8 posts tagged “us”
Ghostland Observatory seem poised to be this year's Big Thing, leading to overexposure and backlash, but a month after listening to their new album, Robotique Majestique, I still have several of the melodies and choruses running through my head. Ghostland Observatory are a synth/vocal duo in the classic mold of Soft Cell, but where Soft Cell looked to 60s female soul hits for influence, G.O. starts with Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust." Case in point: the insanely catchy "Heavy Heart"--
Singer Aaron Behrens even brings rock histrionics to the stage show; can he compensate for the lack of any actual instrument-playing onstage through a whole concert? That will be insteresting to see, if I ever get a chance.
I don't often listen to so-called "Indie Rock," because when I do I usually find it boring, precious, excessively wordy, and lacking any rock'n'roll gusto, and then I remember why I don't listen to Indie Rock. Sasha Frere-Jones ignited a big debate last fall (if music geeks arguing amongst themselves can be termed a "debate") with his New Yorker article "A Paler Shade of White," in which he argues that indie rock sucks because it's all made by middle-class white college students (and graduates) with little to no influence from Authentic Black Music. (I remember hearing virtually the same argument nearly thirty years ago, explaining why Led Zeppelin was great and Def Leppard sucked.) I think it probably explains why I can't get interested in indie rock. But complaining about it is like complaining that Chick-Fil-A doesn't serve enough hamburgers. If it's a hamburger you want, don't go to Chick-Fil-A! Yesterday, however, I took a trip to the musical Chick-Fil-A, as Ted Leo and the Pharmacists were playing at Cornell's end-of-classes Slope Day celebration. I'd heard good things about Ted Leo from phantom blogger Jeff, and it was free, so I decided to check it out. Well...for the most part it didn't change my opinion of indie rock, but they did unleash the angriest, most passionate anti-war song I've heard in years, the best protest rock since Rage Against the Machine broke up. Here's the video for "Bomb. Repeat. Bomb.", which doesn't begin to capture the power of the live performance (a second guitarist really adds to the punch of the chorus):
Everything else I have in the queue just got pushed back, because I have minutes ago discovered the brand-new, phenomenal debut album by Brent Cash, How Will I know When I'm Awake. This may mark the first music out of Athens, Georgia, that I've liked since the B-52's. It's sunshine pop at its finest: Bacharachian chord changes, Carole King-ish piano rhythms, lush arrangements, and, well, sunshine galore. The press release sums it all up, you can read it on his MySpace page, or you can listen here before clicking over:
Speaking of Radio 4, as I just was, they released a new song today on the RCRD LBL netlabel. Which means it's free! Free to download, free to listen to, and free to embed as long as you use RCRD LBL's ad-supported widget:
They're jumping on the Afrobeat bandwagon too: note the kalimba in the "cover art" (in quotes because there's no physical product to cover) and the guitar figure that plays throughout the song. At the same time they've smoothed the edges of their sound; this doesn't seem like a good direction for them, but they're promising more through RCRD LBL, so I'll keep my hopes up for something a little more raucous. For comparison, here are some older Radio 4 songs that are sitting around on the web, starting with the title track from their last album:
Would Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" (1973) have sounded scary without its association with The Exorcist? Would Goblin's theme for Dario Argento's "Suspiria" (1977) have sounded like that without "Tubular Bells"? (Or Pink Floyd's "One Of These Days," once you get to the middle?) Whatever the case, Italian band Goblin came to define horror movie soundtrack music for a generation. So I think it's not too far-fetched to speculate that RJD2 had Goblin in mind when he came up with "The Horror," the opener for his 2002 album Deadringer:
"The Horror" samples the theme music from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and First Moog Quartet's song Hey Hey. -- Wikipedia
I don't have the resources, the time, or the attention span to conduct a comprehensive dance-punk genre review, but I did find a few bands that I like; and that's what this blog is all about anyway, as it says right up there at the top, "Songs I Like." One thing about these dance-punk bands, they pretty much suck at naming themselves. Case in point: Does It Offend You, Yeah? That's the name of the band. It's a Ricky Gervais line from The Office. "No thought went into it whatsoever," they say, and it shows. According to Wikipedia they are a "British electro-rock band from Reading," "electro-rock" meaning "dance-punk with a synthesizer." Getting beyond their name, their debut album, You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into, has several noteworthy songs on it, my favorite being track two, ""With a Heavy Heart (I Regret to Inform You)"--
What's a worse band name than Does It Offend You, Yeah? How about "!!!", the band with nothing but punctuation for a name? Try Googling that--you'll get nothing! Nice strategy for getting the word out! Their MySpace page includes some pronunciation tips: "! ! ! is pronounced as any sound repeated three times. Common interpretations are chkchkchk, powpowpow, uhuhuh: unlimited possibilities." Indeed, they've even taken to writing the band name as "!!! (Chk Chk Chk)"-- if you have to explain it right up front, that's a good indicator of a bad name. But I can't fault their music. They've been at this dance-punk thing for years now (like fellow Brooklynites Radio 4, seen here earlier), and they're pretty darn good at it. Once again I've settled on track two of their latest album, Myth Takes (groan), as my favorite (though "Heart of Hearts" is more immediately gratifying, but it's way more "dance" than "punk"):
Rounding out today's trio are the tolerably-named Infadels, from London. Their first album, We Are Not The Infadels, is two years old now, but it's new to me. In keeping with the inadvertent theme of this post, the standout is track two, "Can't Get Enough," which has the wickedest beat that any of these bands have recorded. It could just be that I'm a sucker for a driving synth line, but I don't see how anyone can resist this one:
All three of these bands have stellar reputations for their live shows, and I could definitely get into spending a couple sweaty hours bopping around to their music, if any of them by some miracle actually come play in Ithaca. Eh, fat chance. I'd drive to Syracuse to see them, though. Come on, guys, how about it? Please?
Aren't they pretty boring? So they incorporate some African pop sounds into their music; so do a lot of better bands. The Budos Band, for instance, who have a brand-new video:
And they're on Daptone Records, so you know they've got to be good. However, they're not new. Yeasayer is, though; they sound like the Polyphonic Spree playing Afrobeat. Since there are only four band members, that big sound must be the result of overdubbing and choir effects, but it sounds great, positively lush at times.
Afrobeat is creeping into the mainstream, and that's a good thing, because it means I can hear more of it.
The whole "new wave of new wave" fad has been fun, with bands emulating the sounds of the Clash, Gang of Four, The Cure, Duran Duran, Joy Division, etc. Brooklyn's Radio 4 is one of the best, putting forth a mix of the Clash and Gang of Four, sprinkled with electronics. The raw energy and (faux?) DIY production values of their second album, Gotham (2002), have made it a fan favorite. Their followup, Stealing of a Nation (2004), featured more mainstream production, increased synth presence, and a certain homogeneity among the songs, and thus it seems to be everyone's least favorite Radio 4 album. But the sound is quite junior-high-friendly (it sounds like Hard-Fi), so it's gotten some play in the Veneer household and minivan, and it includes my favorite Radio 4 song of all, the foot-stomping "Dismiss the Sound"--
I especially like when the vocal comes in, at first it sounds like real heavy-metal wailing; it takes a few seconds to realize it's just a regular singing voice, heavily filtered. And I love the guitar riff that skitters under the verses. YMMV, of course.
