#the bleeders

[thepersonalwords]

If you drink anymore, you're going to be positively flammable.

Michaela Haze, The Bleeders

[1-dollar-cd-sale-reviews]

The Bleeders - As Sweet As Sin (2006)

EDIT: At the time of this review, I believed that this was the first album in the Bleeders’ discography. I was wrong.

My mistake comes from a quick scan of a legitimate-looking Wikipedia page, and a careless glance at a Discogs page for another band called The Bleeders. There are two self-titled albums, one in 2005 and another in 2007 - this album is in the middle, in 2006. Because of my negligence, I’ve just reviewed the band’s first full-length release as their second full-length release, and vice versa.

I regret my decision terribly, and I’ve chosen to correct my most egregious errors. The only edits involve my age circa 2006, correcting an awkward turn of phrase, listing that the Bleeders album I’ll be reviewing after this one is their first self-titled album, and I’ve corrected the year of publication as being 2006 rather than 2005.

This is the first CD I picked out of this lot. The name of the band, and the way it was stylised on the spine of the CD case, were what drew my eye - and the kick-ass cover art is what made me keep it. I have never heard of this band before today, and when I saw the cover art I was expecting something metal.

You’d expect something heavy and edgy from that cover art, and when you first play the album that’s kind of what you get - just in a kind of muddy and derivative way. I dunno - honestly, as far as I know, this band used some of the themes and vocal imagery better than other artists of the time, or before edgy teen bands drove them into the ground. I would have been ten or eleven when this album came out, and I didn’t have a musical identity back then aside from “““Classic Rock”““ - I can’t say too much about how bland and uninspired I found the subject matter, I guess, but I will say that some of the songs brought back vague American Idiot-era Green Day vibes. It’s probably just the trappings of the era, or a bit of direct influence maybe, considering how American Idiot came out in 2004. I’m not a music historian or whatever, I don’t know. Just thought it was worth mentioning.

I’ve described the music on this album as sounding a bit muddy and - to my uninformed ears - derivative, and that holds true for the first four tracks of the album. The Kill and Secrets both had riffs that were boring and seem to exist to fill in time, and the vocals basically put me to sleep - I wasn’t hot on the subject matter or the sound of the singer’s voice. I don’t even remember the next two tracks, they basically went in one ear and out the other.

Wild at Heart, however, was actually pretty servicable. The riff brought me back to the album slightly, and while I still disliked the singer (god bless his heart, he’s trying), this song left me in a better mood. That might have set the groundwork for Nightmares, the first song that I actually kind of liked. The chorus sucked, but the music behind the track was pretty solid. This is what made me want to talk about the album - aside from shitting on the songs I disliked, I wanted to mention these little almost-diamonds in the rough that kept me invested in the whole package.

I could go on down the track listing, but really, there are two types of songs on this album - the ones I liked, and the ones I didn’t. They fit into these categories in fairly similar ways, so I’ll talk about them as a whole.

The songs I kind-of-liked were Wild at Heart, Nightmares, S.O.S, Silhouettes, It’s Black II, Eating Up Your Mind and A Bleeding Heart. The ones I didn’t like were The Kill, Secrets, Holding On, Out of Time, Night Sky, Bridges Burning and Femme Fetale. It’s an even 50/50 split of the track listing

I’ve listed the songs I’ve liked for two reasons. The first reason I might have enjoyed them is because they had an entertaining riff, or the music behind it was pretty good all things considered, or I might have even grown to like the lyrics. The second reason is that it might have had a cool fake-out, or a quick little guitar thing, that caught my attention. Not all of the songs in this section were particularly good, but if it sparked a positive reaction from me, I wrote it down as a good track.

The songs I didn’t like were listed for the opposite reasons. The music was mediocre and bland, there’s no variation in the already monotonous and mediocre instrumental track, and the singer’s vocals and the lyrical content were both uninspired or didn’t sound good to me. I fucking forgot how two of these songs even went, right after they finished playing - they were just gone from my head, I didn’t absorb a single modicum of information from them. They’re like musical ghosts.

Special mention goes to the two songs with featured artists on them - S.O.S, which features a guy named Danny Diablo, and Femme Fetale, which features an artist named Roxy. I listed S.O.S as a good track because the 15 seconds of Danny Diablo’s voice on it were the best 15 seconds of the album for me. I didn’t like the music or the feel of the song, but this guy’s very brief verse in this very brief song (1:13)? Best part of the album. Roxy’s feature, however, was sloppy, a bit out of time (which I think was an intended stylistic choice, which I still dislike regardless of the context) and arguably less enjoyable than the main vocalist’s voice. Please note, I already dislike the main vocalist’s voice a significant amount. It’s pretty funny how even the featured artists have split me, I’m that divided on this album.

My main issue with this album is that I simply didn’t enjoy the lead vocalist’s voice. I didn’t feel any energy from him for the entire album, it seemed to hover around the same level of enthusiasm and energy the whole time (which wasn’t much to begin with), and when he’d do a drop, it sounded like his voice had actually been dropped on the floor like a soggy sack of potatoes. The instrumental track could be bland and completely forgettable, but there was the occasional drop or riff that had me thinking “Alright, I could listen to more of this” - but I never once thought the same thing about the vocals. The song “Silhouettes” was the most striking example of this happening, with me really liking the music but being completely bored and turned off by the singer’s voice.

There were only two things that “got” me regarding the vocals - I think he dropped the n-word in the song “It’s Black II”, and his lead vocals on the chorus of the final track on the album were the only set of vocals that sounded alive during the entire thing. Those were the only vocal surprises from this guy, and one of them was more of a shock-value thing rather than actually enjoying what he had done.

To sum it all up - As Sweet as Sin came across as a fairly generic mid-2000′s edgy rock record, even during the best parts. The best parts of the album were usually marred by one of the worst aspects, with the best feature on the whole thing being relegated to the shortest song on the album or the best riff being hidden behind some pretty standard vocals. I was hoping for something, anything, that would blow my tits off - a shriek, an extended instrumental, whatever. And it never came. The closest there was were a couple of cool little fake-outs or little guitar shake-ups that woke me up and got me to pay attention, and even the pretty decent final song was just kind of uniform and there.

I recommend listening to Nightmares, Silhouettes and A Bleeding Heart for the best tracks (in my opinion), and The Kill, Femme Fetale and Secrets for songs that sum up what I don’t like about the album. 

You can buy the album online for anywhere between $3 used, or $11 - $41 dollars new, depending on where you look. I saw it on Amazon, eBay and Discogs, and the entire album is also on Youtube for free - most likely uploaded by a fan of the band. Or you could find it during your local multimedia store’s $1 CD sale, like I did.

I mean no ill will towards The Bleeders or their fans. I picked the album randomly, I liked what I liked and disliked what I disliked based solely on my first impression of the band and their songs - if I had really hated the band, I would have stopped at the fourth track and claimed the whole album was the same bland, forgettable trash. I respect those who enjoy The Bleeders and their music, including the tracks I personally disliked, and I wish the band continued success. I will be reviewing their (first) self-titled album later on (because I bought it in the same sale as this one), and maybe their music will have grown on me - I doubt it, but let’s hope.

[ravechildglasgow]

Das Plastixx (single launch), Bluebirds, The Bleeders at Audio, 29/4/18

Das Plastixx (single launch), Bluebirds, The Bleeders at Audio, 29/4/18

The Bleeders seem to have morphed out of The Modests and as a duet of drums and guitar create a hard rocking wall of sound that hits you right between the eyes.

A superbly energetic performance from lead Jackson Harvey is only briefly interrupted by a stage dive that disconnects his guitar, but not by the broken string, which seems evident for most of the set.

An accomplished performance given…

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[1-dollar-cd-sale-reviews]

The Bleeders - Self-Titled Album (2005)

So, I was planning to review the Bleeders’ CDs I had bought in chronological order. I skimmed Wikipedia, and I saw As Sweet As Sin and a self-titled album in their discography, with As Sweet As Sin coming first and the self-titled album coming second. Satisfied, I went on and reviewed As Sweet As Sin first - it was the first album I reviewed on this blog.

However, I just did a bit more research, and it turns out that the Bleeders have two self-titled albums. One called The Bleeders, and another simply called Bleeders. This is the former, and it came out before As Sweet As Sin.

I imagine you might be wondering why I care so much. I myself stated that this blog was run on a “$1 budget”, and I would use that as a generic way to cover myself from particularly harsh criticism - I’m just talking about how I feel about the music, who cares about the details. I still feel somewhat similarly. But I spent the entirety of this album thinking it was a sequel, when really it came out before the first album I heard. I’ve basically compared the two albums around the wrong way.

Honestly, I think it’s pretty funny. I listened to this album thinking “well gee, they sure proved me wrong - these guys have actually improved somewhat! I’m glad.” With the revelation that this came before As Sweet As Sin, it means that the band actually managed to become worse in between albums.

So, The Bleeders’ first self-titled album. I actually liked a lot of what I heard. The first track sounds like it came straight out of a Burnout game, and I found myself really liking the instrumentation - the band is actually pretty solid, and I liked a lot more of the music on this album than I did on aSaS. The quality of the instrumentation is actually pretty high throughout the entirety of this album - I liked more songs than I disliked.

However, issues once again stem from the lyrics and vocals. I’ll give full credit to the singer of this band for doing a much better job here - the first few tracks are alright, and while my previous criticisms levelled against the singer still apply, I feel like there was more of an effort made on his behalf on this album. The difference is noticeable, even if the showing is still average at best.

The lyrics, however, were about as mediocre as before. I feel like most of the tracks on this album have subpar lyrics, which aren’t helped by the singer - however, the vocals and lyrics were rarely as bad as each other. In fact, I felt that the tracks zigzagged between what ended up sounding worse - the lyrics, or the voice singing them.

For one track, the vocals will shine as being particularly bad - the singer can’t maintain a note, or the rasp of his voice will stick out as particularly awful. The lyrics won’t sound like high art, but the melody that they’re sung in could have sounded much better with a better singer on the mic. But in other songs, the vocalist puts in something of an effort - and the lyrics are awful, vapid trash. In one way or another, the vocals and the lyrics ruin every song - but they ruin them in completely different ways. The two are intrinsically tied, but the way they fail is unique.

And the worst part is that the music is actually good this time around! I liked most of the songs for their music, it was competent and enjoyable. Like I said, the first song wouldn’t be out of place in a Burnout game - maybe it was in a Burnout game, even. I feel similarly for six of the eight tracks. But the vocals and lyrics ruin everything, and it’s an absolute shame. I hate to be a dick, because I imagine the band are all close friends and promised to share their journey together, but the band is almost wasted with a singer like this.

The only song I disliked on all fronts was one called Family. It’s one and a half minutes long, and it’s just thoughtless noise with two of the band members thanking their families for sticking with them during their hardship. The concept is sweet - it’s genuinely a sweet gesture from the band - but it sounds like a parody from a kid’s show trying to be cool and relevant. It’s like a death metal song preaching the virtues of proper hydration and a good night’s sleep. Something about it screamed “cheap cliche”, and I honestly hated it - it was a sweet gesture by the band, but listening to it made me cringe.

This issue is particularly subjective. If you liked it, for its sound as well as its message, then that’s fine with me. No hate coming from me.

I began listening to this album as a sequel to aSaS. You can tell that I consider it a return to their sound, even though this is an earlier chronological release. Maybe it’s unfair that I’ve judged their material in the way I have. The Bleeders’ first self-titled album is actually a pretty decent listen, I liked it a lot - but it retroactively makes me like aSaS even less. For over half the album, I had a smile on my face because I thought The Bleeders had improved - but once I realised my mistake, all of that flew out the window. I’m mad because I’m an idiot, but also because the band manages to take such a step back from such a promising start.

the only thing I can say in defence of As Sweet As Sin? Its version of A Bleeding Heart is better.

I just had a quick look around, and I couldn’t find a copy of this album on Youtube or Ebay. You might have better luck conducting your own research, or looking through a local brick-and-mortar store like I did. If you manage to find it, I recommend listening to the songs All That Glitters, So Lonely and Cast In The Shadows. They might have music videos on Youtube, so start there if you like.

[blackfilm]

Les Saignantes (The Bleeders) (in full)*

when i read an online synopsis of this film, one reviewer used the the words "African sci-fi, lesbian vampire flick" to describe it. and after watching it, i would say the reviewer was close,but not completely accurate.

the film centers around two women, who aside from the occasional close embrace, didn't appear to be lesbians. Cuy and Chouchou are part witches, part super-heroes, part prostitutes, part political activists. the main plot centers around getting rid of the body of one of Cuy's liaisons who died after they (and her swing) went a little too far in the bedroom. 

in true sci-fi genre (which i personally am not that into-so feel free to share your review if you're into this genre), there is plenty of gore, blood, and all-around creepiness. but what makes this special is that it is set in Cameroon, and in the year 2025. and in between all the gore, there are some interesting questions and statements i think the filmmaker, Jean-Pierre Bekolo, makes about Cameroon. statements towards the end centered around some speculations of what is to become of Cameroon in the future. one reviewer remarked that the two women had sex with corrupt governmental officials in order to rid them of their positions, thus bettering the nation. questions periodically pop up such as: "How can you make an action film in a country where acting is subversive?" that add to the underlying political message of this film. 

i think masked behind the eroticism, dancing, and other parts i feel might be distractions (again, i'm not that into sci-fi, so forgive me), there are definitely some deep, philosophical and political questions Bekolo is asking and statements he is making. and while most Black filmmakers avoid this genre, it is not one to be slept on. 

[rockbottomnz-blog]

The Bleeders - All That Glitters

2004

If you like (the) Bleeders then you should check out the singer Angelo's new band Leeches or you can also find guitarist Hadleigh playing with Cobra Khan.

You can also see the Bleeders at their reunion tour at the end of November.

[booksandtea]

In My Mailbox [5] by prettybooks on Flickr.