Scheduled for release on June 28, 2011, Limp Bizkit finally made their way back. All along 2010 their official web site announced that it is “the year of the Cobra” and adding the fact it’s been six years since their last release, “The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1)”, the expectations were escalate pretty high. The downside of the delayed release might be that we set our expectations too high or some might lost their interest along the way. Last year, to maintain this interest high, Fred posted teasers to the songs “Shark Attack”, “90 to 10”, “Douchebag” and “Walking Away” and “leaked out” “Why Try” last April and “Walking Away” last August. On May 17, 2011 it was released “Shotgun” as a digital download, the lead single from “Gold Cobra”. On June 7, 2011, Fred leaked the second single, “Gold Cobra” and finally the standard edition album leaked out yesterday, on June 20 2011, four days before it’s earliest release date. Read more Limp Bizkit – Gold Cobra (2011)
Reviews
Dexessus – Punish me with Love (2011)
Generalizing, Dexessus might be the Russian answer for Rammstein. Metalic, heavy riffings, electrifying sampler layers, deep and strong male vocals mainly spoken and spiting the words and as a nice addition, some smoother female vocals, and this dialogue offering them a special sound, makes the difference. Marching tempos, aggressive guitars, colorful textures and the catchy themes full of adrenaline are the winning schemes of Dexessus. It reminds me – obviously – of the collaboration of Rammstein with t.A.T.u.. “Ðакажи Ð¼ÐµÐ½Ñ Ð»ÑŽÐ±Ð¾Ð²ÑŒÑŽ” (Punish Me with Love) is an absolutely correct industrial metal album from this band from Odessa. Read more Dexessus – Punish me with Love (2011)
Mr. Pan[k]sament – The Ghost of the Absent Father (2011)
Marcus Miller once said: “that one of the problems with making contemporary music is that you never know how it will be judged in the futureâ€. That’s true, but still, I believe it really doesn’t matter what anybody think about it, who and how judge it. I’m conscious that I disappointed most of my fans from the 90’s, but I always felt like I have to move on and I’m kind of pathologically scared not to repeat myself. Under the moniker “Mr.Pan[k]sament” I’m exploring extremely different areas of musical expressions from electronica to metal and from punk to jazz, it might be confusing, I’m aware of it, but this is who I am. Writing recently about Queensrÿche and reading some of the fans comments about their latest release I was thinking about one more aspect: a band should play what their fans demand or what they actually feel? Some great artists such as David Bowie with each release moved on in some other direction while bands like AC/DC played the same riff for decades but both are just great exactly for what they did. So, it’s no “right” or “wrong” answer. On the other hand, thinking about music exclusively in genres, I think it’s definitively wrong and leave us with a very narrow horizon… Read more Mr. Pan[k]sament – The Ghost of the Absent Father (2011)
Pat Metheny – What’s It All About (2011)
This is a beautiful, quite acoustic album. As it’s written on Metheny’s official web site: “The new acoustic solo guitar album from Pat Metheny called “What’s It All About” features classic tunes from songwriters like Paul Simon, Lennon & McCartney, Burt Bacharach, and Henry Mancini. Pat describes it like this: “I wanted to record some of the music that was on my radar before I ever wrote a note of my own, or in a few cases, even before I played an instrument. Every one of these tunes has something going on that is just hip on a musical level, no matter how you cut it. They have all stuck with me over the years.” While Matheny played with John Scofield, Charlie Haden, Jim Hall, Ornette Coleman, Brad Mehldau, Jaco Pastorius and Bob Moses, Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins, Dave Holland and Roy Haynes, Joni Mitchell, Jack DeJohnette, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Bill Stewart, Kenny Garrett,and his older brother, Mike Metheny, a talented jazz musician and a trumpet player, among many others, it’s almost strange that “What’s It All About” actually it’s his sixth solo album while his first, “New Chautauqua” was released by ECM back in 1979. Read more Pat Metheny – What’s It All About (2011)
Marcus Miller – Tutu Revisited (2011)
Released in December 1986, 25 years ago, “Tutu” divided the world of jazz: some loving it, others labeled as “not jazz” and quite hating it. As Marcus Miller said in a recent interview: “I bought a Downbeat magazine when I was 15 years old and they were arguing about that. The last time I looked at Downbeat, they were still arguing the same stuff.” Thinking of music in genres, I believe, it’s a quite stupid approach. And there’s not even “good” or “bad” music, eventually there’s music we like or we don’t. It’s about the vibe I guess. And about our perception and not at least it’s about the moment and the mood, not to mention the contradictious matter of taste. I won’t definitively play Morbid Angel or Slayer when I’m in mood for sex. I admit, I discovered Miles Davis through “Tutu” and for years I did paint exclusively on Miles Davis and Jan Garbarek’s music. And still, I prefer to paint on jazz.
Marcus Miller wrote and produced “Tutu” at the age of 27 while by age of 13, Marcus was already proficient on clarinet, piano and bass guitar, and already writing his own songs. Miller soon became a top call session musician, gracing well over 500 albums, a short list of which includes Herbie Hancock, Mariah Carey, Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, Frank Sinatra, Dr. John, Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Grover Washington Jr., Donald Fagen, Bill Withers, Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross, Roberta Flack, Carly Simon, Bryan Ferry, David Sanborn, Billy Idol, Chaka Khan, LL Cool J and Me’shell NdegOcello and Flavio Sala. Read more Marcus Miller – Tutu Revisited (2011)
The Lollipops – Hold! (2011)
Available in many flavors and shapes, mounted on a stick and intended for sucking or licking, the lollipops are hard candies. Chosen as band name is not quite inspired, plenty of artist/bands all over the world use it in different forms. This time, this “The Lollipops” are from Olsztyn, Poland and “Hold!” is filled up with smooth, kind of retro and tasty rock with gloomy indie flavor mixed with some blues, pop and punk spices, reminds me mainly of the good-old days Blondie combined with the doo-wop taste of the song “Blue Moon” in the version of The Marcels from ’61. Kasia Staszko – vocals, Jacek Ruczko – guitar, Romek BaÅ‚tuszka – guitar, Jakub Roszkiewicz – bass and Wojtek Zamaro – drums put 12 (plus one bonus) on this “Hold!” and it’s actually a nice, extremely listenable album. Read more The Lollipops – Hold! (2011)
Of Mice and Men – The Flood (2011)
For a year or two I’m at least suspicious if not directly sick only when I hear of “indie” or “alternative” labels, this year I got myself a new syndrome, I get sick when I hear of “metalcore”. Too many faceless bands does the same kind of shit and it becomes pretty boring. Fortunately there are always few exception, and talking bout metalcore, Of Mice and Men are still manage to put on the table exciting materials.
The band was formed by Austin Carlile – original vocalist of Attack Attack! – and bassist Jaxin Hall during mid-2009 after Carlile’s departure from his former band. After reaching 1,000,000 plays from their Myspace profile in just two months since its launch, the band uploaded a cover of Lady Gaga’s song, “Poker Face” and a copy of the demo was sent directly to Rise Records.
The band released their self-titled debut album in March 2010. On “The Emptiness Tour” in 2010 Carlile fell in to a conflict with the other members and the band and Carlile decided to part ways. The group thereafter invited Jerry Roush – vocalist for Sky Eats Airplane and American Me – to front Of Mice & Men. But after nine months the group confirmed in January 2011 that they reached a decision to have Jerry Roush leave Of Mice & Men in favor for former vocalist and founding member, Austin Carlile to return to the group. Read more Of Mice and Men – The Flood (2011)
Versailles – Holy Grail (2011)
This is the third album by the Japanese visual kei metal band Versailles – also known as Versailles -Philharmonic Quintet. Pretty strange combination of classic heavy and power metal with sometimes theatrical, opera-like vocals, other times pretty typical Japanese, pop taste vocals. “Visual kei”, literally “visual style” or “visual system”, is a movement among Japanese musicians,that is characterized by the use of make-up, elaborate hair styles and flamboyant costumes, and Versailles key characteristics are their rococo-esque costumes, correlated musically with dueling guitar sounds – Iron Maiden’s trademark – and heavy but melodic arrangements.
The band was formed in 2007 by Kamijo (ex-Lareine), Hizaki (ex-Sulfuric Acid), and Jasmine You (ex-Jakura). Later, Teru (ex-Aikaryu) and Yuki (ex-Sugar Trip). Read more Versailles – Holy Grail (2011)
Weird Al Yankovic – Alpocalypse (2011)
Who didn’t laugh his self to death on Yankovic’s parodies back in the 80’s and 90’s, it wasn’t there or he didn’t heard/saw them. Or he/she have serious problems. Since his first-aired comedy song in 1976, he had sold more than 12 million albums – as of 2007 -, recorded more than 150 parody and original songs, and has performed more than 1,000 live shows, earned three Grammy Awards among nine nominations, four gold records, and six platinum records in the United States.
“Another One Rides the Bus” – a parody of Queen, “I Love Rocky Road”- a parody of “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” as recorded by Joan Jett and The Blackhearts, “Eat It”, a parody of the Michael Jackson song “Beat It” and the killer “Fat” or “Smells Like Nirvana” are only a very few of his mind-blowing parodies. And Dave Grohl of Nirvana said that the band felt they had “made it” after Yankovic recorded “Smells Like Nirvana”, a parody of the grunge band’s smash hit, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. On his Behind the Music special, Yankovic stated that when he called Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain to ask if he could parody the song, Cobain gave him permission, then paused and asked, “Um… it’s not gonna be about food, is it?” Yankovic responded with, “No, it’ll be about how no one can understand your lyrics.” According to members of Nirvana interviewed for Behind the Music, when they saw the video of the song, they laughed hysterically. Additionally, Cobain described Yankovic as “a musical genius.” Read more Weird Al Yankovic – Alpocalypse (2011)
Bono And The Edge – Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark – OST (2011)
The Spider-Man comics were created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, and published by Marvel Comics for the first time in 1962. As kid, I saw “The Amazing Spider-Man”, which aired in ’77-’78 and obviously Spidey was one of my heroes. Based on a book by Julie Taymor, Glen Berger, and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” is the most expensive – $70 million and counting – Broadway production in history, a rock musical with music and lyrics by U2’s Bono and The Edge. Two Irish guys writing a rock musical for Broadway, it is something. While U2 fans waiting for the new album, we’ve got “Duals” and now this soundtrack. Bono said: “If we thought it would take this long, there is not a chance on earth we’d have done it.”
The musical get mixed, but mainly negative reviews. “Upon a preliminary viewing back in February, “Spider-Man” was a spectacular mess. The finished version is reasonably improved but somewhat less spectacular.” – Steven Suskin wrote in Variety. The Hollywood Reporter called the show a “bloated monster” while The New York Times branded it “a bore”. Peter Marks for The Washington Post said about the new show – “a definite upgrade” to its previous version, “this effects-driven musical is still situated a wide canyon’s distance from good”. The Associated Press summed up its opinion by saying: “It may not be the best thing in theater, but it is far from the worst show in Broadway history.” Read more Bono And The Edge – Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark – OST (2011)
