"Hey, I Know That Guitar"
Published September 18, 2002
- One of the most popular songs on MP3.com lately is the track "Corporate America" by a band called Downer's Revenge. The song has been Number Two on the site's Progressive Rock Chart for two weeks, and while you've likely never heard of Downer's Revenge, you do know who it is--it's Boston. "Corporate America" is the title track to the group's fifth album, due October 29 from Artemis Records.
Boston leader Tom Scholz gave LAUNCH the lowdown on the track. "I had this song, 'Corporate America,' and I wanted to get it to colleges. And experts told me that there was no way Boston was gonna get on Internet file sharing or on the modern, progressive rock charts. So I decided that what we would do is, we'd release this song to the Internet, got it onto MP3.com under the name 'Downer's Revenge.' Of course, it was a shock to me that it went from zero to Number Two on the Progressive Rock Chart in, like, four days--but a pleasant shock."
"Corporate America" was co-written by Scholz and new Boston guitarist Anthony Cosmo, the 29-year-old son of Boston singer Fran Cosmo.
- "Hey, I Know That Guitar"
- Published: September 18, 2002
- Type:
- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: News, Music: Rock
- Writer: Eric Olsen
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Suck, suck, suck. Some sample lyrics:
"Corporate America! Look out! Look out!"
"Who's gonna save us?"
"When will we evacuate to outer space?"
My thoughts exactly.
Is this the same Boston that said they don't like using computers??? How they were proud that no computers were used to create the music they make??? Certainly doesn't sound like it - What happened? Maybe this is 'Corporate Boston' ??? Dunno - perhaps it'll grow on me, but I can't see how the song jumped to #2 on the Progressive Rock charts... Unless they're the ones who kept listening to it non-stop. I hope the rest of the album isn't like this...
They're on Artemis now - home of aging foundlings.
You mean like the aging foundling you're going to be in a few years?
Half of the CD could have been good ( the songs written by Scholz) if three things had been avoided:
1) The montonous "chunk, chunk" rhythm and lack of riffing. Classic Boston was about thundering riffs and clear, distinct leads. Where is that distinct guitar sound now?
2) The lack of vocals by Brad Delp. The vocals tracks that he does appear on are buried in the mix and I'd swear they were processed to sound more like Fran Cosmo. Where is that signature Delp yelp and beautiful timbre and resonance? I know he can still do it: I've got the Delp and Goudreau CD and it has his voice in all of it's glory!
3) Overuse/ prominence of keyboard and synthesizer. Where's the beef?
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I downloaded a bit of it just to hear what it sounded like... the answer to which is, frankly and literally, shit. "More Than A Feeling" this is not. Which is actually not a bad thing, it doesn't sound terribly like them (keyboards, electronics and programming) until it gets to the chorus bit... but my God the production is terrible (muddy and indistinct with a fairly unpleasant bit of fuzz most of the way through), and the song itself is pretty average. I'm wondering if the mp3 they've put up has been deliberately roughened up and the album release will be nice and clean and Bostonish...