The Raw & the Cooked: The Airborne Toxic Event Releases Two Very Different Albums

The Airborne Toxic Event

Anyone who knows me and my musical tastes knows that The Airborne Toxic Event is one of my upper-echelon, favorite bands.  I have followed their career since their first album, and it has been three years since I reviewed their third album.  For this review, I get to review two albums - "Dope Machines" and "Songs of God and Whiskey" - both released in 2015, within days of each other.

From their first album, this band has appealed to me - part folk rock, part rockabilly, part Springsteen, part The Smiths, part Neil Diamond.  Over the years, many people have accused this band of stealing other people's sounds, but I don't care.  Nobody makes music with as much passion, no one has as poignant and poetic lyrics as these guys. And I have always liked how they had companion videos for all of their songs on YouTube called "Bombastic Videos", alternate versions of their songs complete with acoustic guitars, stand-up bass, and chamber orchestras.  In many ways, I preferred these versions to the glossy studio takes of these songs.

Last year, I got very excited - along with my other friends and family who are fans - when the marketing for "Dope Machines" started to hit the interwebs.  When the first single, "Wrong", came out, I admit, I was taken a little aback.  It is essentially a synthpop song.  The raw lyrics and powerful voice of Mikel Jollet were there, but set to an electronic beat.  I played it for my former wife, Temple, and she immediately liked it.  I mean, it's not a bad song, but is this the direction that the band was taking?

A few weeks later, the entire album came out, and, sure enough, the band had shifted directions to make a electronic pop album.  Yes, I was disappointed.  I wanted stand-up basses, not synthesizers.  Nevertheless, I gave it a listen.  There is no denying - The Airborne Toxic Event are great musicians, great songwriters.  Even though it was not what I expected from them, it is a really good record, and, taken for what it is, a change of pace, I really like it.

After starting with the first single, the album continues with "One Time Thing" that starts simply - a dance beat, a guitar on heavy reverb plucking out an infectious rhythm with saucy lyrics like:

"Sounds like your breath is full of moonshine

And cheap ass wine

My best friend told me I should just stop 

Looking for a sign"

Then it the song starts building up layers, gathering intensity.  After listening to this song, I had hope that this record would be as good as their others, and I was right.  The title track, "Dope Machines" starts with the same groovy beat, adding shrill keyboards, but unraveling in a killer hook that makes the song vibrate.  "California" is a sweet pop song that shimmers with Jollet's wistful words tremulously cementing an emotional resonance to it.  "Time To Be a Man" is an explosive anthem that showcases violinist Anna Bulbrook's vocal abilities as she takes over the mic for a while.  "Hell and Back", with its "Na na na" chorus" is one of the few songs on this record that is acoustic.  "My Childish Bride" is a soft lament that kind of has an OMD feel.  The next two songs - "The Thing About Dreams" and "Something You Lost" - are unique in that they share musical themes, the first a piano tune and Jollet singing falsetto, and the, second with ethereal keyboards, blend together beautifully.  The record climaxes with "Chains", probably my favorite tune on the record, which starts out subdued and gradually builds to a frenzy, much in the way "Sometime Around Midnight" did.

I would have been happy with "Dope Machines".  But imagine my surprise when the band released, the very next day, a collection called "Songs of God and Whiskey".  This would be their "bombastic" album!  Departing from the synthpop of its companion release, this record was a collection of acoustic songs that the band has accumulated over their ten-year history, and I can tell you - it's drunken and divine!  Like the title suggests, many of the themes are biblical and revolve around the bar settings that seems prevalent with this band.  The record is just as danceable as "Dope Machines', but instead of being carried by electronic beats, this one is harnessed by snares, acoustic guitars, stand-up bass, trumpets,and violins.

"Poor Isaac" starts out this collection with righteous fury, talking about Abraham sacrificing Issac as God commanded him in the Bible with biting lyrics like:

"And I'm so pissed tonight

I feel just like

The last remaining Canaannite

And I don't think I'll be returning

And if you want to see the irony

And the savage price of piety

There's a lot of us who're going to be burning

How does it feel?

"Cocaine and Abel" starts out with an acoustic hum and sprouts up into a rockabilly canter that will have you howling along with Jollet, along with a horn section.  "A Certain Type of Girl" demonstrates what is great about American music, starting out a washboard acting as rhythm section and goes right into bluegrass with a tickling piano and fiddle.  "Change and Change and Change" is reminiscent of I.R.S. bands from the '80s like The dB's or R.E.M.  There are a few straight-up folk songs like "April Is the Cruelest Month", "Why Why Why", and "The Fall of Rome".  "The Line of Cars" mixes an upbeat acoustic gallop with a soaring fiddle.  There is an acoustic version of "California" on here, and "Strangers" adds sheet upon sheet of sounds that it will curl your toes.

When most people think of acoustic music, they think of languid, sleepy music in coffee houses.  This acoustic record is fast-paced and full-bodied like a frothy mug of ale.  It's folk music you can dance to.  "Dope Machines" is a really good album.  "Songs of God and Whiskey" is a really great album, and that's the difference.  It has cemented The Airborne Toxic Event in their place as one of my all-time favorite bands.

God Is Dancing in the Rain: Remembering October Project's First Album

October Project circa 1993

Over the years, I have had the privilege of people introducing people to music.  But occasionally, I am able to get people into music myself.  October Project was one such band.

In 1993, I was a newlywed, living with my wife and two other married couples (and a single brother) in a house we shared in Kearns, Utah.  We earned our keep by assisting on the remodeling of this older, red-brick home.  My wife and I had a room with no door in the basement.  We slept on a mattress and watched TV on a 7" black-and-white screen.  For the previous Christmas, my wife bought me my first CD boombox - I had never owned a CD player before.  I was enjoying getting new music on CD format - 10,000 Manics, The Cranberries, etc.

One day, I picked up a copy of the Salt Lake Tribune and read a music review for the eponymous first release of a new band called October Project.  The review was glowing, full of flowery, poetic descriptions.  After reading the description of this haunting music, I had to have it, so I popped in to the regular record shop and bought the CD (which I still have).  I was working downstairs in the basement with the other people I lived with, mudding and taping a bedroom.  I threw the CD on and was instantly taken aback.  I don't know what I was expecting - Dead Can Dance, maybe?  Something more like the bands on the 4AD label?  Something gothic?  What I was hearing was something akin to easy-listening music, something that would later be called adult alternative.  To me, it sounded like Fleetwood Mac, and I didn't like Fleetwood Mac at the time (although I love them now).  Mary Fahl's deep, rich, throaty voice even reminded me of Christine McVie, and that made it even worse for me.  Plus, they seemed so pretentious - I mean, what band would have a full-time lyricist (Julie Flanders), someone who played no instruments, but whose job was to write the lyrics and still posed in band photos?  Come on!  No one else liked the CD, either, so I turned it off.

Mary Fahl now

A few days later, lamenting that I had paid money for a CD that I didn't like, I decided to listen to it again.  I put it in the CD and started painting in the basement.  As I worked, I listened to the music - not for what I thought it should be, and for what it was.  This album was actually pretty good.

It started out with "Bury My Lovely", with Mary's smoky voice singing these poetic lyrics with such intense emotion, set to a piano and gentle chamber orchestra.  The next song, "Ariel", tells a heart-wrenching tale of a woman leaving a love affair, with Marina Belica's sweet voice echoing the chorus.  "Where You Are" and "Return To Me" continues with this musical webmaking of soft music contrasted by Fahl's voice crashing resplendently against the lyrical backdrop.  She truly has a powerful voice.  "A Lonely Voice" has always been my favorite song, a wistful song whose words have poignant, personal meaning to me.  "Eyes of Mercy" picks up the pace a bit with a bit of island rhythm combine with the dulcid interlacing of Fahl and Belica's voices.  "Walls of Silence" has a Joni Mitchell vibe.  The bridge on "Take Me As I Am" still gives me chills.  "Now I Lay Me Down" is an excellent cover of Paul Revere & the Raiders.  "Always" starts out with a low thrum and builds in exquisite intensity.  "Paths of Desire" is a pleasant acoustic ditty.  The album climaxes with the rousing and rocking "Be My Hero".

Perhaps the only complaint that I have about this album is that it is somewhat homogeneous.  All of the songs kind of sound the same.  The light plucking of guitars matched with strings and the explosive voice of Mary Fahl.  But if the songs all kind of sound the same, it is the same, beautiful song.

So I resumed working and put the CD on repeat.  While I slaved away in the basement, I would listen to October Project over and over again.  Finally, my brother raised eyebrows at me and remarked, "I thought you didn't like this album."

My face flushed.  "I guess it grew on me."

But I kept listening to it and listening to it.  Pretty soon, siblings, in-laws, nephews, and friends were listening to it, too.  It was to the point that several of us wound up getting copies of their sophomore release, "Falling Further In", which has "Sunday Morning, Yellow Sky", my favorite October Project song, complete with Lewis Carroll references.  My network of family and friends has kept up with Mary Fahl's solo projects, and "The Other Side of Time" has become a family favorite, spawning karaoke attempts and wedding selections.  (A family member stole my copy of this album.)

I was surprised to find that October Project is still together, without Mary Fahl.  There has been the promise of a new album for quite some time, one that has not been forthcoming.  But at least we will always have this, their masterpiece of a first album.

Black Mountain Takes You On a Trip

Black Mountain

I first came across psychedelic rock band, Black Mountain, on a sampler of music from Canadian label, Jagjaguwar, back about eight years ago, a sampler that included label mates Bon Iver and Ladyhawk.  It was a sprawling, eight-minute opus, a true hippie-fest.

So when I saw that they were releasing their fourth full-length album - entitled "IV" - I decided to check it out.  And what a trip it is!  They blend new wave electronica with Jimi Hendrix riffs, linked together with ponderous Pink Floyd explorations of sound.  It really works!  I'm glad I found this album.

The album starts out with "Mothers of the Sun" roaring off the ground with a Black Sabbath-style guitar intro, but then immediately simmers down to a low boil, a orchestral whisper complete with an oboe and Amber Webber doing her best impersonation of Lisa Gerrard (except with actual words).  It really does remind me of Dead Can Dance, until the cadence picks up to a up-tempo blues smolder with Stephen McBean sharing vocal duties over a jamming '70s lead guitar.  "Florian Saucer Attack" takes its space theme and new wave pace blending it with  Jefferson Airplane vibe, Webber even sounding like Grace Slick.  On "Deflector", Webber and McBean again share vocal duties on a grinding melody with a short guitar bridge that hooks you right in.  "You Can Dream" is a great example of this band meshing electronica with classic rock guitars, as in "Constellations" with its steady rock beat accompanied by shrill keyboards.  "Line Them All Up" takes it down a notch with an acoustic piece, yet has several tempo changes that takes us on some wild mood swings.  "Cemetery Breeding" is probably my favorite song, a nostalgic piece about mourning a lost love and having sex in a graveyard.  The album ends with three psychedelic pieces, including "Space to Bakersfield", long, contemplative expeditions like the end of an acid trip, languid, tired, and slowly burning out like the candle flame dousing in the tallow.

So if you like '70s psychedlic, you're definitely going to like this.  Break out your bong and enjoy.  This one is a roller coaster ride into other dimensions.

Gaslight Anthem: The New Bosses of New Jersey

Gaslight Anthem

Gaslight Anthem was a band referred to me by gator wrestler and good friend, Jason McDonald.  He said that I would like them, and I do.  But that was back in 2014 when they released their fifth album, "Get Hurt", and I am just barely getting around to it.  He messaged me yesterday to say, "It's about time!"

He's right.  It is about time.  Luckily, this album is timeless.

Gaslight Anthem is a punk band that has transcended the hardcore designation to create something different, refusing to fit in the proverbial pigeon-hole to create something unique,  Like other bands before them - X, Social Distortion, and Against Me! - they blend classic rock, folk, and even country with punk elements to create a sound that is distinctly American.  This is Americana at its best.  On my first listen, I remarked for much their music sounds much like Bruce Springsteen.  Then lo and behold, I find out they hail from New Jersey, just like The Boss and have been known to play Springsteen covers.  The Boss has even played onstage with them a few times.  In fact, the band used to receive so any requests for Springsteen songs during their live shows that singer/ songwriter, Brian Fallon, finally announced, "I'm not Bruce!"

I find this blend of punk aggression with Bruce Springsteen's homespun All-American sound to be compelling.  I mean, you couldn't find a combination more incongruous.  It's rumored that punk aficianado, Anthony Bourdain, hates Springsteen so much that he will fire anyone who blasts it in his kitchen.  One critic said that it was like Springsteen let The Ramones produce "Hungry Heart".  And yet it works!  In a very pleasing way!

Get Hurt

"Get Hurt" was inspired by the breakup of Fallon's ten-year marriage, and the result is raw and powerful album that barrels through the emotions, from roaring anger to wistfulness to tenderness.  "Stay Vicious" starts out this collection with indignant guitars with Fallon sneering about how much his life has changed, and then it unlaces to a bittersweet chorus of scintillating guitars.  These changes from vexed to hopeful are what make this album great.  "1,000 Years"  continues Fallon's lament to the beat of the brutal guitars.  "Get Hurt" changes direction to a somber ballad with Fallon daring, "Might as well do your worst to me."  "Stray Paper" is a lovely pop-punk tune that reminds me a lot of Against Me!  "Helter Skeleton" is one of my favorite songs with its buzzsaw guitars and shredding vocals offset with a gentle but effervescent chorus.  "Underneath the Ground" starts with the Springsteen-sounding songs, but takes us straight back to hardcore with the thrashing "Rollin' And Tumblin'".  "Red Violins" is just a well-crafted song with smart guitar interplay and brilliant lyrics, with a country feel.  "Selected Poems" could be a song by The Killers, another band to take a page from Springsteen.  In fact, his vocals in this tune even sounds like Brandon Flowers.

Really, this is a great album.  I am totally into the Americana thing.  I have been since 10,000 Maniacs and R.E.M.   This sound reflects what is great about our country - great songs by great people.  I would recommend this album to anyone.

Shannon's Swansong: Revisiting Blind Melon's "Soup"

Blind Melon circa 1991

Finally, the '90s nostalgia is starting!

Recently, I've been seeing a lot of "greatest of" lists on the interwebs lately, and I have seen Blind Melon listed frequently as a one-hit wonder.  This startled me.  Were they really a one-hit wonder?

I guess so!  Their only solid billboard hit was 1993's "No Rain."  Anyone who watched MTV knew who they were - a ubiquitous video catching on the feel-good, hippie-dippy vibe that was sweeping the nation in the early '90s - a bunch of long-haired. shirtless guys basking in the sunlight and sunflowers with a chubby girl in a bee suit tap dancing around.  Everyone knew this song.

The first time I heard their 1995 sophomore album, "Soup", I was blown away.  This was not the band I thought they were.  It was dark, gritty, hard, and, well, not hippie at all!  This was rock!  Sure it took a page from the late '60s and early '70s, drawing heavily from the psychedelic sound of bands like Led Zepplin.  But these guys deserved a second look.

What does it mean to be a "one-hit wonder" anyway?  Can a band's artistic merits be measured in their ability to mass produce hits?  That Blind Melon was able to follow up the commercial success of a radio hit with a stark and raw album like "Soup" is a testimony to their legacy.  Unfortunately, that legacy was cut short.

Shannon Hoon 1967-1995

Life was good for Blind Melon after the release of their first album.  Shannon Hoon, the principal singer/ songwriter had emerged from rehab and celebrated the birth of his daughter, Nico Blue.  To support the release of the new album, the band embarked on a tour.  Hoon took a drug counselor with him on the tour to try to remain focused.  Eight months after the release of the album, Hoon dismissed his counselor, and a few days later was found dead in the tour bus from a drug overdose.  It's a story that tragically is all to common among rock musicians, and other artists.  I have often wondered what Hoon might have accomplished had he survived and gone on to produce other music.  In a way, "Soup" is his swansong.

The album starts out with "Goodbye", complete with a horn section lifted right out of a New Orleans funeral procession.  "Galaxie" is an ode to Hoon's car, a 1964 Ford Galaxie.  The song demonstrates the band's capability to create complex rhythms.  "2 X 4" is about Hoon's experience in drug detox, with Hoon screaming, "I'm talking to myself more!"  The riffs could be lifted right from "Houses of the Holy", and Hoon's voice soars like Robert Plant's.  "Vernie" slows don things to a more contemplative pace, and "Skinned" is a playful tune complete with banjo and kazoo with Hoon singing about a serial killer who makes human skin and body parts to make furniture.  "Toes Across the Floor" is probably my favorite song with Hoon's philosophical musings going from a plaintive whimper to a hoarse shout.  "Walk" simmers down to the kind of acoustic numbers I like to see with the band, complete with a mandolin.  "Dumptruck" starts out with the fury of a Motorhead song, but shows the band's uncanny ability to work through mood changes in the same song.  "Car Seat (God's Present" is a feverish song with a violin added, recounting the horror of Susan Smith, who murdered her own children.  "Wilt" is another Led Zepplin-esque song.  "The Duke" is a slow, psychedelic

Soup.

shimmer.  "St. Andrew's Fall" is a beautiful song, recounting the story of a friend who committed suicide by jumping.  The song starts out subdued and works itself into a rage, finishing out with an exquisite string arrangement.  "New Life" has some pleasant interplay between guitars, a song about the birth of his daughter, Nico.  "Mouthful of Cavities" is an acoustic duet with Jena Kraus.  The result is a very haunting melody.  The album finishes with "Lemonade" which tells the story of a bar fight.  It starts out with a dull blues grind and progresses to fast-paced ska, finishing out with the same New Orleans jazz it started with.

This is really great album - one of my favorites.  Over the last twenty years, I have listened to it many, many times.  In preparing to write this review, I found out that Blind Melon is still together and touring.  Imagine my surprise.  I guess I assumed that they had disbanded with the death of Shannon Hoon as I have not heard anything new from them.  I'm glad they are still together.  But this record remains a tribute to Hoon's genius, a talent taken from us too soon.

Dark Yet Happy: The Music of MUNA

MUNA

MUNA are relatively newcomers to the pop music, darlings to Los Angeles' LGBTQ scene.  Their first release in this year's "The Loudspeaker EP".  They describe themselves as dark pop, or, as their website states, "Their music the blending sensuality of R&B, rhythms of pop and rock, and audacity of synthpop with raw, unbridled lyricism."

This was another suggestion to me by my ,music guru, Nikki.  The EP is short, having only four songs, but the whole thing has a nice, poppy groove.  "The Loudspeaker" is the first song featuring a chattering guitar riff, simmering synth beats, and lead vocalist Katie Gavin singing motivational lyrics.  It is pretty upbeat.  In fact, I am trying to figure out why they describe themselves as "dark pop", because there is really nothing dark about it.  "So Special" is a bit more somber with some really nice, layered vocal arrangements.  It kind of reminds me of Imgoen Heap, one of my favorite artists.  In fact, all of this music is kind of reminiscent of Imogen Heap.  "Winterbreak" combines scintillating harmonies with icicle chimes.  And "Promise" finishes out the set with a rousing plea to an unknown lover.

This EP is a nice little introduction to MUNA.  It will certainly never be my favorite, but it is a pleasant listen, a pure venture in pop escapism.  I think it will take a full album to really get a feel for these guys.

YesYesYes to NONONO

NONONO

In 2012, singer/ songwriter Stina Wappling returned to Stockholm, Sweden after studying psychology in the UK.  She hooked up with experienced production team, Astma & Rocwell, and the result was the band, NONONO.  And in early 2014, they released their debut album, "We Are Only What We Feel".  The result is an exploration of catchy, dreamy dance pop.  They describe themselves, on their website, as "urban-indie", a "melancholy yet hopeful with a bassy beat oriented foundation."  And that sounds to be a pretty good description.

This band is adept in hooks, throwing out little snippets of sound that will grab you and reel you in.  I still wake up in the middle of the night humming some of these melodies.  The album begins with "Jungle" with it's prominent high-end bass and keening, synth tagline with Wappling's trilling vocals.  "Like the Wind" continues in the same vein, a somber tune with Wappling doing wordless warbles during the chorus.  "Pumpin' Blood" is the primary single off of this collection and is known for its cheerful whistle.  "Echo" lives up to its name with the vocals and synths set to a slow reverb, accented by an acid house, doppler-effect keyboards.  It's a great song.  "One Wish" changes gear to a country sound, complete with a strumming acoustic guitar and piano.  "Fire Without Flames" could be a '90s club hit, and the record ends with the ambient and mellow "Love".

All in all, this album is a nice, little pop record.  Not likely to join the ranks of my favorite records, but a pleasant listen.  I haven't heard much more about this band since I downloaded this a couple of years ago.  It will be interesting to see what else this Swedish trio produces.