Vol. 4 Episode 3

I still have not received the LP for The Late VirginiaSummers. Apparently the guy who runs the BandCamp side for HSAL missed the sale. It should have shipped early this morning.

I purchased a new piece of recording hardware for my own music creation. It should be here this weekend. It will free up about 10 gigs of hard drive space on my computer. I am very excited about that!

I forgot to mention that the Whirr/Anne double 7” came in a few weeks ago. It is a beautiful black and white swirl with lyric etching on the fourth side around in a circle. I am very happy to have that set.

The first 7” single for the upcoming Veronica Falls single, Teenage, will be released on March 12, 2013. There may be a second single released for Buried Alive. I hope that there will be a physical single for the track.

Here we go...

The Smiths – Meat Is Murder

This is the second album from The Smiths. It was released in 1985. This is the best charting album for the group of their four album career. Meat Is Murder was more strident and political than the previous album, including the pro-vegetarian title track, Meat Is Murder, (Morrissey forbade the rest of the group from being photographed eating meat). I have always been interested in the group but never took the time to investigate. All four albums were repressed in 2009 to the UK track listings by Rhino Records. I picked this one up as soon as it was repressed on vinyl. To my surprise the record was colored solid mint green. This was to coincide with the idea behind the album I am sure. Because this was the UK track listing the song How Soon Is Now? was not included on the album. This was the reason that I was interested in the album. That song was the big hit from The Smiths in the US. It was included in the US release and on UK releases after 1992.

There was one official single released from the album called That Joke Isn’t Funny Any More. What stands out for me is the jangly guitar sound that Johnny Marr produced with the addition of the echoy guitar floating over the vocals of Morrisey. It is not the greatest song that the band has put out but it is a very good song from the album.

There are a few other songs from this album that I like musically more than the single that was put out. The first of which is the lead track off the album, The Headmaster Ritual. Johnny Marr’s guitar sounds so cool but so period for the time. The vocals for the chorus from Morrisey are intoxicating. His vocals always remind me of a warm mug of ale, if that makes any sense at all.

I am not a fan of rockabilly but Rusholme Ruffians works so well. It is a fun beat with fun guitars. Morrisey’s talk about the last night at the fair pushes the imaginative funness of the whole thing.

 The last track from this album that I think is very good is called Barbarism Begins At Home. The song has a great beat and the guitars are so poppy that I think this should have been the single from the album. I don’t think that they knew what they had when they had it.

The Smiths – How Soon Is Now?

This is the single that was released as a part of the US/Canadian release of Meat Is Murder. It was released in 1985. Although I have a copy of the UK pressing of Meat Is Murder, I was lucky enough to find a copy of this 12” single at a local record store. For me this makes the album complete. It was originally a B-side of the 1984 single William, It Was Really Nothing. The single was a big enough hit in the US and Canada that it was decided to add the track to the album Meat Is Murder to increase sales of the album. The single has three tracks on it. One of which is the radio edit of the A side track.

How Soon Is Now? is not a typical track from the band. The soaring guitar over the vocals reminds me of a jet airplane. Where the echo on the rhythm guitar is so unique, it reminds me of something mechanical doing a repetitive job. Then there are Morrisey’s vocals. He sings, “I am the son, and the heir, of a shyness that is criminally vulgar
I am the son and heir, of nothing in particular” and “I am human and I need to be loved, just like everybody else does.” This spoke of exactly what I was feeling as a kid. It was perfect and I loved the way that it made me feel.

The B side track is called Girl Afraid. It is a good song with a great beat. I really like how the song changes key at the chorus and it isn’t noticeable until the chorus ends. It is very interesting in that way.

Squarepusher – Ufabulum

This is the fifteenth album from Squarepusher including com compilations that stand up like a regular album. It was released in 2012. Tom Jenkinson (Squarepusher) has stated that "It’s music which is generated purely from programming. There’s no live guitar or drums, there’s nothing in it which is live, really at all." Allmusic said this about the album, "The most striking aspect of Ufabulum is the sense that Jenkinson is building on top of foundations he laid himself. Where early Squarepusher records were notable for their innovative work with beat programming or infusion of organic instruments with electronic mayhem, the songs here seem to begin with that template of jittery beats and grow into dense compositions."

There was one single, Dark Steering, released from the album. This track is good but not as good as some of the other tracks on this album in my opinion. The quasi tire squeal sound is to high pitched and way to piercing to be any kind of enjoyable. The manufactured motorcycle sound is very cool though. The song is very noodley but still interesting. It reminds me of what riding a lightcycle in Tron might be like and that is its redeeming quality.

Other tracks that would have been better as a single are the likes of 4001, the opening track of the record. This track slowly builds with cool deep bass sounds and classic Squarepusher programmed drums. The song progresses to hard hitting staccato notes with a nice synth sound flowing over the whole thing. It moves on to something a bit different. It sticks with the staccato notes but a different bass sound and a slightly different synth sound with cool lead runs.

The song that I think is the albums biggest downfall is also one of the most interesting tracks on the album, Unreal Square. It uses an old school mono-tone that kids use to play with on mini-noise making keyboards in the mid to late 80s. I hated the sound but got use to the tones when the underground 8-bit/chiptune music makers came about in the mid to late 00s. He makes good use of the tones in a creative musical way by adding big bass hits that boarder on dub step bass lines.

This is a great album built on blocks that Squarepusher himself created. This is of course jazz infused electronic music. He is one of the best out there in the electronic genre.

Free Energy – Love Sign

This is the second album released from Free Energy. It was released just last week (2013). Some bands have a problem with the second album. I should say that it is not the band but more the fans. Fans want to see a band expand and not stay stagnant with what they release. Some bands have more music than they know what to do with for a first album. The problem with the latter is that they get use to playing the songs a certain way and can’t see any ways to progress the old music to be current with what is out there today, i.e. the competition. I can’t say that this is the case with this band but it could very well be. Maybe it is just that the band sounds so much like Journey and The Cars put together as the critics have said in the past. I am not saying that this is a bad thing but it does make for a bit of a watered down sound at times. I will give them props as they are a Minnesota band.

There is one single released from the album so far. That is the first track from the album called Electric Fever. The song starts off with just guitar noise and progresses into arena rock style vocals. The chorus and the verse sound very similar musically. It isn’t boring exactly but it does get old when the verse and chorus sound exactly the same.

I am happy that I have the album but I just wish they could have progressed a bit more than they have so far. I guess that means they have fallen in to the sophomore slump with this release. It is too bad really. Maybe it will be better on the next release.

White Laces - ////// Interzone

This is a live EP culled from two different recording sessions. Tracks 1, 5 recorded live at Whalehead Studios (Norfolk, VA) and Tracks 2-4 recorded live @WRIR (Richmond, VA). The EP was released as a pay what you want through BandCamp in the beginning of 2013. It is available for download. I had heard all of the tracks except the second track called Deep Moves. I am glad that I have the track but I am not sure if the only recording of the track is on this digital EP or not. I don’t have everything but I do have a lot from this group. I also can’t find any reference to the song other than here on this EP. I really like it when a group can play what they have recorded in the studio live. Especially these new bands that grow up recording in their bed rooms and can make anything happen on a computer. I hope they get the recognition that they deserve and become a popular band. 

That is all I have for now...