Of the Blue Colour of the Sky - OK GO

By Gord Brown

OK Go is, so the story goes, named after a phrase that a teacher of a couple of the lads in the band used to start their art class. Maybe it’s my cynical nature, but I wonder if a story this good is too good to be true. Or is it part of an elaborate and overarching plan for world domination?

OK Go is most famous for their viral marketing through Youtube (i.e. "the treadmill video" for Here We Go Again) which brought to a bigger audience their rather subversive parodies of fashion and dance, as well as their well-thought-out aesthetics of music and the visual arts. And, of course, all done around and without any help from its record label in the best DIY tradition.

This, of course, begs the question: Are these guys – and girl (their videos are also the product of lead singer Damian Kulash’s sister, Trish Sie) – too smart for their own good?

Based on their new album, the Blue Colour of the Sky, my answer would be an emphatic no. In fact, they stand well within the tradition of art school bands, a tradition that stretches back as far as the Rolling Stones (referenced in the song White Knuckles) and includes such revered bands such as Velvet Underground, David Bowie (named by the band as an influence), Talking Heads and Radiohead. Not bad company to keep at all.

One of the Art School Band's favourite forms is the collage. A Collage, by definition, takes found objects from high art and low culture and throws them together to see what they say. One of the great things about the album is how OK Go borrows sounds, ideas, and music phrases from the best. In addition to the above mentioned rogues’ gallery, listen for nicks from the Beatles, the Eels, Tom Waits and, among the album’s highlights, lots of Prince.

Lyrically, the band does unrequited love really quite well. Speaking of which, how can you not love a song entitled I Want You So Bad I Can’t Breathe? Other fun themes include the weather, regret, depression, and hoping against hope. All in all, a fine follow-up to their initial viral video excess/success.

Black Gives Way to Blue - Alice in Chains

By Gord Brown

Check any thesaurus and you will find that a decent synonym for “grunge” is sludge - a word that describes the painfully slow tempo of the new Alice in Chains CD, Black Gives Way to Blue.

Eight years after the death of founder and lead singer Layne Staley, four years after replacing him with new lead singer William DuVaul, and a full fourteen years after their previous album, Alice in Chains is back.

Always one of the more interesting grunge bands, Alice in Chains combines goth atmosphere along with the flannel shirts. At their best, they were as good as Peter Murphy and the Bauhaus. At their worst (on this record) they sound nothing so much as an Iron Maiden cover band.

Generally the songs with acoustic guitars hold together a little better, but it seems the band thinks that slowing things down is majestic and Significant (note the capital 'S'). There are moments on the painfully drawn out Acid Bubble when Jerry Cantrell’s guitar line reminds us why Alice in Chains was a headliner on Lollapalooza, second to the Smashing Pumpkins.

Weird fact: an unrecognizable Elton John sings on the title track. Overall, for completists only.

The Trill: A Journey So Far - K-OS

By Gord Brown

What makes Toronto-based K-OS special is a deep, deep respect for the entire history of African-American music - which may seem odd for an artist with roots in Trinidad and Ajax, but there it is.

The latest disk from Toronto-based K-OS - The Trill: A Journey So Far - is a greatest hits package, although it includes remixed versions of several songs. All of the great ones are here – Sunday Morning, Crabbuckit, B-Boy Stance, Crucial, Man I Used to Be.

Though not the greatest singer by any means, K-OS's voice somehow works with the lush trucks as they’re laid out, and the way he freestyles quirky references out of the blue is not without its charms.

But somehow it works really effectively with the careful and inventive rhythm tracks. Highlights include saxophone lines on Crabbuckit, the strings on Love Song, and the guitar lines on Crucial and Born to Run (more Police that Bruce Springsteen).

Less successful is the flamenco guitar on Follow Me, but he gets points for rapping over flamenco samples. Well worth your time if you’ve listened to these tracks on the radio and appreciate the quirkiness of this local adventurous artist.

This is War - Thirty Seconds to Mars

By Tim Ryan

Someone has pissed off Jared Leto. The actor/lead song-writer of Thirty Seconds to Mars has once again taken a brief hiatus from movie-making to release the band’s third album This is War. From beginning to end, the album is comprised of methodical and epic tracks, laced with aggressive fighting words sung by Leto, and echoed by an army of Tibetan monks.

The battle theme is evident from the opening track, Escape, a short two-minute introduction which crescendos from a drum-line instrumental, into a massive chant led by Leto, “This is War!” before drowning out again.

It's standard 30STM - slower-tempo anthems that gradually build, while setting the stage for Leto’s charged vocals. With that said, there isn’t remotely enough differentiation between the songs. Repeatedly listening to the album front-to-back, few tracks jumped out and pulled me in. After the first four tracks, the album’s best, I consistently found myself zoning out from Leto’s Messianic calls. Even the militaristic chants lose their luster after the ninth time.

And like in the past, 30STM will have a difficult time translating the epic sounds of the album into a comparable live show. The first time I saw 30STM, while Leto’s voice carries over incredibly live, the backup vocals are brutal, leaving the songs sounding like solitary pursuits.

They have their work cut out for them, and may need some generous pro-bono work from their audiences.