album of the week: 2.4

Bomb The Music Industry!

Adults!!!... Smart!!! Shithammered!!! And Excited By Nothing!!!!!!!

Quote Unquote Records (2010)

why you'll love it - Brutally honest ska-punk songs about growing up

why you'll hate it - lyrical content is stale

This may be songwriter, Jeff Rosenstock's intent, but Bomb The Music Industry! is starting to bum me out. Sarcastically riddled with exclamation points, Adults!!!... Smart!!! Shithammered!!! And Excited By Nothing!!!!!!! is one hell of an album title. It brings a smile to my face, but Jeff's now well told autobiography of getting older, poorer, and more burnt out is starting to come off as depressingly repetitive.

On an individual basis, these ska-punk songs are enjoyable, but the anxious feeling of desperation grows thick - like being stuck in one of those "HEY BRO EVERYTHING'S GREAT!" conversations with an old friend or relative that's fallen on hard times. Not that Jeff's trying to hide anything. His no nonsense delivery is a strong attribute. There are other facets of life he can exploit though. There is a fleeting moment in the second to last song of EP. A positive "I'll do my very best" resolution; but that is quickly met with the final track, "Struggler", where Rosenstock desperately growls "I'm not gonna change."

Listen, we all grow old. I'm being generous in estimating about 5% of us are lucky enough to comfortably live doing what makes us happy in a society that respects us. It is good to acknowledge this reality every once and a while, but I think BTMI!'s got all the blood out of this stone it can muster. I get it - you write what you know, but if Jeff is content to chisel out his own tombstone before he's 30, it seems like great a waste of this band. He's got this genre locked down, and can do anything with it. Let's hear something else.

... so the rocket goes off, right?

HBO has posted to their youtube channel, the entire first episode of the Ricky Gervais podcast animations.

YOU SHOULD TOTALLY WATCH THIS!!!

This first podcast isn't the funniest thing they've done, but it was the first thing I've ever heard by them back in 2005; so if it was a good enough intro for me, it will be for you. The animation of the rocket turning left in space is worth the entire episode.

The animation is OK. I would have preferred a little more style. The whole point of this series seems to be to draw more attention to the podcasts (which have totaled in over 24 hours worth of material by this point, and I'm not even counting the previous live radio broadcasts); so if an innocuous visual style is what will draw more people in, I'm down.

They could have done a better job setting up the series though. I went into the podcasts knowing nothing as well, but watching television on your couch is a bit different. Some brief additional commentary before or after each discussion would have given appropriate context, and some new material for the old fans.

album of the week: 2.3

Hot Chip

One Life Stand

EMI (2010)

why you'll love it: high quality synth-electronica love songs

why you'll hate it: quite plain for a Hot Chip album

Our word of the week is kitsch, something Hot Chip has been very familiar with. Through their entire career thus-far, they've been the whitest of white nerds blending a combination of outdated genres once reserved for the suave and cool. As time has passed, they've managed not to be so overt in their Prince and Stevie Wonder references. This could be due to finding their own sound over the years, or just becoming a richer and more talented band.

While in the past, Hot Chip has managed to ironically roll with or disguise their kitschy style with many layers, this time out, they decide to fully embrace it. Just about every song on the album is a love song, and an honest one at that. It's a rather strong gear shift from the very abstract style in the previous two albums. You hear a lot more of an ethereal electronic sound. More like a high production Brian Eno style, than an eccentric and strange Kraftwerk style. So, right off the bat, this is not the kind of album I want to hear from Hot Chip. That isn't to say I don't like it though.

The album reminds me a lot of LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver. It's an honest heartfelt club album. The difference is that Hot Chip puts the sentiment before the dance aspect. The best moments of One Life Stand are fascinating more than they are danceable. I love the creepy melodies hidden beneath some of the love songs. I doubt this was an intentional undermining, but I enjoy the juxtaposition in the verses to "Take it in" and the buzzsaw synth lines during the "One lIfe Stand" chorus.

While this album may be a disappointment in that it doesn't follow the experimentation of my favorite album of 2008 (Made in The Dark), its change of pace is welcome and interesting. It's hypnotizing to hear how much they can do with a simple melody in songs like "Slush" and "I Feel Better". I can totally swallow a love ballad album by Hot Chip provided it's what the band feels comfortable with and enthused about. But only once. I sure hope they never do it again. Let's see the "art attack" return in 2012.

KARL WAS RIGHT

Three little words that I love to point out whenever possible.

album of the week: 2.2

The Mr. T Experience

...And The Women Who Love Them

Lookout (1994)

why you'll love it: Dr. Frank is the Woody Allen of punk

why you'll hate it: The last 10 years of mainstream pop-punk have jaded you.

I want to spend some more time with the new Hot Chip before I review it, so here is an old classic. I'm pretty sure Valentine's Day is coming up, so I can't think of a better band to represent than The Mr. T Experience. MTX is a band I have quite often considered writing up a huge multi-post love-letter to, spanning their entire discography. Though, for a blog I don't even keep comments open, or log traffic for (if there is any at all); I always put it off and pretended I have more constructive things to do. But my opinion still stands - The Mr. T Experience is still the most underrated band in American history.

I can't think of a better introduction to MTX than the 1995 ...And The Women ho Love Them EP. It was the first MTX album I ever bought, and the very first song, "Tapin' Up My Heart", is a perfect introduction to their sound. It's an intelligent and creative blend of vintage west coast punk and 60's bubblegum pop, with clever lyrics that never get old. From there the EP continues on, citing apocryphal stories, Richard Nixon, weltschmerz, and heroin.

Pop-punk has been wildly over-exploited for the past fifteen years, and while MTX certainly falls into the "songs about girls" category, I've always been convinced that their intentions were entirely different than a Sum 41 or Blink 182. Dropping cheesy-ass positive vibes guitar pop into the punk formula was basically pissing in the eye of the punk community (known for pissing in the eye of the general community). Just a few weeks ago, MTX songwriter, Dr. Frank, did an interview with The Huffington Post about his 2007 novel, King Dork, in which he lays into obsessive Catcher in The Rye fans.

"Desecrating this fetish can drive a certain sort of person wild with fury, which is kind of funny because it is, after all, supposed to be an icon of rebellion. Maybe it's my punk rock background or my Bay Area upbringing that make me think that the thing to do with a monument is to try to smash it up, even if it happens to be a monument to smashing up monuments"

Replace thoughts of Catcher with the punk scene, and that is what I've always seen MTX doing. As someone who has loved punk rock, yet always felt ostracized from the community for not being single-mindedly loud, tough, or angry enough; MTX goes right up there with my counter-culture heros like Jonathan Richman and Devo. Nobody should be safe when it comes to music. If young Spike is gonna piss of dad by blasting Sex Pistols, Dad should get just as much enjoyment out of piping Brian Wilson into the little brat's ears.

This is starting to turn into my epic MTX rant, so I'll wrap this up. ...And The Women Who Love Them is the beginning of a golden era for MTX; where they came the closest to fame they'll ever be. Their pop-punk experiments finally hit a consistent stride at this release, continuing with the following two albums. Not only does it have all that anti-anti-establishment jazz I keep going on about; it's a genuinely catchy and often hilarious EP. It's a normal guy observing his boring normal life. Even the honestly written "I Believe in You" is well done through its use of fumbling lyrics until finally resorting to "I don't really know the best way to convey it. / I'm just gonna say it"

It's a perfect formula that became so well loved, Dr. Frank himself had to pull the brakes on it years later. In 1999, pop-punk had become so accepted, that MTX would next have to undergo alterations to make pop-punk push boundaries of alternative-taste yet again. But I'll save that bit for my review of Alcatraz...

a winner is you

Already digging well into what I didn't have time for in videogames last year. The downloadable XBOX 360 game, 'Splosion Man, was only $5 last week. Despite the grating 8 year old's view of EXTREME presentation, it is an exciting and fun platformer well worth even full price. As frustrating some of the challenges may be, the instant rewards are well worth it.

Even after battling a mind-numbingly annoying end boss, you're treated with this ending cinematic.

album of the week: 2.1

Spoon

Transference

Merge (2010)

why you'll love it: Steady as she goes, Spoon makes catchy riffs

why you'll hate it: They've done it all before, and better, and many times over

I still to this day don't know why Spoon gets such a big pass in critical circles. I can sometimes understand Radiohead's default spot at the high rank, until one can argue otherwise. There really is something going on in a Radiohead song. Even if I don't like one, I know emotion and thought is being poured into it. Spoon, on the other hand, has never struck me as having more depth than the background music in a mobile phone advert.

This is coming from somebody who likes some shallow music, and has listened to every Spoon album ever made. I have to be honest - as catchy as they can be at their best, they've been making the same exact album for the last ten years. You can get away with this once (2002 - Kill The Moonlight), but just because the one after is the first to gain huge commercial exposure (2005 - Gimme Fiction), doesn't change that it's your third strike. 2008's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga brought in some much appreciated distortion, but still wasn't doing anything that felt new.

Transference is that brick wall at the end of an alley. No excuses now - this is plain and simple, the same exact album again. Even at status quo, this is still a bit below par. Songs just lean on the same drum beat and riff for 4 minutes, just end, and none of it sticks. "Written in Reverse" is the only song that stands out because of the discordant piano. There is no obvious "Sister Jack" or "The Underdog" standout track be found. Just straightforward, never too high or to low, no interesting lyrics... It's like if math students worked out the formula for the most widely accessible innocuous pop music possible.

Not that you won't like it or anything. Almost any of these songs can pop up on my iTunes while I play videogames, and I won't switch them off. It's not bad music at all. It's just not special in any way; and if you've never listened to Spoon before, you might as well start with any other album. In fact, go all the way back to A Series of Sneaks, as that was the last one that sounded unique. 95% of everything forward from there are just 4 minute long ringtones. It's ringtone rock.

SEGA announces an all new 2D Sonic game (A direct sequel to the original series)