Review: Soundtrack - 90210

Soundtrack - 90210
2009, CBS Records

Like many fans of the original 90210 series, I was skeptical of the CW's revamped version of the show, but 90210 has become the CW's most popular show. I haven't watched it and so can't comment on the show itself, but it certainly does well with the prized 18-34 year old demographic. In the tradition of shows such as Gossip Girl and NCIS, 90210 have become very music focused, featuring an artist each week in the show and promoting the artist and soundtrack at the end of each show. CBS Records will release Soundtrack: 90210 on October 13, 2009, featuring artists that will be featured on the upcoming season of the show.

The album opens with Many Shades Of Black by Adele And The Ranconteurs; a catchy, old-school R&B/Motown style tune. Adele has a great voice and the intense guitar work is a definite plus. N.E.R.D. (featuring Santigold) is up next with Soldier, in a song that sounds like The Donnas and Devo jamming while DJ Jazzy Jeff serves up rhymes. Jet's One Hipster One Bullet takes the ironic route through hipster-style Punk in what turns out to be one of the true highlights of the soundtrack. Mutemath, OK Go and The All-American Rejects turn in mediocre pop tracks before Anberlin kicks in with A Perfect Torniquet. I wasn't overly impressed with the song, but the voice is a must-hear.

Will Dailey gets things going again with You're So Cold; an upbeat tune with crunchy guitars. The verses are a bit on the tame side but the chorus is as catchy as anything on the radio. The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus turns in what might be the best Pop/Rock single with Love Seat, and Parachute isn't far behind with One Small Step. New York City singer/songwriter Sarah Solovay makes her debut on the soundtrack with Hearts Collide. Solovay has a lot of buzz surrounding her, and Hearts Collide is a solid track. She might be someone we need to hear more of. But there's no question about the next artist. Wildy's World June - 2009 Artist Of The Month Darrelle London contributes Understand from her wonderful album, Edible Word Parade. It's far and away the best song on the disc and may go a long way toward turning London into an internationally known artist. The soundtrack closes out with a remix of the original 90210 theme song.

Like most television soundtracks you get some great songs and some mediocre songs on Soundtrack 90210. Executive Producer Rebecca Sinclair and music supervisor Scott Vener have put together a solid, consistent sound for the upcoming season, mixing some big names and relative unknowns to complete the sound tableau. Darrelle London, Adele And The Raconteurs and Will Dailey are definite highlights, and Sarah Solovay bears further attention. The rest is decent enough to drive album sales as opposed to single sales. To push that point, CBS Records is licensing digital sales of the full album only (no singles). Soundtrack: 90210 is well done.

Rating: 3.5 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about 90210 from The CW’s website. Soundtrack 90210 drops on October 13, 2009. You can pre-order copies from Amazon.com. Expect widespread availability in both real and virtual formats.

Review: Jonesin' - Hi, We're Jonesin'!

Jonesin' - Hi, We're Jonesin'!
2009, Telemarketer’s Worst Nightmare

Matt and Jenny Jones are getting married! In September of 2010, the couple will tie the knot officially, although they’ve already wed their musical fortunes to great effect. Mixing a Devo-esque Geek Pop with Japanese Pop (J-Pop) with drum programming, Casio keyboards and perhaps some medicinal assistance, Jonesin’ has crafted a unique sound that will get under your skin. Jonesin' set out to record material under the guidance of The Motels' Matha Davis at her personal studio. The result, their debut album, Hi, We’re Jonesin’! will have you either falling in love with Jonesin’ or taking a machete to your CD/MP3 player. There’s little middle ground.

Hi, We're Jonesin! opens with Rollerskates, an intriguing love song that's part geek, part Pleasantville-weird Utopia and part cheesy 1970's television musical. Highly keyboard driven, the song features both vocalists, with Jenny Jones sounding a bit like a moll from a mob movie and Matt Jones sounding a bit like Gordon Lightfoot. Bummer Summer continues in a similar vein, with the sort of keyboard arrangement you might have heard programmed into a Casio keyboard in the late 1980's. Bummer Summer actually was quite apropos for a year when temperatures in much of the Western Hemisphere never quite got into a summer pattern. Jonesin' gets into an ethereal/psychedelic mindset for Too Stoned To Screw. The song is anathema to the punk classic Too Drunk To F#ck, sticking to a highly mellow vocal line and a Brookstone nature CD keyboard part. For the song Ice Cream I have to present you a mental picture. Imagine if Grease was filmed in a junior high instead of high school with the cast of Revenge Of The Nerds. Ice Cream would be the sort of song that would come out of such a movie. It's a beauty that borrows liberally from Sippin' Cider Through A Straw but is none the worse for wear.

2012 takes off on the most recent popular urban myth that the world will end in 2012. It's a child-like, optimistic take on the survivalist mentality done with a bit of panache and a shift of wit. The song is wonderfully melodic and catchy. Hey, Aliens? is a fanciful attempt at communication with life from outer space, presented with the humor and naiveté of youth, reminiscent of the folks who chose to stand on top of a Los Angeles skyscraper and greet the invaders in Independence Day. What If? asks existential questions about how you might change your life if you had the opportunity, although it goes into those questions with pre-conceptions about aliens and alternate universes that may not be the societal norm. It's a catchy tune that will get stuck in your head. Jonesin' closes out with How Much You Wanna Bet?, an Americana gem about commitment and giving yourself over to a cause (such as marriage). Once again, the naïveté of the two vocalists, or characters, is striking.

The more I listen to Hi, We're Jonesin'! the more I get the impression that it's more like a Rock Musical or concept album than just a collection of songs. The two vocalists have distinct personae that stay solid throughout the album, with relational ideas that show up across songs. The characters here are naive and idealistic and somehow very real. When I first listen to Hi, We're Jonesin'! I didn't like it (which means I didn't get it right away), but this is a brilliant album. The nerdy keyboard arrangements set the tone, with Jenny Jones’ wide-eyed ingénue and Matt Jones’ guileless bravado creating a Utopian setting for either a perfect life or a disaster. Jonesin' does us all a brilliant turn on Hi, We're Jonesin'! I highly recommend you check it out.

Rating: 4.5 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Jonesin’ at www.myspace.com/jajonesin. Hi, We’re Jonesin’ drops on September 8, 2009. Keep checking their MySpace page for availability.

Review: Alan Cohen Experience - Eat The Peace

Alan Cohen Experience - Eat The Peace
2009, FanJam Records

Alan Cohen is back with his Orchestra of Personality with a six-song EP, Eat The Peace, due out on November 3, 2009. Cohen is something of a visionary, using an ever evolving ensemble to create and recreate music in new and fascinating ways. Eat The Peace is the follow-up to 2008's Alan Cohen Experience EP; both of which are produced by Brooklyn's own Roger Greenwalt (The Pierces, Ben Kweller, Nils Lofgren). The EP is a continuing document of Cohen's prodigious songwriting and arrangement skills, and serves as an appetizer to Cohen's next full-length project, a concept album based on Stephen Hawking's A Brief History Of Time.

Eat The Peace opens with Rock Biter, a wonderfully quirky bit of Euro-Pop with Blues in its lineage. It’s a wonderfully tuneful song that isn’t an ode to the character from Never Ending Story, but some equally fanciful character from Cohen’s mind. If Rock Biter is odd or unusual, then Train God descends into utter madness in a once again strong melodic tune that makes about as much sense as a They Might Be Giants Dial-A-Song snippet. Alan Cohen Experience gets into a Van Morrison-meets-The Beautiful South vibe on Ranger Stranger, a highly catchy ditty about a train robber who is something of an urban legend (in Cohen’s song, at least). It’s a very enjoyable tune that will get stuck in your noggin. Jester sticks to the quasi-Lo-Fi aesthetic that pervades Eat The Peace; the comparisons to early They Might Be Giants are apropos, no where more so than on Jester where Cohen sounds like a slightly less nasal John Linnell. Peace is cute but nondescript. Eat The Peace closes out with Truck Driver, the ode to this profession that the world has been waiting for. It’s a quirky tune that straddles the line between novelty tune and children’s song while actually taking a poignant look at what might make a truck driver tick.

Eat The Piece is a pleasurable, if odd, musical ride. Alan Cohen is a good enough writer to make outright novelty pieces seem like quirky but serious compositions. I think Alan Cohen Experience is probably a bit of an acquired taste, but easily so. The infectious melodies; minimalist arrangements and off-the-wall subjects will intrigue and fascinate listeners.

Rating: 3.5 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Alan Cohen Experience at http://www.alancohenexperience.com/. Eat The Peace will be released November 3, 2009. Expect the album to be available at Cohen’s website and various other online outlets.

Devo, They Might Be Giants, John Linnell, Ben Kweller, The Pierces, Nils Lofgren, Stephen Hawking

Review: Abe's Logic - War's Ragin'

Abe’s Logic – War’s Ragin’
2009, Mad Chief Records

Abe's Logic is the musical extension of Abe Vandenberg’s multiple musical personalities. The Maui, Hawaii resident is a musical chameleon who can channel Lou Reed one moment, Dave Matthews the next, and traverse several other personae in the course of a few songs. Rock, Jazz Fusion, Folk; none of these are without of his reach at a given moment, in a given song, or even on a dime. What is certain is that as a listener, if you’re not paying attention, Abe’s Logic will leave you far behind. Vandenberg is getting ready to release his latest album as Abe’s Logic, called War’s Ragin’. Whether this is social or self-commentary is up to the listener to decide.

War’s Ragin’ opens with the Ski anthem Chipping’ Away. This is the sort of song that makes you want to get up and dance and is a great start to the album. There’s a rough edge to the music on War’s Ragin’ that is appealing. It’s not garage, exactly, but it has some of that same Lo-Fi charm. Even on songs such as I Stepped Into The Shade, where Abe’s Logic layers a lot of instrumentation to build a full sound there is still an aspect to it that is rough and primitive. The Prestige is very catchy; a bit frenetic. Vandeberg occasionally reminds me of the same urgent energy that drove some of the early They Might Be Giants recordings on War’s Ragin’. That nervous momentum is very apparent on The Prestige.

War’s Ragin’ is a delicious heartland-style rocker with big, jangly guitars and a chorus you can’t help but hum along to. The theme is the ease with which we can wrap ourselves in our loves and forget about what’s going on in the world at large. War’s Ragin’ is a song with strong commercial potential. It’s Not Just Me is written in much the same fashion and is quite catchy but doesn’t have quite the same oomph as War’s Ragin’. What We Crave develops a bit further into an interesting modal vocal harmony structure with that same heartland feel, taking a band like The Bears and adding Devo-esque harmonies into the mix. The sound stays fairly consistent through That Was Safe, with Abe’s Logic saving the curveball for All Of A Sudden, which sounds a bit like REM crashed the Abe’s Logic party. Abe’s Logic corrects course and gets back to the feel-good rock with moderate to serious themes on I Want It To Stay, which sounds like it would be a fantastic tune live.

Abe’s Logic offers up some classic American Rock N Roll with a hint of garage chic on War’s Ragin’. It's is one of those albums you walk away from more impressed by the sound than anything else, but Vandenberg is quite capable with a guitar in his hands, and has a strong, clear singing voice that is a pleasure to listen to. Lyrically interesting and intelligent, the somewhat darker elements of the narrative can get crowded out by the big, loud, jangly sound, but it’s a fun listen.

Rating: 3.5 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Abe’s Logic at http://www.abeslogic.com/ or www.myspace.com/abeslogic. War’s Ragin’ is due for a late spring/early summer release. Keep checking Abe’s Logic’s website for details.

Review: Modern Science - Modern Science

Modern Science - Modern Science
2009, MIMORTL Records

Las Vegas-based duo Modern Science has forsaken their generation's obsessively melancholic musical angst in favor of old-fashioned fun-time Rock N Roll with a modern edge. Songwriter/guitarist/lead singer Kane Churko met bassist/backing vocalist Mike McHugh through MySpace in the midst of a troubled solo project entitled Mr. Kane. Finding an instant bond, the duo was born and took the moniker Modern Science as their own. Add in production from Juno Award winning producer, and father of Kane, Kevin Churko (Ozzy Osbourne, Shania Twain, Phil Collins), and the end result is an energetic and infectious collection of ten songs entitled Modern Science.

Modern Science is great for the first seven songs. There's an element of Devo-esque geek chic that runs deep below the surface of wonderfully constructed pop gems. Look Where You're Walkin' is funky and infectious bit of modern guitar Pop you won't be able to get out of your head. Every Little Thing has some serious hooks and is very danceable. I'm The One (Pick Me) is the highlight of the album. This song could be a top ten single on the Pop charts with the right support. It's that rare rock/pop song that would be as accessible to the club and dance scenes as it would be to mainstream and AAA radio. Release this in May and you have a potential "summer song" that will be around for years. Baby Please has a bit of a classic Motown sound to it and is highly entertaining and danceable. Modern Science changes the vibe a bit on the virulently electro-rock Whatever You Say, and then again as they bring the funk on U Funk Me Up. Even the modern rock meets Devo sound of Desperately fits perfectly with the dynamic Modern Science has established on their self-titled debut.

By the time we get to the last three songs it seems like Modern Science has exhausted their A material and picked out a few songs to fill out the album. While good, these last three just don't have the energy or urgency that characterizes Modern Science up until this point. While this may have been a conscious choice, and the songs themselves aren't bad, they are a bit of a come down from the first seven.

Modern Science has a great, catchy pop sound that is bound to grab some attention. If another golden age of Pop/Rock music is about to start then don't be surprised if Modern Science is one of the bands at the forefront. The first seven songs here are Desert Island material; the last three worthy listens. All in all, Modern Science is an outstanding effort. Make sure these guys are on your "got to check them out" list.

Rating: 4.5 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Modern Science at http://www.themodernscience.com/. You can purchase a copy of Modern Science at www.cdbaby.com/cd/modernscience.

Review: Article 66 - Article 66

Article 66 – Article 66
2008, A66 Music/Pinnibus Headdibus Records

Miami’s Article 66 are unique on many levels. Formed by a group of law students, the band creates raw, emotionally charged songs that can’t be ignored. Add in the fact that Article 66 comingles rock and rap in a way that almost no one else does well, and you have something worth checking out. Article 66 released their debut album, Article 66, on June 6, 2008 (6/6). The band has been through a number of personnel changes but continues to thrive. Tony “T-Bone” Tomas plays guitar and provides the rock vocals on the album, while DJ Jam is Emcee, providing sublime rhymes against the backdrop of heavy guitar, drum and bass. Listen up!

Article 66 mixes elements of Rap, 80’s hard rock and modern rock into a wonderfully geeky combination that’s part hip-hop and part head-banger love fest. Juxtaposing rap rhymes and rhythms with heavy guitar (sometimes bordering on thrash), Article 66 creates a rap/rock hybrid few bands have explored. Lyrically they can run from serious to funny to bizarre (sometimes in the same song). The end result is a generally entertaining mish-mash of sounds and styles. I would advise checking out the song Misread, which is incredibly commercial and listenable. Astronomy Teacher is Hot For Teacher for the Big Bang Theory generation. It sounds sort of like Weezer on anti-depressants. The American Nightmare is a catchy rap/rock mix that’s right in Article 66’s musical wheelhouse. Hershey Squirt recalls the sort of lyrical content you might expect from early Ween, although with less subtlety (if possible).

Article 66 is an interesting listen. There’s no doubt about it, you’ll either love them or hate them depending on your personal musical proclivities. If you enjoy bands like Weezer, Ween or Devo then Article 66 will definitely appeal to you. For rap fans this is entertaining light fare, but Article 66 gets major points for melding two styles in a way that hasn’t been done well often, and getting it right (most of the time). It’s a decent listen for the adventurous of ear.

Rating: 3 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Article 66 at http://www.article66.com/. You can purchase a copy of Article 66 at www.cdbaby.com/cd/article66.