album of the week 7.4

Beastie Boys

Hot Sauce Committee Part 2

(2011)

why you'll love it: Beasties back in rare from

why you'll hate it: same white-friendly rapping they've always done

MCA, where have ya been? Packed like sardines in the tin. As a big fan of the latest Go! Team album, I've got a soft spot in my heart for that simple, corny, old style of hip-hop, and Beastie Boys have historically been the go-to group for that niche. Wisely ignoring the 2004 flop, To The Five Boroughs, the Beasties are picking up from 1998's Hello Nasty. Fun nonsense songs with a lot of gimmicks and wacky tangents. Nothing has changed from their standard songwriting formula. The trio still takes their time, makes very simple rhymes, never interrupt each other… but the production has a modern feel to it.

A whole lots of synthesized sounds crowd up this album in a good way. The lead single, "Make Some Noise" has a great warped synth sound all the way through. "Tadlock's Glasses" sounds like fuckin' LSD. The modulation dial is turned all the way to wet for "Too Many Rappers" and "Here's A Little Something For You". It's a perfect fit for the edgy madness these guys put into their songs. This album is as colorful as the cover art implies.

Guest appearances (a rare occurrence for the group) are handled pretty well. Santigold's contribution gels more than Nas does, but both songs are really good. The only bad things I have to say about this album are two forgettable tracks that lacked personality and rested too hard on the trio's rapping skills (which, as noted before, are not strong). "Lee Majors Come Again" is a welcome surprise for fans of their punk rock origins. "Funky Donkey" is silly enough to be confused with one of their early day hits, like "Hey Ladies". "Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament" is a wonderful nod to their last release, the criminally overlooked instrumental album, The Mix Up (2007). "Say it" is basically "Gratitude" part 2. The Beasties really went out of their way to please all the different types of fans they have.

This is a pure Beastie Boys album. Paul's Boutique (1989) and Ill Communication (1994) are so frequently heralded as milestones, that nothing they will ever make can stand up to that kind of rep; but this album is just as good as them. "OK" probably would have been just as big as "Sure Shot" if that had come first. The "Boys" moniker has reached irony, but I think this group is in a new prime right now. Especially if Part 1 is right around the corner.

GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE

1. HOT SNAKES REUNION TOUR!

2. NEW GIANT DRAG SONG!

album of the week: 7.3

Foo Fighters

Wasting Light

(2011)

why you'll love it: Hardest rock by Foo Fighters in over a decade

why you'll hate it: incredibly cliched lyrics

It hasn't been a spectacular past ten years for Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl is still the coolest rock star of this generation. The Colour And The Shape (1997) is still a relevant and exciting rock album today, but it's an oldie. To be honest, the Foos haven't delivered a solid album since 1999's There is Nothing Left To Lose. There have been moments of brilliance, but only awash in three albums of underwhelming ballads and radio friendly mediocrity.

If you give a shit about Foo Fighters, you've heard this album by now, and read lots of reviews. Most of them are right on. Wasting Light is indeed return to form in sound and contribution. Original guitarist, Pat Smear, has returned to the band, not as a replacement, but addition. That means three guitars are now part of the Foo powerhouse, and they're put to use here. The first two tracks of Wasting Light are two of the loudest and greatest Foo Fighters songs yet. The rest of the album keeps those sound levels spiked. 2005's In Your Honor had a problem of trying to seem louder than it really was. Grohl would be screaming lyrics from the very first note, even during quiet parts of the songs. The tracks on Wasting Light just aren't loud. They're powerful. Every instrument is operating at full blast.

It feels like Foo Fighters already achieved all their goals a long time ago. The feeling I get from this album is carefree fun. The music videos for "White Limo" and "Walk" are good examples of this. So is their Live @ David Letterman Studio session. All 5 members of this band are good friends. Everything they seem to do now is for fun, and I think that's what developed a carefree style in these songs. "White Limo" is loud and ignorant beyond the point of your typical radio single, yet it was the first fans heard from this album.

Unfortunately, that carefree attitude may have also effected Dave Grohl's effort into the lyrics. Like I said earlier, Dave's one of the coolest guys on the planet, but not even he can get away with some of the crap being said in the middle of this album. I don't even want to repeat some of ... okay, just one... "Fame fame go away, come again some other day." UGH, my god! I can't even type these excerpts without cringing. Some of the lyrics are so bad, it actually makes me skip a couple songs on here; and I'm not even much of a lyrics guy.

Cheese factor aside, this album is a smash. If you can manage to turn your brain off for 45 minutes, this whole album just kills. Easily the most fun and exciting Foo album since Colour And The Shape. It's nice to refer to Foo Fighters as a strong rock band today, without having to depend of the goodwill of their first two albums.

plan B

This friday, I intended to see Obits play in Philly, but a heart problem has kept singer Rick Froberg sidelined for the summer.

The Free Music Archive has posted another live show, so I guess this will have to do for now.

album of the week: 7.2

Does it Offend You, Yeah?

Don't Say We Didn't Warn You

(2011)

why you'll love it - big big energy, crunchy crunchy synths!

why you'll hate it - the pop songs are a bit dull, ignorant nonsense rock

Does it Offend You, Yeah? dug themselves a cozy little niche in 2008, with their debut You Have No Idea What You Are Getting Yourself Into. It was a big KFC family bowl of glitch, electrona, 80's synthpop, and hard rock. A little bit of Daft Punk, LCD Soundsystem, Man or Astro-Man?, and Duran Duran; but nothing to carry personality or relevance of their own.

Being like an electronic Swiss Army Knife of spaz rock, is kind of their thing, and they're sticking with it on Don't Say We Didn't Warn You. Their threats are tongue-in-cheek, but certainly not empty. This is a louder, crunchier, more unpredictable collection of songs. They seemed to have streamlined the kitsch that made their 80's ballad type songs (like "Dawn of The Dead") so great on the debut, but the heavy artillery tracks have been upgraded. Some songs sound like tracks from the last album remixed, faxed, blended, and bolted back together. This is a good thing. "Yeah" kicks last album's "Weird Science" to the curb like old inferior hardware.

Most interesting in this release are the group's choice of samples. They really come out of nowhere. "Wrestler" is the most memorable song on here, due to its killer quote from a decade+ old documentary, Beyond The Mat. The use of this random youtube video makes "The Monkeys Are Coming" into one the wackiest songs I've heard all year. And that's tough to do in the company of a new Polysics release.

This is Pop Rocks. Stupid music made to appeal to the very root of your senses, if you enjoy electronic rock. There is nothing more too it. It's not even all that wildly abstract or challenging. It's just party music for strange people, and I'm totally cool with that. All they did was remake their first album (even down to the rotation of energy through the track list), but I'm cool with that too! Just keep those crazy pills coming.

last time I talk about Bit.Trip Runner

I'm just super proud of myself for getting all of the game's gold bars (not counting bonus rounds)

Here is me perfecting the final stage.

Bit.Trip Runner 3-11 (Rusty Warren): PERFECT from Mike on Vimeo.

album of the week: 7.1

Parts & Labor

Constant Future

(2011)

why you'll love it: Actual songs, not just a noisy mess. Some nice synthwork.

why you'll hate it: boring, no variety whatsoever. Droning vocals.

When abrasive or unconventional bands turn to convention or melody, that's usually a sign that the innovative spark has been lost. That did not seem to be the case for noise rockers, Parts & Labor. Their 2007 album, Mapmaker, took occasional breaks from an oppressive wall of noise to deliver well paced crescendos. "Nowhere's Nigh" especially stuck out as a welcome surprise.

Constant Future spoils the fun of these surprises by making them the showpiece. As a result, nothing on this album stands out. There are a couple enjoyable subtle touches. The synthesizers are especially glitchy and random sounding. I'm still a sucker for some good old distorted bleep-blorps, but they don't distract enough from noticing it's basically the same song a dozen times over. None of the songs even deliver much of a knockout punch. I kept feeling like I was only on the tip of the iceberg with each track, and that the next one was gonna be the one that defines the album, but never got it.

If Parts & Labor wants to continue down this experiment with bite sized post-rock songs, they need to do something about their structure. It's too simple and predictable. They've got electronics, they can get loud, the tools are all there to make something truly unique. There may be a lot more attention to melody and performance in these kind of songs than their noisy past, but innovation in songwriting seems to have evaporated.

Summer Beatz

Digital videogame distributor, Steam, is having a Summer sale. Like The Potato Pack earlier thsi year, easter eggs are being patched into the game for a limited time. Gotta love Commander Video's new getup in Bit.Trip Runner.