1.19.2006

Deerhoof: Please Pour Acid in my One Remaining Eardrum

A little after new years a friend and I were sitting around and discussing musical stuff at a get together. The conversation was focusing around the more interesting albums of the year, and I mentioned how I'd just gotten Deerhoof's latest and hadn't really listened to much of it yet. I remember saying something about the vocals being extremely irritating.
My friend replied with something flippant like,
"Whatever, Bjork lover" and me saying something like
"you like Deerhoof, but not Stereolab. Hmm"
Or something. I was drunk, and It's only passingly important.

Anyway this friend, who is kind enough to read this crap and occasionally reply to it, wrote me about my last post on Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and how nerve grating the vocals are. I agree completely. Of course, frequent exposures to nails on chalkboards have dulled the senses a bit so perhaps that explains the lack of hatred on my part.

BUT, Deerhoof definitely takes the fucking cake here.

I know I commented on avant garde albums and how I find them scary and interesting. But really, this is too much. Having sat through Reveille and Runners Four I feel I can honestly say that Satan fucking a Chihuahua in the ass with a red hot jackhammer would probably sound better to me. I just sat through No one fed me so I stayed off reveille and I want to punch my roommate in the face. And I honestly like my roommate.
I've tried to understand what it is about this band that makes everyone keep telling me their good, but I find it utterly incomprehensible why anyone would subject themselves to this kind of torture. Maybe if I light me nipples on fire.
Even if the vocals aren't getting in the way, the music itself is so badly written that a retarded elephant could come up with more structure than almost any one of the songs on either album I have. And I only listened to two! Who is buying this shit?

Now that I've vented my spleen I'll take an objective step back. Experiments in song structure are good. Even necessary. Sonic Youth. A perfect example of a band breaking boundaries in music but only meeting with few and far between successes. I've never met anyone who has ever been able to produce a sonic youth album from their collection, but everyone SWEARS their awesome. Why? Because their fucking with the formula. Deerhoofs kind of the same. I think. Is it art? Yeah technically. Is it different? Yes and no. Usually this type of proto pop/blues has got some sort of angry snarling vocals over it instead of tweety bird noises smeared over the top. Is it good?

Only in the sense that a kick in the nuts is good to remind you why we try to avoid that sort of thing at all costs.

Aural landscapes are something that I love in music. Anything labeled "atmospheric" is probably something I'll like. I should like Deerhoof. I don't. Sorry fans. Your really deluding yourselves on this one. Only one man I know would dig this shit. And his name is Ben Adams. 25 minute Japanese Death Metal solos warped his mind to the point he MIGHT like Deerhoof. What's the rest of you people's excuse?

Final analysis: Deerhoof fools you into thinking there is something challenging here, until you get past the initial shock and realize that there is only hipster analog music with lots of useless connections, inane song structure lacking any complexity and some of the most irritating vocal frequencies ever recorded by man or woman. I huge amount of effort went into making this dogshit. It's a waste of your time and mine, and I'm not wasting anymore time on the subject.

Fuck Deerhoof.

If you want links to MP3's plug stick you head in the tub and throw a dryer in with you. It's the same thing.

1.16.2006

Clap your Hands Say Yeah

Is it me, or are weird concept albums coming back into fashion the last two years. Things like Arcade Fire, Mars Volta, Modest Mouse, Decemberists. There is all this very bizarre music starting to make headway that quite frankly kind of scares me. If the cycle follows its usual course, four years from now wee going to be listening to some modern version of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer cranking out a 17 minute extended jam session featuring repetitious keyboard solos.

Anyway, reading various magazine and websites, clap Your Hands Say Yeah has shown up on several "best of" lists despite only having been out for, Like three months. Having now listened to it I can honestly say that I have heard this coming from a few cars and radios in my area, I just didn't recognize it, or ask what it was. So the buzz is apparently pretty strong.

Lots and Lots and LOTS of David Byrne Comparisons in the press for lead singer, Alec Ounsworth. Is this fair?
Ehh. Only in so far as its a weird vocal style. I can't really say anybody else that he sounds like so a high pitched David Byrne will suffice. Or maybe Yoko Ono. Actually the last time someone's vocal style really made me comment on it as being "different" was back when I found the Violent Femmes.

I like the fact that this band has no US label right now, but has still managed to sell 20,000 copies of their self-titled album in three months time. Take that music reps. Your ass is sunk. People are still buying music, just not from you! Eat a dick.

My own personal impression of the album are good. But I do admit that this is not exactly a relaxing album to listen to. It would be if the instrumentation was the only thing your were hearing. It's tasteful yet ear catching indie stuff. Nothing ground breaking but still good. Ounsworth's voice isn't totally annoying but still I gotta admit he's no crooner. I've heard cats fucking that sounds prettier. The one exception is on the track Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood, where the vocals fit well with eh music to ALMOST give you a spacey feeling until Alec starts chanting "They are child stars" ad naseum like a retarded Parrot. Funny though.

Anyway they were recently on Conan O'Brien so here you go. It's a tiny video though.

and here's some more mp3's for your listening enjoyment.

Lost and Found
Details of the War
Home On Ice

1.08.2006

Song:Ohia Farewell Transmission

It is always a distinct pleasure that rarely occurs in my life, when a friend brings to attention a new song or artist that you enjoy. But the best is when someone brings to your attention music that affects you in a profound way, making you re-examine what it is that you consider to be music in the first place.

Last night qualifies.

songs:Ohia is really one man. Jason Molina. Growing up in Lorain, Ohio, this kid was playing for half a decade in Heavy Metal bands in the area as a bass player. Somewhere along the line he shifted his focus and began writing his own material that can very comfortably be described as Alt-Country. He's put out five albums and several EPs since 1996.
Now anyone who takes a look at the release date of Magnolia Electric Co. will notice that I'm behind on this album release by a whopping three years. So oops there. My only defense is that the alt country genre has always been one that I take with a grain of salt and don't have any real understanding of past the obvious choices like early wilco or Whiskeytown. In fact anybody who could make educated recommendations to me for this please do.
My recently moved-in roommate was kind enough to hook me up with this album, and I haven't had a chance to fully process it yet, but It's not really necessary. The first track on the album alone is worth the price of admission. Farewell Transmission has got one of the most haunting guitar hooks backed by Molina's distinctly unproduced vocals that just let the emotion speak for itself. Neil Young comes to mind, as well as Bob Dylan with a hint of Leonard Cohen. For whatever reason, this makes me think of the desert at dusk. As I have no other information on Molina aside from the brief piece I found I'll just let the song, and a few choice fan quotes pulled from the net speak for itself.

I should point out that I'm a big fan of nocturnal, atmospheric music with a distinctly rural-American tinge, and that pretty well describes this album.

Let's Get Drunk and Brood,

This is some of the most well crafted, fluently beautiful music I've ever heard.

I cannot stop listening to it. Over and over again. I never tire from it.

It's a classic--like OK COMPUTER or AEROPLANE OVER THE SEA. Not that it sounds remotely like either of those albums;
it's just a similarly unified, similarly dense musical statement.

It's far from an overstatement to say that Molina is one of the most talented, emotionally resonant songwriters of his
generation, as the collection of songs assembled here clearly demonstrates.


For those who likey, check out the Songs: Ohia website

Farewell Transmission

1.04.2006

Pandora and internet radio

I used to daydream sometimes of having a massive underground bunker that had every single recording ever on a massive changer that would be able to scan my brain and know exactly what kind of music I wanted to hear at any given moment and play an appropriate song based of either style or lyrics. Later I modded my dream boombox to be more personal soundtracky and adjust for irony and juxtaposition.

Sadly my dream machine is not yet reality. But oddly enough, tech for music listeners is moving in the general direction.

Internet radio has been the better way to listen to music for quite some time now. As standard FM stations are increasingly hampered by the effort of Clear Channel to force them to crush the human soul, more and more people are saying "fuck the Radio" and going pure Ipod or satellite radio. Both offer the better part of the musical experience, by provide a wide variety of channels garnered to more specific tastes, say 80 electronic or 60 dance hall or some other non mainstream genre.

XM gives 100 + channels for a small subscription fee plus the initial cost of the equipment, but is also good anywhere in the USA. Sirius is the less large of the satellite radio providers.

Internet radio is by no means perfect, but by allowing a ton of would be DJs to put together several hours of their own mix and post it on the radio a very organic mix can be achieved that, in my own opinion, creates a much more visceral experience in listening that becomes more about the music itself and not foisting top 40 merchandise and endless commercials on us.
Do a google search and you'll find tons of internet broadcasters out there. Some of the bigger ones are Rhapsody and Yahoo My own preferences are for Live365's blend. Tends to be a little more eclectic.

But the most interesting one to date is the new style by the The Music Genome Project.

A friend of mine told me about an online radio service that would basically allow me to plug a musician or band as a reference point to what kind of music I would enjoy listening to and create my own personalized radio station. The Theory behind this rather odd Idea called Pandora is that musical tastes have certain recognizable patterns that when cross referenced will allow someone to be led to new music that they otherwise might never have come across. The radio stream service is called Pandora

On January 6, 2000 a group of musicians and music-loving technologists came together with the idea of creating the most comprehensive analysis of music ever.

Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or "genes" into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It's not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it's about what each individual song sounds like.

Over the past 5 years, we've carefully listened to the songs of over 10,000 different artists - ranging from popular to obscure - and analyzed the musical qualities of each song one attribute at a time. This work continues each and every day as we endeavor to include all the great new stuff coming out of studios, clubs and garages around the world.

It has been quite an adventure, you could say a little crazy - but now that we've created this extraordinary collection of music analysis, we think we can help be your guide as you explore your favorite parts of the music universe.

We hope you enjoy the journey.


Fair enough.

As each song plays you are allowed the option to "vote" on the song. A thumbs up for this is kind of shit I want to hear more of" or a thumbs down for "This is the worst music ever. Never play this song again." Even cooler is the "why am I hearing this song" button which gives you a brief description as to why Pandora's box thinks you might like it. All in all pretty cool.

So the real question is "how good is Pandora at getting what I like?" the answer is not too shabby. When you first start it up, whatever band you plug in will be the template for what other bands are selected. While this is fine, you'll find that like anything it will get a little boring. Thankfully you can keep adding more bands which increases the scope of what it will play for you. When I plugged in only two bands I noticed that mix what slightly repetitive. So variation in you themes helps quite a bit in keeping it fresh.

As an experiment I also plugged in a band that in my opinion defies easy definitions. The Doves. Because the Doves are so all across the board as far as styles go, I thought it would be a good test. Frankly Pandora did fail here. What came back simply sounded nothing like them. When I queued Pandora to tell me why it was playing certain bands and musicians which were so not like the doves as to be laughable, the answers came back that Pandora had selected Mars Volta for my listening enjoyment for "electric rock instrumentation, mild rhythmic syncopation, mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation, a vocal centric aesthetic and major key tonality."

Ok. But I don't think there is anyone on the planet that would agree that the logical jump from the Doves to Mars Volta makes sense. SO it's not a perfect system. But hey, what a mix!

try it yourself and see what you think. I'd love to hear what you think and whether it turned you on to anything new that you now love.