"The Adventure" Review
Well, here comes the blog again. We'll see how long I last.
Review: Angels & Airwaves (aka AVA) is former blink-182 front man Tom DeLonge's new band. The band was created by DeLonge (who I feel was by far the weakest member of blink) shortly after blink-182 had its widely publicized breakup last summer. Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker broke off an created their own band called Plus-44. A word, a hyphen, and a number - cute.
DeLonge is not the lone castaway in the group, however. Former Boxcar Racer guitarist Hazen Street (possible relation to Huston? This may need to be researched), former Distillers bassist Ryan Sinn, and current (not to be confused with the castaways) Offspring drummer Atom Willard finish out a highly recognizable group of punk all-stars.
The band's new album "We Don't Need to Whisper" is based upon the autobiographical movie DeLonge wrote entitled "Angels & Airwaves" (www.angelsandairwaves.com), which describes the band's journey from failure and anguish to "adventure" and potential. The trailer for the movie, available on their website, gives viewers a look into the future of DeLonge's film career: short and painful.
The narration he provides with the preview of the analogic autobiography of the band, reads like a 10th grader's AIM profile.
"Do you believe that everything happens for a reason? When you close your eyes, do you see the future? And if you could escape from your past, would you be ready for the next adventure?"
As painful as it sounds, the band makes up for a lot of this fluff, backing it with a new powerful sound that far exceeds their days of their frat party music polluted albumes, and ditches the repetition of high tempo everything. DeLonge describes the new sound to have hints of U2 and Pink Floyd throughout the album. I wouldn't give him so much credit as to say there are any strong resemblances to the two classic powerhouses, but it's relatively audible in some places.
The guitar buildups in the introduction of "The Adventure", along with echoing guitar riffs scream the glory days of U2 when they used to create songs with great feeling and depth circa "The Streets With No Name".
The flavor of Pink Floyd is slight and superficial at best. The occasional sound effects in the new single, sounding like pipes crashing together, may come across as Pink Floyd-sounding, but ultimately do not add anything to the abstract storytelling like a "Dark Side of the Moon" would. DeLonge may want to rephrase his claim and tell the fans that it has a hint of an 80's band who enjoys S&M and playing concerts in boiler rooms - you know who I'm talking about.
All in all, the band's effort not only gives the listeners a sense of hope in our homogenous market of upbeat punk that has become a standard of "rock", but also the rest of "rock" musicians. Yes, the term "rock" is a highly generalized genre, but so many fall victim to visions of TRL, tits, and money - who wouldnt? - and create a popular product, even if it turns a band from Good Charlotte into Bad Charlotte (I'm not so sure they were ever good, but they had their own sound at one point, as well as their souls). The group creates the hope that you can eventually pursue your deepest, most instinctual expression of music. Well, after you've done Spring Break w/TRL, sold out, made the money, and then have the power to tell your record producer that you can do whatever you want now.
AVA makes a giant bound forward with their careers in this new album. The album is due May 23.
The Adventure *** (out of four)
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The Adventure
posted by Taye Povs at 2:12 PM
1 Comments:
Great post. The route that DeLonge has taken over the past ten years is very similar to what Van Morrison experienced in the late 60's-early 70's. He signed with Bang Records in the US in early 1967 and was kept under strict guidelines during his first record by late-producer Lester Bangs. He scored his first big hit, "Brown Eyed Girl" that year and has continued to be known as the "B.E.G. Guy" by many music fans ever since. Little do many people know is that shortly after he scored his first big hit, he wrestled his way out of his contract and signed with Warner Brothers the following year under one term: He was in charge of writing his own music and producing it to his desire. Over the next five years, he enjoyed success with albums such as Moondance, Tupelo Honey, and St. Dominic's Preview. While Van continues to perform Brown Eyed Girl to this day, he doesn't enjoy a single second of it.
Why does he do this? He knows this is the one way to keep his loyal fans and the "Pop" fans tuned into his music. Believe it or not, during his current tour, he B.E.G inbetween a couple of country songs which were just released in his new country album. Yes, you read it correctly.... country.
That's the amazing part about many artists such as Van. While there were times when they didn't truly believe in the music they were performing, these artists knew that there would be a day when they could write their own music and re-invent themselves over and over. Let's hope that DeLonge with many other artists will continue to evolve and grow as musicians and human beings.
Hell, maybe we'll hear the members of Good Charlotte marching to a different beat someday...
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