Woods - Sun & Shade

Sun & Shade is the sixth album from this Brooklyn-based psychedelic pop duo. On it, they continue to showcase their strong pop sensibilities, fondness for polyrhythmic percussion, and a penchant for folky atmospheric jams. The structure of most of these songs are straightforward, but the delivery isn’t. Woods’ aesthetic involves falsetto vocals, understated melodies, often-acoustic guitars, and beat-driven songs.

They break the mold twice on this album with a couple of lengthy folk jams. The seven-minute “Out of the Eye,” which comes at the beginning of the album features a propulsive bass melody and a definite sense of progression towards a climactic final minute. The nine-minute “Sol y Sombra,” the album’s centerpiece, is a slow moving, meditative piece with a rustic beat, soft acoustic guitars, and soft electric guitar notes wailing out over everything.

My biggest issue with Sun & Shade—and it’s actually rather minor—is how abruptly many of these songs end. They carry a degree of momentum right up until the end, but they’ll stop on a dime. It isn’t a huge buzzkill because these songs are delightful while they’re playing, but it would be nice if they gave a sense of closure. This is true of much of what I’ve heard from this band.

Perhaps I’m making something out of nothing, though. This is 44 minutes of bubbly psych pop, but it has more depth than those inadequate descriptors may suggest. It’s rhythmically complex, often hypnotic, and generally catchy. Woods throw in some moments of experimentation (the longer tracks), which fit in nicely, and keep things varied, but they do the pop stuff incredibly well. It’s an incredibly fun listen.

Battles - Gloss Drop (2011)

In some ways I like Gloss Drop more than their massively-hyped debut Mirrored (2007). That album had some excellent tracks, like “Atlas” and “Tonto,” but spent too much time not doing anything all that compelling. I enjoyed the album, but there were about 50 albums that came out that year that I liked more. I did think that Battles were as true a blend of electronic music and rock music as I’d ever heard. Both elements are about as central to their music as the other.

The most notable difference is that Tyondai Braxton’s vocals are absent. Without him, the band is largely an instrumental band, in fact, Gloss Drop listens like something of an electronic jam band. That high-pitched bell-like electronic effect that appeared on Mirrored is all over this albums. It’s absolutely inescapable and it gets irritating after a while. John Stanier’s drums play an especially prominent role in their music, with his chaotic stuttering beats, but the combination of his beats (which blend together after a while) and that bell sound become kind of irritating.

While there are subtle differences between most of the songs, and not-so-subtle differences between the others, this album kind of does sound too similar throughout. That bell sound kills me because I think I would enjoy this thing a lot without it. Battles are a talented band but too self-indulgent for my liking, at least thus far, two albums into their career.

I quite like the more straightforward track “Sweetie & Shag” which features Kazu Makino on vocals. Also, “Africastle” takes some interesting turns and “My Machines” creates some interesting tension.

TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light (2011)

Nine Types of Light is a soulful album, borrowing as usual from funk, post-punk and electronic music styles. The production value creates some distance between the listener and the sounds, which makes this something as a grower. Having not listened to this band since their last release in 2008, and only giving their previous albums a handful of cursory listens each, I did not know what to expect from this album but the time felt right to give these guys another chance.

After spending some time with this album, I’d be inclined to believe TV on the Radio are at their best when the songs are catchy. They aren’t a band that can get by on a great sound or on an interesting atmosphere. Not that their sound is especially bothersome, but when the melodies don’t work, the entire song just falls flat on its face for me. Examples are “No Future Shock” which just feels too cluttered in combination with the synthesizers and layer of fuzz that covers the track and “New Cannonball Blues” which had some annoying vocals.

There are more good moments than bad ones here though. The first track, “Second Song,” “Keep Your Heart,” and “Repetition” are all fantastic songs. “Killer Crane” is a more atmospheric track that works well and the last track on the album, “Caffeinated Consciousness,” is a bombastic song that is about as funky as they get on this album, but I thought it served them well to end the album on a different note.

I’m not totally nuts about this album like a lot of people probably will be. There are some really catchy, soulful moments on this album. The general sound of it, mainly due to this warmth given off by the synthesizers, is warm and approachable. Save for a few awkward moments where it felt like too much was going on and a few moments where the vocals bugged me, this is worth checking out.

Obits - Moody, Standard and Poor (2011)

Moody, Standard and Poor is the 2nd LP by Obits, a band from Brooklyn, New York notably featuring Rick Froburg, the former frontman of a highly-regarded hardcore band called Drive Like Jehu and terrific punk band called Hot Snakes. Obits are unlike any of his other projects, however. They don’t have the raw emotional outbursts that characterized Drive Like Jehu songs, and they just aren’t as aggressive as Hot Snakes were.

The songs on this album are built around very understated, controlled melodies, simple drum beats, audible bass melodies, with one of the guitars just sort of chiming, buzzes and screaming over everything. With post-punk bands like this, it’s really all about the sound. You want to hear something unsettling that doesn’t try to be pretty or melodic or fun, but gets mileage from portraying a certain type of emotion—and it’s generally a relatively bleak one.

These songs are rarely far above midtempo and for the most part they avoid being too loud and aggressive. These guys aren’t going for the catharsis of Drive Like Jehu or the intensity of Hot Snakes. In some ways, you could call this band a more restrained version of Fugazi. It's a moody album (partially titled appropriately) with some really nice, rough guitar tones.

Obits are not doing anything new in terms of sound and approach to their sound. Many of these songs are very straightforward and an obvious complaint is going to be the lack of variation, but at thirty-five minutes, this thing doesn't overstay its welcome. My main issue with this album is that, because nothing really gets all that loud, it might not be the most gritty, or loud, or dark, or most [anything] post-punk album you'll hear.


That doesn't mean it isn't worth your time. The melodies and the textures are nice enough. Forburg's vocals have an urgency to them that is sometimes at odds with the music. When a guy is wailing over slow, midtempo, understated melodies, it doesn't always make for something especially intense. These guys are going to fill clubs just by virtue of playing that sort of slightly abrasive post-punk.

I am a firm believer that it is perfectly okay to adopt a sound or a specific set of influences and just go with it. Not every band has to rewrite the book or necessarily do anything that throws sand in the face of convention.

I like their sound, and Obits are the kind of band that I could see live and expect to have some common musical interests with the rest of the crowd, but what makes Moody, Standard, and Poor work for me is the songwriting. They deliver some great melodies and some great guitar sounds. My favorite tracks include the urgent "I Want Results," the almost dancable "New August," "Shift Operator" which has one of the catchiest vocal hooks on the album, and "I Blame Myself" which is the band at its moodiest with a brooding bass melody and this really hollow guitar sound.

I can definitely see how one music fan’s reaction would be to just revel in the mood and tones on this album, and how another fan might hear these sounds all sort of blending together. I find myself liking most of the songs on this album, loving some of them. Hating none of them. I like this album, if you like this type of music, you may enjoy it. Go listen.

Crippled Black Phoenix - The Ressurectionists (2009)

This is a terrific album from a post-rock group I’ve only recently discovered. At times, the “post-rock” label seems insufficient as tracks like “Burnt Reynolds” have a psychedelic, hard rock feel and many of the tracks feature a very sludgy, bass-heavy guitar sound. “Rise Up and Fight” and “444” showcase this beautifully; the simple chugging riffs are delightful, even as the other elements of the songs drift into different directions. If you’re a fan of bands like Black Mountain, but could tolerate something a bit more psychedelic and songs that generally take longer to get where they’re going, Crippled Black Phoenix is worth your time. “Littlestep” is a somber ballad that could almost be classified as gothic country. “Human Nature Dictates The Downfall of Humans” sounds very Mogwai-ian, which should be expected since this is the side project of Dominic Aithcison (Mogwai’s bassist). This project also includes Justin Greaves, who played drums with Electric Wizard on one of their recent albums and Andy Semmens who plays in the doom metal band, Pantheist. “Whissendine” is another track that fits the post-rock bill with an arc like that prototypical of the genre. “Song for the Loved,” the only track to break the ten-minute mark, features multiple movements, although the middle portion of the song is a little dry.

Dull moments are inevitable in an album that spans an hour and eleven minutes (“Crossing the Bar” did nothing for me and “Hymn for a Lost Soul” feels like filler), but they are few and far between and more than worth it because most of this album is absolute gold. I like this album for many of the same reasons I loved The Besnard Lakes’ Are the Roaring Night (2010) last year. It’s an atmospheric journey through psychedelic hard rock with beautiful soaring passages, dark brooding moments, and an incredible guitar sound.

Listen

The Dodos - No Color (2011)

The Dodos formed during the heyday of the artists they seem to be trying to emulate. “No Color” sounds like a band trying to be Animal Collective, Fleet Foxes, and Wolf Parade all at once. The forays into folk rock lack the majestic, rustic quality of Fleet Foxes’ debut album. The quirky vocals sound like Panda Bear minus the interesting psychedelic soundscapes. The album as a whole sounds like a band who took pages from the be-eccentric-but-sound-kinda-bored playbook, a la Wolf Parade, except nothing here compares with the best songs from any of those bands’ cannons.

There are a lot of songs built around echoing, peppy drums that are lent a hollow sound by the production. Gentle, almost math-y (think Joan of Arc, but sleepier) acoustic guitar melodies just repeat throughout most of the tracks. Nearly every moment of this album is something we’ve already heard, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I loved the album Noah and the Whale just released, and that thing was derivative as hell. It borrowed from a number of different sources, which made it somewhat more original than if it borrowed from just one or two. That album did have a wonderful, inviting character to fall back on, not to mention the knockout melodies. I hear none of that here.

When a band or scene takes flight, there will inevitably be followers who try to strike the same chords with people that made albums like Apologies to the Queen Mary, Arcade Fire’s Funeral, or Sufjan Stevens’ Illinoise such big hits. Though The Dodos do not sound exactly like those artists, I think they were influenced by them. People can be strongly resistant to bands that do what’s been done before, especially if they’re part of the “second wave” of a sound. In general, second waves lack the spark of the first (grunge is the best example). Sometimes a band can transcend this problem and stand up alongside the artists that influenced them (Interpol, Flogging Molly, and The Cribs, for instance). I am not usually one to whine about a band being derivative, but I am really in no mood these days for an album that rehashes required listening for “Hipsters 101.”

“Don’t Stop” sounds like it could be a lost Sunset Rubdown b-side; “Sleep,” an Animal Collective b-side; “When Will You Go,” a b-side from Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix sessions. The only moment I liked on this album was “Companions,” which has some nice acoustic guitar work.

Katie Costello - Lamplight (2011)

If you haven’t heard of Katie Costello, which is very likely, pretend you have a human-sized blender in which you can throw your favorite artists and have it spew out some musically-inclined humanoid synthesis of them. Throw in Mirah, Imogen Heap, and the singer from Camera Obscura and you might get something like Katie Costello. This is her second album (I wont comment on her first cause I haven’t heard it) and it begins with one of the most charming songs I’ve heard in the past few years (sorry “Gimme Sympathy,” “Living Room,” and “Higher Than the Stars”). It’s an upbeat little number called “Cassette Tape,” more or less a love song in which she proclaims her desire to make some young gentleman a mixtape. That song, with its infectious melody, engrossing ethos, and flawless execution, would have been enough for me to sit around for the rest of the album, but there are several other gems here. “No Shelter” has a more aggressive flow to it, and almost grunge-y guitars in the verses. “Out of Our Minds” is a lovely duet with someone who sounds like the guy from Stars. “Dig a Hole” is a muscular pop song, using a recycled (but winning) melody. “People: A Theory” is an almost indescribable semi-vaudevillian pop song that is probably meant to be taken more seriously than it will be. “The Weirds” is the best of the mellow songs. Every time she sings “I guess I have the weirds,” it’s touching in perhaps the cheesiest way possible. This is not a universally stunning album. It hits some lulls, mainly on the slower tracks, but never gets worse than “pleasant.” It’s the times when Katie steps outside of the singer/songwriter “box” that she leaves all the Starbucks-CD-selling girls-with-acoustic-guitars in the dust. They wouldn’t know rock ‘n’ roll if it peed in their lattes. Katie, though not a rocker by trade, is one in spirit, and she has created a very fulfilling album.

Hum - Downward is Heavenward (1997)

This is a very good alternative rock album from the late 1990s. It has an enthralling guitar sound, often dipping into the shoegaze playbook, but also being content to just rage without abandon. Despite using those hazy guitar tones, this is an album more about melody than texture. [Actually, I’d say they care about both.] Every track is a song—a rock song to be precise—which means no filler, no interludes, and no issues with cohesion. There are a couple of tracks here that I’m not in love with. “The Inuit Promise,” for example, but even those tracks manage some interesting guitar parts. My least favorite moments were the ones in which the band treaded a little too closely to mainstream radio-ready rock for my happiness. These guys never got big, which is surprising because our world is one in which Smashing Pumpkins can sell 18 million albums, and I don’t know why it wasn’t kinder to Hum.

Some people call this “space rock.” I don’t know what that means. That they’re like Muse? Not especially. That they’re like Pink Floyd? I wouldn’t say so. That they use reverb? Oh, okay then.

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Hello

Let's get this going again. I've grown disenchanted with the wordpress blog. In my absence, this blog has gained a modest followership and I was always more comfortable with this blog anyway. Wordpress has some nice features in terms of formatting and such, but I just feel like a blog strictly about reviews has to be more formal than I want it to be. I just don't enjoy wordpress. It's about the feel of it. What can I say?

When posting links, I'm going to leave out the mediafire part. Just go to mediafire and add the part of the links I put in the comments to the URL.

I will maintain the other blog and probably just copy and paste my reviews into it. That way, I can direct anyone there if I ever need to provide a writing sample or something.



While it may not be necessary, a quick word on what I'm into and what I'm likely to post. I want this to be very diverse because I'm into pretty much everything. It will all most likely be grounded in rock music.

I'm into punk and many of its subgenres. This includes classic punk bands (Ramones, The Clash, Social Distortion), some pop-punk (Green Day, Alkaline Trio), bands having to do with folk-punk (Against Me!, Andrew Jackson Jihad), post-punk (Sonic Youth, Wire, Jesus Lizard, Les Savy Fav), really any punk genre except ska (but I've found a few ska albums that I don't hate).

I'll post a lot of stuff that falls under the massive umbrella of "indie" including post-rock (Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, Grails), indie folk (Iron & Wine, Felice Brothers, Sun Kil Moon), twee (Mates of State, Belle and Sebastian, Camera Obscura), the obvious indie darlings (Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene) and various others that I can't classify with just one easy label (like Built to Spill).

I am into a lot of metal, generally not mainstream metal (like Metallica). I am especially fond of sludge metal from the gritty, dirty stuff (Electric Wizard, Eyehategod) to the more ambient/prog stuff (Pelican, Isis). I like some death metal, though generally not melodic death metal (Death, Aborted, Deicide). There are some other fantastic metal bands that are a hybrid of styles (Mastodon, Opeth, Boris), and I also like some bands that would fall under the hardcore/mathcore label (Converge, Dillinger Escape Plan).

I love early emo bands like Rites of Spring, Moss Icon, Jawbreaker, and even some of the bands who took emo into more indie rock territory like Sunny Day Real Estate and Texas is the Reason.

I also expect to post a lot of stuff that has to do with electronic music to varying degrees (Four Tet, LCD Soundsystem, Holy Fuck). I like shoegaze and dream pop stuff as well, though tend to be rather picky with that type of music. I may post to occasional hip-hop album, although I am extremely selective. The list of hip-hop acts I enjoy is very short, including Mos Def, Jurassic 5, and Jay-Z's first album.

Please do not hesitate to comment on albums I post. Let me know what you thought and I am always receptive to recommendations.

Jaill - That's How We Burn (2010)

Wonderful blend of garage-rock and post-punk with great pop sensibilities.