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Various Artists – Look Directly Into the Sun: China Pop 2007
I know nothing about Chinese music, popular or underground. Therefore, seeing an affordably priced compilation that declares it represents China Pop in 2007 easily captured my attention. I have heard a lot of Japanese and Korean pop, so I thought that I might have to wade through quite a few sugary numbers. With bands like Queen Sea Big Shark and Voodoo Kung Fu I felt I could survive a few cute dance numbers.
Apparently this compilation was put together by a fellow named Martin Atkins, who traveled out to China some years back and wanted to put together a collection that represented the Chinese underground scene. Great concept! He actually is a member of China Dub Soundsystem (on this disc with so-so flare) and created a film entitled “Sixteen Days in China” about his Beijing trip and the bands he ran into. Whatever one thinks about this compilation, I bet that film would be fascinating to watch.
So, on with the music. I know that compilations are a real crapshoot when it comes to hearing tracks that are interesting enough to spin again. Unfortunately, this album required some serious effort to find much of anything that was agreeable with the stomach. The compilation starts off with two serious clunkers, the first being Snapline’s “Close Your Cold Eyes” that has a vocalist that sounds a lot like a really bored Damon Albarn in an elecro noise effort. Then China MC Brother’s “JaiJung” rap rock gave me the Limp Bizkit chills. Like I said, awful start.
Thankfully, a pure pop punk number by Caffe-In saves the disc from a preliminary chuck out the window. The female vocalist squeaks a little bit as the power chords speed through “Mario and Peaches”, which would be great to have the lyrics to for this Nintendo enthusiast. After digging up a little bit more about them, it turns out the group is actually made up of Japanese folks. Other good tunes on the album are an excellently blended guitar instrumental by White and a live ska-like track by Rococo. “Panda” by Carsick Cars is also a solid straightforward rock song that reminds me of that 90s indie sound, but the vocalist is dull.
Alright, now for the outright junk! Aside from those first two songs, Subs pulls a Linkin Park and tries to sound very soft and then blow up in your face with shouting. However, at four plus minutes the song is tedious to listen through with its disjointed guitar and repetition of “Shut up, shut up, shut up” and top volume. The Scoff’s “Nasty” probably is the equivalent of an American grrl band, so I guess one can’t ding too much on a punk song whose vocals that are intentionally ragged. Unless, of course, it’s a guy singing. HoneyGun stole a riff from Alice in Chains’ “Man in a Box” and Voodoo Kung Fu is just … out there. I guess they are an artsy metal screamo band, which is fascinating to listen to once given the country of origin I guess.
Those looking for more about the music on this compilation might find something on the record label website: Invisible China. I also managed to find the Chinese MySpace page for Caffe-In if you want to listen to what pop punk out of China sounds like.
I feel sort of bad labeling this collection as a Bust, for I do like Atkin’s idea of promoting music we might not otherwise hear. Unfortunately, aside from a few good songs from Caffe-In and Rococo, I couldn’t recommend this compilation to anyone unless they just want to hear what Chinese underground music sounds like for the experience. According to these eighteen bands, it simply sounds similar to American underground music. Glad to hear that bands are trying to make it over there in the East, but there aren’t many on this collection that makes me desperate to buy a plane ticket to go see what I’m missing. I suppose this hurts my diplomacy score, eh?
Various Artists – Cheese Borger’s Pie and Ears Volume 2
With one of the more revolting covers I’ve seen in awhile, there is no chance I would pass on picking up a compilation of Cleveland punk rock. I, ah, recognize the name of Cheese Borger from a previous review regarding his cadre of Pink Holes, so for twenty-three tracks for much less than twenty-three dollars this was a surefire grab. To think there was a previous volume of Cleveland punk released is hard to believe, but I guess when the Browns and Indians aren’t doing much of anything people are driven to high volumes. Better than reading I say!
So what does one expect from a punk compilation that is nearly a decade old? Well actually, this compilation was put together in 2002 but consists of mostly punk tunes from back in the eighties. Therefore, consider this collection as a group of musicians who were recently influenced by the big punk movement from the seventies. Given that the state of music today mostly consists of interchangeable dance pop tunes and irony-maxed indie rock, a compilation with some raw, lightly produced garage rock from back in the day can actually be refreshing. Who knows, one may even find a highly unheralded band to dig into more deeply.
After a few muddled compositions by Kneecappers and Disciples of Death (band name props), things really get revved up with Idiot Humans’ “Toppling Stairs”. The main riff thoroughly reminds me of the Wipers’ “D.7” with its foreboding sense of doom, yet the song doesn’t bother with any of the slow stuff and consists of pure acceleration. The cover of the Pagans’ “Eyes of Satan” by Styrenes doesn’t have much for lyrics aside from the title track. Is it punk to essentially skip verses? Still a fun blitz of a tune, though.
Those songs aside, apart from a few stand outs there are many tracks that sound like what one might expect from a local punk band compilation. There’s a lot of low production, speed, inattention to lyrical clarity, short song lengths, and guitars, guitars, guitars. Many songs tend to blend together for the most part, but there are a few nice exceptions. New Salem Witch Hunters’ “Plain to See” sounds like a great bar room pop song with its sixties style and fine keyboard inclusion. The Clocks sound very fresh with their garage rock during their detailing of a literal “Family Feud” while the Pink Holes throw in a solid, fuzzy surf track. I can’t get enough of the surf stuff.
Since a bunch of these guys were out before MySpace came along, perhaps you will find something interesting to buy or listen to at Smog Veil Records’ website.
Overall, it’s an enjoyable compilation of punk tracks of varying quality. I didn’t find any that were just too awful to sit through a few minutes with, which either reflects the time period’s style or the general talent of the musicians. Or perhaps I was too busy stroking my leather jacket to notice, who knows. Truth is, compilations are hard to utterly pan given that there always tends to be enough variety to make anyone appreciate the disc in spurts. All I know is that if I ever find myself in Cleveland I’ll be seeking out this Cheese Borger guy to tell me which shows to catch.
Various Artists – It Came From Beneath L.A.
A combination of factors makes one pick up a cheap record, never mind a cheap compilation. In this case, zombies with briefcases wandering around in an apocalyptic city setting got me thinking that this must be mine. Plus, it’s from Triple X records which has been known to release records from little known L.A. bands that rock as hard as they can given their lack of exposure. Bizarre album cover, record label, zombies … this disc had some potential!
Only six bands are included on this compilation as the people at Triple X figured that each of them needed two songs each. Either that, or there weren’t enough good bands on the label at the time that they had to double up just to fill the record. As each song unfolds, it is quickly apparent that those people were terribly mistaken in releasing a compilation, period. It doesn’t help that this compilation was conceived in the mid-nineties when music tended to be grunge or bust. When a band tried a different direction in those days they were either named Yo La Tengo or they usually failed in their mission to entertain. As it turns out, of the six bands on this compilation, about four and a half spewed absolute garbage.
Lifter is the designated rote rock band that sounds like a bar grunge band impression with their plain, local sound. The first track on the record is Lifter’s “Shutout,” which is just a terrible way to begin the compilation since it has zero appeal and virtually no originality. Their later song of “Nova” at least gives the group a fair chance at roping in standardrock fans, but it’s still a headshaker of a tune. The Penny Dreadfuls are a female-led rock group that channel a bit of the Throwing Muses without the aggressive Tanya Donnelly vocals. They’re just another hohum act. A band called Nameless tries much too hard to be noisily different that one can’t help but quickly skip past them. E.Coli actually mix a bit of punk in their streamlined rock and, in truth, prove that they might have been alright enough given time. The songs they contributed are listenable and so I must give them some credit for sorta succeeding.
Congo Norvell … I don’t even know what to make of this duo. They want to sound artsy with sensual female vocals and disjointed musicianship, but it all comes across as very tedious to listen to. I guess one member of the group, Kid Congo, used to be involved with the Cramps. Could’ve fooled me with this pretentious crap. Snap-Her is a another female-led band on the compilation, but they go with a promising punk vibe. Unfortunately, they opted to include a tune entitled “I Want to Beavis You”. Huh huh, uh, yeah. They do, however, resemble a band that I thought was going to encapsulate this compilation and do turn out to have at least one song on here (“Name Brand Society”) that sparks a bit of energy.
There aren’t any mp3s I could find online, but I did find this Beavis tune on Youtube. The song begins about one minute in.
The text inside the booklet claims that there are “plenty of terrific up-coming groups in Los Angeles”. Unfortunately, none of those bands were included on this compilation. Sure, E.Coli and Snap-Her had some potential but they’re nothing one couldn’t have easily heard elsewhere. Overall, this compilation is a real disappointment and certainly fails in delivering any kind of inspiration to follow up with any of these now-defunct groups. Bad bands, the nineties, and a mostly unsuccessful song list qualifies as a dead ringer for the Golden Garbage Can.