Band: Xiu Xiu Release: 2010 Label: Kill Rock Stars
1. “Gray Death” – D+ 2. “Chocolate Makes You Happy” – C 3. “Apple For A Brain” – C- 4. “House Sparrow” – C- 5. “Hyunhye’s Theme” – C 6. “Dear God, I Hate Myself” – D 7. “Secret Motel” – D+ 8. “Falkland Rd” – D+ 9. “The Fabrizio Palumbo Retaliation” – C- 10. “Cumberland Gap” – C- 11. “This Too Shall Pass Away” – C+ 12. “Impossible Feeling” – C
Comments: Xiu Xiu! Hold on a second, buddy, what is there to get excited about? I hate to label this album, but it’s almost necessary. It’s like Xiu Xiu wants to be different, but still doesn’t want to freak out people too much so they resort to a minimum layer of catchiness that will satisfy the hoi polloi of eclectic listeners. Like “Chocolate Makes You Happy.” It’s a weird ass title, but you can tell that it’s so naive there has to be some fun about it. People actually listen to this AND enjoy it? That’s depressing. “Dear God, I Hate Myself.” Really? Really?!
1) Cover Me (Slowly)- 9- Epic as fuck! Deerhunter kicks right in with a trippy, psychedelic, almost Pink Floydish triumph. I’m sure fans will cover it slowly over time.
2) Agoraphobia- 9- The first track perfectly flows right into this ditty. Lyrically, Pundt desperately moans, “Come for me, cover me, come for me, comfort me,” thus making these first two numbers inseparable.
3) Never Stops- 9- The flow keeps going. This is a pretty catchy tune actually. As spacey as Deerhunter can be (and they really are on this record) they never stop reeling you in with their pop hooks. Ok, I’ll cease making retarded puns from here on!
4) Little Kids- 9- This track is a bit slower than the others and doesn’t necessarily jump out at you, but it works in its own way. I dig the little bell like sounds in the background. They’re barely noticeable at first listens and yet so vital. That’s what I really appreciate about Deerhunter, the little things you continually discover after much needed ear time.
5) Microcastle-9- Very atmospheric, much like the opener: slow vocals in the background, really spacey. The emotion lies far more in the sound of the vocals than the actual lyrics themselves. I really dig it when the music unexpectedly explodes into a massive rocker. Truly a surprise that makes this track stand out as a Deerhunter classic.
6) Calvary Scars-8- This track makes heavy use of strange sound effects.
7) Green Jacket- 9- As with most of the songs, the previous track smoothly weens it’s way into this track. The highlight of this track is the beautiful piano work.
8) Activa- 8- Not much to say here lol.
9) Nothing Ever Happened- 9/10- Certainly one of the record’s strongest tracks. Unlike, other Deerhunter songs, this one is rocker you can bop to. The lyrics are demented and disturbing, but insanely catchy.
10) Saved By Old Times- 9- Starts with some simple strumming on an acoustic guitar, just like Old Times, bluesy garage stuff of the Black Lips fashion. Speaking of the Black Lips, midway into the song, everyone’s favorite cocksucker, Cole Alexander provides some bizarre, hilarious vocals. I swear he mentions being trapped in a basement, well he would know.
11) Neither Of Us, Uncertainly- 8- Psychedelicly like the others. It’s a decent track, but doesn’t particularly stand out.
12) Twilight At Carbon Lake- 9/10- Fantastic closer of grandiose proportions; just as epic, if not more, than the opener! In fact, it has a reprise feel to it, like you are just picking up where you left off at the beginning and everything in between was just a haze. Simply, the number has a very pop like, inviting sound to it, supported by 50s-60s era vocals, which makes you feel all warm inside ahah. Of course, the experience culminates into a heavy meltdown, as manic as anything else on this record. It’s an explosion of all the instruments and passion these Atlanta fellas have to offer. To Be Continued…
Weird Era Cont.:
Unlike Mircro, for Weird Era I will provide some deep analysis as always, but not track by track rundown. First things fucking last, Micro is the superior of the two, but Weird Era perfectly complements it’s predecessor. With the first track, “Backspace Century,” the ambient, shoegaze flow is continued. In “Operation,” we find ourselves dancing and prancing to it’s catchy, electronic beat. As I said, much of this record shares the psychedelic/ambient sound of Micro, but it lacks in popability. The tracks have cool sounds that are stimulating to my ears, but they don’t make the hair on my testes jump up in excitement, like memorable Rock and Roll songs should do. In many ways Weird Era and Micro are like brothers and sisters and other ways they are their own entities, to be heard separately.
Final Comments/Grade: A-, this is the kind of album that you have to experience as an album, from start to finish to really appreciate. And, I’m positive several, if not many listens will be required to truly grasp the brilliance of Deerhunter. There are pop songs and rock songs and yes even dance songs here. But, they do not jump out and dangle their naked bodies at ya and beg you for acceptance. In contrast, you have to dig deeper. May I suggest, a quiet place, alone perhaps, when it’s dark, just getting dark, dusk, early in the wee hours of the morning before you start to see light. I can imagine this would be a terrific record to lie back and stare at the stars to. Personally, there is a wintery feel to this record that enhanced the beauty of the record. All in all, a kudos to Cox and crew, I hope their musical/emotional exploration never stops…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 