REVIEWS:
A very underrated early-mid 90s band who were unfortunately lumped in with the whole 80s 'hair metal' scene and were almost completely overshadowed by the grunge wave. They started out as a more straightforward but still noticeably diverse metal act with lead vocalist Matt Kramer and main songwriter Jason Bieler on their first two albums, Saigon Kick and The Lizard, before Kramer (a distinct part of their sound) quit. Bieler took over lead vocals, and the Saigon Kick sound became even more eclectic and experimental with their third album Water and Devil In The Details. Of course, they later regressed to completely boring and generic pop in Bastards, but hey, I guess bad albums are inevitable sometimes. At this point, the band has broken up, as Bieler is now involved in a new project, Super Transatlantic (also featuring former Extreme bassist Pat Badger).
--Nick Karn
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
Saigon Kick's debut album is the first showcase of the considerable songwriting skills of Jason Bieler, distinctive vocal range of Matt Kramer, powerful riffs, tight rhythm section, harmonies, and musical diversity. Although on a few occasions their influences can be a bit too obvious - the weaker tracks "New World" and "Coming Home" both scream Jane's Addiction, especially in the chorus vocals on both and "My Life" shows that these guys have listened to a ton of Beatles, very apparent in the song's melody, chorus, kazoo solo and bouncy rhythm - for the most part, the sound they exhibit here is more often than not their own, on which their ass-kicking potential seems fully realized. The infectious anthems "What You Say" and "Suzy" as well as "Love Of God" (which has exceptional lyrics and a damn catchy verse riff and chorus) top the list of 'songs guaranteed to stick in your head' tracks here, and "What Do You Do" combines unsettling, schizophrenic verses with a ferocious chorus for one hell of a song.
"Colors" pulls off a haunting, dreamy mood very very well, and "Ugly" is pure in your face rock, also living up to its' title lyrically ('Mother Mary was my friend / she put a gun right in my hand / I fired it once and I shot her son'.. 'I saw God and he said to me / take a family of four and make it three / Charlie, Ted and the son of Sam / they all ate green eggs and ham') There's also inspired punkish numbers with the band's noticeable twist (the lyrical talent peeking through on "Acid Rain" and "Month Of Sundays" maintaining musical excitement and riff power), while the closer "I.C.U." is the one very noticeably 80s metal influenced number here (think Motley Crue or Dokken riff-wise), although vocally and lyrically it couldn't be farther removed from the genre. Rounding out this album are the pounding "Down By The Ocean", which has interesting lyrics, and the acoustic ballad "Come Take Me Now", which has a chorus that sounds so final.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
Saigon Kick's self-titled debut album certainly showed a lot of promise in songwriting, and it's almost totally fulfilled on their follow up The Lizard. The best way to describe their ambitions here I guess is dangerously cutting edge arena rock with dark and violent lyrics, but yet at the same time the presence of catchy melodies, nice harmonies, and the tendency for musical eclecticism (which would be even more magnified after Matt Kramer's departure on their drastically different next album) are also felt. With the exception of the opening instrumental "Cruelty", which sounds like a failed attempt at recreating the majesty of Jane's Addiction's "Up The Beach", every one of these songs is a winner, with one standout track after another.
To the casual listener, the songs on The Lizard may seem like generic heavy metal, but on repeated listens they reveal themselves to be vicious as hell but at the same time controlled and immediately memorable and singable, and the lyrics are quite thought provoking, which greatly elevates these songs from that status. "Hostile Youth", for example, really works on account of an album defining hook that sticks in your head, and "Feel The Same Way" uses keyboard embellishments during the verses to its' advantage, and it's also damn catchy. "Peppermint Tribe" is a damn great aggressive 'death march', the title track really comes through with riff power, while everything about the astonishingly bloody political number "Body Bags" is completely intimidating, even its' melody, and especially the lyrics.
Also scattered throughout the album are hints of a softer direction the new configuration of the band would pursue in the future - the beautiful, harmony-filled ballad "Love Is On The Way" was the band's biggest hit, and it's a very pleasant diversion, while the towering "All I Want" has a tremendous otherwordly feel within the affectingly passionate lyrics, melody and majestic riff, and "Chanel" is the first and best of Saigon Kick's 'swing / big band' type numbers, pleasantly closing the album as a failed relationship number. Rounding out this powerful and consistent effort is "Freedom", which works a great chant in the chorus with a dark spoken section, the darkly comic interlude track "My Dog", the dark ballad "God Of 42nd Street", the aggressive "All Alright", the nicely textured "World Goes Round", and the direct "Miss Jones".
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
After Matt Kramer's departure on lead vocals, Water marked the emergence of Jason Bieler as the new vocalist and the completely dominant songwriter of the band (although he had already handled a lot of songwriting duties before). Under Bieler, the songs take on very satisfyingly melodic and eclectic territory. Don't expect straight ahead, loud riff-oriented metal from this release - other than the opening "One Step Closer", which has rather violent lyrics and a menacing riff and vocal to match and "Torture", which has a great twisting riff, similar lyrical intent, a good melody and is close in style to that opener, there's nothing really heavy at all here.
Within these 14 songs, the band manages to cover one of David Bowie's best known tunes ("Space Oddity" - which is a soaring, very faithful rendition, and one of the better cover versions I've heard), go in a silly novelty direction ("Sgt. Steve", which has a very playful, almost Beatles-esque feel with a great harmonized chorus), continue into 'swing song' territory ("Sentimental Girl", which, despite its' 'big band' rhythms and good-time feel is pretty bloody lyrically with a mildly heavy chorus), and attempting a techno-gospel-hard rock hybrid (the title track and "I Love You", which is one of the more pleasant and impressively melodic songs).
They also incorporate tribal rhythms (the addictive and very sexual "Close To You" and the average "My Heart"), go for a more blues feel (the decent "The Way"), write an overblown orchestral love ballad (the powerful and emotional "When You Were Mine" leading into the credit rolling closer "Reprise"), move into dark atmospheric ballad territory (the bleak and profound, but still somehow hopeful "Fields Of Rape"), and groove in the style of 70s funk in "On And On". Overall, Water is definitely a refreshing stab at a rich and diverse sound, although it is a rather inconsistent mix of songs because there's absolutely no coherence between them whatsoever, and all the songs with love-related themes are mostly on the second half of the album, which seems rather awkward, but it doesn't detract from the album too much. In addition to being a very recommended release, it also contains one of the most impressive packaging / liner note jobs you'll ever find on an album.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
Although merely an obscure band quietly releasing their next album in the States, by this time Saigon Kick had developed a rabid hardcore following in Asia (where they've also received death threats due to their often violent lyrics), and their fourth release Devil In The Details, while not as diverse and melodic as Water, provides more in the way of heavier moments than that album did. This one can also boast much better overall coherence, but the quality of songs undoubtedly isn't as high, and it takes a bit longer to get into, as some of the songs seem a bit too dull on first listen because the melodies aren't as powerful or are too generic.
The album begins with the tribal rhythms of the "Intro" which leads into the heavy, riff and synth driven "Russian Girl", an infectious number with good bass work in the chorus and passionate lyrics, followed by "Killing Ground", a heavy but somewhat generic and stale riff-rocker. That lesser track is made up for by "Eden", which is driven by beautiful piano texture, incessant 'singin' ohhhhhh, singin' ah la la la' melody and 'dem violent lyrics again ('get a bomb and blow up your school', 'throw your neighbor to the ground') in the verses and an uplifting, romantic sing-along chorus in contrast. "Going On" and "Everybody", meanwhile, aren't very engaging numbers, but the campfire feel of the 'make out' song "Spanish Rain" that closes the first half certainly is.
The second half begins with "Flesh And Bone", which is a good riff driven number with an eerie keyboard melody, and "Sunshine" has both nice acoustic textures and a bit of a funk feel. "Victoria" is another 'swing' number in the tradition of "Sentimental Girl", but this one's more serious lyrically, more 'groovy' and instrumentally better, while "Afraid" has top notch harmony work. "So Painfully" has the same kind of feel as the mediocre "Everybody", but has better song dynamics and melody, while in "Edgar", the airy, desperate verses (with the lyrics that play out like a letter to 'Uncle Edgar') are awesome contrast to the killer guitar crunch in the chorus. Too bad the half baked punkish closer "All Around" deflates that momentum somewhat. All in all, Devil In The Details has that air of disappointment to it, but there's still enough good material for it to be worthwhile.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
Okay, regardless of how much one might have liked Saigon Kick in the past, this is an album that I would really like anyone who's not a hardcore listener to pretend never existed. Not just because of the overall bad quality of it, but because of two factors. One, it's only available as a Japanese import at this time, so if you want to go out of your way to buy it (unless you live in the area, of course), you're gonna have to pay a ton, and an album like this ain't worth the money for those who aren't hardcore fans. Why? Because the original spirit of the band (in both the Matt Kramer era and the two more experimental Jason Bieler era albums) has been completely betrayed here. Instead of blood-flowing vitriolic aggressive numbers with violent lyrics, intriguing, if schizophrenic, musical diversity or, yes, even "Love Is On The Way", you get the kind of very routine pop music that I've been trying to avoid as a reviewer - you know, the kind of vocal melodies and chord sequences that are so generic that it seems like I've heard all these songs before already.
Needless to say, with the exception of maybe the lyrics to "Jehovah" (which, unfortunately, aren't paired with that memorable of a melody, or at least a very interesting one), there's almost no edge here, and all the songs are practically built from the same mold, with ultra cliched riffs and lyrics in songs like "Break My Heart" and "Sign Of The Times". That is, except for the 'let's cover a really irritating Billy Joel song' portion of the album in "Big Shot" - a more generic and obnoxious cover choice simply could not have been made here. I would much rather even prefer that "Who's Crying Now" was a cover of the Journey song of the same name instead of the non-descript number that it is. They're even recycling themselves melodically (or at least that loser Jason is) - the chorus of "So Sad To Say" is a direct ripoff of "When You Were Mine", only without the sheer orchestral majesty of the original, or a decent verse. It's just an okay adult contemporary ballad.
But thankfully, none of this stuff (except maybe the "Big Shot" cover, which rightly proved my ominous feelings about the album) is awful as a whole, and two or three relatively decent songs (or maybe choruses) rise out of the mediocrity as being close to good or even actually good, like the opener "A Lot Like You" - maybe it's because his voice grates when singing straightforward pop over the course of the album, but this acoustic and bass driven tune definitely has the nicest (and least generic) melodic flow here. Elsewhere, the chorus of "Nearer" is a nice anthemic breather to close the album off on, and the hard pop of "Solitary Jerk" has a cool refrain with interesting keyboard embellishments. But ehh... that's pretty much all that's interesting about this album. It's not horrible pop music, but it is utterly average and nothing special. Oh, and I guess you're wondering how I got the album. One word - Audiogalaxy. Hooray! Or maybe not, judging from the end result. A sad swan song here.
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