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08 March 2006

The Stairs, On Sleep Lab (Access to Vision) Rating: 8
The Boston music press missed the boat on The Stairs, waiting until the eve of their final show to give them any real notice. That final show for The Stairs was also the release party for their sprawling, 15-track swan song, On Sleep Lab. It's a predictably ambitious album; The Stairs never sounded like a local band and were never ones to let relative obscurity dictate their actions, releasing three full-lengths (including a song by song cover album of the Silver Jews album The Natural Bridge) and the Chime Away EP. They racked up consistently good reviews on the web and were even able to get themselves out of Massachusetts for a two-week string of shows dubbed the "We're So Underground We're Practically in Japan" tour (it's also the title of one of On Sleeps Lab's final songs). And they got better with each album, more adept at layering instruments and harmonies, smarter about arranging their restlessly creative ideas to support their always present reach for hooks. It's no coincidence that this album holds their best song, and probably the best song to come out of Boston last year, the startlingly good "Escape Clause" ("I know the names off 666 stars and the men whose allegiance leaves scars"). They aren't afraid to let some songs sprawl and meander, while others ("All Hands on Hano Street," ""Einstein & His Enemies") gel into little nuggets almost right away. Some, most notably "Fireflies (November 10th)," manage to do both. Their best songs can make you feel like you're hearing their creation on the spot. You get caught up in a giddy excitement that doesn't get carried away, that serves the songs instead of itself. The album's final words, "Once you're dead, you're done... you don't come back," in this case are only partially true; Stairs singer Ryan Walsh has an excellent new band, Hallelujah the Hills, picking up where his fine former band left off. [Insound]
      — Jon Langmead
"Escape Clause": [MP3]
"These Damn Hands": [MP3]
"This Town Let Me Down": [MP3]

Malkovich Music, Skeletons (self-released) Rating: 6
Gershwin BLX member Crag Malkovich steps out on his own with a debut solo album as Malkovich Music, Skeletons. Lines like "I walk through life with my heart on my sleeve" doom him to be perpetually labeled "emo rap", but we're smarter than that, right? And while Malkovich isn't exactly a contender for top MC in the game, he flows with an unhurried facility and ease that suits the downtempo production well. His choice of content matter ranges from the aforementioned emo to near abstraction, but he manages to hold interest even as he introspects through his charismatic delivery and a knack for imagery. The production draws your real attention here: the beats are dark and spare, stripped-back soundscapes built from sluggish drums and dim, twilight samples. "Innerview" explodes in an eerie twinkle of broken glass, hell and shimmery strings; "Skeletons (Malkovich Theme)" is like a Nintendo soundtrack drifting slowly through a spacey nightmare. The real highlight here, "Old Soul", combines a dense, thickening-thinning build-shrink beat with some of Malkovich's best lyrics and ends up with something transcendent. In the end, Skeletons is sitting at home, alone on that late night, and thinking about life. The good times, the bad times, alone; to dismiss this with merely a label would be unfair. — Michael Frauenhofer [Insound]
Skeletons: [player]

Various Artists, The Best of the Taste of Chaos (Warcon) Rating: 3
The Taste of Chaos Tour is positioning itself as the harder twin of the Warped Tour, and on the basis of this double-disc collection of affiliated acts, it succeeds: it, too, can jam-pack multiple stages with vapid, mediocre, cookie-cutter drivel. Anyone who can tell Bleed the Dream, Bleeding Through, and the Bled apart (all are represented here, as are Bloodsimple and Most Precious Blood) deserves free tickets and a remedial course in music history. Not only are these bands same-sounding, but it's a terrible sound: fence-sitting between metal and punk, most of the bands bust out frail aggro on the verses but then retreat to tired pop-punk melodies for the choruses (or vice versa), in a cynical display of knowledge as to what pays the bills. To be fair, there are bright moments; Billy Talent's "Red Flag" is a great burst of fist-pumping old-school punk, while the Dillinger Escape Plan's "Unretrofied" remains as ridiculously catchy as it was when its new-wave inflected metalcore inspired outrage on extreme-music discussion boards two years ago. For each such pleasant tidbit, though, there are six generic doses of Story of the Year, Dark New Day, etc. Worst of all is Matchbook Romance, who apparently missed the memo about faux-metal replacing acoustic whining as the standard-bearer of the semi-hipster teen market; they trot out an unbearable five minute sedative that sounds like Dashboard Confessional covering Peter Frampton, complete with lyrics such as, "Baby, if you want me to/I'd do anything for you". It almost makes one appreciate the mindless screaming plastering this collection, but not quite. — Whitney Strub [Insound]

Rachael Cantu, Run All Night EP (Q Division) Rating: 5
The oaky, haunted voice of California-via-Boston singer-songwriter Rachael Cantu is, wisely, the showpiece of her sophomore EP Run All Night. It's a mature fit for the eight stark, shadowy mood pieces within, as evocative as the tasty instrumental embellishments that provide stylistic compliment. The tension-building "My First War", dimly shimmering "Sweat & Bones", and deliberately haggard title track all hang their naked folky bones on the strength of her croon. Cantu's exceptional voice can't exactly mask her unexceptional songs, however, nor does it forgive her prosaic lyrics ("You say that you love me / And you say that you need me" is one of the not-so-profound semi-refrains indicative of the lyrical content in general). If Run All Night can boast anything, it's that it has a voice made for regretful late nights, a voice you would tireless long for if it were only given something interesting to say. — Zeth Lundy [Insound]

The States, Multiply Not Divide (self-released) Rating: 6
Big old fat disclosure: went to college with these guys; but the good news w/r/t objectivity is, I never saw them or heard any material till now. Expecting MOR rock (the press material describes the band's sound as "U2 mixed with Led Zeppelin"), though, you'll be pleasantly surprised: The States combine exceedingly familiar components into a refreshing, melodic brand of geek-rock. Sure, the 5-3-5-3 oscillation on "Diplomats" is ripped straight from the Strokes ("12:51"), but made up for by the gorgeous "don't walk away" chorus. Other songs, like "Inquisition" and "x not ÷" update classic U2 sound all lugubrious-Franz-Ferdipants-dance-pop-rock. But as the album's title suggests, mathematics is the key: a girl doesn't walk over, she "asymptotically approaches". The sound quality's entirely demo-level, unfortunately; these songs could use a slick makeover -- then, it's no far stretch to imagine them blasting over MTV2 or mainstream radio. — Dan Raper [Insound]

.: posted by Editor 7:46 AM