Sadly, the mewithoutYou show scheduled for Wenesday night at the Middle East has been cancelled due to a family emergency :(. I hope all is well for whomever’s family.
New Deerhunter — “Revival”
Check it out: http://famoussoundingwords.com/post/846257838/deerhunter
Box Elders – “Stay”
Featuring Ian St. Pe the Stage Diver!
KLYAM CONCERT PHOTOS
New thingy-magiggy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/52386315@N02/
Photos by Paul.
BIRDS SHIT ON KINGS OF LEON
ITS TRUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Quote of the Day
Bob Log III
“Ladies and gentlemen’s… We’ve all got boobs people, look between your, your, non-boobs… what you’re going to find is a nipple! No matter if you’re a man or woman, OR an angry woman.”
Song of the Day – “Rock N Roll Girl”
What a great tune!
CD Review: The Suburbs [2010]
Band: Arcade Fire
Release: 8/2010
Label: Merge
1. “The Suburbs” – (A) – This tune is really likable. It does suffer from length issues, but this is Arcade Fire we’re talking about.
2. “Ready to Start” – (B) – The instrumentation is really great, but the vocals weaken it for a while. It does get a little bit better, but the whole Interpol/Peter Bjorn and John dark thing makes this random.
3. “Modern Man” – (A) – This has an old feel to it. It’s really good! The bass is awesome!
4. “Rococo” – (B+) – This doesn’t stand out, but is humorously okay.
5. “Empty Room” – (B-) – Sounds like Sonic Youth meets ABBA.
6. “City With No Children” – (B+) – Private prisons aren’t cool.
7. “Half Light I” – (B+) – Sort of epic.
8. “Half Light II” – (A) – A bit more than sort of epic. Reminds me of Girls.
9. “Suburban War” – (B+)
10. “Month of May” – (A) – I like the drumming.
11. “Wasted Hours” – (B+) – Kind of slow, kind of so-so. Interesting, though.
12. “Deep Blue” – (B)
13. “We Used to Wait” – (B-) – A bit like Spoon.
14. “Sprawl (Flatland)” – (C+) – Probably the worst thing on here.
15. “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” – (B+) – A strange dancey number.
16. “The Suburbs (Continued)” – (B) – Okay, we get it.
Final Comments: This will probably end up being one of the more disappointing records of the year for me. It’s pretty forgettable save a few numbers. A good five or six songs could have been cut out, but I must say the band’s foray into a bunch of different styles is refreshing as a listener. If they cut it short after “Month of May,” I’m not so sure the album would be any better, but it’d save us from a few less than stellar tunes.
Grade: B+ (87)
Concert Review: Kurt Vile, Real Estate, Sore Eros @ Harper’s Ferry (7/23/10)
Technically Difficult
Bands: Kurt Vile/Real Estate/Sore Eros
Date: Friday, July 23, 2010
Act One – Sore Eros – Chris likened them to Deerhunter. They fall in that sort of experimental ambient rock category that Vile and, to a more considerable degree, Here We Go Magic, fall into. The lead singer and guitarist was really using effects to his advantage to derange his vocals and guitar. I think he also made use of looping, but it was tough to tell. His vocals were brief and incomprehensible. The noises that did come out of the amps were relaxed. There were moments of rocking out — and these were my favorite moments — but for the most part Sore Eros’ set was bigger-than-thou stand and stare kind of fare.
Act Two – Real Estate – These guys were pretty much what I expected. I was pleasantly surprised by the lead guitar parts (my favorite) as they were loud and precise. Sure, there was a moment of technical difficulty at the end of their set, but the songs that preceded this disturbance were entertaining. There were a few people dancing and that was understandable with this form of surf rock. I can understand the “they were boring” arguments, but as a fan of Real Estate’s “hit” songs –“Beach Comber,” “Fake Blues,” “Atlantic City,” and “Basement” — I can tell you I had a great experience during those.
Act Three – Kurt Vile – Kurt was a disappointment. My expectations totally differed from what actually happened. I expected a mostly acoustic slow set with a few electric guitar ditties thrown in the mix. What actually happened was an array of hard rocking vocally incomprehensible so-so tunes. I couldn’t hear the man except on maybe one or two songs. The lead guitarist was playing what seemed to be the same reverb drenched notes over and over on every single song. There were individual components of individual songs that were decent, but for the most part it was a disappointing noise jam. Get rid of the Violators and just have Kurt up there or something.
Grade: C+
Classic Album Review: Beat Happening
Artist: Beat Happening
Full Title: Beat Happening
Year: 1985
Label: K
Track List
1) Our Secret– 8/9
2) What’s Important– 9
3) Down At the Sea– 9
4) I Love You- 8
5) Fourteen- 8
6) Run Down the Stairs– 9
7) Bad Seeds (Live)- 5
8) In My Memory-8/9
9) Honey Pot- 8
10) The Fall- 7/8
11) Youth- 8
12) Don’t Mix the Colors- 8
13) Foggy Eyes- 8
14) Bad Seeds– 9
15) I Let Him Get to Me- 8
16) I Spy– 9
17) Run Down the Stairs– 9
18) Christmas- 7/8
19) Fourteen- 8
20) Let’s Kiss– 9
21) 1, 2, 3- 7
22) In Love With You Thing- 7/8
23) Look Around- 8
24) Untitled- Ungraded
Comments: This is the unflinching, incredible debut from the seminal “twee pop” group Beat Happening. You can call it twee, lo-fi, noise, etc. but ultimately it is Punk Rock- at its finest. In this record, BH, known for their amateur quality/attitude, are at their most primitive; the production is about as lo-fi as it gets before it becomes simply rubbish. On this LP, most songs are astonishingly decent pop tunes, with passion taking the front seat over musicianship. One can hear a lot of 60s surf rock influence as well as the outsider feel of The Shaggs and Half Japanese. Lyrically, most numbers are innocent in nature- “Down at the Sea,” ” Run Down the Stairs,” etc. There are also more than a fair share of love ballads- “Our Secret,” “I Love You,” “Honey Pot,” and the classic “Let’s Kiss.” Admittedly, not every track is good and some do suffer from the lack of “quality” recording and perhaps would have sounded better with a finer studio. My two favorite tracks are definitely “Bad Seeds” ( the guitar riff reminds me of the music in the James Bond Films; a very bad ass song!) and “I Spy.” All in all, this is a pretty nice debut from Beat Happening and it certainly is amongst the annals of “YOU CAN DO IT TOO!” records.
Grade: B+
“Bad Seeds” with clips from Over the Edge (1979)
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 