Press Play – Album Reviews

ASGWin Us Over**Big, stupid rock music is king. And ASG (…the Amplification of Self-Gratification) aims to make good on the promise of simple riffs and heavy guitars. But they fail. Sure, there’s some pretty standard stoner-rock action on their Volcom debut Win Us Over–there are even some OK riffs–but the singing ruins everything. You know that nasally sneer that modern pop-punk bands love to use? That’s all over this album. It’s fucking grating. And since the music isn’t very original or arresting, ASG can’t really afford to have a weak link. Here’s a tip dudes: ditch the singing and push the balls-out heaviness. Then you might win me over.

ASG will play at the Hawthorne Theatre on Feb. 28.

Matt Nathanson< i>Some Mad Hope**First thing’s first: Matt Nathanson, are you lying to me? You seem so nice, charming even. And your middle-of-the-road pop rock does go perfectly with teen-soap opera’s like One Tree Hill (good job getting that gig by the way). Maybe this is just me, but are you Christian? Because your generic music makes me think of that time when I was 13 and ate free pizza from the local mega-church. And that’s cool. But these songs are ostensibly about girls or something, yet they ring … false. It’s weird.

Matt Nathanson will play tonight at the Roseland with Lifehouse. Tickets are $26.

SkullflowerIIIrd Gatekeeper****Why re-issue an album from 1992? Well, when it’s as crushing and awesome as IIIrd Gatekeeper is, there’s never a wrong time to listen. Plus, it cements a point in Skullflower’s past when they weren’t the strange psych-drone band they are today, but instead were a weird, heavy-as-hell, gruesome industrial noise unit. The songs on Gatekeeper move along at slow pace, with a swirling, effects-laden guitar dancing on top of the pummeling distorted bass ‘n’ drum dirge. It ain’t easy-listen’n music for sure, but sometimes you need a record made for a death march–and IIIrd Gatekeeper fits the bill.