Tuesday, June 14, 2011

New Tune Tuesday: 6.14.11 - Passing the Ketchup & Taking out the Trash...

Beautiful Melodies telling you Terrible Things: New Tune Tuesday 6.14.11

It's been a tough couple of weeks for new releases on the music front, there's been some okay stuff, last week Derek Trucks (as I said, the guy who's name SHOULD be used in place of tools like John Mayer when magazines do their "best guitarists of the next generation" lists) released an album with (now wife) Susan Tedeschi, and this week Neil Young did release a nice archival live album. Arctic Monkey's new release? It's okay, but I've stated my reasons for giving them the could shoulder. This week is filled with a slew of McCartney re-releases and my trash of the week. Before I get to that, I do want to say that the weeks prior to these last couple were very strong, strong enough to feature some albums, one in particular, I missed out on covering the first time. So for that, I'll be getting to passing the ketchup (get it, catch up? portemaus witticism at it's finest) but, first and foremost, the previously mentioned...

TRASH OF THE WEEK - 'All Things Bright & Beautiful,' Owl City:
In the appendix to music 101 you should be able to look up the term "when an artist is happy to never grow or evolve." If this term was findable in said appendix, it would read See: OWL CITY. If you have heard or even own their last album, which included the massively over-played "Fireflys," you've heard the new one. I'm serious, I actually think the songs are literally the same, they just changed the titles. It's not the only thing wrong here in the land of ODZ...

Back in the 1990's I remember a friend of my mother's coming by to play the demo tape of her then teenage son. She was extremely impressed with what he had accomplished all by himself and was going on and on about his musical genius, and especially, his lyrics. She played said cassette (remember those, kids?) tape: It was at this moment I decided that her son was in fact a computer (don't ask me who the father was) or robot of some type. There was nothing real on this tape, the music was all done on his computer, and it sounded like it. The voice, already too low, sounded like a computer. It was, in short, terrible and I remember thinking "is this the future of music? Will someone one day roll out a computer as their backing band on stage?" Well, I have seen someone (Only Son) plug in an ipod as his backing band, and in the case of a lot of modern pop music, it's all fake. Auto-tune makes it so anyone can sing (or at least sound like RoboCop dropping sweet MC skills) and bands are almost unneeded. That's why Owl City represents everything I hate about that kind of sound: Nothing comes off as even remotely human. I just mentioned the Pro Tools EQ effect Auto-Tune, and it's used in spades here alongside of all his bubblegum synth loops and drum machines. At times I'm just waiting for "lead singer" Adam Young to remind me that "You got mail!" This isn't a sign of Hawk hating on electronic music, no, this is a sign of Hawk hating on BAD electronic music.

I can't rip this factory pressed turd enough. Maybe I'm just cynical, but musicians make music on instruments. A computer is a tool in modern musical creation, it shouldn't be the instrument. The writing on this is terrible - "I met a girl in a parking lot and I'll did was say hello, but her pepper spray made it hard to walk her home," or this gem "Take wing on a bony breeze and sweep you off your feet, I saw as you blushed as it scooped you up on sugar maple wings," or my favorite piece of poetry: "she'd rather fall in chocolate than fall in love," and as I previously mentioned there is just no growth as an artist. Of course, you'd actually have to BE an artist in the first place.

Maybe you enjoy doing drugs and walking through bubblegum skies where the sounds of the cars that almost hit you, as you drift hopelessly across the cotton candy streets, sound like a processed-smooth-as-a-babies-bottom drum beat. Maybe you like taking your ears and shoving knives covered in butterscotch in them. If 'All Things Bright and Beautiful' is the type of trash you call music and you enjoy, well, like that old EA Sports saying goes: "Get the F**K out" (Their words not mine by the way).

PASS THE KETCHUP - 'Arabia Mountain,' the Black Lips:
As I briefly mentioned up top, before these last couple weeks of lull there was some good stuff released (Flogging Molly; Danger Mouse's Rome project; Levon Helm live; Thurston Moore ect), enough so that I missed a good album. I know what you're thinking: "What EA Sports videogame actually included that catchphrase?" But what you should be thinking is "Not another band with the word 'Black' in it!" Yes folks, the Black Lips released sixth album recently, 'Arabia Mountain.' Instead of the bluesy guitar two man band rock of say, the Black Keys, you'll find yourself in "flower rock" land, with the Black Lips lo-fi, psychedelic influenced brand of garage punk. If the Black Keys is like taking the White Stripes bluesy garage rock and making it a little more smooth and approachable, this is a band that keeps the garage rock sound and goes away from the blues more towards psychedelia.

Mick Ronson produced the album, but don't hold that against it, it's very solid throwback album that adds it's own styles on top of it's influences. "Mad Dog" sounds like Strawberry Alarmclock mating with the Beach Boys, where-as "Bone Marrow" is like the Beach Boys playing with the Velvet Underground, "Modern Art" is like the Kinks we're met with a DeLorean that housed the Hives. Also, you're gonna get bang for you buck, right now Amazon has the disc for $8 and the local Zia records had it for $10 (I chose the latter, two bucks to local record stores I can afford, plus no shipping) and it's a rather lengthy (one of it's cons perhaps) at 16 songs...

All in all, it's not like it would have bumped, say Thurston Moore's release off it's "Release of the Week" status, but in a weak week like last week (say that ten times fast) it certainly could have grabbed the spot. I'd say seek it out, you may enjoy it as something rather different...

Available on: CD, Vinyl, MP3

Also worth Seeking out:
'Live at the Grossman's 1994' - Jeff Healey Band
The blues/jazz-rock musician who died far too early (just 41 years old) comes back to life on your CD player with this nice little archival live release from a show in 1994. Heavy on covers both new and old like "Crossroads," "Dust my Broom," and "All Along the Watchtower," the 9-track set (don't worry, the shortest track comes in at just under 5 minutes, the longest at just over 11) is a wonderful live as live can be sounding recording that will bless your ears with the blues. If you don't like the blues, well, I hear EA Sports has a new line-up of games coming out this fall...
Available on: CD, MP3

In other Media: I'm sure you've already pre-ordered your copy of the greatest film of the 90's, "Johnny Mnemonic," which of course signaled Keanu Reeves as a modern day De Niro. No, no, check out Bence's recent article which details all good that came out this week. I will say I recently, on blu ray (for as an indie-filmmaker I'm about as anti-netflix as it gets) checked out both "Green Hornet" and..."Jonah Hex." Both featured decently strong transfers, "Hornet" featured slightly topping the latter in that area with a high bitrate AVC (as apposed to VC) encode. "Hornet" was surprisingly enjoyable, the director, Gondry, has always been a favorite of mine with his unique visual styles, and he was able to override my extreme hatred (maybe too strong a word...or to tame) of Seth Rogen, who was in both a starring and writers role. It's not "Science of Sleep," but it's not supposed to be. It's enjoyable and I did find myself laughing at times. "Jonah Hex," well...is it a good film? No, friends, it surely isn't, but is it as bad as some made it out to be? Let me just put it this way, Josh Brolin brings it (he usually does) and when it comes down to it, there are plenty of Marvel released films just as bad, if not worse. Then again, it may just be the fact it's a comic book western speaking those words...

No comments:

Post a Comment