Demorama Reviews for March 2002

CRYIN BLUE WINE: Mad Married Circle

Watermanmr@bigfoot.com

www.cryinbluewine.com

P.O. Box 455, Poway, CA 92074

I've bought discs like this before.  Here's the scenario: You go to a club to see some band you like.  You get there early enough to catch the opener, and they're pretty good.  You dig their vibe, and shell out ten or fifteen bucks for their disc.  Once you get it home and in the disc player, you find it fails to capture what you heard at the club.  Bummer.  Not having seen San Diego's Cryin Blue Wine live before, I can't say that this is exactly the case, but I get the feeling that their live show would be a hell of a lot better than what I'm hearing. Don't get me wrong, this disc is pretty good, "Dead" being the standout tune for me, despite the fact that it sounds just like a Stone Temple Pilot's B-side.  Most of these tunes are chock fulla rawk and are really well produced, and it's obvious these boys spent a boatload making this disc.  However, I kept hoping for the songs to explore something other than rehashed alterna-grunge riffs.  Instead, they just hit the same old verse-chorus-verse-chorus wall that 9,000 other bands are busy banging their heads against. Finally, as their bio states, the vocalist is a dead-ringer for Scott Weiland, which is definitely a strike against them. Hey, if I want to listen to Scott Weiland, I'll go put on a 'Pilots disc and hear the real thing.  This disc is not bad at all, but Cryin Blue Wine is missing something to set them apart from the other alterna-rock wannabes.  (Archie Rex)

AMY DOPSON: Unicorn

www.celticways.com/amydopson

Um...I, uh...hmm. Let's see here. She's a single mom, or was in the 80's or something like that, and she's searched her whole life for true love, or something like that, because most guys back then in the Reagan era turned and ran when they found out she had a kid, or something like that. And then she found true love, I guess, after one of her gigs in Texas, but after a lengthy long-distance relationship the guy got engaged to some other broad despite Ms. Dopson's begging and pleading and her "artist heart" being left "very broken." The experience, however, inspired her to write a song. But then there was that guy after a gig in Kansas, too, who was very special, but couldn't commit because he was "abused" in a former relationship and had residual issues. The experience, however, inspired her to write a song. Seeing a pattern here? Oh, but she did write a song about her son, though, when he was five years old ("He picks me up when I'm blue/When all the other guys are through").

Um...Don't take this the wrong way, but, uh, maybe those guys weren't running away because of the kid...

Anyway, if you are as entertained by far too much personal information as I am, check her out. I clicked on every tune just for the "Story Behind the Song." If you crave the musical equivalent of pabulum, then go ahead and listen to the songs, too. My own celtic roots have me reaching for some alcohol to wash down the whole experience. (Mike Mitchelson)

RANDY DOWNEY

MP3 Demos

Rldowney@home.com

www.randy-downey.com

Okay, there's only two song excerpts available at the above noted website, so there's practically nothing from which I can do this, but (alas, once again) I will try. Interestingly, the website claims that the two songs available are complete, but I find this unlikely unless they are actually supposed to end abruptly like they do. As far as his 12 song CD having a wide variety of material goes, I'll have to take his word for it. Randy Downey plays (from what little I could gather) a blues influenced form of New Country.  His singing voice seems to be better suited to the country ballad sort of thing than to the blues, but I really liked what little of the blues guitar work I heard in "Nothing Good To Say." Unfortunately, there's not much else I can say about Randy Downey. Hm...let's see. I'm glad it wasn't polka. For some reason when Deneen gave me this to review, we thought it might be polka. That would be rough on a reviewer who's used to opining on the alt-rock. Maybe it was the Jimmy Sturr rig he's wearing in his website mug shot. Oop! Check that:  I just consulted jimmysturr.com and discovered Jimmy to be wearing a much nicer ensemble. Sensible man, that Jimmy Sturr. (Conrad Teves)

EG0

http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/210/eg0.html

whatyouownendsupowningyou@hotmail.com

Casey Patrick Moore, the creative force behind Eg0 (and the only force, I think) thought that I, a docile reviewer of music, might think he sucks. Well, my review is as follows: On many of the songs I could barely make out the lyrics from the tangle of his stylized distortion, and what I could make out really wasn't anything to compel me to listen again or make the effort to push the button on my touchpad to read said lyrics. That said, the music is fine; he's into an experimental metal sound and I would say he's somewhat skilled. So, my verdict is this: Mr. Moore is one solid notch above completely sucking. Congratulations, man! (Mike Mitchelson)

EVIL JAKE: Be My Ex-Girlfriend

eviljake@eviljake.com

www.eviljake.com

212-753-1888

Evil Jake's live shows are probably pretty good.  They've got tight arrangements, on-pitch harmonies, and use volume dynamics quite well.  They're nailing #1 singles on MP3.com (that's pretty hard to do) and all three members hail from successful bands in their previous lives.  Currently, they're touring in some pretty good venues up and down the east coast.  On the surface, this NYC group is the prototype for every up-and-coming unsigned band.  Oh, did I forget to mention that they appeared in that Mountain Dew commercial with Macy Gray?   But stop right there...what about the music?  

Yeah, they're all great musicians and can sing on pitch...but the quality of the songs?  Well...if you like campy country anthems or Tina Turner tributes, then this is the band for you.  Otherwise, save your time and put together that two-sided puzzle you got for Christmas last year -- you'll find it much more emotionally satisfying.  After two full listens of each track, Evil Jake left me feeling empty.  Completely empty.  Their music is so bland and unoriginal, I felt like I was in a coma, waiting for that one voice or emotion to shake me loose and break my deafening silence.  But nothing came.  

In their title track, "Be My Ex-Girlfriend," the country-rock goofiness of this tune painted a picture of gaggles of vomit-smeared, drunk, wanna-be frat boys (even worse than real frat boys) yelling "Yee-ha!" through-out the chorus.  "What's Love Got to Do With It" is Evil Jake's torturous four minute tribute to Tina Turner.  God it's awful.  Oh so awful.  Does Tina know what they did to her song?  I hope not.  This was the one track that actually spurred a true emotion...disgust.  "Falling Man" is a water-downed version of Blink 182's "What's My Age Again," right down to the core of the power-pop opening chord progression.  Either this was an intended Blink 182 rip-off (or tribute since they seem to be fond of those) or Evil Jake is as dumb as they are unoriginal.  Funny enough, "Falling Man" was my favorite song because I could sing the words to "What's My Age Again" over their lyrics almost note for note.  I honestly intend to see these guys live sometime in the near future.  Actually, I probably will this Spring when they appear at the Grape Street Pub in Philly, my stomping ground.  Like I said, my gut feeling is that they put on one hell of a live show.  But as for listening to their music at home...save your time and watch your dog lick his ass for 10 minutes.  You'll find that more interesting than Evil Jake.   (Eric Thiegs)

JASON GISSER

Assorted demo tracks from his forthcoming album, "Dark Liquid Purple"

jasongisser@hotmail.com

www.jasongisser.com

New York state

During my first listen of Jason Gisser, all I could conjure in my mind was a squealing banshee.  My first instinct was to pull out a twenty-sided die and making a saving throw verses poison before my ears folded in on themselves in self-defense.  However, reminding myself that my subjective tastes should take a backseat to the overall talent and musicianship of this young man, I decided to take a 6-hour break, clear my mind and try Jason again later in the evening.  

To my surprise...this seemed to work.  During the second listen, I found the opening track, "The Myst," to be quite original in that it has an eerie, raw quality that ties in nicely with his undead vocal style (which I still found somewhat annoying).  The acappella ending of the song was mysteriously fascinating.  I actually backed the track up and listened to that portion again out of pure curiosity on his arrangement.  Throughout all the tracks, however, Jason dipped his home recording into WAY too much reverb.  These tracks are too wet.  So wet in fact it's often hard to understand what he's saying.  In "Purple 7" for instance, I could barely make out a full sentence.  Single words like "time" "me" and "see" pop out clearly but these are hardly the lyrical anchors you want your listener to walk away remembering. 

 But don't get me wrong, the more I listened to Gisser, the more this man-siren lured me in.  Full capture of my interest occurred during "Sleep."  Uninspiring at first, it's laid back groove ended up wiggling into my soul and soon I found my little butt moving in time.  Jeez...should I stand up, try closing my eyes, and see what this song does to me?   Well, I soon found myself topless, dancing half naked in slow motion as I wooed my nipples in circles with my fingertips, Gisser's raw yet still-somewhat shrill voice forcing me to tongue-lick the air.  My wife walked in on me and said, "What the fuck are you doing?"  The compliment to Gisser here is that she didn't say, "What the fuck are you listening to?"  By the way, in the middle of the song, when he howls, "I drink whiskey," I echoed back a, "Yeah, man!"   I guess it doesn't take much for me to connect with Gisser's lyrics after all.  

So let me just say it...I think I like Jason Gisser.  He's got a good vocal range and intensity that carries into each of his songs.  He's a passionate man.  He performs at open mic nights and seems to gig regularly.  He's doing his thANG.  Plus, he's got a web site.  Speaking of which, Jason, if you're reading this review, change your home page...it's really bad.  And please axe that guest book, there's like 5 people who signed it, dude.  Last words -- I'm looking forward to hearing more from Gisser, especially weird-ass-spoken-word-Beatles-#9-shit like he did with "Disco Pimp Soul Brotha."  That track takes guts to put on MP3.com.  Seriously.  He's an acoustic-guitar-playing-singing-Train-covers white-boy for heavens sake.  Jason Gisser is a banshee-sounding man-woman, but he's also eerie and kind of cool too.  Like this review, I give Gisser a C+.  (Eric Thiegs)

GREAT GIRLS BLOUSE

5 Song CD 

www.junobeach.com 

lpasecurity@qwest.net

I happened to catch this power trio at the Terminal the same night I picked up this disc, and I was much impressed.  Singer/Guitarist Amy Chorney has a unique style on both guitar and vocals, with passionate six-string stabs weaving through her vocal wails and whispers.  Her husband Jason plays lead bass in a good way, throbbing around the hi-test drumming of Chris McGuire.  Listening to this disc might not be quite as powerful as their live show, but without the visual distraction of a super-hot alternababe in knee-highs playing kickass guitar licks, you can fully realize how cool this band's songs are. Too bad there's only five here -- I want more.  Strongly Recommended. (Dylan Ritalyn)

HOOK

Justin Katz

www.hookthecaptain.com

hookthecaptian@aol.com

202-363-1973

Okay. Goddammit. I don't get electronic music. The more I do these reviews, the more this frustrates me. I take myself to be a smart guy. I "get" all kinds of things. One could say that I have liberally educated appreciation for subtlety and so forth.

Not so with electronic music. I don't understand it. It annoys me. It annoys me because it sounds the same. It would seem that there are a maximum of 6 tricks that any electronica musician can do, and creating new electronica music is a matter of re-configuring these tricks over and over and over and over and over and over and fucking over.  So here we are, with another electronica album that sounds the mostly the same. There's the drum beat. Now it changes slightly, here comes the wooo-wooing synth sounds and the bee-boooo-bweeeb bass thing. Later the floaty vocals come in. Ungh. Yawn. Nothing about this was particularly horrible or bad, except for maybe some of the tippity tippity drum machine programming. I just don't understand the fascination. It sounds boring and lifeless. That annoys me.

But. . . I'm going to take a moment here and consider the possibility that maybe it's me. The genre is obviously not going away. People spend a lot of time and money making this stuff. Someone must enjoy listening to it. There must be something in it that people appreciate. Perhaps it's just a matter of educating myself.  Maybe it's like wine tasting, you think it's just wine, but then someone explains a few things to you about oakiness and tannins and all of a sudden wine is the most glorious thing ever made. So instead of simply trashing this "music," I called Justin Katz and asked him to explain it to me. Originally I thought that he might have some key bit of knowledge and understanding that he could pass along to me. Either that or I could force him to defend all electronic music against my presumption that the genre is thoughtless and easy and people do it because they are bored and too lazy to pick up a guitar.

So I called Mr. Katz. We actually had a decent conversation. He seemed like a nice guy. As we started talking I realized that we had a lot in common and I didn't have the heart to be a jerk to him. I had prepared some questions for him like: "What is it about electronic music that interests you?" and "When you hear an electronica song that you like, what qualities does it have?" and "What makes your music special?" and so forth. I think that I caught him a little off guard. He answered the questions with a lot of less than quotable umms and ahhhs and I don't knows. He likes ambient sounds and "dope" beats (being uninitiated, I thought that "dope" beats might be some kind of category, but it's an adjective, like "phat" and "hip" and "groovy") And he mentioned a few times that he's been told that people like to have sex to his cd, which would be flattering for any musician. But he didn't turn out to be the electronic music apologist that I thought he might be, and I remain unconvinced about the genre. 

However, in the background radiation of the conversation, I did pick up on a few things that might pass for an explanation. Here they are: "I don't like most other electronic music that I hear. . . I like Bjork, and some Nine Inch Nails. . . but mostly electronic music doesn't respect the listener." And towards the end of the conversation he said, " . . . . I like my electronic music because it is mine."

There you have it. I think that this little verbal calculus is the trick by which electronic musicians are able to get away with producing what they do, and probably most other artists for that matter. It boils down to: "I'm going to do this particular thing because I kind of like it and other people aren't doing it quite right." Clearly what I'm going to have to do is get an array of keyboards and drum machines and fangled doo-dads and plug them in to my computer and make my own electronic music to achieve enlightenment. Until then, I'm going to deal with electronic music like this with extreme prejudice, because, well. . . . it just doesn't respect the listener. (FosterW)

KANGAROO: Phantom

612-706-6363

bandkangaroo@hotmail.com

1219 26th Ave NE, Minneapolis, MN 55418

www.thebandkangaroo.com

This is some happy stuff, I'll tell you what. Every song on this demo bounces around joyfully like Barenaked Ladies on Prozac, which means it's too nice for me to really hate. Then again, it's too nice for me to like, either, so there you go. Everything's mid-tempo with tinkly pianos and mellow strummed guitar chords and tra-la-la vocals that are all lovestruck and gleeful even when they're singing about nursing a bottle of wine for hours on end. There's only slight deviation from the formula here and there, mostly on the Brian Eno/Wilson-esque closing title track (which is easily the best song on the demo). This is possibly the least offensive demo I have ever run across, which is probably the most shining endorsement I can think up here. (Nate Patrin)

KONRAD: The Doorway

Info@phreakwave.com

www.phreakwave.com

As of late, many singers have adopted a nasally, over-emotive twang I like to call "The Creed Croon." This vocal styling has spread like the plague, and I can't turn on the radio without hearing some variant of it. (Take note people, Glen Danzig and Elvis were the only ones to pull this off well, and even they used it sparingly.)  After listening to track one from The Doorway, I can now add Konrad to the growing list offenders.  In addition, Konrad seems to somehow channel and dilute the living spirit of Neil Diamond into his Creed-ish warbling, thus creating a combination that would send the kindest music critic into a comatose stupor.  Vocals aside, the music is mostly acoustic guitar driven with some droning keyboard accompaniment. Furthermore, the songs never seem to find a new tempo, key, or chord progression.  The muffled production doesn't help either.  (Although according to his bio material, the album is in the process of being remixed.)  The bio also states that Konrad earned a performance degree in Trumpet, which he only showcases on the one standout track on the disc, "Billy."  At best, this disc is boring.  At worst, it can be used as a replacement for Nyquil.  I'll be storing this in my medicine cabinet. (Archie Rex)

LUNDY LEWIS: I Ain't Through Yet

www.lundylewis.com

603-878-6042

Mr. Lewis states in his liner notes that these songs "wouldn't go away, so finally I had to let them have their say."  Well after having listened to this disc a few times, I can say I cannot remember a single hook.  Not a one.  Sure, the instrumental skill, especially of the backing musicians and vocalists, is quite high in a white-boy R&B sort of way -- think Steely Dan meets Little River Band.  But Lewis' vocals just don't convey much feeling, and boy, are his rhymes shopworn!  This whole disc is just plain boring, and not because I dislike the genre.  My suggestion to Lundy Lewis:  stick to playing covers in the bars, and leave the writing to people who actually have something to say.  Yawn.  (Dylan Ritalyn)

MANGOLD: Colon

www.projectmangold.com

Colon is a concept album that touches nearly every musical genre. Charlie Mangold is a very talented musician. He puts together very unique songs with time signatures all over the map. He has been compared to Frank Zappa, which I agree with, and I wouldn't doubt if the first Mr. Bungle album had some influence on him as well. The musicianship of Colon is flawless and the production values are at times amazing. However, the vocals on his album are the weak spot. His voice is not strong enough to carry his message through the songs. The message he is singing also gets very old. He has gripes with Christianity, lawyers, popular music, pornography, society, humanity, the wealthy, and the list goes on. Sometimes his views are humorous but they quickly become old and that is the shade that keeps this album from shining. (nealm) 

MENLO

www.menlomusic.com

Based: Milwaukee WI (USA)

booking@menlomusic.com

Being from my own home state of Wisconsin, I was pleased as punch when Menlo's request for review crossed my inbox. Menlo is a fairly mellow alternative-pop Beer City (Milwaukee) foursome folding electronica with alternative rock and inserting it into an envelope of delayed-echo reverberated guitar. Vocals are mainly simple single-voice with an occasional harmonization thrown in to keep your interest. After listening to their latest EP entitled "If I were you and you were me", the closest similarity I could come up with would be simple versions of Radiohead or The Smiths. I say "simple" only because Menlo doesn't have that "spit-shined studio-smooth" sound of a big-label group. Which is why you're reading about them here at Demorama, and not page 42 of last month's Rolling Stone. But this also means you could probably approach the stage at a Menlo concert and request an autograph without the fear of being subdued and carted off by 7 large men wearing black "EVENT STAFF" t-shirts.  (thesource)

OLYMPIA: The Valley of Gold

chiefwapasha@aol.com

16840 Blind Lake Trail, Prior Lake, MN 55372

You know who doesn't get enough indie cred? Creedence. While the Velvet Underground and Can are popular names to drop when you talk about influences throughout alt/college/punk rock, you gotta give the Fogertys et al their due -- they've been covered by Richard Hell and the Voidoids, the Minutemen and the Ramones, and I'm willing to bet that the whole alt-country scene probably sound rather different without their influence. With that said: imagine if a young Stephen Malkmus, filled with seething frustration and smartass hipsterism, sat down one afternoon after high school and listened to nothing but "Susie Q" and early R.E.M. for hours on end. There you have it, more or less. My Lazy Critical Analogy (LCA) completed, let's get into how good this demo is. As far as musicianship goes, both the vocals and the playing are halfway between indie quirkiness and just plain incompetence -- but I really don't care, because there's this real interesting bitter vibe to it all. Lyrics range from tales of loneliness and isolation to hatred and irritation and death, and it captures all of it with a world-weary shrug that easily makes up for a dearth of technical competence. Hell, there's a song called "Did You Take the Dirty Bitch Home?" on this demo -- and it's one of the more bouncier pop-esque numbers. This is a CD that would be best listened to on a sticky, hellish summer evening where you're coming come early from a shitty party where you've been rebuffed by at least two attractive potential make-out subjects and there's nobody on the streets and you feel like taking up drinking and smoking and being an introvert. 'Nuff said. (Nate Patrin)

ORACLE JUNCTION: Trinity

Joemarshall@adelphia.net

www.oraclejunction.com

Buffalo's Oracle Junction can't seem to make up their mind regarding their sound.  Trinity is a collection of disjointed songs ranging in style from alternative Brit-pop a-la Cocteau Twins (though not NEARLY that cool), to early 80's mullet-rock in the vein of Accept, to jam-out-hippie-Phish-rock, to countrified jangle-ballads.  Ugh.  The hammy Joe Satriani-esque solo featured on "Hip Hip Hooray" is WAY over the top, and insipid lyrics like "Oh, my beloved, I'm one with my babes, torments, and half-truths..." from "The Ocean" made me run to the kitchen to induce vomiting with whatever I had growing mold in the fridge.  Even after having tossed my cookies, I was not prepared for the worst hidden track in musical history.  Five minutes or so after the last listed track I was assaulted by flanged-out pick slides and painful feedback over soupy dissonant guitar glop, which I can only guess was an attempt at "Art" or something.  Pointless.  Absolutely Pointless.  In closing, I'm taking Oracle Junction with me to my next dental appointment to fully appreciate all that this album can be: gut-wrenchingly painful.  Until then, back to the kitchen for some more dry-heaves.  (Archie Rex)

POLINSKI

55 Becmead Ave, London, sw16 1UJ, 07957188418

polinskiuk@aol.com

Gritty alterna-indy rock with some extra sounds thrown in for good measure. Well executed, but their three song demo album doesn't quite hit the "rocking pleasure" button for me.  Their songs do give a sense of what they have to offer, two rock numbers and a bluesy show-tune ballad type thing. Unfortunately this is another one of those Demorama reviews that isn't bad for any particular reason, it just isn't superfantastic.  Although they do sound like a band that I wouldn't mind seeing live. I'd wager that they put on a hell of a show. If they come to Minneapolis it would be worth having a couple beers at the Entry or wherever they'd play to check them out. (FosterW)

Q.E.D.

Contact: Marc Benjamin 646-242-4910

dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum

That's the beat folks. You know it because you've heard it before. After 4 measures, cue in the synthesizer sounds, let the drum machine roll up to a diggy diggy diggy diggy, then back to the dum dum dum dum while someone pushes a button on the rest of the electronic gizmos for the full aural array of sequenced, harmonized, digitally spankerooed sound that for the sake of generalizing, we'll call electronica. I'm probably way off because it's surely not electronica, it's probably an offshoot sub-genre of Housified Rave Wave New Trance Boogie Something Something. Pardon my ignorance.

Having never been invited to a proper "rave" I guess there's something that I'm doomed to be on the outside of.  It is the baggy-panted-pacifier-sucking world of electronic music. But I'll try to put on my impartiality hat and say that of all of the totally same sounding electronica/dance/whatever that I've heard, this is well done. Nice soaring operatic vocals. Nice piano/keyboard work when it's not sounding like the "Final Countdown" put to a pre-set drum machine beat. Throw in some harmonized vocoder stuff for good measure. Did I mention the pounding electronica drum beat. Umm. Nice voice again. I'm feeling my impartiality hat slipping off.  (FosterW)

SAINT LATER

Demo#1

Mail@cnutrecords.co.uk

Tele: 0207 607 6281

Saint Later is like the quiet, shy girl sitting in the back of the classroom. At first she seems like nothing special. But, over time you find that there is something appealing about her and slowly develop a crush. I think I have a crush on this band because they have really grown on me. At first, their music sounds very simple but after repeat listens, I can really hear the melodies and how complex the music really is. Most songs are made up of guitar, piano and, sometimes, light drums. It is pretty amazing how the quiet sounds of these instruments can be so powerful. The simple chord progressions come together beautifully when the vocals are added to the songs. The standout track, "Oh God," adds strings and vibes to the mix and the result is close to perfect. Like most great bands, Saint Later have a really distinct sound. I can't find too much information about the band so everything about them is a mystery to me. The music, however speaks for itself. Saint Later, will you go to the prom with me? (nealm) 

THE SHAKES: Self-titled

847-696-3451

info@theshakes.org

www.theshakes.org

Sometimes I wonder what happens to bands I review. Sure, sometimes they send us e-mail (sometimes pertaining to how we suck and our writers are dumbasses before condeming us and putting various curses and hexes on us and such and so on), but otherwise I'm left to scratch my head and ponder where they go, occasionally running across a vaguely familiar name in the used bins at the local CD chain. Well, the Shakes' Patrick O'Malley saved me that trouble. After I gave an earlier demo of theirs rave reviews and more or less demanded to hear more, I got the band's new CD in the mail, which is cool (the gesture and the CD both, but I'll get more to that later). The Shakes seem to have expanded their sound a bit -- there's a sort of vague pop-punk vibe to songs like "Not to Keep" and "Hook," but it's not the juvenile ham-fisted stuff most people associate that term with -- it's more like a mid '60s garage-pop band suddenly gifted with the ability to hear Dillinger Four records 35 years in the future. Not all the songs are straight-ahead pogo-worthy buzzsaw rockers, though -- "Memory Lane" lopes along leisurely as it imagines "Time Is On My Side" rejiggered by T. Rex; "Hole" draws you in with a deceptive late '70s Cali-punk-style drumbeat before swerving into a Reverend Horton Heat/Byrds supersession; "Mystery" is a brooding fuzz-blues anthem replete with an eerie, shivering violin (!); "F.D.J." is a raucous hellbilly instrumental replete with sax licks chunkier than a '49 Merc. "F.D.J." also happens to be one of the four songs that was appeared on the aforementioned/afore-reviewed earlier demo; fortunately the seven newer songs are just as great as the ones I lavished praise upon earlier. These guys continue to impress, and now that they're in the process of looking for a label I have a good feeling we'll be hearing more from them in the future. Some bands only bother with half a cheek; the Shakes rock your entire ass. Top Honors again.  (Nate Patrin)

SKIRR: Animal Pants

http://geocities.com/skirrapbook

PO Box 13129, Mpls, MN 55414-5129 

651-415-1543  

Where do all these great female singers come from?  It's getting to the point where most of my favorite local bands have singers with huge balls and no cock.  Skirr's Ashlee Ellert pulls no punches with her clear delivery, and her lyrics are sardonic and potent. The band backs her up well, especially the multiple stylings of guitarist Joe Keebler.  I like the heavier stuff better, but even the smooth cover of the 40's standard, "Bewitched," is cool.   The DIY production is also top-notch -- they got mad skills in the knob-twiddling department!  My only only niggle is that their cooler-than-most website is hosted by those masters of the always-annoying pop-up ad, geoshitties.  But these folks are still way cool, so I can forgive them for that small misstep.  Great Disc! (Dylan Ritalyn)

SUCKERFACE

www.suckerface.net

Based: San Diego CA (USA)

halo@suckerface.net

PO Box 180838, Coronado CA 92178

619-750-6288

Industrial Acid. Fucking GOOD industrial acid. Those who like it know what I'm talking about. Yello. Kraftwerk. Meat Beat Manifesto. Revolting Cocks. Rob Zombie. NiN. Front242. The ENTIRE Matrix soundtrack. Suckerface will hold their own alongside any of them. Solo performer Josh Heilpern seems to have finally found something he's good at. Way, WAY super-fucking good at.

I want to make note of the quality of Josh's website. Along with upcoming live shows, as well as links to freely stream or download any of his tracks (something we here at Demorama like to refer to as FUNCTIONALITY), Josh has posted hauntingly disturbing black-and-white lithos featuring partial amputations, S&M and other subjects best left to nightmares. Artist Matt Lombard provides the visuals Fox-TV only WISHES it could use on "The X-Files." Pop the rest of the Prozac, wash 'em down with a Long Island and dig out the razor blades. This one kicks ass. (thesource)

TEN FOOT TALL

MP3 Demos

stevenjameshall@aol.com

www.tenfoottall.com

Ten Foot Tall are a London based quartet playing pop rock heavily infused with doses of funk and jazz.  Up front, let me say this stuff sounds good.  It's got a nice cool vibe, isn't at all over the top, is deftly performed, and their front woman has a nice rich voice that totally works with this material.  In a live venue, with me sitting in a darkened corner sipping something from a green bottle, Ten Foot Tall radiating their brand of cool from the stage, I suspect I'd go home afterward thinking it had been a pretty nice night.  All that said, I should add the current trend of bands having MP3 samples on their websites that are only short snippets of songs is getting irritating.  There are many reasons for doing this, but for an up and coming band, I don't think any of them are any good.  Even though Ten Foot Tall had six songs available as samples (that's good), one of the excerpts was as short as 26 seconds (that's bad). Imagine trying to review a movie based just on the trailer, and you may see the problem.  Having excerpts is fine as long as there are also at least three (preferably four) full length samples, so the listener can get a better idea of the material.  God, even two measly full length samples is better than none.  How is anyone (like, say, a reviewer) supposed to know if the songs are haphazardly structured, or just wander on too long?  Or worse, are perfect?  If I think it's perfect, I'd love the opportunity to say so, but sadly, I am denied the chance.  (Conrad Teves)

THOMAS: Frigid

Tom.Barrett@target.com

www.thomasinfo.com

Frigid is a collection of 12 songs that aren't overtly impressive, but not simplistic enough to dismiss.  There's something intangible that comes across on this disc that I can only describe as "fun."  There's a big kitsch factor here that reminds me of Teen Idol stuff from the 60's and 70's.  It falls somewhere in the neighborhood of Rick Nelson or David Cassidy and I'm ashamed to admit I like it.   This is especially the case on the song "Notice Me."  I have to give props to Thomas for going beyond the three-chord stylings that trap too many solo artists.  While he does fit nicely into the overcrowded singer-songwriter genre, he keeps the music interesting enough to keep me away from the skip button on my CD player. His squeaky falsetto gets a bit close to bad Robert Plant at times, but not enough to offend.  The disc is nicely mixed and features some appropriate drum accompaniment and electric guitar solos straight out of the CC DeVille songbook on songs like "Waiting for You."  The latter seems a little misplaced, but does add a certain tongue-in-cheek joviality.   All in all, Frigid is listenable, if not disgustingly catchy.  A good effort. (Archie Rex)

PHIL TURNER

Untitled 2 song cassette

Philaturner@hotmail.com