Nathan Birk, good friend to the Ripple and purveyor of all things dense and heavy, sent us a note recently to update us on several projects. With your metal needs firmly in our minds, we pass this knowledge on to you.
OCTOBER FALLS : Never reported here but available for the past month is the "A Collapse Of Faith" T-Shirt. Preview is viewable in the [Relics] section. Limited to 30 copies. For those interested in the acoustic path of M. Lehto, OCTOBER FALLS recently contributed "Viima" on the "Whom The Moon A Nightsong Sings" compilation released by Prophecy Productions and "Usva" on the "Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer" compilation released by Pest Productions.
Furthermore, the writing process for the follow-up to "A Collapse Of Faith" has started.
BLUT AUS NORD : We have all pieces in hand for the vinyl editions of "Ultima Thulée" and "The Mystical Beast of Rebellion". As a reminder, the second will come with 3 new songs, clocking-in at 37 minutes of freshly-composed hymns to complete the original opus released back in 2001. This MMX version of "The Mystical Beast of Rebellion" will also be released as 2xCD. Both vinyls are going to press in the coming days. The CD version is planned to be released in December. Furthermore, the recording of "777" is almost complete. Expect it out early 2011.
HELL MILITIA : After a short period of unavailability, the Digibook CD of "last station on the road to death" is back in stock. We're still waiting for the band to provide us with the layout for the vinyl edition as well as for new merchandise.
INFESTUS : The now one-man band INFESTUS will release the follow-up to "Chroniken Des Ablebens" under the banner of Debemur Morti Productions. More news shortly.
TENEBRAE IN PERPETUUM : As some of you may have heard already, the Italians, sadly, decided to put an end to the band.
Nestled in a southern forest where your nearest neighbor is either a bear or that guy who guards his still with a shotgun, you might just find the five guys of Downslave brandishing their own firearms or sucking down their own brew of grain alcohol. Hailing from Knoxville, Tennessee, these guys have some of the sludge-y, swamp-y, doom-y character that we’ve come to expect from hard edged music of the South. The guitar tones are oppressive and immensely heavy, and there’s an attitude of invincibility to the intensity of the music. This is heavy metal done the American way. Music created with complete disregard for the well being of that guy sitting over there minding his own business. Cost of Freedom should have been the soundtrack for every American conflict since the first Gulf War, or at the very least, should be standard issue in every M1 Abrams tank as the sucker goes rumbling across the wastelands of war ravaged earth.
Downslave’s metallic soundings initially had me thinking of the Phil Anselmo led Down, but on deeper reflection, maybe more along the lines of Pantera. The vocals, on more than one occasion, made me think of Anselmo’s deep, guttural, swampy blues croon, but the guitars are more metallic, more cutting than Down . . . so, let’s call this a leaner towards the camp of Pantera. Violent and unrelenting, these guys unload their full arsenal of destructive power on this forty-three minute slugfest. The music shifts seamlessly from forearm straining alternate picked, up tempo riffage to the more slowed down, groove oriented body swaying, grinding sludgery. There are no huge dynamic mood swings on Cost of Freedom, but that’s not what these guys are about. Downslave are the kind of band that assails the listener with one mood in mind: Anger. These guys sound pissed off, and though I’m sure they have their reasons, I don’t need to know what they are. I just believe them. A band doesn’t just come out sounding this honest and fired up and not mean it.
Be prepared. After a two minute musical introduction laced with gun fire, air raid sirens, and screaming bombs from the sky, Downslave unleash a galloping guitar orgy on “Unnamed” that will have you flying backwards in your chair. The vocals, in Anselmic fashion, croon and grunt and howl about the human sacrifice of warfare and the subsequent psychological effects that our soldiers go through during and post combat. The music is equally as intense as the lyrical content, the drums driving this beasty up and down the mine littered countryside, narrowly avoiding total destruction by inches. The guitar solo is a string bending, flurry of wah’ed out ecstasy, both tasteful and boisterous. The song is fierce and fiery, compassionate and intelligent, and ultimately one of those songs that I can listen to a hundred times over. Walk into the gym . . . play “Unnamed.” Walk into the office to do battle with the accountants . . . play “Unnamed.” Walk through the grocery store with the Mrs. . . . play “Unnamed.”
The title track immediately follows and it’s equally as unrelenting. Fuck. The power that these guys wield is some serious shit! Huge waves of sustained distortion wash over the rumbling of the drummer’s tom assault, and then the chaos ensues. Downslave drop a sweat dripping mid-tempo riff that sparkles through the dinge and despair. Heavy as a box of rocks and just as unwieldy, this gem is all attitude and acts as a sonic beat down. I love the dynamics that they use on this track as the song breaks down in the middle, leaving the brief moments of quiet between explosive charges on music. Then, as the two guitars exchange riffs to bring the song back into its natural gait, you get the sense that these guys have spent a lifetime working, communicating with one another via the power of the groove. Intense song and one that will undoubtedly leave the listener in a lather.
Buckle up, brace yourselves, “Pit Approved” is a rip roarin’, room moving son of a bitch. This is classic thrash metal, the kind of stuff that nods to the old school . . . you know those days when the punks and metalheads performed that dance of destruction in any venue that had the balls to allow this type of music to be played. “Pit Approved” is as high energy and volatile as a song can get. Think Metallica’s “Whiplash,” but modernized and made more relevant. Steamrolling and overpowering, overflowing with that attitude that if you come into the pit with some weak shit, you’re leaving on a stretcher. Go big or go home. Come in strong and don’t be a puss. You fall down, you best pick yerself up quick coz’ there’s a hundred like minded fools stomping their aggression right behind you. Pure fucking violence!
“Hated” is beautiful. Beautiful in that the riffs come from the deepest and darkest place of savagery. Beautiful in that the lyrics and vocals are born from a lifetime of piss poor treatment and angst. Beautiful in that the grooves are so damn infectious that you’ll need a shot of penicillin after you’ve grooved yourself into a sweaty ball of used up energy. The vocals work exceptionally well on this song. They flow real well, the singer hits his marks perfectly, and the passion shines through loud and clear, not forced, not like he’s trying to act like so many of the faux angst mongers out there. This dude is for real. I wanna’ sit back and drink a few beers with this cat to hear the story behind that pain. Fuck . . . that would make the best Behind The Music ever!
Downslave flat out surprised me. I ain’t gonna’ lie. We get inundated with a ton of music and yes, we get jaded to the point where we ask out loud, “Oh great, what’s this all about?” In the case of Cost of Freedom, hands down, this album has blasted its way into my top ten of the year. Maybe it’s the familiar tones of bands like Down or Pantera or whoever that I immediately gravitate towards, but in truth, I think it’s the emotions worn on the shirtsleeve that intrigue me the most, and ultimately won me over. I get the sense that though these guys are young, they’ve felt the pain of life and have figured out how to redirect the aggression into their music. They sound like they’ve been doing this for years. The music is tight and focused, never meandering away from the root of the groove, and it’s performed with youthful exuberance mixed with veteran intensity. I can’t wait to see where these guys go from here. The future should be interesting and I’m eager to watch it and bleed when and where appropriate. - Pope
How the hell did this band pass me by for so many years? I’m a lifelong fanatic of NYC punk losers and transplants like the New York Dolls, Ramones, Hearbreakers, Dictators, Cramps, Dead Boys, etc but someone from Columbus, OH had to hip me to the joys of Pure Hell. Formed in Philadelphia in 1974, this all-black noise commando relocated to NYC in 1975 and started making the rounds at dumps like Max’s Kansas City. Four ghetto youths high on dust and with the sound of Weasels Ripped My Flesh echoing in their brains quickly became friendly with Johnny Thunders and lived in the Chelsea Hotel with Sid & Nancy. Punk credentials don’t get more legit than that.
The band were managed by Curtis Knight, who in the 1960’s led a band with Jimi Hendrix on guitar before he became a big star. Later in the 70’s, Curtis moved to England and formed a band called Curtis Knight Zeus that featured a pre-Motorhead Fast Eddie Clarke in the group. Knight released a 7” single for Pure Hell with a cover of Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Were Made For Walking” b/w “No Rules” on his own label and arranged a tour with the UK Subs. An album’s worth of material was recorded in 1978 but never released until 2005.
That brings us to this CD entitled Noise Addiction. Pure Hell’s sound is indeed noisy, rude, obnoxious and kick ass. Guitarist Preston Morris III (aka Chip Wreck) is a total punk shredder. His playing is fiery and abrasive, throttling non-stop solos through the speedy rhythm section of Kerry Boles (aka Lenny Steel) on bass and drummer Michael Sanders (aka Spider, who sadly passed away in 2002). Lead screamer Kenny Gordon (aka Stinker) has a harsh tone similar to Stiv Bators and Mike Hudson of the Pagans.
Songs like the title track, “Hard Action” and “No Rules” are simply loud, fast and out of control. These guys were obviously speeding their brains out and hell bent on pissing off everyone. They were successful on all fronts. “Wild One” and “Courageous Cat” are slower but are not lacking in impact or velocity. The cover of “These Boots” bears no resemblance to the original and has a huge stomping beat similar to a gang fight.
The legend of Pure Hell is too long and too nasty for a family publication like the Ripple Effect. Saying Pure Hell is the real deal is putting it mildly. There’s another unreleased album from the 90’s that was produced by Lemmy of Motorhead! Check out the 10 minute documentary below with their story in their own words. Even better pick up this disc and piss off the neighbors. Pure Hell is playing some reunion shows in Philadelphia and Brooklyn in the middle of October. If you’re in either town, show up to blow up.
--Woody
Lucky punks on the East Coast are in for a rare double dose of live Pure Hell. The band plays the Blockley Pourhouse in Philadelphia on Friday October 15 and Europa in Brooklyn, NY on Saturday October 16. If you can’t make either of the shows, tune into WFMU.org on Saturday. They’ll be playing live on the air between 3PM – 6PM on Terre T’s Cherry Blossom Clinic program.
The events described below took place from 7 AM to 8 PM on (date omitted).
There was nothing to indicate that this past Wednesday would be any different from any of the Wednesdays that came before. I awoke with the preset alarm, cleaned myself up, ate my breakfast, and proceeded to work. My workday was filled with the normal rigamorole I had come to expect. Indeed, the perfectly rehearsed normalcy was not marred by an incident either outstandingly good or bad. After my work was completed I grabbed my lunch container and left the office for home, unaware that my life was about to be turned upside down.
Glancing at my watch revealed that I had about an hour to kill before I would normally eat dinner. This suited my needs as I had finished reading a book I had checked out from the local library, and could stop there on my way home to pick out something new. The sun was shining brightly in a cloudless sky when I pulled into the library parking lot around 6:30 PM. I made my way inside the building, dropped off the recently completed book in the return chute, and proceeded to the new release section. Luckily, a title jumped out at me after searching only the first few shelves. However, knowing the bitter disappointment of judging a book solely on title or cover alone and being nonplussed later, I decided to sample this new book before I left for home.
Making myself comfortable in an unoccupied window cubby, I opened the book and started to read. As if on cue, the strange occurrences quickly began. First, at the snap of a finger the once cloudless sky was filled with dark, ominous clouds blotting out the sun. Perhaps more disturbing was the fact that the new clouds seemed to be centered on the library, with the clear sky it replaced visible only about a block away in any direction. Although no rain fell, enormous claps of thunder and tremendous amounts of lightning erupted from the sky outside my window. I watched in shock and awe as two bolts of lightning together struck one point creating a gigantic V of blinding light. Eerily, when my vision cleared there were five men standing right where the lightning had struck moments before. The five men all wore black clothing, assorted studded armor pieces, bullet belts, chains, leather jackets or vests, and to top it all off three had painted their faces white evoking the look of a corpse. After a quick exchange of glances, they charged right into the library and surveyed the room. One of the men raised his arm and pointed right at me.
“Are you the one who calls himself Penfold?” demanded the long haired man who I assumed to be the leader of the group. I contemplated lying, but the look of intensity on the living corpse’s face coupled with what looked like blood on his jacket told me that would probably not be wise.
Not wanting to show any fear or uneasiness lest it provoke an unwanted response, I put my book down and responded to his query. “Yes, I go by Penfold.”
“Penfold, we are Watain! We have traveled from Sweden to spread our music across your land. Join us!”
“Okay,” I said with some trepidation. “What kind of music do you play?”
“Black metal Penfold. Righteous black metal!”
Oh boy. My stomach tied itself up in knots. “Look uh, Mr. Watain or whoever you are…”
“You may call me E. My four musical brothers are H, P, Set Teitan, and A.”
“Ok then E. Are you sure you’ve got the right guy? I mean I love all kinds of music, but I have not come across much in the way of black metal that I can really get behind.”
“Yes Penfold, we are sure. Forces of darkness directed us to you from beyond this mortal plain. They anticipated your initial response and had us bring along a copy of our newest album, Lawless Darkness. Listen and be forever changed.”
With the unimpressive black metal exposures of my past running through my mind I took the proffered CD player, put on the headphones, and pressed play. Really, I just hoped it would be decent. Rejection was not something I could see these five guys taking well, with E’s talk of ‘forces of darkness’ casting large shadows of doubt on the prospect of their sanity. The music began.
A few short seconds of background sound clashes yielded to maddeningly fast blast beats, intense riffing, and growled vocals. In short, “Death’s Cold Dark” at first was everything that I had come to expect from the genre. But wait, what was that? Are my ears playing tricks on me or did the blast beats cease for more than a moment, and was that a series of new muscular guitar riffs thrown into the mix? Was the vocalist actually changing the pitch of his growled lyrics to add variety to individual passages and better match up with the music? Well now, that was different. This might not be so bad after all.
Songs that followed such as “Malfeitor”, “Reaping Death”, and “Four Thrones” proved that my initial reaction was indeed shortsighted. These are complex songs built on series of devastating guitar riffs that pulverize the listener with their power and never fall into monotony. I like that. Watain threw another wrench in the gears of my black metal preconceptions when halfway through the album the title cut proved to be a fantastically compelling instrumental. I really like that. To top it all off, the band saved the best for last. The last two songs form my personal favorite portion of the album. “Kiss of Death” gallops along for the most part at a comfortable pace, but eventually the guitars take on a real sludgy quality and slow the proceedings down to a dirge-like crawl. An extended outro to the song leads perfectly into the tension filled minute and ten second build up to hyperspeed that marks the beginning of “Waters of Ain”. This last song is a fourteen and a half minute odyssey that effectively summarizes all of the music that came before it on the album. It alternates from crushing you underfoot, to soothing you with beautiful instrumental passages, back to being intent on your demise, to finishing with a well orchestrated epic guitar solo. Oh yeah, I like that a lot!
“E, I was wrong. Your album Lawless Darkness has opened my eyes to a whole new darkened world. Listen, I still don’t know if I like black metal as a whole, but I know that I really like what I just heard. You do have the right guy. How can I help Watain?”
E and the other four men looked at me with approval in their eyes. “Here. Put on these black clothes and this white face paint. Together we will conquer this land.”
Soon enough I was properly garbed and ready to take on the world. I knew life would be different from now on, and I was thrilled at the prospect. “Let’s do this!”
Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of California Harold Lewis has resigned from the American Physical Society in protest of its slavish devotion to the Climate Change economy and its lack of scientific procedures.
Here's the full letter:
Dear Curt: When I first joined the American Physical Society sixty-seven years ago it was much smaller, much gentler, and as yet uncorrupted by the money flood (a threat against which Dwight Eisenhower warned a half-century ago). Indeed, the choice of physics as a profession was then a guarantor of a life of poverty and abstinence—it was World War II that changed all that. The prospect of worldly gain drove few physicists. As recently as thirty-five years ago, when I chaired the first APS study of a contentious social/scientific issue, The Reactor Safety Study, though there were zealots aplenty on the outside there was no hint of inordinate pressure on us as physicists. We were therefore able to produce what I believe was and is an honest appraisal of the situation at that time. We were further enabled by the presence of an oversight committee consisting of Pief Panofsky, Vicki Weisskopf, and Hans Bethe, all towering physicists beyond reproach. I was proud of what we did in a charged atmosphere. In the end the oversight committee, in its report to the APS President, noted the complete independence in which we did the job, and predicted that the report would be attacked from both sides. What greater tribute could there be?
How different it is now. The giants no longer walk the earth, and the money flood has become the raison d’être of much physics research, the vital sustenance of much more, and it provides the support for untold numbers of professional jobs. For reasons that will soon become clear my former pride at being an APS Fellow all these years has been turned into shame, and I am forced, with no pleasure at all, to offer you my resignation from the Society.
It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist. Anyone who has the faintest doubt that this is so should force himself to read the ClimateGate documents, which lay it bare. (Montford’s book organizes the facts very well.) I don’t believe that any real physicist, nay scientist, can read that stuff without revulsion. I would almost make that revulsion a definition of the word scientist.
So what has the APS, as an organization, done in the face of this challenge? It has accepted the corruption as the norm, and gone along with it. For example:
1. About a year ago a few of us sent an e-mail on the subject to a fraction of the membership. APS ignored the issues, but the then President immediately launched a hostile investigation of where we got the e-mail addresses. In its better days, APS used to encourage discussion of important issues, and indeed the Constitution cites that as its principal purpose. No more. Everything that has been done in the last year has been designed to silence debate
2. The appallingly tendentious APS statement on Climate Change was apparently written in a hurry by a few people over lunch, and is certainly not representative of the talents of APS members as I have long known them. So a few of us petitioned the Council to reconsider it. One of the outstanding marks of (in)distinction in the Statement was the poison word incontrovertible, which describes few items in physics, certainly not this one. In response APS appointed a secret committee that never met, never troubled to speak to any skeptics, yet endorsed the Statement in its entirety. (They did admit that the tone was a bit strong, but amazingly kept the poison word incontrovertible to describe the evidence, a position supported by no one.) In the end, the Council kept the original statement, word for word, but approved a far longer “explanatory” screed, admitting that there were uncertainties, but brushing them aside to give blanket approval to the original. The original Statement, which still stands as the APS position, also contains what I consider pompous and asinine advice to all world governments, as if the APS were master of the universe. It is not, and I am embarrassed that our leaders seem to think it is. This is not fun and games, these are serious matters involving vast fractions of our national substance, and the reputation of the Society as a scientific society is at stake.
3. In the interim the ClimateGate scandal broke into the news, and the machinations of the principal alarmists were revealed to the world. It was a fraud on a scale I have never seen, and I lack the words to describe its enormity. Effect on the APS position: none. None at all. This is not science; other forces are at work.
4. So a few of us tried to bring science into the act (that is, after all, the alleged and historic purpose of APS), and collected the necessary 200+ signatures to bring to the Council a proposal for a Topical Group on Climate Science, thinking that open discussion of the scientific issues, in the best tradition of physics, would be beneficial to all, and also a contribution to the nation. I might note that it was not easy to collect the signatures, since you denied us the use of the APS membership list. We conformed in every way with the requirements of the APS Constitution, and described in great detail what we had in mind—simply to bring the subject into the open.<
5. To our amazement, Constitution be damned, you declined to accept our petition, but instead used your own control of the mailing list to run a poll on the members’ interest in a TG on Climate and the Environment. You did ask the members if they would sign a petition to form a TG on your yet-to-be-defined subject, but provided no petition, and got lots of affirmative responses. (If you had asked about sex you would have gotten more expressions of interest.) There was of course no such petition or proposal, and you have now dropped the Environment part, so the whole matter is moot. (Any lawyer will tell you that you cannot collect signatures on a vague petition, and then fill in whatever you like.) The entire purpose of this exercise was to avoid your constitutional responsibility to take our petition to the Council.
6. As of now you have formed still another secret and stacked committee to organize your own TG, simply ignoring our lawful petition.
APS management has gamed the problem from the beginning, to suppress serious conversation about the merits of the climate change claims. Do you wonder that I have lost confidence in the organization?
I do feel the need to add one note, and this is conjecture, since it is always risky to discuss other people’s motives. This scheming at APS HQ is so bizarre that there cannot be a simple explanation for it. Some have held that the physicists of today are not as smart as they used to be, but I don’t think that is an issue. I think it is the money, exactly what Eisenhower warned about a half-century ago. There are indeed trillions of dollars involved, to say nothing of the fame and glory (and frequent trips to exotic islands) that go with being a member of the club. Your own Physics Department (of which you are chairman) would lose millions a year if the global warming bubble burst. When Penn State absolved Mike Mann of wrongdoing, and the University of East Anglia did the same for Phil Jones, they cannot have been unaware of the financial penalty for doing otherwise. As the old saying goes, you don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing. Since I am no philosopher, I’m not going to explore at just which point enlightened self-interest crosses the line into corruption, but a careful reading of the ClimateGate releases makes it clear that this is not an academic question.
I want no part of it, so please accept my resignation. APS no longer represents me, but I hope we are still friends. Hal
Harold Lewis is Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, former Chairman; Former member Defense Science Board, chmn of Technology panel; Chairman DSB study on Nuclear Winter; Former member Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards; Former member, President’s Nuclear Safety Oversight Committee; Chairman APS study on Nuclear Reactor Safety Chairman Risk Assessment Review Group; Co-founder and former Chairman of JASON; Former member USAF Scientific Advisory Board; Served in US Navy in WW II; books: Technological Risk (about, surprise, technological risk) and Why Flip a Coin (about decision making)
Sultry, sensuous, ominous and emotive. These are the words that come to mind while listening to Bettye LaVette’s 2007 release Scene Of The Crime. If you don’t know Bettye LaVette you should. Ms.LaVette is one greatest soul singers in American music history. She’s been singing her heart out in relative obscurity for over forty years. She cut her first record in 1962 at the age of 16. She’s covered everyone from the Beatles and Neil Young to Kenny Rogers and Etta James, and has even had Stevie Wonder write songs expressly for her. One of her managers, the late Jim Lewis, back in 1968 had her study Sarah Vaughan and Frank Sinatra for phrasing and timbre manipulation. When you listen to the entirety of Scene Of The Crime you realize she was a great student that evolved into the master. She has a scientific approach to music. When singing covers she takes copious notes about each song in order to find her own approach to the lyric, melody, and arrangement.
The album Scene Of The Crime was primarily recorded at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama with the Drive-By Truckers. On it she covers a variety of country and rock songs and turns them into evocative tales. The album was nominated for a 2007 Grammy Award for “Best Contemporary Blues Album” The album also features one song co-written by LaVette and Patterson Hood, the Drive-By Truckers’ frontman, a rollicking biographical musical trip through LaVette’s life aptly named “The Battle Of Bettye LaVette.”
This ten track album deserves to be in every contemporary music fan’s collection. You haven’t truly heard Don Henley’s “You Don’t Know Me At All”; Willie Nelson’s “Somebody Pick Up My Pieces”; John Hiatt’s “The Last Time”; or Elton John’s and Bernie Taupin’s “Talking Old Soldiers” until you have listened to LaVette’s raspy dramatic renditions. She even outdoes Ray Charles on Charles’ version of “They Call It Love” and George Jones on Jones’ version of “Choices.”
LaVette produced this album herself, although you can also hear the hand of David Barbe, a great musician in his own right who has produced every Drive-By Truckers’ album, as well as Son Volt, in the mix. LaVette was also able to secure the keyboard services of legend Spooner Oldham who is best known for his organ work on "When a Man Loves a Woman" by Percy Sledge, "Mustang Sally" by Wilson Pickett and "I Never Loved a Man" by Aretha Franklin.
For 40 minutes Lavette grinds out ballads and roots rockers and for 40 minutes you will be transfixed by greatness. Pull this one out on a cold, quiet night. LaVette will provide you with all the heat you will need.
For the past couple of years, there have been a lot of great debut albums by indie bands. Now that may be hard to believe for some, but it’s surprisingly true. Whether it’s a New York new wave band or another alternative indie rock band, the quality is out there, but the key is finding those bands. Back in 2008 I kept hearing about this New York post-punk, new wave, and indie rock band that has a playful, party sound called The Virgins. Sadly, it wasn’t until 2009 when I took advantage of actually checking out their eponymous debut album, The Virgins.
Now I don’t normally admit this, but it’s one of the only times I do regret not buying an album right away. After I immediately purchased the album, I listened to it five times and haven’t looked back since. The Virgins are arguably one of the best bands to emerge in the past five years.
However, due to their cocky, playful lyrics they have been heavily criticized for their music promoting promiscuity and being used in Gossip Girl, 90210 and 17 Again. Luckily, they have also gotten air time on Entourage and an awesome reference in Kevin Smith’s Cop Out as the band Bruce Willis’ daughter, Ava Monroe (Michelle Trachtenberg), wants to play at her wedding. It was the latter reference that made me want to elaborate more on this suave, slick, and sensational band, The Virgins.
Energetic, enigmatic, and entertaining, The Virgins captivate you from beginning to end on their debut album. Living a life full of debauchery, the album is filled with stylized 80s energy dance music. You will have fun listening to this upbeat and uproarious album.
The album starts off with a smack to the face. Reminiscent of “Kick Out the Jams” by the MC5, “She’s Expensive” starts out with profanity to kick off their eponymous debut album. The catchiness continues with one hook right after the other and takes you on a joyride of what lies ahead for the entire album.
With the swagger of The Strokes, this New York quartet just keeps up the pace with their next track, “One Week of Danger.” The song is filled with some sleazy, sexy music that has killer dance beats.
The good times continue with “Rich Girls,” a song filled with insightful advice of hopping into bed with random strangers and dealing with stuck up “girls.” It’s undeniable that their audacious and ambitious lyrics attribute to their fun party songs. Like a Franz Ferdinand song, “Teen Lovers” delivers an irresistible quickly paced catchy song that stays in your mind long after you have stopped listening to it."Fernando Pando" perfectly captures that regrettable one night stand in a stylish sweet sounding song filled with a heavy bass that you can’t help, but laugh and feel his misery at the same time.
Starting off with some remarkable riffs, “Hey Hey Girl” is an easy going, raunchy song that puts an extra swagger in your step and is once again another entertaining song. Cumming’s soothing voice enlightens his listeners and shows a deeper side with “Private Affair.” Nothing is more devastating than finding that special someone who won’t commit because “She has always avoided falling in love.” It’s a great example of how The Virgins music is relatable to the teen demographic and mature listeners at the same time. Everyone can appreciate this band.
Suave singer Donald Cumming at times sounds like Elvis Costello with his wide ranging voice from joking around about meaningless sex to tender heartache, an aspect often lost in today’s music. It’s all fun and games for this lively bunch who have created a fast-moving, appealing album. Killer bass and funky beats enhance each song to create one remarkable album. Other bands to check out include Hockey and The Teenager.
Silian Rail burst forth on the excellent Parks and Records Label, blowing my mind with their minimalist, yet remarkably full, instrumental excursions to the end of sound and sanity. Naturally, We drooled a little with Robin (guitar) and Eric (drums) dropped on by the Ripple office for a chat.
When I was a kid, growing up in a house with Cat Stevens, Neil Diamond, and Simon and Garfunkel, the first time I ever heard Kiss's "Detroit Rock City," it was a moment of musical epiphany. It was just so vicious, aggressive and mean. It changed the way I listened to music. I've had a few minor epiphany's since then, when you come across a band that just brings something new and revolutionary to your ears.
What have been your musical epiphany moments?
E - Too many to list quickly! the cassette copy of Nevermind that my babysitter Raven gave me, hearing Mr. Bungle for the first time, witnessing the multi-instrument virtuosity of my junior high classmate Erick Walls, seeing Bonnie Prince Billy perform recently, and Ani DiFranco, first time I heard Cocorosie, Aphex Twin, saw Ches Smith play drums, etc. etc. Musical epiphanies (as a listener) and eye openers come often for me.
R- Back in the day, Team Dresch was a big eye opener. It was the first time I had heard a band of the queercore/riot grrl/pacific NW scene combine that punk attitude with actually interesting and complex music, and it blew my mind. There have been many of those moments along the way, with one of the more recent ones being Worker Bee, who are a band form San Jose. They used to be kind of a standard loud/quiet/loud post-rock band, then recently released an album which was a total reinvention. Beside the fact that it is a totally unusual, spooky and beautiful record, in was inspiring to see a band take such a big risk and totally and successfully change their approach to making music.
Talk to us about the song-writing process for you. What comes first, the idea? A riff? The lyrics? How does it all fall into place?
E - For us, we use this metaphor-- Robin brings the Oranges and Grapefruits, Eric makes the Juice. The songs start out as long, intricate, maze like parts, and then we play them trying out various feels, beginning to chop up and arrange, add and subtract notes and beats, evolve melodies, create dialogue, space, tension, etc. This all happens fairly organically through the process of just playing the parts over and over until they feel right, intuitively. We go with our gut.
Where do you look for continuing inspiration? New ideas, new motivation?
E - Musically speaking, in large part through our peers and friends. We are blessed to be part of a community of incredibly talented and endlessly creative musicians in Oakland and San Francisco, and hearing them play (be it at shows, or next door to us in the practice space) is constantly inspiring. As we tour this family continues to expand too, and we never cease to be amazed at the extent and breath of inspiring and friendly musicians there are out there.
Extra-musically, the range is wide-- nature, books about mental illness, jokes, bicycling, family.....
Genre's are so misleading and such a way to pigeonhole bands. Without resorting to labels, how would you describe your music?
E - We sound like if you could simultaneously have a feeling of deep longing, restlessness and intense confusion, yet also feel content, at peace, and like everyone and everything in the world is beautiful. Or you know, at our best we hope to someday sound like that.or A thunderstorm in the southeast as it swells to its peak and then tapers in to still warm air and rainbows.
R - Instrumental music comprised of guitar/drums/synth and sometimes glock. Complex interplay and syncopation between instruments, atypical song structures. Sometimes agressive, sometimes fragile, always melodic and thoughtful (we hope.)
What is you musical intention? What are you trying to express or get your audience to feel?
E -We are trying to create an experience that is in equal parts emotive, cathartic and intellectually stimulating/provocative.
R - I hope that we are making music that is equally enjoyable to someone listening on a very casual level; as well as the closer or more musically minded listener, and making either example feel something, be it happy/sad/bittersweet/whatever.
Come on, share with us a couple of your great, Spinal Tap, rock and roll moments?
E - Being completely lost in the pitch black woods of Olympia, WA in the middle of the night after a generator show, both with muscle tearing amounts of gear in hand, and about a half mile to go to the car. In spite of his verbal optimism, Eric was pretty much completely lost, forgot how far they had to go, and was mostly following the places he could see audience members had peed on their way out.
What makes a great song?
Sincerity.
Tell us about the first song you ever wrote? E - We got together with no intentions of forming a band, just to play.Robin played a song she had written years ago from start to finish.Eric played along and was instantly flooded with a thousand ideas and shaken loose from a period of musical stagnation. It came together seemingly instantly (minus one tricky part that required a bit of analysis and explanation) and is still in rotation today, only slightly edited from the way it was performed accidentally the very first time.
What piece of your music are particularly proud of?
E - The song we wrote most recently, which goes the widest ranges of places a single song of ours ever has before, somehow (hopefully, to us at least) without feeling disjointed. One of the first times we played it our friend said it scared him and he asked why we would write something like that. I *think* it was intended as a compliment.
R - Agreed. Our newest song took the longest-ever-to-write prize, and I think it shows. In a good way. Other examples would be songs form the new album - "Moth and Rust" and "The Gift." I think those two were moments of real clarity.
Vinyl, CD, or digital? What's your format of choice?
E- Ideally, for sound and aesthetics and tactile pleasure and generating a thoughtful listening experience, Vinyl. Though we understand the immense practicality of digital formats.
R- I think I might be the last person alive who enjoys owning CDs. I especially love huge free piles of them on the street, left by SanFrancisco folk who are tired of schlepping them from apartment to apartment.
E- I kind of agree with that too.
We, at the Ripple Effect, are constantly looking for new music. When we come to your town, what's the best record store to lose ourselves in?
E - Aquarius (SF) and Amoeba (Berkeley or SF).
Any final comments or thoughts you'd like to share with our readers, the waveriders?
