Other Animals - Midnight 76

 Ladies and gents be warned: the album I have for us tonight was pitched to me as "weird, killer... blending elements of Electronic, Industrial, Psychedelic, and Triphop driven by an uptempo Rock sound."Now I don't know about you, but with a description like that, I am immediately cautious. I know most of these elements work pretty well together, but I have never been one for psychedelic, and full disclosure I have no clue what triphop is, so I guess the only way for me to find out is to just dive right in, right? (I suppose I could Google it, but that's no fun for me, and what's worse is that I would be depriving you the joy of reading this brilliant intro while you're sitting on your toilet.)

What is really cool about reviewing this album is that it's another first for Synic Spins. Tonight we have an instrumental concept album. And as a brief aside, I have to quickly mention what a thrill and an honor it is to have you guys be sending me your music spanning all different genres, different parts of the globe, etc. It's really humbling and I want to thank you all for continuing to support me and grant me this opportunity to continue doing this.

Moving on, to quickly sum up what this concept album makes me think of, it would be like an action-packed sci-fi video game soundtrack. It's hard, powerful, and inspires action. I could easily see someone working out at the gym to this, or a LAN party of high school friends shooting aliens together.

I do find that some of the single compositions on this album seem to last for quite a while, with a handful of them exceeding 7 minutes in length, but I can't fault this artist for that, with instrumentals and concept albums alike that is just the nature of the beast. However, song lengths aside I find this album to be the ultimate background music. Like I said in the previous paragraph, it just instills action and power. By its very design it is meant to inspire and motivate.

Some of you might recall me saying in an earlier post (but then again, maybe not, I'm not even sure which of my posts I said this in...) that I don't usually care much for instrumentals. With that said, I bet you would expect me to be bored of this album. I certainly would have expected that. However, the opposite is true. I never once throughout the whole listening experience wished that there were vocals accompanying the instruments. Not once. There's no need for that. There's no room for it. The sound the band has achieved here is so full that it never feels like anything is missing. And the mixing is damn near perfect. I did wish the drums were a hair louder at times, but that could just be because I'm a sucker who has a big fondness for prominent drum parts.

Oh, and one last thing; I have some GREAT news for you all. Do you remember that old one-hit wonder with the specific dance that went along with it, "The Cotton-Eyed Joe?" Well lucky for us, Midnight 76 found Joe's brother: "The Whole Eye Doug." 

Other Animals - Midnight 76

4 - 13 - 2020

1. Just Another Animal (Tracker)

2. Just Another Animal (Imaxx)

3. Just Another Animal (Genetic Lab)

4. I Dig

5. Waxx (Wane)

6. The Whole Eye Doug

7. Just On Other Animals

8. 28

9. Rounds (Imaxx)

10. Waxx (Solstice)

Favorite Track: The Whole Eye Doug

Least Favorite Track: 28

Inside Outside - Reckless Velvet & Gabriel Kanka

 Guys you have no idea how incredibly humbling and thrilling it is to have an inbox full of requests that just keep on coming. And what is even more exciting is the handful of artists who have liked what I have done here and decided to come back for more. As you might have guessed, tonight I'm featuring a new friend of mine who just can't seem to get enough of the Synic Treatment. The guitar virtuoso Reckless Velvet is back, this time on the album Inside Outside, featuring the vocal stylings of the one and only Gabriel Kanka.

Upon my initial listen of the opening song, it is exactly as I expected. Hard driving rhythm with incredible guitar work to match. I find it very rare nowadays where I hear a new guitarist that consistently writes fresh and exciting riffs that just continue to surprise me. But on that short list of guitarists and riffmasters, you'd most definitely find Reckless Velvet among them. But again, this is hardly surprising.

What is surprising to me, however, is the style and range of the vocalist featured on this collaboration record. In his email to me, Velvet made sure to specify that Gabriel Kanka is indeed a male vocalist. At first read, I thought this was a very odd thing to include in a correspondence. Like yeah, okay... so is Mick Jagger, what's your point? Well a couple songs into the record, and I get why he felt he needed to clarify.

His vocal style on the opening track is almost misleading. His tone and the recording effects give his voice  a certain way about it that reminds me of one of my favorite male vocalists, Gary Cherone. (Extreme, Hurtsmile, my long rant about the 3 frontmen of Van Halen, etc.) In the tracks that follow, however, I find his tone and style morphs into something else, and the closest voice I can immediately relate it to is Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders. It's truly quite impressive.

So now we know that the instrumentation and the vocals are working wondrously, leaving the question, is there anything that isn't working on this album?

The short answer? No.

The long answer? Well, I could get really picky and delve into the subjectiveness of music, and talk about how I really don't care for much for ballads and say that the slower songs such as "Headlong" "Sing My Sunshine" and "Subject of Interest" start to lose me as a listener. But the style and technique of each member of this duo compliment each other spectacularly in a way that just carries it through these slower songs. I will say, however, that if I were arranging this record I would consider separating these 3 songs. I find it really tough to stay engaged with an album if there are more than 2 slow songs lumped together on an album's track listing. I'm working on refining my ability to describe what I mean to my readers, so I hope that explanation made sense to you guys. BUT, if you were able to make it through that and understand what I was trying to say, then you would know by the end of "Subject of Interest," my interest was almost completely lost (that sounds more insulting than I intended, but alas). However, if there were any song on this record that was perfectly engineered and placed on the track listing to regard my attention, it is definitely "Fool's Gold."

The last thing I'll say, is that the opening riff to "Note To Self" reminds me very much of the opening riff to Pantera's "Walk" and I absolutely love that song, so that little (probably unintentional) nod to it was very cool. Even though the overall tone of both songs are wildly different from one another.

Inside Outside - Reckless Velvet & Gabriel Kanka

1 - 2 - 2021

1. Scratch That

2. Inside Outside

3. Rock My Way Out

4. Junior Year

5. Headlong

6. Sing My Sunshine

7. Subject Of Interest

8. Fool's Gold

9. Voices

10. Note To Self

Favorite Track: Voices

Least Favorite Track: Headlong

Synic Selects Vol. XIII - Female Fronted Favorites II

 Folks, some of you may recall one of my Synic Selects compilations from early last year; it shares a similar title with this new one: Female-Fronted Favorites. Well, as a quick refresher, the inspiration behind that original compilation was the fact that I had almost exclusively been listening to hard rock and metal groups with female vocalists up until that compilation was posted. I eventually pulled myself out of that pattern, and commemorated it by compiling some of my favorite songs for you all to enjoy, and leaving them behind me (not permanently, of course, just metaphorically.) However, a little less than a year later, I fell back into my old ways and became addicted again. Perhaps this time was due to new inspiration from sharing this musical interest with my newfound love Lady Synic, though through her I found myself making a playlist not of female metal, but female punk and Riot Grrrl classics. Now, the sad truth of it is that if you had asked me 6 months ago to name my favorite Riot Grrrl and female punk bands, I would've mentioned L7 and The Gits, because they were my new discoveries from this time last year. However, I would've been fresh out of names after dropping those two. Of course I knew of the girl grunge giants Garbage and Hole, but I openly loathe their music and everything having anything to do with Courtney Love. So basically, I would've had no real answer for you.

But you need not worry, my friends. This tragedy has been remedied. 

Something else that has changed in my little world of music, that coincidentally also came from my dear Lady Synic, was that yours truly is now among the paid-Spotify-subscribers community. Yes, it's true; while it may seem like very insignificant news to all of you, I had always felt that streaming music should be a crime, because the artists hardly see any revenue from it. I was a purchaser of hard CDs and Vinyl, (well I still buy vinyl, but not CDs anymore.) It took a hard kick in the pants for me to adapt to the 21st century, and finally see that this is how artists get exposure, listens, and even revenue/recognition for their work. While the best way to support the artist is still to buy a concert ticket and a tour shirt, streaming is apparently the future of music, whether I like it or not.

All of this seemingly incoherent babble aside, I promise you there is a point approaching. Through my new streaming service account, I started to craft a playlist of all female-fronted groups to satisfy my hunger. And as many of you already know, when you find an artist you like, Spotify will recommend a handful of similar artists that you might also like. Well, those bastards got me. And they got me good. Synic Selects Vol. XIII - Female Fronted Favorites II is entirely based on the larger all-encompassing playlist that Lady and I made together, and nearly every track you see below (with a few exceptions) comes from a Spotify suggestion. Exciting, no? I hope you think so, because this is what I'm going with for this month. Let me know what you guys think.

1. Steel Sharpens Steel - Sheer Mag

The first track on the compilation, also the first exception to the rule. This came from my discovery of Sheer Mag last summer, through the suggestion of course of Lady Synic herself. This song opens the album A Distant Call, and what a badass opener it is. Only seemed fitting to have it open this compilation as well.

2. M.I.A. - 7 Year Bitch

I had heard of these girls before, but never actually thought to look into their catalogue. I had heard of them as they were mentioned in the Joan Jett doc Bad Reputation that I watched a couple years ago. As it would turn out, this song, as well as the album it came from, Viva Zapata are dedicated to the late Gits singer Mia Zapata. See why it makes the list yet? Viva Zapata, indeed.

3. Seether - Veruca Salt

Truth be told there were 2 or 3 Veruca Salt songs that were competing for a slot on this list. I eventually decided on this one because, well, I don't really know why. But that's the beauty of music sometimes, isn't it? You don't have to know why you like something, all that matters is that you like it.

4. Less Teeth More Tits - Lunachicks

Of the Riot and punk bands on this list, this song has arguably the most Riot/punk lyrics of them all. If I had to pick a single song that would fully encapsulate the entire spirit and attitude of the Riot Grrrl movement, this song would definitely be a top contender.

5. Shut Up and Fuck - Betty Blowtorch

People used to say that the sex themes in rock & roll was a man's game. But that attitude expired 50 years ago and this song, this band, helped prove that it was never coming back.

6. Kiss Me Girl - Hands Off Gretel

This is one that I am very grateful to Spotify for. I forget which band led me to Hands Off Gretel as a suggested artist, but it brought me to this song. And full disclosure, the whole album this song came from is pretty damn good.

7. Society's Reject - The Soap Girls

This is another one off my playlist that I never skip when it comes on. As of writing this, I have not yet looked further into The Soap Girl's catalogue, but if the rest of it sounds anything like this song you bet your ass I'll be a regular listener.

8. Beat Your Heart Out - The Distillers

This song. This fuckin song, man. Hearing this song again brought be back to my days playing Tony Hawk video games. And looking back at Selects Vol. II - Best Of Tony Hawk, it's a damn tragedy that this song wasn't on there. But goddamn am I glad I found this band again now.

9. Walking in L.A. - Missing Persons

Okay this one is another big exception. Technically they were recommended to me based on another band that I like, Blondie or The GoGo's maybe? But they are not Riot or punk by any means. Full disclosure, these guys are actually pretty annoying. This song took a while to grow on me. But grow it did, and here it is.

10. Oh! - Sleater-Kinney

Ready to hear something embarrassing? I had never even heard of this band until earlier this year, and apparently they are some kind of Riot Grrrl pioneer group that everyone knows about. If not for Lady Synic correctly guessing a Jeopardy question while I was cluelessly sitting next to her, I would still be living in the dark. Luckily, even with all of its faults, there are no shortage of avenues in this world to discover more fantastic music.

11. Can't Get Me Down - Lo-Ball

Another one that had to grow on me. The constant adding of extra syllables at the end of words just to sound edgy will always annoy me. and the vocalist (Pauley Perrette of former NCIS fame) is very guilty of it here. "Can't Get Me Downnn-nuh" will agitate me forever. However the rest of the song is better than good enough for me to overlook this.

12. Flame Thrower - Janet Gardner

Another exception. You remember Janet Gardner from some of my earlier posts, yes? Former singer of Vixen, had a new album come out last year that was very OK? Well this song is from a previous record of hers, and it is the key song to listen to in order to understand her new badass sound since leaving Vixen.

13. Hate For Sale - The Pretenders

Another exception. I knew about these guys for longer than I've been blogging and obsessing over female vocalists. Chrissie Hynde is one of the all-time greats, and admittedly she had to warm up to me. I wasn't a fan when I was younger. But I sure as hell am a fan now. And I wanted to throw one of their songs on here that you guys wouldn't expect. So I skipped the hits from the 80s and I give you the brilliant title track from their last album. You're welcome.

14. Dawn On A Funeral Day - Tsunami Bomb

The last exception (and last song) of the list. I had heard this song many moons ago, and I remember liking it, but in the years since I had grown a little older, discovered hair metal, and forgot completely about this song. I have to thank my oldest sister for bringing it back into my life.

So gang, there it is. I am kicking my addiction to female vocalists once more. Will I relapse again in the future? Most definitely. Will another compilation post be a result of that relapse? Well, that remains to be seen. Be well my friends.

Synic Selects Vol. XIII - Female Fronted Favorites II

1. Steel Sharpens Steel - Sheer Mag

2. M.I.A. - 7 Year Bitch

3. Seether - Veruca Salt

4. Less Teeth More Tits - Lunachicks

5. Shut Up And Fuck - Betty Blowtorch

6. Kiss Me Girl - Hands Off Gretel

7. Society's Reject - The Soap Girls

8. Beat Your Heart Out - The Distillers

9. Walking In L.A. - Missing Persons

10. Oh! - Sleater-Kinney

11. Can't Get Me Down - Lo-Ball

12. Flame Thrower - Janet Gardner

13. Hate For Sale - The Pretenders

14. Dawn On A Funeral Day - Tsunami Bomb

Familiar Faces V Crystal Visions - Aubrey Straw V Sound Egg

 Folks I have to apologize for the long delay since my last post. It certainly wasn't my intention to let that Offspring review fester at the top of my blog feed for over a week, in fact I wanted to get a new review posted as soon as possible to move on from that one. But my day job got in the way, if you can believe that, and it is really difficult to write new reviews without your laptop. Anyway, after far too long of a delay, here we go.

Tonight I'm taking a look at the single "Familiar Faces V Crystal Visions" by the creative collaborative duo Aubrey Straw and Sound Egg. Yeah, I'm not too sure about those names either. I had to fact check like 6 times to make sure I didn't accidentally swap the song title and artist name. Getting into it, we have a rather fun and easily danceable bass groove, with plenty of percussion and synth sounds to go around. in fact, I have to say the bass groove is my favorite element of the track.

What distracts me from this fantastic instrumentation is when the vocals come in. In the spirit of being completely brutally honest, I have to say these vocals just aren't working for me. The piece comes together in a way that reminds me of if britpop-alt rock band Supergrass joined forces with the Talking Heads. There is something that is very David Byrne-reminiscent about the singer's tone that isn't quite landing. What definitely IS landing, however, is the lyricism behind the voice.

While I don't necessarily completely relate with the subject matter of the piece, as it refers to the idea of lizard people running the world, it is the poetic skill involved in the way the lyrics are written that come together rather brilliantly. Lines such as "See what breeds in familiar faces / generations of loathing and faceless put downs / while an elite lounge of reptilians / in summer pavilions / glare with cold humanoid eyes" paint an elaborate picture of the rich and powerful living behind a human-like facade when really they are something entirely different beneath the skin.

Ultimately I think this collaboration shows a lot of promise. They have two really strong components, arguably the hardest two components to get right in a musical composition. And with a little bit more spit and polish done to their vocal work, I think they would have something really special here. I look forward to seeing what these guys do next.

"Familiar Faces V Crystal Visions" - Aubrey Straw V Sound Egg

2 - 1 - 2021

Let The Bad Times Roll - The Offspring

I hope you all understand that I have to take a brief pause from review requests to discuss this. As my loyal readers should know by now, one of my favorite all-time bands is The Offspring, so I was so excited by the idea of discussing new music from the SoCal group on my blog. After listening to Let The Bad Times Roll 5 times since its midnight release, my excitement has dwindled a bit. Let's get into what happened.

This is their 10th studio album, with their 9th release being Days Go By from 2012. That's a gap of 9 years, which is insanity if you ask me. But the band has been busy, touring with a different shitty 90s pot-rock band every summer, getting a PhD, firing their bass player, filming and re-filming music videos without said bass player, etcetera etcetera. So after such a long wait, this new record had to be mind-blowing. And the sad truth of it is, the only thing mind-blowing about it, is how mind-blowingly mediocre it is.

It opens with "This Is Not Utopia," which is in every conceivable way a rip-off of other punk legends Bad Religion. Listen closely to the chorus of this song. The harmonic chants "The roots... the roots of America," is straight out of Greg Graffin's catalogue. Even the title of it is super reminiscent of BR. I should say that I don't hate this song, but it's not an Offspring song. And considering what Dexter said of the new album: "It sounds like our old shit!" I'm starting to think Dex has forgotten what their old shit sounded like.

From there we go into the title track. "Let The Bad Times Roll" is a celebratory punk anthem of the shitstorm that our country/world has become. Knowing what I do about the band members and their political views, it is more than safe to say this song is a political commentary on the Trump presidency. But here's the thing with that: he's not even the fucking president anymore. They waited so long, that their big politically-driven title track, and the theme of the whole album, is no longer relevant.

Scattered among the mostly forgettable filler songs are a couple gems, though. "Hassan Chop" isn't bad, minus the whispered lines. "We Never Have Sex Anymore" was leaked online some years ago now, and it resurfaced quietly as the albums 3rd sleeper single. Many fans hate it, but I actually have grown to love it. "The Opioid Diaries" and "Army Of One" are other notable tracks that almost resemble classic Offspring.

Also thrown into the track listing are "Coming For You," the first single (which was released literally 6 years ago) the unnecessary "Lullaby" serves as the album closer, following the piano rendition of "Gone Away," which is much better when seen live so you can forget how Dexter's voice just isn't cut out for ballads, and then there's the strange and completely out of place instrumental cover of "In The Hall Of The Mountain King," which comes right after "Never Have Sex..." so it is just a very confusing transition.

In conclusion, I have been excited for a new Offspring record for 9 years. But that is not what I got. What I got was a Bad Religion rip-off, a smattering of pop-punk borderline emo filler stuff, a couple unwanted covers, and 4 new Offspring songs. Between their last 3 studio releases, I really find myself believing that the band is struggling with a sort of identity crisis and their fans are suffering for it. Was it worth the wait? Nah. Will I still go see them live as many times as I can? For sure. 

Let The Bad Times Roll - The Offspring

4 - 16 - 2021

1. This Is Not Utopia

2. Let The Bad Times Roll

3. Behind Your Walls

4. Army Of One

5. Breaking These Bones

6. Coming For You

7. We Never Have Sex Anymore

8. In The Hall Of The Mountain King

9. The Opioid Diaries

10. Hassan Chop

11. Gone Away

12. Lullaby

Favorite Track: Army Of One

Least Favorite Track: Lullaby

Feeling Me - JD Mac

 Well you know what happens after you have your first time, don't you? You immediately want to dive back in for a second time. Good news, readers; that's exactly what we're gonna do together tonight. Tonight is the night that we take the plunge back into the world of hip hop. 

This time around, we're going to be looking at the new single "Feeling Me" by the one JD Mac. The collaborative track with Jae Mazor wastes no time in making it's message clear: "This one's for the ladies... I know you're feeling me right? I know your feeling me" These are the first lines of the song, and also the last lines to feature any sort of subtlety. From here, listeners are subjected to rhyme after rhyme about how special this girl is. So special, in fact, that the artist wants "to go down down down..." Hot, raw, on the bed, in the shower, even some whipped cream. This song really has it all.

But enough about the lyrics. I have to give the artist credit here where the credit is certainly due. The track is built around a beat that is as strong as any hip hop song I've ever heard. The balance between the lead singer's deep booming voice and the higher pitched electronically-tweaked voices are my favorite part of the song's composition. The changing pitches keep me reeled in as a listener and constantly engaged/interested in what they're saying. The chorus on this one is particularly fun, and I could've listened to it for a while without getting sick of it. In fact, I didn't even notice it fading out until the song was over.

Something I would maybe consider doing differently in the future, and keep in mind that this is merely commentary on this specific track and not the artist himself, is polishing up his lyricism. Again, as it was requested I review this track, I listened to this track 7 times and none of his others, so all I know of him came from this one song. But on this one song, his lyrics leave absolutely nothing to the listeners' imagination. There are hardly any big metaphors, just straight and to the point. He's a bit like the hip hop equivalent of Steel Panther or Psychosexual in this sense: it's hard to be tongue-in-cheek when your tongue is in your girlfriend. While the directness of the lyrics didn't bother me per se, I would really love to see him be a little more poetic in future releases. The structure and balance of the song really shine here, and with some perfected lyrics, I think JD Mac would have something really special.

"Feeling Me" - JD Mac

1 - 14 - 2021

Lockdown - Say Yes, Do Nothing

 Hey guys, remember a while back when I discussed a single called "Hum of the Hidden Machine"? Well the artist behind that single is back. Metaphorically speaking, of course; for they are home under lockdown just like the rest of us, as the title of their latest single would imply. "Lockdown" hit streaming services several weeks ago, nearly a full year into our "2 week quarantine."

Of all the singles I've heard thus far that were written about or inspired by the Coronavirus Pandemic and the house arrest or mask mandate that came along with it, this one is arguably the catchiest. What I immediately notice about this track is how night and day it is compared to "Hidden Machine." This one features an almost surfy skate-punk-like sound to it, or perhaps a skatey surf-punk sound. Soon the vocalist joins in, and his voice reminds me very much of what would happen if we were to combine Elvis Costello with Joe Strummer of The Clash. And as you can imagine just from my description, these two elements of the punkish tone of the guitar and the Strum-ello voice combine beautifully.

As I mentioned in a previous post where I discussed the record "Synergy" by Gardner & James, I talked about how I didn't really care much for their song "Talk To Myself" because the last thing I want from the music I listen do during lockdown, is to be reminded that we're in lockdown. However, I have since used this song in my Quarantine Synic Selects bonus EP, so I clearly have gotten over this. But even if I wasn't, I would still appreciate this single. There's something so mindlessly fun about it, where you could shut your brain off and just enjoy it regardless of what it's about. But if you were to really pay attention to the lyrics, you would hear some lines such as "The brokenhearted lovers are all calling it quits / They say 'Never love a girl with the mannequin tits / But she gives me what I want now / and we're a Lockdown'" Full disclosure, the lyrics took me a few listens and a few more reads to really get, but what I believe the artist is saying, with special thanks and interpretation credits to Lady Synic, so I guess I should say what WE believe the artist is saying... is that this song is 3 accounts of different people involved in toxic/destructive relationships who feel like they should get out of them, but can't because they are locked down with their partner, both metaphorically and literally, and decide it is better to be partnered and abused than be completely alone during the times of Covid. It's tragically beautiful in this way, assuming Lady Synic and I are correct in our interpretation...

What I think my favorite thing about this song is, is how contrary the subject matter of the lyrics are compared to the song's overall sound. It's fast in tempo, and just drives forward in a really fun but headbangy sort of way, all the while the song's message is a massive bummer. I love when songs do this. You're so engaged in the music you don't even realize what the lyrics are telling you.

"Lockdown" - Say Yes, Do Nothing

1 - 23 - 2021