Archive for October, 2009


Mac Davis: What was your first feeling about the album on listening to it for the first time?
Steve Brand: I was hoping for something better, to be honest. It felt like it was missing some really catchy guitar riffs.
Mac: I felt like the entire thing sucked balls, and I’ve always been so “I love Muse”.
Austin R: I thought it was amazing. So far this is the only album where I like all the songs on the first listen, except for “I Belong to You”. I hated that one.
muse-the-resistanceMac: I felt betrayed, but I didn’t want to tell anybody because they’d say I wasn’t a true fan. Every other album I would listen to every song but one. For The Resistance, I now only really like one song.
Austin: which one?
Mac: “Exogenesis” Part 1. I love it.
Austin: I love the whole of “Exogenesis”.
Mac: I think it is very similar to “Blackout”, from Absolution. String atmospherics, long moans from Matt, and epic kinda-slow guitar solo
Steve: “Exogenesis” was something I was expecting more out of, too. I heard Bellamy was working on it for years, and I was expecting some long, mind-blowing arrangement with some guitar along side it.
Mac: Yeah, but “Exogenesis” definitely didn’t let me down. Just because it’s a long time doesn’t mean it’s good.
Steve: Yeah, it’s not a bad song/set of songs, but there was hype to it before it was released. I probably would have found it quite impressive had it not been for that.
Mac: I think they were all kind of disjointed. I like albums like Absolution; All the songs kinda go together, even though there are so many different instruments and sounds.
Austin: With a central concept?
Mac: With a musical sound that flows all the way through, yes. “Uprising” is so different from the rest of the songs. “Exogenesis” as well. “United States of Eurasia” would go with “Exogenesis” in style, if it were not for the humorous chorus.
Steve: The Resistance did kind of feel jumpy. It felt like a well-performed B-side compilation.
Mac: It’s like they threw together a bunch of songs instead of making an album.
Austin: It’s more lyrically linked than anything.
Mac: Oh, perhaps. It’s very possible there was some storyline in his head.

Uprising

muse-vmaMac: I don’t know if we could say anything about it that hasn’t been already said. Probably most discussed track. It’s cool and poppy. A lot of people can chant it and feel good. It has nice synth-bass goin’ on.
Steve: It’s a good choice for a single. There are some backing vocals during the guitar wail sometimes that sounds like “so come on” that I didn’t really like.
Mac: I was surprised that he could sing it the way it was on the album. When I watched it on the VMAs it was exactly the same. Pretty simple song.
Austin: I believe that the entire intro was very catchy. Dr. Who synths, thumping bass, good ryththm. It sounds like it’ll be a good song for live performances. I think every song on here would be. Muse just does them so well

Resistance

Austin: The only thing that bothered me about the song was the pre-chorus. I eventually came to like it, though.
Mac: “Resistance” kinda feels like the real beginning of the album, with “Uprising” only fitting lyrically, as you put it. Resistance feels like the beginning of a Muse album. I really liked the piano riff.
Steve: I really liked the drumming at the beginning. The catchy element of the drums leaves for most of the song, though.
Austin: If they kept the song at the same tempo as the verses. This would be my absolute favorite. The pre-chorus is just a bit too much of a leap
Mac: How’s that go? “It could be wrong, could be wrong”?
Austin: yea
Mac: Oh, I always hate when bands do stuff like that. I would have been much more satisfied if that was completely removed and there was just more emptiness. Also, there’s a backing vocal atmospheric track during that pre-chorus I don’t like so much either.

Undisclosed Desires

Steve: I’m finding myself liking this more and more with every listen. The lyrics feel a bit corny at times, though.
Austin: It’s the anti-muse song. Chris playing slap, Dom using a drum machine, and Matt NOT playing an instrument. The song is a bit too “R’n'B” for my tastes but it’s a good change of pace.
Mac: When it started, I was thinking “holy shit, it’s R’n'B”.
Steve: I wonder if they change this song up a lot when they play it live, or if they even intend to play it live at all.
Austin: I think Matt plays a keytar for this live.

United States of Eurasia (+Collateral Damage)

muse-lasersAustin: Queen, Highlander, Lawrence of Arabia.
Mac: I love the intro. The piano on this track is my favorite on the album
Steve: I’m stuck between this one and “Guiding Light” as my favorite from this album.
Austin: The “sia”s took a bit of getting used to.
Mac: I really liked the Arabic influence on the piano and drums in the lead up to the midsection, and then again. Whatever that’s called… Interchorus?
Steve: Oh, yeah, those high notes were a bit goofy at first. It was one of those things done for musical purproses, rather than bringing out a certain part in the vocals.
Austin: Yeah… They just sounded a bit alien at first. All of the background noise in the piano solo was a nice touch.
Mac: Yes, expertly done.
Steve: Yeah, the flyover was a nice way to end it.
Austin: And a nice transition.

Guiding Light

Austin: I think Dom’s drumming on “Guiding Light” was very good.
Mac: The guitar solo in “Guiding Light” was probably the best on the album. Sounded like it was out of an 80s arena rock song.
Austin: But it was one of like, what, 3? The solo sounded very reminiscent of a Queen solo.
Mac: Ah, quite so.
Steve: There were a lot of elements in this album that seemed Queen-inspired.
Austin: I think I saw somewhere where someone had called this song the “Invincible” of The Resistance, and alot of things were 1984 inspired, too.
Mac: I enjoy this song because it gives me some kind of color. This song is very gold.
Austin: it’s one of those songs where you feel good after hearing it.

Unnatural Selection

Austin: Best live performance potential.
Steve: I think it had the weakest lyrics on the album. Musically fantastic song, but the lyrics weren’t as complicated or descriptive as the other songs.
Austin: I think that this song will end up being a massive fan favorite.
Mac: “Unnatural Selection” is going to be great if they put out a second HAARP. All these songs are.

MK Ultra

muse-wembly-stadiumSteve: Another great Muse song intro. The guitar tone is great.
Austin: The lyrics are almost like calling out an oppressive leader.
Steve: The “They’re breaking through” section of the song seemed to be dragged out too far. It would have worked had they written more than just “They’re breaking through” for that part.
Austin: The fast part after that seemed a bit thrown in, too. This song seems more like an “Assassin” sequel than anything.
Mac: What? “MK Ultra”? I don’t get that at all.
Austin: I mean in terms of riffs and stuff like that.
Mac: “Assassin” was really hard and in your face. I don’t get that at all from “MK Ultra”. Even the parts that are supposed to be like that.
Steve: Yeah, I don’t see how it sounds like “Assassin”, either…
Austin: Maybe it’s just me then.

I Belong To You (+Mon Cœur S’ouvre à ta Voix)

Mac: “I Belong to You” DOES sound like a past song though, and it’s probably on there for the same reason. Well, maybe it doesn’t so much, but “Feeling Good” was put on the album for his girlfriend. Special version, yo, and dedicated.
Austin: “I Belong To You” was the weakest in my opinion
Mac: I thought it was about equal. It’s just a different style.
Austin: His French wasn’t bad though. I actually wish they’d put in “Glorious” instead of this. It would fit in a lot more.
Steve: It was an interesting addition, but it made it feel even more like a collection of songs, rather than an album.
Mac: Yep, yet another one. First we go from a pop synth-based and a song with an awesome audience chant to “Resistance”, and then we got the R’n'B thing going on. Then romantic piano, and some Queen thing. And there’s “I Belong to You”, then the awesome symphony.

Exogenesis (as a whole)

Austin: fantastic. not nearly the same effect when you listen to them out of order though
Steve: Yeah, and they could have been made one track to avoid that. It’s odd how they put two sets of songs together and then split up this one.
Mac: I thought it was pretty good, but only the first song blows my mind continually.
Austin: Matt’s vocals are almost a callback to “Microcuts” on that part.
Mac: Yeah, I love “Microcuts”. I’d quite enjoy the song if much more of the lyrics were not really words, but I listen to Sigur Rós all day.
Austin: At least this track leads to a similar end to the album. It’s epic.
Steve: I can see them playing these live with songs in between the parts as a medley. I’d love to hear that.
Mac: I’d like to see a lot of improvising too.
Austin: This whole track will be mind-blowing at stadiums.
Steve: Bellamy is a great improviser, I doubt he’d pass up the opportunity.

Final thoughts on the album as a whole:

the-band-museMac:  Technically, it’s quite good, but I don’t really “feel” any of it… Except that one song, like I said.
Austin: Just a very strange order to the tracks.
Steve: How do think this album as a whole stacks up to their previous releases?
Mac: Horrible, but you know I already said that.
Austin: It sounds good. It has elements from all the other albums and combines them.
Mac: Only thing worse were all the Muse demos that never got on any albums. I wanted more of “Space Dementia” and “Hoodoo”.
Steve: I think Black Holes blows this album away any day, but it’s a decent release.
Mac: Definitely.
Austin: You have to remember, this was their first venture into self-producing.
Mac: I don’t think that has anything to do with at all.
Austin: Of course it’ll have it’s hiccups.
Mac: Do you think the production itself had faults? It was probably the best I’ve seen from them.
Austin: It’s just that they didn’t have a professional producer. It lets them put exactly what they want without someone mucking it up. But no, I don’t think the production was bad at all. It was good for being self-produced.
Steve: When there’s a professional producer in the studio, there’s always someone around to give a second opinion, I assume. A producer may have suggested more piano on a track, or a longer intro/outtro. The band only has so many critics before the album is finalized and released.
Austin: I’m just sad there won’t be any B-sides for this album. Those tend to be some their better tracks.
Steve: B-sides would have been nice, yes.
Austin: Matt straight up said something along the lines of “We only recorded what’s on the album. nothing else.”
Steve: Hopefully they’ll have a small recording session for an EP in the near future.
Austin: I doubt that. they usually wait about a year and a half to get back in the studio.
Mac: This album may have sold moderately well on the Muse name, but it was a flop.

Actually, it was written by Shane/Malkmusian.

Captain Beefheart: who in the hell is that man, anyhoo? Is he just the brainchild of abstract artist Don Van Vliet, who wanted to play free-form saxophone over disjointed blues-rock rehearsed under harsh conditions? Or is he his own entity, aging at an unhealthy rate from his chubby youthful demeanor of the Trout Mask Replica era to his middle-aged visage at the end of his career? To me, none of that matters; he’s not even a student of Frank Zappa for that matter. To me, Captain Beefheart is Captain Beefheart, nothing else, not even the mentally-unwell man who made a masterpiece out of abstract poetry and the mature fanatic of David Lynch who made the aforementioned director star in his profile, “Some Yo-Yo Stuff”, in 1994. Captain Beefheart is something different every album, even if his personalities are just derivatives of the straightforward alternative blues-rock in Safe as Milk. Yet, I should not focus on his well-known albums, much to the chagrin of every music critic in the business who compares his Reprise-era recordings to the jazz-punk of David “D.” Boon’s Minutemen. Instead, one of his bleakest and more radio-friendly albums, Ice Cream for Crow, is the focus.

ice-cream-for-crowThe album starts off with the title track, which made a negative impression on me the first time I listened to it. At that time, I wanted to laugh more at Beefheart’s antics than I did his musical prowess, so I dismissed the song as tepid cowpunk and discovered the alternative boogie of “Electricity”, from his first album. However, subsequent listens made me realize that “Ice Cream…” was, in fact, a very Beefheartian song, containing abstract lyrics about Don’s childhood and having a hypnotic slide guitar played by Gary Lucas to hook me in. I thought this would be the only shining track from the album until I went to the second track, “The Host, The Ghost, The Most Holy-O”, which blew my mind that Beefheart could make his typical brand of psychotic blues-rock in a commercial style, more free than his Clear Spot recordings. The lyrics, which were about Don’s re-imagining of Homer’s Greek epic poetry, also intrigued me to listen to the song and go to the next track. What lay in store for me was shocking; “Semi-Multicolored Caucasian” was Captain Beefheart’s greatest tune, yet his most readily-available, despite the off-tune ascending bass line that added more variety to the song. The fact that his growl and abstract poetry really helps the song, as it shows the band in full force.

I was disappointed when I heard “Hey, Garland, I Dig Your Fur Tweed Coat”, which was more or less a typical Beefheart jam that was ultimately forgettable except for the lyrics, which kind of hinted at anthropomorphism and the furry movement to come. The next track, “Evening Bell”, was just Garry noodling a Don-style piano piece on guitar, performing some amazing finger work yet not enough to save this track from the forgettable pile. However, “Cardboard Cutout Sundown”, a perverted look at the Western through Sergio Leone’s eyes, was a return to form, reminding me that Beefheart always shines out to overshadow his filler. As Side One ended, I switched my cassette tape to Side Two and, turning to my comrade Rudy, asked him if he had heard possibly my favorite song of all: “The Past Sure is Tense”. He replied no, but smiled when it came on, as it was not only Beefheart in form, it was Beefheart at his most commercial. Forget about Tragic Band and Clear Spot. “Past…” is where it’s at. It kind of disappointed me to hear the next tracks, ranging from Don talking about his used car (“Poop Hatch ’81″) to comic tales about witch doctors (“The Witch Doctor Life”), as they could not shine up to the greatness of “Past…”. However, “The Thousandth and Tenth Day of the Human Totem Pole”, a song probably about human sacrifice in Native American tribes, pulled us back in and “Skeleton Makes Good”, an Oriental-flavored Beefheartian jam, ended the album on a grand note.

captain beefheartDespite pointing out its flaws and peaks, Ice Cream for Crow remains one of my favorite albums of all time, simply because it’s not anything you’d expect for Beefheart. It’s more cohesive than Trout Mask Replica; more commercial than Lick My Decals Off, Baby; more original than Bluejeans and Moonbeams; and more interesting than Shiny Beast/Bat Chain Puller. However, when compared to albums like Strictly Personal and Doc at the Radar Station, Ice Cream for Crow cannot hold much of a light to those albums. Why? Despite its peaks, Ice Cream… is riddled with filler, albeit interesting filler. It suffers from a lot of the problems of Chicago Transit Authority and Shiver, but it still pulls together through the more memorable tracks to make Beefheart’s last stand to the music business his more victorious stand.

And where is Don now? Living off of paintings, (possibly) wheelchair-bound, and watching a DVD of Inland Empire on his TV in California. His wife was reported as owning her own business, signaling to us that he might not be so well-off as we thought he was. We also found a death file for a Donald G. Van Vliet (born 1940, died 2003) and also for his parents (Sue and Glen Alonzo, who died in 2007 and 1989, respectively), but is Don really dead? Is he? I’d like for him to reply to this and see that others are approving of his other albums other than Trout Mask Replica. Sure, he’s not the greatest musician in the world, but he didn’t need that. He had a dream and it came true: he became God of the music world. An underrated god, but still a god.

triad-coverI knew Triad was going to be unusual before I even heard it. It had six songs on it; two from each band. The cover looked interesting, too, consisting of a nice blend of grays and reds, and it was mirrored down the middle. The CD was entirely black, but had a textured design on it.

red-sparowesThe Red Sparowes have the first and last track on this compilation. They have longer song titles than Fall Out Boy, but at least they’re not corny. “Alone And Unaware, The Landscape Was Transformed In Front of Our Eyes” and “Buildings Began To Stretch Wide Across the Sky, and the Air Filled With a Reddish Glow” were both live tracks, but you could hardly tell because they were mixed without an audience track (and since they have no vocalist, they didn’t have a microphone to capture even the slightest bit of audience sound). They are the most progressive songs from the set, and offer the listener quite the musical journey.

battle-of-miceThe second and third songs were by Battle of Mice, a female fronted alternative, progressive, heavy rock band. The songs “Sleep & Dream” and “The Lamb & The Labrador” are both studio tracks, but are listed as edits; probably shorter versions of the tracks found on the album. Both songs feature some unusual dark lyrics, vocals, and interesting drum patterns. There is a nice variety of guitar tones that really round off the songs well, and could not be pulled off by many bands.

made-out-of-babiesMade Out Of Babies has the same lead singer as Battle of Mice, but there were some considerable differences. “Proud To Drown” and “Gunt” still have the flavor of Julie Christmas’s unique vocal styles, but the band uses less guitar effects. There are occasional backing vocals and a little more distortion on the guitars than Battle of Mice.

It was a good set of songs overall. At times it would get droning, but due to the lack of repetition in the songs, you wouldn’t hear the same dull part in the song again. It reminded me of The Mars Volta at times, but these bands have surely made musical innovations of their own. Triad offers a collection of dark progressive rock samples that doesn’t confront you to too many bands at once and could introduce someone to the sub-genre without overwhelming them.

The Hands of Caravaggio is an astounding album in nearly every possibility of the word. Any other reviewer but me would be quick to call it extremely pretentious, and many could write it off as noise, but it is not.

The Hands of Caravaggio is a dark and surreal Alice-in-Wonderland soundscape where the only sound you think you recognize is the piano, and even that, you have surely never heard played in such way.

233495The album is the product of a collaboration between M.I.M.E.O., the “Music In Movement Electronic Orchestra”, and John Tilbury. This album consists of a one-take performance in what sounds to be a large music hall. The twelve members of M.I.M.E.O. were situated with their instruments around the piano in a Last Supper formation, as an echo to some of the art that inspired this performance. The thirteenth member, Cor Fuhler, is credited as playing “inside piano,” or manipulating the acoustics of Tilbury’s piano in real-time, by damping, plucking, striking, and desounding the piano strings directly.

This is definitely an avant-guarde album. It is abstractionist. There is no narrative. You will not find yourself anticipating what the next note will be, if you can even call anything on this album a note. The most striking and surprising thing about this album is how good it actually sounds. The sounds mix and resonate seemingly against what could actually be possible, given the selection of sounds. There is the barely discernible human mumbling, the overlapping sine waves, the abrasive string scraping. There is the sound of white noise, a large piece of sheet metal being wiggled, and one sound which I can only imagine as the sound of a thousand-eyed worm monster screaming from underground depths… and then there is the ubiquitous jazzy-sounding piano play. It is a meeting of the acoustic and the electric. They do not seamlessly blend together, but they rather complement and strongly contrast each other. Although it is clear much thought has been given into what some of the electronic parts would sound like, the piano part consists of only spur-of-the-moment decisions. John Tilbury’s hammer strikes give the concerto an overwhelmingly human sound that cuts through all of the bleeps and drones and “noise” of the electronic orchestra.

Caravaggio

Caravaggio, 1571-1610

For someone who’s ears are custom to mainstream or classic rock, pop, hip hop, or any instruments deemed “traditional,” or “common,” this album will be a change of scenery. Scratch that, it’s more like traveling to another dimension. But this dimension will captivate and surprise you, and it will calm you and scare you. When the album is over, you may just ask yourself if you really just did that.

If you’re wondering where the album title came from, yes, it means something. Caravaggio is (early photographic technology has brought us the image to your right) was a 16th century Italian painter whose dramatic pre-Baroque art is said to have inspired this album into existence.

Written by Steve

met-a-man-on-top-of-the-hillThe Midway State, like many bands before them, released an EP with a sampling of what to expect from their upcoming album. Met A Man On Top Of The Hill is their first official studio produced release, offering that glimpse into their music. There are four songs on the EP, and the title track would be the only song on that EP to not be released later on their 2008 album Holes. The song “A Million Fireflies” would undergo a title change when released on the album.

midway-state-bandThe songs on both the EP and the album are a refreshing new take on popular piano rock. The lyrics from the EP’s four songs are emotional, and each song has a different theme. While their peer bands are singing songs about how their relationship ended, The Midway State tackles the less approached route: Nathan Ferraro, the band’s lead vocalist and piano player, sings about being with someone at their potential death bed, or chancing upon someone that just happens to know how to help him, or the character he represents in the song. The vocals are not what you’d typically get from a rock band, but they compliment the sound and lyrical content quite well.

the-midway-state-bandThey have done quite well with their lyrical content, but Met A Man On Top Of The Hill‘s tracks have exceptional instrumental sections with varying emphasis on certain instruments, depending on the feel of the given song. The variety of playing styles the band used is sure to keep you listening for a long time, and it prevents the EP from being something that you’ll delete from your computer in a month.

Although most of the Met A Man On Top Of The Hill EP ended up on Holes, the song set works well as a whole, and the title track isn’t like anything that ended up on Holes. Definitely something that both fans of pop and indie label music could appreciate.

An Evening With John Petrucci & Jordan Rudess juxatposes two of today’s most skillful virtuosos. Real-life friends and Dream Theater bandmates, Petrucci and Rudess take us on a journey deep into the night, through a diverse range of styles and long improvisations. “Fife And Drum” has all the quaintness of a Renaissance-era English party song, while “Bite Of The Mosquito” sends us on a frantic journey through a day in the life of one of the little bloodsuckers. The music is textured and complex. The pieces are characteristically long for these two, with five out of ten tracks topping nine minutes.
B0002235E4“Furia Taurina”, Spanish for “Bull’s Fury,” is the first track. At ten minutes long, it slowly introduces the listener to the overall style of the album. Petrucci plays for a good seven minutes in Spanish guitar and is accompanied by Rudess until they reach a crescendo. Focus shifts to Rudess who plays a jazz acoustic solo for the rest of the song, accompanied by Petrucci’s strumming as the song accelerates until the end.

“Truth” might be best appreciated as a soundtrack to some imagined film. The hero has finally embarked on the journey that his life has lead up to… well, until the six minute mark when Rudess’s acoustic piano solo shifts the song from Michael Bay to Blues Clues. But don’t worry. At the eight minute mark Petrucci effortlessly shifts from acoustic to electric and throws us hard back into some tragic Greek myth with an absolutely heroic solo.

“State of Grace” is a stunningly tender and romantic song that could squeeze the tears out a Clint Eastwood character. Petrucci supplies the soaring highs, while Rudess gives depth and movement with rich, low octaves and accompanying chords in the right hand. It’s my favorite song on the album.

The album goes on through Brazilian bossa nova-style piano on “Hang 11″, Indonesian gamelan on “From Within”, and “The Rena Song”, dedicated to Petrucci’s wife, Rena Sands Petrucci. The song is explicitly credited to only Petrucci, but the piano part is so well-interwoven I have difficultly imagining the possibility that it was not part of the original composition process. 

Pop this in the CD player, take a bath, do your homework, sleep to it. It’s great music just to have on in the background. This album is one you can keep coming back to— you’ll find that the rhythms and melodies are so complex or quickly changing that you will not be able to memorize or hum along to any of the songs.

If you like short, economical tracks with a definite beat, a raging chorus, and consistent single emotion for the length of the song, you may not appreciate this type of recording. But if you want to get away from “mainstream rock,” and can’t quite handle music that sounds like it just came out of a Blendtech blender, then you will certainly appreciate the one-take musical tapestries that these bona fide virtuosos have offered.

Written by Steve

brand-new-eyes-cropped-album-coverAs “Careful”, the opening track to Brand New Eyes played, I braced for another Paramore style album; an album full of young female pop vocals that sell a sub-par pop-rock band’s studio tracks. Throughout their career, their album material has mostly just bored me. Their B-sides and some demos have been the only thing that have kept me coming back when they put some new music out.

The next two songs didn’t improve my opinion of the band’s creativity, but Hayley Williams certainly improved her songwriting and singing. For example, there’s an anger in the vocals that hasn’t been heard from her before, and it’s not just coating the entire song; it comes in at the right points, which tells me she’s writing songs with more emotion now.

paramore-performing“Brick By Boring Brick” and “Turn It Off” actually had more experimenting in the instrumental tracks than I had expected to hear at this point. It was refreshing to hear that, sort of. They were clinging on to their distortion-driven riffs, and that has always plagued their songs. “The Only Exception” was a first as far as songs on Paramore albums go; a fully acoustic track. It sounded very nice and like something they should do with their music more often.

“Feeling Sorry” brought an end to the instrumentally creative cluster of the album. “Looking Up” was another average fan pleaser song, and although “Where the Lines Overlap” had some chimes or some high synthesized notes that accented the song well, it just wasn’t enough to break away from the “average Paramore sound”.

hayley-williams-of-paramoreThe last two songs on the album, “Misguided Ghosts” and “All I Wanted”, were quite a surprising way to end the album. They are almost what I had been hoping the band would produce for quite a while now. “Misguided Ghosts” has some excellent acoustic guitar playing, and “All I wanted” had some amazing vocals coupled with guitar work that had some nice tone to it, and it steadily grew as the song progressed; something I don’t recall them ever trying out until this song.

Overall, it probably won’t be getting Paramore any new fans that hated them before this album, but it’s a step in the right direction for the band. Their music is starting to mature, and it looks like their fans will have a band to grow up with.

Their B-sides for this album mostly consist of acoustic versions of songs on the album. “Decode”, however, was an original song, and it had a better guitar tone than all the songs on the album; that sort of “hiding the more experimental music” seems to be typical of Paramore. Most of the tracks were more musically diverse when recorded as an acoustic version, and they seem to have much more replay value. The band seemed to have spent more time on this album’s acoustic tracks than on previous albums. They still retained the structure of their originals, and possibly even the tempo and some vocal tracks. They probably could have thrown in a demo or two like they did for the MVI version of Riot!, but five studio acoustic tracks is quite a feat for most bands. It’s a decent set of tracks.