1. “Dead I” – A-
2. “Hipster Grandma” – B
3. “Local Band” – B
Comments: “Hardcore punk” that your average non-hardcore punk might like. Prerequisites: an admiration for punk, garage, noise, and lo-fi. I find the three chord verse in “Dead I” to be engaging and jamming. Good tune. “Hipster Grandma” is sped up and pretty decent. What else is expected in 1 minute and 22 seconds? All of this shit has been done before by better bands, but it’s nice for a little flashback.
WHDH
BOSTON — Who doesn’t love a delicious piece of chocolate and a cup of coffee?
Of course there is a price to pay: the calories. However, a new product allows users to taste them and not gain any weight.
“Le Whif is breathable coffee, chocolate and probably other things. It’s a new way of eating by breathing and it was invented at Harvard University,” said Le Whif inventor Harvard professor David Edwards.
One pack contains about 8 to ten puffs. It costs just $2.50 and is sold only at Cardullo’s in Cambridge.
“You open it up and place it in your mouth… and whif. It’s a really great taste, this one happens to be a whiffed coffee so it has caffeine in it about the amount of a small espresso. So you can whif again and close it up and whif later,” Edwards said.
1. “Odessa” – B+ 2. “Sun” – C+ 3. “Kaili” – B+
4. “Found Out” – B 5. “Bowls” – C
6. “Leave House” – B 7. “Hannibal” – B+ 8. “Lalibela” – B 9. “Jamelia” – C+
Comments: Caribou is a pretty cool dude. He puts beats together nicely. From the get-go, this was a different kind of experience for me. I knew two Caribou songs and they were great background music…nothing really over the top. Chill, basically. It turns out, most of this record IS just great background music. Less chaotic and more dreamy, but still background music. Anyway, Caribou’s got mathematical credibility (a Ph.D. from Imperial College in London)…take that “math rock” people. He’s got psychedelic credibility (stage name comes from something thought of while on an acid trip), too. Credibility doesn’t matter, though. We are talking music. Electronic music. I feel like Caribou needs some more pounding bass. That might not be his thing per se, but it’d make for a more exciting listen.
Comments: Good beats/average rap. That’s approximately what this record amounts to. This isn’t a traditional rap record…obviously. Lou Reed singing over a hip-hop beat? Fail. So even if “Gorillaz are real,” they are still a pretty laughable band. Getting somewhat big names to feature on tracks doesn’t prove to positively affect the record. The theme of the record is pretty lame, something you would expect from a fictional cartoon band. Miracle Johan did “To Binge” better on his Hawaiian mix released a few years ago. At the end of the day, this is a pretty unspectacular record in the grand scheme of 2010 releases. It will be forgotten. It’s already been forgotten.
Band: Portugal. The Man Release: 3/2010 Label: Equal Vision
1. “The Dead Dog” – B 2. “Break” – B- 3. “60 Years” – B+ 4. “All My People” – A- 5. “1000 Years” – A 6. “Fantastic Pace” – A- 7. “The Pushers Party” – B+ 8. “Do What We Do” – B 9. “Just A Fool” – B- 10. “Some Men” – B 11. “When The War Ends” – B+
Comments: This band was a fresh discovery for me last summer. I very favorably reviewed their 2009 LP TheSatanic Satanist. That was a unique record for me… definitely plenty psychedelic, but plenty pop as well. The beauty of this band is that it’s really hard to say that they are this or they are that. Given the title alone, you’d probably think this was a hip-hop record. There is, without a doubt, influence coming from hip-hop and neo-soul on a lot of Portugal. The Man’s tunes. That’s why I don’t mind throwing out a band like Outkast for comparison purposes. I guess I’ll even name drop Cold War Kids for a track like “Fantastic Pace.” I don’t have many complaints about this album, but I’d probably say top to bottom I prefer Satanist.
Bands: Vivian Girls, Male Bonding, You Can Be A Wesley Venue: Great Scott (Allston, MA) Date: Monday, March 8, 2010
Act One – You Can Be A Wesley – I really liked this band. They rocked out and genuinely seemed passionate about playing music. That said, the vocals weren’t that loud and the drums really took precedent. Also, the band had a guy take care of playing videos on the screen behind the drummer. That was a bit unnecessary in my opinion and almost pigeon holes the band as just your average opening act. They weren’t just your average opening act, though. They’re better than that and judging from the audience’s response, it seems like they’ve built quite a local following. The jams weren’t exactly assaults on the ear, but they were straight up rockers. Awkward band name.
Act Two – Male Bonding – First, props to the guitarist/singer for having stickers of No Age and Happy Birthday on his little effects pedal bag. Second, I should have liked this band more than I did. They definitely had a No Age + bass thing going on. The extremely thick reverb on the vocals ruined it for me. I couldn’t make out a word (literally) that was sung, so they might as well just have put the mics aside. The drummer was getting quite a workout beating the shit out of his drum kit. The guitars were very similar in each song. Straight up punk riffs with some deviation. No one song really struck me as particularly awesome, though. It was basically a case of “oooh, this again. I get it.” Awkward band name.
Act Three – Vivian Girls – I should have done my homework. I heard most of Vivian Girls’ catalog last summer, but I never really got around to consistently listening to the Girls. It’s a shame, though, that I didn’t make much of an effort to at least re-listen to Everything Goes Wrong, an album that I awarded a really high grade to back in September. The two songs that I recognized were “When I’m Gone” and “Before I Start to Cry.” The latter was really amazing and the former just as awesome. The twelve or so other songs played during the group’s half hour set were affectionate and catchy. They showcased two new songs, which were great. I feel really bad that I couldn’t recognize the other tracks! Seriously, you don’t know how bad I feel. I feel like a casual fan! I guess, at the end of the day, that is what I am.
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 