Well, at least it
ain’t another screamo album. But while I like this marginally better, it’s just
as generic. Struckdown play totally by the numbers eighties hardcore. They
play it well, but you’ve heard it all before. Still, for fans of the genre that
probably won’t matter. The lyrics are good, the band rocks, and you can mosh to
it. If that’s all you need, then you could do worse than picking this up. (Bob
Ignizio)
Deep, rich female
vocals glide overtop of cinematic soundscapes that would have made the perfect
soundtrack to some lost Sergio Leone spaghetti western. Only a few tracks are
sung in English, but the melancholy emotions conveyed by this music cross all
language barriers. I guess you could call it avant Americana. I generally try
to avoid using the press kit sent with an album when I’m writing a review
because a. it’s lazy and b. most of what’s written by publicists is bullshit.
But I’ll be damned if I can think of a better description of Tarantella than the
one in their bio: “Siouxsie Sioux singing over Ennio Morricone.” One of my
favorite albums of 2005. (Bob Ignizio)
Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re – ‘Pregnant
Fantasy’ (Australian Cattle God/Benten Tokyo)
All you hipsters out
there are going to think I suck when I bring up what I’m about to bring up, but,
I don’t know, maybe your white belt is a little too tight these days. Here it
is: Gwen Stefani. I know, I know. “Who is she,” you say? But you are lying.
You probably even owned a No Doubt CD at one point. Whatever, that’s not the
point; the point is she is on this new kick in her solo career to write dance
songs that are influenced by her rock/ska/whatever roots. She also has captured
4 Japanese girls and makes them hang out with her at all times. While none of
this has anything to do with Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re- it does. These girls are writing
some rock songs, some dance songs, some ska songs, and even some semi-rockabilly
songs. They are all in Japanese, so I can’t tell you what they mean, but I can
tell you Gwen Stefani’s solo career made more sense to me when I listened to
them. She is trying to achieve what these girls already do effortlessly. They
are energetic, and they can actually play their instruments. They have those
heart-pounding guitar leads, and bass lines that make you feel like something
else is going to happen, and they usually deliver. Tsu Shi MaMi Re’s ‘Pregnant
Fantasy’has tons of elements of straight-up rock bands full of boys,
only they are four cute tiny girls from Tokyo. On first listen I didn’t
understand what I was listening to, their sound was actually quite surprising,
but in a good way! (Feowyn A. MacKinnon)
Not
too long ago I reviewed ‘God Bless the Electric Freak’, the previous album by
Turn Me On Dead Man. I thought the band had potential, but hadn’t realized it
with that release. Interestingly enough, TMODM head honcho Mykill Ziggy emailed
me and said he agreed with my assessment to a large degree, and wondered if I’d
be willing to give his latest opus a listen. I said I would, and I’m glad I
did. ‘Technicolourmother’ is a far superior album to ‘God Bless the Electric
Freak’. The mix of Beatlesesque pop and heavy stoner rock riffing has been
successfully balanced, the production is much stronger, and the songwriting has
improved substantially. This is a much heavier sounding album that ‘God
Bless…’, but it still has great vocal melodies and hooks. While the so-called
“stoner rock” scene has been rather moribund in 2005, ‘Technicolourmother’
manages to inject some much needed life into the genre. Not sure what the
distribution on this is like, so if you have trouble finding it go to the band's
website:
http://www.mandeadonmeturn.com/turnmeondeadman.htm. (Bob Ignizio)
Well, at least it
ain’t another screamo album. But while I like this marginally better, it’s just
as generic. Struckdown play totally by the numbers eighties hardcore. They
play it well, but you’ve heard it all before. Still, for fans of the genre that
probably won’t matter. The lyrics are good, the band rocks, and you can mosh to
it. If that’s all you need, then you could do worse than picking this up. (Bob
Ignizio)
Deep, rich female
vocals glide overtop of cinematic soundscapes that would have made the perfect
soundtrack to some lost Sergio Leone spaghetti western. Only a few tracks are
sung in English, but the melancholy emotions conveyed by this music cross all
language barriers. I guess you could call it avant Americana. I generally try
to avoid using the press kit sent with an album when I’m writing a review
because a. it’s lazy and b. most of what’s written by publicists is bullshit.
But I’ll be damned if I can think of a better description of Tarantella than the
one in their bio: “Siouxsie Sioux singing over Ennio Morricone.” One of my
favorite albums of 2005. (Bob Ignizio)
All you hipsters out
there are going to think I suck when I bring up what I’m about to bring up, but,
I don’t know, maybe your white belt is a little too tight these days. Here it
is: Gwen Stefani. I know, I know. “Who is she,” you say? But you are lying.
You probably even owned a No Doubt CD at one point. Whatever, that’s not the
point; the point is she is on this new kick in her solo career to write dance
songs that are influenced by her rock/ska/whatever roots. She also has captured
4 Japanese girls and makes them hang out with her at all times. While none of
this has anything to do with Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re- it does. These girls are writing
some rock songs, some dance songs, some ska songs, and even some semi-rockabilly
songs. They are all in Japanese, so I can’t tell you what they mean, but I can
tell you Gwen Stefani’s solo career made more sense to me when I listened to
them. She is trying to achieve what these girls already do effortlessly. They
are energetic, and they can actually play their instruments. They have those
heart-pounding guitar leads, and bass lines that make you feel like something
else is going to happen, and they usually deliver. Tsu Shi MaMi Re’s ‘Pregnant
Fantasy’ has tons of elements of straight-up rock bands full of boys,
only they are four cute tiny girls from Tokyo. On first listen I didn’t
understand what I was listening to, their sound was actually quite surprising,
but in a good way! (Feowyn A. MacKinnon)
Not
too long ago I reviewed ‘God Bless the Electric Freak’, the previous album by
Turn Me On Dead Man. I thought the band had potential, but hadn’t realized it
with that release. Interestingly enough, TMODM head honcho Mykill Ziggy emailed
me and said he agreed with my assessment to a large degree, and wondered if I’d
be willing to give his latest opus a listen. I said I would, and I’m glad I
did. ‘Technicolourmother’ is a far superior album to ‘God Bless the Electric
Freak’. The mix of Beatlesesque pop and heavy stoner rock riffing has been
successfully balanced, the production is much stronger, and the songwriting has
improved substantially. This is a much heavier sounding album that ‘God
Bless…’, but it still has great vocal melodies and hooks. While the so-called
“stoner rock” scene has been rather moribund in 2005, ‘Technicolourmother’
manages to inject some much needed life into the genre. Not sure what the
distribution on this is like, so if you have trouble finding it go to the band's
website: 