Archive for the Rock and Roll category
St. Vincent
by teabog on April 14th, 2007
St. Vincent
“Now. Now.” (From the album Marry Me)
This young lady kinda sounds like Annie Lenox, only much less annoying. Her name is Annie Clark, and she plays a lot of instruments. She’s played guitar with the Polyphonic Spree and with Sufjan Stevens.
The song is pretty, pastoral. Hell of a springtime song, with big, sweet-sounding orchestral and children’s choir flourishes against Clark’s strong but simple vocal line eventually give way to some wonderfully out of place guitar distortion. If the songs streaming on her myspace are any indication, I’m really looking forward to her album. The base of her songwriting is this sort of wannabe Fiona Apple bluesy girl-with-a-piano stuff but then every song’s got something about it that’s completely fucked up and unexpected. Also, Brian Teasley from Man or Astro-man is gonna be on it.
Frank Cathey “Witchapoo” (ooooold 45)
by teabog on March 21st, 2007
Frank Cathey
“Witchapoo”
I’ve past four years in an exceedingly liberal environment, pursuing an exceedingly liberal profession in which I am considered a conservative in spite of numerous threatening e-mails calling me a “liebral” and a “demoncrat” that I would hope would prove the contrary. During this time, I’ve learned that although we leftists might get a lot of flak for having ruined American culture with our Political Correctness, it’s really not our fault. Political correctness—like racism—is something that idiots on both sides of the political spectrum are to blame for.
Sometimes, offensive things can be quite brilliant, so brilliant that their offensiveness—which is usually more a product of their time, not due so much to any particular ill will—can be ignored. It’s true. Seriously. Liking a book that has the word “nigger” in it doesn’t make you a racist, especially if the book’s really good. It’s also okay to still like the movie Dumbo, even though it contains caricatures of negroes, and it’s okay to like Fantasia, even if some of the dancing mushrooms have squinty Chinaman eyes.
And I bring this all up because “Witchapoo” is the kind of “hoo-wa hey-aw, hoo-wa hey-aw” rock and roll treat that belongs to the genre that was once popularly called “injun music.” It even starts out with the band saying “Rock and Roll, Injun Style!”
“Witchapoo” is one of the very best standalone 45s to come out the 1950s, and if you listen to it I’m sure you’ll agree with me. And even if you’re the type who gets offended by popular stereotypes of Native Americans (which I’m not), I hope that the bounty of its rockingness is enough to make you forgive its subject matter.
Blitzen Trapper “Whiskey Kisser”
by teabog on March 13th, 2007
Blitzen Trapper “Whiskey Kisser”
“Whiskey Kisser” (From the albumBlitzen Trapper)
If you’re judging bands only by the quality of their recorded output, Blitzen Trapper is easily the most unfairly ignored American group of this decade. I liken their releases to early Beck in that they manage to blend and bend dozens of different genres while producing distinctly American rocks that’s both easily accessible and completely unique sounding. It’s not only good music; it’s appealing music, the kind of music that hepsters would initially attach themselves to and then all sorts of college kids would pick up on. This is like Modest Mouse or Spoon, only better than the recent releases of either group. Simply put, it’s very good music that everyone can enjoy.
Why, then, does no one listen to it? As far as I can tell, it’s only because they’re self-released, and the band’s meager budget doesn’t buy them much press coverage. Their self-titled first album, from which the tobacco-soaked, sun-stained “Whiskey Kisser” was taken, wasn’t reviewed anywhere. Their second album, Field Rexx got a fair amount of overwhelmingly positive press coverage, but received little support otherwise. Yeah, a good review in Music for Robots might encourage a few people to check for the group at Amazon, but few are going put forth the kind of effort that tracking down a reasonably priced copy of a self-released album requires.
Anyhow, here’s Blitzen Trapper. They’re really, really good, and you should do what it takes to find and buy their albums.
Blitzen Trapper’s official website
Acoustic Ladyland “Glass Agenda”
by teabog on March 4th, 2007
Acoustic Ladyland
“Glass Agenda” (From Skinny Grin)
A few things about Acoustic Ladyland:
-They started out as a Jimmie Hendrix cover band. This explains both their silly name and their silly level of technical proficiency.
-Since stopping playing Hendrix covers, the band released a couple of jazz fusion albums that were a little metal influenced. If such a mélange of styles sounds difficult to pull off, it’s because it is, and their previous albums weren’t that great.
-Skinny Grin, the group’s latest LP which is yet to be released in the U.S., blends some elements of electronic Brit Pop in with the Jazz, Rock, and Metal. What’s left is something that sounds like a mixture of Passport, Herbie Hancock, Squeeze, Isis, Pulp, and early solo Zappa.
-I haven’t posted anything from this album until now because every track sounds so different from the rest. The one I’ve posted here, “Glass Agenda” is very Brit-Poppy. Go to their myspace to listen to more. And buy the album, even at the import price. It’s worth it.
Acoustic Ladyland’s official website
The Early Years “All Ones and Zeroes”
by teabog on February 11th, 2007
The Early Years
“All Ones and Zeros”
I’m usually leery of bands with “clever” names, and an LP titled “The Early Years” from a band named “The Early Years” should have sent me running away. But I was sucked in by the boilerplate press-release text at insound.com’s website:
“The chilling, psychedelia-drenched self-titled debut from this UK band is a dense mix of the trio’s influences: Spiritualized, Mogwai, Television, Neu, and Tortoise.”
And since I had to order another cd to get free shipping I said “what the hell” and added it to my cart. Then my order came a week later and I didn’t play for a while, because of its clever name. And then, when I finally did play it, I hated the first ten seconds of “Ones and Zeroes” because it sounded like something I’d hear on college radio.
But I gave it a chance, and the teaser text was right. The Early Years sound play the same four or five chords over and over like Television and they build towards big crescendos like Mogwai. And I suppose they sound a little bit like Tortoise, too, since they drone a bit. Nothing like Spiritualized or Neu!, though, but that’s not a bad thing since I don’t see how Neu! and Spirtiulized would sound good mixed with those other bands.
Even though I kinda said in my last post that I wouldn’t do so any more, I have reverted to name dropping in order to describe this track because I can’t really figure out why I like it. It drones out without anything that resembles a hook, the lyrics are just a guy repeating the line “all ones… and zeeeroes.” I just like it. It’s got the same kind of opium-stupor “uhhh that’s pretty” hooklessness of the bands mentioned in the teaser text, but it’s very different from most of those bands because it doesn’t sound at all spacey or floaty. It doesn’t veer off into guitar solos, it doesn’t lay down keyboard backgrounds. It just captures your attention with two guitars, drums, and a bunch of effects pedals.
The myspace of The Early Years.
Buy the limited edition two disc set at Insound.