Week of My Bloody Valentine and Matchbox Twenty

This week we got a little different instead of two album reviews. I have a concert review and a long long long overdue album review. So we will start with the long overdue third My Bloody Valentine album, Mbv.

     My Bloody Valentine are an alternative rock band formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1983. As My Bloody Valentine's music evolved, their use of distortion, pitch bending, and digital reverb resulted in a sound that came to be known as shoegazing. They switched record labels a few times, had a few members come and go, and even recorded a few eps. Finally in 1988, they released their debut album Isn't Anything from Creation records. After a couple years of recording eps and touring behind them, they finally ended up back in the studio for their second full length. This is were 1991's Loveless arrives. Loveless have been so highly praised that some reviewers even claimed that listening to this album is like finding yourself elevated from a human being to that of a deity. Praise doesn't get much better than that, despite all of the stellar reviews, Loveless didn't do that well commercially. After getting fired from their previous record label, they tried to record a third album. Lead songwriter and musical genius Kevin Sields, for lack of a better word went insane, and the band split up. Like other bands before them who broke up in their prime, this let fans to wonder if we would ever see another album. Like those crazy guys in Guns N' Roses, cough Chinese Democracy, cough cough.

   Thus begins the long wait for the now infamous third My bloody valentine album. In 2007 after a long time apart, Kevin Shields officially announced My Bloody Valentine's reunion, and even better than that the album he started recording in 1996 was 3/4 done. After a slew of festival appearances and a full scale tour of sorts, new rumors/updates on the album started arriving from Kevin. This happened about once a year sometimes more to the point where it became a joke, "yeah I'm sure will get the new album next year, you know unless we don't, lol." In late 2012 he said that the album could drop any day now and weeks pasted before we heard anything. Finally he released the album on February 2nd on My Bloody Valentines Website. Guess what happened, the site crashed, what did you expect. Fans had been waiting for this album since 1991. When he said it was up the fans freaked and flooded the site, and it crashed the servers. This made fans furious, they took to the band's Facebook page, twitter, Wikipedia page, and website to show their displeasure. They even went so far as to set up an official petition to the Obama administration to get My Bloody Valentines site back up. I serious this all really happened.You can check out the petition right here if your interested. http://www.spin.com/articles/my-bloody-valentine-mbv-album-white-house-petition

     The site is up and working again and Mbv is here so lets start the review. Ill be honest the first time I listened to My Bloody Valentine I had absolutely no idea what I was listening to. I just sounded like strange wavy sounds with weak vocals over the top, and I just didn't get it. I had this comic strip running in my mind where a normal guy walks into a hipster underground concert. Everyone is rocking out and loving it. He just stands there and stares blankly. He turns and looks at the stage, all that's up there is a guy grinding a cheese grader into the mic. He looks back to the hipster next to him, "you do know that's just a cheese grader right?" "Are you kidding me right now, all I listen to is cheese grader infused music. Its probably just to sophisticated for you". That was pretty much my thought process while listening to this the first time. However I put some serious time in, went through all three albums multiple times, and it finally clicked a huge light bulb moment it all made sense. It just took me quite a while to get there. Loveless truly was a masterpiece.

     I honestly think Kevin Shields likes making it harder on critics. There are moments in My bloody Valentine albums where the intonation floats in and out. He switches up the time signature not just a little bit, all the time. When listening sometimes it can be quite unsettling. That is the  trademark unsteadiness or transcendental sound from My Bloody Valentine, along with Kevin's swirling guitars. This band is the only time you will hear the term swirly guitars, but it really is true. Kevin plays all of the instruments on the album and even sings. The only thing he doesn't do, is sing the female part. Bilinda Butcher does her classic Loveless crooning for that. Kevin is the kind of guy who, hops, skips, and jumps back and forth across the line between genius and insanity. To quote a famous doctor, "I am just a mad man with a box." Most of time listening to this album, I found myself thinking, if you have to get a good old fashion acid trip going to truly understand this album. After my third listen through, I finally understood it. Or at least this is most clarity I would ever get listening to this album. Loveless is a true work of brilliance that will always be regarded as one of the best albums of all time. So no matter what this album had it's work cut out for it. Also after 20+ years away, it's a reunion record. Lets be honest when was the last time you heard a reunion record that stood up to past works from years ago. They usually end with nostalgia taking over. Oh well, this is a different band then they used to be, at least we have the memories. Proceeded by hugging their old albums tightly and trying not to cry.

     That's one of the things that makes this record so amazing. Listen to Loveless and Mbv back to back. It takes off right where Loveless left off like they were written in the same year. Apparently it was planned that way.
                                                     My Bloody Valentine- Loveless

     In fact Mbv doesn't really make a new sound for itself until the last tracks, "In Another Way", "Nothing Is", and "Wonder 2". "Nothing Is" especially sticks out from the rest of the record. It could be downright terrifying in the wrong setting. It drives a huge guitar intro over some crazy scaling synthesizers, it just groves. Then it is topped by an even more intense beat of a song, "Nothing Is", driven by wild guitar, and pounding drums. Then we reach the Closer, "Wonder 2", and what a closer. At points it sounds like Kevin has been thrown off a cliff into a tornado, he sings and plays his guitar right to the finale, him hitting the ground. Its a textbook bookend start and finish and it rocks. The rest of the record is like a movie that just gets more and more intense, until it comes to an explosive conclusion. Only without the happy slow ending, it ends with the showdown. "Soon", starts us off slowly like a continuation to Loveless, then precedes to change and warp itself into an entirely new beast. Another high note is "New You", classic My Bloody Valentine layered sound with distorted guitar and swooning vocals. This album has been planned and laid out so meticulously that even most detail oriented people would think it's crazy to write like this. It pays off though, following in the foot steps of the epic Loveless into new places without leaving us crying in our rooms over the loss.

Wonder 2- My Bloody Valentine

Its not better than Loveless but, I mean come on did you really think it would be.
Recommended Songs: New You, In Another Way, Nothing Is, and Wonder 2

4/5 Stars

      Matchbox Twenty played the Civic Center In Des Moines, Iowa on February 10th. Now before all you reading this start criticizing the crap out of my music taste. Nostalgia is a funny thing, when I was growing up in the 90's. That's right I'm a 90's child. You couldn't listen to the radio without hearing Matchbox's slew of hits.

 

     I would say they are a guilty pleasure for me, but I hate that phrase. Who cares what you like, or why you like it. You think your the only one that likes something a lot of others hate, get real. With that in mind when North came out last year. After it wasn't that big of a disappointment, I immediately started watching for a North world tour. Like I said nostalgia is a powerful thing, and I think Matchbox twenty know that. They booked themselves in venues that realistically in today scene they probably shouldn't be able to fill. It didn't hurt that they booked American Idol and "Home" hit maker Phillip Phillips. 

 

     I had two reservations going into this show. First I heard that Matchbox Twenty's Exile on Mainstream tour had some pretty bad reviews. Mostly caused by bad relations in the band, they were just phoning it in and going for the big pay check, until they could move back to other projects. The other concern was after looking on their set lists I noticed that they were playing almost all of the new album. It's good but it's not as good as the hits. Turned out it didn't matter that much. In fact some of the new songs were pretty great live.

Take English Town for example.

                                     

      Fast forward to the night of the show. I thought to myself there is no way they can fill the same place that The Book of Mormon filled a week earlier. On a side note The Book of Mormon is amazing! However, apparently I'm not the only one who is extremely nostalgic about Matchbox Twenty. The place was full to the brim, seriously sold out. We took our seats and Philip Philips took the stage. My opinion of American Idol winners isn't exactly a stellar one, but Phillip Phillips has proved to be my least hated Idol winner. His quartet consisted of an upright bass player, an acoustic guitar hooked up to an electric amp, a drummer who's kit was a fancy drum box, and Phillip equipped with an acoustic guitar. They set up like a classic string quartet, seated on stools together toward the front of the stage. They never left those stools, which in a way was a kinda cool in a classy way. They were all excellent musicians, and even though they only played 6 songs, and were only on stage for 30 minutes. They killed it, even after playing 3 rap covers in a jammy folk way. That's right, your hearing correctly three rap covers, "Lollipop" by Lil Wayne, "Lose Yourself" by Eminem, and "All I do is Win" by Dj Khaled. They jammed out, and it was awesome. He played two songs off his debut, "Man on the Moon" and of course the closer, "Home". Even though Phillip's speech's to the crowd was weird to say the least, he was praised. I thought he was high. The crowd didn't care and neither did I. The second he finished the extended jam version of "Home", the crowd went crazy.

     After about half an hour pretty much at 8:30 right on the nose the band took the stage. Speaking of the stage, lets talk about their awesome stage. There is a picture of it above. It was a three level stage, so they band had plenty of space to run around on it, and they did. It also was absolutely full of color changing Led lights, and not just on the stage but behind it as well. It was a an ADD kid's dream world, it flashed, strobed, and changed color pretty much all night. They played a two hour show, chalked full of hits, new songs, rarities, and jams. They were really firing on all cylinders. The band consists of Singer Rob Thomas, Lead guitarist Kyle Cook, Bass guitarist Brian Yale, Rhythm guitar, piano, percussion Paul Doucette. As well as touring members Stacy Jones on drum kit, and Matt Beck on absolutely everything else. 

     The show opened with new song "Parade", which is actually a pretty good song, slower that expected for an opener but still very effective. It got the energy going, and if this wasn't enough, following that the band launched into "Bent", and "Disease" two of the bands hits. The crowd went bonkers they were eating it up, me included. The band seemed in high spirit and were genuinely enjoying themselves. Musically they were killing it. Kyle Cook was adding crazy shredding guitar solos to songs that were normally more poppy by nature. Bass player Brian Yale was slamming the bass as fast as he could and with some furious precision. During some songs Paul Doucette would come up front to a drum set up near the front of the stage and bang the hell out of it. It added crazy percussion layers and was awesome to watch. Then there was Rob Thomas, he has already established himself as a very gifted songwriter, two solo albums, "Smooth" a smash hit written for Santana, and he is the lead songwriter for Matchbox Twenty. On top of all that he has some serious pipes and showed them off a lot. Most of the nigh Rob was out in front of a mic singing his heart out and being a genuinely charming host for the show. However he dawned a guitar a couple of times through out the night, ended up at the piano to blast out mega hit "Bight Lights". He even gave up vocals to Kyle Cook a couple times, most notably on English Town.

     The one criticism I have of this otherwise fantastic show is the new album is good, but there were moments where new songs turned into, OK time to sit down moments. I didn't kill the buzz so to speak, but 10 new songs may have been too many. Remember this is mostly a nostalgia show. There was also the odd but effective dace song "Put Your Hands Up". This song feels like a producer just approached Rob Thomas and told him this is what the kids are into now a days.

Ill let the live footage of the song speak for itself.

                                                                            

     Although the good way out ways the bad for this show. On the end of the album More than you think you are there is a song called "The Difference". Well anyway half way through that song on Cd they launched into a bad ass cover of "Stay with Me" my The Faces. I didn't think they would play it live, I was wrong. Not only did they play it but it was probably the best part of the whole show. Half way through the new song "Radio", Rob Thomas leaves the stage while the band jam out. He comes back and the cover starts up, they rock through an amazingly heavy version on the song. Reaching a point where Rob and Lead Guitarist Kyle are in each other faces just improvising and jamming out. Rob gets really quiet and starts singing the bridge while building in intensity. They get to the last line and he just screams it at the top of his lungs. The crowd screams along. It was amazing, on one last note matchbox may have be a nostalgia band to me, however I think they aren't finished making a name for themselves yet. The show was an absolute delight, the crowd sang along to every word of hits like: "3 Am", "Unwell", "Bent", "Bright Lights", "Disease", "How Far We've Come", "Back 2 Good", "Push", "Long Day", "If Your Gone", "Girl Like That", and "Real World". The Show came to close by going back to the beginning, their very first single "Push". In conclusion if you have a band that you like and others hate, who cares go see them anyway. If your a Matchbox Twenty fan go check them out when they come to your city. It was so worth it. Here is the set list if your interested. http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/matchbox-twenty/2013/des-moines-civic-center-des-moines-ia-7bdbcaa4.html