Featured this month:
Quite succinctly, Bliss have balls. In this era of weenie rock and an otherwise vacuous musical landscape, the New York duo set out to record, in their own words, "the ultimate rock CD". While an attitude like that (sarcasm intended) isn't going to score them any points with the big labels, their debut disc, Chasing The Mad Rabbit achieves their stated purpose.
I remember those ads in music magazines in the 1980s and early 1990s - and you know the ones I'm talking about. "Play Guitar Not Unlike A High-Speed Random Tone Generator!" "Sing So High That Not Even Your Dog Can Hear You!" Bliss (which consists of multi-instrumental virtuoso Michael Trapp and the awesome vocal talents of Matt Wells) didn't take these courses - they simply obliterated them.
From the opening salvo of "Karmic Wheel", which would be almost power-pop if it wasn't so damned crunchy, you're quickly aware that Bliss means business. Trapp has more talent in his little finger than many of today's musicians could ever dream of, blending so many different styles (jazz, prog, metal, to name three) with nary a hitch; he alone could carry this band if he wanted to. Instead, he enlisted the help of Wells, a truly gifted vocalist with considerable range - he sings the hell out of every note, from rockers such as "Wrecked" and "Little Bitches" to Bic-lighter-inducing arena ballads like "Once Upon A Time" and "Hope", all without the least bit of pretention, unlike so many other bands of the genre.
While it might not help their bottom line (last I checked, Rock atheists are still running most of the major labels), it's still better that Bliss released Mad Rabbit in 1998 instead of, say, 1988. It's not a knock against their substantial talents - it's just that they would have likely been lost in the shuffle amongst the hair-metal and cheese-metal bands of that era. Here at the end of the century, Mad Rabbit stands out as one of a kind, one of the better rock records I've heard in a long time.
For more info about Bliss, drop by www.j-birdrecords.com.
--Brandon Grimes
(Note: In the process of moving, I somehow misplaced the bio information for this band - apologies in advance. Drinks are on me next time, guys ...)
Sometime over the course of your life, you'll meet someone who initially repulses you. You'll find yourself being forced to spend time with them whether you like it or not, and then one day it'll hit you: "There's something charming about this person ... maybe I should dig a little deeper ..."
The next thing you know, you're willfully taking time out of your day to be with them, to think of them, to pass your spare time enjoying their company instead of waxing your legs or feeding your cat or waxing your cat. They've grown on you, and maybe it's not such a bad thing after all.
A New York quartet by way of various Big Ten institutions, Punchdrunk (Galen Polivka, P. Judd Counsell, Steven Koester, Rick Donner) achieved some underground acclaim with their cover of "Nightwatchmen" on You Got Lucky: A Tribute To Tom Petty in 1995. Now, on their second full-length record, bird bird, they find themselves poised to take the next step and build on those plaudits.
Trouble is, bird bird isn't so far removed from the person I described in the first couple of paragraphs of this review. There's not a whole lot here that's going to instantly sweep you away - not on the first listen, anyway. Rather, this disc is what I like to categorize as a "grower" ... if you're a fan who likes to invest a little bit of time and patience in an album, then bird bird won't disappoint in the long run.
The opener, "Marco Polo", features a fairly restrained mid-tempo groove that threatens to detonate into a rocker, but never quite achieves the explosion that seems to hang throughout the song, instead waiting till "Positive To Positive, Negative To Ground" to unleash a furious power-chord-based burst of energy, a burst that lasts through a good portion of the album.
Though the vocalist seems to lack the depth or power to carry some of the earlier songs on the album (he's merely adequate on roughly the first half of the album's rockers), he hits his stride on the catchy "To The Future" (where he invokes Del Amitri) and "The Eagle Flies Alone". Still, he seems more in his element on ballads like "The Grayest Gray" or the beautiful "Good Fortune Is Ours And Luck Has Sided With Us", a future mix-tape staple.
All told, bird bird might not be immediately adorable, but isn't it more satisfying to invest a little time getting to know a record (or a person or anything else) instead of falling in love at first sight (and burning yourself out soon after)?
--Brandon Grimes