THERE IS NO ONE WAY TO DANCE
Year: 2006
Genre: Punk Rock, Folk, Psychedelic RockSub-Genres: Post-Punk
Label: Wrong Island Records
Tracks: 8
Length: 19 Minutes
Style: Dark/Emotional
My Rating: 7/8
"There is no one way to dance"... this iz something that is very true... are we to river-dance? Do jumping-jacks? Ballet dance? Tango? Waltz? Tap-dance? Slam-dance? Square-dance? There are so many ways to do something that can only be summed up in one word: DANCE. D-A-N-C-E. 'D' for "Does". 'A' for "a". 'N' for "Nightowl". 'C' for "Catch". And 'E' for "EDS". "Does A Nightowl Catch EDS?". Of course not! Nightowls are SUPPOSED to be sleepy during the DAY, dumbo! But I digress.
This is the first and only full album from the Sonitus Revolution. It iz a band consisting of Jay Briggs (a.k.a. Jaysonitus), Chris DiMaio, Frank Federici, and Phil "Meatball" Montalbano. The band formed in 2005 and has occupied New York, playing music since then. Jay Briggs has also been a member of the band Grrrl Friend, and the group released a split live album with Duffy Wrong Island's other band, Bionic Senses in 2007, the year after this album came out. Bdee from his own band, the Venomous Oranges has also been in this group at one point. Anyways, time for a little overview on this record... the album is steady mix of funk-influenced punk rock and psychedelic folk music, ranging from the hot sounds of "Laius" to an electric psychedelic instrumental, "Raga I", to a dark, poetic acoustic piece known as "the Burden". Now, as I always do, I shall assess this songs one-by-one. So let's begin!
1. Laius
As I said before, the very best song on the album. For some reason, though, I've always felt that the best song should go at the end. But you've gotta have something to draw the people in, right? Well, anyways, this an absolutely awesome song with a beautiful guitar sound and elements of funk and psychedelic rock alongside the completely awesome punk rock melody of the song. The tempo and the riff just work perfectly alongside eachother. The bass line is always interesting, and just before the song steers too far off-track in the chorus section, it returns back to that awesome verse riff, but there's always little things in the background to make the song diverse and never boring. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Jay really does sound a lot like D Boon to me. However, he has the hair of a fucking Ramone!
2. Sociopath
The song eases in... drums first, then bass, and the rhythm guitar. The melody here is more ominous, but still pretty up-beat. The chorus riff and the bass combined together sound real cool on the chorus. What iz pain? What iz pleasure? What iz sadness? It's... SATURDAY! "What Am I??", screams Jay at the end of the song. A sociopath, that's what. Know how I knew that? 'Cause the answer's in the TITLE!
3. Black Dwarf
This one's an acoustic song. The guitar has a real nice sound here. I think it might be the mixing. Just those couple top strings sound real good. Nice use of double vocals here. Too bad there's no lyric sheet for this album that I know of. The guitar melody sounds very good in the part where they sing "the stars are there preserved with care". The song becomes shifts to a much less peaceful repeated chord after that, and then ze song... ENDS.
4. Raga, I
Kind of reminds me of "My Broken Head" by Grrrl Friend that I reviewed a couple days ago, except less creepy. There is the tinkling of the brass, an odd electric melody, a synth piano tune, as well as some unsettling sounds droning on in the background. No vocals on this song.
5. A Match Made in Human
This song is played with two mandolins and a simplistic bass beat of a drum, as well as more singing from Jay and the gang about friendship and relationships between human beings. I can't quite get into it that much, but it's still a good song. Sounds like folk music from another country of descent, but I can't quite put my finger on what that would be.
6. Borderline
This is one of the faster songs on the album. More of a "normal" song, I suppose. The song starts with a clean electric guitar sound, but in the first verse, there is also an extremely distorted guitar dubbed over, giving it almost a hardcore sound. There's also a very cool guitar solo 2/3 through the song. There's a live version of this song on the album "Draft Beer, Not Students".
7. The Burden
Another acoustic song. An acoustic guitar with some synth droning in the background for the needed ambience. Jay's not really singing here as much he's just reciting a poem that he probably wrote.
8. Overactive Mind
The melody for this kinda reminds me of an early Dinosaur Jr. song (like their first album). Somewhere between folk and punk. The chorus is pretty upbeat sounding. Cool mid-section with an also cool guitar solo in that part of the song. The song fades out right when it ends and that iz the end. Of the album.
It's a very unique and underrated album. But then again, it's harder than it has been to get noticed these days. But yeah, I think there just may be something for everyone on this record. You get some cool rock n' roll songs, some cool non-rock songs, fast stuff (sort of), slow stuff, upbeat songs, depressing songs. It's a pretty damn talented piece of work. Just recently the band re-released this album through Jay's own new record label, "Dinosaur in Vietnam", in 2009. Aside from this album and the "Draft Beer, Not Students" album, you can find more Sonitus Revolution songs on the Dinosaurs in Vietnam compilations. There are two of them so far, one from last year called "Save Our Heads for the Future" (with one new song and a great re-recorded version of Laius), and one released this June called the "Crude Oil Compilation", with one new song under the name "Jay Briggs and the Oily Rainbows". So yeah, you can download this album for free from the Dinosaur In Vietnam website, so definitely give it a listen when you can. So for now, stay legit. And have a fucktastic weekend! BYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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(P.S. - Isn't that cover-art just plain awesome?)
Top 3 Favorites:
1. Laius
2. Borderline
3. Black Dwarf
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