Jessica Penrose – Words Become Flesh

The first track of Jessica Penrose’s LP Words Become Flesh is actually quite attractive. In fact so attractive that a listener feels like they’ve heard it somewhere before in a hit single, and then it all makes sense, they have. What’s more is that almost word for word, each raspy vocal and guitar chord sounds like the toned down hook of the Alanis Morisette single “I’m A Bitch.” While the sad, dark and dreary has sold many a record—see Fiona Apple—it gets old without variation. Sure slowing the tempo and a softer voice could fool a few virgin ears but avid listeners will find themselves insulted after Penrose’s album open “I am”.

The album picks up the pace from the depressing and overdone to a mid tempo folk like alternative track “Free Blind” however, it is short-lived and the LP returns to its original state of boredom and disappointment.

The tracks on Jessica Penrose’s sophomore project Words Become Flesh are uniform in composition and style. Each track shares the same tone, vocal structure and themes made popular by pioneering female alternative artists. Individuality and mere creativity were absent from Penrose’s second album and unfortunately for Penrose her established fans will soon become far and between.

By Kendra Desrosiers

Diana Olson on The Limit

 

 The Limit is a Rock Trio that includes Mark Daniel on vocals and guitar, Bob Chmiel on drums and Todd Grosberg on bass.  Daniel says his hometown of New Haven, Conn. was the source of inspiration for the band.  He met his band members in high school but it wasn’t until his return from college that he met up with them again and started The Limit.  They struggled along but managed to do some gigs including New York’s hotspot CBGB and Omfug, before they closed down.

Daniel says, “Our influences come from diverse places and we seem to (especially lately) add a lot to the list.  Our hearts are in Rock and Rock is our template for which we can venture to many places (blues, jazz, funk). Our long-standing influences include: Rush, Led Zeppelin, Prince, The Police, Van Halen and Freddie King.  Our loved ones influenced us as well.  For me, it was my grandmother.  She bought me my first guitar and believed in me.  That kind of love gets me up early and ready to play”.

“The growth of the band in the past 2 years has been intense. Both commercially and artistically so the future looks to be a very interesting place. Our goals, and mine personally are to continue to reach a large number of listeners through our work artistically and commercially.  I need to/have a unstoppable burning desire to share my love of music with the world: here in the USA and abroad, Europe, Japan, etc… I am proud to say its happening.”   The Limit is planning its USA street date for Tuesday, February 26, 2008 and European and Asian street dates of March 11th – 26th 2008.  Their CD “Reinventing the Sun” will be released nationwide in early 2008 as well as in Europe and Asia.  You can check out the music from the video at www.thelimitmusic.com. 

I was very impressed by the music on their site even though other writers have said; “you have to experience them live to get the full force of the group.”  It isn’t an easy thing for a trio to put out the power with the precision that The Limit does.  The sounds are clear and methodical.  Very impressive.  Daniel has a wonderful voice that I think could be just as effective in a blues ballad as it is on the rock songs. 

I asked Daniel what he would like listeners to get from his music and he said, “If can make them feel the passion for music and life that I feel when listening and playing, then I have reached my ultimate goal; to change their lives even if for the time it takes to listen to a song, CD, concert or perhaps every time they hear the song or melody in their heads and hearts. To improve the quality of life through art and music is my purpose here.”

By Diana Olson

Strings of Consciousness – Our Moon Is Full

Strings of Consciousness admit that they only record stuff for their own amusement. Good thing, because only six people, tops, are ever going to buy Our Moon Is Full, a title that suggests that the nine “musicians” (nearly twice the number of their fans!) who “collaborated” on this “project” are either new-age knot-heads or werewolves, if there’s a difference.

You want a comparison, don’t you. How about the last Liars album shoving Furby-guts up the nose of a def poetry record? No? Okay, maybe the first Tiger Claw Records compilation hijacked by…wait, you’ve never heard of Tiger Claw? Oh. They once put out a comp of circuit-bending artists, see, featuring all the “relevant” “experimental” “musicians” who do circuit-bending, which, long story short, involves a “musician” diddling a Game Boy or whatever with a screwdriver until it emits a stream of annoying squeals and glitches, much like the crap at the end of Wilco’s “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.”

Stupid as fuck, and not really music? Yes, but you really should take a second to write and tell these guys. I have no problem with six fans wasting their spare money on stuff like this, and it’s sort of cute how people like that tend to congregate in squeaky “you and me against the world” internet clusterfucks. But the band is a threat to civilization and themselves by taking it seriously enough to add fat choruses, synth-symphonics and def poetry to it. It’s your duty to help them stop. 

By Eric W. Saeger

Noush Skaugen – Palomino

With a name like Noush Skaugen (pronounced Noosh Ska-ghen) you may be forgiven for thinking this EP is an offering from another Swedish electronica group. But no, Skaugen is a London transplant who delivers a curious blend of Chryssie Hynde and Natalie Merchant. Skaugen’s press release mentions a comparison to Stevie Nicks (and, bizarrely, Mick Jagger) but, aside from a slightly nasal delivery, there’s little like Nicks’ work here.

The opening track, “Gone,” is a vamping number that at first sounds the most like a Fleetwood Mac outtake, but it soon moves into Pretenders territory with a trashing crescendo. “Skid” appears to be Skaugen’s break out hit since it’s included twice on the album (the last track is a live version of the song). The studio version is a little more worthwhile, as the song doesn’t translate particularly well when stripped down to just an acoustic guitar. One of Skaugen’s better performances comes in “5 Weeks Away;” Her vocal affectations on “Beautiful Lies” distract a little more than one would like.

Also included with the Palomino EP is a short DVD featuring a live video performance of (you guessed it) “Skid,” an audio introduction from the singer, and a photo gallery featuring an entire series from the EP’s cover shoot. In only five tracks, Noush Skaugen delivers an alternative folk rock sound that handles itself as coyly as her body coiled around her guitar. The EP leaves listeners wanting to hear what else she can come up with for a full length.

By Len Sousa

Video of the Day – “For Real” by Okkervil River

Immensely talented, but still relatively unknown, the Austin band with that weird name, Okkervil River, bring an ardent majesty to indie rock. “For Real” off of 2005’s Black Sheep Boy is a dark and powerful song. The video has some great visuals that reinforce the song’s pensive mood. Check it out.

Art Brut – Lighthearted Avant-Garde Rock

The members of avant-garde, indie rock band Art Brut don’t take themselves too seriously. They enjoy making music and expressing themselves freely; they are detached from the scenester trap of pretentious conformity.

It is this sincerity that makes them so likeable and magnetic, their success is in large part due to their lighthearted approach. Lead singer Eddie Argos’s witty observational lyrics are emphatically endearing and the band’s nonchalant demeanor is a welcome change from the subdued seriousness of the indie scene.

The term Art Brut is used to describe art that is unconventional; it is basically any form of art that is avant-garde and an antithesis of the established order of artistic expression. It is fitting than that the band occupies a rare space in indie music with it’s unique and innovative sound. Art Brut doesn’t try to be different, it just sort of happened. Argos describes the evolution of their sound, “I think it’s the weird combination of all our tastes that make us sound like that. It’s not a conscious decision to be unique; I think it just kind of happened because we’ve got completely different tastes in music from each other.”

The instrumentation is as full as other indie rock band but it is the humor laden spoken word of Argos that sets this band apart from the rest of the scene. He has this unpretentious and nonchalant air about him, which makes him such an enigmatic character. He is charming in his self-deprecating humor and embarrassingly honest confessions. His audience can relate to this character; he isn’t an unapproachable star, he’s your best friend trying to work up the courage to talk to a girl at the bar. Case in point is the hit single “Direct Hit” off of the new album It’s a Bit Complicated where Argos laments about his inability to talk to members of the opposite sex.

Argos is constantly writing and he utilizes a method of dictating messages on his cell phone and saving them for later. He writes the messages in a notebook and then reworks the verses to fit the band’s songs. His inspiration is in his personal experiences, “I might be a bit self obsessed. All of the songs are pretty much about me. It’s really cathartic to write about yourself, to be on stage and talk about your first ever girlfriend or the problems that you had or your worries.” The writing process has particular appeal for him as he explains, “Writing a song is a lot like solving a puzzle, getting it all to fit. I love it.”

Even on the subject of his musical skills Argos is disarmingly open. He describes his artistic path with a great deal of levity and honesty, “I tried to learn the guitar, couldn’t do it, so I tried to learn the bass, couldn’t do it. I bought a clarinet and I couldn’t play that either. I’m not very good with instruments. I thought ‘fuck it I’ll be the singer’.”

He knew he wanted to be a musician since he was very young. His inability to hold down a regular job led him in that direction as well. Before the success of Art Brut he was involved in a variety of ill-fitting jobs. He enthusiastically details some of his previous positions, “I was a postman; I was pretty bad at that. I am not very good at getting up early and I am always drunk. I was a traffic warden you know like a parking attendant. You have to give out tickets, I was too nice, so I got sacked from that, I let everybody off.”

The band has experienced remarkable success and Argos doesn’t take it for granted. “There are some unusual bands from England that never had the success we’ve had. I see myself in that sort of band. It’s a lovely surprise. I don’t really want to question it because it might go away.” On the other hand he is not afraid of success and ultimately embraces the possibility. “I think every band secretly wants be massively famous. I’d love that. I don’t know how you become massively famous. We’ll just stick to what we’re doing and hope it works out.”

By Shaun Flagg

Maniacal Plan – Casualty of Sound

Run of the mill. More of the same. Another of the lot. I could go on.
Maniacal Plan’s Casualty of Sound is far short of dynamic and much closer to prosaic. In the vein of Saliva, Hinder and the like—but not as vocally powerful—the album is a more or less humdrum collection of ready-made hard rock radio cuts.

Instrumentally, the boys drop the guitars a full step for a deeper sound but don’t achieve the dark, brooding tones for which they yearn. Dan O’Berry’s vocals don’t do a hell of a lot to save the drudgery of the sound, and a more capable lyricist would go a long way in adding a much needed dynamic.

The album’s opening track “Anathema” is complete with the prerequisite guitar picking and brooding lyrics, and then right into the up tempo chorus. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. “Numb” follows this line as well, but, a little falsetto by O’Berry near the intro provides a welcome bit of depth. Taking this tack throughout would do the boys a world of good. Unfortunately, the high pitch high point is short lived, as the song devolves into lesser Staind territory.

“Noxious” has a quicker and more playful feel to it, another short lived triumph for the band that really should have thought a little outside the driving, repetitive riff that just won’t stop.

It’s not that the music is completely without merit. The production, while formulaic, is tight and rarely misses. I just wish the album spoke more in a sense of urgency. It lies, complacently, in a space with all the other pseudo-rock drivel: on the American airwaves.

By Jeff O’Neill

Diana Olson on The New Congress

The New Congress Ain’t Got Nothing To Do With Politics
By Diana Olson

The New Congress. It’s no mistake that this band shares in the rich Minnesota sound with its roots of coming up with Prince and other Prince band members. The band mixes turntables with old-school R&B and classifies their music as a blend of jazz, hip-hop, pop and rock.

The first choice for a band name was just The Congress but “one day we were all hanging out and someone overheard us talking and said are you talking about the Congress? We need a new one thus, The New Congress”, says the band.

TNC was formed in 2005 and has performed with the likes of Faith Evans, Mint Condition, Jon B. and have headlined several major national clubs and events. Morris Hayes, (New Power Generation), produced a pair of tracks on their debut CD, “Everybody Gets Up,” released in 2006, and the album is receiving international recognition and airplay.

TNC earned “R&B/Soul Song of the Year” and “Neosoul Band of the Year” in 2006 for the 16th Annual Los Angeles Music Awards and performed at the red-carpet event at the Music Box Theater in Hollywood, CA. This past year they also received the Minnesota Music Award for “Everybody Gets Up” and were voted as Best R & B Artist by the local paper City Pages. Their sophomore album is due to be released in early 2008. They say they are “contributing to bringing the world back to real music by real musicians”. I asked them what they meant by this and they said, “We write and play from our hearts. That’s as real as it can get. Music today is just band in a box track shows. Not all music, but the majority of it on pop radio these days.”

The New Congress members are:

AARON “ORANGE” COSGROVE (Vocals / Guitar / Songwriter)

RUSS KING (Keyboards / Background Vocals)

DJ DUDLEY D (Turntables / Background Vocals)

MANNY FRESH (Congas / Percussion / Bass)

ANDY MARK (Bass / Background Vocals)

BARRY ALEXANDER (Drums)

On their myspace www.myspace.com/thenewcongress you can listen to some of the clips from the Everybody Gets Up CD. “Only Human” is jazzy and smooth. Easy listening with crisp cool distinctive power. I listened to it just at the right time, when I was feeling a little down. On “Cant Be Me” again that jazzy sexy smoothness with rap included in a very special way. “Ain’t About You” has a sweet keyboard with upbeat backgrounds. I love the harmony on this one. This one is my favorite. I am truly excited about this group. Their sound is wonderful and it makes you feel good.

I asked them some questions:

For songwriters….where did you get your inspiration?

ANS: From agony, love and romance

Who do you fashion yourselves after and who were your influences?

ANS: The Beatles, James Brown, Prince, Nirvana, N.W.A., Lauryn Hill..the list goes on.

What do you want to be doing in 5 years?

ANS: Still making music and hopefully living in a warmer climate.

What do you want people to get out of your music?

ANS: Everyone receives something different individually from the gift of music. If somehow we can make their life a little brighter such as helping someone through a difficult time or celebrate a great moment in life, then we have done our small part. We hope that our music can lift the weight off heavy hearts.

Video of the Day – “O Katrina” by The Black Lips

The Black Lips are a young band from Atlanta with an old rock sound sort of along the lines of the 60’s Rolling Stones. It’s garage-punk fused with elements of blues; rough and raucous, purposefully under produced, it is artfully disheveled. “O Katrina” is, you guessed it, a protest song that rails against the hurricane that drowned New Orleans. The guys of The Black Lips kick up some dirt on this rebellious anthem becoming their own force of nature. I could see them rocking out in defiance of an encroaching storm; maybe it would have been more effective than those shoddy levees….

Listen to “O Katrina”

Video of the Day – “Mistaken for Strangers” by The National

The National offer beautifully somber and melancholic music on their sophomore release The Boxer, lauded as one of the best albums of 2007.  It’s a sound that washes over and engulfs you; but this soundtrack for the crestfallen uplifts through its beating drums and emersive warmth. Lead singer Matt Berninger’s deadpan baritone lulls you into quiet and calm reverie. Check out the cryptic and dreamlike “Mistaken for Strangers”.

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