Last year 225 reported on the state of our city as an attractive concert venue for primetime touring bands. The outlook is less than
bright. But whereas we need more than a little freshening up, some new heels, maybe a low-cut top, to reel in Beck or The Killers, for
an industrio-political city our size, with an arts and music scene as small and as close to New Orleans as it is, Baton Rouge fosters more creative and worthwhile musicians of our own than we have any right to.
So here is a short stack of 2006 albums we think are worth picking up and saving to a playlist on your iPod. Label it LOCAL, and put it in all caps. Besides, how much can you really know about your city if you don’t listen to the music it makes?
Terror of the Sea – Terror of the Sea
(Apocalypse the Apocalypse Records)
The first thing you hear is a weird, vibrating sound like a giant subterranean engine turning over, then a series of bone-shaking drum cracks and finally a stream of loud, very loud killer guitar riffs.
This is how you know you are about to experience Terror of the Sea, whether live or on their stellar self-titled debut CD that we judge to be Baton Rouge’s best of 2006.
Terror of the Sea consists of Brett Jones (vocals and guitar), Joshua White (drums and percussion), Leslie Cox (guitar and bass) and Robbie Howton (bass and guitar). Their music harkens back to the urgent, skeletal sound of bands like Mission of Burma and The Minutemen, working in the teen anthem dynamics of Mudhoney and Nirvana to add some flesh.
The band claims a healthy dose of The Who and Fugazi in their daily soundtrack, as well as more underground fair like Brooklyn
psychedelic rockers Akron/Family.
In a time where many bands try to create a crystalline sound, Terror of the Sea keeps things very loose and open to evolution. “To us, our songs are the sum of all our individual parts, and the songs change as the individual parts do,” the band says collectively. The seven songs on its debut reflect this organic restlessness. Back in September, we said of it, “Terror of the Sea’s guitars hit you like the sunlight while driving, either glaring off the chrome or flickering through the trees.” It’s a record that demonstrates both
an innate sense of good hooks and a wild streak, pushing those ideas into uncharted territory.
Their music is loud and designed to be played loud. “We know how to empty a bar,” says the band. Folks that can brave the gale force of the band can see their passion and dedication. “There’s always been really great stuff that pushes music, art, whatever forward and challenges people to think critically.”
Terror of the Sea will spend the first part of the year recording a new album at Apocalypse the Apocalypse studios, and conjuring up more of that unmistakable thunder.
terrorofthesea.com
Essential Tracks: “Awful Eyes (You’ve Got Something),” “Counterfeit”
Recommended if you like: Fugazi, Neil Young’s feedback albums, heat lightning.
Bones – Disconnected
(independent)
Though technically an expanded re-release of the blues punk duo’s late 2005 EP of the same name, Disconnected is stuffed with enough unseemly, motel mattress buzz and suicide growls to take the dare here. Not for the faint of heart, this album is muckraking at its dirtiest. And all it takes is the gut-charging sucker punch of Michael Miller’s blunt force bass and Scott Campbell’s primal drums to bring these deeds from the dark side of the road into gawd-awful light, stitched hastily on the very brink of Miller’s smirking voice, all wounded bravura and whiskey. By the swinging delta come-on of “Sister Mary Freedom” to the bloody hiccup squalor of “Dead Friend,” one thing is frightfully clear—from our bones, there is no escape.
bonestheband.com
Essential tracks: “Sister Mary Freedom,” “Tragedy of You”
Recommended if you like: The White Stripes, Deadboy & The Elephantmen, watching Falling Down after a rough day at the office.
Lil Boosie – Bad Azz
(Universal Records)
If any musician in Baton Rouge had a good year in 2006, it was Torrence Hatch, better known by his childhood nickname Lil Boosie.
After successful collaborations, “Zoom,” the breakout single from his major label debut Bad Azz created a YouTube sensation of people doing “The Ratchet” a dance inspired by the song, as well as profiles in The Source and The New York Times. Bad Azz keeps up Boosie’s menacing street thug persona, exploding on the first track with “When Ya Gonna Drop” and even mentioning in “My Struggle” his poverty-stricken family “walkin’ to the Weinerschnitzel, we was short on a special.”
Boosie may not be the most groundbreaking rapper out there, but these stories are as hard as the streets many of us fear to tread in our own city.
trillent.com
Essential Tracks: “My Struggle,” “Set It Off”
Recommended if you like: T.I., Pimp C, the hard truth.
Slobot – Fainting in Coils
(independent)
When Slobot first emerged, its buoyant synthesizer and guitar-filled pop songs let a little sunshine into Baton Rouge bars, but all things evolve, and so has Slobot. Fainting in Coils finds the band on sturdier feet, with Kevin Hurstell’s guitar prowess and vocals taking an even role with Sherie Duhon’s synth and effervescent personality.
The band still has the bubblegum punch they had before but more pointed themes enter in the chant of “It escalates into a war” on
“Captain of the Patrol Team Raises the Flag,” and the frenzy that ensues in live favorite “Dave Fell in the Chocolate Box” translates
well to the new record. It’s a smarter, more determined Slobot, half runaway Macy’s parade balloon, half Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man,”
laughing its way to world domination.
slobot.net
Essential tracks: “Dave Fell in the Chocolate Box,” “Airplane Bars”
Recommended if you like: Sleater-Kinney, the Nuggets box sets, pillow fights that get ugly.
We Landed On The Moon! – We Landed On The Moon!
(independent)
You’re really attractive when you’re angry, you know that? Like this most clichéd comeback, lead singer Melissa Eccles’ voice registers even greater when she’s really letting someone have it. “Trying not to blow your cover—you’re such a hitless wonder!” she aggressively exclaims on irony-lined rocker “Lovely.” For a band writing music that tickles the underground tunes popular back when they were still in jammies, the steel and glass hooks on this synthesizer-heavy debut remain both catchy and believable. The band’s sound looks forward, even if it’s often leaning back. One can imagine Jennifer Beals pounding her feet into the dance floor to new wave send-up “Everything Is Fine,” but Zach Braff and his next ingénue could be crushing on each other to the very same song.
welandedonthemoon.com
Essential tracks: “One of a Kind,” “Lovely”
Recommended if you like: Concrete Blonde, Kate Bush, Jim Carrey one-liners.
