courtesy of cr-shirts.com

so wrong, but oh so amazing...

Ten up. Way up.

Oh God. I got hired as an English teacher up here. I start early next week.

TV on the Radio
Return to Cookie Mountain
2006 4AD (for now)

I've been trying for two weeks to come up with something coherent to say about this album, but words have been eluding me. I suppose that's part of the mark of a "genius" album. Maybe it's just the mark of writer's block. Whichever happens to be true, Return to Cookie Mountain is exactly what I thought it'd be: beautifully literate. It's the kind of album you can lose yourself in for hours on end, without really knowing why or how. Ikey Owens (The Mars Volta/Free Moral Agents) once told me he thought TV on the Radio were the future of Black music. Return to Cookie Mountain solidifies that future.

Mr. Lif
Mo' Mega
2006 Definitive Jux

Speaking of Black music, political hip-hop king Mr. Lif returns with Mo' Mega, a carefully crafted collection of tracks dealing not only with favorite target President Bush, but also exhibits an artist coming to terms with the fact he might have to sacrifice personal relationships for his craft, or vice versa. El-P's production slows Lif to a verbal crawl, but he's never sounded so powerful. On the eve of his 10th anniversary, Lif told me he's already half-done with his next album, a self-described masterpiece. He might just be selling Mo' Mega a bit short.

Uzeda
Stella
2006 Touch & Go

These Italians have been trying to infiltrate American ears for the last decade, and if Stella doesn't do it, nothing will. You can tell vocalist Giovanna Cacciola has taken over the role of "Steve Albini's muse" from former Jaks/Love Life/current Celebration vocalist Katrina Ford while her band mates (Raffaele Gulisano, Davide Oliveri and Agostino Tilotta) tear through Shellac/Big Black/Rapeman influenced industrialized doom. In the words of Tilotta:

Stella (in english 'star') is a fashinating enlightened point in the sky;
Stella is the individual unit, an identity and original part of a constellation;
Stella is the name of a girl, of a daughter, of a mother, of a grandmother, of a woman;
Stella is the name of a dog;
Stella is a creature in the sea;
Stella is a name for a guitar;
Stella is the focal point of our dreams;
Stella is the joy of our hopes;
Stella is the centre of our Imagination;
Stella is the untouchable secret of our Freedom;
Stella is the neverended beginning of the Creation;
Stella is the most intimate and private colour in a will's desire;
Stella is the colour that nobody can reproduce;
Stella is "sharing together heart to heart";
Stella is the history of the Universe;
Stella is the magic of a smile;
Stella is the world without poverty and prejudice;
Stella is the power of an idea;
Stella is the energy of the Ideals;
Stella is the flag of the Human Wrights;
Stella is the unknown singing of the Whales;
Stella is the deep eye of the Eagle;
Stella is the golden wings of Peter Pan;
Stella is the keyword for Peace;
Stella is the interspace of Pure Silence;
Stella is the perfect cut of a razor blade;
Stella is a sugarcube in a cup of hate;
Stella is the sound power of a bees storm;
Stella is the weapon against a poisoned lie;
Stella is the victory of a sincere truth.

I couldn't have said it better myself--except to add that Stella is a
harrowing beauty waiting to be heard.

Daughters
Hell Songs
2006 Hydra Head

After a few years of admittedly playing music that sounded pretty derivative of The Locust, Alexis Marshall and company seem to have accidently stumbled upon a sound that's at once the bastard child of Arab on Radar and the Get Hustle. The resulting Hell Songs plays like a futuristic debutante ball gone horribly wrong: imagine Carrie mixed with 28 Days Later and Apocalypse Now.

Thom Yorke
The Eraser
2006 XL Recordings

Who didn't think this would at least be a little bit listenable? I actually bought this with less trepidation than I approached Amnesiac and Hail to the Thief (which I still haven't picked up). Anyway, imagine an entire album built around Kid A's "Idioteque" and you'll get some idea as to where The Eraser will lead you.

Margot & the Nuclear So and So's
The Dust of Retreat
2006 Artemis

Even wussier than an entire album of Thom Yorke's musings, I hate myself for liking this band. Their lyrics are simplistic. Their name is horrible. Their record label is pretty awful. Yet, The Dust of Retreat is as utterly infectious as Chutes Too Narrow, another album I'm completely ashamed of liking. I blame Richard Edwards' flawless voice, though the delicate orchestration certainly helps.


Miss Violetta Beau Regarde
Odi Profanum Et Arceo
2006 Temporary Residence Ltd.

I think she might be a Suicide Girl, and if that's the case, I think it adds to my description of what Miss Violetta Beau Regarde is. She's Peaches, but pissed. She's early Le Tigre but not nearly as danceable. She's Eva Inca Ore circa-Alarmist, but more electronic. Fear her, but love her.

Red Sparowes/Made out of Babies/Battle of Mice
Triad
2006 Neurot

I'd have been ecstatic with a live two-song EP by post-apocalyptic instrumentalists Red Sparowes, but No! They decided that wasn't enough, so not only did they ask good friends Made out of Babies to do a split--the two center pieces of the bands (Josh Graham and Julie Christmas) actually got together and formed a whole new entity called Battle of Mice to take on the world. Christmas's voice takes some getting used to--try to imagine a much more alluring Norah Jones crooning over doom rock. But now that I've written that, Battle of Mice sounds nothing like that would sound. That would be awful. Maybe mix some "chick from Pretty Girls Makes Graves" in there and we might have a deal.

Xiu Xiu
The Air Force
2006 5RC

After La Foret and Fabulous Muscles, I was a little worried that Jamie Stewart might be wussing out on us. Fortunately The Air Force hearkens back to Knife Play and A Promise. Stewart told me it wasn't any sort of conscious decision, so I assume the brief mellowing had something to do with his father's suicide. He's not one to reveal anything beyond what his lyrics say. Perhaps the return to form has something to do with the infusion of Deerhoof's Greg Saunier. I could go into that irony, but I'd prefer just to say that The Air Force bleeds the usual uninhibited Xiu Xiu emotions. That is to say, they're gut-wrenching, haunting songs that maul your soul but somehow leave you craving to be abused again.

McLusky
McLuskyism
2006 Too Pure

For someone who completely missed McLusky when they were the saviors of European punk no one had ever heard of, this collection (I got the single CD, not the box set) shows three dudes from Wales experimenting on archetypes first set by Nirvana (via Scratch Acid) and, as their musicianship developed, Fugazi. Very few bands play original punk music like these guys did: energy sweats, experimental vocals and bruising instrumentation. I might have missed them, but I still feel their absence. Where have all the punks who can play gone?

Mini Reviews: Ten Down (Ten Up to follow)

And now for some not so positive reviews:

With Love
A Great Circle CD/DVD
2006 Gold Standard Labs

Like Italian countrymen Uzeda, With Love have been around for over a decade, but largely haven't found an audience in America. After watching A Great Circle I can kind of tell why. I mean, aren't we over the whole random art house film by now? With Love blend their music film footage reminiscent of The Blair Witch Project, random French cinema and David Lynch for an extremely random adaptation what they apparently think their music looks like. Or it's tongue-in-cheek. I just can't tell, and that's the problem. The music, reminiscent of Japanese takes on prog, isn't half bad. The DVD's just too dorky.

Be Your Own Pet
Be Your Own Pet
2006 Ecstatic Peace

It's not that Be Your Own Pet is bad. And it's not like I don't like them because they're so hugely popular right now (though their age and location--late teens and Tennessee--certainly make them novelty act material). It's just that I don't get what seperates them from every other female fronted post-punk (more specifically post-riot grrl) band around (The Gossip, Mika Miko, Shoplifting, and Numbers immediately come to mind). Maybe it's just the fact they have the Thurston Moore stamp of approval. (Let's not forget he's now in a band with Andrew W.K.) Or, maybe it's just the fact the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are going to implode. Either way, Be Your Own Pet are the most overrated band around right now.

CSS
Cansei De Ser Sexy
2006 Sub Pop

Second Place in this year's "All Overrated Chick-Fronted Young Punk Band From an Exotic Location Supported by an Icon" contest goes to Brazil's CSS. Instead of Thurston Moore, Diplo seems to be responsible for these young, irritating, dance hooligans infiltrating American blogs and Soulseek. For the love of God--kids, just listen to Bikini Kill and Le Tigre. In succession.

The Curtains
Calamity
2006 Asthmatic Kitty

The debut album from Chris Cohen's new project he left Deerhoof to play in. It doesn't come out until......

Pardon. fell asleep for a minute there. It doesn't come out until October. Why did you leave Deerhoof for this? Lovers of Oh No! Oh My! and The Boy Least Likely To will eat this shit up.

The Weird Weeds
Weird Feelings
2006 Sounds Are Active

If you can't get enough Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice, The Weird Weeds might just be the band for you. However, if you've had it with minimalistic avant-garde indulgence with occasional upswells of maximalism, then, well, I don't know what to tell you. Plus, THE WEIRD WEEDS? What are you, a Grateful Dead cover band or something? I know we're all running low on band names, but really.

Tam
Tam
2006 Ecstatic Peace

Dude. Thurston. What are you doing to us? I thought your major label imprint was supposed to bring underepresented music to the masses, not some random chick from Montreal who locked herself in her room too long listening to Nirvana when she was a kid. Are you having survivor's guilt or something? (Note: her cover of the Arcade Fire's "No Cars Go" is actually good, but only because it's a good song.)

Comets on Fire
Avatar
2006 Sub Pop

Anyone else out there forget the 1960s and 1970s happened? Did we need a classic rock revival? When did Sub Pop start sucking again? (So much rage happening right now. So much rage.) The kids are eating this shit and Wolfmother up. I want to die. Just go listen to Santana, if you must.

Fucked Up
Hidden World
2006 Jade Tree

For fans of Rye Coalition and New York City hardcore. That's not me.

Two Dollar Guitar
The Wear and Tear of Fear: A Lover's Discourse
2006 Smells Like Records

When I got this CD I actually thought it was a joke. Not a joke, persay, but I thought it was from some amateur from Appalachia. Then I found out it was on a label that has released stuff by Blonde Redhead, Cat Power and--wait a minute--Sonic Youth! What the fuck is going on around here? (Oh yeah...this is for people who like boring, ambient, orchestrated guitar pop. Again, not me.)

Offering
Comfort and Joy
2006 Self-Released

Who in the fuck sends a Christmas album for review in the middle of summer? Anyone? Anyone? It doesn't even have "We Three Kings!" Fuck them. In fact, email them: info@offeringband.com.


(Sorry about the lack of images. Blogger decided not to let me load any more after the first two. That was extremely nice of them, no?)

INTERVIEW: The pAper chAse

I phoned John Congleton a long time ago for this interview. I hope his publicist doesn't strangle me:

I caught the Pitchfork review earlier this week and was wondering what you thought of the whole ‘post-punk/emo’ label?

Congleton: Well, I pretty much firmly disagree with anyone calling the paper chase an emo band, or really most of the titles people try to pin on us are not exactly apt, in my opinion. Especially emo. I have no idea what people mean when they call us that. The kind of stuff that was pegged as emo in the mid-90s has absolutely no sonic affiliation whatsoever with what people are calling emo now. I think in a lot of ways you can draw comparisons between what emo is now as to what 20 years ago glam metal was. I think that, basically, it’s going to be the brunt of a lot of jokes later on. It’s the brunt of a lot of jokes right now, but I think that it’ll be the butt of a lot of jokes later on. Glam metal was an awful bastardization of something really cool that happened with metal. There were a lot of great and talented metal bands and whatnot. I think that there were a lot of great and talented bands that were pegged emotional hardcore or emo. Right now you have these prefabricated, awful bands that are basically put together because they look good—a nice little meat package. The only people buying these records are underage people, just like the only people buying hair metal were underage girls and guys who wanted to get with those girls.

It’s weird to see the development of the word ‘emo’ and how it’s gone from describing bands like Rites of Spring, Sunny Day Real Estate, and even up through At The Drive-In, it seems like there’s two parallel lines of what emo is and what it has become.

Congleton: Yeah, I mean I try not to devote too much energy to that kinda stuff because it’s just one of those things you have to deal with. The main thing that I don’t like about that word whenever it’s associated with us is that it affiliates us with bands that I think are really fucking terrible and really have no business in the artistic community. To put it nicely.

Tell me how you really feel…

Congleton: I feel strongly about that. I think a lot of those bands should go get fucked.

Are there contemporary bands you are into at all?

Congleton: Sure. A lot of the bands we’re talking about right now I don’t consider to be our peers. They’re on a different wavelength entirely. A lot of those bands don’t know the experience of what really shitty touring is like. They immediately fall into a situation where they have a really nice van, a really, really good publicist all of a sudden. We’re kind of from a different school. Well not necessarily a different school, but we’re older than a lot of those bands and have experiences that they can’t relate to. Sure, there’s bands out there that I think are doing great stuff. Even if it’s not something I would listen to, I think it’s valid and cool.

You mentioned shitty touring…as the band has progressed have the tours gotten better?

Congleton: Uh…yes. I guess I would say yes. We still aren’t a huge draw. We have places we do really well in, and then we have a lot of places where we draw a really small cult following. That’s OK with us. We were never under the impression that we would be some sort of overnight success, or even a success in the eyes of someone who would see ‘success.’ Success is just doing something genuine and honest and working hard at it. The journey is the destination, as far as that stuff goes.

I’ve seen a lot of people describe your sound as theatrical or dramatic. Do you see that? Is that a conscious decision?

Congleton: I think it’s something that I’ve embraced. I think that maybe possibly whenever people use words like emo that’s what they’re confusing.

Is The Paper Chase a soundtrack to your mind?

Congleton: (Laughs) I guess.

Where do the sounds that you guys craft come from?

Congleton: That’s kind of like asking somebody how they got an accent, you know what I mean? Nobody tries to have an accent. They just open their mouth and that’s the kind of accent they have because of the tonalities they’ve been subject to. You spend your whole life in West Texas, you’re going to have a West Texas accent. I guess what I’m trying to say is that we never tried to get rid of that accent, musically.

I’ve read that the band started out as ‘therapy’ for you. I was just wondering if that’s still how The Paper Chase exists for you?

Congleton: I think that music and art is always therapy. No matter what.

You guys are from Texas. What’s it like having lived under George W. Bush longer than any of the rest of the country?

Congleton: First of all he was Lt. Governor, which meant he really didn’t have any power. In Texas, that’s the way it kinda runs. To be completely honest, when he was governor it was one of those things you didn’t really think about because it didn’t really affect anything. The one thing I can vividly remember going, “Jesus, what a jackoff” was when he really loosened restrictions on pollution in Texas, so Texas really quickly became a really dirty state when he was governor.

Do you ever think of leaving at all?

Congleton: Uh, what time is it? Every day.

The state, the country or both?

Congleton: The state.

It’s one of the states I’ve never really been to. I’ve driven through the top once and landed in an airport there once. Is it as bad as everyone stereotypes it to be?

Congleton: No, it’s not. It’s just like any place. It’s got its good and its bad. When you’re from a place you get to see the good things about it, but you get to see the bad things really up close. I think a lot of people, when they talk bad about Texas they’re just generalizing. Here’s the deal. Texas is a huge state, right, so you’ve got three major cities: Dallas, Houston and Austin. In the cities you have dynamic, sophisticated people. A lot of Democrats, actually. A lot of people who don’t like where this country’s going. The problem is everyone regards Texas as a red state, and it is a red state because you’ve got all this flyover country with all the small towns and the small-minded people. Those people vote Republican. There you go. what you have ultimately is a red state. But if you live in the major cities, especially Austin—I mean Austin is a complete oasis in the middle of Texas. You would think you were in Berkeley.

Back to the music. I was reading an older interview with you where you laughed off a comparison to Bright Eyes, and I was wondering if there are other contemporary bands you get lumped in with and you shake your head at?

Congleton: Not really. I know a lot of people have compared us Cursive. The funny thing about the Cursive comparison is those guys were big Paper Chase fans and we did a tour together back when they weren’t drawing all that many people. To me, anything people might be picking up from us as far as Cursive goes, Cursive maybe got from us. I can’t say that for sure. I can tell you I think Cursive is a good band and good guys and I’m happy to see that they’re doing well, but I think it’s preposterous for people to say we knocked off stuff from Cursive. That’s completely illogical and stupid for people to say that. I may be wrong in saying that they were influenced by us at all, but I think that people are really wrong to assume we knocked off something from Cursive. We’re two bands that liked each other a lot and basically shared the same ideals. That band happened to be on Saddle Creek and we happened to be on Kill Rock Stars. They got more exposure.

Do you ever grow frustrated with where The Paper Chase stands in the public eye or anything?

Congleton: No. That’s an exercise in futility. We’ve been doing it a long time and if I was going to get frustrated by something like that I would have quit already.

What keeps you going?

Congleton: It’s just a compulsion. Who knows what makes anybody do anything? The people that are fans of The Paper Chase are pretty tried and true, so that helps a lot.

How long do you see The Paper Chase lasting?

Congleton: What time is it? I dunno man. I have no idea. I thought that it would have stopped by now.

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