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Such is the influence of My Bloody Valentine, and in particular the virtuoso guitar playing skills of THE original sound manipulator, Kevin Shields, that 12 years after his band released their last record the legacy can be heard as far and wide as in Toronto.
‘Still Life, Fast Moving’ is Mean Red Spiders’ third album, and whereas it’s predecessors may have hinted at a more primitive, stripped-down approach a la Velvet Underground or even ‘Smile’-era Beach Boys, this collection firmly plants the band in the sonic ambivalence ballpark where most common observers come to worship at the throne (fx pedals?) of MBV and the rest of their contemporaries otherwise known as “shoegazers” in the early 90s. The cutesy coo of Lisa Nighswander bears more than just a passing resemblance to both Bilinda Butcher and Lush’s Miki Berenyi, particularly on the haunting ‘First And Only’ and the album’s stand-out track, ‘They Only Met Once’, which also hints at a slight Stereolab quasi-franglais meandering, never a bad thing when attempting to create your own “wall of sound” without losing the aptitude to discover a simple pop tune. The discordant ‘Awkward Over Coffee’ sounds like Hawkwind’s ‘Silver Machine’ having been disassociated with anything that emphasises it’s main riff, preferring instead to employ a more sophisticated floating jangle, as Nighswander sighs “Wandering nowhere…” over and over again, more in a cryptical than biographical fashion, one would hope.
Indeed there are occasions on ‘Still Life, Forever Moving’ where an overpowering sense of disorientation confuses the listener, particularly on the staid instrumental ‘Chinese Wall Declaration’, and the choice between wanting to hear the rest of the record or switch off completely becomes a close run thing.
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Three words? Dreamy summer days.
The Mean Red Spiders released their third album Still Life Fast Moving back in October of 2002, but as we pass the one-year anniversary, the record retains its shimmering summer feel. The group's sound is a combination of light breeze with bright rays of sun, a mix of singer Lisa Nighswander's soft and dreamy voice on top of flowing instrumental sounds. This blend encompasses an eclectic range of musics, from lounge to lullaby to ambient and upbeat danceable songs. There's a melancholy vibe, but it's not a bring-down sadness; instead, the Mean Red Spider seem to be advocates of a more laid-back philosophy: "Life can suck, let's go groove." Somehow the name Still Life Fast Moving starts to make sense after repeated listenings. The opening track, "First and Only," starts us off in an upbeat and almost poppy manner. It's as if the Spiders want to prove that they are capable of producing a song for mainstream radio. Regardless, the track is lovely. Lisa Nighswander's voice is super sweet and melodious, and mixes beautifully with the rhythms created behind it. Whether she's singing lyrics or just oohing along, her voice is what sets the opening tone for the Spiders. After the first track, the Spiders start going in all sorts of different directions. They slow things down right away on "Advance to Illinois," bringing in the ambient guitar and other instruments that are used throughout the album. While Nighswander's vocals are what initially stick out, it is the harmony of the varying parts that emerge as the Mean Red Spiders' foremost strength. The two fully instrumental tracks are especially wondrous: the slow buildup and never-ending crescendos on "Chinese Wall Declaration," along with the ghostly entrance to "First and Only (Reprise)," form my favorite moments of the CD. The Spider's manipulate their noise into fluid and occasionally enthralling soundscapes. As with most fully atmospheric bands, if the listener isn't willing to take in all the sounds it can become a little grating on the ears. On the other hand, the more into the music you are, the more beautiful it can become. Still Life Fast Moving was a big step for the Spiders in developing a clarity and fullness to their sound. If they keep this up, they are guaranteed to impress. reviewed by: Dustin Sacks for Tangmonkey.com |
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Still Life Fast Moving is admirably cohesive and poppier than any of their work to date, without the aggressive assault that Humphreys brought to the band. The kinder, gentler approach works in the Spiders' favour. Nighswander's vocals drift into the foreground, and clever details -- a bossa beat here, a cranked-up surf riff there -- give the tunes individual personalities.
reviewed by: Sarah Liss for NOW Toronto |
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Toronto's Mean Red Spiders continue in their mission to provide noisy drone rock with a soft underbelly. Still Life Fast Moving is the band's third full-length album...and it is possibly their most fully realized effort to date. The album effectively balances the band's soft pop with their experimental and sometimes noisy brand of drone rock. Like their previous recordings, these tunes get better with repeated listenings. On the surface the music may at first not seem that far out of the ordinary...but after five, ten, or twenty spins the intricacies of the music and subtle production tricks sink in. The band's vocalist still reminds us of Dominique Durand (of Ivy)...but the music is far and away very, very different...combining strange elements from all sorts of progressive and experimental rocks bands from the past few decades. Strange in a provocative sort of way, these folks are getting better all the time. Top picks: "First and Only," "My Soul To Keep," "Awkward Over Coffee." [Rating: 5+]
reviewed by: Babysue LMNOP Reviews |
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The latest Mean Red Spiders album is in many ways a logical continuation of their previous endeavours, 1998's Places You Call Home and 2000's Stars and Sons. Ranging from head-bopping rock to slower, more ambient soundscape-oriented numbers, this Toronto outfit serves up a solid collection of sweet-melody-tempered noise-rock (if you'll excuse the over-hyphenation). Think of Ottawa's South Pacific on amphetamines.
"Chinese Wall Declaration" is perhaps paradigmatic of their overall approach to this album, incorporating straight ahead rock elements, dreamy trip hop and an intro/outro that would fit right into such Flying Saucer Attack albums as Further. The more pop-oriented numbers, such as "First and Only" also merit praise, but, in my humble opinion, the Spiders' songwriting is best suited to sonic exploration rather than treading the well-beaten path of the conventional pop song. Indeed, this band's greatest strength has always been the diverse array of sounds and textures incorporated into every track, and Still Life Fast Moving is no exception, packed as it is with subtle background swooshes, swirls and Thereminesque wails. Singer Lisa Nighswander's breathy, almost sensual vocals are in this respect the perfect complement to the rest of the material, fitting in seamlessly with the surrounding sounds. Fans and newbies alike will not be disappointed if they choose to pick this up for themselves, or for a friend and subsequently "borrow" it for an extended period. reviewed by: Ian Krykorka for Umbrella Music |
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Mean Red Spiders, that ass-kicking little shoegazer band from Toronto, are on it again. Still Life Fast Moving is their new disc on well-respected imprint Clairecords, and it sees them with a fresh, rock-influenced, pop-hook-aplenty sound. There are still your regular My Bloody Valentine influences as is always the case, but they've also made their songs a lot more accessible to the average Joe. This disc should increase their popularity by leaps and bounds.
The most memorable tune may be the opener, "First and Only," a lovely pop affair with a spacey sound. Another quality song is "Turn Walk Away", which is a Valentine bloodbath, exploding off the bat with pounding guitars and an amazing feeling of floating in space. Meanwhile, calmer number "My Soul To Keep" offers a nice break from the band's trademark ethereal onslaught. This is a recommended album. Mean Red Spiders have really created a lot of good music since their conception in 1993, and they now are worthy of a spot at the forefront of the modern shoegazer scene. Still Life Fast Moving is an album worth purchasing for any shoegazer or indie pop fanatic. reviewed by: Matt Shimmer for Indieville |
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This is the third full length album for this dreampop group from Toronto. Opening with the very poppy (rather Ivy-ish) "First And Only" showed a lot of promise for this record. "Advance To Illinois" slowed it down quite a bit, but was still a very pretty song. "Beaconsfield" got me dancing again, but the following instrumental "Chinese Wall Declaration" made me almost completely lose interest. The simultaneously dreamy and noisy "Turn Walk Away" picked me right up though, reminding me a bit of Swervedriver. They broke their alternating pattern with two slower songs: the mediocre "The New Nostalgia" and the very lovely "My Soul To Keep" (again Ivy-ish, with a wonderful 12-string guitar interlude!). The very Stereolab-ish "They Only Met Once" follows, and is definitely a fun song. "Awkward Over Coffee" is the obligatory long, boring, self-indulgent song found on all dreampop records (yes, I know, you have many effects pedals...); and the last track is a reprise of the opener, and it's not an improvement, if you know what I mean... So while this may not be a consistently great record (which is a loaded statement, as I don't think any dreampop/shoegaze record is great all the way through), it definitely has enough high points to merit repeat listening...
reviewed by: IndiePages |
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Two guitars , a bass, a drum kit, microphone and a korg have been a standard for Toronto’s Mean Red Spiders since the mid-90’s when they burst into a scene full of East-coast pop, post-grunge, and the brit-pop revival. And while those sub-genres of music all began to wear out their welcome, the low-key, laid back, partially psychedelic dronology that the Spiders were performing didn’t and hasn’t yet become tired. There’s a conformity to an MRS song, a standard relaxation to tension, ebb and flow, peaks and valley that nearly every song of theirs adheres to. Whether pure instrumental or with whisper-thin, scraping on barely audible vocals of Lisa Nighswander, the songs all have a build up to a climax, then sometimes a come-down, and sometimes many rise and falls. As they’ve progressed on this their third full length from teenageUSA the Spiders have advanced, in sound depth (adding a twist and a toss of say an accordian, or xylophone or some other soft percussives), a true alternative band, but retaining a pop sensibility that shines through in tracks like Beaconsfield and They Met Only Once, which contain catchy riffs or subdued, but cheery bup-bups (are hand claps far off).
The Spiders are now verging on melding their stile to territory one explored by the likes of Lush and Serge Gainsburg…. There’s a sixties pastiche that sometimes blurs into nineties sensibilities, but also wouldn’t feel too out of place in the space-rock of the seventies. Sincere, collected and cool. reviewed by: Dirty Monkey Bugspray Fun |
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I've come to expect good things from this Canadian label with it's ironic title after hearing the Weekend the Eric's Trip record that it put out last year, so it's no surprise that I was impressed with Mean Red Spiders. Imagine Bardo Pond deciding to write a pop record, sure it would still be dreary and breathy, but to fans who know it would indeed be a pop record even if only by their own standards. The Mean Red Spiders are writing songs that are simultaneously upbeat and soft, similar to Broadcast, but much lighter in their delivery. The vocals of Lisa Nighswander are breathy and soft and compliment the music to the fullest extent. This is a record that you can listen to over and over again in one night, with the lights turned low and your thoughts all to yourself, and that's a rare thing indeed.
reviewed by: GeekAmerica.com |
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Founded in 1995, Mean Red Spiders have spent the creation of their three albums developing their own version of “noise pop”. The result is a mellow, droning sound full of interesting elements and lots of “white noise”. Every listen seemed to reveal another layer. Despite my use of the word noise, MRS is far from abrasive, with an airy quality that creates an almost dream-like atmosphere. It’s non-intrusive; you can just let this album play no matter what you’re busy with.
Lisa Nighswander’s vocals blend right into the noise of the instrumentation, her delicate, subtle style allows her to soak into the dreamy ambience. Generally, I’m not a big fan of real soft, understated female voices, my best comparison is Ivy or even Stereolab. I tend to find them cold and flat, but in this case, I think Mean Red Spiders has found a balance that helps it all to blur comfortably, allowing me to warm up to Nighswander’s voice. Although subtlety seems to be one of the big trends in indie pop, MRS has a different approach to the style. It’s not restrained to stay within any boundaries. Although at times it stumbled in the dangerous territory of being boring and a little repetitive, the strength here is the originality behind the music and the different textures they have created. The sound is best described as soft, thick and lush, at times there is almost a fuzziness. How’s that for texture? I kept imagining with each listen, that they take it to a whole new level live, keeping the songs going and still managing to keep it interesting. reviewed by: Steph for Indieworkshop.com |
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How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop? Go ask Mr. Owl, 'cause today our topic of discussion is how many listens it takes to get to the heart of an extremely dense audio recording by the band Mean Red Spiders, Still Life Fast Moving. It's definitely more than three.
This is seriously fierce production, massive in scope, and absolutely thick with sound and aural tricks sure to keep you listening for months and months just trying to unravel the levels of music happening on each song. Rob Boak (guitar), Greg Chambers (guitar), Minesh Mandoda (ambiance, effects, multi-instrumentalist), Lisa Nighswander (bass, vocals), and Adam Rosen (drums, percussion) conspire to create a spacious soundscape that's as romantic and dreamy as it is intense. Bursting with syrupy synths, jangly guitars, melodic, grooving bass, breathy, melodic vocals, feedback and distortion guitar textures, and odd sonic characters created by samples, glockenspiel, and production to test the most dedicated stereophile's system, this disc is definitely very modern in it's delivery. But the question is, what is it delivering? And the answer, my friend is AM radio. That's right - shrouded beneath all that dense production and instrumentation beats a pop radio heart that's older than the King of Pop himself. The packaging is avant-garde, but its soul is old, as old as the first simple melodies sung by the first Western pop artists. It sure doesn't sound old coming from MRS though. Often it's barely recognizable, but it's there, and it sounds really, really good in their hands. Face it: at this point in the time line of popular music, there isn't much that hasn't been done. It's not like musicians and bands are inventing new instruments or some whole new method of expressing musical notes. The melodies and song structures that are being performed are essentially the same as they've always been. Sometimes faster, sometimes slower, sometimes in a minor key, but basically just floating from one popular music genre to another over the years. Modern music is all about the medium. What keeps it fresh and keeps people listening is the performer's ability to lend new spirit to the performance of what is, technically, an incredibly stale loaf of bread. MRS do this perfectly, and for that, they get the Gold Star for the day. Songs like "They Only Met Once," "First and Only," "Advance to Illinois," and "Awkward Over Coffee" are sweet and brilliant enough to hook, but (most importantly) obscure enough stand up to repeated listenings. So slip on the headphones and drift off into a still life of your own. reviewed by: Ryan Conrad for Delusions of Adequacy |
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