reviews:
Failure: Fantastic Planet
Far: Quick
Far: Tin Cans With Strings to You
Far: Water & Solutions
Faraquet: "The Whole Thing Over" b/w "Call it Sane" 7"
Fear Factory: Obsolete
Fellatia: A New Beginning
Fields of Gaffney: Sub Pop Single's Club 7"
Filter: Title of Record
Finger Eleven: The Greyest of Blue Skies
Fiver: Strings for Satellites
The Flaming Lips: Hear It Is
The Flaming Lips: The Soft Bulletin
The Folk Implosion: Dare to be Surprised
Foo Fighters: Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters: The Colour and the Shape
Foo Fighters: There is Nothing Left to Lose
The For Carnation: The For Carnation
For Stars: Windows for Stars
Fuel: Sunburn
Fugazi: Fugazi 12" EP
Fugazi: Repeater + 3 Songs
Fugazi: Steady Diet of Nothing

Failure: Fantastic Planet Look! It's an extraordinary band you've never heard of! Even though this is one of the best albums of the nineties and is on Warner Brothers, you probably won't buy it! Even if I tell you how every one of its fourteen tracks has a memorable hook or melody, you'll just ignore me! I'm just a reviewer, I wouldn't notice the great lyrics, excellent instrument work, and some of the best production this side of the solar system! Even if I comment on how this smashes down boundaries for rock with everything it includes in its music, you'll move right down past "F" and get MxPx or Limp Bizkit instead! Sweet fucking Christ, some people just don't get it! (long story short: this is one of the best albums ever recorded, best of 1996 and top ten of the '90's, yet it's too intelligent for many who would prefer dumbed-down music instead of something that takes a risk and does it well, even if it's displayed in the great way Failure does here; yeah, "fantastic" about sums it up)

Far: Quick Man, these guys rock. On future releases, they would still rock. The first track, "Quick" features the line "Change the changes, fix me quick," which makes me think so much about myself. On to the music! The guitars have the same feel as they do on Water & Solutions, but it's generally a faster, more balls to the wall feel. It has a more raw sound, but you can definitely tell this is Far. Jonah is still incredible, and Shaun, John and Chris support him perfectly. "All Go Down" is my personal favorite, and the whole CD kicks. If you can find this, as it is incredibly rare, go for it.

Far: Tin Cans With Strings to You I never get laid. Never have been, either. Probably never will be. I'll die wifeless and kidless, sitting around waiting for the next Star Wars sequel and digging around in my armchair for the TV Guide. Personally, I never thought it would happen. Of course, there's something else I never thought would happen, but it's right in my ears on the Far CD Tin Cans With Strings to You. Blending emo, hardcore, and alt-metal sounds like some sick joke that would fit better in the eighties ideas of combining anything and everything. Like new wave. Raise your hand if you were born in post-1975 and like new wave! However, Far avoids sounded stupid and cliched, and is intelligent, thought-provoking, and influential at the same time. Feeding off Jonah Sonz Matragna's forceful vocal yowl, the band chugs, churns, smashes, and (here's a nice thought for current hard rock) plays behind him. Hitting you hard and heavy where it counts and soothing and comforting you at other times, this CD will make you think twice about slapping your dollar down for the new Korn record. Whereas Korn is angry and hard, Far follow Deftones, or vice versa, by mixing a wide arrangement of emotions and melodies, singing, growling, and whispering instead of screaming all the time in the same vein of other like minded bands. Far is truly one of the bands like The Velvet Underground, where they may have sold 50 records, but they influenced the future's bands more than anyone could ever imagine. If you don't have this, I would say go buy it. It makes the debut (at least major-label wise) from any other band seem shoddy in contrast.

Far: Water & Solutions Honestly, how many bands can play the heavy yet melodic music that Far have mastered here? Not many. "Bury White," "Really Here," and "Water and Solutions" offer three amazing songs that give testaments to how life really is, yet they make it so beautiful. But my personal fave on this thing is "Wear It So Well." Where do I begin? This song is... captivating. The bass intro grabs you and pulls you through as the feedback rages, then kicks into the main riff of the song. Honestly, this music needs to be heard to be understood. Jonah is one of the most underrated and talented singers alive, and the band supports him so well. Order this CD, because since Epic fucked them and they split up, it's hard to find this anywhere.

Faraquet: "The Whole Thing Over" b/w "Call it Sane" Smart Went Crazy was really good. They broke up. I'm sure a lot of people said "Goddamnit!" when that happened. Fear not, however, for Faraquet is here. Faraquet has ex-SMC amidst its ranks, and plays the same skewed rock that the former band did. The A-side is an allmost math rock song with its left of center lyrics, singing, and musicianship. It still is fuckin awesome, though. The B-side is "Call It Sane," and has some near pretty vocals and guitars, which are covered under a thin film of DC sound production. I'm waiting for a full length from a lot of bands. This is one of them.

Fear Factory: Obsolete At first, I had no respect for these guys. I couldn't stand Burton's voice, or their whole "Man vs. Machine" idea. I got this album because some friends of mine in my chemistry class told me to pick it up, and not to be so hard on Fear Factory. So, I did. And boy, I was wrong. This isn't the best album I've heard, but truly far from the worst. Some of the coolest effects, those deep crunching guitars, and a rhythm section that makes you crumble... The vocals are so emotion filled, it sounds like Burton has a hot stick in his eye. Powerful. That is Fear Factory. This isn't for all of us, but for anyone who even remotely likes heavy music, you'll like this. "Freedom or Fire" is bombing, brutal, brilliant. Same with "Timelessness," and the coolest song I've heard in a long damn time, "Edgecrusher." This is definitely an "acquired taste" record, but what a taste it is.

Fellatia: A New Beginning This band blows. They hail from my hometown, Pleasanton, California. Two kinds of music come out of here: punk and metal. These twits try to combine the two. They are completely unoriginial. They combine aspects of Slayer (yay!), Metallica, and Pennywise. This CD makes me want to cry from pure disgust. Honestly, if you like these retards, kill yourself. Do not get this CD.

Fields of Gaffney: Sub Pop Single's Club 7" The Sub Pop Singles Club is the series that refuses to quit being diverse, and I'm loving every minute of it. Fields of Gaffney, which is essentially Eric Gaffney (who is one-third of Sebadoh), play upbeat, happy guitar-pop, and make you wanna dance. Think of The Promise Ring lite, and you've got Fields of Gaffney, except of course that Gaffney's much more experienced and much more talented than the Ring fellas. The A-side is a pleasant little song called "Cold Weather" that just kinda chugs along in a nice little way, and will put a smile on your face undoubtedly, with it's twinkly guitars, soft words, and up-tempo drums. "Twilight" is a bit slower, but generally more of the same. A really good, happy, self-contented little single to kick off Sub Pop operations in the new millenium. Lets hope for more work of this calliber in the future.

Filter: Title of Record Filter suffers from one problem that is abundantly clear: They have the ability to write singles that are light years ahead of their other material. Essentially, this album is "Welcome to the Fold," "Take a Picture," and some other stuff. Those two songs are so excellent that the first time through, when nothing grabs you, you won't really feel the need to search through again. To put on and listen straight through is a daunting task. You'll barely resist hitting the "Skip" button on your stereo. Maybe if this was the sixties or the seventies, and this album was on vinyl, with the two singles as the last song on the A-side and the B-side, I'd pay more attention. However, it's not the age of records, it's the age of computers, and I can have any second of any CD whenever I want it. Maybe if I was more patient I could find more to like. I'm rather happy with listening to just "Welcome to the Fold" and "Take a Picture" every now and then, so until I feel a pang of regret for not trying to embrace this album more wholeheartedly, I'll stick with those two and let the rest of the disc get dusty.

Finger Eleven: The Greyest of Blue Skies This blew me away and still does every time I listen to it. Over-exageration... Maybe. But it feels like you have the wind knocked out of you when you pop this baby into your stereo. It has this effect on you that only four or five bands have in your lifetime. I mean, the album isn't perfect, with "Drag You Down" and "My Carousel" lacking something, but the rest picks it up. The heaviness of the guitars on "First Time" is astounding. It's almost like something that a "rock" band shouldn't be doing. "Sick of it All" is my favorite song, melodic to heavy. "Suffocate," released for the second time is heavy as hell, and "Bones and Joints" keeps in the same vein as "Sick of it All." The rest is good, the ending track a fitting closer "Stay and Dream". Get this...

Fiver: Strings for Satellites The names of Fiver's albums work out perfectly; on Eventually Something Cool Will Happen, they were just sitting around trying to be cool, and now they're stringing satellites and reaching for the stars. They're blissful, enjoyable, precise, and light years ahead of their peers in the indie-pop universe. There's a line on the inside that says "Please enjoy through headphones," and that couldn't be more correct, as you need them to grasp all the layers of sound cascading around you, and you flat-out can't do that through speakers. Songs like "The Devil is Undeniably Real," "Don't Tell Me How to Rock, I'm From Here," and "Theme From Lo-Down" all restore my faith in the genre. A contender for my top ten list this year.

The Flaming Lips: Hear It Is "When I'm with you, I feel weird." Those are the opening lines to the album, and that basically explains how you'll feel when listening to it. I like it though, although it is very strange. Electric guitar driven songs mixed up with acoustic songs and soft vocals. It opens with a great song, but the songs almost die down after that. They don't die down to the point of crap though; they're still good. "With You" is a bad precursor to the rest of the album, since you think the rest will be as good as that or better. There are some really boring songs on it, and I feel so bad for saying this about the album, since I shouldn't say it for the sake of the really good songs. The Flaming Lips definitely went on to record really good records after this one, but Hear It Is is not bad at all. It's somewhere in between. And I'm sticking with that because I usually put it on before I go to bed every night. More recently, Modest Mouse's Building Nothing Out of Something has been taking it's place. But I recommend this one to any fan, or even anyone who has heard that song, "She Don't Use Jelly," or whatever it's called. You'll be surprised these guys have been around for so long, and that they have some great music.

The Flaming Lips: The Soft Bulletin Beauty is one of the most divine forces in the universe. As are intelligence and experimentalism. I think that mainly beauty, or lack thereof, is the cause for some of the shitty music coming out lately. When's the last time you heard something beautiful on mainstream radio or MTV? I sure haven't in quite awhile. Also gone are the latter two. Britney Spears and Blink-182 may be catchy (and irritating), but they are not intelligent, experimental, or beautiful. The Flaming Lips are. Shunned by most during their ... odd ... career, Wayne Coyne & Co. have created a blissful, melancholy little masterpiece, something I think most didn't think they could do. One of the most painful and somber records I've heard, The Soft Bulletin chronicles Coyne's father's battle (and eventual defeat) with cancer. Songs like "Suddenly Everything Has Changed" and "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate" show the acceptance of one's mortality in a pleasant way; "Race for the Prize" and "Waitin' for a Superman" would be the perfect songs to hold up an album as they talk about the hopes that a cure will come soon; and "A Spoonful Weighs a Ton," "The Observer," and "What is the Light?" all show what it's like to sit and watch a loved one begin the tranformation from "is" to "was". Although it may be a little too emotionally deep for our "Live By The Minute" culture, I hope that those who get this record will understand the message: Death doesn't always have to be a hard thing, just something to translate into your own message, whether it by journals, crying, sorrow, or music.

The Folk Implosion: Dare to be Surprised After scoring multiple successes with the indie rock crowd, as well as mainstream journalists, and earning the fifteen minutes that many indie bands hope for but few recieve, The Folk Implosion (John Davis and Lou Barlow) decided to sit down and actually do some real work. My guess is they camped out in somebody's house for a long while, and this eclectic collection of material is the result. The lo-fi production that Barlow's other group Sebadoh made infamous is found all over this release, but not directly; there's actually more of an electric feel to this album than the usually organic material found on most lo-fi releases. This is neither good nor bad, but it is a little strange, as The Folk Implosion's previous work was laden with jangly noise and distortion of nearly every track and instrument. Although the duo have a better sense of melody and songwriting on this album, it is not nearly as inviting as Take a Look Inside... or even their songs on the Kids soundtrack. After a few listens little gems begin to pop up, but many of the songs tend to run together, giving the album the quality of needing to be listened to all at once, not in small bursts or in single songs. A few songs stand out, like the opener "Pole Position" (which has a better hook than "Natural One") and "Burning Paper," but most songs are just electronic drums, reverb vocals, weird guitars, and effects/samples galore. Not nearly as good as I was expecting these two great names to come up with.

Foo Fighters: Foo Fighters This self-titled debut LP sounds basically like Nirvana if they had really sold out. Dave Grohl, the drummer for the classic grunge catalyst, picked up the peices and formed this band in which he plays guitar and sings (who knew?). Here he masterminds a project that isn't afraid to go a little bit softer than his previous project for the love of music. Could Kurt Cobain have written "Big Me" and then starred in the music video that spoofs already corny Mentos ads? No way. Grohl is basically flirting with another side of rock here, and the results are rebellious and wonderful little pop-rock gems.

Foo Fighters: The Colour and the Shape Foo Fighters are the saviors or modern mainstream rock. No joke. Not rap-metal or thug rock, but pure, soulful, lovely, burgeoning rock. And this album secured them there. Where to start? All the instruments are amazing. The bass in particular sticks out to me, like on "My Hero" and "Wind Up." They serve up a little itty bit of grunge, a lot of hard, fast, good rock, and some of the coolest vocals I've heard. Dave Grohl seems as if he's spitting out his guts every damn time he sings. "Hey, Johnny Park!," "February Stars," and the aformetioned "My Hero" all keep this record solid. I find a fair bit of filler on here, like "See You" and "Up In Arms," but mostly those songs just don't do much for me. The hardest song, "Monkey Wrench," is simply blazing, and very amazing. My favorite is - you all guessed it - "Everlong." Need I say more? It's easily one of the best songs ever written. I'd call this record required owning.

Foo Fighters: There is Nothing Left to Lose Oh great, here we go, Foo Fighters have turned into another typical rock band... Wait a second. Did the distorted guitars just cut out to let a soft, melodic part burst through? Are these lyrics taking a very personal crack at someone? Are the Foos still experimenting? Well, yeah, they are, so I guess they aren't just another typical rock band. This album is remarkable in the fact that it has very few flaws. The eponymous album showed horrible lo-fi production with a lack of real, solid concrete ideas. The sophomore released The Colour and the Shape suffered from glossed over producing from Gil Norton that simply ruined many fo the good songs, and showed the fact that many of the songs sounded similar aside from a few standouts. This album, however, is expertly produced; it has strong ideas and strong songs; it stays strong through and through. This is Foo Fighters' The Dark Side of the Moon, a masterpiece that will be a challenge for them to match. All of the songs are fully realized, from the opening "Stacked Actors" to the pair of singles "Breakout" and "Learn to Fly" to the song that is hands down, the best song and the most beautiful one that Foo Fighters has ever written, "Aurora." A truly great accomplishment for Foo Fighters, and for rock music in general.

The For Carnation: The For Carnation As much as Brian McMahan would seem to love escaping the memory of Slint, if he really wanted to put that band in his past he would stop making music that sounds like them, the kind that relies on environment and experimentation, that wraps the listener in completely, and that is absolutely stunning. Not the type of music you could rock out to exactly, this album has a very relaxed yet intense feel to it that captures your attention for the duration of your listening time. The six songs contained within range from about six to ten minutes, and you wind up nice and neat (and a little frazzled) at the end of the forty minute listening time. It's absolutely perfect for a person having just one of those days where everything is going wrong and needs a release, or maybe just needs something to lie down and close their eyes to, or maybe even have a good cry. McMahan's voice carries and lifts above the band's skillful instrument work, which displays some new element in every song. The hurt, the shame, and the anger that you know is contained is barely restrained and threatens to explode several times over the course of the songs. And to round out my semi-comparison of this work to Spiderland, this album is absolutely brilliant as well.

For Stars: Windows for Stars Feeling depressed? No? How about you put this album on and see how happy you're feeling afterwards. This is hands down the saddest album I've ever heard. The music portrays a feeling of helplessness and depression so thick it's almost coated with it. It's also very pretty, well done, and beautiful at parts, not in a mushy-gushy way like American Football, but just in a general "Yeah, shit happens, I can't prevent it, where's my flask?" type of way. If it wasn't so good, no one on Earth would listen to this audio sorrow, because it brought me down from the top of the world to lying in the gutter crying within a span of thirty seven minutes and twenty five seconds. It's like a good friend, always there for those times when you're feeling down and just need to relax and think instead of lashing out.

Fuel: Sunburn Man, this CD is some of the coolest post-grunge rock I've heard in a quite a while. These rockers will draw comparisons to Local H and Stone Temple Pilots right off. In my opinion, they are somewhat better. They combine some grungy guitars with nice bass with an almost beautiful sound, and Brett Scallions has one of the freshest voices on the scene in a long damn time. "Shimmer" flows perfectly, making reference to the waining happiness in life. My personal favorite is "Sunburn" with the line "Let the sun fall over me" - I can safely say I've felt this way many times, just wanting to leave for one reason or another. With his great vocals, a kind of Grohl/ Weiland vocal mix, and some very good instrument work, this album seethes with aggression and beauty at the same time. The first six songs are incredibly strong, and although the record kinda falls from there, but it is still worth buying. Do they rip off others? No. It's just very evident whom their influences are.

Fugazi: Fugazi 12" EP I found this album on vinyl at a store and had been wanting to listen to this band for sometime. So I bought it and put it on my turntable. On my first listen, I thought it was pretty good, nothing great or anything. But after about the 3rd or 4th try listening to it, I really started to get into it. For example, the first time I heard the first song, I thought, "Cool, this is Fugazi." 3rd time, I was like, "Wow, is this what I heard the first time?" You know a record is really good when you think it's just average at first, but you give it a few more tries and it becomes something you just can't stop listening to. It takes a lot of intelligence to like something good I guess. That's probably why we have so many wannabe punks out there listening to Blink-182 and thinking: "This is punk!" I feel so sorry for them, not to say this is a total punk record, but there are definatly a lot of punk influences on it. I'm gonna bring this one out again; if you like rock music, you need to get this EP. It's really smeggin' good! I sleep with it every night in my arms.

Fugazi: Repeater + 3 Songs Long before Dischord was one of the most impressive and respected labels in indie rock history, before the worldwide tours, before the "please do not mosh" policy, before they were hailed as possibly the greatest, undoubtedly the most impressive, and the most consistently brilliant band to emerge from the musical cesspool of the '90's, Fugazi played some really great punk rock that completely altered the genre and made everyone who ever claimed to be indie take notice. Repeater was Fugazi's first full length, after the CD combination of their self-titled and Margin Walker 12" EPs on 13 Songs. A 3 song EP preceded Repeater, and was aptly titled 3 Songs. On the CD version of Repeater, this EP was added. Enough promoting, I'll cut to the chase: you are a fool if you don't own this. Fugazi is the band that every person worldwide should hear. While each member may not be labeled as a genius for his own contribution to the sound, the six different elements all combine to become something greater. Also, this band will not be remembered for creating punk music, but for taking the whole idea of frantic, energetic music and combining with it actual talent and intelligence in music and lyrical content. Fugazi will be remembered not for the things they pioneered or refined, but for the elements they have that no other band can create, such as complete sincerity with every line that is sung, two vocalists that both are as involved as the rest of the band, and a rhythm section as dynamic as the frontmen and powerful enough to gather attention. Also, Fugazi wrote, performed, and recorded two mid-tempo instrumental numbers for this album and EP, and no other punk band would dare experiment that much. And the music itself? Constantly engaging, surprising, and enjoyable, even after repeat listenings. Things still manage to take you off guard after the hundredth time you put it on. On the title track, when Ian MacKaye and Guy Piccioto scream "One two three! Go!" The slow, precise attack of "Blueprint." The sudden burst from your speakers of "You wanted everything! You needed everything!" on "Greed." The melancholy "Shut the Door" that comes out of left field to disturb you a little with its lyrical image. The near-chanting of "Song #1" ("Song Number One is not a 'fuck you!' song, I'll save that thought until later on..."), along with an intelligent use of profanity in a song that serves a purpose without being novelty. Everything adds up to make a huge sound that one wouldn't expect a bunch of punk rock kids from D.C. would be able to create. And this is why Repeater + 3 Songs will always be the one for the history books.

Fugazi: Steady Diet of Nothing Fugazi's third full-length also has the distinction of being their shortest, both in total length and number of songs, and also is possibly the most important album of their career. Before, the guitars of this band had just been an instrument, and overnight they became more like a weapon. This was the album where the true expermentation of this band was realized, and they were set apart from their peers. Sure, Fugazi had started a band, a record label, hell, a whole scene, on their punk rock roots. But they were always musically similar to the other bands in DC before. Now came the kicker. An album comprised of strange compositions, waves of sonic feedback leaping out of your speakers, percussion thumping away your ear drums, and a whole new breed of lyric writing and vocal delivery. This album also bridged the gap between their last "traditional" work, Repeater, and their more experimental material that began on In On the Kill Taker. Words cannot express how terrific or important the music and this album are, so I think I'll just leave you with this parting thought: Hear it for yourself, it's the only way you'll ever understand where a lot of the bands you like are coming from.