MC Lars at the Troubadour - Sept. 27, 2011

As published in Rukus Magazine:

http://www.rukusmag.com/2011/1011/concert_review_mc_lars.html

He studied English at Stanford.  He loves Iggy Pop, A Confederacy of Dunces, as well as WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT.    He shouts out exclamations like “reading is awesome!”  Clearly, this 28-year-old Berkeley, California native is no ordinary hip-hop artist.  Fiercely independent, MC Lars (aka Andrew Robert Neilsen) does things his own way.  He releases music on his own label, sells his own merchandise, and he never holds back on speaking his mind.  It’s this kind of raw expression, mixed with an intellectual bent, which wowed the rapturous packed audience at West Hollywood's  Troubadour on September 27^th.

Before the show even started, the chanting began…”MC LARS!” “MC LARS!” “MC LARS!”  The crowd wasn’t just ready; they were ravenous for what was about to happen.  Backed by a live drummer and bassist, MC Lars burst on to the Troubadour stage with a contagious amount of energy that spread throughout the historic club.  Opening the concert with the title track of his new album LARS ATTACKS!, MC Lars performed an exhilarating 10-song set that had people singing, clapping and jumping up and down.

Using two video screens (on either side of the stage), MC Lars used images to complement his fast-paced, hip-hop rhetoric.  For example, during the second song, “History’s Greatest Assholes,” pictures and videos were used to accentuate each of history’s assholes...i.e. Hitler, Stalin, Jack the Ripper, Pol Pot, and more.  Better still; MC Lars got the entire Troubadour to shout out the “assholes!” part of the song’s chorus.  

“Welcome to the independent hip-hop show!” announced the intellectual rapper before the evening’s third song.  “I feel like we’re all here tonight because we support something different”…and different they got with “Generic Crunk Rap”…a parody of mainstream hip-hop found on his 2006 THE GRADUATE album.  This time around, the master MC had the crowd shouting out “GET CRUNK!” after various lines in the song’s chorus, i.e. “Buy cars (GET CRUNK!), Take shots (GET CRUNK!), Have sex (GET CRUNK!).”  

Before performing “Annabel Lee R.I.P” (the closing track on LARS ATTACKS!), MC Lars gave credit to the song’s inspiration, Edgar Allen Poe.  “I want to give a shout out to an old school rapper…a master of iambic tetrameter.”  During “White Kids Aren’t Hyphy” (from 2009’s THIS GIANT ROBOT KILLS), MC Lars had the crowd jumping high in the air.  “Super Scope” (another track from LARS ATTACKS!) was introduced as a song about “how hip-hop saved my life.”

The emotional core of MC Lars dynamic set, was “Twenty-Three,” a song written about his friend Patrick Wood…who committed suicide in 2006.  Lars confessed, “I never really recovered from that.”  He went on to add that he works with the American Foundation For Suicide Prevention, and has raised (during his U.S. tour) over $1300 in donations for the non-profit organization.

Introducing “Ahab,” MC Lars proclaimed, “I’m kind of a literature rapper.  I love to take the 16^th century, 19^th century poems, play, books…and turn them into songs.  I created this genre called Lit-Hop.”  Speaking of which, the next song,“Hey There Ophelia,” was inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet.  It was dedicated to Misty Dawn, a beautiful redhead in attendance that night, who had appeared in the “Lars Attacks!” music video. 

To close out the show, MC Lars belted out the Edgar Allen Poe-inspired “Mr. Raven”…an early gem from his 2004 release, THE LAPTOP EP.  Once again, he encouraged the crowd to participate in the song.  With MC Lars at the helm, everyone happily sung along to “Who's that (who's that) rapping?  Who's that rapping at my chamber door?  Mr. (mister) Raven!  All up in my grill like, "Nevermore.”

After the concert, MC Lars told me he loved the Troubadour audience “…the crowd was crazy.  I thought they were hungry for something different.  There was a lot of love.”  He added, “This niche has grown, y’know?  The intellectual hip-hop world has grown…and it’s awesome.”  Awesome is right.   

   

Anthrax: WORSHIP MUSIC

As published in Rukus magazine:

http://www.rukusmag.com/2011/1011/album_review_anthrax.html

Anthrax

Worship Music

RELEASE DATE: September 13, 2011

STARS: 3/5

LABEL: Megaforce

REVIEW BY:  Paul Lyons

WEBSITE: http://anthrax.com/

A lot can happen in eight years.  In 2003, thrash-metal gurus Anthrax released their triumphant comeback album We’ve Come For You All.  It was a return to form for founding member and rhythm guitarist, Scott Ian, new lead guitarist Rob Caggiano, bassist Frank Bello, drummer/guitarist Charlie Benante, and longtime singer John Bush.  Yet just when things began to go right for Anthrax, everything started to go wrong…

First, Frank Bello left the band, then in 2005, Anthrax decided to bring back former lead vocalist Joey Belladonna, Frank Bello, and lead guitarist Dan Spitz for a reunion tour of their 1984-1992 line-up.  After the tour was over, Joey Belladonna decided he wanted to leave the band again, so they hired Devilsize singer Dan Nelson to sing, re-hired Rob Caggiano on lead guitar, and started work on a new studio album.  Yet in 2009, Dan Nelson was let go, so they brought back John Bush on vocals.  A year later, John Bush was out…and none other than Joey Belladonna was back on lead vocals once again.  With seven years of musical chairs behind them (for now), the band went back into the studio to finally complete their (three years-in-the-making) brand new studio album, which features the pun-in-cheek title of Worship Music.  Produced by the band, Worship Music features 13 kick-ass original tracks, plus a hidden 14^th track at the end (a cover of the Swedish hardcore band Refused 1998 song “New Noise”).  

Beginning with the moody drone of the short instrumental “Worship”, Anthrax explodes into high gear with the machine gun riffing of the fast and furious “Earth on Hell”…an angry, bold song about revolution and destruction.  “Kill the old guard”…so says Anthrax.  “The Devil You Know” features a great start/stop guitar riff that compels you to do some serious headbanging.  Charlie Benante’s drums are (appropriately) on fire during the song, and Rob Caggiano’s killer guitar solo lifts the music up to new heights.

Not letting up, the band follows this with “Fight’em Till You Can’t,” a pounding metal barnburner that was offered up as a free download in June.  Featuring tough and ready-to-take-on-the-world vocals by Joey Belladonna, the song reflects the strength and unrelenting resolve to survive, and to find the darkness inside you in order to fight off the most evil of all evils…zombies.

“I’m Alive,” a fast shuffle, is the most straightforward rocker on the album, while “Hymn 1” is its most unusual track.  At only 38 seconds, the instrumental song features a haunting cello performed by Alison Chesley.  “Hymn 2” features a 44-second, driving snare drum cadence.  

Two standout songs on “Worship” lean in a more commercial direction.  “The Giant” starts out in a fast 2/4 rhythm, then 40 seconds in, Joey Belladonna belts out a catchy, anthem-like chorus in 4/4 time: “Caught between the lines of right and wrong yeah, Caught between the things that I don’t know…”  The other standout song, “Crawl,” is Anthrax’s answer to a love ballad.  It starts out slow, with Belladonna’s vocals way up in the mix.  The pace picks up in the song’s bridge, as well as its big chorus of “If you crawl, I’ll follow, I’ll follow.”  The chant of “Crawling, crawling, crawling” near the end of the track is very powerful, and Caggiano once again blows the roof off with his guitar.

Anthrax has done right by their fans with Worship Music, delivering a strong album filled with the right mixture of heavy, fast, and dark sounds.  Here’s hoping that this current lineup of the band stays in tact for years to come…yet I wouldn’t count on it.

Kitten Scratches The Key Club in Hollywood - 10/7/11

From: http://www.ocreloaded.com:

Kitten Scratches The Key Club in Hollywood

Written by Paul Lyons

Sunday, 09 October 2011 22:22

Young, raw, talented and blissfully uninhibited, she bullied the stage into submission.  Her voice was her instrument, yet her body was her most complete means of expression.  This is Chloe Chaidez, a 16-year-old Wunderkind who fronts a new teenage band called Kitten.  On Friday evening at the Key Club in West Hollywood, Chaidez’s face was buried in her hair as she danced, twisted, spun, ran, jumped around, moshed and even did handstands while her more conservative bandmates held down the fort and rocked out On tour with Detroit rockers Electric Six, vocalist Chloe Chaidez, guitarist Andy Miller, bassist Chris Vogel, drummer Max Kuehn (and a keyboardist who I believe is named Sam) performed a super-charged, 40 minute set Friday night.  Their lively performance featured songs from their 2010 EP, Sunday School, as well as new material that perhaps will make it on to their forthcoming debut album. The songs chosen for the night were all very up, and danceable, with a pop/rock/punk feel.  Songs like “Chinatown” and “Kill The Light” were performed with an aggressive edge.  Kitten’s version of The Cure’s ‘Boys Don’t Cry” was a perfect fit for the band, as it blended seamlessly with their original material.    “Kitten With A Whip” was performed with the same kind of wild abandon as heard on their EP.  If you can imagine The Cranberries and Blondie colliding with U2 and The Clash...that’s what Kitten sounds like. The MVP of the night was clearly Chloe Chaidez.  She was able to swallow each song whole, letting the rhythm and the melody take hold of her entire being.  Chaidez let loose her animal instincts as she prowled upstage, downstage, and on top of speaker cabinets.  She crashed into band members, egging them on for a scuffle...all the while belting out pitch-perfect vocals that showcased her broad range. This is where it begins...young, raw, talented and blissfully uninhibited.  For Kitten, the future is wide open...and success is bound to come their way.