'Tis The Season...

Top Ten Holiday Songs
by Anastasia Caras and M. R. Brown

The holidays usher in one of the greatest aspects of the music industry, the holiday songs. Radio stations broadcast 24 hour playlists, artists record holiday song albums and something just seems to be missing if presents are opened without these songs playing. Wondering which one’s to save for that special time? Here is the “Top Ten Songs For Holiday Cheers” list:

1. The Kinks – Father Christmas

2. John Lennon and Yoko Ono – Happy Christmas (War Is Over)

3. Bruce Springsteen – Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

4. Alvin and the Chipmunks – Christmas

5. Billie Holiday – I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm

6. Vince Guaraldi Trio – Christmas Time Is Here

7. Elvis – Blue Christmas

8. Run DMC – Christmas Time In Hollis

9. Charles Brown – Merry Christmas, Baby

10. The Ramones – Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight With You)

Honorable Mention: Wham! – Last Christmas

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CD REVIEW: THE KILLERS' "DAY AND AGE"

CD REVIEW: THE KILLERS’ DAY AND AGE
by M. R. Brown

Brandon Flowers once claimed that Sam’s Town, The Killers’ follow-up to Hot Fuss, would be the most important album in over a decade. How would he hype Day and Age? The man remained silent and let the album do all the talking this time around.

The Vegas foursome is swinging bravado with glam sensibility for excess. As Sam’s Town was pulled out of the Vegas desert, Day and Age is dragged from the strip after a night of hallucinogens and psychedelics. Think more “Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine” than “All These Things That I’ve Done.”

As with previous albums, The Killers’ strength is found in the up-tempo musings. “Human” is an escape into a world fueled by ecstasy-ridden pleasures of blasting noise and catatonic light. As the album’s first single, the track defines Day and Age with dance-rock sensations and vain fury. A vision of dreams and nightscapes, “Spaceman” is essentially David Bowie for the hipsters today.

There is no instrument that is not considered for the album. Multi-layered and complex, the tracks resonate with additions such as horns, synth, piano and bongos. Drawing from influences of Lou Reed and New Order, “A Dustland Fairytale” and “Goodnight, Travel Well” round out a head-trip of a ride.

Irrational at best, the lyrics of many tracks are confusing at times. Flowers will stray from visions and rant through such songs as “The World We Live In” and “Neon Tiger.” Modeled after Bruce Springsteen, Flowers’ vocal ambitions are met with minor parallel connection issues sporadically. Tracks such as “Joyride” also have troubling finding a place on the album because of such musical striations in sound.

A revelation as flashy as the Vegas strip these four musicians waltzed down for many years, Day and Age reinstates The Killers as the kings of indie rock and roll. Flowers is often credited with the success of the band, but the guitar work of Dave Keuning is nothing short of arena-filling sound packed into every song with epic presentation. The glitz and embellished core of the album is, in essence, one of the most authentic looks at the ever-changing force of one of today’s most important rock acts.

CHINESE DEMOCRACY WORTHY OF WAIT?
by M. R. Brown

Chinese Democracy is not worth the 15 year wait. Could any album be? That said, I can continue to review the album based on what it is rather than what it has been built-up to be.

Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy has been the long-awaited brainchild of Axel Rose and the revolving door of band members. Over that time, the album became infamous for being tagged as the album that would never be released. This is Axel’s album, as if anyone needed to doubt, and it would only be released by his word when he was damn well ready. Many, including Dr. Pepper, believed the album would never come out but all were finally satisfied come November 23rd.

The genius and density of Rose lore can be seen sporadically throughout the album. Whether it’s the biting and self-touting “I.R.S” or wall of sound “Chinese Democracy”, the album is unrelenting in its power. Songs are stocked with multi-layered guitars, giving glimpses into the ever-changing mind of Rose. Many may have wondered if Rose could still wail like a 15 year old girl in choir class, which he surely answers in “If the World.” Tracks such as “Madagascar”, which samples the likes of Martin Luther King, its undeniable that Guns N’ Roses can still tear apart speakers. With soul-infused rock as defiant as its singer, Chinese Democracy is founded on rebellion. With both glam and angst, the album kicks you in the teeth and takes you back to waiting outside clubs with torn up t-shirts and denim.

Does it stack up to Guns N’ Roses of yore? For the thirty-something man or woman who still says “Bring back The Rat!” Chinese Democracy will be a welcomed addition to the CD rack. But for the rock listeners today, the album feels oddly irreverent at times and solidifies thoughts that Axel simply may have waited too long. A great album for what it is, but if only it could have been released 10 years ago.

Chinese Democracy is available exclusively at Best Buy, so go buy into the growing corporate monopoly of music now!

Future Posts...

Currently in the works is a be-all-end-all top ten list of Christmas songs, a review for the new Killers' album Day and Age as well as Guns n' Roses' long anticipated Chinese Democracy. Until then, check out the hook while my D.J. revolves it:

Album Review: Tom Gabel

GABEL GOES SOLO WITH ‘HEART BURNS’
by M. R. Brown

Tom Gabel of Against Me! has released Heart Burns, his 8 song solo EP from Sire Records. The album carries Gabel’s folk-infused punk rock songwriting with catchy hooks and sing-along choruses.

As though reverting to an earlier sound, Gabel drops his five piece act for simple guitars and drums with more focused storytelling in mind. One standout track entitled “Anna is a Stool Pigeon” tells the tale of two lovers who meet at a protest rally only to realize one is an FBI informant. One of the truest to form folk standouts, the track harkens the songwriting of John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen with Gabel’s trademark voice.

“100 Years of War” and “Cowards Sing at Night” round out the political skewer of Gabel’s long-running angst with current government administrators. Denouncing involvement in war and calling for the lives back that have been lost, these are among the most biting tracks on the album.

Pounding drum machines and four chord songs, which could get mixed in with the sounds of hipster-trendy indie rock lately flesh out the album with “Conceptual Paths” and “Random Hearts.”

Living by his own words, “You don’t owe anything to anyone”, Gabel puts aside prior Against Me! fan criticisms of the band’s current sounds by charging forward with exactly the sound he wants to play. This is Gabel stripped to the bare-bones of what modern rock n’ roll is.

Gabel’s online Myspace music page provides listeners with acoustic version videos of each song on the EP. His next closest shows will in New York and Connecticut on November 20th and 21st.

And So It Goes...

Often times a sea of worry
And often times a sea of dreams
Are by which the door does open
And out it steps by dawn does break

And "So it goes..." he said under his breath
Because a breath will last longer than its subject