music mini-reviews
Maybe semi-regular isn't the right word for it if it takes nearly three months for me to come out with a second installment...

I've recently had the chance to listen to a bunch of new music. In no particular order, here are my brief impressions (I don't think I could justify calling them reviews at this point):


The Flaming Lips - At War With the Mystics:
Didn't make it all the way through this one. Musically, nothing really stuck out - the main thing I noticed was the sonics. The sound they're going with for this album was ok for a couple tracks, but really began to grate after half the album. I should probably try to give this another listen, but I'm not hoping for much.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones:
If pressed, I don't think I could remember any song off their first album except "Maps" - it kind of gave me an impression of them as muscially inconsistent, I guess. The new album, however, manages to dispel that conception somewhat. I've listened to it 3-4 times now, and there were definitely some standout tracks the first time around (though personally I wouldn't have picked the radio single Gold Lion), though it's not without it's bad tracks either. So far - definitely enjoyable, but I doubt this will make it on my year end list.

Ghostface Killah - Fishscale
Listened to this one twice so far. I don't think I have a good conception of the album yet because it's so long - there are, what, 24 tracks here? The album's over an hour long. That's a lot of content to digest... I feel like there's some good stuff here, but I kind of have trouble with Ghostface's voice - it's a little high-pitched for my tastes, and his inflection kind of grates, too. Beats seem good - gritty, with a lot of that vinyl feel - but again, there's too much here to really filter through in less than 5-10 listens. I guess I need to give this more time...

Band of Horses - Everything All the Time
I think I've listened to this twice in the background. Reminded me of My Morning Jacket, I think primarily because of the vocal style and amount of reverb used. Nothing stuck out, really. I think this might fall into the Clientele - Strange Geometry/British Sea Power - Open Season category (and for that matter, both My Morning Jacket albums) - that is, everyone seems to like them but I didn't hear enough to warrant repeated listens.

Islands - Return to the Sea
# of listens - somewhere around 2 1/2. Like The Unicorns but without the amazingly catchy quirky hooks which were kind of why we all listened to the unicorns in the first place, right?

Tapes 'n Tapes - The Loon
First time through was unremarkable, but good things started to come out with repeated listens - really good things. I have a feeling I'll really like this after giving it a few more spins.

Liars - Drum's Not Dead
Grating. I guess I should have expected that, coming from the Liars after all, but I'm being driven away by its abrasiveness. Hard to tell if the underlying songwriting etc is good when you're constantly annoyed by that weird droning looped gong noise in the background (Let's Not Wrestle Mt. Heart Attack).

The Knife - Silent Shout
Didn't like this one the first time through because the vocals were so weird - but it grew a lot since. Right now I'm at the point where I think I might be listening to it too much... there's so much catchy stuff here, and only one track I skip over - I'm definitely buying this as soon as it's released in the US (early June, I think). May require an adjustment period if you're not really familiar with the minimal techno (is that even the right genre?) sound, but highly recommended.

Love Is All - Nine Times That Same Song
I guess this is dance-punk, but I'd say it's definitely weighted more toward the punk end of that genre. Not much else to say about it yet...

Belle and Sebastian - The Live Pursuit:
This is one I initially reviewed in February, and have listened to it enough since then to get a better conception of the record. And - while the complaints I had about it then aren't as relevant after getting used to the record a little more, it's still not a spectacular album. It's just...good, but enough of it is mediocre/forgettable to prevent me from really enjoying it.

Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther:
I guess if I'm comparing this to another band - as far as the way I perceive the album - it'd be Archer Prewitt. That is - stylistically kind of generic, folksy singer/songwriter stuff that makes good use of electric guitars - but something about the album just... sticks. Feels like there's a lot of really good stuff here. Recommended.

Pretty Girls Make Graves - Elan Vital
I think one of the things I hate the most about this band is the vocals. It's like the lead singer has a conception of how she should sound (or the producer is telling her to do things a certain way), and it's not comfortable for her to sing that way - so it comes across as extremely forced. That, and she's not always quite in tune. Maybe if they found another vocalist, I'd actually enjoy listening to them - but since I can't listen to them with their current lineup, I'll just end up forgetting this album, just like I did their first two...

sunset rubdown - shut up i am dreaming
Takes the wolf parade/clap your hands say yeah/arcade fire style of - hmm - "unsteady" vocals to a bit of an extreme. Probably the most indie-sounding record on this list, as far as genre as well as recording quality - it's definitely been done in a studio (as opposed to, say, early modest mouse or mountain goats) but has a lo-fi sound to it, which is partially because it's mastered very conservatively so it retains a very natural sound. If you can get past the vocals (it took me a while) this is good stuff.

clipse - we got it for cheap vol 2
Maybe it's just my copy, but this is hard low-passed above 8khz, which destroys any sonic quality which might have been there in the first place. Really fatiguing to listen to. Other than that, there's just a lot of shit here - Zen is a standout track (thanks to LBJ who recommended it), but the rest is kind of hard to get through. Part of that is the way the tracks are split up - since it's a mixtape, instead of a distinctive song start/end, they just fade in/out dj-style and the next track hits - so tracks are hard to differentiate.

fiona apple - extraordinary machine (retail)
I never heard anything of her first record except Criminal, ubiquitous as it was in 1997 or whenever - but being a teenager, and having such poor taste in music at the time, I'd written off Fiona as just another alt-pop thing. So when I listen to the new album, and 3-4 tracks immediately stand out, I'm impressed. Some of the production doesn't fit though - most obviously "Tymps", so I'm curious to hear the leaked earlier version produced by Jon Brion.

Sonically this is an impressive record - engineered well; drums sound particularly good, and the piano/bass interaction fits really well. They made an interesting choice on her vocals, though - traditionally mics are used which boost the voice in the 12khz region (listen to the vocalists on the Stars record for a particularly obvious example - the adjective usually used for that sound is "sparkle"), but I suspect the engineer deliberately eq'ed out the high end of her voice. This is quite striking, and definitely adds some 'huskiness' to her voice, which seems to work well in the context of the record.


Anyway. More to come as I listen to these more... hopefully I'll update again in a week or two.

If anyone is interested in hearing these, feel free to get in touch and we'll see if we can work something out.


- posted by vcmc @  4/29/2006 01:18:00 PM  |  0 comments

 
douchebaggery
so Alec Baldwin is a douchebag. I guess I'm not really surprised - he seems like the sort of person to only play characters in line with his own personality.


wait, should I have posted this on pandas instead? will there be a blog war over my use of the word 'douchebag'? I guess it's a good thing the use of a particular word can't be trademarked...
- posted by vcmc @  4/26/2006 03:12:00 PM  |  0 comments

 
aesthetics of sound.
If you're an artist or producer and you even think for a fraction of a second about putting a toy piano in a song, you deserve to rot in hell for all eternity.

worst. instrument. ever.


I have distaste for other instruments, but the toy piano is the only one for which I've reserved such absolute disgust.
- posted by vcmc @  4/16/2006 11:17:00 AM  |  2 comments

 
I have renewed my faith in the internets.
this is the best thing ever!

an mp3 blog aggregator. No more tedious downloading single tracks from blogs across the web - just a few clicks and you get a player with all the tracks right there.

This has replaced p2p (not that I ever did. that's- *gasp* -illegal!) as my preferred way to sample new bands' music. Currently listening to a bunch of random stuff by The Knife. Not quite what I'd imagined from pitchfork's ravings...

I guess the downside to this is it's still a random collection of tracks; I have no idea which record the song I listen to comes from (or if it's a b-side, or net-only release, etc.) Still worth playing with.
- posted by vcmc @  4/04/2006 02:58:00 PM  |  1 comments

 
emo is back. just not in the way you think.
I guess I can't really judge this because I haven't read anything more than the synopsis posted at this site, but - really - do we need a bunch of programmers going emo?

Sadly, they're about 10 years too late...

Who knows, maybe - like they suggest - this will turn into the new 'agile methods'. Hopefully not until they figure out they need to call it something else though.

(oops! I neglected to look at the posting date of April 1...)
- posted by vcmc @  4/03/2006 11:53:00 AM  |  3 comments

 
the modern town hardly knows silence
...a line from The Books' song Be Good To Them Always.

Anyway, this kind of stuck out on a recent listen to Lost and Safe, in part because I recently moved to Uptown, off one of the busiest local streets in the area. There's a constant rumble of traffic, occasionally punctuated by thumping bass from a passing car, car horns, etc. Being rather sensitive to background nosie levels (they decrease the dynamic range and noise floor of my monitoring environment) I kind of wonder how I failed to notice this when we were shown the place...

side note - I really enjoy The Books, though I haven't met anyone else who really likes them. Granted, they use a lot of nonstandard song structures and instrumentation, and it can be abrasive at times, but it's significantly less so than your average noise band (i.e. lightning bolt, boris, etc. give them a listen, if you haven't (or haven't given them enough of a chance).

Complaint #two about my new place: the electrical system. Being a turn of the century building, there are nowhere near enough outlets around, and most of the wiring is two-conductor (modern systems are 3- or 4-conductor). Everyone's suggested getting 2- to 3-prong adapters, but audio and computer equipment depends upon the ground connection for rejection of electrical and RF noise.

In other words, I don't think this will be at all suitable for recording, and only marginally so for editing work... I guess I'll be using closed heaphones more often. Maybe I should look into getting an actual studio somwhere. The problem there is the cost, though... I don't make anywhere near enough to pay for a fledgling(*ahem* unprofitable) studio...

While I'm complaining, I might mention that we were late to turn in the keys for the old apartment, and were fined something ridiculous per hour ($20-30 or something) we were late - but the night before, my sister decided she would go hang out at the terminal bar for four hours, instead of packing/cleaning. I was fucking thrilled about that. yeah. fucking thrilled.

anyway. now instead of living with my sister, I'm living with my cousin, who is at least semi-responsible. it remains to be seen to what extent.


The Books' Smells Like Content ends with the following sound clip:
"Expectation...leads to disappointment. If you don't expect something big, huge, and exciting, usually...uh...."


- posted by vcmc @  4/01/2006 05:52:00 PM  |  2 comments