Review: The Private Life Of David Reed - Missteps And Miscommunications

The Private Life Of David Reed – Missteps And Miscommunications
2008, Chamberlain Music

David Reed has set out on his own. The Columbia, South Carolina resident set aside his band of four years, Closer, to be able to choose his own artistic direction. Writing and performing in the same vein as folks like Damien Rice, Bright Eyes, Jeff Buckley and David Grey, Reed goes for an acoustic flavor with whatever effects and embellishments he can lay his hands on. The resultant EP, Missteps and Miscommunications, is quite enjoyable.

Missteps And Miscommunications opens with 27, a quiet pleading song with some great dynamics. Lead vocalist David Reed rips his own heart out for you to see on this song. A Week And Seven Days is a delicious Modern Rock anthem that should have significant impact potential on something like radio’s The Edge. Gone continues the big guitar rock sound that seems to work so well for The Private Life Of David Reed. The song itself is a bit formulaic, but it works. I also particularly enjoyed Misery Loves Company, a quiet and introspective tune that is among the most poignant here. Let Go is a driven rocker guided by urgent yearning and some great harmonies. Other highlights include You Had It All, The Way That You Are and the acoustic version of Better Be Careful Now, which was more enjoyable than the electric version.

The Private Life Of David Reed is dynamic and buoyed by influences ranging from 1980’s Hair Metal to Modern Rock. Reed shows a flair for the sort of dramatic glam that wraps up a crowd. Missteps and Miscommunications displays little of either. It does dip into the well of “radio sound” a bit too often, but is distinctive enough to be worth listening to.

Rating: 3.5 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about The Private Life Of David Reed at www.myspace.com/theprivatelifeofdavidreed or http://www.chamberlainrecords.com/. You can download Missteps and Miscommunications through iTunes.

Concert Review: Burn Halo; The Town Ballroom, Buffalo, NY March 5, 2009

Today marks a couple of firsts for Wildy’s World! First off we’d like to introduce you to a correspondent who will review live shows for us from time to time. His nom de plume is rawdeadfish, and he’s an old college friend of mine who’s an expert in the realms of Punk and Hardcore, but is also the one responsible for introducing me to The Barenaked Ladies back when they were still touring in support of their “Yellow Tape”. He’ll be around from time to time picking up a show for us and sending in his thoughts for your reading pleasure. Also be sure to check out his website: http://www.rawdeadfish.com/.

Our first show review is the Burn Halo show at The Town Ballroom in Buffalo, New York from March 5, 2009. Here’s rawdeadfish’s thoughts:

I have to say that I was more impressed than expected by the March 5 performance of Burn Halo. I had never heard of the band or James Hart's previous band, 18 Visions, prior to being invited to this show. So I checked out their MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/burnhalo) and other online resources, and they sounded decent, but live, they were certainly more impressive. They had good stage presence and were right in the face of the audience.BH opened their 8 song set to a crowd of about 50 people with "Dead End Roads and Lost Highways" and got everyone bobbing their heads. They quickly broke into "Anejo", an upbeat, catchy, rock tune, that I'll have to say was my favorite. They went on to perform a few other numbers, talk with a crowd a bit, and dedicated the song "Our House" to the Buffalo Sabres, before finishing up with their single "Dirty Little Girl" and the pounding "Save Me".What I liked about Hart and the band was that they were not into gimmicks, or looks, they were just there to play and entertain. It was apparent too, because by the end of the show, they drew enough people from the front of the house to at least double the crowd.Burn Halo's self-titled debut album is due to arrive in stores on March 31, 2009. Check it out. Burn Halo will be touring throughout the spring. Check them out!

-rawdeadfish

http://www.rawdeadfish.com/

The Boneless Children Foundation – Stars For Anyone
2007, The Boneless Children Foundation

San Francisco’s The Boneless Children Foundation requires your attention. Compared to bands such as The Talking Heads, The Police, The Who and even The Dead Milkmen, The Boneless Children Foundation make a mark on their listeners right away. Their latest CD, Stars For Anyone was released in 2007.

Stars For Anyone opens with the title track, an upbeat garage rockers with a bit of pop mystique. The Boneless Children Foundation remind me significantly of the early days of The Figgs (when they were a quartet). Carl Sagan is an amusing and befuddling work of rough edged alt-rock. No pithy nuances here, just a vague inference between the number of the stars in the universe, the number of cars on the freeway and love. Relax is a fun song that has a bit of the rock anthem aura to it, while People Care About Their Cars descends into good-natured, silly chaos. Other highlights include My Little Book, Get Up, King and Will Never Come True.

The Boneless Children Foundation offers an unusual mix of raw, unvarnished rock and flashes of distinct musicality. The sound is rough, closer to what you might hear live than to your usual over-produced studio recording, but Stars For Anyone charms with its raw energy and enthusiasm. Call it post-punk alternative, but don’t get too attached to the label. There’s flashes of Weezer in the sense of humor found here. It’s an enjoyable listen.

Rating: 3.5 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about The Boneless Children Foundation at http://www.bonelesschildren.com/. You can purchase a copy of Stars For Anyone at www.cdbaby.com/cd/bonelesschildren2.

The Ericksons – The Middle Of The Night
2008, The Ericksons Music

Let’s start by talking about the voices. The Ericksons are blessed with two amazing voices, both dark-timbered altos that mix and match so well you can lose sight of where one ends and the other begins. Fans of Amy Fradon and Leslie Ritter will be very pleased with the Ericksons. The Mid-western sisters are based out of Brooklyn these days, but travel the East Coast of the US in support of their debut album, The Middle Of The Night. The CD opens with Northwind, a melodic guitar-based folk song that allows The Ericksons sufficient stage to show off their vocal harmonies. One More Time continues in the same vein. Money Grows On Trees misses the mark a bit but still provides for a great vocal performance.

Darkest Places is a song born of sadness and fear, running away from the shadows in musical terms. There are multiple levels of meaning woven into the lyrics and arrangement that only suggest themselves beyond the face of the songs. What If is a hopeful pining love song where The Ericksons are at their very best. My personal favorite track on the album is I Believe In You, featuring a dark and lovely harmony and angelic harmonies that will give you chills. Be sure also to make time for We Write It Down and Please, Please, Please; both lovely songs.

The Ericksons have a sound that makes them highly distinctive and pleasant to listen to. The Middle Of The Night has a mix of songs that run from mundane through to highly enjoyable. At their best, The Ericksons may be one of the finest vocal duos in the musical world. There are moments where they seem to get a little disconnected from one another, but these pass quickly. This is a very enjoyable album.

Rating: 3 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about The Ericksons at www.myspace.com/theericksonsmusic. You can purchase a copy of The Middle Of The Night at www.cdbaby.com/cd/ericksons.

Review: Michael A. Wiktor - Volume One: Misery Made Beautiful

Michael A Wiktor – Volume One: Misery Made Beautiful
2008, The House of 3 Studios

Phoenix-based composer Michael A. Wiktor has a very distinctive compositional style that invites comparisons to “New Classical” and Cinematic (score) works. Wiktor has training in brass, percussion and string, in addition to advanced studies in composition. Wiktor has ultimately found a voice he is comfortable with as a composer. Volume One: Misery Made Beautiful is Wiktor’s chance to display that voice to the world.

Misery Made Beautiful is performed by a virtual orchestra, allowing for an evenness of sound that doesn’t occur with an actual orchestra. This is the greatest flaw of the recording from the listener’s perspective. Where orchestral music is wonderfully textured and nuanced, much of Misery Made Beautiful comes off sounding flat. It’s like trying to look at the texture of an oil painting in a two-dimensional photograph. The writing style is a mix of romanticism and American New Classical, which holds a disdain or disconnection from traditional structure. Consequently the compositions here at times end up sounding more like a series of sonic events than a story; orchestral talking points where the music score is a slideshow presentation rather than a cohesive and organic creation.

Keepsake is written in this new style. The visual image I got from this was like a street scene where the frame are set but all of the individual actors speak in their distinctive voices, irrespective and even sometimes counter to one another. There is a cohesive whole built from this in the same way that a painting or a photograph documents such a scene, but its all disparate parts without a common sense. Monarch presents as a fractal sonic picture. It soars and crashes at odd times, and no distinctive theme emerges. Monarch seems more focused on the use of sounds to punctuate musical moments than structure of melody to tell a story.

Marionette is a study in practice and trust; synchronization and default. It’s a mortality tale of sorts pointing to the act of letting go as the key to gaining control over oneself. Disjointed passages early on give way in a sort of Zen musical awakening as various moving parts fuse into one musical being. Canopy finds disparate musical personalities and embellishments and ties them together under the guise of the circus big top. Outsiders may see the outlier appearance and actions of the stars, but Canopy portrays the human need to be accepted and grow in the range of this nuclear “family”. Canopy is never as dark as you might expect, and never as light and breezy as the circus fliers might imply. Themes are hard to come by here, and the multitude of disparate voices makes for cluttered listening at times, but overall it’s not a bad effect.

Vespertine details nature’s night life in very general terms. The dramatic rises and falls here work to focus the nearly invisible activity that occurs after the sun sets. There is an almost martial sub-theme to all of this, as if the nightly goings on in nature are as rhythmic and planned as an army at full march, but this is hinted at more than stated outright. Millennium is a musical juxtaposition of light and dark, perhaps contrasting night and morning against the turning hands of time; one precipice to the other. There is a theatrical bent here that’s not narcissistic but screams, “Look at me!” at odd times. The highs and lows are periodically unexpected, rising and falling almost on whim. Little thematic continuity is present, although there is the essence of a theme that pops up from time to time.

This would be a very different album if it involved a live orchestra; at least some of these pieces would fare better from human treatment. The texture of the virtual orchestra is just too flat and restrained. The power and movement that one achieves in a concert space just never makes it to this CD. Volume One: Misery Made Beautiful is an ambitious collection of musical compositions. It strives to be original, and generally succeeds, but it’s clear that Michael A. Viktor enjoys challenging the orchestra and the listener. Challenges can lift the music to a higher state, but challenging for the sake of challenging can become tedious, and Viktor does seem to cross that line at times. All in all, Volume One: Misery Made Beautiful is an intriguing listen. I didn’t enjoy all of the elements, but as a whole it was satisfying.

Rating: 3 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Michael A. Wiktor at http://www.miserymadebeautiful.com/. You can purchase downloads of Volume One: Misery Made Beautiful on iTunes or Amazon.com.

Review: Julie Kinscheck - Grace With Jazz On Top

Julie Kinscheck – Grace With Jazz On Top
2008, Kip Media

Boston’s own Julie Kinscheck had dedicated her life to changing the world through music. Whether performing on her own, with a Cappella group Faith In Action or PTB, Kinscheck sings about her Faith and belief in God. In 2008 Kinscheck finally took a huge leap of faith and released her debut solo album, Grace With Jazz On Top. Mixing jazz with folk and pop styles, Kinscheck has created a refreshing and vibrant album.

Grace With Jazz On Top opens with Secure Heart, a great little tune that walks the pathway between 1960’s Rock and Country. Secure Heart has the pop sensibility to catch on with listeners. Grace is written in a Rock/Jazz hybrid periodically reminiscent of The Dave Matthews Band. Coffee Song is the highlight of the album; a jazz tune that wants to stray into rockabilly. Coffee becomes the metaphor for romance in a wonderful act of innuendo that’s family friendly. Get In The Water takes us to Dixieland in a pop arrangement. Kinscheck even gets in some mean scat singing in one of the peppier offerings on the album. Other highlights include The Andrews Sisters inspired He Called, Precious, and the martial country tribute to the resilience of Faith: American Memory.

Grace With Jazz On Top is a memorable collection of pop/jazz hybrids full of Spirit. Fans of Christian Pop music will dig Julie Kinscheck.

Rating: 3.5 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Julie Kinscheck at http://www.julieksings.com/. You can purchase a copy of Grace With Jazz On Top at www.cdbaby.com/cd/kinscheck.

Review: PTB - The Force

PTB – The Force
2006, Ralph & Julie Kinscheck

PTB is the musical youth ministry practiced by Julie & Ralph Kinscheck. Formed in 1997 almost by accident, PTB has been fueling youth ministry events ever since. In 2006, PTB released their first album, The Force. The songs on The Force strive to be lyrically positive representations of Faith in music.

The Force opens with S.P.Y. Kidz (Spiritual Powerful Youth), which comes across as music written specifically for a Christian Youth Conference setting. It’s music meant to create an atmosphere and therefore comes across as gimmicky. It’s an appropriate bellweather for the album, which is obviously targeted toward youth with hip-hop themes, raps and pop/rock anthems for modern, feel-good worship services. It’s Christian bubblegum pop for teenage masses and comes off as cunningly targeted and manipulative like an infomercial rather than an honest projection of ideas, beliefs or faith.

The distinct differences in approach between Kinscheck’s work as part of PTB as opposed to her solo work or with Faith In Action stands out like a sore thumb. This music designed to impress a message without thought while the listener is caught up in the fervor of a mass experience. If it were being done in the name of a less mainstream religion it would be referred to as programming rather than worship music. It forsakes thought in the name of the euphoria of group psychology and assimilation, making it come across more like a series of advertising jingles than heartfelt compositions.

Rating: 1 Star (Out of 5)

You can learn more about PTB at http://www.ptbtheforce.com/, where you can purchase a copy of The Force in the artist’s store.