Last month, I reviewed the two BBGuns singles, "Dreamcast and "Willow". I was excited about the album that was promised to follow. Well, today, Valentines Day, is the official release. Thirst goes out to all the lonely hearts out there. That includes me too.


I like the album cover for Thirst. I am not super big on the way "BBGuns" is displayed on it; it's a really basic Ariel-type font. It also works with the rest of the composition though, and that's what's most important. The flames in the text remind me of the Jesus Lizard's Goat. The wave is so smooth and nice looking. Of course, it contrasts with the fire. It's a very clean design, very modern, and very true to what's being told here.


The first track, "Mauve",  comes in hard. Barz Blackman has some hot raps contrasted with Lazy JP's drawn-out singing style. I like the short dream-pop sounds and the snare. JP's verse at the end seals the deal. "Circles [It's Time]" has a dance thing going on, and it comes in with a more techno sound. I like how this song changes as it moves ahead. It's such a different song by the end, vocals sorting through a cyber-drone-wall. There's a beautiful melody too. The only thing I'm not really fond of is the line, "and everything is so purple". Next is "Willow", which I've reviewed before. I'm not gonna review it again. "Lost Soul" has a swinging jazz cool. There's some rapid-fire rapping before Barz launches into something that could be on a Digable Planets record with some cool rhymes. "Ensure my first born's rich," and the subsequent rhymes are the real thing.

"Drive" is somewhat too bright. It features Mrs. Paintbrush (aka Jackson from Grand Buffet). I don't dislike it, though it is a bit long. "PK Starstorm", named for a PSI ability in the SNES game Earthbound, opens with a verse from JP about love letters and romantic failures. The subsequent verse, presented by Barz, presents the anxiety of our modern age in terms of love. The next song,  "William", makes me sad with the line "she studied psych and nursing, but now she's moving coffee," and then the subsequent verses about how the connection didn't work. The whole song is full of Romeo & Juliet references, which are cheesy but work. It's so obvious that it works perfectly here. The latter part of the song contains some of the coolest drone sounds I have heard.

The opening of "Blade Runner" sets the scene, rainy and mysterious. Unfortunately, this one is also kind of bright, and I am not fond of the repeating voice sample in the chorus. The song is too repetitive. Some stuff shines thru the gloom though - the sample I initially disliked works better towards the end, and the last verse by Walkman is a fresh sound. I'm not fond of the chorus of "Ghost in the Shell," as it seems too obvious the way it repeats the title. The song is good though. The floating keyboards and rattling bells are very atmospheric.

"Disguises" is about changing who you are to meet different expectations. It is creepy to think about, though it happens all the time every day. To quote Captain America/Wyatt in Easy Rider, "I never wanted to be anybody else." Track 11, "YELNATS", has possibly a Pepsi commercial sample within it? I don't know what it is, but I love the little vocal blips scattered about. Everything about this song is catchy.

The penultimate track is "Dreamcast", an awesome song that I have already reviewed. The final track is "555". I love the muffled keyboards on this one. "I don't wanna die, but I don't wanna live another lie." For how epic the album is, this last song ends very abruptly. It kind of works with the theme of the last song and the album, the doom and gloom of modern romance, to put it in a melodramatic way. It's still weird though.

Thirst is the tale of internet dating in the time of Tindr and OkCupid and hookups and all of that stuff. I think a lot of people are more alone now than ever; the internet is a great communication tool, but it also helps keep us indoors and looking away. There is also economic and political despair for young people today, failed promises and a questionable future. In a sense, BBGuns have kind of continued the gangsta rap of the early 1990s with these stories of heartbreak on a societal failure.

In addition to the epic scope, Thirst is full of catchy hooks, exciting and unusual backing tracks, and powerful rapping. Barz goes hard with such fury, and JP's parts will get stuck in yr head. They are definitely stuck in mine right now. Though I feel that the best tracks were definitely the singles, Thirst still has a lot to offer and thus receives a Good.
,

Late last month, I got a message on the Skull Valley Facebook page from a member of the London-based band Everafter asking for a review of their new single, "Over You Tonight". I was not particularly enthralled by the name of the band or the song, but, after watching the video, I found the names very fitting and the song good. Here is a short review on this rainy Saturday for the third Outside In(fluence), a series of international musick reviews.


The video for "Over You Tonight" is really funny. It's so tongue in cheek, I couldn't stop cracking up. For the most part, the video contains footage of various people comically lip-syncing and dancing along with the song in front of various seemingly found footage of cartoons, text, and clipart. There's also some footage of the moon and a band playing. It's all very lo-fi, in a sense, but it's not badly made at all. The video really had me in stitches as I watched a Jack Black-looking man play air guitar and other people play tennis rackets to the guitar solo of the song.

The actual musick is awesome. It's cheesy, with a classic 80's power-pop sound combining elements of bands like the dB's with Bon Jovi and the like. The members of the band obviously realize the cheese factor here, hence the video, but the sound works. The production is very clean with snappy drums and cheery vocals.  The chorus is probably going to be stuck in my head the rest of the day. And the guitar solo is really good too, even accompanied by the mocking video people. Though the song is a bit repetitive, the bridge caught me off guard, providing another element of interest. The entire package of video and musick really works well together.

I have to give Everafter's "Over You Tonight" a Good. It's clever but not pretentious. It has a classic sound that's changed just enough to make it their own, with a self-deprecatingly humorous video. This fairy-tale, power-pop single is a sure hit, and I wish the band well when their new album finally releases in May.

Just the other day, February 7th, I went to see a show at Spirit despite the cold weather that keeps popping up. It had snowed recently, and I was not in a good mood. In fact, these last two days I have been very depressed. It has not been a good week. This was a good show though.

I got to the venue and talked with my friends from A Deer A Horse. Sorry I'm Dead played with them the last two times they were here. I wasn't playing with them this time, which isn't important to me, but I do really miss that band.


The first band to play was Hearken. I had never seen them before, but it's not dissimilar to Roulette Waves, who I have seen before. Hearken is a stripped down version of that other band, just guitar and drums. The songs were awesome, with rippin' chords and a solid backbeat. The vocals were very raw and Cobain-esque. I enjoyed Hearken more than listening to Nirvana, though.



Next up was A Deer A Horse. They were excellent as always, very heavy and sludgey but not goofy metal stuff. I was really enthralled by the whole thing. They seemed to really fit in that space in that time. Though I couldn't tell you much about the lyrics, I felt very connected to the emphatic vocals.



The last band was Derider. I've only seen them once before, the time that I took a picture that was later stolen by Andy Mulkerin and used on Anthony Bourdain's website for Parts Unknown. That was bullshit. Both of the times seeing Derider have been cool though. This time they opened with two songs that really reminded me of Sonic Youth. Last time seemed a bit more chaotic overall. This set ended with a more structured song that might be the one they used in a video I saw some time ago. It was all good.

After Derider, I stuck around for a while, talking with many friends. Originally, Maenads were also going to play, but they couldn't do to actual physical injuries. Despite that, the other members still came out to the show. I'd like to see these pop-punk bands that always cancel at the very last minute offer that kind of support.

The show made me feel much better. Someone said something very nice about Sorry I'm Dead. The show was already great, but that really made a difference to me. I mean, I thought we were the best. It was nice to hear that from someone else too. Hopefully, I can put something together again soon instead of being so sad and lonely all the time.

Pittsburgh's Brightside has been around for a while. I've seen them a few times, though not recently, and I always thought they were pretty good. Originally they had a more pop-punk sound, but their new single (or maybe it's a two song EP), Two Songs, shows how they have grown from those roots.


The cover looks like something you might see in a science classroom in a movie. I like the shapes on the right side, the skull, and the various colors. It's somewhat jarring seeing the more 3D sphere compared with the comic book skull. It seems as if the attempt is to show various basics of art and to say that it revolves around death. I'm reaching a bit, but it isn't a bad cover anyway.

The first of the Two Songs is "Is This Real Life?", a very poppy number with a very dreamy reverb. I can hear the Milky Way above my head, y'know? The vocals sound like Free Pizza, and the musick is not dissimilar to later-era Dinosaur Jr. or a more rock R.E.M. from their early years. I like the line, "let me show you dreamland." After a pause in the song, the beat takes a dance move to an early 2000s sound but reverts back shortly. Then the song ends somewhat abruptly. It's a very catchy song, though, so it's sticking in my head.

The second of the Two Songs is "Speedball". It's one of these songs comparing love and drug addiction. I'm not a huge fan of this, especially this self-sacrifice emo version. I also don't find a lot of this as interesting as the first song, but the guitar has many very cool solos that make up for the rest of the track. It's still a very catchy track, and I had that chorus stuck in my head well after listening to it.

Brightside has produced quite a pop album with a surface-level post-punk sound combined with their pop-punk roots. It sounds like something that could be on the radio right now, surprising for a more rock-based sound. I love the starfield lyrics and the matching reverb that reaches all the way out to space to touch the King of All Cosmos or Saint Seiya. I wonder how Brightside will continue to evolve? Speaking of their sound right now, Two Songs receives a Good.

I have been following the Pittsburgh-based Soda Club since they started. I thought the name and look were so cool and twee. Somehow, I have never seen them live, though I have planned to go to quite a few shows that somehow my presence never materialized at. They just released an EP, Enjoy, on February 2nd. "Oh that could be cool," I thought. And here is my review.


The album cover of Enjoy is a little pencil drawing of a garden with vegetables and bees as mentioned in one of the EP's tracks. It's a little cutesy, and something seems off with the perspective on the top of the wall. I really like the linework and watercolor though. I feel like this would look pretty good in reality, particularly on a 7" record.



 Enjoy starts out with "Halloween Party", a slow, doo-wop song that recalls older Pittsburgh janglers Actual Size. It's more melodic and soft than that though. I love the saxophone on here, and the drums sound very nice. The band goes quiet and comes back with a Clarence Clemons solo. The lyrics make me sad a bit. "Been Down" starts slow with downer lyrics, but the speed picks up with the words. This song was really cute. It made me feel better about myself actually. I love this line - "If you wanna be a beekeeper, I will help you keep those bees."

"Stone Soup" has a romantic sound, a tale of life as a paper poem. It has a dark edge to it in a way, "Our laughter, then silence, followed by tears and violence." To me, it sounds like it's about accepting that the world changes and people come and go; things change from bad to good. The end has a back and forth segment between the two vocalists. The final track is titled "Haunter". It is a very stark, slow tune of slight peril. It gets faster at the end with lyrics about just living for the moment and, unfortunately, not living for yrself.

It was nice to finally hear Soda Club. The musick was overall what I expected, lyrics that are both sad and joyous with various twists. The songs seem more poetic than the standard rock fare and have a very nice lyrical composition. I like the simple instrumentation - even a ukelele sounds pretty good here! At just four songs, Enjoy is a compact listen; I get the feeling it would get drawn out if it continued like this for much longer. As it is, Enjoy receives a Good.

I went downtown for the gallery crawl on January 26th. I never know when these downtown gallery crawls happen usually, so it was a surprise to find out about this one way in advance. Soon after I heard about the gallery crawl, I also was informed about a band playing down there, so I figured I would check that out.


The band is called Today is the Best Day Ever, a name that I think is way too long and kind of weird, however it is kind of cute. I will say, "Guys, you should probably capitalize the word "is" in yr band name, as it is a verb and not a preposition or article," but, well, it's not my band. Anyway, Today is the Best Day Ever is an emo/indie rock band similar to Shin Guard, who I reviewed last time. Don't worry, this still isn't really a genre I like. However, despite being curmudgeonly against these types of things, the band was okay. They kind of do that sing-song singing that I hate. The instruments are fine. Most interesting to me, in a way, was that most of the lyrics seem to be about drug overdoses and suicide attempts. I was able to read some of them, as they were hung up on the walls of Future Tenant. The band even made a clear statement about the importance of mental health and getting help, which I found very commendable.

I met up with some friends soon after. We tried to go to CAPA, a performing arts school that was participating in the gallery crawl, but a security guard said that it was closed. We were there later in the evening. Instead, we went to the Wood Street Galleries.

After climbing many steps and being a little confused, we saw part of an eerie movie playing upstairs. As I entered the room, I felt very vulnerable, all these people in the darkness staring my way. They were actually watching the film; it was nearly impossible to see people entering the room. The film showed outlines of various subjects, such as animals and people, morphing into other things. One of the scenes particularly showed a crowd, which makes me think that the setup was intentional. Perhaps the goal was to illustrate a feeling of depersonalization and isolation within a group. I hope to go back soon and see the whole film.

Finally, we went to Space, another gallery basically across the street. I really like this gallery; I like the setup, and I think they bring in interesting art. It also reminds me of seeing Carsickness with all of the early Pittsburgh punk stuff. That was really a great show.

Emilie Stark-Menneg

Paul Mullins

Surya Gied

Jenson Leonard

Jason LaCroix

Devan Shimoyama

Thad Kellstadt

This show was a bit different. It was mostly paintings and created by seven different artists. They each had their own style that was very distinguishable from the others. I really enjoyed Surya Gied's  paintings that suggested the shapes of crowds. Emilie Stark-Menneg has a whimsical, soft style that is somewhat off-putting at first but something I like a lot actually. Thad Kellstadt's shelves also had an element of whimsy to them with more bright colors and odd shapes like a cartoon from the 1960s. And I loved the patterns of Jason LaCroix with their repetition and colors. I have mixed feelings about Jenson Leonard's display of collages showing various internet memes juxtaposed together with other pop culture pieces. I think it's kind of cool because it is itself kind of what a meme is except used in a fine art way. It's very relevant to current trends. I hate memes though. I'm just neutral towards Paul Mullins' body parts collages. I feel like they lack focus. Devon Shimoyama seemed to have the main area of interest with their own small room. These pieces, with their figure of a purple man with a quiff, made me think of Prince.

According to Lissa Brennan of the City Paper, who did a much more in-depth review of this show, the curator had written something about how the paintings "present a working duration that attempts to respond to the surface of things.” I don't think this statement is totally bogus, but it is very vague. I didn't even see this statement, as there was so much to look at and so many people in the gallery that I felt a bit overwhelmed. I think the most unifying aspect of this show was the overall use of bright colors and tendency towards somewhat scrambled images, either displayed through a, so to speak, soft filter or through a more literal jumble of objects or pictures.

I stayed downtown with my friends for a bit, but it started to get really cold. Instead of sticking around, hanging out, I decided to go home and think about the show and finish some work. I hope to make it out to one of these again.

Last week, someone sent an EP for review to the Skull Valley page. The sender described their band, Shin Guard, as a Pittsburgh-based post-hardcore band. "Well I owe it to this person to review it," I thought to myself, "but unfortunately I don't think I am going to like it." It didn't turn out so bad.


The cover of Shin Guard's Five Songs is okay. It's not great, but it's not bad either. I like the desaturated look, like porcelain or a colorized pfoto from a century ago. The pale color denotes a fragility to the image. Originally, I thought that the closeup of a nosebleed was way too similar to the infamous cover to Andrew W.K.'s I Get Wet. After looking at that cover again, there are actually very little similarities other than the nosebleed. Since that is the main focus, it's still kind of weird, but I think that a nosebleed makes sense considering the songs. When I think of someone having a nosebleed, I think of anxiousness, fights, embarrassment, or drug use; all of these things are relevant to the teenage problems expressed on this album. In that light, the cover is actually a good choice.


The first track of the Five Songs is "Bemis Point", seemingly a misspelling of the village Bemus Point, NY on the shores of Lake Chautauqua. The lyrics describe a failed relationship involving self-harm and maybe suicide. I don't think much of the lyrics here, but the musick is good! It has a more 90s sound than I expected, the guitar jangling like a less jammy Dinosaur Jr or a more rocking Julianna Hatfield Three. The vocals almost hit that unbearable pop-punk sing-song region but stray far enough away that it's just more of a standard pop style. I don't like "Corsages", at least the beginning. The screaming vocals sound somewhat comical, cheesy, and overdramatic. It has the same kind of lyrics as the previous song. Again though, the musick is really nice. I really like the fuzzy guitar and the snappy drums. The clean backing vocals add a nice touch as well.

On the third track, "You Turned Everything to Paper", I realized two things. First, there are only four songs here. Second, all the songs really are about breakups; it plainly says that. Anyway, "You Turned Everything to Paper", which I really wish was called "Everything Turns to Paper", reminds me of an anime I watched called Sola. Like this, it was also a little overdramatic, though the main things I remember are a character that seemed to be a vampire getting some juice from a vending machine and a really weird twist in the plot, similar to the title of this song, that made me uninterested in finishing it at the time. This track is way different than the others, a spoken word piece with ambient sounds behind. It flows really nicely, and there are some awesome sounds here too. The final track "Flubline" has more awful screaming vocals. I really like the drum sound, but the guitar sounds more generic. It's still not bad. I really can't stand the screaming vocals, though. Even beyond my standard dislike of screamy-ness, the delivery is weird. The weird glitchy feedback at the end is so awesome.

Where's the fifth song? Maybe it's a statement on loneliness, incompleteness. Maybe it's some kind of post-modern, internet-age reference to Fugazi's habit of naming albums after the number of songs. I found it interesting that it wasn't there.

Five Songs was better than I expected. As I said above, I generally don't like post-hardcore (along with emo, pop-punk, trap rap, death (and other kinds of) metal, D-beat/crust, hardcore, or modern pop country). There are always exceptions, though. While I still didn't love the vocals or the lyrics, and really didn't like the screaming vocals, I do think that Shin Guard did a good job. Though I don't really listen to this kind of musick, the tracks on Five Songs were different enough to be interesting. I really liked that there was a poem on here, and I thought the production sounded great. If you are a fan of these genres, I think you would really like this EP. Five Songs gets a Good.
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Contact Form

Name

Email *

Message *

Skull Valley © 2020. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by Blogger

MARI themes

Powered by Blogger.