Sudsonbleeker is SongMeanings' weekly review column featuring entries by Wolfgang Nibori from Happy Horror. Happy Horror is one of today's up and coming premiere horror and tokusatsu sites on the web.

New entries will be posted to Sudsonbleeker every Wednesday pertaining to what's currently popular within SongMeanings.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

For this week's album review I wanted to step out of the genres I've been reviewing and cover something I grew up on: hip hop. Not much in that scene has excited me lately after a brief love affair with chopped 'n screwed. I tend to gravitate towards new sounds so I thought I'd give Hollywood Undead a look since they're a new group. So new, in fact, that they only first played live at the Virgin Music Festival this past August.

The sticker on this album (Swan Songs) said "41 million HU fans online can't be wrong". Sounds great, but I'm sure that many people will go see the New Kids on the Block reunion tour and plenty of Disney movies open with ticket sales in those numbers, so I wasn't immediately sold. One of the strong points here is that we get fourteen tracks. I like getting a lot of tracks because when I spend money on music I want to think I'm getting a good deal.

In case you haven't heard of Hollywood Undead let me fill you in first before we get started. The band's seed was sown by members Deuce (AKA The Producer) and J-Dog when they posted a song on MySpace and got a lot of positive feedback. They went on to gather in Charlie Scene, Johnny 3 Tears, Funny Man and Da Kurlzz, all of them wearing masks to 'maintain an air of mystery'. By 2008 and they've got 400,000 friends on MySpace and their songs have been played many millions of times. Since they got signed they've spent the last 3 years working on this debut release.

To describe their sound I'd say it's gangsta rap with emo, more or less. If you blended up some Eminem, Ice Cube and Linkin Park you'd have a sound very similar to what Hollywood Undead offers. Gangsta emo? Yeah, we all knew it had to happen. And frankly, it's excuted quite well considering their goals. You get songs about partying, songs decrying the state of society and odes to life in Los Angeles.

It's all very catchy and so long as you don't mind the harsh rapping style of Eminem and the screamy sounds of hardcore punk or metal then you'll feel right at home. While it's not really to my tastes I'm not downplaying the fact that they're obviously a sound a lot of people will and do enjoy. My only real issue is that the sounds and lyrics aren't anything that wasn't happening about a decade ago. I hoped for something fantastically new, but this is more comfortably familiar.

Hollywood Undead's got a great image and I like the use of masks. It's nothing wildly inventive but they've packed together enough quirky stuff to be their own 'thing', if you will. They do seem to be trying to speak to kids today and in particular their track 'Young' provides an anthem that makes sense and addresses growing up in the current times in an interesting way. It feels heartfelt but as much as I want to like the group I get the sense that they're something of a record label creation by marketers trying to create the ever sought after 'next big thing'.

At the root of it, they've got bangin' beats, talented rap and a vibe that can handle partying as well as it handles thoughtful reflection. I don't have any problem recommending the album if you think it sounds like something you'd enjoy but I can't quite hail it as anything profoundly new and different. I think they're a concept who's time has come but I honestly don't expect to last much longer than than the nu-metal of the last decade, sadly.

So that's my cover of 'Swan Songs'. It's a solid album and worth its cost, but if you want something mindblowing you'll want to look elsewhere. The End.

~Wolfgang Nibori of Happy Horror.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

A few years ago a friend introduced me to a not-so-well-known Louisiana band named Acid Bath. At the time I characterized their sound as "swamp goth" or Alice in Chains on steroids, but I've come to learn that they in fact played sludge metal, a grungier version of doom metal. They had a low, heavy sound and lyrics that dove into the macabre. I played the hell out of their songs and not just because of the music, but because of their singer. A guy called Dax Riggs.

Unfortunately, Acid Bath lost their bass player to car accident several years ago so they're no longer together. That's not stopped Riggs from pursuing other projects, however. While I'd eventually like to bring you more reviews of this incredibly talented singer/songwriter, today I'm reviewing a CD called If This is Hell I'm Lucky by Deadboy and The Elephantmen.

While this CD first saw release in 2002, due to hardships in the relationship with the band's record label it was extremely difficult to find for many years. In 2008, Fat Possum saw fit to release it again and that's the album I'm in possession of. Amazingly, the songs on the album were actually recorded back in 1997. While that could perhaps be a bad thing, maybe suggesting the tunes feel dated, this is not the case at all.

If This is Hell won't be mistaken for an Acid Bath CD because it lacks the sheer force of that band's sonic assault and contains very little of the thrash metal influences they incorporated. With this album you get a lighter sound, but you still get a heavy feel, probably due to the nature of the lyrics which often journey into darker shades poetry. Dax Riggs made his mark in the music industry with his trademark singing style and he brings it to bear in this band as well as he ever heard. The guy's got a "big voice" that's as capable of soft serenading as it is of ripping off a wailing chunk of the blues. The range he's offering here kept me interested throughout the CD and made the songs feel distinct even when the more limited instrumentation might have felt restricting.

Straight from the start, with the opening track Strange Television, you get a taste of what's to come. This song brings out classic rock-styled whining guitars and bluesy vocals before it dips into a heavier chugging sound. My favorite songs, such as Otherworldly Dreamer with its wide variety and chanting or the definitely psychadellic High Monster, bring in a strain of creativity that shows this band playing with the same elements that'd make for a good song by Jimi Hendrix or Led Zeppelin - that is: solid rock 'n roll with a dreamy twist.

That's another thing, too, this album contains only two songs under four minutes and even those come in only seconds short. A couple surpass seven minutes. Dax gives each song time to shine and linger in your ears before switching to the next track and that gives this disc a very natural feel. It's a solid value because each of the songs are good, if not great, and there are no real "filler songs" found throughout.

It's easy to see why Henry Rollins took an interest in Deadboy and the Elephantmen. They're bringing a solid sound, skilled musicianship and a singer who writes songs worth listening to. While it's not quite as powerful as Acid Bath's offerings, I do feel it's a terrific album and well worth the ten to twelve bucks you're going to spend on it.

If you want a decent album of real rock 'n roll that learns from the classic rather than simply re-working them, I highly recommend If This is Hell Then I'm Lucky. You can't go wrong with these guys, they're offering a CD that's going to earn a lot of replay.

~Wolfgang Nibori of Happy Horror.

Friday, August 22, 2008

I looked long and hard for this week's album review. I wanted something strong, newer and completely unfamiliar to me. After stumbling around the blog world I finally came up with a band that sounded like it'd be worth checking out. That band calls themselves Blacklist.

Blacklist formed in 2004 as something of a revolt against the times. They're from New York and the indie scene basically started pissing them off with its superficiality. The foursome consists of: Ryan Rayhill on bass, Glenn Maryansky on drums, James Minor on guitar and Josh Strawn, guitarist and lead singer. I've got to say these guy bring it all together quite well.

They've been giving their first self-titled EP away for free on their website and I definitely recommend giving that a listen because it's worth paying money for. Their latest EP, Solidare, offers up exactly what you'll expect once you hear the first EP. You can listen to all three tracks on the band's Myspace page or by visiting their website at ListOfBlack.com, but you can find them on Facebook, also.

What makes these guys so special? For me, once I heard Language of the Living Dead I knew I'd love them. The video's very cool in a retro kind of way, the perfect soundtrack to a real life zombie invasion. They go more for melancholy and dread rather than cheesy shock. Strawn's voice is nothing short of amazing and he nails a sound that's reminiscent of say, Nick Cave or maybe Bauhaus. It's the kind of goth that spends less time crying and more time plotting cold revenge.

That lack of nihilistic sentiment won me straight over. Tracks like Blue Shifted and Pure Joy in My Heart ring with the sounds of rebellion rather than suicidal longings. The lyrics to Shock in the Hotel Falcon are available on the Blacklist Myspace page and they speak for themselves. Solid, crisp social commentary works well for these guys because they seem to actually have a clue about the world and a means of singing about it without coming across as preachy. They definitely learned a thing or two from punk.

If you enjoy darker music, but you don't feel like thrashing and ripping peoples' faces off then I think Blacklist just may fit your bill. It's a very accessible sound that'll burn into your brain after only a couple listens. Give these guys a shot and maybe they'll release a full album! God knows we could use more music like theirs.

~Wolfgang Nibori of Happy Horror.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Okay, I'm a touch thunderstruck and not sure how to start this, so we'll go with: I enjoy a wide variety of music. Shoegazer, grunge, black metal, gangsta rap, screamo, whatever. I try to hear as wide a variety of tuneage as possible to keep my horizons clear for incoming genius. Oftentimes I'll hear music and maybe I like the instrumentation but the lyrics blow. Or maybe they've got an awesome vocalist but there's not enough of a beat to hold on to. Therefore, I get picky. I can hang with about any type of music but a secret part of me longs to get hold of a sound that's truly original, a style that's fresher than a package of altoids.

Along comes Crystal Castles. I vaguely remember the name crossing my eyes a few years back but it's tough to track every new band you hear of. This particular sonic assault squad is a duo consisting of multi-instrumentalist Ethan Kath and Alice Glass, vocalist. They're from Toronto and hit the scene around 2004 or so. This self-titled album I'm reviewing came out in spring of 2008. They took their name from the palace of She-Ra, an 80's cartoon (that they claim to never have seen). Apparently, they began as an experiment and Kath posted some songs with Glass trying out vocals. He posted them to MySpace. By the time he checked back to see what his buddies thought, the band had offers from three record labels.

As to Crystal Castle's sound - I have no idea how you'd classify it. Pixellated sonic terrorism? Asylum dance music? Post-apocalyptic digipunk? Your guess is as good as mine, but the bottom line is they end up using a ton of crazy digital effects on both the music itself and Glass' voice, as well. They've said they use a keyboard hacked to include an Atari 5200 sound chip. Some people say they stole (borrowed without giving credit) from the chiptunes community. In case you've not heard of chiptunes, it's essentially a genre that utilized computer-generated (especially video game hardware) sounds that you might have heard on an old 8-bit Nintendo game. The bottom line ends up being that Crystal Castles truly creates a world of music that's deliciously submersive.

Right away when I qued up the album, the song "Untrust Us" gave me crazy Karnov flashbacks and the weird vocals fit in there amazingly well. The "Alice Practice" song that started it all showcases Glass' voice ripping and tearing through space and straight into your brain! Trying to describe this stuff left me thinking more of imagery: it's like a towering anime robot powered purely by angst or maybe the sensation of being trapped behind a haze of prescriptions and wireless devices trying to find your own emotions. You seriously don't need drugs to go with this music because the music itself ends up being the drug. That's about the highest praise I can give any band today.

Crystal Castles sounds like today, right this very moment. In a crazy world getting flashbacks of the Cold War emanating from from former Soviet territory we all seem so interconnected via digital means while still essentially locked up in cells. For me, what Crystal Castles offers is a bizarre way of looking at things through truly artistic methods. It's almost a "chopped and screwed" style of punk. The lyrics paint vivid pictures but they don't tell you what to think. SongMeanings has a big collection of Crystal Castle lyrics and I absolutely encourage you to take a look. Maybe Crystal Castles won't be for everyone but for those of us who've been waiting for a musical revolution: here it is!

Savor it.

~Wolfgang Nibori of Happy Horror.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Hey all,

I'm happy to be able to provide everyone with some great free music by David Stephenson. We did a review for David Stephenson's album, It's All In Your Head, last week, so if you haven't checked it out yet, please do so.

David Stephenson - Snag
David Stephenson - Dear Mr.Chapman

All songs are available MP3 format. Please enjoy. And if you like what you hear, head on over to David's MySpace and shoot him some love.

~Wolfgang Nibori of Happy Horror.