WE GET IT - YOU'RE SAD
The Stills leave you still waiting
The Stills are Montreal, Canada's Interpol. The four-piece is dour, likes the color black for things and album covers and is pretty good. Unfortunately, The Stills lack the attention-grabbing continuity of "good sad" that makes Interpol, well, amazing. Both records are full of gloom and doom, but Interpol is a band that makes records you can't read to, unless you're a brick or too macho for your own good, because the band's debut, "Turn on the Bright Lights" demands attention. Still, The Stills have done all right. They might have aped Interpol, The Cure, The Smiths and Echo and The Bunnymen, but they have managed to pen six or seven decently heavy tracks, which is enough to pique the listening public's interest -- for now. The band's debut record, "Logic Will Break Your Heart," starts in its best place, with "Lola Stars and Stripes," a dark, nondescript song. Unfortunately, The Stills' album continues with 11 other dark, nondescript songs, and this glut of monochromatic continuity makes "Logic Will Break Your Heart" too murky. The album is full of cryptic, interesting song titles, like "Still in Love Song," "Gender Bombs," "Allison Krause" and "Let's Roll," but the songs don't stick like they should. Maybe I'm just being picky. The Stills have given us a decent-enough first offering, and they are better than I've let on. Too-high expectations for a debut album often crucify bands unfairly, so let me retract my criticism and pat them on the back for giving us their post-college try. It's worth listening to, and The Stills are a band worth seeing before they get too big. -á
IT'S GETTING BETTER - KINDA
Hey, they had a lot to live up to
Winning Britain's prestigious music award, The Mercury Prize, can be damning for young bands, as the pressure to follow up and eclipse such enormous critical acclaim forces the members into recording a second album they were not ready to make. The UK's Gomez has been (almost) able to better the success of "Bring It On," the five-piece's debut record that snatched the prize in 1998. However, by the world's standards, the band's subsequent efforts have successively disappointed, as "Liquid Skin" and "In Our Gun," proper LPs, failed to outshine "Bring It On." The band is most widely-recognized by its work for Phillips Magnavox, performing The Beatles' song, "It's Getting Better," for the companies advertising campaign. But, in recent memory, Gomez has moved further and further from widespread, Rolling Stone-type success (whatever that is), but, the artistic band continues to merit its Mercury win. Each album Gomez offers is a m+â-¬lange of classic British blues-based stomps, as witnessed by "Blue Moon Rising" and "Bring It On," from "Liquid Skin," flourishes of 20th- and 21st-century electronica, gentle acoustic guitar-based sing-alongs and ambitious, psychedelic rock. Fans of indie rock and jam bands (particularly moe. and The String Cheese Incident) alike will want to check out the band's show at Bogart's on Sunday.
GET ME MY BARF BAG
Unite sad white children
The Meteora Tour, headlined by Linkin Park and featuring P.O.D., Hoobastank and Story of the Year, might be the most slobbering, sickeningly self-indulgent concert package of all time. I mean, c'mon. The first issue to be explored is, "How did any of these bands become famous in the first place?" Simply, there are a lot of sad and/or angry suburban, white children in America. Older, whiter Americans realize this, and the result is: music as product! Believing children have no outlet for their sadness or anger besides shaking their heads furiously and jumping repeatedly while listening to compact discs or music videos on television, The Rich pitch these bands like batting practice pitchers throw slow curveballs to Barry Bonds: It's an easy, can't-miss set-up. The second issue is, "Why does anyone continue to care about these bands?" Well, no one knows. Linkin Park has been very successful at pulling the proverbial "wool" in front of the music buying public's eyes. We, as consumers, have yet to realize the band's singles are the same song, just with different titles, lyrics and corresponding music videos. Perhaps the first single, "One Step Closer" was "different," at least to some listeners. But four singles later, the wonder of blippy, drippy electronica, rapped call-and-response lyrics and artificially throaty, Pro Tools-treated vocals continues to enthrall, and Linkin Park is riding our obliviousness to the bank. What this all means is that these bands are tricking us. You might have been duped into buying one of these bands' records or tickets to their show at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill. on the 29th. Fortunately, you now understand, so you have no excuse to continue endorsing mediocrity. Go ahead and sell these musical mistakes on eBay. You'll be a better person for it.
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