By nobody
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Thursday April 10, 2003
Ms. Dynamite
A Little Deeper
Ms. Dynamite is a 22-year-old R&B rap crooner from Great Britain who could flip the script on what it means to be a black woman in the music industry today. She's like a cross between Lauryn Hill, India Arie and Mary J. Blige, except she seems a little more accessible and authentic than all of the above right now.
Sample a lyric from "It Takes More": "Don't you know there there's no such thing as superstars/We leave this world alone/So who gives a f*ck about the things you own."
Her utilization of conscious lyrics is a welcome change. The hip-hop culture, from which this material is no doubt derived (garage beats), desperately needs a shot in the arm right now.
Dynamite constantly talks about self-respect and demanding it from others. She almost resembles a · umm, hem · hip-hop role model. This stands in sharp contrast with popular black female hip-hop artists like Lil' Kim, who mainly bring to mind rapping versions of porn star Jenna Jameson.
Even though she's been a huge success in Britain, winning the prestigious Mercury Music Prize (a songwriting award) for best 2002 album and then donating her $30,000 award to charity, American hip-hop buyers seem to shy away from imported artists. Perhaps they are perceived as less authentic because most listeners know nothing about the country. If Dynamite falls on deaf ears on this side of the pond, however, it's strictly our loss, not hers.
-Kevin Smith
Green Rode Shotgun
Bang
The enthusiasm that comes with a first album is a great thing.
The pressure that a band has to improve on the previous product is missing. If the sales aren't gigantic, it's okay, because it's their first time out.
First albums are supposed to be what being in a band is all about ÷ having fun and jamming with your friends.
Ideals aside, this is rarely the case. Bands feel the most pressure putting together their first album. They are plagued with questions that can ruin lesser bands. What should be the first single released? Which songs should go on the album? A myriad of other questions can interfere with the experience.
Listening to Bang, the debut album from Green Rode Shotgun, one might expect to hear the nervousness of a first album come out in both the music and lyrics. What you hear, though, is a band that understands what being in a band is supposed to be about.
They are having fun.
Fans of "serious" rock ÷ you know, the ones who know every word to John Mayer and David Gray ÷ may dismiss Bang as trivial and juvenile. But who cares what they think, anyway, right?
You are not going to get the meaning of life from songs like "Sideburn" and "All the Same." What you are going to get is good, lighthearted music that you can and will enjoy.
After this album, Green Rode Shotgun may start to feel the pressure to come out with something a little more serious, more adult.
We'll let the "serious" rock fans worry about that.
-Paul Iiams
Vonray
Vonray
Successful bands inevitably take bits and pieces of the past and weave them into a tapestry of familiar, and at the same time unique, music.
Elvis Presley's style borrowed heavily from soul and blues music. Today's punk bands borrow heavily from the pioneers like the Sex Pistols and the Clash. There was even probably an early cave musician that heard Og bang a rock and thought, "Sound good. Me do too!"
Vonray also participates in this age-old practice, but what they chose to emulate makes nearly no sense at all.
You remember '80s hair rock, don't you? To soften their "hard rock" image, these ozone-depleting rockers would throw in a ballad. Sure, it would still have guitar riffs, but man, would it have soul. Vonray takes this love of the ballad to a new level. They don't have one ballad, or two; they have an entire album.
It sounds funny ÷ not funny ha-ha, but funny in a manic-depressive sort of way ÷ but the ballad seems to suit Vonray quite well. Looking at the back of the album cover, the band just oozes cheesy love songs. These guys are way too pretty to be rock stars. If the lead singer of Vonray sounded any more tortured, it would be a war crime.
The one positive about this annoyance of an album is that Vonray has found a sound they think will work and has stuck with it. And by stuck with it, I mean never varied from the formula even a little.
It's too bad. I would have given Vonray a better grade, but my fingers got too burned from holding the lighter above my head.
-Paul Iiams
Vells
Vells
It's Vells! Not The Vells! Just Vells, OK? This is a band from Seattle, distributed by Luckyhorse Industries, that sounds like it stepped into '03 out of some '60s psychedelic time portal. This music conjures up memories of '80s Saturday-morning cartoon theme music, such as watching "Banana Splits" reruns through a view-warping kaleidoscope.
Their sound is very spacey, very stony and very breezy. It's kind of like the Super Furry Animals, without the electronic contributions.
Vells is composed of current and past members of Modest Mouse, Red Stars Theory, Stagger Lee and The Blessed Light. One could swear a woman is singing on some of the tracks, especially on "Starlights Our Way." This isn't a bad thing, but it makes you want to check a press photo for confirmation. Hey, it worked for Rush.
The only problem with this six-song EP, however, is that it's a six-song EP. Usually, that means it's only a small fragment of what this band is capable of.
If Vells gets its act together and releases a proper album, maybe Saturday morning cartoon music will have a new champion.
-Kevin Smith
