Name: Prowler
Album: Communizzle
Year: 2006
Style: Electro/Punk, Party Rock, Indie, "Dinosaur Thump"
Similar Bands: Gil Mantera's Party Dream, LCD Soundsystem, Of Montreal, Dismemberment Plan
"One-Word" Review: Prince-Wannabe-Party-Rawk
Based Out Of: Philadelphia, PA
Label: Self Produced
Communizzle - Cover, CD, Tray
Communizzle - Back, Center Liner Notes
Communizzle (2006)
- World Domination 4:02
- Pretty Bird 2:39
- Us Huh Yeah 2:18
- Prowler Theme 3:27
- Fresh 2:22
- Keep It Bubblin 2:37
- You're A Freak 3:37
- Nancy 3:26
- Poison Ivy 5:43
Album Rating (1-10): 4.5
Members & Other Bands:
Keith Warren Greiman - Vox
Mike Staszeski - Bass
Ryan Kerrigan - Guitar, Drums
MPT
Darren Blase - Mastering, Producer
Keith Andrew Shore - Rantings and Drawlings
Unknown-ness: I've never heard of this band, or maybe I've seen their name
playing a show in the area, but I don’ know them at all, or know their style.
From the cover, it seems like it will be some sort of garage-indie,
self-proclaimed, heavy thinker album on intricate production. The artwork lends
me to this idea. Also, apparently the CD is a ripped copy, but is done “semi-professionally" with a full artwork sticker on top of the tell-tale marine blue burned
disc bottom. Without a record label, I only assume this was self-produced and
distributed/sold.
Album Review: Apparently I was wrong about my ideas of what this band is.
They are more party rock with simple electro samples and hooks. The singer is
more into his cartoon-like weird art than the band,, and I can’t figure out if
the album cover art is his (Keith Greiman
), his alias, or a different person
with a similar style. They are still a band, so they could still be out playing
here in Philly.
“World Domination”
starts with a gloomy piano and party cheers from the singer. The song kicks n
with a noisy, tinny party beat, and crazy energy in the vocals, which are more
like shout-cheering syllables rather than singing. The gloomy synth and
keyboard filters in from the background during the wall of sound verse, and is
much more prevalent in the musical breaks, joined by party cheers. It’s pretty
repetitive, but in a solid, good way. The end of the song gets real quiet, winding
down with synth hand claps and whispered vocals.
“Pretty Bird” is
a twittering, down scale note section, and the singing is basically white
rapping. There are musical breaks, giving a little electronic keyboard section,
stopping the momentum of the tinny guitar and energetic singing. There is a
catchy guitar hook buried down below some muddy synth rhythmic effects, and
then the song shifts over to glass bottle percussion to end the song.
“Us Huh Yeah” has
a simplified Digital Underground style bass and drum beat. The energy in this
party rock song comes off as annoying to me, with the over play of the whoooooo’s,
which would even embarrass Ric Flair. The electric guitar is more jangely in
this song.
“Prowler Theme”
has a kick drum rhythm, with short Hey-Ho vocals. The falsetto singing over
revving guitars offers a balance of emotion and metal. The vocals are again,
party rock emotionally shouted over the thick guitars, and they remind me,
especially with the overused inflections of the voice, and a bit of nervous
jitteriness, like Early Dismemberment Plan. But in a bad way.
“Fresh” starts
with a record scratch, and it takes on a funky vibe, with vocals of liking
white women/girls, and that the singer, over confidently, says, in his best
falsetto, he’ll fuck them good. It is like a nerdy attempt to be Prince, and it
doesn’t even come close to being a parody: Just a cheap attempt. Some odd synth
effect are chosen to end the song, that don’t really fit into the rest of the
track, but add cohesion to the rest of the album.
“Keep It Bubblin”
begins with a simple drum and scratch beat, and the title of the song is
repeated over and over to the rhythm. Swipes and other electronic effects are
added, and the song progresses into a bit of a rap. It retreats to the original
hook, which is not that strong, and is very underdeveloped. As the song moves
forward, a ringing effect is added, and the song manipulates the previous hook
in a different way, and bny the time the song ends, it feels like the band just
abandoned the track.
“You're A Freak”
starts with the party vocals and rhythmic strumming, and is followed with a
funky bass line. Again the idea of Prince is employed, albeit, not well, (like
they are trying to be Ween trying to be Prince), and the song just moves
forward with the one note guitar, and side stomping bass. The song title is
sung through a mechanical larynx, as a call to the singer’s response,
and it is this voice that fades out as the song ends.
“Nancy” is very
annoying with the way his vocals go monotone and raise like a hen when he sings
Nancy. The space-age swiping synth effects are nice addition to this party
song, but the calling vocals of the chorus are tough to get over. There is
evena slight middle-eastern vibe to the end of the song, with the guitar and
flute-synth effects creating a sort of world rhythm.
“Poison Ivy”
starts with a single slow drum beat, like the dinosaurs coming in Jurassic park,
and a skittering crickets. A cymbal is added, followed by a echoey door knock,
and this is beginning to sound like an industrial song. A single note bass
rhytm is added, as is an electric fuzzy guitar, and the song takes a gloomy
shape, not unlike the first track. At 1:45, the song takes a turn into an
in-the-round singing of Poison Ivy with tribal drums in the background. All the
elements continue once the instrumental verse picks up and the song just goes
into a jam session of electronic sounds, only briefly coming back to the poison
ivy “chorus” vocals. The last 30 second of the song are vocals chanted like
they are conducting some dark, sacrificial ceremony of poison ivy. The short
guitar hook and door knocking effect wind the song, and album down with a fade
out.
This album was
easy to have on as backing music while I did not pay attention to it for a
while, but once I really listened to it, I did not become a fan.
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