Jandek
The Ruins of Adventure
Corwood Industries
originally published February 14, 2007
Examining one Jandek album is like looking at a piece of a jigsaw puzzle that reveals nothing about the larger picture. The five songs that stretch out over The Ruins of Adventure, Texas musician Jandek’s 48th release, ramble over warped plucking and sliding on a fretless bass. Dark atmospheres teeter between an arrhythmic plod and nagging spaciousness. Songs like “The Park” and “Bluff Brink” are the polar opposites of the tin-can haze found on early Jandek albums, like Six & Six and Chair Beside a Window.
“Completely Yours” and “Mysteries of Existence” drift like clouds that smother the moon out of the night sky, while his lyrics settle on an exhausted and despondent drawl. The words of each song unfold like one-sided dialogue demanding to be spoken aloud, but fester in the mind hours after an argument has ended. Jandek’s spite could be pointed at God, a lover, or himself, but the truth is never revealed.
The soft edges of each lumbering bass swell demand that the volume be turned up high, lest real-world sounds, traffic, the upstairs neighbor stomping around and the buzz of the CD player spinning drown out the peripheral subtleties. But each lumbering surge bounds back with distant, percussive pressure. The Ruins of Adventure isn’t the ideal entry point for the Jandek novice, but a higher level installment for the devoted listener. It’s a beautiful but challenging record, and the reason why words like “brooding,” “murky” and “dreary” were invented.
Lions
Volume One
Independent Release
originally published February 14, 2007
If only! Well, I guess the important thing to talk about when writing about a band like Lions out of Austin, TX, is to say first and foremost that, yes, this "rocks." It would probably benefit the band to practice some healthy mental displacement while giving Volume One a spin. It's a very cold-beer, dark-bar record, and imagining yourself in one such dive improves the listening experience (as if you aren't there half of your life anyway). If I were in a bar and Lions were playing, I would probably watch them and nod my head, maybe toss a friend an approving glance. But y'know, around the office, we have a saying; we call it the "silver medal." A lot of bands I see or hear these days get the "silver medal." When a band has its formula down, when the members know who they are and what they want to accomplish, but their chosen vehicle of "rocking" simply isn't terribly interesting, they get the "silver medal." Good amps, well-practiced, but been done. Played well, but played out. Is this thing on?
What's really worth discussing here is how much value should be placed on originality and ambition. A lot of folks seem to be content listening to bands that are little more than semi-impressive submissions into their genre's catalog. Lions take their cues mostly from Queens of the Stone Age and other like-minded thugs, which, perhaps unknown to them, puts them at difficult odds with their own legacy. Josh Homme's reduced take on so-called "stoner" rock has a face-value image of simplicity and attitude; it's a lifestyle-image combo of debauched sneering. But while no one is looking, Queens of the Stone Age drizzle lemon drops of vibraphone and King Crimson horn-and-string lines. They temper their minimal, punky drug repetition with surprisingly inventive left turns.
And as you may be able to tell by the fact that I have barely mentioned them in their own fucking review, Lions don't bother much with variation or innovation. Volume One is seven well-titled tracks ("Guns"!) of very similar, monotonous music that "rocks" without achieving much challenge for the listener. The band's own lack of interest in surpassing its chosen medium is palpable. It's not great, and not necessarily worth talking about, but there you go, I did it anyway. But, y'know, it rocks. Silver medal. I'm getting a beer, you want one?
Harvey Milk / Hayride
Fuck You Guys 7"
Superfluous Umlaut
originally published February 14, 2007
It's been more than a decade since Harvey Milk's side of this Fuck You Guys split was recorded, and it's kind of mindblowing that the band remains as unimpeachable today as it was back then. "Hell Toupee" is thereby (albeit anachronistically) yet another notch in the belts of this completely unique, completely bizarre trio. It could be posited that Harvey Milk's cult following is due to its ability to expand the emotional and stylistic breadth of the members' chosen genre: their black-eyed sludge-and-blues is capable of fostering tenderness as well as dread. The sheer psychic gravity of your average stoner jam doesn't even come close to the variety of colors that Harvey Milk effortlessly unfolds here. The contributing factors of the band validate one another brilliantly, with Creston Spiers' voice embodying pain and grace in such a manner that you're aware his shred-balls guitar leads are performed without a whit of irony. This shit sounds like a demo, because I'm pretty sure it once was. I'll shut up now.
Hayride bears the weight of being the B-side band on the split, the one that inevitably has to follow Harvey Milk's seemingly tossed-off heroism. That said, the band's showing is admirable. On "In Bottles," the Hayride spins off a J. Mascis-style indie jam with some good advice to proffer ("Take acid / Be rude to the customers"). The song is refreshingly of its time, with touchstones of mid-'90s Southern indie rock abounding: Chapel Hill circa the early-to-mid '90s, if that means anything to anyone. But, y'know, from Athens. By no means bad, Hayride is unavoidably playing second fiddle to the satanic hairpiece on the other side of the wax.
Speaking of which, this release has got some pretty hilarious illustrations, and the fact that you don't own one already might mean that it may be too late to do so, though there may be a handful of copies around town.
Busdriver
RoadKillOvercoat
Epitaph / Ada
originally published February 14, 2007
Underground hip-hop isn't dead, it's just sleeping, or hiding out from The Man. This is Busdriver's fifth studio album riding the avant-garde tip, but it's his debut on Epitaph/ Anti Records. RoadKillOvercoat is mix of conscious hip-hop and abstract, genre-jumping melodies.
The influence of bands like The Residents and Yes and self-conscious rappers like Ras Kass and Public Enemy litter this album. In fact, many of the songs are so dramatically different from one another that RoadKillOvercoat sounds more like a compilation of Busdriver's favorite bands than one cohesive album. The track "Kill Your Employer" is more than a light-hearted call to rally against the Bill Lumberghs of this world, it's a trance-y, hypnotic suggestion that is playful, although dead serious.
Busdriver, the Los Angeles resident born Regan Farquhar, remains one of hip-hop's more unique artists, varying styles in such a way that it would be impossible to compare him to another rapper. The track "Pompous Posies! Your Party's No Fun" is an upbeat, witty jab at the cultural obsession with celebrities and the two-faced monster of record labels. All in all, RoadKillOvercoat may be among the most thought-provoking hip-hop of this young new year.
Field Music
Tones of Town
Memphis Industries
originally published February 14, 2007
The self-titled debut of Sunderland, England’s Field Music was my favorite record of 2005, hands-down; even as my music taste drifted more and more toward the less-focused and formless, Field Music’s endlessly creative, tightly constructed songs kept me coming back for more well into 2006. The critics caught on a bit, but the general public didn’t notice. Then Field Music put out an almost-as-good B-sides collection, Write Your Own History, and still no one cared. In a market that trades in quivering voices and abrasive production, Field Music’s pitch-perfect harmonies and crisply-produced songs (however innovative their composition and arrangements) didn’t make much of an impression.
Tones of Town may change people’s opinion of the band. It’s the perfect sophomore record - exactly like the first one, except 10 times awesomer. The production is still clear, but this time things are less dry, and the music occupies a larger sonic space without resorting to studio trickery. The singing is still choir-boy clean, but lead vocalists Peter and David Brewis sound like they mean it a little more, and everything around them sounds more alive, with the music careening from part to glorious part with little regard for song structure.
In other words, everything is just better, although it still takes a few listens to seep in. The band lists influences as diverse as The Left Banke, My Bloody Valentine, Thelonious Monk and The Neptunes, and the group combines them all (and more) so brilliantly that a two-minute pop song can still pop with surprises after 30 listens. Here’s hoping some more folks take the time to listen to this record and find that out.
Love Tractor
Green Winter
Fundamental
originally published February 14, 2007
On "Wrong Turn," a song off Love Tractor's latest album Green Winter, Mike Richmond sings that he's "trying to get back on the right road." Let's hope Love Tractor eventually finds it way with the forthcoming album White Mountain, the closing chapter to a loose trilogy that started with 2005's Black Hole, when the band became a spacey prog-rock band or something. It's kinda confounding. Green Winter is completely not what I expected to hear; that's not inherently a bad thing, but the execution leaves much to be desired.
Green Winter starts off well enough, with the nicely dreamy "Saturn Rings" sounding like an early-'70s Pink Floyd ballad. After a few seconds, though, the song inexplicably devolves into an atrocious chunk of white-boy R&B. Between the hideously clean organ tone (which sounds like something from a digital studio's demo track) and the pervasive and unfortunate "funkiness," "Saturn Rings" is a colossal misfire that almost immediately damns Green Winter beyond salvation.
That's too bad, as the rest of the disc isn't awful. Yeah, there are still a good number of awkward moments, like the reggae-tinged "Pain and Suffering," and the occasional reappearance of that accursed organ. Mostly, though, Green Winter is one completely and wholly inoffensive record.
Y'know, some of it's even pretty good - a lovely cover of Roxy Music's "Three and Nine" somehow improves upon the original, and the enchanting epic track "Slow Down / Below The Surface" absolutely nails the gently psychedelic feel the band seems to have been aiming for. Unearthing the sporadic gem on Green Winter, though, isn't worth sifting through the rest of a lackluster album.
Cake On Cake
I Guess I Was Daydreaming
Desolation
originally published February 14, 2007
Though I Guess I Was Daydreaming is primarily the work of one artist, Swedish multi-instrumentalist Helena Sundin, it sounds as if a rogue band of cherubs, unicorns, puppy dogs, nymphs, fairies and mermaids broke into a recording studio and made an album. Sundin has created a sweet and simple avant-garde pop fantasy.
Utilizing over 20 instruments, including Rhodes, clavinet, metallophone, xylophone, mandolin, tablas, hand-drum, and guest instrumentalists, Sundin has constructed an atmosphere of depth and fragility that could only be paralleled in a Tolkien-type novel. I Guess I Was Daydreaming is so ethereal and innocent, it's nearly impossible to have one negative thought whilst in its presence. "Come on Rainbow," the first track from the album, has no verses, no chorus, and just repeats the title for about two and half minutes; however, it'll stick in your head for hours. It's the perfect accompaniment to a cold winter's day spent inside with quite conversation, loved ones and plenty of hot chocolate.
I Guess I Was Daydreaming floats on with songs about smiling, laughing, animals and wonderment, which somehow manages not to seem silly and childish. Lyrically and musically, there's a quality that's reminiscent of early Belle & Sebastian and a bit of that ambient Sigur Rós vibe that maybe all Scandinavian bands seem to have. I guess it's just natural.
Songs of Green Pheasant
Aerial Days
Fat Cat
originally published February 14, 2007
One good way to be remembered is to be lost. Sheffield schoolteacher/ artist Duncan Sumpner, in Nick Drake fashion, quietly submitted the demos of what would become his self-titled debut to Fat Cat's offices. Fast forward a couple of years to 2005 and the label finally (after much difficulty) located Sumpner, and a nice little story was wrapped up. But a better way to be remembered is to make bad-ass music. Songs of Green Pheasant was definitely that, a wispy folk record drenched in post-shoegaze gossamer and chiming guitar. Echoes of Drake as well as Simon & Garfunkel permeated the four-track recordings, and Sumpner found himself firmly entrenched within the realm of pastoral new folk.
Aerial Days immediately ups the ante, as though Sumpner wishes to extract himself from that context. Doubling down for an eight-track, this EP suffers little from the loss of lo-fi wistfulness. Rather, Sumpner introduces many new toys, most frequently reverb-saturated piano. What keeps coming back to this record worthwhile is whether or not it's merely a stopgap before the next full-length, it's the happiest lonely record to come along in a while. Opener "Pink By White" is along the lines of vintage Clientele and better than most of that band's latest. "Remembering and Forgetting" is mournful and gentle like you want your folk to be, and the unexpected "Dear Prudence" cover is exceptionally worthy and needs to be heard.
But overall, Aerial Days smacks more of the Flying Saucer Attack school of post-rock. In no way is this a unique take on any of those genres, but the music here can either fit on your summer mixtape or provide the soundtrack to a winter's day in a deep and dark February.
Third Creature
Orthodox Garage
Fundamental
originally published February 14, 2007
Jack Logan and a stellar Athens-area splinter cast get all garage-nutty on Orthodox Garage, the first release from Logan’s new project Third Creature. Logan lends his distinctive whiskey croon to the 11 tracks, while Backburner Studios’ Kelly and Nicky Keneipp, Workhorse’s Rob Keller, Nutria’s Jason Gonzalez and Liquor Cabinet/ Monday Night Recorders drummer Aaron Phillips fill out the rest of the band’s roster.
Orthodox Garage is a noisier counterpart to Logan’s recent rendezvous with the Recorders. Townsend's windmill guitar chops ring throughout, and Logan sounds downright B-movie sinister on the swaggering “Looky!” and “Mr. Sticky” hijacks the crackly riff from Captain Beefheart’s “Clear Spot” for a little mischievous conduct. It’s not all rock-and-roll abandon, though, as “Before the Lights Come On” falls back on the group’s vintage pop smarts while hand drums and electric piano steer the steady, near-psychedelic “Right Away” into near anthem territory.
Orthodox Garage gets unashamedly messy at times, and not everything comes together like Jell-O, but that’s all part of the fun. Odds are, though, that Third Creature could drink all your beer down and still make three chords sound like a most bitchin’ symphony.
If you are having problems with the site, or have questions or suggestions, please contact us here. Thanks!
Care to comment on this article? Click here!
You will be the first person to comment on this article.