Review: Balance and Composure - Only Boundaries

Label: No Sleep Records

Released: August 11, 2009

I love when a record is really busy, but doesn't get lost in the busyness. On the four song Only Boundaries, Balance and Composure fully live up to their name, balancing intricacies with listenable sensibility and remaining composed while the music swirls. "I Can't Do This Alone" combines a tribal rhythm with echoey guitar and yearning vocals into a song that pleads its case with both calm and determination . "Show Your Face" is reminiscent of Peter Cortner-era Dag Nasty, coupling earnest honesty with a desire to push the music beyond traditional limits. They accomplish the latter with considerable success, not just on this song, but throughout the record. Only Boundaries meets the challenges of exploration while leaving enough that's familiar to embrace.

No Sleep Records pressed 500 of these on black vinyl and the first 100 have a silk-screened b-side. It's a nice cover worthy of all of its 12 inches. For convenience, they throw in a CD copy as well.

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 7/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 8/10
Overall: 7/10

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Review: Rapid Cities - Machinery Saints

Label: Love/Hate Records

Released: May 2009

In some cases, albums where a band knows exactly where they're going and how they'll get there deliver a level of perfection that earlier albums hadn't. However, there is an urgency that blossoms from the creative free-for-all of a band finding their way as they go. There's a visceral energy that perfection just can't achieve. Rapid Cities may not be conscious of this fact, simply because they're in the thick of it.

Machinery Saints flows with the wild abandon of creativity that can't be restrained. They travel the roads of post-hardcore without regard for safety, attacking the sharp angles and starts and stops and stutters with more rage than plan. Oddly enough though, they remained focused, probably by sheer inertia, and their creativity delivers even as it evolves. While there is more than a hint of math rock throughout the album, the band does their math in their heart, not just their head. Feeling their way rather than planning it doesn't dispel their confidence, but rather bolsters it by simple force of will. Amazing.

Ratings
Satriani: 8/10
Zappa: 7/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 9/10
Overall: 8/10

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Review: The Reptilian - Boys' Life

Label: Count Your Lucky Stars

Released: March 3, 2009

Any post-hardcore album worth its grooves (or bits and bytes as the case may be) ought to make one think of Fugazi, right? Well, this EP from Kalamazoo, Michigan's The Reptillian reminds me of...well...Cake. Yeah, the quirky, jazzy, hipper-than-thou hipsters of the 90s. Now, don't get me wrong though. The Reptilian doesn't compromise intensity for cleverness by a long shot. Instead, they enfilade the listener with quirkiness while rolling forward with a full-frontal, post-hardcore assault. Do you think a song titled, "I'll Ram My Ovipositor Down Your Throat And Lay My Eggs In Your Chest But, I'm Not An Alien!" sounds crazy? Wait 'til you hear it. Yeah, it's that good.

Ratings
Satriani: 7/10
Zappa: 7/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

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Review: City of Ships - Live Free or Don't Tour

Label: Forcefield Records

Released: January 27, 2009

This vinyl-only release collects two earlier City of Ships EPs from 2006 and 2007 that are clearly worthy of being issued on this superior format. Both EPs feature monstrous waves of dissonance underscored by shockingly melodic lines. The tension created isn't pleasant, but reflects that nice is a minor virtue next to truth and truth isn't always pretty. The influence of two 90s phenomenons, progressive metal and post-hardcore is clear, yet City of Ships is not of the past, but the future. There are metal elements, but absent is the flashy riffage that makes much metal a bore. In its place is an intensity that has few rivals. Call it post-hardcore, post-rock or whatever, one thing is clear, it's post-something. The tension it creates is constant even as the music ebbs and flows. It's not pleasant, but a rewarding exploration of the tensions of life.

The vinyl itself is as striking as the music. The black and yellow swirl looks like it might glow in the dark and it certainly could be dangerous to those given to seizures. Seriously, cool stuff.

Ratings
Satriani: 8/10
Zappa: 7/10
Dylan: 7/10
Aretha: 9/10
Overall: 8/10

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Review: Protest the Hero - Fortress

Label: Vagrant Records

Released: February 11, 2008

There is a musical gray area that exists between good bands that live within their limitations and great bands that have no limitations. Bands in that gray area are clearly very, very good and deserve credit for their willingness to push the envelope of their sound. At the same time, they get dinged for lacking the self-knowledge to know when to stop pushing and to start concentrating on songwriting rather than theory. These bands avoid the perfection that can be achieved on either side of them and the degree to which they avoid it determines whether their album flirts with greatness or disaster.

Protest the Hero's second full-length album, Fortress, certainly falls into that gray area. These guys' chops far exceed most of their peers'. The rhythms are tight and dynamic, their dual guitar attack can be both lightning fast and beautifully melodic and Rody Walker's vocals are as effective when smooth as when brutal. They incorporate hardcore's brutality and thrash's speed with moments of symphonic metal that actually aren't all that gratuitous. In their best moments they knock on the door of the Mars Volta, but unlike Volta, their songs often lack the cohesiveness that turns experimentation into song. That and perhaps the thinness of the production are the limiting factors of the soaring potential of Fortress.

All members of Protest the Hero are under the legal drinking age (here in the US, but not in their Canadian home), yet they've been playing together for nine years. That may account for both their incredible ability to play together as well as their struggle to write focused songs. For such a young band, they are incredibly literate, writing lyrics that sensible enough to get a feel for the song, yet cryptic enough to keep you guessing. If they could translate that same ability into the music, they would get out of that gray area and do more than just flirt with greatness.

Ratings
Satriani: 10/10
Zappa: 7/10
Dylan: 4/10
Aretha: 7/10
Overall: 7/10

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Review: Loom - Angler

Label: Exigent Records

Released: February 26, 2008

It seems that some of the least likely bands are incorporating strings of the non-guitar variety these days. Plenty of metal and hardcore bands don't seem to even blink at the idea anymore. Sometimes, it sticks out like a sore thumb and other times, it's perfectly integrated. Salt Lake City's Loom is the latter. They play intricate post-hardcore with agile, mathy rhythms, guitars that alternate between hardcore crunch, rock riffs and prog complexity and vocals that growl and sing. Oh yeah, and there's violin that's both seamless and essential. Angler might get lost in the post-this-and-that shuffle without that violin, but with it, it's clear this band has the potential to enter into more uncharted territory. This is a pretty good accomplishment for a band that's only been together a little over a year.

Rating: 6/10

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Review: Thrice - The Alchemy Index Vols I & II: Fire & Water

Label: Vagrant Records

Released: October 16, 2007

Some bands seem to have potential, but early on, it's unclear whether they'll fulfill that. When I first heard Thrice open for Hot Water Music at the 9:30 Club back in 2002, that's exactly the way I felt about them. The live show was dynamic and energetic, but the two studio albums were trying too hard and the result was disjointed and messy. They certainly had the potential and the big ideas for their own sound, they just hadn't brought everything together yet.

Five years later, Thrice has shown that those weren't just random ramblings on their early releases. They were in fact up to something big and that something begins to really pan out on these first two volumes of The Alchemy Index. The first two of the four EPs that make up their concept album about the medieval elements focus on Fire and Water.

There may not be a better explanation of the success of these volumes than the one-word descriptions that easily came to mind with each. Fire simmers, burns, explodes and ignites. It is the heavier of the albums and its churning rhythms and chunky riffs scorch the ground between hardcore and hard rock. Fire finds the band excelling at what they've been doing for years, turning up the heat enough to make it standout from its post-hardcore peers for both the standalone music as well as its ability to nail the concept.

Water is new ground (or sea) for Thrice. It's very fluid and moves in waves. It's much more low-key, but like water itself, probably more than fire. It is easy to become enveloped in the ebb and flow of its soundscapes which will carry you, pull you under, let you up. It's a cold sea, with ambient electronics and quiet echoes and the very distinct sense of the lapping waves on the surface. Sometimes the waves are big and heavy and others they are calm and gentle, but they are always present. Water's musical pictures are painted with a palette that includes Pink Floyd and King Crimson, but also colors that are distinctly Thrice.

On both EPs, the song titles hide nothing about their theme and in that sense, they may border on telling rather than showing their purpose. The music is never so blunt, yet leaves no more doubt about what it has to say. Concept albums are always a tricky game that can lead even good bands astray. Thrice, however, may have found their true calling with an album that is brilliant, challenging and listenable, a trifecta seldom achieved.

As if making a great record wasn't enough, Thrice is donating a portion of their proceeds to Blood:Water Mission which partners with local villages to build sustainable wells for the thousands of Africans without access to clean water. As little as one dollar can provide water for one person for one year. You can't beat that, so check out their site.

The band will follow this release up with a companion double EP in 2008. Obviously, it will address the elements of air and earth.

Rating: 9/10

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Interview: Towers of Hanoi

Gainesville, Florida's Towers of Hanoi recently unleashed their third release upon us and Paranoia for the New Year is a shining example of what post-hardcore can be even while being brought down to earth by simple hard rock influences. It's the kind of album that makes you wonder, "Whoa, how did they do that?" In an effort to find out, I was able to get this interview with their guitarist, Travis.

RnRnMN: Your music seems to bring together two disparate genres: hard rock and post-hardcore. What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of each and how do you bring them together? Was that the intention or a happy accident?

Travis: The line between post-hardcore and hard rock was never something we consciously drew. It's been more a matter of trying to write songs that get a certain feeling across rather than tap a certain genre. Parts of our music that would probably be called post-hardcore usually boil down to riffs we've written that make use of a lot of melody while still trying to fill in the rhythmic gaps since we only have one guitar. A lot of the harder rock parts are really just us trying to get a certain heaviness across while still playing rock & roll. We usually try to put things together as a band, so a lot of what happens in our songs boils down to spontaneous ideas thrown together at practice.

RnRnMN: How do your influences play into that sound?

Travis: We listen to a lot of different bands and different kinds of music. Sometimes we'll run a band or album we like into the ground to the point where we can't listen to it anymore. That's when elements ofthat sound start usually start showing up in our music. We never deliberately try to rip anybody off, but it's only natural to incorporate elements of the music you love into your songwriting. We bounce back and forth between bands and genres a lot, which is a good thing because it provides new sources of inspiration and keeps you from narrowing into a specific sound too much.

RnRnMN: Your previous album, Black Feathers, was a concept album. Paranoia for the New Year seems to work as a single unit, but I didn't catch a specific concept. Was there any specific concept for this album? What do you think gives it its continuity?

Travis: Paranoia For The New Year wasn't ever really intended to be a concept album lyrically, but we did have a very definite idea about the sound we were going after at the time we started recording, which probably makes it our most consistent sounding record to date. Black Feathers was sort of born out of chaos in the studio, and while it has some very concrete lyrical themes, it's less composed from a musical perspective. PFTNY took us 2 years to write, so we had a lot of time to kick around the songs and figure out what we thought would work together musically and lyrically. We learned a lot from our previous time spent in the studio in regard to how to get the sound we wanted for this record, and the recording of the core of the album was done in about two days. From a lyrical context it's a more open-ended record, but it does contain some basic elements of doomy-ness, which are inspired by a combination of the general affect in America today as well as repeated listenings to albums like Over The Edge by The Wipers.

RnRnMN: I know that at least some of you have other projects that you work on. Does that help or hinder the progress of Towers of Hanoi?

Travis: We think it's a good thing. It's pretty standard in Gainesville to be in at least a few bands. Towers doesn't really have any kind of schedule attached to it, so members being on the road certain parts of the year isn't really an issue. Playing in more than one band helps boost your creativity as a musician, which is a positive, and it's also nice having our records spread around the country a few times a year rather than just once for a two-week tour.

RnRnMN: Gainesville seems to be a pretty fertile spot for punk rock, with a lot of bands pushing the envelope creatively while remaining in touch with the raw roots of rock n roll. What do you think contributes to the scene producing so much good music? What is your role in this?

Travis: We've lived in Gainesville for a long time, and it's been awesome watching the music scene here grow over the years. There were a lot of great bands that played around town back when the Hardback Cafe was in full swing in the mid to late 90's, and then things settled down some when the Hardback closed. Growing up and watching those bands play made a big impact on a lot of people who were hear to see it, and when new bars opened up to provide a space for live music to thrive again, all of the inertia from those previous bands helped push music here to a new level. We've been playing around Gainesville for almost five years now, and we've made a lot of great friends in the process. These days, the scene here has reached a new peak with the combination of all the great bands, The Fest, No Idea, and great up-and-coming labels like Barracuda Sound.

RnRnMN: Aside form your records not going gold, what's wrong with music today? What's right?

Travis: Whati's wrong is there's not enough emphasis on the musical side of music. Kids growing up in the mainstream these days are surrounded by manufactured images of artists and aren't getting any exposure to what making real music is actually about. It's always been this way to a certain degree, but it seems worse today. It seems like records are looked at as something people don't want to pay for anymore, so to make a living as an artist, you have to tour constantly. What's right, is a lot of artists seem to be taking control of their careers and removing major labels that take advantage of them out of the equation. There's a bigger pool of independent bands today than ever before, and the upside of the internet is it allows people from all over the world to hear your music, which is pretty huge.

RnRnMN: Pick your favorite between:

The Beatles versus the Stones

Travis: Stones, pure rock & roll.

Sex Pistols versus the Clash

Travis: The Clash, a real band with real ideals

Fugazi versus Hot Water Music

Travis: Hot Water Music, Gainesville representin'

Hank Williams versus Johnny Cash

Travis: Hank, he's the grandfather...

Iron Maiden versus Black Sabbath

Travis: Sabbath Boody Sabbath...amen

Review: Prize Country - Lottery of Recognition

Label: Exigent Records

Released: 2007

Prize Country's Lottery of Recognition comes off as a mix between the post-hardcore leanings of Fugazi and the dense hardcore of Quicksand. Or perhaps as the dark side of Hot Water Music. However, you describe it, their music is simply unrelenting. Its noisiness belies the band's tightness. They are riffy, but without any of the hard rock connotations that riffy typically implies. Instead, they are as odd and angular as the Fall or Bauhaus, yet nearly as heavy as modern hardcore. A melodic undercurrent adds texture to music that seems to be bursting at the seams throughout.

Prize Country have rightly focused on anger and emotion, allowing focus to fall upon their art as a whole, not its component parts in isolation. Like so many great rock n roll albums before it, Lottery of Recognition doesn't hold anything back. It's pure visceral, angry energy.

Rating: 7/10

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