I wasn't too thrilled about Candy Planet before I heard them. They are a San Francisco-based band fronted by a woman, who also happens to be one of the primary songwriters in the band. Being a survivor of eighties big-hair hard rock, the name "Candy Planet" brought forth visions of groups like Vixen and Madame X - not to mention the Love factor.
But after hearing Blisskrieg, the band's sophomore effort, I was rather impressed with their ability to combine catchy pop tunes with the occasionally deep lyric - all the while not becoming bogged down on one side of the other.
Too many times, we see bands that are either too serious or too frivolous. In some cases, the music deserves to be treated as such. But most of the time, you have bands that try to be serious when they have no business doing so and vice versa, with the result being that they end up looking clownish (for example, who told Motley Crue that they needed to write "meaningful lyrics"?).
But, I digress. Blisskrieg is a strong record in every respect, and while, the presence of Laura Arias on vocals adds an extra punch to the group, it is their cohesiveness as a band that sets them apart from many of the other indie acts out right now. Let's face it, after Liz Phair, Courtney Love, Alanis Morrisette and others, we've become almost immune to a woman singing about women's issues on an album. The gender of your band is now almost the non-issue it should be, and thankfully, Candy Planet seem to realize that.
Most of the songs on Blisskrieg tend to fall on the heavier end of the musical spectrum (falling somewhere between Band de Soleil and Hole), and the band delivers with almost every track. Arias, along with drummer Paul Revelli, bassist John Christensen, and guitarist Andy Stern gel together perfectly on songs like "Every Time" (which features the great line "you're the type of guy to spill his drinks, not his guts") and "Looking to the Stars." Perhaps the only miscue on the album is "Cancer in the Raw," which - while I certainly didn't really like the song - is better than many of the other songs I've heard this year.
The song that deals the strongest with a women's issue is "Racer Girl," which Arias wrote after seeing a documentary on a women, but with all-male bands on the soundtrack. When she sings "who says girls can't race the hell out of boxcars/your jealousy don't mean dick" she's being just as strong as any other female vocalist in the music industry, perhaps even more so by not turning her strength into her shtick.
The bottom line is that Blisskrieg is a solid album from a solid band that warrants some attention. The songwriting and musicianship flow together perfectly, which is what should be the most important thing about a band in the first place.
