Space and the City
Music
REVIEW: HEARTS OF ANIMALS – CAVE LIGHTS
Jan 12th
OK, can we talk for a few minutes about Superman 2? It’s a given that superhero films from this era have an extensive amount of camp in them, so we can set aside any discussion of that from the get go. Indeed, it’s rumored that part of the reason why the producers removed original director Richard Donner during the filming was that he refused to insert more cornballery into the movie. And while it is whips that three extremely powerful super villains would initially believe that Houston is the center of all power on Earth, the fact that Superman wanted to have his abilities removed and made human is just baloney. Let’s get in on some Jor-Real Talk: Lois Lane ain’t that great. Sure, Superman was a super guy, but he went to high-school. He went to college. He’d met girls before. And Louis Lane: kind of annoying. Surely at this point in life he would have figured that out, and maybe turned his x-ray vision towards more balanced choices. And plus, doesn’t she always seem to be getting into scrapes and fixes that he (Superman, not Clark Kent) has to get her out of? I mean didn’t he see that he practically needed to be Superman just to keep her alive so they could date for a few weeks?
Oh, and also, all those extended cuts and what nots don’t really clean things up at all either. Seriously the entire premise of the movie is flawed, and the idea that somehow an ending that involves the destruction of the Fortress of Solitude is any better is just horsehockey! That place ruled, and it seemed like it has many useful crystal gizmos which surely would be helpful in later films/battles with villains/incidents with Richard Prior. However, we gotta say, we did never like the lighting in that place: too diffuse.
Cave Lights is an appropriate title for the latest Hearts of Animals record, but not in the way we expected. We thought the cave was going to be a safe place, one where an adorable fuzzy creature rested peacefully and worked on their life and music and art in a brilliance that allowed no scary shadows or creepy bad to creep. A warm cave, one of rocks and mosses hidden behind a gently rushing waterfall. What we found instead was a cave of cold ice and knife-edge angles, with a blistering chemical luminance emanating from quartz clusters of stalactites and stalagmites, spaced so infequent that sharp shadows are prevalent and full of spelunking fear. A very disconcerting Fortress of Solitude. One with vastly different lighting.
This album opens with a trio of songs that lay out plainly a stark new direction that Mlee Marie has charted for her solo project. Instead of the distinctive and signature brand of chipper lo-fi bedroom pop that characterized the Lemming Baby and 7″ recordings, she has forged out into completely new soundscapes of ambient atmospherics, often devoid of lyrics and a verse/chorus structure. Throughout the album, HOA has taken comfort in the synthstramental, pushing the updated sounds of acts like M83 closer to their heartbreaking roots in the strings pad-heavy work of Blade Runner-era Vangelis even when vocals are present.
Heartbreaking is key here. Though there was always a serving of meloncholy with HOA’s medicine, through lyric or accompaniment the overall effect was nevertheless optimistic, even hopeful. Not so in Cave Lights. In the opening third of the record especially, a broad and inescapable landscape of solitude, danger and pessimism is pressed directly into your ears and heart. The lone lyric in that trio of tracks, “maybe,” doesn’t sound very convinced. Finally, on the fourth track, “Sit Right Here”, there’s a return to the original form, with clippidy drums, a gently plucked guitar (the first to appear on the album), harmonica and vocals with the signature effects treatment of previous outings. Yet in spite of the parallels in sound, the tone of composition is more like the other recordings on Cave Lights than what has come before. This sort of aching could only be found among these recordings and is one of the album’s real highlights.
Other evolutions abound, such as the chime and synth driven melodies on “Sister Stories” and “Sad Dancing,” the soulful and emotive guest vocals by Joe Mathlete (The Mathletes) on “Versus,” or the stripped down, acoustic guitar and unaltered vocals of “Drain Me.” The album closes with an ulisted saxaphone piece, a very mournful siren call to end an album that builds its crystal palace high on a bedrock of being bummed. That so distinct a shift has taken place in Hearts of Animals sound over the past year is particularly shocking because Mlee had nailed such a distinct sound within which there seemed to be such open space for further tinkering, experimenting, refining and evolving, to say nothing for how well recieved it was by listeners. But, that’s the great thing about art, that you aren’t tied to anything and can do whatever you please, whatever you are feeling, whatever is coming from within you. See Superman, Hearts of Animals have moved on, why can’t you?
Cave Lights is available for sale at Sound Exchange.
REVIEW: THE HOMOPOLICE – KTRU ASS INVASION (GREY GHOST #65)
Jan 7th
You must confess your own sins first, and this we do freely. There was a time, only a few years but a million markers by other, weightier (though less journalistic) measurements that we were rather firm in our stance that bands like The Homopolice were what was wrong with music in Houston. A side project of a side project. The offspring of greater momentum. Part of a twisted man-weave of people who recycled one another into new projects. Slapdash in composition and execution with an fetischisement for the fringe. Songcraft that could barely hold water, let alone cut a fine jib. A study in not studying. A lack of practice in practice. So close were we to declaring ourselves exile from this nonsense and making for pastures where there were sonic textile more akin to those we were making that we moved to a small, questionable efficiency and plowed away money for Williamsburgh. But something kept us here, though nearly all our dearest plowed the field for us and waited with open arms and couches a short flight away.
There is something, after all, about this place that makes the comp title I Hate it Here I Never Want to Leave not just prescient towards the evolution of our own attitude, but part of the very bumperstickered hook that held us home. After moving from a mere observer to inside the shark tank, we became to love bands because they were like this. Not because they were slapdash, but because they embodied an attitude of “Hey lets do a thing and get it out there. Right now.” Does it really matter that someone has ideas enough to bridge several projects, even if some of those projects might have done better just as ideas? It’s fun. Who cares. If people don’t like it, they won’t respond to it, and we’re doing it for us anyways. Like we really want to cross the thermocline between fun and work with this. Like we ever expect to tour and be pro about it.
That The Homopolice’s shows regularly descend into a testosterone leather-sweat baccanalia of homoerotic fantasia, GLARP (Gay Live Action Role Playing), headstock-wrecking abandon, and general male disrobament (audience and band alike) may be all the success that they care for. That people, people they know and count among their friends, absolutely loose their mind in pure fun – well we think we could all count that as a success. And that so many people here find success like that, success that is only about themselves on the stage and the people right in the front row (care less even for the wallflowers in the back!), and don’t give a damn about if everything is worked out and worked on and practiced made perfect, well that’s why we hate it here and never want to leave.
This duo of tracks is from The Homopolice’s recent live set on KTRU’s local show Mutant Hardcore Flower Hour, recorded right into the sound board John Sear’s 4-track just as it went out on the air, in all its hairy imperfect glory. It includes their psychedelic punk original “Violent Homosexual” and a cover of “Learn to Hate in the 80s” by Dallas punk Bobby Soxx (in his one and only solo recording; he usually fronted a band called The Teenage Queers). It’s just as visceral as having them in front of you, though it wouldn’t be much of hazard to say its no substitute. Word on the street is that they’ve got at least studio release in their future, and while we look forward to inevitable discipline that a proper recording will bring to what they’re doing, we’re very conscious that that is a lasting hangover of the old us. As it is with us now, the gay devil may care.
PRESENTING: THE WINNERS OF THE 2008 SAMMIES (WITH SPECIAL COMMENT)
Dec 22nd
AT LONG LAST! The ballots have been counted! The Winners have been determined (some by just a few votes! Serious Squeakers)! And in some cases (aka, those folks that we saw on Saturday), the Certificates of Achievement have been distributed (if you won an award and didn’t get it, please drop us a line at the contact us link above)! And now, all that’s left to do is announce the results! But, as a special getting towards the end of the year treat, we’ve called upon some of the best minds around the world to offer some very special Special Comment on the winners! So, with a limited amount of further ado, here they are!
Favorite Live Band: Wild Moccasins
Special Comment by Keith Olbermann: If you are looking for consistency in energy and acumen at a live performance; when you want to be able to go to a show and know what you’re getting yourself into, the Wild Moccasins do have few peers, that’s what makes them the least worst people in the world. However, consider the perspective that perhaps performance with a greater deal of uncertainty at the front end can ultimately result in a different (and some might argue fuller) sense of satisfaction at what you see and hear mister President. Bands that consider their recordings as starting points, rather than scriptures, can just as easily soar as they can utterly disappoint, but on the whole we appreciate those that dare with the boundaries of their writing, their performing and even their own membership. For that reason, though we cannot disagree with a perspective on this category that put the Wild Moccasins on top, thats why in our special comment the leastest worstest is for Indian Jewelry.
Favorite Band in the Studio: Buxton
Special Comment by serious cat: Though cost can be a limiting factor (though real talk: it’s cheaper than you think at several places in town. Good places), one thing that the studio grants the performer is the ability to add depth and nuance to songs they have honed in the practice space and on the stage. Even if, as a band, you’re looking for a stripped down sound that provides no additional instrumentation or layering, the studio affords opportunity. When we listen through local records, one band in particular strikes us as having used the studio to extend their songs into new sonic spaces beyond where they exist live. Their recordings have consistently added complimenting guitars and pet sounds their solid straight-up performances. So while A Family Light is a fantastic recording in production, composition and execution, we cast our vote for the Papermoons.
Band that Blew up the 713: B L A C K I E
Special Comment by those two guys that own Suit Mart: At Suit Mart, we Dare to Compare. Men’s pleated khakis, Mervyn’s price is $23.99, at Suit Mart just fifteen bucks! If you had told us a year ago that a rapper from La Porte would be the band that would have garnered the most votes from The Skyline Network’s readers , we would have been all “Hooded Leather Jackets: Burlington Coat Factory Price $119.99, Suit Mart Price, $229.99!” Cause that’s like crazy! We’re the home of the 2-fer for crying out loud in a loafer. Suit Mart. Awesome!
Most Unfortunate Breakup: The Fatal Flying Guilloteens
Special Comment by Bert Shipley: the “un” in front of this must be a typo because, to be honest this shit’s been 11 years in the making. I mean, hey at least they finally accomplished something, breaking up. Great job guys.
p.s. you owe me $30 for an oil change on my old van.
[Editor's Special Comment: a member of the FFG swears to us that they have not, in fact, broken up and that shows will happen again soon. In light of this, and in light of learning that Powerhouse actually has kicked the can, we reserve the right to change the results of this election and declare POWERHOUSE the winners.]
Favorite Punks: Something Fierce
Special Comment by Joe Walsh: Sometimes I can’t help the feeling that I’m living a life of illusion. And oh, why can’t we let it be and see through the hole in this wall of confusion. I just can’t help the feeling, i’m living a life of illusion. Pow! Right between the eyes, Oh, how nature loves her little surprises. Wow! It all seems so logical now. It’s just one of her better disguises and it comes with no warning. Nature loves her little surprises, continual crisis. Hey, don’t you know it’s a waste of your day, caught up in endless solutions that have no meaning, just another hunch based upon jumping conclusions. Caught up in endless solutions, backed up against a wall of confusion living a life of illusion. Oh yeah, and because I know you are curious, yes, I am a tattoo on someone’s bicep.
Favorite Popsters: Wild Moccasins
Special Comment by The Lollypop Guild: Weeeeeee represent, the Lollypop Guild, the Lollypop Guild, the Lollypop Guild, and in the name of the Lollypop Guiiiiiiiiiiild, we wish to welcome you to Munchkin Land.
Favorite Rockers: American Sharks
Special Comment by the judges panel of American Idols and the Fonz:
Favorite WTFers: The Wiggins
Special Comment by Black Leather Jesus: WTF?
Loudest: The Jonbenet
Special Comment by Nancy Grace: Now, I’m not pretending to be anything but a crime victim who went to law school and tried a lot of cases. You know, part of what the problem is is that you and people like you are blinded by celebrity, when the truth of the matter is if everyone just carried a little Jonbenet locket around their necks and opened it when they needed to make a racket and scare off the bad people, all of this, including my own show, could be avoided. Actually, scrub that, nobody carry around the Jonbenet.
Quietest : Elaine Greer
Special Comment by Roger Taylor’s Roto Toms: Hi, it’s me, Roger Taylor’s Roto Toms. He’s the drummer from Queen and I’m those hella 80’s sounding high pitched tom drums that generally do not have a place on a respectable individual’s drum set. I mean, you literally have to be the drummer for Queen and responsible for something like the epic drum break ¾ way through ‘Fat Bottom Girls’ to get away with having me on your kit. So yeah, like Elaine, most of the time I’m pretty quiet. There isn’t really much occasion to use me at most moments, and so you don’t get to hear my forceful, distinct and yet muted percussiveness very often. But when you do, man, do I rule.
Favorite Solo Performer: Elaine Greer
Special Comment by Dick Valentine (Electric Six): SOLO!
Favorite 7” Record: The Monocles/News on the March Halloween Party Split
Special Comment by a delicious Dairy Queen Banana Split: Sup. Banana Split here. You know, all the time people are like “Damn Banana Split, why you such a contradiction? How you got fruit in there and it’s not even chopped up? How come you get to be the only sundae that has a topping that you might also slice up and put on your breakfast cereal.” And I’m like “Say, why so serious? Don’t you know that contrast is all the rage? Things that shouldn’t work together almost always do. It’s like Pigs and Frogs man, Pigs and Frogs”
Favorite Full Length Record: Buxton – A Family Light
Special Comment by the official Skyline Network iPod: We enjoy you so much, that it took too much of the wonder, beauty and fun out of you to ever do a proper review. We simply loose ourselves in the pure aural attainment. Them’s the breaks, and here’s to hoping your upcoming 7” is totally in the same vein. Unless you want a review.
Favorite EP: Wild Moccasins – Diamonds for Constellations
Special Comment by Chrystler and GM: HEY! This was a Grey Ghost release right? So you ended up only selling 13 of them. Well, we know a thing or two about only being able to sell a few of a product, and let me tell you, you can still make a living at it. Granted, yours was a quality product and is something that people actually want to own, but trust us when we say there’s no need for you to do a second pressing. That’s right, congressional bailout. Just take our advice and don’t fly your corporate jet down there when you go begging for gear funds. Phew, those senators are a helluva tough room. Gotta jet, gonna go camping in our Pontiac Aztek. Check ya later!
Favorite Artwork: B L A C K I E – Wilderness in North America
Special Comment by The Big Star Bar Fire Pit: Dearest BLACKIE. I am sorry that, during the climax of my own flickering and flaming, members of the band Black Congress felt compelled to feed your Sammy Awards to me. I am a primitive animal, nay even more instinct, and I cannot help but ingest what is placed in my roaring belly. It is my understanding that the aforementioned often go into fits of rage and engage in feats of strength upon learning that any other act has appropriated the colorful adjective in their nomer, which is why they are banned from all Black Crowes concert for eternity. May we suggest this be settled the only way gentlemen should settle things in these turbulent times: A Battle of the Bands in the parking lot of the Heights Sporting Club.
Favorite H-Town Label: Mia Kat and Dull Knife (tie)
Special Comment by Bono: You know, I really wanted to start my own label one day called These City Walls Will Crumble Beneath the Debt Forgiving Weight of these Glasses. However, it turns out that it’s not really a cake walk to whittle down which bands you want to put out and then the whole production process, to say nothing of sales and marketing and a big TRYING TO THROW MY ARMS AROUND THE WORLD to these labels cause like that’s a lot of work and I think it will be easier to get Zanzibar out from under their IMF loan.PS – Can I look like Lou Reed soon?
Favorite Happy Hour Bar: Poison Girl
Special Comment by John McLaughlin: On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 represents no mathematical possibility of it occurring and 10 being complete metaphysical certainty of coming to be, we would have to state that this answer is… 10! CORRECT!
Favorite Nite Time Bar: Rudyard’s
Special Comment by Jim Lehrer: Welcome to News Hour I’m Jim Lehrer. Our top stories tonight: readers of The Skyline Network vote Rudyard’s Pub their Favorite Nite Time Bar. In Pakistan, the government of Yousaf Raza Gilani faced new questions about its ability to rule effectively when it was revealed that he has an extremely similar last name to former NY mayor and recent Republican presidential contender Rudolph P. Giuliani. And in Houston, Rudyard’s British Pub took the opportunity of a mild freezing rain to raise the price of Lone Star to six dollars a bottle.
Favorite Venue: Walter’s on Washington
Special Comment by Coach Lohan Springer: Wow. I never thought I would live to see the day when this was actually the correct answer.
Favorite Local Festival: Westheimer Block Party
Special Comment by Perry Ferrell: Shit. Man. Yeah, this was kind of what I was going for. My bad to everyone who has paid $8 for a bottle of water at Lollapalooza or missed Lush while they were waiting in line in shit up their ankles to take a piss.
THE 2008 SKYLINE 50 – PART FIVE
Dec 19th
Our look at the 50 songs that were Houston music to us in 2008 wraps up today, as does voting in for the Sammies (at noon). Be sure to swing by our party Saturday night at Big Star to get the inside scoop on all our winners, and to sit and sip to the souds of all the songs on our list. Thanks for reading.
Underwater Staggie – The Mathletes
We’re the Mathletes and We’re From Houston so How About That Vol. 1 (All Star Power Up Records)
From their disc of covers of H-Town compatriots, this re-imagining of the Hearts of Animals original mines the furthest reaches of HOA’s occasional delicate shoegaze tendencies. Beginning in a reverberating warm lake of fuzzy guitar delay and harmonics, it suddenly quick shifts into a slide-acoustic and tippity top drumming that hews more closely to the spirit, if not the sound, of the original. Again, for all the goof in their collected recordings, it’s sometimes easy to wonder if the Matletes intend to be taken seriously or if it’s another Guilloteenesque example of one original sin joke playing itself out over a rather extended period. But to hear Joe Mathlete cry out “you stop singing, shush shush shuhs, I’ll stop stop singing” we know that his heart is as invested in those words as if he was the animal that wrote them and that’s a beautiful thing.
Weak at Heart – The Sour Notes
The Meat of the Fruit (self released)
This song makes us think of summer of senior year, with a class ring still on your finger and a stupid jacket on your back, uniwttingly falling in love late at night in chain diners and fast food resturants under flourescent lights too bright and diffuse to catch the glimmer in an overlooked beau’s eyes until it’s much to late. Before your lungs were blackened and your liver curdled and heart greyed with bad decisions, you were in a place where the world sounded like this, where aquas and pastel pinks were sincere and most of your major decisions involved deciding which t-shirt to wear. Only art can take us back to places like this. Thank God for it.
Westward – Buxton
A Family Light (Mia Kat)
This whole romp sounds like the entirety of Buxton is riding on the back of a bucking bronco that’s fleeing the ghosts of Eddy Arnold and Marty Robbins, who are both giving chase because they think these city kids have figured out how to bottle lightning and the new sound of the Old West in a sarsaparilla flavored elixir. Never has a song about ditching friends and family been so much fun, and then suddenly they round a corner and Charlie Daniels is there shouting THEY’VE STOLEN THE SECRET TO WHIPS USE OF THE FIDDLE! GET EM BOYS!
Who We Are! – Powerhouse
Yeah! (Self Released)
If there was never a time in your life when you knew which of your shoes were better for dancing than the others and part of your Saturday pre-party ritual included swapping out ties with your boys and strutting around the house you were all getting reading at as a gang listening to your favorite jams and feeling like the most insider outsiders in the whole world and then hitting the club and raising your outstretched hand to heaven at the climax of your favorite song and not giving a fuck and dancing with your boys instead of girls cause who needs them, then you should probably try listening to this song a lot and if it doesn’t give you that kind of a feeling then we wouldn’t worry about it because you’re likely already dead and so you should practice your harp.
503 – Flowers to Hide
Down the Stairs (Self Released)
After what seems like forever (and lord knows how many lineup changes, brief hiatuses, and aborted attempts in the studio) Flowers to Hide finally put out a record this year that captures the primal vision of who they are. No mater how good the live acoustics, they’ve never been able to get across the nuanced swirling of their guitar assault as effectively and beautifully as they do on this and all the other tracks on 503. On the stage, it often is just loud, here in beautiful headphoned comfort, available in your pocket whenever you need it, it comes across as intended – layer after delicious, devilish layer.
SPECIAL INELIGIBLE BONUS TRACKS
OK. So, we like to break the rules, and one of them we are breaking this year is including a few tracks that didn’t really meet our requirements to get on the countdown, either because they previously appeared on recordings covered in our countdown or never made the jump to a physical artifact. We’re also going to take this opportunity to stop writing because we’re just chock out of ways to be endlessly self referrential about our past and kinda need to go out and have some new stuff happen to us so we can have memories to mine for next year.
A Day in the Life of Walter Price – Piano Vines
Unreleased
Asteroid B-16 – Tod the Fox
Unreleased
Doctor Doctor – Young Mammals
Young Mammals (Self Released)
Underwater Staggie – Hearts of Animals
Hearts of Animals 7″ (Dull Knife)
All My Love – Kidd The Great
Unreleased
OK OK one more. One night we caught a cab from our place to Walter’s to check out a Golden Axe show and we got to talking with the cabbie about music and he revealed to us that he was an MC himself. So he popped a cd in the deck and we started seriously feeling this song, and we kinda recognized the sample but couldn’t really place it and weren’t terrible worried because after all the beats were sticky and his flow was good and then suddenly he (on the track, not behind the wheel), put the punctuation on a verse with the lyric “and thats all of my love” and then suddenly Robert Plant cried out “All of My Love” and we lost our freaking minds cause it was so good. So yeah, the only way to hear this track is to catch a ride in his cab (it’s not even on his MySpace) and ask to hear it and did we mention that his business card also outlines the fact that he offers voice lessons, studio time and that if you want to book him for a show he needs at least one hour notice. No joke.
THE 2008 SKYLINE 50 – PART FOUR
Dec 18th
Part four of our series! Don’t forget, voting for the Sammies closes tomorrow at noon!
Runin Down – Fired For Walking
Fired For Walking (Self Released)
You know the whispers in the back of the room when people talk about this track are usually about Pearl Jam so screw that we’re just going to come on out and do it. Remember back before Eddie Vedder cut his locks and suddenly became a prime target for defrizzing hair product and he was all “THOUGHTS ARRIVE LIKE BUTTERFLIES?!” Yeah well at some point he became all save the surfers or something, and look at me I’m playing drums in Hovercraft how edgy an ooh laa laa, and we’ve got all these acoustic guitars and we clearly, from the photos in the center spread, hunkered down in some sort of log cabin to record this next one, so it has a lot of introspection, like we invented Bon Iver before he even existed. Yeah forget about that crap. We’re talking about Ten here. It’s not that “Runin Down” is some sort of grandma’s preserves copy of the songs on that record (though there certainly are welcome parallels in the guitar approach), it’s more the spirit, the fire, the attitude. Like we totally expect when they’re playing this that Joel is going to take this opportunity to swing like a crazy person from the rafters during the guitar solo instead of swinging some douchebag political banner off a bridge because someone indigenous canoe race is threatening the majestic wonders of Puget Sound. Ripping!
Saved by the Bell Was a Super Good Show – O Pioneers!!!
Neon Creeps (Asian Man Records)
Congratulations on winning best song title of the year. Praise the Skreech this track is good, because otherwise we would have had to figure out some way to get it in the countdown somehow and it would have just ended up making us look like a bunch of jerks who judge merit by Weird Al-dian criteria alone (but real talk: Weird Al has been killing it lately). With trademark jangly guitar and bro,-consider-taking-the-night-off vocals Bell (and the rest of the album) contradicts our previous claims that a bass would just get in the way in this band. Somehow, O Pioneers!!! have cubed the rubix of making something catchy and hard while still authentic and damaged; tough and yet sensitive. The AC Slater of songs.
Shake It – The Caprolites
Grey Ghost #55 (Grey Ghost)
There are pretty much four stages we went through with this song. Stage One: Ugh. Is that it? Just the same thing over and over? Stage Two: Heh, ok we’re being a grouch this is kind of fun. Stage Thee: (Hums riff quietly to self during long morning meeting). Stage Four: Song is officially added to most extreme party call me get pumped up for Saturday night pre-party playlist. It’s true, this hand clappin’ party pogo of a song is kind of irresistible, (if a little longer than most party anthems). Scrawnly like a baby bird, it’s kind of easy to picture the entire band as hatchlings rocking it out in a little nest in the forest. That is a seriously random metaphor.
She Said She’s Sorry (Touch Me) – Powerhouse
Yeah! (Self Released)
You know how in the bizzaro world things aren’t really the opposite, just kind of a weird version of ourselves. Like maybe pizza is made with cornmeal crusts and has the cheese under the sauce or Detroit made cars that people wanted to buy, but instead of being located in Michigan, motor city was built on a magical floating barge that cruises from pier to pier on Lake Huron. Or perhaps all cab rides included free milk and haircombs. Sometimes when we listen to this song and contemplate that it’s not a super megahit and available as a bonus level on guitar hero and there are no Powerhouse action figures we start to seriously asses whether we are, in fact, actually living in the bizzaro dimension on accident.
Shelter – Paris Falls
Volume II (Paper Weapons Records)
You know, probably our favorite thing to do is go to Big Star Bar, find a smoldering ember of a log left over from the night before, and then use it to build a fire from scratch. No matches. No lighter fluid. Just leaves, kindling and the concerted application of our own windbaggery towards the materials. When you have the right collection of leaves on the source heat, there is a moment where it just combusts into flame. Not a slow burn or a little itty bitty flicker, just BANG FIRE. Like fuel source and ambient temperature were like “oh say man lets do this thing” and then they just click. That’s kind of how we imagine this song came together, like the elements for it were there in Paris Falls’ repertoire and someone sat at the Rhodes and hit a few keys and then BANG SHELTER the whole band was playing it.
Soup John Dot Com – Jenny Westbury
Jenny French and the Pelican Wrench (All Star Power Up Records)
One thing that much of Pelican Wrench doesn’t do very well is convey how light hearted time spent with Jenny Westbury is. Especially when she’s on the stage, she’s got a knack for making things fun even when there’s a thin slice of gloom on top of her goofy meatball sandwich. What this track does is remind us of that, it even puts the album as a whole into a more proper context of “oh yeah, just because this is someone playing an acoustic guitar alone doesn’t mean that every moment is all serious serious and the serious seriousnesses.” Besides, its a song about making soup, and who doesn’t like to make soup. CROCK POT CITY! PS: Jenny come home for the holidays KTHNX.
Spanish In Jazz – Wild Moccasins
Diamonds for Constellations (Grey Ghost)
We remember the first time we heard about Wild Moccasins it was because Elaine Greer’s drummer was all “nuh i gotta go play in this other band” and then we heard Nick Cody did the same thing and we were all WHO ARE THESE ASSHOLES AND WHY ARE THEY LEAVING THE ELAINE GREER BAND BECAUSE ITS LIKE THE BEST THING GOING RIGHT NOW ALL CAPS SHOUT OUT OUT LOUD! So, to say that we didn’t like this band before we ever heard them is kinda putting it mildly. But you know what, we gotta say, even before they completely sold us on their live performances, we were taken aback by this song and that’s saying alot.
Swans – Indian Jewelry
Free Gold! (We Are Free Records)
See below.
Too Much Honkey Tonking – Indian Jewelry
Free Gold! (We Are Free Records)
We have this fantasy where the Mucky Duck books Indian Jewelry sound unheard just cause their name sounds like they would be a country band and they are mid set and absolutely sandblasting the place to the point where a rip develops in spacetime and out steps 1987 Bono midway through his Rattle and Hum Sunday, Bloody Sunday rant right when he shouts “FUCK THE REVOLUTION” and the whole place goes hog wild and all the tables and chairs are destroyed and carried out to the street for a massive bonfire and then Bono buys everyone there an Audi from the dealership across the street and a massive Ronin-esque car chase ensues and everyone ends up at Blanco’s when the sun starts to rise and are feeling the weight of the evening on them as they eat breakfast tacos and a sassy barmaid kind of stands there in disbelief and utters “Geez. Now that’s what I call too much honkeytonkin.”
Two Ways – The Gold Sounds
The Gold Sounds (Self Released)
No song has ever, ever made us look East. Actually, we can’t think of a song that anyone has ever BSed their way through a description of where their heart or mind turns East (except maybe to be destroyed by the sunrise rather than run from it). It should say something about the power the concepts of Manifest Destiny and Go West Young Man still have in the collective uncousness of us as Americans. There’s no one even alive anymore that knew anyone that rode in a wagon or gave a mountain its European name or etched out a quiet and satisfying living on a piece of land they owned only because no one else did. And yet, the west, as both a physical space and even more abstractly as just a direction, still connotates optimism, opportunity and a chance to start. Sometimes, everybody needs a little bit of a rebirth. When we do, we put this song on and watch the sun set, in the west and hold tight to its perfection. Of all the things we might change about ourselves, its comforting to contemplate them to the sound of something we wouldn’t change one bit.
