Category Archives: Music

Music

CD Review: There Is No Enemy

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Band:Built To Spill
Label: Warner Bros.
Release: October 6, 2009

1. “Aisle 13” –9.3
2. “Hindsight” – 9.1
3. “Nowhere Lullaby” – 8.3
4. “Good Ol’ Boredom” – 8.6
5. “Life’s A Dream” – 9.1
6. “Oh Yeah” – 9.2
7. “Pat” – 9.4
8. “Done” – 8.9
9. “Planting Seeds” – 9.5
10. “Things Fall Apart”– 9.6
11. “Tomorrow” – 9.7

Comments: I don’t think BTS will ever fail at putting out an interesting “indie rock” song. That’s sad because for a band that’s been signed to a major label for the past 15 years, critics seem to find “indie rock” the only suitable label. The label “indie rock” doesn’t tell us much, but for BTS it sort of does. BTS does not play the kind of rock music that you would “expect” a major label band to put out, though this area is becoming increasingly grayer with bands like The Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs (just to name a few) keeping a major distance from big acts like The Fray and Lady Gaga. BTS is thoroughly underground sounding, with Doug Martsch’s strange voice and the band’s broad country-rock instrumentation. Lengthy guitar solos reign throughout this album and typically have since the band formed nearly eighteen years ago. That leads one to question whether there are any other elements to BTS or this album in particular that stand out. By most standards, the songs on this album aren’t that catchy…with few exceptions like the hard-rock influenced “Pat,” a song almost too fast for this record. When it comes down it, I’m impressed by this album. I’m not going to be constantly listening to it, but there are enough tracks worthy of second looks. Like “Things Fall Apart” that has horns! Good addition. “Tomorrow” will probably go down in the same category as BTS earlier classics like “Strange,” “The Plan,” “I Would Hurt A Fly,” and “Car.”

Grade: 9.2

Built To Spill is playing three nights at the Middle East Downstairs starting October 9. My recommendation? October 11 when Pretty and Nice will be opening alongside Disco Doom.

Music, rant

September Was Awesome!

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September sure was a great month to be a rock and roll fan living in the Boston area. On September 5, fellow KLYAM correspondents Ben, Chris, John and I journeyed to the Middle East Downstairs to catch The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. A couple of weeks of rest followed before two nights of Walkmen gigs at M.E Downstairs. Night One (September 18) was superb, but Night Two (September 19), which Ben and Chris attended, will go down in the books as amongst the best shows I’ve seen. A few nights later on September 23, the Rifles were in Allston at Great Scott. Their 1+ hour set, which John was present for, was memorable. And just a few nights after that on September 27, John and I went back to Great Scott to see California noise aficionados Wavves for a moshing experience. That was 4 concerts in 9 days for me and I can’t say I regret doing it.

October’s looking pretty good with Jay Reatard on the 2nd, the Lovely Feathers on the 8th, King Khan and BBQ Show on the 29th, and many other shows that may or may not be attended by yours truly. But will it top September?

Music

Jay Reatard Don’t Give A Shit

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Jay Reatard’s Tour Stories:

Some jerk wanted to fight us for playing a “30 minute set” Which he claims is a rip off… I got news for him our set was 15 minutes.. Hey thats still 12 songs..I still owe him a punch to the head..

Hahahaha oh Jay.

If you go to http://www.jayreatard.com you can hear some sample songs from the bands that are on Jay’s Shattered Records Tour with him.

Box Elders: Vintage garage-pop!
Hunx and His Punx: Also very vintage sounding; sounds like a hi-fi Reatard!
Boneyard: Noise-punk of the Mika Miko variety!
Useless Eaters: Lo-fi in the extreme; good bass lines!

So the verdict is that I really like what I’m hearing from all these bands that will be performing before Jay. Seems like this’ll be my first pure garage/punk rock show.

Music

CD Review: Logos

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A little Grizzly Bear mixed with a little Deerhunter
Deerhunter + Grizzly Bear = Logos; oh and Marfan Syndrome (Above, Center)

Band: Atlas Sound
Label: 4AD
Release: October 20, 2009

1. “The Light That Failed” – 9.6
2. “An Orchid” – 9.4
3. “Walkabout” – 9.9
4. “Criminals” – 9.6
5. “Attic Lights” – 8.7
6. “Shelia” – 9.1
7. “Quick Canal” – 9.0
8. “My Halo” – 8.7
9. “Kid Klimax” – 9.2
10. “Washington School” – 8.8
11. “Logo” – 9.0

Grade: 9.2

Art, Entertainment, Lists, Music

Tops of the Decade Part II

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This time I am covering my favorite albums of the 00s, but I am including all of my favorites from the artist. Yay!

Against Me!- The Acousic EP (2001), Reinventing Axl Rose (2002), As the Eternal Cowboy (2003)

The Almighty Defeneders- The Almighty Defenders (2009)

Animal Collective- Here Comes the Indian (2003), Feels (2005), Strawberry Jam (2007), Merriweather Post Pavillion (2009)

Arcade Fire- Neon Bible (2007)

Arctic Monkeys- Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (2006)

At the Drive-In- This Station Is Non-Operational (2005)

Black Lips- Black Lips (2003), We Did Not Know the Forest Spirits Made the Flowers Grow (2004), Let It Bloom (2005), Los Valientes Del Mondo Nuevo (2007), Good, Bad, Not Evil (2007), 200 Million Thousand (2009)

Bright Eyes- I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning (2005)

Deerhunter- Rainwater Cassette Exchange (2009)

Deftones- White Pony (2000)

The Editors- The Back Room (2005)

Fugazi- The Argument (2001)

GlassJaw- Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence (2000), Worship and Tribute (2002)

Head Automatica- Decadence (2004)

Jay Reatard- Blood Visions (2006), Matador Singles ’08 (2008)

King Khan & BBQ Show- What’s For Dinner? (2006)

King Khan & The Shrines- The Supreme Genius of King Khan & The Shrines (2008)

The Mabuses- Mabused (2007)

MewithoutYou- Brother, Sister (2006)

The Nightwatchman- One Man Revolution (2007)

No Age- Weirdo Rippers (2007), Nouns (2008), Losing Feeling (2009)

Page France- Hello, Dear Wind (2005)

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart- The Pains of Being Pure At Heart (2009)

Sonic Youth- The Eternal (2009)

System Of A Down- Toxicity (2001), Mezmorize/Hypnotize (2005)

Tool- Lateralus (2001), 10,000 Days (2006)

The Used- The Used (2002)

More albums may be added….

Chris

Art, Entertainment, Lists, Music

Tops of the Decade Part I

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Yes, I know there is still three months left of the decade, but I do not feel like waiting said time to do this post. So, basically here are my favorite songs for each year of the 00s. I cannot believe the decade is coming to an end! It was ok…. but musically fantastic. Enjoy.

1) Fatlip- What’s Up Fatlip?- 2000
2) The Shins- New Slang- 2001
3) Against Me!- Baby, I’m An Anarchist!- 2002
4) Johnny Cash- Hurt- 2003
5) Head Automatica- Beating Heart Baby- 2004
6) Page France- Chariot- 2005
7) King Khan & BBQ Show- Too Much In Love- 2006
8) Black Lips- Bad Kids- 2007
9) Jay Reatard- See/Saw- 2008
10) Deerhunter- Disappearing Ink- 2009

Clearly independent record labels dominate. 7/10 songs were on independent labels. Fuck Yeah! Top Albums are coming next….

Chris

Music

CD Review: The Sound, The Speed, The Light

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Noise rock at a high level!
Noise rock at a high level!

Band: Mission of Burma
Label: Matador Records
Release: October 6, 2009

1. “1, 2, 3 Partyy!” – 9.4
2. “Possession” – 8.9
3. “Blunder” – 8.7
4. “Forget Yourself” – 8.8
5. “After the Rain” – 8.2
6. “SSL 83” – 8.4
7. “One Day We Will Live There” – 8.8
8. “So Fuck It” – 9.5
9. “Feed” – 9.0
10. “Good Cheer” – 9.2
11. “Comes Undone” – 9.4
12. “Slow Faucet” – 9.3

Comments: There isn’t much to say about this album. It’s a lot of what Mission of Burma fans love above Mission of Burma. If you don’t love Mission of Burma, you are going to probably write this album off as meh-verage old guy punk rock. There is some really really catchy, drill Sargent drumming and blistering noisy guitar especially in the last five songs.

Grade: 9.0

Music, News

Thom Yorke Forms Band

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Dead Air Space:

hi
in the past couple of weeks i’ve been getting a band together for fun to play the eraser stuff live and the new songs etc.. to see if it could work!
here’s a photo.. its me, joey waronker, mauro refosco, flea and nigel godrich.

at the beginning of october the 4th and 5th we are going to do a couple of shows at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles.
we don’t really have a name and the set will not be very long cuz ..well …we haven’t got that much material yet!
but come and check it out if you are in the area. we’ve also got locals Lucky Dragons playing.
all the best

Cool.

Music, News, sports

Swilley vs. Williams

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LA Weekly
The two don’t like each other, apparently so much that when both bands played last month’s FYF Fest in LA, intermediaries feared that fisticuffs might erupt at any moment. The two never crossed paths in LA, though. That changed Saturday night, when both were at Daddy’s Bar in Brooklyn. Someone apparently served someone else a knuckle sandwich.

Williams of Wavves, in a MySpace post, describes Swilley as “just looking for a fight at 4 in the morning talking shit to my face and his girlfriend is spitting in the face of all my friends.” Swilley begs to differ, and says a cowardly Williams relied not on his fists but his posse’s: “I’ve never ‘come after’ that kid, it wasn’t four a.m., that wasn’t my girlfriend, no one was spitting, and I didn’t attack him. .. The only thing I did was walk up to him and say ‘You’re that faggot from Wavves and I don’t like you.’ He smiled a bit but didn’t say anything.”

Later in the night Swilley stumbled into Wavves turf, where he “saw their tour manager hanging around with some guys. They started getting all chuckles with me and so I told them I wasn’t gonna have it. After that, Wavves tour manager hit me square in the face with a bottle. Blood started pouring out and six dudes fucking started kicking me until I blacked out.”

How about no violence! Both seem like cool dudes. But wait:

“We’re gonna set up a boxing match between the two kids. We’re getting sponsors now. Jared from The Black Lips told us he’s 100% down to do it and we’re waiting to hear back from Nathan but from what I’ve heard he’s down too. The event itself is gonna be held in Los Angeles, in an actual boxing ring, will be filmed and the winner will not only win a “Buddyhead Title Belt” but he’ll win a large cash prize.”

Keller describes the bill thusly: “Two skinny white dorks with boxing gloves on trying to punch each other.” He also wants them to do a split single on Buddyhead Records: “Diss tracks!”

Swilley has maybe a foot advantage on Williams, who is truly incredibly tiny…Then Swilley just had to be a complete immature asshole:

He’s coming to Atlanta October 3rd and we’re gonna get ugly on him. We’re gonna destroy their van, we’re gonna destroy their faces, we’re gonna get crazy on em’. Nasty style.”