Eureka The Butcher's new video "Desert Rituals"

Eureka The Butcher is Marcel Rodriguez Lopez' electronic side proyect. Desert Rituals is the tenth song off his recently released album "Music For Mothers", whose cover shows Marcel with his mother Frances, who passed away last year.

[Review] Bosnian Rainbows - Bosnian Rainbows

Most of us know Omar Rodriguez-López for the super-prolific multi-intrumentalist madman he has become in the years after At The Drive In's break up, never really focusing in just one project at the time. Having released an album and formed a "temporary" band with every musician he has come in contact with so far, no one expected Bosnian Rainbows would become his main project in so little time.

Many fans anticipated The Mars Volta's breakup since the release of their 2009 album Octahedron, but a few hiatuses later TMV was still going, and with the incorporation of Deantoni Parks on drums, Omar and Cathy Pellow (head of Sargent House and Omar's partner in his own label) heralded the arrival of a new TMV.

At the same time, Omar adopted Teri Gender Bender's band Le Butcherettes into his own label, so it was a matter of time before both had an album of sorts. It wasn't a surprise when it was announced that the newest incarnation of Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group would feature Teri Gender Bender, but the group soon had it's own name and after a few months of silence it was announced that The Mars Volta was no more.

Naturally there's has been a lot of hype about the two bands risen from the ashes of TMV (Cedric Bixler Zavala went on to form Zavalaz with Juan Alderete and a few friends), so now that the album has dropped there's no doubt Bosnian Rainbows is anything but "a new TMV", but some elements still remain.

Their self titled debut is somewhere between Noctourniquet and Omar's experiments with electronic music in albums like Tychozorente (2010) and Saber, Querer, Osar y Callar (2012). The bass has been replaced by synths, Teri Gender Bender lays down some dark, more conventional (and often punk infused) vocals instead of Cedric's anguished wails, Deantoni plays a stripped down kit while also playing keys and Omar, surprisingly, rarely stands out over his bandmates. Every instrument has the same level of protagonism, Omar's guitar playing has become subtler in the last year to the point where he's just another part of their aural spectrum.

This new equilibrium isn't all for the good though. While the album starts with a few really solid songs, it soons begins to feel a little too flat, there's few suprises after the first three or four songs, and while there's a nice variety of tunes here it feels like Bosnian Rainbows is missing an element that raises the band above their self imposed limitations. This why I feel the strongest tracks on the record are opener "Eli", which slowly builds up into it's great chorus and "Worthless", featuring an infectious drum beat by Parks, a great "solo" by Omar and again a great outro by Deantoni in the closing seconds, along with a solid performanced my Teri Gender Bender through and through.

Bosnian Rainbows could become so much more if they let themselves shine some more individually, but for now it feels like a band whose sound still doesn't feel greater than the sum of it's parts.

7.5/10

Pre-orders up for John Frusciante's new ep "Outsides"

Pre-order links for "Outsides" have been made available via John Frusciante's website, along with a lenghty description written by John himself.

On August 27th, John Frusciante will release the Outsides EP via Record Collection (August 14th in Japan). The bonus track “Sol,” available in hi-quality source audio, comes as an instant download with each pre-order.

Read more about the album at http://johnfrusciante.com/article/outsides-ep

 

The Aristocrats' Culture Clash Song Preview

Listen to the title track from The Aristocrats' upcoming album Culture Clash, out on July 16th.

New Pearl Jam Album Out In October

Pearl Jam are preparing for the release of their tenth studio album this October 15th. "Lightning Bolt" was produced by Brendan O' Brien, who also produced their previous album "Backspacer".

You can preorder the album at http://pearljam.com/lightningbolt and listen to the first single "Mind Your Manners" below:

New J. Frusciante EP "Outsides" out soon

Japanese website "CD Japan" has released information about a new John Frusciante EP coming up next month, on August 14th to be precise. The site describes it as "CD from John Frusciante features three tracks total, including a bonus one. Comes with lyrics and a description.".
Another description which is written in japanese suggests the album will be similar to PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone.

UPDATE: Tracklist revealed

[Review] The Dillinger Escape Plan - One Of Us Is The Killer

The Dillinger Escape Plan is a band known for crafting albums that come close to rupturing your eardrums and for doing it in a way that is remarkably enjoyable for the listener (or at least those adventurous enough for the sonic ride). While this is true for their newest album One Of Us Is The Killer, their first in Sumerian Records, the band has been experimenting with more traditional and even melodic compositions.

Make no mistake, the album still kicks and punches and it's knuckles have cymbal-shaped studs, but from time to time the album abruptly changes from a carefully crafted mess to a more traditional hard rock sound and vice versa. The title track is an example of this new refined songwriting that the band "experiments" with, making use of soft verse-loud chorus dynamics and keeping a slow, steady tempo for the whole song.

Each member has something to offer to both their new sound and their "old" one. Ben Weinman's riffs are lightning fast, dissonant and they sound like pure evil, specially when combined with James Love's rhythm guitar, Greg Puciato's furiously versatile vocals are largely responsible for the melodical side of their new sound, effortlessly jumping from quiet breakdowns to chaotic shredding to more melodic yet hard rocking segments, Liam Wilson adds a lot of atmospheric bass lines and Billy Raymer's epileptic drumming are a driving force in the hardest hitting songs and a source of groove in the breakdowns, taking the spotlight for the instrumental CH 375 268 277 ARS (something that instantly reminded me of Hella's 2011 album Tripper) and contributing a great fill for the phenomenal title track.

The production is very good, every instrument can be picked apart, even in the midst of chaos, though at the cost of trying to sound loud and agressive the album has a bit of clipping; sometimes the drums may sound too compressed and some of Weinman's arrangement's are partially lost in the mix.

In short, it's still DEP, it's not for everyone, it hits hard, it's raw and it's noisy, but the band shows it's not afraid of going into new directions and broadening their horizons, something I have always respected, and something to be expected from those who put their hearts into their music.

8.5/10