It seems that pop punk has found my weakness. Keyboards. Blink 182 tried desperately for me to like their last effort with their synth laced songs and guest vocals by Robert Smith, at that point I resisted. Hellogoodbye covered their whiney emo voice with a vocoder and injected their songs with dance-y electro, this left me unable to decide whether they were actually good or if everything that I stood for musically was being compromised. Luckily, new artist Plushgun (Dan Ingala) isn’t forcing me to make such rash decisions about my musical taste. While he does include the traditional power chords of pop punkers, it is pushed way back in favor of synth strings and plucky melodies. Plushgun’s stripped down retro electro sound, especially on “The Dark in You”, calls to mind a more stadium ready Joy Electric or early Depeche Mode. The piano ballad “An Aria” sounds like a Snow Patrol ballad with a drum machine and synths, and that only makes it better. The crowning achievement up until this point is the catchy high school satire of “How We Roll” which goes from pop punk accessibility to a wafting melody to an aggressive dance beat and back again. Well there you go, I didn’t think it was that simple, but if you want me to like mainstream pop music, put the keyboards up front and give it a dance beat.
May 30, 2007
Plush Guns Shoot Synth Pop
May 28, 2007
Feces Dance Party
When I first heard Shitdisco, the New Rave band from
May 27, 2007
A New Taste of Spoon
Let me put this out there straight away. Spoon is one of my favorite bands and I enjoy nearly everything that they’ve put out. Ever since I saw Spoon on Austin City Limits in 2002, I’ve been hooked on their rock & soul minimalist sound. They are one of the primary reasons that I got into indie music towards the end of my high school tenure, and “Girls Can Tell” has remained one of my favorite albums of all time since I heard it. “Kill the Moonlight” took some time for me to get used to, but I love how they combined an experimental sound with so few elements on each song yet it still retained that blue collar accessibility. I enjoyed the expanding sound and grooves of “Gimme Fiction” immediately, while it still allowed for more subtle songs to grow into favorites.
If I were to compare the latest albums to different varieties of foods, I would say that “Girls Can Tell” would be the original recipe, “Kill the Moonlight” would be the low calorie alternative that is surprisingly filling, “Gimme Fiction” would be the 5-star restaurant interpretation into a 3 course meal, and the newest offering would be the spicy mélange of all three. “
As for songs, all the tracks are solid. There’s not a misstep to be heard. Brit Daniel’s vocals are as good as ever, Jim Eno’s drumming is, as per usual, hyper rhythmic, and all the grooves and melodies are as funky or as tough as they want to be. Opener, “Don’t Make Me a Target” (1), starts off with that familiar heavy “rough day at work” sound, bu then the beat changes, the piano becomes more menacing and the song glides on thoughts of what you would do to your incompetent boss if you could get away with it, before it comes calmly to an end. “The Ghost of You Lingers” (2) is a song composed of urgent piano hammering and panning vocals, which is probably the biggest departure from their traditional sound. The effects and atmosphere add an ominous edge that makes this track the most dramatic on the album. The two tracks I seem to always come back to are the sashaying thump of “Don’t You Evah” (4) and the triumphant melodies of “Finer Feelings” (9). To suggest that these songs would be better out of context to the remainder of the album would be a mistake as the feeling and presence of each song is enhanced by the track before and after it. So, a word of advice, you could listen to some tracks now, but for the full effect you need to hear the whole thing from beginning to end. Trust me on this, I am even a guy who enjoys singles immensely, but this album needs to be heard in its entirety. It’s just that good.
MP3 – Spoon – No You’re Not (A Series of Sneaks)
MP3 – Spoon – The Delicate Place (Gimme Fiction)
MP3 – Spoon – Take a Walk (Girls Can Tell)
Spoon – The Ghost of You Lingers Music Video:
May 24, 2007
The Faint Shuffles off to Buffalo
The Faint is putting on a short tour and making a stop in Buffalo tonight. It should be a good time. They’ve been playing new songs here and there and I can’t wait for them to release something new, it seems like it’s been so long since fall 2004. In the meantime, here are a few tracks and a video of them making “Wet from Birth” to quench the feverish anticipation.
The Faint – Dropkick the Punks
The Faint – Take Me to the Hospital
