Sceneazine.com
Music Reviews
by Julia Pope
genre, garage style. As I understand it, it’s uncomplicated.
To further defend this band, and to focus more on
the music, their arrangements for “Tomorrow You’ll Be
Stronger” stood out. It was nice to hear more of that
snare drum and keyboard and the cymbals in “Her Imperfect Palisades”. The backup vocals made me think
of the Wonders (or is it the Oneders?) in That Thing
You Do.
Last but not least, and this is the last song on the
CD, “The Kids Have Stopped the Show” is the strongest song musically and slightly more vocally. Halfway
through the song, they start building the tension, Only
it’s mostly in the music, to where it drowns out the
vocals. Then the song fades.
and he’s dressed in leather, he must be the rock-star
type. And if he’s still around trying to figure out this
music, he’s going to get a treat when he hears the guitar
intro to “Zombie Love Song,” maybe even the lyrics.
I call them the Guns & Roses of rockabilly.
ond half of the bridge. If she didn’t do that in any other
song, it was only right she did that in “Purgatory.”
With the sound effects, vocals, and lyrical themes,
it would be appropriate to do it like Pink Floyd, and listen to this CD with your overhead lights off and some
of your own special effects at home-ones that you can
safely and appropriately do there.
Sleep Juliet
“Where Nightmares Are Born”
Skunk Ruckus
“Raised on a Stick”
The uptight and narrow-minded shouldn’t listen to
this music.
And if you are either or both, when you listen to
Skunk Ruckus, you will un-learn that.
When a band has a song title like “The Devil Must
Be Beating His Wife,” there’s no telling what this band
is capable of.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You’ll have to
listen to their entire new CD Raised on a Stick to find
out what they’re all about. You might even have them
figured out.
If you’ve got friends in low places, maybe a few of
them are members of this band. They have the first
country song I’ve ever heard that had the f-bomb, as
heard in “Hello.” And that made me exclaim, “HELLO!” Apparently, this music has made some comedienne out of me.
It was nice to hear the “man in black” reference in
“You Let Me Stay.” It does sound a little more dramatic,
more serious than the others. The f-bomb didn’t surprise me nearly as much this time.
If there’s another kind of man in black hearing this,
The purpose of Sleep Juliet’s latest CD, Where
Nightmares Are Born, was to pull out all the stops with
everything about their music, not the least of which
was iinclude some heart-stopping, hair-raising special
effects, like the siren and gun cocking and shots at the
beginning of “Mindless Self-Indulgence”. It’s only fair
they give credit to their engineer, Colton Amerson, on
Reverbnation, for that and more.
I’m surprised they didn’t any for “Siren Serenade.”
In fact, it was a bit mild from what I had expected in
light of the title.
Never had I heard so much backup vocal variety, as
I heard in “Hero”-from the barely audible to the completing sentences, to the screaming. Then, a beauty
in music I noticed in this song: parenthetical words.
It’s like it’s spoken, but singing it is optional.. Another
beauty: you really have to listen closely to the bridge.
If you don’t, you’ll miss something important. And
those aren’t misheard lyrics. I did a Google search on it.
Auta mua is either Finnish or French for “help me,” and
rakastan sinua means “I love you.”
So, you think I’m done with telling you how this
CD is all about pulling out all of the stops with music?
Let’s go to “Purgatory”. No, not there. I meant the song.
What Sleep Juliet didn’t do for any of the other songs on
NIghtmares, they made up for in “Purgatory” (no pun
intended). And I’m all about noticing noticeable notable downbeats to intros, the ones that make you bang
your head or play either an air guitar or drum, which
ever one you’d prefer. If you’ve heard the song, you
know what I’m talking about.
Then, to take a page out of Justin Timerlake’s backup vocals in “Sexy Back”, I’ll take you to the bridge. I
just love it; you, yourself, can’t not like it. As much as
I love Anna’s voice, I love how she lets it out at the sec-
Tattermask
“Carpe Noctem”
Ever since heavy metal music was born, it has gotten a lot of criticism: it’s too loud, it’s too hard, and you
can’t understand any of the words. None of that applies
to Tattermask. On Reverbnation, they’re categorized
as “alternative” and “gothic rock.” In my opinion, they
should add hard melodic rock: Their music flows and
integrates well.
Also, I could understand almost every word. So, a
big vote of confidence to Amanda. She’s a gothic rock
version of Patty Smyth. Her vocals are smooth, gutsy,
powerful. I’d love for her to cover “Goodbye to You” or
“Warrior”. I know she’d nail both of them.
Every one of the songs from their new EP Carpe
Noctem has their own beauty, their own talent. I could
go into detail about every one o