half.com is a blessing for getting rid of those pesky cds that have overstayed their welcome, but it's not always easy for me to eliminate cds from my life. to make it easier for me to part with them, some will be eulogized in my Music I Sold column. you see, many of the CDs i am parting with are subpar albums whose subparness is marred by a few fantastic, utterly keepable songs. only by ripping these songs can i free myself up enough to sell the CD, and it is these songs that i will be sharing with you.
miighty flashlight - ballet skool
yes, that's spelled right. miighty flashlight is mike fellows, a guy who was in a band i've never heard called rites of spring (pre-fugazi ian mackaye band, i hear), has worked with smog, and played on the last three silver jews albums (including co-writing "k-hole" on tanglewood numbers). the smog and silver jews connections are good to make, because fellows sings oddball country-ish songs in a deep voice only slightly more nuanced than david berman's.
his self-titled album consists of many layers of laconically picked acoustic and electric guitars and various computer noises such as sampled piano, drum machines, handclaps, whooshing sounds and beeping things. still, the album is as far removed from a "folktronica" album as a folk album can get, the computery effects somehow coming off as quaint and rustic, as if they were recorded in my grandma's house by the balding man on the cover (a grainy photograph that's almost certainly a jandek homage).
somehow, awesome production, cool song titles ("go on. die. it's easy," and the pollardian "vehicular dome," to name two) and excellent musicianship add up to an album that's merely pleasant and lacks any real spunk. the melodies are afterthoughts and the lyrics are weird -- and good -- but not integral parts of the songs.
"ballet skool" stands out by delivering the album's only memorable hook, a pretty guitar melody that also serves as the chorus, which is: "on top of ballet school / don't let me be misdiagnosed." play this song ten times in a row (which i've just done without getting sick of it!) and you'll get a pretty clear idea of what the whole album is like, with a slightly more enjoyable twist.
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3 comments:
I, too, have a great method of getting rid of CDs... Young Ones. Hooray for Kutztown.
I dunno. It's cool there's this network of session musicians. He's learned Smog's moves of uncaring cool, but this is straight up bloodless. Boring, even! Because? I guess it's mostly because, like SJ, I just don't know the guy enough to care that he's cooler than me. There's a cult of personality that surrounds this kind of stuff that I get left out of too often.
I'm pretty sure Rites of Spring was the work of the other guy from Fugazi. Guy Picciotto, or some spelling thereof.
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