The Weekly WTF? - Captain Space Clown, The Echelons

Welcome to what will hopefully be a regular feature here at the COTMA Blog - The Weekly WTF?

You wouldn't believe how many off-note, depressing, or just plain bizarre albums we receive here at the station. They accumulate, unlistened, unloved, gathering dust on the shelves. They haunt the music office like jilted, hideous ghosts trapped in poorly photo-shopped jewel case coffins. This feature should serve as a much needed exorcism.

Captain Space Clown - S/T



Official Summary: "Captain Space Clown and his intergallactic booty machine the Spacetramp rockin' all the bootay' to the back of the universe."

COTMA Assessment: Sounds sort of like an unofficial ICP/Orgy tribute project, without all the arty pretentiousness. Lots of synth pads and tuneless singing about being a space clown.

Constructive Criticism: Make it more space-clowny. Don't be Captain Space Clown anymore.


The Echelons - "Don't Kiss Her Face"


Official Summary: "sort of modern day partridge family with a punk rock attitude, except for the fact that they do play their own instruments and write their own songs."

COTMA Assessment: Considering these songs were apparently written by an 8 year old girl or whatever, the weirdly sexual cover art and creepy album title set a strange tone. I'd say her face is the last thing that tiny man has on his mind heh heh... (*creeped out shivers*). Shambling and boring songs with too many effects.

Constructive Criticism: lose the guitar solos, add some blast beats.

Happy Record Store Day!

Today is going to be intensely awesome. Live music, cool sales, and lots and lots of indie exclusive RSD releases. If you're unsure of which stores to hit up, what's happening, what exclusives are out there, etc. then read on.

Hoodlums: Hoodlums is going to be a serious party all day. I'll be spinning the new Bob Dylan record Together Through Life at 3PM. You won't be able to hear that anywhere else until the album's out on the 28th. AKA, that's pretty exclusive. You'll also be able to pre-order the album, and when you do you're commitment will be rewarded with a sweet-a Bob litho. Additionally, your neighborhood friendly Hoodlums will have a ton of special releases including RSD exclusives from Akron/Family, Black Kids, Bob Dylan, Camera Obscura, Modest Mouse, Leonard Cohen, My Morning Jacket, Bruce Springsteen, Manchester Orchestra, Metric, Pavement, a Sonic Youth/Jay Reatard split... and the list goes on.

Plus! Hoodlums has local cats Porches, Wizards of Time, Stephen Steinbrink and Earthmen and Strangers playing, in that order, starting at 5:30PM. Needless to say, I'm horribly excited.

Stinkweeds: Tons of exclusives, obviously. Plus free BBQ, and a rad concert starting at noon. The lineup includes Courtney Marie Andrews, Dust Jacket, Doug Bale, Monophonic Hillside, Back Ted N-Ted, Fatigo and Gospel Claws. Hot dang!

Revolver: Sweet show kicking off at noon: Marlene O'Conner, Hexaclops, The Swamp Coolers, Psychedelic Mooj, FC Armenta, The Incognitoes

Zia: Wicked-serious in-stores all across AZ today. If you can make it down to Tucson's Speedway location by 2 p.m., you'll get a show from Black Lips and Hands on Fire. The Tempe location will have The Parlor Mob in for a live rock-out and signing, and Chandler has A Day To Remember doing a performance and signing, as well.

Pick one, hit up all of 'em, whatever. Just support your local record stores!

Mastodon/Kylesa/Intronaut/Via Vengeance @ The Marquee 4/16/2009

Via Vengeance opened once again and I have to say, I don't at all mind this one man trickster opening all these great shows as they come through here. The music is about as you can expect from a local act, and on top of that, the "gimmick" of his act (that is, that he is the whole band) really is effective in getting the crowd pumped up. This man is everything that could be wanted in an opening act. As for him, he gets to play with some of the best bands in the genre. I think everyone is benefiting in this deal.

Intronaut kicked off the touring bands with a bang. The music is all but impossible to headbang to as it changes time signatures just about every other bar, but it is fantastic nonetheless. These guys were, in my opinion, the most talented band playing tonight. The coordination and timing required to play such complex music is beyond the comprehension of most people I think, and to top it off, the riffs are actually good-sounding and brutal. That being said, the complex nature of the music doesn't lend itself to the metal live venue very well. Some bands, like Dillinger Escape Plan, have been able to get away with complexities and still drive a crowd wild, but Intronaut seemed to struggle a little bit with that.

Kylesa was really great. Considering I'd only heard their latest CD, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. The CD is pretty good, but I expected them to be the laggard in this lineup. Now, the one thing which did bother me was the dual drummers. As I've mentioned in other reviews, this is a huge pet peeve of mine if the band doesn't utilize both drummers well. Kylesa does not. 90% of the time they were playing the same thing or very close to. Seemed quite unnecessary. The band got plenty of crowd participation though...for awhile I was convinced they would end up with the best moshing of the night over the headliners, Mastodon. Definitely a huge audience response and solid if a little repetitive music, nothing to complain about.

Now, here is where I have a mini-rant about bands I like getting signed to major labels. It's great for the band, don't get me wrong, but it makes me really not want to see them live anymore. For example, the guys behind me before Mastodon started were discussing how great Dave Matthews is (seriously, not in a satirical way). Now, normally, if I ever heard that at a metal show, no, scratch that, I would expect that I would never ever hear that at a metal show. I mean seriously. Dave Matthews. As these guys continued to talk, I felt I would be doing the world a favor to kill them given their taste in music alone, yet here they were seeing Mastodon, a band that has put out a couple of good albums. This is where I want to destroy MTV or whatever it is that brings these unelite to my shows. Unacceptable tainting.

Mastodon, however, did put on a good show despite it all. They played entirely through Crack the Skye, and then took an "intermission" of about a minute, then came back and worked through their back catalog for another 45 minutes. Now, throughout Crack the Skye, the crowd was very tame to my astonishment. Granted, the new album isn't exactly full of the heavy, mosh-ready tunes that Leviathan was, but it is a good album, and the audience response was pretty flat for the most part. But after that intermission, the crowd really did get moving. A few tracks from Blood Mountain got movement, but really, it wasn't till Leviathan tracks that we really saw what this crowd could do, and then there was a great pit going, and it was what I had expected to occur an hour previously. The crowd predictably did not get into the genius that is Seabeast, but I can forgive them for getting into the rest of stuff from Leviathan (though Seabeast is definitely the best track on that album).

All in all a great show. I can't actually pick a favorite band from the lineup, they all had their unique strengths that they played to and in the end that made it a very well-rounded show which was only really complete when taken as a whole. An art few lineups manage to cater to very often.

Kick Ass Spring Concert

Biggest props go out to dear friends of The Blaze Matthew Reveles and What Laura Says. They rocked out on ASU's Hayden Lawn yesterday, and drew quite the crowd. I'll be posting some pictures and video this week, so keep your eyes peeled for it.

Cage the Elephant/Electric Touch @ Modified Arts 4/19/09

At the Blaze it’s a rare honor to have a touring band that is not from Arizona, come in to do a live in studio chat. This up-and-coming band is Electric Touch and will be at Modified Arts on April 19th, playing with 3 other bands, headliner Cage the Elephant and local bands Gospel Claws & Becky Lee and Drunkfoot. The great thing about Modified is, it’s always inexpensive ($8 in this case) to see a great show.

This 4-piece band known as Electric Touch is headquartered out of Austin, Texas, and is stopping by the valley, meeting up with Cage the Elephant right after their separate one-day stints at the very popular music festival called Coachella. Four days later, Electric Touch are heading to Las Vegas and opening for Bon Jovi at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, so before these guys start playing at bigger venues, stop by to see them at one of the valley’s most intimate venues, then tune in the next day (April 20th), Monday morning at 10a.m, to http://www.theblaze1260.com/ or 1260 AM on the radio dial for an in-studio interview.

Amon Amarth/Goatwhore/Skeletonwitch/Lazarus AD @ The Marquee 4/10/2009

Lazarus AD opened up the show with quite a bang. I have long since outgrown my thrash days on CD...but it is really one of those genres that's great live even if you're totally bored with it on CD. The band tore it up and the lead guitarist had some great riffs and solos peppered in there that almost made me go back and start listening to thrash again. I only say almost because I'd honestly just rather see these guys again than listen to CDs. Second best band of the night.

Skeletonwitch is a band I'd have sworn I had seen before. But it wasn't on my list of bands seen live, so I may have been mistaken. Either way, the band was pretty good musically, but the vocals really killed it for me. The vocalist himself was good, as a frontman, but stood out in a rather adverse way by comparison to the band's music. The slight identity crisis of the music was also perhaps a bit distracting...thrash, death, black, all mixed up...I preferred the black sections myself.

Goatwhore was decent, I suppose. I'd never listened to the band prior, but they really suffered from an unenthused crowd. I was at the back of the pit for these guys, and honestly the pit was barely alive at the beginning, and by the end it was really just an empty space on the floor, just in case. the lack of crowd energy and enthusiasm drags down any band's live performance, and given the more or less generic style of music, the entire performance became quite lackluster alas.

Amon Amarth headlined and, interestingly, they were on my list of bands I'd seen live. Now, this was interesting because I didn't recall ever seeing them...not a shining endorsement by any means. I wonder why I don't remember now though. They were really great. The little details (drinking from animal horns, for instance) added enough to the thematic atmosphere and the music was good, if a bit taxing for such a long period (most metal is). When I first entered the venue, I was shoocked to see that the sound booth was in the middle of floor rather than in the back...this means a small crowd usually. Well, the crowd was indeed small, but completely enthusiastic. Normally, in the place I stand people are rather casual watchers and pretty passive. Just enjoying the music. For this show, the pit was all the way back to me (I was on the edge) and even behind me people were jumping and shouting all the lyrics, to say nothing of the huge press of people on the stage-side of the pit. Huge energy for this band, and it really made for a great experience and performance.

Album Review: The Long Lost - The Long Lost

I wanted to like this album. I really did. I sincerely tried. But the more I listened, the more I knew that this was not going to happen. Singer LauraDarlington, wife to would-be partner-in-crime Alfred Darlington, failed to convince me that their record is truly worthwhile.

One could say I knew it would be like this from the start. This album, 14 songs and 45 minutes long, started out interesting and never strayed the course. Unfortunately, they don't try hard to capture you, unless you think completely dopeyelectro-acoustic folk songs about love deserves your undivided attention. From the very first song, I felt Ms. Darlington's voice too inaccessible for subject matter that should close to heart. She sings soprano from a mountaintop, her whispery airs flowing around a guitar rhythm. Sometimes a drummer brushes his kit in the background. It's all very fine, but I can't feel a connection anywhere on the CD. The misses always muses from a distance. Her voice is there, but the atmosphere is so soft and relaxed that it's easy to slip out of listening. You would have to be perfectly engaged to keep our attention focused. And while it is indeed my job to listen to each and every CD that comes my way, even I found myself distracted after a time.

As I listened over and over again to understand the album, I found myself fascinated by the artistic choices the duo made. It's difficult to not call The Long Lost pretentious when their idiosyncratic rhythm and melody choices make appreciating their craft frustrating. Nothing illustrates this better than "Amiss," the second song. At first I'm led to believe that achirpy little ditty is about to happen. Then Laura's vocals come in, everything sounds syncopated and it's driving me insane. Call me a stickler for convention, but it grates on my nerves when you set up the beat and the lead instrument or lead vocal in contrast to each other. It doesn't feel right. Even more aggravating is when beautiful, great songs like "Sibilance," with all the elements in perfect balance, are broken up by off-target music; it's right after "Amiss."

Unfortunately, I get the feeling that The Long Lost is too long. Normally I would not fault 14 songs on a disc, but for the slow pace of this album, things don't work the same. Listening to the whole thing in one go requires great patience and a large volume of caffeine. This was to be expected, as the press release that came with the CD made clear that was a singer-songwriter's album, not an electronic one--Alfread Darlington's other (or at least one of them) project is Daedelus, which is distinctly electronica. "Ballroom Dance Club" is the only song that really uses electronic elements, with a mixed result.

Overall, I am not greatly impressed. I had a hard time getting over the premise of the album--acoustic folk songs slower than a geologic process withdisinterested , simplistic vocals to match. Admittedly, folk isn't my forte. My expectations of the CD were wrongly placed because the marketing misled me. Even then, I adjusted my criticism for this review. The album isn't boring, perse . To the casual listener and passerby, it will be. The average college student would probably not like the drawling "Siren Song," which sounds like it would be at home in a 1940's intellectual drama. I can only cite a couple songs that are remotely radio-worthy: "Sibilance" and "Finders Keepers." These hardly make up for the other 12 tunes. I asked myself, Do I want to bore my listeners? The answer was, No, not really.

Pelican/Wolves in the Throne Room/Tombs/Early Man/Via Vengeance @ The Sets 3/25/2009

To begin, let me qualify this review by saying this was my first time at The Sets, and I was thoroughly let down. Between the poor planning (to me, when the headliner ends at 12:30, but the show didn't start till about 8:30, and it's a Wednesday night, that's poor planning) and mediocre sound (I know getting good sound out of post metal bands that rely on distortion as a part of their sound is hard, but the mixing was unacceptably muddy at many points during the night), I struggle to say I'd come back to see bands here unless I was really desperate to see them.

Via Vengeance was the first act of the night and, like most post metal bands, the music is fairly simple technically, and it's the atmosphere that really matters. Well, this band didn't have the best atmosphere development, but I don't think you could expect anymore of a lone musician playing guitar and drums...at the exact same time. Via Vengeance is a band comprised of only one member, and he simultaneously plays drums and guitar. Most people struggle for the coordination just involved in drumming! Whatever technical failings this one-man metal band may suffer from are easily overlooked in the entertainment and novelty of that one-man band.

Early Man was next up and thanks to the records I keep, I know I had seen this band previously (the name did sound familiar), but I can't remember exactly where. The thrash metal sound these guys have is fun and definitely got the crowd going, but I felt it was a little bit out of place in an evening dominated by atmosphere-centric bands. I may, however, merely be projecting my antipathy towards thrash onto these guys unfairly. Like I said, the crowd liked it...who am I to judge?

Tombs I had also seen previously...I believe last October in New York. On CD, this band is certainly not bad, but they don't particularly stand out either. The songs have a tendency to run together and the album can be tiresome played start to finish. But where that hurts on album, the band is able to exploit it to their benefit live. From the beginning to the end of the set, there was not a moment of silence, and the net result was a 30 minute post metal influenced soundscape that kept crowd interest and energized the venue.

Wolves in the Throne Room went beyond the typical atmosphere bands tend to strive for, that being an aural atmosphere. They brought in candles and a fog machine, and with the fog machine working overtime, within 5 minutes of the start of their set, the entire venue was clogged in a deep fog penetrated primarily by those candles and the blue LED on one of the guitars. Normally, a physically foggy atmosphere wouldn't really add much, but when you're dealing with black metal, you can't help but begin to visualize yourself in a dark Scandinavian forest with a very occult feel as the music is played. As a band with quite epic songs, they only played three and, alas, my knowledge of their discography is almost non-existent, but the songs were quite enjoyable. Wish they're had a longer set.

Pelican played a set of too many new songs for my taste. The song they mentioned being from their new EP sounded good, so I may have to check that out, but in general I'm a man who takes Australasia or Fire over Echoes any day. As a result, the set list was rather lacking. In addition, the fact that they started at 11:15 and didn't finish until 12:30 didn't help their cause as I got crankier and more tired. They also played a cover of a band named Earth that was completely underwhelming. The riffs and ideas could certainly have been enjoyable, but there was a severe lack of substance for how much those riffs were recycled. I was bored after 3 minutes and then they played the same riffs for another 3. All in all not as good as previous performances, but then that could entirely be an issue of setlist preference...and sound preference (as mentioned, venue sound was quite mediocre).

Devil at the Wheel - Crud

Despite the name of the band Crud is surprisingly good. Devil at the Wheel is the debut effort of Detriot band Crud. I took one look at the grindhouse like cover of the album and knew it would at least be an interesting listen. Crud describes themselves as, "super-charged fetish rock", it would be hard to argue that position. Devil at the Wheel starts strong with Reality with pounding drums and guitar work and the album doesn't let go from there.

The sound of Crud has a White Zombie like feel to the sound but with far less talk of death and the living dead. The lyrics of Vin E. have a distortied sound most of the album giving it a interesting if not unique sound to it, add the backing vocals of Danielle Arsenault and you have a combonation of strong power, with steamy and sexy. The song titles all have a grindhouse sound to them from Meat Detonation, and Murder is Fun to the title track Devil at the Wheel.

If you truely want an idea of what Devil at the Wheel is like I give you this. I feel it is what a grindhouse film would sound like if it was made into music instead of film. So in the end I'll give Crud a 4.5 out of 5 for their debut album.

Devil at the Wheel is currently availble in and was released by Heavy Hitter INC.
For more information from the Blaze 1260 AM's metal department visit our blog http://arizonametal.wordpress.com/

Album Review: Youth Group - The Night Is Ours

This it: a haunting, beautiful excursion into anthemic alternative rock. Australian quartet Youth Group holds a modest profile, and this is potential evidence for the absence or nonexistence of God. They are known better in native Australia than in the States, but if Architecture in Helsinki and The Avalanches can both successfully make the leap to North America, then Youth Group deserves similar acclaim. Their blend of emotional catchphrases, alternately sparse and milky arrangements, and sometimes downright (or, rather, upright) masterful song structures triumphs over the CD that holds The Night Is Ours. Every song more or less drips with overflowing emotion, unrestrained. Perhaps it is this fully owned and embraced romanticism that distinguishes Youth Group from some weird Morrissey-cum-Gang-of-Four-cum-Cure Frankenband.

While the casual listener might gag at the sound of horns or strings (notably at the approach of the synthesized varieties), such textures are common to this disc, as are the delicate presses of piano keys; where electric guitars fail to convey doldrums or pluck away your reservations for the music one by one--like a sharpshooter--these sounds amplify the intensity or cake the soundscape in moodiness. It's the musical equivalent of Edgar Allen Poe melted together with Shakespeare (King Lear and The Tempest especially come to mind) à la Henrik Ibsen.

Intellectual delusions of grandeur massaged, I am forced by the necessity of clarity in my articulations to further my review by (sigh) talking about the music. I am struck and stricken by the conflict between minimalism and ornamentation orchestrated throughout the album. In a way, the structure of the CD reflects this. The Night Is Ours begins with "Good Time," a reflection on alienation that starts with nothing but a murmuring synth note, hung in the air like wind chimes. The tone is soon joined by a pensive bass note repeated over and over, followed by Toby Martin's soft baritone vox. As he begins to question his identity, he is joined in time by plodding piano keys and drum hits until he reaches an epiphany--represented both vocally and melodically. Though slow and containing little rock substance, this short tune evokes a kind of symbolic texture I rarely have the pleasure to hear.

From here Youth Group ventures into "One for Another," which recalls the subtle energy of God Is an Astronaut, but with excursions into the kind of bass-guitar interplay that the Futureheads use to great effect and all the lush trappings of the Human League. The ending switches gears entirely, shifting into a horn blowout that almost quotes Broken Social Scene's "Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day)." "Two Sides" is equally appreciated, as much a salute to self-conscious indie pop rock as to 80's synthpop. "Dying At Your Own Party" is purely channeled Morrissey with a backing band that explores the narrator's underlying emotions even as Martin sings abjectedly. The first half of the disc ends with the full-bodied "All This Will Pass."

Most memorable is "Friedrichstrasse," a single tune that reveals itself to be a microcosm of the rest of the 38-minute effort. A ballad of escape and fulfillment, Martin croons, "I'm never gonna leave/ The possibilities/ I'm blowing through my mind./ Can I leave this behind?/ I'll make it on my own./ I'm never going home." The reason the song is unsuitable for airplay in its original form is its usage of a single curse word. But the song, with its ringing ambience, steadily drawn rising action, and majestic peak, all flesh out the musical soul of Youth Group: bright and dew-eyed, longing for all the grace and innocence of a doe with a weary, forelorn expression. "Friedrichstrasse" more fully probes the idea of layering of instrumentation to achieve climax, with great results. The song progresses confidently, rendering each successive transition transparently and comfortably.

As "In My Dreams" and "What Is a Life?" close out the album with charm and sophistication, I wonder why Youth Group has failed to achieve widespread fame as other, less deserving artists have captured. Unless my musical instincts are vehemently misguided, Youth Group has put out a stunning fourth LP. Good show, lads, good show.