Louden Up Now

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

This album is FUN, 2007-09-02
Chk Chk Chk are a band that merges the funkiness of club music with the cockiness and carelessness of rock, and they manage to do it without sounding overly pretentious. Their music is loved for its strong beats, deep bass and crazy-sounding half-singing-half-speaking vocals, with no particular emphasis on lyrics. br /A lot of the time you won't even understand what is being shouted out, it may even be gibberish for all we know, but Nic Offer's voice complements Chk Chk Chk's music perfectly. His wild but half-spoken style is what gives them their charming spark of craziness. Most of the time he sounds like he's on the verge of going completely bezerk. He likes to shorten words as he wishes or stretch them over the rhythm of the song in the most unusual manner, and that has sort of become Chk Chk Chk's trademark. It gives every song a bit of a crazy genius feel. br /In fact it is songs from this album, such as "Hello? Is this thing on?" and "When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Gets Krazee" which seem to take that "crazy" vocal/verbal style to the extreme. br / br /Louden Up Now is often referred to as Chk Chk Chk's "political" album, but don't let that delude you. This isn't U2 or Manic Street Preachers. There will be no pretentious "weltschmerzen" ballads and no serious political messages here. There are a few political remarks in "Pardon My Freedom" and "Shitscheisemerde", but considering the context they are in (lots, lots of swearing), I don't see how one could take them seriously. They strike me more as self-ironic half-bothered joke songs. Ultimately, Chk Chk Chk don't need to write poetry of impeccable intellect, what their fans really appreciate them for is what's in the background - the powerful rhythm, deep warm bass, the "jamming" that will make walls dance. br / br /For those who have bought Myth Takes and are wondering what this is like, I think the fairest thing to say would be that it's a little darker and a little crazier, but no slower. You will dance. :)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

Set aside preconceptions -- Louden Up Now is great, 2006-12-31
I find it interesting that the negative reviews for this album are from people who had some sort of prior expection as to what it is supposed to be. The complaints are that it's not disco-punk enough, that it's for self-satisfied hipsters, that it's for wannabes, that it's not political enough, that it's not as good as the live show, and, of course, that nothing on it lives up to "Me and Giuliani". br / br /I only discovered this album this year, for some reason, and I really dig it. By managing to avoid the hype at the time of its release, and never having heard "Me and Giuliani" (or even knowing it was an older single), I had the luxury of being able to listen to "Louden Up Now" without any preconceptions. It's great. br / br /Unlike many of the complainers who find this music derivative, I find this album to be quite original. Sure, it sounds like lots of other bands (Clash, Ween, New Order, Cop Shoot Cop, Shriekback, Twitch-era Ministry come to mind) thrown in a blender, but it has its own unmistakable personality. Louden Up Now is rhythm piled on rhythm, sounds piled on sounds, industrial-like production, a dose of playful bad attitude, all tied to a stiff-yet-funky bass which holds everything together. br / br /But to enjoy this album, you gotta see the genius in a couplet like "Tell the President to s* my f*ing d*. Does that sound intelligent? Like I give a f*ing frick." And you've gotta love the spastic sax bleat in "Dear Can" against its mechanical, broken-march rhythm. This stuff makes me move! But it's also well composed music, sonically involved music that you can simply listen to and enjoy (provided you don't require a lot of melody and harmony in your tunes). br / br /As for "Me and Giuliani", I don't think it's really that different, better or worse than anything else on the album. However, I notice it has hints of melody and harmony that don't appear elsewhere, and it doesn't have the same near-distorted drums that much of the rest of the album has, making its overall sound more dancey and perhaps appealing for those with less tolerance for noise. But I prefer the aggression of "Pardon My Freedom". If the end of that song doesn't make your blood pump faster, well, then this might not be for you. br / br /So forget about who it's supposed to be for, what genre it's supposed to fit into, who it's been influenced by, put it on, obey the album title's directive, and start moving. It's really good.

3 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

THE HORROR! MY GOD THE HORROR!, 2006-01-11
ok, the last thing i ever thought i'd do was... wait, the last 2 things i ever thought i'd do is - 1) listen to a friend and, on their word alone, buy an album without sampling it first online - 2) actually waste my time to write a bad review about it... br /ok guys, this album sucks bad.. and ill tell u why... im a native new yorker, (unlike 90% of these bohemian, scenester phonies who now plague the streets of brooklyn) and this "indie" stuff has been big here for quite sometime now... which is fine, i like some of it, not all of it... but its gotten to the point where these bands can put out complete crap, and people will eat it up cuz its "indie" or whatever... i know this bands hails from sacramento, CA, not from brooklyn, but there name has been thrown around brooklyn as much as the strokes, interpol, and the yeah yeah yeahs -- they might as well as lived here... now to the music... PRETENTIOUS, SLOW, DANCABLE, DISCOTHEQUE CRAP.. singer can't sing (but i guess in the indie world thats SO SCENE!!!!ITS THE PASSION MAN!) BULL! this guy shouldn't be behind the mic.. i'd forgive him if he played an instrument and contributed a bit more, but all he does is sing and he sucks at it... the band is way too far out there for their own good, as if trying so hard to be different and revolutionary beyond thier natural talents as muscians... i know music is subjective and blah blah, but i think some things are clearly drawn out for us - like: ASHLEE SIMPSON CAN'T SING, MICHAEL JACKSON TOUCHES LITTLE BOYS, EMO IS TODAYS GENERATION'S HAIR METAL, THE ARCADE FIRE COLDPLAY ARE WAY TOO OVER RATED, THE REDSOX WERE THE FLUKE OF THE CENTURY, AND YES, THIS BAND SUCKS BAD... PERIOD... AFTER ONE DREADFUL LISTENING TO, I THREW IT OUT... HOPE THIS WAS HELPFUL!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

A very strange-yet-creative and entertaining dance album - I think you'll like it a lot!, 2006-01-06
!!!'s (or Chik Chik Chik's) "Louden Up Now" is a very odd dance album which somehow manages to be pretty good despite its strangeness. Most of the songs have hard-hitting beats and catchy instrumentation which should distract you from how weird the songs are. The singer does get a little out of control in a bad way sometimes (parts of "Hello? Is This Thing On?", but it's not annoying to the point of you hating the song). There are no bad songs here which helps in making the album appealing as a dance set. I'm not sure how to describe it musically - it's usually pretty complex and features random electronic blips, bloops and samples during some of the songs. You'll just have to hear it for yourself. If you're looking for a great and quirky dance album then this is a good one to pick up, even if it's definitely strange. Highly recommended! br / br /Highlights include: br /the entire album!

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

Pretty cool and evocative of 80s dance punk, 2005-12-11
I don't have a lot to say about this band or this record as I am just beginning to familiarize myself with them, but listening to it, I can say that I think they're cool. They evoke, and remind me of, the period in music in the early 80s when post-punk merged with dance music, and we got such acts, some being one hit wonders, as: Konk, ESG, the Bush Tetras, Medium Medium, Liquid Liquid, A Certain Ratio, Maximum Joy. Essentially, they offer a groove music that evokes St. Marks Place, Soho and Tompkins Square Park, circa 1984, as well as of a small, legendary Greenwich Village record shop/label - 99 Records (at 99 Macdougal Street) - which specialized in post-punk groove music. I also dig the title to the song Me and Giuliani Down by the School Yard (A True Story), not to mention the radical, anti-fascist message the song contains.