Band: Hunx and His Punx Label: True Panther Sounds Release: 2009
1. “You Don’t Like Rock ‘N Roll” – 9.5 2. “Gimmie Gimmie Back Your Love” – 8.6 3. “Hey Rocky” – 9.3
4. “Movin’ On” – 8.6 5. “Cruising” – 9.6
6. “Good Kisser” – 9.2 7. “Don’t Cha Want Me Back” – 8.3 8. “The Last Time” – 8.5 9. “Teardrops On My Telephone” – 9.0 10. “I Won’t Get Under You” – 8.6 11. “You Better Tell That Girl” – 9.0 12. “Do the Make Up” – 8.9
Comments: As Chris said in a concert review from October 3, “If you think you have seen homocore or queercore, then look again. Hunx and His Punx is just about as gay as it gets and unabashedly so.” If you ignore the hilariously creepy/flamboyant lyrics, these are pretty damn awesome glam pop-punk songs. You know, basic chord structures playing underneath an effeminate voice. Let’s not ignore lyrics for one second. Take “Hey Rocky,” which is about a gay one night stand with said man. Lyrics alone could be offensive to many, but a plethora of popular hip-hop/pop songs today are just as disgusting/immoral as this. You can’t make the claim that these songs aren’t catchy. Musically, they are as fun as can be. “I’ve got so many fellas, I make all the ladies jealous. Just hope they’re playing on my team,” hollers Hunx on “Cruisin’.” A typical immediate reaction might be: “Oh my…gay!” And that was my reaction. Try watching 10 seconds of the music video. But..but…”Cruisin'” is easily one of the rhythmically catchiest songs on here.
Band: Julian Casablancas (The Strokes) Label: Rough Trade Release: November 3, 2009
1. “Out of the Blue” – 9.6 2. “Left & Right In The Dark” – 9.1 3. “11th Dimension” – 9.9 4. “4 Chords of the Apocalypse” – 8.8 5. “Ludlow St.” – 8.9 6. “River of Breaklights” – 9.2 7. “Glass” – 9.3 8. “Tourist” – 9.5
Comments: If I had my ways, I would wish every song on here would be as great as “11th Dimension.” That’s not the case, but what we have here is a very noteworthy effort from Casablancas. He loves his synths and drum beats and he sure loves changing things up from track to track. As for the Strokes comparisons…you’ll (obviously) hear it in his voice, but the instrumentation is very different for the most part. Overall, this should land in top 20 lists for ’09, but I’d be fooled to see it appear as one of the very best.
Band: Weezer Label: Geffen Records Release: November 3, 2009
1. “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To” – 8.9 2. “I’m Your Daddy” – 8.0 3. “Run Over By A Truck” – 7.8 4. “The Girl Got Hot” – 7.5 5. “The Prettiest Girl In The Whole Wide World” – 7.9 6. “Can’t Stop Partying” – 4.4 7. “The Underdogs” – 5.5 8. “Put Me Back Together” – 6.4 9. “Tripping Down The Freeway” – 7.3 10. “Love Is The Answer” – 7.7 11. “Let It All Hang Out” – 6.5 12. “In The Mall” – 6.1 13. “I Don’t Want To Let You Go” – 5.8 14. “Turn Me Around” – 6.2
Background: Weezah! Okay I’ve spent maybe 30 minutes total in my lifetime listening to these guys. I think”Undone” is pretty sweet as well as “Say It Ain’t So” and maybe their cover of “Velouria” too. I do remember listening to their 2008 release a little bit. Pretty average from what I remember.
The Real Deal: Not going to joke around here, I was hoping this album would be worse than Bonnie “Prince Billy’s Beware. That was effectively the worst album I’ve heard all year. This album starts off pretty great, I’m not going to lie. “I Want You To” is a nice upbeat pop number. But then… “I Can’t Stop Partying” is just dumb. It’s like “I Gotta Feeling” except even more pathetic. Besides maybe three songs maximum (that sound similar to something out of the Louis XIV catalog), I get a sense that Weezer is just dabbling in a plethora of rock genres. It seems like they recorded a bunch of intrinsically different songs and simply slapped them on here. So yeah, this is the worst album that I’ve reviewed all year. Got anything worse?
Comments: Like the name of the band, this music is “washed out.” A lot of the album is coated in some kind of slick material that sort of drowns all instrumentation…at least to a certain extent. What results is sample heavy synth-pop. On many occasions, I like what I’m hearing. There are some extrema like “Olivia” that is entirely new wave-y, which is okay because it sounds pretty good, but doesn’t have much lasting appeal. If Washed Out expected “It’s Kate’s Birthday” to be a song embraced by girls named Kate near and far, they effectively failed! Your best bet for liking anything this band has done on this album is the first four songs.
Comments: The only thing I know about Fuck Buttons is their song “Sweet Love For Planet Earth” consistently scares me. It’s strangely amazing and epic, because of a roaring synth that’s echoed to 20 on a scale of 1-10. If you can actually bare to listen to a song of the 9 minute, 41 second variety, I congratulate you, my friend. Because that roaring synth turns into a variety of synths and stuff before screaming voices come in. I’d call it noise rock, but this shit’s child’s play compared to the likes of Lightning Bolt, etc. “Sweet Love…” is the kind of song that you might listen to on occasion just to get an ear on the roaring echo-synth. Other than that, it doesn’t really do much. Enough rambling about a song that came out in ’08. This album takes up almost a 1/10 a gig and is nearly an hour long. I’m going to admit that I made some judgments without listening to the whole of all songs. Sorry. I bet the likes of Pitch-dork did too. K so this album is pretty good. Lots of good sound effects. If that’s what you like in music, then this shit is totally awesome. For me, I find it kind of exciting, yet anti-climatic just because of the length. I only see slight value in listening to this music on (A) long plane flights (B) long car rides (C) raves. That’s all. Hell, I’m pretty damn sure Fuck Buttons even sampled “My Girls” by Animal Collective on “Space Mountain.” Maybe. They even knocked off “Brother Sport” by naming this thang “Tarot Sport.”
Band: The Horrors Label: XL Recordings Release: April 21, 2009
1. “Mirror’s Image” – 9.5
2. “Three Decades” – 9.3 3. “Who Can Say” – 9.6 4. “Do You Remember” – 9.5
5. “New Ice Age” – 9.5 6. “Scarlet Fields” – 9.6 7. “I Only Think Of You” – 8.7 8. “I Can’t Control Myself” – 8.3 9. “Primary Colours” – 9.0
10. “Sea Within A Sea” – 8.7
Comments: This is just one of those albums that’s been sitting in the queue since approx. July waiting to be reviewed. In fact, this is a first-time listening review. Present on this album are very enticing elements of ’80s post-punk. For instance, I thought right away on Mirror’s Image “damnit, this could be a boring one,” but it turned out awesome. There’s no fucking around on Three Decades with the creepy factor turned way up. It’s strangely engaging as well. Who Can Say has a poppy synth that plays at certain points beneath layers of guitar effects. I have to give it up to this band for being at least partially deceiving. Their formula for success is basically combining really dark elements of shoe-gaze with retro upbeat post-punk. A lot of bands have tried out this formula, but The Horrors really seem to possess a “catchy-bility” element like none other; i.e the reverb/delay effect on Do You Remember and the heavy-metal yet noise-pop New Ice Age. Scarlet Fields maintains a scary effect, but has a Pixies-esque bass line that reconciles dark with light. I Only Think Of You had me mistaking Faris Badwan for Calvin Johnson. The title track has a soothing flow to it. The final track has an ambient dance vibe to it that sort of works. Overall, I like this piece of work.
Band: Daniel Johnston Label: Eternal Yip Eye Release: October 2009
1. “Mind Movies” – 9.4 2. “Fake Records of Rock and Roll” – 8.2 3. “Queenie The Doggie” – 9.3 4. “High Horse” – 9.4
5. “Without You” – 8.9 6. “I Had Lost My Mind” – 9.2 7. “Freedom” – 8.9 8. “Tears” – 9.3 9. “Is And Always Was” – 9.4 10. “Lost In My Infinite Memory” – 8.9 11. “Light of Day” – 8.9
Comments: Daniel Johnston’s “outsider” shtick ended sometime ago, but his awkwardness in music still lives on. He’s just a funny guy at the heart of it all. Very simplistic and catchy tunes show a happy Daniel…a “Love Wheel” Daniel, but not as obnoxious. No more “True Love Will Find You In The End” or “Devil Town” downers. He even tries out a Dinosaur Jr./Built to Spill kind of thing with “I Had Lost My Mind.” I’m not falling over because of this album, but I’m glad to see Danny still kicking it around at the age of 48.
Band: Times New Viking Release: September 22, 2009 Label: Matador
1. “Martin Luther King Day” – 9.0
2. “I Smell Bubblegum” – 8.7
3. “City On Drugs” – 9.2
4. “Born Again Revisited” – 8.5
5. “Little World” – 8.8
6. “No Time No Hope” – 9.4
7. “Half Day In Hell” – 9.1
8. “Something Moore” – 9.3
9. “2/11 Don’t Forget” – 9.3
10. “These Days” – 9.2
11. “(No) Sympathy” – 8.9
12. “High Holidays” – 8.4
13. “Hustlers, Psycho, Son” – 8.7
14. “Move To California” – 9.2
15. “Take The Piss” – 8.3
Comments: Beneath the static there is some level of goodness on here. Unfortunately, the better part of this album suffers from “not as good as Wavves” syndrome. The better tracks are the cleaner tracks…you know, the ones that aren’t layered in fuzz up to the neck. A good balance of 40% lo-fi noise and 60% breathable pop (like No Age) would be nice rather than the 75%-25% madness going on here.
Comments: With the Vivian Girls and Mika Miko, I felt a certain kind of like punk grrl vibe, but Jemina sounds like a girly girl just happening to sing punk. She’s really good at sounding clear, making me hesitant to call this natural garagey punk, which tends to be “dirty.” Overall, this sounds like cleaner garage a la Hunx, except with a pure female voice. It’s catchy, but I wouldn’t listen to it on a regular basis, other than maybe one or two songs.
Band: Cotton Jones (Formerly of Page France) Release: 2009 Label: Suicide Squeeze
1. “Up A Tree (Went This Heart I Have)” – 9.6 2. “Gotta Cheer Up” – 9.7 3. “Some Strange Rain” – 9.5 4. “Gone The Bells” – 9.6 5. “Photo Summerlude” – 9.3 6. “By Morning Light” – 9.2 7. “Cotton & Velvet” – 8.9 8. “Little Ashtray in the Sun” – 8.7 9. “Blood Red Sentimental Blues” – 8.7 10. “I Am The Changer” – 9.3
Comments: What we all loved as Page France died as Page France in 2008. Michael Nau and Whitney McGraw, the two main pieces of the PF puzzle, decided to do a thang by themselves called Cotton Jones. Cotton Jones is a bit jazzier/bluesier and less deep lyrically than Page France. I get this sort of Doors vibe with tracks on here being predominately vocal-centric and mellow. As a really big Page France devotee back in my day, I don’t sense a lot of lasting appeal to these songs like I did with Hello, Dear Wind (2005), for example. So why I have given them such high ratings? They have a good amount of now appeal. Beautifully written, beautifully sung. Versatile, too. Jazz, blues, folk, country, rock…Michael and Whitney can do ’em all no problem. Admittedly, things get a bit boring (“done before”) toward the end.
Band: Daniel Johnston
Band: Cotton Jones (Formerly of Page France)
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 