Check out my sister blog. It includes over 500 songs in a 1-10 song with MANY videos posted in the blog. In fact, he is 58 10/10 cuts and every video is included (with likely many songs never heard and A MASSIVE % of live renditions). There are nearly 250 videos in all!
[All blog entries with the "Boombox" label are indie artist reviews submitted to former websites. With this blog, I will only include artist submissions. This review was original published in 2004.]
I was tempted to pen this review before I even listened. It's not too complicated -- RuPaul is a one-trick neutered stallion. She cannot carry a tune. Her brand of dance-pop is a production cover for the hopelessly untalented. Her career is based on calculated marketing that I despise. However, listening to her CD and its unabashed straightforwardness made me realize that she was no Britney.
You may remember her from her anthemic crossover hit, "Supermodel (You Better Work)", the VH1 television show or Paris Hilton-like celebrity -- anything resembling gay pop or dance, Diana Ross (of the last 20 years) or RuPaul bounds to the forefront of your expectations. Considering her past and that more than a decade passed since her isolated mainstream success, she has big heels to fill to justify continued minutes of fame or its credibility.
Researching the submitted text, I noticed her supporting roster was very impressive -- it even includes Siedah Garrett ("Man On the Mirror" and "I Can't Stop Loving You" with MJ) and a monolith of production hands. Rather lengthy for dance pop, Red~Hot spans 14 tight tracks (most fix between three-four minutes) and two skits. My mind rolled as a noticed that one of the songs included a cover of the (allegedly) queer-revered Depeche Mode's 'People Are People'.
The renders all feature big dance beats and a virtual grab bag of production tricks ranging from the early 1990's thru present. Listeners that frequent the dance genre, would find at least a portion of Red~Hot gadgetry generic. Lyrical fans would gasp at the cliche-saturation content, but should, in turn, appreciate her surprising honesty and substance. Her aforementioned vocals have not improved, 'she is what she is' as a crooner -- she realized this and (for the most part) kept the tempo rolling. RuPaul's strengths are intangible and relate only modestly to technical aptitude.
The artist has super-human charisma. All known sides of her personality are spread thickly throughout Red~Hot. RuPaul's enthusiastic versions of candor delete any concept of commonality pressed with the CD's shortcomings.
Classic RuPaul, "Looking Good, Feeling Gorgeous" is frank and genuinely fun single that resembles the 'ear worm' quality of her earlier hit, but is edgier and meritorious dance (not just novelty). Other songs that have like potential include: "Coming Out of Hiding"; "Are You Man Enough?" and "Kinky/Freaky".
Bruhn sent this boilerplate email earlier in the month:
"Hello Die Music Die,
We’re an indie rock band from Portland OR by the name of “bruhn”. We just finished our first full-length album called “Pull From This End” and are now in the process of promoting our record. We’re hoping to get a review and write up. We would love for you to give us a listen. Any and all feedback is appreciated. We will attach our song “Hollywood” to the email.
You can download a free copy of our album at ...
Thank you for your consideration.
Take Care.
bruhn"
Many music critics are overwhelmed with such emails. In fact, it represents an alarming majority of submissions. They populate my "Spam" folder. To address this nuisance, I randomly plucked bruhn's for reviewing "Pull From This End". Instead, crankiness took over ...
Damn. Damn damn. Damn damn damn! My bias shows like a tramp stamp on a skank.
I cannot adequately review music when this feels like the internal dialogue of a band that submits music spam ...
"Here buddy, I'm throwing this out ... just hoping some idiot will like it and give us free press. If not, well, we don't give 1/2 a shit (maybe a 3/4 on a good day). If you dig it, cool. Still, whatever ... it's not like we're personally invested. We'll digest it, if it's good and share a 1/4 shit with you (if you're lucky)."
"Pull From This End" is hazy, cool and completely throwaway -- it's part of the new wave of dream pop. It is a solid "B-" album. There is nothing mindblowingly good or bad about the record. Appropriately, it kind of sounds like the artists are sleeping with their instruments and mics. The cover art is just as inspired. I guess I can term their overall effort as "emailing it in".
Say what you will about mailing it in -- at least it requires a person to get out bed. A person can "email it in" from the can.
The truth hurts, but this is what most music reviewers think. I know that bands don't think of it in those terms; considered are the dollars and time emailing saves. An email does not replace the feel of a new CD and the realization that a struggling indie band gives enough of a damn to spend $2-$3 with the hope of getting their music reviewed. When I think about the time, cost and effort put into their self-publicity, it encourages me to really listen and give a fair shake.
Nothing impresses on me more than an artist, outfit or indie label that will write a letter, put in a CD and throw in a key chain or something when cash is virtually nonexistent. These days, it's rare to even earn enough in the business to eek out a living. Unless someone emails something that is extraordinary, I cannot justify pissing in the face of the gambling artists that deserve press.
Qualification out of the box ... I hate reviewing electronic music (referenced in an earlier blog entry)! Snareburst's sound is described as "Electronica Psychedelic Dance".
J. Shepherd (from Intolerance Records) asked me to give this a chance and that I would like it more than "Alpha (Demo)". I could not find my review for the CD and don't recall listening to it. It is possible that it made promoted PTSD, so I chose to bury it deep into my subconscious. In my lifetime, there are many such musical beasts in my mental jungle.
Snareburst is musical terrorism. After listening to three songs, I got Nam flashbacks. I never even went to Vietnam! What the hell is going on here? I have a pulsating headache and blood is dripping from my eye socket. Unfortunately my ears are in tact.
This is the last time I try something like this. I need to promise myself that if I put the CD in and can't get past 45 seconds of the 1st track, I just need to burn the motherf@Y&#(. Seriously, I'm butthurt over this.
I held on to this and listened to it five times to see if it would grow on me. It did not. I became more enraged each listen. I have nothing positive to write about this except that I can provide the band's new T-shirt image of of I survived Snareburst and I don't want to effing talk about it or (better yet) a mutant Ipod suffering from PTSD ...
The evil belches of sound were so damning that it made their one non-offensive track, "RGB" tolerable. Here's its lulzy video ...
Somehow they are grabbing gigs, so there must be massive marketing or sadomasochist musictards that enjoy going deaf and seeing others cry, convulse and croak. The gigs may be filled with undercover Pentagon officials looking for zee next level weapon against terror. Like the old saying, you can only fight terror wuth blaring Snareburst (or something like that).
Another custom niche for "Beta" are YouTube Poopers. Anything on a Snareburst record can inspire video fail like this ...
My kid told me that I shouldn't write anything mean because Intolerance Records packaged this in an awesome hoodie. He quickly retracted after one minute of listening. Maybe quasi-sane and sober people aren't Snareburst's target audience.
I appreciate that they are aiming to perfect a niche for folks with curious music fetishes. If you create something unique, there is always an audience for it. Snareburst does carve a sonic path. I can belittle the "Beta" all I want, but opinions are subjective. Even then, I admire "Beta" for bringing something gonzo to the surface.
The group name and eponymous EP inspires thoughts of whiny emo like this:
I realize that a Radiohead song from 1993 is an outdated reference to the genre -- so what. The Better Death defines their music as, "Sounds like L7 without the Vaginas... Radiohead with the Balls... Math rock without the calculations... Bruce Lee before Seattle... Rebellion without the eyeliner... Old School for the future." Alrighty then (in fairness to them, they did qualify their L7 comment in their CD Baby description).
"Message To Your Rival" starts off "The Better Death" with a spastic progressive alt rock adventure. Check out the "live" version ...
I was cognizant of the fact that this track is badass, but had no idea why, so I repeated it and realized that "Message To Your Rival" was a prime mutant jolt of Queensrÿche and At the Drive-In.
What I did fear was that The Better Death made the mistake of sequencing their best cut 1st. Even if the rest of "The Better Death" is decent, it will feel like they wet my bed.
Disaster averted! Although "Message To Your Rival" is my favorite track on the EP, their sequencing logic is sound because the song does not have the most commercial potential. "Devoted Like Flies", the 4th of six tracks, is the rendering that can play immediately on modern rock and college radio. Here's its snippet ...
See what I mean? This At The Drive-In and Alice In Chains hybrid is even more captivating "live". If you attend one of their performances, you would likely leave with this song stuck in your head regardless of its order in their set list.
For a self-produced debut EP, "The Better Death" is incredible. Each member of the four-piece outfit adds to its convincing dynamic. There is no mistaking that the sound is late 1990's/early 2000's alt rock, but their footprint and adroitness in the genre propels a provocative experience.
Michael Kenzik is self-identified as a progressive folk artist, but applying that genre to "Death Of A Chain Smoker" is inappropriate. He is a singer-songwriter ... plain and simple. If shoved into a corner and forced to listen to:
, I would describe the album as accessible version "Closing Time" (Tom Waits). Unlike Waits, you do not have to be the certain type of music fan and in the right mood to appreciate Michael.
At first, I was afraid that Mr. Kenzik's dark and lengthy record (15 tracks) would be a difficult listen. Strangely, His metaphorical wordplay helped me escape my human bias and gain point of view (or hear) access with him in his compelling personal journey.
"Death Of A Chain Smoker" chronicles Michael's increasing pessimism based on complications from: heartbreak ("Think Of Me As That Bird" and "In A Little While"); isolation ("Church Music For A Religion That Does Not Exist"); delirium ["Planting Geraniums In Iraq" (see below)] and etc. The music features guitar (both acoustic and electric) and an intimately whimsical production (which perfectly balances the record's mood).
As a critic, I look for missing or misplaced elements from a recording. My greatest testament is that I do not know how Michael Kenzik could have made "Death Of A Chain Smoker" any better. The songs are so well-written and the music has such sufficient variation (within his wheelhouse) that never becomes an arduous listen.
Bill Simmons' tweeted the above YouTube clip yesterday. The context of his tweet is unimportant. Please allow me to gush ...
"Far From Over" is overwhelming in glitz, cheese and kitsch -- it's so incredible, I can't stand it. The music went apeshit in mid-80's production and Frank Stallone (yeah, Sylvester's brother) knocked his vocal out of the park. The 1st time I heard this on the transistor radio, I was in love. I cannot recall the last time that happened with a song (that's why I stopped listening to radio).
The video tops the song. I'm not gay or anything (if there was anything wrong with that), but John was looking hott -- it's cackle-worthy, that within 10 years of this flick, he became the tub of dough that sprayed down by Mr. Wolf in Pulp Fiction. Frank Stallone appearance looked like a loop of nearly convincing air guitar. (Circa Rambo and Rocky 4) Sylvester Stallone even made a brief cameo.
Kurtwood Smith (Red from The 70's Show) reprising his choreographer role from the flick could have made this the best video ever -- that's right, Red played a Broadway choreographer -- it shook me up, but he worked it. I have tears coming from my eyes thinking about Red giving Frank Stallone proper air guitar technique and being bitchy if he does not "nail it". Yep ... that was a missed opportunity.
