Album name: Colonia Artist name: A Camp Genre: Rock/Pop Released: 28 April 2009 Label: Wigpowder/Nettwerk ZME Rating: 7/10 Website: acamp.net What do you remember about The Cardigans? Y’know – the vaguely memorable Scandinavian pop band of the late 90s. “Love Fool”, probably, because Jim from The Office sang it one time. Is that all you remember of them? Maybe you remember the song itself, famed for its inclusion on the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack? You…
Some voices just stop you in your tracks, and demand you take notice. Think Corin Tucker’s barely-controlled wail, Wilson Pickett’s heartfelt howl, or Mark Lanegan’s weathered moans. Well, we’re gonna need a bigger boat (new category): a new, slightly hyperbolic description to capture the intensity of Valerie Pomella, singer for The Technicolor Victrola, whose EP I’ve been lucky enough to discover. Hers is a voice that stops you in your tracks, grabs you by the…
Album name: You Look Faster When You Are Young Artist name: Hot Gossip Genre: Punk Rock? Indie? I don’t know. Released: March 2009 Label: Ghost Records ZME Rating: 3/10 Website: myspace.com/hotgossip I feel a bit guilty for doing this review. Mostly because it’s picking on a very easy target, and also because I listened to it in the same week I heard two genuinely brilliant new albums it couldn’t possibly hope to live up to…
If you happen to hear the sounds of a million and three alternative fans whooping and hollering in delight over the next few months, it’s probably something to with the Nine Inch Nails/Jane’s Addiction/Street Sweeper tour that’s sweeping the globe this year. Which, surprisingly, we haven’t covered even once – feel free to slap us about the gums for that oversight, readers! But! We do have important news and gifts to make up for it!…
Album name: Fever Ray Artist name: Fever Ray Genre: Electronica Released: March 24 2009 Label: Mute ZME Rating: 7/10 Website: feverray.com I’ll admit that I was probably not the obvious choice to review this album. Not only is the world of electronic music a distant, confusing galaxy to my feeble, earth-bound, two-guitars-and-the-truth brain, but I’m also overcome by an unhealthy amount of uncontrollable hate when confronted by the vast array of commericial “chillout” electronica, all…
Album name: Party Intellectuals Artist name: Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog Genre: Rock/Experimental Released: 24 June 2008 Label: Pi ZME Rating: 8/10 Website: marcribot.com Hello, yes? I know. I understand exactly why you bought the Kings of Leon’s last record. Honestly, I do – I bought it too, after all. And, yes, it’s a fine record, where the band finally jumped to the left-hand side of the pop/rock divide, which they’ve been aiming for since forever….
Album name: Scream Artist name: Chris Cornell Genre: Rock/R’n’B Released: March 10 2009 Label: Interscope ZME Rating: 2/10 Website: chriscornell.com Let’s not beat around the bush here. What we have in Chris Cornell’s Scream is possibly the most misguided, counterintuitive, magnificently awful record Cornell, and producer Timbaland, will ever make. It’s suffers from both hideously outdated production – it sounds like what Cornell, in 1996, might have imagined r’n’b would sound like in 2009 -…
On June 27, 2006, Sleater-Kinney announced they were going on “indefinite hiatus”. On August 12, they played their last show together in Portland, Oregon with Eddie Vedder as support. Almost three years later, I wanted to pay my respects to this great band by analysing their final, great stand – The Woods. I was lucky enough to be present at what would prove to be Sleater-Kinney’s first and only Irish gig, in the dark, cramped…
One of my very favourite things I’ve seen on Youtube over the years was Mike Patton, giving an interview at Lollapalooza. He talks about his upcoming projects – some Italian music, and probably a record consisting solely of him gurgling on some turps, while jabbing a violin into some children’s eyes (although he neglects to mention that one) – before getting distracted by the strains of Wolfmother playing on a stage nearby. He administers a…
I know. 99% of the time, music journalism isn’t very helpful. It’s, at best, pretentious attempts to appear to be gripping the zeitgeist, and at worst, thinly-veiled marketing schemes disguised as a semi-cogent thought process. But I feel that here at ZME, we can be something more. An agent of virtue – a voice that’s willing to champion the good and stamp on the bad. A veritable He-Man amongst Cringers. At the very least, we…
Al Byrne