Tag Archives: album reviews

Music, Pop Culture

CD Review: You’re Gonna Ruin Everything by The Maroons

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Maroons Youre Gonna Ruin CD Cover

Artist: The Maroons
Album: You’re Gonna Ruin Everything
Release Date: March 5, 2002
Label: In Music We Trust

The Pacific Northwest is the unrivaled breeding ground for the great plague upon pop music known as “indie rock”: the most un-melodic, uninteresting, unenergetic music this side of death. Yawn city. But The Maroons are a whole new animal in the indie rock zoo, in that they seem to be highly familiar with Mid-70’s rock (Sweet, T-Rex, The Kinks), the essence of which permeates their sophomore album, You’re Gonna Ruin Everything. Guitarist Jim Talstra’s Brian May-inspired guitar licks on “Can You Feel?” are spot on, while Mike Clark’s Three Dog Night-inspired keyboards (on the clever “Dance Floor Flirt,” for example) leave plenty of hook residue in their wake. Add a lead singer, John Moen, who sounds like the gay reincarnation of Marc Bolan, and you’ve got a bunch of tunes that would be at home on the soundtrack to Velvet Goldmine. If the Posies wrote a rock opera about the life of a Guided By Voices fan, You’re Gonna Ruin Everything might be the result.

Official Website: http://inmusicwetrustrecords.com/themaroons.html

This article was originally written for Rolling Stone’s Online Magazine. Though Rolling Stone remains in print and online, this article is no longer a part of their archive and has been added to the content base of The Worley Gig for our readers’ enjoyment.

Music, Pop Culture

CD Review: Perfumed Letter by Bill Mallonee

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Bill Mallonee CD Cover

Artist: Bill Mallonee
Album: Perfumed Letter
Release Date: August 26, 2003
Label: Paste Records

Singer/songwriter Bill Mallonee’s roots rest in the Athens, GA soil that nurtured college radio pioneers REM and underground stalwarts, Let’s Active. After releasing a dozen impressive albums with his country–folk rock project, Vigilantes of Love, Mallonee explores a classic pop sound — Magical Mystery Tour-era Beatles (“She’s So Liquid) meets The Monkees (“Extraordinary Girl”) — while staying true to his love of heady, introspective lyricism on his excellent solo debut, Perfumed Letter.

Mallonee strikes his best balance of wistful and whimsical on the deceptively uplifting post-breakup song, “Your Bright Future.” Floating on a Foo Fighters-inspired melody, Mallonee keenly addresses lost hope and its subsequent resignation in the lyrics, “There’s a little piece of you I may never see again/There’s a bigger piece of me that’s simply vanishing.” With Perfumed Letter, Mallonee steps off from the Bob Dylan/Neil Young amalgam of VOL to find peers among Beck, The Eels and Mercury Rev.

Official Website: http://www.billmalloneemusic.com/

This article was originally written for Rolling Stone’s Online Magazine. Though Rolling Stone remains in print and online, this article is no longer a part of their archive and has been added to the content base of The Worley Gig for our readers’ enjoyment.

Music, Pop Culture

CD Review: “A Beginner’s Guide to the World’s Best Black Sabbath Tribute Band” by Hand Of Doom

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Hand of Doom CD Cover

Artist: Hand of Doom
Album: A Beginner’s Guide to the World’s Best Black Sabbath Tribute Band
Release Date: 2002
Label: Idaho/Retrophonic

Inspired by her visceral rock sensibilities amid MTV-spawned Osbourne’s-mania, former Hole/Smashing Pumpkins bassist, Melissa Auf Der Mauer formed Hand of Doom, a just-for-fun Black Sabbath tribute band, with friends Nick Oliveri (Queens of the Stone Age) and Pedro Yanowitz (ex-Wallflowers). Hand of Doom played three sold-out LA club gigs and captured the live magic of those shows for A Beginner’s Guide to the World’s Best Black Sabbath Tribute Band — your eight-song souvenir of these three enchanted evenings.
Continue reading CD Review: “A Beginner’s Guide to the World’s Best Black Sabbath Tribute Band” by Hand Of Doom →

Music, Pop Culture

CD Review: More B.S. by Bree Sharp

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Bree Sharp More BS CD Cover

Artist: Bree Sharp
Album: More B.S.
Release Date: August 13, 2002
Label: Ahimsa/Union

NYC singer/songwriter, Bree Sharp’s promising 1999 debut, A Cheap and Evil Girl scored a minor hit with an aural mash note to X-Files hunk, “David Duchovny.” On Sharp’s cleverly entitled follow-up, More B.S., there’s more folk than rock going on in this mixed bag of exceptional pop tunes, with the maturity of her songwriting suggesting a 20-something Joan Jett disciple exploring her Fiona Apple side. Among many stand-out tracks are the thoughtful new-age lullabye, “Galaxy Song”; the understated hilarity of “Dirty Magazine; and an engaging “Bonnie & Clyde” style tale of two doomed outlaws — “The Ballad of Grim & Lilly” — which mixes woozy trip-hop beats with lyrical fatalism, revealing Sharp’s flair for storytelling that’s a cornerstone of great songwriting. It’s on “The Last of Me,” a hauntingly direct tune about the promise of revenge in the aftermath of a failed relationship, however, that she really hits her stride.

Official Website: http://www.breesharp.com

This article was originally written for Rolling Stone’s Online Magazine. Though Rolling Stone remains in print and online, this article is no longer a part of their archive and has been added to the content base of The Worley Gig for our readers’ enjoyment.

Music, Pop Culture

CD Review: Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence by Dream Theater

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Dream Theater Six Degrees CD Cover

Artist: Dream Theater
Album: Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
Release Date: January 29, 2002
Label: Elektra

The music of Dream Theater — a prog-metal blend of Styx drama and ELP grandeur — generates little gray area when it comes to appeal. Listeners either love the band passionately or hate them. (God knows I’ve had my issues with them, having walked out on one of their shows three years ago when the Siegfried & Roy aspects of the Las Vegas-style Rock Extravaganza got out of hand. That is to say, I was bored). The band’s sixth album, an ambitious double CD entitled Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence is unlikely to alter that dichotomy. But here’s the thing, with Dream Theater, you know what you’re getting when you sign on: musical virtuosity and technical perfection.
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