Now With More (Or Less, I'm Not Sure) Self-Confidence: Reviews Of Recent Releases By Local Bands, Pt. 32

Obligatory Disclaimer: Record reviews are a tricky business. It's one thing to enjoy music, but to, like, pick out what you like about it? That being said, if I review your thing and I didn't like something, don't feel too bad. My opinion doesn't matter all that much. 

Craig Bell - aka Darwin Layne - Ever/Never Records - 11 songs - LP, download

This is not actually the long-awaited Craig Bell solo record per se, but actually a compilation of (mostly) unreleased material from various bands over the course of his storied career. The record kicks off on an excellent note with Mirrors' classic "Slow Down," finally seeing the light of day. A nice, semi-Velvets-y ballad featuring Jamie and Craig trading off singing between the verses and chorus. I could go on about this song, but all you really need to know about it is that it's really good. Following that (which is a hard thing to do) is Future Plan with "Let It Go," a pretty darn good power pop tune live at CBGB's. "I Hope It's Not Our House" unfortunately succumbs to the musical disease known as "being recorded in 1982," but apart from that is a good one, with The Plan (who are like Future Plan, but with three less letters, and also different letters substituting for the three remaining of the first word) bandmate Forrest Harlow taking the lead. "It's Over" is a melancholic type song that kinda reminds me of R.E.M. a bit musically. The version of The Bell System's "America Now" appearing here is different from the one on Craig's recently-released 7" on Violet Times, so you know you need both. Side 2 brings us back to being too 80s for my production taste, though "'62 Hawk" is still a good rock 'n' roller, and 99% true! Nice shout out to Center Ridge Road in there as well. Saucers (probably Craig's most well-remembered band that isn't named Mirrors or Rocket From The Tombs) bring us the garage rock/punk ripper "I Need Drugs." The guitar solo leaves something to be desired, but other than that it's a great one. The version of "Muckraker," as performed by the one-off (or maybe two-off, I can't follow the history here) group Bridgeport Badboys isn't my favorite, but it would take a truly special band to ruin a song like "Muckraker." The three-piece Rhythm Methodists charge through "You Be You" before Future Plan returns with another good ballad "How Can I Tell You?" (nice autoharp on that one), before the album closes with The Rhythm Methodists' version of Mirrors' "I Think I'm Falling." The chronology is out of whack on this record, but the song order is arranged well, song-wise (song song song), and the printed inner sleeve gives dates and personnel and occasional anecdotes, so you can be sure you're getting your bang for your buck, historically speaking. 4/5

(I'm writing this before the release date, so I really have no idea, but I'd assume that you can get this on vinyl from evernever.bigcartel.com or digitally from evernever-records.bandcamp.com. Or you can just figure it out yourself.)

DuValby Bros. - Unhearduv - self-released - 10 songs - CD

There's two DuValby Bros. CDs that came out semi-recently (there'll be a review of the other one here someday), one of all new material and the other, this one, of unreleased stuff recorded in the '90s. I'm not quite sure whether this was recorded as an album but never released, or this is a compilation of various recordings– a couple of the tunes here turned up on CLE Magazine compilations, if I'm not mistaken– so I'm not quite sure. On this CD, the music is a very slow and heavy style of indie rock. If it were a liquid, it would have a high viscosity. That's science. Really, it's not my kind of thing, but at least they have their own thing going on and each song has something going for it. That's more than can be said for some bands. My favorites here were "El Cid" and "Tony," where the D-Bros pick up the pace a bit and do some decent '90s-style alt-rockin'. If you're a fan of the DuValbys, or the stuff on their main labels of the past (those being Flexovit and Cambodia), you'll dig this one. 3.5/5

(Available at duvalbybros.com or sold through the My Mind's Eye store.)

McCarthy & The Red Menace - Summer's Dead - self-released - 11 songs - Cassette

I was pretty surprised by this one. I thought it was one thing based on the cover, then I thought it was something else based on the fact that Joe Boyer is in the band (you may remember him from Chomp), and then it was neither of those things. It's a strange mix of sunshine pop and indie rock with lots of surf and psych influences as well. The songs all sound very '60s-esque, and the music is well-played. The real oddity of this group, however, is the singer. Sometimes he sings perfectly normally, sometimes he's pushing it, and other times he's just plain off-key. Or he writes really weird vocal melodies that don't quite line up with the music, I'm not sure. I don't actually mind this, because it made the album just the right amount of bizarre that it was cool, and it was never so off-key that it was unlistenable in any way. The singing style, aside from what notes are what, sorta reminded me of the guy from Home Blitz in a way, though on some songs ("Gun-Crazy Lucy," for one), it kind of sounded like some '60s girl group as fronted by Mike Love with a cold. "Noisy Hearts" has got the drumbeat of "My Girl" (the song by the Temptations, not the one by Hoodoo Gurus) but with buzzsaw shrill guitar work. Altogether, while this tape was weird, it was pretty okay. I'm quite interested in seeing where this band goes from here. I'm not the biggest fan of the cassette artwork. I seem to be having problems with lots of art lately. I hope that doesn't persist. 3.5/5

(You can contact the band through Facebook if you'd like a tape.)

Vanilla Poppers - Tour Tape - Blow Blood Records - 4 songs - Cassette

As the title suggests, this tape was released for Vanilla Poppers' summer tour. I just thought you should know that in case you couldn't read what I wrote directly above this. It's four tracks of the Vanilla Poppers you know and love– crunchy hardcore-ish (is it hardcore? like, mid-tempo hardcore? Someone's gonna call me a poser, I just know it) punk. The mix is pretty good, though the recording seems to have a layer of fuzz over it, which actually I kinda like. Or maybe my tape deck's going, who can say? My favorite here was the last one, "Who I Am." The slow intro into the main song was cool. So was the rest of the song, for what it's worth. Overall, I didn't like this quite as much as I liked the demo tape from last year, but it's a perfectly acceptable follow-up. If you need a fixing of Poppers while we all wait for their 7" (I think it's supposed to be out on Negative Jazz, if I'm remembering right), this will do the trick. Plus, it's accompanied by lovely artwork from Nathan Ward. Act fast, there's supposedly limited quantities left of this one (mine's 185/200, but I got it on the first night of the tour, so that doesn't mean anything. 3.5/5

(blowbloodrecords.bigcartel.com or blowbloodrecords.bandcamp.com, whichever floats your boat)

Are you a local-ish band? Do you have a record out? Email vaguelythreatening@gmail.com or send it directly to Observer headquarters: The Lakewood Observer, c/o Buzz Kompier, 14900 Detroit Avenue, Suite 205, Lakewood, OH 44107.