Vivian Girls - Everything Goes Wrong (emusic download 9/10/09)

I thought Vivian Girls were pretty overrated last year, but it's seems like there's been a total paradigm shift. Now they're really good, and no one seems to care much. What they do seems simpler than ever - what if the Ramones actually were a girl group? It's not like they're aspiring to be female clones of them or anything, but several of the best moments on this album remind me of the Ramones' debut. There's nothing as strong as the best tracks on that, of course, but it's the same basic principal behind it all, I think. Girl group songs and harmonies pushed through fast, simple rock with a steady back beat.

Here everything is better than it was on Vivian Girls. The songs, the playing, the production, and the vocals. What's not to like? This is one of the most refreshing and enjoyable albums I've heard this year.

Rating: 7.5/10

Jim O'Rourke - The Visitor (CD purchased 9/19/09)

In some ways Jim O'Rourke may be the closest thing our generation has to a Brian Eno. He's been an active member in some of the more vital music scenes of the past 20 years, particularly Chicago in the '90s. He's produced records for other bands ranging from U.S. Maple to Wilco, and his own work has been very diverse as well. Much like Eno, his solo work has been somewhat divided between more cerebral avant-garde and fairly straightforward, rock-based pop. All of it displays an underlying wit and charm that makes it approachable and endearing. The bulk of his work has probably been behind the scenes, though, and he even played a large part in reviving John Fahey's career and bringing him to the attention of a younger audience in the years before he died.

While O'Rourke's work has been too diverse to name just a few key overall influences, the spirit of John Fahey is very tangible in O'Rourke's instrumental music, such as Bad Timing and now this album. The Visitor, however, is a far more nuanced and complex record; the Fahey-esque passages float in and out intermittently of this single-track, 38 minute piece. There's a lot of space, detail, and dynamic range in this recording, and the overall mood and the melodic themes make it another excellent fall record. Or winter record. Or spring record. It's just a very impressive, very satisfying album.

Of all the different facets that Jim O'Rourke has displayed - producer, collaborator, guitarist, improviser, songwriter - it may be the one utilized most fully here, that of composer, that is his strongest. I feel like in The Visitor he's produced something truly special and unique. It makes me a little less resentful that his songwriter side has apparently been swallowed up by the mostly disappointing Loose Fur project. Looking back, I think my favorite O'Rourke moments - from the last few Gastr Del Sol albums and from Bad Timing - have all been leading up to this. I can't wait to hear what he does next.

Rating: 8.5/10

NOMO - Invisible Cities (CD purchased 5/19/09)

On the one hand, I could look at this release as a good sign, that maybe NOMO is going to be more prolific in the future, hopefully releasing more than one album every two years. On the other, it could indicate that their standards have dropped a little bit, and they're all too eager to capitalize on the growing level of attention they've gotten since New Tones. Invisible Cities is obviously intended as a sister release to last year's Ghost Rock, but it mostly pales to that album in just about every way. It certainly isn't bad - I'm not sure they're capable of "bad" yet - but it's the first dip in their otherwise upward trajectory since their debut.

Thinking of other "sister" albums released by artists (in no way similar to NOMO) over the past decade, Invisible Cities is not quite as a strong a leftovers collection as Amnesiac while not being as worthless or tiresome as Sufjan Stevens The Avalanche. If you're a fan of the band, you'll want it, because, really, it's still hard to have too much NOMO at this point. For the uninitiated, I would certainly direct you elsewhere, but this still gives a taste of what this band is great at, just not the greatest examples of it. Of the handful of modern Afrobeat-derived groups, NOMO is the most distinctive, modern, and creative, in my opinion. This album doesn't change that.

Rating: 7.5/10

i've only listened once, but i did enjoy that jim o'rourke

Mi Ami - Watersports (emusic download 3/28/09)

This should have been right up my alley, and I'm not exactly sure what's missing. I'm definitely not crazy about the manic falsetto vocals. They sound more like a dude trying to sing in a funny voice than a dude with a funny voice trying to sing. (The latter is always better, of course.) He seems to be a combined impression of Damo Suzuki and Yoshimi (from OOIOO/Boredoms) but without a real understanding of what made Damo's vocals work so well. He could probably pass for a tone-deaf Yoshimi, but who wants to hear that?

The music is fine, but somehow it fails to really engage me. I think the album actually gets better in the second half when the vocals are a little less monotonous and distracting, and things seem to stretch out and slow down a little. I never actually gave Black Eyes - the parent band to Mi Ami - a fair chance so I can't really say how this stacks up in comparison. For me, though, it kind just ends up being a slightly more abrasive !!! with an even more annoying singer.

Rating: 6.5/10

Deerhunter - Rainwater Cassette Exchange (emusic download 5/21/09)

Some people have derided this EP for not being a "step forward" or something or other, but what about the fact that it's rock solid, four great songs and one flat out fantastic one? Sure, I guess "Disappearing Ink" sounds a little like The Strokes, especially the live rehearsal version from MTV2, but that doesn't mean it's a knock off or in any way inferior to that band. (It does make me want to revisit Is This It? though.) The rest of the EP is prime Deerhunter, especially the closing track "Circulation". They're breaking new ground less than ever here, but what they've done is refine Deerhunter's own brand of pop to a razor sharp point. An excellent 15 minutes that leaves you exactly how a good EP should: wanting more.

Rating: 8/10

Times New Viking - Born Again Revisited (CD purchased 9/19/09)

I love this band so I'm probably a little biased, but this is another fantastic album from them. It might not be quite as great as Rip It Off - which in retrospect was the best album of 2008 - but for me this one feels more like a manifesto, a mission statement. This is Times New Viking. This is how they sound, who they are, just the way they want it. You can take it or leave it. The oppressively loud, blown-out "production" is deliberately, undeniably still here, and there's not even an immediately catchy or remotely "friendly" song until the third track. It's the sixth track where they lay down the gauntlet, though. "No Time, No Hope" is one the greatest rock anthems of our time, a fist-pumping scream-along for the ages. I have to think that maybe covering Arcade Fire (the cover itself was terrible, IMO, and I wouldn't recommend seeking it out) rubbed off on them in far better ways than could have been imagined. Clearly TNV heard something in AF's music that they wanted to emulate, and in "No Time, No Hope" they've created that same kind of energy but with a greater momentum and, in my opinion, stronger song craft.

The highs don't stop with that song, however. Weighted more toward the back half than the front, Born Again Revisited packs in several more heavy hitters before the close of its brisk 30 minutes, namely "2/11 Don't Forget", "These Days", "Hustler, Psycho, Son" and "Move to California". Plus the more I've listened to this album, the more the cluster of tense, scrappy numbers at the beginning of the album has grown on me. The "filler" on TNV albums isn't really that at all, and in this case they serve as tension builders and ramp-ups for the big climaxes. That is, if they aren't really just ends in and of themselves. The title track, opener "Martin Luther King Day", and "I Smell Bubblegum" all have a certain antagonistic charm. It's sort of like listening to The Fall. If you're trying to figure out if you like them or not, or what it is exactly that they're "trying to do", they can just sound flat out awful most of time. But once you're in on it, once you've been drawn into Mark E. Smith's world, even some of the lesser, more overlooked tracks on their better albums endear themselves because they carry that same vitriol and cynicism in a purer form, with no attempts made to meet anyone halfway with gratifying hooks or melodies. This isn't some band of trend-hoppers, or hapless kids who got lucky with a record deal but can't figure out how to play their instruments or utilize a studio properly. They've done their homework, and they know what they're doing. I think their work will endure, and in time the strength of these songs will show just how far ahead of the pack they always were.

Rating: 9/10

And here's Times New Viking starring in Yo La Tengo's video for "Nothing to Hide" (also the best song off their most recent album):



Mutual admirers, I guess, and I can see why.

Volcano Choir - Unmap (emusic download 9/24/09)

I like this better than Bon Iver, I think, but after who knows how many listens, I still feel like I haven't really listened to it. It's such a sleepy, drifting album that it's really hard to consciously pay attention to it. Whatever's slipped in subliminally is pretty good, though, similarly to Bon Iver, I guess. I suppose I just slightly prefer the looser, full band sound to Vernon quasi-solo.

I recently heard Bon Iver playing over the speakers of my boss's computer, and I found myself really enjoying it while I tried to recall just what it was. When I realized it was Bon Iver, it was almost embarrassing considering how much I'd disregarded and downplayed it's supposed value. And I may be underestimating this album, but anything that doesn't really stick with me or ever leave much of a lasting impression can't be that good. It's fine background music, and I may like it more if hear it in unexpected places, but it still feels pretty inconsequential to me, much like Bon Iver.

Rating: 6.5/10

that album is more like a 2/10

Delorean - Ayrton Senna EP (emusic download 9/24/09)

This is pretty terrible. I'm not really sure why I'm giving it any points at all. I guess I can still assume that it's better than around of 20% of what's out there? Maybe. To be fair, electro-pop isn't really my bag. Still, I can find almost no redeeming values in this whatsoever. This is far worse than, say, Cut Copy, which I already have no use for. Incredibly annoying vocals and lyrics. Generic, run-of-the-mill, sub-M83 synth crap over typical dance beats. Parts of this remind me of C+C Music Factory or some shit. The least bad song here is probably "Seasun", but on this stupid version of this EP that I downloaded, that's immediately followed by a remix of the same song, thereby making me hate it just as much as the rest this thing.

Rating: 2/10

Washed Out - Life of Leisure EP (emusic download 9/25/09)

This, on the other hand, is alright, but I suppose it's really a whole different animal. Homemade bedroom pop as opposed to slicked up Euro dance pop. This is the sort of electronic pop I can get down with. Washed Out is pretty much the perfect name for this stuff. The music is worn, faded, and subdued, but it's more than mere background or atmosphere. There's some tangible personality and soul at work here. The warmth of the scratchy, hazy production blends with some effectively wistful and vaguely nostalgic melodies to make for a very comfortable, satisfying listen.

Rating: 7.5/10

Girls - Album (emusic download 9/25/09)

I don't get it. Am I dreaming, or is this the subtle beginning of an early/mid-'90s alternative rock revival? Seems like there were several pleasantly melodic, vaguely impetuous bands like this with a hit or two on the radio around that time. I don't remember which ones, but either way, I'm at a total loss for why this band has gotten anyone excited at all. Generic, unimaginative, clichéd. They have a song called "Lust for Life". How'd they think of that one? Oh, and it starts off with a dude - a dude, OMG! - singing "I wish I had a boyfriend". And he's probably not even gay! The irreverent nerve of this fellow! He needs to get together with Katy Perry - or, who was it, Jill Sobule?

This may all be neither here nor there in regards to the music, but I'd really rather not talk about the music. That would be like talking about the particular shade of eggshell that we chose to paint the hallway or the virtues of medium-density fiberboard. I just can't imagine a more thoughtlessly ready-made facsimile of "indie rock" than this album. Granted, I might not care at all were it not being universally praised, but frankly I expect more from my precious fringe culture. Let's not get all worked up over this kind of paint-by-numbers crap just because they did such a good job of staying inside the lines, OK? Just because current mainstream radio is caught in some prolonged experiment in extreme inbreeding doesn't mean that something like this is special. Even though this isn't the misbegotten offspring of Limp Bizkit and System of a Down, it's still a thoroughly derivative, mediocre alternative rock album. In 1995 this would have just gotten lost in the shuffle. Or it would have been airing on MTV's Alternative Nation during prime time. Either way, why do we care?

Rating: 5/10

I mean, seriously:

your hatred for that is kind of weird.

I'll have to give Time's New Viking a listen, I liked that youtube.

Memory Tapes - Seek Magic (emusic download 10/2/09)

Here's another entry into a recent micro-genre with a pretty unfortunate name: "glo-fi". Washed Out and Neon Indian fall into this category, too, and I'm not sure who else. Anyway, I admit that I like the aesthetic employed here - fuzzy, retro synths, bright melodies, and a hint of melancholy. The strength here, much like with Washed Out, is that the music is composed in such a way as to not seem canned or mass-produced, as so much electronic pop often does. Even though the percussion is typically mechanical and dance-y, it serves the songs more than it does a dance floor. The beats are never allowed to become monotonous and are broken up nicely to serve different moods and textures. Some songs, like "Graphics", take twists and turns that are almost prog-like.

This probably has more in common with something like Caribou or Bibio than DFA or any European electro pop artists, although at their best Memory Tapes could probably stand aside more nuanced, accomplished pop craftsmen like Phoenix. Despite the use of some old, worn sounds and effects here and there, they and their contemporaries are distinctly modern. They present a nice distillation of much of the best electronic pop from the past dozen or so years and maybe some hint as to where it could go next. For now, I'm enjoying it.

Rating: 7.5/10

Condo Fucks - Fuckbook (CD purchased 3/29/09)

I was digging this a lot more early in the year a lot more than I am now, probably because I hadn't yet been over-saturated with lo-fi retro-garage rock. Anyway, for a one off project from one of my favorite bands (Yo La Tengo), this is still a fun diversion. "Tossed off" is probably the easiest descriptor for an album of covers recorded live, probably in single takes, but the connotation there is a little too negative. It's pretty fun to hear YLT rip through stuff like The Kinks' "This Is Where I Belong" and Richard Hell's "The Kid With The Replaceable Head". The other covers here are mostly things I'm not familiar with, but the choices are pretty inspired, I think. Stonesy, glam closer "Gudbuy T'Jane" (the first I've ever heard of Slade, as far as I know) is probably my favorite track on the whole thing, and The Flamin' Groovies' "Dog Meat" is great as well.

Pretty light stuff, but for me it's generally be a blast to listen to. Probably something that should have been a free giveaway, and all the fake mystique and the mini-mockumentary built up around it were too half-assed to be worthwhile. I don't regret picking it up, though, as I'm sure I'll be listening to it pretty often. Plus, it may serve as a gateway to get into a few bands I'm not familiar with. (I'll definitely be picking up a Flamin' Groovies singles comp with "Dog Meat" on it since I don't have anything from those "in-between" years.)

Rating: 7/10

Melvins - Chicken Switch (emusic download 10/8/09)

I haven't listened to a single proper Melvins album from the past decade, and I'm generally not a fan of remix albums. So why did I download this? Well, on paper this seemed like a fairly interesting proposition - a variety of Melvins material spanning their entire career put into the hands of more experimental artists and some relative unknowns for "remixing". And the results are far from your typical remix album. That said, it's still fairly boring.

Sludgy riffs reassembled into droning mantras and drums remixed into undanceable beats that just sort of drift in and out of space don't really make for action-packed entertainment. Melvins music has often been on the slow and repetitive side, but this doesn't play to their strengths for the most part. The one dance track here - Panacea's "electroclash" remix - is so comically bad that I wonder if it wasn't intended as a joke. Maybe that's what's missing here, the Melvins perverse sense of humor that really shines in their best work. Much of this is just kind of dark and serious and ends up even losing a lot of the trademark heaviness that can make the Melvins so much fun.

That's not to say that it's all bad, though. There are bright spots, and in general the end product of this whole experiment is a pretty unique little curio. It's a little tiresome to listen to more than a few times all the way through, but culled down to the best few tracks, it could possibly make a great EP.

Rating: 6/10

"Come Feel The Noize" & "Mama Weer All Crazee Now"?

Not sure I've ever heard the original "Feel the Noize" (until now), and I've never heard the other one.

Seems like an oversight, though. Worth picking up a comp? Albums?

Personally, I'd recommend the Sladest comp. IMO the Slade moment was a short one,consisting of an avalanche of great singles in '73 and '74 and not much else. Official albums to consider would be Slayed? and, for sheer mindless boogie, Slade Alive (although to my ears that live disc hasn't dated well at all - raise your hands anyone who thinks they need to hear another version of "Born to be Wild").

Circulatory System - Signal Morning (CD purchased 10/8/09)

I'm one of the few people that prefers Circulatory System's s/t debut to any of the previous Olivia Tremor Control stuff, but that could just be because I heard it first. Going backwards from that, Dusk at Cubist Castle and Black Foliage both seemed somewhat flawed compared to Circulatory System. Even at a sprawling 22 tracks and hour-long running time, none of it feels like filler or over-indulgence. It's packed full of memorable melodies, and the dense, meticulous arrangements always reveal something different on repeat listens. I'd consider it the high water mark of (admittedly what little I've heard of) the whole Elephant 6 thing.

Here, 8 years later, we finally have a follow-up to that masterpiece. Not surprisingly, it doesn't quite live up to its predecessor, nor is it as good as either of the OTC albums. However, I can't say that I'm not thrilled to have it, that it actually exists. It's still a wonderfully weird, sprawling psychedelic pop album, just like we've come to expect. In fact, it may even be better than I'm giving it credit for since, even after several listens, I feel like I'm still getting a handle on the whole thing. Right now, I'd say there are very few standouts or truly memorable moments outside of "Blasting Through" which I wouldn't necessarily consider one of the best parts. It's just one of the more repetitive, giving the melody and chorus a better chance to sink in than much of the rest of this album. (Funny note - on the first several listens, before I noticed the name of this track, I thought they were saying "plastic fruit" instead of "blasting through".) My general feeling is that this sounds like a lot of the "in-between" tracks on the s/t, not really "filler" but not really attention-grabbing or very distinctive, either. Frankly, there's just so much here to take in, just as with everything these guys have released, that it could be quite some time before I really know how I feel about it. For the time being, though, I'm just glad to have it.

Rating: 7.5/10

Califone - All My Friends Are Funeral Singers (CD purchased 10/8/09)

Califone's peculiar brand of magic works with remarkable consistency. They have a niche that is so much their own that each one of their albums, even if most of them are fairly similar, seems absolutely necessary. This might be the first thing they've put out that doesn't seem like any kind of development at all, but I'm really not bothered by that. Technically, it's different in that it was conceived as a soundtrack to a film made by Tim Rutili, the band's principal songwriter, but you'd never know that just by listening to it. (I was unaware of it until just now.) This is an album of songs, thankfully, not ethereal atmospherics like the two Deceleration albums (the dullest entries in the Califone catalog).

And the songs are really good from start to finish. This band has really set an increasingly high standard for themselves, and it's been incredibly gratifying to follow them over the past several years. This album might not be quite as great as their previous one, but it's still thoroughly worthwhile and rewarding. Thanks, Califone.

Rating: 8/10

califone's probably my #1 for '09

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Beware (CD purchased 5/29/09)

Great album cover. I wish I could say the same about the album itself. It's just more Will Oldham doing his Will Oldham thing, and I can't help being pretty bored by that at this point. Unlike, say, Califone, I don't find BPB's music to be so nuanced and well-thought-out as to reward constant returns to similar territory. Much of his work has always been rough around the edges, like stream-of-consciousness sketches rather than meticulously labored over compositions. That's perfectly fine, even preferable in many cases, but I suppose I'm just not interested enough in Will Oldham's world to be continually satisfied with this sort of thing from him.

And that's not to say that this or any of his recent work sounds unfinished or unpolished - aside from his trademark faltering voice, of course. Rather, his last three albums (counting this one) have been mostly on the prettier side, with strings and backing vocals to sweeten the deal. It's not that I want him to learn how to sing, either, or to dress up or clutter up the arrangements any more than he has. I'm just not that into this. He's not an endless well of ideas, and I feel like he's been swimming around in the same little pond for the past 10 years (discounting a couple of dubious deviations, Sings Palace Music and the collaboration with Tortoise) with somewhat varying success. When it works the best, like on I See a Darkness and The Letting Go is when he manages to write both lyrics and melodies that can actually resonate together. Most of the time I feel like he's just content to write Bonnie 'Prince' Billy songs, songs that explore common themes in unusual ways, but musically, he doesn't give me, the listener, much reason to care or to delve into his point of view. I suppose that could be viewed as commendable, that he's stuck so steadfastly to making his art his own way, but after a while it starts to seem pointless. He's found so many ways to say the same things that I'm starting to feel like enough is enough. Something has to change.

Rating: 6.5/10