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| Static Releases Reviewed: Twitch, Red September, No Alternative, Jettison Red |
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 Have you checked out
Static Records latest releases? Well, Mitch has and he's reviewed all four of them in a marathon writing session that's left him bleary-eyed and hazy for diggin' ditches in the 105 degree heat. No matter, there's some refreshing coolness to be found on these records. Reviews include releases from:Twitch, No Alternative, Red September and Jettison Red. Get out your reading glasses kids and click "Read More" below.
Band: Twitch
CD: "Long Ride on a Short Bus"
Label: - Static Records
Produced by: Twitch
Recorded by: Roscoe at Roscoe's Recording, Detroit.
Mastered by: Tim Pak at Woodshed Studios.
Since their slogan caused me a convulsive guffaw ( "Remember, weirdos are your best entertainment value!" ), the latest, and unfortunately last "Twitch" release had to be the first thing I listened to from my Static Records "Care Package" (Thanks Sue). The trio of Rob Bullock, Tim Taebel and Scott Lemanski formed in 1990 and twelve years later offer "Long Ride on a Short Bus" as their brilliant swan-song (how come I never find out about these great, quirky bands until they break up? Same thing happened with Fez...).
To stir your aural imagination and get you as close as I can to their sound in words, I offer this:
If I were to describe Twitch as a gourmet meal, they'd be an
entre' of Frank Zappa served on a bed of fresh Primus with a dash of They Might Be Giants. Devo and Soul Coughing on the side, thank you.
This record is a testament to the boundaries of sonic mayhem and sardonic wit.
It's what happens, I imagine, when seasoned pros reach a point where their technique, their neuroses and their smart sense of humor simultaneously evolve beyond what is approachable or comprehensible to corporate radio consumers - which is a delightful, exquisite and acquired taste for indie-snobs like me.
Musically, "Long Ride On A Short Bus" takes more turns than a two-wheeled tricycle. It's weird, unpredictable and well off the trodden path of standard pop or standard anything for that matter (some have
called it avante-garde but I think the phrase lacks humor). The performances are air-tight, aggressive, progressive and venture into small, forgotten spaces where heretofore you might have only found a stray pubic-hair perched in a menacing position (ed note- what
the hell does that mean?).
"Long Ride On A Short Bus" is a "Must Have" for the discriminating listener bored with the standard fare. It's intelligent, self-deprecating and silly but technically and musically rich and satisfying. Too many great moments to mention, but here's a couple that stuck to the noodle:
- from Track 7 - "Sage" captures the folly and hypocrisy of the indie music scene with a nod and a wink.
'Would you just look at those losers they think they're cool / I was cool before cool was cool / I feel good when I say "loser" / of course, I mean it in the nicest way. ' Twitch ©2001
- from Track 6 - "Pasture Eyes" is an ode to the idiom "when the cows come home" or perhaps to the delusion of waiting for your inevitable success. Comes complete with jangling cowbells, of course.
'Nice day for kite flying / stiff breeze just right / I aint got time for that now / no, there's simply no time '
'Cause they're coming home soon / oh yeah, baby this I swear / any minute now / the cows will be here.' . . . Twitch ©2001
I've been walking around all day with the cow chorus ringing in my head. This one's staying in my personal collection (but you can Buy your own copy here). Can't say enough about this bizarre and delightful CD. - Mitch
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 Band - Red September
CD - Wake Up Call
Label - - Static Records
Produced by: Peter Schorn
Recorded by: Roscoe at Roscoe's Recording, Detroit.
Mastered by: Tim Pak at Woodshed Studios.
If you were introduced to local indie rock in the early eighties like I was, you'd remember the new-wave power-pop that emerged in the Detroit area from bands like Rhythm Corps, Toby Redd, The Cadillac Kids, The Look and even The Rockets.
Red September (Peter Schorn, Paul Brown, Frank Greenhalgh) sound like hold-overs from that era in Detroit indie rock that brings back memories of skinny ties, spiky hair, polished patent-leather shoes, parachute pants (that's pre-acid-wash), cotton blazers in pastels and memories of "Jaggers" lounge in Waterford where many, if not all of these bands, played at one time or another.
Well, Jaggers is extinct and, thankfully, so is this particular flavor of Detroit
pop - that is, with the exception of Red September. They are the only local band I've heard in the last few years who remind me of that era so I suppose there's some historical and sentimental value there.
*You'll notice the band's name and the title of this CD hint at living in a post-September 11th world (they come dangerously close to using tragedy as a marketing tool - a prophetic
coincidence I hope?) though there's no direct references to the towers or the
Taliban, thankfully.
Musically, Red September's major-chord, enthusiastic bubble-pop seems ill-equipped to deliver the seriousness of the heady issues they tackle.
But lyrically, the band has delivered on a number of contemporary issues: "Wake Up Call" contains a poignant list of what's wrong with this world including - Gun violence (#1 With a Bullet")
- General apathy and denial ("Graffitti" and "Taken In")
- Religious strife ("My God (Can Beat Up Your God)" )
- Technological hypnosis ("WWW")
- Hyper-sensitivity due to media manipulation and the legislation of morality ("Killjoy")
- Snobbery ("Welcome to the Other Side")
- And even the cultural and financial wreckage left to us by the Baby Boomer generation ("Living in Oblivion").
References to the demise of social values and morality are strewn throughout this disc, but it's the simple truths writer Peter Schorn pens in his lyrics that make you nod with him in agreement.
From "MyGod (Can Beat Up Your God)"
- 'Time and again in modern history / a recurring source of human misery / Has been the inability to accept what's over there. ' .... ' so we found ourselves in foreign lands / with foreign people who didn't understand / that all this suffering was really for their own good.' (Peter Schorn ©2001 Belligerent Music, ASCAP)
From "Killjoy"
'...then a vegan, commie, junkie, movie-star / junkies in from the Left Coast / to bless us will all the knowledge / that she's learned from researching her roles /....'
'Don't eat that / don't drink that / don't smoke that / stop having fun'
(Peter Schorn ©2001 Belligerent Music, ASCAP)
From "Living in Oblivion"
'...We were latch-keyed to a falling star / devoid of dreams and passion / and since we're not to be going far / we indulge in retro-fashion...'
(Peter Schorn ©2001 Belligerent Music, ASCAP)
From "WWW"
'...An endless game of show and tell / I've bookmarked all the URL's / of all the places I've gone and seen / But, what's it all really mean?...'
This CD is a buy for people who long to pull their skinny ties out of the closet and have a healthy argument about why the world's so fucked-up now. Count me in Peter, for old-time's sake. - Mitch
*( According to Sue Static and Peter Schorn, the artwork and title for the CD "Wake-Up Call" were conceived before Sept 11th, but the CD wasn't released until November. According to Sue, the CD was being manufactured at the time of the tragedy. The name "Red September" is over a decade old. Freaky, eh?)
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 Band: No Alternative
CD: "Now or Never"
Label: - Static Records
Produced by: John Smerek and No Alternative
Recorded at:White Room Studios, Detroit.
Mixed at:Rustbelt Studios, Royal Oak
Mastered by: Alan Douches at West Westside Music, New Jersey.
No Alternative is a punk band in the tradition of Green Day (being the most obvious and tedious reference- I'm sure they'll hate me for that.) whose latest release "Now of Never" features 11 tracks of power-pop suitable as a soundtrack to your favorite extreme sport - especially if if that sport be moshing meat-bags front-stage-center at the corner bar.
Sue Static offered No Alternative as the alternative to my fixation with Caulfield, the relative power-pop-punk offering from her competition over at Storm Records in Royal Oak. The bands are very similar and employ most of the same power-pop techniques in their music. For example, they both play at break-neck speed (though I'd give the checkered flag to Caulfield) and both have tracks that feature compound eighth-note triplet drum beats that bash through the beat: No Alternative's "I Wanna Be a Rockstar" off Now or Never and Caulfield's "Sit Behind" off ...sleep tight, ya morons. I would guess that neither band invented the technique but both recognize it's worth to the genre.
The pace and tone of nearly every song on this record (and most power-pop records for that matter) seem to me a bit like "Spin-Art"; no matter how you configure the basic elements of red, yellow and blue paint, what you end up with is a circular blob on a four-by-four inch piece of cardboard that looks pretty cool but not unlike any other spin-art you've seen. Though every song on this disc meets ISO power-pop quality standards (if such a thing existed for the music world), the lack of contrast in key and tempo over a half-dozen tracks can leave you exhausted.
Which may be why I feel the best song and best performance on this disc is the only ska song on the record. "Home Alone Again" (track 8) is a cool take on unrequieted love and lonely nights by the phone. Though the subject matter is hardly original, the delivery is "smooth", the melody "satisfying" and the bass "full of flavor" (I think I need another cigarette).
The only other contrasting piece of music on this disc is
track 9, an instrumental called "Run With The River" which, unfortunately, is little more than an immature chord-lick and bits of musical ideas strung together into a jingle that would have been better left off this release, or at least until it evolved into a actual song that showed their warmer side.
"Tonight" (track 2) is probably the best example of what this band does most; hook you with a pop-friendly melody and a simple refrain that sucks you into singing along by the second chorus.
This record is a buy for people who just can't get enough power-pop and have more energy than your average local indie critic. - Mitch
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Band: Jettison Red
CD: Clear As Day
Label: - Static Records
Produced by: Jettison Red & Roscoe
Recorded at:The Disc in Warren and Roscoe's Recording in Detroit.
Mastered by: Tim Pak at Woodshed Studios.
On "Clear As Day" Jettison Red (Chris Wujek, John Krebs, Carl Yute and Nicky Wawrzyniak) offer an airy brand of alt/pop with soaring vocal harmonies and brisk walking tempos that remind me of early-nineties bands like Soul Asylum, The Soup Dragons or Material Issue (I'm sure there are better examples - Suger maybe? I dunno). But there's something about the first three tracks of this CD ("Did You Call?", "Believe" and "Intro in d" ) that make you want to drive too fast on the freeway, under the influence of some inflated sense of freedom or false sense of purpose that you can get from a musical high.
Though this CD rarely strays from breezy, youthful optimism (e.g."Livin it Like No Tomorrow"), I find the exception to the rule on this record to be the real gem. The bluesy slide work, southern-fried vocal phrasing and lyrical simplicity of track 4, "Birdhouse" stands out like a red-neck roadhouse on a white-collar-wanna-be college campus. You can hear the band get-off and lock-in to the groove unlike some of the more specious rhythms that occur on later tracks like "Jezebel" and "She's a Keeper."
This record's a buy for people who use music like a happy-drug to keep themselves from driving into oncoming traffic. Jettison Red can score you some "Intro in d" if you're that bummed out. Trust me, it'll work.
- Mitch
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Ok, I'm tired now and I'm going to bed. - Mitch
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