I felt like writing an array of micro-music reviews during class, just so I can get some of my indie-rock frustrations out.
1. The new Sleigh Bells record totally fulfilled my expectations: it sucks. Could not stand the singles I had heard from the previous year and I definitely cannot stand the obnoxiousness that's in this record. Not sure what people see in it. Or should I say hearing? Supposedly people like it because it's loud? So? And M.I.A. endorses the hell out of it? She's going crazy anyway.
2. Watched Dinner with a Band yesterday on IFC with Yacht as the special guest. The chef cooked them a Mushroom Vegan Picatta dish and served them a nice little cocktail. I've seen Yacht live before and they're totally cool dudes. And they were even cooler/dorkier on the show. I love that band a lot.
3. The only song I really like on LCD Soundsystem's "This is Happening" is All I Want. Great song.
4. The new Flying Lotus album Cosmogramma is fuckin' CRAZY. I mean I expected it to be good, but I didn't expect it to be totally fucked up as well. Even more druggy and trippy. So good.
5. Not sure why I'm still holding on to a band like Minus the Bear, a band I put little stake in years ago because of top-shelf indie status. It had hints of that math rock aesthetic as well as an emo sensibility I was still too comfortable with. But man, their albums got progressively worse. Experimentation works for a lot of bands, but MtB just got so bad. They got more math and less emo, and that totally ruined them. Menos el Oso (as ridiculous as that album name is) was a pretty more-than-decent record. Also-- I hate those ridiculous song titles. Can't stand it. Their new album Omni is just pure trash. So lame and not even that disappointing because I've lost so much faith in this band so I don't really give a fuck.
6. I co-hosted a Fucked Up showcase with a fellow DJ Hector and man it was awesome. Made me love that band even more.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
In the Aeroplane over the Sea
Look, I'm usually not late to these kinds of things. I'm usually pretty on-top of it and I'm kinda proud of it.
But fuck I'm so late to this: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is a fucking great album. No duh.
Just picked it up and I've listened to it all week. Haven't felt this great about an indie-rock album since The Crane Wife (that's kinda funny, huh?) and just when I thought there weren't any bands I can put stake in, I find out they've been in hiatus for like almost 15 years. Fuck. For now, I guess I'll just bask in the glory of my favorite set of songs on the album: "Ghost" leading into the untitled track. Uh, I don't really think you can get much more glorious than that massive bagpipe-playing. And it's kind of a wildcard of an album. It's indie-rock, with a lot of emphasis on baroque folk... but then you have really loud, noisy pop songs as well? What a weird record! By weird I mean totally great of course!
With a record like this, you can totally see this as sort of a milestone for modern indie-rock. And come to think of it, I can't really imagine how people reacted to this record back in 1998. It just sounds so ahead of its time. I listen to it now and it can easily have come out last month and still be like the best thing anyone has ever heard.
But fuck I'm so late to this: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is a fucking great album. No duh.
Just picked it up and I've listened to it all week. Haven't felt this great about an indie-rock album since The Crane Wife (that's kinda funny, huh?) and just when I thought there weren't any bands I can put stake in, I find out they've been in hiatus for like almost 15 years. Fuck. For now, I guess I'll just bask in the glory of my favorite set of songs on the album: "Ghost" leading into the untitled track. Uh, I don't really think you can get much more glorious than that massive bagpipe-playing. And it's kind of a wildcard of an album. It's indie-rock, with a lot of emphasis on baroque folk... but then you have really loud, noisy pop songs as well? What a weird record! By weird I mean totally great of course!
With a record like this, you can totally see this as sort of a milestone for modern indie-rock. And come to think of it, I can't really imagine how people reacted to this record back in 1998. It just sounds so ahead of its time. I listen to it now and it can easily have come out last month and still be like the best thing anyone has ever heard.
Friday, May 7, 2010
the perks of being pessimistic
There are none. With the exception of being really funny.
Enough about me. More about music.
The New Pornographers - Crash Years
New Pornos were one of those indie curiosities that struck me at an age when I was ripe for molding. I was suddenly getting into stuff like Shins and Flaming Lips. Looking back on that time, I remember the excitement I had when discovering these fringe indie bands. I came across New Pornos after reading a Rolling Stones review for Twin Cinema that got a pretty decent group of positive adjectives and action verbs. I picked it up and loved it... but I never really wrapped my head around the term "power-pop". Catchy melody intertwined with power chords? Oddly enough, that sounds very sensible. Two albums later, the New Pornographers have Together, a step above the disappointing Challengers, but not too far off. Crash Years is bloody brilliant, though. Neko Case has a fuckin' great set of pipes and the New Pornos know how arrange A.C. Newman and Dan Bejar around them. She's underrated as a songstress, that's all I'm saying. Also, it's really hard to concoct a hook based on whistling alone, and I suppose it's harder to make it simultaneously catchy. But uh here ya go
Crystal Castles - Celestica (or for that matter, the entire Crystal Castles sophomore LP)
It's good. It's different from the other which is such a relief. I don't know if I can stand anymore atari/nintendo-inspired bleeps and bloops in a song, and expect that to carry the entire track. CC did good. They're tapping into more broader electronic sounds as well as staying within the realm of electro. I guess they're dabbling with that whole "haunted house" thing, and for that I'll bring up The Knife. I mean it's hard not to compare the two, or at least even bring up both names in the same sentence. "Celestica", though, is the standout track for me. Kinda makes them seem like nice people. Then "Doe Deer" wipes any hope of them channeling some Disco Romance type shit for an entire album. It's awesome.
Converge - Dark Horse
I had never heard of these guys before but by chance I stumbled upon their LP Axe to Fall and I'm not really sure why I hadn't heard about this band. Combining metal, hardcore, sludge, math-rock, hell, demons and the pit where that Dune-like worm monster chills in Return of the Jedi and that's pretty much Converge. Dark Horse is the first track off the album and my friend Alexis begged a pretty fair question: "how do you headbang to this shit?" In all honesty, I don't know. This music is so active that I don't really think standing and moving your head would be enough to give the band justice. I think running would probably do you better.
Big Boi - Fo Yo' Sorrows (feat. Too Short, George Clinton and SamChris)
I predict this Chico Dusty album will be a masterpiece. Big Boi's been on this album for a long while and from all the tracks I've heard so far (Shine Blockas, Royal Flush and Shutterbug), this album will probably do hip-hop some good. I mean the South has always bred some pretty interesting and fucked-up rappers, one of them being Outkast. This song is great, though, because it combines two of my favorite things in the world: getting head and smoking weed (sometimes not in that order, and sometimes simultaneously). The beat is on some kind of weird Apex Twin-type Warp records cadence. Love it. And the hook is just off-the-wall perfect. George Clinton is on it being George Clinton. The song is awesome. Period.
Enough about me. More about music.
The New Pornographers - Crash Years
New Pornos were one of those indie curiosities that struck me at an age when I was ripe for molding. I was suddenly getting into stuff like Shins and Flaming Lips. Looking back on that time, I remember the excitement I had when discovering these fringe indie bands. I came across New Pornos after reading a Rolling Stones review for Twin Cinema that got a pretty decent group of positive adjectives and action verbs. I picked it up and loved it... but I never really wrapped my head around the term "power-pop". Catchy melody intertwined with power chords? Oddly enough, that sounds very sensible. Two albums later, the New Pornographers have Together, a step above the disappointing Challengers, but not too far off. Crash Years is bloody brilliant, though. Neko Case has a fuckin' great set of pipes and the New Pornos know how arrange A.C. Newman and Dan Bejar around them. She's underrated as a songstress, that's all I'm saying. Also, it's really hard to concoct a hook based on whistling alone, and I suppose it's harder to make it simultaneously catchy. But uh here ya go
Crystal Castles - Celestica (or for that matter, the entire Crystal Castles sophomore LP)
It's good. It's different from the other which is such a relief. I don't know if I can stand anymore atari/nintendo-inspired bleeps and bloops in a song, and expect that to carry the entire track. CC did good. They're tapping into more broader electronic sounds as well as staying within the realm of electro. I guess they're dabbling with that whole "haunted house" thing, and for that I'll bring up The Knife. I mean it's hard not to compare the two, or at least even bring up both names in the same sentence. "Celestica", though, is the standout track for me. Kinda makes them seem like nice people. Then "Doe Deer" wipes any hope of them channeling some Disco Romance type shit for an entire album. It's awesome.
Converge - Dark Horse
I had never heard of these guys before but by chance I stumbled upon their LP Axe to Fall and I'm not really sure why I hadn't heard about this band. Combining metal, hardcore, sludge, math-rock, hell, demons and the pit where that Dune-like worm monster chills in Return of the Jedi and that's pretty much Converge. Dark Horse is the first track off the album and my friend Alexis begged a pretty fair question: "how do you headbang to this shit?" In all honesty, I don't know. This music is so active that I don't really think standing and moving your head would be enough to give the band justice. I think running would probably do you better.
Big Boi - Fo Yo' Sorrows (feat. Too Short, George Clinton and SamChris)
I predict this Chico Dusty album will be a masterpiece. Big Boi's been on this album for a long while and from all the tracks I've heard so far (Shine Blockas, Royal Flush and Shutterbug), this album will probably do hip-hop some good. I mean the South has always bred some pretty interesting and fucked-up rappers, one of them being Outkast. This song is great, though, because it combines two of my favorite things in the world: getting head and smoking weed (sometimes not in that order, and sometimes simultaneously). The beat is on some kind of weird Apex Twin-type Warp records cadence. Love it. And the hook is just off-the-wall perfect. George Clinton is on it being George Clinton. The song is awesome. Period.
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