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[pmcd9]

Nina, a cute Asian girl from my office, turned me on to this band.  I've tried to like it, but it's not happening.  There is a lot to like, it's got big crunchy guitars, and symphonic backing (as an aside, I think strings are seriously underused in heavy rock, they are perfect together), and on the whole they rock hard.  But where i'm having trouble is the sluggishness of the beat (they are hella jamming, but doing it at 80 bpm), and the singers whiny Tori Amos voice and the sometimes hokey lyrics.  Overall the bad outweighs the good.

~Paul

[Choop]

Overall the bad outweighs the good.

Agreed a thousand times over. They would be better if they bought some songs (instead of just writing variations on the same song), and explored the female singer's true vocal range, instead of letting her just hang out in the "wail-and-annoy" range.

[slink]

I don't think the singer has a great vocal range, being a Glaswegian estate girl.
The band are blatantly a rip-off of such bands as Theatre of Tragedy (Evanescence's first single in particular).
They're just not doing anything original, and are turning being a goth/rock/erm, not much else, band, into pure pop. They are taking the place of Linkin Park over here.
They make me as sick as Busted, the pop punk band who just spurted into fame across here, and have been appearing 24/7 on TV.

Ugh.

--
OK. So, maybe I ranted strong there, and I'll explain, so as not to appear as just some opinionated jerk when it comes to music (though I am!).
Evanescence are another in a line of bands who are making it big when they hardly even try, and don't appear to have an ounce of fuck*ng integrity. Now I have just about come to terms with the pop/boy band stuff on this level, but with it happening to rock I just can't help but feel the death of the genre that I have been most involved with since my youth, when it was altogether a far better genre on the whole.
What really worries me is that after I finish putting in three years work on the album that I am at the moment, and god knows how much money and hopefully originality, I may not manage to make any kind of living from it. And with people like them managing to, that feels horribly unfair.
But... I guess we'll see.
And I am an opinionated jerk when it comes to music, since it is what I do.

[slink]

Oh, and if you want something that rocks, try The Mars Volta album I mentioned the other day.
It is an album that from start to finish is superb, and leaves you breathless. It is fantastically experimental too, with elements of the kind of thing King Crimson did back in the 60/70s.
It's produced by Rick Rubin, which goes to show the kind of quality of production you can expect, and it's not overproduced at all. (Rubin being one of my top ten producers of all time).
For interest sake, they are made up of the two main members of At the Drive-In, who are too rock to be Emo but were always included on lists. The other two formed Sparta who I saw supporting QotSA, and they sucked fuck*ng ass! May not have been quite that bad, they may have been partially suffering support syndrome (although I've seen support acts who broke through it by being that good) but they did suck.

[pmcd9]

Oh, and if you want something that rocks, try The Mars Volta album I mentioned the other day.

I totally love ATDI, but have had a hard time getting into TMV.  I haven't given it really a good enough chance yet.  I bought their album 2 days before leaving for England and listened to it 2 times while rushing about.  Not the proper way to get into a new band.  I did find it interesting, but it's too complex to get into without an effort.  However I have yet to revisit it and give it a proper chance to grow on me.

A little TMV story, I was planning on seeing them play in London, which is why I bought the CD at that time.  TMV haven't really caught on here, so I didn't bother with an advanced ticket (I should have), but apparently they are blowing up in London because the concert was sold out and the line was literally around the block.  I could have bought a ticket from one of the dozens of scalpers, but I didn't want to stand in a line because I was starting to fade (my body clock thought it was 4am).  While I was hanging around watching the crowd a dude sidled up to me and said "hey, you want some weed."  "No, sorry man" I replied.  He nodded.  "You used to smoke didn't you?"  "Yeah, but not in a long time."  About a minute passed then he came back around and said "Were you wanting to buy a ticket to The Mars Volta?"  I said "I was gonna, but I don't want to pay what you scalpers are asking (30 pound)."  Now is when it gets weird.  He said "I can get you in the back door for 10 pound."  BTW, the box office price was 12 pound.  I just smiled and said "no thank you" and walked away.  I'm pretty sure i've seen that movie (what movie was it) and it would have probably tainted my travel experience if I got myself rolled in a dark London alley.

Back to topic.  I'll be giving TMV a spin this week.

~Paul

[slink]

Not the proper way to get into a new band.

True, and especially not a band whose album you must really listen to from start to finish while doing nothing much else.
It's very experimental and doesn't follow patterns (verse/chorus/verse &c.) throughout, so it just seems like it's all over the place and you're missing it all if you're not paying attention.

Oh and I have to add Frank Zappa to the list of people bits of it remind me of - notbaly the last section of Roulette Dares has a section of heavily reverbed guitar that reminds me of Watermelon in Easter Hay off Joe's Garage!
Which kicks ass!

[AugustWest]

A little green rosetta?

[slink]

A little green roseeeeeteeeeeee!

[AugustWest]

It makes a muffin sweetee.

[Carlos del Vaca]

Slink or pmcd9:  how does The Mars Volta compare to At the Drive In?  

Evanescence needs to lose the shouty guy.  I hate bands with shouty guys.  Look, you can't rap, you don't have to rap, maybe you could just be a guitar tech or something.

[CortJstr]

This could be completely wrong but the radio dj here said Evanessence started as a christian band a la POD or Creed. Then when the first single hit went out of there way to publically denounce that to lose the christian-band stigma.

I dunno if it's true but it's pretty funny.

[Limmo]

Look, you can't rap, you don't have to rap, maybe you could just be a guitar tech or something.

I think this could be the slogan for a great public service campaign.

[slink]

Slink or pmcd9:  how does The Mars Volta compare to At the Drive In?  

I think they're way better,
I've come to like ATDI through TMV, but they're far less constrained. Cedric and Omar pretty much said that the last ATDI album they were just doing their previous albums with better production, but then with TMV they made the aldum they wanted to, and it kinda shows. Particularly when you hear what Sparta - the guitarrist and drummer - went on to do, which is... well, kind liks ATDI without the good bits.
I think I can pretty much live with the one ATDI album, but TMV I am most definitely getting their follow-up!
And damn is it fine. I listened to it again last night, very late, and it, despite my loving it on first listen, gets better thereafter too.