Collapsing Lungs - 'Colorblind' (Atlantic)
932512
Okay, as it turns out, this five-song CD isn't as bad as I expected. I mean I come across this EP, extended single, WHATEVER it actually is and took the time to listen to it. Collapsing Lungs seem to combine some rap with industrial-techno and metal. 'Colorblind' is, as it turns out quite tolerable. Track listing is "Crackerjack" (4:22), "Let's Play A Game" (2:57), "Bang!" (4:09), the anti-racism "Too Blind To See" (5:01) and "Down For The Count" (2:47) .This EP appears to be the band's sole release. Oh, well.
3635176
I've been a big fan of Channels and it's previous incarnations (Burning Airlines and Jawbox). This is still a *great* album, but I think it's a bit weaker than Open. That being said, their music usually takes a while to grow on me, so I might have to post an update in a month or two.
1985455
Lyrically sick, vocals = epic. Drumer's double bass and breakdowns, the most originial to that era (1991-1992)
guitars agression and energy = 11/10.  If you like Suffucation, Baphomet, Despiced Icon, White Chapel...
You'll love Broken Hope. Salud serotes.
2294708
Bulb is too small for length of vile. Fully depressed, the vile fills approx 1/3 at best.
Not a deal breaker...  ...But...  ...I'm using it for dispensing food coloring. Repeated squeezing opens one up to a higher risk of permanent mess. The higher caution factor is worth a star off.
4140158
I purchased this as I must do all of my crafting indoors and my handicapped son can not be breathing in "fumes".  I applied it to a couple of (white) dove decorations I was making and when dried, it "yellowed".  Not a good look for a lovely white dove.  It would be okay for kids or on darker colors, but certainly not on white.
2268660
Pros: Harmonizing voices; outstanding instrumentation.

Cons: Weak unintelligible vocals; dark, dark disjointed music

Bottom-Line: In the final analysis there is very little to dislike about Nickel Creek's Nickel Creek. The album showcases the talents of three up-and-comers in the bluegrass genre.

What happened!?  What happened to Nickel Creek, that young talented trio of Bluegrass musicians that showed so much promise in 2000?

While I may not remember where I first heard the harmonious styling of Alison Krauss and Union Station, I do remember where and when I became aware of the trio that is Nickel Creek.  It was on a segment of National Public Radio' All Thing Considered.  The San Diego based band had stopped by the studio's of NPR West to promote their first self-titled album Nickel Creek (2000). While in the studio the band was asked to play and the music was pure heaven, especially since I was driving home through rush hour traffic.  That evening I ordered their CD.

While always considered a bluegrass band in order to place it properly on the music charts, Nickel Creek is certainly different from the traditional bluegrass one might be used to hearing and that was one of their selling points.  But on Why Should The Fire Die (2005) the group goes completely off the Bluegrass rails, and music that was once, fun, energetic, sharp, and emotive, is now dark, soulless, and dare I say, irritating.

Alison Krauss is out as producer and perhaps that is the problem.  Without Ms. Krauss the group has largely drifted off the Bluegrass playing field and into heretofore unexplored territory that musically did not work for me.  To be sure the sharp instrumentation is there, as are the occasional harmonies that so marked the group's earlier works, but the once smart and uplifting storytelling has grown gloomy and depressive as lead singer Sean Watkins takes us down one melancholy path after another.  The lyrics are often cutting, adolescent, and vindictive and far from uplifting; Track No. 2 "Somebody More Like You," track No. 5 "Can't Complain", track No. 9 Anthony (with Sara Watkins on lead vocals) are a few examples.

The only bright spots on the CD are the instrumentals track No. 4 Scotch & Chocolate, track No. 8 "Stumptown", and track No. 12 "First and Last Waltz."  To be sure they are short tracks but sans lyrics they work.

In the final analysis there is very little to like about Nickel Creek's Why Should The Fire Die. While I have to admit that the group's new direction is bold, daring, and even hip, it is not a musical road I want to traverse with them.  While the album does showcase the trio's sublime and wonderful instrumental talents, lyrically it left a lot to be desired and it is hard from me to recommend it.  And while not a complete break from their Bluegrass birthing Why Should The Fire Die surely takes Nickel Creek far enough away from the womb as to be unrecognizable to those fans that have been there from the beginning.

The three principals of Nickel Creek are: Sara Watkins on fiddle and vocals; her brother Sean Watkins on guitar, mandolin, and vocals; and Chris Thile on mandolin, banjo, bouzouki, and vocals.
686232
The tracks on this particular discs are NOT exactly the same as the previously released one had. You really have to look carefully with this stuff. I considered buying it because I wanted to get a VA copy of The Winston's "Color Him Father". That track is not on this CD. If you note, this disc was released in May, 1998. There is another Eastside story Vol. XII that was released in 1997!!! That CD has as track #6 "Color Him Father". This one has "Dream A Little Dream" with the Perez Brothers. I never heard of that one.

Just an interesting note that one has to be really cagey with this stuff!!!!
2885346
I stumbled upon EoDM, thought it looked cool 'cuz of the cover and the name. I was just looking for some hard music so I chose them, and I was not disappointed. Are there levels of hardness? Yeah, some music is more flacid then other music. I can rock out to this music (see samples).

My favorite track is the final one, it's really bluesy/folky, I think.
1620121
ok, kmez, don't bother insulting me here, thats reserved for toxicity. so shut up and go watch your DBZ while i review this.

Suite-Pea: 9/10 Tight intro, it kind of bashes Christianity though, but i don't care, cause im Jewish :P i think they were just screwing around with this one.

Know: 7/10 i really like the drums, but that's the only thing that stands out. unintelligable lyrics.

Sugar: 10/10 THE KOMBUCHA MUSHROOM PEOPLE! lol, as many other people has said, this song is totally unpredictable on the first listen, and it kinda grabs you into it in an inconspicuous kind of way. i really love this track.

Suggestions: 8/10 its ok. the high voice serj makes at the end cracks me and my buds up. something about ships attacking the coast O_o

Spiders: 9/10 Ah yes, the big, single-type song. i think that this is serj's most melodic vocal performance, with long note holdings and a beautiful solo in the middle.

Ddevil: 8/10 Too short to be a ten, very catchy though. Strong refrigerators?

Soil: 20/10 A heartfelt song about a friend who fell victim to suicide, with amazing lyrics and my favorite guitar solo fo all time. i'd give this album 5 stars just for this song.
My favorite on the album.

War?: 9/10 About the crusades, and how pointless war over religion is. I agree.

Mind: 15/10 My second favorite. It has an addictive stop-start layout, and its six minutes long. this is pretty sweet...mutually mentally molested. lol.

Peephole: 8/10 This is a heavy, circus-oriented song about how some people have a major dependance on drugs, and how bad it is for them.

CUBErt: 10/10 This is the only short song that i like on this album, about video games?

Darts: 9/10 Strange, strange, strange. The change of pitch makes for a funny song.

P.L.U.C.K.: 10/10 About the Armenian genocide by the Turks. the guitars are catchy, the drums are pimpin, and serj is...well, serj. thats the only way i can describe how his vocals are in this song.

125/130 overall....is an A! i'd say this is the best SOAD album, nice, raw, and downright amazing. thank you for reading!
3075992
Close your eyes and hear the suffering through the ages, as disasters both great and small are relived in song by roving musicians with only a fiddle or a guitar to stake their claim on history.

Close your eyes and see the carnage reenacted. In Frank Hutchison's "Last Scene of the Titanic," see all the pretty ladies in their evening gowns and all of the tuxedoed gentlemen plummet over the deck of the great juggernaut as it collides with a massive iceberg, sending them wailing and flailing and thrashing in a demonic ballet into the icy Atlantic waters.

Open your ears and hear the plaintive cry of a child in the night, who wakes from a portentous dream in which his daddy is trapped in the interminable blackness of the coal mine (Blind Alfred Reed's "Explosion in the Fairmount Mine"), only to discover that dear daddy was indeed trapped in a mine explosion and is one of 200 unrecovered miners never to see the light of day again.

True-life scenes such as these are the subject of this massive 3-cd set, in which seemingly congenial-sounding folk and blues songs from the early twentieth century document disasters and real-life tragedies with a quiet intensity that disturbs the casual listener far more than any contemporary death metal band could. This is not Sturm und Drang, this is real pain and suffering devoid of fantasy or romanticism. These are songs for the legions of anonymous dead, musical coffin markers for the ones who were lost along the way.

Highlights range from the grim to the funny. In "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues," Robert "Barbecue Bob" Hicks complains that the murky brown flood waters have washed all the wimmenfolk away. The original version of "When the Levee Breaks" by Kansas Joe & Memphis Minnie remains a haunting testament to the 1927 Mississippi Flood. Charlie Poole's "Baltimore Fire" is spectral in its account of hundreds consumed by the flames of a raging inferno. Then there's my personal favorite, Bob Miller's "Ohio Prison Fire", in which a distraught mother is asked to identify the charred remains of her late lamented son:

"I'll take my boy back now. The state's finished with him. The state's finished with all of these bodies. These poor, charred bodies!"

Disc Three switches the focus to murder ballads, showcasing songs of cold-blooded homicide that have influenced the work of such hardboiled musical greats as Johnny Cash, Nick Cave, and Tom Waits, the latter providing the eloquent introduction to this set. Early versions of such blood-soaked ballads as "Billy Lyons and Stack O'Lee" (the legend of Stack O'Lee or "Stagger Lee" exists in many forms) and "Darling Cora" (also known as "Darling Corey") stand alongside lesser-known death row oddities like "The Trial of Richard Bruno Hauptmann, Pts. I & II," an ode to the murderer of the Lindbergh baby. True crime buffs may favor this disc as much as musicologists.

Special mention should be made to the impeccable sonic reproduction by Christopher King, who understands the mystical power inherent in the snap, crackle, and pop of old 78 records and faithfully reproduces the elusive sound of the victrola, cranked up and wailing away like a banshee in a tin can. The static of these old grooves perfectly encases the sadness of bygone eras like ancient beetles trapped in amber. Timeless and lifeless.

In today's post-9/11 world, the fear of arbitrary annihilation is almost taken for granted, yet this collection serves as a moving reminder that tragedies of every kind have always lived on in the music of American folk musicians, perhaps to serve as a talisman for future generations.
3336609
Not sure when tor where this concert was recorded. Maybe Ireland in 1980's?
I love Willie but in this concert he was playing an emerald green electric guitar and singing  songs like Fraulein and Be My Valentine.  Picture quality is awful, especially the color.  I was disappointed and won't play it again.
2156256
This band is a painful display of Urban Youth gone awry.
I feel that these fellows are a poor display of musicians.
I went to a local show in Auburn, and was dissapointed.
Also, their shirts are pink.
The dissapointment I felt while listening to their album is not describable by any known language.
I would just like to make all those out there aware of this band's lack of sophistication in style.
210424
For a 100 percent cotton shirt breathing is dismal. Probably the dye is plugging up the pores. I had that problem with another shirt. I soaked it in bleach to get rid of the dye. Now I have a very comfortable ty dye shirt. I just wish I liked ty dye
2109930
Now that's a new disease(aptly termed clinically by his fans on his website, you should check it, informative) which this awesome guy is spreading across America and down under and maybe the globe. I am not sure of the symptoms(maybe when you first seen Raining on a Sunday video on CMT, which initially I think Mtv changed its channel or logo name, that's how hot it is ), onset, incubation period or the cure yet, but ladies, better catch it up. Is he country? Is he rock? Is he pop?I wish I knew, having 2 0f his latest album, which they call the Black(Be Here),Gold/yellow(Golden Road, duh..),this BLUE album is excellent. I may not like all the songs but 'BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD','LUCK OF OUR OWN' and the 'ROLLERCOASTER' are enough to redeem it. Really, I am not into country music but I think this guy will let me check more of those COUNTRY ARTISTS loaded with talents. Do I have Urbanitis? Uhmm, self-diagnosis reveals maybe first stage.
4212056
Dear Dolphus Ramseur -
Please issue this on vinyl.
Run a kickstarter if you want, I'd pay in advance.  I know vinyl sales are gimmicky for some, and hard to justify for what's now a 9 year old record (put out the same year as Emotionalism, the last gasp before the Avett Brothers ascended to a major).  I know I'm in for at least two.

Dear prospective listener -
It'd be so pretty, seeing this tragic, colorful cover shine through in its full 12", just as its insides hold tragic melodies and fresh wounds of a couple mid-breakup, singing harmony for each other's painful words.  If you aren't drawn in by Aeroplane's first few bars of building up through Sam Quinn's first words, hang in a few more for Jill Andrews' harmony.  If you're this far, you're probably hooked, adding in the somber album title and wondering if they're going to let up - are they going to be happy?  No, they're not.  This is a fantastic album with a consistent sadness - the one upbeat shuffle being hidden at the end.

The interplay is just as tremendous as words sung to each other because they couldn't be spoken (though, maybe yelled).  If you've felt pain in a hopeless relationship, you've been in this album.  You just didn't know what that sounded like until now.
3719348
'Blauwe Ruis' ('Blue Noise') is Blf's catharsis after the unexpected death of their drummer Chris Gtte due to a motor cycle accident. How would you deal with something like that? After a visit to Barcelona, the 3 surviving members decided that they should go further and make an album as soon as possible. The opening tune, 'Weggaan' ('Departure') deals with the pain, anguish, disappointment, anger and all other emotions one may feel after a such an traumatic event. About half of the songs, all with lyrics by bass player Peter Slager, deal with death, separation, love lost and departure. But not all is doom and gloom though. All other demonstrate there is still a silver lining and hope, and that live is worth living.

Musically, the band has grown again. The great addition of drummer Norman Bonink has enabled them to use more complex harmonies and instrumental parts and more involved arrangements. With solid performances by everybody, this album invites multiple listening. As an added bonus, the extra CD demonstrates the high quality melodies the band had produced in their first 7 years of existence. For me a hall mark of excellence is when songs hold up in different forms, from solo guitar or piano, to more elaborate treatments. Thirteen of their songs have gotten the symphonic treatment on 'Tussen Nacht en Morgen' ('Between Night and Morning') with beautiful orchestral arrangements played by Blf and the famous Dutch Metropole Orchestra for a live audience. Bravo and encore!!
1001571
When it comes time to check out--just smoke a cigarette and go down easy. Isn't that the way it ought to be? Although this is the second album by Brightblack Morning Light, and a hell of a cool one, I doubt we'll be hearing any further albums from them, since it defies all reason that any of them could have survived the making of this album. I'm quite certain you can hear 'em wheezing and convulsing in the background during the last track. We can only hope the producer politely watched until all band members ceased moving before flicking off the mixing console. Anyway, I've decided right now, "Everybody Daylight" will be heard reverberating down the halls of my building when they come for me with a body bag.