Search - The BellRays :: The Red, White and Black

I Was Misled

Filmore Mescalito Holmes | tinymixtapes.com | 03/08/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"If this CD were a scene in a movie it would be where the nerdy guy in Steven King's The Stand writes "sorry, I was misled" on a piece of paper before blowing his own head off. The one thing that got me to listen to this was the well written message from lead singer Lisa Kekaula in the liner notes which reads, "Jazz is not the only great American art form, so is rock and roll. It has simply been neglected and abused by most of its listeners and practitioners until the masses expect the least from its beautiful, enormous possibilities." A pretty bold statement and one that's backed by riot songs like "Street Corner" and "Revolution Get Down" but man, oh man does it not deliver! I awaited my turn to "open up (my) mind and listen" as Lisa told me to do and, sure enough, the first few notes aren't bad...but then it eats its own s**t. From start to finish it's almost entirely a pure Rock & Roll album with a few very poorly executed avant-garde moments that were done a million times better by Zappa and Hendrix, disjointed, off-beat moments that work like a depressed quadriplegic Mormon on Sunday...which is to say not at all. The anti-establishment lyrics that show up here and there feel way too much like packaged rebellion for the masses while The Red, White, And Black never ventures musically beyond the very vanilla middle. It's as far away from exploring the possibilities of rock as scientifically calculable. I haven't felt this betrayed since that guy in the van didn't actually have any candy. Positively made for fans of Jet and the Kings of Leon."