 |
Free Music Notes for My Brother's Blood MachineFree Music Review: Awesome CD, not for the closed minded. Hit: 5 StarsHonestly, not for close minded people. If you're not open minded you probably won't like this. Many different genres mixed in here, awesome CD.
Free Music Review: Not for Outsiders Hit: 4 StarsI really enjoyed this album, from the art on the cover, to the tarot card lyric sheets, to the songs themselves. i don't think that i would have loved this album as much as i do, however, unless i was already a Coheed and Cambria fan, and bought it with the knowledge that it was a different story in the same universe. So unless you are a HUGE Co & Ca fan, listen to it before you buy it.
Free Music Review: Beep Beep... Hit: 1 StarsThere are some great mysteries of the universe. For example, is there a single unifying theory of physics? Or is there life on other planets? To those I'd like to add one: who thought it would be a good idea to release this rubbish?
On first impressions, this CD looks quite promising. It's a digipak done in fake leather finish with gold embossing. Perhaps it's a Black Metal album. Inside, the lyrics are printed on a pack of tarot cards. OK, perhaps it's a Doom or Folk-inspired album. On the back are a bunch of long winded song names like "Run, Gunner Recall, Run! The Town Wants You Dead!" and "Wayne Andrews, The Old Bee Keeper". Now the smart money is on a Prog Rock concept album. This would have been a good place to stop.
However, this is a review of the music on the CD, not of it's packaging, so I gotta listen to it. Stick in the CD. Press play. Listen to a little bit. Hmm...something's not quite right here. Press eject to make sure I've got the right CD. Yep. Put it on again. Check the lyric sheet to make sure it's not a mistake from the CD pressing plant. Nope. Oh dear...
First track "The Going Price For Home" sounds like the demo track of a Casio keyboard with one of the Bee Gees singing over it. WTF? Perhaps the next track will be better. "The Fight Of Moses Early And Sir Arthur McCloud" has an acoustic guitar and a synthesized violin with one of the Bee Gees singing over it. Yuck! Quick, skip to the next track! Um, OK, so now it's Simon And Garfunkel singing a B-side for "Scarborough Fair" on the most pretentiously named song ever, "Our Darling Daughter You Are, Little Cecilia Marie". Argh! Next track, quick! Damn, that keyboard is back again, this time accompanying the Jackson Five, complete with "Doo doo dah dah" lyrics. The title? "A Death In The Family"...
OK, so the obvious conclusion is that `My Brother's Blood Machine' by The Prize Fighter Inferno is awful, and I'm not going to torture you or myself by describing the rest of the album. This album gets marks for it's packaging, because it's one of the best presented CDs I've ever seen. Apparently it took seven years to record. This is a misprint. It was recorded by a seven year old.
Free Music Review: The flip-side of Claudio...highly addicting album! Hit: 5 StarsI knew Claudio had a side-project to Coheed and Cambria, but I kind of just dismissed it until the guy at the music store threw it in for a discount at the music store when I bought the Live at Hammerstein. Hesitant of my purchase, I threw it in on the way home from the store and after the first track I wasn't really interested, I wanted to see my beloved Co&Ca live on DVD!
WARNING: GIVE CD A SECOND CHANCE...
On the 3 1/2 hr. ride home from school this break though, I was listening to the whole CD...wow!!! Back in the day (1998-ish) I used to love industrial and trance music like Meat Beat Manifesto and Orbital, since I got into playing electric guitar in 2000 I never listen to them anymore and turned myself into a rock maniac. While this not so much trance or rock, The Prize Fighter Inferno tingles the part of my brain that is not all rock and roll, and some of the tracks -- specifically "Fight of Moses Early..." and "Run, Gunner Recall..." -- show off Claudio's acoustic guitar skill. Some of it sounds a bit amateur, but some of these songs (as the liner notes/tarot cards say) are 7 years old! Most of the songs are well-mastered and put together, and are highly addicting and you'll hear yourself singing the catchy-as-hell choruses of "Who Watches the Watchmen?" and "The Margaretville Dance" much to your own chagrin.
Overall this is a great light album to listen to, as opposed to the in-your-face rock that is Coheed. Even though they're two different genres, the dark subject matter and even some of the melodies are really reminiscent of Coheed...but some of these songs have some extreme bass and are just plain weird to people if they're not used to Claudio's voice, make sure you pump it up in "Who Watches The Watchmen?" and put a hole in your floor from your subwoofer.
What everyone has to remember though, is this is NOT a rip-off of The Postal Service. Like I said before, the clever little tarot cards in the CD case say that this album has been written and recorded over 7 years, which makes some of these songs even older than Co&Ca itself (the tone of Claudio's voice in "The Missing McCloud Boys" is really similar to that of "IRO-bot", which was recorded in the Shabutie days).
To sum it up: You can see where Coheed songs like "Once Upon Your Dead Body" come from...just imagine a couple songs like that, a couple like "IRO-bot", but mostly Claudio lyrics set to Casio-style keyboard beats and acoustic guitar, and you got yourself The Prize Fighter Inferno.
Free Music Review: I have a serious problem Hit: 5 StarsI can't stop listening to this album. Well, that's not entirely true. I did start listening to Coheed & Cambria after my first couple of listens because I hadn't heard them in a while and got "in the mood." However, aside from that one afternoon where I listened to In Keeping of Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 and Good Apollo, I have had a steady addiction to this album. Normally it wouldn't be a problem, but all of my friends hate it. (Luckily, I can't hear their complains through the headphones) My friends like Coheed and Cambria by the bye. That being said, just because you like Co&Cam, don't expect to like this. The first few seconds of "The Going Price of Home" says loudly "This is NOT Coheed & Cambria, and don't expect it to be!"
I bought and it upon first listen, I found myself repeating and repeating the CD, devouring the lyrics (cleverly places on the back of tarot cards), and annoying my friends with music they cannot stand.
To compare this sound seems a disservice, but for lack of better explanation, I feel I must. I would call it a folksy-Postal Service sound with Bram Stoker style lyrics. My friend always complains that Claudio sounds strikingly similar to Michael Jackson, and in the song "The Margretville Dance," I can't argue with him. Though, that song is one of my favorites. It is electronica and it is folk and it is acoustic and it is indie. I'm pretty sure I even heard a washboard in "Run, Gunner Recall, Run! The Town Wants You Dead!"
Normally, I do not find a album released as a side project taking this much of a hold on me, but I would dare say that this is one of the best albums released in 2006. Still, I would buy this album for "Who Watches The Watchmen?" alone.
More Free Music Notes: 1 2 3 4
|
 |