THE ALBUM CLUB.

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

PAT THE BUNNY- I'm gonna be fast with the things I don't like about it, because there's something that happens on here that I think is super interesting.

I don't have a lot of room in my life for solo acoustic music. I feel the same way about piano stuff. I think with that kind of music you need an investment in the artist that fills in the absence of instrumentation. For example, I am completely obsessed with Jason Molina these days, so I'll listen to him moaning at a tape recorder by himself, because his perspective is interesting to me. It is a harder sell for someone I don't know to make an album of their voice and an acoustic guitar, where I don't spend the whole run time like I did here- mentally filling in flourishes I would add and then having to restart the listen to actually understand what they're saying.

I think from this limited exposure Pat's strong suit is in storytelling, and the songs where he just has messages with no narrative are the ones where he loses me. All that said, there are some songs on here that are really interesting lyrically. Specifically, I'm Going Home (which is a dichotomy I deal with of wanting to make and share music versus my defensive hermit life), We Were Young Once (probably the best song on the record) and Run From What's Comfortable. 

 

There's another thing I want to point out, and it's a thing I observe in a loooooot of punk rock. Defeat. This is probably an unpopular opinion (and will get me socked by my bandmate if they ever heard me say it) but I think what punk has accomplished is very, very, very overblown. So much time inside of the punk movement is spent on telling other punks about how bad something is. As a political action, it's meant to be an expression that frustrates the status quo, right? So why are you writing songs about how bad the power structure is for other people that agree with you? Like that energy in the song writing is so angry and it so rarely leads to actual action. Usually action is there, and punk is there to cosign. So at a certain point, that "HOORAY US" gives way to "oh no, we weren't enough" and it makes me suspicious of punk as a whole especially as it pertains to inspiring action. The richest, most comfortable people I know wanted to be in a punk band, because the music's easy. Or because they wanted to live off of music, and that's where the money came from. Something is very wrong here. Punk seems like a fashionable energy trap that's going out of fashion, and it's interesting to hear old members of scenes dealing with that.

 

This is a thing I think Constantines, in particular, were brilliant about. They made four albums that very much took the position that they are making rock and roll after rock and roll died. It starts with outrage, anthems about youth and action, and over time they become a band that accepts that the resistance they can offer is being fabulous to the people they love and kind to the people they don't yet.  Here's the first song on their first album. Here's (an alternate version of) the last song on their last album. So yeah, this is an entirely an issue I am interested in thinking about, and I'm interested to see if this becomes more and more common within punk rock. Because the alternative is acting like what you did when you were young is all that ever mattered, and it puts you in Rolling Stone Stasis. Like, say, Dead Kennedys.

 

tl;dr- the sooner punk bands fawn over This Heat and Silver Mt. Zion instead of the usual canon, the better off punk is going to be. this "fuck the world until I'm employed" shit is a coma. pat seems to get that. that's cool.

 

 

HOT CHIP- thumper's rule. Modern British pop/rock and I do not get along at all.

[Chaos]

I listened to a couple albums while I cleaned house on Sunday. I sadly don't have much in depth thoughts on either because I only gave each one a full spin, but I thought I would contribute something for a change (I know, a shocker).

 

Hot Chip - Why Make Sense

 

This fit the tone for me moving around my apartment and straightening up. I have not been over exposed to this style of music, so a catchy hook or beat that gets me bouncing around the house for a few minutes is always welcome. I can kind of see BL88's brief point about this however. I question if there is much evolution with this album throughout. A lot of these types of albums tend to bleed into the background for me with maybe one track breaking through as something significant. It's an album I hope to give a more proper spin at work one day this week.

 

Pat the Bunny - Probably Nothing, Possibly Everything

 

This hit a more familiar tone with me, as it feels like something I would have heard in various stages during my late teens. I thought some of this was quite good, and I found some of it to be quite exhausting. I am a sucker for good singer-songwriter acoustic stuff. When it's in more of a punk mold, as this record was, I find it can be a bit exhausting. The grittiness and raspy sound quality is a bit niche and endearing at first, but I thought it hurt the quality of the album as it prolonged on first listen. Once again, this was an album I really was happy to check out and one I will probably give another listen.

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

#16

 

 

"Half The City" by St. Paul and the Broken Bones

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

i'm gonna have a lot to say about this one but it might take a few days. i'm two songs in and this reminds me of like two entirely separate formative experiences in my life, while also making me want to say some things about where pop is.

 

I will say this. This band has the most annoying youtube still images possible. I've been avoiding checking them out because every time I see a picture it looks like the most tryhard "hey fitz and the tantrums made it!" bullshit ever. I am at the least satisfied they have songs of quality and can exist to me outside of how much I want to prank their chess club.

also the video for call me- yes dude, I see you james brown-ing. i too have heard a james brown record and seen a performance film.

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

THREEPEAT POST

 

I had this big winding thing I wanted to say about the modern tendency to do nostalgic things and dress like you're from the 50s and 60s to do songs, and how if your song doesn't work without an outfit you are a monster, but then I had that MRI and all vitriol has been sucked out of me for attempts at meditative peace.

 

That said: St. Paul and the Broken Bands are a band with a very talented singer, an old genre that they've whitewashed (probably not maliciously, to be clear!) and two speeds. Another thing I wanted to talk about at length was how I think the ideal American sound is of driving forward momentum, like highways, and how soul/funk that doesn't do that has very limited use to me, but again, vitriol leak.

 

They're good when they're faster. I wish they'd go a LOT faster. I wish they were more conscious of what they're doing with a black art form in the middle of a crazy time for race relations. But overall it's good and there is potential.

 

 

EDIT: Also, since I'm next in line I figure I'll go ahead and say my album is not a bummer like I had originally planned, because I don't have the willpower to go through what I was gonna suggest. It is instead the album I have liked most this summer. It is gonna be rap again, tho.

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

FOUR TIME, FOUR TIME, F-okay i'll get to it

 

#17

 

 

"808s and Dark Grapes III" by Main Attrakionz

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

In tribute to my fifth straight post, here are five things I love about Main Attrakionz and 808s & Dark Grapes III

 

1) Rap crews that interact like they're recording songs near each other. The way I know I'm aging is how easily I can be moved by two rappers taking turns mid verse and passing the mic back and forth as part of their flow. Main Attrakionz calls themselves the Best Duo Ever, and given how the rap group has kind of vanished, I still appreciate that they're all about doing this as a crew above everything else.

 

2) Squadda B. The lighter of the voices (verse 3 on Shoot The Dice, first verse on GO style) and the weaker MC flow wise. But where Mondre can flex there, what Squadda has is old soul wisdom. Squadda has some really particular insights on his own experiences and watching him continue to grow makes me hopeful about how things are going. Squadda's influence pops up in lots of weird ways. Like, ASAP Rocky's first single from his record contract shouts out Main Attrakionz ("It feels good waking up to money in the bank").

 

3) This was put out on Neil Young's record label, Vapor Records. I don't think that makes it better, but I think it's super funny.

 

4) Cloud Rap. One of those genres that doesn't really exist, where it's like a suggestion of a sound profile but no one's actually trying to make it. The only two acts who get this tag with any consistancy are Main Attrakionz and Lil B. Being compared to Lil B is always good. In seriousness, Main Attrakionz ear for beats has always been completely amazing. Lots of major keys and blurry chords. There is not a band in the world that can make me feel better more reliably than Main Attrakionz.

 

5) Friendzone, the producers of this full album. Friendzone are responsible for two of the bigger tracks off 808s II, Chuch and the signature MA song Perfect Skies. So for Dark Grapes 3 they decided they would make the whole album together, and they wouldn't release it until it was right. Three years later, and Main Attrakionz and Friendzone have buffered themselves and let themselves make the album they actually wanted to. My expectations were already high, and it ended up being exactly what I expected.

 

Here's a stream, by the way.

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

oh god metal gear ate my life here's the last album of this rotation I am so sorry

#18

 

"Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit" by Courtney Barnett

[JRGoldman]

I am going to catch up on the last three albums this weekend in between going to a million rasslin shows. 

[JRGoldman]

So I had some time this evening and was able to give Main Attractionz a listen tonight. I wrote down some thoughts because it was a pretty interesting album, and I think pretty commendable when compared to other modern hip hop. This first thing I noticed was the beats and production. I started to doubt this note as the album went on, but the beats initially struck me as something that Devin the Dude would love rapping over. The beats are so informative of the place and time and aesthetic of where and when this album was recorded, which is great. On the song "Dip" I thought of the old "Diary" era Scarface records where most of the beats were very piano heavy and not based around samples. I guess that's two Rap-A-Lot references, which is pretty high praise in my book. I think the first six tracks or so are great as it seems that the "BDE" are really trying to look backwards but find their own sound. As an aside, can I say how nice it is to hear people change up their flow occasionally and rap fast like they do a couple of times on this record? I think modern hip hop lacks layers sometimes because everyone seemingly wants to talk through the haze, which I generally have no interest in. I will say that I think the album seemed t lose a bit of cohesion towards the end. It seemed that the tracks become less about making a song and more about a long form experiment, which is fine, but just not what I wanted to hear after the first half of the album. I'll have to give some of the mixtapes a listen, because I would bet the second side of the album sounds more like the mixtapes they put out, and maybe they just feel more comfortable with that particular sound right now. Also, not really a major note about the album, but "Ain't no other Way" has an absolutely amazing secondary beat leading in to the fade out, which made me stop and really pay attention. They really know how and when to change up things, which is awesome, and why the latter half was a bit disappointing for me, because it seemed to all blend together a little bit.   

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

Courtney Barnett is by default one of the most interesting and talented lyricists in modern rock music. This has been true since the first time I heard her 'breakout single' i guess you'd call it, Avant Gardener. On this album she proves the two things I've come to feel are true about Australian rock music- when it's funny it's really funny, and when it's not funny it's enough to crush a spirit whole. See: Nick Cave, The Drones

 

The album is largely a kind of pop rock, though. There's little tiny flourishes creeping around that show off her education in the form and her prowess in it, but there's nothing but personal preference that suggests the necessity of the electric guitar sound in these songs. I guess maybe it's an interesting counterpoint against her dry spoken-esque delivery? All these sharp guitars (on that note, the engineer on this record is excellent at their job) and understated rhythm section with a vocal rhythm and melody that seems wholly isolated from both is enough of a sound to fuel a whole record. Plus, Barnett's skill at hook writing and writing harmony.

 

My favorite songs on here are probably obvious as they're the least conventionally structural (although I guess they could also be obvious because they're really, really bleak)- Depreston and Kim's Caravan. Least favorite track is Boxing Day Blues, not because of the song itself but because PLEASE stop ending albums with ballads. PLEASE. Why are rock bands so obsessed with ending sour so you can return to your life drained? Isn't that, like, against the whole Chuck Berry root of rock? I don't know who to blame for ending albums with ballads but it drives me fucking crazy.

So yeah. My biggest complaints with the album are "why rock tho" and "the ballad is the ending." This probably means it's pretty good.


RE: JR on 808s 3

I think the reason I didn't feel the drag on the back half of the record is because I've been a fan of theirs since 2011, and the first singles that dropped from this tape, years ago, were Summa Time and GO All I Know. Plus My Story is probably my favorite song on the album aside from Aint No Other Way, which yeah has a hell of an outro. Two Man Horror Film is also an old reference to 808s 2 so that's probably where my sympathy for that is. But yeah, the weakest song (Right Now) on the record is for sure on the back half and I can't argue against that none.

[CrazyMax46]

I have reviews for all the albums I haven't reviewed. But I want to start with my pick of Courtney Barnett.

My wife once said something as we were driving around. A Sheryl Crow song was playing when she said...

"Remember when Sheryl Crow was going to be the female Bob Dylan? Now she's the female Bryan Adams..."

Courtney Barnett got my attention a while ago. She just plain doesn't give a fuck. Her musical style reminds me if Kurt Cobain was female, didn't get addicted to heroin, and didn't commit suicide. If Sheryl Crow lived up to her hype instead of becoming a Adult Contemporary star.

But what really strikes me about her is this. When I decided to pick this album, a station out of NorCal I listen to occasionally was doing their "Sunday Night Music You Probably Haven't Heard Of" show. They played her single off of this album. I was unaware she had a new album out. I went to check Youtube to see if there was a video for it. And thankfully there was.

Now. I'm not going to waste time trying to explain all of this and break it down like the JFK assassination, but there is a very honest message of a woman who seems to be, at a very young age, disillusioned with music already. She's the former hot artist of the minute, already ignored by the industry. Replaced by someone who probably looks and acts just like her. And come on...I don't need to break down th fact that they are all clowns right?

I don't know if this is rebellion or just her being uncomfortable in a public spotlight resulting in awkwardness but it fits. Her lyrics and music both come off as somewhat anarchaic? Steeped in Anarchy? Whatever.

Music would be better with more people like Courtney Barnett.

9/10.

[Chaos]

I've been out of pocket for a couple weeks (hooray, marriage!). I will do a write-up for my selection as well as give Barnett a listen. I listened to the album like a month or two ago because of the buzz around her. I remember liking it, but not much more in depth than that.

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

Oh, just for clarity's sake, we're at the end of another cycle, so I'm gonna give it a week like I did last time and then check up on who's still interested in participating

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

Okay, I got the MRI done, and I finally feel peaceful, so, who's down for Round 3?

[S.K.o.S.]

Well, I haven't been participating much lately... on the other hand, I'll be unemployed as of Friday.  Yeah I'm in.

[JRGoldman]

I'm down. 

[CrazyMax46]

Whoo!

[Chaos]

Why Not?

[Control]

I'll sit out making a selection, since I've been swamped with work and unable to make time to comment, but I'll try to follow along and hopefully join back up in a round or two.

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

Alright! Awesome! SK, you're first in the order, so as soon as you send me your pick we'll get started up again.

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

#19

 

"Kiasmos" by Kiasmos

[S.K.o.S.]

For anyone who's got some free time tomorrow, I find this is a good Sunday morning sort of album.

[S.K.o.S.]

So this is piano, a string section, and dance beats.  Not like club beats, although there are elements of that: there's that hi-hat on Lit that makes you think things are headed to the land of fistpumps, and there are a couple tracks with thump-thump-thump bass, to name just a couple of examples.  But really, these are more like moody, relaxing beats that are more appropriate for the ride home or the morning after.  

 

First time I heard this was early this year, I think February or March.  It didn't make me sit up and take notice right away, but it's a grower.  I keep coming back to it and I can't entirely explain why, which I think is the same kind of experience people had with the first Burial album.  There's a lot of repetition with the melodies but there are still quite a few really strong emotional moments.

 

I'd probably pick Thrown as my favorite song, but there are no bad ones on here, and for me, this isn't the kind of album where you can pull out one song.  You need to listen to the whole thing to really appreciate it.  You can sum up every song with my first sentence there, piano + string section + dance beats, so they're all similar and all clearly belong together.  But at the same time (at least to my ears) you can't say that any two songs are close to being alike, and I think you gotta listen to the whole album to get the full impact of the variety.

[Randy]

Your characterization of it as a sunday morning album is spot on.  I enjoyed it on the first listen.  It is relaxing and the type of thing that I enjoy listening to at work.