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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | Stewart Mason <flamingo@theworld.com> |
| Subject | Re: Now that the ballots are cast... |
| Date | Mon, 19 Jan 2004 16:49:30 -0500 |
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At 11:16 AM 1/19/2004 -0500, *Bill Holmes* wrote:
>So - of you have the 2003 release by these bands, and you didn't post a
>descriptive paragraph in your TOP 20 list, how about a capsule review (or if
>you are a reviewer, a cut-and-paste or link to your assessment)?
>
>The Caesars
I just had the one, so:
Caesars
39 Minutes of Bliss (In An Otherwise Meaningless World)
Astralwerks
(www.astralwerks.com)
The US debut from Caesars (known as Caesars Palace in their native Sweden)
combines tracks from three previous Scandinavian releases, including the
snottily garage-rocking "I'm Gonna Kick You Out," a Farfisa-stoked Nuggets
wannabe that you might remember from that really irritating Smirnoff Ice
commercial where those assholes destroyed a laundromat by overloading all
the machines and then dancing in the suds. (Seriously, who was supposed to
pay to clean all that shit up?) Unpleasant advertising associations aside,
39 Minutes of Bliss is actually one of the most enjoyable garage-revival
releases to come down the pike so far. Singer Cesar Vidal has an appealing
whininess to his vocals (always a plus in this most adolescent of genres),
and keyboardist/guitarist Jocke Ahlund cannily mixes his Farfisa organ
attack with an unexpected electronic gloss that adds a freshness to a sound
that otherwise would be indistinguishable from countrymen like the Hives.
(The drone-rocking "Crackin' Up" sounds like Neu! gone garage-punk!) More
importantly, Vidal and Ahlund are smart, capable songwriters who know the
difference between "homage" and "rip-off," and they invest songs like the
ripely passive-aggressive opener "Sort It Out" with enough sly humor and
self-mocking wit to put them over. And hey, they cover the weird waltz-time
end section of Teddy and His Patches' wild-eyed "Suzy Creamcheese,"
stretching it out into its own bit of icy electronic psychedelia! What's
not to love?
S
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