Radical Face Ghost [Morr Music]

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Rating: 8.0

(The first portion of this review is inconsequential, more or less, to my critique of Radical Face’s “Ghost”. Therefore, feel free to begin reading below the dotted line if you are running late for your work, bar mitzvah, or loved one’s murder trial.)

Hey fuckers, stop talking about ghosts. For the last few years, you have felt the need to stick it in your band names, album titles, and lyrics like it just got invented. I’d rather hear songs referencing blogs. And don’t give me that shit where you say you didn’t notice. Type “Ghost” and any other word in the English language, and seven indie rock bands have already used it. It’s getting fucking boring. Try and hide it among a bunch of unrelated words, and then it’s boring AND annoying (Ghostland Observatory, I’m looking in your direction). Just please stop. And while I’m here, if you still talk about ninjas, pirates, unicorns, and robots like you just cracked the fucking pop culture code- you’re just as bad if not worse.

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At some point Ben Cooper decided “Radical Face” was a good name for his solo project and as much as I’d like to disagree, there is a better chance of me forgetting the names of my own STD’s before I forget that particular moniker. Unfortunately, not all of his ideas are quite so indelible, and end up crippling the otherwise formidable debut, “Ghost”.

Glory mp3

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Leonard Cohen: Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967), Songs from a Room (1969), Songs of Love and Hate (1971), (Reissues) [Columbia Legacy]

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Rating: 10.0

“When I left they were sleeping, I hope you run into them soon. Don’t turn on the lights, you can read their address by the moon.” Leonard Cohen is primarily a poet, not some kind of rock and roll juggernaut. Several volumes of his poetry were published, along with two novels, years before he recorded his first album, released in 1967. His first three records are essential folk masterpieces that are a world apart from his later recordings,  where he would begin to stray musically. The reissues are a blinding example of Leonard Cohen at his best. His first album is a highly literate work of sheer brilliance that paved the way for the also near perfect second and third albums. They have just been given the remastering treatment and the re-releases come in classy hardback book packaging. As one would expect, included are the lyrics, which were criminally missing from the earlier cd versions of Songs From a Room and Songs of Love and Hate. There are also a few unreleased tracks thrown in to make us suckers once again purchase albums that we already owned.

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Sister Vanilla Little Pop Rock [Chemikal Underground]

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Rating: 7.0

With all of the excitement over the recent Jesus and Mary Chain reunion, we should give partial credit to Jim and William Reid’s little sister Linda for getting her brothers back together to write, record and perform with her on an album of songs that has just been released under the name Sister Vanilla. This name was actually given to her by her brothers in 1998 when she sang a song on the last Jesus and Mary Chain record, Munki. The song, “Moe Tucker,” was named so because brothers Reid thought that she sounded like the diffident Velvet Underground drummer. Thankfully, the Jesus and Mary Chain are back. They just played two successful shows last weekend in Southern California, including an appearance at the Coachella Festival on Friday evening. This new album sounds an awful lot like the Jesus and Mary Chain as it was mainly written by its two songwriters. In fact, it sounds like Little Pop Rock was more or less an exercise in getting the Reid brothers, who apparently did not speak for years, back to playing music together after a nine year hiatus.

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The Electric Six – Live in Seattle

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Photo by Pieter Van Hattem

Seattle, WA
Neumo’s
April 29, 2007

“This show doesn’t count!” said Dick Valentine. “We’re in-between albums right now, so this one’s unofficial.”

I leaned against the railing of the balcony at Neumo’s cheering with every bit of Tuesday night enthusiasm I could muster as the band took stage. The six of them each buzzed with high voltage electricity as promised. They clicked on their amps and checked their various levels as Dick pushed his mic stand to the side.

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Nico The Frozen Borderline [Rhino Records]

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Rating: 9.8

A vast majority of what we listen to today has been directly influenced by a cannon of elite artists. These seminal acts, most of which hail from the mid to late sixties, have come to be widely respected as they are routinely name checked by about every media source. And from the seeds of the original rock groups, there has been very little left in the way of innovation and invention. Because of this, so many groups over the years have mimicked, borrowed and outright copied the originators of the craft. Nico, of Velvet Underground fame, however, is one individual who was so devastatingly avant-garde that her albums remain, to this day, virtually unknown. In fact, her material was so unique that attempts at copying her sound have rarely been done. Rhino UK have just re-released The Marble Index and Desertshore, two of her best solo albums, in one package entitled The Frozen Borderline. The songs have been remastered and also included is a wealth of demos, outtakes, and alternate versions. These records are stellar and the recent mastering job that has been done adds a freshness to the sound that makes them even more incredible than they already were in their previous compact disc form.

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Shapes and Sizes Split Lips, Winning Hips, A Shiner [Asthmatic Kitty]

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Rating: jane.jpg jane.jpg jane.jpg jane.jpg jane.jpg jane.jpg jane.jpg

There was a famous screenwriter whose name I don’t know who said something I don’t exactly remember, but it went kind of like this- “A great script gives people what they want in a way they don’t expect”. If you need the actual quote I’m sure you can pick up a Google tutorial at Borders, but either way, this idea seems to be a succinct way to describe what Shapes and Sizes is going for on their second full length Split Lips, Winning Hips, A Shiner. But the question is, do they actually pull it off?

Alone/Alive mp3
Head Movin’ mp3

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