ABERDEEN CITY "The Freezing Atlantic" - Dovecote Records [Nov 2005]
Aberdeen City are four Bostonians with a comedy bio, so the music will have to speak for itself. When they are on top of their game you hear the grandiosity of Interpol, The Open, and Doves so these guys must have the same albums in their collections. They have a love of ringing guitars tricked out with e-bows and other effects that create notes arrowing all over the place, and a singer who somehow meshes the crooning of Paul Banks with the Powerbook keening of Thom Yorke. The songs have a mid 1980s British feel to them tempered with a little Radiohead pop for steely strength. "Sixty Lives" and "Pretty Pet" are the two songs to check out first if this review has baited the hook. Aberdeen City have a great ear for song structures and especially in drawing out the musical passages into great spaces filled with moody luminosity. Also some standout drumming that reminds one of the Hugh Jones inflected beats once employed by mugs like Big Country and U2. Repeated listens has made some of these songs standout more and others have turned out to be more pop (i.e., less textured) than I first suspected, but if you like pop music with a nod to the British Isles, here's your ticket over the pond. ---Leeds 7/11 top

A CHANGE OF PACE "An Offer You Can't Refuse" - Immortal Records [Sept 2005]
Seriously, all these record labels need to have a summit and decide to sign only a handful of soundalike bands. You could say ACOP sound like a hundred other bands but that would be claiming any of these bands ever were original enough in the first place to warrant copying. I cannot tell the difference between these guys, Time In Malta, Lorene Drive, Finch, Codeseven, Story Of The Year, and any other harmonizing metal emo band. I will say that "Death Do Us Part" has a killer intro before lapsing back into formulae. After a few songs you get that ACOP are a bit softer than some of their comrades. The thing that really gets on my nerves worse than anything is this genre's practice of having the ending line of each chorus screamed in a gargly voice. It reminds me painfully of teenagers dreaming of selling their pimply nerdy selves to Satan in exchange for POWER, and if they got this POWER, they'd be able to talk with that screamy edge in their voice. This is youthful, pre-college music and does not have a great deal of depth to it. Girlfriends and parties are the poles of this world. Most of ACOP sounds more like light emo pop as supplied by Simple Plan. "Every Second" is one such tune, that eschews the metal school for a sound almost reliant on Jimmy Eat World. Not a bad song. "December" is also a good tune, marked with sugary vocals and simpler playing. It sounds like it could be featured in a high school sex comedy movie. After that song, it's back to the cookie monster rock. Sorry, sports fans, it's not my bag. ---Leeds 4/11top

THE ACKLEYS - "Forget Forget, Derive Derive" - self released [Feb 07]
From out of the mouths of babes comes pitch perfect indie pop. If the press release is to be believed, two of the members of the Ackleys are still in high school, and the others just started college. Surprisingly, their brand of seamlessly performed pop rock sound is as competent as anything put out by more seasoned veterans working the same field. Singer Katie Crutchfield has one of those voices that dips between schoolgirl fragility and riot girl toughness at the drop of a hat. The inclusion of electro keys on the songs helps imbue the material with a more accessible indie feel, which is a good thing, because otherwise they might be plagued with the over polished sound of generic major label fluff (they're that tight). Listeners that are automatically repelled by bubblegum pop or the inherent softness of female fronted vocals probably won't buy in, but it will be their loss because The Ackleys are good at what they do, and it would be easy to imagine them achieving commercial success if they play their cards right. They also get bonus points for their hand screened cardboard CD covers and weird little manila envelope with hand folded lyric sheets tucked inside. For sounding so professional, the grass roots personal touch makes you want to cuddle up to them even more. 8 on a scale of 1-11. The Swedetop

ACME ROCKET QUARTET "Sound Camera" - Lather Records
If the Val Kilmer movie "Salton Sea" had been better, this record could have been the soundtrack. To clarify, "Salton Sea" had a lot of emotional pull and drama, some great performances, and a horn-playing protagonist. ARQ's seductive detective jazz is rife with drama and film noir moments that should inspire a darkly comic tale of crime and punishment. Aside from having ace horn players and a cutthroat drum 'n' bass duo, ARQ add surreal vocal segments culled from thrift store ¼" tapes. From the cover photo that appears to be an alien planet or Dr. Seuss botanical study (but is, I think, onions gone to seed) ARQ thrive on the border between the liminal and the unknown. Their song titles indicate a knowing humor, with nods to Tenacious D ("Inspirado") and mock self-importance ("Lusitania - Long Beneath The Whelming Brine"). The muted trumpet introductions and solos add a patina of nostalgia to the vintage sounds, and the tremolo-rich guitar undulates with danger. Is that guitar lead the intro for the booze soaked flatfoot, or the foreshadowing of the gun on the mantle? The ARQ take you on a mood-soaked journey of high drama and dangerous seas. ARQ create instrumental stories built on the spill 'n' thrills of pulp fictions. --- 8/11 Leedstop

ACTION REACTION - "3 Is The Magic Number" - Equal Vision Records [Sept 06]
Not what I was expecting from EVR, the chief purveyors grinding hardcore rock 'n' roll. This new band, Action Reaction, is easy-listening, 70s FM ,adult contemporary rock. Some songs sound like AR is trying for a sound similar to Radiohead's "Pablo Honey" and other times sounds like some mash up of late 70s pop classics, you know, like Three Dog Night meets Muse. A lot of these songs feature breaks where the music drops down to a mere tempo keeping cadence and the singer's voice is left to take over the speakers in full reverb glory, but it's hard to go on this journey with him. Frequently the songs are played with studio-musician capabilities, but this music feels both out of time and overly commercial. I don't know who this would be for, I don't have a lot of background in this type of music, whatever it is. Press notes say the singer is from Further Seems Forever, and another guy is from Element 101 "fame." ---Leeds 4/11 top

RYAN ADAMS Rock N Roll - Lost Highway Records
Ryan Adams is becoming a legend. He's a songwriting juggernaut. Three albums with Whiskeytown, two albums recorded but not released, four solo albums, about 10 albums worth of songs recorded and waiting on ice, and two 8-song E Ps, and he's only 29. He helped define the "no depression" country movement and without him, I believe no one would have heard of it. He's the burning star, the one that the others look to and cling to and ride along to fame with. He's the Jack Kerouac of indie rock, not only in temperament and gift, but also in soul. Ryan has also done a prodigious amount of boozing a drugging, dated Winona Ryder (who hasn't), busts out live covers of Black Flag, Gram Parsons and The Smiths, and wrote one of the saddest albums of all time (Heartbreaker). His fans are not legion, but they are devoted. He's loved in the worlds of country, rock, and indie music. The new record, "Rock N Roll," is Adams' first purely rock album. He proves his mettle with hooky aggression on "Shallow," "So Alive," and "Boys." After so many years of affecting a country croon and plying it with whisky, Ryan Adams has developed a unique and amazing voice. He's at home ripping his vocal chords out one minute and hitting an impossibly sweet and high note the next. Last year's "Demolition" has some great tunes on it but lacked quality control. The new record gels together much better and there's only 1 song I'm not 100% about. His approach rests somewhere between The Replacements and Oasis. His lyrics strike to the bone. He says things brutally, without trying to tart them up as poetry, but instead they become a poetry of the street. On "Anybody Wanna Take Me Home" he sings, "...can you recommend an education or drugs, because I am bored with you already..." On "Wish You Were Here" he tells someone "...and everybody knows the way I talk, knows the way I feel about you, it's all a bunch of shit, and there's nothing to do around here, it's totally fucked up, and if I could have my way, we'd take some drugs, and we'd smile..." The more you listen to him the plainer it becomes that he really is comfortable in any genre. The country roots of rock, and the rock roots of indie are all firmly within his grasp. Stars come along once a decade, and here he is. ---Paul Leeds 9/11 top

AD ASTRA PER ASPERA "Cubic Zirconia" - Big Brown Shark
The carnival art school madness of Ad Astra Per Aspera unspools on "Cubic Zirconia" like spending a chemically pleasant evening at Beck's mansion as he pulls the curtain back on the origins of his peculiarities. Like the fearless idiosyncrasies of that Silverlake God, AAPA shift gears at will and create collages that almost make you feel like you're listening to multiple albums at once. "I Am The Palm Tree" starts with a carnival piano riff before launching into a e-bow laden riff with two singers holding down both ends: one sings calmly while the other is fed through a distortion pedal. "I am the palm tree, a reconstruction. I am a sentimental coconut obstruction." At first blush AAPA recalls the complex experiments of Sukia, Dust Brothers, and Exhaust, with the exception of sounding more like a real band than those artsy collectives. While making interesting sounds they don't forget the rock, in other words. Intense moments of precision power chords segue into surreal movements in different time signatures. Vocals waft in where moments before stood only a wall of noise. Grinding guitars and urgent voices wash into Casio keyboard riffs and handclaps, and then the music is propelled forward with staccato piano and guitars, on "Bi-pedal, Ungrateful, Empty and Awake." These four songs continually demand your attention with nary a dull moment. Closer "Goodland At Night" combines the bleeding fingers angst of some of the finer underground bands with poster-boy pretty vocals, tortured screaming and Middle Eastern fretwork. A heady concoction that is highly recommended! --- Leeds 9/11top

ADOLESCENTS " O.C. Confidential" - Finger Records [Sept 2005]
Every kid in high school should at some point memorize Adolescent's debut album, with its old school hits like "Wrecking Crew" and "Who is Who." They had snotty vocals and a guitarist whose leads were as warm and intoxicating as cheap beer left in the sun. You cannot count the legions of bands who ripped them off. And now they've got a new album, and it's been so long since the first that Frank Agnew and his son are both in the band! Ringo Starr, The Allmann Brothers, and Led Zeppelin did it (fathers and sons), so why not these OC punks? And that brings up OC itself: Adolescents and later DI at least popped the tough guy OC hardcore balloon. Now this sound is kind of the blueprint for OC punk to this day. So what's changed? On the title track, they decry "this is a town where a mind can't grow!" Tony Cadena's voice is no longer ravaged by puberty. He sounds like current day Milo Auckerman, but Cadena never was a "singer" and he still really isn't one. Frank Agnew still rocks, but there's no Rikk. Steve Soto is still a gentle giant, a bass and vocals machine. Instead of "I Hate Children" they now sing "Where The Children Play." Being a dad can do that to you. These punk vets used to play with total abandon because adulthood was looming and they were desperately trying to square their youthful world with the beckoning soul-crushing work world. Now, they've been through it and survived. Music never goes out of you, so the Adolescents in 2005 play with a nostalgic look to the wasted brats they were back in the day but with a wiser, less desperate approach. "California Son" is a message to you, OC punk, that "life's just begun, go and have some fun." Forget Darby, and Sid, and Rozz - go on and live. This song has a Beach Boys simplicity to it that is pure and direct. Occasionally life in California is beautiful, the Ads know it too. Like any reformed group, the dynamics have changed, but mostly these are solid songs, less frantic and speedy but still spiky and uncomfortable. I like about half these songs, because I know that they are capable of doing better than this, some of these songs are almost throwaways, and if they had indeed tossed 'em out and kept writing and come up with another half album of top material, this would have been a triumphant return. As it is, it's a good record, but not a patch on their early work. ---Sid Arthur 6/11top

ADOLESCENTS "The Complete Demos 1980-1986" Frontier Records [April 05]
Completists and purists, take note: this compiles all of the rare and lost Adolescents songs including the song that didn't get finished in time for the 1981 "Welcome To Reality" EP. It starts with 4 songs recorded in Tony's Mom's garage and sounds a lot like Germs, then seques into 4 songs done at a real studio. These are some of the incendiary classics from the blue album here in baby photos: "I Hate Children," "Who Is Who," "Wrecking Crew" and "No Friends." By the time they did these demos, the snotty, snarling, suburban punks were in fine form. These songs show a band growing song by song, gaining confidence enough to send the tapes to Rodney On The Roq, who played them and lead to their deal with Frontier. It's a snapshot of the early, incestuous OC punk scene. The people playing on this record were in Social Distortion, Flower Leperds, Christian Death, D.I., Agent Orange, 22 Jacks and probably others. I like the version of "No Friends" here better than the LP version. Steve Soto's bass is more McCartney-esque, roping up and down over the guitar chords. Some songs are reasonably clear, in others, audio quality is what you'd expect from demos that were copied a thousand times then mastered for this CD. They literally found the tapes in someone's shoebox. Sort of a bonus surprise is the original version of "Richard Hung Himself" which was later done up by drummer Casey Royer in his D.I. incarnation. Hear where they got their nerve together. I personally adore the first Adolescents record, and I'm glad I heard this disc, but it's kind of a tough listen and for the completist only. ---Leeds 6/11top

A FAITH CALLED CHAOS 'Forgive Nothing' - Volcom Entertainment
More confused screamo metalcore. AFCC are from Dallas, Texas. Again, referring to their bio, they are compared to early Grade, Every Time I Die, and Botch. AFCC at least keep their shit a little more together than Folly (also reviewed) and play only one style of music per song. On one hand, they have an indie type of spirit by playing this metalcore without a pussy radio song (like Story Of The Year) but on the other hand, this is a well-furrowed path and there's no points for originality or improvisation. Like Folly, AFCC spend all their best creative energy on naming songs. "Ten Thousand Times Tongue And Cheek," for instance. The sad part is that AFCC are playing a style of music that is way past its shelf life. Screamo, metalcore, whatever you call it, it's tired. It combines Guitar Institute excess with the corporate idea of punk. There is nothing to recommend this singer over any of the others using processed throat garglings for vocals. The technical prowess of bands able to stop and start then peal off jazzy solos does not translate into soul. This is technical without heart. Some parts of their songs would make good starting points if they decide to play another style. This is a genre I don't like at all, but no one else does here at CB either, so I get stuck with it. This isn't my idea of intelligent underground music and seems more like the modern equivalent of Queensryche. --- Paul Leeds 3/11 top

AGAINST ALL AUTHORITY / COMMON RIDER split EP - Hopeless Records [May 2005]
Of the few punk bands that last as long as AAA, a good many of them lose their aggressive edge. This is not a bad thing. Plenty of punk bands are able to express their discontent in subtle ways that are equally effective. But it is refreshing to see a band like AAA stay loud and pissed off for so many years. After over a decade of making music, Against All Authority still possesses that youthful anger that gives such power to punk music. AAA teamed up with the late Common Rider for this fast paced, pissed off, split EP. The first four tracks are AAA's usual aggressive bursts of political criticism. Their lyrics are really the driving force behind the band. The straight-forward nature of the lyrics makes them very accessible to a youthful movement like punk rock. AAA bashes the 'war machine,' 'the thieves that rose to power,' and expresses the relentlessness of the minority's will to rebel, speak out, and strive for change. The aggressive nature of the lyrics is far from a block-headed leaning towards violence, or other destructive cycles. Instead, AAA shouts, "You just want to hurt me / I just want to be heard / Killing freedom of speech / You can break my body / But you can't break the unity behind these barricades." The aggression in their music is not exhausted in hatred or hopelessness. AAA demands full use of our freedoms and full attention on our ability to unite, critique, and disrupt the powers we disagree with. The four Common Rider songs on the split have a different feel to them than the AAA tracks, a good thing for a split release. The two bands compliment each other nicely. Common Rider was put together by Jesse Michaels (of Operation Ivy) after nearly a decade of absence from the punk scene. The four tracks on this release have somewhat of an Op Ivy feel. They certainly have that raw but bubbly feel that Op Ivy did so well, though Common Rider has much less ska influence. The songs are still bouncy and full of catchy half-sung half-spoken lyrical anecdotes, but it is obvious that Michaels' influences have broadened since his Op Ivy days. The guitar work is more expressive and the lyrics have a greater depth to them. The songs are catchy and well-composed, and lyrics like "Faith in places where the mind can't go but the heart hangs around," give these seemingly light-hearted tracks some good solid weight. ---Brad Amorosino 8/11 top

AGAINST ME! The Eternal Cowboy - Fat Wreck Chords
Something immediately clear about Against Me! is that they have an easier self-image than some of their confreres. The perspective is self-deprecating and makes for more interesting music. After a show you'd expect them to want to grab a few beers, not whip out their Howard Zinn and start underlining passages. "Sink, Florida, Sink" is a strummed campfire ballad that minces off into the distance to a few bars of piano. It's that sort of assuredness and confidence that makes Against Me rise above their competition. "Slurring The Rythms" is my favorite track. It's freakout vocals and Billy Bragg plugged-in-but-not-really-rockin' guitars is a welcome reprieve from overheated Marshall stack antics. Their sound is unusual: the singer goes hyperkinetic one minute and then croons the next. The music could be backing The Smoking Popes or The Smiths, and then on a song like "Rice And Bread" all of these elements join forces and delivers a fucking knockout punch. This is the anguished cries of Billy Bragg and his lonely guitar coupled with an irresistible armory of styles. "You Look Like I Need A Drink" has the up, down, bass you get in rockabilly, and then the vocals get staccato like the record needle sliding all over the wax, and you don't know what you've got. But it's good, shitkicking good. This record is way too short. Give us more. --- Paul Leeds 9/11 top

A HEARTWELL ENDING - "Trust Us We Lie" - Media Skare [Aug 06]
I thought I just reviewed this record, I kid you not, but it turns out that A Heartwell Ending are not in fact the same band as Rory, they just sound like they are. I like the record cover, does that count for something? I'm grasping at straws here, trying to get myself psyched up over another post-emo poop punk band. I mean "pop" punk, sorry. One thing write away gets my gote: the grammatical/spelling errers. "Your My Dream Catcher" and dozens of other usages should be "You're," and "There's Two Rs in Sorry..." should be "There Are." Once upon a time it was "punk" to spell things incorrectly but since rap/hip hop has taken over as the domain of the dumb, with music for morons, maybe Spell Check (TM) wouldn't hurt. Anyway, so this record is playing while I'm stalling, trying to make this look like a review, but so far I've got nothing to report. I think I've heard all this before. They wear eyeliner and ties and shop at Hot Topic. That "Dreamcatcher" song isn't half bad. The chorus is a little overwrought, with the singer forcing the delivery, as is common in this kind of rock. Most of these songs seem to be about that time in a person's life when they realize that having sex with someone can lead to emotional distress or worse. I know that sounds mundane, now imagine it set to music. On "Memory" they mix up a good stereo dual vocal track with processed drums that is relief from the standard format. "If Looks Could Kill" breaks the emo mould a bit by turning into a Def Leppard song. What were these kids raised on? There are many, many music fans out there who still love their old pop metal records, but you won't find any of those people here. Expect no quarter from us. If you must listen to emopop, why not AHE? At various parts in their songs I keep hearing a few bars here and there that sound good. The band is at full clip and rocking, but quickly the sound shifts into the clich?s of this genre. Nice try. --- Leeds 5/11 top

AIDS WOLF v ELECTRIC AUTOMATON - "Clash of the Life Force Warriors" - Skin Graft Records [Sept 2007]
Amazingly fuzzy distorted noise farming that's sure to appeal to you crazy bastards that like that sort of thing. Both Aids Wolf and Electric Automoton don't need to be your friends, as a matter of fact they seem to be so at home digging deep into the audio mud that they probably aren't even aware that you're there. Each shovel load they throw back over their shoulders smacks you in the face like a hornet's nest and has the expectedly stingingly disorienting effect they're probably going for, a sort of anti-musical "Fuck You" that demands your attention more than it expects your admiration. That being said, these experiments into grinding crashing chaos are pretty impressive, although if you were to take the album title at face value, I'd have to say both bands probably tied for first place in whatever sporting event clashing chaos music falls under. I honestly couldn't tell which band did what on this apart from the fact that one of the bands consistently employs female wails of the damned in the mix. This is music to go mad to, although the term "music" doesn't really fit. I won't even try to put a numerical value on this one, because this type of stuff should be graded in Martian hieroglyphics and not numbers. The Swede top

AIDS WOLF "The Lovvers LP" - Lovepump United [March 06]
Three little words come to mind when listening to this disc that comes to us from a planet most have never been to, heard of or cared to visit: "What the hell?" The seeds of this question will first be planted in your mind on first glance of the disc package. Your eyes will wander over the bright colors and random shapes you don't get until they finally come to rest on the middle of the disc, where a picture of a train of squatting naked people, laughing and happy on the beach, awaits. Ok, you think. No big deal. It's...artsy, right? Now you open the disc, take the book out and find...AWWWW!! Naked people all over the place! There's pictures of men, women, children and even the band itself all partying it up in some kind of nudist colony. No lyrics are to be found - just photos of naked people framed in flowers and psychedelic patterns. By this point the music should need no explanation and, within a few moments of listening to moans and strange guitar feedback, you might feel compelled to toss the thing away or trade it in for something a little less, well, weird. If this is the case, here's some advice: Don't. Give it another listen. If given a chance the weirdness on this disc will come together to sound like music, albeit extremely experimental music. And I have to say that, even after listening a few times, this CD is still a bit too experimental for me in places. It probably won't be in the rotation of my regularly listened-to records. But there's some good stuff to be found here nonetheless. Such as track six, "Panty Mind," which has an old-school punk, and slightly Sonic Youth, feel to it that's completely absorbing. ---6/11 Melissa Treolo top

ALCIAN BLUE - s/t - Elephant Stone Records [July 2006]
It will be interesting to see if this boat has already left or if Alcian Blue will still have time to connect with the (let's face it) suckers who bought the She Wants Revenge disc. People want some authenticity, even in their 80s gloom-worshipping bands, and they might be gunshy about Alcian Blue after the SWR debacle. AB's debut LP has more in common with the 1st Interpol record than with the confuzzled pseudo-goth of every wannabe band that drafted in on Interpol's energy. Synths, drum machines, swooning guitars, murkiness, hushed vocals and lots of pedals are in the arsenal. Not to put too fine a point on it, but (in a blender) mix The Cure's "17 Seconds," New Order's "Movement," and My Bloody Valentine's "Isn't Anything," pour over ice, add garnish, and you've just created the Alcian Blue martini. In case you don't know, all 3 of those albums are certified classics, so AB's onto something cool. Only a couple of these songs are on the front foot enough to get crowd to stop staring at their gothy shoes, but those faster songs ("Terminal Escape" and "This Day This Age") are pretty killer. Elsewhere they steal Flying Saucer Attack's pedals ("Frozen Sleep") and pay homage to Joy Division with some purposefully flat vocals. Perhaps there is a touch of the self-conscious about Alcian Blue, as if at times they said "let's make a Flying Saucer Attacky song!" instead of just writing their own music, but then again all of the above mentioned bands also had an early infatuation with themselves. AB certainly approach these classic bands as devotees and their DIY efforts at recreating some of these studio masterpieces without Martin Hannett and mountains of drugs is admirable. The drum machine is also made to be a brother of the more primitive stylings employed by early goth purveyors, but to significant effect. I'm not sure that a real drummer would help, and in fact might rob the band of some darkness. By this point, you should know if this is a record you need to hear, just from the bands I'm comparing them with. Favorite song is split between "Night Sky" and "Terminal Escape." The song styles and vocals vary fairly significantly from track to track, as well as production techniques, so this album feels like it was a long time a-coming. Sometimes it is a blast of fresh air when someone reinvents the wheel. ---8/11 Leeds top

ALKALINE TRIO Good Mourning - Vagrant
You have just murdered your girlfriend. Now you're drunk, covered in blood, and starting to miss her. Alkaline Trio's "Good Mourning" is your soundtrack. "I touch myself / at the thought of flames / I shat the bed / and lay there in it / thinking of you..." kicks off the new AT opus. Somehow lyrics like this make me uncomfortable enough to skip singing along in the car. Picking up where they left on "From Here To Infirmary," AT ply their black-hearted love song expertise with a new maturity. Exploring the now familiar themes of love turning to murder and drinking turning to loss, AT is a 3 chord hit machine on the top of the entire pop-punk heap. The writing is more assured and matured on this latest disc, attention being paid to come up with clever lyrics, songs slowing down to release their poison in doses. The biggest change is the choruses don't leap out at you after the obligatory chord change, the main-stay of pop-punk. The pop-punk costume has been blown away and the larger rock vibe is left in its vacated space. Possibly because million dollar producer Jerry Finn is behind the desk, the new AT sound like they're on the road to Foo Fighterish rockland. As always, AT's two great singers are what give them extra depth and the fan two bands for the price of one. Matt Skiba sneers out vitriolic diatribes on bad women and getting loaded, and Dan Andriano croons about the colder side of loss and regret. On 2002's "From Here To Infirmary," Andriano snuck in and stole the show with "I'm Dying Tomorrow." That song, like many AT songs, has hooks so sharp you bleed. The 1-2 punch of the two singers doesn't quite hit on this disk. Andriano's "One Hundred Stories" is mediocre and fails to deliver a memorable hook. Not his best stuff. Adding organs under the chord changes to flesh it out sounds like a good idea, but ends up only a distraction. It's good AT is experimenting with other instruments and trying to keep the blood and creative juices flowing. Overall, the songs on "Mourning," while still solid and rocking, are slower and more controlled than the AT you know and love. "Continental" is the standout track: a terrific evil love song sung by a wider, detached Skiba who has clearly been working on writing more complex melodies. It's an AT showcase: a solid gold chorus aided and abetted by growling guitars, and AT prove their mastery of the dark pop song. "All On Black" has Skiba's vocals double tracked to give the AT sound extra melody, a sound that has stepped away from appealing to the Warp Tour fans and has risen to the challenge of writing great songs outside of their genre ghetto. AT has adroitly graduated to the next level. "Emma" is another Andriano song, this one fires on all cylinders: a two-part chorus with Skiba that again proves how goddamn amazing AT is. " A poinsettia in poison rain / traded true love for insult and injury / We washed it down the drain / with one silver bullet and two vicodin..." runs the chorus. It claps onto your ears like a fist and the lyrics are brilliant. I have a guess that "Every Thug Needs A Lady" is a demo because the guitar intro not only doesn't sound in tune but also sounds recorded on cheap home equipment - all middle tone mush with cymbals nipping away at every strum. Blow for blow, "Mourning" can't go the distance with "Infirmary." Of the 12 songs, about 6 of them meet the level of their last effort. It's a step in the right direction, but a bolder step was needed. --- Paul Leeds 7/11 top

ALKALINE TRIO The Show Must Go Off DVD - Kung Fu Records
The Chicago powerpunk trio is captured live in their hometown on Halloween on this new concert film. The 18 songs span their career and might turn out to be a snapshot of the band at the peak of their powers, when "From Here To Infirmary" marked the highest achievement of pop punk. Performing in front of diehard hometown fans also inspired the band to really deliver the rock goods that particular night. I caught AT on their "Maybe I'll Catch Fire" tour, and frankly, they were boring as hell; the stage seemed too big for them and the floor too spacious to give any crowd feedback to the band. I would that they were as good then as they are on this DVD. The five camera setup provides enough up close footage of the band to make you feel like you're being jammed against the stage, some sweaty jock moshing on your back. AT have dabbled in pseudo-goth imagery for awhile now with their dead-eyed album covers, skulls etc., and so performing on Halloween night fits them like a coffin. The boys come out in priest costumes and blackened eyes with mouths dripping blood, leading off with "Hell Yes." The crowd goes wild. During the course of the night they trot out a punchy set list, including "Maybe I'll Catch Fire," "Take Lots With Alcohol," "Armageddon," and "Private Eye." If you want to borrow some of Matt Skiba's licks, this show covers enough of his fretwork to become an AT guitar primer. I found the tabs I had for "Take Lots With Alcohol" were wrong this way, to illustrate. The live sound is crisp and mixed well, sounding better than most live albums. But here's a note to live video producers: stack the front rows of your audience with hot chicks in cool/skimpy outfits. Whenever we cut to the front row terrorists, it's almost always some dorky dudes who don't know all the words. Buzz killer right there. And when you've got staccato jabs of guitars and drums like you get with AT, skip the cheesy dissolves between cuts, it sucks out the energy. The DVD also features an amusing band commentary and a bonus photo gallery, for you to unwind with after getting all your energy out during the show. AT will probably never be this good again, making this a memento of them at their greatest. ---Paul Leeds 8/11 top

ALKALINE TRIO / HOT WATER MUSIC split CD Jade Tree
Just like the split 7" records of yesteryear! In theory it should allow bands to get more songs released and free them up from the stifling one record per 16 months deal most bands are on. Both of these bands are pretty good but this split doesn't show either band's strengths. Alkaline Trio writes more traditional songs, sort of in the "Dear You" style of Jawbreaker. They have two singers and two styles of songs. One guy writes songs for the girls and the other writes songs with more edge. More and more they sound like one band that should split and become two. This is for AT fans only. If you're new to the band, get "Maybe I'll Catch Fire" instead. Hot Water Music are less polished as a band, but I think they mean it more. Someday I could see AT being national like Blink or any Warp Tour band because they sound like a pop band with vague punky stylings, but HWM will forever be a fans' band. Again, this isn't their best stuff either. It's cool having each band cover the other's song, but here neither band really does the song any justice.---Will top

THE ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS Doghouse Records
This was recorded by Tim O'Heir, the legendary knob twiddler behind the genius first Superdrag album, and bands like Sebadoh and Possum Dixon. O'Heir knows how to pick winners, and All-American Rejects are no exception, combining impossibly hooky songs with a bright, crisp sound. AAR would fit perfectly on a bill with Jimmy Eat World and The Jealous Sound. Now here's the strange part, AAR are a two-member band, one guy is 18 and the other is 20. God knows where these guys are getting it from, but this sound is huge and immediately accessible. Song three on here, "Swing Swing" is going to takeover the airwaves, it's a song that makes you play the damn thing over again a few times in a row. AAR use keyboards and guitars to cook up their sound that seems to have three or four hooks in every song. If you take the first (the FIRST!) Tears For Fears record and graft it onto the latest Jimmy Eat World record, voila, there you have it: AAR. The guys in the band are pretty foxy too, one of them looks like James Dean, so that's not going to hurt them either. Holy shit, "Time Stands Still" is going to be an even bigger hit than the other song. These guys write melodies that flit up and over a few octaves like it's no big deal, and the result is far more catchy than the current crop of popsters like Travis, and Coldplay. -- Paulie top

IAN ALLEN "Nova's Lounge" - Nova 53 Records [March 06]
A swanky club, a cocktail or two and someone to dance with. This small list of requirements is all that will be needed to be carried away by the synthesized bossa nova that is Nova's Lounge. The first song, "Intro," welcomes you. Literally. "Welcome to Nova's Lounge, Nova 53 Records," is spoken again and again to an accompaniment of chest pounding drum beats and an aloof keyboard, played oh so softly. This greeting is, in fact, the only vocal track to be found on the whole record. But the titles of songs suggest there is a story being told in the language that those who crave a bit of style and sophistication with their $9 martini won't have a hard time understanding. Titles like "Change Is Inevitable" and "Meet Me Halfway" and "SoHo Movement" could be chapter titles of a book by trendy authors like Candace Bushnell or Diane Johnson. They also work perfectly here. "Change Is Inevitable" shows exactly how inevitable change can be with a six-minute song that switches gears about every minute. "SoHo Movement" is, like the fashionable Manhattan art district, smooth and understated and features a streak of intense percussion that mimics the hurried steps of shoppers looking for the perfect piece of budget-breaking art - the kind of art that makes you feel like a worthwhile person just in the act of purchasing it. Luckily for those without the cash or the inclination to buy a canvas full of self-validation however, the soft case of this CD is so colorful and contemporary that it will seem like a piece of art (a piece of art you only had to pay about 15 bucks for). ---7/11 Melissa Treolo top

ALL HOURS "In Flagrante Delicto" - Hybrid Recordings
The title is Latin for getting caught boning, and that is a tip off to what to expect aurally. The disc sent to the bunker is only a 3 song taste but we felt it was important to issue a warning nonetheless, as a public service. You're supposed to close your eyes and imagine yourself back in a late 70s Hollywood music scene that never existed, where rock was bending into the new sounds that would become new wave and punk, and to think this all sounds gas. Except you're not at the Whisky and it's not 1975. With your 2004 ears this will sound exactly like what it is: assrock pretending to be an "Exile On Mainstreet" descendant. You know, tambourines and soul singers and shit. There should be a fucking law against any band trying to mimic the Stones. I don't know what All Hours' angle is, what they plan on using as their selling feature or their "hook" for the kids, but this music is just plain and boring and makes me feel like I'm listening to Dr. Hook or something equally gay that you only hear when you're in someone else's car that's radio is set to some classic rock station. Total bunk. 2/11 --- Sid Arthurtop

ALLI WITH AN I I Learned It By Watching You - Suburban Home Records
First impression: the band photo has one guy rocking a sideways baseball cap and another with a shirt from The Used. Well fortunately they're not biting either The Used or Blink 182, whew. The cover has some gradeschool paper over a black and white photo of a toddler leaning his head against a mirror. I don't know what to make of this. Maybe the kid is someone in the band's kid, or brother, or nephew. It's not exactly what you'd call a "rock" cover. The cover flunks. Fourth song, "Last Parade," really contains these lyrics: "How could you stand there and watch me cry? Not even a tear falls from your eye..." Yes, it sounds like a Whitney Houston lyric. I guess I don't mind that the singer is a sensitive guy, I mean, everyone can't be Danzig, but that doesn't give license to cry on record, ya know? Despite those goofy lyrics, it's a pretty fun song. I like the energy. "Don't Look Down" has the same guitar chords and riffs as Yellowcard's "Sure Shot," which struck me as curious, since Yellowcard is the nearest equivalent to AWAI's sound (except no violin, of course). Maybe they're fans. Singer Matt Sileno sings kind of high, but not too high to be sugary. He gives the songs a sort of summer camp youthfulness. There's a lot of hope and expectation in the songs, like they can't wait to get back to school to tell of their adventures at camp. There are a lot of new school tricks, the techniques on the verses, riffs on the choruses - all the popular sounds. They can also craft some loopy, grand melodies, as evidenced in "Letting Go." The chorus just circles round and around itself, like a singalong. The guitarist (Matt Sileno) chops up and down the fretboard, making this a pretty urgent anthem of broken romance. The latter half of the record dominates the first. "Two Sides" should've lead off this album. It is rich with all the right ingredients of a great pop emo bomb blast: busy guitars, drums pounded extra hard, a singer soaring over the din. I was a huge fan of this type of music about 5 years ago, and if this record came out then, I'd really be pumping it. In 2003, it sounds a little bit too much like many other bands, in a style that the best of them have already moved on from. Maybe it's a little clean and poppy for me, but if you're an emo kid, you'll dig this. AWAI traverse the troubled corridors of high school with their songs of spent passion and unrequited loves as full of hope as a new pair of creepers on the first day of school. --- Paul Leeds 7/11top

ALL SMILES - "Ten Readings of a Warning" - Dangerbird [May 07]
Hooray! Up from the ashes of Grandaddy rises All Smiles. Jim Fairchild spent many chilly evenings on the road as guitarist of the loopy and erratic but brilliant Grandaddy, and on those many nights he took the buoyant space pop lessons to heart. His new band has a lot of the homemade feel and the indie pop sound of his former band, but with more of natural singing style and a more straightforward approach. Grandaddy were never comfortable in the spotlight, and All Smiles is only just tolerating being at the edge of the harsh light and expectant stares. Fairchild sings in a high, gentle, tuneful style, and on a great track like "The Velvetest Balloon" you can collect all your Grandaddy good memories and add All Smiles to them. These songs are different enough that they would not have worked, in this form, as Grandaddy songs, because there is no electronic tinkering or soaring keyboard, and the general mood is more serious, or at least you don't feel like there are inside jokes all over the songs. All Smiles is more of an indie Rock band, albeit one weaned on bright melodies and simplicity. Have to say that the phrase I keep hearing in my head is the Bunnymen's "me, I'm all smiles, I got my crocodiles..." and although I don't hear Bunnymen in this music, Fairchild probably is a fan. A good few of these songs reminded me of the blissful pop phase of John Lennon, like what he was doing on "#9 Dream." Recommended. --- 8/11 Leeds top

ALL TOMORROW'S PARTY - s/t - Alive! Records [Jan 2006]
What the hell? These guys sure don't sound Japanese (whatever that means). But seriously, this sort of droning jammy vibe sounds like it came out the mid 60's or early seventies when drugs were involved, and not in Japan. The kicker is, it's really pretty good, like the drugs in the mid 60's to seventies probably were too. Maybe they found some hidden stash in a time capsule and the shit hadn't spoiled. It's definitely a listen that requires more patience (or weed) and relies on grooves more than song structure but it's good and easy on the ear. The sound definitely gives nods to both the 60's garage sound as it does to psychedelic arena rock, much in the same way The Dandy Warhols did, the Brian Jonestown Massacre do, and many of the past Manchester Psyche-pop bands have, and they steer a little bit further out into the extended improvisational sagas. By "improvisational saga" I mean they noodle or vibe out for long periods but it sounds pleasant, not random. However, I must mention that one reason you might really like All Tomorrow's Party is because you really liked the bands from the past that they sound like. Even in the press release they mention "obvious V.U. references", and, um, yeah, they're right. There's lots of loopiness and the opening instrumental track conveys the more meditative strengths of the band really well, but they also can put a little more edge into the soup when appropriate. The album is almost a bit schizophrenic in that respect, vacillating between the raw blown out sounds and retro psychedelic pop with dreamy harmonies, although both personalities are friendly, so who cares? When they do the psychedelic pop vocalizations it works well and the playing is there too, but I preferred the harder stuff on the record. Still, if you like your music a bit more ethereal and mesmerizing than you'll be more than happy to hear this. (6 on a scale of 1-11) ---The Swede top

ALWAYS THE RUNNER "An August Golf" - Velora Recordings [Jan 2006]
This is the return of a band I grew to really like on their debut album, and I refer you now to that other review so that I don't simply repeat myself. All of that earlier review holds true for this release, so here are a few developments in the ATR world. New album features another selection of bright and spidery guitar work over extremely listenable and melodic anthems. ATR are not breaking any new ground here but they are offering up another helping of the cathedral-esque grandeur they created on their freshman effort. Many of their peers have gotten to the point of cliche with slow buildups that suddenly explodes with neck breaking fury, as if the point of the song was all about release of tension. ATR are separate from that Scottish tradition by making their songs reliant on the escalation of beauty. Not every kiss needs to be followed by a punch in the neck. Not every measure of nimble fretwork needs to have a Marshall stack explode in your ear. All of these songs offer bliss and peace, but check out "Should A Bear Interrupt Your Picinic," not only for its puckish title but also for the sunlight shining through the leaves in the form of a french horn or something slightly behind the guitar work. Lovely. The question for ATR is where to next? This album is a great rounding out and confirmation of their skill with airy pieces, but their next album needs more risk-taking along with the beauty to avoid falling into the Sigur Ros trap of "been there, done that." --- Leeds 9/11top

ALWAYS THE RUNNER s/t - Myla Records
Set amidst a shimmering delayed guitar, Always The Runner introduce themselves with a saturnine slice of beauty. The half time tempos and blissed out melodies beg for a tag other than pop because ATR call for anything but the grabby hooks of radio. It's layered and textured like the detail of an oil painting. Spidery guitar and buoyant piano spin a web on "Telling Lies Over Lattes," an instrumental piece that recalls Durutti Column and Mogwai. I already liked ATR after reading song titles like "Let's See If The Bastards Can Do 90!" and "Not What Jesus Would Have Done." ATR are mainly instrumental but occasionally toss in vocals. Which is odd because on the 2 vocal tracks, ATR have a damn fine singer. But they prefer to let the instruments be their voice. Believing that music can be powerful and evocative without the guidance of lyrics is an alien concept to today's major labels and radio stations. But it's a valid concept that radiates forward from Beethoven. When a modern band like ATR creates music that is full and rich without vocals, you don't even notice it. It's like noticing that "With Or Without You" had no accordion. Many instrumental bands these days are experimental or art projects (Hangedup, The Books, etc) and that's all good, but occasionally it's also good to hear real music that doesn't make you feel like you need a PhD in music to understand. ATR have a sunnier disposition than their peers in the majestic rock tradition, and it appears they are not (thankfully) working out their inner demons in their songs. ATR shows that sometimes it's good to enjoy the sunlight and gossamer beauty of monumental songs. --- Leeds 8/11 top

AM "Francophiles & Skinny Ties" - AM Mayhem Records, 2005
Skip ahead right to "Sex 'n' Drugs" - AM get their punk rock take on garagey new wave done right. It's got a lurching apeman bass riff and some nicely spastic vocals. The sound is not burdened with lots of studio tricks and has a good live feel to it, as befits a proper power trio. Some of the other tracks ("Quite n Dayglo") take you in a totally opposite direction. Starting with a ballad paced intro, it kicks up into a boozey anthem with shimmering reverb guitars. Elsewhere they do a good moonstomp ("Bloodshot") and bend back some 60s riffing with full arm lo-fi punk playing. The album title made me fear for a new wave band but they sound nothing of the sort. They have a retro cool sound that is popular with the Crypt and Bomp scene, although it's a bit more modern, like a rougher version of Whitelight Motorcade or Mooney Suzuki. They have some good sounds, some decent energy, and combine past and present to reasonable effect. ---Vermin 6/11 top

AMAZING TRANSPARENT MAN "Print Is Dead" - Double Zero Records
This sneaky fucking record grows on you. As it kicks to life, you start thinking you can peg them as another Yellow Card type of snotty new-punk band with hooks. It's not even before the first song is done that you realize ATM are madly struggling to break free from this limiting genre. By track two, "Pink Eye," they are already saying good fucking riddance to the clones of Punk Rock Inc. Are the fans ready for what they're serving? Who knows. This ground has become a graveyard for similar bands that write great little hooks and have well-crafted pop songs only to find that audiences are too stupid to pick up on them. The Stereo, Ultimate Fakebook, Material Issue, Motion City Soundtrack - all these bands are laying a psychic high-five on these guys. They are saying, "we see that you guys know what goes into classic power pop, you get it, and we're right there dying in the trenches with you." What will it take to turn ATM into a band people care about? Maybe an expensive video, maybe one guy in the band will start banging Paris Hilton. In short, there's no reason besides having a well-muscled PR firm behind them that will stop them from becoming a national act. Short of Ms. Hilton giving it up for this Chicago trio, ATM will just have to slog it out the hard way. If you like fast pop that you can sing along too, buy this record. The gutsy chorus of "So When Did Everybody In A Band Become A Hair Farmer," with it's "na-na-na's," captures the listener with the catchy simplistic bliss of the Ramones. The lines that follow, "God is love, love is dumb, I am dumb so, I am God..." show that ATM has a great sense of humor and is not taking it all too seriously. The better ATM songs are when singer Rick Muermann brings his register down just a little bit, giving his voice more strength and character. Overall, ATM share the Chicago bloodsport of three minute polished pop in an easy to embrace style, similar to citymates Alkaline Trio and The Lawrence Arms but several more degrees removed from punk rock. The more I hear this record the more prominent the hooks become. The songs all exist in the brighter spectrum of emotions, avoiding the grinding moments of angst that AT and TLA deliver, even though ATM lyrically approach darker topics ("Into Your Heart.") One thing that strongly separates them from those other 2 bands is that ATM have essentially 1 kind of song and one singer. It's all, "hey, I just did a line of blow, let's rock." The cover art looks suspiciously like "Catcher In The Rye," which counts for something. - Leeds 7/11 top

AMBER PACIFIC"The Possibility and the Promise" - Hopeless Records [July 2005]
Amber Pacific belongs on MTV. That is neither a compliment nor an insult. They simply have nothing to offer punk music or underground culture. The band is primarily influenced by bands like Yellowcard, Taking Back Sunday, and Fall Out Boy, and they are doing an excellent job of emulating these acts. But the genre of pop punk that these bands fall into is lacking in originality and soul. Its seems like the musical influences of a lot of these bands are so specific to their own genre that the genre of pop punk as a whole is boring and stagnant. Nothing new, nothing refreshing comes out of the genre. Pop punk is completely incestuous. Still, Amber Pacific are talented musicians in the technical sense of the word. Very talented. The record sounds great, the singing is dead on, and the craftsmanship is super tight. They must be super heroes to the Warped Tour crowd. And some of the guys in the band are not even 20. The Possibility of Promise is an impressive release for such a young band. Unfortunately, Amber Pacific's sound is the same old shit. Sure the band sounds professional, but the music is immature and redundant. We know how the story ends before it begins. It's amazing how all these pop punk bands can sound so lifeless while playing such upbeat music. So much of the appeal of a band is built on character and this is exactly what pop punkers don't have. There needs to be something unique in the mood, the structure, the words, the members, something to give the band some shape. Otherwise there's nothing to distinguish them from the rest of the pretty kids that play formulaic pop music. I will not say that Amber Pacific wasn't stuck in my head after the record was over. It WAS. It has all the necessary hooks. But so do car commercial jingles and cell phone ringers. I get those stuck in my head all the time. And they don't mean anything. It's just noise. Buzzing in my ear. ---Brad Amorosino 4/11 top

AMBER PACIFIC "Fading Days" - Hopeless Records
I knew a girl named Amber, and she had amazing, full, luscious, ripe (like melons in summer) breasts. They defied gravity and although I haven't seen her in years, I hold onto their memory to this day. Amber Pacific? She's not a girl, but rather, four rockers plying melodic tunes of lost love in an accessible pop confection. This is a band that has taken the formula of The All-American Rejects and run away over the hills with it. On this 5 song EP, Amber Pacific provide variations on TAAR's "Last Song" recipe of high and clean vocals, soaring, begging, grasping with desperate arms - the emotionally scarred listener. The rest of the band grinds out some capable poppy guitars and drums. Never having seen this band, I don't know if they rock it up live or if they choose to calm the waves. On record, AP are catchy and airy, their songs of romantic questing are perfect for those ensnared in the traps of the dating game. Their positive approach avoids blaming and castigating the girl who got away but instead encourages self revelation and introspection. All 3 bands cited in their bio are laughable, so it's with some surprise that AP blow those turkeys away. Rufio, Taking Back Sunday, and Chris Carraba? For reals. The only real moment of embarassment on this intro is the closer ("Here We Stand") which has church youth group-styled acoustic guitars and harmonizing vocals. The other four songs are ready to be embraced by fans of TAAR, The Honorary Title and similar giddy guitar pop. This last song is the audio equivalent of not getting into her panties. It makes you think acoustic guitars should be destroyed. That transgression aside, I recommend this band for all those out there desperate for the next Rejects album (which hasn't even been recorded yet). --- Fang 5/11top

AMBRY "Holding On By The Blindfolds We Hide Behind" - The Death Scene [June 2005]
Sounds like: Armor For Sleep, The Used (new album), All-American Rejects. You will know them by: the singer's high, youthful wail. Their unique hook: nothing comes to mind. Competence: solid marks for good musicianship and good production. Low tide: "Car Crash Love" which starts out treacly sentimental and becomes a squeaky Jimmy Eat World knockoff. And the acoustic dorm stairwell demo "Linguistic Relativity For Horses." Painful. High tide: album closer "A Collapse Of Confidence," which uses the helium vocals and emo guitars to best effect. For: kids eager for more of the same they got with the last Used album. Result: Ambry are like a great horde of other bands and not much really sets them apart beside the high registry of their singer. Their sound is currently popular but this does not advance the cause or chart new territory. --- Vermin 4/11 top

AMERICAN EYES "Never Trust Anything That Bleeds" - SideOneDummy Records [March 06]
This is some polished L.A. pop crap that by its own accounts has "neo-goth dance-punk" elements but come on? What's new about goth? And "Dance-Punk"? What the fuck's punk about dance music? And even more, what's bold about re-mining 80's pop sounds these days? I mean Hot Hot Heat does a decent Robert Smith imitation with a harder edge but how much more of this retro shit are we expected to take? At least H.H.H. rips from The Cure which was obviously a significant band and brought something of their own to it. American Eyes fucked up and collaborated with a different Smith from the 80's, and I don't mean one of "The Smiths" or anything cool like that, I mean Curt Smith from Tears For Fears. If you fell for THAT bullshit the first time around then maybe you deserve American Eyes. I didn't really get the sense of anything even slightly original going on here, just another money grab. You could easily hear this type of music appearing in the background of any contemporary mainstream teen horror movie that's laden with product placement and serves no other purpose than to propel talentless ex-cast members of "Dawson's Creek" or "The O.C." onto their bigscreen debuts. Movies with Paris Hilton in them and such. You know the type of major corporate schlock movies where the bean counters want some flavor of the month "edgy sounding" band to put on the soundtrack but aren't willing to pay for the top acts, just the lower tier ones that have the ability sound like the real innovators and pose no risk of alienating consumers with anything "too edgy"? Yeah. This is one of those. Not to say this isn't well produced. Michael Patterson, who produced other commercially viable act$ such as Puff Daddy, Notorious B.I.G., and even Beck after it was clearly safe to do so, is mentioned no less than three times in the six pages of press release schwag that accompanied this CD. Clearly American Eyes are being groomed for mainstream consumption, and it's bands like these that remind you that the music business is in fact just a business sometimes. Perhaps my Swedish pen is dripping a bit venomously on this review, but to quote the lead singer's own words when describing the L.A. rock scene, "Bands are a dime a dozen out here" and while I agree wholeheartedly I still wouldn't spend 1/12 of a dime on this CD. Why should I? They'll probably "make it big" by sounding so typically pop that I can hear their shit for free when "Final Destination 5" or some other shitty movie makes it to T.V. in edited form. (2 for production values on a scale of 1-11). The Swedetop

AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD - "So Divided" - Universal Music [Dec 06]
Here on their 5th album, the Trail has gone cold. This disc has taken many listens for it to finally open up and reveal its inner strengths. The first thing to note about "So Divided," is that is a distant cousin to their breakthrough "Source Tags & Codes." This album is very much led and crafted by Conrad Keely, the guy who does their artwork and most of the singing. Righthand man Jason Reece (normally the drummer) this time out gets no songs to sing, and his savage, double thumping drumming has been largely replaced with standard "rock" drumming. For most of its length, "So Divided" feels like a Conrad solo project. There are indeed some moments of savage grandeur, like "Naked Sun," the title track, and "Sunken Dreams." Those songs bear the closest familial resemblance to the Trail of "Worlds Apart," a vastly underrated album. In place of the Trail's wildness, is a bitterness and coldness, a further reaction of dissatisfaction with the concept of being in Trail Of Dead, the drugs and lifestyle that go along with it. The Trail has jettisoned the clashing guitars and exuberant runs of chaos that marked their earlier songs, but they've settled down on piano and added strings and other percussion to create two of their best songs yet, "Life," and "Stand In Silence." Both songs are advanced headspace music, almost prog in their soundscapes, and both reveal a new character at the center of the Trail. The nearest equivalent is the 3rd phase of David Bowie, where he gave up the hedonistic Ziggy Stardust and created a stateless being who explored the spaces between the notes in the burned out squalor of Berlin with Brian Eno. This new aspect of Keely is definitely coming down from something, perhaps many things. There are at least two lyrical jabs at which Keely is such a master, that deserve mention. In "Silence," he cribs the line "...had a dad..." in almost the same delivery as Jane's Addiction so many years ago, but subverts Perry's cry of abandonment into one of being smothered, or being normal: "...had a dad, and a mom, had a family don't know what went wrong..." In this line, Keely has expressed the ennui, the inertia, yet the real pain of thousands of smart and disaffected youths who can't point to obvious wounds like divorce to explain away their failures. In another great quip, Keely again lands a punch on one of the great rock 'n' roll lyrics and exposes both its vapidity and the slight revulsion one should feel when confronted with drunken lunkheads: "...she told me to come, but I'm never going there!" I'm sure Keely has jammed to AC/DC as much as anyone else has, and probably admires their stripped down simplicity, but he's also acknowledging that the AC/DC way of life is bankrupt...and alluring. It seems the Trail has never shied away from self-inflicted danger, whether it's drugs or violence or giving pop culture shit for being so shallow (and thereby insulting their potential fanbase). The only caveats to the greatness of this album, is that it features really only 9 songs. 2 of the 11 are musical interludes, so the album feels like it's missing an act or a further spark. The other caveat is that the Trail here have made some songs in a standard, if classic mode, and although they can swagger as well as anyone ("Naked Sun") it was their unique song structures and instrumentation that originally got everyone's interest picqued. The strength of "So Divided" is that the Trail, like a great director, has decided to make a new kind of movie. Scorsese didn't do endless remakes of "Raging Bull." You might always want another one, but you're going to have to learn to love "King Of Comedy" or "After Hours." Neither will the Trail rehash "Source Tags & Codes." That's the best way to think of this new album, like a group of highly talented musicians has created a new project that reflects a different world than when you fell in love with them. The point is, to trust them, and to explore their new work. ---Leeds 8/11top

AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD "Worlds Apart" - Interscope (Feb 2005)
The good ship Trail Of Dead took the majority of last year off, time to regroup and rethink their strategy for global domination. They also had to part ways with multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Neil Busch, trimming the singing staff down to a skeleton crew of 3. Part of what made live TOD shows so dangerous was the constant shifting of personalities when it was impossible to tell who would be playing what instrument on the next song. Part of that dynamic has obviously been sacrificed at giving Busch time to recoup or rehab, but the recorded Trail in 2005 is still two-fisted and swinging hard. The loose-cannon chaos of earlier work has given way to a more skillful, deadlier approach. Early songs had them using Sonic Youth's template to vent some dark Texas fury, but they've slowly progressed their way to a unique and vivid sound. They are still a tough band with a fistful of songs that seem to come from a sinster, more violent world. The new album is more geared to piercing your mind than your eardrums, although 3 of the 12 songs are interludes, making you want more already. There is maturity and progress in this new Trail. Jason Reece still drums like the beats are taking down incoming divebombers, Kevin Allen's guitars still light fires on the hillsides, and the narratives Conrad Keely unspools are small films in their own right. As a longtime fan of Trail Of Dead, the new album took a few spins to really sink in, but since then, I can hardly stop listening to it. They've been a favorite for awhile because they are everything that is cool and exciting about underground music: they have something to say, they play their fucking hearts out, and their music is constantly shifting and weaving in new ideas. They've woven elements of John Lennon and David Bowie into their new work, in their confidence of taking a measure in a song and soaring with a melody or laying in a moody piano and backing "oohs and ahs" (A Classic Arts Showcase) that show not only a firm grasp of rock history but a profound talent for improving upon the past. There's a song that seeks to disguise the morbid waltz underneath (Worlds Apart) its condemnation of our culture: "...look at those cunts on MTV, with their cars, and cribs and rings and shit, is that what being a celebrity means..." Trail has always been a smart band, providing food for thought as well as music that shakes you by the collar bone. Some have said that this album's slower songs are out of place, but they must never have heard "Novena Without Faith" off their debut LP. They've always mixed the subtle with the bombastic. Trail has always been exploring interesting sonic landscapes, and they've continued, layering harmonies on "The Rest Will Follow," adding almost cabaret sounds to "All White" that sounds like "Aladdin Sane" era Bowie, or the head snapping genius anthem "Caterwaul," which is among the best songs they've ever done. It's got that elegant cinematic quality they're famous for while providing uncompromising playing that would make Sonic Youth proud, and when they sing "Eyes at night never see the day, because it's not in my nature, golden wings rise from the plane, they burn above the red earth..." you know it's the song of the apocalypse, that the end is near and Trail Of Dead are playing loud enough to keep the collapse momentarily at bay. This band is down one member but still has more fight in them than most armies. ---Leeds 9/11top

AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD Source Codes + Tags - Interscope Records
Named in a paraphrase of one of the most enigmatic sentences ever written, ...and you will know us by the Trail of Dead are blazing new paths in music. Their name is cryptic, their biographies more so, but perhaps their music is the most cryptic of all. And indeed, wouldn't you be a bit disappointed if a band called Trail of Dead was just a boring ol' rock band like everyone else? I thought so. Don't worry, they're not. Their major-label debut, Source Codes + Tags, is nothing if not all about fulfilling promises. Music today is full of huge promises made by labels, even the artists themselves, and are never kept. "The break-out CD of the year!" is a phrase seen so often at the CB that we have started filing press releases under D for Don't Ever Use That Phrase Again. With so many unkept promises ruining our eardrums, it is refreshing beyond belief to hear a band that promises little and delivers a lot. Now I'll be honest here, I didn't really like this album when I first heard it. It's noisy, loud, and has that under-produced fuzziness that makes me wish I could use a "sharpen" feature like the one on my television. But the lyrics made it worth a second, third and fourth listen, and suddenly I can't get it out of my CD player. Like any good poetry, they are timeless and beautiful. In "Heart in the Hand of the Matter," you hear "and there is virtue in loneliness/in vacant lots and flourescent malls/in one-room coffins and crowded halls/there is nothing to be done." But here's the catch - you really have to work for the words. The music is difficult, almost atonal at moments, full of sound, feedback and the crash of a drum kit. It almost doesn't go with the idea of the lyrics, if that is at all possible. And yet, it makes perfect sense when you hear it; you just have to pay attention. This is music everyone should hear at least once. It is dense, complex and visceral, and definitely does not belong to the faint of heart. It doesn't belong to the weepy emo kid moping in the corner, bemoaning what he's lost either. This is rip-your-heart-out-and-feed-it-to-you music, and belongs to those who listen to music for music's sake. Too long has music lingered in the head, a cerebral and analytical version of life. Trail of Dead brings music back to the gut, where it belongs. Ride the Apocalypse. --- Angel Dylan top

ANGEL CITY OUTCASTS "Let It Ride" - Thorp Records [July 2005]
If you're down for some terrace chant anthems played with old school punk abandon, ACO are for you. They have a lusty full throated choir turning their speedy punk into barroom singalongs, and when Celtic punk is thrown into the mix, it's an explosive cocktail. One of the best songs, "Popeye In Afghanistan," is guaranteed to destroy any small venue ACO get booked into (promoters be warned). It sounds like Rancid and Dropkick Murphys ramming their skulls together. This whole album is explosively played and bursting with energy, all kick ass punk shredders. ACO bring in some classic elements into their songs while keeping a modern perspective. For fans of Radio One, The Briggs, Rancid, Dropkick Murphys. ---Vermin 7/11. top

ANTI-FLAG The Terror State - Fat Wreck Chords
Anti-Flag are a political band in a time when radio is awash in bands singing about their girlfriends. For that alone, AF deserve credit. Their politics are anti-globalist mostly, railing against the WTO, decrying CIA subversion, and getting steamy indignant over Bush's lies, going so far as to sample the Shitmeister himself. The irony is, AF now owes Bush royalties for his vocal "performance" on the record. AF acknowledge the role of protest singers past, and for their efforts were allowed to root through Woodie Guthrie's archives for lyrics to a new song. Unfold the CD sleeve to find an anti-Bush stencil: photocopy, exacto, and spray. Great idea (but if you tag my house, you die.) Activism is a double-edged sword, and too often you get lumped in with crackpots and zealots, when all you're trying to do is save the world. Zinn, Chomsky, the Black Panthers and Mumia? C'mon. Anti-Flag at least come from the right place: that fabled land of Punk, since paved over with condos and colonized by carpet-bagging clowns like Good Charlotte. Protest and rebellion are key pieces of the punk puzzle, and AF score an A for reminding audiences of this fact. They look cool enough in the band photo, no Hurley shirts and sideways baseball hats, but they are wearing armbands... Calling yourself Anti-Flag and sporting armbands is disingenuous. One could suppose that the anti-flag means they are internationalists, like The Clash, and the particular problems of their causes (like The Clash's Sandinistan government becoming as corrupt as the old one) shouldn't undermine the commitment to positive change. Okay, enough superficiality: to the music. AF are catchy, power chord new-punk. Singer Justin Sane recalls Davy Havok (before the Diet-Danzig sex change): a little snotty, a little thin and snappy. The songs are mostly sing-alongs and medium tempo rock songs. This works to magnificent effect live, as AF is one of the premier live acts going. On this, album #5, AF toys with altering their sound. The RATM-esque "Post-War Breakout" is a rap over ska guitars. It's a misplaced homage to a one-note band. The rest of the tunes are oi-boy/beerhall choruses and fairly straightforward guitar attacks. Track 8 is the best cut on, and all of AF's rage and anger, righteous sense of purpose, and their guitar weapons come together for a sizzling public service assault. If only the other songs were as good. "Wake up to the world around you!" they implore, and I agree. The music of AF is choppier and more aggressive than many of the modern "punk" bands and less likely to attract 14 year old girls. It's for real punks, the kind dedicated to the alternative and who avoid the mainstream, for those who demand more than clever chords. --- Paul Leeds 7/11 top

THE ANTIQUES - "Sewn With Stiches" - Safranin Sound and Design [Sept 2007]
Garbly, low-fi Interpol; High Energy scratchy. Organ dig it. Starts out at high gear, then settles into some treacly dirges. Stylistically all over the place, occasionally gothic, touch of nosy Psychedelic Furs and even reverberations of some of The Cure's best disintegrating dirges. Not quite epic, but wonderful journeys no less. "Brow Balloons" has wonderfully collegiate, blissfully dark lyrics, barely audible they're so buried in the mix (heat like a volcano" lines etc.) - Nate Fitz 7/11 top

ARIEL APARICIO W/ THE HIRED GUNS "Frolic & F***" - Bully Records
Lest you think the stars on the above title were added by us, rest assured that this bit of naughtiness comes from the band. We have no problem saying fuck, as in, this FUCKING sucks! The only redeeming quality is a shout out to Paul Westerberg, John Doe, and Exene in the booklet. Those three would not be jazzed to be lumped in with this, and Westerberg will be especially riled since this band butchers "Unsatisfied" and makes it sound like Bon Jovi wrote it. A lawsuit is in the offing, and maybe a resolution from the UN War Crimes commission. First track is called "Punk Rock Girl" and is supposed to be a Johnny Thunders type of drunken blast but is beat by its own totally bogus vibe. Not punk. Not funny either. Basically this is a record from what I hope is a home-recording project from someone just getting started as a performer. This is a record you make and give to your friends or sell as you play in open air markets. The cover has Ariel shirtless, showing his buff physique and tribal tattoo, and on the back you see his guitar laying on a bed next to a few dried roses, all of which have been hand-tinted like those photos you see of kids in romantic settings. The whole artwork turns my stomach and makes me not want to listen to the music, which isn't very accomplished anyway. There are hundreds of deserving bands out there and I can't waste my time on this. 1/11 Sid Arthur top

APOLLO UP! - "Chariots Of Fire" - Theory 8 Records [Aug 2006]
The 2nd record from this Tennessee power trio is a potent blend of Minutemen intricacy and Big Boys' muscle. On songs like "Walking The Plank," Apollo Up! combine tight telecaster riffs with rolling bass lines and vocal chords with more scar tissue than a hooker's knees. AU get looser on songs like "Cut Up" when a horn section punches up the choruses and makes me remember the punk rock with a twist style of Big Boys. More credit is due to AU than if they were merely a punk rock retread: these songs remain arid and technical, a tight rhythm section that flirts with jazz and off-time beats but always brings it back down to a gut-level rock crunch. AU are one of the few bands besides They Call Me Lighting to understand what made the Minutemen's music so compelling and genre-defying, while adding their own pop song spin to this formula. On "Custom Critical" and "Plans" singer Jay Phillips proves that he's a fan of the angry Elvis Costello and channels a bit of his "Peace, Love & Understanding" singing style. Worth checking out, AU's blend of caustic garage rock, pop sensibilities and smart-punk clockwork is a welcome mixture. --- Leeds 8/11 top

APOTHECARY HYMNS 'Half Of What Is Seen' b/w 'The Marigold' - Jugendstil Records
This limited edition 7" single by Brooklyn artist Alex Stimmel is ten minutes of a singer-songwriter who plays a mean acoustic guitar and hews to an eclectic folk tradition. In only two songs, you can hear Robyn Hitchcock and heroin days James Taylor. The b-side is a more straightforward folk number accentuated by Stimmel's confident and tricky guitar pickings and a ¾ tempo that plays almost like an air or waltz. As Apothecary Hymns, Stimmel harkens back to an East Village style of troubadourism that relied on talent without effects and studio gimmickry. The a-side is longer and colored with antique textures like banjo and harmonica, then shifts into garage-distorted feedback, then melts into a flute and strummed guitar Syd Barrett section. AH doesn't fall easily into any categories. I could see a full-length drawing out more of these interesting stylistic shifts (like the a-side) and appealing to fans of contemporary weirdo eclectic artists like the Kill Rock Stars roster and the West Coast folkies like Dearest, Crown. --- Paul Leeds 7/11 top

RACHEL APP "Burstin' EP" - Cats Rock The Boat Records [May 2005]
This shit is downright awkward...As herky-jerky as the music is, the lyrics are straight forward positivity. The 1st cut on the EP, NEW ERA, , Rachel APP's awkward styley is on full display, but dive deeper past The SLITS impression and you are treated to some serious P(positive)M(mental)A(ttitude) (Roundabout Bad Brains shout out...gotta fit those in when ya can get 'em). The 2nd cut on the 16 minute disc is the best, My New Home...Toned down on the Ari Up and focused enough to whistle in time to the flow, which leaves me open to the prospects of building upon Track #2. Tone down the grating quirkiness and I'm in for round two! --- Craig Goossen 3/11 top

THE APPLESEED CAST - "Peregrine" - The Militia Group [Nov 06]
This came out awhile back but since TMG didn't send it to us, we felt no obligation to review it on our dime. But as luck would have it, I was wandering around Amoeba last week and they had "Peregrine" pumping. From the first, grand, epic song "Ceremony," this album was coming home with me. The 'Cast is a band that have been hovering in the background: I've got 4 albums by them, and each album has moments of transcendence. The new one so far has impressed me as the best of the lot I own. They've really figured out the combination to building up a song then letting it soar, then bringing it back in for refueling. What else were they thinking o