THE SUCCESSFUL FAILURES Ripe For The Burning (FDR)

Mick Chorba (of the Dipsomaniacs) is the driving force behind this good time rock ‘n’ roll band. And if you hear tons of the familiar pop and rock references you know and love, then it just means that the Successful Failures have it absolutely right! 

The Beatles, Rolling Stones, the Replacements, Nirvana all knew how to pluck a sweet hook from dirty ol’ rock ‘n’ roll and it seems like the Successful Failures are equally adept at turning a basic understanding of pop dynamics into a deliriously enjoyable album.

Thus, songs like the tenacious Stop the Planet, the rollicking All I Can Take, the folk-rocking Bridge Over Delaware, the sultry Cobain-channeling Carolina (I’m In Love) and the Keith-riffing Never Moving Out all display a world-weary attitude that belies the sheer joy inherent in every groove.

Highly recommended for every card-carrying fan of garage, powerpop, rock ‘n’ roll! Yes, that means YOU!!!!

FOR AGAINST Shade Side Sunny Side (Words on Music)

Way way ahead of its time, this American trio was ploughing a lone furrow in the mid-80s in which hip bands like Interpol, Killers, Stellastarr* et al have garnered critical acclaim (as well as commercial success) for in recent times i.e. mined the rich vein of post-punk (especially Joy Division) and big music (principally Echo and the Bunnymen).

Never achieving a modicum of success that the aforementioned bands have been blessed with, the band has more or less been largely marginalized for playing the right music at the wrong time. Shade Side Sunny Side, the band’s seventh album is a reunion of sorts as returning guitarist Harry Dingman III and drummer Paul Engelhard collaborate with For Against mainstay Jeffrey Runnings once again to produce one of the year’s best example of post-punk majesty.

Simply put, Shade Side Sunny Side is a wonderful collection of evocative modern rock, often searing and visceral but sometimes fragile and touching. The piano ballad Game Over providing a intriguing mid-point distraction from the sensitive mood song craft surrounded by scintillating guitar work, deft percussion and Running’s ruminations on life and experience. 

21 years on from their debut Echelons, For Against has gotten stronger and deeper and has delivered an album that flies the post punk flag high and hopefully now, these true American pioneers will receive the recognition they so richly deserve.

DREAM BITCHES Coke-and-Spiriters (Recommended If You Like)

This New York band’s debut album – 2005’s Sanfransisters – managed to get Dream Bitches lumped in with the anti-folk movement, which of course includes the Moldy Peaches/Kimya Dawson. Sure, those quirky anti-folk ballads still find a place in this sophomore release viz. Bronxy Marie, Spoke on a Wheel, Sweet Anneth and Way to Go. However, the bulk of Coke-and-Spiriters finds main singer-songwriters Yoko Kikuchi and Ann Zakaluk attempting to break out of the anti-pop mould by infusing powerpop and indie pop elements into the mix. Doesn’t always work and the duo seem more comfortable with the folky ballads, with the cover of Belle & Sebastian’s Me and the Major being the high point of this new direction.

FROM BUBBLEGUM TO SKY A Soft Kill (Eenie Meenie)

Mario Hernandez is the mad scientist behind From Bubblegum To Sky. With helium-addled vocals to distract you from the purest pop melodies, not to mention a disparate array of instrumental experimentations, one might say he’s too busy channeling Brian Wilson and Jon Brion to care about irrelevant matters like indie cred. With dizzying speed, Hernandez jumps from genre to genre, hyperactively dipping his toes in every pop style you care to think about. Investment of time required to discern its goodies but in this instance, worth all that. 

FLEET FOXES Self-titled (Sub Pop)

This is probably one of the toughest reviews I’ve ever written. Ever since I first listened to this debut full-length from Seattle’s Fleet Foxes, I’ve been wondering how in the world I would be able to string together a couple (or more) sentences that would do justice to this masterpiece! For a band to be able to meld the rustic melodic beauty of Brian Wilson/Van Dyke Parks’ Smile and the heartfelt echoes of 70s singer-songwriter movement, is almost unbelievable. 

But here they are, eleven tracks of magical songcraft, heavenly harmonies (even a cappella), inventive instrumentation all delightfully delivered by the talented tenor of Robin Pecknold. And it doesn’t even need a full-blown arrangement to hit you between the eyes. Case in point – the plaintive Tiger Mountain Pheasant Song, where Pecknold – only with classical guitar accompaniment intones, “Dear shadow alive and well/How can the body die/You tell me everything/Anything true”.

Truth be told, the gems are everywhere and the melodic creativity is limitless as Pecknold and co mine the rich vein of archaic folk and baroque music to produce an ecstatic blend of the old and the new. Best of all, as a rabid Beach Boys fan, it is fantastic to pick up all the prime references to some of the finest work that Brian Wilson ever put together. Along the way, there are also pointers in the direction of Neil Young, Peter Gabriel/Genesis, Fairport Convention, the Zombies, XTC et al. 

So, it’s suffice to declare that there are no duff tracks here as even the instrumental Heard Them Stirring resonates with such power. Push comes to shove, I would say that my personal highlights of this magnificent album would be White Winter Hymnal, Ragged Wood, He Doesn’t Know Why, Meadowlark and Blue Ridge Mountain. Which doesn’t detract from the quality of the rest. 

It’s only June but I’ve made up my mind – Fleet Foxes is the album of 2008.

Download – White Winter Hymnal

WEEZER “Red Album” (Geffen)

I once commented that Weezer has not made a bad album. Yet.

Not that the spanking new sixth (third eponymous) album by Cuomo and company is a poor one. What it is – unfortunately – is uneven and inconsistent, not terms one usually associates with Weezer. 

Perhaps this disappointing quality has more to do with Cuomo’s decision to grant his band mates a greater say in the make up of the material here. In fact, the second half of this so-called Red album features guitarist Brian Bell, drummer Pat Wilson and bassist Scott Shriner on lead vocals. Also, Bell and Wilson wrote Thought I Knew and Automatic respectively whilst Shriner receives a co-writing credit on Cold Dark World. 

I’m not entirely convinced that these collaborations necessarily resulted in this dip in form for Weezer or whether Cuomo himself has become jaded of the Weezer concept. 

Still, the first half of the album contains a couple of tracks that live up comfortably to the Weezer legacy and the album does go a little pear-shaped once Dreamin’ makes its appearance. So let’s concentrate on those 1st five songs, shall we?

Troublemaker opens the collection promisingly with its sharp rhythms, incisive chorus and investigative profile of the typical rock star – 

“I’m gonna be a star and people will crane necks to get a glimpse of me and see if I am having sex and studying my moves they try to understand why I am so unlike the singers in the other bands” 

The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn) is what you might call mildly experimental seeing as it jumps from rap to gospel to to acapella to pop-rock in the course of its almost six-minute duration. Combined with a knowing, tongue-in-cheek lyrical intent, Greatest Man is certainly one of Weezer’s more intriguing songs.

Pork and Beans is basically Cuomo’s reaction to being instructed by his record label to write more commercial material for the new album as the cynical chorus declares – 

“I’m-a-do the things that i wanna do/I ain’t got a thing to prove to you/I’ll eat my candy with the pork and beans/Excuse my manners if i make a scene/I ain’t gonna wear the clothes that you like/I’m fine and dandy with the me inside/One look in the mirror and I’m tickled pink/I don’t give a hoot about what you think”

Ironically, the suits may have gotten exactly what they wanted!

Heart Songs is possibly the highlight of the album – a sentimental mid tempo paean to Cuomo’s influences as he namechecks John Lennon, Pat Bentar, Quiet Riot, Bruce Springsteen and Gordon Lightfoot. But Cuomo dedicates an entire verse to the band that kick-started Weezer’s career – 

“Back in 1991 I wasn’t havin’ any fun/’Till my roommate said ‘Come on and put a brand new record on’/Had a baby on it/He was naked on it/Then I heard the chords/That broke the chains I had upon me/Got together with my bros in some rehearsal studios/Then we played our first rock show and watched the fan base start to grow/Signed the deal that gave the dough to make a record of our own/The song come on the radio/Now people go – this is the song” 

No prizes for guessing who Cuomo is referring to…

Everybody Get Dangerous is a catchy little number about teenage rebellion – possibly based on Cuomo’s own life experiences. I expect it will go down well with the Weezer Army live!

Well, that’s all I really want to say about the “Red” album – a great half of a middling album is better than none, eh? Where does Weezer go from here – well, rumor has it that an album is being readied for 2009 even now. Wait and see I guess, until then – 

“Everybody get dangerous/Everybody get dangerous (Boo-ya!)”

“You wouldn’t like me when I’m … hungry” (in Portuguese).

If you’re a fan of the Hulk TV series starring the late Bill Bixby, then you will enjoy the various nods to the show in this latest film adaptation of everyone’s fave green behemoth (e.g. Courtship of Eddie’s Father turns up on Brazilian TV, Lou Ferrigno’s cameo, the score’s evocation of the TV theme etc). And it does so without sacrificing the authentic flavour of the original Marvel comic and it consigns Ang Lee’s version to irrelevance. 

The Incredible Hulk assumes the audience is aware of the character’s origin and in fact, is played out in the opening credits, so it jumps straight into the story proper with Bruce Banner (a phlegmatic Ed Norton) on the run from the US Army. The plot line moves quickly enough – setting itself up for the final confrontation between Hulk and the Abomination/Emil Blonsky (played with subtle menace by Tim Roth) – with little sub-plots (the tragic romance of Banner and Betty Ross (Liv Tyler, in usual wooden form)), the megalomania of General Ross (by-the-numbers performance by William Hurt) and the emergence of the Leader (camped up by Tim Blake Nelson) along the way to keep things interesting.

The action sequences are top notch and the CGI manages to keep the suspension of belief factor at a reasonable level. The film is basically everything you’d expect from a Marvel comic book movie with Marvel in total control. Meaning, the many references to the Marvel Universe will have the fanboys salivating in anticipation for that sweet moment when the Marvel Universe is revealed in all its glory in the Avengers movie. Of course, everybody knows by now that Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) has a cameo telling General Ross that he’s putting together a “team” and that sets up the upcoming slate of Marvel films nicely.

More belated reviews for overlooked 2007 releases.

SPOKEN Self-Titled (Tooth and Nail)

Y’know, I prize eclecticism in a band – you may have heard me say often. But sometimes things can get out of hand. Take Spoken. Half this eponymous album is pure screamo as the band rips through their Christian manifesto with inaudible lyrics (What’s the point, eh?) and the other half is fairly decent indie rock. Will the real Spoken please stand up? Guess half a reasonably good album is better than none.

FOR AGAINST In the Marshes (Words on Music)

A re-issue of a demos EP released in 1990 of this pioneering American shoegaze band. For Against was plainly ahead of its time maintaining a strange British aesthetic in the pre-grunge era. This eight track EP is highly reminiscent of the Brit-rock epoch of the early to mid-80s e.g. Comsat Angels, Echo & the Bunnymen, early Simple Minds, early New Order et al and is markedly relevant in the context of modern rock scene. 

CY CURNIN The Returning Son (Self-released)

Curnin is of course best known as the lead singer of The Fixx, a British new wave band responsible for massive 80s hit, One Thing Leads to Another. The Returning Son is Curnin’s 2nd solo effort and basically, it does not stray too far from 80s new wave gameplan. Loads of synthesized effects, odd reggae-ska beats and Curnin’s faux Bryan Ferry vox. 80s new wave fans will love this…

PACK A.D. Tintype (Mint)

A female version of Black Keys? Why the heck not, eh? These two “ladies” do earnestly ply their garage-blues-rock with the intensity of early Led Zep. I mean, Becky Black does a good job of channeling both Plant and Page whilst Maya Miller – whilst no Bonham (not even Jason) – provides adequate backbeat. Oh by the way, understand that A.D. stands for “After Death”. Guess girls do really just wanna have fun…

GARY LOURIS Vagabonds (Rykodisc)

I am a big fan of Gary Louris and his erstwhile band, the alt-country legends The Jayhawks. But even that allegiance did not prepare me for this astonishing debut solo album from Louris. Dare I say that Vagabonds is Louris’ finest recording effort so far, even outshining his Jayhawks work.

The ten tracks on Vagabonds perfectly capture the Cosmic American Music of the late great Gram Parsons, where the melding of 60s rock and country-folk was first mooted. It’s easy to spot the influences – Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Neil Young, Buffalo Springfield, Crosby Stills & Nash, the Band and of course, Gram Parsons – but Louris is the master of delivering a sound and vision that is at once timeless and relevant.

The highlights are plentiful throughout this gorgeous record but I must especially mention the Laurel Canyon channeling We’ll Get By, the wistful True Blue (that does recall his former band), the funky Omaha Nights (featuring kick ass slide guitar), the fragile To Die A Happy Man, the stone cold bluesy I Wanna Get High, the wondrously Dylanesque title track and the spine-tingling atmospheric D.C. Blues (with reflective organ swirls and heavenly pedal steel). 

Vagabonds in an instant classic and will definitely be one of the albums of the year. It’s often said that they sure don’t make things like they use to. Well, in the case of Gary Louris’ Vagabonds, they sure do.