SHORT SCALE: CD reviews in 200 words or less
By Rachel Heisler
CD review: Logs In The Mainstream, The Ridiculous and the Sublime (Corporate Greed Conglomerate Music Division)
Rating: 4 out of 5 geetars
Experimentation breeds some weird shit to be sure … just ask the men of Logs In The Mainstream. Witnessing New Jersey’s boring trend of cover and tribute bands, Logs jutted to the left and instead of spewing more mindless junk onto the Jersey bar scene it released a cascade of unexpected sounds, which they dubbed “eccentric rock.”
Logs isn’t the wierest weird band in the universe, but they are great at creating silly grooves and pairing them with unexpected lyrics. “Don’t Come to Maryland” is a great bag pipe-fronted punk Celtic rocker (done Flogging Molly style): “Don’t come to Maryland if you don’t like fishin’ / And if you don’t like fishin’ then get off of my lawn / Everybody knows down in Maryland we just don’t trust the chicken / So run off back to KFC and Jersey with your spawn.” They’ve also run with ska in “If Hitler Had Sideburns” and a bouncy pop in “Tequila and Power Tools.”
Violent Femmes, The Kinks, They Might Be Giants … and now Logs In The Mainstream. Goof rock is alive and well and it’s doing wonders to liven up North Brunswick’s night life.
CD review: Elliott Carlson Botero, Parasite: A Love Story (Self-released)
Rating: 4 out of 5 geetars
Success is a slippery bitch! Elliott Carlson Botero knows this firsthand having a potential record deal with Sony Records fall through … but some people just don’t take “No” for an answer. After borrowing some money, purchasing Pro Tools and packing his world up and moving to New York City, Botero put his nose to the grindstone and began recording what would eventually become the beautifully well-rounded Parasite: A Love Story.
This disk meets at a delicious crossroads of electronic, rock, blues and Latin. Botero elevators all the way from poetically reverent love songs to loop-filled dance hits and then to bluesy grinders full of passionate crescendos and juicy harmonies. He uses a perfect amount of Latin flavor – Joao Joya’s Spanish rap on “Starless Lounge” meshes gracefully with the music that surrounds it. But the best song, easily, is “Chop Chop.” Electronic in sound, classic in word and emphatic in nature, both the English and Spanish version kick serious ass and make you want to throw your hands in the air and swing the hips.
This is a great example of eclectic without being so far out that it’s inaccessible or incomprehensible to the general public. If Bolero is as sensuous and exciting in person as he is on record, he’s certainly one hell of a guy.
CD review: Glen Phillips, The Secrets of the New Explorers EP (Umami Music)
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 geetars
What do space travel and music have in common? Ask singer/songwriter Glen Phillips, the son of a physicist and chemist who grew up reading Heinlen, Herbert and Asimov. Science and rock are two great tastes that Phillips has mashed together to invent an even better-tasting, never-before-tasted flavor that can be dubbed Sci-pop.
Anyone familiar with The Postal Service will hear similarities in “The Spirit of Shackleton,” and the sing-along ditty “Solar Flare” binds childhood’s explorative nature with the excitement of charting territories unknown: “Goodnight moon, goodnight air, goodnight captain in the captain’s chair / Goodbye teeth and good bye hair, you were taken by the solar flare.” His voice rings as distinctly as a bell and the tunes are infused with loops that add onto the already fantastic dreamy works.
Phillips, who started the band Toad the Wet Sprocket, is a worthy adversary in terms of being a solo artist and has an uncanny ability to make music that soars beyond heads, clouds and heavens. Watch for his new group, The Scrolls (with members who’ve played with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Nickle Creek and Elvis Costello & The Attractions), which is scheduled to release an album by fall 2008.
