Avenged Sevenfold "Avenged Sevenfold" Review

Originally in The Oklahoma Daily on October 30th, 2007.

Avenged Sevenfold and its self-titled new release seem custom-made for Hot Topic. The band’s ill-advised fashion sense, pseudo-gothic imagery, flair for the overdramatic and general aim for rebellion all seem to appeal to the trendy goth/emo store’s target demographic.

The album opens with a gothic-sounding organ on “Critical Acclaim,” immediately reinforcing the clichés of the band’s image. The organ gives way to a heavy breakdown and shrill screams, which are probably meant to prove that the band hasn’t strayed too far from its hardcore roots, even though it obviously has. The song features lengthy patriotic/pro-war spoken word parts. Regardless what political message he may be spitting, it’s simply impossible to take lead singer M. Shadows seriously. His awful stage name and massive grill render any serious message a joke.

By the time the record reaches the halfway mark, it’s clear the band’s only goal is to conquer mainstream radio. The band follows the verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/solo/chorus song structure on almost every track, and everything just feels phoned in.

It’s only on “A Little Piece of Heaven” that the band seems to try anything legitimately new. This nine-minute epic seems straight out of a Danny Elfman score. It’s very “Nightmare Before Christmas”-ish (and definitely keeps with the misunderstood-youth theme). At first the song is quite enjoyable and provides a breath of fresh air, but after a few minutes Shadow’s obnoxious shtick takes over, and it just becomes annoying.

As awful as this record is, however, it will be huge — guaranteed. In spite of everything else, Avenged Sevenfold knows its fanbase, and seems to cater to them perfectly.

Mainsite White Walls Sound Experiments

Originally in The Oklahoma Daily on October 26th, 2007.

If you happen to be walking down Main Street tonight, don’t be surprised to hear some strange noises coming from the Mainsite Art Gallery. Sound artist Jon Mooneyham will be taking part in an improvised sound performance along with other musicians and dancers.

“It’s an exploration of sound and creation of noise,” Mainsite director Christian Pitt said. “It might just be noise, or it might be something else.”

Jon Mooneyham will be mixing on turntables to anchor the event, but beyond that, Pitt is unsure of what to expect.

“Whoever decides to show up will influence what happens,” Pitt said. “It’s all very loose, with no real format.”

Mooneyham also goes by the name DJ Bronzai and has been a prominent local DJ for quite some time. He has also been involved with the Flaming Lips, providing graphic design for the band, and even playing guitar with them for a short time.

Members of local bands Anvil Flute and Ghosts of Monkshood are also scheduled to take part, but don’t expect the music to reflect the bands’ regular sound.

“The openness is not tied to traditional music,” Pitt said. “It won’t be a part of any one genre.”

The event will take place tomorrow night at the Mainsite Gallery in downtown Norman.

“It will be a unique event that cannot be reproduced or replicated,” Pitt said.

DJ Bronzai will also perform this Wednesday night at the Opolis as part of the second annual “Hallopolis.”

Kiss "Destroyer" Classic Review

Originally in The Oklahoma Daily on October 24th, 2007.

It’s easy to write off the band Kiss as simply a gimmick. Its makeup, costumes and a constant barrage of pyrotechnics seem to be a bit of a put-off for true music fans.

But beneath their comic book schtick, the band uses excellent songwriting to create some great rock anthems, many of which appear on 1976’s “Destroyer.”

With 1975’s “Alive,” the band broke into the mainstream, mostly owing to that album’s ability to capture the band’s spectacular live show. On “Destroyer,” the band could have easily tried to recreate that concert experience in the studio, but instead went the opposite route. They employed Pink Floyd/Alice Cooper producer Bob Ezrin, who brought with him an array of sound effects, an orchestra and a boys’ choir.

The album begins with the iconic “Detroit Rock City,” which tells the tale of a real Kiss fan who died in a car accident on his way to a Kiss concert — presumably by rocking out too much. The song’s massive arena-rock guitars and fist-pumping chorus are instantly recognizable.

Heavy bass lines and Gene Simmons’ raspy growl make up “God of Thunder,” a song that has since become Simmons’ theme song. When played live, it is during this song that Simmons — also known as “The Demon” — breathes fire and spits blood.

The middle of the album sags a bit. “Great Expectations,” “Flaming Youth” and “Sweet Pain” all seem terribly dated and ultimately become forgettable.

Things pick back up for the last third of the record, however. “Shout It Out Loud” is another instantly recognizable classic. Then there is the ballad “Beth” — the song was originally the B-side to “Detroit Rock City” and was never intended to be a single, but listeners began requesting the tune on the radio, and eventually it became the band’s first top 10 hit.

Minus The Bear

Originally in The Oklahoma Daily on October 23rd, 2007.

The first time Seattle band Minus the Bear headlined in Oklahoma was in 2003 at the Opolis, which holds about 180 people. The second time was at the Conservatory in 2005, which has a capacity of 240 people. Tonight, the band will play at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, which holds about 1,400 people. That’s quite a large leap for such a short amount of time.

The band, which consists of singer/guitarist Jake Snider, guitarist Dave Knudson, drummer Erin Tate, bassist Cory Murchy, and keyboardist Alex Rose, is currently in the middle of a seven-week tour in support of its latest record, “Planet of Ice.”

“This is the best tour we’ve ever been on, or that I have ever been a part of,” Jake Snider said. “Everything’s just been very consistent. The crowds have been good — good clubs. It’s been a lot of fun.”

A seven-week long tour might be considered too long by some bands, but the members of Minus the Bear are used to it.

“We are out for seven weeks on this one, then we are home for about eight days, and then it’s four weeks in Europe,” Snider said. “It’s been that way for like six years, just touring every fall. We know exactly what to expect. We are lucky now, because everything is a lot more comfortable. We rented a van with like a 20-inch flat-screen TV, and we have been watching a lot of movies and TV shows on DVD. And the venues are better now. When the clubs are nicer, the stress level goes down a lot.”

Prior to the recording of “Planet of Ice,” the band went through some lineup changes. Founding member and keyboardist Matt Bayles left the group in order to focus full-time on his career as a record producer, and Alex Rose was then brought in to replace him.

“The rest of us are so used to playing with each other, that we move really quickly and might overlook some things that are wrong,” Snider said. “Alex points out certain flaws that we might not see. He’s really critical of the music in a different way than the rest of us. Matt was more about filling things out and creating more atmosphere, whereas Alex is adding a lot of new melodies and layers.”

Earlier this year, the band released “Interpretaciones del Oso,” a remixed version of 2005’s “Menos El Oso.” The first pressing of “Planet of Ice” came with a bonus disc that included a remixed version of the track “Throwin’ Shapes.”

“I don’t think we want to do another remix album this time, but there will be a few more ‘Planet of Ice’ remixes that we will release in various ways,” Snider said.

City Boyz

Originally in The Oklahoma Daily on October 22nd, 2007.

When one thinks of great hip-hop scenes, Oklahoma City probably isn’t the first town to come to mind, Local rap group City Boyz aims to change that.

The group, which consists of Lava, Lil’ Snap and JP, just completed its new record, “No Time,” and will be unleashing it on the masses early next year.

“We got the new album, and we were listening to it on the highway, and I just had to stop. It got me too amped up. It’s crazy man,” Snap said. “I don’t even got no watch on, man. It’s ‘No Time!’”

Recently, the group went through some lineup changes.

“A lot of people thought City Boyz broke up, or fell off or whatever, but we just regrouped,” Lava said.

Two members left and were replaced by JP.

“Some people stayed and some people left,” Snap said. “But on their part, it wasn’t a wise decision, because it’s going down. We got JP now, and he’s bringing it.”

With both “No Time,” and their first album, “We Ride,” the group worked independently, making all their own beats, and recording everything themselves.

“I respect creativity and original beats,” Lava said. “Even on our first mix tape we had eight original beats. We just want to show people that we can hold it down independently. It’s all about independence and it’s going to continue to be.”

The City Boyz see a lot of talent in the Oklahoma City rap scene, but think that in order to be successful, everyone needs to be more collaborative.

“Everybody is out there doing their thing, and whoever makes it first is gonna help out everyone else,” Snap said. “But for the time being, everyone needs to work together more. It would be poppin’. There is a lot of good artists that could blow, but if they stop being selfish and work together, we all could blow.”

For Lava, Snap and JP, the City Boyz is more than just a rap group, it’s family.

“These are like my bros. This is our family,” Snap said. “This is why we’re good. It’s not like three homeboys rapping; it’s like three brothers rapping. It ain’t just the City Boyz. You go to the club, you don’t just see Lava or just JP or just me, you see all of us.”

When the group isn’t on tour, they can often be found out on the South Oval handing out flyers, selling CDs and talking with fans.

“It’s cool to meet new people,” JP said. “We’ve met new DJs out here, new rappers.”

“As artists, it looks good for us to interact with these people,” Lava said. “Get them to not only like our music, but like us as people. And they cool people, humble people.”

The City Boyz are confident that they can be the ones to put Oklahoma on the hip-hop map.

“We’re just trying to do something positive, and do something, not just for us, but for the state,” Snap said. “There are a lot of good rappers out there, but with the guys we got, I figure we can be the first Oklahoma group to break through.”

“We take this seriously,” Lava said. “This is not a hobby, this is life.”

Cheap Trick "At Budokan" Classic Review

Originally in The Oklahoma Daily on October 18th, 2007.

Cheap Trick really had everything going for them. They wrote catchy power-pop that was intelligent, yet still rocked. They had a pretty-boy lead singer in Robin Zander that the girls could go crazy over, and a goofy guitarist in Rick Neilson that provided a sense of humor. Never was this more apparent than on their breakthrough live album “At Budokan.”

At the time of the album’s release, Cheap Trick was relatively unknown in the States but huge in Japan, which is obvious by the insane crowd reactions on the album.

The sound quality isn’t the greatest, and often the music is drowned out by schoolgirls’ screams, but there is something undefinably great about “At Budokan.” It showcases the band’s charm far better than any of their studio recordings.

The album was released right after the band’s third studio album, “Heaven Tonight,” and featured more than half of that record. “At Budokan” was probably supposed to create more of a demand for “Heaven Tonight,” but instead, it rendered the studio effort pointless. The live versions of the “Heaven Tonight” tracks are all far superior to their studio counterparts. So much so, in fact, the studio versions just sound incomplete. Robin Zander yelling the song’s title and the shrill screams that follow are an integral part of what makes “I Want You To Want Me” so great.

“Surrender” is quite possibly one of the catchiest songs ever. It’s just one of those songs that everyone seems to like. “Goodnight Now” is the perfect pseudo-ending for the album, and provides the perfect transition into the fist-pumping encore “Clock Strikes Ten.”

Obviously the band had enormous success after “At Budokan,” but they never quite matched the live album’s greatness again.

The Cave Singers

Originally in The Oklahoma Daily on October 17th, 2007.

When a modern band plays a classic genre of music, one would assume they have grown up listening to it, and have always been involved with it. This is not the case with Seattle folk band The Cave Singers. In fact, the band’s members have spent most of their careers playing in punk bands. The Cave Singers will be performing tonight at the Opolis along with Canadian band Black Mountain.

The Cave Singers’ lead singer Pete Quirk made his name with Seattle post-punk band Hint Hint, and guitarist Derek Fudesco with Pretty Girls Make Graves and the Murder City Devils. Given the members’ past projects, few would expect their new project to be sparse folk music, circa the 1930s.

Their debut record, “Invitation Songs,” was released last month by Matador Records.

“We recorded it up in Vancouver, British Colombia with Colin Stewart,” Quirk said. “We just went up for, like, five days at a time over the course of a few months. We met the Black Mountain guys up there, and a couple of them actually played on our record.”

Tonight will be the band’s first time to play in Norman.

“I’ve never been there before, so I don’t really know what Norman is like, but our guitarist Derek played there before with another band, and he said it was cool,” Quirk said. “Hopefully some people just want to come out, listen to some music, and drink some brewskis.”

Originally, there were no plans for The Cave Singers to become a real band. Fudesco and Quirk were just having fun.

“We were just recording stuff in our bedrooms,” Quirk said. “While Derek was on tour with another band, he wrote this great little acoustic song that I laid some vocals over. It just grew from there, and eventually we added Marty on drums.”

Like the Cave Singers, Black Mountain has a very retro sound, but of a different variety. The band’s sound brings to mind classic rock bands like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin.

Their new record, “In The Future,” will be released early next year on Jagjaguwar Records.

“Their second full-length album resonates with the same genuine folk fragility that made their self-titled debut full-length an instant classic,” the band’s label said in a press release. “The new album possesses immense breadth, seamlessly showcasing short and classic folk-pop gems along with driving modern rock masterpieces.”