Reviews of more bands you probably never heard of

[SineSwiper]

Team Sleep - I remember hearing this in the comic book store, and I had to ask who it was. For those that don't know, this was an experimental album/band led by Deftone's singer Chino Moreno. For the record, I do not like Deftones. I think the term "Tone Deaf" best fit their ironically named band. White Pony sucks. I've even seen them live, and they sounded like a blurred mess.

But, the first song caught my ear, so I tried the album. That song, Ataraxia, is really good. It's a great blend of his vocals put into the right context with good mixing that doesn't overdue it. It's the type of direction he should continue to follow. But he doesn't. Team Sleep is conflicted with its own identity. I suppose that's bound to happen with an experiment like this one, but after that one song, it doesn't know whether it's trying to be a rock band or a electronica band.

From their own elements alone, they are masters of neither. Granted, the rock-level songs seem a bit better than Deftones, but not enough to hold up the album, and the mixing on those efforts is so minimal (usually just some enhanced drum beats) that it souhds like a poor attempt to call it a hybrid. And the electronica-level songs, like Staring At The Queen, seem more like experimentation for the composer's sake, not the listener's. (King Diamond isn't bad, though.)

Not to say that it's a completely bad album. But, listening to the rest of the album just makes you wish that they could produce something like Ataraxia (or maybe 11-11) through out.

God Lives Underwater / Up Off the Floor - Always been a fan of GLU. My first concert was seeing them with Stabbing Westward at my home town, and they played great. I always thought that they had that perfect blend of a rock band with a mixer at the helm, and a unique vocalist (even if his voice is an acquired taste). Thus, I was delighted to notice that they had a follow-up to Life in the So-Called Space Age, about 5-6 years later. (Apparently, there was a huge contract/label problem, and the band basically broke up afterwords, but they were able to push through the final album years later.)

My opinion of the album is mixed. It's not Space Age or Empty (their first album). It's a different album, and it's not quite a favorable change. Granted, I like this album a lot better than the Team Sleep one.

Empty was kind of rough around the edges and underpolished. Space Age was just about perfect in its presentation. Up Off the Floor, though, is TOO polished. It's pop-ish and commercial. Ironic that Rick Rubin, who's career is deeply engrained in the popular MTV musicsphere, ended up producing the better mixing work on the first two albums than the new guy did on the third.

But, there's some good work here. I can't help but think there's some Stabbing Westward influence in songs like 1% and Slip to Fall, who (as I mentioned above) toured with GLU at the peak of both of their careers.

Overall, the album is still good, but just not as good as Space Age.