The Honor Roll
5 song EP
Independent Release
originally published January 30, 2008
This EP arrived in my hands with lots of information I didn't need (example: the band's instant messaging address) but with none of the information I did (like, oh, the names of the songs). In a very real way, this seemingly innocuous oversight seems to make perfect sense for a band like The Honor Roll, who seems very intent on marketing personality rather than making original music. The only real problem with that plan, though, is that the band's music has no personality. There's nothing here that distinguishes The Honor Roll's brand of post-Get Up Kids/ shopping mall-emo from any of the hundreds of other bands plowing the same territory.
The guitar lines of the first song are chunky, tuneful and catchy and frame the lyrics well ("Come home / get married / work nine to five 'til we're buried"). The next track features either dueling guitars (or a digitally doubled one), but its attempt to preface the song's lyrics with some gravity via this trite metal cliché actually winds up making it easy to dismiss. Next comes some pseudo-weepy thing that utilizes the full-band chorus and tinkling-guitar verse interchange that make me want to take scissors to every swoopy-haired scene dude walking out of Hot Topic.
The fourth song is strictly for females and the guys who make them mixtapes. A quiet, little guitar plays through the first two minutes while the moon-June-spoon lyrics ("Summertime is for love / If we knew the truth we'd all be stunned / About the world and God's intention") and the whole thing ends by getting louder, throwing in a guitar solo and the singer wailing the same lyrics. It's an audio insult worthy of Creed.
Thing is, there's still an undeniable sense of honesty and sincerity about the guys in The Honor Roll which makes me want to grab 'em by their collars and yell "What the fuck are you doing?" The fact that, even though this whole record sounds like a sneaker commercial, The Honor Roll manages to still impart a smidgen of soul provides a sliver of hope that they may find their own voice.
The Honor Roll is playing at Tasty World on Saturday, Feb. 2.
Chris Walla
Field Manual
Barsuk
originally published January 30, 2008
You'd think on his debut solo record Chris Walla would attempt to do something out of the ordinary; the ordinary in Walla's case is his day job as guitarist for indie-pop band Death Cab for Cutie. The Washington band has been releasing the sort of maudlin, over-literate pop-rock high-school kids clamor for over the past 10 years. Given the chance to stretch his musical legs, Walla instead chose to do practically nothing different than the usual.
There are clean guitars, hooky choruses and the occasional tearful croak; everything to be expected from this camp. Field Manual is, if anything, a chance for Walla to prove his songwriting chops because Ben Gibbard remains the alpha songwriter in Death Cab, but instead, the LiveJournal half-prose that band employed to make a name appears. Gibbard likes to talk about himself, but Walla, thankfully, will write to someone else or about someone else on occasion. A brouhaha stewed when the feds took Walla's hard drive with song outlines, causing some to muse that it was due to political content. If those people are referring to "Everyone Needs A Home," I'd argue there's more serious discourse in a nightly viewing of "Hannity & Colmes."
Apart from the rare psychedelic flourish (oh-so-trendy right now), nothing really sets Field Manual apart from its predecessors, and listeners probably already know if they like it or not. Fans of Death Cab may want to hear it to tide them over until the band's next album, or you can act like you never read this and carry on.
Times New Viking
Rip It Off
Matador
originally published January 30, 2008
Rip It Off is the fascinatingly cacophonous Times New Viking's third album, and its first for Matador. Still, breathe easy, noise-pop aficionados; the band hasn't tidied up at all with its move to the indie-rock mainstream. Rip It Off is just as ridiculously noisy as either of TNV's first two records, which were released by the semi-legendary obscuro no-fi label Siltbreeze. But unlike a lot of groups that utilize less-than-sterling production techniques, Times New Viking doesn't merely wear the lo-fi aesthetic as some sort of ironic mustache. The distortion and feedback are integral to the very songs they envelop.
The fuzz is prominent, but not necessarily dominant; it's actually kind of amazing just how penetrable it is. Yeah, everything's crusted with hiss and grime, but you can still unmistakably hear all the separate components within each remarkable pop song. The white noise almost acts like another instrument alongside the standard drums, guitar and keyboard.
Times New Viking more than slightly resembles classic kiwi pop bands like the Clean and the Tall Dwarfs. And although the noisiness of the band's irresistible pop songs is more willful and/or intentional than with either of those bands, all three work in the same general ballpark, a field which includes condensing the Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray" into a series of two-minute pop songs. Not to say that that's all Times New Viking does, but it is high up on the list of priorities. And as long as those priorities are executed as excellently as they are on Rip It Off, Times New Viking will remain a band worth listening to.
Scarlet Snow
Inclined
Independent Release
originally published January 30, 2008
Perhaps the kindest thing to say about Jefferson's Scarlet Snow is that they transcend the genre of egregiously awful, sappy Christian music. Their album art is clean and professional looking. They photograph well, and they seem like nice people. If you prefer your rock musically unchallenging, uplifting but not bubbly, driven by strong female vocals (and Suzanne Cowan really does have a powerful voice, as well as the ability to modulate it, never straining or growling or moving into "Idol" vibrato) and simply produced, you shouldn't let their theological leanings scare you away.
Inclined spends a lot of time wrestling with the complexities of faith - and, indeed, Scarlet Snow's members appear to have had a rough time of it lately - and it's admirable that the band doesn't seem interested in pat answers. The band's Christianity is inclusive and reality-based, and its sincerity undeniable. It's just a shame the group is not doing something a little more interesting musically. Strip out some of the country from Carrie Underwood and replace it with some white blues and some California funk, and you'll have the formula for most of these generally fast-paced songs centering on Cowan's husky, direct voice.
A few move into Crystal Cathedral power ballad territory, like "Inclined to Slide," the song that no doubt provided the album's title, and the closer, "See You Soon (A Longing)," is Scarlet Snow unplugged, a format that allows the message to come to the front. Maybe the inspiration can be even more divine in the future.
Celerity
180 Nowhere Rd.
Independent Release
originally published January 30, 2008
These Celerity dudes know a thing about truth in advertising. Unlike all of the bloated artist descriptions floating around out there, when the guys say on their MySpace they sound like "punk-inspired hard rock," well, that's exactly what it is. The punk comes from the mechanical clunk of the late '80s East Bay scene, with Crimpshrine clearly an influence. The hard rock, however, is disparate, ranging from Nirvana and Cheap Trick to bands like Bush and The Offspring. The trio has clearly soaked up the 99X output of the mid-'90s.
Celerity has this nice little EP called 180 Nowhere Rd, with five solid tracks of that "punk-inspired hard rock" stuff. "Backfire" features a great Queens of the Stone Age-kind of riff. The production is clear, the songs tight. It's obvious Celerity has honed the songs playing many live shows. The only flaw here is that the songs are old; three songs were recorded two years ago, and two songs were recorded one year ago. For all we know, the band could now be playing reggae-inspired industrial.
Celerity is a tight unit who should earn some attention due to 180 Nowhere Rd, and fans of radio-rock of the past 10 years will want to become familiar with the band and its songs. But please, guys, hire a competent graphic artist for your next release.
Celerity is playing at Tasty World on Friday, Feb. 8.
Jandek
Brooklyn Wednesday
Corwood Industries
originally published January 30, 2008
Stepping out from behind the shadows and appearing on stages the world over may have killed some of the mystery surrounding Jandek, but the sacrifice has yielded an unprecedented jolt of inspiration for the Texas recluse. The artistic growth, prowess and sheer magnitude of songs that have arisen on-stage portray the most concentrated burst of activity Corwood's catalogue has seen.
Brooklyn Wednesday is a four-CD box set - an awfully big commitment. But the configuration of Jandek (guitar, vocals), Chris Corsano (percussion) and Matt Heyner (bass) congeals with an impressive chemistry that lurches with primitivism and antagonism.
In a word, Brooklyn Wednesday is a monster. Opening number "Put Me There" embraces a vicious punk snarl that chimes and ratchets into the darkest recesses of anxiety. From there the music expands into an exploded view of frazzled thought. Cosmic mechanics and a gut-wrenching plod take shape in "Obscure Physics." Corsano and Heyner barrel through a numinous thread of droning rhythms while the rep works out his demons.
The show was recorded at the Issue Project Room in September of '05, and arrives broken into two sets. "How'r You" opens the second set with a chaotic jumble of strings and drums that never falter in their bleak and ethereal drive. These are the rantings of a man who is both obsessed and repulsed by his insecurities. Just as Jandek's albums are often incomplete exercises in mental and emotional defragmentation, Brooklyn Wednesday brings no resolve.
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