The Hives – Club Vera Live (February 13th, 2001 in Holland)

Digital Underground Inc, 2001

I am not that much of a fan of live recordings.  I find that no matter how much energy is apparent on the album, what songs are involved or whatever the banter is, it’s just a let down.  It gives you a good idea as to how the band sounds in person, of course, but it completely doesn’t work for me because it’s not in person.  Can’t see anything, can’t smell anything, can’t feel anything … I know KISS pulled it off well on “Alive” but ever since then most live accounts are unimpressive for my ears.  However, I can’t resist any album by a band I really like, especially one that I actually have seen live.  Even if I wasn’t in Holland for this recording, I might be able to relive the great time I had here in Boston with some common songs.  Plus, one never knows when old habits (or perceptions in this case) die, so maybe this would be a live album I could stand.

For those who have heard live bootlegs before, I suppose this review might be predictable.  Therefore, I’ll split it into two predictable parts:  the good and the bad.  The good is mainly the Hives themselves.  Aside from a few singles from their “Veni, Vidi, Vicious” period, the Hives are shamefully ignored for the most part in America.  When one hears songs like “Knock, Knock”, “Main Offender” and “A Get Together to Tear It Apart” on this live record one can feel the hasty energy that the Hives emit on the crowd.  Maybe they’re not as fast as the early Ramones, but they surely can inspire some rapid head bobbin’ and arm jerkin’ in most humans with a pulse.  Since it’s a 2001 concert, the Hives rip through most of the “Veni, Vidi, Vicious” record without a lot of sounds of recognition from the Dutch audience.  Ahhh, those early and best days of the Hives.

Many of the songs get extended a bit due to vocalist Howlin Pelle Almqvist’s chatter between songs.  These were the times that reminded me of when I saw the group, for Almqvist’s discussion is mostly directed towards saying how great his band is and how the Hives were now everyone’s favorite band.  The cheeky confidence, as well as some of the made up stories that Almqvist tells (like the one where he personally surveyed the people of Holland by phone to determine their favorite Hives song), doesn’t come across as dull or irritating.  I suppose when humor is involved anyone is easier to listen to.

Now for a bit of the bad.  At some point during the fourth song some guy decides to speak loudly to the person recording the show.  Apparently the dude with the big mouth missed the recording device that had to be held in the air at the time, but I suppose those interruptions happen often for bootlegs.  For a recording that isn’t straight out of the sound board, the recorder did a great job staying away from a majority of the loud crowd members so that the songs are easily heard.  The songs all still sound a bit muddled due to distance, but that’s forgivable.  That one dude probably still lives with the shame of besmirching this bootleg, though.

Another item that is annoying is that this album doesn’t have a track listing!  To all you bootleggers out there, just throw a track list on there somewhere will ya?  Hives fans know their songs I’m sure but they don’t want to have to guess where certain ones are if they want to skip to them.  Perhaps the bootlegger did intend to put a track listing somewhere in the album art, but while they were printing out the mind numbing day-glo cover the Dutch authorities busted down their door in a Hives bootleg crackdown mission.  The bootlegger had to escape by the window, likely in tears, since his or her product was unfinished.  Yes, that must be why there isn’t a track list.  Couldn’t have been due to indifference, I’m sure of it now.

Listen and see all things Hives at their website, but perhaps it’s just best to see them at Pinkpop in Holland in 2001.  Hey, pretty good visual aim considering the bootleg, eh?

I admit that I am surprised that I didn’t find this a grating listening experience.  The Hives’ songs all sounded as quick as their album versions while the recording never got choppy or distracting.  I don’t know if I”ll ever really enjoy live albums, but this one turned out to be a pretty good one overall.  The Hives continue to release official albums as well as tour around the world, so it’s certain that if you end up seeing them live sometime there will be a person up front with some kind of recording device.  Just don’t go up to them and say something like “Hey!  Are you recording the show?!”.

Golden Smog – On Golden Smog EP

Crackpot Records, 1992

Clearly, the cover art grabbed me not only in design but band name representation.  I actually own a Golden Smog record already (“Down By the Old Mainstream”) so it was easy to just scoop this one up as well for a listen.  I was more shocked that I even had the opportunity, for how often does one find a Golden Smog EP from 1992 at the Salvation Army.  Digging around some more, it was apparent that someone (or someplace) had given up nearly their entire nineties indie band collection for my perusal.  Oh, it was a fun time looking through indeed, but I had to take a couple of guesses.  The word “indie” meant something else back then in those nineties.  As in, unknown.  Golden Smog, however, did not entirely fit that label.

In 1992, Golden Smog included members from the Jayhawks, Soul Asylum, and even the Replacements.  Apparently they wanted to get away from their usual rock acts and spin a few low key covers for this EP, which could read as a good or bad thing.  It always is a curiosity about how side projects will sound involving members of one’s favorite bands, but usually side projects also mean a change in tone.  It wouldn’t be likely to expect the same sound of Soul Asylum’s “Want Somebody to Shove” or the Replacements’ tunes from “Let It Be” or “Tim”, especially the latter since Paul Westerburg isn’t involved in this project (Chris Mars is).  However, for five songs I imagine this was a nice release for these guys so it’s worth a listen to hear what they’ve got.

What they’ve got, apparently, is some real low key music.  The first song, “Son”, is a Michaelangelo cover that sounds like a … well, a nineties bar band.  Not impressive, but still gets you to order another Narragansett from the bar because you want to stick around for the next song.  “Easy to Be Hard” is a tune from the musical “Hair”.  “Hair”!  I suppose this is exactly the kind of cover song that Gary Louris (who sings) and the rest of the band thought had to be a Golden Smog cover and only a Golden Smog cover.  Could you imagine the Replacements covering this?  Or Soul Asylum?  It’s like that guilty karaoke fix where you hide yourself in a room and sing your brains out to songs no one knows you secretly enjoy.  Louris pulls it off pretty well, though I wonder if he sang it naked.

Dave Pirner shows up on the Bad Company tune “Shooting Star” that is on classic rock radio on steady rotation.  Yet another nineties bar band reference here, but I imagine that comparison just doesn’t matter to Golden Smog.  Who cares?  Crackpot Records from Minnesota were letting these guys throw some songs down and, I imagine, the group had a good time.  Same goes for “Backstreet Girl” (Rolling Stones) and “Cowboy Song” (Thin Lizzy), which are respectable towards the originals.  Turns out that “Cowboy Song” was sung by a roadie, who sings like he knows this is some kind of opportunity to sing a Thin Lizzy song with an actual band behind him.

Golden Smog still exist in various forms and can be heard on MySpace, Last.fm,and at Lost Highway Records (their current label).

I like this EP fine enough, but it mainly serves as an introduction to a band of friends who have continued their cover dabbling up to recent years.  It’s not the strongest set of covers, but none of them seem like a waste of time to listen to.  This is probably not a disc to spend too much money on just to hear five songs, but if you’re a fan of one of the band’s covered there might be a tune or two to download or rip just to have handy.  As mentioned before, Golden Smog still exists with members of the Jayhawks and Soul Asylum, and they last released a covers album in 2007.  Actually, that record “Blood On the Slacks” contains David Bowie and Dinosaur Jr covers.  Sheesh, guess I better keep an eye out for it in the bins…

David Thomas Broughton – It’s In There Somewhere…

Birdwar Records, 2007

I needed to look at this album cover for a little while before I noticed the tree’s branches.  Clever!  Even if they were just a bunch of tangled tree branches that didn’t hint at the artist involved I still would have picked this album up for the art alone.  A very simple white background with light pencil sketches that hint at serenity is enough for me to spend a dollar on a chance.  Unlike paintings and drawings that cost $50-$200 at a local gallery, getting a pleasing piece of art in the form of a small, glossy square is not only more affordable but also nice to gaze at when the music plays.  Problem is where does one find a bunch of really small, square picture frames to hang these in around the apartment?  Perhaps I should’ve bought the vinyl version instead …

David Thomas Broughton, from the land of Britain, is not interested in conventional solo compositions.  Much of his music is layered with multiple versions of keyboards, acoustic guitar, and his own voice.  His vocals come across as a wispy mumble, altogether vulnerable and humble, so it is rather difficult to hear what he’s trying to say clearly.  With everything that is going on (albeit quietly), I suppose one can appreciate each song on its surface first as a composition of sounds, then going back to try to pick out the elements.  This includes those lyrics, which Broughton thankfully has up on his website for easier clarification.

One of the early, signifying tracks on the record is “Gracefully Silent”.  Listening to “Gracefully Silent” for a few minutes, I realized that it didn’t change much from a discordant harmonica or keyboard sound, over-layered mumbling, and lightweight confusion.  I soon caught on that it wasn’t just for a few minutes, but eight minutes.  Eight minute repetitive epic!  Normally I would skip ahead and lay waste to the song with words but I never got near the skip button because I found the track oddly calming.  I think that harmonica sound (which may be played backwards) sounds mournful enough to make me want to hear it again … and again … but that might not be your thing.  This song may grate on one’s patience if one is in a hurry, so I suggest not being in a hurry to truly enjoy it!

Other tracks resemble “Gracefully Silent” in their humility.  The sounds are so gentle and timid on “Interlude 1″ that the cameo of a drum beat in the background comes off like a bully.  “I Don’t Want to Believe You” has a muffled Broughton singing like a blues man amidst a few light guitars strumming and what sounds like an endless slide of a slide guitar.  I like that the song doesn’t settle for just a vocal and guitar pairing and instead adds more depth with the extra accompaniments.  “Nature” is a rare song in that Broughton actually pots up his voice to the front over the most rock ‘n roll his guitar strumming is going to get.  It’s another epic at six minutes, and during the song Broughton creates a sound that resembles his efforts in pushing a straw back and forth through a fast food plastic drink cover.  Yeah, it’s an eerie sound that carries on for about three minutes, but at this point it is to be expected.  Like I said, Broughton isn’t interested in conventional compositions.

Although you can find Broughton’s music on MySpace, I think you should take some time to also have a look at some of his great drawings (scroll down).  Sure, they are human/animal compositions you wouldn’t want to see in your dreams, but perhaps if you put you hand over half the creature you’ll soak up the artistically normal a bit more.

Broughton’s style is one of the more unique sounds I’ve heard in awhile.  It’s pleasing to the ear on the whole, but if one is used to something more traditional in their singer-songwriters then this experimental folk style can be difficult to traverse if listened to closely.  Still, I like it enough and would be interested in hearing what Broughton conjures up in his later releases.  He has managed to put out a record in 2011 entitled “Outbreeding”, so I’ll have to keep an eye out for that not only for the music but also for whatever mammal concoctions Broughton has drawn up recently.  By the way, if you happen to be in the United Kingdom this summer he’s apparently going to be on tour during June.  Given that much of the music on this album is layered many times over, it would be interesting to see how it plays out live.  Let me know if you go!

Quintaine Americana – Needles

CherryDisc Record Company, 1996

I believe I once saw these guys opening for the Melvins with a buddy of mine.  My friend said that he had really wanted to see Quintaine Americana because he heard they were heavy.  It was a show that gave us a mixed reaction (okay, not heavy enough I guess) but the power was certainly there.  It was also there when I picked up this disc and saw the dog corpse on the cover.  Ah man, that’s not what I really needed to see.  I tried to envision the live show when I put this disc on the counter to buy and not the band’s strange interest in deceased family pets.

Quintaine Americana is a Boston area band that gives off a progressive hard rock sound that was a familiar sound in the nineties if you went looking for it.  “Needles” is their debut album that arrived the same year as Tool’s “Aenima”, whose sound is an obvious influence.  Knowing what the band sounded like before I spun the disc I was a little worried the record would get sludgy and monotonous by the third track, but it turns out the album gets better as the tracks progress.

“Aunt Ruth” has a real meaty, deep bass line that permeates throughout the song that I really like having there to keep the mood.  Granted, bassist Marc Schleicher doesn’t have much else to do during the song as he keeps playing it for nearly five minutes … so maybe like Ringo Starr he gets a bit bored playing the same thing.  Rob Dixon’s vocals remind me of Steve Albini’s in Big Black such that they have a menacingly flat tone that you feel can erupt at any moment.  It never really gets there in this song, as the guitar spends most of the time in the forefront.

Dixon’s vocals definitely prove to be the weakest element as the album thunders along , though perhaps I’m the only one who listens to heavy rock and bothers with vocal criticism.  His voice does work on a few tracks, however.  “Retarded Whore” gets the eye-rubbing song title award for the record, though I have to say it builds up the anxiety pretty well with the slow guitar chugging building into a noisy chorus.  The song stands out a little bit from the rest, though that is because the rest all have that chugging bass, squealing guitar, and those grating vocals.  One my more favorite songs is the quick and simple “JT, Fire at the Trailer Park”.  Something about its urgency and steady riff throughout probably wins me over, but maybe it’s also because I never had time to get sick of it given its two minutes of length.  Honestly, if you can take a page out of Wire’s mantra of getting out before getting boring, then take it.

“The Rifleman” begins with a guitar riff that one might hear when wandering the desert; it has a hopeless yet sharp effect as it repeats early on.  The heavy chorus introduces itself quickly and through the collision of guitar and bass Dixon’s despairing vocals blend in very well.  It’s one of the stronger tracks on the record, succeeding in not getting too routine in its length.  Unfortunately, some songs are not engaging whatsoever.  “I’m Sorry” sounds like another stark tune given the sparse guitar strums early on as well as the monologue that seems to refer to a father-son rift.  A fine lyric:  “The only thing I hate more than myself is people who actually like me.”  Yeesh.  After “The Rifleman” it is not only a downer in spirit but a downer in expectations.  I guess the band chose this moment to mix things up, but it didn’t work out well.  The rest of the record sounds a lot like the early part, so despite this dud of a song at least the band finished up well.

A few songs of Quintaine Americana’s heavy output can be heard on MySpace if you’re interested.

This isn’t a record that I would likely return to often since other groups have done this better and, frankly, Dixon’s vocals aren’t all that impressive here.  Quintaine Americana did go on to make a couple more records within a decade’s worth of time before calling it quits.  Given that Boston tends to produce a lot of garage rock bands that pack the bars, Quintaine Americana filled a niche that was sorely needed in the area.  Since their last record came out eight years after this one, it would be worth the time to spin it just to see how these guys ended up.