Throughout this album, it seems that the Spill Canvas have earnestly tried to under-perform as many worn pop cliches as they could get their hands on. With a musical idiom resembling a devil-spawned half-breed Brand New and White Snake, the Spill Canvas sound like they arrived five years too late to a party that wasn’t all that fun to begin with.
Press Play – Album Reviews
Spill CanvasNo Really, I’m Fine*Throughout this album, it seems that the Spill Canvas have earnestly tried to under-perform as many worn pop cliches as they could get their hands on. With a musical idiom resembling a devil-spawned half-breed Brand New and White Snake, the Spill Canvas sound like they arrived five years too late to a party that wasn’t all that fun to begin with. Their breathy, melodramatic vocals and post-butt-rock guitar work are rip-offs so poor in their execution as to make you angry at their source material for inspiring such tripe. Utter crap.-Shane Danaher
La ScallaThe Harlequin**La Scalla’s The Harlequin is a solid EP marred by a couple deadly miscalculations that rend its gothic circus music into flaccid self-parody. Miscalculation the first: using a song named “Draculina” as the release’s centerpiece. Miscalculation the second: using a couple grungy, distorted guitars to try and replicate the bombast of a full-scale orchestra (hint to cash-strapped bands: not the best idea out there). La Scalla have an interesting idea behind their music, and had they actually been employing the organs and accordions they wield in their press photos, it might have worked. As things are, though…meh.-Shane Danaher
ZillionaireThe Street Lights Have Been Turned Down**1/2Zillionaire’s crystal clear guitar work seems to be an amalgam of Modest Mouse, Interpol and a whole lot of valium. In songwriter Heath Dupras’ mind, not only the street lights but the whole damned world has been set to half capacity, and his songs echo this slack jawed dishevelment. Which isn’t to say it sinks the album. When things get louder and more upbeat in the second half, Zillionaire put out some worthy tracks, but on the whole, the thing doesn’t have the necessary “teeth” to arrest an audience’s attention.-Shane Danaher
HurtVol. II**Getting past their generic name, one would hope that Hurt’s music had something original to say. It doesn’t. Instead, we get a re-hash of ’90s alt-hard-rock with somewhat interesting acoustic interludes. The singing is very “together” in the radio-friendly type way–fans of Nickelback take note–but this record just seems out of place in our current world. Vol. II is a competent effort, sure, but vital? Definitely not.
Hurt plays the Hawthorne Theatre tonight at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12, all ages.-Ed Johnson
