CD Review: Anne Castellano - What's Been Going On

Published November 10, 2010
By Adam Wujtewicz

Armed with a drum machine and rack of guitars Anne Castellano is releasing What’s Been Going On this Friday November 12th at the Hygienic Art Gallery.  Performed and recorded on her own, (except for the first 2 songs which Matt Potter of Fatal Film recorded and played bass on and having the mastering done by Jim Carpenter of the Hoolios), Anne acted alone and took the time to really think this one out.

The guitars and effects are stacked high up on top of each other leaving only the drum machine and bass tracks to keep them from toppling over.  Their sound drifts like a dense electric fog over every song.  The guitars do have a lot of high frequencies and chorus effects that give them their airy quality and this allows the drum machine and bass to do a more than adequate job holding up the low end.  Anne’s voice is the focus of this album though.  Her voice is strong, melodic and shines through the music without trouble, but this is not a white light at all.  Anne has a dark and brooding quality about her voice that makes her music what it is.  The songs are upbeat enough to be pop but almost all of them have a minor tone and feeling to them.

There are a lot of early 80’s alternative bands, like Psychedelic Furs and the Cure that Anne is drawing influence from but she absolutely puts her own stamp on everything.  When those bands did a single it was decidedly more pop than anything else they did.  Anne has melded enough pop sensibility and recognizable song structure into her own brand of dark alternative songwriting.  This makes for an easy flow through the album and allows the listener to decide which song to grab ahold of rather than having the band tell you.  “How Much More” is my favorite song on the record - it’s got a steady driving tempo and vocal melody that will easily get stuck in your head.  The mix between the vocal and the guitar on this song is much closer than the others which makes it into a tighter, denser package.

What’s Been Going On as a whole is an easy listen and you will instantly feel like you’ve owned it forever.  The songs are familiar but not overplayed and they all give you something a little different to key in on.

CD Review: Erik Lamb - Shoot Everything

Published October 30, 2010
By Adam Wujtewicz


I always wondered why there weren’t more hip-hop artists that embraced beats with more of a techno/electronica sound.  I may have been looking in the wrong place all this time but Erik Lamb is doing it and he’s making it sound like a viable option.   

Shoot Everything is as professional sounding an album as you’ll hear.  All the sounds are crisp, the vocals are all duplicated in the right places and the beats all bounce at the right tempo.  None of this makes Shoot Everything sound cookie cutter… it means it’s easy on the ears, it means that there is more than likely going to be some fist pumping going on at his shows.  Actually I think the thing that takes the longest to get used to is Erik’s voice.  It’s got an Aesop Rock sort of nasal quality that gives it character.  I personally love Aesop Rock and think his voice is his best attribute and similarly with Erik Lamb.  He’s got an incredibly laid back sound to his voice no matter how fast his rapping or what he’s rapping about.  It’s a sort of quiet confidence that is incredibly refreshing when compared to the soulless mainstream hip-hop chest-beating and materialism.  

Speaking of mainstream hip-hop, stealing a page from Jay Z and twisting it into a clever turn of phrase Erik says "99 problems, the past is done, I’ve got 99 bananas let me pass you some” in “Peapod”.  Things like that make me laugh and that’s what makes hip-hop fun, and isn’t that why we’re listening?  The song after “Peapod” is “7:30” and that’s my vote for best beat on the record.  Just about every tone in the song has the skipping CD sound to it and when you line them all up it sounds amazing. 

Shoot Everything is equal parts indie rap intelligence and mass appeal madness.  This may be one of the only records that fist pumping goons, uber stoned cheeba monkeys and everyone in between can agree on the merits of.

CD Review: Get Haunted - Volume 1 & 2

Published September 30, 2010
By Adam Wujtewicz

Get Haunted Vol. 1 was recorded and co-produced by Bobby Crash and includes Kevin Hodge of Brava Spectre, on slide guitar.  Despite the subject matter of death and monsters, Bobby was able to make these songs sound jumpy and fun. The banjo is distorted and slashing, the drums thump and clip and the slide guitar floats above the whole thing like an angry spirit.  The music is like a snake handler keg party... it’s fun and dangerous and you will never forget it.

Joey’s voice absolutely booms over this spastic junkyard band.  It’s got melody and heft which is not usually a combination you hear anymore.  There may be a little Johnny Cash twang and low end in his delivery but let it never be said that Joey doesn’t have his own style.  The chorus's on this record are what really puts the final nail in the coffin though.  Almost the entire album, especially "1,000’s of Devils" and "Jim", is meant to be shouted along with.  Yeah it might be a strain on your voice and it’s certainly creepy but these are really catchy and easy to sing to choruses.

The charm of the entire record is that it brings us all to the same place.  Most people will tell you that you can interpret music however you want and that’s the beauty of it.  I disagree; I think what makes something great is the ability to make many different people feel the same way.  Get Haunted reminds us why it’s fun to watch horror movies and why we don’t care if we step on each others’ toes or get hit with an elbow when we’re dancing.  It’s just the ability to throw caution to the wind and get caught in a moment that makes us alive.

Get Haunted Vol. 2 is a much more somber and concentrated effort.  Done completely by themselves, except for "Silver Eyes" where Bobby Crash plays drums, Joey and Sarah show you what 2 people that have a passion for each other and music can do on a record.  Vol. 2 has a sort of folk/gospel feel to a few of the songs and it colors the entire album with a sort of supernatural/spiritual feeling.  Not so much like creep show and horror motif on Vol. 1, but a real life 'the-killer’s-outside-your-room-and-he’s-sending-you-to-see-your-lord', sort of way.

This albums' sound is much more reminiscent of the band 16 Horsepower or Them Poor Bastards than O’ Death or Can Kickers... it’s lively, but never overexerts itself.  The production values are the definition of lo-fi.  There is no polish or trickery on the entire CD and if there was it would ruin the atmosphere.  I’ve said this about other recordings that have been purposefully lo-fi but this is the real McCoy.  Not everything clips, but some things do, the distortion doesn’t bleed all over everything, but the tracks weren’t meticulously cleaned up either.  There may be a weird guitar note here and there or an off drum beat but you never lose the feeling. This recording just sounds honest, it’s not trying to be anything more than what it is and that’s refreshing.

If you think everything I’ve described does not sound like the Get Haunted you’re used to... don’t fret... there are still up tempo foot stompers on Vol. 2.  In fact my favorite song on the album, "Jean Jacket Kids", is one of them.  The songs will still get stuck in your head.  "Horses" which has a sound that’s similar to "Earth Angel" if it was sang by a mortician, has been stuck in mine for days.  Sarah even sings a couple tunes on Vol. 2.  "Silver Eyes" and "Falling Stars" are well thought out songs that keep with the somber sound of the record but give the listener something completely new to grasp on to with Sarah’s shy but simultaneously strong voice.  Vol. 2 is still Get Haunted but it’s fleshed out. There is a solid identity to the band and it’s now gone beyond death and monsters.  It’s about people and the things that scare all of us or make us sad or excite us.

CD Review: John Fries - EP

Published August 26. 2010
By Adam Wujtewicz

If you know John Fries "the Lo-Fi Radio Star" you know that he can wail on a cranked up electric guitar.  If you know John Fries "the Original Sinner" then you know that he is also familiar with an acoustic guitar.  Well the latter John Fries is releasing a self titled CD.... it's seven tracks of live solo performances... just a man and his guitar. 

There are guys who've become famous doing the sensitive man with an acoustic guitar shtick and there are a great many bluesmen that most people have never heard of that are incredibly soulful and out of this world guitar players.  John walks this huge difference in styles like a tightrope made of dental floss.  He sings like a sensitive guy; he's always on key and does have a tendency to show off a little with his vocal runs.  He plays guitar like a bluesman; finger picked, slapped and plucked until most people would cry out for mercy.  It is this dichotomy that allows John Fries to tell a story two ways in the course of one song.

Songs like "Out of Place" and "Another Love" were originally played under the Lo-Fi Radio Stars moniker.  This may seem like an old MTV Unplugged trick to get you to buy a song again in a different format but I promise you that these songs aren't just stripped down... they're transformed.  You can really hear the craft in the song writing when they're played and recorded like this. 
While the songs all sound similar because it's just John and his guitar... they were all live recordings from different places and times so they all have their own personality.  I don't think a format like this would work for most bands but for this recording it's exactly what John needed to do.

For more info:

https://www.facebook.com/JohnFriesMusic

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Hot-Stove-Tops/135646006471779?ref=ts

CD Review: Gone For Good - The Bright Lights

Published August 19, 2010
By Adam Wujtewicz

The Bright Lights from Gone for Good is now out for public consumption. Their final recording with drummer Josh Lecce, (who passed away in a car accident in May 2009), was long delayed but it's out now and it's something that all involved should be proud of.  Fuzzed out pop songs with splashes of rockabilly and swing are not something you come across often but if this record got the national airplay it deserved you would hear a lot more of it.

The guitar sound is what drives this record and when you hear it you'll know why.  The guitar demands attention... it's got a heavy distortion on it but it's never offensive to the ears and it's got plenty of articulation so you can tell what notes are being played. It's just quality sound. That being said the rhythm section could have been a little higher in the mix.  Case in point is the drums in "Bad Child".  Josh is all over the kit and keeps everything tight.  While the drums are not inaudible, in this song they should have been a real highlight.  The bass is in a similar situation.  It provides the record with a very solid bottom and roundness but a little more punch and volume would have made it the counterpart the guitar deserves.

It's not all guitar, bass and drums though.  The real "x factor" for this album is the effects and added decorative touches. The rock n' roll piano banging and organ swells in "Bad Child" account for the almost mandatory keyboard element.  Then on "Dinner Date" you have the horn accents that add to the swing nature of the song and give you another flavor most pop music lacks now a days.  The reverbs and delays on the vocals are tasteful and add atmosphere to vocalist Nick Johns' voice.  The conversations and idle chatter running through the track "4 am" add to the laid back feel of the song rather than distracting you from the music.  It's the little things that make an album great and The Bright Lights is a perfect example of this.

CD Review: Above/Below - 2 Sides

Published August 14, 2010
By Adam Wujtewicz

Eighteen songs is a lot.  You may not think so in the grand scheme of things - my iPod has 14,605 songs on it. However for anyone who’s ever bought a CD or record and especially for anyone that's tried to record an album... 18 is an extreme amount of songs. In fact, this may be our longest review yet! Guess what folks... Above/Below just raised the bar on you.... 2 Sides hits on all cylinders from start to finish.

Is Above Below a hip-hop group?  Is Above Below a jazz ensemble?  Is Above Below a rock band?  I'll tell you one thing, 2 Sides will not answer that question.  They run the gamut and make no apologies for it.  With a 7-piece band and an MC at the helm would you expect them to keep a constant style?  There are 2 many personalities there.

The lyrics on this record are constant.  Vocalist Gabe Chandler, (AKA MC Stat), spits lyrics like sunflower seeds all over this record till they're piled up in a neck high heap.  Most hip-hop is usually this way but when you’re doing hip-hop with that old school "double time" delivery you have to write even more lyrics and this can make them a little hard to keep up with.  Primarily the subject matter deals with a sociopolitical issue but before you go running in the other direction because you "don’t like political bands" listen to the songs "Socialist" and "Profits".  These songs are clever, catchy and current... that's the 3 C's of a good pop song.  There are some lighter hearted subjects on the record.  "Fly in My Soup" is a story about Gabe punching out a smart mouthed waiter.

You've got 7 more people rocking consistently on this record and in some cases that can lead to some self indulgent soloing and songs that last for millennia.  Above/Below is not all about that.  They use the guitar and bass to move the songs along from part to part and the horns to accentuate the changes and punctuate the statements the band is making musically.  Drummer Jonas Sanchez drives this bus using jazz riffing, funk high hat and rock n' roll beats to keep everyone together.  This is a mature band.  They all know the part they have to play and they are proud to do it.  None of them show ego on the recording and it makes the listening much more enjoyable.

Mixing all these elements together can be difficult thing to do in the studio.  The rhythm guitar tends to sound far away and while the reverb sounds cool there are points when it should punch more.  The horns and vocals are right out front as they should be but that baritone sax should sound rounder and more full as it is it sounds almost like a synth.  One of my favorite parts of the sound of the album is the turntables.  It's not something I'm used to having seen Above/Below many times live.  They could've taken this guest star and pushed him up to the front to make the point that they're doing hip-hop music but instead they use it as a texture as an added bonus rather than selling point.  The sound of the record has the proper amount of polish on it; this is hip-hop/pop/jazz after all.  Everything is audible all the time and that's not an easy thing to do with all those sounds.

2 Sides, 18 tracks, millions upon millions of words and riffs.  This is a huge testament to Above/Below's song writing ability and the diversity of their talents as musicians.  Get this recording and listen to it over and over again because you will continue to find new things each time you do.

7" Review: Brava Spectre - Cuss Tongue

Review by Adam Wujtewicz
 
Brava Spectre just released their brand new 7" vinyl... (that’s a 45 for all you super old school folks).  The A-side track "Cuss Tongue" right off the bat shows that the Brava boys have learned from the things that took some of the excitement away from their last release The Hands, The Water, The Hands that Occupy The Water.

The bass punches super hard and the mix is all together far more violent.  This is an exciting recording.  They still have the ambient parts which add texture but never a feeling of calm.  The B-Side track of this 7" is "Bouquet Appendages" which is a bit less sparser to start off but still incredibly interesting.  What makes this song great are the ambient effects behind the building madness of the instruments and vocals.  This is powerful stuff..."Cuss Tongue" is an outing to be reckoned with.

CD Review: Estrogen and Tonic - Let's See What Happens

Published July 25, 2010
By Adam Wujtewicz

Estrogen and Tonic is a band of many reputable singers and undeniable impulse.  Their brand of comic punk is something that never ceases to bring a smile to my face.  Let’s See What Happens is completely irreverent, ludicrous and all in all a thumb-in-the-eye of anything that is processed and stale about rock and roll.  Annemarie Newport’s wild vocals and patented smash drumming technique set the tone of for these short bursts of music.  Chris Moore sings a few tunes in a much calmer manner but with similarly insane lyrics.  The loudest thing on the record is Todd Romanella’s bass – and in a very Pixies sort of way keeps the songs grounded in reality.  The two guitars, played by Chris Moore and Steve Swan, do completely different things all the time and this is completely key in keeping with the crazy vibe of the band.  Both guitars are usually doing very simple things but complexity would ruin all this bands charm.

The overall production of this record is clear enough but without polish.  The songs sound like they were all recorded at different times and then the settings were all set the same in the computer.  This allows every song to have a little bit of it’s own charm without the album sounding like a sampler of songs that were never meant to be on the same record.  My personal favorites on the disc are “Banana Stab” because it’s a mellow but still crazy Annemarie song and “Dirty Pot” which is a completely punk Chris tune.

Let’s See What Happens is what I believe Estrogen and Tonic say every time they write a song, play a show… and maybe even get up in the morning.  I’d say what happened with this record is what happens with your favorite cartoons.... childish fun from the minds of clever adults.
Contact the band to get your copy of this CD!

CD Review: Urban P - Welcome To The 860

Published June 22, 2010
By Adam Wujtewicz

Urban P's latest record  Welcome to the 860 is probably the most standard hip-hop record that will make a splash in New London.  Now I don’t mean standard as in boring or lacking… I mean standard in that fact that it contains the essential pieces that makes a great hip-hop record: a man with a microphone, rockin' electronic beats, and some killer turntables. This record has that... and more.
While other local bands like Flowers & Kain and Above/Below use hip-hop vocals mixed against a rock and jazz backbeat, Urban P and Jon Concept have put together a hard hitting record that is hip hop in it's truest form.  The first thing that hit me about the sound of this record is that the bass drum isn’t all that low end trunk rattle sound… it’s got great punch and clarity. The production values are slick and clean like chrome.

There are some interesting sounds on the record like the string melody on “N.I.G.G.A. Odds” and the dichotomy of the angry lyrics and delivery against a piano track on “The Fair One”.  You also have the title track that has simple little soul piano on the verse that holds down the rhythm... not to mention horns on the chorus.

Not only is the music on the record diverse but vocaly Urban P throws you a few curve balls.  He attacks the track "Kill or be Killed" like a bull in a china shop, lays back and mellows out on "Let's Take Off" and gets the crowd riled and chanting along on "Champion".  These diverse change ups are extremely important in a style of music that doesn't tend to have a lot of vocal melody to speak of.
Welcome to the 860 is a quality record with a great package to represent it and if you want a local way to break into hip hop, pick this record up. Contact Urban P at one of the below links to purchase a copy.

For more info on Urban P:

Urban P on Myspace

Urban P on Facebook

Urban P on You Tube