Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster...

Rating: 9.0/10
Release: 2008
Label: Wichita/Arts & Crafts












[an earlier version of this review appeared on the forums of the website DigitalDreamDoor on August 18, 2008. The review has been significantly altered from its original form to add, remove and expand some content and to fix some egregious spelling errors.]

Its pretty safe to say that the two best debut albums released in 2008 were by Welsh indie pop septet Los Campesinos! and Brooklyn alt-rock heroes Vampire Weekend. It's even safer to say, that upon comparing the two, Hold on Now, Youngster..., the offering by Los Campesinos!, is a better record than Vampire Weekend's. Vampire Weekend's record drowned to death in a wave of unanimous praise and non stop press coverage that continues eight months after it's release. However, the only press coverage Hold on Now Youngster got was a few scattered reviews, yet most of those were positive. Everyone from respected journeyman critic Robert Christgau, to Allmusic to Pitchfork Media loved this album. In fact, the only bad review i've found was from Alternative Press, who don't count anyway, because its an awful magazine and it mostly focuse on the "pop punk/emo" side of music instead of, you know, actual alternative rock. Also, unlike Vampire Weekend, which made the fatal flaw of featuring 5 of the records' best tracks all in a row, How On Now, Youngster works almost like those cassette mixtapes your hipster friends make for you: each track is exactly where it should be.

The band has two lead singers (the other five shout around them): Glockenspiel player Gareth Campesinos! and keyboardist Aleksandra Campesinos! (the band members all share the last name "Campesinos!" and their song lyrics are attributed to "Team Campesinos!". Their real names are on the internet via one or two music publishing sites, but I prefer to respect the band's naming conventions) who have the ability to not only to blend their voices perfectly together but also have the ability to build off of one another but also are able to sing in the classic "call/response" style ala Heavenly's classic twee duet with Beat Happening's Calvin Johnson, "C is the Heavenly Option" (which the band actually covered). This is best exemplified by "We Are All Accelerated Readers" in which Aleksandra answers back to Gareth's "And no more conversations about what Breakfast Club character you'd be, I'd be the one that dies" with "no one dies" to which Gareth replies "oh well, then what's the point?"

The first track "Death to Los Campesinos!" is a strong song and great choice to open up the record (it actually starts with the band tuning their instruments of all things). In the course of the track's nearly three minute running time, the band manages to rhyme "botany" with "dichotomy" without sounding pompous, singer Gareth actually pulls off the lyric "i'll be ctrl-alt-deleting your face with no reservations". And there's the glockenspiel. I actually think they are the only band in the history of ever to actually use the glockenspiel as the featured instrument.

Of course, the main attraction of the album is the fantastic "You! Me! Dancing!" (in a rerecorded and slightly longer version than the version that was issued as a single and appeared on Sticking Fingers Into Sockets, the band's 2007 EP), a track which features a gorgeous and building guitar and violin intro, a nice little rant at the end by Gareth about his confusion over how discos turn the lights on when they want you to leave and supermarkets turn the lights off and - the standout part of the song - a glockenspiel solo. I've previously taken flack proclaiming that "You! Me! Dancing!" is this decade's equivalent of "Marquee Moon" or "Good Morning, Captain". Well, until a better, longish indie/alternative/punk track comes along in the remaining year and a half of this decade I stand by my proclamation.

Other tracks of note include the short but sweet "My Year in Lists", the witty "...And We Exhale and Roll Our Eyes in Unison" and "Drop It Doe Eyes" which has some great vocal harmonies.

Are there a few missteps on the album? "Knee Deep at ATP", despite being pretty good, is the most forgettable song on the album, and you want more of "My Year in Lists" due to its brief play time, and "This Is How You Spell "HAHAHA, We Destroyed The Hopes And Dreams Of A Generation Of Faux-Romantics"" is a horrible title of a song, despite it being one of the standouts on the record (and they actually say the title in the song, take that shitty emo bands!). The album ends with "2007: The Year Punk Rock Broke (My Heart)", which has only one verse and then turns into an impressive instrumental. "2007" is not listed on the album, but its not one of those stupid hidden tracks that record labels love to add after a long silence on the last track. It is a seperate track, it's just not listed and the band considers it a "bonus" song.

They could have included the fine single "The International Tweexcore Underground" (released a few months after Sticking Fingers Into Sockets) or "How I Taught Myself to Scream" the wonderful little song the band released to mailing list subscribers a few months after the album's release (it was recorded for HON,Y but the band did not include it in the final track list). But the album is still a great listen that only wets for We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, the band's second "record" (its too long to be an EP and too short to an album), released only 7 months after, which is another excellent album that proved that Los Campesinos! weren't a one album wonder and that Hold On Now, Youngster... was no fluke.

Note: "The International Tweexcore Underground" does appear on the Japanese release of the CD along that cover of "C is the Heavenly Option" by Heavenly and a completely unexpected cover of "Police Story" by Black Flag. Of course, you're not going to buy the Japanese import, are you?

- Piper

Piper's Single Reviews: Issue 3

This is the third installment of Piper's Single Reviews. Each post, I will review six songs by various indie and/or alternative bands (or artists that you might chance upon when listening to an American college or modern rock station) and rate them on a scale from 1 to 10.

Sonic Youth - Sacred Trickster
Buzzing along in just over two minutes (it does begin with some guitar dissonance), and sounding just barely like the band's masterpiece "Teen Age Riot", "Sacred Trickster" is a preview track (and possibly the new single from) the band's upcoming record The Eternal (to be released on Matador and is their first indie label release since Daydream Nation). Like many of my favorite SY songs (of course, excluding the Thurston Moore-sung "Teen Age Riot"), its sung by bassist Kim Gordon. It's got a good guitar riff, but its over far too quickly for me to make much sense of it. Good track, though.
7.5/10

P.O.S. - Optimist (We Are Not For Them)
Stefon Alexander, the punk-influenced alternative rapper, has finally had his breakthrough after two overlooked albums with Never Better. Of course, the hip-hop mainstream will never accept P.O.S. or his ilk (Why?, Atmosphere, the entire Definitve Jux roster) becuase alternative rap is often seen as apart of alternative rock (and alternative rock fans do make up most of the genre's fanbase). "Optimist", with its odd time signature, mellow tempo and what seems to be a sample of cup stacking as its main beat source, is not going to end this generalization. It's too damn weird for hip-hop radio, who mostly want to play the same gangsta and dance rap to no end. However, it sounds just at home on college radio, where P.O.S. has flourished. That cup stacking sample is really what makes this track great, along with P.O.S.' rapping as you know just what you're getting into with "Optimist". P.O.S. includes his trademark Fugazi-influenced screams at the end of the track, but surprisingly he doesn't sound as emo here as some of his detractors claim to be. All-in-all a good track that should find a home on anyone's hard drive
10/10

Doves - Kingdom of Rust
The title track of British indie rock stalwarts Doves new record Kingdom of Rust is mostly dominated by acoustic guitar, which pushes it towards an expansive chorus and one of Jimi Goodwin's best vocal performances. This song alone proves that the long wait for a new Doves album has been worth it. The song is easily one of the best songs of this year, and it definitely deserves to stand along side Doves' other high quality singles like "There Goes the Fear" and "Black and White Town"
9.5/10

The Low Anthem - The Horizon is a Beltway
Not alot of people outside of New England have heard of the Rhode Island folk rock band The Low Anthem, but their recent signing to Nonesuch Records, their performance at Coachella and their upcoming appearences at Lollapalooza and the Newport Folk Festival are going the change that. The trio - multi-instrumentalists Ben Knox Miller, Jeff Prystowsky and Jocie Adams - released their third album Oh My God, Charlie Darwin in September 2008 (it will be rereleased by Nonesuch later this year). The highlight from that record is "The Horizon is a Beltway" a song that mixes the acoustic sound of Fleet Foxes with the rollicking alt-bar band sound of The Hold Steady. The track's chorus, dominated by the line "the skyline's on fire" is soaring and its a shame that the song isn't longer.
8.5/10

Peter Bjorn and John - Nothing to Worry About
After conquering the world with "Young Folks" - easily the most popular indie rock song since "Such Great Heights" by The Postal Service - Swedish trio Peter Bjorn and John are back with "Nothing to Worry About" which features a chorus of children singing along with Peter Moren on the chorus. It is nowhere as good as "Young Folks", but its still an OK indie song. It really could've been better, though
6.5/10

Dogs Die in Hot Cars - Pop Nonsense
Back in 2004, a Scottish band called Dogs Die in Hot Cars released an album called Please Describe Yourself, a fun alternative pop album featuring three fantastic singles - "I Love You 'Cause I Have You" (if you remember DDiHC at all, chances are its for this song), "Godhopping" and "Lounger". It was moderatly successful in the UK and the band developed a small cult following in the US. Then shortly after, the band disappeared: they announced their breakup in 2006, midway through their second album. Flash foward to late 2008, where singer Craig MacIntosh and keyboardist Ruth Quigley re-emerged, announcing that the Dogs were back. The band released the 17 demos from their second album on their website urging fans to remix the songs, add their own instrumentation, vocals, whatever. Several people have said that the demos are already good as is, and one in particular - "Pop Nonsense" - truly stands out from the crowd. While its nowhere as good as "I Love You 'Cause I Have To", its still a good song. The chorus is a little doofy and so are most of the lyrics in general, but that's kind of the charm of it: it's really stupid but really fun. However, that's not what the Dogs were about in 2004; they were a pop group for smart kids. They're still a great band and many of the demos are good as they are, but maybe DDiHC lost their way on their second album (which is not a reason to abandon it). Here's hoping that the band continues after the project. I'm waiting for a full Dogs Die in Hot Cars reunion.
7.0/10

Walé - The Mixtape About Nothing

Rating: 8.9

Release Date: May 30, 2008
Label: Self-Released

At the beginning of the “Perfect Plan”, an audio clip of Jerry Seinfeld is heard saying “It’s the perfect plan. So inspired - so devious - yet, so simple!” with George Costanza smuggly recountering “This is what I do”. This is kind of how this mixtape works. We all stand back in awe like Jerry, while Walé basks in his own accidental genius, very much like George himself, only with a higher success rate.
Inspired? Oh yeah. As Lil Wayne predicted, 2008 was a year-long drought for rap music, sans Weezy’s own effort. Tracks from Tha Carter III monopolized the radiowaves all year long like he was Microsoft in the 90s. When Walé came out with this one, it was almost completely ignored until the end of the year. The beats and production are so crazy and the lyrics are fresh to death.
Devious? Well, on the topic of lyrics, TMAN could very well be seen as a practice in overanalysis. With it’s theme revolving around the sitcom Seinfeld, Walé managed to come up with one of the greatest concept albums in hip-hop history ever. Looking beyond the nothingness of each episode and their topics, he seems to read them as an outward commentary on society. Well at least that’s how he incorporates them into his raps. He uses Seinfeld as a never-ending allegory for hip-hop. Whether it be talking about self-loathing racism (“The Kramer”), the decline of the industry (aforementioned “The Perfect Plan”), selling out (“The Artistic Integrity”), and even (un)intentional parody of Lil Wayne’s 2008 throne (aptly titled “The Cliché Lil Wayne Feature”).
Yet, so simple. At 73-minutes, The Mixtape About Nothing never outstays it’s welcome, and for an album so full of surprises, the biggest surprise is definitely it’s replayability factor (well except for the Julia-Louis Dreyfus cameo, but what’re you gonna do?). While exploring every nook and cranny of the hip-hop pond while it was drained due to drought, Walé made a mixtape that’s not just a hypemaker for his upcoming official debut, he made a full-fledged album, the best hip-hop album of last year, in fact.

Piper's Single Reviews: Issue 2

This is the second installment of Piper's Single Reviews. Each post, I will review six songs by various indie and/or alternative bands (or artists that you might chance upon when listening to an American college or modern rock station) and rate them on a scale from 1 to 10.

Placebo - Battle for the Sun
"Battle for the Sun" is Placebo's first single since their 2007 cover of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill". It harkens back to the sound of Without You, I'm Nothing, instead of the slightly more harder sounds of Meds. The band doesn't entirely abandon their recent sound, as the chorus sounds similar to that of "Infra-Red", but with the help a string section, soars higher. I'm really anticipating to see what else the band has to offer this year.
8.5/10

White Lies - Farewell to the Fairground
You probably know what artist THIS band SOUNDS similar to. It sounds JUST enough LIKE them for you to enJOY this song if you like a certain DIVISION of the alternative rock sound. Anyway, Ian Curtis fetishism aside, "Farewell to the Fairground" is not the best song White Lies has to offer (that would be "Death", which despite being yet another Joy Division rip off, is a fantastic song, especially in its single edit, which cuts all of the unnecessary fluff that appears on the album version) as it tries really, really hard to drive home that "fairground" metaphor.
6/10

The Script - The Man Who Can't Be Moved
This was a very bland song. It's slightly more bland than longtime blandness watermark "Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Deep Blue Something. The lyrics have to do with a man who is waiting on a street corner for some chick who left him (probably for someone who is less pathetic). The music is like a liter rock version of The Fray (This is the bad side of Radiohead: The Script rip off The Fray, who rip off Coldplay, who rip off Travis who rip off Radiohead. This is akin to if some band back in the 90's actually had the gall to rip off Candlebox) and should slay on American pop radio (its being released here in America this month. Last year it was one of the biggest hits in the world to not appear on any American music chart) with its blandness and generic sad lyrics about some guy who actually genuinely believes his beloved will come back to him and the first place she'll look is the street corner she dumped him on (No. She'll believe he wasn't stupid enough to stay on that corner, and went home. Where he probably has a telephone).
2/10

Metric - Help, I'm Alive
Metric, the band led by erstwhile Broken Social Scene member Emily Haines - returns this year with Fantasies, their first album since 2005's Live it Out, which included the minor hit "Monster Hospital". The propulsive "Help, I'm Alive" is the album's first single (the second "Gimme Sympathy" was recently released) and is easily the best song the band has ever made. Like "Head Like A Hole" by Nine Inch Nails, "Help, I'm Alive" has two different choruses. The first is lead up to by a nice bridge built around the line "beating like a hammer" and the second features some excellent acoustic guitar flourishes. All and all, its a really great song that deserves to be a really big hit somewhere in the world.
9/10

Jarvis Cocker - Angela
This song just hit the net just as I was writing this and I just had to include it. "Angela" is the first single from the second solo album by former Pulp leader Jarvis Cocker. It's nowhere near as good as "Don't Let Him Waste Your Time" from his first solo album, but its a fun little song with some good lyrics and a fuzzed out guitar which really propels the song. A good song, but I bet Further Complications has better to offer.
7.5/10

Asher Roth - I Love College
Remember when I said that Script song was bad? Well, guess what? this is much fucking worse. First off, there's the sample: It's supposed to be a sample of "Say It Ain't So" by Weezer, but Roth couldn't get the same cleared because Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo disproved. The lawyer friendly substitute sample is just as worse as if he actually sampled "Say It Ain't So". Besides, I don't see how a song about parental abandonment is a great choice to be sampled in a song that is in contention to be this year's National Bros Anthem (maybe Cuomo thought the same thing). Asher Roth - who actually named his debut album Asleep in the Bread Aisle, which i'm sure is some sort of reference to a really sophomoric joke - raps about stereotypical bro college experiences like drinking, fucking, dancing his face off (what?) and not going to class. And he has no flow whatsoever (if at least he was a decent rapper, the stupidity of the lyrics would've been passable, but no, he's not even close). And during the "chug" part, it actually manages to get worse (we are told by Mr. Roth and his acquaintances to "do something crazy" and it seems that a (most likely drunken) headstand - or was it keg stand? It really makes no difference - suffices for behavior that they consider to be exceptionally wacky). If you want proof that the American record buying public has no taste, its this tuneless attempt at rap, which actually managed to become a top 20 hit.
1/10

Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing

Rating: 9.0
Release Date: 2008
Label: ATP Recordings
It's been so long since a noise album has been this good (if ever...). The sugary wind-chime like sounds that opens the album fool you into thinking that this is going to be an easy listen, which is erased quickly in the first song by the squelching guitar, preparing your ears for bleeding as the unintelligible vocals come in. But, what sets this apart from other noise albums is that the songs are memorable, it's not just an attack on your ear drums. The melodies that tangle themselves with the overt sonic assault are surprisingly strong, and provide the listener with a bunker to hide in if the air strike attack is too much for them. A noise album for people who don't like noise.

-Joe

Radiohead - In Rainbows

Rating: 8.6
Release Date: 2007
Label: Self-Released

What is there left to say about Radiohead that already hasn’t been said? Explanation is irrelevant anymore to anyone who has heard their music to explain that they are the best band of the past ten, fifteen, twenty….ever years. One needs only to throw in their new album, In Rainbows, if they are inexperienced in this field. Driven by four years of waiting, Radiohead seems to have found a new energy…a more human energy if anything. They haven’t sounded so alive since Pablo Honey; or at least 2+2=5, but even that was detached and cold, albeit rocking.

Sonically, this album is closest to Amnesiac, but not near as depressing. It sounds like the album Radiohead should have made right after Amnesiac, and then spent four years on the expansive Hail to the Thief.

In Rainbows has Radiohead being almost vulnerable, though it doesn’t start out that way. “15 Step” sounds like O Brother Where Art Though? Set in 2525. It’s a different way for Radiohead of opening an album; it doesn’t explode (Planet Telex, 2+2=5), or slowly seethe (Everything In It’s Right Place), it’s most similar to Airbag, as in its just…awesome.

“All I Need” is a beautiful unconditional love song, which may seem strange for Radiohead, but there are No Surprises that they could pull this off and make it so real, “I only stick with you because there are no others.”

There are quite a number of upbeat tracks here, Bodysnatchers, Jigsaw Falling into Place, and Weird Fishes_Arpeggi. Jigsaw is livid, feeling like a faster version of A Wolf at the Door. Weird Fishes_Arpeggi blends the band’s early days with their latter experimental days. Bodysnatchers is beyond words, it just simply rocks. Closer “Videotape” is implausibly sad, and is a perfect ending to In Rainbows.

Truth is, if Radiohead turns into the new Tool (one album every five so years), it will always be worth the wait. There has been no band (save, possibly, The Beatles), that have been this consistent in everything they do. But more importantly, no band that at the same time can be so coldly detached from human emotion, that they understand it better than those that revel in it.

-Joe

Kinny - Idle Forest of Chit Chat

Kinny : Idle Forest of Chit Chat
Tru Thoughts Recordings
[2009]

5.8/10

I'm a huge soul and funk junkie. Unlike some other stuck-up assholes, I'm soaking up the shine of the "soul revival" that has been going on for the last decade, and have stood behind a lot of releases that some of my colleagues here would consider guilty pleasures at best.

One of the biggest complaint in regards to modern soul is that it's nothing but a throwback and nonstop rehashing, and while I think this criticism is tossed around willy-nilly in place of any actual analysis or discussion of works most of the time, there are times where it is valid-unfortunately for Kinny, this can be said for Idle Forest of Chit Chat. Kinny seems fully preoccupied with maintaining an air of classy, stereotypical soul lounge singer throughout, which fits in some places. In other places it creates a mind-boggling disconnect between the woman fronting the band with a reserved, conservative posture while the band is laying down some amazingly fluid jams. It is criminal how she is able to kill a groove as solid as the one found on "Queen of Boredness" with her (fittingly) lazy, disinterested speak-singing. Many other vocalists and even some rappers would kill for a chance to work with such a simple, infectious backdrop, but Kinny croaks "sorry I'm not interested, sweet tune," and boy does it sound like it. This is just one case of an unfortunate pitfall the album falls into numerous times. Occasionally she can let loose and mesh with the music rather than restrain it: she can stretch herself loose enough to make "Back Street Lust" sound appropriately lustful and determined.

Kinny shows us she and her crew have what it takes to make and channel some good soul and funk, I'm just anxious to see if they are able to polish themselves off and go for the gold next time around. There is enough going on for soul enthusiasts to check out and make a call for themselves, and if you can get around the kill-joy that is Kinny's vocal preoccupations, any listener will hear some economic and potent groove-work, which is worth the stretch.

-Unkie Clamz

Super Furry Animals - Dark Days/Light Years

Rating: 8.0
Release Date: 2009
Label: Rough Trade

















Along with Supergrass and Oasis, Welsh psychedelic alternative band Super Furry Animals count as one of the few survivors of the heyday of Britpop. The Furries were never actually apart of the the Britpop movement per say, but were at the forefront of the concurrent Cool Cymru movement of Welsh bands who became popular after the success of Manic Street Preachers, which also included Catatonia, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, mclusky and Stereophonics. With the exception of Stereophonics (who moved into harder territory) and the Manics (who never felt like a uniquely Welsh band), most of these bands split by the early 2000's, leaving the Furries as the only band who openly let their Welsh flag fly.

After two back to back classic albums in 2000's all-Welsh language Mwng and 2001's Rings Around the World, The Furries began a three album slump with 2003's Phantom Power (which wound up being their best selling album anyway), 2005's poorly received electronic-influenced record Love Kraft and 2007's Hey Venus!. Despite the decline in quality of their albums, the band remained one of Britian best live bands. One track from Hey Venus!, the infectious and hooky "Neo Consumer" pointed the way back to the bands late 90's-early 2000's heyday. Dark Days/Light Years, the band's ninth album fulfills on this promise.

The two highlights on the album are "Inaugural Trams" - which is actually about trams (and reduction of emission of said vehicle) and features a goofy German rap by Franz Ferdinand guitarist Nick McCarthy - and "The Very Best of Neil Diamond" - a slinky, loungy pop/rocker with an incredibly hooky chorus. The album also features the obligatory (but fun) Welsh language cut ""Lliwiau Llachar" and the lengthy (but semi-tiresome) "Cardiff in the Sun". There's a few songs don't work, for instance, the opening song "Crazy Naked Girls" is a funk track that feels like it has been superglued to linoleum: just as at seems like it's about to explode into a classic Furries cacophony ala "The Man Don't Give A Fuck", it remains the same. Nothing happens in the song of note at all and is the most forgetful song from an otherwise great album. "Pric" also has a problematic start, but it redeems its over the course of its ten minute running time. Overall, Dark Days/Light Years is a rewarding, hour long listen despite a few filler tracks

- Piper

Roberto Rodriguez - The First Basket

Rating: 8.5
Release Date: 2009
Label: Tzadik



Tzadik releases are always a gamble. They range anywhere from mindblowing to played out and cliché, from gripping and powerful to simply boring. Despite the erratic quality control found on their releases, John Zorn’s label never seems to fail to put out at least a solid handful of great releases each year. Roberto Rodriguez’s The First Basket is one of the albums that will rank among the cream of Tzadik’s 2009 crop. Released as a part of the Radical Jewish Culture series, The First Basket takes a klezmer base and filters it through numerous genres across its 30 (mostly brief) tracks.

The best songs on the album are the ones where Rodriguez manages to fit klezmer to these styles such that the result feels natural. For example, the excellent “Euro Trash Jewish Hoops” combines a gorgeous melody to a simple yet effective electronic beat. It makes perfect sense. After all, klezmer is dance music at heart, and the beat highlights that aspect. Equally intriguing is “Kosher Rasta,” which is exactly what the title suggests, and which works better than you’d imagine.

The rest of the album is absolutely littered with highlights, such as the pretty much straight klezmer “Philadelphia Spahs,” which pushes the tempo and stands as one of the most exciting pieces of music on the album. Of course, with 30 tracks, there are some missteps, but the only one that’s bad enough to be worth noting is “Ode to Ozzie Perry.” Like “Euro Trash Jewish Hoops” and “Kosher Rasta,” this song runs klezmer through another genre, in this case noise rock. Unlike those two tracks, however, where the two competing genres played off one another, emphasizing each other’s strengths, on “Ode to Ozzie Perry,” the genres simply don’t mesh whatsoever. The distortion from the noise rock aspect clouds the beauty that is such an integral part of klezmer, but doesn’t do anything spectacular in order to negate that effect.

The First Basket is the soundtrack to a film about Jews playing basketball in New York. I will probably never see this film, so I lack that aspect of context for this music. It’s safe to say, though, that Roberto Rodriguez has composed music that stands fully on its own merits with The First Basket. It’s easily accessible, but still manages to be a grower. Most of all, it’s simply a gorgeous, often brilliant album full of both excitement and charm.


-Pnoom

Piper's Single Reviews: Issue 1

This is the inaugural installment of Piper's Single Reviews. Each post, I will review six songs by various indie and alternative bands and rate them on a scale from 1 to 10.

Let us begin.

Silversun Pickups - Panic Switch
I've long waited for the return of Los Angeles neo-shoegazers Silversun Pickups, who made one of 2006's best albums, Carnavas. At first listen, "Panic Switch", the first single from their upcoming sophomore release Swoon, sounds like a James Bond theme gone psychedelic. Like most of their songs, it is dominated by two things: the vocals of guitarist Brian Aubert and the bass playing of Nikki Monniger, who plays "lead bass", a style of bass playing many thought died with John Entwhistle (not that i'm comparing Monniger to Entwhistle). Anyway, the song is - like most of the band's music - a mixture of Slowdive and the Smashing Pumpkins that is extremely enjoyable, but it's not as good as "Kissing Families" or "Little Lover's So Polite"
8.5/10


Art Brut - Alcoholics Unanimous
Art Brut has been often slagged in the press and being a ripoff of the Fall. Unlike the Fall, they have a somewhat stable lineup revolving around Mark E. Smith impersonator Eddie Argos. The band's best song, "Formed a Band" was their first single and despite several other highlights like "Modern Art" and "Direct Hit", its been downhill ever since. Case in point, "Alcoholics Unanimous", the first single from their third album Art Brut vs. Satan. The song is decent, but like most of Art Brut's songs, you won't remember how it goes an hour after you hear it, and if you do, you'll remember that the song's bridge sounds too similar to the Human League's 1979 single "Empire State Human".
5/10


Depeche Mode - Wrong
Depeche Mode are one of only a select group of early alternative rock bands to continuously be wildly successful since their formation and never break up (in fact, the Cure is the only other band I can think of). However, this has its down side. DM have been around so long that you pretty much know exactly how their new songs are going to sound like before you've even heard them. Case in point, before I ever heard "Wrong", the first single from the band's four billionth album Sounds of the Universe, I knew it was going to be dark, synth heavy and have a chorus consisting of the title repeated over and over again (if it even appeared in the lyrics at all). This doesn't mean its a terrible song. Like Foo Fighters, Depeche Mode have fallen into the class of alt rock bands that make great singles that are of so much better quality than their album tracks that you can pick out which songs will be released as singles before they are because they're better than anything else on the album.
7/10

The Dead Weather - Hang You From the Heavens
The Dead Weather is a supergroup that consists of Alison Mosshart of the Kills on vocals and guitar, Jack White of the White Stripes and the Raconteurs on drums, that dude with the glasses from the Raconteurs on bass and some guy from the Queens of the Stone Age on lead guitar. For a band that consists of two of my favorite people in alternative rock today, the Dead Weather's first single "Hang You from the Heavens" is gloriously unmemorable. There's no real hook and the song sounds like its trying too hard to be heavy. Despite this, Mosshart's vocals truly shine, but she seems lost in the sludge without Kills partner Jamie Hince. I really hope their upcoming album Horehound has better songs to offer than this.
5/10

The Horrors - Sea Within A Sea
The Horrors burst onto the UK music scene in late 2006 with their strobelight laden video for "Sheena Is A Parasite", a song about how punk rock ("Sheena" referring to the Ramones' "Sheena is a Punk Rocker") has over stayed its then 29-year-long welcome on British shores. The band soon won fans with their semi-gothy and gloriously sloppy garage rock. Coming a year and a half after their debut album Strange House, "Sea Within a Sea" is the first single from their second album Primary Colours. It is very different from anything else the band has ever done. For one, the song just barely under 8 minutes long (amazing, since the aforementioned "Parasite" buzzes along in under 90 seconds). "Sea" builds satisfyingly and sounds like late period Joy Division/very early New Order, which may alienate some of the bands' fans. It seems that the band took the time off to actually learn their instruments (which sometimes can spell the death for bands that find genius in their inability to play) and they sound alot tighter as a unit. The second part of the song sounds a bit like "The Rip" by Portishead, which makes sense since Primary Colours was produced by Portishead's Geoff Barrow. The song actually takes a few plays to warm up to, but once it does, it's a nice little gem from a pretty alright band.
8/10

The Decemberists - The Rake's Song
The Decemberists are kind of like They Might Be Giants in how they constantly make upbeat happy tunes about terrible, terrible things. On "The Rake's Song", the first single from the band's latest offering The Hazards of Love, the narrator kills his three surviving children after he loses both his wife and newborn daughter in child birth. The Rake (a part sung by the band's leader Colin Meloy) how he kills his children (one is fed foxglove, another is drowned and the last is presumably beaten to death), ending with "Expect you think that I should be haunted/But it never really bothers me" (don't worry, the Rake gets what's coming to him later in the concept album's narrative). The horrible events of the lyrics are juxtaposed over a shiny happy acoustic guitar and a chorus which consists of the word "alright". Whereas the some of the songs on The Hazards of Love don't make much sense outside of the album, "The Rake's Song" is not only good as a stand-alone, but it's also its album's highlight
9/10

That's all for now. Oh, I should take this opportunity to plug my blog, which is linked here.

Balmorhea : All is Wild, All is Silent

Balmorhea: All is Wild, All is Silent
[2009]

8.8/10

How this album has managed to go unaddressed and unrecognized by so many music outlets since its release is beyond me. Balmorhea gave us River Arms last year, which hinted at their brand of chamber/post rock with a country/western flavor. This year they give us All is Wild, All is Silent which is a definite improvement on their previous work, and a much more potent realization of their musical intentions.

One of the things that bogged down their previous album was the stretches of softness and silence which did more harm to their music than emphasize its delicacy. One of the major improvements in this album is they have grasped how to wield the sparseness and cast silence as an effective tool to their songwriting. Rather than songs dwindle out and die, only to come back and say "we're not done yet!", lonely piano melodies drift, or strings emerge from the void as signs of a breeze, and the songs either reveal themselves in cautious layering or explode into existence. Balmorhea was also wise to add a drummer to their collective this time around, whose presence gives the music the percussive life and rhythm necessary to propel some of their pieces from post-rock hazes to festive and liberating dance ceremonials.

"Settler" is the perfect intro track and microcosm of the various flavors of the album, with cello, violins, and guitars all gently intertwining around a piano line until the presence of the drums completes the lineup. By the end of the song you've had a taste of the various sounds the album will explore: mid-western ambience, country-folk how downs, rock breakdowns, orchestral tranquility/thunder, and grey in between. The final track stands as a mesmerizing closer, for it is the only one where Balmorhea attempt to incorporate a heavy (or any, in this case) vocal presence. Between these every idea is explored and bound together firmly, even though it still sounds as open and expansive as the plains themselves.

Balmorhea have done something fantastic with this album, by capturing and blending the rural traditions of the west, south, southwest, and midwest, folk and galeic tradition and stellar compositional work into music magic.

-Unkie Clamz

DJ Signify: Of Cities

DJ Signify: Of Cities
[2009]

7.8/10

A lot of people will contend that the turntablism/ instrumental hip-hop genre is spent. There are two extremes a lot of the genre's output falls into: a compilation of boring, basic beat-work that is passed off as a final product, when in reality it was just pieces of work laying on the cutting room floor that no emcee could be bothered with. The other extreme are the guys digging for esoteric samples for hours on end, meticulously crafting giant opuses that are supposed to be the next Endtroducing... . These are perhaps more disastrous since most of them come out as complete clusterfucks, a "shove as much as we can into the crockpot and hope it comes out a masterpiece" usually blows up in their face and to our ears, abrasive and cluttered soundscapes that are aimless and do not warrant (or quite frankly encourage) a revisiting.

Luckily, DJ Signify's Of Cities is a rare and welcomed release that manages to sound wholly listanable and fresh. Perhaps not fresh in the extent that it is breaking new ground, but his grimy grooves and foreboding atmospheres choose to explore alleys and backstreets not yet walked down by his predecessors or contemporaries. Aesop Rock lends his presence to two of the tracks, with no real real aim but adds to the confused and lost wandering of the music.

It is hard for me to pick out any stand out or weak tracks. "Delight to the Sadist" is menacing, and at its core is a dark surf-guitar riff which drone and synth parts bow down to, and different drum beats try their best to battle it but fail. "1993" is haunting with its deft bass and potent drum breaks, horn motif, and devastated but calm voice who tries to convince us "I'm not as crazy as I used to be." The six "interludes" spread throughout hint at their own tales to tell, and are nice keek-da-sneek, head-boppin funk slices in nature that disappear just as they've caught your attention. But this is an album, in the sense that a complete listen is necessary for the overall vibe. It is the soundtrack for a late night stroll downtown, and each track is either a new block or stopping to take a glance inside one of the shop windows. At first I wasn't thrilled, but it has revealed itself as a fine combination of solid grooves, subtle melodies, and a beautiful balance of serenity and forbearance . If anything this album just may grow more on me.

-Unkie Clamz

The Antlers - Hospice

Rating: 7.8
Released: March 3, 2009



Hospice, the latest album by The Antlers, starts out inauspiciously with an ambient prologue that, honestly, doesn’t really need to be there. It floats around rather aimlessly for two and a half minutes, and then it ends. It doesn’t even particularly succeed at setting the mood for the album. Thankfully, the remaining 49 minutes more than make up for this, providing a great look at one of the more promising songwriters in indie rock.

To some extent, Hospice reminds me of Grizzly Bear, but with a shoegaze bent, as much of the album is hidden in haze. It’s a combo that works well, especially since Peter Silberman (the frontman and occasionally the sole member of the band) doesn’t use the fuzz to hide weaker songwriting, but instead to accentuate the strengths of the songs. The result is an album that immediately has a sense of being a warm, fireside type album, but which holds well to repeated listens.

It helps, of course, that the lyrics are so fascinating. It takes careful attention to figure out exactly what he means a lot of the time, but that only helps make the album even more worthy of repeated listens. The lyrics manage to strike a balance between sweet and weird, such as on “Atrophy,” where Silberman sings, “I’d happily take all those bullets inside of you and put them inside of myself.” Silberman’s gentle vocals are perfectly suited to the lyrics, delivering them with just the right amount of fragility.

There are three huge highlights on Hospice, “Sylvia,” “Bear,” and “Two.” Each of these capture the more energetic side of the band. About midway through, “Sylvia” explodes in a burst of noise that makes for one of the most powerful moments on the record. “Bear,” meanwhile, is probably the single best song from start to finish, built from a catchy vocal melody and an imbued with a driving energy that helps pick up the album’s intensity after the both longer and slower “Atrophy.” “Two” is similarly catchy and immediate.

On the other hand, where the album fails is where it’s least active. I hinted at this earlier, when I talked about the prologue, but that’s not the only offender on the album. “Thirteen” is similar to the prologue (though there are some vocals near the end), only placed in the middle in the album, and it’s just as ineffective. Even the more typical songs occasionally fall prone to meandering, particularly “Atrophy” and “Wake,” both of which are simply too long at over seven and a half minutes. While both are built from solid foundations, they would be more effective with tighter songwriting.

Even with its flaws, Hospice is a very good album in the indie folk realm. While hardly unique, it’s a very pleasant listen with a handful of standouts scattered throughout. I’ve not heard anything else by The Antlers, but everything I’ve read suggests that this is a big step up from previous albums by The Antlers. If that’s true, and if Silberman (and co) continue to improve, they could produce something truly spectacular. Until then, Hospice is a very worthwhile choice.


-Pnoom