The first time I came across the Smoking Popes was a few years ago. A friend played an acoustic bonus disc that had come with the new album by Australian rockers You Am I, titled The Temperance Union. The two bands had hooked up for a tour some time back and You Am I frontman Tim Rogers had penned a song honouring the spirit of that tour and his comrades on the road.
The aptly titled Smoking Popes was a great little track that documented two bands on tour who had clearly been drinking their fair share of red wine, if Rogers is to be believed.
Years later, I receive a DVD and CD combo titled At Metro (David Gresham). It seems the Popes disbanded a while back and this is a reunion gig. I must admit they are nothing like I expected, but I really dig them. It all seems so wrong, coming across a band that sound like Morrissey fronting early Green Day. It sounds bizarre, but they are just so tight — and the adoring Chicago audience is lapping it up. It’s a 23-song experience on the DVD and 19 on the CD.
Like sex in a public toilet, it’s unlikely to be great, but sure is a lot of fun.
ALSO ON THE SHELF
Cherish
Unappreciated (EMI)
Remember those all-girl American R&B super-groups of the 1990s — Allure, SWV, Jade, Excape and Envogue, to mention a few? Bet you had given in to the conventional premise that there would never emerge better R&B groups than those. Well, scrap that idea and brace yourself for the sweet melodies of new Chicago-based R&B group Cherish, whose 12-track debut album, Unappreciated, deserves a place on anybody’s CD shelf. The well-synchronised moody love songs in this album are just what you need to take you back to the days of the all-girl R&B groups. Yes, Cherish sound familiar; you can’t help feeling as though you heard the songs somewhere before, but despite comparisons to past all-girl groups, Cherish are unique in the sense that they give an old jingle a catchy New Age cadence. The groovy opening track That Boi and the sweet, slightly a cappella Moment in Time are reason enough to appreciate Cherish. — Monako Dibetle
Hoobastank
Every Man for Himself (Universal)
There’s a hard edge to Hoobastank, but they’re easy on the ear — and new album Every Man for Himself is true to form. Their third album highlights the ease with which the band seem to perform and features some interesting guitar riffs (Inside of You sounds almost orchestral and Look Where We Are will lodge itself firmly in your mind). The tempo changes from track to track, keeping your attention throughout the album. This is no mean feat, as Hoobastank have turned their back on current trends and included some lengthy tracks — album closer More Than a Memory runs to seven minutes in true Pink Floyd style. Most interesting is the way the vocals seem to have been built into each song as an instrument would, not simply arranged over the top. This is the secret ingredient that makes this good album great. (It includes videos for If I Were You and Born to Lead.) — Kelly Fletcher
The John Butler Trio
Sunrise over the Sea (Gallo)
What if I were a dreadlocked earth warrior? What if I were really into blues roots music about saving the planet, kind of like the Woody Guthrie for the Greenpeace generation? What if I were born in a forest and hung dream catchers in my room? What if my CD collection consisted of Ben Harper, Jack Johnson and Dave Matthews albums? Well, then I’d probably love this new record from Western Australia’s own John Butler. Get out your leather sandals and your incense, it’s party time in the tee-pee village. — Lloyd Gedye
Peaches
Impeach My Bush (Just Music)
Peaches is at it again and it sounds like she is having a ball. From opener Fuck or Kill, you are introduced to the potty-mouth subversive world of Peaches, punk-rocker and electroclash diva. Her new album, Impeach My Bush (not just a clever name), sees Peaches spewing her usual pornographic lyrics over some edgy rock riffs and minimalist, Eighties-styled beats. With song titles like Tent in Your Pants, Slippery Dick and Stick It to the Pimp it is clear she has not veered from her tried-and-tested formula, which is best displayed on Two Guys for Every Girl, where she proclaims: “I wanna see you boys get down with each other, I wanna see you do your lil’ nasty brother, just one thing I can’t compromise, I wanna see you work it guy on guy.” The album features guest performances by Joan Jett, Leslie Feist and Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme. — Lloyd Gedye
Pharrell
In My Mind (EMI)
Pharrell Williams, of The Neptunes, can craft revisionist R&B and hip-hop at will, but the problem is that it is usually within a straitjacketed pop context. I often wonder about the sonic possibilities we could be treated to if “Skateboard P” dared to venture beyond tinkerbell keyboards, marching-band drums and Michael Jackson impersonations. Sadly, on this, his debut solo album, he doesn’t shed his skin. He remains narcissistic, content to make music for aspirational suburban kids who won’t grow up. Songs such as Raspy Shit, where he spits game on an unruly bird, feature lyrics like: “Ma the way you huggin on me is a problem/ What the fuck, you tryin’ to end up in the gossip column/ I know I got jewels like I’m the pharaoh of the ghetto/ But we are in the bright ass shiny Carrera.” The flipside is that if the DJ played this at midnight at your run-of-the-mill uptown club, it would be one of the more decent songs he had played all night. The point being: throw this on when entertaining the young kids that Pharrell and Jay claim to have fallen for elsewhere on the album. — Kwanele Sosibo
Slayer
Christ Illusion (Gallo)
I made the incredibly dumb move of mentioning that I used to listen to Slayer. Big mistake. Now I have to review their new album, and in order to do so I had to do the unthinkable — listen to it. Too much has changed in the interim for me to review a trash-metal album. When I used to listen to Slayer I was intensely angry, acned and hormonal. My brief flirtation with the band, and this sort of metal in general, lasted about four months and one Slayer album (Divine Intervention). Slayer’s entire fan base, in fact, probably consist of teenagers in this extremely awkward phase of development. Then, the anger wears off, the Slayer albums gather dust and the band have to wait for the next generation of children to start going through puberty before they can sell albums again.
Somehow I get the feeling that Slayer is against religion. Perhaps it’s lines such as “Religion is hate, religion is war, religion is rape, religion is obscene” that give me this idea. This album is, in fact, almost entirely comprised of variations on the theme “religion sucks”. Occasionally, they attempt to get political, on songs such as Jihad, though what point they’re trying to make is anyone’s guess. Do not waste your money on Christ Illusion. Rather, wait until your neighbour is using an angle grinder and then bash your head into a brick wall several times while someone scrapes their nails across a large blackboard. I promise that this will have the same effect on your psyche. — Daniel Friedman