Album Reviews

ASKELETON
Angry Album -or- Psychic Songs
(Goodnight)
How you feel about Knol Tate's Askeleton project depends on how ya like yer indie rock. If you like it jagged and forceful but still melodic, cuts like "Queenie" and "Ghost" will bring a sloppy grin to your oh-so-postpunk face. If you prefer precious bedsit crooning and gentle propulsion, then tracks like "The Future" and "$ Vs. Entertainment" will be more your meat. I could do without the electronic touches that adorn both approaches—it gets old fast on "Your Big Mouth Will Get You in Trouble"—and it takes the songs an awful long time to go anywhere. There's talent here, but it could use a bit more refinement. Michael Toland [buy it]

BLUE RODEO
Greatest Hits vol. 1
(Rounder)
Canada's Blue Rodeo has been knockin' around American clubs and Canuck arenas for over 15 years now, so it's probably past time for a best-of. Of course, a one-disk summary ain't gonna please many longtime fans—where are "Floating" and "God and Country?" Why only one cut (the title track, probably their greatest song) from the great Lost Together? And let's face it, the band has gotten kinda boring over the years, as the country rock-by-numbers "Bad Timing" and "Side of the Road" attest. Overall, this comp comes off as pretty perfunctory. Unless you're a neophyte, in which case "Til I am Myself Again," "Rose-Coloured Glasses" and "5 Days in May" will sound as good as rootsy rock/pop gets. Michael Toland [buy it]

THE COMPULSIONS
21 Powers Street
(The Compulsions)
The four-song 21 Powers Street is snarling, spitting, booze-saturated rock & roll from NYC songwriter Rob Carlyle and his drinking buddies. Like kindred spirits the Dragons or the Dogs D'amour, the Compulsions inject a heart-on-sleeve songwriting sensibility with a syringe full of punk attitude, resulting in gleefully snotty bar-band sleaze like "I Was Right, You Were Wrong" and "Shake Hands With the Devil." (The band is also adept at ballads, but we'll have to wait for its forthcoming full-length for that.) If the Stones had never made it out of the bars, maybe they'd still sound as vital as the Compulsions. Michael Toland

THE DAMNWELLS
Bastards of the Beat
(Red Ink/Epic)
On the most recent disk from Brooklyn's Damnwells, Alex Dezen's gentle wordplay and straightforward emotional thrust are nicely complemented by his bandmates' tasteful, melodic roots rock, while the no-bullshit production spotlights every syllable and string scrape. Unpretentious tunes like "I'll Be Around," "Electric Harmony" and "I Will Keep the Bad Things From You" offer simple pleasures, full of heart. It's not unlike the first Wilco album, before Jeff Tweedy became a serious artiste, and if you miss the days when that band eschewed boundary-stretching and just played, you may have your new heroes in the Damnwells. Michael Toland [buy it]

FOR STARS
…It Falls Apart
(Future Farmer)
There's a fine line between angst-ridden emoting and plain whining, and this heartworn, Flaming Lips-makes-out-with-Radiohead indie rock band crosses it more than once on its fourth album. It doesn't help that the textures are often a little too dreamy and wandering. But when the quintet focuses more precisely, as on "Lend Out Your Love." and "Calm Down Baby," For Stars makes some wonderfully affecting music. Michael Toland

JOHN FRANKOVIC
Space Zombie
(Brainticket)
Far too few folks remember Milwaukee's Plasticland, but it was one of the best psychedelic rock bands of the 80s. Bassist John Frankovic continues his outfit's proud legacy on his third solo album Space Zombie, an old-fashioned blast of trippy, 60sish psych. Syd Barrett's version of Pink Floyd seems to be the major influence here, as tunes like "You're telling me," "Play'n Hard" and "Too Spread Out" boast the same kind of stretched-out melodies and whimsical atmosphere as Barrett at his best. There's even the obligatory guitar freakout instrumental a la "Interstellar Overdrive," here called "Phalisti Revisited." Space Zombie is a treat for those who dig that sort of thing. Michael Toland

THE GREAT DECEIVER
Terra Incognito
(Peaceville)
Like their Nordic brethren in In Flames, the Swedes that make up the Great Deceiver (including legendary At the Gates throat-thrasher Tomas Lindberg) use death metal more as a base of operations than an entire campaign. Terra Incognito absorbs bits of Gothic atmosphere, nü-metal rhythms and alternative rock melodies into its furious riffage, without stinting on the firepower. And, of course, songs as varied as "The Heel On the Throat of the Young," "We—The Dead" and "Worm of Truth" find common ground in Lindberg's distinctive roar, still a yardstick against which other metal vocalists are judged. Michael Toland [buy it]

HOLY SONS
I Want to Live a Peaceful Life
(FILMguerrero)
On his fourth album under the name Holy Sons, Emil Amos sings 13 examples of a "Hermit's Tune," as he and his acoustic instruments channel his soul into the speakers. He's not the world's greatest singer, and his songs owe more than a little to Neil Young's more intimate musings, but this is honest music by an honest guy, and I Want to Live a Peaceful Life is as much an unfiltered portrait of the artist as a young man as Syd Barrett's solo albums. Michael Toland [buy it]

INSOMNIUM
Since the Day It All Came Down
(Candlelight)
Though definitely part of the black/death metal scene (the raspy, wolverine-grunts-transmuted-into-human-speech vocals are a dead giveaway), Finland's Insomnium seems intent on dragging its beloved extremism out of the back bedroom and onto the mountain top. The rhythm in songs like "Daughter of the Moon" gallops like a triumphant cavalry, and melodies like "The Day It All Came Down" have a majesty more associated with fist-waving power metal than dark-hearted thrash. Plus the band is quite capable of dropping the musicianly flourishes and just rocking the fuck out, as on "Closing Words." This is as accessible as black metal gets without softening its impact, and it's a coat Insomnium wears with style. Michael Toland [buy it]

KILOWATTHOURS & THE RUM DIARY
Kilowatthours & the Rum Diary
(Springman/Substandard)
The split CD is a nice, economical way for indie rock (and I mean indie rock as both a style and a necessity) bands to introduce themselves without asking too much of the audience. So dreamy pop band Kilowatthours and post rock (whatever that is) outfit the Rum Diary split their time so as not to try your patience. Too late for me on that score, as neither group did anything but bore me, but if you think Pitchfork is the only real music zine, maybe you'll have a different view. Michael Toland [buy it]

LE CONCORDE
Le Concorde EP
(Spade Kitty)
On his debut disk as Le Concorde, songwriter Stephen Becker is in thrall to the sounds of underground British rock of the 80s, particularly the smart pop of folks like Aztec Camera, Prefab Sprout and the Bluebells. I'm with him on that, actually, which makes soulful froth like "The Sound of Your Name" and the appropriately thematic "It's the Minor Chords That Kill You" perfectly satisfying for my bittersweet tooth. Guest stars include members of the Psychedelic Furs and Epicycle. Michael Toland

DEL MCCOURY
High, Lonesome and Blue
(Rounder Heritage)
A collection covering over a decade of service to Rounder Records, High, Lonesome and Blue is pure, grade-A bluegrass. McCoury deserves every accolade he gets for his music, and even though one could quibble with the track selection (Why brag about McCoury's tenure with Rounder beginning in 1972 if you're not going to include anything before 1987? And where's "Love is a Long Road?"), it's impossible to argue with the songs, which are uniformly awesome. Michael Toland [buy it]