Mono
Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined
Temporary Residence
2004
Rating: 7.5 paper candles out of 10
The third full-length by rising Japanese noise masters Mono,
finds them heading in a bit of an orchestral direction, but without giving up the bombast that makes their songs so
memorable. The band combines the song structure and dynamics of early Mogwai or Explosions in the Sky,
with the sheer volume and waves of sound like My Bloody Valentine were known for. The end result is
overwhelmingly powerful, especially when listened to through headphones at a high volume; and it’s especially
noteworthy if you see the band play live (they’ve come over here to the States twice over the past couple of
years). Last time I saw them, the music hit so powerfully at one point that I thought it might have made my
heart skip a beat. Their recorded material will never quite match up, but with Steve Albini behind the helm
producing, this record may be as close as we ever get.
Secret Machines
Now Here Is Everywhere
Reprise
2004
Rating: 8 white linen sheets out of 10
Secret Machines might have started out as small Texas band putting out a decent first album (“September 000”) on lesser known label (Ace Fu), but they have
grown into something much bigger. Not only are they now on a major label, but they managed to escape two of the
largest pitfalls in the music industry – putting out a great second album (thus avoiding the dreaded sophomore
slump), and making the transition to the big leagues and still putting out a quality release. The
sound on this record is very, very big – imagine elements of Friedman-era Flaming Lips, a little pit of Pink Floyd
psychedelia, and a dash of Spoon’s pop instincts, over a backbone of post rock via Kraftwerk (or maybe even
Trans Am) beats. Sounds weird but oddly fetching doesn’t it? I think so at least, and this album has
been getting lots of spins in my player. Don’t be surprised if at the end of the year you find this record listed on a
lot of top 10 lists, and take solace in the fact that I’m not the sort to say “I told you so.”
The 90 Day Men
Panda Park
Southern
2004
Rating: 7.5 dead silver birds out of 10
The 90 Day Men are slowly but surely becoming one of the greatest rock
bands out there without anyone really knowing about them. I’ve seen more than a few comparisons to
Radiohead floating out there in reviews. It’s somewhat founded, for two reasons – not only does some of their output
sound a bit like Radiohead, but their desire to constantly define and redefine what they sound like rings
true as well. Additionally, you could throw a little Pink Floyd, the more morose lements of 70’s glam rock bands
like Roxy Music and T. Rex, and maybe even a little Black Heart Procession thrown in there for good
measure. All in all, it’s a very ambitious and big record, one that most bands would fail in trying to accomplish, but
it’s just another day at the office for these lads. With each album they put out, they separate themselves more
and more from the pack. All of the sheep
out there eating from the trough of Radiohead would do themselves a
favor by snacking on some of this – or you could just wait a couple more years until someone hip and happening
finally “discovers” them and your ear is turned then. Either way, it would be to your benefit to
check out 90 Day Men.
(note: I absolutely love Radiohead, so no insult meant to them; merely to the folks who listen
to them just because they’re "supposed”
to…)
Crime
San Francisco's Still Doomed
Swami
2004
Rating: 9 giant burritos out of 10
I’m not a religious man, but it is times like these when I want to bless the lord for Swami Records. Not only are they responsible for putting out all things Hot Snakes, but now they’ve gone and re-issued one of the all-time great punk records “San Francisco Is Still Doomed” by Crime, a San Francisco-based punk group that recorded from 1976 into the early eighties.
To be honest, it’s actually a re-issue of a (sorta) re-issue titled “San Francisco’s Doomed”, but such is the game you play when you start dealing with more obscure stuff. When it was originally re-issued in 1990, there still wasn’t much interest in the Crime catalog except with hardcore collector nerds; the band had been criminally (no pun intended) neglected up to that point by punk historians, despite the fact that they were one of the first bands of this kind to be releasing music in the States. After the poorly distributed 1990 release (which culled 20 tracks from a couple of different unreleased studio sessions), the band began to finally get the recognition they so rightly deserved. Obviously, this meant their material became harder and harder to find, more and more expensive, and bootlegs of questionable quality began popping up all over the place. Thankfully Swami put out their version of the album, which was just like the original “Doomed” album with two additional outtakes.
Crime’s sound was that of pure rock and roll - fuzzed out blues-rock with a sneer you could actually hear in the music; imagine The Stooges with a little more intensity and a lot more attitude. The band seemed to regard the “punk movement” and the trendiness that rose with it to be a cancer upon the music, and they would have no part of it. But despite staying on the outskirts of popularity, they still had an influence that was not only local but far reaching – Sonic Youth were vocal supporters, and even covered the Crime classic “Hot Wire My Heart” on their legendary “Sister” album. For a while now, there have been rumors of box sets and complete discographies and DVDs, but until any of that materializes this release is your best bet to discover the greatness that was Crime.
Dizzee Rascal
Boy in da Corner
Matador
2004
Rating: 9 mischievous children out of 10
That sound you hear is the collective “Holy Shit!” that comes out of people’s mouths the first time they hear the sounds of the 18 year old British superstar Dizzee Rascal. I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that this is the most original and imaginative hip-hop album to come out in quite some time, but there is something extremely limiting by just calling this a hip-hop record after you’ve heard the glorious sounds etched into it's wax. The music is mostly a combination of extremely hard, erratic beats and Rascal’s intense lyricism, which is nearly overpowered by one of the thickest English Cockney accents I’ve ever heard on record or film; there are times when you think you’re listening to a foreign language. Additionally, there are songs that bring in heavy guitar riffs, operatic chorus singing, and odd techno-style bleeps and bloops that really round out the recording. I’ve been pretty bored with hip-hop for quite a while now - with the exceptions of El-P, Meanest Man Contest, Outkast and Dalek, the only groups out there willing to do something different than tow the line and push the boundries of hip-hop and music in general – but hopefully this release will help swing some folks in the direction that different can be better, and being sheep no matter what the musical genre is serves no purpose but to put people asleep. I know that’s what the record companies want, but we as consumers need to hope and want and fight for more.
Clinic
Winchester Cathedral
Domino
2004
Rating: 7 doctors taking communion out of 10
I’m not going to lie to you – if you’ve heard a previous Clinic album, then you should know that their new album “Winchester Cathedral” doesn’t really veer far from the course they set forth in their previous two albums “Internal Wrangler” and “Walking with Thee”. That said, it’s still some of the most intriguing and original stuff being put out these days by a band so close to the mainstream. Comparisons to Gang of Four, Wire, and Suicide still seem fitting (and thankfully so), but the description of them having “garage rock-like tendencies” doesn’t really hold up on this album as much. They’ve replaced many of the more upbeat numbers with something a bit more mellow and reverential, almost as if they were writing church music (possibly for the cathedral that the album is named after?), but never quite breaking free of the mold that makes the band so distinctive and instantly recognizable. Clinic may not be for everyone, but you’re doing yourself a world of disservice if you don’t even give them a shot – and this new record is as just a good a place to start as any. If nothing else, you’ll not find another group anywhere else in rock-n-roll that utilizes the melodica as well as Clinic – what more could you possibly want?
The Arcade Fire
Funeral
Merge
2004
Rating: 8 pinball arsonists out of 10
Wow…on first listen it becomes all too clear why the Arcade Fire has been receiving the buzz it has over the last few months. This Montreal group may never appear on MTV or the OC, but you better be damn sure that they will take the music world by storm, from the bottom up. The list of influences/”sounds like” can be quite long if you try to break it down to it’s constituent parts…The Talking Heads, Neutral Milk Hotel, Broken Social Scene, British Sea Power, etc…certainly a list of bands that would make many folks want to give them a listen. But the way they meld and merge these influences into its own, unique shape is the real draw – the music sounds so rich and exuberant and full of life that it is like the audio equivalent of one of those giant boxes of Crayola crayons (the 64 count variety box, obviously). Additionally, they have embraced the old-fashioned idea of creating an album - as in the whole thing sounds great together, where the sequencing and song constructions balance and help each other out, as opposed to just creating a record of disjointed songs as most folks seem to do in the ADD-addled world we live in now. This record works best when listened to all at once, not broken up into various play lists in your iPod. This is probably the best and one of the most original records of the year, sure to be an epiphany of happiness to many people as they discover it over the next few months.
The Clean
Anthology
Merge
2004
Rating: 9 fuzzy kiwis out of 10
The Clean. They’re one of those bands that have been name-checked as influences time and time again by indie bands over the past number of years. This record, Anthology, is just that – an anthology of their recordings for the past 20 years. Although I had heard of these guys for years and years, I somehow managed to never really hear much of their music. When Merge released their album "Getaway" a year or two ago, I listened to a couple of tracks off of the Merge website, enjoyed what I heard, and made a mental note to pick up some of their records but never actually got around to it. With the release of this anthology, I guess I’m finally getting around to it – and I’m kicking myself for ever putting it off in the first place.
This anthology covers the entire spectrum of music released by The Clean, from their first 7 inches all the way up to "Unknown Country", the album before their 2001 release "Getaway". It includes both album tracks and rarities, with enough good stuff that I can’t imagine there’s not something on here for everyone. For me and many others, the best track is the first one on the first disc – "Tally Ho", a perfect blend of pop hooks and garage production. Put simply, this is one of the best songs of all time.
The only negative is the length - it would be pretty impressive if you could sit through both discs, as that’s well over 40 songs total. Anyone who’s a novice to The Clean might become bewildered at first with the vast amount of music presented to them. But if you just take it a bit at a time, you’ll be rewarded with some of the best and most influential music created in the last quarter of the 20th century.
Rogue Wave
Out of the Shadow
Responsive Recordings / Sub Pop
2004
Rating: 8 bald vultures out of 10
There’s a certain type of sound captured in the music of Rogue Wave that I’m
having a really hard time wrapping my vocabulary around. My best effort would be to say that
a lot of their songs remind me of some early to mid-nineties radio pop – Buffalo Tom, Teenage Fanclub, Gin
Blossoms, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Dillon Fence, The Connells – but I don’t think that really does the
band justice. They certainly don’t sound like a throwback to that era, yet they seem to capture a similar mood
in their music and a knack for same type of pop sensibilities. There’s even a certain element to their
music that reminds me of eighties stalwarts like R.E.M. and later, non-punk Replacements, but I’m afraid that
pigeon-holes their sound too much too. Occasionally, their rhythm section follows odd time signatures not
unlike a mellower version of Thingy or Heavy Vegetable, and some of the more upbeat tracks remind me of
Elliott Smith’s side project Heatmiser.
The bottom line – I’ve been listening to this record for over a month
now, and I’m still really enjoying it. It seems like that’s been harder and harder to say over the last couple of
years – I hear a lot of bands I enjoy for a couple of weeks, and then I file their CD away and forget all
about them. I think it’s the same intangible quality that makes Rogue Wave hard to describe, that also makes them
interesting to listen to. Sometimes I get the notion that the best bands are those whose influences you
can’t really pin point exactly, and this is one of them. This is great first release, and I’ll certainly be keeping
my eyes open for more out of them in the
future.
A.C. Newman
The Slow Wonder
Matador
2004
Rating: 7.5 dinosaur babes out of 10
In case you were unaware, A.C. Newman is one of the main cats from that
ultra-hip super-group, the New Pornographers; and if you didn’t already know that he was the brains
behind that operation (with a little help from Dan Bejar of Destroyer fame), it will become incredibly obvious
after your first listen of this record. This album has a great, summertime feel to it, like riding down the
Great Highway in a convertible watching the surf wash up against the dead whale carcasses. If you know and love
the output of the New Pornographers, or even Newman’s previous band Zumpano, you’ll get along
well with this album of glistening retro-pop. In fact, if you threw a couple of guest vocal spots on here
from Neko Case, you’d probably assume it was a New Pornographers album. This release bustles right
along, and although it registers only a half hour or so of recorded material, it’s the quality that
counts; plus, “leave them wanting more” is a popular expression for a reason. I have a feeling this is
going to get played a lot in my house, car and walkman over the next few months.
Languis
The Four Walls
Plug Research
2004
Rating: 7 gazebos out of 10
I think it’s pretty obvious to everyone by now, even out-of-touch people from rural America, that the “80’s” are back and have been for a while now. Look at the fashion and culture of the youth, the resurgence of cocaine as the drug of choice amongst the hipster elite, and most telling, the music. And like any rehash of some long gone era, almost all of this music is terrible. That may be part of the reason that I enjoyed this album by Languis so much – it doesn’t suck at all, and that alone is a feat in the keyboard-drenched landscape of modern music.
I think what really makes this group and this album place head-and-shoulders above their peers is the sincerity of it all – you get the feeling that this is the music they want to make and truly enjoy, not that they’re just trying to hitch a ride on the trendy train in hopes to cash in. If I had to point to one particular band or sound that Languis most remind me of, it would be the melancholy of New Order. If you’re looking for a more current comparison, the instrumental tracks from Dntel’s “Life is full of Possibilities” might suffice. I’m having a hard time coming up with a genuine comparison for the vocals of “The Four Walls”, but either way I really enjoy them and they blend in well with the music and are there if you need them but not so oppressive that you can’t overlook them if you want to.
I highly recommend checking Languis out if you get a chance and you enjoy this type of music – listening to the album a couple of times will quickly leave you with the feeling of just how silly most of this 80’s revivalism really is.
The Thrills
Let’s Bottle Bohemia
Virgin
2004
Rating: 7.5 special galaxies out of 10
No sophomore slump here – this new Thrills record is just as good if
not better than their debut…I’ve been listening to it a ton since I got it. With poppy hooks like they have, how can
you not? Even if the album was crap, I’d be tempted to rate it well based solely on the fact that they have a song
called “Whatever Happened to Corey Haim?”, and it’s a damn good and catchy song at that. If you liked the last
album, this should be right up your alley; if you’ve
never heard them before and like catchy Beach Boys and Byrds-inspired
pop music, get thee self to a record store post haste. If you can give me a better band from Ireland channeling
sunny California pop music, I’ll take it – but for now, I’ll stick with The Thrills.
The Red Thread
Tension Pins
Badman Recording Co
2004
Rating: 7.5 spools of yarn out of 10
San Francisco’s The Red Thread have that sound that comes across as both original and instantly recognizable on your very first listen. There is also a
warmth and intimacy to their sophomore release that makes it feel as if they are sitting in your living room,
playing these songs just for you. Founded by Jason Lakis (formerly of another great and under-appreciated band,
Half-Film), The Red Thread’s music has been described as many things – southwest rock and alt-country
being the most common descriptors. And although there are elements of both of these genres in their music, neither really captures the
true sound coming from the band, nor do they account for just how amazing Jason Lakis’ soothing voice is. Let’s just
say, if you like The Byrds, Calexico, Red
House Painters, Uncle Tupelo and all of the off shoots, Mojave 3, etc.,
then you’ll probably enjoy what The Red Thread has to offer.
