Photoside Cafe

Photoside Café
The Beauty Of Innocence Remains.
©2009 Grrr Records
HYPERLINK "http://www.photosidecafe.com" www.photosidecafe.com

The Cannyshark came back from Cornerstone 2009 with glowing reviews of Photoside Café and their live set. Okay, I was all ears (and apparently eyes in this case). We sat down and he showed the video he’d shot. Pretty compelling stuff: a super tight band, great rhythm section, and a violinist who took the traditional place of a 2nd guitarist. Very good players, all very competent, and the devotion to their craft was evident. So, the Cannyshark asks if I’d like to review their CD for my blog, sure…

Studio recordings are very different beasts than the live arena. Some bands just never reach the level set by their live set when turned loose in the strange wonderland of the studio. Photoside Café does a decent job. Live, their dynamic sound creates power and an epic, dramatic sound. On the studio recording it sometimes translates, other times, it starts to sound like drama for drama’s sake. The studio recording is pretty plan vanilla, it begs for some space to play out the interplay of the instrumentation and the vocals. It gets this on “Sweet Fascination”, a great down tempo piece with keys and powerful use of the violin. Other tracks are solid, most are of mid to up tempo with interesting and off the beaten path melodies and more complex than usual instrumentation. None of it feels forced, occasionally a little overwrought, but this is nitpicking by me.

Hard to pigeonhole this band, and that’s a good thing. Occasionally jazzy, other times veering towards prog or fusion, but never lapsing into chops over song territory.
Bravo to Photoside Café for taking their own path.

I like this CD, I hope they continue to evolve musically, and I’d definitely try to see them live if they happen upon our little corner of the country.

8/10 kilts
DAA

Superdrag

Superdrag
Industry Giants
©2009 Sound Laboratories
HYPERLINK "http://www.superdrag.com" www.superdrag.com

Boom, right out of the blocks Superdrag come swinging. “Slow to Anger” is a blast of old school punk sounding melody. Uncluttered by useless fluff, it’s the bass/guitar/drums/vocals and production that makes it ring out like an anthem. Raise your fists. The kids ARE united!

Stylistically, things get psychotic after that. An acoustic guitar starts off “Live and Breathe” as it drifts into a dense, almost shoegaze sounding blur. Superdrag bob and weave through this disc with musical adaptation and authority. They are shape shifters and pull it off with aplomb. I’ve heard discs like this that just collapse because there’s no real momentum. You’re always hearing a band trying to find it’s sound. Not in this case. They are adept at the swerving in and out of their musical costumes and have no trouble shifting gears. Some of it sounds like power pop, some like modern post punk. I didn’t do much research on this band although I seem to recall a single “Who Sucked Out the Feeling” or something like that? Also, I seem to recall a lead singer who accepted Christ and a band that disbanded and reformed? Lyrics are interesting and solid, no overt clichéd Jesus banter, but no shirking away either. No matter, this is a great disc, highly recommended for people that just like great modern rock. I’ll avoid dropping RIYL bands here, but suffice to say they’d fit in with, uh, fans of Dave Grohl’s band named after sci-fi protagonists.

This is one of few CD’s that I don’t start getting cranky over poor production. The production is fitting for the music and doesn’t sound cheap or filled with gimmicks to hide the lack of substance. Most of it is really solid, and there are few low points. Bully for you, Superdrag.

9/10 kilts

TVB!

The Violet Burning
Sting Like Bees And Sing
©2009 Independent
HYPERLINK "http://www.thevioletburning.com" www.thevioletburning.com

Oh, man! How do I act objectively on behalf of the Violet Burning? I’d never heard of them 2 years ago and through a strange series of events, they’ve become one of my favorite bands. I mean, to the point of scouring the internet to amass a pile of their recordings, some familiar and some obscure. Enter thecannyshark, yet again, to hook me up with some rare tracks, as he’s been a fan for a billion years.

In all of this, I’ve never seen them live. What motivation would MJP and the band have to visit the bleak snowy tundra of the northeast and forego the laconic neverland of so Cal? As they’re currently on tour in Europe, I guess we’ll likely not see them anytime soon.

As one that can never explain matters of taste, my favorite recording of theirs is “The Loudest Sound in My Heart.” It’s probably because the DVD of this tour is a pretty stunning primer of the band also showcasing their popularity in places like the Netherlands, as well as their cult-like following here at home. Songs like “Moon Radio” and “Gorgeous” off TLSIMH left me wondering why they weren’t huge in the US?

Fast forward to the present. Most of us TVB fans have been waiting with baited breath for any output from the band, as Drop Dead was the last we’d had a real chance to listen to. Sting Like Bees And Sing is a home grown live affair, and kudos to the band for not needing/wanting/having a label to drive this release. If nothing else, it helps keep the profits where they deserve to be, with the band. It’s well recorded for a live disc (very hot levels) that was probably done without a huge mobile truck and high-end digital equipment. Live recordings are about performance, no digital trickery can add conviction where there is none or provide energy to a band that is mailing it in that night. TVB bring it on this recording, performance is solid and MJP’s banter with the crowd is great. I think I have this Cornerstone performance on DVD somewhere and there’s a power outage in the middle of the set, but it doesn’t get them down. You’d never know it from the energy of this performance. The material is great too. Most of it avoids being overlap from TLSIMH, which is great for fans. It’s predominantly material from the s/t (pomegranate) album to the present.

Okay, here’s my only minor gripe, and I hate myself for bringing it up because, as I mentioned earlier, I am a huge fan. There are some pretty direct references to Cure material. More quotes a phrase from the song “Just Like Heaven” and “Rewind” quotes a musical motif from “A Forest”. No, neither song is a rip-off, and while I can't presume to know the motivation for using them or even if it’s a subconscious glitch that called them up in the writing, they exist never the less. For those of us who are big fans, they do pop up pretty noticeably in the disc.

You’ll get no poor reviews of TVB from me, they are just too great not to be huge, and I admit my bias.

9/10 kilts

Neviah Nevi

Neviah Nevi
Tales of Terror
©2009 Wounded Records
HYPERLINK "http://www.myspace.com/nnrocks" www.myspace.com/nnrocks

Hmm, death metal with a female vocalist? Word up. Count me in. Let me preface all this with the fact that I like metal, although certainly some of my frames of reference are a bit outdated. I have listened to the modern stuff, cookie monster vocals, down-tuned guitars, and prefer mine with some variety.

Put in the disc and press play. Heavy, mid tempo with the ubiquitous cookie monster(ess) vocals and drop tuned guitars. Good production, sort of symphonic in areas, overall pretty well done. Better than average lyrics (thanks for printing them in the booklet).

The issue I have with releases like this, is that, they limit themselves. Death metal has a formula like most other genres. I bet I’d really dig these guys/girl if they broke rank occasionally. I like the energy. If they’d ask me (they never do), I’d tell them to mix things up a bit. Hmm, would they be shunned if they put an acoustic break in a song? Would they lose their metal cred if the vocalist occasionally broke from the cookie monster deal? You do get a break in No Escape and it really sounds great, the contrast in the heavy/ethereal just really nails it for me. Towards the 2:00 mark of Pushing Up Daisies there’s a great break (I’m digging it as it reminds me of Hum but that’s likely the drop D tuning) where they again show some contrast in what they’re capable of. The end of Break These Chains breaks down into a solo piano briefly, that’s cool. Elsewhere there are brief snippets of non-CM vocals but largely that’s what you get. Again, the playing is very good, the songs are well constructed and the production sounds more than competent. DeAngela can hold her own vocally, in the growling and non-growling department.

I hate the fact that music has become so genre conscious. The most interesting bands towards the heavy end of the scale are the ones that can mix it up. Even Demon Hunter can throw an acoustic song on an album and not make it sound forced or calculated. Opeth, under the guidance of Steven Wilson, put out a largely acoustic album.
I guess you can’t argue with an artist’s vision. I hear some pretty solid ideas and decent chops in this but I occasionally grow fatigued with the vehicle it’s delivered in.

Fans of this genre are likely to dig this. Call me when they’re in town, I bet I’d enjoy them live,

7.5/10 kilts
DAA

After Hous

After Hours (various artists)
The Night Belongs To Us
©2009 Independent
HYPERLINK "http://www.tastyfresh.com" www.tastyfresh.com

Another CD gets pushed across the table for review. This time thecannyshark slips this in my eager paw and I get down to business, Gosh, electronica/dance music that you can only acquire by attending Cornerstone 2009? Okay, thecannyshark was in attendance, I was home working and sleeping in my own bed with a hot shower and 3 square meals in the comfort of my own home.

I’m starting to wonder if the whole dance/electronica scene hasn’t just become a cottage industry with people cranking out mixes on their PC/Mac and hoping there’s an audience. Dance music in general is an odd duck. You’ve put an action to take place (people dancing) at the center of the construction of your “music.” The purpose is no longer to create music for the art of music but to get people to dance. Therefore, you’ve slipped out of art into formula. Oh sure, you can do things like look for obscure or interesting samples (Moby’s Play stills stands as a monument to this) or jump across musical genres/styles to raid some pan cultural beats but in the end you’re filling a prescription.
Technology has made all of this rather easy as well as, frankly, all a bit homogenized.
If this whole thing is a global as I’m lead to believe I guess that’s cool. Christians putting out stuff that people dance to, maybe not just at Cornerstone but around the world.
Some consolation I guess, but not enough to make me give it another spin. I’ll trade you a Roland TB-303 for a Les Paul and a Marshall stack any time.

5/10 kilts
DAA

Water and Bodies

Water and Bodies
EP Sampler
©2009 Rain City Records
HYPERLINK "http://www.waterandbodies.com" www.waterandbodies.com
HYPERLINK "http://www.raincityrecords.net" www.raincityrecords.net

Ah, now you’re talking. A band that records an EP live in the studio, in this day and age, gets major positive points from me. No Pro Tools, no auto-tune plug in, and no safety net. And, oh man, right out of the starting gate it sounds great. I mean, energy unadulterated by the studio process, as close to seeing a great live band on CD, except no cover charge and filthy bathrooms to contend with.

Major props for not lapsing into the twee, whimsical neutered sound of most indie rock these days. This is rock with ringing guitars and soaring vocals, not in a hard rock mode, but an unselfconscious blast of a band that knows who they are and what they want to say. While done live, there is space and ambience around tracks. This EP will get replay in my home.

The bio says the band were only together a few months when they recorded this. My hope is that they will not stray far from what makes this great, REALITY. The magic of a newfound chemistry helps many bands’ initial recordings and then rapidly disappears as they “mature.”

The rich musical legacy of the Pacific Northwest is carried on proudly by Water and Bodies. I’m not referring to the whole hoopla of the 90’s scene, but inclusive of great bands like the sadly forgotten Wipers, the Posies, and today’s Death Cab for Cutie.
Bravo and thank you.

9/10 kilts
DAA