straf's (Totally awesomer than G's) Review Thread

[straf]

Yes. All of them.

Honestly though, can you find a [valid] reason not to give them 10's?

[richarddjames]

Oct 23, 2010 16:21:49 GMT -5 straf said:

And what exactly DO you listen to oftenly?

Commonly:

!!! (Dance punk, funk)
65daysofstatic (Post-Rock, Electronic Rock, Experimental Rock)
Amon Tobin (IDM, Sample electronic, electronic)
Aphex Twin (IDM, Noise, Ambient, Metal, Rap (last two arent generally serious))
Arcade Fire (Folk, Indie rock)
Archive (Triphop, Progressive Rock)
At the Drive-In (Post-hardcore)
Autechre (IDM, Intelligent Techno)
The Avalanches (Breakbeat, Sampled Music, Plunderphonics)
Beck (Alt-country)
Big Black (Noise Rock)
Boards of Canada (Ambient, IDM)
The Boredoms (Noise Rock)
BT (Trance, Ambient, Glitch)
Buckethead (Prog Metal, Prog Rock, Jazz, ect)
C418 (IDM)
CAKE (Alternative Rock, college rock)
The Chemical Brothers (Big Beat, Electronica)
Cursive (Indie Rock, Post-Hardcore)
Daft Punk (Electronic Rock)
Death From Above 1979 (Dance Punk, Punk)
Digitalism (Electronic, Rock)
The Faint (Dance Punk, Synthpunk)
Fang Island (Progressive Rock, Indie Rock)
Fatboy Slim (Big Beat)
The Flashbulb (IDM)
Frank Sinatra (Classic Pop, Jazz, Ect)
Franz Ferdinand (Alternative Rock)
fun. (Pop)
God Is an Astronaut (Post-rock)
Godspeed You! Black Emperor (Post-rock)
Infected Mushroom (Trance)
Interpol (Post-Punk Revival)
Jethro Tull (Prog Rock)
King Crimson (Prog Rock)
Kyuss (Stoner Rock)
The Mars Volta (New Prog)
Massive Attack (Triphop, Downtempo)
MGMT (Pop)
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (Ska, Skapunk)
Minus the Bear (Electronic, Indie Rock)
Minutemen (Punk rock, Hardcore punk)
Morphine ("Low Rock", Jazz rock)
Muse (New Prog, Symphonic Rock, Dadrock)
Neutral Milk Hotel (Indie Rock)
Nine Inch Nails (Industrial)
Pendulum (Drum and Bass, Electronic Rock, House, Dubstep, Electronic)
Pink Floyd (Progressive Rock, Dadrock)
Porcupine Tree (New Prog)
Portishead (Trip-hop, Downtempo)
The Prodigy (Bigbeat)
Radiohead (Indie, Alternative Rock)
Pure Reason Revolution (New Prog)
Rush (Prog Rock)
Shpongle (Psybient, Trance)
Sigur Ros (Post-Rock, Ambient)
The Smashing Pumpkins (Alternative Rock)
Squarepusher (IDM)
System of a Down (Metal)
Tool (Metal, Prog Metal)
The Unicorns (Pop, Electronic)
UNKLE (Trip-Hop, Sampled Music, Electronic)
Venetian Snares (Breakcore, IDM)
Weezer (Power pop, Alternative Rock)
Why? (Alternative Hiphop, Indie Rock)
WISP (IDM, Ambient)
Yes (Progressive Rock)

Uncommonly:

µ-Ziq (IDM)
Air (Ambient)
Anamanaguchi (Chiptunes)
Burial (2-Step Garage)
DJ Shadow (Turntablism, Plunderphonics, Rap/Hiphop(?))
Dropkick Murphys (Celtic Punk)
Fuck Buttons (Drone, Post-rock)
Incubus (Metal)
Late of the Pier (Dance-Punk)
Modest Mouse (Indie Rock)
The National (Indie Rock)
Noisia (Drum and Bass, Downtempo)
Ratatat (Downtempo, Tropical Electronic)
Royksopp (Tropical Electronic, Pop)
Sub Focus (Drum and Bass, Dubstep, House)
Thrice (Metal, Ambient)

a

[Sway]

s'pose I'll contribute a review.

Just hold on though


EDIT: look below you!

Took two hours and 13483 characters.

[Sway]

MODEST MOUSE - THE LONESOME CROWDED WEST


TRACK LISTING
1: Teeth Like God's Shoeshine [6:53]
2: Heart Cooks Brain [4:03]
3: Convenient Parking [4:08]
4: Lounge (Closing Time) [7:04]
5: Jesus Christ Was An Only Child [2:36]
6: Doin' The Cockroach [4:19]
7: Cowboy Dan [6:15]
8: Trailer Trash [6:50]
9: Out Of Gas [2:31]
10: Long Distance Drunk [3:43]
11: Shit Luck [2:23]
12: Truckers Atlas [10:58]
13: Polar Opposites [3:30]
14: Bankrupt On Selling [2:54]
15: Styrofoam Boots / It's All Nice On Ice, Alright [6:53]

This is, in my opinion, the single greatest album of all time. Released in November 1997, The Lonesome Crowded West is the perfect mixture of everything I like about music in general that isn't electronic. I suppose the best way to elaborate on this is to quote a reviewer of the CD on iTunes, who elegantly warns us that "Listening to this album while in isolation may cause deep introspection, profound respect and wonder at the world around you, random poetic thoughts and sporatic [sic] boughts [sic] of uncontrollable anger, sadness, joy and acceptance of the strange world that surrounds you. Take daily for best results."

Well if that review means anything this CD has a lot to live up to. I just want to say something else first - this is the first album I ever bought with my own money. I bought it on iTunes one year, and then a bit later after a bit of a crash I managed to find it on CD at the local Best Buy, so now it's there. My current hunt is to try to get a copy of the album on vinyl as well, but as of now most of the Mouse's older stuff can run upwards to at least 69.99 as this eBay search shows. Good luck. Oh, and if you want a copy of The Moon and Antarctica go to the Glacial Pace website, they're only 20 bucks there.

Well let's get to the music. The first thing you'll hear when the pop this CD in is the nearly 7-minute track Teeth Like God's Shoeshine, which easily ranks as one of the band's best tracks. It all kicks off in the most promising way possible - a mindblowing blast of just pure musical energy, and continues to rise and fall in ways both musically and lyrically in a way that doesn't just deserve but COMMANDS the title of "Epic." It just as well sets the tone of the album - The Lonesome Crowded West is all about feeling lonely in a massive suburban world (I'll get to a certain album later...) with no break in the monotony of our daily lives, one day seamlessly moving into the next. Teeth Like God's Shoeshine is a song that swipes in every way at commercialization, modernization, and "The Man," a metaphor for the man with Teeth Like God's Shoeshine, a metaphor for everything MM's vocalist Isaac Brock hates about the modern world, and the effects of The Man are all over the album.

This'll be a fun ride, friends.

Well unfortunately the album mellows out for the next 2 tracks, which are Heart Cooks Brain and Convenient Parking. Heart Cooks Brain is an interesting little track, one that decides that the best way to follow up to that last track is to just not sweat it. Let's not try to completely replicate that behemoth - let's do something different! And yet, the attitude of the lonesome wanderer is maintained. The main bit of the track is the guitar, which in a way becomes a massive backbone for the track. Isaac plays the guitar the entire track, the same riff, and never varies. This high-pitched na Na NA riff becomes the thing that leads the track through, and combined with a turntable on top and a sweet drumline it feels like the band is most definitely trying to enjoy a laid back jam.

Except for Isaac, of course, who even when the rest of the band is trying something laidback and hip still contemplates the concept of internal conflict. When you think "Heart Cooks Brain," what do you think? The Heart and Brain are often considered at odds with eachother, and this whole time Isaac is contemplating that. Your heart tells you to do something boneheaded and your brain tells you to do something else and think it through, and it would seem that the heart is winning. "My brain's the burger and my heart's the coal." The heart is literally frying the brain, and the entire thing is driving him insane.

Convenient Parking is, like Heart Cooks Brain, repetitive. In fact, I can write the entire lyrics right here. Soon the chain reaction started in the parking lot / waiting to bleed on to the big streets / than bleed out on to highways and / off to other cities built to store and / sell these rocks / well aren't you feeling real dirty / sitting in the parking lot and that's about it. They're repeated throughout the song, with some slight variations and a CONVENIENT PARKING chorus. It's a look at Commercialism, the spread of goods and business and that all of the cities built on the wasteland are only there to store junk.

So once you're done with that little ride... the riff... THE RIFF! The riff seeps right in to break up the monotony for a bit. Lounge (Closing Time) is basically a big reworking of the track Lounge from their previous release This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About, but that riff deserves mention. The lyrics are nothing special, though. Not like they need to be. THE RIFF, god damn it. After two main parts and a tiny little jam, though, the song simply fizzles out and nothing more is ever heard of it's catchy riff. Instead you get Jesus Christ Was An Only Child, which is basically what the Mouse would sound like as a country band. There's the off-kilter lyrics, acoustic guitar, that thing that sounds like Daffy Duck... there isn't much to say except that it's at least a good interlude. Darker skies ahead!

So comes what is the greatest 1-2-3 punch of Modest Mouse's discography. There's the four minute jam of Doin' The Cockroach, the emotional ride of Cowboy Dan, and to top it all off there's Trailer Trash, which is in fact one of the single greatest songs ever created. All of the three share similar themes and run through eachother in a way that just perfectly fits with the album as a whole. Doin' The Cockroach, under it's heavy guitars, tells the story of life. What does Doin' The Cockroach even mean, you ask? Think about it.

All that a cockroach does is scurry around in their measly little lives going through with them. They've also been around since the beginning of time itself. There isn't one difference between one day and the next. Obviously, the last thing I said sounds familiar. I did say it was a running theme, after all. The quote "Everyone's life ends but nobody ever completes it" from The Moon and Antarctica's wonderful Dark Side of the Universe] is a good way to describe what we're singing about here. Of course, when you listen to the song, you won't be needing to pay attention to the lyrics. Instead, pay attention to the musical wall the lyrics are delivered with. That's the important part.

Cowboy Dan is another part of this threesome. It's funny how lyrically this threesome's lyrics are completely different, but they all come together to create this big idea of the man. Cowboy Dan is a big player in this concept, and it shows. From the first moment those chords roll into earshot you know exactly what kind of song this is. This is a song about a broken man, broken by a twofold menace that is himself and the world around him. The isolation in modern life. Because of the great big "The Man", Cowboy Dan has his own ideas. He has attempted to start wars. In fact, he WILL start a war. And when he's not working on it? He takes his rifle out to the desert, fires it into the sky, and says "God, if I have to die, you will have to die!" and that "[he] didn't move to the city, the city moved to [him]," and even as the song drops down to a near silence and picks itself up again, the song stays as badass as it always is.

Then there's Trailer Trash, and what an amazing track this is. Trailer Trash catches Brock in a state that is far more emotional and vulnerable than he's usually found in, and similar to the rest of the album, the song is almost entirely guitar based. Trailer Trash describes a life a man at the lowest state of the social ladder may lead, and it's for that reason that Trailer Trash may be the single most autobiographical song Brock has ever written. The lyrics are made of pure sadness, bitterness, envy, and whatever it may be, it's completely crushing to hear. And when you thought it was going to get worse, the song breaks out in jam session, and this is where the song flourishes.

Unfortunately the ride is almost over and like all of the other Modest Mouse albums it gets quite dense for it's second half. Instead of trying to keep up with these emotional themes, we decide that the best thing to do is to get rid of everything else, and we don't see a true musical gem for a small handful of tracks. The first on this list is Out of Gas, which at a tiny 2:37 just kind of passes along in it's content. It at least progresses the theme - our character we've gone through these experiences with is pretty much screwed. He's out of gas, out of road, out of car. It's just unfortunate this track has to leave now. Long Distance Drunk is up, and here's the thing. Get some fans of Modest Mouse together and ask them all what their least favorite Modest Mouse song is. I guarantee you that most of them will say this song. Little vocals, nothing musically interesting, it just plods through in it's own misery.

Which is in fact the perfect buildup.

Picture this. You're on a plane. Your iPod is on shuffle, and you decide to rest your eyes. You get lucky and some Brian Eno comes on for a bit,I only for this next song. Shit Luck is in every way hilarious. These next two minutes easily make up for Long Distance Drunk - as soon as you say the magic words - "THIS PLANE IS DEFINITELY CRASHING!" - the band kicks out one of the most hardcore jams they've ever done. An awesome, if repetitive, guitar riff, some great drum work, and some LOUD vocals make this a fun little track.

Which is in fact the perfect buildup.

Before we get to the last 3 songs of the album (read: musical gems) we have one last barrier. The single longest song in Modest Mouse's discography, Truckers Atlas is pure drum POWER. In fact, that's about it. The first half is based on a road trip. Yes, in an attempt to make our lives fuller we're going on a massive cross country road trip, all the way to Alaska even. However, in Straf's earlier review of The Wall, he stated that Comfortably Numb started as a legitimate song and ends up jamming to take up space. Truckers Atlas has this same album, dragging it's drumline far past it's welcome.

What's this? IT'S ALMOST OVER? I wasn't aware it was possible, but we're almost at the end of our journey through the mind of Isaac Brock. The first of our final three is Polar Opposites, which is, to put it simply, the theme song of the life of a man that's a down-and-out trailer rat who tries to drink away the part of the day that he can't sleep away. The entire song is straight forward rock, based on our character just living this Drink -> Sleep -> Repeat life in the middle of, you know, THE WORLD. Oh, and there's the chorus. The chorus is the shit.

The second to last track on the album is Bankrupt on Selling, a fitting outtro to the world of the Lonesome Crowded West. It's both the shortest song on the album and one of the saddest, so I'll make it quick. To sum it all up, all the angels who you thought were protecting you would trade you off for a pair of gold wings, all the people you know are just actors in life, and your entire sadness can be linked back to you as a person. The only instrument here is Isaac's acoustic guitar, so you can't deter yourself from the lyrics. Have fun.

But we aint done on this joyride yet, because we have seven minutes to go. Styrofoam Boots / It's All Nice On Ice, Alright is a two parter, and it very properly closes the CD. With the first bit, Styrofoam Boots, we come to a close with our character. He's dead, he's up in heaven trying to figure out what he, an atheist, is gonna end up doing, and St. Peter sends him to the back to bake Manna and Gas. A questionable character - not God, mind you - comes out and tells the character that he was right, nobody's running the world, and his concept, that God takes care of himself and you of you.

And that's it vocally, but It's All Nice On Ice, Alright has yet to begin. You'll know exactly when it does. It's All Nice On Ice, Alright begins with a cymbal crash, and the drums and bass are put in over the guitar that Isaac Brock has shared the track with this whole time. It's one of the most wonderful parts of the album, and it closes the album in the most proper way - a blast of noise similar to it's beginnings but a bit less serious.

And that's The Lonesome Crowded West for you. By god is it an epic, and by god is it worth the listen.
9.75/10

[straf]

Oct 24, 2010 0:44:11 GMT -5 @richarddjames said:

Oct 23, 2010 16:21:49 GMT -5 straf said:

And what exactly DO you listen to oftenly?

Arcade Fire (Folk, Indie rock)
Boards of Canada (Ambient, IDM)
The Boredoms (Noise Rock)
CAKE (Alternative Rock, college rock)
Godspeed You! Black Emperor (Post-rock)
Jethro Tull (Prog Rock)
King Crimson (Prog Rock)
Kyuss (Stoner Rock)
The Mars Volta (New Prog)
Neutral Milk Hotel (Indie Rock)
Pink Floyd (Progressive Rock, Dadrock)
Porcupine Tree (New Prog)
Radiohead (Indie, Alternative Rock)
Rush (Prog Rock)
Sigur Ros (Post-Rock, Ambient)
Weezer (Power pop, Alternative Rock)
Yes (Progressive Rock)
Dropkick Murphys (Celtic Punk)
Modest Mouse (Indie Rock)

I have these on my iTunes, so they'll come up soon enough. >.>b

[Zilla2112]

Oct 24, 2010 0:44:11 GMT -5 @richarddjames said:

Oct 23, 2010 16:21:49 GMT -5 straf said:

And what exactly DO you listen to oftenly?

Commonly:

Fuck load of bands and artists

Uncommonly:

Another bunch of stuff

a

Where's Emerson, Lake, and Palmer?

[Virus]

Doing a review of Megadeth - the system has failed right now ;D

[Crash]

I was wanting Straf to do that, but, whatever.

[richarddjames]

Oct 24, 2010 11:59:05 GMT -5 Zilla2112 said:

Oct 24, 2010 0:44:11 GMT -5 @richarddjames said:

Commonly:

Fuck load of bands and artists

Uncommonly:

Another bunch of stuff

a

Where's Emerson, Lake, and Palmer?

they're ok but not worth my time
but tarkus is amazing because robotic armadillos

[Sinners Sandwich]

Oct 24, 2010 18:25:27 GMT -5 @richarddjames said:

Oct 24, 2010 11:59:05 GMT -5 Zilla2112 said:

Where's Emerson, Lake, and Palmer?

they're ok but not worth my time
but tarkus is amazing because robotic armadillos

(it's actually a turtle bear)

[richarddjames]

Oct 24, 2010 19:31:35 GMT -5 Sinners Sandwich said:

Oct 24, 2010 18:25:27 GMT -5 @richarddjames said:

they're ok but not worth my time
but tarkus is amazing because robotic armadillos

(it's actually a turtle bear)

your mother

[straf]

A Silver Mt Zion - Horses In The Sky

Released in 2005
Track Listing
"God Bless Our Dead Marines" – 11:44
"Mountains Made of Steam" – 9:28
"Horses in the Sky" – 6:39
"Teddy Roosevelt's Guns" – 9:45
"Hang on to Each Other" – 6:38
"Ring Them Bells (Freedom Has Come and Gone)" – 13:58

Started as a side-project to Godspeed You! Black Emperor, A Silver Mt Zion has since moved on to become -- arguably -- one of the very best post-rock bands in existence. It should go without saying, then, that if you are quite partial to GY!BE, then it'd be great to check out to Zions(Hai, Systema :D). As such, I've decided to review what I believe to be their best effort first and then wade through all of the Skinny Fists clones later.

Before we begin, though, I do find it necessary to issue a few warnings: One, this is post-rock, so the compositions and arrangements are highly unconventional for standard music(as in, there's tons and tons of strings, syncopation, horrid singing, long and bombast instrumental sections and various other instrument techniques that don't sound all too pleasant to the casual listener. Also note that this is distributed by Constellation Records, a company that rejects the mainstream and doesn't really give a damn about what its recordees put out, so the band is given tons of freedom, so these can be really unpredictable). Two, the singing is absolutely horrible. Be wary. Three, this should only be listened to when you have a considerable amount of time to spare since each song takes a considerable chunk of time to get through. It's worth it though, so cancel every meeting you have for the next week just to listen to this four times a day for the next seven days. (Not really.)

All through this album, you'll be treated to a Bob Dylan-wannabe harping on about accidents and busted futures. And that pretty much sums up all of the lyrical content of Horses in the Sky. Not to say that it's not thought-provoking, I'm just giving you an idea of what to expect. It's all this depressing, post-apocalyptic stuff. It may be a turn-off to some I'm sure, but given the atmosphere of the arrangements it's very, very suiting.

The arrangements themselves have already been described above: unconventional and bombast. Take for example the opening track, "God Bless Our Dead Marines", it starts of slow and strange and slowly builds up to an Indian/Soviet-esque wall of sound before cutting off and heading to the showpiece of the song. The showpiece begins with "real" music before heading into an unrelenting harp about all the different ways he lost his friends, underlined by a very off-beat drum rhythm that sounds like a complete accident at first until it keeps repeating that until the outro, which seems almost like a reprise of the intro, but with different words. All the while, there's lots of strings, occasionally out of tune but always there.

The rest of the songs are similar in structure(but not as complex) and add a wailing and distorted guitar to highlight certain areas and to dish out very abrasive licks. Almost more-so than the afore-reviewed White Light/White Heat. A lot of you will probably will turn away in disgust(as I've said), but you should really give this a try.

Interesting cuts include: God Bless Our Dead Marines, Mountains Made Of Steam, Ring Them Bells

After much debate, I decided to reward this with a well-deserved 10. Originally, I was planning on an 8 or a 9 because it lapses over into bombast bits just a little bit too much for my liking, but honestly, they deserve all they could get. The lyrics are so philosophical(to an extent) and the arrangements are so breathtaking at times, they I feel that they deserve all possible points.
10/10

[richarddjames]

excited about the radiohead reviews

[Crash]

Time for a review of mine. (You don't need to tell me it sucks.)

SLAYER-REIGN IN BLOOD



Tracklisting:
Angel of Death
Piece by Piece
Necrophobic
Altar of Sacrafice
Jesus Saves
Criminally Insane
Reborn
Epidemic
Postmortem
Raining Blood

In 1986, Slayer's major label debut "Reign in Blood" came out. Not exactly a change in sound ("Hell Awaits" was), still cherished as one of the greatest thrash metal albums ever. It is good, however there are things lackning. For example, only three songs actually reach the three minute mark.

The complexity shows sloppy solos and riffs in which the only thing making them hard is the speed they're played at. Despite that, good instrumentation.

The lyrics are what you normally expect from Slayer, (Yes, they released stuff before this album,) such as "Jesus Saves". "Necrophobic" is a song about the fear of death. Etc.

The singing is done well, but it sometimes feels as if Tom Araya is just trying to say so much in so little. Mostly in the songs "Jesus Saves," "Reborn," and "Necrophobic."

7.5/10

Not their best, but still good. "Show No Mercy" and "Haunting the Chapel" are better to me. At the same level as "Hell Awaits"

Best songs: Angel of Death, Altar of Sacrifice, and Jesus Saves

[Zilla2112]

Oct 27, 2010 16:26:25 GMT -5 Crash said:

Time for a review of mine. (You don't need to tell me it sucks.)

SLAYER-REIGN IN BLOOD



Tracklisting:
Angel of Death
Piece by Piece
Necrophobic
Altar of Sacrafice
Jesus Saves
Criminally Insane
Reborn
Epidemic
Postmortem
Raining Blood

In 1986, Slayer's major label debut "Reign in Blood" came out. Not exactly a change in sound ("Hell Awaits" was), still cherished as one of the greatest thrash metal albums ever. It is good, however there are things lackning. For example, only three songs actually reach the three minute mark.

The complexity shows sloppy solos and riffs in which the only thing making them hard is the speed they're played at. Despite that, good instrumentation.

The lyrics are what you normally expect from Slayer, (Yes, they released stuff before this album,) such as "Jesus Saves". "Necrophobic" is a song about the fear of death. Etc.

The singing is done well, but it sometimes feels as if Tom Araya is just trying to say so much in so little. Mostly in the songs "Jesus Saves," "Reborn," and "Necrophobic."

7.5/10

Not their best, but still good. "Show No Mercy" and "Haunting the Chapel" are better to me. At the same level as "Hell Awaits"

Best songs: Angel of Death, Altar of Sacrifice, and Jesus Saves

It sucks.

LULZ IMA TROLLIN!