I was just saying the other day that I didn’t know what had gotten into Titus Andronicus on their new album, The Monitor, but I like it. With that being said, there are some line-up changes in addition to the record featuring members of The Hold Steady, Wye Oak, Vivian Girls, and Ponytail. Just to throw in another band, The Monitor inspires me to want to drink like I’m at a Drive By Truckers’ show. The subjects here are concerned with humiliation, urination, emasculation, dealing with meaninglessness where there used to be meaning, and essentially just fucking up and always coming up short, but still swearing never surrender. The dynamic shifts are also well indeed – slipping in smoked out dreamy sectionals as well as raging drunk stomps and harmonies. With that in mind, by the time the piano rolls in on “A Pot in Which To Piss,” there should be no doubt that Titus Andronicus have made something good. This is my favorite album so far this year. It makes me want to bitch and scream about whats really wrong with the world. Oh yeah, there’s a Civil War theme in there too, but you can check that one out yourself.
After one accumulates a certain number of albums, say a hundred, maybe a thousand, it becomes obvious that certain works are more suitable at different times during the day. Vinca Minor’s ambient album, Isolation, is one such piece made ready to acclimate you to the day with breathing synths, hums, drones, and other emotives charged to slowly stir your flight. And as a side note, Vinca Minor’s Matt Menovcik wakes up every morning to Eno’s Music For Films.
Adam Green’s sixth studio album Minor Love is out this week on Fat Possum. Fans of his past work will find themselves at home on these 14 tracks that feature Green playing most of the instruments. Minor Love comes with the same hints of Lou Reed peaking out occasionally on the phrasing as much as they do in vocal tint. Some of the tracks are a little wonkier than others, though that is par for the course. Between the velvet stroke of “What Makes Him Act So Bad,” the uptempo guitar flourish of “Goblins,” and the swivel between archaic video game sound and distant fuzzed out riff on “Oh Shucks,” the swagger that makes us Green fans is present.
Telling me about a two-piece isn’t usually the best way to get my attention, though Primal Static’sThe Curtain of Many Faces clearly makes the mark. The duo of Greg Thuman (composer, singer, guitar) and HouFei Yang (keyboard, bass) offer up a ten track work touching off on everything from acid blues, Stooges, dreamy emotion, exotic garage, and elsewhere trance. Sounds like a mess, but pretty nice.
Out of the same West African ground that spawned the ancient Mali empire, comes BassekoKouyate and his band armed with their four ngonis. Kouyate’s latest album with his band Ngoni Ba—I Speak Fula, brings eleven warm earth passages prospered by the small stringed ancestor to the banjo. Kouyate was long ago inspired to move the music beyond where his ngoni forefathers had gone, and as result has become a savior for the instrument and a symbol of innovative Malian music. Kouyate’s wife, Sacko is a vocalist on the album, adding yet more complexion to this moving mirror of aural history.
To The Pouring Rain, the new album from Seth Augustus, has been growing on me more and more with each listen. The vocals and phrasing bring to mind bits of Tom Waits, Don Van Vliet, and Nick Cave layed over a foggy blues blend of folk, jazz, and bizarro carnival. Expect sliding strings and the feeling the devil is real and only a few paces away.
Been happy with Retribution Gospel Choir’s newly released 2, an album of classic rock and other guitar machinations for the current age. Recorded in their hometown of Duluth, Minnesota, 2 surfaces with catchy rockers brimming with crunchy chords, wandering leads, and a trailing storm of psychedelia, perhaps seen best on standout, “Poor Man’s Daughter.” “White Wolf” comes off as a Paul Stanley 70’s era KISS stormer, preparing a nice setup for “The Last of the Blue Dream,” a tune half done inside the egg prior to its final escape. In case you didn’t know, Retribution Gospel Choir features Alan Sparhawk of Low.
LA drummer Jason Boesel has played the skins for everyone from Rilo Kiley, Bright Eyes, The Elected, and Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band. Now, he steps out as singer / songwriter on Hustler’s Son, bringing a solid work of Americana, a little AM Gold sound, and other strands from the old quilt. I found this album way more entertaining than some of the more acclaimed groups he has kept time for. Solid work, whether that be the rolling choral of “Hand Of God,” the more stripped down folkways of “New World Mama,” or the laid back swell and resistance of album favorite “I Got the Reason #1.” Check out “Hand Of God,” featured below for your intake.
On first listen of Contra, I thought it was boring and sounded somewhat like a path that Paul Simon had already taken. Somewhere amidst my second listen the sound and movement started to earn more of my appreciation. When I listen to music I don’t tend to venture into the lyrics immediately unless the music and melody have failed their occupation. Not that lyrics aren’t important, but if your primary fascination is words then you might be better suited with books or something along that line. For me, the way music makes me feel is the most pressing factor, and if done right that feeling carries more inertia than a million obscure masturbatory words. On Contra, Ezra Koenig transitions voice as instrument with easy success, while importing at least a few foreign words. The music travels the same Afrivibe / World trajectory as before, though the seamlessness and obvious craftsmanship of Contra make it a step up from Vampire Weekend’s past. If VW appeals to you at all, then Contra will go down with ease. On an album that stands out more as a whole, rather than piecemeal, neither of the songs below are my favorites. Finally, the usual implied apologetic / disparaging remarks concerning Vampire Weekend’s upscale pedigree and other stupid talk of colonizing music can be found elsewhere.
The Dimes’ latest album, The King Can Drink the Harbour Dry, fashions early Boston, Massachusetts’ history into a rich and entertaining twelve song work. Singer-songwriter Johnny Clay’s glowing voice directs a sound of classic sixties melodies, frequent harmonies, and engaging lyric. “Save Me, Clara” shows it all off with banjo haunts and a lifting hook, while the acoustic backdrop of the more contemplative “Walden and the Willow Tree,” brings talk of wicker chairs and Poe to the fold with a warming harmonica. There is more here, though discovery is best on your own.
Washington D.C.’s Bellflur make a nice escape on their recent EP, Last Quarter of the 20th Century Blues. The record is dense with keyboards, revealing harmonies, roaming percussion, and atmospheres reminiscent of everything from 1990’s Chicago scene to elsewhere sound-sculptors such as Sigur Ros. Throughout the five song work, movements are grown and destroyed with a harmonious touch sure to bring to mind many other worthy influences.
Cleveland’s mr. Gnome, consisting of guitarist/vocalist Nicole Barile and drummer/vocalist Sam Meister, left us all something good for the season with their late 2009 release, Heave Yer Skeleton. Recorded at Josh Homme’s Pink Duck Studios and mixed at Butch Vig’s Smart Studios, the album runs as a shadowy epic with storm and struggle delivered from onset with “Spain,” setting an ominous stir that later turns to a strike reminiscent of butcher in full art. The pitfalls and other certain drama of Heave Yer Skeleton’s journey are soon to reveal themselves by way of moving vocal discharge and guitar offset, resolved by end that the sky may fall down regardless.
I was just saying the other day that I didn’t know what had gotten into Titus Andronicus on their new album, The Monitor, but I like it. With that being said, there are some line-up changes in addition to the record featuring members of The Hold Steady, Wye Oak, Vivian Girls, and Ponytail. Just to throw in another band, The Monitor inspires me to want to drink like I’m at a Drive By Truckers’ show. The subjects here are concerned with humiliation, urination, emasculation, dealing with meaninglessness where there used to be meaning, and essentially just fucking up and always coming up short, but still swearing never surrender. The dynamic shifts are also well indeed – slipping in smoked out dreamy sectionals as well as raging drunk stomps and harmonies. With that in mind, by the time the piano rolls in on “A Pot in Which To Piss,” there should be no doubt that Titus Andronicus have made something good. This is my favorite album so far this year. It makes me want to bitch and scream about whats really wrong with the world. Oh yeah, there’s a Civil War theme in there too, but you can check that one out yourself.
Telling me about a two-piece isn’t usually the best way to get my attention, though Primal Static’s The Curtain of Many Faces clearly makes the mark. The duo of Greg Thuman (composer, singer, guitar) and HouFei Yang (keyboard, bass) offer up a ten track work touching off on everything from acid blues, Stooges, dreamy emotion, exotic garage, and elsewhere trance. Sounds like a mess, but pretty nice.
