Good and Reckless and True
The Alternate Routes
Vanguard Records
Release Date: March 13th
The Alternate Routes officially take the prize for Most Misleading Band Name Ever. The Connecticut-spawned group is, in terms of style and history, merely a faint footprint right smack in the middle of the beaten path. Their latest offering, Good and Reckless and True, throws you few curveballs, and aside from a great story about hitting up a casino to (successfully) raise money to press their second album, their due-paying follows the same plot points outlined in “Turn the Page.”
But you’ll still enjoy the hell out of this album.
It would be easy after the first two tracks to dismiss them as a weird sort of New Radicals throwback; “Ordinary” is a fitting opener, introducing the listener to Tim Warren’s no-nonsense lyrics and clean, impassioned vocals. In fact, half the album could have been written by Dishwalla, and while these songs are enjoyable, it’s the out-of-the-blue formulaic deviations that make this disc worth the 12 bucks.
“Hollywood” is a perfect desert island country ballad, topped off by Eric Donnelly’s angular Willie Nelson-like solo. “Going Home With You,” with its Stones-y fuzz riffs, is as good a “getting laid” song as you’ll ever find, and “Are You Lonely” recalls the organs of Three Dog Night before exploding into a hell-raiser that would make Buckcherry grab its ankles and say “Please sir may I have another!”
Yeah, you’ve heard this stuff before throughout the years—so what? The Alternate Routes are refreshing, devoid of posing, and original in their inspired nostalgia.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Hotel Alexis: Goliath, I'm On Your Side review
Goliath, I’m on your Side
The Hotel Alexis
Broken Sparrow Records
In stores now
If Pete Yorn and Jeff Tweedy were to swap tunes on the back porch after staying up for 48 hours in Iceland, it might sound something like The Hotel Alexis’ Goliath, I’m On Your Side. This second effort by the New Hampshire-based group features the familiar doses of lazy Americana, along with a fleshed-out realization of the droning instrumentals at which they had previously hinted.
The album revolves around the hushed vocals and intensely understated musicianship of songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Sidney Alexis Linder, who wrote and recorded the album in Spain and all across the U.S. His band’s tender approach to the music is on display throughout, and while they’ve drawn comparisons to Wilco, there is nary an aggressive outburst of Les Paul on the whole album.
Every song is severely personal; you listen in on a conversation during “Sister Ray,” and spy on a film noir lamp-lit conversation in “Suddenly, It’s You and Me.” Not all is so heavily dreary, though; Linder had probably been listening to Pet Sounds all day when he wrote “Silver Waves Crash Through the Canyon.”
By far the most surreal point of the album is the lengthy opus “Hummingbird/Indian Dog,” an utterly captivating fusion of instrumentation, static, sound effects, and Sigur Ros-like chants, all run through heavy echo. When it’s over, you’ll feel like you just woke up from a 20-minute dream.
Goliath, I’m On Your Side is hypnotic, pure and simple. Listen to this one with your eyes closed or on the beach at night.
The Hotel Alexis
Broken Sparrow Records
In stores now
If Pete Yorn and Jeff Tweedy were to swap tunes on the back porch after staying up for 48 hours in Iceland, it might sound something like The Hotel Alexis’ Goliath, I’m On Your Side. This second effort by the New Hampshire-based group features the familiar doses of lazy Americana, along with a fleshed-out realization of the droning instrumentals at which they had previously hinted.
The album revolves around the hushed vocals and intensely understated musicianship of songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Sidney Alexis Linder, who wrote and recorded the album in Spain and all across the U.S. His band’s tender approach to the music is on display throughout, and while they’ve drawn comparisons to Wilco, there is nary an aggressive outburst of Les Paul on the whole album.
Every song is severely personal; you listen in on a conversation during “Sister Ray,” and spy on a film noir lamp-lit conversation in “Suddenly, It’s You and Me.” Not all is so heavily dreary, though; Linder had probably been listening to Pet Sounds all day when he wrote “Silver Waves Crash Through the Canyon.”
By far the most surreal point of the album is the lengthy opus “Hummingbird/Indian Dog,” an utterly captivating fusion of instrumentation, static, sound effects, and Sigur Ros-like chants, all run through heavy echo. When it’s over, you’ll feel like you just woke up from a 20-minute dream.
Goliath, I’m On Your Side is hypnotic, pure and simple. Listen to this one with your eyes closed or on the beach at night.
Cthonic: A Decade on the Throne review
A Decade on the Throne
Chthonic
Deathlight Records
Available now
A few years ago, I remember seeing an ad in a metal magazine for this Taiwanese black metal band, whose name sounded like something out of a Lovecraft rip-off story. They were all done up in shiny black leather, looking like the finalists of a Peter Criss look-a-like contest. I took note of what I judged as novelty, and promptly stored the information in the couldn’t-give-less-of-a-damn section of my brain, wherein still resides Scott Stapp and the entire E Network.
Well, I recently received a copy of Chthonic’s new concert double CD/DVD set A Decade on the Throne…and judging by the fashion in which the band steamrolled from the depths of my psyche and blew an erhu-shaped hole out the front of my cranium, I must say I was a little hasty in my initial reception.
First, the trivial stuff: cosmetics. Hands down, this is the best packaging I’ve ever seen. The three-disc set comes in an ornately inscribed faux-book, with photos of the band melding into one another, creating what amounts to a still-life montage. Each disc has its own “page,” and slides neatly into a sturdy sleeve. To top it all off, there is an elaborately designed one-page insert with all of the track listings.
Second, the band. It would be an understatement of tragic proportions to say that Chthonic could very well be Taiwan’s answer to Cradle of Filth…hell, they’re probably better, if anything. The group is six members strong, with a keyboardist and erhu (traditional Taiwanese bowed instrument) player rounding out the core of vocals, guitar, bass, and drums.
Frontman Freddy Lim and company have got melodic black metal DOWN. Everything is here, from the keyboard-based atmospheric crashes, to Lim’s demonized shrieks, to the inspired fret-blazing of Jesse “The Infernal.” Did I mention the drummer wears a spiked Hannibal Lecter mask, and the bass player is a brutally attractive young woman? She had me at “AIEEEEEE!”
Speaking of Jesse, I do NOT exaggerate when I say that the man is shred’s best-kept secret. While the solos are somewhat low-key on the band’s studio output, “The Infernal” is given free reign live to let fly with nimble jugular-ravaging riffs and face-slicing solos. Check out his (literal) time in the spotlight, aptly titled “Guitar Solo.”
The sound quality of the recording is superb, and the cinematography is decent enough, though a little more communication between producers, directors, and cameramen would have been appreciated. Not often, but a few times, the shot would cut to something like a blank wall of the venue, when it was painfully obvious that something unforgivably awesome was happening off-screen.
I’m sure we all remember being 12 years old and getting pissed off when the camera would cut away from the sex scene in a PG-13 flick.
At the end of the day, Chthonic have gone under the radar and cemented their legacy as one of history’s top black metal acts. With spine-compressing riffs, respectable political activity, and production values that would make Alice Cooper drop his nine-iron in awe, this is a group that you NEED to know. End of discussion, no excuses.
Also check out Chthonic’s latest studio release Seediq Bale.
Catch the band on tour late this summer with Cradle of Filth.
Chthonic
Deathlight Records
Available now
A few years ago, I remember seeing an ad in a metal magazine for this Taiwanese black metal band, whose name sounded like something out of a Lovecraft rip-off story. They were all done up in shiny black leather, looking like the finalists of a Peter Criss look-a-like contest. I took note of what I judged as novelty, and promptly stored the information in the couldn’t-give-less-of-a-damn section of my brain, wherein still resides Scott Stapp and the entire E Network.
Well, I recently received a copy of Chthonic’s new concert double CD/DVD set A Decade on the Throne…and judging by the fashion in which the band steamrolled from the depths of my psyche and blew an erhu-shaped hole out the front of my cranium, I must say I was a little hasty in my initial reception.
First, the trivial stuff: cosmetics. Hands down, this is the best packaging I’ve ever seen. The three-disc set comes in an ornately inscribed faux-book, with photos of the band melding into one another, creating what amounts to a still-life montage. Each disc has its own “page,” and slides neatly into a sturdy sleeve. To top it all off, there is an elaborately designed one-page insert with all of the track listings.
Second, the band. It would be an understatement of tragic proportions to say that Chthonic could very well be Taiwan’s answer to Cradle of Filth…hell, they’re probably better, if anything. The group is six members strong, with a keyboardist and erhu (traditional Taiwanese bowed instrument) player rounding out the core of vocals, guitar, bass, and drums.
Frontman Freddy Lim and company have got melodic black metal DOWN. Everything is here, from the keyboard-based atmospheric crashes, to Lim’s demonized shrieks, to the inspired fret-blazing of Jesse “The Infernal.” Did I mention the drummer wears a spiked Hannibal Lecter mask, and the bass player is a brutally attractive young woman? She had me at “AIEEEEEE!”
Speaking of Jesse, I do NOT exaggerate when I say that the man is shred’s best-kept secret. While the solos are somewhat low-key on the band’s studio output, “The Infernal” is given free reign live to let fly with nimble jugular-ravaging riffs and face-slicing solos. Check out his (literal) time in the spotlight, aptly titled “Guitar Solo.”
The sound quality of the recording is superb, and the cinematography is decent enough, though a little more communication between producers, directors, and cameramen would have been appreciated. Not often, but a few times, the shot would cut to something like a blank wall of the venue, when it was painfully obvious that something unforgivably awesome was happening off-screen.
I’m sure we all remember being 12 years old and getting pissed off when the camera would cut away from the sex scene in a PG-13 flick.
At the end of the day, Chthonic have gone under the radar and cemented their legacy as one of history’s top black metal acts. With spine-compressing riffs, respectable political activity, and production values that would make Alice Cooper drop his nine-iron in awe, this is a group that you NEED to know. End of discussion, no excuses.
Also check out Chthonic’s latest studio release Seediq Bale.
Catch the band on tour late this summer with Cradle of Filth.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Impeachment
This'll be a quick one. Working three jobs takes its toll on a person's will to blog.
It was reported last week that Cindy Sheehan intends to run for California Congress in 2008. Now weirder folks have run for public office...some have actually gotten in, and I don't have to name names (JESSE %#!^?%$ VENTURA). Newsworthy though it may be to the talking heads on major networks, I get the feeling that most socially-aware citizens just shrugged and went "Yeah...OK, cool." I know I did.
No, what makes this story interesting is the ultimatum that Sheehan put towards House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, namely that if impeachment charges are not drawn up against Bush by a week from now, Sheehan will run for Congress...and she'll be going after Pelosi's seat.
Now, I'm not looking to talk about whether or not anyone takes Sheehan seriously enough anymore or anything of that nature. If you're reading this, there's a 50/50 chance you probably don't know, legally, what Bush is to impeached for. Sure he's incompetent, greedy, and doesn't know head from his...er, better half...but those aren't grounds for impeachment.
What IS a grounds, however, is that he lied to Congress and to the American people about our reasons for going to war with Iraq. It has been proven to the point of common knowledge by now, and we still have yet to see anything done about it.
This will undoubtedly go down as one of the most FUBAR decades in American history.
It was reported last week that Cindy Sheehan intends to run for California Congress in 2008. Now weirder folks have run for public office...some have actually gotten in, and I don't have to name names (JESSE %#!^?%$ VENTURA). Newsworthy though it may be to the talking heads on major networks, I get the feeling that most socially-aware citizens just shrugged and went "Yeah...OK, cool." I know I did.
No, what makes this story interesting is the ultimatum that Sheehan put towards House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, namely that if impeachment charges are not drawn up against Bush by a week from now, Sheehan will run for Congress...and she'll be going after Pelosi's seat.
Now, I'm not looking to talk about whether or not anyone takes Sheehan seriously enough anymore or anything of that nature. If you're reading this, there's a 50/50 chance you probably don't know, legally, what Bush is to impeached for. Sure he's incompetent, greedy, and doesn't know head from his...er, better half...but those aren't grounds for impeachment.
What IS a grounds, however, is that he lied to Congress and to the American people about our reasons for going to war with Iraq. It has been proven to the point of common knowledge by now, and we still have yet to see anything done about it.
This will undoubtedly go down as one of the most FUBAR decades in American history.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
iGenocide: Mass Murder, the iPhone, and You
Well ladies and gentlemen, it is one o clock in the morning, and I had to break up a bar fight at my job a few hours ago. Its been that kind of night. Let's commence, shall we?
In light of all this ridiculous iPhone mania sweeping the nation like the cosmic claw of Cthulhu across an unsuspecting steam ship, I decided that there are a few facts regarding the general production of cell phones, including the harvesting of raw materials and the like, that you should know, should you take it upon yourself to be swept up in the iCraze. Y'know...just in case you didn't already feel guilty enough about anything else.
The production of cell phones is dependent upon the harvesting of two essential materials: coltan and niobium. The former is found in three billion-year-old soils such as those found in the Rift Valley region of Africa (you can see where this is going, can you not?). Extracted from the coltan is a substance called tantalum, used to manufacture tantalum capacitors, which are in effect tiny devices that maintain the flow of current in electronic devices--such as cell phones and iPods.
Turns out that 80% of these coltan deposits are found in the Democractic Republic of the Congo (a misnomer if there ever was one), with niobium yielding similar stats.
Now this is where it gets interesting. Thanks to the techie explosion of the 1990s, the price of coltan ballooned to $300 per pound. By 1996, Rwandan and Ugandan forces, sponsored by--ding ding ding!--the United States had moved into the highest-yield mining regions and taken control over them. The Rwandan army alone was making in excess of $20 million dollars a month from the coltan mining; to this day, though the price of coltan has again fallen, those same forces maintain a monopoly over the mining regions. Since that point, human rights atrocities in the area have skyrocketed.
The coltan is then shipped out to various firms where it is made into the sought-after tantalum powder, which is in turn sold and sent off to companies like Nokia, Motorola, Compaq, Sony, and others.
I wonder if Idi Amin is in Chad's "five?"
The aforementioned atrocities have been linked to a chain of organized crime that spreads outward from the region, connecting to various multi-national corporations, such as the American Cabot Corp. and OM Group, HC Starck from Germany, and Nigncxia of China. All of these companies, and others, have been linked by a UN Panel of Experts to the bribery, rape, and extortion perpetrated by supra-governments and proxy puppet armies in the Congo.
All while over $6 million in raw cobalt is exported from the region...daily.
The Congo, which by all rights should be the wealthiest nation on the face of God's green earth, is instead one of the most imporverished, disease-ridden countries in the world, despite also being rich in deposits of tin, copper, and diamonds. Conflicts of interest between mining corporations and our past three presidents, Lockheed Martin, GE, Boeing, and Halliburton have also been detailed.
But then again, its certainly nothing new to the Congolese people. They've been getting stripped and railroaded for decades now; the only things that have changed are what gets stripped and who does the stripping: rubber to the Belgians, diamonds to Mobutu, and now coltan and niobium.
All of this, in addition to the effect of expanded and malevolent mining on nonhuman life, such as the forests, vegetation, and certain endangered species, including varieties of gorilla.
I can't point fingers...I have a cell phone, and I find it very convenient, though I live with the knowledge that I technically carry around roughly a dozen corpses in my back pocket.
Like most issues of conscience and outright decency plaguing us today, this is a vicious cycle. Enter the iPhone, a device that can do everything short of washing your delicates. It is a phone, computer, and iPod all in one, effectively rendering the latter components slightly more obsolete. So we throw them away...millions of dollars repaid with endless innocent blood simply tossed away like a bubble gum wrapper, only to be replaced by another death-bought product.
Only shinier.
Sources: The Taylor Report, March 8 2005
Earth First! Journal, Augusta 2005
Z Magazine, March 1 2006
Censored 2007: Top 25 Censored Stories of this Year
In light of all this ridiculous iPhone mania sweeping the nation like the cosmic claw of Cthulhu across an unsuspecting steam ship, I decided that there are a few facts regarding the general production of cell phones, including the harvesting of raw materials and the like, that you should know, should you take it upon yourself to be swept up in the iCraze. Y'know...just in case you didn't already feel guilty enough about anything else.
The production of cell phones is dependent upon the harvesting of two essential materials: coltan and niobium. The former is found in three billion-year-old soils such as those found in the Rift Valley region of Africa (you can see where this is going, can you not?). Extracted from the coltan is a substance called tantalum, used to manufacture tantalum capacitors, which are in effect tiny devices that maintain the flow of current in electronic devices--such as cell phones and iPods.
Turns out that 80% of these coltan deposits are found in the Democractic Republic of the Congo (a misnomer if there ever was one), with niobium yielding similar stats.
Now this is where it gets interesting. Thanks to the techie explosion of the 1990s, the price of coltan ballooned to $300 per pound. By 1996, Rwandan and Ugandan forces, sponsored by--ding ding ding!--the United States had moved into the highest-yield mining regions and taken control over them. The Rwandan army alone was making in excess of $20 million dollars a month from the coltan mining; to this day, though the price of coltan has again fallen, those same forces maintain a monopoly over the mining regions. Since that point, human rights atrocities in the area have skyrocketed.
The coltan is then shipped out to various firms where it is made into the sought-after tantalum powder, which is in turn sold and sent off to companies like Nokia, Motorola, Compaq, Sony, and others.
I wonder if Idi Amin is in Chad's "five?"
The aforementioned atrocities have been linked to a chain of organized crime that spreads outward from the region, connecting to various multi-national corporations, such as the American Cabot Corp. and OM Group, HC Starck from Germany, and Nigncxia of China. All of these companies, and others, have been linked by a UN Panel of Experts to the bribery, rape, and extortion perpetrated by supra-governments and proxy puppet armies in the Congo.
All while over $6 million in raw cobalt is exported from the region...daily.
The Congo, which by all rights should be the wealthiest nation on the face of God's green earth, is instead one of the most imporverished, disease-ridden countries in the world, despite also being rich in deposits of tin, copper, and diamonds. Conflicts of interest between mining corporations and our past three presidents, Lockheed Martin, GE, Boeing, and Halliburton have also been detailed.
But then again, its certainly nothing new to the Congolese people. They've been getting stripped and railroaded for decades now; the only things that have changed are what gets stripped and who does the stripping: rubber to the Belgians, diamonds to Mobutu, and now coltan and niobium.
All of this, in addition to the effect of expanded and malevolent mining on nonhuman life, such as the forests, vegetation, and certain endangered species, including varieties of gorilla.
I can't point fingers...I have a cell phone, and I find it very convenient, though I live with the knowledge that I technically carry around roughly a dozen corpses in my back pocket.
Like most issues of conscience and outright decency plaguing us today, this is a vicious cycle. Enter the iPhone, a device that can do everything short of washing your delicates. It is a phone, computer, and iPod all in one, effectively rendering the latter components slightly more obsolete. So we throw them away...millions of dollars repaid with endless innocent blood simply tossed away like a bubble gum wrapper, only to be replaced by another death-bought product.
Only shinier.
Sources: The Taylor Report, March 8 2005
Earth First! Journal, Augusta 2005
Z Magazine, March 1 2006
Censored 2007: Top 25 Censored Stories of this Year
Friday, June 15, 2007
Hate to say I told you so...
This is just a quick note to anyone who thinks that the green movement consists of a bunch of vegans elevating trees over human convenience.
The World Health organization recently calculated that roughly 13 million human lives PER YEAR could be saved by simply cleaning up the planet's air and water, only two of the many polluting factors that we find ourselves currently battling.
The WHO also ranked the healthiest nations in the world according to the environment. Iceland and Israel topped the list, with Mali and Afghanistan bringing up the rear. The United States came in a respectable (but still unsatisfactory) eighth, behind the formers and Italy, Germany, Spain, France, and Britain.
The World Health organization recently calculated that roughly 13 million human lives PER YEAR could be saved by simply cleaning up the planet's air and water, only two of the many polluting factors that we find ourselves currently battling.
The WHO also ranked the healthiest nations in the world according to the environment. Iceland and Israel topped the list, with Mali and Afghanistan bringing up the rear. The United States came in a respectable (but still unsatisfactory) eighth, behind the formers and Italy, Germany, Spain, France, and Britain.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
And so it goes
People amaze me.
Sometimes that can be a good thing; occasionally news will pop up of one person or a group of people performing some extraordinary act of heroism, kindness, goodwill, etc.
More often than not, however, it is the persisting stupidity and ignorance of people that tends to crop up so much more often.
Take this war for example. Just about everything that can said about it has been said...about three-quarters of the country agrees that we need to haul ourselves out of the Middle East, tails between our legs or no. It is severely disrupting our economy. It is wasting lives. It is making us look like fools on a global scale.
Still, I am absolutely flabbergasted when I hear someone, in this case a media pundit, go on the air and insist that, if we leave Iraq, our enemies will come after us.
No they won't.
They never wanted us there in the first place...they never really wanted anything do with us. It morbidly amuses me that some folks still think that THEY were the instigators in this entire situation. We've been ravaging their lands, either physically or economically, for a little under a century, for a few centuries if you count Britain.
9/11 is still by no means excusable...don't get me wrong.
But for years we have been exploiting the people and resources of those nations, and it gets little to no media coverage. Of course that should come as no surprise, considering that most of big media is in someone's pocket, providing little more than minimal coverage on real issues, and otherwise serving as a distraction from the world's real problems.
Why do you think Paris Hilton is on MSNBC and CNN?
And then the minute that they attack us on our own soil, as retaliation for all that we've put them through, we're SURPRISED?
And yes, it is fanatically and religiously motivated...but economics and foreign policy is intricately weaved throughout their motivations as well. For a good deal of the population of that region, the two are inseparable.
Our BS just gives them a more tangible reason for a jihad.
Both sides are at fault, to be sure. I'd just appreciate it if we'd each start to own up to our responsibilities.
Sometimes that can be a good thing; occasionally news will pop up of one person or a group of people performing some extraordinary act of heroism, kindness, goodwill, etc.
More often than not, however, it is the persisting stupidity and ignorance of people that tends to crop up so much more often.
Take this war for example. Just about everything that can said about it has been said...about three-quarters of the country agrees that we need to haul ourselves out of the Middle East, tails between our legs or no. It is severely disrupting our economy. It is wasting lives. It is making us look like fools on a global scale.
Still, I am absolutely flabbergasted when I hear someone, in this case a media pundit, go on the air and insist that, if we leave Iraq, our enemies will come after us.
No they won't.
They never wanted us there in the first place...they never really wanted anything do with us. It morbidly amuses me that some folks still think that THEY were the instigators in this entire situation. We've been ravaging their lands, either physically or economically, for a little under a century, for a few centuries if you count Britain.
9/11 is still by no means excusable...don't get me wrong.
But for years we have been exploiting the people and resources of those nations, and it gets little to no media coverage. Of course that should come as no surprise, considering that most of big media is in someone's pocket, providing little more than minimal coverage on real issues, and otherwise serving as a distraction from the world's real problems.
Why do you think Paris Hilton is on MSNBC and CNN?
And then the minute that they attack us on our own soil, as retaliation for all that we've put them through, we're SURPRISED?
And yes, it is fanatically and religiously motivated...but economics and foreign policy is intricately weaved throughout their motivations as well. For a good deal of the population of that region, the two are inseparable.
Our BS just gives them a more tangible reason for a jihad.
Both sides are at fault, to be sure. I'd just appreciate it if we'd each start to own up to our responsibilities.
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