January 4, 2009 by joel.

Like Troy McClure, you may better recognize Dave Gahan as something else, in this case the lead singer of Depeche Mode. He is here with a solo effort, 10 tracks of, for lack of better phrasing, post-modern Depeche Mode.

Different songs seem to be from different eras. “Deeper & Deeper” has a mid-90s Daft Punk feel. It also makes me think of a Depeche Mode song from the same era: It’s No Good.

When he focuses on music instead of lyrics, the result is better. “Saw Something” is the first track on the album and also allows for his programming skill to thrive.

“21 Days” sounds like something Trent Reznor would do. If you’re a NINny, give it a shot. There’s not much originality here. Also lacking originality is “Use You,” which has the same beat as Kate Bush’s “Eat the Music.” That’s great if you are a DJ.

Remember when White Zombie experimented with beats on “More Human Than Human”? “Insoluble” travels down this path. I’m not saying Gahan wants money, but he seems to have run out of ideas after 30 years in the biz.

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January 4, 2009 by joel.

This is another pianist’s interpretation of Christmas music, including opportunities to do the piano equivalent of guitar wanking. Seriously.

“Jolly Old St. Nick” starts things off and is innocent enough. I could hear this in a department store, possibly Nordstrom, without batting an eye. But it’s not all like this.

“Joy to the World” has the fervor of last minute holiday shopping, complete with unnecessary detours of measures and measures of crazy Christmas tangents. This song doesn’t need to be nearly six minutes long.

“Angels We Have Heard on High” sounds like a piano interpretation of a video game’s interpretation of Christmas music. So really if you like any of these things, especially the Legend of Zelda, this track is for you.

“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” is great if you skip the elongated introduction. Seriously, is piano wanking a phenomenon I was unaware of?

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December 31, 2008 by joel.

This album really grows on you and suffers from a poor track order. “Not Enough” starts the album off and makes you think it is an Evanescence ripoff, but actualy many of the songs hold their own and remind the listener of stuff that is much less annoying.

“Maybe” reminds me a bit of Paramore and definitely has a modern feel to it, assuming Paramore are still hip. “Drowning” has a Charlatans U.K. early-’90s feel to it.

“Alone” makes me think of standard female-fronted casino pop rock. The music sounds like Stretch Princess, but the vocals aren’t as good. Make no mistake, the singing in Faces of March is great, but it’s all relative, isn’t it? “Wanna Be” is for fans of Damone (the good first album, not the second shitty one).

“Who’s to Blame” is forgettable. “Too Late” is a ballad with no heart. Turn Around also offers that Evanescence style. Despite the lack of focus, “Confessions” is very listenable.

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December 13, 2008 by joel.

Marklar is where those aliens on South Park that worked for Fognl were from. “Parplar” is the new album from Larkin Grimm. It has 15 tracks of Parplastic glory.

The rep says it’s for fans of CocoRosie. I just don’t get it. The songwriting is definitely the strength, as indicated on “Hope for the Hopeless” and “Ride That Cyclone.” And you can’t go wrong with a song called “Anger in Your Liver.” How did she know?

The Yale alum has pipes when she wants to. The album leads off with “They Were Wrong,” and if she’d stick to this more melodic style of singing, she’d be all right. I think she is one of those ex-child prodigies who is so convinced of her abilities (and rightfully so) that she tries to mess around too much and see how much she can dumb herself down and still sound good.

She tries to sound like Barbara Manning on “Blond and Golden Johns.” Manning is a legend, and I am sure she’s flattered. I think that her strength lies in an airier sound, however. The title track has keyboards and is another possible direction for her to go in, although the vocals get a bit shrill.

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December 7, 2008 by joel.

I am not going to lie. I decided to review this CD because Corrin Campbell looks like a 16-year-old version of Kat Dennings. There, I said it.

It also turns out that she played in the band in the Army. So did my dad, although I have trouble envisioning her carrying a tuba around. And it turns out she is from Wisconsin, so I am sure she would sound great even just reading the phone book.

So anyway, now that I have finished objectifying her, this six-track EP is a standard female-fronted rock album. The music is a little unimaginative, but the songwriting and melodies are notable. Not knowing keys, I am unclear whether “Friend in D” is performed in D, but regardless, it is a fun rock song, if a bit dated.

“Cast It Off” would sound better as a piano-only recording, a la Vanessa Carlton in many of her songs. The drums get in the way and sound as if they are from “Through Your Eyes,” a track that only features piano but should take on additional accompaniment. When she plays live, “Cast It Off” should be one of the titles she plays so she can leave a lasting memory.

“Shame” puts it all together. Good storytelling songwriting, a non-distracting beat and a nice collection of musical work. “Keep Movin’” has a great mid-90s power pop feel to it. Where has this been the entire EP, and why is this the last song?

The EP seems to be a compilation of different stages of her career, and this costs it its cohesion. It is unclear where Campbell is going in her music endeavors, but hopefully the EP is chronological, meaning the last two tracks will give us a sign of what’s to come.

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December 7, 2008 by joel.

Not since Des’ree told us “I Ain’t Movin’” have we been notified of an artist’s whereabouts so specifically. This five-track EP seems short, considering that if she really isn’t goin’ anywhere then why couldn’t she record a full-length album in the process.

“Runaway” leads off, and it sounds as if she is singing into a megaphone, but it’s really clear that she isn’t. It sounds like that upbeat Christian rock you hear when you are scanning the lower end of the FM dial, looking for a good college station to listen to while on a road trip. (When you’re here, of course, scan a little higher, perhaps around 103.3.)

“Stay Here” is more of the same. It’s very slick and overproduced but not in the good Foo Fighters way. “Come Away” sounds like an Evanescence ripoff. There’s nothing wrong with having a mainstream pop sound, but if you’re going for pop it should not be a free pass to sing with no heart, although to be fair I wouldn’t know if she sang with heart because the producers took everything out. It’s like buying bleached flour. It is nothing like actual wheat.

“Will You Ever Change” is the single. It has to be. The tempo is different from the other tracks. The lyrics have some semblance of meaning. She sounds rejuvenated. She’s wearing the Colbie Caillat hat.

It ends with “Here’s to You My Friend,” a title that really needs a comma in it. This song is destined for a movie soundtrack, playing in the background during a forgotten scene in which the teenage girl protagonist changes her Facebook status message with tears in her eyes.
I don’t understand the point.

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December 7, 2008 by joel.

This is a compilation of electronic music. Centipede is first. Their song “Save Your Cool Soul” is stripped down and fun, although the lead singer sounds as if she is trying to be Madonna, which will make a lot of people happy, but not me.

Baconflex have Erasure vocals and Book of Love synths on “Jupiter Boy.” If they had called it “Jupiter Boy Pop,” they would have had me hooked. It’s still a good song with a modern feel. Violedy have a more early ’90s feel with “Claymore.” It sounds like something Sweetheart would do, or U2, I guess.

Fewfuzz gives us “Speak Love Tonight,” and it sounds like something you would play at an East San Jose high school dance to keep people from fighting over colors. The chorus goes “We are here to have some fun” and repeats itself many times. The music reminds me a bit of Robert Miles.

“I Got You” by Perfect North reminds me of Daft Punk or Information Society. “Something Strong” by Common Party sounds like Bauhaus. I mean, it REALLY sounds like Bauhaus. “Immersive” by Arco has a Beatmania IIdx feel to it. The kids call it “trance.”

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December 7, 2008 by joel.

Another reggae song about pot. This is a two-track single, whose B-side is the instrumental version of the song. I heard that these are now called “karaoke” versions. Whatever.

This is a classic “you already know whether you like this song” song.

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December 7, 2008 by joel.

No, not En Esch. Bang! Bang! Eche! They are from New Zealand. Old people will hear the keyboards and think of The Police. Kids will hear the same thing and think of The Killers. For once everyone is correct. It’s definitely not a unique sound, but it is of fill-in quality for what’s popular these days.

It’s a five-track EP, self-titled. “4 to the Floor” leads off quietly, a little bit Flock of Seagulls, a little bit David Bowie. “Time Mismanagement” has a bit of a Panic at the Disco feel to it. It’s a very likable song.

The guitar in “Nikee” has a bit of an Operation Makeout feel to it. Maybe if Jesse had spent more time singing in that act then this song would sound more like them. “(You & Me) as Thick as Thieves” sounds like a post-modern Talking Heads song, although the David Byrne portion of this analogy is not apt. Is this what they mean by shoegazer? “Fingers in the Till” is not about the BASH superstar of the same name. That’s Andrew Till. This song has a more electronic feel.

A band that does nothing but remind you of other acts is not remarkable, but never boring, either. This proves no exception.

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December 3, 2008 by joel.

Sea Sick needs a dictionary to show that “seasick” is one word and a lead singer to show that good guitar and drums are not sufficient to make a quality three-piece.

The lead singer wails too much all the time. She thinks she is the lead singer of Sleater-Kinney. She is not. “Radiant Heat” is one of several examples on this seven-track monstrosity.

“Black Cat” is a great name, and she almost, ALMOST, sounds like Kristin Hersh here. I could only hope. It’s really a shame that the best track on the album is buried at the end where no one will hear it.

“XX” has an electronic feel to it and also is worth a listen. Everything else on the album, though, is the bad half of Bob Marley and the Wailers.

This is the kind of stuff they must have listened to in the ’60s, when everyone was so wacked out of their gourd that everything sounded like the Beatles. This is shitty, and there’s nothing clever about the name.

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