What’s the best selling album in the United States? Vampire Weekend’s Contra. Not Lady Gaga or Ke$ha or any other crazy hip-hop electro sensation, but Columbia’s own. They sold 124,000 copies in the first week. And they aren’t even on a major label! Word.
All posts by G. Gordon Gritty
CD Review: Warm Love and Cool Dreams Forever
Band: The Octagon
Release: 1/2010
Label: Serious Business
1. “Suicide Kings” – A
2. “Cross Tops” – A-
3. “Swindler Minnows” – A
4. “Radio Days” – A-
5. “Loulou” – A-
6. “Hound Adams” – B
7. “Stop Snitchin'” – B+
8. “To The Flame” – B
9. “Easton” – A-
10. “Tommy Bones” – B
11. “Clay Haywood” – A-
12. “Buffalo” – B+
13. “Heart Calming Meditation” – C+
14. “Charles Lavender” – B+
15. “One Five Five” – B-
16. “Revolution” – B
Comments: Mixing ’90s college rock with the sights and sounds of today’s West Coast psychedelic scene, The Octagon have done well for themselves on this album. On some songs, I sense some Built to Spill inspiration, while others are straight up garage punk. My one real criticism is that a bunch of these songs sound like unfinished demos. If the band maybe spent a little bit longer on production, I’d love this more.
Grade: B+ (87)
CYHSY Albums Streaming
If you go to the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah official website, you can listen to their first two albums in their entirety. I will be reviewing them later on, but I thought I would let you know. It’s good music for January 20. On one hand, there is a whole lot of winter left, but on the other hand spring is coming and fun times and warmth are nearing.
CD Review: The Courage of Others (2010)
Band: Midlake
Release: 2/2010
Label: Bella Union/V2
1. “Acts of Man” – B-
2. “Winter Dies” – C+
3. “Small Mountain” – C
4. “Core of Nature” – C-
5. “Fortune” – B
6. “Rulers, Ruling All Things” – C+
7. “Children of the Grounds” – A-
8. “Bring Down” – C-
9. “The Horn” – C-
10. “The Courage of Others” – C
11. “In the Ground” – C
Comments: This is my first “official” experience with what they call progressive folk. All I can think of is Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan when I hear those two words. Actually listening to this record, it’s more than just folk. It has more sound and finish than what I’ve traditionally regarded as folk. Despite that, it can be a pretty boring thing. “Fortune” is pretty good until it ends in a flash. This is going to sound messed up, but I think the band should go full folk. Cut the prog shit and just go full folk. Something like Sunset Rubdown. It’s pretty clear when they make their best attempt at this (“Children of the Grounds”) and when they don’t (“Core of Nature”).
Grade: C (76)
Jay Remembered
Stephen Pope (Former Bassist) Eulogy:
When he signed with Matador he called me and said, ‘Stephen, let’s go celebrate.’ So we went to Checkers first and got a few Big Bufords. We got a $4-bottle of champagne. Two or three. Then we went to Men’s Warehouse. He bought a purple and black suit and he forced me to get a purple velvet blazer. Then we went to a spa Downtown, where we decided to get the most expensive couple’s massage. We drank more champagne, got an hour-long massage right next to each other, then we got in a hot tub filled with rose petals and drank more champagne. Then we got a manicure. A gourmet lunch was supposed to be included, but in true Jay Reatard fashion, he said, “Screw that. Go get me a bacon cheeseburger.” So we ate bacon cheeseburgers while getting a pedicure. And I just remember sitting there getting a pedicure with bacon and grease and cheese and champagne all over me, and looking over at him on his cell phone, telling the story of what we were doing right then.
CD Review: The Monitor (2010)
Band: Titus Andronicus
Release: 2010
Label: XL
1. “A More Perfect Union” – B+
2. “Titus Andronicus Forever” – C+
3. “No Future Part Three” – B+
4. “Richard II” – B-
5. “A Pot In Which To Piss” – B
6. “Four Score And Seven” – B+
7. “Theme From ‘Cheers'” – B-
8. “To Old Friends And New” – B-
9. “…And Ever” – B-
10. “The Battle of Hampton Roads” – A
Comments: Opening up an album with a sample of an Abraham Lincoln address? That’s top marks in my books. Mixing noise with historical themes…what?! “A More Perfect Union” is nice, but might just go on for a bit too long. I like the repetition of “you will always be a loser” on “No Future…” At some times sounding like Cymbals Eat Guitars and other like Against Me! I also like the pace of “Four Score And Seven,” but it doesn’t really amount to the epicness oft associated with 8 minutes and 38 seconds long songs. Try listening to “The Battle of Hampton Roads” in one sitting. You will be pleased with the result.
Grade: B (84)
No Man Is An Island
No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man’s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
CD Review: Work (2010)
Band: Shout Out Louds
Release: 2010
Label: Merge
1. “1999” – B
2. “Fall Hard” – B
3. “Play the Game” – A+
4. “Walls” – A
5. “Candle Burned Out” – B+
6. “Throwing Stones” – A-
7. “Four by Four” – B+
8. “Moon” – A-
9. “Show Me Something New” – B
10. “Too Late, Too Slow” – A-
Comments: Shout Out Louds won me over in 2006 with “The Comeback” a song off their debut LP Howl Howl Gaff Gaff. I was so impressed with that track (which was on the MLB 2006 The Show soundtrack) that I decided to look up more songs from this band. And you know what? I found five other songs off that release that I really really liked. On this record the band ditched Bjorn Yttling of Peter Bjorn and John (producer for 2007’s Our Ill Wills) for Phil Elk, a notable producer who has worked with the likes of Built to Spill, Fleet Foxes, and the Shins. “1999” is a little cheesy at first and simplistic and all that average stuff, but it does improve. “Play the Game” is really really awesome and has the kind of flow that really hooked me onto this band. “Walls” has a similar effect. “Candle” is slower than the previous two. They flirt with shoegaze on “Four by Four.” Really epic finish on “Moon.” “Too Late, Too Slow” isn’t really that. It’s a good kind of slow. Perfect timing. This album will grow on me, I’m sure, but right now I can’t say it will be among the best. It’s definitely the best album I’ve heard all week if that means anything!
Grade: B+ (89)
Black Lips Are Old?
From OC Weekly:
Alexander’s first band, the Renegades, co-helmed by current Lips bassist Jason Swilley, landed a slot in the Dunwoody High School talent show, but the guys got drunk, kicked stuff around, were hooked from the stage and cut from the video. One of their classmates was American Idol host and radio personality Ryan Seacrest, heard locally on KIIS-FM 102.7 and Live 105.5. “We were freshmen, and he was a senior—a total douchebag metrosexual,” Alexander says. “We used to fuck with him in the halls, but he was a senior and had some big friends, and we were scrawny, so we didn’t fuck with him too much.”
Seacrest graduated from Dunwoody in 1993. Unless Cole entered high school when he was 11 years old, this story doesn’t quite add up. Wikipedia has Cole’s birthday on June 8, 1982. If he was supposed to graduate in 1997, he has to at least be at least thirty years old or older right now. He was a senior when Columbine happened. I do remember him saying he was in special needs classes so it could be possible that he was in school for six years instead of four. The bottom line is that he was probably born in 1979 not 1982.
GZA On Black Lips/KK/Hip-Hop
Check out this interview with Wu-Tang member GZA:
…LA Times…
How did you end up collaborating with The Black Lips and King Khan?Originally, it came about through my manager Heathcliff [Berru]. The bands were fans of Wu-Tang and I and we decided to perform together. It worked out well; they’re good musicians and we have a mutual admiration and love. The thing is, they were already connecting with me in some way first. I’d never heard their music before, but I was feeling it and when I saw both of those groups perform live, I knew I could work with them. The vibe was there.
Much of current hip-hop — particularly the more mainstream iteration — is characterized by glossy shiny-sounding production. Did some of your desire to work with the Black Lips and King Khan stem from the similarity of their lo-fi aesthetic to the beats you came up rhyming on?
That’s my problem with the stuff today — it doesn’t sound raw and uncut. When the Black Lips sent a track over to me, I thought it sounded like a Beastie Boys track, the way the singer was singing and flowing on it. He was right in the pocket. You don’t get hip-hop that sounds that gritty anymore, you get some Auto-tune, ping-pong computer-made and Casio stuff.
A lot of rappers have tried to chase whatever trend was hot, whether it’s Auto-tune or getting the hottest R&B hookman on a track, but you’ve carved out a different path.
I think it’s about being original and creative. You’ve got to be comfortable with yourself. There’s no set way to do anything. Sometimes you have to go outside the box, sometimes you can do things the standard way. Like you don’t have to have a beat to write a song, sometimes you can write lyrics without the music. A lot of artists think that to be current, you have to follow what’s out there and do something that’s so unlike what you normally do. It can work but it doesn’t if you chase it.
