Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Neil Perry - Lineage Situation
Mkah, so. This is the first article I plan on submitting to Orange Lazarus. Elfen Lied will come when I have more free time. I haven't emailed this to Tony yet, as I just want some proofreading and opinions on it. Let me know if there's anything I should change, please let me know if you know anything I don't about the band, which could be a lot. >_>;

I basically just picked a recent purchase that I liked and wrote about it.




Audio :: CD Review? :: Neil Perry - Lineage Situtation



When underground bands break up and their multitude of miniscule releases go out of print, they finally gain popularity. Fans desire their albums, even down to the two-song split records. These albums end up on eBay for extreme amounts of money when they cost the original buyer no more than $10. Welcome to the world of Screamo, a genre where bands last no more than four years together, starting and ending with the same number of fans. This holds true for Neil Perry, who like other screamo bands, got tired of seeing their records going on sale for way more than they're worth. Again like screamo bands, when they saw this happening, the got back together to produce a compilation of all their works in a CD format so the masses can hear them without emptying their wallets.

From this mentality comes Lineage Situation by Neil Perry. Forty tracks in about the same number of minutes. Hardcore fans of the band will be annoyed that the "improv" tracks that Neil Perry was famous for are not included. However, upon releasing the compilation, they went back into the studio to write two new songs. Also included are two songs from the recording session of their most recent release that didn't make it on the final version.

So, the first seven tracks (the newly recorded ones, plus all the ones from their last recording) are damn amazing. Track six, "Fading Away Like the Rest of Them," caught my ears the most and became my favorite on the cd, and one of my favorite songs out of the genre. I also enjoyed track two, "Kicked," which was a departure of sorts for the band, considering it's instrumental.

As far as the rest of the compilation goes, they're almost straight from the albums, the touch-ups are there, but the quality is barely improved overall. Also, the drumstick claps (a 1, 2, 3, 4!) have been removed for better flow from one song to the next. The quality definitely gets worse as Lineage Situation goes further and Neil Perry gets younger, but I got a decent sound out of the later tracks using a graphic equalizer. While none of their early songs are anywhere near as awesome as their new ones, there are still a few stellar songs in the bunch. Some of their songs are hardly songs, there's actually one that is only sixteen seconds long. Also, the titles to these songs are about half the experience to me, some being poetic while others being worth a laugh or two. Let's face it, there's a song called "When My Favorite Sports Team Loses, It Makes Me Want to Hit My Girlfriend."

Also included in Lineage Situation is a CD-ROM packed with two videos. These videos feature live performances, touring and onstage antics, and a look into their reunion recording session in the studio.

As far as the actual band, I'm almost sure you haven't head of them. They were a four-piece from New Jersey. They have enough different releases that it's hard to keep track of them. As of this writing, I've yet to find a comprehensive list of their albums. I do know from the back of the packaging for Lineage Situation that they have had six recording sessions, but the songs taken from them have been shared among splits with other bands, so there's nowhere close to six albums featuring Neil Perry. After they split up, the bassist/vocalist joined Joshua Fit for Battle and then Hot Cross. Other members joined Welcome the Plague Year and A Life Once Lost. For the most part, they sound like a mix between Orchid and Saetia, which again, probably helps you very little. If you have enjoyed any songs by any of the bands I've mentioned thus far and haven't heard of Neil Perry for some reason, go shoot yourself in the head, reanimate yourself, and pick up Lineage Situation. It'll be worth your time.

Neil Perry puts the "emo" in Screamo, evoking different emotions through different guitar textures and soforth. Even without knowing the lyrics, which sadly aren't included in the compilation, your emotions are tugged in different directions. These being mostly sadness, anger, or a nice uplifting feeling, depending on the song. The textures of "Kicked" have a serene feel to it, I feel like I'm flying when I hear it. Meanwhile, the pounding beats of "You Can't Fight Jose Cuervo and Win" just make me want to beat someone up. If you take the time to look up the band's lyrics, they're not that bad.

All in all, I'm glad that Neil Perry was forced down my throat through music reccomendation websites. Since buying their discography, I've become interested in similar packages. I've recently purchased Completed by Jerome's Dream, as well as Disinformation Fix by Usurp Synapse. While both are pretty cool bands with a larger selection of songs, they fell short to Neil Perry's excellence in my opinion. If you feel like something new, Lineage Situation's compilation of 55 minutes of music and 35 minutes of video should do the trick. I highly recommend Neil Perry to fans of the more modern bands like Circle Takes the Square and The Number Twelve Looks Like You.





While I'm at it. Here you go.

http://rapidshare.de/files/19989605/Neil_Perry_1-7.zip.html
07. Neil Perry - [Lineage Situation #01] Nine Minutes of Non-Fiction [3:40]
08. Neil Perry - [Lineage Situation #02] Kicked [1:51]
09. Neil Perry - [Lineage Situation #03] Seeping Through the Cracks [3:16]
10. Neil Perry - [Lineage Situation #04] What Is in the Making [3:27]
11. Neil Perry - [Lineage Situation #05] Looking Back on the Way You Want to Be in the Future [0:58]
12. Neil Perry - [Lineage Situation #06] Fading Away Like the Rest of Them [2:50]
13. Neil Perry - [Lineage Situation #07] Sorry for the Misunderstanding Mr. Watts, It Won't Happen Again [2:32]
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