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"People get divorced or their husbands die … and [sometimes] they don’t even know to use a condom." -- Sue Levkoff, USC SmartHOME coordinator, on the needs of seniors
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| | Issue #21.26 :: 06/25/2008 - 07/01/2008 | Local + Loud
Quick-Hit Local Record Reviews
| BY FREE TIMES WRITERS
| Anakrid
Banishment Rituals of the Disenlightened
By the time you read this, Chris Bickel will be gone — moved on to another record, yet another plan to bring music to its knees. The Bob Pollard of minimal noise, never before has nothingness been more prolific. I’ll barely have broken the shrink wrap on his last scourging only to find there’s a new menace forthcoming on an even newer imprint. These 12 tracks are that menace made manifest, and what lies between “The Examinatione” and “Lies on a Tranquil Brow” might just be Bickel’s best bludgeoning to date. The ideas here don’t grow and develop as much as they distend, percolate and eventually smother their host. For most of us, there are 13 ways of looking at blackbird. For Chris Bickel, though, there are more than 30 ways to kill it. L. Young
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| Collette |
Collette
Experience Collette
Soul music has been missing in the new R&B generation for some time now. Songs tend to lack heart and spirit, which have been replaced with lavish tales of one-night stands and ridiculous dances. It’s great to find, then, that soul music still exists, and is actually found locally with the best local R&B album of the year, Collette’s Experience Collette. The singer/songwriter/producer crafted such gems as “Let Me Go,” a song detailing a relationship gone bad, yet where the ex tries to stick around; “Cruise With You”; and “Live Your Life, ” which was produced by local talent Danny! and is one of the album’s strongest cuts. Collette’s debut is a perfect introduction, perfectly displaying her talents undoubtedly indicating bigger things on the horizon. Just remember when watching her video on MTV that she’s homegrown. P. Jacobs
The Fossil Record
Living in Reverse
The best bands thrive on songs that buck convention and defy easy categorization. Such a band is The Fossil Record, a Columbia quartet that thrives on the work of Chris Compton, a veteran of the local music scene and one of its best songwriters. Compton’s songs are lyrically provocative and follow progressive, unpredictable melodies. Living in Reverse is a powerful, straightforward rock record that beautifully straddles the fence between catchy and complex. Drummer Scott Hilton has never sounded so forceful. The harmonies between Compton and bassist Casey Hammett are tight and time-tested since their days as the duo Troubadour X. But the secret weapon is guitarist Stephen Williams, whose fiery solos give the whole deal a scintillating glow. M. Miller
Murder Media
You’re Welcome
Punk is a young man’s game — what better time than the prime of one’s own disenfranchised youth to start a hell-raising punk act? Hence Murder Media, and hence You’re Welcome, which, in the grand, bratty tradition of street punk energetically rails about ... well, anything and everything from disdainful peers to right-wing conservatism to capitalism. It’s indebted heavily to Crass and Discharge, and that’s a good thing — You’re Welcome is fueled by anger and intensity, and thus never flaps from start to finish. Dig the dirge-metal opening of “Church of Law.” P. Wall
Various Artists
A Place For Us: Songs from Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital
The Musicians and Songwriters Guild produced this collection of recordings to commemorate the new Children’s Hospital, and it is a wonderful way to raise both awareness and money for the facility. Brent McDonald’s “Daydream” is a playful and imaginative original opener, while Les Hall and Nicole Hagenmeyer turn “Itsy Bitsy Spider” into a creepy sing-along. Choirs from local elementary and preschools provide the child’s-eye-view for a number of songs, but it is Lexington’s Sharon Von Fange who provides the title track and emotional centerpiece, “A Place for Us,” written from the point of view of a child thanking the hospital for creating a space made just for kids. K. Oliver
Local and Loud is a bi-monthly roundup of local record reviews. Want to see your name in print? Send a copy of your disc and a brief band bio to: Free Times, 1534 Main St., Columbia, S.C. 29201. Publication is dependent on space and time constraints and is not guaranteed. Email music@free-times.com for more information. | |
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