American Alternative music reviews

A lot of people dislike R.E.M. because of Michael's voice, but, to me, it (along with the laid-back southern-style instruments) is the band's heartbeat. Its soothing, honest beauty is unique and charmi--... okay, I think I made the point well enough. I love R.E.M.

1) Strange Currencies. To me, the lyrics are that of a direct relationship song... and mixed with the soft playing, it's soul nourishment. "I need a chance, a 2nd chance, a 3rd chance, a 4th chance, a word, a signal, a nod, a little breath, just to fool myself, just to catch myself, to make it real". The humanity of those words is beautiful.

2, 3) Drive (Live) and Funtime (Live). Both seem more light-hearted than usual R.E.M., overall... they're somewhat catchy, and the live atmosphere kicks it up a notch (bam!). Throw in everything else we love the band for, and they're art.

4) Radio Free Europe (Live). Ah... youth. Not exactly the most complex song, but it's fun to listen to... R.E.M.'s social fascination is always a good thing. Fine way to end the single... with a blast from the past.

Michael's vocals, the southern instruments, the live atmosphere, the never-dying integrity... a great band, and a great single. I can't believe that I got it for [so little money]

"Strange Currencies" is the quietest song on the sonic blast that is Monster. The song add a moment of respite to the guitar frenzy. The three live songs perfectly compliment the track. "Drive" has a quiet power, "Funhouse" is great unreleased track and "Radio Free Europe" is always powerful.

Hands down, this is the best single from "Monster". The lead track is my favorite, and the B-Sides offer a lot more than the other Monster singles, which are generally pretty straight-forward live tracks.

"Strange Currencies" is a beautiful down love song with a great hard edge. Instead of sounding just loud, like some "rock/love songs" do, it sounds deeply earnest and passionate. The lyrics are fun, and Stipe has a great time with them. The arrangment is also excellent and dynamic and is very much worth paying attention to.

The live version of "Drive" here is totally different, and signifcantly superior if you ask me, to the version found on "Autmotic for the People". It is rocked out, energetic, and powerful. I feel it suits the song much better than the slow and plodding album version. They do this song so well live, and this recording captures that perfectly.

"Funtime" is a genuinely fun Iggy Pop cover. Also much better than a studio version the band also released, if only because Stipe's vocals have more energy, and the band has the kind of energy you can only find with a live concert recording. Its messy, feverish, and a great listen.

From here, the band plays around for a few seconds while transitioning into "Radio Free Europe", the bands first single. This may be the best verion I have heard of it. Stipe usually seems disinterested in doing the song, but not here. Yeah, he screws up the lyrics badly, but he has made a big deal out of giving the lyrics of R.E.M. songs too much weight. Besides, it sounds like they are having fun, and I'm sure the audience was loving it, too. I'm sure you will, as well.

This is a great 80s hardcore band. I love this cd. 26 songs is pretty good. most of the songs are relatively short. Too bad i never got to see them live. If you like Agnostic Front you would like this band.

I was heavily into the punk scene in the 80's. No, not 7 Seconds, Sex Pistols, or Descendants. I have always been into the most extreme heavy music no matter if it's punk or death metal. I'm talking Agnostic Front, Mob 47, old DRI, Blood Feast, Negative Approach, Youth of Today, Napalm Death, etc. I still remember the hoopla created when this record came out. Saw them at the Farm in Frisco many times. As violent in concert as you'd expect. This is a must for all true hardcore fans. By the way Amazon, how about ordering a couple more of these cd's so more of us can enjoy? What's up? Turn it up!

This was one of my favorite live bands from the 80s and I'm glad to see that some great stuff like this is being reissued in CD format.

This is a great 80s hardcore band. I love this cd. 26 songs is pretty good. most of the songs are relatively short. Too bad i never got to see them live. If you like Agnostic Front you would like this band.

I was heavily into the punk scene in the 80's. No, not 7 Seconds, Sex Pistols, or Descendants. I have always been into the most extreme heavy music no matter if it's punk or death metal. I'm talking Agnostic Front, Mob 47, old DRI, Blood Feast, Negative Approach, Youth of Today, Napalm Death, etc. I still remember the hoopla created when this record came out. Saw them at the Farm in Frisco many times. As violent in concert as you'd expect. This is a must for all true hardcore fans. By the way Amazon, how about ordering a couple more of these cd's so more of us can enjoy? What's up? Turn it up!

This was one of my favorite live bands from the 80s and I'm glad to see that some great stuff like this is being reissued in CD format.

Until very recently I'd not heard of Brigitte DeMeyer. A friend told me of her music. Gorgeous songs, a beautiful and nuanced soulfully country edged voice, a batch of killer musicians including stellar guitar work by Chris Rossbach (who is in his own D'Amphibians band and plays with my drum hero, Mr Joseph Zigaboo Modeliste!) and Mike Marshall is just icing on this absolutely delicious cake. I love americana, so-called alt.country, y'all ternative and folk --- this ranks up right there with most of what I've been listening to the last few years. Go hear Brigitte live if you get a chance, and BUY THIS excellent self-produced effort, "Another Thousand Miles". I love "We're All Going In", "Sycamore Sadie" and "Horse Hunk" with its lead in by Rossbach, truly blazing, reminiscent of the lead in to "Devil in Disguise" by the Flying Burrito Brothers. I'm giving this a 5 out of 5, to keep this record perfect. YOU go listen to it and try to give it a 4!! All 8 of the tunes are great. I put it on for the first time ever this a.m. and listened to it, I think, twelve times straight through! You go girl!!!!!! Mike Emerson on sweet piana, Paul Olguin on bass, Greg Thomas on drums round out the Brigitte DeMeyer band, and a helluva a band it is. Hey, where can I see this really cool songwriter live??? Why didn't anyone tell me about her before. I'd compare her to someone, but I guess she is uniquely Brigitte DeMeyer. Tom "Wazzup" Montgomery www.pauserecord.com www.jambase.com fan of Iris (Dement), Stacey (Earle), Ana (Egge), Kasey (Chambers) and NOW Brigitte (DeMeyer!)

Brigitte Demeyer's music is like a bowl of hot, spicey chili... good down home rhythms with an edge.

If you are hungry for some new sounds... check out her new release. You'll love it.

Brigitte Rocks!!! A great debut album! I look forward to adding more of her music to my collection as soon as its available. She's got an expressive, soulful voice and a great poetic songwriting talent. These, in addition to her own musical prowess and group of great musicians make for a special treat.

This cd-single features three previously unreleased tracks and a radio edit of "Calling All Angels" from 2003's excellent 'My Private Nation'. The single is vintage Train with a great melody and an incisive, reflective message on the state of society post-9/11. It's a message of guarded hopefullness and very sincerely delivered with a catchy melody as good as anything from 'Drops of Jupiter'. What makes this cd-single worth purchasing, however, is the quality of the three bonus tracks (not available anywhere else thus far). Both "For You" and "Landmine" could've easily fit on 'My Private Nation' and I wonder why they were left off. "Fascinated" is worth hearing as well although it's a little repetitive. Each track is between three and four minutes in duration. These bonus songs aren't nearly as stylistically diverse as the two extra tracks included with the limited edition pressings of 'Drops of Jupiter'. "Landmine" is particularly good although it is rather similar in sound to "Counting Airplanes" from MPN. Well worth purchasing for these hard to track down quality tracks by one of today's best rock n' roll bands.

There is no doubt that Train has been out of the public eye for a certain period of time. Nevertheless, their back with a brand new hit song, Calling All Angels. This personally happens to be one of their best songs currently. Pat Monahan and company surely have come a long way since they started with Meet Virginia back in 1999. Personally, I really enjoyed not just the song, but its video is absolutely breathtaking. I absolutely love the computer-animated graphics. There is no doubt that this is truly one of the top songs for 2003.

I didn't know trains could fly, but Train certainly soars here. True they don't break any new ground here, but "Calling on Angels" is exactly what I wanted to hear from train anyway. It is Train to perfection and in my mind is superior even to the mega-hit "Drops of Jupiter" I hope these guys continue to make their own brand of uplifting music for a long time.

This album features the Cramps usual brand of rockabilly influenced punk (or punk influenced rockabilly), with a bit of surf music tossed in this time. This is one of the Cramps better albums. A lot of fun, raunchy songs like the classic "Can Your Pussy Do the Dog?". It even includes a rare lead vocal by Poison Ivy on "Get Off the Road". A must get for Cramps fans.

Hands down, the best and most solid Cramps release EVER! Breaking away slightly from the straight up rockabilly sound to incorporate some surf tones only enhances this already great cd. We also find Lux not as dark and sinister; instead acting up in a fun and playful way with songs like Chicken, Cornfed Dames and Can Your P*ssy Do The Dog? . These songs show the direction the band would pretty much follow for the next several albums. Other highlights however are the songs Kizmiaz (Lux and Ivy's swooning duet) and What's Inside A Girl? (which shows Lux's admiration for serial killer Ed Gein). In all honesty though, there's not one dull track on this album! If you don't already have this one, why the hell not?!

My most favorite Cramps CD is undoubtedly 1986's "A Date with Elvis." Thanks to Poison Ivy's raw, slithering guitar rhythms and throbbing bass, a majority of this album's tracks are much more heavily inspired by 1960's surf pop than those of any other record that followed. In the midst of the crashing waves, sandcastles and tanned bikini girls, Lux Interior belts out playful narrative lyrics that juxtapose catchy chorus hooks with tongue-in-cheek sexual fantasies. And of course "A Date with Elvis" has plenty of cult classics. In both "People Ain't No Good" and "What's Inside a Girl," Lux vocally impersonates the late King of Rock & Roll, shimmering his hips in rhinestone bell-bottoms. "Kizmiaz" (one of the few duets between Lux and Ivy) beautifully paints a picture of the ultimate dream vacation, all the while repeating a chorus with its cute and naughty pun. "Cornfed Dames" perfectly provides the setting of life on the farm, with Lux milking cows and riding a tractor. He may as well have performed this track while hosting a square dance contest! Also note how this song's sleazy lyrics envision a group of buxom blondes scantily clad in barnyard plaid! "Chicken," another silly hillbilly track, features Ivy plucking her guiter strings, unleashing the feverish clucking sounds of a hen! I could continue on with my comments on "A Date with Elvis" but in that case, I would have to start another long paragraph! All I can say in the end is that this 1986 effort marks the Cramps reaching their height of rock creativity, as well as 1989's "Stay Sick!"

An excellent album with a strong mix of styles and moods, ranging from the hardcore of "Dead Souls" and "Teresa, Give Me That Knife" to the dark and moody "Forget Your Life" and "Real Love." The music is challenging at times but still delivers a lot of energy and is a great emotional release.

Lyrically this album is fantastic and eminently quotable, e.g.: "I couldn't remember my name / so I called myself Bob / it's weird being a Bob / but I'll get used to it, I HAVE TO!"

Like many NoMeansNo albums the mixing leaves something to be desired - for example the drums are immersed in this annoying reverb that really detracts from the sound and performance. Not quite as bad as on 0+2=1 or Sex Mad though.

For a better introduction to NoMeansNo I highly recommend Wrong which IMO is their strongest recording. But if you're looking for the next one to get, definitely get this one.

NMN's best album for me (most think 'Wrong'(!)) - mostly slow, ploddy, experimental, utterly superb - I have read that they latterly regarded the production as a little bit pretentious which presumably accounts for the excellent rawness of the subsequent 'Wrong'. However, this mix of the EP 'The Day Everything Became Nothing' and the LP 'Small Parts Isolated and Destroyed' is a perfect marriage and shows NMN at the height of their creativity and their early days obsession with social order and its many strands (`Metronome' on `Sex Mad' is a good example on a previous album). They made entire albums exploring this at the individual and macro level, epitomised by the wonderful opening line to `The Day..': `The day everything became nothing, I was standing underneath a street light, wishing I had a cigarette'. The totally incredible and the ultra normal in two great lines. The song is about a sudden loss of meaning (or at least the sudden realisation of a gradual loss of meaning) and is a big statement on modern living. The wonderful `Dark Ages' ponders the subtle control of an information-dominated society whilst `Junk' extends the idea to the human obsession of naming everything till there's so much junk (switch off your camcorder!). `And that's Sad' picks up on the "order" issue in a different way: we act the way in which is expected of us and we expect nothing more or less - And that's Sad! Then there's `Victory': easy to dismiss as a morbid song but perhaps should be seen as a realisation of personal blunders and ultimately growth - the final punch is positive ("We're a paaarrrsitive band" they self-mockingly say on `Live and Cuddly' but they mean it): "So maybe I should just tell you/what I hope and believe/For every defeat there will be a victory/../In defeat/Victory". Oops, nearly forgot the unbelievable `Brother Rat/What Slayde Says'. The former knocks male pal-iness and wallows in betrayal and then segues into the astonishing second part: `WSS' is a great piece about the dialogue between right and wrong (sounds simple) but then makes it turns out that this is all within ("I hear him in my sleep, I see him in my dreams.../And then I face a mirror and he steps in between") the micro of social order - our conscious decisions, our fights against "f*ck `em all" when we're feeling tired and selfish and negative, and the ultimate victory of our good side which we present to the outer world ("I'll never listen to what Slayde says")- positive again! So, yes, I rather like it!!!!

For what it's worth I'd describe NMN as the "Rush of Hardcore Punk": go on, stone me but: they are a bass-led, Canadian 3-piece, with an intelligent drummer (how often??!), tight as a gnat's, lyrically very clever (but not as mushy moral!), and they stick out from the rest like a sore thumb, often sounding too clever and thoughtful to be writing music and probably should have stopped when Andy Kerr left.

Actually a combination of "The Day Everything Became Nothing" and "Small Parts Isolated And Destroyed", this is one of the darker albums from the Brothers Wright. This album has a great many classics on it. "Forget Your Life" is dismal yet enticing, "Dark Ages" is bleak but bouncy, "And That's Sad" is scary (especially with the backing vocals), and everything in between is simply indescribable. Not what you'd listen to at a party, this is more of a personal experience that you'd probably listen to with headphones, in the dark. Party music this is not, but you'll dig it anyway.

Engine is the American Music Club's second album, and it is the first that fully realizes the vision of drunken paranoia, separateness and longing that defines their best output. Such a description can sound pathetic, but it is the strength of this band, and most notably lyricist/vocalist Mark Eitzel, to convey such a pathetic state of mind while maintaining an underlying sense of dignity, and even humor. "Outside This Bar" presents a world where the only safe place is within the predictable confines of the neighborhood bar, but Eitzel's description is decidedly not a place where everybody knows your name. Instead, it is a place to take refuge and escape from the horrors that exist beyond the door that prevents the rays of sun from penetrating his consciousness. "Gary's Song" is just as paranoid, but also funny, as it conveys two loser drunks, only one of whom apparently recognizes the inherent downfall that their inebriation will almost certainly make inevitable. "If you drink too much, you will drown" is the warning refrain, but drunkenness prevails, when he sings, "If we sit here and drink enough beer, we'll be two inflatable dolls in a hooker's bad dream."

The hangover's a bitch, though, and the self-mocking reflection of "Mom's TV" and "Big Night" portray the dark side of irresponsibility and careless revelry. Undoubtedly the two most moving songs here, though, are "At My Mercy" and "Nightwatchman," since they stare unblinking into a void of sadness that no amount of alcohol could possibly quell. All in all, Engine serves as a theme album for bar crawlers and lonely hunters who believe they'll find romance in the night, but always wake up feeling more lonely than before they started.
A Tom Ryan

Actually quite a lot. It's genuinely one of the great undiscovered rock albums of our time. In fact all of AMC's first 4 albums would rank in that list 4 me.

For Engine think REM sound about the time of Document, hard-edged, but considerably darker.

The album opens with Big Night, a stark but quite beautiful song which sets the tone for the rest of the album, quite dark and melancholic.

The album is not without it's lighter moments, although it's very black comedy - the drunken bar rock of "Gary's Song" - 'And if we sit here and drink enough beer, we'll be two inflatable dolls in a hooker's bad dream', and the opening lines to "Outside this Bar" - 'Hospital wouldn't admit you, so we go home again' being notable examples.

'Nightwatchman' and 'This Year' are classic examples of life passing you by songs, 'The Nightwatchman, yeah he's asleep, Nightwatchman, I can't wake him up'.

Clouds and Electric Light are very difficult to listen to, really powerful emotional songs, for instance on Clouds 'You want to get excited, so I'll push you too far'.

If I remember right these songs were written around the time the singer Mark Eitzel's father died, and this comes across very clearly. A difficult listen but ultimately a rewarding one.

I bought this record last week and it is a great one. It is even better then California. I read somewhere at amazon that this record was monotonous but I guess this guy did not know what he was talking about.

Feel Good Now. The very name of the album is a command, and that's exactly what the Swans do. When the Swans storm the stage in all their raw, gothic glory, they don't just play music; they command the music, harnessing a vast arsenal of pure guitar energy and oppressively dense rhythms to force the audience into deaf submission. Sounding like a hellish amalgamation of Joy Division and Flipper, The Swans exhume lost sounds from another time that are truly primordial and earth shattering in their overwhelmingly mundane, militaristic rage. The music itself transcends any possible categorization, taking on a life of its own as it breathes and writhes suspended above the heads of the aghast audience. Culling feelings of hatred, anger, despair, and angst from the depths of the planet, Feel Good Now is the larger than life manifestation of all of our darkest emotions and most vile desires put on display before us. However, while the pure fury of the album inevitably leads to music that contains unparalleled violence, the heightened emotional potency of the album also gives it an equally beautiful and serene element of release that shows anger as an integral, vital emotion that should be harnessed, not suppressed. Anger is perhaps the only word strong enough and encompassing enough to fully describe the sound that is The Swans because to refer to this music as nothing more than music would be ignorant; Feel Good Now is pure emotion. Like their obvious predecessors, the legendary MC5, a live album is simply the only way to contain their immense sound and Feel Good Now perfectly captures the Swans at the height of their powers making an already lengthy album of 75 minutes feel like nearly 3 hours of intense pummeling feedback. The Swans sound is timeless and their unique culmination of pre-modern forces paint them as one of the most profound and powerful groups to emerge in the last century. Like I said before, The Swans don't just play music, they breathe and radiate it, and when Micheal Gira roars "God is Mine" in his best Tom Waits growl, you believe him.

These days when I hear about all the countless supposedly "dark" and "intense" nu-metal bands, I listen to Feel Good Now and just laugh. Swans were brutal, bludgeoning, pummeling,uncompromising....and somehow beautiful at the same time. Most of all, they were REAL. This album is a prime example of Swans in all their glory, and makes more modern bands like (scoff) Linkin Park and (gag) Staind sound about as dark and intense as N'Sync or Jessica Simpson.

this absolutely huge, plodding, terrifying music. by all means place cotton balls in your ears, just dont get surprised when you remove them and theyre soaked in blood.

As a huge YOT fan since the beginning, this record was a very difficult one for me. This album features some of the worst production I have ever heard. Basement tapes sound better than this. Furthermore, the instruments are often out of sync with the drums (which is odd, since I know these guys can play), and the vocals off time from the rest of the band. As I listened, I wondered if they had even bothered to listen to what they'd recorded before mixing and pressing the record, it's that bad.

Despite this, you can tell that most of these songs would be hardcore classics if only they could be realized sonically, but the production is just too disappointing. "Flame Still Burns" and "Slow Down" would have been brilliant, for example.

If you're new to YOT, pick up "Can't Close My Eyes" or "Break Down the Walls" - this one is for fans only.

this album is great. i'm not sXe or vegan, but i do appreciate this record a lot. y.o.t. was a great band, with cappo's distinct vocals and a somewhat revolving-door style backing that always layed down fast, hard-hitting hardcore. (...)

this is the greatest hardcore album ever created, period. it even beats out minor threat's complete discography for that title. every single song on the album is an anthem worth screaming along with and the lyrics are great. if you are into hardcore music it is imperative that you OWN this album.