LEVITATOR review thread - Page 2

Kickass. Looking forwards to it. Thanks, Nick!

Emailed the mailing info, Nick. Thanks.

New album soon? Woo!

Levitator was a good companion on my long-ass car trip last week.

For discounted price? If the offer is still around after Christmas, I still need to add Exploder to my collection.

If you still have any left I'd love to take a crack at it.

Received it over the weekend. I've been listening to it, and only it since. I will add thoughts soon.

Oh yeah. Thank you, Nick. Much appreciation.

Heh....speaking of which...

A buddy of mine has asked for my help in promoting his cd to area colleges and music stations. He said as a thank you that he'd mention my name on their new cd (currently in the works).

It felt good to say..HA! HA! Somebody already beat you to it!

If I failed to tell you before.... thanks.

I've commented on every song in this forum but I'll kind of coalesce it here. I love that you guys can be so musically diverse. You are a hard band to peg and I love that. I think my favorite thing consistently has been the percussion. The lyrics are excellent. The guitar and keyboards are also great. My only complaint has been that the vocals sometimes get overpowered but you addressed that.

The cocktease ends.

I wanted to take some time and REALLY listen to this thing over and over again. I just didn't want to post my initial reaction to this disc. I'm glad, too. I would have given a much different review if I had written something right away. For the most part, I love the lyrics. LOVE. I just wish they were easier to read in the linear notes. The playfulness of tracks like Blood Gulch and Infinate Lives piqued my curiousity out of my love of video games and originally were my two favorites.

I used to know music a lot. I used to listen to it and did nothing more. About 7 years ago or so, I got competely out of it. So I don't think I'm a good authority on music at all. I can only tell you about what I like. I usually pick a moment in a song that "hits" me.

Beyond the Bone - Honestly, this is my least favorite track on the album. The chorus is slightly catchy, but in the end it leaves me flat everytime. It just seems too "Jun Jun Jun Jun Jun" if you know what I mean.

Blood Gulch - Fun. I play it for my friends when they come over before we play Halo. They dig, too. It's surface fun, but I don't care. I like it.

We Are - Okay, this is something different. I love the chorus on this one.

No One Special - Too fucking short. Speaking of cockteases... this one's only 2:46 seconds long, and it's quite possibly 2:46 of my favorite music. I really dig this one. It's moody and mature. Why didn't you go with this one more and make it a 5 minute masterpiece? Seriously, the changes are in place, and it screams talent. I love when you say "Closer to the kitchen drain..." It just sounds cool. But the "Over and over" part takes it up another level. Beautiful stuff, Nick.

Greek Mythology - This one goes in the Blood Gulch category. I like, and it's fun. It reminds me of something I listened to while playing final fantasy 7...then it gets all funky. I dance with tight sweatpants on when I listen to this.

Assassination Enthusiast - Rolling guitar to start it off and then it starts. "If you leave, get wasted by the best" I love the way that's sung. Plus, this is a song about assassinating. Again, I love the lyrics, but there's something else special about this. It's a solid track, and one that shouldn't be overlooked.

Perfect Misery - Nice. Mature. Slow. Deep. Different for the Nightsticks feel, but a welcome change. I like the simplicity on a disc of complexity. No one can say that all your songs sound the same, and that, my friend, is a compliment.

Zartan Boogie - More rolling.... I tap my hands on the steering wheel with the drumbeat. The bass line does something for me. Until this track, I didn't 'hear' much bass. This track it comes out to play. The song loses me when the guitar chimes in, but it brings it right back during the rest of the instrumental. Not perfect, but highly listenable.

Liquid Lunch - From 5:30 on, this is one of my favorite tracks. LOVE IT!! But how could I talk about this track as a whole? I can't. This puts the multipersonality disorder of Disco Volente to shame. So many changes and some have some goodness, but from 5:30 on... I could listen to that stuff forever.

The Night We Lost... - Awesome. Here's your single. This is probalbly the most radio friendly. It's a groovy track with a great line, "Innocence is a relative term".

Silenced Forever - Fuck man... I hated this one. Bigtime. I didn't even give it a chance til a few days ago. Boy was I wrong. Talk about musical moments. When the lyrics kick in the whole song kicks ass. "Silence the competition" part is awesome, but when you sing "So tired of waiting" ... man... It's my single favorite part of the album, and one of my more favorite parts in music the last couple of years. I'll listen to this over some of the Radiohead stuff I've got. I shit you not. The drum solo completely grew on me to. It does bang.

More later...

Well here's more....

Levitator - I love the guitar intro with the slight tapping of the percussion. Then the riff that reminds me of why I loved old school Faith No More... then another shift to a moody and gloomy verse. The changes work well here, and they contrast nicely with the lyrics. I guess I could do without the little snare rolls throughout. The guitar reminds me of Black Sabbath a little. Actually, a lot of this song reminds me of old Black Sab a lot.

Mental Paradise - It's kinda like Zartan Boogie for me. I like it, but I won't go to this track unless I haven't heard it in a while. There are some moments that make me think somethings going to happen that I'm going to love, but it doesn't happen. I can't dislike it though. It has some of my favorite keyboards on the entire album. It's worth listening to for the end keyboard jam.

Infinate Lives - One of my original favorites. It's now since been eclipsed by No One Special and Silenced Forever, but its the song that I've commented on before, but now I've listened to it umpteen more times. You've got a Contra Code reference in here. I can't not appreciate that. In fact, I think you put on the mesage board "This is a song ode to video games and loose women." Or something like that. I've used that phrase since then. Some one will ask me what a certain movie is about, and now my response is, it's an interpretation of video games and loose women. It's fun. I should start playing my guitar more so I could write some video game related songs.

Bloodless - There's moments in this one. I love the way the lines like "100 percent woman" and "there's no violence" are sung. I completely love the way you sing the chorus for the words "crimes" and "ride it". It sound cool and I can feel it. After that though, I don't care for the "we are the ones..." stuff. I think it takes away from the groove that was built up. Still, I'd love to hear it live.

Dust to Dust - If Beyond the Bone grows on me, this would be my throwaway. It hosts a pretty fun jam at the minute mark, but before that I'm not intrigued.

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So there's my mini review of Levitator. Here's a few comments that cover a few things about the band. The singing. I may sound dumb, but I'm going to take a leap here. I'm assuming your voice is modified through something. It sounds cool, but it also sounds muffled on a bunch of songs. Sometimes the music bleeds over the lyrics, and I gotta say, the lyrics you've written bring each of these songs up a notch for me.

Levitator sounds a little rough on the edges, I'm not sure if it's due to equipment or if it's supposed to be that way, but cleaned up, and you've got some stelllar stuff here.

I waited a while to write anything about this because I wanted to make sure I knew what I thought worked and didn't. It's tough when someone you consider a friend... even an internet friend asks you to listen to something they've created. you don't want to break hearts or piss on parades. I decided just to give my honest opinion. In fact, I was hoping I wouldn't like some stuff more because I didn't want to sound all happy. The truth of the matter is that this is something different and refreshing. The Lucky Nightsticks are better than 90% or more of the bands playing on the radio right now.

Of course it's not for everyone.

This isn't a disc I'll recommend to my parents or even some of my conservative (I don't mean political conservative) friends. If you are tired of hearing the same shit on the radio and you like a few on this list:

Faith No More
Mr. Bungle
Pink Floyd
Black Sabbath (Ozzy stuff)
Video Game music
maybe even a little Nine Inch Nails
80s new wave with a violent twist

This might be your thing.

I think some edges need to be cleaned up, but everything else was shocking. I like the disc a lot. I can't wait to here what's going on next. Nick, thanks for the disc, and I really think there's something special about this music. Fuck the naysayers... they're just jealous.

Now I should finish up my Tom and Jerry DVD review for you...

What Boomstick said, only with more exclamation marks. Still listening to Levitator regularly. Good stuff.

Here's hoping that Exploder shows up soon...

No kidding?

Coooool.

Fortunate bastards!

Thronestar.... sounds like I should listen to some Gwar in preparation.

Looking forward to it.