Archive for the ‘Music reviews’ Category
Rites of Spring: Six Song Demo
From a recent issue of Record Collector.
Back before emo became shorthand for commercially minded pop-punk, the term was applied to underground heroes such as Rites of Spring. Featuring members who would later play with the likes of Fugazi, Royal Trux and Girls Against Boys, this demo captures them in action almost a year before the release of their self-titled debut album.
All bar the die-hard fans need yet another addition to the multitude of murky live bootlegs and sloppy demos that have emerged in recent years to “celebrate” the leaders and followers of the Eighties punk scene. This demo, however, is very much an exception. The clarity of the sound allows Rites of Spring’s aggressive yet often melodic and off-kilter attack to burst from the speakers with the borderline controlled ferocity that hallmarks much of the genre. Its intensity is complemented by in-studio chatter and hip-hop style sound collages between each track.
Perhaps best of all is Guy Picciotto’s vocal delivery. Often almost as clear-throated as any of the pop-punk heroes of the Nineties, it’s infused with numerous panicked shrieks and some effortlessly cool phrasing which makes it a small wonder that this recording was the first time anyone had heard him sing.
Soul Asylum: Delayed Reaction
From a recent issue of Record Collector.
Still almost solely known for their once unavoidable wuss-rock anthem Runaway Train, it’s hard to believe that Soul Asylum were a supporting player in the Minneapolis alternative rock scene of the Eighties (The Replacements, Hüsker Dü) and even created a highly credible ramshackle punk ‘n’ roll album of their own with 1988’s Hang Time.
Now with The Replacements’ Tommy Stinson on bass following the tragic, premature death of founding member Karl Mueller in 2005, today’s Soul Asylum flit between the loose energy of their early sound with the slick country-tinged rock of their mainstream hit albums Grave Dancers Union and Let Your Dim Light Shine.
While Delayed Reaction floats by pleasantly enough, little sticks in the mind in the way Cartoon (from the rockier end of their discography) or the piano ballad We 3 (which closed the Kevin Smith movie Chasing Amy) did. The exceptions – the buzzing power pop of Gravity, the jazz influence which seeps into Cruel Intentions and The Hold Steady-style Take Manhattan – demonstrate that Dave Pirner’s songwriting talents are far from lost to time. The subsequent departure of founding guitarist Dan Murphy, however, may well be the wound that finishes the Soul Asylum story for good.
Kerbdog reissues
From the current issue of Record Collector.
For all of about a month in 1994, Irish trio Kerbdog looked set to become alternative rock’s newest heroes. Sharing management with Iron Maiden and bills with Therapy?, their success amounted to little more than minor chart entries and some Stateside airplay.
Released that same year, their self-titled debut album brimmed with promise as it fluctuated from the artier end of the grunge scene to more prosaic metal influences. What it lacked in consistency, it more than compensated for with highlights such as the lumbering, off-kilter opener End Of Green and the stuttering grind of Dry Riser.
1996’s On The Turn mirrored the huge evolution that Therapy? had prospered with on their Troublegum album, yet Kerbdog still couldn’t make any substantial commercial impact. Featuring a huge, beefy production by GGGarth Richardson, On The Turn resonated with similarly immediate hooks that typified the best of Northern Ireland’s pace-setters but allied them to subtle unpredictable song structures and battering ram riffs. The heavier tracks – Severed, Mexican Wave – punched with stop-start rhythms comparable to Helmet’s finest moments.
Kerbdog subsequently morphed into power-pop trio Wilt but still couldn’t shake their nearly man status. Frontman Cormac Battle is now best known as a presenter on 2FM.
Ian Glasper: Armed With Anger
From last month’s Record Collector.
Punk professor Ian Glasper’s latest tome doesn’t really address the subject of its sub-header, but it brims with such passion and knowledge that it doesn’t really matter. Instead, Glasper sketches the era with a collection of over a hundred band biographies alongside profiles of a handful of labels and fanzines.
The bands featured encompass every level of success from one-time alt-rock kings Therapy? to the altogether gnarlier Throw Bricks At Coppers who recorded just one demo. Most of those featured are from the underground, but punks who missed the decade – through youth or general excess – will doubtless recognise the likes of Leatherface, Knuckledust and Glasper’s previous band Stampin’ Ground.
Most of the tales share some basic attributes; what now seem like pathetic reasons for bands splitting up; chaotic tours of Europe; close encounters with the law. But for what can sometimes be a po-faced scene, it’s often funny – see Wat Tyler’s Madonna spoof Sexless landing them in the Sunday Sport , Chineapple Punx’s formation of Bad Religion tribute band Bald Religion or the tale of how Goober Patrol landed a deal with Fat Wreck for evidence. Armed With Anger is a neat tribute to largely undocumented scene.
Bob Mould: Silver Age
From last month’s Record Collector.
Bob Mould’s hefty discography – split between Hüsker Dü, Sugar and his solo work – is both a blessing and a curse. Its strength means that there will always be an audience interested in his next step (perhaps especially so now, following his appearance on the most recent album from the Foo Fighters), but how can anything new ever live up to the previous highlights of his career? It’s an issue heightened by his vocals – sure, they’re the perfect fit for the sound on which he has earned his reputation, but they’d be an awkward fit for most other genres.
Thankfully, Silver Age fires out of the starting blocks with four strong songs which are loosely reminiscent of latter day Hüsker Dü and Sugar’s speedier moments. Although such intensity isn’t maintained throughout, the album nonetheless evades the reflective acoustic moments and electronic productions that have featured on many of his other solo collections. Even when closing track First Time Joy suggests a moment of introspection has arrived, it eventually launches into something altogether more strident.
Silver Age won’t have the impact of Zen Arcade or Copper Blue, but it’s heartening to see that Bob Mould’s abilities are distinctly present in his fifth decade.
