It won't hurt

Finding ways to stay soooo low.

It won't hurt

Finding ways to stay soooo low.

Paul's Boutique

So it's 20 years since Paul's Boutique, hailed by many as a landmark album in many ways. Firstly, as the Beastie Boys' sophomore effort it justified the praise heaped on them previously. At least for most listeners. Others still felt uncomfortable listening to three white guys rapping, a long time before the massive success of Eminem, when Hip-Hop was still new and exciting.

Although admittedly my knowledge is hip-hop is fragmented (read: virtually non-existent) to the point where I'm aware of a lot of people but I'm not sure why, and I recognise a lot of songs but I have no idea who they are, I am a massive fan of the Beastie Boys.

However, I never really got Paul's Boutique. It was ok, fairly standard Beasties' fare, but not too my mind above their more recent efforts in Hello Nasty and To The 5 Boroughs, with which I had already been enamoured. It wasn't the straight up rap of these, nor was it the rap/punk mix of Ill Communication or Check Your Head. If anything, it came across as, ironically, it was received by many at the time. As a difficult follow up to a massively successful debut, Licensed to Ill.

It took an awesome soundsystem in a branch of now defunct music shop (that I also used to work in back when it was Virgin Megastore) a few weeks back to make me realise what I was missing.

All of a sudden, the amazing depth of sound, the subtle (and not-so subtle) sampling that made the whole album flow so effortlessly made so much more sense to me. "Johnny Ryall" had before been an inane chant. The part of the Beastie's discography you skip through to get to "Sabotage" and "Intergalactic". Now it was the highlight, the centre of the collection and not a record you'd buy to make up a 2 for £10 offer.

I didn't even realise that a month later that it was the 20th anniversary of its release, with a re-mastered version and even a track-by-track commentary availiable.

Basically, rather than writing a review about an album (and a genre) that I consistently show lack of awareness of. There are plenty of reviews about who say it much better than I ever will, but to put it simply: this is simply a must-have, must-listen-to, must-cherish album for anyone who is even vaguely a fan of Hip-Hop or any of the Beastie's output. Then put it in your stereo and turn it up loud.

Honestly.

Monday Mixtape 26/01/2009

Today's very lazy theme is the best tracks on 2008. Well, my favourite tracks. So ner.

DATE: 26/01/2009
THEME: Best tracks of 2008
LENGTH: 10 Tracks, 38:43

1. CRYSTAL CASTLES - Untrust Us (3:06) (Crystal Castles, Lies/Last Gang 2008)
2. METRONOMY - Heartbreaker (4:09) (Nights Out, Because Music 2008)
   
3. XX Teens - Darlin' (4:12) (Welcome To Goon Island, Mute 2008)
   
4. LATE OF THE PIER - The Bears Are Coming (3:23) (Fantasy Black Channel, Parlophone 2008)
   
5. BORN RUFFIANS - Hummingbird (3:08) (Red, Yellow & Blue, Warp 2008)
6. VAMPIRE WEEKEND - Walcott (3:41) (Vampire Weekend, XL 2008)
   
7. FOALS - Red Socks Pugie (5:08) (Antidotes, Transgressive 2008)
   
8. DEERHUNTER - Agoraphobia (3:22) (Microcastle, 4AD 2008)
   
9. BURIAL - After Dark (3:54) (Untrue, Hyperdub 2007 (but I don't care))
   
10. BECK - Chemtrails (4:40) (Modern Guilt, XL 2008)
    

This list is a bit similar to the first one I did. But I'm lazy. And I don't care who knows it.

Happy Obamaration Everybody

No Monday Mixtape this week.

Why? Well, I could give a whole list. For example:
a) I can't be bothered
ii) I haven't had the time
3) I haven't listened to much (read: any) music recently

But the real reason (!) is that Barry Hussein Obamarama got inaugarationed today. Or something.

I'm playfully joking, I actually watched the whole thing from about an hour beforehand on BBC News 24 and celebrated in my own special way. Yay democracy etc.

On that note, I found this amazing(ish) video posted somewhere. Enjoy.

Forthcoming Albums of 2009

Here are some albums that I'm looking forward to in the first quarter of 2009. This is really just for me, so you can stop reading this now. Unless this is me reading, in which case, read on.

Firstly, Franz Ferdinand's third album, titled Tonight: Franz Ferdinand is due for release January 26th. "Ulysses", the only track I've heard, is a prime example of a track which I've only liked every other time I've heard it.

Black Lips release their follow up to 2007's Good, Bad, Not Evil called 200 Million Thousand, on February 24th, reportedly named after the cost of Amy Winehouse's next album. Only joking. Britney's album.

Kings Of Convenience side project The Whitest Boy Alive release their new album Rules on March 3rd, and Royksopp release Junior on March 23rd.

ALBUM REVIEW: Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion

Their second album on a major (Domino), but their ninth full length overall, the prolific New York based Animal Collective have finally made their "pop album".

But why has this taken so long? Strawberry Jam was a culmination of their demented folk beginnings, their fascination with loop pedals and more musical equipment than most of the top 40, but still didn't quite deliver as much as you knew it could.

Merriweather Post Pavillion has definitely had the edges sanded down compared to its predecessor, and perhaps the band have been reined in slightly, but not enough so that you can't hear the band past the heavy handed A & R man, but just as a case in point, this is their first album to have no songs over the six minute mark, yet it still their longest album since their debut.

However, for the first three songs at the very least, it seems as if the album is one long composition on its own, a la Campfire Songs, an early album by the band recorded in one take back to back on a screen porch in Maryland.

If anything, MPP is the logical follow on, with more sophisticated beats and pads, lyrics that are intelligible and songs that aren't so long that you chew your own ears off*. But it leaves you constantly looking for where you've been shortchanged elsewhere. "Bluish", although not really a standout from the album, has all the correct ingredients, driving percussion, digital filters and a childish sense of wonder.

Even the cover, which unfortunately, is not as psychotic in reality as it is above, perfectly sums what you're going to be hearing. Amazingly infuriating, and infuriatingly amazing.

If anything, its a grower simply because you can't appreciate it in just one listen. Three or four listens in and I'm still not positive on which track I like best. Its a competition between "Summertime Clothes", "Also Frightened" and the awesome "Lion In A Coma".

Certainly a great start for 2009.

9/10


*(incidentally, for the final track on the Liars' album They Threw Us All In A Trench And Built A Monument On Top, "This Dust Makes That Mud", I did chew my own ears off. 30 minutes of looped noise was totally not worth it.)

Monday Mixtape 12/01/09

Hey, remember this? Its that feature I started a week ago.

Todays theme is North American indie rock from the 1990s.

What, not specific enough?

Tough

DATE: 12/01/09
THEME: North American Indie Rock of the 1990s
LENGTH: 10 tracks, 45:42

1. BUILT TO SPILL - Randy Described Eternity (6:04) (Perfect From Now On, Warner 1997)
   
2. LOW - Fear (2:16) (I Could Live In Hope, Vernon Ward 1994)
   
3. DINOSAUR JR. - Puke + Cry (4:27) (Green Mind, Blanco y Negro/Sire 1991)
   
4. HUM - Green To Me ( 3:55) (Downward Is Heavenward, RCA 1998)
   
5. SONIC YOUTH - Mary-Christ (3:11) (G00, DGC 1990)
   
6. PAVEMENT - Shady Lane (3:51) (Brighten The Corners, Matador/Capitol 1997)
   
7. MODEST MOUSE - Lounge (Closing Time) (7:05) (Lonesome Crowded West, Up 1997)
   
8. SMASHING PUMPKINS - Drown (4:30) (single, Epic 1992)
   
9. SEBADOH - Careful (2:44) (Bakesale, Sub Pop 1994)
   
10. SLINT - Good Morning, Captain (7:39) (Spiderland, Touch & Go 1991)

Admittedly, this one doesn't flow quite as well as it should, but oh well, enjoy, and this feature might well return next week....

What other people thought of 2008

Yeah, 2009's only five days old, and while there is still an Animal Collective album to look forward to (more of that later), I'm still going to dwell in the past a little bit and take a look at what other people and websites said were the defining albums of the year 2008 AD...

Drowned In Sound
top 50
DIS' top 50, while devoid of Kings Of The Hill, sorry, Kings Of Leon's polished pop work of Only By The Night, that "one who is better than Winehouse, oh no wait chasing what?" Adele and just-simply-really-bloody-annoying Ting Tings, the list is still fairly predictable. A mixture of the highly popular (MGMT in at 38), the unknown (Shearwater at 16) and the critics choice that no one listened to (Gang Gang Dance). So here is the top 5:

1. M83 - Saturdays = Youth
2. Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
3. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
4. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus!!! Dig!!!
5. Deerhunter - Microcastle
   

Oh and then they topped of the list with a distinctly average album that was made by a Frenchman. Crazy.

Fake DIY
top 10
Rather than the full-staff faffing of a top 50, instead, editor-in-chief Stephen Ackroyd simply lists his 10 favourites, reminding us that this is based on enjoyment rather than technical ability. Here's the top 5:

1. Johnny Foreigner - Waited Up 'Til It Was Light
2. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
3. TV On The Radio – Dear Science
4. Los Campesinos! - We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
5. Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke

If you are a regular reader of Fake DIY (and if you aren't, you should be) then you will know how refreshingly un-pretentious their approach to music is - they aren't there to "out-indie" anyone and know what they like when it comes to Indie-pop.

Pitchfork Media
top 50 staff picks
Benchmark for critical perfection and absolute pretention, Pitchfork combined both of the approaches of DiS and Fake DIY by having staffers do individual lists as well as an overall top 50. So I'm going to be lazy and look at their top 50. Here's the top 5:

1. Fleet Foxes - Sun Giant EP/Fleet Foxes
2. Portishead - Third
3. No Age - Nouns
4. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
5. Deerhunter - Microcastle/Weird Era Cont.

Somewhat predicatable perhaps? Although the entire top 50, if you are a regular reader, pretty much is. Except Hercules & Love Affair at 9. No one could have predicted that.

NME
top 10
Where Pitchfork could be the last word in serious music journalism, NME is surely the last word in embarassing indie "gossip" and tabloid style "build them up and knock them down" journalism. See: Doherty & Winehouse's indefinite inclusion in every NME article ever, until they release a new album when they'll be everywhere else, too. Once again, the list is somewhat predictable:

1. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
2. TV On The Radio - Dear Science
3. Glasvegas - Glasvegas
4. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
5. Foals - Antidotes

The way they went on about Glasvegas, the only shock is that NME didn't put them at every position in the top 10 and be done with it. I have yet to meet anyone who is a fan of any of their songs, let alone the album, but hey, I could be in the wrong, right? I mean, its not like the record companies give NME money to talk about their bands is it, that would be crazy.

Metacritic
best of 2008 list
A brilliant website for simply collating what all those dirty journos think and condensing their answers into a single number. I sound bitter, but I'm really not. Honest. Their "end of year" feature is therefore as mathematical and neutral and a swiss alarm clock, and simply lists all the albums of the year in order of their metacritic score. Of course, this leads to some, odd (?) results.

1. Amadou & Mariam - Welcome To Mali
2. The Bug - London Zoo
3. Plush - Fed
4. TV On The Radio - Dear Science
5. Shugo Tokumaru - Exit

50 indie points if you've even heard of all those albums (TVOTR aside). 5000 if you own them all.

Last.fm
best of 2008
Last.fm (or audioscrobbler to us veterans) is the opposite of metacritic's narrow journo-based critical maths and instead simply has the top 10 listened to albums, artists and tracks of 2008 by users of their website. If you are or have ever been a member, you'll probably know that everyone listens to Radiohead and Coldplay on this website. Even if you don't have them in your library, your scores will be tallied with everyone elses. So:

1. Coldplay - Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
2. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
3. Portishead - Third
4. Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I-IV
5. The Ting Tings - We Started Nothing

Coldplay and MGMT shared the honours with most listened to track (Viva la Vida) and most listened to new artist respectively.


So, Cut Copy and TV On The Radio appeared 3 times each in these lists, and I suppose could be declared to be the "winners". Interesting. No, really, it is.

So thats what everyone else thought. I would ask for your opinion, but I probably wouldn't take it on board. Instead, read what I thought and disagree silently.

Or if you like to feel like part of one huge great slushy cloud of loveliness and oooh glasvegas b-sides wow they are like, almost as good as the kaiser chefs!!!111 i luv dem, stay clean pete!111

then NME.

Monday Mixtape 05/01/09

This is brand new feature for 2009 (ahamagad) whereby I create a mixtape every Monday (that I can be bothered) of what I've been listening to and/or what I think you should be listening to to appear cool to all of your friends.

Occassionally there will be various themes, but this will all depend on the amount of effort I can muster.

Also, the mixtape will only be 10 songs or 45 minutes, whichever comes first, to ensure minimum effort on my part.

DATE: 05/01/09
THEME: none
LENGTH: 10 tracks, 35:29

1. CRYSTAL CASTLES - Untrust Us (3:06) (Crystal Castles, Lies/Last Gang 2008)
2. GORILLAZ feat. BOOTIE BROWN - Dirty Harry (3:45) (Demon Days, Parlophone 2005)
3. DJ SHADOW - Mashin' On The Motorway (2:58) (The Private Press, MCA 2002)
4. BEASTIE BOYS - Shazam! (2:26) (To The 5 Boroughs, Capitol 2004)
5. FRIENDLY FIRES - Paris (4:00) (Friendly Fires, XL 2008)
   
6. BLACK LIPS - Veni Vidi Vici (2:26) (Good, Bad, Not Evil, Vice 2007)
7. BORN RUFFIANS - Hummingbird (3:08) (Red, Yellow & Blue, Warp 2008)
8. WEEZER - Pork & Beans (3:09) (Weezer [Red Album], Geffen 2008)
9. GRANDADDY - Jeez Louise (3:41) (Just Like The Fambly Cat, V2 2006)
10. ANIMAL COLLECTIVE - Fireworks (6:50) (Strawberry Jam, Domino 2007)

Next weeks mixtape will be on the theme of early 90s North American Indie Rock. Maybe.

SATISFACTORY ALBUMS OF TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT

The late late edition. I'm getting worse and worse at keeping up with this. I could blame many things for this. The current state of the Middle East, for example, distracting me from listening to new music and instead relying on my musical library to cheer me up. Everyone current excuse of "y'know, the credit crunch and all that" which, if I hear as a phrase one more time (even in the form of the BBC's cautiously optimistic "economic downturn" complete with mainly downward facing arrows) I'm gonna scream.

I could also blame the mountains of university which I have also clearly not completed, even a small amount, or the endless hours of shifting sportswear to the ironically overweight for pennys. But in reality, I'm just lazy. 2009 is ages away, I said to myself, why worry about it now? Erm...bugger.

So here it is, my Top 15 (extra 5 from last year!) especially for you jolly good people that I banged out in about 15 minutes between getting home, eating my dinner and procrastining until the red dawn light. Enjoy:

15: Atlas Sound - Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel
14: No Age - Nouns
13: Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
12: Portishead - Third
11: Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend Review

10: Born Ruffians - Red, Yellow & Blue Review
9: Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
8: Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles Review
7: Santogold - Santogold
6: British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music? Review

5: MGMT - Oracular Spectacular Review
4: Beck - Modern Guilt

3:

Foals - Antidotes
While my review didnt take particularly kindly to this album back in April, it has worked its way back to my affections on repeat play alone. There is something to be said about an album that I could sit there and listen to quite comfortably on more than one occasion. For a while it was my "go to" album of choice - what you listen when you can't think of anything else and are too impatient to use the shuffle function.

In April I criticised it, rightly, for not featuring Foals' two best tracks. Namely "Hummer" and "Mathletics"

2:

Deerhunter - Microcastles/Weird Era Cont.
Bradford Cox's second entry on this list, and none more deserved than for this fantastic album of shoegaze, noise and lo-fi perfection, with Weird Era Cont. winning the prize for best bonus disc of any album, possibly ever. But don't just take my word for it, read the original review here for the thoughts of me just one month ago. (or scroll down a bit)

1:

Metronomy - Nights Out
Joseph Mount's follow up to wonky debut Pip Paine finds his former solo moniker now including live partners Oscar Cash and Gabriel Stebbing this time around. And while the album has failed to reach the chart success it should, tracks such as "My Heart Rate Rapid" and "Heartbreaker" have proved dancefloor hits of their own.

If nothing else, Nights Out has blended pop themes and sensibilities with minimalist beats and an aching, awkward dancefloor noise.
Album Preview

A Brief Update (BLURBLURBLURBLURBLURBLUR)

Oh dear I still haven't properly got this up and running yet, oh well.

Anyway, coming soon there should be by top albums of 2008, and when I have a chance, perhaps a look at some upcoming artists/etc.

Firstly, however, you may have noticed BLUR are back. Which is awesome on so many levels, and comes just months after Damon pretty much said it wasn't going to happen. An act I like to call doing an Oasis. This is because many of the things that Oasis have done (release a greatest hits, work on new material before 2010, play America again) happened just after they said that they would never do that. Oh well.

Incidentally, this seems to have also led to The Smiths and The Stone Roses to confirm/deny/drum up support for a reunion next year also.

So of course, I already have tickets and I can't fucking wait.

And for buying tickets I was given a promotional code for Damon's colloboration with old Gorillaz partner Jamie Hewlett and legendary chinese director Chen Shi-zheng, Monkey: Journey To The West and London's white elephant shaped dome, The o2 Arena.

It was pretty cool, to be honest, although if I had paid full price I would have been a bit peaved, to say the least. For the price we paid, however, it was a brilliant piece of thatre/opera/acrobatics that I would gladly watch again. Plus I'm 99% set on buying the Albarn-written soundtrack, and I would recommend that anyone who can afford the £60 price (or find a similar offer to mine) should go.

Plus it also reignited my suspicions to visit Kong Studios, which despite lack of recent Gorillaz activity, remains the single greatest band website ever.

I'm also pleased to announced that Arcade Eden have been snapped up by a label and will soon be releasing some of their tracks, but more of that later.

Finally, I have massive newfound respect for Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne.

See you soon.

ALBUM: Deerhunter - Microcastle

Okay, so this reviews a little late, but I'm a little late onto this one. I recently (i.e. a couple of months back) listen to Cryptograms and was stunned. It was brilliant.

Then, yesterday I read a review in my student paper about their latest effort Microcastle, clearly written by a new fan of theirs, literally gushing so much with praise it seemed hard to believe that the pages weren't sticking together.

So I decided to listen to the album myself and give it a quick review. So here it is.

Microcastle both starts where Cryptograms left off and completely destroying any memory of it. The opening duo "Cover Me (Slowly)" and "Agoraphobia" help kick start and set the scene of the album in the way every opening track should - by yanking the listener by the scruff of the neck and saying "this fucking album starts right here, listen to all of it right now or piss off".

"Little Kids" insteads takes the old lo-fi touches, with hint of Pavement and Guided By Voices, and constantly builds texture and layer before wandering off into nowhere, possibly never to be seen again. However everything here seems at once so monstrously delicate and intentional that it would take a lesser person to attribute any of this to laziness.

I can't help but be reminded of having to pore over poetry at school and focus on how the "poet's cunning use of a repeated vowel sound to convey their emotions" when it was clearly just dumb luck on their part. However, with this album I can start to see the point. Using somewhat cheesy guitar lines and effects on tracks like "Microcastle" juxtaposed with Bradford Cox's gentle and unconventional vocals is nothing short of genius.

If anything, the one genre which shines through here is clearly shoegaze. Microcastle is basically Loveless with the guitars turned down a bit. Cox's voice is an instrument itself, becoming part of the background and drawing you even further in.

In the words of the review I read, it really is an album to turn up loud an enshroud yourself in.

8.5/10

Microcastles is out now on 4AD records in the UK.

School Of Seven Bells

Ex-Secret Machine Benjamin Curtis' new band, on the face of it, couldn't appear any more different. His previous band's material garned "prog" labels and an obvious classic-rock influence. All the people in said band were also male.

That's about where the differences end, as his latest group, School Of Seven Bells, match the tight dynamic and skill, as well as the droning, driving percussion, and feature the twin talents (yes, twins) of Alejandra and Claudia Deheza of On!Air!Library.

Together, the Brooklyn trio have created a sound somewhere between Frou Frou's stuttering and filtered techno with CSS without all their annoying retro throwbacks and obsessions with alcohol. Sort of.

Currently touring the US with M83, go to their Myspace and check out "Half Asleep".

And then buy their album, Alpinism. Or maybe wait until I've reviewed it, first.

http://www.myspace.com/schoolofsevenbells

Air Castles

No, they're not to be confused with those pesky Canadians who, with one of the duo topping the cool list, will be unironically dropped like a stone by those who cared about them in the first place, but is the solo work of a certain Max Mansson of Londoners Burn Down Rome.

His debut EP "Night & Day" is about to drop on the 24th in the UK before being unleashed onto the rest of the world soon after, and if its as good as what is given as an appetiser on his MySpace, he takes the softer and more epic part of the indie-rock spectrum, and is easily likened to such luminaries as Death Cab For Cutie and Band Of Horses, among others.

Definitely one to watch.

http://www.myspace.com/aircastlesmusic