The Woods – EP Logue – Plug Research

The Woods - The EP Logue

Three years ago, this artist dude from Florida named Ian Dudley gathered up a gaggle of his artsy friends and recorded a self-titled LP called “The Woods”…’cause the collective was called ‘The Woods”.

The idea behind the recording was this fictional kid who lived in Florida had an air conditioner that was on the fritz. The lack of cool air makes him head out onto the big, blue ocean and have adventures and whatnot.

After that the group kinda moved around a bit. But Dudley felt that the tale was not complete. So he had Woods members record their parts which he then compiled and edited and all that sound-guy stuff. And the end result is this musical continuation. It’s minimalist without being sparse, y’know? The elements that exist are very swirling and interwoven giving a feel like some childrens’ books where adventure and environment are essential parts of the story (Think books by Maurice Sendak like In The Night Kitchen for example).

The disc plays on the ear with a hint of “odd”; a bit wavering in a mildly surreal fashion. The tone is solid throughout and if this were any longer and had more tunes on it, it would suffer from a sameness. But in this short format, it really works nicely-nicely.

The whole five-song e.p. can be downloaded for free at the website as well and a video for the tune Final Breaths of a Main Character from the first L.P. Can be scoped-out there too.

Cormorant – Metazoa – CD – Saturnine Media

The new CD. Ooooooh...purty.

These San Francisco cats gather up a metric shit-ton of metal influences and styles and squeeeeeze ‘em all together in one, big ole, metalli-whatever. And honestly, it doesn’t suck or get all bogged down in itself.

First off they have a cornerstone sound that is all black metal (think a little along the Enslaved lines). They also have some 2009-ish death metal sprinklings in there (a la Amon Amarth), moments of acoustical, Euro-folk metal (a bit Agalloch-y), some good ol’ power metal swaggering and a decent-sized dollop of prog metal time changes (impressive and tight musicianship without the “I went to Berkeley and can play Flight Of The Bumblebee backwards with my penis” pretension). Hell. It wouldn’t shock me if they probably have a whole mess more styles and sub-genres incorporated into their sound that I just have no idea about because of my limited metal knowledge or my lack of hair).

And hey. If you gots a slew of different blends of styles all working together, you really can’t have just one vocal sound, correct? Cormorant understands this as well. Throat dude uses his larynx to go from death-y gurgling goonings to actual singing to screamin’ demon black metal wails to “I’m so creepy and scary” whisperings (that don’t come off as totally corny, might I add) to moments where he actually kinda sounds like Tom Waites (the tune Hole The Sea).

Now…all those ingredients together would normally put a disc like this so over the top that it would completely suck nards. But these guys pull it off and do it fairly impressively. Not one of the styles dominates over the others allowing for the tunes to work well and offer up some diversity at the same time (Shit. The song Hanging Gardens has strings in it[!], a whole truck full of wah-wah and is clockin’ in at about 11 minutes long. And it is still pretty metal.).

When the same-old-same-old gets,…well, “same” and um, “old”, bands love to meld some favorite/popular musical styles and make something “new”. And that many times leads to an ugly, unlistenable, cluster-fuck of “awful”. These guys don’t fall into that realm.

Death To New England – 2 song e.p. CD

Three cats, 66.6% of whom used to be in a CT band called The Battlecats. Go to their MySpace page and hear the entire e.p. for free. Dude…free music does not suck nards. And actually, (oh the clever segue) neither does this. Yeah, it’s only two tunes. And yeah, you can hear little bits and pieces of other band riffs in it that sound a bit similar (brief Everclear and Stooges moments hitting my ears). But those musical glimpses (and slight White Stripes-y vibe) work pretty danged well together. The music is catchy, it’s got hooks, it’s snotty-sounding and has a healthy dollop of sweaty, R&B-ish basement rock which is never a bad thing. Lyrics? “I feel your worm hair creeping through my knuckles/It’s all so right now” from the tune “The Hock”.
Added feature; when you drop this disc into your ‘puter the tunes show up as a couple of Christmas songs by a band called The Blue Minkies. I dunno, I found that funny.

The newest Postmarks collection, Memoirs at the End of the World, trades in the low-key atmospherics of their 1st release for the big sound of the cinema. While the self titled debut took it’s cues from Bossa Nova, Bacharach, and the baroque pop of the late 60’s, Memoirs has upped the ante with arrangements, courtesy of band members Jonathan Wilkins and Christopher Moll, that recall the film scores of Lalo Schifrin, Henry Mancini, and John Barry. This is good news. It sets The Postmarks apart from the pack of Ivy /Softies/ Camera Obscura clones while daring Postmarks fans to ascend to a new level.

Key to the album are the beguiling vocals of Tim Yehezkely. In an age where American Idol Shriekathons pass for singing, it’s a pleasure to hear the intimate and sophisticated vocal work of lead singer/songwriter Yehezkely. Whether it’s the Bondish “Thorn In Your Side” or the driving “For Better Or Worse,” the spooky “Run Away Love,” which could have been an outtake from Rosemary’s Baby,  or the sassy pop of “Go Jetsetter,” The Postmarks grand cinematic gesture connects on so many levels. Bombastic, sweet, romantic, or elaborate, The Postmarks, like the soundtracks they emulate, have all of the moods covered. A great 2nd effort. I can’t wait to see where they go from here.

The Hi-Nobles – Shake – CD – Zaentz Records - www.myspace.com/thehinobles

The Hi-Nobles

Suits, Soul and Shades.

If you are really, overly concerned with who is in a band and you feel that musicians should never stray from the style of music they started playing back when they were 18 or whatever, first?…you need to stop that mess ’cause that’s dumb (change is constant. Get over it and yourself). And second you can stop reading right now.

The singer who used to “grrrrr” it up for San Francisco funk metal band Mordred back in the late 80′s-early 90′s (Scott Holderby) and the guitarist who started out and is still playing in L.A. punk legends The Avengers (Greg Ingraham) grabbed some other band dudes and slapped together this crew. And what, pray-tell, do these guys sound like, you may wonder ? This is a disc of solid, R&B, garage soul living in CA with a groove address in Detroit. Real fun stuff. All sixties fuzzy sound complete with that distinct keyboard backing and heavy usage of the word “baby” and the lovin’ is always sweet. Oh…and they mean it. No frontin’ the soul on this disc. “Soul Sister”, “Red Eye”, “Shake”…hell, the whole disc (even the slower tunes) will make you wanna find a dark, smoky, steamy club and shake what your Momma gave you with some hot stranger while hitting the well bourbon. Old school party soul.