Reviews by !#*$!*@! default!

I haven't been able to buy new music to the degree that I would like to for quite a piece now so I will review two "newish" albums I have been listening to. The first being MY GOD IS ALIVE! SORRY ABOUT YOURS! from The Knights of the New Crusade, and the second being BLACK FOREST from The A-Frames. The Knights are up to something, and what that is, is a topic of debate. On the surface they are an "accidentally" comical, right-wing, ultra-Christian/Fundamentalist garage-ish rock and roll band. They dress as medieval knights in chainmail with helmets made out of what appears to be strategically cut metal buckets. It's a great look. (Get ready to hear elements of zillions of record reviews featuring things that there are no better words to describe...) The sound is stripped-down, no frills, rock AND roll. The players are obviously well schooled on the history of raw, garage rock and they should be. The word on the street is that they are in reality a supergroup of sorts( at least to the relatively small world of garage/punk fans). At least one member of the legendary MUMMIES and/or a former member of the PHANTOM SURFERS are involved. The Mummies pretty much defined early '90's garage rock and were among the most true to the form of a handful of groups doing it at the time such as THE GORIES.

Whether or not they are serious about the "message" they are spreading is obviously a joke in itself. The lyrical content of the album is almost entirely straight-forward, consistent with the Christian image, and seemingly serious other than one use of the word FUCK. The approach and ideology are however WAY over the top, which is a signifier of irony, or social commentary. On this level it seems like a big middle-finger to what is apparently the mentality of the majority of the United States, particularly the Bush supporters. There is the slight possibility that the Knights are employing a brilliant display of double-speak. That is to say that at heart they do have some kind of Christian values and they're pulling the wool over everyones' eyes. They've got the Christian kids listening to good old rock and roll (with punk undertones), and they've got the more open-minded garage rock fans listening to songs about God. They actually played at what is supposedly the most popular Christian teen club in the U.S., THE DOOR, which is here in the Deep Ellum Area of Dallas. Unfortunatley this was a few days before I caught wind, and though I am not a Christian or even particularly religious I wouldn't have missed it for all the SUV's in Dallas. (which I would sell and/or destroy) Either way this is one of the best albums of the year. They've really beat the odds, but by combining a controversial "gimmick", rehashed, and in some cases appropriated(stolen) classic "garage" classics, with a great sense of humour and love of good music these cats have created something new in a genre that is both underappreciated, and overdone at the same time.

http://crusadenow.com/

The A-Frames are rehashing some ideas too but not quite so much with the stealing. I just mean that they sometimes wear their excellent influences on their sleeves. These guys have been embraced by many garage/punk fans and I guess that's because of their minimal, mid-paced, and agressive approach, but I think they would be bigger with the indie/eighties people. It's like a droning, robotic, ominous kinda thing with vocals that sometimes recall early Joy Division. I'll admit that I bought this because I kept seeing their name mentioned amongst other bands that I enjoy, or might enjoy and I found a new copy on Amazon.om for a few bucks. If I had paid $12-16 or so for this I would have been slightly dissappointed as I like to own albums that are at least 90% (oh what word to choose...?) listenable. That's not to say that nearly every track on this disc isn't, but I'm attempting to make a point. The obvious standout song being EXPERIMENT, I wish they were all more in that direction. I'm all for variety in a band or even a album that genre-hops like mad but I tended to like the louder, more tense songs the most. There even were some good ones that had backup vocals by the girl-person in the group but I liked the less "indie" sounding material best. They're on Subpop records(who seem to have gone soft, but in an o.k. way) but played at the HORIZONTAL ACTION MAGAZINE BLACKOUT in Chicago, which is the like the punkest of the punk amongst modern garage-punker types. They're kind of between two worlds and thats a good place to make interesting music.

http://www.subpop.com/scripts/main/bands_page.php?id=442