{"id":2219,"date":"2010-03-17T18:29:40","date_gmt":"2010-03-18T01:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/?p=2219"},"modified":"2010-03-18T00:54:31","modified_gmt":"2010-03-18T07:54:31","slug":"here-are-a-few-new-releases-to-whet-your-palate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2010\/03\/17\/here-are-a-few-new-releases-to-whet-your-palate\/","title":{"rendered":"Here are a few new releases to whet your palate:"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aloha
\nHome Acres<\/em>
\nPolyvinyl Records, 2009
\nReviewed by Kent Manthie<\/strong>
\n Well this is a nice surprise. Aloha has finally come into their own, so to speak. Home Acres<\/em> is the third CD I\u2019ve reviewed, which is when I got hip to the band. On previous CDs, Aloha seemed to be searching for a niche, a subgenre they could settle into and call their own. On Light Works<\/em>, for instance, they have a great cross-section of indie delights, a scattered but cohesive formula for great music.
\n Home Acres<\/em> is actually their 6th full length CD and 7th album, if you count their first release, the Nonbelievers EP<\/em>. All I can really talk about is the last few CDs, their newest one, Home Acres<\/em>, Light Works <\/em>and Some Echoes<\/em>, all of which are fine, fine albums. The former two are a bit flowery and poppish (better than foppish!), with jingle-jangle rhythms and spacey atmospherics that make for great stoner music. Although, I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s what main man Tony Cavallario had in mind, but then again, that\u2019s how life, in general is: when you\u2019re striving on purpose to make something sound or look or feel like a certain je ne sais quois it almost never happens – at least not at first try; if you are perfectionistically, anally intent on capturing whatever spirit you\u2019re after you can try a zillion takes until you find it. But in the end it isn\u2019t going to be that satisfying. Writing or almost any other art form is the same way – it must come to you through a sub- or un-conscious (despite what Sartre says about the unconscious) method.
\n Back to the music – Home Acres really blew my mind when I first listened to it – the percussion, rhythm, keyboards, guitars all seemed to coalesce together in a way that wasn\u2019t superfluous and actually turned out to be the perfect follow-up to my listening to Tarkus that particular day. Now, of course, that kind of perfect juxtaposition could probably never happen again between those two albums, but that essence, that perfect balance that took place there was like Krishnamurti\u2019s pontification about meditiation: that you can\u2019t just go looking for it or sit in a lotus position and expect it to come, it has to arrive on its own, when you\u2019re mind and body are ready for it.
\n Besides Tony Cavallario on vocals and guitars, the current line up also includes: TJ Lipple, who dabbles on the Mellotron, marimba and percussion, Matthew Gengler, who plays bass and our friend Cale Parks – the Cale Parks that\u2019s made some cool solo records and who also plays in the incredibly awesome Joan of Arc, more of a collective than just a band. Parks plays drums and piano in Aloha.
\n I can\u2019t really pick any one or two cuts that I think are above the others, since the whole album is a real treat. This time around Aloha has a edgier, louder beat, less ethereality and more of a driven, up-tempo kind of vibe going, but I will say that the song that starts off Home Acres, \u201cBuilding a Fire\u201d is the perfect way to start off a record – it\u2019s catchy, it has a softness that is building up to something grand, which will make itself evident on the next cut, \u201cMoonless March\u201d a song with a kickin\u2019 rhythmic percussive quality and that fuzzy bass as well as a carousel-like (Ray Manzarek, anyone?) keyboard sound to it. But one other good thing about the first couple tracks is that it isn\u2019t that breathtaking that it drains away the effectiveness of the rest of the album. In looking for other cuts to make mention of, I would posit: \u201cWhite Wind\u201d, \u201cBlackout\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m In Trouble\u201d as being worth mentioning. \u201cRuins\u201d has a great effectiveness in closing off the album; just one more instance of the high quality of not only the songs but the continuity that ensues in the way they are laid out.
\n After all these CDs and the busy-ness of members with other projects, Aloha has managed to stay afloat lo these many years, probably due to the perseverance of Tony Cavallario, who writes the bulk of the songs. But it\u2019s the whole that make up the greatness of the band, a team effort, if you will. With that I\u2019m going to let you go listen for yourselves and make up your own minds – they will get blown! – KM<\/p>\n

Japandroids
\nPost-Nothing<\/em>
\nPolyvinyl Records 2009
\nReviewed by Kent Manthie<\/strong>
\n I would be remiss if I didn\u2019t tell you that at first, even though I was immediately turned on by Post-Nothing<\/em>, the new CD by Japandroids, I couldn\u2019t help feeling that \u201cEmo\u201d vibe, even though the music is much edgier and more like a Jane\u2019s Addiction without the dope fiends and the fake nihilism. But, I do have to say that the lyrics are a bit, uh, sophomoric on some cuts (\u201cLet\u2019s go to France\/So we can French-kiss some French girls\u2026\u201d for instance).
\n Lyrics be damned, though, I still love this album. Before I received it from the great guys at Polyvinyl, Seth Hubbard in particular, I saw it at the public library and noticed that it was a Polyvinyl release but some dummy put it in the shelves even though it had 8 holds on it – that\u2019s right – I put my own hold on it so that would\u2019ve meant that I\u2019d have to wait for 8 other people to come check it out and hope that any or all of them don\u2019t keep it for more than the one week allotted time frame or steal it altogether. But when I received the CD from Polyvinyl I was relieved. Somehow, just looking at the CD and knowing what label it was on made me like it already – even though I hadn\u2019t yet heard it and when I did, I wasn\u2019t surprised that I did like it – a lot.
\n Despite the aforementioned teeny-bopper-aimed lyrics, their music is bombastic: it\u2019s loud, it has rough, raw guitars, heavy beats and a booming bass anchoring it all up. Each track has something to offer – catchy hooks, cathartic rock and roll that verges on the hard, but sticks to its indie roots, meaning it\u2019s not Neolithic sludge bombs but rather smart, hook-laden, steely rock with smart time changes that make you want to jump up and down or at least tap your feet if your on the bus or subway. I\u2019d say, mix together, in a blender, 1 part Jane\u2019s Addiction, 1 part Helmet and sprinkle some Red Hot Chili Peppers on top, to make it less puritanically \u201chard-rock\u201c.
\n Best songs on Post Nothing<\/em>? The ones I found the most drawn in by at least by the first couple of listens, were \u201cThe Boys Are Leaving Town\u201d, the opening cut, which always leaves an imprint of what your mind expects will follow or sound like. If the rest of the songs were all really slow, acoustic guitar-and-vocals-only, folkie songs that would totally bring the record to a continuity discord that would have just too much separation from the opening that one would feel ripped off in way when, after buying it he finds out that other than the one or maybe two really bitchin\u2019 tunes that he\u2019d heard on the radio, the rest of the album was all slow folk ballads with just an acoustic guitar and a harmonica here and there: it just would never work. So when an album starts off with a good tune, especially a medium-length, upbeat or at least concept-setting of the rest of the record, almost an overture in some cases. But as far as other good songs, \u201cWet Hair\u201d, \u201cRockers East Vancouver\u201d, \u201cCrazy Forever\u201d and the ending track, \u201cI Quit Girls\u201d all have a little something to them that make them stand out about this much more than the others, but, really, when it comes down to it, the whole album is pretty much worth listening to as a whole. It isn\u2019t a concept album or anything deep like that, but it does have a groovy continuity that makes it worth checking out the next tune, then the next tune and the next one and then\u2026on and on.
\n The only problem I had was what to call this stuff? I mean it was nothing deep or virtuosic, just a bunch of slick songs that had a raw edge to them and in the studio, even though it was polished up, the rawness and the slickness never wore off. I must see them live to really judge them – that\u2019s when you can tell the real abilities of the band as a team and when they\u2019re naked on the stage (figuratively, that is) with no re-takes allowed, meaning it must be perfect from the get-go, so, seeing them onstage would definitely let me know what their real mettle is. -KM<\/p>\n

Love is All
\nTwo Thousand and Ten Injuries<\/em>
\nPolyvinyl Records, 2009
\nReviewed by Kent Manthie<\/strong>
\n I really love the music on this new one from Love is All, a small CD (EP? There are only seven tracks on it, averaging about 3 minutes per song) entitled Two Thousand and Ten Injuries<\/em> and released by the legendary Chicago love factory, Polyvinyl Records. It has an atmospheric, echoing\/reverb background, reminiscent of Mazzy Star or Galaxy 500, songs that are sung by the little girl vocals of singer, who doesn\u2019t come across as campy or kitsch but as a sincere singer with a great ability and a beautiful, perfectly working voice, but this is not No Doubt, so I don\u2019t think she\u2019s just using Love is All as her springboard to fame and fortune, to the point where she won\u2019t plucked away from her own band not unlike Diana Ross to Bjork to Gwen Stefani and turned into a Hollywood \u201cvamp\u201d, most likely to end up in a terrible movie and vacillate back and forth between no-talent music career and no-talent acting career (shoulda picked a vocation and stuck with it instead of now suddenly, publicly taste-testing your antics before they\u2019re packaged).
\n It\u2019s not like that with Love is All at all; the whole band is involved here, you can tell that they all had something to provide and each member put all of themselves into this album making it a truly \u201cband effort\u201d.
\n Like I said, the songs just fly by – only seven songs that clock in at about 3 minutes each, on average, it\u2019s a short, sharp shock of an experience. Seven great pop oddities that manage to stick in your head, for example: \u201cThe Birds Were Singing With All Their Might\u201d, which happens to be the last cut on Two Thousand and Ten Injuries, is still going through my mind as I write, having just finished listening to it again, for more exposure, taking a listen from a \u201cdifferent angle\u201d or what-have-you, maybe just jogging my memory of what they boil down to; their essence. I knew that I had liked them, I knew that from the first time I listened to them. But it took a few listens before I knew why I liked it. That turned out to be the CD\u2019s brevity, it\u2019s upbeat \u201csub-pop\u201d (not the record label, either) sound, it\u2019s echoing reverb that makes each track all the more haunting and jangly guitar work that does a fine job spicing up an already pick-me-up of an album. It\u2019s not very \u201cupbeat\u201d itself, not, by extension, very dark or nihilistic like Joy Division or The Cure in their early work, but a melancholy, more personal reflection seen through a hazy looking glass is what I think of when trying to think of how to describe this album, boiled down to its essence(s).
\n A few instances of greatness that shouldn\u2019t go unheralded should include: \u201cRepetition\u201d, which is anything but when stacked against the average stuff around the marketplace today. Another short but uncannily easy one to imprint on your consciousness is \u201cLess Than Thrilled\u201d – one in which a comparison to Bjork wouldn\u2019t be completely inappropriate. I could comment on and on about just about every song on this gem of a CD, but I will leave it there and say that those are just some that I thought one would listen to first if completely unfamiliar and wanted to get a taste as to how they sound; those who are part of a cult-following or just moderately-fond-of fans that like to listen to their CDs, etc. <\/p>\n

Sarah June
\nIn Black Robes<\/em>
\nSilber Media
\nReviewed by Kent Manthie<\/strong>
\n This is one pleasantly surprising CD to come out of the normally experimental\/industrial\/agitpop music to come from Silber Media, but for some reason, Sarah June made it on to the Silber label and is hence, ready and waiting for your attention.
\n Listening to it is pure bliss. It\u2019s pretty much an almost \u201cpizzicato\u201d sound to it, a lot of finger picking with strong fingers, as well as just good picking all over; that and Sarah June singing in that sing-song, little girl pitch of hers, which is so beautiful sounding as well as damn cute it just can\u2019t be ignored. I think that the clean, crisp acoustic guitar complements the perfectly pitched but precious and brittle voice, that of Sarah June.
\n The music is an ominous, darkly mirrored silhouette after silhouette of the coming of something. What is what the listener must find out for themselves, by personalizing it the listener can make it their own in that way.
\n Some stand-outs include: \u201cJudgment Day\u201d, \u201cThe Reaper\u201d and the haunting, echoing \u201cBrand of Bitterness\u201d, one that features some fine work on the stand-up bass-fiddle and \u201cMotown\u201d – her \u201clove letter\u201d to Detroit, MI.
\n One other cut which really shows off some more of that great acoustic guitar work is the penultimate song, \u201cFencepost\u201d. The final cut, \u201c\u2019Til You Hit the Pavement\u201d is one of the first times in years that I\u2019ve seen the abbreviation for the word \u201cuntil\u201d written correctly, as \u2018TIL not TILL, which is a noun, meaning a drawer, as in a cash drawer in a cash register. It\u2019s also a lovely, reflective song filled, not with anger or sadness but more of a \u201cque sera sera\u201d kind of attitude. -KM<\/p>\n

Aarktica
\nLive at KUCI 6\/15\/05<\/em>
\nSilber Media
\nReviewed by Kent Manthie<\/strong>
\n Another new one from Brian and company is a new CD by the hardly working Aarktica, who\u2019ve just come out with a new release already – it\u2019s a taped live show at the studios of small college radio station KUCI – probably from the campus of UC-Irvine(?) just a guess from the call letters.
\n Anyway, this free-form, live show is awash in real instrumentation as well as real drums and percussion. It even has a bit of that passionate Latin spark- almost Cuban in some parts, Brazilian or West Indies in others. For example: the first two tunes \u201cDepression Modern\u201d but especially \u201cOJ Guide\u201d. From there on it stays in the same vein – dark, doomy, dirge-like bass-droning and a little bit of twangy guitar to help out in that same eerie twang-thing going on there. I know this isn\u2019t the first Aarktica CD that I\u2019ve come around but it looks like I am going to have to go back to the label and get some ones that I missed. But for now, take my word for it – these guys rock all over the place. -KM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aloha Home Acres Polyvinyl Records, 2009 Reviewed by Kent Manthie Well this is a nice surprise. Aloha has finally come into their own, so to speak. Home Acres is the third CD I\u2019ve reviewed, which is when I got hip to the band. On previous CDs, Aloha seemed to be searching for a niche, a subgenre they could settle into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"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":[1,573],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2025,"url":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2010\/02\/22\/aloha-to-you-aloha-fans\/","url_meta":{"origin":2219,"position":0},"title":"Aloha to you ALOHA fans…","author":"Kent","date":"February 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Aloha Home Acres Polyvinyl Records, 2010 Reviewed by Kent Manthie Well this is a nice surprise. Aloha has finally come into their own, so to speak. Home Acres is the third CD I\u2019ve reviewed, which is when I got hip to the band. On previous CDs, Aloha seemed to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/aloha-home-acres-cd-pic2-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13600,"url":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2016\/05\/30\/im-not-really-an-unintentional-luddite\/","url_meta":{"origin":2219,"position":1},"title":"I’m Not Really An Unintentional Luddite","author":"Reviewer Rob","date":"May 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"[Confession] An Unintentional Luddite? by Reviewer Rob, from 5-29-16, 5:41 p.m. Right Now. Now I'm listening to this Sub Pop label sampler in my car CD player. 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These qualities keep him in demand - he\u2019s got several projects he works in - he\u2019s an on-again\/off-again\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5821,"url":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2011\/12\/06\/a-refreshing-blast-of-mellow-music\/","url_meta":{"origin":2219,"position":5},"title":"A Refreshing Blast of Mellow Music","author":"Kent","date":"December 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Villarreal Invisible Cinema Joyful Noise Records, 2011 Tweet Review by Kent Manthie This, the new solo CD from Victor Villarreal, guitarist extraordinaire, Invisible Cinema, is a real departure from his appearance on the latest Joan of Arc CD, Life Like, on which he appears as one of the twin\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "archive"","block_context":{"text":"archive","link":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/category\/archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Invisible-Cinema-CD-cover.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2219"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2228,"href":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219\/revisions\/2228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}