Monday, April 08, 2002

Moonshake "Dirty & Divine" (C/Z, 1996): They take a more sample-based approach to the music on this one (see yesterday for "Eva Luna"), and the results are much more fun to listen to. My gripe this time around is with the lyrics, which are trying to be "edgy" but unfortunately are plagued with lame rhymes and clichés galore. (It's possible this was true for "Eva Luna" too and I just wasn't paying attention.) And the singer sounds like he's trying to be Mark E. Smith and Ian Astbury at the same time. As long as you can tune him out, this is enjoyable stuff in the "post-rock" vein. (Is that term even used anymore?)

My Dad Is Dead "Shine(r)" (Emperor Jones, 1996): I can't believe this band escaped my attention for the entire 1990s--I'm so curious about the rest of their discography now. This disc compiles some EPs and unreleased tracks from the early '90s, and it's varied and interesting stuff. MDID is the brainchild of one guy, and you can tell he's really earnestly expressing himself with these songs. He seems to have some anger and demons, but it's pretty restrained. Musically there's a couple clunkers on here, but for the most part this is a great batch of mostly heavy indie-guitar-rock in the early-'90s style. File these guys under "underappreciated", at least by me until now.

The Nightblooms s/t (Seed, 1993): Ever listen to something and think, "hm, this isn't bad," and then when it's over you realize that nothing from it really stuck with you? This has breathy female vocals with dry, distorted guitars, sort of like a non-ethereal Lush, with a couple of pretty quiet bits too. But this kinda went through my brain like sand through an hourglass. I don't know if it's just me or what.

The Ocean Blue "Cerulean" (Sire/Reprise, 1991): Not to take anything away from them, because this certainly is a well-done and pretty CD and quite pleasant to listen to, but...on a personal level this just doesn't resonate with me too much. Everything about it is just a little too studied, a little too polished, and I just find myself kind of sliding along the surface. It's a lovely surface for sure, but I don't find any real emotional texture to grab onto. "Beneath the Rhythm and Sound" (Sire/Reprise, 1993): I have to wonder if their label was pressuring them for a follow-up, because this sounds kind of rushed and I don't think it shows the band at their best. The songwriting is not as strong--it's more generic and repetitive, and the lyrics seem a bit strained and less natural...I sort of imagine it was like, "crap, I need 3 more ideas for songs by next week." If this was indeed the case, then, well, A for effort, bless 'em.

 posted by mike baehr 11:30 AM

Tuesday, April 09, 2002

Orange Cake Mix "More Mellow Hits" (Elefant, 1995): I'm not that familiar with the rest of Jim Rao's prolific output as OCM, so I can't really compare this to his other stuff. These lo-fi bedroom-pop sketches are pretty but thin. Maybe it's my own imagination at work here, but they seem to be the product of an active fantasy life, wherein Carly Simon really likes his cover of "Anticipation", takes him back in time to 1973, and they jet off to Hollywood and various glamorous beach resorts. I'm reminded of the sketches on Kids in the Hall where Mark and Scott play the geeky, repressed, celebrity-obsessed '70s teens.

Pale Saints "The Comforts of Madness" (Rough Trade/4AD, 1990): Any CD with a cat photo on the cover automatically has points in its favor. This features a completely unique sound and some really interesting experimental bits--the production is really imaginative, with all kinds of nonstandard twists and turns. And even if you stripped all of that away and gave the songs a stripped-down, "dry" treatment, you'd still have a really outstanding pop album here. 12 years later, I'm adding this to my "Best of 1990" list.

Papas Fritas "Helioself" (Minty Fresh, 1997): In the interest of full disclosure, Janice has played this around the house before, but this is the first time I've given it a good listen. PF's first album was a pop masterpiece on which they invented their own unique, less-is-more pop language. But I was put off from picking up this follow-up due to lackluster reviews which described it as sounding too much like a collection of commercial jingles. Well, there are strong flashes of the offbeat qualities which made them great starting out, but some of this does veer off into generic sing-along crowd-pleaser territory. What happened to these guys, anyway?

The Pastels "Up for a Bit with the Pastels" (1987; Velvel reissue, 1997): Referring back to my thoughts on Bunnygrunt, here's another example of simplistic pop where personality/attitude/message is the maker-or-breaker. Well, I think I'm going to have to give this one another go under better listening conditions so I can decipher exactly what Stephen's on about. There must be a reason the Pastels are underground pop icons, right? Whatever it is, I just totally missed it. Sorry folks!

Pizzicato Five "Happy End of the World" (Matador, 1997): "It's so modern...it's ultra-modern!" I totally dig the groovy retro-futuristic sounds--I feel like I've been hit with a Go-Go Ray. "I'm disrupting the learning process...and I love it! First prize!" (Pardon my Simpsons references...) It's a good thing the packaging includes translations of the Japanese lyrics. Janice says her mom, who is Japanese, thinks the lyrics are stupid. Granted, there's nothing here very much deeper than, say, "Girl from Ipanema", but I think they're kinda breezy and charming in an innocent and optimistic way. I guess this kinda makes 'em the anti-Stereolab.

 posted by mike baehr 4:18 PM

Wednesday, April 10, 2002

The Popguns "Love Junky" (ZYX, 1995): The drama! Nearly every song here finds our protagonist in some scenario of emotional desperation. This is, like, Katrina and the Waves of Anger, Regret, and Loneliness. Okay, I shouldn't really make fun. These are earnest, fairly straightforward pop songs, well-suited for when you're feeling slightly soap-operatic (which we all do from time to time). They picked a good album title for this.

Prolapse "The Italian Flag" (Jetset, no year listed): Boy, where to begin...I don't have much of a frame of reference here, so my description could go on and on if I'm not careful. I guess this falls in the "post-punk" category. The spoken Scottish vocals call Arab Strap to mind, but the similarity ends there. This is more like semi-abstract political ranting in the vein of Johnny Lydon. There's also tandem boy/girl vocals (with 2 separate lyric sheets in the booklet), kinda like Mates of State, but again, that's the only similarity there. The music is rhythmic and abrasive with some experimental noisy bits. Overall this is a pretty dense and challenging listen...interesting stuff for sure.

Pulp "It" (1984; Velvel reissue, 1997): Janice informed me this morning that she's never listened to any of these Pulp CDs after receiving them as promos 5 years ago. I thought Jarvis Cocker had a reputation for being rather cheeky and twisted, but there's no evidence of that on this, their first album. This is sophisticated, slightly idiosyncratic but innocent pop, the kind which usually draws me in and grows on me with repeated listens. "Masters of the Universe" (1985-86; Velvel reissue, 1997): Ah, the naughty and weird Jarvis emerges full-blown. Out come the dead pregnant brides, stalkers, sadists, and Kafkaesque nightmares, along with the occasional psychotic musical freakout. Geez, how did Jarvis get from "It" to this? Did I miss something? "Freaks" (1986; Velvel reissue, 1997): Aside from a couple of ventures into monster-movie histrionics, this is a return to a generally more "pop" musical sensibility, and the subject matter is slightly less freaky (despite the album title) and more achingly bleak. It's still obviously the product of a disturbed mind. I don't think I would want to be friends with anyone who enjoys this.

 posted by mike baehr 11:30 AM

Thursday, April 11, 2002

Pylon "Hits" (DB, 1988; "A Selection of Recordings from 1979-1983"): The early '80s revival is in full swing, with old-school hip-hop and electro music coming back into vogue. So when is the post-punk/no-wave revival going to hit? When it does, expect Pylon to be thrust back into the underground limelight and sampled left and right. They prove you can be serious and arty and still be fun and unpretentious at the same time, with cool herky-jerky post-disco beats, itchy guitar, and unselfconscious vocal spaz-outs. The songs crackle with energy--they're lean, declaratory, and semi-abstract, reflecting that clean "neo-geo" aesthetic of the time. Remember, when Pylon starts getting name-dropped by all the hipsters again, you heard it here first. [Update 4/14: Turns out I'm behind the curve. According to our friend Mike, bands such as The Faint and !!! have picked up the post-punk flag, but no one's copping to a Pylon influence yet. Geez, I feel so out of touch...]

Retsin "Cabin in the Woods" (Carrot Top, 2001): Here's another fitting album title, as this CD totally evokes a balmy summer evening on the porch. Languidly paced and replete with banjo and violin, its overall effect is lovely and hypnotic. A lot of indie-rockers that do the "alt-country" or "Americana" thing come off sounding like poseurs, but Retsin have such a unique style and genuine, poetic voice that they carry it off.

Scrawl "Nature Film" (Elektra, 1998): This is an interesting concept for an album: half new songs, half re-recorded "best-of". They made a wise choice to include "11:59 (It's January)", one of the best regret songs ever. This also includes a blistering P.I.L. cover, another candidate for that "unlikely covers" compilation idea I had. Scrawl's songs are solid, evocative, and no-nonsense. They rock.

Single Gun Theory "Millions, Like Stars in My Hands, Daggers in My Heart, Wage War" (Nettwerk, 1991): Listen up, Moby fans, run right out and find this because this follows a similar formula to "Play" and achieves at least equal success. Instead of American spirituals and blues, though, SGT use Indian and Muslim singers whom they seemingly recorded on location themselves. This, combined with the lyrics, gives them a quasi-mystical feel, but don't worry, they don't get all new-agey and they have some rump-shaking beats. This holds up pretty darn well after 11 years, aside from a few dated-sounding "housey" elements; I'm surprised SGT doesn't get more props as pioneers in electronic/sample-based dance music (or maybe they do, and I just don't read about it). "Surrender" EP (Nettwerk, 1991): This is just a single with some remixes. Confession: when I grabbed this this morning, I was secretly hoping that the title track was a Cheap Trick cover. Heh.

Sixpence None the Richer "Collage: A Portrait of Their Best" (Flying Tart, 1998): Poor Sixpence...the hipsters scoff at 'em, the mainstream has already reduced them to a joke, and they sold their souls to Dianne Warren. Before any of that happened, though, they were an earnest and talented band with a loyal following on the Christian music scene, and this CD compiles/cashes in on that early material in the wake of their soundtrack-hit success. Anyhoo, at the risk of losing all my "cred", this is really good. I mean, I can't personally relate to the Jesus angle, and sure, they might not have "hip" production values, but I challenge anyone to find much fault with their pop songwriting here (keeping in mind that this is a "best of"). They have a lot more teeth than "Kiss Me" would lead you to expect. s/t (Squint, 1998): Judging by the lyrics, it sounds like the songwriter guy went through a hard time while writing this and kinda struggled with his faith, and you feel for him. Musically this is a little more folk/country flavored and frankly doesn't really connect with me quite so much. It's hard to criticize such earnest self-expression, though.

 posted by mike baehr 12:49 PM

Friday, April 12, 2002

Slowdive "Just for a Day" (Creation, 1991): The songs under all the whoosh and echo are very simple here, and I wonder if that was deliberate, because it definitely puts the focus on the sound and texture. The end result is a batch of hypnotic white-noise lullabyes, nice to float away on and occasionally get lost in. This is music you experience, rather than listen to. OK, now I sound like some kinda drug-addled hippie...

Smudge "Tea, Toast & Turmoil" (Shake/Half a Cow, 1993): I wish I could travel back in time and across the globe to see Smudge play in Australia in the early '90s, because I bet their shows were a lot of fun. This CD is chock full of lovably scruffy pop-punk ditties bursting with energy and charm--I mean, they cover the "Laverne & Shirley" theme song, they rhyme "Grant McLennan" with "John Lennon", and they have three 15-seconds songs about food. What's not to love? "Hot Smoke & Sassafras" EP (Shake/Half a Cow, 1994): The goofiness and novelty factor get toned down here, showing a more "professional" side I guess. The singer sort of sounds like J. Mascis on Prozac.

The Sneetches "Blow Out the Sun" (SpinArt, 1994): This has a 1970s kind of flavor with hints of Carole King, McCartney, Steely Dan, Elton John, and power pop. It's smooth, with polite vocals and electric piano...it just kind of flows on by and was over before I knew it. Nice, but it didn't particularly stand out for me.

The Softies "Winter Pageant" (K, 1996): The Softies are the ultimate mix tape band, and their releases are virtual Hallmark Stores of sentiments to choose from. As I mentioned earlier in this column, I don't really think the Softies succeed as an album-oriented band--in order to do that, I think they'd have to vary their musical formula more and/or arrange their songs into an overall narrative (yes, I'm suggesting a Softies concept album). But as far as individual songs go, they express certain sentiments so well, they're hard to beat.

Souvenir s/t EP (Shelflife, 2001): Whoops, turns out I have listened to this before (and Janice reviews it here), so I'll just remark on the packaging, which is really clever: the insert has 6 different "covers", one for each song, so if you're so inclined you can fold the insert different ways and have a different-looking CD each time. Neato!

Spice Girls "Spice" (Virgin, 1996): The thing with kitsch is that it's basically overkill, which is pretty much the problem here: too many voices, too many personalities, and too many styles in one package. It's as though the singles were written by a committee that said "okay, what's popular with the kids these days? Now let's take all of that and cram it into one song! And don't forget to give each of the Girls a solo!" The resulting songs sound like 4 or 5 different songs all chopped up and edited together. The results are much better when they stick to one formula per song: the ballads are quite pretty (despite the dopey lyrics), and there's one straight-up disco song which is pretty enjoyable. Are their solo albums more focused? I wonder.

 posted by mike baehr 1:52 PM