The Vines – Melodia
Following a tumultuous (but brief) history comprising shambolic gigs and television appearances, fan assaults, shifting line-ups and a diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome for frontman Craig Nicholls, Australia’s Neo-grunge band The Vines seemingly called it a day in 2005 – at least as far as touring was concerned.
When the band returned in 2006 with their ‘Vision Valley’ album and an extremely limited number of live dates, Nicholls seemed to be in a much healthier place. No longer binging on junk food or alcohol, Nicholls had also given up the marijuana that he deemed responsible for many of his erratic outbursts. But the music also seemed to have been cleaned up, from both a songwriting and production standpoint – and it wasn’t necessarily a good thing. The band were still writing short and sweet rock tracks a la early highlight ‘Get Free’, but there were now less low-key, reflective tracks than on the first two albums, whose highlights included the ethereal ‘Mary Jane’, ‘Autumn Shade’ (parts I & II) and ‘Winning Days’. This time, however, Nicholls seems to have found a balance between the first two albums’ self-absorbed stoner ballads, and the third album’s polished rock (‘Braindead’ and ‘Merrygoround’ are rock highlights here). Tellingly, new highlights include the dreamy, psychedelic ‘Autumn Shade III’ – picking up from where the second album left off in more ways than one with its “part two” – plus, ‘Kara Jayne’ here is as beautiful as the similarly titled, first album highlight, ‘Mary Jane’. ‘True As the Night’ is notable for being the first low-key Vines track to sound fully formed, with a great melody, strings, colourful lyrics (it’s a love ballad), and a decent running time (at just over six minutes, it’s the longest thing the band have recorded after the Pink Floyd-esque psychedelia of old track ‘1969’). It’s also very Beatles-esque.
The Vines are still nothing particularly new – ‘Scream’’s shredded vocals and abrasive, technically sloppy guitars bring Nirvana’s ‘Scentless Apprentice’ vividly to mind, whereas ‘He’s A Rocker’ is pure Kinks, with its tight harmonies and mix of palm-muted verses, power-chord choruses and tongue-in-cheek lyrics. But The Vines are obviously huge fans of the bands they ape (Nirvana, The Beatles, The Kinks, Pink Floyd), and they do it impeccably well. Nicholls has a knack for melodies to possibly even surpass Kurt Cobain and John Lennon, although unlike Cobain and Lennon, Nicholls’ simplistic lyrics often let him down. It’s not that they’re bad lyrics – they’re perfectly functional, they’re just not as visual or evocative as Cobain’s or Lennon’s, which are clever wordplay in their own right. There’s also a feeling that The Vines are too derivative or retrospective to be truly essential. But this is still an impressive collection of songs (melodies foremost), and a definite return to form.
The Rivers – Got Something On Me
Aaaahh, the ability of rhythmic, hurried vocal driven paranoid indie to capture the attention of the ever increasing in number, bemused population is one of life’s rare remaining consistencies. For their part, this Brighton quintet uses their laconic lyrics effectively enough to draw you into to their cause.
The 70s capturing propeller rock craze, seemed to dry out when JET decided to expand their range, but the arrangement of grizzly guitars and rattling percussion spurts, could help The Rivers ensure its return. You need it, you know you do!
By Dave Adair
The Republic Tigers
Can you give us a little history and background about the band?
Adam: Sure. We all had sort of known each other from previous bands in the area. Kenn and I had worked on songs together during his stint in The Golden Republic. Back then, we were both really into sequencing and sampling but none of our bandmates were. So we would get together in the evenings when we were done with our workdays,.. or band practices,… or whatever,…and flesh out all the ideas we had at the time. Kenn had to go on tour with TGR so we put that to the side for a while. I would occasionally call Kenn to see when he wanted to start back up, or if he had heard the new Blonde Redhead record, or other things of that nature. Then, one day he called me and said that he was going to shift his energy from TGR back to the type of things that he and I had previously been working on. We then met up for the first time in about a year and a half and exchanged some demos that we had been working on. The other guys all happened to be going through similar scenarios in each of their respective bands. They wanted to do more than just play indie rock and were dissatisfied with their current musical situations. So, each of us had similar mindsets, as well as similar musical tastes, and after hanging out with one another we realized that our personalities meshed very well. We started putting together each of our demos and expanding on them under the name “the Republic Tigers”. The rest is history.
How do you go about writing your songs?
Adam: Well,…each of us has alot of ideas, and each of us has a home studio. Normally when one of us gets an idea we “sketch it out” in a Pro Tools session, a Reason file, or some type of midi workstation. We then hand those files off to one another until we all are happy with the way it is sounding. Then Kenn sits on those files until he has lyrical ideas for those songs. Once he demos lyrics and vocal melodies we then fine tune the arrangements and really hash out the “full blown” versions of the songs. We do it like that song by song until we have a stockpile of songs that are completed and then we try to figure out which songs are working best and which songs translate best live. The songs that “win” are the ones that we forge ahead with. The ones that “lose” are the songs that stay in the stockpile to be reworked at a later date.
We loved your EP around here. So, can you give us any info on what to expect from the album?
Adam: Alot more intensity. Alot more rock. Thereare still layers of texture and tiny little things that weave in and out but it is much more grand. The full length (Keep Color) hits way harder than the E.P. On top of that the E.P. was recorded and mixed in 1 week. We spent a month in the studio tracking “Keep Color” and about 2 more weeks mixing it with Mark Needham who brought alot of experience to the album that we lack.
How did the band end up on Chop Shop Records?
Adam: A young A&R person from Atlantic Records named
Brittany Warfield found us on Myspace. Justin Tricomit then brought her some demos when he was in L.A. Doing some session drumming. She enjoyed them and then passed them along to Alex and John from Chop Shop. Then they flew out to see us play. They enjoyed our show and we talked for a few hours about possibly working together. Next thing you know I’m on the phone for 2 hours a day with a lawyer trying to understand legal jargon and hashing out a recording contract. 2 months later we have and E.P. under our belt and a full length record about to be released. Needless to say…..we’re excited.
At, times you guys remind me of a young Beta Band.What are some of the influences on the music?
Adam: We’re influenced by everything. Pop culture, politics, science fiction, science fact, as well as other artists. Justin loves Phillip Glass. I love Serge Gainsbourgh, Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood. Marc loves Johhny Cash and Roy Orbison. Kenn loves video games and Diet Pepsi. Ryan loves puppies and outdoor sports. We all love Radiohead, Air, and Blonde Redhead as well as a ton of other artists who you may or may not have heard of.
You have a new tour coming up with Tally Hall. Are you looking forward to getting out there and do you enjoy the touring aspect of life as a band?
Adam: Yes. We are all extremely excited about getting out there and playing for people who haven’t heard us. We do enjoy being on the road with each other. It’s strange because when you get back home you think you’re not going to want to see your bandmates for months. Then, 2 or 3 days later you’re thinking to yourself,…”I wonder what Ryans doing right now?”.
What is the next move for the band?
Adam: Well,..obviously we’re doing the tour with Tally Hall. Shortly after that we’re appearing on “The Late Show with David Letterman”. Then I believe May 12th we’re doing “The Morning Becomes Eclectic”. We’re playing other dates around both of those shows I’m just not sure what they are yet.
Any other bands we should look out for from Kansas City?
Adam: Yes. Pay attention to a band named Olympic Size and a band name the Jen Say Kwah’s. They’re great.
By John Siwicki
Johnny Foreigner – Waited Up Till It Was Light
Well, this is certainly different! The music itself is good; it’s lush, a whole heap of sounds going on in there, it’s rocky, fast paced, energetic music which really gives you the urge to get moving. I was however sorely disappointed with the vocals, particularly on the first track.
The second track is vaguely reminiscent of a Pendulum track though I can’t put my finger on which one it is, but again the vocals kill it, screeching is bad enough, female screeching is far worse. Track four is different as the lead vocalist actually opens this by singing but all too soon this is trashed by the female voice, the tune on this track is dire it’s like having a thumping headache. Track ten is surprisingly soft with tinkles aplenty, but again the vocals interfere far too much. This album, had it been purely instrumental would have achieved a much higher rating, as the music on the whole is excellent, for me the vocals killed it.
By J.Greenwood