Day 268: Rabbit! – Connect The Dots

23 Nov

Ladybug

What do you get when you combine the naiveté of Fun.’s lyrics, Grouplove’s consummate cheery disposition, and the permanently joyous instrumentation of Apples in Stereo? Too. Much. Happy.

You heard right, there’s a band out there that takes charming and sweet to levels that not even I can handle. Keep in mind that this is coming from someone who was disappointed by the newest Los Campesinos! record because it’s too depressing.

Recommended to me by my younger sister, I should have known what I was getting into with Rabbit!. The band’s exclamation point-suffixed name should have been the first hint.  A quick look at Connect the Dots’ song titles should have been enough to warn me off (“Magic,” “Ladybug,” “Pea,” “Jellybean,” and “Candy From A Car 2” is what we’re dealing with here). Still, I ignored the warning signs in my never-ending quest for new music.

I really like that first sentence in this post, so let’s break it down a bit. There, I listed three bands that I’m fond of, known for being fairly optimistic in their music. Fun., Grouplove, and Apples in Stereo (the latter two I have Swole-Eared), are all known for their cheerfulness, but for different reasons. Fun.’s got the extremely optimistic lyrics, Grouplove’s got the chipper attitude, and Apples have the upbeat instrumentation. When all of these come together, what you get is a cutesy overload, one that brings cringes more than smiles. “I love your laughter/especially when it’s after/you make conversation/and I make silly rabbit noises in your ear” is sung with complete sincerity on the unfortunately-upbeat “Pea,” and “Fall Into Love” calls for all to be “A sling-shot astronaut” with “no gravity to stop,” because “you’re spinning, spinning like a top.”

As it turns out, my total possible jubilation is limited. Thanks to Rabbit!, I’ve been shown exactly how much.

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Day 267: Aerosmith – Toys in the Attic

22 Nov

Walk This Way

I mean…it’s Aerosmith.  There’s not much else for me to say. That’s never stopped me before, though.

This Dad Rock Tuesday, I’ve been assigned Toys in the Attic, Aerosmith’s third record, released in 1975.  Apparently, this album is of the heavy metal genre, which is news to me. That’s according to Wikipedia, so take it with a grain of salt.  I have to write about something, so I’m gonna run with that.

When I think of heavy metal, I think of Mastodon (and this comic), not of mid-’70s bands with members who wore really shiny pants and toted flamboyant mic stands.  I should probably be writing in the present tense—the band still tours—but they’re just… so…old.

Anyway, where was I before I went on a tangent from my original tangent?  Right, heavy metal and Aerosmith’s music’s classification as such.  I heard maybe one metal riff on this record (“Round and Round”), which is even kind of a stretch.  So I’m going to end this here.  CNN BREAKING NEWS ALERT: WIKIPEDIA GOT SOMETHING WRONG.  

In all honesty, disliking this record would do no good.  As I stated earlier, it’s Aerosmith.  It takes some effort to hate on an album, so I’m just not going to do it in Toys in the Attic’s case.  There’s plenty of catchy stuff on here that I only feel a little bad about liking.

But not even the overpowering feeling of laziness that comes with Thanksgiving Break can stop me from questioning this album’s closing number. “You See Me Crying” sees Steven Tyler taking on a falsetto of sorts—it’s pretty indescribable.  I thought it was a joke at first.  It’s like he’s growling or something.  God help us all.

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Day 266: Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

21 Nov

No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you.   I have never listened to Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs before today. There’s only one reason for that, though; I thought that I had listened to Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs before today.

I consider myself a fan of le Arcade Fires, and own both Funeral and Neon Bible, two really solid records of theirs.  I was going through my iTunes library today, and saw that The Suburbs was nowhere to be found.  I was initially confused, but the reason for this slowly came back to me.

Lolla 2010.  Arcade Fire was set to close out the fest on the smaller of the main stages, and I was pumped.  But there was a problem–The National were set to play a side stage right before Arcade Fire.  I think I made the right decision.  Knowing I’d be in the middle of nowhere for Arcade Fire’s set, I opted to stay away from The Suburbs before the fest— it came out only a few days before the band’s Lolla performance.

So here we are, a year and a half later.  This record was named the Album of the Year at the Grammys, and Arcade Fire has been catapulted into a well-deserved world of recognition and success.

After finally getting around to this much-hyped album, I can’t help but be just a tad underwhelmed.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of solid music on this release. As with both of the band’s previous records, they’re best when playing fast—“Empty Room” and “Month of May” are both examples of guitar (and violin)-heavy awesomeness.  It should also be noted that “We Used To Wait” has one of the coolest music videos of all time—yes, even better than A-Ha’s “Take On Me.”  Ultimately, while the record’s sixteen songs and hour-plus length are a little much, I’d say that Arcade Fire has earned the right to be a tad self-indulgent.

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Day 265: Belle and Sebastian – If You’re Feeling Sinister

20 Nov

Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying

So I was flipping through the Chicago Tribune today…

Hahaha, just kidding.  So my dad was flipping through the Chicago Tribune today, when he stumbled upon a poorly written and nonsensical article deep within the Arts+Entertainment section.  While pieces of this nature have become commonplace in this dying newspaper, my father believed that the subject matter of this particular article would give me something to get angry about.

Can we stop the sweet? by one Christopher Borrelli, is supposed to be an exposé of “twee culture,” which has apparently seen a burst in popularity in recent months. First off, I’d like to point out that “twee” as a description has become almost meaningless. You can call anything sickly sweet and over-the-top if you try hard enough.  But that’s not the only problem. The article’s info-graph, which takes up two-thirds of the piece’s full-page spread, lists The Decemberists as “Insufferably Twee.”  Last time I checked, those guys have released songs about the following: a father killing his children, a young mariner seeking revenge on the ship captain who destroyed his life, male bus stop prostitution, and a double cliff-jumping suicide.

What’s clear to me is that Borrelli is incapable of distinguishing between what is “twee,” and what is “hipster,” another term that has made its way into the widespread vernacular, and lost most of its meaning by being applied to almost anything.

Anyway.  I noticed that Belle and Sebastian is on Borrelli’s moronic list.  As a band that I’ve been intending to listen to, I figured that this was a sign from the Swole Gods.  Now, I have to figure out how to turn this rant into an album response.

If we’re going by Borrellli’s definition, then yeah, Belle and Sebastian is twee.  Who cares if it is, though?  Something that I’ve learned is that you’ve just got to listen to what sounds good.  Forget the trivial labels that may be associated with it, and when all of your peers start calling you a hipster for it, years after the word has ceased to mean anything, you can just laugh at them.

Belle and Sebastian’s low key, mellow, sometimes jazz-influenced indie rock sounds good.  For that reason, and for that reason alone, I suggest that you give If You’re Feeling Sinister a listen.

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Day 264: The Wooden Sky – If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone

19 Nov

Oh My God

On an evening filled with less-than-stellar college admission results (i.e. deferred (i.e. college purgatory)), I’ve found a mood-fitting album.  But midnight is fast approaching, and I’ve got very little motivation to write tonight, so please forgive me if this post is a little below the level of excellence that you’ve come to expect out of me.

What we have here is some pretty sweet folk rock—what else would a band called “The Wooden Sky” make?  They’re Canadian, too. Once again, my claim that Canada has nothing to offer the rest of the world other than maple syrup and Terrance and Phillip has been refuted.

In a way, these guys remind me of The National.  This is kind of an abstract connection if you’re basing it only on the sounds of the two bands, but hear me out.  Both groups feature frontmen with very prominent voices, and very personal lyrics.  Their voices aren’t even all that similar—Matt Berninger of the National is known for his really low voice, while The Wooden Sky’s Gavin Gardiner just kind of has a drawl—but the fact that both are featured prominently in their respective band’s mixes makes me associate them with each other.

How was that for a run-on sentence?

Also, like the music of The National, If I Don’t Come Home… is a very atmospheric record.  There’s no way that I could listen to this at the beach during the middle of August.  Although it probably would be good for the beach during the middle of November.

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Dayayayayay 263: Dananananaykroyd – There Is A Way

18 Nov

Muscle Memory

Let’s get you all caught up.  I listened to Dananananaykroyd’s first record when The Swole was in its infancy, loved it (the album), and proceeded to forget about it. That’s been the story with quite a few records over the past 263 days, unfortunately, but I guess that’s bound to happen with a project like this.  I cared enough to give the band a “like” on Facebook, though, which meant that I heard all about the release of this particular record through numerous status updates.  That was way back in June.  Then the band announced that they would be breaking up after a final European tour.  I think that was back in September.  Now, it’s November, and I need a record to listen to.

I’m actually a bit saddened by the fact that I’ll never be able to see these guys live.  A quick YouTube search of their shows leads me to believe that they were extremely fun (i.e. plenty of moshing, but not with people that look like they want to end a few lives).  That’s what this type of music is going to lead to—it’s indie pop/rock with some hardcore elements—and I really wish that there were more of it in existence. There are a few breakdowns and a bit of screaming, which blends surprisingly well with the often-joyous vibe given off by the band’s lyrics.

Believe me, had these guys ever embarked on a U.S. tour, I most definitely would have attended a show.  Maybe they’ll reform one day.  Or maybe they’ve decided that they have had enough of that ridiculous name, and will be reforming under a better one next week.

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Day 262: Kid Cudi – Man On the Moon: The End of Day

17 Nov

Day ‘n’ Nite

As one of the stars of what is quickly becoming one of my favorite tv shows, it’s about time I checked out some of Kid Cudi’s music.  Reaction: meh.  How to Make It in America is a fantastic show, and Domingo, the classy weed dealer played by Cudi, is a fantastic character.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t get into this record.

First off, this thing is an hour and eight minutes long.  You should know where I stand on really long records by now.  They take up more time of my life than I want to give, so they better have a good reason for breaking the one-hour mark.

It’s clear that Cudi thought he had a good reason.  End of Day is split into five “acts,” some of which are separated by little dramatic plotline updates spoken by an anonymous narrator.  Aside from providing me with a new potential last.fm username (I heard “This is the rise of the Night Jews” in place of “…night terrors” in one of them), these breaks in the action tend to ruin any flow or coherency that this record may have had.

But that’s not even my biggest problem with this album.  If you’re going to present a record as a deep, personal, introspective masterpiece, than you had better have some interesting things to say, along with some good stories to back them up.  14-year-olds have already made an infinite number of Facebook statuses about most of the tales on this record.  This is the first line of the first song: “I’ve got 99 problems / and they’re all bitches.”  That’s what we’re dealing with here.

Not gonna lie, though—“Day ‘n’ Nite” remains catchy as hell.

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Day 261: Joan of Arc – A Portable Model of…

16 Nov

The Hands

All Chicagoans who consider themselves fans of local music are familiar with The Kinsella brothers. Gods of the Chi-Town music scene, these guys have played in more bands than I can bother keeping track of. Their only product that I’ve listened to for The Swole so far has been American Football’s self-titled LP, which I found a little disappointing. It doesn’t live up to the amateurish insanity that I love in the music of Cap’n Jazz, the brothers’ first band. I’ve left their music alone since.

When the first track of Tim Kinsella’s post-Cap’n-project started up, I immediately began to worry. With a soft and laid-back sound much closer to American Football than I was comfortable with, “I Love a Woman (Who Loves Me)” made me think that this was going to be my sixth post all over again.

Then “The Hands” came on, and I can’t begin to describe the grin that spread across my face. With a rough and obnoxious sound, this really could be Cap’n Jazz with some synths in place of guitars. That may sound like musical hell to fans of structure and order within their music, but it made me feel right at home.

While Portable still maintains that awesome thrown-together sound that I’ve grown to love, it’s clear that Tim Kinsella had matured a bit with his music by the time this record was released. It’s still angsty, but not too angsty. The lyrics are more abstract, if that’s even possible, than most of Analphabetapolothology. It’s good as hell, though, and makes me feel a little dumb for ignoring the Kinsellas for all this time.

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CENSORED

15 Nov

Day 260: The J. Geils Band – Nightmares…and Other Tales from the Vinyl Jungle

15 Nov

Funky Judge

It’s Dad Rock Tuesday yet again, and I’m a little confused.  I was led to believe that there would be the harmonica this week.  Where is the harmonica?  Last Dad Rock Tuesday, I was all like “the harmonica on this record is pretty cool,” so my dad was all “I’ve got you on the harmonica next week bro” but now it’s next week and the harmonica is nowhere to be found.  I am fairly disappointed with this lack of the harmonica.

I mean, there are horns on this record, which are okay I guess. You do put your mouth to them and blow and then sound comes out, but they’re still not the harmonica that I really want.

There are a few tracks on this record that go crazy with the harmonica, and those are awesome, but those don’t make up nearly a big enough percentage of this record. Many other tracks use the harmonica, but they aren’t even in your face about it.  Those songs are all like “oh you want the harmonica? Okay, we’ll give you the harmonica,” but they were actually trolling me because they gave me the harmonica, but it was all soft and subtle and not in your face and all just blending in with the melody and I was all like “songs, why you messing with me?”

But I should have been all like “dad why you messing with me?”  It’s his fault.  This record didn’t come out with the goal of satisfying a dude’s craving for the harmonica more than 40 years after its release.

So J. Geils Band, we’re cool.  You’ve got a pretty cool sound, even though your incorporation of the harmonica is a little lackluster on most songs on this particular record.

Lord, how I wish I could write like that errday.

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