Year: 2008 Genre: Thrash Metal/Hardcore Punk Label: Hot Mass Records Tracks: 4 Length: 14 Minutes Style:Angry My Rating: 5/8
Ah, Seattle... home of, well, ROCK AND ROLL music. Black Breath is a crossover thrash/hardcore band from the area and this is their first release ever, called "Razor to Oblivion", and it's 12 inches wide and it's gawt four songs and the razor cuts the space-time fabric apart, which creates a tear leading to Oblivion. Makes sense, now don't it? Well, okay. There's two songs on four sides of the album. Wait, no, I meant two sides on each song of the -- SHIT, I mean two songs on two sides of the album! God DAMN IT. Anyways, that would be four songs. Which are on this album. The band consists of... well, I dunno. Maybe I should go ask 'em. But I'm lazy and I wanna get to the point, now. So hear I go.
1. Razor to Oblivion Fast beat and the song has a real bad-ass riff. The vocals are kinda scream-y, but they're still alright. This song is more of a straight-up hardcore song, but there's some good lead guitar scattered here n' there as well. Cool slow part in the middle. Then after that, there's a guitar solo. Good song.
2. Beneath the Crust The beat at the beginning of the song rules! The guitar riff here is a bit heavier-sounding. I like the alternating between two different beats during the verse section of the song, it's an awesome touch. After that, the song transitions into a part that's really fast like the first song. After this part, the song slows down briefly and there's a false stop with clock sounds and the last section is slow, and GOD DAMMIT, can this guy sing in any other voice? End of Side 1.
3. Fatal Error The intro to this song feels like a giant wood-chipper shredding up your skull. Once again, fast. Cool riff. Angry singing. The part around 1 minute and 30 seconds sounds cool. Then after that there's a slow part which is basically the same riff being played in a different tempo. Did he just say "poor little nigger"?
4. Murder This one's rather slow. Midway through the song gets a little faster. And then there's some pretty cool riff-age in another section of the track. Good drumming, definitely. The track that I have cuts off at about two minutes and thirty seconds, so I don't know what happens next. So that's all I know. Right now.
Well, it's a pretty decent listen, especially for fans of metal-influenced hardcore. My only complaint is that the singer only sings in ONE FUCKING VOICE. Yeah, the scream. Seriously, this would be way more entertaining if he had more character to his singing style. But nope, expect to hear the exact same screamed vocal style throughout the entire EP. Sorry... otherwise this music is pretty damn good. And it has a pretty awesome cover, might I add. This year, the band released their first full album, which is more heavy metal than punk, and I haven't listened to it, but it's released on Southern Lord records, a notable metal label, n' all that shit. So, check it out or don't. It's all up to youuuu (dununununun...).
Year: 1970 Genre: Hard Rock/Punk Rock/Noise Label: Elektra Records Tracks: 7 Length: 37 Minutes Style:Fun/Sexual/Emotional/Scary My Rating: 7/8
The Stooges released one of the coolest albums of their time and still one of the best albums ever, "The Stooges" at the end of the '60s and you probably know about all that SHIT 'cuz in the summer I reviewed that album for you, didn't I? Well, I got this one used on CD and it's also good, but it doesn't sound just like the first album, so expect something a little different. You also know how they originally played blenders and trash cans and stuff as instruments, which iz AWESOME! I should find a blender-player for my band! But this iz the second Stooges album, and it's FUN just like the title suggests, so let's begin, now shall we?
1. Down On the Street This album is mixed pretty well. OOOH! RAAAAKHHHH. HEE! Iggy's voice sounds real badass here, and this one's sort of subtle but wild and fucked-up at the same time. Nice lead guitar. The chorus is more aggressive than the verse, but it's all pretty sexual and positive-feeling. Back when music being "sexy" meant it was good. Goddammit. DEEP IN THE NIGHT, I'M LOST IN LOVE... Then there's a shit-ton of improvised stuff like many Stooges songs have, so you'll hear a lot of that which makes the song twice as long as its pre-written mirror half.
2. Loose YES! The best and coolest song on the album, totally. It's got that AMAZING bass melody and you can hear the rhythm and lead guitar, but it's more off to the sidelines, the bass dominates, and Iggy's snotty voice that cuts straight thru yer SKULL like a sharp KNIFE. 'CUZ I'M LOOSE! ALWAYS! Aw, man, this is such a great party song, you've gotta listen to it! What more SHOULD I say? Great song.
3. T.V. Eye "LOOOOOOORD!!" - that's what Iggy yells out at the beginning before the song ends. This song has a really good beat and a neat-o bass melody and guitar riff n' stuff and you'll probably like this one also if you like the first two tracks; perfect punk energy to keep you goin' through the night! Iggy screams and hisses some more. At one part, it sounds like the song's ended, but then it starts again for a short while. That part sounds like it was recorded live or something. Man, he sounds like a wild animal...
4. Dirt This iz a slow one. A little sadder and calmer. Kinda seems like it would've influenced "My War" by Black Flag. The guitar melodies here are pretty neat. DO YA FEEL IT WHEN YA TOUCH ME? It's like the calm after the storm, I suppose... the first three tracks are real rowdy and this one seems more like... whatever you feel like it could be. Could be anything... mud turning into dirt? HAH, I didn't even realize that one! "Dirt", who woulda THUNK, man? End of Side 1.
5. 1970 Remember "1969" from the first album? Well, the Stooges came ("came", hahaha) back a year later to give you... "1970"! Wow, how amazing! The beat is even similar. Lyrically it's another sex/party/chaos sorta thing, just like all of the other songs on here, which is pretty cool 'cuz the Stooges don't sound LAME when they sing about (and I can hear some guy tellin' me, "well YOU sound lame when you TYPE about it", and to him I say, "I KNOW THAT, now FUCK OFF, MAN!"). There's even a cool saxophone solo starting towards the end of the song. Jesus whiz!
6. Fun House Even more saxo-magic! Not referring to the anglo-SAXOns here, but rather the SAXOphone... perhaps there is a connection, no? This one reminds me a bit more of "Loose". And similar beat to "T.V. Eye", beat-wise. But what the hell do I know? HEY, LET ME IN! OOOOH! OOH! OOH! TAKE IT DOWN! I FEEL ALRIGHT! OOH! HOO! !OOH HOO! !OOH LITTLE BABY GIRL LITTLE BABY BOY... sounds like Iggy's wantin' a threesome here, no? With CHILDREN, man! AAARRAAGGGGHH! WAHWAHHHOOOWAAAHHHOOOOWAHAHOWEOWEOWEOWEOWEOWOWWEOWOEOOWEOEO...
7. L.A. Blues Okay, this is a conceptual song in which a nice family is going to visit the circus, only to find out that the circus is actually really tiny and the whole thing is stepped on by a regular-sized elephants with an asshole filled with peanuts, and the whole thing just goes to hell, man. This is total chaos and total noise, with guitars, drums, saxophones, voices, and all that great stuff. It's like getting stuck in a giant hurricane with no escape. It all just swirls AROUND and AROUND and AROUND and AROUND and AROUND and AROUND and I DON'T THINK WE'RE IN TEXAS ANYMORE. It'd be really funny if the band was picking up the amplifiers and spinning them around in the room and breaking shit in the studio and stuff. That'd be hilarious. Just like a REAL LIFE TORNADO, KIDZ.
Well, that was crazy! But it wuz ze Stooge, s what you do expect? Feelin' good n' really right now, so less juss lev a' tha', sha' w'? Do go listen to the alb', y' w' like i', unless you suck! TEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Drink alcohol and party to this album.
Top 3 Favorites: 1. Loose 2. T.V. Eye 3. L.A. Blues
Year: 1985 Genre: Hardcore Punk/Heavy Metal Label: SST Records Tracks: 9 Length: 34 Minutes Style: Angry/Energetic My Rating: 7/8
By 1985, a lot of Black Flag's fanbase began to dwindle 'cuz they were becoming so damn different from all of the other bands that they had influenced. Integrating heavy metal into their music, playing slower, elements of free-jazz, a spoken word album, and all other sorts of things that were seen as "un-punk" (how ironic!), Black Flag returned once again just a few months after "Slip It In" came out to bring us this album, called "Loose Nut". Looks like that guy in the cover of the album may be having a "loose nut" himself, dontcha think? Anyways, this album is very similar musically to "Slip It In", maybe a tad bit poppier, and it includes an older song also called "Modern Man" which was written back in the early '80s.
1. Loose Nut Wow, the production is pretty far above what I'm used to hearing from this band! A lot more reverb here. Which isn't so bad. The riff is real heavy-metal sounding. Kool feed-back on this, as well. The lead guitar on the third verse sounds pretty damn awesome. A lot of layered vocals, the whole song feels like a huge wall of melodic chaos bouncing off the sides of your eardrums! And then, you've gotta love the expectable schizophrenic guitar solo from Greggy Ginny! The song speeds up and collapses into a moment of chaos at the end.
2. Bastard in Love The first song I heard from this album (in this digital age it is likely you will not hear the first song on an album first). It's pretty catchy and surprisingly poppy for a Black Flag song, but of course with that edge you'd still expect from a Black Flag. Just a lot more up-beat. Gotta love that guitar solo as well. And there's even vocal harmony in the background with either Greg Ginn or Kira Roessler (probably Greg). It's a good-feelin' song.
3. Annihilate This Week Another catchy as fuck (in a darker way) song! It's a satire on a person who goes out and gets fucked up and does drugs every week to pass time by and always parties. I love it... there's something really dark yet up-beat about it. You can hear Kira and Greg in the background yelling the names of the days of the week inbetween Henry's lines in the chorus section. Kira's voice sounds AWESOME. "But you're a regular party MACHIIIINE...". FUCK YEAH! And to make things better, there's a fucking kick-ass guitar solo that's REALLY AWESOME AND FUCK YES, THIS SONG FUCKIN' RULES YOU FUCKIN' FUCKERS SO FUCKIN' FUCK OFF YOU FUCKIN' PIECE OF FUCK! Which would be a compliment. Damn, I'm really feeling the energy from this one. Must mean it's an awesome song, man! YES!!
4. Best One Yet The intro vaguely reminds me of "Slip It In". This one's once again a little more positive-sounding than that song. TAKEALOOKAROUNDTAKEALOOKAROUNDTAKEALOOKAROUND! THIS WILL BE THE BEST ONE YET! The bass riff is real cool too, so listen to it, man/woman!
5. Modern Man This song's older than the other songs on this album, and an earlier version of it can be found on the "1982 Demos" album. The intro is slow and similar to Black Sabbath with the thumping bass pedal and that demonic-sounding riff. But this all speeds up after many repeats of that... to turn into something a lot more fast and the riff changes into a chaotic, energetic speedy fucker that reminds me of driving the car through the street in the daytime and banging my skull on the air in front of me! Henry sings about a character, "Modern Man", representing the state of people who have no time for intimacy or to be personal and are so fixated on work and the like that they don't even have a desire to enjoy life as much as be a gear in the machine. Another really good song, once again.
6. This is Good Sort of an erratic guitar riff to this one. A little bit like "Swinging Man", but slower, riff-wise. A little too repetitive, still, so it drags on even though it's probably one of the worse songs on the album.
7. I'm the One A little better than the track before it, but still kind of falls short compared to the first five songs. It's fast and it's got a verse and chorus and shit. Like that. Hehe. Maybe I just don't feel as good as I did earlier.
8. Sinking A slow song. Neat bass riff. It's a little less energetic. Not downright fucked-up like the My War stuff, but here's Henry singing "it hurts to be alone". One minute in there's a real good guitar solo, but it's also very short. Starts out kinda melodic but quickly flails into atonal sadness. 'nother guitar solo at two minute and fifteen seconds in. Come to think of it, this song sounds a lot like the kind of stuff they'd be playing on "In My Head", the slow psycho-delic sorta stuff. This one's pretty good.
9. Now She's Black The beginning is slow. The beat vaguely reminds me of the Butthole Surfers, somehow. Did Black Flag even listen to the Butthole Surfers? I do nut know. This song's about Henry being really in love with a girl who ends up turning on him. There's a slow guitar-only bridge section with Henry speaking the lines rather than singing them. BLACKKK!!! BLAAACK!!! FLAG.
That's the end of the album. Many people don't like the album for its production or the fact that it sounds too much like heavy metal, but that does sort of make it stand out and I like it in some ways better than the similar album that came before it, "Slip It In". There's some real high-energy moments to the album, however, especially the first five songs. YEAH! So, go check it aut if you haven't already. It's a real cool album, mannnnn. WOWEE ZOWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY.
Top 3 Favorites: 1. Annihilate This Week 2. Modern Man 3. Bastard In Love
Year: 1984 Genre: Hardcore Punk Label: Gasatanka Records Tracks: 18 Length: 36 Minutes Style: Political/Funny/Mysterious My Rating: 6/8
Third Strike is the second album (despite what you'd assume from the title) by White Flag, after their first record called "S is for Space". This album is almost twice as long as the first White Flag album, and a lot of the songs veer more into the hard rock realm instead of nothing but hardcore. Well, even though I'm pretty tired today (as I was yesterday), I am going to attempt to review this album 'cuz I only gave you a couple reviews last week. So, pop on your record/CD/tape player or whatever you listen to music with and enjoy hearing me state the obvious about your favorite and least favorite hits by White Flag!
1. Cross Dogs Very similar riff to their song "Shattered Badge", but this song is about a rock star taking drugs and drinking alcohol to ease the stress and confusion of the life. Guitar solo mid-way through the song.
2. Psycho Cop This song paints a policeman as a "black knight", who goes out, using his weapon and his sense of pride to instill fear and respect into his victims. There's a neat vocal harmony in one part of the song.
3. Shadow Zone This song's a tad slower than the first two tracks. Cool bass riff. At some parts the singer's voice kind of reminds me of Darby Crash's growl.
4. Celebate This is a much faster song about a person who "tries his hand at love", gets rejected, and decides to become a priest and ends up molesting little boys because "love's a jinx". The shouted chorus just goes "CELIBATE! CELIBATE!", though the title of the song is mis-spelled.
5. You've Got a Problem This song's about a relationship gone wrong (I think) and it's got an awesome chorus melody.
6. At the Mountains of Madness This song's kinda slow. The vocals are in harmony and it's more relaxed-feeling than some of the other songs on the album. Then there's a guitar solo after the second chorus. The lyrics are kind of sad. Pat Fear sings on this song.
7. Victors of the Universe This song's really fast. It's about drug addiction (heroin, probably) and names a man named "Todd", as the one who will save his addicted slaves. 'nother kool gee-tarr solo.
8. Ticket to Moscow Very fiery feel to this song. Sounds like they're playing more than one rhythm guitar on this song. This song is an anti-communist anthem, criticizing people who believe that communism will save us from the problems of the economy and the current government, and how it would make us "equally poor and equally sad". It's not that often that you hear a hardcore punk song that kinda defends the U.S. government. And it isn't perfect, but they make some good points, here.
9. Flaming Halos Cool psychedelic-sounding intro... this song goes on even further to question the norms of the punk scene, asking them why they claim to be so anti-establishment and revolutionary when they hide in the shadows and seem to want to BE the establishment. The song compares these types to "soliders waging wars with leather souls and six-string guns". Also, the song asks that even if the government was overthrown, then who would take its place and how would we improve it? Al Bum (the singer) finishes off by saying that he's "tired of all your anti-answers". End of Side A.
10. Flipside This song pokes fun at the Flipside video-zine and compares it to a punk version of MTV, for the punk rocker who wants to sit on the couch and watch bands play in the comfort of his own home... which is pretty much what I've been doing for years, as a matter of fact. Hmm... well, the song has a pretty damn poppy-sounding chorus. And that guitar solo is totally fucking awesome! Guitar solos rule. Awesome song, even if it's pretty much making fun of me! Hah hah hah. Someday soon I'll be in the house a lot less.
11. Wake Up Screaming The lyrics here are pretty dark. In the chorus, the band says "Just like ______ said to me, what irons will enshackle, White Flag will set free". There's one part where there's a really weird-sounding vocal harmony involving a regular voice and a sped-up sounding voice. It's pretty fast also. Cool verse riff. "These four walls are my only friends, they'll always be around".
12. Festive Shapes Awesome melody here, and a fuckin' hot beat as well. This song's about an outlaw horse-rider out west going through towns and robbing them before riding off into the sun.
13. Over My Head This song makes fun of '80s glam metal. And the beat is cool.
14. Overlords of the Underworld Really fast and it sounds a lot like the Germs (in a good way). Yet another fuck-off to communist punks ("Communist Punks Fuck Off!"), or as they put it, "leaders preaching leaderlessness", creating a set of rules in a supposedly free-thinking faction of society, "intimidating the kids that don't understand".
15. Middle-Class Hell Awesome guitar riff and there's some cool lead-guitar also. This song's a satire on a middle class kid who lives a comfortable life and gets the things he wants from his parents, but only wants more and wishes he could "be like Ace Frehley, smash my Delorean into cars" and wear more expensive clothes and hang out with rich people and all that crap, instead of just being happy with what he does have. Real cool-sounding song!
16. There's a Place This is a cover of the Beatles. I actually never heard the Beatles version before (haven't listened to very much Beatles stuff), but this is done in a hard punk rock style. It's a love song, talking about a person who can feel better by spending time with his/her lover.
17. Pieces of Chris Trent This song has a real funky-sounding bass melody. Slower verse and fast chorus. You know... how that... go...es. And there's a guitar solo also. This solo actually has two different lead guitars, which makes it slightly different. You hear a slight clippet of a television show before the song ends. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. s. (that's the record skipping... means you need to press "stop", now)
Well, that is "Third Strike", the second album by White Flag (not to be confused with the Black kind), and one thing I have noticed is that the album cover art resembles an American flag, with the White Flag logo instead of the stars over a blue square and red and blue stripes, with White Flag playing and the U.S. army overlapping this, obviously. Pat Fear gets to sing more on this album also, which I like. The album, similar to the Dead Kennedys, also does a lot of criticism of the conventions of the punk scene which had accumulated by this time. Some conventions can be cool, but I'm glad someone actually had the guts to question communism... there aren't many punks in communist countries! Anyways, that's my review, and it wasn't great, but that's as great as I'm feelin' today, so deal with it. Adios, amigos!
Top 3 Favorites: 1. Flaming Halos 2. Flipside 3. Overlords of the Underworld
Year: 2010 Genre: Doom Metal Label: Sekt Ov Gnozis Tracks:6 Length: 49 Minutes Style:Mysterious My Rating: 6/8
Lord of Doubts is a Russian heavy metal band from Russia... where exactly, I do not know. But Russia. The former U.S.S.R., y'know? Whatever you wanna call it. The band formed in 2008 and this is their first album. It has six songs on it and each one is pretty long and it's fuckin' heavy! Very nice, slow riffage that you can just get stoned/drunk to... great fucked-up sounding vocals as well. I just found out about these guys last night. And this is very good. One complaint is the MIXING... God, they never fucking learn. Mixing your album to be loud as possible does NOT make it sound better, just more condensed, and even though it might seem illogical that mixing your album makes it sound more compact and "small", this is actually the case. So, I have personally re-mixed the album so that I can fully enjoy it, but I probably won't release this re-mix since I could get sued/bitched at and shit. Which I can understand. A budding rock band needs its money. And I say this having illegally downloaded tons of music from new artists. Hey, I can't find fucking School Jerks records in my FYE! I don't have a credit card, either. Well, enough about that. It's review time.
1. Temple of the Riff The power of this one lies in the riff itself (like the title suggests), the tempo, and the singer's voice. It's slow and sludgy as fuck... in the beginning, you can hear sound clips of people chanting, maybe "Hail Satan" or hail something else, it's hard to make it out. But the riff is really good and just sorta plods along like a giant monster. After a few minutes, you hear Art's (the singer & guitarist) fucked-up sounding voice, and he beckons his "brethren" and "children" to come to the temple, and to come to the altar... of... THE RIFF. Maybe it's the riff of this song. Near the 3-minute mark you hear an airy sort of guitar solo. The song has a just an extremely monstrous, powerful vibe to it. This is a really good song and you should listen to it.
2. Take Me There The song starts with another television show soundbyte. This is actually the shortest song on the album, just over 5 minutes long. Not nearly as good as Temple of the Riff, but still good. Those last two chords of the verse riff are pretty interesting. Art's voice is echoey. Also listen to that drum beat! It's far from basic like many songs are. At the end of the song, the guitar fades out first, then the drums, then the bass guitar. Reminds me of the ending of "Leeech" by the Melvins.
3. Endless Slumber Endless Slumber... wouldn't that be kind of like dying? Or at least permanently comatose? Which would be endless slumber? Hee hee ho. After a long string of feedback in one ear and a lead guitar melody playing the main riff, the song segues into the main riff with a drum beat and bass and all that jazz. There's even a neat organ solo in the middle of the song. After another section, there's another fuzzed-out guitar solo. After about six minutes, the song transitions to an ambient, spacey part with wispy sounds and periodic trebly splashes.
4. Satan's Magic Smoke This one has an AWESOME guitar sound that sounds just... awesome. It's cool. Almost sounds like a singing person, but it's not. Just a weird effect. In the second half, the guitar changes to a more low-pitched, bass sound. Just a lot of cool guitar-play and such. It's a good, relaxing instrumental tune.
5. Heavier Than Universe Yaey! More singing! Gotta love Art's drunk slurred sounding voice. It sounds great. Just a heavy trudge through the heavy mud beneath your thighs... awesome psychedelic-sounding guitar solo in the song, too! There's a short bass-guitar solo in the song, too.
6. Electric World Electric World... where everthing is ELECTRIC... kind of like EARTH, as a matter of fact! The song starts out with a bunch of feedback and then kicks off with the main riff played, and the guitars in this song have a really cool sound. This one reminds me a lot of Black Sabbath. The singing has been modified to have a really cool, echoey, trippy effect to it, so that's a plus. It's hard to understand what he's saying, though. Awesome-ass solo after the first verse. I just want to sit down and listen to this fucking song somewhere else besides on my computer. It's loud and powerful, and you want it to make love to you and your friends in a rock orgy in the privacy of your own room. I'd fuck to it. Weowowoweowowoweowowoweowowowowowowowow.
So, that's the end. By the way, if you're wondering who's in the band, according to the CD, they are: Art (guitar, singing), Andres (bass guitar), and V.M. (drums), so thank them for this album. There's not much else I can say, but if you love slow, loud, heavy psychedelic music, then this iz for you! So go and check it aut, why don't ya? Have a nice day, folks.
Top 3 Favorites: 1. Temple of the Riff 2. Electric World 3. Satan's Magic Smoke
Ratspool is a self-proclaimed "cyber-hardcore" band from Colombia. The group formed circa 2009 and there's three members of the band, whose names I do not know, so if the band would be able to tell me, that would be really nice of you. They put out a demo last year in '09 called "Ratspool Say Fuck You", and now THIS one, which is called "Jrutos de Lus", is a seven-song EP released over the internet, though it's really long enough to be considered an album. But I really liked it as soon as I heard these songs for the first time. The band's musical style is a noisy breed of hardcore similar to Flipper with electronic beats. It's cool legit stuff.
1. Intro The track starts off with a soundclip of a television/radio program in Spanish, and others are repeated during the song, as a strange electronic tune plays in the background.
2. Sueños Prestados Cool sound to the guitars the band does have. The electronic beats sound weird in a good way. The singer's voice adds to the franticness of the song. It's pretty fast. Two-chord riff. Awesome beat. The noisy aspects of the guitar sound awesome and fit in perfectly with the song... kind of reminds me of early Sonic Youth. It's pretty chaotic and awesome.
3. Jesuxcristoel Different singer on this song (one of the two male members). The song halts and breaks into a noise section after a few verse sections, and after a short bit the beat starts up again for a bridge section. Then the main singer returns to the mike again to sing for the rest of the song. And more awesome noize guitar bits interspliced between the sung lines. I thought that sounded awesome.
4. Joven de Versalles This song's a little slower than the two songs before it. It has an angry-sounding bassline. A little bit like Flipper. There are weird little hyper-sped-up sounds going on in the sides of your ears, sounding like a cross between water, mice, and a ray-gun. The guitars sound like chiming bells on crack in some parts. The singer sings really fast in some parts of the song. Neat bass riff. In the end of the song, all you can hear are the creepy weird noises and the bass guitar.
5. Se Me Safron los Cables The song starts with the beat, a very weird bass sound, and that clanging guitar. In one part she sings the same line repeatedly to the rolling drum beat and they sound really cool together. In that part after that you hear an awesome guitar riff. Man, that's an awesome beat. After the main parts of the song are over, the song melts into a doom-metal-esque drone with buzzing and humming noises layered over it.
6. Candy Another great song on the record. The beat alternates from mid-tempo to twice that speed and it's got a cool guitar melody also. The final part is really fast and aggressive-sounding. Shortest song on the EP.
7. Puñalanda Auditiva Click-clack-click-clack... that's how the beat sounds. The singer yells something in Spanish (which is the language all of the songs are in) and cool video game-ish sounds sound to her voice. This is the fastest song on the EP! The second half of the song is slower. At some points the rhythm guitar buildup gets thicker than others. The song dissolves into pure sonic sludge at the end...
Definitely an original-sounding band! The music is really cool and you should check it aut, especially if you are a fan of Flipper, Big Black, or Sonic Youth. I kept on coming back after the first listen and you can hear the whole thing on the band's MySpace page. They have a 4-song demo, also. So, go check it out, it's pretty awesome and great for all fans of noise punk! That's my review for today. Seeya later.
Top 3 Favorites: 1. Jesuxcristoel 2. Puñalanda Auditiva 3. Joven de Versalles
Year: 2008 Genre: Hardcore Punk/Noise Label: Deer Healer Records Tracks: 2 Length: 10 Minutes Style: Angry My Rating: 6/8
Well, well well... if it isn't a very mentally disabled lil' band called Mentally CHALLENGED? I bet they were REALLY CHALLENGED to come up with that name, AH HA HA HA HA HA imanasshole HA HA AH HA AH HA... ha. But, they are a very noise hardcore band from Brighton, Massachusetts. Pretty sure they formed around 2006 or 2007, but this is their first 7" single. I first found out about these guys about a year ago, but I had only heard the songs on their MySpace page, so my appreciation of the Mentally Challenged was delayed. They've released several cassette tape EPs as well. But I'm here to talk about this single today. So I will. Some more. Again.
1. Disappeared Starts off with some feedback. This song is really fast and has an extremely intense, aggressive feel to it. The chord progressions, chords, and beats themselves are anything but generic hardcore, however. The singer vaguely sounds like Damaged-era Henry Rollins. Backing vocalists softly speak the lyrics along with the tortured screams. The riff changes during a bridge section where the song cools down for a moment, as the beat becomes more erratic and chaotic and off-tempo. The vocals are kind of scary in this part. This is just awesome. The beat isn't even coherent or on-time AT ALL. The song ends and is outroduced by some more noise and feedback. Now, for Side B.
2. Surveillance Slow, thumping bass beat, similar to the beginning of "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath. The riff is really negative/ominous sounding and slightly metallic in some parts. The singer's screams can be heard, but they're muffled by the barrage of sonic chaos from the other instruments and the echoes that haunt the room. The melody is awesome. I imagine a skinny creature struggling to survive, crawling through the streets or a very ravaged room as shards of broken glass and metal and other "unclean" things are scattered on the floor. The second half of the song is merely instrumental and there's no singing. But it's a pretty long song.
I'd have to say that a band like Mentally Challenged is a breath of fresh air from the same-ness that's been choking up the music world, 'cause they sound original. Music isn't dead yet, you fucking bastards. Seriously, fuck anyone who tries telling you that. That's down right self-defeatism. I may be a little destructive myself, but why go around thinking like that when you're not ready to die and you have the ability to change things? Those people are already dead on the inside and need to stop wasting food and water. However, if I had to compare them to anyone, they do remind me a lot of Black Flag. Check out their other songs if you can -- they have some other EPs out besides this and I found a compilation of their stuff called "Year One". Mentally Challenged gets my thumbs-up of approval. YAEY.
Year: 2006 Genre: Ambient Rock/Post-Punk Label: Wrong Island Records Tracks: 6 Length: 59 Minutes Style: Calm My Rating: 6/8
HYMS is a one-man-band created by Peter Smiloff around 2004, starting as a side-project but now something bigger. Despite only having one member, he manages to perform live shows as well. This is the first HYMS release as far as I know of, with another one being a split album with Grrrl Friend and a 12-minute digital single called "Cora". The music of HYMS is simple, yet very large-sounding and Peter manages to evoke a vast array of emotional energy out of a single instrument. Most of the songs are close to 10 minutes long, so expect a lengthy experience when listening to this album.
1. Amber The momentum of this song is built off a repeated low-pitched B note, but there are accompanying lighter melodies that harmonize with this note. By midway through the song the harmonizing lighter sounds really create an airy, wispy sound to song, like a person flying on their way to Heaven (given that it exists in the sky) or some shit like that. The song fades out.
2. Angels From Ashes Wake The first part's melody is made up of four descending power-chords. Kind of reminds me of waking up near a snowy mountain or something. There's a high-pitched lead guitar note progression harmonizing with the main riff. After around a minute and a half, the song changes to another part with a really nice melody and it's real nice to listen to. Later on in the song you hear some real distorted, sludgy riffs as well. Out of that arises a cleaner melody that ends the song.
3. Doves This is one of my favorite HYMS songs and the first HYMS song I ever heard. Once again, it's one of those songs that just sound like it's the kind of music you'd hear when you die or something like that. Like being trapped in a room with one lightbulb and knowing nothing else is ever going to happen again. The main melody of the song is a guitar riff being played backwards that sounds kind of creepy and peaceful at the same time, as some forwards-playing chords are played over the main riff. Then lead guitars cut in later on and stuff like that.
4. Escape Continuum Here's another song on the album I like a lot. When I hear this song, I think of waking up in the morning in the summer and feeling like the day is going to be pretty good. It has an awesome guitar melody. I really like it. There's a neat buzzing noise in the background in the key of E that sets the ambience to the song. Great song to listen to in the morning on a sunny day.
5. Lost Skies (A Lifetime of Heartache) Similar guitar effect to "Doves" -- a backwards played riff. More melodic buzzing. More of a sad feeling on this one. More sounds and guitars are thrown into the mix. It's the longest song on the album, clocking in at not far from 14 minutes!
6. Moments Into Ours Cool metallic (not the musical style) sound to the background synth on this song. A lot of jarring loud swooping guitar chords come to take stabs at a potential solar dome made of metal or a smooth crystal, perhaps. At two minutes into the song, a two-note lead melody is introduced to the song, which adds more texture. After three minutes, a fuzzy synth melody begins to play as well. Pretty heavy. Then there's a distorted-sounding guitar riff integrated into the song later on after that. And more and more elements keep on getting added to the rollin' train of musicality. At the 9th minute, everything else abruptly cuts out except for one last guitar playing a lead tune. Then it fades out.
Well, it's definitely a change of pace from what I usually listen to, but it's good. People who like guitars and music made by guitars may or may not like this album. Evidently they were good enough to be signed by Wrong Island. And ya know what THAT means... the album is FREE! YAEY! I dunno, it might not be aggressive or diverse enough for everyone's tastes. The music is serene and calm and the songs drag on for a really long time. This is the kind of record you listen to alone at home for 24 hours and then proceed to go fuck shit up afterwards 'cause you've gotten a good rest. Anyways, if you want to listen to it, you can download the album by following this link:
http://www.last.fm/music/HYMS/HYMS
Check it out. Make a little CD case with album art for it or something, I dunno. I should probably try that. But that's all I have to say for now. I'll try to do another review tomorrow.
Top 3 Favorites: 1. Doves 2. Escape Continuum 3. Moments Into Ours
Year: 1981 Genre: Hardcore Punk Label: SST Records Tracks:18 Length: 14 Minutes Style: Political My Rating: 6/8
The Punch Line was the first full album released by the Minutemen in 1981, a year after their first EP, "Paranoid Time". When recording this album, the band tried to save as much money as possible by recording all the songs in one take in the order they were to appear on the album in on an already used tape late at night during one session. The album is also pretty short, as a result. Most songs on the album are less than one minute long. SO LET'S MAKE LIKE A MINUTEMEN AND REALLY QUICKLY JUMP TO THE CONCLUSION WHICH IS THAT I'M GOING TO REVIEW THIS ALBUM WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT.
1. Search Very funky feelin'. I like it. Cool guitar melody and a lot of neat-o bass guitar from Mike Watt. I swear he said "put your dick inside" in one part. Tehehe. Pretty danceable, though.
2. Tension This one's a bit faster. The main melody is played on the bass guitar and it reminds me vaguely of the bass riff for "T.V. Party" by Black Flag, though I think that song came later. Neat guitar solo with a good accompanying rhythm riff. The second part is a lot faster. One of the few songs on the album over a minute long.
3. Games Here's a guitar riff that sounds simultaneously upbeat and downbeat. What the hell either of those mean, don't ask me! I'm just a FUCKFACE. HAHAHAHA. But it's a good song. I like it. Very short, though.
4. Boiling This song's about racism and racial segregation and hate crimes in modern society. The band is pretty talented at creating melodies that go beyond the simplicity of most of their contemporaries.
5. Disguises This song has an awesome bass melody and beat and it warns of "fascism in disguise".
6. The Struggle This song talks about the struggle of the working class throughout history against their oppressors, and D Boon proclaims that his sons could be the ones to finally tear down the barrier between the rich and the poor.
7. Monuments Awesome beat and rhythm guitar melody. That part cuts out during the verse, and then there's more rhythm in the chorus. Lots of different parts in the song besides typical verse/chorus shit. Really cool, almost no-wavey feeling.
8. Ruins Aggressive vocals. Awesome fast beat. George Hurley sings during the middle part of the song. The guitars sound like chiming bells.
9. Issued The song pokes fun at the military, making the calls of a general yelling to "issue your number". The psychedelic-funk licks keep coming. End of Side A.
10. The Punch Line I like the guitar melody on this one, also. Kind of reminds me of a fast train or something. D Boon sings with contempt of General George Custer, describing how he must have died looking like a porcupine from the arrows that Indians shot into his body, and also with "shit in his pants". Hah.
11. Song for El Salvador This song is an instrumental. The bass melody is just great, here. Really short song, though. D Boon was actually a member of NGO Committee in Solidarity with the People in El Salvador, a socialist United States organization which opposed U.S. funding and support of the Salvadoran military.
12. History Lesson This song's really good, too. It describes the human quest for power throughout history, starting all the way back to our cave-man days, to the invention of religion, tools, weapons, metal, and proclaiming that "it was all for power".
13. Fanatics This song calls the popular political ideologies "fanatics" and questioning their support of death.
14. No Parade I really like the melody for this song. It's awesome. Easily one of the best songs on the album. It criticizes the entertainment industry which has tried to glamorize war, especially war and killings in the past, even though their are no parades from the real native american heroes who died trying to protect their land at the hands of greedy colonists.
15. Straight Jacket What a sexy bass melody. Cool drum sound, also.
16. Gravity This song alternates between quiet and tense to aggressive and loud. I like it.
18. Static Similar beat to "Warfare", but a little faster. Nice guitar sound. The song warns the right wing that their ideas could lead to the destruction of the whole country. That's all.
The songs are real short and fast, so it's hard to really SINK into anything, but it matters because there's so much melody and complexity in the music of this band as opposed to most punk groups. It's a good album, though. Hadn't really listened to it before this review. Awesome cover-art, by the way. But check it aut, and most of you probably had, but I hadn't, and I now I have, so I hope you also have. So, HAVE a good evening. I'm gonna go see if I can get in on my first band practice tonight!
Top 3 Favorites: 1. No Parade 2. History Lesson 3. Song for El Salvador
Year: 1970 Genre: Heavy Metal Label: Vertigo Records Tracks:8 Length: 42 Minutes Style: Mysterious/Emotional/Political My Rating: 8/8
"Paranoid" by Black Sabbath is one of the most famous and influential heavy metal albums of all time. This band has influenced more bands in my musical appetite than you could shake a stick at, including Black Flag, the Melvins, the Butthole Surfers, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Sourpuss, the Ramones, SoundGarden, etc. blah blah blah blah blah blah bleehhhhhhhhhhhhhh! BLEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Yeah, I bought this album on CD a few months ago but had trouble getting it to work in my car, so I sort of put it on the back burner for awhile, but it is really good! Very heavy, moving, dark, intricate music. Some of it is slow and some of it is fast, but people who were "there" back in the day say it was a great breath of fresh air from the dying hippie movement in the early '70s. But I was really listening to the Sabbath-influenced bands first, so I can't totally see it the same way 'cause I don't listen to a whole ton of '60s music, especially the "lame" kind (though it was the kind of stuff my parents used to play when I was little a whole lot, so I can understand how annoying it'd be to hear nothing but that). But enough history shit, this is the second Black Sabbath record and it was released the same year as the first one, so they were recording a lot, evidently! What DID they record? That's what I'm about to review...
1. War Pigs/Luke's Wall Absolutely beautiful intro... pretty slow and bluesy-sounding... it's just got that feelin'... feeling at rock-bottom and like it can't get any worse so it can only get better even though it sucks (not the song), and there's this neat sound in the background that sounds like a train, but the pitch of the sound is in harmony with the music itself. Of course, this song describes and denounces the "war pigs" in the government that control the world, describing them as sorcerers of destruction and poisoning and brainwashing the people. After about two minutes into the song, the song changes once again for a more upbeat, cool part with awesome singing and a cool-ass guitar melody and beat. There is one part that it almost seems that Black Flag almost directly took the riff for "Jealous Again" from in this song. At the very end the song unexpectedly speeds up before coming to a stop. It's one of the most famous Black Sabbath songs and the longest one on this album.
2. Paranoid This is the song that they wrote really quickly in the studio during the recording of the album, but don't let that fool you... it's really good. It's one of the faster songs on the album. The vocal melody is great... hell, it all is! Cool bass sound, also. Awesome guitar solo in the middle of the song. The song captures the sadness of a person whose mind is so overtaken by instability, insanity, and fear that he is unable to enjoy life.
3. Planet Caravan This is a softer, calmer song, but it's really sad sounding. There are little wisps of melody floating around the main bass-dominated melody here. Ozzy sings using a ghostly-sounding vocal effect. The second half of this song really is what makes the song for me, with all of that beautiful lead guitar melody fucking the little vaginas inside your ear... it feels so good. It sounds awesome. Such a good song.
4. Iron Man One of the most famous rock songs of all-time, and deservedly so. How many times do you hear a guitar riff more powerful-sounding than the verse riff for Iron Man? Not many, I guess. But yeah, that riff MAKES this song. Especially when played using the chords. The thumping bass drum in the beginning sets the creepy feeling that explodes into this monster so huge and powerful that it would not be as wise to try to escape as much as to just embrace it. As for the lyrical content itself, it's about a man who travels to the future to see save humanity from destruction, only to be turned into steel, watching the people who care not for him, eventually coming back to life and destroying the world in an act of revenge. Some parts of the song are fast, but for the most part it's a slow, heavy song. One of the greatest songs ever. End of Side A.
5. Electric Funeral Starts off with a moody wah-wah-sounding intro melody and once again a slow tempo. Very doomy and negative-sounding melody and attitude to this song. And that's pretty much what it's about -- describes civilization as an "electric funeral" destroying the human race. There's a faster part in the middle of the song.
6. Hand of Doom The song starts out alright, with a certain bassline dominating the melody and it's pretty slow. The song's sound abruptly changes during the middle to a completely different section with a different riff and a different beat and that part is really cool. Really good singing. Then towards the end there iz a guitar solo with a crashing drum beat behind it. At about five minutes the song changes back to how it sounded in the beginning.
7. Rat Salad Mmm, rat salad! Sounds delicious. This one's an instrumental tune in which all of the members show off their skills at their instruments, including a lengthy drum solo at the end. It's pretty good, especially the lead guitar melody, but I like some of the other songs better.
8. Jack the Stripper/Faeries Wear Boots It's not Jack the RIPPER, it's Jack the STRIPPER, he just shows up at peoples' houses and gets naked! Hee heeeeeeee. The beginning of the song is slow and pretty damn metal-ly (now a thousand metalheads are going to kill my ass) because there's so much lead guitar and it's slow and it's got them funky bass tunes and all of this other shit because I'm too lazy to come up with some bullshit pseudo-intellectual interpretation of the melodic arrangements of this song. Anyways, after that, there's a real cool faster part with a cool riff and it's pretty cool and Ozzy sings cool and all of this other stuff. Duh-duh-duh-DAH! The song's about a guy who sees REAL faeries and finds out that they wear boots, and his doctor thinks he's been doing too many drugs. Lotta crazy lead guitar stringing out of the guitarist's head after the singing part. And then the song returns to a continuation of the first section of the song. The song fades out and then...
IT'S ALL OVER. FUCKERS!!! THE WORLD HAS ENDED FROM A NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST WHILE YOU WERE FRIVOLOUSLY READING THIS AND COULD HAVE ACTUALLY DONE SOMETHING TO STOP IT WHILE YOU HAD THE CHANCE... BUT NO, YOU'VE GOTTA HAVE YOUR FUCKING BLACK SABBATH AND LISTEN TO YOUR PRECIOUS LITTLE MUSIC AND READ REVIEWS FROM SOME ASS-KISSING FAN TO REMIND YOURSELF HOW GREAT A BAND YOU ALREADY LIKE IS AND HOW GREAT IT IS THAT SOMEBODY ELSE LIKES THAT BAND THAT YOU LIKE AS IF THAT MAKES THE QUALITY OF THE MUSIC ITSELF ANY GREATER... nah, just fucking around. TEEHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (proceeds to make ape noises for five hours straight). Well I'll be a barrel of pickled donkey testicles if nearly every song on this record didn't get totally famous. And it was well-deserved fame. Many bands took the band's musical style to heart and put their own twist on it or improved upon it, but this band will stay in the collective conscience of 14-year-old boys for decades to come. G'BYE, 14-YEAR-OLDS!
Top 3 Favorites: 1. Planet Caravan 2. Iron Man 3. Paranoid
Year: 1985 Genre: Hardcore Punk Label: None Tracks: 4 Length: 7 Minutes Style: Political My Rating: 5/8
SS Kids were a french hardcore punk group in the 1980s from Dunkerque. The band later released a single as "Human Being", but this is their first record and there's not much info on the band, but it's pretty good...
1. Chemical War Starts out with the sounds of the band members coughing... probably from all o' those KEMIKALZ! It's mildly speedy and it has a cool beat. Catchy but typical shout-along chorus.
2. Disorder Faster than the first song. Group-shouted vocals. Kind of a cool growl sort of thing they do at the end of a sung line. I think one of the members of the band may be female. They're actually singing "DISORDER" in the chorus in a French accent so they don't really pronounce it right. That's the end of Side A.
3. Why Not This one has a cool, energetic-sounding guitar riff. The beat is pretty similar to the first song. "WHY NOOOOOOOAWAWAWAWUUUGH". Pretty cool vocals, here.
4. Get Out Really cool riff and a fast but awesome beat. The bassline sounds just like one I tried using for a song I wrote that I eventually scrapped because the recording of it sounded awful. But if this doesn't get you dancing or at least bobbing your head, then I dunno what will...
So, that's the end. I dunno if the members of the band went onto anything great other than the one other 7" they did and the name change, but who knows? I give this record a 5/8 (sorry, rating-haters) because it's entertaining to listen to but they're just another standard hardcore band and they don't really offer anything new at all that I couldn't get from another band. At least they sound like they were having fun doing it, though... sometimes the fun transfers over to the listener; that's what I find. But it's decent and if you have the time, give it a listen. Do it for Chuck. NOW. NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.
Year: 2010 Genre: Hardcore Punk Label: None Tracks: 9 Length: 12 Minutes Style: Angry/Violent My Rating: 6/8
Reckless Aggression is a skinhead hardcore group from Victoria, Australia that formed last year and their sole purpose pretty much seems to be to play punk rock and piss people off (one time they pretended they were going to play a show with a flyer and everything only to never even show up). It seems they're currently in a state of not being able to perform/being broken up/I dunno and they're not selling copies of the tapes 'cause they're sold out and shit, but I'm going to review this tape anyways 'cause I thought it was pretty good.
1. Senseless Behavior Cool riff. Really angry vocals. They sound just like the name of the only remaining member, whose name is... "Meatdog". Yes. But it's a pretty awesome-sounding song. No lyrics sheet, so I dunno what they're saying.
2. Nobody This one's really fast. Once again, they have a tendency to write real cool chord progressions. The middle section is slower -- there's a real cool thing the drummer does during that part, but I dunno what the word for it is. Really energetic, awesome-sounding song.
3. Blood On the Streets Slower tempo. From what I can vaguely make out from the lyrics it's probably some anthem to violence and shit like that. Awesome beat. The part at the end gets speedy, though.
4. Wonderful World Once again, awesome guitar riff! "What a wonderful world it is..." -- that's the lyrics for the chorus part. The singing is pretty good here, also.
5. Waiting For the Night Slow verse, fast chorus... you know how that goes. Still cool though, nonetheless.
6. Crusties Fear Would they mean "Crusties" as in crust punks, "Crustie" the Clown, or those little hard boogers that get caught in the sides of your nose when you haven't picked it in a really long time? Well, they're all fearing right now... fearing something, at least.
7. Reckless Aggression A theme song! YAEY! Fucking cool-as-somethingthat'sreallycool guitar riff. So is the chorus riff! I love it. A real fast song sure to stir up any pit or dingy room with a tape player or whatever you're listening to this being played in.
8. Nothing to Give This one actually has a one-note lead guitar solo at 0:53 in the song... AMAZING!!!!! Not much I can really think of to say about this one, but it is a good song.
9. Dead End The fastest song. Perhaps they were saving up all of their fast-energy up for this song at the very end. And now it IS the very end, man... or woman... I don't know. Geez, looks like time iz up.
So, I thought the songwriting here was pretty good. Perhaps the lyrics were pretty lame or something, but I don't really know 'cause I can't read them. Chock-full of cool chords and beats, though, that's usually pretty good. You'll probably like this if you like hardcore punk or oi or street punk or whatever. It's just really angry, tough-sounding fast music that sounds like it was recorded into a microphone made of broken glass because that would be an angry and tough-sounding thing to do. HAH. I'm just bullshitting you guys, really. But I liked it. So let's leave it at that. Don't know if these guys will be back anytime soon.
Top 3 Favorites: 1. Reckless Aggression 2. Wonderful World 3. Nothing to Give
Genre: Folk Rock/Hardcore Punk Label: None Tracks: 7 Length: 27 Minutes Style: Political My Rating: 6/8
It was about 2 years ago when I first discovered Drunken Butterfly via the information super-highway (internet). They are heavily influenced by the girl-punk bands of the '90s like Bikini Kill, the Gits, Sonic Youth, Babes in Toyland, etc., and their lyrics describe their feminist anarchist views. When they first started out they had a more hardcore-oriented sound (at least from what I remember), but now with their first release their sound has matured more and there's a lot more emphasis on acoustic instruments and only a few angry songs. And they're named after one of the best Sonic Youth songs, so that's a plus also (probably what compelled me to listen to the band in the first place, other than it being during a time when anything labeled as "grunge" was instantly cool to me). It's an EP, but it's pretty long, and now it's time to JUMP RIGHT IN (head first this time) to the review. Of Drunken Butterfly. Dude.
1. Blairaq An obvious combination of the words "Blair" (as in Tony Blair) and "Iraq", it's an anti-war song with soft vocals and acoustic guitars and stuff like that. Lots of neat other instruments besides standard guitars and drums -- I checked their page and apparently they're using a cow xylophone, a ukelele, and a melodica... sounds like they just picked up whatever instruments they could find and used them for the band! The band insists how they care about a bunch of things like the welfare of soldiers and dying children. And wearing togas. It has a really beautiful melody to it. Real good song. Also the longest one.
2. April the First One of the rougher cuts on here. There's a real gritty 'lectric guitar sound to this song and they scream and yell instead of singing nicely here. It's an anti-government anthem about wanting freedom and privacy from the government and protesting as a way to maintain freedom. The song encourages listeners to stop being "full of shit" and go out and stop the government from taking over peoples' lives and ruining the world even more.
3. Ballotpaper Blues I really do like that melodica. And the main riff is played on a ukelele. Pretty 'punk' if you ask me. It's about the confusion of not being able to decide who to vote for to take control of the government and the general disinformation plaguing people in just about anywhere as the politicians of the world (most of 'em) always pull smokescreens over their real intents to look good so they can get what they want. This is the one song on the EP that you can download for free.
4. The Vibrator Song A song about wankin' off with a vibrator (if you have a vagina, that iz). Hahahahahahahahahaha. And her mom believes that having a "plastic cock" inside is a sin. One worthy of going to hell, possibly. Golly geez, that sure sounds pretty bad. I just can't help but laugh. That's what the song's about... her parents thinking that it's evil to masturbate with a vibrator. On this one it's mostly a piano and drums. This band plays a lot of different instruments. I don't even need a vibrator. I have a hand. HAH! Wait, I think it's a cover of a song by the band... "the Red Aunts" (I got that from the band's website).
5. Accidental Acoustic guitar and piano and drumz song. Pretty decent, but less interesting than some of the othre songs. Not much I can say that hasn't been said about the other songs. I like how she sings "I tried". Sounds goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood .
6. An Anarchist's Guide to Personal Hygiene My favorite song on the record. Uses distorted electric guitar and it has a real cool riff. The song is a parody of pseudo/fashion anarchists who pretend to be for the cause but don't really do shit about any of it except for talking about it and wearing it like a symbol. I don't really consider myself one because I don't think the world is ready for something like anarchy, but a lot of people talk about revolution and anarchy and shit and sometimes I wonder how much they've actually done to fix the problem themselves. Maybe I'm the dumbass. But yeah, it's a really good up-beat song (the opposite of beat-up) and the melodica tune sounds great as well. Suffice to say I did not learn anything about personal hygiene. So much for THAT.
7. WarpaintA soft song with mostly only ukelele and singing. Sort of a sad feel to it. "You make me want to punch someone". A break-up song, maybe. Over five minutes long, like the first song.
So, that's the first official musical working from Drunken Butterfly and it's neat to hear a band that can play different instruments besides the standard guitar/bass/drum setup and still sound bad-ass. Most of it is very political/feminist oriented, but it doesn't sound generic at all like some bands that base their music around that. Yes, the band is from the U.K., in case you are wondering. The band consists of Darcie (vox/bass), Alice (guitar), Kezia (drums). I think Alice iz pretty. This EP can be purchased online for £3.50, so I'm not entirely sure what that translates to in American money because I'm stupid like that. But if you don't have a credit card, maybe you could write the band a letter or something. Who nose? But even if you have no money at all, you can still listen to the music from the band's website:
http://drunkenbutterfly.bandcamp.com/
See you next time.
Top 3 Favorites: 1. An Anarchist's Guide to Personal Hygiene 2. Blairaq 3. April the First
