Friday, September 28, 2007

Not quite so Serene Republic

In 2005 I went to see Broken Social Scene. I managed to see the last couple of songs from The Most Serene Republic who opened for them and I have to say; I was impressed. Even though similarities with BSS are obvious (large group of Canadians with male and female vocals making cacophonic music) they were actually the first band to be signed to the Arts & Crafts label who were not in any way part of BSS.

As I said, when I saw them live they intrigued me. I quickly found their debut ‘Underwater Cinematographer’ and expected to love the album. That, sadly never happened. It’s not that it’s a bad record, it just never clicked with me. Even the song I liked best from that album (‘Where Cedar Nouns And Adverbs Walk’) had a clear flaw (an unnecessarily long intro). Here was an album I really wanted to like but didn’t, what I mostly heard was potential.

Then came 2006 and I came upon ‘Emergency Performance Art Piece’ from their EP ‘Phages’. I really liked it and hoped this was an indication of their second album.

Now their second album ‘Population’ is (almost) out and they have made progress. The mathematic rhythms are still here, as are the cacophonic mash of instruments and the beautiful harmonizing. But the songs are much stronger and much better structured. It’s good to see they're living up to their potential.


From their debut: The Most Serene Republic - Where Cedar Nouns And Adverbs Walk (myspace)

From the new one: The Most Serene Republic – Present of Future End

Thursday, September 27, 2007

WiTTY TiTLE WiTH WEiRD TYPOGRAPHY















If you like your music slow, low and dark and with alternative typography then we might have just the thing for you. iLiKETRAiNS (I do, but that's not the point here) are a band from the UK that depressed us (in the good way) with their album 'Progress/Reform' in 2005.

They sound like a choir of doomed miners in a slowly collapsing mine. With epic guitar walls and a Nick Cave like voice singing pitch-black lyrics about historic tragedies. Tales about tragic chess-players ('A Rook House for Bobby'), doomed forgotten explorers ('Terra Nova') and selfish railway reorganizers ('The Beeching Report'). But as much as this might sound like a gimmick (they even wear British Rail-uniforms) the music is solid and lasts.

Their new album 'Elegies to Lessons Learnt' continues along the same line but features smaller personal tragedies instead of grander ones. I just can't get enough of tragedies, unless their my own (or Britneys, I'm sooo done with her).

Some tragedies for you


Not even that: iLiKETRAiNS - No Military Parade (mp3)


iLiKETRAiNS – A Rook House For Bobby (mp3)

And from their new album: iLiKETRAiNS – The Deception (mp3)

Monday, September 24, 2007

Tap the Supersonic Fuzz Gun

Well, now we’re on the ‘they’re from New York and sound a bit like Jesus and Mary Chain’ tour, I should introduce you to A Place To Bury Strangers. This band is being described as the loudest band from New York, mostly because of their overwhelmingly use of reverberating distortion which blows out of your speakers.

This is where front man Oliver Ackermann kicks in. He’s responsible for these noise explosions, since he designs and builds his own hand-wired pedals, not only for APTBS but also for bands like Spoon, Wilco and TV on the Radio. The pedals have names like Interstellar Overdriver, Total Sonic Annihilation and Supersonic Fuzz Gun, and their sound can be heard on the website of Ackermann’s company, Death By Audio. If you don’t feel like clicking the link; the names of the pedals pretty much describe their sound.

After shoegaze band Skywave split up, front man Ackermann formed APTBS and the other band members continued under the name Ceremony. APTBS recorded a self-titled debut album, which sounds like I said, a bit like JAMC. Especially the guitar effect, bassline and distant and monotone vocals can be compared to JAMC‘s Psychocandy. Just listen to APTBS’s Breathe and Psychocandy’s Inside Me and you’ll know what I’m talking about (or won’t of course). But APTBS aren’t just copycats. They have their own distinct sound that’s less slow and sweet for example and also tends more towards post-punk.

Their album has a lot of good songs, but I especially like I Know I'll See You and the epic album closer, Ocean…but that’s me. Feel free to listen to the other songs!

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Rockethouse

Rrright. A mySpace band with about a thousand listeners. What is wrong with this picture?
a) Bad Band.
b) Bad Luck, exposure wise.
c) OMG! They're from New York! And they sound (a bit) like Jesus and Mary Chain! Copycats!
d) Have you been typing random words into Google again?

Yeah. It's C. You could probably tell, or could tell probably.

Rockethouse first caught my attention about two years ago, due to their then current album title ("Weapons of Mass Distortion") and also due to the 'I can download whatever I want' factor. Truth be told, the album did not disappoint: as I can't be bothered (UKian: arsed) to rip the oldies but goodies of the Jesus and Mary Chain to mp3, so I'll just settle with these guys - although they're from the States.

Wait. Is that really fair?

Yeah, as much as the comparison between the Monkees and the Beatles makes sense (haha! I'm not a musician, I just play one on the xylophone). Both give a twist to the genre that's unique, relative to the side of the pond you're on. Who is reinventing who - I'll keep out of that; one thing is for sure! Shoegaze is not dead! Viva el shoegaze norte-americano! (c.f.: Asobi Seksu)

Check out the songs on their myspace page-thingy: http://www.myspace.com/rockethouse
. They've got a new album out but it doubt we'll get to hear it here :(

If I could link legally to 'Pedestal or 'Lock and Load' I would - that would be great as those two figure greatly amongst my semi-recently acquired anthems. But you youngsters don't know much about the Jesus and Mary Chain in the first place:)

Although I have not expressed any opinion on the musical quality of 'Rockethouse', lemme just say that the drumming on 'Pedestal' is as good, if not better, as the drumming on Ride's track 'Nowhere' - capisce?

All you nostalgists, think about it.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

It's elementary, my dear Patrick Watson...

For my first post, I'm not going to talk about an entire style, artist, album or even song. Some songs, albums, artists or even styles you may have to grow accustomed to - sure. I want to get down to the basics instead.

From time to time, just listening to a random song, you get this magical moment: "What? What! Can I hear that again?" - a snippet of a song that is just so cool you have to hear it over and over again. It could be a lyric that's really cool, but that's not what I'm talking about here (worthy of another post, though!). Sometimes the music itself is so enchantingly beautiful that you can listen to the same ten-second segment on repeat for hours on end.

My most recent run-in with this phenomenon was with the opening track of Caribou's new CD, Andorra. The song is called "Melody Day" and the relevant moment occurs right at the start, at 0:15, 0:28, 0:35, 0:42, 0:56 etcetera. Just those high plinking tones, mind you, forget about the tambourine - those high tones make me all dreamy.

What's your favourite snippet?

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Kevin and Feist sitting in a tree, S-O-C-I-A-L-I-S-I-N-G

With the risk of repeating of repeating myself; I love me some Broken Social Scene. And not just the Broken part, but the entire Social Scene. Last year they put the collective on indefinite hiatus since the members of the scene had more success with their solo-projects and bands than was (probably) anticipated (especially Feist*). But soon they came up with a new, more workable format called 'BSS Presents...'. It features one song-writer with parts of the collective playing his/her songs. First up is Kevin Drew, who together with Brendan Canning forms the core of BSS.

Where BSS sounded chaotic, explosive (in a very good way) and anthemic on their last album Kevin's 'Spirit If...' sounds more subdued. It’s less eclectic but still eclectic enough and it’s far more personal. Although most lyrics are still indecipherable they contain just enough understandable parts to move you. Like in ‘Bodhi Sappy Weekend’ where the repeating line “please don’t scratch me out” sounds anguished and desperate, especially placed between the lines that are less direct. Desperation and frustration seem to be the main themes on Spirit if…, with song-titles like 'Tbtf' (Too beautiful to fuck), 'F-up Kids' (“he’s in love with the fucked up kids”) and 'BrokeMe Up' ("everybody broke me up").
There is a lot to discover in Spirit if…
and it's easily one of the best albums of this year for me. But then again, I am a bit prejudiced. Because I love me some Broken Social Scene.


Frustrating: Kevin Drew - Tbtf (download from site)

In love with the fucked up kids: kevin Drew - F-up Kids (mp3)

Apparently he wrote this in three hours as a gift for a friend who had a bad day: Kevin Drew - Cocaine Skin (myspace)


* Rumor is that Kevin is dating Feist (who just keeps popping up everywhere). They could be the coolest pair since Nick Cave and PJ Harvey.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Klicking, ticking, strumming and picking

I don't know what it is about 'folktronica' (ugly term), 'future folk' (less ugly, more stupid) or 'laptop folk' (totally demeaning) but sometimes I really seem to need a fix of it. Ever since David Kitt's 2001 modest masterpiece 'The Big Romance' with it's beats, repeats and multiple electronic layers over romantic folk-ish songs I've been a fan of the genre and got curious with every release labeled with aforementioned ugly, stupid and demeaning terms. The problem is that there aren't that many artists in the genre and even fewer good ones (The Books, Four tet, Múm, The Album Leaf). 2003 saw Postal Service's incredibly succesful debut 'Give up' and some PS-lite's surfaced after that but the more harcore 'folktronica' (let's call PS 'poptronica' and say we didn't) releases are still few and far between. That's why I was thrilled to see a new Tunng album as well as a new Efterklang and a new Caribou release. But with the latter two having dropped most of their overt electronics from their sound that leaves me with just Tunng. Tunng has been making the kind of music that I need for three albums now. Little folksongs riddled with chirps, loops and sometimes surprising beats (like in 'Surprise me 44'). Clicking, ticking, strumming and picking their way through songs about girls, dead cats and spoons (I personally draw the line at girls). Their new album is called 'Good Arrows' and is totally satisfying.

From their debut 'Mother's Daughter and other songs': Tunng - Tale From Black (mp3)

From their sophomore 'Comments of the Inner Chorus', a song about a dead cat (I'm not ashamed to say I've cried): Tunng - Woodcat
(mp3)

And their Bloc Party cover: Tunng - the pioneers (myspace)

Here is the video for their new single: Tunng - Bullets (video)

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Ssssh! Better than the K-word

I know... I already pronounced this my obsession of this week (and the next one), but I think this video should adorn this music blog's frontpage for at least a couple of days.



It's most likely to be adored by anyone who likes Klaxons, the 80s or both, but does not dare to say so. Late of the Pier is, as we speak, still practically unknown to everyone's neighbours' daughter, so don't worry. Yet.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

The LOOOOVEBOA- what!?

Truth be told, I didn’t really dig Jens Lekman’s previous albums. The out-of-tune strings, the lo-fi sound quality and the bored vocals didn’t do it for me. And truth be told, I must have been wrong! Because Jens’ new album ‘Night Falls over Kortedala’ does impress.

The incredibly pompous (in a good way) opener ‘I remember every kiss’ (only someone from Sweden could reach this level of pompousness) tenses all my muscles. Then ‘Sipping on the sweet nectar’ starts and the first thing that comes to mind is “the LOOOOOVEBOAT! Soon we’ll be making another run” and immediately after that comes the obligatory “what the fuck was that!?”.

The rest of the album is decorated with bits of soul and Motown (Barry Manilow, Diana Ross & The Supremes) layered with Burt Bacharachesque strings, sprinkled with some Copacabana and Lambada with just a pinch of funky doo-wop. And, I’ll remind you again, all this from a Swede.

In his lyrics he shows the wit of Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt and Morrissey’s melodrama. But having said this all I have to add that the album has it’s own sound. And what a sound! In Sweden the record is currently topping the charts.


The love Boat?: Jens Lekman - Sipping on the sweet nectar (mp3)

Majestically pompous: Jens Lekman – The opposite of hallelujah (mp3)

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Eagle Seagull

Early 2006 I came across Eagle Seagull (back then there was this ungoogleable asterisk between the separate words), a six-piece band from Nebraska (US). I was sure they were destined for success. But then it grew quiet. Although they got some love from the bloggers it didn’t turn into the success I thought it was going to be. Still, I loved their self-titled debut album to bits and got some friends excited about them. I visited a charming small concert and thought their obscurity was an injustice right up there with third-world debt, AIDs and the ridiculous added costs to a concert ticket in the Netherlands. But then came late 2006 and to my utter surprise I found their album in a giant wall-mart kind of store in Berlin (not even in one of the many hip small semi-second hand record stores) with bonus-tracks! It appeared their cd had become a semi-not quite underground success and was released in Europe on a German Indie-label.

I was thrilled and even more so when they came back to The Netherlands to play another show, which was great. At first I was a bit bummed that they didn’t play all my favorites from their debut (especially ‘Holy’) but then I noticed that all the new songs were fantastic. Every. Single. One.


But what the hell kind of music do they make? I hear you wondering (not really, but I’ll pretend, just play along will you?). They are mostly compared to Arcade Fire which I understand but don’t think is entirely fair. Yes, they do sometimes have their passion and grandeur but they’re also not afraid of an Interpol bass-line ('Heal it/Feel it'), Robert Smithesque vocals, Connor Oberst upsetness ('Your Beauty is a Knife I Put at my Throat'), Jamie Stewarts (of Xiu Xiu) bottled up horribility or Wolf Parade’s akward rhythms. And all this without sounding like copycats and losing their own unique sound.

Their next album is going to be called ‘Year of the How-to Books’ and dammit, this time they’re really going to be huge! Mark my words.


An oldie from the debut: Eagle Seagull – Your Beauty Is A Knife I Put At My Throat (myspace)

Two new songs, both more danceable than earlier songs:

Eagle Seagull – I’m Sorry But I’m Beginning To Hate Your Face (mp3)

Eagle Seagull – You Can’t Call Yourself A Secret (mp3)

Monday, September 3, 2007

From here we go downhill

The Field’s ‘From here We Go Sublime’ has been my 2007 summer album without a doubt. Even though minimal is not a genre I am particularly fond of the Swedish Axel Willner made a record that keeps intriguing me from start to finish.

Every time I tried to describe the music to someone I made it sound like boring trance. Yes, it could be described as repetitive. Little cuts and snippets of sounds and vocals are rearranged in what seems to the order they should’ve been in to begin with. Yes, it is a bit like trance in the sense that it’s utterly mesmerizing. And no, there are no climaxes. But maybe I should’ve compared it to the best foreplay you’ve ever had. Foreplay that’s so good and completely satisfying you just want to go to sleep/smoke a cigarette after it’s done.

Maybe you understand why I really wanted to see The Field. Last Friday he played in Club 11 in Amsterdam. A ‘hipster’ club on the eleventh floor of a building that also houses the Central Museum. After a lovely dinner (calf tongue and sweetbread with peach) with the International Style and Beauty Guru and Kevin we waited for The Field to start playing. After a very long wait, boring DJ’s and some of the most ugly people I’ve seen in a long time we still had high hopes. But after he started playing those hopes we’re also quite dashed. Kevin (check out his totally comprehensive Soulwax site where you can hear the remix they did for Hot Chip) is a professional and competent DJ and watched Axel turn a knob a total of four times. The Field was billed as live and I guess he was since he did move four times but I was kind of disappointed. It took me a couple of songs to get into it and his 'Heartbeat' remix he did for Annie helped a lot but I was no where near impressed with it. I do however have the 'You Don’t Know Her Name' single from Maps and his remix of it. And the Remix he did for Gui Boratto who will be playing in Utrecht in Oktober.

Well, at least the sweetbread and calf tongue were sublime.


Here's the Maps Remix: Maps - You Don't Know Her Name (The Field Remix) (mp3)

And here's his hit: The Field - Everday (myspace)