Month: April 2012

The Real McKenzies Westwinds

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© 2012 Fat Wreck Chords
[rating: 8/10]

Vancouver BC’s venerable Scottish torch bearers are at it once again with a new release. 2012’s Westwinds gives us 14 new tales of wild seas, bad luck, foolish ways and the drink.

For the uninitiated, The Real McKenzies are a Canadian Celt-Core band with a focus on Scotland as opposed to the more or less omnipresent Irish variety. The lads bring a be-kilted, bagpipe heavy, and a Mike Meyers-esque ala “So I married an Axe Murderer” variety of Scottish charm to the genre. For those in the know, Westwinds brings with it the quality and character that you’ve come to expect.

As with many bands that have any sort of duration, there is maturity in the songwriting especially as it pertains to the ability to work together and the quality of craftsmanship. In other words, the song writing isn’t suffering from age or boredom. While all the tracks are top notch in their own right, a few that standout for me are the opener, “The Tempest” and the self-deprecation of track 6, “Burnout”.

In the end, what you have is another fine release by the best damn Scottish-Canadian band in the world.

–Jerry Actually

Arkham Asylum-A Serious House on Serious Earth-15th Anniversary Edition

The original edition of this book was printed in 1989 and was groundbreaking at the time as it was the first comic to feature painted artwork, and at the time of publishing the 15th anniversary edition it was still the best selling comic of all time.  I must have been busy because I didn’t get around to reading it until just recently.  But even in 2012 Dave McKean’s artwork still stands out as being incredible.  I think that is one of the four aims of the book, and the one where the book doesn’t fail. 

Each page is perfectly drawn and pristinely coloured.  My favourite part of the book is parts where The Joker is laughing, the colourist did an excellent job of creating the tone of the HA HA HA  that is the character’s signature.  I just wish I could have replicated the same tone while trying to make the laughter in my head while reading.

Grant Morrison’s  second aim of the book is to explore Batman’s pysche by making him face his own demons when entering the asylum.  After reading the synopsis of the book I came to expect a lot of the story.  The basic premise is that the residents of Arkham lead by The Joker take over the asylum and take hostages and will release them on the condition that Batman enter the Asylum to face his own demons and his enemies on their own turf.  But in the end his enemies only make brief appearances and there are really no battles or demons faced.  After reading, I really have no greater understanding of Batman.

But the biggest failure of the book is the it’s third aim, and that is creating a dark symbolism to surround Batman.  Before reading the included original script and footnotes I would have never made connections to the symbolism, and after reading  I kind of find the intention to be pretentious and unaccessible to the common reader. 

The book’s fourth aim is to connect the history of Arkham Asylum to the present day, but where it fails is that the when the story flashes back it doesn’t transition well back into the story.  I look to the book’s contemporary groundbreaking book in its own right, The Killing Joke, for the manual on how it should be done.  Allan Moore and Brian Bollard seamlessly weave The Joker’s backstory into the main story by using the story and artwork together.  Look no further then page 8 when the future Clown Prince of Crime is reaching for his wife’s hand to understand what I mean. 

At any rate, I did like the book, but felt I needed to share what I think are valid criticisms of it.  Like I said, the artwork is stunning, and there are parts of the book that genuinely creeped me out.  For any fans of Batman books it is worth a read to those who haven’t, but as I get further into exploring Batman comics, I am finding that there are better reads out there.

Spraynard – Exton Square

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© 2012 Asianman Records
[rating:8/10]

So I can’t say that I’m terribly familiar with West Chester PA’s Spraynard. In fact, this is the first that I’ve actually listened to them. That said, I’m rather enjoying the catchy pop/punk styling and the infectious nature of the four tracks on their brand new EP, Exton Square.

If I had to group this release up, I’d say that it carries a heavy amount of influence from past Asianman peers. It strikes me as a combo of Lawrence Arms and Shortround. On a perhaps less apparent comparison, the vocals make me think of Flashlight Brown. Or maybe my wires are crossed and they sound like something else (as well as themselves) but either way, I like it.

As with most pop/punk, the songs are mid to upper tempo. The vocals are lilting, the guitar and bass saturated and the drums are big without being enormous. As noted, the tracks have pep, but there is a minor slow down on the track “Intents and Purposes”. While noticeably slower, it doesn’t kill the whole “vibe” of the release. Granted this, being an EP, only has a smattering of tracks for reference, but if these are resplendent of Spraynard as a whole, I dare say they have a new fan.

–Jerry Actually

Anti-Flag-The General Strike

On March 20th, Anti-Flag released their 8th studio album, The General Strike, and it seems like they haven’t received a whole lot of press for their efforts.  But that isn’t to say they don’t deserve it.  Much like their last record, The People or the Gun, Anti-Flag has once again scored the soundtrack to an important political issue of the time, the Occupy movement ( while the previous album addressed the Bailout situation).

It seems funny to me that just like both of these events have been largely ignored by the mainstream, Anti-Flag’s last two albums have seemingly flew under the radar of the punk scene.  Now, Anti-Flag is not breaking any new ground with their latest 12 tracks as they carry the same type of sound that they have become known for by mixing melodic moments with more street punk sounds.  What they are doing is putting together politically scathing lyrics and touching upon subject matter that is not common in a lot of music. When they released The Bright Lights of America, I read a review stating that the album really lacked direction.  This is not the case with The General Strike, and the direction becomes quite clear from the first aggressive track. Combine their tried and true sound with their lyric themes and direction and then you get something special.

I just received my copy of the album yesterday and I am still getting a handle on it, but I am completely enjoying it.  One of the coolest surprises though was when I opened up my package and a drop card for the Vans Warped Tour EP came out which includes 3 songs from the album and 2 unreleased tracks (“SKATE” and “Whistleblower”).  I knew that the download would be given out at the cd release shows, but I didn’t know it would be included in my order.  All I can say is this, if you are at all interested in Anti-Flag or political punk rock give the album its due, give it a listen, you won’t be disappointed.

Lower Lands – Reality In Routine

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Lower Lands are a British Alternative Rock band with some punk influences in their sound. The band formed in late 2010 in the little town of Lincoln (UK). In the short time they’ve been a band they’ve achieved a lot and have shared the stage with such bands as Iron Chic, Crazy Arm, Talons, Shapes and Deaf Havana. We will be releasing the bands new E.P. ‘Growing Pains’ on April 14th.

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