Tuesday Turntable 8.18.09

Summer is over. Well, pretty much. Anyone who hasn't headed back to the hallowed halls is probably packing up to do so, surely with a grimace.

But fear not, we all have a few more weeks of sun and summer left to us, and these songs are here to remind you of the last months in music.

All these tracks were released, brand spanking new, this summer, all from blockbuster bands, at that. Let's take a look-see at these Next Big Things!

"Guilty Cocker Spaniels" is a track off of Modest Mouse's new EP, released August 4th, No One's First, and You're Next!. The album is famously composed of rejected tracks from Good News for People Who Love Bad News and We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, and considering these two albums earned Modest Mouse the bulk of their huge fan base, "Guilty Cocker Spaniels" has enough elements from both records to act as a catch-all track for everything likable from the previous two albums.

"These Are My Twisted Words" has the most Radiohead-ishly bizarre backstory ever. The track surreptitiously floated onto a message board of Radiohead fan site At Ease, with absolutely no explanation or commentary from the band. This sent the blogosphere into a frenzy since Wednesday... "well, is it Radiohead or not??" Thom Yorke's entrance at 2:38 on the track had most people convinced it was at least a Yorke single, but nothing was confirmed until Monday, when the band acknowledged it on their site, adding, "We've been recording for a while, and this was one of the first we finished. We're pretty proud of it." Oh yeah, and did I mention it's a free download?

Panic! at the Disco has had a turbulent summer - two members, aka half the band, guitarist Ryan Ross and bassist Jon Walker walked out of Panic! over creative differences to start their own project. Jon and Ryan are gone, the exclamation point is back, and a new track is out.

Panic! at the Disco released "New Perspective" on July 27th, first as a MySpace exclusive. (What's left of) the band announces the video is already shooting for the new single.

Weezer has named their upcoming album, featuring this track, "(If You're Wondering if I Want You To) I Want You To," Raditude. That pretty much sums up my opinion of Weezer, right there. Still, new track, I'll be seeing them open for Blink-182, and new track becomes official August 25th.

DU May Days Music Fest 2009

It’s late May, and the powers that be at the University of Denver have insisted on holding its students through the beginning of next month. This seems like torture when the rest of the Colorado schools let out 2-4 weeks before and when you are walking between classes in 80-degree weather and immaculate sunshine.
Every year, then, as a token of good will to its students, DU arranges a week-long May Days event, culminating in the May Days Music Fest, seven hours of local music on the campus-central Driscoll Green.
This year’s event doesn’t boast the warm weather and summery sunshine invoked by the event’s colorful posters; instead, it’s about 50 degrees and cloudy. However, that hasn’t stopped about 200 DU students from congregating on the lawn for free food and tunes.
Heading to a free music festival on my campus, I must say I didn’t have the highest expectations for the actual quality of the music. Turns out, though, the lineup chosen for the festival featured some pretty promising acts, especially as the afternoon progressed.
Student band Bokonon pulled off a 45-minute set of ambitious instrumental experimental rock, instrumentation including an extra percussionist, sax and trumpet in addition to the typical guitar/bass/drums setup. Bokonon’s set was convincing, professing a level of skill and credibility that is epidemically lacking in the amateur prog-rock genre. They announced an upcoming show at the Mercury Café June 4th with fellow openers Petals of Spain. http://www.myspace.com/denverbokonon
The Foot is the most active, or at least most promoted band on campus. Sounding something like Lenny Kravitz, on the first song of their set their sound isn’t terribly original, but it is an accessible and crowd-pleasing one. A cover of Muse’s (I’m breaking down) Supermassive Black Hole draws more to the crowd, at this point numbering around two hundred people. Once the crowd was sufficiently bolstered, The Foot brought out new track “Whiskey and Water,” definitely the favorite of the crowd. The three are graduating DU in June, and plan to release an album in fall and start touring plenty of local venues. http://www.myspace.com/findthefoot
The Epilogues followed up The Foot, with a sound that would be popular with fans of either hardcore or electronic rock a la Shiny Toy Guns. Their set worked well with the rain that was unfortunately starting to thin the crowd, playing an alternating set between slower, more introspective tracks like “Caroline” and their more sinister, mysterious material, like “Adieu.” Their set ended somewhat abruptly, but not without impressing the crowd with an extended guitar jam at the end of their last song. http://www.myspace.com/epiloguemusic
The Photo Atlas probably suffered the most from the sketchy quality of sound that is achieved on outdoor stages; the vocals too faint, the guitars overpowering. However, their set had the highest energy that had yet performed, and they drew eyes as well as ears from the surrounding festival. The last of the rock acts for the night, The Photo Atlas did the finishing work of gathering the crowd for the dance party that supposedly followed. http://www.myspace.com/danceatlasdance
I say ‘supposedly’ because, much to my current dismay, I didn’t stick around to see Savoy or Clipse. Hey, it was raining and I was freezing in my sodden sundress! I’m sure that a great time was had by all, but sadly I had to venture away from the festival to return feeling to my outer limbs

Grizzly Bear - "While You Wait for the Others"

Okay, so it isn't usually my style to feed something on this site directly off another, but something happened this morning that was so shocking, I feel compelled to share.
Browsing today's Pitchfork reviews, I noticed that it had awarded a single the score of 10.
Pitchfork gave something a 10. This must be investigated diligently.

So the track is called "While You Wait for the Others" by Grizzly Bear. Pitchfork praises it as one of those "resolute and austere break-up songs" we all have such a weakness for, and cites how well it fits into Grizzly Bear's discography. Not being super familiar with Grizzly Bear myself, I was judging this track on the 4 minutes it gave me, without the discographical context.

What it gave me was, honestly, pretty deserving of a 10, even a Pitchfork 10. The track has that aura of deepness, not referring to the philosophical kind of deepness but the audio kind. The use of hollowed bass drum and guitar effects plus the lone vocalist in the intro suck you into a vacuum that I was only too happy to occupy. The minimalism is stripped away verse by verse until the track reaches its cathartic chorus, invoking Beatles-y vocal harmony and an incredibly well-put-together band dynamic, not to mention heartwrenchingly honest lyrics.

Don't take my word for it, check it out here. I hope you all like it as much as I do!

Tuesday Turntable 4.28.09

1964-6: A wave of British rock bands become wildly popular in America, bringing us The Beatles, The Rolling Stones...
2004-9: The same thing happens out of...

Sweden?

If you've been paying attention lately, you will have noticed that the Swedes have now invaded, bearing gifts of rock and pop.

Since the artists don't tend towards heavy accents or drastically different attitudes from American music, the Swedish artists aren't automatically recognized as such. But the Swedish sound is something Americans are eating up right now, and with good reason.

Dance pop group The Knife starts off with their original "Heartbeats," which was subsequently covered more famously by José Gonzales. I personally prefer Gonzales' acoustic version, as The Knife's can be grating in certain moods, but I also think it is nifty to listen to them side-by-side.

"This Boy" comes from I'm From Barcelona (they aren't from Barcelona.) The repetitive chorus and light composition (complete with whistling!) is something you can notice in a lot of the music coming out of Sweden at this point, so I think it is pretty indicative of Swedish Indie in particular.

The intro of "Young Folks" always inspires a cheesy dance breakdown in my friends and I when it comes up on the plethora of our mix CDs it is featured on. This track should sound familiar; it is used to advertise pretty much everything: Xbox 360 soccer and karaoke games, Gossip Girl episodes, etc.

"Walk Idiot Walk" is a much older track, but The Hives are a totally awesome band (and, according to Spin, the best live band ever.) Only recently did I discover their Swedishness, and I think it makes this band even cooler. Almost as cool as the band's stage names: Howlin' Pete Almqist, Nicholaus Arson, Vigilante Carlstroem, Dr. Matt Destruction, and Chris Dangerous.

(Honorable Mention: Boten Anna by Basshunter.)

The Killers - Day & Age Review

The Killers
Day & Age



✭✭✭✩✩✩✩✩✩✩
3/10

I wanted to like this album. I really, really did. After all, just like any other self-respecting teenager in 2004 I had The Killers's Hot Fuss on steady repeat. It had everything you could want from The Killers - catchy lyrics, danceable singles, a relatively innovative sound for 2004. Best of all, the 2004 Killers were The Killers. As opposed to what they have now undeniably become - Brandon Flowers and His Diva-licious Synth Band.

The greatest hope for this album was that they would remove some of the elements that made Sam's Town a disappointment - opaque concept-album lyrics, failed experiments in genre-crossing. However, Flowers' ambition to become the Next Big Thing in glam rock has done away with any credibility the band might have retained. Instead of making a return to the success of Hot Fuss, Day & Age has effectively removed the features of Sam's Town that were still functional and replaced them with indulgence.

The first time I heard first single "Human" was in the 2008 Victoria's Secret fashion show, and I'm convinced that couldn't be more appropriate. Oddly reminiscent of Cher's 1999 comeback "Believe," Flowers truly embraces his inner diva. The big controversy of this song has been its grammatically-garbled chorus, ("are we human / or are we dancer?") which Flowers claims he lifted from a Hunter S. Thompson quote, "We're raising a generation of dancers." Flowers seemed surprised by his fans' adverse reaction to the lyric, telling MTV News "I took it and ran. I guess it bothers people that it's not grammatically correct, but I think I'm allowed to do whatever I want." (Montgomery, "Killers' Brandon Flowers Stands Behind 'Human' Chorus, Feathery Jacket," mtv.com 31 Oct 2008)

Flowers certainly does 'do whatever [he] want[s],' as evidenced by train crashes "Joy Ride," which sounds like it could be the soundtrack to "Starsky and Hutch Go Calypso," and "This is Your Life," which is rife with baffling (spiritual?) chanting as a background track behind lyrics which lament the disillusionment of characters Jackie, her steps dogged by police, and Candy, who notices that "no one cares about her hair."

As seven-minute "Goodnight, Travel Well" closed this album with an obese exclamation point, all one is left wondering is, 'whatever happened to "All These Things That I've Done"?' Perhaps Killers fans will see a return to the happier days of Hot Fuss once Brandon runs out of mascara, and birds to strip for his feathered jackets. We can only hope.