Ra Ra Riot _ The Rhumb Line

Ra Ra Riot released their debut album in August this year, and doing so joined a long line of indie op/punk/rock bands vieing for airplay. Ra Ra Riot’s brand of melody soaked rock means fighting off comparisons to Vampire Weekend and Arcade Fire.

The unlikely inclusion Cello and Violin in the bands line up provides not only a point of difference, but also an air of sophistication, and helps punctuate the mood. Emotive passages are often underlined, rhythms are underpinned and melodies are carried by cellist Alexandra Lawn and violinist Rebecca Zeller. 

Album opener, Ghost Under Rocks, sets the tone for the album perfectly and showcases the bands strengths. Ra Ra Riot’s popularity has definately suffered from todays pervasive 3 minute attention span. While their tracks are by no means long or meandering in a prog sense, the subtle light and shade of their melodies rewards repeated listens.

Complete with a Kate Bush cover version, The Rhumb Line is a contender to this years ’slow burner’, to use popular venacular. (I feel dirty. It’s not coming off!)

THINK: Arcade Fire without the Amish, Vampire Weekend without the African overtones.
READ: Interview with Ra Ra Riot
WATCH: Ra Ra Riot - Ukulele Session
BUY: The Rhumb Line at Amazon
 

The Pretenders - Break Up The Concrete

I was seven when The Pretenders released their first album. Of course I grew up knowing who they were, but until ‘Break Up The Concrete’, the bands ninth album, I hadn’t owned any of thier music. And I’m okay with that. There is only so much looking back you can do musically. Like when someone says “I have heaps of music, we should share” and then you never listen to any of it. No reason to. It was like that with me and Chrissy Hynde. And I’m sure she’s okay with that too.

I picked up this album because October seems to be the month of ‘don’t forget us, we used to be great - remember?’ (Acca, Metallica, The Cure, The Verve, Primal Scream, Sugarland and heaps more.) And based on ‘Concrete’, The Pretenders must have been great, because this is a great album. It is a mix of rockabilly, rock ‘n roll and country western, but better than that sounds - I promise.

Album opener ‘Boots of Chinese Plastic’ sets the pace and tone of the album. It opens wih Chrissy counting in a beat that I’m sure came from an Elvis movie. And that’s about the only indication of this bands age. They reference the familiar constantly, but it sounds fresh and contemporary, with lyrics that are dense, acerbic and terse delivered with the Hynde snarl. 

The drumming of Jim Keltner is simply sublime throughout the album, and turns the otherwise ordinary ‘Rosalee’ into a pounding ode to a lost love. ‘Break Up The Concrete’ brings the album full circle with another Elvis moment. All in all I can highly recommend this album to fans and noobs (like me) alike.

THINK: Rockabilly ‘n’ Country Roll
WATCH: Boots of Chinese Plastic
READ: Their Homepage
BUY: Break Up The Concrete on Amazon

AC/DC - BLACK ICE

For those who continue to rock - we salute you!

Being relevant is a poison chalice. Those who seek it lose themselves on their journey. Take Metallica for instance (bear with me), they struggled with the demons within (anyone?) and tried to return to their roots to remain relevant. In the process they released an album of shredding sans songs. Oh, and they released it on a playstation game. Relevant? Riiiight. 

AC/DC on the other hand haven’t tried to recapture anything. They used to make kick arse rock and roll albums. This year they made a kick arse rock and roll album. And you can’t buy the tracks individually, so it remains an album. Sure, AE/DC ( little chord progression gag for you there folks!) could be dismissed as an old dog with an old trick. But fans will surely reply ‘So?’. 

Dacca write straight up rock songs about drinkin’, rootin’ and fightin’. Don’t get fooled by the song titles on Black Ice. ‘Skies on Fire’ , ‘Stormy May Day’ and ‘War Machine’ could lead you to believe that maybe global warming or America’s spiralling war has crossed their lyrical horizon. Fret not (second guitar gag – woohoo!) I’m pretty sure the machine in ‘war machine’ is, like, your love piston.

I could get all high falootin’ on you with the ‘less is more’ argument. That it takes great skill to write a rock song that relies on tried and tested structure. Anyone can be original, but try doing the same thing for decades and still get kids to pay for it.  But I wont.

Brendan O’Brien has delivered an album that will make every AC/DC fan remember why they love the Dacca. In an era when not only musical instruments have been forsaken, but also melody, maybe a fifty-something yr old man in school shorts still has a lesson or two to teach. 

THINK: Vintage AC/DC. The good stuff
READ: The above
BUY: Black Ice at JBI HiFi Now (why wait?)

EDIT: Black Ice has topped the album charts in 29 countries!

David Holmes - The Holy Pictures

David Holmes returns with an album about his life in Belfast. (For our American friends, that’s in Northern Ireland) Since the release of ’Lets get Killed’ in 1997, Holmes has concentrated mostly on scoring movies. He’s probably most famous for the Oceans series. Not surprisingly then that ‘The Holy Pictures’ has a distinct soundtrack feel. 

Lush atmospherics swirl around heavily distorted guitars. Standard Holmes affair apart from the fact that Holmes also contributes lead vocals. Album opener, and first single ‘I heard wonders’ could be a Primal Scream track, and that’s not a bad innings for this first time vocalist.

David Holmes has always had a special place in my heart. The cool-as-fuck Irishman penned one of my favourite albums of all time in ‘Lets get killed’ so I had big hopes for ‘The Holy Pictures’. While it hasn’t made it on to the ‘must have’ page, ‘The Holy Pictures’ is a solid album, bespite being a touch inconsistant at times. You could blame that on the 10 years plus gestation period Holmes cites in interviews, or maybe driving basslines and cinematic scores are uncomfortable bedfellows. 

THINK: OST to a Soderbergh movie about Belfast
READ: Holmes Myspace
WATCH: I heard Wonders
BUY: The Holy Pictures at Amazon

The Faint - Fasciinatiion

The Faint return with their Eight full player released on their own blank.wav label. If you’re not familiar with the music of this four piece dance-punk band by name, you most certainly will be by sound. The Faint could be credited with the whole ‘dance / rock / punk’ cross over thing. Bands like The Presets, MGMT, Offend you, Yeah? (the list goes on) all owe a debt to The Faint.

Fame arrived early with the departure of Conor Oberst ( he didn’t even record with the band), and the grabbed plenty of column inches in the press. Citing Death Metal and techno as influences, it’s fair to say that The Faint persued a sound all thier own. A pity then that ‘Fasciinatiion’ won’t sound as original as it should. It’s as if they’ve been beaten to the punchline.

‘Fasciinatiion’ is a great album. The lyrics are sharp and occasionally acidic ( and we all know how I love that) as on ‘I Treat You Wrong’ - ‘I don’t mean to sound like I want a fight, but if you’d see it my way, we could both see it…..right’. The stomping bassline of ‘Mirror Error’ becomes becomes tomorrows earworm when paired with the uplifting chorus - strange in a song about hating your appearance. That’s the beauty of The Faint - if you want some great tracks with thumping beats and an edge, they’re for you. If you’d rather tracks with a little more substance than how to spell dance, the The Faint are for you. Thinking mans electro-punk. One of the best electronic albums of the year, a contender for the top ten for sure.

THINK: If The Presets were Greenday, The Faint are Stiff Little Fingers
READ: Their homepage and great interview
WATCH: The geeks were right Vid
BUY: Fasciinatiion at The Faint.com