"remember the past, diving into the future" (The Go! Team - The Scene Between)

The Go! Team
The Scene Between

Why you'll love it: good impersonation of 70's pop

Why you'll hate it: too sugary, lacks attitude

Are things changing or staying the same for The Go! Team?  It's hard to tell.  Depending on how much knowledge you have of the project's history and background, that answer can vary drastically.  The Go! Team's architect, Ian Parton, reportedly disengaged with his entire ensemble on the build up to creating The Scene Between.  The resulting product has much less of an aggressive old-school hip hop tinge.  Replaced instead with bubblegum pop, hippie folk-rock, and cult-like anthems.

The sound and lineup changes have led to a lot of pouting by fans on the internet.  It seems no one can agree on what the "real" Go! Team is.  From my understanding, The Go! Team albums are scrapbook like collaborations composed by Ian Parton, and whatever guests he can hook up with.  The touring band then goes out and essentially covers those songs.  People that feel let down by touring members like "Ninja" not being on the new album may not realize how little contribution they actually had in the studio.  Looking at things this way allows The Go! Team sound to be whatever the hell Parton wants it to be.  On this album, it happens to be lo-fi pop music.

Much appreciation to Parton for finding some little known indie gems in the musical world for this album.  Shoegaze pop artist Samira Winter sugarcoats the boisterous opening track "What D'You Say?"  Doreen Kirchner performs on my favorite song on here, "Blowtorch".  If not for Annabelle Cazes' contribution on "Catch Me on The Rebound" I would not have discovered her wacky sounds of Glockabelle.  "Did You Know?" is practically raining sprinkles and gumdrops on Shi Lu for her equally sweet delivery.  The Scene Between replaces the aggressive dance-offs of the past two albums with kissing booths.  Another point of chagrin for certain fans if they don't have an affinity for the sugary pop of yesteryear.

Essentially, The Go! Team still has the basics.  Dusty old samples that sound like they've been duct taped together.  A Shibuya-kei like remixing of retro pop.  Rolling Blackouts (2011) was probably as good as mashing up jock jams, Sonic Youth, and Run DMC could get; so it's good to hear the project moving on to new ventures.  There isn't as much diversity on The Scene Between, but the wink of subversiveness when things start to get over the top keeps things from getting stale.  There is a strange underlying tone in a few of the songs, like they're written from the point of view of a cult, trying to recruit new members with a catchy pop song.

While it gets a bit samey at times, The Scene Between is a lock for 2015's best summer album, and maybe one of the best by the end of the year.  Only its confusing interludes of radio feedback slow down the ALL THE TIME GOOD VIBES this album pours from start to finish.

"OLD MAN YELLS AT CLOUD" - (capsule - Wave Runner)

capsule
Wave Runner

why you'll love it: molly

why you'll hate it: rave-by-numbers

Heads up: I have nothing nice to say in this post.  Wave Runner is such a crater of disappointment, that I felt like just pretending it didn't exist.  What changed my mind this weekend was Coachella.  As a white guy with thick glasses that likes music hardly anyone else does, there is a surprising amount of Coachella that does the opposite of appeal to me.  Though, there's always about 5 bands that I would really like to see, so I always tune into the live streams with fingers crossed.  This year, luck was not on my side.  Ratatat didn't play until 3AM (east coast time), Bad Religion's stream was cut short, Built To Spill & Squarepusher didn't even get air time.  I was attending actual live music during Belle & Sebastian.  And maybe it was better off Drive Like Jehu wasn't live streamed.

What I did see a whole lot of when tuning into Coachella were DJ tents.  DJ sets are essentially one moment of party, repeated about 30 times for an hour.  It's T.G.I. McScratchy's Goodtime Fooddrinkery ("where it's constantly New Year's Eve. Here we go again! Three, two..."), filled with America's most insufferable millennials.  And now capsule wants in on the party.

Capsule had been stumbling their way into the club for almost a decade, when suddenly in 2013 a true curveball was thrown in CAPS LOCK.  Dropping all of the party cliches, CAPS LOCK was a fun experimental pop record.  Not the most bombastic, but by far, capsule's most creative effort to date.  I actually thought capsule had turned a corner, and finally given up their laughable attempts at being cool.  Wave Runner not only falls back into old habits, but is embarrassingly derivative of EDM tactics that I had thought were long outdated.  After a weekend of Coachella's "PUT YOUR FUCKIN HANDS UP!" laser and smoke mobius strip, maybe I'm wrong.  It seems like it's still widely popular (at least in a live setting).

Here are the only "highlights" of Wave Runner.

• The self titled intro is nothing but a glorified "start sequence", but at sounds like something out of a cool cyberpunk espionage film.
• "Dancing Planet" still falls into "let's oscillate a beat to get hype" trappings, but otherwise has a fun and bouncy melody.  It sounds like Sega Dreamcast music more than anything.  If I could pick any song from 2015 that I would want to select my car in Ridge Racer to, it would be this one.
• "Depth" is the only song on here with vocals on it that I enjoy.  I applaud it for being the most formula breaking track on here.  It's a good classic dubstep song (from back when dubstep songs weren't obsessed with "the drop")
• "Beyond The Sky" is a fine instrumental, and the only track that sort of calls back to capsule's Shibuya-kei-ish fashion runway era.  

The other 25 minutes are some of the most disposable EDM you'll ever hear.  Capsule is like WWE.  Sacrificing innovation, confidence, and integrity to try and be something they just aren't.  But, they did one cool thing recently, and I have fuzzy memories of the past, so... yeah, I'll be checking out what they do next.

"Do they think it's a trick that I pull when I'm sick?" (Screaming Females - Rose Mountain)

Screaming Females
Rose Mountain

why you'll love it: Old school raw rock

why you'll hate it: Watered down compared to older material.

Bands that catch on with a fiery rage have got to have it the worst.  When Screaming Females started out, they were college kids, self-releasing albums.  One was the explosive What If Someone Is Watching Their T.V.?, packed with filthy guitar solos and unfiltered wailing vocals.  The other was Baby Teeth; just as lo-fi, but with a more straightforward and restrained songwriting approach.  Guess which one left an impression on the scene?

In 2010, the band was riding high off its first album on a label.  Power Move, continued down the trail of destruction What if... had begun.  When you saw Marissa Paternoster take the stage as a fragile little thing, then explode like an atomic bomb, it's hard to imagine Screaming Females as anything else but monsters of rock.  Little did anyone know, change was around the corner...

With the release of Castle Talk came an ironic cooldown of Screaming Females.  Despite the predictable snark of "she don't even scream anymore" ringing true, Castle Talk is a personal favorite of mine.  Marissa's guitar work had only gotten more impressive, and the trio had formed a rock Voltron of powerful harmony.  On their follow up, Ugly, it started to become obvious that Screaming Females wanted to be known for more than just making noise.  This also coincided with a health issue that sidelined Paternoster.  The 2013 Chalk Tape EP was so experimental in "being normal" that not even I could get into it.  I wondered what all those people practically rioting at Screaming Females shows in 2009 thought of the band in 2014...

All this uncertainty has made Rose Mountain a very anticipated release.  "Empty Head" stumbles out of the gate in a disappointingly predictable fashion.  It sounds like the band is going through the motions.  OH NO!  THEY'VE LOST THEIR TOUCH!  MARISSA'S TOO SICK TO ROCK!  THIS IS THE END!

    

Then "Ripe" happens.

"Ripe" rips fiercer than anything the band has done for the past five years.  It has disgusting lyrics, blood-pumping tension, and killer precision.  Yeah, there's still no screaming, but who cares?  You don't need an R rating to make a great horror movie.  You don't need to scream to rock; and there is plenty of rock to go around on Rose Mountain.  Ironically enough, not in the title track. Chalk Tape may have been a failed experiment, but it's starting to seem like a necessary one.  The songs "Rose Mountain" and "Wishing Well" finely tune the band's softer side without sacrificing any of their classic rock and roll charm accrued from the last two LPs.  I particularly like how "Broken Neck" deceptively rolls back and forth between their soft and hard sides.

The biggest moments are saved for the last few tracks.  "Triumph" has an inspiring pace too it that makes you feel like you just climbed a mountain; and waiting at the peak is "Criminal Image", a rocket ship aimed straight at the sun.  The two songs suffer just a bit by being so close together on the track list, but they're both powerfully epic.

Rose Mountain marks a pretty important transition.  Aside from the forgettable "Hopeless", Screaming Females has proven here they can play nice.  Aggression is what they'll probably always be known for, but these toned down songs feel just as natural.  The burden of expectation has all but been lifted in my eyes.  When I hear a new Screaming Females song in the future, I won't be quite sure what I'll get.  For a band with 6 albums under its belt, that is a very good thing.