Customer Reviews:
 sum of the best, class October 25, 2008
M. Abel (new orleans)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
slim and the guys came through again, these guys can really really play. very tight, this album is solid. there are a few bands i recently come aware of mentioned in title, slim and the other bands are bringing american music to a new level. the same tools used in the 30s-50s, upright bass, steel guitar, lots of banjo, organs the resulting sound echoes the best of the past, and none of the worst of whats happening now. i really dislike commercial and production. this sound is a sound that has not been devoloped by the suit wearing pepsi consultants, wanting to cash in on anything, these bands have real music to play, and we need to support them-all the great bands are not gone,
many of these bands the same drive as the greats of the past 30 years of american non pop including stooges, misfits, velvet underground, ramones, joy division, bauhaus, dead kennedies, the smiths, early cure
mike patton, wierdos, minutemen, charles mingus, roland kirk, sun ra,
then i cant overstate the influence of blues and country
hank sr is king, he is closer the bone than elvis, that sound was his and what he did i always thought people couldnt get close to anything like it.
well leave it to nature, and time, for hank iii has that same lonely hypnotic country sound. and his band is the best ive ever seen live. that fiddle player, and the steel guitar, they get faster and more furious than punk or jazz. the sound is one 100% together. the reason is this sound is in our blood, it is where we come from, fiddles, slides, deep upright bass,and the true life stories that do more than gratify or influence, this is a music scene that does not apoligize for anything, this music is all about not hiding all the things we are ashamed and scared of, it is a scene that we really need to support, we have to keep them together, for the sake of a withering culture, exposing seeds we must sow.
top notch October 13, 2008
Jason Mcgrath
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
i put this cd on my i pod and have not taken it off since. i have been a fan for a while, and this is one of their best.
Their best by far April 12, 2008
Penn (usa)
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
If you listen to all of SCAC's albums chronologically, you will notice a darker feel with each album. This is certainly their darkest sounding album overall, and also their best. The album's single, "Americadio", is a good sample track to give you the overall feel of the album.
The review below compares SCAC to 16 Horsepower, which I don't understand. Some people act like all bands in one region should sound the same. I like 16 HP, but SCAC is my favorite band from the Denver music scene.
If you're looking for a real review, take this into account. Normally I don't trust Amazon music reviews because they're only written by fans who praise the artists to high hell (seriously, look at the reviews for Vanilla Ice's albums; if you didn't know any better, you might actually order it). Therefore, I have never written an album review because I don't think anyone takes them seriously. True, I am a fan of SCAC, but I own over 800 albums encompassing just about every genre of music. This CD is the only one that has ever compelled me to write a review...hopefully that tells you something.
 BURN! April 6, 2008
G. Moses (Men...Of...The...Sea!)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
A new Slim Cessna album is a real EVENT. Unfortunately, that's partially because they release new material WAY too infrequently for my tastes, but it's also because they have a strong tendency--to use the technical term--to rock the hizzouse, and Cipher is no exception.
Then again, maybe we should be thankful that they take their sweet time about recording. It's obvious that everything about this record is carefully planned out. The CD case--appropriately--is covered with symbols that are apparently part of some secret code; I don't really have the inclination to try to decipher it, but no doubt there's some sort of secret message there for the diligent. The sound itself is musically unified but still diverse enough to keep things interesting. Thematically, it is defined by the four brief "Introduction to the Power of Braces" tracks, which are all about how twisted and bent humanity is and how it needs to be forced straight. It's a conception not unlike that of the Confucian philosopher Hsun Tzu, to make a totally incongruous connection.
But don't think this is all in deadly earnest--this ain't 16 Horsepower. There's also a lot of japery here. How much seriousness can you expect, after all, from a song entitled "That Fierce Cow Is Common Sense in a Country Dress" (sounds like some sort of mnemonic device--some old horse caught a horse taking oats away, anyone?)? Also, this album emphasizes the interplay between Slim and Munly--always a highlight of the band's live shows--more than ever before. It's pretty funny and pretty great. Cessna/Munly are the Lennon/McCartney of doom-laden, backwoods alt-country/punk/gospel. There, I said it.
But how does it actually SOUND? you ask. You're so demanding sometimes. Well, it has a heavier sound than the band's previous work; at first I did not care for that, but it grew on me fast enough. The song-writing also reflects this, in a good way. "Your speakers--and your mind--will BURN!" claims their website, and this may well be the case. Not every song is great (the "Braces" numbers, in particular, are more interesting conceptually than they are musically), but enough of them are. "Children of the Lord" takes the chorus from the kids' song about Noah's Ark and couples it with verses about how we're all pretty much hellbound, to rousing effect. "Magalina Hagalina Boom Boom" features great vocal tradeoffs between Slim and Munly. The aforementioned "That Fierce Cow" (don't ask what that's supposed to mean--I couldn't even begin to tell you) is good times. "Ladies in the Know"--previously featured on the live album Jesus Let Me Down--is fast-paced and fun. And there's plenty more to like.
Yes, I was iffy about this album at first. But now I pretty much can't stop listening to it. Perhaps you will have a similar experience.
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