Kemo Sabe - Kemo Sabe

Artist: Kemo Sabe

Album: Self Titled

Label: Self Released

Occasionally, an album cover comes along that inspires such curiosity that the artwork is solely responsible for my initial interest.  This was the case with Kemo Sabe's self titled debut.  It's a rare case where the cover art perfectly captures the audio.  Kemo Sabe's cover features a beautifully painted abstract representation of the band gripping their instruments, surrounded with their various musical essences, all encompassed in a furious blaze.  With such fantastical  album art even before firing up the first song I just knew that Kemo Sabe would have a fast, furious interpretation of something traditional.

Kemo Sabe employ traditional bluegrass instruments, but as suggested by the clever transformation of the acoustic guitar's shotgun handle, the band approach their bluegrass setup with explosive punk overtones.  In other words, Kemo Sabe is to bluegrass what The Andrew Jackson Jihad is to folk music: a band that respects traditions without following them itself.  On songs like "Mess in My Head" and "Since the Baby" lead vocalist Cary Kirk masterfully plucks his mandolin faster than humanly possible with chord progressions that survey cultural influences from Southern country and folk to traditional mexican.  Meanwhile, Simon Olson's strums his guitar in the background with considerably more reserve.  Olson's restraint is an essential part for grounding Kirk's mandolin against a melodic, coherent musical backdrop.  Meanwhile, the third and final member, Nick Mitchell, vigorously slaps a deep standup double bass, counterbalancing the mandolin's naturally high notes.  The band recognizes the strength of its instrumentation and places a heavy emphasis on complex instrumental bridges, especially in the fantastic instrumental track "Fhlezmer."

Although the instrumentation definitely steals the show, the lyrics also deserve attention.  Song names and lyrics have an equally abstract essence to them.  For example, the oddly named "Shape Shifting Lemming Skull" features moments of poetic insight as Kirk sings "I have never hurt no one more than they could heal/and I have never hurt you girl more than you could feel."  Other songs tackle big questions like with intelligent lyrics.  For example, "Little Jimmy" succinctly tells the tale of a drunken man's fight with his girlfriend, and how one simple aggressive decision caused her unintended death.  The band also has a good sense of humour.  In songs like "Dirty Boy" the band humousously makes a case for personal hygiene: "you better wash your mouth, wash your hands/no one likes a dirty boy/keep those damn things good and clean/no one likes a dirty boy/Cleandliness is friendliness/and dirty boys don't have no friends." 

Kemo Sabe's self titled debut is a curious result that should easily find followers in fans of unplugged, acoustic inspired punk.  The band's integration of various influences with a furious tempo produce a curious allure and hypnotic draw that won't soon stray from memory.

What I'm Listening To - February and March Edition

Well this sure didn't turn out as a monthly column, who would have thought that becoming a teacher would be so time consuming!  I'm in between my semesters right now, so I took the time to write a ton of reviews - enough to post new reviews on the weekly basis right through August, woohoo!  

Ok, so I'll do this chronologically.  February was an eventful month for indie, as I found myself enjoying new releases from Coconut Records, Ben Kweller, Robyn Hitchcock, Cotton Jones Basket Ride, and Animal Collective.  to sum up, I found Ben Kweller's new focus on country a little off putting, and while I don't find myself listening most of the others, the catchy beats of Coconut Records has proven itself with prolonged listenability.  For punk, I enjoyed new releases from The Loved Ones, Max Bemis' latest project Two Tongues, O Pioneers!, Passenger Action, and Fake Problems.  Not surprisingly, Fake Problems' folk infused disco tunes helped them come out with the crown for the month.

In March I focused on more indie than punk, limiting myself to new releases from Propagandhi, Trophy Stars, and Thursday.  I quite enjoyed all three, which surprised me since I never fancied myself a fan of any of the bands.  Indie on the other hand seemed to captivate me, as I had a quite a bit of listening to do.  I enjoyed new releases by punk-gone-indie staples Attack In Black, the sloppy acoustic strumming of Shotgun Jimmie, peaceful melodies of Peter Von Poehl, the folk sounds of Elvis Perkins in Dearland and Joel Plaskett, and the epic storytelling of The Decemberists.  Other than Peter Vol Poehl, everything else has stayed in constant rotation, making my listening habits cramped to say the least.

April has been a huge month for punk, so I'm going to combine that with May, and try doing this little thing every two months - a far cry from my original intent, but still better than abandoning it all together!

Fake Shark-Real Zombie! - Angel Lust EP

Artist: Fake Shark-Real Zombie!

Album: Angel Lust EP

Label: Self Released

When I first heard Fake Shark-Real Zombie's 2007 debut, Zebra! Zebra!, the band's unique blend of hardcore dance punk instantly drew me in.  Somehow the band created coherence out of chaos, producing an oddly accessible array of electronically enhanced "noise," guided by the continually changing pitch of vocalist Kevin Maher.  In short, their debut was an undeniably unique experience that left me wondering where the band could possibly go next.

Fast-forward to early 2009 and the band has finally unveiled their followup work, the Angel Lust EP.  To be honest though, I'm not really sure what to think about it.  On the one hand it's certainly not what I was expecting, but on the other hand this reaction was for very different reasons than I anticipated.  The  first track, "Angel Lust," sounds oddly familiar to anything written by disco-punk supergroup Men, Women & Children.  The guitars sound like they were pulled right from a strobe-light lit dance floor, and the backing vocals have that unmistakable disco smoothness.  Because Maher's voice sounds clearer than ever the band has placed more emphasis on lyrics.  While not deep or profound, the track's chorus has a curious loop that tickled my curiosity, and much like the band's instruments ten, challenged by logic: "Went through last week yesterday/didn't know it was gonna be this way when I went  through tomorrow twice today/ and I didn't know it was gonna be this way."  "Angel Lust" is without a doubt Fake Shark-Real Zombie's catchiest and most accessible track ever - but despite tapping my feet in time, I'm still not really sure how to react.  As a Fake Shark-Real Zombie track "Angel Lust" is probably going to be a grower.

However, the final three tracks find the band returning to more familiar territory.  "Running for the Razors" is the rawest track on the EP and provides the biggest dose of hardcore.  "Running For the Razors" successfully combines Mindless Self Indulgence's coherent vocal edge with the occasional screamo influenced outburst amidst a slew of distinct electronic and industrial sounds (from momentary static to singular drum machine beats).  While the result sounds more defined than past efforts, unlike "Angel Lust" it doesn't come at the expense of the track's chaotic core, showing that the band knows how to control and extract more melody from their innumerable sounds and influences without sacrificing their songs' unpredictable nature.  The other two tracks, "Horses in Heaven" and "Sestrillevante," land somewhere between "Angel Lust" and "Running for the Razors" but never quite achieve similar memorableness - they're still quite good, but tend to serve almost as transitions between the album's centerpieces.

While Angel Lust isn't the album I waned it to be, it's also not the album I didn't want it to be.  The band hasn't changed they're sound - they've simply rearranged their songs' emphasis.  EPs traditionally showcase a band's best independent tracks, and there's no denying that Angel Lust's songs have a stand alone quality absent from Zebra! Zebra!.  In sum, Angel Lust didn't quench my thirst for a new Fake Shark-Real Zombie album, but it still provided 12 minutes of some of the most unique hardcore dance-punk available.

D.O.A. - Northern Avenger

Artist: D.O.A.

Album: Northern Avenger

Label: Sudden Death Records

As much as I love modern american hardcore punk I'm not too familiar with the genre's legacy bands.  While I certainly know and respect genre pioneers like Black Flag, Husker Du, and D.O.A., I've never really been able to get too deep into them.  Maybe its the old school DIY production quality, the often less than melodic core, or maybe even the intensionally sloppy execution, but I've just never found myself drawn to these bands' massive discographies despite fully indulging in their modern counterparts.  But then I stumbled across Vancouver hardcore legend D.O.A.'s 23rd studio album, Northern Avenger.

Released in conjunction with their thirty year anniversary, Northern Avenger defines itself as D.O.A.'s most polished and accessible album of their career.  The recording quality has been upped to modern standards, and each song boasts stand alone playability.  But these changes shouldn't be interpreted as D.O.A. changing their signature style or buckling to modern trends.  The changes sound quite natural and actually serve to clarify the band's raw essence.  Vocals, drums, and guitars sound distinct and defined.  But not to fear, lead vocalist Joey "Shithead" Keithley's vocals sound as coarse and growly as ever (maybe even more so), and D.O.A.'s hard guitar riffs commonly characteristic to hardcore punk remain as fierce as thirty years ago.  Being one of the fathers of american hardcore, it's not surprising the band still sounds so uncompromising.

I imagine Northern Avenger's themes remains quite true to their past content.  Much like their early hardcore contemporaries, D.O.A. preaches rebellion in light of civil injustice.  Tracks like "Police Brutality" and "This Machine Kills Fascists" describe corrupt or overly aggressive police officers, and "Human Bomb" promotes weaponless protest as the most powerful form of resistance.  They also refer to social issues from poverty to global warming.  One of the strongest tracks, "Golden State," ironically compares California's attractive global image with its overly indulgent Southern Californian way of life with references to greenhouse gases and massive freeways.  Vancouver has one of the greatest visible economic disparities in North America, and D.O.A. approach the issue with their ska influenced track, "Poor Poor Boy." The track details the sense of abandonment associated with being born into Vancouver street life on Hastings Street (one of the poorest neighborhoods in North America).  Furthermore, the track's bouncy ska tempo captures the Vancouver middle class's tendency to downplay the daily social injustice that is Hastings Street.  It's a powerful song for anyone familiar with the area.   Northern Avenger many more Canadian references, and on a personal note, it's quite refreshing hearing explicit references to local social issues.

With Northern Avenger D.O.A. has crafted a great modern introduction to 80's hardcore punk.  While upon hearing about the improved production quality some may initially accuse D.O.A. of bending over to modern trends, a quick listening should dispel skepticism.  The tracks are still raw, uncompromising, and filled with as much passion and energy as anything in D.O.A.'s early library.  This is the same D.O.A. that ushered in hardcore in the 80's, and with Northern Avenger they're keeping the now neglected genre relevant thirty years later.

Shot Baker - Take Control

Artist: Shot Baker

Album: Take Control

Label: Riot Fest

In the mid 90's, East Coast hardcore punk emerged as a distinct, aggressive style.  Primarily defined by deep, bellowing vocals, and speedy, melodic guitars, the genre's larger than life, anthemic choruses always get me singing along.  Bands like the Bouncing Souls and H2O led the pack in the 90's, and as a testament to the style's staying power, such bands' continue releasing new albums.  With all of the changes in punk over the past decade, East Coast Hardcore has become a timeless style yet to fall from favour.  But the classics aren't the only bands keeping the genre alive.  As a testament to the genre's health, new bands like Chicago's Shot Baker continue emerging.

Although further west than most of their obvious influences, Shot Baker has an irrefutably East Coast Hardcore sound.  Upon hearing the first track of their new album Take Control, "Short On Time," lead vocalist Tony Kovacs' deep, consistent bellow welcomes comparison to Bouncing Souls' frontman Greg Attonito.  But Kovacs' likenesses spans deeper the the Souls.  The next track, "Falling Apart," has a distinct disjointed abruptness between words, and consistently higher pitch - characteristics easily making Kovacs mistakable for the Boston's Street Dogs' Mike McColgan.  But unlike the aforementioned bands, Shot Baker backs up Kovacs' vocals with a coarser, less melodic brand of East Coast hardcore, almost reminiscent of early H2O albums.  It's a subtle difference, but the conflicting vocal and instrumental styles help the band from sounding like a simple clone of any one of their influences.

Still, I doubt Take Control, will garner particular attention.  Despite putting notes in all the right places, the band never quite writes a truly memorable song.  Songs like "Just in Case" and "Sick of Promises" try providing anthemic, sing along choruses, but don't have enough differentiation between verse and chorus.  The band comes disappointingly close to reaching such aspiration in tracks like "All Paths Lead Nowhere" and "Setting Sun."  Should the band have added sweeping backup "woahs" for the choruses these songs could have been instant classics.  Put differently, most songs provide momentary satisfaction, but lack lasting appeal.

Shot Baker's new album provides an enjoyable but generic ode to East Coast Hardcore.  Clocking in at just over 28 minutes, Take Control is an easy listen and doesn't require an extensive time investment.  But despite these shortcomings, fans of H2O, Bouncing Souls, and other traditional East Coast Hardcore acts should definitely take notice.