CD REVIEWS

---

Midnight Juggernauts

Dystopia

Label: Siberia

Review by: James Cobo

Dystopia is, contrary to the confident assertions of an army of bloggers, not the best album of the year. It is, however, among 2007's most thrillingly compelling, which is a different yet no-less-praiseworthy kettle of fish altogether. At its heart lie several singles, some released ("Shadows," "Tombstone"), some merely poised for release (given the love the Internet's shown "Ending of an Era" and "Into the Galaxy," the band would be stupid to take any other course of action), all of which sound and feel overpoweringly satisfying. At times, Dystopia resembles nothing so much as a kickass DJ putting together an explosively gratifying set. It helps, of course, that the Midnight Juggernauts can go toe-to-toe with anyone in the post-2002 disco-rock canon. The band has the Rapture beat on bass, !!! on efficiency and (arguably) LCD Soundsystem on accessibility. When it comes to the durability of its songs, the beats all but obliterates the need for genre comparisons. I know a girl who learned how to convert MP3s to ringtones just to have her phone play "Shadows" whenever anyone called, and she still is not sick of it. The only downside is that not every song stands out as exemplary of all these virtues, merely some of them do. As a result you will probably end up unconsciously developing fast-forwarding habits just to better scratch the itches the more perfect tracks evoke. Still, that is a small price to pay for an album – a debut album, no less - which outstrips most bands' greatest hits collections. At the very least, that makes it the dance-rock Funeral.

Dusty Rhodes and the River Band

First You Live

Label: SideOneDummy Records

Review by: Arthur Javier

How often do you get to say a band is reminiscent of the Band?  Well, never.  No one mixes bluegrass, gospel, folk and classic rock while staying gratuitously north of the Mason-Dixon line.  Enter Dusty Rhodes and the River Band from, of all places, Anaheim. 

The album is rife with stories that seem authentically Southern: wife-killers, good for nothing drunks, vigilantes and souls escaping racial persecution.  (What the hell is going on in Anaheim these days?)  The music is just as authentic, dripping with harmonicas, banjos and violins well trained in the art of the hoedown.  And yet, despite its thematic and sonic unity, the album's greatest strength is its diversity.  Drawing from three separate songwriters, the tracks swim smoothly between ethereal balladry ("Goodnight, Moonshine") and electric hillbillery ("Street Fighter"), all the while displaying a mastery of the sound that dispels the band's inherent novelty. 

Ryan Ferguson

Only Trying to Help

Label: Better Looking Records

Review by: Arthur Javier

It seems unfair to pan an alt-pop album for not offering up three chartable singles.  Alt-pop is music, after all, even if the artistic value falls somewhere between children's music and karaoke instrumentals.  But reviewing alt-pop is an inherently scatological exercise; why sift through the peanuts?

"Suddenly" from Ferguson's last album received a few revolutions from Indie 103.1.  Do any of these tracks have similar potential? Anything is possible.  DJs occasionally put in the wrong CD, but no, there are no true singles.  Every song sounds like it could have used the supervision of a competent pop producer or a monkey who has listened to the radio since 2003.

Firefox AK

Madame, Madame!

Label: Minty Fresh

Review by: James Cobo

The fundamental problem with Madame, Madame! isn't that it isn't fun to listen to – on the contrary, it practically groans under the weight of its acute desire to please. Its 12 tracks all come crammed with invasively poppy synth hooks and ruthlessly danceable beats; one could almost describe it as the precise midpoint between the Junior Boys and Bis. Of course, the reason that there's a gulf between the Junior Boys and Bis in the first place is due to the fact that both of their aesthetics practically necessitate the listener to enjoy their albums at the listener's own pace, whereas Madame, Madame! can virtually only be enjoyed at the breakneck speed it dictates. Furthermore, there is not really a whole lot of sub-surface depth to explore; Madame, Madame!'s songs are presumably as accessible on the first listen as they will be on the fiftieth, owing to the near-total absence of sophistication on either the melodic or production sides. Again, however, that hardly makes for a bad album (it's hard to condemn any record which wants to please as badly as Madame, Madame!), just one you won't be picking up much once you start to investigate its source material.

The Future Kings of Nowhere

S/T

Label: 307 Knox Records

Review by: Andrew Schwartz

Something is different about this picture: a band consisting of a front man on acoustic guitar, accompanied by an acoustic bassist, saxophonist, trombonist and trumpeter/accordionist, with no distorted amps in sight. Well, that is Durham, North Carolina's the Future Kings of Nowhere for you. This seven-piece mixed-gender band refers to its unique style of music as "acousticore," which according to the band is "Southern folk-punk that will infect your subconscious for hours after you listen." Luckily, the final result is not an acoustic version of blink-182, but a more complex and thought out album full of tunes about love, death, and alienation sung by founding member Shayne O'Neill. For example, the wonderful track "Emily" focuses on the dark tale of a girl and is accompanied by beautifully constructed instrumentals. Plus, there is an awesome accordion part near the peak of the song. Though the Future Kings of Nowhere have a serious side to them, all the high speed acoustic guitars, double-time drumming, and brass instruments prevail and create quite a fun album. 

The Gunshy

There's No Love in this War

Label: Latest Flame Records

Review by: Andrew Schwartz

Between the years 1943 to 1945, Paul Arbogast served the U.S. Army in Europe fighting against the Nazis. Throughout his service, Paul wrote a series of 17 letters to a girl he fell in love with a year before he left. More than 60 years later, Paul's passionate letters about love and war live on through the songs of his grandson Matt Arbogast, who is the leader of the Gunshy. On its third album with Latest Flame Records, the Gunshy continues to produce melodic folk-rock tunes, led by Matt's raspy vocals. Although the instrumentals and musical structure is impressive, it is really the lyrics that shine the most on this new album. Each track is inspired by one of Paul's letters to his true love (his future wife) and is titled based on the date of the letter. Thus, There's No Love in this War plays out as a captivating story chronicling the soldier's longing to be with his girl and his experiences in combat during WWII. Matt succeeds in bringing justice and appreciation towards his grandfather's journey and all other love-stricken soldiers.          

Holler, Wild Rose!

Our Little Hymnal

Label: Backlight Records

Review by: James Cobo 

If Radiohead were to go back to 1997 and do it all over again armed with the knowledge of what would happen next, there isn't a doubt in my mind that they would have made OK Computer a hell of a lot funnier, if for no other reason than to relieve the world of albums like Holler, Wild Rose!'s Our Little Hymnal. I hasten to add that Hymnal isn't a bad album by any stretch of the imagination. It is hard to imagine the band not getting deserved kudos for the intricate layering of instrumentation that can be found on every track of the debut (those in doubt about Hymnal's sonic virtues owe it a listen on good-quality headphones), and fans of evocations of – yes – OK Computer's poignant straddle of the divide between humanity and alienation will find themselves spoiled for choice. But, is it ever crushingly dour. The band almost flatly and staunchly refuses to let even a hint of levity of any kind interrupt the aesthetic, a trait which doesn't do much to inspire confidence that you are not just dealing with a bunch of copyists. That's not to say that Our Little Hymnal would be improved if it were peppered with knock-knock jokes, of course; its creators would merely be advised to remember how much more memorable their sacred text was made by songs like "Fitter Happier."

Midtown Dickens

Oh Yell!

Label: 307 Knox Records

Review by: Andrew Schwartz

From Durham, North Carolina comes Midtown Dickens, another musical group presented by Durham's own folk-rock label 307 Knox Records. Midtown Dickens is a duo, consisting of Kym Register and Catherine Edgerton, who enthusiastically play what the members' call "front-porch music," which is described as raw and folksy.  With most of the tracks on this debut album, the girls play it low and focus on more of the simple things in life. Take the song "Tetris," for example. In this two-minute tune, the girls elaborate on their love of playing their favorite video game at home, while plucking a few acoustic guitar notes along with some clapping and whistling. Regardless, of the duo's sweet little tracks, the album as a whole is too plain and repetitive. The Midtown Dickens is not going to be able to get by with this act.    

The Pine Hill Haints

Ghost Dance

Label: K

Review by: Kristen Kawaguchi

The latest release from The Pine Hill Haints, Ghost Dance, takes its title from the 19^th century Native American movement that focused on the restoration of the people's customs.  Brought up in the lower Appalachians, the Haints' bluegrass arsenal includes the washboard, saw, a washtub bass, bodhrán (an Irish drum), and more commonly used flute, mandolin and banjos.  The 20 new tracks range from traditional songs, some 400 years old, and others laid down the time of recording in Ireland, Washington, Alabama and Tennessee.  The outcome is a modernized blues/bluegrass sound utilizing snare drums and guitar as heard in "Death by Stereo," written by washtub bassist and banjo playing, Matt Bakula.  This reviewer preferred the traditional songs such as "You're Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond," "St. James Infirmary Blues" and "Cuckoo Bird," the latter for its infectious mandolin and guitar. Another anomaly, "Leo O'Sullivan's Story" is a recording from Cork County, Ireland from a witness to a banshee wail. 

Qui

Love's Miracle

Label: Ipecac Records

Review by: Arthur Javier

It was probably last year's Scratch Acid reunion shows that gave David Yow a yearning for the past and that whole "being in a struggling noise rock band" thing.  And any noisy outfit would have welcomed him with open arms, (he is, after all, David Yow) but he chose Los Angeles' own Qui.

So, what effect does Yow have on the sound that is Qui?  He makes the band less noisy, believe it or not.  Qui retains its plodding neanderthal energy, but the interjected shards of tonsil trash are suddenly perfectly in rhythm with the beat.  The "melodies" are a little tighter, building up to the album's conclusion, a dreamy surf noise ballad.  And vocally, Yow provides a lead here and there, but many of the best tracks come from the screaming back and forth (see "Gash" with backing vocals by Gollum of Middle Earth fame).                  

Ulrich Schnauss

Goodbye

Label: Domino Records

Review by: James Cobo

Any reviewer worth his or her professional salt hates to invoke the personal in any record, but sometimes, records just don't leave you much of a choice. Such is the case of Ulrich Schnauss' Goodbye, a record whose enjoyment is seemingly predicated entirely on the listener's enthusiasm for methodical Tangerine Dream-isms and bleary-eyed Slowdive touchstones and other such atmospheric traits. Of course, it is also possible that one's enjoyment of Goodbye rests on a prima facie enjoyment of Schnauss himself; your reviewer, after all, loves atmospheric noodling more than 80% of his family and still found himself checking his iTunes to see just how much of Goodbye remained. It's not bad music, just non-dynamic at times. Goodbye simply isn't built to take flight at any point during its songs, and even choruses on the vocal tracks don't "kick in" so much as "occur." Still, there are those who like that sort of thing, and it's hard to imagine an album as intensely studied as Goodbye not finding an audience somewhere (for instance, among folks in need of a sonic counterpoint to their favorite Mogwai albums). Just be aware that said audience will not include me.

U.S.S.A.

The Spoils

Label: Fuzz Entertainment

Review by: Kristen Kawaguchi

The long anticipated album from Jesus Lizard guitarist Duane Denison and Ministry bassist Paul Barker is finally here.  The four-piece, U.S.S.A., includes two of Nashville's local musicians, Johnny Rabb on drums and vocalist, Gary Call, a performance artist and audio technician for the Nashville Symphony.

"Dead Voices" retains Barker's signature metal tinged bass line while adding samples and Call's muted caterwaul.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, "Cruel Beauty" starts off with Call's snarling whisper, reminding this reviewer of Trent Reznor's seething vocal energy.

If you are already familiar with Barker and Denison, chances are you will dig this.  U.S.S.A. will be touring this fall, both headlining and opening for Chemlab.