Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Phoenix is a band from Paris, France that is classified as alternative on Wikipedia, which is an extremely vague genre in my opinion. Also, they don't have any genres or influences listed on their Myspace page. This information made me think the band either does not want to be categorized or can't be.

Their latest album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, was released this past May. The melodies, beats, and synthesized effects (listen to "1901") make for a very exciting collaboration of music. Most of the album is very fast-paced and the music made me want to dance. Tracks like "Listzomania" and "Girlfriend" could have this effect on almost anyone. Hearing them live would probably be pretty awesome, because I cannot imagine the audience successfully fighting the urge to move with the music.

This band is very much a product of the environment. Paris at the time of Phoenix's inception was producing bands like Daft Punk and Air, and it's easy to see some relation between their styles. However, their sound is very unique.

Overall, this album put me into an extremely good mood. When I first heard about Phoenix's French roots, I thought the album would have French lyrics, but they sing everything in English, which is nice. Listen to them on Myspace or the Hype Machine.

-Cory Vogel

Mojo Method: Everything, Ever (Up Until This Point)

Mojo Method, a band from New Orleans, lists themself on Myspace as a Psychadelic/Other/Rock band. I'm gonna say the "other" represents a lot. To me they sound like a Chilled/alternative/experimental/slightly-Jazz band that is capable of sounding like anything. I wanted to say that in this review because they lightly touch on a lot of different sounds in this EP. The EP itself is appropriately named Everything, Ever (Up Until This Point). I felt a sense of Tom Morello's hard and extremely rhythmic guitar riffs from Rage Against the Machine's prime, and I also felt some of their more jazzy beats midway through the EP. It offers a lot for just 3 songs, and I highly recommend downloading it.

I met Ross Farbe, the singer for this band, at a coffee shop about 4 months ago. Then I asked him 3 months later if he would mind if I reviewed his album. He said, "that'd be great, it's free on BandCamp." So reader, go get you some.

This EP really leaves me wanting more, and I truly believe it's a really good taste of things to come. I listened to it a lot this week and my first question was "what's next?" After trying to answer this question by looking at their myspace, I was pleased to see there is a lot of new promising material coming from them. So hopefully I will be reviewing a complete album soon.

Now, I have a question that will probably take some time to answer. A lot of Everything, Ever is pretty trippy at some points, and I would consider that to stem from a psychadelic sound. The band itself is based in New Orleans, and a couple of these guys have Jazz roots in music. I believe Jazz and Psychadelic to share a similar style, that being improvisation. So is there a relation between the sounds of Jazz and Psychadelic, or am I just being delusional? Both are improvisation to some degree, so is there a connection? Or are these just two sounds that happen to follow the same structural philosophy. Also, is psychadelic music that was not derived from psychadelic or drug related experiences considered psychadelic music? Let me know what you think.

Check out the band at http://www.myspace.com/mojomethod.

-Cory Vogel

Caddywhompus: EPs

This is a review that I've been waiting to write for about a month now. Caddywhompus lists itself as a "duo experimental/pop/psychadelic band" (drummer: Sean Hart, and Guitarist/Vocalist/crazy amp controller: Chris Rehm) residing in New Orleans, La. Their album EPs is a combination of their first two EP's they released, and listening to the sound they put together prior to hearing them live was actually very refreshing. They had so many abrasive but aesthetically pleasing elements to bring to light and their album never stopped impressing me. It was nice to break away for a little while.

Then....I heard them live!

I was not prepared to take in such a tremendous composition in only 45 minutes. Caddywhompus plays with raw energy, and I can say confidently that you need to see these guys live. If there are rules to playing music in a band, Caddywhompus doesn't have a clue what they are. They will throw any beat, riff, or distortion they can think of in your face just because they think it's cool. When they opened for Colour Revolt at the Spanish Moon, Rehm jokingly said, "our next song is called 'This Bitch was Golden.'" The titles for the songs on EPs are even funnier: 'Probably shouldn't have done all that acid'; 'Acadian Threeway'; and 'This is Where We Blaze the Nuggz.'

Let me also add that Rehm plays guitar with at least 6 pedals and some sort of vocal distortion. Watching the two move with their instruments ends up being half the performance because Rehm appears to be chasing the rapid & intense beats that Hart forces through his set. At the same time, he has to control several different layers of music that he is looping on top of each other. Furthermore, they often break away from this rapid style and slow their rhythms down tremendously, but they never stop performing.

While the band provides the drums and guitar parts with energy and tenacity, the vocals Rehm pumps out match them ten-fold. In the album EPs, the vocals commit to the music very effectively. And although the trippy sessions of drifty sound effects can take some getting used to, the full force of their album lies in the emotions communicated through their style of play and the innovative nature of the effects themselves. Songs such as 'Untitled #7408' express the true vitality behind this album.

I think the Caddywhompus (myspace) are definitely worth your time. A lot of the other tracks from the album can be found at The Hype Machine as well.

-Cory Vogel