large crowd. They loved it as much as we did.
Bono preached less than I expected, but still made several good points about helping the world. The Edge rocked like the guitar god he is. Adam loved to strike some of coolest poses with a bass I have ever seen. Larry even got out from behind the drum kit and walked around with a handheld drum during a remix of “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy tonight.” Yep – it was a remix version. How many bands as big as U2 do you know that will let other people remix their songs and then play one of those remixes in concert? That just shows that U2 aren’t as full of themselves as they pretend to be sometimes.
Book Review: And Yet You Continue To Provoke The Night by Shawn Ness
And Yet You Continue To Provoke The Night is a book of poetry that my friend Shawn Ness has put together. It was something that Shawn decided to do for the Joslyn and Lowrie families after their tragic loss on the night of 10-24-2004. All of the royalties of this book will go to the families… families that Shawn has actually never met or spoken with. This book is a journey on many levels: it is personal, productive, painful, and proactive. Shawn is a great poet and has the ability to really express and get in touch with the feelings that many of us probably feel, but cannot express. Shawn has the unique gift of expressing these feelings, and turning them into a work of art.
The book is split into 3 separate chapters. The first is called “Within” and in the author’s words are best described as, “The darkness of pain. Poems that are not sugar-coated, they are the bare naked truth of the internal struggle and sadness that only we can know, alone in our darkest hour, when we feel so very far away from everything.” Chapter 2 bears the title of the book “And Yet You Continue To Provoke The Night”. These are poems specifically dedicated to Nicole Joslyn and Alan Lowrie. The third, and final chapter, is called The Daily Grind. These are some of the best that Shawn has done on a daily basis.
If you are a poetry buff, this is a great book for a worthy cause. If you know someone who likes poetry and expressing their art through words, grab this one and support a worthy endeavor. The website to check this out is www.journeyto1000.org and to buy copies of the book you can go to www.createspace.com/3394151
Book Review: God’s Not Dead (And Neither Are We) by Jerry Wilson
If you are reading this magazine, then you need to get this book. Don’t give me any ‘buts’ or ‘whys’ – just go get the book. All done? Good. Since you have to order it online, I will go ahead and tell you a little bit about the book you are about to get. Because you did go buy it, right?
The basic summary of this book is that a long line of musicians from some of Christian alternative’s foundational bands tell their stories. The good, the bad, and the crazy are all recorded here. They tell where they have been and where they are now. They talk about the mistakes they made, the ways they were screwed by others, and the good memories they have of their musical days. Some of them are still at it, but most have moved on to something else.
What I like about this book is that Jerry Wilson gives a fair treatment to everything that he touches on. Musicians are not encouraged to pretend like everything was happy-Jesus-rosy in their careers, but they also don’t seem forced to sling mud at every corner. People just tell their story and the good and bad all shake out. In fact, in a few places where particularly harsh (but probably true) criticism is leveled at former record company executives, Wilson alos gives their side of the story.
The list of interviewees is extensive: Bill Walden (Undercover), Caesar Kalinowski, Chris Duke (Crumbächer), Dan Hohulin (Crumbächer), Dawn Wisner-Johnson (Crumbächer), Derri Daugherty (The Choir, Lost Dogs), Gary Olson (Undercover), Glenn Holland (4-4-1), Jeff Crandall (Altar Boys), Jim Nicholson (Undercover), Jim Wisner (Crumbächer), Joe (Ojo) Taylor (Undercover), John McNamara (4-4-1), Kemper Crabb, Kris Klingensmith (Barnabas), Marie McGilvray, Mick Donner (Barnabas), Mike Roe (The 77s, Lost Dogs), Mike Stand (Altar Boys), Nancyjo Mann (Barnabas), Sean Doty (Veil Of Ashes), Steve Crumbächer, Steve Hindalong (The Choir, Lost Dogs), Steve Taylor, and Terry Taylor (Daniel Amos, Lost Dogs). Whew! I found the Kalinowski and McGilvray interviews particularly intriguing, as they offered record label perspectives (proving that not all people working for the labels are evil). But every chapter had interesting tales in them.
I also know from reading comments here and there that some interviews weren’t completed by the time the book was sent to the printer. So there is more to be said by more people. Hopefully, there will be enough interest in this book to spark a part two, or at least an expanded version.
[2009 Book Surge | Purchase: Amazon.com]Punk Sounds by The Huntingtons
I saw these guys at the first TomFest and they blew me away! I got to hang out with them, we talked a lot about the Ramones, in fact I saw the Ramones in San Francisco the same night I started my drive to Tomfest! I’ve seen and heard many bands in what’s been dubbed “Ramones-core” and nobody is as good as the Huntingtons. The reason, well it’s all about the playing, the super fast down stroke on the guitar, playing bass with the same speed an octave up, the one handed 8th and 16th beat on a closed high hat, and the ever moving, almost military, kick patterns. Everyone rips on the Ramones until they try to play Ramones songs the proper way, it’s very difficult, the Huntingtons can do it. As I started this review I discovered that there are two versions of the album, a 13 song, and the iTunes 18 song version. What I did was download the 18 song iTunes version, then went to Amazon and downloaded the three songs that are on the 13 song version that are not on the 18 song version, thus forming a mega 21 song version, confused yet? Oh yeah, it’s also available on CD.
Here’s the rundown of the album, it’s a collection of B-Sides and rare cuts, the 3 songs I downloaded from Amazon were “I Don’t Like It”, “Not By You”, and “It’s Always Christmas At My House”. Six of the songs are rarities from the indie release All That Stuff And More Vol.1 (which I don’t have, so this is release is good). Much of the material was from unfinished recordings from the classic Get Lost album sessions. Four Ramones covers that are not on the File Under Ramones album. Two new songs, “Why Should I Dream” and “Don’t Pick On Me”. I know a few of the songs were also previously released on random comps and such, the hard core fans will know. Punk Sounds is such a solid collection of songs, it’s one of my favorite releases from this band. Along with this release High School Rock has been re-mastered and added bonus tracks, so check that out.
A bit of info: Jeannie Pierce was diagnosed with stage 3 Brain Cancer on May 2nd, 2006. She has had three brain surgeries thus far and has limited use of the left side of her body. Long time Huntingtons fans will recognize the name Jeannie from the song Jeannie Hates The Ramones. Jeannie is the wife of original Huntingtons drummer, Mike Pierce (aka Mikee Huntington). To show love and support for Mikee and to raise money to help his family during this most difficult of times, all the proceeds made from this album will go to her treatment.
[2009 Steinhaus | Purchase: Amazon.com]Pillar of Salt by Kissing Cousins
Kissing Cousins first full length Pillar Of Salt is as haunting as it is beautiful. This release is full of breath-y (is that a word?) vocals and dark, brooding, majestic music. If you have their EP’s already, you will be very pleased with this full length. Pillar Of Salt is a culmination of a band that has really honed their skills and talents over the last few years. The music here is probably best described as indie rock or college rock. The use of the flute is what is most striking to me, I don’t think that I have ever heard a flute used in music like this, but it works amazingly well. Check out their MySpace page to listen to some tunes, but definitely purchase the record – which is available in vinyl and CD. This five piece all-girl band is a welcomed addition to any collection and reminds me of a healthy mix of Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, Babes In Toyland and rainy, chilly walks downtown under the moonlight… perfect!