The soundtrack to my weekend is mainly being supplied by Manitoba. Still loving
Up In Flames. Might be my favorite CD from last year now. Or very close. Right up near the top with Broken Social Scene and The Shins and a coupla others. Just gets better all the time. All season music. Loved it this summer and now it's taking me through the winter too. Indietronica? Yeah, I guess so. Not the same as The Notwist or Lali Puna or some of the others, but just as endearing. Doesn't seem to get a lot of attention anymore but I'm still snapping it up. Didn't I read that he had to change the name of the band or something like that? Any news on a new release?
This one is a real gem. Spacey and poppy, kind of like the psychedelic Beatles. One of the cool things about it is that it seems to appeal to young and old alike. It's kind of like a big beat version of Spiritualized or (especially) Yo La Tengo. The song "Jacknuggetted" even borrows from YLT's "Sugarcube" (one of the coolest songs of all time
), at least that's what it sounds like to me in the vocal parts, although it never quite falls into that rousingly infectious chorus that makes it a crowd favorite at YLT concerts. But it takes off in a different direction.
And it's chaotic. The music is almost like a simile for the cover of Sgt. Pepper's. Actually, the first couple songs do sound a bit like the Beatles, even some "Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds" in the second one maybe. But that closer, "Every Time She Turns Round It's Her Birthday", really turns it into one of the best albums I've heard in the last few years. Nearly eight minutes of epic sounding electronically enhanced melodic pop that rises above pretty much everybody else doing similar music, at least those I've heard. It seems to combine everything that is good about the album into one song, collecting all those influences from the Beatles and Beach Boys and Mercury Rev and Yo La Tengo and Spiritualized and Fat Boy Slim and Moby and many others into one big happy family-style plate of yummy food for the ears. Pretty cool stuff. I wonder if the Manitoba guy hangs out with his fellow Canadians, Broken Social Scene, because that "Jacknuggeted" song sounds a bit like "Cause = Time" from their
You Forgot It In People, and there are some other similarities between the two albums, in addition to the Yo La Tengo connection already mentioned.
And running throughout is a sound not unlike Spiritualized. The two bands seem to have many of the same influences and the Manitoba guy has a voice not dissimilar to Jason Pierce as well. Both get very spacey and many parts of this album sound kind of like something from
Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, my favorite Spiritualized vintage and one of my favorite albums of the last decade or so. But like this Manitoba album, it also combines a strong dose of the later psychedelic Beatles with more current influences like My Bloody Valentine. Although one could probably argue that My Bloody Valentine was heavily influenced by not only those same Beatles and Beach Boys and VU, but also to a lesser extent by that same Jason Pierce, now of Spiritualized but back in the early 80s as part of Spacemen 3. But who knows where some of these people get their inspirations and what is new and what is borrowed. Doesn't really matter to me where it comes from unless I'm trying to describe the music to someone. If the music takes me someplace I like, it's good to me. And this one takes me.
