Customer Reviews

Where Did All My People Go

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After 2 EP releases and an in game radio slot in the best selling Grand Theft Auto series, Chicago's very own band, Prairie Cartel, have finally released their debut album. "Where Have All My People gone" combines pulse pounding electronic beats with the abrasiveness of rock. The band's members are all veterans, lead singer Scott Lucas being the front man of 90's grunge band Local H, and Black Smith of underrated Chicago band Figdish. Each member adds to the band's musical palette making way for a combined sound like no other. The opening track "Keep Everybody warm" is a nice warm up to the band's sound, and starts off with sampling Lucas's voice and slowly adding layers of beats, bass, and trance-esque samples which build up to a climatic all out headbanging guitar riff. "Suitcase Pimp" begins with what sounds like a sample from an old 70's cop movie with added snare drums before breaking out with a yell of the title track and diving into a mindbending mix of electro rock, while Lucas yells out the ambitions of a man dating a porn star. Cracktown features a prominent and catchy bass hook sprinkled with electronic samples while the catchy lyrics delve into a man's return to his hometown after a long absence. Another stand out track is "Burning Down The Other Side" which was featured in the bands 2nd EP as well as in Grand Theft Auto China Town Wars, and is lyrically reminiscent of Prodigy's popular and controversial single "Fire Starter". Starting off minimalist like the spark of small match being struck the song begins with old school drumming and some electronics, with Lucas entering the song accompanied with an electric guitar whilst growling "burn it down!" and building up the chorus into a massive conflagration- making the track a pyromaniac's anthem. Prairie Cartel is one of the most original and relevant bands to come out of the Chicago music scene in a long while. Combining the sounds of a number of genres to be left with something completely new and original, it is worthy of any music fan's collection.

I had heard bits and pieces about The Prairie Cartel over the years. I know nothing really of the band's origins or its members. The band itself seems to prefer it that way given how little music (or information at all) they've put out over the years.

The album starts oddly (this collection really is all over the place) but quickly the band dives into some surprisingly catchy, complex, occasionally funny tunes. "Cracktown" hops along on an urban hipster groove, "Beautiful Shadow" recalls mid-80's Depeche Mode, and the list goes on.

Two tracks really stand out, however. "Magnetic South" beeps and clicks along with a bass-free, lo-fi feel, yet is somehow one of the catchiest cuts on the album. And "Lost All Track of Time", which unexpectedly slithers to a start early in the album, is easily one of my favorite songs of 2009. The lyrics are best described as wistfully haunting, but that cliche doesn't do the track justice. It churns and crashes into a frenzied climax that would make Trent Reznor feel like he's wasted his last 5 years as a musician. It is, quite simply, an extraordinary track by an extraordinary group of musicians.

I was a big fan of Caviar (and actually just Caviar, not Fig Dish until later, as I randomly picked up the fist Caviar CD). Those two albums, especially the perfect pop of the second, with dashes of punk, emo, synths, and supurb intrumentation is one of my favorite albums of the decade. So how does this differ? First, half of the songs appear to be not sung by the lead singer of Caviar. The second main difference of course is that most of this album is electronic. Less synthy, more dark dance/rave/a little goth(not much)/some loud guitars in the mix club music. This means most of the songs are not pop songs like Thin Mercury Sound, with the usual verse/chorus, but more excercises in sparser lyrics working with the propulsion of the music. Does this work? I think it does for the most part, but honestly, I was hoping for more pop songs, as this type of music gets a bit tedious for me. But as someone who likes synth pop of the Pet Shop Boys over, say, DJ Shadow, this music does have good production, good teeth, and does hold my attention pretty well. In a couple of places the lyrics do get a little trite. There are a couple tracks on here, such as the lilting Beautiful Shadow, that do hark back to the glory days of Caviar, just with more electro this time.