TWOFR: Backstabbers Inc. x Crimson Sweet

Backstabbers Inc.

Kamikaze Missions

(trash art!, 2004)

Well, the first track is an intro, so really there’re only 13 songs full of contemporary hate from the northeasterners in Backstabbers Inc. The most startling discovery on this plate is that there is rhythm in most every song (especially “Ask, Answer”). After the inception of HC style in the early eighties, a number of bands simply began playing as fast as possible. And while that yielded interesting effects, the inclusion of rhythm changes the music. The music maintains its’ inherent viciousness, but instantly becomes more easily digestible. It’s noise that swings. And here it achieves the ever-elusive groove. In hardcore the tempo is obviously as nauseatingly fast as possible, and then the breakdown. Backstabbers include a third tempo; there’s a sort of real fast punk tempo (between the thrash and the breakdown) that moves songs along in an interesting way. This is displayed to some extant on “Even Slaves Will Be Swimming In the Blood of the Iron Fist”, which boasts the chanted chorus of, “We are not you’re fucking friends/Not now/Not fucking ever”. But, the title of this track brings me to a point that needs to be made. Long, pompous titles (ala Shai Hulud), don’t automatically make you a thinking man’s band. Maintaining your ideals while thoughtfully articulating them makes you a smart dudes rock outfit. At-least these guys sound authentically pissed, I’d buy it even if rock music is all posturing. Production, as much as posturing, always plays a paramount role in how an album is perceived overall. On this slab, the production fits the music. But the vocals, already unintelligible yelps of disdain, are drowned out regularly by guitar attacks. Troublesome, but fitting. Oddly, I can understand his anger without the words.

Crimson Sweet

Eat The Night

(Shake It Records, 2005)

To begin with the gentlemen who produced this album, Martin Bisi, has worked with Laswell, Iggy, Zorn, Sonic Youth, The Ramones and countless others.  So, at least this mess should sound better than your average punk album.  It’s doesn’t though. “Copper Flashes” may lead one to believe that the album that follows this introduction is an incredible, dumb-fuck-punk album, but it’s not.  Solely based upon “Copper Flashes” though, this album is worth picking up if you can find it used.  The song starts with the most mangled shrieking I have ever been blessed enough to hear.  Anguish can’t even begin to describe the emotion behind this yelling.  Whenever this was recorded, I imagine Polly Watson exhausted and in need of a shower after completion of this track.  The following nine tracks, though, are basically a waste of time.  They’re all perfunctory mid paced rockers with Polly swinging back and forth between her growling and attempted singing.   I will say that the cover of “Disowned” by The Live Ones (I’m not going to even pretend that I know who they are) is almost good but, the band gets to the chorus three times in about a minute and a half.  If nothing else though it’s good that some folks are still playing punk like this.  On the other hand, not everyone needs to hear it.

 

Backstabbers Inc.

Kamikaze Missions

(trash art!, 2004)

TWOFR: Coachwhips x The Ohsees

Coachwhips

Double Death

(Narnack Records, 2006)

John Dwyer sounds distant and disturbed as he yells at listeners through what sounds like a bullhorn in time to his dirty two or three piece band – depending on what track is dialed up. What this band does well, as it’s playing its own brand of thrashy, stop and go garage, is create rhythms that are pleasing even as the melodies are ridiculously simplistic. Pretty much all of these songs clock in at less than three minutes. So, you’re looking at less than an hour of music over the twenty-four tracks presented here. To conceive of all of these melodies, even if they reach their natural end in a short time, is still an incredible feat. And while this is not an album proper, but a collection of b-sides and rarities, it serves to survey the band’s style.

In addition to the original material there’re a number of covers towards the end of the disc. Included is an instrumental version of The Velvet Underground’s “I Guess I’m Falling in Love”, a Gories track and “The Witch” by The Sonics. The last track mentioned lends itself to the band nicely partially due to The Coachwhips’ uncanny ability to stay perfectly in time with each other while playing the stop and go game.

The DVD that accompanies this slew of music is what makes Double Death enticing. On the DVD various engagements the band had over its brief career are displayed. Video and sound quality vary, but in this case – for this band - that’s appropriate. No one will say that Double Death is the buy of the year, but it’s damned entertaining and makes the Black Keys and Holly Golightly look like a buncha hacks.

The Ohsees

The Cool Death of Island Raiders

(Narnack Records, 2006)

This is almost not an album.  All of these tracks clock in at around thirty six minutes.  If you take out the ten minutes of drones, that leaves the consumer with a piddley twenty five minutes of music.  And what makes up that twenty five minutes, you may ask.  John Dwyer, formerly of the thrashy blues punk group The Coachwhips, has written moderately intelligent, if not overtly esoteric lyrics, accompanied them on acoustic guitar with the help of a percussionist and a female sidekick tossing in some harmonies.  What this group has gotten down on record is at the very least attractive, interesting and a bit haunting, but that really doesn’t excuse what appears to be a lacksidasical attitude in regards to actual song writing and composition.  “The Guilded Cunt” is pretty, despite the title, as are a number of other tracks, which all have been created ostensibly in the same mold.  But, you want one word to describe this release?  Here it is: slight.  Slight in effort, slight in a vocal sense (considering that they lie way down in the mix) and slight in the sense that, if I was to pay ten to twelve dollars for this release I would feel slighted.  Thank you ladies and gentleman.  Good night.

Black Time: Decisions by In the Red

Folks that taut the French New Wave are either film professors or  uppity liberals, sometimes both at the same time, who found this niche in the film world to bolster their own self worth by being able to flaunt French titles and phrases while discussing the overwhelming importance of Rimbaud. Yeah, some of that work is worth the endless name checking it gets. Jules et Jim? Come on.

Anyway, easily the least pretentious of these films – and most entertaining as a result of its adherence to basic noir tendencies – is Godard’s Alphaville. In the film, a raspy throated Lemmy Caution sets out to topple an autocratic leader and gets to mess around with Anna Karina, which doesn’t sound like a bad reward for risking one’s life.

Anyway, the lead singer of Black Time has decided to take on the name of this secret agent. That doesn’t say anything at all about the music he makes, but at least he knows which films to boast about watching. But the fact that Double Negative marks the bands third long player on In the Red should hint at the musical direction of the release: healthful doses of garage and shambolic rock – almost to the point of the Piranhas, but not quite there. It seems as if the band is endlessly pushing towards complete disregard for genre tenets, but can’t wriggle free of a few.

A range in approach from almost straight garage rockers (“Six Feet Bellow”) to senseless, ambient noise (“A Boring Day for the Boredom Boys”) and even a bit of Mo Tucker fronting the Velvets (“I’m Gonna Haunt You When I’m Gone”) makes Double Negative a bit difficult to take in. It’s a similar to listening to a college radio show – one that plays music that you like, but not necessarily consistent in quality of content. So there’ll be a patch of stuff that works and then some that doesn’t.

There’s not really a common thread that holds the entire offering together. Maybe the predicable lack of recording quality that fans of the In the Red have come to expect as well as almost tuned instruments (“Problems”) can hold it together enough for some. But even after taking time to listen to the rage and contempt coming from Lemmy Caution and his Brit compatriots, one really must wonder though, what American bands are out there did ITR decided to pass on in-order to continue working with Black Time?

Boston Massachusetts Music

Boston Massachusetts is probably better known for the thick accent that accompany the conversations in this this town than it is for music - but this port city is rich in music that goes back to colonial days. I am pretty sure some of our founding fathers actually formed their own garage band back in the day which caused some of the citizens to band together to form the original Tea Party! I could be wrong about that though.

The musical sounds of Boston can be heard on the radio and live performance at many local venues. Boston is home to the well known Boston Symphony Orchestra which rocks out some old school beats - really, really old school. The Berklee Performance Center hosts many bands and artists that are the core of the music scene in this New England town. There is so much Boston has to offer in regards to music and I would love to know how you feel about the scene.

What bar is the best place to go for classical music? What club would you go to dance the night away to some top 40? What direction do you think the music scene in Boston is taking and how do you feel about the local performances? What radio station do you listen to on that long commute? What is your opinion of the music in Boston and what do you think is important to share? I invite you to voice your opinion on what makes Boston rock!

TWOFR: The Intelligence x Sabertooth Tiger

The Intelligence

Deuteronomy

(In the Red, 2007)

Yes, I concur, the singles by the A-Frames on S-S are pretty decent and with the creation of AFCGT, there’s no lack of newly recorded, skewed rock on the market. But the third full length, the second on ITR, from the Intelligence includes some dingy fuzz with a thick layer of pop melodicism that isn’t always proportioned well on recordings being birthed from this genre.

The skronk of AFCGT recalls everything from Can to Zappa, but leaves out the ample pop needs of the listening community. That being said, Lars Finberg recording the Intelligence in a studio for the first time, brings about Deuteronomy, whose title itself is a bit mysterious. The name comes from the fifth book of the Torah and seeing as if you combine the number of full length albums between the A-Frames and the Intelligence the resultant integer being five, it all make sense. Kinda.

What doesn’t seem to be sensible is the pervasive point of view that this group is a pre-programmed exploration of sound. While Finberg does work alone, the albums that have resulted seem to be full fledged rock ensembles. Granted, few tracks sport a full line-up, but if you’re listening at home you probably just won’t know.

Hot Rod Tod. Where’s he been? Not on this disc, but HRT and Finberg share similar vocal styles and deliveries as evidenced initially on the lead off “Moon Beeps”. That alone doesn’t make the album, perhaps it yields a bit of endearing sentiment. But unfortunately the female whoa’s on “Dating Cops” stomp that feeling from one’s ears. With that being the low point, Finberg’s ability to work within a genre, no matter how loosely defined, while shifting tempos as well as mood is exceptional. The elastic bass, so often associated with funk, gets some play here as on “Bad Sirens”, where the Intelligence sounds alternately like an ‘80s punk band and the Strokes.

The media, in general, has hailed this as an insightful melding of sound, noise and style. No one will be so bold as to disagree, but this won’t make too many top ten’s. Either way, once it goes into the ole cd player, if you didn’t just rip it, it’s not coming out for a while. Or at-least, not until you find your copy of We Are Electrocution.

 

Sabertooth Tiger

Extinction is Inevitable

(GSL, 2006)

Sweet merciful crap. Can I ask a bloody favor from the thousand of So Cal bands that are in some way At the Drive in/Mars Volta related? Stop. You made a truck load of money. Fine. You’re talented and almost every dude in the country that has a brushed up mohawk has one of your cds. This is getting to be as ridiculous as Mike Patton projects. You win. We get it. Your true to yourself and play loud music. As a marketing point, Jon Theodore of The Mars Volta plays drums on some tracks, and pretty convincingly at that. The beats are stuck together through all of the fills that can possibly fit in the time and space that are allotted. And it’s rather impressive, not new, but impressive. Between that and the Chomsky quote in the liner notes, we should all be able to guess at the sounds that come from the speakers. It, again, is being billed as hardcore related. And it is, to some degree, in a droney, pretentious political way. “Pyramid” explains how working won’t actually benefit you if you do it five days a week. And “The Sixties” extols the virtues of the rebellion, which near as I can tell didn’t really work, considering the fact that everyone reading this is probably trading their time for money (aka working for the man). At one point there’s a proclamation; “Let’s fight now”. Great. Another moron on the mic prodding us to revolution. Unfortunately, there’s no plan behind it, no reason for uprising now as opposed to five years ago and no real solution for the chaos that would ensue after such an insurrection. Again, great sentiment, but keep your mouth shut until you got something sensible to come out of it. GSL used to release bands like Le Shok who were more revolutionary in concept, approach and presentation, and now, I just want those old releases back. I don’t know if Hot Rod Tod is passed out in an alley somewhere, but even in that state, he very well maybe more entertaining then Sabertooth Tiger and it’s mindless leftist drivel.

TWOFR: Speed x The Yuppie Pricks

Crain

Speed

(Temporary Residence Ltd., 2005)

Crain was a little bit too early and a little bit too late. Earlier, they would have preceded the first Fugazi full length and been hailed as ushering in alternative rock. Later, they would have been considered a catalyst for whatever screamo is. But as luck has it, Crain released this, their first album in 1992. Speed was recorded at Inner Ear Studios (home to pretty much every Dischord band) and produced by Steve Albini. Since it’s worth noting the appearance of Albini, it’s also worth mentioning that he is above all else a businessman and has stated the he’s be willing to work for anyone with the funds. So his appearance doesn’t necessarily dictate quality, but it should hint at the sound. What Albini did manage to get down on record wasn’t exactly punk or metal or pop, but an early nineties amalgam. There’s almost funky drumming coupled with a brusque bass player and couple of noisy guitarists. Since Speed is an early ‘90s recording, there are marks of SST and the aforementioned Dischord bands everywhere. Most notably, the Minutemen are evoked consistently on the tracks “Monkey Wrench”, with the start/stop timing, the seven minute “Kneel”, “Ten Miles of Fiction” and “Ribcage”, which showcases a screamed chorus of, “Let me loose/Let me free”. Amongst the fourteen tracks, there’s no undeniable stand out, but only one complete loser. “Blistering” comes towards the end of the album with an enticing guitar part, but then surges forward with off key crooning. This band isn’t your life. And there’s a reason that Speed wasn’t repressed for thirteen years, but it’ll probably please you if you’re a fan of early-nineties-tiny-label-rock.

 

The Yuppie Pricks

Brokers Banquet

(Alternative Tentacles, 2005)

This entire endeavor is more interesting in theory than in practice.  Some guys who listen to punk, mockingly don yuppie gear and write songs only yuppies could love.  Coke jokes galore, the lyrical content focuses on vanity, money and women who, “suck it ‘til it’s blue”.  Amusing for a while, I can’t really imagine anyone buying this.  Perhaps the liner notes, which include most of the songs lyrics, should be sold separately.  Lines like, “extra mayo on my rich bitch sandwich”, “you need more than looks to fuck me/better have the credit and lots of money” and “saving my pennies for a bag of blow”, mean that the writing is more entertaining than the music.  The band cranks out average punk and rewrites “New Rose” by The Damned as “New Rolls” (it’s about the car, just to let you know).  Every song on here is somewhat annoying and completely innocuous, but “Day Spa” is aurally insulting.  The vocal phrasing is off and Trevor Middleton can’t quite hit the right notes.  Towards the end of this slab though, the band tosses in a Motards cover.  And finally on the last track, (a song borrowed from The Geto Boys) “Damn it Feels Good to be a Yuppie”, Jello Biafra makes an appearance and raps a five-minute song.  His appearance seems rather pointless considering the previous twelve tracks consist of someone coping his style.  Alternative Tentacles is probably the only label daring enough and financially capable of putting out such a release.  So, you got ten dollars that you want to get rid of?  Send it to me care of Clamor instead of to these guys.  I need it to buy some sushi and a new suit. 

 

George Phang & Friends At Skateland Live (1984)

George Phang is further proof that folks associated with dancehall were perhaps a bit to closely tied to a criminal element.

Of course, staying away from a criminal element around Arnett Gardens or Tivoli Gardens is probably a difficult thing to do. But even before Phang delved into music production, his family had ties to people that would eventually comprise the top tier of the People's National Party (PNP).

Dissociating politics from crime in Jamaica’s a heady project. And just a few days ago, Phang saw fit to turn himself over to the cops, who were looking for him in connection with Dudus and the Shower Posse antics that had international implications.

Before all of this was making news in the States, Phang worked a successful, if only brief career, while issuing a spate of well regarded albums from some of JA’s best known toasters.

Amongst his releases was George Phang & Friends, sporting a spate of the genre’s early eighties’ stars. In a seamless showcase style, the disc moves from one track to the next pretty seamlessly. And to his credit, Phang saw fit to eschew some of the lesser influences of dancehall from the period – this was 1984 after all.

It would have been easy for fang to move towards the incessant digitized sounds so prevalent at the time. Part of that, though, stems from the apparent pummeling of his avowed rhythms. Any astute JA music fan is going to be passably familiar with the musical backing here. One might not be able to place a title to the beat and melody, but nothing here sounds brand new.

Phang, unfortunately, became known for his small stock pile of beats – though each worked well for the likes of B. Levy, Brigadier Jerry, Tenor Saw and an assortment of others. Eventually, though, folks grew tired of those tracks. And with that – as well as dancehall continuing to change through the nineties – Phang moved on to other endeavors, legal or not.

But moving back towards simply the business side of his interests led Phang to managing a sports team in addition to whatever he was maintaining on the side. His name isn’t necessarily synonymous with dancehall – or even music on an international scale. So, his involvement with folks being rounded up by the United States government might prove to be his enduring legacy. Hopefully, though, enough people get an ear full of George Phang & Friends to focus on the music and not the alleged wrong doings.

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