Day 0882 - Make Yourself

Incubus “Make Yourself” (1999) – got it

Though I feel their last few releases have been on a slight downward turn, I am a big fan of Incubus’ first slew of albums.

Make Yourself sees them at the height of their “Nu-Metal” phase, though it seems unfair to lump them in with either that genre or “Rap-Metal” which were both starting to run rampant at the time.  They share the turntables, the “phat” bass sound and the quiet verse/loud chorus format favoured by those genres, but they inject a lot more variety, musicality and experimentation into the mix.

At the time they were one of those 'greater than the sum of its parts' bands.   Drummer Jose Pasillas III has a great groove with occasional flash (as and where required), bassist Dirk Lance brings the aforementioned 'phatness' and some funk undertones to the rock sound.   DJ Chris Kilmore doesn't just chuck in a few 'wicky wicky' scratches, or he does some of that, but also creates a whirling dervishes of noise in places and supplies ambient audio-beds elsewhere, such as on the chorus of whale-song that opens "The Warmth".   Vocalist Brandon Boyd has a great voice and some interesting lyrics and he can really stack some power in his delivery.   Guitarist Michael Einziger to my mind though is the biggest star. His range of guitar tones pushed through various effects pedals can sound almost aquatic, or clean and dancing, or fuzzed out and bombastic.

The opening track "Privilege" is a rousing rocker with a funk groove to it.  The funk vibe reappears throughout, most notably in the instrumental backing for the DJ 'battle' track "Battlestar Scraaltchlactica".   There are pleasing alt-rock ballads in "I Miss You" and the acoustic MTV favourite "Drive".    Track "Consequence" features a guitar break in the middle that is pretty much just a note run through nearly every effects pedal at once.   Then there's the djembe intro to groovy rocker "Clean".

That they manage to do all of this, constantly switching between sounds and still keep the album down to just above the punchy 45-minute mark just adds pleasure to the listening experience.

Day 0800 - A Northern Soul

 The Verve "A Northern Soul" (1995)

 

Okay, I have to admit that my only real experience with the Verve was the "Urban Hymns" album.   This whole psychedelic rock with hints of droney shoegaze took me (pleasantly) by surprise.

There are some almost dance-influenced beats like on "Life's an Ocean", mixed with the noisy wash of guitar that is reminiscent of bands from My Bloody Valentine, Ride and maybe the Happy Mondays.

The long, slow moody mellow atmospheric "Drive you home" is quite dreamy and wonderful.  

The  band broke up after this, but reformed and hit new commercial heights.

Day 0772 - Yank Crime

Drive Like Jehu "Yank Crime" (1994)

Drive Like Jehu was formed following the dissolution of Jehu's member's previous bands Pitchfork and Night Soil Man.   Guitarist/singer John Reis also formed the horn-backed rollocking rock band Rocket from the Crypt (more on them in a future post).

This the second of Jehu's two albums and it is a whirlwind of guitars.  Pounding out riffs with hardcore intensity, but with quick rhythm and timing changes overlaid with screamed vocals that makes this seem like a blueprint for early Dillinger Escape Plan, but unfortunately probably also egged on a few of the emo and screamo bands in the 00s.

The group broke up after this and the band members went onto other individual artistic pursuits.

Day 0719 - Automatic for the People

R.E.M. "Automatic for the People" (1992) - got it

The band did not tour their previous release “Out of Time”, opting instead to head straight back into writing new songs.

I actually find that quite admirable.  Often, bands get sucked into the treadmill of write-record-tour then, when their schedule says so, they have start being creative again to start that cycle again… whereas they might not be in a creative place at the time.  Better to nut out a string of albums in quick succession while you’re feeling inspired.

Anyhoo, the band wanted to write an album of rockier songs to contrast their previous album, but when guitarist Bill Berry, bassist Mike Mills, and drummer Peter Buck got together, they just weren’t coming up with many songs in that vein.  The band were continuing their method of switching instruments to get themselves out of their comfort zone and write in different ways and ended up often not working with drums in the mix at all.

The  result was that the music they produced was quite pared back, with the drum parts being minimal, or in some instances, non-existent.   Berry stuck to clean guitar sounds, acoustic guitars and mandolins.  String arrangements from Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones would eventually garnish 4 of the album’s tracks.

Singer Michael Stipe responded to the new subdued material with lyrics of sadness and loss, with some lighter moments provided by track “Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight”.   Listening to the album as a whole, you really do appreciate what a great collection of songs it is, with even well-worn singles like “Everybody Hurts” and “Man on the Moon” feeling fresh within the context of the album-as-whole.

With regards to “Man on the Moon”, it had been written fairly early on but had remained an instrumental for the duration of recording.  Stipe felt he couldn’t get his head around it lyrically and thought it should stay instrumental.  It was only when his bandmates begged him to finish the song that he went out for a walk around the neighbourhood with the music in his headphones and came back with lyrics.

As with “Out of Time”, the band decided not to tour the album.  Making its success (presumably helped by radio/video-play and the band’s existing fans) all the more impressive.

Day 0429 - Street Life

Crusaders "Street Life" (1979)

 
Another album featuring a dose of light funk.  Though, that is just one side to their sound, which is more of a jazzy smooth pop-fusion kind of thing. The band used to be called 'the Jazz Crusaders', and though they dropped 'jazz' from their name, the sound stayed very firmly in the music.

These songs sound like they'd work just fine in either a disco/dance club or in a smokey jazz lounge. The pop flavour does dull the jazz edge a little, but it's still spicy enough.