Or: Why I Ever Thought Music Never Got Better Than
MCR, I’ll Never Know.
Since I last wrote anything here I finished my first semester at university with four painful exams, and the marks for three of them have been posted online. I passed two, which wasn’t a massive shock, but passing the third paper was something I hadn’t set myself up for. So I’m quite happy about it (it was, nonetheless, a scraping through of a pass, but I’m still happy – no summer school for me yet).
The previous two weeks of inter-semester break have been great, relatively non-stressful. I’ve been working at the university library every day so it doesn’t feel much like a holiday other than the lack of homework. Of course, the really good part about this break is I get a chance to catch up on all the last.fm band pages I’ve been bookmarking over the semester and finally check them out. Last.fm has been so great for me in this way. I actually really want to subscribe, but I don’t have my own credit card (I’m not gonna get one either, that’s just, how do you say... “financial suicide”) and I’m not up with the play on any of those other online accounts where you have to hand over bank details and whatnot.
Seeing as I’ve migrated to last.fm from the land of the musically ignorant, you’ll probably find yourself already familiar with the artists below. But give me a break, I’m new to this, I liked MCR for chrissake (don’t even try to figure out how I justified it).
Anyhow, what I thought I’d do is, start from the night I finished exams when I first gave
The Mars Volta a listen, and everything I’ve heard for the first time since then worthy of mentioning will follow in general best to worst order (ranging from +++ for very good to --- for very poor).
+++
Ladytron
Definitely the best thing I’ve heard over the last couple weeks. I love last.fm because I would never have checked them out otherwise, but I hate that I didn’t already like them before two weeks ago. So how I first heard them was (and this is the same way I “discovered”
Delays) I was pretty much channel surfing and I got to C4, a NZ music channel, halfway through the
Ghosts music video. Unless a band catches my attention in the first five seconds or so I keep going. Ladytron got my attention immediately (as you can imagine,
Valentine by Delays would’ve had that effect on a channel surfer also). I love that despite the whole cliché of indifference as a style, this band pulls it off PERFECTLY while still being incredibly interesting. The only way I can really describe them is fucking cool. They aren’t overly revolutionary in terms of what I’m listening to seeing as they’re in that electronic dance-y area (they’re cited as electropop and electroclash, not really overly accurate descriptions to me – they’re self-described “electronica with a fist” which is much better) where you’d probably find the likes of
Peaches and
Goldfrapp’s
Supernature or
Black Cherry, but Ladytron has an edge which Goldfrapp and even Peaches lack. I think it’s the Bulgaria thing. Get this – they have two vocalists, one is from Scotland, the other is from Bulgaria. Makes for very cool, edgy, and really just sexy vocals. Some of the lyrics are in Bulgarian also. And, well, I have a thing for Eastern Europe that I’ve never been able to explain. The other thing about the content of their lyrics – they’re often rather ambiguous. Now this may sound shallow, but I’ve always liked that with pop art or postmodern art I can usually find something I like about it both before and after analysing it at any length. In other words, I’m attracted by the weird, the hyper real, and the unexplained. Ladytron elegantly hits the nail on the head in this sense. On a shallow level, the music is catchy as hell, edgy and sexy. On a deeper level their lyrics really have something to say but what that is exactly depends on personal interpretation, as dance music often does, if it even has a meaning other than “let’s dance” to begin with. All in all its the perfect accompaniment to a new adult’s wannabe lifestyle – not quite fully free from the restraints of childhood and the authority it lacks, but striving for such a freedom, an edge, a sense of individuality, something that I’m betting I won’t find in the realms of music anyway. Ladytron is not the most profound of music, but it doesn’t need to be, and, as I’ll get into soon, I’m realising that’s not always what I want music to be for me anyway. A song to try out for anyone interested is
Commodore Rock.
+
The Mars Volta
In my desperation to check out some more creative and possibly abstract music I headed towards the murky waters of progressive rock, not knowing at all what to expect but figuring The Mars Volta to be an easy kick off point for a relatively ignorant newcomer such as myself, and deciding I’d go from there. While I haven’t really had the chance to check out The Mars Volta in any depth, I explored their debut album and found, much to my delight, that I had been missing something good for a long time now. Thanks again to last.fm. I’ve later been informed that
De-Loused in the Comatorium is their most accessible of albums, so probably a good thing I started there.
I drew an instant comparison to
Incubus. A drugged up, futuristic, pretty-much-fucked-in-the-head-in-a-good-way kind of Incubus. I think it was the similarity in sound to
Brandon Boyd’s vocals that did it.
Cedric Bixler Zavala just sounds like he’s inhaled helium beforehand. I also saw some small connections with some punk music I’ve heard. But of course, The Mars Volta brings an element of creativity to their sound that only a brain accommodated by really big frizzy hair could provide. I kind of figured this is what getting high would feel like translated into music. If getting drunk is anything to go by, anyway. The lyrics are again not the most explicit, but I wasn’t really focusing on the lyrics to be honest, I usually don’t to begin with anyway.
In the end, I really enjoyed the melding of genres into one that gives this band such a distinct sound. The jazz influences are also to be found within. I especially liked the suggestion of hard/heavy rock without the music fully embracing a heavy metal or hard rock feel. It seemed much more intelligent to me. As I’ll also discuss later, track length can sometimes go horribly wrong, but this band also has the epic thing down. And what’s a thirteen minute track to the trained ear anyways?
Song I recommend:
Roulette Dares (The Haunt of),
Drunkship of Lanterns.
+
Rilo Kiley
This band is one of the newer discoveries so I don’t have so much to say as of yet. Basically, this band allows me to indulge in my once thriving pop sympathies without having to actually endure the crap that is being put out in the pop music industry these days (
Madonna featuring
Justin Timberlake anyone??). Some very charming and soulful vocals from Jenny Lewis grace some rather poppy and perhaps even slightly predictable lyrics, but this is more than made up for by the seemingly folk influenced instrumentation. This music puts me in a very good mood, which is something other new music has been miserably failing at over the last week or so. The new album,
Under The Blacklight, is pop at its best with that indie twinge that will save your shame for another day. I especially recommend the song
Silver Lining. They may seem very typical at first, but I found that every song brings to it something that catches me off guard every time.
?
of Montreal
This one I’m not sure of. Certainly at first they annoyed me to no end. But I really dug my heels in because seemingly everyone was going nuts for them and I needed to at least make an attempt. One thing I will say about this band is they are, if nothing else, very original. What I’m trying to figure out is to what extent does this affect the quality of the music being produced, that is, are they trying too hard to be unpredictable, random, or weird that their music suffers as a result? The lead singer,
Kevin Barnes, is exceedingly fruity, too much for his own good, and his voice isn’t the most aesthetic. But the band as a whole did surprise me with some well developed ideas on their album
Hissing Fauna, which I wasn’t expecting throughout the randomness.
The Past is a Grotesque Animal is definitely the best example of this, and is definitely my favourite of Montreal song so far. But I’m predicting I’m not done with this band just yet.
-
Spoon
In a word, boring. I heard only good things of this band until I actually heard their music. I refuse in this case, however, to stand in the way of personal taste.
-
Sufjan Stevens
A couple of good moments but the instrumentation sounded pretty tacky to me. And I have a major issue with the promotion of religion in music, which is definitely, if not blatantly, occurring here. I have nothing against religion, but please, keep it to yourself or at least don’t push it on me. Another case where I was expecting more based on shoutbox comments.
-
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
I am generally not a patient man. Insanely long track lengths which are then separated into movements - be it a nod to classical music, be it a comment on song length playing too major a role in defining a song – I quite simply couldn’t grasp the concept. A lot of their music works more in the context of “soundtrack” than actual song (The soundtrack for 28 Days Later perhaps..? lol). Now I’ve always wanted to take a look at post-rock, because
Sigur Ròs are as far as I’ve gone in the past and that’s just kinda pathetic, but I have to be honest here: this to me sounded completely devoid of passion, and didn’t really seem to satisfy my idea of what I saw post rock as being. I’ll use the album
F♯A♯∞ as my example. The cover art is very striking and I can’t help but think that
Trent Reznor saw it before he picked his cover for Year Zero. The content of the album deals largely with end of the world/apocalyptic themes and knowing this before listening, I guess set me up with certain expectations, ultimately to be disappointed. I’d imagined the apocalypse to have some kind of central point or climax, something otherworldly about it, something larger than life. I still feel as though Sigur Ròs were much more successful at achieving this on
Untitled #8 on
( ), which I’m not sure was even a song made to directly deal with apocalyptic themes. Although the album has three tracks (clocking in at 16, 29, and 18 minutes respectively by the way), allowing for a simple structure and obvious point of climax, it remains largely ambient throughout, with a couple of promising twists. I also noticed that the album was largely successful at keeping the authenticity factor high until one point on the album where the vocals are much more clear than other points, the “Where Are You Going” movement. I found this very tacky, even so much as to detract from the overall tone of the album. One fleeting moment of genius occurs on the vinyl edition where the band finds real success in their dismissal of song length as definitive in song structure – a locked groove on the disc gives the final track’s final movement an infinite running time (thus the “infinity” symbol of the album name). Finally, it’s obviously a very dark album and doesn’t exactly leave you feeling upbeat. This I was expecting, but I was also expecting a sense of satisfaction, a sense of more than a song but a musical experience. On these points Godspeed You! Black Emperor failed to deliver. I walked away feeling down on myself, unfulfilled and cranky.
--
A Silver Mt. Zion, or, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band
Firstly I have to point out something that really, no really, gets on my nerves. Bands need to stick with one name if that is the name they have become widely known by. To change your name makes you look shallow because you felt that such a change was necessary and affected your music in some way (
Panic! At the Disco or
Panic at the Disco, why does it matter??), and in this case silly, because their current name (unless I’m mistaken, their second renaming) is rather laughable. What’s with the extra “E” in “Thee”? The Tra-La-La band???? Seriously. You sound full of yourself. You really do sound pretentious. This band surprised me. Their shoutbox made them sound like gods. Their photos are actually really cool. I was expecting something brilliant, and, knowing their GY!BE roots, I was now prepared for something that required patience. I was happy that members of GY!BE felt the need to break away and do something that wasn’t so rigid because that was one of GY!BE’s major flaws that I picked up on. But I listened to three A Silver Mt. Zion albums and noticed the emphasis on repetition not to be matched by GY!BE. This band also placed greater emphasis on vocals, and it’s a good thing too, for those were the highlights for me.
Efrim Menuck’s lone vocals are jarring and desperate and urgent, and tone-wise are perfect for this band. With more band members finding increasing vocal confidence on later albums they form somewhat of a choral sound which had real potential at times, in particular on my favourite track (really the only one I could say I “enjoyed”) –
God Bless Our Dead Marines. This band is not so indulgent on track length, but the effect seems to be the same and I found myself bored. As far as I heard this band were also more depressing than GY!BE and this was only emphasized by my already formed opinions of them. Taking on a less ambient and more chamber-like sound than its parent, I saw many tracks as being thoroughly death-march in tone and style. Not exactly the most satisfying of musics. I needed some kind of closure. This band was not able to give it to me. Again, I felt depressed and very weary about the state of the world (a feeling I knew I could listen to
In Rainbows to achieve but minus the whole feeling like shit part, because
Radiohead can lift my spirits somewhat when they need to). Basically I reckon you need to be in exactly the right mood, and be a certain kind of person to be able to successfully tackle this band and experience what they’re really trying to communicate. This is definitely not for everyone.
So, there you have it, a summary of where I’ve been musically over the last couple of weeks. To really complete this I thought I’d include the music I’m already familiar with that has accompanied me these holidays and that helped me get through the times over the last couple weeks when I just needed music, not something to actually think about. Music I’m used to and music I’m especially used to loving:
Sonic Youth
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
The Dust Brothers
Death From Above 1979
Strawpeople
Adiemus
All of these artists come highly recommended from me, although I doubt you need any introducing to them.
Plus two bands I will be checking out in the near future:
Calexico
...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
Finally, thanks for reading; I think this has been a bit long so you really are patient. And don’t hesitate to comment if you disagree with anything I’ve said or even just to make a general statement. Cheers.