Summer Hymns
Backward Masks
Misra
originally published November 8, 2006
The title of this record is essential to any effort to understand it or find its context. Summer Hymns has, for years, placed their music within, and sometimes behind, a mesmerizing blend of feedback, studio trickery and general psychedelia. With Backward Masks, songwriter Zachary Gresham’s compositions expose their creator at his rawest. Generally speaking, when something is described as "raw" it’s meant to describe anger, roughness or some other ugly attribute. However, Gresham’s rawness is a place of confessional tenderness. The music cradles his lyrics rather than merely accompany them.
Backward Masks is wonderfully sequenced, which can be an exceedingly difficult task when dealing with a body of work where there is such similarity between the tracks. The simple love song “Way You Walk” leads the way into mid-album melody feasts like “Start Swimming” and “Fearanoia.” There’s still plenty of the major-chord progressions and keyboard undertones that are closely associated with the band, but there is an openness on this album that simply doesn’t exist previous to this in the group's catalog.
Gresham’s own lyrics say it best: “There’s no reason in this world to be afraid…/ there’s no reason to be afraid of love… / time, you’ve got it / but, time ain’t nothing without love” (“Fearanoia”). And the album's title, as mentioned above, is almost as if the band is saying that everything it hid within before has been turned around and though it still wears some familiar musical marks, the audience is finally hearing and seeing what was previously privileged to only the band.
M Coast
Say it in Slang
Happy Happy Birthday to Me
originally published November 8, 2006
If you're like me, you are sort of broke. The beers that end up in my hand night after night, like yours, must be somehow magical. (As Kurt Vonnegut once wrote, "Beer, of course, is actually a depressant. But poor people will never stop hoping otherwise.") But once I throw on M Coast's Say it in Slang, a certain financial transmogrification takes place. Suddenly, I'm rich. I'm rich and I am wearing an ascot and I am on a yacht, goddamn it. That's the kind of escapism that is available with Say it in Slang.
Started in 1996 as Andy Gonzalez's solo project, Marshmallow Coast has seen a fair amount of sea change. With this fifth-release-slash-debut-album, a vastly revised line-up and a new(ish) name, the former Marshmallow Coast cruises into international waters with a druggy grin that, while evoking only the best of times, isn't anywhere near Margaritaville. No, we're talking about an entirely different sector of your dad's music collection: Steely Dan's note-perfect smoothness, specifically. This is a piece of mostly dry studio obsessiveness, with equal attention put on subtlety as well as tunefulness. To wit, the liner notes urge the listener to take advantage of headphones, and the leadoff track "Sailing Around the World" praises he who "taught you how to roll a joint." Nuff said!
"Sailing Around the World," indeed: four-on-the-floor pit-er-pat and deadpan vocals sound imported straight from Germany's krautiest, especially on "Out on the Water." Emily Growden's feather-light vocals alongside Derek Almstead's mercury basslines steer the vessel into a more Francophilic direction, bringing Stereolab to mind, and I'll put stop the nautical references right there. The winter months are upon us, and I'm telling you, M Coast has emerged as your stoned travel agent, whisking you away to tropical paradise for the price of one round piece of plastic. Exciting and new… come aboard. They're expecting you.
The Matches
Decomposer
Epitaph
originally published November 8, 2006
The Matches are an acquired taste. This quickly becomes evident just seconds into the Victorian era-sounding intro on Decomposer’s opening track “Salty Eyes.” Comparatively speaking, The Matches’ debut E. Von Dahl Killed the Locals was a more universally appealing album, running rampant with catchy hooks and singalong choruses. While Decomposer is still rooted in the brand of catchy rock and roll in which the Oakland quartet specializes, the eccentricities and quirks of the bandmembers (particularly of Mad Hatter-esque frontman Shawn Harris) shine through and make it a more creative and unique effort.
The list of producers The Matches enlisted for Decomposer makes one wonder just exactly how they scored Tim Armstrong, Mark Hoppus, John Feldmann, Nick Hexum and Brett Gurewitz all for one album. Throw in four other producers and it becomes clear why Decomposer sounds more like a collection of individual songs rather than a cohesive unit. There’s the 1980s pop vibe exuded by tracks like “Clumsy Heart” and “Didi (My Doe, Part 2)” juxtaposed with the alterna-love song “My Soft and Deep,” all complemented by rockers like “Shoot Me in the Smile” and “Drive.”
For those who are already accustomed to The Matches, Decomposer is a brilliant sophomore album showcasing the creative genius of the bandmembers. But for those who aren’t as familiar with the quartet, it’s best to sample Decomposer in smaller doses.
He Is Legend
Suck Out the Poison
Solid State
originally published November 8, 2006
When the members of He Is Legend described what their new material was going to sound like, they threw the word “dirty” around quite frequently. And we’re not talking Christina Aguilera dirrrty here. We’re talking thick, sludgy rock and roll from the Dirty South. What helps He Is Legend most in capturing that particular sound may also be Suck Out the Poison’s biggest downfall: its production.
With a band like He Is Legend, obviously no one is expecting Butch-Walker-slick production, but it’s reasonable to expect quality similar to He Is Legend’s debut full-length I Am Hollywood. Because of Suck Out the Poison’s raw production, though, some of the crunching guitars, metal squeals and stellar vocals all get lost in the muddle. It’s a shame, too, because the songs are energetic, technical and intensely melodic. Both the title track and “The Pot Bellied Goddess” show off frontman Schuylar Croom’s way with vocal melodies while still maintaining a strongly Southern rock sound. The guys also manage to cleverly intertwine moments from I Am Hollywood throughout Suck Out the Poison, which is a treat for repeat customers.
There was a lot of anticipation among He Is Legend fans surrounding the release of Suck Out the Poison and as a result, there are some mixed emotions. All 14 tracks are killer and excel in the live arena; it’s just too bad you can’t hear them too well on the album.
(On a side note, the track “Suck” is spelled “S**k” on iTunes. What’s with that?)
Adam Green
Jacket Full of Danger
Rough Trade
originally published November 8, 2006
On his last album, Gemstones, former Moldy Peach Adam Green sounded a little out of place. His voice, accustomed to bringing out the humor in a subject rather than expressing its pathos, was now matched with expansive string arrangements, but the vocals often sounded like they were making fun of the surroundings, and were it not for the fantastic quality of the songs themselves, the whole thing could have come off as an overlong parody. On Jacket Full of Danger, thankfully, Green's voice rarely dips into mocking flatness, and this expressiveness is a much better fit for the lush arrangements he now seems to favor. His songs, as lyrically sharp and musically focused as ever, are here matched with strings, keys and swinging drums that evoke the schmaltzy side of '70s singer-songwriters (especially Neil Diamond), and the arrangements are revelatory and engaging rather than half-hearted pastiche or soft-rock wash.
Green has retained his sense of humor, of course - the final two songs are "White Women" and "Hairy Women" - and these little touches send Jacket Full of Danger lurching between sincerity and mockery, taking clichéd subjects like drugs and girls and turning them into sharply delineated portraits. (When they aren't being silly for the sake of being silly, anyway.)
Green's pop instincts are unfailing, and it's a mark of his inclusiveness that he admits humor so readily to his palette. After some uncertainty, it now looks as if he could continue turning out fantastic collections of songs - like Jacket Full of Danger - for years to come.
Robert Pollard
Normal Happiness
Merge
originally published November 8, 2006
“Writer’s block is for pussies,” Robert Pollard has cracked repeatedly, thereby explaining the quantitative nature (and the variable quality) of his immense catalog. Each record is part of an ongoing project, whether it’s the drunken standup record Relaxation Of The Asshole (released in limited quantities in late ’05), the sprawling, frustrating, occasionally thrilling double LP From A Compound Eye (released earlier this year) or the humble, slow-release charmer Normal Happiness.
Pollard’s primary gift remains confidence. He enters every cycle with enough zeal to play both uncut gems (“Get A Faceful,” “Rhoda Rhoda”) and good-natured toss-offs (“Supernatural Car Lover,” “Accidental Texas Who,” the awkwardly angular “Gasoline Rag”) as if they were minor classics. Which, allowing a certain amount of exposure, can be enough to make them sound that way, if your ears are tuned the right way. He insists he’s not out to “gouge a fan,” and he’s never been seen holding a gun to anyone’s head. But Pollard is the sort of artist who rewards a long-term indulgence of his aesthetic (sometimes in jokers, sometimes in spades), and being a fan is probably the best way to approach him.
Normal Happiness is a good name for this album. It’s the sound of Bob checking in. It lacks the adventurous gusto of Compound Eye, but not the get-it-done gusto more typical of Pollard or Guided By Voices. This is the sound of everyday enthusiasm… and a certain detachment, which, long after the spotlight has shifted, still preserves Pollard’s goofball integrity.
Like the Dude, Bob abides. And he fits right in there.
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