Airport 81: “Get Your Squares Together” (Breathing Room Records) Listening to “Get Your Squares Together”, by Airport 81, a musical project based in San Diego, my senses were piqued. The icy dream-tracks on here make me think of stark European landscapes; gray English overcast landscapes mixed with steely German minimalism. Airport 81 does a fabulous job of marrying mechanized, computerized, digitized forms of musical expression with traditional musical instruments like bass, guitar, drums, although these days it’s hard to tell, sometimes, where the drum machines stop and real ones start. On Friday, January 27, they hosted a CD release-party at the Whistle Stop bar, over on 30th and Juniper, showing off their fantastic new stuff to a grateful hometown audience. I hope they play again soon. One great thing about the music scene here is that there is no one “sound” that is stereotypical of San Diego (like Seattle = grunge, L.A. = vacuous hair bands, NYC = gritty art-noise, et cetera). I’ve sampled the works of myriad San Diego outfits in the past four years and I am constantly impressed by the breadth of styles that come out of all corners of San Diego. (www.breathingroomrecords.com) – KM.
Rusty Like: “Pirouette” (Breathing Room Records)
Like popping a couple Valium, Rusty Like makes one feel good all over. “Pirouette” has a sunny disposition; putting into song many wonderful sentiments and emotions. It’s full of smart, jangly, hooky indie craftwork. It reminds me of the sunnier side of the Velvet Underground in some respects; in other ways it has elements of the legendary Big Star. “Pirouette” starts of with an instrumental intro called “City Summer Rain” and continues on lead by the quiet, smoky vocals of a couple of guests- the main two people in Rusty Like are Josh McCurdy who plays guitar and Chris Johnson who plays bass. Every thing else is filled in by “guests” and “friends”. It all comes together well, not sounding at all disparate due to all the different hands (www.breathingroomrecords.com) – KM.
The Broken Remotes: “Lose the Swagger” (Room 206 Records)
Cool, unbroken slickness that elicits tapping feet and drumming your fingers on the table, The Broken Remotes have given us, the public, a small taste of their popness with a CD (single?) with two tracks – “Lose the Swagger” and “Arms Held Aloft”. Ah, to be young again…I liked “Lose the Swagger” so much I listened to it again and again until it was buzzing around in my head and I could coast on that throughout the day. It is nothing but plain ol’ rock & roll, no sub-sub genre of something else. Just a cool bunch of rockers working and sweating and toiling to put out a good record; I hope I hear more soon (www.thebrokenremotes.com) – KM.
Sirhan Sirhan (s/t) (self-released)
This is some seriously deranged shit, man; I mean rock on, dude! Sirhan Sirhan kick ass- they belt out some lo-fi, meaty, grungy tunes on this homemade demo CD I got. A self-led CD with six tracks on it, it is just Blackie, who screams and beats the hell out of a guitar; Iowa Mike, who thumps the bass and also screams; plus, there’s Alex Organ, who beats up the drum kit. With songs like “Surgery”, “Burn it Down” and “The Maggot Sings”, you get a feel for their milieu. Take it from me – these guys are destined for infamy! For more information or to contact them (at your own damn risk!) go to lixorgan@hotmail.com or fearoffalling.mike@gmail.com – KM.
Travoltas: “The High School Reunion” (Fastmusic)
Fortunately, Travoltas are not as shallow as their namesake, the one-dimensional “actor”. Theirs is a contrived vacuity; sugary-sweet pop songs that are full of more major chords than minor chords, which makes for fast-paced, upbeat, happy pop music, rather than slow, dirge-like, depressing, sonorous stuff. Give it as a gift to cheer up that sick friend. Caveat Emptor: they do a cover of “Major Tom (Coming Home)” – that early 80s pop aberration – even spicing it up by singing it in German…ooh. (www.travoltas.com or www.fastmusic.com) – KM.
Elephant Mess – Number 15, The Unreviews Issue
I received this ‘zine’ in the mail the other day. It is quite interesting; quite hilarious. It is basically the OCD ramblings of a rather high quality writer. He puts pen to paper and sketches out the various oddities, habits, likes and observations in his life, as well as a smattering of bons mots, throughout. Kudos to Elephant Mess and the whole ‘zine’ scene in general; I remember I used to have a couple issues of this one from a dude in the Bay Area, I think, called “Murder Can Be Fun” – It had all kinds of stuff about – guess what? – Death, torture, serial killers and murder, murder, murder. But it was a well though out and well-crafted ‘zine’ – KM.
Forever Is Forgotten: “Dying Beautiful” (Thorp Records)
The music on “Dying Beautiful” starts out all right, but then, when the singer starts up, one finds out that it’s just another CD of awful, guttural roars – death metal. Future John Birch-ers, F.I.F. rips and shreds their musical credibility to ribbons. There is no need for another band to come out and waste studio time, beat up good instruments and hack away at another goddamned death-metal record (www.foreverisforgotten.com) – KM.
Blue Monday: “Rewritten” (Bridge Nine Records)
Ultra-razor sharp; Blue Monday is a group of passionate, idealistic young lads who have some vitriol to get off their collective chest. “Rewritten” is a straight-edger’s dream – full of polemic anthems that’ll whip the faithful into a frenzy; it’s got lots of fuel for sweaty mosh-pits and bible-study meetings. Yowza! (www.bridge9.com) – KM.
Keg: “Creatures of the Night” (Positive Base Records)
Low-fi wonderstuff, Keg, has found their way to my CD player. I dig this Cramps-ish, underground sleaze-punk. “Creatures of the Night” is a no-frills, raw record full of punk ditties that drone on with a druggy torpor that hangs well in the background – buzzing guitars and a thin but tethering rhythm section. This is the perfect band for a dark, smoky dive bar; they would set the tone of the atmosphere just right, warbling their cool riffs and crooning for the aficionados in the audience, jamming ‘til the wee hours of the morning. Good luck finding it at your local Tower Records; you’ll probably need to go to www.kegrocks.com to either order it or find out where to get it – KM.
Big Kenny: “Live A Little” (Hollywood Records)
“Live A Little” is a countrified pop album, an AOR, adult contemporary-styled CD. Big Kenny is a colorful easy-listening presence. Think of The Verve Pipe (not The Verve), or Hootie & the Blowfish; then you get the idea. Most of the songs here are full of new-age-y, feel-good spiritual platitudes, or else a song with sentimentality, love songs, ephemeral highway dividers. “Live A Little” does have a kind of radio-friendliness to it that would lend itself to a wide, middle-American audience (www.hollywoodrecords.com) – KM.
Champion: “Time Slips Away” (Bridge Nine Records)
Another band from the Bridge Nine catalog, Champion is a tight-knit punk-rock killing machine, filling your mind with short bursts of musical inspiration; music to get up and dance to, to march up and down the political landscape to, screaming “I’m mad as HELL and I’m not going to take it ANYMORE!” At the very least, “Time Slips Away” can be a catharsis of sorts for those who need a vicarious release of anger or for one who needs to expend extra energy. Full of gritty, urban realism and with a spotlight on the decay of our lives, Champion seethes at boiling point for the whole CD (www.xchampionx.com or www.bridge9.com) – KM.
Nikka Costa: “Can’tneverdidnothin’” (Virgin/EMI)
Funky white girl Nikka Costa gets down on “Can’tneverdidnothin’”, a forthcoming CD full of pop hits, due out in May, ’06. I must say that I was quite surprised that I actually liked this CD. I expected, before pushing ‘play’, a collection of worthless, banal pop fluff, destined for the garbage, but to be honest, I was bowled over by the hip, funky music that backed her up as well as her sexy, rich voice that really captivates. Keep your eyes and ears open for this queen. She’ll be around… (www.nikkacosta.com or www.virginrecords.com) – KM.
Winston Smith: “The Culmination of the Evolution of Destruction” (self-released)
How cool is it to call yourself Winston Smith – the main character from “1984”; an apt name in these dark times. “The Culmination…” is a hard-core rant, cutting deep on a few cuts, like “Without Truckers Amerikkka Stops” and “Let’s Decompose and Enjoy Assembling”. They have a wicked sense of buzz-saw theatrics and cacophonous wizardry, alchemizing junk chords into a work of dread and pain and blood.
(www.winstonsmith.ws) – KM.
Blood or Whiskey: “Cashed Out On Culture” (Punk Core Records)
Blood or Whiskey play punk-rock with a green tint to it. The Irish lads are rowdy and loud and play with an ebullient energy that mixes in disparate elements of music – banjos, penny whistles, accordion and make it rock. “Cashed Out…” is a beery, rip-roarin’ jam of 14 Irish-punk tunes. Less refined and throwing Blarney Stones, Blood or Whiskey are somewhere in between, but are more like The Pogues than Flogging Molly. Songs like “Jar’d For Life”, “Poxy Pub” and “Ruler, Ruler” are standouts among standouts. Bring this to your St Patrick’s Day party! (www.bloodorwhiskey.ie or www.punkcore.com) – KM.
Elsie Law: “Fly Or Die” (Legal Eagles Entertainment)
Brooklynite Elsie Law is on the make. “Fly Or Die” is an interesting album. I am not a fan of most commercially molded, corporate cookie-cutter hip-hop. The crap that makes it onto MTV, etc. is pretty lame, I lost interest about 1996 or so. But Elsie isn’t typical hip-hop; “Fly Or Die” starts out with a somber intro rap over a Moonlight Sonata piano riff and just takes off from there. I was pleasantly surprised throughout; “Mother’s Day” is a cautionary tale of urban circumstance and conscience; “Elsie Law Freestyle” has cool samples and a smooth delivery and the “bonus” track, “For All Seasons” is a jazzy chill-out. I hope I can follow this career and watch it arc and with a continuation of creativity in sound and lyrics Elsie may just indeed reach the heights of which she dreams.
(www.elsielaw.com) – KM.
DEK: “LSD: Trip or Trap?”-DVD (Something Weird Music)
OK, I honestly don’t know who these guys are or where they come from, but somehow this DVD showed up in my inbox. It is a short video-cam movie, made by these four kids and one young guy playing a doctor. “…Trip or Trap” is a goof on those old movies from the 1960s that tried to scare kids away from trying drugs. In fact, I just happened to see one of these old short films a couple weeks ago – a short about LSD hosted by Tommy Roe (the guy who had a hit single with the song “Dizzy”) and was a silly, campy ‘objective’ look at both sides of the coin, but inevitably concluding that acid is bad. “Trip or Trap” follows four teenage boys around as they decide to take a trip, score some acid, then we see them trip out. All this is interpolated with a stern lecture on the dangers of LSD by “Doctor Chokobonich”. The whole thing’s a scream! Ultra low-budget, but the fact that it’s done so cheaply and with nothing but a camcorder is an endearing way to put this goof down for posterity. – KM.
Bleeding Through: “This is Live, This is Murderous” – Concert DVD (Kung Fu Films)
Another Kung Fu Records band, Bleeding Through is shown off here on this 49 minute concert DVD. Hard-core/speed metal mayhem all caught on film in a brilliant fashion, by director Joe Escalante and a team of eight cameramen. If you want to enjoy a loud, intense rockshow but don’t want to leave home you can pop this in your home theater and it’s just like being there at the venue, but without the sweat, the blood, the smells, the physical punishment, et cetera, which, though, I think is an integral part of the experience (www.kungfurecords.com) – KM.
Tsunami Bomb: “Live at the Glasshouse” – Concert DVD (Kung Fu Films)
Tsunami Bomb, the indie rock band, strut their stuff onstage in this new DVD from Kung Fu Films (for Kung Fu Records artists), with the sexy-without-trying-to-be-sexy singer, stomping and screaming and holding forth through a set of perky punk-rock. Also included herein is a video for their song “Dawn on a Funeral Day”. One thing I like about Tsunami Bomb is that their female lead singer doesn’t emulate her male counterparts, like many other female punk singers, by caterwauling and shrieking, instead, she actually has a good voice and uses it to good effect. The music is tight, literate, terse and even contains slices of melody here and there www.kungfurecords.com) – KM.