A few months ago one of my friends was hanging out at South By Southwest (you all know how I feel about that shit, my friend is lucky I still speak to him), and I made him promise me that he would check out U.S. Christmas. I think they were playing a Neurot showcase. I don’t remember. He sent me a text mid-way through their set saying that the band’s percussionist was frying on mushrooms, and that the band sounded incredible. For the first time in my life, I was actually jealous of somebody at SXSW. I guess there is a first for everything.

My love for U.S. Christmas is similar to that of artists like White Hills, Emeralds, Harvey Milk, Spiritualized or Earth. They can do no wrong. If a new album is on the horizon, you don’t have to ask me, of course I need to obtain multiple copies on different formats. When the first e-mail graced my inbox detailing the new U.S. Christmas album, Run Thick In The Night (a title culled from the Sam Peckinpah western Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid), I demanded an advance. I requested an interview too…but we’ll see if that ever materializes.

If you’ve heard the band’s recorded output, the foundation of the band’s sound should be familiar by now. Guitars (two, three, maybe sometimes four!?), synthesizers, drums (sometimes two drummers!), bass, drones and strings (most often violin). Salt The Wound featured cuts (some reworked or re-recorded) from the band’s first two self-released CD-rs, Prayer Meeting and Bad Heart Bull (I guess now’s as good a time to say that if you own either of these, I need to buy them from you). The band’s self-titled EP was the first recording of theirs I heard. From the first bars of the fantastically raw, spaced-out blues rocker “Lazarus” I was one-hundred percent sold. By the time Eat The Low Dogs was released, I’d started hailing USX as one of the best rock bands in the world. The have been desribed somewhat simplistically by various music rags as “stoner rock,” but there is much more depth to the band, in my mind they defy such easy classification. There’s a southern, bluesy aspects (without that annoying whiskey-soaked posturing you find on a lot of stoner/metal records). There’s also a ton of far out, Pink Floyd shit involved. Synthesizers and effects pedals spiraling off into distant galaxies, kaleidoscopic and grand, pierced by the heavily-processed vocals of guitarist Nate Hall.

Run Thick In The Night is as consistent and far-out as anything the band has released to date. Some of the melodies actually stand out now, instead of being crushed to dust beneath walls of noise and feedback. You can actually hear chord changes! The band doesn’t play with space as much as on Eat The Low Dogs or Salt The Wound (see: “Silent Tongue,” “Lazarus,” etc.), but the increased attention to filling in gaps between notes aids the band’s desired wall-of-sound. As someone who loved and appreciated the — dare I say it — minimalist compositions of the band’s earlier albums, I’m happy that the more fleshed-out songs on Run Thick In The Night don’t distract from the band’s essence. So often a band decides to record a new album with a highly-touted producers (as USX has done this time around, enlisting Minsk’s Sanford Parker to record, whose credits include Pelican, Lair Of The Minotaur, Nachtmystium, Zoroaster and more) to terrible, over-produced results. That’s most certainly not the case here.

Highlights include the so-very-U.S.-Christmas-esque opener “In The Night,” the acoustic guitar and violin ballad — that’s right, it’s a fucking kick-ass ballad — “Fire Is Sleeping,” and “Suzerain,” which sounds like what Rex could have sounded like if they didn’t go for broke with the alt. country vibe after their first LP. “Fire Is Sleeping” or “Devil’s Flower In Mother Winter” — both stellar acoustic dirges — remind me of that self-titled Flying Canyon record. It’s not CSNY on horse tranquilizers in an echo chamber, but it’s close. Of course, these tunes sound prettier.

The 13-track album closes with the slow-churning hymn, “The Moon In Flesh And Bone.” This is U.S. Christmas at its best. Minimal guitars, straightforward drumming, oozing with violin drones, slow-building with call-and-response vocals, finally reaching its crescendo, catapulting the listener into the deepest regions of space, eventually collapsing into a mess of chaotic noise. At some point I realized that those swirling synthesizers — the key elements of the bands previous albums — had quietly exited some time ago. It’s okay. The guitar/violin interplay is just as great, and it shows that U.S. Christmas is so much more than just a one-trick pony. USX is now capable of both sending you off into the deepest, uncharted recesses of your brain — where the totally psychotropic shit resides — and breaking your heart with ornate requiems. I too once tried to oversimplify the U.S. Christmas sound to a friend by saying, “They pretty much have only one song, but I fucking love it and they play the shit out of it.” Run Thick In The Night blows that idea out of the water, and I am happily humbled to hear it. Like I said earlier, you can’t easily classify a band like U.S. Christmas. You just have to tell people that they fucking rock.

Run Thick In The Night, the fifth studio album by U.S. Christmas, will be released September 20th, 2010 by Neurot Recordings.

U.S. Christmas – Fonta Flora

Technorati Tags: Eat The Low Dogs, Minsk, Nate Hall, Neurot Recordings, Run Thick In The Night, Salt The Wound, Sanford Parker, U.S. Christmas

Show me another four staged productions of Rent and I might actually be able to remember what song comes next. You’ll make a theater man of me someday, Nicci! For now at least, my girlfriend has had a hand in my seeing five or six different incarnations of the rock musical. At this point I’m not ashamed to say I know a lot about the show, its message, and how to critique the actors and musicians on stage.

I first learned about the Hollywood Bowl Rent production when Nicci was acting in the show (as Mimi) during the excellent Lewis Family Playhouse production at the beginning of 2010. She and her cast excitedly spoke of auditioning together, trying to get the word out about their own production in the hopes that some casting director would read it. No one really spoke about it at the time, but perhaps subconsciously they all knew that a glitzy, one-weekend-only Los Angeles musical at the famed Hollywood Bowl might wind up being more of a star-studded event than an attempt to put forth the highest-quality cast imaginable. They all auditioned, none of them made it (not even Nicci’s assistant director, who played Maureen on Broadway, was cast in the show). As details about the Hollywood Bowl cast leaked, it became a bit of a lark. The most obvious bad decision was Vanessa Hudgens as Mimi, but I didn’t like the idea of Wayne Brady as Collins either. The rest of the cast I would wait to pass judgment on until I’d seen it in person.

Yesterday after work we drove over to the Bowl. It’s worth noting, firstly, that the geniuses over at the Silver Lake Cheese Shop put together an awesome Hollywood Bowl picnic spread with various meats, cheeses and breads. A bottle of red wine later, we were ready for the show to begin. It is also worth noting that in the weeks leading up to the show, Nicci seemingly shifted views in relation to the show. At first she was intrigued and excited by the idea, but last night before the lights went down and the show began, she was clearly exhibiting signs that hinted anticipation that this Rent would be a disaster. It was nice to have her along for the ride.

We weren’t that far off. Skylar Astin (as Mark, previously known as Georg in Spring Awakening) looked uncomfortable and sounded unsure for the duration of the show. His shoulders perpetually tensed, his voice never resonated. His lines never really hit you the way Mark’s bold claims and descriptions of events unfolding on-stage should. There is no doubt that he can sing, but Mark’s harmonies (most of which are the lower-half of two-part harmonies) and his solos never quite materialized in the way I’ve come to expect. Aaron Tveit (Roger, previously Gabe in Next To Normal, also some guy on that show Gossip Girl Nicci loves) definitely had the vocal chops to succeed at the part, and appeared to be the most confident of the principal cast members. But oh, when that gangly young thing Vanessa Hudgens sauntered on stage for the first time to sing “Light My Candle,” would you believe me if I told you it was laughable? Her very first line was delivered with such a thick Latina inflection people around us were giggling. I wondered if maybe Hudgens had hired Rosie Perez as an accent coach. After that one line, though, that character trait literally disappeared. Maybe she felt our embarrassment for her. The poor thing, she was clearly way out of her element on stage. Nicci said that her flailing arms and legs plus her inability to do anything to fill the spaces between her actions showed that she had absolutely no idea how to act when she wasn’t being directed to do something specific. As for her voice, she hit nary on a note on the bottom end of her vocal range, and exhibited marginal control at best of her belting voice. Wayne Brady (as Collins, previously known as the annoying guy on Who’s Line Is It Anyway and the host of his own daytime talk show) I’d give a pass were it not for his complete lack of emotion during one of the show’s most heartrending songs, “I’ll Cover You (Reprise).” If a less soulful, gutless rendition of the song exists somewhere in this universe, its best chance at being heard will be tonight or tomorrow night at the Hollywood Bowl. He was the most obvious choice on stage as the guy who was “acting,” which is to say he did absolutely nothing to embody his role. He had difficulty shifting from his unnatural booming bass register to his natural baritone during both the aforementioned reprise and “Santa Fe.” He could have been a wonderful Benny, but as Collins he was not enjoyable to watch. The guy who did play Benny…not-a-so-good! Telly Leung has Angel put forth a good effort. I liked him. Nicci said something about his singing being a bit one-dimensional but he was very well composed during “Today 4 U.”

The bright spots in the cast were clearly Tracie Thoms (as Joanne, previously known as Joanne in the Rent movie) and Nicole Scherzinger (Maureen, previously known as one of the Pussycat Dolls). Scherzinger, especially, was a welcome surprise. Her unique, silly take on “Over The Moon” was definitely one of the best (if not the best) renditions I’ve seen. She has a wonderful voice, too. I don’t know from the Pussycat Dolls other than they dress like skanks and are a girl group, but I’m sure her talents are being wasted.

It seems like an obvious excuse, but I think the setting also had a lot to do with the failures of this Rent. On such a huge stage, playing to nearly 20,000 people, the air was much more that of an outdoor concert than musical theater. What’s more, the action occurring across the stage looked so disconnected from afar it was nearly impossible to take your eyes off the jumbo-trons flanking the Bowl. As for the direction of Neil Patrick Harris…I’m not quite sure what to say. Segments of the show were cut entirely from the production (most notably the orgy scene “Contact” but also “Seasons of Love B” and the short reprise of “Santa Fe” before the finale). They only had a week to rehearse, so I imagine they probably stuck to singing and choreography. Even so, what is usually the strongest song of any Rent production, “La Vie Boheme” was flat last night. Each of those references sung/shouted by the company needs to hit you like a punch. Unfortunately, this is a show about unconditional love, and at no point during the show did I sense any care, acceptance, or love between the actors on stage. Like I said, it was a concert. It wasn’t theater. There was no love involved. I’m not sure I blame NPH for the Vanessa Hudgens atrocity — the blame would be better placed at the feet of whoever casted this show — but he could have done a little more to make her not look like a fish out of water for two hours.

The expanded ensemble was a joy to hear when stripped of the sound problems which plagued the evening. One of my favorite Rent songs to hear is “Will I?”, which is a round sung by the entire company. In most productions, you have four groups singing rounds, which creates a colorful, stunning wall of noise. Last night the company sang but two rounds, and the song had no impact at all. David Burtka, who begins that song, had a beautiful voice. Gwen Stewart once again singing the “Seasons Of Love” solo (she was the original Broadway soloist) was outstanding. If it weren’t for the sound engineer constantly turning down the ensembles microphones in favor of the principals, some of the songs might have sounded better. Instead, we had one or two moments of no sound, and too many muddled mixes for any of the songs to really impress.

The expanded band, on the other hand (look at me, I’m practically a poet spinning such bold rhymes), was not a success. The string section, the woodwinds and the horns were completely unnecessary. The grittiness of the “rock” in the “rock musical” was lost. Instead, the superfluous embellishments sounded out-of-place, misguided. At one point Nicci commented that the little trills sounded like musical cues from a schmaltzy episode of  Family Matters. Using original musical director Tim Weil was a great idea in theory, but the additional musicians offered less-than-desirable results.

Rent is the kind of show that really transcends musical theater, for better and for worse. When a show is deemed culturally acceptable and important enough to transform into a major motion picture, you know its doing something right. The soundtrack is wildly popular. If ever a rock opera were to be staged at the Hollywood Bowl, Rent would be a fitting choice. Unfortunately, this production is riddled with flaws. As I stated earlier, it’s more of a concert than a show. The message of unconditional love is lost with these actors on this stage. If you’ve never seen a production of Rent before, do not allow this to be your first experience. Please, promise me you’ll save your eyes and ears from Vanessa Hudgens? If not for you…do it for your children. C.

Take that, Entertainment Weekly. A-? What fucking show were you watching!?

You can read Nicci’s review here.

Original Broadway Cast – Will I?
Original Broadways Cast – I’ll Cover You (Reprise)

Technorati Tags: Aaron Tveit, David Burtka, Gwen Stewart, Hollywood Bowl, Neil Patrick Harris, Nicole Scherzinger, RENT, review, Skylar Astin, Theater, Tracie Thoms, Vanessa Hudgens, Wayne Brady

Chess features lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Bjorn and Benny from ABBA (I’m not on a first-name basis with the ladies). To quote Wikipedia, “The story involves a romantic triangle between two top players, an American and a Russian, in a world chess championship, and a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other; all in the context of a Cold War struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, during which both countries wanted to win international chess tournaments for propaganda purposes…following the pattern of Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, a highly successful concept album of Chess was released in 1984.” There have been many, many variations of Chess since it’s first incarnation, but Nicci says that the most relatable to her version is the 2008 Royal Albert Hall production. That one starred Josh Groban, Idina Menzel, Adam Pascal, Clarke Peters, Marti Pellow, Kerry Ellis and David Bedella…so it must have been a big deal because I recognize three of those names!

The show experienced some sound difficulties immediately following its start. The Arbitor (Gil Darnell) had to compete with microphone feedback, a problem Frederick (Blake McIver Ewing) probably would have loved to work with — his microphone wasn’t even working during “What A Scene! What A Joy!” which was also Nicci’s first song. She plays Florence, and she sings a lot during this show. The rest of the first act went off without a hitch. In fact, after those two small snafus at the outset, the show was pretty much flawless. The Russian characters, Gregory North (Molokov) and Peter Welkin (Anatoly) showcased strong accents. North held onto his accent really well while singing, which is something I listen for when I see shows because I don’t know what else I’m supposed to be paying attention to; blame it on my being devastatingly uncultured. There are a lot of recurring melodies throughout the show, so when you hear a reprise or catch a glimpse of familiar tunes it gives you a sense of, “I know this!” that makes being a mildly retarded musical theater audience member (like myself) more enjoyable. The first act concludes with the majority of the cast on stage. Maybe it was where I was seated, or maybe it was an additional technical problem, but when the entire cast sang together it sounded a bit muddled to my ears. There wasn’t much color to the numerous voices singing as one. It was interesting to note the increasing response from the audience as the show progressed. What began as a tepid applause transformed into really positive reactions. Maybe we didn’t know what to expect, but when everything began to come together, it definitely felt like we were seeing something very cool and unique.

The second act begins with the big song from the show, “One Night In Bangkok,” which topped numerous charts across the world when it was released in 1984. It peaked at #3 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Here’s the embarrassingly bad music video for the song. For what it’s worth, Nicci’s show is about 100x better than this garbage:

The second act seems to resolve itself pretty quickly, probably because we have all the information that needs to be processed and they don’t have to introduce any new characters or plot lines. But this show does introduce new characters and plot lines in the second act! Namely, Emily Dykes (Svetlanta) as Anatoly’s wife who he left behind in the Soviet Union when he defected to be with Florence. She received the biggest ovation from the crowd for her song, “Someone Else’s Story,” causing one audience member to utter a rather loud “Wow!” Nicci says she played Sophia on the international tour of Mama Mia!, which also includes ABBA music. Coincidence? I don’t know!

The play ended, as all plays do, and the buzz among the crowd was overwhelmingly positive. Along with Ken and KT, I hung around afterwards to congratulate Nicci and meet some of the cast. They were all incredibly proud of the show and heaped tons of accolades on Nicci. I’m not going to comment other than I thought she did really well, but even I was impressed with how much the other members of the cast complimented her. Good job, Nic.

Lucky for you, Chess continues it’s run this weekend at the MET in Hollywood. It might even be extended because everyone is so happy with it. It’s right by Santa Monica and Western. Tickets might still be available online, just Google it or show up, I don’t know. I can’t be bothered to do all the work for you. I’m not your parent. Apply yourself. Find tickets online and buy them. Actually, don’t do that. I’m afraid one of you readers might really show up to see Nicci, and that thought scares the shit out of me. I don’t want anyone depraved enough to read this website interacting or approaching my girlfriend. Got it? Good.

Technorati Tags: Chess, Concert, Hollywood, MET Theater, Musical, Theater

I walked down to my mailbox a few days ago and found it stuffed with a number of bubble mailers. These things are bound to happen when one reaches the forefront of the blogging world. Recent I have been inundated with records and CDs sent by silly PR agencies in the hopes that I will pay some attention to the contents of these packages. At the very least it is expected that I will do more than just smile my smug little smile and chuckle at the works of art whose creators’ careers may well depend on good Internet press. Really I think the agencies and labels just want me to provide them with free quotes to fill their one-sheets. I refuse to stake my reputation on a stupid album. I might stake my reputation on a stupid movie if it meant I could have my quote grace the front of the DVD package, but definitely not for a fucking thirtieth-rate “indie” CD. I won’t lie and promote some album that blows just because I got it for free.

And when I walked down to my mailbox the other day, one of those bubble mailers stuffed in my mailbox was not sent from the address of a record label or PR firm. It was mailed from one of my oldest and dearest readers, the wonderfully kind Old Mail Neill. The contents of said package? A compact disc. I couldn’t read the name of the artist or title of the album, because Neill had slid a note into the jewel case that was obscuring the cover art. The note read, “Here is something truly horrible. – Neill”

It was backed with a folded-up newspaper article from The Other Paper, Columbus, Ohio’s alt. weekly paper. The title of the article is “Starkey on disk: endearingly bad, like baby poop.” I removed Neill’s note from the jewel case and took notice of the cover for the first time. Zachery Allen Starkey. Solitaire.

I devote a lot of space to obscure albums, private press recordings, “real people” records and vanity pressings. There are a million of these floating around the country, and vanity albums have been produced and self-released by normal folks like you and I for many, many decades. And yes, vanity albums are still being made today by some supremely untalented but brave souls. Case in point: Zachery Allen Starkey.

I don’t think I can describe the guy’s music as well as John Petric from The Other Paper does, but I’ll offer you a few thoughts of mine as well as one of Nicci’s. If you want to learn more about Zachery, by all means check out his MySpace page.

At its worst, the music contained on this CD sounds like something you might here at the old leather bar Cuffs. Huge blasts of synthesizer backed by mechanical drums that rarely change tempo or timbre. Throughout the albums twelve tracks, literally nothing changes other than the key of each song and the lyrics. And the vocals…I’m pretty sure I know deaf people with better pitch control.

Nicci describes Zachery’s voice as “sludgy,” stating, “It’s like he can’t even land a note, he’s just sliding through every single one! I mean, that note is in there somewhere, but he’s not going to find it. Ew, and everything is flat. He slides right through it and still stays flat. I don’t know how that’s possible.”

Then she made a barfing noise.

Part of me thinks that if Zachery left the rust-belt and moved to LA, he would have no problem landing on a bill with any number of shitty local bands that use synthesizers. You know, that whole…scene. What’s it called? Where the kids with gross nostalgia for ’80s synth pop slap some effects processors on their instruments and pretend it’s amazing and unique “dance music?” I don’t know much about the LA music landscape at the moment but there’s enough garbage here that he might actually succeed with what others would deem endearingly awful music. If there’s a last minute opening some Sunday night at Part Time Punks, are you going to tell me this guy wouldn’t be the most amazing fill-in ever? At least one person at the Echo would go un-ironically crazy for his lyrics. The song “Nuclear Star” (yes, he pronounces it nuke-u-ler repeatedly) asks, “Do you remember Mr. Rodgers? / Do you remember Sesame Street? / Do you remember kick the can? / Do you remember Pacman? / Do you remember life with no Internet / Do you remember how you…” — it kind of sounds like he says, “doody.”

There really isn’t much else I can say about this. You have to hear it for yourself. I was hoping there would be a slower, ballad-y song we could all enjoy, but this thing…it’s just unrelenting. Holy Jesus…Wow. I don’t feel right sharing the full album because I just spent 5 paragraphs destroying the artist behind it, and because it just came out a couple years ago, and because I really want this guy to get all the money he can out of this album. Seriously. I almost feel bad for receiving it free in the mail. Maybe we should set up a fund of some kind to help this guy out. We can take PayPal donations and write up a really sad press release detailing how underprivileged he is. It would end with the sentence, “Save the man, save the world from having to endure his music.”

Enjoy!? …

Zachery Allan Starkey
Solitaire

Tracklist:
01. Nuclear Star
02. The Eyes Of God
03. Bye Bye Love
04. Don’t Live In Washington Beach
05. Stand In Line
06. Marco Polo
07. Not Enough
08. In The Dark
09. Alternate Ending
10. Day Glo Girl
11. Solitaire
12. 70 Millimeter

Technorati Tags: Old Man Neill, Solitaire, Vanity Press, Zachery Allan Starkey

A few weeks ago Nicci was watching TV when a commercial for In The Heights aired. Her initial reaction was, “I want to see that!” which she backed with “Do you want to go with me?” Uh…not really. I thought it looked stupid. People break-dancing and singing about the ghetto? Not my cup of tea. Then again, theater isn’t exactly my cup of tea. Alas, I date an actress, so at some point (I don’t remember when) I must have signed a contract obligating me to see some live theater each year. Okay, so In The Heights it is. I’ll take a play I’ve never heard of long, long before I go see something like A Chorus Line.

As we picked up our tickets and found our seats, Nicci excitedly informed me that the man who wrote the show’s music and lyrics — and starred in the original production — would be performing tonight. Considering I didn’t know anything about the show outside of the 15 second television commercial, it was hard for me to muster a response. And then the curtain lifted, and the show began.

After the opening number, “In The Heights,” I was a bit confused. There were elements of rap, salsa, and I couldn’t really understand what anyone was singing or saying. I wondered if I was going to be lost the entire time trying to catch up to the dialog. Luckily I caught on pretty quickly. And then I realized during the second number (”Breathe”) that some of what the characters were saying was in Spanish. So I didn’t have to think that hard!

I was almost immediately struck by the voices of the cast. The colors of the company’s voices combined to form some really beautiful harmonies. I decided rather quickly that I liked that, and I would listen more for the harmonies than the plot points being delivered via song. After all, the story wasn’t hard to follow. Everyone lived on the same block, they all had money problems, and they each had dreams that they still wanted to realize.

The first act consisted of roughly thirteen numbers. I preferred the ones with the full company — or at the very least duets — more than the solos. The effortless transitions between hip hop and soul and salsa were pretty cool, too. The “rapping,” if you could call it that, was much more melodic than your garden variety rap music. As much attention was paid to melody as rhythm. There were two stand-out songs in the first act, “96,000″ and the two-part culminating numbers “The Club” and “Blackout.”

At half-time (that’s what they call it in the theater, right?) Nicci and I discussed our impressions of the play. She was very much liking it. She thought it possessed all the elements of a typical theatrical production, but the style was unlike anything she’d ever seen before. It all seemed very real — except of course for all the dancing. She also appeared happy that I was enjoying myself. Since neither of us had prior knowledge of the plot, we didn’t know how the different plot points would resolve themselves.

Act II has, at most, eight songs. I guess every show has a shorter second act, but this one seemed abnormally quick. I keep mentioning in these reviews that I don’t have a lot of theater experience, but it’s starting to feel like there’s a simple playwriting formula. And in the second act someone always dies. That is what sparks the rest of the action. My problem with this structure is that when the sad stuff happens it always has to be balanced out with comedic relief. I feel like, if you’re going to try to elicit a sincere emotional reaction from an audience by performing something that is depressing, why follow it up immediately with dialog or song intended to make everyone laugh? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose? I don’t know, that’s just how I feel. I guess I want everyone else in the theater to feel as depressed for an hour of their lives as I do most of mine.

As I stated earlier, the finale comes pretty quickly. I thought it tied things together nicely. The last number encompassed most of what makes In The Heights such an enjoyable show. You have the full company singing together, plus the main character (Lin-Manuel Miranda) being awesome, a small bit of the crazily choreographed dance, and resolution. At the risk of sounding like a softy, it’s very cool.

For those of you who come to this website expecting me to write the most crass shit imaginable, avert your eyes. I liked In The Heights. Don’t worry, I’m not going to run off and join a theater troupe or anything. I’m not going to take my booze and vinyl money and trade it in for hip hop dance classes. But seriously, I had a good time watching this show and if you live in the LA area you should see this guy Lin-Manuel Miranda’s play. It’s impressive. I’m barely human, with a heart that pumps cold, black blood and I was moved by it all. I think that speaks well for how you might react to it.

Listen to: “96,000″

Technorati Tags: 96000, In The Heights, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Pantages Theater, Theater

In a short blurb for yesterday’s mix tape I made fun of Ian for how horribly he described a band. I need to make a point of saying that Ian has been consistently awesome in recommending me music over the tenure of our friendship. He’s got pretty good taste! One of his most recent successes was turning me onto Woodsman. I think he initially sold me on their album Collages because it contained a track called “Dikembe Mutombo.” Their psychedelic space/post-rock sound is right in line with what I find myself most frequently listening to these days. As if by some divine force, I received a copy of the band’s new EP Mystery Tape in the mail last week. Excitedly, I tore into it.

“Beached” begins the record all gauzy, druggy and tribal with a the band’s two drummers keeping themselves impressively restrained. Heavily processed voices rise and fall around delayed and reverberated guitar flourishes and a steady bass line. “When The Morning Comes” exposes the band’s pop sensibilities. It’s not too poppy. With its swirling effects and electronics galore, the song reminds me of the best unreleased Landings outtake I’ve never heard. “Hocus Pocus” is pure motorik bliss, the propulsive drums and bass groove lock into each other as woozy synths and crystalline guitar licks spiral around the propulsive rhythm section. “Balance” continues the Krautrock vibe sounding downright Can-ish, or more specifically like a track off Tago Mago or Ege Bamyasi. All that’s missing here is Damo whispering nonsense syllables in the background. In spite of the obvious debt the song owes to Can, the combination of guitar/bass melody with the dual drums and sampled voices is texturally stunning. The album concludes with the 14-minute “Smells Like Purple,” an epic jam that finally shows off the band’s muscle. The guitars howl and chug along until they fade into a fog of effects nearly halfway through the sprawling opus. It is short live, as the band quickly regains its intensity and sustains it for the duration. Awesome.

For the few references I made to other bands in the body of this review (see: Landing, Can), Woodsman most definitely has a style of their own. Songs contain elements that might be familiar to some listeners, but one cannot simply categorize the band as copying pre-existing styles. Collages as well as the newly released Mystery Tapes more than establish Woodsman as a unique and exciting addition to the modern space/psych scene. I look forward to seeing how these songs translate in a live setting. Now if only the band could schedule an LA date in the near future. I mean, they’re based out of Denver for fuck’s sake. How far apart are we, anyway? A dozen hours by car? Don’t be pussies, Woodsman. I’ll see you soon.

The fantastic new Woodsman EP Mystery Tapes is available now thanks to Lefse Records. The vinyl is but $11.99 over at the label’s website. Get on it.

Listen to “Beached“.

Technorati Tags: Collages, Dikembe Mutombo, Krautrock, Mystery Tape, Psychedelic, Woodsman

With all of the amazing underground psychedelic/space rock bands to emerge in the last five years, a proper Hawkwind tribute album is about as overdue as a mainstream “indie” ban on Ivy League educated fag-pop albums. Hey, look at that, I think I just coined a new genre! Call me Simon Reynolds because I’m going to overuse the shit out of that phrase until its Wikipedia page (*snap* get on it, nerds!) credits me with its creation. A few years ago we got that awesome 7″ series with White Hills, Mugstar, Acid Mother’s Temple, Mudhoney, Kinski and Bardo Pond covering tracks for the Trensmat label, but that was a limited edition three-piece set you had to buy separately. Although I’ve never heard of these bands Harvestman and Minsk, I will gladly endure them for a slice of US Christmas. That band is up there with White Hills, Mugstar, Titan and Earthless as the creamiest of the Hawkwind torchbearers.

Fittingly, it is US Christmas that gets the new Hawkwind Triad album rolling with a stunning cover of “Master Of The Universe.” The overdriven guitar riffs are dead-on, sounding identical to those of the of space rock luminaries which inspired this project. Harvestman’s singer sounds a tad bit out of his league with his gravelly delivery. Musically it works, their take on “D Rider” sounds almost minimalist compared to Hawkwind’s original composition. Minsk definitely brings enough psychedelic effects and aggressive rhythms to impress. But it’s US Christmas that steals the show here. Listen to “Orgone Accumulator” and tell me the band couldn’t easily pull off an entire album of Hawkwind covers by themselves.

I’d say the tracks by US Christmas are the least re-imagined efforts on the album, but all three bands realize the importance of approaching a classic sound from a modern perspective. Minsk use their background as a self-described “psychedelic metal” act to add heaviness and a bit more complexity to what was considered at the time to be very progressive music. The best Harvestman contribution, “The Watcher” could just as easily be a cut on a fucked-up swamp blues compilation as it could a newly recorded Hawkwind cover. Maybe it’s related to my not being a huge Neurosis fan, but I found myself enjoying Harvestman the least of the triad. Sorry, Steve Von Till. I still adore Culper Ring!

It can be frustrating at times to describe the sounds of bands of this ilk without invoking the Hawkwind reference. Oftentimes I feel like I’m not giving bands enough credit if I say they’re reminiscent of one of the earliest space/psych bands on the planet. As an obsessive music fan and sometimes music writer I never want to sell a band short by simply comparing one group’s sound to those original trailblazers. I want to get the idea of a sound across to potential new listeners in a creative and unique way. Still, it helps to know that all of these bands are not ashamed of who most-inspired them. That Harvestman, Minsk and US Christmas (plus those Trensmat-recorded bands before them) are more than willing to pridefully record an album of Hawkwind material encapsulates the best possible course of action for bands that might draw easy comparisons: Show you adoration for those who came before you while putting forth something completely your own. My personal thanks to all three of these bands for offering up a fantastic record.

Hawkwind Triad is available for purchase right now thanks to Neurot Recordings.

My decision to not include a Harvestman track has nothing to do with my liking or disliking their takes on Hawkwind songs, and everything to do with not wanting to give nearly 30% of the album away for free.

Minsk – 7×7
US Christmas – Orgone Accumulator

Technorati Tags: Culper Ring, Harvestman, Hawkwind, Hawkwind Triad, Minsk, Neurot Recordings, Psychedelic, Space Rock, US Christmas