The End Of Silence - Rollins Band

Three things become very clear within the first couple of minutes of listening to this album: that
Henry Rollins can't sing in anything resembling the conventional manner. that the Rollins Band are a fantastic collective of musicians, and that Henry Rollins is an outstanding lyricist. After a couple more tracks it becomes even more clear that words like "alternative" and "rock" really don't do credit to the sounds being created, as the usage of jazz, funk, and noise experimentation push beyond what had, even in the heyday of the Alternative 90's, was becoming a defined and codified genre. This is primal stuff, what Miles Davis could have made if he had discovered a Marshal stack or what John Lennon may have done were he born 20 years later. Lean, powerful, disciplined, and out to destroy so that it can rebuild you in your own image. You will have two reactions to this album: you'll either turn off the music from ill-ease or sit and feel the hairs on your neck twitching up.

Lyrically there are two main themes: improving your lot in life and the ills of love. Opener "Low Self Opinion" is an anthem to faux angst and the call to becoming all you can be, whilst "Another Life" is a call to recognise the life you are leading whatever it may be. On the other side of the anger coin "Tearing" is a song for when all the love has flushed out of the relationship and "Blues Jam" is primal scream therapy for the terminally resilient, with the howled refrain "life won't break your heart, it'll crush it" managing to sound dignified rather than the petulant or  overwrought angst that someone who hadn't lived through it all would of presented. Musically there is one main theme: slow, steady and powerful. It goes at the speed it needs to, never breaking into a sprint but never walking along. Tempos change and melodies switch, but everything is done as is needed with zero fat in the sound. Everything is where it needs to be, nothing sounds flashy in the way that only precision musicianship can allow. This is a jaguar of a band, prowling with restraint and confidence. With the two elements put together it's a titanic sound, a rumble of power and majesty.

That this album could get so much acclaim twenty-two years ago and still sound as fresh and vital as it does now is it's true testament. By working outside of trends and fashions, by being such a definitive statement of it's own makers (and quite possibly Henry Rollins greatest post-Black Flag musical work), it has manged to neither age nor weaken. I would encourage anyone who has the slightest interest in what rock can be, in finding out the sounds and rhythms that can be forged from the deceptively simple line up of drums and guitars and in lyrics that can be personal and triumphant without reveling, to give this the listen that you have been missing from you life.

Why you should listen to The Cramps

Rock & Roll isn't a genre, it's a primal force: It's the melding of the blues, country, and gospel that
has the beat of the heart and the sway of the hips. It's also a rare and elusive beast, at least in its original of forms, and the last great champions of its were The Cramps, who spent 33 years sweating it out from every pour they could find. Never quite fitting into whatever was hip at the time they were listened to and loved by a lot of people who knew music, but never really got huge so you may know the name but never listed to them, which you should because....

They Are Rock & Roll!

I mean really rock and roll, as in 40s to 50s USA original. Not the sanitised version you remember from the Beatles or the Stones in the 60s, not the mutated form in the 70's that became Hard Rock to Heavy Metal, and not the 80's disco and dance infused revivals. We're talking thick, simple, and likely to cause pregnancy at 20 paces. Something like this:

When Lux Interior says "Rock & Roll" it's not a boast or a claim, it's a simple fact of life. It's the voodoo yell, the reason the instrumental "Rumble" got banned for inciting violence, it's Rebel Without a Cause with none of the family friendly elements. It's not anti-social, it just doesn't want to socialise on your terms, but it sure would like to get friendly with you...

They covered every topic teenagers care about, ever
Sex, death, sex, intoxication, high weirdness, sex, alienation, and sex. Nothing else, nothing more, nothing less. Tracks like "I was a teenage werewolf" should be given to every adolescent so they know that someone understands the pains they are going through, "It Thing Hard-On" should follow it up so they know how great things are going to get, whilst "Ultra Twist" needs to taught as a basic mating ritual with "What's Inside A Girl" for what to do once things get personal. Simple, universal, and eternal because no matter how old you get you can just listen to it and tap into the energies being given off. And the lyrics are a joy to behold, "Garbage Man" is a feast of metaphor, "Journey To The Center Of A Girl" is filth without a single offensive word or term, and "Bikini Girls With Machine Guns" is just joyfully daft whilst expressing Americana in its rawest forms.

They sound like noone else
Especially on the first couple of albums, because they had no bass player. But even when they got in a four stringer they just had too much locked into Poison Ivy's buzzsaw playing style and it gave everything so much bite and tenacity. Add in the groundwork of Nick Knok showing how much could be done with so little on the drums and you've got a tight and simple sound that uses no tricks and leaves space in the sounds so you can hear everything yet have it all group in as one. Others have tried, but they either went too dense or too sparse and it just falls apart.

They were dedicated to their cause
All they ever did was play their thing. Musically there was minimal progression in style or tone, other than getting better and better, and lyrically it was all just as above. But it isn't in a bad way, and it hasn't got a gimmick feel to it. It's just a real definite approach and a dedication to a cause, which means it just gets better and there isn't a 'bad' album amongst their catalogue, only 'better' and 'best'.

So, please, give it a listen and come back to me with what you think.
It'll be good for you, or maybe just bad for you in all the right ways.

We Have A Ghost - We Have A Ghost

"Haunting" isn't a word I use often, mostly because it's been so badly used before, but for this debut album I'm going to roll it out and throw it around with gusto. Ten tracks of slow to mid tempo (mostly) instrumental music that just sits with you, on your shoulder, and plays a series of varied tunes that are both happy, filled with drive and melancholy, filled with slow, purposeful thought (quite often at the same time).

Musically it's a broad church, mixing in trad industrial, triphop/breakbeat, rock, prog, light alterative, and just generally anything that happened to be lying around and that sounded good. And, very importantly, it isn't a mess. It's not 'an eclectic mix' or anything randomly put together, it's a very clear vision of a sound that just happens to have a lot of facets to it. It's got bits that sound like the intermissions on a Nine Inch Nails album, bits that could be 69DaysOfStatic, bits that reminded me of some forgotten 80's mid-west guitar act, and a whole lot that could have come from American Horror Story if they needed a club scene. And it's a debut album from a one-man act (I think, the material on it is rather vague but surprisingly not annoying).  The only thing it doesn't have is a best track, as they all work so well together that I don't want to pick anything out for closer inspection and instead just want you to listen to the whole thing.

Human Zoo - Electrix Six

It turns out that Electric Six did more than just release four of explosively daft disco-rock singles in 2003, and rather than a comeback attempt (as I first thought) this album is their 11th. So, having missed the last 11 years of their development, I'm wondering "how much have they changed?". The answer is "not really", as this is 13 daft disco-rock tracks but with a slight touch of lounge-funk and soul thrown in because it just works really nicely. It's also rather good and it's always cool to see people carrying on with what they enjoy and focusing on fun over form, but still having the time and the skill to play around and prove that they really know their craft.

There is also no Gay Bar instant-easy-classic, so don't expect anything on here to become the ubiquitous nonsense song of the year (decade?). Rather it's a batch of enjoyable and well crafted, slightly less manic, tunes. "It's Horseshit" is a steady slice of disco-heaven, "Alone with your body" has got soul coming out of all of its hot and sweaty pores, and "I've seen Rio in flames" has a 50's-musical feel to it, giving off more than a one trick pony pony. Then again "Worst Movie Ever" and "I need a restaurant" are thumping guitar fun, so we're not a hundred miles away from their known sound. As you might be able to tell they continue to be both obtuse and ridiculously trivial with their lyrics, "Who the hell just called my phone" and "Good view of the Violence" being particularly daft in so many wonderful ways. Sadly fewer mentions of "fire" compared to their first album, but I suppose some things have to change for the worse.

So whilst this CD may not change anyone's life it may certainly being a bit of joy to your day, without being overtly soppy, and it should definitely put a rye smile on your face. If you want something to play at a party or just to get a bit of lighthearted bounce into your life then this album is for you.

Happy Halloween

Because no one has invented industro-psycho-punk yet.

Fiverfest: Heat 1 - 24/10/2014

Fiverfest is a band competition being held at The Junction in Cambridge, so it's a fantastic chance to check out a series of bands for £5.00. This doesn't explain why things were quite so quiet at the start of the night, as swapping a pint and a half for the chance of seeing the next Gods of Rock before they even get signed (or just a series of decent, up for it, acts giving it a shot) is just too spectacular to miss out on. Still folks didn't come in a huge number or variety (it was mostly the '18' to 25 scene), so others bad choices meant I got a better view of something far more enjoyable than X-Factor.

First up was Ambury Night, who played a sweaty version of tribal blues rock that I really quite liked. Their bassist had all the stage moves and their drummer was playing the 'hit everything all the time' game with great aplomb, which provided an excellent backline for their guitarist to noodle away to his hearts content and their singer to give their rather nice songs a faux-Americana belting that reminded me of Ian Astbury. All in all a great showing with a range of tunes & sounds on show, thought I would encourage their singer to try and sing more towards the audience than to his band mates.

Lost Lungs followed, and whilst they played a nice line in indie rock that had moments of Catatonia and 90's radio friendly goodness that would be great for a Summer drive to something exciting with friends they were a bit hit-and-miss for me (in that I liked songs 2, 4, and 6 but songs 1, 3, and 5 left me cold). Their last track was especially impressive, sounding like they were trying to drown me in velvet, and their stage presence was good, but beyond that it just wasn't connecting. Also their drummer was wearing a done-up tie, which will always be a major 'NO' for me as it means they aren't trying hard enough.

Fenrir exploded from the off, bringing a massive injection of positive post-hardcore energy, along with a tempo that perked up the audience and got the first motion going up at the front. They even got a singalong going and win the prize for smothist album plugs of the night. It had me bouncing along and was a nicely polished performance without too much flash or bluster. Just solid sounds and lots of pop hope with breakdowns at just the right points that I would like to check out more of.

This all left a tough one for Forever After to follow, which they didn't really achieve with their Foo Fighters mark 2 offering and the amazing line of "This one's about your girlfriend leaving you and its all emotional" which drew an audible snickering from my side of the audience. None of it was bad, as they could clearly play and were perfectly skilled craftsman (including their bassist who appeared to have recently scored some incredibly powerful E as he spent the whole time smiling like a loon). It's just that none of it was half as exciting as they thought it was or especially new/interesting.

And then finally, for me anyway as I had to nip off before the 11th hour additional 6th act, was The Abstracts. who brought along an Indie-Meets-New Wave sound that mixed The James, The Cars, and a touch of Elvis Costello with just enough Libertines to be distinctly English without needing a punch. It was highly emotive with clear Brit-Pop sensibilities, but nothing too overboard or pretentious (although their singer is quite possibly from another planet given his hyper-kinetic motions and ability to walk on stage dry to then be drenched in sweat before the start of the first track). No fancy stage work, but a good connection with the audience.

So was it worth it? Yes, very much so and especially at the price. I'm aware that events like this have a terrible reputation but for the price you can't complain and none of the acts were especially bad or a waste of time. The next one is on Saturday the 1th of November and I would encourage more people to go to it.

War On The Dancefloor - The Q Club 24/10/2014

Exciting news on this front: Firstly the night is now going quarterly, so expect another war in January, and Secondly I'm now part of the DJ team for it. So if you like what's below then come along to the next one for more!

1. Destroy all dancefloors - CTRL ALT DEL
2. I spent my rent money on tentacle porn - Petrol Bastard
3. Nothing's working - Error
4. Ich bin ein Auslander - Pop Will Eat Itself
5. Dead shall rise - Flesh Eating Foundation
6. Killing ground - Front Line Assembly
7. IDONTGIVEAFUCK - Rabbit Junk
8. Genius - Pitchshifter
9. Paranoid - Ultraviolence
10. Something wonderful - Revolting Cocks
11. Me & my army - The Chaos Engine
12. Access & Amplify - Icon Of Coil
13. Velocity - Neurotic Fish
14. Afraid of the dark - God Module
15. Hammer of the gods - Faderhead
16. The Rocky Horror fashion show - Pregnant With Worms
17. Jesus Christ buried alive - Alien Vampires