Archive for May, 2006

Off White Is Now The New White

My new column for the asap debuts today. The first column is here, and includes a couple audio snippets of an interview with me as well as reviews and mp3s of songs by The Fiery Furnaces, A Frames, and Nouveau Riche.

The Coup featuring Silk E “BabyLet’sHaveABabyBeforeBushDoSomethin’Crazy” – In as much as it lacks rapping entirely, this is a very atypical track for The Coup, but in spite of some pretty solid hip hop tracks (I’ll be covering one of them in the next AP column, actually), it’s the most impressive and revealing song on their new album. It’s basically a paranoid slow jam, and though I can imagine a dozen ways a track like this could have gone wrong, Boots Riley basically came up with a dozen ways to make it exactly right. A lot of the quality comes down to the detail in the arrangement, especially the understated lead string melody that tugs at the heart like a nagging doubt, and the subtle woodwind notes that pop up momentarily when the lyrics shift into cautious optimism. This is a top drawer modern soul song that remains totally focused on the present tense and nearly devoid of musical nostalgia in spite of borrowing liberally from the past. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Joan of Arc “Many Time I’ve Mistaken” – Despite what some haters may believe, Joan of Arc are not strangers to musical prettiness. Granted, their sprawling catalog contains far more than a few clunkers, but at their finest, Tim Kinsella and his collaborators are capable of some truly gorgeous high concept folk ballads. Live In Chicago 1999 has the highest hit to miss ratio, featuring the meandering “When The Parish School Dismisses And The Children Running Sing,” the vaguely jazzy “If It Feels Good/Do It,” and the moody identity crisis “Me (Plural),” but the grandest peaks tend to come on their most inconsistent albums. How Can Anything So Little Be Any More is virtually unlistenable aside from the stately, heartbreaking “Ne Mosquitos Pass,” and The Gap is redeemed by “As Black Pants Make Cat Hairs Appear” and “Me and America,” both of which seem to stumble drunkenly into, respectively, an anthemic rock chorus and an extended, breathtaking string coda. “Many Times I’ve Mistaken,” like most of the songs from the forthcoming Everything, All At Once is surprisingly straightforward for the band. There’s simply no catch here – it’s just Tim singing one of the best melodies of his career over a graceful arrangement of acoustic guitars and cello. (Click here for Record Label’s Joan of Arc page.)

The Vows That Went Up In The Air

Marit Larsen “Only A Fool” – After having already posted the obvious single “Don’t Save Me” a few months ago, trying to pick another song from Marit Larsen’s Under The Surface for your consideration proved to be a very difficult task. Lord, I don’t even know if I could pick a single favorite from the album at this point, it’s become some kind of brutal six-way tie. It’s just sort of aggravating to me to hear this record, knowing that there’s probably literally millions of people in America who would love it, and at the rate things are going, will not ever hear it. This isn’t some kind of quirky, indie, obscure thing – it’s an elegantly composed and immaculately produced middle-of-the-road pop album with sweeping fairytale power ballads and a highly ingratiating Scandinavian version of bluegrass, country, and general “Americana.” This is a record for everybody, but especially moms and little sisters. But please don’t let that put you off! (Click here to buy it from CDON.)

Catlow “Kiss The World (Cadence Weapon ‘Good Looks’ Remix)” – Catlow’s original mix was fine enough, but Cadence Weapon does a good job of roughing it up and upping the oomph level across the board. On Catlow’s intinerary in this song: Discos, rock shows, driving into the shadows. Godspeed! (Click here for Boompa’s Catlow site.)

She’s A Frozen Fire

Buffalo Daughter “Elephante Marinos” – The new Buffalo Daughter album finds the band trying on a number of grooves, from art-disco and hippie funk to stoned shoegazing and Red Hot Chili Peppers-esque bass slapping, but nothing suits them quite as well as this keyboard-centric neon-lit strut. As the singers discuss some super hot “beauty queen,” the music seems to either react or pretend not to react to this woman (represented in the arrangement as the drum beat) as she nonchalantly walks down a city street. Guitars wink, a high pitched tone whistles, an overheated keyboard does its best to look away, and the girl even stops traffic on the instrumental break. (Click here to buy it from Amazon Japan.)

Shapes and Sizes “Weekends At A Time” – Generally, I do not pay close attention to lyrics the first few times that I hear a song, and so I often find myself in a position where my initial impression of a song’s lyrical content is revealed to be hilariously off the mark. Until I actually paid full attention to the words, I’d somehow gotten the idea that this song was about this woman imagining weekend vacations as a sort of heroic expedition, and trying to convince her companion that going hiking in the mountains, exploring quaint towns, or renting out a beach house is some kind of noble calling. But no, that’s not it at all, and now my apparent desire for an art rock version of the New York Times travel section is revealed to you all. (Click here for Asthmatic Kitty’s official Shapes and Sizes page.)