Steel City Skies
Steel City Skies EP
[self-released]

by Lounge Lizard

I’d just want to start this review by saying that I have never been a steelcityskies fan. I’ve always thought that they were your average Brit-pop influenced indie band. However, I must add that my impression changed when I saw their swansong gig. Something finally struck a chord.

My partial resistance to the group is due to the fact that Nigel Hogan (ex-Padres) was playing bass for the band. It’s not that I dislike the man. Far from it, Hogan is a top-notch indie guitarist and I love the guy’s playing. However, when I found out he had joined steelcityskies, it was the equivalent to the reactions of hardcore Ride fans finding out Andy Bell had joined Oasis as a bassist. To me, it felt like his talents were unduly wasted. Fer fuck’s sake, this guy was one of Cleo’s Top 50 Most Eligible Bachelors a couple years ago.

‘Stay’ is an old piece that the band has resurrected from “The Green Room Sessions”. Sleeker and sonic denser than the previous version, the chorus carries uplifting vocal harmonies. I must warn that Bhaskar’s vocal styling is an acquired taste. His oh-so-slightly out-of-tune, nasal singing can be extremely grating to some listeners. Or endear itself to others immediately, grabbing them with his intense delivery.

I would have to go with the opening track, ‘Stay With Me’ as my tune of the E.P. The loose-limbed disco rhythms during the chorus, coupled with Bhaskar’s plaintive pleas make a lethal combination. The elusive pop hook. Guitarist Fuzz stamps the piece with his trademark, The Edge-influenced guitar lines. An advocate of non-traditional guitar solos, Fuzz fills the song with stuttering and textured arpeggios, preferring to paint a dark atmosphere than engage in guitar pyrotechnics.

‘DEA’ and ‘This Melody’ repeats the idea of having dark sounds and ominous soundscapes to guide the tunes while the thumping drums anchor both pieces. Though not as memorable as the abovementioned tracks, they still hold their own as compared to the title track ‘Steel City Skies’.

Overall, the E.P.’s a valiant effort by a band that belies much promise.

Burning Water
Live and Lit
[Smashed Hits]

by airhole

Heard of Burning Water? Most people would shake their heads. Michael Landau and Daniel Frazee operate guitars and vocals. Ted Landau’s on bass and Carlos Vega’s on drums. With ace studio sessionists on drums and guitars, one would anticipate a great performance. And one is definitely not disappointed.

Live And Lit is a collection of live performances recorded in between 1992 ~ 1996. It includes a cover version of Hendrix's ‘The Wind Cries Mary’. This band technically operates as a 3 piece band fronted by singer Daniel Frazee.

Daniel has an edgy gruff voice that works well for this genre of music. His low vocals do make him seem very slightly out of tune at times.
Carlos Vego churns out drum grooves like a metronome with feel. His drumming allows Michael Landau to play sparsely, yet never overpowering the singer. Michael Landau’s guitar work is exceptionally phenomenal. The closest Hendrix tone ever and then some! Tasteful rhythm playing and excellent solo leads are the highlight of this album.

Though classified under rock, this 'rock' band tends towards fusion/funk/what-have-you. If the phrase hasn’t been coined before, I’d call it Hendrix Rock.

What disappointed me on the album was the songwriting in the disc. One thing it is not; that is songs with crappy lyrics and cliché ideas. It’s just that the songs are hard to hum to. However, with gradual listening, the songs do grow on you and one might get an idea of the humour in the music.

If you are looking for flat out rock, this might not be your cup of tea. If you dig your rock with jazz nuances and Hendrix-y solos, look no further.

My Favorite
The Happiest Days Of Our Lives
[Double Agent]

by B Boy

Nearly a decade ago, i subscribed fervently to the collective teenage illusion all over the world that i alone (ok, and another couple of my fellow angst-ridden brothers, strangely no sisters) listened to music like the cure, the smiths and new order and that their coupling of bittersweet melody and endless self-introspection was the only thing keeping me from going insane with juvenile yearning, yet at the same time imbuing me with a tragically romantic air unfortunately detectable only to myself.

This sophomore LP, a collection of EPs plus some new songs from Brooklyn group, my favorite, summons those years of teenage fatalism as suddenly as the occasional listen to the queen is dead. unashamedly lifting the best of my adolescence, the happiest days is packed with nostalgic reminders of those not-so-halcyon days.

Homeless club kids opens with synths off new order’s 1963 and ends with the deliciously romantic lyric, ‘the ghosts of dead teenagers sing to me while i am dancing/they're sad and young, and they'll be sad and young forever’ over a distinctively peter hook   coda. principal songwriter michael grace jr. sings on the suburbs are killing us, obviously having studied under the sumnerschool of school of deadpan vocal emoting,  all the while supported by guitars and processed strings straight from johnny marr. and i’m sure i’m not the only morrissey geek to get a cheap thrill from the sly inclusion of ‘back to the old house’ in the lyrics. other highlights include burning hearts, an epic story of lovers in the hiroshima blast, l=p, with its disintegration-era feel and what is perhaps the line that best describes the teenage state of mind, ‘loneliness is pornography to them/ but to us it is an art’.

Despite all the moping and angst, the sweet optimism of the music is never far away, this is brought into sharp relief near the end of the title track, ‘your darkness is brighter than all the lights in the disco tonight/ your darkness is brighter, you are inevitable!’

For all the self-loathing and solitary meandering that defined my teenage years, in retrospect, discovering the exquisite hurt of the music really made some of those days the happiest of my life. its probably appropriate that a Romantic poet like Percy Bysshe Shelley will say it best; as included in the liner notes of a cure album:

‘we look before and after, and pine for what is not;

our sincerest laughter with some pain is fraught;

our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought…’