album of the week: 6.5

Acid House Kings

Music Sounds Better With You

(2011)

why you'll love it - good clean fun from one of Sweden's best pop acts

why you'll hate it - too much love, not enough bass

Labrador Records' marquee pop outfit, Acid House Kings, has finally delivered a long awaited follow up to 2005's Sing Along With Acid House Kings. It was starting to feel like Johan Angergård has spent the last few years crafting his other band, Club 8, into an Acid House Kings replacement. The ten songs that make up Music Sounds Better With You have been anticipated for nearly 6 years, but every bit as strong as when they were a quartet in 2005.

Being a trio hasn't changed much of anything. These particular songs don't fill up a space as much as the last release had, but that seems to be a production decision. This isn't as echoey or dense. Most of the accompanying instruments are light handicapping persuasion, xylophones, or acoustics. Aside from that, it's another twee pop knockout! No flaws whatsoever to speak of. The whole album never strays far from it's coffeehouse volume level, but its short enough for that not to be bothersome.

Acid House Kings are really good at sounding romantic without causing nausea, or upbeat without feeling like a lobotomy. They don't even come close to crossing the line. You don't need to be in a particularly lovestruck mood to enjoy these songs. They rely on atmosphere and melody to project a positive message, not tiresome catch phrases.

Favorites on here include, "I Just Called To Say Jag Älskar Dig", "Would You Say Stop?", and the cutest beach party song ever, "Under Water". Because nobody does pop better than the Swedes, frothiness has never felt this indispensable.

boom-shaka-laka

This week's Giant Bombcast opened up with a "what's your summer jam?" discussion.

I want in too!

BTW, the one true jam is "Ice Cream" by Battles.

album of the week: 6.4

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra

Heroes

(2011)

why you'll love it - quick and easy doses of ska

why you'll hate it - last half of the album combines tracks. Needs editing.

Ska… ska never changes. I've been writing these intros every year for each new Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra release. It's the same one. They've guys have been doing ska for a long ass time, and always been doing it well. There. Done.

What stands out about this release? Well, it apparently doubles as a soundtrack for some cartoon movie out this year. So most of the songs are very to the point, and fast; kind of like some of their best releases a decade ago. There is your usual group sing along song as well. The pacing is a bit strange. The whole last half of the track list is a bunch of grouped together short melodies and reprises, assumedly meant to serve as accompaniment to whatever the action is in the film. Also, there are lines from the film breaking up the songs, which is weird and distracting.

This isn't a proper full length release by the group, who usually releases an album every winter like clockwork, but the year is still young. It's just more ska. For TSPO, this is throwaway material, but still good music in general.

F U red devil

As little joy it brings me to promote traffic to a site like kotaku.com (a videogame news blog that unapologeticly devolves into rampant Japanese fanaticism), they're doing something really cool this Thursday. At 8PM EST, they're livestreaming GameCenter CX, which is this classic television series about really hard/terrible/odd videogames. The host spends most of an episode marathoning some of the most frustrating and borderline impossible games, usually of the Family Computer era.

I don't know how long these weekly livestreams will last, how many episodes they will air (there are a lot), or what condition they'll be aired in (subbed, dubbed, edited at all?); but if you are a MST3K fan and/or a video game history buff, I cannot recommend this show more.

album of the week: 6.3

Maritime

Human Hearts

(2011)

why you'll love it: you need background music that nobody in the room will get angry with?

why you'll hate it: boring!

Last week's subtle charm through modesty is something rare. Now for something a bit more familiar - bad mediocrity. Maritime is a band is really want to be good, but it seems like the sublime pop-perfection found in We, The Vehicles (2006) was only a fluke.

Human Hearts falls into the same trappings that their last album, Heresy And The Hotel Choir (2007), did. Nothing sticks out musically or lyrically. Most songs feel like random thoughts and half finished melodies. Some don't have any real endings; they just end. The production is rigid, and doesn't allow any songs to develop a personality. Heresy had "The Guns of Navarone", but I can't think of anything on this album that feels special. If I try really hard, I can remember a couple seconds of "Air Arizona" or "Paraphernalia", just because they are a little bit faster than the other songs on here.

Human Hearts is entirely unoffensive. Not a single eye rolling moment or embarrassing lyric. It even steers clear of cliches. The production is consistent. It just does nothing to stimulate, and not even that much to distract. It's waiting room rock.

flail blog

So, that E3 thing is this week... Seeing potentially fun new tech and games is good, but the real entertainment comes from the idiocy and wahjah of corporate buzz conferences with awful demos of awful games.

This year's thank you go to Microsoft.

album of the week: 6.2

Lemuria

Pebble

(2011)

why you'll love it - humble, relatable indie pop

why you'll hate it - victim of its own humility, no impressive or inspiring talent

No matter how hard it is to win an argument about this kind of thing, you actually don't need a good reason to enjoy the music you like. Your taste does need to be justified. it's a trend that didn't start with the internet; it only increased. If a song or band simply reminds you of something you like, if you think they're only funny, or even if you like their haircuts, that's reason enough. Artistic appreciation does not need a function.

So here we have Lemuria, a textbook example of falling through the cracks if I've ever seen one. Even in the nebulous genre of not pop-punk / not emo / not indie. I don't know what to call it, but it is a real scene. There are (or were ten years ago) a whole lot of bands influenced by Jimmy Eat World's reflective songwriting, Chisel's sly indie regurgitation of punk, and any other obscure emo band that only two people heard of. Lemuria is essentially just another nobody. But what these kind of bands lack in originality, they usually make up in character; and I gotta admit, after a few months, I sort of feel a kinship to Pebble.

I'm a huge Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan. While that is certainly a show you hardly need to try hard to justify, what takes it to the next level with their fans is a connection. It's a show that feels like your friends in the high school AV club are making it. The production - obviously, but also the fact that the entire cast were the writers of the show. Nothing was polished or hidden away. There was no difference between Joel Robinson and Joel Hodgston. You just loved Joel!

That's the same vibe I get with Pebble. It sounds like an album made by my friends. Nothing extraordinary, but charming in its normalcy. The opener, "Gravity" is hardly a song, but a great album intro. The pacing of the song and the spaces in between the notes played… it takes me back. It was exposed to so much of that nebulous "not" genre so much in my teenage years, it's enough never to want it again; but there is still a piece of me there. Lemuira is so warm and not pretentious with their material, it's hard for me to reject it at face value. And to be fair, there are a few really good pop moments of the album. "Pleaser" oozes with Rentals charm. Sheena Ozzella's bubbly delivery in "Wise People" and "Chautauqua County" is too sweet to turn down.

Pebble is as evocative as the title suggests, which is not much at all. It's also short, harmless, and charming *because* it's so plain. There is a place for this album, but like the many bands that have come before it, I have no fucking clue where that is.

ooh pretty

The Alamo’s Rolling Roadshow is returning this year with their great set of posters. Since they are just sticking to Texas this year, and not travelling the county, there is a Texas theme with the films. So the movies aren't as cool this time out, but the posters are great once again. There is a cool Penguin Books simplicity to the artwork.

Check out the selections, posters, and dates here.

album of the week: 6.1

Peter Bjorn And John

Gimme Some

(2011)

why you'll love it: Classic old school guitar pop style vastly improved.

why you'll hate it: Not as challenging and different as last two albums.

Using the phrase "overrated" on Peter Bjorn And John feels much to harsh, but I must admit, I never saw what was so great about them in their first few releases. Through the early naughties, the Swedish indie trio had a buzz about them, which hit a fever pitch with the release of Writer's Block (2006), and the commercial hit, "Young Folks". Their praise never seemed undeserving, but I had a hard time pretending these guys were pop geniuses. Aside from a few songs, I found most of their stuff middling and too wordy.

The instrumental Seaside Rock (2008) and experimental Living Thing (2009) were unpredictable and welcome surprises. After approaching songwriting from a fresh new perspective, Peter Bjorn And John have returned to the simple stripped down band format; and now I can finally say I get it. Every song on here is engaging and fun. It's like they went back and fixed what wasn't working before.

This album is nothing new, but irresistibly fun. So many great summer songs on here. "Lies" "Second Chance" "Dig A Little Deeper"… and I can't leave out the epic motorik closer, "I Know You Don't Love Me". Peter Bjorn And John is finally that group Spin and Pitchfork were gushing about five years ago.