Folks, I am full-on crushing on Dr. Daniel Mathias Jebediah Yemin. Obviously, living so close to
I finally got back in the PiB game last week when I picked up Amnesia, and it does not disappoint. It’s a little retro for the band by default, since it lacks New Lexicon’s experimental hip-hop/electronic edges. But given that the seven-inch idea was meant to honor hardcore’s past, retro is fitting. Fans get five blistering, rage-tastic tunes on white wax. Opener “
The year-long celebration of all things Bouncing Souls continues with 20th Anniversary Series: Volume Two. Collected are three more songs from the band’s ongoing song-a-month digital download project, as well a bonus track, an acoustic demo of Volume One’s “Gasoline.” Generally speaking, it’s the same set-up as Volume One: Two fist-pumping punk anthems on the A-side, with a mid-tempo game-changer followed by an acoustic number on the flipside. The diversity is in the details.
“Dub Says True” and “I Think That the World” are Gold Record-style winners. “Dub Says True” is a testament to friendship, but for it me it doubles as a song about my love of the Souls. It’s all there in the chorus – “You say we have been there for you / In all the tough times of your life / Remember you have been there too,” says Attonito before the whole band shouts, “We always will be true.” For the last eight years of my life, the Souls have filled my days with life-affirming joy. And no matter how emo I felt or how many Dashboard Confessional/Smiths/Bright Eyes smoothies I concocted, they pulled me back up.
Oh yeah, and “I Think That the World” is a cute little love song.
The B-side starts off happy with the easy/breezy/harmonica-laden “The Mental Bits.” It’s more laidback than some punkers might appreciate, but it’s still a fun song. Bonus cut “Gasoline,” in sharp contrast, is not so fun. It’s depressing, and having to move my record needle over the locked groove to get to it gets annoying after a while. To be honest, this demo feels a little like a copout, given that Volume One offered “A Life Less Ordinary,” an actual new track. That said, the demo brings the band’s lyrics into focus. Without a punk tempo to liven things up, Attonito’s nihilistic disdain for the world and himself fully comes through. It’s a major downer after all the peace, love, and harmony from the first three songs, but it’s also a reminder that the Souls know how to get dark.
“Gasoline” aside, Volume Two is a solid summer seven-inch, delivering songs about love, friendship, and good times. I’m not sure yet where it ranks in terms of the overall series. Volume One is a hair stronger, while Volume Three promises a ukulele version of “Quick Chek Girl,” which I’m pretty sure has to be awesome times a thousand, but Souls fans should be downright satisfied with the latest addition to the band’s discography.
Those who try out Gospel Claws’ self-titled EP shouldn’t be surprised if it bears a resemblance to
Which is a good thing. Gospel Claws is a promising debut, boasting five earthy, rolling tunes steeped in American rock history. It’s not particularly religious, but it helps if you can tolerate the occasional God reference, at least in a “woe is me” sense. Case in point: The first lyric of the first song is “God keeps me alive / So you can laugh at my life.” Vague Christian assertions aside, these guys sound more like a streamlined Portgual. The Man circa Censored Colors than DC Talk.
Not that these guys ever try to get prog-y like
While the group could stand to have a little more punch – if at least to justify the second half of its name – Gospel Claws’ debut is filler-free. And it not only continues the Dear and the Headlights sound, but it does so under a vastly superior moniker.
Jerking off on the corpses of the Ramones can be totally rad and all, but sometimes it’s fun to spin a pop-punk band that lets Joey, Johnny, and Dee Dee rest in peace. One such act is
Though self-released, Last Gasp (which I hope is just hyperbole) has all the sheen and clarity of a SideOneDummy or Fat Wreck release, thanks to production from Dan Malsch (Bigwig, Forever the Sickest Kids) and mixing and mastering from Paul Leavitt (Strike Anywhere, Circa Survive, Senses Fail). This helps the band’s copious hooks shine. Track four, “My Body is a Battleground,” is arguably the strongest track here, stuffed with catchy choruses, a guitar solo, and that punk staple, the “whoa.” The song itself is about drug-induced lethargy (like Green Day’s “Green Day!”). While it doesn’t reinvent punk rock, it’s still a really fun song about being really bored.
“My Body is Battleground” is also representative of Last Gasp as a whole. What listeners get here are seven uncomplicated, easy-to-love pop punk songs about feeling stagnant and kind of, sort of, maybe hating your friends. Which doubles as the EP’s lone drawback. With the exception of the title track, the songs all clock in around three, three-and-a-half minutes, which blurs the tracks’ diatribes together after a while.
But how much that bothers listeners depends on their feelings towards pop punk as a whole. As for me, I could listen to tracks like “All the Rage” and “Happily in Misery” all day. This stuff is my bread ‘n’ butter. Diss tracks always sound better when they’re pop punk, and Goodbye Etc. somehow made a party record out of bile and disaffection.
[Here's something momentous in the world of Picasso Blue. Our first guest article, courtesy of Michelle Kate Byrne. Full disclosure: I think she's really cute.]
At roughly 8:25 p.m. on Sat., Aug. 15, it was predicted that Tori Amos would take to the stage of the Tower Theater in 35 minutes just as she had two years before. This was much anticipated as opener One EskimO’s lackluster performance had matched the stagnant air of the theater perfectly. Think Seal + Bowerbirds + suck. Sample quote: “You float like a baby looking for safety.” +1 point for your genuine British politeness, though. I also want to give One EskimO another point for the Byron "Buster" Bluth lookalike grooving on their undistinguished jams, but I am pretty sure that guy danced the rest of the night too.
At 9:01 p.m., the theater transformed into a Tori dreamworld as Matt Chamberlain and Jon Evans subtly took to the stage, making me forgive and forget the opener. The evening, the set, and even the artist’s demeanor were different than the last
As a Tori devotee for well over a decade, I know that there is a masterly method to this magnetizer’s madness (Wink.) Tori’s dreamworld was aided by her wardrobe (a primarily blue dress over gold leggings), the twinkling and swirling lighting effects, and the plethora of piano-based instruments on the stage; as well as several songs with the word “blue” somewhere within their lyrics, three songs with “Cloud[s]” in the title,” and nine songs with the letter “C” beginning a word in the title. (I know there is a reason for these things!) The song organization was in the same vein as this year’s Abnormally Attracted to Sin, cultivating the ethereality: "Black Dove (January)" into "Welcome to
When Tori took to the stage, I was surprised that her petite frame seemed even tinier than two years ago. But then, the nearly 46-year-old played for nearly two hours straight working her ass off the entire time. She spent the majority of the show doing sexy squats while straddling the piano bench playing keys on both sides of her; breaks were accompanied by a little vogue-like dance. The songs are almost too complex for a live show as it seemed she used three, maybe four, key-based instruments for “Starling.” Rarely straining, she is a master at pacing herself and keeping her sense of humor. Extra dreamy takes of “Hotel” and “Bouncing Off Clouds” with extended introductions added lightness to the newer and extremely involved songs, like “Starling” and “Welcome to
Tori closed with “Strong Black Vine” off of this year’s Abnormally Attracted to Sin, and she gave the performance of a lifetime. She bestowed upon us the most powerful and raw version audiences may ever hear with some extended “motherfucker” verses. Watching her work throughout the evening was exhausting, and after the performance of that song, I knew there was nothing greater on earth for my ears to hear. She gave us a tired encore of “Caught A Lite Sneeze” and “Big Wheel,” though she did perk up for the “MILF” chanting. The lights went on immediately after the first encore, which (in my experience) is a rarity. However, I was, as usual, more satisfied than I could have ever imagined and amazed at the stamina Tori possessed. I hope she got to spend the rest of her evening with her mother and father, who were also in attendance.
