Tag Archives: mark sultan

Entertainment, Food, humor, Music

Mark Sultan To Music Reviewers:

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“I DONT GIVE A FUCK”

“People are always going to rag on me and my music, but I believe in it and don’t give a f—,” he says. “Take my [recent] Pitchfork review for example, aside from an incredible lack of research and knowledge, it’s all a big joke. Had I made an album full of shorter tracks, the same reviewer would have asked for something else.”

Sultan might be unfazed by criticism, but he wishes music journalists weren’t so eager to tack the garage rock tag onto his latest batch of songs.

“I still love rock ‘n’ roll and garage and all of that, for sure, but I think this is easily something else,” he says. “People are lazy; I hardly think they actually listen [to my music]. The average knowledge of one of these f–king music dudes is like 1981 and up.”

God bless Mark for being the man.
——————–

Side note: Sultan is a big hit at college radio. $ got an impressive #3 spot on the Chart Attack top 50 last week.

Music, Random, rant

Ripping Deusner

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Regarding Stephen Deusner’s review of Mark Sultan’s $:

Nice scarf, btw.

“He’s been fashioning harsh psych, rangey country, dreamy doo-wop, 50s juvie punk, and anarchic noise into strange, catchy, jubilant, occasionally jokey pop songs.“—> Good job of throwing in adjectives before every genre. Make no mistake about that. Your description really provides us an adequate look at Mark Sultan’s discography. Not.

“Sultan also resumed his role as BBQ Show for another album (and a coloring book!) with friend and longtime cohort King Khan.” –> You had me, Stephen. You really did. From your meaty words to start, I thought you may have actually listened to Sultan before. But “BBQ Show”? You can’t make a rookie mistake like that. Not at this stage in your professional career.

“Whatever banner he’s flying, however, the sound remains the same, and his latest effort– which isn’t titled so much as branded with a dollar sign– snaps and crackles with a familiar, flailing energy, as if any of these songs might fall apart at any moment.” –> The sound remains the same? This offering from Sultan is more musically diverse than most of what he’s put out in the past. You want the songs to fall apart. You are rooting against Sultan to start with. You want them to fall apart so you can listen to more Broken Social Scene.

“Ten of Hearts” may be one of his best doo-wop retreads, cutting through a lot of the revivalism to express something sincere and bittersweet, but there’s no reason for it to be five minutes long.” –> Why is there no reason for it to five minutes long? You make no attempt to explain why. And it’s not until the end of your review that you actually mention songs off of this record. Thanks for pointing out only what’s wrong with the album.

CD Review, Entertainment, Music

CD Review: $ (2010)

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Band: Mark Sultan
Release: 4/2010
Label: Last Gang Records

1. “Icicles” – B
2. “Don’t Look Back” – B+
3. “Ten of Hearts” – B+
4. “Status” – B
5. “I Get Nothing From My Girl” – B+
6. “Go Berserk” – A
7. “I Am the End” – A-
8. “Misery’s Upon Us” – A
9. “I’ll Be Lovin’ You” – A-
10. “Waiting For Me” – A+
11. “Just to Hold You” – A-
12. “Catastrophe” – A-
13. “Nobody But You” – A

Comments: This is Sultan’s follow-up to his (wonderful) tastefully distorted 2007 garage pop album Sultantic Verses. “Icicles” begins with four minutes of distortion before Sultan’s fuzzy vocals enter, making the song sound more psychedelic and experimental than we are used to. “Don’t Look Back” is heavy on the drums and jangly on the guitar. It sounds like it’s primed for a Western. To give some mnstrmrs a sense of direction, it sounds a little like “Brian Eno” by MGMT. “Ten of Hearts” is the album’s first endeavor into the world of classic oldies. The production on this track is excellent packed with vintage recording techniques and structures like doo-wop harmonies, a light bass, and horns. “Status” was the first track that we got a sneak of back a couple of months ago. My initial thoughts was that it was chaotic and maybe too much so. The ending is a tad unnecessary in one man’s opinion. “I Get Nothing” is another golden gem with strong lyrics, but a rather done before musical tonality. “Go Berserk” is the funnest gem of the first six! Great guitar prowess! Sultan shows off his vocal range on “I Am the End” in a near superciliously fascinating way. Say what? Basically, Mark Sultan is one of the only men in rock and roll that can sing. Sing sing. “Misery’s Upon Us” is up there as well. This version of “I’ll Be Lovin’ You” is a bit more chaotic than the King Khan and BBQ Show version. It’s slightly sped up, for better or for worse. More guitars, more drums, more distortion and plus it features a slow break followed by a doo-wop arrangement to top things off. “Waiting For Me” is another one of my favorites off of this LP. “Catastrophe” is cool. Not the best, but cool. “Nobody But You” is a neat closer. It’s got some very cool effects on both vocals and guitar. Overall, I really like this album. At first, I wasn’t entirely convinced, but I know its got a handful of really listenable gems.

Grade: A- (90)

Art, CD Review, Entertainment, Femmes, Music, pictures, reviews, Video

Classic Album Review: Misbehavin

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Artist: Spaceshits
Full Title: Misbehavin’
Year: 1998
Label: Sympathy For the Record Industry
Grade: A/A-
Tracks:

1) Can’t Fool With Me– 9
2) We Know Where the Girls Are– 9
3) C’mon Let’s Suicide- 8
4) Won’t Bring You Back- 8
5) I’m In Love– 9
6) Jungle Beauty- 8
7) Turn Off the Radio– 9
8) Piss On Your Grave– 9
9) She’s A Bad Luck Charm- 8
10) 60 Nights Of Boredom- 8
11) Creepy Says- 8
12) Kill Me- 8
13) Tell Me Your Name– 10 Saved the Best for Last!

Comments: Before the Shrines, before the King Khan & BBQ Show, hell before the names King Khan and BBQ meant anything to the music world, there was the notorious Spaceshits! I know some of y’all are familiar with their name because they were “crazy” and constantly blacklisted, which is true, but unlike most performers that rely on childish antics like food fights, the shits had the music to back it up, they had their shit together! Misbehavin’ opens with “Can’t Fool With Me,” a fast, catchy, Rock and Roll number, pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the record. Mark “Creepy” Sultan lol primarily takes care of the vocal duties and he demonstrates some of his best screaming, shouting, and straight up singing on this album. The soulful, delicate, “Into the Snow” like vocals are nowhere to be seen. The fun continues with the second track, “We Know Where the Girls Are,” a tune that must have got the Canadian, garage rock, femme enthusiasts racing to the dancefloor! Most of the songs are about the hunnies and rockin and dancing and what not, you know the good stuff, Chuck Berry style, but ocassionally you witness some fucked up, but hilarious themes relating to death, as seen in “C’mon Let’s Suicide,” “Kill Me,” and “Piss On Your Grave,” which has now become my new favorite insult. The LP closes on it’s highest note with “Tell Me Your Name,” a track not as fast or as loud as the previous rockers, but still heavy and tremendously danceable. All in all, this is one of the best Rock records you can find, it’s everything great Rock and Roll should offer. Essentially, we have sped up versions of 50s-60s Rock and Roll, definitely not the most original artistic expression out there, but certainly the funnest!

Chris

Entertainment, Music, News

Mark Sultan – “Status”

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First, there is a shit load of new information posted on Mark Sultan’s home page about all of his different projects. News, tour dates, a short video clip, and a bunch of other relevantly awesome text is located here: http://marksultan.com/news.html

Make sure to read that over because the man has so much going on for him this year.

Here is a track review of a song off Sultan’s new album $, which will be released on April 13th on Last Gang Records, a pretty large Canadian focused label that’s released stuff from the likes of Metric and Death From Above 1979.

When you listen to “Status” you might be apt to confuse it for a King Khan and BBQ Show song (Invisible Girl era to be more precise) just because it’s “bigger” sounding than most of what Mark has put out solo in the past. I don’t mean to sound like I know what’s up, but Mark said that it’s more “band-like” and that’s obvious. I do enjoy the guitar riff, but at some points the song is experimental overload (guns, horns, random pounding on drums, etc), which is humorous and fitting and a little rough on the headphones.

Grade: B