December 23, 2009
December 22, 2009
AZLTRON BEST OF 2009!
Another year, another year end list. Crazy that this is the third I’ve compiled. Has it been three years already? Crazy! Anyway here is my list of the top 30 albums of the year. Granted, I am just one man and I may have not had a chance to listen to every album ever made this year. I am speaking from my bubble of experience so if your fave isn’t on here, it doesn’t mean it sucks, it just means maybe I haven’t heard it. Or that I didn’t like it. Ha! Well get to those mp3′s and enjoy! Never say I never gave you anything.
30. Moby – Wait For Me
This album was a return to the heightened emotionality that makes Moby songs like “God Moving over the face of the water” instant classics. Moby stumbles into some of his familiar potholes of opaque lyrics and repetitive song structure but he continues to move in positive directions.
29. stellastarr* – Civilized
stellastarr* returns with their third album sans major label and with plenty of well written songs. The band takes a lo-fi old school approach opting to forgo a lot of the gloss that stamps most modern rock releases. stellastarr* doesn’t have any out of the park home runs here, but the sheer enthusiasm the band exudes on this album makes it worth a listen.
28. Digits – Hold it Close
Digits combine electronic beats and mellow vocals and synths with all kinds of cut up acoustic and electric guitars. You could call it synth-pop, you could call it electro-acoustic, but mostly it’s just good solid music.
27. Katsen – It Hertz!
Cats keyboards and Kitch are what Katsen is about. Their album of synth-pop, “It Hertz” rides the border of seriousness and satire and along the way the group shows their diverse influences from Kraftwerk, the Cure, Kate Bush and others. “It Hertz” is an unabashed guilty pleasure.
26. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs returned this year to a mountain of hype and turned in a few good singles and some slower keyboard tinged numbers. The ample reverb and slick production heralds a marked difference in the bands sound. Some hailed it as a beautiful transformation, like a butterfly out of a cocoon, from raw to polished, but others just recognized it for what it was, the group aping the popular girl fronted new wave band that others have been doing for years. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs got to the party a little bit late, but at least they kept it going.
25. Little Dragon – Machine Dreams
I was just talking about those female fronted new wave bands that have been at it a while and here we find one, Sweden’s Little Dragon who fuze unique vocals, electronics and a Bjork-like sensibility. Sounding like bossanova meets ambient electronica funk “Machine Dreams” is a laid back psychedelic groove fest that works its way up to a few freak outs. The only downfall is that the tracks tend to get a little repetitive in their structure. Perfect for a mixtape a long drive or a night on the town.
24. Broken Spindles – Kiss/Kick
Joel Peterson of the Faint returns again with his side solo project Broken Spindles. In this adventure he works on combining his good lyrical ideas with his good sound ideas and produces some of his best Broken Spindles songs yet. The vocals are still pretty monotone but the songs feel a lot more cohesive than past releases. If anything the album feels like good ideas that could be expanded upon.
23. Fischerspooner – Entertainment
Fischerspooner marks their return to music land with their third album “Entertainment” and the album is less dancefloor ready and more heady than their previous releases. Nonetheless there are some cool experiments to be found here and a slight return to the approach that helped their first album make a splash to begin with.
22. Danger Mouse & Sparkle Horse – Dark Night of the Soul
Technically this album was never released, but that didn’t stop it from getting out there. With input from David Lynch and guest spots from the Flaming Lips, Black Francis, Iggy Pop, Julian Casablancas and more it’s bound to have something for everybody. Well everybody looking to have a bit a dark good time that is.
21. Crystal Method – Divided By Night
America’s preeminent techno producers return to the keys and the decks to bring you a relatively diverse album with tons of guest spots from the likes of Peter Hook (New Order) Emily Haines (Metric) and Matisyahu. The album hits in ways that “Legion of Boom” only hinted at. The Crystal Method is getting better cleaning up their sound and finding ways to still sound like themselves while adapting themselves to the times. Above all they are proving themselves to be a member of an elite group, techno producers from the 90′s who are still relevant today.
20. The BPA – I Think We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat
Norman Cook’s latest incarnation in a seemingly endless list of pseudonyms and band names. This project continues his focus on song structure over the top of his well known big beats. There are a couple stutters (literally) on the album, in particular one about a toad, but the album evens off with some mid tempo tracks and a few spectacular ones. Like the one featuring David Byrne AND Dizzee Rascal. Feels like a bargain huh?
19. Lonely Island – Incredibad
At what point will pop and rap just give up and let the comedians take over the airways? Seriously with Tenacious D, Flight of the Concords and now the Lonely Island putting out releases that are just as strong musically as they are comedically poppers and rappers might want to look for a day job. But then again with nothing to make fun of, those previously mentioned groups might not have a career. Either way, this star studded affair features invigorating guest vocals from Jack Black, Julian Casablancas and Norah Jones in addition to all those SNL Digital Short Songs that everyone loves to sing.
18. Calvin Harris – Ready for the Weekend
Calvin Harris’ disco stylings return with a tad bit more variety and arrangement. Bass pumps, synths soar, Divas sing about shoes and piano hooks will get stuck in your head. Is it as good as the first album? In spots. Is it better than the first album? In Spots. Is it worse in spots? Yes. Is it entertaining from multiple viewpoints all the way through? Yes. Get this for it’s potential in your car speakers as you go out or on a road trip with your friends.
17. Little Boots – Hands
To continue with the streak of British synth pop is Little Boots, who writes songs so catchy that I’m willing to risk others’ perception of my masculinity by listening to them. Seriously in a world where we can have Brittanys and Lady Gagas churned down our throats would it be possible to have one pop songstress who writes and performs all her own songs get popular in the states? Just this once? Please? No? Ok then, more for us.
16. Frankmusik – Complete Me
Completing the triforce of British synth pop darlings is Frankmusik, who has been teasing us with samplers, demos and EPs for what seems like forever finally released a full album. It didn’t dissapoint. Although it was a little more polished and tame than what I’d expected, but this only enhanced the songwriting. Plus his music videos are entertaining.
15. Portugal the Man – The Satanic Satanist
Sometimes you just need some good old fashioned rock & roll. Portugal the Man has that in spades. Take that classic guitar led classic rock sound and update it with a bit of an alternative and r&b take and that’s roughly what Portugal the Man has to offer up on the Satanic Satanist. Put in a pinch of a psychedelic touch and you’re spot on. Every track exudes that classic 70′s anthem feel that you’d expect from Bowie in his heyday. Plus they put on a great show.
14. Julian Plenti is… Skyscraper
Julian Plenti, for the uninitiated, is Paul Banks from Interpol in his solo vehicle. The album is filled with somber tunes that one might expect from the frontman of the well dressed NYC quartet but the instrumentation is a bit more varied and includes a horn section, acoustic guitar, and even strings. Banks does crank it up a notch for a few tunes and rock out on the old guitar, but the melodies and atmosphere of the quieter tracks are where he really shines.
13. Julian Casablancas – Phrazes for the Young
After looking at the Julian Plenti cover and the Julian Casablancas cover one can’t help but wonder, “Which came first?” Surely the gents must know each other. Is Paul Banks mocking Casablancas? Or Perhaps they are both in on the joke. Perhaps it’s just cool to have a dude sit in a room on the cover of your album, like in the Spoon “Transference” album cover. Either way, Casablancas’ first solo outing is a fun romp through influence from The Doors, New Wave, even Flock of Seagulls. The album as a whole is pretty uneven, but the highs are pretty spectacular and earn the record a place on this list.
12. James Yuill – Turning Down Water for Air
Sometimes it’s awkward for some artists to move back and forth from folk rock territory into electronic beats. James Yuill is not one of those artists. He assimilates electronic elements and beats into his beautifully written acoustic songs. Fans of the Postal Service or even derivatives like Owl City will find a lot to like here.
11. Franz Ferdinand – Tonight
Franz Ferdinand took a break after whipping out their second album “You Could Have it so much better…” and the break has done them well. While their sophomore album had some nice high points, it was too wired, too anxious, too spikey. With “Tonight” the group mellowed out and recaptured some of that timeless cool that made them ones to watch in the first place.
10. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
In their search to define themselves as something other than Air’s back up band or the French Strokes Phoenix found a sound that they can truly claim as their own. “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix” has elements that have marked their previous releases like the slightly roughed up sounds of “It’s Never Been Like That” and the electronics of “Alphabetical” except this time it sounds like they were melted together and shot out of a canon. Wait, make that a Cadillac.
9. Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band – Outer South
Conor Oberst and Co. return with an even more egalitarian mix of songs where Conor doesn’t even sing lead all the time. He lets his stalwart bandmates take the reigns multiple times and the songs really benefit from it. This feeling of brotherhood that must inherently be within this group really adds to the cohesiveness of the sound as well. When this band is cooking, they crank it up to 1000. Take a listen, I dare you.
8. Sally Shapiro – My Guilty Pleasure
There’s no guilty pleasure for me here at all about Sally Shapiro’s latest release. Everything about this release, from the ambient opener to some of the jazzy jams that erupt toward the end of the album is awesome. To this day I can’t believe that I missed when this album came out over the summer. Dang you day job.
7. Monsters of Folk – Monsters of Folk
Conor Oberst cannot get enough of collaboration. Uniting with M. Ward, Mike Mogis, and Jim James the quartet produced some of the finest folk-rock of the year. Avoiding nearly all the pot holes that “supergroups” fall into perhaps by making sure that they play all the parts on the album to keep them humble by pointing out their weakpoints. Which is ironic since there’s not many weak points that you can find here. Like Oberst’s Mystic Valley band this band oozes euphoria when they’re all together. Oh, also they’ve got some bangin harmonies.
6. Muse – The Resistance
Muse’s latest effort feels like bits and pieces of their previous albums glued together. The electro stomp of “Uprising” and radical Queen flourishes on “United States of Eurasia” wouldn’t be out of place on their previous album “Black Holes and Revelations”. “Unnatural Selection” right down to the track title could fit right in on “Origin of Symmetry”. Then somewhere along the way an orchestra drops in on the band and things get really classically bombastic. The great thing about all this though, is that Matt Bellamy and company are so talented that they can take this rag tag collection of tunes and turn them into a masterpiece.
5. Echo & The Bunnymen – The Fountain
Echo & The Bunnymen rose from the ashes again this year to compile their best album in over ten years. Most critics will continue to write them off as shot, but The Fountain features a vigor and life that we haven’t seen from the group in quite a while. Not only that, but the songs are tight and full of hooks and even a bit of play with their song structure. Don’t expect another Ocean Rain, but to compare it to the 1987 self titled would be appropriate and I thought that album was criminally underrated. Which is how I imagine this album will go down too. That aside, The Bunnymen are back in a big way. Definitely one of the best of the year.
4. Wilco – Wilco the Album
Those Wilco fans who felt there wasn’t much to chew on with “Sky Blue Sky” sure got a mouthful of tasty layered Wilco on their latest release. From the opener “Wilco the Song” which is all about the comforts of listening to Wilco songs, to “You & I” featuring Feist, the album is full of equally energetic and expansive songwriting. Jeff Tweedy and Co. are having a blast and that translates even to the recording.
3. Passion Pit – Manners
Passion Pit delivered on their great expectations from their EP which was almost universally loved. The songs on Manners are sure to be the sugary Cafe Mocha to the processing center of your brain as they are covered in saccharine synths and freaky falsetto that are sure to wake you up and make you move. Even Corporate America is catching on.
2. Hockey – Mind Chaos
Hockey has some of the most fully formed classic sounding rock and roll I’ve heard in a long time. These chameleons have been paying attention, imbuing their tunes with flourishes reminiscent of The Strokes, LCD Soundsystem, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Talking Heads and others. The next time you run into somebody telling you that no one makes good rock & roll anymore, make sure you throw this CD at them. Hard.
1. The Sounds – Crossing the Rubicon
The Sounds took a lot of risks with Crossing the Rubicon, opting out of a lot of the Kitch that was found on their previous album “Dying to Say this to You” and went for broke with honesty and earnestness. Kind of like how The Killers changed their sound with Sam’s Town. The earnestness paid off in spades as there’s not an unlistenable track to be found here. As much as it would make me feel uncomfortable to see sorority sisters singing their songs, I think The Sounds deserve some top 40 success.
December 9, 2009
December AZLTRON Mix!
It’s December and I haven’t posted a mix in what seems like forever. Deadlines, midterms, work and finals have been beating in my head for the past few months and have limited what I’ve been able to post. So I’ve decided to post a mix anyway even though I should be working on something else.
The snow has hit the ground and we need some tunes to motivate us to carry out our daily routines through the ice and slush.
September 26, 2009
AZLTRON 500th Post Spectacular! Part 2!
It’s been a long time since the beginning of this blog, which is now well into it’s third year. I just realized not too long ago that the 500th post was coming up fast, and wouldn’t you know it, here it is. In a celebratory fashion I thought I would write about ten of the albums that I’ve listened to over the years that have changed the way I listen to music. I have three criteria for this list: These albums must be albums that came out during my lifetime (that means no collections or retrospectives), the albums must be albums that I discovered myself through word of mouth or research and the albums must be albums that I listened to almost religiously. Here is the second half of the list in chronological order:
6. The Faint – Wet From Birth (2004)
I had already heard of and loved The Faint from their previous releases Blank Wave Arcade and Danse Macabre for their ingenious integration of hard hitting electro beats with indie rock and punk flourishes. But Wet From Birth is something special, even if the band feels that some parts of it are a bit overcooked.
I can still remember my first listen of the album. I had travelled to the city of Rochester in the fall with some newfound college friends and somewhere along the tour we ended up at a record store. I picked up The Faint’s Wet From Birth and The Notwist’s Neon Golden. Both albums were excellent, but from the opening of the first track on the new album, “Desperate Guys”, the glorious strings stabbed in adding an aura of class and sophistication to a track that is basically about hooking up at a party. The irony is beautiful. Next is the most aggressive use of ambient electronics I have ever heard, “How Could I Forget”, followed by one of the album centerpieces “I Disappear” whose distorted bassline, swirling keys and guitar funk make it one of my favorite tracks of all time. I don’t think I’ve gone more than a few weeks without listening to this song. Since 2004.
The next track, “Southern Belles in London Sing” is the closest thing The Faint will ever release to a straight up love ballad. From the muted trumpet intro to the classy violin I don’t think there could ever be a more beautifully macabre dance track. Which is ironic because the very next track, “Erection”, deals with probably the raunchiest subject matter The Faint have to offer, although they still do it with some class. The Faint rounds out the album with all strong tracks, the fuzzed out electro jam “Paranoiattack” that they played on Jimmy Kimmel, The reggae influenced “Phone Call”, the relentless blood pumping “Dropkick the Punks”, “Symptom Finger”, which is perfect for the current health care controversy, and arguably the most epic song The Faint have ever released; “Birth”. I remember I loved (and still love) everything about this album, from the bright colors on the album cover to the innovations in sound (A fork in the speaker? Brilliant!).
7. The Walkmen – Bows and Arrows (2004)
The song “The Rat” is obviously the big draw on the album because of it’s dramatic guitar work and drumming, and listening to it now it’s extremely apparent why it hooked me so much. Hamilton Leithauser wails about nerves and favors and going out alone and all those other dramatic things and the result is something that is truly exhilarating. The alternationg between these brazen rock numbers and delicate piano plunking ballads makes “Bows & Arrows” truly something special.
8. LCD Soundsystem – LCD Soundsystem (2005)
I became aware of LCD Soundsystem after learning about the band The Rapture and the DFA production team of James Murphey and Tim Goldsworthy which had produced their single “House of Jealous Lovers” and their debut LP “Echoes”. That album was a lesson in the diversity of a sound that became to be called “Dance Punk”. A genre that the DFA label (Owned By Murphey and Goldsworthy) continues to specialize in.
LCD Soundsystem is the pet project of “Dance Punk” producer James Murphey. From the opening blast of “Daft Punk is playing at My House” off of LCD Soundsystem’s self titled debut LP it’s clear that the album is a lesson in raw repetition. The album also showed me that an album could be very simple at times and still be good and not annoying, as long as there was a heaping helping of wit involved in the songwriting process. It is because of this that James Murphey also proved to be a fascinating front man. At the time of the release of the debut LP Murphey was in his late 20′s, slightly overweight and not the best singer in the world by far, but he made it work. The secret ingredient to his contagious dance-punk stew is his completely self aware lyrics. For example in his song “Movement” he sings that “A fat guy, in a T-shirt, is doing all the singing!” He is clearly talking about himself, and that kind of humorous observation in dance music didn’t exist prior to his debut album. You take that and combine it with all kinds of old school recording studio wizardry and you’ve got a timeless treat. If you doubt it, might I suggest the subwoofer workout “Disco Infiltrator”.
9. Secret Machines – Ten Silver Drops (2006)
I first heard of The Secret Machines my freshman year of college when they played a show literally right next to my campus. Unfortunately I was ignorant to their greatness and missed the show. Which to compound insult to injury was also a free show. I made my way over to my school store however and picked up a copy of their debut album “Now Here is Nowhere” which I proceeded to put in heavy rotation in my dorm room. I particularly liked the tracks “Now Here is Nowhere”, “Lights On” and “The Road Leads Where it’s Led” (In part thanks to it’s stunning video). Although I felt at times that the album had become a little overblown, like on “First Wave Intact” and “Now Here is Nowhere” due to their repetitive nature and long running time.
However on their second album “Ten Silver Drops” the Secret Machines had learned how to let a song unfurl itself with a long running time but also kept it compelling. I had also learned that when they come to town, I should get tickets (I did manage to see them in Syracuse). Some of the tracks on “Ten Silver Drops” that are really long but don’t seem it due to excellent songwriting were “Alone Jealous and Stoned”, “I Hate Pretending”, “I Want to know if it’s still possible”, “Faded Lines” and the album’s lead single “Lightening Blue Eyes”. All of these songs envelop you in psychedelic reverb and thump along in perfect rhythm that the lyrics wrap around like a sushi roll. Add into that the cool concepts of some of the songs, like the aforementioned “Alone, Jealous and Stoned” which is about waiting for a girl to call who never does. Or the song “I Hate Pretending” which is about robbing a bank with a girl with bright orange hair. The extra space in each song lets your imagination create the scene for all of these songs. Plus they are pretty rockin’. The Secret Machines recently lost their original Guitarist and he went on to found The School of Seven Bells, so The Secret Machines have had a bit of an identity crisis on their most recent album with it being so hard and dissonant, but I think they’ll continue on and do great work.
10. Thieves Like Us – Play Music (2008) July 27, 2009
AZLTRON 500th Post Spectacular! Part 1!
It’s been a long time since the beginning of this blog, which is now well into it’s third year. I just realized not too long ago that the 500th post was coming up fast, and wouldn’t you know it, here it is. In a celebratory fashion I thought I would write about ten of the albums that I’ve listened to over the years that have changed the way I listen to music. I have three criteria for this list: These albums must be albums that came out during my lifetime (that means no collections or retrospectives), the albums must be albums that I discovered myself through word of mouth or research and the albums must be albums that I listened to almost religiously. Here is the list in chronological order:
1. Moby – Play (1999)
As I made my way through adolescence I found that I didn’t particularly enjoy the knuckle dragging pyrotechnics of heavy metal gone pop acts like Metallica despite how hard I tried to like it. I must have listened to Reload three times expecting for something magical to overtake me. I was searching for something more intelligent, something with more energy and sound experimentation. Something with soul. I discovered Moby amongst all the techno acts that my brother was playing back to back with the Metallica discography. There was something present in his music, a simplicity and an energy that was satisfying and stimulating. It was Moby who made me realize that creating music wasn’t out of reach for me. I began to look to Moby for guidance both musically and stylistically. Because of him I started listening to Joy Division/New Order. Granted I went to a highschool where hardcore music was the accepted norm, so you can imagine those fights over the CD player. To further compound how awkward of a teenager I was, I even looked to the cover of Play for fashion tips. I established my wardrobe as a collection of dress shirts, dress pants and running shoes. That’s right, I looked to a balding man in his late 30′s to help me create an identity. Moby’s Play album had all the right ingredients for teenagers to like him I, think. He had the pop singles (Porcelain, Southside) and the crazy dance songs (Bodyrock, Machete) and the emotional introspective tunes (Guitar Flute and String, My Weakness, The Sky is Broken, etc.). His songs ran the full gamut of emotion that should be able to soundtrack the mundane disapointments and victories of a teenager’s life. They did for me anyway.
2. Spoon – Girls Can Tell (2001)
I discovered spoon by watching Austin City Limits on PBS. It was a chance encounter since I didn’t even know that Austin City Limits even existed two week before. I was seeing which channels I could get on my 13″ television from my room. Lo’ and behold a music program! The week prior to the airing of the Spoon concert (which was followed by Ben Kweller) David Byrne made an electric appearance on the program, thus beginning my addiction to all things Talking Heads/David Byrne. So I knew the program was on the level. Looking back it made perfect sense that Spoon would play Austin City Limits because they are from Austin Texas. When I was watching Spoon play their songs I noticed that they had crisp clear pop song structure and they incorporated the piano up front! I was so impressed I began searching for their music anywhere I could find it, and the first album that I ran across was “Girls Can Tell”. The album is a hit from beginning to end with such emotionally charged hits as “Everything Hits at Once” and one of my favorite songs ever, “Anything You Want”. In short, Spoon showed me that music could be raw and gutsy with a good riff, some sweet beats and no pyrotechnics or a mullet.
3. The Postal Service – Give Up (2002)
The Postal Service was an important step in the evolution of my musical taste. When the emo explosion hit my high school I was staying as far away from it as I could. I was venturing into New Wave territory, exploring Gary Numan and New Order records. That was my line into the Postal Service, that the electronic element of their music was so prevalent, and the samples were ingenious, swirling strings and atari-ish clinking samples. It distracted me from the overly saccharine and emotional vocals of Ben Gibbard and Jenny Lewis until I could get adjusted to them. This was the first time that I could forge common ground with the emo kids. Who were much more reasonable than the aggro-rock kids at sharing the art-room radio. This great combination and reconfiguration of emotional vocals and experimental electronic production sent me in a whole new direction in my search for new music. I looked for years for other musical artists that sounded “Postal Servicey”. This led me to find the excellent Jimmy Tamborello led projects Figurine and DNTEL, Lali Puna, The Notwist, Plastic Operator, The LK, The Burnside Project and Helicopters. Even though it’s been six years since the Postal Service arrived on the scene, their songs and musical compositions are just as potent. If the little hairs on your arm don’t stand up on the beginning of “Such Great Heights”, you might want to check yourself for a pulse.
4. Interpol – Turn on the Bright Lights (2002)
I discovered Interpol through music researching on Amazon. The bajillion comparisons to Joy Division initially led me to listen to them. Personally I don’t think they sound anything alike at all. Interpol has a much more lush sound, while Joy Division was very raw, even at their most atmospheric. Ranting aside, Interpol reaches out with their sound and just envelopes you. the chiming guitars, insanely nimble drum and bass and the hypnotic vocals of Paul Banks grab you and threaten to never let you go. I often find that whenever I listen to them I end up playing them for hours and hours. The inventiveness of their guitar solos on “Roland” and “The New” are still immensely powerful. Whenever the solos kick in I imagine some kind of gravity inversion where everyone on a New York City street suddenly starts floating or something like that Rhapsody Commercial.What makes them even better is that in between these incredible shows of musicianship their songwriting abilities embed each number into your cranium. To top it off, thier video for “PDA” still stands as one of the best music videos of the last ten years. Furthermore their shoe gazey guitar heroics led me to look for more NYC based bands with similar chops. Like…
5. stellastarr* – stellastarr* (2003)
stellastarr* is a band that formed out of the Pratt Art School in New York City. Being one interested in art and music that caught my attention immediately. I first heard about them when I was researching music on Amazon. The tagline of the review said “Sounds like Interpol Kidnapped David Byrne!” I thought to myself “Interpol? David Byrne? This has got to be good!” I looked up some of their songs and sure enough the combination of sounds in stellastarr* were a mixture to rival peanut butter and chocolate. The album opens up with thick layers of delay and atmosphere, warranting the Interpol comparisons, as well as revealing the vocal talents of the group harmonizing and highlighting the low to high yelps of frontman Shawn Christensen. Although proficient at this haunting style of music, stellastarr*’s real strength is party starting propulsion. Once the firecracker that is the track “Jenny” lights off the raw energy takes over and anyone with eardrums will immediately be hooked on stellastarr*. From there the album drops in pace a bit for “A Million Reason” which is a kickin’ song and is followed by the track that stellastarr* made their name with. The bouncy relentless juggernaut that is “My Coco”. If you haven’t heard this by now, what are you waiting for? There is one more peak of freak out dance party goodness in the volcanic eruption of guitar melee in “Somewhere Across Forever”. The album winds down a bit from there before a second wind of sweaty exuberance ends the album on “Pulp Song”, which finds all three vocalists screaming the album to sleep. If you’ve got to go out, go out with a bang, and stellastarr* does that in a big way on their debut album.
December 23, 2008
Have Yourself a Very Merry AZLTRON Holiday Mix!
Merry Chrismahanakwanzika Everybody! Happy Holidays Too! Here’s a compilation of some of the best Holiday songs that have been sent my way this holiday season, plus an original ditty by myself as well.
AZLTRON – It’s a Space Christmas!
The Joy Formidable – My Beerdrunk Soul is Sadder Than a Hundred Dead Christmas Trees
Microfilm – There’s No Snow Here (For Christmas)
65 Days of Static – I’m Dreaming of a White Noise Christmas
December 15, 2008
AZLTRON Interviews Justin Sconza of Walter Meego!
10 Questions with Walter Meego
By: Aaron Z. Lee
1. I recently had the chance to see you guys play at the Bug Jar in Rochester and the thing I was most impressed with was how you guys use all kinds of samplers and gadgets to bring your beats live. How did you guys come up with that method of live drumming?
We used to use computers and a program called ableton live. But then two tours ago we switched to samplers only. We wanted to lose the computer. We felt like our set was a 45 minute promo for apple computer with the apple light shining right in the middle of our setup on stage. And plus we wanted to make the set more interactive so we got samplers instead. It’s been way better. Now we can improvise more. It’s fun.
2. I love the use of piano in your song Keyhole; it adds this whole epic atmosphere before the face melting guitar solo drops. Was it always your intention to have Keyhole be your virtuoso level song or did it just evolve that way?
Keyhole was a little melody I came up with on the bass actually. Then I discovered it sounded kind of like clockwork orange or something on the piano, which I liked ‘cause the music from that movie is awesome. Yeah, so then everything evolved from that opening on the piano. I think we’ve always tended to make things sound big. so keyhole becoming epic sounding was really just a combination of us doing what we do and the song lending itself to that more than the others.
3. You guys have said that you are influenced by jazz and oldies as well as bands like Nirvana and the Beatles, who are some of the jazz musicians and oldies musicians that influence and inspire you?
I grew up listening to oldies on the radio with my mom in the car. And then after the fifties, it was the sixties. So I always thought songs had to be written like an Everly Brothers song or a Beatles song. I mean, simple like less is more. And then I also grew up playing the piano and one of the styles I got way into was ragtime. And ragtime was kind of like classical music converted to a pop format with bouncy syncopated bass/chords and stuff like that. So again it was this pop thing. And then when I started playing guitar, I got into jazz standards like ‘all of me’ or ‘bye bye blackbird.’ And when I say jazz, I don’t really mean people like Miles Davis. I prefer melodic guys like Duke Ellington or just the older songs with verses and choruses. So again it’s this pop thing. And then also, when I started guitar, I thought nirvana was the greatest thing since the Beatles. I still think so.
4. What band or musician are you guys listening to right now?
I’ve actually been listening to a lot of Tchaikovsky. I think he’s awesome. I really like Swan Lake and the piano song called June. He’s probably my favorite classical person. Other than that, it’s been a long run this year. I can’t remember everyone but people like John Mauls got lots of spins at rancho Meego. We don’t pay royalties though. Sorry.
5. The synth sound in Girls sounds very similar to the synths used in the song Run by Air, is that a coincidence or homage?
I hadn’t even thought of that. No intentional homage or anything. But we really like Air. I think Moon Safari and Virgin Suicides were their best. They had a big influence on us.
6. You guys have had songs used both in a Heineken commercial and at the end of Ugly Betty, how did you guys arrive at having songs used on nationwide ads and major network programming?
That was all our label. they’re really good at that stuff.
7. What do you think of the string of indie songwriters like Stephen Merritt of the Magnetic Fields and Kevin Barnes from Of Montreal writing and licensing songs for commercials?
I don’t stand one way or the other on that. I think selling out is lying to yourself and to the people you give your music to. so if you write a song called ‘happy thanksgiving’ and it gets licensed by hallmark and then you put it on your album and you’re trying to tell people that it was just a coincidence then you’re being insincere. But if you say ‘hey, I wrote this song called ‘happy thanksgiving’ for hallmark and I don’t care so whatever’ then you’re not pretending so who cares. I think this concept of selling out comes from an era where people bought records and now they just don’t. Everything’s internet now. The internet is like this hoover vacuum that sucked up everything and then accidentally sucked up itself and now we’re all lost in this nowhere land of anything goes and nothing at all. So I think it’s a case by case thing and I also think it’s just as much about how you do it as it is about what you’re doing.
8. You guys just recently released three demos on your blog with the theme Fun Songs about Things that Aren’t Fun. Is this theme a result of a lot of touring and music industry turmoil or something completely different?
Those songs are just about how I think it is. I like being simple and songs like those give me a chance to do that. I also like negative themes with a positive twist. I guess it has to do with the music industry only because that’s the thing I’m in. But it has to do with everything really. I’ve always felt torn between being knowingly selfish and doing what makes me happy and then on the other hand, just going completely to the other side and saying fuck it, I don’t care, you can have it, because competing for it turns it into something different than what I wanted in the first place and so I don’t want it anymore.
9. You guys are headed off to Australia for a show at the end of December and a few in the beginning of January, what are you most excited about seeing or doing in Australia?
I just saw the movie Australia last night. I have to say it was too long and I never really connected with the story or the characters. That aside, I’m really excited to go. I’ve never been so I’m an open book ready for Australia to do the writing.
10. Will you be taking any pictures with Kangaroos?
I guess I hadn’t planned on it. But I’m open to it.
Thanks for doing this interview and best of luck in your Australian Tour!
Here are their Australian Tour Dates
Dec 31 @ The Capital Nightclub in Perth
Jan 1 (3:45P) @ The Domain in Sydney
Jan 1 (8:00P) @ The Riverstage (City Botanic Gardens) in Brisbane
Jan 3 @ The Mornington Racecourse in Mornington (Rural Victoria)
