1. “Pray For Rain” – B 2. “Babel” – C- 3. “Splitting the Atom” – D+ 4. “Girl I Love You” – D+ 5. “Psyche” – C 6. “Flat Of The Blade” – D 7. “Paradise Circus” – B+ 8. “Rush Minute” – C- 9. “Saturday Come Slow” – D+ 10. “Atlas Air” – B–
Comments: Trip hop you tell me? Since there seems to be a genre for everything, I’ll run with it. “Pray For Rain” is a R&B house jam (similar to Gnarls Barkley) that slowly improves throughout its duration. “Babel” doesn’t do anything for me mainly because it relies on too much chaos. It wouldn’t be that bad if it was slowed down. “Girl I Love You” what? What is this? “Psyche” is average, but it’s not something that’s worth listening to again. “Flat” picks up at certain points, but is relatively boring and unoriginal. I really do enjoy the female vocalist in “Paradise Circus.” Best song on this album! The man singer is mad boring except on “Atlas Air.”
Nonpartisan budget and security monitors report in Government Executive that the “administration’s request for $538 billion for the Defense Department in fiscal 2010 and its stated intention to maintain a high level of funding in the coming years put the president on track to spend more on defense, in real dollars, than any other president has in one term of office since World War II. And that’s not counting the additional $130 billion the administration is requesting to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan next year, with even more war spending slated for future years.”
– Noam Chomsky on Barack Obama, “War, Peace, and Obama’s Nobel”
Band: State Champion Release: 2010 Label: Sophomore Lounge
1. “Thanks Given” – B+ 2. “Keeping Time” – A- 3. “Bite the Dust” – B+ 4. “Come See What I Have Done” – B+ 5. “Help Me Sing” – A- 6. “The World Don’t Need Me Around Much Anymore” – B+
7. “Just An Answer” – A-
8. “The Years” – A
Comments: Sounding like Dinosaur Jr. if Dinosaur Jr. got hit in the face by a steel plow and was toned down greatly. This is country punk, with more country than punk. I won’t say I like country, but I don’t mind it (and sometimes thoroughly enjoy it) if it is combined with other styles. I really like the live feel to this record. You can hear crackling and other noises you get during lo-fi production. For a young band that’s gotten hardly any recognition (besides being signed to a very low-brow independent label), I have to give them so much respect. Their build-ups are cool, no doubt, but my favorite parts of this album are the short winding downs in between the explosions. Great use of violin in “Just An Answer.” The album closer is probably my favorite track. It’s pretty much fast paced through-and-through with occasional “breaks.”
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.
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 