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November 30, 2004
Lupine Mummers
Wolf Parade - Grounds for Divorce
This track is very similar in structure to the one I wrote about before, but it's got more of an intimate feel to it- the narrator knows so much about the person he's talking about (how she hates the way the buses 'scrape their brakes all over town'), which should be expected, since they were (presumably) married. Spencer Krug (keyboards/vocalist) narrates this in such a way that it seems like he's tenderly reminding his ex-wife of the reasons why they got divorced in the first place. And the arrangements on this song are pretty spectacular- the way everything builds to an impossibly layered crescendo at the end is probably one of the best things about Wolf Parade. The guitar, synth, and laptop (bleeps and noise) come crashing against your ears in wave after wave of gorgeously sour melody, separated and propelled by the cymbals and heavy bass drum kicks.
I realized the other day that Spencer's voice has a lot of the dark, dramatic flair that Stewart Lupton sang with when he was in Jonathan Fire*Eater. Hopefully though Wolf Parade will be a bit luckier than JF*E when they release their debut LP on Sub Pop some time this winter/spring. Apparently the band wrapped up recording in Portland around the middle of October- it's not really clear if the full-length will contain re-recorded versions of the two self-released EPs' songs (of which Grounds for Divorce is one), or if it'll be all-new material, but the album is bound to be one of the more compelling of 2005.
Cheap Thrills is out of those EPs right now, but keep checking- they should re-stock soon.
Posted by matt at 08:00 AM
November 22, 2004
Never should have given up animation rights
No new songs this week because this is a time for giving thanks, not for listening to whimsical music! Huh-ho. No, seriously, it's because I'm insanely busy preparing for the holiday extravaganza. Plus refinishing the 5' by 8' cell that I call my bedroom. However, I do have to say that I'm pleased by the Eagles' performance yesterday against the Redskins, they beat up on D.C.'s team nice and proper like. And, thankfully, the Giants lost to the Falcons. Why is this important? Because Eli Manning is an irredeemable brat, and has the unblinking smugness of a basking lizard. Simple as that.
Anyway, stay tuned for the week after T-giving, when I'll be ramping up with some good stuff from the early 80's, and details about the forthcoming and very exciting 'Steely Dan Week'. Hopefully those three words didn't just alienate half my readers. Have a good holiday, people.
Posted by matt at 08:08 AM
November 19, 2004
Danceteria, pt. 2
Tussle - Here it Comes
Some of you might remember the first post about Tussle, way back in the beginning of September, when this pink little mp3blog son of a buck still had its milk teeth. Back then, I rambled on incoherently about a polar bear, named Gary, perhaps? Good stuff. I can't believe how young I was, back then.
On this song, Tussle is cooking with gas. 'Here it Comes' is off their debut LP, Kling Klang, on the excellent Troubleman Unlimited label, and it's 4 on the floor, bass melody-rich, stomping up and down music. To wit: if this song were to be used in a movie, it would do well as the theme music for Matthew McConaughey's character in 'Dazed and Confused', specifically in the (purely speculative) epilogue, 10 years down the road, when Matthew wakes up from a night of doing lines off of rusty car mufflers/underage girls/uncracked self-empowerment books to find that whatever high school minx he took to bed the night before has made off with his: car, pants, dog, can of glossy white latex paint, and vinyl copy of Rush's '2112'. In an ideal world, 'Here it Comes' would accompany Matthew's frantic and sniveling realization that he has been taken for a ride by the prettiest 14 year-old Friendly's waitress in town. I'm not saying you can't enjoy the song without imagining this scenario, but it certainly doesn't dampen the experience.
You can buy 'Kling Klang' right HERE.
Posted by matt at 08:00 AM
November 18, 2004
Hit Pause
Jonathan Fire*Eater - When the Curtain Calls for You
Jonathan Fire*Eater, for those of you who might not know, is the big daddy band of the Walkmen. Formed in D.C., in the mid-90's, Fire*Eater was composed of now-Walkmen Paul Maroon (guitar), Walter Martin (organ), Matt Barrick (drums), and non-Walkmen Tom Frank (bass), and Stewart Lupton (vocals). They had a good sound, as you can tell by this track: it's gloomy, martial, and twisted. Lupton's voice and Martin's Farfisa Fast Five totally make this song what it is, and the lyrics are some of Lupton's best: 'like a sugar cake/lookin' so good on a china plate/it makes the world turn sweeter now'. His lyrics were always a lot more focused on imagery than on, you know, linear content, and it's a quality that gives Fire*Eater's songs a sense of theatricality, v. much opposed to the Walkmen's lean, driving sound.
Fire*Eater burned out, due to pressures both external (they were on DreamWorks for their debut LP, and it did not sell well at all) and internal (When the band moved to NY, things got rough). 'Wolf Songs for Lambs', the aforementioned LP, is one of three official recordings that were ever released by the band, and it's the album that 'Curtain' comes from- it's out of print now (which is a real shame, and pretty bad for a major label record), but you can still buy it used on l'Amazon. Another one to check out is 'Tremble Under Boom Lights', the EP that Fire*Eater released just prior to 'Wolf Songs'- I actually own that one (I think it's less rare), and it definitely has some of the band's best moments, including the postively debauched 'Search for Cherry Red'.
Stewart Lupton, by the way, has a new band: the Child Ballads. In a huge coincidence, they're actually playing tonight, 11/18, at 9:00 p.m. in D.C., at the Artomatic showcase. Someone, please, go to this show and report back! I have to taste-test concrete for my job until 11:00 p.m. tonight, so I may have to miss it.
Posted by matt at 08:00 AM
November 17, 2004
Ghost Babies
Hot Hot Heat - Move On
Here is some fancy-lad mop-toppery for you, folks. But first, a few caveats: 1) this song is freakishly addictive. I can recall one day in recent memory when I played it about 40 or so times in a row. And it never gets old, never. 2) Steve (Bays, I think his last name is), the lead singer, intones his words in a manner that suggests, extracontextually, that he is a giant walking nose. Phonetically, the first lines would read something like this: "Call me bealmeeruhble/I've got these new ideeeyuhs". 3) This is easily the best song Hot Hot Heat has ever written, and it's hopefully what their next album, which is due out in January or so, is going to sound like. But who knows, maybe they'll give Warner Brothers the emo-pop lite version of a Yes album (I can't even imagine what the existence of such a thing would be like. Mind-rending).
It starts with a quick monologue from the bass, and some soothing organ background. Then Dante (departed guitarist) hops in with some shiny, slinky guitar lines. The vocal harmonies are just overflowing, and each thirty-second segment of this track has about 12 separate hooks. 'Move On' reminds me a lot of the first time I heard the band's 'Get In or Get Out', mostly because it has the same 'preaching to/about people in your hometown that you sort of love but are annoyed by' feel to it. Apropos of nothing, the tambourine makes a clutch appearance during the breakdown. I still can't believe this was the B-side to the UK 'Bandages' single. 'Move On' is definitely, as Matt Fluxblog would say, 'joycore'- the band sounds like it's never had as much fun in its life.
You can grab the 'Bandages' single from Sub Pop's merch page, here.
Posted by matt at 08:00 AM
November 16, 2004
Octopus Rights
Polmo Polpo - Rottura
'Rottura' is full of ineffable sadness. It's steeped in a slow, mournful resignation, and is just one of those songs that would be almost punishingly sweet to listen to when you recognize that there's something lacking in your life, but you just can't quite pinpoint what it is. The pulsing, subaquatic sounds in this track could perfectly accompany certain types of activities: looking through an old photo album full of pictures of your parents from when they were younger; taking a long, erratic drive down a snowy highway just to find something worth doing; standing outside your front door in the middle of the night, rending your clothes from your body, wondering why ohfortheloveofgod why more people don't read the turgid prose on your mp3blog; etc.
'Rottura' holds a single, almost constant beat, and it bears a remarkable similarity to the systolic pattern of a heart. Slide guitar provides much of the melody, and Sandro Perri (Polmo Polpo) embroiders the edges of the track with soft, hissing static. I like to think of Pomo Polpo's music as being like a sort of more dance-oriented version of Time Hecker's work. And when I say dance-oriented, I mean that only in relation to Hecker's music, not in the sense of, say, yesterday's track (which is quite dancey). I can't even begin to imagine a situation where this would qualify as being appropriate for dancing, or facilitating dance. Maybe if a group of bandits broke into your grandfather's open-casket viewing and demanded, at gun point, that everyone in attendance should participate in a sort of funereal rave. Then, yes, you'd definitely have to blast this track. 'Threnody-techno' would be a good sub-genre name, I think. Those last three sentences probably just ruined any chance of me getting anyone to listen to this song, oh god I'm such a failure (sniffle, tear, cough, sneeze, maniacal laugh, soft weeping).
'Rottura' is off of Perri's first LP, 'The Science of Breath', on the Alien 8 mini-label, Substractif, which you can check out here. He has a second LP, 'Like Hearts Swelling', on the fantastic Constellation (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Fly Pan Am, etc.) label, which you can gaze at here. 'Like Hearts Swelling' is just drop-dead gorgeous, by the way. Try to find the song 'Requiem for a Fox', if you're interested- it's urgent and dark and pretty as hell.
Posted by matt at 08:00 AM | Comments (1)
November 15, 2004
Buildings and Canyons make fine landmarks
Michael Mayer - Lovefood
This is not the sexiest song on Michael Mayer's forthcoming 'Touch' LP, but it is one of the best. It's the second half of the 'food' suite, which begins with 'Slowfood', and ends with the lonesome bass figure at the conclusion of this track. 'Lovefood' is 100% intrigue: raised eyebrows, whispered conversations, and glances filtered through smoke and guilt. It's also the only song on 'Touch' to prominently feature vocals- the female narrator softly hisses the same five phrases into the listener's ear, with only slight variations. "Give me love/Give me lovefood/Give me love so that I can kill/Give me love because I can kill/She's not real"- this is the woman's list of demands, which, given only the first two sentences, seems sort of meh. Then, whoa, she just kind of casually mentions that, of her many skills, her forte is really assassination. Not something you customarily hear on a first date. And she implies that the 'other woman' is not only unreal (con), but also incapable of killing (pro). Michael Mayer, you rascal. Picking up chicks who worship the RAF.
'Lovefood' starts off with a dark, brooding guitar line that is echoed later on by a watery synth that sounds a lot like a tremolo-picked guitar- swooping, sleek, and dangerous. What this track reminds me of more than anything is Portishead's earlier work, which was (as admitted by the band) influenced mainly by spy movie soundtracks, film noir, and old torch songs. Which is just fantastic, in my opinion. Every nuance of 'Lovefood' speaks to something desperate and depraved, and also calculated, in a way. Michael Mayer, who runs the AMAZING Kompakt label in Cologne, has outdone himself with this album (which people have been drooling over the prospect of a full-length from him since he started releasing mixes), and should be praised for managing to combine so many incongruous musical elements into an album that is not only very intellectually compelling, but also viscerally affecting (i.e. it makes me want to dance like a drunken werewolf). Kompakt has actually sold-out of the CD version, so if you want it now, you'll have to go with the vinyl. Purchase it from this place! This record is a ticket to partytown, and I say that without even a hint of sarcasm.
Posted by matt at 08:00 AM | Comments (1)
November 08, 2004
No tension just play
Jason Forrest - Spectacle to Refute All Judgments
House of Love - Shine On
Apologies for the missed post today. My car overheated while I was driving home and almost exploded into a fiery-red chrysanthemum of gasoline and Buick Regal shrapnel. I had visions of face-melting on par with that penultimate scene in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'. Luckily one of my friends loaned me her Acura to drive back and forth from work. So nice (thanks, Lindsay!). Besides that, I also have about 96 man hours of work to accomplish this week, so this might be the sole post for 11/8 to 11/12. You'll have to make do without my paragraphic fidgetries for a bit (reader reaction = living tableau of ennui). A few notes on the above songs-
Jason Forrest: it's some of the most vivacious electronic music I've heard this year, mash-ups of classic rock tunes and big, sweaty beats. Energizing, lively, this song = pissing on a neighbor's car at 3 in the morning because they decided to have a dance party and play only music like 'Chilled Out Urbal Beats Volume 23: Softer Harshdown', i.e. limp, flaccid techno that sounds like a school nurse made it on her 1986 Macintosh. This song is revenge-urine (no matter how odd that sounds, I mean it in the best way). Love it!
House of Love: Forgotten? Yes. In a way. My old roommate, who introduced me to about 10,000 bands in the year that I lived with him, loved HoL, and he put this song on a tape he made for me, which I have since accidentally relegated to the depths of the aforementioned heat/deathmobile. 'Shine On' is one of those songs that gives you the feeling of a piercing moment of clarity and epiphanic glimpse into some singular instance of your childhood- one of those memories that are so strong for a second and then dissolve into just vague associations the next. This track moves and gyrates, and it's gorgeous. Like a school teacher (Science) you have a crush on in the second grade, to be exact.
ALSO, that Grizzly Bear record that I wrote about last week could end up being one of my favorite albums of the year. I urge you all to go back, download that song, listen to it, snuggle with it, and then purchase the CD. It's really pretty lo-fi folk-pop, sort of a bouillabaisse of Magnetic Fields, Built to Spill, Animal Collective (as I mentioned) and some snazz. A pinch of snazz, actually.
Posted by matt at 11:13 PM | Comments (4)
November 05, 2004
Umbrella Joy
Royal City - Bad Luck
This is easily one of my favorite songs of the past 5 years. I discovered it during the first few months (3 years ago, almost) of my post-college job, so it holds a special place in my gristly heart. Aaron Riches, lead singer and principal songwriter for Royal City, is now earning his Ph.D. in Religion at the University of Virginia, and this academic development has definitely lent an air of, shall we say, gravity to their most recent album, 'Little Heart's Ease', which this song is not from, by the way. Let's try to ignore this trainwreck of a paragraph. Moving on...
'Bad Luck' is filthy with percussion, and I think that's what makes it so compelling. It jumps to life at the start with a binarily weird beat, some upstrummed acoustic guitar, and a banjo that sounds like a manic steel drum. Then a quick word from the electric guitar, just to wind everything up, and it begins for real. Aaron sings about his own unluckiness, the personification of it- and how it 'comes forth/with a gluttinous mind'. But then, for the chorus, he switches to this gloriously bitter phrase, which one can only imagine for whom it's intended: 'and you will never know/the places that I go to without you. you will never, ever know'. It's unclear to me whether or not he's talking to Bad Luck, or whether he's addressing someone who's not the avatar of malchance- apprising this person of the fact that, despite what they might think, they don't realize the full extent of who Aaron (or the narrator, whatever) is. Sort of a nice 'fuck-you' song.
'Bad Luck' also has a video, which the Catbirdseat (who is equally obsessed with this track) found at one point last year. It's possibly one of the most heartbreaking videos I've ever seen (hint: a teddy bear exhumes his doll girlfriend), and it's definitely well-suited to the song. Watch it (need Real Player, and it pauses oddly about halfway through, but it's good, trust me!). The album that this song escaped from is 'At the Microphone', and you can buy it from Three Gut Records.
Posted by matt at 08:00 AM
November 04, 2004
Cease and Desist
AYWKUBTTOD - Will You Smile Again
This is a good song for November 4th. Yesterday (like a lot of people) my ire was up, and my blood was angry. Hackles raised, etc. It's difficult for me to think about how 51% of the country blithely cast their votes for someone who, under even the most generous interpretation, can only be seen as grossly incompetent. But that's all I want to say about it. If you want to read an articulate reaction to Tuesday's events, check out what Yancey said.
'Will You Smile Again' is one of the bright spots on this band's forthcoming LP (Worlds Apart), which I wrote about here. What I said before was a mistake. I let my expectations for this album, which were admittedly monstrous and irrational, get the best of me. It's such a cliche, but it's so true: the more I listen to 'Worlds Apart', the more I like it. My enjoyment of the album has followed an almost directly proportional rate of increase to the number of times I've played it, which is rare.
In the instant before this song begins, a woman's voice intones the band's name; the phrase panned across the channels. It's incredibly vivid and creepy and exhilarating. Then the guitars fucking stomp in, and all of the sudden you're smiling, thinking 'this is exactly what I had hoped it would be'. The melody on this is executed through Conrad's nasal tenor, and the lyrics feel so natural, so accusatory. The middle section, which is a sort of thumping, volatile exercise, is totally dominated by his voice, and the relative placidity of the music makes the ending of the song hit that much harder (naturally). It's by far one of the best things they've ever done. The album, from there on out, gets bigger and more complex and also softer (which is precisely the part I didn't anticipate)- imagine mash-ups of late-era Pink Floyd, Death Cab for Cutie, and the Impossibles (from Austin, TX), and you've got something close to 'Worlds Apart'. It's an interesting move for the band, but I think a lot of people will have a hard time dealing with the, shall we say, wussification of...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, even if it might be for the best. Buy this beast when it comes out in January, you won't regret it.
Posted by matt at 08:00 AM
November 03, 2004
Anodyne
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness - Your Worst is the Best
This song is a pink fleece blanket of interlocking guitar lines and sweetly consoling voices that you can wrap around yourself. Snuggle it. I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, besides having a kick-ass band name, are unqualified geniuses at picking just the right notes. 'Your Worst is the Best' unfurls so easily, and it's both impactful and cathartic. Their self-titled EP, released this past spring (I think) is packed full of the kind of music that makes you step back with your mouth agape, with the attitude that what you're experiencing is something awesome, in the old sense (awe-inducing). The songs on that disc speak to the listener like an ex-boy/girlfriend who still cares enough: to drop whatever they're doing to come help, no matter what the situation might be. So, in summary, ILYBICD is like: a blanket, a sublime incident, and a former lover. Ah, my eloquence knows no bounds. Listen to the track and you'll get what I mean though, despite my description. They have a single coming out on Artikal Records soon, so watch out for that.
Posted by matt at 08:00 AM
November 02, 2004
Bring my car I feel to ____ it
Painting Soldiers - Poison Apples
"I really can't stand the feel of a sweater coming up on to my wrist anymore." That's the way this song starts, a little before-music banter to get things rolling, which is always welcome. I love the genuine (or calculated, if you're cynical) spontaneity created by intra-band conversation caught on record (see also the very beginning of Radiohead's 2+2 = 5 for another small example of this). Then 'Poison Apples' gets going, and damn if it doesn't swagger and cut. The guitars sound so casually mean, and the drums keep a war beat going throughout- Andrea Hansen's Nico-ish voice barely climbs above everything to deliver the warning: 'don't poison me/don't poison the apple trees'. This track, I swear, sounds like it could have easily been an outtake from 'Beggars Banquet'-era Stones. It has that enviable slick + dashed-together dichotomy that a lot of Stones' earlier stuff possessed.
This comes from a vinyl-only mini-LP that the Social Registry released (I would literally marry this label if I could, all they do is put out..........good records! What a comedy-bit! I'm taking that joke on the road, people. Watch out for it at the CMJ Laughatronic showcase next fall) last April. You can still buy it and play it and love it, if you have a turntable. Another salient point: Painting Soldiers is a side-project for Andrea Hansen. She's mostly involved in the Icewater Scandal, who are (non-coincidentally) SR labelmates. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that you should write to Social Registry and send them a box full of money so they can mail you their entire discography. Hours and hours of fantastic music, for low, low prices. Plus they're really nice people, those Social Registrars. Noiseblastmusic. MMM.
P.S. I'd like to congratulate Anne Rosso on winning the Wolf Parade contest. For some reason, Typepad is not allowing me to change the motto like the truculent bitch that it is (I'll get you next time, Typepad!!). Since between 1 and 3 people entered the contest, I'd say it was pretty successful, overall. Next time I'll offer up 12 Spanish dubloons and let the chips fall where they may.
Posted by matt at 08:00 AM
November 01, 2004
Jellystone National
Grizzly Bear - Don't Ask
There are a lot of bands whose press you read before you get a chance to hear their music, and you form an idea in your mind about how they might sound. For example, almost every review of synth-rockers M83 that I read mentioned My Bloody Valentine as a touchstone for the band's sound. When I finally did hear M83's LP I was disappointed, because their music didn't exactly match up with what had sort of been playing in my head when I imagined the album. This song, from Grizzly Bear's forthcoming debut LP, 'Horn of Plenty', is what I really, really wanted Panda Bear's solo album, 'Young Prayer', to sound like (not that I don't enjoy Young Prayer, but it's not exactly a 'fun' record). The kind of folk-pop that Grizzly Bear(s; there's three people in the band) produces has the same predilection for melody and experimentation that the best Animal Collective songs have (Leaf House, Slippi, Winter's Love, We Tigers, College), but without the occasional, you know, 12 minute one-chord missteps (Visiting Friends).
'Don't Ask' is a note to an ex-lover, about wanting to stay ignorant about the other person's post-breakup life, and becoming resigned to be willfully unobtrusive. The track has a soft, warm feel to it, and it shows the care that Ed Droste (main Grizzly Bear) must have exercised when writing these songs over the nine month period of 'hibernation' (as the band's bio claims) he went through after the disintegration of a relationship. Droste has a very vulnerable voice, and it's terribly endearing in the same way that a slight speech impediment can be. If that makes any sense. You can check out some more stuff about/by the band over at their label, Kanine Records. Then watch out for their music to appear on the O.C., during the episode when Seth Cohen grows a long beard and starts bench-pressing watermelons because free-weights are "too mainstream". (pssst, Fox, call me about licensing this plot).
Posted by matt at 08:00 AM