Truth be told, I was quite intrigued by the billing of Travie (not Travis) McCoy at the Sunset Strip Music Festival. Never a fan of the singer’s past excursion, Gym Class Heroes, I was more so eager to see if the performer could hold his own without his ever-present list of high-profile guest appearances, including the likes of T-Pain, Bruno Mars, and even Cee-Lo Green.
Performing a collection of songs from his debut solo album, Lazarus, and featuring Gym Class Heroes drummer Matt McGinley, Travie graced the stage prior to Slash’s set in the late afternoon on Saturday. While the crowd gave a warm welcome to the seasoned singer, as the set progressed, it was obvious that his abilities were somewhat lacking. He slowly paced across the stage in an dawdling, droning manner, and barely whispered into the microphone from song to song.
Steel Panther have been a Hollywood mainstay for years, covering heaping helpings of classic ’80s anthems from the likes of Poison, Van Halen, and even Guns N’ Roses. The band have also released a collection of original material, including 2003’s Hole Patrol and 2009’s Feel the Steel, which both fully highlight the band’s raucous sense of humor and phenomenal musical abilities. While the band’s residency has recently returned to LA’s legendary Key Club, they graced the stage outside of the venue on Saturday at the Sunset Strip Music Festival.
The fab four of punk rock, which includes white trash (Erik Sandin), two heebs (Fat Mike and Eric Melvin), and a bean (El Hefe), are back with a variety compilation of their own. The Longest EP contains 30 tracks from their previous EPs, unreleased outtakes, and other rarities. Even the cover reflects the black and white animation cover of the 1994 release The Longest Line. You can throw away all of your old NOFX EPs and just buy this conveniently jam-packed, multidimensional release. It’s their second longest release by number of tracks behind the 45 or 46 Songs That Weren’t Good Enough to Go on Our Other Records EP. They could possibly break the world record for releasing the most albums with the most tracks, but definitely not the longest album according to track time. Most of the songs are short lived with an average of one minute 96 seconds and a total of 58:86. The songs obviously go quick, so enjoy them while they last.
“OMG” featuring will.i.am
Scott Pilgrim vs.The World wowed me as a movie, but a resounding element from the film was the music. Sex Bob-Omb, Scott’s band from the film, has provided a return to the artist who performed at my first concert: Beck. Having composed the songs for Sex Bob-Omb, Beck has crafted four anchoring tracks that rock on their own, and in the film you see some amazing characters that you’re really rooting for perform them. I don’t really like calling this a ’soundtrack’ because it’s not simply a a collection of songs. This album richly relays the idea of a bad-ass punk band that’s got the chops to make it big with an attitude that’s crafted in the source material in the film and magically translated by Beck, Metric, Plumtree, and a slew of other artists. For the five of you that don’t know what a Bob-Omb is, they are living bombs that present challenges to Mario in all the Super Mario games.
The album opens with Sex Bob-Omb’s appropriately titled “We Are Sex Bob-Omb.” It’s a mean one. The distorted bass conveys this sense of amateurishness (that’s a real word, believe it or not), but the elements of the song are all masterful. On “Garbage Truck,” the distorted bass sound is a little exaggerated, but it somehow fills in for the song’s slower rhythm. “Threshold” is a mean one that’ll likely make you dance in place and possibly shake off your earbuds if you’ve had a caffeinated beverage. Beck’s hands are the most obviously present in this one, to the point where I can almost hear his voice singing. “Summertime” rounds out Sex Bob-Omb’s tracks with an unwavering amount of confidence and attitude. This return to ’90s Beck is so refreshing for me since my interests in music steered more toward pop and rap after 1998’s Odelay.
“I’m So Sad, So Very, Very, Sad” is a deliciously tongue in cheek poke at emo bands. There are actually a bunch of tongue in cheek titled songs on this soundtrack. The Bluetones’ “Sleazy Bed Track” is essentially a sleazy bed track. Broken Social Scene’s “Anthems for a Seventeen-Year Old Girl” is also somewhat satirical, but it comes off as serious as well.
The film takes place in Toronto so it would only make sense to have music native to that location; Plumtree, Broken Social Scene, and Metric hold it down for the Canadian bands. Metric’s “Black Sheep” is a resounding favorite among my circle. It’s a foot-stomping good time.
Beck keyboardist and musical director Brian LeBarton closes the album with an 8-bit version of “Threshold.” I don’t know how anyone cannot want to play some video games after hearing this song.
There are too many songs to review individually, but the album is well-worth checking out and *gasp* purchasing. The album is ambitious with nineteen tracks, but they’re actually all pretty good. Interested in the movie too? Check out my review on Cosmic Toast Studios‘ site!
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What if The Sword had a baby with Fleet Foxes? Seems like an odd question to ask, but it’s quite easy to answer if you give a listen to Sleepy Sun. It isn’t certain if the spawn would be a boy running through the forest, getting muddy while listening to Black Sabbath, or a girl making tea and reading books about love, but what is certain is that the offspring would provide plenty of harmonies, earthy-raw textures, and the occasional psychedelic freak-out. Sleepy Sun is no baby band though, having played at SXSW in 2010 and filling the opening spot for the Arctic Monkeys during their April tour.
Theatrical indie rock darlings Arcade Fire are back in true form with their third full-length album, The Suburbs, and they’re bringing with them a return to their first album’s more-melodic-than-melancholy movements. After releasing the autumnal Neon Bible with its church pipe organ, military choir, and complete orchestra in 2007, Arcade Fire’s latest still features an orchestrally sweeping sound, but it’s one that is more concise and less conceptually eccentric.
Blurring the line between Americana, Brit-pop, and soft electronica, Bishop Morocco brings an amalgamation of styles and tonality that coalesce into something entirely new and ultimately their own on their self-titled debut. Jake Fairley and Jim Sayce pull from what most would consider the polar styles of their previous musical projects and experiences for this release to create a new mélange of indie pop, new-wave, and electronica that is captivating.
