Half These Songs are About You by Nizlopi: A Review Monday, Jul 10 2006

Fo’ shizzle it’s not my nizzle

Pros
Dressed-down acoustic folky pop, nice vocals, indie sensibility

Cons
A bit on the dull side

The Bottom Line
Check out the video online, pass on buying the CD

First things first: ‘Half These Songs Are About You’ is the debut album of Nizlopi, the British duo of Luke Concannon and John Parker, who use acoustic guitar, double bass and beat-box for their own style of folky pop. Nizlopi is currently being hailed across the pond as a “breath of fresh air” in the biz. This album contains 11 tracks, including the two singles, ‘Girls’ and ‘JCB Song.’

I found Nizlopi quite by accident. A blogger whose work I’ve read for years (since before we called them bloggers) included a link on her site to the sweet and adorable animated wonder that is the http://www.jcbsong.co.uk, as well as a (brief) rave for the rest of the CD. And since I’ve always agreed with her music taste in the past (Pearl Jam, Aimee Mann, Counting Crows), and since I had just watched the video 10 or 20 times in a row, I priced the CD on Amazon, but then took the jump of just buying it from Nizlopi’s own site. Whatever I expected (more JCB, perhaps?) I was rather disappointed. I’ve meant to do a review for months, but the album was stuffed away on a shelf and I never wanted to get it out again.

What’s good: The JCB song, of course! The Everyman quality of Nizlopi shines most brightly in this dreamy childhood reminiscence, although it is present elsewhere. Lead singer Luke’s voice–and pronounced accent–are charming and consistent throughout the album, and the arrangements are safe and understated. The cover art confirms the impression that these are two normal blokes who happen to express themselves well in music. At times they remind one of a more upbeat Damien Rice. Or maybe the love child of Tracy Chapman and David Gray. Or perhaps the best comparison is early Barenaked Ladies, with the acoustic guitar/double bass sound, only without BNL’s constant attempts at clever lyrics; i.e., “She’s like a sonnet/She’s so on it” Concannon sings on ‘Freedom.’ Invoking Shakespeare’s favorite form does not Shakespeare make, lads.

Bonus: You get the JCB video when you play the CD on a PC.

What’s not: As mentioned above, the whole CD is very consistent and safe. It’s almost too much sweetness and light. If you have any touch of the cynic in you at all, you find yourself wishing they would have let an emo kid or Ozzy Osbourne or old-nose Ashlee Simpson write a lyric or two, just to shake things up a bit. With the exception of ‘JCB,’ most of the songs are not “hooky,” to the point where they’re not particularly memorable (or distinguishable from one another) either.

Nizlopi are at their best with gentle ballads like ‘JCB’ and ‘Girls.” (The fact that these are the album’s two singles would suggest that I’m not alone in that opinion.) Indeed, the handful of uptempo efforts range from dull (‘Call It Up’) to cringe-inducing (‘Love Rage on’ [sic])–it’s sort of like having your kid brother try to go all P-funk on his Casio keyboard at a family party.

All the same, I can’t help but root for these lads. According to the liner notes, Concannon’s parents financed the production of the CD, so that explains why there’s not the overproduced, homogenized sound we’ve come to expect from major labels. And maybe also why ‘JCB’ is an ode to Concannon’s dad’s awesomeness–he’s Bruce Lee, after all.

If you’re feeling down, and want to cheer up with some acoustic strummy indie tunes, British style, perhaps you might want to take a listen. (You can even buy my copy on Half.com!) But if you want fully-deconstructed indie with teeth (melancholy American teeth at that), please join me in electing Sufjan Stevens Secretary of States instead.

Recommended:
No

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Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail: A Review Monday, Jul 10 2006

Never Mind Da Vinci, Here’s Rat Scabies

Pros
A fun, interesting journey

Cons
Sometimes a bit bogged down in historical details

The Bottom Line
If you like religious lore, British humour and/or punk rock, or you want to build an Ark of the Covenant, read this book. It’s got something for just about everyone.

Perhaps it is only fitting that I begin a review of a book awash in religious images and holy places with a confession: although I intend to devote my professional life to “serious” Russian literature, my true literary passions are… nonfiction, humor, travelogues, and any combination of the above. I love the late Pete McCarthy. I forced the Molvania website and book on more friends than, in retrospect, I probably should have. So when that magical ‘Recommendations’ feature of Amazon.com told me that I would want to read Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail, I read the description and pulled out my credit card.

The premise: Rat Scabies, punk rock drummer formerly of The Damned, lives in London across the street from a semiretired music journalist, Christopher Dawes, whom he drags all over France in search of the Holy Grail and/or other treasure.

The book is subtitled: CAN A PUNK ROCK LEGEND FIND WHAT MONTY PYTHON COULDN’T? (capitalization theirs, although it would be apropos of punk rock if I were screaming at you, right?) I don’t want to mislead you by saying that the book is terribly Pythonesque, however. The many, many wacky characters are outlandish at times, but no one screams in falsetto, “I’m being oppressed!” Both Scabies and Dawes get in quite a few good quips and wisecracks on the dry English order, but the bulk of the humor lies in Dawes’ cynical, you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up observation of Rat himself, Grail hunters and “Rennies,” the nickname he and Rat give to people obsessed with the small French village of Rennes-le-Chateau, a possible motherlode of treasure, relics, and even the Grail.

Perhaps the title itself is a misnomer, because the Holy Grail is only an indirect goal of Scabies’ (and by extension, Dawes’) quest. He mainly concerns himself with unraveling the mystery of Berenger de Sauniere, 19th century priest of Rennes-le-Chateau, who, the evidence suggests, suddenly became far more wealthy than a rural village priest should be. Codes in parchment, paintings, tombstones, churches, bizarre phenomena, and sinister crimes are only a small sampling of the paths explored by Scabies, Dawes, and company. And is there ever company. One of my chief complaints with the book is that, while having several handy insets featuring a map and some reproductions of the parchments and Rat’s to-do lists (To Find the Holy Grail: Buy metal detector and spades), there is no cheat-sheet list of the numerous characters to remind you (as Dawes doesn’t always do) who it is that just waltzed back into the action and why they matter.

Dawes occasionally does ponder bigger questions of why it matters, comparing his own unbelief alongside the various mysticisms and fanaticisms of other questers. He attributes the year of Grail hunting with Scabies to a kind of mid-life crisis. Not to spoil too much, but even this skeptical Everyman has a few experiences which soften him up a bit to the esoteric. Dawes also seems to find the historical details rather more fascinating than I do, so if you are not a trivia fan, you may find yourself skimming the specifics of what church was built when by whom.

The book has a bit in common with the immensely popular Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code (which owes a lot to the work of one of Scabies’ cohorts, Henry Lincoln, author of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail), a fact which seems to be addressed in the book by Rat gradually demolishing a paperback copy of Da Vinci–tearing it up for roaches, in fact. It’s Rat’s world, really, the rest of us are just living in it and getting in the way of his schemes. I’m old enough to know that punk rock music has nothing to do with Avril Lavigne or Good Charlotte, but prior to reading this book I had never really thought about what the punks of the 1970s are doing now, or what it would be like to have them as neighbors. It’s a bit different (but charming) to read of a punk rocker having a close, happy relationship with his septuagenarian parents (even if they are the leaders of the nutty Sauniere society). Whether Rat is fixing tea and importing tiny monkeys in London, or scaling cliffs wearing only bedroom moccasins on his feet in the French countryside, he charms you. Dawes, for all his reluctance at getting roped into Rat’s schemes, admits how lucky he is to have such a ‘good mate.’ Perhaps that’s the real story here, the story of a journey to appreciating what you have, even if that mostly consists of a lunatic across the street who wants you to help him build an Ark of the Covenant. So what would it be like to be Rat Scabies’ neighbor and Grail hunting sidekick? Well, as the Damned once sang: Neat, neat, neat!

Recommended:
Yes

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Golden Energy CD by the Tomorrowpeople: A Review Monday, Jul 10 2006

The sun will come out… tomorrow

Pros
Ambitious, trippy, erudite, ROCKING album with sublime track “Youth in Orbit”

Cons
Only 10 tracks 

A Texan friend turned me on to this extraordinary record from the late, (could have been) great, Tomorrowpeople. They, a band out of Dallas which included Buzz Gibson and Ben Burt from Brutal Juice and Toadies guitarist Daryl Herbert, blew the roof off SXSW 1997 and were slated to become the next big thing. Last Beat Records and Slab Records co-released their debut CD, Golden Energy. Later, Geffen Records signed them, but unfortunately, both the band and the label imploded before a new album was released. I have heard the band self-released another album, Marijuana Beach, before their 2000 breakup, but I have yet to lay hands on it.

Listening to this album, one has to wonder what might have been had circumstances worked out differently for them. The album drew comparisons to the Flaming Lips and Alex Chilton’s Big Star, but in my humble opinion, tracks like “Youth in Orbit” and “Theme Allison” are far superior to anything else out there. I honestly don’t even know how to categorize the music–guitar rock, atmospheric pop, lovely melodies, slick hooks… it’s all in there. I think the Tomorrowpeople were out to send chills down your spine any way they could. Not to mention their singular gift for great song titles, such as “Beneath the Valley of the 3rd World Sugardaddies,” “Gidget Goes to Court,” and “Psyched by the 4-d Witch.” I read US Weekly and Entertainment Weekly religiously and watch VH1 like it’s going out of style, but I am still not hip to half of the pop culture references incorporated in this album.

Here’s the complete track listing:
Theme Allison
Youth In Orbit
Beneath the Valley of the 3rd World Sugardaddies
Something 4 Joey
Queen of Earthly Delights
Psyched by the 4-d Witch
Mercitron
Favorite Song
Gidget Goes to Court
Psychic Friends(Hidden track)

My favorite track is the spacey yet haunting “Youth in Orbit.” The keyboards are strong throughout the album, but the first three tracks are particularly deft. I think musicians in particular will appreciate the guitar and keyboard work here.

This album can be had for mere pennies on Amazon and Half.com, so if you’re tired of the same old recycled lo-fi rock, you really have no excuse not to give the Tomorrowpeople a listen.

Recommended:
Yes

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