notes - archives - august 2006

8.1.06
So Top of the Pops is officially off the air, which means that Art Brut will never realize their ambition of playing the show, a goal stated in the call to arms "Formed a Band" (their prospects for writing the song that will make Israel and Palestine get on are looking pretty dim these days, too). Oh well. A dream for another life, I guess.

8.2.06
I thought Apple had a good idea when they introduced the weekly free download on the iTunes music store, but up until now, I hadn't seen a single song that was worth downloading. This week, however, the free download is "Listen Up!" from the Gossip's latest release, Standing in the Way of Control.

I've been a big fan of the Gossip's for several years now, and I thought that Control might be their big breakthrough, combining the minimalist blues stomp of their early work with the metronomic rhythms and lo-fi keyboard accents of Le Tigre (whose influence is clear on this record).

It didn't really work out as well as I thought it would, but that doesn't mean it's a bad record, it just doesn't feel as coherent as their previous, more blues-centric efforts. And a free single is a free single; and chances are if you feel strongly about the song one way or the other, you're going to figure out whether you should immediately pick up a whole album or avoid the group altogether. If it doesn't register one way or the other, then you should give some of their earlier work a shot, but either way, take advantage of the free track while you can.

8.3.06
My friend Jeff emailed me questioning my recent infatuation with Art Brut, as his only experience with them is seeing them perform on some late-night talk show and their performance was apparently not quite up to Jeff's standards. So I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be cool if I could legally send him a copy of 'Emily Kane?'" Because if anything is going to change his mind about the band, it's that song.

Figuring that that's just the kind of thing Apple would implement without me ever having noticed before, I headed over to iTunes, and lo and behold, there was the "Gift This Music" option, which allows you to send anything from a single song to an album to a mixed playlist of songs to a friend.

$.99 is completely worth spending if the possible outcome is a new Art Brut fan, so I went through the process and gifted Jeff "Emily Kane". If he doesn't like that track, then he and Art Brut were never meant to be.

8.4.06
Sigh. So Jeff doesn't completely hate Art Brut anymore——he thought "Emily Kane" was okay——but I don't know how you can be lukewarm about that band. I fell sick in love with them after hearing that song, and even the briefest moment of it dancing across my synapses is enough to compel me to listen to Bang Bang Rock & Roll for two hours straight.

I can understand why someone might hate Art Brut——the singer isn't so much a singer as the guy who writes the words, and there's a real British snarkiness that might be hard for some people to get past——but I would have expected a visceral, immediate reaction one way or the other, like the response Jeff had when he saw them perform on television.

But I guess mild approval is better than strong disapproval. I'll just have to hope they grow on Jeff a bit more. That, or I'll have to beat him until he comes to his senses.

8.7.06
Sweet merciful jeebus. Never could I have imagined the unlikely merger of my two favorite bands of all time, the Smiths and Modest Mouse. I still don't know what to make of it, and I really can't imagine how joint Johnny Marr/Isaac Brock compositions might sound, because their signature styles are so different.

On the one hand, I'm hoping that Marr doesn't water down Modest Mouse too much, because his output since leaving the Smiths, and especially his output over the last ten years, has been beyond disappointing. On the other hand, it would be great to see one of my favorite guitarists get his second wind and make some music that I actually like again.

This whole thing has still got me spinning. I'm half convinced it's a joke, and I'm half terrified that even if it's not a joke it's going to sound like one when the record comes out. Let's just hope this comes out on the Postal Service side of things on the collaboration scale, not the Audioslave end.

8.8.06
August is already fated to bear witness to the demise of Sleater-Kinney later this week when they play their final two shows in front of their hometown crowd, and now we have confirmation that Death From Above 1979 are calling it quits as well.

Certainly these two bands weren't equal in terms of influence——Sleater-Kinney were born out of the early 90s Seattle scene and they have several amazing records under their belts, while DFA79 have only a single full-length from 2004 to their credit——but you hate to see a band with so much potential throw in the towel after a brilliant first effort as much as you hate to see a band with a storied discocraphy call it quits when they still clearly have plenty of gas in the tank (2005's The Woods was one of Sleater-Kinney's strongest outings).

But since Sleater-Kinney are parting amicably (DFA79 not so much), there's always the chance that in a few years they'll give it another go, and give us another record to treasure, or at least another chance to see their songs roar to life on stage. I mean, hell, if the Pixies can successfully reunite, nothing's out of the question, right?

8.9.06
Stupid, stupid me. I've been looking for some way to get some CDs by the Japanese band the Pillows (whose music is featured prominently in the FLCL/Fooly Cooly anime series) without paying the ridiculous import prices, and so you'd think that, upon hearing that a friend was taking an extended trip to Japan, I would have asked him to pick some up for me while he's there.

But I didn't, and now he's gone, and my only hope is that he has some sort of internet access and reads this while he's there. So, just in case: I don't have any of the Pillows' CDs, so I can't tell you specifically which ones to get. Ask the record store guy; I assume that Japanese record store guys are like the record store guys over here, and his inevitably encyclopedic knowledge of the band should point you to two or three discs worth owning.

8.10.06
So you can use iTunes to browse the music in non-US versions of iTunes and even listen to song samples, but you can't buy any of it unless you have a credit card linked to an address in that country? Yeah, that makes a whole lot of sense.

I know, I know, it's not Apple's fault, it's the evil music conglomerates/distributors. But it still sucks.

8.11.06
If my friend who is visiting Japan happens to read this, and if he is so inclined to try and find some Pillows CDs for me, please don't get the original soundtracks for FLCL/Fooly Cooly. I've been usiing eBay to look for Pillows stuff recently, and I got lucky and found a guy selling all three seasons worth of music for just $20.

So I'll finally have some of their music soon, whether you bring any back from Japan or not. But a couple of their real albums would still be appreciated.

8.14.06
I made a few new purchases this week, and they'll likely be my last before the September/October onslaught of new albums begins (you know that we're in a dead zone for new releases when Pitchfork is spending a whole week forgoing reviews and instead doing the top 200 singles of the 1960s).

Anway. My newest additions are Fiery Furnaces' songwriter Matthew Friedberger's first two solo albums (released at the same time), Winter Women and Holy Ghost Language School, the Guillemots' debut EP From the Cliffs, the Futureheads' News and Tributes, and Tilly and the Wall's sophomore outing, Bottoms of Barrels.

There's nothing in here I was dying to have, although I certainly liked the snippets I had heard from Winter Women, and I'm really desperate for a Fiery Furnaces-related release that I can fall in love with again. More details about these records as the week wears on.

8.15.06
I was a big fan of the ramshackle whimsy and charming naivete of Tilly and the Wall's debut disc, Wild Like Children, and I was expecting more of the same from their second album, Bottoms of Barrels.

And on the surface it seems like that's exactly what I've gotten, but it's not nearly as adorable as it was the first time around. I've even gone back and listened to Children to see if it's simply that my tastes have changed or I'm not in the mood for their style right now, but I still like the stuff on the first record as much as I ever did.

I don't know. Maybe I'll grow to love this one with a few more listens, but I didn't have to try with the first one; I just fell in love and that was that.

8.16.06
Kim Gordon's singing used to really annoy me, but I kind of dig it now.

8.17.06
Another week, another week of no I'm from Barcelona and no inclusion of Voxtrot's second EP on the American version of iTunes, among many other glaring omissions. Seriously, what is the hold up? iTunes is supposed to fix this whole ridiculous indie/foreign distribution problem, not just reinforce that if you're not with a major, you can forget about getting your music to the people who want to hear it.

8.18.06
If I were Geffen Records, I'd be pushing pretty hard to get "Incinerate" (from Sonic Youth's latest, Rather Ripped) on the radio, because I don't think you're going to get another single from this band that has genuine breakthrough potential for a long time, their newly restored affection for more traditional rock structures notwithstanding.

8.21.06
The Futureheads remind me of some other band, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Yes, I know there are obvious parallels to other post-millenial bands like Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, and the Kaiser Chiefs (although there are more than a couple of tracks on their latest record, News and Tributes, that have some pretty obvious references to older acts like Big Country)

No, there's something about the vocals that feels very familiar, but I have no idea what it reminds me of, not even enough to know if I'm thinking of one of the 80s acts that influenced the current British revival or one of the Futureheads' contemporaries. This is gonna drive me crazy until I figure it out...anyone else have a clue?

8.22.06
I finally have a reason to go back to the record store: today marks the release of the new Cursive album, Happy Hollow.

As any fan of the group certainly knows, Cursive is one of Tim Kasher's two bands, the other being The Good Life. Cursive is the louder, darker of the two groups——I hesitate to call it metal, because it strays quite a bit from the traditions of that genre, but the riffs at the heart of most of the songs wouldn't go unused in the hands of metal band.

The Good Life's Black Out and Cursive's The Ugly Organ, which were released in 2002 and 2003 respectively, were two of my favorite albums from that time period, but with the release of those two records and a few EPs, along with his near-incessant touring (one of the two bands was always on the road), I had serious concerns about burnout, especially because, in their own ways, both Black Out and The Ugly Organ were both centered around themes of burnout and the pressures of success.

Those fears were realized with Kasher's next album, a Good Life offering called Album of the Year. It was anything but: the intimate, whispered feel of Black Out, which showcased Kasher's voice buoyed by a sea of bubbling synths and electronic percussion (the closest thing I've heard in terms of mood is Thom Yorke's new solo record, The Eraser, but in terms of technique and sound Black Out was obviously an influence on Bright Eyes' Digital Ash in a Digital Urn), was replaced by a more generic rock sound with maudlin country touches. There were only two or three songs on the whole record that I liked, even though I wanted to like the record so much that I periodically returned to it to give it another chance.

When I heard that Cursive had parted ways with their cellist for Happy Hollow, I was concerned that this would be another stylistic sea change that would dilute the power of Cursive's unique sound; although they only employed the cellist for one record, The Ugly Organ, it was easily their finest album to date, and the sound of the cello adding to the heaviness of the guitars was a big part of its greatness.

So it was with some trepidation that I downloaded the EP that serves as a preview of Happy Hollow, Dorothy at 40, which includes one song from the album (the title track) and two non-album songs (this is pretty much how Kasher does things; most of his full length releases in the past five years are preceded by an EP that is thematically linked to the upcoming album). But the EP is actually pretty good. Sure, I miss the cello, even though Kasher does an admirable job of using a horn section where he might have used the cello before, but all three songs are pretty good, and it gives me hope that Album of the Year was just an aberration and that Happy Hollow will see a return to form.

Of course, now that I think about it, I thought the EP that preceded Album of the Year (Lovers Need Lawyers) was pretty good as well, so maybe that's not a good sign. But there was a time when The Ugly Organ and Black Out were constantly in my playlist, and I'd desperately like to have some new Kasher music that grabs hold of me like those two records did.

8.23.06
My friend is back from Japan, but he was understandably limited in his online time while there, so he didn't see my note asking him to pick up some Pillows albums for me. Luckily, I found someone on eBay selling all three soundtracks for FLCL (Fooly Cooly) for only $20 total, and although some of the tracks repeat and some others are dialogue scenes from the show, I should still end up with at least 15-20 distinct Pillows tracks.

8.24.06
I'm starting to fall in love with Matthew Friedberger's Winter Women, and I have to tell you, it's nice to hear his music again without immediately getting resentful because you feel like he's just messing with you. Not sure about Holy Ghost Language School yet, but I really haven't been giving it an honest chance yet because I'm obsessing over Winter Women.

8.25.06
Just because I was in the mood to hear it, I bought Elton John's "Rocket Man" off iTunes last night, and because I also get in the mood to hear this song sometimes, too, I bought David Bowie's "Space Oddity". Just kind of in an astronaut kind of mood, I guess.

There's another couple of songs that could be appropriately grouped with these two. One is a song called "Astronaut" by a local duo from my high school years in Durham/Chapel Hill, Nikki Meets the Hibachi. It was a male/female dual acoustic guitar thing, and they were pretty popular around their local area and had some small sampling of regional success (their biggest gig that I know of was playing an opening date for the Indigo Girls back when that act used to play large theaters and small arenas).

I knew the guy better than the girl; he played in a guitar/cello duo called No Exit with one of my seniors from NCSSM and I think he briefly dated one of my friends (I know for sure she had a huge crush on him, but I can't remember if it went farther than that). They only put out one EP and one CD (back then, a local group self-releasing a CD was a pretty big deal), and "Astronaut" was on the EP, which was only released on vinyl, so I haven't heard it in years, since whenever the last time I saw the band live. It was a good song; it's a little sad that I'll likely never hear it again.

I don't know the name of the other song that would belong in this space-themed grouping, nor do I know who performed it. I don't even have a very good feel for the song itself; I'm just convinced that it's out there because I can remember the emotions it evoked and the images in my head that I would see when I heard it. It's by a male artist, and I'm pretty sure it was from the mid to late 70s, and it has something to do with an astronaut. But I can't remember anything else; it's the musical equivalent of having a word on the tip of your tongue.

I'm sure some day, many moons from now, I'll randomly encounter it again, and I'll figure out enough about it to track it down and add it to my collection. Or, if this ridiculously vague description strikes a chord with anyone, some anonymous stranger might email me with the solution. I also haven't discounted the possibility that I'm completely crazy and that no such song has ever existed.

8.28.06
Picked up Cursive's Happy Hollow and the Thermals' The Body, the Blood, the Machine over the weekend. Cursive's disc came with a limited edition gimmick that I've never seen before: a little custom license plate with a web site and code on the back. You go to the site, enter the code, and you get a non-album download. The last record from Cursive's Saddle Creek labelmates, Bright Eyes, also came with a free bonus song, but that was in the form of a limited edition vinyl 45; I haven't owned a record player since I was a very young teenager (maybe even before that), so the download is a little more useful.

Both records are pretty good; Cursive's disc seems to be the return to form that I was hoping for, although I don't think it's quite as good as their last record, The Ugly Organ. I find myself putting the Thermals on repeat and just listening to it over and over. It's a meditation on religion in contemporay western society viewed through the prism of Judeo-Christian traditions, exploring how our genuine impulses towards spirituality get twisted into forms of control that actually move us further from the god we seek.

At least that's my inital impression; I haven't really studied the lyric sheet in detail, because the music fucking rocks. This is another record that points to the resurgence of the smart, raw punk tradition that began with the Clash and which continues today with Les Savy Fav, Art Brut, and especially Ted Leo; Thermals singer Hutch Harris even sounds a bit like Leo, and his impassioned political point of view is certainly just as evident.

All in all, two pretty good purchases that should easily hold me over until the wave of pre-Christmas releases starts hitting next month; by the end of the year, we'll have new albums from TV on the Radio, Sparklehorse, the Hold Steady, the Decemberists, and Modest Mouse, to name just a few. There's been kind of a dead zone for the past several weeks, but 2006 should finish strong.

8.29.06
The special, limited editon download track that comes with Cursive's new record is also one of the more interesting tracks on the record. I understand why it might have been hard to fit it in with the overall tone of the album, because the sound is quite a bit different than the rest of the record, but it's a shame that only the diehard fans who buy the record in the first week will get to hear it. Here's to hoping that it shows up on iTunes on a future EP along with a couple of other non-album tracks.

8.30.06
I can't say enough about the Thermals' The Body, the Blood, the Machine. Actually, that's all I'm going to say——just go get this record.

8.31.06
I don't normally direct people to the Pitchfork site, because most people who would have any interest in reading this blog are already well aware of that site, but I'm feeling lazy today, so here are two downloads from the upcoming records by the Hold Steady and the Decemberists, both of which are due October 3.

The Hold Steady——"Chips Ahoy!"
(from the forthcoming Boys and Girls in America)

The Decemberists——"Summersong"
(from the forthcoming The Crane Wife)

If these links don't work, I think it's because they're having some trouble with their site. They've worked for me before, but sometimes when I click on them now, even when I click on them from the original stories on Pitchfork that link to them here and here, I get a snarky message that says "Better luck next time". That kind of crap is why I still basically hate Pitchfork even though they occasionally introduce me to a great new band (most recently the Thermals).