kidslooklikekats

Wooden Shjips: "Remixes" 12'.

2012-01-10T17:09:00.000-05:00

If you haven't yet heard 2011's West by the enigmatic Wooden Shjips...well, perhaps that's what resolutions are for. I'd proffer my vote for 2011's best release to the trance-inducing hypnotism-on-wax that is West.

But, that's me.

Playing rather seamlessly, West's Ian McCulloch-meets-Low-meets-Johnny Cash aesthetic finds true love in space rock's droning, repetitious frontier, boosting Wooden Shjips to the forefront of the subgenre and offering more proof that innovation is really only reformation in disguise. It's everything we loved about The Meat Puppets, and everything we wished Failure could have been. I'm sure I'll change my mind about that sentiment eventually.

Needless to say, I was pretty excited to receive notice of this little collection of remixes by such notables as Andrew Weatherall, Kandodo (Simon Price of The Heads) and Sonic Boom.

As if West wasn't trippy enough. This should be mind-blowing.

The 12" is set to drop on February 21st from Thrill Jockey records. It's available for preorder here.

Chicagonanigans: Sam Prekop w/ Laetitia Sadier and Daniel Higgs.

2011-09-22T00:35:00.000-04:00

Sam Prekop is performing this weekend in Chicago, with Stereolab/Monade front woman Laetitia Sadier! We chatted with Laetitia early this year, in promotion of her debut solo record The Trip. She passed along a warm hello to Sam and the gang at the time... little did we all know she'd soon collaborate once again with the man himself!

Sam will be performing his modular synthesizer material, as heard on last year's Old Punch Card album, for only the second time. His first performance of this material was at June's Neon Marshmallow Festival (video below).

Also performing this weekend at the Empty Bottle, Daniel Higgs of Lungfish fame.

Reels: "Hip-Eponymous".

2011-09-21T00:33:00.000-04:00

What do Krautrock and Samba de Brasil have in common? Reels.

2011's Hip-Eponymous showcases some rather obscure Samba from militant Brazil in the 60s, including Izio Gross, Alberto Mota and Neyde Fraga, alongside - often interwoven with - original blues-tinged guitar leads, percussion and vocals, allowing an altogether original take on the Mashup, Garagerock and Krautrock subgenres. The album is being offered free of charge here on KLLK only.

Did we mention it's extremely danceable? Well, it is. You've been warned.

Baixa by Joel Mattern

>>DOWNLOAD
Reels - Hip-Eponymous

The Sea And Cake: "The Moonlight Butterfly".

2011-04-01T20:20:00.006-04:00

The Windy City's breezy darlings The Sea and Cake are back in action - although, you could hardly call each member's art careers, solo musical outputs and production work inaction. Sam recently released a magnificent, bubbly synthesized dream scape of a record, entitled Old Punch Card, Archer and Eric have been busy drawing and painting, and John is, well, John - engineer/producer extraordinaire. Nevertheless, the quartet have regrouped, and more than that, have broken new ground.

Recorded at drummer John McEntire's Soma Studios in Chicago, The Moonlight Butterfly is The Sea and Cake's ninth full-length studio offering. It has been dubbed a "mini album", however, due to its six-song arrangement of somewhat lengthier, heavily instrumental music, building on what began with The Fawn's synth-heavy electro-jazz, continued on to Oui's lusher arrangements and synthesized undertones and culminated in the jagged, sparse electronic experimentation of Sam Prekop's most recent solo effort, Old Punch Card.

The Sea and Cake are known for their "disappearing act"; their last release was 2008's Car Alarm, the sound-searching follow-up to 2007's more straightforward jazz-rock record Everybody. You just won't meet a more devoted or enthusiastic fan than a Sea and Cake fan, and despite the band's penchant for the hiatus, the generous thanks they give their fans through blocks of heavy touring, prolific output spanning the course of one year and a constantly-evolving sound that never impedes upon their signature instrumental interplay and summery atmosphere is more than enough to sustain the band's next extended absence.

The Moonlight Butterfly is slated for release on May 10th, 2011 from Chicago's fabulous Thrill Jockey records. They're already working on another full-length scheduled for late 2011 release. For more information regarding the band and the release, as well as upcoming tour dates, please visit thrilljockey.com.

Currents/Kanyons: "Pisces Party" Re-release.

2011-04-01T15:07:00.000-04:00

UPDATE 3/28/11: Currents/Kanyons has re-released the Pisces Party EP, originally containing outtakes from 2010's Rip Duck, as a full-length featuring the original four tracks, a few new tracks and a couple from the archives.

The album is highly diversified stylistically, as with Rip Duck, calling on the same pounding, Can-esque drums and Latin-flavored guitar prevalent in its most recent predecessor and companion LP.

The album could be considered "Rip Duck Pt. II", although Pisces Party plays a bit more friendly with the listener. Download the album for free per the link below!

>>DOWNLOAD
Currents/Kanyons - Pisces Party

Joel Mattern: "Pool With Electronic".

2011-03-24T09:03:00.002-04:00

UPDATE 3/24/11: Here it is - the long-unanticipated fourth solo release by Joel Mattern, featuring some quite lovely artwork by the talented and beautiful miss Robyn Shesterniak. Twelve krauty, creepy, eccentric, self-indulgent works of aural art for your listening pleasure. Available on iTunes, AmazonMP3 and Rhapsody. Don't say I never did anything for ya's.

And here's a friggin' video for "Space C's".

Space C's from Joel Mattern on Vimeo.

Brian Eno: "Ambient 1: Music For Airports".

2011-03-24T08:47:00.001-04:00

The perfect contrast to a busy, claustrophobic airport experience. There is no sense of urgency here; there are no queues, no angry customers disputing layovers and delays. What a delightful inconsistancy inherent in the so-called birth album of ambient music. We're floating...we're floating and falling, and nothing really seems to matter. There is also a very real sense of despair that clings to the bare and brittle drones, and leaves you reminiscent and thankful, simultaneously. If nature was a musician, this would be its masterpiece.

Positive Beat Presents: Cains & Abels.

2010-11-23T21:33:00.005-05:00

Chicago's alt-folk up-and-comers Cains & Abels are celebrating the LP release of their 2009 full-length Call Me Up on Positive Beat Recordings, and you're invited! Led by David Sampson and his wavering vocals, sprinkled with gritty, minimalistic guitar and drums, Cains & Abels present the listener with what they consider "the most real and honest music we can make." Sampson implants a glimmer of hope among a barren wasteland through his powerful, yet subdued, vocal delivery that definitely carries the weight of the band's style in sound - think Neil Young-meets-Gordon Gano - which is no minor accomplishment considering the delicate duality inherent in the band's name as well as their mixed and modeled sound.

Call Me Up was released on States Rights Records in 2009; Positive Beat Recordings is re-releasing the album on vinyl LP, available January 18, 2011. The band will tour in support of the release of the LP in 2011.

Below are door times and details:

Wednesday, December 1 at Viaduct Theater / 3111 North Western Ave / Chicago, IL
Doors: 7:30pm
Show: 8:00pm
$10 at the door

Younger (Chicago) will play an improvised set throughout the evening.
Talons' (from Akron, Ohio) will be opening.
Cains & Abels will be playing Call Me Up in full with backing choir and orchestra.

Please contact Michael Hunter at Positive Beat with any questions regarding the release. Hope to see you at the show!

How To Listen To The Beatles.

2010-11-16T10:33:00.008-05:00

On November 15, 2010, Apple teased the internet with a special announcement:

iPad iOS 4? A new line of 3G MacBooks? The first Macintosh-powered consumer vehicle?? Oh the possibilities. As it turns out, the secret unveiled was much better than all of these things combined:

Note the sarcasm.

For an extremely innovative, forward-thinking enterprise such as Apple, the release of the back-catalog of a band that, to some extent, invented modern rock music is just a bit of a step backward - and a ridiculous one at that. It's also a bit arrogant, as Apple appears to think they've re-invented the band and effectively branded them as Apple products (go to the Apple site and have a look for yourself; see how the visual you are greeted with strikes you).

Do yourself and the Beatles a favor: visit your local record reseller and buy a Beatles LP for $10. Not only will you have a timeless piece of memorabilia and a pure representation of the music and the era of its release, but you'll be supporting local business as well. For that, the Beatles would applaud you.

Principle Of Essentiality: My Interview with Laetitia Sadier.

2010-10-03T16:09:00.006-04:00

I had the recent pleasure of chatting with famed Stereolab and Monade leader Laetitia Sadier about her new solo record, The Trip - a troubled personal outpouring of emotion into song, and a successful release of the pains of losing a loved one.

Laetitia has been the lead singer and multi-instrumentalist of London's Stereolab for roughly twenty years, as well as leader of dream pop quartet Monade. Both groups showcase strong influences by krautrock bands such as Neu! and Can, as well as Chanson and Brazilian music, and Stereolab is often sited as a seminal group to the post-rock sub-genre.

Our interview begins with only momentary Skype video delays; after our initial hellos, we dive into the technical aspects of the recording.

"I didn't have any specifically conscious, direct influences that I could name right now, but I did have a principle in mind, which was one of essentiality; I wanted it to be as bare and as minimal as possible," she recounts regarding the influence of other artists/music on The Trip, "...very much like a Joni Mitchell record."

Despite this overall aim, this principle of essentiality and goal for minimalism, Laetitia finds herself reverting back to her familiar "template": the Stereolab and Monade formula. "I realized that I have this very, very strongly ingrained template of how to do things and how they should sound like, because that's what I've done all my musical life."

Reverting further to the template, much like the concerted efforts of many in producing Stereolab's and Monade's releases, Laetitia relies on the technical and musical assistance of a couple good friends and a well-known producer in order to flesh out and breathe life into her music. "I don't like having to engineer myself as well as play; I like being with people, you know, and doing this with a team. I went to my boyfriend's house in Oxford with two of my friends from France - Julien Gasc and Emmanuel Mario - and Emmanuel has a computer and an audio interface... and he is quite good with gear... So yeah, we just spent two weeks developing five or six tracks, among which "Summertime" was done quite quickly and "By the Sea" which was done even more quickly.

"The other team that I had was Richard Swift... and he supported Stereolab on our last tour, for the last third of the tour. He was also great to work with, and also responsible for that first track, you know, "[One Million Year] Trip", that sounds kind of metronomic and a bit Krautrocky. If I played it to you on the guitar, you will not say "Oh, this is krautrock", you know."

Her team did not collectively write the songs, however; "They were fully written in terms of chords, lyrics... and then sometimes you're going to add a middle eight, you know, you're going to slightly arrange the songs as they are played, with your accomplices. I would say they were fully written but they were kind of bare bone and they needed keyboards, embellishments... and although I was trying to keep it down to a minimum, to even avoid it, it was still unavoidable..."

As was the looming darkness and despair at the center of Laetitia's candy-coated melodies; "This is an album about grief. I lost someone precious. I lost a family member, a dear family member; a young family member, and I didn't know what to do with this, you know, this is crazy. So the album's dedicated to my little sister; she committed suicide a couple of years ago. It's shocking; it's a shock. It's difficult to process when it's such a big shock, and I know that art can be a very good way to sublimate all these emotions, to channel them through something and make an object, make a representation of it, you know. So really, the album is dedicated to her, and was made with her in mind. It was hard to make it, because you have to face your pain and pour it into the songs."

Laetitia assures that a significant portion of the pain has stayed with the record, making The Trip a personal success as well as a commercial success. Visit dragcity.com to order a copy of the record on LP/CD or to download the MP3 (also available on iTunes).

Thank you to Laetitia for chatting with me about the album, Brazilian music and Lynch's Inland Empire (among other fun things).

Joel Mattern: "Park Avenue".

2010-08-30T10:49:00.004-04:00

I've returned to my self-titled project to release a collection of musical "scraps", noodles, previously unreleased/unfinished and two brand new songs. Park Avenue follows along the lines of my ambient-infused Beasties project, as well as ties in and succeeds the acoustic sparseness of You Try Forever.

The album is available for download per the link below, as well as on the About page.

>>DOWNLOAD
Joel Mattern - Park Avenue

Sam Prekop: "Old Punch Card".

2010-08-10T09:07:00.007-04:00

Apparently, shortly before, during and after the writing/recording of not one, but two albums for release under Chicago's post-rock staple The Sea and Cake, Sam Prekop (vocalist/guitarist for The Sea and Cake and visionary leading an astoundingly original solo career) began recording every synthesized tinkle, bloop and blip that tickled his fancy. Armed sparingly with synthesizer and studio headphones - not at all standard fair for Prekop, but an obvious passion since The Fawn - Sam translates a rawer, more intricate side of his artistic inner man to musical form; one we've undoubtedly only seen the emergence of.

Recorded over the last three years as a side project to all of Prekop's many other side projects, including a successful career as a painter and photographer, Old Punch Card is an experiment combining improvised synth textures and subtle melodies crafted from raw sound sketches. Though slated for release on September 7th, my inbox was recently teased with a track from the upcoming album entitled "The Silhouettes". I was instantly taken back to the Japanese import of The Sea and Cake's 1997 masterpiece The Fawn, and most notably its last five tracks which were bubbly, electronic sound experiments that intrigued me for their natural beauty and their experimental nature, and gave way still to TSAC's sonic signature and opened a whole new avenue of their incredibly unique sound.

In short, Old Punch Card could very well be Sam's "New Card Swipe" on his previous musical output. That's a very good thing.

>>MP3
Sam Prekop - "The Silhouettes"
From the upcoming album Old Punch Card.

Currents/Kanyons: "Rip Duck".

2010-06-07T21:21:00.005-04:00

2010's been good to me, as far as inspiration goes. Currents/Kanyons (er...me) has released the follow-up to 2009's Whistles Chimes Birds Leaves Wind, being the seedy anti-pop experiment lovingly titled Rip Duck. I know...you're just jealous you couldn't possibly imagine a more brilliantly obscure album title...

Rip Duck is some sort of (musical) answer to many questions I've been pondering as of late; namely, what would a lo-fi rock-meets-Tropicália-meets-avant-horror/sci-fi-meets-krautrock with a bluesy twist album sound like...and how many Tums would it require in sitting through it? Luckily, none. I think I've done something unique here.

The album's odd title - a term used in competitive sports circles, especially Lacrosse, which means something along the lines of "nice shot" - might not be as intentionally misleading as one might think; As I said, I've done something unique here. This isn't perfect - hell, what is? - but it's one hell of a nice shot. Let's just say I'm pleased. I hope you are as well. It's free and available to all, as always.

>>DOWNLOAD
Currents/Kanyons - Rip Duck

June Thrills: Tortoise, The Fiery Furnaces and Future Islands.

2010-05-27T10:45:00.011-04:00

June's shaping up to be quite a thrill, as three Thrill Jockey artists play Chicagoland venues in support of new releases! Here's the scoop...

Baltimore-based Future Islands have released a mighty little record called In Evening Air, being their first full-length, focused effort since relocating from their native Greenville, NC to Baltimore. It's mighty in a refreshingly new sense: focused, driven, exact and cutting.

Labeling themselves "post-wave" - a befitting description for the trio as their music combines the soaring, synthesized melodies of much of Talk Talk and New Order's early eighties new wave material with the flat, hard-hitting percussion of such post-punk progenitors as Joy Division and Gang of Four - these three talents draw together the violent, driving force of post-punk with the fragile intimacy of new wave, and create something wholly original with the addition of Sam Herring's splintered growl to the mix.

In a sea of nameless, faceless and tragically unaffected indie pop/rock, Future Islands stands alone - a lush gem to the weary, and to the future of post-wave.

Future Islands will be playing Saturday, June 5th at the Hideout with the Lower Dens (feat. Jana Hunter). Show starts at 9:00 pm.

>>MP3
Future Islands - "Tin Man"
From their new album In Evening Air.

Also returning to Chicago in June are the Fiery Furnaces, Friday the 18th at the Empty Bottle and Saturday the 19th at Fitzgerald's in Berwyn, as well as our favorite post-rockers Tortoise, coming to Lincoln Hall on Thursday, June 3rd.

High Places Play Schubas.

2010-03-19T14:04:00.005-04:00

Thrill Jockey's High Places celebrate the March 23rd release of their second full length album, High Places vs. Mankind, with a live performance at Schubas on Saturday, April 3rd. The album is a dreamy, percussive reflection on humanity and human interaction, contrasted by its electronic, repetitive percussive drive. Visit thrilljockey.com for more information.

>>MP3
High Places - "On Giving Up"
From their upcoming album High Places vs. Mankind.

Thrill Jockey Presents: Tortoise, Robert A.A. Lowe & Rose Lazar, and Chicago Underground Duo.

2010-02-18T14:21:00.017-05:00

Lacey at Thrill Jockey has recently informed me of some stellar shows coming to the Windy City this weekend. Here's the scoop:

Post-Rock masters Tortoise will be appearing with Robert A.A. Lowe of Lichens on Saturday, February 20th @ Lincoln Hall. The show starts at 10pm and is 18+. Tickets are available in advance for $20 here: http://www.lincolnhallchicago.com/

>>MP3
Tortoise - "Prepare Your Coffin"
From their latest album Beacons of Ancestorship.

>>MP3
Robert A.A. Lowe & Rose Lazar - "Fantomoj de la Vitro Domo"
From 2010's Eclipses.

Also on Saturday, Chicago Underground Duo will be playing two sets @ The Hideout starting at 8:30pm. The show is 21+ and you can buy tickets for $10 here: http://www.hideoutchicago.com/

>>MP3
Chicago Underground Duo - "Spy On The Floor"
From their latest album Boca Negra.

Thanks again to Lacey and Paco @ Thrill Jockey Records for the info.

Pick Of The Week: "Dots And Loops" (1997) By Stereolab.

2010-02-08T22:04:00.007-05:00

Dots and Loops may be one of the most instrumentally brilliant albums I've ever heard. Imagine every pleasant sound you've ever heard, as well as some bubbly experimentation for good measure and a captivating brass section that compliments the music so much you can't possibly imagine hearing it without, and you've arrived at Stereolab's Dots and Loops.

The album introduces a more lounge-influenced Stereolab, replacing the favored guitar-driven song structures with more Moogy, vibey constructions of flowery, electro-pop bliss. "Brakhage" is an ode to experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage, and fearures Douglas McCombs of Tortoise and Brokeback. "Miss Modular" contains one of the most unique and interesting Moog lines of any Stereolab song (it sounds like a corny toy organ played at each chord change and randomly throughout), and a supporting acoustic and synthesizer medley.

"The Flower Called Nowhere" is an absolutely gorgeous tune, and swirls together plenty of synths and beautiful vocal harmonies between Sadier and Hansen (which is really what makes Stereolab so great; the two most amazing women in modern pop/rock music, R.I.P. Mary). "Diagonals" has an inventive, playful opening, and soon becomes one of the most charming songs on the album.

"Prisoner of Mars" is something of a musical trap door, and once you've fallen into it, you're in it till you hit bottom; luckily, the bottom is "Rainbo Conversation", a moving little love song with a double-dose of Parisian stylistic sentimentality and little of the krautrock sound the Groop has become famous for incorporating. Mary Hansen adds an amazing amount of charm to the track with her pretty harmonies (as usual, and also especially).

"Refractions in the Plastic Pulse" sees a minimal layer of instrumentation featuring one acoustic, one vibe, and some subtle Moog filler, and of course Sadier and Hansen's masterful melodies. The track winds on and on, through three separate movements of electronic experimentation (aided by Jan St. Werner of Mouse On Mars) and an eventual (loose) return to the song's originating melody line (ce qui est, n'est pas clos, ce qui est ouvert, est à ítre - what is isn't closed, what is open is to be).

"Parsec" is a trancey piece of IDM with an intensely brilliant collection of vocal melodies, harmonies and scats. "Ticker-Tape of the Unconscious" will become your favorite track off the album, and it lodges itself inside your head for days, weeks, after first listen. "Contronatura" is our jazzy, krauty little wrap-up track, and ensures that quaint little (pretentious) smile remains on your lips long after the music ceases; Dots and Loops is quite literally the perfect album for a sunny, lazy day, and a rival to any of those brilliant records you hold in such high regards. Pleasant surprises will amass.

Pick Of The Week: "Canto On Guitar" (1970) By Baden Powell.

2010-02-03T14:53:00.006-05:00

Perhaps Brazil's most accomplished guitarist, Baden Powell possessed enough raw talent and unbridled emotion to fill the world twice over with a sense of natural wonder and awe. The six pieces comprising this beautiful and inspiring work of Samba-inspired classical guitar, especially the monumental "Tres Themas da Fé Afro-Brasileira/Pai (Um Canto de Préto ...)", offer some of the most passionate flamenco and samba music to come from Brazil at the outset of the 60s.

Canto On Guitar is our very favorite this week. Tell us what you think!

Kllk In Twenty-Ten.

2010-01-13T13:38:00.003-05:00

2009 saw much new music - some good, some bad, some benign to even the most passionate of critics - and 2010, by extension, will undoubtedly see more of the same. Despite this site's dedication to a slightly less focused niche of the indie music market, my musical tastes are urging a shift in content. Having poured over the Brazilian Tropicália, Samba and Bossanova movements of the late sixties and early seventies, the onset of the Blues scene in Chicago with Muddy Waters and Slim Harpo's rocking swamp blues, as well as just as much Krautrock, jazz and experimental variations, it seems a natural progression, and one that will surely benefit the reader and the author in various ways, to move the site's coverage and content into these areas of musical expression.

In the weeks to come, we'll begin exploring the history and culture of militant Brazil at the onset of the Tropicália movement in the mid-to-late sixties through the artists and musicians that inspired and propagated it. Beginning with the most notorious - Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Os Mutantes - and working through to Brazil's psychedelic underground, our quest will ultimately bring enlightenment and respect for Brazil's artistic, musical and other cultural creations to the reader. As much of this content will be building upon itself, be sure to subscribe to the site RSS feed in order to catch the latest updates as they arrive.

Happy listening in 2010!

Towering To New Heights: An Interview With Skyscraper Magazine's Peter Bottomley.

2010-01-07T09:20:00.015-05:00

Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Skyscraper magazine founder and owner Peter Bottomley concerning the personal decision to discontinue the magazine's printed publication in favor of an online offering of the same content, at no cost to the consumer.

Skyscraper was founded in 1997 by brothers Peter and Andrew Bottomley, originally as a hardcore fanzine. Once the two found their little zine had a following, and a niche, they quickly gathered up regular writers and contributors, broadened the scope of their content slightly to include the burgeoning indie rock, post-punk and noise circuits, and packed it all into a novel-length quarterly magazine. The result: a decade of prolific underground, cutting edge music coverage spanning thirty issues.

Peter and I spoke through numerous e-mails, the culmination of which led to our little interview concerning Skyscraper's rise, the effects of an economic recession on an independent quarterly publication, and the brothers' personal decision to take Skyscraper's content to the web. Here's most of our conversation.

Joel: What originally influenced Skyscraper Magazine’s creation, and what inspired its content and design?

Peter: "Skyscraper has always been run by myself and my twin brother, Andrew. In high school we started making cut-and-paste fanzines and started a record label, ...and then there were none (later re-named Satellite Transmissions). Since we weren't musicians we were always looking for ways to be more involved in the music scene, so helping out our friends' band or doing these other projects allowed us to be connected to the scene beyond just being a consumer.

"I moved away to college and about a year later my brother followed me to Boulder, Colorado and about six months after that we started to play with the idea of starting a real fanzine. This would've been late 1997, and at the time we were mostly influenced by hardcore fanzines like Second Nature, Indecision, Trustkill, Anti-Matter, Number Two, and Nothing Left. However, the format we ended up using was more similar to HeartattaCk, Maximum Rock N Roll, or Punk Planet.

"There wasn't really a single source of inspiration though; we simply wanted to start writing about the music that we liked. Even though the design of the 'zine looked like desktop publishing it was really cut-and-paste. We typed things up or scanned them in, but then pasted it together. We had no experience with desktop publishing, and only a crude knowledge of programs like Adobe Photoshop. Everything was trial and error, and throughout the life of the magazine we let it grow very organically.

"We picked up freelance writers when they began to approach us, and we had friends or acquaintances start to take over the graphic design duties. After about two years was when we started to have more outside contribution, and that's also about the time that we grew to the size (in terms of page count) and design format that was largely continued for our entire run.

"One of the main things people recognized Skyscraper for was its size. In our prime we published about 200 pages per issue, and that was packed with dozens of features and hundreds of record reviews. Although the content was designed for quantity over quality, we were also recognized as a very analytical publication. We would run 8-page features and 500 word reviews. We never censored or heavily edited our writers' work, so the opinions were very honest and they were given the page space that they needed. This is something that was lacking from most music publications, not just mainstream magazines but fanzines as well.

"There are only a few magazines that I think were comparable, a couple of those being The Big Takeover and The Wire. As much as people often pigeonholed us as a hardcore fanzine early on, we very quickly started covering all genres of independent music and at the end you could find everything from indie rock and punk/post-punk to rock'n'roll, garage rock, pop, hardcore, metal, electronic, Americana, and avant-garde/noise music . It was a good representation of what an independent music fan listened to; there wasn't a genre-specific mentality at all."

J: Although Skyscraper’s decision to move the zine to an online format was one of professional choice in keeping up with the digital age, and not necessarily due to the economic downturn which one would assume, what were the effects of both an ongoing digital revolution and a bottoming economy on Skyscraper?

P: "The decision to move Skyscraper from a print publication to an online format was largely a personal choice. It was becoming increasingly difficult to keep a regular publishing schedule as Andrew and my personal and professional lives matured. In many ways, it's a surprise to us that we kept it going for 11 years. The "digital revolution" didn't even prompt the change, but in the end we saw the online format as a way to both continue running Skyscraper in some form and also expand the coverage that we provided given the advantages that the medium allows.

"Skyscraper was never a mainstream publication and our core readership was a pretty specific niche of the music scene - one that wasn't effected as much by the downfall of the music industry and the economy as a whole. However, we weren't totally immune to the failing economy. Even before the economic recession the problems within the music industry had caused many record labels to reduce their advertising budgets, so the amount of income we had coming in from ad revenue had decreased by 50-70% over the last few years.

"Since advertising revenue was our primary source of income it did lead us to reduce our page count slightly, but otherwise there was little noticeable change to the magazine. And we certainly could have continued to publish for the foreseeable future, but it would've been a struggle, and since our personal lives were pressuring us to make a change, it seemed like a reasonable time to do so."

J: Can you explain the process involved in transferring a printed publication into a digital publication?

P: "We're not actually transferring the printed magazine into a digital publication. There are some magazines that have tried to do this; they pretty much publish as a print magazine, but they put it online rather than on newsstands. We're transitioning to an online format in every sense, which means we'll look more like Pitchfork when everything is said and done. But everything that people liked about Skyscraper (the writing, the photos) will still be there, and in many ways the online medium will allow us to expand on that. We're still in the process of making this transition, and it has taken us longer than we initially expected, but I think people will be happy with the results."

J: Can you give your readers an estimate as to when the Skyscraper site restructure will be complete?

P: "The new site should launch in February, 2010. It's difficult to put a firm date on the launch, but we're very close to settling on the final design and structure of the site, and so we just need a month or so to gather enough new content to get things started. Because we've been dormant for the better part of a year we haven't been utilizing our contributing writers and photographers as much as we should've been, but the majority of contributors from the print magazine will be continuing to work with us as an online publication and so it'll be a lot of what people expect from Skyscraper - just updated weekly rather than quarterly, and it's free!"

Skyscraper will now be available at your RSS doormat weekly. We share in Peter's excitement in this aspect, and although we will all miss seeing Skyscraper on the shelves, we look forward to the convenience and frequency this new format allows its readers.

Visit www.skyscrapermagazine.com for your underground music news, interviews, reviews and more! Thanks to Peter and all the Skyscraper crew for your time and dedication.

The Fiery Furnaces: "Even In The Rain" Video.

2009-12-09T22:35:00.001-05:00

The Fiery Furnaces - Even in the Rain from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

Joel Mattern: "The New You".

2009-12-07T12:00:00.003-05:00

Another year-long project completed (or given up on...your pick). Download available per the link below.

1) Strings As They Vibrate Create You And I (2:54)
2) The Seam (2:59)
3) Headlight (2:31)
4) Hundreds Of Horses (2:51)
5) Letters, Stories (3:05)
6) My Guy Ike (4:23)
7) Valsa (Como São Lindos Os Youguis) (3:23)
8) If You Could Outshine... (8:08)

Joel Mattern - The New You

The Fiery Furnaces Do The Fiery Furnaces (And Chicago).

2009-12-04T08:44:00.006-05:00

The Fiery Furnaces' Matt and Eleanor Friedberger have been busy. Having recently released their seventh full-length album, I'm Going Away, the duo returns with a completely reworked version of the album - appropriately titled Take Me Round Again, available now on Thrill Jockey records.

The Friedbergers begin their winter tour in mid-December, with a short stint in Chicago at Schubas on the 30th and Lincoln Hall on the 31st. Don't miss these two in action!

Here's a track off The Fiery Furnaces' new album Take Me Round Again, for your listening pleasure.

>>"Keep Me In The Dark" - Eleanor Friedberger Version

Currents/Kanyons: "Whistles Chimes Birds Leaves Wind".

2009-12-01T10:15:00.005-05:00

New Currents/Kanyons out now! Whistles Chimes Birds Leaves Wind, possibly the first album recorded almost entirely using the Apple iPhone's 4Track app, sparkles with rich ambience, charming room noise and layered acoustic guitars, creating a surprisingly earthy, organic recording using purely digital equipment. The album is available as a free download; click the link below to obtain a copy.

Tracklisting:

1) 1.08.49 (1:17)
2) Slip (2:38)
3) Stay Home (1:43)
4) Nobody Writes (3:43)
5) Six Figures (3:01)
6) Driving Song #2 (1:54)
7) Beauty (You're So Negative) (3:53)
8) #35 (12:08)
9) Bastion C (11:49)
10) The Weight (2:03)

Currents/Kanyons - Whistles Chimes Birds Leaves Wind

World's Greatest Ghosts: "No Magic".

2009-11-20T16:25:00.016-05:00

Holy Tilly and the Wall, guys.

Portland's World's Greatest Ghosts' newest record, No Magic, serves simply as the fresh IV bag feeding the increasingly tasteless indie rock scene. Lots of gritty guitar by some bearded gentleman who hasn't quite mastered his bends (how DIY!), bubbly and fuzzy synths which the Willamette Week attributes to "a synth-rock wet dream that gets better with every listen", purposefully ill-timed vocals and backup vocals, and a growing trend that I find especially unsettling among these indie kids as of late - a kick-ass cover. It's really pretty gorgeous.

Despite these (typical) drawbacks (of most indie rock circa 2008 - 09 in general), the album does relish in its sunshiny, anti-climactic delivery of said unspectacular ingredients - just a little less annoying than that tremendously irritating fad among post-emo rockers like the Arcade Fire to drown the listener in gothic depression and prozac-ology, to the point of creative stagnation and inner decay, utilizing these same main ingredients (plus or minus a horn and a violin here and there).

A good effort, ultimately, by a young band with a little too much devotion to their respective scene. If you're a fan of that little glass of water at dinner that you never end up drinking from, you'll love No Magic. Out now on Lucky Madison Records.

✭✭✭✩✩✩✩✩✩✩

The Notwist: "Sturm".

2009-10-09T13:14:00.005-04:00

Having soundtracked German director Hans-Christian Schmid's film Lichter in 2003, The Notwist return to their collaborative work with Schmid on his 2009 film Storm, along with Alien Transistor labelmates Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra, producing 2009's dark, ambient Sturm. Released on the Alien Transistor label, the album is packaged as a 12" LP + CD + book, featuring some genuinely gorgeous, though coldly metallic and sharp-edged, instrumental pieces and artwork.

Sturm's blurting and mysterious, horn-driven opener, "Vilina Kosa Version", immediately sets the mood for a villainous and troubled storyline, with no prior knowledge of the film's subject or plot necessary; in essence, the film focuses on the war crimes surrounding a Croation Politician (played by Drazen Kühn) and the attorney in charge of his prosecution (Kerry Fox).

The soundtrack stands wonderfully apart from the film as a Notwist release, though a bit sparse and, as previously noted, very cold and alienating; the only track that is somewhat recognizable as a Notwist tune is the comfortably-glitchy "Storm 1", a Lali Puna-esque instrumental featuring pulsating glockenspiel and unsettling ambient drones, heightening the subtle mysteries and suspense of its motion picture counterpart.

Sturm can be purchased in the UK from Alien Transistor. Schmid's Storm is due in US box-offices in late fall of 2009.

✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✩✩✩

Jim O'Rourke: "The Visitor".

2009-09-29T10:43:00.010-04:00

Famed Chicagoland Producer/Experimental artist Jim O'Rourke returns with what appears to be a head-on collision between 1997's Bad Timing and 2001's Insignificance, judging by the album cover - more than probably promising a new inductee to 2009's "Best of" hall of fame.

O'Rourke's fascination with John Fahey is perhaps never as forefront as The Visitor twinkles to life - an amalgam of steel and acoustic guitar accented tenderly by a sustained piano and brushed percussion.

Absent of any of Insignificance's sarcastic, growling pop, The Visitor plays like a live folk guitarist's improvisational dream set. The subtleties of O'Rourke's softer, impressionistic side - evident in earlier tracks such as "Movie on the Way Down" from 1999's Eureeka - sparkle between glimpses into a redesigned Americana-folk feel for the 21st Century experimental underground (Bill Frisell meets Gershwin meets Talk Talk).

Side B of O'Rourke's 38 minute-long instrumental "The Visitor" slips some impressively tasteful, dynamic arrangements into the mix, including a playful auto-wah electric guitar and staccato string accompaniment towards the close of The Visitor.

As predicted, The Visitor tops the "Best of 2009" charts along with Tortoise's Beacons of Ancestorship and Extra Golden's Thank You Very Quickly. Highly, highly recommended.

Order The Visitor now on LP and CD from Chicago's Drag City label.

✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✩✩

Rain Machine: "Rain Machine".

2009-09-27T21:02:00.006-04:00

What's worse than this decade's favorite soulless neophytes The Arcade Fire? The horrid lot of second-rate whiners who don't realize that there is absolutely nothing beautiful about Bruce Springsteen and post-punk once sandwiched between enough overly-emotional glam-rock aesthetic to annoy even the likes of David Bowie and his entire lineage; enter Kyp Malone's (TV on the Radio) Rain Machine. To be "fair", Malone is pretty into it, judging by the less than a minute-long intro comprised of nothing but an uninspired, whistled jingle and a sack full of assorted percussion instruments.

Seemingly drawing in inspiration from nineties acts like Sponge, eighties stars such as Springsteen and recent sixties and seventies folk throwbacks as Fleet Foxes and Beach House, Rain Machine projects a fair enough homage to said inspirations, but completely lacks any structure of its own. This is not always a bad thing, but acts wrapped in such song-heavy skins as Arcade Fire and Fleet Foxes better well ante up. Rain Machine lacks a hand at all.

Rain Machine is a valiant effort, though its efforts are not clearly defined or fully actualized, leaving this reviewer puzzled - bewildered as to what the album intends to portray and why. Tracks such as "Give Blood" lean toward a southern alt-gospel style, perhaps best showcased by Nashville band Lambchop, complete with choral accompaniment and sparse percussion, though ultimately, the effort is overturned as more poor orchestration, croons and meandering melodies obfuscate any interest it's awarded.

Good examples of the Arcade Fire formula shine through tracks such as "Smiling Black Faces" and "Hold You Holy", as Malone incorporates driving post-punk percussion paired with shrieking vocals, female "hoorays!" and an unimpressive layering of plunking acoustic guitars, twanging banjos and growling overdriven electrics.

And what do you get when you add alt-rock, alt-gospel and post-punk together? Folk-rock revival. I know, it isn't a logical progression from A to D...but it's a justified description of the album's shifting aesthetic. "Driftwood Heart" packs up those southern-fried falsettos, shakes off the vest and pocket watch, and dips its unfocused musical catastrophe into a ten-ton vat of reverb - a particularly unattractive thing to behold.

Thankfully, Malone saved the interminably boring two-chorded anti-ballad for the latter half of the album, punishing those snotty, overly-critical types (such as?) with a rather miserable attempt at minimalist artistry in "Love Won't Save You"- resulting in a painfully long tirade about who-knows-what-or-why. Nearly eight minutes later, those that are still standing are doing so atop buckling knees.

After such a drab intermission among an equally drab set of sonic constructions, it's no secret the last two tracks evade detection nearly altogether; perhaps Malone attempted a tribute album, but forgot the song list and decided to wing it? If so, Kyp, note to self: never do this again. A lot more focus on song structure, lyrical integrity and meaningful instrumentation could do wonders with even the most slovenly of indie-rock flops.

✭✭✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩

Beasties: "Beasties".

2009-09-21T21:54:00.009-04:00

Over a year in compiling, here's the near-finished result of hours of improvisation and free-form expression. Equal parts apocalyptic post-rock, ambient drone, field noise and improvised melody, Beasties revels in its happy marriage between structure and chaos. Enjoy.

1. Intro (0:12)
2. Those (5:58)
3. Clip (7:54)
4. Fear (7:28)
5. Pelt In (3:16)
6. Heterotic-O (3:00)
7. 2910849 : Void (3:53)
8. Improv I (5:16)
9. Intro II (2:28)
10. The DIY Toadstool (3:33)
11. Improv I (Ambient Remix) (3:52)

Beasties - Beasties (2009)

Pete Yorn: "Back & Fourth".

2009-09-17T15:52:00.008-04:00

Pete Yorn is mainstream music's last shining light; his surface-level lyrics settle nicely atop the jangly, post-REM alternative drive like a fresh coat of grabber yellow paint on a 1973 Mach 1 Mustang, proving that, among other proofs harder proven,

1) Rock and roll still exists,
2) Rock stars still cry and
3) Sparser instrumentation tightens up those heartstrings.

Back & Fourth starts off on a sad note, and doesn't ever really lift. "Don't Wanna' Cry" is a teary-eyed lament that contradicts itself quite blatantly as Yorn nearly bursts into tears at every twist of the soulful dirge. "Paradise Cove" trudges along like a self-loathing rejected lover at the end of his rope. "Close" offers the first quasi-bright light at the end of the tunnel, and features triumphant orchestration and hard-hitting drums.

Although the opening trio sets the stage for a true alt-country experience, "Social Development Dance" sees Yorn sinking back into his comfortable nostalgic pensiveness, at the hands of a tinkling bluegrass rock ballad, and "Shotgun" revisits Pete's poppy side so evident in tunes like the breakthrough "Strange Condition" off of 2001's Musicforthemorningafter.

"Last Summer" is Back & Fourth's big rocker, though the song still ebbs and flows behind Yorn's pent-up, near-emotional outbursts in lines like "We were great last summer / We cannot go back again". "Four Years" waltzes atop the last amber light of summer, celebrates a new era like two lovers reunited from distance and hardship. It's these latter tunes, and especially the closer "Long Time Nothing New", that really jab at the heart and soul of the listener, making the album officially Yorn's "Million Dollar Baby".

A clear DIY-ethic paired with thoughtful lyrics and twinkling orchestration creates the neo-classic in Back & Fourth, and although you may not find much in Yorn's stylistic delivery, there can be little argument regarding his rapid growth and maturity as a songwriter this fourth time around. Finally, a solid and clear-cut definition of Yorn through the successful melding of original song styles with lush lyrical delivery and tasteful instrumentation that sets Back & Fourth apart just enough to achieve noteworthiness. A much appreciated effort by Yorn.

✭✭✭✭✭✭✩✩✩✩

Boredoms: "Super Roots 10".

2009-09-09T21:23:00.003-04:00

Boredoms return with the newest installment to the Super Roots series, Super Roots 10. Produced, performed and designed by Yamataka Eye and Boredoms, this sunny little gem of an EP isn't your typical Boredoms release. Eye, known for his avant-garde vocals and rants, adds minimally to a swirling mixture of fuzzy synthesizer, driving house beats and crisp live drums that see the band releasing their Strawberry Jam, if you will. Equal parts world beat, shamanic/tribal vocal and synthy experimentation a la Tortoise's Beacons of Ancestorship. Featuring four remixes of the title track, each unique and electrifying in their own way, Super Roots 10 is sure to make many noise rock, experimental and indie rock lists upon release. Due for release on 9/29/09 as a limited double 12" on Thrill Jockey records.

RIP Radley.

2009-08-26T10:40:00.017-04:00

I received the following in an e-mail from Chicago venue The Empty Bottle yesterday evening; sadly, the time has come that we must say farewell to our favorite mascot and drinking buddy, Mr. Radley. May you rest in peace.

Dateline – 8/25/09

Dearly Beloved,

I write to you today to eulogize our friend, confidant, and favorite feline Radley. Today this 25thday of August at 2:32 pm, Radley finally succumbed to the ills of the hard rockin lifestyle he lived. For these last 16 years, you could find Radley roaming the friendly confines of the Empty Bottle. Slinking across the bar to catch a sip of your beverage, or cuddling with you on the couch. He never judged you when you drank, and was always there to lend a furry shoulder. You were never alone when Radley was around. Many a drummer have been reminded that they were playing in Radley's house. To the bands that returned him home when found hiding in their van, to the concerned customers who carried him home when he roamed the streets. To the loving family members who cared for him over the years, to his medical team that helped ease his pain. The cat with the mouse tattoo in his ear was truly our friend.

Today is truly a sad day in Empty Bottle history. Radley has outlasted his brothers and sisters Scout, Boo, Gem, Finch, Atticus, and Bob.

Donations should be made to the American Liver Foundation – 312-377-9030.

Me & Radley:

Neil Young: "Harvest".

2009-08-15T12:04:00.007-04:00

I've been reminded lately by some of my fellow RYM'ers of the review I wrote of Neil Young's Harvest quite some time ago; thank you for the kind words, all. Here's the original review via rateyourmusic.com.

About a year before I got married, I started working as a subcontractor for a family friend who ran a small home maintenance business. I was working part-time and going to school part-time, and I didn't have many bills because I still lived at home with my parents, so I enjoyed the temporarily stress-free life I was living. It was working for Dave that I met Mike, your stereotypical eighth grade dropout, chain-smoking, alcoholic handyman. Mike was 34, widowed after cancer took his wife from him, and completely estranged from his two kids when his sister took custody after Mike began binge drinking. You'd expect a hardened, bitter middle-aged man with a gruffness to his voice and a mean-streak a mile wide, but you'd be wrong in this case; Mike was probably the most optimistic, soft-spoken guy I've ever met in my life. He was one of those guys you immediately like, right from the start. Mike had extensive experience as a maintenance guy for a small apartment complex on the east side of the city, and yet he had a quirky way of going about it all. He'd usually smile and tell me he'd never had any experience with whatever skill the job we were on required, but as soon as I questioned him about it, he'd say through a fresh smoke, "oh yeah, piece of cake brother; we'll be out of here in no time, and maybe we'll just fuck around the rest of the day, sound good?" It wasn't annoying or anything, it was just the way his brain multi-tasked; he'd be sizing up the work at hand, and reply with whatever came to mind the moment you asked him, however absurd it sounded. We'd be on a job, and he'd start playing a roller extender like a guitar, or I'd mention one of our coworkers and he'd start impersonating them just to crack me up. It always worked. With such an upbeat attitude towards life, I had no idea such a dark past existed in his younger years. Mike had been an alcoholic since age 15, as well as a chain-smoker, and he'd dropped out of school before he reached the ninth grade. He started working as a plumber, and soon took a maintenance position for an apartment complex, where he taught himself how to fix most anything. He married a woman, had two kids before she was diagnosed with cancer, and after she died, he became completely caught up in his drinking, and his kids were taken away from him and sent to live with his sister. Although his sister and his kids lived in the same town, he never went to visit them; I believe he was ashamed of his affliction, and I also think his sister would not allow him near his own kids after seeing how low he was capable of sinking. Mike soon ran out of money, and lost his job once again. He became homeless for years, sleeping in condemned homes on the city's west side, or sometimes on the street when he couldn't find a place to stay. He had no family, and his only friends were those he made along the way, many of whom were worse off even than him. I was always unclear of how exactly he rejoined society, but eventually he began working again at an apartment complex, and was given an apartment to live in. He ended up working for Dave a week before I started, through the recommendation of a friend.

One morning, I walked into the house we were remodeling to the stereo blaring. I had never heard the album he was playing, but it sounded so familiar I had to ask. "Neil Young, brother," he replied without looking up from his work. "Harvest", I said to myself, looking over the album artwork and the track listing on the back. Obviously, I knew of the album's fame, but until that morning, I had never heard anything off it. Mike explained that it was his favorite album, and he knew every word, every note from it. He would sing along in his hilariously off-key style, and I would just crack up. We listened to Harvest every day on repeat, the entire three weeks we worked on that particular remodel on the west side; it filled the house with a sort of dying, fading happiness, like the tail-end of a good vacation, or the last few hours of Sunday sunlight on the greatest weekend you can remember, and it also provided us with the perfect soundtrack to our lives at the time. We had our best, most real conversations over Young's masterpiece, and I will forever associate its honesty and pensiveness with my friend, whom I can only hope is doing well these days.

I began working at the family business in search of better income and opportunity, and I was informed that a few weeks later, Mike went on a binge again; this time, however, he didn't come back. Mike ended up in detox after incapacitating himself one particularly dark evening of his life, and he stopped showing up for work thereafter. I hear he got a job with a local plumbing company, but who knows where he is now.

>>Link to my original review on rateyourmusic.com.

Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs Of Mark Mulcahy.

2009-08-03T10:19:00.007-04:00

A proto-eulogy in memory of his recently deceased spouse? A far-off lament for the forgotten and long-since spoiled innocence of times past? Whatever the true meaning behind one of his many wonderful brain-children, Mark Mulcahy has spoken soulfully, of pure spirit, and the resultant release in sound will live forever - despite the physical limitations over this life and the loved ones we live it with.

Last year, Mark's wife Melissa passed away rather suddenly, departing him and their twin daughters forever. In memory of his shining star, a tribute album is scheduled for release in September of 2009 featuring friends and fellow artists Thom Yorke, The National, Frank Black and Michael Stipe covering Mulcahy's solo works from Fathering to Love's The Only Thing That Shuts Me Up. The proceeds from the sale of the album will go to Mulcahy and his family. Keep Mark's music alive and thriving - pre-order or purchase a copy of the cd or mp3 album from amazon.com or the Loose Music website.

Mark Mulcahy's career has spanned nearly three decades, including a decade as vocalist/songwriter of New Haven, Connecticut's Miracle Legion, singer/guitarist of the made-for-tv band Polaris which produced the soundtrack to the acclaimed "The Adventures of Pete & Pete" and provided the anthemic opening track "Hey Sandy", and opening for headlining acts such as Oasis and Jeff Buckley. Radiohead's Thom Yorke has given homage to Mulcahy and his work, and will appear on Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs Of Mark Mulcahy covering "All For The Best".

Tracklisting:
1. Thom Yorke "All for the Best"
2. The National "Ashamed of the Story I Told"
3. Michael Stipe "Everything’s Coming Undone"
4. David Berkeley "Love's the Only Thing That Shuts Me Up"
5. Dinosaur Jr. "The Backyard"
6. Chris Harford and The Band Of Changes "Micon the Icon"
7. Frank Black "Bill Jocko"
8. Vic Chesnutt "Little Man"
9. Unbelievable Truth "Ciao My Shining Star"
10. Butterflies of Love "I Have Patience"
11. Chris Collingwood of Fountains of Wayne "Cookie Jar"
12. Frank Turner "The Quiet One"
13. Rocket From the Tombs "In Pursuit of Your Happiness"
14. Ben Kweller "Wake Up Whispering"
15. Josh Rouse "I Woke Up in the Mayflower"
16. Autumn Defense "Paradise"
17. Hayden "Happy Birthday Yesterday"
18. Juliana Hatfield "We're Not in Charleston Anymore"
19. Mercury Rev "Sailors and Animals"
20. Elvis Perkins "She Watches Over Me"
21. Sean Watkins "A World Away From This One"

Saturday In The Park.

2009-07-18T23:58:00.026-04:00

Above are a couple pics of the view from a friend's condo in Chicago, just east of the city. He was kind enough to let me crash there while I reviewed this year's uber-trendy Pitchfork Music Fest for the Windy Citizen.

Deerhunter: "Rainwater Cassette Exchange".

2009-07-06T21:39:00.006-04:00

If Weird Era Continued wasn't enough, then Deerhunter's latest EP, Rainwater Cassette Exchange, is your own personal savior. Packed with the foursome's patented blend of classic rock hooks and driving motorik/shoegazer garage rock, the EP carries on the aesthetic and the amazingly strong songcraft Deerhunter hinted at with Cryptograms and concreted with their bonus EP Fluorescent Grey the same year. Amazing? Perhaps for a band far less creative and true-to-heart (and more than a few come to mind). Deerhunter's output has been frequent, as well as augmented by an unadulterated vision of where modern rock can go, and though that is obviously a feat to most, the band pushes forward with the same confident drive they apply to their soundscapes - annoyingly effortlessly.

Rainwater Cassette Exchange is a logical progression off of 2009's Weird Era Continued, the supplemental full-length LP to the critically acclaimed Microcastle, featuring plenty of reverby overdrive, big motorik percussion, and even a creepy theremin accompaniment on "Famous Last Words". What more can be said of Deerhunter's incandescence? Oh yeah, pick up Rainwater Cassette Exchange on 12" vinyl or colored cassette! Celebrate your analog ancestors!

✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✩✩

The Fiery Furnaces: "I'm Going Away".

2009-06-12T23:16:00.008-04:00

The Fiery Furnace's sister/brother duo of Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger try on a more traditional rock & roll sound atop their experimental skins with 2009's I'm Going Away, the band's eighth studio album and third on Chicago's Thrill Jockey records, and the resulting twelve songs seem more an appropriation of Joni Mitchell's vocal-driven folk-rock drug over Neil Young's bloody body than a proper follow-up in league with The Fiery Furnace's usually-quirky, spastic neo-new wave freakouts.

Quite a different band from 2006's Bitter Tea, yet one would be a bit hasty in completely writing off the soulful duo's latest effort, as there are quite a few shiners here, packed up tightly onto the B-side; namely, "Drive To Dallas", "Lost At Sea", "Take Me Round Again", and "Cups And Punches".

If you're looking for a healthy dose of straight-forward indie blues-rock amidst the burgeoning seas of reverby neo-psychedelia and sixties-revival, look no further. The Fiery Furnaces are set to release I'm Going Away on July 1st. Visit thrilljockey.com for more information.

★★★★★★✩✩✩✩

>>Download "The End Is Near" from The Fiery Furnaces' I'm Going Away!

Music Cop-Outs.

2009-06-12T08:54:00.004-04:00

For lack of any original idea this a.m., here's a list I put together a while back that I re-read and found amusing all over again.

Been here before?

1) When asked what type of music you are into, you reply with far too much glee, "The Beatles!"
-This is scary stuff here. It's scary because for each person I know who drops the Beatles like a warm stool, I find myself contemplating the validity of the very foundation that holds the whole of the music world together: are The Beatles the first boy band? This is like a closed-minded Christian reading Michael Baigent's "Holy Blood, Holy Grail"; terrifying.

2) When providing a top ten list of all-time favorite albums, you hardly escape the year 2000.
- Congratulations, your music collection is now a toddler. Here's an absolute fact: You CANNOT list Death Cab For Cutie's "Transatlanticism" along with "Demon Days" by Gorillaz. This is a cardinal sin, and will not be tolerated. Music existed before 2004 - in fact, looong before - and it would be in your and everyone else's best interest if you realized this ASAP.

3) When criticized for liking mainstream Country music, you become offended and "git yer rifle".
- Our country is much too fragile at this point in history for you to further perpetuate our stereotypically hillbilly homelives. Plus, listening to Country music is like drinking warm, stale beer, exclaiming "this beer tastes like piss!", realizing that it is in fact piss, and drinking the rest of it anyway.

4) "That's not music, it's just noise!"
- You do realize this line has been handed down from generation to generation since music was invented in some prehistoric cave system by the first homo sapiens? Johann Sebastian Bach was "noise" at one time or another. As far as I'm concerned, whether I find it aesthetically pleasing or not, as long as it's noise that's arranged onto a media source of some sort in some organized manner, it's music. (This argument is easily challenged by every single album ever made by Limp Bizkit.)

5) "I like music that gets me pumped up!"
- As do I, unless I am trying to sleep or am engaged in any other activity besides toning my beautifully-sculpted biceps. Remember, Charlie Manson got "pumped up" to "Helter Skelter", so much so that he left mementos of his love for the song in blood from his victims' entrails. Ahem...try to be more specific.

6) "They just don't make music like this anymore..." (sigh...)
- (-tear-) I am guilty of this one far too often. Usually, I am listening to some obviously superior masterpiece like "Pet Sounds" or "The Velvet Underground" while that evolutionary nugget of enlightened musical insight settles in atop my superiority complex. However enlightened it might seem, it's as false as Master P's grill - or more importantly, career. What about Low's "Things We Lost In The Fire"? Wasn't it recorded and mastered utilizing a completely analog process? Isn't Stereolab pretty "spacey" and "retro", while taking us to places where Faust and Neu! only served as bricks in the path along the way? It's naive to think that one generation held the key to musical perfection, and that they accidentally locked the key inside the recording studio while recording the long-lost final track of "Abbey Road".

7) "What poor quality audio..."
- A) It was recorded in 1967, you dope. Plus, let's not forget that you are listening to a digital approximation of what the original analog source sounded like (in all its glory). B) There is such a thing as purposeful sound experimentation...see Fly Pan Am's "Ceux Qui Inventent N’ont Jamais Vecu (?)" or William Basinski's magnificent loop experimentation in "The Disintegration Loops I-IV". C) Check the genre listing...ok, now read it aloud..."lo-fi"...right, meaning "lo-fidelity". It's a subgenre. Would you like me to dispose of that Rascal Flatts album you're listening to, or were you gonna' do that yourself?

8) "I hate Coldplay because they are too mainstream."
- I'm really treading dangerous waters here, but this is such a huge cop-out that this list would be a farce not to contain it. Hating an artist for their successes is like arguing against sexual promiscuity because you're a eunuch. Do you really hate the music, or do you hate the idea of success other than your own? Another reason this is such a huge cop-out is because so many "hipsters" these days (and I have yet to hear from someone a definition of just what that is...) commodify their indie-loving status by shunning any and all mainstream music - regardless it's positive or negative sonic qualities. Why, then, are you telling me how much you love The Beatles? What about those "traitors" Nirvana, who managed to change modern mainstream rock music by infiltrating the genre and injecting into it their own brand of fad and popular music-hating grunge? Your arguments fall as flat as your carefully flat-ironed emo comb-over. (By the way, I do hate Coldplay, save for a brief stint around the release of "A Rush Of Blood To The Head" [if you don't fess up now to jumping on the Coldplay coffee-cart at one point or another, I will hack into your computer and send a copy of "Clocks" from your iTunes to every single person in your address book], but mostly because I hate, and have ALWAYS hated, U2.)

9) When asked your musical tastes, you upturn your nose, look left and proclaim "My tastes are rather eclectic."
- Oooohhh boy, I am going to have fun with this one. This statement drives me absolutely bat-s**t crazy - almost as crazy as finding it necessary to censor myself. If your musical tastes are so diverse and nonconforming, you better well have a huge list of titles that I've never heard of. The problem is this: very seldom do I meet someone who tells me how "eclectic" their musical tastes are that don't actually mean "I'm just one more Deadhead". Am I missing something by having never listened to any Grateful Dead album in its entirety? In my opinion, definitely not - unless of course you count that I'm obviously not "eclectic" (in much the same way I am or am not a "hipster", depending on how self-righteous the looker). Here is an example of someone who might have the balls to announce their "eclecticity": any person who listens to and ENJOYS Kidz Bop (enter album number here), Joe Maneri's "Paniots Nine" and owns an unhealthy amount of Klezmer recordings (vinyl, of course). (So, for example, I am definitely NOT eclectic, as I only enjoy Maneri's "Paniots Nine", though genuinely so.)

Tortoise: "Beacons Of Ancestorship".

2009-05-21T20:43:00.016-04:00

Post-Rock's foster family returns with another letter to their adopted subgenre, and this time around, it tells of the once-loved derelict's direct relatives and experimental visionaries in their glory days.

Originally conceived somewhere between Silver Apples' eponymous 1968 classic and Slint's brooding prog-meets-spoken word release Spiderland in 1991, Post-Rock's numerous progenitors, including the tumultuous garage rock-meets-oscillating synth drone of Silver Apples, the goofy krautrock of Faust and Neu!, the funky motorik grooviness of Can and, of course, the lush and often-rocking free-jazz of post-new wavers Talk Talk, all flash in and out of consciousness amidst the forty-five minutes of Tortoise's followup to 2004's It's All Around You, being 2009's Beacons of Ancestorship.

Like a kick in the pants to the prodigal son who took off with the family's wealth and worthiness, Beacons of Ancestorship assumes a new message to its forlorn adoptee: "I never knew the kid." Yet, the essential ingredients to the Post-Rock equation are all there, including spacey ambience and heavy percussion. So, what makes Beacons a letter of resignation to the most immobilizingly broad trash heap of all the flavors of modern experimental music? Simple - attitude.

A sharp turn from the emotionally-impacting jazz-rock and tribal aesthetic of It's All Around You, Beacons cuts a straight edge into the yet-unmolded future of experimental rock, or whatever might someday be considered "Post-Post-Rock". Its linear compositions, though sonically, invitingly improvisational, weld forever shut the gashes that bleed the Post-Rock lifeblood into ultimately thin and substance-less works of countless followers, focusing on tightly realized and melodic songs which can be taken apart from or in line with the whole.

An epic by every definition, Beacons could be the post-prog of the future, which is quite a hefty role to fill by any group aside from such a continuously cutting-edge act as Tortoise. Highlights of this charmingly atypical release include "High Class Slim Came Floatin' In", showcasing a near-perfect melding of nu-jazz and motorik percussion a la Faust; "Prepare Your Coffin" and the equally beautiful, sinister and winding "Gigantes", as well as the surprisingly masterful post-punkery of "Yinxianghechengqi". Other highlights include "The Fall of Seven Diamonds Plus One", "Monument Six One Thousand" and "Charteroak Foundation".

Beacons of Ancestorship available 6.23.09 on CD/LP/MP3 from Thrill Jockey records. Visit thrilljockey.com for more info.

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>>Download "Prepare Your Coffin" from Tortoise's Beacons of Ancestorship!

Kicking Out The Jams: An Interview with Archer Prewitt.

2009-03-10T20:13:00.018-04:00

"The Bangtails was my first exciting foray into melody again; instead of just listening to it on records, I was creating it," says Archer Prewitt, lead guitarist of The Sea and Cake and singer/songwriter commanding a rather laconic solo career; it's about twenty after five in the afternoon, and I'm still sorting through questions, review mock-ups and biographical information, having literally rushed straight home from my day job in which I pose as a mild-mannered IT professional. Archer has been sick most of the week, and although he sounds rather knocked out during most of our interview, a spark of enthusiasm seems to leap from the artist within as important and genuinely interesting topics arise. "I heard them practicing in the sculpture studio at the art institute where I was going, and they sounded great, they sounded like The Jam, you know, they sounded like The Who and The Beatles and The Jam all mixed into one, and I thought 'Wow, this is great'. I marched in there and I said 'You guys are fantastic, when are you playin' out?"

We've only discussed some influential artists to Archer's solo work, and his marked inhibitions as a stage performer, though rightfully so, as someone who does not genuinely enjoy the spotlight; "I think the problem I have with playing solo is that on any given night on tour or even locally, I could be in a more vulnerable state than others; I think by and large I'm coming out of that vulnerability and I can sort of put on a brave face and get on stage. Otherwise, I think you can get in a sort of a dark place where you don't feel like your music's any good or that you should be on stage playing," he says, and you've got to give it to the guy; it takes guts and a burning passion for something beyond recognition, or fame or even money to do what he does - to bring yourself face-to-face with the devil, look him in the eye, and sing your heart out.

"When that band was slowly falling apart, Mike Sump looked me up and he said 'I need a bass player,' and I said, 'Well I've been messing around on bass,' and that's all it took," Archer recounts, speaking of his fortuitous enrollment in The Bangtails, which marked his introduction into the world of melodic pop music. He explains further of his early days as a musician, "I started with drums, and then I was doing backup singing, and then I started pretty early on with a hardcore punk band...so that was a lot of emotion, just beating the hell out of a drum set; then I slowly moved into pop and more experimental stuff. Eventually I started plunking around on guitar about twenty-one, and then I just slowly developed songs that I felt like I wanted to sing; it fell into The Coctails at that point."

I'm listening with intent as Archer explains further the progression from his role as bass player in The Bangtails to guitarist in The Coctails; "I'd add these sort of weird, melancholy tunes to this kind of...bubbly pop, and it was kind of an odd mix," he says, and I'm quick to agree. The Coctails put out nearly five full-length albums, and even the most blatant lo-fi rocker of the lot, being 1994's Peel, felt thoroughly estranged from one song to the next; Archer did indeed bring his sentimental guitar tunes to a mix of jangly, almost grungy garage rock, and the concoction amounted to a slightly pulpy pop experiment - pop that pulls out all the stops. He opines of this experience, "It pulled me out of the shadows in terms of where I felt like I belonged, with what I was doing, and it put me into a situation where I sort of had to think, 'If I'm going to do this, I'm going to just keep improving, keep writing a better song.'"

I shift the focus from songwriting back to performance, and ask him about his experience as guitarist of The Sea and Cake; I'm wondering whether he isn't more at home behind his black, Dano-style Jerry Jones guitar with that lonely, neglected microphone a comfortable distance in front of him. "I keep trying to get Sam [Prekop] in the middle of the stage, but he always prefers that off-center thing, and so I feel a little weird even though the spotlight isn't on me," to which I jest how center-stage he usually is because of this. "I know," he laughs, "I don't like it. I keep trying to change it, but [Sam] won't change; he's very superstitious about changing things. He's always painted on the same beat-up old chair even though it's painful to sit on, and he's always on that side of the stage - even from the first show we've ever done." Then again, why fix it if it ain't broke?

When asked a little more specifically about the inhibitions involved in solo performance, Archer offers his remedy; "I keep my eyes closed, and that helps," he says, rather matter-of-factly. "When there's a moment in a song that I feel like I can go on auto-pilot, I'll look out a little bit...but it's not a good idea," he chuckles. "I've had my moments of confidence."

There's a good number of those moments embedded in his first album on Thrill Jockey, 2002's Three. One wonders, even upon first listen, just how Archer manages to find such an effortless flow between the emotional, sentimental, flowery and all-out rocking moments. "I write a series of songs and think if they can all work together in a record; I definitely delete songs that aren't going to work and, with the help of the band, omit songs that don't flow or mesh. I also feel that I don't want to create a sleeper of a record; I have a fairly laconic voice and I think there's an inclination now to avoid stretching things out too much and to have moments of excitement in a record. I feel like some songs I purposefully inject some heavier moments, if the song feels like it needs it." Three is also very much a memento of love's power and beauty, embodied within that special someone; "That was just being in love with the woman I ended up marrying," he explains of Three's lightheartedness, "and also sort of putting away past romances that didn't work out and closing the door on those things. So it was both very positive and sunny, but it had its moments of reflection."

Three was perfectly contrasted by 2005's Wilderness, with its stark and tortured subject matter. "I was picking from some really old tunes that I'd never written lyrics too; there were some darker, stark musical periods that I'd gone through that I had documented lots of music but no lyrics. After my father passed away, all of a sudden lyrics would come more freely, and I was aware that these songs could possibly work now. I was digging up some ancient, ancient material for that, and writing new stuff too. 'Oh Lord' was probably over ten years old, as well as 'O, Ky'," he says of some of the more intimate songs off the record.

I'm finally asking him the question I love torturing everybody with: "Could you supply your top ten list at this time?" We'll save the list for our Kitty Digs, however, and ask a more pertinent question instead: Will there be a sneak preview of any new material at March 27th's Empty Bottle show? "Yeah, there's some new material I'm trying to finish for presentation to the band; I've been working on some newer songs that we may or may not be able to work up to their full potential, or at least a presentable one. That said, there's like three songs that are newish, if we don't get the brand new songs done; they've only been played a handful of times live and only maybe once locally."

Archer Prewitt will be performing near Chicago's Wicker Park at the Empty Bottle on March 27th. Doors $10/10pm. Come enjoy an evening of Archer's unique and elegant pop folk. More information about Archer and the show can be found at thrilljockey.com. Thank you kindly to Archer Prewitt and Paco Barba at Thrill Jockey records.

Thank You, And Good Night: An Evening With Thank You.

2009-02-24T19:21:00.004-05:00

Large, warehouse-type space; dingy, scuffed wood flooring and DIY-chic paint job; floor kit, riser kit and four large monitors, lit by warm red spotlights; this is the scene my notebook painted as the first act took the...um...floor, opening for Baltimore's Post-Kraut trio Thank You. Shred Aquarium quirkily clamors to life, sounding something like Bill Frisell's Naked City days, bringing only a meandering, overdrive-laden guitar and rolling toms and snares to the Post-Rock equation that all too often requires nearly three times as many warm bodies. Between songs, it appears as though the duo is naming their tunes spontaneously - as if the tunes might write themselves to life; "This next song is called...Abada Abada Abada SHREK!". The clumsy rock proceeds. Shred Aquarium gives up the floor to Mi Ami, a Post-Punk/Shoegaze quartet from Cali. After berating half the crowd for squatting, the group explodes into a tumultuous conglomeration of shrieks, squeals, fuzz-wah bass and Dance-Punk drums. Around 9pm CST, Thank You takes the stage, joking with the crowd as they calibrate their organs, guitars, jingle bells and gym whistles. The group opens with "Empty Legs", the opening track from 2008'sTerrible Two, which chugs along at the mercy of a driving drum beat before erupting into a buzzy guitar opus. Chicago's West Suburbs rattle through the foggy windows of the AV-aerie as Thank You pounds out each tune mercilessly, abruptly closing with the skittering "Pregnant Friends" and wishing all a pleasant evening. The trio of Michael Bouyoucas, Jeffrey McGrath and Elke Wardlaw celebrate the release of their third LP, and first on Chicago's Thrill Jockey label. For more Thank You tour dates, check www.thrilljockey.com.

Thank You @ AV-aerie.

2009-02-16T13:35:00.004-05:00

Come join me and the folks at Thrill Jockey records for a night of great music! Thank You will be performing with special guests Mi Ami on Tuesday, Feb. 17th @ AV-aerie. Doors 7pm/$8. www.thrilljockey.com

Thank You: "Terrible Two".

2009-02-14T22:50:00.008-05:00

The Baltimore trio of Jeffrey McGrath, Michael Bouyoucas and Elke Wardlaw seems to spend the same amount of time other acts spend on practice and songwriting blowing whistles, beating cowbells and shouting over the ruckus – though tastefully so. The post-rock formula has certainly been applied to the band’s latest effort Terrible Two, although a refreshing twist of Haywardian drumming and yelps sharp enough to cut through even the most seasoned of CBGB’s early 80’s crowds ensures any post-punks a good enough time.

Perhaps the premier example of this unique sound is our opener “Empty Legs”, which pounds to life in a medley of toms and whistles, steadily chugging to a guitar crescendo and all at once thumping to completion.

Following closely behind it, in much the same fashion, is a slightly less intimidating, krautrock-infused track in “Embryo Imbroglio”. Both tunes go the extra mile in proclaiming an undying devotion to their prog and post-rock roots while simultaneously keeping them an arm’s-length away in order to plug an original – and much needed – take on the largely misrepresented post-rock subgenre into the indie machine.

“Self With Yourself” features some highly rhythmic staccato guitars and bass, as well as a kitschy organ interlude. “Pregnant Friends”, this reviewer’s favorite of the lot, jumps to life as vocals are born into a soupy mélange of organ and percussion before being "shushed" into a completely new chaos, as an electric guitar screeches in terror.

By the 5 minute-mark, we're simmering in the fat at the bottom of this calorific stew, and a chorus of garbled squeals slurps up what's left. Terrible Two closes with an atmospheric and improvisational dronefest of organs, symbols and soft tom hits, utilizing a dynamic urgency, which carries the track to interspersed points of climax. A playful, "Atrocity Exhibition"-esque beat captures the middle of the track, and an organ hum slowly bleeds over top. Imagine Pram without Cuckston, and you’re pretty close.

Our boys in Thank You have done one of the most over-saturated and under-productive subgenres a mighty favor with their release of Terrible Two on Chicago’s wonderful Thrill Jockey label; perhaps they should be more aptly named “You’re Welcome”.

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Psychic Ills: "Mirror Eye".

2009-02-05T23:48:00.005-05:00

"More Psych-Rock!" cries the oceans of blood the world over, and Psychic Ills meets these demands with a surprisingly fresh take on such an easily discredited subgenre. Mirror Eye makes for an understated journey through the depths of our inner being - one simulated acid trip after another. You've spoken, and they've heard; Pyschedelic Rock has become the voice of the new year, with the hugely successful release of Animal Collective's Neo-Psych masterpiece Merriweather Post Pavilion and Oneida's Thank Your Parents triptych soon to see its sophomore companion. The question is: does Psychic Ills' Mirror Eye backstroke or doggie paddle through the emergent sea of Neo-psychedelia? The key ingredients to any effective Psych-Rock release are all there: severely sustained, ringy guitars in a slightly over-cooked stew of reverb and delay, incomprehensible vocal instrumentation as well as spacey flange-swells and piano peckings placed lovingly (or haphazardly - you decide) throughout. Adam Forkner may raise an eyebrow, yet the competition is weak from the songwriting's perspective. Where earthy acts such as Yume Bitsu and Shalabi Effect masterfully utilize the spacey ambience and Middle Eastern influences within such already-fortified tunes as "Imps", "Blue Sunshine" and Yume's magnificent Golden Vessyl of Sound, Mirror Eye drowns its audience in the self-indulgent stoner rock of any moderately-capable garage band. The songwriting is slightly non-existent, and all that rings true after each note is the one before it; the brush hits the canvas again and again, and the painting looks something like my great grandmother's arts and crafts hour gallery.

Back to my original question: Does Mirror Eye backstroke or doggie paddle? We may have our answer if it ever resurfaces...

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Kitty Digs Podcasts.

2009-02-01T14:04:00.003-05:00

It's official - kidslooklikekats.com is now available via Podcast! I've submitted the introductory episode to the iTunes Music Store, so keep checking the website or iTunes for updates and new Podcasts! The Podcast will be a basic reiteration of each album or music review I post here on the site, but with a bit more detail into my opinion - plus any additional comments or ideas I may feel the need to express. I'll be giving a more detailed description of each week's Kitty Digs as well as some insight into what's to come in future updates and posts. There will be many more features added in over time as I become more comfortable and more focused on the Podcast - perhaps some artist interviews and such, and possibly even some live music that you would otherwise miss entirely.

Until the Podcast is available through the iTunes Store, here is a link to the introductory episode, which will give you a taste of what's to come and what to expect as the show progresses. You may click on the link directly or copy + paste it into iTunes to add the episode to your Podcast library. Feedback is welcome, as always!

kidslooklikekats Podcast

"Earthly Styles" Podcast!

2009-01-29T12:44:00.003-05:00

I'm not entirely certain I'm done with the EP, but nevertheless, here's a podcast of "Earthly Styles" in its entirety.

Earthly Styles

Kitty Digs: January, Twenty-O-Nine. "For Turntables Only."

2009-01-08T00:48:00.005-05:00

The Beach Boys - Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) (1965)
Eddie Fisher - The Third Cup (1970)
Nico - Chelsea Girl (1967)
Sun Ra - Strange Strings (1967)
Sœur Sourire - The Singing Nun (1963)
Echo and the Bunnymen - Heaven Up Here (1981)
The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed (1969)
Jimi Hendrix - Jimi Plays Monterey [Jun 18, 1967] (2007)
Joy Division - Closer (1980)
The Beatles - Abbey Road (1969)

Animal Collective: "Merriweather Post Pavilion".

2009-01-03T23:46:00.011-05:00

Whether you're one to argue Creationism or a Big Bang, you'll undoubtedly agree that the majesty and order now inherent in our universe was created out of an infinitely complex and mind-numbingly beautiful chaos, keeping in step with "ordo ab chao" and tickling the intellects of generation after generation of philosophers and deep thinkers. In much the same way, Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion is born out of one singular moment of disorder, dispelling amongst the ether the shattered fractals of an intelligent design yet to assemble.

"In the Flowers" integrates spacey piano peckings with subtly-layered ambience, rising and exploding into an anthem of epic proportions; just as suddenly as it springs from the interstices between uncivilized music and ambience, it dissolves again into space. In many ways, "In the Flowers" works for and against the rest of the album.

"My Girls" lacks the spaciness of the aforementioned, and instead soon becomes a pounding disco-centric tune, soaked in the reverb AC has become known for employing. "Also Frightened" is AC circa Sung Tongs, with a synthy twist, and showcases Avey and Panda's masterful vocal harmonizing (a la Wilson brothers) - though you'd almost swear Jean Michel Jarre's Oxygene suite lies buried, reinterpreted, somewhere within.

"Summertime Clothes" and "Daily Routine" share a similar spirit, though couldn't be more sonically diverse, most notably in percussive temperment and melodic expression; the former creates a rigid and unstoppable force through a thumping beat and industrial synth pad, filling every crack and crevice with sun-drenched vocals, while the latter features a much more tribal percussive feel, and one which halts as tinkering keys bleed and coalesce with meandering vocals.

"Bluish" is uncanny in its ability to separate the album into halves which do not necessarily belong together at once - just as multiple universes coexist, yet never overlap - and a large part of this separation is at once recognizable as AC's influences appear like shadows over the music, flashes of the Beach Boys' pop brilliance bursting and disseminating amidst the hazey instrumentation.

Panda saves the somewhat mundane "Guys Eyes" with flashy drumming, and "Taste" stands firm as the most introspective and philosophical track of the bunch. The last three tunes of this otherworldly release really carry well the weight of an already creatively heavy work, with the experimentally-pleasing head-boppers "Lion in a Coma" and "Brothersport", as well as a more reserved classic-rocker in "No More Runnin'".

Overall, Merriweather Post Pavilion is the promise of a bright and sunshiney 2009, though the obnoxiousness of such a promise is escaped narrowly, deftly, with the Collective's intuitive use of the atmosphere surrounding the music - just as important as the warping of space around celestial bodies. Without the pliable (though invisible) stuff between the notes, what have we but one more dry, characterless production stunt? The mastery is gauged in the manipulation of the negative space around the music, in order to create bold and boisterous new worlds - and ones we won't want to leave for some time to come.

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Stereolab: "Chemical Chords".

2009-01-02T21:38:00.010-05:00

There was once a group - scratch that, the Groop - of knob-twiddlers amidst the up-and-coming sea of other shoegazers and knob-twiddlers with a much different agenda; this Groop brought to their music a collective love of a widely-influential genre which was dismissively dubbed "krautrock" at the time of its inception, for a lack of easy categorization (as the music collected many elements of funk and jazz and mingled them with post-psychedelic and prog rock) and also due to its origin in Germany shortly before the world was taken hostage by punk rock.

Seminal progressive acts such as Neu! and Can, among others, were hugely dominant references, and many elements of these bands' styles were applied to a masterfully-prolific songwriting engine (aka Tim Gane) which already combined elements of lounge and french orchestral pop music of the 1960's - and, yes, some early shoegaze aesthetic.

This formula gave rise to over a decade of beautifully contiguous, kraut-infused post-rock masterpieces - such as 1994's Mars Audiac Quintet and 1996's Emperor Tomato Ketchup - as well as an act worthy of acclaim and responsible for influencing a whole new generation of alternative and post-rock groups.

After the untimely death of harmonizing vocalist extraordinaire Mary Hansen in 2002, the Groop inevitably lost steam, and the engine slowed to a halt. 2004's Margerine Eclipse brought about a slightly reinvented machine, slicked and polished and surprisingly back in tact, yet Hansen's absence effectively took a leg out from under the Groop; if you lean a little too hard against the frailness and beauty of Stereolab's post-Hansen releases, it might just topple over.

There are far too many holes in such a once-great formula - simultaneously static and dynamic, sonically - these days, despite founding member and singer/keyboardist Laetitia Sadir's best efforts to patch it up and move ahead.

2008's Chemical Chords cannot be accurately reviewed by any serious Stereolab fan without the words "disappointing" and "uninspired" creeping to mind, and though there are a handful of truly decent (and even enjoyable) tracks gracing the album, the majority of Chemical Chords feels like an unsuccessful reproduction of a much more enthusiastic and purposeful release (being '04's Margerine Eclipse).

Among the better of the fourteen tracks comprising the album, the opener, "Neon Beanbag", reintroduces the staples of Stereolab's tried-and-true style - a trebly, chunky bass line, some bubbly electronics and Laetitia Sadir's heavenly vocals (which still seem to attempt to conjure up the phantom pipes of one Mary Hansen), as well as a melodic french horn cameo - into a motorik-meets-Mozart harpsichord-rocker.

"Three Women" revisits the pure minimalism and lengthy, chugging nature of Stereolab's past efforts (see Mars Audiac or Switched On Vol. 2), and "One Finger Symphony" proves fitting within the bubbly, summer lounge vibe of 1997's Dots and Loops, though a little bass-heavy and operating within much too short a time frame for any Stereolab tune to fully develop. Luckily, our title track is a shiner, seeing symphonic, Parisian-pop bliss interspersed with Sadir's tastefully percussive vocals.

The record begins to become much more insipid with "Valley Hi!", as Neu! bleeds right through the tune at the onset; Sadir's vocals once again save the day, however, jerking this track out of the crowded bowels of the krautrock wasteland known as "indie rock" - a wasteland the next track, "Silver Sands", does not so luckily escape.

"Self Portrait With 'Electric Brain'" and "Cellulose Sunshine" do much to attest to the Groop's incumbency yet as clear pop masters, but it's the closing tune that proves the most satisfying of the lot, sounding as if it were lifted straight from the threshing floor of the Margerine Eclipse sessions; a bass-driven, harpsichord-infused and vocally stimulating track, indeed.

Though 2008's Chemical Chords may not be the reassurance Stereolab fans were seeking that the strength and endurance of the Groop's beloved formula is still intact, it does prove that they're completely unwilling to lapse into creative stagnation, which - considering how long the Groop has been at it and just how much they have been through - is quite a reassurance in itself.

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Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T00:31:00.001-05:00

Helios: "Caesura".

2008-11-21T11:52:00.012-05:00

Keith Kenniff returns as Helios with 2008's Caesura, and luckily enough for us, he's simply extended all the warm, resounding goodness of 2006's Eingya. In other words, the album is not, by virtue, an experimental progression off of Helios' body of work, but more a continuation of Kenniff's bright and ringy saturation of sound and soul; the album strays not a step from the path that is Helios' experimental/post-ambient sound.

Much like '06's Eingya, Caesura opens up soft and somewhat subliminally; like blood pumping through capillaries, the minimalist beat and ambient drones, otherwise incapable of any movement, are guided through a network of carefully chosen chord structures in "Hope Valley Hill".

"Come With Nothings" finds an interesting balance between synthetic, electronic rhythms and earthy tones, prominent in the sustained guitars and often-times chimey ambience that fills each tune like the wind through an open field on a cool summer evening, and "Glimpse" sees a beat similar to that of "Dragonfly Across an Ancient Sky", seemingly looped from a field recording rich with room noise, creaks and snaps.

Weaving atop the subtle percussion lies a combination of electric and acoustic guitar, providing two-thirds of the melody, the other third belonging to the soft bass accompaniment. Kenniff layers in, masterfully, a magnificent blend of sustained keys and synth swells to fill out and accentuate the heartbreaking melody.

"Backlight" is a chunky, guitar-driven tune featuring perhaps the most straightforward beat of any of Helios' recordings, and a much more emotional experience exudes from within "The Red Truth", featuring reverse swells in almost over-abundance contrasted by a lovely coalescence of electric and acoustic picking and a single octave bass line.

The album hardly winds down from here; the last four tracks are by far the best, which cannot so easily be said of Caesura's predecessor. "A Mountain of Ice" begins with a seemingly arbitrary arrangement of wind chime keys, and shortly after introduces a hard-hitting beat that sounds very much like shattering stalactites of ice.

"Mima" is arguably the prettiest track off the record, truly befitting the undiscovered brilliance of winter's splendor, and "Shoulder to Hand", my favorite track, is a stunning about-face from the sparkling grandeur of "Mima", the apotheosis of none other than winter's harsh and unforgiving nature.

So the question everybody seems to be asking: does it out-play Eingya? If pressed for an answer, I would have to reply with a determined "yes". Hard to fathom. Good work, Keith.

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Frances: "All The While".

2008-11-13T21:36:00.011-05:00

Every so often, a debut effort comes along that rivals some of the more solid and established records of the respective genre or sub genre, and All The While is very much one of these, from start to finish.

Orchestral rock along the lines of Garland of Hours' The Soundest Serum and Silverchair's masterpiece Diorama, All The While gathers up and mixes in the chamber pop of Sufjan Stevens' acclaimed Illinois and the power/twee pop of Tilly and the Wall, which sounds even better musically than it does in writing. Of much of 2008's best releases, I venture to say this is most definitely among the best of them.

All The While shines in many different ways, and most notably in key tracks such as "All The While" and "Locket", which find the balance between strong orchestral arrangements and frilly, feel-good melodies, in just the right dosage. From the pounding intro to "All The While", to the airy opening of "The New Decoy", Frances' debut release covers all the bases of emotionally-impacting pop, however many comparisons can be drawn in effort to discredit their deserved acclaim.

Much more than simply a Sufjan Stevens rip-off, All The While sees breezy classical orchestration intertwined with the best elements of any decent indie rock offering, most notably in tracks such as "The Brain", which comprises Of Montreal's classic rock energy and Lambchop's synergetic instrumental backbone, and "Tightrope", featuring a slow-building climax which suddenly explodes into an epic krautrocker, instantly becoming a standout among standouts.

Some of the record's softer side is portrayed through tracks like "Steady", in which Donnie Darko seemingly revisits the closet in his parents' bedroom, lulled eerily by a brilliant theremin accompaniment, and "Tomorrow Gold", smacking blatantly of Wilson's visionary Pet Sounds.

While All The While falls very short of Pet Sounds, a valiant effort is made by all in this up-and-coming Brooklyn quintet to craft a balanced, undeniably irresistable modern pop gem, and its freshness and remarkable maturity will undoubtedly boost it to the top of many of the most respected "best of 2008" lists. Highly recommended, indeed.

✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✩✩

Lambchop: "OH (Ohio)"

2008-11-09T22:36:00.007-05:00

In a better, happier world, Kurt Wagner's butter-knife baritone that effectively euthanizes each note he sings would sound almost humane, almost genuinely insincere; however, that happens not to be the case, which is a large part of what makes Wagner's vocal delivery so compellingly original and arcanely necessary. It's as if he's saying, in a language unknown to anyone, "we've all got a voice, but only I know how to say what we all ultimately were born to say." Feel that strange resonance with every word he's saying, despite the near impossibility to decipher any rhyme or reason to their particular grouping? That's a glimpse at the intuitive nature of Lambchop's leader and musical accompaniment, and fortunately, it's a talent that spans the group's entire discography, front to back.

Comprising 2008's OH (Ohio) are eleven tracks that find inspiration in bossa beats, easy listening lounge melodies and slowcore americana (which is the most verbose description I could think of in attempts to shatter the group's less-than-magnanimous labeling as an "alt-country" act) that even kinda' rocks, occasionally. Proof of this? Read on...

OH (Ohio) opens up with its title track, in which Kurt Wagner's often-conflicted lounge croon cuts through a finely-crafted country-western samba, reminding us of the truth in that, um, age-old saying "green doesn't matter when you're blue". "Slipped Dissolved and Loosed" sees the Nashville ensemble opting for a folk-tinged acoustic number, delivering Wagner's preeminent melancholy in a slightly different shade of blue, and one much more frail and opaque; it's as if the curtains normally reserving the privacy behind the window of Kurt's heart have been drawn open ever so slightly, revealing just how true and meaningful each word rings.

Other tracks such as "I'm Thinking of a Number" and "National Talk Like a Pirate Day" are solemn reminders that Lambchop's virtuous instrumentation has not all but vanished with '08's OH, combining some lovely, atmospheric guitar swells and near-whisper vocals, as well as sustain-drenched pianos and a very Neil Young-esque rocker in "National Talk Like a Pirate Day". In similar Lambchop fashion, tunes like "A Hold of You" and "Please Rise" remind one of any of the great tracks off 2000's seminal masterpiece Nixon, featuring dynamically-impacting instrumental backings over top of which Wagner's cutting delicacy disseminates brilliantly.

"Close Up and Personal" lassos Randy Newman, Ray Charles and the ghostly presence of Stan Getz into what should sound so much more inspiring than a Norah Jones tune, though sadly does not. "I Believe In You" works to round out the amalgom of influences by offering a slow, bluesy country anthem you somehow just can't imagine your grandparents dancing to, no matter how jukebox-friendly it sounds, which I personally find absolutely charming. What better way to end a creepy, artsy country-ish album featuring a painting of two naked homo sapiens in mid-fondle on the cover?

Lambchop just might be the new masters of unconventionally ambiguous subtlety in modern pop - and/or the very act responsible for the indubitably bloody death of the country western ballad.

✭✭✭✭✭✭✩✩✩✩

Mount Eerie: "Lost Wisdom".

2008-10-25T16:00:00.009-04:00

Lost Wisdom "is a quiet echo by the edge of the stream at dusk", in Mount Eerie's own words, and somehow I believe that coming from the pair of Phil Elverum and Julie Doiron, no matter how chilling the vocal and instrumental delivery of so calming a metaphor. 2008's daringly short Lost Wisdom seeks to display all there is to display behind the eyes of two soft-spoken emotional wellsprings, utilizing solemnity and...tedium?

Our title track at once becomes a 21st-century exploration into Cash-inspired, backwoods desperation that Connor Oberst captured much more poetically as a pimple-faced grumpkin operating inside the attic of his parents' house after school, which is harsh yet painfully true, and the next couple tracks pass by nearly undetected. The album tracks prove to be sardonically lo-fi in quality, yet quirkily offset by their indie-mainstream folk-pop tendencies, and much of the fairly fresh lyrical content is entirely overshadowed by far too much pretense and musical banality, rendering the whole of this lo-fi offering simply a cheap, hasty attempt at hi-fi integrity and structure. "Who?" and "Flaming Home" bring to mind an uninspiring Sam Beam impression, as well as some disappointingly weak melodies and unemotionally-charged harmonies which offer very little of the impact that other folk-pop collectives, such as Calexico and Vetiver, so easily and eloquently achieve. In the same light, staying within the confines of lo-fi folk-pop, this hangs nicely on the lower bows of the sub-genres family tree; there is nothing inherently terrible about the record, and yet there is also a complete lack of originality wherever Lost Wisdom's creative juices do flow.

In summation: Lost Wisdom is the bootlegged coffeehouse cover of Every Day and Every Night, and I guess that inevitably makes Mount Eerie the new "Trite Eyes".

✭✭✭✭✩✩✩✩✩✩

The Notwist: "The Devil, You + Me".

2008-10-22T21:11:00.022-04:00

Why would Markus Acher write a delicate, unabashedly and almost embarrassingly intimate album only to bear the title The Devil, You + Me? Well, it becomes apparent to the listener why the title was chosen, but here's a clue: The devil is the entity that takes great pleasure in savoring our agony, and where is agony first and foremost present? Obvious enough. Anywhere hearts are open and joyful, the devil lurks in the nearby darkness awaiting any opportunity to vilify and taint our happiness. This album's intimacy is at all times disparagingly overshadowed by a very real and present darkness, as much of The Notwist's material, and it only becomes more and more evident with each relatively short, though nonetheless succulent, track.

Of these, our introduction is not. "Good Lies" lends us the assumption that our dear friends The Notwist jumped on the Coldplay coffee cart just a little too late, though their percussive, Neu!-esque underbelly remains in tact just in case the change of direction doesn't end up working (which it doesn't); the result is half 12/Loup and half Plans, meaning half growling Deutschlandic innovation, half emotional insincerity. Luckily, "Gloomy Planets" radiates as a jazz-injected acoustic sparkler, combing through Markus Acher's inner-planetary frustrations and turmoil. "Alphabet" is a revisitation of early-post-Nook Notwist, complete with Motorik-driven guitars and percussion, debuting a kitschy organ growl and a processed drum loop that seems more unintentional than textural. "Gravity" is a glitchy and palatable romp through outer space, and "Sleep" features delicate guitar mingling, loopy hand drums and a seemingly ad-libbed vocal delivery that provides an interesting contrast to the well-orchestrated song structure. "Boneless" is my favorite track off the record, and showcases a single-octave piano intro, more staccato acoustic guitar, and perhaps The Devil, You + Me's most intimate chorus line.

The album definitely opens up on its second spin, and complements any krautrock, post-punk or indie rock fan's collection nicely. If you are new to The Notwist's indietronic, sour-kraut stylings, try Shrink or Neon Golden, or the magnificent 12, if you can find it. (Amazon is your best bet for anything Notwist, except for this release, which is widely available in record stores nationwide.)

✭✭✭✭✭✭✩✩✩✩

Oneida: "Preteen Weaponry".

2008-10-14T15:40:00.008-04:00

Experimental rock has seen many changes in trend and variation, ranging from long drone-fests to current-day reminiscences of the archetypical 1960's sound, complete with big, echoey toms, single-note guitar attacks and minimalist-folk vocal accompaniment. The latter can be attributed to Oneida's latest offering, 2008's Preteen Weaponry and the first of the Thank Your Parents album triptych, and yet there's something else there, between the cracks and crevices of every spacey feedback loop and processed gurgle; call it a "modern flare", if you will. The "flare" I am referring to is that subtle melding of old tones with new ideas, which effectively digs up the skeletons of sonic deliveries past, dusts them off lightly, and utilizes them as if they'd never retired beneath the weight of all those years. Oneida is quite an appropriate example of just one of the many outfits in indie rock music who've groped around on The Beach Boys' musical mistress, though with Preteen, it doesn't sound like some bratty braggard still hopped-up from "getting to second base"; no, this kid's got the real story to back it up.

The "weaponry": three lengthy movements of slow-building, kraut-infused sunshine pop, minus the vocals, minus the "sunshine". You could shrug Oneida off as one more (dare I say it?) pretentious post-rock progeny, but you'd just be wrong; while there are some definite influences allowing Preteen its essence, it's the band's "flare" that truly lays claim to any advancements in psych folk and experimental rock, some of the group's earlier releases, such as Happy New Year or The Wedding, being among them.

In other words: Oneida knows how to use the weapons of the past to deliver the goods of the future, and Preteen Weaponry is proof of this. All three tracks function as one song, so seat yourself and space out in the midst of this groovy new release. Who needs Animal Collective anymore, anyway?

✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✩✩✩

The Sea And Cake: "Car Alarm".

2008-10-12T01:28:00.006-04:00

The Sea and Cake's newest release, Car Alarm, is now available for pre-order on thrilljockey.com. Songs are now uploaded as well - listen in full before you buy!

Goldmund: "Two Point Discrimination".

2008-10-09T13:28:00.004-04:00

Type artist Keith Kenniff has always been one to wear his shroud of mystery obligingly, as his multiple monikers/stylistic variation/virtuosity might attest, and 2007’s Two Point Discrimination strays nary a step from that path laden with shadows and personal demons, not surprisingly. Under his piano-ballad project title Goldmund, Kenniff sees your heartbreak turned heartache and raises you a dejected soundscape to suit your overly emotional mentality. The music contained within Goldmund’s latest EP would soar above the clouds, would conjure up images of heaven and the Almighty, if it weren’t so consumed by the heavy blanket of melancholy that chokes every note of its grandeur. This property, though off-putting descriptively, lends the music every bit of its majestic insolubility and effectiveness in deteriorating that thick, coagulated membrane around our hearts caused by too many years of unemotionally impacting pop rock and cheesy poofs. Where 2005’s Corduroy Road explored life’s delicacy and subtlety by recognizing and showcasing the pieces for their musical textures instead of their weight or strength as melodic piano instrumentals, Two Point Discrimination works to strip them even more of their musical casings and instrumental confines, opting for more experimental techniques and a continued use of atonality to flesh out these beautifully moving anti-ballads. The result is a mini-album crafted out of the ashes of despair and hopelessness, long after the sting has diminished yet resonating closely enough to draw out the mournful afterbirth that initially fed our inner-turmoil. Yes, it’s dark, it’s a party-pooper, and it will undoubtedly evoke those things from within that otherwise have no benefit to our eight-to-five reality, but that’s exactly what makes it so necessary, and so refreshing. Two Point Discrimination proves that healing can be found “leading from light to shadow”, and that only then will we “see as one”.

Naked City: "Grand Guignol".

2008-10-03T09:21:00.003-04:00

Here's a favorite of mine from the archives; Naked City's 1992 release Grand Guignol.

Next time the devil comes around, don't challenge him with a fiddle - challenge him to a drum-off. The opening track to this daunting project, "Grand Guignol" sounds like the lord of the underworld versus some prospective initiate into the bowels of hell; all the while, a wind whispers in the background. The track suddenly explodes to life, in a colorful burst of cymbals, crunchy guitar slathered in overdrive and laden with a light tremolo a la Frisell, and a soft organ that seems as out of place as that flinch you can't seem to remove from your face. I know, it's abstract...but this is unconventional beauty we are witnessing here.

Soon, the whispered wind drones once again, followed by some timpany death knolls and (AAAGH!) another noisy outburst from a few possessed instruments. As is Zorn's way, you can expect another ten minutes of this. Zorn is notorious for his avant-jazz mastery, and a compulsive need to shock and bewilder the listener out of their brainwashed conceptions of what music truly is. You always learn something in a fight. You may learn that music can be the sum of all its equals and counterparts, contained within one lengthy movement; it isn't classical, and it's not rock - but those are some heavy riffs, and the sudden sparseness encasing a shrill saxophone cry off in the distance? It's one track, and why shouldn't it be? Just imagine a mad scientist in a laboratory, laughing maniacally and hunched over a white-sheeted creation, soon to unleash itself upon its unsuspecting victims; that's Zorn in the studio. You thought saxophonists were all cozily post-bop, huh?

Some sinister jazz takes over from here, and Frisell's gated guitar swell really dishes out the creep-factor. "Prophetiae Sybillarum" sees a chimey-synth beneath a jazzy Parisian saxophone melody. "The Cage" is a bit unsettling, if you imagine the walls closing in around you and think, "Is this really what I am going to die listening to?"

Luckily, "Louange à l'éternité de Jésus" is an enormously interesting listen, combining an oafy, clock-chime sounding chord progression with a crawling dissonant melody floating gently atop. It's as if something sinister is waiting around the corner, but both you and this sinister force keep looking around different corners at the same time, missing each other completely. This comedic light, once shed upon such a dark subject, serves a humiliatingly hilarious blow to the validity of evil itself.

Suddenly, Yamatsuka Eye erupts from beneath the sheet Zorn (the mad scientist) was laboring and chuckling over, a bug-eyed derelict with a fire hose for a trachea and more energy than the combined caffeine-highs of every paying customer at your local Starbucks. Some ridiculously harsh grind ensues, and Zorn's sax battles Frisell's guitar for "most uncharacteristically neurotic use of an instrumental piece". As is Zorn's way, the band travels through many different genres in one mind-numbing short track, sometimes ranging from noise rock, jazz and surf, usually spanning a mere thirty chaotic seconds. Prepare to listen numerous times - or allow yourself to become victimized. "The Prestidigitator" is especially intriguing - how many genres can you count? I counted about seven, even a couple seconds of showtune-esque musical arrangement! "Torture Garden" is another exceptionally brutal arrangement. "Sack of Shit" is probably my favorite of these short musical attacks. "Dead Dread" is interesting in its psychotic obscenity and strangled vocal rants. Really, Zorn is relentless and uncompromising, and just when you think it's all over, he unleashes "Speedfreaks" on your poor fractured psyche (at this point); Want to listen to every style of music all at once? Done, in just under a minute.

Zorn, his monster, and his cohorts all wish you pleasant dreams.

>>Link to my original review on rateyourmusic.com.

Larry Young: "Unity".

2008-10-02T09:05:00.004-04:00

Per my review of Wayne Shorter's 1966 hard-bop classic, here's my review of Larry Young's contribution to that legendary year in Jazz music.

Any jazz record featuring Elvin Jones and his solo breaks is a guaranteed success.

Well, 1966 has a new face in my book, and one that I am pretty positive I will be staring at for quite some time into the future. That face would be Larry Young's Unity, a fairly standard Blue Note release, produced and contributed to by trumpeter Woody Shaw and experimental saxophonist Joe Henderson. One listen concludes a fairly straight-forward approach similar to much of Herbie Hancock's earlier work, though there is a thin layer of experimentation in random momentary flashes that you will probably miss if you're not listening intently. I've never been one to scrutinize any classic or modern jazz release, because I allow myself just a pinch too much of an emotional high, which is pretty much what jazz is all about to me, but like Coltrane's A Love Supreme or Shorter's Speak No Evil, there is something there, under the surface music; something containing pure energy, pure talent, pure love. It isn't necessarily meant to be listened to, exactly; it's meant to be experienced as a whole. People make jazz way too hard. What is hard about true love, freedom, happiness? They're there, and we experience them, whether we think we do or not. To the highest degree, Unity is another classic release I have only recently discovered that I immediately recognized that spiritual element contained somewhere within.

If you didn't know any better, you'd mistake Henderson for Coltrane. It's a little eerie, honestly. Henderson seems to be speaking Coltrane's language most of the time, and yet there obviously isn't that little spark, that brightness that Coltrane conjures up soulfully. Then again, Larry Young is indeed under the spotlight here, just as Coltrane was in his recordings, so I can't expect too, too much from Henderson. Woody Shaw shines at times, though mostly weaves a melodic tapestry over which Young can freely improvise, and that's ok - I am digging that soft organ. It's refreshing. Overall, the whole album seems to take Coltrane captive at times, yet does not allow his influence to keep the music from sounding Dave Holland-esque the majority of the time. These are good qualities, and like I said, the album shines Young's light into the world, and one that seems just as bright now as it did then.

>>Link to my original review on rateyourmusic.com.

Wayne Shorter: "Adam's Apple".

2008-09-30T13:44:00.004-04:00

Wayne Shorter's release of Adam's Apple in 1966 coincided with many other soon-to-be classics, including John Coltrane's Ascension and Larry Young's wonderful organ-jazz album Unity, but I've got a feeling (and you may know it well) that this six-song album takes "Best Jazz Album of 1966" in my book. I thought I'd never find anything harder-bopping than Speak No Evil, but I gave in and sent off for this LP, and have been convinced ever since; truly a collection completer.

Adam's Apple collected pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Joe Chambers, and was Shorter's fifth release on Blue Note records.

The record opens up, with some reservation, to its audience with Workman's bass plodding the hefty, low hum of our eponymously-titled first track "Adam's Apple", and Chambers ticks his way in on the ride, Hancock just behind him, saving plenty of room for Shorter's delicate-to-shrill dynamic mastery. As he creeps in, the tune fleshes up and becomes the very essence of simplicity disguised in complexity (or perhaps the other way around). "502 Blues (Drinkin' and Drivin')" concretes my appreciation for Hancock's delicate touch he so flawlessly lends to nearly every project he's associated with, and it becomes evident that his influence has been noted by Shorter through the song's atonality. "El Gaucho" is my personal favorite track off the album, introducing a bossa beat and some delectable solo spots between Shorter and Hancock, as well as that absolutely inimitable bass and piano breakdown succeeding chorus key shifts.

If you're spinning the LP, you're qeueing side B now. B sides get such a bad rap, and here's proof: "Footprints", perhaps Shorter's most widely-recognized hit, slowly rises to life like a chill Autumn breeze, and I'm now trying to decide how I could have ever claimed "El Gaucho" over "Footprints". I did, in fact, purchase the album for the song, having fallen head over heels in love after hearing the song only once. It's uniqueness is unprecedented. "Teru" lulls our weary souls away from the stabbing pressures of the day and into a soft, comforting mentality - and one we at once realize we couldn't easily pursue without assistance; think of it as a road map to, of all places, the place we truly call home, whether it be a childhood memory or a secluded scenic retreat.

The 1966 classic finishes with one more hard-bopper in "Chief Crazy Horse", allowing the record a total running time of 47:58.

For the Shorterholic and the novice alike, Adam's Apple remains an immensely enjoyable soundscape, and a soothing glimpse into a day and age when men still poured their heart and soul into the music they crafted.

Pram: "North Pole Radio Station".

2008-09-29T23:48:00.004-04:00

Pram is the Darth Vader to Stereolab's Luke Skywalker, and North Pole Radio Station is even more blatantly in opposition to the Groop's always-sunny, honey-dipped electro-grooves, in the title alone. "Omnichord" presents us with this lovely antithesis right away, containing Rosie Cuckston's ominous, crooning whisper, and plenty of evil-sounding Fisher-Price keyboards. The atmosphere and scenery have changed much since the band's nearly light hearted (in comparison) Sargasso Sea, laying the foundation for the future icy sonic structures and eerie, muzaky melodies Pram would come to embrace. "El Topo" melds a krauty beat with an Eastern-influenced melody, and "Bathysphere" loops a chimey sample around our necks for nearly three minutes. "Fallen Snow" creates a kind of Parisian bossa nova that is best described as the result if Stereolab covered The Sea and Cake's "Darkest Night". In fact, I think the reason I love Pram's sound so much is because it rings of the same jazzy, krauty, lo-fi creativity that The Sea and Cake mastered in the mid-nineties, and it's evident on this and their previous release, Sargasso Sea. Any TSAC fan will undoubtedly love Pram. The second half of the album sees a break in the clouds, and even some sunshine, in "Sleepy Sweet", and two more creepy instrumentals in "The Clockwork Lighthouse" and "Cow Ghosts". "The Doors of Empty Cupboards" finishes the album with a bittersweet mystery - "The sound of the wind, or the sound of my voice crying out?" Yes?

>>Link to my original review on rateyourmusic.com.

Random Guy: "Pretty Good guys!"; Sam: "Pretty Good Arch."

2008-09-29T09:35:00.007-04:00

It's 7:40 pm, and we're a magnificent mile south of where my favorite musical enclave will be performing in just twenty minutes; we're suddenly winding through a seemingly strategically-placed barricade of street-walkers like ourselves, save for the complete lack of urgency between them and their destinations. I'm twisting and turning through this human labyrinth with a sleeping child in a stroller, hoping desperately that he continues sleeping/I don't nip someone's heels/we get to the concert before the band takes the stage. Finally, at 7:56, we're two blocks from the Chicago Symphony Center, directly across from the Art Institute of Chicago, and it isn't until I find myself inside the lobby glimpsing Sam Prekop's Candy Apple Red Fender Telecaster through the double doors to the concert hall that I realize, this is finally it; we made it.

With only a couple minutes to spare, I sigh a huge, restful sigh of relief as I survey the comfortably-occupied concert hall, thinking to myself, "how perfect is it that this band's turnout is as laid-back as their musical style?" Before my inner-monolgue has a chance to escalate any higher, the band is being introduced and Eric Claridge comes clomping on stage, followed by Ryan Rapsys (sitting in on drums for John McEntire), Archer Prewitt (wearing his black signature Jerry Jones single-cutaway) and Sam Prekop. The guys buzz and click away on stage, getting their instruments plugged in and tuned up. Sam's awkward introversion stains his address to the audience as he mumbles, in a very talent show-esque manner, "Hello...how are you...all", breaking away from the mic mid-greeting to twiddle the knobs on one of his processor pedals. Watching these guys chitter chat at each other behind two live vocal mics, as Eric Claridge taps his fingers on the body of his honey-blonde bass, would be rather repugnant if they were any act other than The Sea and Cake. Their clumsy nonchalance fits the eccentric, jazz-enfused post-rock they produce, and the blue-collar bohemian-chic they emanate is wholly natural, and settles in over the crowd even before the first note is played.

The first note, however, just happened to be the rocking first note to the rocking first track "Aerial", off the rocking new album Car Alarm, due out in late October. It's a bit of a continuation of 2007's Everybody, which saw a return to the band's simpler rock structures of the pre-Fawn era, with only a tasteful electronic tidbit here and there. Sam announces "Crossing Line" next, the single off of 2007's Everybody, and I'm singing "Do-oo-oo yeah" along with Sam and Arch. The band's off-beat humor adds one more layer of eclecticism to the already-abounding list of slightly-anecdotal descriptors surrounding them, yet not once do I ever get the impression that they're nervous or superficial. We're led through every full-length to date, from The Biz's "The Biz" to Oui's "Midtown", and when the band finally says goodnight, the audience cheers them back on stage for the ultimate encore performance of "Parasol" off 1995's Nassau. The dance-pit reassembles off stage-left in the aisle, and a good night - hell, the best night I can remember in a good long time - comes to a jovial end.

Guys, I'll be there Novemeber 15 at 7 pm. Bring your dancing shoes!

Wire: "Pink Flag".

2008-09-26T14:08:00.008-04:00

Punk rock has only one vice: itself.

Almost as quickly as it emerged, punk was known by anything other than punk, becoming one of the first genres to be successfully outweighed and overshadowed by the number of sub-genres it contained. While Oi! was an attempt at punk unity, it seems post-punk was a healthy acknowledgment that it was merely a stepping-stone to something better.

Wire's 1977 post-punk classic Pink Flag was widely-influential upon the sub-genre, appearing a year before the earthquake that officially devoured punk rock forever, set off by Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures. Wire stuck a little more to the formula, keeping the 'punk' in post-punk, but all that would change with their 1978 follow-up album, Chairs Missing.

Pink Flag is a death knoll, rung furiously by the emergent sub-genre that followed all too closely on the heels of punk rock. It's the soundtrack that voraciously springs to life after Clint Eastwood pulls the trigger on his unloaded .44 Magnum in Dirty Harry. It's just what you get for asking, "I gotta' know." Though highly influential on the alternative genre still to come, Pink Flag was poorly-received by the DIY punk scenes of New York and the UK, mainly as it was released on the major British label EMI. The album also relied heavily on a classic rock structure to it's 21-song barrage, and saw some of the first hints of a dance-punk integration, which shortly after became a sub-genre itself.

In other words...Pink Flag isn't as much a brick in the wall of punk rock as it is the pariah that cast the first stone into the establishment for anti-establishment. You've got to ask yourself one question - do I feel lucky?

Well, do ya', punk?

Low: "Songs For A Dead Pilot".

2008-09-23T20:31:00.005-04:00

Here's a classic, if you could call it such; my very first review. Enjoy.

One can't help but think "death-cult" when one sees or hears Low for the first time...their music is the kind that trails along behind rainy funeral processions, or lonely and suicidal societal rejects taking their last breaths; the kind of thing one hears in detached and segmented images from a dream; yet, the ethereal harmonies manage to interrelate with one's personal sense of nostalgia, allowing each song a warm, sentimental attachment to its listener, in whatever way they choose to assimilate those feelings. Low pushes slowcore to its sardonic extreme in their extended-play masterpiece, Songs for a Dead Pilot.

The delicate, breathy ambience of the first three minutes of this stunning, and haunting, EP take you to a place altogether otherworldy, yet absolutely finite and somewhat confined. You may find yourself sitting right next to Alan in "Condescend" as he clumsily strums his bland, trebly guitar to the syncopated tap of Mimi's snare head, but you will definitely find yourself in shocked silence at the power behind such a soft, yet nonetheless emotive, voice as Mimi anti-belts out those beautifully depressing lyrics - "To a point, you will fail/So I condescend". Next is over nine minutes of Alan's two-chorded nightmare ballad, "Born By The Wires", followed by the eerie organ-saturated drone, "Be There", featuring the amazing harmonizing voices of Alan and Mimi. "Landlord" will have you thinking the end of the world came and you somehow managed to sleep right through it...it's also one of the only songs where I consider Zak an actual member of the band; and who can forget, the chillingly gorgeous outro "Hey Chicago", where the band somehow manages to speak to the city they owe their credibility to as a friend on the street, or a stranger on the bus...one who needs cheering, of course, since Low is so good at lifting those rainy-day blues. You can always count on Low to make a good thing...and make it slower.

Anoice: "Remmings".

2008-09-22T22:51:00.005-04:00

Here's another one from my alter-alter RYM ego iij.

Walls of delay soaked in decay; the (unassuming?) representation of some obscure emotional experience we've all had at one point or another in our lives; the soft and subtle dynamic swells of a backwards guitar, and a light tinkling of piano for the illusion of classical musical training; it's all there - the tried and true formula to a great Post-Rock record, as explained in the instruction manual handed down to us by musical extraterrestrial genius' Talk Talk in Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock, and yet so far, Anoice seems to have a little better grip on the fundamentals than all those experimental/Post-Rock iconoclasts (ie Red Sparowes, This Will Destroy You, God Is An Astronaut, By The End of Tonight, etc...not to name drop or anything). The question then becomes: do Anoice offer anything new to bite into? Let's get into it.

"Untitled 1" begins this Japanese sextet's musical foray into the often-tragic realms of modern mainstream experimental music (I'm trying to call the genre anything other than "Post-Rock" at this point), and it isn't a bust, necessarily; there is a very subtle melody floating within the ambience. "Aspirin Music" begins as a dual between a backwards guitar riff and a violin, and soon a fairly funky bass and glitchy percussive element join in. Not far behind them all is the "rat-tat-tat" of the battle-snare, and a soothing start-stop romp through a room built out of noise follows. The front door creaks open around the four-minute mark. "Untitled 2" is some salvaged track from Aoki Takamasa's archive of unusable/filler material; in other words, hardly impressive. "Kyoto" could be the opening track to the new Mono record (by the way - aren't they due for a new album?), and is a lovely piece of ear-candy in any setting, in any mood. The dissonance is tasteful and expertly crafted, and the track favors a classical sound rather than the stylings of the chug-along genre itself. "Untitled 3" is a swirling mixture of piano and phased-out pad, but the instrument is in good hands, and the emotional value comes across as intended. "Liange" marks my first impression that the album might not be fully-realized; we started out with a full band, and now we're floating off into some neighboring galaxy...although the sentiment in such an experience far outweighs and overpowers the illusion of an unaccomplished goal. "Untitled 4" features an airy acoustic bit overtop a backdrop of electronic bubbles and synth swells. "The Three-Days Blow" garners the same classical feel we marinated in during "Liange", yet I don't particularly like it much; I get the impression it was written on the guitar, and it comes across a little more juvenile compared to the piano-driven tunes. Anoice's guitarist is a bit lacking in his technique, it seems. The last "Untitled" piece features a piano adrift amongst another ambient electronic sea.

So, I guess we can conclude one thing: Remmings is not your typical Post-Rock offering. The classical skill of its members lends a little more credibility to the music, and at the same time, the emotional swings are self-evident and inviting to the most casual of listeners. Altogether, Anoice's Remmings is 2006's Would You Rather Be Followed by Forty Ducks for the Rest of Your Life?. Actually, not quite that good.

>>Link to my original review on rateyourmusic.com.

My Newest Obsession?

2008-09-21T09:03:00.006-04:00

Think of them as a transcript of the behind-the-scenes featurette that should come with every classic album; 33 1/3 features interviews with original group members, facts, history and even some personal insight by each respective author. These books are what you wish would come as the cd insert. Spanning the discography of more than twenty classic albums and artists, there's plenty of selection, and every book in the series is worth reading, just as every album covered is worth owning, or at the very least having heard once or twice.

I just ordered my first 33 1/3, covering Throbbing Gristle's psychotic avant garde classic, 20 Jazz Funk Greats. If you've never had the pleasure of listening to the album, head over to Rhapsody and give it a listen.

Other noteworthy books in this intriguing series include Neil Young's Harvest, Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures, Radiohead's OK Computer, Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica, and The Pixies' Doolittle, among many others. The books range from 110 to 175 pages, and can be purchased new and used for as little as four dollars on Amazon. Here's a link for anyone interested.

>>33 1/3 on amazon.com

The Sea and Cake: "The Sea and Cake".

2008-09-18T21:36:00.006-04:00

It all began here, with the somewhat hasty musical smatterings offered on TSAC's eponymous debut. I believe, contrary to many sources and fans, that this album is not easily accessible, or a proper introduction to the band's true sound and style. This record was recorded in the wake of the disassembly of Sam and Eric's first band, Shrimp Boat, a post-country/indie-bluegrass ensemble featuring producer Brad Wood. Brad was recruited to record the album, and added saxophone on the funky, slightly out of place "Culabra Cut". Sam and Eric discovered Archer through his work as guitarist of local group The Coctails, and extended the invitation to work on what was really only a studio project at the time. Last in the lineup to join was John, Tortoise multi-instrumentalist/drummer/Soma Studios owner, on drums. He would later record and produce the majority of his band's albums/ep's.

The Sea and Cake(s/t) sounds very much like a late Shrimp Boat record, with a slightly tighter group effort and an obvious post-jazz influence throughout serving as the only stand-out differences. "Jacking the Ball" is the perfect album starter: hard-hitting, high-energy rock riffs and Sam's cool-cat vocal stylings adding the perfect art-snob touch that throws the whole thing in a completely different direction than immediately expected upon first listen. Listening to the rest of the album further solidifies the overwhelming sensation that "there is just something special about these guys...", with the laid-back, feel-good "Polio" and "Flat Lay the Water", as well as the punkier-sounding foot-stomper, "Choice Blanket". Then comes the proof that the act doesn't quite have it all together - the jam band, porn-flick essential, "Culabra Cut". The latter half slacks a bit, but is immediately yanked up out of the well by the slide-happy, slightly overdriven indie/old-school anthem, "Showboat Angel". As if that wasn't quite all they had up their sleeves, they shine their talent down into the lustrous show-stopper, "So Long to the Captain", giving us listeners the inside scoop on just exactly what's to come out of these indie tricksters. Eventually, the group stops pulling the rabbit out of the hat traditionally, the way they seem accustomed to, but The Sea and Cake and the next couple records in line prove why, sonically, music can be new and exciting everytime, even after you know all the tried-and-true ingredients.

Elvis Costello: "This Year's Model".

2008-09-18T21:36:00.004-04:00

I own an original first pressing of this record on vinyl, and the rereleased and remastered digipak containing a couple additional tracks. I prefer the vinyl, of course. Another review of a power pop classic from the archives.

Would you like to experience the quaint excitement and sheer splendor of discovering that perfect little record you've heard so much about but initially wrote off to overrated pop snobbery? This Year's Model has a magical power etched right into the vinyl it's trapped in that transforms your drab little day-in day-out, monday-through-friday, work/sleep/work/sleep life into a sparkly night-club scene, fronted by an Elvis who traded his blue suede shoes for black frames and a Jaguar. It's an almost immediate transformation, too - Mr. Costello bombards us right off the bat with his confrontational album starter "No Action", followed by a tune we can readily blame new wave on, though absolutely inimitable by its own right in "This Year's Girl". "The Beat" delivers us a slightly more intimate Costello song that suddenly just becomes the post-punk explosion we'll come to expect from him. "Pump It Up", though initially laughably cliche, is quickly redeemed by its great choppy chord structure and heavy beat, separated by some of the most criminally catchy pop ever unleashed upon the world. "Little Triggers" offers an emotionally-drenched doo-wop ballad, while "You Belong To Me" grabs desperately at a last-chance rock anthem possibility, and just misses.

Side B is not as much a mess as Side A, and yet, as it always goes, lacks the punch Side A never even intends to begin with. "Hand In Hand" has its catchy little this-and-thats, but is very second-rate next to naturals such as "Pump It Up" and "No Action", and once "Lip Service" begins, we're ready to flip the record back over and cue up one of any of the gems contained on Side A...but handclaps always indicate good things to come, like red sails at night, and lo and behold, we receive "Living In Paradise", a happy-go-lucky twee-romp through life as a jealous boyfriend (how many times have we all been there before?). "Lipstick Vogue" is somewhat hard to classify, at times jazz, punk, surf, and hard pop, and leaves us with the classic hit "Radio, Radio". So you'd better do what you are told...you'd better listen to the radio. Actually, scratch that - not everything Elvis tells you is good advice, even if he is the king, reincarnate.

Arm Yourselves.

2008-09-17T10:32:00.013-04:00

You have to imagine me with two Ruger LCP's. Like this:

Dad and I drove out to Midwest Gun Exchange yesterday looking for the new Ruger LCP .380, which unfortunately was completely sold out at both locations. We're going shooting this weekend, so I'll get some training with his Glock and Walther, but we're pretty certain we're going to have to order a couple LCP's in soon. It sizes in at 5.16", and holds 6 in the magazine plus one in the chamber. A deadly weapon, just a little bigger than an iPod.

All this started for two reasons:

1) As an American citizen, I have the right to bear arms by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America (while it is still honored). This country was founded with the idea that man was endowed by his creator with certain rights. In the event of a future socialist takeover and infringement of our civil liberties as a free people, I've decided to exercise this right while it is still inherent.
2) I must protect my family and my home with lethal force; otherwise, I completely compromise the lives I have vowed to protect. No one will ever convince me that I am safe with a police force working through the night, or an alarm system to scare off intruders. In the event of a break-in, I am completely helpless in my own home against the attacker that could take the lives of those I love, and mine. No one should ever be willing to compromise the lives of their family - not to any man, woman or government. We must protect ourselves.

The world is not a safe place, and to think that it is only provides a false sense of security until that time comes when you're faced with a potentially dangerous situation. That time may or may not come to each of us, but I'll be ready if it does.

Slint: "Spiderland".

2008-09-16T09:51:00.008-04:00

In 1991, as My Bloody Valentine* and Talk Talk were causing pop lovers to scratch their heads and exercise their all-too-recently passive opinions, Slint crawled out from under a rock in Louisville, KY and infected the emergent Post-Rock sub-genre with an unprecedented darkness. Spiderland has been dubbed one of the greatest albums in rock music, and Tweez, the band's disturbing first full-length, will always be under-understood and underappreciated. Like a pleasant dream that soon unfolds into a nightmare, Spiderland chimes to life.

"Breadcrumb Trail", oddly enough, harnesses a spaghetti-western style, in that you can almost imagine Brian McMahan in the middle of some Andalusian dual, hand on his Colt and fresh wad of tobacco under his lower lip. I say "almost" because it's hard to imagine this while he's babbling on about some childhood memory of the midway of some dingy carnival, and the fortune teller he befriended. The perfectly-delivered harmonics as the track opens serves as a sort of melodramatic fanfare, announcing, ironically, the arrival of unimportance and paranoia.

It only gets darker from here, friends.

The sludge manages to become the grittiest thing you can imagine coming from a stringed instrument, and McMahan mimics this tone in his crackling vocal rants, creating a tapestry of unfocused, muddled grey and brown, and every other dirty hue you can think of (I'm visualizing those tacky 10x15 rugs that some old bearded veteran displays draped over the side of his 1970-something fatigue-colored VW bus along every urban drag in America). As "Nosferatu Man" creeps to life, our narrator's pensive whisper assures us he has something to hide behind the elusive picture he paints of phantom trains, kings and queens, and medieval castles. What's more unsettling - the subject itself or the fact that our narrator tells it so nonchalantly? Before we can ponder these mysteries, everything evaporates into "Don, Aman"'s hushed tale of social escape and awkwardness, and we have a whole new set of problems as we begin to seriously wonder what Don is about to do to himself. Pajo's grimy guitar blasts through our thoughts and escalates the urgency of what began as an introspective dive, and then it's done. "Washer" is arguably the prettiest song on the album, and "For Dinner..." trails it's delicacy nicely, with a charming depth all it's own. The album comes to completion with it's brooding final track, "Good Morning Captain", which is truly heart-wrenching around the 6 - 7 minute-mark, as McMahan infamously mourns, "I miss you". Don't you wish you had a friend nearby right about now?

You can go on arguing the true birth-album of the entire Post-Rock genre till the cows come home in leather jackets, but I'll contest that, although Spiderland might not be officially the first Post-Rock release on record, this album has major clout in the sub-genre. One thing's for sure: You may never need a bottle of Zoloft and a good long cry like this again.

*I apologize. An MBV reference these days is like overstating your personal wealth at a high school reunion. Please forgive me.

Nirvana: "Nevermind".

2008-09-15T14:46:00.010-04:00

Another review from the archives. I wrote this back in January, after returning to my Nirvana fascination (it's an annual occurance for me).

Somehow, it's a classic; I guess for a band like Nirvana, having come from podunk Aberdeen and playing cramped record store shows, that's just a little strange. No one really stops to think that Nirvana was at one time as unheard of as Fecal Matter (Kurt's first musical brainstorm), and yet, Nirvana was an understudy of Buzz Osborne and The Melvins for quite some time before breaking out onto the scene. Kurt intuitively fused the hooks commonly found in pop music with sludge metal, almost single-handedly birthing grunge music, or at the very least spearheading its infection upon the world.

What doesn't quite add up is just where this spick and span little post-punk delight came from.

Nevermind is a phase that every teenager inevitably goes through; it's every kid's savior, and it makes sense somehow while at the same time retaining complete obscurity through either intentional or unintentional ambiguity. The only thing that I notice now in hindsight is the eerily professional final mix of the record; why is it that such a grungy, sludgy album, chock full of punk-itude, is so spot-on? It's quite a mystery; every note Cobain plays just seems much too perfect for a punk band, and yet there he is, screaming himself silly: "Gotta' find a way, a better way! When I'm Theeeeere!" I feel that this is why Nirvana is regarded as the pioneers of Alternative rock; they found some loophole where you can play all-out punk rock and make it sound as pristine and polished as you want - and it still works. Hmmph.

It's a fact that the band was not very pleased with the record, partly due to this very quality - it just sounds too produced to be a Nirvana record. Somehow, this little ideosyncracy created quite a following for the Aberdeen three.

I know I am very adament about how wrong it is to apply the "artistic profundity = sonic delivery" formula to each and every album, but sometimes, you find the exception to the rule - and here it is. Nevermind is very important for various reasons, but in the grand scheme of things, Nevermind, to me, set the stage for every Alternative band to come - whether they liked it or not. You cannot argue with a record that sells 400,000 copies a week in the US alone. You have to perk up a bit and take notice; such an album is worth emulating.

I don't necessarily condone such thinking, I merely interpret it through my own personal filter. Nevermind is a force, a law, if you will; it's like Newton's discovery of gravity, or Eintein's discovery of mass warping spacetime - you don't really have to like such things; they're just there, and they're forces to be reckoned with. Nevermind is a great album, but honestly, Nirvana was only truly Nirvana through their dirty, poorly-received (compared with this money-magnet) predecessor "Bleach" and their last record "In Utero", both of which I prefer over Nevermind any day.

>>Link to my original review on rateyourmusic.com.

"My Guy Ike".

2008-09-14T18:14:00.002-04:00

Newest track off Earthly Styles. I wrote and recorded this song almost completely spontaneously, and it turned out working pretty well for the project. Have a listen.

Deerhunter: "Microcastle".

2008-09-14T17:11:00.007-04:00

In celebration of Deerhunter's release of their third full-length Microcastle on iTunes (cd and LP release due out on Kranky records in early October), here's a review I posted under one of my many monikers a while back.

Deerhunter, a self-prescribed "Ambient-Punk" band from Atlanta, GA, have earned themselves the privilege of being reviewed fairly - meaning, all MBV comparisons aside - with their second Kranky release, Microcastle. If Cryptograms was a next step up from Turn It Up Faggot, then it can be rightly concluded that Microcastle is the next step up from the magnificent Fluorescent Grey EP, which saw the band progress away from lengthy ambient acid-trips and steer straight into the heart of darkness as a four-piece pop ensemble (what better way to do battle?). The label decided to package Deerhunter's Kranky debut with its' EP companion, recorded just after the Cryptograms sessions, but I now must contest; how lovely would it have been to package the EP with the new release?

Then again, we might not have received Fluorescent Grey as such a tremendous offering had it been overshadowed by a long-playing collection of similar enough material; the new LP and the previous EP would drown each other out. I must say, however - never have I felt such a strong sense of maturity, structural perfection and completeness from a four-track EP, and I don't see it happening again anytime soon.

All that being said, let me attempt an early review of August 2008's best new release. Microcastle begins with a short introduction, similarly enough to Cryptograms, though this time around we're presented with a neo-shoegazing reworking of the next track on the album, "Agoraphobia", with Bradford Cox's sky-high vocal instrumentation and some tremolo-armed guitar overdrive, all atop a slow, spacey beat that cuts through the subtle ambience. "Agoraphobia" really sets the mood for the rest of the album, which does not wander nearly as much as its predecessor, and Cox sings "Cover me, cover me, comfort me, comfort me" as we all float above the hustle and bustle of daily life to some new pasture amidst the clouds, where we definitely feel safe, yet we don't necessarily expect to stay (I guess this could be a musical representation of that nagging allusion to the reality that has been programmed into our conscious mind; a soaring beauty dipped in pain, the kind of "real" pain that no human being can possibly escape from). "Never Stops" begins as soon as our feet once again (and surely enough) touch the ground, and the group's post-punk roots peek through the clouds of guitar and vocal reminiscences. The innocence of Deerhunter's sound here plays wonderfully with the pitch black they're seemingly always one shade of grey away from. "Little Kids" sounds convincingly as ancient as was intended, like an obscure tune you'd hear on some late-night college radio oldies hour. "Microcastle" fools us all with its' seemingly uninspired stabbings at soft emotional depth, but suddenly kicks us all in the stomach and runs around the house with a Walt Disney smile, smashing dishes and breaking framed pictures over coffee tables (like they did in The Destructors; I never read it, though). "Calvary Scars" references the crucifixion, or a crucifixion, possibly and probably a metaphorical one of Cox (before his closest friends), and "Green Jacket" is his resurrection, once again to that pasture in the sky where time does not dictate reality. It must be said that Deerhunter's talent most definitely outweighs their skill as musicians, but when it's good (and remarkably free of pretense and noodling), what does it matter? "Activa" is more proof of this; Cox's far-off vocal cries blend nicely with a garage sale-sounding acoustic guitar, as it strums a looping succession of power chords through a light mist of background creaks and moans. "Nothing Ever Happened" is Microcastles "Cryptograms" (song), though the lyrical ferocity adds a fresh take on the musical energy from its' predecessor ("Nothing ever happened to me, righteous bastard flash right through me"), and I get the impression Cox's lament is a loaded gun aimed between the eyes of his critics for his dress-wearing, blood-smearing live antics (and quite possibly for attacks on his sexual orientation and blog habits). "Saved by Old Times" could be a Kinks b-side, featuring a very definite classic rock influence and a slow, steady post-punk beat. "These Hands" is the only disappointment of the album, and it sounds more like the guys started putting bits and pieces of their unreleased ideas together than anything else; the drums resemble a military drum-roll, and the guitars just kind of...are. Even Cox's vocals are uninteresting, for once. Luckily, "Twilight at Carbon Lake" makes up for lost steam in the previous track, and is described nicely as equal parts doo-wop and slowcore, adding just a hint of variety and closing out a very strong album on a thoughtful note.

Microcastle is a long-awaited flavor still drooled-over by many devoted fans and critics alike, and though the album leaked already, I've got my money on that shiny piece of etched vinyl due out in early August; I hope you all do too. Until then, we have the mysterious underwood that is Fluorescent Grey and Cryptograms.

>>Link to my original review on rateyourmusic.com.

William Basinski: "The Disintegration Loops".

2008-09-11T20:26:00.018-04:00

On September 11th, 2001, William Basinski was completing a recording of a number of old tape loops that had curiously begun to disintegrate and disassemble when the first plane, in what would soon become the most horrific act of terrorism in human history, foreign or domestic, hit the World Trade Center North Tower, ripping out a hole nearly half the width of the building. Basinski looked on in terror, like every other American eye that dark day, from his residence overlooking Manhattan, although I'm sure he didn't realize at the time that his dying, self-destructing loops would become the most eerily appropriate, and awe-inspiringly coincidental, soundtrack to that fateful day in early September, when any normal day would include simply the refreshing hint of a cool fall breeze and the golden glow of the impending autumn sun. This day remains a day of mourning, a day of unraveling, a day of slow, torturous demise - and the unconventional beauty and frailty of the life and death cycle that every living thing on the face of the earth inevitably succumbs to.

On this 7th anniversary of 9/11, Basinski's The Disintegration Loops series graces my speakers, as I try to remember the events of what seemed like just yesterday. It's as if I am awakening from a terrible dream to find myself in a complete state of disorientation; the memory of the terror that had so recently plagued my slumber is vanishing bit by bit, leaving only small traces of itself behind for my tired mind to attempt to reassemble. All the other 364 days of the year may pass inconsequentially, but this day needs to be remembered. The memory will never be an uplifting one, but it's those men and women who choose to bury the past that fall asleep in the midst of the return of the enemy. Allow yourself to contemplate even a moment of hesitance or careless self-absorption, and you may wake up one day at the bottom of the well and wonder why you can't remember the fall.

God bless, and keep, the 2,974+ souls lost to the same nameless evil, regardless the nation or ethnicity officially to blame, that has always existed and will continue to exist as long as we inhabit this earth. Be silent, and reflect with intent.

Tortoise "Standards" Reissue on red vinyl.

2008-09-10T22:44:00.032-04:00

It finally arrived! What a beautiful record. The BEST 13 bucks I've ever spent! Here's some pictures to lust over - I snapped them as soon as I unpackaged this jewel.

Seasonal Sonic Sensations: Fall (Part 1)

2008-09-09T08:54:00.020-04:00

Fall brings many wonderful things, including pumpkin spice coffee, brilliant maples and warm sweaters; the most comforting element of fall, however, is the music that represents and enlivens the season. I almost always gravitate toward jazz and instrumental rock in early to late fall, namely Guaraldi, Coltrane, GY!BE and Tortoise. For those hungry few who are seeking the perfect fall album this year, look no further; this list can help.

Kenny Wheeler
Gnu High
(1976)

Comprised of trumpetist Kenny Wheeler, pianist Keith Jarrett, legendary bassist Dave Holland, and drummer Jack DeJohnette, Gnu High readily lends itself to both smooth jazz and avant jazz tendencies, as each of these three pieces wind loosely over musical landscapes simultaneously barren and lush, much like the appropriate album cover by Tadayuki Naitoh, depicting a mountainous region of beautifully fading fall foliage.

Herbie Hancock
Speak Like A Child
(1968)

Herbie's atonal masterpiece still stands as one of the most intensely intimate and explorative jazz records ever released, and one that will undoubtedly become saturated in personal memories and elusions to childhood. This is not jazz for a sunny summer's day, nor is it completely a rainy day listen; Speak Like A Child is the last day of summer, that last fragrant evening, when adolescence is most vital; this is the last hour of our youth.

Vince Guaraldi Trio
A Boy Named Charlie Brown
(1964)

If Speak Like A Child is the final hour of our youth, then it stands true that A Boy Named Charlie Brown is the soundtrack that plays continuously throughout every memory, through the innocence and the carefree abatement of the playground we once knew to be life. The great thing about Guaraldi's music is, although childhood naturally diminishes over time, it holds some musical key to the secret lives we once lived as children, and allows them tangibility.

Dave Holland Quartet
Conference Of The Birds
(1973)

Conference Of The Birds came about after Dave Holland found an epiphany in a group of birds that would always gather in his London apartment's small garden at 4 or 5 am in the summers. This classic free jazz ensemble created the music that nature has been crafting, almost completely unnoticed, since history began, and the experience is like none other. If you've ever wondered what all the hype surrounding jazz was about, behold your answer.

"Sibling No. 1".

2008-09-08T08:51:00.003-04:00

I finished another track for my "Earthly Styles" project. Have a listen.

Art Beat '08.

2008-09-05T11:14:00.015-04:00

Art Beat was, at best, a misunderstanding on my part; I was imagining a little more artistic substance and a little less arts and crafts. Nonetheless, it was a fairly enjoyable evening, aside from the sea of people that amassed the Century Center/South Bend Regional Museum of Art due to adverse weather. I didn't take any pictures of the Art Beat exhibits, but it has been at least a year since Erika and I visited the Art Museum, and the artists/exhibits on display were very interesting. Julie Farstad's exhibit was especially intriguing. She has quite a way with acrylics, and her artistic process is an involved one, to say the least; you can read more about her and the other artists on display at the South Bend Museum of Art website. I didn't end up taking any pictures of Julie's work, as I was more involved in engaging them visually, so I encourage you to take a look for yourself. Her exhibit will be displayed through September 14th. Below are a few pictures I "iPhoned", gleefully.

New Sea and Cake Tour Dates!

2008-09-04T11:07:00.009-04:00

It's been nearly a year and a half since Chicago's finest Thrill Jockey artists have returned to the Windy City, and their homebase, to entertain their torrid local fanbase, but I'm very pleased to announce that they will be playing familiar territory this fall; September 27 at the Symphony Center's Macy's Day of Music, a free eight-hour music marathon, plus two shows at the Empty Bottle on Saturday, Novemeber 15. Tickets are $16 a piece, and the band plays at 7pm and 10pm. Mark your calendars - who knows when they'll be back.

This October sees the release of The Sea and Cake's eighth full-length on Thrill Jockey records, Car Alarm, and more than likely some new merch.

The Chicago Symphony Center show will be a sneak peek into TSAC's upcoming album (due out October 21), so I'd recommend it if you're curious. I'll definitely be attending the Empty Bottle show. Come out and see one of the most unique bands you'll ever come across!

The band's website hasn't been updated yet with their full Fall '08 tour schedule, but there's a schedule floating around out there. Here it is, in what appears to be it's entirety.

Information regarding the Chicago shows can be found here:

• For the Sept. 27 Chicago Symphony Center show: Macy's Day of Music

• For the Nov. 15 Empty Bottle shows: Empty Bottle

Quasi: "Field Studies".

2008-09-02T23:49:00.009-04:00

We've all attempted to outsmart inhibition and inadequacy with optimism and cheerful sarcasm, the forced smile in the face of the drunken, abusive father that life, more often than not, arrives home late to become. Every single one of us knows everything there is to know about rejection and heartache, and the human propensity towards the apathetic disdain that inevitably stems from an over abundance of it, in our own lives; Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss (crazed, villainous keyboardist, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, and Sleater-Kinney drummer-girl extraordinaire, respectively) have simply put it to music, in the unpredictable form of overdriven organ pop, sounding something akin to Brian Wilson's funeral procession along Redondo Beach one beautiful SoCal afternoon. Instead of sitting around in their bedroom gaining weight and getting blown, Quasi crafts an album of sunshine indie pop that calibrates the next generation of hedonistic social inepts against Wilson's formulaically-tormented soul, preserving the obfuscation of psychiatric evaluation on into the new millennium.

What is most disconcertingly unclear is just how much of the content and subject matter of Sam and Janet's smiley-dirges is harbored as truth within their own devilishly ambivalent minds and how much is meant only for a quick laugh in the face of misfortune (one is almost always inclined to believe the latter, and in that case the album is brilliant and powerful). As is at once perceivable in the opening track to 1999's Field Studies, "All The Same" offers Quasi's jaded pop in abundance, as Sam sings "I'm not going to give it up for free anymore, and I don't really care if you label me a whore", setting the stage quite well for the nearly-disgruntled tunes to follow; "The Golden Egg", "The Star You Left Behind" and "A Fable With No Moral", among many others. "Under A Cloud" is one of the best examples of Quasi's true talent when it comes to song crafting and infectious hooks, and "It Don't Mean Nothing" is unoubtedly Field Studies' "Ape Self Prevails In Me Still" (off 1998's Featuring "Birds"). Needless to say, whether you're an indie hipster or Beach Boys aficionado, or both, you'll only benefit from owning a copy of Field Studies.

"Nobody Writes".

2008-08-31T09:20:00.008-04:00

Here's another track I recorded last week - pretty happy with this (although I'm itching to re-record this song with anything other than an internal microphone).

Tortoise: "Standards" reissue.

2008-08-29T09:53:00.005-04:00

Tortoise fans have something to celebrate over; the Post-Rock supergroup's classic, Standards, has been re-pressed on Thrill Jockey records, due to popular demand. It sounds like a stunning package, as well; pressed on red vinyl and limited to only 1,000 copies, this may end up being even more collectible than the OOP first pressing. It's a steal, too - only $13, but for a limited time/while supplies last. If you've never listened to Standards, check out my playlist, which includes the first track off the album, "Seneca". You can also listen to the album in it's entirety at thrilljockey.com. Here's the direct link to the album page:

Tortoise: Standards

The album was the group's fourth long player on the Thrill Jockey label, and was recorded by John McEntire (drums/percussion) at his state-of-the-art Soma Studio in Chicago, Illinois in early 2001. There's a great review on the album page, as well as the artist lineup. Jeff Parker contributed his sophomore effort with the band while recording and writing Standards, and while there are quite a number of songs that bring the wonderfully jazzy TNT to mind, the album tightens into a much more focused sound, and one is immediately met with a Tortoise that has finally found the perfect artistic lineup. Where TNT meanders (charmingly, if I might add), Standards walks directly in the middle of the road, perhaps even skipping along the yellow dotted lines - which is quite a bit different considering Parker's improvisational training and Tortoise's affinity for lengthy free-jazz breaks (one of which, interestingly enough, graces the opening minutes of the album). Be sure to take a listen, and if you dig, be among the privileged few (yours truly included) to own this classic reprint!

"The Seam".

2008-08-24T00:33:00.005-04:00

A new song (kinda) for a new project (sorta). It's called "The Seam".

Welcome To kidslooklikekats.com!

2008-08-23T23:05:00.004-04:00

It's official - I'm the proud owner of kidslooklikekats.com! Don't worry, though - you'll be redirected if you forget. Keep checking back frequently, or subscribe to my posts above! Also, if you really want to stalk me, you can subscribe to my combined feed to get all of my recently updated content, right when it happens (as if anyone cares that much). Later Kats!

The Best Records You Can't Buy In A Record Store (Part 3).

2008-08-15T08:59:00.004-04:00

And now for part 3 of "The Best Records You Can't Find In A Record Store".

8. Low - The Curtain Hits the Cast: Low, the Duluth trio responsible for some of the most heartbreakingly beautiful slowcore ballads around, created quite a haunting album here. Mimi Parker's ghostly vocals howl through the dejected sonic soundscapes of "Anon" and "Coattails", while the band shows off their supreme harmonizing ability in "Do You Know How to Waltz?" and "Stars Gone Out", which appropriately describes their music in the lyrics; "even though the stars have gone out, they're not gone - you can hear them dying." Quite true, and Low is just that sound.

9. The Notwist - 12/Loup: Of all of The Notwist's kraut-tronic delights, this, their earliest sampling of the coming Neon Golden sound, is among the most underrated and under appreciated. While I prefer 1998's Shrink over 12, this record is undeniably great in that it is the "about-face" the band boldly made after releasing the nearly-unlistenable hardcore/metal predecessors The Notwist (1990) and Nook (1992). Without 12, who knows where they'd be now. I'd rather not think about that, in all honesty.

10. Archer Prewitt - White Sky: Blaring brass ensembles, soaring string arrangments, and gritty country-fried guitar twinkles; Prewitt, lead guitarist of The Sea and Cake and ex-Coctail, leads us happily by the hand through his sunny musical wonderland, and once we're seated comfortably atop a hay bail, serenades us with his southern-tinged pop that warms the heart and soul like the promise of a brand new day. White Sky is refreshingly straight-forward and easily enjoyable, though there isn't much room for thought; take it at surface level, and especially in one of your better moods.

Well, I guess that's all for now. I'm not saying I'm through with this series, but it's easy to become bombarded with too much musical goodness - and that is not something I want anyone to have to go through. Take your time, really explore some of these albums - that is, if you can find them (Amazon should have all of these albums). Happy listening!

The Best Records You Can't Buy In A Record Store (Part 2).

2008-08-12T23:22:00.004-04:00

As promised, here's part 2 of my "Best records you can't buy in a record store".

5. Mark Mulcahy - SmileSunset: Mircle Legion's former frontman/lead songwriter, ex-Polaris leader (little Pete's favorite band), and apparently Thom Yorke's idol; Mark Mulcahy is all the rage. SmileSunset is just quite possibly the most brilliant album of all time, featuring one of the widest scopes of minimalist jangle ever recorded, while seamlessly bricking over every single expectation set for him by his loyal indie-hipster followers. Listening to this album comparatively with, say, Miracle Legion's famed Surprise Surprise Surprise will immediately lend my seemingly over-glorifying description of Mulcahy's unexpected, yet warmly welcomed, shift from aggressive jangle rock to pensive jangle folk. Enjoy.

6. Shrimp Boat - Cavale: Yes, of course. Shrimp Boat - the predecessor to the greatest band to ever form, The Sea and Cake - was quite a strange little project of Sam Prekop and Eric Claridge's, ranging stylistically from alt country to jazz, to bluegrass and folk, to just plain weirdness, all conveniently cased within a soft indie rock shell. Other notable releases from this criminally unknown act include the massive four-disc compilation of live, unreleased and alternate recordings spanning their entire discography, 2004's Something Grand.

7. Sun City Girls - High Asia/Lo Pacific: Ominous, paranoid, chaotic and eccentric; these are the instruments used by Sun City Girls. This, their 9th and 10th volume of Carnival Folklore Resurrection, sees an ambient journey through Southeast Asia and the Middle East, complete with tribal chants and sitar medleys in abundance. You're lucky to locate a copy of this mind-blowing collection anywhere.

Well, our time has come to an end once again, sadly; don't fret, I'll be back with Part 3 soon. Get to work on these first seven, for now.

The Best Records You Can't Buy In A Record Store (Part 1).

2008-08-11T00:12:00.006-04:00

Here in South Bend, Indiana, things are just a bit lacking in the record sales department. Granted, iTunes and the MP3 craze in recent years has taken a huge and undeserving bite out of mom-and-pop record store sales (we'll ignore the many good things the digital revolution has brought to music, for the moment), and while that's true everywhere, it's just all the more devastating to a music and art-deprived city such as the Bend. At least one of three of our biggest local new and used record stores has closed down, and selection has become limited. Regardless, even if South Bend's record stores thrived like our next door neighbor's (Chicago), here are some excellent albums I can almost guarantee you'd never find (and who's mention will more than likely evoke a beaded brow and awkward, nervous twitches from the poor sap behind the counter who thought he knew everything about music already).

1. This Heat - Deceit: This Heat was Charles Hayward, Charles Bullen, and Gareth Williams, and somewhere around 1975, the trio began experimenting with what has now become the modern independent method of sound recording: cut and paste. They looped tracks, used otherwise non-musical objects as integral parts of their songs, and somehow managed to craft one of the finest (and what's more, listenable) experimental rock records of all time.

2. Pram - Sargasso Sea: Very much one of my favorite groups, Rosie Cuckston's ominous British whisper mingles much too curiously with the sly, retro kraut-pop they create, and Sargasso Sea is perhaps one of the most blatant examples of this. Ten songs that bring up the best qualities of early Sea and Cake, and some unwanted love child between Low and Stereolab (though Damo Suzuki is never entirely innocent-looking).

3. King Black Acid - Royal Subjects: A mysterious space rock quintet from Portland, Oregon (their music matches their presence). The first time I heard this record, I could not believe I hadn't heard it sooner; true perfection, I tell you. It's long and sprawling slowcore-meets-space rock, so if it's not your bag, it's probably just genre-clash.

4. 8 Bold Souls - Last Option: 8 Bold Souls, a collective of jazz musicians originally assembled to perform Thursday night concerts at the downtown Chicago Filmmakers venue, create a very specific brand of jazz that simultaneously mimics everything good about free jazz artists such as Dave Holland while searing their name into the jazz scene with their unique blend of quiet, low-resonating reeds and strings.

Those are only four, I know - consider this "Part 1". Bed time guys.

Wave Of Nostalgia.

2008-08-10T13:08:00.004-04:00

I've needed more alone time than usual as of late; for me, moods shift just as the seasons do, and my personal composure, more often than not, coincides with them. I've been feeling pretty isolated and misunderstood these days, and it's frustrating and unwanted. The choices I've made in the past, the person I used to be at various junctures along my lifeline up to now, all the things I can't make sense of rationally - they reappear in my head like weeds. I don't know if it's any wiser to live life without regrets than with them, but I don't necessarily see my shortcomings as unnecessary mistakes; I've learned a lot from the things I've experienced, and I'm sure I wouldn't be who I am today had I not encountered what I did at just exactly the times I did, so in that respect I'm thankful for every experience I've had, even the sour or unpleasant ones. Sometimes, it's absolutely impossible to understand the purpose of some of my life's events, but those are the times my incompetence strengthens my respect for what, in particular, I happened to experience, regardless of it's function in my journey. Sometimes, you've got to try harder than you might even know how if you're going to find peace with the fallen glob of humanity that encases you.

King Khan & The Shrines: "The Supreme Genius of King Khan and the Shrines"

2008-08-09T00:06:00.006-04:00

I happened across an article covering King Khan & The Shrines, and my intrigue was sparked; a Canadian-born Indian, living and working out of Germany? Once you're hit with that first taste of his music, being a (unique?) pastiche of James Brown soul and Jimi Hendrix rock, as well as The Temptations and various doo wop inspirations, the joke gets even funnier; where did this guy come from?? More importantly, in King Khan's eyes, What Is ?! King Khan & The Shrines? The influences burn a hole through the music like the sun through a magnifying glass, but somehow the responsible parties manage only to bask in the glow; there is an undeniable soul to these songs comprising 2008's compilation of selected tracks from 2004's Mr. Supernatural and 2007's What Is ?!. Pastiche is a fancy word that only non-artists use...ahem...and Khan is in no mood to hear it; you shall be assaulted with lo-fi garage rock until the (sacred) cows come home.

Time Flies When You Wish You Had More Of It.

2008-08-08T09:08:00.005-04:00

Friday is here once again. Fall's just around the corner, and the idea of school is pretty much resolved to a spring fling, at this point. These days, life seems more like the Autobahn than a highway - my son's growing up before my very eyes, work is more about becoming a machine than servicing them, and the house is going up for sale in the hopes of selling before December. I'm a huge advocate of down time, but it doesn't vouch for me anymore.

I've been toying with possible songs ideas, as usual near the tail-end of summer/onset of fall. Now that I'm a Mac user, it's easier than ever to get some recordings down on disk; finding the time, however, is another story.

Keep ya' posted.

Skyscraper #28.

2008-08-04T19:40:00.007-04:00

Skyscraper #28 is out! This summer's issue sees articles and artist reviews on Melvins, Oneida, Russian Circles, Crystal Castles, Genghis Tron, Au, and Wolf Parade - and the up-and-coming Night Wounds. The cover art, by Justin Walsh, is beautiful, as usual. I haven't finished the Spring issue yet, so I've only gotten through the first few articles, but so far, the artists have been interestingly fresh and diverse; the most buzzworthy in my mind are Crystal Castles, a duet that crams loopy electro-pop synth riffs into jagged post-punk song structures, not necessarily keeping any sort of healthy regard for the consequences thereof, as well as Genghis Tron - possibly the very first drummer-less metal band. As always, there's a massive a-to-z list of reviews, my favorite section of this unparalleled little quarterly mag. Hopefully, by the time I'm through with this, the fall issue of Copper Press will be out. Pick up a copy asap!

Lambchop: "Nixon"

2008-08-01T08:34:00.012-04:00

Your girlfriend of seven years suddenly leaves you one day, and you return to your half-empty apartment to stare at the bright patches of paint on the wall where that mirror, that bookshelf, that night stand used to shield from dust and cigarette smoke, now exposed, vulnerable and alone - much like your own shattered heart; miles and miles away, somewhere south or north or wherever, someone's sobbing over a layoff, a death in the family, a racial injustice, or any number of tragedies plaguing this often-times miserable existence - yet, Nixon is there, shining it's finely-crafted, "tomorrow is on it's way" chamber pop on the melancholy you share with countless other emotionally-afflicted individuals, and when something this unintentionally sweet exists in the same space as your bitter, weathered soul, sweetness wins out, and the healing process begins, one epic note at a time. Lambchop may come off eccentric and ambivalent at first, but these qualities only become more and more custom-tailored to the listener with time and attention, and I do mean attention; there is much to be missed in this cleverly, outwardly subtle record, in just the same way you never realized how much you took your relationship, your job, your loved ones for granted, until they've vanished, forever commited to painful, heart-jabbing memories. The pleasantly-pensive pop of "The Old Gold Shoe" sucks up the silence and the sorrow, hanging like cumulonimbus clouds over our heads, shakes us up a martini, and plants a comforting, unpretentious pat on the back. "Grumpus" allows us a short wallow in our grief, as Kurt preaches, "Part of the process is sifting through the piles of shit", while "You Masculine You" and "Up With People" scream of life's unlimited potential and goodness. Wagner's shrill-whisper of a falsetto offers a laughably realistic view of his own pains - a fresh, contrasting take on the travesty that is love. It's as if he's been here so many times that he's learned his art and tailored his craft through it's grip, effectively satirizing the whole idea of misfortune and loss. This is a record that may take years to experience in it's full glory, as one definitely must face some harrowing tragedy or personal trauma, whatever that may be, to truly understand and identify with the primordial matter the music is created from. One thing is for sure when listening to Nixon: Heartache has never sounded so sweet.

It Takes A Teenage Riot To Get Me Outta' Bed Right Now.

2008-07-30T15:51:00.005-04:00

Is this the new fall header?? Perhaps. I'm not sure if I'll dig this in the long-run, as usually too much white just annoys me. I do like the way it turned out though, and I went through my typical five rough drafts to get the lovely banner that hopefully isn't still rendering above. Unless you're a twenty-first century caveman who's just discovered the 56k dial-up connection, you should see me sitting (quite comfortably) above. Does it creep you out? Let me know. Yes, I really do have too much time on my hands.

Well, I have been listening to This Heat's Deceit alot lately; it's quickly become one of my top twenty-five favorite albums of all time, booting Tortoise's eponymous debut out of the line-up. Standards, however, has been climbing the 4.5 star ladder these days, as "Seneca" and "Speakeasy" have become an absolute obsession with me. Other notables are Sonic Youth's No Wave classic, Daydream Nation, as well as Glenn Branca's The Ascension. I've been researching some of the greatest albums of all time, from The Stooges' Fun House to Iggy Pop's The Idiot, as well as The Violent Femmes' and The Modern Lovers' post and proto-punk self-titled classics; what you'll learn is that David Bowie is a god, Iggy is a godfather, and Jonathan Richman wasn't really straight (I could be wrong).

In other news, my head has stopped tormenting me for the time being; perhaps I've discovered the secret to even-tempered living in twenty-oh-eight, or perhaps I've discovered Zoloft. I guess those are either/or/one-in-the-same situations. Take it however you like.

I Guess I'll Never Understand.

2008-07-21T08:42:00.002-04:00

I'll never reach my target audience, but that's ok. I've got to write somewhere, and although I've filled journals with my private thoughts, I find some strange comfort in disguising them here as well, for all the world to see. Maybe I want desperately to be understood, or at least acknowledged...maybe if I'm just able to reach one person...Regardless, these thoughts need a home other than my already tormented head. One of the drives failed this morning, and the alarm is driving me crazy...does anyone understand love? I second-guess myself almost constantly. I know that love, true love, is free-spirited and joyful...I just don't get it, still. I feel comfort, security, and deep respect...but what is love? Is it only that fleeting elation that fills us for a few short months when someone new occupies the vacant apartment in our hearts? Is love a lasting affair, or does it only give way to cozy reassurance? When you've loved and lost, it's much worse; the young blossom of love that never had a chance to open effectively lives forever as it dies in its youth. The mind allows the heart to perpetuate the expectation and enjoyment of the love that was never fully explored (and one that ended dramatically or tragically). The best love stories are the ones that don't have an ending, however, by this same right; what happens after the guy gets the girl? Do they really live happily ever after, or does their love grow and then dissolve into fuzzy complacency? I'm being harsh and irrational, but for the sake of the argument, I feel my description of love is fitting. In a love story where the couple separates, as with forbidden love, where external situations affect and ultimately cause the demise of young love, there is a deep and powerful respect, an "awe" if you will, for love. This is yet another great irony of this life we live. In order to ensure that a love will last forever, you must never fully pursue it. You will always remember the feelings and the power of the love you let go, but it will torment your poor soul forever. Good luck.

Fall

2008-07-16T10:39:00.002-04:00

I'm back from sunny California, and it's nice to be home, although LA was quite lovely. It was nice to get away, if only for a long weekend. I've been really getting excited about fall lately, as usual for me right around mid-July. I love the changing seasons. I love wearing comfortable fall clothes, I love the golden fall sunshine, and I love the falling leaves in brilliant shades of orange and red. My days have been full of happiness and peace. I am happy now. Right now.

Yep.

2008-06-16T09:27:00.005-04:00

I'm going to the beach Friday evening.

More Thoughts On Why You Just Don't Understand The Impression I Get From This.

2008-05-26T23:57:00.003-04:00

Your ears are growing down the hall. I'm sure you can hear nearly every thought as it pours over emotional filters and constructs set in place by time's weathered fingers, tiny trickels through miniscule divets, or roaring rapids of inner turmoil. The intrusion scathes deeper than muscle, deeper than bone. My life is ground beef in a clenched fist; the vernacular of the modern torture that is insolvent gratitude (of the soul).

Do you understand the structure? Do we speak plainly to communicate, or out of fear of becoming dependent upon words? Do we carve the day's likeness out of marble, or the dirt from under our fingernails?