This is fine.
By this point in time, we’ve all heard about Hot Chip many times before, or at least I hope they have done a fly-by on your radar. Well, this bunch of Brits are here to brighten up your ACL experience on Friday afternoon. Expect this to be a hot-spot for those in the know, and since I’ve alerted you, you are now one of those privileged people! Grab more info after the jump.
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All things considered, Matador Records is one of the top indie labels, consistently putting out good albums, but I’m not sure I understand the love behind their latest release from Brightblack Morning Light. It’s great to branch out into new areas of the field, but is there anything really worthy of recovery here?
First off, some have called Motion to Rejoin mood music, and it is just that. It is for those moods when you feel like driving your car straight into a black and white movie. As you barrel down the highway, you want something barely audible in the background, something with a sense of impending doom. Then the scene stops. You are no where to be found–obviously, you are dead, and I think it is this album that led you there.
Absolutely nothing on this album is moving, especially the sprawling pace of these songs. As every song carries on, listeners will try their damnedest to locate something that will draw them back into the song, but their search will be fruitless, entirely so. If this album were racing with a turtle, the turtle would most likely be the winner of the race, and not only because it is faster, but because it actually goes somewhere. Every piece of this album just comes across the speakers as if someone tried their best to create the most mundane soundtrack pieces known to man.
And! And! There are six songs on this album that go beyond the five minute mark! Did someone seriously think there were songs on here worthy of going beyond the one minute mark? They did, because they are on here, but they shouldn’t have. The album would have been just as perfect had it only included the 43 second introduction song that begins the entire piece.
When you consider the vocals, and their desperate grasp at anything with an ounce of emotion, it is clear that the album didn’t have anything when it all began. The vocals lack a certain sense of soul, and when they approach that line, it is clear that they are grabbing for emotion with all their might; it comes across forced, much as I was forced to listen to this record several times to figure it all out.
Now, I realize that there are certain people out there that place some sort of value on this album, but it is increasingly unclear as to why they have placed any importance on it at all. I struggle to determine whether or not one can even really consider this dense mess of undertones music in the first place. Just because no one understands it, doesn’t make it unaccessible, therefore rendering it worthy of listening. If you care to explain it to me, go right on ahead, but I will probably not listen to this album again, unless I’m envisioning euthanasia in my near future.
I’m sorry Brightblack Morning Light, but your Motion to Rejoin has been denied by the court.
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Does the absence of a song such as “Wolf Like Me” devalue a new venture by a popular band? TV on the Radio poses such a question to the audience of independent music with their newest effort Dear Science,.
By opening with “Halfway Home” the band walks the thinnest of lines between new direction and tried and true talent. The pounding song, full of handclaps, pushes forward, with an atmospheric guitar swirling in the background. Outside of the chorus, listeners will immediately notice the more subdued approach the band has embarked upon.
Oddly, the band discards the often apparent gang-vocals approach they’ve used in their previous albums, instead choosing to focus the singing duties for one singer per song, at least for the most part. Stranger still is the lack of real instruments present; the drums sound more programmed than anything they’ve done before. Sure, you have strings and horns, adding a strikingly subtle emotion to the entirety of the album, but no real musicianship, give or take a few songs.
Yet at the core of the album is a band that is able to perfect exactly what they want. This album comes off more as a traditional R & B album, with a revisionist standpoint. Of course there are a few odd songs, such as “Dancing Choose,” which is full of vocals reminiscent of Billy Joel when he was telling us that “we didn’t start the fire.” Then you juxtapose that with a song like “Family Tree,” which some might call the most beautiful song TV on the Radio has ever written, even with its Brit-Pop leanings.
Admiration is owed to the band for their desire to go in newer, albeit, stranger directions. They haven’t rested on their popularity; they have continued to progress with their own direction in tact. The throbbing bass lines of “Golden Age” with its funk skeletal backbone might have pushed some listeners away, but those that used the surface value of this song as a statement on the album will surely miss out on some of the more amazing moments that come out on this record.
At the end of the day, TV on the Radio have answered the question in regards to the necessity of having a driving single to push album sales. With or without a huge hit, this is an album that shows superior growth in an entirely new direction, as the band continues to open new doors for themselves. It’s all up to them to see where they can go. I expect those new progressive moments to be as beautiful as the Gill-Young Wedding I attended this past weekend.
It’s one thing to cover the Ramones, but entirely different to cover the Shirelles and Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, but that is just what the French Kicks are doing. Fresh off their release of Swimming, their newest album from Vagrant Records, the band is releasing a covers EP. Here is their cover of “Trouble” by Lindsey Buckingham.
Download: French Kicks – Trouble [MP3]
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Fresh off her new found fame from the Juno soundtrack, Kimya Dawson decided that those hordes of kids would appreciate an album directed solely at them. Alphabutt is her chance to win the kids over, again.
Of course, we all aren’t surprised at this move, considering her lyrical output up to this point has typically revolved around childishness. I wondered, of course, would she further this venture and aim directly at the child market. Well, she does, but not necessarily in a successful manner.
Those of you that fell in love with the Juno soundtrack, and fell in love with Kimya for the first time will find yourselves extremely disappointed. The songs are not as neatly crafted as her previous solo efforts. Often times, the tinkering noises in the background are far too distracting for a listener to even focus on the music itself; how those kids will get it I don’t know. One thing for sure is that she could definitely get away from using the baby noises in the background. It was cute once, but to keep using it is absurd.
There are a few songs on this album with redeeming qualities, namely “Happy Home” and “Sunbeams and Some Beams.” They are more traditional in the style that Kimya has come to give us, though they do seem a bit boring. Still, this is the closest she comes to replicating her unique sound.
My reference point for indie stars going the child route is Matt Pryor’s Terrible Twos. Sure, Matt sings about things most of us no longer adore, like ladybugs, but he still manages to maintain his talents as a songwriter within the childhood realm. The style is still Matt Pryor. In contrast, you have Kimya Dawson who seems to have walked down this road blindfolded with her dick and fart jokes still strapped to her back. It doesn’t do much for this listener, and I doubt it will do much for the childhood genre.
As Matt mentioned in our interview with him, the child music market is pretty wide open. We might see many more indie stars with kids take this route, but for me, I just hope Kimya focuses more on what she is offering us in the future. This piece didn’t turn out too well. There are some high points, but in the end, you wish she would go back to her adult-centric output. That’s where I’ll stay.
Swedish pop group Love Is All has given us a new track off their upcoming album A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night. Have a listen to “Big Bands, Black Holes, Meteorites” right here:
Download: Love Is All – Big Bangs, Black Holes, Meteorites [MP3]
Tonight at Stubb’s we will be able to catch the fun instrumental music of Ratatat. Although it is often hard to review such a band (my review of LP3), they always put up ridiculously good shows. Last I checked, plenty of tickets were still available at the door.
And say, you make it out and you want to send us pictures. That could be cool.
After months and months of spinning this album in my room I was finally able to put a face to the band. Sure, I had seen a few pictures of Joel Thibodeau, frontman and main songwriter of Death Vessel, but I desperately needed to put a face to that voice that continuously haunted the speakers on the floor next to my IKEA bed. Read the full story after the jump. Read more
We here at Austin Town Hall love The Rosebuds, and we’ve talked about a few tracks off their newest album, Life Like, in a previous post. Now that the release of said album is only a few months away, I’ve got a tip for you that should get you salivating for more from this band. The cool cats over at Merge Records are now streaming the entire album in an easy to use pop-out format. Head over there now for your own listening pleasure.
Life Like comes out via Merge Records on October 7th.
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“Willow Tree” opens up the newest effort from Chad Van Gaalen, Soft Airplanes. From the start you experience what Chad is all about, but only one aspect. The quite folk song is underlined by his soft vocals, which appear to have some sort of vocal affect that provides an emotional echo. Regardless, this is the song you want to hear while sitting on your back porch.
Then you swing at the folk moniker and you miss. “Bones of Man” completely throws you off track, walking the line of rhythm based bands such as Pinback. Even his vocals aren’t exactly the same, which is a bit refreshing. It’s a good song, though I must admit that it doesn’t have the draw of the opening track.
And back he goes again with the off-kilter folk tunes, though this one has stronger percussion work than the first song, though by no means is it over-powering–just more noticeable. By this point, his voice is back, and you can really immerse yourself in it. For some reason, it sounds like a folkier version of Brendan Benson.
From here he cruises off to sunnier times, or at least the feeling in “Inside the Molecules” is all things California. His guitar sounds a little more bluesy, but the atmospherics clinging to his vocals kind of carry that breezy aura you’d expect to find in a California bar band. He doesn’t jump so far with his next song, “Bare Feet on Wet Griptape,” but this song just didn’t work for this listener. It seems sort of casual, and even the lyrical commentary isn’t too insightful.
Suddenly, you’re transferred to future land where folk meets samples, and I know its been done before, but it’s sort of like James Figurine meets Grizzly Bear. I still can’t decide if that is a good thing or not. You should probably decide for yourself.
At this point I feel like I’ve run the course of this album. I don’t mean to say that in adding that point that you can turn off the record at this point, because there are definitely some key points to be visited throughout the rest of the album, but he jumps and jives across genres. Van Gaalen does it so effortlessly that a listener agreeably goes with him, no matter where he travels. His vocals have a haunting sense of freedom attached to them, and when he steers away from the folk as he does on “TMNT Mask,” its believable. Sure, one could ask for more focus here on this album, but at the same time I think the differences in sound add a texture to the album that you won’t really find elsewhere. Besides he paid homage to the long forgotten Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I’d down with that.
This is good stuff.
