Year End Deal

Heya,

so how about we do a year end list?

Problem is that I spent much of 2009 rediscovering older stuff.

So it's up to you! Email me your favorite albums/artists or whatever else you please.

See you soon!

Icy Demons - Miami Ice

(Can't find album art)

The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses

The Stone Roses were a band. They released some singles before this. A few were OK, and some were kinda bad full of yelty vocals terrible lyrics (such as "in the misery dictionary/page after page after page"). At one point, either they started writing better lyrics, or it just got harder to understand them. Not sure. They got John Leckie, who did stuff on "Meddle" by Pink Floyd and did the first 3 LPs the Fall did for Beggar's Banquet.
The song titles are kinda ridiculous: "I Wanna Be Adored", "I Am the Resurrection", "Song for My Sugar Spun Sister", and guitar hero 3 fav. "She Bangs the Drums".

I believe my bio teacher burned this for me my freshman year...anyhoo
so, it starts off real cool and moody with "i wanna be adored", which sounds great! man, i hoped the whole album sounded that sad and depressing. but it didn't. instead, its a bunch of faster paced rockers by some baggy pant wearing 20 year olds. like a pilcher's list album. ergh. sorry for that.

(note - 45 minutes elapsed between that paragraph and the next one)

the rest of the album is fine. some songs are great. i always thought it was too long, but it turns out I have the US version w/ bonus tracks in the middle of the album!

OVERALL REVIEW - fine late 80s album. worth checking out...
KEY TRACKS - i wanna be adored, i am the resurrection, made of stone

Weezer - Raditude

(since this was in an actual publication folks read, i determined i needed to be slightly serious. my penguin text is in black, but silly things that i would put it that are of no interest to anyone are in red. i also accidentally stole a mark prindle joke. it was late when i wrote the review. sorry mark.)

DOGGY!!! A JUMPING DOG!!! MY DOG JUMPS TOO!!! HER DAD WAS A CHAMPION JUMPER MY PARENTS SAY.!!

If there was a band that in the last 15 years had a more confusing and inconsistent history than Weezer, I have yet to hear them. In 1994, they gave us “Weezer” (the Blue album), an album produced by Ric Ocasek that was chock full of quirky radio ready singles like “Buddy Holly” and “Undone (The Sweater Song)”. The kids loved it and it has since gone triple platinum. The next album was the fan-loved, critic-hated “Pinkerton”. While most fans enjoyed it (a lot consider it to be their best), the critics tore it up and it sold poorly. BUT WHY? BECAUSE THE CRITICS DON'T LIKE SONGS ABOUT BEING ALONE ALL THE TIME AND CRYING BECAUSE YOUR MADE-UP 12 YEAR OLD JAPANESE GIRLFRIEND WON'T RETURN YOUR LETTERS. Then there were 5 years where there were no Weezer albums. This changed in 2001, where they released a string of 3 mediocre to terrible albums (“Weezer” (2001), “Maladroit” (2002) and “Make Believe” (2005)). NOT AN UNDERSTATEMENT AT ALL. I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU SAY GARRET, THERE'S VERY LITTLE TO ENJOY HERE. AND I GOT MALADROIT THE DAY IT CAME OUT - THE SAME DAY RUSH RELEASED "VAPOR TRAILS". In the meantime, Rivers Cuomo was releasing his “Alone” albums chock full of demos and outtakes that the fans had never seen. A lot of these revealed a different side to the Weezer front man, and that side was one that was more loose, more fun, more willing to take risks.THAT LAST SENTENCE WAS ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE! WHAT WAS I THINKING? ROCK WRITER CLICHE #217! I NEED TO STOP READING THAT GUIDED BY VOICES BOOK FILLED WITH CLICHES. 2008’s “Weezer” (this one was the Red album), was full of humor, overblown song arrangements, and at times, it came off as a parody of itself, down to the cover art. Some people hated this – a few people I know thought of it as Weezer being ironic and found nothing worth any substance on the album. Others (myself included), thought it was fantastic. THAT WAS THE FALL 2008 ALBUM. SOME FOLKS, LIKE MAX G. AND LAUREN WILLIAMS WILL REMEMBER. THANKS SETH FOR BURNING IT FOR ME. SORRY I DOUBTED YOU.
When I heard Weezer was already releasing a new album, I was worried. It had only been a year since the last one and the news coming out was making me skeptical. Rivers had decided to get a whole mess of other people to help him write the songs, including people from quite terrible pop bands that don’t even warrant any kind of mention. The title was something that was suggested by actor Rainn Wilson. The artwork is a dog jumping in a living room. There were also the funny, yet unsettling commercials for the new “Weezer Snuggie”. All of this spelled disaster to me. WEEZER SNUGGIE = AWESOME XMAS GIFT.
…….But how does it sound?
Production-wise, solid. I can’t keep track of all the producers as multiple ones were used throughout the album. But just know that if you need a fix of well recorded amplified guitars and drums, this can do. However, if you dislike when cheesy sounding guitar licks are duplicated by awful sounding synthesizers (like myself), a few songs will be ruined. SO IF YOU LIKE GARAGE-FI LO-BROW ROCKER STOMPERS, GO BURN DOWN THEIR RECORDING STUDIO.
Song wise? Well, that depends on what you want. If you want pure power pop rock whatever with some lyrics that sound like they were written by a 12 year old boy who’s fallen in love for the first time, you’re in luck. If you want sprawling 6 minute epics, I’d stick to the Red album, or “Red” by King Crimson for that matter. Not to say that it’s without any kind of charm; lead single “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To” has a bouncy feel with lyrics that include “That summer was the best we ever had/we watched “Titanic” and it didn’t make us sad” that is a fairly good opener. “Trippin’ Down the Freeway” has some Beach Boys-type harmonies thrown in there. “I Don’t Want To Let You Go” seems like a cross between “The Angel & the One” of the Red album and “All I Want is You” by U2. The missteps however really derail the album. For example, “Can’t Stop Partying” includes a rap by Lil Wayne that really doesn’t have any effect on me. No ironic hilarity or anything like that, just kind of boring. “Love is the Answer” has a distinct India feel, but it doesn’t suit Weezer too well here. After that are two semi-80s metal songs in a row! Talk about poor sequencing, where the 2nd side of the album is one failed experiment then 2 clunkers. If it wasn’t for the last song, I’d be tempted to just chop my CD in half and have a fine sounding EP. But that’s not a possibility so I have a CD with a handful of enjoyable songs that suffers from way too much outside assistance. THERE'S THE PRINDLE JOKE! SORRY MR. PRINDLE.

OVERALL RATING – Like a sandwich from a truck stop – the idea of eating it seems hilarious enough, so you do to impress your friends. Halfway through, you realize it was a bad idea, but since you’ve had better sandwiches from truck stops, you aren’t willing to give up on it completely. I'VE USED THAT BEFORE I THINK.
KEY TRACKS – “I’m Your Daddy”, “I Want You To”, “Put Me Back Together”, “I Don’t Want to Let You Go”.

Kraftwerk - Computerwelt (as reviewed by John)

(john wrote this trying to trick people into thinking that I wrote them in the email. I didn't though. I never refer to myself in the third person nor does Johnny. He's just good at trying to write like me. I'm not convinced he actually listened to this album, but he says he did...)


In post world war II germany, no longer able to do spend their creative energies thinking of ways to commit malicious acts of genocide, a bunch of Düsseldorf students got together with their computers and started making fun noises.

This release from 1981 is a great 40 minutes full of all electronic grooves, mostly notable for that song with that riff that Chris Martin ripped off, made into a hit single, stood on bono's shoulders, picked apple from the joshua tree, and ate it.

OVERALL RATING - Full of the rich, synthetic gooey-ness available in every box of Kraft Mac and Cheese.
KEY TRACKS - Nummern, Computerwelt 2, It's More Fun to Compute

Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation (as reviewed by John)

(two notes: couldn't find album art. also, john wrote these trying to trick people into thinking that I wrote them in the email. I didn't though. I never refer to myself in the third person nor does Johnny. He's just good at trying to write like me)

So Johnboy's been telling me to check out this album since early June, but I didn't do anything about it until I saw them at pitchfork, and was skeptical. After the first few songs, I told stolarski "I can see why John likes this band," and he said "yeah! they're good!"

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

You guyssssssss........................................................................................

What I meant was that it's got some of that country crap Johnboy's into (Tupelo Tweeds, Jayhawks, Bernard Shakey, etc), sprinkled with some random synths and fun noises, cooked in a magical explosion of facial hair and flannel, carbonated, poured into a recycled glass bottle in a wicker park plant, given a name with an animal in it (reindeer), and consumed by all you pitchfork indie hipsters across the globe. But in the end, it's just Sub Pop.

But hey, I thought I might as well give the record a chance.

It starts off with this, jarring, screwy rhythm that's kinda goofy and finds the suite spot pretty well. Then it goes into this neil young-ish country rocker covered in zeppelin licks which is alright, but not that exciting. With the third song, it's clear the album's not going in any particular direction. It switches from some odd hipster synth riff jam, to harmonica blues folk metal, layered noises, a hillbilly banjo tune, quiet acoustic stuff, a punkish rocker, and a few country tunes at the end. It's a lot of stuff to throw into one album, and I guess that's the point. I just don't see much tieing it all together. There's definitely some cool production throughout the album, but who really cares about that? I just want some sincere pacific northwest singer songwriter stuff like mudhoney or green river.

OVERALL RATING - The J.J. Gargantuan: Tons of genoa salami, sliced smoked ham, capicola, roast beef, turkey & provolone, jammed into one of our homemade French buns then smothered with onions, mayo, lettuce, tomato, & our homemade Italian dressing.
KEY TRACKS - devil's a-go-go, wild mountain nation, badger's black brigade

Big Black - Lungs

(Couldn't find artwork on Photobucket. Anyone else know where I can find pictures to put in the blog?)

THIS is the first big black release thing. you see, Stever wrote it when he was a 20 year old nerd after playing guitar for a week, a drum machine for a few weeks and the bass for a handful of years. somehow, he also got a hold of an electric organ dealie that seems to have delay on it constantly. there's also some sax. and a guy yelling. so, if you like santiago's stuff, then LEAVE. GET OUT. NOBODY COMES IN STAY OUT! DAMAGED!
sorry, henry rollins stole my computer and wrote a book about touring the spoken word circuit called "get in the man - how to infiltrate the capitalist machine and speak at college campuses while working out 3 hours a day and showing people your muscles".

so, what is it then?

well. steve, sounds like a nerd. i mean, you hear the lyric "i'm a hunter, i kill what i eat/i'm a bricklayer i kill what i eat" and you think "dang! this is scary!!!". instead, it's some skinny kid at northwestern wearing glasses and talking into a 4 track with repetitive drum beats, two note guitar lines, and chunky sounding bass.
most of this EP follows that structure.

some folks seem to not like it: they say it doesn't "RIP" like the later stuff. Or that it sounds too much like killing joke. well, who cares?! its enjoyable, ain't it?

hmm, and steve's lyrics - already about hating women and beating people missing limbs. he also says the word "darkie". hahaha!


not funny at all steve.

or listen to "crack", where he says "this is like a slap in the face, this is like an amputation!". he sounds so weird! like, nervous and heartbroken!

sad steven (tyler) albini. sahhhhd.

some songs are great though! i really do enjoy it. its nice because some of them, given albini's limited, well, everything here, he puts it together. i even think he's playing the wrong notes in the last song "rip" on the bass.

the guitar has the same tone the whole time, the bass has some weird effect on it, and the drums only play the same beat because steve only knew how to make one beat at a time on Roland because Roland was a crappy drummer.


OVERALL RATING - not top notch, but certainly better than HARVEST!KEY TRACKS - i can be killed, live in a hole, crack.

Guided By Voices - Propeller

(Couldn't find album artwork on Photobucket - link below has the many variations)

This is an album that you won't be able to find anywhere.

Why?

Well, former school teacher, GBV singer guy, and all around alcoholic decided "Hey, this will be our last album. let's print up 500 copies, all in plain white sleeves, and decorate them all differently".

don't believe me, check it out:
http://www.gbvdb.com/albums.asp?album_title=propeller

also, if you don't know, this wasn't their last album because this was the first one they released people actually LISTENED to.

but, no more GBVistory. you can read the book.

so, the songs:

rockers!

acoustic numbers!!

SUMMER JAMSZZZ!!!

4 TRACAACKK ACOIUUUTTSSSTICC SNIPPPERTYTS!!!!

TOBIN SPROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BUT, here, they finally seem to have it together. i mean, don't get me wrong, the crap is CRAP! "lethargy"? "ergo space pig"? "particular damaged"?? all awful songs that are nothing more than mr. drunk bobert howling with crap instrumental things.

but - i will say - "metal mothers", "exit flagger", "over the neptune", "mesh gear fox" and some more do kick out the jams like there's no tomorrow. perfect for when i bought it the last day of junior year and drove home listening to it in the now smashed jetta. i had such high hopes for life. i still do. just not with that car.

and tobin has "14 cheerleader coldfront", which bob co-wrote, but it was tobin's music. and bob has "red gas circle", some acoustic thing that sounds intropective.

OVERALL RATING - good job. my copy of the CD has another GBV album called "vampire on titus" on it. i bought it used. new copies of this won't have both albums. you'll need to buy them seperately. i got lucky.
KEY TRACKS - over the neptune, exit flagger, red gas circle, 14 cheerleader cold front.

Flipper - Album: Generic Flipper

so if you couldn't tell, i'm irritated right now.

you see, my keyboard on my laptop has been acting strangely, making me have to type super hard so everything gets on there, and i have to delete words often and retype them. example of difficult keyboard:

te dog went upstais o the atta and found aa ball t play with.

should have been:

the dog went upstairs to the attiic and found a ball to play with.

other times, its fine.

ug. now time to write this flipper review for an album no one cares about other than kurt cobain's rotting cremated ashes.

so, 4 guys. drum. guitar. bass/singer. bass/singer. when one basses, the other sings, and vice versa.

what does it sound like??

midtempo bass heavy sloppiness. with lyrics about whatever.

jackholes wouldn't get it. nor should they - their race is one that is bred in hatred, mixing australian cuisine with fashion sense from a goodwill store in brookline.

the way it sounds is like imagine a good stooges album, so either half of the first one or fun house. but, without iggy. or a sax. its actually cooler. and there's a total air of "who gives a crap" - see the song "nothing" where one guy says "wait, let's all start at the same time". or kickoff track "ever", featuring handclaps that aren't always on beat with the song.
"living for the depression" is a quickie, leading into album closer and high point, the 8 minute jam "sex bomb", which is a riff, a sax solo, and the words "sex bomb, momma, yeoowwaa!" or "sex bomb, baby, yow!". with some whistling sound that sounds like that bomb. this is a song i could listen to for 28 minutes and just be rolling on the floor, myself into a stupor that would make people think i was pulling an ian curtis or something.

i picked to do this album because while going to a friend's violin recital, there was a little girl who was laughing, and her laughs sounded like that whistling noise. it was great.

OVERALL RATING - like being stuck inside a concrete mixer while having 12 portions of your brain turned off. fasciating.
KEY TRACKS - ever, sex bomb, life.

Dinosaur Jr. - Live at the Middle East - October 2nd, 2009

Where: The Middle East. Cambridge, MA.
When: Friday, Oct. 2
Who: Dinosaur Jr., opening was Lou Barlow + the Missingmen
Who else: Pulawski
Why: Because its Dinosaur Jr.

SOUND GOOD?

YAY!

Let's talk about Louie B.

So, I like Lou a whole lot. Sebadoh, Sentridoh, other solo stuff, I certainly like it alot. And I like his outside of Dino stuff more than I like J's. Lou is actually probably my favorite Dino-guy.
So, imagine how excited i was when i learned he was opening for Dino playing songs from his new solo album. AND his backing band was the missingmen, who played with Mike Watt. Good things.

I didn't have the album, but I heard a few songs and certainly enjoyed it.

So, when lou finally took the stage at 9.30 (we got there at 7), i was excited. BUT, lou started the first song 4 times, because he had the capo in the wrong place on his guitar. and never realized it until about 45 seconds into the song each time.
the entire nite was like this - lou playing wrong chords, lou singing wrong lyrics, lou not wearing shoes so he could operate his bass pedals while he played guitar. just charming lou things. The Missingmen kept it together, and just rocked out.

Even for all the screwups, i really enjoyed the set. i almost bought the album, but i didn't want to spend $15. anyone have it and want to burn it for me? i'll send you my address.

as for dino - i'll start with the set:

Thumb
Been There All The Time
I Want You To Know
Imagination Blind
In A Jar
Get Me
Pieces
Plans
Feel The Pain
Over It
Forget The Swan
The Wagon
Freak Scene
I Don't Wanna Go There
--encore--
Kracked
Just Like Heaven

So, lot of Farm stuff, some early stuff and a chunk of 90s Dino.

I can't talk too much about the songs - I don't own Farm and I've never been blown away by most of the 90s hooplah. But the early stuff sounded great and everything else sounded very good as well.

It was loud. I wore earplugs. That was nice.

A lot of dinosaur jr fans are morons. I got into a conversation with a guy with a beard who was in his late 30s, talking about some Christian Slater film, wearing a puka necklace and a Green Mind t-shirt and later telling me he named his son "Thurston Moore". Dweeb. There was also Brian. Brian lacked social skills. The whole concert, he was taking pictures with his camera phone which seemed to be irritating everyone around him. He was a younger guy, and I told him about this Burma show two days later. By coincidence, I saw him and it was interesting. He talked about how he didn't wear ear plugs and likened his ringing to Roger Miller's, saying it was probably worse. (Miller has tinnitus, one of the reasons for Burma breaking up some 20 years ago.) Later we got talking about something else and I mentioned by occassional burst of tinnitus and he got very apologetic and said he did not mean to belittle mine or Roger's disease. yeah...

The band sounded great. Pulawski said she could sense tension - as could I. Lou, obviousl peeved at himself for his solo set, J for being J, and Murph spilled beer all over the setlist. I know because I got his. It smelled like Corona. They asked what people wanted them to play. I kept yelling "The Lung". Pulawski kept yelling "Almost Ready". They played neither. We saw Lou walking around after and wanted to say "hey!!", but i didn't want to be like "gimme indie rock!!!". Annemarie, didn't you say "nice job" to him or something in passing?

By that point, it was 12.30 and we had to catch the bus.

for people wondering (mainly john):

Lou used an ampeg bass cab and a marshall full stack.
J used 3 full stacks and a smaller fender that was elevated on a road case. His pedal rig was a sqaure with 5 buttons across and 4 down, and a whole mess of pedals was hooked up to it.
Murph used some purple and green drums, a few cymbals, and sticks.

OVERALL RATING - fine show.
I can't remember what songs were FANTASTIC as it was over a month ago, but I remember leaving thinking "dang, well played gentlemen".

Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs

Dear Yo La Tengo,

what are we going to do with you?

In the 80s, you started as a boring-ish Feelies rip-off group. In the 90s, you released 3 great albums, and then a few others. In the 2000s, you released a wonderful album, but then followed it up with one album i haven't heard and one that was almost 80 minutes long that had some wonderful stuff and some terrible stuff (Mr. Tough, Sometimes I Don't Get You) that was embarrassing. So, after your letdown performance at the Pitchfork music festival, how do you try to regain the fanbase you had when you released good albums?

By releasing a 73 minute THING that you could call an album. I mean, it starts off cool enough. "here to fall" is like ylt doing the theme to SHAFT or something. "nothing to hide" sounds like "sugarcube" for the 2010 generation, and there's nothing wrong with that. "more stars than there are in heaven" lives up to its title, and sounds great.

here's what's wrong with it:
the two tracks after "stars" that together come out to be over 26 minutes. And they do nothing. AT ALL.
also, YLT's fascination with music is great. they do lots of covers and know their music history. however, wouldn't you much rather listen to those old albums than hearing ira kaplan sing in falsetto in the style of the music he talks about?
or hey, how about for one album, someone takes away all of their damn keyboards and they try to write an album with some guitars?
at one point, gary said "it all sounds like late belle & sebastian". i certainly do agree to some extent (have you heard "the life persuit"?? its one of dave grohl's favs).

its frustruating, because i believe they can write better songs than this. I KNOW they can. THEY DID.

yay yo la tengo!

you've hurt my feelings again. i'll just listen to "sugarcube" until you release a good album or i get married and hate wearing bell bottoms again.

by the way, "periodically double or triple" is not enjoyable. shame on them for releasing it.

OVERALL RATING - The Onion's AV Club gave it an A-. I sure love their fake headlines...
KEY TRACKS - "more stars", "nothing to hide", "all your secrets", "avalon or someone very similar".

Sonic Youth - The Eternal

So after the album "Daydream Nation", sonic youth signed to a major label and released nothing worth noting within some 17 years of music. THEN, they announced they were going to the idie label matador, so steve albini declared it was cool to listen to them again.

WHAT WERE WE EXPECTING?

A lot of people thought that here, s-y would get REALLY out there and take advantage of having no pressures that they would have on a major label or whatever. but, the truth is, they never had that when they were of geffen and its ridiculous to think that them switching labels would make them change their sound. regardless, all points are moot and what we have here is a strangely consistent and normal sounding album.

OHH HEY!

and MARK IBOLD is playing bass here with them. He's done it for a few years, but this is the first time on record. I like to talk about his smile, but very few of you have seen it. here's some pictures:
(note - the pics in the email are much better. i couldn't figure out how to post them. mark is the man on the far left. the people he is with are those guys from pavement)



uh, what was i talking about?

oh, yeah, the new sonic youth album.

well, it starts with a nice short song. then, one thats 6 minutes, complete with thurston and kim "grunting" which makes everyone feel a little awkward. then, some song for a beat poet that stole toasters or something (greg corso), then a 6 minute song which might be a truly fantastic highlight of this album. not redundant at all, right?
the rest of it is alright. honestly though, i was kinda let down at first. it took me awhile to get into it. HOWEVER, upon hearing 11 of the 12 songs live back in june, i listened to the album again, and determined that it was actually quite nice.

i am little let down by lee's songs though. usually, i can enjoy a nice lee tune. like "wish fulfillment" or "mote", but here, we get "what we know" which sounds a little more like "what we know (we can do to write a song and make it not be as good as it could be potentially)" and "walkin' blue", which is nice, but meh, its no "wish fulfillment".

Kim and Thurston sound nice and healthy. And Steve Shelly finally looks like he isn't 12.

Production wise, it seems very heavy on the LOW end. I mean, that could be because of the 2 basses, but when i saw them do these songs live, Marcus was the only one playing bass (kim played guitar or danced awkwardly in heels and a fanny pack). However, it really opens up when you can play it loud.
Or something.

I don't know.

Two weeks from today I'll be seeing them again and I'll make sure to ask them about the mix and lack of good songs by Lee.

Failures.

OVERALL RATING - better than 4 TUNNA BRIX. Equal to Ciccone Youth for sure.
KEY TRACKS - "no way", "antenna", "leaky lifeboat", "poison arrow"

Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation

don't we all love flipper?!!

I would love to have a band that could play "sex bomb" for 45 minutes. who wants to do it? its not too hard and its certainly less pretentious than this crappy album by sonic youth.

at some point, sonic youth told thurston moore to "write some songs about j mascais being president or go home and beat glenn branca with an eraser". so, he wrote "teenage riot". with that, little kids fippered out and were all like "whooaa! best album ever!". it didnt matter if the rest of the album was just lee ranaldo farting into a megaphone and steve shelly looping it - it would've worked. however, they decided to write more songs. bummer. some are really nice. i mean " 'cross the breeze" is a keeper. "candle" is in 5/4 so, total math rock there. there's mike watt talking on a tape recorder on "providence". "eric's trip" is just noisy stuff with lee ranaldo talking about someone doing drugs. on "hey joni" lee talks about what year it is, but he can't seem to make up his mind and then he rambles. "rain king" is just kinda boring. "kissability" seems like a diff. version of "rain king", which is great since they are RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER on the album. "trilogy" is fairly good all around. "total trash" is ok, but it goes on a little too long. "silver rocket" is just some lyrics put together for a 3 minute noise burst.

the problem here is that it's too much music. honestly. it bogs down and by the end of the CD here, you're exhausted. honestly - how many of you will sit through the whole album? not many. instead, you'll listen to "teenage riot", skip through, and then listen to "sister" or "goo".

not to say its a bad album - its fine. and its critically acclaimed and everything, but it tries to cram so much into it, that it seems more like the idea of "daydream nation" means more than the actual execution of it.

let's hope i see them play more of it when i see them again in boston.

OVERALL RATING - trim the fat of the steak, and you get good beef. leave it on, and its very chewy.
KEY TRACKS - cross the breeze, candle, silver rocket, teenage riot

Fleet Foxes - Sun Giant EP

(Suggested by John)

so these four bearded non talented satan worshippers released an EP to make money on tour.

they don't like it too much. why?

because its 5 songs of diddley guitars, "whooaooaaas" and lots of toms. you see, robin penckinghead wrote some songs and said "go!!" and bam, you got a money maker. they later released it everywhere because the fans wanted it. mainly because the fleet foxes sent hidden messages in every copy of their first album to convince people to think their music was listenable.

personally, i think its ok.

its not anywhere as good as the actual LP. its a nice taste, but it just seems kinda there. everything sounds the same (tempo wise and more) and it just tends to totter along. i mean, "english house" is nice. "mykonos" is a little too epic for its own good. "drops in the river" could've been a nice touch on the LP, but its not essential. the first track is meh, and the fifth is just robert peckermold or whatever with a guitar singing in a cave somewhere.

OVERALL RATING - not needed, but if you want to hear some songs that aren't as good as the album, here you go. OR evergreen trees.
KEY TRACKS - drops in the river, english house

Big Black - Pigpile

(note: I couldn't find the image for the album artwork on photobucket. If someone knows where to find the right kind of link to paste, let me know)

Before Big Black released their final LP, they said they would go on a tour before the album was released. This album is a recording of a show that was done in London at the Hammersmith Claredon and features a collection of songs ranging from the first EP and the final album.

Could you imagine if all my reviews were like that? wouldn't it be boring?? let me try this:

before steve albini was old and fat, he said "hey, im gonna make a live album and then beat some kittens with a sewing machine" and santiago durango said "good call steve, i'll use a bowie knife to cut some lettuce" and dave riley said "HEY! this is a good stew". Roland went "dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum" meaning "why yes david, it makes for a delightful treat. we should be so lucky that steve should have kitties for food underneath his porch at all times". they then recorded it and what you got was this:
songs from almost everything except the headache ep and racer-x ep. other than that, its all there. "passing complexion"? yeap. "pavement saw"? you betcha. "steelworker"?? dont be stupid, of course. "heartbeat"? yes. well, if you own the VHS version, yes. its not on the LP.

hmmm, but why? i certainly enjoy it. it seems sloppy at points, but its still great. stever sounds more hoarse than he does on the albums vocally. the guitars are super loud (yay!) and roland is thumpin and jumpin like there's no yesterday.
the set list could be a tad better. (no big money?) but it actually kinda seems like a big black greatest hits. very strange.

then there's the last song.

"jordan minnesota". we all know what its about and we've all heard the stories about how crazy it could get live, but here, stevan seems more restrained. Instead of acting like a little boy or screaming "all right you little bastards!!!", he just breathes and says "come here, and do as you're told" a few times and it ends with glorious noise.

this was recorded in 87, but not released til 92 when touch and go re-released most of the big black back catalog.

ohh, but those versions of "L dopa" and "pavement saw" sound great. "passing complexion" is much noisier here, and its great.

"dead billy" sounds a little strange, and all the guitars do is make noise while the bass plays the melody (good thinking!)

OVERALL RATING - vampire bats
KEY TRACKS - passing complexion, kerosene, pavement saw

Bob Dylan - Christmas In The Heart

What do Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, U2, and the Smashing Pumpkins all have in common? They all have released songs on various artists Christmas albums such as “Now That’s What I Call Christmas!” or the wonderful “A Very Special Christmas” series. A lot of these songs might have also been released in standalone single editions (for anyone that wants to remember the days where you could buy the new McCartney 7” for less than $2), but no one in their right mind ever released a FULL ALBUM of Christmas songs. I mean, could you imagine U2 attempting to squash through “Up on the Housetop” in their late 80s/uber-Americana phase? No! What if the Smashing Pumpkins put together a “rockin’ medley of “Jingle Bells” and “Silent Night”, all the while simultaneously ripping off Led Zeppelin and the Jesus and Mary Chain? That just wouldn’t work. At least, not for a full album.

Bob Dylan has released an entire album of Christmas classics and a few originals the week before Halloween.

I can’t exactly figure out what was going through Mr. Zimmerman’s head while doing production on this album, but whatever it was, Dylan needs to stop doing it. Throughout the whole recording, he sounds like Tom Waits with a garbage disposal for vocal chords. While you might find this interesting, I can guarantee you that it isn’t. Honestly, it’s really hard to hear Dylan singing like this. While is currently shot voice sounded fine even on the last album (“Together Through Life”), here, it’s painful to listen to. Listening to Dylan trying to rip through these standards, one could think that these winter pastime sing-a-longs would have extremely hard melodies and that he suffered a vocal blowout before each track.

The album also suffers from major problems within the band as well. For the first time since “Knocked Out Loaded” (folks might know this as the one with the infamous “Maybe Someday”, featuring gospel singers, out of time drums, and a bassist who liked playing random offbeat accents during random intervals), Dylan sounds horribly out of sync with his band on most of these tracks. Another tip of the hat towards the awful “Knocked Out Loaded” comes in the form of “Christmas Island”, a Christmas song with a Hawaiian flair that just doesn’t sound very good.

But I think the biggest problem comes with the fact that all of these arrangements sound pretty much like any other Christmas album featuring Cookie Monster on lead vocals. I mean, I would assume Dylan is a clever guy, I mean he put out that album “Shot of Love”! He has to have a sense of humor! Instead, all we get is a bunch of generic sounding backing tracks with Dylan attempting to sing Christmas carols over them.

Maybe this would be nicer to take in various sittings, much like how radio stations play Christmas music by different artists come the day after Thanksgiving. But it fails as an album, making things like the Chipmunks Christmas album, Jingle Cats, any Bing Crosby compilation, and the two songs off the “Peel Sessions Box Set” by The Fall appear to be holiday masterpieces.

OVERALL RATING – Certainly wouldn’t bring this to my next holiday party, but I might certainly enjoy hearing one song every couple of weeks.
KEY TRACKS – “Must Be Santa”, “Do You Hear What I Hear?”, “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”

Wilco - Wilco (The Album)

Suggested by Brianne, John, John's Dad, and a few others

So, it seemed like a lot of people were asking about this Wilco album. Why? I don't know. I actually first heard it back when it was accidentally leaked and Wilbro said "hey, let's just stream it for free like when did all of our other albums since 1435". Greg Kot subsequently had a heart attack and I started writing his column in the Tribune and took over his spot on Sound Opinions. As long as I said "Wilco - yay" and shouted gibberish out of a megaphone while lighting fireworks out of Jim DeRogatis' nostrils while standing behind a curtain that read "TRASH IT", nobody would know.

I remember listening to it once and having one thought "easy listening Wilco". You see, I haven't heard "Sky Blue Eyes" and I've only listened to "A (sound opinions) Host is (peter)Bjorn (& john)" once or twice. But, all of the "young folks" seemed to like them somewhat. Also, Brianne, didn't you see them in Germany when they were touring in support of "a ghost is born"? Which brings me to the real reason I'm reviewing it: other than John asking me to do it as I was streaming it, Brianne requesting it about a month ago, and Mr. Gargiulo saying "hey, i'm going to the wilco concert, can you review it?", i thought that i should really listen to this album and have an educated opinion. so, here it is:



Make sense? Good.

But, let's talk about music here!
Well, that first one "wilco (the song)" is a nice one, with some sort of guitar going "kerooiign!" every now and then and jeff tweedy saying "wilco will love you baby" which brings back memories of the film This is Spinal Tap when they are playing "(listen to) the flower people" and derek smalls mouths the words "we love you" while nigel takes a solo. "Deeper Down" sounds like a Andrew Bird song with less cool violin and Tweedster's voice. "One Wing" also sounds like Andrew Bird in the beginning, but stops once we see that there's no whistling. I guess those Riv Residence shows are starting to rub off too much. The rest of the album is just re-interpretations of "Dash 7".
Except, they don't sound like that song. "Bull Black Nova" is one that Mr. Gargiulo asked me if it was an answer to "Psycho Killer" by the Talking Heads. At first glance, you could say yes. Except this song just gets kind of boring after a while, there's no french spoken here, and there's some cool noisy guitar stuff, notably absent on anything Tina Weymouth has done in her 12 years of being a professional seashell. "You and I" is a duet with that Feist woman who sang a song in an iPod commerical and is Canadian. It's ok.

"You Never Know" is the Wilco summer jam here!!! WhooO!!!!! This is the one that will get the hips shaking tonite after Tortoise puts all of the Wilco fans to sleep. And they play it on XRT. Ohh, and listen to Glenn's playing! Isn't it spicy! Listen to the bell of that ride cymbal buried under 5764587623948659 tracks of the words "i don't care anymore". "Country Disappeared" seems like a crappy version of "Wendell Gee" by R.E.M. that can be used as a special kick back and dig the vibes while driving off away from the exploded sun on some horizon or some crap. I don't know, sounds romantic don't it? "Solitaire" starts off sounding like Rogue Wave, but then they add the lapsteel and some other crap and it just kinda goes off..."I'll Fight" is the most pathetic ode to love or something since Wilco wrote "Via Chicago"...no wait...hold on here...anyways, its sounds cliched and too country-fied to be enjoyed by people not inside a Texas Roadhouse restaurant. But, I still kinda enjoy it. Maybe its that drum beat. OHHH!! Listen to that closed hi-hat! "Sonny Feeling" sounds like it was on the album earlier once or twice, and "Everlasting Everything" sounds like how "the Angel and the One" did on Weezer's Red Album. Like everything else, but slowed down and given a push during the chorus.

So, what's the deal here? Years ago, Wilco was making nice noisy music with interesting lyrical matter while throwing in some pop which was nice. Now, its just, meh. Easy listening. This is a Wilco album that you can listen to in the car and not crash it because it makes you depressed or wanting to kill the person in the car with you. If anything, this is the typical "spousal" album that any band can put out.

Let me explain:

say you have a husband/wife/girlfriend/boyfriend/pet who is always wondering why you like Wilco so much. You play clips from YHF and Summerteeth, usually the stuff like "Via Chicago", "Poor Places", "Jesus Etc", you know, the good stuff. In return, you get a blank stare and they call Wilco crap forever. But then you put on this album and they like it because its "safe". There's no noise freakouts. No 15 minute songs. No songs about killing your wife and taking valium. Just concise songs. And hey, if they don't like "Bull Black Nova"'s ending, they can just skip it while you both drive to IKEA. However, you the WILCO fan are torn. Yes, you are listening to WILCO, but its kinda boring, not as excited. But aren't you so excited that your significant other also realize's the genius of Jeff Tweedy, even though that person doesn't know who Jay Bennet or Jay Farrar is?

Other albums like this:
Weezer - the red album
AC/DC - back in black
Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
B-52s - Cosmic Thing
Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One
Rush - Moving Pictures
U2 - Joshua Tree
Against Me! - New Wave
JUNO Soundtrack

Not to diss on any of these albums. They are all fine in their own right. But, wouldn't you rather listen to:

Weezer - Pinkerton
AC/DC - Powerage
Andrew Bird - Weather Systems
B-52s - B-52s
Yo La Tengo - Painful
Rush - anything else other than the first album
U2 - October
Against Me! - Disco and the Breakdown 7"
Sounds of a trampoline destroying a pet store?

If you are the second category, you'll probably be let down somewhat, but if you know someone in the first category, you're gonna blow their mind right out of their pinky toe.

OVERALL RATING - fine for any bbq, christian holiday or baseball field.
KEY TRACKS - one wing, wilco (the song), you never know, everlasting everything

U2 - ACHTUNG BABY

At some point, U2 wanted to be cool. Smartly, they decided that rather than ripping off bluesmen and pretending to be American like they did for the past 4 years, they said "hey, let's try a new style by stealing other aspects of other people's music. like that young crap kids listen to these days". SO, Maurice Star came in and the rest is history...

Well, actually, Eno and Lanois went with the boys to Berlin were they hoped to rekindle the spirit of a long creatively-dead David Bowie and create a new experimental album of STUFF! that didn't work, so they went back to Ireland and wrote and recorded the album.

How does it sound? Well, that's up to you. Personally, this was the first U2 album I heard, as it was born shortly after I was, so this album is my childhood. I remember watching the music videos for it, like "even better for the real thing", which included them all falling or something. i don't know, i had a VHS tape of it somewhere...

here, U2 went for a "harsh" sound, meaning everything sounds like it was recorded by Robert Pollard. and all the songs are 45 seconds long. well, neither of that's true! but, its really distorted! and noisy! and the mix gets a little weird! I say this all in terms of U2 albums. I mean, you won't confuse this with "Confusion is Sex", but if you LOVED "the Unforgettable Fire", this might cheese you off a bit. However, it did sell 18 million copies.

I chose to review this because I listened to it while driving to Boston a month ago while moving there, and when I visited my aunt earlier this evening, we watched Bono make a fool out of himself wearing a light up suit, singing into a steering wheel, swining on it like a Cirque du Soliei character to the song "ultraviolet (light my way)", which i genuinely like. so, i listened to the album while making cookies and said "i'm gonna review this".

It brought me to a time where Bono wasn't embarrasing as much. Where he was "cool". But not "Pop"-era cool. And where he was breaking "new" ground, but not like "No Line on the Horizon" new ground. And he was "rocking", and not like "vertigo" rocking, and for one brief time, he didn't care about Africa. Such a simpler time. Now, I feel like to watch him could be a chore. I mean, there's no reason for him to sing "Bad" while wearing a light-up suit made from laser pointers while screaming about children not having clean water. I wonder how much water and energy it takes for the U2 road crew to make it through one performance? or what about how much paper it took Rolling Stone to print the same article on U2 its been printing for the past 7 years about "a back to basics, yet extravagant rock show" complete with crappy journalism and a GLOWING review of the new Pearl Jam album by Rob Sheffield, who you can see on VH1 talking about who knows what. (not to dis on Pearl Jam, but nothing is THAT great if "bugs" isn't on it).. And, the suit isn't a joke, it actually happened.

I fail to see any emotion or worthwile value in U2's most recent work.


That's why I'll listen to this.

OVERALL RATING - fine job boys! how about you and me and the fellers all get a burger together?
KEY TRACKS - ultraviolet, zoo station, until the end of the world, tryin' to throw your arms around the world.

THINKING FELLERS UNION LOCAL 282 - MOTHER OFF ALL SAINTS

So this is the one people like? I think so. I'm not sure.

YOU SEE, a lot of people like this. They LOVE this one. Other people prefer the one after this "Strangers of the Universe" as it's "normal" sounding to some degree. Some people really like "Lovelyville" (like me) for other reasons.

NOT to say this is bad. I mean, its a great album. But here's the deal -
It starts with a 1-2-3-4-5-6 punch of great songs. then some filler. then, an ok song. then a great song! then, filler! then, a better song. then, a fantastic song! then, 15 minutes of practice tape feedback stuff. then! a wonderful close to 6 minute epic instrumental. then, a slight break, 1 more good song, a heavily distorted instrumental, and some barely audible guitar noise for a minute, then, its done. and 70 MINUTES OF YOUR LIFE ARE GONE FOREVER. I think honestly, that this is a fine album, but because of the sequencing, it deserves to be heard in its original double LP format. and because of its strong start, i feel that unlike "lovelyville", its tends to meander around a bit, but then it turns around to kick you in the teeth again.

HIGHLIGHTS:

- lots more banjo!
- anne's jam "tell me", which features a distorted banjo and a crazy noise interlude thing followed by pure rock.
- "tuning notes" - 4 minutes of noise and stupidity worthy enough to aggrivate any person you might be around within 40 seconds (still quite enjoyable though...)
- "hornet's heart" which features some violin and singing. and one of the 15684961 singers singing in silly voices!

OVERALL RATING - fine job fellers, let's go get a bite to eat.
KEY TRACKS - "a gentleman's lament", "tell me", "star trek", "raymond h.", "hummingbird in a cube of ice"

THINKING FELLERS UNION LOCAL 282 - WORMED, BY LEONARD

Dear god, doesn't this look like the worst album artwork you've ever seen? AND doesn't have the world's most awkward band name there? AND DOESN'T IT LOOK LIKE THAT THIS "ALBUM" HAS 20 SONGS AND 6 BONUS TRACKS!?!?!?!?!

Well here's the deal. This was released as a cassette in 1988 and was since reissued in 1995 with 6 bonus recordings spanning the gap from 1986 to 1989. AND the bonus tracks include a CARPENTERS COVER! the same one sonic-youth did on the juno soundtrack, along with that kinks song "victoria" who's lyrics went as such:
"inside, village green
juno dear, you're my queen
drive a van,
i'm your man,
yellow shorts, all so clean,
juno's baby, washing machine,
kim gordon leather bag face,
makes me dance all over the place -
VICTORIAAAAAA
VICTROLAAAA
VITERACOLA
LA LA LA
LOLA
WOAAOOOAA
LOLA
CHERRY COLA
MAXWELL POLKA
WARSAW
IAN CURTIS".

ANYhoos, so, yes, originally, this was a 20 song cassette. how is it? well, kinda mixed.

YOU SEE - the thinking fellers were from san francisco, BUT before they wound up there, they were all grew up in IOWA. these two places, are quite different. HERE. FOR some reason, this doesn't sound as much like a TFUL282 album as the others (Lovelyville, Mother of all Saints). Maybe because its the first release?? I don't know, it seems like listening to this TFUL282 album, that the group could be made up of a bunch of loggers or something from Virginia. I mean, it tends to have a very "rural" feeling to it. Maybe that's the Iowa aspect or something. For lack of a better term, it seems kinda hick-ish. I mean, look at the tracks: "truck drivin' man", "mile wide", "mr tuna's big old place", "misfits park". They all have some sort of semi-rednecky feel to them. Maybe its the guitars. Or they just overuse that yokel-sounding accent a little to much. I can't tell.

Also, some songs go on too long. Like "out in the kitchen" doesn't need to be 6.5 minutes long. And "get off my house" certainly spends too much time building for something that just barely comes. BUT I do like "nipper", the song about a dog. and "hell rules" is quite fantastic as well. ohh! and what about anne's lead vocal debut, "i don't know"?? well, its not the best, but still, nice job!

and they all sound so young here! i mean, listen to the voices - they sound so little! it's adorable!!! and if you are one of those folks who's like "dude, where's the feller filler?", well, "its right here!" is what i would reply/

the whole album is just feller filler! and my whole turkey is stuffing! from stouffer's!

and i can't think of a better way to start off a first release by a band than "it's seven", which is a brief noisy mess with the band members yelling in the background. truly delightful.

OH! and let me say, that this is with the original drummer. how can you tell? because the other guy who's on every other TFUL282 release is better. at least, i think so. but, i bet this guy was a nice feller. GET IT, A NICE FELLER!?

OVERALL RATING - "WAYSIDE SCHOOL GET'S A LITTLE STRANGER"
KEY TRACKS - hell rules, narlus spectre, nipper, leaky bag

THE FEELIES - TIME FOR A WITNESS

**NOTE - I couldn't find an image of the LP cover that would work here. You can see it on google image search or something. yay!**

This album shouldn't exist. Honestly. There's no reason for it to. I mean, the Feelies were pretty much done and washed up and lacked any capability to write music. Glenn Mercer had a cane and cataracts and couldn't see; Bill was suffering from back problems, and Laura's finger exploded during a gig.







KIDDING!

actually, while this isn't one of the landmark ones, it sure is a delightful romp. I mean, i really like "doin' it again" and the stooges cover is also cool (even though "doin' it again"'s guitar tone sounds like a song by ned's atomic dustbin). I also enjoy "invitation" a whole bunch - a little spunked out acoustic pop song with a lovely refrain of "take me there" that just makes children smile. it makes couples in love stop dead in their tracks. dishes fall to the ground unbroken - - - - and I'm in love with her when she SAAAIAIIIIINININNNAAAAAAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAINGGGGGGSSSS!
(shellac - DORIS)

i can't honestly say why this one isn't as well known as the others. I mean, i consider it an improvement over "only life" (the drum sound is MUCH better here). not to say there aren't some clunkers - namely "what she said", which is 5 minutes of a riff and "that's what she said" jokes. maybe its because its all kinda similar to the last 2 albums. or its because of the guitar. there's effects on it that sound new, but it kinda dates the albums and make it sound like a album from 1991 (see "for now"). or that yo la tengo has been ripping off (along with r.e.m.) "find a way" for the last 15 years of their careers.

after this one, the feelies broke up for 17 years. i saw their first reunion show in chicago and i'm seeing them in boston in november. i kinda like this group...

OVERALL RATING - not a dove bar - maybe a choco taco?
KEY TRACKS - "doin' it again", "time for a witness", "invitation"

THE FEELIES - ONLY LIFE

HEY

so sorry about the album covers, but the feelies albums aren't on wikipedia w/ cover art and i usually use that (hence the almost always uniform look). so, i'm going with different sizes from different sites.

SO THE ALBUM:

today, I got a dove ice cream bar at lunch. it was delicious. what happened was: I got 4 hours of sleep because I did laundry until 5am, and i had to wake up around 9 to record some improvised music for a play based on hitchcock films until 12ish. So, i got lunch (crispy chicken sandwich w/ fries), and after eating and buying the s-y tickets, i said "i want ice cream!". so, i walked towards the cooler thing, and it was good.

SO THE ICE CREAM:

well, its more of the same. but, this has more "hits". how so? i mean, no one actually likes the feelies. they only claim to so they can be like "dude, r.e.m. is like american apparel and urban outfitters and a hot dog stand and a mcdonalds and a band aid and the feelies are like a BLOODY band aid". But i mean, look - "deep fascination"? "higher ground"? "for awhile"? "away"???? i mean, I LOVE "away". that's a wonderful song. i mean, its got that suite intro there, and glenn's guitar licks are just all over and wonderful. honestly one of the feelies finest. hands down, along with their cover of "powderfinger" and any young wu album. and there's a velvet underground cover at the end. i think its the velvets - if not the velvets, solo lou reed, but im too lazy to check. and "undertow" sounds more like something from "the good earth", but it fits nicely here.

and once again, the entire record sounds great except one aspect - THE FRICKING DRUMS!!!!
i mean, how can you have such a rhythmically driven band and have such a band drum sound? the toms and bass drum blend together and the snare has some awful 80s gating or reverb or something on it that makes it sound like a shotgun all the time.
And, remember how different and cool "the good earth" sounded from "hazy scisms"? well, you coulda fooled me and called this album "the better earth" - not to say its a better album, but this at times feels like more of a "songs" album than an "album album".

still enjoyable though.

OVERALL RATING - GWAR! GWAR! GWAR! EMPIRE RECORDS! EMPIRE RECORDS!
KEY TRACKS - "higher ground", "too much" (which is excellent to sing along to while driving), "away", "the undertow

THE FEELES - THE GOOD EARTH

So, 6 years passed between "Crazy Rhythms" and this. Why? Because time is a black hole. All we know is that the music is less jittery and chaotic, there's 5 people on the LP cover (a new drummer, bassist, and other percussion guy), and there's a ton of acoustic guitars. Oh, and Peter Buck "co-produced" it, which I think means they gave Mr. Petey some money and he got to hear one of his favorite bands record an album. Honestly, it makes sense to think that this could be a completely different band. I mean, couldn't they just have started a new group with these new songs and called themselves "the Meet Puppets" or something? But, don't let all this fool ya!

There's a ton of stuff here thats the same - Glenn's crazy solos ("Slipping into Something"), percussion along the Hudson (see almost every track), and the fact that, much like "Crazy Rhythms", the sound is almost perfect. I mean, these guys (and now, one girl) knew how to nail that optimal studio sound. And there's still plenty of nice little ditties thrown in (see "When Company Goes" - feat. a doggy!!!) and that song "Let's Go", which some people know.

The biggest changes are two things:
1 - Glenn's voice sounds less nerdy and nervous, but more confident and relaxed
2 - the songs are all more immediate. Unlike "Shmaazy Shmyhtms", the songs usally start right away and not after 45 seconds of silence.

The only Buck influence I could see on this album is on "Tomorrow Today", mainly because it reminds me of "King of the Birds" which is on R.E.M.'s album "Document". But no problems there.

OVERALL RATING - wehhheheheeehheeehheetteeettetee ice cream!
KEY TRACKS - "the high road", "the good earth", "slipping into something"

THE FEELIES - CRAZY RHYTHMS

Where can I start?

Seriously, I can't remember the last time I fell so hard and fast for an album. I think it'd have to be the Pixies "Surfer Rosa" which was actually around this time my freshman year. I actually remember listening to it on a discman because I didn't waste time putting it on my iPod and instead of studying for my finals, I listened to it 7 times a day for a week and I didn't do great on my finals. Luckily, I don't have any finals I have to come in for, so go me!

Well, you ever listen to the first couple of Yo La Tengo albums? Well stop, because most of it sounds like the Feelies. You ever listen to Young Marble Giants? Well, so do I. Let's hang out some time... But, this is truly a great album. It is mainly guitar driven, but who cares? There's also some craaazy percussion stuff that's happening that's just pretty cool (see the breakdown at the end of "Crazy Rhythms"). Fa Ce La is just a wonderful romp through what would be 80s college music that's now studied at Juliard and Northwestern, completely with a gibberish/French chorus, acoustic guitars, with a fast tempo and maracas. Track one (the Boy With Perpetual Nervousness) sounds like R.E.M., Loveless Love (track 3) has these great double tracked guitar solos, Forces at Work has, hands down, one of my favorite guitar sounds of all time. The rest of the album is just great.

Ira Kaplan, especially on the earlier YLT recordings, tries to much to sound like the singer, and the music sounds like how R.E.M. later would. But, still, entirely different from those bands.

There's even a Beatles cover (Everbody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey)!!!

RATING - Hands down, throw out your copy of "Ride the Tiger" and "New Wave Hot Dogs" and buy this while hanging out at a truck stop - - - - - IN BRITAIN! (fancy truck stops over the pond, mate).
KEY TRACKS - Forces at Work, Crazy Rhythms, Raised Eyebrows.

PSYCHEDELIC HORSESHIT - LIVE AT WFMU

first, drop the words "psychedelic" and "horse" from their name, and you'd have the proper description for their music.

i checked this out because i heard that they were like TNV and such, and i don't know if it's the recording, but the songs are all crappy. there's no awesome fuzz/distortion, the singer's voice is just annoying, and throughout the past 30 minutes of listening to this (including the unnecessary blowing on kazoos for the last 8), i found nothing worth while.

now, this is an older recording, but i can't imagine any band being this bad live and making a good album. it's just dissapointing, which is a bummer. you'd think that a band with a great name like this would have potential, but no such luck. i might check out an actual album (these are radio sessions), but i'm more skeptical now.

OVERALL RATING - (insert sad face)
KEY TRACKS - "like a rolling stone", a dylan cover they try to play while testing levels.

SEBADOH - THE FREED MAN

**note - this is a review of the Domino records reissue from a year or so back, not the original Homestead version**

52 TRACKS!

of what?!
tapes! noise!

guitars!

songs about girls!

songs about ladybugs! and bread! and tigger commericals!
and some true hardcore man....

and A FRICKIN' BEATLES COVER!

honestly, if you are into the whole 4track lo-fi whatever the heck, than this is your kind of album. i mean, it was a winter soundtrack for me this past year. and with 52 songs in 78 or so minutes, its perfect!
and since its all 4 track recordings, you get all kinds of stuff: louie barlow sounded like he's 8 years old, eric gaffney writing more than 1 kind of song when he was 14 or so and lots of ukelele, which is always good. and there's songs, but also snippets all over the album, my favorite being something from a tigger doll commercial where it's tigger saying "stop, you're rocking the forest". and this was before jason was in the band and before they actually played on each other's songs, and it's almost all acoustic (a few aren't).

yeayyy! INDIE ROCK!!!!!!

OVERALL RATING - chinese food!
KEY TRACKS - ladybugs, k-sensa-my, the lorax, jealous evil, and about 36 others.

TORTOISE - BEACONS OF ANCESTORSHIP

oh a tortoise record!!!!!
and some of it's good!

and it's kind of a new one!

Ohh boy, it starts strong - an 8 minute song that is essentially 4 songs in one.that brings back the beginning motifs at the end. the second is FUNKY and DANCEABLE! and kinda sounds like a bassline to a song by the Strokes! but it's not boring!

Then, the album turns to crap. the third track is wayyyy to dancey and it sounds like it could be a backing track for the song "american life" by madonna. then the last two tracks are great, with typical tortoise-isms like polyrhythms and no vocals.

but the rest of the album is a clustersputnik of processed beats and songs that all sound the same and party ridiculous. which is a shame. i mean, even the keyboards add a nice touch, but the drum machines or whatever just sound like crap and it's not enjoyable.


so, let me present the most "ehh" album of the summer - TORTOISE - BEACONS OF ANCESTORSHIP.

OVERALL RATING - There's some great bread here, but the meat in the middle is spoiled.
KEY TRACKS - High class slim, charteroak foundation, prepare your coffin.

the blog

so, yes, it appears that I'm giving in to the ever seductive "blog" format, but I think this can be easier than trying to send emails because I'm currently attempting to keep 3 accounts going and with all the other email switches people are going through with the new college emails and such, I figured, why not? I'm still working out a few kinks, but I'm feeling like I got the hang of it after only 7 minutes or so.

so, stay posted for the reviews and such coming from here. if you still wish to recieve email updates or something like that, just let me know, but I'm feeling good about this here. It seems simple enough...

Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music for Airports

This is Eno's first full blown ambient album. Like, that's all it is - so get ready to hear 4 notes for the next 764723047522110032 hours!

1/1. !!!!!!!!!ding ding ding ding du-dooohh
2/1. ahhhhhhhhh hhahaaaaaaaa aaaaooohhhhhhhhahaaaaaaaaa
1/2. ding, dong, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhoooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhaaaaaaaa
2/2. erraaahhhh oooohhhhhh (but with a keyboard!)

then 48 minutes is up, and you're left feeling good inside.


OVERALL RATING - ....................yes.
KEY TRACKS - 1/1, 2/2

Brian Eno - Another Green World

SO,

There's much to be said about "Charlie Sheen's World" - it's filled with heartache, laughter, and pleasent suprises, like any episode of "Two and a Half Men" or a subway sandwich covered with cinnamon! CINNAMON! NCCACSDFMAMOOONN!!!!

y'know, and it starts all funky. like, with two songs with sweet bass lines and you're thinking "Crap! Eno went crazy with all this funk! I mean, it's weird!!!". But then, we get some nice pop featuring, once again, Eno's lover Robert Fripp taking a really fast solo, much more faster than anything he did in that piece of crap band Giles, Giles, and Fripp. And then, it's all gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooone.



Here, ENO unleashes into the unsuspecting world a whole 33 minutes worth of semi-ambient snippets and songs. Like "another green world" is less than 2 minutes. As is "little fishes". It's also interesting because before this, Eno liked to write silly abstract and absurd lyrics, but here, they are less flat-out weird and more just THERE. I know, it makes perfect sense right? Like "everybody loves raymond". AND only 5 of these songs actually have vocals! That means for 9 songs, you are spared the cocky little english voice he has for some echo-y blips of nothing spread across keyboard arrangements and some Phil Collins drumming (he does actually play on the record).

This album didn't sell a lot of copies. Why? Because people are stupid.

But, it's because people are stupid that people like Bono ate this (along with Africa) up like crazy and had him produce a ton of their albums when they stopped working with Steve Lillypad. Capiche? BUT here, he's finally trying to bridge is pop side with his ambient side. In all essence, it actually makes a lot of sense if this was thought to be a transitional record, but since everything is done so well, it doesn't seem like it.

OH! and there's no reason that all of these songs haven't been in film scores. I should do that, I'm gonna make a film with all of these songs in IT! WATCH OUT JIM JARMUSCH! THERE'S A NEW COWBOY IN TOWN AND HIS NAME IS JOHN "SUFJAN STEVENS" WAYNE!"

OVERALL RATING - cake (the food) is much better than the band (cake). This is like ((the food)) killing the band, which would be pretty darn cool.
KEY TRACKS - the big ship, golden hours, another green world, i'll come running.