Here’s a couple from Scandenavia. Fanfarlo first. I’m not even sure how to pronounce their name. Fan-far-low I assume. Anyways they’re good. They’re good in that good indie-rock staple sounding sort of way. You know what to expect, what with the verse-chorus-verse deal and penchant for background horns at rising moments and good but don’t-quite-come-through-clearly vocals (not to mention the female background vocal accents). Can’t decide if I love’m or if they’re just too “generally good” for me.
The other thing about them — for some reason after a few listens I get the sense that the album sort of sounds more like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! as it moves forward (decide for yourself with the above, track number nine out of eleven). As an additional side note, they cover NMH as well as I’ve heard.
Apparently this song is huge over in Sweden, and it should be because it’s a good single. Unfortunately, they’ve got the Silversun Pickups/Delays quandry of can’t-tell-if-it’s-a-girl-or-a-guy, and the plot thickens cause I think the girl sings the chorus and does overlapping backups on the guy’s verses. But also the girl isn’t actually listed as a band member… I don’t think. Not that the gender of artist or singer should really have an impact on the reception of the music, but in the case of this song, when the first vocal line hits there’s a bit of cringe factor–it starts real high, sounds shrill, makes you reach for the orange earplugs, makes you think, oh — is it a girl or a guy?. But when I’m on the second line I’m hooked; shit has a nice groove and the developing melody gets you into it. The chorus begs another listen, then another, and another. Not sure how much longer this band is going to stand up with just a hit single in Sweden, but they’ve got the right stuff. And anyways the video is good concept/execution, especially since the band playing at the support group has a dry humour delivery rather than ruining the video on principle.
If this band’s first one was merely “good” then they’re really going after some awesome on Ashes Grammar. This shit’s all hazy and dense (reminds me of Benoit Pioulard’s Precis) but then bam they hit you with the juicy juicy melodies and change-ups amongst the shoegazy greatness. The album is easily climbing up the lists.
In any case, it’s so nice to see bands succeed in their sophomore efforts — bring the sound they were fermenting in their debut into something that works and is new enough sounding to not be written off.
Feeling a bit prescient so I thought I’d get it out how great the new Avett Brothers album is before the reviews start barreling down and they become world famous. Check out I And Love And You, the first track from the album of the same name (there are better songs, even). You can’t make folk songs better than this. All that catch and release and storytelling and simple melody and that kind of character-driven advice about life and living and intangible things that only the best songs can provide: (from “January Wedding”) “True love is not the kind of thing you should turn down.”
hey so what’s her face from that really popular pb & j song from 2006 or what was it and from that one video of new order’s best song recorded a cover of animal collective’s “my girls” and then called it “my boys” in order to realign the gender references of the song. victoria bergsman, that’s the one. it’s just okay, only worth noting because it is the cover of the song that it’s covering. there’s an official video on pitchfork, but i don’t want to link to it cause it has a shitty pearl jam ad before the video starts, and it’s just bergsman walking on one of those practice tightropes (see above), but the cuts in the vid suggest she can’t actually do it and has a “stunt double” cause she thought it would be cool (i don’t think you ever actually see a full body shot of her on the rope with her face in clear view). in any case this random video on youtube is better, though i guess the sound quality is a bit worse.
So I guess this band Girls is getting a lot of love from all corners of the indie-rock scene for their album entitled Album, and the band name and album title coupling places them on the pedestal of most unGoogle-able artists ever. I don’t know how I feel about Album as a whole yet but the two lead singles (I’m not quite sure if they’re actually both singles, though I’m fairly certain “Lust For Life” is) are pretty great, so great that they might be two of the best songs of the year. Perfect end-of-summer sunny pop songs that have great sing-along moments. They’re so straightforward, so catchy, so addictive. The videos are cool, although “Hellhole Ratrace” kinda just looks like an American Apparel commercial or something.
The story of the band’s frontman is pretty unbelievable as well. I’m not 100% sure it’s true, but this comes from the adoring 9.1/10 Pitchfork review:
Girls frontman Christopher Owens grew up in the Children of God cult. His older brother died as a baby because the cult didn’t believe in medical attention. His dad left. He and his mother lived around the world, and the cult sometimes forced his mother to prostitute herself. As a teenager, Owens fled and lived as a Texas gutter-punk for a while. Then a local millionaire took Owens under his wing, and Owens moved to San Francisco. There, he and Chet “JR” White formed Girls, and recorded Album, their debut album, under the influence of just about every kind of pill they could find.
New Goats album coming out in October. Each song title makes reference to a part of the Bible, and, as John says on his website, the album is “twelve new songs: twelve hard lessons the Bible taught me, kind of.” Okay, another concept, but a little less of a concept maybe. A bit looser like Heretic Pride was.
The posted song (I guess the single?) seems to occupy the same sonic space as “How To Embrace A Swamp Creature” or “Autoclave” or “Half Dead” — songs from his two previous long efforts. Poppy ones with repetitive choruses. This is okay I guess. I’ll like it, I’m sure.
I’m not really looking for that expressive desperation and sexual tension and whatever that’s so central in Goats’ songs, I think I just want something (drastically) new. And maybe this has to be it. We’ll see. On first glance it seems like this song is less “in the moment” than previous work — it’s more contemplative and reflexive, like the man-of-harsh-past-experiences looking backwards to the way things once were. Check it out.
You know I’m not sure about the Florence cover of the big Beirut number. I love it, sure — the way her voice fits into the song in a totally different way than Condon’s; how it brings out the ephemeral, lovelorn quality of the song; the way the voice plays out the trumpets in the unsung measures; the power of the vocals alone; etc. but I feel like the horn fanfare “bust” at the end is so essential to the song and when it doesn’t come in this version, the sound of her voice changing pitch there is a bit, I don’t know, cringing. I want the bust; I crave the bust; etc. Just give me something new musically. A second ukelele or a guitar strum, anything.
(In other news I’m not sure if the Florence LP will stick with me — I’ve only heard it a couple of times and the single is pretty dancey and fun but I don’t know if the thing has any staying power.)
So the cover of Nick Drake’s “Cello Song” is pretty incredible, especially because The Books and Gonzalez seem to owe a lot to Mr. Drake. In a way I feel like The Books are pretty much a contemporary version of Nick Drake — the driving force or spirit of their music seems to be caught on the same track and headed for the same destination. The boxcars have all been repainted and the technology of the engines has changed, of course, but the general purpose is churning along with the same noise and energy and what have you — it’s sort of weird and on paper it doesn’t seem like its worth any special attention but when you actually listen the magic happens. Long story short this is the perfect band (and, to a lesser extent, ft.) to cover this song.
for those still checking out this blog from time to time, i’ve put up a bunch of new albums (pretty much everything from 2009) on my server. check them out, they’re good. particularly the new mitch hedberg CD is a great listen for fans of him… i can’t believe i missed it when it first came out in 2008, but oh well. lots of new jokes and all the same hilarity we’d expect.
other ones:
god help the girl is basically the new belle and sebastian album under a different name and with some different singers (though murdoch does sing too). it’s pretty good but some aspects of it piss me off (especially the remakes of the life pursuit songs, which seem totally unnecessary and for some reason i always hate it when bands do this kind of thing.) the best song is “musician, please take heed,” and can be added to the lengthy and ever-growing catalogue of “great b&s songs.”
sunset rubdown is a bit messy like the old one but gem after gem.
and bombadil is awesome. talks about lan parties and sings in spanish and build pyramids. a great album through and through. they’res even a corny love ballad that works as a corny love ballad. imagine that.
everything’s good though, check it out. i’ll post some more individual songs in the near future. promise.
