2008/01/29

Half-Assed Album Reviews!


Hard Place - Get Your Hopes Up (World Famous In San Francisco)
This album is awesome. And I don't say that just because Elton Tom and Jeremy Smears are the ones releasing it on their label named after this blog. This is really strange, crunchy, bad-80s nostalgia music that you can't get anywhere else. It's very colorful and unique for something so ironic. All the songs are good - they actually seem to be about something - and they all sound like singles. My favorite song at the moment is Last Goodbye. I highly recommend buying the physical copy of this record.


Hey Willpower - P.D.A. (Tomlab)
This is a really cohesive collection of mid-tempo modern sounding r&b-dance songs. I think it's a really pretty record. I like it.


Woman of Color - Are You a Woman of Color? (Man Dagger)
After listening to this album I realized I am not a woman of color. This album lives up to its name in a way: it doesn't sound at all black, but it does sound dark. It has this Native American sounding pow-wow rock song at the end I like.


Fierce Perm - Fierce Perm (Man Dagger)
Cesar from Man Dagger gave me this CD a couple weeks ago at one of my shows in LA. I first played it in my middle aged Cuban ex-boyfriend's Lincoln Aviator. He and his SUV totally hated it. If it doesn't sound like Celia Cruz, a Broadway musical or a CD you can buy at Restoration Hardware or Crate and Barrel, he and his SUV totally hate it. So I guess that's a good thing right? This band has plenty of great optimistic guitar riffs. But it is very easy to pinpoint who Nadia, their singer, is influenced by. I will keep my faith in this band as long as the next album sounds different and they do a reinvention tour.

2 comments:

Jeremy Smears said...

You know, once at this awful gay bar this guy chastised me for drinking a jack and coke. He said "No gay man should drink that", a statement I found really confusing considering his bud light. Then he chastised me for not getting on the dance floor. "Every gay man has an inner black woman", he said.

At first, I liked the name Woman of Color. But, the more I see it the more it makes me think of that stupid, stupid guy.

Jeremy Smears said...

Also, these reviews are really informative considering how short they are. Good job!