Hollywood Apocalypse – Rather Excessive

Hollywood Apocalypse – Rather Excessive – Album Review

Hmmmmmm…

Well…first impressions are still a thing as far as I know, and Hollywood Apocalypse definitely makes one.

Do I expect everyone out there to get whatever the heck this band is on about?  Hell no!  In fact, I’m still not 100% sure what the fuck we’ve got here either.  All I know is that I pushed play on Rather Excessive, “Good Morning Hollywood” kicked things off, I didn’t know if I was ever going to be able to get into this – and then all of a sudden, I was?  How did I get here?  You’ll know what I’m talking about when you get a chance to hear this for yourself.  I’m no stranger to Punk in just about all of its many forms…but this felt decidedly different in a very confusing way.  You’ve got Ivan up front on the mic proudly muckin’ it up as an anti-singer of sorts…like, kind of in that odd way that bands like Pavement and Golden Smog created a strangely addictive sound around great songs and singers that made you ask WTF as you listened.  Obviously there are much more Punk-inspired names I could drop…but fuck it, I’m leaving those comparisons in, largely because Hollywood Apocalypse quickly proves to be a modern day hybrid as “Good Morning Hollywood” shifts its sound around.  Lyrically…attitude-wise…make no mistake, they’re clearly Punk AF.  “Our songs celebrate the city in all its contradictions,” they say.  I say it sure as hell sounds like it.  Something about the hooks in this opening track pulled me right onboard though.

Somewhere in the realm of the thirty-to-forty second spot of their second track, called “Be,” I was like – okay, wait…there IS something here.  I might still not know exactly WHAT, but there is SOMETHING here.  Ivan somewhat drops the schtick of the way he sang the first song, and unleashes an incredible moment in music in the main hooks of “Be.”  I’ll fully admit, it makes it a little tougher to love and/or accept the way he sings the verses in this very same song…but hearing the guy rise to the biggest demands on his vocals and tear the microphone a proverbial new one…I mean…dude’s obviously a force to be reckoned with when he chooses to be.  The main question I had in listening to this song however, was why ain’t he in that gear from start to finish instead?  We’re ALL going to question WTF this guy is doing when you hear him in the opening track – but NONE of us would have if he was firing off at the all-star level he is on “Be” in its chorus.  Anyhow…it is what it is, as they say.  I think what he’s doing in the chorus of “Be” is a genuine game-changer.  The band surrounding him is reliably tight, innovative, and skilled creatively.  I love that Hollywood Apocalypse has not one, but multiple keyboard players.  In a Punk band?  Unheard of!  For real though, in both these first two cuts, you can hear the difference they make to this madness.

As I listened to this record over the past week or so, I had moments where I’d feel like Ivan was brilliant with his lyricism, and other spots where he’d reach for an easy rhyme or a throwaway line and roll my fucking eyes as I listened.  I know, I know…I’m an asshole music critic and I just want everything all of the time and my expectations are entirely unrealistic and I should probably just shut the fuck up and let the music spin…but I ain’t that dude.  Like I said in talking about “Be” beforehand – when this band finally drops the act and just focuses in on creating great tunes, they’re going to dominate in ways nobody can predict right now.  As it stands, when you’re listening to a cut like “A Million People” and the imbalance it has in between what works and what doesn’t work as well…I mean, it’s kinda frustrating from this side of the speakers in a way.  You’ll listen, and you’ll be like – that part WORKS – just do more of THAT!  And to be completely fair to the band, sometimes they WILL do more of whatever THAT is to you…but there are many times that they won’t too, and we kind of have to live with that for the time being.  They’re still very much on the early side of their career at this point, but they’ve got lots they can work with.  I think a lot of bands, especially in the realm of Punk, can end up believing more in the attitude or other things that aren’t the MUSIC to help them make their mark.  Don’t get it twisted…these outside aspects can be a massive part of what establishes identity – and Hollywood Apocalypse has a metric TON of that stuff – but at the end of the day, you want the material to be strong enough to support that as well.  There are pieces of “A Million People” that I like, and there were pieces of the opening two tracks that I liked as well…like, seriously kickass stuff…all I’m saying is that I’m looking for a whole song made of that.

Is it going to be “Little Psycho?”  No, but I did appreciate how Hollywood Apocalypse veered so hard in the other direction with their sound that nobody out there would ever see this track coming based on what they’ve heard so far.  It’s still cohesive, because of that aforementioned identity established and how we can expect Ivan to stick to a more performance-driven style of singing, rather than worrying too much about the precision of his tone or metering and such.  LISTEN to this chorus though, will you?  At this point, I feel like I can safely say that this band crushes a chorus so damn hard that you can always guarantee that’s going to be your favorite part of whatever song you’re listening to by Hollywood Apocalypse…now it’s really all about continued refinement and closing the gap between the strengths of one part to the next.  We’re not talkin’ about a small distance y’all, and that’s the main issue I’ve got with them on Rather Excessive.  To me, they have an insane grip on what REALLY works…and I’m not all that convinced that they’re not shooting themselves in the foot a little bit when it comes to their true potential. “Little Psycho” is a solid example of what I’m talkin’ about…the verses just don’t measure up to the same level in terms of what generates our interest in the choruses.  You can argue that this is the case with just about 85% of all songs ever written, as in, the chorus is likely always going to outshine a verse and have more gripping hooks – and I’d agree with you on that – but we’d also be having different conversations.  What I’m saying is that Hollywood Apocalypse needs to narrow the gap.  A great chorus might always be enough to keep people coming back for another listen, but having strong verses to go with them isn’t impossible, you feel me?  So get back under the hood, tinker with the mechanics, and don’t settle!  Sounds harsh I’m sure, but I swear I’m just being fair.  I don’t mind the gentle sway of this psychotic little ditty in its verses…but is not minding something the target that they’re really aiming for?  They’ve really got some remarkably impressive ideas though, and like I said, that’s all I’m looking for – keep those coming.  Every time I heard the chorus of “Little Psycho” I truly felt genuinely amazed by it.

I have…hmm…nothing really to contribute to the conversation when it comes to “1969.”  Actually, I like the guitar solo in it…which could be Ivan, but it’s probably more likely being laid down by Celinda Chang.  “Show me how to make love, and I’ll show you how to fuck” is a clever line…I’m not going to dispute that.  What I am going to dispute, is whether or not there’s enough of a song here built around it – I’m not hearing it if there is.  Maybe I’m just being the objective wet-ass blanket, but someone’s gotta play the role of a villain in another person’s life, right?  I’d be the first to tell you that I’d probably even be into “1969” if I was listening to it live, but yeah, it’s harder to say if this translates enough to a recording.  For myself personally, it didn’t, but if you dig it, help yourself and turn it on up to compensate for the folks like me that are tuning it out.  The bass is impressive…shout-out to you Proto.  There’s an energy to this track that I can kind of get into a little bit, but I still feel like the band is leaning too hard on attitude versus the strength in their content.  I want more outta them, but that’s cause they’ve already shown us they’re capable.  Once you’ve done that, I don’t have a choice but to hold you to the standards YOU set.

Alright…I was pulling for you “Puke Stain,” I thought you might be the one.  It was not…and now I’m a bit worried they’re sliding in the wrong direction.  In a way, the balance of strengths to this song are a little more evened out, which I appreciate, but this time around it didn’t feel like there was enough in either of the song’s main pieces.  For myself personally, at this point, what I like best about listening to the music of Hollywood Apocalypse is that, for better or worse, they are highly committed to what they do.  That includes you too Ivan.  I think there’s a level of objectivity that they need to get to…you know, like some tough conversations that need to be had about what works versus what doesn’t, but I have every reason to believe a band that houses as much talent as this crew does could easily get to where they wanna go.  Rein it in a bit y’all.  Shock value can be an extremely effective tool…but it can work against you too when it feels too forced.  Listening to Ivan sing “you’re the puke stain in my bed/you’re the cum stain that’s in my head” – I dunno man…the impact it makes on a first spin versus how quickly that impact disappears on every spin afterwards is something I think they’ve gotta consider.  Maybe it’s just me.  Metering-wise, Ivan’s coloring so far outside the lines that he has me scratching my head every time “Puke Stain” comes on…it’s such an easy thing to fix, and I get it, it’s probably a stylistic choice in that he wants to sing this about as straightforward as Captain Jack Sparrow walks, but like…c’mon man.  Again, I’m just not convinced that adding these obstacles in front of accessibility, even in Punk, is the right way to go.  I never worry about who is right or wrong in saying this stuff…time will tell that story.  If they’re right, believe me, they’ll see it in the numbers or the way people respond to their tunes, and they are more than welcome to tell me to fucking pound sand.  I’m just doing what I can to help advise the band from the outside looking in…if what they’re doing is working for them, then please ignore me.

Ohhh boy.  Umm.  What do I really think about “Shine?”  It definitely has some of my favorite guitar tones in the mix here…one of my favorite solos on the record…and once again, the balance between the strengths overall is closer together, which is good.  I don’t know that they’ve got the full potential out of “Shine” – yet.  To be the fairest I can to Hollywood Apocalypse, they really do seem like they’d be a live band to me…I’m not sure that any recordings are going to do their sound or their vibe the justice it deserves if I’m being honest with you.  There’s something about the gentle sway of the chorus melody that does work for me…and I do genuinely love the contrast that you get from hearing the searing guitar tones in the background of that moment too.  Verses-wise…I think I’ve said much of what I need to say in that regard already, and yes, I feel the same way about this cut as well.  It’s really quite something to hear how insanely good or great the majority of this band’s main hooks are, especially when it feels like the verses don’t seem to ever get the same attention to detail, in my opinion.  The instrumental break around the 1:45 mark was solid…we could use more of that in these tunes; this band can definitely play.

Need proof?  LISTEN to them light it UP at the start of “Broken Cadillac!”  Hollywood Apocalypse can let it fuckin’ rip when they feel so inclined.  From the crisp snap of the drums of Rotten Rollin, to the electric excitement that Celinda creates with her guitar, to the steady roll that Proto supplies, there is plenty to listen to, and plenty for the band to build around in the future to follow.  I like some of the ideas on display here in the verses…at the very least, more than I have in the majority of the lineup to this point I suppose…there’s still work that needs to be done, but what Ivan is doing in a more narrative-driven style is interesting for sure.  Look at this structure though, where he sings “My girlfriend wishes I get aids and die.  My boyfriend wishes a piano falls on my head from the sky.  I know your mama thinks that I’m a disgusting fuck but when I sucked her dick she found out her luck.”  On the positive side of the scenario, yes, he got a genuine chuckle out of me when I heard that, and I felt like that continued through the next several spins I had on this tune.  On the flipside, the metering and pace is damn near Hindenburg proportions, threatening to take this whole damn song down with the ship.  If it was one or two songs that Ivan wandered around with an extra syllable here, or stretched a couple words to compensate for the lack of a necessary syllable somewhere else, then sure, that’s acceptable.  From my perspective it’s happening in spots in almost every song…and I’m not certain that’s anything but a little on the lazy side when it comes to the art of songwriting…yes, again, even in the Punk realm.  Like I’ve been tellin’ ya, stuff like that can be a huge highlight when playing live, but it’s harder for those moments to translate to a recording without it sounding like it could have been smoothed out in a more accessible way.

But Jer @ SBS, you say, who fuckin’ cares about accessibility in Punk music?  Fuck the man!  Hollywood Apocalypse doesn’t concern themselves with what’s happening in the lamestream scene, dude.  I promise you – I get it.  It’s not like I’m sitting here saying I’m not listening to “Fuck Shit Cunt Bitch” because you’re not going to hear it while standing in line at the bank or because it’s not going to win a Grammy Award.  In fact, Ivan’s making my argument for me in this particular tune – listen to the way the metering works when he’s furiously spittin’ out the words to the chorus in “Fuck Shit Cunt Bitch” and how that tightness directly equates to a more accessible listen that even the prudest of prudes would have to admit, still works in terms of a professional hook.  So there you have it – I’m just tellin’ you the truth as I hear it, and I swear I’m in this band’s corner.  I’ve simply been encouraging them, albeit in my own way, to go after the greatness that they’re capable of rather than settle for anything less.  As I always say, if that’s what makes me the bad guy, then so be it.  You want me to further the point I’m makin’ here?  Deal.  “Fuck Shit Cunt Bitch” is probably the most well balanced track on the record in terms of the strengths in its parts and performance, and everything you’ll hear in this cut shows the best side of Hollywood Apocalypse that I’ve heard on this record so far.  They went full scorched earth here, and the fire they put into the energy of this entire song is like chicken fuckin’ soup for the Punk Rock soul.  I’m not remotely kidding – they absolutely slayed this track and it’s a glorious highlight on all fronts.  I’d been waiting for that cut that I felt like I truly dig from start to finish…now I wait no longer.  It’s like…I mean, it’s fierce as fuck, but it’s also got this like…old-school flair to it…like something you’d imagine Ozzy could have done, or even The Who…these seem like unlikely comparisons, but have a listen for yourself & see what you think – I bet you’ll hear the similarities that brought those names up.

Detunin’ it up for “Fuck The World” afterwards, this track flies by pretty damn quick at less than a minute in total length, but it’s got enough of a place on this particular record to still feel like it fits.  If they didn’t pull the plug on this one as quickly as they did, they would have certainly had to endure an endless onslaught of comments from the Punk realm accusing them of selling out, but at under a minute, they can at least claim they didn’t have the time to realize just how much Pop there is in this cut.  If it was three minutes long, they’d have been in danger of having this song appear in the background of the next Mountain Dew ad in the middle of your favorite family friendly television sitcom, and we can’t have that happening, right?  Wisely, they cut it all short and retained their street cred in the process…now we can all sleep at night.  Real talk though, I actually don’t mind this song personally.

Lighters UP!  Or if you were born after dialup internet, turn on your iPhone flashlights – we’ve officially arrived at the babymaker – it’s called “The End Of The World.”  Where am I at with this one?  Oh boy.  You had to ask, didn’t you?  Ummm…yeah, I’d have cut this track from an album with fifteen tracks on it if this is the final result of them putting the best they can into it…but only they’d know if that’s really the case or not.  I’m just not hearing it here…it’s messy, to say the least.  There’s just no point of this song where you’re not wondering why they so purposely butchered the living daylights out of a melody they could have easily knocked straight out of the park, or how taking that approach would benefit their band in the long run.  I’m assuming there’s gotta be some tongue-in-cheek classic sarcastic Punkness goin’ on here that we’re not all privy to understanding, because the lyrics are honestly pretty decent.  Poetic in a way that we’ve yet to see from Ivan…so like…are we supposed to assume that he’s being completely sincere here?  Is he taking the proverbial piss?  Is he playing this straightforward and just missing the mark?  Was he never intending to get this melody anywhere close to what would work?  The backing vocals in “The End Of The World” are probably the most redeeming quality in the song melody-wise, except for maybe its delicate intro in the music on the way in.  Other than that, I think we’ve got a song that’s very purposely played in an off-kilter type of way, which sure, I’m fine with stylistic choices and whatnot…sometimes they work great, others they don’t, but at least you tried something, you feel me?  I listen to this track & wonder what in the all hell they were thinking of choosing THIS direction though.

Are we petering out here?  You’d think you might find a bit more energy in a song called “Bird On Fire,” but if this bird’s truly on fire, it’s likely already dead I’m afraid.  It takes a good eighty seconds or so before this cut finally finds solid ground…and to be truthful, once they get there, “Bird On Fire” ain’t so bad.  I’m not saying this is the song I’m goin’ straight home to tell grandma about, but yeah, it does end up becoming more of a quality track on this record than I felt like it revealed at the beginning.  Lyrically, it’s a split – some of it is freakin’ great, and some of it has Ivan locked into the rhyme scheme way too hard.  Mix it up my man…you’ve clearly got a lot to say – as listeners, we know that the odds of everything on your mind rhyming in such a rigid way likely isn’t you saying what you really want to say in the way you’d normally say it.  It’s tracks like this that have us finishing…each other’s sentences?  Aww!  For real – you could listen to “Bird On Fire” for the first time and start predicting what the last word of each line is gonna be based on what’s needed to fit the pattern.  Call me crazy, but predictability and Punk aren’t usually the combination you’re looking for…you want that controlled chaos and the feeling like we have no idea what could possibly be coming at us next…that’s the spirited sound at the core of the genre.  I do absolutely LOVE the sound of the guitar that chimes in around the forty-five second mark…that’s fantastic.  I also like that around the 1:20 mark, “Bird On Fire” really does reach a whole new level and fills itself in remarkably well.  I don’t always love Rollin’s snare sound…in a few of these songs, it’s got this noticeably thin pop to it that’s no meaner than a kernel poppin’ in the microwave.  Not the dude’s fault, he plays fine – I’m just of the opinion that the snare needs to eat a bit more beef.  Anyhow.  The final verdict on “Bird On Fire” is that, to me, it ended a heck of a lot better than it starts.

From what I’ve read, Rather Excessive is at least intended to be somewhat of a Rock Opera, and it’s told in multiple parts…though even Ivan himself wasn’t entirely sure how many he’d say that there is.  I don’t know that I’m fully willing to go there with this record…I admire the intentions of going after something like that, but I don’t know if I feel like we can tie everything together here from start to finish exactly, or if listening to this record actually sounds more like three or four EPs being all combined into one album.  In any event, I’m somewhat assuming that the final chapter of this story, if it can be measured that way, would start on track eleven and take you right through to the end…and I’m not really convinced that the band hasn’t taken it all a step or five too far.  “Love You Like A Needle” is a tough track to assess if I’m being completely real with ya.  There’s part of me that digs the swagger that it comes with.  Once again, I really felt like the backing vocals make a strong contribution.  There are killer guitar tones in the mix around the 2:25 mark.  Hollywood Apocalypse always gives us SOMETHING to hang onto, even if they’re still teasing us about the supreme potential they really have.  I dunno.  I feel like I’m going to side with them on “Love You Like A Needle” – I might not be all that sure about the mellower direction of the past three tracks or if it’s what really works for this band, but I do think they’re onto something special here with this particular cut.  I don’t even know if I even feel like they’ve got the absolute maximum out of this moment or if they’ve still left a little bit on the table…but it’s close enough that I’m not going to take any points away here.  The verses are pretty solid to begin with, the chorus is objectively mesmerizing and clearly intended to sound that way…partly fascinating, part zombie-esque…you’ll get why that’s the case when you hear the lyrics.  Overall, by the time I wrote this review, I felt like this track belonged in the conversation of the record’s best at the very least – it’s like, the perfect soundtrack for nodding off.

“Fishing 4 Compliments,” you say, Hollywood Apocalypse?  Y’all got the wrong one in the wrong place my friends – you EARN them shits here at this site, full stop.  I’m sure they’ve realized that by now.  For better or worse, I just call things like I hear’em – but at least you know I’m not filling anyone’s head full of bullshit I don’t really mean.  I might say this or that can be improved or blah fucking blah blah blah about whatever the fuck…but by the same token, if I tell you that I dig something, I definitely ain’t lyin.’  So…jeez…this is a mammoth tune, clocking in at 8:14 and probably weighing at least a hundred-eighty pounds.  The backing vocals that I’ve praised so much are on shakier ground here…didn’t love that.  I mean…ultimately, “Fishing 4 Compliments” follows the same damn rule as any track over three minutes in length would – you’re going to like some, maybe even a lot of it – but that’s going to come along with a bunch of other stuff you don’t really dig too.  Kinda just how things go when a single song is nearly as long as an entire EP.  And so, that is indeed the case here – I like some of it, not all of it.  Around the 6:20-7:10 mark, there’s a massive highlight for Ivan’s vocals that you do NOT want to miss – and he’ll still give you a bit more juice before it’s over as well.  I think the guy is fucking fantastic when he really goes after his most intense and demanding moments – that’s when you hear him come out blazing and holding nothing back.  I don’t know if the more lethargic spots have nearly the same effect on listeners.  Those are the moments where you start to notice him making stylistic choices, like wandering away from the core of the melody or the metering not being quite where it needs to be.  When he’s in attack mode and really lighting up the mic, you know, going with his innate instincts as a singer & performer, that’s when I feel like he reveals his best, and the results on these songs back me up on much of that.  Bands get a LOT of leeway in the Punk realm – like I said, I know striving for perfection isn’t exactly the top priority – but I do think that you’ve also gotta be smart and play to your strengths as much as you can when there’s so much else to listen to in this world.  I’m not saying they gotta play “Freebird.”  I’m not yelling “get to the chorus” either (okay, I am kinda, but they have written some pretty great ones).  But I do think that the longer they play together, the more time and experience they get as a band, the more they’ll have a clearer understanding of what works best for them, and why that reaches listeners.  Tracks this long are kinda like chucking a handful of darts at the board to see what sticks.  Some of it does, some of it doesn’t…I admire the ambition to go after a song of this magnitude more than I personally enjoy the results, but whatever, I’m just one guy with an opinion and I’m sure there will be plenty of others that’ll say they nailed this song from start to finish and that their Rock Opera wouldn’t be complete without it.  I’ve been doing what I do for so very long that I’m fully confident that the artists & bands I end up reviewing eventually realize who was being real with them, and who out there wasn’t.  I maintain, the more fiery the moment for Hollywood Apocalypse, the better the results have been, and that’s just as true of this gigantic song.  “Fishing 4 Compliments” was a giant undertaking…they did well.

Hands up, one last time…and hell, feel free to sing along with them as they wrap up the record on “For Tomorrow” – no judgments here…really belt it out so your neighbors can hear you!  The world is your oyster!  Besides, “For Tomorrow” is built on inspiring sentiment, so if you feel like it’s not the Red Bull giving you wings, but actually this song giving them to you, stand up on your chair and sing directly into the vents with your full chest so that the people upstairs can hear every word!  At the very least, they might be happy that you’re not shouting out “Fuck Shit Cunt Bitch” anymore…I know mine were.  You know something though?  I’m going to say that “For Tomorrow” really worked out, in my opinion…like, I’d absolutely listen to this.  I’m not saying it’s completely perfect, I’m not saying that it even needs to be – I’m simply saying that I wouldn’t change anything about it.  I like how the melody came out here, with Ivan’s weary vocals reflecting the themes in the lyrics…I mean, it’s not “Imagine” by The Beatles exactly, but it’s kind of what you’d think Hollywood Apocalypse would come up with if they tried to make a song with similar intentions in their own style.  Maybe this is a good representation of the band’s overall sound, maybe it’s not…I can’t really speak on that, I’ve only had this one record’s worth of experience listening to them and they seem like sonic shapeshifters to me…but what I can tell you, at least from my perspective, is that they’ve definitely got one of their most memorable & potent tracks right here in the finale of Rather Excessive, and that sure seems like the right way to finish things off, don’t it?  The results might be arguably mixed on much of this album, but considering the ambition at the core of the concept & trying to create a whole Punk-Rock Opera out of it, I think they deserve some extra credit for going after something so freakin’ challenging.  Having said that, tightening up the screws ain’t gonna hurt them either…shorter, more sharply focused sets could be the path to victory in the long run, but the real bottom line is that their band has got all the right pieces to succeed if that’s the direction they WANT to go with their music.  Hopefully it is – I’ve heard plenty of reasons they should be encouraged to keep going throughout this album, and I’m interested in whatever it is they might come up with next.

Find out more about Hollywood Apocalypse from their official page at Instagram here:  https://www.instagram.com/hollywoodapocalypse

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