Airport 81: \u201cGet Your Squares Together\u201d (Breathing Room Records) Listening to \u201cGet Your Squares Together\u201d, 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\u2019s 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 \u201csound\u201d that is stereotypical of San Diego (like Seattle = grunge, L.A. = vacuous hair bands, NYC = gritty art-noise, et cetera). I\u2019ve 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) \u2013 KM.<\/p>\n
Rusty Like: \u201cPirouette\u201d (Breathing Room Records)
\nLike popping a couple Valium, Rusty Like makes one feel good all over. \u201cPirouette\u201d has a sunny disposition; putting into song many wonderful sentiments and emotions. It\u2019s 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. \u201cPirouette\u201d starts of with an instrumental intro called \u201cCity Summer Rain\u201d 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 \u201cguests\u201d and \u201cfriends\u201d. It all comes together well, not sounding at all disparate due to all the different hands (www.breathingroomrecords.com) \u2013 KM.<\/p>\n
The Broken Remotes: \u201cLose the Swagger\u201d (Room 206 Records)
\nCool, 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 \u2013 \u201cLose the Swagger\u201d and \u201cArms Held Aloft\u201d. Ah, to be young again\u2026I liked \u201cLose the Swagger\u201d 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\u2019 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) \u2013 KM.<\/p>\n
Sirhan Sirhan (s\/t) (self-released)
\nThis 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\u2019s Alex Organ, who beats up the drum kit. With songs like \u201cSurgery\u201d, \u201cBurn it Down\u201d and \u201cThe Maggot Sings\u201d, you get a feel for their milieu. Take it from me \u2013 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 \u2013 KM.<\/p>\n
Travoltas: \u201cThe High School Reunion\u201d (Fastmusic)
\nFortunately, Travoltas are not as shallow as their namesake, the one-dimensional \u201cactor\u201d. 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 \u201cMajor Tom (Coming Home)\u201d \u2013 that early 80s pop aberration \u2013 even spicing it up by singing it in German\u2026ooh. (www.travoltas.com or www.fastmusic.com) \u2013 KM.<\/p>\n
Elephant Mess \u2013 Number 15, The Unreviews Issue
\nI received this \u2018zine\u2019 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 \u2018zine\u2019 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 \u201cMurder Can Be Fun\u201d \u2013 It had all kinds of stuff about \u2013 guess what? \u2013 Death, torture, serial killers and murder, murder, murder. But it was a well though out and well-crafted \u2018zine\u2019 \u2013 KM.<\/p>\n
Forever Is Forgotten: \u201cDying Beautiful\u201d (Thorp Records)
\nThe music on \u201cDying Beautiful\u201d starts out all right, but then, when the singer starts up, one finds out that it\u2019s just another CD of awful, guttural roars \u2013 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) \u2013 KM.<\/p>\n
Blue Monday: \u201cRewritten\u201d (Bridge Nine Records)
\nUltra-razor sharp; Blue Monday is a group of passionate, idealistic young lads who have some vitriol to get off their collective chest. \u201cRewritten\u201d is a straight-edger\u2019s dream \u2013 full of polemic anthems that\u2019ll whip the faithful into a frenzy; it\u2019s got lots of fuel for sweaty mosh-pits and bible-study meetings. Yowza! (www.bridge9.com) \u2013 KM.<\/p>\n
Keg: \u201cCreatures of the Night\u201d (Positive Base Records)
\nLow-fi wonderstuff, Keg, has found their way to my CD player. I dig this Cramps-ish, underground sleaze-punk. \u201cCreatures of the Night\u201d is a no-frills, raw record full of punk ditties that drone on with a druggy torpor that hangs well in the background \u2013 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 \u2018til the wee hours of the morning. Good luck finding it at your local Tower Records; you\u2019ll probably need to go to www.kegrocks.com to either order it or find out where to get it \u2013 KM.<\/p>\n
Big Kenny: \u201cLive A Little\u201d (Hollywood Records)
\n\u201cLive A Little\u201d 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. \u201cLive A Little\u201d does have a kind of radio-friendliness to it that would lend itself to a wide, middle-American audience (www.hollywoodrecords.com) \u2013 KM.<\/p>\n
Champion: \u201cTime Slips Away\u201d (Bridge Nine Records)
\nAnother 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 \u201cI\u2019m mad as HELL and I\u2019m not going to take it ANYMORE!\u201d At the very least, \u201cTime Slips Away\u201d 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) \u2013 KM.<\/p>\n
Nikka Costa: \u201cCan\u2019tneverdidnothin\u2019\u201d (Virgin\/EMI)
\nFunky white girl Nikka Costa gets down on \u201cCan\u2019tneverdidnothin\u2019\u201d, a forthcoming CD full of pop hits, due out in May, \u201906. I must say that I was quite surprised that I actually liked this CD. I expected, before pushing \u2018play\u2019, 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\u2019ll be around\u2026 (www.nikkacosta.com or www.virginrecords.com) \u2013 KM.<\/p>\n
Winston Smith: \u201cThe Culmination of the Evolution of Destruction\u201d (self-released)
\nHow cool is it to call yourself Winston Smith \u2013 the main character from \u201c1984\u201d; an apt name in these dark times. \u201cThe Culmination\u2026\u201d is a hard-core rant, cutting deep on a few cuts, like \u201cWithout Truckers Amerikkka Stops\u201d and \u201cLet\u2019s Decompose and Enjoy Assembling\u201d. They have a wicked sense of buzz-saw theatrics and cacophonous wizardry, alchemizing junk chords into a work of dread and pain and blood.
\n(www.winstonsmith.ws) \u2013 KM.<\/p>\n
Blood or Whiskey: \u201cCashed Out On Culture\u201d (Punk Core Records)
\nBlood 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 \u2013 banjos, penny whistles, accordion and make it rock. \u201cCashed Out\u2026\u201d is a beery, rip-roarin\u2019 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 \u201cJar\u2019d For Life\u201d, \u201cPoxy Pub\u201d and \u201cRuler, Ruler\u201d are standouts among standouts. Bring this to your St Patrick\u2019s Day party! (www.bloodorwhiskey.ie or www.punkcore.com) \u2013 KM.<\/p>\n
Elsie Law: \u201cFly Or Die\u201d (Legal Eagles Entertainment)
\nBrooklynite Elsie Law is on the make. \u201cFly Or Die\u201d 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\u2019t typical hip-hop; \u201cFly Or Die\u201d starts out with a somber intro rap over a Moonlight Sonata piano riff and just takes off from there. I was pleasantly surprised throughout; \u201cMother\u2019s Day\u201d is a cautionary tale of urban circumstance and conscience; \u201cElsie Law Freestyle\u201d has cool samples and a smooth delivery and the \u201cbonus\u201d track, \u201cFor All Seasons\u201d 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.
\n(www.elsielaw.com) \u2013 KM.<\/p>\n
DEK: \u201cLSD: Trip or Trap?\u201d-DVD (Something Weird Music)
\nOK, I honestly don\u2019t 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. \u201c\u2026Trip or Trap\u201d 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 \u2013 a short about LSD hosted by Tommy Roe (the guy who had a hit single with the song \u201cDizzy\u201d) and was a silly, campy \u2018objective\u2019 look at both sides of the coin, but inevitably concluding that acid is bad. \u201cTrip or Trap\u201d 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 \u201cDoctor Chokobonich\u201d. The whole thing\u2019s a scream! Ultra low-budget, but the fact that it\u2019s done so cheaply and with nothing but a camcorder is an endearing way to put this goof down for posterity. \u2013 KM.<\/p>\n
Bleeding Through: \u201cThis is Live, This is Murderous\u201d \u2013 Concert DVD (Kung Fu Films)
\nAnother 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\u2019t want to leave home you can pop this in your home theater and it\u2019s 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) \u2013 KM.<\/p>\n
Tsunami Bomb: \u201cLive at the Glasshouse\u201d \u2013 Concert DVD (Kung Fu Films)
\nTsunami 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 \u201cDawn on a Funeral Day\u201d. One thing I like about Tsunami Bomb is that their female lead singer doesn\u2019t 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) \u2013 KM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Airport 81: \u201cGet Your Squares Together\u201d (Breathing Room Records) Listening to \u201cGet Your Squares Together\u201d, 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, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[559],"class_list":["post-641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-music-reviews-324"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1257,"url":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2009\/08\/25\/cd-review-somewhere-gone\/","url_meta":{"origin":641,"position":0},"title":"CD review: Somewhere Gone","author":"admin","date":"August 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Exene Cervenka Somewhere Gone reviewBy J. Darren Lee Rarely does a musical artist come by who experiments in more than one type of musical genre, much less more than one type of medium and still be great at every one. Exene Cervenka, formerly of the L.A. punk band X, is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "archive"","block_context":{"text":"archive","link":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":197,"url":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2006\/12\/06\/tom-waits-orphans-music-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":641,"position":1},"title":"Tom Waits ORPHANS music review","author":"admin","date":"December 6, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Tom Waits ORPHANS - Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards music review by James Sims Imagine stumbling into a barn in the middle of the night, and sitting there in a pile of gnarled farming equipment is a sooty-eyed, crazy old man. He\u2019s throwing spoons against a plow, plucking pitchfork prongs and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "archive"","block_context":{"text":"archive","link":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/pics.livejournal.com\/reviewermag\/pic\/00012dpr\/s320x240","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10065,"url":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2014\/02\/23\/wall-of-ukuleles\/","url_meta":{"origin":641,"position":2},"title":"Wall Of Ukuleles","author":"Reviewer Rob","date":"February 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"[Life Goals]Musical Instruments Are Objects Of DesireBelow: Ric, behind the counter at Hale Ukulele, with a walls of music around him. These are brand-spanking new high-quality ukuleles for sale at Hale Ukulele in North Bay-Ho, Clairemont Mesa, 858-414-4492, many for as low as $100. I enjoyed the smell of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":373,"url":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2007\/09\/21\/the-love-and-terror-music-cult-of-charlie-manson\/","url_meta":{"origin":641,"position":3},"title":"The Love and Terror Music Cult of Charlie Manson","author":"admin","date":"September 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"[This is a reprint from http:\/\/www.earcandymag.com\/rrcase-charlesmanson.htm. For some Mason Family tracks go to these myspaces: http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/liecharliemanson or http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/thefamilyjams. Better do it fast, before they get taken down. ~Ed.] CHARLES MANSON \u2013 A Musical Motive? By Ronnie Rock 'N Roll Case Study: CHARLES MANSON \u2013 A Musical Motive? This installment of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "archive"","block_context":{"text":"archive","link":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":642,"url":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2006\/03\/29\/32-3-music-reviews\/","url_meta":{"origin":641,"position":4},"title":"#32.3 Music Reviews","author":"admin","date":"March 29, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The Lashes: \u201cGet It\u201d (Columbia Records) A lot of people have this fixed idea of Seattle as a dreary, overcast, depressing rainy place and for good reason, since it does rain all the time there. When you mention that a particular band is from Seattle, one likewise associates the Seattle\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "archive"","block_context":{"text":"archive","link":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":82,"url":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2006\/06\/12\/cd-reviews-61206\/","url_meta":{"origin":641,"position":5},"title":"CD reviews 6\/12\/06","author":"admin","date":"June 12, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"CD reviews 6\/12\/06 by Kent Manthie Akimbo: \u201cForging Steel and Laying Stone\u201d (Alternative Tentacles Records) Seattle-based Akimbo is out now with their fifth release, \u201cForging Steel and Laying Stone\u201d, a cathartic, rip-roaring CD that harkens back to the heyday of the Pacific Northwest\u2019s flannel-punk scene; bands like The Melvins, Mastodon\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "archive"","block_context":{"text":"archive","link":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}