An acoustic B Side of Nick Cave’s classic “Deanna.”
Chris
Category Archives: Music
Quote of the Day
In response to a Best of 2009 album list that included mostly obscure artists (most of which I’ve never heard of, except a few like Strange Boys, Ganglians, and Thee Oh Sees, in addition to Animal Collective):
I mean really. Nice of you to throw in Animal Collective so that no one thought you were getting too crazy. But who has the capacity, let alone the time and desire to seek out this many completely unknown bands/artists and rank them accordingly on a message board. WHO THE $#@! ARE THESE PEOPLE? How do you find them? How did you find the time in your year to obtain and listen to all of these with a critical mind/eye? Do you only seek out artistic works that are completely removed from anything even resembling the main stream? I know that things that are popular are not necessarily good and vice versa, but how many people own the albums of all these artists combined? Are these really “good” albums, or are you just listing the most obscure $#@! you can find based on some internet search?
AND DID YOU KNOW THAT VIRTUALLY NONE OF THESE MOTHER $#@! BESIDES ANIMAL COLLECTIVE HAS A WIKIPEDIA PAGE? YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT NEITHER YOU NOR ANY OF THE OTHER UNDERGROUND HAND JOBS THAT LISTEN TO THESE BANDS IN DARK CLUBS AND COFFEE SHOPS FOUND TIME TO WASH THE HAND STAMP OFF AND COBBLE TOGETHER A SIMPLE WIKI ENTRY? CHRIST!!
Classic CD Review: An End Has A Start
Band: Editors
Release: 2007
Label: FADER (US); Kitchenware (UK)
1. “Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors” – A++
2. “An End Has A Start” – A+
3. “The Weight Of The World” – A+
4. “Bones” – A+
5. “When Anger Shows” – A+
6. “The Racing Rats” – A++
7. “Put Your Head Towards The Air” – A++
8. “Escape The Nest” – A++
9. “Spiders” – A+
10. “Well Worn Hand” – A
Comments: I don’t get how a song like “Smokers” could be criticized to any degree. It’s a complete song, replete with harmonies, prolonged guitar solos, and pounding drums. In fact, it’s one of my favorites of all time. Editors, you know, don’t conceal their roots too well. Comparisons to post-punk fathers as well as revivalists are abound in various critical works. Big chunks of Editors’ sound = reverberated heavy high notes. If you are not fond of these repetitive ditties, you might be easily irritated by this album. Also, Tom’s deep voice is not kind to everyone’s ear. Ian Curtis or Paul Banks or whatever other comparisons exist are essentially void because all these vocalists are their own animal. Also, I think Editors have “moments” in their music, especially present in this album, that are absolutely clutch and experience-changing. These “moments” turn good songs into great ones and great ones into classics. While the band hasn’t exploded in such a manner as the Killers did (pop songwriting can only get you so far in today’s environment), I’m sure the band’s general following has both seen periods of increase and decrease (with the latter potentially due to the band’s latest effort In This Light and On This Evening, which is heavily darker and more electro based). Chris might have been riding the coattails of a spectacular January 2008 concert (Orpheum Theatre) when he commented “there’s no doubt in my mind that this band will be huge within the next few years.” Taking a 180 degree turn sound-wise is something that simply may not make that possible, but the freedom to change and improve is, itself, a testament to what Chris said next, “They are a great example of how a band can achieve such tremendous success, yet still be attached to independent label and not have to sacrifice their integrity.” Getting back to the album itself…”The Racing Rats” is an awesome song for all the hunnies to dance to despite its depressing lyrics. Let me not forget to mention that in some instances like in “Put” there is a wildly atmospheric element existing above what we know as pop. Okay so the last song is cheesy and could sound okay in Aladdin or some shit: “I don’t want to go out alone anymore.” But it’s Tom’s baritone that makes it somewhat interesting and surprisingly guilty-pleasure esque. It ends basically prematurely, making me wonder when the eff the build-up is going to happen?! It never happens, which is sad, but I’ll deal. Whatever though, this LP is one of my favorites of all time.
Grade: A+ (98)
Nice Overplayed List, WMBR!
As the DJ noted, the list isn’t about good or bad…it was about what was played a bit much in 2009. Turns out a few personal favorites were included like:
#97 – Nobunny – “Nobunny Loves You”
#73 – Black Lips – “Short Fuse”
#40 – Big Pink – Dominoes
#31 – Box Elders – “Alice & Friends”
#13 – Sonic Youth – “Leaky Lifeboat (for Gregory Corso)”
#12 – Jay Reatard – “It Ain’t Gonna Save Me”
#10 – Pains of Being Pure at Heart – “Young Adult Friction”
#4 – Mission of Burma – “1, 2, 3, Partyy!”
First BL Vid In Long Time!
You guys are long overdue for the first Black Lips video of the year!
Classic CD Review: Up the Bracket
Band: Libertines
Label: Rough Trade
Release: 2002
1. “Vertigo” – A-
2. “Death on the Stairs” – A
3. “Horrorshow” – A-
4. “Time For Heroes” – A+
5. “Boys in the Band” – A+
6. “Radio America” – A-
7. “Up the Bracket” – A+
8. “Tell the King” – A+
9. “The Boy Looked At Johnny” – A+
10. “Begging” – A-
11. “The Good Old Days” – A+
12. “I Get Along” – A+
Comments: A much more polished album than The Libertines, this is , too, a more straight forward, cut-the-shit kind of release. Like the harmonies in “Boys in the Band” are priceless (unless you actually bought this album). I enjoy the bloody humor in a song like “The Boy,” you know what I mean? By the way, “The Good Old Days” is slowing developing into one of my favorite Libertines tunes.
Grade: A (94)
EP Review: Dreamland (2010)
Band: Moonface (Spencer Krug)
Release: 2010
Label: Jagjaguwar
1. “Dreamland EP (Marimbas and Shit Drums)” – A-
Comments: Are you an aficionado for twenty minute songs? Krug keeps this banger interesting on several different fronts. At its core, this is an elongated, minimalist Sunset Rubdown epic. Terse epics (under ten minutes, please) are much appreciated, but this thing (47 MB) is far from that. Unlike, say, a Flashy Python doozy, this isn’t broken down into parts; there’s a constant marimba rhythmic sequence that sets the tone and is pretty darn scary. Quite fitting for an EP that’s based on Spencer’s dreams. Overall, I really dig it, but it’s just too bad it’s not broken up.
Final Grade: A- (90)
New Years Eve Song Recs!
- The Walkmen – “New Years Eve” – Bows and Arrows
- The Walkmen – “In The New Year” – You and Me
- Black Lips – “Starting Over” – 200 Million Thousand
Thanks to the blog http://gigawave.wordpress.com/ for posting these.
Mando Diao – The Band
Such an energetic performance!
Talking and Whiny Voices: Worst Album Ever Made
Artist: The Moldy Peaches
Title: The Moldy Peaches
Label: Rough Trade
Year: 2001
Length: 44 minutes
Just to clear things up, the title is an “attention grabber,” and in fact I loved the album, that was actually my mom’s opinion of the record lol. Anyway…
1) Lucky Number Nine- 9.4- Solid opener, in many ways sets the tone for the rest of the album: minimal, soft, child like vocals, off beat lyrics, garagey, low-fi production. Vocals. Guitar. Drums. Simple
2) Jorge Reugla- 9.0- Funny little ditty (Yeah, I think I’ll stick with this spelling over “diddy”). Vocals are mostly spoken and Adam Green sings one line, then Kimya Dawson repeats it and so on. Then they both sing doo dit doo dit doo… There’s even a tuba thrown in there… I think lol.
3) What Went Wrong- 9.3- This track is noisy and fuzzy and just downright wacky, but it works. It’s mostly screaming and shouting, “Take Me to Your Leader.”
4) Nothing Came Out- 9.7- Maybe the album’s best track, not sure yet. A Complete departure from the previous track and really the other two tracks as well. This reminds me of Kimya’s solo work, but with drums and better guitars. Her vocals are really top notch though. It’s a slow, ballady, love song about our heroine’s desire to be with her man and ride bikes and watch cartoons with him.
5) Downloading Porn with Davo- 9.6- Hilarious song, perhaps the most licentious tune in the Peaches’ catalog. Adam and Kimya and (I believe others?) rock on their guitars, drums and keyboards, creating a fast, funny track.
6) These Burgers- 9.1- Weird track, to say the least. Soft spoken singing about wild hipsters and the “happy pill.” I really dig the 70s kung fu sound, I don’t know what that is, but I like it.
7) Steak For Chicken- 9.5- Another ballady kinda song. Sorta.The dynamic duo share great vocals duties on this track. I especially adore the line, “Who mistook the steak for chicken, who am I going to stick my dick in.”
8) On Top- 9.3- A really unexpected catchy, rap number. Play that funky music white moldy peach boy!
9) Greyhound Bus- 9.0- A simple song about the joy of riding a greyhound bus. Not much else I really have to offer here.
10) Anyone Else But You- 9.7- Ahh yes, we’ve all heard the Juno induced, love ballad by now. Indeed, it is a classic and certainly has exposed the Peaches to the rest of the world and still has not lost its integrity. The pair’s vocals perfectly complement each other as they usually do. It’s an adorable song!
11) Little Bunny Foo Foo- 9.3- Short, but sweet. Highly catchy and inspiring with it’s unpolished production style. And of course, it gives me a chuckle… makes me want to toss on my bunny suit, cause when I wear it I feel cute! I just had to say it.
12) Ballad of Helenkeller & Rip Van Winkle- 9.2- Yet, another ballad. It’s very good and similar to the previous ballads. I know if Helenkeller was alive and had the ability to hear, then she would dig it and dance to it at her Commie get togethers.
13) Who’s Got the Crack- 9.6- Definitely, one of the Peaches’ strongest tracks. Just a great, off colour, bizarre, hooky number. I really dig how the song starts off slow then erupts into a mini rocker, then slows down a little again, then back to rocking, and back and forth with bunch of shouted vocals. Perhaps they found the person with crack.
14) Lucky Charms- 8.9- Not a bad track, but it doesn’t bring that much to the table for me. Still decent and I dig the little, incredibly modest drums in the background. Lyrically, it is pretty funny, like most of their songs, I must admit.
15) D.2 Boyfriend- 9.0- A strange number about boyfriends, Duran Duran, and middle school lol. Just Kimya here on vocals and they remind me of the lady’s voice on those Garment District commercials. Anybody else hear this, if you remember those ads, since I haven’t seen them in a while? lol. The percussion is just simple tapping. It works.
16) I Forgot- 8.8- See 14 basically. Though, I will add, I like how they don’t care about their vocals here and just fuck around. I also dig the weird noises at the end.
17) Lazy Confessions- 8.7- Lower “quality” production for some reason, but in a way it gives the track, its own feel, so I guess it’s a good thing. Overall, it doesn’t stand out though, but it’s a good song.
18) NYC’s Like a Graveyard- 9.4- Fun Fact: This album was released on 9/11/01, so coincidentally this title is kind of creepy. Anyway, I dig the garage rock guitars and overall sound. The vocals are of the punk variety, in a way. It’s a rocker and once again the lyrics make you smile; suckers, fuckers, and retards. I haven’t been to NYC, so I’ll take their word for it.
19) Goodbye Song- 9.0- A good closer, nothing too epic, but it does the job. Very soft and as usual great duet between Adam and Kimya. But, this time it’s unique because Adam is singing some lyrics and Kimya is simultaneously singing entirely different words. Goodbye!
Overall: A, Most music fans will write this group and this album off as amateurish, talentless noise of low quality,but to me quality means passion, integrity, and creating memorable songs; The Moldy Peaches satisfy all of these desires with the highest of “quality.”
Chris
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 