So this is really confusing -- two CDs from Quebec, both consisting of short avant-garde pieces, both in this really strange cardboard packaging (apparently the Opak box -- imagine if a jewel box was made of cardboard and opened like a matchbox and you're getting there), but different labels. But the same street address. Odd. I guess I should have kept the press kit.
Of the two, I think I prefer the Ambiances Magnétiques collection. Focused on composers and performers, it gives you an opportunity to sample the works of nine different Quebec composers, working in different idioms (from jazz-ish to classical to turntablism). It doesn't all make sense to me, but it's intriguing and varied, kind of like listening to a good avant-garde radio show.
The Miniatures Concrètes, meanwhile, is a collection of short musique concrète pieces. If you have no idea what that means -- well, basically, it's all assemblage and processing of found sounds, with the results typically sounding like somebody threw 100 source tapes in a blender and spliced them together arbitrarily. For those looking for sounds to expand their ears, this is a good place to find it. For those whose ears have already been expanded, there may not be a whole lot of new ground covered here. Which is not so much a criticism of the artists as of the genre; for me, musique concrète is kind of a dead-end genre after a while, for reasons that I don't feel like getting into here, since 99% of you won't care and 1% will virulently disagree and never be convinced otherwise.
Regardless, both of these records are interesting pieces of work, and worth taking a listen to if you get the chance. (DD)
(Distribution Ambiances Magnétiques Etcetera/Empreintes Digitales -- 4580, avenue de Lorimier, Montréal, QUEBEC, H2H 2B5, CANADA; http://www.actuellecd.com/index_e.html)

Various Artists
Commercial Ad Hoc

Oh, boy. Lots of naughty people transgressing copyright law by -- are you ready for this? -- sampling commercials! And making electronic music with it! Beats! Bloops! Annoying drones! "Wacky" samples! Static! Yawn. Reminds me of all the excitement of watching and listening to commercials for 75 minutes, only more pretentious. Next? (DD)
(Seeland/Cha-Bashira/Illegal Art -- P.O. Box 103, Hanover, NH. 03755-0103; http://www.detritus.net/illegalart/)

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Various Artists
The Moment of Truth: The Emo Diaries, Chapter Three

Another record I've had sitting around so long that I've moved three times since Jeremy sent it to me, although I don't have the raging indifference to it that I do to Smallmouth -- I just have nothing interesting to say. I imagine if you're reading this, you have some idea of what emo is. If you want to familiarize yourself with vaguely contemporary trends in this genre, well, this is as good a place as any, as many of the luminaries of the genre are represented and turn in strong entries. You may be shocked, however, to discover just how narrow the genre really is. But if you like emo, this is probably like eating gourmet triple chocolate cake with Haagen-Dazs chocolate chocolate chip ice cream on top, covered with hot fudge sauce and chocolate sprinkles. I leave it to the reader to determine if that's a good thing. (DD)
(Deep Elm Records -- P.O. Box 36939, Charlotte, NC 28236; http://www.deepelm.com/)

Various Artists
Nordic Roots 2

22 tracks of 22 contemporary Nordic artists playing roots-based music (keeping in mind that Swedish or Dutch roots music is a lot different than ours). Lots of fiddles, some accordion, lots of singers singing in languages you'll never comprehend, and the occasional curve ball (like electronica backing or Irish influences) to keep things interesting. But, hey, there's a ka-jillion world music comps out there, so why pick up this one? Simple: as the sticker says on the cover, "Cheaper than food!" Hell, with a list price of $2.99, it's even cheaper than my meals at Taco Bell (damn Mexican Pizza -- raise the price AND remove the olives? Bastards...). Heck, you might even find something you like. I certainly found plenty; I'd recommend it at full price to all except those with an intense loathing to that European fiddle-based music that is so prevalent here. The rest of you may dance a merry jig at your leisure. (DD)
(Northside Records -- 530 North Third Street, Suite 230, Minneapolis, MN. 55401; http://www.noside.com/)

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Various Artists
An Ocean of Doubt: The Emo Diaries, Chapter Four

All bullshit aside, there isn't one thing that I've heard from Deep Elm that I didn't like, and their Emo Diaries compilation series is right at the top of the heap. It's an accomplishment to put out one comp disc that is well-rounded and cohesive, let alone a whole series of them. Ocean Of Doubt lives up to the same standards that Deep Elm had set forth with the other chapters; I might even say that this is my favorite (it's damned hard to choose, though). You don't even have to worry about skipping over the tracks you don't like (a huge problem with comps as of late), because this thing is great from start to finish, and never goes stale or gets too homogenous (a huge problem with emo in general as of late). It's a deluge of shimmering noise, raw emotion, infectious melody, and just plain high-quality stuff the likes of which I've come to expect from Deep Elm. I'm gonna wear this one out, blasting it during those still, lazy summer afternoons, guzzling iced tea and waiting for the next chapter to come out. (And any band named Flux Capacitor is immediately in my cool book.) (MHo)
(Deep Elm Records -- P.O. Box 36939, Charlotte, NC 28236; http://www.deepelm.com/)

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Various Artists
Please Rewind and Play Again, Volume IV

You'd hardly suspect Texas of having a burgeoning electronic scene, but there it is, sitting just under the surface and well below the radar of almost any media you can name. I can't claim that it's all wonderful, but it definitely deserves to be heard, and kudos to Jason Whitmire's Austin-based WE Records for giving these folks (and little-heard folks from elsewhere) a forum in their Please Rewind and Play Again series.
I'm proud, by the way, to be able to point out that at least four of the top tracks on here are by Houston-area artists: Magic Firesheep, in particular, turn in an amazing, almost New Age-y session on the surprisingly symphonic, uplifting "Iceberg"; djmmj?, the latest pseudonym of Colin Travis, aka dj alone, throws in a decent track, "Where Did I Go??," that almost lives up to the confusion of its name with its off-center sound (are those noises sampled from an old Atari game, by the way?); wES wALLACE, about whom I know not a damn thing, makes things odd and spooky on "The Dreamlight," which is nicely-done, if a little long; and the ever-entertaining Population Zero closes the album with the similarly-titled "Nightlight," one of the most well-put-together pieces on here -- it really just flows the way it's supposed to.
Of course, as I intimated above, these folks aren't all from Houston -- to name a couple other high points, Maryland's Arthur Loves Plastic contributes "Carry You Away," which reminds me strongly of the better moments of Underworld's Beacoup Fish (a compliment, I can assure you), and Ft. Worth's Initialization String creeps in with "Watchful Eyes (breakbeat mix)," a decently dark, atmospheric track with a driving breakbeat that manages to not feel like a dentist's drill after six minutes. Good stuff.
On the downside, well...I'm not going to slam anybody here; that'd be pretty damn counter-productive, now, wouldn't it? The fact is that this is all fairly good, if not ground-breaking, and even the tracks I didn't mention above are well worth a listen. Nothing on Volume IV jumped out and screamed "never, ever, EVER listen to me again!," and that's something that seems to happen on almost every comp I receive, of one kind or another. Overall, this is a decent showcase of some highly underrated artists, and definitely worth the hard-earned cash if you're a fan of this sort of thing. (JH)
(WE Records -- P.O. Box 684721, Austin, TX. 78768-4721; http://www.werecords.com/)

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Various Artists
Punk Rock Strike

First impression: okay, another good-cause comp full of loads of SoCal punk & ska bands, gotta be. Heck, it's even sponsored by Hurley, the surfgear people, and judging from the soundtracks of most of the surf videos I've seen, it's a safe bet that this is pretty predictable fare. You'll probably buy it, feel good about yourself for a few days, listen to it once, and then it'll gather dust on the shelf for the next few years, right? Well, not quite. The track listing of this double CD does list a fair number of straight-ahead ska, punk, and ska-punk bands -- Reel Big Fish, Bad Religion, MXPX, Goldfinger, and about a half-dozen more -- but it also throws in some surprises. Hepcat? Well, okay, I can see that one fitting in...but The Rentals? David Holmes and Thievery Corporation? The Jealous Sound? Ozomatli as remixed by Peanut Butter Wolf, for crying out loud?
Basically, this is the most mixed-est bag of mixed-bag comps I've ever even heard of. It runs the gamut of popular music, from the radio-friendly, wannabe-Pearl Jam pop of The Surfers, with "Ghost," to fucked-up scratching-and-samples workouts like DJ Z-Trip's "Sound and Motion" (which tickles my sci-fi geek fancy by sampling Dune pretty heavy), to full-on emotive rock like Midtown on "Just Rock and Roll," all the way to the beautiful lovers' rock-style rocksteady cut contributed by Hepcat, a live version of "Positive." You want it, it's here. Now, all that said, there's not a whole lot of new stuff on here -- I know the Weston and Less Than Jake songs are straight off those bands' latest albums, and suspect that's the case for a number of these. On top of that, several others are simply remixes or live versions of old stuff. That's not necessarily bad, mind you, as demonstrated by the damn fine "Richard Fearless Remix" of David Holmes' "Gritty Shaker", which takes one of the best tracks on his Let's Get Killed disc and both highlights the propulsive rhythms and makes things less urban and more airy.
I won't run through the whole 2-CD set, but let's hit a few of the higher points... The Ozomatli remix by Peanut Butter Wolf (of "Super Bowl Sundae") is pretty good, if not ground-breaking, and the same goes for most of the other hip-hop stuff on here, including Styles of Beyond (think a Western-ized Wu-Tang) and Ugly Duckling. The Ernies are one of the few of those that switch gears, mixing up some thrash and funk on their "Here & Now (Rock Remix)," and coming out sounding something like 311 if they had any actual talent and didn't keep interrupting the flow of the damn song with their rhymes. There's plenty of ska, naturally, the standouts being the aforementioned Hepcat song, Reel Big Fish's reinvention of one of my personal favorite guilty pleasures from the '80s, Lita Ford's "Kiss Me Deadly," and Pilfers' crunching, ska-rock (love those toaster vocals...).
The inclusion of the more electronic stuff makes me shake my head a bit, but I applaud the folks who put the CD together for being brave enough to think that kids who rock out to Bad Religion and Blink 182 (who do a live version of "Dammit" on here that actually makes me like the song, believe it or not) might just enjoy some Thievery Corporation, too. Thievery Corp.'s "Indra" is one of my faves here, by the way, partly 'cause I'm a sucker for soundtrack-y music and it definitely qualifies, making me envision scenes from some sexy, sinister spy movie (if that spy movie were set in India, at any rate).
The Rentals put in a cool appearance with "Simple Life," which surprised me by being not very electronic and sounding more like Papas Fritas than anything, and I found myself enjoying Paul and Laura's "Picturella," as well, a little bit of girl-group pop gone awry and all staccato. Less Than Jake prove once again why they're my favorite ska-punk band in the whole wide world, and the Dance Hall Crashers' "The Real You" is pretty cool, as well...
In the end, I find myself looking at The Solution like this: Heal the Bay are a very deserving group of folks looking to protect one of California's and the country's greatest resources (i.e., the water). Ordinarily, that'd be enough to make me want to get this, probably, regardless of who contributed what song to the project (well, okay, I'd draw the line at Britney Spears or Shania Twain, but I'm selfish like that), but this comp pushes me way, way beyond that. I'd buy this even if I didn't give a damn about the California coast, and I think that says something about the quality of the music showcased here. (JH)
(MOJO Records/Universal Records -- 1453 14th Street Box 284, Santa Monica, CA. 90404; http://www.mojorecords.com/)

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Various Artists
Stop, Drop & Roll!

I'm always amazed at how you can give twelve bands three chords (or two, or one) and you'll get twelve different songs played in twelve different ways. Seedenstem's Stop, Drop & Roll!, which compiles twelve different Houston-area bands, is no exception. This record has a little for everybody (if you assume that everybody likes hardcore punk, that is).
If you want some straight hardcore, check out Humungus, in particular "Freedom does not exist," which makes for an interesting piece of hardcore musing, sounding like Ian MacKaye after a few too many (coffees, anyway). The Spoilers do more of a Nomeansno-type thing and it works very well. "Destruction vs. Waste" mines intelligence from anti-intellectualism, or manages to be thoughtful without being intelligent, or something. But I liked it.
If you don't care about all that, you just want to rock, there's plenty of that. The Walking Timebombs in particular have this nasty grinding metal thing going with synth keyboards that sounds like the soundtrack to a bad horror movie. They're so completely over the top I couldn't decide whether I liked them or not, but I don't think the choice is mine to make.
Waster Pro stretches one riff for all of "Chinatown" and I'd swear they used the same one for "Thrown to the Wolves," too, but it doesn't matter cause they rock very heavily, sort of like the rhythm section J Mascis always wanted to be (and, in fact, was).
But the one everybody should check out is "Vidor," by Hundred. Hundred is the most distinctive band on the CD, partly because they fall somewhere between rap and rock, but also because they've got the best song. "Vidor" really cleans up; Hundred sounds sort of like an inadvertently socially-conscious Beastie Boys trying to rhyme about their hometown, if their hometown had been a little backwards town in Texas. "Vidor" is a nice piece of old-school-sounding rap-rock -- very minimal, very loud, very hilarious. I like bands that sound like they enjoy playing music, and I'm really a sucker when they try to say something, but Hundred really pull it off. Clever and biting and smart -- what more do you want? If they were your younger brother, you'd be hoping they'd be big. I'd like to MP3 it for everyone. (HM)
(Seedenstem Records)

Versus
Hurrah

It's the curse of indie-rock. One of the (many) reasons bands like Versus haven't ever made it super-huge is because of the current trend of anti-intellectualism running rampant through American consumer culture. Think about it: when was the last time you watched a genuinely smart TV show, one that didn't play to the lowest common denominator? Chances are you were watching The X-Files, The Simpsons, or maybe a cop drama or something British. America wants dumb -- at least, that's what the entertainment industry seems to think, and since we're all sheep to some degree, we say "sure, why not? Stupid's funny, too." And no, I'm not just trying to knock shows like The Real World or Jerry Springer (my two favorite benchmarks of cultural decline), 'cause I figure heck, like whatever you want; it's not up to me to dictate.
The sad thing about this, though, is that a lot of stuff gets ignored because it's just too damn intelligent. Why should Warner Bros. spend all their dough to promote a band that's good, but that they figure are too witty for a full half of the population to "get"? Ergo, indie-rock is forced underground. And that's where bands like Versus have been for the entirety of their careers -- they'll never sell out arenas in Milan or L.A., 'cause they're not that kind of band. The songs are catchy as hell, but you can't raise a lighter in the air and bob your head along mindlessly. The band's too smart for that.
As evidence, I'll throw the pop-culture referencing on Hurrah into the ring. This sort of thing usually really gets my goat (i.e., singer/songwriter/whatever-she-is Poe referring to Keyser Soze in a song...ick), but Versus do it so subtly that I almost missed it. Sure, opener "My Adidas" is a coolly syncopated, sweet pop/rock tune about the Heaven's Gate cult, but it'd still make sense even if you'd been pinned under a rock for the last fifty years, with no exposure to any kind of media. Same deal with the utterly rocking "I Love the WB," the lyrics of which I can't peg in any way to the home of Dawson's Creek, et al., but which I'm certain must figure in somehow. They're too damn clever for me on that one, I guess. Take one of the lyrics to "Mermaid Legs," the album's final track, as another example: "about as subtle as a motor home/you should know when to leave her alone." Yeesh. If that's not a damn perfect line, I don't know what is.
Of course, it doesn't mean a thing if the music sucks, but Hurrah matches and even surpasses the lyrics. Some of the good stuff on here: "Eskimo On Fire" is a jangly, bizarre pop song, half real drums and half electronic, that brings to mind a slowed-down rendition of the Poster Children's "Junior Citizen"; "Said Too Much" is finely-crafted indie-rock, firmly in the Superchunk vein; "Walkabout" is a low-key pop song that vaguely makes me think 'new wave,' for some odd reason; and "Frederick's of Hollywood," one of my personal highlights, is a frenzied, paranoiac Sonic Youth-style rock blast. The conclusion here? Don't believe the hype -- rock doesn't have to be stupid, and I, for one, am thankful for it. (JH)
(Merge Records -- P.O. Box 1235, Chapel Hill, NC. 27514; http://www.mrg2000.com/)