Big Rock Finish… reviews of independent music

Name: S.N.A.K. (Strange Noises and Kismet) Album: 6 Months of Sundays Released: Fall 2004 Members: Dave - Vocals/Bass Tynur - Vocals/Guitar Alex - Guitars Jay - Drums Website: www.snakbiz.com www.snaksuxx.com Favourite Song: Rockstar (Track 12)

I’ll for now ignore the blaring grammatical error of using the number 6 instead of spelling the word Six out when it is the first word in a sentence. Then again it might just be me being far too anal.

I’ll warn you now, that if you pop this disk into your CD-rom you’ll be hit with a video-montage of the making of the album. SNAK banked on people popping their CD into their computer, and they bet on a winning horse. The videos are really amusing, seeing the guys doing what band people do, record, sit around, make fun of each other. It also gives a video of a live performance, and gives you an idea of what to expect from their live shows.

I will classify SNAK as a rock band. And not just because of Dave’s (formerly) long hair. The songs are catchy, sometimes danceable (at live shows they will demand dancing) and are songs I have no problem singing along to, (unless band members are in front of me.)

Some of my favourite parts of songs are the bits between songs. Things that sound like machine messages, random voices, and phrases recorded for no reason but were funny. And there’s lots of them in here. All of the songs are fun with lyrics that may or may not make any sense to me. But with a band that uses a cartoon/stuffed monkey as a mascot, I don’t think I care if the lyrics make any sense.

This CD is kept in my car at all times, and is actually really good for driving long distances since it’s a full 13 track album. That just means I won’t get sick of the songs too quickly, nor need to be fumbling with my CD player while driving 100mph down the highway with my left knee. If I threw house parties I would pop it into my stereo system to play on random, and if I still went to the gym I would bring it with me because even the slower tempo songs are songs I could work out to.

Name: Chisai Jackson Album: a few bucks short of taking over & intermission (acoustic EP) Released: 2005 & 2006 Members: Chisai Jackson - voice/guitar Tim Thorney - guitars Brent Barkman - piano & organs Gerry Mosby - bass EDric Schenkman - guitars Randy Cook - drums Mark Pellizzer - guitars Website: www.chisaijackson.com Favourite Song(s): Paris (track 2) & Only Satellites (track 4)

So I’m reviewing two CD’s by the same artist at the same time. So there is a method to my madness. Basically I wanted to review just the acoustic EP, I’ve only seen Chisai live when playing acoustic by himself is the reason, plus it’s a newer release, but I also don’t own a scanner and I don’t have a jpeg of his EP cover, so I’m doing his previous album so there’s a picture. Hah. Beat that.

Rock. Pop. Indie. How much do I rely on myspace and the user-defined music categories that musicians put themselves into? Anyways, dare I say Adult Rock? “Rock” is such an inconsequentially broad term that I feel the need to define it further. This is rock my mom would like listening to, and is the same rock I like listening to. As opposed to other rock where I would love and my mom would call “noise.” A Few Bucks Short of Taking Over has a full band behind it, while Intermission is actually an acoustic EP, so let’s throw “Acoustic” in there as well.

Songs off Few Bucks (forgive me, I’m too lazy to continually type out the full name of that album!) all flow together nicely. They often have different styles some how, don’t ask me to explain it. But lyrically some are uplifting songs while others are sort of downers but inspiring at the same time. Then musically there’s faster songs, slower songs and lots of stuff going on but they go together really well. There isn’t a song I dislike on the album, nor really anything I could pick apart.

Songs off Intermission remind me of every show I’ve seen for Chisai. I’ve never seen him with a backing band, just him, a stage and a guitar, and I have to admit I’ve grown used to the idea. I don’t think I could really believe a full band behind him. And that I think is the feeling that is supposed to be generated with this EP. It’s very simple since there’s so little that’s a part of it, one voice and one guitar and four songs. Just makes it sound really nice.

I’ve never had a problem listening to Chisai in my car on long or short road trips. It’s so non-offensive that I play it while my parents are in the car and I have control over the CD player. Dinner parties? Chill-relaxing, adult non-drunken-bastard parties would definitely get a thumbs up. Anything where maturity is involved, which in my life, is sometimes quite rare!

Make sure you check out Chisai Jackson on April 27th at NOW Lounge in Toronto, or on April 28th at ESC’s Sound Lounge in Mississauga as a part of the last Four Voices show!

Name: [Perversion] Album: Collapses Released: Halloween 2006 Members: Brad J Bakelmun - … written, produced and performed by Alex Brule - Lead/Additional Gtrs C.H.A.D. - Additional Drums Marc-L “Boomer” Porter - Drums on “Halfway” Amanda Sebastian: whisperer on “the universal truth” Website: www.perversion.ca Favourite Song: masochist [track: 6]

Is it weird that I would call music haunting? [Perversion] kind of creeps me out sometimes. It’s a good kind of creep-me-out though. One of those makes-me-think sort of music. Songs go back and forth from pretty slow, to pretty fast pretty quickly and easily, it’s always unexpected what’s going to happen next. It’s a total mood changer.

I’ve been told that [Perversion] mimics some popular bands in the rock-ish-era. Not one for being much into music that’s commercially released (hence this blog I do believe) I wouldn’t have been able to piece them together. The lyrics in the songs always make me wonder what the artist was thinking when he was writing, since the words are so… “out there” sometimes.

My favourite song just called me a manipulative damaged whore. I believe I just found my soul mate. Anyways, is there ever a time to want to feel aggressive? That’s when I would listen to this. With my knowledge of gothic clubs, I would envision [Perversion] being a big hit at the DJ booth. And surprisingly enough, I’m already trying to figure out how to work a few of the songs off this album into a 15 minute, dual-position flesh hook suspension performance. Of course I’d want to be the one to perform it. I’ll be sure to send the band a message if and when I do.

Name: Fjord Rowboat Album: Saved the Compliments for Morning Released: February 23, 2007 Members: craig gloster ian mckay kevin mckay justin grant matt collumWebsite: www.fjordrowboat.com Record Label: Roxton Records Favourite Song: Shootin’ The Breeze [track 3]

Wow. I have an exact date for the release of the album. I rock, because I was at the CD release party :D. And I should have written about it already. Writing about music does have it’s perks. I totally didn’t expect the invite, and Justin being the main person I’ve been e-mailing, has been more than nice to me, so kudos to you!

So this is my first introduction to what the band self-proclaimed as “Shoegazer” music. Now my friends in bands (not this band though) explained to me that shoegazer music is where the band doesn’t move a whole lot on stage and play while staring at their shoes. Ah, that’s where the classification comes from. Alas, it doesn’t help me any since when I saw this band there were very little staring at shoes, but this is what they call themselves, I’ll trust they know what they play.

Most of the songs on this album are pretty slow, I generally listen to stuff a bit faster than this, so it’s a welcome change. Again, with my inability to really look beyond the face value of lyrics most of the time, I’m not sure if there’s much deeper meanings behind the words being sung, but I do enjoy hearing them. What I get out of the music is there is still a hope in the world.

It’s a laid-back, chill-out kind of album, so where would you lay back and chill out? I’d do such laying and chilling whilst on a patio on a summer day, or maybe on a patio at a bar/pub on a summer day, or … lots of patios and lots of summer day combinations it looks like. It’s mellow, it’s non-offensive, you can pretty much listen to it everywhere.