April 2006 Archives

The Sounds are Swedish. And like another Swedish band, the Sounds have the uncanny ability to write hypnotic pop-tunes while at the same time being completely devoid of almost all talent. The only thing keeping the Sounds from sucking as bad as ABBA is a little guitar crunch. It’s amazing how far you can get with a good hook and a dance beat.

It’s also amazing how much things will change by removing a simple letter. The Sound are British and have been described as the missing link between Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen. The Sound appeared on the scene shortly before the death of Ian Curtis and put out six albums between 1980 and 1987. But, being a day late and a dollar short, the Sound never met much success. Plus, their lead singer Adrian Borland didn’t off himself until 1999. Accordingly, the Sound’s early records, Jeopardy and From the Lions Mouth, were then remastered and reissued resulting in the reevaluation of the Sound, finally garnering them some critical acclaim. So next time you get into an argument about the best post-punk, Joy Division rip off band, you can name-drop the Sound like a true music snob.

Website: The Sounds

Order Online: the Sounds and the Sound.

Stuff to Sample: From the Sounds’ Dying to Say This to You “Song with a Mission” and from the Sound’s From the Lion’s Mouth “Hothouse” and from Jeopardy “Jeopardy”

Notes: OK, I don't mean to be cold-hearted but Adrian Borland totally messed up the Pursuit of Cool by waiting 12 years after the last Sound album to commit suicide. And did y’all notice the wicked “re” alliteration a couple of paragraphs up? Stupid things make me happy.

For background on this entry, please read Monday’s post and comments.

The mere thought of ruining Tool songs by combining them with ABBA sort of makes me sick, I am however, fairly confident that it will never happen. Never. Mainly because, and I’m making an educated guess here, most ABBA songs are the standard disco dance beat registering in at 120 BPM. Tool’s time signatures? Off the wall wacky - not to mention the frequent and abrupt tempo changes.

That being said, the new Tool album, 10,000 Days, leaked and therefore, if you know how, you can go find it and listen to all of the crazy tempo changes, Maynard’s whispering and some more fun things that are sure to confound.

The album is much better then the first single “Vicarious” would indicate. There is definitely more of Tool’s classic sound in this album but at the same time there are several songs on which Tool uses a very generic, chugging, staccato guitar effect, like on “Jambi,” that sounds very dated. There is also a two-part, laid-back prog rocker that clocks in at over 17 minutes and makes me sleepy. Probably the best parts are the two “non-songs,” a bit reminiscent of Aenima’s “Intermission” and “Aenema.” Maynard, however seems to be fading into the background. Where his vocals were once soaring at the forefront, they have now taken a second to the guitar, disappearing into a wall of sound.

As good as 10,000 Days may be, it’s still no Aenima, or even Undertow for that matter. Which makes me wonder, did Tool peak at its third album?

Stuff to Sample: I’m not going to post anything, apathy has overwhelmed me.

Back in the day, when we were all a little younger, C$ told me about a band called Built to Spill. I took quite a shine to BTS’ Perfect From Now On but never really found the same beauty in Keep It Like A Secret or Ancient Melodies.

Back then I felt that a lot of indie rock bands suffered from some disjuncture between the need to write great music and a fear of writing great music. And while albums like Perfect From Now On and Modest Mouse’s Build Nothing Out Of Something were spectacular they seemed very choppy, very obtuse and anti-pop with their sprawling, unkempt orchestration.

Fortunately, both Isaac Brock and Doug Martsch have been able to reign it in a bit and release albums of tight, well-written and harmony rich tunes. Modest Mouse’s Good News For People Who Love Bad News helped gain them a wider audience. Built To Spill’s newest release You In Reverse should do the same.

Buy: Online Here

Web Site: Here

Stuff to Sample: From Built to Spill’s You in Reverse “Conventional Wisdom” and from Perfect From Now On “Out of Site”

The music industry, entertainment business, marketing, et al. has completely turned me into a manic-depressive. Flying high one moment as I listen to a great new album and then crashing and burning in the depths of despair the next moment at the realization that integrity is dead.

There are a few bands that no matter what you say, you really aren’t doing them any justice. Tool is one of those bands.

There is nothing I can tell you, nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said. So, without further ado, I give you “Vicarious,” the first single off of Tool’s forthcoming album 10,000 Days. I hope this changes your day like it changed mine.

Update: Just got an e-mail notice that Tool will be doing a few concert dates including one at the Fox Theater in Detroit. I was happy until I noticed that it will be on a Monday night, which is OK but tickets are $66.66 a pop. Not cool. (OK, the number is cool but not the overall amount) I’m sure there is a reason for the steep ticket price as Tool normally has a phenomenal stage show but that’s still a large chunk of change. I thought only has-been rockers (i.e. The Rolling Stones) were down for price gouging their fans. Now I know better.

Stuff to Sample: From Tool’s 10,000 Days “Vicarious”

The new Raconteurs album Broken Boy Soldiers has sprung a leak. So I went out and found it – because I can. And listened to it – as I am wont to do. I was then disappointed – as sometimes will happen. I said, “WTF?! This is sort of disappointing.”

Then it dawned on me that this might be a LTST-GBET (Listen To Several Times - Gets Better Every Time) album and not a AROTB (Amazing Right Off The Bat) album – as some albums are.

So I listened to it again – and again – and again. And low and behold, my disappointment began to wane – as sometimes will happen.

Broken Boy Soldiers has a lot of funk and soul and a healthy dose of 1970s bombast. The overall sound owes more to Brendan Benson’s power-pop sound then Jack White’s thrash or Patrick Keeler/Jack Lawrence’s garage stomp. Some of it sounds a bit tossed together but if they decide to continue with this, in another album or so they will dominate the world – as sometimes will happen.

Stuff to Sample: Check it out right, if you look around the Internets you can find almost all of Broken Boy Soldiers posted on assorted blogs. Or I could make it easy for you. "Level" "Together" "Hands" "Yellow Sun" "Steady, As She Goes" "Store Bought Bones" and the super bonus of the Raconteurs covering David Bowie's "It Ain't Easy"

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The Management

The air is warm, the sun is shining and as soon as I can get outside and take off these annoying and encumbering pants, spring will have finally sprung. Ha hah! Double entendre.

Anyway. Let me teach you something about Band of Horses. BoH is the result of the dissolution of the Seattle band Carissa's Weird. When Carissa broke up, guitarist and singer Ben Bridwell and guitarist Mat Brooke got together to write some sprawling, well-orchestrated and reverb-heavy tunes that show off some amazing song writing skills and a professionalism that can only be found in indie rock bands who have paid their dues in the rugged trenches (i.e. Built to Spill, Flaming Lips and maybe My Morning Jacket). And, coincidentally, hints of all of those afore mentioned bands can be heard on BoH's debut, Everything All the Time.

This is the kind of album that will show you something new every time you listen to it. Those are the kinds of albums I like. Just like spring, its never the same as it was the day before. Everything All The Time continues to grow upward, outward, onward - a giant blooming tree of musical wonder.

For the Chi-Town crew, BoH will be at Scuba's on June 6 and 7. And for the Ohio folks, they will be at the Magic Bag in Detroit on June 10 and at the Grog Shop in Cleveland on June 11.

Web Site: Here

Order: Online Here

Stuff to Sample: From Band of Horse's debut Everything All the Time "The Funeral" and "Our Swords"

Bonus: There are a bunch of demos on BoH's website for your enjoyment.

Here’s a quick one for you. I have one major beef with instrumental indie and prog rock bands. They take forever to get where they are going. Just because you don’t have words doesn’t mean all of you songs have to be over 10 minutes long. You can write a three minute song with normal chord progressions and no one will think less of you. In fact, if you name your band Té, give your first full length album a title like If That is What is Being Thought, Liberated Sound Talks the Depth of "Musical" World, don't sing at all over glorious prop rock spooned out in short, sweet doses, you might have scored a record deal and became huge in Japan with out even knowing it. Which is pretty much what happened.

I highly recommend this record, not just on musical merit, but reading the song titles is like wading through bad poetry in a high school English class (See all the song titles after the jump). Fun stuff. Té blasts through 12 songs of head-bobbing prog rock full of beautiful melodies and some signature J-Pop. The longest song tops out at a svelte 6:09, making them a pure pleasure to listen to without having to sit through three minutes of feedback before the song actually begins.

Also, check out Té's web site, it features some hilariously poor English. And people (mainly a whiney Wookie) say we need a copy editor here at eLarceny. Ha!

On the flip side - not withstanding my inability to comprehend, let alone use, my native tongue and the basis of my college degree - if I were to write this stuff in Japanese it would probably be just as hilariously poor. And then the guy over an Hanzi Smatter would surely come beat me down.

Web site: Here

Buy: Online Here

Stuff to Sample: From Té's full length debut, That is What is Being Thought, Liberated Sound Talks the Depth of "Musical" World, "Anxiety Is Not About The Issue. It Is Actually About People's 'Mind' Related To The Issue That They Are Afraid Of" and "A Real 'Imitation' Is The Imitation That Let People See Ridiculousness Of Boring Original One"

1. It Must Be Called "Intelligence" If People Stop When They Realize They Are Not Able To Become What They Are Wishing to Be.

2. A Thought Would Never Let People "Watch" What They Choose. Instead, It Let Them See What They Hope To See.

3. Anxiety Is Not About The Issue. It Is Actually About People's "Mind" Related To The Issue That They Are Afraid Of.

4. Avarice Would Speak With Every Word, It "Acts" Every Part And It Even Pretends To Be Not Avaricious.

5. A Real "Imitation" Is The Imitation That Let People See Ridiculousness Of Boring Original One.

6. It Is Supposed To Be "Ordinary" That Imagination Moves Much Faster And More Freely Than Bright Light In The Darkness.

7. "Existence" Of Eloquence Is Only In A Look Of People's Face That Remain Silence, And It Even Beats Any Kind Of Words.

8. Anger Kills All The Idiots, And Envy Would Torture Foolish People And All The "Instants" Being Involved.

9. We Promise With A View To Hope, But The Reason To "Accomplish" What We Promised Would Be Fear.

10. A Reality That People Are Living In This World Is A Lot "More" Complicated Than Fantasy-Land That They Imagine.

11. Courtesy Is Considered As A "Farce" If There Are No Honesty And Reality.

12. Break The "Heart" To What Is Actually Being Told Instead Of Asking Who Said That.

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Back to the grind. It was a slow weekend. Did some yard work – overseeded and fertilized the cornhole pitch in preparation for the coming season – and changed the oil in my car, because driving is good.

I was going to tell you about something new but the Internets has been down most of the morning due to the spring storms that keep rolling through so fact checking has not been easy (yes, I fact check, sometimes). As a result, I’ve just been listening to Ben Harper’s Two Sides of a Gun and trying to stay awake.

I’ve never listened to much Harper. All the hippies I knew really used to like him and I never wanted to have much in common with hippies. Speaking of hippies, there was a funny scene in The Simpsons last night, which is surprising considering how far that show has fallen since Al Jean took over as executive producer. Anyway, Grandpa Simpson wants to commit assisted suicide so they hook him up to a death machine in the shape of a poorly thought out cultural reference. When asked what he would like to see and hear while he dies, Grandpa asks for cops beating up hippies to the sounds of the Glenn Miller Orchestra. I was mildly amused. I then realized that everyone takes shots at hippies because it’s easy and more then likely, there are probably too stoned to understand that most of ‘Merica wants them dead.

When ‘Merica does begin the genocidal cultural cleansing that we all know is coming, I hope that they don’t lump Ben Harper in with the hippies. He is really talented and not as jam-bandy as I remember. The double disc Both Sides of a Gun is split between well-orchestrated acoustic blues-folk ballads and funky rock and roll jams. He goes from sounding a bit Bob Dylan-ish to straight up ripping off the Rolling Stones (the good 1960s/early 70s Stones).

So that’s what I have for Monday. That and I have to keep telling myself, "four more days." Four more days. Four more days. Fore moor days. Four more days. Four. More. Days.

Buy: Online Here

Website: Here

Stuff to Sample: From Ben Harper’s Both Sides of a Gun “Get It Like You Like It” and the Glenn Miller Orchestra's "In the Mood"