By: Joseph VanBuren
Rating: 2/11
Rating if it was 1987: 10/11 

Everybody squeeze into your skin-tight acid washed jeans, tease up your hair as high as physically possible, strap on your studded bracelets, and hop into the Trans-Am. We’re about to get totally wasted and crash this mondo party on the Sunset Strip. That’s right dudes and dudettes, it’s time to Rock Hard or Die, and Joe Steel is providing the soundtrack. With the killer licks and shredding solos on this EP, there’s no better music to thrash to while chugging a sixer. The lyrics of the title track sum it up best: “Rock is our living, and living is fun/ If you’re not with us, then you better run, mother fucker.” These guys prove that you can be poetic to the max and badass at the same time. “California’s Burning” has a most bodacious chorus: “Burning to the ground/ Can’t you hear the sound?/ Rockers on the loose/ The sound of flaming youth.” Joe Steel totally speaks to the hearts of the misunderstood youth of the Reagan Generation. Sure, the other two songs on this EP are about strippers and hookers, but the innuendos are cleverly hidden in lyrics like “I play finger games/ I’ve got tongue tricks too.” Rock Hard or Die is not just an EP; it’s a motto, a way of life. Learn it, live it, love it. Totally.

By: Faetra Petillo
Raiting: 6/11

To say a band shows great potential is kind of a journalist cop-out. Its reads like the reviewer is unable to give an artist a thumbs up or a thumbs down and symbolizes a lack of conviction. But in the case of Ghost Ghost, I have a difficult time praising them and an even harder time writing them off. Their talent goes beyond merely showing potential, but their lack of a musical core makes it feel like they are doing an eternal dance around greatness. Their EP release might be the shot they threw into the dark before they have a major breakthrough. If only they could get there.

In music, diversity of sound can either be a band's greatest asset or its Achilles heel. It's a fine line to walk between allowing yourself to be influenced by an eclectic collection of styles and turning your music into an overly-inspired jumble without a central line holding it down. At this point in their career, Ghost Ghost is leaning towards the latter. That is not to say they are bad, but their EP release has major issues when it comes to commitment. If it wasn't for the lead vocals, I would have thought each individual track was from a different group entirely. Diversity is good, a lack of coherence is not. The album is all over the place, and it's all over the place at a crucial time in the band's career where they need to be putting forward a sound that screams "This is who we are and this is the music we play."  If they choose to play around within that, all the better. But Ghost Ghost seems to be lacking a definitive statement.

As a result, the album is hit or miss. There are tracks like "Hide and Seek" that have a raw, mellow, dissonant alt-rock sound reminiscent of early Bright Eyes. But then there are tracks like "Will You Be True" that sound like they are out of a bad late 90's emo album, during which the vocals start to take on a very whiny quality.

That being said, there are admirable aspects to Ghost Ghost that work at redeeming their faults. Their lyrics are well thought out and meaningful. It is clear from an initial listen that the members of Ghost Ghost are not just musicians; they are also poets. Each song tells a complex story, taking several listens to fully understand the meaning of. They do a superb job at ensuring the tone of the story matches the rhythm of the music. In an age where "vocals" can mean simply being able to scream and wail incomplete words into a microphone, it is refreshing to see a band that still values the role of the lyricist.

As much as some of the tracks are not to my liking, I have to admit that there is a grunge rock feel to their music that I miss hearing in most of their contemporaries. It's not just the dissonance or the crazy guitar riffs or the steady, heavy drumming, it's the feeling behind it. Ghost Ghost's passion and efforts seep through every aspect of their music and if they can just find the right tone and style to direct it to, they will be golden.

Ghost Ghost recently took part in the RPM Challenge, a project where bands record an entire album in 28 days, "just because you can."  Ghost Ghost wrote and recorded an album in just two days, inspired by the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay.  Check out their process here, or catch them live March 5th at Saints and Sinners in Hoboken.

By: Nora E. Lindner
Rating: 9/11

Lili Roquelin grew up on southern coast of France and has been propelling herself forward since childhood. She dreamed of coming to the US to have a music career and so far that is exactly what she has done. In the past, she sang with the pop-rock band Phizzy Lager and collaborated on an album with Hate Dies Hard. 

Now on her own, it’s hard to imagine that the artist needs anyone else. Crisp with talent, Roquelin is more accomplished than most people of any profession can ever hope to be — her entire album is produced, written, composed, arranged, performed, recorded, and pre-mixed by Roquelin herself. She also does her own PR and marketing.  

In fact, the only help she’s seemed to have had is from her dedicated fanbase: Roquelin’s first release, LiLi Roquelin (2008), was completely fan-funded. The music video for the EP’s single, “I Saw You,” won the 2008 Best Music Video Queens International Film Festival and 2009 Best Pop Music Video Indie Gathering Film Festival. 

Now Roquelin’s released her first full-length album, Will You Hate the Rest of the World or Will You Renew Your Life? (2010). The first track, “Come and Hear My Story,” is a literal invitation that from any other artist would come off as heavy-handed. But Roquelin, with Sarah McLachlan-esque grace, makes it all sound more appealing.  

The sliding dissonance and dense composition that follows puts her music firmly in trip-hop, where it settles deep. Complex ballads with lingering themes of love and loss fill out the 9-track album, all sung with that undeniably endearing accent. “How We Grow” is a music box waltz and “Give you My Love” is a poignant call for the return of an old lover. Violins composed by Roquelin and performed by Laura Kay give this song the profound coating of old folk tradition. 

Everything Roquelin touches she makes her own — even things she hasn’t created. Her cover of “Sally’s Song” (written by Danny Elfman for the Tim Burton cult-classic, A Nightmare Before Christmas) is nothing short of perfect. Always a haunting show-stopper, translated into French it becomes a song of grand devastation.  

 “Renew,” from which the album’s title comes, is a bitter operetta. Arguably the darkest song on the album, the first light grows with a hum of “I’ve been wondering, should I write about this?”          

Whether or not she regrets it, we’re glad she did. Will You Hate the Rest of the World or Will You Renew Your Life? is now available for purchase. The new music video for “Should You Get Mad” (premiered February 15) can be seen on Lili Roquelin’s official website. 

By: Sam Houghton
Rating: 9/11

Shilpa Ray’s voice is wretched, like a steaming mad old hag juiced up on something so grotesque and so awful she could peel the skin right off a grown man’s chest. Strictly off the recordings on A Fish Hook An Open Eye, she sounds like a creature out of an early Ray Bradbury novel, terrifying little children and old folks alike, a voice of a woman from your nightmares who has seen the worst of the worst and is out for some kind of horrifying justice. It’s beautiful. Makes a man uncomfortable.  

A Fish Hook An Open Eye is Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hooker’s debut album. While many critics throw the punk word around quite liberally, in the essence that bands scream a lot and make a lot of riff raff with reverb and gain and action, Shilpa Ray is providing us with a sample of some real from the streets primitivism, punk in it’s purist form. Her lyrics are lewd and in your face (“I just shit and I piss till ya/ put me to bed at night” off “Looking for Mr. Goodbar”), but somehow genuine, like your grandmother would listen a second longer, thinking it interesting, before shutting it off with rage. She spits and growls her lyrics, mostly out of key, like it’s not actually sung, but more snarled, conjuring wild images of werewolves scarfing down raw meat, like she’s trying to sing from the deepest, most wretched part of her stomach. Scientists haven’t yet discovered why music evokes such images.  Or perhaps they have, but either way, I would be afraid if I were alone in a room with Shilpa Ray.

Yet, amongst the darkness, there’s a hint of love in there. And that is where her music passes tolerable and becomes something to whisper to your friends. It’s present in her harpsichord type instrument called the harmonium. In contrast with the slide guitar, it sounds like something that might be featured in an Edgar Allen Poe motion picture: ominous but oozing with sorrow. The lyrics, when not lewd, discuss the horrors of the world, like on “What the Fuck was I Thinking?” Shilpa sings: “I fell in love and forgot about the homeless/ the hunger/ and the women on welfare… what the fuck was I thinking?” But beyond the lyrics and the music, it’s her voice, sounding somewhere between Nico and Patti Smith, that really gets the sorrow glands acting up. Her lyrics can sometimes seem cliché when read off the page: “Well I’m so messed up/ but I got nothing to prove it/ I got no awards or prizes/ for all my acting so desperately,” she sings on “Looking for Mr. Goodbar,” but when sung, it’s the fact that she appears to know what’s she’s singing that pulls you in. Like a black man singing the blues, even the most corporate whore-hound can tell genuine from spoiled brat. In Brooklyn, there’s a million little girls who think they can sing, and we take it, we sit there and applaud when they finish because we’re a supportive community. I can appreciate that. But we’re all thinking, “Man, I really hope someone kicks that mike chord out on accident.” Or even worse, we’re all standing frozen in fear, hoping the band doesn’t make any mistakes. Shilpa is genuine, there’s no one way to say it.

My criticism is that the audience she's trying to find might be somewhat small. It takes some gall to listen to her music. Her fans most likely consist of a handful of Bukowski die-hards, angry feminists, people who enjoy dark places, and that rare breed of people who like to get fucked up and really weird. It’s shocking music, not for softhearted, folk loving indie fans, which, with much chagrin from us punk lovers, is what’s hip these days. But there could be a niche for her as the indie crowd and the teeny-bopper crowd inevitably grow weary of soft-heartedness and commercialism. Perhaps similar to how Patti Smith converted a few over at CBGBs when she served up a jolt of primitivism during the dazed disco days, Shilpa will suck in some folk who are growing weary of happiness and longing. The vibrations I’m getting makes me believe Ray doesn’t care who’s listening.

“Woman Sets Boyfriend on Fire” might be the best on the album in terms of having a genuine Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers feel. All the songs have a similar whiskey soaked, dark, rawness, but the album has much diversity, going between fast and punk like, to the more sorrowful ballads. “I’m not Rigid… Yet” is another great one with an Irish punk feel and a booming, walking bass line. All the songs work on this album and the band does its job of supporting the lead and not adding any clutter, but it’s all Shilpa Ray who makes A Fish Hook An Open Eye a unique and memorable experience.

By: Ross Edwards
Rating: 8/11

Dinowalrus is the “where the hell did this come from?” experimental rock trio that will perplex with a mix of live and programmed instruments. There is alien synth whirring, repeated keyboard patterns over tumbling tom and kick-heavy drumming, punchy electric bass grooving steadily, wall-of-distortion guitars, seemingly atonal vocals, and the confusion of unexpected reprisals, rhythms, and the occasional robotic voice. They are a noise band that you can rock out to while simultaneously thinking “is that a squeaking saxophone, or a reverb-heavy guitar?” The blend of sounds is unique, but never unbelievable.

What at its core may have been a new age meditation CD is tarnished brazenly by conflicting tempos, distorted shrieks, and an array of percussive clicks and clacks. Continuous is the synth setup that brings a sci-fi tone to an otherwise vaguely punk/rock/noise effort, a weirdo blending of vibes that are rarely heard combined or even near each other. There’s also an aroma of surf rock (from the guitar tones and cavernous drums), rockabilly, and a beyond Animal Collective sense of unexpectedly changing tempo, and an ear for what works.

The vocals are mostly ugly, echoey shouting, with frequently undecipherable lyrics, and the ones that can be heard seem nonsensical, although all this simply adds to their aura of mystery. The bizarrely soothing tone is sustained, as on the hushed, beautiful layers of singing-mumbling on “Haze on the Mobius Strip,” a song which leaves earth behind about halfway through, before embarking on an epic course through psychedelic and mature rocking. The song “CMYK” is an amazingly  catchy track, despite its unpredictability, and the disgusting singing is left behind, for a sinister spoken-word and sustained note vocals.

% is a highly recommended album, as the strength of its character will draw you into its quirky tale. What you might have first thought was too ferocious, mysterious, or absurd, becomes just right as each spacey note convinces of its own outlandish belonging.