Local H -- 'Twelve Angry Months' [review]

Local H - Twelve Angry Months
Shout Factory (5/13/08)
Rock / Alternative

Local H may not be the same band that crafted one of the best, and possibly most underrated albums of the mid-'90s in As Good As Dead, but with Twelve Angry Months, Scott Lucas, the mastermind behind the band, shows he still has what it takes to create twisted-yet-subtle alternative rock music that can be thought-provoking and explosive.

Living up to its title, the album consists of twelve songs (January through December),

Opener "The One With the 'Kid'" starts off melancholic enough, but shortly explodes into frantic drumming and head-banging riffs. It's all very textbook Local H, especially the stutter stop-start mid-song break and consistently building end sequence.

Local H offers little filler here. "Michelle (Again)" is a bludgeoning force of rock, tempered with melody and classic pop-rock inspiration. The band sounds like it's ready to channel Mötley Crüe for a second on "White Belt Boys", before sliding back into a more deliberate approach. "Taxi-Cabs" sounds like a homage to Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, being over-simplistic yet brilliant all at once. The mellow "The Summer of Boats", an acoustic joy, is dark and moody and haunting and beautiful all at once, and flourishing to close out one of the band's finest moments.

But it's not all magical. "BMW Man" borders on annoying, while "Machine Shed Wrestling" never seems to get off the ground floor, so to speak (it needed to be more fleshed out). But the raw power of "24 Hour Break-Up Session" and "Jesus Christ! Did you see the SIZE of that sperm whale", or the near-perfection of the Foo Fighters-esque "Simple Pleas" more than makes up for any shortcomings.

The two-man Local H approach (Brian St. Clair is still pounding the drum kit to accompany Lucas) is filled out with an eclectic collection of studio musicians, either filling out the drums tracks or adding some string arrangements (everything from extra guitar to violin).

In the end, it's clear Local H is back with a vengeance. This is the closest the band's come to replicating As Good As Dead in the past decade. There's no unfocused or overly experimental songs this time around, as it's straight-ahead rock. Newer fans of the alternative rock genre (anyone who thinks Jack White is the next coming, perhaps?), would love this stuff. A welcome return for a band some wrote off in 1998, it's clear Local H can still hang with the best of 'em.

'Kurt Cobain: About a Son' [DVD review]

Kurt Cobain: About a Son
Shout! Factory/Sidetrack Films (2/19/08)
Unrated
135 minutes



"There's this very hushed, late night, intimate feeling to those conversations that I didn't even really realize was there because it was just me talking to Kurt. But, looking back on it, there's this, you know... it's not like a regular interview situation. It's just two people talking."

—Michael Azerrad



The documentary Kurt Cobain: About a Son can be summed up two words: Simply phenomenal.


Culled from more than 25 hours of audiotaped conversations between Cobain and writer Michael Azerrad (who was working on his book Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana at the time) around the end of 1992 and beginning of 1993, the film basically tells the story of the fallen rock star in his own words. It is a moving tale, where Cobain shares intimate details of his early childhood growing up in Aberdeen, Wash., and subsequent moves to Olympia, Wash., and Seattle. He appears to hold nothing back, talking about his relationship with his mother and father, his unpleasant school years, his efforts to build a band, struggles with fame and drugs, and ultimate (apparent) acceptance of his life.


"Virtually all these conversations took place starting around midnight at Kurt's house," Azerrad said in an interview on the DVD. "He would wake up at three in the afternoon, or so, typically everyday, go about his business and then, you know, kind of call me that evening and say, 'OK, I’m ready. Come by.'


"And so, we'd sit down, either in the living room with the TV set on in the background, and talk, or we'd be up in the kitchen. ... His kitchen overlooked this lake where bi-planes would land sometimes. We'd just sit at his kitchen table and often talk 'til, you know, dawn. And the sun would come up and the bi-planes would start landing on the lake and we'd just kick back and watch."


Since the audience knows how the story ultimately ends, many of the discussions are all the more haunting—from Cobain's frank discussion about how and why he started using hard drugs, to his disgust and distain for the journalists that were always looking for an angle. Perhaps nothing is as striking as when, while discussing the physical pain he had endured for most of his life, he talks about "blowing [his] head off" and killing himself.


But for every haunting moment, there's also some extremely humanizing moments hidden on here, too. Most poignant is when, toward the end of the film, wife Courtney Love calls to Cobain and asks him to begin preparing a bottle for the baby in a few minutes. Sadly, a side of the star not many ever got the chance to see.


The film itself is extremely simple. The star here is the audio of Cobain. Director AJ Schnack traveled around Washington gathering images and video of the various places Cobain grew up, lived in or talked about. In an attempt to have a sort of underlying current, there are also many portraits of the locals, meant to show the juxtaposition between the towns that are in so close proximity to one another.


As a final touch, music from many of Cobain's favorite bands is mixed in for good measure. Tracks from Queen, David Bowie, Leadbelly, Scratch Acid and Butthole Surfers (to name only a few) accentuate the proceedings. When Cobain talks about taking a nap in his father's van when spending the day with him at work, and listening to an eight-track of Queen, you hear the song he's talking about.


About a Son debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2006, was nominated for a 2007 Independent Spirit Award and was screened at numerous top international film festivals around the world. Rolling Stone has called it "the movie that's moving audiences to tears."


Sure, there have been other documentaries about Cobain in the past; none of this is new material. But never before have you heard it all straight from him. The visuals are expertly shot, but not a necessity. At any point you can simply shut your eyes and listen to the stories.


The movie is presented in 16:9 widescreen, with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround. In addition to the movie, the DVD also contains a featurette on the making of the film (where the quotes in this review came from), some selected scene commentary with Schnack and another feature on scouting video.


This is, by far, not only the best Cobain documentary to come out, but one of the best rock documentaries to come out, period. As Schnack points out, nothing really ties this to a time or place. It's just the story of a man who had a not-so-great childhood, struggled for a few years and hit it big with his band. You don't have to be a fan of Nirvana to love this movie. At its core, it's nothing more than a moving true story with a tragic ending.


As Azerrad sums it up: "Kurt Cobain was a person just like everybody else. He cried and laughed and loved his child and loved his wife and was frustrated and happy and jovial and all those things. And, I think a lot of that has been taken away from his in the intervening years since his death. He's just become an icon, and an enigma. You know, kind of dehumanized."

Foo Fighters -- 'Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace' [review]

Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
RCA Records (9/25/07)
Hard rock / Alternative



Long gone are the days when Dave Grohl crafted quirky, catchy anthems like the ones on the Foo Fighters' 1995 self-titled debut. Over the next 12 years, through sheer force of will and talent, Grohl turned from Nirvana drummer to frontman of one of the best hard rock bands on the scene today.

From its impressive body of work, Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace is bound to be the band's most focused and mature effort to date. It's as if Grohl knew that 2005's In Your Honor was a little too bloated and overreaching, and so the band aimed to craft an album that attempted all the bombast and beauty of its two-disc predecessor and condense it to its basest form.

And that's what the Foo Fighters do time and time again, with tracks like "The Pretender", "Let It Die" and "Erase/Replace", each of which is explosive in its hook-laden delivery. "The Pretender" creates a false sense of security with a mellow, acoustic drone before drummer Taylor Hawkins destroys the moment and the band unleashes the intense guitar interplay. There's a thick riff that Grohl pulls out mid-way through the song that's destined to become a rock classic, which makes this song actually eclipse "Best of You" (off the Honor set) as one of the band's hardest rocking anthems.

"Let It Die" attempts the same trick as the opener, but Grohl actually draws the melody out a lot longer, making for a much fuller experience.

The tempo builds with each verse of "Erase/Replace" before the crescendo of the chorus acts as a release; a slow, deliberate delivery each time. In this case, the beauty comes in the bridges later in the song.

It's not all hard rock. "Long Road to Ruin" is a fantastic, catchy modern rock number, while "Come Alive" perfectly builds in its intensity, starting off as a haunting ballad before exploding into pure rock fury by the end. "Summer's End" could find a home on a classic rock or Top 40 radio station, and then there's the bluegrass-influenced instrumental, "Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners." The piano-driven "Statues", and the acoustic "Stranger Things Have Happened" and “But Honestly" (two of the album's strongest tracks) close out an impressive set. The hits, varied though they may be, just keep coming.

Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace is a slow-burn album; aside from "The Pretender", "But Honestly" and perhaps "Erase/Replace", nothing immediately jumps up and grabs your attention. But after a spin or two, it's clear that the Foo Fighters crafted a classic album. Everything is twice what it should be: the melody twice as haunting, the rock twice as bombastic. By the time the piano ballad "Home" pops up to close the set, you can't help but shake your head at exactly what this album represents and want to immediately start it again. When all is said and done, this is bound to become "the album" for the band.

Nirvana -- 'With the Lights Out' box set [review]

Nirvana
"With the Lights Out"
(DGC Records)


More than 10 years since the death of the band's front man led to an abrupt end of the group, Nirvana fans finally got their hands on a "holy grail" of sorts: a four disc box set of the groups demos, hard-to-find songs and other rare material.

I really want to love this set. When you first take a look at the contents, you can't help but think this is the best box set to ever be released -- there's just so much material included. But is the wealth of the sonic offerings really enough to sell "With the Lights Out?"

It's a real catch 22 when you look at it ...

On one hand, it would seem to be a fan's most treasured wish: to hear all the songs you grown to love stripped down to their barest forms in some cases; to be able to actually hear a song's progression from acoustic demo to rough track to finished product. Sprinkle in some obscure live tracks and some noteworthy b-sides and you should have a hit on your hands.

It depends on which side of the fence you're looking at this from.

Diehard Nirvana fans should, in theory, be chomping at the bit for something like this. For more casual listeners, it's something to easily overlook. In reality, this is simply a large collection of sub-par recordings that, for the most part, were never meant to be released. And that is the conundrum when you really take a look at this set.

Sure, it's fun to hear an early version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" or "Rape Me," to hear how the lyrics evolved over time, to see how Cobain and Co. modified the song structures ... but ultimately you're just reminded of the strength of the actual songs and would rather just listen to those.

The initial excitement over hearing something like the acoustic tracks "Beans" or "Clean Up Before She Comes" is soon replaced (after a couple of listens) with a sense of "how often will I really want to listen to something this rough?"

Don't get me wrong, there are some gems here.

On the second disc, outtakes like "Oh the Guilt," "Return of the Rat" and "Old Age" are welcome additions to a fan's collection (for those who hadn't already tracked these songs down). Cobain's solo offering of Leadbelly's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" (which showed up as a live rendition on the "Unplugged" disc) is a nice gem among the collection.

Disc 3 kicks off with two versions of "Rape Me," an acoustic track with weak vocals, and a more polished demo. The acoustic version sounds more like Cobain still trying to figure out exactly what he wanted to do with the song. The demo is much more lively as the song was really starting to take shape at this point. As a bonus, baby Cobain can be heard (intentionally I'm thinking), crying in the background at various points throughout the song, a nice touch.

The demo of "Scentless Apprentice" is much more raw than the track that eventually found its way onto "In Utero." The whole song sounds like a pretty good jam session, though, it should be noted that the overall sound is almost more Foo Fighters (Grohl's eventual band) instead of Nirvana.

There's interesting acoustic versions of "Serve the Servants," "Very Ape" (sans lyrics with mumbling) and "Pennyroyal Tea" (which was surprising near-completion).

As for "Heart Shaped Box," this is another instance of Cobain still exploring for just the right lyrics ("I wish I could eat your cancer when I get sick;" "Locked in heart-shaped coffins"). The same goes for "Milk It" or "M.V." (a song that wasn't that accessible to being with, I was actually surprised they included a demo of the track instead of the finished version).

Though it isn't labeled as such (read: demo), "I Hate Myself and Want to Die" doesn't sound like the version that eventually went public, unlike "Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip" and "Marigold" (probably the crown jewel of songs that never made it on official Nirvana release with Grohl on vocals), which are pretty much the versions that showed up on international release and b-sides. Same goes for "Sappy" (also known as "Verse Chorus Verse") though the demo was on disc 2.

The most interesting aspects of the set as a whole, is not only the ability to see the songs develop over time, but to see the band actually attempt to fully realize songs. Watching Cobain take "Rape Me" from an acoustic mish-mosh to a raw demo and then to the finished track (on "In Utero") is something fans of bands are rarely able to experience. Then, on top of that, listening to something like "Other Improv" (off disc 3), obviously a glimpse of the band trying to find a song, is just amazing to be able to experience.

On the flip side, how many people really want to pull out demo material when they're in the mood to listen to music. When this set is, musically, over 70 minutes of material spaced out over three discs, one can't help but think there was some way to shorten things a little.

In the end, you are able to say that this is a fantastic look into the inner working of a band, but much like a history book is an interesting look into, well, history. Do you get something out of reading the book? Yes. Do you want to read it over and over? Maybe. "With the Lights Out" is the musical equivalent of a Nirvana text book. It's something that is worth listening to ... at least once in a while. It's just that the really good tracks are spaced out amongst the rawer material, which makes this something only Nirvana diehards would really be interested in.

Future Leaders of the World -- 'LVL IV' [review]

Future Leaders of the World
"LVL IV"
Epic Records


Do you ever sit back and find yourself wondering what Nirvana may have turned into had the band's front man Kurt Cobain not passed away? Then this new album by Future Leaders of the World (FLoW) is for you.

Sure, we got a hint of that sound when South African imports Seether made a splash on the rock scene a few years ago, but this debut from FLoW really seems to encapsulate what might have been ... and not entirely in a good way.

FLoW's lead singer, Phil Taylor, has the Cobain snarl and disaffected drawl down pat. On the other hand, the band lacks the rawness that flowed through Nirvana's releases. The rock sheen flows around Taylor's vocals from track to track ... much like you'd expect Nirvana's music would have become more and more polished over time as the band moved away from its indie-punk/rock infused music to a more radio-friendly sonic assault (theoretically speaking of course).

But, for the sake of FLoW's debut "LVL IV" (level four), let's leave the Nirvana comparisons for a moment.

The band's bio over at Epic Records Web site details Taylor's struggles trying to make it in the music industry. He eventually scored big getting a demo to Puddle of Mudd backstage at a concert (much like Puddle of Mudd did with Limp Bizkit -- and thus securing a recording contract a couple of years ago). In fact, FLoW's sound is reminiscent of stronger, edgier Puddle of Mudd tracks. But Taylor is a better, more dynamic vocalist than PoM's Wes Scantlin. His voice oozes desperation throughout the album ... almost mumbling through songs' verses with a laid-back drawl before picking up the pace on choruses or flying through pseudo rap-like delivery on bridges.

The band is making a splash on rock radio at the moment with "Let Me Out," a deliberate, plodding rock number, perfect for an introduction to the band (a la Creed's 1997 debut single "My Own Prison").

The music throughout the album is, for the most part, unimaginative rock. That's not to say it's bad, it's just the typical down-turned guitar rock with a steady back beat. In fact, there's nothing too pull out of the mix and point out ... except for Taylor. (And here's where Nirvana returns to the mix.)

His vocals really do evoke the spirit of the late Cobain. Whether it's screaming through the end of "Sued," the chorus of "Let Me Out," or the more fast-paced (almost fun-sounding) "Killpop," Taylor IS the reason to check out this band.

It's not all angry rock on "LVL IV" though. The band offers up the almost-ballad \"House of Chains" that almost brings about a memory of late-'80s/early-'90s rockers Faster Pussycat.

Overall, FLoW aren't doing anything that hasn't been done before. Far from declaring the band the second-coming of Nirvana, this is more of a spotlight for Taylor to shine vocally. The band has the opportunity to make something of itself, but only time will tell where its headed.