Greenville's free alternative weekly

Reviews by William Logan & Davey Ferguson

Modest Mouse We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank March 20, 2007 Suicide Squeeze

It’s been three years since last we heard from Seattle’s Modest Mouse. But, now they’re back and they’ve enlisted former Smiths guitarist, Johnny Marr, to contribute some song writing expertise to their latest effort. Oh, I know what you’re thinking: “Oh, my gosh! Isaac Brock and Johnny Marr together on the same album?! It’s has to be good, right?!

Unfortunately, NO, it doesn’t. And it isn’t. Save for the opener, “March into the Sea,” We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank is a stale project at best. Of course, Brock’s herky-jerky stammer is still intact, but it sounds a little too forced this time around.

Songs like “Fire it Up”, “Florida” and that annoying new single, “Dashboard”, are probably the most bland ideas Modest Mouse has come up with since their conception. These tracks move more like a bland B-sides offering from a band that just found out that they were contractually obligated to spew out one last record before they could leave a bad label.

Maybe the success of 2004’s Good News… inflated a few egos. Maybe the creative well has finally run dry. Maybe they’ll call their next album We Were Bored Before the Band Even Broke Up and they’ll let the keytarist from Kajagoogoo sit in and jam.
Only time will tell.

-William Logan

Jay Reatard Bloodvisions October 10, 2006 In the Red Records

Well Jay Reatard finally released a solo album. Since the break-up of the Lost Sounds the man has been quite busy with work in other bands such as the Final Solutions and Angry Angles, while still managing to release a Reatards single every now and then.

My initial desire when purchasing this album was to dislike it. Everyone and their mother seems to want to swallow Mr. Reatards next wad before he is even done climaxing, so it difficult to hear about any of his projects without at least some thought of “what an over-hyped hack”. I tell you this, Bloodvisions is one of the catchiest albums I have heard in a long time. From the opening riff, I was brought into the keyboard infused rhythms that will end up delighting me for years. Leaps and bounds over the last Lost Sounds album, which still gets plenty of spins in my supreme bachelor pad stereo, this album has all the hooks and melodies one could want.

Opening with the simple guitar riffs of “Blood Visions” He creates a simple Devoesque song, worthy of any geek’s collection. His Goner Records sound is not too far behind on tracks such as “Death is Forming”, “Oh it’s Such a Shame”, and “We who Wait”, showing he still knows how to create songs perfect for a rockin’ drinkin’ good time. He has obviously grown up, and throughout even though the whole album has sort of a new wave feel to it, tracks like “My Shadow” and “Not a Substitute” stand out especially as perfect dancey songs fit for any decent night out on the town.

To call this album “New Wave”, or even to cite such influences on the album as Joy Division or Wire does Bloodvisions a disservice, because Jay Reatard has accomplished so much with this record. He’s made a record that doesn’t exist in a bubble of copycat bands. As much as I am always willing to hear the next band that sounds like the Oblivans or Mummies, it is very refreshing to hear an album come out that has its roots in said bands, but doesn’t confine itself to the bubble of garagepunk, while not creating something that sounds like “it would have been a big hit in the 80’s.” Jay Reatard is now, and has the licks to prove it.

So grab a your finest and cheapest malt beverage, put this shit on high blast, and dance around your room like the degenerate drunken hedonist you know in your heart you are.

-Davie Ferguson