Friday, November 24, 2006

Yo La Tengo, "I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass"

I have patiently and repeatedly requested an Animal Collective album composed of nothing but two-minute pop songs plus a couple of twelve-minute epics. In a stroke of dumb luck, one band seemingly channelled my plea through the ether and actually made that record.

The new Yo La Tengo album sounds like the rebirth of a band that looked to be stagnating after the release of the ignorably pleasant "Summer Sun". Even the album title sounds like the work of a newly motivated band. It's a diverse record on par with "I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One", where Velvet-y garage rock rubs shoulders with songs made for holding hands while whistling in the park. Nearly everything is reined into short, three minute bursts. "I Should Have Known Better" and "Watch Out for Me Ronnie" rip through the heart of the album like bolts of lightning, channeling 60's garage-punk like it's always been their calling. These are the types of tracks I figured they couldn't be bothered making these days. On the other side of the coin, "Sometimes I Don't Get You" and "The Weakest Part" are upbeat, enchanting love songs -- very distinct from the more conflict-driven relationship dramas from "And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out".

But the highlight of the album, if not their career, is the closer, "The Story Of Yo La Tengo". I always found "I Heard You Looking" and "Blue Line Swinger" to be album lowlights, blustery attempts to indulge in jam band fantasies just for the sake of it. However, "The Story of ..." ... this is IT, the minimal, monochord epic masterpiece they've been shooting for all along ... "Sugarcube" arranged by Spiritualized, with more than ten minutes of shredding guitars, chaotic horns, making this (among other things) the best Stooges song ever.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Several Bands Galore Volume 1

A couple of weeks ago, one of my longest ever music-related searches finally came to a close. Tracking down the precursor compilation to one of my favourite albums of 2000 was far tougher than I ever would have expected. Volume II occassionally floats around used CD shops and the internet, but I've never seen Volume I anywhere. It's perpetually sold out on sites like Insound, never surfaces in stores -- it had seemingly vanished without a trace. Enter slsk, where at long last I found two users sharing a copy. Cop out, you say? What's that, it doesn't count if you find an album through file sharing? Ordinarily I'd agree. You think this album isn't rare? Most CDs can be found in more than two stores worldwide.

After initially snagging five or six tracks from these two (at glacially slow d/l rates), we didn't cross paths for over a month (and/or I was relegated to the bottom of their massive queues). Then my hard drive died. I lost those tracks, along with my userlist, and had to track down SBG1 from the beginning. Finally, I lucked upon a fast connection -- a few hours before I was to board a plane! I kept downloading almost literally until it was time to walk out the door and leave for the airport (forgetting my sound card in Canada as a result of the rush), with about 2/3rds of the album in my possession. Two months and one internet connection later, I began another waiting game. From this point forward, one of the two users wasn't seen online at all, but eventually, at the average rate of one track every two weeks or so (the time it took for me to reach the front of the queue + be simultaneously online with this person), I completed the album. After SIX MONTHS OF DOWNLOADING I can finally say thank you very much to hinomiyagura2 and youyouryours, whoever you guys are.

Stupidly, I previously decided I would wait until getting the entire album before listening to any of it. One dead hard drive later, I was back to square one and armed with a new strategy: listen as things progress but wait until I have the entire album before writing anything about it. So finally, after this ridiculously extended intro (written mainly to amuse myself -- note to myself, if you (meaning me) are reading this in five years, this is how the entire mess went down, ffs) I can tell you this. What an AWESOME, amazing compilation this is. Easily better than the first.

From the opening snare cracks of Pantone's "Away" (clearly meant to kick off this comp just like "Only Shallow" did on "Loveless"), it's clear that the music will stick closer to MBV's noise-pop blueprint than the more schizophrenic SBGII. Heavy on fuzzy, sugary pop, the spirit of "Isn't Anything" is all over this album. The two Pantone tracks encapsulate this feeling perfectly -- good luck finding two-minute singalong ear-bleeders that are as good as these. SBGII had a few too many lapses into mildly distorted indie rock, but on SBGI there are a lot more hardcore MBV fetishes on display. It's more consistently dazzling in comparison to its successor, more bouncy, more hummable, and more fun.

Death drones are well represented by the likes Sideband's "Sensory Deprivation" and the creaking husk of Lemur's Earth/Sunn0)))-esque "Glacial Shift". It winds up with a slight diversion into twee pop (Psychic Hearts), goth (Myth Mechanic, whose track fits perfectly with the general style of this album, never mind rock and roll, maybe all good music really does turn into goth in the end), and a final, roaring ambient drone climax with Lukewarm's "Licorice" (which sounds like a lost between-song interlude from the "Loveless" sessions -- a far stronger effort their track that opened SBGII, "Mogwai Fear Lukewarm").

Whatever happened to Several Bands Galore Volume 3-382, anyway?

Friday, November 03, 2006

2006 MTV Europe Music Awards

Five Good Things:

1. Contortionists handing over the award envelopes. Freak damn.

2. The setup. It's a bit redundant to comment "the venue looked nice" in reference to a music awards show (particularly the EMAs, where the design always ressembles a futuristically-minded Euro-club), but the dome-pod was saturated with neon (reminiscent of the look of Daft Punk's now legendary Coachella show) and the stage was stacked with so much smoke, light, and rapid-fire, motion-heavy camera work that every live performance came off like a ready-to-air music video. A feast for the eyes, to be sure.

3. The host. Justin Timberlake was snarky, arrogant, conceited, backstabbed his friends and touring partners (remarking "sorry, I fell asleep for a minute there" after Xtina's absurdly long and boring taped acceptance speech), foul-mouthed (at home with Snoop and Justin), and rude ("who's sexier, me or the Hoff?"). In short, he was quite brilliant.

4. Rihanna. She took "Pon de Replay" (a nothing song with a nothing tune and a nothing vocal) to #2 on the sole basis of a Jay-Z rub. Then it was all "to hell with the nouveau Caribbean chic", replaced by more conventional R&B singing/production and a "Tainted Love" sample. Voila, "SOS" was deservedly a huge #1 hit. The KISS principle applies here.

5. Depeche Mode winning for Best Group ... but I have to deduct points for Andy Fletcher's acceptance speech. I mean, there was nothing wrong with what he said, but come on -- ANDY FLETCHER? That's like advertising an appearance by Aerosmith, and having one of the non-Joe Perry/Steve Tyler members show up. I like AF, but his top qualities don't include acting as the face of the band. So now we need one more "good thing" ...

5a. Snoop and Pharrell pimping out in audacious fur for their outdoor performance of "Drop It Like It's Hot". Snoop belongs on every awards show. Maybe we can even digitally insert him into past awards shows.


Five Bad Things:

1. Who the fuck are the Kooks and why are they winning awards for being the best band in the UK + Ireland? And does Poland have nothing better to offer than Blog 27 (worst name ever, plus it's 2006, surely there are better idols to have than Shampoo)?

2. The "Free Your Mind" campaign ... good intentions, terrible execution. Amateurish video clips where your favourite celebs look un-airbrushed and sloppy, while pushing a catchphrase that is distantly related to the issue at hand makes for a campaign that will go down in flames worse than "Vote Or Die" did.

3. "Maneater" ... awesome track, but Nelly's rock-soaked, tattoo-laden performance screamed "Pink was a no-show".

4. "Crazy" winning for best song. Let's review. First, the song was considered underrated, with people wondering why it wasn't a huge hit and when it would finally be released as a single in the US. Then it received a wide release and became the year's most overrated underrated track, essentially the musical equivalent of World Series go-go-Clutcheroo David Eckstein these days. Then it became overrated, as I tried my best to convince myself that it was ever a good song to begin with. Now it's just an ordinary song that I really don't need to hear ever again. I'm sure it'll be all over the radio in the lead up to the Grammys though.

5. 2006 Eurovision winners Lordi "tearing down the house" in the most embarrassing attempt at scary/freaky rock as the close of an awards show since White Zombie's ramshackle performance at the American MTV awards several years ago.