Hot Water Music- TIll The Wheels Fall Off

All great bands must die sometime. Musicians lose interest and move on to different things. Such is the case with Hot Water Music, one of the most emotional, raw, and driving punk rock bands of the last ten years. No fights, no drama, just musicians moving in different directions. 3/4 of the band have recently formed The Draft, which is essentially in the same vein musically as Hot Water Music, while singer/guitarist Chuck Ragan is pursuing a solo career focusing more on country and folk music. Both groups are still making great music, and maybe it's better this way.

Hot Water Music has always been known for its dual vocal attack. In their earlier days, Ragan's guttural voice was up front while second singer/guitarist Chris Wollard, whose voice is more melodic, provided backups. As time progressed, they tended to take equal vocal duties in a duet style. By the end of the band, Ragan was doing back up vocals and Wollard was up front, maybe hinting at Ragan's desire to move on. This collection of B-sides, splits, rarities, and covers is a final goodbye to a solid punk band whose sound and style has been unique and continually copied.

Even their B-sides are really good. "Home" is the only song on here that you can't find anywhere else, and was cut from their final studio release, The New What's Next (which, while still good, is one of their weaker releases, and has a very foreshadowing title). Other songs are lifted from splits with Alkaline Trio (Wollard's acoustic take on "Bleeder" is powerful), The Casket Lottery, and a few others.

They salute their punk rock heroes and wear their influences on their sleeves with covers from The Clash, Government Issue, Midnight Oil, The Circle Jerks, Turbonegro, and the Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen.

Their Moonpies for Misfits EP is included on here but is missing the track "Where We Belong," and "The Bitter End" from the Leatherface split is missing (although they do include a cover of Leatherface's "Springtime"). Also missing is a cover of John Mellencamp's "Authority Song" from the Totally Fucking the 80s comp. Other than that, definitely worth getting to complete your collection. There isn't a bad song on here. A great testament to a great band and what a way to go out. You need to here this band, end of fucking story.

Hot Water Music myspace
The Draft myspace
Chuck Ragan myspace

Alkaline Trio- Agony and Irony

I hate major record labels. And I wouldn't if I didn't have a good reason to. Now I know, you're going to be like, "Son, businesses are out there to make money. The almighty dollar. That's what this country was founded upon, money and killing people." But at the cost of compromising beliefs and putting out shitty music? Anyways, sorry to start out this review as a lecture, I've just got some things on my mind. I've seen quite a few bands that I've grown up loving (Green Day and AFI being two that come to mind) change their sound and attitudes drastically as they suck the cocks of the major record labels. I understand bands need to change their sounds to escape being bored and to grow, but there's this eerie feeling in the air when bands start to get big and sign on to major record labels.

The Alkaline Trio have been putting out great records for the last ten years. Dark, poetic, raw, morbidly humorous, and damn catchy. As far as "pop punk" goes, they have always been at the front of pushing the limits and refusing to be formulaic. As they've been getting increasingly more popular the last couple years, I've held my breath in hopes that they wouldn't put out a shitty record. And I've been lucky; Good Mourning and Crimson were both great albums while still being released by Vagrant. But the inevitable has happened and the band has gotten too big for its shoes and has exploded. They were going to be on V2 before the released all their artists to focus on their back catalog, which would have been a good fit. They're on Epic now. Let's not forget who else was on Epic, the Clash. And major labels aren't always a bad thing; Bad Religion put out a few good records on Atlantic (let's just forget about the New America though), the Melvins were on Atlantic too, which amazes me because they aren't going to sell records.

Anyways, I digress. As the album opens with the uptempo "Calling All Skeletons," their is a certain hope instilled for this album. Things seem brighter, the songwriting has improved (for better or worse), and the songs are disgustingly catchy. "Over And Out" sounds more like Matt Skiba's sideproject Heavens or even hints of the Cure than the more raw punk sound over the band's earliest days.

The subject matter is still dark and gothic, but not as clever as past releases. Dan Adiano's songs are slower, borderline love songs with hints of the Cars. But he makes his hatred for love apparent on the sappy anti-love song "Love Love, Kiss Kiss." Matt Skiba continues to write interesting and catchy pop punk with "Lost and Rendered" standing out.

This is still the Alkaline Trio. While they have always had a pop sensibilty, they focus on it more on Agony and Irony, while juxtaposing it with their dark side. Sure, the Hot Topic crowd will like it, but the Trio have a way of appealing to a lot of different crowds. I can breathe easy again.

Alkaline Trio myspace

Nine Inch Nails- Ghosts I-IV

The second (but first to be released) album of 2008 by Trent Reznor is titled Ghosts I-IV. A sprawling instrumental double album clocking in at nearly 2 hours, Ghosts has no song titles, but seems to be divided up into four sections with nine tracks each. Like The Slip, it is available to download for free via their website, except you can only download part one of four (but there are other, less legal ways of obtaining the album in its entirety of course).

Reznor is accompanied by some interesting guest musicians on this experimental outing. Andrian Belew, of King Crimson, plays guitar on three tracks and Brian Viglione, of the World Inferno/Friendship Society plays drums out of a drumkit he built out of scrap metal and various objects.

It's not surprising that Reznor has finally decided to put out an instrumental album. He did the soundtrack for the orginal Quake video game back in 1997 and has always been known for his expermintation. This collection of anything goes is filled with deep rich somber piano, minimalist tribal beats, haunting scraping heroin withdrawals, droning slumber, whisping auras, and electronic raptures. If you thought the Fragile was ambitious, you might change your mind.

The length of this record may be intimidating, but it is a rewarding listen if you take the time to listen to it all the way through, or in chunks. Either way, Reznor has a way of putting out interesting shit no matter what the format is.

Download Ghosts part I!

Nine Inch Nails- The Slip

Trent Reznor is much more productive off drugs. Since releasing the 2 disc epic The Fragile in 1999, Nine Inch Nails have put out three full lengths, a remix album, and double disc instrumental album. In the span of the last two years, three of these projects have come out. 2008 sees the release of Ghosts I-IV and The Slip.

The Slip, which is available ("legally") free to download from the band's website, was recorded in only three weeks and is being released through Reznor's new label The Null Corporation after he recently swore off all ties to any major record label.

The Slip is a return to the darker, more structured form of albums like The Fragile and With Teeth. Unlike Year Zero which was largely constructed of laptop improvisational noise, The Slip combines the poppier aspects of With Teeth with the harder industrial mindfucks and softer marches towards madness of previous Nails albums.

The first half of the album is catchy nihilistic industrial dance, angry anarchist digital hardcore, and poppy 80s electronic post-punk, much in the vein of With Teeth or moments of Year Zero.

The second half of the album drifts deep into a haunting trance, with a soft piano ballad ("Lights In The Sky") melting into a dark ambient landscape ("Corona Radiatata"), followed by a moody trip hop murmer ("The Four Of Us Are Dying"), and disintegrating into a build up of restrained terror.

This isn't as thematic or collective as previous albums. A good collection of emotions. Less dancy than the last few albums have been, less political, and not nearly as noisy as Year Zero.

Download the album here!

Dr. Dooom- Dr. Dooom 2

OK, so Kool Keith isn't the most consistent rapper out there, and why should he be? The man has been doing whatever the fuck he wants since the bizzarely stunning Dr. Octagonecolygest came out 12 years ago. And I'm sure people kept expecting him to put out Doc Oc 2, but he didn't care. Still staying close to the genre he supposedly created (acid rap, horrorcore, pornocore, but hey, what do labels mean anyway?), he released albums under a slew of alter-egos including Black Elvis, Mr. Nogatco (whose album Nogatco Rd. is Dr. Octagon spelled backwards), the Diesel Truckers (with Kut Master Kurt), just Kool Keith, and Dr. Dooom (not to be confused with MF Doom).

Dr. Dooom supposedly killed off Dr. Octagon in his first album First Come First Served, but Kool Keith "brought him back" for a second record in 2006. Produced by One Watt Sun, this album wasn't even supposed to be officially realeased. It is for all practical purposes old vocals of Kool Keith slapped together with some half-assed beats. On Dr. Dooom 2, Keith as Dr. Dooom kills off Dr. Octagon for good on "RIP Dr. Octagon."

First Come First Served, while not following a particular theme, was a dark album filled with science fiction, eeire acid bumps, and Keith's perverted goofy lyrics. But forget all that. On "Mopped Up," Keith spits, "The first thing you gonna do as a journalist is compare this to the 1st Dr. Dooom, fuck you." If anything, stylistically it's closer to something like Sex Style, with plenty of hooks, but this isn't your average rap album. Keith stills jacks off all over your face with plenty of monster movie imagery with his distinctive quirky and offputting flow. Name checking everything from Jason and Michael Myers to the Indiana Pacers, it's still the same Keith that you either love or hate. And Kut Master Kurt is back with his icy, haunting beats that just add to the perverted vibe of the album.

Kool Keith's attitude about people liking this album can be summed up on "Always Talkin' Out Your Ass," where he states, "Yo everybody always wanna talk shit, when you make a new album, it's not good as the last one, how many are sold?" He also attacks fanzines, people with ipods, the Village Voice, and bitches that won't fuck him.

This is Kool Keith's best work since Nogatco Rd., and just goes to show you that he still has it, and never lost it. Fuck that fake ass Dr. Octagon sequel, Dr. Oc is fucking dead, and Dr. Dooom is the new sinister villian.

An Albatross- The An Albatross Family Album

Philly's An Albatross have sort of followed in the footsteps of The Locust, but they sound like an entirely different drug. Sort of an East Coast v. West Coast battle for electronic spazzed-out grindcore punk mayhem kings.

Their previous album BOTPBFATBWK (look it up for the full title) sounded like a Fear and Loathing circus acid trip complete with grinding organs, a demented horn section and vomiting on the carousel. Their move to Eyeball Records sees the band exploring more psychedelic landscapes while keeping intact their full-on hard-on of speeding start-stop punk rock mixed with that sinister organ and bastard brass. Tribal drumming, haunting flute, and primal shrieking vocals push this record to the brink of insanity.

Things spiral into a cosmic state of spiritual healing on "The Hymn of the Angel People" as a bizzare monologue of science fiction and fantasy explains the tale of pilgrims, lovebeasts, and the cosmos, something right out of a Manowar record. But as you start to lose yourself you are awaken from your dream and brought back into the nitemare. The room starts spinning around in slow motion on "Starving on Rabbit Meat." Ride the groove on "Floodgates Released," and trip back into a mournful state as the album closes with weeping violins that melt into a calming aura only to be destroyed by the chaos once more as you crash to your majestic, apocalyptic death.

An Albatross myspace

AIDS Wolf- Cities of Glass

AIDS Wolf ain't pretty. No hooks, no choruses, no singalongs. Filthy out of tune guitars in the vein of Arab on Radar. Vocals sound like Yoko Ono in a bathtub full of electronic appliances. Discordant Canadian punk rock avant-garde improv fucking cataclysm. The soundtrack to intravenous needles being shoved in and out of raw flesh. You'll leave feeling dirty, uncomfortable, and violated.

Aids Wolf myspace