Prince - 20Ten (2010)

Few have had as prolific, as storied, and as inconsistent careers as Prince. The Artist is widely considered a genius for his classic works of pop music, but he's delved into just about everything at some point. Being intensely experimental is something that comes hand in hand with being a genius. The flip side of that, however, is that it leads to many duds that mar a career. While we can look back and say with certainty that Purple Rain and Sign o' the Times will stand up to the test of time, remaining classics over twenty years on, the fate of albums such as The Rainbow Children are less clear. Some would call these duds a late career slump, but in Prince's case it's more a lack of editing.

After the infamous name-change-to-an-unpronouncable-symbol incident and Prince's subsequent freedom from record labels, quality control went out the window. It should come as no surprise that things Prince just wasn't able to do before started appearing on record store shelves and not all those things were up to the standards of what a record label would allow him to put out. It's been a long road since then and Prince has been up and down continually. From his expansive three CD set Emancipation celebrating his hard won freedom to the horrific vault compilation Crystal Ball that screwed his fans royally to the attempt at a commercial comeback with Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic that fell flat on its face critically and commercially to his official commercial comeback Musicology.

Since Musicology, it's been mostly an up period, aside from the odd misstep of last year's LotusFlow3r/MPL_Sound/Elixer set. Priced very fairly but ruined by Prince's excess once again, it ended up being two CDs of sub-par Prince material and one of what amounts to history repeating itself, with Prince writing another album for another girl who probably shouldn't be singing. It's best if we forget Elixer like we forgot the album he wrote for Carmen Electra. Suffice it to say, the whole thing was just bad. It had hints of Prince's usual brilliance, as well as a welcome return to a more retro sound, reflecting Prince of the 1980's more and more, but the songwriting wasn't all there.

Thankfully, 20Ten, Prince's latest work, avoids the problems that album had but keeps all the good aspects. The 80's Prince vibe is still here in full force, with synths and 808's straight out of Sign o' the Times. The length is no longer a problem as it runs a comfortable forty minutes. Most of all though, 20Ten is successful because Prince is in vintage form. LotusFlow3r showed you could strap a guitar on Prince's back and it wouldn't necessarily produce great music, while MPL_Sound proved the same for those keyboards and drum machines. Prince has to be in vintage writing form to match the vintage sound for it to truly be successful. That is the winning formula for 20Ten.

It features a funky dance pop sound recalling a mix of Sign o' the Times and 1999. It breaks no new ground, but no one really wants Prince to break ground anymore. We want him to play the classics and make new songs that sound like the classics. Prince has finally produced the album we've been waiting for. He's finally throwing a bone to us long-suffering fans that still gave him a chance even through abominable jazz fusion experiments like NEWS, while pleasing all those that denied him through these years. It's the sort of Prince album that will appeal to most anyone that enjoys his music. The lyrics aren't all there, at one point Prince declaring "from the heart of Minnesota, here come the purple Yoda," though there's much less focus on his Jehovah's witness bullshit than is usual as of late. It mostly focuses on his favorite subjects: sexuality and sensuality, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

The important part is that the songs will fulfill all your funky summer jam needs. Back in the day, songs like "Let's Work," "When You Were Mine," "Play in the Sunshine," etc. would come out every summer and make everyone happy and make them dance. Those days were gone for a long time and seemingly with this album they're back again. Rejoice Prince fans, the artist is taking a backseat to the genius popmeister once again. (A-)

Wavves - King of the Beach (2010)

[Ed. Note: I was going to hold off on putting this up until I had enough album reviews for a whole album review post, but in light of my dear friends Pitchfork giving it their "coveted" Best New Music today and an 8.4 rating, I'm putting it up now.]

Wavves - King of the Beach (2010)



Every single time a new Wavves record comes out, I try it. I'm not sure why, I just keep feeling like I'm missing something. I inevitably listen and then I hate everything about what I'm hearing. King of the Beach is a vastly different album from previous Wavves works and shows a lot of musical growth on the part of frontman Nathan Williams. The intrinsic problem of course is that the band still isn't good. The essential difference between this album and the last Wavves album is that apparently at some point Williams got really into Animal Collective. His adaption of that influence into his already bad music doesn't make it much better. It's just different, not better. Occasionally he stumbles upon a good pop hook such as in the absolute highlight of his career to date, "Take On the Word," but generally it's just what the title would lead you to expect. It is the shitty soundtrack to your summer surfing experience. But if you don't surf or smoke weed or live on the beach or wear board shorts or say "brah" or you are not Matthew McConaughey, it's just bad punk flirting with pretentious spaced out intellectualism. (D)

REPRINT SERIES: sIngs, Somosuno and more (3/12/10)

[Ed. Note: Presented, as always, without edits in the original form I wrote it. Better, worse? You decide.]

On one of the odder days of my life, I somehow ended up at a place colloquially known as "The Ponderosa" seeing some local bands on Friday night. It's a long story of getting lost in Houston that led to me ending up there, I had actually been intending to go to the Fat Tony show at the Tipping Point that night, but I'll spare the details and get on with the bands.

First up to bat was the psychotically punk Somosuno. It was frontman Fernando Alejandro's 21st birthday and he was typically on fire, dancing through the crowd in the tiny, cramped room, crowd surfing, jumping off anything in sight, and shouting/rapping Spanish lyrics at a ridiculous pace that pretty much blew my mind. The rest of the band dutifully backed him up, holding down the rhythm with post-Fugazi riffage and a horn player for texture. Having only seen their name on bills of shows I didn't attend, it was a welcome surprise to find out how good they were.

When I asked when they were going to play, sIngs told me they preferred to go on second, and true to their word they were the middle band of the night. I have actually seen sIngs before, opening for Cursive at Walter's on Washington last year, but they started playing before Walter's would let anybody in the building so I only got to see about half of their set. What I heard then was a tremendous slice of shoegazing noisey post-rock soaked in enough distortion and feedback to destroy your eardrums even with earplugs in. Suffice it to say, I loved it.

They were just as good on Friday night too, covering mostly the same territory as the last time I saw them. I never got to see them when it was just singer/guitarist/drummer/band mastermind Brett Taylor playing on his own, so I can't compare it to that, though I've heard that was amazing as well. With the full band though, Taylor, accompanied by Buxton alumni Jason Willis on guitar and Justin Terrell on drums, as well as David Ibarra on bass, is able to do so much more, including making a lot more noise. There's an odd beauty in the cacophony, which can probably be attributed to the melodic songwriting piercing through the dissonance. I'm anxiously awaiting the release of their album, which they're having a release party for at Mango's on April 17th. Try to make that show if you can, it should be awesome.

Caddywhompus played last. I've had their demos since last summer, which probably marks the longest time for me between hearing a local band's music and seeing them perform. The band is only made up of the duo of scene vet Chris Rehm on guitar/vocals and Sean Hart, yet they're loud enough for a ten-piece band. Like sIngs, they make a great deal of noise, but it's pure lo-fi punk in the vein of bands like No Age. In the live setting their songs lost some of their clarity, as well as the synthesizer parts on the album, but it was just as much of a fun, raucous show as I expected. They're going to have a split 7" release with sIngs coming out soon so be on the lookout for that.

Despite the bizarre way my night started, which included accidentally wandering into DiverseWorks Fotofest 2010 among other things, it was fortunate that I ended up at "The Ponderosa" as it was probably the most fun local show I've been to in a while. All three bands performed like their lives depended on making this show rock and rock they did. I left with my ears ringing and I couldn't have been happier about it.

How to Destroy Angels - How to Destroy Angels (2010)

In my angst-ridden teenage years, Trent Reznor was my hero. His songs were like totally about me and my relationships and my pain and my depression and blah blah blah. Everybody had that band in those years. Nine Inch Nails was that band for me. I still admire a lot of what Trent did musically too. When you look back on an album like 1999's The Fragile, you can put aside Reznor's angst-ridden lyrics and focus on the music which is actually damned impressive. The melding of industrial metal with hip-hop beats on that album is a stroke of genius. But since Reznor got clean, he's been stagnating. That's an old music industry cliche, but it's pretty much true in his case.

After The Fragile, his masterpiece and defining work in my opinion, NIN put out an incredible live album accompanied with a bonus disc of some impressive stripped down re-recordings of old NIN songs plus some new almost ambient post-rock sounding instrumental songs, which The Fragile had already somewhat hinted at but hadn't brought to fruition like Still (the aforementioned bonus disc) did. Then Reznor went into rehab. When he came out, he went from skinny long-haired gothy heroin addict to cleaned up muscled out shaved head bro. His music became more simplistic than it had been in years and his lyrics became, well, garbage. Even if you didn't like them before, they were honest. On With Teeth, the lyrics were completely hollow, reflecting the pure lack of angst in Reznor's life after getting clean. He could fake it well enough, but this was the weakest Nine Inch Nails release ever.

As if realizing that, Reznor shifted his focus and his sound on the follow-up. Year Zero was preceded by an elaborate game with mysterious websites showing up on the web and USB drives with songs turning up in bathrooms at Nine Inch Nails shows. It was a dramatic comeback, with Reznor's angst instead focusing on a bleak, Orwellian future he made up. It gave him new inspiration and it led to one of the best Nine Inch Nails albums ever. But afterwards, he stagnated again. Bush was almost out of office, the tide was turning, and his fictional future wasn't so much a certain thing anymore.

Stripped of his newfound inspiration, Reznor's music took some strange turns. The first NIN release we heard after Year Zero was a four disc album of instrumentals which followed up on that ambient instrumental sound I mentioned before that he had already explored on The Fragile and Still. However, he did it to much greater effect on those albums. Ghosts ended up being an aimless "look what I can do with these pedals" project and was quickly overlooked. Then came The Slip, a follow-up of sorts to Year Zero lyrically and artistically, but sounding more like a melding of Year Zero and With Teeth and ultimately just being a disappointment. It was a mediocre EP and it was sadly the last thing NIN released before Reznor decided to pull the plug on the floundering project, after a lengthy farewell tour.

That was what happened to Nine Inch Nails in the aughts. But it's 2010 now, a new decade. Where is Reznor now? Where is Nine Inch Nails now? Well, around the demise of Nine inch Nails last year, Reznor got married, and yes, she's a singer. So what happened to Nine Inch Nails? It changed its name and became How to Destroy Angels, featuring Reznor, long-time Nine Inch Nails collaborator Atticus Ross, and, of course, Reznor's new wife Mariqueen Maandig. The result is essentially a repeat of the last Nine Inch Nails EP, The Slip, but with Mariqueen singing instead of Reznor. To call it a disappointment is an understatement.

For a year after Nine Inch Nails was effectively killed, Reznor hyped the various studio projects he was working on. We got teased about a possible soundtrack for a Tetsuo movie (turned out to be one song), we got teased with a possible Gary Numan collaboration, we got teased a follow-up to Ghosts, we even got teased with a new Nine Inch Nails album (because Reznor only really wanted to kill the live entity of Nine Inch Nails). What we got instead was Reznor's Yoko Onoing. So happy and in love is Reznor that he's now writing the same stale music he's been writing for the past few years but now it's designed for his wife to sing on instead. Gag me. She's not a bad singer and Reznor isn't a bad songwriter, but this sound has been done to death in recent years. If not on The Slip, then look back a few albums. The opening of "Fur Lined" is straight out of the minor With Teeth hit "Only" and all the noisy distorted guitars have lined every Reznor work of the last decade. It's not that this is bad music, it's just unoriginal. It sounds like Reznor wrote it in his sleep. Furthermore, there's really nothing that Maandig singing adds to the mix. Reznor could be singing over this and we could call it a new Nine Inch Nails EP. It would be just as disappointing, but it would be less misleading. In fact, you could tell me that Reznor used a computer to make his voice sound like a woman and I would believe it. That is the extent to which Maandig contributes and that is to say that she contributes nothing. This is pure self-indulgence by Reznor.

I'm happy for him that he's happy with his wife, but my advice to him would be to quit pandering to her desire to sing on his music, quit putting out the same album over and over again, and maybe try a little experimentation. It's not going to hurt his career to think outside the box, he's giving all this away for free on the internet and he knows we'd just steal it if he did try to do a conventional release. In general, artists tend to try new things when finally free of record labels but apparently marriage (and pending fatherhood) have stripped Reznor of his experimental desires. Well, it's a new decade and I suppose this is the one where Reznor finally slips into a comfortable sound that he can keep churning out to a dwindling fanbase for the rest of his career. You'll always have your diehards that will eat up anything that sounds like Nine Inch Nails but I personally want a little more than the same old Trent. I know what he can do when he pushes himself and that's what I'm looking for. This is the farthest thing from him pushing himself. (D)

REPRINT SERIES: Houston Peace Festival 3/6/10

(Ed. Note: Here's the second in our 29-95 reprints series. This one is presented in its unedited form and it's quite different. Better, worse? You decide.)

The fourth annual Houston Peace Festival was held at Live Oak Friends Meeting on Saturday afternoon. A festival of art, activism, dancing, music, and hippie principles like love and harmony. Not a bad concept, though not quit Woodstock or Burning Man in execution. I mostly went for the bands personally and this is an article about my musical discoveries in Houston, so I won't spend a whole lot of time on the rest of the events. However, before I jump into the music, I do want to shout out some of the good causes involved in the whole thing.

Of course there was good old KPFT sponsoring the event, giving out flyers out for their upcoming 40th anniversary bash at McGonigel's Mucky Duck. That's March 14th, from noon to 8:00 PM. There was the Montrose Land Defense Coalition who are fighting to convert an abandoned lot on West Alabama and Dunlavy into a park instead of yet another pointless HEB, a cause I personally support. There were vegans pushing their way of life, though that one's a bit too much for me, I've never been able to give up the meat. The Art of Living who will be hosting a Happy Family Workshop ("a Body/Mind/Wellness workshop for every family") at the Student Center at Rice University April 1st to April 4th. Amnesty International and the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty were there to fight the death penalty, among other things. And those are just the ones I still have flyers from, there were many, many more.

On top of all that, there were stands where they were selling jewelry, vegan food, paintings, and all manner of other oddities. Considering it was all hosted in the Live Oak Friends Meeting's relatively small yard, it was a bit of an accomplishment just fitting all that in there.

Anyhow, since this is about the music, I'll discuss the music. The whole thing got started a little after 1:00 PM but I have to admit that I ended getting around to it a little bit late. I made a stop around that time at Cactus Music to catch Cory Chisel's instore performance. Though I don't know much about him, I did enjoy his work on the recent Louisiana Music Factory Preservation Hall compilation, which also had performances by Andrew Bird, Yim Yames, Tom Waits, Ani DiFranco, Merle Haggard, and more on it. It's good stuff, you should check it out of you haven't already. Cory and his band put on a spirited performance in the intimate setting of the store and really impressed me. Basically, if you like any of the artists I just mentioned on that compilation, you'll probably like Cory too. And I'm not just endorsing him because we share a name! I haven't had a chance to check out any of his albums yet, but I will be in the future.

After catching that, I went up to the Peace Festival. After asking around, I apparently missed the Free Radicals and an unnamed band from Dallas. I was somewhat disappointed I missed the Free Radicals as I've wanted to see them for a while, but I'm sure I'll get the chance eventually. After all, at the Peace Fest alone I was able to catch two bands I had missed time and time again and wanted to see. But I'll get to them in a moment.

The first artist I managed to catch was Zachary Ford, an acoustic guitar singer/songwriter from here in Houston. He mixed up originals with a few interesting covers, the most notable of which to me was the odd choice of an Ozzy Osbourne cover. "Dreamer," from Ozzy's 2001 album Down to Earth (why do I know these things off the top of my head?), does have just the right "let's take care of mother earth and love each other forever and ever" sort of hippie lyrics to fit in with the festival, it was just slightly odd to hear a folkster playing an Ozzy song. It worked pretty well though. His originals were nice as well. Ultimately though, it served more as ambience for the rest of the happenings at the festival, his performance didn't really capture the audience's attention like later artists would.

After Zachary Ford, there were a few speakers, one speaking of the importance of Harry Belafonte and another to inspire us with a pro-health care reform chant of "HEY HO NOBODY OUT EVERYBODY IN" ad nauseum. One woman came to sing a song but it was hard to hear her because her mic was turned off for some reason. Then came Tyagaraja whose name seemed to double as the name of the frontman of the band and as the name of the band itself. Tyagaraja played the first part of the set by himself playing acoustic guitar and singing. Notably, he spent the entire peformance sitting indian-style with the mic angled down towards him. The folksy solo songs gave way to a more upbeat, jazzy, soul sort of sound when the rest of the band joined in with him. That material interested me far more than the purely acoustic stylings, so I'm interested to hear the album when it comes out. According to Tyagaraja himself, they're tracking that in the studio right now. As for the name and the content of the lyrics, it seemed to be related to a spiritual and religious conversion of the part of the sort of Buddhistly dressed Tyagaraja, though he didn't speak on it too much, choosing to tell everyone to come talk to him after the show if they had questions about it. I didn't get a chance to, which I have to admit I somewhat regret because it seems like it would've been an interesting story.

To fill the next gap between bands, the Brazilian Arts Foundation took over to do a performance of capoeira fight-dancing. It was somewhat interesting, some were better than others, but the message of the performance, according to the leader of the group, was to bring everyone into their circle and have everyone join in to dance, regardless of their race, religion, social status, etc. It's a good message to preach. I would sign up myself but I'm sadly not gifted with limberness.

The next musical performance was by Much Love, a bluesy pub rock band from Austin. Their slower songs reminded me of John Mayer's "Waiting On the World to Change," which works for those of us who couldn't afford to see him that night. The more upbeat ones, carried by saxophone, had a sort of Huey Lewis and the News feel to it, though less dated to the 80's. This was their first show in Houston and it was a good showing. I'm sure they picked up some new fans that day. In keeping with the hippie theme of the festival, they performed barefoot. I tried that and promptly managed to cut my toe, quickly throwing up a sign that that was maybe a bad idea in what wasn't exactly soft terrain.

Around that time it started to get chilly as the sun went down anyway, so shoes went back on along with the addition of sweaters and coats. More than chilly, once it got dark, it felt like December again. Bearing the cold, I stuck around to see Spain Colored Orange. A band I've followed for a while but haven't managed to see until now, I was pretty excited. They ran through a good set of their songs, though it stuck to mostly the same type of songs instead of displaying the diversity of their album. Trumpet driven rock isn't normally my thing, but there's something oddly very enjoyable about Spain Colored Orange. The audience was really into the music for basically the first time of the day, finally crowding around stage. Some of the younger people really got down, dancing all around at the foot of the stage. It was something of a sight to behold. The bizarre way they danced along to the heavy parts of the songs vaguely reminded me of slam dancing at metal shows. Not the sort of thing you expect for a band with a trumpet.

By the time listenlisten took the stage, it was pretty much freezing. Everyone was starting to complain about it, but myself and a modest crowd stayed to see listenlisten do their thing. I should note that I'm a pretty big fan of listenlisten, but like Spain Colored Orange, I've never been able to see them live before. I have all their recordings though and Hymns From Rhodesia was easily in my top ten last year. So despite the cold, I had a big smile on my face the entire set. My only disappointment was that due to technical difficulties, their set was a bit short. The performances of their suicidal folk ballads were spot on, but it seemed that inbetween every song they were trying to fix the mixing of their sound and they kept switching instruments too. It seemed like they had barely even started when they said they only had two songs left. I called out to them halfway through switching up their instruments for the last time that they needed roadies for this sort of thing. It was said with a laugh, but it's sort of true. They didn't get in nearly as many songs as any of the other artists, mainly because of that. Regardless, what they did manage to perform was just as good as I had expected it to be.

Now I have to abandon any professionalism here. I've seen Electric Attitude before and I'm not that big a fan of what they do. So apologies to them and to their fans, but with the cold and all, I decided I really wanted to go home. It was around 8:00 PM and I had been there since around 2:30 PM so I was really ready to go anyway. I'm sure I'll have the chance to catch them again, unless something crazy happened that I missed like the stage exploding or the band breaking up right then and there. I'll choose to believe everything went off without a hitch though.

So how would I rate the Houston Peace Festival overall? Well it was a pretty fun way to kill a Saturday afternoon and it gave me the opportunity to finally catch Spain Colored Orange and listenlisten so I can't complain. I'll be on the lookout for Tyagaraja's album when it's out especially because it seems like they're cooking up something good. I was also happy to support some of the activism that went on there. My name on a petition might not mean much in the grand scheme of things, but every little bit helps, just like the whole "one vote..." thing. It was definitely worth making it out there, even if I am probably the squarest hippie in the world.

The Top Ten Bands That Should Reunite

Nostalgia is sweeping the nation like herpes. Everybody's got it, it sucks, and nobody can get rid of it. The only special cream to get rid of this malady is to go see old bands reunited in concert and listen to whatever new music they come up with. It's happening with EVERYBODY. Bands you NEVER thought would come back like Faith No More and Pavement are back. Bands you never WANTED to come back like Limp Bizkit and Creed are, sadly, back (like a bad herpes flare-up! I will not stop using this metaphor...). Of course, being an American, I always want more, more, more (Billy Idol back on tour now too!). So with that said, here's ten bands I think need to come back before it's too late.

10. Bright Eyes



Conor Oberst has all but retired his old Bright Eyes monicker for the reason of people having certain expectations of that name. Maybe he means good music. His last two projects (the Mystic Valley Band and Monsters of Folk) were utter disappointments. The best thing to come from him in the last few years were the few unreleased Bright Eyes songs on this year's re-release of the old One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels split EP with Neva Dinova. It's an omen, Conor, and it means "don't give up on Bright Eyes yet."

9. John Reis and Rick Froberg



Look, I don't really care what these guys call themselves. Pitchfork, Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, even a completely new name. They literally can do no wrong together. Their track record apart is firmly mediocre, though at least somewhat enjoyable. But they need each other to really hit upon the magic. The sooner they get back together, the better.

8. The Mathletes



Like Conor Oberst and Bright Eyes, this is less a band than just one man, Joe Mathlete, but unlike Conor, Joe hasn't been sucking it up in his other projects. His other bands, Ghormeh Sabzi and Wife, are perfectly fine, but he's playing bass, not being the frontman. It's time for him to step back in the spotlight. I think he knows that, since he's finally playing another solo show this Saturday night (May 8th) at Mango's Cafe, but apparently it's only the Mathletes for this one show, then it continues under a new, different name. Who knows what it will be like, but I'm still holding out to hear "Pinnochiobot" live again one day.

7. The Smiths



Morrissey is an amazing lyricist and singer. He is not an amazing person. Actually, he's something like a world renowned prick and a total primadonna. Most likely this is why it has been twenty years without one reunion with the rest of the band, despite constant rumors. Well Moz, you're getting pretty damn old. It's now or never. Bury the hatchet with Johnny Marr and give the people what they want. I loved seeing Morrissey solo in concert as I also love his solo albums, but everyone wants a Smiths reunion. That's just too big a thing to NEVER happen (even if it only sustains itself for one-off shows like the Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd reunions).

6. Fugazi



In 2002, Fugazi went on hiatus and then... nothing. For eight years, not one peep out of them. They're not even particularly active in any side-projects. It's about time they do SOMETHING again. At this point, I would settle for side-projects to be completely honest. Fugazi being Fugazi, I suggest they just hold free shows at random clubs in cities around America with little warning or notice. Then just watch the places fill to capacity.

5. OutKast/Andre 3000



Has anybody seen Andre 3000 lately? I've begun to worry about his well-being. Since that dumb cartoon got cancelled, the man seems to have dropped off the face of the Earth. Big Boi assures everyone he's making a solo album and they're going to return as OutKast soon, but I'm beginning to suspect this may be a PR move. For all we know, Andre could be dead. Andre, if you read this, please, come back to us. OutKast, solo album, I don't care, just come back! Let us know you're ok!

4. Sleater-Kinney



They've been teasing this reunion for a while and it is much anticipated. Sleater-Kinney achieved perfection with their last album, The Woods, then they went on tour and quietly went on the dreaded "hiatus." None of them have done anything since, which is a serious shame. We've gotten tons of solo album rumors that never come to fruition and now rumors of a reunion in the next few years. In the next few years? Why not now, girls?

3. David Bowie



David Bowie used to be a workaholic. So much of a workaholic, he had a heart attack. Instead of just slowing down though, he stopped, right in the middle of a serious career revival. Since then, he's made a few guest appearances live and nothing more. One can't really blame him. All those years of heavy cocaine abuse have probably left him with a pretty damaged heart. That being said, I still dream of a day when he might be well enough to make a return, for a one-off show, for an album, even one song! For a former workaholic, you have to believe that he's made some kind of music in the past seven years that just hasn't seen the light of day. Well, let's hear it! I don't want to wait until he's dead for some depressing posthumous compilation bullshit.

2. The Blood Brothers



A group of psychotic teenagers recording a conglomeration of about a hundred influences to create a truly disturbing post-hardcore band. The Blood Brothers were magic. At some point, the magic died and they went their separate ways. Now they waste their time in Past Lives (mediocre art rock) and Jaguar Love (fucking awful dance pop). The fact that their talents are going to this stuff now is truly depressing. Even if they aren't into making music like the Blood Brothers anymore, they could still play it! Somebody get these guys back together before they can't hit the highs anymore.

1. At the Drive-In



Did anyone expect any different from me? This is my favorite band ever we're talking about. I love what they've all done apart as well, but there's something about At the Drive-In that they can't ever approach. Sparta tried and failed. The Mars Volta, to their credit, did something completely different and incredible in its own right. But just once, I want to see these guys up on stage together and with TMV in a state of disarray, Sparta dead, and Sleepercar a failure, it just feels right to do it now. Even just a one-off in El Paso would be amazing and of course I'd be front row, no question.

In conclusion, bands, musicians, get over whatever petty hang-ups you have and jump on the gravy train. Get your asses back in gear and start raking on the dough from nostalgia-happy Americans like me. Just be sure not to overstay your welcome like some reunited bands and end up playing to thirty people at a race track. Then people will be begging for the zovirax (I WON'T LET THIS METAPHOR DIE!).

Reprint Series: Festival at The Mink

As I mentioned a while ago, per the terms of my contract with http://www.29-95.com I can reprint anything I wrote for them two weeks later. This one is two months old so let's give it a go. This was the first one I wrote. As will be the usual, the only difference will be that they'll be presented exactly as I wrote them, with no editing. That could be a good or bad thing. You decide.

***

While everyone was at the Free Press Houston 7th Anniversary seeing all the local bands they had seen exactly two point three million times, I went to the Festival at The Mink instead. Not that I don't love the bands that were at Mango's that night, but change is always good. Since there were a lot of bands that played, I'll just give a quick rundown of each one.

The Dry Season (www.myspace.com/thedryseasonatx) -I arrived slightly late for this first band from Austin. I wish I hadn't because they actually turned out to probably be my favorite of the night. Given that I grew up on Pink Floyd, not the one everybody else did, the Saucerful of Secrets/Atom Heart Mother era, and I'm crazy about the latest Flaming Lips album, that shouldn't be a surprise. This band takes three key elements to make up their sound. That late 60's Pink Floyd spacey, psychedelic, jam rock, 90's alt rock hooks via Garbage, and aught's psych folk like Espers. Though I only caught three songs (each around ten minutes) I was mesmerized by each one.

Covington (http://www.myspace.com/demomeansunity) - Born out of the ashes of two previous bands, Covington is a little older and more experienced than your average local band. Slicker, more professional. They don't fuck up. You'd think that would make it better, but it makes it somewhat sterile. Their sound is also heavily dependent on 90's Britrock which automatically dates it. Still they had some enjoyable songs and their singer had a range that reminded me of Pavement so good on them for that. Whether it was the drinks or the accessability, they also commanded far more attention from the audience than the Dry Season.   

Gretchen Schmaltz (http://www.myspace.com/gretchenschmaltz) - In fact, the audience was so captivated by Covington (and the bar) that they forgot there was someone playing downstairs. You have to feel bad for the poor girl. Her band was stranded in Austin (and in her words, her French horn player ran away to the opera for a month) so this became a solo acoustic show. Then only a few people turned up downstairs to watch. Those that did, however, were treated to a fun bit of indie folk songstressing. Revolutionary? Hardly. But it's always pleasing to the ear and what really impressed me about her was her exceptional fingerpicking style. While most play in a delicate way, Gretchen Schmaltz attacks the strings, even warning us her fingers might start bleeding. It adds a necessary tension to the otherwise almost too sweet songs.

Flowers to Hide (http://www.myspace.com/flowerstohide) - Flowers to Hide are a hard band to place. They've got a foot in post-U2 80's new wave rock and a foot in post-Sonic Youth 90's alt rock. The basslines drove every song while the guitar seemed to follow along but with squeels. Their sound was the sort of familiar thing where you know you've heard it before, but can't place it. The closest I could think of was that they sounded like the sort of band I would hear on the Buzz growing up when that station wasn't almost completely garbage.

Giant Battle Monster (http://www.myspace.com/giantbattlemonster) - This is one of the main bands I wanted to see when I came out. I had heard a lot about them and I for some reason thought I would like them. I didn't. But don't get me wrong, they're very talented at what they do. They're even a good live band, very energetic, lots of audience interaction. But they're LOUD! My ears were ringing even this morning from these guys. In the midst of making so much technical noise, they lose the hooks that I could vaguely hear buried down deep in their songs. In that way they reminded me of Hella. Fast, heavy, technical, but impossible to find the catchy parts. They're there, but you end up too deaf to hear them. This is not the band for me. On the other hand, I know a lot of people that listen to bands like Behold... the Arctopus and Tera Melos that would LOVE this.

The Sour Notes (http://www.myspace.com/thesournotes) - This is another band I really wanted to see but let down by. I've been a fan of theirs for a while but had never had the chance to catch them. Unfortunately this was sort of an off night. Their drummer was "wearing tights in a play in Amarillo, TX" and, rather than take the time off, they decided to go on with a drum machine. This was, in my opinion, a mistake. The bass was already programmed, so it made for an entire electronic rhythm section and completely amputated the power from their more rocking songs. In fact, the simulated rhythms actually ended up having a somewhat comedic "Tim and Eric" sound to them. The songwriting was there but the sound wasn't. I do really enjoy their latest album so I would love to see them with a full band in the future.

dUNETX (http://www.myspace.com/dunetx) - dUNETX has been around for 12 years. In the ever changing world of music, that's a long time. At least twice as long as these other bands have been together. When they started, I was about to start second grade. Viewed in that context, they're admirable. Like Covington, they're slick, professional, and know how to get an audience going. But with the state of music, their proto-punk riffage mainly works in warming the audience up. There's not much more depth to it. It's good bar atmosphere music. The one unique gimmick they pull out is an occasionally used theremin, which is nice but more just to show off that they have a theremin and can make noise with it. 

Alkari (http://www.myspace.com/alkarian) - This one I really liked. Their sound reminded me of something I really miss. 90's indie rock, but a little bit punkier. Hmm... what could I describe that as? Oh yeah! Emo! Real emo before Hot Topic ruined it. I got a definite I Hate Myself vibe, which is especially exciting for someone like me that was too young to see bands like that back in the day. Just to switch up and keep it original, they also include the occasional psych interlude and some pre-recorded samples between songs.

The Manichean (http://www.myspace.com/themanichean) - Possibly the oddest of the entire bunch. Picking up from the emo of Alkari, the Manichean is a lot like mewithoutYou meets the Black Parade. It's as odd and unsettling as it sounds. I couldn't really decide how I felt about this one. Inbetween every other song, their singer, who looked and sounded like he was straight out of a high school drama class, would break into a Shakespearian soliloquy. I could never quite understand what the narrative was about but he sold it with the enthusiasm of a southern preacher. It was just as off-putting as it was enticing. In the end though, all I can remember of his stories were his frantic movement, running, jumping, hanging off the rafters, and the repeated phrase "I love you so much through kisses and cuts." Musically they followed that emo sound but with the inclusion of a fiddle player that gave the entire thing an even odder dynamic. It was crazy and I still don't know how I feel about it.

White Rhino (http://www.myspace.com/whiterhinorocks) - Remember that band Motorhead and how they'd come out and say "We are Motorhead and we're going to kick your ass"? White Rhino is practically the embodiment of that. Their sound is that vintage late 70's/early 80's post-punk hard rock, when some bands went new wave and some bands combined the sounds of Black Sabbath and the Sex Pistols into what ended up being the basis of "metal" in the 80's. White Rhino take their cues from the latter of those two and what more do you need after 1 AM when everybody's drunk and tired?I normally skew towards more progressive music, but fuck it. After the Manichean's take on the future of music, I was ready to get back to basics. White Rhino is driving up to Taco Bell in the middle of the night blasting Back in Black. The perfect way to wrap up the festival.

Overall the Festival at the Mink was sort of disastrous. So many band members didn't show up, at least two bands didn't make it out, and the audience seemed to be there more for the beer than anything else. Even still, it was a fun time with a diverse mix of bands. For me personally, the Dry Season is my new band to watch. Even though it would have been fun to see all my favorites at Mango's, the Mink was a good alternative and a good way to discover some new (and old) bands.