CD REVIEWS BY LOCAL WRITERS
The Fall, Live At The Witch
Trials , 2004 RE-RELEASE EARTHMARK RECORDS
By Sean Campanella
In 1979, The Fall described itself as
“northern white crap that talks back.” Live
At The Witch Trials, the first of The Fall’s 26
albums, is a dubious and unforgettable com-
bination of raw, roughshod punk and glitzy
pop.
Yvonne Pawlett provides the primitive
keyboarding and Mark Smith does the aton-
al snarling. The lyrics come off as schlocky
and high-flown at first, but once the indus-
trial landscape of North Manchester is filled
out in all of its horror (with pollution, gangs,
street drugs, creaking floorboards, “peep-
hole places … toilets and feces”), Smith’s
self-made heroics seem entirely reasonable
and even endearing. Here are homely look-
ing blue-collar kids in oxfords and argyle trying to break out. “Cracker Factory,” belts Smith (who
worked in a meat plant), “a place where you get into the working routine again/rehabs for no
hopes/prefab for jobless dopes!”
The result of all this is strangely glamorous, a sort of groovy bleakness. Far from studio-perfect,
Witch Trials is the one-of-a-kind music we all should have been making in high school, but you have to
hand it to The Fall — they did it. Decades later, Smith still leads the band and a devoted following.
Godsmack, The Other Side , 2004 UNIVERSAL RECORDS By Matthew T. Stone
Don’t get me wrong, I like my music heavy just as any other metalhead, but I hold a special respect
for those bands, and the musical artists themselves, who are just as proficient in writing and perform-
ing songs on acoustic AND electric instruments. Godsmack has released an album worthy of such
respect.
Here is a group, like Led Zeppelin, who has a talent for making acoustic songs sound just as heavy
as their electric counterparts. “Re-Align” and “Keep Away” show their alternate face here: intimate, yet
with a still brazen energy. And “Asleep” is the soft closing track of its alter-downtuned-ego “Awake.”
The opening track “Running Blind,” like most other opening tracks, stands out with its emotional
poignancy, revealing secrets inside ourselves the more we search outside for answers.
The band collaborates with Dropbox members Lee Richards and John Kosco for “Touche,” a musi-
cal statement on the human condition, and its reflection upon the individual with the golden rule.
All in all, throughout its seven tracks, The Other Side is an enjoyable listen, when your gleeful
demons who dance to double-time drums can simply sit in your head and sip on some nostalgic
ambrosia. Cheers!
Floater,
Acoustics ,
2004
By Mikey Knac
The Northwest psychedelic rock trio
and musical phenomenon Floater find
themselves treading new ground with
their most recent effort Acoustics. After
a long string of very successful live
acoustic shows throughout Oregon and
Washington, the band has recorded an
album consisting of original tracks all
performed acoustically.
This is a major shift in tone from
their previous record, Alter, which
sported heavy hitting metal tracks
with lyrics reciting intense political
commentary. With Acoustics we find
all three musicians, and most of all
front man Robert Wynia experiment-
ing more musically and lyrically than
they have in any previous album.
Lyrically, Acoustics shies away
from the social and political commentary so often found in their previous work and focuses on more
intense personal situations. We find Wynia crooning laments ranging from rejection of love to accept-
ance of ridicule. In one case, they even take a stab at the blues.
Wynia’s rich voice accompanies the trio’s sound very well through the majority of the album, but
slightly sticks out a bit too much on several tracks. Percussionist Peter Cornett even has his own vocal
track, which is a breath of fresh air in the middle of the album. Everything from the excellent musi-
cianship to the Floydian cover art make this album worth picking up.
ELEMENTAL RECORDS
Joanna Newsom, The Milk-Eyed Mender , DRAG CITY RECORDS By Tynan DeLong
She sounds like Billie Holiday crossed with the Wicked Witch of the East and her lyrics sometimes
veer into abstruse territory, but I’ll be damned if Joanna Newsom hasn’t released one of the most cap-
tivating albums this year. For all her eccentricities, The Milk-Eyed Mender remains a fully realized work,
an intimate showcase of her many musical talents that pits her as one of the breakout performers of
2004.
Using the harp as her weapon of choice, Newsom’s nasal twang crawls over angelic arrangements
that sound both country and classical. The off-kilter baroque charm of “Sprout and the Bean” provides
the best evidence for Newsom’s melodically precise
harp playing, as she confronts loneliness through her
unique breed of impressionistic storytelling. When
she opts for more up-beat numbers, as she does on
the harpsichord-driven “Peach, Plum, Pear,” the
results are just as entertaining. Newsom enlists what
sounds like a choir of children to accompany her, as
she admits, “I am blue and unwell.”
To write-off Newsom as an acquired taste would
simply be unjust. The songs here revel in a certain
accessibility and beauty that reveals itself after only
a few listens. Newsom has a gift for making thought-
provoking music without allowing her eccentric
nuances to overpower the songs themselves. Take it
or leave it, The Milk-Eyed Mender is one of the
year’s best.
OCTOBER 21, 2004 49