rabble rabble

Happy holiday weekend. To celebrate summer's arrival, theres a new Bomb The Music Industry! album on the way, called Vacation. If the song "Everybody The You Love" is anything to go by, this release is going to be a break from the depressing content of their last two records.

To celebrate Vacation's arrival, the band has released an instrumental version of a yet unreleased song from the album - "Vocal Coach" They want you to provide the lyrics and send it - you know what, they describe it better and in the cruise control to awesome.

BTMI! BRING YOUR OWN SINGER

album of the week: 5.4

Ancient Astronauts

Into Bass And Time

(2011)

Why you'll love it: Stands right alongside first Gorillaz and Deltron albums.

Why you'll hate it: White-friendly hip-hop.

Plastic Beach did not do it for me. It's not a terrible album, but compared to Demon Days (2005), it's rubbish. So what in this new decade is going to fit that specifically designed Gorrilaz shaped gap, especially since I don't listen to much hip-hop to begin with? Enter Ancient Astronauts.

Hailing from Germany, this is a DJ duo with various guest vocal appearances. They hit all the right beats of a classic Dan The Automator production. Good use of samples. Smooth laid back style, but with enough variation never to keep boring. A cool central theme (this case being the whole astronauts thing). Honestly, if you were to tell me this was a Dan The Automator record, I would not call it into question.

The guest appearances are ok. No performances leapt out at me, but none turned me off. It's the instrumentals that make this album memorable and fun. "Anti Pop Song" is a top quality jam. "Peace in The East" has good use of the Indian and Middle East region vibe. "Calvert Street Rock" is old-school English dub ska. There is a bit more variety to this album than you may expect.

To be clear, this is NOT a Gorillaz copycat band. There is a whole punk and rock range of influences Gorillaz have that are not present here. It's all hip-hop and instrumentals; stuff that I loved in the old Gorillaz and Deltron 3030 albums. My personal scope is so limited that I'm provided with a fair replacement, but that is not their intent. It's great music, that you should check out, even if you think you don't need it.

my camera does what I say

Music videos with a touch of interaction isn't a completely new idea. An article I about the following music video mentioned a Black Eyed Peas video, and I remember an indie band doing a video where you can click around a space during a song. Devo's just for the hell of it, super cool "What We Do" music video takes it a bit further by adding a ticker at the bottom that directly links to the band's webstore whenever one of the models change outfits.

It's further corporate satire, the theme of Devo's 2010 album, Something For Everybody. Devo mugs and parades around the landscape as if they were still in their 20s. Great music video, and seriously, one of the best Devo songs ever.

album of the week: 5.3

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart

Belong

2011

why you'll love it: young love in a 80's ballad vibe.

why you'll hate it: the 80's were terrible!

A few weeks ago, we looked at TV on The Radio's Nine Types of Light. Among other things, I was very impressed with their ability to craft love songs that felt mature, honest, and thoughtful. Belong is on the other end of the spectrum. Their love songs are juvenile, exaggerated, and impulsive.

You'd expect a name like The Pains of Being Pure At Heart to lay on the cheese thick, but their self titled debut found its way to me somehow last year, and really won me over. Either their sappy lyrics were restrained on that release, or the indie surf rock fuzz managed to distract me entirely. I came away glibly praising them as "No Age, but good!"

Belong starts off on the right foot, with a nice pace. A bit more bubblegum than the first album, but good distorted pop. After that, the assaults begin with eye-rolling catch phrases. The music eventually gets sappier as well. We're talking high school prom class of '86 sap. The Pains' production has an old school feel, but they're tapping into a subculture of the past that should be dead and buried. Halfway into the album, I feel trapped in a John Hughes film, and those are films I do NOT want to be in.

If you're still nostalgic for 80's pop ballads, and enjoy unrealistic on-the-nose love song lyrics, then you've hit the jackpot. If not, Belong is audio repulsion gel.

Heck yeah, 2000

album of the week 5.2

Obits

Moody, Standard And Poor

(2011)

why you'll love it - a more refined, energized, Obits return in proto-punk form

why you'll hate it - sort of a resignation from the first album's defiant pace

Heads up - I love Rick Froberg! The guy has already cemented himself as a punk rock icon in my eyes as the frontman of Hot Snakes & Drive Like Jehu. The 2009 Obits debut, I Blame You was an album I wanted to love more than I actually did. While few songs such as "Widow of My Dreams" and "Pine on" showed promise of a brilliant stripped down rock and roll band, the album mostly plodded aimlessly and struggled to crawl out from the shadow of Froberg's reputation. In 2010, I saw them perform their slow paced moody lo-fi numbers under dim lights with surgical precision, but to a restless crowd that obviously craved something more impulsive.

Spiting in the eye of "sophomore jinx", Obits has returned with a finely tuned sound that cuts the fat that weighed down I Blame You. They remarked in interviews the desire to 'get to the point' with their new material, and have unquestionably done just that here. Just like I Blame You, this album starts off very strong. "You Gotta Lose" is instantly one of their best songs, and has since become my go-to track to introduce someone to Obits. Rick is very sharp and critical with his lyrics, while the backup band hammers away with equally sharp guitar stings and a thumping baseline.

This time, focus never seems to falter from track to track. Even Sohrab's songs this time offer up just as much spit and crass to hang with Rick's. "Shift Operator" is one of my favorites on here because of its cool distortion techniques, uniquely evoking feelings of frustration. The only song on here that hangs onto the I Blame You formula is "New August", with its lengthy build up. Without so many of those tracks on here, "New August" stands out in good light, rather than being just another long song.

The only complaint I have about this album are a couple songs maybe sound too bratty… or at least too bratty for my impression of what the band is. I sort of see Obits as wise, and from an era when punk was more experimental and less formulaic. The guys who play it old school, and at their own pace. "No Fly List" and "Naked To The World" are so cavalier they sort of contradict that impression; but they are still good songs regardless.

This kind of old school lo-fi rock is rare to find today, aside from Rick's infrequent partner in crime (John Reis), or their respective distant cousins in Japan (Chiba Yusuke and Kenichi Asai). I admit, I lean to this stuff pretty easy, but I Blame You disappointed, and Moody, Standard, And Poor makes all the right moves. I can confidently say this is a strong rock album. It's simple, and short, but makes great use of the time it takes. A 2011 favorite.

album of the week: 5.1

Elbow

Build A Rocket Boys!

(2011)

why you'll love it: big sound, great voice

why you'll hate it: fairly generic, uninspired lyrics

Either I was browsing the internet again on one of my many Flaming Moe binge drinking seasons, or Elbow are a bunch of dirty liars. I could have sworn they had said they were done with albums, and would only be releasing singles, if anything. The announcement of Build A Rocket Boys! came as a pleasant surprise, off the heels of The Seldom Seen Kid (2008) and a fantastic live performance of the album a year later. After half a dozen trips through this latest release, I'm starting to wish the whole singles-only promise was true.

While some songs on this album are the moody and bombastic Manchester quintet at their best, there is a torturous amount of filler. Elbow is a band that already requires an attention span to enjoy, and it's rare that they'll write a song under 5 minutes. When it all goes wrong for one of their songs, it can really drag. The range of their sound, and Guy Garvey's fantastic voice usually saves the day, but fails to cover up some embarrassing cliched love song lyrics that sound more like catch phrases than anything heartfelt. "With Love" and "Open Arms" are top offenders of this.

Hacking away at the fluff and indigestible parts, there isn't much of a tracklist left. Five or six songs maybe. But those five or six songs are rich and meaty. "The Birds" is an instant classic, the best on here. The build up is very powerful. It makes me feel alive. "High Ideals" uses all sorts of percussion, cellos, finger snaps, and pianos, without sounding cluttered. These would make great singles, and the other few good songs would be damn good b-sides.

Build A Rocket Boys! simply has too many valleys and not enough peaks. The kind of genre Elbow rests in tends to favor execution more than innovation, so I don't see this a a great collapse for the band; but they definitely seemed short on ideas here. The way I see it, as long as you're wow-ing your audience, it really doesn't matter how big the show is. When you already have an established fanbase and four quality albums in the can, maybe sticking to singles isn't such a bad idea.