How I learned how to survive

It's been a while, I know. Here are some of the things that especially stand out from the new things I've heard lately:

Song: Starry Eyes
Artist: The Gang
Source: Tour Split 12" with Vague Angels
Imagine Archers of Loaf-era Eric Bachman jamming with New Order and a Velvet Undergound-era Lou Reed dropping by the studio to add a little tonal-noodling-but-don't-call-it-a-solo at the end for the fade out. Inspired, yet off the cuff and loose like the indie rock of my youth.


Song: Wheats (available at Epitonic)
Artist: Mazarin
Source: Watch it Happen
Gently psychedellic indie rock, like the more straightforward parts of On Avery Island. The stuttering drums and lightly chugging guitars give the song a vaguely triumpant sound, like a march with the martial overtones stripped out leaving only the sense of motion and direction. And the song is incredibly catchy. The whole thing left me a bit unprepared for lyrics, a series of ruminations on a breakup and attempts to deal with it. While sad and approaching bitter, they are clever and blackly funny in a way that the whole thing fits.

I must have spent 30 rainy days
Writing this simple melody
to tell you that I'm over you
Oh yeah, that's right, I'm not over you
la-la-la la-la-la-la

Side note pt1: This might end up being my used bin discovery of the year. It was "priced to move" and I really liked a couple of songs off "We're Already There", Mazarin's most recent album so I took a chance. In addition to this song there is a lot more to recommend the album, like the Built to Spill-inspired opener "Chasing the Girl" and the acoustic ode to Henry Darger.

Side note pt2: Mazarin are undergoing a name change to avoid legal consequences but will continue to exist in some form.


Artist: Andrew Jackson Jihad
Source: People who can eat people are the luckiest people in the world LP.
Song: the whole dang album

Like early the Mountain Goats meeting up with early Bright Eyes and drinking too much coffee before going into the studio and deciding to be too clever for their own good. (Not that Mssrs Darnielle or Oberst aren't clever, but neither achieve the level of smartass-ery on record that AJJ do. Oberst was always too serious and Darnielle dropped the slight tendancies he had a long time ago.) Full of the nervous energy of youth and the nervous energy that comes from dealing with your demons in front of other people and dark, dark, dark but funny. Spazzy, smart, sad, scary, oldtimey, invigorating, folk punk. Brilliant. They have some mp3s from the album on their web site.

Bros

Song: Bros
Artist: Panda Bear
Source: Person Pitch
Day: 6/12-6/17

Last week I listened to this album until I had to force myself to take a break. I was certainly on the line with the looped, wall-of-sunshine-vocal pop of "Comfy in Nautica" (imagine the Beach Boys doing an album of prison work songs) but the second section of "Bros" reeled me in. The song stretches out, with parts repeating and shifting, extending and deconstructing each other in amazing ways. All the while it manages to be accessible, anchored by a fiercely strummed acoustic guitar and tuneful, albeit fractured, vocal loops.

Stuff I've been listening to lately

The Ex - Turn and Dizzy Spells
Someone recently sold their collection of The Ex to the store I volunteer at and I bought it all up. I've been slowly working my way backwards through their catalog, and so far I've been pretty amazed. These two albums are rhythmic no-wave kind of stuff with an impeccable sense of pacing and structure, knowing exactly where to repeat & build and where to change.

Do Make Say Think - You, You're a History in Rust
All DMST albums (except the first one for some reason) eventually become regular parts of the sonic fabric of my life. This one took a few listens to grow on me but is there now. More of the amazing intrumental rock/lounge/ambient/experiemental goodness I've some to expect, with a few good vocals thrown in for good measure.

Faust - "It's a Rainy Day (Sunshine Girl)"
Kampfire Krautrock? The incessant motorik-style beat is there, but the instrumentation and arrangement feel organic, punctuated by a downright fun "ah-oom" vocal chant. And what lyrics could fit springtime better than "it's a rainy day/sunshine baby"?

Big Business - Here Comes the Waterworks
Big Business finally releases something that fulfills the promise of their pedigree.

Dalek - Abandoned Language
Ambient Noise Hop. Somewhere between the tech-paranoia of El-P and the chill feeling of Native Tongue bands, with a taste for noise and droll world-weary vocals.

Homostupids - S/T
Trashy noisy garage punk. Reminds me a bit of the better moments of Pink and Brown

Catena Collapse - Rai Rai Rai/Outback Songs
The '00s have brought us an increasing amount of bombast from emo hardcore bands. This is fine and all but eventually you get to a point where the music has so much drama it becomes imposing, mythic, trans-human. Catena Collapse come from a similar emo punk tradition, but they have a looseness that is approachable, human, even welcoming in its own way. Moss Icon, Current, or the All the President's Men comp are all reasonable reference points (as are the more obscure Plunger or the first Bob Tilton LP). How come all the good emo bands are from Europe these days, anyway?

Hefner - "Hymn for the Cigarettes"
The funny/biting chorus defies my powers of analysis and description.

Axolotl - "There are Sometimes Miracles"
This is currently my favorite track from the Way Blank album. Pop noise, like if My Bloody Valentine had decided to release an album of the shimmering, abstract interludes from Loveless and the EPs of that era.

Eluvium - "Amreik"
Ambient music. Reminds me a bit of the second side of Eno's Discreet Music where he reworks Pachelbel's canon, esp "The Fullness of Wind" version. Unlike the eno work, though, this nearly breaks my heart everytime I hear it. The rest of the album is good, but does not quite pack the punch that this does.

Built to Spill - There's Nothing Wrong With Love
Soundtrack for a drive to a spring wedding.

One Last Wish - 1986
One Last Wish is most of members of Rites of Spring playing music that sounds a lot like Rites of Spring. This was a lost album for a while until Dischord issued it in the late 90s/early 00s. "My Better Half" was included on a mix CD wedding favor and prompted a week of listens to this album.

Explosions in the Sky - The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place
honorable mention to the new album as well.

Pavement - "Old to Begin"
Not sure why, but phrases from this song keep popping into my head.

The no singing, but some dancing edition

Song: With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept
Artist: Explosions in the Sky
Source: Live
Day: 3/29/07

Two songs into their set, Explosions in the Sky play the song I really want to hear and they play it with their characteristic awesomeness: the performance varies from epic beauty to grap-you-and-shake-you intensity, with enough space and savvy to allow the two to coexist in a natural way. The show is all gravy after that.


Song: Taken
Artist: Eluvium
Sources: Talk Amongst the Trees
Day: 4/1/07

This song falls somewhere between guitar driven post-rock and Eno's Discrete Music. I was lucky enough to see him do this live, opening for Explosions in the Sky. It was just him and a delay device slowly building a world of sonic wonder as the parts looped back on themselves. The recorded version is more mellow but no less amazing.


Song: The Universe!
Artist: Do Make Say Think
Source: You, You're a History in Rust
Day: 4/3/07

Do Make Say Think finally rock out. Not too surprisingly it sounds a bit like "kc Accidental" by Broken Social Scene (several DMSTers are in BSS and the song "kc accidental" shares its name with another DMST/BSS side project). All the great spatial/texural qualities of DSMT with a beat I can jump up and down to. Perfect. Especially good following the gentle "A With Living" that procedes it on the album.

I won't even mind

Song: "When I Go Deaf"
Artist: Low
Source: The Great Destroyer
Day: 3/27/07