From the bluesy chords of “This is Not a Song” to the indie-country sounding snare-riding of “Hallways”, A Sleep & A Forgetting by Islands is sometimes a slow foot shuffle of indie rock and sometimes a Happy Days sock hop that has all the pop-like craftsmanship of slow Weezer songs, the cloudy air of The Shins, and just a tiny, tiny pinch of Spandau Ballet. If you want energizing, mood-lifting music, Islands aren’t giving it to you here, but if you believe in the truths found staring out into cold midnight rain, those photos of still life that still feel lifeless, or need something to curl up into a ball and stop thinking to at 3 in the morning, this is an album worth picking up.
This album in a lot of ways makes me feel like it’s a compilation of all the best riffs written in rock history combined into one concept, the intro and verses of “Never Go Solo” are married to the driving power ballad piano chords that define it, even when it gets thick and gurgling with sound. “Can’t Feel My Face” has all the electric organs a fan of Byrds-era psychedelia can ask for while still having that go-go American Bandstand pop background to it. Each song here is like when a song gets one part perfect that gets the entire bar going, then is distilled and bent to fit the needs of its new performance.
A Sleep & A Forgetting’s biggest weakness is also sort of its biggest strength – It’s a little one-note at times, being mostly soft-spoken and melodic, it’s not so easy to relate to without the mood to match. At the same time, each song is different enough that the minor variations keep the album from getting stale at any point, and it becomes a sort of exercise on how to express the same emotions eleven different yet very effective ways. From the doo-wop rock of “No Crying” to twangs and distortion of “Don’t I Love You”. Islands doesn’t so much skip genre as influence, putting together a competent display of musical ability.
Holy fuck it’s new Ladyhawke! I’ll admit after the first listen I’m not too excited for what else will be on the new album but her debut album was so fucking rad that I’m still gonna be ingesting it all in like a fat kid stuck in an ice cream cake freezer at Dairy Queen.
It’s early onset Apples In Stereo. Enjoy the 80’s VHS goodness.
Put on your legwarmers and hi-tops, because The Holiday Crowd’s debut EP Over the Bluffs sounds like it was the very thing written for John Cusack to be awkwardly in love to while Molly Ringwald shows us all that there’s a lot of societal pressure to being a teenage girl. This is a band that is going to be plagued by comparisons for their entire career for the bands that obviously influence them, and it takes exactly 30 seconds of any song of theirs to convince and unconvince yourself a dozen times that it’s really, for example, The Smiths you’ve been listening to all along.
I always appreciate music like this, that feels so out of its time that what better time is there than now to listen to it? The combination Colin Bowers’ jangly, almost island-style guitar playing and singer Imran Haniff’s throaty wails call into mind all the great bands who were making a name for alternative music thirty years ago. This isn’t a matter of pretending and emulating something they’re not. The Holiday Crowd could have been an easy hit in John Peel’s book, landed in a spattering of John Waters film soundtracks, and lip-synched their songs on Top of the Pops, and nobody would bat an eye.
One of the really great things about this EP is that it knows its time is limited, and so it minces nothing. From the very beginning you get a clear picture of what you’re going to be listening to, and it stays true throughout. If you like the first minute, you’ll like the other twenty. Lead track “Never Speak of it Again” is an absolutely beautiful piece of songwriting that is as good for the isolationist, blustery days leading into spring as it is for your theme-costume throwback parties. “Pennies Found” is everything Morrissey would have ever asked for in a song and more.
Ask and Ye Shall Receive! A while back “Robot Dick” was our SOD and we loved it long time and hoped we could hear it live with a backing band. Well folks this little gem got dropped in my inbox this week and I gotta say I’m not disappointed in the slightest. The band sounds tight and his voice sounds just as good as the recording. Bourbon Legend, you keep that shit up.
I immediately began sharing this video to whoever was around me per my normal operating procedure when a new Die Antwoord video comes out. Not only will the song make you hit repeat over and over again but the videos are always little nuggets of original content inspired by a TOOL video. So they are entertaining to say the least. I kept waiting for someone to scream “MORTAL KOMBAT” at one point during the song but alas it didn’t but but but they did smash a pair of those overpriced piece of shit Dr.Dre headphones. I’ve been wanting to run half naked into a Best Buy screaming the lyrics to Hall & Oates “Rich Girl” and begin smashing those atrocities with a hammer for quite awhile, now thanks to Die Antwoord I can delay that Sunday activity for just a little bit longer. Thank you Die Antwoord, thank you.
Plants and Animals have put me in a precarious position. On the one hand, what I’ve heard off their latest album The End of That has me in an anticipatory fit. On the other, it’s not out yet. So how about a primer? Let’s have a look at their previous album, La La Land, which is, it seems, just as adept at blending infectiously simple guitar strums with the subtlest of synthesizers to create something with layers and depth in a way that seems almost too simple. The good news is that it all sounds cloudy and punctuated in its own excellent way.
To draw a line between what Plants and Animals do with some other genre of music, I think their sound is fairly progressive, but in a hushed, muted way. Somewhere between Modest Mouse and Rush, Plants and Animals have carved their names in the bark. Though the guitars and the vocals resonate so well off each other that one could fall asleep in the middle, the sharpness of the percussion keeps you from losing yourself. Listen to the second and third tracks (“Swinging Bells” and “American Idol”) one after the other and you can feel the seamlessness that the band moves from 1960’s native psychedelia to its edgier 90’s revival.
Jack White is releasing a solo album and here happens to be the first single. It’s not bad but not Jack White caliber, cant wait to hear the new album but help but think he is doing this so people will forget his work with Insane Clown Posse a while back. Nice try Jack, nice try.