ARCH 17.2005
The Golden Republic
The Golden Republic
"This is rock-and-roll and I know it won't hurt
me." "I don't say this to re-assure myself that rock music won't kill me, rather the Golden Republic's front man Ben Grimes says it on "NYC," a track off the KC bands self-titled debut album. But there are three reasons why I could conceivably say it to describe The Golden Republic.
it to describe the classroom.
It is in fact rock-and-roll, in its trust
form. Hints of new wave and '60s doo-
wop soul aside, The Golden Republic
is straightforward rock music and there
is no esoteric sub-genre classification (i.e.
post-post punk) that could be used to
describe it.
Recorded rock music is, as a general rule, not physically dangerous and The Golden Republic is no exception. Live though, rock-and-roll can be deadly, as at Altamont and at The Who's 1979 Cincinnati gig, but in both cases it was people who killed other people, not rock music that killed people.
The Golden Republic poses no threat to emotional or developmental stability. There are no subliminal messages (that I know of) on The Golden Republic, and in fact, the album promotes a healthy sense of social etiquette, as on "Not My Kind"
when Grimes sings, "You came to this party to shake your butt," eschewing a crass posterior reference.
For these reasons and others, we should be proud that a local Midwestern band is set to take on the nation with their Astral-weeks debut. Some bands, 311 and Slipknot for example, have presented the Midwest as a hotbed for garbage-funk rap-rock and "lhate-my-parents-and-my-hometown" nu-metal. But joining Omaha contemporaries like Cursive and The Faint, The Golden Republic will aid in dispelling the idea that our region suffers from a dearth of creativity.
from a death of creativity.
In fact, in addition to putting out a healthy, creative record from the Midwest, The Golden Republic denigrate the coastal music scenes. Grimes laments the fabrication of music on "Robots" with lines like, "When we stop with buying this trash then we'll find our souls." A serious statement for a serious issue.
ment for a serious issue.
The Golden Republic is a solid, straightforward record. There are few surprises and no traoops to fall through. The band could have experimented more and deviated from their hook-filled honest rocking, but we'll leave that to their future releases, which hopefully will be many.
Grade: B+
—Dave Ruigh
Cephalic Carnage Anomalies
Here's some tips for those of you out there looking to start a metal band. Don't sing about how you much miss your girlfriend or how your back hurts from head banging too much, it makes you sound old and just plain not evil.
Cephalic Carnage writes some downright challenging lyrics such as this little gem on "Counting the Days;" "Getting stoned/We are one with our fans/Feeling great/europe rules/As does the metal world." As does, indeed gentlemen. Well said. See guys, the thing about death-metal bands in Europe is that they burn churches down and live in castles, which is way more scary than weed could ever be. Take note.
There are times when you come across certain lyrics that really make you question your own life. Cephalic Carnage finds ways to do this with such lines as, "Kicking people is bad/People should never do it."
The album climaxes on the song "Kill for Weed," where they talk about police who stole their weed. "There's no justice for me/Our system let me down/My life I must defend/So now I'll kill for weed." I don't promote murder. But, he's not going to actually kill anyone, because he's stoned.
The artwork for Anomalies consists of
stock metal album creepiness — babies with detached heads, dudes in coffins and even a "photograph of actual ghost," according to the liner notes. What really sucks is that the instrumentation on this thing is good. These guys really can thrash. It's just hard to pretend that the guy isn't singing about weed instead of talking about cool stuff like killing goats and drinking blood. Give me some real metal dudes. Please.
Grade: C-
Ryan McBee