"SSM"
Catch up with Michelle Branch's new band, other recent releases
The Wreckers
Overall: 4 stars
Music: 4 stars
Lyrics: 4 stars
Vocals: 4 stars
Replay: 5 stars
Garage rock? Detroit sound? Dance Rock? Synth pop? Who cares?
SSM's first full-length is a lot of fun, original and interesting. And the trio is made up of three weathered Detroit-based musicians.
John Szymanski plays bass in the Paybacks and vocals/keys for The Henchmen. Dave Shettler has played drums with The Sights. And guitar player Marty Morris was a part of The Cyril Lords.
Together they have created a sound that doesn't need to be defined, only listened to. There are passionate vocals, pots and pan drum beats hitting all over the place, raw guitar riffs and strange synth noises floating through the whole album.
Pick this one up and get ready to dance and enjoy some original local jams that sound like they could be from another planet.
"Stand Still, Look Pretty"
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Music: good songs: 3 stars bad songs: 2 stars
Lyrics: good songs: 4 stars bad songs: 2 stars
Vocals: all songs: 4 stars
Replay: good songs: 4 stars bad songs: 3 stars
Michelle Branch and Jessica Harp, a.k.a. The Wreckers, squeeze four good songs onto their debut disc "Stand Still, Look Pretty." As its title suggests, there's a hint of cynicism on the album, which the band aims at the record industry beauty-machine on the title track and "One More Girl," a nitty-gritty ode to empowerment.
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Fortunately, "One More Girl" is sequenced with the other two good songs, "Rain" and "Crazy People." Unfortunately, they're all sequestered in the album's back half. "Rain" is a Branch solo song in boots and spurs with a suitably belted chorus, while "Crazy People" tells a vengeful love story — "Well he loved his whiskey/And his fists loved my face."
The other nine tracks can be discarded — they're slickly produced young country pop that's best left to Dixie Chicks clones.
"In With the Out Crowd"
Music: 3 stars
Lyrics: 3 stars
Vocals: 3 stars
Replay: 3 stars
Ska-punk may be a limiting musical genre, but it will always have an endlessly renewable fan base. Just as every year's fresh crop of 14-year-olds stumbles upon their parents' vinyl copy of "Dark Side of the Moon" or their older brother's Smiths CDs, there will be a subsection of those kids who discover the joy of throwing out their knees and elbows to the mashing of horns and power chords.
As the elder statesman of its genre, Less Than Jake realizes this fact and, as thus, hasn't changed for anybody. "In With the Out Crowd" retains the band's wry sense of humor as well as its ability to churn out some mighty pop hooks.
Listening to this album will either make you miss the feel-good days of the second Clinton administration or make you want to run out and buy a checkerboard belt and an Operation Ivy T-shirt.
"Wolfmother"
Music: 4 stars
Lyrics: 2 stars
Vocals: 4 stars
Replay: 4 stars
Hallelujah, a good old-fashioned bluesy rock band.
Wolfmother's debut album is an explosion of stadium rock in the spirit of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Booming drum beats, high-pitched vocals and marching bass riffs make up the overall sound.
And the Australian trio even makes time to throw in a couple of flute parts — very Jethro Tull-ish.
It seems like the group took a nap on the lyrics. Most of the lines are trite and so cliché that they move into the realm of meaninglessness.
The opening lyrics of "Woman" — track three — are "Woman/You know you're a woman/You got to be a woman/I got the feeling of love."
Besides the unoriginal wordage, Wolfmother has created a wonderfully hard-hitting debut. These rockers from down under have tapped into what made classic rock great, and hopefully will keep it raw and groovy.
"Yonder Mountain String Band"
Music: 4 stars
Lyrics: 3 stars
Vocals: 4 stars
Replay: 3 stars
Bluegrass is a hard sell, particularly given its modern-day attachment to the irrepressibly lame jam-band scene.
Members of Yonder Mountain String Band are no strangers to the hippie road-show circuit, but on the group's fourth studio album it reels in its Phish-iest tendencies and gets right down to pickin', though not quite grinnin'.
Oh, there's plenty of soloing on "Yonder Mountain String Band," but certainly nothing that would qualify as "jamming."
The instrumental breakdowns are impressive, to the point and won't have you reaching for your favorite piece of glassware in order to enjoy them.
The urban landscape of the album's packaging is a misnomer — the best setting for these songs is in the stereo of a car with the windows open barreling down a dusty country road.
