- Commissar Startastic in Noah and the Whale killer robot, he’s programmed, TO KILL!
- leahpants in Rock Video Monthly: Alternative Releases July 1994 That Green Jelly video was on mtv when I was in the 3rd grade (when my favorite song was ‘Informer’ by Snow..). All I...
- joiezabel in Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer this is a brilliant review. clever idea. andrew jackson obviously rocks.
i feel like you all should know that i am kind of infatuated with london band noah and the whale. they play breezy folk-pop tunes with whistling and stuff. whistling is very in these days, you know. the new single is called “shape of my heart” and the video is pretty awesome for ten bucks and a video camera. or maybe that should be 5 pounds and a video camera. whatever. foreigners.
anyway, watch it and report back. the commie wifebeater is the best.
It’s time again to revisit mid-90’s alt-rock in all it’s glory with a review of Alternative Releases: July 1994. This is my favorite collection so far.
You can find March, May, and Summer 1994 here and July after the jump.
Wolf Parade seems to me like the perfect music to listen to while reading the Letters of Andrew Jackson. So I’m going to do a track-by-track review of Wolf Parade’s At Mount Zoomer while learning more about our 7th president. Multitasking is fun!
Soldier’s Grin: Hey, perfect! Andrew Jackson was a general! This song starts good, but in all, its kinda boring and about 2 minutes too long though. It’s all the rage in indie to pretend to be Bruce Springsteen, I guess.
Call it a Ritual: This song is about 2 minutes too long also. By the way, the song is 2 minutes and 47 seconds long. I dig the harmonies though. Neither of the first two songs sound any different from anything on Apologies to the Queen Mary.
Language City: Andrew Jackson spelled leisure “liesure.” Apparently, General Jackson didn’t know about the exceptions to I before E except C. Meanwhile, this song is pretty awesome. It’s pretty fast, and reminds me of Arcade Fire in its best moments (like “Power Out”). It has some tempo changes, and is catchy as all hell. Despite being longer than its predecessors, this song does not need to be any shorter.
Bang Your Drum: Here, Wolf Parade has hit its groove. This song isn’t as good as “Language City,” but is still pretty good. It starts slow, builds up, then slows down again. It definitely has its moments.
California Dreamer: I think this is what the Yeah Yeah Yeahs would sound like without Karen O. There’s a really prominent keyboard section in what I think is the chorus, and the keyboard makes it awesome. But without the keyboard, the song seems to be missing something, like Wolf Parade just banged it out at the last minute. It’s also, dare I say it, proggy? When they’re rocking out, this song is amazing. Unfortunately, the whole song isn’t like that. I guess I should mention that the song clocks in at 6:03.
The Grey Estates: Definitely one of the poppier songs on the album. Definitely not a bad thing. Really catchy, but still enough weirdness that I know my girlfriend would hate it (right now, she really likes that Miley Cyrus song).
Fine Young Cannibals: She drives me crazy (ooo ooo)! Like no one else! Oh wait, this song has nothing to do with band from the 80’s. Except the keyboard section, which really could have come out of the 80’s. The song is really slow and drawn out, and even has a saxophone. I’m sure some people will love this song, but I’m not one of them.
An Animal In Your Care: Now that’s a falsetto. It’s impossible to ignore the David Bowie impression going on. If Wolf Parade were a pop-punk band, this would be panned as emo. Regardless, the melodies are pretty good, and the song really builds up into something great. And the lyrics aren’t bad by any means, just kinda emo. Not one of the best songs on the album, but after a slow start, it really came through. Much like reading about the 1824 election! Oh Henry Clay, you lovable scamp.
Kissing the Beehive: If you haven’t noticed, I don’t like songs that are too long. And this is 10:47. Anyway, the vocals are actually a duet for the most part here, which works really well. They try to make the song epic though, and that doesn’t work. When there’s vocals, this is the best song on the album, but I just can’t get into the instrumental parts. I tried, but every time, I just want them to be over. The song does stop momentarily, but then starts back up again, and another instrumental part. This song is definitely proggy, but not in a good way.
Overall, I like this a lot. The good songs are great (including “Kissing The Beehive, which is easy to stop listening to before its too late), and the bad ones aren’t that bad - and there are more good ones than bad ones. Sometimes, Wolf Parade gets too caught up in trying to be proggier-than-thou, but when they don’t, it’s a great rock record. No corrupt bargain here.
Label: Sub Pop
Release date: June 17
Rating: 7/10
I am going to defer a full review to a talented writer, but until that time, I offer you my one sentence review - despite Scarlett Johansson’s new album being subpar, due it deriving completely from a mix of all her favorite artists, much like a concoction of all your favorite sodas at the McDonald’s fountain…I’d still do her.
Has it already been fifteen years? Frankly, I didn’t take too much notice then, nor do I now (just not my thing, eh?), but It’s a Shame About Ray has been out for almost as long as it takes a person to go from birth to driving age. And they’re celebrating at the Abbey Pub, but what’s really happening is…
The Ladies & Gentlemen, a highly reputable local outfit, opens for the Lemonheads. You’ve seen their name a million times before, and said to yourself, “These guys are always at the Double Door/Reggie’s/Martyrs, maybe someday I’ll check ‘em out.” Say ‘yes’ to a Brit-ish, power pop, new wave fix. The songs are catchy as hell, and tailored to the ADD demographic, but if that’s not your thing… there’s a bar in the other room where you can state into your beer in peace.
TLAG is building up steam, and if you’re already in for the Lemonheads, get there in time for the opening act (which also includes Canasta). Maybe not headlining at the Sears Center any time soon, but get a look at these guys as their base continues to grow (which is, amusingly, directly proportional to the rate at which the band’s hairline recedes. 80’s kids on instruments in the 21st Century…).
i hesitated to write this review for 2 reasons: 1. james has been my favourite band for 14 years, i am in no way impartial, and there is a limit to how many times you can say how awesome an experience is without sounding like the proverbial broken record and 2. the show was pretty damn awesome and special and effervescent and there really are no words. but i decided to suck it up and write something, mainly because the average grunt out there probably doesn’t even know that james is back together (hooray!) and has a stellar new album out (hey ma, 04.07.08) and might even come to the states in august. be still my heart.
anyway, in light of the above disclaimers, i’ll make it short and sweet. i went to london to see james with my best friend zak and it was rad. tim booth is bald now, but he still dances in that crazy shamanistic way, larry gott is still a guitar genius, andy diagram was back with his trumpet wearing a daisy dress on stage. they played almost the whole new album, and tons of older stuff too. although they didn’t play either of their best-known songs ’sit down’ or ‘laid,’ they started with ‘born of frustration,’ ended with ’sometimes (lester pigott)’ and played pretty much everything in between that i could have wished. tim jumped out into the crowd during ‘come home’ and the whole band just generally seemed to be having a great time playing to an audience that loved them.
speaking of, james fans are legendary and there is a very special dynamic that happens between the band and the crowd, trust me. the venue was small enough to keep it intimate, the crowd knew every word to every song and jumped around like the happy idiots we were. i moshed! it was very early 90’s, oh my god. there were people there who came from mexico and portugal and sweden to see james and warm fuzzy feelings of camaraderie abounded for the most part, with the exception of a few ruffians who kept trying to push their way to the front. i pushed back though, so no worries. i screamed myself hoarse, got my piggy toes smooshed by other jumping fans and had a huge grin plastered over my face the entire time…not nearly high enough praise for a night that i seriously will remember the rest of my life. the show ended with the audience stamping their feet and singing the chorus of ’sometimes’ over and over and over as the band stood on stage smiling and enjoying the impromptu appreciation.
so there’s your review. enjoy it. and more importantly, go see james if you ever get a chance. i promise it will be a pretty incredible experience, no matter what kind of music you are into.
ps. my federation opened. not bad, but i was too excited to focus on them. the singer has a lot of hair, though.
