Day 278: The Dear Hunter – Act 1: The Lake South, The River North

3 Dec

City Escape

Deciding where to begin with a band is a pretty big challenge.  As you can imagine, first impressions are extremely important with me, and I really do try to give each band the best chance possible.  That being said, I can’t just pick the record that received the best reviews, because those who write about music have no idea of what they’re talking about.  I try to listen to fan favorites, but even that can prove to be problematic.  Hardcore fans may embrace a more complex record, one that requires a few listens (a “grower”), so it’s often just a shot in the dark on my part.

That is, unless a band gives me a clear starting point.  Including “Act 1” in your first record, “Act 2” in your second, and “Act 3” in your third is a pretty good example of such.  Experience tells me that it’s also a hint that the record is going to be over the top and dramatic, two things that I love in my music.

The Dear Hunter’s approach is as theatrical as their album names would lead you to believe—Act 1 definitely sounds like the soundtrack to a dark play of some sort.  I didn’t really pick up on a plot during this initial listen, but with song names like “The Inquiry Of Ms. Terri” and “The Pimp and The Priest,” I wouldn’t be surprised if there is an intricate narrative that ties this record (and the following acts) together.

My inability to pick up on a plot took nothing away from my enjoyment of this record.  I’m a fan of over the top music in all forms, so I have a lot to love in Act 1.  With plenty of drawn out instrumentals that end just before you get sick of them, and dramatic, spooky group chants, this is some good and melodramatic drama.  I’m tempted to check out Act 2 tomorrow…

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Day 277: Built to Spill – Keep It Like A Secret

2 Dec

Cary The Zero

These guys have been around forever, and I need something to listen to.  Congratulations, you’ve finally had one of the many Swole Ear record selection processes revealed to you.

But seriously, that’s all that went into this pick.  Anyone that listens to music has heard the name Built To Spill, even if (like me), they know nothing about the band.  With a name like that, I pegged them as a fairly standard indie rock band even before pressing play on Keep It Like A Secret, their fans’ most beloved album.

My prediction was spot on.

The singer-guitar-bass-drum set up is there in full force, and this is textbook indie rock, ladies and gentlemen.  Frontman Doug Martsch sings mostly about frustration and love, two classic indie standbys.  It’s not that the lyrics are bad; it’s that they’ve been done before.  My music timeline is fairly skewed, so my brain’s subconscious decision to ignore that this album came out in 1999 may be flawed.  I’ve got to think that plenty of bands were making music just like this before B2S, though.

Sure, the lead singer does have a unique voice, but it hardly stands out against the unspectacularness that backs it up.

I’ll be honest with y’all, Built To Spill does sound like plenty of other bands that I’ve got in my music library.  I like indie rock, but I think my tolerance for the genre has reached its capacity.  I’ll still accept the stuff that both originally got me into the genre and held my interest, but it’s as if I’ve reached a point where, unless it’s really got something to set it apart, I’m going to find it very boring.

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Day 276: Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost

1 Dec

Honey Bunny

What is going on here?  Is this a band with a better second album than first?  That very rarely happens.

Bands often spend years and years crafting and perfecting that first album—it’s made up of songs that they’ve been playing for their entire existence, and have been constantly tweaking.  The second album is usually written on a tour bus, as the band’s trek across the nation makes them more and more jaded.  To quote lyrical genius (and member of the unusual better-sophomore-LP club) Craig Finn, “I just can’t sympathize with your rock ‘n’ roll problems.”

But now that I think about it, it’s not hard to understand why Girls would be a band with a great second record.  Album, the band’s first album, is all about drinking, drugs, and—you guessed it—girls.  What do you get when a popular indie rock band goes on tour? A whole lot of booze, narcotics, and romance.

What sets Girls’ music apart is how relatable it is. When permanently strung out frontman Christopher Owens sings “They don’t like my boney body / They don’t like my dirty hair / Or the stuff that I say / Or the stuff that I’m on” in the chorus of “Honey Bunny,” the album’s opener, all you want to do is bromiserate with the dude—we’ve all been there in some way or another.  The normal-guy rock star is a tough persona to pull off, but Owens does it beautifully.  Father, Son, Holy Ghost is full of great rock songs that are made even better by the misery that we can all share within them.

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Day 275: “Weird Al” Yankovic – Alpocalypse

30 Nov

Whatever You Like

This is an outrage!  Weird Al released a new record in June, and I didn’t know about it until now.  Even worse, a bunch of these songs were on an even earlier EP called Internet Leaks that I also missed.  What can I say, I guess I’ve fallen out of the parody rock loop since graduating from middle school.

All Weird Al nostalgia aside, Alpocalypse is a really funny record.  Nothing less should be expected from the guy who has brought us such bangers as “Amish Paradise” and “White and Nerdy.”  This time around, Al sticks mainly to band parodies—ripping off a band’s style as a whole, as opposed to a single song.  For instance, I could swear that “CNR”, a confusing little number that I’ll get to in just a moment, features Jack White on guitar with Meg White on the drums, or that “Skipper Dan” was performed by Weezer.

Lyrically, Al’s still as strange as ever.  There’s not a single track on this record that will leave you without at least a single chuckle.  Sure, some songs do tend to go on for a bit too long and get a little stale, but that comes with the territory.  Also, while some songs will leave you scratching your head, you’ll be laughing while you do so.  For example, the aforementioned “CNR” is a song about none other than former Match Game panelist Charles Nelson Reilly.  That’s not weird enough for Al, though.  He describes Reilly as a Chuck Norris-like figure, who “won the Tour de France with two flat tires and a missing chain,” and “sold his toenail clippings as a potent aphrodisiac.”  It’s that trademark strangeness that has made Al a hero amongst pre-pubescent boys, and no one else, since the early ’80s.

Al’s direct parodies are still as solid as ever, with the best of this record being “Whatever You Like,” a Kinko’s assistant manager’s version of T.I.’s track of the same name.  The polka-medley tradition continues on this record as well, with Polkaface covering everyone from Lady Gaga to Owl City.

If you don’t enjoy yourself while listening to this album, you’re listening to it for the wrong reasons.  This is perfect for cheap laughs, and it’s meant to be disposable.  Knowing Weird Al, he’ll have another song out next week.

Day 274: Sex Pistols – Never Mind the Bollocks

29 Nov

Anarchy in the UK

I really shouldn’t like Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks—we’ve been through this quite a few times on quite a few Dad Rock Tuesdays.  I am presented with an old album that is considered influential in retrospect, and often, I end up doing my fair share of hating.  It’s tough to listen to an older record completely out of context, and even tougher when that record’s sound went out of style twenty years ago.

Maybe it’s because every punk band since has tried to sound like Sex Pistols in one way or another, or possibly because “Anarchy in the U.K.” was a big song in my Guitar Hero days, but I cannot say anything bad about this band.  While it’s true that they are the freaking Sex Pistols, and disparaging comments on my part would be utterly pointless, I did genuinely enjoy this album.

Sex Pistols’ legacy cannot be overlooked, either.  Bollocks is the band’s only album, but they were still able to make a ton of noise and news with it.  Songs like “God Save the Queen” and “Anarchy in the U.K.” stirred up a lot of controversy for their anti-Patriotic U.K. sentiment, and managed to change rock music forever.  Controversial music is fairly commonplace today, but I’ve been told that wasn’t always the case.

Also, as a connoisseur of terrible singing voices, I cannot ignore Johnny Rotten’s vocals.  I wouldn’t really call it singing…it’s more like he’s moving his pitch up and down fairly randomly, while rolling a few r’s every now and then.  It gives this music that extra punch, and I’m sure it was a major factor in all of the press that this band received.  If you like bad singing voices as much as me, Rotten is pretty much perfect.

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Day 273: Hutch and Kathy – Hutch and Kathy

28 Nov

In Brilliance

The Thermals minus an electric guitar shouldn’t be good.  Their special brand of angry pop punk is centered on Hutch Harris’ oft-disgruntled and frustrated vocals, which in turn receive an extra punch from the band’s riff generator, his electric guitar.  That’s why it’s so surprising that Hutch and Kathy, (the name of one of many pre-Thermals projects), works so well. Hutch Harris is on lead vocals/acoustic guitar and Kathy Foster helps out with supporting vocals and…I’m not entirely sure what else. She plays bass in The Thermals, but this record doesn’t really have space for her to lay down any grooves.

With a voice as distinctive (and nasally) as Harris’, it’s hard not to compare this band to what it would eventually turn into.  Even though the two separate projects’ respective genres—punk and folk—don’t have all that much in common, there are plenty of similarities between The Thermals and H+K.  Harris has a unique approach to songwriting, sticking to short, emotionally (or politically) charged phrases, and loose rhyme structures.  Although acoustic, his guitar playing is the same here as it would prove to be with The Thermals—simple, repetitive, effective.

Originally recorded in the late ’90s, this self-titled LP was remastered and rereleased by Sub Pop in 2007, in what looks like an attempt to capitalize on 2006’s The Body, The Blood, The Machine (The Thermals’ most well-received record to date).  Fans looking for more power and anger in the vein of that album would have been disappointed, but those pleased by short, simple songs about love and whatnot (that can still be found in The Thermals’ music) definitely lucked out.

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Day 272: Chairlift – Does You Inspire You

27 Nov

Bruises

I’m always looking for indie bands that don’t sound like other indie bands, which is why groups like Chairlift are great.  I’ve listened to a lot of music in my time, and I can’t think of a band with a sound exactly like Chairlift’s.  I’m even having trouble coming up with a band with a sound similar to these guys.

Don’t get confused; I’m not saying that an original sound automatically equals good music.  But, in a world where just about anybody can get their stuff out there via the internet, it definitely helps to stand out.  For instance, if you were to ask me for an indie rock band with a heavy focus on guitars and basic song structures, there’d be around 10,000 bands that would come to mind.  Even if you narrowed it down to bands that are still active and have lots of fuzzy buzzy effects obscuring their instruments, I could probably rattle off a list of no less than 20 groups.  But, if you were to ask for an indie band with dream pop influences, a retro aura, a chill-but-not-chillwave sound and a very relaxed vibe, I’d think of Chairlift and maybe Beach House.  But I’d recommend Chairlift, because they do it better.

But you already know what I’m talking about.  Chairlift’s “Bruises” was definitely in an Apple commercial of some kind a few years back.  There’s some hipster cred for ya.

In summation, if you’re looking for a band with a good sound all their own, and are in a state of relaxation (or trying to achieve such), look no further than Chairlift’s Does You Inspire You.  You won’t be disappointed.

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Day 271: I Fight Dragons – Kaboom!

26 Nov

Suburban Doxology

I know that I’m going to temporarily lose 90% of my audience with this post.  271 days in, that just doesn’t bother me like it used to.

This is a chiptune record.  The members of this band often play things like Gameboys and NES’s instead of standard instruments.  I Fight Dragons is a nerdy band, and Kaboom! is a nerdy album.

I’m not one to embrace nerd culture.  Self-proclaimed geeks are quickly becoming the new hipsters.  Keep in mind, a person that claims to be a geek isn’t the type to get through a multivariable calculus class.  Instead, they embrace things that are considered nerdy, but that don’t require complex equations or an encyclopedic knowledge of the amino acids and all of their properties.  This can be done by taking a love of the Harry Potter series to unnatural levels, embracing Japanese animation, or looking down upon anyone who doesn’t share their interests in an arrogant manner that makes everyone around—including the real geeks—cringe with embarrassment and hatred.  It’s not the passions of these people that are obnoxious—it’s the air of superiority, the faux-intelligence, and the false sense of individuality with which they carry themselves—just like a hipster.

That wasn’t as much of a tangent as you may think—this is the type of person who listens to bands like I Fight Dragons.  That’s the main hurdle that I must overcome with this record because a band’s fan base is completely capable of ruining the band’s music for everybody else.

I must admit, though, Kaboom! is pretty good.  I Fight Dragons is not strictly a chiptune band—they play actual instruments, and half of the songs could be described as fairly standard pop punk.  But songs like “The Geeks Will Inherit The Earth” are keeping me from fully accepting this band.  We get it, you’re using multiple retro video game controllers as instruments.  That makes you pretty nerdy.  You lose something by acknowledging it.

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Day 270: The Soft Pack – The Soft Pack

25 Nov

Answer to Yourself

Nope, I’m not above the insanity that is Black Friday.  While I may not have lined up in front of my local Target at midnight with my eyes on a new vacuum cleaner, I did celebrate America’s most ridiculous holiday in a different way—today is the winter edition of Record Store Day. After getting to my (kind of) local record store at a reasonable hour, I was able to grab Craig Finn’s new single and a Wilco 10-inch, both of which are Black Friday exclusives.  I picked up a few more things while I was there, including a used copy of The Soft Pack’s self-titled release.  All I had to go off with this particular record was that the band’s name sounded familiar—I can’t tell you why—and that this fairly beat up copy of the record was only going to cost me $3.

My impulsiveness paid off, as I’ve added a solid indie/surf rock album to my collection.  If you’re looking for a record with complexity in its composition, or featuring songs that sound different from one another, I would not recommend turning to The Soft Pack.  This album doesn’t get boring, though, as these guys have mastered the art of the three-cord, 4/4 timing rock song.  Track after catchy track, The Soft Pack somehow manage to maintain the excitement with what sounds like very little work.

This is why we need record stores.  Many of my favorite groups (Titus Andronicus, The xx, Sleigh Bells) are bands that I discovered by chance in record stores.  Hey kid, stop all the downloading.

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Day 269: Ryan Adams – Ashes & Fire

24 Nov

Lucky Now

It’s Thanksgiving, and I’m still Swole Ear-ing it up.  To be honest, I never thought I’d make it so far into this project.  With less than one hundred days to go, the finish line is almost in sight.

By now, you know that when I start off an entry with one of those irrelevant intros, I don’t have all that much to say about the day’s record.  I figure that it is Thanksgiving; perhaps readership will be down (from its usual massive numbers) due to a whole bunch of food comas…

But, I do have a few international readers.  To all of y’all, I apologize.  Happy Thursday.

Anyway, Ryan Adams’ Ashes & Fire is a pretty generic record of the alt country genre.  However, that is not necessarily a bad thing.

But Dr. Swole, why isn’t that necessarily a bad thing?

I’ll tell you, in a manner that I hope exceeds 110 words.

Man, I’m really dragging this one out today.

Personally, I really like alt country music.  Therefore, if a record contains all of the characteristics associated with that genre, I’m going to like it.  That’s the transitive property, I believe.  I can’t be sure, though, because Geometry isn’t my strong suit.

Ryan Adams’ Ashes & Fire has all of the traits of your average alt country record.  It takes no leaps or bounds, and it doesn’t try to move the genre forward in any manner.  That’s fine by me.  Wilco proved in September that alt country shouldn’t be messed with.  This album is perfect background music, and I don’t mean that as an underhanded compliment—you’ve got to have records like that in your collection.

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