The Rosewood Thieves: Rise & Shine Review

The Rosewood Thieves are a rare breed. Many bands now and days sound like a modern band trying to replicate the sound of an older generation, but then there are those select few who sound like they were pulled right from that older generation. The Rosewood Thieves fit the latter, they have that authentic 60s sound. Rise & Shine specifically, has the spacey and psychedelic touch that made much of The Beatles later catalog so special.

Sounds of organs and spacey guitar solos echo throughout the album giving Rise & Shine a psychedelic feel. The songs on the album range from fun and vibrant numbers (i.e. "Silver Gun") to having a darker and more ominous tone (i.e. "Heavy Eyes".) However, the upbeat songs vastly outweigh the number of darker tracks. As I mentioned in past reviews of the Thieves, singer Erick Jordan has an oddly similar voice to that of John Lennon, he matches the grit and edge while being able to soothe the listener on slower tracks.

The Rosewood Thieves are one of those rare gems that have gone unnoticed for too long. If it is true that the youth of today are embracing classic rock, then the Thieves shouldn't have to wait too much longer to bask in the spotlight.

Grade: B

David Bowie: Live Santa Monica 72' Review

One thing you can always expect from Bowie, is a stunning live performance. This CD captures Bowie at the perfect moment in his career - when Bowie was Ziggy playing with the Spiders from Mars. The setlist for the show was solid, predominantly covering The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars as well as other Bowie classics such as "Space Oddity", "Life on Mars?', and "Jean Jeanie". Bowie also throws two covers into the setlist, the standout song being the Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting for the Man".

A unique aspect of this CD is the fact that it is a recording of the radio show which transmitted it, so the intro begins with the DJ introducing the show, and concludes announcing to the listeners that the band is coming back out for an encore. Considering it was recorded by a radio station the quality is quite good taking into account when it was performed. Another great characteristic of this live album which far too many live albums remove, is the actual communication with the band and audience. This gives the live album a much more intimate and authentic feel.

When it comes to the music the band rarely alters any of the songs for the live performance and keeps true to the original recordings. However, the standout track must be the epic "The Width of a Circle" where guitarist Mick Ronson shows off his shredding chops. While this album may not be essential to the average Bowie fan it is a nice addition to a big Bowie fans library if they do not already own a bootleg of the show.

Grade: B+

Shuffled Songs Sunday

1. Modest Mouse - Interlude
2. Radiohead - Prove Yourself
3. The Smashing Pumpkins - Farewell and Goodnight
4. John Lennon - I Found Out
5. Cat Power - Good Woman
6. Gran Bel Fisher - Crash and Burn
7. Korn - Hey Daddy
8. Jimi Hendrix - Spanish Castle Magic
9. The Smashing Pumpkins - 7 Shades of Black
10. Pink Floyd - Eclipse
11. Nirvana - Molly’s Lips
12. Yes - Mood for a Day
13. Genesis - Get em’ Out By Friday
14. Neil Young - A Man Needs a Maid
15. Buddy Holly - Dearest
16. Marvin Gaye - You
17. Bob Dylan - Oxford Town
18. David Bowie - Five Years
19. Mountain - King’s Chorale
20. Nirvana - Milk It

It would certainly be dificult to find a list as diverse as this one. Also, why do I still have Korn's Issues album on my Ipod? Looks like I can do a little more cleaning to add some deserving music.

Where Have All the Concerts Gone?

Why is there just one lonely concert ticket sitting in my wallet and June is more than half way through? What makes this situation even worse, is the fact that the ticket is for a festival featuring Chris Daughtry, Avril Lavigne, and the only band worth going to see, Live. Before I get attacked for actually possessing a ticket for this festival, let it be known that it is a gift to my girlfriend.

Maybe it's just me, but this summer's concert series is looking very lackluster. Typically my calendar would be marked to the bone with concert dates, but this year it is the complete opposite. The only band I'm looking forward to possibly seeing is Boston, a band who doesn't even have their original singer. Around a month ago I was excited to see Yes, but as my luck would have it, they canceled their tour due to health problems with Jon Anderson.

This is truly a depressing summer. Entering the real world certainly doesn't aid my concertless depression, if anything it escalates it by making it that much more difficult to see concerts I want to see (i.e. Radiohead.) Not to mention the ridiculously high ticket prices (i.e. The Mars Volta $45 which becomes at least $60 after "service fees", whatever the hell they are.) Regardless, it appears to me that this summer is a pretty dull one for concerts, I suppose I can always sit back and relax while watching David Gilmour's Live DVD. Now that is a concert I would love to see again...

The Offspring: Rise & Fall, Rage & Grace Review

The Offspring's latest album Rise & Fall, Rage & Grace has a typical pop punk theme - the world sucks, our culture sucks, and the government sucks. Unfortunately, the modern pop punk side comes out a bit too much.

Even though pop punk appears to be a rather immature genre, The Offspring have clearly displayed that they have matured with their older age. They have abandoned the childish humor of "Pretty Fly for a White Guy" and "Original Prankster" and have opted for a more serious tone. With that maturity, the band went as far as recording a ballad with "Kristy, Are You Doing OK?" Singer Dexter Holland's voice on the track sounds overly nasally and at times can be reminiscent of whiny emo vocals.

Rise & Fall, Rage Grace, has its moments but for the most part the album is pretty forgettable. It suffers from many of the flaws of modern pop punk; the sound is completely recyclable. In fact, numerous riffs sound oddly similar to that of Green Day's, for example: "Nothingtown" and "Fix You." Rise & Fall, Rage & Grace doesn't bring anything new to the table, it sounds like any other recycled pop punk album on the market, and if it came down to it, I may give it a bit of an edge over the competition which is vastly horrendous. The Offspring had their niche in the mid 90s and were able to keep strong up to and including Conspiracy of One, but their uniqueness has quickly dissipated. One, because band after band have worked to recreate The Offspring's sound, and two, because it's a genre of music which breeds mediocrity, and mediocre is exactly what this album sounds like.

Grace: C

The Rosewood Thieves: Lonesome Review

If the last Rosewood Thieves album sounded like Dylan's Bringing it All Back Home, than The Rosewood Thieves Lonesome sounds like Freewheelin' Dylan. Lonesome is a pure folk album which sparsely departs from that sound. While their first album, From the Decker House, relied primarily on hooks and melodies, Lonesome relies on slow tempos, strong lyrics and soothing vocals.

Lonesome primarily has a very relaxed mood, with slow and simple strums of the guitar with the occasional finger picking backed by a mellow drum beat. Even though the majority of the album is relaxing, the strongest track is a bit more upbeat. "Murder Ballad in G Minor" sounds like it could have been ripped from a classic Western with sounds of snapping whips and a story of an evil woman. It is easily the catchiest song on Lonesome.

Throughout the album you can clearly hear a strong influence from Dylan. Singer Erick Jordan often vocalizes the lyrics just like Bob. For instance, "Honey, Stay Awhile" has a story that resembles "Girl From the North Country", and not only is the story similar, but the vocalizing of the lyrics is similar.

Despite the constant comparison to Dylan, this album sounds natural and fresh. Lonesome's soothing sounds and strong storytelling keep this album which could have easily fallen into the pitfalls of another dull folk record, into an enjoyable listen.

Grade: B

The Rosewood Thieves: From the Decker House EP Review

I reviewed this CD nearly two years ago on another blog and am planning on writing a review for their follow up EP tomorrow. In the meantime, here is a review of their fantastic debut.

While surfing the Internet I randomly stumbled across this band and heard very positive reviews. I decided to listen to one of their songs “Lose Angeles”, and from the first twenty seconds of the song, the only thing I knew I had to do was to grab this album fast. The song is incredibly catchy and has that folk rock attitude that is missing from popular music. Singer Erik Jordan sounds more like John Lennon than Lennon himself, at times it is actually eerie how similar the vocals are. The thing that The Rosewood Thieves bring to the table and execute perfectly on, is simplicity.

The Thieves’ simple melodic song structure continues song after song and gives the album a really intimate feel. To add to the intimacy, the personal lyrics projecting love and heartbreak only build on top of the musical closeness. The beautiful sound The Thieves purvey seems to come so easy, never reaching out too far and never sounding too pretentious. On “Back Home to Harlem” many bands would make the mistake to add screaming vocals and depressing melodies to capture the heartbreaking lyrics. Instead The Rosewood Thieves keep the equation simple; keeping a solid melody that is both catchy and unique and letting the words to the talking opposed to the voice propelling them.

The Rosewood Thieves have a very refreshing sound, bringing back the great era of Folk Rock. The album sounds like the “Bringing It Back Home” days of Dylan; they don’t go for pure folk and at the same time they don’t stray away from it. The song “Doctor” sounds just like “Subterranean Homesick Blues” with very reminiscent guitar licks and instrumentation.

The Rosewood Thieves look like a band displaying heavy potential considering the songs on this CD were written when Erik Jordan was only twenty years old. For a debut The Rosewood Thieves are showing a lot of promise, but then again we’ve seen a lot of really quality debut albums.

Grade: B+

Yeah Yeah Yeah's - Fever to Tell Review

For the past few months I've been on a Yeah Yeah Yeahs music listening binge. It has gotten so bad that they've practically had exclusive rights to my stereo and Ipod. I figured that maybe after three months I would have been so sick of their debut album Fever to Tell I would have burned it along with other spirit of the moment albums. For better or worse, that has not been the case. There songs play through my head from the moment I wake up to the time I fall asleep. Considering things have gotten so bad, I only sit it fit to write a review for their debut album Fever to Tell.

It is garage rock at its finest. It is in your face, brash, unpolished, and has more energy than a bar room brawl. The music centers around the vocals of Karen-O who sounds like Patti Smith after a few hits of crack. She manages to make the music sexually charged with her moaning and groaning along with lyrics that will make your mother blush. While many bands will sacrifice edginess for melody, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are able to write songs that are memorable. Songs like "No No No" and "Pin" hit heavy with all of their beautiful chaos and at the same time retain a strong melody. The Yeah Yeah Yeah's also show potential of being an accessible band to modern radio listeners with songs like "Maps" which has an infectious drum line and bittersweet lyrics, and "Y Control" which has a great bouncing rhythm and an extremely strong chorus.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs nail the seemingly difficult task of meshing edginess with a melody, and it pays off. Far too many bands miss the boat when trying to go for one or the other, however, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have it down to a science. Fever to Tell is an unforgettable garage rock classic, thanks in part to Karen-O's manic presence and the bands stellar song writing.

Grade: A

Weezer: Weezer (The Red Album) Review

I've been racking my brain for the last few days working to find out why the newest Weezer album sounds like it does. Their newest self titled album which I will refer to as The Red Album is a major departure musically from their past catalog. Here Weezer attempts to integrate the oddest of genres, most notably, rap. While Rivers Cuomo has never been known for writing eloquent lyrics, he truly outdoes himself with some of the worst lyrics that I have ever heard, and while it may seem they are so bad they were meant to be comical, they fall short of even achieving that end.

There are moments in the album where the Weezer of old is musically present, but far too often they are pressing for some kind of innovative sound. For instance on "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)", they give us an asinine rap intro that would even make Weird Al fans cringe. "Everybody Get Dangerous" sounds as if it came from a Red Hot Chili Peppers cover band with Rivers using vocal techniques identical to that of Anthony Kiedis. Of course none of this suits their style. The power pop of old is absent for the majority of the album.

There are however a number of bright moments such as the single "Pork and Beans". It sounds like the Weezer which we have all become accustomed to with a hook as strong as any of their past songs. "Dreamin'" has a great bouncing rhythm and sounds like it could have been pulled straight from a Blue Album or Pinkerton recording session. The closing song follows the typical Weezer fashion with its melodramatic feel and at least leaves us thinking positive after a grueling journey. Other members also get their chance at songwriting and while it isn't necessarily a strong point on the album, it does hold its own.

Now I'm not one to dedicate a chunk of a review to lyrics but this album has such hideously bad lyrics that I almost feel embarrassed to listen to this album in any fashion other than through headphones. Instead of elaborating on how bad they are I'll just post a few of the greatest moments from three different songs, "You try to play cool / Like you just don’t care /But soon I’ll be playin’ in your Underwear." "When I was younger / I used to go and tip cows for fun, yeah / Actually I didn't do that / 'Cos I didn't want the cow to be sad / But some of my friends did." "I’m a troublemaker / Never been a faker /Doing things my own way /And never giving up. / I’m a troublemaker /Not a double taker".

As I said earlier, I've been trying to rationalize why this album has fallen so short of the rest of their work. Weezer has yet to release a sub par album until The Red Album, and now they have fallen off the edge. My original theory is that they intentionally released a bad album in response to their unease with Geffen records who inspired "Pork and Beans" for their request of more commercial music. While this probably is not likely, I am trying to hold some hope, because even the artwork is horrific.

Grade: C-