Motherfish #13- Blast from the Past

Album of the Week

As far as movies go, I like a wide variety. I like something smart and thought provoking, I like something witty and clever, but every time somebody says “poop” I’ll laugh. Stupid humor is, I think, vastly underrated in the film world. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it’s looked down upon, snubbed as if some lesser achievement. Too often do I end up discussing movies with an elitist, who loves his foreign and indie art house films. There’s nothing wrong with that at all, but you need to be able to take your head out of your ass, otherwise all you’ll be looking at is the same shit that keeps getting rammed down your throat. See what I’m getting at? Well, I came across a movie that even I considered to be a complete and total shit show. The movie in question was a 1977 release called The Brain Machine. Do yourself a favor and never see this movie. I was talking to a friend of mine about it, and the subject of bad movies came up. He started talking about the movie Troll 2, which I’m desperate to watch. Anyway, we watched an interview with Michael Stephenson, the star of Troll 2 who said, in a very sincere way, “Everybody felt like ‘hey, we’re making a movie, let’s do the best we can do.’ And we all just failed at it. Miserably.” This statement reminded me of today’s album. NOT because today’s album is bad; rather because today’s album is what I imagine the opposite of that statement would be.

…

Radiolarian by The Spines

The theme of today’s review is honesty. This album is the result of good, honest musicians making good, honest music. They’re much more than just good musicians, they’re all great in fact. I love when I can sit down with an album and be able to hear the amount of effort that went into recording it. I listening to probably 5 or 6 different albums before each review, and many of them I like, and I actually put a lot of thought into what I’m going to review when. I try and choose something that has substance to it, so I can talk about something besides how good each song is. When you listen to Radiolarian, you can hear the thought behind each track. In regards to the statement regarding Troll 2, I can imagine the members of this band sitting around a table and just saying “hey, we’re in a band, let’s make the best music we can” and they succeeded. The Spines have a catchy pop/rock feel to them that ‘s immediately attention grabbing. The songs just feel good. Mix in some great hooks, vocal harmonies, and what you get is a sound that’s at once both very accessible but layered with quality musicianship. When I finished my first full listen-through of the album (I’m currently almost done with #17) I said to myself ‘somewhere in the great lexicon of the English language there is one word that can accurately capture the feeling of this album’. And yes, I do actually think to myself like a pretentious tool, but I’m an English major so I can’t help it. That’s not the point. The point is that after a while, I gave up trying to find the word because I got distracted by ebay. Ebay is quite possible the coolest thing ever. You can find anything on there. Literally anything. If you need an original EZ Bake Oven in mint condition or an oldschool enema bag or some farming tools from the 1800’s….. Damn, I’m doing it again. Anyway, I never came up with that word. And that’s a good thing. When you first listen to Radiolarian, you might think that you have a good idea of what the album is going to sound like, and you sit there listening, enjoying every minute. But then, out of nowhere, they do something unexpected but strangely suiting. The album as a whole sets a goal: have as much fun with good, solid music as possible. The Spines accomplish this goal with a varied assortment of song styles and musical techniques.

Let’s talk songs. There are some killer tracks on this album to be sure, but I’d like to give honorable mention to my favorites. Usually when I review an album, I go into the review with an idea of what song(s) I’d like to throw the spotlight on, and more recently one of those becomes the sample I’ll post. With Radiolarian, I had a difficult time picking just a few songs to talk about, and what song I wanted to post changed four or five times from starting to write the review until now. I’m going to start with track one, Difference. The first song on an album can serve one of two purposes; either it’s a non-song intro meant to make you curious and draw you in, or it’s a really awesome song that makes you crave the rest of the album. Difference is the latter of the two, and it does so with gusto. The song is a high energy feel-good tune that promises to deliver an album packed with good times. Whenever the first song on an album is particularly good, I always approach with caution, ever afraid that I’m going to be disappoint (if you thought what you just read was a typo, you fail). The Spines set the bar pretty high with Difference, and the quality of the songs remained consistently well made and fun. The track I have for you all is #7, Big Chorus. I really like this song because it does something so few bands today can do, it combines a genuinely well-written song that’s fun to listen to with creatively well layered instrument tracks that let the individual musicians show off their chops. Make no mistake, The Spines have chops. Imagine this: the cheese sandwich. Get the image in your head. Good. The cheese sandwich is a fairly standard item of food with a lot of potential for variation. The Spines are similar. The Spines are the most delicious gourmet $47 cheese sandwich you could imagine; each and every flavor from the bread to the five different cheeses used to the light sprinkling of pepper and thin layer of mayo compliments the others. The Spines play catchy rock with a good mainstream radio sound, but they do it so well you can’t help but enjoy and appreciate the talent here.

…

A quick closing remark; I have the pleasure of actually being friends with one of the band members, Max the lead guitarist, and the dude is one sick player. After listening to Radiolarian, I laughed to myself when we were sitting around playing System of a Down songs on our guitars nearly eight years ago. Before that summer, I only fooled around with my guitar. After that, I actually started to take it seriously. It’s really awesome to see somebody I’ve known for a while make a name for himself. He definitely found a band of other talented musicians. Make sure you check these guys out and keep your ears open for them, they have a great sound and I anticipate nothing but good things in their future. Thanks again Max. Best of luck to you all.




As promised, Big Chorus!