by Alexis Ruby Howe

Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock – Companion Pack
4 Stars

Click, click, click, clack, clack — you’ re a superstar. Or at least you wish. We know that Guitar Hero III has already started to delight your college procrastination hearts (and fingers), but wait there’ s more! The producers of the Guitar Hero trilogy have realized their merchandizing potential and released this fantastic accompaniment album. Your favorite and most envied all-star musicians render the performances — from A.F.I. to the Smashing Pumpkins to Velvet Revolver. This album, like its three proceeding games, is rock heavy. The sounds are the ones you have come to love, and hate, while playing and have a lot of guitar (duh) and bass lines and screaming lead singers. This album is strong with a lot of good diddies. It doesn’t let up, but can be a little overwhelming at times. 4 stars for you!

Alice Smith
For Lovers, Dreamers and Me
New Album and CD Release Concert – October 31st, 2007
4.5 Stars

Alice Walker is the epitome of neo-soul. She is a brilliant young artist with a sound that makes your skin tingle. On her debut album, For Lovers, Dreamers and Me, Alice Smith wields her four-octave voice with a good measure of style and punk for ten fantastic songs. Think of her as a perfect combination between Alicia Keys and Feist — her songs range anywhere from rhythm and blues to indie wonders. And with this range there is no room for weakness — every one of her songs packs a whole lot of punch. “Love Endeavor” is a beautiful and emotive tale of young lovers, while her first single “Dream” (see below) is a climactic story of powerful love that causes lovers to, well love, “all night long.” Alice Smith is an up-and-coming artist that is certainly going places. Her album release concert at World Cafe Live was a show as full of energy as her CD. She comes across as someone so modest and full of life that it makes you want to get up and shoop-shoop. Bottom line: get this!

Dan Snaith, better known by his performing alias Caribou, has been rocking hipster socks since the start of the new millennium. As of late, his blissed-out organic glitch has evolved into a unique brand of summery ’60s psych pop. He’s currently trotting the globe in support of his new album Andorra, but took a break from his spreading of the gospel of Brian Wilson to kick it with Street.

Street: You’ve got a pretty intense tour schedule from now through early November. How is the road treating you so far?
Caribou: Things are good. We just drove through the Swiss Alps which was pretty beautiful and now we’re in Italy on our way to Milan. The gigs have been great so far. We’ve been touring for about three weeks
so far.

Street: Who has the best fans: Canada, the States, or Europe?
Caribou: Now why you gonna go and make me choose favorites? There are good towns everywhere and some towns that aren’t so good, but obviously if I’m going to have to pick one favorite, I’m going to say Canada.

Street: Your new album, Andorra, has more traditionally structured songs than your previous releases. Did you make a conscious decision to move in that direction on this record?
Caribou: When I started out I didn’t know what direction the album was going to go, but as I was working on it, it became clear that I was really excited about focusing more on compositional ideas ― melodies, harmonies, countermelodies, arrangements and song structures — than on the last records. I’d never tried to make pop music before and there are so many incredibly written pop songs that I love that I wanted to try squeezing my music into that format.

Dan Snaith aka Caribou

Street: I recently saw your video for “Melody Day.” It’s pretty wild. What’s the story behind it?
Caribou: It’s directed by a Swedish director, Daniel Eskils. I was put into contact with him by my label in Europe. He pitched the storyline and location which was out on the island of Gotland, off the Swedish mainland. It’s where Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman lived (until he passed away a couple months ago) and filmed a bunch of his films. And Tarkovsky filmed one of his films there as well. Part of the video was basically filmed in Bergman’s backyard.

Street: Kieran Hebden of Four Tet fame recently did some DJ sets opening for you, as well as a remix of “Melody Day.” How did that relationship get started and are there any plans for some more extensive collaborations?
Caribou: Kieran’s one of my best friends and the reason my music started being released in the first place. I worked in the UK one summer when I was a student and went up and talked to him after a show that he was playing at a festival there. We got along immediately and we kept in touch. We flew him in to DJ at a club night we were running in Toronto. I played him some of the music I was making. He passed it along to The Leaf Label who put out my first records and the rest is
history. I’d love to work on more music with Kieran but we’ve both been so insanely busy for the last few years it’s been hard. Maybe one day!

Street: You seem to have really embraced the whole Web 2.0 scene ―Myspace, Flickr, Youtube. How has the nearly constant feedback from and contact with your fans affected you, if at all?
Caribou: I’m a bit of a ludite, but it’s great to have the feedback from people who have listened to the album or come to the shows. It doesn’t affect the albums, but as far as touring goes it’s great to have that contact with people and to get an idea of where people want us to come and play. It’s always really amazing to hear from people from all over the world who are hearing the music.

Street: What’s on your iPod right now?
Caribou: I don’t have one, I’m afraid. Going to get one soon. I’ve been listening to my friend Koushik’s new album, Out My Window, which is coming out on Stones Throw.

Street: Any long term plans in the works?
Caribou: I’m not good at planning a long time ahead… we’re going to be touring for the next year and then I’m sure I’ll be dying to get back to record some music. That’s about as much of a plan as I have!

-Adam Drici

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
Raising Sand
1/5 Stars

The best way to judge a plant is by the fruit it bears. That being
said, who would have expected Robert Plant to produce such a rotten
crop? His new album Raising Sand is quite possibly his worst piece of
art yet. Aside from the disappointing fact that the album in no way
sounds like Led Zeppelin, Raising Sand lacks the creativity associated
with Plant.

The album begins with a folky, country sound that is maintained
throughout the entire album. The subsequent tracks include an overuse
of cheesy slide guitar and lyrics like, “Leaves were falling, just
like embers.” The midsection of Raising Sand is reduced to slow,
sporadic guitar picking, redundant drum beats and standard chord
progressions, ornamented with lyrics of lost love and broken
friendship.

The only time the album makes any positive impression is with the
song “Fortune Teller.” Perhaps the only reason it does so is that
Plant switches his voice back from that of a down-and-out country
singer to his distinctive, Zeppelin sound. But just when Plant makes a
rebound, he cuts back into the same, dry blues sound that only
80-somethings would find interesting. Regardless of your curiosity
about Robert Plant’s artistic endeavors since his hey-day as lead
singer of the Mighty Led Zep, do not buy this album.

- Evan O’Donnell

The Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey may have taken the stage later than expected, but trust me, it was well worth the hour-and-a-half wait. The members of the Tulsa, OK-based jazz fusion trio (none of whom, interestingly enough, is named Jacob Fred) performed on Monday, Sept. 17, at World Café Live, their second visit to the venue this year. The band, who played on WCL’s laid-back, sexy-atmosphered upstairs stage this time around, visited the popular West Philly concert destination while on tour with jam guitarist Steve Kimock this past June.

JFJO, a group known for their meandering, funk-driven improvisational grooves, was formed in 1994 and cites performers as disparate as Charles Mingus, The Flaming Lips, and Neil Young as key influences to their truly sui generis style. Bassist, bandleader, and “effects wizard” Reed Mathis showed himself to be an exceptional, albeit unconventional, musician, often using acid jazz guitar tones (how he achieved these timbres on an instrument of such a low register, I do not know) and playing his instrument as such. Jason Smart’s elaborate drumming patterns provided the perfect complement to the playing of both Reed and keyboardist Brian Haas, who traded force as lead instrument throughout the performance. For good measure, the band also threw in a couple of jazz standards, including a funked-up version of Louis Armstrong’s swinging “Song of the Vipers.” JFJO seamlessly blends avant garde jazz with rhythmic psychedelica into something marvelous, a sound that’s easier seen live than described.

-Shane Tepper

Stars
In Our Bedroom After the War
3/5 stars

Sounding typically romantic and confused, Stars has unloaded a slightly overripe album worthy of repeated shuffles. But make no mistake: In Our Bedroom After the War is no Set Yourself on Fire. Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan return with few duets that can match those pristinely cut tracks from Fire and Heart. Opener “The Beginning After the End” starts with a beat that pulsates with anticipation and yearning. Unfortunately, the album’s exploration stops short after some unique instrumentals and polished pop. The voices are undeniably alluring and Millan continues to make even the girls melt, but Campbell’s theatrics verge on the unseemly. “Take Me to the Riot” echoes Morrissey — but really, only Morrissey can do Morrissey; “Barricade” is just embarrassing.

“The Night Starts Here” (see below) is by far the best track, uplifting at first and later evolving into a buzzing harmony of clean lyrics and familiar electronic sounds. The co-leads exude affection in the two very different tracks, “Midnight Coward” and “Personal.” “Sickness, weakness at the thought, of how you’re going to play… / Hurry, hurry to believe, I can always trust, as much as you deceive / And the love is strained, just the way we like it.” The rest of the album is a heterogeneous mix of tunes that don’t really unleash Stars’s potential the way Fire did. In Our Bedroom meanders through synth-laden tunes with uneven success, but it has its share of bright northern lights.

-Rachel Shah