Wednesday, November 30, 2005

See you in Big Sky Country

Many years ago I saw a video on MTV once, maybe twice. It was the first single by Chris Whitley, called Big Sky Country, and it was grand. This sweet and damaged voice had come onto the scene, and while I was not fully sold on the product (it was still a little too country for my tastes then), it intrigued me in its quality. I found out it had been produced by Daniel Lanois (U2, Robbie Robertson, Peter Gabriel) and this somewhat explained the soft and clean lushness in the sound. But there was still some real grit in there.

By the time his third album, Terra Incognita made its way into my hands via the bargain bin (it was a promo copy) I was completely on board for the full ride. This guy was the real deal -- a natural progression and also hearty throwback to the days of the quintessential American songwriter and into what possibilites there were ahead. There was Dylan and Waits and Cash in there. Howlin' Wolf and James Blood Ulmer, Stax era soul and a punk DIY aesthetic, the incandescent glow of modern alternative rock and the fading lights of esoteric sounds from anywhere he directed his ear, the brooding drive of a jazz auteur and the natural bent towards self destructive brilliance that made it all work.

On November 20, he left this world for his own Big Sky Country, and the world is a more empty space because of it.

I had wanted to catch him live for years, and the one time I really had the opportunity, I balked atthe last minute. It was to be a one man show at Cafe Du Nord only a few months ago. Ironically, that show was recorded, and is available for free download. The performance is raw, desolate, pure and ragged in that way that only those who sincerely mean every damn note can be.

For those that want to know a little more, there is a good writeup here.

Rest Chris. You will be missed.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Damn the Torpedos

Well, I will keep the intro simple and let you do the rest of the work:

  • The band is Hurra Torpedo, from Norway
  • They have a rockumentary blog of sorts
  • They have flash movies of performances in places like steak houses in Texas
  • They have instrumentation like vocals, bass, and wachine machines
Please to be going right over here.

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Gary Thomas - While The Gate is Open

Gary Thomas
While The Gate is Open
1990 JMT Productions

Producer: Stefan F. Winter

Personnel:
Gary Thomas - tenor saxophone, flute
Kevin Eubanks - guitar
Renee Rosnes - piano, synthesizers
Dave Holland - bass
Anthony Cox - bass
Dennis Chambers - Drums

Gary Thomas is one of the many members of the ever evolving M-Base Collective led by Steve Coleman. While not generally as well known as Steve or the other M-Base sax colossus Greg Osby (who by the way, helped with the mixing of this album), Gary Thomas is no slouch. While the Gate is Open is fairly relaxed faire compared to some of the more experimental work Gary has done; it gets somewhat derivative in spots, but relaxed should not be mistaken for boring or smooth jazz. WTGIO plays in and around the hard-bop and straight ahead realms fairly fluidly.

The line-up alone is a solid one, and while most were not well established at the time of release in 1990 (with the exception of fusion drum god Chambers and bassist Dave Holland), all have since carved out reputations, and this record indicates in several spots why. Renee Rosnes is the standout surprise here, and you get to see the beginning progression from her work with Spiral Staircase, playing with some of the bounciness of a Herbie Hancock clone, but on the way to getting a strong voice of her own, with some brilliant phrasing in both Star Eyes and the classic Monk track Epistrophy. Of the four tracks that actually have Kevin Eubanks (yes, the same one that wastes his talent playing Captain to Jay Leno's Tenille -- good grief, someone just replace him with a generic laugh track) he does a fair job, with the one exception of Strode Rode, a lesser known Sonny Rollins tune. Here, his interplay with Thomas is strong and aggresive but not obnoxious. Both Dave Holland and Anthony Cox (who's solo album Dark Metals is a keeper) lay down good a foundation for the others to dance on. Cox and Chambers take an interesting solo duet on You Stepped Out of a Dream, but could have been done without.

Now as for Thomas himself, he sounds almost static on most of the tunes, scuttling around with the other players but not really taking a lead role except on tracks like Strode Rode - frankly, if you are a sax player and can't be commanding on a Sonny Rollins track, you need to take up another instrument or just not attempt Sonny Rollins. What does stand out is his flute work, which is sweet sounding, yet gracefully powerful the few times he uses it. On the near 10 minutes of Invitation, there is some racy and jabbing playing alternating between Thomas and Eubanks, with the results being a tune that does not get boring or contrived at any point. It also provides a fairly muscular workout for Chambers, who I did not think would suit this album initially; he is usually doing more in your face type fusion stuff. But he manages to lay low when he needs to and boil up whe he needs to. About the only bad part about Chambers is they seem to have recorded his drum sound fairly dry.

If you can even find this album, and you like modern bop, it is a good find to add to the collection (especially since the only times I've seen it is in the bargain bin, at which point it's a steal), otherwise I would recommend his newer, more developed work as both a soloist and his recent stint as a sideman with John McLaughlin.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

5 Useless Sacred Cows

We as a culture, seem unable to look and give new perspective to things. That's why I am here:

Paul McCartney - Its over Paul. The truth is out. Lennon was a more engaging figure musically and socially, George was more sincere musically and likable, and even Ringo knows his limits and has fun with his friends. Your post-Beatles output has been a slaphappy hit or miss trek through pop (with a lot more misses than hits), with your last album of any merit being a handful of tracks from Flowers in the Dirt. Your public attempts to assert yourself on the Lennon-McCartney partnership looked (and was) venal and petty. Although you and Lennon did share one thing in common; both had wives who were critically hairbrained and utterly horrific vocalists (Linda was prettier though). You are the most pathetic Beatle...ever.


Mick Jagger - Its really over Mick. I admit, that Romanek directed video for God Gave Me Everything was quite cool. You have had at least one track per solo album worth listening to. And I must thank you for helping get Living Colour signed way back when (best thing you ever contributed to music IMHO). But stop with the solo albums, and definately stop with the Stones albums. Every few years I must suffer the crucible that is the marketing tagline "They're best album in decades", which after 2 decades is really getting bloody old. Retire. Let Keith do solo albums, as he seems to do them well. And don't do a Stones album unless you really intend to redeem yourself instead of cash in for another sexgenarian tour of inflated ticket prices and lackluster performance.


Elton John - You were never that great, but at least your first decade or so was a bit of a party to watch. You were a more garish, happy-go-lucky version of Liberace. Now you are just an obnoxious, smarmy, bland looking and blander sounding drag queen. You are the multi-million dollar version of a haggard old lady with 500 cats, who used to be a chorus girl and is really shrill and stupid (emphasis on both in equal measure). Your public quips to Keith Richards are poorly presented, coming from a man whose relevance was never as great as the Stones in their heyday, and who can't even compete with their miserable present. Holy Noah in a Rowboat, you are now a full-time prancing twit for Disney.

Tupac - You are dead. This is unfortunate. Not because the world needed to hear more from you , but because in dying you made yourself a martyr for mediocre hip hop in all its forms. The further you moved from the Shock G orbit (and you were never that great to start with), the less interesting you became, and the posthumous releases keep coming, with ever thinner material filling them. You do not deserve to be put above real trailblazers and auteurs of the genre: Public Enemy, Ice Cube, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Grandmaster Flash and Anticon among them. Unfortunately, you still seem to be getting around.

the Smiths - so you were depressed and British in the 80s? That is essentially redundant. You have a hairstyle like Elvis dipped in starch and dated the flamboyant, campy singer to electro-pop darlings Dead or Alive? Amusing, but not interesting as a musical statement. Your music induced the coma your girlfriend was in. Morissey, shut up.

Monday, November 21, 2005

Thelonius Funk

...thinks you're a sucka emcee

(read that somewhere and felt it was appropriate to appropriate).

Friday, November 18, 2005

Torn, Karn, Bozzio - Polytown

David Torn, Mick Karn, Terry Bozzio
Polytown
1994 CMP Records

Composed and performed by Torn, Karn and Bozzio in a scant two weeks, this is a supergroup of players making a strong case for sincerely edgy, spontaneously composed works that result in a solid, well constructed, often brilliant bit of art-rock.

And art-rock it is, maybe leaning heavy into avant-garde, but at its core is the sensibilities of three dudes who have played with Zappa, Japan and Bowie among others. It is instrumentally challenging, but not just chops-laden wankery. If anything, it relies heavily on the heavy arranging skills of Bozzio, who can add a sense of formal logic to even the most improvised settings he is so fleet of foot (both of them), and the closest parallel I can draw is having a structure not unlike the interlocking ostinato like patterns of various African styles, or moving westward, to the Javanese Gamelan influenced works of King Crimson. It also has heaploads of Karn's middle-eastern sounding slinky off-kilter funk. In spots it treads the same kind of cross-meter playing you hear in much of Henry Threadgill's work. Torn fills up all the remaining space with distorted growls, floating washes and things that go atonal in the night.

Bozzio plays a battery of sounds, that are at once very orchestral in orientation, and will at chance flip to dense grooves using atypical combinations of cymbals and toms rather than just doing the kick/snare/hi-hat acrobatics one might expect. Very little here is what one might expect, and that is part of the joy of this record. This is bleeding edge over a decade after its release. A track like Palms For Lester starts lightly and then builds into a spiralling Dervish dance of ever growing intricacy. Open Letter to the Heart of Diaphora could be a fever dream in the middle of the Empty Quarter of the Saudi peninsula. Warrior Horsemen of the Spirit Thundering Over Hills of Doubt to a Place of Hope --besides having an incongrous title-- is a percussion heavy tweak out, with heavy cinematic flourishes provided by Torn's guitar synths and Karns bass clarinet adding space by filling it. This is the Abduction Scene sounds like...well the struggle of someone being kidnapped, and taken off into the night rapidly...only kidnapped and abducted very rhythmically. The Use of certain exotica also helps add depth and variety across the proceedings.

The only shame of this is that it was a one-off thing, and the three have never recorded together in this format since.

You might like this if you like:

Zappa - Apostrophe
Project X
Bozzio Levin Stevens - Black Light Syndrome
Henry Threadgill - Too Much Sugar for a Dime

Thursday, November 17, 2005

video: Japan - Art of Parties (live)


Well, it has been many a year since the demise of new romantic darlings Japan (which oddly enough was an English band who got famous with songs about China), and in looking at some footage from their heyday (1980-82) they really were an eccentric, but exciting lot.

This video dates from a performance at the Old Grey Whistle Test, and shows a typically distant gloomy crooner of a David Sylvian competing with fretless bassist Mick Karn for the spotlight (a tortured competition that never really ended and led in some part to the disintegration of the outfit). They are both immensely cool and detached (and dressed bloody loudly I might add), but striking that a band that started as a campy glam clone of Ziggy-era Bowie could evolve so rapidly into art-pop wunderkinds.

The sad part of this is that they give more face time to the session guitarist sitting in than to proper members Steve Jansen and Richard Barbieri, the latter being almost totally absent from the footage. The annoyance is compunded because this is one of those tracks where Jansen is really going to town on the percussive front, and Richard? Well, he always was the original Nick Rhodes-type (which is to say he is the original imitator of Brian Eno, but this goes without saying).

The song itself is one of their best. Quirky, arty, and anchored by a sense of lopsided funk. Just what was necessary at the tirn of the 80s.

Monday, November 14, 2005

Little bits of things

Well, I am a bit incognito these days, but no wories, I'll be back on the scene soon enough. In the meantime:

Independent Music
For some...uh...independent music

Blentwell has some more choice cuts, including a session with ?uestlove, and some crunk beats.

And finally, Dark Funk has some live fusion-juice with a trio featuring the Fuze on guitar.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

New Releases

Kate Bush gives us Aeriel - it only took a dozen years, but Kate is back, with a dual album no less. It is in spots, her finest hour (which is quite a feat mind you). The first single, King of the Mountain, is an art-pop dream about Elvis and Orson Welles no less. She sounds just as lovely as she ever has. We missed you Kate.

Neil Diamond 12 Songs produced by Rick Rubin. That is the only good thing I can say about Neil Diamond, is that he somehow got Rick Rubin to produce him. I still find his material boring but I am hoping thi one might win me over. the next person who starts yelping about his greatness will be force fed a vinyl copy of Hot August Nights...through their nasal passages first.

Robert Fripp Love Cannot Bear It's Fripp, so I am biased. More non-shred, but ultimately bizarre, technique laden guiatr noodling by Fripp. It will be good. It almost always is.

So Gilles Peterson Digs America, or at least thats the name of his latest mix cd collection of rare grooves and soulful excursions, focusing on classic and future classics from America, follwing his similar sojours in Brazil and Africa.

In the irony twist department, the late John Entwistle (of The Who for the idiots) has several solo projects from the 70s and 80s reissued, most appropriately Rigor Mortis Sets In.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

John Zorn: Masada - Live at Tonic


Masada - Live at Tonic 1999

Personnel: John Zorn, Dave Douglas, Greg Cohen, Joey Baron.

The little concert snapshot at the already legendary Tonic in NYC starts with Zorn fixing his sax with a rubber band. A kind of appropriate intro, as Zorn is pretty much a seat of the pants, held-together with rubber-bands and duct tape kind of guy. He assembles a busy backline to provide the skittering shuffle and crash for he and trumpeter Dave Douglas to go bonkers over; compact bebop fast runs, powerful drones, and sharp melodic twists abound. The opening track (Hath-Arob) is noisy, fast and stop start, followed by a blues cum klezmer affair in Sippur , warm and melodic. Then back to frenetic. Then a rather tribal vamp is set up by Cohen and Baron (playing his snare like a hand drum) with what sits in a Middle Eastern martial cadence meets dusk at the bazaar. Many tracks involved strong work by Baron, who appears to be the best showman of the bunch. Cohen is very competant, but otherwise largely incognito. The faster numbers will definately be a problem for the Ken Burn's set, but the more subdued numbers fit well with people who enjoy the Klezmer outings of Don Byron or the flowing North African tunefulness of Anouar Brahem.

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Greg Osby - Symbols of Light

Greg Osby
Symbols of Light (A Solution)
2001 Blue Note/Capitol Records

Produced by: Greg Osby

Personnel:
Greg Osby - alto & soprano saxophones
Jason Moran - piano
Scott Colley - bass
Marlon Browden - drums

Additional personnel:
Marlene Rice-Shaw - violin
Christian Howes - violin
Judith Insell-Stack - viola
Nioka Workman - cello

www.gregosby.com
http://www.m-base.com/


Greg Osby is wicked. He has no fear, he does it his way, and he does it with the kind of conviction that is hard to come by these days. Several years ago I was talking with Mike Keneally (former Frank Zappa guitarist and an all around amazing musician himself, who had recently worked with Osby on a Miles Davis tribute) and he said that Greg was one of the most cool people in the studio; he just came in with no pretense, banged out a take with all the authority of a brass magus, and that was it. He didn't fret over things; if it was a good take, it stayed, if it didn't he would do it again (apparently multiple takes were rare though).

Greg is cool. When I first encountered Mr. Oztone was the late 80s and he had released an ambitous, if not dated album called 3-D Lifestyles, mixing New Jack Swing and Jazz to mediocre effect (he was one of the first to try, so kudos for going for his). But even then, it was clear that he had technique, a more than adequate sound vocabulary to express a lot of ideas. Over the years he has become more of a modern bop guru (along with other M-Base members like Geri Allen, Steve Coleman, and Marvin 'Smitty' Smith). This is not in any way saying he in typical...he is anything but! Unlike uber-sax weenie Kenny G and his copycat ilk (who I would like to corral into a barn and let folks like Osby beat over the heads with blunt objects), Osby has his own voice, and does not sit still. This release is no exception, and follows in the footsteps of other topline Osby platters (Zero, Banned in New York and Art Forum among them), as well as his production work.

Featured with his regular musical partner Jason Moran and a more than capable rhythm section in Colley and Browden, is a set of classical string accompanists (sometimes as a quartet, sometimes as a trio) that provide some new colours and variations in the sound and shows a real expansion of the Osby catalogue (he even wrote his own string charts). As is stated in the liner notes, Osby did not just want to 'carpet' jazz tunes with strings or overpower the sound with bombast. Rather the compositions are highly lyrical and flowing, and the string section(s) weave through and surround and disappear throughout. To quote from the notes "...I interviewed a few string players about various bowing techniques, tremolos, pizzicato, and the ranges...Some of the pieces feature 'voice crossing,' with the Cello on top, and the violin or viola in the ex treme lower register...I also wanted string players, who don't normally have the opportunity to improvise, to have melodic options during repeated cycles on the forms." And even though he claims to be big on Sonny Rollins and Von Freeman, I hear lots of Wayne Shorter-isms when Osby plays soprano (something he does not do as often as he should, as his intervallic playfulness and devilish phrasing work incredibly well with that member of the brass family. This is not to say he is derivative as much as one who knows the masters.

All of this plays into a stunning album by the way (did I mention this is a badass album? Oh yeah, and it's a great album too). The strings and Osby don't start until more than a minute and a half into the albumopener 3 for Civility...the piano and rhythm section just lead you along and then all of a sudden you notice Greg and Co. creep on in casually The Keep is dark and jarring, as it follows you down the inner alleyways of your ears and plays with you like a cat and a mouse. There are hints of Monk and Trane in there somewhere, but not in any obvious way. One Room isn't as polished a sound as you hear from a Branford Marsalis soprano, but the grittiness is welcome and adds immediacy to the tune.

Most of the compositions are Osby originals, including the recycling of one of his more popular ones, Ministrale, although redone as Ministrale Again (The Barefoot Tap Dance), as well as "M" by Masabumi Kicuchi, the Dimitri Tiomkin/Ned Washington tune Wild is the Wind, Andrew Hills popular Golden Sunset and Repay in Kind the sole contribution by Moran.

All in all this is one of the most impressive releases from the Blue Note label in 2001, and probably Osby's most mature and fulfilling work since Zero.


* Ministrale was initially from the Zero album, also on Blue Note.

Friday, November 04, 2005

Killing Joke - XXV Gathering: Let Us Prey

Killing Joke
XXV Gathering: Let Us Prey
2005 Cooking Vinyl Records


Show produced by John O'Sullivan


Personnel:
Jaz Coleman – vocals
Geordie Walker – Guitars
Paul Raven – Bass, vocals
Ben Calvert – drums

Nick Walker – keyboards

Ha! I nearly bought this one. No, wait, I DID buy this one. I had not realized it was even out on cd, but the impending DVD by Killing Joke, The Band that Preys Together, Stays Together, had an audio version there in the racks.

This was recorded at the Shepherds Bush Empire in the UK, to commemorate KJ pushing their eschatological soundtrack of destruction and gloom for a quarter of a century. While I can't say it strikes me as the best KJ experience to start with, it does feature a still vital and energized band, and it covers a decent swath of their catalog, albeit lacking in terms of being really comprehensive.

For the unitiated, Killing Joke is a band of sonic thugs led by a schitzophrenic idiot-savant with a voice that has been described as “the sound of the earth vomiting”. You can blame them for being instrumental in birthing industrial, metal and gloomy goth together into one cataclysmic, richter-registering sludge, and served to you, the listener, in large slabs. These guys may look old and haggard (and the sleeve pictures confirm this), but they are full of guile, tough, and still have enough chops and drive to still pummel just about anyone else. They are in many ways, the King Crimson of post-punk. Arty, unpredictable, manic, and inscrutible.

This disc starts with long-time opener Communion, which plays into their mystique of shows being more tribal gathering or ritual than just a “are you ready to rock, Detroit” moment. There are no filler tracks on this disc, and the band careens between material from the first 3 albums, and Pandemonium and their second eponymous album (the one with Dave Grohl on drums that should have won a grammy for most psychotic, spite filled, abrasive wash of erudite noise of 2003, and the best drumming of Grohl's career to date) for the most recent bits. The one token track from the middle period is Love Like Blood, and it comes off solid.*

Some of the earlier material sounds great live, since the original releases had some tinny production in spots, and with the fuller sound they have now, tracks like Wardance, Pssyche, and the Pandys Are Coming have a heaviness they deserve. When Helmet covered Primitive**, I thought they had done a better job of it than KJ's original. With this live version, KJ takes ownership back. The Wait, which I had actually first heard on Metallica's original Garage Days release (on cassette no less, oh how time flies), sounds just head-rattling with Raven playing as dirty a bass as possible, and Walkers serrated, spiralling riffs guiding it along. Hetfield and Co. can sit back down now. Since I keep mentioning songs that have been covered (read: I am creating a subtext that this bands influence far outstrips their commercial acheivements, pay some bloody attention), let's mention one more: Requiem. It is not the best live take I have heard of this, but it is more than adequate. A slow, depressing theme to having your spirit crushed. ***

The only songs that seem to lose focus a bit is Asteroid (a personal favorite) possibly because it is such a manic, tectonic plate-shearing mess on record, that it gets somewhat messier live; that, and the audience participation bugged me. The same goes for the title track from Pandemonium, which closes this set. Geordie's complex guitar work gets sort of lost in the wash.

The only bad thing about this release is its brevity, and lack of coverage of some eras. This should have been a dual cd, with more tracks from the 90s and mid 80s thrown in, and maybe throw in some unusual gems in there: Democracy, Another Bloody Election, Pilgrimage, Whiteout, Inside the Termite Mound, Money Is Not Our God, Fire Dances, Kings and Queens, Adorations and Chessboards would all have been great to hear.

But if you are looking for an initial KJ intro fix, this is not a bad way to go.

* Some of you Sarah McLachlan fans may have heard this, as she covered it live for several tours

** Helmet covered this as a b-side to one of their early single releases.

*** the Foo Fighters covered this as a b-side for something. This of course led to KJ having Grohl play on their last album. The connection was not always so amicable, as not only Grohl, but all of Nirvana were large KJ fans, so much so that they invoked a legal tussle initially over their uncredited use of the guitar riff from KJ's Eighties for their big hit Come As You Are.

Other bands that have covered KJ include Fear Factory and Juno Reactor.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

iBush

Just as funny little things about what is on George W. Bush's iPod.

And some pithy commentary about that iPod.

How do I miss this stuff?

Apparently Siobhan de Marè, former of one-album alt-darlings Mono, has been in a band called Violet Indiana with Cocteau Twin aural architect Robin Guthries.

I should know this stuff before it happens by God!

Johnson - Hard Mouth To Feed

Johnson
Hard Mouth To Feed
1998 Sony

So every once in a while you get a big wtf purchase from the bargain bin. Johnson is one of those. Released in 1998, there is almost nothing anywhere about this release, or the band itself. It's name certainly is not helpful, as is the fact that the duet only go by their first names, Noah and Rayne. It is on Sony, was released well into the period when online promotion was in swing (1998) and has some heavy hitters attached, including producer/keyboardist Andrew Hale of Sade and Sweetback, and big league session players John Giblin (Brand X, Simple Minds, Annie Lennox) and percussionist Pandit Dinesh (Dizrhythmia and Carol Wheeler), and even sports some sweet art direction. But in terms of coverage...

Nada.

Well, almost nada.

A few small interviews and press junket reviews, but no real clue as to how these guys got signed and got hooked up with Hale, or what the hell happened after this albums release. They just seem to have bought 1 way express passes to the Bermuda Triangle of music history. Rarely am I confounded so (which is possibly why I am giving it this much press).

My review of this album is pretty simple. It's a respectable debut, but uneve. For fans of Sade or Sweetback, there is only a cursory similarity between the two, and even then it is only in spots performance and production-wise; it bears some of the clean but earthy folk of Sade's Love Deluxe and Sweetbacks Stage 2, but that is where all parallels end. This is not a soul or ambient dub album. It's a very straightahead folk-pop and mellow blues soiree being sung. The foundation is Noah's raspy mid-range vocals accompanied by Raynes nondescript harmonies and acoustic strumming about. Rayne is functional as an acoustic guitarist (Kaki King or even Jonatha Brooke she ain't) but given the ascetic arrangments, works very well, and augmented in inventive ways via Hale keeping the stripped down feel constant, and only adding flourishes as is needed to keep the tunes from getting coffee-house open-mike night redundant. He follows a pattern similar to Sweetback productions (as well as music produced by dudes like Jon Brion and Tony Berg), mixing the immediately familiar with bits of exotica: melodeon, pedal steel, upright bass and string quintet among the needed additions.

As good as all that sounds, I can't help but think that this musical backdrop is in need of being released as an instrumental chill-out album, because the songs are often very pedestrian (nee coffeehouse open-mike night in ambience). There is a stanza or three of above par lyrics, and even a few stabs at real sentimental singing of them, but much of it just toils along. Noah, who is most memorable for the album cover as having a cleft chin like Homer Simpson's asscrack and looks much like a Vin Diesel impersonator, just does not strike me as a threat to the Bob Dylan legacy. Not that Rayne is anymore convincing; she looks like Paris Hilton, only more Scandanavian and less sleazy (like Paris meets a Gap Ad), and like I said, sings in a very nondescript, waifish manner "Oh...my...gawd...I just so cannot get anymore air into my teenie lungs. This like soooo sucks." is the dialogue that comes to mind.

Maybe it will grow on me, but after a few listens the music is holding up but the singing isn't.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

No Longer Legit. Told To Quit.

The Hammer has been touched.