Sandy Playlist

Something to Listen to Before the Power Goes Out

So here's what the Wall Street Journal provides as a summary for what my area should expect when Sandy comes calling:

Ocean and Monmouth Counties: Rain beginning Sunday evening, peaking Monday evening and continuing to Wednesday. Winds peaking at between 70 and 75 mph, with gusts to 90 mph or more between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning. Storm surge between 7 and 9 feet on the beaches, 8 and 11 feet near the Raritan River. Waves of 15-20 feet. Overview: Expect significant beach erosion, as Sandy’s full force will be directed here on landfall. Highest winds in the tri-state. The Raritan River could act as a funnel and experience some of the worst coastal flooding in the metro area. Rain totals up to 8-10 inches.

Here, we've got bottled water, and we're charging everyone's phones.  I'd give just about anything for some D batteries.

We got the call that CoolDaughter #2 has no school for the next two days, and we're expecting the same for CoolDaughter #1.

I quickly threw together this playlist to herald Sandy's arrival.  Some of it's obvious, some hopefully less so...

If you're in the Mid-atlantic region, good luck and be safe.

Will There Be a Halloween Edition

Calm Before the Storm Friday

Things are looking iffy for Halloween around here as Sandy may pay a visit to New Jersey during the early part of next week.  The cooldaughters are quite nervous about this, but I think there's a chance that the powers that be will move the festivities to the weekend for us.  Things, I'm sure, will work out fine.

I had lots of choices for today, but I decided to go with the opening track to Echo & The Bunnymen's 2005 LP, Siberia.  By then the personnel had changed significantly, but Ian McCulloch was still Ian McCulloch.  So enjoy.

And rock on...

New Solo Music from Christopher Owens

Lysandre

I expressed my sadness earlier this year following the announcement that Christopher Owens had decided it was time to leave Girls.  I loved that band's first two albums, especially Father, Son, Holy Ghost; and I've been looking forward to what Owens would do next.

Well, today he announced that his first solo album, Lysandre, will be coming out January 14th on Turnstile Music.  He also started streaming the first music from that record at Soundcloud.  "Lysandre's Theme / Here We Go" definitely contains all of the emotion of Owens's work with girls, but it's wrapped in a slightly more delicate package.

See for yourself over at Turnstile's Soundcloud.

Missed Cat Power Last Night

Back to Normal

Work drew me out into the world over the last two days.  That, coupled with a desire to spend some time with CoolDaughters 1 & 2, caused me to miss Cat Power's show at Hammerstein Ballroom last night.  I would have loved to go, but I think it was a decent trade-off.

Things are back to normal, and I'm back to taking conference calls from my little hidey-hole.

Here's the video for one of my favorite Cat Power songs featuring an extremely young Chan Marshall.

Honeydrum, Stranger Calls / Do U Party?, 2012

Sunday Bandcamp Discovery Album Review

I get myself into ruts.  As far as this blog goes, fanboyism, laziness, and just allowing myself to get caught up in the hype and promotion that floats around the blogrockisphere day after day sometimes cause me to focus a little too heavily on the "mainstream indie" part of this blog's stated mission.  I decided, therefore, to dig through some of the Bandcamp stuff I've downloaded over the last several months in an effort to pick out something new to review.  Then I remembered Honeydrum.

Honeydrum are a New Brunswick, NJ quartet who have been releasing singles and EP's digitally and on cassette (a format whose revival I'm still not understanding) at a furious clip since 2011.  Honeydrum's songs are short, lo fi / experimental pop confections that generally clock in at under two minutes.  Their Stranger Calls 7" / Do U Party? CD EP is an eight-song collection that comes in a few seconds shy of thirteen minutes.

There are obvious comparisons to make between Honeydrum and L.A.'s Ariel Pink.  "Stranger Calls" and "Oh Donna" stack up well against some of Pink's most infectious pop, and they manage to do that while sounding as though they're coming out of a broken radio or, more appropriately maybe, a cassette player that's seen better days.  Following the slow-grooving sound of "Let's Make a Holiday," the final cut on Stranger Calls, Honeydrum's sound changes.  Do U Party? moves into Murmur-era R.E.M. territory with "Girls on the Radio" and "Can't Wait to Meet You."  The lo fi production remains, but the sound on Do U Party? is slightly darker and less reminiscent of 1970's radio.

I've had Stranger Calls / Do U Party? on repeat all afternoon; and even though the songs are short, they're dense with contrasts between melody and dissonance, the familiar and the surprising.  It will be interesting to see what Honeydrum does on a full-length LP in terms of both sound and the number of songs they'll be able to squeeze into the format.

I really have no excuse for getting into a musical rut.  Even if I restrict myself to New Jersey bands, Bandcamp alone contains enough music to keep me interested for quite some time.  And Honeydrum, along with many others I'm sure, prove that New Jersey music is about much more than punk and straight-ahead rock and roll.

You can check out Stranger Calls / Do U Party? along with quite a bit more from Honeydrum over at the band's Bandcamp page.  If you prefer physical media, you may still be able to get that over at AMDISCS.

With a Whimper Edition

Countdown to Pitchers and Catchers Friday

So the Detroit Tigers eliminated the Yankees from the playoffs while I was heading into NYC to see The Walkmen and Dum Dum Girls.

CoolMom will be happy that I won't have a really good excuse not to be sitting in the room with her while she watches Once Upon A Time or New Girl for at least the next several months.  And I'm kind of happy that it's done.  The 2012 Yankees were a pretty frustrating bunch there at the end.

Go Jets!

Rock on...

The Walkmen, Dum Dum Girls at Terminal 5, New York, NY, October 18th, 2012

The Whole Package

One of the things that's often missing from a mindie rock show is theatricality.  Many times, I think there's either a conscious decision just to get up there and play or a genuine shyness by some of the performers that prevents them from doing anything but reproducing their songs live.  There isn't anything wrong with that.  In a way, it's part of the whole indie aesthetic; and, honestly, if I were a performer that's probably what I would do.

Sometimes, though, a band is the whole package of image and sound.  I got to see two bands last night that wrap their songs in the carefully cultivated images that they bring to their live shows.

There were actually three acts on the bill at last night's Terminal 5 show, and I don't want to leave Daughter out of the discussion.  The London-based trio definitely falls into the just play the music category.  Lead singer and guitarist / bassist Elena Tonra is shy and self-deprecating on stage, but she has a beautiful voice that swirls around her own as well as Igor Haefeli's (sometimes bowed) guitar.  Their songs included lots of slow builds and interesting noise.

Dum Dum Girls took the stage at around 8:45.  Each member was dressed in black.  Lead guitarist Jules and frontwoman / rhythm guitarist Dee Dee twisted in unison on many of the songs, their bangs bouncing back and forth with them.  Speaking of Dee Dee Penny, she is one of the most mesmerizing frontpeople in music.  Each movement appears carefully calculated:  the way she tilts her head, the way she strums a chord.  This, contrasted with the rest of the band's relative stoicism, gives the whole performance the theatrical feel I mentioned before.

And then there are the songs.  The reverb-y garage pop of songs like "Bhang, Bhang, I'm a Burnout" or "Bedroom Eyes" and selections from the band's excellent End of Daze EP like "Lord Knows" and "Season in Hell" sounded and looked great.  Unfortunately, since they were opening, their set ended too soon for me.

I've mentioned before that acts at Terminal 5 are prompt, and The Walkmen came out at just about the stroke of 10.  Lead singer Hamilton Leithauser was dressed in his usual dark suit and tie.  Leithauser is, himself, a distinctive frontperson.  At points in many of the songs, he rears back and lets loose with his high-pitched yell at a level that makes you wonder how he can do it night after night.  He points at the crowd to underline particular lines in the songs.  The band relies on vintage guitars, organ, and upright piano for their sound.  That sound is a jangling, kind of neo-surf coupled with Leithauser's distinctive vocal style.

During their ninety minute set, the band ran through all of the songs that have become mindie classics like "In the New Year," "Angela Surf City," "The Rat," and "We've Been Had" as well as some of the standout cuts from this year's Heaven like "Heaven," "Heartbreaker," and "We Can't Be Beat."  A full horn section joined the band for several songs including "Stranded" from 2010's Lisbon.  With the horns blaring, the drums pounding, the piano tinkling, the guitar jangling, and Leithauser giving it everything he had, you could imagine this music being played in the 40's or 50's; while, at the same time, you realized that the people of that time would have fallen over if they ever heard anything like it.

In all, it was a really great bill that contrasted the simple substance of an up and coming indie band like Daughter with the style of Dum Dum Girls and The Walkmen.  Both of those more established bands brim with the substance necessary to pull off their stylistic choices.

Music geek bonus:  I was able to snag one of the final two free 7" singles that The Walkmen gave out to 100 attendees, and I finally bought the clear-vinyl "Loser Edition" of End of Daze.

Fiona Apple Is an Extraordinary Machine

Fiona Apple at The Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank, NJ, October 15th, 2012

Both of my daughters were born in Red Bank, NJ.  They're quick to point that out at any mention of the town.  They also know that they share that birthplace with William "Count" Basie.  The kids have no idea who that is, but they know that they've performed a few dance recitals and seen several musicals and ballets at the Red Bank theater that bears his name.

When I was a kid, the place was known as The Monmouth Arts Center.  Right around the time I went to high school, I think, it got its current name.  It's a really nice vaudeville-era theater with a capacity of around 1500.  In the last five or ten years, restoration projects have resulted in new, historically accurate seating as well as restoration to the theater's paint job.

The Count Basie hosts lots of performances by the New Jersey and Monmouth County Orchestras.  There are a few musical productions a year by Red Bank's Phoenix Productions (High School Musical, Legally Blonde, etc.).  Several national acts per year move through Red Bank on their way to and from New York City.  I've seen B.B. King, George Carlin, and Louis CK there over the years.  Last Friday, I noticed that Fiona Apple would be playing The Basie.  The convenience of the show and the quality of Apple's latest album, The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do, made it impossible for me to pass on this one.

Apparently, not everyone in the area felt the same way I did.  Granted, it was Monday night; but I was surprised to see the orchestra barely three-quarters full.  I'm not sure what the balcony looked like, but I'd expected a sold-out show.

As an opener, Apple's touring band took the stage one by one, fronted by her guitarist Blake Mills.  They played Mills's brand of mellow, country-tinged folk pop.  Mills is an excellent guitar player and used an interesting set of gutiars, from a Danelectro (a brand that originated in Red Bank, NJ) to several  that looked like he had cobbled them together from various Stratocaster and Telecaster parts.  They closed their set with a really great cover of "Sleepwalk."

Apple took the stage at around 9:15 and opened with "Fast As You Can" from 1999's When the Pawn...  Her angular, jittery movements gave the impression of an energetic bird on the stage -- a bird that could sing both booming lows and otherworldly highs.  She took to the piano for the next two songs, and did an excellent rendition of 1996's "Shadowboxer."  Even at 35, Apple is able to fill a song that she wrote as a teenager with soul and emotion.

The Idler Wheel... is Apple's most stripped down album to date.  It retains much of the jazz and Broadway influences of her earlier work.  The songs, though, are mostly Apple on piano accompanied by various forms of percussion (including, apparently, bottles being thrown down a flight of stairs).  The songs from that record, though, -- especially "Periphery," "Werewolf," and "Every Single Night" -- became something even more when accompanied by Apple's movements, commitment, and the full band.

Throughout the show, Apple urgently fiddled with her long hair, tying it in a bun, putting it into a ponytail, letting it flow freely.  She swilled water like she'd just come in from the desert.  There was a single moment other than her final "Thank you" when Apple acknowledged the audience. She approached the mic, panting, following an instrumental jam that saw her pounding the stage on all fours.  She started to say something about the disorientation of emerging from the ocean and just cut it off with, "F*ck it! Nobody ever knows what I'm talking about!"  The show lasted ninety minutes.  There was no encore.

Apple showed everything you would have expected last night:  her quirky, introverted personality, her commitment to her music, and her immense talent.  The Count Basie Theatre provided an excellent venue for her particular style -- much better than Terminal 5 in New York where she'll spend the next two evenings.  I only wish it had been sold out.

Titus Andronicus, Local Business, 2012

Couldn't Wait Until Next Week Album Review

There are multiple universes.  For the purposes of our discussion here let's focus on two.  There's The Universe.  You know.  The big picture.  Everything.  And, then, there's the universe that everyone lives in inside their own heads.

At some point, you realize either, like Titus Andronicus frontman Patrick Stickles on "Ecce Homo", that "there's nothing in [T]he [U]niverse with any kind of objective purpose" or that you're too small and insignificant for it to matter whether or not that's actually true.  That leaves you to exert control over your own smaller universe.

On 2010's, The Monitor, Patrick Stickles chronicled the emotional turmoil caused by the dissolution of his relationship and placed it all into the context of the American Civil War.  The album's title, a literal reference to the Union's ironclad warship, suggests introspection, self-analysis, and a focus on that inner universe.  I was forty years old then. Patrick Stickles wrote those songs in his early twenties.  The empathy that I felt for "our hero" on that record wasn't of the "hey, Patrick, I've been there" variety.  Instead, it was, "I'm fifteen years older than you, and I still have these feelings all the time."  I still question my present and fear my future.  The civil war between my heart and my head still rages.  So maybe it's possible that there's something, I don't know, universal about all of our personal, little universes.

Local Business finds Patrick Stickles comfortable with, or at least resigned to, his place in The Universe.  Once that's out of the way, he can look at what his values are and start to construct his inner universe around them.  He self-deprecatingly refers to himself as a "relevant dude" or a "drop in a deluge of hipsters," making fun of image-conscious, indie, blog-rock culture while still acknowledging that he and his band are part of it.  He observes drivers moving past a fatal car accident so wrapped up in their own universes that they can only grit their teeth and curse the fact that the wreck is keeping them from their next appointment or their coffee, and you get the sense that he hopes he can be different.  His own eating disorder becomes a metaphor for taking control of moral decisions as he sings, "I decide what goes inside my body."

Like The Monitor, Local Business is packed with references.  Most importantly, though, there are several references back to the first two Titus Andronicus LP's.  Through song titles ("Upon Viewing Oregon's Landscape with the Flood of Detritus") and lyrics ("1-2-3-4-5-6-7 angels don't come around no more"), Stickles connects all three albums and provides context for his developing world view.

Local Business is dense thematically and lyrically; but it's, above all, a rock and roll record with a sense of humor.  The record explores the inherent meaninglessness of our place in the universe through songs with titles like "Still Life with Hot Deuce and Silver Platter" or "Titus Andronicus vs. The Absurd Universe (3rd Round TKO)."  It includes several fist-pump ready, pop punk sing-a-long opportunities, pounding drum intros, and big guitar solos.  I've already seen a few of the songs performed live, and they're scorchers.

Local Business follows a pattern set by another New Jersey rocker.  It's a follow-up to an almost overly-ambitious, unfollowuppable, critical success that tones down some of the epic feel of its predecessor.  Local Business may not have as many revelatory moments as The Monitor, but its relative economy makes it a success on its own terms.  And even within those tighter confines, Local Business is able to get a forty-two year-old head nodding along with the album's twenty-seven year-old narrator.  "What I did, I did / Who I am, I am / Then a stupid kid / Now a stupid man."  Keep on working, Patrick.  It doesn't get any easier.

You can stream Local Business, which comes out next week on XL Recordings, until its release over at NPR.

"Let's Go" Yankees Edition

Friday Afternoon Elimination Game

Since MLB / TBS have decided to put Game 5 of the Yankees / Orioles series on at 5:07, I'll likely be out enjoying dinner with the family for much of the action.  Yankees Curtis Granderson, Nick Swisher, and Robinson Cano should keep this in mind as they execute their carefully orchestrated plan to torment me.  I won't be around to see any of it.

Matt & Kim put out a hilarious "Awkward Family Photos"-inspired video for their song, "Let's Go," this week.  As that song is destined to play at sporting venues around the country for decades to come, I thought it would be appropriate for this afternoon.

Go Yanks!

And rock on...

Let's Go from Matt and Kim

The Everymen, New Jersey Hardcore, 2012

Wednesday Run Album Review

Disappointment again Tuesday as I was unable to find the record I was looking for at my local shop.  I'd gone out to grab some lunch and, hopefully, score the vinyl for A.C. Newman's Shut Down the Streets; but it looks like I'll be ordering that one, too.  My frustration turned to happiness, though, when I got home and discovered that the mail had brought with it New Jersey Hardcore (Killing Horse Records) by Tuckerton's The Everymen.  I spent the evening listening to the record and took it with me for a run this morning right after the rain finally stopped.

I almost think this record could have been called New Jersey. Hardcore. or Hardcore New Jersey, because The Everymen's sound really isn't anything close to hardcore; but, to me anyway, it's unmistakably New Jersey.  It's the New Jersey of the beautifully derelict structure of Asbury Park's Casino right next to the beach, the New Jersey of the tightly-packed, tin-ceilinged bars of Hoboken and Jersey City.  Guitars and sax along with the vocals of Mike V. and Catherine Herrick give The Everymen an early punk sound that generates -- some probably over-romanticized by me -- images of a mid 1970s rock band tearing up bars along the Jersey Shore.

"We could all be doin' a little bit better.  Just a little better," says the subject of "Joey & The Neighborhood."  It's a short, spoken-word recording, but it does a nice job of setting the tone for the rest of the record.  There aren't going to be any intricately programmed synths or carefully selected samples.  Instead, New Jersey Hardcore is simple rock and roll.  "Dance Only, Only Dance" and "With the Boys," with their big guitar chords and "bah, bah, bah" sax, are just that.  Single and album standout "Coney Island High," a reference to the 1990's East Village punk venue, features Catherine Herrick singing about a girl who's "sick and tired of that pleated skirt and polo shirt and book bag" and just wants to score a ticket to a rock show.

There are influences other than proto-punk garage rock here, too.  "Novocaine" could be an homage to Elvis Costello's "The Big Light" from King of America.  Album closer "Yellow Sunday Dress" mirrors some of the new wave Americana from that same record.

New Jersey Hardcore doesn't break any new ground musically, but I don't think that's the point.  The Everymen tap into some of that primal appreciation that we all have for a simple, solid rock and roll song.  Even if you're into some more modern or innovative sounds, turning up New Jersey Hardcore should allow you to forget that you could be doin' just a little better.  For about thirty minutes anyway.  And despite the fact that the music business may take at least a few of The Everymen across the river to Brooklyn or Manhattan if it hasn't already, they do their thing here in fine New Jersey style.

Sharon Van Etten on Jools

"Serpents"

Nutley native Sharon Van Etten's performance from Later... with Jools Holland earlier this week.  So great.

ATP really screwed us when they moved I'll Be Your Mirror from Asbury Park to NYC.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

First Attempt at a Book Review

CoolMom and I have this thing we do where one of us recommends a book to the other that the other, for various reasons, never reads.  "Oh, the book I've had on reserve for a month just arrived."  "I want to finish the last book in this series first."  It's weird.

Almost every time one of us breaks this pattern, though, the results are positive.   I spent months trying to get CoolMom to read The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi.  When she finally did, she loved it.  I'm currently trying to get her to start Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim series without much success.  CoolMom's been working on me to read Ernest Cline's 2011 novel, Ready Player One, for the last several months.  I finally gave in, and I'm glad I did.

Ready Player One takes place in the post-peak oil year of 2044.  Much of the world lives in poverty, and the only escape for almost everyone is the massively multiplayer online universe of the OASIS, a virtual reality created by James Halliday and Ogden Morrow.  Upon his death, James Halliday, whose avatar in the OASIS is called Anorak, releases a short film called Anorak's Invitation.  The film outlines a contest.  In short, three keys that open three gates are hidden somewhere in the OASIS.  The first player to find all three keys and to clear all three gates will inherit Halliday's considerable fortune along with a controlling interest in Gregarious Simulation Systems, the company Halliday and Morrow formed that controls the OASIS.   The prize becomes known as "Halliday's Easter Egg," and those who devote their lives to searching for it are egg hunters or "gunters."

James Halliday grew up in the 1980's, obsessed with video games and the pop culture of the time.  Players in his OASIS have a guarantee of privacy and pay no fees beyond the single quarter required to begin.  In an effort to locate the egg, gunters obsessively study 1980's pop culture for possible clues to the locations of the three keys.  Those scouring the OASIS for the egg include organized gunter clans and the ruthless IOI corporation that wants to control and commercialize the OASIS.  The novel's main character is Wade O. Watts, known as Parzival in the OASIS, a solo gunter and impoverished high school student.

The novel proceeds much as you might expect given the setup.  Parzival and his friends Art3mis, Aech ("H"), Shoto, and Daito battle the evil IOI to be the first to find Halliday's Easter Egg.  While the plot is conventional and movie theater-ready, the constant references to touchpoints from my own early years made this book something special for me.

In trying to understand Halliday's mind, Parzival becomes expert at early coin-op video games like Space Invaders, Pac Man, Joust, Defender, and Tempest.  He obsessively watches films like War Games, Real Genius, Ladyhawke, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  The "sitting room" in his virtual stronghold on the planetoid Falco is a replica of the living room from Family Ties.  Tandy's TRS-80, the Commodore 64, Atari's 2600 and all of its games figure prominently in the plot along with the music of Rush, Oingo Boingo, Frank Zappa, and Schoolhouse Rock.  And the entire novel is one, big tribute to the work of William Gibson with its corporatist dystopia and its virtual reality in which people can live out the past and even the dead speak to you as if they'd never gone.

My friends and I experienced, in the real world, almost all of the technology and pop culture that the characters in the OASIS experience virtually.  We sat on real basement sofas and argued over movies the way Aech and Parzival do in Aech's "basement."  We watched Monty Python movies together on cable or VHS.  We played Asteroids and Defender in the mall or at bowling alleys, and we challenged each other to games of Pitfall on the Atari or Jump Man on the Commodore 64.

With Ready Player One, Ernest Cline has created a little virtual reality in which I can go back to that time and, in a way, talk to someone as if he'd never really gone.

Zombie Walk Edition

Playlist to Accompany Your Shambling

Not sure if I'll be able to convince the family to participate in Asbury Park's 2012 Zombie Walk as anything more than spectators.

Here's a short playlist to pump into your own decaying ears if you plan on being among the undead or just to help get you through the apocalypse.

Rise and walk!

And rock on...

Heaven's Gate and "Powergaze"

High Riser 7"

This sampling of Heaven's Gate's upcoming EP has been around since about the beginning of the year, and I'm not quite sure how I missed this band.  They are, obviously, my kind of thing.  I've already gone ahead and ordered the 7", which manages to pack in seven tracks and comes out on Fire Talk Records... soon, I guess.

The vocals and shoegaze-y riffs combine to create some short snippets of MBV-esque bliss.

Over at Heaven's Gate's Bandcamp site, one of the tags is "powergaze."  It's shoegaze without any fillers or additives.

The Mountain Goats, Transcendental Youth, 2012

Just a Plain, Old Album Review

You'd think I'd be really into The Mountain Goats.  John Darnielle is an excellent and prolific songwriter.  He's got kind of a quriky singing voice and a great sense of humor.  And while I've loved everything by The Mountain Goats that I've ever heard, I haven't heard much.  I came to the game late, and the task of familiarizing myself with the band's entire catalog has just seemed so daunting.  I've resolved to make a dent in that task, however.  Yesterday's release of Transcendental Youth on Merge (a label that's been having an amazing year, by the way) provided me with the perfect opportunity.

"Do every stupid thing that makes you feel alive," Darnielle sings as he opens the album on "Amy aka Spent Gladiator 1."  Right there the theme is set.  Transcendental Youth is full of characters who heed the advice on that opening track to "let people call you crazy for the choices that you make" and to "just stay alive." The record doesn't play like a motivational speaking engagement, though.  Some of those choices are darker than simple teenage abandon.  "You can't judge us / You're not the judge," says the narrator about his life of drug use and dealing on "Lakeside View Apartments Suite."  "In Memory of Satan," with lines like "But no one screams, 'cause it's just me," and the title track -- "Sing for ourselves alone" -- both deal with people choosing to cut themselves off from the rest of the world.

In other places on the record, characters' natures, rather than their choices, place them on the fringes of society.  "Cry for Judas," with its chorus of "Long black night / Morning frost / I'm still here / But all is lost," is an up-tempo song about those who, rather than falling down and getting back up again as a better person, never actually learn from their mistakes.  The main character in "Counterfeit Florida Plates" is homeless and mentally ill, but the song bops happily along as he digs through the trash and supports himself against a tree so he won't fall to the ground when he passes out from hunger.

The music on Transcendental Youth is a far cry from The Mountain Goats' early, lo-fi recordings.  Many of the songs include a full horn section.  That, and the way in which all of the tracks are connected thematically, give the whole record a cinematic feel.

In his own comments on Transcendental Youth, John Darnielle promised that parenthood wouldn't turn him soft.  He's stuck to that.  The characters on Transcendental Youth make what some would consider some bad choices and have some hard lives.  When we meet them, though, they've all managed to "stay alive" in spite of it all.

Transcendental Youth is a strong album and an emotional listen.  I only wish I could comment more on where it sits among the rest of The Mountain Goats' catalog.  Give me a couple of weeks, and I'll let you know.

Purity Ring, Shrines, 2012

Monday Run Album Review

The body is the temple of the soul.  If you don't go in for that religious type stuff then how about this:  A person's true self is somewhere underneath all of that sweat, blood, flesh, and bone.  I found myself thinking along these lines today as I took Purity Ring's Shrines out with me on my lunchtime run.  I also thought about Robocop.

Purity Ring are instrumentalist Corin Roddick and lyricist / vocalist Megan James.  Shrines is the Montreal duo's highly-anticipated, debut LP.  The album came out in July and could be called electro-pop, I guess; which is why it's taken me this long to get around to reviewing it.  As I mentioned in my review of Grimes's Visions, electronic music falls somewhat outside my comfort zone.  For an album brimming with so many inorganic sounds, Shrines places a great deal of focus on the human body.

James's voice is extremely girlish, almost childlike.  I found myself wondering at times, like this New York Times interviewer, whether that was due to some studio effect; but Roddick admits in the article that he actually tries to remove some of that quality during the mixing stage.  It's, mostly, her natural voice; and it provides for an interesting contrast to hear James sing "Cut open my sternum and pull, my little ribs around you..." in that child's voice on single "Fineshrine."  The other contrast comes from the constant references to skin, thighs, flesh, teeth, ears, knuckles, bellies, bones, hips, eyes, and legs over Roddick's electronic beats and melodies.  From album opener "Crawlersout," on which James sings, "They'll cover the hills with their sweet flesh and soft nails," to album closer "Shuck," where she sings, "I'll take up your guts to the little shed outside," just about every song on the album is a cyborg-like combination of the organic and the electronic.

That's what got me thinking about RoboCop.  Throughout that movie, RoboCop has flashbacks to his life as a human being, though he appears to be much more machine than man.  At the end of the film, after he kills the bad guy, he's asked for his name.  He replies, "Murphy."  Turns out he was in there all along.

That's kind of what's going on with Shrines.  Roddick's music is intricate, pristine, programmed, and precise.  It's sure to satisfy fans of electronica, and it has enough hooks to keep rockists like me interested.  The soul of Shrines, though, can be found in James's lyrics which are comfortingly, messily human.

Bands Don't Make Any Money

Grizzly Bear in New York Magazine

There's a really fantastic article about Grizzly Bear over at New York Magazine's Vulture.  The article goes into some detail about how difficult it is for bands to make a decent living. CoolMom and I were talking about just that over dinner last night.

I can't tell you the number of shows I've been to where acts -- some legendary -- were setting up and breaking down their own sets, crawling around on the stage, taping down cables, etc.  Twitter is littered with evidence that, for many of the artists that I love so dearly, a successful album or two or three doesn't translate into a life of luxury, or even middle classness.  Not all of the members of Grizzly Bear even have health insurance.  This amazes me, but I guess it shouldn't.

The article mentions that Veckatimest, Grizzly Bear's second LP, has sold approximately 220,000 copies to date.  That is a monster in the world of mindie.  Contrast that, though, with someone like Taylor Swift.  Her first three albums have sold over 4,000,000 copies -- EACH!

Sadly, I think to some extent, the mindiesphere takes some pride in the fact that even "Indie-Rock Royalty" isn't sure that they'll be able to earn a living next year.  It kind of adds to a band's street cred that they can't afford roadies and are in it for the love of the music.  That's great, and I'm sure many (maybe all of them) are in it for just that reason.  But they gotta eat and pay rent if you want them to keep making music.

So, if you really like some band, buy their damn album.  You can do a heck of a lot worse than Shields.  Freaking album is great.