CD Reviews

The Dudes
Brain Heart Guitar
Load Music/ 2006
♥♥½

copy Anderson

Loud and drunken melodies are the Dudes’ specialty on their debut rock album. Dan Vacon’s lead vocals sound similar to but significantly softer than Isaac Brock (of Modest Mouse fame). He lacks Brock’s attitude and flair when he sings, most evident in “The Fight” and the memorable “Don’t Talk.” Upon hearing the latter track’s captivating chorus: “Don’t talk, when we’re making love/making up all that stuff/Wanna hear about it, hear about it/Don’t stop,” it becomes so ingrained in my head that I couldn’t help but sing along with it. Another catchy tune, “Dropkick Queen of the Weekend,” blasts through the speakers with blaring guitars and a heavy bass line. It comes across as one of those songs that would be best heard live in concert. On this and every other track of the album, the band emphasizes the use of their multiple guitarists, having one play acoustic in a manner typical of country and one play electric in a pop-styled approach.

The Dudes attempt to “inspire and uplift their fellow humans,” as stated in their biography, but fall short of doing so since their lyrics aren’t about anything insightful or spiritual and are predominantly aimed at an audience full of drunken misfits.

Various Artists
Ready For Not 2
Do Right!Music/ 2006
♥♥♥♥ ½

Micheal Elves

I have my mother to thank for my unwavering love of CBC radio, and I have CBC radio and the folks at Do Right! Music for this incredible collection of rare jazz tracks. Following on the success of the first volume of “Deep Jazz Grooves from the CBC Radio Canada Archives,” comes another treasure trove of Canadian jazz that only briefly saw the light of day.

The story, briefly: during the ’60s and ’70s, the CBC brought many of our nation’s jazz musicians into the studio to record live and pressed small batches of LPs that were then sold in CBC gift shops and by mail order. It wasn’t until Do Right’s John Kong and journalist Tim Perlich secured the rights to dig through the archives and release their findings that much of this material was given a contemporary audience.

Volume Two’s biggest treat is 15-year-old soloist Lynda Nile’s performance on the Montreal Black Community Youth Choir’s “Tryin’ Times.” The honesty and directness of her performance is staggering. Flugelhornist Fred Stone’s original “Maiera” is another winner — particularly when Stone lets loose around the one-minute mark, and that is followed by a percussive flourish sixty seconds later sure to please fans of Pharaoh Sanders’ Astral Traveling.

Whether you’re a jazz purist or the type who comes to jazz by way of mixes and compilations from the likes of Gilles Peterson, Quantic and Jazzanova, I believe you’re Ready for this series.

Shout Out Out Out
Not Saying/Just Saying
Normals Welcome/Six Shooter/ 2006
♥♥♥½

Evan Johnson

Shout Out Out Out Out seem to be part of the contingent of bands that are so confident that they deliberately choose clunky, awkward, annoying names (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Hoobastank, !!!, Badical Turbo Radness). I don’t know who told these guys that you could be both confident and from Edmonton, but I’m glad they did: it’s the sheer, brazen gusto of “Not Saying/Just Saying” that prevents its electrofunk grooves from lapsing entirely into the cheeky irony with which they constantly flirt.

The primary agent of that cheek, and one of the album’s interesting problems, is the use of the vocoder on all the vocals. I have no problem with the vocoder per se; it can be used to great effect, particularly when juxtaposed with untreated human vocals (see Kraftwerk’s majestic “Europa Endlos”); it can also turn an already bad song into a total wreck, as on Neil Young’s poorly conceived but hilariously-titled “Computer Cowboy.” In the case of Shout Out Out Out Out, it usually works well with any given song, but the cumulative effect is rather alienating and seems to suggest, whether it’s true or not, that the band lacks a compelling vocalist.

The flipside is that because the vocoder is so steadfastly employed, it’s clear that it isn’t merely a cynical, campy throwback. They really mean it. Plus, some of these songs are simply too good to be dismissed, particularly the quasikrautrock opener “Forever Indebted” and the six-minute “They Tear Down Houses, Don’t They?” which features a terrific synth hook and dynamic, layered percussion.

The Alarm MMVI
Under Attack
EMI Music/ 2006
♥½

Cory Anderson

After 10 albums, 21 singles, and 23 years of performing, including opening up for U2 during their War tour, the Alarm MMVI now sound exactly like U2. This is most evident on “It’s Alright/It’s OK” where lead singer Mike Peters’ vocals sound unmistakably like Bono’s. It is actually difficult to picture anyone but Bono singing not only on this track but throughout the entire album due to this resemblance. The band lacks originality with their lyrics as they simply reiterate song titles such as “It’s Alright/It’s OK” in their tracks without providing any substance to the listener. I could immediately recite the lyrics back with the music. In fact, this is typical of the rest of the album. The track “Zero” is simply Peters shouting the number over and over.

“Cease and Desist” is a more upbeat track in the style of the Ramones, with chanting similar to their “Blitzkrieg Bop’s” memorable “Hey! Ho! Let’s go!” The album’s final track, “This Is The Way We Are” begins with a harmonica and a softly played acoustic guitar in the same vein as much of R.E.M.’s earlier work, but with Bono’s vocals. This Welsh band lacks creativity and their sound comes across more than anything else as a knockoff of more successful rock groups.

Starlight Mints
Drowaton
Barsuk Records/ 2006
♥♥♥♥

Micheal Elves

Less a little brother to Pavement than first cousin, Starlight Mints bear a sonic resemblance to the quirky slackers but not to such an extent that it comes across as mere mimicry. Their prior album, Built on Squares, hinted at the Malkmus-esque leanings of the band but on Drowaton the Mints have released what could stand as an able follow-up to Terror Twilight.

The album starts with the eerie “tra-la-las” of “Pumpkin” and Allan Vest’s falsetto, which both bring to mind the Flaming Lips. But as Vest starts singing the first lines to “Torts” and the time signature changes up for the chorus the off-kilter pop loses the Lips-leanings and segues effortlessly into the brilliance of “Inside of Me” (with its incredibly infectious rolling piano) and from there Vest and Co. pound the pavement and spend the rest of the album crafting pop gems that are just a little left of the norm — much as Malkmus and his cohorts did until the end of the nineties. Where the two bands differ though — and what prevents the Starlight Mints from being the PaveMints — is the high-gloss sheen on Drowaton. Pavement embraced the lo-fi aesthetic of their era while the Starlight Mints are all about crystalline sounds: the horns and strings that augment the sounds of this four-piece are prominent in the mix and crucial to the success of the album.

The Creepshow
Sell Your Soul
Stereo Dynamite Recording / 2006
♥♥♥½

cory Anderson

Cyndi Lauper meets Fright Night (1985) is the best way to describe the tone that the Creepshow strive for with their debut album. Half 1950s rockabilly and half satanic-infused punk rock, the band embraces the cheesy tone from old zombie and werewolf movies with their tongue planted firmly in cheek.

The album begins with a piercingly loud screech accompanied by a pipe organ whilst a satanic priest recites a hellish sermon. This leads into the second track, “Creatures of the Night,” which is a vibrant proclamation of how fun it can be to be one of the damned. “Zombies ate her brain” is a mix between the summer-loving songs from the 1978 film Grease and twangy guitars with fast-paced drumming.

Jen “Hellcat” Blackwood’s sweet and soft lead vocals played against acoustic guitar gives the dark yet upbeat “The Garden” a unique twist that separates it from any other band’s ’50sinspired dance tracks. The band kicks back to old-school rock ‘n roll with “Shake,” cheerfully infused with Hellcat’s playful and gutsy attitude as she shouts “You make me wanna scream!” With Sell Your Soul, the Creepshow successfully achieve an extraordinarily original blend of a Halloween-themed tone, hardcore rock and jive.