Archive | July, 2011

Day 133: Lifter Puller – Fiestas and Fiascos

11 Jul

Lonely in a Limousine

If you’re a fan of modern indie music, you can’t possibly have a Minnesota themed week on your blog without a little bit of Craig Finn.  Currently, he’s the energetic, arm flailing front man of the ridiculously awesome The Hold Steady.  Believe me, if there were a record by them that I hadn’t heard, you’d be reading about it right now.  They’re my second favorite band though, so naturally, I’ve heard every single song that they’ve ever recorded.

Before Craig started The Hold Steady, he was in the not-as-good Lifter Puller.  I’ve heard one record by them (To Live and Die in LBI) and was thoroughly underwhelmed.  Sure, Craig was still utilizing his infamous sing-talk voice back then, but the band backing him up was pretty weak.  My expectations were pretty low for Fiestas and Fiascos.

I got exactly what I was expecting out of this album.  Craig Finn had awesome lyrics even back then, but pretty much no one to back him up.  Tad Kubler (also a future Hold Steadier) does all that he can on guitar, but I feel that he’s definitely gotten better over the years.  The riffs are pretty weak sauce; nothing like the meaty classic rock greatness that you get on pretty much any Hold Steady song.

Think of Lifter Puller as The Hold Steady in its adolescence.   Craig still had some maturing left to do before he could reach his peak of amazingness (which happened some time in 2006, with Boys and Girls in America).  Mr. Finn took a step in the right direction when he stopped giving his songs names like Space Humping $19.99

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Day 132: The Replacements – Let It Be

10 Jul
Let It Be (The Replacements album)

We’re Coming Out

Minnesota.  It’s a pretty cool place.  I’ll be spending the next three weeks of my life in this wonderful state, at Carleton College in Northfield, MN.  I’ll be participating in the college’s world famous Summer Writing Program, so hopefully the new writing methods and techniques that I’ll be learning will help improve this steaming pile of crap that I call a blog.

I figured, “hey, I’ll be spending quite a bit of time in the land of 10,000 lakes, I should tie this back to Swole Ear.”  What you’re reading is the first post in a series of seven in what I will be calling “Minnesota Week.”  Creative, right?  One week, all bands/artists that formed in the state of Minnesota.  Hey, I have to write about something.

The first Minnesotan band that I listened to is The Replacements.  My dad suggested that I check them out after I played him some of Titus Andronicus’ The Monitor a few months back, and I completely understand why.  I thought that Titus front man Patrick Stickles’ voice was fairly unique, until I got about half way through The Replacement’s Let It Be.  Paul Westerberg, the voice behind The Replacements, must be Stickles’ father or something.  It’s not just that their growly voices sound the same—they do—but their deliveries are almost identical.  It’s weird.  No, The Replacements don’t sing ballads about the Civil War, but the similarities are still really noticeable.

Now, for the most important part of this blog—my opinion.  The Replacements have just gained a new fan.  Their fast, sloppy, lo-fi punk rock is right down my alley, and I can’t wait to check out more by them.

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Day 131: Sunny Day Real Estate – Diary

9 Jul
Diary (album)

Seven

I’ll be honest with all of y’all.  I picked this record because of its cover.  I’m not exactly sure what it is that I love about that artwork, but there’s no denying its awesomeness.  I think it’s saying something about the modern American family, and their tendency to ignore important problems or something.  Regardless of whatever “important” statement it is (or isn’t) making, it’s undeniably sick.

Anyway, I stand by my belief that when picking out 365 records, there’s no shame on basing a few choices off of the covers.

Now, for a critique of the actual music.  Think Silversun Pickups, with the distortion turned way down, without any grand, important, pretentious messages in the lyrics.  All of the sudden, you have a much better band, right?  Right.  The eleven tracks on Diary are exactly how I like my emo music: long, dark, and angry.  The average song length on this album is well over four minutes, with only one song dipping below the three-minute mark.  As for content, most tracks have fairly vague lyrics about what appears to be fairly depressing topics—keep in mind that’s only an assumption.  From the angsty whine that front man Jeremey Enigk uses, it sure seems upon first listen that he’s spouting lyrics of the emotional variety, but he could be singing out of a rhyming phonebook for all I know.

So as you may have put together, I’m not entirely sure about what’s going on with a few aspects of this record.  I couldn’t really understand the lyrics, and I’m not positive about that cover.  All that matters, though, is that I really like the record as a whole. I may come to understand it with a few more listens, but at the moment, the only important thing is that I feel that this is good music.

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Day 130: Beck – Odelay

8 Jul

Where It’s At

“Going back to Houston, to get me some pants” sings Beck at the end of Lord Only Knows.  I think that lyric sums up this record pretty well.   This is a weird, extra normal, and for some reason, unexplainably awesome record.

Before I listened to Odelay, pretty much all I knew by Beck was Loser, a fairly popular single of his.  I’ve always loved that song for one reason—it’s so weird.  Whenever it comes on the radio, it sounds drastically out of place next to the standard rock music that it’s played around.  More of that strangeness is what I was hoping to get out of Odelay, and I was not disappointed.

Beck does what he wants.  In a single record of his, you can expect to hear at least one sample from pretty much every genre under the sun.  There’s no formula or anything, Beck just uses whatever is necessary to make awesome sounding stuff.  Because of this, he doesn’t fit neatly into any single genre.  On Odelay, I heard pieces that could be classified as hip-hop, indie rock, pop, folk, anti folk, noise, and even classical.  By bending genres so easily, Beck makes sure that his music never gets repetitive or boring—there is so much available for him to draw from.

The only thing that’s consistent throughout Odelay is the strangeness of it all.   From lyrics to instrumentals, and even including that album cover, Beck could never be described as normal.  His tunes are a nice break from everything, just because they’re like nothing else out there.

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Day 129: Brand New – The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me

7 Jul

Limousine (MS Rebridge)

Look at the title of this record.  I mean really look at it.  Now that’s deep.  As a seventeen-year-old, I’ve definitely never heard anything like that before.  It’s so thought provoking, so amazing.  It’s like Brand New in my brain.

It’s hard to convey sarcasm over the internet.  Imagine one of the biggest eye rolls you’ve ever seen while reading that previous paragraph–that should adequately express the tone that I was trying to convey.

Yeah, when you name your record The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me, you’re already off to a bad start in my eyes.  I don’t respond well to that angry teen bs.  Well, most of the time anyway.

Believe it or not, this record is one of the exceptions.

Yes, that title is awful.  No way around that.  Devil and God is able to move around the awful name, though.  Lyrically, it’s pretty much exactly what I was expecting—melodramatic, angry expression of teenage emotions.  Musically, though, Brand New is pretty freaking good.

At first, I was a little skeptical.  Devil and God came off as a little heavy at first, a little metallic—something I’ve never been a fan of.  I quickly realized that, while Brand New make heavier music than I usually listen to, it’s still pretty good.   Fortunately, it’s nowhere near real metal, as the album came to reveal.

Honestly, I’m still not entirely sure why I like this.   Brand New sound like something you could hear on Q101, an awful radio station that specializes in “alternative” (read: nu-metal and fake screamo) that I am forced to listen to every now and then.  There’s undoubtedly a little more depth to this stuff though, as these guys obviously know how to put a decent song together.

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Day 128: Big Black – Songs About Fucking

6 Jul

Bad Penny

I’ve been on a punk rock kick lately.  I go through little things like this all of the time.  Don’t worry; it’s probably just a phase.  Anyway, everyone who likes punk music seems to love Big Black, and their controversial Songs About Fucking; I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

Turns out, these guys are from Evanston, Illinois.  That’s where I live.  That’s kind of sick.  They got together while attending Northwestern University.  It’s going to be hard for me to say anything bad about them because of that.

Unfortunately, I’m going to have to.  Big Black is often classified as noise rock, a genre that I’ve tried to get into a million times.  It remains not for me and my delicate, sensitive ears.

Usually, I understand the appeal of a genre that I’m just not into.  I can’t do it with noise, though.  What is so great about it?  Someone please explain what there is to like about bands like Big Black or Lightning Bolt, or even No Age and Times New Viking.  The anger that comes from the bands, I get.  I like Titus Andronicus, and there are even a few post-hardcore bands that I listen to, but the pure, aggressive hatred that comes out of the lyrics and instruments in noise rock is beyond me.  Please, enlighten me.

So no, I can’t really tell if Big Black is good or not.  I don’t like their entire sub genre, so I can’t judge them fairly.  People love this band, though, and who am I to stop them.  I just don’t get it.  You kids get off of my lawn.

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Day 127: Ramones – Rocket to Russia

5 Jul

Rockaway Beach

This makes no sense.  I got this freaking album (on vinyl) for my dad as a Father’s Day gift last year.  Yet, here it is, on the Dad Rock Tuesday list.  Weird.

Looking back, though, I guess I never really listened to it.  Rocket to Russia faced (and continues to face) the fate of many LPs in the Swole Ear household.  We like to look at them, and maybe even play them every now and then, but most of all, we just like to know that we have them.  This can be seen through our obsessively large collection of obscure White Stripes rarities and singles.  Most of them suck.  But damn, they’re cool as hell to us.

Anyway, I found it funny that it took a Dad Rock Tuesday to come around for me to listen to a record that I purchased.

It’s a shame that I held off for this long, too.  Rocket to Russia kind of kicks ass.

The only problem is, just like with The Clash, I have no idea what kind of music The Ramones make.

Well, duh, it’s rock.  You know how specific I like to get, though.

I mean, a common label attached to these guys and The Clash is “punk,” but after carefully listening to a few legit punk bands recently, I can safely say that Rocket is not punk music.  It’s far too soft, and frequently way too happy.  Maybe a certain Dave Chops will have some input on this.

Anyway, whatever this lo-fi guitar based music is, it’s fact that it’s really good.  Try to not nod your head to Rockaway Beach, I dare you.

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Day 126: Pixies – Surfer Rosa

4 Jul

Where Is My Mind?

Whoa, whoa, whoa.  What is going on here?  I was supposed to listen to a record by Pixies.  You know, that band that makes crazy good surreal tracks like Where is My Mind? I just listened to what sounded like a pretty standard late 80s indie rock band.  Someone must have gotten the record tags switched up; Mediafire can be so unreliable sometimes.

Wait, you’re telling me that Where is My Mind? isn’t the norm for Pixies?  Well that’s disappointing.  I’ve been building these guys up ever since I saw Fight Club for the first time, in which that track is featured prominently.  I went straight to iTunes (hahahaha) right after having my mind blown by that movie a few years back, and relived that final scene countless times through that song.

Surfer Rosa did not disappoint me — not by any means.  If anything, this record explains why people get so excited over Pixies.  It’s about all that you can ask for from an indie rock record.  It’s catchy, fast paced, and thoroughly entertaining.  The brightest spot on this album is, and will always be, Where is My Mind?, though.  It’s like nothing else in history, and is up there as one of my favorite songs ever.

Maybe it’s just the pure greatness that is that track, but Surfer Rosa seems to fall off after My Mind.  And it’s not just due to the large portion that is en español. It’s pretty unreasonable for anything to be expected to compare to that single song, so anything after was bound to disappoint me.  All I know is, I won’t be pressing play on Surfer Rosa for a mind blowing, thought provoking record any time soon.  As a rock album, it gets the job done.  Where is My Mind? comes off as out of place, though.  It’s just too good.

Day 125: Ani Difranco – Out of Range

3 Jul

Buildings and Bridges

Sometimes, an album just isn’t for you.  You don’t straight up despise an album like that, you just resolve never to listen to it again.  You see its merits, but just can’t get into it.  That’s what has happened here.

Ani Difranco takes two things that I’m not a huge fan of—raging feminism and folk music—and combines them in something that I’m sure is great for what it is.  First off, let me clarify—I am neither a womanizer nor a misogynist—I just find it obnoxious when any viewpoint is taken to an extreme stance.  I don’t feel that it’s necessary to clarify why I don’t like modern folk music…if that upsets you, you may have to reevaluate your choices in both music and life.

Perhaps I’m being a bit unfair to Ms. Difranco, though.  It’s not like every word that she sings on this record is a call to bra burning.  No, those are just the ones that I remember, and they did occur a few too many times for my liking.

Honestly, I think that my dislike for this record is due mostly to the fact that it—as most folk music does—bored me.  I like a quick tempo and a catchy hook every now and then.  Not that every band that I listen to needs to be like early Los Campesinos! or something, but a little excitement every now and then goes a long way with me. I have to listen to a new record every day.  Unfortunately, Out of Range doesn’t have anything that I found too captivating, and annoyed me with its lyrics.  I’m pretty sure that I am not the target audience, though.

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Day 124: R.E.M. – Murmur

2 Jul

Radio Free Europe

How I’ve never really listened to R.E.M. is beyond me.  They kind of popularized the original “indie” sound that I’ve grown to love, so it’s strange that I made it this far through my life—even this far through this project—without checking them out.

By the way, R.E.M. might be the most obnoxious band name to type out.  Try it.  You end up pressing buttons nine times, along with a fair bit of obnoxious shift key releasing.  Just thought I’d point that out.

So these guys were not the first band to have a strange sound—plenty of bands had utilized weird vocals and unconventional instrumentation before.  R.E.M. was the first, however, to gain a fair bit of notoriety for doing so.  Legend has it that they were broken by WNUR, Northwestern University’s radio station, and quickly gained popularity amongst cool teens and twenty-year-olds.  This makes sense to me, considering that they have a style similar to many popular college radio bands today.

Well, that previous sentence isn’t entirely true.  Sure, there are plenty of bands that mimic R.E.M., but I’m not referring to those exactly.  I’m talking more about bands that forge a sound of their own.  Today, we have groups like Yuck and TuNe-YaRdS (also annoying to type out)  paving the way, with sounds even further out there than R.E.M.’s.  Who knows if they’d be received as well as they are now, though, without the roads that R.E.M. paved.

By today’s standards, R.E.M. isn’t all that weird.  Yeah, Michael Stipe has a pretty strange voice, but indie listeners have learned to embrace that sort of thing.  Sure, the lyrics are kind of off kilter and difficult to interpret, but that isn’t all that rare anymore.  Back in 1983, though, I’ve been told that there was nothing quite like Murmur.

I know that I hate on influential stuff a lot, but I can’t do it with R.E.M.  As obnoxious as that name may be to type, there’s no denying that they made great early indie rock.  I can’t speak for their later releases, but Murmur kicks ass, and foreshadows the next two decades of indie music.


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