Music Reviews

If you can't figure out who these two people are, you need to get your eyes checked.

Hey gang. I wrote some music reviews for The Varsity a while back, and I thought I would finally put them up here. Why now? Well summer is on its way in, and that means playing music really loudly and tumbling around in your flip-flops while throwing back a beer and howling at the moon.

OK, I do that all year round, but don't let that stop you. Here goes:

Neverending White Lights Act I: Goodbye Friends of the Heavenly Bodies
(Ocean Records/MapleNationwide)

For his dream project, producer Daniel Victor assembled a talented roster of male vocalists, including Nick Hexum of 311, Dallas Green of Alexisonfire, Daniel Greaves of The Watchmen, and Our Lady Peace's Raine Maida. The result is a moody masterpiece imbued with a whispered urgency. Every track, sung by a different guest artist, drips with sincerity-by extracting the artists from their bands, Victor garners surprising results. Green displays his versatility outside of his screamo gang Alexisonfire on the track 'The Grace," while Maida leaves his "We are all innocent" shtick from recent overblown OLP ballads behind, and instead lays down a powerful track about collective guilt ("Liar"). Highly recommended.


HiretsukanEnd States
(G7 Welcoming Committee Records)

The second EP from G7's Hiretsukan puzzles me. Its musical arrangements verge on a unified symphony of rock rage, but vocalists Michelle Proffit and Dave Sanders vomit all over it with nonsensical screeches. A karaoke version of this album would be a pleasure to listen to, but with the vocalists barreling through the half-hour disc with shouts of unbridled scratchiness, listeners will be left wondering what the hell they are trying to say. This is a decent album to listen to when you are in a very sour mood. The rage comes through, even if the lyrics don't. You can jump up and down in the invisible mosh pit on your bed, grimacing as these New York noisecore kids blast the eardrums out of your head. Once the record is over, you'll feel much better. If you are into the hardcore scene, you ought to check this disc out. If not, remember-you have been warned.