Review Update: 11/28/04

BARS -- Introducing…BARS
Before Today -- A Celebration Of An Ending
Bullets And Octane -- The Revelry
Bury Your Dead -- Cover Your Tracks
Catch 22 – Live
Dälek – Absence
The Fight -- Nothing New Since Rock And Roll
Gym Class Heroes -- The Papercut EP
Hopesfall -- A-Types
Roses Are Red – Conversations
Tegan and Sara -- So Jealous
Upsilon Acrux -- Volucris Avis Dirae-Arum
Various Artists -- fragments

BARS -- Introducing…BARS
Equal Vision Records
Apparently each coast and each hardcore label needs their own b-rate version of The Bronx. BARS are Equal Vision’s version. If you have short-term memory loss, amnesia, or some chronic illness affecting the receptors between your ears and your balls, and you’ve been medically forced to forget how hard the Bronx’s Bats! EP, or their self-titled full-length kicked you in the cajones then BARS might be an adequate alternative. Then again, GoBots were never an adequate replacement for an Optimus Prime, and I’d rather spend the $12.99 I’ve saved by not buying this CD in an establishment from which the band adopted their namesake.
-Tim Anderl

Before Today -- A Celebration Of An Ending
Equal Vision Records
Finally, a band who’s figured out a tasteful way to combine their mid-nineties-era emo and punk influences with heavy metal riffs and not sound passé. Before Today’s vocalist borrows equally from AFI’s Davey Havok and Lifetime’s Ari Katz. His band follows suit, but they also can’t help but take a couple forays into Iron Maiden territory. The kids are gonna go crazy for this band and I’m not going to blame them at all.
-Tim Anderl

Bullets And Octane -- The Revelry
Criterion
In case you were wondering what The Bronx would sound like if they replaced their brass-balled, gravel-throated singer with some chucklehead from some Midwestern Soundgarden cover band, then Criterion Records has dropped a disc that will remove all doubt. If I didn’t make myself clear enough in the BARS review above, allow me to expound that I’ve heard Black Flag, Guns And Roses, The Dead Boys and Motley Crüe before, and never once did I pine for a band that combined the least ballsy aspects of all of them in one lukewarm package. Not even Gilby Clarke, who recorded and produced this effort (and the effort of another better band, cough, the Bronx), could polish this turd.
-Tim Anderl

Bury Your Dead -- Cover Your Tracks
Victory Records
Hmmm, an entire album of songs named after Tom Cruise movies. If I didn’t know better, I’d think these tough guys would rather be making out with their hardcore brethren then karate kicking them in face. Given the right support group and a couple understanding parents and these guys just might give up neck tattoos and fighting for a nice bubble bath and a Bette Midler movie. In all seriousness, old-school straight-edge dudes who still have a health appreciation for Hatebreed and Earth Crisis are gonna go crazy for these dudes, and every one else is going to stand in the back and try not to get punched in the kidneys. I definitely fall in with the latter of those two groups.
-Tim Anderl

Catch 22 – Live
Victory Records
I should know who these guys are. My brother was the frontman for a nine or so piece ska/swing outfit in the mid-nineties, and there aren’t many ska punk bands whose live shows he didn’t drag me too. Then again, there are plenty of things I can’t remember about the late nineties. In any event, I’m sorry I don’t remember any of Catch 22’s fourth wave punk ska hits from back in the day because if I did, I’d be singing along at the top of my lungs. But, the people of Long Island, where this live CD was recorded seem pretty familiar with the material here and are doing the band proud. At times they’re singing louder than the band’s singer/trombonist Ian McKensie. Well if this CD/DVD is any indication of what Catch 22 is capable of, I’m totally surprised that ska fell out of the limelight. While their sound isn’t a huge departure of that of their contemporaries – Less Than Jake and Goldfinger most noteably – the band has an extreme flair for being incredibly tight, and for delivering memorable hooks. “On and On and On” and “Keasbey Nights” from the band’s Victory debut are two of the discs high-points, though this whole effort is a fun and flawlessly executed production. My advice: pick it up, pick it up, pick it up.
-Tim Anderl

Dälek – Absence
Ipecac Recordings
Once or twice a decade an artist and an album of such titanic importance will emerge that flips the script and changes the face of music forever. Dälek’s Absence is independent hip-hop’s Pet Sounds, Takes A Nation of Millions, and Loveless all rolled into one. Musically aggressive, sonically dense, politically-charged lyrically, and still unbelievable smooth, Absence is destined for two fates; that of criminally unsung genius, or recognition as the bar by which all future independent rap endeavors should be measured.
-Tim Anderl

The Fight -- Nothing New Since Rock And Roll
Repossession Records
Here’s the scoop: pissed off girl named “K8!” starts pissed off punk-rock quartet that sounds more like the Muffs than Avril Lavigne. In fact, I’d bet ten-to-one that she’d kick your teeth in and spit in your eye for even accidentally mistaking her for the Canadian girlfriend of that gnome-faced goober from Sum 41. That alone is enough to earn the Fight my highest endorsement.
-Tim Anderl

Gym Class Heroes -- The Papercut EP
Decaydance/Fueled By Ramen
I barely made it past the minute mark of this CD’s first track “Taxi Driver;” a song comprised of the band’s M.C. Schleprock rattling off a Mad Libs-style story, with the blanks occupied by emo band names (Taking Back Sunday, Thrice, My Chemical Romance, you get the point). Then the half-coughing that comes from struggling to control my gag-reflex was louder than the music. When I recovered, I realized the lyrics on “Papercut” were infinitely better, but who are the 311 wannabees in this M.C.’s backup band? If GCH’s guitarist could see past his wah-pedal for a second, “Boomerang Theory” could be a really heavy hitter because Schleprock has brought his a-game here. Same goes for “Makeout Club.” If Schleprock really wants to make a go of this indie-rap thing he’s gonna have to make fast friends with DJ Dangermouse and ditch the rest of the Gym Class Heroes.
-Tim Anderl

Hopesfall -- A-Types
Trustkill
Hopesfall have been through quite a few changes in the last three years. First they set the bar for metalcore in the new millennium with the brutally aggressive No Wings To Speak Of EP. Following a year or more of touring with Codeseven, Coheed and Cambria and a bevy of others, the band reemerged with The Satellite Years full-length, a significantly mellower though more academic effort that borrowed equally from You’d Prefer An Astronaut-era Hum and Antenna-era Cave In. Though I was underwhelmed with their Satellite direction, I kept my ear to the ground with regards to the band hoping that they’d emerge with a little stronger effort during their next at-bat. With A-Types, the band has totally redefined their sound again. This time they’re deliver much of the same radio-ready fare as nu-emo’s current frontrunners (i.e. Underoath, Further Seems Forever, Taking Back Sunday, The Beautiful Mistake, etc.), not that that’s a bad thing. Though Hopesfall’s vocalist owes major royalties to Glassjaw frontman Darryl Palumbo -- borrowing from him much more frequently that he should have let himself be comfortable with (“The Ones” for example) – he and the band have sharpened their ability to find a solid rock hook and they are using it to their utmost advantage. Though they’re not breaking ground or establishing themselves as the forerunners of a genre, as they did with No Wings To Speak Of, this is still a pretty rock-solid effort and is sure to deliver the band an even more substantial fanbase.
-Tim Anderl

Roses Are Red – Conversations
Trustkill
This quartet has the perfect nu emo moniker, Fuse TV worthy hair, and lots of cool tattoos. I’ve listened to their Trustkill debut, Conversations, about a half dozen times now and that’s all I’ve got. Truthfully, I’ve found it near impossible to remember a single musical characteristic about this band. What I do remember is that I’ve heard this formula thousands of times since Texas Is The Reason’s Do You Know Who You Are? and its never been done better than TIR did it. You’d think that in the seven years since TIR’s album dropped that the kids would’ve made substantial progress (or at least any progress), but New Found Glory and the like have made it all too easy to break the bank with a whiney, watered- and dumbed-down version of someone else’s idea. Following NFG’s blueprint is probably going to get this band considerable mileage amidst the nu emo/screamo set, but it isn’t going to get them very far for very long. Sooner or later the kids will figure out that they’ve been duped and the cash cow will quit producin’. I can’t say as I’ll feel bad for Roses Are Red when they’re back at their day jobs, because, cool hair or not, they haven’t earned it here.
-Tim Anderl

Tegan and Sara -- So Jealous
Sanctuary/Vapor
Canadian identical twin sisters Tegan and Sara have follow their 2003 release, If It Was You, with an album that is every bit as good, every bit as catchy, and every bit as unique as their break-out effort. Balancing new wave, folk, garage, and radio-ready pop tendencies with the maturity and expertise of musicians twice or three times their senior, Tegan and Sara deliver convergent voices that are perfectly harmonic, and lyrics that are both honest and ironic without seeming trite or pretentious. Produced by New Pornographers David Carswell and John Collins, this record contains high-powered hooks and lyrics that show the edgy and contradictory side of femininity. Did I mention that these young women have been championed by Neil Young? “Take Me Anywhere” a power pop treasure that rivals the Go-Gos best, and “Walking With A Ghost,” a darker, Tom Petty-esque rocker are sure to be fan favorites. Simply, this is a near-perfect record that is going to make Tegan and Sara’s contemporaries, from a wide-spectrum of genres, “so jealous.”
– Tim Anderl

Upsilon Acrux -- Volucris Avis Dirae-Arum
Planaria Recordings/Epicene Sound Systems
I’ve noticed that fans of the variety of experimental, instrumental free-jazz found here come in two varieties: the musical academic who favors pondering the odd-timings and level-of-difficulty of his music over contemplating the meaning of lyrical metaphors; and the artsy record glutton who lusts after Weasel Walter and Thurston Moore, and has a healthy “appetite” for the “green and leafy.” In fact, more often then not, fans of bands like this are a mixture of both traits. If I’ve just described you, this is probably a must own. I’m probably a combination of none of the above, but I did always have a fondness for Disneyland’s Electric Parade and this sounds sort of like the Electric Parade if it were caught up in a particularly violent electrical storm. But then again, what do I know?
p.s. “It Takes A Nation Of Unicorns (To Hold Us Back)” = one of the funniest song titles I’ve ever heard.
-Tim Anderl

Various Artists -- fragments
Psychotica Records
This is more of a sampler than a compilation. fragments is chocked full of bands you have never, ever heard of. Perhaps it is because the label is based in Italy. If Americans weren’t so xenophobic we would be singing their praises. fragments is not without its weak spots, but a majority of the selections dynamite. The songs from Theramin, Ceke, Zu, Jasmineshock, Comfort are all great. The have the sound of picking up where American indie rock was three years ago, a second before !!! became a hippie jam band. One of the low points include “My Lost Friend” by Logan. If they are a 7th grade garage band, it could be understood why their music and lyrics are so juvenile. However, if they are adults and consider themselves musicians, then it is just Grade A suck. Still the good far outweighs the bad. It also proves that the Italian indie scene is worth investigating. It would have been better if this album hadn’t come on a CD-R in an inkjet cover, but what can you do?
-André Hoilette