PRESS
-
Akron/Family | Live Review
()
www.drownedinsound.com | Daniel Ross Akron/Family are demented, dangerously varied and truly fucking great. May '07 Tonight's support, Ned Collette, is perfect for his role. His winding roads of desert washed soundscapes oscillate dangerously around the room, building in complexity thanks to the devil's box of a guitar pedal he uses. Delicately, he leads us through four-bar phrases, loops them and thenwarbles with credible fragility over the top. It's very nice indeed. It probably wouldn't last for a whole record (though it apparently has), but it's enough to make people shut up this evening. Akron/Family, however, don't rely on technical wizardry to dazzle the audience. Their ensemble approach is more akin to an annoying bunch of Christians shooing an initially cold-hearted congregation into their slightly juvenile way of worship. But it obviously works because we all end up crooning "love and space" while these beautiful boys ad lib over the top with some weird (but oddly soothing) spiritual ranting with a singlemicrophone to sing into and a single guitar to accompany. This barbershop entrée is utterly destroyed by a euphoric flurry of high-register guitars and rasping drums (which are particularly exquisitely played this evening). The massive array of influence, classical and......
-
Lisa Germano | Lullaby for Liquid Pig | Review
()
Blender | Jon YoungLisa Germano pushes confessional intimacy to unsettling extremesYou'd be this depressed too if you were once John Mellencamp's violin playerReviewed by Jon Young Lisa Germano pushes confessional intimacy to unsettling extremes. Her sixth similar album, her strongest yet, vividly depicts the folly of treating loneliness with liberal doses of alcohol. But this is no lecture on substance abuse: With her uneasy-sigh voice and gorgeous yet wobbly melodies, Germano speaks from experience, portraying sodden isolation as a twisted state of grace. "You know what I mean/ I don't mean anything," she murmurs in "It's Party Time"; on the droopy "Dream Glasses Off" she declares, "Someday someone/Is gonna love you" with an utter lack of conviction. Subtle support from Neil Finn and Johnny Marr pales next to this anguished persona. Unashamed candor often spells dreary self-indulgence. In Germano's insightful hands, it's fascinating and strangely exhilirating....
-
Lisa Germano | LULLABY FOR LIQUID PIG | Review
()
Author unknownbuilt on her exquisite piano chordings, her whispery vocals, and the moody poetics and subtle melodies of her songwriting(MELANCHOLY MUSINGS: Lisa Germano's Lullaby for the Liquid Pig is built on her exquisite piano chordings, her whispery vocals, and the moody poetics and subtle melodies of her songwriting. Once known primarily as John Mellencamp’s able violinist, Lisa Germano has, over the course of five previous albums, established herself as a unique and challenging artists in her own right. Her twisted saga of meandering melancholy musings continues on Lullaby for the Liquid Pig, yet another album built on the foundation of Germano’s exquisite if often minimalist piano chordings and her wispy whisper of a voice — a voice perfectly suited to the moody poetics and subtle melodies that weave their way through her songwriting. The title track alludes to drug-induced ramblings. "I need a fix/A little one/Then it’s over/Then I’m done," she intones, as the song spirals slowly downward. "Dream Glasses Off" perpetuates her signature sullenness with lyrics like "Before when I opened the door/Let the happiness in/Closed again." Complementing Germano’s never-changing mood is her meticulous production, which is a study in understated beauty and sadness that bolsters her stream-of-consciousness abstractions....
-
Lisa Germano | Lullaby for Liquid Pig | Review
()
Chris Ottdeceptively potent; in just thirty minutes it divines your most closely held memoriesI'd wager that most of our readers would otherwise ignore what's sure to be among the more spectral and alluring records of 2003 because its author was once a precious Lilith Fair poetess. You'll probably shiver to learn she previously made her living-- for the better part of a decade-- as John Mellencamp's violinist. In fact, I dare say most of you would mistake Lisa Germano for Meredith Brooks. Germano, however, has certainly earned some measure of disinterest and even disdain thanks to her uncomfortably maudlin records, all wincingly breathy and for the most part bereft of focus. On her first two full-lengths, her violin playing is still saddled by the stereotypical country melodies she spun for Mellencamp's renowned backing band; her second album Happiness was a learning and chaotic affair, and didn't make much of a splash until Capitol Records allowed her to re-sequence and re-release it on 4AD (a lot of people will tell you it was remixed as well-- it wasn't). Once on 4AD, the precociously pouting "Dresses Song" caught a college radio breeze, introducing us to her moan, which was instantly compared to......
-
Angels of Light | We Are Him | Review
()
Cokemachineglow.com | Peter HepburnGira continues to produce innovative, exciting musicMichael Gira -- leader of Swans, occasional solo artist, and single best/scariest voice in rock -- is back with a new album under the Angels of Light moniker in August. As always, new M. Gira material is reason to get excited, especially now that he has the daunting task of following up the excellent Sing Other People and a split LP with Akron/Family that had us all worked up back in '05. If the title track is any indication, We Are Him looks to be another jump forward. Working with Akron/Family again, Gira seems to be moving more toward the full-band rock that much of his post-Swans material has avoided. Even though the track heads into familiar territory (especially with the droning intro), the thick rhythm section and driving pulse that Akron/Family bring with them indicates a very different Angels of Light. Even the best songs off Sing Other People occasionally felt somewhat like lightly-adorned Gira solo tracks; A/F were along for the ride, but they felt added-on rather than integral to the process. "We Are Him," as well as the recently posted "Black River Song," demonstrates the power of a more......