Brief Album Review: Mistaketh

There are only two pieces of evidence that !!! is not the second coming of Liquid Liquid. As these consist of a re-recording of "Bell Head" and a remix of the same, both appearing on DFA Compilation #2, I shall consider these irrelevant.

Brief Album Review: Dying with the Living

Dear Ted Leo,

Your new album is too long. When you were still with Lookout, you proved that the EP was not a dead art (see: Tell Balgeary, Balgury is Dead); you should have kept this in mind upon moving to Touch and Go.

Also, your attempt at channeling D. Boon on "Bomb. Repeat. Bomb." is only somewhat successful. You need to sing more from your throat in order to get his essence.

Otherwise, it's a damn fine album.

--Plasket

p.s. Thanks for finally spelling your band name out with the "and the." That slash shit was driving me nuckfuts.

p.p.s. Remind me to start listening to Chisel.

claxxon's lament

blackout beach is the solo project of frog eyes' carey mercer. carey is quite an accomplished songwriter with his main band, whose songs are heavy tapestries of keys, drums, and melody. by comparison, blackout beach's songs may seem a bit threadbare -- frog eyes without their mighty rhythm section. many blackout beach songs feel like random musical elements loosely tied together and set adrift in space, and it's a testament to mercer's talent that he makes those songs so supremely memorable.

part of that success is due to his songs' brevity. while frog eyes have the muscle to stretch their songs to epic length, blackout beach has mastered the art of making short songs into "riveting, pocket-sized epics," to quote chris berry of soft abuse. listening to their album light flows the putrid dawn takes a mere 24 minutes, yet is as richly satisfying as a regular full-length (i myself like my albums around the 30-40 minutes range).

unlike mercer's other more experimental releases (swan lake's beast moans, and the frog eyes ep the future is interdisciplinary or not at all) his voice is front and center, and the songs' subtly catchy melodies are complemented by the music without being buried in it.

ironically, blackout's most well-known composition is not on the album, or even released... yet! "claxxon's lament" is a dirt simple (and profoundly affecting for it) folk ballad that has happily been made available as a FREE DOWNLOAD at softabuse.com (and yes, such an act of generosity must be emphasized). just click on the song title after you click the link. the song was popularized by the popular wolf parade when they covered last year.

"claxxon's lament" and a b-side called "the street folds" (both from the light flows the putrid dawn sessions) will be released "soon" in a limited edition vinyl single. and as if that wasn't cool enough, word has it that carey is working on a second blackout beach album.

here's some choice cuts from the album:

MP3: Blackout Beach - The Stuttered XXX Breeze XXX
MP3: Blackout Beach - The Painted Forest Screen Hides Its Witch

Till clay-cauld death sall blin' my e'e

photo by mutewitness

Joanna Newsom has been touring with her own band recently, and I'm very sad I didn't get to catch one of her recent shows. Luckily, a guy called Shlack (shlack.googlepages.com) made a fantastic video of her Philly show on the 16th, so I got to watch, enchanted, as she and the group played her new album in its entirety, in between two little sets of solo songs. I haven't quite had the time to digest Ys yet, but it is undeniably one of the best albums to come out in a long time.

The highlight of the show, other than encore (and huge fan-favorite, judging by the cheers when she launched into it) "Sadie," was Joanna's rendition of a beautiful Scottish folk tune called "Ca' The Yowes To The Knowes." Here's the audio I ripped from Shlack's video:

MP3: Joanna Newsom - Ca' The Yowes To The Knowes

I found the lyrics to this tune online, but had to adjust them to match what she sings in her version (the one I found had more verses and was ordered differently).

Ca' The Yowes To The Knowes

Ca' the yowes to the knowes,
Ca' them where the heather grows,
Ca' them where the burnie rowes,
My bonnie dearie!

When I went down the water-side,
To see the fishes sweetly glide
Beneath the hazels spreading wide,
And the moon that shines so clearly.

When I went down the water-side,
'Twas there I met my shepherd lad
He row'd me sweetly in his plaid,
And he called me aye his dearie.

If you will but stand to what you've said,
I'll come with you my bonnie lad
And you may row me in your plaid,
And I will be your dearie.

You will get gowns and ribbons meet,
And leather shoes upon your feet,
And in my arms you'll lie and sleep,
My bonnie dearie

As waters wimple to the sea,
While day blinks in the sky so high
Till clay-cold death shall blind my eye,
I shall be thy dearie.
Till clay-cold death shall blind my eye,
I shall be thy dearie.

there'll be beauty in its sinking...

An excellent new Frog Eyes track (from their upcoming album Tears of the Valedictorian, out early 2007) has been making the rounds recently, thanks to a Force Field PR sampler. Though I love the production on their first two albums, "Idle Songs" is the best sounding Frog Eyes recording yet, and it sounds super good played super loud. It's nice to hear Carey Mercer's voice up front in the mix again, with only a little bit of the echo that liberally drenched his vocals on the Swan Lake album and Frog Eyes' The Future is Inter-disciplinary or Not at All EP. The song boasts a wonderful melody, but the real highlight is Melanie Campbell's increasingly amazing drumming.

MP3: Frog Eyes - Idle Songs

go here for more Frog Eyes stuff, plus a nice forum:
http://www.the-collective.net/~sashwap/frog_eyes/

pavement and the fall (not the band!)

it's fall!!!!!! (maybe not officially, but it seems like fall)

when fall rolls around i usually start listening to pavement more frequently. i don't know why, but i think it has to do with pavement and fall both making me feel really warm, happy and content. favorite band/favorite season. or maybe it's because of some nice pavement/fall associated memories, especially from college. good times.

anyway, now i'm going to be listening to a lot more pavement, 'cause the wowee zowee reissue was just announced. out nov. 7th, this is the third pavement reissue. the first two were pretty much the best things ever; not only did they rekindle interest and love for the original albums, they were the first release for utterly essential songs from the vaults like "all my friends," "soiled little filly," and "circa 1672." wowee zowee: sordid sentinels edition keeps that streak going with five session outtakes (one of which is a jam session! so enticing!) and a treasure trove of radio sessions, b-sides, and compilation tracks.

mp3: pavement - flaming stones (live 4-17-94)
mp3: pavement - mussel rock (is a horse in transistion)
mp3: pavement - for sale: the preston school of industry
mp3: pavement - space ghost jam

here are some goodies. the first is a live, early version of the song "fin" (aka "infinite spark" if you're from the UK) performed in 94, meaning it was possibly a contender for wowee zowee, yet skipped an album and ended up on brighten the corners three years later. it's a more energetic and ragged counterpart to the album version (which had morphed into a mournful guitar epic). i had half suspected that a studio version of this take would surface on the WZ reissue (ala the crooked rain version of "grounded"), and unless it's either "sordid" or "sentinel," then that's not the case.

next up is "mussel rock," an absolutely great spiral stairs song that was a b-side to "father to a sister of thought."

the next track, whose writing and performance was documented on a dutch television show, is one of the finest unreleased songs ever, and hopefully will appear on the brighten the corners reissue. sorry for the low-quality mp3.

lastly, another track that belongs on the inevitable brighten the corners reissue, the ever awesome "space ghost jam." addictively fun!


Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinals Edition

DISC ONE

Wowee Zowee:
01 We Dance
02 Rattled by the Rush
03 Black Out
04 Brinx Job
05 Grounded
06 Serpentine Pad
07 Motion Suggests Itself
08 Father to a Sister Of Thought
09 Extradition
10 Best Friend's Arm
11 Grave Architecture
12 AT & T
13 Flux = Rad
14 Fight This Generation
15 Kennel District
16 Pueblo
17 Half a Canyon
18 Western Homes

Wowee Zowee session outtake:
19 Sordid (previously unreleased)

"Rattled by the Rush" B-sides:
20 Brink of the Clouds
21 False Skorpion
22 Easily Fooled

"Father to a Sister of Thought" B-sides:
23 Kris Kraft
24 Mussle Rock (Is a Horse in Transition)

Pacific Trim EP:
25 Give It a Day
26 Gangsters & Pranksters
27 Saganaw
28 I Love Perth

Wowee Zowee session outtake:
29 Sentinel (previously unreleased)

DISC TWO
From the I Shot Andy Warhol soundtrack:
01 Sensitive Euro Man

Wowee Zowee session outtake:
02 Stray Fire (previously unreleased)

Recorded March 3, 1994 at Hilversum, Holland (all previously unreleased):
03 Fight This Generation
04 Easily Fooled

Wowee Zowee jam session featuring Doug Easley on piano:
05 Soul Food

From the Homage to Descendents Descendents tribute album:
06 It's a Hectic World

Recorded for BBC Radio 1's Steve Lamacq Evening Session, March 15, 1995 (all previously unreleased):
07 Kris Kraft
08 Golden Boys/Serpentine Pad
09 Painted Soldiers
10 I Love Perth

Medusa Cyclone/Pavement split 7":
11 Dancing With the Elders

Live at the Wireless JJJ Radio, Australia, Recorded July 7, 1994 (all previously unreleased):
12 Half a Canyon
13 Best Friend's Arm
14 Brink of the Clouds/Candylad
15 Unfair
16 Eaily Fooled
17 Heaven Is a Truck
18 Box Elder

From the Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks compilation:
19 No More Kings

From the The Kids in the Hall in Brain Candy soundtrack:
20 Painted Soldiers

Wowee Zowee session outtake:
21 We Dance - alternate mix (previously unreleased)

normal happiness (and california too)

so the "second" robert pollard solo album, normal happiness, has leaked! now, my love of pollard's work is not in question, but this album is fairly not good. it could easily have been a fading captain release under the name psycho & the birds, a pseudonym that released two fairly not good cds earlier this year.

with psycho, all the songs were improvised into a boombox, and then dressed-up by producer todd tobias, who favors the indistinct garage rock with loopy keyboards sound. normal happiness is exactly the same, except the songs mostly sound like the second takes of improvised songs -- maybe a little more refined, but still a bit undercooked. in fact, at least two of the tracks can be found of Suitcase 2 as nearly identical make-it-up-as-i-go-along demos. of course, pollard has ALWAYS written songs this way, mixing and matching the good parts from improv jams, but previous recordings captured the inherent spontaneityin his writing without sounding detached, improvised and unfocused.

"rhoda rhoda" comes closest to sounding like a bee thousand outtake (the gold standard by which everything else pollard is measured) although it somehow manages to go on for too long, despite being only 1:49. "supernatural car lover" is the big hit, featuring a classic pollardian riff and melody and cut from the same mold as the classic "wrinkled ghost" from the oft-overlooked waved out.

the rest of the album is mostly short, meandering fragments of lumbering prog rock. there's nothing as great as "u.s. mustard co." or "i'm a strong lion" from his last album. though it's good to hear pollard this loose and free (his singing style on this album is frequently quite bizarre) but his reliance on todd tobias is rapidly becoming a crutch.

if you are interested in his recent work, i highly recommend blues and boogie shoes by the keene brothers and turn to red by the takeovers, two albums released this year that showcase pollard's talents in a far more satisfying way. the keene brothers album is the opposite of tossed-off, thanks to tommy keene's jangly, 80's style instrumentals. the takeovers is the other end of the spectrum, a hodgepodge of sounds and styles that, like pollard's best work, combines to make a complete whole greater than the sum of its parts. it's more GBV than the last few GBV albums, AND it features a few vintage tracks from the vaults, including the absolutely great "be it not for the serpentine rain dodger," which don't just sound like old-school GBV, but ARE old-school GBV. rock.

MP3: robert pollard - rhoda rhoda
MP3: the takeovers - be it not for the serpentine rain dodger
MP3: the keene brothers - death of the party (from robertpollard.net)

buy pollard albums here: http://robertpollard.net/luna.html