another Walkmen album. another record to get me through the winter. the most consistent band of the early 2000s New York indie boom has put out Lisbon today, probably their best album since Bows & Arrows (although to be honest i love all of them about the same). how these guys haven’t been more successful has always been of one of the great mysteries of the last decade. the Walkmen have done nothing to fuck up their young Dylan fronting a british post-punk band sound because smart bands don’t fuck with what works. if you are a fan then you will like it. if you aren’t a fan...well what the fuck is wrong with you?
At the end of the year when all the magazines and blogs come out with their "best of" lists, you can be sure the tops of said lists will be full of records that are either considered ground breaking or new or what the fuck ever. But I'm just too old to care about such nonsense.
I like rock music. Well I like all kindsa music, but I REALLY like rock and roll. Be it punk, garage, lo fi, shoegaze, metal, or japanese noise prog...I enjoy the sound that is rock and fucking roll...and so at the end of the day all I'm really looking for in a new album is for it be something that rocks to me. And without a doubt the record that has rocked me most this year (so far) is Harlem's Hippies. Combing elements of sloppy garage punk like the Black Lips with catching song writing of your typical indie pop band, Harlem is sorta a mishmash of all the things we love about electric white boy blues. a solid little rhythm section that always feels near the edge of falling apart, tuneful yet tuneless vocals that remind you ANYONE can fucking sing in a band, and the fact that all you need to have a good song is a chorus everyone can remember.
When I listen to this record it's hard not to imagine that you're part of a drunken house party with a bunch of guys plowing through a set of oldies covers played slightly out of key and with the lyrics slurred and half remembered. It's the kinda house party you'll remember for the rest of your life if you hadn't been too fucking drunk and blacked it out. Still you get little flashes now and again and you remember, "GOD DAMN! That was fucking rad."
Does that even explain to you what kind of album Hippies is? Do I even care? Just listen.
It ain't rocket science, it's rock and roll. And Harlem knows this better than most.
Crocodiles are a band from San Diego who are members of the Jesus And Mary Chain is a Genre School Of Music. they also just released their first album Summer Of Hate and i kinda dig it. granted their shit isn't nearly as blatant (or awesome)a ripoff of the Brothers Reid as A Place To Bury Strangers...but yeah, they aren't trying to hide their influences either. but you know what...i am old and i don't give a shit about that anymore. so you are 20 years old and you got really into the Jesus and Mary Chain after you watched Lost In Translation and then decided you and your friend were gonna start and band than sounded like the J&MC's early stuff...i just don't have an issue with it. nobody does anything original anymore, if you know how to write a couple of catchy songs and you look cool then i'm willing to forgive and forget and give you a chance. Crocodiles are exactly that band. they've got a couple of good songs and they sound like shit i already listen to. will i like this band 2 years from now? probably not, but i might put 1 of their songs on a mix cd for someone and these days that's all i am really asking for. plus when you've got song titles as nihilistic as "I Wanna Kill", "Soft Skull In My Room", and "Young Drugs", well that let's me know that you get it.
okay so i know there are still over 8 months left in this decade before it's officially over and done with...but i challenge any artists out there to release a more pointless, shameful, and career soiling record than 2007's The Weirdness by Iggy Pop and The Stooges. as far as reunions go, i feel like it's fine to get together and play shows if you can still deliver the goods live...but when it comes to going back into the studio and trying to recapture that old "magic"...just leave good enough alone. it's probably for the better that Ron died so that they can't do a follow up album...that is unless Iggy pulls James Williamson out of obscurity (is he even alive? i have no clue.)
here's the review i wrote for this flaming pile of shit back when it came out:
i have entitled the following review: No Fun
so i bought the new Stooges' record when it came out, against the better judgement of my brain. let’s see, where do i start? uh, yeah this is hard for me.
the Stooges were one of the first "real" punk bands i ever got into in highschool after going through my early discoveries of the roots of Nirvana and all the alternative bands i was jamming out to at 14 or 15. i think Raw Power was the first thing i ever got and immediately realized how much more awesome The Stooges were than Greenday could possibly dream of achieving. is their a song more balls out awesome than Search and Destroy? i mean "i’m a Street walking cheeta with a heart full of Napalm" how fucking awesome is that? easily the greatest first line in any song that has ever been written. how better can you say, "i am a fucking badass" than that? Iggy was instantly my hero and everything i would ever judge any frontman by for the rest of my life. i mean Iggy Pop at the 40 watt with a bunch of dickheads from guitarcenter as his backing band is one of the best shows i’ve ever seen in my life, just watching a 50 year old guy in better shape than i will ever hope to be rocking out and leaping around and doing Raw Power pretty much puts to shame every fucking lame garage band that i’d end up seeing over the next couple of years.
when i first read about The Stooges getting back together i was originally excited, i mean the chance to get to see a reunited Stooges didn’t at all scare me off like it usually does when old guys who haven’t played together in 20 plus years (scratch that, 30 plus years) wanna cash in on the past, mostly cuz Iggy was so good when i saw him and i figured Iggy with the The Stooges would be like that but crank the awesome level up to 10…and from what everyone who has seen them at festivals and reunion shows has told me, they are still fucking awesome.
when i read that they were gonna go into the studio and record a new album, their first since 1972, well then i got nervous. i mean a reunion tour is one thing but new shit…well we know how that always goes. and so here it is, The Stooges have put out The Weirdness in 2007…just that title itself sends up a warning flare. oh shit, what am i getting myself into? the all Black Album cover is yelling at me "this is a spinal tap moment dude, run for the hills. go listen to Fun House, you don’t need this shit." but then that other voice is saying, "you only buy about 8 albums a year dude, this is one of your top 5 favorite bands of all time, besides if Sonic Youth and Mission Of Burma can still put out quality albums then so can the Stooges” " and so i lay down my cash and bring it home…load it up onto the itunes (obviously we live in the future now and i can’t be bothered with cd players) and so i sit down and begin to listen to the Weirdness….and oh god, it’s so so so so so so....dumb. the Dumbness, i’ve redubbed it. and i mean i am a guy who appreciates stupidity in rock n roll. if you ever heard my old band you’d know that. but this, this is something else. this screams of the one thing that bites anybody who is older than my dad and trying to play rock music….out of touch, not that the Stooges ever needed to be in touch, i mean rock n roll is rock n roll….but come on, "I see your hair as energy/ My dick is growing tall as a tree" WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT? are you serious? and songs about ATMs…this is beyond stupid. this is so much worse. it’s fucking lame. lame lame lame. oh god, why? and Ron Asheton…what are you doing? you played freakout free jazz on Funhouse and invented punk rock with "no fun" and “i wanna be your dog” and now you’re playing the weakest punk riffs this side of Lagwagon. seriously, this isn’t the Stooges, this is fucking pointless. "my idea of fun is killing everyone" come on Iggy, even Trent Reznor wouldn't commit something that fucking childish and retarded to tape. Iggy fucking references Dr. Phil on the song "mexican guy"....NO!!!!!!!!!! godfuckingdamnitiggypop! you have just George Lucased me.
i’ve listened to the record twice through and done a couple of run through on the stand out songs trying to find something worth salvaging…something that won’t make me puke in my mouth or would sound good on a mix cd hidden inbetween "tv eye" and "tight pants" but i got nothing. this just…well it Sucks. this album sucks. fuck.
on a scale of 1 to 10 this has got to be a 3....and it only gets that for a couple of choice freakouts and some killer saxophone on a couple of songs. if you LOVE the Stooges then avoid this like AIDS. seriously, i might delete this from my itunes and shelve this record hidden somewhere where i’ll never find it just so it doesn’t infect the rest of my record collection. oh Iggy, say it ain’t so. The Stooges are dead, long live the Stooges.
the first time i listened to this record i declared that it was in fact the Black Lips best album yet...then i listened to it a couple of more times and decided that i was wrong, it's still a pretty fucking good record. after 2007's Good Bad Not Evil i assumed they'd continue on with their more polished sound and recording but was happy to discover they'd returned to their more lo-fi roots and delivered an album that was more like my favorite Black Lips' album Let It Bloom. fans of their early work will be more than pleased. the Lips continue amuse me with their bordeline retarded antics and rowdy live shows, but the solid albums are really what make me love this band. highlight tracks are #2 "Drugs", #3 "Starting Over", #8 "Big Black Baby Jesus Of Today", & #11 "Drop I Hold" (which might be my favorite track as it sounds like a lost Wu Tang Clan song sung by a honky garage band from the ATL).
Yeah Yeah Yeah's - It's Blitz what is up with the 21st century's rockers and their 3rd albums? the Strokes, Interpol, The Walkmen, & TV On The Radio all among the most promising bands of this decade who recorded 2 really great records and then followed them up with predictable/boring/or disappointing third efforts. i'm not saying that each of those bands third records were total failures, but they were in no way what i was expecting and hoping for from each of those bands. well you can go ahead an add the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to that list as well with It's Blitz. first off i understand the need for bands to "change things up" every album or so, but why is ditching the guitars the standard move for bands? i blame Radiohead. so yeah, It's Blitz is a guitarless new-wave-ish dance-y record that i don't think you could really dance to. i mean lead off track and single "Zero" is danceable (with a little remixing) but that's about it. the first thing i thought when i heard this record was, "The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have been listening to too much M83"...but whatever, just cuz you ditched your guitars for synths doesn't mean you have to make me dance. Suicide sure as shit don't have any disco hits, but the YYYs ain't Suicide. the track everyone seems to be freaky out about is "Skeleton" which sounds is a bit of a sequel of sorts to "Maps" written from the older point of view...or something. it's a good song for sure but i don't know if it's because i'm 30 and jaded or because it's not that great of a song, because i wouldn't put this on a mix tape for anyone. i don't know, maybe i just need to give this album some time and it'll grow on me, but right now i'd give it a 6.5 outta 10.
i decided i'd review the No Age show anyways. it's not like i've got anything better to do.
so yeah No Age played last friday at the 40 watt and as i've mentioned in my earlier post, not a lot of people made it out. somewhere around or less than 100, but it's always hard to tell when shows aren't full at the Watt. they played all their jams and they played two covers (gun club's "sex beat" and the misfits "night of the living dead"), they asked for a show of hands how many members of the crowd were members of Dark Meat, they were loud, they we're good. i kind of expected them to be a lot louder...seeing as how they are only a two piece, but it might have been the fact that i was standing in back with all the other 30 year olds. i also expected them to be a little crazier...but the pretty much just get up there and play the tunes and if you like it then you like it and if you don't then whatever...yeah okay, not much else to say about them. if you like their records then go see 'em live. it's worth the price. here's a live clip of them doing "every artist needs a tragedy" (my personal favorite).
the real surprise of the show was that i really enjoyed the opening band Titus Andronicus and i can't honestly remember the last time that those words came out of my mouth. they were sort of if the Replacements and the Walkmen took all their band members and decided to start a new band and that band was gonna sound like the Pogues with some Springsteen and the E Street band influence thrown in for good measure as filtered through the ears of kids who obviously all grew up playing in punk bands. so yeah, it was good old fashioned, high energy rock and roll. harmonicas, sing along lyrics, and 3 guitars making a lot of racket. some of my friends said they reminded them of Athens band Jesuis France...which i could maybe see. but not as sloppy. regardless i enjoyed them and if they played in Athens again, i'd probably go check them out. can't say if i'd bother to buy a record though...maybe i'll download a track off itunes. anyways, they are a good time and you should check em out.
here's some live footage of them from the Pitchfork festival.
so what is it with cool New York bands and their 3rd albums? the Strokes and Interpol both put out incredible freshman and sophomore releases that remain some of my favorite records and this decade, but when it came for album number 3 i was left with a big, "uhhhhhh". in the Strokes case they misfired by trying to write a record that would appeal to modern rock radio and with Interpol it was just more of the same shit as before with worse songs. and so now TV On The Radio joins this group of failed 3rd records with their new album Dear Science.
i wouldn't exactly call this a bad record. actually the first 3 tracks are all pretty good and could have fit in on any of their previous albums but after that this album takes a dramatic turn for the bland. with the exception of track #5 "The Golden Age", which sounds like a lost song from Off The Wall if Michael Jackson suddenly developed a deeper voice and Quincy Jones suddenly got influenced by Kraftwerk and Suicide...seriously with a little remixing this could be the dance party jam of 2008, there aren't any standout songs from there on out. mostly the rest of the album sounds like throwaway songs and left over b-sides from their last 2 albums. after 1 amazing EP and two very solid LPs, TV On the Radio have gone from a band that i declared would be the next Radiohead to a band that no longer excites me at all. who knows though...maybe it'll grow on me.
a record that has already grown on me after about one listen through is Jay Reatard's latest singles collection Matador Singles 08, which is a collection of...duh, singles he did for Matador records. Jay Reatard continues to be my favorite writer of poppy and catchy indie/punkish songs. but where Reatard has mostly in the past conjured up new-wavey and LA punk-ish cuts, some of these newer singles are calling to mind one of my favorite sub-genres of all time...low-fi 80s Indie Pop. bands like the Clean, the Tall Dwarfs, and Go Betweens all can be heard as influences on a number of these songs. "No Time", "You Were Sleeping", and "I'm Watching You" being the strongest tracks that carry that low-fi influence...which also happen to be the final cuts on the album and one could assume his next record might explore that sound a little more (crosses fingers and hopes for the best). either way Jay Reatard has unleashed another set of perfect pop that my itunes gladly gives a home to. if you liked Blood Visions or the early singles collection that came out this year then it's a safe bet that the Matador Singles collection is right up your alley.
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