The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, April 16, 2002 - 9A BREAKING RECORDS REVIEWS OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY'S NEW RELEASES THE KICKOVERS OSAKA FENWAY RECORDINGS By Will Yates Daily Arts Writer The Kickovers' Osaka is the brainchild of former Mighty Mighty Bosstones guitarist Nate Albert, who handles vocal, guitar and songwriting duties and is supported by a rotating cast of characters including Bosstones drummer Joe Sirois and ex-Weezer bassist Mikey Welsh. Now I know what you're thinking: "Man, didn't ska stop being cool, like, five years ago?" Well fear not, because Albert's one step ahead of you. Like your little brother, he's moved on to greener pas- tures and, in his case, that means slickly produced, anthemic power-pop. My initial reaction to Osaka was somewhat favorable (once I got past the opening song - a regrettable 15-second hardcore parody called "I'm Plastic"). It's got the big hooks, thick, propulsive guitars and tireless energy level that have endeared today's punk-pop to many a teenage heart. Unfor- tunately,lthese qualities alone do not make for a great album (only on the infectious "Put Me On" do they truly congeal into something special), and the album quickly loses its momentum, becoming more and more grating over the course of its 33 minutes. Albert's songs are undeniably catchy, but too often they come off sounding forced and con- trived for mainstream acceptance (note "Black and Blue," which verges on plagiarism of Blink 182's "What's My Age Again?"). Likewise, his gruff sneer of a voice seems charm- ing at first, but ultimately proves to be a pale, humorless imitation of Dicky Barrett's amiable baritone. The playing, * .. it ltmEM production and lyrics on this album are all respectable: Nothing revelatory, but nothing embarrassing. Osaka is essentially a competent pop-rock record with a respectable chance of making a dent in some modern-rock radio playlists. However, there's nothing here that hasn't been done better before and I can't shake the feeling that the song "I'm Plastic" may be unintentionally prophetic. Barring an ingenious marketing scheme, Osaka is on its way to being just another forgotten slab of plastic taking up space in the used CD bin. RATING: : * MISS KITIN & THE HACKER FIRST ALBUM EMPEROR NORTON RECORDS By Jeremy Kressmann Daily Arts Writer Damn those hipsters! Wearing their Diesel jeans and thrift store shirts, snubbing their nose at pop music, sometimes it seems as though all their super- fluous posing has no point. Miss Kittin agrees with us. The potty-mouthed singer/DJ has built an entire album out of ridiculing the excesses of the elite, priv- ileged and hip. Garnering acclaim for her vocal con- tributions to Felix da Housecat's recent hit album, Kittenz and thee Glitz, Miss Kittin's sultry yet mono- tone delivery combined with ironic, deadpan lyrics provides a fresh take on the entire club scene. On First Album, her production companion, the Hacker, provides a superb electro-synth song structure evok- ing memories of Afrika Bambaataa and an early 1980s Juan Atkins. First Album breathes new life into a long- stale genre, providing a humorous yet eerie and ominous listening experience. Touching right at the heart of hipness and excess, Miss Kittin is a walking parody of herself. Speaking "foreigner English" like she just stepped out of the first lesson of night-school class, she doesn't manage to sing her lyrics, instead telling them to us like a delighted child telling an overused joke. The delivery sounds like a sort of ironic stupidity, but it holds a degree of biting wit. Her topics never diverge from the crude, addressing such "heavy-hitting" issues as champagne and caviar, sex in limousines and Swiss peep shows. Perhaps the best evidence of her style is the hilarious dance hit "Frank Sinatra." The song has little to do with the famous crooner other than hinting CURIOUS FEW CURIOUS FEW SELF-RELEASED at his love of nightlife excess. Instead, Miss Kittin suggests, "To be famous is so nice / Suck my dick, kiss my ass." The comments are worth more than their shock value. They become a not-so-subtle commen- tary on the fleeting nature of fame and money. Not only does First Album amuse with Miss Kittin's strange, grammatically incorrect ranting, the produc- tion work is top-notch. The Hacker's tracks glisten with the glossy euro sound they closely imitate, but synthesize that sound with a darker, industrial edge more similar to electro-techno and Detroit techno sounds. Miss Kittin's collaboration is gimmicky, yet still groundbreaking - a worthwhile addition to any jaded hipster's collection. RATING.:* * By Scott Serilla Daily Arts Writer Ah, the end of another school year in Ann Arbor. A new set of college memories all ready to progressively fade away over the course of the next 15 years as you gradually slide into middle age complicity. So how to hold on to those precious bits of your youth? What memento can you grab to remind you of faded glory? A yearbook? Yearbooks are for kids who went to class- es. Same goes for diplomas. But for those of you who spent most their college careers falling off stools at Touchdown's and Rick's or standing in a sweaty living room at house parties, you need a keepsake to remind you of your quasi-academic endeavors. Beer bottles tend to mold and smell; DPS gets pissed if you try rip off the street signs on your block. So how about a little background music that might have well been playing duing some of your finest Ann Arbor moments, courtesy of a favorite local band, Curious Few? It's a solid set of songs from a great party/bar jam band which has been on the scene for a couple of years now, working their way up from keggers to long-term stands at Touchdown's and the like. Two things inhibit this from being the kind of record that these guys wanted to make. First, as with any primary live band, there is always some problem transferring their sound. This collection of original tunes lacks the loose fun of the Fews' live show. ME'SHELL NDEGEOCELLO COOKIE: THE ANTHROPOLI- CAL MIXTAPE MAVERICK RECORDS By Devon Thomas Daily Arts Writer Ndeg6Ocello's fourth album Cook- ie: The Anthropological Mixtape is a mesmerizing affair. It's triptych in quality: A blazing sociopolitical cri- tique one minute, a soulful slow burn- er the next, the album then turns right around and becomes a, conversation piece breathing with the sensibilities of Miles Davis. The multi-layered quality of this record is amazingly assembled. She returns true to form on her long awaited follow-up to 1999's Bitter; Created almost a year before its forthcoming release date Cookie serves as a fine wine. It's lyrical virtues and musical possibilities are inimitable and only get better with age. The incendiary "Hot Night" serves as the perfect backdrop to a long, troubling summer with a blister- ing rap by Talib Kweli and sound bites by Angela Davis. Ironically, Me'Shell makes prophecies for the year to come with lines like "Suffer in the World Trade paradise with me now" - the album being created nearly four months before the attacks on America. "God.Fear.Money" is a piece that s demystifies the perception of celebrity ("I was way down for the revolution, until I found it was contingent upon some corporate sponsorship / And if Jesus was alive today, he'd be incar- cerated with the rest of the brothas / Devil'll have a great apartment on the Upper East Side, be a guest VJ on Total Request Live"). The lyrics on Cookie are intelligent, witty and direct. Cookie isn't all trouble funk though, laced within is a bouquet of sensual arrangements. "I ain't gon' pay your rent, all I got is love and time to spend, can I hang with you" is the plea to true love. "Berry Farms" is a no-holds-barred narrative on a past same-sex relationship with a girl who couldn't love her openly without shame and fear ("She had the kind of kisses that made you sad") and sports one of the most surprising lyrical bridges in years. She explores the gamut of elated ecstasy. "Trust" is among the sexiest songs of her career. Temperate yet mild, it simmers with anticipatory nectar ("Put your tongue in my mouth, make me wet, run your hands down my back, grab my ass"). "Earth" is truly transcending, it floats above one's consciousness with the ubiquity of Roy Ayers. It also marks a return to the bass playing ferocity that made her first two records Plantation Lullabies and Peace Beyond Passion instant classics and influential sample-templates (just ask Brian McKnight). "Pleasure is the motivation," com- ments NdeG6Ocello on "Better By The Pound" and indeed, the album is just that. With backing by such lumi- naries as Gil Scott Heron, Lalah Hath- away and Caron Wheeler, it's a sure thing. It is an album that will stay with you long after everything that current- ly sits on Billboard fades; Cookie only ripens and glows with time. All embracing, all encompassing, Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape is Ndeg6Ocello in her element. Easily garnering cult status, she taps into the life of a moment and in turn crafts one of the strongest, most emotive and complex albums of a generation. RATING:* * * * To an old hardcore ear, the new Strife is not as surprising as it's hyped up to be. Sure the L.A. quadraphony has dab- bled in cross-breeding the destructive nature of hardcore and the serial ampli- tudes of punk with the steel structure of metal, but Strife's first album after regrouping from four years of disband- ment ends up simply sounding like echo from fellow Victory band Snapcase. This of course may not be so bad ... This new album, aptly titled Anger- means, boasts a cover art not-so-subtly depicting soldiers on a battlefield. The music does convey the picture's mes- sage, though, and it certainly makes for a very patriotic piece of weaponry, despite the band's counter-military per- sona. Nonetheless, Angermeans carries its tune, for the rallying measured beats of drummer Aaron Rossi march parallel through Strife's heavy-cast chords. Cou- pled with Andrew Kline's mature, deep STRIFE ANGE RMEANS VICTORY RECORDS By Tony Ding Daily Arts Writer The songs don't quite the sound same if you're not lis- teneing with a few drinks under your belt and the PA blasting over the roar of a Thursday night crowd. Second, while all of the songs are decent here, there's a bit of trouble distinguishing between the tracks. Every- thing has the same nice mellow feel that pleases the party kids, but grows a bit tiresome after 50 minutes when you're alone with your CD player. But you never know - 10, 15 years down the line you might stumble across this record buried with in the base- ment of your parents' house, put it on and remember sim- pler times. RATING: * * emo-pop proportions. The maneuver- ability in Rodney's voice and the effects he applies helps him stand out above the noise, as most evident in track No. 7, "Staring at the Sky." Strife's sound is extremely hypnotic, and the guitar player, Andrew Kline has an almost over-bearing effect on the album -- his strumming is just plain cool. Kline plays with a creative style that shuffles from one track to another, sometimes changing mid-song, peeling off tempos or vamping down to the plucks of solitary chords. In contrast to Strife's guitar lead and sound shell-shock- drum meter, bassist Chad Peterson can n bandaged up and be deemed virtually MIA. His bass thermore, vocalist never leads anywhere and on the off his troops well with chance one ever feels its presence above er and intense the general drone, it is faint and feeble. n. For a noble attempt at the resuscita- the album's musical tion of a dead soldier, Strife's comeback a prevalent distor- his some battles yet to be fought before where the song's it can claim victory. For any hardcore d out that not even a enthusiast though, the live experience is re disciple can dis- what determines a group's triumph or rk exception to this failure. which the tempo is alist Rick Rodney that stretch to near RATING: * * guitar riffs the songs ingly live rather tha dressed clean. Furl Rick Rodney servesf enough firepow onslaughts of emotio One drawback to t formula, however, is tion in the music, lyrics are so drownec desensitized hardcoi tinguish them. 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