5 comments about Extraordinary Machine.

1. Fiona returns, and she is on fire. A quite impressive album, though it falls a hair short of achieving the brilliance of 'When The Pawn...' I prefer this over 'Tidal' which in itself is pretty spectacular as well.



2. Such a small woman with such a big voice. She is amazing. I listened to this CD today,2008.



3. Like all Fionas albums, Extraordinary Machine has fantastic, creative lyrics backed up with a wonderful voice and perfect instrumentation.
   
   So where does it fall short? - the mastering, sadly someone made the decision to have the album mastered by "Big Bass" Brian Gardner who is famous in the industry for making 'hot' or overly loud recordings.
   
   Perhaps having the volume turned up to 11 works for hip hop albums, but it does Fiona no favours here. Having the volume level almost constant all the way through just makes it tiring to listen to.
   
   There are leaked MP3's floating around the net which contain early studio recordings of Extraordinary Machine, although clearly unfinished the leaked tracks sound better simply because you can hear the full dynamic range of the music.
   
   While it's far from being the worst victim of the 'loudness war' it could have been so much more.



4. I can't call this music but I guess it is.
   
   F. Apple shows ANYBODY with a computer these days can pump out some basic songs, getting them out there is the hard part. F. Apple's fame is the mystery.
   
   There are no songs on this album. Just noodlings. Not even clever or original noodlings. This album was released in the 21st century but sounds like half the bad pop you can find in any used CD bin at the local record store. The nineties never died, it appears.
   
   An embarrassing reminder of how low music has fallen over the years...



5. All other reviewers have sung the worthy praises of "Extraordinary Machine," so I have little else to add other than they're right! The title song is an absolute BLAST to listen to; don't try to over analyze this song at first, just listen to the masterful lyrics (painful and humorous), the unconventional-to-say-the-least sounds of the instrumental arrangement, and bathe in the wonder that is great music, radio be damned!! Also, the last half of "Not about love" is not to be missed: a virtuoso performance lyrically, vocally, and at the keys as the tempo picks up full-throttle, using the same theme from the opening of the song, but at about 5 times the speed. One of the best musicians currently producing music. Just one problem....we need more!!!

5 comments about Source Tags & Codes.

1. The CD came in on time and even if it came in late, you can't beat 88 cents for a good cd.



2. Seriously. It's loud, melodic, and awesome. You'll play it beginning to end, over and over. Their best, and one of the best of the past decade.



3. Some may have been quick to throw the label of masterpiece on Source Tags & Codes, but even while it falls short of being an instant classic, there's more than enough reasons to seek it out. It's simultaneously challenging and accessible, a difficult quality to wind up with in indie rock. The song structures and musical rhythms are complicated, there are arty interludes and song switches, and buzzsaw guitars doing as much screeching as thrilling. But strip away those bits and you're left with a melodic rock record that almost anyone could embrace.
   
   There are nearly flawless hooks in "How Near How Far" and "Relative Ways," showcasing the band's edgy pop side. And on a drawn-out epic like "Monsoon," there's an almost tangible unpredictability that keeps the listener on edge (it never truly pays off, but has enough strong moments to rank as one of the albums better tracks). Intro, "Invocation," and the interlude, "After the Laughter," both coast by on a similar simple melody, so pretty that I can't even qualify them as throwaways. The album's best moment comes from "Baudelaire," a relatively straight rock song replete with driving guitars and reverb, both melodic and powerful. "Homage" stumbles and falls over its own mountain of excess and "Heart in the Hand of the Matter" is groping blindly for the gravity it needs to survive after soaring too high into the overkill stratosphere. But they're little quibbles, and abundance isn't so much of a bad thing.
   
   Even with them there, I almost never hit the skip button because the album flows so well. Flaws and all, Source Tags & Codes is a great record, one which time and reflection should be kind upon, and I can't fault those who heralded it as a work of genius. Certain moments do make that promise and falling a few inches short is just fine by me.
   
   Best cuts: "Baudelaire," "How Near Is Far," "Monsoon," "Source Tags & Codes," "Relative Ways," "It Was There That I Saw You," "Another Morning Stoner," "Days of Being Wild"



4. Trail of Dead's 3rd album was also their major label debut after being on small indie labels. Source Tags and Codes caught the record buying public by surprise....it was a critical success but rather a commercial failure, which must have frustrated the band (and label!). However, as someone who has been into this band from day #1, this is nothing less than a fantastic album and a perfect melding of all of the elements that make Trail of Dead one of the best and most exciting rock bands around today.
   
   This album perfectly blends the more anarchistic, loud, and bombastic tendencies of their first two records (their self-titled debut and sophomore effort Madonna, both superb) with the more melodic and proggy tendencies they have brought in, especially as evidenced by where they went with 2005's Worlds Apart and their forthcoming album, So Divided (I can only imagine!)
   
   This album starts off with It Was There That I Saw You and from there moves from strength to strength, going to Another Morning Stoner and Baudelaire. The centerpiece of this album has to be the almost operatic suite of How Near How Far, Heart In the Hand of the Matter, Monsoon, and Days of Being Wild. Moving from bombastic choruses, plaintive sections, and almost epic overtures in between, this, the "meat" of the record, if you will, is just beyond beautiful in all its forms. The album ends with the almost-poppy Relative Ways, the melancholy little instrumental After the Laughter, and the calming title track....listen after it ends to hear a spine-tingling string quartet play the main theme from How Near How Far as the album slowly ends.....gorgeous.
   
   Trail of Dead are a phenomenal band and one worthy of more recognition and praise than they get. If you're tired of horrid garbage like The Killers, the Strokes, My Chemical Romance, or any other derivative garbage loved by hipsters and the "Rolling Stone intelligentsia", give Trail of Dead a shot. This would be the perfect album to start with.



5. When I was 17, I discovered Source Tags & Code almost accidentally. I think I stumbled across it while trying to get into At the Drive-In (which never happened), the band who a lot of people say the Trail of Dead owe their sound. Very shortly after that, I started to smoke pot. The two things are completely unrelated except for the fact that this became my favorite album to listen to when high, and I listened to this album almost everyday for more than a year. It seemed to embody everything I felt and looking back, it really seems to define that whole era for me. I remember listening to it and worrying what exactly I wanted to major in in college - which I imagined would shape the whole future of my life. I remember listening to this for perhaps the 79th time, while particularly baked, and outlining a review for this album in which I explained how it was a brilliantly subtle concept album with a story arc describing the ego of any and every teen in America (I won't get into it, but I still somewhat believe it), and wondering why it wasn't the most popular album in the country, and stating for sure that it would be remembered as ahead of it's time.
   
   "It Was There (That I Saw You)" couldn't be better for the first song. A quiet, simple guitar riff quickly joins the sound of a distant tv and what could only be described as space static. No sooner than the 15 second mark, the bass distinctively drops in half a beat before the loud, distorted, chiming punk chords and Conrad lets out one verse and a chorus about an old girlfriend ("but as time went on, I wondered what went wrong, I wondered what became....of you...") which segues into a great bridge/fuzzed out guitar jam that builds and builds until it bursts back into verse two with another bass dropout and even faster, louder, chimier (is that a word?) guitars and a climactic repeat of the chorus. This sets up the tone for the whole album, as most of the songs go by that same formula of Intro-verse-chorus-cool breakdown-verse-chorus-climax, some more intensely, others less so. I actually didn't like this song so much at first only because it's sung in what sounded to me like the whiny Good Charlotte pop-punk that was circulating at the time.
   
   "Another Morning Stoner" is, even on the first listen, immediate a standout. The two guitar intro, one playing a riff right up there with Cobain's best, the other adding cool atmospheric fills grabs your attention and leads in to melodic, buzzsaw guitars on the verse. I think it was the second single.
   
   "Baudelaire" has fast power chords and lyrics about the poet most famous for writing about boredom being the greatest sin. The fact that this is one of the most forgettable songs on the album is a compliment.
   
   "Homage" is exactly what it's name implies. It's an homage to post-punk screamo bands such as Fugazi and Minor Threat. It's very fast paced and great if you were ever a fan of post-punk. If not, you won't like it.
   
   "How Near How Far" is immediately another album highlight. The mellow, slowly crashing drums combining with a great echo-y guitar riff open the song then the pace is quickened for the verses, until it returns towards the end and builds while the refrain "how near, how far, how lost they are" is repeated about 15 times. This song is so amazing it will be playing in your head for a week after hearing it.
   
   "Heart in the Hand of the Matter" begins with the coolest opening lyrics since "I was born in a crossfire hurricane" from Jumping Jack Flash. You just have to respect any song that begins with "ride the apocalypse" and a continues on with"there's nothing that could be done/we've lost all control/I walk in the shadows of your tortured realm/and I'm so damned/I can't win/with my heart in my hands again." At first, this song didn't really grab me. But, after actually listening to the lyrics I really came to think this is easily up there with the best songs on the album. "Heart in the Hand" leads perfectly into "Monsoon," which must be the most epic song of ToD's career so far. The great lyrics continue with such gems as "roll of thunder like a voice that commands/raindrops fall like the blood from your hands/pray to a God but I doubt that he's listening/this world's a gutter that he likes to piss in/millions of people quietly sleep/dreaming of deserts as the puddles run deep." Musically, "Monsoon" wears it's Sonic Youth influence right out on it's sleeve. James Reece even sounds like Lee Renaldo here.
   
   "Days of Being Wild" blasts off right out of the gate. It's the loudest, fastest, and as far as I'm concerned, best song on all of `Source Tags'. The lyrics about "all night amphetamines" being "alive in jail/alive and well" fit perfectly being shouted over the hammering drums and guitars that sound like their trying to impersonate the sound of metal being viciously torn apart. The song climax's with a chorus being desperately shouted with the poem "Graffiti Deposition" read over it, ending in the line "a middle finger to the institution" and it all just works so surprisingly well.
   
   "Relative Ways" was the first single, which of course means in this case that it's the most straightforward rock song here. Again awards for cool lyrics must go out for "our electric guitar hangs to our knees/got a couple of verses I can barely breathe/it's alright it's ok/it's coming together in relative ways" as well as the repeated lines "it's ok/I'm a saint/I forgave your mistakes".
   
   "After the Laughter" is a instrumental interlude that continues the riffs from "Relative Ways" but quietly and on piano. It's a perfect comedown and a perfect lead-in to "Source Tags & Code" which is one of those perfect album closers where the guitars and lyrics just seem to put you into that totally warm, happy, nostalgic mood without fail every time you listen to it. There's nothing more to be said about this song, you can't not like it. Stick around after the song is over because after a few seconds you hear a very unlikely beautiful violin concerto which is the album's true coda.
   
   Now I'm 21. Finally, I've answered all those questions I used to ask myself while stoned and blasting this in headphones. With the last grains of teenager-dom finally washed away, I still find myself coming back to this CD quite often. So, I'm starting to think that my very first impressions of `Source Tags' were totally right. This isn't just some teen angst [...] you listen to when you're young, then forget. This album is truly one of the greats, one that will be up there with those few albums that have seemed to define entire sections of your life. Albums that when played, have the power to transport you back to all the good times, all the bad times, and at the same time be an excellent album musically and lyrically. `Madonna' before this laid the groundwork, "the St. Elena's Tomb" EP hold's more of the same type of sound found here, before `World's Apart' blew ToD's possibilities wide open with a blend of different song styles. But none of those albums can touch the landmark greatness of `Source Tags & Codes."

No comments about AMERICAN IDIOT.

No comments about Hi, How Are You.

5 comments about Life In The So-Called Space Age.

1. This band is another east coast phenomena, apparently. I haven't heard them played here in the west at all. I heard them on an undisclosed east coast Internet radio station. The mp3 CD is good; though I can't quite get my brain around the last 32 minute song that goes on and on for about 29 and a half minutes and then does some percussive stuff and then fades to black. Artistic license, eh? Far be it for me to be an art critic, but the rest of the mp3's rock I think you can discard the 32 minute piece though.



2. Hands down, their best album. I was shocked when I saw as many negative and mediocre reviews as there are for this so I had to write my own. There's nothing to dissatisfy here; what's going on? If you haven't bought the album just listen to the sample tracks provided and then try to tell yourself it's not awesome. It'd be easier for me to point out the low point of the album (track 8 Dress Rehearsal For Reproduction) instead of pointing out every other track as a highlight. If I had to pick a favorite though, it would have to be The Rush Is Loud. As I listen to this album and write this commentary, it saddens me to think that with as many negative reviews for this album you might never give this a chance to hear what might be the height of this band's capability. For me it's like this:
   #1. Life in the So-Called Space Age
   #2. Empty
   #3. Up Off The Floor
   #4. God Lives Underwater



3. This album fully realized the potential of GLU. Their strange combination of rock and electronic beats with a pop sensability really carried this album...I still enjoy this album from time to time.



4. Somehow this band has managed to get lumped with a lot of post Nine Inch Nails industrial-rock bands, but I don't think this band, at least on this album, is similar to bands like Stabbing Westward and Gravity Kills at all. This album in comparison to ones like Stabbing Westward's Wither, Blister, Burn & Peel is much more focused on the electronics, and I think that gives it more variety and a totally different sound.
   
   If I had to compare it some other bands, I'd say that it sounds like a combination of The Crystal Method and Depeche Mode, and NIN is also obviously an influence, but this is far from a rip-off. There's also a lot of cool digital effects put on the guitars, particularly on Dress Rehearsal for Reproduction. The album's first two actual songs, Rearrange and From Your Mouth, are the definite highlights, but the album stays pretty strong all the way through. The song Happy is another standout track, and it begins with just the acoustic guitar, a drum machine, and Dave Reilly. My only complaints are that there's only 10 actual songs and the white noise after the last song is a bit annoying and pointless.
   
   If you're having doubts about checking it out after reading bad reviews, just ignore it. I put off buying this album for years, because of the negative scores people gave it here on Amazon, and now I really love it. I think people like E. A. Solinas, who has had the spotlight review for a long time, are missing the point of this album. It may feel a bit mechanical at times, but that's the point. The title of the album is very appropriate, and I think that the duo tried to and succeeded in creating a view of a futuristic world. Is this album fun? Sometimes, but certainly not on every song, and they weren't even trying to make a fun album. Similar to the aforementioned Depeche Mode, this band is focused more on expression than making fun, dancable music. I also had no problems with the vocals.
   
   If you're into bands like Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails than I'd definitely recommend this album to you. Don't believe the (bad) hype!



5. That's what this is. This record is ahead of its time, for a band from the US that is. The rest of the word has already explored this area of music, most not as good as this record, but been there nonetheless. Without distraction from the review, let's just say that the music scene in the US has been stagnant ever since a little band by the name of Nirvana came by and showed us what music was all about.
   
   Moving along - this album is a great listen. It's very honest - some of the lyrics really paint a detailed picture of losing yourself to drug addiction and loss. Medicated to the One I Love, for instance honestly states that heroin is very addictive but also very powerful. Alone Again is a rejection of being lonely. It's a very aggresive track, where the singer is simply lonely.
   
   But the honest lyrics are one aspect of this record - the music is the other. The music is carefully crafted - almost polished in production. Some records can suffer from over-production, but it's in production that god lives underwater really shine. There are little tones and sounds that were put in during production that make the tracks. This isnt just a rock record - this is a new way to make music. God Lives Underwater are building on their influences. They are making a new sound.
   
   It's appaling at how overlooked this album is. Some even give it a bad review just because it wasn't as 'heavy' as their previous album. I think that is just wrong. Give this album a listen. You will find an absolutely classic piece of music making. Fans of Depeche Mode, Pink Floyd, Nine Inch Nails and even some Radiohead will love this record.
   
   Some stand out tracks, however all the tracks on this album are very good - but some are just downrite mind blowing are:
   
   Rearrange - it's got this great beat and electronic sound - also a great atmospheric sound in the background.
   
   From Your Mouth - so honest and so simple, but yet listen to this track - it' one of the best you will every here, simply beautiful melody.
   
   Can't Come Down - lovers of Pink Floyd this is the track for you, really lush.
   
   Medicated to the One I Love - this is my favorite track on this album, simply stunning, very Depeche Mode sounding - but this tracks hits all of your senses - it's like a feeling more than a piece of music. It has to be heard.
   
   Thats the greatest thing about this album, it has to be heard - it was so dismissed when it came out, but give it a listen - you will find yourself loving every bit of it.

3 comments about Greatest Hits Double LP.

1. Ah kwitcherbitchin folks, and look at the songs here: Despite the title, this collection is 3/4 material since 2004. Obviously, throwing in a few old classics is his own little tongue in cheek, but really folks, it's not a bad collection at all. Sure, he could have titled it "hits since the last collection" or something clearer.
   Look, the vinyl in a nice embossed cover with a giant picture of the Moz as you know and love him. It's on thick vinyl and fabulous. Why all the whining?



2. Moz is now living out the character he portrayed on the last Smiths record, Strangeways: "Re-issue! Re-package! Re-evaluate the songs, double pack with a photograph . . . extra track and a tacky badge . . . Best of! Most of! Satiate the need; slip them into different sleeves! Buy both and and be deceived."
   
   
   How many times are we going to have to endure the ol' hypocrite's repackaging of his career? The young Moz slagged this behaviour off, now he manifests it. Keep lining those melancholy pockets boy!



3. This is a fine album, but it really isn't Morrissey's career spanning greatest hits. Compare this to 2000's The Best of Morrissey, and you can see that many of his greatest hits have not been included on this Greatest Hits album: like Hairdresser on Fire and Interesting Drug. The label should have put out a double CD that really included all the hits of his solo career. Instead they put out an album that highlights his hits since 2000 plus a few hits from before 2000. While I do like many of the songs on this album, for the first time Morrissey buyer, I would recommend The Best of Morrissey so you can enjoy his best music.

No comments about Songs of Faith and Devotion.

5 comments about Hey Eugene!.

1. Pink Martini's music is global music sung in different languages and to romantic beats. My favorite is the poignant signature song "Hey Eugene" -- tells the story of meeting someone, you feel a spark but they don't follow through and call. I love this album!



2. This is the new work from Pink Martini (2007), a "Jazz/Latin/Orchestra" music group (sometimes it is difficult to classify the stile!), which has a beautiful singer with a beautiful voice, accompanied by very good and talented musicians. I knew Pink Martini at first from their CD Simpathique, also a beautiful disc. In this new work they play very interesting and inspiring songs, in Japanese, French, and Brazilian Portuguese among others. She sings here the well know song Tea for Two (Do you remember Doris Day?), really beautiful in her voice. Another song they play that deserve a remark is Tempo Perdido, composed by Ataulpho Alves, a well know Brazilian composer and singer (05/02/1909 - 04/20/1969). This disc is a must for people that enjoy new rhythms, innovation, Jazz, Latin Music, Brazilian Music, and off course, a mix of all of these. I hope it helps the buyers to decide. Thanks for reading.



3. As a PINK MARTINI fan, I was thrilled to get the new release. It is another fabulous, eclectic collection from this amazing group. Check it out - you won't be disappointed.



4. a beautiful cd. very nice. my taste. I like it even more than the other cd "hanging on little tomato"



5. The Pink Martinis rule when it comes to creative and
   innovative cocktail music. Their unique style brings
   them out in front of all others once again.

5 comments about The Punch Line.

1. The Minutemen at their best were pure poetry, propelled by raw power and a funky punk sensibility. Their 1981 release "The Punch Line" is their finest effort.
   
   The band came out of the L.A. punk scene, working class kids chumming around with bands known for blasting noise - crude, loud, and blunt - bands like Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, and Lawndale. But with their ears opened by listening to records by Wire and others, they realized that they needn't fit their music into any genre. And they didn't. The music was loud, and fast, and driving, but often too intricate and much too tight to qualify as hardcore punk.
   
   The lyrics, always spare at first, explored history, politics, and philosophy with remarkable sophistication, and in a way that no other punk band quite matched. Punk music often conveys a political - or anti-political - message, but often in a rather juvenile fashion. Not so the Minutemen - they were existentialist philosopher poets. And they managed to pull it off without even a hint of pretense. The Minutemen were real. They were genuine.
   
   The band's early music wasted no time with the plodding repetition that characterizes most rock music. Each song made its point, both musically and poetically, and the band moved on to the next. It was said that they took the name "Minutemen" because they confined every song to a minute. And on "The Punchline" we find that every one of the 18 songs, on what was originally issued as a 12-inch 45 rpm EP, is indeed under a minute in length.
   
   But oh, what they packed into each song.
   
   In "Disguises," for example, it takes guitarist D. Boon 45 seconds to drive home the point that racism is not merely an external social problem - but something that requires every one of us to look into our own souls. The song is not preachy. It's not annoyingly didactic, as most moralizing songs are. D. Boon simply looks within his own soul, shares what he sees - and the band moves on.
   
   In "Monuments" drummer George Hurley and bassist Mike Watt examine social conditioning and cultural knowledge in a 48-second statement of existentialist epistemology.
   
   With the album's title track, "The Punch Line," bassist Mike Watt recalls General George A. Custer's last stand at the Battle Little Bighorn in a song of just 40 seconds - a song that is both charming and shocking in its austere realism.
   
   "History Lesson" is astounding. Guitarist D. Boon manages to summarize 100,000 years (or more) of human history - spiritual, intellectual, and political - from Stone Age to nation states with nuclear weapons, in a 37-second song of fewer than fifty words. I count 47 words in the lyrics, as they were sung.
   
   No one else - and I mean no one - compacts so much into one song.
   
   Maybe I'm biased. I confess, I loved going to Minutemen shows in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s, at the Cathay de Grande, the Stardust Ballroom, the Club Lingerie, the Lhasa, and even on a boat cruising San Pedro harbor with the Minutemen, the Meat Puppets, and Lawndale. Their music's cathartic effect and lasting spiritual content helped me to deal with the stresses of three years of law school, and after. I mourned D. Boone's untimely accidental death in December 1985.
   
   But I do believe, most sincerely, that the Minutemen were one of the most remarkable rock bands that ever played. I believe "The Punch Line" is their finest record. And "History Lesson," well, the song still leaves me trembling in awe.
   
   Eric Alan Isaacson



2. The Minutemen were hardcore punk, but they were so much more...the shared the anger and power of other bands but could slow it down and add a lot more musicianship to the fold.
   i think the kids call this musical chops.
   simply put this is amazing, good stuff for the intellectual and stoner punks to agree on



3. In 15 minutes you realize this band could be your life. Opens up your brain and carves a trail forever. How can so much transpire in such a short time? Is it possibly to fit a lifetime into a such a short span? Best punk album ever, hands down.



4. It's a bit of a stretch to call this an album since they usually do very short songs, like 30 seconds to 1 or 2 minutes long though they often got 20 to 30 songs in each of these albums. Whatever it is, the MINUTEMEN were on a musical journey that no one ever did before or since. GANG OF FOUR and the BIG BOYS did what we could call punk funk if you like, particularly the BIG BOYS. The MINUTEMEN just made music the way they wanted and lots of it. One of the most prolific bands ever, at least one album each year of their existance and extensive touring, constant touring or recording actually, is what it appears to have been. Of course, the tragedy of this band is that d boon died in a car crash in late 1985 and that was the end of the band which started about 1980.
   
   The other classic albums they did, to these ears, are My First Bells a comp of various compilation trax and 7"s, Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat, What Makes a Man Start Fires? and maybe their opus, the 2xLP Double Nickels on the Dime. I don't include the Politics of Time or Ballot Result because they both have many trax that are weakly recorded live songs. Musically, they rule, but recording quality wise it's a little disappointing. Course, Ballot Result was supposed to be redux versions but they just pillaged the archives instead due to the terrible lose. To me Jimi Hendrix, John Belushi and d boon were the three biggest losses to the culture with their premature passing. God bless them each and, in the meantime, in our short time on this earth, I encourage you to sample these tunes and if you dig 'em and if you don't I just don't get it, dive into this record and the other 4. All 5 should be a staple in any record collection, particularly that of a punk. There's some Post-Mersh releases SST did. Feel free to buy them, it's the same music. Coolness. chrisbct@hotmail.com



5. As with all MinuteMen records, this one simply rules. Fresher now than it was fifteen years ago. A wonderful introduction to their lighthearted militarism. Jangly guitars, poems disguised as songs, and a warm genuiness not exuded by anyband before or since. Check it out, dude.

No comments about PSYCHOCANDY.