Mojo's Music reviews- Broken Frame, Middleman,Son of the Sun

[skimask]

I did not mean to offend you or your reviewing style or content in any way - you seem quite knowledgeable about the history of important music and demonstrate that. It just flows differently through your own personal filtering system. I was writing from what my filtering system tells me.

Lindsey's music has an unpretentious, purity and immediacy to it - it is catharsis, it is the kind of emotion that just spills forth without pretense, or maybe even what we call "thought", that is thought that must be labored over until it loses its initial spark - it just creates itself out of nothing - like pure creation - a mirror for the Great Creation before what we call time - it tapes into that essence - that is a rarity, and that immediate nature of delivery without the clutter of much of the recycling that music creation most often takes (even if within that music creator's own mind) is a rare and beautiful thing. I see it as genius.
It reminds me of the little quote at the right bottom of the John & Yoko / Plastic Ono Band with Elephant's Memory "Sometime In New York City" LP that elaborates on earthly music being a manifestation of the cosmic music that intersects the entire world. Not often does music, especially newer music, do that to me. And Dudley agrees. And that really means a lot.

[mojophilter]

Sorry, I misunderstood you.

I see what you're saying now and there is a definite beauty in an unvarnished emotional purity. And from my limited interaction with Lindsey, her music does seem to come from that intimate place inside that most of us have covered with a couple decades of age and emotional calousses. I suppose one of the things that separates artists from the rest of us is that willingness to expose certain things that many of us would rather not share. For that Ms. Grate deserves the genius appellation.

[Amorican]

Good stuff...excellent writer Mojo!

[methodone]

Oh yeah Lindsey isnt playing an out of tune guitar infact its a 1500 dollar Martin.

[mojophilter]

Oh yeah Lindsey isnt playing an out of tune guitar infact its a 1500 dollar Martin.

Must be one of those super cool ones that don't require tuning pegs.

Look, you can defend her and that's great. The fact is, I didn't care for her stuff, primarily because I didn't think she put the effort into it that it deserves. You can come here with all the immediacy bullshit you want, but if you're going to be pressing it on to disc that immediacy's gone anyway and all that remains are the sounds on the shiny.

[mojophilter]

Anyway, a new review...


The Broken Frame stuff is an interesting mix of metal and emo. I'm not cool enough to know whether this is a trend or not, but my personal taste is such that I was happy to find an absence of bullshit mythology and horror movie lyrics.

I wasn't exactly sure what to review, so I looked at the stuff off the Myspace page and the sonicbids link. Sorry it took so long.

Broken Frame

There’s a temptation as a reviewer to reach for the easy category and lump a band like Broken Frame into the convenient metal pigeon hole. No question they’ll fit nicely – the guitar is all point and plexi, the drums are heavy on the beat, and there’s enough Wagnerian Sturm and Drang to be looking for a fat lady with horns. But if opera is internal conflict played out in epic form, I’m thinking this is the mirror to fit Broken Frame.

Let me explain.

At first blush, there’s a fair amount of stereotypical balls-out metal going on here. Bleeding and Carousel both starts off with a pretty standard issue heavy metal riff and requisite arpeggiated guitar/ lead riff. Oh, and don’t forget the depths of hell vocal.

But then there’s Brandon’s lead vocal. Infinitely warmer and more soaring than one would expect for this type of aggressive music, it packs an defintie sensitivity that serves admirably as counterpoint to the distorted guitars and heavy drumming. Indeed, it elevates the music to a level above playing shows on any given Friday and bestows a transcendence of the stereotypes which creates something a little more subtle without giving up on the brute sonic force.

This is not without its cost, however. On a track like "Spite", which follows the post-millennium metal format to a T, the vocal falls a little out of that sweet spot that somebody who has sold his soul to the devil (isn’t that metal de rigueur?) would be able to deliver automatically. (I don't mean this literally, of course - just that the vocals seem a little uncomfortable buying into the blueprint completely.) And I shudder to think what any self-professed metal fiend would say about lyrics like these from “The Promise”:

“I'm sorry I'm just thinking of the right words to say
I know that they don't sound the way I planned them to be
and if you wait around awhile I'll make you fall for me
I promise you, I promise you I will”

Who cares? This is something more than power chords and double kick drumming. At the end of German opera, if the hero survives, he is tormented and irrevocably changed, but better for the experience. While Broken Frame might run the risk of losing the die hard metal fans for their sensitivity, and frightening off the heart on the sleeve emokids for their raw aggression, those that survive will indeed be better for the experience.
_________________

[mojophilter]

Before we begin, I suppose I should put forth this disclaimer:

I know the guys in Middleman. We’ve played shows with them and I consider them friends. I was predisposed to like “Put Down that Baby…” from a couple years of familiarity. That said, I dare anybody to dislike this CD.

When I was 19 the legal drinking age was raised to 21. I had waited so long to be legal only to have the joy of public intoxication taken away from me. Similarly, all too often, I have had the experience of eagerly waiting for the release of an album only to be sorely disappointed when I finally dropped the needle. This was my biggest fear when I put Middleman’s Put Down That Baby and Fight CD into the tray. I’m a fan of the band, and have been looking forward to this disc since the moment I heard “People in Cars” almost two years ago.

I was not disappointed.

Simply put, this is a great disc, local or otherwise. It’s as if Middleman threw every great pop album of the last four decades into the still and produced an elixir with the refinement of a single malt scotch and the kick of Everclear grain. Revolver hits The Wall while the neo-club sound of Franz Ferdinand mingles with the minor-chord rock of mid-80s Smithereens and The Pursuit of Happiness gets back to its Grass Roots. Hell, I could go off on a referential bender with this eight-song wonder and wake up the next day without a hangover or the prospect of an early morning walk of shame.

I’ve said it before, but “People in Cars” is a straight up gem. The thumping pseudo-disco beat would carry this bit of ebullient pop along to the top of the chart if there was any real justice in top-forty music. “The Things We Fear” rocks hard behind the classic rock melody and slingshot chorus. It seems every song is instantly singable despite their inventive lyrics and chording. (The song five assertion “My Girlfriend Don’t Like My Music” must be a lie – A damn lie, I tell you!) This is songwriting in top form. Like the subtle bouquet of a well-made wine the arrangements are complex without seeming fussy with subtle (keyboard) notes combining to heighten the overall flavor of each song. Well-crafted and powerful, the disc lingers on the finish and fills the listener with more unexpected delights on repeated tasting.

In a world of Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill, this is Chateau Latour and Opus One. Here’s to Middleman and Put Down That Baby and Fight! I only hope the next disc won’t age so long before its release.

[middleman]

Thanks for the review! You are much too kind.

Half the album is available as free mp3 downloads from our Web site (URL below).

The CD is available at future shows, and at, erm, Home of the Hits

[mojophilter]

My favorite thing I've heard locally in a long time.

[mojophilter]

Son of the Sun

The anonymous friend request came into the myspace page, and unlike, a lot of people, I actually try to visit the website of the band making the request.


I'm crying.

How can it be that such beauty finds itself growing from chemical plants and indian casinos? How can it be that The Band is reborn in a couple guys from the cataract city? The answer is songcraft and an unfailing ear that never wastes a note but couldn't have done without any of them either. "How Can it Be" is a gorgeous song - evocative and bittersweet. With a line like "Once was enough, but you told me again, and again, and agian..." captures the hurt and bewilderment of the devastated lover who never thought she would leave.

Son of the Sun follows this by sending "Listen Darkly", an unerring missile of Ronnettes drumbeat, directly to the Phil Spector center of my achilles heart. Ultimately it sounds like the Travelling Wilburys mangaed to pry Jeff Lynne's heavy hand of the control board while adding slide, string, and organ to put together a slightly darker and more grown up "symphony for the kiddies".

According to the page, Son of the Sun plays The Hard Rock Cafe March 20th at 6:30. You should go.

Pick up a copy of the EP at Record Theatre (7" gold vinyl with a CD).

[mojophilter]

Here Come the Comets - Falling Anvils: Lovesongs for the Doomed and Secretly Happy

This is the last of Earth. I am content.

These were the last words of John Quincy Adams. He may as well have been talking about Here Come the Comets' new CD, the perfectly titled, “Falling Anvils: Lovesongs for the Doomed and Secretly Happy”. From the opening lyric, “You’re reading stories that scare the hell out you”, to the final five minutes and change entitled, “Sweet Sweet Death” the songs are full of death and destruction, flaming mammoths, flawed lovers, and futility. Still, every time I listen to the disc I leave happy, content, and immeasurably grateful to be alive.

Here Come the Comets cite David Bowie as an influence and certainly it shows (most notably on “Problems” which walks in with the glam rock swagger of Mick Ronson and T-Rex). In its artful aesthetic, stellar arrangements, and conceptual storytelling there’s more than enough to recommend it to fans of the Thin White Duke in his prime. Every note, every lyric, every electronic adornment or guitar line is well thought out and sits where it should. In short, it’s great sounding record that spins its tale of the sustaining connection of love without a false note anywhere.

But this is not simply an exercise in style slumming or aping the classics. “Falling Anvils” is something more and all its own. Whereas Bowie trades as an alien and outsider, affecting different personas, styles, and/or makeup on each new album, HCTC is notable in its honest, essential humanity. Our hero is more likely to lose the house than sell the world, more Willie Loman than Ziggy Stardust with a life that is anything but hunky dory.

Still, to quote the song which provides the band’s name, “that’s just fine in your blue-gray doomsday eyes ... it’s great to just know you’re alive”. In the midst of the impending apocalypse, nothing matters but love. There is beauty in the tragedy and love will survive long after the race has been run.

Nowhere is this more fully realized than in the unflichingly sweet “Norma Grace”. Simple, heartfelt, and achingly sincere, “Norma Grace” moves without being maudlin and employs a perfectly rendered sax (courtesy of Eric Crittenden) to beautiful effect. It is the turning point for the album and marks the line between damnation and redemption before the album’s final acceptance in “That’s All It Is”.

Fortunately, when it comes to Here Come the Comets, it’s more than enough.

[mojophilter]

INcidentally, Here Come the Comets are opening for Rob Dickinson tonight at the Mohawk. A great bill all the way around.