March 9th, 2010 |
Posted in Album Reviews by zack
“We’re sleeping underneath the bed/ To scare the monsters off/ With our dear daddy’s Smith and Wesson/ We’re gonna teach them all a lesson.”
St. Vincent’s “The Bed”
This line from St. Vincent’s song “The Bed” off the album Actor perfectly sums up the contradiction that makes the artist’s work so unsettling. As you can hear on the track, the morbid lines are delivered in a sweet, breathy voice, over a serene instrumental that could be the soundtrack to a Disney movie about woodland fairies weaving a cloak of fireflies.
So many people have written about this album already; it seems like overkill to review it again. It was one of the most critically-acclaimed “indie” albums of 2009. Guitarist and singer Annie Clark, who, along with her band, is St. Vincent, has been interviewed in many online and print publications. She has also been fawned over by indie geeks everywhere. If Playboy did a “Girls of Indie Music” pictorial, she might be the centerfold (sorry, Joanna Newsom.) Of course, they would never do that. Rats.
But, despite all of this detritus littering cyberspace, let’s add another layer to the blogosphere morass, shall we? After all, she will be playing a packed show at YuYinTang on March 13th, as part of Splitworks’ JUE Festival. So maybe you want to know something about her and her music.
Clark was the niece of traveling musicians and she often accompanied them on tour when she was a young girl. That’s how she learned to play the guitar. Flash forward a few years and she began touring with former Indie Darlings Sufjan Stevens and The Polyphonic Spree. She set off on her own and recorded her debut album, entitled Marry Me. Actor is her second release and the one that has propelled her into the bright green pool of limelight. The hype is justified; Actor is a polished, chilling, ungodly gorgeous album from an artist who seems to be steadily progressing. Clark has stated in interviews that she actually “drew” the album before she ever played it. This has always confused me, but apparently she used a computer program to draw in the rhythmic and melodic parts before she actually realized them with instruments. I have never heard about this being done before, but it worked for her. For a clearer explanation, here is an email quote from the artist herself, in a piece done by The New Yorker’s Sasha Frere-Jones.
I have a precise memory of sitting in a hotel room in December of 2007 at Charles De Gaulle, absentmindedly drawing notes in on GarageBand via my laptop. No external mouse. Just me drawing notes, one by one, until they sounded how they should sound. Like a facsimile of a facsimile of music. That song became “Marrow.” Because I was not tied to my human, physical, muscular limitations (hands like to go here, ears like to hear this) I was able to make music that was smarter than I am. I sent my friend Mike Atkinson the MIDI scores and he did some cleaning up and printed them out. All new. In musical notation. A whole new language that other players could understand! A revelation! Then I learned how to play what I had written, dreamt. My hands learned the language.
Clark has has stated that she watches a lot of movies and that she thought about film scores when making Actor, especially those of Disney movies. This influence is uncannily evident throughout the album. One can picture many of the songs scoring children’s movies. It is this playful quality that makes the darker parts much eerier. The juxtaposition of “children’s” and “adult” themes is deliciously scandalous.
St. Vincent’s “The Strangers”
Many writers have called this album “enchanting.” That is an apt description, but, for me, the album is unsettling. The songs I like best seem to take atmospheric u-turns at critical junctions. My personal favorites include “The Strangers”, “Marrow”, “The Bed”, and “Actor out of Work”. When, in conventional songs we would be headed for the second verse or the bridge, instead we take a fateful step right up to the brink. You can feel the gale swirling around you and there is real danger. The lyrics do not represent your average fairy tale, more like a nightmare that sets you sweating inside a cauldron of acidic tongues.
Actor is a must-get for those who like their music to veer toward the treacherous side. St. Vincent’s show should also be a must-see, as she will be turning YuYinTang into a kaleidoscopic coven on March 13th. We can expect lots of guitar and piano, possibly played over recorded beats. I do not envision her bringing a full band, but just Annie will do.
After all, she is a saint.
tags: 2009 - Actor - Folk - St. Vincent - U.S.A.
January 20th, 2010 |
Posted in Album Reviews by zack
Sorry, bloggers. You’re going to have to hate on someone else this time around. Vampire Weekend has avoided the sophomore slump. Weren’t you all worried about that? No? You had them down for a tour-de-force follow-up all along? OK. My mistake. Sorry.
It seems like no band has ever experienced the malice and expectation that Vampire Weekend did when the dust had settled on the buzz (also created by bloggers) from their self-titled debut album, which was one of the best and hottest of 2008. I would say that you have to go back to the Strokes, in the aftermath of “Is This It” to match the anticipation and lack of faith. Seems like the worst thing you can do is release a great album on your first try. Either everything or nothing is expected of you. Also, if the style of the second album is too similar to the first you are accused of cashing in on the past. However, if you take a drastic leap and try something new, it seems like no one will like it and your band will be dismissed as a one-hit wonder. It happened with the Strokes.
However, “Contra”, Vampire Weekend’s second shot at the business of impossibly infectious, African-Classical/Indie Pop guava juice is, thankfully, mostly damn entertaining, and flows in the same vein. There are little tweaks, of course, but these only enhance the new tracks, rather than ruin them for die-hards who clamor for more of the same. At the same time, the tweaks should satisfy some of the critics who denigrate the band for their so-called cultural appropriation (meaning they are stealing African rhythms for their own nefarious purposes).
Well, what about that? First of all, I have never heard of an African musician copyrighting a rhythmic cycle (you may point to the case of Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’, but that pertains to lyrics, not beats. Also, you can ruminate about the ethics of this reality, but you cannot, for the most part, deny it.) When I first heard Vampire Weekend’s debut I immediately thought, “Paul Simon, ‘Graceland’.” The comparisons are fair in a way, I think, but here’s the rub: Paul Simon recruited South African and other musicians, while Vampire Weekend is making their own music, borrowing from others who have come before, of course, but making their own music nonetheless. It is clear that, with all the cultural kleptomania going on, Vamp Week should be judged on their merits as a band using diverse influences, nothing more or less.
Another criticism of the band has been that they are not “serious”. Their music is dismissed as lightweight and frivolous. Even if that is the case, then what of it? Does music always have to be a weighty affair? Also, it’s possible that people are not looking deep enough. With “Contra” these East Coast boys are apparently exploring Left Coast tropes. And is this title a shot against critics? Contra means against in Spanish and could also refer to fighters the US backed in Nicaragua through the sale of weapons to Iran in order to fight Communism in Latin America. Even their name could be a veiled attack on the current craze surrounding vampire culture and the short attention span in entertainment these days.
Enough with the conjecture: Beg, borrow, or steal this album. It’s as pleasurable as the first. Although we head to the West Coast for this one, we’re not really going Latin (fortunately or unfortunately.) “California English” is an adroit opening, but only sucks you in for the treasures to come, like the knuckle of a crab. “Diplomat’s Son” is a deliciously naughty song about taking advantage of Joe Strummer’s son by “docking” him, cock-slapping his girlfriend, then fire-bombing the Managua International School (some of the preceding may not be true.) “White Sky” sounds like the lead singer was kicked in the nuts while riding shotgun in the Balloon Boy’s mushroom-shaped zeppelin, but somehow it works. “Giving up the Gun” and “Cousins” are more driving than most songs we have ever heard from the Vamps, and it is not an unwelcome departure. “Horchata” (which you can download from their website) made me want to drink one, with or without a balaclava. The sun is shining and we are walking down a sun-drenched street, skipping to an imaginary beat, in the first stages of a relationship that is bound to last for ages or at least a few minutes.
I’m not going to say that “Contra” is world-changing or anything like that. It is an album of enjoyably poppy music, drawing from many sources, played by East Coast American musicians. There’s no need to look too deep, but also no need to look past.
tags: 2010 - Contra - Graceland - Indie - Is This It - Michael Jackson - Paul Simon - the Strokes - U.S.A. - Vampire Weekend - Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
August 3rd, 2009 |
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews by john
Let’s do the Time Warp.
Freshman year of college, my dorm room smells like Axe body spray, Old Spice, ramen noodles, cold pizza, and at least a smattering of skunked beer. I put on my “my first great indie discovery” and make out with my too-hot-for-me freshman girlfriend on a deceptively comfortable futon.
Junior year of High School I discover Crystal Method, Vegas and Dig your own Hole. I decide I am a raver and buy extremely embarrassing clothes from gadzooks. I become remarkably adept at spinning glowsticks (and fire!!) on the ends of shoelaces.
8th grade, I sit on the sidelines of every Middle School dance, mortified that my decision for 6 years to not wear jeans has destroyed any hope of normal friendships. I listen to something that just has to be Kylie Minogue or Britney Spears and wish for something I can’t name.
4-7 years old, I make sandcastles on the beach with friends, forts in my room, and run around “the back 40 [acres]” with Nerf and water guns, and it is awesome. There were also a lot of legos and (for some reason) Aerosmith involved.
All of these memories make me think of two things. 1.) Good lord did I have a product-placement ready youth, and 2.) Manners reminds me of all of them, in almost equal measure. There has always, from the first moment on Chunk of Change, been a childlike quality to Passion Pit’s music. It’s in that weird, pubescent(?) falsetto that controls the pace and feel of the songs. It’s also that voice that can pigeon-hole the band into “Dance” music. But more than that, there’s a playfulness, a bounciness that isn’t so much missing in other music like Passion Pit, but less pronounced. The pit seems to revel in that, and the image on the Chunk EP seems designed solely to support my idea of their ethos, a bunch of balls that make me think of nothing but Rugrats and the ball pits at McDonald’s and Chuck E. Cheese.
But, of course, there’s more. There’s a lot of depth to these songs, and they are songs. Whether you want to call this a dance or electronica album, Passion Pit writes songs, not symphonies or albums, and they’re all pretty darned good. There’s definitely a unity to everything on the album, and it has a pretty great flow to it. I’m reminded of the “mix-tape” philosophy: start with a big song, get bigger, then settle, let the rest crescendo back up to the first two songs. Passion Pit seem to have made this their thesis for the album, as the first two tracks: “Make Light” and “Little Secrets” are designed to both become singles and make you say/think “holy crap this is fun shit.”
Where Chunk was good, Manners is (almost always) better. The layers of synthesizers and electronic sounds are definitely reminiscent of TV on the Radio (and the album cover is a little too similar to Dear, Science) and the two groups share in being able to turn mixed feelings into exuberant, lively, fun tunes. “Let Your Love Grow Tall” stands out, as there’s something undeniably uplifting about the track, even if, “I’ve never lived without his sad and jealous eyes.” The whole track is more of the same, and it may well be the best on the album, but it’s also one of the sadder songs, it gives the feeling of standing by that punch bowl in 8th Grade, knowing you should be dancing and having a good time, but somehow not being able.
There are no bad songs on the whole album, though the closer, “Seaweed Song” fails to evoke much of anything, it’s a bit too sleepy after everything that came before. The rest of the albums range from good to totally excellent. “Sleepyhead” returns from the EP, and its ethereal, dreamlike quality still fits the band and the album as well as it did before. The operatic backing vocals are reminiscent of Bjork in her Medulla days, and the textures are excellently mixed; everything in the song waxes and wanes at just the right time. “To Kingdom Come,” is another of the best on the album, and it’s also the sunniest. Every layer worked in, from the (very welcome) horn section to the electronic beeps and acoustic guitar, serve to make this an uplifting track, and the lyrics, “But that’s the kind of state I’m in / Swimming in a pool of godly medicine,” juxtapose nicely with the apocalypse-referencing title.
“Let Your Love Grow Tall,” “Little Secrets,” and “The Reeling,” are all powerful as well, and not-so coincidentally, all three tracks feature background vocals by the choir of PS 22 (a K-5 inner-city public school for any Europeans reading), and their presence reinforces the child-like quality to music as well as the conflicted, but ultimately uplifting nature of most of the songs on the album. After all, these kids have it rough, but they’re making something beautiful. It would be poetic to say the same of Passion Pit themselves, but it would also be a lie. OK, they may have it a little tough being from America, but really, Passion Pit and Manners are in a perfect position to get on some Best of… lists, a lot of house party dance-floors, and maybe, maybe take over the world.
And then put in a big ball pit…Please
Check also Passion Pit on Myspace
tags: Albums 2009 - Electronic - Passion Pit - U.S.A.
May 1st, 2009 |
Posted in Interviews by peter
如果一天你们在欧洲的布拉格走路呢，突然通过了Jeremy Barnes鼓手与Heather Trost提琴手(A Hawk and a Hacksaw乐队，也叫作AHAAH)的话，那么你们不知不觉感受的音乐、旋律旋风，是说不出来的音乐感。
他们的首演CD挺起来在一个无名的困镇升的日出，并且在天际移动着的一个马戏团车。他们音乐的感受和看外语儿童的卡通一样的， 它有的农厂噪声很宜人，它有的黑暗荫更有趣味啊！
更重要的，AHAAH乐队的音乐是非常独特的。 许多其他乐队像似乎设法保护他们的界限，AHAAH, 相反,试图拉下它们。
不过，他们带有全球性头脑。他们好像跟海绵一样的，当他们移动我们世界上时，听见的什么音乐都吸收的任何声音。多半，我们并不知道，被这二重奏用的音乐是从什么传统起来的。
这样也好。AHAAH 替我们做了研究，他们也特别喜欢做类似的研究，他们也很满意了。那么，你们只要听他们的音乐。你们享吧！
一来听他们，就像假期开始了。
他们突然使你在个奇怪的土地中。那个土地就是你个人内中、你亲密的土地。然后你到达你的普遍的故事的目的地。
他们最新的CD（Déliverance）又包含庆祝的歌曲又包含悲剧的歌曲。Déliverance比早期的作品,明确地包含更多历史的回声。
Barnes的声音在音乐上摇摆，他声音成为个丝带，它在清风中摇摆呢。虽它飞行在风中，但总是返回补全成套装备。
“The Man Who Sold His Beard” （“卖他自己的胡子的人”）有好震动。它使我想卖我自己的面毛和离开，为了看一下在我路上有什么好来。最后的歌曲“Lassú”（在那里上）很绝望的。它绝望渴望某事。
Délivrance是个非常可口的音乐宴会，它是个完美的饭。
Layabozi和Trost见面了，为了和她谈论莎士比亚，Barnes的裤子，匈牙利的甜饼，与到达这么奇妙的一张专辑的发现之旅。
Layabozi: AHAAH这个名字是否自莎士比亚的哈姆雷特的《天上刮西北风的时候，我才发疯；风从南方吹过来的时候，我不会把一只老鹰当作一只苍蝇》这句话引出来的？你们为何取了这个名字？
Heather Trost: 实际上这个名字是自塞万提斯的作品引出来的，但从来我们已经发现过在哈姆雷特中也有这句话。尽管我高中学的时候看过哈姆雷特，但是完全忘记了这句话。我觉得Jeremy正在看《唐吉珂德》的时就看到这句话，而觉得好听。
LYBZ: 你想人听你的音乐而受到怎么样的感觉？
HT: 可能有一天你在走路的时候，就会看到什么小小的细节，比如一根花或者在云后面那样发着光的太阳。这就会使你把小时候让你伤心或开心或活跃的事想起来。可能只有听音乐，我们的音乐，才能把一些回忆和概念想起来。
LYBZ: 你们去过的什么国家影响了你们的音乐？
HT: 我们住过在布达佩斯，所以我们在罗马尼亚旅游。我们去年还去以色列和土耳其。这两个国家对我们有很大的影响。我们还去过贝尔格莱德。在那里我们看过一些在马路上演奏的了不起的音乐家。
LYBZ: 在你们去学过音乐的那些国家主流音乐家们会学到什么？你们对世界音乐这种标签有什么看法？
HT: 我喜欢听从来没听过的音乐，尽管节奏，音调与乐器非常不一样。我认为即使好不容易，人也应该没有偏见而听音乐。难道在世界上的所有音乐不算是世界音乐吗？我不了解为什么只有一些国家的音乐才被归类为世界音乐。可能这样的话在音乐店里更容易找到唱片。
LYBZ: 在英国莱切斯特的一家餐厅里，我在你的傍边，但是因为太拥挤而看不到你。你是什么样子？
HT: 我的样子呢，自己都说不出来（自己的样子难以描述），所以我建议你在网络上寻找我们的照片一下。不过我还能描述Jeremy的样子。他紫色的，并且一直穿着奇怪的裤子。
LYBZ: 体会—想像音乐的最好的方法是什么？
HT: 我认为这个方面上每个人都不一样。我喜欢听现场音乐，但是我还喜欢在我的沙发上躺着听自己的唱片，使我感觉到我被运送到另外的地方，另外的时间，而连出门都不需要。
LYBZ: 什么给予你们作音乐的灵感？
HT: 我觉得生活已经比较有灵感，比如见有意思的人，吃可口的菜，看玩耍的动物。我还觉得你一个人的时候最好做什么事，免得感到厌倦和寂寞。
LYBZ: 你们去学过音乐的好多地方其中你们选择布达佩斯去住。为什么？
HT: 我们和那边的一些音乐家打交道，并且我们爱上那座城市。
LYBZ: 你们在音乐中寻找什么？
HT: 我觉得只是我们做的我们喜欢的事情。可能未来这个会变成另外的事。我认为这是关于创作过程，它就寻找自己了。
LYBZ: 你最喜欢AHAAH的哪些歌？
HT: 我最喜欢演奏的是Fernando的“Giampari”。再说，最近很喜欢听〈我不是赌博的人〉(“I’m Not a Gambling Man”)。
LYBZ: 你们最近参加了SXSW(西南偏南)音乐节聚会。在那里的经验怎么样？你们即将要演出什么音乐会？
HT: 我们已经参加过SXSW两次，所以没有吃惊。就是很多乐队和很多人都聚在一个地方。这个会很好玩，也会很累。我们在奥斯汀的法国大使馆里演奏了，那个地方真棒。得克萨斯是个州之前，有一位法国的贵族到那里创立了它。
下三个月我们将去美国和欧洲巡回演出。我们在美国还要开Andrew Bird和Wilco的音乐会。
LYBZ: 你们赶快要发行你们的第五张专辑。你可以告诉我们这张以什么为主吗？录音经验怎么样？
HT: 我认为这张唱片是关于我们在布达佩斯度过的时间和认识过的一些人的一种文件。这张唱片的大部分是在匈牙利的一些朋友的客厅里录的。Jeremy一直带着自己的笔记本电脑和几个麦克风。我们最后在新墨西哥州录音，所以有一些老乡朋友也在它其中演奏。
LYBZ: 你对中国的音乐现场有什么感觉？
HT: 我对那边的音乐现场感到很好奇啊！那里应该有好多很好的音乐家。我们看过关于Vialka这支很好的乐队的光盘。他们在中国坐火车去巡回演出。看来他们度过很好玩的时间。我真喜欢中国的传统音乐形式，再说中国的传统乐曲也很动听。
LYBZ: 你最喜欢的匈牙利的点心是什么？是Túró Rudi吗？
HT: 我从来没吃过Túró Rudi,但是可能我最喜欢的是那种以果实或干酪为馅的点心。其中我喜欢的是有山莓的味道的málna rétes。
因为AHAAH放在他们的音乐中的对生活的热忱和热情，所以和Heather一起谈论的感觉真不错。他们的音乐是由唐吉珂德指引的——如他的不得不觉得有灵感的想像力及对人性的美丽的信心。
趁谈论文学，我们让普鲁斯特吃他的Madeleine——一吃就让人想起回忆来的那种有名的甜品。我更喜欢和AHAAH一起吃málna rétes:它们也让听众想起丢失的时间来。
因为他们的音乐让我想起自己在匈牙利（他们好好致敬的地方之一）的旅游，所以我对他们非常感谢。但是Trost说，AHAAH的音乐对每个人的印象都不一样。你们听听Délivrance,试试看它带你们到哪里。
Délivrance will be released by The Leaf Label on May 18th
AHAAH’s: myspace and homepage
Photo by Adam Faraday
Translated by Dario Lupoli and Sabrina Merolla
tags: A Hawk and a Hacksaw - Hungary - Indie - U.S.A.
“We’re sleeping underneath the bed/ To scare the monsters off/ With our dear daddy’s Smith and Wesson/ We’re gonna teach them all a lesson.”
