Courtney Love – America’s Sweetheart

America’s Sweetheart, Courtney Love’s first and so far only solo album, is absolute shit. It’s fucking confused and drug addled, and unfortunately not in a good way. I mean what the fuck happened to the woman who screamed on Pretty on the Inside? There’s almost no evidence of the intelligence and lyrical power that makes that album sound fresh even today. Plus the production is absolutely horrible.

The thing I don’t like about Courtney’s lyrics nowadays is that she seems to have forgotten to paint interesting images and create powerful metaphors. Now she sometimes resigns herself to pop culture references, and they go as lame as referencing the “why’d the chicken cross the road” joke several times in one song. Why? Why is there a song about how much she loves men? And a song that sounds like she wrote it as an early-20-something bitching about her boyfriend’s obsession with playing “Stairway to Heaven”? These things sound like songs she put on the back-burner (or just plain threw out) when she was younger, and apparently more able to apply a filter.

“Sunset Strip” could be a Guns N Roses song. There are some interesting lyrics, but overall it’s overproduced shit. And that applies to almost all of the songs on here. It sounds like  Pink with a fucked up voice and slightly more credibility. Although I think Courtney’s voice sounds better than on Celebrity Skin, at least in some cases. But the God, the overproduced guitars and overproduced lyrics. Why?

There are only two good songs on the album, the cheesy but insightful “Uncool”, and the hideously brutal “Plague” (aka “Life Despite God”). “Plague” is a fucking mess. It opens with a sloppy organ and grows in intensity with screaming that rivals the end of “Burn Black” until it collapses at the end with Courtney wheezing “all my love’s in vain, cannot find a vein”. It  seems to have Courtney waffling between mocking people who blame her for Kurt’s suicide and believing it herself. It’s a shocking song, really. Considering the childishness and shallowness that surrounds it, the emotional intensity is even more ravaging. Even though the guitars are less bludgeoning, some of it rivals Hole’s first album. It’s really an awesome song.

The biggest problem with this album is basically that no one knew what they wanted it to be. The producer didn’t know how to create anything but radio-friendly pop rock (the guy worked with Matchbox 20 for God’s sake), so that’s what he wanted it to be. Linda Perry apparently wanted it to be a Pink album, and the record label obviously wanted it to be a radio smash, or something. And Courtney was so fucked up on crack at the time that she didn’t know what the hell she wanted. What it should’ve been is a horrifyingly honest album in the vein of “Plague”. What’s wrong with this album, and everything Courtney’s done post-Kurt, is that it’s not honest. Maybe if she spent less time avoiding her true feelings, like in songs like “Zeppelin Song” and “Hello” and song after song after song, this could’ve been truly powerful. But whatever.

France de Griessen’s Six Uses for a Heart

Six Uses for a Heart

France de Griessen’s Six Uses for a Heart opens with the Sonic Youth-like jangle of a telecaster. It’s the song “I Want to be You,” which quickly slams into a wall of power chords. Her songs are interesting: mixes of French and English, male and female, punk and country, raw and polished. The lyrics are good (at least the ones in English. I can’t speak French, but I’m sure they’re great too). Although in the first song they stray a little close to standard rock fare, the rest of them are much deeper and more moving. I’m very impressed by some of her lyrical ideas, and her use of musical influences beyond the typical punk, rock, and pop that most people seem to be incapable of escaping from.

Her music shows great sonic range: the second song, “Rue des Pierres Rouges” (which seems to translate to “Street of Red Stones”) is a buzzy, moody ballad with male and female vocals. The third song is a beautiful, raw little song about the innocence of growing up. Then comes the varied “Bellerina,” which ends in with laid back surf guitar. And the sixth use for a heart is catchy and very beautiful country-ish duet about being an outlaw.

France’s voice is great, and she works very well alone and during duets, which appear on this album quite a few times. For an EP, this is very packed. And it’s packed with very good songs. The only suggestion I have for her is to lose the pop punk chord wall that appears a few times and go with the rawer type stuff that is exemplified by “Sunbeam” and the opening of the first song, and I would also really like it if she used more of the feedback and unusual guitar sounds that pop up every now and then. I’m very impressed and can’t wait to see what her next album brings.

Click here to buy the album digitally on Amazon.com

Click here to buy it physically on France’s web page

Nymphs Videos

After last week’s massive post, I thought I’d go light on content today. And because I love the Nymphs so very much, I’m gonna post all of their songs I could find on YouTube and type up the lyrics, which are hard to find, unfortunately, since they’re so great.

Here’s the official video for “Imitating Angels” after the break:

Uses and abuses of copyright law

Today I’ve decided instead of posting a review of music, I would post an incredibly lengthy paper I wrote for English class about how the RIAA and MPAA are basically destroying art. Hope you guys enjoy it. I strongly recommend everyone read at least the online articles I’ve cited (at the end of the article).

Uses and Abuses of Copyright

Copyright law is a heated topic these days, and for good reason. Copyright laws affect every area of our lives, from the way we as consumers listen to our favorite songs and watch our favorite movies, to the art musicians create and how it is distributed. Copyright laws have a long and complex history, beginning in the sixteen-hundreds (Demers, 2006:15). It came about as an attempt by companies to gain a print monopoly, but ended up benefiting both the author of the work (whether that work is musical, written, or acted) by giving them new rights, such as protection from piracy and the public domain (Demers 2006:15). Now big corporations, especially those in the music business, are again trying to take advantage of copyright for their own benefit using the classical guise of “for the author” while simultaneously working against the author at every turn.

Hole – Pretty on the Inside Review

Pretty on the Inside, Hole’s first album, is one of the most grossly forgotten grunge albums of the early 90s. While it was acclaimed by the underground in its time, it’s basically been forgotten. Not shocking, though, since the band (and most female-lead bands of the time) never get the respect they deserve from the more indie-oriented grunge scene. And it’s even less surprising that the mainstream press ignored it. There’s barely slightest hint of a pop sensibility on the surface, unlike Nirvana’s Bleach, which at least had “About a Girl” (and still got no coverage). There are few hints of future hits like “Doll Parts.”

The album shows Hole at a very experimental time, with two noise collages, one of which includes an angry telephone message from Inger Lorre of the Nymphs (”Sassy”) and the other which has a snippet of one of the earliest songs Courtney ever wrote (”Best Sunday Dress” on ”Star Belly”). Not to mention the two songs “Garbadge Man” and “Loaded” that have 30-second Sonic Youth-y noise experiments at the end.

The music on Pretty on the Inside is greatly influenced by noise rock such as The Jesus Lizard’s forefathers Big Black and Sonic Youth, and to an equal degree early heavy metal bands like Black Sabbath, disguising metal riffs in a wash of feedback and good old-fashioned guitar noise. The lyrics are easily the best part of the album. The overall tour-de-force would have to be “Mrs. Jones” a dizzying tale about rape and disease that includes so many interesting musical ideas in its five and a half minutes I could write  a whole article about it, and the immediate favorite is most likely “Garbadge Man” because of its more accessible structure and poignant screaming.

“Teenage Whore” is a forgettable opener, and the album’s first and only single, which seems strange as it’s easily the worst song on the album. “Babydoll” has an extremely catchy guitar riff. Next is “Garbadge Man,” the album’s best song, and Hole’s first ever video. Do yourselves a favor and download the rerecorded video version of this song. It’s without a question an improvement, darkening it up and removing the annoying voice crack in the chorus. And the album ends with a solemn re-imagining of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” that ties everything together before it fades out.

The weakest parts are the drumming and the mix. The drumming isn’t bad by any means, and on certain songs (”Babydoll”) it’s even pretty hooky, but on some, like “Mrs. Jones,” the drummer should’ve been thrashing along with the guitar, but shows too much restraint. However, this is probably due to the mix, which pushes the drums far behind the guitars instead of using them as the foundation that gave Steve Albini’s recordings such power. The mix itself has certain strengths and weaknesses. The worst parts are the extreme lack of bass in most songs and the low drum mix. However, there are some interesting ideas, such as the way Eric and Courtney’s guitars mesh, almost causing Courtney’s ice pick sound to be its own type of percussion.

The compositions are also very interesting. A lot of the songs start off with Courtney’s playing, all treble and no bass -very reminiscent of Big Black and even the Stooges’ Raw Power era, and then plunges into Eric’s more Sabbath-esque guitar, which eventually degenerates to the point that the original riffs are no longer recognizable. The songs are also really long. Almost half of them are at or near five minutes, but after a few listens they become incredibly catchy. The lengths allow for an interesting structure, where the songs stumble, turn on themselves and sometimes sputter into odd endings (or in the case of “Mrs. Jones” a shockingly beautiful mock 60’s girl group bridge). It’s a really interesting effect that allows the album to reflect the whirlpool of despair that LA was at the time.

Honestly, Pretty on the Inside is Hole’s best album. The interesting thing about it is how effectively it proves the band’s intent (and title): without any obvious (some might say cheap) attractiveness, few people will take the time and energy required to truly appreciate it. As it stands, it’s not much more than a footnote that both Eric and Courtney acknowledge as something of an embarrassment in the rest of their catalogue. The sad fact is, there are spectacular and unique melodies under all the anger and noise, and many have missed out on them.

Hole continued to get more and more pop-oriented until they were basically indistinguishable from all the other boring bands of the late 90’s, whining incessantly with the same early 90’s narrow-minded cynical selfishness but without the same insanity and energy, too rich and bored to have any problems that anyone but a celebrity could relate to. It’s a shame Hole didn’t continue on the punk path, because for a very short time, they were more punk than Nirvana.

Buy the CD at Amazon.com

The Jesus Lizard – Goat Review

The Jesus Lizard – Goat, 1991

The Jesus Lizard is one of the most well-respected bands of the 90’s, with people from the legendary Steve Albini to Steve Funderburg exalting its praises. I can’t say that I’m an expert on the band, but Goat is often considered to be their definitive, if not their best, album.

First off, just like most of the albums I’ve reviewed, this disc takes awhile to get into your head. One good thing about Goat is that most of the songs are very short, which make them easier to digest than, say, Pretty on the Inside by Hole. The first-listen standout is without a question “Nub,” a song about a bandmate’s (made up) amputation. It’s got a great slide-guitar riff and some really intriguing chord changes. “Here Comes Dudley” is sort of a throwaway for the first track (although it grows on you), but the album only falters slightly until “Mouth Breather” comes up, with a riff I’ve heard in a million of the shitty punk-wannabe bands that came and went in the 2000’s. Jesus Lizard manages to do it first, better, and as a bonus, it includes the stop and start dynamics that became Nirvana’s trademark the same year this was released.

The lyrics and singing in this album are… interesting. It would be hard to say that the lyrics are really great, but they’re definitely not clichéd, and they manage tell some interesting stories (“Monkey Trick,” ”Lady Shoes” is a retooling of the Aristocrats joke) and are generally very humorous (”Nub,” “Mouth Breather,” “Lady Shoes” again). Also, I should never have said that there was singing on this album. There isn’t. However, there is screaming and some vocal cord contortions that fit in with the lurching guitars perfectly. Yow’s voice was made for this music. I’ve heard it described as a “baptist minister on crack” and I won’t disagree.

At only nine tracks and about 30 minutes, Goat is a little short, but I’ve got to wonder if it would have been as acclaimed if it required any more of you on your first listen. 30 minutes might be about the right time to end this assault. After all, there’s nothing preventing you from putting it on infinite repeat if that’s the way you want it.

Buy the CD at Amazon.com

Message from the author

As you can see, I’ve started to post again. No, no lame excuses. Frankly, I just didn’t feel like writing. I’ve got a bunch of reviews lined up and, as you can see, I’m getting the hang of this blogging thing. I might go back and edit some of my older reviews to make them more readable. I’m not sure though. I’d have to do that for a whopping four posts.

Take care, and check back weekly for updates.

Hole – My Body, The Hand Grenade Review

Hole is a band that is spotty at best, mainly because Courtney Love revamped (gutted) the lineup every fucking time they recorded a CD. Still, when they made good music they made very good music. My Body, The Hand Grenade is a rarities collection that has some pretty awesome songs on it, and I’m not sure why they were never included on an actual release. There’s Hole at its most Nymphs-esque with “Turpentine” (one of the best songs they ever wrote– I might devote a whole post to it someday) and “Drown Soda,” there are some early singles (such as “Burn Black“), a few covers, the controversial “Old Age,” and a bunch of other stuff. Worth getting, even though it’s not that heavy on great content.

Buy the CD at Amazon.com

Evanescence cover of Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box”

I haven’t talked much about Nirvana yet, but stay tuned for some serious reviews of Bleach and Incesticide. Anyway, I just wanted to rant a little bit about this (Evanescence- Heart-Shaped Box Cover) travesty. Somehow I came upon it (I believe it was using Songbird’s search feature) and I thought it might be interesting. Boy was it… interesting.

It starts off sounding all right, but then Amy Lee’s voice comes in. Did anyone else nearly vomit at her cheesy theatrics on the lines “I’ve been dragged into your magnet tar-pit trap/I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black”? And then the chorus comes. Anyone who’s heard Kurt’s primal, anguished scream can do little more than laugh at what passes for passion these days.

Amy Lee and backing band, please stick to your string-driven, repetitive Nu-Metal and stay away from the work of real artists. You’ll sink into the realm of forgotten “musicians” much more easily that way.

Nymphs- The Nymphs Review

There are a million crazy stories about the Nymphs out there on the internet, how the lead singer revenge-pissed on the desk of the record company exec who screwed her band over, the onstage oral sex, the Courtney love rivalry, but something that isn’t too often mentioned is the feat that the Nymphs pretty much created their own version of grunge as far back as 1985 in the vacuum that is New Jersey. This band only released one full-length album, but it’s definitely worth getting. At the very least, the album art is extremely cool and it perfectly illustrates the psychotic, dark, and deep sound that the Nymphs put out. At the most, the Nymphs could’ve been one of the first grunge bands out there and maybe would’ve been huge if they hadn’t been jerked around by their label.

Nymphs is an interesting CD sonically. There are songs on here that could have been on a Nirvana album, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see “The Highway” on an Alice in Chains disc at all. But then there are some songs on here that show the glam rock influence that permeated their performances (like the awful bridge that almost ruins “Sad and Damned”), so I would have to echo those reviewers who say that this is a very good bridge between glam and grunge, but it’s much more grunge than glam. There aren’t any songs on here celebrating inane male fantasies, or anything even remotely “happy.” The songs are about insanity, religious disillusionment, yearning, sycophants, social dissatisfaction, and just about every other topic that could please a punk or grunge listener. What sets this album apart (besides the fact that it was very early) is the lyrics, which are full of powerful imagery. The song “Imitating Angels” contains the lines “Those venomous fumes like ghosts imitating angels/ came and brushed death through her hair with a loving stroke/ telling her pretty lies and flowery stories/ about a place where nothing hurts and no one knows” that’s heavy, beautiful stuff that makes you think, and music that makes you think is really lacking these days, just as it was at the time the Nymphs were first starting out. But hey, if you don’t feel like thinking, just sit back and get lost in the drugged, hazy, heavy sound, buzzing guitars and banging drums.

After this album was released, the Nymphs quickly broke up. The band had been ready to release the thing since about 1989, which gave them plenty of time to piss around and get hooked on heroin, lose lovers to overdoses and create rivalries with psychotic fans. All this gave way to Inger (the lead singer) having a nervous breakdown and going back to New Jersey, spending a few years in mental institutions, and recording a pretty awesome solo CD. The band has actually “reformed” and you can find Inger, who is the only original member of the New Nymphs, at MySpace (www.myspace.com/ingerlorre). This album is supposed to be reissued, along with their even rarer EP A Practical Guide to Astral Projection, which you will hear about as soon as I can get my hands on it, and their new CD.

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Track Listing:

1. Just One Happy Day (3 stars)

2. Cold (4 stars)

3. 2 Cats (3 stars)

4. Imitating Angels (5 stars)

5. Wasting My Days (3 stars)

6. Heaven (3 stars)

7. Supersonic (3 star)

8. Sad And Damned (4 stars)

9. Death Of A Scenester (5 stars)

10. The River (2 stars)

11. Revolt (5 stars)

12. The Highway (5 stars)

This CD has been out of print since 1991 and is very rare. It can be bought on eBay and Amazon.com, but it is supposed to be reissued sometime on Sympathy for the Record Industry, so buying it from them will benefit the artists most.

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