Sunday, December 24, 2006

Album Review: In the Absence of Truth by Isis, Released October 31, 2006


Isis latest offering continues the trend of beautifully crafted stoner esque sound-scapes, but this also appears to be its slight undoing as the album doesn’t appear to at any stage deviate from this theme of atmospheric build up followed by melodic vocals then descending into heavy riffs and growls which seem almost in the background of the tracks, which I actually found rather pleasant. But the unfortunate fact is that with each track mostly being over seven minutes, the album although being well produced and the musicianship as good as ever, feels repetitive and slightly boring. That is to say it has trouble grabbing the listener. On the other hand the album does sit well in the background without being to aggressive on the ears. Vocalist Aaron Turner does well in implementing clean style vocals with his growl style keeping them well balanced. There are defiantly some interesting things happening within the music and admittedly the first 3 tracks do grab you with their musicianship, but as already stated the album does not alternate enough to keep the listener interested. 3/5 stars

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Fu Manchu Announce First Leg of 'We Must Obey' Tour


On Feb. 28, California rock powerhouse Fu Manchu will commence their first North American tour in nearly two years, a six-week headlining trek. This will kick off the world tour in support of their new album We Must Obey (street date: Feb. 20), praised by Decibel as the band's "best set of riffs in years, a veritable smoker's delight of fuzz tones and fast times that's so SoCal, it hurts." Support will be provided by Valient Thorr and, depending on the market, either Seemless or Artimus Pyledriver.

The We Must Obey tour will be the band's longest since they lapped the world in support of 2001's California Crossing, a trek that ultimately yielded a celebrated double-live album, Go For It...Live! Vocalist, guitarist and founding member Scott Hill can't wait for the Kings of the Road to resume doing what they do best.

"Now the real fun begins - playing these new songs loud and live," he says. "This is the way they were meant to be heard. We will bring along a lot of amps and a lot of fuzz pedals."

Fu Manchu's tenth album and Century Media/Liquor and Poker debut, We Must Obey was recorded at Hollywood's Grandmaster Recorders studio (Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Black Crowes). Finishing touches were added by Gene Grimaldi at Oasis Mastering (Velvet Revolver, Pennywise, Rev. Horton Heat). In addition to the songs "Hung Out To Dry" and "Between The Lines" - both currently available on the new limited-edition Hung Out To Dry EP, which combines a 7" single and a four-track compact disc - the album includes a cover of The Cars classic "Moving In Stereo."

Additional tour dates will be announced as they're confirmed.

Fu Manchu with Valient Thorr, Seemless (*), Artimus Pyledriver (**):

02/28 - San Francisco, CA - Slim's **
02/02 - Portland, OR - Hawthorne Theatre **
03/03 - Seattle, WA - El Corazon **
03/07 - Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge **
03/09 - Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock **
03/13 - St. Louis, MO - Creepy Crawl **
03/14 - Cincinnati, OH - Madhatters **
03/15 - Columbus, OH - Ravari Room **
03/17 - Cleveland, OH - Peabody's **
03/23 - West Chester, PA - Rex's *
03/30 - Charlotte, NC - The Casbah *
03/31 - Atlanta, GA - Smith's Olde Bar *
04/01 - Birmingham, AL - The Nick *
04/03 - New Orleans, LA - House of Blues (The Parish) *
04/06 - Austin, TX - Emo's *
04/11 - Phoenix, AZ - The Clubhouse *

Thank You to Ultimate Guitar for this information

Isis Tours


Isis has announced dates for their 2007 US tour from February to April. They promise there will be more dates to come, but to see if they’re heading to your town, check out their website.

There was some speculation as to Isis’ Australian Tour dates, but it appears they’ve been confirmed now. Here are the details:

  • Sat Feb 3 Metro w/ These Arms Are Snakes & Laura Sydney
  • Sun Feb 4 Hi-Fi w/ These Arms Are Snakes & Laura Melbourne
  • Tue Feb 6 Arena w/ These Arms Are Snakes & Laura Brisbane
  • Wed Feb 7 Fowlers Live w/ These Arms Are Snakes & Laura Adelaide
  • Thu Feb 8 Amplifier Bar w/ Eleventh He Reaches London & Maximum Perversion Perth
  • Sat Feb 10 Kings Arms w/ Jakob Auckland NZ!
thanks to Forth Eye for this information

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Oliveri: Nostalgia or Good Riddance



There is no denying that Queens of the Stone Age last album, Lullabies to Paralyze, was a good album. It was different from previous offerings, but that’s has always been the way with QOTSA, with an ever changing lineup they remain fresh producing albums of different styling while retaining that identifiable sound that’s makes them great and that one step above the other Stoner Rock bands. Yes Lullabies was a good album, but it was missing something wasn’t it. The absence of Nick Oliveri was apparent, but don’t get me wrong, the bass on Lullabies was not below par and was pretty good, but lacking the ferocity of Olveri. Songs for the Deaf cracked along at a blistering pace whereas Lullabies felt more laid back which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as I said before I did enjoy Lullabies but Oliveri along with Homme have been an essential part of QOTSA and Kyuss from the beginning. I have a lot of respect for Troy van Leeuwen and Alain Johannes as guitarists in their own right and they have done a good job in holding up the bass ends of QOTSA, but without Oliveri, it almost feels like QOTSA is half there.

On the other hand Homme’s sacking of Oliveri is fully justified in my eyes, it is fine by me that Olveri used to go nuts and break stuff and occasionally ‘forget’ to wear his clothes on stage but being 'physically abusive' to Josh’s girlfriend is not on. What actually happened is a mystery but it was enough for Josh to sever his ties with the man who has been the backbone of his bands sound. It remains to be seen if Josh will forgive Nick as the new QOTSA album is being created. Nick has made is clear that he would love be back in the band but is also quite content with his current band Mondo Generator. Will we see QOTSA and Oliveri again, hopefully yes.

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