|
Album Review
I just recently picked
this one up at a Violet Burning show. Once I picked it up and
saw that it had some demo versions of songs off of my favorite release the
S/T disc.
I was excited to hear some more songs from that era. So in my head I already
had an idea
of what it all was going to sound like. To some extent I was right.
First off let me give you some history of where the songs all came from.
Distortion is
our Friend contains songs from the Lillian Gish – EP (1995)
and You Wouldn't Understand
Anyways – EP (1995) Those Ep 's were demo's for the self titled
release. The rest of the songs
that made it on to this one were left over from that session.
This album is chalk full of big guitars. The opening track "Dance of the
Whooping Llamas"
a left over from the S/T sessions is a perfect example of
that. It has a nice rawness to it.
The main guitar riff jumps out at you through out the song is really cool.
You can tell right
away that this song was written during the S/T era. "Crush"
is the next song. It's similar
to the regular version, but their are some quite noticeable differences
between the two. This
version starts out with a rolling bass line, and doesn't have the trippy
guitars in the intro
playing in the back ground. It's also missing the same stellar guitar solo.
And it's almost two
minutes shorter. But it's still a nice version of the song. They do a nice
take on Neil Young's
"Cinnamon Girl" they beef it up with some thick guitar. It was a
valiant effort but not as good
as Neil Young's. The version of "The Sun and the Sky" is over a
minute longer and has some
quite noticeably different arrangements. I can't decide which version I like
better.
My favorite track on the whole disc is "Diane and Edward the Giant"
it's a song from the
Lillian Gish Ep. The guitars are really rocking on this song.
Michael really lets us have it with
his constant screaming through out. It's an emotional song about a lost
love, well that's my
interpretation. He sings "I'm lost without you, lost without you"
towards the end of song. It
plays off of the guitars really well. "Hovercraft" is the one song
I'm not to fond of. It's
really a pretty decent song. But for some odd reason it kind of bugs me.
Maybe it's because I
feel like it's a lazy song. Like they didn't put as much effort into writing
it as they did with
the others. One of the very last tracks is an acoustic version of
"Goldmine" recorded at 3 a.m.
in Los Angeles during S/T sessions. It's a very beautiful take
on the original version. Easily
one of the highlights.
This rare disc is just like it's brother the S/T release. It's also
full of emotion and personal
reflection. If you are a big fan of the S/T and always wished they
would have released
more albums like that one. Then you need to go to
www.violetburning.com and purchase it. It's
not nearly as good but it's definitely has some worth while songs on it. If
you haven't heard
either, I suggest you start with the S/T, also
known to some as Lipstick and Dynamite Wonder.
~
Anthony P. Hanna
The
Violet Burning
(homepage)
|
Home | |
