I Have Neglected This Blog For Too Long

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

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

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

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

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

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

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: