As an introduction to The Target’s “Matter of Time” music video, the band sits in a room and plays an acoustic teaser of the song you are about to hear. It’s a raw moment where the 3-piece UK rock band discusses the meaning of “Matter of Time.” If you work at something long enough and set it out as your ultimate goal, it will only be a matter of time until you make it. If you have to root for one band to make it in this difficult musical climate, might I suggest targeting The Targets.
Formed nine years ago when the band members were 12, The Targets have already become veterans of the road, having toured North America four times and the UK more than the Queen. They have developed a strong Toronto fan base, and it is now time to take their music across the pond and through the border into the United States. The band plays an infectious brand of feel-good rock n’ roll infused with foot-tapping punk riffs, angsty lyric, and, with “Matter of Time,” anthemic keys. It’s fast-paced, rapid-fire music that hits you hard quickly and leaves you with a good taste in your mouth…and ears.
The Targets released their debut EP, These Grey Times, in March 2010 and released their second EP, The Toronto Tapes, in April 2011. They are in the process of creating a full-length. Let’s take a listen to “Let Me In” off of The Toronto Tapes.
The song is carried by excellent percussion mixed with a repetitive riff that plays off of the level vocal. The chorus transitions into some individual notes, but the speed of the song is kept, and it persists throughout the song. I enjoy the song’s refreshing pace and candor. It knows what it is – a rock n’ roll driver – and doesn’t attempt to change it.
“Matter of Time,” though, is certainly my favorite from the band. It is inventive, and demonstrates the growth of the band.
Let’s stick with the first 30 seconds of the song. The key-work is excellent. The satiating harmonies and acoustic rhythm fit so well in front of the keys that you are almost forced to smile. The song moves beyond your typical rock. Traditional rock is fine. Don’t construe this as suggesting differently. But “Matter of Time” is an example of The Targets taking the genre and bending it. It is not so much Indie, though, only providing a taste of the genre to fit into their tight piece. What is it? It is maturation. It is a band hitting their stride. This is the type of song that anchors an album. It is their best song to date, and a good indication of things to come. The band adds layers as the song continues, providing the listener with some electric guitar and more vocals. The mid-song breakdown is refreshing and a nice change of pace. It’s a solid piece, and I hope it’s just a matter of time before it sticks.
The Music Court is looking for passionate music writers! This is an exciting opportunity to become involved with a well-read blog that posts passionate content about a variety of music. The blog does not have any bounds. We do not focus solely on Eastern Polka music (but if you’d like to write a special section on it, go right ahead).
I am looking for 1-2 writers to write 1-2 posts a week (400-1000 words). Like I said, these posts can be on any genre of music. I just ask that the writer is ardent about their subject. Never posted on WordPress before? I have written instructions that I can send you that will teach you how to write a post, post a picture, publicize the post, etc.
If you, or a friend of yours, may be interested in this opportunity, e-mail musiccourt@gmail.com a short bio about yourself and tell me what’s your favorite band and why. This is a great opportunity for budding music journalists to gain a large collection of clips from a reputable site. I’m looking forward to hearing back from you!
Despite what their website – www.inthewhalesucks.com – implies, In The Whale does not suck. Quite on the contrary, the band’s aggressive blend of blues is loud but refreshing, a great example of a band that knows how and when to rock. The answer to that question is all the time. In The Whale, a Denver-based rock group, released their first EP Cake in January of 2012, and since then they have spent time rambunctiously touring the album. The four-track album features heavy blues riffs mixed with punk elements that, at times, ventures into the Indie scene. The music is heavy and exciting. It also is melodic and catchy. It’s certainly a good combination.
“Woman” is a good example of what I was just talking about. My favorite on the album, this hard-hitting piece is slow head-banger. It pairs booming drums played effectively and recklessly by Eric Riley with a dirty riff (dirty in a good way) by Nate Valdez and Joey Barba, combined with a driving and noticeable bass manned by Tyler Rima. The verse is a raw blend of muted guitar and an edgy bluesy voice that forms harmony over heavy fills and riffs. It’s like Guess Who meets heavy metal. There is also a damn organ which shoots the song back into the early 70s temporarily.
“Heels,” which accurately follows “Woman” initially plays more like a 90’s metal song, with fast rhythm and organized vocals. The riff, like “Woman” is gritty. The chorus hits quickly with effective melodies. The fill featuring hand claps followed by the song’s solo which manipulates the rhythm is awesome. Actually sounds Judas Priest like. Great job, In The Whale.
What happens when you combine Americana beats with troubadour inclinations, take the intriguing combination to the warm, mountainous highlands of Honduras, and base lyrics off of historical narratives that you just happen to be teaching to children in the country. Well, much in line with the album cover above, you get this odd mixture of brush strokes and colors that form a piece of artwork, both delicate and brusque, almost Hemingway-esque.
The Blind Window is led by multi-instrumentalist Brian Katz, a semi-finalist in the 2011 International Songwriting Competition, who created this blend of inspired music while working as a history teacher in Honduras from 2010-2012. In his surroundings, he found enough isolation to devote time to developing his craft. In his subject, he found ideas that he molded into songs of pain, expired youth, and loss.
His music is endearing. It mixes the midwestern Americana branded by Tom Petty and Neil Young with modern Dylan-inspired folk created by bands like Fleet Foxes.
San Pedro Sula Sessions is The Blind Window’s first EP. Released in mid-July, the album is being toured in the Toronto area. I want to target two tracks that I think you all will like, both of which (like the entire EP) are available for free download at The Blind Window’s Bandcamp.
In order to understand the lyric of “William Walker” it is first important to understand who Mr. Walker was. Let me brush up a bit on my history, and, Mr. Katz may need to help me a bit. Walker was a filibuster (idea of conquering Latin American land and creating new slave states to join the Union) who became president of the Republic of Nicaragua in the mid-19th century. He ruled until he was defeated by a coalition of Central American armies, and was executed by Honduras in 1860. Ah, so now the lyric, “Shot at the firing wall by Honduran guns,” makes sense. The song’s introduction combines a staccato acoustic rhythm with synth. It would be a disservice to just say it’s Indie. I catch a noticeable scent of modern Mountain Goats. The band layers elements before the vocals begin.
Katz’s vocal is certainly Neil Young-like. His voice can get up there and it rises in the verse skillfully and melodically. I absolutely love this crescendo. He possesses a vocal talent much like some of the better folk artists, and this elevates the music to an excellent level.
Now, with William Walker’s history in your mind, read the lyrics of the piece. In a small frame, Katz speaks on Walker’s last days, reminiscent and nostalgic. And, there are gem-lines like, “When I am freed, from this penitentiary, I will reach, my divine finality.”
“Lost Between the Lines,” begins with soft ahs much like Iron and Wine’s “God Made the Automobile.” This continues and rises over a guitar riff until it fades into a perfect harmonica. Gosh, Katz’s voice really does remind me of Neil Young. Sorry for repeating it, but I really think he has a similar voice. The song moves at a great pace, the harmonica fill my favorite portion. It is not difficult to recognize the talent of The Blind Window, and I look forward to hearing about them more soon.
Let’s start this post off on a positive note. There are a lot of good cover songs out there. The formula for creating a good cover song is simple. Take the original song, transform it minimally, and voila, recycled music. If you look at some of the greatest covers ever, you come up with a list of artists who covered other artists within the realm of a similar genre. There are certainly exceptions to the rule, but with said exceptions the cover artist is usually quite talented (i.e. Johnny Cash covering NIN’s “Hurt”) and the song itself can be stripped to its bare bones and sound good (i.e. Johnny Cash covering NIN’s “Hurt”). Or, on the other hand, a song already bare, with let’s say solo acoustic backing, can be spruced up a bit and made into a fuller, more extraordinary piece (i.e. “All Along the Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix, from Bob Dylan).
With covers, though, one thing generally remains essential. The performer covering the song is not only talented, but also a multi-faceted artist. One-trick ponies perform miserable covers. So, when, for example, a screechy rock band covers a folk artist (see below) or a voluptuous country star covers a rock band (Dolly Parton doing “Stairway to Heaven”), things can go bad. And like spoiled milk, when a cover goes bad, it’s really bad.
And, despite the fact that most bands have been guilty of it (see song two sentences ago), we are not talking about musicians who steal music and rearrange it because of creative laziness, musical greed, or unconscious “My Sweet Lord” moments (sorry George). That’s not a cover. That’s theft.
With this all in mind, I am going to provide you with five examples of vomit-inducing music covers, and I want you to tell me what is the worst cover of all time. Are there other awful covers? Yes. Many. Including some truly miserable Miley Cyrus “inspiration” covers that includes one of “Smells like Teen Spirit” which is mind-blowingly terrible, but I am going to let that sit there and age a bit before we conclude whether that was just a bad joke. If you like a cover song on this list, I apologize for verbally defecating on a song you enjoy. This is clearly just my (and many other’s) opinion. But I urge you, tell me why the cover is good. Seriously, because I think it is awful and destroys the original. A full list of the songs with some unflattering descriptions is below the poll jump. Read and vote! What’s the worst?
Britney Spears (The Rolling Stones) – “Satisfaction”
You know, for the first 30 seconds of the song it isn’t that bad. Remember, we are talking historically bad here so not that bad is still awful. There just isn’t much there. In a way, it seems like she is going to turn the song into one of her modern-day libidinous sex-slave pieces that paint her out like she is a voracious nymphomaniac. And then the song passes the 30 second mark and, well, listen. Why? Britney? Why? Did Mick Jagger insult you? The cover eliminates Keith Richards’ uber-famous riff and turns the famous rock song into a pop debacle that is not even good for Britney Spears standards. Have you stopped listening yet? The song somehow is more than four minutes long. I’ll never know how it ends.
Madonna (Don McLean) – “American Pie”
Madonna and Don McLean go together like Cheerios and jalapeno peppers – they don’t – yet the pop diva with the hilariously fake British accent decided to take on this American classic. By take on, I mean burn. In a similar manner to Spears’ awful cover of “Satisfaction,” Madonna’s “American Pie” starts off decently, with only a slight echo effect on her voice. And then, what the hell is that synth. Look, I totally understand changing up a song, and you don’t have to sit down with only an acoustic guitar and bang out the entire hit, but a synth only makes a song that deserves so much more sound like an 80’s sunshine track mixed with creepy Eiffel 65-like echoes and monotone Madonna plugging away at only one damn verse and the beginning and ending. I guess we should be thanking the Kabbalah that she didn’t record anymore of this washed-down piece of a junk cover.
Limp Bizkit (The Who) – “Behind Blue Eyes”
This one is more difficult to hate on at first, because Limp Bizkit doesn’t ruin it until later. The song is one of the Who’s most raw works, and the initial shock that Limp Bizkit, who, if you remember correctly, told us to shove a cookie up our collective yeah, would actually cover a serious song is odd enough. But initially the song is quite stripped down and actually halfway okay. It’s not a great cover. The vocals are nothing special. Vocal effects make it sound better, but, hey, everyone does that now’a’days. And then 2:30 comes along and you just shake your head at what the hell the band was thinking when they decided to put a robotic voice over an eerie whistle. They actually destroyed their already pretty bad cover.
Guns N’ Roses (Bob Dylan) – “Knockin on Heaven’s Door”
Guns N’ Roses’ cover of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin on Heaven’s Door” comes to us with more than eight million views on YouTube and more than 30,000 likes. Statistics like that make me question my faith in our population of music listeners. I’ve talked about why Guns N’ Roses’ cover of Dylan is overproduced garbage in the past. Allow me to copy and paste my thoughts on this from an article I wrote that you can view here.
“In 1987, the prototypical hair metal band decided they would start using it in their live sets. The song was then poisoned by the melodramatic, hyperbolic fingers of Axl Rose and a song loved for its downtrodden seriousness became the toy of unnecessary and cocky bedizenment. Guns & Roses destroyed a perfectly good song. Rose’s horrendous voice is so drawn out and fake it kills the song’s wonderment. “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” is somber. Guns & Roses’ version is an arena rock hugger-mugger that is vomit inducing.”
Shakira (AC/DC) – “Back in Black”
Shakira’s “Back in Black” is one of the worst things I’ve ever heard. There, I said it. She gyrates her way to an over-indulgent, incomprehensible, sheep-like, faux-jazz to power rock anthemic version of AC/DC’s hit. Now, don’t get me wrong, AC/DC was every bit difficult to understand, but their rock saturated original is purposeful. Shakira sounds like she just took seven shots and got up on a stand-up table at a bar/grill to sing and dance without music while her poor friends stare on in pain. Well, there goes Shakira again – someone should probably tell her to stop stepping on the nachos. And every time she sings black she sounds like a lamb out to slaughter. Stop it. Stop putting on the fake quiver in your voice. Your vibrato sounds like a farm animal. If she is back in black, I want to be as far away from her as humanly possible.
Have any other horrible covers in mind? Let us know about them in the comment section!
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