The Libertines 2nd Album Preview

The Libertines second album release Exclusive Sneak Preview CD Review 14 tracks (August 2004 release date) Pete, Carl, band brilliance

There’s something about the ability to create music that is emotional, big, hard, stripped down, not too dressed up but definitely dressed for an outing, while at the same time, enormous in delivery. To call The Libertines just a rock band, just a bunch of kids, just another sound in the new resurgence of 60s rock and 70s punk, would be equivalent to witnessing a tsunami and calling it another day the beach. The influences of many are heard within the latest Libs release, but there is a unique desperation in their music that stands apart. I would have to say the most appealing thing about all Libertines music is inside pain that manifests such beauty, as much will, there is never an indication of insincere sentimentality. No hidden agendas. Poets, artists, edge-walkers, harnessed rage, tumultuous energy infinitum. The Libertines, they can rock you into frenzy and then pull you into a Mexico sand bar sunset, lamentations of lost love or love on the verge. Then without a thought, back to the beat driven riffs, shock into the grit of naked bulb reality. Yes, you’re back, but you’re different. Anyone inclined to classify The Libertines with the phrase of just another anything need go no further than this CD for a new set of values. This latest creation is nothing short of witnessing a birth, one that will change the expectations of bands to follow. And so I take a slight departure to review not all, but most, of the tracks on The Libertines self titled second release.

The Libertines Can’t Stand Me Now
“If you wanna try, if you wanna try…there’s no worse you could do.” They start with a wonderful loss of love song; some head bobbing beats, harmonicas, vocals that send a little tingle. A voice that always makes think of the inherent heartache in sending away the very sweet thing that is so soft, yet dangerous enough in flirty innocence to be forever forgiven. 

The Libertines Don’t Be Shy
The Kinks all over the place. What a wonderful track. Playful harmonies, almost Beatles harmony on top of it, reminiscent of Rubber Soul sounds. Some raw jiggly riffs that make you want to shake your ass enough to forget that you might be shy.

The Libertines To The Man Who Would Be King
“I’ve been told if you want to make it in this game, gotta have the luck, you gotta have the look… I’d quite like to make it through the night.” Some great blues influence that is not what you’re used to hearing, but my god they pull it off and play it like it was always theirs. “I lived my dreams today. I lived it yesterday. I’ll be livin’ yours tomorrow, so don’t look at me that way.” Some great Clash screams out of nowhere, a little la-la-la-la chorus sing-along, whistles, turn tail breeze for the transitional end, leave you stool seated, the end of a smoke-filled 4am bar, freeform jazz jam sessions swirl with the dreamy smoke rings. Stoned reflection of the lonely, the wayward, the destitute romantics. Transitions like this, well, you don’t find them often. And as is obvious throughout this latest release, The Libertines have created a new signature sound.

The Libertines Music When the Lights Go Out
A beauty, and a stunning track to compliment To The Man Who Would Be King. This is the most touching song I’ve heard in a long while. A heartbreaker, that late night realization while staring at your lover sleeping quietly against indifference—the one you’ve staked your heart on is over. Enough.... The guitar weeps through the song. “Is it cruel or kind not to speak my mind and to lie to you, rather than hurt you? Well, I’ll confess of all my sins after several large gins… oh won’t you please forgive me? I no longer hear the music.”

Then onto a little bit of rocking blues again….

The Libertines Narcissist
Clapping juke joint, cheap gin and cheaper sex. Whistling solos, happy upbeat tempo, you wanna get up and dance, while the lyrics add cynicism enough to merit the title. “You’re going to be so old. You’re going to grow so old. Your skin’s so cold.”

And so we roll seamlessly into…

The Libertines The Ha-Ha Wall
Some of the best lyrics I’ve ever heard. “If you get tired of just hanging around, pick up a guitar and spin a web of sound. And then you could be stronger all day with lovers and clowns. Now I find myself hanging around. It’s been a long wall. We’re so tired and dirty, still, am I dirty enough for you?” Spectacular transitional guitar work midway pulls you through the winding clocks of waiting, watching it all blow by. More screams unleashed in a good Clash “ee-hallaaa!” You must listen to this track for the guitar transitions alone. To me, this song would be indicative of the new signature sound that will mark them unmistakably Libertines.

The Libertines Arbeit Macht Frei
All I can say here is one giant bar fight. Yeah it’s the Clash influence, but it’s The Libs too, and they’ve got broken bottles. They win…two minutes flat.

The Libertines Campaign Of Hate
Something stark, something simple, something lovely. The swinging guitar riffs, I can see bending metal, intricate stret work and transition into a bluesy chorus. End the song with a speeding tempo, “There’s a campaign of hate waiting at the school gate.” Spiral to an end in as much of a spin out as the problem it attacks.

The Libertines What Katie Did
“Shoop shoop, shoop de lang de lang.” Yep, The Libertines sing about polka dots. Be not afraid if you are on the rocking side of the Libs—this song is a wonderful mix of cabaret doo-wop, down to a little love harmonies, song chimes, a happy sun day, my love… you can almost laugh with this one, tongue in cheek lyrics as it goes on in all its wonderful jaded innocence. “Safety pins are none too strong Katie, they hold my life together, and I never say never….”

The Libertines Tomblands
Okay this guitar work is truly amazing…. It’s all over the place in fret work, fast but not showy, and damned if it doesn’t just come at your front, then as you feel it go, it’s already behind you. Put on some headphones and get ready for this one. Again just two minutes, but you’ll safely find a home.

The Libertines Road to Ruin
This starts Clash… all of a sudden I’m hearing Jack White… then I’m inside Von Bondies… now we’re visiting the Doors…. then we’re back to Clash; but it’s all visitors inside The Libertines haven. I’ve said it over and over, but this guitar work doesn’t stop in its impressive intricacy. A whistling solo—it works, one of many touches you’ll find dazzled about the entire CD, little gems you don’t expect and love for the surprise. This is such 60s rock: even some light moog style keyboards in the background that round out the song to a pipe organ gothic finish reminiscent of House of the Rising Sun. I don’t know... it seems anything is possible on this CD as I am into the 13th track. I love it and welcome all twists. This auditory trip has taught me that I will not get what I expect, except that what I will get is better than I could imagine.

Of course, let us never forget endings….

The Libertines Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads
A choice, a reconciliation of nows and thens, this is a great ending track, one too beautiful to write. Just sit back feel this song, don’t think it, and you’ll experience the whispers of actual pain. I feel like you can’t even sing this song too strongly or it would fall apart; the resigning dialog of trying to find a nook inside an ocean. “What became of the dreams we had? What became of forever? We’ll never know.”

As I end this CD, I’m thinking that it’s nice to hear musicians get together and just make music. A seemingly obvious goal, but many times an album can feel less like musicians making music and more about production that cleans house so well, it’s almost lonely when you get home. This CD is a seedling mix of brilliance that grows exponentially within each listen. And like any wild thing that grows, it’s always less tame than the rest for the wilderness, but it knows itself enough to allow the growth to happen. After discussing this with other members of OZ Beat, I have to agree that this album feels as though it were created and executed as if it were the last. I can only say I hope it is not. Within these sounds—so emotionally raw, lyrically poetic, unforgiving in observations, the entire album sings of forgiveness and unconditional understanding—it achieves its own transcendence. I find myself feeling that this album was necessary, and I don’t mean in the sense that people claim music to be necessary, as it is oftentimes used to define music of an era. No. I mean necessary for the sheer expression, necessary as is a heart to find the thing that kills, and also to become the thing that finally releases. Dare I even call it a concept album? The more I go through this, the more it feels like it is. I am driven to listen repeatedly for the experience it conveys.

I would surmise anyone who picks up this CD for its August 2004 release date will find it hard to simply skip tracks and pick a favorite. Pick one, pick another and realize this album doesn’t beg for the listen, it simply becomes what it was meant to be, and we are merely here to play witness. As to The Libertines, I can only reference Up The Bracket as I cherish this latest release: “But if you’ve lost your faith in love and music, the end won’t be long. Because if it’s gone for you, I too may lose it and that would be wrong…. There were no good old days. These are the good old days.” I thank you for that sentiment.

In the heat of rumored endings, let us also never forget the importance of beginnings and now. This is about the best we’ll hear in 2004, possibly years beyond, and one can only hope it will stand as the transition piece of a band that fills its own void with the music that so obviously permeates their very being as they move forward in this new direction. I would say after a few listens straight through, play the first track, Can’t Stand Me Now, and then the last track, Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads, right up against each other. These two songs, at least for me, encompass a complete love song to The Libertines themselves. Lending to the inherent circular motion of this album, another reason I can’t stop playing it—in its ending, it’s just beginning.

With that, I feel another listen coming on as well as a heartfelt thank you to The Libertines for allowing this simply to be.
--Becky

Scissor Sisters

Not my favorite concert of the year--Muse and TCTC still rank one and two. But, this was the best live stage performance that I have seen in a lot of years. I've been hanging on to the belief that The Butthole Surfers were the best live show around since the early 80's (and I think they were). They have been de-throned. Scissor Sisters is the hardest working band in music today. I had heard about three songs and was interested in seeing the show. I bought tickets the day they went on sale in Chicago--mostly because I knew from the tracks that I had heard that my boyfriend would love them. They had just come off two previous dates (Detroit and Cleveland) where they had only drawn 15 people. Chicago didn't sell them out but probably had a good 400 show up in support (and many who had ordered the music via UK and really knew them -- unlike me). They were so thrilled at the size of the crowd. All their current hype is UK (but they did make US network television the last two days).

So a few hours later (after the show), Scissor Sisters are my favorite new band of the year they have been around for awhile, but they broke this year). I expected the disco-influenced sounds to bore me right away. Talk about misreading this band. The music, the musicians, the stage show, the lyrics, the versatility is beyond what anyone can really expect from a band in this most modern age.

A nearly two-hour show without a single weak moment or song. Jake is everything I want in a rock star. And his counterpart (Anna?) is so fucking hot, talented, and the perfect partner for their brilliant performance in front of a band that is as complete and tight and as exciting as any band I have seen since the early Strokes days. Watching Jake and his female counterpart—in sync at every second of the show, complimenting each others perfomances from start to finish—and I have to mention again—the sex, the sex in both appeal, eroticism and intimacy between them makes the show hypnotizing. This gorgeous (truly beautiful) man and this curvy woman that takes you back to the days (1950's and 1960's) when sex appeal was hips and tits and asses—in great proportion (Marilyn, Jayne, Mamie) is perhaps retro—but in the here and now—it is goddamn groundbreaking.

Universal Records has just signed the band and the US release is scheduled for July 27. I ordered it out of UK tonight and then downloaded it (after hours of figuring this I-music crap from those nasty Mac people). Substances added to much of what they did tonight--but 4 hours after the show (substances wearing off) I just keep cranking it. The last time I had a CD on random for this long was actually vinyl, after people would be crashing at my place for about a week (early 80's) and I wanted to get them out, I put on Buzzcocks and told everyone in my space that it was the only thing I wanted to hear over and over and over. In time, the crowd did thin.

Scissor Sisters has been presented as somewhat of a novelty act. They have the glitz, the glimmer and the glam--but they will knock you out with the substance. I can name at least 40-50 1970-1980 influences that they very openly cop from. But, every moment is completely their own. I never expected to leave this show loving their music so much. I hate disco, not a big Leo Sayer fan, Elton (liked the first three albums), Sylvester (well, I worshipped him) but the whole dance/disco 1970's bored me so much that I ended up a punk rocker (after glam had run its course) owning and running a punk club--the most legendary Chicago punk club—OZ.

So Scissor Sisters are the about polar opposites to what I was listening to or playing in my club. And pretty different from anything I have listened to since the 70's (and then it was usually because I was in a club playing disco crap) Yes, to me, Scissor Sisters have all the dreaded 1970 and 80's influences and more, and they fucking own it. And they present it in a way that is everything that it should have been 30 years ago. If Scissor Sisters had founded disco--it would have been such a different trip instead of the awful 128 bpms that it became (or pretty much always was).

There is not another band today doing what this band does. Since disco and techno took over every queer club's musical focus--there has been a real lack of innovative bands seeking to get gay bar play. SS are going for it. Scissor Sisters may, at last, get queers to return to the indie scene where they have fucking always belonged. New music, in terms of the US, still gets broken in the queer clubs. What a shame because gay clubs were once the trendsetters giving us Bowie, T. Rex, Jobriath, Wayne County, etc (and it was the only place to hear it). Unfortunately, they quickly buckled under to the Gloria Gaynor and any bitch with a syth and doing the beats per minute--only to turn it in to techno and live there for the last eternity. Queer club music has been basically stagnant since 1976--they can change the name--techno, bass and drums, etc--but Christ, it is just more shitty disco crap.

Scissor Sisters is going to force gay dance bars to reconsider some of their music. The crowd tonight was overwhelmingly hetero--but this bands target is obvious--people wanting to dance their ass off, enjoy some of the best retro, original music that is a soundtrack of some of our lives (even if we didn't really like the soundtrack the first time around).

This band is about some substances, tons of sex, recreating Warholian street people living and surviving in NYC. And doing it with fucking style. The trannies, the hos, the gender benders, the back seat blow jobs, the pretty boys, the country boys getting off the Greyhound, the totality of lower east side Manhattan in 1974 (and hopefully, a solid piece of that still exists there).

Instead of presenting it like Andy (Paul Morrissey did in Trash), Scissor Sisters present it like a big budget Broadway production. The show itself is so spectacular that I can't wait to see them in the bigger rooms, with a budget and creating a magical fantasyland for everybody (as they have done so well in their videos).

I'll shut up now. I fell in love with this band so unexpectedly. The music is fucking overpowering. Jake's voice is as brilliant to me as Jobriath, T. Roth, Marc Bolan. He can dance like a diva and break your heart with a song. The sexiest man I have seen on stage in so long—probably since T. Roth, Marc Bolin and Jobriath. Gay or straight, man or woman—try getting your eyes off this beautiful, talented, and totally-committed-to-entertaining-in-any-way-possible-on-stage, individual. And when the senses are overwhelmed—watch his female counterpart who is every bit as awesome. You can download the CD now for $9.99 through their web site which takes you to I-music (some horrible Mac crap with tons of sign ups and no part of anything making any sense.) But worth it—I needed the music now—and I did figure it all out in about 2 hours. Once I knew how to get it, it downloaded in about 10 minutes and burned really nice.

MAIN POINT: Chicago was the third stop on the Us tour--they have a lot of dates coming up. To miss this band at this stage in their development while they are working hard for their rep would really be a loss. This IS the tour that you want to see this band--because the next one is going to be hi-tech, flashy, and much larger rooms. This is seeing a band as they prepare to conquer. It is the warm-up for what will be all over MTV and in arenas--if there is any justice in the industry. Yeah, I hate MTV and all that shite but I want this band to conquer the tried, boring and true corporate controlled video channels. Seeing this band anywhere will pull people away from the belief that what is out there is obvious. If they see this band—maybe they will start to wonder and do a little work about finding other bands they like—instead of waiting for it to flow through Clear Channels. Scissor Sisters has the potential (like none out there right now) to reintroduce a stagnant music crowd to the value, diversity and the fucking reality--if you want good music, go fucking find it. Because the gay bar down the street has no interest in playing anything but what is popular--and that simply goes for the straight pubs too.

The band is taking the time to really relate to the crowds and they are amazingly generous in a comfortable shared conversation that never detracts from the stage show. This kind of band-audience intimacy happens so rarely, and really requires a club of certain size. These kids are giving of themselves in every way you could ask an artist to give. They will be known as the hardest working band in the biz, because from what I saw tonight, there is not a band that comes close for delivering the spectacle. This is the most fun show I have seen in years—but the substance of what they do will at times bring you to tears. Fun serious gay straight disco Sylvester Elton Bee Gees (as they may have imagined themselves) Broadway, sad songs occasionally (but always with the warning, "now, don't get too sad") and Jake going from falsetto to the wide eyed innocent with a voice of power and deepness and commitment and so quickly being able to bring you up to a whole new intensity. This band has the potential to slam down the doors of all types of clubs that keep feeding us crap music. Maybe the Strokes opened the door, but this band could really change the dynamic. JUST DON'T MISS THIS BAND. I guarantee it will rank among your best shows of the year.
--Dem

Magnus CD review in The Big Takeover

Magnus Sleepwalker
(on Nefarious Records)

One goes through a thoroughly depressing pile of 46 CDs by unknown artists utterly bereft of advanced talent and imagination, calling "Next!," hoping against hope there might be one like this hidden there. Wherefore art though, Cinderella trying to get noticed behind her wretched stepmom/sisters? But at last, here she is, not too late for the ball!

What they remind of is early 1990s (i.e. comeback) Comsat Angels, with some Adam and Eve Catherine Wheel too. It's that marvelous swirling guitar edge, bonded to hard pop tunes that slowly but forcefully unfold and then implode, the pensive touches (love the trumpets and bits of piano, like on "Drinking With Baron," and the feeding back cello on "Awake"), the clear and clear-eyed singing, the long languid passages that give way to building storms, and riffs that catch you from first play. Excellent!

This Chicago group won't fall in line with prevailing indie rock elements, putting up a false intensity. They just let the delighting, surprising turns in their tightly-written and executed music speak volumes. I can't remember the last time I heard such inventive guitar passages from an American band that doesn't ape Neil Young, yet seems like they might have heard Brian Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets or Radiohead's Ok Computer along the way, and understood the dynamic trichotomies of beauty, brain, and aggression inherent in both. I know next to nothing about Stephen and David Wade, George Patrick, or Scott Schaafsma (and Simon Hunt) other than that they had a 2002 debut EP I really need to get. But after playing their LP so much, I might write them a fan letter (and see if the slipper fits).

With music of this striking power right under our noses, the rest of America rock and its overwhelming mediocrity just lost its excuse.
--Jack Rabid

links:
http://www.magnusmusic.net
http://www.nefariousrecords.com

Busted at OZ: Effigies, Raygun, DOA, Strike Under, Silver Abuse

Check out http://www.ozbeatmusic.com for the latest on this one. Tracks will be uploaded in the future, but you've gotta sign upi for this one. Other great bands on the site, links, music news, early concert warnings, and archived reviews as well.

The Fuse

Saw this west coast hard-core band at the Empty Bottle. The place was empty because International Pop Overthrow is in town. The band's CD is very good and the live show even better. Makes me want to revisit the CD. But, the standout of the night was the drummer. He sat so high above the kit that you could see him from knees--up. The cymbols were so high up that he could just reach them -- or when needed--stand up and bash the fuck out of them. I assumed he was either 7 feet tall with no legs--or 4 feet tall with gorilla arms. In fact, he was human. The band left the stage after a great set--and I cornered the drummer. The dude was completely modest, somewhat taken aback, and so happy that I was asking him about every thing he did behind the drum kit. It turns out that it is simply the way he bangs the drums. You don't have to love this band--although I'm getting close--to fully appreciate an extraordinary drummer. Front man tries hard--drummer steals the show! I couldn't take my eyes off him--even when the front man was writhing on the floor at my feet.
--Dem