Tag Archives: California
Xiu Xiu – Knife Play
Xiu Xiu
Knife Play
2002 – 5 Rue Christine
Origin: San Jose, California
Style: Indie Electronic, Avant Garde
Listening to Knife Play is like walking into a room and staring down a triple homicide. You stand there, mouth agape, eyes wide as does, and the shock of what you are experiencing will soon enough sink in.
And whether you are comfortable or not in experiencing Jamie Stewart’s prose, it will be a difficult listen all the way through. And I use the term “difficult” on all levels.
As the first release for Xiu Xiu, Knife Play serves its purpose.
The album is infantile in approach compared to the grandeur the band possesses now. Sounds and songs become blurred after a while as the band keeps slashing away at values and norms. However, for a first album it’s a conscious effort with interesting effects and a firm planting in the Xiu Xiu paradigm, stripping themselves of the barriers that most people keep up for general safety.
We construct ourselves through an understanding of basic ignorance. Our finite knowledge in an infinite spectrum allows us to come to terms as to where we are in this spinning reality. And that’s where Stewart comes in, a balance between absolute truth and acceptance on what is at face value.
He challenges our levels of what it is we are willing to accept as art. Whether it be the shrapnel of clings and clanks and the sounds of knives knocking around like a wind chime or the explosive atonement of samples and distorted and contorted soundtrack effects to accompany the aural capacity of it all. There is nothing easy to this music.
But that is what impressed people like Jason Jackowiak of Splendid citing, “Rarely has a debut sounded as audaciously mangled and sophisticatedly brilliant as Knife Play” (http://www.splendidezine.com/review.html?reviewid=322409524029605).
And if you think that is it, you are sorely mistaken. Like on the song “I Broke Up (SJ),” Jamie Stewart expels his demons on abuse with a very realistic lyrical montage, where he practically jumps out of the speakers in anger and horror. He uses his voice like an instrument punctuating, mutilating or succumbing to the mood and circumstance he is dealing with.
And even though my copy of this release is used, there was a warning sticker on the label that stated: “when my mom died, I listened to Henry Cowell, Joy Division, Detroit Techno, the Smiths, Takemitsu, Sabbath, gamelan, ‘Black Angels’, and Cecil Taylor.” An interesting primer to what mindset Stewart was in, but also a disillusionment for people like Colleen Delaney from Stylus who reacted, “My beast ended up being a shrieking whiner playing a Casio and posing dramatically in front of a wall of black dollar store candles” (http://www.stylusmagazine.com/reviews/xiu-xiu/knife-play.htm). A little excessive there, I think, but not too incredibly off the mark.
This is an album that you will either accept or hate. You will take away something that gives you some kind of therapy or you will toss the disc away like a frisbee, repulsed by a degree of absurdity in the way the band concocted business, even though it’s the same business that other critics on the magazine ended up gushing over.
I just hope Stewart walked away a better person for this. If future releases indicates, I don’t have confidence that is what happened, as hard as he punches you in the face with his acidic dose of therapy.
Cross-Reference: The Paper Chase, Skinny Puppy, Third Eye Foundation
Warriors (The) – Genuine Sense of Outrage
The Warriors
Genuine Sense of Outrage
2007 – Victory
Origin: Tehachapi, California
Style: Hardcore
If you like your Pantera without the chops and you are not looking into a whole lot of technicalities then this band is just for you.
With a better-than-average production (Cameron Webb has an odd resume of work on Social Distortion’s White Light, White Heat, White Trash, Motorhead’s Kiss Of Death, and Silverstein) this is about as good as the band can get, taking their previous three releases.
There is the occasional item that catches you off guard, like the group gang up on the vocal chorus for “The Price Of Punishment” (if I had to pick one song for a hardcore fan to download and get a great taste of this band, this song is it) or some production trickery that makes you think, why don’t they do that more often.
The thing that keeps this band from leaning over the edge of metal is the war cry vocal chanting that is familiar with the ‘80/’90s East Coast hardcore scene. And vocalist Marshall Lichenwaldt sings social and political prose like he’s Zach De La Rocha without a purpose. His vocal growl is just pure red face and anger.
Most of this album does not veer far away from the same groove-rated tempo that begins this album. And while critics seem to be more sure of this album than listeners (for a great contrast, check out Punknew.org’s review with comments: http://www.punknews.org/review/6559). Agreeing with a majority of people on this, it’s simply a mid-ranged hardcore album that has its highs and not-so-highs.
Cross-Reference: Sick Of It All, Pig Destroyer, Pantera
Whysall Lane – Self-Titled
Whysall Lane
Self-Titled
2005 – Blackball
Origin: San Francisco, California
Style: Indie Rock
The history and experience behind Whysall Lane tends to be much more impressive than the actual album.
Originally foreseen as a side project for Versus, singer/songwriter Richard Baluyut developed it into his pet project. But then Versus went into hiatus and it became a primary outlet. After a move from New York City to San Francisco, Baluyut hooked up with Mikel Delgado from The Little Deaths and more prominently Jawbreaker’s Adam Pfahler.
Once Delgado left the band in 2006, Whysall Lane, a name that stems from a street in Baluyut’s hometown of Detroit, the group was no more but not before releasing this self-titled effort.
This album tends to be catered towards fans of Versus, as Under The Radar puts it (http://www.undertheradarmag.com/whysallanereview.html). And it seems like the ghost of Versus haunted the band all the way until the end. The Onion’s “A.V. Club” even falls victim to the past just within the first few sentences (http://www.avclub.com/content/node/48331/).
It makes sense because Whysall Lane was just an acoustic outlet for Versus songs. It wasn’t until Delgado and Pfahler came into the picture where they added volume to the songs and became a big contributor to the success of their more charming numbers.
These songs are a mixed bag. You wouldn’t know it with the intro “Not A Fool,” that sounds like a church organ number as Baluyut stands at the pulpit and confesses that he’s not going to take it anymore? Not much of a confession as it is a declaration. Either way, it’s a bland way to start an album, but if you survive that, then you are in for some indie rock goodness. “Half Life” and especially “Time Machine” — the best song on the album — show their true colors as a band. Baluyut and Delgado’s gorgeous male/female vocal harmonies really give the songs a certain charm, and “Time Machine” sounds like a lost Jawbreaker song minus Blake Schwarzenbach’s distinct vocals.
The rest of the album takes a roller coaster ride where on one end they sound like indie darlings and on the other they sound like Procol Haram. And “Wither Without You” is Baluyut trying really hard to sound like David Gahan during Depeche Mode’s Ultra era. It’s not the first time, as an occasional Depeche Mode cover has been thrown into their repertoire
In the end, it is evident that they couldn’t find their niche and create a better followup. They had the potential. They had the chops.
Features ex-members of Versus, J Church, +/-, Jawbreaker,
Cross-Reference: Jawbreaker, Versus, Jets To Brazil
The Tearaways – Ground’s The Limit
The Tearaways
Ground’s The Limit
1997 – Pinch Hit
Origin: Santa Barbara, California
Style: Indie Pop
If you have to buy one The Tearaways album this would be it. But do you have to? And who are The Tearaways anyway?
During the height of the late ‘90s International Pop Scene, this national act was a fair hitter who mingled in the scene with bands like The Primitive Radio Gods, Dishwalla, and Toad The Wet Sprocket.
In 1993, the band caught the attention of some bigwigs in the biz. Earl Mankey, producer of bands like Concrete Blonde and The Sparks, and Tom Werman, best known for working on Cheap Trick, helmed the motherboard and thus See The Sound was born.
Fast forward to 1997, and the band decided to re-release the album and rename it Ground’s The Limit. The fanfare of this album landed them on the Poptopia roster, which became their 15 minutes of fame. Quickly after, the indie pop scene went back into the underground.
But this album proves to be one of the better ones in the pop scene revival. Filled with three-minute guitar pop modesty, this album may not be defining in the style, but it’s not one to be easily discarded. Feeling more like a bar band, the sound is dated, trying to hit all the hooks you would expect out of a pop album. Sometimes they succeed while other times they don’t fair so well.
But songs like “Jessica Something” is a highlight with it’s jangly sound and sweet melodies. Take the good with the bad, this band is no Apples In Stereo or Sloan, but it does hold a degree of consistency.
Cross-Reference: The dBs, The Sun Sawed in 1/2, The Jessica Fletchers
Willie Hutch – The Mack
Willie Hutch
The Mack
1973 – Motown
Origin: Los Angeles, California
Style: R&B
In a time when music was just as important as the films they represented, Willie Hutch was at the top of his game at the beginning of his game. Next to the Shaft theme song, “Brother’s Gonna Work It Out” is recognized as one of the top funk songs in a blaxploitation film. In the late ‘90s, The Chemical Brothers gave the song a mixed up resurrection on the DJ album of the same title, which stemmed from a BBC Radio 1 performance called “The Anti-Nazi Mix.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_1_Anti-Nazi_Mix)
Thanks to the band Sisters Love, who made a cameo in the film — they are the all female soul act at the “Playas Convention” — their manager suggested that Willie Hutch score the film. Hutch had some experience with Motown from the release Fully Exposed, but he had never composed a soundtrack before.
So Hutch gathered an extensive cast of band members, an eight-piece horn section and a massive string section. From the beginning jive sound of “Vampin,” you know this is not an ordinary soundtrack. Influenced by Quincy Jones, Hutch uses a more orchestrated approach to the music than straight up funk.
For example “Theme of the Mack” is a beautiful piece of soul with a sax solo that heats up like a fireplace and a guitar that flickers like candlelight.
Without the film, you may not realize that “Mack’s Stroll” captures the essence of ghetto life and a battle between good and evil, the pusher and pimp with liberation. But “The Getaway (Chase Scene)” is perfectly clear (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAo9nlBzYJY).
Despite obvious song correlations with the film, “Slick” is Richard Pryor’s (Slick is his character name) theme song to the film, the joy of this release is that you do not need the movie to get down with this soundtrack. It’s more like the movie needs the soundtrack to exist.
And by the end of it all, as the credits begin to roll, the moment has arrived, and the tom thumping intro of “Brother’s Gonna Work It Out” begins. It’s quite clever to make the outro theme to the film different from the intro. And not another song from the album has made such a higher impression as this song.
Cross-Reference: Quincy Jones, Sisters Love, Curtis Mayfield
