It’s an EP. The first track is “Loxtep” and could be a play on the word “lockstep.” The song itself is fine, but it gets lost in itself during the bridge. This track needs an editor, because by the time we get the fun synthy stuff, more than three minutes have already passed.
“Turncloaking” sounds like a slowed-down version of Mankind Liberation Front, which has to be a coincidence. I mean, what are the odds? The title track sounds like a Sting/Paul Simon duet with Talking Heads background music.
“Holler and Howl” sounds like two songs playing at once but not in an ironic way. Some people take their half-assery very seriously, and I can’t say that Annuals can count themselves among those people. It just sounds sloppy, instead. It reminds me of some Porno for Pyros stuff.
“Flesh and Blood” is the last track and has the same intro as “Mayor of Simpleton” by XTC. After the intro, it’s still a good song, but I keep thinking of XTC instead. It messes with my head.
Archive for the ‘KSCU’ Category
Annuals “Sweet Sister”
June 21, 2010The Prids “Chronosynclastic”
June 21, 2010These guys are really loud live, I bet. There’s a lot of everything going on all the time. “Hide Your Thoughts” gets the album off to a complicated start, with guitar and keyboard fighting over who can dominate the score. Definitely bet this one over the total.
“Waste Our Time” is like Tilly and the Wall without the gimmick, although for as long as these guys have been around it may be a more fair assessment to say that Tilly and the Wall are a gimmicky version of the Prids.
“Fragile” is perfect for fuzzy power-pop lovers. It is not overly complex, just crowded, but everything seems to have its place, and the whole track effortlessly flies on by. “Sydney” witnesses the keyboard wrest control away on several occasions and is also easy to listen to. This album is chock full of high fructose corn syrup — there’s no way it could naturally be this good.
“I’ll Wait” has the best harmonies on the record. It’s like a Rilo Kiley song with one more guitar.
Definitely a great effort here. It’s hard to overcome such a busy sound, but they’ve done it.
Tracey Thorn “Love and Its Opposite”
June 21, 2010You might remember Tracey Thorn as the singer in Everything but the Girl, but that’s a one-way ticket to misunderstanding what she can do for you. This followup to “Out of the Woods” is stripped down and a must for any Lisa Germano fan. “Oh, the Divorces!” is dominated by piano and her timeless voice. Even childbirth has not changed the vocals that we’ve come to know and love.
The tracks have a similar sound, but I see this more as her finding her niche than her being in a rut. “Kentish Town” does stand out a bit, thanks to some top-notch backing vocals. Maybe it’s not on the level of Dot Allison, but it’s close. “Why Does the Wind?” has an actual beat and keyboards, but it sounds a little rinky-dink. Perhaps it’s intentional. For those who want that commercial Everything but the Girl song, this is the track for you.
“Singles Bar” is a fun little story, and it will appeal to Gen Xers around the world. You’re getting old, Generation X! “Come on Home to Me” has male backing vocals that surprise you. The song itself is a bit haunting, and it’s well-produced.
Although the album is not much of a surprise, it’s still well worth listening to.
Girl in a Coma “Adventures in Coverland”
May 24, 2010It’s seven tracks of covers. “Si Una Vez” was a Selena song, and I swear I’ve heard it before, which is quite possible. I watched my share of Caliente when I worked at Arby’s. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is a Beatles song. I admire that they made this song (really all of these on the record) their own. I already know what the original sounds like, so it is nice to hear something completely different.
“Transmission” is the Joy Division song. I was hoping they would do “Transmission Standard” by Run for Cover Lovers, but one should not be so greedy. I know a thing or two about this band, having reviewed a previous effort, and I think the point of this album is to show their influences. These tracks are all songs they love by artists they respect, and I imagine it was originally going to be an EP, but they could not pare the list down any more than they already had.
“As the World Falls Down” is a David Bowie cover and the only one that I felt missed the mark. That will happen, you know, when you take risks. “Come On, Let’s Go” is a Ritchie Valens cover and is the one that sounds the most like the original, but the original is awesome, so why try to improve on that?
“Walkin’ After Midnight” is rather divine. Patsy Cline would be proud. “Femme Fatale” of course is the Velvet Underground classic, and it is far and away the best of the best on here. It’s so cheery, something I never would expected from this song. There’s your winner, right there.
Camp Out “Closer”
May 24, 2010I bet the bassist snuck into the recording studio when no one was looking, because the bass is turned up super-high on these tracks, but it works!
This record has a Portland/San Francisco sound, and it does not surprise me that they are in fact from the city by the bay. Minor bits of Glitter Mini 9, Ramona the Pest and even Sleater Kinney come together and give you some fun rock ‘n’ roll to listen to. “Make Myself Sick” is very simple musically, but it’s like a gin and tonic. Keep that Tom Collins mix and fancy glass away, please. I don’t need anything fancy to please my ears. I’d rather have something made right.
“Does It Hurt” touches on that retro sound that people seem to be enjoying these days. Having a synthesizer in your band will do that. It sounds fine. It would sound better at the Ivy Room in Albany. It kind of sounds like INXS, actually, with guitar straight out of All Girl Summer Fun Band.
“Bones” isn’t about the TV show or my ex-girlfriend’s cat, either, but it does have the same upbeat feeling as Sub Debs, which I can be happy about.
I’d like to suggest that when they play live that they face each other. I bet it would create a dynamic that would grab the audience’s attention, similar to what Shellshag does.
Misty Boyce “Misty Boyce”
May 24, 2010This record is a little too mature for me. When I was single, I would sometimes talk myself into a date with a woman far more successful than I, and at the time, confidence was an issue I could not overcome. I bet those women listen to this kind of music. But as I sit in my palatial 750-square-foot condo and drive my seven-year-old car with the paint chipping on the bumper because carports mess with my head, I realize I have to keep it real. And maybe so does Misty Boyce.
“Be a Man” has some synths and tells a story about eating cookies. It’s slightly whimsical, and the seriousness of the other tracks and cover art caused me to be quite surprised when this track came on. There’s hope yet!
“How Long” has a very mainstream appeal. I can picture someone calling syndicated radio host Delilah and requesting this one. It even has a dedication-worthy title.
“Love You Down” is not an Inoj cover, but it’s still peppy with a very deliberate tempo. This is the best track on the album. “Slow Burn” slows it down and is likely reserved for encores when she performs live. It’s got just a little more emotion than the other tracks, and it’s just enough to grab your attention.
There are a few gems here and there, but I can tell that I am not the target audience for this record. I still pick my nose, for crying out loud.
Undersea Poem “Undersea Poem”
May 13, 2010Wow. Real singing! Real guitar and keyboards! And it’s all balanced nicely. Picture Alphaville with a woman singing. That’s just the beginning. And all the songs are really short so you can treat them like a bowl of m&m’s. Listen to a handful; they won’t mind.
The short tracks can serve as an advantage when they play live, I bet. Oftentimes when this music gets ethereal in nature, they get long in the tooth, and after six minutes of the same bassline, you’re staring at the floor, trying to stay awake. I’m looking at you, A Girl Called Eddy.
“Makes Me Happy” — do I have to say it? The singer sounds like the singer of AM60, but I know I use that one a lot. I just really enjoy that sound. Sue me.
Musically, many of these tracks go off on that Mazzy Star vibe. It’s a smorgasbord of delectable music. And there’s stuff in Spanish, too. Check out “Te Encontrar,” which means “to find you,” I suppose. Usually the reflexive, or whatever it is, shows up appended to the infinitive, but what do I care? The song sounds great.
“Leon Come Home” stands out on an album of standout tracks. Simply beautiful, as is “Driving Song.” I wish I hadn’t taken the train to work today, because then I could listen to it in the appropriate venue right now! “Come So, Morre So” sounds exactly like an AM60 song, to the point that I think it is a cover. Ditto for “You You You.” If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it’s the same people.
This is another top 5 nominee.
Crazy Mary “Water on the Moon”
May 13, 2010When I was a kid I had a cat named Mary, and we would sometimes call her “Crazy Mary” because she would do crazy things like sit on top of a ladder and sniff my hair. And her nose was always wet. I’ll never forget that.
So despite having a dog on the cover art, I took this CD because of the band’s name. The music is standard rock ‘n’ roll, and the singing is clearly not the focus of the record. It sounds like a bunch of friends decided to make an album, and now I have to listen to it. I was expecting something with a little bit of an edge, and instead I got another Mary band, Seven Mary Three, only with a female singer. If you’re over 40, this album is perfect for you. It just screams “Generation X.”
“Orgasmic Annie” has one of those hey-look-at-me titles, but like Primus’ “Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver,” it’s just a clever name. Well, I suppose Primus wrote a clever song to go with it, but all their songs were clever. Everything in life is relative. I guess if you’re going to pick a song to like, you might as well pick this one, but don’t get your hopes up.
“Way Too Freaky” is a little better but still sounds something you would hear at the Atlantis in Reno while playing Pai Gow Poker. “Soul Survivor” and “Sun Is Coming Up” are awful and serve only to make it an LP.
Night Driving in Small Towns “Serial Killer”
May 13, 2010Yeah, this is my kind of record. It’s an upbeat Azure Ray-sounding thing, only the other woman is a guy. “February,” a great title for the second track, is the first track, and it has a beautiful combination of guitar and synths to get the job done. “Barstool” is a dead ringer for something Rilo Kiley would do, and I bet they hear this all the time. Maybe the lead singer was in a movie as a teenager about a new game for the Sega Master System.
“Come & Tell Me” has a light layer of syrup, just enough to make this ballad taste better while letting diabetics partake as well. Talk about being sensitive to today’s youth! And that’s what the band is going for here. This is what the kids like. Sure they may remind you of acts from the past decade, and sure some of the chords remind you of other songs (“Get Free” vs. “All Apologies” by Nirvana), but there is just enough of an adaptation that keeps the sound new and fresh. This album is as much a breakthrough as Damone’s “From the Attic.” It’s about making the right record at the right time, and Night Driving in Small Towns have done it.
“All Together Now” puts it all together. This whole record fucking rules. If this does not end up in my top 5 for 2010 then this is going to be one hell of a year for rock music.
Throat Sprockets “Lankershim Square”
May 4, 2010The style is modern, if poppy, but the music has a very mature sound to it. Recapturing youth? Inspired by older siblings? It’s hard to tell. There’s not much of a ceiling from what I am hearing here, but the finished product is still worth giving a listen. “Sweet Amnesia” has very sweet vocals, but I forget why. There are also keyboards at the end, and I remember that I do like those.
“Desire Caught by the Tail” sounds like Picnic. Well, the whole album sounds like Picnic, but especially this one. Busy slightly alternative rock songs with lots of upbeat rhythm that belongs on a movie soundtrack. Somehow it all comes together and makes a catchy song. Somehow.
“Stop Feeding the Pig” is cute. It has oinking noises, and the lead vocals are fun to follow along with, even if they are mixed a little low.
“Cotton Fever” is the last track and also has good melody. Nothing on this album is stupendously amazing, but nothing really sucks, either. Perfect for the weekend warrior and much safer on the marriage than cheating on the spouse.
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