I once heard that Abe Vigoda described their sound as "Tropical Punk". I am not sure what is so tropical about this particular record, unless there is something about a new sub-genre that I haven't received a memo on. I've never been to the Bahamas and know of few punk bands from there. And when I think "tropical", I think about remote paradises, timeshare resorts, or anything far more festive than the sound of Abe Vigoda. Maybe what the band is trying to describe is more of a "sundown and stranded on a deserted island" sound. Maybe they should just call this style "castaway in dusk punk". Reviver is a solid EP if you are willing to accept and appreciate a cleaned up and somber version of their previous records. I don't want to deceive what should be obvious. These five songs come from a band heavily influenced by Jesus & Mary Chain and Echo & The Bunnymen, yet whose sound is painfully American and deceivingly from Brooklyn (as oppose to the band's true hometown Chico, CA). Don't get the wrong message. Reviver is a comfortable and highly recommended piece of work. I am just calling a spade a spade.

FREE MP3: Download "Don't Lie" from Insound.com

 

Memphis party punk rock with a touch of Orange County bleached-blonde pop-core madness. There are actually starts to two songs on this disc that remind me of the opening power chord sequence heard in Black Flag's "Nervous Breakdown". Not a bad thing considering the hundreds of albums over the years that rip-off The Ramones chord by chord, track after track. Designer Heat may sound too clean and polished for the Rip-Off/KBD musical mindset....and too snot-nosed bratty to had been on a Junk Records comp or one of the volumes of Fistful of Rocknroll with all of the "35 and over" whiskey-rock bands. The Angel Sluts are a good punk band with a solid debut album that will either be a notable beginning to a famed and storied rock'n'roll legacy...or forgotten if they happen to never put out a second album and fade away.

FREE MP3: Download "What Do They Say" from the Wrecked Em website. 

Liquor and cigarette smoke scarred vocal chords accompanied by (what appears to sound like) an ensemble (but actually a duo) with a natural ability to shift gears from bluesy garage rock to upbeat filmscore-esque dirty-jazz and everything in between. The Black Smokers were born in Italy and are very influenced by Tom Waits. Production is thin and I would like to see what this band could do with a proper studio and producer. Not as loose and fun as other Pravda notables but still worth scoping out for a possible hip track for your next cocktail party mix-tape.

VIDEO: Watch the Black Smokers perform at the Deep Blues Festival from last summer.

This neo-psychedelic quartet were the best new discovery at the International Pop Overthrow in Mesa, AZ last month. It was Sunday early evening about 5:30 pm (the last day of IPO) and there were just a few middled-aged regulars leftover from that afternoon's Nascar crowd. The response from these folks gave me the impression they were on the verge of reliving their teenage glory years listening to their Yardbirds and Strawberry Alarm Clock vinyl. And I am not being pretentious...dude at the bar actually said STRAWBERRY ALARM CLOCK before he ordered another shot of Jim Beam. Well the new disc from The French Semester contains no incense and no peppermint, yet plenty of reverb and lots of love from the paisley underground. Good Friends Only I Can See didn't quite replicate that special awakening from their live show, but it does retain a certain youthfulness and innocence - almost like the musically talented neighbor kids your mom adored and wished you were more like all the while gleefully tolerated the loud noise from the kids' band practice all the way through suppertime. "Backwards Rolling" sounds like a Mike Pinder penned outtake from a late 60's Moody Blues album.

FREE MP3: Download "Ivy Letters Upsetting The Norm" from last.fm

 
GLASS CANDY - DEEP GEMS: A COLLECTION OF SINGLES, B-SIDES, AND RARITIES (Italians Do It Better)

I thought Glass Candy where a hardcore synthpunk band based on several reviews in some underground punk periodicals. This record is my first taste and I am not sure what to think of this collection. Most is on the line of dance rock like a primitive sounding Ladytron or more experimental Le Tigre. Many times the Portland duo sound European and proto-new-wave, like if Kraftwerk were led by a French madame. If this was purely outtakes, then I would be more settled to check out more proper releases, but the title of the album mentions "singles" and I am not sure which ones are A-sides and which are B-sides without researching a proper history of discography. Regardless, nothing on this Deep Gems is sticking with me so I will pass on Glass Candy right now. Perhaps if something better comes along by accident, via Pandora Radio or radio/podcast, then maybe I will jump on the Glass Candy train and pretend to dance to them like I do my Ladytron records. For now, I guess this collection is for hardcore fans only.

VIDEO: Glass Candy performing "Miss Broadway" live in Portland.

 

Singer/founder/chief-songwriter Erika Wennerstrom sounds like a combination of Jack White and Nathan Willett with a story telling approach similar to Tracy Chapman. The songs pass by one by one often leaving the listener questioning if he/she is witnessing an original score or a mixed collection of redone traditional and obscure folk numbers. "Out At Sea" is a very catchy track and kept me up a few nights trying to guess what songs the melody of the vocals were borrowing from.

FREE MP3: Download the title track "The Mountain" from the Fat Possum website.

HERE WE GO MAGIC - HERE WE GO MAGIC (Western Vinyl)

 

There are those within the music industry who feel that a band should stick with and cater to it's core fanbase and not go too far out of it's way to gain new fans from outside the core. 

AC/DC never wrote a ballad to obtain a top ten hit in America. They never acknowledged the mass media appeal of the grunge movement. And although they did once hire producer Rick Rubin, it was never for the purpose of appealing to a nu-metal scene that was exploding around them during the Ballbreaker years. AC/DC knows their fans better then they know themselves. That is how they were able to sell 3 million CDs of their latest album last year - by going to the place where their American fans spend the most time at (Wal-Mart).

Nashville Pussy presents themselves as a band with a similar commitment to the integrity of their signature sound and fan loyalty with only a fraction of the demand from the retail and concert industry. From Hell To Texas may lack some of the metallic grit found in albums like High As Hell, but the high octane energy and southern-fried irony (track 7 "Dead Men Can't Get Drunk") we have come to expect hasn't gone away. Now with their sixth album, I am not quite sure if the organic process of building a global AC/DC-sized fanbase is considered "still in the progress" or a failed mission...or not ever even considered in the first place. The turn of the century buzz on the band has died down, however, and I just can't imagine what albums 7, 8 and on will bring without some major compromise in sound. Hopefully they will not to choose to abandon producer Daniel Rey regardless of their true quest.

VIDEO: Nashville Pussy in Madrid performing "Late Great USA" from the From Hell To Texas album.  

 
THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART - THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART (Slumberland)

Longtime Phoenix area music promoter Mike Genz called Slumberland his favorite record label of all time in the Stinkweeds Records' 2008 year end guide that was distributed to store customers over the holidays. Genz also had the Crystal Stilts LP among his top 2008 choices while I personally favored the EP that came before it and included it among my best of '08. Based on my trust of Mr. Genz's taste (he DID release the very first Digital Leather LP on his King of Monsters label eight years ago, y'know), I had a hunch when I saw this new self-titled release from Slumberland by The Pains of Being Pure At Heart. Yes, kiddies, label-branding does work (as well as being a tastemaker in your community...thanks Mike!). It's the power that every indie record label wants, even more so than to luck out with one charting high seller. Some record labels sell CDs, others sell vinyl, but the really good ones sell catalog.

"Stay Alive" sounds like it came from Disc 2 from that wonderful Brit Box set I got for Christmas a few years back - like a lost and forgotten track sticking it's neck out somewhere between My Bloody Valentine and Lush. The album's first single "Come Saturday" paints in black yet achieves color (if only pastel). Most other tracks like "Everything With You" and "Gentle Sons" capture the don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it moment of a depressed goth girl smiling for the first time and spreads that experience in 3 minute pop blasts. Definitely one the best albums so far in 2009.

FREE MP3: Download "Everything With You" courtesy of IODA Promonet.

 

FREE MP3: Shockhound has "Burial Sounds" as a free download.

 
THE PHANTOM LIMBS - ACCEPT THE JUICE/WHOLE LOTO LOVE (Alternative Tentacles)

I was stoked to hear the cover of" 122 Hours of Fear" since my ears long for better produced versions of those punk classics while the Screamers tribute a few years back (The Necessary Effect) left something to be desired. The rest of this oddball collection leaves alot unanswered about a band mostly unknown and it's connection to bands with similar sound components. The synth-punk sub-genre of the last ten years (and what's left of it) was fairly small although critically noted (I restrained from using the word "scene " in place of sub-genre). Yet, it's interesting that many of those who faithfully followed The Lost Sounds and Destruction Unit seemed unaware of bands like The Phantom Limbs or VCR. From the northwest, bands like The Epoxies and The Girls injected more pop elements in their brand of synth-driven punk rock for which they were more or less recategorized into a vast sea of new wave revival bands. And when you look historically at the guitarless make-up of The Screamers, it's interesting to note that a band from the electroclash scene, ARE Weapons, didn't achieve any Screamers or Suicide comparisons until they added more guitars in their arrangements.

It's all a moot point actually. The Lost Sounds were originally a garage rock band that foresaw the imminent revival of that sound and immediately experimented with some old synthesizers leftover from a previous band in hopes they fly fast off the hipster radar. From there they gold-dug and dusted off vintage vinyl from The Nervous Gender and The Units as late inspiration. The Lost Sounds initially coined the term Black Wave to describe their sound in case the critics pigeon-holed them -  and they did...it was the critics who labeled the Lost Sounds as a synth-punk band
.
There is hardly a common denominator between any of the aforementioned bands (Mudhoney, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden don't sound anything alike as well...but what is the first word that all comes to mind when we hear those names?) and if there was it was accidental...like maybe they all stumbled across a Screamers bootleg sometime in their lifetime and were blown away by the somewhat mysterious and hardly documented band. Or maybe all of those bands have achieved some level of accidental discovery from goth kids within their existence. The first time I ever heard The Lost Sounds was on Radio Ghoul School via Shoutcast many years ago and I am certain I mistook what I heard for either 45 Grave or Victory Acres before the WinAmp scroll me informed I had been listening to the high pitch squeal of Jay Reatard and a song called "Reason To Kill". There is a very dark atmospheric quality of most of the synth-punk songs that any placement in a goth club DJ setlist would be well served and justified, regardless of it's lack of danceable energy. In fact, The Phantom Limbs wanted to be promoted as a goth band initially and if you consider the batcavian  elements of most of their songs you can almost envision the goth tag as a practical request. One thing we learned from the Screamers was that the use of synthesizers doesn't have to be soft nor should it solicit uninspired dancing from the audience and that indeed may be the common factor.

No need to mask the truth - my review is shorter than my lecture.

Accept The Juice...is not a greatest hits collection or else "The Olympics" would had been among the 19 tracks selected.  However, it does feature various live tracks, in studio radio performances, and songs from a few early 7"s, - none of which are too far off from what we had previously heard from the Limbs when the band was alive and well.  If the Screamers cover was not the idea of the band themselves rather by the suggestion of Jello, the Limbs sure do sound like a group aware and capable of reproducing the infamous legacy of the primitive LA quartet, as well as, perhaps, Catholic Discipline (it's those repetitive twisted-circus organ riffs that find themselves stuck between the best moments of certain songs). The energy isn't always there and, at best, the songs with the less drive come off like The Horrors on heroin. But when The Phantom Limbs are on fire, they ranked among the best of their peers. Retrospectives are a difficult item to sell. I don't personally hate this album, but I haven't a clue on how to get readers to like or appreciate this band as much as I do. I want to tell you to buy this album but feel like I would have to give you a history lesson on contemporary synth-punk to even persuade anyone to read further or click the free download link below.  I can tell you the that the CD comes with a DVD of various performances taped in various countries but, in the day of the multi-tasking music listener, who has time to watch a DVD of a band you are not sure you'd like? Mr. Biafra shouts "For crying out loud, wake up, people! Look what you missed!" but most of us today rarely look back at what we missed because there is now so much out there today and going forward that we have an opportunity not to miss. Then again, how about a Alice Donut retrospect? Don't you remember, Jello? I was the one who predicted Virus 200 would be an Alice Donut tribute. I was wrong and I was let down. 

FREE MP3:  Download "Shut Up Old Man" directly from the Alternative Tentacles website. 

 
THE PRANKS - MODERN COMMUNICATION (Not Lame)

As my pal Jamie Monistat would say "good band...but not exactly re-inventing the wheel". That doesn't mean I would delete any of these songs out of a playlist that consisted of The Ramones, Red Planet, The Briefs, and Tsar. Modern Communication is a worthy bash'n'pop record.

 

The Triple P format (Power-Pop-Punk) has gained alot of ground and exposure...from elevating Green Day among the top 3 selling rock bands of the 21st century to curating theme songs for animated series on the Disney and Nickelodeon networks (ex: Phineas and Ferb?). However the representation of pure-pop-bliss in the form of a high energy rock unit seems rare when almost every noteworthy band is doomed to be overshadowed by a band like Weezer or the flavor of the week from the Fueled By Ramen factory.

This injustice warrants an underground movement. And while such movement would open the door for practically any snotty garage band to shift gears and "ooh", "aah", & "whoa-oh" their way to an increased listening pool, it's nice to know that a band like The Pranks can stay comfortably within the underground while setting a standard of what good power-pop-punk is...even if they themselves may not exceed that same standard. The Pranks recipe is practically elementary, yet the finished product excels with loads of melodies and hooks that most of us only dream of in our most love-crushed fantasies ...yet could never pick up a guitar and write. You definitely have to be able to sing in key and croon your melodies in both parodically and emotionally convincing fashion. Pranks' founder Erik Foster does this. The guy could be a studio guy for Disney for all we know. He's that good. And he is good enough to avoid sounding like Joey Ramone by sense of default, which could work against him because, even though Joey sang in key and with emotional conviction, the dude still sounded like he was from the streets of Queens, NY...and punk rockers need a bit of toughness in their serenades.  If you are a punk looking for a pop-punk record that is not pretentiously cool enough for the mall rockers, but doesn't quite tempt you to dig out you dad's old Nick Gilder 45s, then Modern Communication is a good record to start with.

VIDEO: The Pranks performing an acoustic version of "Your World Falls Down" for 107.7 Seattle.

SHAGHAI WIRES - UPSETTER DEMOCRACY (LP only - May Cause Dizziness)

THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES - COMMUNION (Yep Roc)

I am hearing that this record was rushed yet it comes off as if The Soundtrack Of Our Lives had spent years trying to record the greatest and most epic double album in the history of rock. I might be asking myself then "why did I download this instead of buying the vinyl?", "where's the gatefold?", and "24 tracks and zero filler?"

Actually I am not sold on all the songs on Communion and a few have actually bored me after a few listens, like the Skynyrd-esque "Thrill Me". I still appreciate the chops and diversity that TSOOL possess. As for picking favorites, I personally like the psychedelic "Reconnecting The Dots", the Hellacopters sounding "Mensa's Marauders", and the anthem of self-discovery "Pictures of Youth" which curiously transcends between slow jazz and powerful prog-rock sections.  And then there's "The Ego Illusion" which climaxes as if it is trying to replicate Dave Grohl's next buzz-ballad.  From there I am not sure what else to point out other than the irony that the first album I bought in 2009, and the one I have spent the most time listening to this year, had only inspired me enough to write one of the shortest reviews in this column.

For those familiar with the Underground Garage radio hit "Sister Surround" from 2001's Behind The Music, you may be in for a bit of a surprise when experiencing Communion. The Swedes, collectively as musicians, are a progressive bunch as it is always been difficult to stay comfortable with many of their country's top bands (Hellacopters and Backyard Babies included). Take this one slow. Maybe stream a few songs online somewhere (like Yep Roc Radio, see link below). But if you had already became a diehard TSOOL fan, then Communion will sound like the best album the 1970s never heard.

FREE MP3: Download "Thrill Me" directly from the Yep Roc Website's My Stash section (email registration required)

Oh dear, my twisted imagination. I listen and re-connect to past guilty pleasures (I was a fan of what there was to hate about certain incarnations and offspring of TSOL). And then I see mid-aged Jack Grisham, Ron Emory, Greg Keuhn, and Mike Roche in a living room somewhere ribbing each other on which post-glory days project was the worse. From this discussion comes a mutual agreement that The Joykiller was really not that awful and had it's share of moments. Somebody in the room then asks "do you think The Joykiller sounds like what would of happened had Jack and Todd stayed in TSOL beyond Beneath The Shadows?" which triggers a whole other great debate. Someone makes a bet and Ron & Mike agree to return to California to record another album with Jack & Greg, all in the spirit of "what if". And who does this story service more? If you were a fan of The Joykiller and not Tender Fury then you obviously never heard If Anger Was Soul, I'd Be James Brown or you would atleast appreciate Tender Fury and recognize the punk supergroup (Grisham, Bradbury, Agnew, Freese) as a preview to what would become The Joykiller two short years later.

Actually, my guess is that the short lived Jack Grisham & The West Coast Dukes had some marvelous songs invested and Jack considered those to be among his greatest work, thus making the most recent reunion an easy process. If you are a closed minded punk rock fool who hasn't slammed dance to TSOL's music in your basement since 1981's Dance With Me, then keep sporting your mohawk and outdated scrubs while us true TSOL fans can enjoy this very mature sounding, well arranged  yet powerful new album. You see, Ron Emory was my number one favorite guitar player growing up. It was what he did on Revenge that first enlightened me...that crazy opening acid-surf riff of "No Time" and the melodic intros for "Colors" and "Still The Same". And then I went further back and heard "Thoughts of Yesterday" which suggests that this cat had some classical training. During a time without a proper instructor, I found some guy through the classified ads in one of the guitar rags and paid him $100.00 to transcribe ten of my favorite TSOL songs. I wrote to that same magazine later that year about how they had never bother to write about the talent Emory and they actually published my revelations (and then the letters of guitar geeks everywhere calling my acclamation worthless. Yngwie man!). 

I even tried to find things to like about Hit and Run when practically everyone else I knew was fed up with the post-Grisham changes. Many still liked the first Joe Wood led album Change Today? which had some of Emory's most memorable work ("It's Gray", "Red Shadows").

And then there was the time I went to see Tender Fury on their Garden of Evil tour in 1990. It was a split show (all ages 5:30, 21+ 9:30) and since I wasn't 21 yet I remember the sun still being out when I had left the show. Inside a group of 5 kids tried slam-dancing to the first song and then stopped midway and scratched their heads. But I met Jack that day and, after withstanding my intensive questioning about the "good ol' days" (he must had thought I had my own zine), he was nice enough to write down his phone number on a cocktail napkin. That night I went to Zia and bought the first Tender Fury album on vinyl and Garden of Evil on CD and started a connection with Jack's voice of lyrics that would last years. I like maturity, I like progress. I didn't want to hear a then-28 year old man telling me why he wants to fuck the dead or how he wants to abolish government. I was almost drinking age and I wanted to hear about liquored influenced one night stands and the personal politics involved with living hard through your teens, wasting your college years trying to re-connect with what is no longer there, and the trying to make sense and catch up with life in your 20s. And Jack had a killer voice too. Always powerful, but the man grew some vocal chops too. I wasn't turned off by them, I was intrigued. Jack matured into a style that was part Dave Vanian, part cocktail lounge serenading swan with a touch of Bowie.

So, yes, I am a huge fan of TSOL (24 years now)... a fan of their talent and innovation more so then their early aesthetics and politics.

T.S.O.L. may be on their 3rd replacement drummer (Tiny Bubz) since the death of original skin beater Todd Barnes, but luckily keyboardist Greg Keuhn was kept on board to help make everything sound full. If you are part of a fragmented TSOL fan pool, you would probably dig Life LIberty and the Pursuit of Free Downloads if you were really into Beneath The Shadows and at least appreciated the first self-titled album from The Joykiller. The album's first three tracks "Come Into My Nightmare" , "She's Got A Bomb", and "Modern Girl" recall that Joykiller era almost perfectly. Any Beneath The Shadows comparisons is purely fundamental since this record lacks the goth-rock atmosphere and punk-gone-wave artiness of 1982 TSOL (in other words, they are not trying to sound like early 80s Damned here).  After the trio of synth-textured rockers, the album slows down with "The Pain That We Go Through" which many would argue does not belong on any TSOL record in any era. And if it ever appeared on any album before 2009, it would be excused as a parody. But I take this as a serious effort and, like I said before, it is a guilty pleasure to hear Jack sing this style. From there it really just goes back and forth between mid-90s mid-tempoed power rock and unconventional sappiness. The only track that recalls early work like Beneath the Shadows, and perhaps even the Dance With Me album before it, is "Go To Bed Sleepy" although it is a tale in which Jack portrays a man involved in a sexual struggle with an unnamed companion much like the songs from his Tender Fury days and highly unlikely for a signature TSOL song. 

Luckily this album is available as a free download through surf apparel company Hurley, which is a wise move for a legendary punk rock band willing to take such a huge leap with pop music on their own name as oppose to the names of brief projects that have come before. The question now is could Life, Liberty ever follow the footsteps of Radiohead's In Rainbows and intrigue the purchase of a CD or a limited edition vinyl version? And most importantly, are these songs even performed live on their recent tour when historically the ones who travel to the gigs haven't wanted  to hear anything released after 1982. 

FREE MP3s: Download the entire album courtesy of Hurley.

 

 
VON BONDIES - LOVE HATE AND THEN THERE'S YOU (Majordomo)

This will probably go down as my favorite pop record of 2009. And if it came out in 2008, "Pale Bride" (first single) would had been my theme song. At times The Von Bondies sound like The Ponys if they were produced by Ric Ocasek and forced to write happier sounding pop songs without sacrificing one morbidly jaded lyric or theme. I am not sure about the new wing ladies but I like their vocal additions better than what I heard on 2004's Pawn Shoppe Heart. In fact I would go as far as to say the back-up vocals actually make songs like "The Chancer" rather than just complimenting the overall arrangement. In 2004, The Von Bondies may have been shouting "Come On, Come On" but I wasn't compelled to go because the party seemed dull and overhyped. Love Hate and Then There's You feels warm and fun. Now I want to come, even when it is hard for the party's host (Jason Stollsteimer) to smile and the cake served is bittersweet.

VIDEO: music video for the album's first single "Pale Bride".