CD Review – “Dark Horse” – Nickelback.

 

Dark Horse

 

 

 

Having sold a combined 16 million copies of their last five albums, you could understand if a band such as Nickelback simply gave up the development of new ideas., but with the band’s latest release, they seems to be going backwards.

Beginning their career with the post-grunge stylings of Staind, Seether and all those other bands that haven’t had a mention since 2002, Alberta’s Nickelback reached the mainstream with their #1 North American single “How You Remind Me.”

With the release of their last album, 2005’s “All the Right Reasons”, the band seemingly scrapped their reputable sound in favour of stadium-filling “rock”, the variety popular with men who go by names such as Clyde, Elroy and Randy.

It’s clear the band is aware of its audience, catering directly towards them with their latest album “Dark Horse.”

The first element of the album worth a mention is the names of the songs themselves, including “S.E.X”, “Burn it to the Ground” and album opener “Something in Your Mouth”. Reading over the track listing gives you some idea of the content of the material, which, according to the album’s press release, are classed as “grinding rockers,” “fist-pumping anthems” and “soaring power ballads.”

On first listens, the music itself doesn’t seem too bad – decent steady drums and guitars with more than a touch of overdrive pedal.

Commit closer attention, however, and some absolutely mind-bending lyrics will reveal themselves.

“Well she ain’t no Cinderella when she’s gettin’ undressed/Cause she rocks it like the naughty wicked witch of the west,” croons frontman Chad Kroeger in “Shakin’ Hands.”

“Me and all my friends/We drink up, we fall down/And then we do it all again,” claims album closer “This Afternoon.”

Such poetry should come as no surprise from the band, that statement confirmed by Chad Kroeger himself earlier this year when he stated that this album was almost titled “Sex and Drinking.”

The main problem with this album is the uninspired subject matter tied with frankly inexcusable lyrics – a nightmare for feminists – that at some points pass the point of misogynistic clichés and simply end up being offensive.

“We’re kind of a people’s band, so we’ll leave it up to them whether they like it or not. We’re one of those bands people come back to, which is very cool,” says guitarist Ryan Peake in the album’s press release.

However, on the basis of this album, it wouldn’t be surprising if the band found themselves short of female fans next time around.

 

 

CD Review – “Missiles” – The Dears

 

missiles

 

 

The release of the Dear’s fourth full-length album comes after a recent e-newsletter admitting that “This could have been a message saying that the Dears is over.” That statement isn’t too far from the truth.

Having lost most of their band during the making of this album – the follow up to 2006’s “Gang of Losers” – the husband and wife team of Murray Lightburn and Natalia Yanchak have just managed to pull through. The result could be seen as their most consistent release yet, seemingly creating a bridge between two previous styles – the early poppier material, and the more direct, almost aggressive sounds of “Gang of Losers.”

The overall sound of “Missiles” isn’t exactly straightforward, incorporating strings, harmonies and brass into simple melodies and repeat ad nauseum rythyms, giving an almost epic feeling to the new material. Since the early days, “cinematic” is a word that’s been used to classify their sound, and they continue to live up to that tag here.

The Dears have always been popular with the melancholy dramatist crowd, bringing to mind Echo and the Bunnymen and Morrissey. Radiohead could also be seen as an influence, sharing some faint similarities, although the vocal melody on “Berlin Heart” could be considered too similar to “No Surprises” for comfort.

While it’s not the huge comeback from the 2004 breakthrough “No Cities Left” people seem to have hoped for, it doesn’t seem to try to be that. It’s the sound of a band trying to find their feet after a major change, in this case, losing five members.

There are some minor flaws. The album lacks real choruses, instead drawing out songs gradually, with only one song being shorter than five minutes. Album closer “Savior” clocks in at just over eleven minutes, and states “there will be a next time.”

But even if this turns out to be the last Dears release, it seems like a fitting closing point. 

 

last song i heard – “mercy” – plants and animals

Concert Review – Of Montreal – Queen Elizabeth Theatre – 28/10/08

I’d heard that Of Montreal involved theatrical elements in their live shows, but I never would have expected what was on show at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

It was my first time at this venue, and I have to say I was pretty impressed – not too cavernous, but not too small either, with a nice back section with stacked seating, which provided a clear view to the stage.

Ah yes, the stage. The band had quite a set-up, with two drumkits (sometimes played simultaneously), keyboards, varying numbers of guitarists and bassists and of course, Kevin Barnes himself, who spent the entire night bounding around in a variety of costume changes, including a glittering blue jacket, pink bathrobe and, in a few cases, tiny shorts that no man with a sense of shame would be seen wearing.

But then again, shame isn’t really prominent at a Of Montreal show. If you’re here to look trendy and nonchalent, you may be wondering whether to laugh or enjoy yourself or not when there’s gold robots dancing around the stage, or several people in naked bodysuits (with replica gentilia) leaping around, or Barnes dressed as a centaur, or being covered in red paint, or emerging from a coffin smeared head to toe in what looks like shaving cream.

Add to that a a large video screen running edits of the band playing with cartoons, and a few set pieces, such as a short story involving a shoot out in a Wild West saloon, a hanging complete will full life size gallows, and a “scene” with soldiers crawling around the edge of the stage before breaking into dance, all of this going on around, and through, the songs.

The songs! I almost forgot. Blending a decent mix from their extensive back catalogue, with barely a break between them, the band played quite a bit from their most recent release, “Skeletal Lamping”, including a personal favourite of mine – the album’s opener “Nonpareil of Favor”.

After they finished their confetti and feather strewn main set, and after a man dressed in a black bodysuit with a parrot’s head and giant arms/wings worked up (and down) the crowd, the band returned to the stage, playing their last song of the night which was, somewhat strangely, a straight cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. It was interesting to see the band in a completely different light – without the acts and the dancing (well, there were still some people dancing) it offered a new view of the band.

So overall, after seeing the night’s performance I’ve found more of a respect for the band – they’re truly trying to give the ticket buyer a full-out show for their money, and in this day and age, that must mean something.

 

last song i heard – “i thought you said you were blind” – bearsuit

 

Concert Review – Le Stack, Hospitals, Hot Panda, The Awkward Stage – 12/10/08

We got to the Merchant Ale House close to 9:30, in time to catch a few songs by the first band, Le Stack. Consisting of a drummer (who’d apparently came down from Milton and learnt the songs on the same day) and a singer, who switched between playing the bass, a keyboard and his hair. It seemed like every twenty seconds or so he was making sure his fringe was pulled over to the right side of his head, in consequence making himself look like a bit of a tit. Music wise, rough electronic indie stuff, that seems oddly out of time in places. They did do a couple of songs where he started rapping instead, and these were probably the best part of the short set. But the songs that focused on making lots of Shout Out Out Out Out Out-esque noise resulted in just that – noise. Next time they should focus on what the keyboard’s doing instead of what their hair’s looking like.

The next act was someone called Hospitals, who had a classical guitar and a laptop. Seems like everyone is using laptops to provide backing music these days, so I was a bit wary, and started concentrating on my lovely home-brewed blueberry beer. However when he started playing it was a nice surprise, with Latin sounding music with some mellow rapping over the top. It reminded me very much of some of Buck 65’s work, but that’s not really a bad thing, and the subject matter of some of the songs was refreshing, and not just the usual “let’s go and get drunk and look at women and fight someone because we’re young.” So all in all a good set and someone I’ll remember – I noticed he had a CD for sale too. Not bad, not bad.

The third band was Hot Panda, who can probably look forward to being bundled in with the “twee-core” genre, if it’s big enough to be called a genre. Playing songs from their EP along with some from their forthcoming album “Volcano… Bloody Volcano”, which is due out in February, they had a good sound to them. Sounding a lot like Los Campesinos on first impressions, but with the added element of an accordian, they rattled through their roughly 40 minute set with a fair level of energy. After the set I got talking with Mike, their keyboard/accordian player, who told me that accordians are very heavy to practice with, and a good way of learning to play one is to watch tutorials on youtube. Well, you learn something new every day.

With my new pint of apricot beer – I know, I know, very manly – I started watching the headliners, the Awkward Stage, who I think are from Vancouver. I’ve got to be honest, they didn’t really stand out to me. One aspect I liked was the trumpet player, which added some extra depth to the otherwise basic one-bass two-guitar set-up. I don’t know why there isn’t more trumpet in music, but I suppose it’s a good thing that it’s not milked for all it’s worth and everybody’s playing one.

Other than the bits with the trumpet, I wasn’t really impressed. They seemed like an average bar-style band, and even kind of looked like one. I think they’ve got a couple of albums out (and were promoting their second one, I believe), and they’re playing a tonne of dates, so for a cheap night out – tickets were only $5 on the door – they’re worth trying, but it might be a good idea not to go in the doors with high expectations from the headliners.

 All in all though, a couple of good bands and a couple of so-so ones, but how often can you see four bands in one night?

 

last song i heard – “careful” – hot chip

 

 

CD Review – “We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed” – Los Campesinos!

 

The first album by Los Campesinos! was a refreshing burst of glockenspiels, shared boy-girl vocals and violins. The seven-piece, based in Cardiff, released “Hold On Now, Youngster…” earlier this year and proceeded to tour around the world, with dates in North America, Japan and Europe, before taking part in some festivals around August. Not bad for a band barely 2 years old.

In between all the touring, they went to Chicago and recorded an EP. Thing is though, they recorded too many songs and they didn’t know what to get rid of in order to create the usual 5-6 song EP standard tracklist. So they decided they’d made an album instead.

It’s called “We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed” and it shows a band that’s developing at a rapid pace. All the usual standards are there – the violin lines, bloopy beep beep keyboard noises and the duel guitars, along with the spoken-word style vocals of Gareth twisted with Aleksandra‘s softer singing voice. But there are some differences too. Maybe they’re becoming more comfortable as a group, with the album seeming more relaxed than the material from their first release and the demo EP before that.

This time around there’s more spacing in the songs, with instrumental and feedback elements giving a kind of ambient, unrushed touch to the whole thing. “You’ll Need Those Fingers For Crossing” is reminiscent of Broken Social Scene at times, for example. In the title track there sounds like some brass in the mix somewhere, and if that’s correct, good for them. There’s not enough brass in music anymore in my opinion.

The music seems heavier too. I’m not sure if twee can be heavy, but that’s what it sounds like.

It’s a short album, coming in at around 32 minutes, but for a band that can get away with 45 minute live sets, it works. The songs still rattle along, but the whole thing seems slower at the same time compared to “Hold On Now…”.

So on first impressions, it doesn’t seem too different from the first, but it’s just different enough for it to warrant giving it a shot.

 

last song i heard – “everyone thinks he looks daft” – the wedding present

 

 

Concert Review – Holy Fuck – 19/9/08

 

We get to the Pepperjack Café around 9.30ish, when there’s a queue consisting of around 12 people and still room on the patio. After getting a couple of Steamwhistles off the tap (a luxury outside of Toronto) we get outside and find a table, with there’s a nice and relaxed atmosphere all round, free of some of the pretentiousness that comes with shows in Toronto.

After a while the first band, Sebastian Grainger, starts up. With a long haired bassist and a singer with massive yellow sweat stains under his armpits, they seem like the epitome of garage rock, just like all those bands mostly seen around 5 years ago.

They’re on for about 45 minutes or so, nothing too bad but nothing instantly memorable about them either. Going into the show I’d heard of the band, but after seeing them live I’m not exactly rushing to the cd shop to get all their material. Maybe worth a download, but you can find a million bands out there that sound like them.

Next up was Slow Hand Motem, who I’d heard nothing about and had no expectations. A folding table is set up with computer-y gadgets on it, and the show starts. A few songs in, my girlfriend says that their songs remind her of the music in the Mighty Boosh, which is a good way of summing it up. What looks like some kind of synth pad plays along with a laptop, providing the drumbeats, as a live bassist sometimes adds a natural sound to the songs. With a singer that can only be called an excellent showman, depending on your sense of humour, the “band” (considering two of them just stood at the sides for most the songs) played for around 30 minutes. Being honest I don’t know enough about the band to provide background context, but what I’ve read so far is that the “band” is basically a one-man project consisting of a Wolfgang Gregorsy Eberhand, from Dundas, by way of what sounds like either Germany or South Africa.  Apparently he has released around 20 albums in roughly 4 years, he produces all his album sleeves by hand and he records all his videos on a mac laptop, giving everything he does a great DIY style that I’m glad more bands don’t use and bastardise. They put on quite an interesting show live, with the Eberhand lurching around the stage, never standing still for a minute, breaking out into jerky, awkward dance moves whenever he gets the chance. If anyone was starting to get a bit tired of the act towards the end, he slung on a bass guitar and, after playing a few short notes throughout one song, burst into a slap bass break reminiscent of Primus that, judging by the laughs and cheers from the audience, came completely unexpected.

Then it was time for the headliners. Two tables were brought out filled with cables and electronic gear, a drum-kit and bass amp were set up, then a tangle of Christmas tube lights were thrown in a heap in the middle of the stage, then the band came out.

I was surprised by the tightness of the band, which relies mostly on memory to get through their complicated songs, which shun the usual electro-standard of laptops and processed drums. With live drums and bass providing the relentless rhythm, the rest of the equipment, including guitar pedals fed into each other, cheap Value Village grade keyboards and god knows what else, is manipulated by hand, giving it all a somehow natural feel.

We were about 3 feet away from the band, watching it all happily, when suddenly some lad barged through and stood right in front of me, in about 10 inches of space, and started dancing like he was in Circa. Either that or he thought it was 1999. 

Obviously from the way he was going on he didn’t know the band, being with his mate who seemed to be someone from some form of press, as she was taking pictures every 10 seconds on her SLR, so they probably got in for free anyway. Taking advantage of this free opportunity to shake his boot-ay, this lad, who I can only describe as a twat of the highest order, gyrated, swung his arms like a cock and held onto his spiky little head and swung it round like he was out of S Club fucking 7. The fact that he was doing it in about a square foot of space between me and the stage showed just what a rude bastard he was, with no respect for anyone but himself.

I know people are out to enjoy themselves, and that’s more than fine, but this was just out of order. I wasn’t paying to go to a fucking disco and I wasn’t happy. For 20 or so minutes, I couldn’t focus on the band at all because of this little bastard in front of me. After several jabs to his ribs and, finally, a few swift smacks to the back of his shoulders (I’m not usually violent, but fuck it), he buggered off, thank Christ, and I finally caught some songs and the short encore.

 So that’s about it. My girlfriend went and bought a Sow Hand Motem cd, “Ear Sports” which all came in a sleeve made out of purple felt and black cardboard, which I thought was a nice touch. Then we left.

I don’t like dwelling on the downside of things, but the night was almost ruined by some bandy cock who wanted a bit of attention.  It’s hard to get away from bastards at gigs sometimes, but this one won the gold medal. Apart from that, the only other negative part of the night was the mistake of ordering a bottle of Amsterdam Nut Brown Ale, which I got as the barmaid had ran out of pint glasses so I couldn’t get another Steamwhistle. Whether it had gone bad somehow or it was just meant to taste that foul, I’m not sure, but I ended up leaving more than half of it on the bar. Shame. 

 Other than that, though, a good night.  Holy Fuck will be playing the Phoenix in Toronto on the 25^th of September, though I’m not sure how a band as intimate as them would work on a larger venue like that. It’s only $12 though, so it’s not exactly breaking the bank.

 

last song I heard – “the old dog” – wild beasts

 

 

 

Concert Review – Wolf Parade – Saturday August 9th

The Kool Haus, then.

Along with the Sound Academy, one of my least favourite venues in Toronto. Similar in feel to a warehouse, aircraft hangar or giant futuristic metal cave, it seems better suited to bands like Kiss or Disturbed. You know, the ones where you could weld the doors shut after the show begins and not feel too sympathetic.

So it was a bit of a surprise when Wolf Parade were announced to play there.  To be honest I didn’t think they were big enough to warrant such a venue, so I was curious to see how it would play out.

After taking the stage and kicking off with “You Are a Runner and I Am My Father’s Son” (which also opened their debut cd “Apologies to the Queen Mary”) I was actually quite impressed with how they managed to use the space, utilising their sometime second guitarist Dante DeCaro to fill out the stage. For some strange reason though, Spencer Krug had been relegated off to the left side of the stage, leaving Dan Boeckner to take centre, enabling him to do some fairly (typical) “rockstar” moves, like windmilling his guitar.

They started flying through songs, with “Call It a Ritual”, their first single from their recent second album ”At Mount Zoomer”, being played early on. The band were very energetic, quite surprising considering it was the last date of a “very long tour” according to Boeckner. The band barely stopped for breath throughout, in some cases playing what seemed like speeded-up versions of some of their songs. After “Fancy Claps” Boeckner claimed that they’d never played the song so quick before. Whether this was for a certain reason, or maybe it’s from practice of touring, I’m not sure.

The musical divide of the band’s two frontmen was quite obvious from the setlist, with Boeckner’s more straightforward efforts coming right after Krug’s more experimental wobbly keyboard songs.

The fans were lapping it up, with trendier-than-thou types falling, pushing and spilling drinks over their v-neck t-shirts and plaid shirts. This is a bit of a bane at concerts these days –  there seemed to be a lot of people there who were just showing up to look cool and take pictures of each other, but I suppose there’s always been arseholes at concerts.

After the main set closed with their 10 minute long “Kissing the Beehive”, they came back for a short encore consisting of songs from their debut, finishing with “I’ll Believe In Anything” which got the biggest cheer of the night.

Overall an impressive concert, which was very different (and I could say superior) to listening to their cds, simply from the fact that they put such a drive and pace into the set. Also, attention must be given to the barely mentioned Arlen Thompson, who kept the whole rhythm going, and the overlooked Hadji Bakara, whose keyboards and sound/noise manipulation work was at times incredible.

The full set list was:

You Are a Runner and I Am My Father’s Son

 Soldier’s Grin

Call It a Ritual

The Grey Estates

Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts

Language City

An Animal In Your Care

Shine a Light

Bang Your Drum

Fancy Claps

Fine Young Cannibals

California Dreamer

This Heart’s On Fire

Kissing the Beehive

ENCORE:

Grounds For Divorce

It’s a Curse

I’ll Believe in Anything

 

last song i heard – “faces on fire” – times new viking

 

 

 

A Day Out at Rogers Picnic. Sunday July 20, 2008.

As I got off the subway at Bloor and Yonge, it was still raining. It had been for some of the morning and Saturday night as well, but I still was hoping that the clouds would clear out by the time the gates opened at Fort York at 1pm.

Fast forward a bit to 1pm, at Fort York. Me and the “significant other” are standing in a queue looking up at grey clouds. People are handing out cds, condoms, badges, the usual leaflets, and it doesn’t look like the gates have opened yet.

We get in about 1.45pm, and The Carps have already been on stage for about ten minutes. I head over to the stage, which has about a hundred people in front of stage right. On stage, drummer Jahmal Tonge and bassist Neil White are banging away with their breed of disco-pop tinged drum and bass funk electro something or other. They seem to be doing a good job of warming up the crowd – stopping songs to make sure people are waving their arms, climbing onto the crowd barriers to sing (while the drummer from Born Ruffians filled in) and finishing their set by smashing a bass with what looked like a cartoon penguin on it into the stage. The theatrics seemed to have been a bit premature, though, as most people were still throwing their water bottles away at the front gates. But all in all, apart from some of the tiresome “big booty girls” lyrics, enjoyable enough for an opening band.

Next up were Born Ruffians, three lads from Toronto, and from what I had heard of their cd “Red, Yellow and Blue” we decided it was a good time to go to the beer enclosure. As the crowd began to grow at the stage, the beer tent area was still mostly empty, so chairs were still luckily mostly available. Unluckily, though, they were charging $13 for a Wellington and a Smirnoff Ice, the robbing bastards. They may as well have been wearing stripy jumpers.

As for Born Ruffians, maybe it was the sound board (which seemed to have problems throughout the day) but they sounded terrible. The bassist’s microphone seemed not to be working, but no-one came on stage to replace it, which was a bit odd. Usually you get gear techs stomping around the band if so much as a plastic cup appears on the edge of the stage, but today must have been different. The band squawked out their chirpy songs for about half a hour and then left, taking their trendy little spectacles with them.

As we were finishing our drinks the rain started, and a tent was quickly set up in the beer area. By this time, though, we were back to the stage to see Dizzee Rascal up close. Even though most hip-hop fans would probably have been at the Rock the Bells tour at Arrow Hall, there were still a few show up to see the “grime” artist perform songs from his three albums. The rain at this point was teeming down, but Dizzee and his hype man (and DJ) did a decent job of making the most out of the situation - playing grubby ragga to a bewildered indie-nazi crowd who were mostly soaked. He kept most of his singles – “Fix Up Look Sharp”, “Stand Up Tall” and “Flex” for the end of the set, before briefly leaving then coming back to play a one song encore, which was the UK’s current Number 1 single “Dance Wiv Me”. Personally I think he was the second best act of the day, and it’s a shame that some people in the crowd were so unappreciative of such a rare Canadian appearance, like a few near me who simply reverting to taking the piss during songs.

Next up was Vampire Weekend, a bunch of privileged New Yorkers who met at Columbia University, but I won’t focus on that, and focus on their music. It’s fair to say I didn’t get the full experience of their set, as we decided to get something to eat at this point, but we could still hear enough before returning and watching the second half of the hour set. I have to say I find the band for the most part annoying, though it’s not simply a rebellion against the hype. Really. The main reason I don’t like them is I find them as dull as dishwater and about as half as inspiring, though they must be doing something right as Born Ruffians seemed to have stolen all their songs.  So somewhat skeptically I watched the latter half of their set, while they managed to whip up the crowd for the first real time that day. I can understand how they’re popular – their bouncy, light songs are catchy enough, but I don’t understand how they’re that popular.

On the more positive side though, my jerk chicken was lovely.

Next band was Animal Collective, who were possibly the unlikeliest band to appear on the day. After Vampire Weekend left, the stage suddenly was filled with a few tables of electronic pedals and gadgets, some guitars and a few drums. Panda Bear and Avey Tare then took their places, announced that the other half of the band couldn’t make it, then began. You could see people in the audience looking around about 10 minutes in, as the two simply kept going, whether they were fiddling with samplers or pounding on a minimal drum kit, producing an almost tribal 40-minute long set, starting off with their new song “Daily Routine” before a 25 minute version of “Fireworks”, then “Comfy In Nautica” and “Brother Sport”. It was around this time of the day that the weather really turned on, with the skies opening and hundreds of umbrellas coming out, which blocked a few people from getting their mitts on the t-shirts that Avey chucked off the stage at the end of their set (which weren;t on sale through the merch booth, bah).

I’ve read a few reviews of the festival since, and Animal Collective has been classed as the worst band by many, in one case being refered to as something to forget. It’s a shame. With all the rain (which I actually started to enjoy around this point), constantly evolving processes and the sheer volume of the set, it was a live experience I won’t be forgetting in a while.

Chromeo were next, who, judging by the crowd, I didn’t realise were so popular. With a style of 80’s disco/guitar/dance songs, they managed to get the crowd going, despite the rain.  I didn’t find them anything special, and the keyboard player needs to put down his vocoder once in a while, but nothing too bad. And they covered the first verse of “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey towards the end, which went down well.

Around this time I started guessing which people would be staying to see Dallas Green, and usually they seemed to be wearing plaid shirts and skinny jeans with  terrible teenage facial hair. It helped pass the time for a while.

Tokyo Police Club were next up, and my second time seeing them, after seeing that free show at Winterfest or whatever its name was in Nathan Phillips Square. For such a young band they put on a good show, with their quick songs keeping the audience on their feet. Though it seems to me that they’re a little too samey, and hopefully if they evolve it might be for the best. But they were one of the more popular bands of the day, going by the crowds reactions, and they’re only on their first album, so I’ll shut up.

The last band of the day that I saw was Cat Power, or Chan Marshall, who couldn’t seem to keep still on stage. I’ve heard that she can get quite anxious when performing, though I couldn’t seem to see anything that was out of the ordinary. Her band did a decent job of backing her, but the mix seemed a little bit off, but I suppose that’s outdoor festivals for you.

Then, due to the weather, aching legs, and the idea of watching Dallas Green for a hour, we left.

All in all a good day. Worth the ticket price and an interesting line-up. I’m looking forward to see who they bring to Toronto next year.

last song i heard – “two wives” – raising the fawn

 

CD Review – “Anywhere I Lay My Head” – Scarlett Johansson

 

Celebrities trying their hand at the music business is always something to be wary of. Usually an actor who has the ability to play an instrument or notices their singing voice kind of sounds like that song on the radio decides to tap into the “cool” of the “rock and roll” (bleeuurgh) world. Usually, they don’t meet the kind of success they might have expected.

 

Evidence? Consider Brian Austin Green (from Beverly Hills 90210), Bijou Phillips (the daughter of John Phillips), Vincent Gallo, Corey Feldman, William Shatner’s spoken word albums, Jada Pinkett Smith’s Wicked Wisdom, Russell Crowe’s abysmal 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, Keanu Reeve’s Dogstar.

 

If that’s not enough proof, you can check Bruce Willis, Dennis Quaid and the Sharks and Jared Leto’s emo-by-numbers 30 Seconds to Mars. Even Kojak’s Telly Savalas managed to release three albums.

 

So having listened ( – and enjoyed them for probable unintentional reasons – ) to these, when I heard last year that Scarlett Johansson was planning to cover her favourite Tom Waits songs for a full-length album, I simply shook my head, wondering what sort of world would allow such a thing.

 

But here we are. So I thought I’d write about it anyway.

 

Along with Johansson, the band is rounded out with guests Nick Zinner, Sean Antanaitis, with David Sitek of TV On the Radio taking the producer position.

 

Opening with the instrumental “Fawn” is a good start, with an organ, saxophone, bells, and guitar. It’s quite surprising that they didn’t just dive in at the deep end. Instead, it seems they’ve decided to actually pay tribute to Wait’s music. It’s a decent introduction for the style of the album ahead – Sitek bumping up the instrument count as opposed to Wait’s often bare-bones songwriting.

 

Once the album gets going you realize something – Johansson has a surprisingly deep singing voice. In a rare example of production, her vocals throughout the whole album are on the same level as the rest of the instruments, instead of being produced on a different level then being stuck together, resulting in a layering effect. Whether this is an attempt to hide any vocal problems is debatable.

 

Sharing vocal duties is David Bowie, who recorded his parts after the rest of the album was finished, and yet his guest tracks “Falling Down” and “Fannin Street” are two of the stand-outs, which may say something about the rest of the album.

 

Though if there are stand-out tracks then there have to be bad ones. Knock knock. Who’s there? Oh, its “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up”, a seemingly 80’s themed dirge complete with drum machines and synth. Hello, who’s that behind you? Ahh, it’s “I Wish I Was In New Orleans”, which starts off sounding like a child’s bedtime toy and never really goes anywhere else. 

 

Right smack in the middle of the album is “Song For Jo”, an original co-written by Johansson and Sitek. It shows some potential, and could be an indication of where she could go in the future.

 

But altogether it seems a little too stylish. It’s obvious they’ve tried to do something different with the songs, and good for them, but it all seems slightly empty, like something you’d out on when you’ve got friends over and no-one’s paying attention to the music anyway. There are interesting textures, with dog bowls, rainsticks, Nigerian logs, saxophones, flutes and a hell of a lot more being used, at times creating an absolute wave of noise, but sometimes less is more.

 

In the end, though, it doesn’t quite work, but it can’t be compared next to David Hasselhoff as celebrity ego gone mad. There doesn’t seem to be much vanity on show here, and she’s having a decent stab at it, you’ve got to give her that, but it’s hard for a 24-year-old to get across the same meanings that Tom Waits had in the originals.

 

It’s an ambitious try, though.

 

 

last song i heard – “it’s the law” – social distortion

Los Campesinos! – 23/05/08

As we get past the ticket desk, we hear the now-familiar (after his support slot for British Sea Power last week) sounds of Jeffrey Lewis, who this time is back with his band, the Jitters, for another (at times) educational performance.

Along with autobiographical songs such as “The Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane” and “Don’t Be Upset”, he performed some of his more unique songs, including “The Complete History of Punk Rock and Its Development On the Lower East Side: 1950 – 1975″ and “The Complete History of Communism: Part 3″ which give him a chance to showcase his other outlet – comics. Using a slideshow projector instead of simply flipping through sketchbooks (as he did last week), he described in surprising detail the October Revolution.

Personally I think his act works better with his band (which includes his bassist brother, Jack Lewis), and if you ever get the chance to see him live, take it. You’ll like him after a few listens.

Then it was time for the headliners. Since they played at the Mod Club in December on their “Sticking Fingers Into Sockets” EP tour, they have released their debut full-length “Hold On Now, Youngster…” (which was recorded in Trenton, their lead guitarist Tom told me ) which has received generally positive reviews. It was released on the Arts & Crafts label, with Aleksandra saying what with that and due to the band camping down in the area for about two months last summer to do the album, the band feel as though Toronto is their second home. Or rather their third home, as all of the band met each other while attending Cardiff University. As Tom told me, they started talking at bar nights, with Neil and Gareth living together in the same house. However, none of them are actually Welsh, with Tom hailing from St. Albans, Gareth from near Glastonbury and Aleksandra from Russia.

They came out and opened with ”Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats” before rattling through every song on the album –  including a cover of Pavement’s “Frontwards” -  seeming to play with a bit more confidence than their previous visit. I was impressed at how tight of a band they are, for being a band barely past their second birthday. The only niggle I noticed was Aleksandra (keyboards and main female vocals) seems really quiet, though whether this is her live voice or just a microphone issue, I could’t tell.

Still though, you can tell they’re a relatively new band simply by the amount of energy they give off. Lead singer (and glokenspielist) Gareth was the main outlet throughout the set, stamping around and spitting out his lyrics until he was visibly worn down, including an exhausted “We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives” outro. However he still acknowleged the audience with banter during songs (which is something missing with a lot of bands), telling a story about pissing off a whole crowd last week when he told them how much he dislikes New York, and why “We Are All Accelerated Readers” should explain why to break up with your significant other.  At the end of the main set closer “Sweet Dreams Sweet Cheeks” he clambered up a speaker cabinet while the rest of the band chanted out the same two lines. As they finished, arms around each other, Gareth was up over the dividing wall and that was it.

Until! They all came back out and did “2007: The Year Punk Broke (My Heart)” with Tom and Gareth switching instruments halfway through. Then that was it.

Talking to Tom after the set, he felt that the show went well and was happy to be back in Toronto, though he wasn’t sure if he preferred Lee’s Palace or the Mod Club (and their only other visit before that was at the Horseshoe Tavern). Aleksandra, however, admitted that the Mod Club felt a bit “too upscale” for them, feeling they were better suited to tonight’s venue. She told me that they’ll be starting to record for an EP in Seattle within the next couple of months, which she said she was excited about.

So at the rate they’re going, expect to see them back in Toronto in the winter, if not earlier.

last song i heard – “call it a ritual” – wolf parade