Sometimes great things happen. For example you write a CD review and the band that recorded the CD reads it. And then they ask you to leave the past behind and focus on their latest release. Who am I to turn them down? I feel honored.
The band I'm talking about is 24-7 Spyz and the topic of today's review is their 2006 release Face The Day. The band was separated for several years between 1998 and 2003 when they reformed as Jimi Hazel on guitar and vocals, Rick Skatore on bass and Tony Lewis on drums. They released a DVD in 2005 before recording and releasing Face The Day in 2006 with new member Tobias Ralph on drums.
Bare the title in mind when this CD hits you like a brick wall with the high-energy punk-rock opener Unknown Wellknown. While it makes sure you are awake for the rest of the 14 (!) song album it also teaches 24-7 Spyz history.
Heavy Metal Soul 4 Life is the description coined by the band itself for their music and I think it reached a new level of perfection on Face The Day. While some songs are heavier and others more soulful the border between styles disappeared almost completely. There are elements of both in most songs but not changing abruptly rather than smoothly integrated.
If you take Face The Day, Waiting For The Sun, Soul Sucker and Ride To Nowhere for example, they rock your socks off. You get hit by powerful metal riffs to bang your head to ecstatically while your booty moves at the same time. Tobias and Rick are an incredibly tight rhythm section that drives Jimi's vocals and guitar playing on and on.
Once you wipe the sweat off of your brows after this onslaught the pace slows down a little with Faithless, The Saturday Song and Angel. What surprised me most about these soulful songs is their groove and Jimi's vocal melodies and harmonies. The voice has a very distinctive sound and the harmonic arrangements are fantastic.
Now, don't think that this is what HMS4L is all about. It's a way of life and pushing the boundaries. This becomes very clear when you reach Blues for Dimebag. It is a tribute song to the late guitar hero Dimebag Darrell Abbott. It's a bluesy instrumental filled with guitar solos from Jimi and guest Bumblefoot. The blues is followed by Running, a ska song and Anything For You which is a mixture of pop-rock and ska.
Personally, I enjoy Plastique very much including the topic of the outer beauty obsession.
The album finishes off with a cover of Thin Lizzy's Bad Reputation and the inspirational Stand! The feeling I was left with after listening to the album was a longing for more. The arrangements are well thought out, the musicianship is great and everything is executed professionally. The CD is available at cdbaby.com and probably other outlets as well.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Music is a way of life
Music is an important piece of my life. Only my family takes priority over music. Sometimes it means that working to support my family comes before music. But in my mind, there is always music playing. It can be a song I started to write, the brand new song from fill-in-name-here or an old album from my collection.
Music is a language and full of stories. Last weekend I was blessed to share some of these stories with someone who was involved in making the music of those particular stories. As I probably pointed out one too many times already, the early 90s were a very active musical period for me, playing as well as listening. The rock music scene was alive with bands that were blending all kinds of different styles. Those were challenging and interesting times. While the industry was busy finding labels like crossover, funk-metal or rap-rock to categorize (and market) these bands and there music the bands were busy finding their own way to earn money and spread their music.
One of these bands was Victim's Family. It was a three-piece band with a sound so unique there was no label for them. The music was groovy and punky, it was slow and fast and full of dynamics. I saw them live in 91 and 94 and was mesmerized by the quality of their playing. There was a high level of energy in the air. Three individuals that merged their instrumental skills into a finished product. Bass player Larry Boothroyd played more than just bass, he played melody lines, slapped frantic rhythms and always grooved. Drummer Tim Solyan had the smallest kit I had ever seen, a kick, snare, tom, floor tom, hi-hat and one crash. But the limited amount of equipment wouldn't keep him from expanding the sound capabilities he had. The hi-hat bell would substitute for a ride cymbal and every groove sounded fresh. He would tread lightly but never shy away from hitting hard using the full range of dynamics available. Guitar player and singer Ralph Spight brought licks to the guitar that could be called unconventional at best. Power chords were often missing completely. It is a mystery to me to this day how he could sing or speak endless sentences over rhythmic passages.
In the beginning, they were called hardcore. But since there were so many elements present in their music that were not hardcore and other typical elements missing the phrase jazzcore was invented for them. Yet there really wasn't any jazz in the music. When I met Tim this weekend we talked about the style for a little bit. I learned that after the category was coined the band would actually work short jazzy pieces into their music just for fun. It was interesting to hear him talk about the band. They considered themselves punk rock not so much as a musical style but as an attitude of doing everything themselves. They had a small label for distribution purposes and that was it. They played the music they wanted to play. They took care of the recordings and the touring. Driving around in a van, sleeping on the floor if they had to.
All three members of Victim's Family are still playing music today. Everyone has their own projects and none of these sound anything like Victim's Family. It is refreshing to see people hone their skills and continue to develop.
Check them out at their website or myspace page and listen to the examples.
Music is a language and full of stories. Last weekend I was blessed to share some of these stories with someone who was involved in making the music of those particular stories. As I probably pointed out one too many times already, the early 90s were a very active musical period for me, playing as well as listening. The rock music scene was alive with bands that were blending all kinds of different styles. Those were challenging and interesting times. While the industry was busy finding labels like crossover, funk-metal or rap-rock to categorize (and market) these bands and there music the bands were busy finding their own way to earn money and spread their music.
One of these bands was Victim's Family. It was a three-piece band with a sound so unique there was no label for them. The music was groovy and punky, it was slow and fast and full of dynamics. I saw them live in 91 and 94 and was mesmerized by the quality of their playing. There was a high level of energy in the air. Three individuals that merged their instrumental skills into a finished product. Bass player Larry Boothroyd played more than just bass, he played melody lines, slapped frantic rhythms and always grooved. Drummer Tim Solyan had the smallest kit I had ever seen, a kick, snare, tom, floor tom, hi-hat and one crash. But the limited amount of equipment wouldn't keep him from expanding the sound capabilities he had. The hi-hat bell would substitute for a ride cymbal and every groove sounded fresh. He would tread lightly but never shy away from hitting hard using the full range of dynamics available. Guitar player and singer Ralph Spight brought licks to the guitar that could be called unconventional at best. Power chords were often missing completely. It is a mystery to me to this day how he could sing or speak endless sentences over rhythmic passages.
In the beginning, they were called hardcore. But since there were so many elements present in their music that were not hardcore and other typical elements missing the phrase jazzcore was invented for them. Yet there really wasn't any jazz in the music. When I met Tim this weekend we talked about the style for a little bit. I learned that after the category was coined the band would actually work short jazzy pieces into their music just for fun. It was interesting to hear him talk about the band. They considered themselves punk rock not so much as a musical style but as an attitude of doing everything themselves. They had a small label for distribution purposes and that was it. They played the music they wanted to play. They took care of the recordings and the touring. Driving around in a van, sleeping on the floor if they had to.
All three members of Victim's Family are still playing music today. Everyone has their own projects and none of these sound anything like Victim's Family. It is refreshing to see people hone their skills and continue to develop.
Check them out at their website or myspace page and listen to the examples.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Video killed the radio star
When MTV started broadcasting music videos in the 1980's, a lot of people cried foul because it was going to kill the radio star. Someone even wrote a song about it. But did it really? Was it not just another revenue channel for the artists that were already played on the radio anyway? Or did the radio stations fear loss of income because of the new competitor? It could have been the perfect opportunity for them to redefine themselves and distinguish themselves from their visual counterpart. It could have added to the diversity in our media landscape and increased the exposure of lesser known bands and artists.
Video didn't kill the radio star. Marketing kills music and it keeps chipping away at it until today. Advertisers bring in the money. In order to get advertisers you need many listeners on the radio. To accomplish this, most radio stations play the same music by the same artists that are popular. Record companies supported this model because the return is greater if you spend a lot of money on your big dog instead of splitting the same budget on ten lesser known acts.
Why did no one invent LiveShowTV? A channel that would broadcast concerts 24 hours a day. Any style, any genre, just music played by people for people. I know VH1 has started a few shows on their classic rock channel but it is very limited. The problem is that a lot of acts in the charts can't perform live. They can't play or sing what we listen to. Britney Spears wouldn't be on LiveShowTV. Once again, the whole idea of LiveShowTV would fail due to the lack of viewers and thus the lack of advertising.
It's funny that we prefer to watch a cheap, amateurish clip placed under existing music rather than someone perform the music live. A few clips were created and filmed professionally and it shows, but the majority of them were not.
Even though there is a huge amount of material out on YouTube in varying degrees of (sound and video) quality it has a lot more to offer in terms of music videos than any cable network ever will. Seeing shows from bands or artists that no longer exist or perform can be a great experience and otherwise unthinkable. Because YouTube runs on user generated content it doesn't discriminate between styles and genres. Unlike radio or TV where you have to play a certain genre to fit in a certain show so you can attract viewers, listeners and advertisers you're free to view whatever is available on YouTube.
In the next few posts I will present a few more acts that never made it big although they are probably a lot more musically talented than the majority of the chart toppers.
Video didn't kill the radio star. Marketing kills music and it keeps chipping away at it until today. Advertisers bring in the money. In order to get advertisers you need many listeners on the radio. To accomplish this, most radio stations play the same music by the same artists that are popular. Record companies supported this model because the return is greater if you spend a lot of money on your big dog instead of splitting the same budget on ten lesser known acts.
Why did no one invent LiveShowTV? A channel that would broadcast concerts 24 hours a day. Any style, any genre, just music played by people for people. I know VH1 has started a few shows on their classic rock channel but it is very limited. The problem is that a lot of acts in the charts can't perform live. They can't play or sing what we listen to. Britney Spears wouldn't be on LiveShowTV. Once again, the whole idea of LiveShowTV would fail due to the lack of viewers and thus the lack of advertising.
It's funny that we prefer to watch a cheap, amateurish clip placed under existing music rather than someone perform the music live. A few clips were created and filmed professionally and it shows, but the majority of them were not.
Even though there is a huge amount of material out on YouTube in varying degrees of (sound and video) quality it has a lot more to offer in terms of music videos than any cable network ever will. Seeing shows from bands or artists that no longer exist or perform can be a great experience and otherwise unthinkable. Because YouTube runs on user generated content it doesn't discriminate between styles and genres. Unlike radio or TV where you have to play a certain genre to fit in a certain show so you can attract viewers, listeners and advertisers you're free to view whatever is available on YouTube.
In the next few posts I will present a few more acts that never made it big although they are probably a lot more musically talented than the majority of the chart toppers.
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