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June 27, 2006
who was a whaler addicted to ambergris
Heard these two songs back-to-back in a store the other day and had to put them up:
Belle & Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister
Clientele - (I Can't Seem To) Make You Mine
First of all, I was suprised to hear these two songs (at all) in a mall store, and imagine my shock when those frantically plucked notes and sugary keyboard squeaks (left over from "Tigermilk"'s 'Electronic Renaissance') at the tail end of 'If You're Feeling Sinister' gave way to the slow, obtuse angles of Alasdair's guitar in 'I(I Can't Seem To) Make You Mine'. I actually stopped one of my friends in mid-sentence to say "holy fuck, these are great songs". My own inarticulateness aside, I've recently realized (with some empirical evidence to back up the claim) that the less I listen to Belle and Sebastian or Clientele, the worse of a person I become. Back in, say, summer 2000 or 2001 (B&S and Clientele, respectively), these were the bands I listened to the most, and as a direct result I was: quick, strong, sweet-smelling, loose-limbed, charming, shiny, ethical, constant and vocal. Now my hair is matted, my cry is broken or muffled, my skin is gray and scaly, and my movements are all graceless and abrupt. I exaggerate, but just barely.
P.S. Moistworks has a post up from Gary Lutz (one of the best short story writers around) that delves in to the phenomenon of dreaming whole albums, the Grateful Dead, and Pavement, and Velvet Underground, and Galxie 500, Clientele, Moldy Peaches, and the Shangri-Las. Check it out, it's very good.
[Buy "If You're Feeling Sinister", or "Strange Geometry"]
Posted by Kevin at 12:39 AM | Comments (0)
June 20, 2006
color plates
This song should be accompanied by a small gallery installation: a room that you can peek into and see larger and larger slivers of only the floorscape (six inches: an array of old newspapers; twelve inches: a crumpled raincoat; eighteen inches: a bag and some books), or something that's (equally) innocuously voyeuristic. Virginie Krupa sings her lyrics like she's listing secrets, not so much singing within the song as she is narrating it, bouncing back and forth against the little parapets built by the guitar (the work of Alex Brovelli, the other main member) and drums. Listen, at 3:26, when the percussion (in a burst of emotion) finally overwhelms the rest of the song (it's nice).
'Stood the Test of Time' starts out sounding oddly fragile, but as the song progresses, it's pretty obvious that OMR have got the whole dark/tense/brooding thing down pat (the 'fasten seatbelts' chime that rings intermittently throughout the song anchors some of the more downcast guitar sections)- their new album, "Superheroes Crash", reminds me in some ways of Portishead's "Dummy", or (even moreso) of Blonde Redhead's "Misery Is A Butterfly", it's got some luscious production, courtesy of Mario Thaler (Notwist, Lali Puna, Ms. John Soda), and bounces around a lot texturally (which I love). You can buy the album here (soon), and listen to a few more tracks over on their myspace page.
Posted by Kevin at 01:32 PM | Comments (0)
June 19, 2006
red and yellow cards = the orange card?
This is still my favorite song of 2006 (so far):
The intricate drum programming (with so much pace), those torqued guitar sounds, sexy vocals (both male and female), the sweaty, slippery bass (tossing some hard looks in everyone's direction), and whoa, that breakdown: "I'm not making silly claims/I'm not playing silly games/I'm not saying silly things...am I?". This song is custom made for summertime parties when the momentum hits its apex and shit is just suddenly, viciously out of control, when the room seems like a diorama of non sequiturs- look left, there's a group of people wandering around half-naked, look right, there's some folks playing an unexplained but subdued game of baccarat. Free Blood have earned a place in my heart by constructing a song that is an unequivocal grab for attention, a chunk of party energy carved into a complex, delicious 3 minute pop song.
Right now, it looks like the band is busy making the transition to a new website (under construction), and their debut 3 song EP is finished (sounds like it'll include the better-recorded versions of "Quick and Painful", "Never Hear Surf Music Again" and the mystery song "June Havoc"). No label for the EP release yet, and definitely no date, but with any luck, this band will sign with someone great and get the attention they deserve.
World Cup
Been distracted over the past week and a half, watching as many games as I possibly can with my irregular work schedule. Big news for the tournament is the ridiculous number of yellow and red cards that have been given out, per FIFA's new taking-no-shit stance. Used to be you could pretty much tell by the way the player fell whether the ref was going to call it as a normal foul, a yellow card, or just dismiss it as a dive. I mean it sort of does add an element of danger/surprise/adventure for both the audience and (in a more negative sense) for the offending player, but it's so radically unpredictable now- seems like about 65% of fouls warrant a yellow, somehow, and the games just end up feeling so choppy and disrupted. Beckenbauer and some others have complained, but apparently FIFA is holding their ground, stating that they want to make sure the players get the picture re: the shirt-tugging, the late tackles, etc.
Teams that I love so far: Ivory Coast (even though they haven't had much success, I still think they're one of the most talented teams in the tournament, they just got an insanely bad draw for their group), Australia (played Brazil very well today, hopefully they'll move into the second round), Ghana (cannot believe that Czech Republic game), Argentina and Spain (both look unstoppable). The US team made me sick to my stomach with that first game, but Saturday's match with Italy was pretty solid- they looked a little tentative even when they were up a man, but at least they were starting to attack a bit more and had some good opportunities (even in the second half, with 9 men)- they might be able to win against Ghana if they get some crazy luck and can work their reverse-offense psychology magic to force like 3 or 4 Ghanaian own-goals.
Posted by Kevin at 12:13 AM | Comments (0)
June 09, 2006
citrus guitars
My Morning Jacket + Boston Pops. Wow, they were goddamn amazing on Letterman last night. I envy anyone who gets to see those two shows later on this month. Here's the video of them playing "Gideon", below:
What the hell is that thing the dude is playing in the very beginning? It looks like he's using a violin bow to play the World Series trophy...
Posted by Kevin at 01:01 AM | Comments (0)
June 07, 2006
give a girl a wedding ruby, put some emeralds in her pocket
Colossal Yes - Just Like A Mademoiselle
Utrillo from Comets on Fire has perfectly captured the mood of gorgeous, sweeping, early 70's prom rock- the kind of songs that provide just the right kind of slow nocturnal dazzle and soft momentum that make for a perfect late-spring dance (see especially King Harvest's "Dancing in the Moonlight", or pretty much anything by the Bee Gees). "Acapulco Roughs" has quickly become one of my favorite albums of this year- the songs seem so effortless, and Utrillo's vocal melodies are irresistible, warm, and suprising (his voice is particularly captivating, sort of a dimmed falsetto). The lyrics also have some heavy phonetic appeal, check out this line from the second verse, for example: "witchery in chastity, scorched but cavalier/diamond's roost and crystals cast, the lighted chandelier", I like that ending rhyme, the light alliteration (the hard 'c' and 'ch' repetition) and the way each phrase releases tension with the longer, softer sounds in the last few words.
Incidentally, I first heard of Colossal Yes from Ethan Miller's (Utrillo's bandmate in Comets on Fire) Arthur Magzine comp., "Bread, Beard, Bear's Prayers" (which is amazing- sold out right now, but apparently Bastet's re-pressing it in jewel case form later on this year). Anyway, you can find "Acapulco Roughs" on Ba Da Bing Records' catalog page, two spots down from the much-beloved Beirut ("Acapulco Roughs" is a much better record than "Gulag Orkestar", by the way- the latter just hasn't stuck with me at all for some reason).
Posted by Kevin at 09:54 AM | Comments (0)
June 05, 2006
Missing since '89
Anyone who's been reading for a while will recognize this band, since I have a habit of talking about them every six months or so- because 1) they were amazing, and 2) I have no idea what happened to them. They played two big shows in Philly, opening once for Arcade Fire and once for Headphones, and then they disappeared. They released two records (a single, "In the Parking Lot", and a full-length on cassette, "10 Songs"), and were featured on a compilation for Black Squirrel Records (which may itself be defunct). Anyway, these are the only songs I have from "10 Songs", all of which were available from the band's website when it still existed.
It's like going over a waterfall in a barrel- 'Out Tonight' starts off as a leisurely, delicate thing: guitars chiming and commiserating over the "stale cigarette breath", the "hands made with Teflon". Then it starts to pick up a little- static hissing small whirlpools of turbulence that flank the chorus, "you and me/ we'll go out tonight", and suddenly the song switches gears entirely, and it's a freefall through wild torrents of bass, drums, yelling, and foamy siren-sounds. And, subsequently, a return to the calmness of the first part of the track. 'Out Tonight' reminds me of Ted Leo's 'Timorous Me' (one of his best songs ever, by far), just in the way it delivers such a joyful blast of melody and energy in the middle of the song- and like Ted Leo, Racecar know enough to exercise some restraint and leave it at that (just once), which just makes you want to play the song over and over again (not a bad indulgence, really). Plus, for whatever reason (and also like 'Timorous Me'), this song makes me think of a huge party, like a wedding reception or something similar, where everyone's smiling and dancing and happy either in their own right or in reflection of the atmosphere.
--If anyone has any info on the band's dissolution, let me know.
Posted by Kevin at 12:08 AM | Comments (0)
June 01, 2006
If I clean it up it's not really a sentence
Anyone anticipating the new Junior Boys record as much as I am should head over to Obscure Sound, where you can check out two of the tracks from their new album, "So This Is Goodbye". There's 'In the Morning', which is the unbelievably sexy first single, and 'First Time'- a little more tame, but just as good. I've been listening to "Last Exit" a lot (bought it used this time last year) recently, and I forgot how amazing their stuff is (really lends itself to long, summertime trips, I think).
Posted by Kevin at 06:22 AM | Comments (0)