Sigur Rós
með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
June 24th 2008
X L
Perhaps inspired by the success of their last effort Heima / Hvarf-Heim, Sigur Rós recorded með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust with a heightened sense of pop-thought and melody. Gone seem to be the days of brooding overtures spilling over walls of thick harmonic noise. Med Sud is not offering a correction to some flawed formula; it has not shed what is superfluously unnecessary, rather it is the leg contour as seen through a summer dress happily worn after the glacier’s recession. Icelandic for “with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly,” með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust belies Sigur Rós’ self awareness that rejects the accumulation of star-power, instead favoring the humble roles of music makers with intimate attention to detail and an endless commitment to the art rather than constructed personae that sadly distract many once great contemporaries.
The spiritedly named Gobbledigook begins Med Sud with an overwhelming punch. Tribal drums drive Jónsi Birgisson’s falsetto, while the bass’ melodic structure abandons its typical role as a rhythmic supplement, mimicking instead the vocal notes, which contrast the low register of the bass and Jónsi’s high pitch voice. Complete with hand claps and sampled sequences of spritely lalalalalala’s, Gobbledigook is an intensely elevating track. Sigur Rós chose wisely to open their much anticipated release with such a masterful conceptualization.
Med Sud descends from its initial burst with grace. The record can be largely, even if simplistically, seen to be divided into two sections. The first maintains a pulsating optimism, replete with bright tones and splendor, the second half, beginning with Festival, softens to a spectrum of pastels; still emotionally above board, yet subdued with a calm and reflective contemplation. The album approaches its end as day approaches dusk. Med Sud is a great record, brought about by Sigur Rós’ sense of beauty, their reverence of humility, and their willingness to put their art form first.
Los Campesinos!
Hold on Now, Youngster…
April 1st 2008
Arts & Crafts
If Kids Incorporated were to return to the pop cultural radar screen, they would blip to the tune of this unabashedly juvenile band. Los Campesinos! are a group of 7 Welsh youths that have generated what could turn out to be the future prototype for indie pop, or their fifteen minutes may have passed so fast that their influence came and went before the record ever hit the shelves. Hold on Now, Youngster… is a collection of high energy multi-instrument explosions that have been in the works for the better part of 2 years. It is without a doubt one of the most saccharine records I have ever heard. But to its credit, Hold on Now, Youngster… induces excellent spirits as well as that ever elusive urge to dance. It is contrived and trite, sung poorly, harmonies and violins out of tune with the shallowest appeal to be described as punk rock. It is like seeing a 3 year old with a Mohawk on the hip of a Prada draped mother. That having been said, perhaps their naivety is their most attractive aspect.
If Kids Incorporated fails to return then Los Campensinos! should seriously consider their own show. The assembled appearance and style found everywhere from their scratched out and then rewritten lyrics in the album art, to the deliberate branding of their name in their music videos. Hell I even received a baggy of mini-pins with their logo all over it when I bought the record. Their lyrics are clever enough and the instrumentation is really interesting. But there is a youth factor that has been to good effect exploited by bands such as Tokyo Police Club and Born Ruffians. However Los Campesinos! have formulized the attitude and spiked it with a little overt Go! Team Britishness, truncating the ultimate appeal of their music. Another exclamation point? Despite of all of this nose thumbing, Los Campesinos! succeeded in making an extraordinarily fun and energetic record, which complicates much of the criticism levied.
The opening act will be chosen by After the Jump and Stereofame.com, who have gotten together and devised a contest to allow an unsigned band to play first at this years festival. This slot also includes $2,000 in cash. Voting takes place on Stereofame.com and concludes on the 10th (tomorrow). While there seems to be entirely to many “and the” bands, it looks to be a fun show and it’s to raise money for struggling schools, can’t beat that right? Starts at 12:OOPM. Click on their name for their My Space or Website.
There is a history here, a Montreal history that I don’t understand. The accolades that have pushed Island’s second disc onto the shelves of every major record retailer must be rooted in the friendships the band enjoys within the tightly knit music community of Montreal. With the support of members and former members of Arcade Fire, The Unicorns, and Wolf Parade, Islands recorded and released their debut Return to the Sea. Now they have come at us again hoping that some of that earned cachet and the fostered connections will provide a favorable lens through which to judge their newest effort. I just don’t have it in me to see it their way.
Making a playlist of my favorite Canadian bands would take hours, but I know that Islands probably would not be on the list. There are very few things I like less than an album, which shows all the signs of greatness, is striped of its pretty packaging and exposed as a fraud. I loved the psychedelic loving images from the cover of Arm’s Way, framed by what looks to be a hacked open chest cavity. The pink flesh color reveals a stylized Eden complete with a mushroom cloud and burning car, the outer edges of which, when looked at closely, reveal a wound composed of suggestive yet ambiguous pink parts. But even when you tear away that cellophane wrapping, the disc never looses its status as a packaged product.
Islands’ style is an amalgamation of everything pop. It is hard to deny their song writing abilities. Nicholas Thorburn’s, former vocalist of The Unicorns, brings tons of energy and talent to Islands. The song Abominable Snow, written prior to the formation of Islands, is a great tune with dense textures that allow the sounds of every instrument- guitar, violin, keys- to ebb and flow in volume. Kids Don’t Know Shit is a passionate track that lyrically walks the balance beam between sarcasm and sincere judgment of the supposedly oblivious youth. There are many elements of Arm’s Way that naturally lend it to a favorable review.
The record’s flaws do not come from the writing aspect, although I might suggest that many if not most of the lyrics are uninteresting. No, Islands’ problem comes in the production and conceptualization of Arm’s Way. The maturity that they sought to express ended up painting their project with a veneer of contrivances, caricaturing a style that they and others popularized previously. Songs like The Arm fail to reach the level of epic depth that they overtly are attempting. You do not achieve anything simply by adding a violin run here and there. J’Aime Vous Voire Quitter begins well conceived, but the chorus jolts the listener from good to poor taste before it pulls another punch to the senses when it erupts into La Bamba.
For all it lacks, especially in the first half of the record, Arm’s Way still has enough buoyancy to make a listen worth while. Vertigo closes well. Although it plays lyrically with the often appealed to image of being picked up just to fall down again, the somber vocal melody and full guitar orchestration generate genuine moments of grandeur. But the excellence of this track does much to remind the listener of how little the record offered in its introduction. Islands may be forever but cachet can be exhausted like any other currency.
Decently produced show footage from Eagle Seagull’s performance at Paridiso in Amsterdam on May 21st of this year. I think that, in regards to a release date for their upcoming LP The Year of the How-To Book, it is safe safe to say that “Some time early in 2008″ has been modified to “Sometime in 2008,” but I think most people are fine with that, as long as they get a wink and a wave. This footage below does just that, and fine job as well. I am not even sure why I thought the record was coming sooner than later. I probably just made it up.
Also if you would like to read some of Eagle Seagull’s exploits as they toured with The B-52sclick here. Eli Mardock tells The Reader a harrowing tale of a nipple pinching deviant, a nippy Fred Schneider, and the true meaning of family fun at Disney Land. Enjoy!
In order to tie up some loose ends I thought I’d look back to 2007 when married couple Dan Boeckner, of Wolf Parade, and writer Alexei Perry released Plague Park under the moniker Handsome Furs. The band, named for a short story penned by Alexi, toured Europe before Plague Park was even complete. Granted, the Montreal duo had plenty of help in the label and marketing department from their association with Wolf Parade, benefiting from their status as a major buzz band of ’06 and ’07. The signs warning of Handsome Furs potential flaws were certainly imposing. Another successfully crafted record by a husband/wife team only a couple years after Apologies to Queen Mary? Let me guess, guitar riffs backed by synthesized drum sequences. Lay your doubts to rest, for someone who was never quite interested in the Wolf Parade bandwagon, this record will impress. I have had the disc for a while now, but it has only come to my attention as of late that Plague Park should have someone championing it for what it is, a great fucking record.
Those elements beyond guitar and beat machine that elevate Handsome Furs above their initial humdrum grow in your bones the more you listen. What you want to distrust becomes clever and interesting. The sequences become ingenious and you feel cheated because you’ll never get to be the one who thought of it. Isn’t that one of the best compliments you can give; distain because some band claims another inch of creativity from a nearly exhausted cerebral fabric? Boeckner’s voice is intensely woeful, and the lyrics are beautiful. They shuttle from dirge to digital, expending high amounts of energy but quick to slow and return to contemplation. There is never the sinfulness of Eagle Seagull or the synthetic dexterity of Xiu Xiu, but Handsome Furs deals a heavy blow to snobbish ears. Plague Park is an urban memory of rural roots; it is an exhalation of intimate song-craft; it is a great fucking record.
Given the breadth of contributors, it is difficult to describe the myriad of styles that reform Martin’s work. What makes this record so excellent is the consistency provided by the base that Jeff Martin has constructed. While nearly every track is laden with electronic beats and celestial atmospherics, the meat of the music is rooted in the organic, natural sounds of the acoustic guitar, banjo, piano, mandolin, violin, and cello. Indeed, most of the tracks are instrumental, flowing into the limbo that is post-rock. A few songs include Jeff Martin’s voice which has a surprising smoky quality that contrasts sharply with the velour texture of the music.
The most outstanding track off the Spoons remix record is its first. Shuttlecock is energetic, voluminous, and expansive. It comes to us remixed by Bristol’s Minotaur Shock from 4AD. The song begins with a beautiful interplay of strings and xylophone, which is then mixed with a syncopated acoustic guitar riff, a clarinet, and brass. As Shuttlecock accelerates and builds, it perfectly exemplifies the beauty that electronic/organic fusion achieves; the fast paced beats layer the spaces between the chimes of a dozen other rhythms; it increases in velocity, but remains measured and deliberate. This track is simply ridiculous.
Spoons: RCI has many other gems as well. Strange for a Tuner by Chequerboard is sequenced perfectly. Balancing Act by Decal has a latent retro 80s structure that becomes fully born as the track concludes. Some tracks lack many of the electronic elements that are so prevalent throughout the record. Plays Music by Mice Parade and the impassioned Augustine by the Dublin Guitar Quartet are both gorgeous instrumentals. For those of you who love multi-instrumentalists like Sufjan Stevens and Tortoise, the beats of the Album Leaf, or even if you are a listener of the more ambient songs from God Speed You Black Emperor, Spoons: A Collection of Remixes, Collaborations, and Interpretations is a perfect addition to an ever growing and diversifying, nameless genre that flees moment to moment and movement to movement, renegotiating our expectations of complexity and simplicity, tonal dialectics and the subtlety of repetition.
Heroes & Villains
What Keeps Us From Sleeping at Night
March 21st 2008
Self Released
Ah…a concept album. Do you know how much we love them? On the back of the What Keeps Us… from Montreal’s Heroes & Villains, there is written a story, which goes as follows.
“Bennie is a private detective. Lalo, a long-time friend, writes post cards for a living. The pair originally bonded on a cross-Atlantic flight, over a common interest in actor Val Kilmer. Lalo has had troubles with authorities in his early twenties, in particular due to his involvement in climate change prevention riots. The two compadres always had a plan: they would both move to Dakar at 32, never to turn back. Bennie after investigating endless cheating cases, is convinced the even he is, somewhere deep in his heart of hearts, betraying his lover. Soon enough he’s driving around the city, desperately looking for himself in the exact same vehicle, heading nowhere fast. After months without any news from Bennie, Lalo moves to Dakar.”
Where to begin? Well this is clearly a wishful soundtrack to a movie with dialog and narration written by Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson. The story of Bennie and Lalo sounds as if it were thought of right after watching The Royal Tenenbaums. With all sincerity, the concept of this record is contrived and all too familiar to be of interest. As for the music, it is often sloppy with drum fills smashing into chord changes, seeming to barley emerge from the incident in sync. The recording quality nicely borders on lo-fi, but the vocals never quite seem to manage an integrated presence within the songs, the lead guitar is often unpleasantly jerky, and the bass guitar is distracting. That being said, Heroes & Villains have written an intensely catchy pop record that deserves a second look.
As emerging artists go, Heroes & Villains have great potential. While their record might have plenty of flaws, it has a lot of excellent moments as well. The songs are incredibly well written. Their style switches from 60’s pop to Pavement-esque indie rock with ease. There are short instrumentals called segues that break the album up into sections. These little pieces are delicious, even if Segue Uprise is a direct and unmistakable rip off the verse structure of Peter Gabriel’s In Your Eyes; I mean there could be a law suit here. Other tracks such as A Letter manage to incorporate seamlessly all the elements that at one time or another on the record seem out of place. Sonically unique among the rest of the songs on the record, the best track is called Black Iceberg. In this song Heroes & Villains exhibit the extent of their potential as an indie band with plenty of creativity to expend. What Keeps Us… is a well written and enthusiastic record. Even though Heroes and Villains at times misstep, they clearly know that they are on the right path and headed in the right direction. I’d welcome a dose of indie-pop from these guys any day.
