Year's Best Albums: Local bands put spotlight back on songwriting Year's Best Albums: Local bands put spotlight back on songwriting -- Newsday.com

January 2, 2008

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Songwriting came back in vogue among local bands this year, a welcome trend indeed. For several years, young bands mostly were content to create a lot of sound and fury, but in 2007, groups such as Camera-Head Shark, The Shake and The New Rivalsnames focused on verses, choruses, lyrics and hooks - the classic fundamentals of rock. (Fittingly, the best songwriting of the year came from a gray-bearded classic rocker, Tom Griffith.) Rounding out the top 10 local albums of 2007 (most of which were self-released) are one excellent rapper, a weird metal-rock band and a young emo act with ideas to spare. Here's the list:

1. Tom Griffith, "40 Years After" - In these funny, poignant, sometimes angry songs, various boomer characters take stock of their lives 40 years after the Summer of Love. For many it's the winter of discontent: A pacifist father grapples with a gung-ho son on "He Wants to Join the Corps"; a bitter divorcee discovers the flip side of The Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" in "No Love Is Free." Griffith's disc is like a little novel that gets better with each read.

2. Camera-Head Shark, "Oh You" - Bright and bubbly with a distinctively nutty flavor, this is the most refreshing disc from Long Island in years. File somewhere between Camper Van Beethoven and Cake.

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3. Easy Anthems, "Easy Anthems" - Philip and Vanesa Jimenez have created a hard-to-define album - perhaps the best adjective is "beautiful." Tracks such as "BB Shooting" and "When R U Gunna Break?" make this a perfect rainy-day disc.

4. The Shake, "Kick It" - (Unicycle). This Queens-based foursome delivers a jolt of high-energy rock with buzzy guitars, cracking snares and Jon Merkin's snarling, Billy Idol-meets-Billie Joe Armstrong vocals. These guys have more fuel than Jet and more sting than The Hives.

5. Nightmare of You, "Bang" - (Bevonshire). The five tracks on this EP range from the usual (The Smiths-y "I Don't Want to Dance Anymore") to the unexpected (the go-go pop song "You're Very Dear to Me"). It's a stopgap disc from a band that clearly wants to keep moving.

6. Kaleber, "The Anomaly" - This Wyandanch rapper firmly believes two things: Hip-hop is dead, and he was born to resurrect it. On tracks such as "Dope (New York, New York)" and the cliched "Hoodstripes Pt. 2," Kaleber exposes bling and drug-slinging for the worn-out cliches they are - all without missing a beat.

7. Pete Sanchez, "Walk on the Sun" - They're a band, not a person, and they play atmospheric rock with arrestingly dark chords and a slightly sleazy edge - check out "Weekend," which seems to celebrate the total obliteration of Monday through Friday. At times, Pete Sanchez comes off as downright creepy - and that's a compliment.

8. The New Rivals, "The New Rivals" - (SoBe Entertainment). A throwback to the days when pop-punk meant Buzzcocks rather than blink-182, The New Rivals have songwriting chops and spiffy guitar licks to spare. Why hasn't "Sleepwalking" become the hit it deserves to be?

9. Bryan Eich, "Sleeping by a Wire" - In the right hands, soft rock still can rock. Eich has a gift for dramatic crescendos and catchy rhythms that give his ballads some teeth. Standout tracks include "Big Fish" and "Can't Wait for Long."

10. Envy on the Coast, "Lucy Gray" (Photo Finish) - On its debut disc, this emo-rock band stretches its wings, tackling lengthy songs with moving parts and shifting passages. You'd be hard-pressed to find a more ambitious album this year.

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Newsday.com
Kaleber as a hip-hop savior on 'The Anomaly'
Rafer Guzmán

WITH THE BAND

November 22, 2007

No rapper ever succeeded by being modest, as Chad Mohammed, aka Kaleber, clearly knows.

On "The Anomaly" (Mutiny Music Group), the Wyandanch rapper depicts himself as the savior of hip-hop, fighting the good fight against the fake gangstas, major-label caricatures and bling-blinded knuckleheads who have turned rap into self-parody.

Throughout the 18-track disc, Kaleber keeps the violence mostly metaphorical, shuns drug-dealing and generally aims for higher ground. He also manages, amazingly, to spell "Wyandanch" in rhyme.

Kaleber's laid-back tone and conversational style keep him from getting preachy, and he slings enough bravado to retain his machismo. Over the easygoing rhythm of "Dope (New York, New York)," he scores thug-points for hanging out with dealers but proudly notes that he never became one.

On "Up," he drives home a similar point: "I ain't a thug, but I keep it gangsta, though." He raps about loyalty and respect on "No I in Team ...," then adds this hard-nosed corollary: "But there is an M-E."

The album's best moment is "Hoodstripes Pt. 2," a cautionary tale built on a rueful soul-sample. It's the reality behind the rap myth of flipping bricks for fast cash, an ugly portrait of a small-time hustler who never made it. "You used to be the man, been on the block for years," Kaleber sneers between epithets. "I know you seen some grands/You still selling crack out your rear?" (Of a car, most likely - but the baseness of the image is unmistakable.)

Kaleber is less effective when emulating commercial rappers like Eminem ("And Judas Kissed") or 50 Cent (the clubby "With Me?"). And we could all do without the gay slur that pops up early in the album. Still, Kaleber is making hip-hop with heart - "The Anomaly" indeed. Check out samples at MySpace.com/kaleber

Write torafer.guzman@newsday.com.

Copyright © 2007, Newsday Inc.

THE ANOMALY: AVAILABLE ON iTUNES & CDBABY.COM

ALWAYS REMEMBER THE 5TH OF NOVEMBER      

THE DAY WHEN WACK RHYMING STOPPED

FOR IT IS THE DAY WE'LL ALL LOOK AND SAY

KALEBER BROUGHT BACK HIP HOP

THE ANOMALY IN STORES & ONLINE OF 11.05.07 ON

MUTINY MUSIC GROUP www.mutiny-music.com

MY NEW ALBUM THE ANOMALY

Peace & Love

My album is due out the end of August or September...most likely September and I can't wait.  Finally, after going through a rough time not knowing if I should keep making music or walk away from it, I pulled up my boot straps and went to war with myself for year and a half and got it done.  The hardest decision you can make (and adventually gonna have to make in life) is getting up after getting knocked down.  It wasn't easy but God is greater than me.  My album features production by Nicolay,P.Riot,DJ Concept,Tony.L and The Rebel-Ak with special guest appearances by: Jennie Laws,Esso,Bad Seed,Kain Cioffe,Saphire,Mage,D-Centt,Angel Dust and Charles Brown. 

 " Hip Hop is Dead " not only is that the title of Nas's album and the attitude of the streets right now but it's also the last thing I said on my Kaleber Reoladed mixtape back in 2003.  That was me walking away from this rap shit, until I heard a kid around my way say he couldn't believe I said that.  He really took it hard and it made me think about what I said.  I realized how responsible I am as an artist for the things I say and the attitude I can help inspire, be it positive or negative.  " Hip Hop is Dead " is very negative and it leaves the whole culture in doubt. 

 I knew for myself I had to correct what I said, if not for the culture then for the sake of that kid.  So I took all that I was going through, all of my pain of lost and frustration of trying to get the industry's attention, " Your flow is sick, you definetly got it my dude but...I don't what to do with you "....and I returned to that phrase Hip Hop is Dead and changed it to " Hip Hop is not dead it's just in the wrong hands that why I have to fight for it ".  The album has a Matrix theme to it, I have skits with my mother who plays " The Oracle " and my niece who helps me remember what Hip Hop means (pretty deep stuff...haha). 

 My album is dedicated to the listener because I represent the New York tradition of lyricism but I kept the production Universal, so I have something for everybody whatever your mood is.  But be on the look out for the new video for my song " Dope" produced by Nicolay, the video is directed by Joey Mhz of Mhz films and also for the revamping of our headquarters www.mutiny-music.com the album will be available mostly online but also in a few selected stores as well.  Stay Tuned, can't wait to see what you guys response is going to be.  KALEBER THE ANOMALY COMING SOON!!!!

Welcome to Mutiny and welcome to the Resistance.  You are now part of a rebellion that has Sworn to take hip hop out of the hands of it's corporate dictators and back into the hands of it's creators.  We the people, are Hip Hop.  We the people, are the creators.  No longer will we stand acquiesce to this industry while it dismantles the integrity of our music and culture by monopolyzing the very means of our self expression.

  No longer will we stand and watch this industry continue to brainwash this generation into believing that drug dealing, gunshot wounds, jail records and violent behavior is what gives Hip Hop it's credibility.  We the Resistance, find the industry guilty of reproducing age old american idealogies and stereotypes of our community by constantly trafficking a specific type of rap artist who fits the mold of not only how they see us, but where they want us to be. 

   Hip Hop is our foundation.  Skills are our crediblilty.  We hold these truths to be self evident that Hip Hop is endowed by it's creators who have unalienable rights.  That among these rights are BEATS, RHYMES, and LIFE.  But because this industry has become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish this industry and institute their own.  This is not a Revolution.  This is not a Movement.  IT'S MUTINY!!!

KALEBER