Archive | May, 2011

Day 72: Edwin Birdsong – Edwin Birdsong

11 May

Cola Bottle Baby

By all means, this should be a Dad-Rock Tuesday post right here.  Under no circumstances have I ever willingly listened to a funk album before.  Funk is one of my father’s areas of musical expertise, though.  I’ve listened to a few Parliament records on vinyl, always because of him.  Not this time, though. I listened to Edwin Birdsong’s eponymous LP because of last.fm friend ptchfrkabortion.  He figured I’d recognize the riff on the opening track.  Did I ever.

Turns out, the 11-minute combined opener Cola Bottle Baby / Phiss-Phizz was sampled liberally by Daft Punk for their awesome Harder Better Faster Stronger.  It’s always crazy when you hear a piece of music that you know so well, in its original form.

When it comes down to it, though, this is still a funk album.  Funk has never been my thing.   I’m also fairly ignorant when it comes to the genre, so any incorrect characterizations should not be taken to heart by anybody. *cough*HOODIE*cough*

I’ve always found funk music fairly boring.  It tends to go on for way too long, and is really, really repetitive.  Yeah, I can’t deny the greatness that is  the bass playing that occurs on funk records, but that’s about all they have going for them.

While Birdsong’s record isn’t particularly long (it only has seven tracks, and clocks in at just under 38 minutes) that annoying repetition is there in full force.  Most songs revolve around one main lyric.  Most songs are also longer than 4 minutes.  When you put that together, you get straight-up boredom for a member of the YouTube generation.  Once I figured out where Daft Punk got that sample, I was #done.

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Day 71: Joe Jackson – Look Sharp!

10 May

Is She Really Going Out With Him?

For some reason, my dad picked Joe Jackson’s 1979 album, Look Sharp!, for Dad-Rock Tuesday this week.  Don’t ask me why.

It’s never a good thing when I start zoning out during an album.  When the statuses of my moronic friends on Facebook, and their ever-increasing misuse of the hash tag become more interesting then what I’m listening to, well, #yrdoingitwrong.

Joe Jackson maintained my attention at first.  One More Time is a pretty catchy song.  After that, though, mainly when Is She Really Going Out With Him? came on, any interest that I had faded completely.  I cannot stand that song.

I should love this record.  I mean, it ends in an exclamation point, and there’s not much that I love more than unconventional punctuation.  Not even an unexpected sentence-ender could save this record for me, though.

If you couldn’t tell from the short, choppy paragraphs, I’m struggling with this.  I just checked my word count, and I still have 100 words to go before I reach the target of 250.  Well, make that 80 with that last sentence. Down to 72 now.  Yes.  #progress.

So now all I have left to write about is the music.  If you’re one of my three regular readers, you’ll know by now that I’m not very good at that.  So my only hope is that I can use enough words before I really have to do that.  I mean, I’m getting pretty close. 250 isn’t that many when it comes to words.

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Day 70: Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles (2008)

9 May

Crimewave

They’re playing at Lollapalooza. They’re notorious for their insane live shows.  I’ve essentially already paid $1.50 to see them.   I figured it was time to do more then listen to single songs on YouTube, and check out an album by much-hyped Crystal Castles.

Unfortunately, the impression that I’ve gotten from listening to Crystal Castles is that the band is better in short single-song bursts than on a 16-track album.  Perhaps that’s because their debut LP from 2008 wasn’t even supposed to be an album.  It’s really just a collection of stuff from EPs and other miscellaneous releases spanning the duo’s early years, which explains the sense of delusion and confusion that comes with listening to this record as a whole.  Sure, a bunch of the songs are great, but the record’s flow is non-existent, and begins to wear as it approaches the one-hour mark.

I’m not saying that I don’t enjoy Crystal Castles’ harsh brand of dance music.  After all, they managed to turn a HEALTH song into something listenable, let alone danceable, in their solid remix of Crimewave.  I just think that perhaps this album served mainly as a way to get the band’s name out there.  If so, it did its job really well.

I noticed that Crystal Castles really thrive when they’re remixing something.  The remixes on this record are definitely the standout tracks.  Original tracks like 1993 and Love and Caring struggled to hold my attention, perhaps because there’s so much stuff going on throughout this fairly confusing gathering of songs. I’ll be sure to check out their second LP (also called Crystal Castles, of course) and I’ll probably see them at Lolla regardless of what I think about it.  They’re kind of legendary.

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Day 69: Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

8 May

Hell of a Life

I thought I was going to have a lot of trouble with this record.  I think of Kanye West as the king of douchebags, and have for quite a while now.  Yeah, I’ve heard some of his stuff before, and it is pretty good, but usually his larger-than-life obnoxious presence counters any joy that I may get out of Gold Digger.

 This album is perfect, though.  And I don’t mean perfect in the 10.0 on Pitchfork sense—it definitely has its flaws, and can drag every now and then.  No, this album fits Kanye West perfectly.  It’s massive, ambitious, pretty good, and ultimately, believes it’s better than it actually is.

So it turns out that having lots of preconceived notions of Kanye West and his massive ego only make for a better listening experience.  Instead of trying to combat or even counter the numerous hurtful accusations and generalizations made about him, he just wears them—almost proudly.  Kanye is who he is, and I think he realizes that trying to fight that is futile.  Truth is, his music would suck if his ego were in check.

What makes MBDTF so great is that it gives you unrestricted access to the darker regions of Kanye West’s brain, a scary place to be (the official language is CAPS LOCK).  Take Hell of a Life, for instance, an entire track about the pains that come with falling in love with a porn star.  Runaway serves as an even better window into this man’s mind.  It’s 9 minutes long, and Kanye goes all over the place, rapping mainly about women troubles—that’s right—Kanye West has girl problems.

Kanye West won me over right away with 30 Rock and South Park references, and kept me interested throughout because he’s such an insane person.  All I got to say: damn.

“I ordered the jerk, she said you are what you eat.”

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Day 68: Depeche Mode – Violator

7 May

Personal Jesus

“At least in dying you don’t have to deal with new wave for a second time.” –Craig Finn

Truer words have never been sung…or talked…while mimed with flailing arm movements, in the case of Craig Finn.  I would imagine, at least, as I didn’t really live through new wave.

So here’s my Depeche Mode story.  Flash back to April of 2009.  The Lollapalooza lineup for that year had just been unveiled, with Depeche Mode in the number one slot.  The rumor was that they would be playing at the same time as Kings of Leon, which made me try desperately to like them.  I just couldn’t do it.  I ended up seeing Kings of Leon, where I stood by some of the most obnoxious people on earth, ended up having to pee really, really bad, couldn’t bring myself to do it in a bottle, then left to find a port-a-pottie. I then bought a cookie and watched Kid Cudi from afar at the DJ stage.  And that was my first day at a festival without a parent.  I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Anyway, I may have gotten a bit side tracked.  The point is, to this day, Depeche Mode still annoy me.  My favorite part on Violator happens during the track Enjoy the Silence.  Just over halfway through the song, David Gahan sings, “enjoy the silence,” which is followed by a few seconds of silence.  It is beautiful.

So the minimalistic synths and obnoxious vocals of Depeche Mode remain not for me.  I prefer the Johnny Cash cover of Personal Jesus.

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Day 67: Girl Talk – All Day

6 May

Oh No

Gregg Gillis needs no introduction.  But I need something to write about, so I’ll give him one anyway.  Gillis is the undisputed king of the mash-up.  He’s taken this 21st Century form of artistic combination to levels never seen before.  He has inspired an entire wave of DJs who do their best to emulate him, but never get it quite right.  I’ve noticed that most mashupers stick with two songs, and limit themselves even further by using the vocals from one track, and the instruments from the other.  Gillis doesn’t play by these rules.  I counted up to four different tracks playing at the same time at different points on this record, and I easily could have missed more.

All Day is hard to wrap your head around at points.  It’s exactly 71 minutes in length, and flows beautifully from start to finish.  It’s meant to be listened to in full, and the track breaks just serve as a way to navigate this Frankenstein of a record.   Gillis uses 372 different samples over the album—according to my best friend, Wikipedia—so if a song has made any noise on the charts over the past 50 or so years, you can find it on this record.

What’s great about All Day, and most Girl Talk albums actually, is their ability to make you see music in a new light.  There’s plenty on All Day that I would never listen to otherwise.  I think I counted three Lady Gaga samples, along with two Ke$ha appearances.  While I don’t really listen to those two under normal circumstances, Gillis makes them awesome.

Ultimately, All Day is rewarding to listen to.  When a song you know comes on—which is bound to happen quite a few times—a great feeling washes over you right away. Even better, though, is when a song that you love is mashed with something ridiculous.  Let’s just say, indie rock songs sound hilarious when paired with misogynistic radio-rap.

Day 66: Panda Bear – Tomboy

5 May

Slow Motion

This blog can be a pain in the ass every now and then.  I’ve found myself keeping up to date with current indie events less and less.  I often zoom through the music blog posts on my Google Reader page, and I haven’t been on far too many of my other music sites in quite a while.  Swole Ear is consuming me, musically, at least.  I completely missed the release of Panda Bear’s newest full-length Tomboy, demonstrating Swole Ear’s massive amount of power over me.

Well, Panda Bear is up to his old tricks again.  If you loved Person Pitch, his last record, you’ll have plenty to like about Tomboy.   He’s still got the same odd out-there voice, and still uses way too much reverb.  He has established his own sound, which you really can hear break through on many Animal Collective songs, and especially on his solo work.

The first thing that struck me about Tomboy is the track count.  Time-wise it’s about the same length as Person Pitch, which has seven songs. Tomboy has 11.  This worried me at first, because when I think of Panda Bear, I think of a guy who can drag out a song really well, and make the listening experience all the more rewarding.  Not seeing one ten-minute track on Tomboy threw me off, and I was concerned that Panda Bear may have slipped a bit.

Fortunately, I was dead wrong.  At the moment, Tomboy is tied with Person Pitch for awesomeness in my mind.  The shorter song lengths means Panda Bear really gets to the juicy parts of the songs quickly, which can be both a positive and negative.  You don’t get the awesome connection that you form with a 12-minute song like Bro’s, but it does mean that Tomboy cuts straight to the good stuff.

Day 65: Beirut – The Flying Club Cup

4 May

La Banlieu

And the Lollapalooza research has begun.  Every year, after the lineup comes out, I start listening to the bands that I should know, but that have managed to escape my ear-grasp for whatever reason.  Beirut is one of those bands.  How I’ve never gotten around to listening to them, I have no idea.  They’re one of those bands that all of my mindie friends swear by, and they’re fairly high up on the lineup, pretty much topping the mid-tier (which is fantastic this year, I would like to add).

Beirut does have one concrete thing going for it, an awesome name.  As for The Flying Club Cup…eh…

This record is pretty hit or miss, with a little too much boring for it to earn another listen.

Don’t get me wrong, this album has some redeeming factors.  A Sunday Smile is definitely a decent song.  It has group vocals, which pretty much guaranteed that I would like it from the start…I’m weird that way.  La Banlieu is pretty solid too, and as close to an up-tempo song as Beirut can muster.

The rest of the record is a bit too boring for me.  Beirut relies heavily on an accordion, the novelty of which wears out pretty quickly;  once that happens, you’re stuck listening to slow, boring accordions for the rest of the album, a fate I would not wish upon anybody.  It doesn’t help that Zach Condon, the singer, sounds about as uninterested in his music as I am.

Every now and then, The Flying Club Cup would have something that would make me say “yes!”  Something like a good tempo change or standout lyric.  However, those moments were few and far between, and didn’t make this album worth listening to.

Day 64: Elvis Costello – My Aim is True

3 May

Alison

And here we are, another Dad-Rock Tuesday.  This week, mi padre picked out Elvis Costello’s iconic late 70’s debut, My Aim Is True.

Everyone knows Elvis Costello.  He pretty much invented the “singer with a weird voice” thing that I love so much, so I was essentially destined to love this record from the start.  All of his personal convictions and whatnot aside, he makes some really great music.  I’ll have to maintain that mentality for when I listen to Kanye West in the next couple of days…

Anyway, there’s no doubt that Costello’s voice is the focal point of this record.  I’m having trouble describing it, so I’ll just go with “unconventional.”  It’s not whiney or obnoxious…I guess it’s just like he’s got a strange, unidentifiable accent of some sort.  Regardless, it sounds really cool, and does go well with the basic rock setup that backs him up.

As for the actual music and songs that make up this record, My Aim Is True has a bit of everything.  I believe that Costello is at his best on some of the faster songs such as Mystery Dance and album-opener Welcome to the Working Week, but there is still something to be said for the slow-tempo track.  Alison, probably his best-known song, tells the heartbreaking tale of a guy who is still in love with a woman who has just gotten married.  What makes that song is the discrepancy between the lyrics and the sounds being made by the instruments.  The music is happy, almost up-beat at times, and is in stark contrast with Costello’s lyrics.

Overall, I love this record.  Costello paved the way for some of my favorite unconventional voices, and I have to give him props for that.

Day 63: Hoodie Allen – Pep Rally

2 May

You Are Not A Robot

Bro-hop. That’s what I’m calling this strange genre that’s been taking over my peers’ iPods and Facebook statuses as of late. I’ve listened to a few songs that they’ve directed me to, made by groups like The Dean’s List, Chiddy Bang, and Sam Adams. I understand the appeal, and have just come to accept that this music is not for me. It’s all catchy as hell, but low on substance and meaning, focusing more on the egos of the people who make it than on anything else.

Then one day, a Facebook friend posted a song by someone named Hoodie Allen. It was one of the worst things I’ve ever heard. Remember that Asher Roth guy from a few years back? It was like him, with less production, and a cheesy-as-balls motivational message behind it. I thought it was a joke, but after further investigation, I discovered that people—my friends, no less—actually like Hoodie Allen.

Naturally, I had to give his full album a listen.

It hurt. It hurt so much. I’ve got nothing good to say about Pep Rally. How I got through the entire record, I will never know.

If you’re looking for corndog beats and some of the worst rapping in history, look no further than Hoodie Allen’s first—and god-willing his last—record. It’s like he’s trying to be Bo Burnham for bros, except his numerous attempts at puns are not at all funny. All of his raps focus on one person—Hoodie—which is really obnoxious because he’s not the least bit interesting. “Lately I’ve been staying on my grind like a skateboard/I’ve got some Rocket Power now so let’s take off/We going hard over these beats, y’all just stay soft.” Genius.

He thinks sampling indie bands like The Black Keys, Beach House, and Two Door Cinema Club is going to bring people like me in as fans. Not a chance. When I heard the Cold War Kids sample start up on Joy & Misery, I almost started to cry. Don’t worry, though, you’ll have plenty to fist-pump about with your bros as you crush another brewski when he’s playing Perry’s stage at Lollapalooza next year. Yeah, you look really cool in that snapback and lax jersey, brah.  I guess I hate what this music stands for more than anything.

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