Pilot Speed - Wooden Bones

Everyone has an opinion on what makes a great album; some say it's the inclusion of several big hits and some others might say that it's the ability to keep your feet thumping through every track.

Toronto-based Pilot Speed does both on Wooden Bones. Since I'm not really a radio guy, I get the rare opportunty to select what I think would be the hit singles myself. Because of this, it's always a pleasant surprise when a band can turn that into a tough decision.

There are only a few weak tracks on this album, but to say they are weak is only due to comparison to high standards set by the first four tracks: Put the Phone Down, Light You Up, Bluff, and Ain't No Life. If I had to choose, I would most likely have placed Light You Up as my first radio single, but it turns out that Pilot Speed has already chosen Put the Phone Down in that spot. I like both, but I think the chorus and driving beat of Light You Up separates it from a slightly repetative Put the Phone Down.

Pilot Speed's lyricist and frontman, Todd Clark, tends to drag you into his record at will. His voice is slightly airy, comes with a rasp at times and is always emotionally-charged (see the last minute of track #10, Wooden Bones). The band tends to pull from a Keane or Coldplay vibe in their more piano-driven tunes, but Clark's voice quickly reminds you that you're listening to something a bit more raw.

If I had to recommend three tracks?
- #2 Light You Up
- #3 Bluff
- #10 Wooden Bones

I'm not big into dropping arbitrary numbers around, but I'd rate this in the A-range along with their other albums: "Into the West" (Released in Canada as "Sell Control for Life's Speed") and "Caught By the Window" (When the band was known as "Pilate").

Music Reviews

I'm thinking I'll have quite a bit more time on my hands once my capstone paper is turned in, and I want to start to do some CD reviews... I've got a few that are coming in the mail: Nada Surf - Lucky, The Kinks - Konk, Bell XI - Blue Lights on the Runway, and Tool - 10,000 Days, and I think it would be sweet to do a song by song review of each.

Of course, I'm probably not down with all the proper lingo and musical references most professionals use, but I think I'll give it a shot. Hell, I read Paste magazine, I'm sure I've picked up a thing or two.

Wesley Willis

A little random, but I thought I'd share with folks who don't get too uptight about cringe humor...

I was listening to some Tool in my music library this weekend and ran across a song that was improperly labeled as one of Tool's... It was actually Wesley Willis. For those of you who don't know this guy, read the wikipedia entry on him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Willis

He became really popular in the 1990s and had a cult following of sorts... If you don't want to read the wiki, here's a pretty brief overview: Willis was a schizophrenic who was a musician and painter in Chicago. Basically all of his music was recorded with keyboard background music. You know, the stuff where you hit a button and it just plays accompaniment to a single chord? Well, he recorded like 1000 songs before he died. His stuff is pretty nuts, but a lot of it has some truth to it. One of my favorite Willis lines from his song "Cut the Mullet": "Take your ass to the barber shop, tell the barber that you're sick of looking like an asshole." Pretty funny stuff.

If you can avoid most of the cringe-enducing songs, it's actually fairly entertaining...

Here's a link to a site where you can check out a few of his mp3s... http://www.alternativetentacles.com/bandinfo.php?band=wesleywillis.

Surprisingly enough, you can also find him on iTunes.