(hed) P.E. -- 'New World Orphans' [review]

(hed)P.E. - New World Orphans
Suburban Noize (1/13/09)
Rap-rock / Metal

(hed)P.E. is an interesting case of contradictions. On the one hand, it's good to see that the years the band spent on a major label—where it was very clear that their sound was being distorted and manipulated to appeal to a wider audience—didn’t seem to crush their spirit. On the other, perhaps some of those constraints did them a little good.

On this album, all the positives the band has to offer—the smooth flow of the vocals, the tight instrumentation, the smart song construction—keep getting weighed down by the negatives also brought to the table. Some of the songs rely a little too much on the band’s punk sensibilities and are just too short. (The "get in, kick ass, get out" attack could work, but we know that they can craft good three- to four-minute songs, and have a good sense of hooks, so why waste time on little bursts that ultimately destroy any flow the album starts to create?)

Another glaring issue is the lyrical choices made on some of the tracks. A song like "Stepping Stone" has a fantastic, hook-laden chorus, but the opening salvo ("I just want to tie you up and rape you") doesn’t even work in terms of the song’s message.

But the good on here is really good. The reggae flavor of "Ordo" and the deep groove of "War on the Middle Class" is great, while the metal attack of "Stay Ready" and "Renegade" is done in trademark (hed)P.E. style. And the slow-burn of "Flesh and Blood" is actually a nice use of punk melded to the band's rap-metal assault.

Then there's the bad, like the above-mentioned "Stepping Stone" and all its wasted potential. And the stereotypical "Family" starts off promisingly but then quickly devolves to a typical, "mine’s bigger than yours," bad rap song. The over-too-soon "Live or Die Free" never really takes off, and too many intros broken off as their own tracks clutter the latter half of the album. And, of course, let's not forget the expendable (but obligatory for a Suburban Noize release) pot-anthem, "Higher Ground", featuring the Kottonmouth Kings.

Sandwiched between the two parts are some interesting moments, like the schizophrenic "Planet X" (easily one of the band's most successfully far-reaching tracks), complete with mid-song surf-rock riffing; the low-key, melodic "Self Aware" which is a nice change of pace; and one of the best songs of this set, "Tow the Line", which borrows a very familiar melody to great effect.

Ultimately, it looks like there's a good album hiding in there, but there's too much fat to trim away, which is gradually becoming (hed)P.E.'s calling card. Twenty-four tracks? Really? Even the overriding message, about the "new world order" and calls for a change, is, in the end, muddied by segues and tangents about sex and drugs and being truly “gangsta.”

Various Artists -- 'Vans Warped Tour 2007' [DVD review]

Vans Warped Tour 2007 [DVD]
Image Entertainment (12/2/08)
Unrated
60 minutes

A year too late, this video compilation of live performances and artist interviews from the 2007 Warped Tour has finally hit shelves, and unfortunately does its best to underwhelm fans.

Sure, there's some good stuff on here, most notably killer performances from punk legends Bad Religion and Pennywise, as well as solid showings from Coheed and Cambria, and Killswitch Engage.

But for all that is good, there’s plenty of filler, with weak offerings from Pepper, Sum 41 and The Starting Line juxtaposed against unmemorable cuts from the likes of Chiodos and Fishbone.

The problem is, this collection really offers nothing more than a taste, featuring a single song from a broad mix of a scant collection from what the tour has to offer. Put aside the question of whether bands like Killswitch Engage or Avenged Sevenfold belong on the tour; the single-song offerings keep the running time to an hour at the expense of giving you anything of substance or even a real handle of what this tour was like. The producers could have doubled the running time to either offer more songs from the same acts, or at the very least more songs from more acts. Sure, a single song from 22 instead of 11 bands is still light on substance, but at least it gives us a bigger collection. For best effect, there probably should have been a single song from the lesser-known acts and then, for bands like Bad Religion, give at least three songs.

Then there's the choice of interview and performance footage. Why offer interviews with Paramore, The Almost or Meg & Dia but then no performance footage from those bands? Paramore is a particular quandary given the band's rise over the past year.

As for the nuts and bolts, the video is offered up in 1:33:1 with a nice Surround audio track, and there are a handful of bonus songs and interviews to be had as bonus footage.

So basically, what you have here is a perfectly suitable extended commercial for Warped Tour. And if the aim was to chronicle the tour's 13th anniversary, well ... see above for all the shortcomings. With over a year to compile and put this thing together, fans deserved a lot more, especially when you look at the superior audio sets the tour has put out over the years.

Sound and Fury -- 'Sound and Fury' [review]

Sound and Fury - Sound and Fury
Megaforce / Rebel Youth Records (6/24/08)
Hard rock / Punk

If you’re patient and willing to give the latest Sound and Fury album a couple of listens, the set might just grow on you, as the band melds straight-forward hard rock (think AC/DC) with an old-school punk approach (though I hate to say it, think the Misfits circa-1985), creating a bluesy party-rocker with a raw aesthetic.

The problem is, the lead vocals are pretty one-dimensional (a little too whiny) and the lyrics aren’t particularly creative. Instead, the band manages to win you over with its energy and dedication to grinding through each song, looking for anything to stick. And there are a least a handful of good songs on this self-titled effort.

The album kicks off with two very lukewarm tracks: “School’s Out” has enough energy but feels ultimately forgettable (except for the catchy chorus that will definitely get stuck in your head after a few spins), and “Teenage Rampage” suffers from weak lyrics more than anything else.

But then “Can’t Get Enough” comes along and just blows you away. The band seems to be hitting on all cylinders, letting the song unfold as a powerful dirge and throwing in plenty of solos mid-way through the track to change things up. They do a similarly good job with “Night of the Ghouls”, which feels like it could’ve been pulled off AC/DC’s Razor’s Edge. And album-closer “Hellhound” has a great, slow-burn riffing that gives way to a more explosive chorus. It’s too bad the band couldn’t capture this kind of magic three or four more times, as that may have actually saved the album.

Ultimately, Sound and Fury relies too much on its influences for its own good. Sure, a song like “Night of the Ghouls” might sound like an AC/DC castoff, but the band does a good job of making it its own. But the same can’t be said for songs like “Supercharged” or “Runaway Love” or “18” or even “Bad Touch” (except for the fantastic guitar work). If the lyrics were stronger or there were a twist to the music, or anything, that would be one thing. But when those things are lacking, and, to top it off, you essentially sound like nothing more than a bad cover band, well...

Sound and Fury shows a lot of potential, but just falls short on this outing. “Can’t Get Enough” and “Night of the Ghouls” are solid tracks, but the rest ends up being nothing more than filler.

(hed) p.e. -- 'The DIY Guys' [review CD/DVD]

(hed)p.e. - The DIY Guys [CD/DVD]
Suburban Noize Records (7/8/08)
Punk / Metal / Hip-hop

It's nice to know the constraints that sometimes come with being signed to a major label never seemed to destroy the spirit that (hed)p.e. brought to its music.

On The DIY Guys, the group offers up a smattering of hits, new songs (in a live settling) and unreleased material, tearing through every song with abandon, and melding metal, hip-hop and punk in a way very few bands would even think of attempting.

The live songs, recorded at the Key Club in Hollywood, do a good job of translating what the band has to offer on stage. It's pretty raw, both in presentation (nothing appears to have been tweaked after the fact in the studio) and in product (the band has a sick energy on stage that it's had a difficult time capturing in the studio at times).

A couple of high points to look for: new tracks "War on the Middle Class" and "Niteclub in Bali" (recorded live) are fantastic little punk gems; "Ordo ab Chao" with its hints of reggae blended into the stereotypical (hed)p.e. attack; the extremity of "Bloodfire" that just oozes urgency; and the live version of "The Truth" (from 2005's Only in Amerika), one of the band's best songs that sounds 10 times better when coupled with the live energy of the club.

While it's supposed to be a CD/DVD combo, the DVD portion of the package is more of an added bonus. Featuring a mockumentary of life on the road (the vignettes look staged for the most part) that also features a handful of live tracks and a couple of music videos (for "Suffa", "Get Ready" and "Represent"), the disc is what it is, but is definitely not the meat and potatoes of the set.

That (hed)p.e. has been able to keep the intensity after over a decade of releasing albums, and survived despite a few missteps, The DIY Guys is a welcome little surprise. Nothing on here is groundbreaking, and a lot of it is raw (which is good, for the most part), so while this is a perfectly serviceable addition to the band's catalogue, it might not be the best album to win over new fans.

Jawbreaker -- 'Dear You' [review]

Jawbreaker
"Dear You"
Blackball Records


What a hectic trip it was for Bay-area legends Jawbreaker.

In the band's eight years of existence, they managed to build up a strong fanbase, record over five albums worth or material, alienate some of their diehard fans and, in the end, even alienate their record label.

Jawbreaker's debut, 1990's “Unfun," was a great, raw punk album. The honesty and imperfection on the tracks is what drew many of the band's fans. The follow-up, “Bivouac," seemed like a more experimental album at the time, maintaining the punk roots but heading in a more alternative-rock direction with songs “Sleep" and "Big" reminiscent of early Nirvana recordings.

With the release of 1994's “24 Hour Revenge Therapy," the band embraced a more radio-friendly song structure (easy chord progressions, etc.) and created probably one of their more accessible albums. Maybe it was the peaking of the grunge movement, or the rising of pop-punk bands like Green Day or Blink-182, but after “24 Hour Revenge Therapy" the band was scooped up and signed by record company behemoth DGC (David Geffen Company) and given the means (a large contract with creative control) to craft perhaps its finest album, the controversial 1995 release "Dear You."

"Dear You" wasn't what new fans of the band expected; it certainly wasn't what the record company envisioned, and by '96 Jawbreaker was no more. (Posthumously a live album -- "Live 4/30/96" -- and collection of rarities and b-sides -- "ETC." -- were released on Pfahler's imprint label Blackball Records.) Schwarzenbach went on to form Jets to Brazil and the other two band members went on to various projects.

Still, the legend of Jawbreaker lived on, and fans eventually clamored to get their hands on "Dear You," which was out of print within a few years and severely hard to track down. When copies were available, the prices were soaring (I remember finding one in a used CD store for upwards of $24).

Pfahler made his move and eventually bought the rights from Geffen. Giving long time listeners a reason to pick it up again, the "Dear You" re-release is set to include studio outtakes and b-sides (the unreleased "Shirt" along with "Into You Like a Train," "Sister," "Friendly Fire" and a re-recorded version of "Boxcar") as well as the Fireman video and an expanded booklet.

As for the main content of "Dear You," it still holds up almost 10 years later.

The disc's opening track, "Save your Generation," along with songs like "Chemistry" and "Bad Scene, Everyone's Fault" are typical punk-tinged alternative rock songs with a slightly murky sound (thick guitars and noticeable bass work), a sonic direction that was on show throughout "Dear You."

The disc's lead off single at the time was "Fireman," a simple track to showcase the band's sound. The song kicks off steadily building throughout the verses with simple chords that slowly sound more frantic before the false start of a chorus into the second verse -- leading, of course, to the payoff the of the intense chorus. Schwarzenbach glides through his cute yet biting lyrics, like "Dreamed I was a fireman. I just smoked and watched you burn," and "Dreamed we were still going out. Had that one a few times now. Woke up to find out we were not. It's good to be awake."

The down-tuned guitars create an false sense of laid back atmosphere and Bauermeister's bass during the song's bridge is a definite high-point.

"Jet Black" remains breathtaking: Schwarzenbach's murky guitar riffs and deadpan vocals with thick-as-hell bass throughout the chorus compliments Pfahler's subtle drumming throughout the song until the brief explosion at the ending.

"Accident Prone" is probably the greatest song Jawbreaker has ever made. The melancholic lyrics are delivered with more emotion than any band today claiming to be "emo." From beginning to end, the band seems tighter than you ever thought they could be: Schwarzenbach's lullaby-like guitar parts throughout the verses and Bauermeister's intentional and heavy bass lines combine with Pfaler's understated drumming and gentle cymbal work. As the song progresses, the trio suddenly picks up speed through the bridge to the chorus before opening up full-force and tearing through the chorus with a definitely mission in mind. Mid-way through the song everything seems to finally come apart, the drums and guitar accentuate a nice bass breakdown and the band again begins to build up steam -- faster and faster until the intensity is almost too much to handle and a release is achieved through the chorus again -- yes, it's as close to a sexual moment as you can have in a song. Words could never do "Accident Prone" justice and it is definitely the highlight of "Dear You."

For the original tracks alone, "Dear You" would still be a great disc to add to your collection; the added tracks are just the icing on the cake. The "Fireman" video had moderate airplay on MTV's Alternative Nation back when it was released, and while it doesn't quiet translate the band's live energy, it's still worth a viewing.