Review for Scrublife Mixtape by Wax

Many of you have likely heard of Wax; he has been building up his name for the past three years or so by posting his videos of himself rapping, sometimes with his twin brother Herbal T, on Youtube. He has just recently been signed to Def Jam records, which is actually a pretty big deal for someone who got famous in the manner that he did. His new mixtape was officially released on March 15, 2011. It features many of his well known tracks, including New Crack, which has an intro that references his popularity on Youtube: "We just reached a million views, about to drink a billion brews." Most of the songs on the mixtape were produced by EOM, his colleague and long time friend. The two had previously collaborated on 2008’s Liquid Courage, self released by Wax and EOM. 


'Scrublife' is really a fitting title to this collection of songs. In the age of the internet becoming famous via Youtube is no longer that unheard of, but it’s still a little bit odd. For the most part, Wax is just a regular 20-something trying to live a good life in California. His raps are less about bling and swag and more about bike lanes and splurging on Captian Morgan’s spiced rum. Listening to lines like “Oh yah, oh my my, I don’t give a fuck about a DUI, you can take away my license but you can’t take away my pride, Oh yah oh my my, Imma keep drinkin’ till the day I die, two wheels is the way I ride” from Two Wheels, it’s nearly impossible to not relate, or at least empathize, with the everyday struggles of his "scrub life."


Wax’s rapping on the mixtape varies in quality, but when it's good, it's incredible. The standout song is definitely 2010 Til Infinity. On this track, Wax delivers his best vocal performance behind an incredibly subtle, yet gripping beat which is taken from a song by Oakland hip-hop group Souls of Mischeif called 93 Til Infinity. The chilled-out piano-based beat rocks by subtly in the background as Wax's clever lines take centre-stage. The track opens with "This is not for the less astute guppies / go back to watching videos of cute puppies / or little babies dancing to 'Single Ladies' / whatever stimulation the simple taste of your brain needs" and I could go on, but I would probably just end up quoting the whole thing. Every line is clever and well-executed and the general 'theme' of the song is how he's started to take charge of his own life. It's uplifting and very easy to relate to, like much of the mixtape. That's the thing that's so awesome about this release, Wax raps about stuff that regular people think about: spending too much money on beer, hating his shitty day job, staring at himself in the mirror and telling himself this he's going to get his life together, and so on. He makes me feel like I could be a rapper (except there's no fucking way I could be a rapper at all, let alone be anywhere near to as good as he is).


Other clear standouts include the first two tracks, Red and FAIL ("you're an F to the A to the I to the L"), the fun Dispensary Girl, which is a track about a woman he meets at his local medical marijuana dispensary, and the penultimate track, Wax Goes Bananas on Shade 45, where wax does a "writ-style" live on radio. (He admits it's not technically a freestyle, so the DJ compromises.)


Some of the songs are admittedly of much lesser quality (Everything and Limousine come to mind), but to be fair, this is a mixtape. It's really just an amalgamation of all the songs he posted to Youtube over the past three years or so.  Also, the weaker tracks are not necessarily bad at all. They're just not on the same level as some of the monster tracks on the album. The choruses on the weaker tracks tend to be what turns me off for the most part, but it's just because they aren't as gripping as the perfectly simple beat and genius rapping found on the aforementioned 2010 Til Infinity (fuck I love that song). What I'm trying to say is, every song is still at fun as hell and full of hooks. And no matter what the tone of the individual song, Wax is always spitting some pretty funny and/or accessible lyrics. He gets pretty serious sometimes like on Music and Liquor: 


                       "Addictive personality, ironically, I write my realest shit when I escape from reality. I drink to forget then I write to remember, its been like that since my high-school tenure. I can't imagine if I never had this rapping hobby, I'd rarely be happy probably. But I knew a lot of people when I lived back in Maryland; they had it way worse getting addicted to heroin. So I shouldn't be too pissed, I'm just getting sick of writing drunken self-help to do lists that remain unchecked cause I never follow through, and when you move old habits follow you."


But it is most notable on Mary. This is a song told from the perspective of Mary, a young girl who has never met her dad. Her mother's boyfriend moves in after a while and things start off OK. As the song progresses though, the new house guest reveals himself to be an abusive alcoholic. He starts sexually assaulting Mary (this is never actually explicitly stated, which is clever, because which little kid knows what 'sexually assaulted' or 'raped' even means?) and one night Mary gets fed up and hides a knife under her pillow. When he comes in that night to do his thing, she goes crazy on him, justifiably so, and just absolutely murders the FUCK out of him. It's actually pretty brutal.

And then there's weird, funny, totally not serious stuff like the guest appearances by Dale Firebird. I'll try not to give away too much here but Dale Firebird is a 'hick' who "only drinks American beer" and has a guest track. He also appears for several 10-20 second skits throughout where he lets us all know that the mixtape is "fucking god awful." Simply put, it's hilarious.

This is a mixtape with a lot of content and I could go on; I've really only mentioned about half of the tracks that I feel are notable. There is a lot to say about the 17 tracks. Some of them are phenomenal, most of them are great, and a few are just passable. Overall, sounds like a pretty good album, doesn't it? And even if you don't like some of the songs, well, cool it. It's a mixtape and this guy just got signed. With the continued help of EOM, Herbal T, and Dumbfounded, and the financial backing of a big music label, Wax has the potential to really take the mainstream hip-hop world by storm with a strong full-length LP.


This mixtape is worth checking out, even if you only end up liking a couple tracks.  If you need some convincing, here's my favourite song from the album, the Youtube version. That's how he "got big" after all.  Enjoy:

Final Score: 8 / 10

Recommended Tracks:
- Red
- Dispensary Girl
- 2010 Til Infinity
- Mary
- New Crack
- Wax Goes Bananas on Shade 45


Stream or download the album at his bandcamp http://waxdotcom.bandcamp.com/
Also, check out his website for more information, show dates, photos, T-shirts, all that good stuff http://www.waxdotcom.com/

Review for Guts N' Teeth by Old Man Markley

Old Man Markley - Guts N' Teeth

9/10

Guts n’ Teeth is not the sort of album I’d usually enjoy. Judge if you must, but I think that we all have certain musical turnoffs that are just impossible to move past. One of mine is the vocal style so prevalent in country and bluegrass music that is referred to as the “southern drawl”. At best, I can tolerate it. At worst, it annoys me to the point that I can’t even appreciate the music for what it is, based on its merits. I’ve undoubtedly missed out on quite a lot of great music because of this, but I don’t care. I’m not exactly sure why, but when I hear a drawl, I see red. Plain and simple.

Enter Old Man Markley.

Hailing from Los Angeles, Old Man Markley is a nine-piece band that plays what can best be described as a hybrid of punk and bluegrass music. At any given moment of Guts n’ Teeth, the listener will find themselves in the middle of a smorgasbord of (perfectly executed) bluegrass clichés. The fiddle player saws away with her bow, the banjo player chicken-picks like a madman, the mandolin strings click away in the background, and a harmonica line soars overhead. And then there's the vocals. Oh dear.

But wait! I’m not seeing red! My head isn’t becoming clouded with thoughts of massacring the entire “deep south” of the USA! Instead of punching holes in my drywall, I’m tapping my toes and slapping my knee uncontrollably. What’s going on!? It’s not that the band avoids the use of the dreaded drawl, far from it; some of the vocals have me reaching for the XXX moonshine and calling up my first cousin to ask her what she’s wearing. The thing is, Old Man Markley’s music is so full of energy, it’s nearly impossible to not be swept away into the upbeat atmosphere that the album creates. This is where the punk influence really starts to show. At times, frontman Johnny Carey’s vocals are closer to a gruff punky yelp than a bluegrass drawl. The variation in this area stops the album from ever feeling stale, or from feeling like the band is just recycling the same handful of ideas over and over.

Some of you may be like me. Maybe the drawl isn’t your thing. Maybe it reminds you of Jeff Foxworthy and his stupid fucking “You might be a redneck…” jokes. Well, sure, I was skeptical on first listen. But even the most cold-hearted of hipster elitists would eventually break down and start singing along at some point while listening to this album. Whether it’s during the catchy and relatable chorus of Running Weight (I’m paranoid/ When you’re running this much weight, you can’t avoid/ getting paranoid/ Worries crash into me like an asteroid) or the fast-paced romp that is Do Me Like You Do, trust me, it will happen, likely sooner rather than later.

The most probable point of infatuation with this record however, lies within the title track. The song Guts n’ Teeth begins with a simple chord progression on an acoustic guitar before Johnny Carey’s voice comes in and takes centre stage. Carey’s lyrics on this cut stand above the rest of the album, and his vocal delivery supplements the sparse instrumentation perfectly. I challenge you to listen to this song, if nothing else from the album, and not be touched by his lyrics:

I still see my actions ripple/ Grinding hope stones into sand/Losing too much kills the lion/ Makes mice of many men.

I watched you suffer too/ Stuck steadfast to beliefs/ And I’m apart from it/ But woe is me.

And after all underneath/ Ain’t we all just guts and teeth?/ Ain’t we all just reflections?/ Moving in separate directions/ In our heads, out of our minds and out of time…

Old Man Markley’s debut is a stunning achievement. The marriage of the instrumentation of bluegrass music with the attitude and desperation of punk on Guts n' Teeth is not only perfectly executed, but relatively unique. (I’m clearly no expert, but think Against Me! plus a banjo player, with Larry the Cable guy sharing lead vocals.)

And as for my pre-conceived notions about country/bluegrass vocals, well, aren’t we all just guts n’ teeth? It’s all just music, and Old Man Markley’s speaks for itself.

Recommended Tracks
For Better For Worse
At The Bottom
Guts n' Teeth
Do Me Like You Do
Letterman
Living and Learning


Download Guts N' Teeth

Review for Empty Days and Sleepless Nights by Defeater

Defeater - Empty Days and Sleepless Nights

10/10

The hype around this band, both good and bad, is overwhelming.  So let’s be quite clear about this. This review will not dissect and analyze Defeater’s 2011 album Empty Days and Sleepless Nights.  I’m not going to tell you that “the guitars are crushing” or say “it’s overflowing with so much emotion that my brain hurts” and go on and on and on and on making hyperbolic, ridiculous claims about how Defeater are “peerless” and how Defeater are “the best”.  Nobody likes that, and it’s been done.  Instead, I’m going to focus on the concept, and why I like it.

For the uninitiated, Defeater is a melodic hardcore band from Boston.  Their debut LP, 2008’s Travels, introduced us to the conceptual lyrical approach that Defeater would later become defined by.  The lyrics from both Travels and their 2009 EP Lost Ground tell detailed wartime stories.  Lost Ground is about the Second World War and is told through the eyes of a few characters (none of them have names, or they aren’t known): the father, who fought for the United States in the Second World War, and his two sons.  I won’t go into the story of Lost Ground here, but just know that it exists.

Empty Days and Sleepless Nights is the follow-up to Lost Ground and has a concept of its own, sort of.  Empty Days is told through the eyes of one of the sons, let’s call him Gus.  I’m not quite 100% on the some of the details, but the story goes like this: Gus’ brother, we’ll call him Günter, has just killed their alcoholic, abusive father, we’ll call him Ganondorf, and run away.  Gus can hardly stand the shame and rage he feels.  He is left alone to care for his mother, let’s go with Gertrude for her, whose heroin addiction grows worse after Ganondorf’s funeral. Gus swears revenge on Günter, if he ever returns.

Time goes by and Gus grows more bitter and angry.  He “grows up,” but starts to drink way too much, mostly to cope with his Gertrude’s addiction.  He meets a girl, we’ll call her Gaga, and marries her. They settle down, but he is never happy.  His drinking gets worse and his relationship with Gaga deteriorates.  Meanwhile, a bookie, we’ll call him Garfield, continues to harass Gus about Ganondorf’s debts which were unpaid at the time of his death.  Gus dismisses Garfield, telling him that his father’s business is none of his problem.  Well, Garfield doesn’t like that too much.  One night, after a particularly bad drunken rage, Gus returns home to find Gaga in a pool of blood.  Garfield has taken her life as a punishment for Ganondorf’s outstanding debts. 

So more shame, more rage, Gus is in pretty rough shape.  Then, Gertrude dies and Gus is left completely alone, waiting for his brother to return or death, whichever comes quickest. 

One day, Günter finally returns and Gus greets him with the barrel of his shotgun.  He marches him down to the same train tracks where the two brothers used to play as kids, screaming at him the whole time about what he has done and the pain he has caused.  He forces Günter’s head against the train track and points the shotgun at his skull, waiting for the train.  The train is coming fast, it’s almost there, when Günter mans up and pulls the ol’ switcheroo on Gus.  The roles are suddenly reversed, and Gus finds his own head pressed against the cold hard steel.  At first, he is terrified and nervous, but as the train approaches even closer, the deafening roar calms him and he accepts his fate.  A fitting end to a life filled with bitterness and regret.

At this point, we’re near the end of track 10 of 14, White Oak Doors.  The song cuts off, in mid-sentence, mid-bar, riff, jam, mid-everything, as the train hits and kills Gus .  Like it or hate it, that’s the end of the story.  Well, that's the end of Gus' story.  2008's Travels is actually the sequel to this story, told through the eyes of the surviving brother, Günter.

The acoustic tracks, titled Sleepless Nights, show that Defeater has an accessible side to their music, in that many people who don’t enjoy hardcore at all can still enjoy them.  The songs provide some background information about the two brothers, mostly stories of them growing up together.  Some see Sleepless Nights as a supplement to the “main album,” Empty Days, but I look at it more as the resolution after the climax of a story, four easy-to-digest, breezy acoustic songs.  Just what the doctor ordered after a brutal train murder scene. 

The music that accompanies the story (or perhaps it’s the other way around) is what one would expect from a Defeater album.  It conveys the emotion of the lyrics very well, becoming more aggressive during Gus’s several rages, and more melodic during the calmer parts of the story, such as in Empty Glass, when Gus and Gaga meet each other.  Defeater’s musical side is equally as engrossing as the story it is set behind.  One aspect that stands out in particular is the superb drumming, notably on Empty Glass.  The guitar lines throughout are driving, and melodically structured to go fit the shifting tone of the album.

But in the end, the concept is the divisive factor with this album.  Some have accused Defeater of beating a dead horse with this, their third war-themed concept album, and they aren’t exactly wrong.  But why mess with a winning formula?  Forgive me for the terrible reference, but if Amon Amarth can get away with telling the same cheesy-yet-epic tales of Viking war and mead-drinking, why can’t Defeater stick with a theme? If it’s well-executed then who cares?

And that seems to be the only question for you, the individual listener.  Are you on board with Defeater’s whole gig? I’m the last person to say that this is the second coming of Jesus, the pinnacle of hardcore music, blah blah blah.  Personally, I think this is a phenomenal piece of music with a gripping concept.

But what about you? Do you like the story?  Do you think the concept is well executed?  Does the music make you want to dance in the middle of a crowded street?  If your answer is yes, come join the fanclub.  It’s great; we’ve got fruit punch.  If your answer is no, go away, I’m listening to Defeater. 




Recommended Tracks: 
Empty Glass
Cemetery Walls
White Oak Doors
I Don't Mind

Download Empty Days and Sleepless Nights