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Alien Skull:
Goin 2 Hawaii
Preconceived notions can sometimes make or break an album or rather, how strongly a band disagrees with my own preconceived notions of their music, based on such great signifiers as: their name, their press notes, their artwork, and their own descriptions of their genre and music. So when I received an album by the band Alien Skull, I instantly knew I wouldnt like it, and wrote several nasty emails in my head to my editor, thanking her yet again for another coaster for my table. Alien Skull? Let me guess a hardcore version of 311? Tripped-out artsy drug rock? Blips and death metal? So what if Im a subjective, prejudging jerkass? I am occasionally proven wrong. The thing to understand about Alien Skull, the thing I now understand, is that as far as I can tell, there are actually two different bands on this disk. The Alien, a minimalist electronica ensemble, forces moods out of their heads, filtered through their instruments and captured on tracks like Terminal West, Shaka Luau and On First Seeing the Famous Banzai Pipeline. The Skull, on the other hand, on the other body, in the other country, is basically a modern-day Simon and Garfunkel travel-ballad acoustic guitar poetry presentation. So how do these two fit together? Hmmm Well, its like this: on first listen, expecting the worst, I was dumbfounded by the opening track; Terminal West, with its haunting minimal melodic fade in and fade out, fade in and fade out. I equipped my this is amazing music smile and really let myself get into it. It was, therefore, a shock to the system when the next track came in like Jeff Tweedy and Ryan Adams at a bar in Nashville. WTF? For their two separate genres, Alien Skull shows much talent, much potential, and much passion. Lyrically speaking, the Skull tacks are not much for me (note: the band does not refer to their two separate ventures as Alien and Skull nor do they even consider them as two and separate think of it as a reviewers humor/signifying device). I lost my taste for Alt-Country after Adams sold his soul to New York City. But from what I remember of those heartbroken days, all the fixins are here for the Skull tracks to work: semi-whiney poetic lyrics, soft acoustic rock-outs, and an underlying sense of romantic cynicism. But the Alien tracks, though fewer of them exist, show a much stronger, much more intelligent side to writing songs. The Alien tracks scream of original, scream of honesty, and yet scream silently, with as few voices as possible. As it stands, Alien Skull needs to decide which way to go. And if they choose to put out an album consisting entirely of their musical interludes, sign me up for the first copy.
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