Archive for June, 2011

Lloyd featuring Andre 3000 and Lil Wayne "Dedication to My Ex (Miss That)"

When Lloyd was recording this, it must have crossed his mind at least once that if Cee Lo could score a smash hit with a song called "Fuck You," he may as well push the envelope for vulgarity and create an equally irresistible neo-soul song that repeats the word "pussy" a couple hundred times in four minutes. Cee Lo cleaned up his song by switching the title phrase to "Forget You," which barely makes sense. I figure Lloyd can swap out "pussy" for "lovin'" and the song will still mean the same thing. (I'm not sure what he can do about the verse in which he describes the fit of his ex's vagina in graphic detail, though.) There's a lot of angst in this track, but it's comical. Even though Lloyd's lyrics are all about getting mad at his girlfriend for cheating on him, I don't really pick up on negative vibes when I hear this song. The music and his voice mostly conveys a deep thrill, like he's focused all of the song's power into communicating just how amazing and satisfying it was to have sex with her. It's like the song is his way of getting back to that feeling. Also, bonus points to Andre 3000 for dropping the phrase "Uncanny X-Men" into his verse. Buy it from Amazon.

The Last Hurrah!! "The Ballad of Billy and Lilly (parts one and two)"

There is a strange Rorschach-blot quality to the Last Hurrah!!'s debut album Spiritual Non-Believers. I've been listening to the record regularly for two weeks, and every spin reveals a new detail or association. It's a record that somehow manages to be rather simple and straight forward -- it is basically a collection of catchy Norwegian folk songs -- and wonderfully complex and ambitious. There are only three cuts on the album: An obscure Norwegian psychedelic pop cover at the start, a 31-minute suite about a doomed love affair at the center and a gorgeous bossanova-shoegazer-surf-twee-krautrock melange at the conclusion. It's all fascinating and engaging, but the main attraction is the epic, which cycles through dozens of hooks and musical ideas in a way that is both surprising and intuitive. At various points I hear echoes of Joanna Newsom, Wilco, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell, the Fiery Furnaces and Animal Collective, but the overall effect is ultimately rather distinct in its style and charm. I've been obsessing over this record for days, and I still feel as though I'm only just scratching the surface in my understanding of it. I heard the album finale at least a dozen times before noticing it was not sung in English. I heard the second part of the "Billy and Lilly" suite even more times before I fully registered this brilliant line in its chorus: "Hit me, hit me, with a bottle or a stone / as long as you are physical I'll know that I'm not alone." I'm still picking up on the nuances of transitions between sections, interesting rhythms and tonalities, bits where harmonies seem to fall slightly out of phase. This is a rich, immensely rewarding record and I hope to write about it in greater detail down the line. For now I'm still just enjoying the fact that I still haven't fully learned all its twists and turns. Buy the full album for $2.99 from Amazon.

Beyoncé "Countdown"

A lot of songs have a "best part" that grabs you, that compels you to rewind to hear it again right away. "Countdown" is a track comprised entirely of these moments. It's so densely packed with hooks and interesting flourishes that it's actually sort of amazing that it holds together so well as a composition. The construction is very clever and dynamic -- it's overwhelming, but not overbearing or incoherent. It's an expertly crafted pleasure delivery system. Or, more accurately, it's a Beyoncé delivery system. I cannot imagine anyone else singing this song. So much of what is exciting here is specific to the sound of her voice and the force of her character: "Me and my BOOF and my BOOF BOOF ridin' / all up in the black with his chick right beside him." Can you imagine anyone else singing that with the same charm and authority? And that's just a small portion of this song! I've spent a lot of time just focusing on this loop of the BOOF BOOF part; I feel like I could spend just as much time obsessing over other bits in isolation: "London speed it up, Houston ROCK IT!," "Griiiiind up on it, girl, show him how you ride it!," "My girls can't tell me nothing, I'm gone in the brain!," the countdown sequence with the Boyz II Men sample. And that's just the vocal stuff -- the drum fills, horns and keyboard parts are just as worthy of focused attention. But really, as much as each part is thrilling, what makes this one of the best pop songs of the past several years is the way these thrills are strung together, and how it breezes from highlight to highlight so quickly that it kinda zooms right by you. It's like being on a roller coaster, but you don't have to wait in line to get back on and relive the thrill. You can just put it on repeat. Buy it from Amazon.

Archers of Loaf @ Webster Hall 6/26/2011 Strangled by the Stereo Wire / Wrong / Plumbline / Nostalgia / 1985 - Fabricoh / Dead Red Eyes / Let the Loser Melt / You and Me / Might / Revenge / Smoking Pot in the Hot City / Greatest of All Time / Lowest Part is Free / Freezing Point / What Did You Expect? / Web in Front / Slow Worm // Step Into the Light / Audiowhore / Harnessed in Slums / All Hail the Black Market /// Scenic Pastures / Form and File

Archers of Loaf "Let the Loser Melt"

The weird paradox of Archers of Loaf is that Eric Bachmann's lyrics were mostly focused on music scene politics and being the subject of a major label bidding war, and yet somehow the songs come out sounding like relatable anthems. All these years later on the band's reunion tour, the social context for these words has either changed a lot or vanished completely, but the "we're all in this together" thing has an even greater resonance. It's funny how the lyrics of certain songs -- "Let the Loser Melt," "Nostalgia," "Greatest of All Time" -- seem as if they were written to have maximum ironic value when sung on a reunion tour, but when they actually performed them, it seemed more triumphant than funny-ha-ha-the-joke's-on-them. I never saw the Archers the first time around, but I was a fan in high school. I had no idea Bachmann was such a hulking, imposing dude. (Or that he seems to have the same stylist as present-day Bob Mould.) I like the way that physically amplified the aggro quality of some songs, and in other cases, displayed more of a gentle giant thing. He seems to have grown into his voice and character rather well. With that in mind, I don't feel cheated by never having seem the younger version of the band. Buy it from Amazon. Mr. Dream @ Webster Hall 6/26/2011 Knuckle Sandwich / Crime / ? / Trash Hit / Holy Name / Croquet / Unfinished Business / Winners / Scarred For Life / Learn the Language

Mr. Dream "Unfinished Business"

Another excellent set from Mr. Dream. This time around, the band was joined by Matt LeMay on guitar, who added a bit of additional noise and treble to the band's muscular, bottom-heavy sound. I've met Matt a bunch of times socially over the years, so it was a revelation to see him up there manhandling a guitar. It was a little like how when you see Ira Kaplan play and he's playing the instrument like he's trying to strangle the life out of it. Matt doesn't seem as murderous as Ira, but he's still pretty intense. Buy it from Amazon.

Handsome Furs "Memories of the Future"

A few days ago I got a vinyl copy of Sleater-Kinney's The Hot Rock in the mail. It's one of favorite records, it was something I listened to quite a lot during some very miserable times in my late teens and early 20s. I put it on for the first time in a while and it felt very comfortable and worn-in. I knew every note and every word. I thought about how that album is connected to a lot of bad memories, but I can't really remember any of them. The lyrics still have a lot of resonance -- the "It's not real / you don't need to tell me that it's not real" part in the title track will probably always make my heart sink in bitter recognition -- but I don't remember many details of the personal context I had for this music. I have a hard time remembering a lot of my past, really. This is part of why "Memories of the Future" clicks with me. I sorta nod in agreement when Dan Boeckner sings "I don't remember anything at all." And the part of me that hates to be sentimental will gladly sign off on a hook like "nostalgia never meant much to me." I think that particular line works because Boeckner sings with the sort of passion that is rooted in some kind of sentimentality. You can definitely be sentimental about not being sentimental. At the song's climax, he sings "I throw my hands to the sky / I let my memories go," and that rings true to me too. It's nice not to carry this baggage around. Memories can be overrated and unreliable. Forgetting is underrated and sort of beautiful. Buy it from Amazon.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra "Little Blue House"

I love how Unknown Mortal Orchestra's music sounds like it's coming from a specific time and place, but I can never really figure out when or where. To some extent they're playing some of the same déjà vu tricks as Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, but while I think that band goes for more of a kitschy "period piece" sound, UMO seem like something lost to time but not necessarily from the past. It's sorta like how I can walk about ten blocks away from where I live in Queens and end up on a block where everything on the street looks as if it hasn't changed since 1968 or 1985. I always really love those pockets of the city, in part because one of my greatest fantasies would be the ability to time travel to various parts of New York City at different points in the 20th Century and just walk around. I'm veering off from actually talking about the song -- which I should mention has a great subtle bass pulse and some very nice lead guitar -- but that whole idea of the relatively recent past living in the present is a big part of why this music resonates with me. Buy it from Amazon.

WU LYF "Heavy Pop"

I'm sure this will come across as a pithy, dismissive joke to some people, but I like WU LYF because they sound like a caveman version of U2. Both bands lean hard on delay, grand gestures and the implication of a vast, wide open space, but WU LYF's style is primitive and aggressive. Ellery Roberts howls like a maniac, his words are incomprehensible but his emotions are naked and blunt. The album version of "Heavy Pop" begins with the sound of piano chords echoing through empty space, but once that passage is through, it's all wailing and smashing. It's raw and intense, but not formless. The vocals and percussion are balanced out by the delicate, pretty sound of the guitar, which shifts through the piece -- changing direction at one point, or seeming to lift up when the singer sounds as if he's collapsed in exhaustion. Buy it from Amazon.

Gang Gang Dance "Sacer"

It was somewhat shocking for me to realize that this song has proper lyrics, and in English, no less. Lizzi Bougatsos' voice on this track is high-pitched and just about incomprehensible -- she conveys of feeling in her melody, but words don't quite form even though they are apparently in there somewhere. The approach to the vocals is very Cocteau Twins, but the mood of the piece is harder to peg. (Sean T. Collins compares the song to T'Pau, but I don't really hear that. He's right on about the "secret language of adult glamour" thing, though.) I like that the song doesn't really give you much solid ground and manages to be very specific and maddeningly vague at the same time. This music evokes a feeling of great relief, so why do I find myself thinking a lot of anxious thoughts every time I put it on? Buy it from Amazon.

Cliffie Swan "Dream Chain"

Sophia Knapp, the lead singer of Cliffie Swan, has a very old-fashioned sort of voice. It's overtly feminine but not remotely wispy and light, and confident without being particularly brassy or bold. It's just this lovely, right-down-the-middle tone, with phrasing that perfectly articulates the melody without embellishment. She sounds like the kind of lady who takes karaoke very, very seriously and decided to write an album full of the type of tuneful, wistful 70s soft pop, classic rock and country that she loves to sing. "Dream Chain" is particularly great as a showcase for her voice, and very well crafted. It feels immediately comfortable and familiar, but the dynamic shifts are clever enough that it doesn't come across as flat or predictable. Buy it from Amazon.

Sebadoh "Punching Myself in the Face Repeatedly, Publicly"

1. "I was “way into” Tara [Jane O’Neil] from Rodan and followed her around smitten for a while until she remembered that she was a lesbian. Oops." - Jason Loewenstein, in the liner notes to the reissue of Bakesale. 2. It's pretty obvious that this title was applied retroactively. Even if I didn't know that this song is being addressed to a lesbian and that things definitely didn't work out, there is no way I could listen to this earnest outpouring of crushed-out enthusiasm without knowing that the singer is doomed, doomed, doomed. It's not that he's got a crush -- obviously that works out for people. It's in what he says, how he says it. All the signs are there but he's blind to it, even though the lyrics indicate some degree of self-awareness. I recognize too much in this song; listening to it is like watching a horror movie. 3. Or maybe it's more like reading someone's email. It's so specific, so naked. I feel like I'm invading his privacy by listening. 4. What really makes this compelling is how nervous and excited he sounds. It's all so genuine. I just listen to this and think "Noooooooo, Jason, nooooooo!" Buy it from Amazon.