shesus - loves you, loves you not

[sadgirlseven]

this cd rocks it hard. the guitars are great, the harmonies are tight, the songwriting is fun. the whole thing is well done. it reminds me of sleater-kinney with a bit of go-gos and fairmount girls and random garage thrown in. i am seriously in love.

highlights, for me, include: "b-side radio" (good lord - great harmonies on this one, this is a funky, fun summer song), "holidazed" (a very strong track to start the disc off), "the more you laugh" ("the more you laugh, the more i hate you" - wow, i can relate), and "here comes nothing."

what's fantastic about shesus is that these girls can play their guitars and heather newkirk, the lead singer, knows how to use her voice. she never really screams, but she is definitely in command and very confident with her vocals. the drumming is also fantastic. also, i don't know where these women stand politically, but they don't really wear any feminist opinions on their sleeves. they are strong and able and that's all that comes across. these songs reflect that. any sense of sexuality is implied.
the live show is just as exciting. heather sure knows how to work a crowd.

i predict that shesus will be huge in about a year or two.

http://www.shesus.com

[daved]

I have to confess prejudices here: I mastered the record, and now know the band so I'm very biased. That said...

I think this is a really great record. Maybe the best of the year so far (and it's actually been a strong year locally). While I think there have been more challenging records, and deeper ones, very few rawk as hard, or say as much so well.

I'm kind of shocked 97X isn't playing it more. It's on a real label, and is a lot cooler and more original than a lot of the current rotation.

-d-

[sadgirlseven]

daved - great job with this one. everything is clear as a bell. :)

[bond]

is it all new recordings? i've got the confrontation single they put out a while back, and i was really dissappointed at how it sounded.. didn't seem to capture the live energy at all.

[DaysWithoutEnd]

Check out my review of Shesus at
http://www.daytonbands.com (eye on the scene section)

[daved]

Originally posted by bond
is it all new recordings? i've got the confrontation single they put out a while back, and i was really dissappointed at how it sounded.. didn't seem to capture the live energy at all.

It is from that single, however I don't think the single was mastered, and these are new mixes. May even be new tracks on top of the original ones...

The CD isn't a live show obviously, but I think a lot of tracks are very nice album versions. My perspective is jaded: Frankly few recordings ever sound as good to me as a great concert, but few live recordings ever sound as good as an album either. Two different things. Sgt. Peppers could never be performed live, for instance, and I'm glad we have what we have of it. Likewise there are a lot of cool bits on the Shesus CD that you don't hear live, and I'm glad they made it to the disc. They're a major league band in my book.

On an unrelated note, I think live recordings are one area of enormous potential for surround. I've heard quite a few really dramatic, powerful improvements on live recordings presented in surround. Most live recordings are limp and flaccid. Surround brings me a lot closer to the event, and adds excitement even to mediocre recordings/performances (NIN's DVD is a lot closer to their shows energy than any previous live recording or TV show I've seen the band do). So, hopefully we'll soon have a whole crop of great live stuff re-emerge in surround.

-d-

[MissKitty]

Great job on this CD Dave!

When the disc came out I couldn't find it anywhere locally (D-town) because it sold out so quickly. Ended up nabbing a copy at an indie shop in Boulder when CR and I were there a few months ago. It ROCKS and "B-Side Radio" really ought to be a hit. Mike & Shiv *hint hint!*

[bond]

Originally posted by daved
these are new mixes.

that's what i wanted to hear :)

[buzz15]

give me one good reason
tis record is only played on locals shows
wake up 97X
and no i'm not in this band
better than 99% of the crap played on your station and local to boot