When Latvian rock group BrainStorm was preparing for its 2005 summer concert tour of Latvia, I was interested to see who would be the opening acts. One of the groups named caught my eye: Double Faced Eels. “Double Faced who?” I had never heard of this group, even though it was formed in 2000 and was already known in Latvia’s alternative music circles.

Smoked eel is a traditional delicacy on the Latvian Christmas dinner table. Likewise Double Faced Eels’ debut album,  Zilais valis (The Blue Whale), is a Latvian music delicacy. Having listened to this album nonstop for the past few days, it’s clear to me the sound created by the band is something new and exciting. A brand of guitar-based power rock combined with solid drumming, along with some crazy lyrics, make this album a strong buy. The Eels’ music is sometimes heavy, yet at other times poppy, almost ska-like. With nearly 50 minutes of music, Zilais valis should go down well at parties and on the road in the car stereo.

The album actually has 15 tracks (if you count track No. 3 with no name, just 11 seconds of storytelling by an elderly lady speaking to a bunch of kids about kaņepu sviests, or hempseed butter).

The album starts off with the band’s big hit, “Zilais valis” (The Blue Whale). It has been nominated for best rock song of 2005 at the annual Latvian Music Awards scheduled March 10 in Rīga.

In the trail of the whale follows “100g,” a reference to the size of a shot of liquor in Latvia (100 grams is about 3.5 U.S. fluid ounces, or about a triple shot in the United States). It’s a quick ska-tempo drinking song.

The fourth track, “Cemme” (Anger), is a witty, angry power guitar Green Day-type song. Then comes a song sung in English, “To Take Breathe.” It probably should be called, “To Take My Breath Away,” as per its lyrics. The song is fairly musically mundane. The lyrics are unfortunately uncomprehensible and the pronounciation poor.

“16,” on the other hand is an uptempo modern remake of Olga Rajecka’s repetoire song, “Kad man vairs nebūs 16.” Rajecka even sings solo in the last part of the track.

“Ja esi stulbs” (If You’re Stupid) features a moving bass line and some weird chord modulations towards the end of the track, making for a good dancing song.

Next is “Krokodils” (The Crocodile). This is my favorite on the album, offering a compact rythmic barrage, with good lead vocals and harmonies, great drumming and nice counterpoint work between the guitars and bass guitar. All members of the band are in the zone on this song.

“Bikses” (Pants) is a light-hearted song with rather foolish four-line lyrics. The track includes a little kid who tries to sing one of the verses and an elderly woman who complains about her state pension.

“Sha la la” goes the chorus of the next track, just an average party song.

“Prasīt aizmirsto” (Ask for the Forgotten) has been one of the singles from the album. It’s of the few songs on the album with serious content.

Track 12, “SEX,” returns to the lighter side of things. The song starts out with acoustic guitars and vocals, then has some whistling combined with appropriate sound effects and a nice melodic chorus complete with harmonies and handclaps. The rest of the band joins in later on in the song, which fits in quite well.

“No Lies” is the other song sung in English. It’s another average heavy song with some pretty awful-sounding lyrics.

“Pa jokam” (Just for a Joke) is the current radio single. But there’s nothing funny about the song, which features power chords and a strong, rocking chorus. It’s one of the best songs on the album, without any doubt. The song ends with a bridge part that is quite unusual.

The final and longest song on the album is “LPDZ” (perhaps a reference to “The Proud Family” characters LaCienega, Penny, Dijonay and Zoey). It starts off with the now familiar ska rhythm and has verses sung in Latvian and the Livonian language. There’s an abrupt turn to heaviness about one minute into the song, almost as if a completely different song is beginning. During the final 90 seconds the track gradually speeds up, as does the guitar solo, and the band goes into a little ego trip, showing off what it can do, rounding off with a big ending.

I hear Double Faced Eels does a great live show, going all out. The members of the group are all young, between the ages of 18 and 23. They include Mārtiņš Gailītis (Marka) on guitar and lead vocals, Reinis Briģis (Reinis) on lead guitar and vocals, Eduards Zagainovs (Chikis) on bass and Pauls Ķesteris (Pauls) on drums. The band’s main musical influences are Green Day, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Foo Fighters and The Beatles.

The past year proved to be somewhat of a breakthrough for Double Faced Eels. Having played on the BrainStorm concert tour and, in January, releasing its first album, Double Faced Eels is now considered one of the top bands in Latvia. There has been discussion in Latvia about the band’s lyrics being offensive to some people, but I wouldn’t try to read too much into them and just accept the lyrics for what they are. It’s just music and these guys are singing and playing about the pillars of youth: sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll.

It will be worth watching how Double Faced Eels follows up on the success its debut album.

The Latvian rock group Prāta vētra (BrainStorm) is back with a new album, Četri krasti (Four Shores), this after a hiatus lasting more than two years.

That’s not surprising, given that bassist Gundars Mauševics (known as Mūmiņš) died in an auto accident last year. Much of the material on this compact disc was being written while Mūmiņš was still alive. The album is dedicated to him.

The album contains only 10 songs (under 40 minutes playing time), so you don’t have too much time to get acquainted with the album cover artwork or Anton Corbijn’s photographs. However, the album has something for everybody’s musical tastes.

The album takes right off with the title track “Četri krasti“ in a bass and rythmic sound barrage that sounds quite similar to musical material by the Swedish rock group Kent. This is the album’s showcase song.

The next song, “Pilots Tims,“ seems quite ordinary in comparision. A light melodic song with a French chorus text will certainly make a few listeners smile and sing along.

The third song, “Kur milzu kalni liekas mazi,“ uses quotes from the work of Latvian poet Imants Ziedonis, who currently is seriously ill. Perhaps this is a way for lead singer Renārs Kaupers to pay homage to Ziedonis. (The song “Rudens“ also quotes from Ziedonis). It’s a real moody song that takes a bit of time to take off, but once it’s going, it just sounds like a mixture of material the band has done before.

Next is the Midnight Oil-sounding “Tin Drums.“ I can already picture it as the MTV video song. It’s a nice, steady rocking tune with good, catchy lyrics and is one of two English-language songs on the album. (The plan is to release an English version of the album in the fall, according to record company MICREC.)

On the next track, Kaupers teams up with The Hobos frontman Rolands Ūdris for the lyrics on “Purpur“ (Purple). This song uses quite a bit of sound loop effects with which I’m not so impressed. The cheesy Chris Isaac guitar in the beginning just kills the song before it ever gets going. This song is probably the weak link on the album.

On the other hand, “Rudens“ (Autumn) is a nice, little, slow song that’s a real sleeper, but in concert it will definitely work well with the crowd singing along. At first, I was little skeptical about the tremolo organ on the track (probably producer Alex Silva’s idea), but it’s OK not being overdone.

Tick-tack goes the next song, “Tā nogurt var tikai no svētkiem,“ with a lot of ironic lyrics and a catchy chorus.
 
A movie music track is almost a sure thing on a Prāta vētra record and this time it sounds like the Fiddler on the Roof is singing and dancing with “Māsa nakts“ (Sister Night).

On the R.E.M. and BrainStorm tour earlier this year, I had a chance to hear the second-to-last track, “Sunrise (Deep in Hell),“ a fresh bluesy song that is not quite like anything they’ve done before. The Wurlitzer keyboard sound fits in just right with the choppy guitar.

Lapsa Kūmiņš (Reynard The Fox) shows up on the last song on the album, “Lapsa,” while the rest of the band sing the chorus and tries to catch the tricky fox by the tail. The song is a sure winner with all kids and a good, strong song to round up the album. The chorus reminds me of the melody of an old Coca-Cola commercial, but it sounds good anyway.

As mentioned, there’s something for every listener on this record. But it does leave open to question Prāta vētra’s future music direction. As a whole, the album gets my recommendation, but still doesn’t measure up to masterworks like Veronika (1996) or Viss ir tieši tā kā tu vēlies (1997). My top picks from the album are “Četri krasti,” “Tin Drums,” “Rudens,” “Lapsa” and “Sunrise.” Prāta vētra sets out on a concert tour of Latvia this summer and we’ll probably be sure to hear some of these songs played live during the tour.

At precisely 8 p.m. on Jan. 29 in Helsinki’s Hartwall Areena,  world-renowned rock group R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills introduced the Latvian popular music group Prāta Vētra (known in English as BrainStorm). This was the group’s last performance together with R.E.M., on a concert tour through several Eastern European cities, including Rīga.

I travelled to Helsinki to find out two things: How does BrainStorm sound without its original bass player Mūmiņš (Gundars Mauševics, who was killed in a May 2003 automobile accident) and how does the Latvian band stack up against a world famous rock group?

Unfortunately, at the start of the concert only a few hundred listeners had entered the hall. This was due to two circumstances. First, concertgoers were not permitted to take drinks into the hall, so many took advantage of drinking beer in the outer hallways of the arena. Second, the Finnish public was there to see R.E.M.

Our boys from Latvia seemed rather pale and tired as they started their set. (The preceding concert in Saint Petersburg was cancelled because transportation was delayed at the border between Estonia and Russia.) Only by the end of the set was BrainStorm warmed up.

I thought frontman Renārs Kaupers was just going through the usually ritual dance motions without any real emotion or feeling. The public wasn’t convinced about the performance, but did applaud politely after every song. The reaction of the public was probably a big surprise for BrainStorm, who were warmly received by the home crowd a few nights earlier in Rīga.

The group members seemed to be caught up in themselves and shared little if any contact with one another. Guest bassist Ingars Vilums didn’t even take a glimpse at the bored drummer Kaspars Roga. I wonder if Vilums has found his real place in the group yet. Māris Miķelsons was as usual on the ball and performed his keyboard and accordian parts with precision. Guitarist Jānis Jubalts played well for the most part, but started the song “Kitten Who Did Not Want to Give Up” at a dreadfully slow pace.

The sound as usual was less than perfect for an opening act and it seemed as if soundman Tālis Timrots was prevented from pressing certain sound and volume buttons. The fact that the songs were sung in English didn’t appease me. Even though Kaupers has improved his English immensely over the past 10 years, his English lyrics don’t stand up to his lyrics in Latvian. This was not the best BrainStorm show I have seen. I was disappointed, expecting more from Latvia’s top pop band.

After BrainStorm finished its 35-minute set, a 30-minute intermission followed. During that time 12,000 spectators filled the hall eagerly awaiting R.E.M. From the very first beat, singer Mike Stipe danced and pranced, singing with full force. Bassist Mike Mills played well and sang great harmonies. Even though Peter Buck played horribly and at times completely wrong notes, second guitarist Scott McCaughey covered up for his mistakes. Guest drummer Bill Riefen didn’t shine much, but then again R.E.M’s material wouldn’t let him. Guest keyboardist Ken Stringfellow was steady all night. Still the group performance relied mostly on Stipe. Throughout the entire concert, he controlled the group and the audience as a cult fugure. As Stipe conducted, audience members rhythmically waved their hands in unison, singing along to hits like “Losing my Religion” and “Man on the Moon.”

After the concert I asked R.E.M. guitarist McCaughey what he likes about BrainStorm.

”Renārs is a great frontman,” he answered. That is exactly how I feel. Without Kaupers, BrainStorm would not have enjoyed the success it has so far. Undoubtedly Brainstorm has been where no other Latvian group has been before, but borrowing a line from one of its songs, ”What’s next?”.

BrainStorm should get out on tour of the European and American club circuit. It just doesn’t cut it to release an album or a video and naively hope that somebody is going to notice. You have to tour and then tour some more. Bruce Springsteen played between 250 and 300 concerts a year before he became famous. This is really the only way for BrainStorm to ever hope of achieving the same. The band might just be content with being popular in Eastern Europe.

Then again, it could wait for Stipe and R.E.M. to call for help again…