I spent most of the Antlers’ set at Northampton’s tiny, almost empty Iron Horse Music Hall wondering why they weren’t doing it for me. When I wasn’t thinking about this I was considering wearing earplugs to shows and I was thinking about where I was going to catch the bus back to where I live and wondering if it was possible to read four parts of Virgil’s Aeneid in twenty-four hours (fortunately, it’s possible, but I don’t recommend it). This is an issue because when I go to a good show I can think of nothing but lyrical and sound progressions and what’s going to be next, what’s going to be next? I don’t care about my inevitable hearing loss or bus schedules or homework, especially. I don’t care about making a fool of myself with ridiculous dance moves and ecstatic cheering when the band breaks out some classic jam. I don’t think about why this is working or why this isn’t working. If I did think about all these things, I would probably have no place reviewing concerts. I was a little upset with myself that I let my mind wander so much, but customarily when you are in the front row watching a band perform a bunch of tracks from their breathtaking album you have to try to let your mind go elsewhere. Continue reading →
Reviews
2
Nov 09
The Antlers, Iron Horse Music Hall, Northampton MA 9/26
27
Oct 09
Freelance Whales – Weathervanes, Album Review
Don’t forget to rate this album at the end of the post.
Freelance Whales
Weathervanes
Self-Released
out August 23rd
87/100
[Rating Scale]
Falling in love with a young band is a lot like falling in love with a young woman – the same exhilaration, the same trepidation, the same split-second panics. Is this a fleeting fling or a lasting relationship? Will I look back a few years from now and regret this commitment? Is it too early to friend her on facebook? There’s an excitement unique to young bands, a promise and enthusiasm that’s difficult to capture.
Freelance Whales embody that promise, with a debut album that has garnered more praise and buzz in the last few weeks than it did during its first few months of existence. The hype train is pulling out of the station, whether you’re on it or not. Remember Passion Pit? Those smug little popsters who captured our hearts with synths and falsettos last year are passing the torch to folkier conductors.
And despite my hesitations and my fear of commitment, I’m on board. Continue reading →
25
Oct 09
HEALTH – Get Color, Album Review
HEALTH
Get Color
Lovepump United
out September 8th
71 /100
[Rating Scale]
Listening to HEALTH’s sophomore album, it’s tough not to envision barren landscapes and smoking piles of ruin. Ironically, for an album titled Get Color, the music is painted in blacks and grays – mechanical, repetitive, noisy without remorse. Get Color, like other products of the LA noise rock scene, sounds like machines have taken over the Earth, found some musical record of the humans who used to inhabit this planet, and are now attempting to replicate the melodies and rhythms.
Except that on Get Color, the machines are actually doing a fairly passable job. There are haunting, ethereal hints at humanity – an echoing human voice here, a drumbeat that sounds a little too organic to be programmed there. And that hint that this music isn’t completely made by machines is what makes all the difference. Continue reading →
21
Oct 09
Memory Tapes – Seek Magic, Album Review
Memory Tapes
Seek Magic
Acephale
out August 25th
71 /100
[Rating Scale]
Memory Tapes’s debut Seek Magic is all about bait and switch. At first, each track sucks you into a lo-fi universe. It’s engaging, but not something I haven’t already heard a million times before; for the most part, it’s a generic forgettable cloudy day in the land of Seek Magic. And oddly enough, that’s where the magic starts. The album at its transcendent best are the moments when a gap in the dense cloudfog lets Memory Tapes’s sunnier side shine through, and like a hot-boxed concert venue in between DJ sets, suddenly the lights dim, a spotlight falls, and through all that reverb-soaked haze comes a thumping bassline, a huge synth, a guitar solo, and with it a burst of aural euphoria straight to the mainline vein. Continue reading →
19
Oct 09
Volcano Choir – Unmap, Album Review
LP and POSTER giveaway details at the end of the review
Volcano Choir
Unmap
Jagjaguwarout September 22nd
80/100
[Rating Scale]
When I became aware that the man behind Bon Iver was working on a more experimental project called Volcano Choir, I, like many other Justin Vernon worshipers, expected “Wolves (Acts III and IV)”. What I should have paid more attention to is that Volcano Choir is not merely Justin Vernon’s new pseudonym, and this overlooked fact made listening to Unmap a more exciting and surprising experience than I had anticipated. As wonderful as the Bon Iver moniker is, the thrill of teamwork between Vernon and Wisconsin’s Collections of Colonies of Bees practically emanating from the album makes listening to Unmap an original, engaging, and altogether different experience than For Emma, Forever Ago.
I believe that above all other reasons for the endless re-playability of Bon Iver’s debut, it is his voice that keeps bringing you back. Call it a broken-down Tunde Adebimpe, a more versatile Will Oldham, or just some sad guy all alone in a cabin. However you would like to describe it, it is a striking feature. For the first thirty-three seconds of album opener, “Husks and Shells,” the hero of so many fractured youths and broken-hearted twenty-somethings is nowhere to be found, and you might convince yourself that you accidentally put on The Books. Before you can move to change the song, however, that voice appears and though what it is saying may be indecipherable, merely hearing it allows you to remember just who it is you are listening to. For thirty-three seconds you are forced into hearing Volcano Choir as a separate entity from Bon Iver. This is exactly what Volcano Choir are aiming for. Continue reading →
19
Oct 09
The Asteroids Galaxy Tour – Fruit, Album Review
The Asteroids Galaxy Tour
Fruit
Small Giants
out October 27th
52/100
[Rating Scale]
The Asteroids Galaxy Tour’s undeniably catchy debut LP, Fruit lingers in the head with a horn-filled, psychedelic pop “who cares?” Whether channeling a spayed Gwen Stefani, a boring and cuddly Kathleen Hannna or a flaccid Billie Holiday, Mette Lindberg’s voice ranges from pleasantly poppy to gratingly shrill baby talk. Place this atop a consistent bed of repetitive mediocrity and the result is both a nice pop record — which many people will love — and a migraine waiting to happen.
Fruit is either a study in abrasion without interest, punk without drama or straight faced faux-soul pop, the likes of which Amy Winehouse (for whom the band opened while she was in Denmark) has been parading around in front of an oddly complicit audience for the last few years. Worse than Winehouse though, Lindberg seems to have nothing of note to say, no axe to grind, no lyrical backbone to speak of and a lesser sense of composition. The horns throughout the album are truly a nice touch, and the most interesting musical element of Fruit, but do not do enough to distinguish themselves from the squishy arrangements and undercooked organ parts that characterize the feel. Contrast this to the tight, big band horn hits found in Winehouse’s hits, and it is clear why one group was the opener and the other the headliner. Continue reading →
17
Oct 09
Music Go Music – Expressions, Album Review
Music Go Music
Expressions
Secretly Canadian
out October 6th
82/100
[Rating Scale]
[rating:82/100]
There will be bands that come onto the scene and take years to be recognized because of their quiet sound or because they just don’t make an impact on you and inevitably they slip off into the distance because they have become utterly forgettable.
Music Go Music is not that band. The very moment their sound travels to your ears, the words “Who is this?” is already coming out of your mouth. They’re an LA-based band who has been on the scene for just a little over a year now, however they’ve released a 12″ every couple of months in that time frame, steadily reminding and impressing us with their pop/disco extravagance. People who have been lucky enough to hear their music already love them. The term “ABBA revival” has been thrown at them, but do not dismiss this unique and artful band due to who they are compared to. This band is mysterious and their songs demand to be heard. Continue reading →
15
Oct 09
Karen O and the Kids – Where The Wild Things Are OST, Album Review
ALBUM and POSTER giveaway details at the end of the post.
Karen O and the Kids
Where The Wild Things Are OST
DSC
out September 29th
74/100
[Rating Scale]
[rating:74/100]
Karen O and The Kids’ Where The Wild Things Are OST is an album that is impossible to consider abstracted from the movie it is destined to accompany. Unlike some soundtracks merely meant to advance the plot, provide suspense, or fill the void left by a lack of dialogue, this soundtrack embodies everything the movie is. The film’s characters make appearances, the themes of the songs match those of the book and movie, and the soundtrack’s parabola parallels that of Where The Wild Things Are’s plot.
So it is ironic, then, that I find myself reviewing this album prior to ever seeing the film. I feel, in many ways, that I’ve heard a sneak preview – that what I’ll see on the screen will simply be the music videos I’ve been imagining accompanying this album all along. And the fact that the film will likely exceed the expectations that this soundtrack creates fits with everything else related to the media blitz that has been WTWTA. Continue reading →
14
Oct 09
Tiësto – Kaleidoscope, Album Review
Tiësto
Kaleidoscope
Ultra Records
out October 6th
70/100
[Rating Scale]
Album giveaway details at the end of the post
[rating:70/100]
Poor Tiësto. He’s got 4.5 continents at his feet, he’s headlining DJ gigs in stadiums, he’s smashed up the worldwide charts with his trance albums, but there’s that glittering jewel of America that’s always just out of reach. Springsteen and Bono can fill stadiums in the U.S. Heck, the Oakland Raiders can fill a stadium. But the kids just aren’t into trance music here.
Tiësto’s closest equivalent is David Beckham. Both have had a fantastic decade, and both are some of the biggest names in their respective fields—fields which the U.S. happens to care very little about.
Mr. Beckham tried to take over America by ditching the prestigious football clubs in Europe and coming stateside to win us over. It didn’t really work. Tiësto’s going on offense in the U.S. by getting every indie-music darling he can find to sing on his latest album, Kaleidoscope (available in the U.S. on October 6th). Will it work? Continue reading →
