Saturday, July 31, 2010

Social Studies - Wind Up Wooden Heart

While Menomena's new one hasn't been given to the online resources, I opted for an unknown instead. ("unknown" = they don't even have a wikipedia page!!! *gasp*) I'm trading Portland experimental rock without boundaries to a San Francisco chick-fronted outfit.

Alright, it still has its experimental moments. Being
compared to Deerhoof is not out of place. Opening strong with dirgy two-step complimented by a strong break-back back beat. "Charioteers" and "Drag a Rake" are indicative that someone in the band has some world music knowledge and is bringing it forth in the arrangement. Hooray for fiddles and people on roofs!

But that is too often replaced by a keyboard purchased by someone who wanted to recreate
Sega video game music and a singer who sounds like a virginal Nina Persson. "The Good Book" for example is a good definition of the whole record. Good song with a great arrangement being performed by completely bored kids who need a drink, smoke and lay before tackling this thing called performance.



Saturday, July 24, 2010

The Goodnight Loving - The Goodnight Loving Supper Club

Another of the big-instrumentation folksy collectives that are permeating all over Adult Alternative radio right now. Magnetic Zeroneans doing countrified waltzes with indie-rock vocalists. Minimalist songwriters who, because they've invited extra friends to the party, get credited for being musical landscapists. Someone remembers that echo and reverb are important to create "texture".

So what are the songs like? Pleasant, really. Unobtrusive and without anyone getting emotionally attached to anything. There's a song about a fish's perspective as it becomes lunch. Another one about those earworm songs.
"Candy Store" has a fantastic riff straight out of Duane Eddy's songbook. BUT... it's about babies picking shit out in a candy store. Nothing coy nor clever.

Sometimes the pare it down to a minimum of garage rockers, not unlike the
Jayhawks, but the sound basically still remains the same. I'm left without the excitement of a garage party. "Ramble Jamble" gives us some fun sixties Hullabaloo romping; but it's too little and too late for this collection. (2 of 5 stars)


Saturday, July 17, 2010

Mystery Jets - Serotonin

British pop rock with some quality and style. But in comparing it to other British pop-rock, it either over-shoots the mark or glides completely by you. The first two tracks for example...

The album opener, "Alice Springs" blows up like a Pulp Top 10. "I'd stand in the line of fire for you..." has the rocked-up singalong chorus and the sentimental lyrics, but I still feel like we're just writing a modern day "Oliver Twist" musical. Too much.

The second track, "It's Too Late To Talk" - glides over you without digging in anywhere. It's verses are wordy without reason, which you forget all about when we pass the "doo doo doo doo" bridge and arrive at the one-line-title-repeated-four-times chrous.

That and the third track smacks cool into smooth synth-pop of old Spandau Ballet. And then, the album begins rocking less and driving up the pleasant pop. And that's not bad per se, but the choruses do get awfully repetitive in pop this poppy. And if keyboards aren't riffing or droning, they tend to grate on me. These '80s synth effects don't add anything to the songwriting- which really isn't bad.

A great example is a song called "Melt" which is simple, nice. "All I want to do is melt, melt, melt, melt into you..." The hook is total fun. They just drive it around too many times. They rarely dive into the deep end of the shit waters

Outside the synth effects, I'd be remiss if I didn't say that "Waiting On A Miracle" is a straight up Coldplay throwaway. Avoid.

The best track is clearly the last, "Lorna Doone". And it's about a movie character. Remember when I asked for droning, before? I got it. The Jets provide an Arcade Fire inspired break up song that hits all the right notes, takes itself seriously and walks away when its supposed to.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Dirty Little Rabbits

With very little being released mid-summer, I pulled an unknown out of the hat. Come to find that Dirty Little Rabbits are a side project of Shawn Crahan, who is a percussionist in Slipknot. ("The Clown" - not the dead guy, who was "The Pig") I would have expected that a sideman in Slipknot would follow the singer's direction and take up a more commercial group and collect bigger songwriting royalties. And while DLR is farther away from metal than even Corey's Stone Sour, I'd still be hard pressed to call it commercial.

Joining Crahan (who is playing drums here) is an organist named
Michael Pfaff and a very dynamic/enigmatic chick singer named Stella Katsoudas. Guitar/bass round things out, but the arrangements are clearly led by Pfaff; and Stella is so clearly the band leader that even Jeff Beck would sit back and take direction.

But on a first listen, I must admit, I'm at a bit of a loss for words. Crahan is not afraid to beat the skins, but leans back when he's supposed to. The organ takes me back to
Billy Joel's pre-fame heavy metal effort Attila. 70s, Deep Purple, power rock. And then, to throw everything for a loop is Stella.

First of all, she's WAY over the top in the mix. Vocals are never muddled. She runs the gamut from cute and poppy like
Letters To Cleo... to wordsy and poetic like Fiery Furnaces or Dresden Dolls... to just full on annoying like Juliette Lewis.
I think I like it. (3 of 5 stars)



Saturday, July 3, 2010

Peter Case - Wig!

An old power-popper has a intrusive heart operation and comes back with an unexpected response. A bare-bones garage blues rock recording from one day-long session.

It's hard to differentiate these recordings when talking about this album project. There's not a lot of room for experimentation during a day-long session. "New Old Blue Car" for example is an update from Case's own "Old Blue Car" from 1986 but ends up sounding like Tom Waits' "Goin' Out West" with
Robin Zander on vocals.

A lot of the album has that same feel. Electric blues, electric piano, amplified/distorted harmonica. You can imagine
Case sweating these out live and it feels great. I also just wondered then why he didn't cross the line and record it in front of a barroom full of friends.

The slow, acoustic
Lead Belly cover, "Thirty Days in the Workhouse" breaks up the album into halves before we enter "Ain't Got No Dough", which (purposefully?) rips off the piano riff to "Money (That's What I Want)".

The album's end gets acoustic again with "House Rent Party", which may be my favorite of the set. The whole thing was great fun, and I'm sure I'd love to see Case live at the Slippery Noodle. But from an album, point of view, it will suffer in my eyes to what all of modern electric blues suffers from. Sameness in style that unless your adding an element to get lost in, can lose you. This is better than most, though. Don't let me fool you. (3.5 of 5 stars)