Catch the Beat!

Pop, Pop, Pop Music (Part Three)

2010-10-11T12:00:00.000-07:00

I had been trying to write my own songs since before I had started high school, and the output had been as good as one might suspect. I was certainly not going to be in a new Squirrel Bait, Deep Wound, or Old Skull. It wasn't until around the time I turned seventeen that I started to understand how much more easily just plain pop music came to me when I gave up on the punk rock pretense.

Entering college, I had a high-speed Internet connection for the first time in my life. I took the opportunity to explore some music of which I was vaguely aware, but had never given a proper chance. I started downloading music by Tiger Trap, Heavenly, Dressy Bessy, and so on. I also began to listen to the song “Throw Aggi From the Bridge” by Black Tambourine constantly. Finding this music was incredible. It was so much more to me than the punk bands that soundtracked high school. This music energized me, blew my mind. The lyrics could be campy, fun, and irreverent but also deep, philosophical, and sometimes dark. But, no matter what, the music always had enthusiasm; a sort of unfuckwithable compulsion to play whatever song they were playing and move on to the next to have as much fun as possible in dozens of different ways and contexts as possible.

It was such a different kind of feeling finding these bands. Listening to Black Tambourine, Tiger Trap, and Small Factory was like a full-body elation. I felt a connection with these bands I never really had with regular punk rock. It was like listening to pure, unmitigated enthusiasm. Possibly the most important lesson I learned after finding this music was the way in which I had been expecting my identity to conform to the identity I wanted to get from old records and the characters that produced them. What I really needed was music that fit with who I am. The experience of synchronicity between the organic, sincere identity I possessed whether I liked it or not with music that seemed to me to come out of nowhere was almost overwhelming.

This was much more freeing for me than punk rock had ever been. I could feel the difference very quickly in how I was writing music. Now I can write almost whenever I want about whatever topic I want. While I'm still constantly finding new bands and writers to be objects of my jealousy, like Rocketship or the Fizzbombs, I'm also considerably more comfortable in my own skin as far as my writerly ambitions go.

But even more than that, the short-sighted perception of my music collection somehow providing the form and structure of my very being left me constantly trying to match what I thought I wanted to be, and made it more difficult for me to mature and grow up like a normal person. Finding music to complement who I am as opposed to music to use as some sort of scripture for how I should be allowed me to focus on other things. College was a lot of catching up, maturity-wise (although I don't think that's unusual for anyone).

What a fantastic soundtrack, though.

Pop, Pop, Pop Music (Part 2)

2010-10-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

My history with music is a probably not uncommon one, where the music I was listening to was supposed to somehow be hugely relevant to my identity. So relevant, that I closed my mind (or at least tried to close it) to almost anything else and ignored developing my personality in other important ways if it didn't come up on a Clash record. But somehow it never really seemed to take. The closest I could get to an idea of what I was like was to write my own music and listen to recordings, comparing them to what I was listening to.

Over the course of high school, I sat in my room listening to old Killed By Death compilations and ordering CD-Rs from Hyped to Death records, reading books on punk rock and looking for whatever bands I could find on the Internet. And I tried in vain to write my own songs to match the ones that I thought were so cool. Listening to my old recordings recently, I was actually kind of impressed that the songs weren't quite as bad as I remembered. But it was definitely an awkward take on the music I was listening to, what is now obviously a mixture of the music I was listening to and the music I wanted to hear but couldn't find.

All this time, I had one CD by the Ramones: Ramones Mania. I somehow never really got into them, despite my fascination with punk rock. After seeing the movie End of the Century, I picked up their first seven records and listened to them obsessively. Around the same time, I had been listening to the band Neutral Milk Hotel. These two bands were probably close to the only things I listened to for my last two years of high school. I went from learning Ramones songs to learning the Neutral Milk Hotel songs. At the time, I thought the two bands sounded about as distant from one another as possible. The discovery that the music for all of the songs by both bands were largely the same was an important one for me, and would have an enormous influence on the way that I listened to and understood music.

I spent a year writing songs, now trying to combine my fondness for the tempos and melodies of the Ramones and Neutral Milk Hotel, rather than copy the oblique pseudo-intellectualism of bands like Sonic Youth. It was like I had found the state of mind I should've been in all along. But I didn't have a lot of frame of reference. There weren't a lot of bands I knew about at the time who made this kind of music. I had a couple records by the Apples in Stereo and Teenage Fanclub, but it wasn't the same. I had a Beat Happening CD, but I wasn't crazy about it. As far as the kind of music I was making, I was just deafly speeding into what was new territory for me, figuring out how much you can do with three chords, spare time, and no idea what you're doing.

Pop, Pop, Pop Music (Part One)

2010-09-27T20:33:00.000-07:00

It's not unusual for people to associate the music they listen to with certain periods in their lives, or sometimes to reflect on their lives in reference to whatever music they were listening to at the time. It might be a little more obsessive to see your process of maturing or the development of your identity to somehow come part and parcel with the music you listened to, but this is what I do. Recently reflecting on my life and the music I listened to over the course of that life, I started to see how the music I listened to reflected my endeavor to a certain identity and the relief when I found music that better fit my actual personality.

When I started listening to punk rock, around when I was thirteen or fourteen years old, it was the kind of experience that a lot of people have. I felt like I had found music to which I felt I could relate, expressing emotions and communicating ideas I couldn't find anywhere else. Something liberating, something inspiring and exciting. I spent most of high school trying to use my guitar to imitate the sounds and attitudes espoused by bands like Sonic Youth, Mission of Burma, Unwound, the Clash, Nirvana, and on and on and on. My attempts to write angry, jagged, weird songs did not come out quite as convincing as the records I was listening to. I guess the spiteful and melancholic ramblings of the teenage me couldn't even carry much weight with their author.

So this went on for most of high school. Struggling to be abstract, I would take what I knew about music theory and try to contradict it, expecting to come up with something that sounded incredibly cool, as if that's how it worked. And for lyrics I would find inspiration in how miserable I was. Specifically, that was my conscious focus. It would be a few years before I started to understand how much of an impediment a conscious focus like that can be. I would eke out a song or two on a crappy four-track machine every so often and then play them relentlessly, seemingly believing that I would eventually figure out how to make a crappy song great by just playing it over and over again. I'd play the songs, listen to my recordings, listen to records like EVOL and Surfer Rosa and wonder what I was missing.

It wouldn't be too long before I'd just have to get over the difference between who I was and the person I was trying to be when I tried to write those songs. But it would be a little longer before it would make sense to me.

I Have Neglected This Blog For Too Long

2010-02-28T18:13:00.000-08:00

I'm going to start writing here again.

While I get ready to return to writing on a regular basis, I've uploaded two reviews from last year that I wrote while applying to for work as a music critic.

Ugh.

Recently Obsessed With French Music

2009-04-16T20:34:00.001-07:00

I think there's just something I like about the sound of the French language. But while it's especially suiting, in my opinion, to weirdo synthpop such as might be found on compilations like BIPPP or So Young But So Cold, there is also other stuff. And there's also just the synthpop.

As we shall see, as I tour French music with no real knowledge of it...

France Gall - "Baby Pop" (1966)

Written by Serge Gainsbourg. Saccharine sweet, catchy yé-yé sung by 18-year-old France Gall.

Charles de Goal- "Exposition" from Algorhythms (1981)

Weirdo French synthpop/no waviness.

(Discovered thanks to post-paranoia.)

Les Rita Mitsouko - "Marcia Baïla" from Rita Mitsouko (1985)

Quirky, bouncy synthpop from the mid-80s.

(Introduced by Dustin.)

And I wanted to post a video by Les Thugs, but "As Happy As Possible" has disappeared from YouTube. Suffice to say, I also like that song.

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Advance Base Battery Life

2009-04-07T18:20:00.000-07:00

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

Advance Base Battery Life

Tomlab, 2009

With bouncy beats lying beneath mellow, comforting synthesizer melodies and accompaniment, Owen Ashworth's Casiotone for the Painfully Alone gives one the feeling of being in the company of a sympathetic friend in a moment of heartbreak, loneliness, or any number of other disappointments. Ashworth's lyrics and music can play an important role for listeners caught in these situations. While the topic matter is generally sad and melancholy, they are not meant for dwelling and brooding in misery. Themes of loss (“White on White”), nostalgia (“Old Panda Days”), and simple disappointments (“White Corolla”), all leave his audience with a feeling of determination (best exemplified in “Sunday St.” or “Lonesome New Mexico Nights”).

Advance Base Battery Life, being a collection of singles and other non-album tracks from 2004 to 2007, it runs through a number of different moments in Ashworth's career. The disc features a re-envisioning of a song from 2001's Pocket Symphonies for Lonesome Subway Cars (“Lesley Gore on the T.A.M.I. Show”) and other songs which hint at the sound present on his first three albums (“Missoula,” “The Only Way to Cry,” and “Voice of the Hospital”). However, a large portion of the album also shows the direction Ashworth has taken since 2003's Twinkle Echo, including a different version of “Holly Hobby,” which also appears on 2006's Etiquette. And all points in-between are covered. In addition to the plain Casiotone tracks are his recent collaborations, such as one song performed with the Donkeys (“It's a Crime”).

Ashworth's synthesizers are usually understated, sometimes simply acting as accompaniment for the words being sung, sometimes providing a number of catchy melodies and hooks, in and of themselves. Ashworth's singing is often delivered with a “what-else-can-I-say” attitude, reflecting the states-of-mind of the characters in his songs. One might think, initially, that it was simply “blasé;” but, in fact, the inflections are important to convey Ashworth's message. One of the great things about this collection is how it runs a lengthy gamut of the different moods of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. Here, you can find fun, commiseration, and the kind of relief you might normally get from old friends.

caUSE co-MOTION - It's Time: Singles and EPs 2005-2008

2009-04-07T18:18:00.000-07:00

It's Time: Singles and EPs 2005-2008

caUSE co-MOTION

Slumberland Records, 2009

Opening with tinny, rapid chords, followed quickly by thumping drums and then finally fully fleshed out with the introduction of voice and bass, “Only Fades Away” lets you know what you're in for within the first five seconds. Cause Co-Motion's grasp of the immediacy of the pop song is a quality I find sorely lacking in current pop trends. The careful arrangement and repetition of catchy melodies rolling by at a pace which might be described by some as “moderate, but on the quick side,” lends itself easily to enjoyment by those looking not for the voyeuristic pleasure of drama and spectacle, but something more akin to a moment of commiseration with a compassionate soul. It's hard not to like this band.

The songs are short. Exceptionally short, by today's standards. There are fourteen songs included in this collection of singles and EPs, and not a single one goes over the two minute mark. They don't even meet it. Cause Co-Motion have a sort of guerilla-warfare approach to their music. The songs come seemingly out of nowhere and are gone about as quickly, sometimes just as soon as they register in your mind. Although the songs themselves may not be hard to miss, nothing about the songs are hard to miss. The pop genius is immediately apparent. Each song manages to tell a story and convey meanings. Even with the short lengths, they explore and travel through different moods and atmospheres, some songs going from spastic bombast to thoughtful passages. The songs and melodies bounce and sway, leading the listener along with the route the words take.

Delivered with a selfless quality that resembles Beat Happening, the music and performances are inviting to the listener. There's no ego in the singer's voice imposing himself onto the listener. The words are purely honest and sincere, and you're left with the feeling that they're being sung because they must be, plain and simple. No grandiose endeavors or hidden agendas lurk here. It's just genuine passion. But the music isn't without a sense of humor. Despite the typically lovelorn lyrical content, the levity of the music keeps the band away from self-indulgence or unnecessarily lengthy introspection. This collection ends quickly, but it's the nature of the songs' brevity that you can put it right back on and listen as many times as you need in order to get your fill, without ever losing that same excitement you found on the first listen.

caUSE co-MOTION

2008-12-22T12:00:00.000-08:00

caUSE co-MOTION is a band I've heard a lot about, but have heard little by ("Which Way Is Up?," "Only Fades Away" and maybe a couple others). They have 7" singles but I've been living off student loans since I started college and am almost perpetually broke or speedily approaching it.

They are "garage-y." They're another great indie pop band from NYC. They're fun. Also, their songs are short, which I love. Super pop packed into one to two minutes of frenetic happiness.

There's MP3s on their website, including the aforementioned "Which Way Is Up?" which is really great. I have not had the good fortune to see them play live yet, but look forward to that opportunity coming to me EVENTUALLY.

They have a singles compilation on Slumberland Records, collecting various records on labels like What's Yr Rupture? and some stuff I've never heard of before. They're also on a bunch of compilations with other bands, but I wouldn't know anything about that.

Here's them doing "Who's Gonna Care?" at Death By Audio a little of a year ago:

Teenage Spastic Love Explosion 12/10/08

2008-12-10T20:56:00.000-08:00

Teenage Spastic Love Explosion (Wednesdays at 9 PM) Playlist for Dec. 10th, 2008
WPSR - Purchase Student Radio, 1610 AM, http://purchaseradio.org

Heavenly - "C Is The Heavenly Option" - Le Jardin De Heavenly - 1992
The Shop Assistants - "I Don't Want to Be Friends With You" - Will Anything Happen - 1986
Vivian Girls - "No" - Vivian Girls - 2008
Times New Viking - "Come Together" - Rip It Off - 2008

[Music Beneath DJ: Leanord Nimoy - Music to Watch Space Girls By - Spaced Out! 2005]

Tyvek - "Air Conditioner" - Fast Metabolism - 2007
The Dils - "Class War" - Dangerhouse Singles - 199?
Old Table - "Mental Horse" - The Animal Trilogy - 2005
Joy Division - "She's Lost Control" (12" Version) - Heart and Soul

Eugene Mirman - a phone conversation with a homophobic phone company
The Fast - "Unisex Haircut" - The Best of the Fast: 1976-1984
Measles Mumps Rubella - "Libra Science" - Fantastic Success - 2005
Casiotone For the Painfully Alone - "Young Shields" - Etiquette - 2006

The Cure - "I Want to Be Old" - Rarities 1977-1979 bootleg
Mission of Burma w/ David Hild - "Pancake House" - a live radio bootleg
Leanord Nimoy - "Highly Illogical" - Spaced Out! - 2005
The Kinks - "I Got My Feet on the Ground" - Kinda Kinks - 1965

All Girl Summer Fun Band - "Grass Skirt" - Summer of '98 - 2003
Dear Nora - "On To September" - The New Year E.P.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - "Everything With You" - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - 2009

Best Friends Forever

2008-12-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

Ah, Best Friends Forever. I saw them play at the Whitson's Memorial Greeting Hall in the Student Center at Purchase with my friends No One and the Somebodies.

I had no real expectations since I didn't even really know the show was going on until someone called me to let me know NOATS was around. I remember being at a Japanther show about three years ago and someone was wearing one of their t-shirts and the name stuck in my head. I also heard some rumblings about them on the Internet somewhere (probably the K Records message board...) and that they were supposed to be really good.

I was actually somehow not that into the show as my friends had been, but I think I was in a bad mood. The girl who's setting up shows this year arranged for everyone to make friendship bracelets for each other during BFF's set and I, anti-social and angry bum that I can be sometimes (not always), got the fuck out of there.

However, their CDs were five bucks (thanks you, Plan-It-X!) and they seemed charming (also the bass player is really cute and I wanted to talk to her (I didn't get to)), so I bought both of them.

The CDs are pretty incredible. I prefer the first one (Best Friends Forever), I think, a compilation of seven inches and EPs and I think compilation tracks from 2003-2008. The second one (Romance Conflict Adventure) is also great. I recommend checking out all the songs on their Myspace.

Here's them doing a song whose name I forget:

Teenage Spastic Love Explosion 12/04/08

2008-12-05T12:01:00.000-08:00

Teenage Spastic Love Explosion (Wednesdays at 9 PM) Playlist for Dec. 4th, 2008
WPSR - Purchase Student Radio, 1610 AM, http://purchaseradio.org

The Up Set - A Melody For Melanie - Making a Connection With the Ground - 2007
Japanther - Public Square - Dump the Body in Rikki Lake - 2003
Jeffrey Lewis - Poseur (Schwervon! cover) - Gas Money Tour EP - 2005

My Bloody Valentine - Strawberry Wine - Strawberry Wine EP - 1987
Geoff&Aria - Blue Shield
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Everything With You - Everything With You 7" - 2008
Lilys - Claire Hates Me - In The Presence of Nothing - 1992

Eric's Trip - Stupidest Thing - Forever Again - 1994
Old Table - Victims of Love - '06 - 2006
Heavenly - I Fell in Love Last Night - Heavenly Vs. Satan - 1991
Revillos - Where's the Boy for Me? - Rev Up! - 1980

caUSE co-MOTION - Which Way Is Up? - Which Way is Up? 7" - 2003?
Sunshine Fix - You Won't Be - A Spiraling World of Pop - 1993
Henry's Dress - Target Practice - Bust 'Em Green - 1995
Polaris - She Is Staggering - Music From The Adventures of Pete and Pete - 1999

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

2008-12-01T12:00:00.000-08:00

People talk about this band quite a bit right now, it seems to me, so I'm behind on this one. Also, I'm not very good at coming up with things to say, so this is probably going to seem awkwardly blunt.

This is yet another article on a music blog about the Pains of Being Pure at Heart. An indie pop band from NYC who probably remind me of My Bloody Valentine the most (pre-Loveless, most especially EPs like Ecstasy or Sunny Sundae Smile) with their heavy distorted guitars and catchy melodies sung with the enthusiasm of a little kid who just got out of school for the summer and is also in love (but they also have this deep-but-not-too-deep atmospheric sound that goes really well with walking around metropolis in the cold winter).

This is my favorite kind of band, which is the kind that lets me jump up and down over and over again, singing along out loud. My favorite songs? Probably: "Doing All The Things That Wouldn't Make Your Parents Proud," "Everything With You," and "Young Adult Friction."

"Everything With You" is available for download on their Myspace page, along with "Come Saturday," another great one (all of them are great ones). They currently have an EP and three singles and I believe an LP is expected in early 2009 on the ineffable Slumberland Records (can't wait).

Here's them doing "This Love Is Fucking Right":

Hey, it's been less than a year since my last post.

2008-11-26T14:42:00.000-08:00

And here I am. Crazy.

I want to post more crap here. The radio show has pretty much been on hiatus for the past month since my computer's been busted. I've been playing stuff like Retsin, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Rock*A*Teens, the Mice, and Kate Bush or something. I'll post the last two sets which I'm pretty sure I still have written down somewhere.

I should tell you about bands, maybe. So here's one that I like:

http://www.myspace.com/theupset

The Up Set are from Middle River, Maryland. A place of which I've never heard. But the music is pretty fantastic. Especially "A Melody For Melanie." At some point recently I played the song very loudly by myself in my dorm room late at night and jumped up and down out of enjoyment.

They seem to have a record called "Making Contact With The Ground" which I haven't got, but intend on picking up at some point.

check it out.

Kevin Has Been Neglecting This Blog (Set from 3/4/08)

2008-03-06T15:51:00.000-08:00

Les Thugs - Birds of Ill Omen - Still Hungry - 1990 - Sub Pop
Lilys - Threw a Day - In the Presence of Nothing - 1991 - SpinART
Old Table - New Table - '06 - 2006 - Intellectual Bird
Jeffrey Lewis - Three-Quarter Moon - Indie Rock Fortune Cookie - 2001 - Self-Released

Courtney Love - Baseball Bat - One Last Kiss - 1992 - SpinART
Talulah Gosh - In Love For The Very First Time - Backwash - 1996 - K
Sonic Youth - Loudmouth - Hold That Tiger - 198? - Live Bootleg
Neptune - A Car is a Weapon - Intimate Lightning - 2004 - Mister/100% Breakfast

Juliana Hatfield - My Pet Lion - Made in China - 2005 - Ye Olde Records
Moldy Peaches - Lucky Number 9 - Moldy Peaches - 2001 - Rough Trade
Dear Nora - Everyone's the Same - We'll Have A Time - 2001 - Magic Marker
The Manhattan Love Suicides - Suzy Jones - The Manhattan Love Suicides - 2006 - Magic Marker

Hella - Been a Long Time Cousin - Hold Your Horse Is - 2002 - 5 Rue Christine
Q and Not U - So Many Animal Calls - Different Damage - 2002 - Dischord
Xiu Xiu - Sad Cory-O-Grapher - If The Twenty-First Century Didn't Exist, It Would Be Necessary To Invent It - 2002 - 5 Rue Christine

The Revelons - The Way (You Touch My Hand) - Anthology - 2004 - Sepia Tone
Hüsker Dü - Celebrated Summer - New Day Rising - 1985 - SST
Modest Mouse - Never-Ending Math Equation - Building Nothing Out of Something - 2000 - Up

That's all I have to say right now.

Later,
k

2006 in CDs That I Didn't Buy (Sorry Bands)

2007-02-22T09:38:00.000-08:00

Hello.

For my first post on this blog, I shall share with you five or six record albums I enjoyed listening to, which were released over the course of the previous calender year. The first I will speak of is this:

NEPTUNE - PATTERNS

Junkyard, almost industrial, punky loudness. Beeps, buzzes, distorted basses made out of oil drums and and guitars made from VCRs and chairs and shit. And it's really catchy. I don't have much to say except that if you like visceral, groovy, insanity, you will probably enjoy this.

ERASE ERRATA - NIGHTLIFE

This is different than the other Erase Errata albums, but still good. I really like their second album, but I don't like this one as much. I have never been able to articulate what exactly it is about this album that's so different, aside from the obvious lack of Sarah Jaffe playing guitar. It seems goofier maybe, less rigid and spastic, and smoother. However, what I really liked about Other Animals was the rigidity and bizarreness.

CASIOTONE FOR THE
PAINFULLY ALONE - ETIQUETTE

This is wonderful. The only other CFTPA I know is Twinkle Echo, which I think I prefer, but I still really enjoy this record. Particularly "I Love Creedence" and "Scattered Pearls", but every song on the album is excellently crafted descriptions of entering adulthood, separating from your childhood and the difficulty of being on that cusp. Specific topics include: Family, friends, failed maybe-romance, and hopeless sympathy. And at the end of the record, Ashworth and co. interpret my favorite Parenthetical Girls song. So good.

LILYS - EVERYTHING WRONG IS IMAGINARY

I'm not entirely sure how the title/cover concept is to be taken. I always thought it was a positive "nothing's really ever wrong, everything's cool" kind of thing, but now I'm thinking it's a cynical reference to the Chinese press/propaganda. Whatever that's about, the record itself is no work of cynicism. The record is overflowing with enthusiasm for everything, for people to see, for things to do, and for places to go. And it's a wonderful departure from the calm reserve of the last Lilys record, Precollection. Everything Wrong Is Imaginary runs the gamut from the ineffable cheer of earlier Lilys songs like "Ginger" and "Dandy" and shoegazey guitar weirdness on songs like "Black Carpet Magic" and "With Candy", electronic grooves on "A Diana's Diana" and "Where the Night Goes", and even touching on his krautrock affinity with the title track, though melded with his more obvious love of Sixties' mod guitar riffs.
And despite the fact that I've spent that entire paragraph detailing how this sounds like the best parts of every other Lilys records, I must also insist that there are qualities on this record you won't find anywhere else in the catalog. This is a great album, but it's also a great Lilys album.

Parenthetical Girls - Safe As Houses

This is it. Easily my favorite new album from what I suppose is my favorite new band. And the jump in quality and sophistication from their first record to this is incredible. I'm not even sure how to explain how much has changed. The lyrics are more focused, the album works as a coherent whole, and they manage to sound uniquely parenthetical. The lyrics throughout the record suggest a keen interest in perspectives on sexual identity, the effect of the birth and death of children, and the nature of relationships within the family. Themes of loss and love are predominant on the record, and the lyrics are beautifully articulate and well-written. The music on the album is equally as strong, each song is carefully and gracefully composed and arranged. Acoustic instruments such as violins and xylophones meet electric guitars and synthesizers, with some horns and weird percussion thrown in for good measure. The writing and performance on this album makes this record an indisputable classic.