Spoon’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Induces New Album Fever

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Jul 102007
 


My music loving buddies and I have a term, I don’t know if we invented it or not, but we use it all the time, it’s called New Album Fever. New Album Fever can best be described as the instant love of a new album by a favorite band, the proclamation of it as the best album since… New Album Fever, like most fevers, eventually goes away, and you realize that actually, now that the initial excitement has worn off, the album really isn’t that good. Bands like Wilco, The White Stripes, and Radiohead, all are known to cause varying degrees of New Album Fever.

Spoon’s last album, Gimme Fiction, the follow-up to the massively critically acclaimed Kill the Moonlight, induced a huge case of the Fever with me. It pushed all the right pleasure buttons, but really didn’t hold up for me over the long haul. I know a few of you will remember that it was one of our early Thursday Selection albums, and it was under the really close scrutiny I gave it then, that I came to the realization that other than a handful of songs, it wasn’t a very good album.

So I came upon the new Spoon album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, with a feeling that they had to prove something to me as a listener. Would they continue in the vein of Gimme Fiction, which not only lacked cohesion, but also lacked a real identity? Would this album be a return of the experimentalism of Kill The Moonlight, or would it be a return of the Pixies meets GBV sound of their first two albums?

The answer is really none of the above. This album feels like their transitional third LP, Girls Can Tell, which coincidentally is also my second-favorite Spoon album. And like that album, it has a laid-back, confident, more mature feel. Don’t read too much into that, they’re still trying some new things, and they pull them off too, but more on that in a minute!

Don’t Make Me A Target
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Minute-by-Minute Review: Interpol, Our Love to Admire

 Posted by
Jul 102007
 

If you stream over to Phawker.com you can check out the new Interpol CD, Our Love to Admire. I’m about to do that myself, and while I’m there, I’ll post a minute-by-minute live review…from the gut! Let’s log in, kick back, and see what this year’s ambition-driven variations on the Joy Division sound bring.

The album begins with the mournful “Pioneer Falls”, which has an Echo and the Bunnymen via The Doors sound. The song is kind of pretty, and it would be a lot prettier if I were a 17-year-old girl looking to escape my middle-class, small-town, relative hell. As it is, I think I’ll let the gray show in my rapidly thinning hair.

“No I in Threesome” makes a bid for the basis of the next James Toback film and picks up the pace a bit, with a pounding piano and drum beat. This is the scene when I come back to my empty dorm room, throw myself onto the bed, and let the eyeliner run down my cheek.

As “Scale” kicks in, I’m wishing this band really would begin sounding like Joy Division already. There’s a lot of stentorian self-analyses going on, but it’s more of the goth power ballad variety than the throbbing, grating soundtrack of Ian Curtis’ life. More power to these guys for staying alive, don’t get me wrong, but so far I’m bored.

Here’s an upbeat number, “Heinrich Maneuver”! It’s got all those angular guitars and syncopated beats, just right for adjusting that lock of hair to just the right angle across your forehead. I’m gonna call up my friends and see what’s doing! Ooh, there’s a dead stop right before the chorus comes back in. I haven’t heard such joyous gloom since Psychedelic Furs‘ “Love My Way”.

“Mammoth” opens with a vaguely threatening, slightly sexual four-on-the-floor beat and repeated chants of “spare me the suspense.” [Cut to the “bad boy” my innocent freshman character is about to meet up with.] If you don’t mind, I’m going to drop the narrative for a minute and simply enjoy the relative abandon of this song. Nice.
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Scuffy Shew: Simply Beautiful

 Posted by
Jul 092007
 

Simply beautiful

The other day, I scored a significant haul of dusty old 45s at the local Value Village — the stuff of which will form the core of a couple of upcoming Thrifty Music editions. One single in particular, however, proved itself so noteworthy that I felt compelled to feature it separately.

The song in question is called “Moody”, by one Scuffy Shew, from 1973. I urge you to give it a listen. As you do, please think of all the tortured, self-important, pretentious artistes whose causes have been championed ’round these parts. I’m especially looking at all of you who endure every cheek-flapping fart Lou Reed ever committed to vinyl, or those of you who revel in every hollow, clanging note to be found on sides one and two of Television‘s first album. Fans of Be Bop Deluxe, Sparks, and Neu! — I charge you in particular with the duty of opening your ears to some real music for a change.

Scuffy Shew, “Moody”

What we’ve got here in Shew’s “Moody” is something different. Something simple, vital, beautiful, and ultimately, genuinely important, like a first kiss or the smell of the ocean on hard-earned vacation. I don’t know where to begin explaining why it’s as Great as I think it is; all I know is that if you can’t wrap your head around its simple charm, you need your ears — not to mention your brain — thoroughly irrigated.

Come on, guys, be real about this rock and roll thing for once, willya? Sheesh. I know E. Pluribus will understand what I’m getting at here.

I look forward to your responses,

HVB

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Viral Video Update!

 Posted by
Jul 082007
 


Saw Berlyant’s purchase of Plurb’s Three O’Clock on fireworks night, and then ran into this video after work late tonight through another friend (completely coincidentally) and thought of sharing it with my fellow Townspeople! Another great link I was sent, http://chocoreve.blogspot.com if you haven’t seen it first – enjoy your Breakfast With the Beatles, your breakfast in the afternoon, and have a great Sunday, guys!

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Yesterday’s Reviews Today: Unknown Mystery 60’s Group, Volume III: Love Songs

 Posted by
Jul 062007
 

Archivist in Spain Strikes Paydirt

Home recording and the ease of indie releases have made for the ready sharing of our own private yesterdays. Some yesterdays are better left forgotten, but when shared with passion and craft, there’s no need to get hung up on the degree of retro-authenticity of the lo-fi recording, any anachronisms that sneak into the retro-themed lyrics, and the stitching on the band members’ Beatle boots. It was through this combination of passion and craft that the Unknown Mystery 60’s Group was able to pull the wool over the eyes of garage-collector sheep with their first release, which was successfully launched as having been culled from an unknown, mysterious tape at found at an outdoor flea market. With the newly released Volume III: Love Songs (Birdhouse Records), the band’s anonymous archivist in Spain has unearthed more recordings by these mysterious lads that sound richer, in parts, than their first two sets of recordings.

The sound of the latest from Unknown Mystery 60’s Group is as homemade and quaint as ever, but there’s more room for the songs to breathe and the imagination to wander. This is especially evident on gentle songs like “Butterfly” and “Having You Here With Me”, which are fleshed out by light touches of orchestration (shades of Dave Gregory’s underrated work with XTC) and detailed harmonies.

Accusatory [Insert mid-60s “The” Group] Do Dylan-like rockers continue to be a staple of the band’s output. My favorite is “You’ve Changed”, which hints at Moby Grape’s “Omaha” if that San Francisco band spent less time worrying about giving us the finger and more time on their songcraft. Beatles’ movie-era-styled numbers also reign, the most “photogenic” of which is “Three Hurtful Things”.

As you hum and toe tap along with this CD, you’ll not need to break down the meter of the lyrics or plum literary depths for hidden meanings. The Unknown Mystery 60’s Group sing about stuff they know in a straightforward, sometimes humorous manner. For private memories, it’s hard to be much more inviting.

“Having You Here With Me”

“You’ve Changed”

“Three Hurtful Things”

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