The world probably doesn’t NEED a new Marilyn Manson record, but when it’s this good it just might be worth it.
Last week, he (and his band of the same name) dropped his eighth studio album, Born Villain, and to put it bluntly: it boasts some of the best MM music in at least a decade. Granted, that isn’t really saying much, considering how uneven Eat Me, Drink Me and The High End of Low were, but this should please even the most disillusioned of fans.
If you dug albums like Holywood and Mechanical Animals, you might want to give this one a try.
The lead single, No Reflection, is pretty solid even if it’s nothing new stylistically, but its video is pretty badass:
Thematically, Born Villain is also a return to form: songs like Pistol Whipped, Overneath the Path of Misery, and The Flowers of Evil let Manson revisit the sinister approaches that made his best albums so memorable.
Slo-Mo-Tion sounds like a b-side from the late 1990s, which in this context is a compliment – it’s throwback Manson, from the fuzzy electro-guitars to the creeping rhythmic approach.
Of course, no Manson record is complete without his signature snarling, moaning and wailing, and on more than one occasion here his voice calls to mind David Bowie, who arguably was the original Manson, at least in terms of musical eccentricity.
Children of Cain, with ominous electric drums and a deliberate, chain-gang pace, provides the foundation for Manson to say things like don’t assume that I’m always with you/It’s just where my mortal body happens to be.
The best (or perhaps most surprising) moment on the album has got to be Lay Down Your Goddamn Arms. Have you ever wondered what it’d sound like if Marilyn Manson did a grunge song? Odds are you haven’t, but you get to hear one anyway. It’s sublime – an off-time, Soundgarden-like tempo drives the song, which also features some Kim Thayil-esque guitars. If it sounds weird, it isn’t – it’s just awesome:
If you hadn’t ever expected Marilyn Manson to release anything impressive again, you ought to check out Born Villain. At 43, he probably could (and should, depending on your perspective) have hung up the black eyeliner and weird S&M bondage outfits, but if the result is this solid it might be worth sticking around a bit longer.
Oh, and there’s also bonus track featuring Manson and guest drummer Johnny Depp running through Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain…
This year’s Weenie Roast included Coldplay, Incubus, The Dirty Heads, Garbage, and many many more great performers. (Full line up below) I was disappointed to miss the first set by fellow Ohioans Walk the Moon. I heard their set, and Anna Sun was just like I had hoped it would be! Sadly I was still making my way to the stages and didn’t manage to shoot their set, but their upcoming shows in LA will be a must attend.
In full music fest form, after seeing Grouplove and Awolnation, I was one of many to witness the standing ovation received by one brave girl who decided to poo in the bushes. It was about 3 in the afternoon so I like to think that she wasn’t already really that obliterated, but in keeping with KROQ’s shows, she probably was. Seriously though, claps and shouts from hundreds making their way from stage dos to uno. Brave intro to her new friends. She got a stern taking to from some security guards who let her go on her way to the next stage… I wish they had offered her some purelle, but they did not. Anyway, bush pooing aside, the show must go on! Next was Garbage on Uno (It was the Weenie Roast y Fiesta for Cinco De Mayo)
I think every band of the night gave a well deserved shout-out to The Beastie Boys who lost MCA only a day before. Garbage’s tribute was the most emotional and heartflet and was also for “anyone who has lost someone they loved.” They had apparently lost a friend tragically in Brazil and commemorated both loses with Blood for Poppies. Angels and Airwaves had a moment of remembrance in true rock style, no moments of silence here. A hard drum beat gave the audience their time to reflect on rock’s recent loss.
The Dirty Heads, all in Beastie Boys shirts thanked the band and MCA for paving the way for bands like them.
*there’s more after the photos… keep goin’*
With the line up already fantastic we were surprised to have Soundgarden come out to play a full set later in the evening. The surprise set was well received with the audience singing along and on their feet from beginning to end.
Incubus and Coldplay were by far my favorites of the night. I had not seen Incubus live since the 2010 Smokeout with our very own Flak. Last night was sans Flak, but he missed out on georgeous Incubus set. The music was as usual amazing. I have a few favorite songs from their newest album and happily they played their beautiful In the Company of Wolves. The song at over 7 minutes long and filled with instrumental solos, was amazing to hear live and I was lucky to be able to watch just side of the stage after leaving the photo pit. If you get the chance to see the guys of Incubus on their upcoming Honda Tour, go, you will not regret it!
Coldplay came out and thanked everyone for staying for their set. Front-man Chris Martin pointed to a man in the crowd wearing shirt from an old Offspring tour and thanked him personally for staying to hear them play. A small gesture, sure, but a good way to kick off a set with pyrotechnics, giant confetti guns and plenty of big beach balls (I got slammed in the face, but I still got the shot! kudos to me…) Hearing Yellow and Viva La Vida live admittedly made me smile like an idiot for about an hour.
With an evening of emotional ups and downs over loss to the industry and beautiful performances, I was happy to be able to share it with my fellow photographers and audience members. Thanks Kroq for again hosting a great day of music.
For as long as I had been a fan of the “grunge” movement, I was never really in love with Soundgarden as much as I was with Nirvana and Alice in Chains. Chris Cornell‘s voice was always too much for me to handle…the songs themselves were fine, but something about Cornell’s throaty delivery threw me off.
When I started delving into all things grunge, including every Nirvana/Kurt Cobain book I could consume and albums by Screaming Trees, Mudhoney, Melvins, and other flanneled Pacific Northwest bands, my appreciation for Soundgarden grew.
Before long, that appreciation turned to sadness, assuming I would never see Soundgarden live, since the band had long since broken up and Cornell was spinning his wheels in Audioslave (to say nothing of his ill-advised foray into dance-pop with Timbaland).
Well, since the band’s 2009 reformation, I (and millions of other grunge fans) had been hotly anticipating a full-on reunion tour, however unlikely it seemed. When they announced that tour a few months ago, that anticipation turned into feverish excitement, culminating in the band’s mammoth performance last Friday night at the Forum in Inglewood.
Simply put, this show was one of the best I have EVER seen. I’ve probably been to more than a hundred concerts in my life, but Soundgarden’s rousing, powerful, dynamic show at the Forum is easily within the 5 best I’ve ever seen.
The Mars Volta wouldn't stand still for a decent picture
Kicking off the night was The Mars Volta, a band decidedly different now than they have been for most of their career. Playing mostly new tunes, they were much more low-key than usual. The new songs have *gasp* structure to them, a striking departure from the spastic freakouts fans have come to expect from the group, led by the hyphenated Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala. A strobe-heavy light show spazzed out behind the band as they blazed through their 45-minute set with a combination of mesmerizing melodies, precise percussion and passionate delivery by Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala. If anything, the Mars Volta’s new music will help them further cement their place as one of rock’s most challenging and innovative bands around.
After a short break, it was time for a nostalgic trip back to the early 1990s. Taking the stage to the intro of Searching with My Good Eye Closed, Soundgarden demonstrated that they’re not just here for a cash-grab reunion tour. Jesus Christ Pose was particularly vicious:
There was an immense, powerful energy delivered by Cornell, Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd that lasted throughout their sprawling, 25-song set.
Anybody ever remotely interested in any Soundgarden song had to be satisfied through the course of the night. They played EVERYTHING any fan could want. All the hits that helped define 1990s modern rock radio were present and accounted for, as well as Ultramega OK and Louder than Love songs like Flower, Gun, Ugly Truth, Beyond the Wheel, Loud Love, and Big Dumb Sex. The band pulled songs from all throughout their career, and they all sounded flawless.
Speaking of being flawless, Chris Cornell has some seriously powerful pipes. He’s 47 years old, but his soaring trademark voice never tired throughout the evening. On songs like Jesus Christ Pose and Black Rain, in particular, he had the same fury and thunder in his voice that he probably had as a twenty-something up in Seattle.
Between songs, Cornell was candid and funny; he thanked us all for showing up after all these years, and told us to say thanks to our parents or older siblings for turning us on to the band. He also remarked that they did have new songs they could have played, but “it’s been so long, we figured we might as well play all the older stuff” instead.
Since this show was in Los Angeles, I almost expected some kind of special guest treatment. And, much to the delight of the screaming grunge fanatics in the crowd, that happened on the song Superunknown, when Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready showed up. He shredded through a solo for the song, creating a mini-grunge supergroup onstage that was as badass as it was sonically pleasing. Check out my video of that memorable moment:
As if that moment wasn’t cool enough, apparently Dave Grohl was rocking out IN THE PIT with the fans for a majority of the set. Here’s a video of him losing his shit during Fell On Black Days. Sadly, I wasn’t on that side of the venue, as I was over on Thayil’s side, so I will have to live vicariously through the excitement of the fans in Dave’s area. The image of Grohl bouncing around in a mosh pit at a Soundgarden show sounds like the stuff of legend…which it is, considering it’s Dave Fuckin’ Grohl.
Soundgarden saved its heaviest, most intense song, Slaves & Bulldozers, for the very end of the evening. Despite the fact that he’d been screaming for two hours at that point, Cornell drove the set home with such vocal energy that it was impressive he hadn’t totally shredded his vocal chords yet. The dude can sing.
It can’t be overstated just how impressive the band was at this show. For nearly two hours and fifteen minutes, Soundgarden sounded as vibrant and crisp as they must have been in the early 1990s. Thayil’s precise guitar work, always a highlight of Soundgarden’s music, was on full display all night long. Cameron pounded the skins like a man on a mission, and Shepherd was similarly pumped up. It was just remarkable.
Here’s hoping a new Soundgarden studio album, supposedly in the works, rocks just as hard as it should. If the Forum show was any indication, Soundgarden is indeed back, fresh and rested after a long time off. There’s no rust, no fatigue, no sober realization of the fact that they are dudes in their mid-forties playing aggressive “grunge” music.
Their return honestly couldn’t have come at a better time, and hopefully they make more noise sooner rather than later.
The golden ticket for the night
Soundgarden’s Set List at the Forum on 7/22/11:
Searching With My Good Eye Closed
Spoonman
Gun
Jesus Christ Pose
Room a Thousand Years Wide
Blow Up the Outside World
Loud Love
Big Dumb Sex
Ugly Truth
Fell on Black Days
Flower
Outshined
Black Rain
Rusty Cage
The Day I Tried to Live
My Wave
Burden in My Hand
Black Hole Sun
Head Down
Superunknown(with Mike McCready)
4th of July
Encore:
Beyond the Wheel
Hunted Down
Mailman
Slaves & Bulldozers
Below, enjoy some photos from the show, courtesy of my outdated and slightly broken Canon Powershot.
All photos by me.
The Mars Volta wouldn’t stand still for a decent picture
After teasing legions of grunge fans with Lollapalooza one-offs and Hollywood Guitar Hero party launches, grunge icons Soundgarden finally announced a legit US tour.
Set for July, the trek only consists of 4 dates thus far:
July 2 Toronto, ON Molson Canadian Ampitheatre
July 13 Philadelphia, PA Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing
July 18 Denver, CO Red Rocks Ampitheatre
July 22 Los Angeles, CA LA Forum
More dates will be announced soon.
In an effort to piss off scalpers everywhere, Soundgarden announced a special fan-site only presale set for Monday April 18. Only fans who were registered Soundgarden World users as of 11:59 PM this Wednesday, April 13 will be eligible to purchase presale tickets.
Read all of that information here in their official announcement. If you miss out on the special presale, public onsales are set for April 23.
Recently reunited iconic grunge-ers Soundgarden just posted this on their official Facebook page:
Over the past few months, we’ve been busy jamming, writing and hanging out together – exploring the creative aspect of being Soundgarden. It feels great. We have some cool new songs that we are going to record very soon. Thank you for all of the support!
Loudest of Love,
Ben, Chris, Kim and Matt
That ought to stir up some excitement for a more Soundgarden-heavy 2011, considering they haven’t really done a whole lot since reuniting in 2010.
The nominees for the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards have been announced. Eminem leads all artists with ten nominations, while Bruno Mars follows closely with seven, and Lady Gaga, Jay-Z, and Lady Antebellum each clinched six. Other BTH favorites to receive nods include The Roots, Alice in Chains, Them Crooked Vultures, Janelle Monáe, and Cee-Lo’s Fuck You(!).
The nominees:
Album of the Year:
Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
Eminem – Recovery
Lady Antebellum – Need You Now
Lady Gaga – The Fame Monster
Katy Perry – Teenage Dream
Record of the Year:
B.o.B Featuring Bruno Mars - Nothin’ On You
Eminem featuring Rihanna - Love The Way You Lie
Cee-Lo Green - Fuck You
Jay-Z & Alicia Keys - Empire State of Mind
Lady Antebellum - Need You Now
Best New Artist:
Justin Bieber
Drake
Florence & the Machine
Mumford & Sons
Esperanza Spalding
Song of the Year:
Ray LaMontagne, songwriter (Ray LaMontagne and the Pariah Dogs) – Beg Steal or Borrow
Cee Lo Green, Philip Lawrence & Bruno Mars, songwriters (Cee-Lo Green) – Fuck You
Tom Douglas & Allen Shamblin, songwriters (Miranda Lambert) – The House That Built Me
Alexander Grant, Skylar Grey & Marshall Mathers, songwriters (Eminem featuring Rihanna) – Love The Way You Lie
Dave Haywood, Josh Kear, Charles Kelley & Hillary Scott, songwriters (Lady Antebellum) – Need You Now
Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals:
“Glee” Cast – Don’t Stop Believin’ (Regionals Version)
Maroon 5 – Misery
Paramore – The Only Exception
Sade – Babyfather
Train – Hey, Soul Sister (Live)
Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals:
B.o.B, Eminem & Hayley Williams – Airplanes II
Herbie Hancock, Pink, India.Arie, Seal, Konono No. 1, Jeff Beck & Oumou Sangare – Imagine
Elton John & Leon Russell – If It Wasn’t for Bad
Lady Gaga & Beyoncé – Telephone
Katy Perry & Snoop Dogg – California Gurls
Best Dance Recording:
Goldfrapp – Rocket
La Roux – In for the Kill
Lady Gaga – Dance in the Dark
Rihanna – Only Girl (In the World)
Robyn – Dancing On My Own
Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals:
Arcade Fire – Ready to Start
Jeff Beck & Joss Stone – I Put a Spell on You
The Black Keys – Tighten Up
Kings of Leon – Radioactive
Muse – Resistance
Best Rock Album
Jeff Beck – Emotion & Commotion
Muse – The Resistance
Pearl Jam – Backspacer
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Mojo
Neil Young – Le Noise
Best Hard Rock Performance:
Alice in Chains – A Looking in View
Ozzy Osbourne – Let Me Hear You Scream
Soundgarden – Black Rain
Stone Temple Pilots – Between the Lines
Them Crooked Vultures – New Fang
Best Rock Song:
Neil Young, songwriter (Neil Young) – Angry World
Ted Dwane, Ben Lovett, Marcus Mumford & Country Winston, songwriters (Mumford & Sons) – Little Lion Man
Caleb Followill, Jared Followill, Matthew Followill & Nathan Followill, songwriters (Kings of Leon) – Radioactive
Matthew Bellamy, songwriter (Muse) – Resistance
Dan Auerbach & Patrick Carney, songwriter (The Black Keys) – Tighten Up
Best Rock Instrumental Performance
Jeff Beck – Hammerhead
The Black Keys – Black Mud
Los Lobos – Do the Murray
Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds – Kundalini Bonfire
Dweezil Zappa – The Deathless Horsie
Best Alternative Music Album
Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
Band of Horses – Infinite Arms
The Black Keys – Brothers
Broken Bells – Broken Bells
Vampire Weekend – Contra
Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals:
Chris Brown & Tank – Take My Time
Chuck Brown, Jill Scott & Marcus Miller – Love
Ronald Isley & Aretha Franklin – You’ve Got a Friend
John Legend & The Roots – Shine
Sade – Soldier of Love
Best Contemporary R&B Album:
Chris Brown – Graffiti
R. Kelly – Untitled
Ryan Leslie – Transition
Janelle Monáe – The ArchAndroid
Usher – Raymond V. Raymond
Best Rap/Sung Collaboration:
B.o.B featuring Bruno Mars – Nothin’ on You
Chris Brown, Tyga & Kevin McCall – Deuces
Eminem featuring Rihanna – Love the Way You Lie
Jay-Z & Alicia Keys – Empire State of Mind
John Legend, The Roots, Melanie Fiona & Common – Wake Up! Everybody
Best Rap Song:
Jay-Z and Alicia Keys – Empire State of Mind
Eminem featuring Rihanna – Love the Way You Lie
Eminem – Not Afraid
B.o.B featuring Bruno Mars – Nothin’ on You
Jay-Z and Swizz Beatz – On to the Next One
Best Rap Album:
B.o.B – The Adventures of Bobby Ray
Drake – Thank Me Later
Eminem – Recovery
Jay-Z – The Blueprint 3
The Roots – How I Got Over
Best Country Collaboration with Vocals:
Dierks Bentley, Miranda Lambert & Jamey Johnson – Bad Angel
Dierks Bentley, Del McCoury & The Punch Brothers – Pride (In the Name of Love)
Zac Brown Band & Alan Jackson – As She’s Walking Away
Blake Shelton & Trace Adkins – Hillbilly Bone
Marty Stuart & Connie Smith - I Run to You
Best Country Song:
Casey Beathard, Dean Dillon & Jessie Jo Dillon, songwriters (George Strait) – The Breath You Take
Zac Brown, songwriter (Zac Brown Band) – Free
Tom Douglas & Allen Shamblin, songwriters (Miranda Lambert) – The House That Built Me
Rivers Rutherford, Annie Tate & Sam Tate, songwriters (Gretchen Wilson) – I’d Love to Be Your Last
Kimberly Perry, songwriter (The Band Perry) – If I Die Young
Dave Haywood, Josh Kear, Charles Kelley & Hillary Scott, songwriters (Lady Antebellum) – Need You Now
Best Country Album:
Dierks Bentley – Up On The Ridge
Zac Brown Band – You Get What You Give
Jamey Johnson – The Guitar Song
Lady Antebellum – Need You Now
Miranda Lambert – Revolution
Best Americana Album:
Rosanne Cash – The List
Los Lobos – Tin Can Trust
Willie Nelson – Country Music
Robert Plant – Band of Joy
Mavis Staples – You Are Not Alone
Best Traditional Blues Album:
James Cotton – Giant
Cyndi Lauper – Memphis Blues
Charlie Musselwhite – The Well
Pinetop Perkins & Willie “Big Eyes” Smith – Joined at the Hip
Jimmie Vaughan – Plays Blues, Ballads & Favorites
Best Metal Performance
Iron Maiden – El Dorado
Korn – Let the Guilt Go
Lamb of God – In Your Words
Megadeth – Sudden Death
Slayer – World Painted Blood
For a full list of the nominees, have a look here.
Recently reunited grunge royalty Soundgarden just released the music video for their “new” song, Black Rain, set to be the first single off the band’s upcoming career retrospective package, Telephantasm (which drops on September 28).
I hadn’t expected the video to include Dethklok, the heavy metal band featured in the cartoon series Metalocalypse, but this video (and the song itself) are pretty damn cool.
Recently reunited grunge gods Soundgarden have revealed the artwork for their upcoming career-spanning compilation album entitled Telephantasm.
I really like the color scheme on this artwork, and the picture itself is neat too. A curious-looking dog on a moon or snow-capped mountain range with ruins of some sort on the side? Okay, Cornell & Company, whatever you wish. It does look pretty though.
As with most big releases in today’s music world, Telephantasm will come in a slew of different versions: Single disc CD, double-disc CD/DVD version, and superfan collectible Double CD/DVD/3 Vinyl set. This seems primed to appeal to Soundgarden fans of any level of obsession.
The track list for the 2-disc edition (which I will be buying) is as follows:
01. All Your Lies
02. Hunted Down
03. Fopp
04. Beyond The Wheel
05. Flower (BBC session – previously unreleased)
06. Hands All Over
07. Big Dumb Snake
08. Get On The Snake (live)
09. Room A Thousand Years Wide (single version)
10. Rusty Cage
11. Outshined
12. Slaves & Bulldozers
CD2
01. Jesus Christ Pose (live)
02. Birth Ritual
03. My Wave
04. Superunknown
05. Spoonman
06. Black Hole Sun
07. Fell On Black Days (video version)
08. Burden In My Hand
09. Dusty
10. Pretty Noose (live on SNL and previously unreleased)
11. Blow Up The Outside World (MTV LIve ‘N’ Loud and previously unreleased)
12. Black Rain
Yep, that’s the “new” song Black Rain closing out the disc. The Deluxe Edition comes with a DVD of all the band’s music videos and rare cuts/different edits, which is a nice addition as well.
It’s great that Soundgarden is releasing another best-of collection, but I (and millions of other grunge/1990s enthusiasts) are more interested in tour announcements. Lollapalooza was fun for those who caught the show, but the rest of us are just getting antsy and restless waiting for an announcement that has yet to be proclaimed.
Still, Telephantasm looks like a great piece of Soundgarden memorabilia that will be hitting the shelves on September 27th.
Last week, while driving in circles around the Valley on my usual daily grind, I flipped on KROQ to see which song out of their 15-song library was playing. Instead of the expected Offspring or Linkin Park tune, what I heard was something new and yet strangely familiar: Plucky, hushed guitar riffs in a quiet-loud progression, discontented vocals delivered with a snarl in the verses and angst exploding all over the place in the bridge…yes, this sounded like something from 1995. It even had a buzzworthy phrase in the chorus: Jesus stole my girlfriend, repeated a few times for effect. I quickly looked up the song and alas, it is NOT a 1990’s band, instead being an Australian band named Violent Soho. I diligently tracked down the band’s self-titled album which just came out a few weeks ago, and is mostly a re-release of 2008’s We Don’t Belong Here, but re-mastered and with some tracks changed around. It was released on Ecstatic Peace! Records, which is actually headed by Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore (a hero of the band, apparently).
The song on the radio, Jesus Stole My Girlfriend, pretty much blew my mind when I first heard it. While the song is arguably the strongest on the album, the whole thing is still a great collection of 1990’s-inspired pissed-off angsty goodness. Vocalist/guitarist Luke Boerdam does a bang-up job channeling, at times, Kurt Cobain, Daniel Johns of Silverchair, even Craig Nicholls of the Vines and Wes Scantlin of Puddle of Mudd (and I mean that strictly due to the voice, not the music: this is not a slanderous comment).
Album opener Here Be Dragons kicks things off with an energetic burst of aggression, again using the quiet/loud dynamic that typified most 1990’s rock with precision.
Jesus Stole My Girlfriend is next, and it’s really a great song. It could easily have come from one of those nameless alternative rock bands that jumped on the “post-grunge” bandwagon in the wake of Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and all that Seattle stuff.
The fact that Violent Soho is instead a newer band (having formed in 2004) actually impresses me. While some could write the band off as “1990s clones” or whatever, I admire their willingness to attempt to bring back a genre I miss dearly.
Son of Sam continues the great start to the album, with a burst of guitar riffs and more snarly vocals by Boerdam. It has a good, strong chorus too, with Boerdam yelling “Beautiful girl, you got a hole in your heart, sitting pretty ‘til the world tore apart”. The drums are on display on this track, and Michael Richards smashes the shit out of them accordingly.
Even the DOG looks filled with angst.
My Generation, while not a Who cover, moves along to a bouncy riff and drum beat and another memorable chorus. The band really knows how to do that right.
Muscle Junkie brings the “post-grunge” feeling to the absolute brink of eruption, beginning with subdued vocals matched with a slow bass lead before, of course, exploding into an angry “fuck you, fuck you, I can’t trust you!” chorus, where the guitar returns to offset the lyrics, which alter themselves to “fuck you, fuck you, I hate your face!” before returning to the quiet sound for the bridge. Yes, yes, YES!!
Slippery Tongue is another standout on the record. The song starts out softly, and sounds like it could have been on Silverchair’s debut Frogstomp, especially when the “She’s got a slippery tongue, she won’t take it away, yeah yeah yeah” line creeps in for the chorus. It’s a great exercise in the soft/loud thing that Violent Soho embraces so heavily.
Love is a Heavy Word and Bombs over Broadway are more of the same, as the band sticks to this same formula on most of the tracks. Pissed-off lyrics, energy, aggression, melodic guitar lead-ins, it’s all there. The final track, Narrow Ways, ends the album on a high note, with one of the album’s most memorable verse structures and an overall feel that makes it one of the strongest tracks. The acoustic-sounding guitar passages give it that feeling. The track, along with Jesus, Muscle Junkie and Slippery Tongue are in my opinion the strongest on the album.
Violent Soho may not have the most “original” sound out there, but that’s precisely why I like them. So much of today’s “rock” music is made by boring, trendy bands who stick to the same formula. Violent Soho sound A LOT like their predecessors from the mid 1990’s, with that familiar, intriguing sound that grabbed me when I was 13 and hasn’t let go matched with a sense of homage to the bands of that era.
I have longed for a 1990’s alternative rock revival for years, and I hope this album is a sign of things to come. We’ve already latched back on to cheesy 1980’s synth-pop and 80’s culture, so it’s about damn time we got the “let’s bring back some forgotten era for no conceivable reason” thing right.
I hope more bands follow Violent Soho’s influence and bring it all back. We need it.
