This is fine.
If you find yourself here, odds are that you’re probably a huge music fan, which means that music is going to play a predominant role in your life. I surveyed many friends, and mostly talked to myself, trying to figure out what the majority of people are doing when they decide to jam out. Of course, seeing as I’m the writer, I had to put my own personal touch on this, and thus the ranking of said practices while listening to music.
No one really knows anything about the California band Jump Clubb, and in fact, they try to keep it that way. I guess that seems a little ridiculous to me, but still, they recently released this killer Elliott Smith cover “Angeles.” It’s not what you would expect, but it seems like an appropriate way to wrap up a Friday.
Download: Jump Clubb – Angeles (Eliott Smith Cover) [MP3]
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Telekinesis is more or less made up of one man, Michael B. Lerner, who gathered what one can assume is a group of close friends to flesh out his debut album. The self-titled album, well, save for a change in punctuation, is the first most will hear from Mr. Lerner, and with such a solid album, we’re sure to hear more from the man and his band in the future.
“Rust” is the album opener, and it sets the mood, or revels in the setting of the music, as it would be hard not to place the music on this album somewhere in the Northwest. Here, you’ll find the band sounding a bit like old Earlimart bedroom recordings.
Then listeners will come across what we will call the meat of the album, which is probably the most consistent tracking on any album this year. Kick starting our hearts is “Coast of Carolina,” which begins with gentle acoustics before kicking right it in with its energy legs. There is an element of lo-fi recording to this song, and to the majority of the songs that appear on this album, but they also have a surefire pop sensibility. Rock songs like “Look to the East” will remind some of us of early Ben Kweller recordings before he thought coke and country was where its at.
“Foreign Room” is another song that clearly locates the album and its narrator, as Lerner does his best to emulate Eliott Smith; the wavering in his voice will be the first key to this comparison. But, he doesn’t just rely upon Smith’s old tricks, instead pushing forward with a quick paced guitar. It’s like the entire Northwest went pop as the rain made way for a years worth of sunshine.
Just as you get used to the harder moments on the album, or the faster elements one should say, Lerner slows it all down with “Great Lakes.” His voice is pitch-perfect here, and the space on the song is all filled in such a fashion that one would be hard pressed not to adorn the band with praise just like the rest of their cohorts along the Northwest Corridor. And so the album closes with an acoustic number that bookends the album precisely the way one would expect. Through all the peaks and gorges, it’s hard not to appreciate such a subtle ending as this. A love song no less.
And with the entirety of this album, each listener will find something that they can appreciate, as Telekinesis appeals to many different styles and many different tastes. It’s an album that many will appreciate, a few will love, and most will respect; the best thing about the album is it leaves the door wide open for future accomplishments by Michael Benjamin Lerner.
[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/05-awkward-kisser.mp3]Download: Telekinesis – Awkward Kisser [MP3]
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Somehow this little group from Boston, who is actually just one dude, made its way into my pile of things to listen to. Unaware of the band, Faces on Film has now won me over, unexpectedly, with their album The Troubles.
“Friends with Both Arms,” opens up the album pleasantly, with Mike Fiore coming across your ears like a more eager Hamilton Leithauser. The vocal quality is quite similar, at least in that hollow echo aspect; here it sounds more complete than Hamilton.
From here it goes into “I’ll Sleep to Protect You.” Upon several listens this sounds like a lost Modest Mouse demo that we never got the chance to hear. It has a little more beauty, which I think keeps the track focused, but it still has that primitive folk sound.
Then we take a short jump onto “Natalie’s Numbers,” which recalls the bedroom folk of Eliott Smith, as far as guitar sound goes, with the vocal tracings of Win Butler. The chorus is fixed with nonsensical lyrics accompanied by a female vocalists, and although its unexpected at this point, it provides an interesting view to the insight of this song.
“Troubles at Last” is one of those songs that shouldn’t have been included. Its just studio noise.
“Famous Last Words” carries on with a bit of bounce, but it still appears to maintain that Arcade Fire association, which when prepared isn’t entirely off-setting. I suppose the majority of this allusion is due to the vocals, all which resemble early AF. And it’s juxtaposed with a Walkmen meets Modest Mouse echo of a song in “The Winner’s Daughter.” Although the feeling is similar to that of other songs, it seems out of sorts for some reason, and is probably one of the weaker songs on the album.
The rest of the album follows suit, wearing concert t-shirts of previously mentioned bands, only adding a Dr. Dog reference point near the end with “Medical Mind.” But just wait until the end because “Indicator, Indicator” is really fantastic. It is the precise closing moment for this album, letting the listener relax and rest as the album draws to a close.
Despite a lot of obvious references, some too obvious, the album has an enjoyable quality to it, one which gives it some merit. However, it lacks a bit of pace, and I mean that in the sense of the song, not in the flow of the album. Each song would benefit from just a bit of pace, but then again, its not my album. At the end, it ends the way it should, leaving Faces on Film with a few merit badges for their effort and a few more for quality.
You can download the entire album on their Myspace Page.
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I know I’m a little bit late with this review, since other people have already fueled the career of Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, but I feel like I have to encourage this even more so.
Much has been said about the singer/songwriter’s difficult past, and a few touch on his TV on the Radio/Grizzly Bear connections. I want to focus on the strength of his debut self-titled album.
As a fan of music, this is exactly what you want a debut album to be. You want to see a lot of promise, and you sort of want to see a weak spot or two; a weak spot shows that there is more to be improved upon; a hopeful glance into the future.
I expected this to be sort of a folk record, dominated by acoustic guitars and gentle vocals. From the opening track, “Buriedfed,” you can tell that this is not the case. It starts off gently, as many of the songs do, but then the song picks up with percussion, and the vocals really can stand alone. His voice is somewhere along the lines of a warble, but at the same time, there is a certain assuredness in its delivery. Imagine Conor Oberst if he used to sing hardcore tunes.
There is a lot of loss going on in this album, lyrically. It’s clear that MBAR has had some rough times, and he definitely uses that for his songs. The sad thing, and I don’t know if it is a personal reference or not, but a lot of the album questions the purpose of living, which I know can only come from a person who has truly been in that position. Its got a touch of tragedy, but you want to route for the man. My own personal reference reminds me of Eliott Smith, and his way of connecting you to his life trials–MBAR does the same.
For some reason, this album is really hard to put into exact words. It feels really new, or at least the approach comes from somewhere else. The album comes across really dirty in a certain sense; there is a certain sound developed in this man’s songwriting that makes you go into the the darkness with him. Each turn the album takes allows you follow willingly, which you will.
With lines like “Fuck you, I just wanted to die,” I worry about MBAR, even if he is writing from an omniscient perspective. This man has some demons, but music fans know that this often creates some of the more powerful tunes. Hopefully he has his act cleaned up, and we can look forward to more great releases from him in the future.
Check out a new song called “Buriedfed” by Miles right here:
[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/buriedfed.mp3]Download: Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson – Buriedfed [MP3]
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California’s Earlimart has released their 4th studio album, this one coming just a year or so after the release of Mentor Tormentor, which was one of my favorite releases of 2007. I found it an odd choice to release another album so quickly, but I wasn’t let down by this effort.
“Song For,” the opening track, begins with some bouncing percussion, as the music crashes in behind it, you are reminded of similar California acts such as Grandaddy or early Rogue Wave-neither of which is a bad comparison in my book.
Aaron Espinoza has a perfect voice for the melodic sounds of his band, as he gently sings through this album, resembling the softness of his friend Eliott Smith. It’s a comparison I am sure he is sick of at this point, but one that creeps up time and time again in his music.
“Before it Gets Better” introduces the audience to equally strong voice of Ariana Murray, the other mainstay member in the Earlimart lineup. Backed by the softness of a piano, she sings about the realization that before anything gets better, its bound to get worse. Despite the undertones of this song, Ariana allows the listener to empathize with her feelings–a good feat I dare say. Her lead role on “Time For Yourself” makes it another bright spot on the album, which I think has a lot to do with her voice in contrast to Espinoza. At some points I just find her more fitting, but that could be due to her songwriting on such songs.
Unfortunately, I found that there were some spots that missed their mark–for me as a listener. Tracks like “God Love You the Best” or “Cigarettes and Kerosene” found me searching in earnest for the uniqueness that opened the album. Even when the guitars burst in on “Cigarettes and Kerosene” I found it lacking the personality of other songs that are present. Even the title track, “Hymn and Her,” seems like a track that blends into the background of this album.
However, I found a beautiful gem on this record in the song “For the Birds.” It has the gentle quality of Espinoza, backed by the “ooohs” from Murray, all thrown into the mix with a quiet backing of piano and a strumming acoustic guitar. This is the most special moment on this album.
At times, Earlimart waiver from their focus, and it is that tendency to operate on musical tangents that has always hurt their albums. Their strengths come in when they combine Espinoza’s voice with Murray’s, using carefully constructed soundscapes to back the vocals. Lucky for us, there are plenty of those moments on this record.
Listen to the first single off the album “Song For” below:
[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/01-song-for.mp3]download: songfor.mp
