Indie and Lo-Fi music reviews

This is a good Five-Eight album, just not their best. With this album the band had signed to a major label and adopted a different sound; consequently this was the last album with longtime drummer Tigger Ferguson who was replaced by Mike Rizzi.

Overall some very solid tracks here and I would not hesitate to recommend to any fan of the band.

I've been a fan of Five-Eight for a couple of years now and if you've never heard of them, I suggest that you look for any of their cd's. I first encountered this album under the title "The Angriest Man". The album is fairly short, straight-forward and to the point, however it never feels rushed. The music and lryics are haunting, even violently more so on "Depressed All The Time". This album and the band's "Weirdo" should be manditory listening for any true music fan.

With intense music and enigmatic lyrics that are at times incredibly sensitive, these guys should go far. I look forward to their next release.

This is a good Five-Eight album, just not their best. With this album the band had signed to a major label and adopted a different sound; consequently this was the last album with longtime drummer Tigger Ferguson who was replaced by Mike Rizzi.

Overall some very solid tracks here and I would not hesitate to recommend to any fan of the band.

I've been a fan of Five-Eight for a couple of years now and if you've never heard of them, I suggest that you look for any of their cd's. I first encountered this album under the title "The Angriest Man". The album is fairly short, straight-forward and to the point, however it never feels rushed. The music and lryics are haunting, even violently more so on "Depressed All The Time". This album and the band's "Weirdo" should be manditory listening for any true music fan.

With intense music and enigmatic lyrics that are at times incredibly sensitive, these guys should go far. I look forward to their next release.

This collection includes 4 incredible Red House Painter Tracks, I am a devoted fan of RHP and these four tracks are absolute gems. The Idaho and Hayden tracks are also very good and add to the value of this CD. I also enjoy much of what Low does, however the Low tracks included here are not new and not my favorites and not as good as the stuff on their new CD.

The Shanti Project Collection is a benefit CD with proceeds donated to 'enhancing the quality of life... of people with HIV disease and AIDS." It features songs by moody musicians Red House Painters, Low, Idaho, Misc and Hayden. Red House Painters' four song contribution includes a rendition of Neil Young's "Midnight on the Bay" and a version of "Follow You, Follow Me" that does for Genesis what Aztec Camera's "Jump" did for Van Halen. And Hayden's songs, "Wasting My Days Away" and "Choking," sound as intimate as a friend whispering secrets in your ear late at night.

Benefit albums are good causes, but from a purely musical perspective, they're usually not that satisfying. Either there's a plethora of big-name throwaway tracks, or the roster is so scattershot that it hardly encourages fluid listening. However, the Shanti Project Collection, benefiting an AIDS help center in San Francisco, takes a welcomed approach in keeping cohesiveness to its spectacular benefit by choosing five bands to fill out the whole CD. San Francisco's Red House Painters wade through their usual magical mix of country and rock, trading electric and acoustic sounds on "Follow You, Follow Me." Their best contribution, and that of the entire album, is a smoldering version of Neil Young's bluesy "Midnight On The Bay." The sleepy, dub-like "Turning Over," from Low, is indicative of this band's inertia-less, yet potent, style. They can make a silly refrain like "Sarah, you're lazy" (from "Lazy"), sound surreal and sublime. The usually lumbering Idaho, meanwhile, revel in Shanti's most groovy track, relatively speaking, "The Sun Is All There Is," accented nicely by a female backup vocalist.Hayden's slo-mo aesthetic and the prancing rhythms of Misc. round out the compilation. All these bands suffer from sad souls and have heavy sounds because of it; a perverse cohesion, sure, but with their intensity, this collection plays out as a slow-burning, meditative and, ultimately, immaculate listen.

Elf Power's fourth full length CD, The Winter Is Coming, is the cleanest distillation so far of their melodic psychedelica. Taking their cue from both the gentler and dronier aspects of The Velvet Underground, co-founders Andrew Rieger and Laura Carter steer their artsy collective towards a fascinating middleground. The John Cale influenced "Wings of Light" could be a prime Velvet Underground and Nico outtake. "The Sun Is Forever" unfolds as a folksy nugget. For the most part these songs are idylls, free of either angst or subtext. The titles tell you more than the songs - "Embrace the Crimson Tide", "Green Sea Days", "Birds in the Backyard". The titles are, in fact, all the songs are about whereas with the VU a title like "Heroin" was just a beginning. If you're willing to let Elf Power's neo-psychedlica wash over you, though, they occasionally provide a compelling trip.

Well, I assume most people who will purchase this album are already fans of Elf Power. If not, and you are in fact searching for an introductory Elf Power album, I would suggest last year's effort "A Dream in Sound" over this one. Now back to the fans: don't worry, you won't be disappointed. I would say that "Winter is Coming" is closer in mood to "When the Red King Comes" yet still capitalizes on the improvements experienced within "A Dream in Sound." For the most part, this album is mellow. Songs like "Wings of Light" and "The Sun is Forever" do well to set a "kick-back, relax, and soak the sound in" kind of atmosphere, while others like "The Naughty Villian" (my personal favorite) serve to shake things up a bit. Overall, another excellent outing by Elf Power.

May I ask you what you are doing not buying this album? In my opinion, this rivals Red King as Elf Power's greatest album to date. At times it echoes back to the distorted rock of Vainly Clutching at Phantom Limbs, but this CD is infinately superior. Every song is great. My favorites are The Sun is Forever, People Underneath, and Birds in the Backyard. The Albatross is a really cool foray into industrial rock (believe it), although it does run a bit long. Anyway, these guys are still going strong, and any fans should not hesitate to buy this as soon as possible.

When I was reading press writings on Shannon Wright, Edith Frost's name came up repeatedly, so I made a blind stab and grabbed two of her records off the shelf.

As it turns out, Frost's music is only close to Wright's quietest music on her first record Flightsafety. Edith Frost's voice is actually more like Julie Doiron or Lisa Germano's, with loose pitch and a distinct flavour, and her songwriting remains in a dreamy, melancholic blur, gorgeous in a tired way. The feeling is that of an artist who feels no need to show off, letting a soft bed of instruments and whisper-soft vocals speak her mind.

Forst never scales the dizzying heights of Shannon Wright's more ferocious material or baroque song structures and melodies, but there's a quiet power in the mournful cello parts, tinkling piano and drawn-out vocal murmurs of "True", the wry percussion and sarcastic vibrato singing of "Wonder Wonder", the sparsely apocalyptic, guitar distortion-coloured "The Fear", country rock in "Further", and a buoyant garage-rock romper in "Cars and Parties", which is very atypical of this record.

I don't play this record often, but it's well crafted, with good songwriting and a dark detached mood that's fascinating. Recommended for fans of brainy, unusual music.

Edith Frost's latest release, "Wonder Wonder", her third full album, marks her debut as a singer/songwriter with a immense talent and style all her own. Although Calling over Time and Telescopic are highly notable and may eventually well be considered "standards" by sad-core enthusiasts, they stand in the shadows of other musicians in the Sad-core genre, namely Palace Brothers (in mood) and Bettie Sievert (in vocal style).

But Wonder Wonder stands independently, rising from the sky blue of her Texas home and reaching into the bleak cityscapes which are defined by pavement rather than greenness. Her vocals are more challenging than ever, and her voice soars and dips, taking us right to the edge of safety and revealing it's edges, before bringing us back to center. Less difficult tonal passages could have been taken, but the vocal stays true to the emotional range of her beautifully crafted material.

Wonder Wonder also stands alone in it's aural moodiness as the first album by Frost that has a truly upbeat tone. (I found it the perfect party album during a low-key holiday gathering.) This isn't to say that the numbers aren't at times sorrowful. "Blue," the first track on Wonder Wonder, is as classic a Frost tune as any you will find, but the step into the upbeat 2nd track ("Cars and Parties") lets the listener know that this album is going someplace new. It's like a breath of fresh air, and with creative instrumentation and a real sense of humor, Frost sounds liberated as she sings about the subject that she frequents most often: meditations on the nature of love.

As a songwriter Frost has always been ahead of the pack, composing songs with enough complexity to hook the listener early on, and enough lyrical mystery to keep our minds filling in the blanks as we replay them over and over in our heads. Somewhere between the Beatles and Elliott Smith is the zone that Frost inhabits musically, and she's never let us down when it comes to musical composition.

However, there have been times on prior releases when the guest musicians were not as polished as Frost's songs deserved. This is not the case with Wonder Wonder, which sounds more complete and full than any other Frost album to date. And yet, unlike some of Elliott Smith and the Beatles works, Wonder Wonder does not get bogged down in overproduction. Just enough boost is provided by the guest musicians to allow the songs on Wonder Wonder to really pop.

How long Edith Frost will remain exclusively a college radio queen is unknown. Her talent equals if not surpasses that of Carly Simon and Phoebe Snow, and Frost has already written more truly great songs than both of them combined. Too bad commercial radio today is so lifeless that an artist with talent as vast as Ms. Frost's has to remain an underground phenomenon. I am certain that the world at large would appreciate her music, lyrics, and her vocal delivery.

As a resident of New York City, I relish the line in the Wonder Wonder track, "Further," where she sings of the "brave fireman" who "reaches out" - it's comforting to be able to sing heartfully about firemen these days. It just feels right.

This album combines an authentic country/folk twang with honest modern angst over love and relationships in general. I truly hope that this is one of the directions alt. contry/"no depression" music will take in its development. I can't wait for her next album!

Antique Glow is quite a beautiful album. The opening track is by far the highlight, a slow, dreamy piece of modern psych that stays with you for days and days. The rest of the album, although slightly weak at times, generally maintains a solid and sometimes fascinating standard. The music is most definently psychedelic and the album in general gives off an aura of stoned delight. Jangly acoustic guitars and heavily delayed and fuzzed electrics abound. Contrary to what another reviewer said, I, as a vocalist myself, find his voice quite pleasurable to listen to. Word has it that his live shows are spectacular; he's become very popular in Australia where he played many gigs late last year (incidentally, the cover on the oz version of the album is completely different; it's a picture of a blue bunny rabbit, kind of like Donnie Darko). I highly reccommend this album to anyone interested in solid modern psychedelica.

Kelley Stoltz is a true gem, a songwriter who channels his influences and speaks in tongues, wrangling with dinosaurs and tricky old 8-track machines as he duckwalks out jugular cords in his Mission bedroom. And out comes this handmade work of beauty, a sprawling crazy architect's house full of sonic nooks (listen with headphones). Its certainly not without its mistakes, but yet his mistakes are more interesting than most band's entire catalogs.

And go see this man live. Never plays a song exactly the same way, his band members trying to keep up...

I've seen bands with riffs and I've seen singers who can break your heart and I've seen songwriters who know more than I do, but I ain't seen all three in one 'til I saw Kelley Stoltz live.

I saw Kelley Stoltz play at a club here in Chicago. He was just playing acoustic with only one other musician also playing guitar. I was astonished by how strong his sonwriting was and what a great voice he had. He clearly is influenced by the greats: Drake, Nillson, Barrett, Young (Neil). But his style is all his own. Its like he put all of his songwriting influences in a blender and created something entirely new.

I bought the album at the show and popped it in the car on the way home, and was completely shocked by what I heard. I was expecting an album version of what I heard on stage, but what I was met with were many of the same songs only being performed in much more fleshed out arragnements and with a really warm, intimate homespun/home recorded feel. I have never heard anything like this before and I have a collection of over 20,000 rock records.

Subsequent research showed that Kelley recorded the basic tracks in his bedroom on an 8 track recorder playing all the insturments with only minimal proper studio work after he was done. What you get with this is an amzing sense of a songwriter writing and recording at the same time (and not in a lazy stream of conciousness way), you are listening to an artist use the recording as a key part of his creative process. The acoustic songs took on new depth and the record also shows that Stoltz can also bring the rock, "Tubes in the Moonlight" and "Mt. Fuji" are astonishing in their melody and depth. If you like great songwriting and lush arrangements that still rock, you will not be disappointed. This is one of my favorite records in a long time.

Mr. Airplane Man is a technical nightmare. They are not good musicians, and no amount of "rock and roll" angst and attitude can fool those who respect real musical talent. This band is for the lemmings.

I'll take soul over "talent" any day. I haven't ordered this album yet but the fact that some Dave Matthews fan thinks it's crap makes me want it even more.

like no one else has the guts or talent to play it. Mr Airplane Man could blow just about anyone else out of the water. I'm sure many guys would hate to admit that 2 chicks could play music like this. Iggy Pop and Sonic Youth don't even come close to Airplane Man's version of "I Wanna Be Your Dog."
If you like this, I'd recommend seeking out their self released first cd, as well, which will hopefully be released to a wider audience someday.

Neither as good as 1990's "Artistic Vice," nor as lame as the 1989 re-release of "Yip Jump Music," Daniel Johnston's new album "Rejected Unknown" alternates between brilliant writing and erratic, primitive creations that barely qualify as actual songs.

Maybe that is to be expected, and such gaps in consistency certainly should not be seen as detracting from the better work on this record. After all, when listening to Johnston's many weird anthems, ballads, ditties, and various other types of numbers, it is necessary to consider his material in the context of the man at the source. Diagnosed as a manic-depressive in the mid-1980s and, more recently, with diabetes in 1997, Johnston has plenty of reasons for being at odds with the conventional forms of rock and roll. And although medication (when he takes it) appears to stabilize his moods enough so that he can be productive, there is no doubt that Johnston's songs of anguish and joy still owe as much to his bipolar disorder as to his tremendous capacity for inspiration. In this sense, "Rejected Unknown" raises uncomfortable questions about the exploitation of talented people who have disabilities, such as a mental illness. Indeed, it is not going too far to say that some of the tracks on this album sound more like a cry for help than an attempt to entertain or inform.

As usual, most of the best performances Johnston has here come in his upbeat pieces. This guy has been a remarkably astute and perceptive student of popular music for all of his life, and nowhere is that more apparent than with the catchy "Impossible Love" and "Billions/Rock," which draw on influences ranging from the Beatles to Neil Young. Other highlights include "Love Forever" (yet another tragicomic look at the singer's breakup with the woman who broke his heart 15+ years ago) and "Some Time Spent In Heaven" where "we were always havin' fun." Johnston has always been a great lyricist, but on these tunes he demonstrates that he knows how and where to use little melodic and rhythmic hooks as well.

Songs like the bouncy "Favorite Darling Girl" and the minimalistic "Spook" drive this point home, and also underscore the artist's enduring faith in moral and religious values. At one moment he asks, "What will become of us? No one really knows." In the next, he offers us reassurance with the lines, "God is alive, love ain't no jive." Not Shakespeare, perhaps, but nevertheless a different approach to the raptures of love than you hear most of the time in popular music.

Elsewhere, "Davinare" has a nice instrumental arrangement in it, including some real beautiful organ and viola work. "Party" is another tortured look at having fun "with the suicide rock and roll" and the "magic radio." Then there is "Thrill," a fairly lighthearted tune that delivers a dose of optimism tinged with experience and regret. Not to be missed. Once again, Johnston's singing leaves a lot to be desired, but then no one buys his records expecting him to deliver particularly wonderful vocals.

There are about a half-dozen clunkers here. "Funeral Girl," "Dream Scream," "Cathy Cline," and "Girl Of My Dreams" just sort of come across as filler. "Wedding Ring Bells Blues" and "I Lose" are strong lyrically, but the accompaniment really does not do the songs justice. Generally speaking, the track record on "Rejected Unknown" is pretty good. Two-thirds of the work here is decent to fantastic, and if it is not up to the standards of "Artistic Vice," well, few musicians ever manage to reach and maintain that level of achievement. As one of our finest, if not strangest, alternative indie rockers, Johnston has earned respect. If you have never heard him before, start with "AV," but if you enjoyed his previous work, you will probably want to give this one a spin.

Listening to Daniel Johnstson can be a a little bit exhausting. His spooky, cracked, school boys singing, angular arangements and amateur musicianship is certainly not for everyone. But, above all, it's obviously not an act either. Nope, no schtick here. This is all unsettlingly "the real deal". Idiosyncratic deoesn't even begin to describe this album. Some of the songs are rather catchy, almost straight-foward lo-fi folk rock numbers--- others are cacophonies of woozy electric noodling. There are a handful of bonafide classics, but mostly it comes across as a sloppy, unfinished record somewhere between Neutral Milk Hotel and The Beach Boys. I actually reccomend it enthusiastically as long as you know what you are in for. It's better than his last album "Fun", as this actually has some melodic songs. It's also an interesting-sounding recording, as it is very minimal and can sound very life-like... for some reason it reminds me of Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" at times. There is a tune where he cops the hook from The Police's "Every Breath You Take" and wraps it around his own factured tune and odd-ball lyrics--- such moments of sheer brilliance make the album easily worthwhile.

The record can be slighlty disturbing with its child-like fixations on romantic love as an abstract concept. There also seems to be whole language of symbols and allusions that the listener can only really be half-plugged into... but, I think that's the point. It also has a voyeuristic quality in that you may feel as if you are witnessing a tortured soul wage war on his demons... essential but flawed listening for the open-minded. Certainly one of the most "pure" and fascinating albums ofthe year.

So what is Daniel Johnston? Mental patient? Pop phenom? ... Hopeless romantic? Chain smoker? Yes, he is all these things and more. But the Daniel Johnston I am here to talk about is Daniel Johnston the recording artist. He writes eccentric songs that he sings in a childlike voice. His music is very hard to describe, you really need to hear it to get what he is all about. Many of the songs on this album are about romantic yearning, one of his favorite subjects. They are really quite lovely if you give them a chance. Although this album has a more "professional" sound than his earlier albums, it still has a homemade feel to it. There are many instances of "mistakes" that were left in, and sometimes Daniel's voice cracks. These imperfections add to the charm of the album. Fans of "outsider" music should dig this album.

After listening to Telescopic, Edith Frost's second album, it's difficult for me to believe that this is the same Ms Frost who not so long ago released the astonishing Calling over Time. Whereas her debut was sparse, dizzyingly spacious and recorded with an intense clarity, Telescopic is a dense, fuzzy affair that is somewhat disappointing in comparison.

Calling over Time is imbued with a slow, measured sadness that lingers in my consciousness long after the final song has finished. Telescopic, however, is a record of less clearly defined emotions. The tenderly understated Light and the tense atmospherics of Telescopic aside, the record treads awkwardly through a collection of songs of similar musical theme that are mired in a swamp of murky, distorted guitar sounds and in whose mix Edith's voice is pushed unceremoniously into the background.

Edith Frost writes moving songs of simple beauty and I have no quarrel with the songs on Telescopic per se. It is, however, a shame that the production of the record has by no means done her justice and in fact has served only to detract from the pleasure of listening to her music in its purest form.

Edith reminds me the most of Barbara Manning. She has similar vocal stylings and employs the same sort of low key charm that Barbara does. Both are among the most underrated women artists currently operating in the US, a list that includes Lisa Germano and Lida Husik.

Telescopic is evocative of the best of New Zealand strum and thrum pop. Highly recommended.

i can't stop playing this cd over and over and over ... also check out edith singing background on chris mills' excellent "every night fight for your life".

INSPIRED BUT UNREFINED CHEAP STUDIO THROW AWAYS...THE BEST I CAN DO WITH THIS...IT HAS ONE OR TWO MOMENTS THAT ARE RUINED BY SOMETHING STUPID....

After purchasing a few Sebadoh CDs it was obvious that the songs penned by Lou Barlow were the gems of the collections. Winning Losers offers some insight into how the man sketches the songs that eventually make it onto proper Sebadoh CDs; however, these maintain a raw power that I can listen to repeatedly, unlike most Sebadoh CDs (the exception being Bakesale - their masterpiece). It remains one of my favorites and I highly recommend it.

an ex-boyfriend of mine purchased this album in 1994 and i fell in love with it immediately. something about lou's voice gets me everytime. the simplicity of the music and the cleverness of the lyrics are what make this album one of the best. this is a MUST HAVE for anyone who enjoys the lou songs over the jason songs on the sebadoh albums.