NoMeansNo
Why Do They Call Me Mr. Happy?
Alternative Tentacles
Okay, everybody repeat after me: "NoMeansNo is the best Canadian punk rock band that ever was. Period."
Basically, Vancouver band NoMeansNo has been consistently producing top-notch "ProgCore" (progressive hardcore) for nearly ten years now. The trio is amazingly tight, their songs are interesting yet catchy as hell, and they know better than to take themselves too seriously.
Last year's 0+2=1 was an immediate classic and was voted KTRU's best album of 1992. It was with trembling hands that I bought their latest, hoping for yet another burst of godhead from my hard-core heroes. Can you tell I like this band?
Anyway, though I wasn't disappointed, I was surprised. The extent to which the band has indulged their album rock fantasies is impressive; they manage to produce an orgy of stadium rock epics that, aside from sounding good, also manages to deflate such hard rock heroes as Faith No More and Deep Purple.
From the moment Rob Wright bellows "Kill...Everyone...NOW!" to the, um, stolen guitar riffs at the end of "Cats, Sex and Nazis" this is a pure NoMeansNo album, and it would be difficult for me to describe what makes it so great. Just go out and buy all of their albums now.
-- B.B.
Engines of Aggression
Speak
Priority
Engines of Aggression represents another band that suddenly realized it is much easier to use samples and a drum machine than to actually try to do anything creative or interesting. In the process, they have joined the ever-swelling ranks of bands who record this kind of punk/industrial/rock stuff, along with such luminaries as Grotus, Rage Against the Machine, and of course, the one's that showed it could be profitable, Nine Inch Nails (I balk at calling them pioneers).
Their press stuff says that their incredible work ethic explains why they had a full-length on a major label within six months of their formation. I think it has more to do with undemanding music and a music industry more concerned with turning a quick buck and cashing in on a trend than signing interesting bands or building a long-term, loyal audience. No one ever said art and capitalism were a perfect fit, eh?
At the same time, their lyrics are all about being disaffected, about not selling out or being complacent. Okay, maybe I'm too cynical. Maybe the Engines are really a quartet of politically active, sincere, concerned musicians. Maybe. On the other hand, their music is awfully easy on the ears for something designed to shake the world up. Hey -- being political is fun!
-- B.B.
Grunge Lite
C/Z
Other than the adorable pictures of Seattle grungenicks nuzzling on the cover, one has to wonder what this CD could possibly offer the discerning listener. Muzak versions of grunge music?
Creator Sara DeBell pieced this together in her living room -- using what I suspect was one small Casio keyboard -- and the results are terrifying. She muzak-izes songs by Pearl Jam (which seems appropriate somehow; they're almost muzak anyway), Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Alice in Chains, Tad, Green River (that one is really frightening), and, of course, Nirvana ("Smells Like Teen Spirit.")
Although her orchestration is pretty rudimentary, DeBell does a pretty convincing job on these, and there is nothing like the moment of recognition when you realize what song each track really is. Her versions of "Evenflow" and "Teen Spirit" are especially nice, but on some of the others, it is difficult to tell what the song originally began as.
I guess this is making some kind of withering attack on commercialism and appropriation of subcultures. In her liner notes, DeBell writes, "Every authentic artist or hormonal expression I've ever seen in my life has been...bled dry and turned into an advertisement for unnecessary crap."
She's just skipping the middle man and going straight into the unnecessary crap part. As funny as this CD often is, there is no real reason to buy it; it gets old quickly. Besides, we'll be hearing this stuff in the elevators for free soon enough.
-- B.B.
Sativa Luvbox
Beloved Satellite
Gasoline Alley
According to their press materials, "in every Sativa Luvbox song one discerns the tension between inner and outer worlds, as well as a message of love surrounded by a climate of fear." This from a band that uses the word "luv" in their name?
Their lyrics say it all. "The luv vibe was as thick as a knife" singer Patrick Mata sings on "Orgy In a Bed of Flowers." Or how about, "Mmmm you're so cool/You're the connection/To the resurrection," in "Let's Be Forever."
To be simple, I'd have to say that this band is dumb. Way dumb. They seem to think it's cool to use the word "eye" instead of the pronoun "I" on their lyric sheet; they have a song titled "Wet with Power"; they're all smoking a hookah in the band photo; they seem to be taking this all seriously!
Basically, their music is rehashed quasi-psychedelic album rock, punctuated by bits of grunge-pop or Sub-Pop wannabe guitar fuzz. A few songs ("Shock Shop," "Pagan Son") are kind of catchy, but overall, this is an amazingly unimpressive disc that no one will ever play on any respectable radio station and that will no doubt quickly sink into the depths of obscurity.
-- B.B.
Smashing Pumpkins
Siamese Twins
Virgin
If this album doesn't vault Chicago's Smashing Pumpkins into rock stardom (at least as a commercially successful "alternative" band), I'll be surprised. All the elements are here: a very popular first album (Gish), good packaging and catchy songs. I say "good for them," because even though Siamese Twins isn't quite as good as Gish, it's still a nice piece of work.
My biggest problem with Twins is the large dose of heavy metal the band seems to have injected into their songs. It works well on some songs like "Cherub Rock," but at times the guitar twiddling can get a little excessive. I found myself longing for the more straightforward tunes of Gish.
Still, the fact is that these tunes scientifically designed to lodge themselves in the soft spots in your brain and play themselves over and over again until, screaming for relief, you head to the nearest record store and plunk down money for your own copy. Which, I guess, is the point.
Pretty much everything producer Butch Vig touches turns to gold. I'd like to hate him, but the fact is, his stuff sounds pretty good. The Smashing Pumpkins have a future ahead of them.
-- B.B.
Lyres
Happy Now...
Taang!
The past isn't dead. Honest. Or at least, every other band out there these days seems to think so. Only a select few of them have managed to convince me they're right. In this release, on Boston's Taang! Records, the Lyres are on the extreme edge of the "retro-rock" movement.
More organ-keyboards than you can shake a stick at, plenty of blues rip-offs, and production that makes this sound like it was actually recorded on vinyl some 30 years ago. Sound scary? Well, the scariest thing to me is that I like this.
I can remember when I was a kid of about eight or so, rooting around in my dad's collection of old 45s. I'd find stuff by people like the Beach Boys or Jan and Dean. I'd play it on our old record player and dance around to it. I get the same feeling I did back then by listening to this CD. Sure, it's derivative as all hell, but what isn't? The Lyres at least are derivative of some truly classic rock 'n' roll.
These five guys didn't go back in time, they just never came to our time. This is rock that almost makes me want to wear bell-bottoms. Happy Now... should have been released on eight-track, not on CD.
-- J.H.
Tripping Daisy
Bill
Most of the songs on Bill are jumping, happy pop. The guitars are shimmering, with barely a hint of distortion, for the most part, and sunny melodies float throughout. This album is actually a re-release of what I think was these guys' debut album, and it definitely deserves some notice.
Songs like "Change of Mind," "Brown-Eyed Pickle Boy" and "Miles and Miles of Pain" conjure up an image of a merry band of youngsters standing in the middle of a bright, warm field of poppies. Tripping Daisy has a strange little psychedelia of their own -- not in the style of the Doors, Pink Floyd, and the like, but in a strange, summer-day vein.
Add that to a good dose of slower Jane's Addiction, some King's X, and may be a bit of Pearl Jam, and you've got Tripping Daisy and an extremely infectious album of pop tunes.
-- J.H.
Orangutang
The Rewards of Cruelty
This starts out with a heavy, Helmet-ish groove, but almost immediately goes into a downhill slalom. Orangutang is basically "alternative metal," a brand of music many people scorn these days. Even worse, it's bad alternative metal. This is crunching, metallic guitars, much too precise to be grunge, with lots of silly yell-alongs and nonsensical lyrics.
At least one song, "S.N.A.F.U.," should never get airplay, except on the cheesiest of rock stations. Ugly Kid Joe kicks the hell out of this tune. Yes, it's that bad.
I try not to be completely down on any album, so I'll say something nice. Hmm...well, I guess "Mr. Cimbalista" isn't all bad, as a hard rock song, and "Gearhead" gets into a nice little crunch-groove. They manage to pull off a decent thrash/pop tune for the finale, "Sweet Lemon Maureen." This is probably the only song I'd listen to willingly more than once. The rest of the CD is mediocre at best.
-- J.H.
Dig
Dig
I saved the best for last. Dig are five southern California boys who cite as influences, "Punk rock, Freedom Rock, and Pink Floyd," and have crafted an interesting slice of music.
The sound is overdriven guitars, strange but catchy melodies, and plenty of punkish repetition. The result is somewhat like the multitude of interchangeable "grunge-pop" bands that followed in the wake of Nirvana, Soundgarden, and the like, but unlike most grunge-pop I've heard, I actually Dig is likeable. Very likeable.
Strange little progressive metal twists are scattered all over the place, like the intro to "Let Me Know," which makes me think of both Voivod and Tool. On the other hand, because of a few songs, I'm even reminded of Journey, so be warned. But whatever the whole makes, it's Dig.
My problems with this CD are surprisingly few. A couple of things bug me, like the cliched lyrics to both "Ride the Wave" and "Conservation," and the background hum of bar-talk during the latter song.
But the other ten tunes make the whole thing worth it. This is an extremely well-done album.
-- J.H.
(The Rice Thresher, Volume ??? No. ???, September 3, 1993)