Reviews

Panic Channel

(One)

Digg this review.
Add to del.ico.us.

Review Date: 2006-09-06

This is a new band that features Dave Navarro, which could be good or bad, depending on how you feel about him. I personally think he is great at guitar, but he's a bit of an idiot when I hear him get interviewed. I mean, he does that horrible reality show (Rock Star: Supernova) and he did that marriage show with him and Carmen Electra (that was awesome, by the way).

I've never heard of the rest of the band members. The music they have is aimed to be badass when it is rock, then when it's slow I think it's supposed to be more of a rock ballad. I suppose that since I don't hate it, there must be a saga in there somewhere. One complaint I do have is the horrible album name -- it throws me off and all the letters aren't in the same case, so where the hell did this come from? What's going on here?

The first track is called "Teahouse of the Spirits," which makes you think there's a spirituality theme on this album. It's kind of a darker spirituality -- one that has to do with ghosts, blood, other worldly dimensions, that kind of crap. It's totally lame to me, and I think they are nerds within their own genre of rock. The music they play is pretty badass; the guitar is epic, so what that tells you is that everything that Dave Navarro touches on the album is pretty good (musically, anyway). I don't know if he had anything do with the songwriting, so I'm going to just go ahead and hope that the answer is no.

"Left To Lose" opens with the catchiest guitar riff on the entire album, and since the guitarist is Dave Navarro it should be heard. This is the kind of track that you will listen to and rock your head back and forth with some serious throttle if you know what's good for you. I like it. The vocals are surprisingly wicked on this track; lead singer Steve Isaacs apparently had a brief stint with MTV that ended due to his love for the sauce. It's okay though Steve -- we all love the sauce, just not as much as you, it would seem. Some of the guitar solos in this track are fucking amazing.

I just found a good picture of The Panic Channel on their website; they all look particularly hilarious. I mean they all have make up on -- that's a given -- but one has a horrible mohawk, they all wear all black, and from what I can tell, the lead singer is posing like Jesus. I mean, it's corny, right? But would you expect anything less from this? It's just a packaged image, is all I'm pointing out. Does it affect your opinion on the music? I'll leave that to you to decide.

"Said You'd Be" is the next song that has any sort of pace and energy to it, so I decided I would talk about it rather than songs I wasn't liking as much. This has a bit of alternative guitar in it, dating back to Navarro's Jane's Addiction days, which is okay because I like a throwback every now and then. Also, I liked Jane,s Addiction, so how can I be upset by something else sounding like them? This song is alright, but Steve Isaacs' limited vocal abilities holds it back, without a doubt.

"Lie Next To Me" has chanting vocals in the background being used as the music of the song, and I suppose that's interesting to me...kinda. I don't know what to think, really, because I feel like I am at a campground with a bunch of North American Natives and we're singing kumbayah or something lame like that. Anyway, the vocals are pretty much the focus of this track, and Steve Isaacs does a pretty good job. He should sing like this more often, if you ask me; it's not whiney like it was on some of the slower tracks like "Awake" and "She Won't Last." The band comes across as really generic at times, and more experimentation like this definitely would not have hurt.

"Blue Bruises" is maybe the best of the slower songs on (oNe). That's weird to say, because often the pace of a song can assist me in liking it more, but occasionally it's not an issue. This song has a decent guitar riff, and the solo is rather interesting as well. The other guitar is played by Steve Isaacs' I don't know if he and Navarro take turns, but I'm pretty sure that most of the intricate guitar work on this album is fielded by Navarro. Otherwise, why is he even in this band?

Wanna listen to an eight-minute song? Not me! But if you're interested, check out "Night One." I don't get why songs like this exist; thankfully, they only have one. This song isn't that much to the rock side, it's just eerie. There are some parts where the guitar just owns this track, but the build-up is too far between. For a couple of repetitions I get to hear an angry guitar being played, and angry guitar is awesome. It's not awesome enough to make me want to sit through an eight minute song very often, though.

Tracks to Hear: "Untitled," "Teahousse Of The Spirits," "Left To Lose," "Said You'd Be"

What did I think of The Panic Channel's Debut album? Was it more than just disgustingly good guitar riffs by Dave Navarro?

Score: 6.5

I didn't like it that much. The guitar was okay but some of the tracks didn't even have much guitar, so really I was relying on the production value of the song or the vocals. Neither were usually very good. Overall, I can't say that I'm that surprised that I didn't like this album that much.

- Brandon