CD reviews

Crystal Antlers
EP (Touch and Go)
6.9

Goes well with: The Mars Volta, meandering guitar solos

How you feel about Crystal Antlers likely corresponds to how you feel about The Mars Volta. If you think TMV is fucking brilliant (or aggravatingly obtuse), you’ll probably feel the same way about this group from Long Beach. The real answer, naturally, is somewhere in between.

Unlike the prog-funk of TMV, the Antlers’ debut (produced by Mars Volta keyboardist Ikey Owens) loses itself more in the ether between ’70s psych-rock throwback and ’90s art-punk bullshit. Any musician who considers “noise” to be a positive word probably doesn’t treat “accessibility” with the same reverence, but Crystal Antlers would be better served honing their psych-rock tendencies without worrying so much about sacrificing artistic mystique.

If anything is truly unconventional about this album, it’s the fact that the parts are greater than the sum. There’s focus, just not enough of it. And the individual elements on display here—particularly the guitar work of Andrew King—are too good to simply be cast adrift in a cacophonous collage. A band that aspires to progressivism akin to, say, Tool knows that the pieces fit because they watched them fall away. Crystal Antlers have the pieces—they just need to figure out how the hell to put them all together.
—Nathan Dinsdale

War Stories
Vol. 1 (B.C.M./Ares Records)
3.3

Goes well with: Switchfoot, Creed, U2

OK, so I’ll put aside the fact that War Stories, judging by Vol. 1’s liner notes, are likely Jesus freaks. But Christ, San Diego needs another Christian rock band like it needs another Naval base. I listen to Sam Cooke, U2 and Johnny Cash, so it’s not the subject matter I have a problem with. The difference is that those artists actually have talent.

While the music can sometimes be guiltily grandiose (“Take My Everything”) and the production is impressive, the main problem here is singer and lyricist Evan Robinson. Sounding like the bastard hell-spawn of Morrissey and Rick Astley, Robinson certainly doesn’t lack earnestness and stale sentimentality on “Because I Love You” and “Lion” (sample lyric: “I love you because I love / And it’s you I love you / I won’t breath without you.” Barf!).

And whether they’re tackling subjects like the Big G (the sinful “What Does God See”) or true love (“Beautiful”), it all bleeds together into one genuflective shart of an album that even the River Jordan can’t wash clean. There might be something here for Wal-Mart shoppers looking for a CD the whole minivan can agree on, but if you’re looking for substance, this (greatest) story has been told before.
—Seth Combs

War Stories play Wednesday, Nov. 12, at U-31. 619-584-4188.

School of Seven Bells
ALPINISMS (Ghostly International)
9.2

Goes well with: Beginner’s luck, making out with girls who still wear band pins, long drives

Last year, when Benjamin Curtis left both his brother and the band they co-founded together, The Secret Machines, to concentrate on his side project, School of Seven Bells, it seemed like a strange move. The Machines had released only two full-length albums. David Bowie and The Edge had publicly sung their praises, and things were looking up.

When Curtis joined twins Claudia and Alejandra Deheza, formerly of On!Air!Library!, to bump SVIIB from side- to main-gig status, he left the big, prog-rock guitar sound of The Secret Machines behind.

It turns out Curtis knows what he’s doing. ALPINISMS is as excellent a debut as anything released this year. Despite Curtis’ rock-guitar pedigree—SVIIB being the gender negative of Blonde Redhead and formed while all three members’ old bands were opening for Interpol—ALPINISMS is anything but a traditional indie-rock offering. From its opening track, “Iamundernodisguise” (which sounds like it could have been written by the scantily clad natives who grace the inside cover and sung by Gregorian girl-monks) to the 11.5-minute, electronically infused shoe-gaze opus “Sempiternal / Amaranth,” ALPINISMS is a sonic bouillabaisse of styles and influences. And while the songs flow beautifully into one another, each is distinct and stands perfectly on its own. That said, this is a record that deserves to be listened to in its entirety.

Curtis may not be rocking like he used to, but his newfound subtlety mixed with the Dehezas’ ethereal vocals sure make for one hell of an excellent first effort.
—Scott McDonald