| CD REVIEW Methods Of Mayhem |
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Band : Methods Of Mayhem Motley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee is what you can call an accomplished musician. Not only is his main band still active and gaining each member a living, but on the side he's been recruited for several recording sessions on other artists' albums, but also he struck out on a successful solo career, part of which is DJ'ing! The MOM project is a Hip Hop thing he started over 10 years ago. At the time he'd just divorced Pamela Anderson and was serving a couple of months in jail for hitting her while she was holding their son, and it's during that jail time that he apparently wrote the music for the first self-titled album by the project which also included rapper DJ TiLo. Just around then, he also got fired from Motley Crüe (although he would still be on the tour that would follow in promotion of their then current album), so when the MOM album hit the street in 1999 there was nothing stoppin' Lee to give his new project all the promotional attention it deserved. Admittedly, the mix of Dance and Hip Hop Rap that made the album was occasionally looked at with a frown (in fact MOM were booed off stage after only a couple of songs into their set once...but that wàs at an Italian Metal festival). In spite of the adversity from certain corners, the album went on to sell Platinum. Following his parting of ways with DJ Tilo in September 2000, Lee started playing DJ sets around the US with DJ Aero. For his 2002 solo album (under his own name), he collaborated with members from Incubus, resulting in the Rap Metal/ Electronics hybrid album Never A Dull Moment. In 2004 the rejoined Motley Crüe, but that hasn't deterred his from continuing to do his own thing every now and again. In the same year he released his autobiography Tommyland, and was co-producer for an NBC reality show titled Tommy Lee Goes To College...and a year later he released his second solo album by the same title (review of Tommyland, the album,by yours truly can be found posted at this very website on 26/11/2005), which was a more Rock-geared album, even if a lot of the songs also had acoustics and/ or strings in 'em. A calmer side to the Heavy Rock dude, so to say! He also continued his DJ sets (with current MOM partner DJ Aero aka Chester Weitz, with whom he's collaborated since 2000) under the name Electro Mayhem with quite some success (60 club shows in 2007 alone, apparently) throughout North-America, with stops in the Bahamas and Central America. In 2008 he returned to the world of Reality TV as co-producer of the show Planet Green, in which he and Rapper Ludacris focused on environmental challenges to raise awareness for green causes. The show aired from Spring to September of that year. And finally, in 2009 Lee accompanied Sharam (half of the Grammy Award nominated & winning Deep Dish) on the piano during a series of House DJ sets. 2009 was also the year he came up with the concept for the new MOM album, a concept around fan participation in what came onto the album. Not, as done before by some bands, for a compilation of songs (possibly in a new version) that the fans would be able to pick from a list...nay, nay...Tommy's idea was a little more far-fetched and unique! In fact, unheard of in the musical business until then. You see, he and his partners (DJ Aero and original MOM guitarist/ backing singer Kai Marcus (now going under the name J3), along with new guitarist/ backing singer Phil X were gonna write & record the songs (which were overall far more Rock and Metal-oriented at the basis than the first MOM album), and then make 'em available for scrutiny to the fans...who could send in whatever music they felt would fit a given song, in a choice of either one of 3 programs (or in the one they could download from the site). Anyone participating was warned in advance that their participation was going to remain un-paid, but those contributions that would make the album would be mentioned in the booklet. This way, Lee allowed unknown musicians to have a credit on an album of an established artist, something many in that world crave for, certainly. The number of sent-in admissions was simply staggering, and Lee and his team took two months to sift through the pack (at 200 sound files per day) to sift out all “possibles” and “definites” from the heap! Among the definites I've found mention of “...Techno tracks from the foothills of Osaka, hand drum rhythms from India, guitar solos sent in from as close as San Diego...some crazy dude from Prague I think it was, sent in a spoken word track that had nothing at all to do with the song. It was this bit about 'the cow's moon being in the sky, parting the broken winds of the clouds of the sea'...” and then there's Spanish-spoken Rap, etc, etc... In some cases the added material completely changed the original outlook of the track it was used on. “...A song like “Back To Before”...” (taken from an interview with Belgian magazine Rock Tribune) “...was originally a Rock number, but a dude from France had turned it into a Dance track. Totally insane, but darn good, so I completely threw the song around...I love Dance music!” If alone for the concept of the album, it deserves a year-list nomination! Add to this the fact that you get a truly eclectic 11 songs (ranging from all-out somewhat Industrial tracks with led-heavy guitars, to party songs like the album opening “Drunk Uncle Pete”, or the Hip Hop-ish album closer “Party Instructions”) which all are chuck-full of interesting things to analyze and listen to, and with an instant attraction factor in spite of the fact that the listener will need repeat listening sessions before getting an even appropriate analysis of each song! Instant attraction, and continued fascination...what could the experienced music listener want more? I love this, and to find out how you feel, just check the posted songs at myspace.com/tommyleetv. Oh shit, there's only 2 tracks off the new album there...so maybe you'll wanna check out the samples usually provided by the trusted online sales site (like Amazon.com; CDBaby, iTunes...). 98/100 Tony. Band: Methods Of Mayhem Tommy Lee strikes again ! The most famous drummer of the world is back with a new album for his project Methods Of Mayhem. Perhaps this doesn’t sound very impressive, but if you know that more than 10,000 people actually worked on the album, then I’m sure some of you frown your eyebrows. 90/100 Nick Tronckoe. |