R.E.M. - Accelerate

Warner Bros. Records 2008

8/10

Best Track: "Horse to Water"

Worst Track: "I'm Gonna DJ"

Just in case you opened your favorite music publication and caught some of the massive wave of hype surrounding R.E.M.’s album Accelerate: the issue date is right. It’s not the early 1990s. It’s 2008, and R.E.M. is generating more press than they have in the entire last decade.

At R.E.M.’s peak, most of the students at this university still wore diapers. After experiencing cult success in the mid-80s, R.E.M. became famous with singles like “Losing My Religion” and “Everybody Hurts.” Then, a series of commercial flops and the departure of original drummer Bill Berry in 1997 drove the band off the face of the earth. Perhaps this is why Accelerate has garnered so much buildup. It’s been hailed as a comeback album and the one record that will bring R.E.M. to the forefront of the rock world once more.

It’s hard to say whether Accelerate will rise to the top of the U.S. rock pack commercially when the members, who range between 48 and 52 years of age, could be mistaken for the fathers of most of the people running today’s rock scene. However, their experience and rejuvenated vision have helped R.E.M. to create their most cohesive, inspired music in years.

Accelerate is technically a great album. Singer Michael Stipe’s voice is as young and yearning as ever, conveying gritty emotion in tracks like the speedy “Horse To Water” and “Houston,” the band’s version of the requisite Katrina-aftermath commentary.

With the exception of the first and last tracks, “Living Well Is The Best Revenge” and “I’m Gonna DJ” respectively, Accelerate is a fluid collection. However, each song is distinct enough to warrant its own recognition, from the thrilling paces of “Man-Sized Wreath” and “Supernatural Superserious” to the moody political ballad “Until The Day Is Done.” The album doesn’t drag, nor does it move along too quickly.

It’s safe to say that R.E.M. reached their peak a long time ago. However, Accelerate brings the band a lot closer to the high esteem in which their music was once held. With this album, R.E.M. will win back frustrated diehards while reining in new fans and, hopefully, continue to dazzle them all.

R.E.M. - Horse to Water

- Amanda Renko

Crystal Castles - self-titled

Last Gang Records 2008

9/10

Best Track: "Black Panther"

Worst Track: "Good Time"

Crystal Castles was a 1983 arcade game by Atari. The object of the game was to collect these gems in a somewhat 3D (it’s Atari) environment consisting of various, you called it, castles. The game might have been popular in the 80s, but it has been long forgotten until a Toronto-based duo band took on their name and pioneered some of the most original electro-house music out today.

Crystal Castles is a new and upcoming band that takes the dance beats of modern marvels like Hot Chip and Klaxons and throws them head-first into a wall of retrogaming sounds attributed to Atari and Nintendo. The way they do this is actually pretty interesting. They place an Atari 5200 sound chip inside one of their keyboards in order to produce the trippiest glitching sound-byte beats ever heard. Surprisingly, it sounds extremely catchy and danceable.

Of course, anyone can make lukewarm songs with a glitchy keyboard; however, Crystal Castles showcase their dance prowess by sampling Death From Above 1979’s track “Dead Womb,” and turning it into an aura of synth and no-wave that any skeptic would find energetic and well-remixed.

Their self-titled album juggles with many influences throughout its playtime. “XXZXCUZX Me” illustrates their tenacity to purge their emotions into an aggressive rollercoaster of intertwined scales mixed with a devastating beat guaranteed to make listeners stomp their feet to the fast paced and driving drums. They quickly shift gears into a smooth but ever-increasingly industrious “Courtship Date” that eerily sounds like a timberland song roughened by the abrasive byte clips emanated from their keyboard.

Unarguably, the best track on the album is “Black Panther.” Although singer Alice Glass’s voice is hardly distinguishable in the wave of in-your-face drumbeats coupled with harmonizing electronic sound bytes, her voice carries a sense of urgency that’s rather majestic.

Crystal Castles’ debut is a testament to their brilliant mixing talent. They manage to craft entire songs out of simple sound bytes, which reveals originality unheard of in their genre.

- Michael Ghassibi

Crystal Castles - Black Panther

Here's a bonus track:

Klaxons - Atlantis to Interzone (Crystal Castles remix)

The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely

Warner Bros. Records 2008

6/10

Best Track: "Rich Kid Blues"

Worst Track" "The Switch and the Spur"

So the Raconteurs inexplicably rushed the release of Consolers of the Lonely by a few weeks. That was big enough news. The even bigger news is that Jack White and Brendan Benson would have been better off working on it in the studio a bit more. Sometimes, good things come to those who wait. Sadly, Consolers is not one of those good things. Mediocre thing maybe, but certainly not a good thing.

Consolers of the Lonely reaches for a bluesy-rock bliss of melding song construction genius with solid guitars. It shouldn’t be a stretch. Brendan Benson is a multi-talented musician and Jack White is the closest thing this generation has to a musical genius. Sadly though, the only thing that needs consoling is the disappointed legion of Raconteurs fans.

The raw material on the album is, for the most part, the same inspired genius that led The Raconteurs’ debut Broken Boy Soldiers to become a hit record. The problem is, that genius gets obscured by rushed vocal mastering in songs, particularly the earlier tracks with “Salute Your Solution” as the worst offender. Add to the fact that Jack White’s already weak singing ability when he’s not half-screaming is spotlighted and the vocals throughout this album lead to a slight nail on a chalkboard feeling.

What saves this album is the classic rock influences that run in veins deeper than a simple name check. “Rich Kid Blues” takes the sound style of Led Zeppelin and merges it with the prog-rock sound of groups like Rush. Yes, The Raconteurs were just compared to two legendary rock bands. But, don’t worry. Those comparisons are few.

Usually, the sound just comes across flat and even sounding more like Dispatch than any other act. The jam band sound is nice at points, but when most songs particularly “The Switch and the Spur” and “You Don’t Understand Me” inexplicably fall into a jam band groove then things are going wrong. Jack White sounds like he’s auditioning for Widespread Panic and Benson is just chilling somewhere in the back of the van.

By the time Consolers of the Lonely closes, the flaws of this album start to look like mos rock albums of the past few years. They fall into a groove early with the sound of the last album showing through and the band trying to expand their sound. The sonic expansion is agonizingly slow and leaves the band sounding fatigued by the end with minimal accomplishment.

It’s not that Consolers of the Lonely is a bad album. There are some real bright spots on it, especially in the back half of the disc. But the rushed feeling of the production hurt the record and with only a month or so between recording and final packaging, there just wasn’t enough time to polish this into any sort of coherence. It’s just frustrating to see such talented men put out an album beneath what they are capable of achieving.

The Raconteurs - "Rich Kid Blues"

- Garrett Lyons

FEATURE: The Seven Deadly Sins Of Music

In the 6^th Century, Pope Gregory the Great essentially codified a list of Seven Deadly Sins. These sins are guaranteed to send a mortal soul to Hell in a hurry. So, which musicians have their ticket stub ripped for the great gig in the underworld? Let’s find out.

Lust: Prince - Remember the saying “sex, drugs and rock & roll”? Well, this would mean that just about every musician is going to Hell. But the worst offender is Prince. After all, he is the man who popularized the phrase “23 positions in a one night stand.” He played a mildly phallic looking guitar on stage at the Super Bowl. He’s posed naked on his own album covers. This artist clearly has sex on the brain more often than not, and has probably thought of a way to actually have sex on the brain.

Gluttony: Fat Joe – Yes, this man is a glutton. He’s larger than life. Literally. His one hit “Lean Back” spawned an array of jokes that usually went along the lines of “Fat Joe is so fat, if he actually leaned back, he’d fall over.” But don’t worry. He’ll be joining Big Pun, Biggie Smalls and NOFX’s lead hooligan Fat Mike down there.

Greed: Radiohead – Radiohead is going to hell. They are a fantastic bunch of musicians, although I doubt anyone can name a soul in that band after Thom Yorke. Anyway, the group’s release of In Rainbows on a solid disc seals the group’s fate. At first they had the novel idea to release an album online independently for whatever the people wanted to pay for it just to keep the money away from record labels. Then they realized that maybe they’d make more money by a conventional release. So they did, on XL Recordings.

Sloth: Michael Stipe of R.E.M. – Anyone who writes a song with every other line being “Yeah yeah yeah yeah” is a lazy, lazy man. Anyone who writes the lyric “Leaving was never my proud” is far too lazy to use proper grammar. Anyhow, he’ll join the entire Crash Test Dummies down there because not only did they record a chorus consisting only of “mmm mmm mmm mmm,” but they also named the song that.

Wrath: Scott Weiland - First he leaves Stone Temple Pilots to join up with the now Rose-less Guns N’ Roses to become Velvet Revolver. Then he has an acrimonious break-up with Velvet Revolver, which involved him using high-school styled insults toward Slash, and rejoins Stone Temple Pilots. Sounds petulant, but when Weiland gets angry, bands die.

Envy: Eric Clapton – Forget his musical talent for a bit. He stole George Harrison’s wife. Enough said.

Pride: Axl Rose – It’s been how long that Chinese Democracy has been in production now? Apparently 13 years and over $13 million isn’t enough time to make the perfect record. How much pride does one man have that he simply can’t release an album without constant retweaking and arguing over the disc? At this rate, we’ll actually see democracy in China before the album comes out. But don’t worry – this album is scheduled for release some time in 2008, which is sort of like saying St. Bonaventure University will reform Clare College. In other words, don’t grow old waiting for that to happen.

- Garrett Lyons

Last Shadow Puppets – “The Age of the Understatement” – Single Review

What happens when you take former The Little Flames member Miles Kane from Liverpool rock outfit The Rascals and add Alex Turner from some band called Arctic Monkeys? The Last Shadow Puppets, an absurdly titled band who’ll be putting the year’s most dynamic album since Vampire Weekend came calling. The Last Shadow Puppets drop The Age of the Understatement on April 21 on Domino Records.

The lead single and title track sounds like what would happen if you put together a couple of bright sparks of indie rock with the London Metropolitan Orchestra. Actually, this is precisely what it is. The end result is a dance track of epic proportions with orchestral and choral arrangements more befitting of a movie score than a rock album. Even Morrissey couldn’t work with an orchestra as well as these two lads have. The percussion drives like thunder. The production lends itself to the feel of a fine concert hall. It all falls together and resembles a bombastic orchestral version of almost any track from Favourite Worst Nightmare.

The groove may be Arctic Monkeys, but the feel is much different. It’s lusher and richer in texture than anything either Kane or Turner have put out with any band. It’s just an auditory nugget of goodness.

- Garrett Lyons

The Last Shadow Puppets - "The Age of the Understatement"

New Issue Out Now

That's right everybody. The Modern Age is back in print. Look for a copy on the St. Bonaventure University campus around the Hickey Dining Hall, Francis Cafe, Cafe La Verna and the RC Cafe. There might even be a few floating around Murphy. So go get some.

Charlton Heston is Dead

That's right folks. The scion of all that was gun control died at the age of...well...he was really really old. So here's a trio of songs designed to remember Moses...I mean Ben-Hur...I mean the leader of the NRA...I mean Hollywood acting legend who will finally have that gun pried from his cold dead hands.

Life Sentence - Gun Control - Anti-gun hardcore from some true legends.

Half Man Half Biscuit - God Gave Us Life - British indie puts out a modern hymn with a sing-a-long chorus.

Pressure Drop - Daddy Buy Me a Rifle - Rhytmic punk from Liverpool. Great track. Great lyrics. Too bad this was the only passable song Pressure Drop put out.

Enjoy.

- Garrett Lyons

The Song I Can't Get Out of My Head

Sohodolls - "I'm Not Cool"

Sohodolls are an indie-electro group from London and have had tour dates with groups like Ladytron and She Wants Revenge. Hugh Hefner even had the group play a set at a Playboy party Moscow, proving that Hef does indeed have good taste in many many many things.

The group's sound crosses the darker electro beats of groups like She Wants Revenge and The Faint with Gary Numan styled synth riffs and the sexiest female vocals ever heard. Lead singer Maya von Doll coos her ways over the lyrics like a dirty Debbie Harry. It's beautiful.

"I'm Not Cool" takes the sound of ragtime mixed brilliantly with girl pop ethos and the lyrics hot enough to melt lead. The thumping bass burrows into your skull and stays there for a long long time. The song comes off the group's debut full-length Ribbed Music for the Numb Generation which is chock-full of sexy electro-rock goodness.

Here's another bonus track:

Sohodolls - "Trash the Rental (Crystal Castles remix)"

Enjoy.

- Garrett Lyons

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Yes, we here at The Modern Age are well aware that technically St. Patrick's Day was moved to be outside of the last week of Lent. But any way, here's a nice little track for the Irish amongst us.

The group is called Eire Og and they are quite possibly the most radical Irish Republican group still making music today. They fall into the same genre of music as groups like Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys, but they do far far more than the usual drinking songs, covers and fist-pumping that sometimes mar the beauty of Celt-punk.

"Amhran na bhFiann" is a live acoustic performance of the national anthem of the Republic of Ireland. The lyrics are in Irish but a reasonable translation can be found on Wikipedia.

Eire Og - Amhran na bhFiann

Enjoy.

- Garrett Lyons

Mike Ersing's Music You Should Listen To: Pyotr Tchaikovsky

1840 - 1893

Violin Concerto

Tchaikovsky composed only one violin concerto. It is considered the most difficult violin concerto to have been written in the Romantic period. Leopold Auer "The God of Russian Violin" of the time refused to perform it. Leopold, in a letter to Tchaikovsky, wrote: "No, my dear man. Please bring the piece to me again when you have recomposed it for the violin. As it stands, it cannot be played." It premiered in Vienna, as written, on December 4th 1881. Dr. Eduard Hanslick, a respected and feared critic of the time called it "barbarically dreadful". He also misnamed the middle movement, as well as the principle violinist. The principle violinist's name was Adolphe Brodsky. He was considered the greatest virtuoso violinist of his time. He was young. Adolphe Brodsky toured throughout the known world performing the piece. It has been speculated he did this because he felt indebted to Tchaikovsky.

Dr. Eduard Hanslick, I would like to sink my teeth into your flesh tear off your face and smash through your skull with my fist, shove my hand through your brain and tear out your soul, like an animal. Just like an animal. I would show you what it means to be destructive.

Too bad you’re dead.

And nobody ever liked you.

If anybody says anything bad about this piece it is because they are too stupid to understand the intense emotional/virtuosic beauty permeating every microscopic dot of ‘Light infinance’ permeating its vast, thick vacuum waving, indefinitely splattering shells of grown over infant part of the White Brain. You know, reminder? Big Awake! Spontaneity! Lick! ‘Pure White Infinite Brains', Thick waving dimension. Opening and unfolding expanses of purple and red and orange and yellow subjective dimensions! Pierced. As if it were laser beam tractor beams from the USS Enterprise, spotting and illuminating the innards of my third eye. Pulling and sucking it. The innocence. Pure tear-wrenching wonder and other beautiful notions lost to any but God and me, in my brains. His feelings are our own, Once again. Reason to exist shows itself to the searching mind. Please, listen to this piece if you have any idea what I’m talking about.

See ya.

-- Mike Ersing

Jack Johnson- Sleep Through The Static

Brushfire Records 2008

9/10

Best Tracks:
Sleep Through The Static, Angel

Eighteen years ago a chill kid named Jack Johnson from the North Shore picked up a guitar and started playing. He proceeded to form a punk band with some of his friends. They called themselves The Limber Chickens. Music was always a love of his, but his first love was the ocean. Surfing continued to be the most important part of his young life and became a professional surfer at age 17. Just weeks after making a name for himself in the Pipeline Trials, he suffered a severe surfing accident and received 150 stitches.

This unfortunate accident had little effect on his love for surfing, but perhaps it would ultimately change the course of his life. During his recovery period, he became more in touch with his artistic nature. Music became an increasingly important component of the young man’s life.

Filmmaking aspirations ultimately lead him to leave the North Shore and head for California. Santa Barbara became a place where dreams came true for this Hawaiian native and he earned a film degree and UC-Santa Barbara. His newly acquired skills, plus his past life as a professional surfer landed him cult status among surf-documentary junkies worldwide. A chance meeting with Ben Harper in 1999 was the catalyst that would eventually launch the young man into iconical music stardom.

Now, lets fast forward 9 years, 2 major surfing documentary films, his own record label and 5 full-length albums later, Jack Johnson has became a testament to what someone can do when they follow their dreams.

Johnson’s highly anticipated 5^th album, Sleep Through The Static was recorded entirely by solar power in Jack’s house/studio in California. Many long-time fans of Johnson’s tunes can expect a similar style of chill surf-rock that has been displayed on Johnson’s previous albums. Static displays a gentle, spaced-out ambience that Johnson fans have come to expect. Jack has become a master of the use of instrumentation and production. This has slowly led to an evolution in craftsmanship with each progressive album Jack has released.

Jack has continued to add more and more instruments as each new progressive album has arrived. The influence of piano is heavy on the new album. Jack even plugs in for a few tracks, rocking out on his electric axe. Well, that is as much as he can rock out.

Lyrically speaking, Jack has lost none of his prowess on the new disc. Tracks are seeped with vivid imagery and dreamy-thought provoking lyrics. Some minor differences in song writing style that can be seen in Jack’s quasi-protest songs like “Sleep Through The Static”, “All At Once” and “They Do, They Don’t.” These songs show a songwriter expanding his universe beyond the sun and surf of the North Shore. If you’re a diehard Johnson fan don’t worry. He hasn’t sold out and gone political. You can still find plenty of songs about the sun, the surf and new questions that give us provocations to think about our lives and the world we live in.

Over the years Jack Johnson has held many titles: professional surfer, filmmaker, environmentalist and musician. So I guess the obvious question here is, what can’t Jack Johnson do?

Jack Johnson - Sleep Through the Static

-- Matt Brooks

Goldfrapp – Seventh Tree

8 out of 10

Best Track – “Caravan Girl”

Worst Track – “Eat Yourself”

British electro-pop duo Goldfrapp have cut out all the glitz and glam that marked their previous release Supernature and gave us a stripped-down album in Seventh Tree. Instead of focusing on thumping beats and downright dirty lyrics, Goldfrapp puts on an air of sensuality and ambient techno with a warm loving feel.

Any person used to listening to Goldfrapp would be forgiven for thinking they were listening to the wrong band. Seventh Tree opens with the ambient acoustic “Clowns.” Singer Allison Goldfrapp channels her voice into a warm love song reminiscent of Janis Ian or even Joni Mitchell.

Despite the astounding the beauty of the vocals, the album lists and drones its way through a snooze-inducing trail of orchestral ambience. Every track has the same slow groove and the same listing string arrangements. It’s beautiful in an austere sense, but it gets redundant with “Eat Yourself” being the main culprit.

The songs pick up in tempo by the end of the album with lead single “A&E” giving a spectacular respite from the overbearing drone of the album. The true gem on the back part of the album is “Caravan Girl,” which blends the best parts of Fleetwood Mac with the dream pop of Annie Lennox.

That said there are no truly bad songs on the album. Seventh Tree drags at points, but most of the time it’s forgivable. Instead of being party time music, Goldfrapp switched gears and gave you the perfect comedown to the party rush in Seventh Tree.

--Garrett Lyons