Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Now that I'm back from my unannounced, week long hiatus, I'm ready to post the Phoenix review! So, apologies all around, but my week was filled with plans and utter chaos. With that said, on with the review!

For those of you who have never heard of the band Phoenix, let me start by saying this: in general, Phoenix is an indie band that goes for that very stereotypical, half-way between Death Cab For Cutie and The Strokes sound, that those of us who love indie music hear so damn much. However, the thing that separates Phoenix from the rest of these bands is that Phoenix does it right.

Being a group that began as backing instrumentals for the French indie band, Air, and being partly responsible for the formation of Daft Punk, you shouldn’t be surprised to see aspects of both of these groups in all of Phoenix’s music. Using these bands as a reference, it could be said that Phoenix is comprised of the electronic intensity of Air backed by the seamlessly simple and mesmerizing musical integrations of Daft Punk. The simplicity is also reflected in their album composition. Phoenix always makes it their goal to deliver an album that, as a whole, is aesthetically pleasing. The album doesn’t need to make the concept of delivering a deep message its primary goal, but it does need to be comprised in a way that will pull the listener further into what is being presented. Now, I’m not trying to say that Phoenix doesn’t have any profound, underlying messages in their music, because that would be ludicrous; it’s just that Phoenix takes more of a musical path to delivering their messages as opposed to the more common poetic path.

The reason I emphasize this aspect of the group is because the album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix does an amazing job defining this concept. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is arguably as musically artistic as many legendary indie albums such as, Arcade Fire’s Funeral, or The Pixies’ Doolittle and does more than catch the eye of the artistic soul; this album effectively pulls in even the non-analytical listener. The first two tracks, “Lisztomania” and “1901” are so luring with their faint electronic backgrounds and pseudo-dance beat drive, it does nothing but have the listener wanting more. As the album progresses, the instrumental involvement is in and out like a musical roller coaster ride. This gives the album well spaced variety and a transforming, diverse sound. Songs like “Love Like a Sunset (Part I and II)” and “Big Sun” do a great job at making these stylistic transitions happen smoothly.

Once the musical work-up pulls your heart into the album, that’s when your mind starts to listen closer. The entire album has a classical theme (interpretable by the title) and contains a deep, historic-style inner conflict that will keep you analyzing the poetic vocals. I won’t go into the actual poetic conflicts of the album, as to leave the interpretation up to you, but let me tell you, no matter how you look at it, it’s deep. And hell, if analyzing lyrics isn’t your thing, we already talked about how the album is as pleasing as ever for those types of listeners.

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is an album that excels in all musical categories. This great achievement, however, is also its greatest criticism. It seems that to make a truly iconic album, one needs to push all efforts into one aspect, whether it be the instrumentals, the poetics, or the all around evolution of the music...but I say fuck it! Phoenix has made an excellent album that is a masterpiece to the masses. So give it a listen, I guarantee you will love it one way or another!

Album review will be posted tomorrow

I just changed my mind on which album I will be reviewing this week, and rather than rush it out tonight, sloppy and poorly done, I will be taking a little more time and posting it tomorrow night. I will however, tell you what album I will be reviewing. By request this week, I will be reviewing the album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix by the band Phoenix. Look out for it tomorrow!

Shuffle Sunday [The Mummies - Justine]

I’m really glad that this song popped up this week because to put it quite simply, I believe that anyone who has a passion for music needs to know about The Mummies. The Mummies debuted in 1988 performing a live show at the Chi Chi Club in San Fransisco. These four guys dressed in tattered mummy costumes performed their loud music, while simultaneously making a mess of the stage and screaming obscenities at the crowd in between songs. Little did the attendants of that show know, this group would later be looked at as one of the most influential and iconic garage punk bands in the history of music.

If there is one thing that I have learned in my studies of music over the years, it’s that music is nothing without a serious motive. The Mummies motive was a little thing they liked to call ‘Budget Rock.’ This concept simply meant that they would constantly reject professionalism and fame to give themselves more of a homemade, half-ass sound. When they recorded, they would usually do it on hand-me-down at best equipment, which was usually broken, or not working properly. The Mummies recorded all of their material onto vinyl and didn’t even use CDs as a means of distributing their albums until the year 2000. Hell, even when they toured, they drove themselves and all their equipment around in a beaten up 1965 Pontiac Ambulance!

This idea of ‘Budget Rock’ really showed people that if you want to make music, you can, and The Mummies proved it. This simple concept is one of the biggest reasons underground punk has come so far over the past twenty years. I guarantee if you ask any punk group in the world if they know who The Mummies are, every one of them will say yes (or at least they should). From their garbled punk music to their crazy stage antics, The Mummies have definitely put themselves on the map of punk history.

As far as the song “Justine” goes, it’s pretty much a garage punk masterpiece. It’s a simple broken up love song about a girl who just didn’t do it for the guy. The song isn’t just simple in its concept, but is also a simple musical composition with half-screamed lyrics paired with loud messy drumming, all guided by sloppy basic guitar riffs and a pressing blues bass line. The whole song contains one verse and one refrain set to repeat for a whole two minutes, but I wouldn’t necessarily call it repetitive. The mistake-ridden imperfections of the song really keep the song incredibly interesting and intriguing, and aside from that, it’s just fucking fun to rock out to! Get your punk shoes on and throw this song on at full blast. You’ll find yourself dancing ‘til you can’t dance anymore.

Now I can’t talk about The Mummies without mentioning going into their live performances, but rather than talk about it, I think I’ll just show you a video, because words can do it no justice...enjoy...

Now *that* is intense. I really wish I could have seen these guys play. The worst part about it is that the group has been randomly seen performing unannounced shows *twice* this year already. But I won’t complain to you guys anymore about it. I’ll just show you the song and get on with my life...if you hear any news about The Mummies and a live performance, please don’t hesitate to tell me.

And without further ado...here is “Justine” by The Mummies!

Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy

I had wanted to talk about this album for a long time, but I decided that it would be in my best interest to let the album sit for a while; let people get all the unconstructive criticism off their chests and give them a little time to listen to the album in a different light. A light, that doesn’t hover over the fact that the album took 14 years to finish, or that Axl Rose couldn’t keep a proper band line-up throughout the creation of the album. Chinese Democracy (and I know I just may be attacked for saying this) is a virtually flawless musical composition, critiqued for all the wrong reasons.

Rather than review this one in my traditional conversational or song-by-song recap, I’m going to simply give the reasons why I believe Chinese Democracy deserves a great amount of respect and then elaborate on my points.

Time and Effort:

First of all, I need to give it up for Axl Rose, sticking with this project over all these years. The guy is probably one of the most inspiring artists I’ve ever seen. I mean, there were times that even some of his biggest fans were kicking dirt in his eyes, but he kept going. He kept going back and changing things; adding members he felt fit the parts and pushing off release dates until the album was indeed exactly what he wanted. At times he really had to be a dick about some things, but he just wanted to see his vision become a reality. He didn’t care what other people thought and when the album finally was released, I think it was a real slap in the face for all the people who doubted him.

Creativity and Ingenuity:

Chinese Democracy leans on the long side with a finished length of a little over 70 minutes. The first time I listened through the album it didn’t feel like any time had passed at all. My mind was sucked into the album, the way its sound travelled from track to track. It keeps the same feeling underneath it all, but drastically changes the moods and styles with every song. This album is the perfect way to introduce someone to the many sounds of rock. There are so many sub-genres of rock music; it’s almost inconceivable that one album could present them all. However, Chinese Democracy does just that. “It’s a very complex record; I’m trying to do something different.” Well Axl, you can rest well knowing that you have achieved that goal with a vengeance.

Axl Rose:

Axl Rose has always been known for his long ranged, scratchy vocals, but the true reason why my ears perk up every time I hear Rose’s voice is because of the immense amount of passion behind it. The only other American vocalist that I can think of that is even comparable to the intensity of Rose is probably Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. The best track on the album that proves the power of Rose’s voice is the beautiful piano ballad “This I Love.” Even when it comes to more intense avant-garde/fusion tracks, the way he molds his voice around the instrumentals is frickin’ awesome. Check out “There Was A Time” and you’ll see exactly what I mean; breathtaking.

Instrumentals:

Obviously after having almost 30 members contributing parts to this album over the 14 years of construction, Rose had a hell of a lot to work with and incorporate. The finished product after all the cutting and pasting of the thousands of recorded parts for each song leaves me with nothing to say but...holy shit. There is so much going on in every track it’s almost hard to keep track of it all. I could see where this could come off as being a bad thing, but trust me, it’s not. It keeps you listening and delving deeper into each track. I’ve listened to the album a lot since it came out and I’m still finding new things. It just keeps me coming back to find more and I love it.

Really there is only one thing that I could complain about on this album and that is the name of the band that released it. It just simply isn’t Guns N’ Roses. Is this a bad thing? Well, no. It’s just so far from the line-up, style and musicality of the original band that the group deserves a different title. The only remaining member of the original band is Axl and either way I don’t think that the name Guns N’ Roses deserves to tie into the release of the album. The group is simply a new legacy in music history.

Well, there you have it, my take on the infamous Chinese Democracy. If you’ve listened to the album I’m really intrigued to hear what you have to say about it, so please, head over to the forum and tell me what you think! The link to the forum is in the side bar, just register yourself and reply to the Chinese Democracy topic.

Here's the link to the album on Napster:

http://free.napster.com/view/album/index.html?id=13004813