6 days ago
Quiet Hooves/ The Dream Scene
Split EP
Party Party Partners
For all the dull-headed obfuscation and willful amateurishness that many of the Secret Squirrel/ Party Party Partners bands shroud themselves in, that loose gang is lucky there's some good music to be found: who'd stick around otherwise, besides friends? The whole loose gang favors CD-Rs, eschews printed track names, embraces impresario Mercer West's garish aesthetic… potential hurdles, but keeping outsiders outside helps to define community.
Quiet Hooves guitarist Javier Morales is reportedly responsible for all the instrumentation on the Hooves half of this split EP. The jaunty "bigg boy" calls to mind some of The Beatles' dalliances with early-American traditions like vaudeville and country—themselves founded on British forms. "avp" is a pointed collection of observations, tuneful yet unobtrusive like most Quiet Hooves songs, which never pass the three-minute mark. And while Hooves vocalist Julian Bozeman has yet to write the great song he's probably capable of, getting distracted by hazy ideas, most of this EP's songs are pretty good, and that's kind of great in its own way.
The Dream Scene is Morales' outlet for more spacey, ethereal work, a place to dress up as Brian Eno. Like the Hooves half of this EP, and like the tunes of many other local bands, The Dream Scene's songs flirt with big ideas but lack focus—stoners on the verge of revelation but pulled gigglingly back to Earth by attractive and distractive notions.
Quiet Hooves is playing at the Caledonia Lounge on Thursday, Feb. 4.
6 days ago
Owen Pallett
Heartland
Domino
Toronto omni-musician Owen Pallett is probably someone whose work you’ve heard before, though you may not know it. For years doing orchestral arrangements for other artists like Beirut, Grizzly Bear and Arcade Fire, he’s helped shape fellow musicians’ catalogs, becoming an indispensable but behind-the-scenes staple. For Heartland, Pallett abandoned his solo moniker Final Fantasy (which he used for two previous full-lengths), again mixing classical beauty with electronic skill, but this time unveiled.
Pallett's buttery tenor melts over pizzicato strings, round brass and reedy woodwinds. Clarinet and baritone and cello poke through the blended textures as Heartland’s tracks slide from one to another like a stage musical’s. But beautiful and benign aren’t the same thing. "E Is for Estranged," for example, starts with creepy, stratospheric violin; just as Pallett has mastered pretty consonance, dissonance is of paramount importance in the musical language he speaks so fluently. Likewise, "Lewis Takes Action" sounds like the incidental music from an old movie, where the winds and strings follow a character's every step, tense where it’s suspenseful, and sweeping when he triumphs.
"The Great Elsewhere" is more electronic, peppered with machine-gun-like effects. Pallett put a crawling keyboard ostenato part behind it, imbuing the song with a sense of feverish forward momentum. Then, unexpectedly, "Lewis Takes Off His Shirt” proves a pumping pop number in the midst of an album that, though not longwinded, steers away from terse pop language. Virtuosic and nuanced, Pallett’s Heartland wields all musical weapons with a confidence that no longer needs to hide behind a pseudonym.
6 days ago
Vic Chesnutt
Skitter on Take-Off
Vapor
Michael Stipe's production of Vic Chesnutt's first two albums Little and West of Rome gets a lot of attention, and rightfully so: he was able to identify genius songwriting, encourage its recording and get it on tape. Jonathan Richman, the consummate performer and former Modern Lover, performs the same role on Chesnutt's Skitter on Take-Off. Though he and his drummer Tommy Larkin occasionally contribute some complementary instrumentation, Chesnutt's most recent and final album stands as one of his best because, like his early albums, it gets down to the bone of his songs: Chesnutt's primitive guitar and poetic lyrics, and not much else. The hushed and stark assessment of being given just one chance to live is found on "My New Life," at least until its blunt and gnarled climax, while "Dick Cheney" casts Chesnutt as a folk trickster, one of his favorite roles.
Skitter on Take-Off was released last fall, just three weeks after his excellent At the Cut. Its collaborative nature—Chesnutt teamed up with members of Fugazi and Godspeed You! Black Emperor—was impressive, its songs epic. But letting that lush and dark album overshadow the relatively simple Skitter on Take-Off, recorded live and mostly on first takes, would be a dire mistake.
Skitter on Take-Off closes with two of Chesnutt's strongest songs. The album's final track, "Sewing Machine," is easily the song with the credentials: a hazy mix of Southern familial nostalgia, perceptively impressionistic lyricism and poetic observation. But it's "Worst Friend," the penultimate track, which is Skitter on Take-Off's most powerful. It's a list poem running the gamut of human experience and characterization, and it captures Chesnutt at both his funniest and most poignant. Vic Chesnutt took his own life in late December, and a Christmastime suicide might seem to back up the proclamation in the song's chorus: "I'm the worst friend in the world! When you are down, I'm nowhere to be found." Chesnutt may not be around, but his songs still are. What a great favor! A great gift! What a thing that Richman convinced and helped Chesnutt to record this album!
Jonathan Richman is playing at the 40 Watt Club on Saturday, Feb. 6.
6 days ago
Spoon
Transference
Merge
Once again, the members of Spoon have proven themselves to be masters of restraint. Transference is effortlessly precise—meticulous without ever coming across as overworked. The band continues to prove itself as a crossover from the indie world to the mainstream, with a set of engaging tunes that are at once diverse, compelling and accessible.
What makes this band so special is its ability to craft songs that feel loose despite their thoughtful arrangements. According to the accompanying press release, five of the 11 tracks on Transference are the original demos, which makes this feat all the more impressive. "Who Makes Your Money" is a perfect example of the band's crafty subtlety. Background vocals bubble with underwater echo, and occasionally the guitars are allowed to well and swirl like alien spacecraft, but then they're gone. In a snap, everything drops out of the mix except Brit Daniel's urgent moan, a bass riff and a beat. No instrument or track is totally washed over in effects, and every note feels essential. The plodding three-minute outro of "I Saw the Light" is about as excessive as Spoon gets.
There are surprising dips in mood and pace on this album, from the sleazy shuffle of "I Saw the Light," to the lovelorn melancholy of "Out Go the Lights" to the restless rock of "Trouble Comes Running." Frontman Brit Daniel even offers up a McCartney-esque lullaby with "Goodnight Laura," allowing his piano to tinkle melodically instead of pound away percussively (see "Written in Reverse" for the latter).
But, overall, this record is still distinctively Spoon, particularly on the more upbeat numbers; you get the usual steady, staccato upstrokes, the single-string leads and the rhythmic repetition. It's all deceptively simple.
6 days ago
Ken Will Morton
True Grit
Sojourn
Ken Will Morton places a bit less focus on the rock side of things this go round, reversing something he’s been tending toward for the past few years. On True Grit, a lot of attention and care have been paid to his vocal work, a blessing for his distinctive rasp. There are a few more songs here that highlight his acoustic sensibilities, fleshed out with a bit of piano and brushed percussion. That’s not to say that he’s given up the rock guitar completely. True Grit is just a quieter album than you may be used to hearing from Morton.
“Don’t Feel Bad for Crying” is an attention-grabber with its piano-driven contemplations on opposing views and all of the wreckage that happens when people collide. “Some people bleed in torrents while others don’t bleed at all. And some people’s blood just boils cause they hate it all,” Morton croons in his trademark craggy, twang-tinged voice. It’s a theme that he explores throughout the record, especially on the album opener “True Grit.”
This record isn’t Morton’s best solo work, but it’s a decent addition to the Americana canon. No single track is utterly mind-blowing, and some of the songs are so similar sounding that they share a few lyrics or blend into one another. Morton’s got some hidden gems here, though, if you’re willing to stick around long enough to find them.
6 days ago
Yeasayer
Odd Blood
Secretly Canadian
Odd Blood, the eagerly awaited sophomore release from Brooklyn avant-pop prodigies Yeasayer, finds the band expanding adamantly in both more and less traditional directions. The band's 2007 debut All Hour Cymbals was a blissed-out romp through psychedelic dance territory, all bass and Chris Keatings’ charismatic whining. This follow-up shows us a more experimental Yeasayer, sort of; it’s more electronic, stranger effects have been applied to even the simplest melodies and the layers upon layers of groans and blips build to a fever pitch. Leadoff “The Children,” for example, features Keatings’ vocals sheathed in an unnerving effect that skews it simultaneously an octave lower and an octave higher.
But song-structure-wise, Odd Blood comprises compositional styles gleaned directly from the likes of Duran Duran, The Clash and The Cure (“Rome,” “Madder Red”), and bears a striking resemblance, if fleetingly, even to Prince and, therefore, recent Of Montreal (“Love Me Girl”). The melodies prove more predictable, straight out of ‘80s pop anthems, and most songs rely on strong synth hooks to make their point.
What’s more, single “Ambling Alp” sounds like an after-school special, sporting a refrain that reads “Stick up for yourself, son! Never mind what anybody else done.” It’s a warmer, fuzzier Yeasayer, though, to be fair, All Hour Cymbals' songs like “2080” kind of had a moral, too. Odd Blood is both weirder and more conformist than All Hour Cymbals, but Yeasayer has never been ordinary, and this record makes a danceable statement that’s as risky as it is comforting.
20 days ago
Beach House
Dream
Sub Pop
If they mean the cold, lonely off-season, this Baltimore duo’s name is descriptively perfect. It’s not that the songs on their third full-length are dreary. It’s that they’re like the thoughts of summer that play in the mind during the deep freeze of winter, twinkling in ways that only fond memories can. It’s an incredibly nuanced and specific place to exist, one that’s open to a world of romantic nostalgia.
With a soulfully narcotic drift and a deliberate sense of unfolding, Teen Dream coasts on huge, gentle billows. Despite its suspended dream-state, the music is grounded by masterful architecture and enormity of presence. Like a seashell, you can practically hear the carnival echoes of the boardwalk when you listen to songs like “Walk in the Park” and “Lover of Mine.” Other highlights include the under-the-covers enchantment of “Better Times” and the wonderfully warped notes of “Norway.” But Beach House gets absolutely transcendental with the epic, sky-parting symphony of “10 Mile Stereo” and the oceanic swoon of “Silver Soul,” which achieves a heavy-lidded majesty that would stun even Mazzy Star.
Sighing heavily with a bottomless sense of wonder, Teen Dream attains the kind of impossible beauty that only exists in the flattering soft-focus of memory. It’s an extraordinary work that creates warmth even if the surrounding reality is anything but.
Beach House is playing the EARL in Atlanta on Apr. 29.
20 days ago
American Cheeseburger/Religious As Fuck
Split LP
No Idea
Gainesville, FL band Religious as Fuck takes over side one of this split LP and solidifies its place as one of the handful of bands in the nation that is making American hardcore exciting and vital again. The band contributes 11 songs to this split, and most of them are at breakneck speed. But the band has a handle on nuance and melody that comes through in tracks like “Stay Tuned," with its perfect single-chord, rhythmic guitar intro or in “Napalm Meth,” with its slow, grinding halt of an ending, and “Seven Churches,” which punches its beginning melody through in a mere seven seconds.
American Cheeseburger gets 10 tracks on side two, and I’m pretty sure this is the last recording that features original vocalist James Greer. The band’s more thrash-oriented hardcore, which thankfully never descends into metal territory, tends to have more instantly recognizable rock and roll elements than Religious as Fuck’s general eschewing of classic, four-chord hardcore pummeling. The band infuses slight amounts of humor, mainly through song titles, but none of this really translates into the band's lyrics, and that is more than welcome. Highlights of American Cheeseburger’s side include “Southern Snow,” “Grandma’s Nazi Plate” and “I.V.O.W.”
Unfortunately, the split LP has become a medium for bands that don't have enough fans or enough quality material on their own to join forces with other bands in the same boat. But this release takes the notion of the split LP back to what it should be and originally was: two bands with more than enough quality material coming together through musical kinship and each giving it their best go.
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