Another review for Paste Magazine – Brooklyn trio Parts & Labor’s new album, Constant Future.
Published Work
Review: Young Galaxy – Shapeshifting (Paper Bag)
I’m contributing to Paste Magazine again after a hiatus of a few years. They have scaled back from print to web-only, but they are still doing a good job covering music, TV, film, and more. Here’s my review of Young Galaxy’s new album, Shapeshifting.
Review: Telekinesis – 12 Desperate Straight Lines (Merge)
Telekinesis‘ sophomore album made me take notice. Read why in my review for Blurt below.
Telekinesis, the fuzzy pop project from Michael Benjamin Lerner, crafts simple, exuberant, heartwarming rock and roll. Lerner is well aware of the power of the power chord, the emotive effects of loud-quiet-loud, and the eerie potency that his upper register vocals have, quavering above the 12 addictive nuggets on his new album.
12 Desperate Straight Lines gets going with unwavering aplomb, as Lerner sings about a summer-spring romance over strummed acoustic guitar. Then the bass kicks in, the overdrive-coated instrument at the core of the album. He says he was inspired by Mark Robinson’s Flin Flon project for Teenbeat, and wrote the new record’s songs mostly on bass. It’s a good idea, especially when combined with the spindly guitar lines and flange-effected drums of a song like “Please Ask For Help.” “50 Ways” slows things down a bit, bringing The Clean to mind on its sparse verses before a Weezer-style anthemic chorus punches in. Such effects may be due in part to Death Cab For Cutie’s Chris Walla’s hand on the production tiller here, resulting in a crystal clear and extremely warm sound that serves Lerner’s songwriting well.
This is straight-up power pop projected through a vulnerably personal filter of life and love, but the songs never feel contrived. Each has its own distinctive personality, and at less than three minutes apiece, there are no frills. Yes, there are recognizable elements here, but that’s part of the pleasure. Lerner’s current touring lineup consists of sometime Robert Pollard bandmate Jason Narducy on bass and Jaguar Love and ex-Blood Brothers member Cody Votolato on guitar. So Lerner’s playing drums and singing on tour, and making better music than Phil Collins can even dream of (at least as of late). 12 Desperate Straight Lines is the proof.
Live Review: Joan of Arc @ Mercury Lounge 2/1/11
I reviewed the excellent Joan of Arc show last night at The Mercury Lounge for the Village Voice. Read all about it here.
Review: Verbal Kent – Save Yourself
Chicago MC Verbal Kent’s latest reviewed for Blurt.
Chicago-based MC Verbal Kent isn’t exactly a hip-hop household name, and maybe this is partially his own fault – in his press release, he claims to have never “shopped” one of his independently released records. But money, fame, and popularity don’t seem to matter to the rapper. Instead, he focuses on using his sinister sounding voice to spit thought-provoking lyrics while working with producers and other MCs of the highest caliber, known and unknown. In other words, as his new album, Save Yourself, attests to, it’s the craft of hip-hop that concerns him, not the flash.
Save Yourself opens with the ominously intoned “Same,” a track which finds Kent explaining that, “This isn’t the same song spit to the same beat.” Indeed. Of course, neither is “Take,” a bouncing number whose charm can be credited to the legendary Pete Rock’s bombastic old-school beat production. “Give me that, give me back real hip-hop. Give me that, take that real hip-hop” goes the chorus. One can only imagine that Kent was just as excited to work with Sadat X and Edo G on “My City,” a song on which each defends and extols his city (Chicago, NYC, and Boston accordingly). Granted, Sadat can make almost any track sound nice, but Marco Polo’s textured, luxurious beat offers a lot of mileage here.
Of course, everything in between is pretty solid as well – and don’t ignore “Last Laugh” near the end of the album, featuring Masta Ace and a Madlib on mushrooms beat by Varan. Verbal Kent remains a champion of the underground, and he’s probably not going to crack the top 40 anytime soon. As long as he keeps making solid albums like this, he’ll get what he deserves and craves, in his own words, “to be part of hip-hop history.”
Review: Ducktails – Ducktails III: Arcade Dynamics (Woodsist)
Real Estate guitarist is also Ducktails. Read my review for Blurt here or below.
Real Estate guitarist Matthew Mondanile’s solo side venture, Ducktails, carries on the tradition of lo-fi, short but sweet (although occasionally meanderingly jammy) experimental pop psychedelics of bands like Ariel Pink, War on Drugs, and great-grandaddies Guided By Voices. His third album, recorded at home without a whole lot of production value, sounds as such, but that’s exactly the appeal. His slightly muffled vocals and bright guitar tones render songs like the Dylan-esque “Hamilton Road” and the lilting “Killin’ the Vibe” charming in their simplicity. And at times, Mondanile gets interestingly weird, as on the spooky echo thumps of “The Razor’s Edge” or the stoned picking of the album’s last track, “Porch Projector.”
There are admittedly moments here when one wonders what the big deal is, as upon first pass, some of these songs sound like tunes any semi-capable basement musician could record him or herself. But taken as a whole, there’s something beyond the norm going on, a penchant for crafting concise nuggets of indie pop that skirt the border of oddity and make this album worth adding to your rotation.
Review: Thunderball – 12 Mile High (ESL Music)
Another review for Blurt, this time of the crappy boutique hotel-ready electronica from Washington, D.C.’s Thunderball.
Thunderball’s new album for the Washington, D.C.-based label, ESL Music, is slickly produced musical ennui, but it’s not really the trio’s fault. This type of lounge-y, electronic-based “world” music is nice for boutique hotel lobbies, but what’s essentially upgraded elevator music just doesn’t interest or delight at all – not to mention the fact that it’s damn hard to dance to.
So what’s the problem? Maybe it’s Thunderball’s supposed range. The album opens with “Enter the Brahmin,” a sitar-infused breakbeat track that bobs along, never breaking midtempo. Jump forward a few tracks to “Dub Science,” and suddenly Thunderball is dipping into reggae and dub with guest vocalist Zeebo crooning about sinsemilla. Then, just to see if you’re paying attention, the group gives you “Low Down Weather,” which is essentially smooth jazz. Sigh. So it goes, and so goes what passes these days for metropolitan, erudite, electronic music.
Review: Anika – Anika (Stones Throw)
I like how Stones Throw is expanding. This new album by the singer Anika, backed by Portishead’s Geoff Barrow, is really excellent. Read my review for Blurt here.
Taken at its actual semantic worth, the term “minimal,” when applied to music, should imply something pretty easy to pull off. The reality, however, couldn’t be farther from the truth. So many bands try to make “minimal” music that is actually just uninspired, talentless, or lazy. The new self-titled album from a singer named Anika, however, manages to be minimal, exciting, and varied all at the same time.
Anika’s success is no doubt helped immensely by the production from Portishead member Geoff Barrow’s band, Beak>. It’s not hard to recognize the Portishead aesthetic here, especially on a song like “The End of the World,” featuring a scattered snare beat and descending bassline that sounds like something off of Dummy. The overall musical feeling here is downtown NYC sometime around the late ’70s and early ’80s, or perhaps The Clash’s experiments in disco and dub, or PIL’s early deconstructed punk rock. Whatever the case, Anika’s Nico-esque vocals, vaguely foreign accent intact, are appealing as she intones (you can’t really call what she does singing) over a bevy of… wait for it… minimal beats.
Covering Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War” as a simple dub tune, just reverb-soaked snare hits and a thumping bassline, may not sound like such a good idea, but it works well for Anika and Beak>. Songs like “Sadness Hides The Sun” and the opening track, “Terry,” are, at their core, broken down folk songs. Anika’s simple vocal melody morosely drones over scattered instrumentation, creating something completely new out of conventions you may recognize. Minimal? Yes. Perhaps a bit cold? Sure, but the songs on this album are complex in their emotion and unique in their construction, and that makes this one shine in this nascent new year.
Subaru Drive Magazine – Death Valley: Land of Extremes
I recently wrote my first article for Subaru Drive Magazine, a travel piece about a trip to Death Valley that my wife, Hannah, and I took a few years ago. Read it here and notice how I only had to mention my Subaru once.
Interview – Steven Blush, author of American Hardcore
Last month, I interviewed Steven Blush, whose book, American Hardcore, detailing the rise and fall of hardcore punk from 1980-1986, was recently given the second edition treatment. Read my interview for Blurt here and watch the trailer for the documentary of the same name below.
Jonah Flicker 