Music: A to Z 11.20.09: W… (the End is Nigh)

Posted by Chris Crowing on 11.20.2009

...Weezer, Westlife, Whigfield, Whitesnake, the White Stripes, White Zombie and the Who with additional live reviews of Muse, Alice in Chains and my thoughts on the new Biffy Clyro album



Let me admit one thing. There was no one band under the letter W which jumped out at me as a good discussion point. However, a clutch of worthy bands worthy of kudos came up, and then a few bands who I don't really like, but I figured I'd include for the sake of variety, nostalgia and a chance to vent my spleen came up. I let you work out which is which. So this week is a case of more bands with less detail, compared to last week's seriously weighty effort concentrated on only two bands.

However, as last week was a busy one, I'm throwing in two live reviews and an album review for your delectation and delight as well.

'But why didn't you submit them to the appropriate section of the site, Chris?' I hear you cry. Well I didn't do that because I don't think they are long enough to be worthy of individual columns and didn't have the time to post them until over a week after the release/concert. Hence you get added value rather than four separate columns, see?



Credit: The videos for these live reviews were filmed and posted to youtube by my drummer, Steve.

Muse @ Glasgow SECC 11/09/09

This show has been a long time coming, as I've been a big fan of Muse ever since I bought the Showbiz record more years ago than I carer to admit to myself.

Given that my favourite Muse songs come in bunches on Showbiz, Origin of Symmetry and Absolution and I've been less enamoured of their more recent (and more successful) records I was slightly worried that I'd end up watching a concept show based around a record I've yet to grow to love.

I needn't have worried.

Before we get to that, support band the Big Pink threatened to impress before becoming just another weak, formulaic band I can't help but fear I'll be hearing a lot of, largely from the covers of such fashionable rags as Kerrrang! and the NME.

With a semi-lofi stage set up and trying to go for the same grimy aesthetic as Nine Inch Nails at their peak (strobe at rear of stage, LOTS of dry ice,) they ended up sounding like cookie-cutter nu-rave/emo band with added samples, with their over-reliance on effects and pop tart song-writing. IMHO they were just horrible.

Muse on the other hand did NOT disappoint. Opening the show atop three massive video pillars allowing even someone of my meagre height a grandstand view of the stunning light show, and the fully wired-for-video stage set. A series of big screens showed us what the trio were up to at all times, mixed in with some wonderful song-specific graphics and a top notch laser show. Even if Muse were just another band, the scale and attention to detail of the stage show would be second to none.



While I have been very cool with my reception of the Resistance, the show starts with two songs from that record and they certainly come across well in the great big hall. "Uprising" and "the Resistance" have certainly been lifted in my estimation, and the later encore performance of (I think) the second part of "Exogenisis Symphony" was breathtakingly awesome. Time to give the Resistance another, fairer listen.

But this show was all about the greatest hits that I dearly wanted to hear and "New Born", "Plug in Baby", "Time is Running out", "Hysteria" and "Stockholm Syndrome" certainly made my night. Even those songs which hadn't been huge favourites before, such as "Feeling Good", "Starlight", "Supermassive Black Hole" and "Knights of Cydonia" came out as arena-filling moments of wonder.

Even the sporadic little interludes were immense, where Muse jammed away on old school Rage Against the Machine song (something off the first album. I can't recall which song), and (inducing a total shit-eating grin for me) "Headup" by the Deftones, before a piper wanders around onstage and we get a bass, drums and pipes jam on the hydraulic stage. That's just AWESOME…

If I had to make a complaint (and this is quite a significant one) it is that the band did not play one single song from the Showbiz album. Is it too much to ask for a little "Sunburn" or "Muscle Museum" or even (bestill my thundering heart) "Showbiz" itself?

That caveat aside, this show was an awesome audio-visual spectacle, proving the Muse truly deserve their place at rock's top table, in terms of commercial success AND critical acclaim. That's an impressive feat in itself.

Alice in Chains @ Glasgow Barrowlands 11/12/09

I've waited a LONG time for this. While I was one who was distinctly unsure of the 'hiring a new singer' angle last year (visions of INXS and their reality TV singer, Paul Rogers fronting Queen and Blaze Bayley's tenure in Iron Maiden made me less than hopeful) the online snippets and sheer mind-blowing quality of Black Gives Way To Blue utterly changed my stance, and while DuVall is not Layne, if Jerry Cantrell says he is the best substitute, then I'm happy with that.

The support was an act called Little Fish which consisted of a PJ Harvey / Iggy Pop wannabe, who turned out to have a posh English accent when not trying to rawk in incredibly generic, yet doubtless in her mind artsy and passionate fashion and a very talented drummer. I was not impressed.

The sense of anticipation for Alice in Chains glorious return was palpable in the air, and from the moment they sauntered onstage the entire crowd was rapt in adoration and wonder. Starting with a succession of heavy tunes, with new songs like "Check My Brain" and "A Looking In View" mixing with older fare like "Dam That River", "Again" "God Am" and "Them Bones" they maintained a fine balance between the new and the old, promoting their current album (playing six songs from Black Gives Way to Blue through the set) and appreciating that the majority of the fans want to hear the songs from fifteen years ago.



Gradually dropping the pace with "No Excuses" and "Your Decision" they eventually settle down with the acoustic guitars and we got fully acoustic renditions of "Down in a Hole", "Got Me Wrong", "Heaven Beside You" and a particularly shivers-up-the-spine rendition of "Black Gives Way To Blue."



Coming back with evil intentions, renditions of "Lesson Learned", "Acid Bubble" and "Man in the Box" leave us to the always unconvincing 'thank you very much, goodnight!'

The encore was (as is only proper) mostly drawn from Dirt with "Angry Chair", "Would?" and "Rooster" sending Glasgow happy into the streets outside the Barrowlands. I even got one of Jerry Cantrell's guitar picks!

While I've surely missed a few songs out, and messed up the running order, in all honesty the only thing I could say for several hours after the show was 'wow' or 'Jerry Cantrell was RIGHT THERE' (we had good position, a few feet from the stage, to the right hand (Cantrell occupied) side.)

This was one of the greatest shows I've ever attended, and is only beaten to #2 this year because of Metallica's World Magnetic show at the SECC (in fact this was more intimate and comes VERY close to unseating that defining life experience.)

If you count yourself as a fan of alternative rock, grunge, post-grunge or ANY form of passionate guitar-based rock music, I URGE you to check Alice in Chains out on their current world tour. I have left that show feeling awed, inspired and thankful to have witnessed greatness. I can pay no greater compliment.

Biffy Clyro - Only Revolutions: Released 11/09/09

Following on from the breakthrough success of the major label debut Puzzle, I (and many other devout Biffy fans) were looking for this album to be a confident step forward, solidifying the band's mainstream status while also perhaps returning to some of the boisterous chaotic noise that made their independent albums stand out (as intimated in a few interviews by the band themselves.) Of course, you can't quite have it both ways, but nonetheless I was eagerly anticipating this album to be a serious contender for my ‘Record of the Year' honours.

Lead singles "That Golden Rule" (excellent) and "the Captain" (formulaic, but fun) had my anticipation at higher than usual levels, especially given that "That Golden Rule" did indeed manage to fuse the infectious anthemia of Puzzle with the exuberant, idiosyncratic noise of earlier records.

Sadly, this is not a line they could tread through the whole album.

Given that I've been SILLY BUSY at work and had a few concerts to attend (you just read the reviews), I've not listened to the album enough to give a succinct song-by-song breakdown, but these are my initial impressions.

The album suffers from the weight of expectations, firstly to match Puzzle's success and secondly to ‘return to their roots.' Many of the songs either come across as slightly washed out, or perhaps pandering to the semi-shoegaze, faux-artsy Coldplay brand of music fans – THE HORROR!

That's not to say that it's a weak record, or full of the taint of writing ‘by the numbers anthems' which pervades much of modern (ostensibly alternative) rock music, it's just that Biffy seem to have been torn between the desire to write anthems, return to their roots, and rock like motherfuckers.

The now-established, and particularly awesome Biffy Clyro formula is still in effect, with the songs founded on quirky guitar lines, followed by some mildly crushing riffage (in that it IS impressive riffage, but it isn't exactly Meshuggah) OR sweetly picked and strummed chords and the vocals veer from the almost spoken parts which laudably still have Simon Neill's thick Ayrshire accent in full effect, and the soaring choruses which have become such a large part of Biffy's charm. So that is all good.

The thing is (and remember this is on only a few listens to the record) that nothing leaps out at you the way "Justboy", "Glitter and Trauma", "Saturday Superhouse" or "Living is a Problem…" did, with the possible exception of "That Golden Rule" and "Mountains."

The inclusion of "Mountains" on this record also annoys me, as while it is a glorious song which is a personal favourite, Biffy were very clear in a number of interviews that it was released as a bridge single, coming after Puzzle but surely not in keeping with the tone of their upcoming record. For my money, the song is very much out of key with the rest of the record, being a great deal grander and more melancholy than the general tone of the album. IMHO, given Biffy's former stance of wanting the single to ‘stand alone' this is a sure fire sign of record company manipulation…

I realise that this has been quite a critical review, and that is unfair as Only Revolutions is a fine album, easily in my top 15 for the year, it's just that I was (unfairly) anticipating a definitive #1 record which would define my winter, if not my entire year.

On balance, it seems that this is a record of consolidation for Biffy Clyro, and while I doubt it will win many new fans (although given it's distinctly mid-paced nature, it could prove to be very successful in the long run) and I know a few old-school Biffy fans who are less than enthralled by it, I imagine that it will be successful enough to maintain their ‘major label' status.

That said, Biffy are better than this and I will be expecting more from their next record – either by turning into a Scots version of the Foo Fighters (a designation which characterises the best songs on this record) and trying to be the best mainstream rock band they can be OR by reverting to their art-rock, grunge loving roots and producing a proggy alt.rock masterpiece full of jagged guitars, quirky vocals and unexpected, yet awesome leaps. Sitting on the fence will not suffice for long…

Best Songs: "That Golden Rule", "God & Satan", "Mountains", "Boom, Blast & Ruin"

Rating: 7.5



* Please note, all 'Best...' designations are merely this writer's opinion, and stand as a recommendation for new fans, rather than an attempt to make a definitive statement. I'll likely change my mind by next week anyway.

Weezer
Recommended: Weezer (Blue), Pinkerton, "Buddy Holly", "Say It Isn't So"

Weezer are perhaps the ultimate college rock band. With a back catalogue full of tunes to sit and smoke roll-ups and eat noodles too, on the surface much of their work seems to be quite formulaic, verse chorus verse, sing-along AOR stuff, while in reality there is almost always a laudable undercurrent, be it in a surprising change in tone, a quirky little guitar line, a incongruously biting lyrics, sung sweet as an angel.

Rivers Cuomo comes across as a shy, bookish type, yet in my opinion he is clearly a covert subversive, out to indoctrinate the masses into musical rebellion, the concept of riffage (see "Hash Pipe") being a bit different and just thinking about, and demanding that little bit more from your music. I applaud you sir.



Westlife
Recommended: Nothing, natch, nil, nada, ignore, run away, shouting and screaming.

This is NOT a love song.

Westlife personify everything I hate about formulaic, manufactured pop music.
Step One. Take five (now four) inoffensive looking, polished-up-by-stylists boys who have a modicum of singing ability and absolutely no passion or character of their own.
Step Two. Break them into the market with a stream of 'emotive', 'anthemic' cover versions and give them the approval of an established act (in this case Boyzone) and watch the sales rise.
Step Three: Compel the music media to big up their sales, and as soon as you can make a case for any 'record breaking' statistics, flood the market with the information, further convincing the idiot general public that they are the best band ever.
Step Four: Rinse, repeat until the public catch on/grow up, then go and find a new bunch of boys, rebrand and start again.

It's almost sad that after more than ten years, Westlife are STILL active, not even having had the grace to 'split' at some point. Urgh.

It's not that I hate vocal pop, in fact (as I proved a few weeks ago) I've got a great deal of time for it. Take That have a wonderful canon of songs, Girls Aloud posses some very catchy electronic pop (more credit to their producers but hey, it's all product) and even X Factor graduates like JLS and Leona Lewis seem to have character and ability.

Westlife are the paragon for that pop approach where mediocrity is it's own reward, and their lack of character, passion and interest is actually their greatest selling point. I hate the portion of the industry which promotes them and despair for the brain-and-heart-death which their fans must have suffered. Can't you see it can be done so much better than this?



Dull, passionless, false and in every way the sure sign that the apocalypse is on us, and in a scary grey mind-death, rather than awesome fire-from-the-sky sort of way...

Whigfield
Recommended: "Saturday Night"

I have no idea if she ever had another song, but this tune is implanted in my memories of the mid nineties, and it's nice to share...



Whitesnake
Recommended: (sorta) "Here I Go Again"

As a rule, I HATE stadium rock/hair metal, but sometimes, it's just fun to pretend your onstage ion front of silly-thousands of people with BIG hair, trousers that are wayyyyyy to tight and a billowing shirt....

...No? Just me then.

YOU LIARS. I defy everyone to not pull the 'stadium rock 101' pose when this song is on. Suck in that gut and clench your fist...



the White Stripes
Recommended: Elephant, "Icky Thump"

As is almost customary, I didn't jump on the White Stripes bandwagon, when White Blood Cells made them the indie breakthrough act of the year in 1999. I just didn't think they were all that, based on "Hotel Yorba."

That changed with "Fell in Love With a Girl" and "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself." Suddenly, it all made sense and I fell in love with them. The Lego video for "Fell in Love With A Girl" is also awesome.



Like many people, the song which really turned me onto them was "Seven Nation Army" and the majestic simplicity of that song is a lesson in itself. The video is also one of the starkest artistic statements of the decade...




Elephant was a thoroughly awesome record, with "The Hardest Button to Button" probably being my favourite tune. While I'm not the biggest fan of Get Behind Thee Satan (largely because I barely listened to it), they come back with an awesome statement with "Icky Thump." It may well be the best song title of the decade...



Also, Jack White has moved on to produce on of my top ten records of the year with his new band/side project the Dead Weather. Credit where it's due.

White Zombie
Recommended: La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1, Astro Creep: 2000 - Songs of Love, Destruction and other Synthetic Delusions of the Electric Head

Nowadays, I know that White Zombie were instrumental in the development of groove metal from grunge, nu-metal from groove metal and also adding electronic elements to traditionally more conservative rock fields.

This makes them every bit as important and influential as Tool, Faith No More and Nine Inch Nails in alternative rock circles.

However for some reason, I never actually listened to a whole White Zombie record until about two years ago, and had been more familiar with Rob Zombie's later (and less impressive) solo records. I've been honest about these incongruous lapses in my education, and I'm not going to start lying now.

That said, they were a band I was aware of and I happily got on down to more than a few White Zombie tunes when they came on.

I would recommend that anyone who is into the genres I listed above check out the recommended albums, and see where System of a Down, Linkin Park and company watered their ideas down from!

To prove a point, I'll share this video of a song I was sure was called "Devil Man" for many years. Idiot.



the Who
Recommended: Everything from My Generation in 1969 until The Kids Are Alright in 1979.

While they now occupy an august position amongst the pantheon of 'classic rock superstars,' the Who are more properly the primogenitors of modern alternative rock, with their singular style, unconventional approach, willingness to try something different and a love-hate relationship with the industry.

This song is a classic now, but at the time it was edgy, different and ushered in a new era of post-Beatles rock...



The line-up of Daltry, Townshend, Entwhistle and Moon is like a fantasy band line-up, with each member of the classic line-up appearing high in lists of 'greatest frontman/guitarist/bass player/drummer' of all time lists - how many bands have that depth of quality?

That quality also allowed them to try something a little different, such as their rock opera Tommy which featured some of the most awesomely insane lyrics I've ever heard...



In recent years the Who have been exposed to a whole new generation of fans with their songs plastered all over the titles for the various incarnations of the ridiculously successful CSI TV franchise, and this is topped off by their stunning headline set at Glastonbury a few years ago.

Few acts can claim the back catalogue, impact and lasting appeal that the Who have achieved, and while it's possibly too much to ask for a new album to challenge their past successes (even with Ringo Starr's son occupying the late Keith Moon's drum stool) I'd never write them off...





Not much in the way of comments this week.

We start of with Commie who had this to say about VAST.
Have been a huge fan since catching them live for the first time in '98. April and the entire Generica series never have held my attention like the rest of Jon's catalog though. Bang Bang Sixx was a pleasant return to the electro elements. Hoping the next album keeps up the vibe. (and hoping in vain that one day they'll revisit the video projections they used on the first tour)

While I love April it's almost like a completely different band from Visual Audio Sensory Theater, and I think I prefer the dark electronica direction although in the interim I got my kicks there from Black Light Burns amongst others. That said, Bang Band Sixxx lefts me a little cold, but then again Me & You hasn't lit me up the way April did. Perhaps the thing is that Jon needs to find his passion again, perhaps wallow in some darkness… we can hope.

Next we have the consistent Hdj360 with this...
Wow VAST! Nice to see your showing some respect for my hometown! I really agree with you that U2 is the biggest rock band in the world and I think that Muse will be following their footsteps, IMHO! Oh and I just freaking missed out on a Trivium show about a month ago here in Austin!! It just pisses me off I didn't know they came here until a few days after the show!

W-whitechapel, the who, weezer, the white stripes


Ah, this is why you should check out 411's numerous news reports for upcoming tour dates. It's strange that I, living in the relative backwater which is Glasgow, Scotland seem to have more luck with the gig-going than someone who lives in the States. Oh, and who the hell are Whitechapel?

Slainte,
Chris Crowing

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