A complete departure from Daniel Anderson's claim to fame, Idiot Pilot, The Ghost And The Grace delivers a folksy brand of facing life, death, and in between.

It was hard for me to sink my teeth into Behold! A Pale Horse for a lot of reasons — 99.9% of which didn't pertain to the album. But, every once in a while I would pop the disc into my CD Player and give it a go. (That's right, an actual CD player!) My first reaction was that I loved the first track, What Have I Done? Seemingly a lament of a hearse driver — it ends with my favorite thing in music: a bleak mantra stopped too abruptly for comfort. As the album carried on, though, later tracks tended to fade back and get lost in the backdrop of whatever I was doing. However, soon it seemed that with every listen a new song would stick out to me — making me consult the back of the CD so I could make a mental note. I soon realized that my initial reaction was due to my inability to sit still for 53 minutes and 43 seconds and the album proved to be an elegant, somewhat gritty composition of fine instrumentation and vocal tonalities.

The wide range of instruments (all played by Daniel) is a feat in itself. But, the amount of range within how those instruments are presented is another. On Behold! you'll get pumping tracks of energy such as A Pretty Good Place To Start as well as calmer bedtime tracks like Antlion and After All. These different soundscapes give lots of room for new instruments to shine — hammering in the departure that is this album. Every little toy — be it horn, piano, banjo, or string — gives each song something special all the while being tied together with harmony and catchy, examining lyrics.

I think the lyrics really do give something special to Behold! Songs like How Far You Go, My Shell Is Broken, and Genetics are not only pleasurable to listen to but beg for the listener to dissect and really throw themselves into the music. Each track has that quality which makes for your favorites to be quite indiscernible. Behold!'s closing track, After All, however can be called out as one of my favorites — seemingly paralleling What Have I Done? with its repetitious ending. The applause following that sounds like it's coming from a lonely back porch in the bayou is certainly well deserved.

Altogether, you have to hand it to any artist who throws him- or herself into the threshold of a new genre. Often times you won't see side projects like this — so able to be different. Too many times an alternative effort will just be a warped replica of the previous. Take Handsome, a project of Hemet's Peter Mengede or Fever Ray, project of The Knife's Karin Dreijer Andersson. While I love those albums I can't help but think they did it for no other reason than a new name.

But, Daniel completes his shift well. With Idiot Pilot being a heavier rock-electronica fusion it was hard to expect something as different as this. The album still dons the occasional and familiar spastic scream but overall this is a true folk effort and a great gasp of fresh air from an already fresh artist. Behold!

I'll keep this short and sweet because I just needed to write something and I've been exhausting this disc ever since I got it.

When I saw Big Business open up for The Melvins I went to the merch booth to pick up a cool shirt where I also couldn't resist the urge to get their new Tour EP III. Well, I'm glad I gave into the merch booth because this EP is amazing. The two new tracks, Cold Lunch and The Drift, hit hard and offer a good glimpse into where their next album is going. They also pull off a well-done cover of Shocking Blue's Send Me A Postcard. What I like about the cover is how Jared Warren doesn't change the lyrics to assume his gender (Shocking Blue had a female singer) when he sings "How can I make you understand? I wanna be a woman." And in the third verse when that lyric is repeated he instead leaves a gap, "I wanna be a __man." It's by every means a chance for them to do a fun cover but things like that show audiences that they still have a consciousness about what they're doing.

My favorite track is The Drift which, they performed at the show. It starts with a droning, fist-pumping beat as Coady Willis smacks the drums waiting for Warren's bass licks — soon to be joined by the guitar of newcomer Toshi Kasai. It's just a hard-hitting song that maintains it's power while still achieving Big Business' token sludge sound.

It's just too bad you can't buy it aside from the tour (yet) but when you can I highly suggest you do buy it. And, of course, when the next album comes out I have no doubt I'll suggest that too. Maybe I'll even review it here.

Seamless. That's how I would describe the newest release from The Mars Volta.

The thing I love about The Mars Volta is how they always strive to create a progressive musical interweave between all the tracks on an album. Sometimes I don't know where one track ends and another begins... I like that. I also love that they create albums around one central theme. Many artists do this — and of course by "this" I mean the ever-pursued concept album. Some artists succeed while others do not. In my opinion The Mars Volta have always succeeded substantially and in the case of The Bedlam In Goliath I think it is their best yet; surpassing both De-Loused In The Comatorium and Frances The Mute.

Let me say that I remain content in my long-affirmed decision that Frances The Mute is wholly their best album but, Bedlam is far more conceptually solid than any album thus far. The story of De-Loused was, to me, like watching a Paul Thomas Anderson film. Stuff is happening, it's interesting but, it doesn't seem to matter until the fantastic end (i.e. Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt). Frances The Mute was executed just the way it should've been; confusingly unified and descriptive but devoid of any conclusion. That was of course because it's story was not really a story but a catalogue of events and characters. In Bedlam I feel you get the best of both worlds. It has both the unification of narrative and a powerful ending. Not to mention great music.

Within the first two tracks I can detect hints of the horn arrangements of Frances The Mute and moaning guitar stylings of Amputechture. Sometimes repeating rhythms throughout multiple albums is a warning sign of a "one-note-band" but, in The Mars Volta's case it's done with such consciousness and method that it just further conveys their sense of synthesis. Being their most aggressive album yet (proclaimed by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez) I'm impressed with it's attention to detail and variety. One of the reasons I admire Frances The Mute so much is because of it's colorful palette so it's nice to hear the suggestions of Funk on the track Ilyena and vaguely... vaguely reminiscent licks of Speed Metal on Wax Simulacra. There are so many blends on this album all held together with an established musical style and continued experimentation.

The one-up this album does have over the rest is that it's by far the most intriguing. Laced and laden with real-life curses that overshadowed the band after Rodriguez-Lopez purchased a Ouija board from the Holy Land — The Bedlam In Goliath gives us a recount of their hex as a way to loosen it's grip on them. You really have to read the whole thing if you want to delve deep into it because I can't explain it all in this review. Or you can play the online game. I recommend both.

But, I digress — The Mars Volta is a great band and they make great albums. You should expect nothing less with The Bedlam In Goliath. Done and done.

A few years ago I was listening to this band called Surrounded By Lions who hail from Bellevue, WA — not too far from my hometown of Everett, WA. Surrounded By Lions uniquely blended Pop and Rock within the voice of James Hill whose pipes could produce both a striking calmness and some fantastic yelping. Evolution Vol. 1 was (and still is) one of those albums I'd play whenever I didn't know what else to listen to — it'll always be there for me in times of need. A while after Vol. 1 they released Evolution Vol. 2 — also very impressive.

Then, like many bands barely out of high school who don't hit the big-time, they soon parted ways for college and/or other projects. One member, Kyle O'Quin, went on to form Kay Kay And His Weathered Underground while James Hill focused on his solo career. So far he's put out four full-length recordings — all of which you can download for free on his website! — and all of which I have thoroughly enjoyed. The "World On Fire!" E.P. is no different — by way of me enjoying it. But, musically — although nicely done and fresh — it leaves me wanting to backtrack to his previous works.

The main qualm I have with this 4-song cut is that it completely abandons his acoustic aesthetic. For me, it is absent of that conversational quality that he had with his guitar. This is most evident in the re-recording of a lovely duet entitled, That's Love. The original recording was a gorgeously intimate lyrical conversation between Terra Brigando (who is replaced by Amy Rockwell in the new version) and James Hill. Not since Almost Paradise had a duet seemed so powerful to me.* Adding the piano, drums and strings took away those elements that made the previous version so great. Instead of listening to two people connect musically I felt I was listening to two people simply record together. The other revisited song, It's My Day, also feels foreign compared to it's original while Something's Wrong and Nothing's Gonna Change, the other tracks, provide a good listen but gain little momentum compared to his one man, one guitar endeavors.

I hate to come down so hard on this album because it really is good, it's just not what I'm used to. Don't get me wrong, I am all for change in music (Bob Dylan going electric, The Beatles going psychedelic, The Deftones going White Pony and even William Shatner making a comeback) but this evolution just feels unnecessary and I believe James and his guitar could have such a beautiful future as a monogamous pair.