Dink ‘Blame it on Tito’ E.P. 3/5 starsDink is a little odd. This Kent, Ohio band tries to combine the genres of hardcore punk and dance-industrial music. The funny thing is, it almost works.The five song E.P. has songs from their last album and upcoming one, including ‘Green Mind,’ a song that managed to get on MTV’s 120 Minutes a few years ago. The E.P. also features a cover of Neil Young’s ‘Ohio.’ (You know, the one about the Kent State shootings?)The band pulls off the punk-industrial mix as well as one can imagine. The song it works best on is ‘Green Mind,’ but it’s an uneven mix. It leans more toward the industrial side. The industrial shows up as clip-heavy intros and outros to the crunchy punk filling. Most of the time, the two genres don’t really come together until you get to the hidden tracks, where Dink remixes ‘Ohio’ and ‘Numb II’ as industrial songs.Probably the main reason anyone would pick this up is to have the ‘Ohio’ cover around to bug Neil Young fans. The rest is good, but if a new, full-length album is forthcoming, it’s probably best to wait and see how well it turns out before getting Dinked.
Rusted Root ‘Remember’ 2/5 starsRusted Root’s second album, ‘Remember,’ is aptly named; it will make you remember the first album, and how good it was.This is a toned-down album. The beat calms from the Root’s former 1/16 and 1/32 notes to a 1:4 beat, seeming a funeral dirge in comparison.Gone, too, are the sweeping African and South American rhythms and the rushing vocal harmonies. They are replaced by vaguely Arabian and country hoedown guitar riffs, as well as a more traditional lead-and-backing vocal arrangement.Front man Michael Glabicki, with his beautiful vibrato, has acquired an annoying Peter Pan rooster trill which he seems to think is pretty neat, because he uses it on more than one occasion. Imagine a grown man imitating a car screeching around a corner.Gone is the dramatic drum work of old. This is a guitar-driven album, with percussion taking a supporting role.Thinking of the last album, one wonders what happened between discs. Rusted Root used to be an energetic musical whirlwind. Now they’ve got all the energy of a really bored drum circle.
