small super name.
very straight forward here. this site is for reviewing
things. most likely, mostly music. as its our favorite
thing. but, we love technology, video games, and tv.
so who knows! simple, and free. hoping to be able to
do update's every 2 weeks. or, twice a month. we're
looking for people who want to write stuff.. we love
talking to people. say hi! |
what?
and how?
so, there is a rating system. here it is. we're not going
to try anything new. 0-10. its all opinion. so its hard
to rate. but i see it like this. there should be no 10's..
something that gets a 10, should single handily change
the world for the better. like, a cure for aids, or cancer.
7-9 is reeeally good. 9 is actually amazing. hopefully
people writing here will seriously think about the rating
they give. though, ratings really don't mean anything.
i'm sure it will mutate as we keep working. |
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own this
the writings are the property of the person who wrote
them. don't repost or publish anyplace else without
their permission. thanks. |
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issue super name #1
in this first issue. we're going to be a little behind.
cover stuff from 2004. since you'll be reading this
in 2005. but nothing will be out yet! enjoy.
this week in small:
•The Remote Viewer
"Your Going To Love Our Defeatist Attitude"
•Stars
"Set Yourself on Fire"
•Cubismo Grafico
"Foga"
•Future Heads
"Future Heads"
small name says:
this is our first time doing this. what do
you think? who knows. this weeks, me and Nik are going
to hold down the fort all tag team style. "whatcha
gonna do?". with the start of the new year, and
the start of this little "e-zine". hopefully
things will only get better. based on the music of
this past year. can't wait!
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The Remote Viewer
"Your Going To Love Our Defeatist Attitude"
(city centre office's)
Rate: 8.0
hot damn, i love that album title. so, for
some quick back story. the guys in the "remote
viewer", use to be in "hood". i had
thought that hood had broken up. but i've heard rumors
of a new album. witch i would not complain about.
interestingly enough, "hood" are sort of
known for their ruff around the edges, lofi post-ness.
this is the second by the "remote viewer"
album. with it all being on city centre office, you
know its going to be ambient. and they do not fail
there. this is quiet, quiet, music, for late night
hacking. or dancing with your toaster. forget about
song structure, its obviously for losers. the title
track, and the first one at that, is by far the best.
its unregulated piano, ground noise's and fizzles..
filtered brushed drums. all nice, but the unorganized,
female singing its great! she singing the same thing
as herself, just at a slightly different time. it
just feels defeated. like, hey! we just so don't care.
we're bored, we have no fight left. can't we all just
go to sleep!! this album more or less plays in an
area of ambient post music. static sounds, deep bass.
dubby if you will. clicks n' pops. it feels amazing
organic, for the lack of organic sounds actually used
in the album. most of the songs fumble along. pretend
to be songs. but just give up right as you think its
going to happen. the sparks and cracks that litter
the back ground, like unplugged chords. keep the mood
intact. half way in. they attack with what could be
called their attempt at to make a structure song.
a melody, singing, and beat actually all come together.
but just long enough for you to feel it. then once
again disappears. the closing song "it occurred
to me, and went away". it a experimental pop
masterpiece. everything, all the ideas, finally focus
in, and the possibilities open up. oh what could have
been!! its like taking a late night stroll through
a forest populated with long forgotten electrical
appliance's. they play and tumble around. unconcerned
that the world doesn't want them anymore. because
they have themselves. its a bittersweet ending.
-trevor
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Future Heads
Future Heads
(StarTime/Sire)
Rate: 8.0
The whole post punk revival scene of NYC
is getting old. And it has been disheartening to see
so many bands, in the UK especially, just fiddling
around with the “new sound,” when no one
is sure what that actually is. Even if the Future
Heads do not offer a solution to the musical limbo
that the British are experiencing right now, it is
nice to see someone take a different look on their
British punk roots. The Future Heads seem to have
taken a page out of Wire’s book, by way of Gang
of Four’s edgy guitar hooks and angular rhythms
(“The City is Here For You to Use”). It
is not especially surprising then, that Andy Gill,
from Gang of Four, actually produced five of the Future
Heads' self titled debut album tracks.
Like the rest of the post punk revivalists (Franz
Ferdinand and Interpol, etc.), the Future Heads have
not created a completely new style of music. Most
of their influence lie within the bounds of Wire,
Gang of Four, and, to some extent, the Jam. In fact,
the Future Heads draw almost exactly from Wire’s
book by disregarding the traditional verse and chorus
structure of pop music. They tend to speed through
their complex thoughts in a furry of livid drumming
and hook filled, crisp guitar melodies within minutes.
Songs like “First Day” truly enunciate
the Future Head’s tendency to do this. The whole
CD clocks in at about 33 minutes, which is quite impressive
considering that they have a full 15 tracks on it.
The Future Heads’ greatest strength is their
ability to effectively utilize their tight vocal harmonization
abilities that sometimes sound almost a cappella (“Danger
of the Water”). It is only when the Future Heads
stray from their vocal driven melodies that their
weaknesses are shown. Indeed, it is the vocals of
this Sunderland quartet that hold their finished product
together and place it on a pedestal above many of
their NYC post punk revivalist counterparts.
For a band that has only released a single LP, it
is also amazing to observe how well the group members
work together and link up. The drummer and guitars
stay focused on the progression of their songs, even
if their progression does not seem logical at all
times. “Robot” in particular displays
the understanding that exists between drums and guitar:
the drumming not only follows the guitars perfectly
in mood and style, but it also follows the stressed
syllables of the lead vocals, and the stylized call
and response choruses, bringing the listener back
to the importance of the sheer vocal talent involved
in the creation of this record.
Aside from “Stupid and Shallow,” the Future
Heads keep their sound and song construction consistent,
which is definitely another positive aspect of the
band. Starting off with “Le Garage,” the
album initially seems chaotic, but this thought is
quickly disregarded by the listener, as the whole
album taps into the undeveloped energy of this chaos
to make the final product even better. Along with
the fantastic vocals of this album, the Future Heads
also write excellent lyrics, “Carnival Kids”
being their greatest lyrical achievement on the album.
The Future Heads have successfully achieved emulating
bands of 30 years ago, while updating the style unlike
any other group playing today. Although they have
not broken any musical walls, they are still a young
band with a tremendous amount of potential musically,
lyrically, and in terms of pure creative capacity.
They should definitely be kept close watch of.
-Nik
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Stars
"Set Yourself on Fire"
(arts & crafts)
Rate: 7.5
If the earth was besieged by aliens in the
next year or so, the aliens’ strategy for defeating
us earthlings would undoubtedly concern our interest
in love. They would attempt to remove love from our
society, thereby depriving us of the one thing that
keeps us running, or so they would think (as there
is no proof that love is what keeps us all running).
Yet they would be quite justified in thinking this
because, ever since rock and roll was first created
in the 1950s, love has been the most commonly used
song theme. Although there are a great many exception
to this rule (bands like They Might Be Giants write
about love occasionally, but it is in such a obscure
way that it is really just for added effect), most
groups eventually give into the bug and write a poignant
ballad or tune about their significant other.
And this completely applies to Stars, even though
they break the rule in a different manner by writing
their love songs with extraordinary aptitude. Stars
somehow manage to keep this clichéd songwriting
method surprisingly fresh. This can be accredited
to their songwriters, who draw beautiful images of
sleepers, reunions, and death. And the songs all fit
perfectly together, balancing the quicker paced songs
(“Set Yourself on Fire”) with the slower
and more elaborate songs (“Ageless Beauty”)
almost flawlessly.
But Stars don’t end their romantic tendencies
with their lyrics. Their instrumentation and pure
technical talent add tremendously to the final product
here. Stars is composed of several members from Broken
Social Scene (both of the bands are on the Arts and
Crafts record label), and this quite obviously shows.
The most striking similarity between Stars and BSS
is their ever evolving verse-chorus-verse songwriting
style. Most of the songs on this 14 track LP start
off with a simple drum line (“The Big Fight”)
or a straightforward synthesizer line (“What
I’m Trying to Say”), layered by either
a man or woman’s voice. And then the songs go
in their own direction.
The instrument that constantly takes the under-rated
role in these songs, however, is the bass. The bass
is an incredibly important part of all good pop songs,
as it acts as the super glue between the melody and
rhythm. Stars’ bass player uses his exceptional
skill with the instrument to mold the synthesizers,
vocals, guitars, and drums together in a additively
appealing manner.
A wide range of instruments outside of the traditional
guitar, bass, and drums formula is used on this record.
Stars especially like subtle electronic effects and
synthesizer strings and claviers. They never over
use these additional instruments, however, and there
is always equilibrium between the organic and the
electronic instrumentation. And because of this, sometimes
Stars’ synthesizer lines sound like their straight
out of My Bloody Valentine’s book (“Sleep
Tonight”).
Stars also have a unique style of singing. Most of
the songs on this record include both male and female
voices. It is good to see that bands like Stars are
re-exploring the possibilities of the sing along (along
with more juvenile bands like Tilly and the Wall)
and the call-and-response methods of singing. The
delicate vocals complement the already fragile songs
superbly.
Although Stars’ second album is not a great
leap forward from their last album, and their unique
style can occasionally get tiresome to listen to,
especially during the last third of the album, they
are certainly a breath of fresh air from the current
love sick indie pop world. Stars have taken to a distinctive,
yet not completely original, perspective on songwriting
and point us in this direction. Although Stars will
probably not be incredibly successful if they are
to make a similarly themed third album, they are forerunners
of a new and under-rated sentimental musical technique
that will hopefully spread to a wider audience and
not exclusively stay in Canada for much longer.
-Nik
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Cubismo Grafico
"Foga"
escalator
rate: 6.5
its a difficult task. to be some one who
is close to be ing a center piece to a scene, a style.
if you declare your own scene dead, then you better
have something to back it up. but if you don't, your
stuck with the new [last album] cubismo grafico album
"foga". from my understanding the title
its a joke, like the "sweet robots against the
machine" album called "towa tei". chabe
[ the child faced man behind cubismo grafico], does
the same idea here with its title. in album name.
naming his album after his "foga" project.
"foga" the project, in onto itself, is just
completely horrible. but, that's not what we're talking
about.
foga starts of promising, with the happy dance pop
track "fog132". if you can forget everything
you think, and know about cubismo grafico. otherwise
be ready be seriously let down. at its heart."fog132".
but its catchy. from here the album slowly falls apart.
almost catches itself, then truly crumbles. cuteness
is dead, or so i'm told. the crew over at escalator
records [cubismo's home label] have decided so, and
for some odd reason, decided to make the japanese
version of electro clash. witch is also dead. i though
someone would have told them. this is pretty much
a 4/4, appegiated synth, wah guitar dance pop record.
or so it leads you to believe with the first 5 songs.
vocoded, super auto tuned vocals. tr-909 snare rolls,,
reverbed kick hits. trance-esk break down. though
some distorted guitar thrown in for good measure.
giving the illusion of rock.
the really confusing part. is the attempt at doing
something new, is completely unfocused. half way into
the album, they switch over to some guitar rock. thick
riffs, and amped and yelled/sing vocals. both of the
songs "bear blue beatle" and "downhill",
try to rock you, but, both of them then change up
to just some more 4/4 borefest. its very forced, and
just drags them down. though they stick out to much.
if you want to make a rock album, make a rock album,
if you want to make a dance record. make a dance record.
i have nothing against mixing it up. but if your going
to mix it up. mix it up! don't make it 2 completely
separate things. and then try to tack them one with
some misc 4/4 junk at the end.
then, the obvious cubismo reggae dub song. ironically
called "real rock", since it does not rock.
one quick, very b-side feeling dance song. [how this
song wasn't cut! i don't know, i assume they wanted
to make the album break 40 minutes] then, finally,
the acoustic guitar comes out, the 4/4 kick drum is
dropped. and some actual, heartfelt songs show up.
nice piece's of work. not great, but after all the.
nothingness. they are quite refreshing. if this album
wasn't by cubismo, and was someone's first record.
i might feel completely differently, there are many
catchy fun cuts on the record. if you can get by the
highly processed vocals. and generic dance production.
ok, that's maybe asking to much. but the "new
song (*cbsmgrfc mix)" at the end of the album
helps you forget what you had gone through to get
there. its energetic acoustic guitar. 808 electro
beat, showing up, just at the right time. i'm glad
to see some one try to get out of the mold they have
created for themselves. how many more sample filled,
cute albums could chabe have done? no more really.
but this show is not ready for prime time. with only
a couple serviceable songs, and an equal amount of
just plain filler. its just not needed.
-trevor
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new releases
didn't get this part done..
oops!
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