A REVIEW of TRANSATLANTICISM from DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE written by Schlagzeuger

1. The New Year
2. Lightness
3. Title and Registration
4. Expo ’86
5. The Sound of Settling
6. Tiny Vessels
7. Transatlanticism
8. Passenger Seat
9. Death of An Interior Decorator
10. We Looked Like Giants
11. A Lack of Color

  The first sixteen seconds of Transatlanticism makes you feel like you are in a cargo ship, or boarding an airplane, which makes sense if you break up the words Transatlantic and cism (the belief in crossing the Atlantic ocean) – Oh Ben Gibbard, how you and Bellingham  love to craft new words to bring the name hipster beyond hip….let’s get to the best album to ever come out of this strange college town. 

  The New Year is one of my favorite Death Cab For Cutie songs, probably because I heard it new on the Locals show on 107.7 The End in Seattle on Sunday nights until they exploded on the scene and Death Cab became a name known everywhere.  Lightness is a slow burner with haunting sounds in the intro until it unfolds into a beautiful written long first verse.  “Oh, instincts are misleading, You shouldn’t think what you’re feeling, They don’t tell you want you know you should want.” 

The love song Title and Registration is one of the first songs I learned how to play on guitar, and I can bet it is in other young guitarists repertoire of riffs.  Expo 86 starts off slow and in minor, but instantly kicks into a happy / sad song about love, or the grocery store, I am not sure.  It sounds like he could be buying groceries “I am waiting for something to go wrong”.  The Sound Of Settling might be my favorite song off this album (did I already say this?)  “Ba BAAAAA, This is the sound of settling, Ba Baaaaaa Ba BAAAAA!”  How can you not sing Ba BAAAAAA!  Baaaaaaa.”

 

  Tiny Vessels is the heavy 6th track off this album, and this one is definitely a love song.  Or maybe a one night stand song??  What was Ben doing in Silverlake for two weeks – getting busy with some latino girl, that’s what is up.  Transatlanticism is a beautifully written and sung piano ballad, but none of these songs throughout the album are cheesy ballads.  Heart felt, mature, and touching are words that would describe any song off the album.  Passenger Seat shows up Transatlanticism with an even deeper emotional hitting piano song.  This song could put me to sleep instantly (in the best way possible).  Death Of An Interior Decorator starts off with a fun beat, interesting arpeggio guitar riff, but it is Ben Gibbard’s way of singing “Can you tell me why you have been so sad?” – spoiler – he was a college student watching all these young, dumb kids getting married with the inevitable mundane life set before themselves.  THAT is why, Ben, everyone is so sad.   We Looked Like Giants feels like a piece of art being painted on the wall, abstract, delicate, splattered with cymbal crashes and snare hits.  The finale ends with a foreshadowing of future Ben Gibbard songs that would smother the radio airwaves and hearts of teen girls swooning – A Lack Of Color.   “This is fact not fiction, for the first time in years….” a reply anyone who realized they lost a lover and they ain’t coming back – thanks Ben for bringing back memories of late night drunk dialing to exes.  If  you enjoy these reviews feel free to post any comments, love, hate, whatever you want – future reviews?  The catch is they have to be from Washington, or at least resided in the great Northwest (and no Idaho doesn’t count).

If you clicked for a Road Map I bet you feel silly by now….

A REVIEW of WHERE HAVE ALL THE MERRYMAKERS GONE? from HARVEY DANGER by SCHLAGZEUGER

What a way today to celebrate Where Have All The Merrymakers Gone? than to give this album a review – July 29th 1997 this album was released (17 years ago if you can’t do the math).

1. Carlotta Valdez

2. Flagpole Sitta

3. Wooly Muffler

4. Private Helicopter

5. Problems and Bigger Ones

6. Jack The Lioin

7. Old Hat

8. Terminal Annex

9. Wrecking Ball

10.  Radio Silence

I remember being eleven years old when this album came out, my dad had this album in his blue 1990 camaro that still smelled like new car (it was those damn little hanging trees that smell like new car)

and Carlotta Valdez blasting through the sound system “VERTIGO!  VERTIGO!  CARLOTTA VALDEZ!”  I won’t say much about Flagpole Sitta, except I really loved it in the Cruel Intentions Soundtrack (I still dream about Sarah Michelle Gellar and Reese Witherspoon in a twisted three-some….)

Wooly Muffler and Private Helicopter are great rock songs with driving lyrics, catchy chorus, and Sean Nelson’s Seattle attitude breaks through especially after the fizzle of Grunge.  Harvey Danger really was a breath of fresh air back in the late 90’s for Seattle with their personal lyrics, heavy punkish guitars, pounding drums and lyrics that you will be singing while on the way to work stuck in traffic.  Problems and Bigger Ones gets a little slower, I guess you could call it a Punk Love Ballad.  Jack the Lion lets the bass fuzz take over the verses with some slide guitar making crazy crescendos post chorus.

Old Hat almost sounds like it could be a classic rock song with the solos throughout “Call Me Freaky Call me Childish, Call me Ishmael, Just Call Me Back” more bass fuzz, and who knows what old hat Sean is singing about.  All bands in the 1990’s had to have a track with tribal drums (check it out, they all got ’em).  Terminal Annex is not about a post office, but definitely a break-up or maybe another band was stinking up the town with their ego  “Like a zero drowning in a sea of higher numbersEverything you say to me is dumb,(at least it’s stupid)”.  Wrecking Ball is Miley Cyrus’ best song….wait this is about Harvey…fuck.  Wrecking Ball by Harvey Danger is the slower, soft song of the album before it ends.  By the way, I haven’t actually heard Ms. Cyrus version but I am guessing it is not a cover of HD.  Radio Silence pulls in at 8:30 seconds long – The Way A Masterpiece Should End – “Where have all the merrymakers gone?”  At 3:44 “This Radio, This RADIO Silence! SILENCE!”  It is truly a great ending song for an album, and a piece of art all around.  5:17 to 6:17 is silence…aawwww way to ruin the secret!  Sean Nelson interviewed my band at KEXP 90.3 in Seattle in December 2004 when we were playing on their station – He looked great and I remember his hair standing up at least a foot straight in the air as he interviewed The Last Romance, magical moments growing up as a musician in Washington.  Stay tuned for more reviews.

A REVIEW of THE MOON AND ANTARCTICA from Modest Mouse written by Schlagzeuger

1. 3rd Planet
2. Gravity Rides Everything
3. Dark Center of The Universe
4. Perfect Disguise
5. Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes
6. A Different City
7. The Cold Part
8. Alone Down There
9. The Stars Are Projectors
10. Wild Packs Of Family Dogs
11. Paper Thin Walls
12. I Came As A Rat
13. Lives
14. Life Like Weeds
15. What People Are Made Of

“The Universe is shaped exactly like the Earth….”  Isaac Brock, yeah I am going to say it, is the best lyricist from ANY Seattle band, and possibly the whole entire music cosmos.  I have never listened to another band that preaches the athiestic, universal mind expanding topics that I love as much as Modest Mouse – hence them being my number one favorite band (even though I have Led Zeppelin tattooed on my left arm).

Track one 3rd Planet – Catchy guitar riffs with lyrics about the mundane daily life of Brock, and right off you can hear religious / scientific influences (and definitely, musically, the drug use of early years of living in Issaquah, WA) “Everything that keeps me together is falling apart,
I’ve got this thing that I consider my only art of fucking people over”.  Gravity Rides Everything gets a little softer, acoustic with percussion with haunting guitar licks shinning through the background.  :”Motions, and the things that you say, it all will fall right into place.”  Gravity is such a great topic to sing about; everyone knows the effect and can see it.

The album slowly goes along into the third track when it picks up at Dark Center Of The Universe, where the chorus somehow gets split up into chunks of repetition yet the guitar melodies are changing rhythm patterns.  Perfect Disguise is consistently chill, which leads right into the dancey Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes.  Tell me you can listen to that song and not groove….even a little?….Yeah you’re dancing.  A Different City keeps the intensity up in the intro and drops into Isaac Brock’s world of cities, television, probably boredom, and yeah most likely drugs.  The Cold Part definitely makes you feel like you are floating in space “So long to this cold, cold part of the world” which makes me wonder if he is saying goodbye to Washington State?  I know Brock traveled a lot in his childhood and definitely while touring the world, makes me wonder the background of his lyrics that are rarely talked about.  All the songs on this album feel deep; they take you on a personal dark journey which is why I probably love this album so much – not exactly the darkness but the journey.

A Wild Pack Of Family Dogs brings up the emotions and brings you back to when you might have been about five years old watching your dog play in the yard with an accordion (doesn’t sound like your childhood?  weird…it’s Washington).  A phrase to summarize this whole album “Happily Disturbed About Space and Emptiness”.  Paper Thin Walls always makes me smile with the line “This whole world stinks so no ones taking showers anymore, Laugh hard it’s a long ways to the bank”.  I Came As A Rat is catchy as all hell, especially when the drums kick in and it turns into an acoustic rock song with the awesome reverse guitar lick and electronic sounds.  The guitar riffs throughout are more than memorable – they get stuck in your head throughout the entire day, week, month until you just have to admit you are addicted to Modest Mouse.

Lives might be my favorite song off the album “Everyone is afraid of their own life, if you could be anything you’d be disappointed am I right?” The questions and statements Brock states take me into a deep part of my mind that I have only gone to when I am too high to do anything except think and grind teeth.  Life Like Weeds and What People Are Made Of end the album on a punkish, upbeat, happier note with an abrupt end to a classic album.

As you can see so far I have only posted about Washington State bands, and I am commited to post many more.  Support Art, Music, Life, Rock and Roll and Die.

A REVIEW of DOPPLEGANGER from The Fall Of Troy written by Schlagzeuger

Three guys from Mukilteo, Washington (it’s nice there, kind of) created one of the best albums of the 2000’s.  When I was sixteen my band Armar Road played a show with these guys when they went by the name of 30 Years War at a local coffee shop that was the hub of music in Marysville, Washington back in 2003 – throwing out some credentials so you know what’s up.  Oh what, you wanna listen to the music?

44:41 Doppleganger by Fall Of Troy.

1. I Just Got This Symphony Goin’
2. Act One, Scene One
3. F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X.
4. “You Got A Death Wish, Johnny Truant?”
5. Mouths Like Sidewinder Missiles
6. The Holy Tape…
7. Laces Out, Dan!
8. We Better Learn To Hotwire A Uterus
9. Whacko Jacko Steals The Elephant Man’s Bones
10. Tom Waits
11. Macaulay McCulkin

The guitar work on this album from front to back is incredible.  Starting an album off with a solo riff of shredding in I Just Got This Symphony Goin’???  That is how a Rock album should start.  Thomas Erak pierces your ears with screaming followed by some beautiful vocal melodies in-between his screamo.  Act One, Scene One gives you a more chuggy punk riff, an excellent second song to get you pumped up for the rest of the album which is a roller coaster of a ride. F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X.  was Fall Of Troy’s “Stairway” as it was catchy, popular, and with that delay intro into a guitar riff that gets stuck in your head, you can’t help but sing along with Erak (even if you don’t know what he is saying).  “I don’t wanna see the day…..it’s too bad, no regrets….this is, my one chance, to take back, no regrets”.  I’m not gonna look up the lyrics because I like to make up my own, but please feel free to comment what they are.

You Got A Death Wish, Johnny Truant? has great vocal melodies with catchy screaming that could pop a balloon if you can hit those notes.  Some of the lines stick out at me forever such as “staring at your glass smile” “forever contradicting”, and “can you still see what you first saw in me? WHAAAA WHOOOO”  I love it.  Again the guitar work in this album is amazing, and you gotta give props to the rhythm foundation of Andrew Forsman on drums and Tim Ward on bass.  The drums were recorded and mixed to perfection, great sounding snare and when he hits the ride cymbal it feels like you are sitting on stage left listening to him let it ring out.  “Did you fuck up anyway?  I don’t understand what you say”.  The dynamics of the album are what pull it all together and especially in the lengthy ending of Macaulay McCulkin where they get Mathematically jazzy, punk, rock, and psychedelic all in one finale that will make you put this album on repeat and drive 103 mph down the freeway in the rain covered roads of I-5.  This album will always have a place in my heart when I need some amazing guitar work (did I mention the insane guitar work!?!?) and screams to pound my ear drums.

A REVIEW of BADMOTORFINGER from Soundgarden written by Schlagzeuger

Yeah the links are to YouTube, how else do you listen to full albums online without commercials? (well besides the ad at the beginning of most YouTube videos, just skip it bro).   Click the links and listen to rock classics from Seattle.

57:49 minutes: BADMOTORFINGER by Soundgarden

1. “Rusty Cage”
2. “Outshined”
3. “Slaves & Bulldozers”
4. “Jesus Christ Pose”
5. “Face Pollution”
6. “Somewhere”
7. “Searching with My Good Eye Closed”
8. “Room a Thousand Years Wide”
9. “Mind Riot”
10. “Drawing Flies”
11. “Holy Water”
12. “New Damage”

This album starts off punching you in the face with Rusty Cage and continues the onslaught of pure rock and roll throughout.  Outshined is crunchy; sludge rock’s grandfather of a song.  Track three is Slaves and Bulldozers which starts with some heavy hitting drums synchronized with shrilling, spine tingling guitar squeals.   Chris Cornell’s vocals are impressive throughout the album, but Slaves and Bulldozers shows off his range, clarity, and soul – “I said What’s in it for me?  What’s in it for me?”  Brilliant lyrics throughout the album are accompanied by, personally, my favorite Seattle Band (San Diego born) drummer Matt Cameron.  Jesus Christ Pose is my all time number one Soundgarden song, which is difficult to choose but I am a drummer, and who wouldn’t be impressed by Matt’s insane drum beat, insane uptempo guitar chugs and Cornell “And you swear to me you don’t want to be my slave, but you stare at me like I need to be saved”.

Face Pollution pulls out the punk metal, while Somewhere almost starts off like a Foo Fighters song, but then shows some foreshadowing of where Audioslave went musically.   Track seven creeps in “This is my good eye.  Do you hear a cow?  A rooster says.  Here is a pig.  The Devil says….” This sound always made me laugh as a kid but then it goes into a solid rock song that makes your forget about the intro and gets you head banging.  A Room A Thousand Miles Wide is solid grunge rock,  while Mind Riot shows the diversity of the band (and also how Matt Cameron could play with Pearl Jam as it almost sounds like PJ if  you didn’t hear Chris sing).  Drawing Flies, Holy Water, and New Damage round out the final three songs of the album showing homage to their Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin roots with solos and deep thumps.  This album no doubt has influenced many musicians and artists that have gotten into Rock and Roll since the 1990’s and by now should be considered a Classic (if you ain’t a poser).