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our brief reviews of new releases
26 September 2006
Despite both the band and album name, Black Helicopter’s Invisible Jet won’t sneak up on anyone. The group dirties up its guitars and powers ahead for the length of the disc, mixing some metal influences with a grunge feel. The resulting sound comes across a little as a throwback, but without the baggage that term usually carries. The opening ode to a car may lyrically be an updated ‘50s romp, but songwriter Tim Shea shows he can nail intense problems on “Take My Life”, in which a divorced man growls, “How’s my kids / How’s my wife / How’s my house / How’s my wife?” The wordplay is more functional than impressive, but it combines with the music for an effective and surprisingly even-keeled track. The album, while enjoyable throughout, seldom reaches that kind of memorable peak, leaving this Invisible Jet a good ride, but a little short on thrust.
[Amazon ]
—Justin Cober-Lake 4:00 am
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26 September 2006
 Garth Reeves has gathered up and called upon a horde of Seattle musicians to lend a hand on his latest album, including Pete Droge. Its rootsy, mid-tempo opener “Out of Tune” brings to mind a blending of Bonnie Raitt, Tom Petty, and Randy Newman. Reeves has an earthy earnestness in his voice that brings rather simple tunes like “All Around You” to life quickly, while fans of Tim Easton would cherish the slow, folksy, and tender cover of John Martyn’s “Angeline”. Reeves branches out briefly with a different, layered backbeat for “This River” while giving the Americana song some orchestral, string-tinged touches. The result is an interesting but busy song that is good but not great. It’s the album’s aberration, as tracks such as the infectious, roots pop nugget “Golden Bottom”, which is golden indeed, make up the bulk of the material. He seems to take a rest with the Mavericks-like “Lucky One”, which saunters along without a care in the world. “Caroline” makes up for this slight miscue with more singer-songwriter pizzazz than you could hope for, all with a Gram Parsons/Rolling Stones country swagger to it.
[Amazon]
—Jason MacNeil 2:00 am
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25 September 2006
Brothermandude, Brothermandude (Adrenaline Music Group)A success story from MySpace is now almost commonplace, but Brothermandude want to ensure that more than online users hear them. Their debut album has lead singer Shake’s raspy voice sounding like Rod Stewart or Bryan Adams in his prime during the powerful and punchy “Movin On”. The band definitely has substance, especially on the mid-tempo “Living High” that sounds like John Mayer or Dave Matthews with a chip on his shoulder. There’s a certain dark, mysterious quality to the songs that give them depth, particularly on the winding, edgier “Slicksville”, which is a tad slick. Thankfully they get back to basics with the catchy, pop rock of “Painkiller” with lead singer Shake running on all cylinders. Even what could be dubbed as filler is very strong, particularly the radio-friendly “Automatic”. However, the group can’t save “Heart Attack” from itself, resulting in the first bump in the record. The gear shifting “Mannequin” fares better as does the heady “Angel Sphere” with its Middle Eastern textures. The group chose an odd coda in a seven-minute “Souls” but Brothermandude aren’t your typical cookie-cutter bands. Not by a longshot… dude.
[Amazon]
—Jason MacNeil 10:00 am
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25 September 2006
 What good is a group that drools over hip-hop’s golden age when platinum now rules the rap world? Basic Vocab don’t seem dumb, but ignoring the current state of what sells, lyrically-retarded crunk, is foolish. Fortunately, foolish proves foolproof here on an unexpectedly sturdy debut record. Hailing from Miami, the threesome of MCs JL Sorell and Mental Growth, and producer Tony Galvin use their time to shine a flashlight on the familiar. “Come Get With It” is the shoulder-shuffling first single, a mating dance whose steps follow the lead of A Tribe Called Quest or Slum Village. No amount of hero worship can secure Basic Vocab’s MCs a prominent place next to Fat Lip or Q-Tip but they ride atop breezy boom-bap beats with ease, spitting coherent rhymes to tickle your eardrums. “Vibin’” sees Galvin striking all the right chords. Meanwhile, JL Sorell and Mental Growth challenge the freshness of modern hip-hop without leaning too hard on well-worn platitudes. Miami may be party central, but on “Fallen One” Basic Vocab bat around their ideas about terrorism and ghetto hustlin’. Too laid back to be heavy-handed, The General Dynamic has too few throwaway moments to dwell in underground obscurity.
[Amazon]
—Pierre Hamilton 8:00 am
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25 September 2006
 The sound of Sleepthief is the sound of a formula at work, and not even a formula that Sleepthief primary programmer Justin Elswick came up with: Find mid-tempo dance beat. Add strings (for drama). Add electronics (for “edge"). Add female vocalist (for singability). Repeat. Luckily for those who are into that particular version of the new-age electronic stylings of latter-period Enigma, Delerium, and Conjure One, he follows this particular formula perfectly for 13 tracks on his new album The Dawnseeker. Less fortunately, the use of that formula means that any one of these tracks is awfully close to indistinguishable from any other track on the disc. Breaking the mold are the two covers—the cover of Duran Duran’s “The Chauffeur” is mercifully true to the original (save for the presence of the lovely-voiced Kirsty Hawkshaw) and Berlin’s “The Metro” is afforded a nice, clubby dance beat. Otherwise, only “Afterthoughts”, a slowly-building, percolating treasure written and performed by previously-unknown Lauren Edman, distinguishes itself at all. Despite the talent on hand here (Kristy Thirsk of Rose Chronicles and Jody Quine of Balligomingo make appearances as well), The Dawnseeker just doesn’t make an impact; perhaps Elswick should have let his obvious love of ‘80s synthpop carry him in another direction, far away from this soupy, sticky fog.
[Amazon]
—Mike Schiller 6:00 am
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25 September 2006
Delta Nove, The Future Is When (Capitol)Don’t expect Delta Nove to describe their sound. They won’t and you would have a hard time telling anyone what it is, aside from muttering, “Hell, listen to it yourself.” But it’s my job to tell you something about it. So here goes. The album is a mix of groove, funk, soul, hip-hop, reggae and world judging by the feel-good “Get on Down”, which should encourage some spliff rolling. More funk than jam initially, the band gets rolling again with the Kingston-flavored, horn-accented “Hard Times” that is comparable to Canadian act Bedouin Soundclash, while “Frog N’ Toad” offers a Motown-influenced Sublime-meets-Zappa vibe. Then the percussion-driven, Southern-fried “Maraca Eu (Maraca Tu)” gets the groove going again. Musically they push themselves to the brink, with the Latin, Santana-ish “Giacomo” being a fine, winding and warm island instrumental romp. But “Don’t Burn the Beans” is a forgettable, messy attempt at New Orleans swing. “Bongo Bong” redeems the band again with a light, airy, Marley hue that gallops into a dance-inducing ska beat.
[Amazon]
—Jason MacNeil 4:00 am
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25 September 2006
 If you had a joint for every Bob Marley compilation that’s been released since the man’s death in 1981, you could keep Willie Nelson high for a month. Legend is, and always will be, the definitive single-disc Marley collection. The folks at Starbucks are hoping their clientele are ready to dig a little deeper—but not too deep—into the Marley catalog. Everything’s Gonna Be Alright does a nice job of including some major singles from Marley & The Wailers’ Lee Perry period ("Duppy Conqueror”, “Sun is Shining"). With only a couple songs duplicated from Legend, you get a couple lesser-known tracks from each of Marley’s Island albums. These include don’t-miss cuts like the wicked “Them Belly Full” and trippy “Natural Mystic”. But Marley fell off on his last few albums, and of the inclusions from those, only “Zimbabwe” stands out. If you can stomach “I Shot the Sheriff” one more time, this is a nice companion piece to Legend, but don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re getting even half Marley’s story.
[Amazon]
—John Bergstrom 2:00 am
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22 September 2006
AFI meets Aiden… a comparison that will have sullen 13-year-old girls excited, and the rest of us nauseous at the sight of these comb-over sporting emo kids. Although On the Last Day has not (yet) reached the comical level of self-parody of Aiden, they’re still a long, long way from the kind of commercial-friendly melodrama that AFI have cashed in on. The very definition of cookie-cutter post-hardcore, the riffs alternate from limp pop punk to half-assed one-note metalcore breakdowns, the vocals lack both charisma and hooks, the production is lifeless, and the album is a complete and utter failure when it comes to establishing the kind of melancholy mood that emo/screamo thrives upon. “Initial Deployment” and “A Welcome Haunting” has the band finally waking the hell up a half hour into the CD, but by then, it’s a lost cause on an album with little to no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
[Amazon]
—Adrien Begrand 12:00 pm
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