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Zach Hill and
Holy Smokes -- Masculine Drugs
Zach Hill and Holy
Smokes -- Masculine Drugs Michael Zapruder
- This Is A Beautiful Town
Zetamale -- #1/02
Demo The Ziggens – Greatest
Zits (1990-2003) + Bonus Surf CD Disc 2 - This disc is 14 tracks of instrumental surf
type songs, save for 4 of the songs, which have lyrics. Like the
background music of “The Endless Summer,” some of the
songs are pretty cool, but the whole idea gets tired after a while,
unless you really like surf music. Zwan - Mary Star
of the Sea
|
I
am a sucker for singer-songwriters, and spend most of my early evenings
with beer in hand, and vinyl on the turntable as part of my normal,
post-workday, wind-down routine. Though the pensive and profound
sounds put me at ease, they have the opposite affect on my roommate,
who has written off the entire back-catalogs of Elliott Smith, Red
House Painters, Simon and Garfunkel as "sad bastard" music.
Sad Bastard Music fans across the country, Santa has come early
this year. One part Rufus Wainright, one Part Sean Lennon -- throw
in a tinge of Jeff Buckley -- and Michael Zapruder is what you get.
Zapruder has already proved his songwriting prowess, recording a
song every Sunday for a year and releasing the results as the double-disk
52 Songs. This Is A Beautiful Town is more of the same. The
personal jems on this one for me are "Little Ship Bluebell,"
"Nothing Like a Friend," and the title track "This
Is A Beautiful Town." With haunting melodies and intelligent
lyrics, Zapruder takes the genre of "sad bastard" music
to heights that liken him with the best of the best. Fans of the
Red House Painters put down your old records for one minute and
give this a spin. I promise you'll shed a tear, feel the warmth,
and be as sad and pensive as you've ever been.
In
the words of Bryan Adams, "And now the times are changin' /
Look at everything that's come and gone….Listened to 400 Years/
I liked Suture but loved the Transmit Failure/ And what about that
Engine Down? / The Pretense of the Present Tense ruled, but To Bury
Within The Sound was better / Those were the best days of my life
/ Back in the summer of '96." I think Mr. Adams spoke for us
all when he sang the praises of two of the most memorable mid-east
coast hardcore bands (this was the mid- to late-nineties folks,
there was no screamo, post-punk, post-hardcore or whatever. It was
ALL hardcore). But the times are a changin' I write technical documents
full-time for the government and have a 401K plan, 40 ouncers of
Magnum are no longer $0.83, and Zetamale, comprised of Daron Hollowell
(400 Years), Cornbread Compton (Engine Down), Dave Nesmith (Bats
and Mice, Rah Bras) Miguel Urbiztondo (Sparklehorse), Ash Bruce
(400 Years), Justin Bailey (Submerge), and Cam DiNunzio (Lazy Cain),
seem to have more in common with Brian Wilson, Coldplay, Elliott
Smith, and The Beatles than Groundwork or Sleepytime Trio. Though
their cathartic, cacophonous lineage may leave some scratching their
heads, Zetamale's music is just as meticulously crafted, and dynamic
as any of their previous efforts. The acoustic guitar chording on
"Blue" rises and falls with careful minimalism, until
the drums and keying assume their welcome place among the sauntering
composition. With piano in a position of prominence and a healthy
does of laptop-conjured beat trickery providing a rhythmic landscape,
Hollowell's broken-hearted sentiment "How will we rise up again?"
is sure to tease goosebumps from even the most cynical ears. "Brooklyn
Heights" is an earthier romp - guitars bend and tumble, and
harmonica bleeds under Hollowell's silvery tenor. "What You
Wanted" and the bleery "Trouble" round out Zetamale's
five-song introduction. And it is a welcome one. These boys are
all grown up, and while some of us have willingly compromised aspirations
of greatness (not-to-mention the extra 50 cents required for a cold
one) for the comfort of a cubicle or a retirement plan, Zetamale
hasn't compromised talent, fervor, passion or attention to detail.
Mr. Adams was certainly more than a little right when he penned
those poignant lyrics, but I've glimpsed the present, and Zetamale
is a pretty good reason to assume that there are still some of "the
best days of our lives" to be had.
The
re-invention of Billy Corgan as optimist comes just in time for
the zenith of the United States' conflict with Iraq. With his supergroup
Zwan (four parts Smashing Pumpkins; two parts A Perfect Circle;
one part each: Skunk, Chavez, Slint, Tortoise) Corgan gives his
fellow Americans - people on both sides of the fence - music that
drips with positive emotion. As the rockets red glare, war advocates
will sing along with lines like, "Whatever I can do, I will,
'cause I'm good like that" ("Settle Down"). Meanwhile,
opponents of violence will take comfort in Mary Star's warm
sound and its assertion that "Time destroys a man" ("Desire").
OK….enough of taking lyrics out of context. Zwan's debut is
a fine rock and roll experience. I challenge anyone to remain unmoved
when the opening notes of "Lyric" announce Corgan's return
to recorded music. His voice has never sounded better. He's actually
smiling widely in the video for "Honesty." He's making
me like him, and I never cared for the Smashing Pumpkins very much
(with the exception of a few brilliant songs on Siamese Dream
(1993)). Mary Star is Billy's big burst of sunshine in
a time of world turmoil.
