This Is Book's Music

After The Fall are an incredible punk/hardcore band that bring to mind the velocity of Christ On A Crutch, Propaghandi, and Positive Greed, where the rage and anger they sing about continues to grow and grow until it manifests into something so deranged, you have to stay along for the ride until they explode. Eradication (Mightier Than Sword) is a 14-song album that lasts a little over 25 minutes. Technically that’s an EP, but tell these guys that. The songs go from mid-tempo to songs that move at such an unsafe pace, you want to jump on stage and scream along with them. If “Stagnation” makes you stand still as the song title suggests, perhaps you need to be pushed into a pit and feel what this song means. Even at furious speeds, they do it with melody and it’s great to hear that within the tempos these guys play at, only to change up about 30 seconds later and then return.

Also, if you are in tune with After The Fall, you may think that what you’re hearing is one long song until you realize “wait, I just went through 13 songs, now what?”

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It didn’t seem that long ago when John Vanore had released an album with Abstract Truth, but the wait between albums has been worth it with a brand new one for 2011, Contagious Words (Acoustical Concepts Inc.)

I love big band/ensemble jazz, and in this case it’s a quattuordectet (14-piece), and these guys all sound incredible with force and precision, with the kind of songs I would love to hear (and see) in a live setting. “Substructure” will definitely please fans of Don Ellis with its 6/4 time signature, and the vibe of all of the horns in the room will probably make you want to tear your hair out with ecstasy. Like many trumpet players before him, Vanore is the commander and you hear his placement in each of his song. What’s great is when you hear the other musicians respond or accent his message to the listeners, perhaps it is that message that are his Contagious Words.

The album was produced by Vanore himself, and sounds incredible both at loud, booming volumes and at lower volumes. I found myself wanting to hear this in a number of ways, but I’ll have to stop so I can appreciate it weeks, months, and definitely years into the future.

Sometimes what you need in live is a damn good rock band that’ll kick you in the ass and leave you with permanent welts. Only Thieves seem like the kind of band who will do this and do this well, as they do on their album Heartless Romantics (self-released).

Combine elements of Cheap Trick, The Clash, The Cure and probably a bunch of other bands that start with the letter C and what you’ll get is some very brass rock with a slight punk attitude, as Only Thieves show. There’s a nice abrasive touch with pop tendencies, and it’s very welcome. Some of it sounds a bit like early Flaming Lips, which will be pleasing for Lips fan who miss the fucked-up qualities of their favorite Oklahoma band. Hot stuff.

Jazz and the trombone: it’s a love affair that involves a lot of spooning and fingering, and within the residue on the digits come (get it?) a lot of great music. Shawn Bell is a trombonist who hits all the right places throughout his 7-song album, Things Yet Unknown (self-released).

The majority of the songs on this (5 out of 7) are originals, and whether it’s done with a Latin twist or just straight out jazz mindblowers, all of them good. With a quintet that includes Samuel Jewell (I love his credit of simply “drum set”), Nate Brown (bass), Jonathan McQuade (flugel horn), and Ross Margitza (piano), Bell plays in top notch form, with everyone outdoing each other mentally but all wanting to reach a goal together. Sometimes that competitive spirit is too obvious when one musician outshines the other in a too-obvious manner, but it’s just done classy here.

What are those Things that may be Yet Unknown? That in itself is unknown, but you can help Bell and friends to figure out some of the variable answers.

Maybe because I was raised around a family full of musicians, and many of them playing the guitar, I’m attracted to guitar based music, even though my own skills are minimal. I love the sound and the abilities and capabilities of each musician, and I appreciate a lot of it. Perhaps this is why upon hearing Hear And Now by Lou Volpe, I hear a sense of home or a homecoming. No, Volpe doesn’t have (to my knowledge) any roots in Hawai’i, but I mean music that sounds like the comforts of home, in that he sounds comfortable in what and how he plays. Volpe has done session work and has played live with many musicians in his career, and this is just an additional thread in the fabric of sounds he has shared with the world.

Volpe may play jazz but he’s not limited to just jazz, nor is he a jazz purist like some musicians make themselves to be. On this album, he plays the hell out of his guitar but it’s not a blitzkrieg or anything. It’s just someone who loves to play and does so with incredible skill. It goes back to some of the jazz guitarists of the 1960′s like Wes Montgomery and Pat Martino where the beauty in what he plays is, well, what he plays. I love the phrasing on this and how it feels like a casual conversation to whomever is willing to listen. This is the kind of jazz I could listen to all day, and the kind of jazz that may make your Sunday mornings even better.

If you are a fan of vocal jazz, you may have heard about Susie Meissner in the last few years. She has returned with a brand new album of 13 jazz standards called I’m Confessin’ (Lydianjazz), and if you’re into this style of jazz music, you will find this to be a treat.

Some of the tracks on this include “On A Slow Boat To China”, “Just Squeeze Me”, “Day By Day”, and “A Time For Love”, all of them performed in a nice, laid back style that will be pleasing to vocal jazz fans. I found myself blown away by the musicianship of Wycliffe Gordon and Freddie Hendrix, two more reasons why you’ll want to pick this up for yourself.

It is certain that $hamrock, a/k/a Yung Irish, released his debut full length album Tha Wyterapper Show (Wyte Music/Select-O-Hits) during the week that St. Patrick’s Day hit. A lot of people may be saying “who the hell is this white cat?” but if you remember VH-1′s Ego-Trip’s The (White) Rapper Show, you’ll know that it was a contest where various white rappers competed for a prize. I myself thought it was a great show, pushed slightly as a gimmick even though there were some people on their with skills. $hamrock won the top prize, and while he had released an EP and did a few mix tape appearances here and there, nothing happened, or at least no one outside of his fanbase had heard of him. Four years after winning, he’s hoping to turn some heads.

The album is called Tha WyteRapper Show and with his feet firmly planted in Atlanta, his music is very much about the Dirty South. He has a target audience, and he knows how to cater to them with lyrics and flows that are quite good. You did read that right, he has “flows”, in that he doesn’t rap in one specific style. Sometimes people are able to make it rhyming in one fashion and he doesn’t. There are songs about money, cars, women, and even a track called “Penitentiary” that touches about friends who will not be able to live in the outside world for five to ten years. It’s a song that might be enjoyed by his lady fans who may have boyfriends, husbands, or lovers who are locked up. Then there’s a song like “Stomp A Ho”, which if you listen fast could be a perfect song used by Ex-Lax (listen to the lyrics and you know why). There are songs here about hopes, dreams, and wanting better, all filled with fantasies about what the good life represents and what it can be for those who are living the myth of those fantasies. $hamrock doesn’t specifically say “I’m living this way, live the way I do”, he plays the role of the observer but doesn’t mind saying he wants some of that too.

As a producer, I tend to focus on that even more and if there’s one downfall to this album, it’s that the energy he conveys in his lyrics aren’t equaled in the music. I would have liked to have heard more diversity, I can hear him rhyming over some tight 9th Wonder beats or doing a track with Rakaa, Donwill, or Eternia, I imagine $hamrock being able to adapt to any musical environment while bringing other collaborators into his world too. I don’t hear that here, but I hear the potential of more. However, that’s my view of what I want to hear in future $hamrock projects. What I do hear is someone who has a level of confidence that comes from sharpening his skills and the methods in how he wants to be heard and known. There was a time when his style of music may not be enjoyed by people of other regions, and yet he’s not all about the ATL. $hamrock will appeal to fans of the Bay Area, those who like E-40 or Too $hort will find something along the same lines here.

As it stands, Tha WyteRapper Show is a decent album but I await to hear what he’ll come up with in the next few years.