The Hold Steady Has Teeth Dreams

Maybe the best thing about Teeth Dreams by The Hold Steady isn't master storyteller Craig Finn kicking out middle-aged narratives about reuniting with old friends and looking back. Maybe it's the band's next evolution with the addition of Steve Selvidge, giving The Hold Steady a third guitar and a reimagined sound much different than when it included Frank Niolay on keys.

Indeed, Teeth Dreams has only little bits in common with the band's pre-hiatus work that led up to the musically sharp but relatively weak lyrics on Heaven Is Whenever (2010). And most notable about the change they seem to have undergone is that what used to be alternative with punk leanings now feels like band-backed blue collar rock and roll. The Springsteen influences are now hugely obvious.

He's not the only influence, mind you. The production work of Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Alice In Chains, Rush) at Rock Falcon Studios in Franklin, Tennessee, is all over the album too. It makes the whole affair more accessible than anything the band has tried in the past, while also giving up more room for Finn to carve out some details that have always brought out the best of his work. 

Teeth Dreams is a melodramatic return and reinvention. 

When you add it all up, the reason Teeth Dreams really works as an album is because Finn really does make it feel like he has gone back to the Minnesota that he loves to source for stories. But in doing so, he and the band forward the idea that he is a different man than the one who left it all behind. 

So as much as a landscape we leave makes us who we are, so do the experiences we have in its absence, making any return to it less of a homecoming and more of a reconciliation as a stranger among the familiar. Much of Teeth Dreams feels like that. It's a stranger among the familiar, opening with I Hope The Whole Thing Didn't Frighten You. 

Frighten You has exactly the kind of lyrics one would expect from Finn looking back with one foot in the past and one in the present. It's a song about old friends who haven't changed so much and yet it still frightens him to think you used to have something in common. Or, maybe more precisely, it might frighten anyone you bring along with you.

Spinners is another such story, almost like looking in on a friend or former lover. In this is one, his story centers on a girl who tries to forget her heartbreak by getting back out there and doing things. But the solution doesn't lead to resolution. Sometimes it just complicates everything even more.

The Only Thing is another breakup song, but with its focus on the reunion long afterward as opposed to the split. The track is striking because it draws out the awkwardness of seeing someone again when all you have left between each other are some memories. Lyrically, it is one of the more overlooked tracks on the album.

In contrast, the balladic The Ambassador is another reunion track that feels significantly more bittersweet despite being tied more to a location than a person. It might even be that absence of the people who used to frequent there is so haunting as a memory. It's like revisiting an old neighborhood and not knowing anyone who lives there anymore. 

Teeth Dreams By The Hold Steady Echoes 5.4 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

After these opening tracks, there are no particular high points but there are plenty of highlights. Big Cig attempts to elevate the album back to a rocker. Runner's High has some decent riffs slipped in by Selvidge. And Almost Everything gives the album an acoustic moment before Finn breaks into his desperately epic 9-minute song Oaks, which gives the album's conclusion a fadeout completion.

You can find Teeth Dreams by The Hold Steady on Amazon or download it from iTunes. Teeth Dreams by The Hold Steady vinyl edition can be sound on Barnes & Noble. For tour details, visit Facebook.

The Pretty Reckless Is Going To Hell

Four years ago, not everyone was convinced that Taylor Momsen could remake herself into a rock star despite a few riveting reviews of her debut. After she hit back, no one ever says that anymore. Now there are plenty of people who want to follow her down.

Despite its boring and unambiguous title, Going To Hell, and relatively explicit but not so erotic cover, The Pretty Reckless have put out a walloping new album for anyone who misses classic anthem rock. From the opening notes to the acoustic retreads that round the album up to 14 tracks, almost everything about this album feels like it could have been cast in the eighties. 

It's fully composed and throaty rock — the kind that many rock bands composed when they had "arrived" and could finally start turning out mature music. And Momsen, who has always come across as an old soul, clearly sees her 20s as the point where she has reached it in her music career. 

Going To Hell is wildly accessible rock, good but none too reckless. 

Although it feels like they've produced considerable more, Going To Hell is only a sophomore outing for The Pretty Reckless. Nonetheless, it will go down as an album fans love and critics question because it turns the burning recklessness of their early work into something much more polished and mainstream. 

Never mind the seriousness of grunge or heady confessionals of indie rock-pop, The Pretty Reckless are clearly aiming at a new generation of troubled teens in need of danceable rock stomps. If there is any other there, it's very clearly a Catholic guilt album that gives permission to give up and have fun. 

Follow Me Down is a heated sexual rebellion song that offers up a pretty blatant message. After nights and nights of putting off whatever was the source of her sexual tension, she gives in and finds out that all her trepidation was for naught. She's not only alive, but also finds sweetness in it. 

The track Going To Hell is equally blatant in its assessment. The riff-laden rocker has Momsen tell it straight. She accepts where she is going for everything she has done. And as it turns out, she is not the only one who thinks so. 

Heaven Knows is one of the best tracks on Going To Hell in that Momsen has never sounded better. She lays out the full range of her vocals with a blues-infused rocker that conveys a glimmer of sadness for everything that it going on in this album. 

Simply put, Heaven Knows is about those above already knowing we won't measure up. It makes them sad. But there is no way to stop it because they belong way down below anyway.

While those opening three are getting all the attention, it's the balladry of House On A Hill, melody of the sweetly short Dear Sister, and casual contemplation of Burn that really make this album. All three tracks demonstrate that Momsen is a serious talent who has only just begun to tap her depth. 

In contrast to some of those sleepers, Why'd You Bring A Shotgun To The Party and Fucked Up World really play to the epic level of commercialization Momsen needs to pay the bills. Those tracks are party rockers like the first three, along with Sweet Things, and will get plenty of play time. There is nothing wrong with that, except they tend to overshadow some of her more subtle contributions like  Waiting For A Friend. 

Going To Hell By The Pretty Reckless Smashes 6.3 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale. 

Fans of The Pretty Reckless will no doubt grow tired of reviews that don't give the same props Momsen received for her debut. There is no way around it. Going To Hell comes off over commercialized because it plays to the audience of popularity despite evidence that Momsen doesn't have to. 

Like most review sites, fans are driving up the ratings on music outlets. Going To Hell by The Pretty Reckless is entrenched with 4.5 stars on iTunes. On Amazon, Going to Hell - Deluxe Edition has received 5 stars. The Pretty Reckless can also be ordered as a CD on Barnes & Noble. See the band's  Facebook page for tour dates.

Norma Jean Does Right As Wrongdoers

Norma Jean is one of those metal bands that feels so much older than its history. Sixteen years is a long time, but it feels like more than 25 years with only Chris Day remaining from the original lineup. And yet, the band is experiencing its renaissance of sorts.

Wrongdoers is the first album to feature the new additions of Jeff Hickey (guitar), John Finnegan (bass), and Clayton "Goose" Holyoak (drums) alongside Day and near decade-long member Cory Brandan. But the change has made a dramatic difference in other ways too.

"We always try to take it to the next level," said Day. "This one is definitely a progression, but it's also fun because it's fast and kind of punk rock."

They accomplished it by going back to square one. Specifically, while Brandan and Day still write the songs, the newer band members made additions and, in some cases, help rewrite the songs to create an entirely new dynamic. Brandan has even said that they (him and Day) would have never thought of these new ideas that now influence the music.

As a summation, the album sounds like a mixture of Norma Jean that most people know but with enough new material to prove that the band has not only survived, but also thrived after several years of setbacks. It's clear that the band is working to usher in an entirely new era, one that separates it from the nostalgia of the first three albums and positions Meridional as a placeholder.

In other words, Wrongdoers is the new Norma Jean. And if the band holds the course, this will be the one that people will remember. The payoff is clearly in the finished product as the production was often described as a nightmare. The new energy and angst wasn't all voluntary. Some of it was forced.

"What we made definitely had its way with us," said Brandan. "We pushed ourselves to keep writing, scrapping songs time and time again; we knew it was not ready but remained hopeful that we'd find a way out."

They did. Through all the headache and heartbreak, Norma Jean has emerged with something better as a result. Sure, there will be people who still look back to the early albums, but it's difficult to deny that Wrongdoers is a badly needed break for the band. If this was a debut, they'd have center stage. The tease.



The track, a small piece from If You Got It At Five, You Got It At Fifty, bridges metal in just two minutes, with some trash and sludge tossed in for good measure. It's hard enough to pack a punch, making anyone who loves metal want to position themselves right in front of the concert speakers.

If You Got It At Five, You Got It At Fifty was also the song that the band opted to put up first as an audio track. You can take that in on YouTube even if I wish they would have broken out with Hive Minds. The deep pounding percussion in the background and guitar work in the foreground is compelling as much as it is foreboding. The onslaught of it is perfectly paced with Brandan at his best.

Other standout tracks that promise to bludgeon the senses include the beating The Lash Whistled Like A Singing Wind, the chug of The Potter Had No Hands, and the soaring In Mouth, Fire Eyes. While all 11 tracks, including the 50-second stopover in Afterhour Animals, make for a near perfect album, those three best represent the cohesive diversity that that Norma Jean has pulled together.

Wrongdoers By Norma Jean Knocks Out 9.4 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

The two other must hear tracks are Wrongdoers, which is an all together different kind of brilliant that even non-metal fans will want to put on their playlists, and Sun Dies, Blood Moon that moves through a 14-minute masterpiece. It not only anchors the album, but also ties this down as a band with more of a future ahead of it than a past behind it. At the very least, we can hope.

Wrongdoers by Norma Jean is available from Amazon. You can order the album from Barnes & Noble or download it from iTunes. Norma Jean has been touring aggressively this summer with  Dillinger Escape Plan as part of their Summer Slaughter Tour. For tour dates and information, check out their Facebook page.

Conley Saves The Day With Daybreak

Princeton's transformative alternative pop rockers Saves The Day have been around a long time. So why is it their sound still sounds new, fresh cut, like a band stretching its legs for the first time? Maybe because it's always been mostly Chris Conley's band and he's frequently swept away in change.

Only the ageless (but chameleon-like) Conley's vocals are left from the original lineup. The rest of the band now includes Arun Bali (guitar), Rodrigo Palma (bass) and Claudio Rivera (drums), all of whom joined in 2009 or later.  Even the label is new. Razor & Tie Direct signed them in March, delaying the original spring release date of Daybreak for September.

There isn't any bad blood between past members, not really. Many of them have dropped in and out to work on other projects, notably Mannuel Carrero and Durijah Lang (Glassjaw) or, more recently, longtime band member Spencer Peterson, who joined Black Cards. Another former member, David Soloway, still plays with Conley now and again via their super group side-project, Two Tongues.

Conley is still introspective but a little brighter on Daybreak.

Take the song 1984, for example. It's one of the better tracks on the album and Conley says the song is reflective on personal life and the world that have "kept you from being the person you want to be." But more than that, he says it's about finding strength in your heart to respond in a more positive way.

"We tried to keep our heads down and play as hard as we could," said Conley. "It really lets the song explode into the final chorus." 

Let It All Go carries a similar message. Conley wanted to reflect on how dwelling on the past can sometimes prevent you from being who you want to be. Some of this comes across loud and clear in the accompanying 20-minute documentary, a bonus for anyone purchasing the entire album.

Even the teaser captures the sometimes pained but always contemplative nature of Conley, especially on this album. As much as Sound The Alarm was one of my favorites of the three for its darker lyrics (but still no Stay What You Are), hearing Conley talk about his personal journey so candidly changed my perspective. I appreciate the final installment of a three-album concept more than a casual listen.



Admittedly, Daybreak is more pop than punk, but I think the louder arrangements are among the strongest songs. 1984, Deranged & Desperate, and Undress Me pack in more than other tracks.

The deluxe edition also has electric versions of Stay and Hold. The latter is the better of the two, but even that is almost too airy for my taste. You might find one or two you might like, but I'd also skip any track defined by a single letter.

And yet, even if many of the songs aren't on my heavier play list, there is no denying that Conley takes his work seriously, digging in deep to find his material. All of the music he created clearly affects him, making him an artist first and a commercial musician second. Isn't that what we hope all musicians do?

The new lineup isn't afraid of the past. They came ready to play.

I have to give kudos to the newer bandmates. They've been asked some straight up questions from fans, and have obviously put some thought into the answers. One of the pointed questions featured on their site basically asks Palma if he can fill the shoes vacated by Carrero.

After giving Carrero props, Palma admit that he won't deliver a "beefy" bass sound but he has lent some big, bold, out-of-bounds bass flavors. It's true. But more than talking about the sound, it also tells me Conley and crew are the right guys right now.

Of course, other questions aren't so tough. One person asked what redeeming qualities the band might find in the Star Wars prequels. Seriously? They're good sports. They answered, albeit anonymously. Asking them which shooter they like, on the other hand, drew out their resident expert.

Daybreak By Saves The Day Rings In At 4.8 on The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

Daybreak puts Conley back on track, convincing me that there is some more material left to be produced under the Saves The Day name. While it's too soon to tell which group of fans he will likely alienate more, there is no doubt Conley made the album he wanted to make, and after hearing him talk about it — it's clearly the album he needed to make.

Don't be surprised to see fans rate it all over the map. As an album, you have to expect it. As a collection of singles, some songs would fare better than the album as a whole. (BTW, check out the acoustic version of Let It All Go caught by Smart Punk too.)

Daybreak is available for download from iTunes; the deluxe edition includes the documentary. If you are just interested in the CD, Barnes & Noble carries it. You can also find Daybreak on Amazon. Before you get it, one final thought. People always talk about how Conley's voice has changed over the years. It has and hasn't. He can still deliver a tenor, but the alto feels right for him.