PISSED JEANS Hope For Men CD*** "Hope for Men (we like to think of it in the “mankind” sense). If classic, thick-as-glue punk bombast and Aussie sludge stoke the coals of your existence, you have found, not only your new favorite band, but a reason to get up in the morning. The album is diverse, but the Jeans ain’t no dilettantes. Mixing volatility with humor is a damned hard thing to master in music. Pissed Jeans do it with smarts and poignancy. Consider the bar raised."
Pissed Jeans previous album, Shallow, was a brainmelter. Here was a band that could stretch one chord into four minutes of brutal perfection. Between that hot platter and this bruiser, I'm convinced Black Flag almost completely dropped the ball trying to reinvent themselves: Pissed Jeans might have been the sound they were looking for.
CINEMATIC ORCHESTRA Ma Fleur CD*** "The first new studio album since the acclaimed Everyday, featuring guest vocalists FONTELLA BASS (Art Ensemble of Chicago), LOU RHODES (Lamb), and PATRICK WATSON. Dealing with themes of loss and love - and in itself representing a kind of absence - "Ma Fleur" is fertile ground for Swinscoe's brand of music-making."
A grand and gorgeous record and a bit of a departure since The Man With The Movie Camera. The highlight of the record is Fontella Bass' beautiful, plaintive singing.
