Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Saosin - Self Titled

This review of Saosin's debut album was also printed in Rival Street Press May 2007 edition.

Album Review

Saosin – Saosin

By Tom Mattessi

Californian band Saosin have been around for a few years now, but have only just released their debut self titled album. Their two preceding EP’s helped the band build a rabid American fanbase, and most savvy Australian fans know how good the band are. The long awaited debut full length is confirmation of the talent of a band that promised so much on last years Taste of Chaos tour.

Saosin are a band that mix the epic choruses of 90’s skate punk with the more technical musicianship of modern hardcore acts, minus the screaming that characterises a lot of popular contemporary bands. And like many of their 90’s predecessors they have produced a start-to-finish album without a weak link. The songs are driven by extreme drum parts: massive 4-beat roles and ultra-technical, driving rhythms. Guitarists Justin and Joe trade super fast riffs throughout each song. But what sets the band apart from many talented modern acts is the amazingly high pitched voice of vocalist Cove Reber.

When Saosin lost charismatic original vocalist Anthony Green a few years ago, many fans lamented the premature demise of a band with limitless potential. Somehow, they found a new vocalist with an identically high voice. But the new singer is not just a voice. As the album proves, his song writing ability is undeniable. ‘Voices’ is the perfect choice for a first single, and its chorus line ‘we sing in different voices’ is perhaps an unconscious nod to the fans who doubted the replacement singers ability. ‘You’re not Alone’ will doubtless be the singalong anthem on the upcoming tour, and ‘I never wanted to’ is a great revamp of an old song. The album is awesome all the way, and the band, refreshingly, avoid screaming for a focus on pure melody and anthemic choruses. It comes with a bonus DVD. Saosin tour Australia in May. The shows should not be missed.

Is 'emo' killing genres?

This article was published in Rival Street press, a brand new street magazine covering music in parts of country Victoria. Massive reader base I know.

Is ‘emo’ killing genres? What about Alexisonfires new album ‘Crisis’?

By Tom Mattessi

How bands suffer at the mercy of a bitter music writer and a judgmental, lazy fan. Granted, genre descriptions are a necessary evil that plagues modern music. But the phenomenon that is the ‘emo’ genre is an indictment on both modern music journalism and modern music taste. The word ‘emo’ is, these days, basically a synonym for shit, and no self-respecting band would ever categorise their sound as such (emo or shit). The biggest irony is that emotion, the word emo is derived from, is the driving force behind all good music, but bands labelled ‘emo’ are the lowest musicians on earth. Yes, lower than cover bands.

So how does a band survive being labelled ‘screamo’? The self-indulgent whinings of emo mixed with misplaced screams of adolescent aggression is surely a recipe for musical hell. Canada’s Alexisonfire are a band trying to overcome the dreaded genre curse at the moment. And with their third album, Crisis, they will surely convince any open-minded fan that a band labelled ‘screamo', or ‘emo', by hack music writers, can still be good. Despite their ill-chosen name (pronounced Alexis-on-fire), the 5-piece from the small town of St Catharines have achieved remarkable success in a scene that is dominated by ultra judgmental fans and critics.

Great bands confound genre. There are fundamentals to good songs that render musical style irrelevant. Kasey Chambers’ presence on my Ipod is powerful evidence. Brilliant melodies dominate Crisis. Singer/Guitarist Dallas Green is an immense talent. His humble, uplifting choruses mix perfectly with the rough, offbeat aggression of the band and the screaming vocalist George.

Great music is emotional, and emotive. The band has finally reached maturity with its third effort, setting aside wacky teenage lyrics for a brutally honest critique of the town they grew up in. The appraisal is harsh, and one feels that a band that has travelled the whole world yearns desperately to come home to a better place. As Dallas sings on first single “This could be anywhere in the world”: ‘This city is haunted by ghosts from broken homes’. Or to never have to come back at all. “Light a torch, and burn away, every tie that binds me to this place.” And as the lyrics confront the bands small town origins so the listener reflects on the place they grew in, and how it defines them. The band has chosen the topic closest to their hearts and delivered an emotional album that will certainly confirm them as the standout of the much maligned ‘screamo’ genre.

For music lovers averse to really heavy music, perhaps Alexisonfire are the perfect band for beginning the transition. There is just enough soft melody to satisfy pop fans and more than enough aggression to appease a metal fan. And for fans of detailed, mature song-writing and intelligent lyrics, this album is the perfect antidote to the clichéd, pretentious bands that dominate the hardcore scene. Sometimes, when filing through the depths of ‘emo’, one uncovers unique, passionate music in the place where they least expect to find it

Road trip Rage

See my report from Melbourne's loss to Sydney at the SCG. It was posted on the mighty demonblog.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

A 30 week season - Was he Baum yesterday?

He is The Age’s best football journalist and also a great cricket analyst. But the normally astute Greg Baum has suggested an extension of the AFL premiership season and his arguments are seriously flawed. Baum’s complaint that the pre-season competition is a charade is completely justified. It seems that West Coast and Sydney, the leagues two best teams, view the competition as a burden imposed on them by the AFL. They play one game, lose, fulfil their obligation and get back to the long term planning of the season. When the best clubs are happy to lose it is hard to maintain that the competition has credibility. But one suspects the AFL would never consider completely abolishing the competition.

Baum’s real problem is that the pre season cup detracts from the real premiership season. The AFL draw is not completely fair, and as long as 16 teams are each playing 22 games it never will be. I assume that in calling for an extension to the season Baum wants 30 rounds – each team playing the others twice. This would be the only way to extend the season and make the draw totally fair. The first argument for this is fairness. The other is that extending the season would allow the AFL to fill this 2-month gap where International cricket has finished and AFL has not started. Australians do have an enormous appetite for sport, but perhaps only the most hardcore supporters could maintain enthusiasm for 34 weeks of football. If their team was winning.

And what about the players having to begin the season in February, the hottest month of the year? Baum’s argument is that clubs would learn to rest and rotate players. I believe most players would resist being rested. Most footballers loathe being injured, let alone being fit but still on the sidelines. And what of those players who are not footy obsessed? A 30-week season would put a massive strain on a player both physically and mentally, particularly if they or their team is not playing well.

The worst thing about the preseason cup is that teams field teams missing the best players. The standard is poor and the spectacle diminished. If clubs needed to rest and rotate champions then surely the game would suffer. And if the season was so long, no club could expect to maintain momentum all the way, so they would realistically prepare for down periods, and not be worried about losing certain matches.

Baum also argues that squad lists and the salary cap could be increased. More players on a list would mean more ordinary footballers getting a game. And yes, the AFL is massively wealthy, but most Melbourne clubs cannot happily afford a big increase in the salary cap. A much bigger salary cap would only widen the gap between Melbourne and interstate teams

Finally, Baum states that most complaints about modern football are concerned with it being too fast. In contrast, the AFL seems bent on speeding up the game at any cost. Whether you like the increased speed or not, the reality is that in modern football the fastest teams win. Kevin Sheedy has admitted to making a decision two years ago to build a faster team. Mark Williams says his 2007 Port team is the quickest he has coached. Rodney Eade is the game’s foremost believer in speed over anything.

Slowing the game down, for whatever reason, is not going to happen, particularly when top coaches feel that faster players win premierships. And even if the AFL did choose to slow the speed, a 30-game marathon season would not be the way to do it. The game’s quality and the game’s players would surely suffer. And so would the fans. And we suffer enough in February and March as it is.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Internet Fan sites treated seriously - You wouldn't Reed about it

Memo to Ron Reed of the Herald Sun. Quoting comments from anonymous fan websites is ordinary journalism. Don't we (well some of us) look to experts in newspapers for expertise and information? I suppose these fan comments are a guide to the feelings of the ordinary fan. But if we want to know the thoughts of internet posters we will log on.

Amongst a list of silly comments from web fans Reed includes this: 'One even said: "Andrew Bogut can't grow a beard."' Excellent journalism and pertinent information. Bogut, in this exclusive interivew, dismissed the internet punters as men eating hamburgers by their computer. Ron, if you get another chance to interview Bogut, our best Basketballer and a potential NBA superstar, please do not quote comments from fans on websites. It is a waste of Bogut's and our time. And great inclusion of the word bogus. I'm sure Andrew never heard that before.

But Reed is not the only Herald Sun culprit. From Mark Stevens: "One (fan site) had Cooney out for the year. Another fan posted that Cooney had ruptured his achilles and was gone for 2007." Well Mark, you are payed to go to team training to find out this information for yourself, a job many men would give their right arm (and more) to do. So perhaps you could give us legitimate, researched information, rather than baseless, sourceless speculation from an internet poster. We all know they're full of crap.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Roos' pre emptive strike on new rule interpretations.

Paul Roos is a smart man. He was a smart footballer and he is a smart coach. The AFL, on the other hand, is not so smart. It is obsessed with changing the game’s rules. Every year it introduces new rules in the pre season competition. It changes umpire interpretations for the official season and these interpretations are re interpreted as the season goes on. For the first rounds of the year the game is in complete disarray. Angry coaches and players are muted by the AFL dictatorship. Umpires, who like players have honed their instincts over years of practice, now second-guess their decisions because of new interpretations forced upon them. And the media lament the destruction of our game. And implicit in every negative comment about the state of today’s game is the view that the game was better before.

One new interpretation for this year regards the ‘push in the back’ rule. (Thank god they have left holding the ball alone for once.) There will be a stricter interpretation of players touching the back of an opponent in a marking contest. Paul Roos knows that in the opening weeks of the season he will be forbidden from attacking the umpires (and the AFL) for their new rule interpretation, so he has launched a pre emptive strike now, and in doing so he has pointed out some of the reasons for the AFL’s obsession with changing the game.

"Why do we always look back to the past in order to change our game?" Roos asked in The Age. It’s a good question. The AFL would insist that its constant efforts to speed up the game are evidence of it looking forward. But perhaps the people who drive opinion in the media are obsessed with a nostlagic idea of a game that never really existed, and they are the ones always looking back. Perhaps the AFL is simply obsessed with change and wants to perfect a game that is brilliant because it is far from perfect. Whatever the reason, the league cannot resist tinkering with rules early in the season, before everything goes back to normal.

It is natural for older footy fans to romanticise the past, especially when that past contained all in brawls, bags from full forwards and long kicks to the forward line for hangers. And so many of the tabloid critics offer stinging criticism of today’s game plans without real solutions, apart from ‘kicking it long’.

Roos, for his part, might know that many new AFL rules are aimed at eliminating the supposedly negative (and frustratingly successful) game plan that his Swans have perfected. And galvanizing the public, coaches and players against the AFL might serve his club’s cause. He has certainly got on the front foot early, and when the world goes crazy in round three because the umpires are a disgrace he can happily sit back and say I told you so. The rule changes will be modified and the Swans will begin their mid season charge. Whatever his reasons, Roos makes some very good points. The game is not broken. Sure, there are ordinary games between ordinary teams, but there always will be. And sometimes the game is slow, but it is often fast and extremely exciting. But the AFL should remember that things don’t necessarily need to change to stay positive.

Friday, February 2, 2007

Lyon steps nicely into Thomas' shoes.

Do we have a new master of nothing? Grant Thomas perfected the art of maximum words for minmum sense. His replacement Ross Lyon may well take over the mantle of the most senseless man in football. In the Herald Sun today

"I had to find out what was and was not in place. It doesn't make it right or wrong, what I'm bringing, but subjectively I thought we should go this way and that took a while to nut out," Lyon said.

Gold

Thursday, February 1, 2007

Channel 7. Act Now! Get your head out of the Sandy.

At first I was quietly optimistic, but as the season gets closer I wake up with the sweats every night. Sandy and Bruce together for a Friday night blockbuster? Surely this is what winter nightmares are made of.

Apparently Sandy Roberts will not present or commentate footy in 2007. This is good news as he is a poor and redundant commentator and can ruin a good game of football. Whether Bruce McAvaney’s return to footy commentary is a good thing remains to be seen. He was a great commentator, but he has been out of the game a while. And his performance at the Australian open was disconcerting. Bruce’s passion (obsession) for footy is his greatest asset. His love for the sport was never in question and last year football commentary was dominated by bitter ex-players complaining about the modern game. So his return should be refreshing. But McAvaney’s unbridled love for sport and statistics were taken to new levels at the Australian open, to the extent where he seemed to be parodying himself, enthusing over the most mundane of sporting moments.

But my night sweats do not consist solely of the mindless chatter of Bruce and Sandy. Dreams can so quickly become nightmares. The best nights are when the mighty Demons charge to a flag. It’s a recurring dream but lately its ending has changed. Instead of Neitz slamming home the winner the siren never sounds and Bruce muses openly about the new offerings on Channel Seven this week. We never get that flag, but we do get a brief synopsis of season 4 of (insert shit American cop show import name here). Making sports commentators chat about a television show during a sports game is a low, cheap, pathetic ploy and should be banished now. Nine have done it with the Cricket and Seven, with their insatiable greed for dirty advertising money, have done it relentlessly this tennis season. If seven persist with this technique drastic measures will be taken. Trust me.

But still there is optimism. Cometti will be there. And who can resist his velvet voice and subtle one-liners. But Cometti, for all his greatness, was exploited by Nine. Football commentary is about football and not the personalities of those that commentate, and Nine, like all commercial radio stations, were obsessed with the supposed personalities of its callers. I hope Seven lets Bruce and Dennis commentate, and respect the game for more than advertising dollars and the celebrity of its callers. Cometti is made great by the game that he describes, and seven executives would do well to remember this, and to let AFL be the showpiece around which they base their coverage.

Television commentary is hard. Tim Lane, once the most respected voice in the land, lost a lot of his presence on Channel 10. Drew Morphett, in contrast, reinvented himself after leaving Channel 7 for radio. The new footy network should select its callers carefully, and balance its quota of ex footballers with intelligent, unbiased commentators who know that the game is bigger than any network personality around. Then I will sleep through the winter.