Sunday, February 5th, 2006
Sunday Cleaning – Volume 22
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Electric Six / Senor Smoke (Warner Bros)
If anyone knows the guys in Electric Six, and knows for a fact that they’re not kidding, please don’t tell me. I don’t think I can live in a world where someone can sing about “Evil boys eating evil hamburgers/Evil boys eating evil fries” and be dead serious. This E6 is not to be confused with the Elephant 6 collective. They sound like a dance-y KISS (the fact that they are from Detroit Rock City and have lightning bolt letters in their band logo is not to be overlooked) perfecting a set for a Hallowe’en party. Dumb, but fun from a certain point of view. |
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She Wants Revenge / She Wants Revenge (Flawless/Geffen)
Please, God, make it stop. No more fucking monotone disaffected Ian Curtis-aping vocals over stabby trebly guitars and disco beats. No more attacks by the lame-ass, wannabe zombie corpses of 80s British post-punk art-rockers. It ends now. Someone needs to be made an example of, and I nominate these nimrods. No. Fucking. More. This album came out last week – if you happen to encounter it, do not make eye contact or acknowledge it. Just keep walking, and when its back is turned, smash it into little itty bitty pieces. And then burn them. And then nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure. She Wants Revenge are on tour with Electric Six in February, but will not be on the bill this Thursday when the latter plays Lee’s Palace. Electric Six fans, consider yourselves lucky. |
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Crosstide / Life As A Spectator (Slowdance)
I listened very carefully to this record, looking for some angle – any angle – from which to review this record, and came up pretty much empty. It’s not especially good, it’s not especially bad (though if you read the above review, you’ll note that my benchmark for “bad” just sank a few points), it’s just sort of… there. Reasonably melodic and well-executed, the record offers a balanced blend of angsty rockers, dancey numbers, emotional ballads… a little bit of everything. This is a record that if someone asked me what it sounded like, I could say “alternative rock” with a completely straight face and I’d be right. MP3: Crosstide – “Empathy” |
np – Crooked Fingers / Crooked Fingers
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2/5/06 11:02 am
As to your words on She Wants Revenge, I say, "Amen!"
2/5/06 11:57 am
Yeah, add another. She Wants Revenge are awful!
2/5/06 12:35 pm
Did you have evil cereal for breakfast? Or just some irate toast? (I kid!)
2/5/06 2:50 pm
Frank, that is some of the greatest journalism I have ever read!
2/5/06 3:34 pm
I’m with ya on the swr dig. Damn their terrible! They have had a great band open for them receintly called ‘Monsters Are Waiting" in LA. Oh and Frank, a new Chameleons live from the reunion dvd is in the works…….look out.
2/5/06 7:58 pm
*Praying that Cromewaves gets added to Metacritic,* amen.
2/5/06 9:30 pm
seriously.. kill SWR
2/6/06 12:17 pm
I hope Electric Six didn’t handpick She Wants Revenge to open … or maybe the E6 think it’s a joke, as well. The E6 put on a fun show – when I saw them, they looked like a wedding band.
2/6/06 8:34 pm
Frank–any opinion on the new She Wants Revenge CD? And please, be honest about what you think about it. Thanks!
2/8/06 12:05 pm
Frank, while I appreciate your site and it is a daily read for me, I think you are a touch off base in some of your remarks about the She Wants Revenge record.
Quote:"No more fucking monotone disaffected Ian Curtis-aping vocals over stabby trebly guitars and disco beats. No more attacks by the lame-ass, wannabe zombie corpses of 80s British post-punk art-rockers. It ends now."
Well, aside from Interpol, who exactly aped Joy Divison? I don’t actually think anyone really tried to do this until She Wants Revenge. And though the album is derivative for sure, I don’t necessarily see how that makes it a bad record. I understand signing to a Fred Durst label isn’t going to make you popular with the indie kids, but it doesn’t necessarily make them a bad band.
I appreciate your criticism, but I think you should be more critical of the album and less critical of the fashion. While not enamoured of the record, I didn’t find it offensive…and largely you and I see eye to eye on most bands.
2/8/06 1:01 pm
Robert – first, I had no idea that they were on Fred Durst’s label, so that had absolutely no bearing on my review. I had a very visceral response to listening to this record, and it was a very negative one. Interpol may be the most obvious and successful band that’s drawn Joy Division comparisons, but there’s many more lesser known bands trying to cash in on the sound, and maybe it’s just my bad luck to have come across them in my travels, but I’m sick to death of it. My main beef with SWR is that they seem so utterly contrived and calculated, and worst of all, late to the party.