the word on the street book and magazine festival is taking place this sunday (tomorrow) over in queen’s park for anyone who’s interested. i thought i’d mention this here because not only is an old professor of mine going to be speaking about his new book of poetry there (adam sol, jeremiah ohio), but there also appears to be a pretty cool music tent being run by eye weekly magazine. performers include castlemusic as well as laura barrett, both of whom have just put out albums that should be reviewed here shortly. there are also a number of panel discussions taking place at the same time, with a “diaspora dialogues tent” featuring discussions on toronto seen from its numerous and unique points of view, as well as the “ideaspace young adult marquee” having a discussion on “music of the word.” in relation to another interest of mine, journalism, i’ll be attending the “survival tips for freelancers” talk that will be happening in the “canadian magazines tent” at 12:45 to see what i can glean from more experienced writers. all in all, this event sounds like it has something for everyone, and if i’m not mistaken, it’s free!
in other news, check back here tomorrow because i should have a review for another local music event that happened last weekend: extermination music night.
finally, if you’ve got some time to kill at 7pm on monday night, tune into cbc radio 3 and follow along to the live broadcast of the polaris music prize award ceremony like i will be doing. i’ve taken a look at the nominees list and realized that i’ve been slacking a little bit when it comes to reviewing canadian artists, as i’ve only reviewed one of the nominees. oops. i’ll blame school for that…
well, it’s been awhile since i’ve done one of these… i’m going to try something different here by posting youtube videos of the songs in question rather than mp3s. this should work so long as the videos stay up…
chris cornell feat. timbaland – “scream”
well, where to begin? initially, the idea of this duo working together seemed quite promising, but after having heard two of the songs from the upcoming album scream, i think it’s fair to say that this record will be a disappointment (not that it still won’t be a vast improvement over cornell’s second solo release, carry on).
i had the utmost faith that timbaland’s production abilities would be able to do something interesting for cornell, who has always not-so-secretly wanted to be a r&b/soul singer in the first place. just listen to temple of the dog’s song from 1991, “all night thing:”
(ignore the shitty karaoke-ness to this video. i’m just posting it so you can hear the song)
i had tonnes of faith in timbaland because i respected him, despite the recent trend of disliking him simply because of the ubiquity of his beats in the r&b world. i’ll admit that he really does whore himself around a bit much, but if he could get chris cornell his “sexyback,” then all the more power to him. as for cornell, after his last record, i had far less faith in him to produce something worthwhile. i had come to the conclusion after carry on that cornell and many of his seattle contemporaries (mainly pearl jam and alice in chains) were simply cock-rock bands who smartened up a bit towards the end of the 80s and started to make music that wasn’t as superficial. the real “seattle-sound” was based around the individuals who actually had a sound that could be traced back to earlier seattle bands like the sonics (pearl jam’s mike mccready is an exception, as he is thoroughly indebted to jimi hendrix)… but i digress.
the issue i have with this song is that the performances are lacklustre. i was hoping for some gritty, grating keyboards (ala “sexyback”), but instead got some soaring synths that don’t lead anywhere. cornell’s vocals sound like what i’ve come to expect from him since his later days in audioslave, but for a song called “scream,” you’d at least expect him to break from his jaw-wired-shut-mumble. nope. the lyrics don’t help much either, as they’re trite and completely uninspired. while “black hole sun” was cornell’s writing at its most mediocre, the airplay it has gotten in the following years has certainly been well-deserved compared to these flimsy lines: “heeeeey/ why keep screamin’ at the top o’ your heaaad?” jesus christ. the number of times he says “head” and “brain” in this song makes it a little more tolerable for hilarity’s sake, but only a little bit.
what’s most confusing about the song is its length. assuming they want this to be played like the dickens on top 40 radio, why do they then proceed to ride that terrible chorus for an intolerable six minutes? i really don’t get it.
the killers – “human”
brandon flowers’ lyrics are so awful that it’s becoming offensive. now i realize that lyrics aren’t the sole characteristic of a song, and i certainly don’t hide the fact that i pay very little attention to lyrics at all when i listen to music, but time and time again the killers have posited themselves as band whose lyrics are important, and yet the lyrics here are so jarringly bad that i can’t help but draw attention to them. i think the debate as to whether he’s saying “dancer” or “denser” is awesomely hilarious. whether it’s one or the other is irrelevant. either way, it’s a weak lyric to base an entire song around.
as far as the music is concerned, it sounds alright, although it seems the killers are going through their “ray of light” period a little early if you ask me. if i were to hear just the instrumental, i’d be hard-pressed to tell you that what i was hearing was in fact the killers, which is both a good and bad thing: good insofar as they’re obviously feeling creative and are now headed in a “new direction,” although as we’ve seen in their career so far, these “directions” seem to last as long as the albums they’re needed for. which leads me to the bad: we all know that this aesthetic is tacked-on, and i can’t help but feel as though this is just a kind of genre tourism that’s meaningless so long as flowers can pretend to be an introspective frontman. “growth” and “new directions” are words meant for press releases and the stickers that some underpaid person puts on the CD cover before it hits stores, and have no real relevance outside of the glow of commerce. furthermore, i can barely hear the rest of the band what with flowers’ keyboard being so loud and sparkly. how am i supposed to know that the other-dude-with-the-shitty-fucking-facial-hair was even present in the studio while this took place? do they play their instruments? i need proof.
i will point out that what’s nice about this song is flowers’ earnest and affecting delivery. usually he sounds like he’s falling asleep or in some sort of unecessary pain (or both) so to hear him emote and not sound overwrought is great.
so that’s that. thanks to idolator for breaking the news of these songs coming out.
tv on the radio’s last album, return to cookie mountain, ended with a baptism of sorts: “wash the day” is a song that addresses the ambiguity of death— its inadvertent beauty. on dear science, tv on the radio continue exploring that ambiguous territory but without much of the ominous inflections; there’s almost an underlying narrative here connecting this album to the last. the arrangements are still dense and layered, but the production is much cleaner, helping to set the mood of the album. tv on the radio have taken their wall of sound, torn it down and are now parading past it with the funkiest, catchiest songs they’ve written to-date, taking full advantage of the antibalas afrobeat orchestra who have offerred their services yet again. while the music is technically “lighter” fare, being full of movement and life, it should not be an invitation to write this album off. choosing to back themselves with an orchestra that models itself on fela kuti’s africa 80 should be an indication that this album is no lark. i commend tv on the radio for releasing such an exceptional record after having made what most considered to be their finest work. dear science is a rich, nuanced and an utterly stunning album.
“There’s screaming on this album, lots of it…nay, way too much.” — [Filter, Summer 2008, p.102]
“[O]n most of the other occasions when Votolato’s choppy riffs and off-beam melodies threaten to seduce you, Whitney’s caterwaul butts in again.” [Mojo, Sep 2008, p.110]
johnny whitney’s voice is off-putting for the uninitiated. i’m not patting myself on the back for being a fan, and i’ll be the first to admit that his voice has the same desctructive powers as a banshee, but what i’ve noticed is that a lot of reviews are too preoccupied with his screaming to make note of his awareness of the abrasive qualities that his vocals have-– an integral part of what informs take me to the sea’s ideology. the second song on the record, “bats over the pacfic ocean,” — one that i’ve discussed here before— has whitney poking fun at himself, saying: “i got evicted from this song/ oh my voice is deformed.” conceptually, the abrasive qualities of music are suggested to act as counters to the otherwise apocalyptic vision that unfolds over the course of take me to the sea. there is a weighty feeling that death is inevitable throughout the album, particularly on songs like “humans evolve into skyscrapers,” but then another song like “my organ sounds like…” will draw on music’s ability to invigorate, to charge people into making change. i wouldn’t call this a “political” album per se, as it is not so much of an indictment of any particular institution. as far as i can tell, take me to the sea is a rallying call, made by a group of older post-punkers who have succeeded at finding a more mature sound and balancing that with the same tumultuous energy that made their respective works so great to listen to.
bird of prey is caleb scofield’s second release as zozobra, and this time around he is fleshing-out the foundations that he laid on harmonic tremors. scofield’s bass still dominates and propels this batch of songs, but the guitars are more permanent fixtures, complimenting the heaviness in each song by providing a bit more atmosphere. the drums also take on a more supportive role as aaron harris of isis has stepped in for santos montano. with a more subdued style, harris is the polar opposite of montano, but he still manages to set the unrelenting pace of each song. harmonic tremors was about juxtapositions, creating sounds that contrasted one another, which is why montano’s distinct drumming worked so well as a counterpoint to scofield’s bass. now, the instruments and the roles they play are much more democratic. even the vocal juxtapositions between the growls and clean singing that were a huge dynamic of zozobra’s debut are now absent, and have been replaced by more fluid mix of both. the decisions scofield has made on bird of prey are smart, logical choices that have helped craft his most cohesive album to-date.
they might be indebted to bands like helmet, big black, and babes in toyland, but made out of babies` sound is all their own. “cooker,” which is one of the best album openers i’ve heard in a long time, starts with julie christmas’ voice being manipulated into a deep, guttural roar over top of the erratic clinking and clanging of brendan tobin’s overdriven guitar. along with bassist cooper’s pronounced rumblings, christmas’ voice is the highlight of the ruiner, shifting from gentle cooing to intense barking with ease. the song then erupts into a rolling assault of primal drums and pummelling riffs, and it’s that abrasive juxtaposition of noise and rhythm where MOOB shine creatively; the way in which they reconcile their influences with their own style is what makes the album such a gratifying listen.
