Incubus - Light Grenades

Whether you realize it or not, there is at least one kid from your high school class who flips out every time there is a new Incubus release. And, to the band's credit, they have a surprisingly strong catalogue of diverse, non-offensive alternative rock albums. But their reputation takes a hit with their latest offering, Light Grenades. The high-school fan might try to justify the album as an "artistic maturation," but the truth is that it's the band's most disjointed, watered-down and unoriginal collection of songs yet.

In fact, the album's single compelling moment is its opening track, "Quicksand." The track showcases the band playing with electric keyboards and epic song structures. "Okay, now the monster is awake/ it won't rest until there's nothing left" croons frontman Brandon Boyd over a gently undulating synth line before bursting into a heroic chord progression.

It's an excellent song and one of Incubus' most rewarding experiments, but it builds up the listener's hopes far too much. "Quicksand" transitions seamlessly into "A Kiss to Send Us Off," a generic rocker with clumsy lyrics about a goodbye kiss. Following this are the three non-compelling singles – "Dig," "Anna Molly" and "Love Hurts" (an Incubus-style R&B song, a caffeinated Police rip-off and an early Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute, respectively). At this point, all hope for the record has faded entirely.

The second half of the album offers fans little consolation. It's inferior and, even worse, it's boring. Whether it's the two-part "Earth to Bella" (a ham-fisted nod to Radiohead's "Creep") or the title track (just over two minutes of loud, aimless guitar noodling), there are no good tracks to be found here. In fact, one of the first phrases to come to mind when describing Light Grenades is "top-heavy," but such a description would require the first half of the album to have actual merit.

Even worse than the music are Boyd's lyrics. Traditionally, the Incubus frontman has written interesting insights on cultural homogenization, political apathy and troubled relationships. On Light Grenades, however, his words fall flat. For example, the chorus to "Love Hurts" (an inane song title in and of itself) reads, "Love hurts/ but sometimes it's a good hurt/ and it makes me feel alive." For further evidence, check out the bridge for "Dig," which reads, "We all have something that digs at us/ At least we dig each other." And even worse, these are the album's singles, not throwaways. To his credit, Boyd's singing on the record is excellent, but his writing leaves much to be desired.


Incubus - "Dig"; live (???)
When Incubus decided to take an extensive break from the recording studio, they promised their next album would be excellent, one of their best yet. Keeping this in mind, Light Grenades borders on offensive. But perhaps their mediocrity is to be expected. Since the heady days of S.C.I.E.N.C.E., their brilliant jazz/rock/metal/funk debut, Incubus has been stripping away its diversity in exchange for radio airplay.

The truth is, these days they are little more than Red Hot Chili Peppers lite. It's sad to see the band in such a state. Back in the days when they had a funk bassist and a hip-hop deejay, Incubus' sound was truly engaging and compelling. Now, they are little more than a stagnating alternative rock band, even if one of those high-school fans would have you believe otherwise.

http://www.cavalierdaily.com/news/2007/jan/25/grenades-shatters-incubus-legacy-of-brilliant-funk/

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - So Divided

When ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead released its major label debut, Source Tags & Codes, the album was hailed as a masterpiece and named by many critics as the best album of the year. While the excellent reception must have been welcomed by the band, Trail of Dead realized it had a serious problem when its members re-entered the studio – how could it trump its own perfect album?

The result was the underwhelming Worlds Apart, which showed the band mellowing its sound, crafting fewer epic pieces and more radio-ready pop songs. The album was disappointing to the group's indie fans, and it failed to garner much mainstream attention. In fact, the commercial sales of Worlds Apart were so disappointing that the band was on the verge of breaking up.

Yet, as their violent namesake might suggest, Trail of Dead does not give up very easily. Earlier this year, they re-entered the studio and crafted their latest full-length offering, So Divided.

As Trail of Dead's history demonstrates, the group can't seem to decide if they want to pander to their indie-fan base or try and break into the radio mainstream. The aptly named So Divided suffers greatly from this schizophrenic attitude, yielding the band's most disjointed album yet.

Sometimes, Trail of Dead's conflicting desires work in its favor, yielding some accessible material that preserves the group's original sound. Take "Naked Sun," one of the album's highlights. Starting off with a driving drum line and nasty blues riff, the song slowly builds up into a fanfare with a full brass ensemble and string section. It takes six minutes to reach its excellent finale, and not a moment is wasted. "Life" is another excellent song, kicking off with a stuttering piano and a small orchestra in the background. Compared to Trail of Dead's old material, these songs are very catchy, and they are also interesting and non-traditional.


...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - "Naked Sun"
But alongside these gems, Trail of Dead presents us with a seemingly random cover of the Guided by Voices song "Gold Heart Mountaintop Queen Directory," frenetic chamber punk ("Stand in Silence"), a Beach Boys tribute ("Eight Day Hell") and a pseudo-country piece ("Witch's Web"). Trail of Dead is obviously trying to escape from its own sound, and these failed attempts are awkward stumbling blocks in the context of the album.

Does this mean the era of Source Tags & Codes and all its complexities is over? Perhaps not. The closing seven minutes of So Divided recreate the sound that once made the band so epic – "Segue: In the Realms of the Unreal" and "Sunken Dreams" recall quite closely the raw energy and emotion that once earned Trail of Dead so much praise.

Indeed, the best songs on So Divided show that Trail of Dead is every bit as talented and energetic as it once was. True, the album is grossly unfocused, but epics like "Naked Sun," "Life" and "Sunken Dreams" justify the album's weaker moments almost all on their own.

Originally published for the Cavalier Daily:
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/news/2006/nov/30/trail-of-dead-strays-from-the-beaten-path-with-so-/

Bright Eyes - Noise Floor (Rarities: 1998–2005)

Who knew that Conor Oberst, frontman of the ever-changing Bright Eyes collective, was an amateur sound engineer? The title for his band's newest release, Noise Floor, is a reference to signal theory – a noise floor is the sum of all unwanted noises in an audio recording. This is rather appropriate for Bright Eyes' latest, which is not a traditional studio album but rather a collection of rare and out-of-print songs that never made it to an official LP.

In spite of its technical title, Noise Floor is anything but calculated and structured. It never succeeds in establishing a consistent sound. The tracks stutter along, making poor transitions with one another. There's neither a clear aesthetic nor chronological progression. Themes are not present in the record, lyrically or sonically. In fact, the only things tying Noise Floor together are Oberst's bleeding-heart lyrics and his quivering vocal stylings. Simply put, it feels sloppy.

But this is to be expected. Keep in mind that Noise Floor is not a traditional album. It is a set of sketches, rough songs that never made it to a studio album. They were not written at the same time, with any idea of unity in mind. Besides, even though they provide no sense of coherency when thrown together, the individual songs on Noise Floor are excellent.


Bright Eyes - "Trees Get Wheeled Away"; live (???)
For example, take "I Will Be Grateful for This Day." The song practically explodes in your stereo with a stuttering drum machine before leveling with a numbing synth line and Conor crying out, "Your heartbeat's what I tried to play/ with kick and snares so careless." The electric beat is nasty, and Oberst's straight-from-the-diary lyrics are as quotable as ever. "Blue Angels Air Show," another excellent track, evokes an electro-grunge sound as Oberst recounts the story of a summer crush he once had.

But those are the only two electronic pieces on a 16-song record. The opening track, "Mirrors and Fevers," is nothing more than crowd noise and a few a cappella vocals. "I've Been Eating (for You)" is one of Oberst's signature acoustic ballads, while "Drunk Kid Catholic" compares religion to alcoholism over a gentle piano line. Another excellent piece, "Happy Birthday to Me (Feb. 15)," embraces the orchestrated folk-pop sound that vaulted Bright Eyes to indie stardom on the album Lifted.

On "Motion Sickness," Oberst says "I want to get myself attached to something bolted down/ so these winds of circumstance won't keep blowing around." If Noise Floor is any indication, Oberst has not been bolted down just yet. His music remains ephemeral and mutable as ever, and this disc serves as an excellent reminder of that. The sheer variety can be either highly frustrating or highly interesting, depending on whom you ask.

If you are a Bright Eyes fan dying for more material, Noise Floor will not disappoint. Despite its eccentricity, it showcases all the things we love in Oberst's neurotic tunes – the LiveJournal lyrics, heartfelt acoustic guitar, the occasional drum machine and good solid songwriting. However, if you are looking for an introduction to Bright Eyes, it would probably be better to grab one of the band's more coherent LPs or wait for their upcoming studio album.

Originally published for the Cavalier Daily:
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/news/2006/nov/02/one-noisy-compilation/

Ima Robot. - Monument to the Masses

In 2003, Ima Robot. released their self-titled debut album – a lovely electro-pop romp which was at times beautiful, at times funny, and for the most part, composed of raw awesomeness. The band's unique brand of caffeinated rock would certainly have been adored in the current era of synth groups like The Killers and Panic! At the Disco. Ima Robot.'s first effort was, unfortunately, ahead of its time.

Three years later, they are back with a follow-up album (Monument to the Masses) and hopes of seizing greater popularity now that keyboards are cool again.

Sadly, the album boasts a collection of shockingly unoriginal music. The opening track, "Disconnect," clearly rips off Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart." The closer, "Lovers in Captivity," closely mimics the catchy hook from The Kinks' "Lola." Everything in between is a rough carbon copy of Devo, Tears for Fears, Duran Duran and the DDR soundtrack.

Even worse than being unoriginal, Monument to the Masses is frightfully boring. With the exception of stand-out track "Stick It to the Man" (a nod to Ima Robot.'s former over-excited style), the songs tend to bleed into one another. There isn't a tenth of the musical range that the band demonstrated in their promising debut. Ninety percent of the album sounds like different takes on the same song.


Ima Robot. - "Creeps Me Out
What happened?!

The most apparent answer is that two of Ima Robot.'s crucial band members left the group. Bassist Justin Medal-Johnsen and drummer Joey Waronker (both of whom used to play in Beck's band) wrote rhythms that grounded Ima Robot.'s new-wave tendencies with energetic hip-hop influences. This made for an interesting sound, and the music was more, well, fun. Without these two, the rest of the band went overboard trying to emulate its favorite '80s artists.

Truth be told, the only significant link between Monument to the Masses and Ima Robot. is frontman Alex Ebert, whose distinctive voice sounds much like Eminem might if he decided to sing instead of rap. His voice was oddly appropriate for the band's eclectic first album. In fact, it was one of Ima Robot's most individualizing aspects. Ebert's strange vocals are subdued only slightly on the newest album, but they feel grossly out of place when sung over the mellow keyboard and guitar chords that permeate the record.

Moreover, his lyrics are ridiculous. It's true that Ebert was never a brilliant lyricist, but he refrained from tackling serious topics on Ima Robot. This made his obtuse lyrics bearable and, at times, humorous. On Monument to the Masses, he actually attempts to engage in politics, resulting in lines such as, "Information when we were so young/ That we're the nation that's free and fun.../ Education to keep blind and dumb/ Our generations for years to come." Is that a coherent complaint? Does he really know what he's worried about?

Perhaps Ima Robot. will gain more fans with this album. The hook-laden single "Creeps Me Out" screams for radio play, and that proud minority who misses the 80's will dig the band's new sound. Most of us, however, would be better ignoring this release.

Originally published for the Cavalier Daily:
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/news/2006/oct/05/ima-robot-offer-a-mechanicaland-sterile-take-on-80/

Pandora & the future of Internet radio.

Take a few moments to consider your favorite music. How did you discover it? Was it through a radio single? Maybe a recommendation from a friend or an impulse purchase at your local record store? Now think about how frighteningly arbitrary this is – there are literally hundreds of obscure artists you might love if only you had a more reliable way to find them.

Two weeks ago, Tim Westergren came to Charlottesville's Gravity Lounge to discuss his answer to this problem – Pandora radio.

"This is the perfect venue for a small concert," said Westergren, a former musician and film composer, as he took the stage in front of about 30 listeners. "I would have loved to have played here."

Pandora is part of the Music Genome Project, a huge database housing detailed characteristics for almost half a million songs. It takes more than 400 musical attributes into consideration, such as melody, harmony, rhythm, vocals and structure, when categorizing a track. In fact, there are so many factors that it can take half an hour to analyze one single piece.

"The genome grows by about 15,000 songs a month," Westergren said, acknowledging the relatively slow pace by which the site's music catalogue expands. However, he stressed quality over quantity – it's better to have a handful of excellent tracks than to dilute the system with a vast collection of mediocre music.

Recommendations on Pandora radio are directly linked to the genome's database. Users input an artist or song that they like, then the genome is searched for similar music. Results are eclectic and purposefully so. Pandora's aim is to refine the perceptions of what we like in music. If Pandora's recommendations are off, users are given the ability to tweak their station to better fit their tastes through a simple "thumbs up / thumbs down" system. If a song gets a thumbs up, the radio station will play more songs that share those genome traits. If a song gets a thumbs down, it will be banned from the station, and its genome's traits will be downplayed in future radio choices. Users can customize up to 100 stations in this manner.

"Of course, Pandora doesn't factor popularity into the music it chooses," Westergren explained, pointing out one of Pandora's key advantages. Songs are selected solely based on their genome properties. Thus, a station serves as an equal platform for all music. This is great news for independent artists. In an industry driven by top-40 radio, unsigned and independent musicians can be like needles in a haystack.

In fact, more than 70 percent of the musicians on Pandora are not signed to a major label. During the meeting, Westergren laughed as he described the albums he receives that are simply CD-R's with Post-It notes.

"But that's what it's all about – getting this music heard when you wouldn't be able to find it otherwise," he said.

Pandora has definitely made waves in the music industry, with both big and indie labels.

"One out of 10 people logging onto the Pandora service end up buying new albums," Westergren said. Smaller artists have also reported significant increases in their iTunes sales after submitting tracks to the genome.

The genome system is not the only thing that might attract you to Pandora. For example, the interface is one of the Web's finest. It is sleek and simple – simply enter your music and start hearing the results.

"Another one of the best things about Pandora is its portability," Westergren said, pointing out that you can log onto any computer and your stations will be waiting for you. With an increase in public hotspots and wireless MP3 players in development, this could be a powerful asset for Web-based radio.

So what's next for Pandora? Charlottesville's staunchest fans brought several suggestions to the meeting. Some of the more interesting ideas included tuning the genome to emotional content or adding forums so users can discuss new music with one another. Westergren, ever devoted to giving exposure to new musicians, offered his own idea – "I'd like Pandora to give little alerts when a recommended artist is playing a gig nearby." The company is also looking into expanding to meet the needs of the international market. At the moment, station content is only licensed for U.S. users.

It's obvious Pandora has a rich future, but can it level the musical playing field? If nothing else, Westergren is confident that those who use his service will find music they love and would not have found otherwise. He also urges us to keep an open mind: "If Céline Dion comes up on your station, then we hope to convince that you actually like Céline Dion."

Ethan

Originally published for the Cavalier Daily:
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/news/2006/sep/28/dont-look-just-listen-pandoras-web-radio/

Cursive - Happy Hollow

Ever wondered what would happen if an emo-core band combined forces with a brass ensemble?

How about now?

That's right, folks. Cursive, an Omaha-based indie band, has decided to incorporate a brass ensemble into its latest release, Happy Hollow. Trumpets. Trombones. Saxophones. It's the real deal! No, it's not ska. Yes, it is awesome.

When I heard about this new development, I wasn't sure what to expect. The band's previous studio album, The Ugly Organ, used string bass to create lush – at times beautiful – soundscapes. Thinking that Cursive might hold to this pattern, I looked forward to sprawling arrangements of rock and brass in Happy Hollow.

My expectations were shattered with the first downbeat of the opening track. "Opening the Hymnal/Babies" greets the listener with an ugly flare of trumpets and distorted guitar before resigning to a somewhat calmer Latin-style arrangement. The track boldly announces Cursive's new sound and depth of their experimentation on the record. The creepy instrumentation brilliantly sets the tone for the rest of the album – an elaborate investigation of societal hypocrisy, confusion and disillusionment.

This jarring first track segues nicely into "Dorothy at Forty," the album's first single and perhaps the best Cursive song of all time. It is a perfect fusion of Cursive's skittish guitars, rolling bass lines and shiny new brass section, all buoying Tim Kasher's voice over the mess the instruments create. The song's neurotically infectious beat and unique sound is sure to win most listeners over.


Cursive - "Dorothy at Forty"
While "Dorothy at Forty" presents Happy Hollow's clearest high point, there are many other gems scattered throughout the album. "Dorothy Dreams of Tornadoes" comes the closest to topping "Dorothy at Forty," opening with halting guitars and a driving drum line before building to a soaring brass finale and coming pretty close to my initial expectations for the album's sound. "So-So Gigolo," despite its inane song title, is ridiculously catchy and manages to (appropriately) invoke images of Grand Theft Auto. "Bad Sects," a song about a homosexual priest, showcases front-man Kasher at top lyrical form – "Some nights he'd proclaim his preference/ but only flat-back drunk on a bottle of Jameson."

Some people may find that Happy Hollow's abrasive sound grates on their nerves, and the novelty of brass plus emo quickly wears off. However, I was charmed by the juxtaposition of the two genres and found the album to be another solid entry into Cursive's catalog. My enthusiasm for this album might wane in the coming months; only time will tell. But for now, I'm going to be playing "Dorothy at Forty" in regular rotation for at least a few more weeks.

Originally published for the Cavalier Daily:
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/news/2006/aug/31/cursives-newest-is-happily-far-from-hollow