Music Review - Saint Low - Saint Low

Good but not as good as Madder Rose, which was good but not great.

Best known as the vocalist for the Madder Rose, Mary Lorson has accumulated quite a catalog of her own material. A quick listen to this CD will reveal why these songs were better held for a solo release. Instead of the textured walls of psychotropic guitar sound of Madder Rose, these songs are sultry and passionate, a smoldering collection of torch songs that borrow heavily from the age of jazz. Such songs fit in perfectly with Lorson's pure voice that sounds like the girl next door, only sexier, a playfully seductive voice that can make a young man fall in love and make a fool of himself. A June fool?

"Johnson City" is a prime example of the songs on this album with Lorson singing an aching melody in two-part harmony over a sedated mamboish rhythm that reeks of a melancholy memory, a song to slow dance close to. Equally smoky is "Crash", a smoldering song that evokes images of dimly lit nightclubs and those huge 40's microphones. "Only One", with it's infectious up-tempo melody and layered guitars is the only song that could fit on a Madder Rose album. My personal favorite is "On The Outside", a song of loss and alienation with an emotive violin line that permeates the song like a solitary tear moving down a beautiful face. The melody in this song, as in the others, seems intended to rend the heart of the listener. Overall, this album helps prove that Lorson is more than just a singer. The melodies are fresh and haunting and the entire "confessional song" feel of the album draws the listener into a secret confidence, an imaginary nightclub in the 40s where Mary is singing to you alone.

This review first appeared in WhatzUp, July 2000.

Music Review - Madder Rose - Hello June Fool

I still give this and other Madder Rose albums a listen every few years. It's good, melodic stuff and way too mellow to be a regular part of my diet.

An hour of high school petting and then going home. Such is the music of Madder Rose. With incredible self-restraint, this New York quartet creates richly textured songs with a controlled aggression lying just below the surface. The tension this creates is both tremendous and unnerving. As Mary Lorson's honey dulcet voice floats dreamily over Billy Cote's atmospheric melodies backed by a fuzzed-out yet controlled guitar, you expect that at any minute the cage door will open and the pent-up guitar will break into a ravenous frenzy... but it never does. The gentle, relaxed melodies are original and inviting while the music is a mixture of playful psychedelia and ethereal simplicity with Cote's distorted guitar pacing around the edges like a hungry animal.

With the exception of one song written exclusively by Lorson (with an annoyingly repetitive chorus), the songwriting on their latest release, Hello June Fool, is strong throughout. "Feels Like Summer" certainly does, transporting the listener to a lazy summer afternoon, laying in the sun-speckled shade of a tree, the temperature just right. "Overflow" has a subdued funk feel and tastefully placed wah-wah guitar that tugs at you, seductively promising release that never comes. "Hotel" is an ironic story of longing ("he took his life when he wanted to take yours") and "Train" has an incredible, and incredibly complicated, drum part that indeed sounds like a train. In "Goodbye June Fool", Lorson's rich voice contains just the right mixture of playfulness and sorrow to capture the feeling of paradise lost present in this song. The near-pop melodies and rich, textured feel of this music should appeal instantly to fans of The Breeders, The Choir, or Psychedelic Furs. However, anyone wanting to hear well-crafted music that appeals to both the heart and mind would do well to check out this latest release by Madder Rose, a band that knows who it is and where it is going.

This review first appeared in WhatzUp, August 1999.

Music Review - Plankeye - Strange Exchange

I have zip, zero, zilch memory of this album. Of course I reviewed it thirteen years ago and can barely remember yesterday but still, Plankeye was/is a fairly well known Christian rock band so one would think that would have translated into some kind of memory.

Plankeye has gone through so many lineup changes that it’s questionable that any of the original members remain. While their earlier albums were definitely rock/punk excursions for a younger audience, Strange Exchange and their last album, Relocation, show a growing maturity both lyrically and musically from this youth-group mentality. What has not changed is the ringing, bristling guitars that capture the muscle of these indie rock tunes.

The album opens with “This Is,” perhaps the strongest track. The punk influence of their early albums is evident in this driving rock n’ assault full of pulsing guitar riffs and an intense, bursting rhythm. “The Meaning of it All” takes a slower turn with a definite U2 or Oasis vibe and cryptic, somber lyrics that search for, well, meaning: “With age comes time/And leaves to the earth must fall and die/Before they can find the meaning of it all.” The acoustic guitar is brought out for “My Wife,” a delicate track full of intricate playing that matches this emotive ode to the singer’s spouse.

< In the last two tracks the passion and intensity finally catch up with the frenetic pop exuberance of the album’s first few songs, resulting in some very fine songs indeed. But it’s too few too late. Between the energetic opening and the emotional ending, there’s 20 minutes of “I’ve heard this before.”

The album is full of well-executed post- indie rock with doses of The Tories and Semisonic and a dab of Brit-pop. The music is passionate, often dark and layered. The production is sparse and dry with enough experimental flourishes (thanks to veteran Chris Colbert) to keep your interest throughout. Unfortunately, it’s not an album that sticks with you. When I listen to this CD, I enjoy what I hear when I’m hearing it, but when the album is over I don’t find any of the songs sticking around and I don’t find myself thinking, “Hey, Mr. Cheesesocks, how about we listen to that new Plankeye CD?” Obviously the catchy melodic hooks aren’t sharp enough to stay in my mind longer than 45 minutes.

This review first appeared in WhatzUp, August 2001.

Music Review - Duo For Classical Accordions - Crabb & Draugsvoll

Like most people, I spent the formative years of my life associating accordions with the cult formerly known as the Lawrence Welk Show (I still wake up at night screaming, images of dancing bubbles ricocheting through my head). It was not until I heard the tasty, melodic strains of accordion skillfully blended into the music of They Might Be Giants that I changed my tune (yes, that was intentional and yes, I am deeply, deeply ashamed). Now, as a proud owner of a Scandalli piano accordion, I join the ranks of thousands of people whose musty accordions sit horribly underplayed in some remote corner of their abode. This is all to say that when I saw the CD "Duos for Classical Accordions" sitting all alone on the music store rack, the guilt of my near-abandoned Scandalli was too great and I was powerless to resist.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started up the disc. The two major pieces on the CD are Stravinsky's "Petrushka" (the 1947 version), and Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition", popular for spawning not only an ELP album but for providing music for the bluest little has-beens in the land, "The Smurfs". The versions on this CD were arranged by the two "classically trained" accordionists James Crabb and Geir Draugsvoll (should be household names any day now). The Mussorgsky piece being an old favorite (it was the third classical album I every owned), I skipped the disc to the opening "Promenade" theme and sat back to subject my ears to the horrible sound of strangled geese. Though sounding a bit "reedy" at times, the music was far from horrible. Actually, it sounded more like an organ duo than anything else. The music is so true to the original and the playing so precise that about five minutes into the piece, I had forgotten that I was listening to accordions and instead was enjoying the music. Though not as familiar with the Stravinsky piece, it too seemed to lack any of the horrible corniness that I hoped would be present on this album. Stravinsky's angular, boxy melodies actually seem ready-made for the transition to accordion, as though they had been waiting since 1947 for this moment. Though perhaps not for everyone, the strong of heart and ear will find that "Dues for Classical Accordions" presents a new twist of these familiar and popular works.

EMI Classics Debut : Duos for Classical Accordions James Crabb and Geir Draugsvoll

This review first appeared in WhatzUp, May 1998.

Music Review - Scott Johnson - Rock Paper Scissors

Now here's something really tasty! I just found out that Mr. Johnson released a third CD of compositions in 2010 and promptly added it to my Wishlist. Good, unique, melodic stuff here, kids! Can I borrow you an air compressor?

New York guitarist/composer Scott Johnson has long been interesting in breaking down the barrier between "serious" (classical) and "popular" (rock) music. His latest release, Rock Paper Scissors, is a successful melding of these two musical forms, a difficult feat that few have been able to accomplish. The title piece is a modern take on chamber music. Using pianos, synthesizers, a cello, an electric guitar, and a violin, Johnson creates an intriguing five movement piece that captures elements of rock, jazz, and classical music. The result is often beautiful and hypnotic, sometimes chaotic and annoying, but never boring. Unlike some music I've heard where they seem to be fighting each other, the guitar and synthesizer join seamlessly with the traditional stringed instruments. This is most likely due to Johnson's traditional composition technique and his Stravinsky-esque sense of form which enables his to give the piece a good tonal balance.

The best part of this CD is the piece Convertible Debts. As in his first album, John Somebody, Johnson has based this work on the natural melodies and cadences (not to mention the awkward pauses and stutterings) of human conversation. To get the sound of natural, unguarded speech, he recorded friends as they called up someone to ask a favor. Johnson then selected portions of this conversation that he found interesting and manipulated them digitally into a melodic and rhythmic musical foundation. Upon this he added piano, guitar, cello, and violin, integrating them perfectly with the human voice. The first movement of this piece captures the awkward moment when the speaker must first bring up the subject of asking for a favor. In the third movement, a young Asian female asks to "borrow you an air compressor", a broken, angular line that Johnson turns into a haunting and ethereal passage. The final movement is formed around someone making sure that a check he is about to deposit won't bounce because "well, if it bounces I'll get billed." Though not for the diehard Mozart or Hootie fan, those interested in experiencing some music that is truly alternative would do well to listen to this latest work by Scott Johnson.

This review first appeared in WhatzUp, August 1998.

Music Review - Christopher Rouse - Passion Wheels

I first became aware of Baltimore-born composer Christopher Rouse when the Fort Wayne Philharmonic played one of his pieces a few years back… and why shouldn't they? In addition to being one of the noisiest American composers around, his approachable neo-classical-modern style has led to his pieces being some of the most often played of any living composer. By taking melodic and structural elements from the Classical period and mixing in the expressive, demanding, and shocking changes of the Modern era, Rouse manages to create music that is accessible yet discomforting, crushing the common notion among the inexperienced that classical music is a soothing sedative.

Passion Wheels is a collection of four Rouse compositions that were premiered between 1976 and 1990. Known for his raucous use of percussion, the disc opens and closes with two short pieces for small percussion ensemble, Ku-Ka-Ilimoku and Ogoun Badagris, respectively. Inspired by Hawaiian tribal dances, Ku-Ka-Ilimoku is an athletic war dance full of pounding poly-rhythms. The violent Ogoun Badagris is named for a bloodthirsty Haitan god, brutally depicting a human sacrifice ceremony.

The title track, Rotae Passionis, is a chamber piece for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, viola, and cello whose three movements tell the last days of Christ, often in horrific terms. The first movement, depicting Christ's human doubts and fears, is essentially an anguished concerto for clarinet, bravely and remarkably played by Allen Kay. The vicious second movement is an agonizing tour of the fourteen stations of the cross, often torturing the musician as much as the listener with sadistic technical demands. After the whirlwind passes, the third movement is a welcome respite, depicting Christ's slumber into death with fragmented yet tender music.

Saving the best for last is my personal favorite, Concerto per Corde, a tribute to Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. Originally a string quartet, Rouse reworked the piece into an intensely personal composition. With a chillingly bare string sound that owes much to Bernard Herrmann's score for Psycho, the piece begins with unsettling and morbid passages played by strings pushed to the edge. The connected second movement screeches past in a fury of expressed rage guaranteed to quicken your pulse with agitated rhythms that conjure up nightmarish visions of Bartok. The final movement begins in eerie, cold desolation, frighteningly pale with tension. Over the course of ten minutes, the music slowly warms and the tension subsides, ending with a placid, Disney-esque melody as if the composer has slowly come to grips with his demons.

Refreshingly original while remaining amicable, the music of Christopher Rouse is the cleansing yet shocking coffee enema needed to jolt classical music listeners out of their doldrums.

This review first appeared in WhatzUp, February 2002.

Random Musings From A Friday

Recently I "celebrated" ten years at my current job. Ten years of doing pretty much the same thing over and over and over. As we are a small satellite office of a massive corporation in another state, there is excruciatingly little in the way of a career path unless you want to move. Want to do something different? Get a different job somewhere else. The problem is that my home life is packed to the point that if I tried to start a new job where I had to learn everything new I'd probably end up in a padded room. At this point I need a job that can be done mostly on automatic and is flexible with the hours and my current job fits the bill. They say you are supposed to do something you are passionate about, something that gets you excited. I remember years ago, at another company, being excited about programming but now I'm lucky if I get work that challenges me mentally more than once a quarter. For now that's just the way it is.

Periodically this gets me down and I feel like I'm not adding to this world, that I'm just a paycheck. I know this isn't the case, that reading books to my kids will one day turn them into readers and that time spent with my wife, even if we're both exhausted at night and just watch reruns of Good Times, is good for our relationship. But if I go too long without creating and adding something new to this world that didn't exist before it just seems like so much treading water. Lately I've been trying to focus on writing as this is something I can do over lunch at work because, as I stated before, my home life is busy to the point that an entire weekend can go by and I'm only able to squeak in fifteen minutes of "me time." I'm not complaining (right now at least... I just got over a big ol' pity party), that's just the season that I'm in.

For whatever reason I recently recalled a chapter from The Dilbert Principle where Adams talks about how he writes an outlandish goal fifteen times a day and eventually it comes true. I'm a big believer in prayer but also have done enough research into parallel universes and string theory to know that however God made this universe, He expects us to have direct input. He also appears to like it when we ask boldly. Not for a new car or McMansions, doofus, but for the things He wants for us, chiefly that our character becomes more like His. So although I'm not sure how prayer works and if it's supposed to be, for example, 60% for God's benefit and 40% ours, but I do know that as He promised, we don't have because we don't ask (provided you are asking for things that are in line with His character). One of the things God is is a brilliantly creative creator.

Back to Dilbert. I went to the library and returned instead with the book Write It Down, Make It Happen which seems a lot less New Agey than the name-it-claim-it fifteen repetitions of Adams, though in some ways it seems more New Agey. Like usual, keep your brain in gear and evalute the silver from the dross. What I came away with is that I ended up writing down a number of (in my mind) outlandish goals. No, I don't want to visit Mars but I do want to visit Europe with my wife, among other things. The good thing is that I didn't have to write them down fifteen times a day every day until they happen. While the author spends some time evaluting why this process works, the one the connected with me is that it kind of primes the brian to be ready to take advantage of opporunties that are in line with your goals. For instance, she observed that when you get a new blue Honda van and you never owned a Honda before, you'll suddenly start seeing scores and scores of blue Honda vans on the road. They were always there but your brain was never tuned in to seeing them.

One of the things I wrote down as that I would write and record a proggish power pop album that would not only be good and worth listening to but would be one that my writing/music pal Adam would enjoy. This is outlandish because A) I haven't written and recorded any songs in over three years B) If I can't squeak out more than thirty minutes on a weekend how can I find the hours it takes to write, practice, and record even a three minute song, let alone an album full of 'em and C) The songs I have written are They Might Be Giant-esque silly ditties, usually about animals and usually two or three minutes long. Nothing proggy. Possibly power poppy but definitely with strong kid-appeal.

But I wrote it down anyway earlier this week. Maybe it's a goal for ten years in the future. Maybe it will take me ten years after that to complete. Who knows? Except that this morning I woke up twenty minutes early with a melody and lyrics in my head. I used to carry around a digital audio recorder and would sing or speak in ideas and melodies and bass lines and whatnot. It's been four or five years since I had such an idea and carried that recorder and yet, here was an idea. I tried to go back to sleep and forget the stupid song idea but no such luck. So it was off to the basement with me, grabbing my acoustic guitar and turning on my keyboard. It was just two lines but I quickly wrote down the lyrics and the melody along with a few notes on the bass line. Surprisingly the guitar chords were easy folk chords and I reflected that often when I go to learn a song I enjoy I find that they use basic chords instead of those fancy expensive ones (F#aug6, anyone?). I therefore gave myself permission to use simple chords. After twenty minutes there still was one guitar chord I couldn't figure out but I needed to get ready for work so it will have to wait.

That's it? Just two lines of a chorus? Often that's all I need, just a hook. Those two lines set a kind of tone for the song and I already have a vague ideas for a slightly proggy musical bit to follow the chorus that will lead into some kind of verse that has yet to be created. Would this idea have popped into my head had I not written down the bit about writing an album? Would I have gone back to sleep and ignored and ultimately forgotten the melody? Laying there unable to get back to sleep I thought "Well, this is the album you asked for so you'd better get up." Did I just need a goal? Who knows! The sad thing is, at this very moment I can't remember a thing about the melody and only remember the subject of the lyrics but it's all written down for me to decode later. Maybe this weekend, maybe next year. In the meantime, I'd better get packing for my trip to Europe.