The Severed Cortex

The Duke Spirit - Cuts Across The Land
This was actually released over a year ago and while I knew of it's existence at the time I was wholly unmoved to buy it. And then a couple months ago I thought I needed to go back and review something that wasn't so new just to see if I had missed something great. Out of all the music there was to choose from, I chose this one based on the single Cuts Across The Land and a live performance podcast of the band at KEXP.
Cuts Across The Land is a pretty good song, and for the most part so are all the songs on this release. In fact there's not really a bad song on the whole disc of 15 songs. That being said, there's not really a standout song on here either. Lion Rip and Cuts Across The Land probably come the closest, but I wouldn't really call them kick ass by any measure. They're just good solid rock and roll songs.
Good solid rock and roll songs that sound somewhat similar, which unfortunately becomes a theme with this CD; all the songs sort of sound the same. I like Rush a great deal even though all their songs sound the same, but this one is a little different. Because they all sound the same I have to be in a certain mood to listen to them, otherwise I'm a little turned off with the whole mess. I've probably listened to the whole thing five or six times and I've figured out I need to start with Cuts Across The Land or Lion Rip to get me primed for listening to the complete disc. Once I've listened to one of those, the rest of the songs seem somewhat palatable to me.
There are several bands that spring to mind when I listen to this, but the most obvious to me is Catherine Wheel. The heavy fuzz shoegazer rhythm guitar layered under the winding lead guitar sounds like each of these songs could have been released on Ferment. However, with a female lead singer the songs take on a little different texture. (did you see how I tied that to the lead track on Ferment ... I like to pretend I'm clever sometimes). Leila Moss, the The Duke Spirit's lead singer, has a wonderful voice but she seems to come just short on several levels, never quite getting to the raw grit of Patty Smith, the sultry coolness of The Motels Martha Davis, or the pure porno sex of Christina Amplett's Divinyls work. But, all in all, her voice is generally pleasing and it fits well in the songs, even if it is the same on every single one of the songs.
Like I said, this release doesn't have a bad song on it. Usually that's a good thing except for the fact that it just doesn't have a really, really good song on here either. Because of that, I'm sort of indifferent to the whole thing. The Duke Spirit just released a new EP, but I've learned my lesson on EP's: don't buy them. It's better to wait for the full length to be released. (Silversun Pickups fixed me on buying EP's ever again). When that full length is released, I'll have to listen carefully to determine whether these guys have branched out a little. I'll keep you posted.

Ted Leo And The Pharmacists - Living With The Living.
I'd listened to some of Ted Leo's previous release and I just didn't really get it. I didn't really hate it all that much, but at the same time it didn't strike me as anything earth shatteringly new, not that there's anything wrong with not being earth shatteringly new. I'm good with you copying someone else's style, but you have to have to do it like you mean it. You can't just go through the motions. So, when Ted Leo and his delightful apothecaries released Living With The Living I was pretty ambivalent about hearing more of the same from a bunch of guys that may or may not be going through the motions. But, destiny plays her hand whenever she wishes and so is the fate of Ted Leo's CD and my credit card. When one seeks out new music using the same circle of sources over and over again like I do, decent bands tend to pop up a couple of times. When they do, I have to go back and re-evaluate my original assessment. That obviously worked in Ted Leo's favor.
The lyrics are seldom the first thing in a song that I tend to notice. I'm a simple guy. I like it loud, with a lot of guitars, a solid hook, and as a bonus a little bit of smart ass. Now you know why punk and power pop play heavily in what I listen to. The sound and the beat of the song are what catch me and after repeated listens I start to pay more attention to the actual lyrics. Once I listen to the lyrics, they oftentimes make the difference between a good song and a really good song to me. I think the first thing I heard that made me pay attention to it was Sons Of Cain, which is loud, hooky, and full of guitars of course. And then Who Do You Love? started showing up in a lot of places, which is of course another loud guitar song, but this time with a much sweeter hook. It makes me think of Elvis Costello and that always puts me in a great mood.
Eventually Ted Leo songs kept popping up everywhere and I realized I had missed the bus. I needed to figure out for sure if I was wrong so I decided to spin through iTunes and give it the 30 second preview. I don't think the preview really gave me all that much insight, but there was enough there that I knew I had to take a chance.
And then I heard Bomb Repeat Bomb.. Holy crap! I thought protest songs only came in the folkie/hippie variety these days. This may be the best protest song ever written about the times we live right now this very day because it's full of piss and vinegar and the caustic sarcasm is so strong that you wonder how Ted can sing it and not want to go on a personal mission of killing every mental midget that thinks the war in Iraq is about terrorism. You can find the song lyrics here, but my favorite is the chorus. If these words don't sum up box store, go shopping, drive an SUV American mentality, then I don't know what does.

And when the crying starts, you won't have to see their bloodshot eyes turn red.
And when the dying starts, you won't have to know a thing about who's dead.
This is your mission -- like television - where the good guys always win.
And we're gonna win again because you're gonna,
Bomb.Repeat.Bomb.Repeat.Bomb.

Obviously I started paying more attention to the lyrics to the rest of the songs, and I'll have to report that it's sort of a mixed bag. There certainly are some very clever lines, mixed in with a fair amount of throwaway stuff. Which is sort of how the whole release works for me. There's some really clever stuff in here and then there's a bit of throwaway. The clever outweighs the chaff by a good deal, but there is a clearly a bit of chaff. The song A Bottle of Buckie is an absolute abomination, but then again I'm not really a big fan of Irish or Irish derivative music, which this song is. You won't find very much that's incredibly original on here as it borrows heavily on Elvis Costello/Marshall Crenshaw (aforementioned, The World Stops Turning, and C.I.A.), Black Flag/Fugazi/MXPX (Bomb Repeat Bomb), fIREHOSE (Annunciation Day/Born On Christmas Day), and The English Beat (The Unwanted Things). Then again, if you're going to copy someone and still want me to buy your CD, copy the bands that I like best. It worked.