Cochlear Implant

Miike Snow
Miike Snow
(Downtown)
***

If you listen to the opening seconds of “Animal” from Sweden’s Miike Snow, you’d never guess it’s the work of the same production team behind some major players in the top-40 game. Well, the beatmakers behind Britney Spears’ “Toxic” have teamed up with an indie singer and they’ve made something (mildly) memorable on this self-titled disc. I was captivated by nearly every track on this disc right from the opening seconds and couldn’t wait to find out where they were headed. Unfortunately, they often headed pretty far afield — imagine a cross between Sigur Rós, an uninspired Coldplay, and a melancholy (and easily distracted) MGMT spinning the knobs. It’s all frustratingly elusive, but perhaps that elusiveness is what makes the album notable — if this same material were sung by your standard indie band, it’d hardly be would be worth the plastic the CD was made from. Miike Snow won’t stick in your head like a Britney Spears hit, but I guess the imagination that went into this album stands for something.

AFI
Crash Love
(Interscope)
***

Any band that almost single-handedly inspired legions of boys and girls to wear skinny jeans and mascara in the summertime deserves respect. (Of course, we were all making jokes behind their backs — the secret’s out!) A Fire Inside has undergone many mutations over the years, from whiny punk-rockers to whiny goths to chart-topping rock stars. So when I saw Davey Havok posing with a fauxhawk, I had to wonder what this new transformation involves. Turns out Crash Love is the same thing: new haircut, everything else the same. It’s got all of AFI’s signature ingredients: an unhealthy infatuation with darkness, incomprehensible lyrics that every youngster nevertheless relates to, and a flair for quiet build-ups and haunting chants and grumbles. “Medicate” starts off with Havok’s signature squeal before giving way to a classic AFI moan: “So I’ve come to find everyone goes away/I’m destined to remain/You were never mine, so you were perfect.” Thousands of kids feel your pain, Davey.

Strike While The Anvil Is Hot

The Canadian metal band’s two decades of struggle make their current success all the sweeter

It takes a special type of person to stay positive even as life hands them basketful after basketful of lemons. Some choose to wallow in the bitterness, while others make lemonade. And still others, like Steve “Lips” Kudlow, make heavy metal guitar solos.

Kudlow is the lead singer of pioneering Canadian metal band Anvil, whose hard-luck story — bad labels, mismanagement, disastrous tours — was told in last year’s much-beloved documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil. In the film, which has just been released on DVD, director (and former Anvil roadie) Sacha Gervasi affectionately portrays the efforts of Kudlow and his drummer/lifelong friend Robb Reiner to keep their band viable despite commercial indifference, lack of money, and encroaching middle age. Improbably, the film has revived interest in Anvil — if anything, they’re now more popular than ever, having recently appeared on Conan O’Brien and shot a scene in the upcoming blockbuster The Green Hornet.

Has success gone to their heads? Hardly — Kudlow, now 53, isn’t any different from the person he was when he began creating music with Anvil back in 1973. “I think our success is pretty unbelievable,” he says. “It’s a miraculous thing. The whole thing is a miracle — a life miracle. It’s quite amazing.... It’s sort of a remarkable thing because had it been any different anywhere along the way, none of it would have ever worked. I feel that [Anvil’s success] is somewhat justifiable, if you need to call it ‘success.’ I’ve put 36 years of my life towards Anvil. It’s not like I didn’t work for it. It’s not a feeling of deserving; it’s a celebration of years of work. I wanted Anvil to go where it went and it’s gone exactly to plan. I bet my life on it and I played the poker game and I won.”

It’s an interesting master plan: jeopardize your financial security, distance yourself from your supportive family, and risk everything you’ve ever known for a shot at doing something you love.

“There is a lot of history, depth and dedication to Anvil — a lot of things had to transpire for things to work,” Kudlow says. “I can’t think about giving up. This is a life endeavour. It’s not something I decided to just for the hell of it, just to see if I could. And since I was 10 years old, it was in my vision — I felt compelled to do this. Not because I want girls, not because I want money, but because I really love music and I really love to create music. That’s the root of all of it. I can’t quit. It’s my life, it’s my identity, and to walk away from that is not possible.”

Anvil’s recent success comes on the heels of their 13th album, This is Thirteen. Although it’s an old-fashioned heavy metal album recorded by a bunch of aged rockers, knowing their inspiring story gives the music an unusual power.

“Everybody has to understand that it’s not whether there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow as much as it is the journey there,” he says. “The enrichment that I’ve had of doing this for a lifetime — you can’t buy that for any price! When you are absolutely devoted and you love something or somebody, there’s no reason for that to end. It’s really a matter of ‘you know it when you know it.’ Some people are lucky enough and some people aren’t.”


Anvil! The Story of Anvil is currently available on DVD, and This Is Thirteen is in stores now.

Just a song, just because....





Happy Birthday, Mister Lennon

Disc Of The Week


Pearl Jam


Backspacer


(Monkeywrench)


****





We’ve all kind of accepted that Pearl Jam will never do a Ten again; long gone are the days when everyone went nuts waiting for Vs. wondering if it would be as classic. These days we actually find ourselves trying to avoid Eddie Vedder, but there he is, everywhere we turn. Having one of the most distinctive growls in rock will do that, I suppose. (Yes, Creed also has a new album coming out this month.) Although not their strongest album, Backspacer should silence those who feel the Pearl Jam story ended along with the grunge era. After nine releases, they’ve evolved into something different every time. Backspacer dabbles in a bit of everything in its short half-hour. “Gonna See My Friend” reminds one of a raw-power Stooges; “Just Breathe” feels like... well, an outtake from Vedder’s Into the Wild sessions; and “The End” shows how much Pearl Jam have matured over the years. It’s more than a decade since their heyday, but Pearl Jam never really went away.