Heard about his new one on dusted, got this one instead - also, this is apparently the guy who did the Bowie songs on The Life Aquatic, so that's cool.
I could launch into sub-rants about how non-English vocals affect me, or about the Brazilian sound, but these posts are getting sort of bloated. I don't even know what I'm doing on here anymore.
Its a pleasant listen. Mellow and cool, never insisting on itself, but with enough pulse and texture to brighten your day. And its actually pretty diverse, almost to a fault, when more aggressive, electronic numbers bust up the flow. A good summer album, with crooney singing, swiped guitars and shuffley beats 3.5/5
Friday, July 30, 2010
#138 The Sugarcubes - Life's Too Good
Once again, I was reading the latest Believer and these guys were mentioned. I'd heard the name before, but didn't know where, figured I'd hit it.
At first I dismissed this as derivative: "This just sounds like some 90's singer. Who does it sound like? Oh yeah, you're totally trying to be Bjork you stupid...typa typa...oh, it is Bjork."
Fair enough.
This is the kind of time I'm glad that I'm doing this project, because I can immediately see how these guys were influenced by early REM. Also, they themselves certainly influenced later early alternative/indie bands like The Dismemberment Plan. Its a very 90's album, despite coming out in '88, and I guess I have to give it credit for its prescience. Bjork's voice is powerful and nuanced here, and that's certainly the main draw. Musically its uncomfortable in a way that evokes 90's acts like the Cranberries, Bjork's solo work, and even Tool, somehow.
That said, its not really pleasant to listen to, and the male singer takes a huge shit on every song he appears on. He comes across as a German douchebag, or the guy from The Prodigy, and he gives the music a pretentious 80's euro slant that I don't enjoy. At the end of the day, the album's interesting to have heard, but I have no use for this, and will likely never listen to it again, so I can't see giving it better than 2.5/5
At first I dismissed this as derivative: "This just sounds like some 90's singer. Who does it sound like? Oh yeah, you're totally trying to be Bjork you stupid...typa typa...oh, it is Bjork."
Fair enough.
This is the kind of time I'm glad that I'm doing this project, because I can immediately see how these guys were influenced by early REM. Also, they themselves certainly influenced later early alternative/indie bands like The Dismemberment Plan. Its a very 90's album, despite coming out in '88, and I guess I have to give it credit for its prescience. Bjork's voice is powerful and nuanced here, and that's certainly the main draw. Musically its uncomfortable in a way that evokes 90's acts like the Cranberries, Bjork's solo work, and even Tool, somehow.
That said, its not really pleasant to listen to, and the male singer takes a huge shit on every song he appears on. He comes across as a German douchebag, or the guy from The Prodigy, and he gives the music a pretentious 80's euro slant that I don't enjoy. At the end of the day, the album's interesting to have heard, but I have no use for this, and will likely never listen to it again, so I can't see giving it better than 2.5/5
#137 Neu! - Neu!
I heard them mentioned in a Believer article about drum machines, which talked about Kraftwerk, and mentioned that some members started Neu! afterwards. They're a name I'd heard bandied around, so lets hear what's what.
On some level, its what you'd expect from guys who just quit Kraftwerk. It's minimal, highly repetitive, and longwinded. On the other hand, it's more guitar driven, and arty in a different way. Ok, an aside. I think I know post-punk when I hear it, but when put on the spot, I struggle to define it. I think it comes down to two main things:
So I hear that Krautrock (like this album) influenced post-punk. And as I listened to this, I could totally hear it. Its got the iciness, the repetition, and the structures are decidedly un-pop. So the trappings are there. But it comes years pre-punk. And what bands does this reminds me of? Slint, and Laughing Stock-era Talk Talk. But those bands are largely considered post-rock. So this album precedes punk, and it inspired the reaction to punk, but really sounds most like what came after post-punk. The lessons here number two:
Edit: cleaned up, I wrote this late.
On some level, its what you'd expect from guys who just quit Kraftwerk. It's minimal, highly repetitive, and longwinded. On the other hand, it's more guitar driven, and arty in a different way. Ok, an aside. I think I know post-punk when I hear it, but when put on the spot, I struggle to define it. I think it comes down to two main things:
- Subversion of pop approaches: punk did pop conventions nastily, post-punk tried to escape pop conventions.
- Disinterest: punk hated society so much it lashed out, post-punk hated society so much it disconnected.
So I hear that Krautrock (like this album) influenced post-punk. And as I listened to this, I could totally hear it. Its got the iciness, the repetition, and the structures are decidedly un-pop. So the trappings are there. But it comes years pre-punk. And what bands does this reminds me of? Slint, and Laughing Stock-era Talk Talk. But those bands are largely considered post-rock. So this album precedes punk, and it inspired the reaction to punk, but really sounds most like what came after post-punk. The lessons here number two:
- Movements are cyclical, and inspiration chains are hard to follow. Something that seems new might just be gravitating back to what inspired what inspired it.
- These labels are sort of bullshit.
Edit: cleaned up, I wrote this late.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
#136 Best Coast - Crazy for You
On Pitchfork, Dusted, everywhere.
Tons of hype around these guys, presumably on the strength of standout single Boyfriend. Which is, by the way, super catchy. The strained singing of Bethany Cosantino cries out in loving longing, in a way that would sound terribly emo on a boy, but sounds sort of charming here. The simple chugging guitars provide girl-group backing for the crooning, and it gets stuck in your head. Is the secret of its success that girls can sympathize, and boys can fantasize that a girl that sounds so cute could be longing for them? Seems plausible to me.
Anyway, I harp on this opening song for so long because its such effective synecdoche for the whole album, which is the album's downfall. What's cute and charming in a song, and actually becomes more charming after two, becomes tiresome after 12. Ok, ok Beth, shoot. You got it bad for some guy. At first it was cute, but now you're sounding kind of desperate and pathetic. Maybe that's the album's concept or message on some level. Maybe true longing isn't over when the song is. But, look, I'm not looking for concepts on an album this simple, this indie, I'm looking for enjoyment, and this is gum that loses its flavor too fast.
There are some awfully good songs on here, maybe it will make mixtape fodder, but as an album I'm being generous with 3/5
Tons of hype around these guys, presumably on the strength of standout single Boyfriend. Which is, by the way, super catchy. The strained singing of Bethany Cosantino cries out in loving longing, in a way that would sound terribly emo on a boy, but sounds sort of charming here. The simple chugging guitars provide girl-group backing for the crooning, and it gets stuck in your head. Is the secret of its success that girls can sympathize, and boys can fantasize that a girl that sounds so cute could be longing for them? Seems plausible to me.
Anyway, I harp on this opening song for so long because its such effective synecdoche for the whole album, which is the album's downfall. What's cute and charming in a song, and actually becomes more charming after two, becomes tiresome after 12. Ok, ok Beth, shoot. You got it bad for some guy. At first it was cute, but now you're sounding kind of desperate and pathetic. Maybe that's the album's concept or message on some level. Maybe true longing isn't over when the song is. But, look, I'm not looking for concepts on an album this simple, this indie, I'm looking for enjoyment, and this is gum that loses its flavor too fast.
There are some awfully good songs on here, maybe it will make mixtape fodder, but as an album I'm being generous with 3/5
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
#135 Acid Eater - Black Fuzz on Wheels
Reviewed on Dusted.
Said review really stole my thunder by pointing out the appropriateness of this band's name, on a number of levels. The album title also fits: if there's two words that describe this music, they're acid and fuzz. It's distorted to the point of absurdity, overblown, overfuzzed, overloud and sort of awesome. Its all texture, like the guitar sounds themselves are tearing at the seams and spilling their splintered interior composition.
The actual riffs are pummeling, but groovy, the closest points of comparison are an even louder Boris, or a more melodic Lightning Bolt. Its basically riffy 60's garage band music, complete with organ stabs, with a sub-Polysics dose of surf, but its all turned to a hundred and eleven, with Japanese nonsense in place of the lyrics. Realize I'm not trying to be dismissive of non-English singing by calling it nonsense, its just that the vocals are usually distorted beyond understandability in any language, and there are plenty of noises that don't seem to be in a language at all. The singer's favorite is a drawled out "waow!" sound, sounding not unlike someone doing Christopher Walken on SNL. Which is a surreal angle.
There's a pantheon of Japanese noise rockers, from the Boredoms and Melt Banana, to the aforementioned Boris and Polysics, and these guys have earned their place alongside them. These guys just don't pull any punches, and sometimes that's all it takes to make me a fan 4.5/5
Said review really stole my thunder by pointing out the appropriateness of this band's name, on a number of levels. The album title also fits: if there's two words that describe this music, they're acid and fuzz. It's distorted to the point of absurdity, overblown, overfuzzed, overloud and sort of awesome. Its all texture, like the guitar sounds themselves are tearing at the seams and spilling their splintered interior composition.
The actual riffs are pummeling, but groovy, the closest points of comparison are an even louder Boris, or a more melodic Lightning Bolt. Its basically riffy 60's garage band music, complete with organ stabs, with a sub-Polysics dose of surf, but its all turned to a hundred and eleven, with Japanese nonsense in place of the lyrics. Realize I'm not trying to be dismissive of non-English singing by calling it nonsense, its just that the vocals are usually distorted beyond understandability in any language, and there are plenty of noises that don't seem to be in a language at all. The singer's favorite is a drawled out "waow!" sound, sounding not unlike someone doing Christopher Walken on SNL. Which is a surreal angle.
There's a pantheon of Japanese noise rockers, from the Boredoms and Melt Banana, to the aforementioned Boris and Polysics, and these guys have earned their place alongside them. These guys just don't pull any punches, and sometimes that's all it takes to make me a fan 4.5/5
Monday, July 26, 2010
#134 VA - Cambodian Rocks Vol.1
Another compilation off of Calamarfarci, can be downloaded here. I've been itching for something new, and with my good luck with Brazilian 60's psychedelic/garage rock, it seemed like this might be a good find: a compilation of Cambodian 60's psychedelic/garage rock.
This hits some of the same sweet spots: the overblown, trashy production lends grit and energy, and the non-English words let the vocals serve as a different kind of instrument to my ears. But where Tropicalia reinvented 60's rock, this apparently largely copies what was happening in the US. I say apparently because I can't say for certain that these weren't melodies and tropes that originated in Cambodia and found their way to the US. Nothing would please me more to hear that this is what happened, but it doesn't seem likely based on what information I can scrape together.
In any case, it mostly sounds like Nuggets-style garage rock and 50's rock and roll; some of the songs even appear to be outright covers. Most of the songs are overall awfully simple, and lack the energetic invention of their Brazilian counterparts. Also, the compilation is dominated by two artists, with only a few songs by anyone other than Sinn Sisamouth and Ros Sereysothea; I'd certainly like more variety. A couple standouts save it somewhat: the guitar/vocal interplay on Don't be Mad is snakey and compelling, and the horns, organ and loping bass lines of Since When You Know Me lend a richness that I wanted more of. It seems ungenerous, but there was just too little on here that was all that inventive to justify anything higher than 2.5/5.
This hits some of the same sweet spots: the overblown, trashy production lends grit and energy, and the non-English words let the vocals serve as a different kind of instrument to my ears. But where Tropicalia reinvented 60's rock, this apparently largely copies what was happening in the US. I say apparently because I can't say for certain that these weren't melodies and tropes that originated in Cambodia and found their way to the US. Nothing would please me more to hear that this is what happened, but it doesn't seem likely based on what information I can scrape together.
In any case, it mostly sounds like Nuggets-style garage rock and 50's rock and roll; some of the songs even appear to be outright covers. Most of the songs are overall awfully simple, and lack the energetic invention of their Brazilian counterparts. Also, the compilation is dominated by two artists, with only a few songs by anyone other than Sinn Sisamouth and Ros Sereysothea; I'd certainly like more variety. A couple standouts save it somewhat: the guitar/vocal interplay on Don't be Mad is snakey and compelling, and the horns, organ and loping bass lines of Since When You Know Me lend a richness that I wanted more of. It seems ungenerous, but there was just too little on here that was all that inventive to justify anything higher than 2.5/5.
#133 VA - Funky 45 Party (Small Potato Records)
I've had a lot of full-attention-requiring work lately, which kills my new music output, but catching up a bit. This was off Calamarfarci, a blog with a handful of obscure downloadable compilations and mixes, check it out here.
Most of my recent funk listening focused on big artists with big ambitions, weaving grooves around spaceships and politics and psychadelia. This is simpler stuff, short, tight, funky tracks with more in common with the meters than parliament, the kind of stuff you expect tarantino to be dragging out of a crate and onto an action sequence. Its all skittered beats, busy bass, horn hits and simple sentiments, delivered with style. Everything you need and nothing more.
I put some of this on with a handful of other tracks on random at a gathering a couple nights back (separate from my "offical" full listen) and it did good things to the mood for sure. I dig, I think is the appropriate parlance 4/5
Most of my recent funk listening focused on big artists with big ambitions, weaving grooves around spaceships and politics and psychadelia. This is simpler stuff, short, tight, funky tracks with more in common with the meters than parliament, the kind of stuff you expect tarantino to be dragging out of a crate and onto an action sequence. Its all skittered beats, busy bass, horn hits and simple sentiments, delivered with style. Everything you need and nothing more.
I put some of this on with a handful of other tracks on random at a gathering a couple nights back (separate from my "offical" full listen) and it did good things to the mood for sure. I dig, I think is the appropriate parlance 4/5
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