Grandize and Screaming

Rob Zombie - Educated Horses

Geffen, 2006

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I love tearing the shirnk-wrap off new albums. I love the smell of the CD factory. It's sexy somehow. And yet I buy the vast majority of my music used and online. So when I heard that Rob Zombie had a new album out there, I just couldn't wait. I got the pleasure of tearing the plastic off this beast all brand new.

The cover has two surprises: One, Rob Zombie looks like a normal person. A hairy normal person with a big nose, but still a normal person. Two, there's no big Parental Advisory label down there in the corner. The CD booklet itself is full of artwork of hot topless chicks but no really profane words. Huh. Is he growing up? Is he making sure all the parents of today's little kids don't take this album away like their parents took away La Sexorcisto?

Another surprise is Zombie's backing band. Tempesta is NOT on the drums, which is a shocker. Riggs is NOT on guitar, which is less of a shocker, but still. Both of them must have gotten tired of living in Rob Zombie's shadow, especially after coming out with this disappointing piece of crap:

Replacing Riggs in the lineup is John 5, who seems to be really proving himself lately. He's proved that he can be artsy, as shown in the oddball Desert Sessions with Homme. He's proved that he can rock balls with Marilyn Manson's later albums. And on his solo album, he's proved that while he can play a million notes a second and has practiced his solo chops, he doesn't actually have a soul (and not in a good way).

I've always thought Zombie and Manson were pretty closely related without having direct connections. Well, Educated Horses pulls them just a little bit closer together. John5's songwriting influence shows through on a few tracks, adding more ambience from guitar instead of sampling. And the flow of the album is more like a Marilyn Manson album than a Zombie album, with softer tracks building energy for the loud tracks instead of rocking all out with a few pauses. And the tracklisting on the back of the CD case is broken into two movements or sides, more or less, with one more song at the end to finish up (The Lords of Salem is good, but it's no Blood, Milk and Sky).

It's all got more of the Zombie swagger that he's been working on through his last few albums - several songs on Horses recall Sinister Urge songs House of 1000 Corpses and Go to California. That softer raspy singing instead of the all-out nasal snarl. But there's plenty of good old Zombie tricks, too. Lots of YEAHs and Chunk Chunk Chunk-a guiatar work. It is what it is: a cross section of Rob Zombie's history and evolution and the next logical step.

By the way, the mix is pretty much incredible. Played on my roommate's excessively bass-heavy setup, it will damn well make your stomach churn.

There's a new dynamic of style seeping into Zombie's usually carnival psych-out freak show motif; he's gaining something of a Southern-Rock style. I guess this is sort of predicted in the soundtrack of the film The Devil's Rejects. His music is softening while still rocking hard.

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EDIT: Oops. That was Twiggy Ramirez with Homme in the Desert Sessions. Sorry, folks.

My Mind is Blown.

Upcoming releases of good ol' bands that I guess I'm going to have to listen to:

Rob Zombie

NoFX

Flaming Lips

Buckcherry

Drive-by Truckers

Killing Joke

Pearl Jam

Red Hot Chili Peppers

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I won't worry about the Godsmack release, though.

Silence

There's something to be said for that.

Are You Dead or Are You Sleeping?

Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News

Sony, 2004

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Seems like I comment a lot on production. It's important. The use of production in music is like a brushstroke in painting or cooking method in cuisine or the use of simile in this very long sentence.

The production in Good News is backed off. There are layers, but very rarely too polised guitars dominate the mix. It's more intricate but the intricacy seems to come from a mosaic of simply-toned sounds. The guitars are scratchy or acoustic, the vocals are thin and sort of lispy. Unless they're screamed, and then they're just thin. The only thing that jumps way out in the mix is that dominant bass drum - used sparingly throughout the whole disc - that kicks in about halfway through the first track. Lots of other instruments (real musical instruments like horns and strings, as opposed to synth or found sounds) fill in the gaps left by Modest Mouse's usual thin sound.

All this jumble creates rhythm but that rhythm only goes so far. It's not rocky and it's not dancy. It's just musical. It goes well under what seems to be the main focus, the melody. And the melodies are good, fairly catchy without being annoyingly poppy.

All this, working well with the fact that the songs are consistently good and paced well over the course of the album, make it a pretty good listen overall. And while I might not like it more than The Moon and Antarctica, I certainly see it as easier to get all the way through in one sitting.

I Am Back to Save the Universe

Radiohead - Ok Computer

Capitol, 1997

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This is the opposite end of electronic music from that Brainiac release. It's corporate (word was that the next Brainiac album would be...), it's soothing, it's deep and textured, it's layers upon layers.

The funny thing about Radiohead is that it's easy to listen to and easy to get into but it's really not that catchy. The melodies don't suck you in; the sounds do. A typical song off of this album has a nice riff or beat that pulls the listener in at first, but backs away into the background mostly because of repetition and the vocals that don't really follow the predictably unpredictable chord changes.

The vocals are the signature across radiohead's work, yet they don't capture what the band does well. At times it feels like the vocals are there to carry a melody, but aren't all that central to the music itself. The lyrics don't shape the mood, the ambience does.

I really wanted to mention the mix on track 3: Subterranean Homesick Alien. It's amazing. Soft organ and undistorted guitar sounds shift left and right rapidly but calmly. A harmonic structure builds from deep bassy to heavy mid with pretty much consistent tone to wrap the listener up with insulation. The whole track is comforting but disorienting.

What's nice about this album over their later work (I'm talking about Amnesiac here) is that through all of the ambience, something is still happening that captures the interest and pulls the listener in. There is a presence on Ok Computer begging to be heard, instead of just turned down while one is falling asleep.

A Sexy Mouth to Taste It

Brainiac - Electro-Shock for President

Touch & Go, 1997

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This really isn't a great collection of music, but it's a really interesting CD. It's like one really good but poorly recorded song, the introduction to one really good song, and some interesting electronic gibberish that would work better as filler between good songs on an album.

I'm not finding a lot to say about Electro-Shock. So here's a brief history: This was a promo for a new Brainiac album which was still in recording when Tim Taylor died in a "one-car accident, driving home from the studio." (that's as per AllMusic.com) So this disc is one of those interesting missing links between periods for an artists, only the next period never came.

Electro-Shock is noisy and dark. In the last track the production is so loose it's almost terrible, but it's good like that. It seems natural as what it is. The production on the first track sparkles and rumbles. The other songs mix around recorded nonsense, computer singing, and lots of looped beats that cut each other up and audibly fold and distort and conflict.

It's music to go crazy to. With a grin, and dancing like a twiggy freak in the rain holding a flare in your teeth or making out with a sweaty girl who's holding a knife. Or maybe it sounds like a headache.

As a side note: anybody who really got into Saddle Creek bands Bright Eyes, Cursive, and the Faint should really heart this at least once, just for a little perspective.