The Symbolick Jews "God Is You My Brothers, My Sisters"

Listen to/buy God Is You My Brothers, My Sisters

OK, so The Symbolick Jews have never been a particularly polished band. Their music crashes around recklessly, bumping into and knocking over your grandmother's precious music genres like an autistic 5 year old whose twisted uncle thought it would be fun to slip booze to at Thanksgiving. But it's that very same recklessness that makes The Symbolick Jews an absolute blast to listen to. Perhaps it's because they've never had the same lineup on two albums. Perhaps it's because they never take themselves terribly seriously, and it usually shows...but once in a while they'll write a song like "Book of Love" (from their debut Confession Time) that is so heart-wrenchingly genuine, you can't help but sit straight up and wonder "Wait, what band is this again?"

Just recently the Symbolick Jews embarked on their third North American tour, heading South through California, East into Arizona and eventually wrapping things up in Texas. In typical Symbolick fashion, they also quietly released their third LP (2nd this year), entitled God Is You My Brothers, My Sisters. However, the music here is anything but quiet. It's ballsy, it's sweaty,
it's completely rambunctious. The songs that aren't are brooding, hypnotic slow-burners that steadily build in intensity until everything collapses under the pressure. Actually, most of the songs end like that.

It's at this point that I am haunted by the fact that I never wrote about their 2nd album, Can I Trust You. I'd like to make all sorts of comparisons...like how God Is You strips away the vocoders and many of the electronic trappings that made their previous LP so weird and unique, instead returning the band to their raw rock roots (say that 10 times fast). But I can't (to either). All I can do is recommend you check out Can I Trust You, encourage you to make your own comparisons, and beg your forgiveness for my oversight.

God Is You begins with a bang, as lazily crashing waves of guitar provide context for a wailing singer who is "so f*#&king tired". This is no hazy, bleary-eyed dirge, a la The Beatles' "I'm So Tired", but rather the sound of a band waking up, making coffee, plugging in and preparing to rock. The Jews then proceed to launch into a Dadaist/Krautrock workout in the hypnotic "He Got a Job" (which spurned the band's very first music video, in which everyone pees on each other).

The Symbolick Jews are the paranoid, babbling voices in your head...and this time there are more voices than ever. Frontman Adam Healton shares vocal duties with at least 5 others, which seems to take a bit of pressure off of him, and because of this the whole band sounds like it's having a lot more fun. In fact, this is their first album that really seems like a true communal effort.

Other noteworthy tracks include "I'm Lucky", which is a fuzzy, blissed out guitar-driven song about being grateful to wake up next to that special someone, and "I Got To You", which quite possibly is the band's catchiest song to date, with "lead" singer Adam's unique voice blending wonderfully with one of three female singers scattered on this LP. If you're more into the avant-garde, Symbolick Jews have got you covered with the brief, unclassifiable freakouts "Sly's Salad Bar", "A Rare Hope", and in typically-lengthy album closer fashion, the crazy 14 minute epic "Peace Be With You".

God Is You certainly rewards repeated listenings, as drummer/producer Brian Davy has seen to it that each track is a dense forest of sound, populated with subtle electronics mixed just low enough so as to make listening with headphones a real treat. My hat goes off to Adam, Brian and the rest of the Symbolick Jews...whoever they are this time around. They've crafted a loose-yet-focused masterpiece that few other bands could convincingly pull off. The Symbolick Jews are a wild beast with a heart of gold, and here's hoping they'll never be tamed. -Matt

JANG "Scissor Palace"

Listen to/download Scissor Palace

Recent Phoenix, AZ transplant JANG is one of the most modest musicians I know. I'm not sure if it's due to a bad case of nerves, a self esteem thing, or if he was just raised that way. He's soft spoken, big haired, rather self critical, and in my short time playing in a band with him, he never acted much like a "guitarist" (if you've ever been in a Guitar Center, or know anything at all about rock music, you know the type).

However, if anyone deserves an inflated ego, it's this guy right here. Known to friends/family/Big Brother as Nick Stanifer, he wrote music, played guitar and basically spearheaded the tragically short lived Sacramento glam-prog supergroup known as Order of the Golden Mirror...as well as play on and produce the bombastic aural adventure that is Prism Riot. The fact is, although he doesn't act the least bit like it, JANG may very well be underground experimental rock's next big name.

His latest solo offering, Scissor Palace, certainly does live up to its title. If music can be compared to tangible, physical art, whereas most albums are like paintings or photos, Scissor Palace is like a humongous, wall-spanning mixed-media collage. That's the easiest way to put it. Apparently, these are all bits and pieces of music recorded over the last few years that have been chopped and edited into...well, this. If ever there was an album seemingly designed to be listened to on "shuffle"...

There are 25 tracks here, very few pieces over two minutes in length. To try and describe the album as a whole would be almost futile. There are no genres to fall back on here. This is music for fourth dimensional beings with ADHD. So I'm going to try something new on Informed Conformist and listen to this album track-by-track and try my best to describe what each one brings to mind. Take from it what you will. Oh, and I invite you to listen along!

1. Arrival - Distorted drum fills accompany an angular guitar riff. Sounds like a fanfare. A gong sounds, and we're off.

2. Zeta Reticuli - Driving riff rock gives way to dreamy, bubbly synth and then just kind of ends...

3. Slivery Whine - Programmed drums skitter in some strange meter, while elevator jazz keyboards lay down an alternately soothing synth wash. Then what sounds like a completely random sax/synth melody mixes things up nicely.

4. Drag Them Stones - A 5/8 pattern with some organ and an epic, soaring synth and guitar melody. Then everything kinda freaks out at 38 seconds and ends suddenly (as most of these tracks do).

5. Discordant Prolifics Dustbin - More crazy programmed drums, more soothing keyboard patches, more frantic guitar. Similar to track 3...they may be blood relatives.

6. Altar of Gibraltar - Sounds like an organ and a tape reel having sadomasochistic sex...and then giving birth to a small bundle of cheez-funk.

7. Dig Up Bodies To Sell To Doctors - Aha, our first real "song". Phased out guitar, a cartoon "boing" sound effect and then...a pretty little organ interlude. Drums kick in and everything goes into double time. Sounds like Beethoven on methamphetamine. Song returns and wraps up nicely.

8. I Feel That Mental Breakdown A-Comin' - Scary video game music from the final boss' lair...if performed by a hybrid King Crimson/Frank Zappa supergroup .

9. Mail Order Bride - Grinding, delay soaked programmed drums.

10. Jagged Edges of Shattered Vinyl - Sounds exactly like the title suggests. Intro reminds me a bit of Tom Morello.

11. A Black Cat Throws Salt Over Its Shoulder - A brief drum workout, some tweedling guitar, and then an adorable kitty cat sound. Meow!

12. 28th Dimension - My favorite track. This one's in 7/8, possibly my favorite meter. Sounds like everything is peaceful in the land of the frolicking pixies...until some awful portal to hell opens and a dark shadow castle takes form in the dense, poisonous mist. The pixies warily take note, but continue with their happy party anyway.

13. Thing Of Being - Some of these tracks are hard to describe...this is just one of them. Starts in familiar, frantic territory, but suddenly dissolves into a spacey Eastern groove, reminiscent of The Doors' more psychedelic moments, before it all comes crashing back down on your head.

14. Smoke Break - Another favorite of mine. Out of left field comes a beautiful, layered acoustic melody, accompanied by shakers and bongo drums. Like the title suggests, a breath of fresh air...or a breath of SOMETHING, anyway.

15. Theme For Anvils - A pretty little four-note keyboard melody, reminiscent of the melody to The Symbolick Jews' "I Disappointed My Parents". Not complete plagiarism, but an interesting coincidence.

16. Windfall - More video game music...the intro is straight up Mega Man 2. As usual, this one doesn't sit still for long, and it's over just as you really start to get into it.

17. AYBABTU - Picks up nicely where track 16 ends, and features a really cool warbly piano effect.

18. Who Is Clock Maker? - Clockwork chimes and programmed drums run through some sort of ring modulator setting.

19. Chattering Teeth - This is straight up cowboy music that seems equally inspired by the Wild West as it does 80's pop (I was gonna say equal parts Tortoise and Toto, but it seemed like a stretch). Effective use of mouth harp here, which is an alarmingly underused instrument in modern rock music, if you ask me.

20. Something In My Eye - 8 seconds of cut up babyish vocal samples over a dance-floor beat. Yes.

21. It's Your Funeral, Round Eye - If a gamelan were abducted mid-performance and imprisoned in a floating glass bubble by pixelated aliens from the Space Invaders arcade game, it might sound a little like this.

22. Garbage Man - What sounds like Muzak played over a belching dragon.

23. Twitch of the Panic Nerve - Even more crazy, chopped up sounds...and then what sounds like a UFO revving up for takeoff.

24. Snow Falling On Eyelashes - Equal parts gentle beauty and foreboding darkness, this 3 minute piece sounds like an unused Danny Elfman composition from "Edward Scissorhands", which is really cool. For some reason, reminds me of a snow globe.

25. Soy Bean Rights Activist - The sound of the atoms that make up your brain matter converging together at once and then imploding into nothingness. After 12 seconds, the chaos subsides...and it's over.

So yeah, Scissor Palace is as brilliant as it is completely random. If you weren't compelled to listen along as you read the track-by-track breakdown, I'm not so sure I want to know you. Anyway, this is definitely not the sort of music you'd want to play for your grandmother, unless she did a lot of weird experimental drugs in the early 60's. Grandmothers ARE getting weirder, I suppose...

Personally, I had a great deal of fun listening to JANG's album. It feels a hell of a lot shorter than it really is, probably because it hops around so much and always keeps you guessing. This is definitely one that gets better (and weirder) with each listen, especially if you remember to shuffle the track list. Keep and eye on JANG, friends...and if you do like what you hear, be sure to check out his other albums, they're all refreshingly ambitious. -Matt

The Myonics "Digits"

Buy or listen to Digits

I've been away from this blog for a while. Writing about music is hard. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a fucking liar who probably just wants to get into your pants. It's easy to be suckered in by a fancy writer, I admit. My undergarments have been breached many a time by the alluring words of music journalists. But how do you write about music, really? Analogies and metaphors get thrown around, but it's damn near impossible to accurately describe MUSIC (or most art, really) on a basic, straightforward level that any human can appreciate.

So here's Digits, the newest EP from our Bay Area buddies The Myonics. How the hell do you describe them? What do you call this music anyway? Words fail. You just want to shut your brain off and enjoy it.

Here are a few words that DO spring to mind: Rocking. Fun. Weird. Catchy. Unique. Genuinely-interesting-and-well-written-songs-played-with-ferocity-and-conviction. OK, so that last word might be a bit much to digest. But read it again and again, until you're curious enough to visit The Myonics' Bandcamp page and pay the $1 (mandatory) donation for this 13-minute masterwork. Or, if you're a starving artist/cheapskate/horrible person like me, you can just stream the damned thing for free. Shhh!

The Myonics (at least the members I've met) are all stand up people with the best of intentions who only want to play some awesome music...for you! Why won't you just shut up and listen? WHY, DAMN IT, WHY?!?!? If the $1 fee turns you off, remember that these people are all human beings too, and they all have their own needs. Singer/guitarist/songwriter Jasper Leach desperately needs to raise funds for a bone marrow transplant. Quonnie Kim needs new special shoes for her amputated stump legs. Tom Meagher's grandmother is being held hostage for ransom. Drummer Brian Davy needs a life-saving haircut. Please, your donation CAN make a difference!

In short, Digits is an adventurous, eclectic little EP that deserves your full attention...RIGHT NOW! -Matt

The Myonics "O Africa, Brave Africa!"

Download The Myonics - O Africa, Brave Africa!

When listening to The Myonics on my laptop one evening, I was overcome with the urge to write to songwriter/bandleader Jasper Leach (also formerly of Symbolick Jews) and ask "Have I ever told you how much your voice sounds like John Linnell?" Annoyed, I can only assume, he said "Yeah, you've mentioned that a couple times before".

However, the comparisons between Oakland's The Myonics and Brooklyn's They Might Be Giants end here. Perhaps it's something about familiarity? O Africa, Brave Africa! is, at once, one of the most familiar albums you'll hear this year, as well as one of the freshest.

Musically, The Myonics are a bit scatterbrained here...but in this case, it works really well! The album begins with a slow, growling prelude of sorts with "Cloud Is Lifted", featuring a beautiful melody over minimalist instrumentation (in this case, a lone guitar and viola). "Sweatshop" is a fun, rollicking number that reminds me a bit of Gibby Haynes' solo stuff. "Visibly Wasted" is loud, violent and reckless...the kind of song I'm always hoping doesn't come up next on my iPod playlist when I'm trying to go to sleep.

Then we get to "Matter", which is one of my favorite songs anybody has ever written. Here, Leach's songwriting creeps eerily close to Linnell's, particularly in the song's bridge. This song encapsulates everything that was cool about 90's alternative riff-rock. "Public Death", one of the later tracks, is another great one. It starts with driving guitars and fist-pumping chants from the band...and then everything falls apart in perfect unison, like an old truck falling apart as it drives down the highway. Highly effective musical imagery, whether it was intentional or not.

The Myonics are apparently starting to get some good press, and they put on a really fun show, so don't miss a chance to see them (when I saw them they had two great drummers). Definitely a band to keep an eye on these next couple years...but don't take my word for it. (Apologies to LeVar Burton.) -Matt

Listen to "Matter"