[.ca] Short Bus

From Amazon.co.uk:
Guilty pleasure alert No. 2013: Filter absolutely, positively would not exist without the dirty, gritty musical formulas laid before him by Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor. The on-the-edge screams, the heavy industrial rhythms, the full-frontal guitar sounds--it's all been done before. And if that weren't enough, vocalist-guitarist-rhythmatist Richard Patrick lived a pre-Filter life as a touring band member in an early version of the aforementioned Nails. Indeed, Short Bus couldn't get more plagiaristically preposterous, and yet--oh, the guilt--this is the perfect disc to primally purge by. From the disc's crunchy opener hit "Hey Man Nice Shot" through to the oh-so-Trent-y "Under" and the slow, stalking beats of the hilariously tagged "Gerbil", this disc is 46 minutes of fiery fun; you could spend time being pissed off at its lack of originality or you could just enjoy it for what it is--sheer walls of white noise. --Denise Sheppard

Going under?:
This album is tough to get a firm hold of at first. The first couple of times i listened to it I was kinda like, huh?As time progressed it grew on me. You do have the tendecy to skip track once and a while, or want to Fast forward to a better bit. Good debut album 1) Hey man nice shot (10/10)- tight track, Used a lot in Movie Soundtracks. 2) Dose (10/10 )- wow, intense for almost 4 minutes, great track. More mainstream 3) Under (9/10) - Took me a while to get used to it, it sounds like it was recorded underwater. after looking past the audio I really found this meaty guitar chorus was great. 4) Spent (7/10) - hmmm....skip ahead to about 2.30 then it rocks. 5) Take Another (5/10) - worst track of all, no flow..I'll skip it 6) Stuck in here (9/10) - the resting track. Seperating the 2 screeching guitar parts of the album. great song, lots of pain can be felt through silence 7) It's over (7.5/10) - I'm sure I've heard this riff before....Good song, nothing special 8) gerbil (7/10) - Lyrics are hilariously bad, but a great song none the less 9) White Like that (6/10) - Not my favorite, a skip track for me 10) Consider this (9.5/10) - GREAT. As you've mabe read before a U2 vibe to it. 11) So cool(6/10) - just plain ok, similar to "stuck in here", but missing the true intensity in the lyrics.

damn, dude!:
I love Filter and have all their stuff. I will probably always keep Short Bus, but only to study it not to enjoy it. The entire album sounds like a demo disc. Every time I listen to it I get the same feeling and it's one of stagnation. Besides the first track all the songs sound too similar. That can be ok but only in moderation. I feel like I'm being generous by giving it 2 stars.

Hey man, nice disc.:
With the release of this debut, "Filter" seemed like they might be the next big thing, and while that never really happened, this is a great cd. I'd actually call it more alt-metal than industrial, but the songs are there, catchy, angry, and loud. Included is their biggest hit "Hey Man, Nice Shot", which was also on the "Cable Guy" soundtrack. Numerous other songs on "Short Bus" are just as aggressive though, like "Consider This". Also, slower, almost lo-fi tracks like "Stuck In Here" and "So Cool", prove they're not just a one trick pony. Overall, a solid mid-90's alt-metal album. But I do admit, it does kind of make me wanna hear "Nine Inch Nails".

Filter's Best Album:
I'm not exactly sure why anyone would say 'Filter' is an un-genuine rip-off of 'Nine Inch Nails'. Their first album, 'Short Bus', provides listeners with a unique sound that you absolutely will not find on any other record. Although certainly not 'Industrial' (which is what a naive music enthusiast would classify them as), there are obvious cliche's and overtones sewn into the lyrics and guitar riffs; but that's not the point. Every track on this album is a deep look inside a man on the edge. The chord structures, basslines, heavy drum beats, and screaming guitars / vocals are engulfed with emotion. This CD, like all others, isn't for everyone; but if you're going to throw slanderous remarks at Richard Patrick, please include a link to the music *you* write. You get the point.

A messy debut, but interesting nonetheless.:
Filter's 1995 debut, SHORT BUS, is a rather uneven collection that depicts a band stuggling to define itself. Frontman Richard Patrick is clearly unsure whether to rebel against his past as the lead guitarist for Nine Inch Nails, or to embrace it, resulting in an album which greatly varies in quality from song to song. The album's opener, "Hey Man Nice Shot," is obviously the best song on here, and one of the few songs that compares favorably to their later work. Unfortunately, most of the other songs are a sludgy, post-industrial mess, and, with the exception of "White Like That," this sound doesn't work at all. However, there are glimmers of hope in SHORT BUS's murkiness: in addition to the previously mentioned "Hey Man Nice Shot" and "White Like That," the acoustic-industrial fusion found on "Stuck In Here" and "So Cool" point ahead to Filter's astounding follow-up, 1999's TITLE OF RECORD.

• Hey Man, Nice Shot
• Dose
• Under
• Spent
• Take Another
• Stuck in Here
• It's Over
• Gerbil
• White Like That
• Consider This
• So Cool