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Lebanon

Planet Rubble

(Australian Cattle God; US: 15 May 2007; UK: Available as import)

A band from Tel Aviv named Lebanon? Go figure. Well, whatever the band’s moniker, this group can certainly meld a lot of genres. The quartet gets the ball rolling with “Finland” (not a Monty Python cover) that fuses a spacey, psychedelic hue with some arty Yo La Tengo-meets-Explosions in the Sky arrangements. Lebanon also toss in some Metallica-ish metal during the, at times, breezy “Buried in the Avenue” that also has many Floydian touches. But the eerie, Barrett-like “The Dying Dying Man” seems to bring the album to another level. This format is revisited during the spooky and aptly titled “Poltergeist”. Other gems here are the winding, deliberate and somewhat dark “Megalith” and the equally pretty “Joan of Arc” with its slightly hard rock feel.

Rating:

Originally from Cape Breton, MacNeil is currently writing for the Toronto Sun as well as other publications, including All Music Guide, Billboard.com, NME.com, Country Standard Time, Skope Magazine, Chart Magazine, Glide, Ft. Myers Magazine and Celtic Heritage. A graduate of the University of King's College, MacNeil currently resides in Toronto. He has interviewed hundreds of acts ranging from Metallica and AC/DC to Daniel Lanois and Smokey Robinson. MacNeil (modestly referred to as King J to friends), a diehard Philadelphia Flyers fan, has seen the Rolling Stones in a club setting, thereby knowing he will rest in peace at some point down the road. Oh, and he writes for PopMatters.com.


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