1337 Bards

Baiyon - Pixel Junk Eden

2009-04-14T06:02:00.010-06:00

Its rare that video game music is so captivating that you dig through the credits to find out where it came from. Anyone fortunate enough to be hip to the new metro-electronica, or square enough to own a Playstation 3 console, might unknowingly be familiar with the multimedia art of Tomohisa Kuramitsu, a.k.a. Baiyon. Last summer the game Pixel Junk Eden released on the PS3 network and since has amassed a following. What Many do not know is that Kuramitsu is both the composer of the progressive ambient music, and the artist behind the original mind blowing graphics. Baiyon also tours as any DJ, only armed with computers and synthesizers instead of turn tables, churning out entire dance sets. It is rare that such an artist emerges one might call a bard, and it's this sort of multi-layered artistic genius that shows real potential for the future evolution of media as a whole.

Pixel Junk Eden is an incredible game where you grow a garden from the perspective of a tiny Grimp (imagine a tiny pollinating spider). From the start-up menu the theme "Become A Part of This" (Top Garden) in warm, inviting. I've let this 47 second glimpse of heaven loop for hours before, on accident drifting off to dreamland. The gradual rise and fall of the base timed with a sort of pulsing chime of a lead does something very soothing to the brain. The response is overwhelming relaxation. The game however, is not so smooth. Eden you soon find out is one of the largest scale platformer games ever invented. The climb is stunning, the fall can be epic. And when you do fall -and you will- the effect can be devastating. Lucky for us the music is inspiring. Every progressive build in each level's customized music is reminiscent of the glowing plants you're pollinating. The

subtlety can not be overstated, like classic board games that survive thousands of years, the way Pixel Junk Eden works and sounds is a new benchmark for platforming. Harmonies seem to sprout up out of the ground and grow in your home. In surround sound the effect is so beautiful that it is worth playing to listen alone.

The soundtrack to Pixel Junk is truly a garden itself, some places neat lined with alternating blooming floral arrangements, other places overgrown with wild plants transitioning into jungle forest; it is so hard to call music with this much depth ambiance! Baiyon effortlessly converts it into house, trance and hours of dance, playing clubs around the world. This may be music on the verge of new frontiers. The cinematic quality of the gaming tempo applies a rich quality not often sought after in electronic music. As an experienced director, we can only wonder what will be next for the brilliant Tomohisa Kuramitsu. For now simultaneous production companies in Japan and Ireland are starting to pump out Baiyon EPs ("Goshoguruma" & "S Soup") and is playing random venues in Japan, just recently having hit up San Francisco.

The Pixel Junk Soundtrack can be found in the game or separately in the Playstation Network store for the modest price of $9.99. 1-4 players (though maddening with more the one in my humble opinion) and a great way to relax if you're good at platforming; if your're bad at platforming it could cause nightmares. Fiendishly difficult, yet elegantly simple, Eden and Baiyon are establishing a new legacy for original gaming and music alike. Like all good games it offers up a real challenge, has lots of replay ability, and a memorable soundtrack unlike any other. Now lets just hope Baiyon is thinking up a sequal. Baiyon's music and art alike can be found at baiyon.com.

Baiyon - PixelJunk Eden Origional Soundtrack

2008 Baiyon, Tomohisa Kuramitsu

Gravel Undertone – Gravel Undertone EP

2009-04-06T13:01:00.006-06:00

This new band is one to watch grow. A blend of driving rock and elegant violin subtly brings the music together. One recalls the sounds of early Dave Mathews Band or Jars of Clay, but much faster and harder likening perhaps more to the Stone Temple Pilots. We even here the sort of minor high string plucking that Modest Mouse made its signature, but here it is more subtly applied. Despite all these random comparisons, the Gravel Undertone is forging its own new sound.

The lyrics and vocals of Sean Thompson are reminiscent of alternative roughly ten years ago, but not in a bad way. His tone is rough and raspy at times, yet has the capability to soar into near operatic power. However, at times the music floods over his voice & one must strain to hear the words. Though many bands revel in the mystery of their lead singer’s accent, this is more a sound problem. Sometimes the guitars and violin just crowd out the vocals. Also a strange effect on the voice may be responsible. However, when well leveled, the main vocals as well as Nick Edwards backup, harmonize in new and intriguing ways, both with wide vocal ranges. Sometimes they both sing different phrases, then join together back in synchronicity at the chorus; a very technically difficult thing to do while each playing an instrument & mostly well executed. On occasion their vocals remind me of Scott Weiland, a bit withdrawn, yet still rough and strong when they want to be. We hear this quality in phrases like “Whatever happened to fire and brimstone?” on “In The Name Of…” where the song seems to explode. All the same, improved diction & more confidence couldn’t hurt them.

That being said, the lead singer definitely has some pitch problems. Thompson has some where along the line gained an annoying habit of sliding on notes and extending the wrong notes into diphthongs. Sometimes it is to his credit, especially when he’s in his sort of metal whisper sound. Much of the time, however, it works against him, leaving his stranded and out of tune at the beginning of long notes, but still getting in tune by the end. He needs to speed up his resolution to the right key, then cadence. All new artists, please stop going into a cadence before hitting the right note. Tune first, then go wild, then get back in tune. With a little polish there is tremendous potential here for some real bluesy vocal performances. But the sliding flat and sharp notes are unprofessional at best.

There is a lot going on in this album. Gravel seems to have energy to spare, their songs are so fully packed with changes & complex solos. This is normally a good thing, but more often then not the music all blurs together with too much confusion. Many times simply slowing down a bit & letting some of the instruments have a more individualized voice would help. There are simply too many instances where everyone is playing, singing and cymbals are crashing making a melody indiscernible. If they would just back off a bit and progressively build to these points rarely it would be perfect. Instead the crashing is at times sporadic and random, as though the drummer just couldn’t take it any longer and needed to hit everything he had over and over through the chorus.

“French Fetish” is a striking departure from “In the Name of…” with a more contemporary blues feel that sometimes even breaks down into a sort of renaissance courtyard dance, –plucking violin strings- the song takes a turn for metal by the end, and it works! Again here I really enjoy the tone of the lead singer, but can barely understand anything he’s saying.

Not enough can be said about the instrumental capability possessed by Gravel Undertone. Their fierce guitar duos with violin madness that never miss a beat, instrumentals never going out of tune, are incredible. Hiroko Matsuda is a classical genius playing fiddle in an alternative band. Some of the techniques he must use to keep up with the band make my fingers hurt just thinking about them. And despite my earlier comparisons to other bands, their sound is still totally their own, seemingly due to Matsuda’s impeccable violin leading the procession, instead of lead guitar, which is a refreshing change. Tie all this together with Benjamin Manning’s wild drumming and Edward’s awesome bass lines, and it all sounds amazing. Set aside for a moment that they get into musical crashes, & the majority of the EP is solid and consistent. Even though those crashes are a bit amateur now, later it could be what’s most interesting about their style if they can only figure out how to wield the noise appropriately with rare progression to it. The musical experiments now found in their new EP are a great indicator of their potential and fearlessness in the eyes of creativity. In spite of my nitpicking, I can’t wait to hear the full album & the future of Gravel Undertone.

Gravel Undertone - Gravel Undertone EP

2009 Gravel Undertone

Nobuo Uematsu: Distant Worlds Tour

2009-03-26T16:23:00.000-06:00

After years of touring the world & secretly concocting the new up and coming soundtracks for Square Enix & Mistwalker, the impossible is happening: Nobuo Uematsu, original coposer of multiple Final Fantasy series games, is returning to the United States with the concert series “Distant Worlds.” With a new orchestral album due out March 31^st, the Distant Worlds team of musicians, composers, special effects artists & programmers (yes, programmers, the show will feature a montage of past Final Fantasy games with new glimpses of Final Fantasy XIII –demo in April, still to be announced official release date.) If you are lucky enough to live in one of the 6 cities where the tour is stopping in America (or anywhere else in the world where they are) you won’t want to miss this hybrid of classical music & the utmost of modern technology. Tour dates can be found at the Distant Worlds website.

Now if none of that made sense to you, you’re probably not a gamer. Square Enix is one of the worlds top game designers & producers, having a full CG movie studio in house, connections to highly respected classical artists of all varieties & the best most intensive RPGs (role playing games) available, the theme of which is always the potential end of the world; you play the hero. It is by utilizing beyond professional movie standards within video games that made Square Enix multi-billion dollar game corporation. Nobuo Uematsu composed the original Final Fantasy music, as well as the epic “Prelude,” possibly the most beautiful song on harp ever created. Despite the majority of the music being digital, the key to success, says Nobuo, was always “composing songs on the piano, first” attributing much of his success to the fact that all of the songs can be played on any instrument, allowing Uematsu to even go so far as to form his own heavy metal band, The Black Mages, while still playing the same music.

For those of you who never played the Final Fantasy games, I highly recommend you get with the times. Many of you might have children who play them & if you don’t understand the themes the kids will pass you right by. Each game deals with serious social issues and connects them back to their lore; in other words, all the scenarios are factual based on mythology. The depth of emotion expressed by the music, therefore, is epic in scale. Themes must correlate to bliss & tragedy, sorrow & adventure. There are bombings of entire cities, genocide, genetic splicing, torture, suffering, & in the end all of it always gets trumped by some crazy megalomaniac attempting to conquer –or destroy- the earth. This is why Uematsu’s music is so important, it’s a theme for victory in desperate circumstances, where the hero should simply just give in, but never does (unless you quit the game). These classic games mean much more to people then mere movies, and are more on the level of interactive epic tales, or great books. Keep in mind, a single Final Fantasy game could take 50-150 hours of game play and original story, all of this must have music. This is why Nobuo is more then a simple music director for video games, writing a Final Fantasy soundtrack for say FFXII (the 120+ hour newest installment) is like scoring 75 movies, all at once, all connected, each connecting zone in tune with the next.

Now that we’ve went through a brief history, lets talk about the present. Nobuo Uematsu currently just finished his third metal album with The Black Mages, Darkness & Starlight (album & concert video available). The band is difficult to see, as obviously their keyboard player is quite busy. However, they are known from time to time to do special concerts, as for the original Final Fantasy XI (FFXI) fan festival (where the true Square Enix fans are) and other rare venues, so if you get the chance to hear them, don’t hesitate! Many of these shows are not booked, but special surprises featured at the end of festival events. Not to mention, all of Uematsu’s apprentices (who’ve helped to make many other game soundtracks, and are consummate professionals in their own right) often show up, some being a part of the new rock band from the game studio, The Star Onions. Even when not present, the influence of Nobuo’s style in undeniable in the sound. This group of game designers and programmers has practically made their own genre of music, like symphonic rock or neo-prog, but hours of progression instead of minutes, a sort of Gamer genre that is similar to soundtrack music before movies had sound, & instead came with scores to be played live. This effect is found throughout each game, as new musical styles time to storyline and plot twist, as reoccurring themes build the progression of their stories to epic proportion.

At present, Nobuo Uematsu (according to the tour) has put the finishing touches on scores, for his other composers to finish up, such as Final Fantasy XIII, Blue Dragon 2, & the opening theme for the remake of the classic manga, Guin Saga. On top of this, most of us true fans of the older games are expecting a total orchestral remake of the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack for the up coming Playstation 3 re-release. With the advantages of full stereo Dolby surround 7.1, the expectations are high; but these are the people who set their own incredibly high standard, so we expect even more! Another secret, yet unconfirmed rumor, is that after three years of absence from the FFXI fanfest, is that the next festival’s surprise guest appearance could be the Black mages, romping out their new album plus a mega-mix of FFXI favorites. But once again, that is just my guess. It is difficult to predict a band that does so much in secret, especially random shows around the world, but hey, it does make it exciting.

The new Distant Worlds tour will be featuring a two hour song set. The majority of the conducting will be done by Annie Roth, with all composition & special appearances by Uematsu. The Minneapolis audience will be treated to a special live performance of “Ronfaure,” one of the starting zones in FFXI & a beautiful arrangement that sounds straight out of a renaissance court. Not to mention, special, and most likely sold out, meet-&-greet tickets, where fans actually get to talk with Nobuo and ask questions. Square Enix is also quite good to their traveling fans, often booking entire sections of hotels, so there are discounted rooms available. If you’ve never attended one of these events, their much more like comic-cons, or anime festivals, many dress up as their favorite characters, and the planned events are usually just a part of the festivities as new found friends gather to discuss favorite characters, plot lines, and of course the wonderful music of Nobuo Uematsu. These songs speak for part of our childhood as much as what we would like to one day become: heroes.

Anologue Deconstructionism

2009-03-25T18:32:00.000-06:00

A serious question: What if all the instruments disappeared? If you balk at that, let me assure you, they are evolving so rapidly that you should take this seriously. The instruments could

very well change so much, so quickly, that it would seem like they’d just up and vanished. How, you ask? Glad I have your attention, because this is real, very serious, and happening quicker then most of us realize.

The first major change is obvious and has been going on for some time now, and that of course is the synthesizer. Though some might place this revolution in the 60s, we also might venture that the first instruments were human powered synths. What you may not know about them now is how drastically their analog interfacing has changed.

In 1999 Korg gave us the Kaoss Pad, a nifty little device that was practically unusable save for genius sound effects wizards, such as Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead (circa Kid A). Even now with newer versions, few artists dare to attempt the intrepid X & Y axis touch control in favor of their older instruments. Little did we know, that these were all foreshadowing a new way to create music.

Now, some nostalgia from the mid-90s: When I got my chaos pad back in an old high school band, the thing cost around $300. It was a small box roughly the size of dvd player, but with a glowing neon-orange touch screen. One uses the Kaoss pad like a guitar player does with a foot effects pedal, only with your hands; this made it easiest for keyboard players and DJs to use. I thought then, and still believe today, that it had a practical use for every instrument, even trying to run it through my guitar pedal & work the touch screen with my toes. I even got kicked out of a couple bands for this unorthodox playing style. It was too strange and alienating to most other band members. For the time, I would quietly sit brooding in my room, playing my They Might Be Giants, Radiohead & NIN nodding knowingly.

Fast forward to a wonderful reincarnation of a pretty machine, the Korg MS-10 (20), & on November 2008 its debut on the Nintendo DS as Korg DS-10 Synthesizer. Okay, okay I know what you’re thinking. All that build-up for a video game? That’s silly! Well, let me break down why a little $30 portable game card is more capable then a state of the art analog synth studio and why if you’re a musician that uses synthesizers, this is imperative to your time & money.

In one tiny DS-10 game cartridge you get the equivalent of :

§ 2 analog synthesizer emulators

§ 2 Voltage-controlled Duel-Oscillators (patchable)

o sawtooth, pulse, triangle, & noise waveform

§ 4 part drum machine

§ Full virtual synth analog controls

§ LFO

§ Envelope generator

§ VCO2

§ Chorus, flanger & delay parameters

§ 2 Octave touch keyboard

§ Imitation analog patching (yes, you can literally plug in cords still!)

§ 3 Kaoss pads for each synth part, FULLY customizable

§ 6 track, 16-step Sequencer

§ Note Matrix

§ Sync up to 8 Korg DS-10 over Nintendo wi-fi for orchestration

For those who need it in other terms, monetarily speaking, all of the equipment arranged as bulky analog synthesizers, mixing boards, etc. would easily cost 10s of 1000s of dollars (the 8 Korg DS analog setup costing well over 100k, roughly $1280 with Nintendo DSs). The Korg DS-10 costs less then the cords to hook the Kaoss pad up to your keyboard, let alone a studio’s worth of equipment. If anyone out there wants to add up just how much all that equipment would be, I would love to see it! Its even more to go analog when you consider a lot of the desired synths are now post-modern antiques, a mint condition synthesizer going for sometimes thousands more then its original price, just because it squawks a certain way.

More advanced still, in the underground scene, from homebrew enthusiasts, we get Nitrotracker, capable of most of what the DS-10 is, plus and minus a few features. Nitrotracker’s real advantage is a more technical integration of music sequencing & a sampler that uses the already built in Nintendo microphone. Portable composition is now a real possibility.

But this is still peanuts people. And if you’ve followed me this far, here is the reward: These software applications still utilize a pseudo-analogue setup to translate the sound parameters into graphics. What is odd is just how much of it is all still listing of words on buttons. Korg DS-10 is especially guilty of no creative talent whatsoever when it comes to graphics, yet the utilitarian functionality has to be appreciated. Still, one yearns for an easier to use, perhaps customizable interface. This is where the real madness begins. The artists out there are begging to realize that a music program need not necessarily imitate the analog instrument, that instead sound could be produced from anything.

What is strange is that the gaming industry, as well as the music industry, are both scared to death of this new approach that redefines what an instrument can look like virtually. You’d think they’d embrace it as new possible revenue at the very least. Leave it to amateur programmer students & inspired professors at MIT to hit the next big thing, yet have little to no idea of how to properly produce it. Using the software designing program Scratch, these inspired designers have made several musically driven games that allow things such as rearrangement of the keyboard, or playing a song by bouncing balls. Both, Bouncing Music Balls & Piano Machine are featured demonstrations that come with the free software, which can be openly edited. Essentially, we can now make virtual instruments look however we want them to, even on the amateur programming level. Oddly enough, any programmer could design software like this, but I have yet to come across any others. (Please write me if you find any more.)

We stand at the dawn of a new era in music production & the most state of the art technology we have is innocently in the hands of gamers & children across the globe. The final incredible thing we do to this equation is to reapply the touch screen concept to the new music programming. The Nintendo DS and the IPhone are the most familiar touch based systems & fair well (though both scream for more creativity software apps!). I’d like to introduce you to the classic if you haven’t already used one, and that is the Wacom drawing tablet. If you think you know touch-screen and haven’t used a Wacom, its time for a reality check. The Wacom tablet has more pressure sensitivity then a pencil’s physics allow. That’s right, it’s the most accurate analog to digital pressure sensitivity available & for the time being, mostly only artists use it to draw. Enter the Cintiq series, an actual touch-based high definition screen. No longer do we have to match analog pen and tablet to the screen, for they are one. Somewhere out there, there very well could be at this moment, a genius artist designing his or her own touch-based music application, rearranging new virtual instruments, rendering them anyway they please & then playing a new, unseen, instrument of creative hyperspacial reality.

That’s it, we made it! The hybrid of analog and digital is the touch-screen & its taking over the world! I expect we'll have floating virtual glyphs soon enough. If Guitar Hero or Rock Band is any indication, just imagine how much better it could get. As opposed to matching times to glowing dots, one could be learning the instruments of the future. Instead of learning to play a piano, one could simply load up a software application that produced the right notes on the screen, at the right time, and didn’t even show you the wrong notes, let alone allow you to play them. Of course this makes a lot of the old analog skill useless, but one must wonder just how good a musician raised by software can be. One could take a drum set and scale it to the size of their fingertips, playing songs by taping them out. One could use multiple Wacom pens as drumsticks. A drummer could become a classical violinist simply by making a virtual drum kit that corresponded to the notes, fully customizable. The possibilities are truly endless.

The real question is, in the future, will we be able to tell the difference between video games and instruments?

Site update

2009-03-25T16:41:00.001-06:00

Hello ~
1337 Bards will be utilizing the service of Feed Burner to host multi-RSS pwness.
1337 Bards @ Feed Burner has a complete listing for every type of feed subscription. Of course, all of that will be linked back here @t 1337bards.blogspot.com as a resource for my work on Review You . 1337 Bards will be specifically for music news & reviews of popular musicians; whereas amateurs can make requests for my services with Reviewyou.com.

If you like what you read, please help support my grassroots efforts at e-syndication. Please drop me a message if you're a webmaster interested in linking to my site, or vise-versa.

Hope you all enjoy,
-Jules

Les Claypool - Of Fungi and Foe

2009-03-22T06:43:00.000-06:00

-Insert random weirdness here-

Misattributing a quote to Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, actually from J. B. S. Haldane, Terrence McKenna once said in a lecture on fungi, “Not only is reality stranger then we suppose, it's stranger then we can suppose.” Les Claypool is here to remind us how strange life truly is! Smelting together folk sense with rocking bass lines, yokel slang with scientific theory & a love of the bizarre with real-life fables, Of Fungi and Foe is not an album to be taken lightly, yet still retains its fun with an alien sense of humor.

The reason I bring up the aforementioned scientists and philosophers is because one gets a sense from the lyrics that this is exactly where Les is coming from. He is heavily weighing the nutrients and poisons of life as well as their social ramifications, and beyond to a sense of the eternal. Stories of mass abuse of chemicals on all levels within the songs –from cocaine abuse, to being addicted to a political agenda- narrow focus to individual examples of an array of different drug addicts and their subsequent lifestyles. Surviving some 30 years in music industry, Claypool has lessons for all the culturally maligned, examples of tragic karma coming back to balance life. From his point of view, anything could become a manifest desire, could ruin entire lives with this sort of social cultism. The philosophical points of view expressed in the album are complex to say the least & offer evidence for their relevance amidst silly reverence, ranting & craziness.

Add all this wisdom to his deal to compose several songs on the Wii game title Mushroom Men and instead of getting a bunch of thematic mush, like with most game soundtracks, Les Claypool produced thoughtful, somewhat controversial, yet realistic songs that not only fit the context and setting of the game, but now extended onto the new album is comprehensive & a whole other world to explore. A sort of darker and more satirical They Might Be Giants vibe is to be found in this new record, with a splash of Frank Zappa’s allegorical madness. Songs like “Kazoo” and “What Would Sir George Martin Do” are the more fun songs, doing well to balance the serious messages.

Then we delve into a sort of hybrid, where it’s obvious that Les has something serious to say, but needs to cloak the message somewhat. “Primed by 29” is a good example, with a rousing melody to sing to, one soon realizes that from the wordless freeform bass scat (which is sweet!), that they’re singing along to some of the lyrics between verse and chorus that are stark reminders meant to speak to those caught in hopeless patterns of self abuse. Lyrics like “damn that’s some shitty wine…but fill my glass another time, I’m sure it’ll begin to taste fine, just fine” sound like the emulated words of an enabler, once cheering on intoxication, now observing it with and ironic sense of pain and tragedy from life. These songs are some sort of spring trap to anyone feeling any sense of guilt about these overindulgences. All along to childlike xylophone, funky guitar & a great beat; a wonderful disguise for an important message that is very hard to hear for most.

In Pretty Little Song Claypool makes a list of the little nagging things that destroy us slowly & puts it to warped out bass with bizarre synth. Singing “As the stones are moving through your kidneys, sing a little song” we get chilling real life reminders. By this point it is no longer silly, but scary. A sort of Twilight Zone eeriness fills the mind as one starts counting original sins and aches & pains. This is not pleasant. But, it is unpleasant in a much needed way, in a way comparable to Radiohead’s “Kid A.” These things, though nagging problems, may one day, as much as anything else, be the end of us and deserve our attention. It is much easier to ignore these things, but we must be as brave as the doctors out there seeking cures, and we must be brave enough to take care of ourselves. “Ol’ Rosco” is a reverent slang tale of drinkin’ and drivin’ that echoes this same sentiment, only from an outside, perhaps elderly perspective. One could picture Les in a rocking-chair out on his front porch telling the story to a group of youngins to warn them of the dangers, or gossiping with relatives about how Rosco “do’s as he damn well pleases!” The bass at face value alone is a reminder of how both are telling the story. Short staccato phrases of perfectly syncopated lines create an atmosphere for tales like no other. This is also why it’s easier to overlook Claypool’s sort of sing-talk style. His voice is so descriptive and dramatic that it is for him another tool besides his singing, rather then an inability. However, when he does sing, its great to hear a true bass! His bellows of deep lore are quite effective at getting across his message. The way he imitates a sort of good-ole-boy attitude & hick accent make the story all that more authentic.

The culmination of this collection of tales, one is take by surprise when they begin to discern an actual antagonist and protagonist. It is at the end of the album one realizes it was a folk device all along, all the tales interconnecting in ways similar to Bob Dylan in ’65 such as the characters in “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue” or “Desolation Row.” There is a menagerie of characters living through Of Fungi and Foe. It is clear that the hero here takes the place of “friend” in the famous saying, as the Fungi. The villain is, or are, all the poisonous parts of life, be it chemical, social, psychological or even political, not matter how good something is, even his own music, there is a point to it that is unhealthy.

Of Fungi and Foe sucks about 60% less then most Primus albums, but that isn’t any reason not to go out & get it. Les Claypool, though eccentric and sometimes silly, is ultimately a sage in fool’s clothing. He sets a high standard for near experimental, technical instrumental music on the cutting edge, and matches it with esoteric lyrics that somehow manage to reach from the ends of the universe to pull it back to earth and speak it in hillbilly slang, or Cali hippy, or alien scat bass solos. Claypool seems to be hinting at his own evolution, and a cultural revolution of genetic understanding. The cover art especially seems to link the archaic references… but I have to wonder just what it represents. Are these missing links we see on the cover? Why does one dude have a spider on his head? Perhaps Les and the artist giggle over its true meaning. There are just as many answers offered here as unnerving questions rose about what we consider to be normal. None of this music is normal and that is what’s most wonderful about it. At this level Claypool is creatively free to explore acting, writing, music or whatever he wants (some of his far-out voices would make wonderful cartoon voiceovers) and we can only hope that he will continue to produce more oddities such as Of Fungi and Foe.

-(cue slide-whistle & creeping bass-

Les Claypool - Of Fungi and Foe

2009 Prawn Song

Les Claypool

Weezer - (Red Album)

2009-03-22T06:38:00.000-06:00

Weezer is one of those slow-and-steady consistent bands where it is never just about a single song, but an entire record, and the 2^nd self titled album Weezer, or the Red Album, is no exception. The bad reviews & odd popular conception (a low seller in America, but a #1 hit in Japan -again) has to due with the striking post-modernist views expressed both musically and lyrically. This album was what the band needed perhaps more then what the fans, or shall we say the pop-fans, wanted. This album, however, is brilliant.

Something Weezer has always been about is a dedication and reverence for the past. Even if they don’t mention it, the evidence in older albums was an obvious cornucopia of style with as many surf songs and rock-pop hits as heavier driving classic rock & simple folk. Now that fusion is somewhat sarcastic. Whereas before, with songs like “Buddy Holly” everyone was laughing along, now, the sarcastic humor is somewhat spiteful & over our heads, with a new world understanding of just how serious their own message was & now has become, Weezer is having some philosophical fun with us. The beginning of The Red Album does not knock on your door politely to come in and have a cup of tea; instead it pounds down the door and demands to be heard without any pleasantries. If you don’t already know Weezer, I wouldn’t recommend starting with this album, as the previous work is required listening to understand just what they’re getting at.

This album is for the true Weezer fan. You get to hear vocals from the entire band (all well done and in tune, a rarity in this industry). You get experimental music that we’re not used to as the band goes back to a pre-Blue Album time when Cuomo and the guys were delegating just who did what. Now we get pleasant, if near Indy music, performances of a new holistic Weezer. When listening, one is easily thrown back to other great bands that did this (for trial, success or error). The Red Album is most easily comparable to R.E.M.’s Eponymous, with multiple fun band member cameos, strange new instruments, techniques and effects, and a wonderful sense of power that the band truly can do whatever they want to creatively. Not to mention, a little of the shocking realness we now respect Bruce Springsteen for with biting samples of harsh reality. Some complain about the new changes, but it seems like without them, the band may not have even survived. Theoretically, wecould have a sort of upcoming “Out of Time” era and a possible “Losing my Religion” type path for Weezer’s future, where they take this new post-modernity and translate it into pop-rock understanding for the masses. The Red Album seems like a prologue for greater albums to come, yet a vital reference point none the less.

The songs on The Red Album range from a taste of their familiar roots to wild new ideas all with a tinge irony. “Dreamin,’” and “Miss Sweeny” (as well as most of the songs Rivers Cuomo sings on) still have the same old familiarity. The songs’ style and rhythm all sound like they could have been somehow taken right off the oldies station, and then twist into power rock choruses that sample yet transcend those old standards. As with older albums, not enough can be said about the harmonies of the singing & guitar. The secret weapon of Weezer is an entire band that can sing, and they truly allow Cuomo to fly into beautiful cadence. Matt Sharp’s Bass is always the in perfect syncopation with Jason Cropper’s guitar as if joined by sort of mystical musical hip. They can take a simple melody and turn it into something that sticks humming in the brain for years to come. Glue all this together with Patrick Wilson’s driving rock beats & incredible sense of dynamics on the drums and you get an incredible album. Much respect should be paid to a band where all the members can play instruments and sing. In this day of digital sampling and vocoder auto-tuning, bands that work as hard as Weezer deserve respect & your ears

Like every Weezer album, we forget that they are individuals & slip away into the world they fashioned; we go to that place of imagination that is Weezer’s metaphorical Island in the Sun…but the isle now has a mysterious jungle, intrepid and overgrown. Songs such as “Automatic” feel a bit crazed, yet poignant, whereas “King” does so much as to transmute one into the shoes of a megalomaniac. Parts on the album where more seasoned critics get paranoid and upset are typically not because they are bad songs, but because they are songs with personal messages that, for many such self important people, hit too close to home. But when one spends more time with the album and especially the songs featuring the rest of the band on lead vocals, the surprise is pleasant. One is even able to hear a bit of a Bob Dylan like twang, rhyme and writing style in “The Weight.” These are clearly not pop songs. This clearly is not a pop album. So why is every critic worth their salt acting as if it is and that Weezer owes something to pop? Hard lessons, though tough to listen to, are still valuable, if not more so. The true value of theRed Album is not retained in the first listening, perhaps not even 10 or 100 times is enough to understand just how important the individual perspectives of the band members really are. This album deserves critical analysis more like what Radiohead’s “OK Computer” received. It’s a revolution for Weezer more then a mere album!

The parts of the Red Album that deserve the most attention are the rough, unfamiliar parts, as they most likely show a new side of the band for the future. This album is more for those who enjoy Weezer’s earlier B-side work, for those who like the whole album and not just the singles. It may be shocking to the typical fair of Weezer fans, but it is easy to tell that this is what the band wanted. Cuomo’s earlier Rolling Stone interviews, during the “Green Album” release, speak of a sort of disassociation from the crowds, of him going to see Dave Mathews and being “disappointed” that there weren’t enough drugs being used by the audience. This sort of dissention of wanting to be a more alternative artist and being mainstream is something the band is now in the process of deconstructing and rebuilding the way they want it. It seems the goal here is not fame; they have that, they now seem to want an ability to regulate their audience somewhat, thin out the ignorant fans, and bring in a more esoteric & philosophically oriented mindset of concert goers.

Weezer’s Red Album deserves your time and energy & will return the favor with incite into new music to come & a refreshing perspective on pop-society. The individual creativity of band members trying things they haven’t before is brave, even audacious considering their already thriving fan base. To risk that popularity in the name of art is one of the more inspiring things a band can do today in a music culture of production value and “it” factor. Despite heavy critical complaints, the Red Album symbolizes a new style for Weezer that is a more solid, well-rounded version of itself, even if it takes a few years and a couple more albums for us to catch on.

Weezer - (Red Album)

2008 Geffen

Rick Rubin, Jacknife Lee, Weezer

Kelly Clarkson – All I Ever Wanted

2009-03-22T06:09:00.000-06:00

The first thing apparent when you pop in Kelly Clarkson’s “All I Ever Wanted” album, is that life would indeed “suck” without her music. Ever since her original 2002 American Idol performances, Kelly has consistently churned out a taste of every genre with powerful yet tastefully dynamic performances. This album is a continuing progression on her road to permanent diva status, done with elegance.

The initial song, “My life would suck without you,” is a strong reminder of what we take for granted in relationships. The intensity of Kelly’s vocals cut right through to the soul, yet the music makes the song comfortable and easy to sing along with (if you can hit those notes!). What is interesting about it being a pop-single is the blend of multiple music styles. It is easy to identify a sort of trancy baseline, yet Clarkson has made the song into what is clearly a type of pop-power ballad, or perhaps a sort of minuet where the couple holds each other and bounces up and down franticly. The energy of the music is undeniable. Also the undercurrents of the synthesizer / keyboard parts are bordering on a sort of electro, but are played underneath the melody elegantly. There are so many aspects to this song it’s remarkable that it even works, let alone is number one on the charts. Also fabulous is that the song knocks down Britney’s “Womanizer” (a barely in tune rant about ego) from the top spot, so that “My life would suck without you,” goes from #97 to #1! This is the second time Kelly Clarkson has broken the record at Billboard for moving the most spots on the chart at once, her previous record for “A Moment Like This” which went from #52 to #1. It is great to hear songs of confidence and hope outshining the other depressing mainstream nonsense usually found on popular radio.

Many of the songs, such as “The Day We Fell Apart,” or “I Do Not Hook Up,” speak more to the sense of independence we’ve all seen growing in Kelly Clarkson. She is strong, she thinks about relationships & problems with a much clearer mind then the first couple of albums. Though a bit risky to her huge pop fan base, these songs are real and very important. It is refreshing to see such a popular artist working so hard to talk about real issues of humanity, even if it is still on the level of personal relationships, these instances can be used as extended metaphor to help anyone with the problems in life we all must overcome.

Some of these more serious songs, such as the title song “All I Ever Wanted” and “Whyyawanabringmedown” are much more critical, even sounding a bit punk with blazing guitars and a screaming Kelly. This new attitude is a bit frightening at times, but at the same time mysterious and tempting. The songs may fall harsh on the ears at first, but after a few times through the album, they fit perfectly. In “All I Ever Wanted” we get a sort of minor, treacherous build in the verse to a gritty transition that resolute in a major chorus end that seems to apologize for the real hard facts of mentioned difficult relationships to a sort of compromised determination.

The biggest difference on the album & where the flow seems to break up a bit is in songs like “Impossible” where the sense of depression almost overrides. But then you discover that the negative energy is coming from another person and Kelly is arguing that nothing is impossible. It is a bit of a rough swallow, perhaps because it hits close to home. This is a time when many are pessimistic and believe that many things are unchangeable. So even though this song was rough at first, there is a big payoff for really listening. “I Can’t Have You” strikes a sort of similar tone. The event has past, nothing in the song seems salvageable, yet Clarkson punches through the problems to once again show us a subtle yet undying confidence. Claiming “We can break the rules if you want to have some fun, think of all the fun we’ll lose, if I can’t have you.” This song however, is not personally specific, as on the most recent American Idol performance Clarkson confessed that there is indeed no particular love interest that these songs are about, as she was and still is single. All these songs should be taken with a grain of salt. They are advice more then experiential recollections of history. Though one gets the sneaking suspicion a lot of this actually happened.

My personal pick for next single was “Don’t Let Me Stop You,” for its strong build and ringing chorus (title), that feels somewhere between pop-rock and country. But instead the next single will be "I Do Not Hook Up," sure to be another chart topper. What is refreshing about Clarkson is a country style that doesn’t crack the voice because of range issues or some inability to hit high notes. Kelly nails every high note to your brain so you can see it, remember it, feel it. Her ability far transcends other popular singers across multiple genres of the music industry. Another pick could be “Already Gone,” simply for the amazingly singable chorus. The new album could even have a few single surprises, as it is do dynamic and complex.

“All I Ever Wanted” the album is a beautiful fusion of Clarkson’s old relationships as much as it is a work of pastiche, fusing classical and pop music, techno & rock, contemporary and country. The only thing she doesn’t do is rap! The end result is a surprising new original album that attempts to do tribute to many old styles while Kelly still somehow manages to make them her own. Her voice is unmistakable as so few popular singers have this sort of range and technical ability paired with a sweet tone & honesty. This work is truly soul-searching through her music. It is a rare that an album this powerful and well-done comes about, especially with this sort of positive energy. It was harder to find things to criticize then it was to just simply love it. Do yourself a favor if you enjoy Kelly Clarkson or American Idol & pick up this wonderful album.

Kelly Clarkson – All I Ever Wanted

2009 RCA

Kelly Clarkson, Ryan Tedder, Howard Benson, Max Martin,

Lukasz Gottwald, Dre & Vidal, Sam Watters, Louis Biacaniello