Archive for March, 2011

Linda Perhacs "Parallelograms"

The first time I heard this song I was genuinely startled by a moment that comes about halfway through the piece. Now I know it is coming and it's still disconcerting. This placid, gentle harmony shifts drastically into this delirious, psychedelic state -- imagine a folk song getting hit over the head and stumbling around in a daze before fading back to consciousness. It's like that. The composition has a strange shape and dimension, it's as much an installation art piece as it is a song. Buy it from Amazon.

The Kills "DNA"

The first two songs released from the Kills' forthcoming album Blood Pressures have been rather subdued numbers -- good and interesting, but not exactly compelling as standalone singles. They recede rather than explode, they don't attract attention. "Satellite," the first single, grafted the duo's mecha-blues on to a nodding rocksteady beat. "DNA," the second, comes across as a slightly looser and more organic version of their usual sound. The song is tense, but it sounds more lonely than sexual. (Maybe this is because there is more negative space in the arrangement, and Alison Mosshart sings the song mostly by herself.) "DNA" gets deeper and more interesting as it becomes more familiar. The intensity and desperation builds gradually over the course of four minutes but it never breaks, Mosshart ends the piece sounding steadfast in her resolve. The song is like building a wall -- by the end, nothing gets through it. Buy it from Amazon.

This video comes courtesy of R.E.M. and Warner Bros. Records. It's "exclusive" to this site, but by all means, put it on your own site and spread it around. It's a lovely performance of a terrific song and people should hear it. One of my favorite things about R.E.M. is how much of their catalog is devoted to expressions of empathy. When you think of it, it's not all that common in pop music. "Every Day Is Yours To Win" belongs to a long line of Michael Stipe pep talk songs. "Everybody Hurts" is the most famous, but others include "Find the River," "Why Not Smile?," "Imitation of Life" and "Get Up." "Every Day..." echoes themes from the band's previous songs in this vein -- there's a world out there for you to experience and discover; your misery is valid but hold on -- but its sentiment is spiked with some words that acknowledge that "winning" in life isn't very easy, and we might not notice it when we do come out on top. The lyrics also touch on the running theme in Collapse Into Now, ie, that finding the strength to carry on after a major trauma is a form of heroism. You have to fight hard to be optimistic. Its own gentle, muted way, this song is saying that if you can manage to hold off negativity from within and without, you are a hero and you are winning. Buy it from Amazon.

Rainbow Arabia "Without You"

There's no sense writing around this: Rainbow Arabia sound a lot like the Knife. Not just like the Knife, mind you -- just enough that it's hard to avoid the reference point. It's in the vocals, it's in the keyboard tones, sometimes it's in the sort of melodic quality to the percussion. They go to a different place with a familiar template. They're more physical, less programmed. More sparkling, less goth. More island, less tundra. Oh, and sometimes there is guitar! "Without You" is a standout, and actually one of the least Knife-ish tracks. It does, however, sound like the kind of early to mid 00s dance pop that has a massive sentimental value to me, so my response is sort of complicated: I instinctively love it, but my critical side wonders how much of this is a Pavlovian thing. But yeah, it's better to trust instinct on these matters. Buy it from Insound.

Superchunk @ Radio City Music Hall 3/8/2011 Learned To Surf / Crossed Wires / Detroit Has A Skyline / Seed Toss / My Gap Feels Weird / Like A Fool / Hello Hawk / Digging For Something / Slack Motherfucker

Superchunk "Like A Fool"

I went to this show on fairly show notice; someone got sick blah blah blah. I mainly accepted a ticket because I wanted to see Wild Flag and because the venue happens to be directly across the street from where I work these days. Wild Flag were good and interesting, but I don't want to write anything about them until I hear their album. I left after Superchunk finished their set, about a half hour before Bright Eyes took the stage. (You might remember that I'm not a fan of Conor Oberst.) Anyway, Superchunk. I've always liked Superchunk but never really connected with them. I feel a little weird about that -- they belong to a cohort of 90s indie bands that I love, and their drummer happens to be one of the two funniest men on earth. I wasn't sure what to expect from seeing this show, but I figured I'd have fun and it'd be low pressure and I had no obligation to writing about it. Well, I was right about the fun. They're a sharp band, and very energetic. Mac McCaughan is particularly impressive -- it seemed like he was hopping up and down for most of the set, and never seemed to flub a note or get winded while he sang. Superchunk has very straightforward songs -- I think I've mistaken this no-frills aesthetic for them being a bit bland and basic in the past -- but their charm comes in how they deliver their tunes with great force and precision. This is a band that could easily coast on being pleasant, but they really go for the extra oomph. Lucky for me, the band only played songs I knew in their brief 40 minute set. I generally prefer seeing live music when I know the material, that's just how I'm wired. That said, the song that really hit me was "Like A Fool," an oldie I only kinda half-remembered and probably had not listened to on purpose in ten years. It's a huge, majestic number, and very well-suited to a big, classy room like Radio City. The chords felt right in that moment, I spent a lot of the song with my eyes closed just appreciating the strumming and the way the music hits this crest that feels both melancholy and exhilarating. Buy it from Amazon.

Lykke Li "Youth Knows No Pain"

Lykke Li writes a lot about being young, it's kinda her thing. To some extent it's a "write what you know" situation, but in songs like "Youth Knows No Pain," she's singing from a more distant and knowing perspective. It's a somewhat self-conscious exhortation to delight in the passion and energy of youth, and the tension in the piece comes from trying to figure out whether she's being totally earnest about it, or if there's a touch of irony to this Dionysian front. I tend to think it's a little of both. Her voice is trebly and metallic in this track, which has a way of hardening her tone and concealing emotion. It works for the song -- the rest of the production is very treble-heavy too, with busy cymbal crashes and a groovy 60s-style organ part taking up most of the space in the mix. All that treble sounds like an armor to mask vulnerability, and really, so does the call to sexy, reckless action. The title phrase ends up sounding like wishful thinking. Buy it from Amazon.

Telekinesis "I Cannot Love You"

When this song begins, the angst and drama is already over. It's all verdict, no deliberation: "I cannot love, I cannot love you." The music carries some leftover negative emotion, but the vocals mostly convey the relief of finally coming to a firm conclusion and the eagerness to move on from a painful romantic mess. It's not emphatic or mean spirited, just clear-headed and self-respecting. It's even better that this song is a tightly-constructed two minute rocker -- this is the kind of thing you need to say quickly and economically and then shut up. Buy it from Amazon.

Dum Dum Girls "He Gets Me High"

I've seen the Dum Dum Girls in concert twice and both times I left thinking that Dee Dee's voice was much better live than on record. That issue has been addressed on the band's new EP, a set of four tracks that find the band embracing a glossier, more confident sound. It's a smart move. Unlike many of their peers, the Dum Dum Girls never needed fuzzy production and heavy reverb to improve upon their material or mask their inadequacies as performers. If anything, that sort of thing kept people from noticing Dee Dee's remarkable craft as a songwriter. It's hard to miss that in "He Gets Me High," the EP's title track. The hooks are simple but expertly composed, and the lyrics are straightforward but precise, suggesting a fair amount of psychological depth and emotional turmoil with blunt, direct language. She sounds wonderful too, like a more demure Chrissie Hynde backed up by louder guitars. Buy it from Amazon.

Adele "I'll Be Waiting"

If you take the lyrics of "I'll Be Waiting" at face value, it's a "baby please come back I've changed for the better" kind of song. But if the sound of it changes its meaning a lot -- it's upbeat, brassy and assertive in a way that makes it seem like the possibility of Adele's ex taking her back seem like a foregone conclusion. She's making a great case for getting back together, or at least it sounds like one. The tension at the heart of this piece is that trying to get this failed relationship to work again may in fact be a terrible idea and the singer's intense optimism about this may be misguided and possibly quite pathetic. But it's also sweet, especially when you realize that she's probably working even harder to convince herself. Buy it from Amazon.

The Dirtbombs "Sharevari"

The Dirtbombs' new album Party Store has an excellent high concept: Detroit rock band covers Detroit techno classics. It's a very cool idea, but also a recipe for disaster. As it turns out, though, the most surprising thing about Party Store isn't that the band decided to interpret these songs in the first place, but that they do it so convincingly without changing their standard instrumentation. Some songs work better than others -- their 21-minute take on Carl Craig's "Bug in the Bass Bin" is a noble experiment with fairly unlistenable results -- but when they nail it, it's like a scrappier version of Liquid Liquid and ESG's minimal funk magic. Their version of A Number of Names' "Sharevari" is my favorite, and not just because it's a very faithful rendition of the song. I think the composition gains an exciting tension from live instrumentation and, well, I just really love the sound of the female vocals in this recording. Buy it from Amazon.