All posts by G. Gordon Gritty

Entertainment, humor, Music, News, Random

Old King Cole Writes For DH Blog

Leave a comment

Old King Cole Younger, known in many circles as Cole Alexander of the Black Lips, is the newest contributor to Bradford Cox’s Deerhunter blog. That’s a pretty damn good blog…right up there with No Age. Go and read it: http://deerhuntertheband.blogspot.com

That said, don’t confuse Cole with Bradford. At the bottom of every post on that blog, there is a user-name. Bradford has this to say:

Since Cole has started posting here please be sure to read who posted what at the bottom of each entry. Ever since Lockett’s journal of bodily functions, I’ve been rather annoyed how people attribute everything on this blog to me. Especially lazy journalists. Cole’s opinions of prepubescent latino preachers are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Deerhunter Music Group, LLC.

Cole – keep it PG-13.

CD Review, Entertainment, Music

CD Review: The Soft Pack (2010)

Leave a comment

Band: The Soft Pack
Release: 2010
Label: Kemado Records

1. “C’mon” – A
2. “Down On Loving” – A
3. “Answer To Yourself’ – A
4. “Move Along” – A-
5. “Pullout” – A-
6. “More Or Less” – A-
7. “Tides Of Time” – B+
8. “Flammable” – B+
9. “Mexico” – A-
10. “Parasites” – A-

Comments: Compared to the likes of Black Lips and Strange Boys,  The Soft Pack stand for almost a new kind of garage rock that’s seemingly inspired by the likes of late ’90s and early ’00s revivalist figureheads. Heavily pop AND heavily garage, it’s not hard to get hooked to a lot of these tunes. I’ll probably keep looking back at this record throughout this month and the year and be glad I got into The Soft Pack (credit NuRaveBrainWave for posting stuff about them). While many of the first eight songs are bangers (not the Irish breakfast sausage, but rather heavy garage ditties), “Mexico”  is a great song, packed with a quintessential surf bass hook, to listen to if you want to convince yourself it’s warmer outside than it really is (looking out the window I see perfectly clear skies…but it’s only 34 F). Yeah…definitely give this a listen! I anticipate hearing a lot of garage/punk/psychedelic music in the year 2010, but I can definitely see this being a top release.

Grade: A- (91)

CD Review, Entertainment, humor, Music

CD Review: Of the Blue Colour of the Sky (2010)

Leave a comment

Band: OK Go
Release: 2010
Label: Capitol

1. “WTF?” – D
2. “This Too Shall Pass” – C-
3. “All Is Not Lost” – C-
4. “Needing/Getting” – D+
5. “Skyscrapers” – C-
6. “White Knuckles” – D
7. “I Want You So Bad” – C-
8. “End Love” – D
9. “Before The Earth Was Round” – F
10. “Last Leaf” – B-
11. “Back From Kathmandu” – C+
12. “While You Were Asleep” – C
13. “In The  Glass” – B–

Comments: I don’t want to be one to hate on this band, a band which has received some degree of mainstream success for their Weezer-like ways. The vibe I get from this album is glossy safety. “This Too Shall Pass” has been done before and turns out to be just as shitty as when Weezer did it. Seriously, though, this is bad and way way too repetitive. Also, I would like to bring up a band that’s much much better at its craft than OK Go. The Lovely Feathers do the glam thing, but their expertise relies on a no-bullshit attitude. If you want a good piece of disaster check out “Before the Earth” which is so ridiculous, it’s already a candidate for worst song of the year. Don’t buy this album unless you want a joke. I guess the only track worth checking out would be album closer.

Final Grade: D+ (69)

CD Review, Entertainment, Music

CD Review: Minor Love (2010)

Leave a comment

Band: Adam Green
Release: 2010
Label: Rough Trade

1. “Breaking Locks” – B
2. “Give Them A Token” – C+
3. “Buddy Bradley” – C-
4. “Goblin” – B-
5. “Bathing Birds” – B-
6. “What Makes Him Act So Bad” – A
7. “Stadium Soul” – A-
8. “Cigarette Burns Forever” – B+
9. “Boss Inside” – A-
10. “Castles and Tassels” – A-
11. “Oh Shucks” – B+
12. “Don’t Call Me Uncle” – B+
13. “Lockout” – B+
14. “You Blacken My State” – B

Comments: Like his former band, Moldy Peaches, Green is an acquired taste. For me personally, his vocals are elegantly boring. The backing instruments aren’t anything extravagant or worth thinking about. His form of sophisticated outsider music begs for Daniel Johnston comparisons, but unfortunately Green suffers from being less of an overall force (not shockingly) than the granddaddy of obscure folk music. Green shines best when he and his back-up band do their best Lou Reed/Velvet Underground impersonation in “What Makes.” The energy and style of that song carries over to the next and the next. Definitely, I’d listen to a great number of these songs again for Green’s exquisite story-telling, which is an art in itself. In the end, I’m split over whether I’m truly impressed by this album or if it is just another release that has a mix of great, good, and average tunes.

Final Grade: B (85)

CD Review, Entertainment, Music

Classic Album Review: Turn It Up Faggot

1 Comment

Band: Deerhunter
Release: 2005
Label: Stickfigure Records

1. “N. Animals” – A+
2. “Adorno” – A++
3. “Tech School” – A-
4. “Ponds” – A
5. “Language/Violence” – A
6. “Oceans” – A-
7. “Basement” – A-
8. “Young Layer” – B-
9. “Death Drag” – A-

Comments: I turned it up, but I’m not a faggot. This shit is pretty much dance-punk at its finest. Crazy dances that is. Don’t expect to grind or do the cha-cha slide, you gotta friggin’ blast this and just do the craziest shit you can conjure up. Like seriously LCD Soundsystem couldn’t even come up with this type of genius. I’m sort of surprised Bradford hates it, I mean there’s nothing to be ashamed of, except maybe a couple (tops) of tracks. It’s a complete volte-face from all of his other music, but still. Definitely, this is solid material for college radio stations. Yeah, a lot of the songs are based on the same ideas of noise and repetition, but it’s not facetious like Lightning Bolt.

Final Grade: A- (92)

CD Review, Entertainment, Music

Classic CD Review: Bows + Arrows

Leave a comment

Band: The Walkmen
Label: Record Collection
Release: 2004

1. “What’s In It For Me?” – A+
2. “The Rat” – A++
3. “No Christmas While I’m Talking” – A-
4. “Little House of Savages” – A+
5. “My Old Man” – A
6. “138th Street” – A+
7. “The North Pole” – A
8. “Hang on, Siobhan” – A+
9. “New Year’s Eve” – A+
10. “Thinking of a Dream I Had” – A++
11. “Bows + Arrows” – A++

Comments: This is a seminal album for the Walkmen. Highly regarded as their best offering of the triple ’00s (perhaps a false statment, I really really dug 2008’s You and Me), it’s got a delicate mix of fast post-punk ditties (Rat, House of Savages, Thinking of a Dream) that come off as inspirational (perhaps to a band like Editors) and all the slow and sweet ones (which you know, damnit; I don’t need to list them). The first time I listened to portions of this record was a few years back. I thought it sounded incredibly antique, yet pretty easily accessible. It might just be Ham’s singing, coupled with Paul’s classy guitar play. This classy guitar play is exemplified on “138th Street,” which is about such a serious matter as a man starting anew from what seems to have been a troubled past. In general, this isn’t really light-hearted, but you can’t really expect that from this band. Their concert attire is typically business casual to formal…that tells you something about these gents. Perhaps my favorite of the low brow tunes is “Hang On, Siobhan,” presumably about a girl who wants more and more of the songwriter, but he’s a bit sick of her routine and wants her to slow things down. “New Years Eve” — I’m sure a lot of people can relate to this quick ditty, seeing as it’s over pretty damn fast…like a 12/31 one night stand. “Thinking of a Dream I Had” is just a too good to pass up track. It’s infectious and puts me in high spirits. I listened to it constantly in the winter of 2007/2008 while doing homework at 5:00 AM. Homework at that time is depressing, but this was an aural escape. The organ parts are just out of this world, dude. “Bows + Arrows” is an amazing closer. Ham really belts this out perfectly and is so convincing.

Final Grade: A (97)

CD Review, Entertainment, Music

CD Review: Contra (2010)

Leave a comment

Band: Vampire Weekend
Label: XL
Release: 2010

1. “Horchata” – B+
2. “White Sky” – A-
3. “Holiday” – B
4. “California English” – B
5. “Taxi Cab” – A-
6. “Run” – B+
7. “Cousins” – B+
8. “Giving Up The Gun” – B+
9. “Diplomat’s Son” – A+
10. “I Think Ur A Contra” – B

Comments: Love it or hate it, Vampire Weekend is what Vampire Weekend is. “Horchata” is kind of annoying at first, but it sort of loses that disparaging label quickly and becomes standard VW. “White Sky” is an upper-echelon tune, embodying the best of what their self-titled offered. Not necessarily a song of the year by any stretch, it’s definitely awesome. “Holiday” sort of fails to deliver. “California English” means Ezra singing in a really fast, internationally welcoming (read, Afro-pop) style and tone. I was listening to “Taxi Cab” and I forgot what I was listening to. It’s a really chill song with a pretty kick-ass beat and flow. Okay, also, just a quick note: slow down a bit Vampire Weekend! Sometimes when parts get really awesome there is a crazy transition to something less intense or too intense. Ah! Whatever! “Cousins” is love-hate. It’s something I would love to hate, but at the end of the day it’s just your average above  average VW offering. Big fan of “Diplomat’s Son” right here. It reminds me of a certain song on VW. Bottom line: is this better than album #1? No, not really. Sorry. It’s definitely very notable, but it just doesn’t possess top to bottom greatness. 2010 will have to be a really rough year if this is going to land on my annual top 10 LPs list.

Grade: B+ (88)