Yo La Tengo - Popular (Matador Records, 2009)

Last month, Yo La Tengo returned with their twelfth – count it: twelfth – full-length studio album Popular Songs. Formed in 1984, the Hoboken, New Jersey trio have attained a longevity of which most bands can only dream.

Popular Songs opens with the kaleidoscopic “Here to Fall” which features Yo La Tengo’s most dramatic use of strings to date. Immediately following, “Avalon or Someone Very Similar” bursts through the psychedelic debris like a ray of light to reveal all of YLT’s familiar traits. Drummer Georgia Hubley’s sweet vocals fill the album’s quota for simple, distinctly charming pop. “By Two’s” is light, Summer Sun-era ambience, as is the dreamy, bongo tap-filled “I’m on My Way,” a perfect choice for an afternoon spent floating in a sunlit pool (imagery better fit for a season recently past). The up-tempo “Nothing to Hide” recalls the rough-cut fuzz-rock of I Can Here the Heart Beating as One’s “Sugar Cube” and Beach Boys cover “Little Honda.” Retro keys are backed by a groovy bass line and Ira Kaplan’s soft, buoyant falsetto on “Periodically Double or Triple,” and male-female vocal swaps and honeydew harmonies color the bouncy “If It’s True.”

The last three tracks move away from soothing, momentary pop to classic YLT drone and sprawl, clocking in at nine, eleven and sixteen minutes, respectively. Subtle guitar effects string along a dreamy undertow on “More Stars Than There Are in Heaven” and placidly wash upon listeners’ ears like a calm, early evening tide. Dabs of translucent guitars on “The Fireside” recall the aquatic sound collages of YLT’s The Sounds of the Sounds of Science but with an added human touch from Ira’s lofty vocals. And finally, “And the Glitter is Gone” completes the album’s bookend of agitated energy with lively drumming and dramatic cymbal crashes drenched in feedback. There’s not much build on this one, as YLT characteristically fade in with noise, before distortion and myriad effects invade the sonic splash-zone.

Like many seasoned alternative rock icons (such as The Flaming Lips and Sonic Youth), Yo La Tengo have essentially evolved beyond the need for reinvention. Even when they rest on their laurels, they trump most other new releases in terms of quality. I’m confident, however, Yo La Tengo have too much artistic integrity to coast on their past merits for too long. The key to Yo La Tengo’s longevity is maybe not their near-constant evolution but their overall flexibility and perhaps even honesty. Popular Songs is exactly what the title says: an unabashed ensemble of perfect pop songs, even if the latter portion is a little more “difficult” than the rest. Popular Songs is Yo La Tengo at their most unmitigated yet accessible – a shining example of their aptitude for synthesizing countless diverse styles without sounding derivative. Indeed, Popular Songs is an ideal choice for new Yo La Tengo listeners.

Atlas Sound ft. Panda Bear - "Walkabout" (single) (Kranky Records; 4AD, 2009)

I'm not a fan of Bradford Cox, whether it be his psychedelic shoegaze group Deerhunter or solo bedroom-ambience project Atlas Sound. Nor am I a huge fan of current Animal Collective (sorry, Merriweather Post Pavilion lovers). But I am a fan of the recent Panda Bear and Atlas Sound collaboration "Walkabout" (Panda Bear is Animal Collective's Noah Lennox whose own solo album Person Pitch was released to rave reviews in 2007). In fact, for me, "Walkabout" leaves nothing to be desired.

While on tour with Animal Collective in Europe, the band inspired Cox to learn more about "sampling and matching up beats." Fortunately for Cox (and fans), Lennox was more than happy to teach. Their song of choice, which also inspired the tutorial, was "What Am I Going to Do?" by mid-60s American garage rock-poppers The Dovers. The result is a great, catchy little summer psych jam. It's nothing over-thought or too experimental, as one might otherwise expect from a collaboration between any AC and Deerhunter members. Rather, the track's simplicity reflects the collaboration as a learning experience for Bradford, although he's not completely unfamiliar with samples (hear the spoken word bit on "A Ghost Story" from his debut solo album Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel).

"Walkabout" will appear on Atlas Sound's forthcoming album Logos.

The Dandy Warhols - The Dandy Warhols Are Sound (Beat the World Records, 2009)

Here's the backstory on The Dandy Warhols Are Sound: Between September 11th, 2001 and December 2nd, 2002, The Dandy Warhols were busy recording their fourth album for Capitol Records. With help from Grammy Award-winning soul mixing engineer Russell Elavedo, whose credits include albums by The Roots, Common and Alicia Keys, The Dandy Warhols created The Dandy Warhols Are Sound. However, Capitol rejected the album in favor of a repackaged version with spiffier production, a re-arranged tracklist, slightly altered titles and a sparse, lethargic intro track instead of an extensive ambient outro track. The Capitol-approved version of Are Sound was subsequently released as Welcome to the Monkey House, as Dandys fans came to know and love. Over the next seven years, while Are Sound became a favorite for private Dandys parties, it also floated around the Internet as the colloquially-dubbed Welcome to the Monkey House: The Director's Cut. Finally though, with The Dandy Warhols at the helm of their own label Beat the World Records, they've been able to release Monkey House the way they intended the record to be heard.

Admittedly, on first impression, tampering with the track order and song titles seem like the only things Capitol did, but that's only because Are Sound opens with "Burned" which doesn't sound very different from the Monkey House version "You Come In Burned." As soon as the slowburning, throbbing temple-like "Burned" began, I already kind of wished The Dandy Warhols were allowed to release the original mix, despite how much I love Monkey House. I never thought "You Come In Burned" would make such a good opener. Like frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor said, Are Sound is way more lo-fi and less polished and slick, although the drums and bass are far more pronounced (not a surprise, given its producer's style). This is immediately apparent as soon as the second track, simply titled "Scientist" rather than "I Am a Scientist," begins. The differences become increasingly apparent with the next track, party-favorite "We Used to Be Friends," and so on for the rest of the album.

Whereas Monkey House is a record you can put on with friends or blast through your car stereo while blasting down the open road, Are Sound is a quiet, chill night in with dim lights, some green and aromatic candles. Actually, Are Sound is more like Welcome to the Monkey House on sedatives or listening to Monkey House on shuffle with cotton stuffed in your ears. Hear the difference between the albums' versions of "The Dandy Warhols Love Almost Everyone" and "Over It," the latter in which the sounds of a lighter, bong hit and exhalation seem more appropriate on the original mix.

Besides all of the aforementioned, there's not much else to say about The Dandy Warhols Are Sound that can't be said about Welcome to the Monkey House. The only reason why I'm even really talking about Are Sound is because the only real news of it came very suddenly through The Dandy Warhols' newsletter and website. Some Dandys fans (including some diehards I know) probably haven't even heard about it. Hell, The Dandy Warhols have been one of my favorite bands since I started listening to them eight years ago, and I didn't even know about The Director's Cut until I got the e-mail which said, "Hey, this is out!"

Are Sound is available in its entirety at The Dandy Warhols' site here. No idea how long these full length, good quality "previews" will be available.

The Dead Weather "Horehound" Spoilers

http://apps.facebook.com/ilike/artist/The%20Dead%20Weather

And you don't even have to be on Facebook to enjoy this. Available for the next >twenty-four hours.

Edit: You can listen to the album here. Just click "Songs" on the right-side panel. Also, the Facebook link's going to work for the rest of the week before the album's release on July 14th.

Q and Not U - No Kill No Beep Beep (Dischord Records, 2000)

All right. Here's a band I never thought I’d listen to again. I’d deleted Q and Not U's 2000 debut No Kill No Beep Beep X years ago because I thought they were nothing more than a samey, generic post-punk band with irritating vocals. But when Kevin played me one of their songs on our show, I heard something I didn’t here the first time around. Maybe it was my discontent with all of my music up to that point, or maybe it was having someone with good taste being invested in something I was being opened up to, but whatever it was, something clicked.

The first thing that struck me about No Kill No Beep Beep, which was produced by Minor Threat and Fugazi frontman/hardcore legend Ian MacKaye, was its constant unpredictability. I could say it was the album’s constant motion that instantly grabbed me, but so many albums move in ways in which one can predict the lyrics that finish a couplet, accurately hum the rest of a melody which one hasn’t even heard yet, or guess where the next verse or chorus jumps in. A prime example of No Kill No Beep Beep’s unpredictability is the festering "Kiss Distinctly American." The whole underlying riff feels like it's building to a crescendo and ready to explode at any minute, but the song quickly defuses just as it’s about to reach its climax. Listening to this song is like getting musical blue balls, except in this case, that’s a good thing.

Slicing, jagged guitars and pulse-pounding rhythms infest No Kill No Beep Beep. Songs like "Nine Things Everybody Knows" and particularly "Little Sparkee" recall post-hardcore outfits like Les Savy Fav with their unexpected yelps and cries. No Kill No Beep Beep shares other similarities with Les Savy Fav including killer drum-work, pronounced bass, and solid hooks which beg listeners to move their feet. While Q and Not U leans more towards dance-punk than Les Savy Fav, Q and Not U possesses much of the same energy and spirit that many other hardcore, post-punk favorites have embodied over the years.

With hardly any rest between songs or any interludes within songs, except for perhaps "The More I Get, the More I Want" and closer "Sleeping the Terror Code," there isn’t a dull moment on this album. And speaking of songs defusing, that’s exactly how "Sleeping the Terror Code" closes the album. Despite No Kill No Beep Beep’s scarcity of slow moments, "Terror Code"'s pace fits perfectly and appropriately as the last piece of the sonic puzzle, and the album feels in no way stunted because of the placement of this last particular track.

Another nice, although admittedly minor, detail of the album is the song titles. They're unconventional but not to the point of being irritating, stupid or unconventional for the sake of being unconventional (see The Flaming Lips, Sufjan Stevens, and boatloads of post-rock outfits). On the flip-side, lately, I've been finding that so many bands (too many bands) have the most generic names for everything. Wilco's Wilco (the Album) may be one of the worst recent offenders, but that's a great album which I will discuss in another review.

Like I said, No Kill No Beep Beep’s a pretty unpredictable album. You can't follow along with any of the lines the first time you listen through it. You can't listen and say, "Okay, they're going to rhyme this word with that word" and sing along. Until you get a hold of the songs, you’ll find yourself discovering new twists and turns with every listen. And even after you catch onto all of the motions, as people can fall in love with a Beat Happening or early Mountain Goats record (artists and records that are known for their repetitiveness), listeners can find themselves enjoying No Kill No Beep Beep like any other album in their collection.

Handsome Furs - Plague Park (Sub Pop, 2007)

Fuck Wolf Parade. Handsome Furs are the only Dan Boeckner project I need. Unlike other husband-and-wife duos (such as Mates of State), Handsome Furs steer clear of sentimental, lovey-dovey pop songs. Instead, Plague Park's distinctive electric timbre provides a refreshing take on indie rock.

Stand-out track: "Hearts of Iron"

"Who Says Rock is Dead?"

Originally posted 23 May 2008, 21:1

I’ve never been crazy about The Raconteurs’ 2006 debut album Broken Boy Soldiers. I never even bothered checking out their live or non-album material, besides their excellent covers of Gnarls Barkley's “Crazy” and Nancy Sinatra’s “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down).” Despite that, I did always maintain that they had potential to be a great band. After all, it’s Jack White, and as little of a Brendan Benson fan as I am, I can’t deny that he has a good ear for pop melodies (of course, Jack White can bust out great pop tunes, too). In addition to the song-writing force that is White and Benson, The Raconteurs also feature Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler on bass and drums, respectively. While The Raconteurs possess an intrinsic chemistry just from having known and played with each other for years, “Little” Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler were actually in a full-time band together (The Greenhornes), before the formation of The Raconteurs. Given the members’ related pasts, I had a good feeling about the band’s follow-up, that they wouldn’t fall victim to the sophomore slump. After listening to Consolers of the Lonely, there is no question that this is the album The Raconteurs should have made two years ago.

As I’ve said, I’ve never really liked The Raconteurs’ first album. After all, it was made during what I feel was the valley of Jack White’s personal and professional careers. But just as White was reinvigorated during the making of Icky Thump, the same seems to be apparent on Consolers of the Lonely. That’s not surprising, as both albums were made within a close span of time. Hence, the albums are similar in many ways. Both are monumentally dense but move fluidly as singular works. Like Icky Thump, which was characterized by The White Stripes’ return to monstrous riffs, Consolers of the Lonely has the energy to knock down buildings with its propulsive rhythm section and blazing guitar work. The piercing guitar solos and style of organ and piano-playing also recall those on Icky Thump. With The Raconteurs having turned up the volume on Consolers of the Lonely, the album initially feels like White’s album. His presence here is definitely more palpable than it is on Broken Boy Soldiers.

Album flow is not one of the first things I notice about an album. With Consolers of the Lonely, I was definitely too enamored by the high-octane rockicity to notice how the album moved as a collective work. I was also too overwhelmed by how dense the album was. Even when it sounded like the pace was going to slow down and let me catch my breath, the slow parts only lead to climactic showdowns between White and Benson. Their dueling guitars are contained by the percussion which Keeler and Lawrence provide. By keeping the songs in constant states of "controlled chaos," White and Benson are prevented from over-indulging in their instruments. This is good, because they have many new instruments with which to experiment and have fun. Such instruments include White’s signature electric organs and pianos on “You Don’t Understand Me,” “Old Enough,” and “Rich Kid Blues;” trumpets likely inspired by White’s Latin/Spanish phase on “Many Shades of Black” and “Five on the Five;” and banjos and fiddles on “Old Enough” and “Top Yourself.” None of these new instruments are played “expertly,” but the band knows exactly what it’s doing with them and where it wants to take its songs. It’s always refreshing to hear Jack play to a background of different instruments, and we’ve already heard what he can do in those cases.

Besides the fact that Broken Boy Soldiers has a less-varied instrumental palette than Consolers of the Lonely, BBS feels flat for a couple of other reasons too. My complaint isn’t that BBS has fewer instruments than Consolers of the Lonely (over-instrumentation can lead to over-indulgence and an inflated sound that comes off as forced). Rather, it’s what artists do with the instruments at their disposal that matters. While I don’t believe guitar solos make songs (again, there’s a propensity for over-indulgence), they can certainly add life to a song. Most songs on Consolers have, if not a guitar solo, then at least some kind of climax. On BBS, however, I only recall such a moment on “Store Bought Bones.” The beauty of Consolers of the Lonely is that despite the preponderance of climaxes (guitar solos, in particular), at no time do they detract from one another or feel like ostentatious displays of virtuosity.

Another flat aspect of Broken Boy Soldiers is the vocals. I didn’t like Brendan’s voice in the first place, and as I said before, BBS was made during what I felt was the low point of Jack White’s career, one aspect of which was the condition of his voice. The effects of smoking were apparent on tracks such as “Intimate Secretary,” “Portland, Oregon” (from Loretta Lynn’s 2004 album Van Lear Rose which White produced), and the entirety of Get Behind Me Satan. Since Satan, though, White has quit smoking, and on Thump and Consolers, the extent of his recovery is obvious (again, hence his “revitalization” on the two albums).

White’s (partially) restored voice allows him to continue exploring new styles of singing which he develops on every release. Examples from Consolers of the Lonely include the high-pitched screeches on the title-track, the rapid, spitfire deliveries on “Salute Your Solution,” the near-squeals on “Five on the Five,” and the shouting-and-chanting chorus on "Hold Up." However, White’s best moment is his incendiary performance on “Rich Kid Blues” which is like nothing we’ve ever heard from him on record before and marks the vocal high-point of the album.

Even Benson, who usually handles The Raconteurs’ softer material, throws around his vocal weight on Consolers of the Lonely. While many of his songs on the new album are not far stretches from anything that can be expected of him (as far as BBS goes – the best example of which is perhaps “Old Enough”), songs such as “Attention,” “Many Shades of Black,” and the title-track best demonstrate the conviction with which he can use his voice. These songs are refreshing for non-Benson fans, as his opportunity to showcase his vocal skills on the new album convinces me that he is capable of a wider range of songs than I had previously believed. Furthermore, The Raconteurs take advantage of White’s and Benson’s new vocal prowess by building their new songs on fantastic harmonies. Together, Jack’s and Brendan’s untamed deliveries really give the songs a vitality that was much needed on their last album. While the overall soundscape of BBS was rather platitudinous, The Raconteurs utilize every vocal and instrumental tool at their disposal (solos, crescendos, etc.) to create as lively and full an album as possible with their follow-up.

While every song on Consolers of the Lonely is distinct in its own way, a few are of particular note for how well they represent specific aspects of the album. I’ve already mentioned “Rich Kid Blues” which, for me, is the biggest highlight on the album with its fantastic build and passionate delivery. The album closes with “Carolina Drama,” an acoustic ballad which builds to a strong climax and ends with a slow decline. The story involves a young boy named Billy who wakes up one morning to find his mother’s boyfriend beating a priest in their home. The priest turns out to be Billy’s father who had been secretly supporting the family for years. After saving his father by striking the boyfriend dead with “the first blunt thing he could find,” the family, along with the priest, leaves town and heads for a new life in Tennessee. “Carolina Drama” is arguably the best lyrical work with which Jack White has ever been associated. I don’t say the best lyrical work Jack White has ever written, because I don’t know if he actually wrote the lyrics, although details about the father, a priest; the “triple loser” boyfriend; and “head[ing] to Tennessee” are all characteristic of White.

Moving away from lyrics to another defining characteristic of Jack White is his abilities with the guitar. He brings his slide skills to the table for the first (and only) time on the album with the stomping blues rocker “Top Yourself.” We've heard how Jack carries slide-heavy powerhouses such as “Death Letter,” “Red Rain,” “Little Bird,” and “Catch Hell Blues” with the primal support of Meg, but now we get to hear how he changes his dynamic on such a song to accommodate additional players. While “Top Yourself” is not a song on which White unleashes an all-out slide assault (it lacks the technicality of most of the aforementioned songs), the effect is no lighter as Jack bitterly yells and cries along with the rising and falling riff. In no way is Jack out of his element working with greater instrumentation, as “Top Yourself” ranks among his best works with the slide guitar, despite its comparative simplicity.

One of the things I looked forward to the most on Consolers of the Lonely was The Raconteurs’ collaboration with Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist of The Hives. Howlin’ Pelle performs the third verse of “Salute Your Solution,” a very straight-forward, Stripesque rock-out that is reminiscent of “Bone Broke” from Icky Thump. Howlin’ Pelle also joins White in the fourth verse which, given White’s and Pelle’s equally energetic deliveries, makes for a very effective pairing of voices.

It’s songs like “Carolina Drama,” “Top Yourself,” and “Salute Your Solution” that make it difficult to give equal credit to every member of The Raconteurs. I realize the bias of my familiarity with Jack White, but I do think every member has upped his game on Consolers of the Lonely. It’s certainly not an album Jack would have made with The White Stripes. While my first impression of Consolers smacked more of an auditory tour de force than an actual flowing album, I changed my mind, after a few listens. I’m not usually a fan of fifty-five-plus-minute albums, but Consolers of the Lonely has enough variety and focus to keep me interested in the entire album. Few bands improve as quickly as The Raconteurs have, and thankfully (and more than satisfyingly), after a few years of playing together and even more years of simple acquaintance, The Raconteurs have finally found their niche. More importantly, they’ve managed to avoid the dreadful sophomore slump which many of my favorites still haven’t been able to shake, three or more albums later.


Edit: Every song was co-written by Jack White and Brendan Benson, except for their cover of "Rich Kid Blues" by Terry Reid.

Edit: Apparently, Brendan Benson does a damned good Howlin' Pelle Almqvist impression. I'm not really sure what Howlin' Pelle did for the the album (if anything). Speculations have it that he recorded footsteps for the album but not where they may appear. Fuck speculations though.

The Kills - Midnight Boom (Domino Records, 2008)

Originally posted 1 Mar 2008, 06:19

I've compared The Kills to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs before, but I’ve always done so loosely. On Midnight Boom, however, I can’t help but be reminded more of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs than on anything else The Kills have ever done. I don’t mean The Kills have started writing songs like “Phenomena” or “Cheated Hearts,” but like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Kills have adopted an obvious (but not complete) change in sound. Unlike the Yeah Yeah Yeahs who focused on songwriting on Show Your Bones, The Kills took their sound in the opposite direction. The songs on Bones are more fleshed out and thus longer than most previous Yeah Yeah Yeahs songs, but most of Midnight Boom barely exceeds three minutes. A couple of tracks are less than 1:50. My problem with The Kills having shaved off so much time on their new album is that the songs don’t feel very thought out. Maybe I haven’t paid enough attention to the lyrics yet, but the lyrical attitude (which I dare say I enjoy more than their dirty riffs and looped drum tracks) on their first two albums doesn’t feel as apparent, on Midnight Boom.

Although I consider Midnight Boom's album and individual track lengths negative aspects of the album, I generally don’t have a problem with short songs or albums (see Guided By Voices and Beat Happening). I generally prefer short albums to long ones which is one reason why I can never sit through a Sufjan or Sigur Ros album. Short songs can definitely be great. I just don’t think The Kills quite deliver on Midnight Boom, to that extent. Also, with only twelve tracks, the album is only thirty-four minutes long. Unless a short album is a real head trip, a lot can be left to be desired, especially when I've waited X years for the artist to put out any material at all (which I did with The Kills). Considering both No Wow and Keep On Your Mean Side hover around forty minutes in length, it's not unreasonable to have expected at least that length on their third album.

Besides the bevy of (comparatively) short tracks, again, the overall sound of Midnight Boom is a departure from The Kills’ previous work. Armani XXXchange’s production is obvious, and it actually blends pleasantly with The Kills’ garage-punk blues. “What New York Used To Be" even reminds me of Peaches, and that’s not a bad thing. Despite all of my grievances, I definitely enjoy Midnight Boom. Most of all, I'm just glad that with a hip-hop producer, the album didn’t turn out like another Black and White Album.

SleepResearch_Facility – Dead Weather Machine (Manifold Records, 2004)

Who'd have thought recordings of the hums of broken, dust-clogged heaters could sound so ... good? Granted, Kevin Doherty, the man behind SleepResearch_Facility, relies heavily on digital manipulation to create his dark, hypnotic, sleep-inducing "music." Listeners find themselves wondering what exactly the sources of his sounds are, as the generally beatless ambience gently hums and pulsates. For an optimal listening experience, follow Kevin’s recommendation and try to imagine yourself shrunken down to microscopic size and walking through the interior of his sound sources. Dead Weather Machine is a long but truly unique and rewarding journey into the expanse of avant-garde experimentation (should one complete the journey).