Reviews, interviews, articles, and other blather about music from the mind of Yugoboy

Friday, February 12, 2016

Jake & the Jellyfish - Dead Weight

Jake & The Jellyfish
Dead Weight
http://www.jakeandthejellyfish.com/
https://jakeandthejellyfish.bandcamp.com/
https://soundcloud.com/jakeandthejellyfish

Following Dead Weight's forty-eight second "Intro" super-reminiscent of Dropkick Murphys,  Leeds, UK-based quartet Jake & the Jellyfish, launch into an incredibly diverse set of tunes.  Self-described on their Bandcamp page as Folk/Punk/Ska the music charges, veers, rocks and reels from general alternative through ska and reggae influences and blowing right through Gogol Bordello-like gypsy rock, these guys craft some fun tunes for your brain to chew on.
The third song in, "Coffee Tally" demonstrates a thorough understanding of all that makes ska so much fun.  The upbeat, horn-backed tune could fit in easily on a Pietasters, Toasters or Hippos record.
Title track "Dead Weight" encapsulates perfectly the energetic alternative sound these guys play when they're not world-musicking their way through tunes like "Coffee Tally" and "Don't Follow the Leader," a Gogol Bordello sound-alike tune complete with fiddle and acoustic guitar.
This twelve-track collection hosts new music as well as tunes that have appeared on some earlier EPs.  Given the band's half-decade-plus experience, it should surprise no one that they've got some serious musical chops and a really cohesive sound.  The fiddle and horns provide important texture to most of their tunes, and these guys crank out primarily a tinted punk-alternative sound, but when they completely jump all over another genre there's no evidence of experiment or lack of familiarity.  There's no gimmickry here, just right solid fun music I can't imagine anyone disliking.
I simply cannot do the fun of this album justice.  Among the twelve tracks on this disc you can look hard, but you will not find a dud anywhere.  The creativity, upbeat, lively performance is everything that grunge never was.  If the lyrics focused more on revelry and drinking themes, I'd say this would be the best party album since Lord Tracy's "Deaf Gods of Babylon."
Why are you still reading this?  Click on over to their site or Bandcamp or Soundcloud and buy this record now!

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Rocket Ship Resort - Megaheart

Rocket Ship Resort
Megaheart EP
http://rocketshipresort.com

Something about being born in the early 70s and coming to musical maturity in the mid-80s instilled in me a predilection for the kind of digital pop music Rocket Ship Resort stuffed into their recent EP Megaheart.  Up-beat and unapologetically electrified, these tracks cannot be listened to without various body parts rhythmically following along.  A little Googling and Rocket Ship Resort turns out to be a solo project from Nashua, New Hampshire-based Skye Meredith who not only crafts the music, but the album art as well.  Skye appears to  be younger than me, and certainly doesn't perform my brand of rock and metal guitars, but where the portion of my soul stuck in the 80s is concerned, he hits all the right notes.  These fun tracks somehow manage all this without becoming annoying earworms, which is even more awesome as far as I'm concerned.
"Pirate" hits the ground running, opening the quintet of tunes at full-bore pop/dance pace.  This fun tune sets a great tone for the rest of the tracks, crafting an anticipation of more fun to come.
Second slot track "Where We'll Go" slows down just a beat or two, but remains pretty up-beat, despite an undercurrent of melancholy in the lyrics.  The melancholy isn't a yearning for things past, but that the future isn't yet here and the fun to be had then will surpass the anticipation expressed by the singer.
"Moans On Loan" begins with the most 80s opening I've had the pleasure of hearing in quite a while.  The only thing that keeps this track from being a complete nostalgia trip is the autotune, which doesn't completely distort the voice, but which does sound perfectly acceptable in the song's context.  Like Howard Jones before them, the fully digital sound works to create a tone and sound that is complete unto itself.  Rocket Ship Resort's sound doesn't require the synth to fill in for inadequate songwriting, it's kinda the point of the thing.
Demonstrating an unusually gentle touch, "Stars The Look Like You" slows the tempo a bit for a tender but not mawkish love song.  The band's signature sounds are all here, but slowed down just enough.  This isn't the school dance song that allows kids to latch onto each other and sway, but neither does it demand the manic energy of the  listener that the rest of the EP does.
Rounding out the collection, "Mistress Magic" ramps the tempo up again.  This track contains the only real evidence of something other than a synthesizer or drum machine; there's at least one violin being used here, but like the singers the strings find themselves pushed through the digital processor.  The producer doesn't make the violin sound fake or wrong, but like the vocals, the modulation and slight digital shine added helps the instrument fit in.
This is the seventh release by Rocket Ship Resort; all can be found on Bandcamp.  If the other six are anywhere near as good, I may find myself shelling out some real cash for this collection.  Anyone who loves some good upbeat digital pop will probably be pushing this to the top of their playlist.

Saturday, February 6, 2016

Mrs. Skannotto - Toys

Mrs. Skannotto
Toys
www.mrsska.com

Rochester-based ska deities Mrs. Skannotto return with a brand new collection of original tunes, even more wide-ranging and ambitious than their previous effort Outlier (which is awesome; if you don't already own it, follow the link and buy it right away.)  Toys has more range and style, with more risks, most of which pay off nicely.  If you're a ska fan, don't worry about the rest of this review, just buy the record already! (When I wrote the review, I forgot that the disc doesn't come out until March.  Read on, dear listener.  Then, in March... then get the album.)
After the opening trill of "101," the boys jump into "Fire Man," which seems to be typical-sounding ska, but Joe Harmon does some vocal stuff I don't remember him doing before, with some notes being held a beat longer, and just a slightly more crooning sound.  It's not a huge adjustment, but I noticed it and found it added some real texture.  Based on the video found on their Facebook page, the first single is "Affluenza," a righteously rocking ska-punk tune.  Following that mosh-pit-filler, "Heartbeat" hearkens back to a slower, softer ska style.  Emphasizing the horns of Justin Lloyd (trumpet) and Evan Dobbins (trombone), this head-bobber may inspire traffic accidents as listeners close their eyes and sway to the sensation-filling sonic hang-gliding of "Heartbeat."
The majority of Toys hews closer to the Mrs. Skannotto oeuvre.  "Don't Drink the Wine" might have a message my wife doesn't want to hear, but the tune is uber-catchy, and "Grow" just owns everything awesome about the ska genre.  "Salo" slows the tempo down to near crooner level, avoiding a reggae/r&b mash-up by the tiniest bit.  The horns help a ton on that one, I must say.  Closing track "Resistance Is Fatal," starts with a very contemplative guitar solo from Mike Frederick, before launching full-bore into the second-fastest rocking track on the whole album.  The entire collection could not be this awesome without the full compliment of players, including bassist Dan Carter and drummer Alex Bochetto keeping pace.  These guys have been playing together for years, and it shows (in a very good way).
Taken as a whole, Toys represents significant stylistic growth while staying within the lines of ska.  While the genre might be marginal here in the 20teens, the late-90s saturation demonstrated a great deal about the range possible.  Mrs. Skannotto, by remaining true to their style find themselves musically checking out some new avenues and tones, which has resulted in a terrific ten song collection that cannot be missed by any fan of the genre.  Toys plays with styles and sounds, but is seriously excellent music.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Mod Sun - Look Up



                Every once in a while I check out a hip-hop album to see what the state of the art is, hoping against hope that the genre has produced a new sound, a novel voice, or a good album of any kind.  When I finally cranked open this album, not knowing what to expect, I discovered that my most recent opportunity to poke my head in the door had arrived.
                I guess people who enjoy this sort of thing will enjoy this record too.  It features a rapping white guy whose lyrics and delivery are pretty standard for the industry.  I suppose he should get some credit for not being a beat track and rhyming dictionary; there are original musical elements here, including some guitar, and the delivery isn't just a staccato recitation of boastful poetry.
                The singer enjoys the full panoply of what auto-tune has to offer, combining that sound with various musical elements to create his tunes.  From the passages that don't sound like he leaned on digital trickery, he's got a nice enough voice and really didn't need the autotune as often as it was deployed.  His rap delivery will stand on par with pretty much anyone else I've heard, and he tries different styles out at various times to create music as much as he's creating message music.

                While I won't myself be hanging onto this collection, it's more from not being a fan of the music, and that he hasn't created anything that I'm enjoying.  If you enjoy hiphop and rap, this will likely be as enjoyable as anything else you've heard.  As for me... I'm going back to the Hamilton Soundtrack; it's all the hiphop I need.

Tempel - The Moon Lit Our Path



                "Carvings in the Door," an eight and a half minute guitar-drenched instrumental journey through the sturm-und-drang-iest territory imaginable, alternates between doom and speed metal during its long passage.  It's a perfect introduction to The Moon Lit Our Path and completely prepares you for the next forty-five minutes.
                Churning out guitars and keyboards like a predator, Ryan Wenzel and his drummer/partner Rich Corle put the "heavy" in heavy metal.  These five tunes all clock in at epic lengths, generally in the eight to twelve minute range, feeding and abusing every metal-guzzling cell in your brain.  If more black and death metal bands followed this approach and left the incoherent vocals behind, focusing solely on the music, the world would be a better place.
                Each track, while sounding quite similar, features its own little moments of uniqueness and awesome moments of originality.  The speed metal portions of "Carvings..." do not appear again, while three-fourths of the way through the twelve minute saga that is "Descending Into The Labyrinth" the electric axe attack mellows for several minutes while an acoustic guitar is allowed time to paint its own pastoral idyll, before the song descends back into the crunch and grind.

                Without being assaulted or distracted by vocals and lyrics, there's not  much else to say except "Buy This Album!"  If you enjoy metal in any of its modern iterations, this is beyond cool.

Monday, January 11, 2016

Royal Thunder - Crooked Doors

Royal Thunder
Crooked Doors
https://royalthunder.bandcamp.com



". . . Three . . . Two . . . One . . . Hit it!"  The explosion destroyed the building that used to house a classic rock radio station.  The dust and flame and detritus took quite awhile to settle, but when the air cleared, lying on top of the mound of rubble was a single black disc, about twelve inches across, and grooved with tunes.  "Hey!" the foreman of the demolition crew called over to his men as they cleaned, "You ever hear of 'Royal Thunder'?"  The hard hats all nodded a "No" and went back to cleaning the remains."  Later that evening, the foreman pulled out this record and threw it on his turntable.  What came out of the speakers astounded him, and when he called up the station's manager at their new location, the two of them worked out the magic that had to have happened.  Somehow, in the violence and movement and disruption of the demolition, a number of records from the 197s, 80s and 90s somehow met up, traded parts and became this awesome pastiche of classic rock, early metal, 80s metal and rock and a few bits from the 60s to become this miraculous singularity.  Royal Thunder became.
Living in the same oeuvre as Acid King, Valkyrie, The Grape and The Grain, and Queens of the Stone Age, Royal Thunder's Crooked Doors is a tour de force of what might best be termed neo-retro hard rock.  Each one of these bands sounds unique, exercises great musical skill, and writes music that feels at once throwback and exciting.  Saying that Cooked Doors could have been released in 1979, 1989, or 1999 in no way diminishes the excellence of this record.  Classic rock stations still proliferate for a reason.
Based on what I found at Bandcamp, my review copy's track listing differs from the final release order - figured I get that out of the way to explain any confusion.
Most of the tunes feature straight-up driving rock and roll differing from the afore-referenced groups by virtue of bassist/vocalist Miny Parsons' oh-so Janis Joplin-esque voice.  Josh Williams and Will Fiore on guitars turn out some monster riffs, and Evan Diprima's pace-setting drums all work so well together it's quite obvious these guys have history.  Founded in 2007, nine years of practice and performing will do that to a quartet.  Tunes like "Ear on the Fool" and "Forget You," "Floor" and "The Line" prominently feature the classic sound that inspired the opening paragraph of this review; all guitar solos, heavy rhythm, driving drums and effort-laden vocals.
However, the band does know how to develop other tempos and sounds, most notably on "The Bear I & II," a pair of tracks featuring a much quieter sound.  In no way a power ballad, they certainly demonstrate range.  My preference lies on the harder end of the spectrum, but "The Bear I & II" sure are pretty.  It appears, based on Bandcamp, that the final track list has "The Bear" pair ending the collection of eleven tracks, a wise choice, in my opinion, as "II" can cause drowsiness in overworked listeners.
Ultimately, the station manager and the demolition foreman decided not to keep this bit of audio magic to themselves and, gloriously, we get to enjoy Royal Thunder knocking down our walls and making Crooked Doors happen in our own worlds.