with a buzz in his ears mr. mammoth listens endlessly

alpinisms

2008-12-14T18:05:00.000-05:00

i never much cared for secret machines, so let's just say that benjamin curtis, now of school of seven bells, used to play with that (reasonably successful) band, but left to work on this project. musically, it's pretty clear he made the right choice.

as i said previously, 2008 has been an amazing year of music for me, mainly due to a newfound love of electronica. it's a way to make music that isn't subject to any physical restraints, it's only limitation is imagination. well, it's not like the genre isn't decades old, but i'm talking about my personal epiphany here, and my enthusiasm for it is like any greenhorn's. so, in a year when i delighted in taking in everything from gary numan to booka shade, the fact that alpinisms, school of seven bells's debut record, has riveted me is a testament to it. full disclosure here: school of seven bells reminds me more than a little bit of my previous electro-crush, last year's award winning au revoir simone, and not just because SVIIB (which, p.s., is a wicked acronym) also have dark hair and are from brooklyn. but just because i'm predisposed to like them doesn't mean that i'm wrong, and you'll hear why just around thirty seconds in. then, in the span of three minutes, the combination of intelligent harmonizing, imaginative beats, and the dramatic contrast of minimalist beats and swirling psychedelia will hook your brain, line and sinker. then, all of a sudden, you'll realize it's three hours later. time flies when you're having fun.

the first taste of alpinisms is the potent "iamundernodisguise," previously a prefuse 73 single ("class of 73 bells") with the band, which retains its powerful, sensuous undercurrents and indulges in a wash of hypnotic distortion and canonical vocals. these come courtesy of alejandra and claudia deheza, who helm the band alongside benjamin curtis. previously in on! air! library!, they met curtis on a tour, and the idea for school of seven bells was born. channeling the mysticism and beauty of classical indian form, and combining it with swirling distortion, SVIIB's approach is nothing short of seductive. in addition, the production on this record is totally immaculate (done by the band themselves), which makes it all that more of a joy to listen to - the vocal mixes are sublime, the perfect amount of reverb. it's probably the best sounding record i've heard since the magic position.

alpinisms is nearly bookended by its best songs, "iamundernodisguise" and penultimate track "prince of peace," both of which combine brooding distortion with explosive choruses. urgent and propulsive, "prince of peace" is delivered with no small hint of menace - there is no safety in the deheza sisters voices when they sing "we are the prince of peace / we are the hand of god." this isn't a song praising the munificence of a generous god, this is accompaniment to a deluge of some straight up old testament fire and brimstone, and the dehezas' are the killing angels singing a siren song. these two are the most pronouncedly ominous, but SVIIB don't ditch a good thing - while none of alpinisms's other songs come closer to the implicit threat of "iamundernodisguise" or "prince of peace," "wired for light" builds slowly but relentlessly, voices soaring (thanks to even more reverb than normal) over the sounds of a restless sitar, dropping out suddenly, leaving us startled and hollow.

school of seven bells's psychedelic bent reaches its climax on the 11 minute opus, "sempiternal-amaranth," which is notable chiefly because it hardly feels like more than 4 or 5 minutes long - it lulls you into a SVIIB stupor that is both impossible and undesirable to rise from. yet despite alpinisms's fluidity, there is a rather large conflict at its center, which is difficult to navigate for the critical listener. it's pretty clear that i favor heavy SVIIB, but what about the rest of the album? at times it seems odd, the juxtaposition of intense, transcendental tunes with upbeat, in-your-face treble ones, epitomized by "face to face on high places" and "half asleep," which many consider album highlights. i don't deny their quality, yet the (abrupt) transition from "iamundernodisguise" to the substantially more pop "face to face on high places" is rarely anything but jarring. the battle between pop and psychedelia rages throughout the record, and while the two are not always mutually exclusive, it does occasionally put SVIIB at odds with themselves. that being said, "half asleep" well deserves its release as a single, being one of those instances when pop and psychedelia blend to create something excellent.

alpinisms's press releases speak of the band's desire to literally climb above the physical world, a goal they have neatly accomplished. every second of music strives to elevate the listener above the conventional, to disappear among the folds in the music, to find a groove and follow it. pragmatically, alpinisms is almost flawlessly constructed, each song progressing and adding elements at deliberate speed, enough to hook but not to overindulge, so that you keep coming back for more, time and again. it is a curious twining, of restlessness and repetition, but SVIIB easily make it their own, especially on songs like "white elephant coat." drawing you into its clutches with a simple drum pattern, expansive guitar lines, and the same ethereal vocals that make the record essential, "white elephant coat" reflects alpinisms as a whole. for a remarkable first record, both in style and substance, school of seven bells' alpinisms is one of the most important albums of 2008.

"conjuur" & "chain"

buy alpinisms from ghostly international.
see school of seven bells tomorrow 12/15 at mercury lounge.

future reflections

2008-12-03T11:00:00.000-05:00

as another year draws near its close, wetter and far warmer than the last, a healthy dose of perspective is vital to comprehend 2008 as a music lover, and a registered american voter. the election overshadowed all else, and our optimism and hope foreshadowed the still-exhilarating phrase "president-elect obama." but even as it became slightly more tolerable to be an american citizen, the stateside music scene left little to choice but to shop the import section. brooklyn spewed forth another crop of aspiring scene queens, their local triumphs spearheaded by overzealous brooklynvegan commenters, but the best american album of the year was issued by some hip pop outcasts from the left coast; though yoni wolf's bitterness suited our collective national disgust from january to june, one hopes change has come to him as well. but president-elect obama's administration is too fresh for its successes to be rewritten as music, and the election cycle, though it dominated virtually everything else this year, is not much of a yardstick to evaluate music by.

so what, then, defines 2008 in music?

the internet continues to redefine our understanding and appreciation of music in ways that continues to send shockwaves through the industry (and its observers), from the FBI-sanctioned intervention in a leak of chinese democracy to the blogosphere's self-serving, endorsed explosion of bands like vampire weekend, for whom the backlash is hopefully just beginning. the virulence and dogmatism of chat room crusaders and anonymous respondents is certainly nothing new (though the depths to which the dialogue can sometime stoop still has the power to bewilder), but talking shit about a pretty sunset is what made the internet famous. though the reach of blogs and other democratic music promoters has grown longer since 2007, its weaknesses are nearly as numerous as its successes, which i realize is an odd statement if you're reading this. i turned away from reading music blogs (save the ever reliable BV) sometime soon after january, and found a less self-referential (and more exciting) font for new music in the form of the now-defunct album blog robin hood of indie music. facilitated by the loss of OiNK, album blogs are the new medium for serious piracy, and pose few of the dangers associated with torrenting or (god forbid) file sharers. for me, 2008 in music meant a literal cornucopia of new bands every day, new and old releases that radically reshaped my tastes simply by virtue of their availability.

in april, i was hired by a concert venue in what has become the undisputed best job of my (albeit short) life, but its implications were much further reaching than my happiness - it has altogether changed my perception of hearing music. reading a review earlier this year, i was struck by the author's claim that we rarely think about how music is made, and just appreciate the end result. since april, i have been learning about the process of music-making, and i'm not talking about the notes. which microphone to use, how guitar amps work, the best way to mic a snare drum (one on the top and one on the bottom), small details that add up to determining how we experience music, specifically in a live setting. why you're an idiot if you stand in the front row and complain about how bad the sound is. simple things for someone who plays music, or works with sound, but significant developments for a layman like me, though i don't think i can call myself a layman anymore.

i'm not sure how these two factors add up, album blogs and working at a nightclub, but the timing is proof enough of my ear's evolution, an unexpected and bold change of course. in just a couple months, i've discovered how wide the world of electronica really is, and immersed myself in its numerous pleasures. though i was not a stranger to its appeal, i have opened myself up to every corner of the genre in a much more dramatic fashion, appreciating artists as diverse as julien chaptal, venetian snares, and róisín murphy with equal vigor. in short, 2008 was a year for joyous aural exploration, and my favorite albums of the year reflect that. as with last year, i still have a problem with the word "best," and am shying away from that with a list of records that were important to me this year. without further ado, here they are, listed alphabetically.

camille - music hole
cut copy - in ghost colours
foals - antidotes
i am robot and proud - uphill city
iglomat - iglomat
mogwai - the hawk is howling
mr. scruff - ninja tuna
mutyumu - il y a
school of seven bells - alpinisms
slaraffenland - private cinema
spiritualized - songs in a & e
why? - alopecia
wild beasts - limbo, panto

provided i am blessed with enough time, i will do a short writeup for each album (of course with mp3s), so stay tuned.

they flock like vulcans to see old jupiter eyes on his home craters

2008-07-28T02:35:00.000-04:00

within the "eminently prolific" subsection of songwriters, there often exists a delicate balance that can either alienate or excite. a counterpoint to the relentless outpouring of music, it is often the case that most of these songs sound extremely similar. john darnielle, a man most of us instantly pinpoint as head honcho of the "eminently prolific" genre, has released over 40 albums, which all sound more or less than same (especially once you discount the varying fidelity). that's why it's enormously refreshing that kenny anderson, another old hand at the prolific game, has released an album that runs against the grain, a challenge to presumably kenny himself as well as his fans. they flock like vulcans to see old jupiter eyes on his home craters is a vibrant departure that finds anderson embracing an entirely new sound, as well as a new penchant for impossibly long album titles.

king creosote, anderson's recording name, has a reputation for stately, melancholy songs that come out of the gate mostly fully formed, placid backdrops for anderson's verbal talent. bombshell, the scottish folkster's previous album (and his first fresh effort for a major label), was a mild diversion from this course, yet still result in inspired accusations of betrayal by some of the more hardcore creosote fans. not coincidentially, bombshell is the album that gave king creosote more attention than ever before, its poppier sound appealing to a wider range of listeners, evidenced by last year's sold-out homecoming show at edinburgh's queen's hall. they flock etc. doesn't follow in bombshell's footsteps, and, judging by its unorthodox distribution, isn't likely to be a 679 release either. you see, king creosote's new album is only available at king creosote shows, a business model that makes so much sense, it's fairly astonishing that no one else does it. fence will be releasing it proper come september, but it's rather wonderful that they flock is only available to real k.c. fans (or, actually, was only available before the internet got its pesky thieving mitts on it, which all of us foreign faithful are grateful for). perceivable as either a two-fingered salute to bombshell's detractors (though that isn't kenny's style) or just an example of how mutable and evolving king creosote can be (more likely), they flock, in addition to being a solid record, is a bright reminder of how welcome unexpected experimentation is from predictable sources.

but enough talk about what it signifies, let's talk about how they flock sounds. king creosote meets the human league? okay, that's a bit overstated, but certainly puts you in the right frame of mind. this isn't a basement recording, not a 4 tracked CD-R, and not your typical k.c. fare. on some songs, there isn't even a guitar, much less an accordion! kenny's manifesto has long been that k.c. writes "songs with relatively few chords in a non-bluegrass style," and while nothing on they flock could be construed as bluegrass, but i'm not sure the maxim still applies. opening number "on esther's planet" has relatively few chords, and is the most accessible song on the record (i'm pretty sure the two are related), but the shimmery synths are a new development, and a little bizarre the first couple listens. i almost gave up after that, since "no one had it better" is the ultimate definition of throwing a spanner in the works, but "on esther's planet" kept drawing me back because of the inexorable pull of anderson's sweet scottish voice, and due to the relish with which he sings "let's go west, and let's get damaged," which is a mighty fine verse (its couplet is the equally awesome "let's drink water, and let's get healthy"). after "on esther's planet," however, anderson's voice get second billing for the next couple songs, along with his guitar and typical song structure, which are more or less abandoned. "ear against the wireless" finds kenny singing from a radio light-years away, backed by a menagerie of electronic sounds, a description that more or less suits roughly half of they flock's songs. which is definitely not to say they sound alike, since, as you will recall, the starting point of this post was how defiantly different of an album this is for the otherwise predictable scotsman.

the bevy of mostly electronic songs aside, they flock is (hopefully?) a turning point for king creosote's more traditional songs as well. as aforementioned, the accordion doesn't get a lot of credit throughout, but kenny employs the trusty squeezebox on standout "a mighty din of 'what if?'," even if only for a moment's turn in the spotlight. "44BC" is the closest we get to old-style kenny, but with a female backup and the faint sounds of synth, though the lyrics are predictably gloomy: he refers to himself variously as "a worthless cause," "a helpless case," and "a songless bird." the title "dead mouse's diary" should hint that some weirdness is afoot, and the union between casion beats, 2001: a space odessey-reminiscent synth effects and acoustic guitar is certifiably awkward, yet simultaneously enrapturing. on the other hand, the straight-up scatting that introduces "home creatures" feels genuine, an accomplishment in light of the fact that the album's impossible title comes from its lyrics. and even when you think a song is more or less in the standard k.c. vein (like "all mine, except for the falsetto[!?!]), it goes and breaks his self-imposed rule about samples: "no sample should be longer than four seconds, and although samples should be in tune or in time, not necessarily both," and you know whatever the hell is going on here, nothing is predictable.

it would be interesting to learn whether (or to what extent) ole' king c-sote was inspired by our current obsession with all things smooth and synthy. "the minter scale," to name but one example, could be a space-house track - hell, it is a space-house track, just one with a couple seconds of didgeridoo up front. also, kenny's placid, regretful voice, singing about stinging embarassment doesn't quite jel with our normal understanding of lite trance, but, hey, what are you gonna do about that? keep an open mind, like kenny. and just accept the fact that a different king creosote is still king creosote, and still writes awesome songs. despite the new direction k.c. takes on they flock, it is a cohesive and exciting ride, thus satisfying the most important law of king creosote: a kc album starts at the beginning, and don't finish 'til the end - by design."

"ear against the wireless" & "the minter scale"
they flock like vulcans to see old jupiter eyes on his home craters will be available from fence records in september.

awesome song day! - "baby i'm just a fool"

2008-07-18T23:17:00.005-04:00

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

spiritualized - "baby i'm just a fool"
songs in a & e was released in may.

spiritualized and portishead share common ancestry, in my head at least. both hyper-pioneering english bands who peaked and kinda faded by the time i was hip enough to know who they were, it seems like more than coincidence that they have both returned in 2008, each with a fierce, career-defining record. the history of songs in a & e is so well-established as to be chicken feed by now: jason pierce got some terrible form of pneumonia, and found the inspiration for this record in his near-death experiences in the accident & emergency ward. pierce's work has always favored the ethereal/transcendental, so songs in a & e isn't much of a departure; instead, it is a bold, fervent, and engrossing work that builds on spiritualized's druggy past and finds a semblance of redemption in pierce's restoration of life and livelihood. fluctuating wildly between sorrow and serenity, songs in a & e is nearly divided in half by "baby i'm just a fool," a tender-seeming track backed by a melody beaten on wooden blocks, anchored in the repeated lyric "you're so fucking self-assured / i'd rather let you down than let you go." though not as catchy as "soul on fire" or as self-pitying as "don't hold me close," "baby i'm just a fool," with its faux-carefree singalongs and languid latin feel, is the song that stays with you the longest, and feels better with each listen.

a week in EPs day #6: amiina - seoul

2008-07-14T15:25:00.002-04:00

yup, i've returned to the EP and am loving it. nearly a year to the day since i left off with land of talk's applause cheer boo hiss (which i still avidly listen to, by the way), i return with another five-day dose of the best in great extended plays. only one of this year's entrants was released between july 20, 2007 and july 14, 2008, but a couple more were introduced to me in that time period; the others are old standbys that are aging excellently. while i haven't narrowed down my list totally yet, i can say there will be no repeated bands (sing jonathan david very nearly made it, but "take your carriage clock and shove it" just plain sucks), and i'm excited to make amends to some of the very great bands i skipped last year. so, without further ado, here is seoul.

rarely do i muster the courage to defy the all-knowing wikipedia, but i'm going to today with impunity. last year, for my final entry, i stretched the meaning of "EP" in one direction; this year, it's going the other way. wikipedia classifies seoul as a single, but i don't care - amiina's second release is sophisticated, mature, and playful, and contains the only recording of "ammaelis," a song so deliriously enchanting that it alone merits seoul's boost from a single to an EP (even if it's only for my nefarious purposes). so overlook the fact that, of seoul's three tracks, two are on amiina's full-length kurr (though "ugla" was subtly renamed "rugla"), and just embrace the three songs that heralded amiina's crowning as the cutest band in the world (an assertion validated by the band's photo gallery).

it's been too long since i last talked about amiina, but not much has changed since then. unfortunately, the icelandic quartet has been quiet as mice, though sigur rós's return to touring surely (hopefully) means that amiina will also regain their place as opening act. the band - maría huld markan sigfúsdóttir, hildur ársælsdóttir, edda rún ólafsdóttir, and sólrún sumarliðadóttir - congealed through sigur rós's touring schedule, the four women in close contact as sigur rós's backing string quartet. amiina first performed in july 2005, on the takk... tour, with a set of hastily stitched together songs. i saw sigur rós three times on the takk... tour, and was impressed exponentially each time by amiina, whose songs tangibly improved each time. two songs of that set stood out especially, which i referred to in my mind as "that song with the musical saw" and "that awesome video game one." both of these songs are on seoul. "that song with the musical saw" is the title track, a seven-minute exploration grounded in a hypnotic xylophone riff and buttressed by the saw's atmospherism. "the video game one" was "ammaelis," amiina's set-ender, which exemplifies the band's quirky cheerfulness vis-a-vis a 80s casio beat surrounded by shimmering synths. together with "ugla," which was written between tours at home in iceland, seoul is a mature work that rewards multiple, contemplative listens.

amiina's songs are lush, performed using a table's worth of gadgetry and toy instruments, and their seamless fusion of new-age devices and centuries-old ones is one of the band's most bewitching features. i was reading about something called "steam punk" the other week, a style that mixes 1850s fashion with high-tech electronics, and it struck me that amiina is doing much the same in music. wikipedia (whose wisdom i once again acquiesce to) has a list of 18 instruments used by amiina, ranging from the aforementioned saw, to a baroque guitar (seen in the lower right-hand corner of the picture above), to a compact synthesizer (their live shows also have a ubiquitous macbook). watching amiina perform is like watching four one-man bands work together, such is the band's concentration and diligence as they build their songs.

somehow, it isn't surprising that "seoul," "ugla," and "ammaelis" are arguably amiina's best songs, each possessing a learned dignity and the allure of simplicity. with an innate appreciation for timing, amiina's songs are just long enough for you to be able to lose yourself in the music, gentle crescendos and repeated phrases that acknowledge amiina's debt to minimalist composing. ultimately, their songs are just happy, and that's the most appealing quality you could hope for.

"seoul" & "ammaelis"
the seoul 12" with a remix by frakkur is available at boomkat.

the last really good new album i heard

2008-07-13T00:09:00.005-04:00

...no idea. one of the reasons i've been absent from the mammoth realm is the absolute dearth of good new music. i'm not quite sure how noisy punk & feedback queens became the toast of the blogosphere (times new viking, no age, titus andronicus, crystal antlers, these are powers, abe vigoda, etc.), because none of them are actually good/listenable for more than 35 seconds, but that has been pretty unbearable. that au album was okay, but too derivatively animal collective, lp3 only confirms the fact that i don't like ratatat, i can't understand why fleet foxes are "the best new band on earth," the appeal of crystal castles wore off about two songs into their full-length (and the storm of controversy about their version of music piracy just adds fuel to the fire), i don't even know what dark meat IS, the black ghosts blow, monotonix put on one hell of a live show, but music doesn't really factor into their performance much, black kids, of course, still suck at life, the new girl talk leaves something to be desired, whatever excitement hercules & love affair provoked burned off quickly; as established, stay positive makes me sad, arm's way isn't much better, modern guilt is solid without being impressive, a thousand shark's teeth is meh, don't know why is anyone attracted to the sound of the ting tings (besides that one really good song they have)?, the one track that has leaked from the hawk is howling is weird, dude, sam sparro's press quotes ("like lcd soundsystem plus marvin gaye) are better than his songs, kaisercartel makes me want to stab myself in my thigh with a fork, and crystal stilts just plain suck. ponytail shows a healthy level of eclecticism, but can't say i would ever really want to listen to them voluntarily.

i liked songs in a & e enough to buy $40 tickets for the seated spiritualized show at music hall of williamsburg, and i'm currently having a serious crisis because why? and mount eerie play the same night as mogwai and fuck buttons (all four of which have [or, in mogwai's case, will] put out great records this year). in all honesty, it's probably the toughest decision i will make all year. if i didn't have tickets to mogwai already, it wouldn't even be a question, but i think i'll have to wait and see if the hawk is howling is better than mr. beast. if it ain't, i'll see you at bowery.

anyway, now that i've shat all over bands you like/dislike/don't care about, we can get to the meat of the matter. i'm finally getting into situation after digging that buck 65 orchestral show for a couple months, but i haven't heard anything, new or old, that matches up to alopecia, antidotes, or at war with walls and mazes, and it's totally killing my mojo. i've been enjoying some classics lately, as well as nas's new not-nigger, but 2008 is shaping up to be a year of bad albums. there are plenty of good songs, but i don't want to overabuse the "awesome song day" anymore than i already have, and one reason i've been so quiet is because there aren't any albums i really want to talk about. i've had a couple ideas to get myself involved in blogging again, so fingers crossed those go somewhere, and you can count on me weighing in on whatever the next seriously good album of 2008 is, if it ever arrives.

where the hell is heartland?

correction: oracular spectacular is another album without many peers.

awesome song day! - "took my lady to dinner"

2008-07-08T10:52:00.004-04:00

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

king khan and the shrines - "took my lady to dinner"
the supreme genius of king khan and the shrines is available on vice records.

it's kinda ironic (and more than a little disappointing) that "blog bands" tend to suck more often than not, and i've learned to approach any buzz band with a hefty level of trepidation & skepticism - explaining my delayed appreciation of the 11-piece psychedelic soul garage monster & king khan's decidedly personal lyrics. the supreme genius of is a "greatest hits" collection (no mean feat for a band with only 4 full lengths), and sounds more lo-fi than no age. their kickstarted soul finds common heritage with the dirtbombs, whose "your love belongs under a rock" invariably finds its way into my head after only one king khan song - their frontmen share a puckish extravagance and a smoker's croak, and their grit-coated guitars dominate wholeheartedly. "took my lady to dinner" has the most irresistible chorus - wailing so loudly that his voice cracks, king khan belts out a love song to his woman - "she's fat, she's ugly, she's fat and she's ugly but i love her!" true love has never sounded so true.

grizzled old mammoth

2008-06-15T13:43:00.002-04:00

sorry for the smallness of the banner, blame blogger.

anyway, the important point is, despite the fact i haven't heard anything worth blogging about lately, i do have something exciting to report: mr. mammoth has a radio show again! i will be streaming online every sunday at 8 pm EST on wbar, my "local" "radio" station [a) in nyc, pretty much everything is a local radio station and b) it's only online, so it's not actually radio. but i digress]. anyway, ignore what the site says, if you "click here to listen," you'll be listening to the show.

i'm gonna be making my playlist in advance, but wbar has a good selection of cds, so if you want to request something i'll do my best to satisfy it. and you can hit the dj up at wbarrequest on aim, so add that shit.

8 pm, sundays, eastern standard time.

awesome song day! - "the bears are coming"

2008-06-07T02:20:00.002-04:00

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

late of the pier - "the bears are coming"
their debut album fantasy black channel is due in august on parlophone.

late of the pier is one of those bands that kinda became ubiquitous in my head for no particular reason; i credit their rather unique/inexplicable name for their staying power. i had heard of them a couple times before i tracked down whatever they had floating around online, and i'm mighty glad i did so. while late of the pier's influences seem rather transparent at first, "the bears are coming" is a really intelligent song that far surpasses any off-hand dismissal of "nu rave." i've listened to it as much as i have anything else this week, and not only is it beyond catchy, it's diverse, eclectic, and smart. though musically dissimilar, i've found myself comparing this song to one of beck's more tangential tunes in its approach, but that might just be me. "the bears are coming" has a sick hook, but the final minute of the song is arguably the best; that's after the song finishes its verse-chorus-verse rotation and delves into something far less predictable. it's definitely a grower, but also definitely an awesome song.

writing for a symphony

2008-06-04T21:01:00.000-04:00

everybody knows i love owen pallett. everything he does pushes the envelope, and his music is just so beautiful, and my girlfriend is a little worried that i love him more than i love her (i don't, but it's close). so even though i had mixed feelings about twelve polearms, a work of new music by pallett commissioned by the bang on a can all-stars (who subsequently performed the work with pallett at last weekend's bang on a can marathon), you won't hear me say a single bad word about it. anyway, the real importance of twelve polearms isn't its substance, but its significance. there is an increasingly awesome trend in music, of independent artists composing classical-style works or performing with orchestral ensembles, and i just want to say i think it's amazing, and has incredibly exciting potential.

though twelve polearms is perhaps the least conventional of these collaborations (the work was prefaced by a lengthy, humorous introduction read by pallett that detailed its origins; suffice it to say that they were... otherworldly), it is certainly not the first. aside from metallica (which doesn't really count at all anyway), the first major piece of this trend was probably the bqe, sufjan stevens's homage to the brooklyn-queens expressway. new yorkers went mad for tickets (i don't even want to say how much they went for on craigslist), but it wasn't a huge creative stretch for stevens - after all, the illinoisemakers are practically an orchestra in themselves! so i think a great deal of credit for this promising trend is owed to musical directors, whether of BAM (who commissioned the bqe as part of their nextwave festival), bang on a can, or symphony nova scotia, who performed in conjunction with native son richard terfrey in april. this final collaboration is my personal favorite of the three, because of the deep level of cooperation between terfrey, who performs under the pseudonym buck 65) and the symphony, who performed a selection of buck 65 songs as well as a 15 minute work entitled "hymnpeace (remixed)," commissioned from conductor dinuk wijeratne by the cbc with solo parts for cello, percussion, and turntables. i came upon a recording of this show while trawling the pirate bay one afternoon, and though i downloaded it for its novelty as much as anything else, i've since found it to be absolutely brilliant.

there's a quite a tangible difference between symphonic rock and rock with symphonies, and while i can't stomach the expansive, layered sounds of the arcade fire or their ilk, david christensen's nuanced arrangements complement and re-envision buck 65's songs en masse; the symphony isn't terfrey's backup band, and their parts are integral, not afterthought - this isn't a bullshit string tribute to buck 65. yet, even though the majority of the performance is buck 65 songs, wijeratne's "hymnpeace (remixed)" is the worthiest composition, and the truest collaborative effort of the evening. as he explained in the work's introduction, the fragments of melody tossed back and forth between terfrey, solo cello norman adams, and the rest of the orchestra was written as a deliberate counterpoint to the first few televised minutes of the war in iraq. wijeratne then adds a wrinkle to an already daring production: terfrey's part in "hymnpeace (remixed)" is entirely improvised, and one section of the piece was composed so that terfrey and adams improvise simultaneously, as the rest of the orchestra plays their scripted parts. wijeratne's piece is not a work of new music, unencumbered by the almost petulant rebellions of that movement, and is an engaging and rewarding composition.

as exciting as the indie artist-as-classical composer idea is, i think it remains the responsibility of music directors to encourage and promote this trend, and bring even more musical prodigies into the mix. without their guidance (or financial support), there will be little impetus for successful independent musicians to try and write music for symphonies, especially for solo artists who are far more comfortable creating and performing alone (throughout the concert, terfrey repeatedly mentions his high levels of nervousness, and pallett apologized for his anxiety on saturday night as well). there is a lot of promise in this trend, and judging from the support terfrey, stevens, and pallett have received already, there will be more to come.

if anyone with influence is reading, you should commission a work from dan snaith, right now.

"feels like" & "misdeed"
stream the entire concert here, and an older buck 65 show here, both courtesy of the cbc.

leak of the week - stay positive

2008-06-03T12:20:00.001-04:00

there's an epic scene from animal house (hell, they're all epic scenes!) when john belushi stands up, belches, and says "what the fuck happened to the delta i used to know?" that, my friends, is how i feel about the hold steady. what the fuck happened to "positive jam"? or separation sunday? or holly, whose parents named her hallelujah? craig finn has never been one to mince his words, but for the first time, he's saying too much. stay positive, the minneapolis-cum-brooklyn quintet's fourth full-length, is a feel good summer special (as if the uncharacteristically posi title couldn't give it away) that marks the band's continued self-distancing from their previous work, and gives skeptical listeners one more nail to hammer in the coffin. while stay positive does redeem some of boys and girls in america's mistakes, it ultimately just affirms the fact that the hold steady will merely continue to try and sound more and more like bruce springsteen, and less and less like feminax junkies with big decision blues.

stylistically, the hold steady made their biggest leap between two revelations - that hallelujah was a hoodrat and that boys and girls in america have a sad time together - and there are few musical surprises nestled in stay positive's arena americana folds. the still-cursory evolution on this record belongs to finn, who wrestles into a new role with all the grace of a character actor playing a lead, and even sings a bit! wonders cease pretty quickly after that though. regardless of whether there was anything left of the affectionately insane, neo-revivalist sidewalk preacher that described the pipes and planks of underground catholicism once the southtown girls finished with him, finn has decisively retired him for a middle-class slummer singing about middle america, and the character change goes down less than smoothly. long known by their drinking habits, the hold steady raise their voices to declaim "get hammered!" on stay positive's leadoff track "constructive summer" - no subtle slumming joke that. and just in case you missed the message, finnsteen waxes "work at the mill until you die / work at the mill and then you die" a couple minutes later. his level of comfort with first-person collegiate female perspective increases, but it's unlikely that the heroine of the breaking away homage "one for the cutters" goes to bowdoin; no, she's a good city girl who walks on the wild side and gets in touch with "real," blue-collared america and pays the price.

it's no accident that stay positive's sharpest songs can't help but dig up pieces of the past - for all of his fresh, working-class cheerleading, finn still has a narrative gift, and resurrecting his lyrical ghosts answers questions posed albums before. it's almost a tender move, reminding the faithful that they're the same band, only different. the album's eponymous track epitomizes the hold steady's self-reverential self-reflection, a shoutout to 'positive' jams as well as their adoring fans, which, despite its cloying optimism still provokes a full-blown smile - in public. sometimes finn's allusions are less direct, like on the sanctified "both crosses," when the return of his unique christianity seems both poignant and hopeful. the transubstantiation of christ to midwestern high schools rings hollow, however, and almost stinks of pander; instead of holly's "lord, what do you recommend / to a real soft girl having real hard times," echoing and reverberating, "both crosses" comes off either as a insincere memorial to a matthew shepard or a meth-induced vision of the crucifixion, and either possibility is almost too depressing to consider.

finn's lyrics used to be the heartstone of the hold steady, but that role is more tenuous than ever in stay positive. he still is in privileged company (that of john darnielle and stuart murdoch, for example), in terms of narrative skill and poetic evocations, but his instances of sheer verbal genius appear less reliably often. finn introduces this unfortunate development in "constructive summer," with the declaration that "our songs are sing-along songs." yeah?, cuz that's the first i've heard of it. the hold steady used to write speak-along songs, and the first few rows would be red in the face midway through "charlemagne in sweatpants" and hoarse by "killer parties"... but never sing-along. but the hold steady play festivals now, and big outdoor arenas, and no one is out of breath in the front row, unless it's from trying to not get squashed. but rather than bemoan the band's well-deserved elevation, a more serious cause for concern is repetition, a tool that finn turns to more often than ever here. some of his finest lyrics bend repetition, like the last few lines of "barfruit blues," rhyming "lose," "choose," "blues" and "bruise," but the flat re-recitation in songs like "lord, i'm discouraged" and "yeah, sapphire" are both uncharacteristic and unwelcome. sure, "fortified wine" is a great phrase, but hearing it four or five times is not what i expected from craig finn. booze has always played an unfortunately large role in the management and development of the hold steady, and maybe it's time to question how much damage that's doing.

"one for the cutters" & "stay positive" (links removed)

stay positive is due out on vagrant records on july 15.

efterklang w. slaraffenland @ knitting factory, 5/28/08

2008-06-03T00:40:00.000-04:00

the southernmost of the scandanavians rocked a double bill for the danish dynamite tour at the knit wednesday night, and it's hard to say who was more excited about it, us or them. it was the first show in new york for both tourmates slaraffenland and efterklang, whose lead singer blushed and earnestly thanked the crowd after every song. the bands seemed to almost be overcome by the occasion, but rose to it instead and left the crowd chanting for more.

slaraffenland has been getting lots of internet love, and they were certainly dressed for success in adorable matching t-shirts. even reduced from a quintet to a quartet (their drummer had to return home to look after his newborn), they played with confidence and even a bit of a swagger. to be honest, they might even have upstaged efterklang a bit. though musically similar to their more sprawling cousins (after all, slaraffenland and efterklang share a member), slaraffenland relocates efterklang's delicate compositions and channels them through some serious mogwai-esque transcendentalism, epitomized by set highlight "you win." and i wish i could remember the song that caused one member to jump into the crowd and distribute tambourines and maracas, because it rocked. their new album private cinema sounds a little less unique than their show attested, which is a shame. slaraffenland were great live and not least of all thanks to their constant instrumental tag-teaming, switching seamlessly from winds and brass to guitars and drums. even more impressive was their rhythmic dexterity, playing with time signatures more likely to be heard at bang on a can, which was even more impressive because they were playing without their drummer! in terms of energy, they definitely outranked efterklang, but for beauty, serenity, and diligence, not to mention crowd enthusiasm, efterklang was the clear favorite.

i find it's often hard for bands to translate album flourishes to a live setting, but efterklang nailed every nuance, no mean feat when your songs contain multiple xylophone solos. they had a full band and a half, complete with standard guitar, bass, and drums, and bolstered by a dedicated trombone, keys, synths, violin, and other percussions tchatchkas. kudos definitely go to efterklang's soundman christian thomsen for the great sound, though he's had a lot of practice, mixing the band since their first ever show. despite their overwhelming array of instrumental possibilities, efterklang remained mostly true-to-record, though i experienced no small thrill in watching their complex melodies be born from scratch. as with slaraffenland, a lot of joy came from watching the possibilities of each instrument develop as a song progressed, whether punctuated by a trumpet solo from drummer thomas husmer (as violinist peter broderick manned the drum kit) or a gentle tune from the recorder played by electronics expert mads brauer. as far as i could tell, the set was widely drawn from efterklang's recorded works, and included the live giveaway "mirror mirror," which was awesome. new singles "mirador" and "caravan" (which just had its own video made) were met with cheers, though it was quickly apparent that their bashfulness evoked just as many hollers as their songs (they were super adorable). for some unclear, yet wonderful reason, the whole band was dressed in white collared shirts and jodhpurs, often accentuated by suspenders. somehow, it lent an air of sincerity to the show, which is often missing from live performances. for most of us, it was another show in a week full of them, but it was great to see both efterklang and slaraffenland taking it so seriously. if they came to impress us, they certainly did a good job of it. when they returned to the stage for their well-deserved encore it was with slaraffenland and chris from labelmate grizzly bear, who nobly rocked the tambourine as a quartet of winds stole the number. the worst part of the evening was the disappointed uproar that signaled efterklang's decision to not do a second encore. here's hoping they will both be back soon!

a six page article on my favorite obsession

2008-05-30T08:23:00.002-04:00

when i was doing a little research for bang on a can tomorrow (fyi: owen goes on around 11 pm), i came upon a previously unseen NYTimes magazine article, titled "the return of the one man band." i haven't made it through the whole thing yet (got to go to work), but anything that talks about my favorite genre glowingly can't be bad. so check it out, and go see bang on a can tomorrow!

awesome song & dance day! - "swimming pools"

2008-05-25T09:51:00.004-04:00

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

thao & the get down stay down - "swimming pools"
buy we brave bee stings and all from kill rock stars.

you know her, i love her, here's thao's new video for "swimming pools."

"couples"

2008-05-24T14:30:00.003-04:00

"look at us, we used to rip off the fall. we rip off eno now, and sing like jerry hall." - the long blondes

maybe if i had noticed the changes on the long blondes's myspace page, "couples" would have been less of a surprise. the new sleek black background, the quote above, the "new wave / idol / pop" description - i should have expected a different kind of band from the one that wrote my superfave someone to drive you home. but, really, i don't check myspace pages often enough to take notes on their aesthetic evolutions (except for team robespierre's, because a) they don't have a real website and b) i'm on it and vain). so i had nothing but awesome expectations for "couples", expectations that were dashed about fifteen seconds into "century." to top it all off, i've now come to the realization that "century" is probably the best song on "couples". the blondes were in town this weekend for two shows, and it was no accident that i didn't go to either - everything about "couples", from its irritating post-ironic ironic quotation marks (so irritating!) to its rather awful songs (yes, in that order) has spoiled the long blondes for me. i am pretty bummed, y'all. i used to really like them.

the worst thing about "couples" music-wise is, well... everything? why would a perfectly fucking rocking arty band go and ruin themselves with all this plastic disco crap? seriously, i wish i fucking knew. "couples" reneges on every single thing i liked about the long blondes, kate jackson's insecure femme fatale, dorian cox's jangly riffs, the aura of urgency that permeated. in their places are endlessly circular lyrics, garden variety licks, and an overwhelming sense that they rushed into this, their second album. "century," the album's leadoff track, has every glaring indication of being destined for single-dom, washy synths and faux dance bass abounding, an unswerving neo-wave homage to the capitulation of "heart of glass." and, like i said, it's probably the best song on "couples"! the biggest difference i can spot between someone to drive you home and this pile of garbage is the producer - instead of pulp's steve mackey, who undoubtedly had some hand in shaping the long blondes's sound, the group chose dj erol alkan, a fixture in the london dance scene, who undoubtedly guided the long blondes towards making this pile of crap. "century" reflects alkan's dance/electronica background the greatest, but "couples", being a terrible terrible record, is rich with accidents, mistakes, and absolutely wrong decisions. the worst (after those fucking quotation marks), in the sense of making the least amount of sense and the most amount of irritation possible, is the album's inexplicable punctuation by dour british voiceovers. despite those pitfalls (and more), there's little sense in blaming alkan for "couples"'s greatest fault, which is simply that the songs really aren't very good at all.

my favorite part of someone to drive you home was kate jackson's fierce delivery and dorian cox's nuanced, gender-crossing lyrics, so it's natural that i find "couples" lacking most greviously in this department. jackson's voice is in as fine form as ever, but her character, once a brazen post-feminist with an eye on style and men, is flat and utterly dull. and it's not just jackson's persona that has taken a hit; cox, the primary lyricist again, has scripted song after song of trite, unengaging material. "here comes the serious bit," my absolutely least favorite song on "couples", seems to only have five words in it: "here," "comes," "the," "serious," and "bit." even cleverer songs like "erin o'connor" (key lyric: "i'll pretend i really cum") suffer from "couples"'s endemic lack of depth.

"couples" can't quite stand on its own feet musically either. even discounting the vast gaping holes of "nostalgia" and "too clever by half," the album has a slapdash feel to it, like an essay written at 3 am and due at 8. "i'm going to hell" has the same five or six chords played over again, and "the couples" feels just as vapid. there's no meat to these songs, nothing that reveals itself only after four or five attentive listens. for the most part, it's just depressingly mediocre, which smarts all the more for someone to drive you home's excellence. true, there are some decent songs besides "century;" "erin o'connor" and "guilt" find the long blondes staying mostly true to their punker selves, and are mostly redeemable. in other words, they're decent enough to be someone to drive you home outtakes.

more than anything else, "couples" makes me sad.

"century" & "here comes the serious bit"
(both files are 320 kbps, so they're rather large.)

awesome song day! - "21st century pop song"

2008-05-23T09:15:00.006-04:00

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

hymie's basement - "21st century pop song"

buy their self-titled record from lex.

hymie's basement, a collaboration between why?'s yoni wolf and fog's andrew broder, is pretty awesome. recorded in 2003, this album is a study in suburbia epitomized by its first track, "21st century pop song." delivered in wolf's characteristic discontended deadpan, and buttressed by broder's unsuspectingly playful arrangements, hymie's basement captures the reckless bravado, gnawing self-doubt, and sheer tedium of "normal" american lives, a concept sold to us by the silver screen. wolf preaches like a boy in the trenches of suburban malaise, wrestling with shallow archetypes of humanity - the beer-swilling sports fans ("let's root root root for the home team, shout like you're dead at the tv screen"), the aimless drivers ("you put your life in the hands of the highway designers") - and emerges bitter, but determindedly his own person.

songs i'm sent: sportsday megaphone

2008-05-17T11:24:00.002-04:00

ready for a surprise? i'm totally into this new british one man band! like, i never saw that one coming either.

londoner hugh frost is the mastermind of sportsday megaphone and self-described purveyor of "elaborate karaoke," a concept he describes with, well, this (he also uses lots of vocoders & walkie talkies during live shows). frost recently sent me the the two songs that are on his june 16 7" release, LA, and though this is only sportsday megaphone's second release, he is planning for the future (and how). his debut so many colours / so little time is due out in august on rob da bank's sunday best label, but he's already slated to play bestival (not surprising) and zoo thousand festivals, in addition to a couple dates around england with i was a cub scout. the songs (grab both below without delay) are more hopped-up than many of frost's one man band colleagues, and his lyrics are quite vitriolic. "LA" is a furious anti-scientology diatribe, written while frost was (appropriately) living in los angeles and an observer of the church's two-faced policies, the chorus punctuated by the declaration "you can go outside / and you can fucking die!" ( in an interview with this is fake diy, frost elaborates on "LA"'s meaning and impetus. he also takes a potshot at americans... jackass.) LA's b-side, "young lust," is a little more par for the course, electro-pop wise. a slightly vulgar song about uncontrollable teenage sex, "young lust" overflows with twee cheekiness, and offsets "LA"'s anger evenly.

i like both of these songs a lot.

"LA" & "young lust"

fun fact: one of sportsday megaphone's last.fm tags is "yay."

arm's way

2008-05-16T14:43:00.003-04:00

islands just sent me/their myspace friends a special request to tell everyone that arm's way is streaming at their myspace, and to go see them next week (ok, 8 days from now) at webster hall, if you live in nyc.

i have my ticket already.

at war with walls and mazes

2008-05-16T14:40:00.004-04:00

i got excited about son lux back in the day (february) and then didn't really do a whole lot about it, because, frankly, i thought the single "break" was significantly better than the rest of the album. i listened to at war with walls and mazes for a couple weeks without getting hooked, and it eventually got retired to the pile of "what could've been" records without me really noticing it. but i woke up today, with exciting plans about riding my new bike to the olafur eliasson exhibit at moma, and of course it was fucking raining. goddamnit. so, wallowing in my own self-pity, and with my music player pointed at the "S"s, i kinda accidentally found myself listening to at war with walls and mazes for the first time in a long time, and i've realized it's definitely a better album than i originally gave it credit for.

the major issue i had with it originally was how indistinguishable the music is, the songs often identifiable only when maestro ryan lott's lyrics change. assembled from his library of aural scraps and fragments, the album is cohesive to the point of nearly being interchangeable - though each song is uniquely constructed, they, as a whole, lose their individual character and blend together into a sonic haze. when i saw son lux open for why? in march, i had been listening to his album for several weeks, yet i couldn't identify a single song until he started singing verses. the problem stems, i think, from lott's graveyard of sounds, which are all different notes, or noises, or whatever, but all have the same aural integrity, the same neologic, electronic quality. his sounds have the same effect, so their nuances are like a tree in a forest - their very sameness makes them universally reductable. and even when lott uses organic sounds, like violins or pianos ("war," "stand"), they can are so disembodied that these snippets don't transmit the inherent atmosphere of such instruments. this problem, however, has been reconciled through ignorance though - since regaling it to the bench, so to speak, my ear is less anxious and more content to absorb than critique. so even though i find at war with walls and mazes's sameness occasionally oppressive, now that it's unhitched from the playing cycle i finally appreciate son lux.

the singular tonal hue of at war with walls and mazes can be jostling, as it was for me, accustomed to constant musical variety as my ear is. but then i started to perceive the album as a whole symphonic work, and the one-word songs as movements within the piece. every movement on at war with walls and mazes is titled by one evocative word ("betray," "wither"), lending the album a conceptual feel, and, for a while, i tried closely concentrating on lott's lyrics to see if it was. certainly, themes of doubt and unfaithfulness and revenge run through the work (and are evident in lott's vocal croak), but it's unclear what he is referencing, and it seems far too pedantic for lott to have written an album of love and loss. whatever its meanings, at war with walls and mazes is certainly a more successful work as a whole, a song's individual vagaries taking on greater meaning and significance. at war with walls and mazes's uni-hued tones are not recycled limiters, but an overarching stylistic choice, emblematic and representative of lott's fundamental message. and while i'm not 100% on what that message is, maybe it's not a verbal one at all, and merely a forceful reminder of the polarity of albums wholly conceived.

at war with walls and mazes has lots of good moments, some of which are songs and others which span songs. i think the second half of "raise" (starts at 3:27) is the single most compelling section of the album, a sizzling crescendo into a theme that could soundtrack a hollywood explosion. my personal preference is for son lux's most damaging tracks, the chaotic escalation and freak outs, epitomized by "weapons" and "wither," though it is the mellower songs that endure longer. "betray" and "stand" are twins here, easy and, at times, more conventional fare in a work that simultaneously provokes and soothes (in its defense, "stand" has an incredible mid-song choral eruption). however, i maintain that at war with walls and mazes shouldn't just be boiled down to its "best" songs - it's not the type of thing to listen to piecemeal. it is unified by an excellent cadence, lott's sound collages dipping and rising (without drifting) regularly, climaxing in the middle of songs or not at all with impunity; at war with walls and mazes tests new ground, defying and reigniting the stagnant expectation of the album in independent music.

"break" & "raise"

buy at war with walls and mazes from anticon.

son lux has been getting a lot of press lately for his remixes. stereogum just published his vocal-only remix of jamie lidell's "little bit of feel good," his remix of radiohead's "nude" is popular, and my brightest diamond is selling his remix of "inside a boy."

also, don't forget that there's a free unreleased track called "do" available from anticon as well.

i'm from barcelona & thao @ brooklyn masonic temple, 5/1/08

2008-05-04T18:30:00.009-04:00

i've been extremely fucking busy as of late, friends. i don't even know if anyone still reads mr. mammoth anymore. i don't blame you if you've gone away, since i haven't been able to offer anything in nearly a month. i am still extremely fucking busy, but i'm going to try hard to find time to balance my working life with my blogging life, though i don't doubt that the scales will continue to tip towards work, since blogging don't pay jack. but it's a labor of love, so forgive me if the lapses between posts remain; i'm doing the best i can.

one reason i've been so busy is that i've taken a couple jobs at live music venues around the city, which rocks for me, because now i get paid to see shows! but since i'm working the bands, i don't have time to really think about whether it's any good or not (hence, no postings about shows i work). but working in concertry has really made me much more aware of how important technical quality is to performances - ultimately, a good soundperson can make or break a set, almost regardless of how good the band is. so i went to brooklyn masonic temple the other night with all this new awareness in my head, a little wary of the promoter's claim that doors were at 7.30, show at 8 (uh duh, show was at 9. masonicboom, you get a C- for honesty), but eager to check out a new space with what seemed to be a lot of promise.

even after the technical abomination that was the i'm from barcelona show, i still think that BMT has serious potential as a concert venue, but only if they fire most of their crew. to fill the (large) floor space, they only had six stage-mounted speakers, and i don't think there was a sweet-sounding spot in the house. adding insult to injury, these speakers (i didn't see the maker) apparently have no mid-range, but LOTS OF TREBLE, so every snare hit was like a painful laser through my eardrum even though i was straining to catch any of thao's vocals. even the between-set music sounded terrible - not that the between-set music really matters a whole ton, but how hard is it to set levels from a CD? (answer: not very). i was right up in front for thao, but she sounded so bad that i moved further back for i'm from barcelona. it did sound a little better, but i don't know if i should give the soundguy more credit, or just assume that it was from the 16 voices bellowing lustily onstage (i'm leaning towards the latter). i wasn't even able to find any comfort in the lighting - the performers were drenched with white front light, and the backlight couldn't compete in the slightest. the best-imagined part of that rig were some well-placed LED bars, but the lighting person had no clue how to use them. the stage had that hasty, sloppy look, and i hope (for their sake) that it was a one-day job, loading in in the morning and out after the show, because that is one fucking sorry house rig, both sound- and lighting-wise. i think there's finally a venue worse than studio b!

this was the third time i've seen thao (and the longest band name ever) this year, and while this wasn't the best of the three (that was the soundfix show - no surprises there), i really relish her onstage dynamism. she's had pretty much the same set each time, but the songs never are. unlike a lot of performers, she and the get down stay down (of whom only 2 were in attendance) freely stray from their recorded melodies and just improvise new ones that fit the tempo. thao's skill on her guitar is unquestionable, and without frank stewart, the band's electric guitarist, there was a lot of space for her to explore. her physical energy is another appealing trait of the get down stay down's live shows - whenever she doesn't sing, she gets down (but stays up).

thao is definitely doing well for herself, having copped support spots for a number of established names (rilo kiley and xiu xiu as well as i'm from barcelona), but i'm curious as to how well the saturation scheme has worked. by the end of next week, she will have played new york five times since february, but many heads weren't bobbing, even for the always-boisterous "swimming pools." then again, even i found myself drifting from time to time; "feet asleep," one of my favorite tunes of hers, was a little stilted, and i'm not sure if thao yet has the personal presence to command the attention of a large room like the BMT. i would prefer to see her headlining smaller shows for the time being. she was also showing off her new guitar (in that photo), but i'm a fan of her older one - i'm not sure if this one had steel strings or not, but the metallic twang of the black one is a part of thao's sound that i've happily embraced.

stymied by fate, i was unable to see either of i'm from barcelona's summertime shows (matt from musicslut saw both), and i was definitely psyched for this event (also, it was my first non-worked show in weeks). i had heard from several people that their live sets are similar to the polyphonic spree's (you know how much i love them), so i was all excited for a joyful night of carousing and un-self-conscious happiness, but i was kind of dismayed by the actual result. trapped behind a solid wall of stoic, unsmiling mid-30s guys, unaffected by emanuel lundgren and his merry band, my night consisted of ducking around them to see the band and taking my earplugs out every so often to doublecheck that yes, it did actually sound that bad. okay, i'm exaggerating a little (not about the sound quality), and i was able to get into the spirit of things, though not as much as i wanted to. that, however, wasn't because of the stoic guys, but because i had really overanticipated i'm from barcelona's stage show. the 'spree sing happy songs and have fun onstage, but their first commitment is to performing their songs well - i'm from barcelona were more interested in the spectacle, rather than the sound. it was fun to watch them (especially the mustachioed "caped crusader" and dueling guitarists perched upon their amps), but i definitely felt like the music suffered as a result.

that being said, there were plenty of highlights, not least of which was the awesome segue into "like a prayer" during "rec and play" and the adapted-for-16 voices version of "meet the mets." there were tons of pink balloons and we were repeatedly showered in confetti, explosions of which accompanied every other song (also punctuated by spontaneous fistfuls from the stage), and the encore of "ola kala" concluded not with the band exiting from the stage, but diving into the crowd for a conga-line to some euro house track. in addition to favorites from let me introduce my friends (show opener "treehouse," "collection of stamps," and "the painter" fucking rocked), i'm from barcelona played a number of new tracks and "britney," their 7" release. the band was playful and exuberant (and generously mustachioed), and i left with a smile on my face, but it didn't match my expectations. as i've made abundantly clear, a lot of the blame for that should be attributed to the venue, but the band themselves were a shambles more often than they were a band, and i was left wanting.

small-time machine

2008-04-03T11:33:00.007-04:00

if there's one thing you can bet the farm on (and in these times, even that won't get you real far), it's that when there's a new one man band in town, mr. mammoth is going to have something to say about it. enter jason drake, the mastermind of hypeworthy cassettes won't listen, brooklyn's new buzz boy and savvy merchandising maven (he has a deal with the indiefied fashionistas brooklyn industries: they sell his clothes, he plays at their stores, 6 times last weekend). so, in addition to his rather shrewd business mind (he also self-released and distributed his first "physical" album small-time machine recently - check the "think indie" badge on its cover), what makes cassettes won't listen worthy of a minimum of six listens? well, the more than passing resemblance to the postal service, for one (i heard there's a new album - can anyone back me up on that?). but a lot of people have covered the give up territory since then, and a pale imitation is gonna have a hard time resting on those laurels, leaving cassettes won't listen is definitely subject to some legitimate accusations of copy & paste. he dips into lcd soundsystem territory without lingering too long, and swipes a couple tricks from other knob-twisters, but despite drake's (lengthy) list of influences and imitations, the result is not greater than the sum of its parts. but let's not shut the door on CWL quite yet - sure, drake isn't blazing any trails, but the dude can fucking script some hooks, and i can't get "large radio" out of my head for the life of me (you should know the rules by now - if there's some sweet melodies, mr. mammoth is on that like butter on bread). so let's give CWL the benefit of the doubt, if only momentarily, and give drake some props for the three songs on small-time machine that are more than okay.

small-time machine is, quality-wise, shaped like a valley. it starts high, and ends high, but the middle is lower than the value of the dollar. it took me a couple tries before i made it all the way through, mostly because i'd avoid the bloated, saccharine cesspool of "freeze and explode" - truly abysmal. a song like that is why god invented the fast forward button. fortunately, it's the only real boobytrap on the record.

sometimes, i think about albums in terms of how easily i can ignore them and concentrate on something else, like my book in the subway. the better an album is, the less i can ignore it (FYI: antidotes is presently my most unignorable album). small-time machine is a parabola of interesting-ness. i always tune in for "metronomes" and "large radio," and my attention invariably wanes until "the finish line," the final track. what small-time machines suffers from most is an overabundance of itself. there isn't one song on this record that wouldn't benefit from losing some of those bulky winter minutes - unsurprising, actually, considering drake's self-reliance for his records. other ears should have trimmed that fat. "the broadcast" could have been one of machine's best cuts, but at 6 minutes, its shoegazey climax comes and melts away without any discernible impact.

what makes "metronomes" so instantly appealing is its likeness to "the district sleeps tonight," and not merely in tone, but in expectation. "the district" is a great song, but it's an anticipator - it makes you excited and wanting more. "metronomes" causes more anticipation that small-time machines can deliver. drake's voice is reminiscent of a half-dozen others in indie rock, which gives him an uncomfortably attractive chameleon quality, a hook in itself. "two kids" benefits from his playfulness and danceable electro-bleeps, but CWL's greatest fault is plain repetition, which really doesn't fly, especially for one man bands. the constant build and addition of sounds is an integral part of that experience, and drake has either not learned that yet, or has an overblown sense of his own melodies. "large radio," clearly the album's best song, is enough proof that CWL can make great music. too bad the rest of small-time machines can't live up to it.

"large radio" & "paper float"

use think indie to find a store near you.

marino

2008-03-31T01:53:00.005-04:00

"crayon"

all this caribou talk has gotten me hot and bothered, and i've spent the better part of the last hour and a half rewatching the marino videos, all of which are happily found on youtube. the videos, all designed by irish collective delicious 9, were originally backdrop visuals, but were so good (no joke) that they were collection for dvd production, and bundled with 4 songs from the milk of human kindness's sessions.

i think delicious 9 have really captured a beautiful part of caribou's essence - "jacknuggeted" and "pelican narrows" especially capture the music's optimism and naivete, that sense of everything feeling new and rather exciting. one of my favorite features common to most of the videos is their thematic link - the characters all belong in a conjured world with dancing canaries, organ-pounding grandmas, and xylophone-rocking teddy bears, a world i could certainly use a lot more of. the videos, of nearly every song on both the milk of human kindness and up in flames, are almost without fault. "hello hammerheads" and "a final warning" shade in the darker parts of caribou's music, the latter an animated rollercoaster ride to the other side, the former a redemptive, if mischievous, look at sacrifice. "hendrix with ko" is, as one commenter puts it, "muppet slander," and is one of my favorite videos, along with the adorably-animated "skunks."

i feel it's a shame that the best praise i can give marino that it's worth your money. i think these videos are an important part of caribou's overall aesthetic, and super fucking cute at the same time. this feels a lot more like art than just music videos or projections.

watch them all here, and marvel, marvel at their awesomeness!

"marino"
buy marino from the leaf label. (do it, cheapskates!)

"jacknuggeted"

caribou & fuck buttons @ bowery ballroom, 3/28/08

2008-03-31T00:25:00.001-04:00

even a casual reader of this blog will be aware of the fact that i am a superhuge caribou fan. they won the inaugural "band i blogged about most" title, clocking in with six individual posts, and though this is their first '08 entry, i've lost none of my rabid fervor for dan snaith's psychedelic electronica, which is why i returned to see them yet again. they have been on tour pretty incessantly since andorra's release last fall, and i've seen them three times since then, so i didn't think they'd have much new work to bring to the table, just their plain old awesomeness. but i was wrong - dead wrong. in their downtime (what downtime?), snaith and one of caribou's touring members have reworked all of their projections, and refashioned many of their songs - necessary changes when you hit the same cities twice in six months, but still pleasantly surprising. but the best change caribou could've made for this tour is the inclusion of the peerless fuck buttons, for whom, i wager, more than a couple people were there to see.

music aside, fuck buttons have been able to wring an extrraordinary amount of press from their name alone, a verbal vortex that no reviewer can resist (myself included). it's good that their name invites such controversy, because they don't offer much in the way of lyrical bones to pick - whatever it is that comes out of benjamin john power's mouth is definitely not distinguishably verbal. their name is as much a part of their enigmatic musical persona as much as their cosmic distorto-jams, and everyone has weighed in on fuck buttons's nomenclature (it sounds almost regal, doesn't it?) without coming to much in the way of concrete conclusions. well, there was no way the twinkly knob-twisters were going to explain themselves, especially without a microphone of their own. yet fuck buttons spoke in volume, creating staggering, deafening swaths of melody and static from itsy-bitsy instruments, subjugating the crowd (and making them dig for their earplugs) right after the first climax of "sweet love for planet earth." as far as i could tell (considering i don't have street horrrsing memorized), they played that album in its entirety, if slightly compacted. no breaks, no stops, all fucking awesome. as their set progressed, power and bandmate andrew hung became more and more involved in their admittedly limited show, their movements taking on a semblance of ritual, fierce and deliberate head-banging and body-waving, the music coursing through their bodies as it did ours. honestly, if you haven't bought a copy of street horrrsing yet, it's really time to do so, and go out and see the band: 40 glorious minutes of cataclysmic triumph in decibels; since mogwai isn't making anyone's ears bleed lately, maybe fuck buttons are taking up the reins. more power (and volume) to them.

caribou: awesome. the surprises (new projections and a couple drastic song reworkings) didn't really affect the show as a whole - they were exciting little morsels, making the show richer as a whole, but not really any different than previous caribou shows. however, that doesn't make it boring - it's not like i've been dragged to see them, caribou fucking rocks live, and they delivered an excellent show once again. the unison drumming is always exciting, and "skunks" especially benefited from it. "bees," as always, blew the place apart, and encore "every time she turns round it's her birthday" was, appropriately, the best part of the night. what set this show apart from previous caribou experiences was twofold, i think. they were blessed with a great soundman who really understood the band's nuances, but i think the most potent element of caribou's set was the influence of fuck buttons. interestingly enough, i felt like caribou was pushing themselves extra hard as a response to fuck buttons's egregious volume, and that energy was overwhelming. it could've also been that dan snaith celebrated his 30th birthday that night (technically, during "every time," as the clock ticked over to 3/29), but caribou were at the most jubilant, their most wildly exuberant, and the show was fantastic.

i went to four concerts last week - why?, crystal castles, del, and caribou - and the one i was least excited about was also, hands down, the best one. i expected the usual from snaith & co., and something cool from fuck buttons, but we were treated to a great night (all the better, from my perspective, with the loss of dan friel. parts & labor = gag). don't ever pass up the chance to see caribou.

"melody day" (from the pink room sessions)
pick up the new she's the one single from merge.

buy street horrrsing from atp.

it's been a long time since i rock and rolled

2008-03-27T11:49:00.004-04:00

i just needed to take some time off.

if all goes according to plan, i hope to return to rocking and rolling your lifestyle by the end of the week.

seriously though, will someone please explain what, exactly, is so compelling about noise rock? i so don't get it.

yeasayer's take away show

2008-03-12T12:47:00.001-04:00

heads up, y'all.

"2080"

awesome song day! - "back burner"

2008-03-12T11:57:00.006-04:00

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

isobel campbell & mark lanegan - "back burner"
sunday at devil dirt will be released may 5 on v2 records.

this song makes me want to be a heavy drinker.

anticon. offers up unreleased son lux track!

2008-03-12T11:35:00.004-04:00

anticon. have been busy boys. in addition to the superfabulous alopecia they dropped yesterday, awesome mr. mammoth fave son lux released his at war with walls and mazes through the collective as well. i'm still digesting the record, but at first blush, it is spectral, slightly haunting, and idiosyncratic, and very very good. to celebrate its release, anticon. is offering the unreleased track "do" for download. grab it below and see son lux at his multiple sxsw dates or opening for why? on march 22 in nyc.

"do"

alopecia

2008-03-11T12:59:00.000-04:00

if you're a sensible person, you downloaded alopecia back when it leaked in january, and if you're a smart person, you've been absolutely floored by it since then. it's deft, snide, totally off the wall, and super super good.

here are some reasons why?

1. "the vowels pt. 2" - i'm not a ladies man, i'm a landmine

2. "good friday" - sucking dick for drinks tickets at the free bar at my cousin's bat mitzvah

3. "these few presidents" - i thought 'there is no paved street worthy of your perfect scandanavian feet'

4. "the hollows" - i curse the last six months i've been hiding behind a mustache

5. "song of the sad assassin" - i feel like a loop of the last eight frames of film, before a slow-motion lee harvey oswald gets shot in the gut and killed

6. "gnashville" - sometimes i claim to know a guy but can't tell you what his hands look like

7. "fatalist palmistry" - you countin' blessings cuz your net worth oughtta be less cream than your best dream

8. "the fall of mr. fifths" - i'm unavoidable like death this christmas, is this twisted?

9. "brook & waxing" - if some divine simon spoke, or came down to find us caught here in a our labcoats but without a science, would we see light?

10. "a sky for shoeing horses under" - rain goes perfect with a nosdam mixtape

11. "twenty eight" - tell me, are you single yet? my heart's as big as texas

12. "simeon's dilemma" - you're the only proper noun i need

13. "by torpedo or crohn's" - today after lunch, i got sick and blew chunks all over my new shoes in the lot behind whole foods, this is a new kind of blues

14. "exegesis" - "no stack of yoga mats or foamcore cushion pads, to lessen the pressure of the phone cord choking my neck

"the hollows" & "the fall of mr. fifths"

buy alopecia from

stream their cover of "close to me" at their myspace.

songs i'm sent: from LA SCALA

2008-03-07T12:24:00.000-05:00

songs i'm sent will now be a semi-often feature about songs that appear in my inbox. the feature's full name is: songs i'm sent that are okay, probably kinda catchy, but not really deserving of the kind of thought and energy that goes into a full album review, but more than just an awesome song day! because they probably have more than one good song, so it's gonna be real informative and light on the opinion. you can figure out for yourself why i'm going with songs i'm sent.

alright, let's get this party started. the band with the honor of deflowering my latest inspirational brainwave is la scala, a chicago band that plays music that has nothing to do with their namesake. a pretty decent mix of post-punk, continental gutter pop, and shoegaze-worthy guitar lines, the harlequin, la scala's debut ep, has just been released on hometown highwheel records. in my ever-growing list of people whose names i wish i had (you'll remember the last two were finbar mallon and slim moon) is la scala's frontman, balthazar de ley. ley spent his formative years shuttling between paris and illinois, and it shows. inspired by both french crime fiction and street busquers, ley's lyrics are 3 minute neo-gothic dumas novels accompanied by soaring, off-kilter waltzes. of the five songs on the harlequin, which was produced by brian deck, "parallel lives" is the clear hit, a dance number with soaring guitar, but every song is pretty effing catchy. actually, i pretty highly recommend this.

"parallel lives" & "the harlequin"

buy the harlequin from highwheel records.

don't delay! act now! this limited-time offer is only available for limited time!

2008-03-06T13:01:00.004-05:00

i am in a mad dash out the door, and don't really have the time to remind you how good efterklang's parades was, or to tell you that, to celebrate their 5th year of being a live band, efterklang is giving away a sweet fucking live mp3 of their new song, "mirror mirror" on their website.

soo, yeah, that's what's up.

if you live in europe, you have no excuse to not see efterklang when they play in your respective city in the next month or so.

if you live in america, all i know is that they're playing new york in may, and i will fucking be there.

don't you just want to be friends with these guys?

mike house's house

2008-03-04T20:23:00.000-05:00

congratulations to mike house, bassist of superawesome team robespierre, for devirginizing the village voice's cribz spinoff, indie cribz (you know, it's like, ironic, but still semi-serious...). mike takes us into his now-legal apartment building, a ex-squat house that guiliani sold to a housing nonprofit, the urban homesteading assistance board, which mike and his friends run (and will someday own). we see his bathroom, his roof (fucking awesome view, man), his inexplicable tupperware full of rotten crabs. mike also looks like he hasn't slept in 2 weeks, so mike, if you're out there, go to bed!

team robespierre is currently on a tour of the south east (richmond on wednesday), and play ten (count 'em, ten) shows at south by southwest. surely you can find at least six opportunities to see them.

watch the video here.

"88th precinct"

thanks to reader mike lawson for the tip!

leak of the week - attack & release

2008-03-04T11:49:00.000-05:00

in an environment where innovation is often valued above competence and inspiration trumps talent, the black keys are bold iconoclasts, sticking to the same guns on attack & release that they first displayed on the big come up, an album that, in itself, bucked the trend of ingenuity above genius with its intensely throwback, medium-fidelity blues. no great lover of the blues myself, i picked up the band's third LP, rubber factory in 2004 mainly from peer pressure, and found it to be a well-written album, if not particularly tailored to my tastes. i listened to it time and time again, trying to become obsessed with their magic, but it wasn't an album i turned to for pleasure, and in time i gave up on the black keys and rubber factory. in 2006, i had no reason to feel differently about magic potion or chulahoma, yet, i (unsurprisingly) find myself drawn to, and a pleasurable listener of, the keys's most recent album, the leak of the week, attack & release. (incidentally, i'm listening to rubber factory at this very moment, and am very much enjoying it. maybe this is a new era for me and the black keys.)

there's no secret about my motivation for reevaluating the black keys at this point: it's not because dan auerbach has a new, bigger beard, or because attack & release is their first studio lp (don't ask me where the others were recorded), but because a man with platinum in his fingers was manning the helm on this new ship with an old sound. that man is brian burton, a.k.a. danger mouse, who, rather singlehandedly, has been behind some of the most innovative musical project in recent years. since redefining mashups with the grey album to inventing cyber soul as gnarls barkley, danger mouse has had his fingers in many pies. i had totally forgotten he produced the good, the bad, & the queen or a couple rapture songs, to say nothing of sparklehorse...i don't even know what that's all about. despite danger mouse's musical flexibility, the news that the black keys were going to be collaborating with brian burton for their fifth lp was met with both widespread shock and incredulity, especially with the news that ike turner would be involved. as the 'fork noted, his passing precludes his appearing on the album, but it didn't stop the project. and so, here we are, attack & release blasting, a generational bridge between a defiantly retro band and an unstoppably futuristic producer (have you heard "run" yet? that shit belongs in the 22nd century!), an album that has already changed my feelings towards this band after only a week.

it is worth noting that, despite the immediately obvious contributions of danger mouse, every song on attack & release was written by the keys themselves, patrick carney and dan auerbach. this knowledge tidbit is important for two reasons: firstly, it soothes the possible fear of a black keys traditionalist who worries that danger mouse may awkwardly reworked the band's sound, and secondly, because it relegates danger mouse to a nearly new role - after all, there are worlds of difference between producing hip hop and producing rock. yet in every instance on attack & release, danger mouse's touch is light but completely intrinsic to the song's overall effect. still, there is a division, at least at the top of the album, between songs that carry danger mouse's noticeable touch, and it's worth remembering that danger mouse is not the only contributor to this album. both marc ribot and ralph carney (patrick's uncle) joined the band in the studio, and attack & release has a tangible sense of depth (and not just because most tracks have bass in them). danger mouse's overall influence is felt, rather than heard, and the result is forceful and charismatic.

in many respects, the black keys are doing what they've always done, write kick ass blues songs with fire and grit - the only difference this time around is that more imaginations are in the mix. their influences mold the album differently, but don't forget that this is still a black keys record. unsurprisingly, however, the best songs on attack & release are the ones that were imagined by everyone. what the black keys lacked earlier was a real appreciation for details, and their intensely lo-fi sound didn't have any space for them. though they carried the blues into the 21st century, there wasn't much of the 21st century in their sound. this time things are different.

"strange times" & "oceans & streams"

attack & release comes out on nonesuch records on april 1.

note: a full review of attack & release will be prepared for its release date.

cadence weapon @ mercury lounge, 3/2/08

2008-03-03T12:35:00.000-05:00

note: born ruffians headlined. don't like 'em, didn't see 'em, have nothing to say about 'em.

poor cadence weapon. the guy puts out two brilliant albums, nearly wins the inaugural polaris prize, and is pitchfork's favorite son, and he still can't buy a break (though i understand he does good business in beats). currently on tour in support of afterparty babies (due out on tuesday), the crowd that received him last night in new york was appreciative, if somewhat confused. i made a fuss about "limp-wristed hipsters" when he opened for final fantasy in november, but seeing him a second time makes me realize how silly that statement was. cadence weapon's whole aesthetic is an attempt to promote a new style of rap, dance-rap, or party-rap, or whatever, and shopping it to effete indie rock fans (for example, the people who were there for born ruffians, the night's headliners), is just not going to be successful.

the crowd last night made a few valiant attempts to show their appreciation for cadence weapon, but my overall feeling was that i'd rather watch him (he's a great performer), than get involved and miss something. he tried time and again, without real success, to encourage people to get dancing, jumping into the crowd and using his body language to goad us into actual movement. personally, however, i like just listening to cadence weapon, not dancing to him. the dude has killer beats and a preposterous flow, but neither brings out the dancer in me. unfortunately, i think he took our lack of dancing as disinterest or dislike, and busted out only a handful of songs, four or five from afterparty babies and three from breaking kayfabe. i really hope he wasn't bummed out because no one was dancing, because i thought his set was fantastic! "real estate" opened, and everything after it was a highlight. hell, there were no highlights because all the songs were great. often i don't grasp a song's whole message when i listen to it by myself (i tend to listen to vocal rhythms and individual words, without focusing on the overarching lyrical message), and hearing cadence weapon in person really gave me new scope on his lyrical abilities. "black hand" and "oliver square" were great, but i would've really loved to have heard "juliann wilding" or more of his new stuff. my favorite song might have been "messages matter." "in search of the youth crew" was solid, and single "house music" closed the set, but where was "limited edition of oj slammer" or "tattoos and what they really feel like"?

"real estate"

afterparty babies comes out tomorrow on anti- records.

"unsuccessful club nights"

awesome song(s) day!, courtesy of stars and sons!

2008-02-29T12:45:00.005-05:00

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

stars and sons - "if it's good for me" & "comfy now"

download the goat show ep right here, sans payment.

earlier this week, i got an email from michael lord, asking me to give his band stars and sons (uk) a listen, and if i would like a cd. so, i clicked my way over to their myspace to give them a test listen, when i saw that they were being so generous as to give away their debut, the goat show ep, for free, and asking just a pound or two through a paypal button. now, nothing piques my interest like free music, and i downloaded it right then and there.

though stars and sons is a new band, they already seemed to have their own impenetrable mystique (maybe), surrounding mike lord, who is supposedly "dead(ish)." there are pictures of the band on their myspace photo page, but they are all wearing black-and-white xeroxed masks, and they are always alone in the picture. curiouser and curiouser. maybe mike lord isn't actually dead (duh), but actually every member of the band? (although this picture is definitely of a woman.) okay, that isn't a huge stretch, but it's a pretty elaborate deception for a myspace page, and it's very intriguing. it's also quite convenient (if you're digging the mystique deal) that the band is named after a broken social scene song, which makes it not very easy to do any research on them (there are six google entries for "stars and sons" before the band). the most suspicious? the webwaves have been silent since i emailed mike back for more information. who doesn't work a little for free publicity? c'mon - he's totally dead!

all sleuthing and jokery aside, i've really been digging the goat show ep, and not because of the intrigue. stars and sons play baroque, schizoid pop in the vein of nation-mates guillemots, rife with addictive piano, arching and understated vocals, and occasional squealing guitar solos. "if it's good for me" instantly caught my ear, self-mocking and cheesy (my sister thinks it sounds like an 80s montage), and hooked my on the rest of the record. the goat show ep is so unbelievably camp, more so than anything patrick wolf or owen pallett or fyfe dangerfiel d could dream up, that it has just totally won it's way into my headphones...and my heart. "comfy now" is probably the other best song on the goat show ep, also driven by a manilow-on-crack piano and has one of those super guitar solos, and is lush and abrupt and really, really good. so good, in fact, that it is both free AND worth spending money on, so go download that shit, and give stars and sons some money love via their myspace.

update: ok, i have to retract my statement that stars and sons are camp-er than patrick wolf. i forgot he wore satsumas on the belt of his hot pants at connect.

everything's perfect

2008-02-29T01:45:00.001-05:00

i'll tell you what - if you're sick of hearing about team robespierre, you best point your browser elsewhere, because i am so fucking in love with this band that it's scary. in lieu of going to their showpaper benefit tonight (sorry guys, but it's cold and bushwick is far away), i'm gonna rap at all y'all about the excellence of their debut album, everything's perfect. you might remember that i was at its release party (along with matt & kim!), and i really haven't stopped listening to it since. though i've been listening to them for over two months (since i picked up their fake gold sampler at the yeasayer show), i still haven't really nailed down what, exactly, i love about them so much, but i know that i fucking do.

a team robespierre song is, fundamentally, a short debilitating burst of energy, released as a mix of anger and joy that provokes little of the former, and much of the latter. on everything's perfect, they tackle subjects such as gasoline ("gasoline"), the 88th precinct ("88th precinct"), and nuclear fallout ("plutonium pigs"), and, fervently, brooklyn. fiercely proud of their home borough (if you weren't aware, you will be at the end of any team robespierre show, since they announce their origins two to four times during any set), team robespierre is justifiably resentful of its inevitable gentrification, a threat not only to brooklyn's diversity and independent spirit, but also its rent prices. currently, my favorite song on everything's perfect (most of the tracks have been my favorite at one point or another) is "mal de mer," a crude but emphatic call to arms against imported dicks with a cleverly turned chorus: "what we're gonna do is stage a coup / against these pricks they make me sick." the team's diy aesthetic and casual anti-establishmentism is their guiding light, a mindset which their (universally-shared) aversion to work stems from. one of the album's punkier cuts, "ha ha ha," is a ballsy anti-work anthem about wanting to be a hearththrob, and "solid gold" is an glitzy all-keyboard jam about "waiting for our break / so some money we can make." one olfactory byproduct of the team's lifestyle is an irregular showering schedule, which was overpowering in december, is coyly joked about on "death smells" ("death smells / i do too" is the song's closing lyric), but i'm also totally in love with its chorus, the nonsensical "death / smells / zombie / christmas," shouted at customary full volume for no reason other than the joy of it all.

so, in case you're just joining us, i'm a stingy bastard (listen - who else actually tells you when it's worth spending money on an album, instead of just downloading it?), and one thing i always looked for when buying a record is its length. unless i was desperate to have it, i wouldn't bother buying it if it clocked in under, say, 42 minutes, cuz i would totally feel ripped off otherwise. as i've grown older, thankfully, i've learned that length really has little to do with an album's quality, and that my brain can't really listen to more than 50, 55 minutes of the same band straight (i've only listened to illinoise all the way through, like, twice). what really seals the deal is my overwhelming love for everything's perfect, which scoots past at barely 18 minutes long. the single "88th precinct" is their longest tune, at just under three minutes, and only one other track is over two, yet i don't feel shorted. everything's perfect is a full album, and though i do frequently wish it was longer, that's because i don't want the party to stop when it does. one good thing about their preferred song length - it makes it hella easier to dance to. i don't know if i could spazz out as hard as is necessary for longer than three minutes without dying (metaphorically). though team robespierre's songs are short, they rarely feel underdeveloped, and it makes you wonder if it's harder to make an awesome short song than an awesome normal length song. for "black rainbow," a superb track that isn't quite 1:30, all the essential song elements are present, and there's even space for a little improvisation. usually, i find myself thinking that songs are too long, that they drag and my mind wanders, and it's really nice that that isn't the case with everything's perfect. short, sweet, and, i daresay, perfect, it's an easily digestible album that rewards long past its 18 minutes.

lyrically, everything's perfect is exciting, a little ferocious, and totally adorable (in that endearingly self-righteous way), especially because it's hard to decipher a lot of the words without the album's helpful lyric sheet. the ecstatic catharsis that accompanies any public enjoyment of team robespierre's music is what really sells the band though. just look at this photo, one of the many that sums up how intense the team is live. everybody sweats, everybody dances, some people crowd surf, and everyone runs on a lot of fucking adrenaline. i'd like to borrow a line from the hold steady here: "people touching people when they don't even know you," as it defines a live team robespierre experience, a jumbled mess of energy and euphoria. the team's loose approach to instrumentation and avid appreciation for multiple vocalists make their songs perfect for joint band-audience participation, and you will likely find yourself dancing with a member of team robespierre if you're anywhere near the front. their enthusiasm is infectious, yes, but their music is so provocative and addictive that it's hard to tell if the crowd goes more nuts when a member of the team jumps into their midst, or whether their frantic dancing has reached a sustained climax. don't expect to go home fresh and clean after one of their inimitably awesome live shows.

the moral of the story? everything's perfect rocks. go see team robespierre live.

"88th precinct" & "mal de mer"

"88th precinct"

update: good thing i ended up staying home last night. man, that fucking sucks.

children of the unicorn

2008-02-28T15:45:00.000-05:00

when forces out of your control collude and create a band that combines an appreciation for sensitive and poignant artwork, intuitive understanding of humor, and top-notch shtick metal, the best thing for you to do, really, is just turn up the volume. also, have you seen anything half as cool as that tattoo in the past six to eight months? if you have, i'm totally jealous, cuz this tattoo is the mothereffing bomb.

that amazing arm belongs (collectively) to children of the unicorn, a band of self-described "old jaded guys" who remember the intense emotional and kickass power of guitar solos, and are re-spreading the gospel of metal, ironically titled song by ironically titled song. children of the unicorn rock so hard that you can't help but laugh, flick your bic, and unironically raise your hand in the ancient salute of potbellied kiss fans everywhere.

i saw children of the unicorn at highline ballroom a couple weeks ago, and was totally stunned by their set. they performed with a respectable seriousness, considering their outlandish m.o., and had the crowd rocking in no time flat (i think it was due to "night shark"). virtually every children of the unicorn song is the same (something frontman phil costello alluded to with his near-identical song introductions), but they never got stale, mostly because each was better than the last. "night shark" destroyed us, but then there was "icicle dagger" and "rock n' roll (sweet sweet rock n' roll)," and, best of all, "the fire in your pants." these are songs your high school band should have played, if they hadn't been trying so hard to be all mature and score, funny rock songs that run on pure endorphins.

one reason children of the unicorn are so good at what they do is because they have what amounts to an enviable joke-metal pedigree, if you care about such things. costello, drummer joel frost, and cowbellist (yup, you read that right) szuf daddy are also in tragedy, "the tri-state area's # 1 metal tribute to the bee gees," and guitarist dave hill is a noted comedian & metalhead (and wields a mighty mighty axe). outside of children of the unicorn, szuf daddy goes by the name jake szufnarowski, and is the head of rocks off entertainment. i was excited to see children of the unicorn because of the village voice article about szufnarowski, but their description didn't live up to the band's explosive live show.

children of the unicorn play piano's on april 24. tragedy is going to sxsw, so all y'all who will be there, go check 'em out!

get out your faded kiss shirt and suck in your beer gut - metal hasn't been this good since spinal tap!

"night shark" & "the fire in your pants"

leak of the week - volume one (she & him)

2008-02-26T00:41:00.003-05:00

even if there's nothing wrong with love, it can still be a painful bitch. just ask zooey deschanel, whose vocal turns on volume one prove her an experienced victim of the human condition. in between starring in a wide and generally beguiling all comers with her big blue eyes, deschanel partnered with americana all-star m. ward for the much-hyped, grammatically-incorrect superduo she & him. lauded since their collaboration was formally announced, she & him's eponymous first release, volume one, is due out on merge on march 18, and (despite merge's murderous efforts to keep a lid on it), leaked last week. but don't go rush out and rustle up a copy - getting your hands on a volume one advance isn't nearly good enough to make breaking the law worthwhile.

of all the significant records that have leaked this year (some counts are as high as sixty), volume one ranks among the most anticipated. especially beloved since 2006's post-war, ward's contribution factored significantly in the hype surrounding she & him, but deschanel's entrance into the independent music mainstream was probably the duo's biggest draw. the album is not divided along the simple lines of vocalist/musician; instead, deschanel sings and wrote most of the album's music, while ward plays and produced it. ward's absence from the songwriting process isn't immediately apparent, though volume one does lack much of his distinctive big band folk vibe, the first of many strikes against it. no music novice herself, deschanel performs with fellow actress samantha shelton under the moniker if all the stars were pretty babies, a small-scale cabaret act that has not released any albums. her voice is well-practiced and clear, but these qualities actually count against her in the end. bereft of accent, huskiness, or, often, sincere emotion, deschanel's vocals are the principal reason volume one fails to grab the ear or engage throughout the brief album. on a personal note, i was really disappointed by the fact that ward is such an irregular vocalist, appearing on only two songs (though he offers minimal backup on "change is hard") when his voice is one of the charismatic in contemporary music.

lyrically and thematically, volume one is a record about love and absence (mostly absent love). opener "sentimental heart" certainly sets the tone, one that is echoed by virtually every song on the album. "i thought i saw your face today" has the chorus "no, i couldn't help but fall in love again," "black hole" features a jaunty melody and "i'm all alone / on a bicycle built for two," and on the lonesome "take it back," deschanel debates "the possibility / of staying in my corner." so, we get it zooey - your love life is a drag. the problem isn't that she can't stop singing about how lovesick she is, it's that she doesn't sound in the least bit interested in her own, purported despair. her voice has no catches, no choking up, and if she's trying to sell us her sadness, it's not worth face value.

she & him suffer most from the lack of palpable emotion in deschanel's voice, an absent element that puts her at odds with the artists she so carefully tries to emulate. deschanel and ward were first drawn together by a mutual love for golden era pop - the ronettes, linda ronstadt, dusty springfield, etc. - and attempts to hearken back to that period, without much success. they tackle smokey robinson's "you really gotta hold on me," ronnie spector's "i was made for you," and the beatles' "i should have known better" by doing little more than putting a saddle on each. "i should have known better" is the only other song that has ward on vocals, and the only one with simulated horse clops, fortunately. the fire and cleverness of post-war has disappeared, replaced with a faux 50s feel that is tired and repetitive by the end of volume one's 36 minutes, a simulation of simple session songs complete with ubiquitous pedal steel.

volume one is not all bad, even if it is considerably less than expectations suggested, and there are even some honest-to-goodness good songs on there. "why do you let me stay here?" was released by merge for a reason - it's probably the album's best song, vocally and musically. it has the calculatedly shambolic feel of "to go home," especially with the addition of melismatic backup vocalists and dogged guitar, and passes by much too quickly. even the pedal steel sounds less tired on "change is hard," another worthwhile track that sounds like a true collaboration between deschanel and her band, with some of her sincerest vocals interwoven with artfully designed instrumentals. i truly like "you really gotta hold on me" for ward's vocals as much as anything else, though this song's production differs significantly from the rest of the album - there's a lot of space in its recording, with echoes and a gravitas that the rest of volume one can't attain.

volume one's brevity is mostly a downside, even if you don't happen to like the record. songs feel short though not underthought; rather, their limited scope allows for little to no experimentation. though billed as a duet, she gets first billing because it's mostly about her - her songs, her voice, her style. on the whole, volume one would be improved with a little more breathing room - even if it is only to separate songs, which are thrown at you rapidfire and without needed intervals between them. "you really gotta hold on me" succeeds due to this aural space; otherwise, i find that the album flits by me without needing attention. the songs blend together, mostly undefined by sincerity or instrumental and production diversity, and, at best, is a background record for coffeeshops or half-listened to radio country.

"why do you let me stay here?" & "you really gotta hold on me"

pre-order volume one from

who needs english? - yelle

2008-02-22T16:15:00.003-05:00

it's not every day that i get scooped by the new york times. we both got to foals, but i was totally left in the dust about yelle, france's newest and coolest export. urbaneye gave us the heads-up about the smart-mouthed star in advance of her show on tuesday, her first on american soil, but too late for me. however, the "more than sold out" show seemed by be a writhing success, with as much pompadour as pomp for the wildly enthusiastic crowd.

if there is such a thing as a continental pop niche in the united states, yelle is definitely poised to dominate it. forget the fact that her debut album pop up has no stateside distribution. forget the fact that there are only one or two tracks on the hype machine or elbo.ws. a myspace phenom who has been steadily garnering acclaim for two full years, 2008 will be the year yelle takes over over here... maybe. sure, yelle's shows sell out across france and her hip-thrusting houseclash beats (produced by grandmarnier) are well-suited for her trash talk - at least i think they are, because i really don't know.

unlike previous who needs english? artists, yelle falls flat for the monolingual listener. it's no surprise that yelle has been invited to perform on lily allen's bbc show, since they play pretty much the same music. who would be a better fit on lily's show than a trash-talking strong woman made popular by myspace? don't get me wrong, i love lily, but i can't imagine enjoying "not big" if i couldn't understand what it was about, and that's my only hangup with pop up. yelle's english language version of her home page is imperfectly translated, though it's easy to get the gist of it: yelle sings dirty songs about boys, dildos, and the small penis of cuiziner, a member of parisian crew ttc. i'm sure her songs are funny, but this is one of the times when i can't overcome the language barrier. what good are dirty jokes if you don't know when to laugh?

"a cause des garçons" & "dans ta vraie vie"

download some live yelle from the smudge of ashen fluff.

i'm taking over the podcast-waves

2008-02-19T13:57:00.001-05:00

ever think that reading a blog doesn't really tell you enough about the writer's opinion? ever wonder what that blogger sounds like without being able to edit their sentences? yeah, you know you do.

ok, even if that doesn't sound like your cup of tea, how bout some free music as recommended by some excellent blogs around the world, in easily digestible & transportable podcast form? good thing blog fresh radio is here! their weekly broadcasts, hosted by abbey from punk photo and curated by bill from sound bites, are a mix of sweet new tunes and interviews with some of the sharpest music bloggers worldwide. as of yesterday, that list includes mr. mammoth! i talked to them about my new superfaves foals and their new york show last week, and they played the awesome "cassius."

in addition to my few moments of podcast fame, blog fresh radio also talks to the music slut, cubik music, lost in your inbox, and music like dirt.

download this episode of blog fresh radio!

leak of the week - street horrrsing

2008-02-18T22:06:00.003-05:00

of all the awesome things about fuck buttons (trust me, there are many), the undeniably awesomest thing about the band is their name. it's got an attention-grabbing expletive, but unlike fellow swear bands, the harshness of the "fuck" is blunted by the benign "buttons," so their name becomes a curiosity, not a curse. and then the questions - what does it mean? is it an imperative? are bandmates andrew hung and benjamin john power commanding us to (as anatomically unlikely as it is), have intercourse with buttons? are they referencing the strange and awesome power of multiple clitorii? or maybe it's an ejaculation of anger, as in "fuck [those goddamn] buttons!" when you say "fuck buttons," is there an exclamation point at the end? maybe it has some relationship to their instrumentation; do none of their noisemaking gadgets have buttons? to tell the truth, i'm happier not knowing, because a) it really has no relevance to fuck buttons' sound, and b) i'm happy with the way i say it, with a great big ! at the end, in an extremely happy voice (unnecessary swearing is a joy), and with the hard "ck" and crisp "tt" bouncing off my tongue. i think i would like fuck buttons even if their music sucked, because their name is so much fun. fortunately, as i said at the beginning of this long-winded and rambling paragraph, their name is only the most awesome thing about fuck buttons, not the only.

street horrrsing is fuck buttons' first LP but their third overall release, distributed by ATP recordings (a label i had hitherto not known the existence of, but with some significant releases under their belts). a few impressive things about fuck buttons: they were tapped for an ATP performance after releasing only two songs, they were picked by pitchfork for their own ATP event (sensing a pattern here?), and, unrelatedly, they're totally amazing. street horrrsing includes all of fuck buttons' previously released material, but sounds fresh regardless. i hesitate at using the term "noise rock" to describe fuck buttons )though that is almost certainly the correct one), because i hear virtually no similarities between their sprawling, gargantuan sound and the often aimless and self-gratifying sonic squeals of other practitioners of that genre. fuck buttons are riveting, engaging and imaginative, musicians who occupy the coveted, and strangely tender, space that exists at the intersection of melody and noise.

i think fuck buttons' secret is rather simple, though that doesn't limit its quality. even while lambasting ears with unbelievable sounds, fuck buttons' noise is always, always musical. a shocking revelation, this. hissy, staticy, feedbacky, yes, but it is never dissonant, never atonal, never pure, alienating noise and volume for its own (unnecessary) sake. fuck buttons' careful mastery of the noise/melody merge not only makes street horrrsing one of the more impressive debut albums i've heard in years, but also means fuck buttons are the best hope for intelligent progressive rock since godspeed you! black emperor (r.i.p.?)

"sweet love for planet earth" is arguably the best song on street horrrsing, which makes it equally arguably the best thing fuck buttons have ever written. this nine minute opus that titled the band's first EP exemplifies the appeal of fuck buttons through the dichotomous juxtaposition of noise and melody, and is remarkably tight and succinct considering its near-epic length. the song opens with tinkly droplets of sound, the musical equivalent to ripples in a pond, and by its fourth minute, "sweet love"'s melody is riding a reverberating crescendo, pulsating with sonic fury, still accompanied by the tender melody that began it. in spite of its intensity (or due to it), "sweet love" has the remarkable ability to bring serentity and calm even as power screams indistinguishably, his voice little more than distorted vowels. like all of street horrrsing, "sweet love" is impeccably balanced, so that the supposedly brutal sounds are never deafening, and always exist in harmony with its more peaceable side.

the best fuck buttons songs are made using the blueprint of "sweet love" without falling victim to simple replication of its enticing formula. "okay, let's talk about magic" is another lengthy work (at ten minutes, street horrrsing's longest) that is ground in hissy volume and constant beating of drums, and accentuated by another dose of possibly-verbal bellowing, with the vocals mixed at a lower volume than the music so that they are merely a different-sounding instrument.

the only fuck buttons song i can readily identify by name is "sweet love for planet earth," and that's not likely to change. without identifying verbal characteristics, street horrrsing blends together into a 50 minutes of zen-like intensity, unhindered by a need for narrative exposition, climax, and denouement. it is constantly, cyclically powerful, a record that has accompanied me on subways, sidewalks, and sleep. don't bother listening to it with your friends; for one thing, they probably won't get it, and for another, you should really absorb it alone, and without interruption. listening to street horrrsing has made me a happier person.

"sweet love for planet earth" & "bright tomorrow"

street horrrsing is expected later this year on ATP recordings.

let's play pretend i posted this on valentine's day

2008-02-15T23:06:00.005-05:00

would you trust this man with your love life? apparently, some people do. like the onion a.v. club. they invited sean daley, better known as slug, atmosphere's vocal half, to answer questions about a topic he is an undisputed authority on: love & women. the 14 question piece (in honor of the dubious holiday on february 14) is sassy, a little bit rude, mostly funny, and definitely a good read. read it here. don't forget that atmosphere's new album, when life gives you lemons, you paint that shit gold is due out on rhymesayers in april, and atmosphere recently released the absolutely free strictly leakage album through that same label.

slug: "drama is a helluva drug."

"get it to get her" & "domestic dog"

download strictly leakage from

i'll be lightning

2008-02-15T23:00:00.001-05:00

what can you tell about a person's music from just looking at them? well, if they have long scraggly hair and wear faux tribal iconography, they're devendra banhart. if they wear eyeliner and wedding dresses and propose to marry crowds, they're definitely kevin barnes. if they have silly looking, ungroomed beards and noisy pedals, they're bj from parts & labor. and, of course, if they're a new zealander who looks like a leprechaun and plays all the instruments on his debut album and has a kickass live show and simultaneously evokes kurt cobain and jeff tweedy, it's gotta be liam finn.

i was first introduced to the sprightly down under-er during cmj, when he opened for the brunettes at an all-new zealand party, and i was instantly hooked on his hooks. dressed in flannel and ripped jeans, with tousled hair and a full beard, finn looked every inch a garage rocker, a snap judgment confirmed by his free-spirited, rambunctious set. nearly a one man band (finn employs eliza-jane barnes on vocal harmonies & hand percussion), he darted between bass, guitar, and drums to set his loops, and rocked out gratifyingly, if a little unexpectedly. i'm on record as a fan of one man bands, but finn is not your average loopmaster. he is a frenzied punk rocker who doesn't have time for a band, or maybe he just prefers to play everything himself. the point is, don't expect some long drawn-out climactic shit. his songs are tidy little bundles of energy, and if i hadn't seen him perform, i would never have guessed that he does it all himself (including his own vocal harmonies). finn bends the concept of a one man band, eschewing electronicy gadgets for traditional instrumentation and songwriting, and i'll be lightning, finn's debut solo album is an pleasant mix of folk and garage rock.

pleasant, yes, but not always enrapturing. i'll be lightning clocks in at 53 minutes, and the length is a burden, the album's second indistinguishably blurred. it is enjoyably front-heavy, from jangly opener "better to be" and new single "gather to the chapel," languid and serene, to "lead balloon" and "fire in your belly," the latter a gentle lament with the excellent lyric "your heart starts beating like a discotheque" and the former post-club punk. at the outset, i'll be lightning's tracks alternate between garage and folk, but as the album progresses, the rock slowly fades, revived only on "this place is killing me." finn's folky side is solid, but the electric guitar lover in me can't stomach it. another strike against finn's is the lack of catchiness; his garage tunes are jam-packed with hooks, but he seems incapable of crafting similar ones with an acoustic guitar in his fists. an exception is the title track, a progressive choral number with some swell guitar dissonance in the background.

there's too much love and loss in i'll be lightning for it to be much else than an album of regret, no matter how it's arranged. what else could a song called "remember when" imply? finn starts on the right foot, pairing his more melodramatic songs with upbeat numbers, but his sober side wins out around the album's sixth track, "lullaby," and dominates the rest of the record. i like liam finn, and i wish i'll be lightning was an album that lived up the set i saw during cmj - i guess i'll just have to wait for his next one and hope he stays in the garage a little bit longer.

"gather to the chapel" & "lead balloon"

buy i'll be lightning from

foals w. team robespierre & the teeth @ bowery ballroom, 2/12/08

2008-02-13T20:25:00.014-05:00

manhattanites! i am so disappointed in you! my boroughmates, you have shamed me! foals are a goddamn DANCE BAND. so you DANCE to them, not stand around stock still! i don't understand it at all. a handful of people (literally, five or maybe six) danced during foals' excellent show last night, and there was one only person who danced during team robespierre's set (and it was me, baby!). i know it's rather an easy shot to lambast manhattanites for not dancing, since we never do, but i was/am super bummed. not only by the minimal response to team robespierre (who, as you might recall, made the crowd go apeshit at their death by audio show two weeks ago), but by the practically absolute physical apathy for foals. they're the goddamn headliners, and you can't be bothered to shake your ass a little? can't we stop perpetuating the ~~stereotype~~ truth that the funnest shows are in brooklyn? unfortunately, i guess not.

aside from the embarrassing lack of movement (i'm not kidding - i'm really sad no one was dancing), last night's show was GREAT. i've been listening to foals for a couple months now (and antidotes for a few weeks), but without falling in love with the band; i certainly like their songs ("cassius" isn't the only awesome one) but it feels like foals' recorded material lacks something. i'm not sure what, but it doesn't really matter anymore, because, whatever it was, their lives show has it in fucking spades. the friendly friend over at sound bites warned us that we should expect to see foals' backs, but they've obviously learned a little about performing since cmj; they set up like a horseshoe, but weren't afraid to bust a move (frontman yannis philippakis climbed up off the stage at one point), and rocked out harder than the crowd. foals have enjoyed such a spiraling rise to prominence that their set held few surprises, but many highlights. "cassius," unsurprisingly, was awesome, as were their other singles "balloons," "mathletics," and "hummer" (also unsurprisingly, that's the closest the crowd ever got to dancing). though they were less well-known, i feel like the new antidotes material was more impressive - "heavy water," which yannis introduced as "a song about killing vampires," kicked extreme amounts of ass (grab the mp3 below) as did the live debut of "the race for radio supremacy." set closer "red socks pugie," one of antidotes' best cuts, closed the fantastic set, and foals walked off after clearly stating there would be no encore. after long minutes of cheering and hollering for more (so what, you yell instead of dancing? weak.), and orders from bowery staff (yannis: "they told us it was tradition"), foals returned, somewhat at a loss (they hadn't rehearsed any other songs), but valiantly did a great version of "big big love" before, presumably, passing out from exhaustion. foals are good performers - despite being heavily jetlagged and dazed, they bounded around the stage, postured for the crowd, and vomited from the exertion. it was awesome.

i highly recommend that you go see foals tonight at silent barn, where there are sure to be people who like to dance (it's in brooklyn). i wish i could make it. foals will be playing chop suey in seattle in a few days, and returning to the u.s. in may.

"heavy water"

"the race for radio supremacy"

signs that popular media (as in, media made by the populace) is getting out of control: when a team robespierre show has more photographers than dancers. team robespierre are one of brooklyn's biggest & newest exports, and, naturally, their live shows are expanding from warehouses and basements to more "establishment" venues like bowery ballroom, but this move isn't necessarily welcome (or, actually necessary). their show at mercury lounge was similarly awkward, with little audience participation, but it was easier to overcome there, where all four of team robespierre's vocalists took turn divebombing the crowd. at bowery ballroom last night, the team, minus lead singer tomasz, had incredibly energy, but seemed out of place. i'm happy they're moving up in the world, but stodgy manhattan non-dancing clubs are not the right venue for these guys. ty and rex and mike jumped into the crowd, but even that couldn't incite the masses to move - i'm not trying to boast when i say i was the only person dancing, because i was (i am trying to shame you though). i had a lot of fun (mike handed me the mic during the superawesome "88th precinct"), but, from my perspective, it felt like a farce, and through no fault of team robespierre's. even without tomasz, they spazzed all over the place, and their songs were as short and sweet as ever, but i know as well as they that brooklyn is the place to see them, that magical land where people aren't afraid to boogie a little.

the rumors are that the team will play again at the end of this month at a benefit for showpaper, todd p.'s free list of all all-ages shows, they also play mercury lounge again with crystal castles on march 26.

"black rainbow"

i wish i had a team robespierre video for you guys. fortunately, i was too busy dancing.

i liked the teeth, the night's first openers, a philly punkabilly outfit. they share the style of kickback bands like the m's or blitzen trapper, bands that cop a generational style and infuse it with some contemporary attitude. the teeth weren't wearing suspenders, but they wouldn't have been out of place for their amped-up 50s style rock. i entered during "i love you" (listen to it at their myspace, but believe that it's a ton more zesty live), and definitely started grooving to their sound. this is the kind of music you can take home to meet your mama, and that's no bad thing.

"ball of the dead rat"

p.s. this is so me.

vs. the snow

2008-02-12T14:23:00.002-05:00

basically what it comes down to is how goddamn catchy your songs are. mr. mammoth worships at the altar of pop, and if it can stick in his head, it's probably golden. even with the absurd abundancy of excellent music right now, one album in particular in particular has been on repeat in my skull, and that little gem of scandanavian goodness is vs. the snow by the lk. the lk, whose full title is the love of kevin, colour, chaos, and the sound of k, are electro-pop craftsmen from the fertile ground of sweden, and vs. the snow is 43 gorgeous minutes of airy and transportive glitz.

a collaboration between lindefelt, self-described "abstract sound artist" and fredrik, "pop visionary and songwriter par excellence," the lk are exemplary in a genre that has more than its fair share of quality. fredrik's songs are weightless but dense, rich compositions that are gently blurred by lindefelt's fuzzy noise gadgets and his endearingly accented english. their songs are like brain crack - they hook you from the first moment you hear them. "eurovision" has a deep, almost trance feel, and "tamagotchi freestyle" is exultant and joyous, and "blakboy vs. the snow" is laid back and loungey - this is a well-rounded, diverse album. vs. the snow is a album that digs deep in the electro-pop vein, and emerges with tireless hooks and intelligent sounds.

as a lifelong new yorker, there's one thing i especially love about the lk, and that is their propensity to say "fuck." well, i've only heard it twice, but a) they're pretty well-enunciated and b) they're all the more impressive considering their gauzy electro-pop, a genre not normally known for its expletives. as a tribute to the lk and my love of swear words, the songs below are the "fuck" songs.

"eurovision" & "down by law"
you best buy vs. the snow from kora records.

leak of the week - afterparty babies

2008-02-11T17:03:00.000-05:00

to hear rollie pemberton tell it, the life of a 21 year old internationally respected rapper isn't actually all peaches and cream. on afterparty babies, his first album for anti-, pemberton, better known as cadence weapon, bemoans the loneliness of touring, the duplicity of fame, and the somewhat questionable honor of being "an accident." though his debut breaking kayfabe was released in 2005, it wasn't until last year that pemberton really began to get the attention he deserved, due primarily to his uniform rejection of hip hop convention. an album that defied even the most progressive interpretations of the genre with its 8 bit beats and mostly rhymeless flow, breaking kayfabe (a title that references a relatively disguised pro wrestling technique) stretched the fabric of hip hop, and was utterly alluring and almost indigestible. thankfully, if not surprisingly, afterparty babies promises more of the same, only better. pemberton's conversational delivery, a mix of bitter soliloquy and nonchalant fatalism, and his own acerbic and intensely melodic beats have been honed in the two-plus years of touring in support of kayfabe, presenting us again with an album that could very well be unlistenable if it wasn't so brilliant.

the first thing about afterparty babies that really makes an impression (after opening track "do i miss my friends," which consists of pemberton's looped acapella) is the almost unreasonable amount of melody in his beats. almost entirely self-produced (as was kayfabe), babies exemplifies pemberton's wholesale refusal of any conventional beatmaking process. mostly devoid of bass, and intentionally so (he spits "just bought a beat / can't deal with the bass" on "real estate"), babies rolls with melodies so thick as to obscure his own flow, swirling, glitchy vortexes that don't stand still. hip hop production is usually straightforward - one beat for the verse and one for the chorus - but babies relies on unstable sounds that flit between cuts by dj weez-l (cadence weapon's traveling dj) and pemberton's own deviant electronics. "in search of the youth crew," the first track released from the album, is aggressively top-loaded, but it is "limited edition of oj slammer" that exemplifies the exaggerated glitch of babies, harshly inorganic sounds that are not mere complements for pemberton's flat delivery. with only the exception of "do i miss my friends," afterparty babies cements cadence weapon's outsider approach to beatmaking, a radical process that exceeds similar efforts from other IDM artists.

beat-wise, afterparty babies is mostly more of the same of kayfabe, only better produced (and glitchier). pemberton's lyrical maturation is the album's real highlight. a little more brazen and a little more lonely, pemberton has filled out as a lyricist, honing his mostly rhymeless flow and letting free associations inspire him. he talks more trash but seems more wounded - on "do i miss my friends" he tells us "i have friends who don't know my name" - but his hyper-intellectual delivery is impressive, to say the least. throughout babies, he belittles hollywood ("tom cruise and katie holmes was my idea"), pop music ("it used to be 'i wanna be your dog' but now it's 'who let the dogs out?'"), "hip hop hipsters / dearly departed," mocks tattoos for a whole song, and, as so many have done before him, trashed major labels on the anthemic "real estate." most poignant, however, may be "juliann wilding," a person and a song whom pemberton acknowledges as a inspiration for the record. checkered with equal parts charisma and disgust, babies finds pemberton in excellent lyrical form.

get ready to buy afterparty babies when anti- releases it on march 4.

"in search of the youth crew" (via pitchfork) & "juliann wilding"

who needs english? - el guincho

2008-02-07T02:37:00.000-05:00

is it too early to start calling albums the person pitch of 2008? cuz if it ain't, alegranza is it, a whirling, joyful vortex of spiraled sounds and looped exuberance that doesn't quite nip at noah lennox's heels in terms of quality, but far surpasses him on the happiness front (for one thing, i'm pretty sure el guincho doesn't have lyric "i don't want us to take pills anymore," though the language barrier prevents me from asserting that). alegranza is the absolutely fantastic debut album from el guincho, a barcelona cum canary islands artist whose jungle rhythms and exotic, worldy sounds have been inspiring a mad dash of bloggerism worldwide. el guincho (his friends call him pablo díaz-reixa, or probably just pablo) has basically ridden a rocket to international fame, going from spanish-blog hype to english-blog HYPE in about three and half weeks (give or take). it's definitely been a good thing for him that alegranza was widely distributed (and promoted) across the internet for free/illegally, as alegranza has found a home in australia/new zealand on oh-my-god-so-cute mistletone records, and el guincho is about to play outside of spain for the first time at the end of march (though we americans still don't get either record-release or live-performance love). fortunately, everyone with an internet connection can, and should, enjoy alegranza, because it's just pretty much fantastic.

alegranza, recorded as a mixture of self-made beats and samples, is a light yet complex record, one that rewards repeated listens with a never-ending trove of sounds (i just heard the sounds of a block on album opener "palmitos park"), but also with an inherently global understanding. díaz-reixa, a canary islands native, is fiercely proud of his heritage, choosing both his performing name and album title from locations there (el guincho is a town on tenerife; alegranza is the northernmost canary island), and i'm willing to put dollars to donuts that his sound is also inspired by his home. all of el guincho's songs are exhilarating, animatedly drawing on african hand drums, budding bhangra, steel pans, schoolyard chanting, and the ever-popular assortment of beeps, boops, and whirrs. though it's probably just as computer-made as person pitch, alegranza's low fidelity and deliberate imperfection (díaz-reixa often sings startlingly off-key) gives it an authentic, organic feel - alegranza is a record better suited for soundtracking a beach party than hipster headphones.

so why doesn't el guincho need english? well, there's the obvious (he sings in spanish), the endemic (more and more non-english music is becoming mainstream), and the practical (thanks to the internet, alegranza can be heard anywhere), and those are some pretty fine reasons, if i do say so myself. if you need more reasons, you just need to sit down and listen to his album in all its colorful revelry - each element of alegranza is as vibrant as the hues in the photo to your left, its joy tangible. too-careful inspection of the album may leave you feeling a little cheated, especially on "antillas," a track that starts strong but ends tiredly, the same loop recycled for its 5 minute duration, but these lapses on díaz-reixa's part are rare. and, if el guincho does have a darker side (maybe he sings "i want us to keep taking pills"?), i don't speak a lick of spanish, so alegranza is just one big party for my ears.

"cuando maravilla fui" & "buenos matrimonios ahí afuera"

good luck finding alegranza on sale - rough trade had 25 copies, but who knows how many are left?

thao & the get down stay down @ knitting factory tap bar, 2/4/08

2008-02-05T13:42:00.001-05:00

hey, remember that we brave bee stings and all record i was talking about last week? by thao and the get down stay down - you must remember it, it just came out on kill rock stars...and, hey, look! it's only four posts down the page! well, if you've forgotten, i really like that album, which is delightfully quirky and irresistibly catchy, and, after the growler's glowing review of her recent london show, i knew i just had to check her (& the get down stay down) out at the knitting factory last night, their first nyc show since the album's release. though death vessel was the headliner, thao was the biggest draw, and i certainly wasn't the only one who was only there for her. opener katie eastburn (of young people) was good without being impressive, her husky voice singing poems over a piano and kick drum. i kinda liked the young people album, but eastburn solo was a little too sedate for my taste; when thao came on, she had to ask the crowd to rise from the floor.

i was really struck by how good a performer thao was, as well as the get down stay down. restrained and nuanced on we brave, thao is engaging and vivacious in person, and her songs were flexible enough to be bent a little. the lazy bluesiness thao affects on the album is totally discarded live, replaced with an obvious burning joy. she wielded her acoustic guitar like a true rock star and clearly enjoyed playing live, a feeling that the audience echoed. "bag of hammers" opened with some badass beatboxing before thao blew the roof off the song, turning the ditty into a straight-up rock song. "travel" took a turn for the best as well, though i think "feet asleep" was the real standout. ironically, album standout "swimming pools" wasn't better live, probably due to the loss of the banjo part, the song's essential crutch. i've always really liked the knitting factory, and the sound last night was as impeccable as ever, thao's voice taking center stage but with everything else mixed perfectly. with a slight bit of reverb, thao's singing filled the room even when she stood back from the mic; there's a beautiful fullness to her voice, slightly husky and rich, that leaves you wanting more (after she closed with "fear and convenience," the crowd begged for one more). thao's nimble fingerwork is impressive as well, but her exuberance was the set's best part. her happiness at being there was tangible, and, while that is by no means the only outstanding part of her act, was alone rewarding enough to make her performance great.

thao & the get down stay down play music hall o' williamsburg with xiu xiu on easter sunday

"feet asleep" (daytrotter session)

"geography"

hot chip @ highline ballroom, 2/2/08 (groundhog day)

2008-02-04T15:11:00.000-05:00

to my great pleasure, i recently started working at highline ballroom, a 750-person capacity venue on 16th street. so i'll be reporting on a lot more shows from that venue, but my visual coverage might suffer - i don't know the ease with which i'll be able to take photographs or shoot video. fortunately, i was able to get a lot for saturday's hot chip show, which, without my real knowledge, was probably the best show in town that night. i was straight in the back, which explains the angle for all the photos and video, and why there aren't any closeups.

this hot chip show, in anticipation of their third full-length, made in the dark, was billed as "intimate," with good reason - the band, which was virtually unknown before 2006, is now one of the hottest indie acts in the world, and highline's tight capacity meant that the show sold out long ago. so that was pretty cool. i've never had much of an interest in the band, but i was excited for the show regardless - i figured a polished act like hot chip must put on a good show. i was also excited when i heard that devlin & darko, spank rock's djs, were opening, courtesy of a hot chip special invitation.

though they proudly hail from baltimore, devlin & darko spun a very 70s-south florida set, with lots of disco and funk flavor. i really liked their sound though i've never really been a spank rock person. not much else to add.

hot chip travels with their own soundman, and they spent hours making sure everything sounded great, so the sound was really impeccable - a lot of bass, but it wasn't overpowering anything else and all the instruments were crystal clear. their set came almost entirely from made in the dark, with only three older songs - "a boy from school," "over & over," and "no fit state" coming from their second album, the warning. though the crowd did go craziest for the old songs, the entire crowd seemed to recognize all, or most, of the band's new ones as well - made in the dark leaked a couple months ago, and it looked like everyone in the room had downloaded a copy.

hot chip were spot on. it was a really good show. don't really feel like writing much today.

"shake a fist" (mp3 and video)
buy made in the dark when it's released tuesday, 2/4/08.

team robespierre @ death by audio, 2/1/08 (record release party)

2008-02-03T20:53:00.000-05:00

i've never been the kind of person who can enjoy live music just anywhere, and i doubt i'm the only one. as you might remember from previous live reviews, i've made a point of discussing the relative merits of any venue i've never been to before, from new york to glasgow, because i think it's the space music is performed in is almost as important as the music itself - after all, if a venue has shitty sound or cramped floor space or allows reckless behavior, that's what's going to draw your attention, no matter how much you love this band. this was only my second time at death by audio, todd p's premiere semi-legal brooklyn venue, but i hope it will be my last. even attending this show was a sort of moral chore, one that i did because its reward (i.e., directly supporting the artists and non-corporate business models) was, well, more rewarding than its process (i.e., actually going to death by audio). ethically, i'm a strong supporter of todd p's efforts to deindustrialize the music industry, promoting niche bands to all-ages crowds (always), and i'm sure he doesn't skimp on paying the bands who play there. however, the ultimate consideration is whether it's about the band or about the viewer. on a grander level, of course the band does, because people who really love them will see them anywhere and love it, but when you go to three, four shows a week, there's a lot less magic in the live experience, and comfort becomes an important criteria.

maybe i'm a little coddled here in new york, where there's a live music venue on every other corner on the l.e.s., and i can choose to see a band based on where they're playing. most bands i'm interested in playing new york at least twice a year, whether back-to-back or months apart, and i do have the relative luxury of saying, "no, i don't really like that venue. i'll see them somewhere else/next time." however, as a fan of team robespierre and, as i said, an ethical supporter of todd p, i put aside my doubts from the last time i was at death by audio and went. what a mistake.

death by audio is not a good venue. certain pitfalls, like the lights and sound (which, if you stand close enough, might actually kill you) can be attributed to, and pardoned by, the venue's shoestring existence; after all, it does seem to double as warehouse space and is definitely not licensed by the city. however, death by audio's reluctance to allow people to congregate outside the venue (which attracts cops) means that its squalid, poorly ventilated, and unbelievably cramped interior was choked with cigarette and marijuana smoke nearly as soon as the show began. new york city banned smoking indoors for a reason, and it would really have been great if death by audio's anti-establishment platform consisted of a little more than blatant health code violations and a large degree of disrespect for its clientele. another thing i absolutely love (loathe) about death by audio is their absurdly unnecessary delay between doors and starting shows. both times i've been, doors have been at 8 and the show hasn't started until after 10. the venue's mostly anarchic setup means that bathroom waits often exceed half an hour, underaged drinking is rampant, and (one of its rare upsides), its liberal in-and-out policy means that you can easily go outside for some desperately-needed fresh air (or walk to the bodega during especially awful sets - see ninjasonik for more). a night at death by audio can turn you from hale & hearty to wheezy & sniffly without breaking a sweat.

sweating is, of course, the mostly ultimate goal of any punk show, and regardless of my personal feelings towards death by audio, it was probably the best place in the city for team robespierre's record release party. after all, the band isn't exactly known to embrace law & order (see "ha ha ha"), and the close confines of death by audio incited the kind of wanton and reckless audience participation team robespierre thrives on. by the time the headliners took the stage, the room was a sauna of body heat, thanks to the noble efforts of the night's three openers, vivian girls, the golden error, and ninjasonik. disappointingly, the quality of the music (of the openers) seemed to decrease as the night wore on, peaking at opposite ends with vivian girls' reverb-y punk and team robespierre's electropunk. i got there towards the end of their set, but dug what i heard, an intelligent blend of post-punk and garage punk. the golden error, on the other hand, played rather unexciting punk-punk, some songs bearing a garage sound but, on the whole, rather derivative. however, they did manage to get the crowd moshing, so that's probably a good sign. ninjasonik were definitely the biggest disappointment of the night - two guys and the world's largest posse smoking blunts on stage over what were actually pretty good beats, but were ruined by their terrible lyrics - i only stuck around for a couple songs (before going to the aforementioned bodega) and felt compelled to leave when they started singing "somebody's gonna get pregnant" ad nauseum. not recommended.

at long last (for such a small stage, it certainly takes a long-ass time to set up between sets), team robespierre came on to absolutely thunderous applause. it's been a great year for these guys, having been literally catapulted from nothing to one of the most legit buzz bands (here's looking at you, vampire weekend) from new york. a year of building up fan bases in dank basements and crowd diving in warehouses with little more than a few mp3s to go on ended last week with the release of their first album, everything's perfect, on impose records - a staggering eighteen minute opus that makes up for its frighteningly short duration with ten of the hardest hitting tracks this side of the hudson. so good, that i don't even mind that half the tracks are from the fake gold sampler that i talked about a couple weeks ago. anyway, the place was totally fucking nuts for team robespierre's set - so crazy that the band scarcely had a chance to engage in their trademark rambunctiousness. vocalists ty and tomasz tried to crowd surf multiple times and just got pushed back towards the stage - the place was so packed (definitely above fire code, but it's not like death by audio HAS a fire code) that there wasn't even room to dance, just to sway back and forth and try to avoid the crowd-surfing bodies. a credit to team robespierre's skill was the number of fellow brooklyn musicians who showed up - i counted matt & kim (of matt & kim) and despot, but i'm sure there were more.

the show was great, and team robespierre were as good as i knew they would be. i'm still psyched to see them opens for foals in two weeks, and though i'm still a little trepidatious about their set at bowery, at least i know i'll have some degree of personal comfort there (no smoking, no ridiculous bathroom lines, and, most importantly, not a ridiculous amount of people so there's actually space to dance). long live team robespierre!

"solid gold"

buy everything's perfect from impose records.

awesome song & dance day! - "break"

2008-02-01T13:23:00.000-05:00

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

son lux - "break"

well, i certainly don't need to tell you how much i fucking love anticon., but in case you haven't been paying attention, i do. a lot. the new why? is fucking excellent (no surprises there), but i'm even a little more excited for at war with walls and mazes, the debut album from anticon.'s newest signee, son lux. back in november, i went to see sole at the knitting factory, where son lux opened - their first nyc show. i liked their set a lot, just never got around to writing up the review, though my notes tell me they were really good - they traveled with their own visual-effects operator, which they projected on the wall, were "abstracted & fluid," and had some "maggot brain"-esque funkadelic sounds, and were still "unmistakably glitchy." sounds like a good recipe, no? well, "break," the first album track released to the public, has just had its video released, and it's fucking awesome. directed by finbar mallon (another name i'd kill to have), the video is done with stop-motion and sped-up-motion, and follows the numerous, awesome adventures of pieces of string, imaginatively capturing "break"'s tender dissonance.

peter travers of rolling stone calls it a "must-see."

the previous statement is a lie.

preorder at war with walls and mazes from

we brave bee stings and all

2008-02-01T01:16:00.000-05:00

stoically maintaining his total lack of care for that band that is oh-so-popular this week, mr. mammoth wants to tell you about thao nguyen's new album in a friendly, conversational, and possibly mocking fashion. mr. mammoth hopes that that is okay with you.

like most children, thao nguyen was born. twelve years later, she picked up a guitar. unlike many children who played guitar, she didn't use it to get chicks. or give it up after college. no, she stuck with it - thao ain't no quitter. in addition to these inspirational thoughts, she needed something to do at her mother's laundromat. then, some blah blah, she released an ep, was inspired by lilith fair (gag, anyone?), and has a band called the get down stay down. awesome name, no? they have just released their second record, the super cutesy titled we brave bee stings and all, on kill rock stars, and it's way excellent. if you're fact-repping, her first album, like the linen, was totally named for the laundromat.

lots of people will tell you thao nguyen sounds like chan marshall. those people are mostly wrong. she sounds a little like chan marshall, but it's kinda just cuz they both a) are from the south, and b) sing some form of blue music (chan handles the blues, thao the bluegrass). also, on "beat (health, life and fire)," the first track kill rock stars leaked from we brave, thao does kinda channel chan's huskiness, but it doesn't last - the vast majority of we brave are quirky little ditties, sweet and endearingly childish (especially on the distinctive young-kid ballad "big kid table"). thao's sophomore album is her first post-graduation (from william and mary), and is studded with stories of exploration, development and anxiety, all playfully arranged with buoyant banjos and subtle beatboxing (thao's secret talent).

we brave bee stings and all is notable for its disparity of styles as much as its overall enjoyability (definitely a word). "swimming pools," the album's overwhelmingly best track, is heavily steeped in bluegrass picking, while "feet asleep" features a horn section worthy of a honky-tonk circus. the penultimate "travel" is a brisk trot, ear-catching in a field of slow, easy songs, and rewarding from all the pickin' going on.

it's not a stretch to imagine thao & el get down stay down in a brightly-lit lounge somewhere, serenading happy, well-adjusted people with their cheerful anthems, but thao's lyrics sometimes hide behind the perkiness of her tunes. the well-titled "fear and convenience" highlights a sadder side of thao's love life ("i have see fear and convenience / i have never glimpsed romance"), and easy, beatboxed hit "bag of hammers" has what may be the album's best lyrics: "the trick is / you do not get on that interstate bus / the catch is / you stay and see what becomes of us," delivered with thao's characteristically off-putting nonchalance.

there was a time, not too long ago (you may well remember it), when bands actually had to release a full album before the rivers of praise cascaded over their shoulders (ok, last vampire weekend crack of the week), but, even more than that, prove that they could learn and improve over time, incorporating new tricks and talents into their songs. having been through a whole heap together, thao nguyen and the get down stay down have a better working (and songwriting) relationship, and have clearly matured in the two years since like the linen was released. now managed by kill rock stars' ex-honcho slim moon (man, i would kill for that name), thao etc. have written a slick and sensitive folk pop record that will turn as many heads as nod to its catchy beats and mouth its clever lyrics.

thao nguyen & the get down stay down hit new york on feb 4, opening for death vessel at the knitting factory. they play boston on the 3rd, and move on from there. they're also opening for xiu xiu on their national tour.

"bag of hammers" & "swimming pools"

buy we brave bee stings and all from

awesome song day! - "cassius"

2008-01-30T12:35:00.000-05:00

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

foals - "cassius (live on xfm)"

if there is one thing i wish indie rockers would learn from hip hop divas (and nas, who is not a diva), it's how to pull off a diss track. i would love nothing more than to have massive indieland feuds (a dream matchup would be team love and southern lord) and bands writing songs about how much the new vampire weekend sucks (yeah, you weren't actually expecting me to like a buzz band, were you?). i'm not sure if "cassius" really falls into the "diss track" category, since it's unclear whether frontman yannis philippakis is singing about this french band, but i'd like to imagine that he is, especially when he sings "cassius it's over /you're second best second best second best second best." sounds like a diss track to me, and it fits into the pre-existing anglo-franco conflict. as a proud supporter of scotland (as if you couldn't guess, right?), i just want to say: go france!

seriously though, cassius does kinda suck. check it.

even if the idea of an electropunk diss track doesn't appeal to you, you should like this song anyway. it's all elbows and sharp guitars and groovy post-dance beats and too-skinny jeans. sounds like the perfect recipe for success, doesn't it? hmmm...didn't i say i don't like buzz bands? at least foals has an original sound, instead of ripping off paul simon.

foals play bowery ballroom on 2/12 (who has no thumbs and his ticket for this already? mr. mammoth) with also-awesome team robespierre. they then play silent barn (915 wyckoff in ridgewood) with tba guests on the 13th, and chop suey in seattle on the 14th. those are their only american dates. hope cassius don't show up for their 4 dates in france/see other (mostly sold-out) tour dates at their myspace.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, you can get more live traxxxxx (it's funny, because foals have a song called "xxxxx") at the fan-run foals band dot com.

pre-order the cassius single here; it's released in the uk on march 10.
foals' debut antidotes is due april 8 on

in the future

2008-01-28T14:25:00.000-05:00

three januarys ago, a widely read, distinguished music zine named pitchfork media called black mountain's self titled debut a "best" record, making the band a household name (in austin, chicago, and my headphones at least). black mountain is a grateful debt paid to late 60s guitar rock (with interest), music of the future that owes it all to the past. a common story, really, but black mountain digs deeper and, consequentially, offers greater rewards for the studious. anchored by frontman stephen mcbean's dynamic and pathos-ridden voice (imagine jason molina without the deadpan), black mountain is reverential yet inventive, blowing all misconceptions away with "modern music," a saxophone-laden anti-pop track, or "druganaut," a funky dead jam, determinedly drafting a different blueprint for this band. it is doubly ironic, then, that in the future, black mountain's second album (and, nominally, its most forward-reaching) is less progressive than their debut, and much more rewarding.

from its first notes, it is clear that black mountain is channeling something deeper for their future. they've shed their playful and nervy attitude, as well as their saxophonist, for a future more ancient than possible, keeping pace with heavy retro-rockers everywhere. mcbean and fellow bandleader amber webber eschew the lighthearted creativity of black mountain, shelving its derring-do and toe-treading in favor of a more mainstream aesthetic of gritty prog-rock. it's both a commercial and aural shift. in the future is a satisfying, reverb-rich epic of crunching guitars and tremulous wails that begs to be louder and longer - a progressive hard rock album that was released forty years too late (and arrived right on time).

along with their new brooding stares (check out this photo) and heavier tunes, black mountain have embraced an appropriately dire outlook. jagjaguwar's press release compares the band's sophomore album to freshman year of high school, a supposedly liberating time, "the first real taste of independence in the quest for absolute freedom." last time i checked, the first year of high school was a truly frightening experience, choked with budding pituitary glands and vicious cliques, and in the future is a much better soundtrack of anxiety and rebellion than of independence. like an alienated adolescent, in the future is moody and disenchanted, an exorcism and escape. there's no cheekiness in the title of "stormy high" - it's the national anthem of a stoned fantasyland. this is outcast rock for kids who played dungeons & dragons, then retreated into a smoky haze.

what black mountain have dreamed up is a post-apocalyptic dark ages, with heroes, villains, and crunching guitars. like an eight minute dystopian vignette, "tyrant" (the future's ostensible single) is a morality play acted through dynamics, a ham-fisted loud-soft-loud-soft "effigy" for the new millennium. "tyrant" is still brutal, an aural rendering of one likely apocalypse that is delivered like a B+ science fiction screenplay, emotive without any attempt at finesse. (on the other hand, who ever wanted subtlety from a hard rock futurist nightmare?) "tyrant" delivers the goods, a neat little package of guts and guitars sweetened by amber webber's prophetic howling, so evocative that you can, if you close your eyes, see her renting her garments and vowing vengeance on the cruel dictator in a wide, pan shot of the wreckage of her burnt house (appropriately tolkienesque, i feel).

though black mountain have retired some of the tools from their self-titled, in the future does feature other important developments, like that of amber webber. in a role expanded from her relegated use on black mountain, webber's vocals consistently shape songs and define their most rewarding moments. her wailing on "tyrant" and "bright lights" form those songs' cruxes, and her solo, alice-in-weirdland "queens will play" - though it suffers of a progression that promises more than its payoff delivers - is darkly portentous and heavy. webber still does regular duty on harmonies, but even then she works in tandem with mcbean, providing tantalizing and haunted vocals that accentuate and enrich his own. their interplay is one of in the future's best features, her keening laments and harmonies really filling out their sound.

what, despite its flaws, makes in the future such an appealing album? well, for one thing, black mountain go totally medieval on our asses, ditching the quirky 60s amalgamation for a solid shot of hard rock, no chaser. no surprise that they were invited on the last queens of the stone age tour; in the future is the best kind of stoner metal, luxuriously heavy and plush with intensity. the album starts on the right foot with "stormy high," a swaggering neo-viking war march that only improves with volume, a characteristic the album shares. fuzzball "evil ways" lingers , thanks to a screeching guitar and mcbean's raw vocals, and the ballad "angels" shows off a different side of the band entirely. at the tail end of in the future is black mountain's greatest opus t0 date - the sixteen minute "bright lights." it starts gently, switching "bright light" and "light bright" around lyrically, mcbean and webber chanting ritually, and abruptly lurches into fifth gear, bellicose and bristling for a fight before dissolving into a dreaded spacey-pedal-fest, a bad decision that it never fully recovers from, though it puts up a good show - the last minute and a half of "bright lights" might be the best on the record.

in the future is a more successful album than black mountain, for its commercial appeal as much as its sonic one - richer, deeper, and blissfully heavier than anything their debut could have suggested, in the future is the work of more attuned yet less confident artists. my own enjoyment of in the future notwithstanding, it is a stylistic regression for black mountain, a hedged bet, regurgitating the past for fresh ears. slavishly constructed, this is an easily digestible homage liberally slathered with inspiration, instead of the other way around. no small part of in the future's importance is this eponymous conundrum: if this is the music of the future, why does it sound so much like the past? if anything, black mountain is the future, lessons learned from ancient masters, reinvigorated and refreshed, and not merely an accomplished mimicry. in the future apes the old and calls it the new like some orwellian thought program, a self-imposed verbal hurdle that is never quite cleared.

"stormy high" & "tyrant"

follow this sweet little .gif to jagjaguwar's online store.

black mountain embark on their north american tour on thursday in seattle. they play your city ___.

aesop rock @ southpaw, 1/22/08 (myspace secret show)

2008-01-23T16:20:00.000-05:00

well, i couldn't feel my fingers or toes by the time we got in, but we got in. boo-fucking-yah. i won't bore you with stories about the line or the security (is it always like that in park slope? i had to prove my camera was a camera!), and cut straight to the chase: great fucking show. i'd never seen aesop rock before, and have always wanted too, especially since the moste excellent none shall pass was released last year. def jux's biggest star pulled out all the stops for the über-intimate myspace secret show at southpaw, giving love to the crowd and spitting verses til he was out of breath, bringing mad guests on...a really great show that was even sweeter because it was free.

naturally, def jux was in the house, and aes corralled labelmates hangar 18 as openers, who proclaimed themselves "rap's best interracial group" by way of an introduction. funny thing is, they might be right (also, it's not exactly a packed category). a party rap crew like the beastie boys (but with more flavor), hangar 18 is dirty, funny, and a hell of a good time. at one point during the set, mcs wind and alaska took a quiet moment to tell the crowd about some serious shit going down, and how we live in hard times, when there are two major issues we all need to take seriously - trapped in the closet and drinking. book these guys for your frat house right now. with their slick, joking rhymes, they seemed the odd man out in the def jux stable - a critically minded label known best for the acerbic rhymes of aesop rock, labelhead el-p, or whiz kid cage (when was the last time you heard some serious discourse about bitches and barhopping?) - but they were fun and definitely got the crowd going. also, they sampled "jump on it," which was pretty funny.

"baking soda"
buy sweep the leg from definitive jux.

"take no chances"

there was virtually no between-set downtime, which was awesome - aesop rock, rob sonic, and dj big wiz hit the stage maybe ten minutes after the departure of hangar 18 to deafening cheers, opening with none shall pass's first track, "keep off the lawn." though his eyes were half closed, aes was fucking spot on, nailing verses and really bringing his songs alive, adding callbacks and chants that kept the crowd involved. rob sonic, aes rock's compatriot and producer of "dark heart news," was his cheerleader, adding another voice to his raps and finishing his verses, and the two working in perfect tandem. in a myspace blog post written right after the show, aesop rock said "rob sonic and wiz, of course, were on point. we're like 3 massive peas in an even larger pod at this point. a hip hop pod."

unsurprisingly, aes performed most of the tracks from none shall pass, including killer versions of "39 thieves," "dark heart news," and "bring back pluto." the biggest applause, however, was reserved for his older work - a reworked version of "no regrets," from labor days, which cut its normal running length of 5+ minutes to under 3, and encore "daylight" were probably his biggest hits of the night. not one to hog the mic, aes gave rob sonic two turns in the spotlight, who busted two joints from last year's sabotage gigante. dj big wiz also had a solo turn, building a beat from scratch as aes and rob took a breather. throughout the night, the two mcs teased us, telling us about the special guests waiting backstage, but i don't think anyone guessed how many there were. el-producto came out with a brand new mustache to do a track from i'll sleep when you're dead, battling through the flu to deliver the goods, which was fucking awesome, but the best hadn't come yet. asking "does anyone here like freestyles?," aes dropped a few verses before slug (from atmosphere) walked out. then el-p returned, followed by yak ballz and despot ("world's tallest rapper"), who is one of def jux's most recent signees. they all busted dope rhymes and despot climbed on rob sonic's shoulders, and it was clear they were having as much fun as we were. aesop rock finished with "coffee," which the crowd had been hollering for all night, a fitting end to a great (free) night of music. thanks myspace!

"dark heart news (feat. and prod. by rob sonic)"
buy none shall pass from definitive jux.

"no regrets (remix)"

sometimes they collide

2008-01-22T14:48:00.000-05:00

have you ever tried to have a conversation about music with someone who hasn't really listened to anything since 1973? it's fucking hard. so many of the words we use to describe music are only understood by us, people who listen and follow it religiously, and have absolutely no correlation to a) how music actually sounds, and b) any conventional use of those words in english. one of the most irksome genres (for its practitioners as much as for its nomenclature) is shoegaze. while it is easy to understand (music that makes you want to look at your shoes), it's really time for shoegaze to get the proverbial axe. most bands that embrace "shoegaze" as a self-descriptor generally play crappy progressive music - songs that start with a lone, cold-sounding guitar and grow, over seventeen achingly boring minutes, into some cacophonist mogwai ripoff. christ. fortunately, the hectors are hip to the shoegaze game, and brazenly combine the best elements of that failing genre (yup, there are a couple of those) with a mainstream rock sensibility that make their songs both edgy and easy to enjoy. having just released sometimes they collide, their second ep, for tarantism records, the hectors are getting all antsy in their pantsy and ready to prove that, though shoegaze has no future (and thank god for it), that doesn't mean that we can't get something decent out of it before it goes.

one of shoegaze's most potent (and worthwhile) attributes is its distinctive guitar sound, which characteristically starts delicately, pinpointing notes that hang in the air, then gradually builds into a wail, screeching with distortion and epiphany, thundering and glorious. for most bands, this takes an achingly long time. the hectors consistently do it in under five minutes, and with actual melodies and honest-to-goodness dynamics. what a rare find. as their press release says, "the hectors write and perform songs about geeks ('cold star'), thugs ('carol and sanford'), slackers ('proof of sale') and dreamers ('i drove all the way from bridgeport to make it with you')", but rick parker (BRMC, dandy warhols) buries frontwoman corinne dinner's vocals deep in the mix, accentuating the depth of her voice but also losing many of her lyrics. the loss is negligible, since the hectors' fierce guitar layering rightly deserves it be the focus - album highlight "a million fingers" showcases the interplay between lead robert bonilla's and dinner's guitars, dynamic and ominous.

only the hectors' second release, sometimes they collide is impressive, and puts the band in good position to get snapped up by a serious label. with strong hooks and charismatic guitar work, sometimes they collide bring to mind a gentler silversun pickups (a band that mr. mammoth is a big fan of). the hectors have successfully fleshed out the skeleton of shoegaze into a serious pop force, and future work from this band is sure to be as enjoyable and expansive as this ep is.

"cold star" & "a million fingers"

buy sometimes they collide at your local independent record store.

awesome song & dance day! - "i wish that i could see you soon"

2008-01-21T13:37:00.000-05:00

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

herman düne - "i wish that i could see you soon"
giant, herman düne's fifth album, was released by source etc. records in europe.

french anti-folksters herman düne were awarded the honor of having written the 89th best song of 2007 for this gem, a sweet, catchy love ditty, but the best part of the song is the video, directed by toben seymour. two different versions of the video have been released, the "work in progress" one and the completed one, and i have to say, i think the work in progress one is way cooler. but check 'em both out and see what you think. i guarantee this - you're gonna be jealous of herman düne's dancing ability.

fake gold

2008-01-21T08:10:00.001-05:00

you might recall that i didn't sound particularly impressed with team robespierre when i saw them last, opening for yeasayer at the friction party. that's because i wasn't, and one of the band's singers really (really) needed a shower. but i really liked their aesthetic, living on the fringes and loving it, and i bought a t-shirt and picked up a sampler the band was handing out, because, hey, sometimes these things grow on you. lucky i did, because fake gold, the bruising 5 song sampler/ep, has been in my headphones all week, and i just can't get team robespierre out of my brain.

where does their appeal come from? i'm not a fan of punk, but that's the clearest architect of team robespierre's sound, a fierce, infectious blend of joy and anger. understandably disenchanted with the global web of deceit spun by authority figures, team robespierre is striking back with an arsenal of spastic electropunk songs that rarely clock in at more than a minute and a half. sometimes furious ("big deal") and sometimes wry ("88th precinct"), fake gold is as much an observation as a critique, but team robespierre don't let their resentment get in the way of having a hell of a good time. some of the choicest lyrics on fake gold are in "ha ha ha," where they yell "i'm not looking for a job / i just wanna be a heartthrob!" that shit is priceless.

one of team robespierre's punkest tendencies (and most appealing qualities) is their almost universal lack of musical ability. the band has two lead singers who play instruments (and trade off on the mic), and two musicians who sing backup (and a drummer who dives off his kit), so song structure isn't the team's strongest suit. generally, it seems that whoever doesn't sing plays an instrument, so some songs have guitar ("ha ha ha") and others have keyboard ("black rainbow"), and some have both ("laika"). one quality common to all of team robespierre's songs is how badly they make you want to get into a stinky sweaty mosh pit and dance your heart out in a physical cacophony of elbows and knees.

more a cathartic release than music you listen to on headphones, team robespierre is really intended to be heard in a live environment, where your face can be dive-bombed by any member of the band. their energy is infectious, but the team's members are their own biggest fans - they rock the hardest and dance the jitteriest, and crowd surf as much as possible. i was really excited when i found out they were opening for foals (who i've also been enjoying lately), and i really hope the crowd at bowery ballroom is gonna be down for some serious spazz-dancing. if you can't wait that long (or doubt the danceability of bowery), team robespierre is having a record release party on february 1 at death by audio. be there or be a stooge.

team robespierre's debut full length, everything's perfect, will be released on 1/22 on impose records. (thanks for the tip mike!)

"88th precinct" & "ha ha ha"

au revoir simone w. april march, bell @ bowery ballroom, 1/18/08

2008-01-20T10:51:00.000-05:00

my long love affair with au revoir simone came to a head at last night's bowery ballroom show, their first at that venue and my first time seeing them, in a night that was defined by its inordinate and disgusting amount of face-sucking as much as the great music onstage.
i normally don't mind people getting intimate at shows, but the bowery must've been hosting couples night, because i was beset on all sides by the non-stop sound of slobber. kudos to the few couples who learned restraint and decorum, but the rest of you: SHAME. if you're gonna go at it like no one else is around, at least do it on the side of the stage, not right in the goddamn middle of the crowd. that's not cool! (sorry, just needed to get that off my chest.) it was my first show since returning from the u.k., and one i had been looking forward to for a while. you may recall that the bird of music was one of my favorite albums of last year, and while i had some reservations about their live show (mostly from tearknee, who was decidedly unthrilled by their latitude performance), i was, on the whole, excited to see my favorite vintage keyboard band live.

good thing i had my ticket in advance - the show, quite to my surprise, was sold out before the first opener went on. i had no idea au revoir simone had that kind of drawing power. the crowd seemed to mostly be girl-packs and the aforementioned kissing couples, though there were a number of single gentlemen; a crowd very unlike those at most shows i've been to (they even danced a little bit!). interestingly, a significant portion of the crowd seemed to have come only for opener april march, a well-respected underground sensation known best for "chick habit," the song that soundtracks the beatdown kurt russell receives at the end of death proof. april march's myspace boasts of her bilingual songwriting and that "france considers her their own cultural property." since she is not a regular live performer, catching april march (not her real name) is a rare pleasure, and it was clear that some had come only to see her.

the bowery presents selects opening bands for acts on tour alone, and it's always a hit-or-miss selection. i had no idea what to expect from opening act bell, having missed this tidbit that got people interested in her a couple weeks ago, but things certainly sounded good from the line outside, and i had a sinking feeling that i had made a mistake in arriving a little late. fortunately, i only missed a few songs, but i won't make the mistake of coming late for a bell set next time. bell is olga bell, a russian-born songwriter who plays a keyboard and macbook, who is blessed with one extraordinary voice. it's rich and versatile, velvety when subdued, and simply paralyzing on songs like "suerte loca," which featured some of the best vocals of her set. feist is a name that springs instantly as a comparison, as is that of shara worden, but bell's voice has a playfulness that sets her apart. her songs had no real pattern, save that they kept me riveted; had she shown up on the scene a few years ago, it's not a stretch to think that she would be where this other russian-born songwriter is now. she was joined onstage by a full band, who were themselves very impressive - drummer gunnar olsen and guitarist gary mcmurray really fleshed out bell's sound. olsen's drumming is inventive and engaging, and mcmurray's distorted guitar added a lot to bell's appeal. one of the set's many highlights was a (now well-known) compendium of covers, radiohead's "videotape" segueing into thom yorke's "the eraser," which was quite good. bell's take on "the eraser" was quite better than many of the songs from the eraser remixes, and as compelling as yorke's original. bell plays with takka takka at cake shop on february 1.

"suerte loca" (live on fair game, january 2008)
get the whole show from shane at the torture garden.

"echinacea"

april march put on an interesting show, but i couldn't quite figure her out. her backing band were clearly strangers to her (she didn't even know the name of her guitarist), but were much better performers than she. i assume april march writes all her own music, but she played no instrument, and her body language didn't really suggest that she got into her performance. her music straddles a fence between languid francopop, of the edith piaf variety, and new wave bohemian beach rock with strong keyboards and guitars. her band was color-coded, with everyone in pink, and their energy far outstripped hers, with drummer steve weiss winning love from the crowd for his passionate pounding of the skins. the disconnect between april march and her band is probably nothing new, but it really colored my impression of her; her music is really solid, her voice is nice, but her set would've been crap without the band (and not just because i hate acapella). they injected her songs with great vigor, so that songs like "there is always madness" (which ended her set) absolutely blew me away. the band was rocking out, and april march was barely swaying back and forth. maybe she has stage fright, i don't know. the fact of the matter is, i would pay to see her band play again, but not her.

"chick habit" (song and video)

it was really cool to see the stage get set up for au revoir simone's set - i've never seen the stage so empty. usually cluttered with amps, mics, drums, guitar stands and so on, au revoir simone, naturally, only had keyboards set up in a row - i was just enchanted by how clean and empty the stage seemed, buttressing the band's aura of delicacy and deliberation.

though i love the bird of music, i was trepidations about how well au revoir simone's sound would translate to a live atmosphere. so much of their appeal is and, indeed, the bowery ballroom failed to satisfy, giving the band far too much bass and not compensating for the ladies' quiet vocals. that, in turn, gave their saccharine songs a trance-like quality, making "i couldn't sleep" ironically soporific and intensifying the hypnotic qualities of lusher songs like "a violent yet flammable world." for their part, however, the band seemed genuinely happy - erika forster was especially ecstatic, exclaiming at the top of the set how thrilled she was to be on the stage of a venue she'd seen most of her favorite shows at - though their enthusiasm soon was hidden by the seriousness with which they performed. even during the "dance portion" of their set (which was two songs long), au revoir simone played with a determined focus, smiling only at a song's end.

au revoir simone played a short but solid set (only 45 minutes), and whatever disappointment i left with was, i knew, not the band's fault. the sound just sucked - the band themselves asked for their mixes to be adjusted six or eight times throughout their set, and whoever was running the soundboard clearly had no idea what au revoir simone's music should sound like. despite the aural obstacles, it was a nice time, and the band put on a good show. they played each other's keyboards, sometimes in the middle of songs, they used a tambourine and maracas, and they had a really cute encore, which one expects from a really cute band. the last song was "the lucky one," opening track of the bird of music, and for the chorus, april march's band, passionate crowd members, and longtime friends we are scientists joined the band onstage, for a great singalong. it was a nice night, and a nice way to get back to nyc, and, ultimately, au revoir simone is just that - nice.

"sad song" (from their daytrotter session)
get the band's set live on fair game from the smudge of ashen fluff.

"dark halls"

the clientele @ the luminaire, 1/8/08

2008-01-10T20:42:00.001-05:00

first, a disclaimer: were it not for the serious dearth of live music in my life (my last proper show was yeasayer), i would not have bothered going to see the clientele the other night. nothing against them personally, but their underwhelming tweed-rock isn't my thing in the slightest - yet the live scene in london nowadays is so dismally bare (the spice girls' epic marathon run at O2 is pretty much it) that the moment i saw the name of a band i even slightly recognized, i jumped on it (also, it only cost me a fiver).

the clientele are a london-based four-piece that play polished adult rock, and who have found a home on merge records in the us, where they are far more popular than they are in their native land. that being said, the luminaire was absolutely sold out for their first show on 2008, and well and truly packed long before they were set to go on. last year's god save the clientele certainly won them a wider audience, egged on by catchy little songs like "bookshop casanova," though, as i said, their style has always seemed rather too understated and, well, too old for me. much like alligator, the standard for adult rock (which has always sounded too slick and not quite original enough to catch my ear), the clientele too are overly polished and unremarkable, and, dare i say, rather boring. nonetheless, i approached their show with an open mind (and ears), knowing only "bookshop casanova" and "since k got over me," not expecting to be wowed, but neither to be disappointed.

unfortunately, it was the latter. a more disappointing three hours of live music have i rarely paid for, and i was completely flabbergasted by how strongly the crowd felt about the artists performing for them. by adult rock standards, i think we got an all-star lineup, from the left outsides to darren hayman (ex-frontman of john peel faves hefner), but as tearknee and i seemed the be the youngest in the room by about seven years, we were clearly not the target audience. the left outsides played harmless viola-inflected easy rock to the eager crowd that defied easy categorization, beyond their collective age. their slow, passive songs, a clear homage to the often bland jams of british bands of the 70s, suited a room full of tortoiseshell- bespectacled and elbow-patched lager drinkers, and practically put both of us to sleep.

"deep rivers"

we hoped darren hayman would jolt us out of our bland-rock coma, and the applause to greeted his arrival on stage, with only a wurlitzer and two bottles of beer for company, was definitely encouraging. hayman is best known for his work as the driving force of hefner, a storied "urban folk" band with a legion of devoted fans, of whom there seemed to be more than a few in the audience. i'm totally unfamiliar with hefner, and can't compare hayman-as-hefner with hayman-as-solo artist, but i've definitely come up with an opinion about hayman-as-solo: yawn. his piano melodies were incredibly simple, his stage presence a joke - the only partially engaging element of his songwriting were his lyrics, which varied between the trite (why hayman wants to live in elderly capital eastbourne) and the amusing (a little ditty about the national canine defense league). ultimately, however, sitting down and waiting for the clientele to come on was a more satisfying decision than watching the rest of hayman's set.

"apologise"

ah, the clientele. polished, understated, and not exactly riveting, the clientele opened with "since k got over me," the most recognizable song from their 2005 attention-getter, strange geometry. frontman alisdair maclean sings in a breathy tenor, his screwed-up face the only tell of the concentration put into his singing. multi-instrumentalist mel draisey was the most visually engaging member of the group, and that's only because she was the only one who bothered moving around. granted, the luminaire's stage isn't exactly spacious, but the clientele's stiffness, combined with their aural plainness, made them a not very fun band to see. kudos are definitely owed to the sound man, who sets the best levels i've ever heard in a live space - every note, thump, and tinkle (from draisey's xylophone) was clear as a bell. granted, that didn't make the clientele's sound much more engaging, but at least it wasn't an aural mess. they played a couple covers, of the monkees and television, the latter a band to whom the clientele owe no small debt, and from whom the clientele took some of their best ideas; on a few songs, and a few songs only, the clientele broke out of their leather armchair stupor and seriously almost rocked out, the volume and intensity building impressively, though their demeanor remained as stolid and straightfaced as ever. unsurprisingly (if you've listened to their records), the clientele's live performance was plain and unremarkable, an unrewarding experience that only their most devoted fans must enjoy.

"bookshop casanova"

professor murder

2008-01-05T06:03:00.000-05:00

professor murder are a spastic dance quartet from brooklyn, who caused something of a sensation last summer with the release of their first ep, rides the subway. well, maybe "sensation" is a little hyperbolic - pitchfork loved it, but when i listened to "champion," i was less than impressed. chaotic to the point of being directionless, mumbled lyrics, and kinda repetitive, "champion" wasn't enough to sell me on the album or the band, and i filed them away in the "awesome artwork, mediocre music" section of my brain. see how cool the artwork is! too cool for school.
anyway, i can't really explain why, i felt the need to look up professor murder again over the summer. maybe i had been scrolling through my library and recognized the name, or perhaps i was colossally bored. in any event, i checked out their old website (it's down now), and decided to give the band another chance. this decision was due primarily to the fact that they had free songs available for download, and if i'm a sucker for anything, it's free music. so i grabbed this live set from pianos, five songs deep, from 2005, and gave it a few spins. well, you might've guessed this by now, but i totally dug it. this time, i filed it away in the "better than before, should blog about this" category, and promptly forgot about it until now.

live at pianos, 4/3/05 (.zip)
the mountain
(too much) gun talk
camron's new color (part 3)
champion
swingzilla

some other news about professor murder, if you're just joining their party: they like giving away shit for free. they have a big ole mixtape available at their myspace, and their new ep, on a desert island, is being released song by song through rcrd lbl, and the first song, "flex-it formula," has been available for about a month. no word on when the next songs will be posted.

awesome song night! - "teenage riot" (with epic p.p.s.)

2008-01-05T04:45:00.000-05:00

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

ruby isle - "teenage riot" (sonic youth cover)

this song made the rounds back in march of '07, but it's so good, i had to serve it up again. ruby isle is a trio from athens and minneapolis, comprised of mark mallman, dan geller, and aaron lemay. mallman and geller are well-known in their own rights, mallman as the composer of "marathon 2," the longest song in history (clocking in at 52+ hours), and geller as half of the fantastically awesome IDM outfit i am the world trade center. having joined forces with lemay, ruby isle make slick, smart, and bratty electropop, often covering better known bands. in addition to this version of "teenage riot," ruby isle made some waves recently with their destroyer/elbo.ws stunt a couple months ago. anyway, this song is fucking awesome.

p.s. hear more ruby isle covers (including a download of "tyrant" by black mountain) at their myspace.

p.p.s. so i did a bit more research, and got a tip or two, and it turns out this elbo.ws deal is more than just a one-off - it's a regular deal for geller, mallman, and lemay. the hello, blue roses song was just the beginning of what has become an epic project: "we are going to continue to do covers of the #1 spot on the elbo.ws hot tracks chart on a semi-weekly basis until we get bored or the songs get bad." this week's track is a mash-up cover of steven malkmus's "baltimore" and m.i.a.'s "paper planes," completely refurbished and re-imagined, ruby isle-style. check it out here. you can also download all the previous ruby isle/elbo.ws covers from here.

best album by a sexually ambiguous troubadour

2008-01-01T21:00:00.000-05:00

it’s been a very tumultuous year for patrick wolf. he literally catapulted into the annals of indiedom when the magic position was embraced by pitchfork, relentless arbiter of hipness that they are, racking up some of the best headlines of the year alongside some of its better songs (do you remember when he blasted mika on his myspace? those were some good times.). the hot-panted singer, adored for his style as much as his substance, rode one hell of a rollercoaster in 2007, a ride which ended mere days ago with a pair of concerts at london’s shepherd's bush empire (one of which our very own tearknee attended). wolf, who is known for his ambiguous missives as much as his questionable sexuality (those pants, man!), is probably taking some time off to work on a new album, or his own record label (lycanthropy and wind in the wires are its first slated releases, natch), or hem some more shorts and dye his hair another color, or who the fuck knows. patrick wolf’s home life is probably just as bizarre and interesting as the magic position, which is to say, lots.

patrick wolf is one of the closest things we have to a prodigy (i’m so not counting tiny masters of today, by the way), a songwriter whose budding genius was abundantly visible to fat cat, if no one else, at the ripe old age of sixteen. while most of his peers were illegally drinking and trying to pull similarly drunk girls, wolf was squatting with friends and developing a unique personality and songwriting approach. the fat cats at fat cat gave him some new equipment and studio time, and received lycanthropy, an album that only begins to hint at his talent and genius. by wind in the wires wolf’s style was honed to razor sharpness, his distinctive talent blossoming. often defined by the twin cores of glitchy drums and string-snapping violin, wind in the wires is grand and epic, wolf’s fascination with mythology evident on songs like “tristan” and “the libertine.” for the magic position, however, wolf’s gaze turned inward.

the magic position is, first and foremost, a love album, one that captures its nuances, ecstatic highs and crushing lows both, with more charisma and sophistication than many of its peers (and is very enjoyable to boot!). one of the most striking features of the magic position is wolf's obvious versatility and flexibility, to say nothing of his candid self-assurance. his public persona is unabashedly dramatic and highly sexual, and the magic position overflows with a tangible sense of purity - this is wolf as he really is, vulnerable yet confident. however, were it not for his musical dynamism and ingenuity, patrick wolf could be just another melancholy singer/songwriter, possessed of an abundance of joy and misery; instead, he ranks as one of the most inventive and innovative pop songwriters of the new millennium, joyfully blending stiff, harsh electronic beats with wanton strings and horns, each anchored in his sweeping vision for a brave new aesthetic.

naturally, the album's most engaging song is its titular one; "the magic position" is catchy, with a riveting violin hook, and exuberant, wolf's voice soaring with delight, combined with his overwhelmingly positive lyrics, delivered in enough of an off-tempo cadence to catch the ear and keep it. his style is so bold that the magic position is, at times, almost difficult to listen to - the whole record is truly ingenious, but its brilliance is so pronounced as to make hearing it an effort. it is not easy listening. wolf can purportedly play sixteen instruments, and the aural depth of the magic position would suggest that he takes a turn at all of them - it is simply baffling, and nearly impossible, to try and identify every sound or every instrument in even a single song. that being said, the magic position has many overarching instrumental themes, chiefly, as before, a heavy reliance on dirty electronic beats and distorted drum effects. but wolf trades in his younger brashness for a more nuanced sound; album highlight "augustine" is almost a ballad, led by a emotional piano that underscores the audible worry in his voice. "(let's go) get lost," indisputably the magic position's best song, is very nearly a cacophony, with horns, theremin, keyboards, hand claps, finger snaps, and assorted electronic gadgets chirping in time, while perfectly capturing the blinding exultation of love. the magic position is very obviously an ode to love, that most universal (and indescribable) human emotion, and wolf's own love for his music is evident at every turn. he plays with a vivaciousness and rampant happiness that is absolutely infectious, so that "accident & emergency" plays on repeat in your skull, and brings a smile every time.

i have to stress that the magic position is not an easy album. it took me a long time to listen to it and really enjoy it, more than a couple months, but sticking it out is so very rewarding. it is really a brilliant piece of work, and every time i remember all that he's accomplished at the embarrassingly young age of 23, it fills me with a deep and abiding sense of shame. i think his songwriting is, more than anything else, brave - it's absolutely original and absolutely captivating and far more engaging than the absurdity of freak-folk or drone-rock, or whatever genre is in vogue right now, and pretty damn inimitable. the taut drama of the magic position is important, nay, essential, for furthering the evolution of contemporary music. it may not be the best album you've heard this year, or even the most enjoyable (it isn't either for me), but i think it's the most critical. patrick wolf is doing things musically that i'm not hearing anywhere else, and the magic position is his best work yet. it deserves your attention, and your respect.

"augustine" & "(let's go) get lost"

some hot live woelv traxx

2007-12-28T19:40:00.000-05:00

if you haven't picked up tout seul dans la forêt en plein jour, avez-vous peur? yet, or need a better reason to justify said purchase, here are three tracks from a recent woelv set, opening for mount eerie in philadelphia. the taper didn't get the full tracklist, and i managed to forget my copy of her album at home (i'm traveling at the moment), so i don't have any track titles for you. but, after all, it's not like i took her song names too seriously before, so this small hindrance shouldn't take the wind out of your sails.

you can download the whole show here.

buy tout seul dans la forêt en plein jour, avez-vous peur? from k records.

song 1
song 2
song 3

halcyon

2007-12-28T13:54:00.000-05:00

"The story goes that in the old days, during the winter solstice, all the oceans in the world would lay calm and the bad weather would subside. It was then that the kingfisher bird would fly out into the open sea to build its nest and lay its eggs, believing they would hatch in time before the waves began to rise again. This time came to be known as the halcyon days.

The Halcyon EP was recorded in my bedroom during the month of November, 2007. Winter always seems to be a more creative time for me, and the sudden cold and slower pace that was settling in over Nashville provided a welcome excuse to stay inside and work. A few friends came by as well, each with their own special sounds from cellos to horns to live drums, adding new colors to the mix.

This EP, for me, is a way to reflect on yet another year quietly slipping by, enjoying the present stillness of a tennessee winter, and looking forward to what is coming up over those yon there hills. I hope you are to able find something in it too. thanks for listening...

- daniel james (sunday december 9th, 2007)

- myspace.com/canonblue"

"halcyon" & "avatar furr"

download halcyon from rumraket.

the eraser remixes

2007-12-28T11:57:00.000-05:00

one of the best albums in recent memory was thom yorke’s solo debut, the eraser. truer to radiohead’s aesthetic ideals more than in rainbows (in my opinion), the eraser is the work of one of contemporary music’s most enlightened songwriters. the album’s reserved instrumentals and stark, futuristic aura complement yorke’s ethereal and thin, nervous vocals, so that the eraser seemed as much a portrait of our collective fears for the coming years as a musical elegy for missed chances and untaken steps. perhaps buoyed by the eraser’s success or the simple desire of expanded horizons, yorke handed the reins over to eight other electronic artists for the eraser remixes, a full reworking of the album by some of the field’s most renowned minimalists. true to the eraser’s instrumental roots and yorke’s disenchanted lyrics, the eraser remixes doesn’t attempt to redefine his songs, only to remanufacture them with fresh sounds. to that end, yorke’s recruited artists generally succeed, maintaining the album’s emotional distance yet giving it a fresh face and sound.

released as a trio of 12”, the eraser remixes features work by four tet, burial, modeselektor, the field, christian vogel, surgeon, and the bug, most of whom are well-known for their restraint and electronic stiffness. all the tracks from the eraser, save the title one, are reworked, with “black swan “ receiving double treatment from christian vogel, who created the “christian vogel spare parts remix” and “vogel bonus beat eraser remix.” unlike many remixes (especially remix albums), the eraser remixes stays close to yorke’s original vision – though sometimes almost too close. the starkness of the new beats emulate yorke’s own, though none of the new versions could be confused for the originals; all of the remixers have put their own indelible stamp on each song. the burial song, for instance, is identifiable from his trademark hollow drum beat and back beat pounding – no “archangel,” to be sure, but aurally similar enough to be instantly recognizable. unfortunately, his version of “and it rained all night” isn’t really imaginative, and is preferable to neither the original nor most of the other redone cuts on the album.

the eraser remixes is neatly divided between good and bad remixes, the former being excellent reworkings of excellent songs, while the latter make you wish no one had tampered with yorke’s original. as with the burial version, some of the worse remixes are from the most talented artists, proving that remixing requires a different mindset than merely creating. the modeselektor remix of “skip divided” is especially good, the german minimalists teasing yorke’s voice as well as his melodies. four tet adds a softer glow to “atoms for peace,” though it lacks the blaring, joyful edge of his solo work. the field, whose self-titled album was very well received this year, reworks “cymbal rush” into an eight minute instrumental odyssey, titled “(late night essen und trinken remix)” that puts me to sleep more than makes me want to keep eating and drinking. surgeon’s “the clock” is almost a house version, and the closest thing the eraser remixes ever gets to a dance song.

this collection of remixes is very odd, as all of the remixers adhere to yorke’s original vision with almost slavish mimicry; remixing is generally prized for its ingenuity and reinvention, but the eraser remixes eschews this goal for the less exciting one of mere possibility. i wonder if the remixers chosen had to follow guidelines or stick to some rules, explaining the almost universal plainness of the remixes. as solo artists, each of the remixers have created really unique bodies of work, but they are here stifled, restrained, so that our imaginations could often serve us better. the eraser remixes are disappointing – though the remixes are technically sound, their similarity to yorke’s original songs suggest that they are more like the eraser alternatives, occasionally exciting but never ingenious.

"and it rained all night (burial remix)"

"atoms for peace (four tet remix)"

"skip divided (modeselektor remix)"

buy the eraser from xl recordings.

awesome song christmas! - "spell for a weak heart"

2007-12-25T22:20:00.000-05:00

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

final fantasy - "spell for a weak heart"

the out-of-print young canadian mothers ep was released by escape goat records.

yeah, so, final fantasy is my favorite band. this is a great little ditty from owen pallett's hopelessly out-of-print 2006 ep, young canadian mothers. the ep also features "peach, plum, pear," pallett's popular cover of the joanna newsom track.

merry christmas!

best album by a one-man band

2007-12-25T22:07:00.000-05:00

simply put, i am fascinated by one-man bands, the relatively recent phenomenon that is aided, abetted, and allowed by the mind-bogglingly vast array of noisemaking electronic gadgets, thingys, and doodads available (or, if you’re on a budget, a macbook is probably as good). i am a devoted fan of one-man bands of every style and persuasion, ranging from daniel snaith (caribou), owen pallett (final fantasy), eric san (kid koala) or otis jackson, jr. (madlib), to even geneviève castrée (woelv). each creates in me a feeling a wonder, amazement even, as they systematically assemble songs from scraps, building intensely complex aural structures from single, abstracted fragments. even relative nobodies, like remember remember or alexander tucker, instantly impress me as they build loop after loop, for their discipline and order as much as anything else; i know i wouldn’t be able to keep one rhythm in my head, much less five, six, seven. my ear has always been drawn to progressive, complex songs (i first realized this when i identified [and rocked out to] every part of “found a job”, reveling in the talking heads’s layers and rejecting the sloppiness of the ramones), and while i find that fullest satisfaction is watching these multi-tiered songs constructed in a live setting, there is something immaculate and perfect about one-man band studio albums that can never be reproduced. so, what’s my favorite one-man band album of 2007? pitchfork skeptic though i am, ryan schreiber and i are on the same page about one thing: how fucking awesome person pitch is.

person pitch, the third solo release by panda bear, was very nearly my favorite album of the year, a work of staggering brilliance that compels listeners with its dualism, simultaneously intricate and blindingly simple. panda bear is the bestial pseudonym of noah lennox, a songwriter who has risen to prominence mostly (prior to 2007) due to his work in animal collective, infamous freak-folk progenitors, but striking out on his own might be the smartest thing lennox has ever done. despite my current love of the album, i spent most of 2007 ignoring it. the reason? i am SO not an animal collective fan. i tend to listen to them as much as i listen to bright eyes, the arcade fire, or the eagles, which is to say, never. (side story: person pitch impressed me so much that i even gave strawberry jam a listen; i turned it off halfway through the first song. ew.) but person pitch skillfully avoids the jarring pitfalls and irritating, pointless grating of animal collective by simply ignoring it. the album is melodic more than anything else (nearly to the point of overflow), lennox’s songs woven together by carefully conceived happenstance, with more flavors in the mix than jambalaya. the result is an unendingly enjoyable album, but one that is charismatic and rewarding as well as entertaining.

person pitch is a rare album by any standard. assembled from a smattering of singles, 7"s, and one-off songs, it still clings together with an enviable stylistic cohesion. with some exceptions, lennox's lyrics are mostly so distorted that they are indistinguishable, which really prioritizes the music. one exception is album opener "comfy in nautica," which entreats the listener to "try to remember always / just to have a good time." "comfy in nautica" deserves its popularity; in addition to being the album's best known (and most accessible) song, it really sets person pitch's tone and framework. starting as a cascade of clanking machinery, lennox pares that harshness away to the slow regularity of marching feet and a single, looped choir note that hits every other beat - such is the album's formula, simple and intoxicating repetition.

person pitch is aesthetically divided into two categories, based solely on song length. the album features two epic compositions, "bros" and "good girl/carrot," brilliant works that, together, make up more than half of person pitch's length. despite their length (both clock in at over 12:30), neither feels contrived nor too long - they are performed without haste or waste, the type of songs where the removal of one note would make a profound difference. both are fluid, progressive songs with multiple melodies and themes blending into each other seamlessly. all of these, however, are attributes of the album as a whole, and "bros" and "good girl/carrots" are merely larger versions of "take pills" or "i'm not," expanded. every song on the album is viscerally alive in your headphones, and listening to person pitch on constant repeat doesn't diminish its brilliance in the slightest.

as part of the album's artwork, panda bear helpfully provides a look at his working environment, a menagerie of electronics that belies person pitch's rich, organic sound. though created mostly from samples and distorted sounds, the album is fuzzy and warm, almost lo-fi in its tenderness and aural intimacy. person pitch's formula is a simple, straightforward one: lennox starts each song with a sample, then adds a couple more, and sings on top, often manipulating his vocals, and then adds a couple more samples. analyzing his approach may satisfy some academic thirst for knowledge, but person pitch doesn't need it. the album is a gem, and well deserves the several nods it has received for best of 2007. if you a) haven't it heard yet or b) haven't bought it yet, you are c) missing out. go out and get it tomorrow.

"take pills" & "i'm not"
buy person pitch at paw tracks.

view people party (a fan-made concert documentary of three panda bear
performances in 2007) at eat tapes.

awesome song morning! - "i'm a pretender"

2007-12-20T09:05:00.000-05:00

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

the exploding hearts - "i'm a pretender"
buy guitar romantic from dirtnap records.

the exploding hearts are one of the saddest stories in contemporary music, sadder even than callum robbins. the portland, or. pop punk band garnered widespread acclaim for their 2002 debut, guitar romantic, but the band came to an untimely and abrupt end in 2003 when a car crash claimed the lives of three band members. i was given this song on a mix in 2005, and it impressed me so much that i bought the whole album, which isn't as good as "i'm a pretender." it abounds with energy and bad rhymes ("weather was cool so i bought you some fruit" comes to mind), but is just an explosion of cheerfulness, pure pop punk joy, and great hooks. check it out!!!!!!!

best album by three brunettes from brooklyn

2007-12-19T14:16:00.000-05:00

i don't know anyone who really likes au revoir simone as much as i do (i like them a lot). i've been trying to get my friends to listen to the bird of music, the brooklyn trio's sophomore album, for months now, but they can't really hear its charm or understand the allure of its tender and restrained aura. which is really a shame, since it's been my sleeper hit of the year since its release in may by our secret record company. the bird of music is simple and not aurally or intellectually taxing, which automatically sets it apart from many of the more "acclaimed" 2007 releases (seriously, what the fuck is up with this shit?) and may contribute to why its been so overlooked (bloggers being the arrogant s.o.b.s that we are). in reality, the bird of music, though simple, is sophisticated nonetheless, has incredible staying power, and is often just plain great.

au revoir simone is the result of a fortuitous train encounter in 2003 between the band's lead songwriters, erika forster and annie hart, and with the addition of heather d'angelo, they had a band. all three ladies play keyboards, imbuing their music with the saccharine sweetness that defines their sound, without overpowering ears. d'angelo, in addition to playing keys, is au revoir simone's beatmaker, manning the drum machine. the bird of music really runs the gamut stylistically; while their sound is consciously limited by the one-dimensionality of their instrumentation, au revoir simone tweaks their approaches on a song-by-song basis, so that some songs are gentle and harmonic, while others have such fuzzed-out keyboard distortion that it almost brings sonic youth to mind, all within a melodic and poppy framework. they're not the next ween or anything, and i'm not trying to imply that the bird of music is anything but sweet, catchy pop music, because that's all it is. but, at the same time, it's pretty damn intelligent, and the ways these ladies wield their keyboards is certainly impressive as well as addicting.

the best pop music, i think, is the kind you can't really over-intellectualize - after all, the best thing about songs like "toxic" is there's no thinking involved on your part. a lot of time and energy (and, dare i say, brilliance) went into manufacturing such a flawless, mindless song. now, au revoir simone certainly aren't britney spears's songwriters, and they are targeting a...more "discerning" audience, perhaps, than "toxic" was designed for, but the basic principle of pop remains the same - you're not supposed to think about it too much, at least as a listener. you're supposed to enjoy it, and absorb it so that it becomes familiar and comforting. au revoir simone's touch is so light and their hooks are so goddamn big that the bird of music becomes familiar before you even realize it, their melodies wending the way to your brain. i find listening to the bird a refreshing experience, especially in this weather - the album's production is so stark, so restrained, the notes round and smooth - it's very digestible and satisfying.

au revoir simone make songs like painters who can't stand to see the canvas - every inch of the sonic map is covered, plotted, filled with music. there is a gentle, steam-like hiss in "lark," for example, constant during the entire song, which is just one layer of the immaculately designed complexity that three keyboards can create. they stack rhythms, melodies, creating full songs from slight beginnings. as complex and well-designed as au revoir simone's songs are, however, each element is crafted to buttress the others, so that the overall effect is a full, not disjointed, affair. the most appealing part of their music may be their own voices, which function is a similar fashion. all three sing on every track, in unison and in harmony, and what makes their voices especially appealing is that they are the only organic sounds on the record. the stiffness of the drums and the flatness of the notes are so alien that the ear latches on to their rich voices like a bee to honey. (i believe all three are altos, and i can sing along to many of their songs without straining my voice, which is definitely another reason i like them so much. winning the singalong vote is crucial.)

though the words are often buried in the mix, au revoir simone's lyrics are a definite highlight of the bird of music, cheerful and melancholy both, sincere reflections from life. some of the album's best lyrics are on "fallen snow," an apt title. keyboards trundle along with sleigh-like regularity, and bells are heard in the background, and has all the cheer of the holiday season. "nothing's worse than seeing you worse than me / nothing hurts like seeing you hurt like me" is one such choice line, but the whole effect is to capture the frightening future. "depressing things are empty beds and lonely dinners / women who are middle-aged with naked fingers" could be the best line on the album - a shockingly self-aware recognition of the possibility of a lonely life. "stars," on the other hand, feels like a kicker from the first burst of tinkly piano, a bubblegum-sweet song about meeting a boy, with the winning chorus of "you make me wanna match the stars in the backyard / with a calculator and a ruler, baby." "dark halls" and "night majestic" are two other excellent tunes, the former a cheerful ditty about bus trips to boston and the latter a cute songs about horses.

electropop hasn't gotten much love since give up, but that hasn't stopped au revoir simone. the bird of music is really a lovely album, and i know it's one that i will listen to for past december 31. their fuzzy sweetness is familiar to me, and comforting. for me, it's a blanket album - i can play it pretty much anywhere, at any time, and always be satisfied by my choice. i don't expect you to be blown away, but it's not that kind of an album. if you like what you hear the first time, listen to it again, and you'll like it even more.

"fallen snow" & "night majestic"

best free album (if you got there fast enough, suckers!)

2007-12-18T13:17:00.000-05:00

on new year's eve 2006, a couple websites quietly prepared themselves for the online-only release of liberation, the nine-track collaboration between talib kweli and madlib, which was to be made available to the public for absolutely no charge. available online for only a week, liberation was downloaded over 100,000 times, making it 2007's first proper album and an important contribution to the ongoing discussion about musical property. though other online-only, sorta-free albums eventually overshadowed liberation, this album stands out for a couple major reasons: 1. it's not by radiohead and, 2. it proves madlib can make anyone sound incredible. the public reception of liberation was so favorable that it was eventually slated for proper release by kweli's own blacksmith label, and charted 60,000 sales in its first week.

talib kweli is not my favorite mc in the world. in fact, i usually don't bother listening to him - his squeaky voice and self-aggrandizing flow get on my nerves quickly, even on guest spots. madlib, on the other hand, is one of the most talented producers and musicians of the 21st century, with such vision and skill that he could take a dump in the studio, put it on wax, and it would still sound better than the latest will.i.am joint. so i downloaded liberation, excited for madlib's beats if not kweli's raps, but was pleasantly surprised by this cohesive and intelligent work. though the album is barely longer than an EP (total length is 30:12), both madlib and kweli deliver, the beats rich and varied, the rhymes, while still often shamelessly self-promoting (he compares himself to leonardo da vinci on "funny money"), are incisive and insightful.

liberation is madlib's first rap collaboration since 2004's madvillainy, but with over six full-lengths released in the interim, the beat konducta's style is anything but similar. a lot of madlib's more recent work is grounded in his solo releases, the beat konducta vol. 1 - vol. 4, and it easy to trace liberation back to that fertile ground. "whatkanido (can do it)," from the beat konducta vol. 1-2, was even directly replicated for liberation - renamed "what can i do," it is that album's final track. while madlib's beats are always based in the purest soul and jazz, his style has definitely evolved, and liberation, while only the prolific producer's first album of 2007, exemplifies his intelligent beatmaking abilities. kweli's aggrieved rhymes, buried and dirty in the mix, inspire some of madlib's darkest beats ever; "over the counter" and "engine runnin" are two such sinister cuts. "time is right" stands out thanks to madlib's vocal tweaking - the beat konducta sends kweli's voice through some old-school equipment so that the rapper sounds like a sample himself, and, in a particularly intuitive moment drops the beat after kweli, referencing myspace, rhymes "that's really me on that shit, not a representative," anticipating and fanning the astonishment. while madlib's instrumental works are accessible and enjoyable, liberation was a nice refresher of how his beats really come alive with an mc on top of them (an mc who isn't madlib, that is).

as i said above, i'm not really into talib kweli, and though i really like this album, wasn't into ear drum at all. i think liberation's quality is due mostly to madlib, but kweli's rhymes are often excellent. lyrically, kweli operates the two intertwined themes of himself and politics, and is passionate about both. "funny money," possibly liberation's finest track, features an unexpectedly light funk track from madlib and coy, smart raps from kweli. calling himself "mr. international," kweli big ups his own global popularity ("funny money" itself is a reference to foreign currency) and foreshadows what has become the political issue of the year: "illegal immigration gonna control hysteria." "over the counter" is clearly references the corrupted pharmaceutical industry, opening with the line "yo yo, we need some new leaders / politicians are lying, the artists are true divas." he then challenges the authenticity of the government's 9/11 story and claims "intelligence got you hooked" and is the new "drug of choice." liberation is a serious theme throughout the record, from "the show," where kweli rejects the n-word - "sayin' nigger just to keep our teeth white" - to "what can i do," an exhortation to the community to act, to finally reject the bloated corporate structure and two-faced government, an appropriate finishing point but not the end of the story.

liberation is short, almost a snippet of a hip hop, but contains some of the year's nastiest beats and informed lyrics. three of the album's nine tracks feature guests, but, interestingly, the finest raps are kweli's alone. madlib reestablishes himself as one of the best producers in the business, and talib kweli reaches a new lyrical high. with so much going for it, is it any surprise that "cds selling like nuclear weapons in north korea"?

"funny money" & "over the counter"
"whatkanido (can do it)" from the beat konducta vol. 1-2.

awesome song night! - "the anglo saxons"

2007-12-17T23:20:00.000-05:00

awesome song day! is a spontaneous feature, when i am moved by a song's singular awesomeosity and feel the urge to share its awesomeness with all of you. the song below is awesome.

the mountain goats - "the anglo saxons"
buy ghana from 3 beads of sweat.

so, john darnielle is a pretty awesome dude. he's certainly one of the most prolific songwriters ever, with ten LPs (his eleventh, heretic pride, is due out february 18, 2008), three compilations, six cassettes, and about ten million other releases. bands with such a staggering output are often off-putting, because it seems so impossible to find a good place to start, what "the best" album to get into them is. well, pretty much every mountain goats album is a good place to start, since it's hard for john darnielle to write a bad song, though you can't really go wrong with ghana, a 68-minute, 31-tracked compilation odessey that features a lot of great mountain goats material. i particularly like "golden boy," "the last day of jimi hendrix's life," "orange ball of peace," and "going to maine," but "the anglo saxons" has a special place in my heart, because i discovered it when i was living in the united kingdom. anyway, enough from me. enjoy this awesome song!