InvisibastardDotCom

Now that I am an official old person, I sit by the campfire telling the youngins about the days when you could see a brilliant bands like Dinosaur Jr. , the Pixies or any of the K-tel “Sounds of the Nineties” bands for five bucks with a crowd of about a hundred. Then the bad things happened involving bratty 27 year old marketeers, Courtney Love, Douglas Copeland and finally beer companies and Tommy Lee. I woke up sober, creakier and dragged down by all the things I would imagine and fear as a stoned college kid… the job, the kids, the divorce, the brain surgery–your typical things that just didn’t seem as fun as burning a fat one and going to the bookstore.

Then J came back. It started with the excellent and highly recommended “More Light” from a few years ago, and then came full circle with “Free So Free”. The music is every bit as exciting and innovative as it was ten or fourteen years ago. At the time of this release I saw him for thirteen bucks with a crowd of about one hundred, just like the “good old days” that never existed but are nice to talk about as if they did.

J Mascis is on his game with this cd. Some songs rock like BIG ROCK SONGS. Others get funky and groovy. One does a neat trick that is even neater in concert. His guitar playing has never sounded better. His drumming has never been crazier or more freaked out, totally wrong in all the right ways. I think he is my favorite drummer and guitar player which means nothing to him or you folks reading this. I fancy myself an expert in these things, so you can take my word for it.

Ironically, the album has four songs about freedom, coming at the time when we were about to lose a lot of ours. GO RED WHITE AND BLUE!

The first song is “Freedom”, meaning when you put the cd in the player it will most likely be the one you hear. It has a disco beat that is completely unexpected but works. The guitar work is short and riffy. There is a weirdo tempo change that makes me love him and give the teens a chance to mosh. You can change the words in the chorus (if you sing along) to “Frida” and make it about Ms Kahlo.

“If thats How its Gotta be” is a pretty song that features the trick that was cool live. J is pretty open here, the lyrics are poignant:
“and i ran away from livin,
thought i wanted it that way
every step i should be givin
but i’m stuck feelin this pain
if thats how its gotta be……”
It is a soft acoustic song that he sings very well.

“Set us Free” has great drums and the chorus is like a mantra. It will bring you peace. It has great lyrics near the end, but I can’t find them anywhere to quote them directly. You are going to have to trust me.
“Bobbin” is a bouncy song that isn’t afraid to Rock. The drums are fun as hell, like chasing midgets through a field.

“Free so Free” is wonderful. It has a laid back grooooove. J sings about conflicted love. His voice is multitracked for a unique and soulful sound. The guitar work is varied, one moment he is playing an amazing solo, the next doing a lovely acoustic thing, then back to a solo that exposes the heart of god that is hiding in all things. The feeling he plays with on this song is inspiring.

“Everybody Lets Me Down” is the best song he has ever done. Everything that is great about his work comes together and gels in this song. It starts with a goofy wurlitzer (not the Prozac Nation author) and J singing in falsetto. The drums kick in, the song speeds up and the lyrics codify some of my most mixed up life philosophy.

“… any time it seemed okay
had to wreck it, couldn’t wait
i know there’s something better
oh no…
(chorus)
everybody lets me down
all this time i’m never found
everybody lets me down
i go outside and look around
i never quite set on the ground”
The guitar solo is perfect and shouldn’t be sullied by description. It is a great song to drive very fast down an open road to.

“Say the Word” is four minutes of the best guitar and drums he has recorded. J said in an interview that having his own studio freed his songwriting in that he didn’t have to worry if his drummer was capable of playing what he was writing, and this song shows that freedom. His drumming matches the wild spirit of the guitar work perfectly and provides one the most creative jams I have heard.

The rest of the songs are great. “Someone said” is a soft song that is prophetic. “Outside” has J singing slightly different and it is one of his best vocal performaces. “Tell the Truth” is another great rock song with effed up tempo going on.

To sum it up, this may be the best music J Mascis has made. He has grown as a songwriter and musician. It is good to see that the nieve belief I had in some of these musicians when I was younger wasn’t wasted, that J and others have proven to be formidable creative forces over the long term. The reunited original line-up of J, Lou and Murph proved their relevance on their recent tour and their new album will drop in the spring. This album showcases J at the top of his game.
Now go buy it. If you live in the northern areas, don’t forget to wear a hat, you don’t need to catch a cold.

Thank you.

• Read comments... (1)

“The ODB that can be talked about is not the eternal ODB”
-Lao Tzu (paraphrased)

Few things in the world live up to their billing. Head-On? Nah. The Decemberists? Get out of here. Hershey Squirts? Maybe. Jessica Simpson? About as sexy as Rebbe Jackson, without the class. The internet? A place for creeps to rape your eyes with their ugly myspace pages.

It was with this heart sick attitude that I approached Ol Dirty Bastard’s “Nigga Please”. I was told, by a trusted friend, that I “had to check it out”. Maybe it was fate, maybe it was Jesus, maybe for some strange reason it was Howie Mandel, but I took his advice.

My life changed forever.

Nigga Please is the alpha and omega. It is the blood in your muscle, pumping at three in the morning. It is crazy, not “crazy” like Weird Al, crazy like a riot. ODB reaches the point of true zen in this cd, where he is just flowing with whatever comes out of his head. If I had to fight you, and maybe I will someday, this will be playing. It makes me feel like the Duke of Windsor when I listen to it. It freed me from the white man suburban life. It gave me back my soul, and my penis.

Recognize
This song starts the whole party off in style, with Chris Rock. It has a funkass beat, relaxed but simmering with sex. There are some junky keyboards. The key is restraint. Chris starts in yelling that “this ain’t no commercial shit!” Dirty then kicks it in, his sexy voice rapping about stuff related to the music scene. “It’s rowdy outside, I ain’t signin’ Shit! Duck low, Bitch!” He is aggressive sounding here. He is pissed off. I like it.

You don’t want to fuck with me
The song is bass heavy. Karate music sadly playing in the background. ODB raps with some intense, off the cuff funny stuff “You ain’t shaggy anymore, DA…I ain’t in your ballgame…I don’t answer phones… I will never reveal the Wu Tang secret…” The chorus is song so horribly that it transcends all ugly and becomes beauty. Even the profanity is uglylovely. The song de-constructs as it goes, ending in utter gutter nonsense, a burp and screaming, like all songs should. I wish i could quote some of the lyrics, but some goddamn kid might read this and tell his mommy about the swearing. If you really want to impress the womens, teenyboppers and pirates, throw the John Mayer out the window (right now! go and do it!) and put this on. Finally, this song will give you unbeatable chi energy, that is a scientific fact.

Rollin Wit You
This is one of my favorites. It is insane. Ol dirty is concerned with white people, mothafuckas, taking over the rapper’s game. He is none too pleased with the other rappers allowing the white man to take over, you can take my word on it. He admits to being the only black god. he throws his arrest warrants back at the “po-po”, saying he will have “their fucking asses locked up”. The song is built on a wonderful piano sample. It gets a nice religious twist with the chorus, sung softly, “jesus, I’m rollin wit you…” Jesus in referring to ODB, aka Big Baby Jesus, but I prefer to think it is about the hippy like saviour.

My favorite phrase is when he claims to “control Michael Jackson’s Thriller”. Makes sense to me.
Now, don’t get me wrong, my tone here. I am making fun of my own white self, writing this. Don’t dismiss odb for one moment. The song is crazy brilliant.

Baby I Got Your Money
This was the hit song, easily the most accessible. ODB raps over a big fat bass line, with hooch mammas singing backup. It is the kind of song you might play in vegas, in town for a little “spongebob squarepants”, if you catch my drift. It is a sexy, dirty song. Fun dirty, like the ex president. All you gaywadd bubble bath and champagne enthusiasts should take notes, here. ODB is kicking the sexy out without even trying. Sexy can’t be fiegned, mofo. Either you got it or you don’t. ODB does. He may not be pretty like the Backdoor Boys, but you know that he would get you womens rolling. I will have to save this discussion for my Grand Unified Sexy Theory.

now…

I will be honest here. It is just me, the reviewer, and you, the reader, right? What is a little secret between friends? This is the internet, after all. Here it is… Let me whisper it…. I am struggling with this review. I cursed myself at the beginning, with the Taoism comparison. You cannot really do the traditional song by song review of ODB, or even really review him. Doing so takes something alive and insane and “whites it up”. I don’t want to be the cracker laughing at ODB… “He so crazy!”. What he has achieved with this cd is incredible. It is a classic, like an old kung fu movie or a Dodge Dart. To compare his rapping to other rappers misses the point. The ODB that can be reviewed or compared is not the eternal ODB.

Who should listen to this? Everyone. If you cannot stand profanity, you need to hear it, it will loosen you up. Hipsters? Please. Dick and Lynne Cheney? Yes. Jenna Bush? Baby, she does. Trust me. SAHMs? Yes. Teachers? You get the drift. I just softly suggest that ODB may do for you what he did for me, change my life.

This is the most important record of the twentieth century.

Pros
True “Sanford and Son” ethic; brilliant and crazed; Coleman Young-like profanity

Cons
The white man threw him in jail, not for the Contemporary Christian crowd

The Bottom Line
It will change your life, for the better.

• Read comments... (1)

The Laughing Hyenas took over the vacant throne of Detroit’s gritty musical tradition. I’m not talking about perpetual embarrassment Ted Nugent or tubby truck salesman Bob Seger. I am talking about the MC5 and the Stooges. The Hyenas were formed in the heart of underground Detroit, the Cass Corridor. Cass Corridor is a small, semi-dangerous area of the city where the underground scene lives, along with junkies and acid casualties. The Hyenas were simply the best band in the Scene Formerly Known As Alternative. They had a great reputation. They hung with Mudhoney. Nirvana opened for them at a small Ann Arbor club, The Blind Pig, when Nevermind first came out (before the Big Corporate Takeover.) This cd found them at the height of their powers.

The music of the Laughing Hyenas is muscular, bluesy punk. John Brannon, vocals, sings in a powerful, distorted rage. Imagine mixing Henry Rollins with the attitude of Jagger in the seventies and sprinkle in a foul attitude and you come close to Brannon. Larissa Strickland, guitar, was introduced to Neil Young by Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon as the greatest living guitarist in America. She plays in a moody, atmospheric style. If you are looking for the fast finger twaddlings of Yngwie Malmsteen, move on-you won’t find it here. She sounds more like Neil Young than anyone. Sadly, she passed away recently. Kevin Strickland, Bass, and Jim Kimball, drums, formed the toughest rythm section I have ever witnessed. Kevin’s bass is fat and low, and Kimball beats the hell out of the drums, like he hates them. The rythm section moved on after this to the meanest band I have ever seen, Mule. That is another review. Enough history, about the album…

Everything I Want
Distorted guitar introduces a lowdown and dirty bass line, followed by torrential drums. Brannon enters like an Art School Brian Johnson, yelling:
Been down and dirty dead
Called my lover from afar
Why should I go on when
Everything seems so hard?
Today might be my last
As far as I can see
When everything I need
Everything I want
Seems so far out of reach
The song expresses the despair and rage of depression in a cathartic way. It is such a solid and tough song, it makes the current batch of teenybopper pinup punk bands (Creed, Pantera, etc…) look like the sissies they are. This is music written by people living the life they are singing about. It has a punk “wall of sound” feel to it, with wave after punishing wave of music coming at you, building and building in intensity. I could run ten miles listening to this song, and I smoke.

Hitman
The drums and bass are, well, use any tough cliche you want here. Bone crushing, face grinding and so forth. The lyrics have a gangster charm.
chorus
“Cuz I know I’m more than you can handle
leave it to me don’t even load a candle (i think)
To look at you it’s another vision
You fukk with me my finger starts a itchin’
In my sight and I’m ready to fire
I see a chump, just a bird on a wire.
You want it done, just let me know.”
and
Now I could make you suffer
If I wanted to
And then you’d wind up dead!
Tough talk, but delivered convincingly. No guitar solo here, folks. Just straight up, blind drunk and angry rock. It does sound like a song someone would listen to getting ready to pop a cap into someone else.

Outlaw
The tempo slows here, and Brannon kinda sings, taking a break from all that yelling. They remind me of the Melvins here. Slow and heavy, like stoner goth slowcore death metal. The expression of angst is pure. You feel the anger build as he sings the chorus. The song seems to be about something shady that has gone wrong. The feel is a bitterly cold Detroit night, about four in the morning.

Let It Burn and Here We Go Again
I will combine these songs and end with them, out of fear of using the same terms over and over. Both of these songs pack a punch. “Let It Burn” is a choppy, tense song boiling over with fury. “Here We Go Again” is built on a throbbing bass, and is a bitter testament to love gone wrong. Live, these songs created mayhem. They both are energetic and forceful songs. If you need to go kick some ass, put these on first.

This is a must have for those of you who like hard and serious music. I would listen to this and paint ugly, crazy paintings in acrylics to battle depression. It worked every time.

The Hyenas broke up in 96 in the midst of heavy drug rumors. It was a damn shame. I had seen them live more than any other band, and have never seen anyone equal their intensity, except for Brannon’s new band Easy Action.

Great Music to Play While: fighting your way out of enemy territory.

• Read comments... (1)

“With your hand over your heart and your boy scout face you win a new merit badge for a weakness for faith for a love of strangers for a love of dangers that most people don’t feel because they don’t really feel they’re like tables and chairs they’re like forks and knives they’re like plains and trains hear ‘em bump in the night and their souls aren’t talking they just wash up on the bank and there their souls are beautiful…”

-To The Sea

Nobody writes songs like Mark Eitzel, lead singer of American Music Club. The Invisible Man holds up with the best of his work. The songs are sad, glad, funny, bitter, intelligent and intensely human. His honesty springs from a place in each of us that few of us like to go to, a place where we make mistakes that are not easily redeemed, where we stand naked and ashamed knowing the face we show the world is as much a stranger to us as it is to everyone else. They are great songs. He has modernized his sound without losing any of its soul.

The Boy With The Hammer
Mark goes in a different direction on this song. There is a dance beat, with ominous piano and electronic effects. The lyrics are strange and poignant. “…and then the Colonel starts playing tambourine- it was so funny we’re rolling- we were laughing in the face of the pain of the family next door too fucked up to feel anything.” The chorus is simply, “if that’s what you want- well its nothing.”, which lends itself to a few interpretations.

Can You See
This is a pretty, fleshed out song. Instruments include trumpets, keyboards, horns, organ, guitar, a lovely Bass Clarinet and a (non-Elizabeth) Wurlitzer. It stands out against the simplicity of the other songs. He sings of love in terms that only he can.
“…your bumping wings with far too many others wearing your outfit that you stole from your endless supply of reflections and self disgust and you don’t have any belief in whats worth your love and trust so you scatter your riches like a mirror ball that’s covered in dust with the vain understanding that some of the light would stick…”
Mark sings the song very intimately. His delivery fits his words well. The chorus, “the truth is that I’m happy when I’m with you”, says a hell of a lot with few words.

Christian Science Reading Room
This is an interesting song. I would say more, but the Christian Scientists might read it and come bust my ass up.

Sleep
A fair amount of electronic effects on this song. It is sung softly, a contrast to his live version which was passionate and intense. Wonderful words throughout the song, including the outstanding “goodness is not some pretty picture you paint - its shaking your fist into the face of danger”.

To The Sea
I quoted this to open the review. This is one of those songs that I listen to and feel like The Unbeatable Karate Hero. The song is based on a simple and strong piano. The lyrics are sung like a reporter, passionless but still vulnerable. I wish I didn’t understand the last lines so well.
…you thought I was busy well I was just busy running running from your beauty some run from the devil some from their own history some run from their hopes and some run to the see. Stupid don’t you agree?”
The song conveys waves crashing with a relentless urgency.

Bitterness
A Mark Eitzel song named Bitterness is a sure bet for a good song. It starts solemnly, breaking into a dance groove that features a keyboard sound “invented by Vudi” according to the liner notes. The music is upbeat and the lyrics are dark. If you want to dance to the words “I don’t know if I will ever love again.” sung with a matching stark piano under a dance groove over and over, then this song is for you. It is outstanding.

Anything
A beautiful song sung wonderfully. What he does with the music is so interesting that I can’t do it justice by describing it. Just listen to it closely.

Without You
This song reminds me of Mark’s American Music Club days. He shows how rich and beautiful his voice is in one of his best vocal deliveries. The horn section is used effectively. The lyrics are sad and lovely. It is a great song to continue to avoid quitting smoking again to.

The Global Sweep Of Human History
Classic Eitzel lyrics on this song.“…if you dismiss me with a smile I’ll break all your teeth and all your fun if you dismiss me with a frown I’ll make sure you never forget your pain if you dismiss me with a frown if you dismiss me with a frown I’ll crawl like a virus through your brain…”
Excellent acoustic guitar and continued electronic embellishment. It is sung pained and emotionally. I can’t say enough about how he realizes his lyrics through his music on this album, particularly on this song and “Anything”.

Proclaim Your Joy
He wrote this in five seconds as a joke, and it is an outstanding song. Imagine R.E.M’s “End of the World as We Know It” written intelligently and done as a good song and you get the idea. There is a rapid fire intelligence and humor in the lyrics, the delivery is fun. AMC’s Vudi plays great guitar, the ever present electronic music adds so much, and Mark sounds like he is having fun. A great way to end the disc.

I recommend this cd highly. In this world where the music industry in intent on killing itself by restricting what we hear and how we access it, it is almost impossible for people to get exposed to the people out there making music that means something. You probably won’t hear Mark Eitzel on Clear Channel or see him on MTV. It is a damn shame, because artist like him are really what make this country great. We miss out on these additions to our cultural heritage in our rush to see the next commercial and catch the next buzz phrase.

Check out his outstanding website: http://www.markeitzel.com

Thank you.

• Comments Off