Stay warm, Chicago. And anyplace else that’s stuck in the severe deep freeze hitting parts of the country right now. Hopefully some Pick Your Poison will make staying warm that much easier. Today’s choice cuts come from Chloe Makes Music (in a track featuring The Morning Benders’ Chris Chu), John Brodeur covering Phantogram, Secret Cities, and Woodsman. In the Soundcloud section there’s also a track from the forthcoming PJ Harvey album, definitely worth your time to stream in anticipation of that record.
If you pay close attention to the hype cycles around the music world, there’s a great chance you’ve heard of James Blake. The 23-year-old British artist/producer began to make a name for himself last year when he released three EPs of music that’s often been described as “dubstep”. The word is in quotes there because the definition of dubstep varies from person to person and in the end is probably not the best word to use when talking about James Blake’s sound anyways. What he did on those EPs was to craft a subtle electro-based dance landscape from synths and vocoders and a host of other very modern computer-related bits, and then typically added vocal samples from a number of old school R&B artists ranging from Aaliyah to R. Kelly. Oftentimes those vocals were so mangled or chopped up that you couldn’t tell who the original artist was anyways. It was fascinating stuff, and original enough to get him not only noticed but the subject of a number of “2011 Artists to Watch” lists. The assertion was only supported further by Blake’s cover of Feist’s “Limit to Your Love” that came out late last year as an advance single from his self-titled debut record. Oddly enough, his version of the song, which paired very sparse piano and his own voice, was pretty different from his prior EP work. It also turned out that Blake’s voice, which had been used very sparingly on the EPs, had a certain fragility and emotion locked within it, drawing easy comparisons to Justin Vernon of Bon Iver and Antony Hegarty.
For his debut full-length, James Blake foregoes any vocal samples from other artists, along with some of the more danceable moments of his earlier EPs. Instead he’s made what amounts to a quiet exercise in minimal, somber electronica paired with some serious soul/R&B influence. He sings on most every track, though you can’t always call what he does singing considering how distorted or chopped up it gets. That’s part of what makes this album unique – it’s the way he’s able to blend some of the most classic elements in music with some of the most advanced technology available today. A great reference point for the sound would be to say that it’s like if Burial, How to Dress Well and Bon Iver had a baby. Opening track “Unluck” plods along with some synths and the slow click of a metronome while there’s some skittering electronic percussion that sounds a lot like a spray paint can being shook up and periodically applied to a brick wall. Blake’s soulful vocals are heavily run over with Autotune, to the point where it’s just a little tough to understand what he’s saying. But as things move along the synths build and then fade and Blake’s voice begins to build upon itself until there are multiple Autotuned versions singing either in unison or working a harmony angle that’s halting, weird, haunting and beautiful. Similar to how Kanye West repurposed Bon Iver’s “Woods” for the track “Lost in the World”, “Unluck” takes that same concept in the opposite direction, instead of making a club banging rap track it remains a somber meditation with dragging electro-beats and synths instead. “I don’t know about my dreams/I don’t know about my dreamin’ anymore/All that I know is I’m fallin’, fallin’, fallin’, fallin'” are the lines repeated over and over again for the duration of “The Wilhelm Scream” (along with “love” replacing all the “dreams”). It’s an aching and clear vocal from Blake, spread atop some quiet synths and laid back beats. The more times Blake runs through those lines though, the louder the noise behind him becomes, until eventually the synths and the beats overtake his vocal, leaving him just an echo in the distance, before dropping out quickly back to their original quiet state. Despite the lack of variation in the lyrics, Blake’s repetition goes a long way towards forcing the song to be memorable, and there’s enough going on in the background to prevent it from becoming an annoyance. In that sense there’s a little bit of genius in the song.
On “I Never Learnt to Share”, there’s even fewer lyrics to go on, as the lines, “My brother and my sister don’t speak to me/but I don’t blame them” are again repeated ad nauseum. Blake’s vocal is the only thing you hear the first three times he runs through the lyrics, but each time adds another overdubbed harmony to increase the complexity and beauty of it. Once that’s clear, the synths and a beat come in low at first before finally building to a somewhat loud and vibrant lyricless final minute that’s just as interesting as the 4 minutes of development that preceeded it. The Autotune is once again very liberally applied to “Lindisfarne I”, a track that is 99% vocals, save for about 4 or 5 single keyboard notes that brush across the sonic palette in the last 45 seconds of the 2.5+ minute duration. The point of the song is less about the lyrics, which are again indecipherable, or even the strength of the singing really. These things are more of a means to an end, the ultimate goal being to explore the pregnant pauses between the words. At some moments Blake finishes a line and then purposely waits just long enough in silence to make it uncomfortable before dishing out the next one. If it sounds like some pretentious bullshit chances are it is, but the restraint and calculation of it is pretty damn impressive. The sequel “Lindisfarne II” is still Autotuned, but in a way where you can understand more lyrics, and with some backing beats and a quietly strummed (but distorted in the background) acoustic guitar. Blake’s cover of Feist’s “Limit to Your Love” is the centerpiece of the record and the most straightforward thing you’ll hear on it as well. His clear vocals are strikingly great and dramatic, his cadence exactly the same as Feist’s on her original. The lush, symphonic elements of the original are stripped back to just piano and voice, though with a couple small electro-noise interludes between the lines. It’s tough to outdo Feist on her own song, but Blake’s very sensitive and quiet approach to the track brings a special quality to it you won’t find anywhere else.
The second half of the record features a number of odd choices that challenge as much as they confound. The very brief “Give Me My Month” is yet another piano and voice track that matches up very well next to “Limit to My Love”, and it’s one of the few moments of respite before things go off the deep end. “To Care (Like You)” is a glitchy electro-synth track that sees Blake manipulating his voice to sound somewhere between a woman and a child for about half of it, essentially creating one odd duet between his regular voice and the severely tweaked one. They switch off what might be considered verses in a very strange but lyrically strong love song. Remember when everyone carried around Discman portable CD players instead of iPods? The biggest flaw with the portable CD player was always when you were doing something active with it or accidentally dropped it in the middle of a song and it’d skip. That was sometimes even the case if your CD was scratched up enough. The track you were listening to would skip around, searching for the next clean spot to keep playing at. The experience would often give a song a disjointed feel, and courtesy of the songs “Why Don’t You Call Me” and “I Mind”, James Blake exploits this issue to no end. “Why Don’t You Call Me” begins as a simple piano and vocal song before getting chopped about. With a simple auditory click you’ll find yourself in the middle of a lyric or chord already struck and being held, and it’d be cause to worry if it wasn’t the same on every format you can listen to the album on. While “I Mind” is very similar, it uses the various chops in audio to create an interesting sort of lyricless groove that works a tiny bit better than you might imagine. It’s one of the few genuine moments on the album that feels like Blake’s 2010 EP stuff, though he’s sampling/cutting his own voice rather than anyone else’s. To close things out, “Measurements” has a very gospel-like feel to it, with some soft and sparse synths assisting a gigantic choir of all James Blakes. He must have overdubbed his voice about 10-15 times to achieve the effect, with everything from baritones to sopranos mixed in and even a touch of Autotune. And as the track drifts off into the night, the synths make their quiet exit, leaving you with just Blake and the many versions of himself. It’s a pretty gorgeous way to end the album and provides a very accurate auditory representation of the hazy photo of Blake that is the album cover. Even when the whole thing is finished you’re still left wondering just what version of James Blake is the real one.
There’s so much that can be said about James Blake, and much of it will either confuse you or just plain give you the wrong impression. What’s written here is probably no different, as this self-titled album is a challenge and a half to describe accurately. It’s a big part of what makes Blake such a compelling artist though, because he defies easy labels or cliches. There’s not much of any song structure or set format across the entire record, even if he does use a lot of the same tools over and over again. Between Autotune and lower register, subdued synths and various slow beats, you’d think a modicum of stability would be established at some point. Just the differences between his EPs and this full length are striking, let alone from track to track. Yet it’s those same elements, purposed and repurposed on the album that provide it with a solid base from which to work. The use of technology to update classic sounds as well, plays a huge part in what makes Blake so original. This Autotuned, electro version of old school soul and R&B can be a bit off-putting and bothersome, especially to long-time devotees of those genres, but the subversion is remarkably refreshing if that’s something you’re looking for. Similarly, this may be the very first album that’s able to use the highly robotic and emotionally stunted Autotune and give it real warmth and feeling. Partial credit goes to Blake’s dramatic singing voice, but the other half is with how he arranges it, either with overdubs and harmonies or with backing melodies that provide ample assistance in that task. Putting all of these varying factors together makes James Blake’s debut album one of the best and most interesting things released so far this year. Given how odd it is, a wide range of reactions is to be expected, but if you’ve got a great degree of appreciation for slow, quiet and innovative music, Blake might be one of your new favorites. Now then – where does he go from here?
Chicago is about headed into the deep freeze this week, with temperatures dropping below zero overnight and single digits during the day. That’s not even including the wind chill factor, making it pretty dangerous to spend any real time outside. It’s one of the big reasons why I try and avoid going to live shows during these winter months, even though they’re not outside. It’s mostly a park and walk several blocks issue, along with a whole “no coat check” thing many venues have that seems to keep me away. Exceptions will be made though, like when The Dismemberment Plan comes to town in a couple weeks. Okay, let’s talk Pick Your Poison for this Monday. Highlights include tracks from The Asteroid #4, Cold Cave, Digits, The District Attorneys, and Lawrence & Leigh.
It really doesn’t seem like it, but …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead have been around for 16 years. In that time there’s been 7 albums and a few EPs, and the progression of the band is pretty well charted by all those releases. They began as punk rock upstarts with a flair for the dramatic and hints of prog-rock influences. By the time their third album “Source Tags and Codes” came around in 2002, the band had developed their sound to the point where many of the tracks blended into one another or were connected by brief orchestral interludes, truly taking on a life of their own. That was one hell of an epic record, and one of the chosen few to receive a coveted 10.0 rating on Pitchfork and deservedly so. It was that sort of brilliance combined with the band’s intense live shows that often ended with everything on stage getting completely obliterated (instruments included) that really earned the band their name and reputation. Everything they’ve done since then has fallen somewhere between searching for a new way to advance the band’s sound to trying to reclaim the magic of that singular perfect record. The kind of pressure such lofty expectations must have put on the band had to be monumental, and Trail of Dead essentially retreated from the spotlight. Intra-band fights ensued, as did critical slammings and tension with their label. In 2007 they left Interscope Records after citing “lack of support” and instead decided to release new music under their own label, Richter Scale. It’s been just about 2 years since their last album, “The Century of Self”, which saw them slowly crawling their way back towards the top with their new found freedom. They were more creatively electrified than they had been in years, and it was quite evident upon listening to that still epic of markedly adventuresome record. Now in a much healthier place, Trail of Dead return with “Tao of the Dead”, their wildest and most ambitious project to date.
At a time in which the single is more popular than ever and the existence of the full length album is consistently being threatened, …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead have crafted a record that practically demands to be heard from start to finish. “Tao of the Dead” is actually divided into two separate parts. Part I spans 11 tracks and 36 minutes and was recorded entirely in the key of D. Part II is titled “Strange News From Another Planet” and is five separate movements contained within a single 16.5 minute track, recorded entirely in the key of F. Yeah, it’s some high concept shit, though at least they’re not aiming to tell some long-winded story via the lyrics. No, the intention is just to compose two long-form pieces of music that perfectly blend together compositionally. Conrad Keeley cited records like Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” and Rush’s “Hemispheres” as direct influences when coming up with “Tao of the Dead”. Doubtless that he’s hoping this new album will be as warmly received and as legendary as those. On that note, there’s some good news and some bad news.
The bad news first, there’s no way “Tao of the Dead” will go down as a landmark album. While that primarily has to do with the challenges the album format presents in this day and age, even if this were the 60s, 70s or 80s where such attempts would be more admirable, one gets the feeling that this record wouldn’t quite succeed at the desired level. What’s really a shame is that it actually comes somewhat close to achieving such a lofty goal. The gigantic, epic-as-fuck landscape is already laid out for them on a platter as it’s a sound they’ve been trying out the last several years with mixed results, with the problems mostly coming from the band trying to take themselves far too seriously. Trail of Dead have always sounded best in a very loose and playful atmosphere, buttressed by the occasional Jason Reece-led punk rock quickie. Reece does pop up on vocals a time or two, though his “Days of Being Wild” tendencies are shaved down in service of the overall concept, which in and of itself is just a touch rigid and demanding. The band attempts to counteract such difficulties via the album’s lyrics and artwork, which have a very fantastical and science fiction-y quality to them. The album cover looks like a damn “Star Wars” or “Indiana Jones” poster, and if you buy a deluxe version there’s a graphic novel that comes with it. All of it is written and designed by proverbial band leader Conrad Keeley, who depending on the record can be as much of an asset to the group as he is a hindrance. His issues are primarily vocal, in that the band’s occasional over-reliance on his often sub-par singing has sometimes made an album worse than it should be. That’s less of an issue on “Tao of the Dead” thanks to an increased sense of atmosphere and more instrumental brute force than normal.
The good news about this record is that it does a whole lot more right than it does wrong. The band is smart to stick with pretty much the same sound they’ve been dishing out for years now, but repurposed just a touch. There’s less in the way of outright balladry and more intense/loud moments flanked by some of the band’s sharpest drum work in recent memory. And while the concept seems to take precedence over anything else this time around, the first part of the album also has its fair share of workable singles as well. “Pure Radio Cosplay” is fun and exciting and memorable to the point where it earns the 3 minute “Reprise” version several tracks later. First single “Summer of All Dead Souls” is solid, but interestingly enough not the most obvious or easiest choice in terms of marketing the record. Atmosphere plays a huge role in “Cover the Days Like A Tidal Wave”, where the melody builds and builds until it overwhelms and buries you in pure noise. “The Wasteland” is an exercise in restraint, bringing in some lighter acoustic guitars amidst the jabs of louder electric guitar moments, which is taken over by the brief “The Spiral Jetty”, complete with somber piano, electro ambiance and a defunct guitar solo. Though a song like “Weight of the Sun (Or, the Post-Modern Prometheus)” seems deserving of single status (it’s certain to be a crowd-pleaser at live shows), there’s something just a touch off-putting about the loudly shouted chorus of “You! Will! Pay!” in general because of how simplistic it is. Jason Reece finally reports for vocal duty on “Ebb Away”, a song that’s so triumphant that it feels like it should close out the entire movement. Instead, “The Fairlight Pendant” takes care of that, a nearly 6 minute instrumental that goes huge before going home. The keyboards go nuts, the pace accelerates to breakneck speed, and there’s some serious psychedelic/krautrock debts that are paid in full. Rather than actually feeling like a proper closer to Part I of the record, it instead does some solid work bridging the two divided halves of the album.
The 16 minute opus “Strange News From Another Planet” is the left turn where “Tao of the Dead” sails over the edge of sanity. At over 16 minutes, it’s the longest single track Trail of Dead have ever done, even if it is technically five separate songs smashed into one. Of course thanks to creative blending and the idea that the entire piece be heard as a single symphonic movement, it’s a small challenge to identify exactly where each of those five songs ends and the new ones begin. Much of it is instrumental, which actually works to the band’s benefit as they space out while going for broke. There are several time signature changes, a section of spoken word/found sound audio clips (a reference back to their early days), intense shredding guitar solos, and a brief Jason Reece vocal appearance, all amidst an ebb and flow that continually builds up, explodes and breaks down with enough force to keep things interesting for the duration. To some, it will be a grand masterpiece, a thesis statement for the entire record and a testament to the brilliance this band genuinely possesses but has failed to deliver upon since that one perfect album nine years ago. Others will view it as an agenda piece, with Trail of Dead trying so hard to create this massive epic and prove their worth that they’ll throw this incredibly long track at you with the hopes that you’ll either be impressed by the sheer ambition of it or too worn down by the end to actually come up with a valid criticism of it. Personally I fall somewhere in between those two extremes. Trail of Dead take the risk and actually do a solid job of making it work, but it does scream pompous and overblown just a bit and the extreme running time for a single track gets both taxing after awhile and a challenge to listen to unless you’re in the middle of a long car ride or have nothing better to do. At least in the first part of the album, though intended as a singular piece divided into 11 separate tracks, you can stop or pause between them should you need to.
For long-time Trail of Dead fans that have sat around moping since “Source Tags and COdes” changed their life, there’s good news for you courtesy of “Tao of the Dead”. The band you once knew and loved dearly is now closer than ever towards reclaiming the crown once placed upon their heads those many years ago. This new album really was a gambit from its creation, and the guys could just as easily have fallen on their faces as they could have emerged triumphant. Thankfully, they earn their keep for the most part by crafting a smart and well-adjusted record that’s reins in a lot of their past mistakes in favor of interesting new doorways to explore. There are a couple issues, from the intense sincerity of the material to a weak track or two, but those are more minor than most everything else. Conrad Keeley’s not-always-great vocals are used better this time as well, both by not always leaving them front-and-center in the mix or just breaking out more instrumental passages than ever before. There are still moments when he’s reaching beyond his capacity however, and that strain doesn’t help things. Still, the supporting cast in the band, now slimmed down to a mere four-piece, excels at nearly every turn and seems to prove the old adage that too many cooks in the kitchen can spoil the broth (the argument here being that the extra members were weighing them down). “Tao of the Dead” may not go down in music history as one of the finest single-piece concept records, nor will it even be considered Trail of Dead’s most important work, but what it does do is provide legitimate hope. Hope for a band that lost the plot years ago and many were beginning to believe wouldn’t ever find it again. Everybody loves a good comeback story, and thanks to this album, …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead are now poised to do just that. Now if only they’d lighten up a little bit and start smashing things on stage again.
It’s Friday. Time for the weekend. ‘Nuff said. Let’s have some fun. Good Pick Your Poison again today. Choice cuts from Dangerous Ponies, Ice Black Birds, L’Altra, Micachu and the Shapes, and The Morning Birds.
Happy Chinese New Year to all my readers in the Far East. Does anybody in China read this site? I’m halfway assuming it’s banned over there, or there’s just a whole lot of language barriers. Of course maybe all that “spam” I’m getting in my inbox and on occasional site comments are actually from Chinese readers. Apologies if that’s the case. But we’re now in the Year of the Rabbit, so best of luck to all those on the same animal cycle. Highlights of today’s Pick Your Poison include tracks from Heidi Spencer & the Rare Birds, Six Organs of Admittance and Yellowbirds. Yeasayer remixing a new Cold War Kids song should be on your radar too, along with DISCOFORGIA’s remix of a Sleigh Bells track. The only Soundcloud track for you today is a new one from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and that’s simply delightful and a must hear.
It’s been about a year and a half since The Babies first emerged onto the music scene, and the band was birthed thanks to Woods’ Kevin Morby and Vivian Girls’ Cassie Ramone. They were sharing an apartment in New York for a period of time, and wrote a handful of songs together. Bringing in drummer Justin Sullivan from the band Bossy, they wound up recording a number of songs and playing some live shows, but had no established plan as to how or when they were going to release them. The first taste of Babies’ recorded material came via their Myspace page back in August of 2009 when the songs “All Things Come to Pass” and “Meet Me in the City” appeared there. Other than that though and the occasional show, The Babies have been relatively quiet. Thanks to Shrimper though, their self-titled debut album will finally emerge from the womb next Tuesday.
The Babies’ sound really carries a lot of the DNA from the two parent bands of Woods and Vivian Girls. Woods has a very lo-fi/no-fi classic and stoner rock-informed sound, and Vivian Girls do lo-fi jangly garage pop. Put them together and it amounts to lo-fi stoner garage pop, which is probably the easiest way to define it. Morby is the chief songwriter for the band, though he shares vocal duties pretty equally with Ramone either in the form of duets, backing vocals/harmonies or switching off tackling full songs solo. The whole thing has a very relaxed and informal vibe to it as well, which helps to not take the songs too seriously when listening to them. Opening track and unofficial single “Run Me Over” is a very bouncy and catchy rock song, pretty perfectly melding some ramshackle grunge-ish guitars with a dose of psychedelic haze. “Sunset” feels a lot like a lost Pixies track, and while Morby is no Frank Black, Ramone does a fantastic Kim Deal with a touch of Kim Gordon. “All Things Come to Pass” is pretty much a Ramone solo cut, but it bears a lot of Woods’ sound in a very nice campfire singalong style sort of way. Then “Meet Me in the City” does a nice job of pulling a Vivian Girls via Wavves sort of thing, with Morby at the lead vocal helm and Ramone providing some nice backup harmonies. “Personality” has a lot of what the title suggests, a raucous punk track that rages for under 90 seconds before flaming out like it should. Everything sounds like it was recorded in a bedroom somewhere, and it bears the marks of a band like The Misfits or The Dead Kennedys, though not quite with the sense of outrage those bands tended to promote. Funny then that a song like “Breakin’ the Law”, which you’d expect to be pretty anti-establishment, is one of the album’s slower cuts that tells the story of a Bonnie and Clyde-like couple that have “retired” from committing crimes. “Wild I” is perhaps the most emotionally raw and beautiful song that Cassie Ramone has ever done with any of her projects. It’s a dark and rather depressing track with layers of electric guitars that speak perfectly to the tone. “I’m so tired of waking up/to the pain that’s inside my head/it’s a pain that you never had”, she sings at one point, channeling a mixture of Liz Phair, PJ Harvey and a half dozen other scorned women going through a bad breakup. The track that follows it is “Wild II”, with Morby taking on the male perspective in this failed relationship. He chooses to take the higher road and a little brighter view of things, essentially saying that he tried to make things work, and though they didn’t in the end, he’s confident that there’s somebody else out there for him. It lacks the conviction and layered melody of its predecessor but still does a decent job getting the point across.
In Woods, Kevin Morby plays bass and doesn’t really do any writing or singing. Courtesy of The Babies, he now has the opportunity to do both. He’s not exactly amazing at either, but he fares just decently enough. When compared to his side project bandmate Cassie Ramone, he’s clearly the weaker link. For a band like The Babies though, with the slacker melodies and lo-fi aesthetic, such things like vocal ability and brilliant wordplay are low on the priority list. Instead, catchy melodies and fun vibes are king, which thankfully The Babies seem to have in spades. This self-titled debut is a nice, low pressure respite from the higher expectations of both members’ day jobs. Treat it with kid gloves and you’ll find that it’s pretty easy to fall in love with something that’s largely still in its infant state. Okay, no more baby puns.
It’s Groundhog Day, and for one thing, the groundhog saw his shadow which means an early spring. If I believed in such things, I’d be pretty happy about that. As it stands though, today for me was more about the Bill Murray movie than anything else. As a reporter in Punxsutawney to cover the groundhog event, he finds himself trapped in town thanks to a massive winter storm coming to the area. The place may have been a personal hell for him, and it was made even moreso once he found out he was living the same day over and over again. I may not have been living the same day over and over again (that remains to be seen), but the part about a massive winter storm hitting town on Groundhog Day is entirely accurate, along with the part about working in TV news (my day job). Never have a related to that comedy more. Pick Your Poison today is brand new and winter approved, so let’s hope I don’t wind up stuck posting these same songs over and over again because I’m stuck on an endless loop of a day. A handful of them are highlights though, and I can recommend songs from Bobby Long, Dam Mantle, Dinosaur Bones and Red Wanting Blue.
Welcome to what might as well be called Blizzard Tuesday here in Chicago. The city and suburbs are being pounded by snow and high winds, and travel is extremely dangerous. There’s no sign of it letting up before mid-day Wednesday, and hopefully everyone is safe at home. While you’re taking refuge from these terrible conditions, or if you’re someplace else where things are actually okay, why not download some new and good music? Pick Your Poison is here to help you out. Highlights today include tracks from Atmosphere, Five Eight, Jon Fratelli (of The Fratellis), and Sarah Darling. Remixes of songs by MillionYoung and Vanity Theft are worth your time too. Be sure to also have a look at the Soundcloud section, where you’ll find great remixes of songs from Gorillaz and Tame Impala, and also a new Toro y Moi track.
When The Go! Team burst onto the music scene back in 2004 with their debut record “Thunder, Lightning, Strike”, they had a wholly unique sound, pieced together courtesy of a multitude of samples. High energy, throwback pop is what The Go! Team specialized in, the sort that you put on during a party or when you’re having fun with friends thanks to its uplifting and easily danceable melodies. Ian Parton was the man behind the name, and while he generated that entire debut album pretty much on his own, performing it live there were dozens of new recruits that came on board to help make sure that party sound was completely evident on stage. By creating his own merry band of misfits, Parton chose to actually use them when creating 2007’s “Proof of Youth”, collapsing the first record’s sample-heavy presence into something that could accomodate more live and original vocal performances. That second record boasted guest vocal spots from legendary hip hop pioneer Chuck D and Bonde do Role’s Marina Ribatski among others, though it was Parton’s way of mixing them on an even plane with those classic samples that got him in just a spot of trouble. If you’re not going to openly feature your guests at the forefront of the songs they’re on, then why have them contribute in the first place? It was that and what basically amounted to a repeat of “Thunder, Lightning, Strike” that sent The Go! Team on the downslope of popularity. Four years later, Parton finally makes a return with the third GO! Team long player “Rolling Blackouts”, and if you liked the first two there should be no reason to dislike this one.
A blaring horn section sounds the alarm for the fast-paced swirling of opening track “T.O.R.N.A.D.O.”. The whole thing is done marching band-style, with Ninja throwing down some high speed rhymes between the rather catchy chorus that naturally spells out the song title. It’s a great way to introduce “Rolling Blackouts”, with something a bit more straightforward and darker than what we might be used to while maintaining that flirty and fun vibe. Deerhoof’s Satomi Matsuzaki lends her vocal talents to “Secretary Song”, which is pretty classic Go! Team in how it utilizes a number of samples and pushes what’s best interpreted as a small variation on the long-standing J-pop sound. It makes for one of the album’s best and most interesting tracks, but you can’t help but wonder if it’s just a little racist to pair Satomi’s vocals with those cutesy pan-Asian samples rather than almost anything else. Dominique Young Unique back on the microphone for the 70s disco-infused “Apollo Throwdown”, a nice track with a decent hook but otherwise up to expectations for the band rather than rising above them. 50s girl-group pop is what “Ready to Go Steady” has to offer, and yet again it’s a reasonable facsimile for the real thing, with sugar-sweet and innocent vocals courtesy of Lispector along with a really memorable chorus. The marching band horns return, this time mixed with a touch of xylophone for the instrumental “Bust-Out Brigade”, perhaps the most pointless and ineffective track on the entire album. It basically feels like a repeat of “T.O.R.N.A.D.O.” but without the vocals. Before Best Coast became the toast of indie town, Bethany Cosentino contributed vocals to the song “Buy Nothing Day”, a track that just might be the most straightforward and mainstream thing The Go! Team have ever been a part of. Were Cosentino not singing here, this is the type of song you can absolutely imagine a female pop star armed with a guitar to reach the Top 40 charts courtesy of a big fat record label push. As it stands, the song may deserve to be massively popular but most likely will just stay confined to the indie circles where it deserves every bit of acclaim it gets. We may be only one month into 2011, but count on “Buy Nothing Day” to score some serious points when it comes to counting down the year’s best songs. Lo-fi 80s synth pop meets 70s soft rock courtesy of the short instrumental “Super Triangle”, one of the quieter and more secretly delightful moments on the record. Lush and scenic American majesty is at the heart of “Yosemite Theme”, a track that with its harmonica, horns and slight disco feel could very well have served as a theme song to a 70s TV comedy about park rangers. The London African Gospel Choir provides some interesting spice to “The Running Range”, and in fact without them the song would just be another groove-tastic bit of average fun for The Go! Team. Before closing things out, there’s one last genuine delight on “Rolling Blackouts”, and it comes courtesy of the title track. It’s a scuzzy lo-fi track that dabbles just a little bit in 90s Breeders-style female-fronted rock and roll. There are even hints of shoegaze too, and it’s again one of the more exciting and easy-to-digest songs on the album. There’s a certain comfort in knowing that the band can tackle something more modern than having to primarily stick with recycling old samples from the 60s and 70s.
It’s almost ironic that “Rolling Blackouts” the album excels when The Go! Team sound the least like themselves, foregoing samples for the sake of live instruments and pulling less of a throwback sound for something more modern and less gimmicky. At the very least, it brings some sense of evolution to the project, which would otherwise be completely ringing stale and a bit hackneyed by now. It’s been 7 years since The Go! Team first wowed us, and in order for them to continue to do so, you can’t keep relying on old habits. One thing that Parton continues to not fully understand is that not everything needs to be mixed at an equal volume level. That was the problem when he started to feature guest vocalists on “Proof of Youth” and it still hasn’t been corrected for the most part. The melody is important, yes, and all the whiz-bang instruments and samples may be impressive, but sometimes the vocals just need to shine above all others. It can mean the difference between a good pop song and a great one. Thankfully, even with some of the vocals occasionally covered up by various instruments, there’s a handful of shining moments that turn “Rolling Blackouts” into something better than it has any right to be. Not only that, but the majority of these songs remain irrepressably fun – to the point where you can’t look down on them too much. So this album is generally a good time, despite a number of questionable choices. Hopefully next time around Parton and the collection of lovely people he calls bandmates will continue to move in a better direction. If that doesn’t happen, most of us might just tire of the schtick and ask The Go! Team to just stop.
Click through the jump to stream the entire album!
Last day of January, and there’s a gigantic snowstorm on the way to pummel the Midwest and East Coast the next couple days. I’m hunkering down and preparing for the worst, but unfortunately will be out driving into work during the heaviest snowfall overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday. Wish me luck. Pick Your Poison today has some excellent choices for your downloading pleasure. Highlights include new songs from Fleet Foxes, Kite Flying Robot, The Luyas and Nobunny. There’s also a pair of remixes of a new Toro y Moi song. In the Soundcloud section you’ll also find a new song from The Kills, which is pretty great unto itself.
Ben + Vesper are also known as Ben and Vesper Stamper, a married couple that makes beautiful music together. They follow in the tradition of many other husband and wife duos from Mates of State to Handsome Furs and one of this year’s hot new buzz bands Tennis. What sets Ben + Vesper apart from similar acts? The first and most immediately noticeable thing about them is their extremely liberal use of vocal harmonies. Every single track is a duet in one form or another, and Ben’s deeper, more baritone voice matched with Vesper’s velvety one usually results in inspired beauty on its own. It’s a far cry from the way Mates of State tend to do it, with lots of playful energy that often borders on annoyingly chipper. The harmonies are better compared with the couple records that Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan did together, though Ben’s voice isn’t nearly as rough or world-weary as Lanegan’s is and Vesper’s voice isn’t nearly as high and fragile as Campbell’s is. Beyond mere voices though, Ben + Vesper have lovely melodies to work with, some very sparse with maybe only 2-3 instruments total on them, what you might expect from a duo such as this. For their new album “HONORS” though, most of the songs are more vivid and fully realized thanks to a whole lot of extra instrumentation, courtesy of a brand new three-man backing band. There’s also some small bits of orchestration, always played in the most subtle manner possible, and guest performers contributing what they can, including the always wonderful Sufjan Stevens on piano. The final product is something that’s sometimes catchy, frequently weird, but always beautiful.
Vesper takes lead vocals on opening track “Adult vAcA”, a winner right from the intro with its woozy electric guitar and relaxed percussion. Once the first verse begins the melody shrinks thanks to some quiet piano chords, light bass and some cymbal taps, but picks up nicely for a gorgeous chorus that features descending guitar and highlighted vocal harmonies. The lines, “Tomorrow is working out much better today/Notice the thought and date the day” stick well in your head from the first time they’re sung and only cement themselves further the more they’re repeated in the chorus. For the bridge Ben’s vocals are treated with an echo effect that is fascinating unto itself before some ascending guitar and keyboard speed things to a solid conclusion. The bright and energetic way the piano opens “My Father’s Eyes” hints towards the explosion of the full band that comes in mid-way through the first verse. The song winds up having great pacing, along with a well-placed guitar solo and more wonderful harmonies, but it ends up lacking memorability. For all the things it does right, there’s no easy hook or clearly defined structure to the song, which is just a tiny problem when trying to remember what it sounded like hours later. Much better are the soft rock stylings of “Knee-Hi Wall”. Between the shimmering keyboards, funky bass lines and small chorus of backing vocals, the track has a huge 70s vibe to it that turns out to be one of the best moments on the entire album. Minimalism seems to be what “Find Your Friend” does best, beginning with Ben taking his vocals sans-backing melody to a deeper and darker Nick Cave-like range for much of the song. When the instruments do come in, they keep a very low profile, quietly going about their business with only the 60s-style keyboard doing the heavy lifting when it comes to melody outside of the vocals. There’s a subdued beauty to the song that really shines through in the last 90 seconds when the singing stops and the piano comes in to guide everything to a quietly fitting conclusion. “Sugar Song” also holds steadfast with an instrumental contribution so small it almost doesn’t matter if it’s there at all. The vocals are front and center as a piano and guitar are very lightly sprinkled about, though there is a brief moment near the end of the song where a small battalion of violins rises up and ratchets up the intensity for one loud peak of a moment before settling back down into oblivion from whence it came. It’s a rather impressive display of talent, that Ben + Vesper are able to do so much with so little. The final two songs, “Understruggle; Yay, Win” and “HONORS” are both fuller songs instrumentally, but also break out a few things you won’t hear in any other spots on the record. Vesper is back on lead vocals for “Understruggle; Yay, Win”, and there’s a Sufjan Stevens-inspired banjo (perhaps played by Sufjan himself) mixed with some basic acoustic guitar and a touch of organ that bring a folksy charm to the ballad, only aided by a choir of backing vocals. After some twinkling keyboards begin the closing song “HONORS”, it ducks out as the vocals come in and guitars take over. The song itself holds a steady and relatively normal melody until the final minute when multiple keyboards and organs send things soaring into the stratosphere with a whole collection of voices singing triumphantly in unison for one last blissed out moment. It’s a fitting end to a record that thrives on atmosphere and the collective vocal power of Ben and Vesper Stamper.
One of the most unique things about “HONORS” and Ben + Vesper in general are their lyrics. Weird is a delicate way of putting it. Take a song like “Holly Home?” as an example, which begins with a back-and-forth conversation between Ben and Vesper that goes something like this: “Hi, is Holly Home?/No, I mean yes, well she is sleeping/Oh, okay who is this? Is this who I think it is?/If you are guessing this, then you are right in thinking this”. Ben tells a childhood story about how he made a “totally inspiring, and most succinct/it was ahead of its time” movie, but then it got erased when his dad recorded a rerun of “The Fugitive” over it. Um, ok, sounds tragic. And the title track goes on and on about the apocalyptic destruction of our planet due to a massive meteor (or something like that), and somehow celebrities are involved. “High time to hire the balding Bru/Bruce Willis shoots the flame/Goodbye, Shatner sun machine/Hello swarming dreams” is just a snippet of the oddities that song has to offer. Despite such unconventional and nonsensical wordplay, Ben + Vesper sell it with the utmost sincerity, and most of the time succeed in making us believe it’s not a problem. There are other small issues with “HONORS” though, the most notable of which stems from weak song structure. Outside of gems like “Adult vAcA” and “Knee-Hi Wall” are songs that sound pretty nice but drift aimlessly towards a conclusion. There’s not much in the way of repeated choruses with sharply developed hooks or even dynamic pacing to help the record drift by faster. And the majority of the standout moments typically come from some smart use of vocal harmonies rather than the overall composition of the songs. If these seem like pretty big things, well, that depends on how forgiving you’re willing to be, and what about a track appeals to you most. There’s definitely much more good going on with this album than bad, and this is definitely a step forwards for Ben + Vesper in terms of their overall development for the future. Of course so much of this also screams “transitional record”, so the hope is that they reach another plateau rather than spend any more time pushing that heavy boulder up a gigantic hill. “HONORS” may not be worthy of what its title suggests, but with a touch more work they’ll get there soon enough.
Happy Friday to all. Hope your weekend plans will go as scheduled, especially if you live on the East Coast. Sorry about your snowstorms. I’d like to point you in the direction specifically of the following artists (though really everything is pretty good today): Banjo or Freakout, Dearling Physique, Jeniferever, and Lawrence & Leigh. Also, be sure to give a listen to a brand new Cut Copy song, streaming in the Soundcloud section below.
Cloud Nothings is the name under which 18-year-old Cleveland native Dylan Baldi makes music. In many senses he’s a musical purist, working hard to bring physical media back into play within a world that’s increasingly digital. His earliest songs, recorded entirely by himself via computer in his basement, were primarily distributed via cassette tape, CDR or vinyl. When he’d finally collected enough songs back in 2009 to create an album, the initial run was limited to 50 CDs and 100 cassettes. It seems those 150 copies were well-placed though, and with a little help from the internet buzz machine, the hype built to the point where labels were interested. The “Turning On” EP was the first official Cloud Nothings release on a label, followed by the 13 song album of the same title that collected everything Baldi had done up until that point. It wasn’t really a proper debut album, considering these were all the same old songs with the same crappy basement quality, simply re-released to give more people a chance to get ahold of them. Now it seems that 2011 is the chance for Cloud Nothings to take things to a new level. Baldi now has a full band backing him, and a legitimate studio-recorded album full of brand new songs. Now available via whatever recorded medium you so desire, “Cloud Nothings” is out this week.
You can easily identify the sound of Cloud Nothings by examining what bands they’ve toured with. Woods, Wavves, Best Coast, Kurt Vile and Real Estate are just a few notables, and if there’s one thing all those groups have in common it’s that they make quick and dirty lo-fi recordings that skew towards the fun and catchy. Even with the full use of a studio, Baldi only cleans up Cloud Nothings just a little bit. The guitars still grind and have sheaths of distortion and fuzz, but they don’t overtake everything else like they once did. That leaves more room for Baldi’s vocals, which attempt to but don’t always excel like he might want them to. He does have to prove himself singing-wise this time around because fidelity is no longer an issue. To be perfectly clear though, he’s always on key, it’s the WAY he sings that’s slightly problematic. Depending on the song, he’ll change his style accordingly, moving from lower register crooning to gutteral punk rock screams to even a slight bit of falsetto should he feel up to it. There’s no easy reference for who he might be trying to emulate on individual songs, just the feeling that not every vocal is consistent and you may wonder which voice is Baldi’s real singing voice.
What is completely consistent though is the songwriting. Baldi has a very innocent, heart-on-the-sleeve style of writing that serves his young years well. As Best Coast can write simple (but brilliant) songs about boys, weed and cats, Cloud Nothings can write about love, social rejection and a variety of other easy topics with an equal dose of simplicity and smarts. Fuzzed out proto-punk songs don’t particularly lend themselves well to complicated topics and big words, so while Baldi stays in familiar territory, his songs excel in plenty of other ways. You take a song like opening track “Understand at All”, where the chorus is basically “I don’t understand love/And I don’t understand at all”, and though those very basic lines speak from a young man’s perspective trying to make sense of things, more important than any of it is how insanely catchy it is. The melody is fun and bouncy despite the general confusion of the lyrics, and it’ll be stuck in your head for days if you let it. Keep in mind that’s just from track one. Expand out to the rest of the record, and this thing is packed to the gills with those same types of hooks, thrown at you over and over and over again in rapid succession. It’s too much, but that’s what inspires you to keep replaying it. You’ll need at least a half dozen listens to even begin to see the full picture, though chances are good chunks of the album will stick with you right from the start. It’s that insane combination of factors that pushes “Cloud Nothings” above the fray and into buzz band status.
Cloud Nothings owes a debt of gratitude to a number of bands, primarily from the grittier side of the 90s, but if you’re looking for a good modern-day band to compare, there’s a very similar strength in arms to the UK band Male Bonding. If you heard their record “Nothing Hurts” last year (it was one of 2010’s best), you should immediately find comfort in the arms of Cloud Nothings. Similarly, if you’re already familiar with or are just now trying and liking Cloud Nothings, having a glance at Male Bonding could introduce you to another great lo-fi rock band with a strong ear for dynamic hooks and off-the-charts energy. But back on the topic at hand, “Cloud Nothings” represents the exact step forwards this band needs to take relative to the basement demo quality of the first album. It’s clearer, catchier and more focused than its predecessor and offers promises of potentially great things to come from this band in the very near future. In the cold month that is January, this album is a little ray of fun sunshine to help break you out of whatever funk you might be in. If it works that well now, imagine how good it’ll sound once it’s actually warm outside.
Let’s get right to it, the Thursday edition of Pick Your Poison. Among the big pluses today, I can advocate for songs by Emilie Simon, O’Death, The Mars Volta’s Omar Rodriguez Lopez, and Young Galaxy. Additionally, Esben and the Witch’s remix of Trophy Wife’s “White Horses” is positively great, as are all the songs available for streaming in the Soundcloud section – from Brave Irene to a new one from Cass McCombs and John Vanderslice covering Atlas Sound.
