Day 219: The Mars Volta – Frances the Mute

5 Oct

The Widow

Seven-plus months into this project, I figured that I had heard it all.  So either the airborne chlamydia that has infected me on its rampage through my school has gone to my head, or I really did just hear a guy belt out a song that can only be described as post-hard-indie-core, partially in Spanish.  I pray that it’s the latter.

Oh and don’t worry, airborne chlamydia is about the equivalent of a respiratory infection.  But, it’s not every day that one gets to say that their school gave them chlamydia.

Straight-up, this is one of the strangest records that I’ve heard recently.  The Mars Volta has apparently never heard the word “genre” before, as it would be impossible for one to come close to accurately classifying the music that they make.  The scary part is, I kind of like it.

Emphasis on the “kind of.”  When The Volta stops messing around, and actually get down to playing some music, Frances the Mute is very entertaining.  Unfortunately, as is to be expected from a band of this nature, there’s plenty of “artsy” static and feedback.  Two minutes of your front man doing his best birdcalls just doesn’t do much for me.  Sorry guys.

A distilled version of Frances the Mute would have the potential to be an awesome record.  There’s just so much going on when these guys get around to playing some music. It’s angry, it’s happy, it’s foreign, and it’s intriguing all at the same time—if Muse were a good band, this is what they would sound like.  However, I’m having trouble moving past the 30-minute jazz odysseys that find a home all too frequently within this record.

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Day 218: Squeeze – East Side Story

4 Oct

Tempted

I’ll admit it. I figured that this would be your typical Dad Rock Tuesday post.  I was expecting to once again fumble through 250 or so words about why old music just doesn’t speak to me or something.  Squeeze’s East Side Story is a little too good for that nonsense, though.

The weirdest thing about this album is that, off the top of my head, I can name quite a few modern bands that appear to be influenced by these guys.  This record’s usual carefree and upbeat sound reminds me a bit of the jittery treble guitars of Vampire Weekend.  Front man Glenn Tilbrook, strangely enough, sounds a bit like Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, especially in Someone Else’s Heart.  Both MGMT and Muse are called to mind as well on the synth-filled extra-new-wavy tracks.

I’m especially surprised by all of this because Squeeze isn’t usually thought of  as an extremely influential band.  They’re mainly known for their radio-friendly hits from the ’80s.  Speaking of which, about Tempted…I guess I never really sat down and listened to it before.  It’s not a bad song.

Now, I’m not one of those guys who hates everything that’s on the radio (I’d say it’s probably around 85% hate), but when I made the Squeeze/Tempted connection, that’s when I first figured that this would be another crappy DRT record.  I’m always glad to be proven wrong.

One final point: this band is versatile! From synth-pop to standard rock, Squeeze covers all of the radio-ready bases.  This all makes for a record that never gets boring, but somehow remains cohesive.  Now, I just need to get over that awful album art.

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Day 217: The Wombats – A Guide to Love, Loss & Desperation

3 Oct

Kill the Director

I’ve been thinking a bit about yesterday’s post.  I ragged on politically charged records, maintaining that artist’s opinions, no matter how revolutionary, just aren’t that interesting when articulated in their music.  That’s all well and good, but today, I heard The Wombats’ A Guide to Love, Loss, & Desperation—another post-Camp! indie-pop record about love, love, and love.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  That got me questioning most of the music that I listen to.  What’s it all about? Love.  Why do I place a high value on homogenous music that revolves around a topic that’s been already beaten to death, and at the same time disregard music that might actually have something interesting to say?  In yesterday’s post, I chalked this phenomenon up to the artists that care more about their political ideals than the actual music, but I’m not sure that this is always true.  I’m going to try to convince myself that it is true for the moment, instead of facing what may actually be reality—at this point in life, I’m more interested in angsty, love-centric music than that boring political stuff.

The Wombats’ front man Matthew Murphy says it best in School Uniforms, “short skirts, long hair, my hormones flying everywhere.”  Or on the very next track, Here Comes the Anxiety, “I hope that no one leaves, because I don’t want to be alone with me.”

This is why I love me some whiny indie pop.  As much as I hate to admit it, I’m still an obnoxious teenager who responds well to vague, horoscope-ready lyrics and sunny, poppy synthesizers.  Maybe it’s just a phase that I’ll grow out of, but for now, haters gon’ hate.

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Day 216: Thievery Corporation – Radio Retaliation

2 Oct

The Numbers Game

Well, here’s some more of that trip-hop stuff.  Yup, some of it still sounds pretty cool.  My habitual preliminary research of this record (insert another Wikipedia joke) revealed that this album is pretty politically charged.  That ninja-looking dude on the cover is Subcomandante Marcos, a Zapatista who led a farmer uprising in Mexico 15 years ago or something.  Yeah, political albums usually bore me.  It’s usually a bad thing when artists get the idea that their opinions matter.  This can be seen across the board (with rock, at least).  Just ask American Idiot by Green Day or The Clash’s Sandinista.   This even applies to the lowly diy punk rockers—the ones who label themselves as “anarchists” and smash you over the head with their PC ideals.  Yes, artists are aloud to have opinions.  All I’m saying is that their music is not the best place to communicate them—as doing so takes the focus off of the music, which really should be the most important aspect of an album.

All of what I just wrote is fairly pointless, for I cannot figure out exactly how Radio Retaliation is “extremely politically charged”.  It got the “boring” aspect down pat, I’ll give it that, but for an album featuring a revolutionary on its cover and tagged as “political” all over last.fm, I’m not hearing too many radical ideals.  All I see are song titles…Blasting Through the City and Sound the Alarm can be viewed as somewhat political, but without the lyrics to back them up, they just kind of fall flat.  This is a trip-hop album, after all, so coherent lyrics are few and far between.  And when there are lyrics, they seem to me to be extremely vague, like the band itself isn’t too sure what it’s rallying against.

There’s something keeping me from liking this record, and it’s got nothing to do with the supposed politics behind it.  I love Sound the Alarm and Mandala, two exciting tracks with fast tempos, for a couple of reasons:  they’re exciting and fast.  I couldn’t find too much to love outside of those two songs though.  Everything else goes on for a couple of minutes too long.  But who knows?  Had this record not been branded as “political,” my blood would not have begun boiling before I pressed play, and I may have been in the relaxed state required to enjoy a piece like this.

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Day 215: Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career

1 Oct

French Navy

Here at Swole Ear, we’re all about the expansion of the mind, so when I saw a word with which I was unfamiliar in the title of Camera Obscura’s most recent album, I didn’t just ignore it and carry on with my review.  Partially because I want to build my vocabulary, and partially because I have to write about something, I looked up the word “maudlin.”  According to Dictionary.com, it’s a way of describing something as “tearfully or weakly emotional; foolishly sentimental.”  Now, you can’t say that this website ain’t dun nothin’ for ya.

Camera Obscura is known for making sugary sweet, oft melodramatic and over-the-top music, so the word “maudlin” is not out of place in an album title of theirs.  And if we are supposed to imagine that lead singer Tracyanne Campbell is muttering the phrase “my maudlin career”, then the title actually works.  It has become her job to be tearful in her music, and foolishly sentimental in her lyrics.  That’s why people love this band, but I’m not biting.

Camera Obscura is not a bad group, and this record is not terrible. There’s no denying that the instrumentation on this record is pretty solid—catchy treble guitars and pleasant vocals abound, and it all comes together in something that’s fairly easy to listen to.  Think Tennis with more people and higher production value.  The issue is that I don’t see any reason to listen to this record again.  The band brings nothing new to the table, and offers me nothing that I can’t get out of a more interesting record.

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Day 214: Andrew Jackson Jihad – Knife Man

30 Sep

American Tune

 Swole Ear, you’re killing me.  I didn’t just miss the announcement of the new Andrew Jackson Jihad record, I didn’t hear the actual album for almost an entire month after its release.  I blame this blog because it sucks up all the time that I can possibly devote to music—instead of wasting my time by reading other music blogs, I’m wasting my time on a music blog of my own.  I figured that this site would keep me in the loop—with a record a day, how could I possibly miss anything?  I was wrong.  No regrets, though.

Yes, there will be a discussion of an album in this post, believe it or not.  Way back in March, I listened to Andrew Jackson Jihad’s People Who Can Eat People are the Luckiest People in the World, and fell in love.  I immediately ordered everything that I could find by them, which didn’t even cost too much, as they really do stay true to their punk ethos.  The duo’s furious brand of folk rock remains exactly what I’m looking for in my angry music.  While Knife Man is not as strong as either of their other LPs, it’s still better than most music that I listen to.

Knife Man’s main problem is its length.  Like any good punk band, AJJ usually keep it short and sweet—both of their other albums clock in at under half an hour.  This time around, the two hardly keep it under 45 minutes.  This wouldn’t be a problem if the energy level remained high for the record’s duration, but there are a few too many filler tracks this time around.

I’m going to overlook that, though.  Sean Bonnette remains today’s greatest lyricist, as far as I’m concerned.  The darkly hilarious American Tune, a satirical track about the joys of being a heterosexual white man in the United States, sees Bonnette wailing “…no one clutches their purses when they’re in a room alone with me / …I’m a straight white male in America / I’ve got all the luck I need.”  Whether hating on love songs or jams about the summer, I’m glad that Bonnette maintains a not-so-cheery disposition in his writing.  He says it himself on Sad Songs, “I’m happy that you’re happier than me.”  

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Day 213: Dr. Dre – The Chronic

29 Sep

Nuthin’ but a G Thang (Feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg)

The Chronic has been providing me with entertainment for years now, even though for many of those years I didn’t even know of its existence.  Seeing Ben Folds cover Bitches Ain’t Shit at Lollapalooza a few years back remains one of the highlights of any live show I’ve seen—I’ve probably relived that moment a hundred times since via the YouTubes.  Additionally, we owe the spread of the always hilarious “deez nuts” fad to this record as well.  It’s probably in my best interest not to explain that one on here, but Urban Dictionary can help you out if you’ve managed to miss out on this American pastime.

This record may have led to some hilarious covers and ridiculous jokes, but most of this album is a dark romp through early-nineties Compton.  Recorded only months after the L.A. riots, racial tension, drugs, and violence are common themes on The Chronic.  Even Snoop Dogg’s appearances are fairly serious in nature.  As someone who only knows Snoop as a joke rapper—a washed-up parody of himself—it’s interesting to hear some of his stuff from before he completely sold out.  He was actually pretty good.

As someone still relatively new to hip-hop records, I’m slowly learning what I should be looking for, and what makes an album of this genre good.  Don’t worry, I still judge them by my gut more than anything, but I can now identify solid beats and a good flow.  The Chronic has both of these.  Dre can rap.  It really makes you wonder what people see in Odd Future.

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Day 212: Little Joy – Little Joy

28 Sep

Keep Me in Mind

When a friend recommended a member of The Strokes’ side project (a whopping thirty minutes ago), I was a little wary.  I imagined that I was facing yet another generic indie rock record, and I’d end up writing yet another generic indie rock review.  Then, I found out that the only Strokes influence found on this particular record comes from Fabrizio Moretti, the band’s drummer.  That calmed me down a little bit—as important as drummers are, they really only hit things with sticks.  They may all have their individual styles and whatnot, but the rest of the band has much more influence over the sound of the music.  At some point during this random thought-frenzy, I managed to press play on the record’s first track.  Then it took me a few songs to realize that I had the record on shuffle.  Isn’t that the worst?

Anyway, I was very surprised to hear that this band actually does sound a lot like The Strokes.  Considering that there’s no Julian Casablancas or Albert Hammond Jr. in sight, the resemblance is uncanny.  How to Hang a Warhol, for instance, could find itself a home on any Strokes release.  I don’t think that Fabrizio’s inclusion has too much to do with it, though.  The similarities between the bands are most noticeable in Rodrigo Amarante’s vocals and guitar work.  Maybe the beats are the same, but that’s not something that I’m going to pick up on after a single listen.

Little Joy is not a complete rip-off of The Strokes, as the band does bring their own style to their music.   The steel guitar is a nice touch, and multi-instrumentalist Binki Shapiro does add something to the record with a few lead vox spots.  I’ll always think of this album as a by-product of The Strokes, though.  Little Joy would have to do something pretty amazing for that opinion to change.

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Day 211: The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Are You Experienced

27 Sep

Purple Haze

I’ll admit it, this is the first Dad-Rock Tuesday that I’ve been excited about in quite a while.   It’s Jimi Freaking Hendrix.  Buddy used his massive thumb as a fifth finger on the frets.  How can one not get excited about this?  Sure, I’ve heard Purple Haze, Foxy Lady and a few others on this record before, but I was psyched to have 40 uninterrupted minutes of guitar genius wash over me.

Are You Experienced doesn’t disappoint.  You know an older album is good when it gets the seal of approval from Swole Ear.  Usually, I’m pretty quick to label anything made before 1995 as overrated. That would be blasphemy in the case of this record, though.

Listening to this album makes me want to learn more about the technical aspects of music.  I want to be able to describe what exactly Jimi is doing with that guitar, and why it’s sounds so cool.  Instead, we’ll have to settle for something along the lines of  “HOLY CRAP, THAT SOUNDS AWESOME.”

Believe it or not, the lyrics on this record are pretty solid as well—Jimi had more than one talent.  There’s some scary stuff going on here, as Jimi actually invites us inside of his mind quite frequently.  And I’m not referring to the never-ending debate between Purple Haze’s “kiss the sky” or “kiss this guy.”  Hey Joe, for example tells the story of a man preparing to shoot his girlfriend for cheating on him.  And then there’s Foxy Lady.  Yeah.

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Day 210: Marvin Gaye – Let’s Get it On

26 Sep

Let’s Get it On

Subtlety is not Marvin Gaye’s thing.  Then again, it’s not mine either.  Perhaps that’s why—when I finally managed to stop snickering at the oh-so in-your-face lyrics all over Let’s Get it On—I found that I was enjoying myself.

No, Marvin Gaye’s sex-minded, soulful tunes don’t have too much in common with what I normally listen to, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t get behind this record.  The biggest deciding factor in my opinions on music is, and always will be, answered with this question: do it sound gewd?

As abstract as that may be, it allows me to like stuff from all over the place.  What do I enjoy about this record?  I’m still trying to figure that part out, actually.  Because it’s not much like what I’m used to, I need to think a little harder than I normally do.  If you’ve read a couple of posts here, you already knew that.

So, what exactly is going on in Let’s Get it On?  First off, Gaye’s voice must be acknowledged.  That thing is impossible to hate.  He pours all he’s got into all of his songs, while still managing to hit some crazy-high notes.  And I mean crazy-high.  The soulful accompaniment doesn’t hurt either.  Not only does it mesh perfectly with Gaye’s lyrics and vocals, but it really does sound like nothing I’ve listened to before.   It’s just so relaxed and easy-going.

I should also point out that not every track on Let’s Get it On is about sex.  Sure, the vast majority are, but there’s a little more substance to this record.  The album deals a lot with loss and heartache, as a little research (read: 30 seconds on Wikipedia) indicates that many of the lyrics on this record draw from a messy divorce of Gaye’s.  Let’s just say, it’s much more heartbreaking than Best Coast’s whining about boys and marijuana.

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