WRECKACLUB

Nootropics Brain Dump

Alright, I've had one of those weeks where I never got to properly sit down and write at length about our record of the week. However, I have been listening to Nootropics quite a bit and keeping some random notes in my head. Here's a bit of a brain dump...

First off, I love this record. I immediately fell for "Brains" when I first heard it and had a positive reaction to the full album on my initial listen. The thing that's really getting me is how much more I'm finding to love in this record on each successive listen. It's growing large in my mind and has started to get up there with the Shearwater, Sharon Van Etten, Grimes, and Dirty Three in my favorite 2012 albums list (ah, man, I should not have mentioned that Shearwater album in the general internet vicinity of @leerader. Now she won't be able to stop listening to it for like six weeks again).

As I said, I liked "Brains" when the single-version first hit the internet, but I must say that the album version with "Stem" tacked on to the end takes it to the next level. In fact, "Stem" is among my favorite mini-sections of the album. I just love the way the bass line takes over and owns that part of the song. It's one of those Peter Hook/Simon Gallup bass lines that I'm a big sucker for too.

Speaking of the bass, the rhythm section on the whole album is beyond reproach. The bass is heavy without being overbearing. The drum sound is tight and almost machine-like in spots. I'm reminded at times of John McEntire of Tortoise/The Sea & Cake. I like that while the rest of the record has quite a bit of warmth in it, the drums feel almost cold by comparison. It's a fantastic dichotomy. I understand from the press material for the record that Jana Hunter is interested in transhumanism and extension of self through technology, so I have to wonder how much the marrying of these two sounds are meant to reflect that.

Speaking of Jana Hunter, these are the best vocal performances I've heard from her yet. Also, I'm just kind of fascinated by her in general. The impression I get from interviews is that she's intelligent with some far-reaching/out-there interests. I'm not sure I could keep up in a conversation with her, but it'd be interesting to try.

I'm starting to become a bit obsessed with the closing track, "In The End Is The Beginning," in all its 12-minute glory. It's the first track from the album where the lyrics started to coalesce in my head a bit. I get the shivers when she sings "I feel different now than I did before." There's something about this song which suggest that hyper-real mental state between asleep and awake where insight can be powerful but fleeting and difficult to grasp. It's a song that seems to slow down time.

I kept trying to put my figure on where the texture and depth I hear on Nootropics is coming from, and I finally realized that it has a lot to do with the drone that's lurking everywhere on this record. Whether it be synth-based or guitar-based, it's all very rich and tactile. It's like a pleasantly rough fabric that you can reach out and rub between your fingers. I don't know what gear they are using, but I wouldn't be surprised to discover that a moog or a farfisa is involved to some degree, as I always associate those instruments with this kind of warm, textured drone sound (though I'm sure I could be totally off the mark there). As I mentioned over in a comment to @bob_u's intro post, I'm reminded a lot of my favorite Stereolab material, which is the gold standard of marrying motorik rhythms and drone-y goodness for me. In fact, I'll finish by playing you my all-time favorite Stereolab song, "Super Electric":

-mrkvm

work record

hi. my intention to write a post where I delve into the album track by track has morphed. partially because of a serious deadline crunch i'm going through, but the confluence events that is this deadline and week 2.17 and Nootropics being released (and some other less related stuff), brings up a topic that I think is ripe for discussion. so here it is:

I really like this record. I'll say that right off the bat. it's great. one thing has happened for me, as I've been dealing with the aforementioned deadline crunch, is that this record is perfect to play while working. 

perfect.

this is something that has come up in the club in the past. It really is going to depend on what kind of work you're engaged in while listening (for instance, it totally wouldn't do it for my hospital work), but for assembly line style, office or home office work, or art making, this record is like zen power sauce.

I'll expand on this for a bit. I've been drawing and assembling a comic book, and much of that process is one of isolation and narrow focus. I often have a difficult time accessing this type of a record, and this type of work, as I am rarely in the type of environment that is conducive to the mind state required. my full time job is not making comic books, after all (wouldn't that be awesome). Wreckaclub is a pretty tech-heavy group of folks, and as a group I think it's fair to say that most of us spend a great deal of time in a seclusionary working environment. i also think that state fuels many of the records that we all tend to agree on. i think this lower dens record fits right in there. normally, I'm a bit of an outlier in this area...I work a very physical and mobile job, and do most of my music listening in the car or walking around town. but these events that I spoke of earlier all compressed into this one week, and I feel like it's allowed me to see an interesting pattern. at the very least, it's a bit of a window into the way music is experienced by our computer-code writing members. basically, this is makes me want to listen to bands like talk talk, or cocteau twins the next time I sit down in my self made, one man art assembly line. just to see. since these are two bands often brought up by the serious code writers, and also two bands that I have had difficulty accessing.

so, yeah. I'm probably not going to be able to eke out a substantive post about what I like about this record and this band before friday. I really do like it a great deal and totally recommend it's purchase to anyone who happens to read this that hasn't already picked it up. it's really pretty gorgeous stuff. atmospheric and intelligent and the grooves are subtle and comforting. 

also, check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nootropics

and here's a link to the song "Lambs" which I currently am really digging.

all for now. as always, thanks for reading!

-b.

Week 2.17 Lower Dens - Nootropics

Nootropics
Hi everybody. Welcome to Week 2.17. I'm back and we'll be discussing the new record from Lower Dens that's called "Nootropics". It is being released tomorrow (Tuesday May 01, 2012), and we here at the club have been able to listen to it due to mailorder copies being mailed out before the official release date. So. I'm going to do a little intro post today, and will return with a couple posts this week. I like the format I used in the past where I broke the record into sides, so I'll be doing that again this week. 

Here's a link to the Lower Dens website and songwriter Jana Hunter's wikipedia page (Lower Dens curiously absent from wiki):

http://lowerdens.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jana_Hunter

I really dig this bands sound, and loved their last record "Twin Hand Movement". The first song I heard from Nootropics was "Brains". It was available as a free download on the bands website a little while ago, and I've given it a lot of play over that time. I know several other members of the club are also big fans so we should hopefully have a good week of dialog. Here's an mp3 of "Brains" and if you can't wait to hear the record until tomorrow, it's streaming on Spotify and NPR. Links on the bands website.  

Enjoy and as always, thanks for reading.

-b.

 

Interlude


Here are some quick notes on some of my favorite tracks from this record.

'Ocean Breathes Salty'

This is probably the only track on Sun Kil Moon's "Tiny Cities" cover album that I don't prefer or at least like as much as the Modest Mouse original. I really identify in so many ways with this song, and the video just kills me. The way the drums and guitar melodies counterplay is great, and the dynamics are perfect, I think. Fantastic lyrics, sort of an out-of-the-typical-box take on some very common themes. That seems to be what makes this band special.


'Bury Me With It'

More Clash vibes on this song. That guitar tone is great and the imagery fantastic. I totally love all of these one-liner verses...

"We were shooting at a mound of dirt, well nothing was broken nothing was hurt, but I probably really shoulda been at work...".

Also, one of the best single lines on the entire record:  "I just don't need none of that 'Mad Max' bullshit."


'Bukowski'

The lyrics of this song are probably the ones that really sucked me into this band. Being fairly well-read, I always thought it was funny which authors were picked as "cool" by my circle of friends (wide circle)... Bukowski was one of these. I love just calling him out like this... got his number. "...and, yeah, I know he's a pretty good read, but god, who'd wanna be such an asshole?"

This passage always reminds me of XTC's 'Dear God': "If God controls the land and disease, and keeps a watchful eye on me, if he's really so damn mighty, well my problem is I can't see, well who would want to be, who would want to be such a control freak?"

I really, really love the backing vocals on this track. The one up front, the low and close one under it, then the third one that's yelled from like 20 feet away, of of cadence with the others.


'Black Cadillacs'

And, more Clash in these choruses. Staccato guitars, yelled/sung vocals. And, the lyrics, again bitter and threatening but clever and outside the typical scenarios. These are all like broken ballads.

"We named our children after towns, that we'd never been to;
and it's true that the clouds just hung around like black Cadillacs outside a funeral;
and we were laughing at the stars while our feet hung tight to the ground,
so pleased with ourselves for using so many verbs and nouns... but we were all still just
talk-talk-talking about the dirt-dirt-dirt on the ground..."

Yes. That.

-jlb

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Week 2.16: Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News

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I knew of this band long before I actually started listening to them regularly, and it took some time from that point to become a fan. This was a tricky band for me at first, being an all-growed up punk kinda kid and hearing this band that just screamed "hippie jam band" at me. There was no challenge to accept, really... I think I heard 'Dramamine' and 'Gravity Rides Everything' next to each other at some point and said "Meh, ok, not for me."

Some time after that, I first heard "Float On", the lead single from their 2004 release 'Good News For People Who Love Bad News'. I immediately liked it, mostly for its lyrics. I was just in the right frame of mind for liking this song.

But, I was far from sold. Keep your chin up? We'll all be ok? Well... maybe that did sound nice. Maybe I was ready for that sort of idea to start creeping in. But, it was just a bit too "up". I randomly heard Letterman one night saying that they'd be on, so I decided to hang in for a while longer and check them out. I assumed they'd play "Float On", and that I'd probably snap it off somewhere in the third chorus and go to bed. Instead, this is what they played:

This was not a hugely famous band. They still aren't really. To go on Letterman and play a non-single, dark-ass song with a banjo and pump organ... well, you just have to mean it. So, this sold me. I actually recall standing up during this performance and just kind of staring at the TV. I mentioned them to a friend of mine and he had seen it as well; he stopped by a record store on his way home from work and picked up two copies.

Later that evening, I dropped this in and hit play and was suddenly assaulted by a blast of horns (which I found out later is the legendary Dirty Dozen Brass Band), and I recall immediately thinking "oh dear, it's Tom Waits". But, almost as suddenly it decays into a pretty little guitar line, and these lyrics just start coming at me. 

From that point on for at least a few months I listened to this record at least once a day, some days many more. This record is one of those that I suggest must be listened to as a whole; the songs flow in and out of each other, the themes build. While many of these songs stand well on their own ('Float On', 'Ocean Breathes Salty', 'Black Cadillacs' among them), without the support of these songs there are a few tracks that will sound like place-holders or throwaways. But, when consumed as part of the whole these sketches have much more impact.

The instrumentation and the process of these songs is the bit that just might not be for everyone. None of us are scared of pump organs or banjos, I know. However, even though the sound of this record is much more cohesive than most of their previous discography, there are still moments which are quite jarring. My only advice is, don't stay stuck, keep traveling. Fair warning: much of what I hear in Isaac Brock's vocal treatments reminds me of Frank Black. I love how most of the backing vocals on this record are yelled from 15 feet away from a mic, and mostly off-cadence. Buckle up.

The overarching storyline of this record is just as it is with most of their work - life, love, death and birth, all of the things in between and all the time in motion, traveling. This opening track lays the groundwork for that lyrically, and 'Float On' picks up musically and sort of marches us into the body of the album. Throughout the record, there is a subtle back and forth, calling out the sad and dark things that we all run by, tempered with some pretty passages and bright lyrics. Well, at least on the surface.

What I found in this record was a surprising bridge between dark thoughts and a silver lining, something I almost always roll my eyes at. But, it works here for me, really well. I'd love to hear what you all think.

-jlb

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How have they gone, fell by leather...

These boxers, all of whom met some kind of tragic end (or, in the case of Clay, severe Parkinson's) haunt Sun Kil Moon's Ghosts Of The Great Highway. Boxing is clearly a fascination for Kozelek, even the name of the band is a reference to Korean boxer Moon Sung-kil. He also wrote a beautiful song referencing Rubén Olivares.

What I find most interesting about this is the way Kozelek takes something I have little knowledge of or interest in and somehow makes it magical, powerful, and even mythical. Boxing brings to my mind violence and rough masculinity, and yet just reading through the lyrics of "Salvador Sanchez" is like diving into a fascinating history I never knew existed. A verse like this turns my whole conception of the sport on its head:

"Mexico City bred so many 

But none quite like him

Sweet warrior
Pure magic matador"

Then there's this passage in "Duk Koo Kim" about the fight that killed the titular boxer:

"Watching an old fight film last night 
Ray Mancini vs. Duk Koo Kim 
The boy from Seoul was hanging in good 
But the pounding took to him 
And there in the square he lay alone 
Without face
Without crown 
And the angel who looked upon
She never came down 

You never know what day could pick you baby 
Out of the air, out of nowhere"

Kim's last fight turns into a metaphor for mortality, which could certainly have come off as heavy-handed and cheesy, but Kozelek slips it in so naturally that it becomes completely honest and believable. I wouldn't be surprised if that verse is born of a real experience.

With that, here's "Salvador Sanchez," which is perhaps my favorite track from the album and certainly one of the best Kozelek has ever written:

-mrkvm

Week 2.15: Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts Of The Great Highway

Sunkilmoon_cvr

As an avowed Red House Painters fanatic, I have to admit that Mark Kozelek had a bad habit of making inconsistent records under his old moniker. It seemed like for all the beauty and wonder of RHP, every album always had those two or three songs I'd almost always skip, whether it be because of an overlong guitar jam or an awkward/embarrassing lyric. Still, I was sad to see Red House Painters go. That is, until Kozelek returned with Sun Kil Moon. When their debut album, Ghosts Of The Great Highway, was released in 2003, it seemed like not just a return-to-form for Kozelek but also the most solid album of his career (this from the man that made Down Colorful Hill, a set of demos so good that 4AD label head Ivo Watts-Russell released them with only slight remixing). Since then, Kozelek has released two more phenomenal albums as Sun Kil Moon (April (2008) and Admiral Fell Promises (2010)) as well as a surprisingly great album of Modest Mouse covers (Tiny Cities (2005)). It seems that Kozelek had to leave the project that gave him notoriety behind in order to make the best music of his career.

Ghosts Of The Great Highway is one of those records that feels like a time capsule even on first listen. It evokes a sense of times and places long lost by our present-day selves. It's an album filled with bittersweet nostalgia. There's definitely a sense of sadness here, but it can be uplifting as well (as @jlb13 would say, it's that blues thing). This is also one of my favorite pieces of music to put on while relaxing and not doing much of anything on a lazy spring or summer Sunday afternoon. There's an airy atmosphere to these songs, and the pace is generally relaxed and languorous. This is perfect music for feeling the sun on your face while lying in the cool grass simply watching the world go by.

I think there's plenty to discuss here, from lyrical content to musical reference points. For now, I'll simply leave you with one of many stand-out tracks, "Carry Me, Ohio":

-mrkvm

twelve inch maxi single extended remix version

Over on @leerader's intro post for this week I commented that I had my own specific LCD Soundsystem aggro which has absolutely nothing to do with James Murphy or any scene associated with the band. Then @leerader got to the heart of it right here.

So, yeah, I stand by what I've said many times before: LCD Soundsystem have made some great songs, but they've never made a solid front-to-back album.

However, I figured I should try to nail down exactly why I feel that way. On LCD Soundsystem and This Is Happening, it's actually quite easy for me to say what it is. There are several songs on both those records that I simply don't like. I could never hear "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House," "Drunk Girls," and "Pow Pow" ever again and be perfectly happy (on the flip side, I love "Tribulations" and "I Can Change"). Sound Of Silver is a bit more vexing, as there isn't really a bad song on the whole thing. I'd definitely say I have my favorites, and that makes up about an EP's worth of material, but nothing really actively turns me off.

What is it, then? What's going on? It finally dawned on me while taking a quick walk over to the coffee shop by my office this week. It's like a series of 12" singles mashed into an album. So, it's not an album. It's a compilation. A singles comp. by a dance band. What's more, the really good songs are on the long side. The really good songs are like extended remixes (remember those?). They're great, but they go on and on (over and over again). Don't get me wrong, I love a good 12" single. I collected them like mad in my youth. I could imagine a young version of me buying a mythical 12" of "Someone Great" b/w "All My Friends" complete with a Peter Saville-designed cover. It's like a 2007 version of "True Faith" b/w "1963." Also, I'm absolutely down with a good extended remix. Cabaret Voltaire's extended 12" version of "Sensoria" (which is basically a mash-up with the song "Do Right" from the same album) ranks among my favorite pieces of electronic music ever made.

The problem is really that it wears me out. I can listen to a couple good songs in this vein and be done, but as a whole it's a bit much. It never coalesces into a proper album in my brain. There's no arc. There are no smaller moments. There's no room to breathe. So, when I listen to LCD, I fly in, blast my 3-5 favorite tunes of the moment, and jump out. I rarely linger or go deep. I happily accept that this music is perhaps not even meant for lingering and going deep, but if you've read even a tiny bit of what I've written here over the past couple of years, you probably know I cherish albums which work as complete pieces and reward that deep listening experience.

-mrkvm

Three Four Five Six

While talking "off-blog" with @mrkvm about this album, and I'm not quoting him here (and I'm too lazy to walk across the room for my phone at the moment. Nice.), he mentioned something along the lines of feeling like every LCD record would be a much better EP. I thought a lot about that, and I dig it. 

"Get Innocuous!" and "NYILYBYBMD" are great stand-alone songs (in my opinion), but they also are the beginning and end tracks of this record… So they should be. If you can't open and close well, you probably shouldn't be making records… Let alone smash hits. The masses have no attention span or patience for that. Especially what I call the "typical LCD audience". You know who they are and how they roll. 

I feel like the brilliance of this record is tracks three, four, five, and six. 

-or-

"North American Scum", "Someone Great", "All My Friends", and "Us V Them". 

Huh. That's an EP isn't it? "Time To Get Away" (#2), "Watch The Tapes" (#7), and "Sound Of Silver" (#8) could not exist at all on this album, and I don't think I would miss them. I don't hate these songs (although I will admit to often skipping the title track), I just… Don't love them. So I'm realizing when I say "I love this record" (and I do), what I'm really saying is I love the middle of this record. 

I would advise listening to those tracks alone without the rest of the record if you are struggling. Or not, your call. It's apparent this is a tough band/guy to love. I'm glad we're all on the same page about it, really. But is it them, or is it their fans? Or who you think are their fans? Their "visible" fans. I can see those red skinny jeans and Sally Jesse Raphael glasses from a mile away. If they were not synonymous with Brooklyn hipster trustafarians, would the aggro be as intense? Hard saying not knowing. I'm not saying LCD doesn't bring it on themselves (himself?). But if their crowd appeal was Dungeons And Dragons players, would I twist my face so much? I do think the Chess Club set has LCD fans among them, they just don't advertise. The majority of the home-towners who are part of the LCD "set" tend to advertise, living their life like an unfilmed reality show and use phrases like "personal brand" and "I only eat sustainable foods". 

There are more Brooklyn-based bands than anyone could begin to count. And of course "the best" ones are always the ones you, me, and everyone else hasn't heard of yet, playing to 12 people at Glasslands (yawn). But the "Big Three" I would say, are TV On The Radio, LCD Soundsystem, and The National (this is where I gently remind everyone that the only band I just listed that's from Brooklyn is TVOTR. This is why I say "Brooklyn-based".). And LCD supposedly no longer exists. My personal belief is LCD will make a "majestic come-back" shortly. Too shortly. Not enough time to really be broken-up shortly. But this is me. I could be wrong, they could be done. But the point is, they are, to the world, broken up. And they still sell tons of records, are one of the area's biggest bands, and every day someone signs a lease in Williamsburg, moves in the modular furniture, and has 50 people they met that day dancing in their fishbowl condo to LCD. Kinda hateful, yeah. So I spent the first chunk of time living in Brooklyn absolutely avoiding the entire "LCD situation" other than to make snarky comments about their "break-up shows". (like Radiohead, Portishead, Feist, The Black Keys, Jay-Z, and U2, LCD needed to make everything a shitshow in NYC for about a week. I resent bands I love pulling that crap in the city, let alone ones I don't.) Everyone here knows The National are my favorite band, nothing to do with living in the same borough with them, happy coincidence. But, to counterpoint the "great take-over" these egomaniacs seem to need to do in NYC, The National did it long and small last December at a theater on the upper west side of Manhattan. The trains after the shows weren't even that crowded. It was smart. Harder on the band, but the gridlock was no worse than normal up there. It's a documented fact that people "starved" and had medical issues after U2 and LCD due to overwhelming the transit system. Penn Station was overwhelmed by the outside draw of LCD, and U2 insisted on playing Meadowlands (as opposed to the city's recommendation of Yankees Stadium, which is set up to handle the transit crowds).  People were stuck underground for days. Even skirting the edges of these "events" can really be aggravating. I don't care who you are, or how much I love you, you stick me in Jersey transit or Penn Station for three days with nothing (because I wasn't allowed to bring a bag into the show, because of your security worries) I'm not going to speak too highly of you. Diabetics like music too. I know some! 

 

I digress. But the point of that tirade is, when does it stop being about the music and start being about the accompanying "scene"? LCD (while they were together) never pleased me in that way. It took me a long time to see past the fashion shows, throngs of fans clogging everything up every time they did anything or what have you. It took me this may years, and the privacy of my home to realize when you strip all of that away, James Murphy (and "band") have made some wonderful songs. Four of them are wedged in the middle of this record… Regardless of all the aggro (and there will be more this week! Believe it!), I simply love these songs. My relationship with LCD, as you can see if you've made it this far into this post, is complicated. More than I thought when I picked this record last week.

Ironic close. I am on my way to get tattooed. I have to take a pair of PJ pants with me, as the jeans I brought with me are too tight in the ankle to lift to get the work done. Oh, hypocrisy… You are a cruel mistress. 

xoxo

@leerader