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walk it off
tapes n' tapes |
vampire weekend
vampire weekend |
hold on now, youngster
los campesinos |
elephant shell
tokyo police club |
do it!
clinic |
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5.12.08
My Morning Jacket is one of those bands that I know I should like, and I've tried hard to like, but they've just never clicked with me. I've only bought Z so far, and I like a few tracks on there, but I've never seen understood the critical raves they've consistently garnered.
However, after seeing them perform the "I'm Amazed" single from their upcoming Evil Urges album on SNL this past weekend, I can tell you that on the basis of that song alone, I'm going to be buying this record. It's actually been released as a single on iTunes, and although the recorded version doesn't sound nearly as compelling as the SNL performance (and how often can you say that?), it's still a great song.
Recap of the Radiohead show starting tomorrow. What a weird night. |
5.9.08
Radiohead coming up this Sunday. I was hoping to go with Sliced Tongue, but both of us forgot until a few days ago that this Sunday is also Mother's Day, which isn't the best time to tell your wife and the mother of your two children that you're going to spend half the day hanging out with a grad school friend watching an artsy British rock band. So I'll be going with my wife instead, who doesn't dislike Radiohead, but who would have been perfectly happy to have Sliced Tongue go in her place.
This will be the first time I've seen them play live, but I'm trying not to get overexcited about it. Because, you know, there's part of me that's screaming "BEST. SHOW. EVER.", but I don't want to come away disappointed from a great performance that just doesn't happen to be the best concert I've seen in my life. But I'm still hoping it will be, because they are undoubtedly the best band of the past fifteen years, and they have a reputation for being amazing live. As long as I walk away feeling like the $100 I spend on each ticket was worth it, I'll be happy. |
5.8.08
I downloaded Animal Collective's new Water Curses EP from iTunes, and it sounds like a pretty solid release so far. The title track is the obvious standout, one of the catchier songs they've ever released, whereas the other songs are a bit more contemplative. But if you're a fan, you'll probably want to pick this up. |
5.7.08
Nine Inch Nails just released a new album, The Slip, and you can download it free from their web site. Although there are a couple of instrumental tracks, this isn't all instrumental like the four disc opus they released last fall——this is supposed to be more like a typical NIN release, only without the help of a record company and without any immediate profits. They will be releasing physical versions this summer, but the main point of this album, I think, is to remind you that they are touring this summer, which is how bands these days make most of their money anyway. |
5.6.08
Toyko Police Club's debut full-length, Elephant Shell, isn't quite as good as the two EPs that preceded it, but it's still pretty good. And they were smart about keeping the songs short: the longest track is just over three minutes, and the average is somewhere in the neighborhood of two and a half minutes——the eleven tracks clock in at right about 28 minutes. So even if you aren't particularly enamored of a certain track, it's over pretty quickly and you don't have time to really get worked up about it. But the songs are pretty true to their earlier sound, and there's nothing on it that you want to skip. It's a good start for them. |
5.5.08
I have never heard a guitar sound more like a New Order guitar than during the last minute of Cut Copy's "Hearts on Fire". It's uncanny, and I'm sure it was quite intentional. My only real question is why it isn't done more often. |
5.2.08
Mixtape: 1988
Track 12
"Out of Reach"
Lovely
The Primitives
This band rose and fell pretty quickly——the fuzz guitar pop of Lovely was widely heralded on the college radio circuit in the US and in the snarky British music press, and they even had a pretty big hit in the UK, but by the time they released their sophomore disc they were at best ignored and at worst ridiculed——I remembered they even canceled a gig in their ostensible hometown of London because they just couldn't sell any tickets.
Still, this is a pretty listenable album, one of those records where it seems like almost any song could be a single. And it's not a stretch to say that the Primitives could be just as strongly linked to the Raveonettes sound as the Jesus and Mary Chain, with whom the Raveonettes are ALWAYS compared. But that just wouldn't be as cool now would it? And that's what the Primitives' brief career really seems to boil down to: they just weren't cool enough to withstand the backlash for whatever reason. And I'm just as guilty as anyone——I can almost guarantee I never heard the follow-up, Pure, but for some reason I never bought it, and I'm the kind of guy who gives pretty much everyone at least one chance to fuck up if I liked their last record.
Lovely is stuffed with armloads of little pop gems, and I'm not ashamed to say I'm still a fan of this record. It's just too bad that I can't tell you what I thought of their next record as well. |
5.1.08
Mixtape: 1988
Track 11
"Venice"
Themes From Venus
Love Tractor
I wrote a lot about Love Tractor for the 1986 mixtape, which featured their song "Beatle Boots", and there's not a whole lot more to add here. Themes From Venus was an admirable successor to This Ain't No Outerspace Ship, keeping the same quirky pop sensibilities intact and maybe ratcheting up the oddball quotient a notch or two. But all in all, this seemed like another solid album from a band that was really hitting its stride...until they broke up for more than a decade.
"Satan" was another top choice for this slot, but "Venice" gets me every time with that "lost in passages after midnight" phrase. Both this record and Outerspace Ship, along with their earlier instrumental records, are now available on iTunes, so there's really no excuse not to at least give them a listen if you've never heard them before. Just do us all a favor and avoid the recent stuff, starting with 2005's Black Hole——these aren't true Love Tractor records, as they feature only one person who was in the band during the 80s, and he's basically using the band name to market his solo work (whereas 2001's The Sky at Night features three of the four people who played on this record). |
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