| I Saw the Devil Last Night and Now the Sun Shines Bright Moros Eros 4.0 The key to everything that is right in the world is to be as weird as possible, and having a healthy obsession with Sonic Youth doesn’t hurt either. If you ask Moros Eros front man Zach Tipton if he likes Sonic Youth, he’ll coyly say “I’m obsessed with them,” leaving you to wonder if it’s an obsession as healthy as one might think, or if he might be peeking through Thurston Moore’s windows picking up tips. Moros Eros, the Atlanta , GA native band’s debut is I Saw the Devil Last Night and Now the Sun Shines Bright. Yes that’s the name of the record and not a name of a new hardcore band. Moros Eros sound unlike anything on Victory Records. I Saw the Devil is a well balanced “art rock” record with a perfect palate. From the opening track Today is the Day, you can tell that this is going to be an interesting ride, mixing in elements of guitars, tambourines, music samples and B-boy drums. Adopting methods from Frank Black with the classic stop-start dynamic along with indie rock influences ranging from Belle & Sebastian to Folk Implosion, but the most prominent is Sonic Youth case and point, alternate guitar tunings, distortion and feed back. I Saw the Devil, is a perfect first release for the Indie superstars of the future having a pop edge that could put them on the playing field as The Pixies, yet far enough out in left field that they could be on a bill with their idols Sonic Youth. With tracks like I Saw the Devil Last Night, where Tipton’s vocal range changes by the second. It will be interesting to see the follow up to I Saw the Devil, and if worse comes to worse they have a great name for a hardcore band. -Justin Lee Amidon |
| The Weirdness The Stooges 4.5 “I hope I die before I get old, talking about my generation” words penned by Pete Townsend, obviously not Iggy Pop. What does it say about my generation when the most original record is the new Stooges record? The Weirdness is the first record in 33 years since the last collaboration of the original members of Detroit ’s native sons The Stooges: The Asheton brothers (Ron and Scott) recruited Mike Watt, formerly of the Minutemen, who replaced Dave Alexander, who passed away in 1975, and of course Iggy Pop. The Weirdness was produced by Steve Albini (Big Black, The Pixies, Nirvana and Sonic Youth), which is just icing on the cake. It’s like as if The Punisher and Wolverine teamed up to fight crime. The Weirdness picks up where 1973’s Raw Power left off. With the first single My Idea of Fun, you’d swear that you were 16 years old all over again in your bedroom, listening to Raw Power outtakes on vinyl. With lyrics like “My idea of fun is to kill everyone,” tracks like Free & Freaky. The Weirdness really hits home the with die hard Stooges fans with tracks like She Took My Money, I’m Fried and The End of Christianity. Along with revisiting The Fun House days with a saxophone appearing on Passing Cloud. The Stooges finish what they started with in the last chapter using their own brand of that raw garage rock, the essence that inspired the punk rock revolution of 1976. Younger listeners may not get it, because they are drones of MTV. But that’s ok because “I AM IGGY POP-you can’t kill me!” Deep down all of us want to be like Iggy Pop, no shirt, no shame and raw power. -Justin Lee Amidon |
