From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V7 #122 Reply-To: loud-fans@smoe.org Sender: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk loud-fans-digest Friday, May 25 2007 Volume 07 : Number 122 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [loud-fans] Recent Recs [Chris Prew ] Re: [loud-fans] Recent Recs [2fs ] Re: [loud-fans] Recent Recs ["Larry Tucker" ] [loud-fans] Recent Recs ["outbound-only email address" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Recent Recs On May 23, 2007, at 6:04 PM, 2fs wrote: > On 5/23/07, Chris Prew wrote: >> >> >> Ditto the Mary Timony band album -- its good, its sounds like a >> slightly more band oriented Mary. She's always been a mature artist, >> but dare I say she sounds -- more mature? > > > I"m not sure what you mean by "mature" - too often, it means all > the bass > parts go "duum...duh-duum" and the drummer hits the stick against > the rim of > the snare on 2 and 4. > > And there might be a saxophone. > > Anyway, I like this one too - might I also say that people really > ought to > be mentioning her name when "excellent indie-rock guitarist" lists > are being > assembled? She's very distinctive, and her technique's come a long > way too. Actually, what you said here is exactly what I mean by "mature". Maybe she's more confident in her abilities, and comfortable in playing to her strengths... I dunno - I'm not too good at reviewer-ese. But I knows what I likes.... Chris np: Menomena, Friend and Foe, another recent release that I like just because I do. "You've got to be kidding me!" -- My wife last night, after our DVR scheduled recording of American Idol ended long before the program did. This program deserves an Emmy for "lengths at which one show will go to to pad out the final episode" ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 May 2007 11:15:17 -0500 From: 2fs Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Recent Recs On 5/24/07, Chris Prew wrote: "You've got to be kidding me!" -- > > My wife last night, after our DVR scheduled recording of American > Idol ended long before the program did. This program deserves an > Emmy for "lengths at which one show will go to to pad out the final > episode" It will be amusing to track the incidence of "Jordin" as a name, now - her parents didn't know how to spell, it seems, but now all these other soap-opera-star naming parents will be doing it on purpose. (Or maybe Jordin's parents purposely did so, to be "distinctive" - uh-oh, one of my rants on inane misspellings coming on...better hit "send" before i actually type it...) - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 May 2007 12:52:45 -0400 From: "Larry Tucker" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Recent Recs My current fave emusic picks of the past two months: Shake Some Action! - S/T - Hands down my favorite album so far this year. Long live jangle rock. and the others The Broken West - I Can't Go On, I'll Go On The Dexateens - Hardwire Healing The Clientele - God Save the Clientele Radio Birdman - Zeno Beach Willard Grant Conspiracy - Let it Roll The High Score - We Showed Up to Leave Youth Group - Casino Twilight Dogs Larry On 5/23/07, Chris Prew wrote: > > A couple recent album recommendations. mostly from Emusic: > > The new Dino Jr is good, your enjoyment should be predicated on how > much you liked them in their heyday, as this sounds like simply a > better produced version -- I'm enjoying it. > > Ditto the Mary Timony band album -- its good, its sounds like a > slightly more band oriented Mary. She's always been a mature artist, > but dare I say she sounds -- more mature? > > If you are into the loud-soft instrumental thing, the new record by > Explosions in the Sky will knock your socks off. Seriously, this is > one of the best 2 or 3 records of this genre in the past decade, up > there with Young Team and Lift Your Fists... > > The Twilight Sad "Fourteen Autumns, Fifteen Winters" -- Ride, or a > less arena-oriented Swervedriver, trying to write anthems like Arcade > Fire or U2, and sung by a guy with the thickest Scottish accent since > the Proclaimers. And they have an accordion, and they're not > afraid to use it. I think its wonderful. > > Speaking of Arcade Fire, Neon Bible is good, but I don't like it as > well as Funeral. I think its lost some of the tension that made the > first album so compelling. Certainly worth a listen though. > > Despite Mark's misgivings, I think the latest by Of Montreal, a band > I've enjoyed but never gotten really enthused about, kicks ass. > > The Panda Bear album is getting rave reviews everywhere. I like it > a lot, but its kind of one trick record IMHO, once you get what he's > up to, it gets a bit same-ish toward the end. I may just need to > listen to it more. > > Low's Drums and Guns -- I really don't like this album. This is the > first time I've ever said that about a Low album. Low albums don't > normally reveal themselves quickly, so I'll keep trying. > > Dan Deacon -- Spiderman of the Rings -- I'm not well versed on laptop > techno, but Deacon has a nice goofy sense of melody that keeps me > coming back to this. YMMV. > > And lastly, another nice recent release is by the Besnard Lakes. > Another Montreal group, this is full of acoustic instruments, pianos > and strings and then crunchy guitars, sometimes moody and sometimes > grandiose, and thoroughly enjoyable. > > So, since you disagree with me, tell me why. > > Chris ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 May 2007 17:23:04 -0400 From: "outbound-only email address" Subject: [loud-fans] Recent Recs I'll commend three recent releases to loud-fans' attention (all, as it happens, available on eMusic). These folks all had stuff out last year that I liked so much that I was a little afraid to listen to their new records because I was afraid my expectations were so high that the records couldn't live up to them. (In my little universe that sentence makes sense.) But then the new records were all really good and didn't fall short of my high expectations. In alphabetical order: Get Him Eat Him, _Arms Down_ (Absolutely Kosher) Andy challenged me to provide the list of the "awesome" bands I referred to from Providence RI. This outfit is probably in second place after The Brother Kite. GHEH is a little hard for me to pin down. Are they an indie rock that's not afraid of songs with nothing spiky or weird in them, or are they an indie pop band that's not afraid of sometimes being a little abrasive? Either way, I like it an awful lot. It's definitely not a big money production; that doesn't bother me at all; ymmv. Parts & Labor, _Mapmaker_ (Jagjaguwar) On the Andy Partridge remix album _The Lure of Salvage_ there's a track called "Steam Fist Futurist," in which drum loops and god knows what found and repurposed sounds are tweaked until they sound (to me) like a bunch of retro automatons running amok in a power plant. Parts & Labor sound to me like a band whose musical vocabulary was profoundly influenced by "Steam Fist Futurist," but who also love pop hooks. Like last year's _Stay Afraid_, _Mapmaker_'s sound is hissy and trebly, but the band excavates surprisingly catchy melodies from the noise. They sound nothing like the first Jesus and Mary Chain album, but the relationship of noise to hooks might be similar. Or that might be stressing a metaphor. Anyway, this album roolz. Voxtrot, _Voxtrot_ (Playloud) After three terrific EPs over the past 2 years, I was worried that the debut longplayer would be subject to a built-in sophomore slump factor. These folks seem about as pretentious as Interpol and much more florid, but somehow they sell their excesses to me very effectively. The bouyant melodies help make it work, but the intricate arrangements, with lots of shading and color give them a canvas broad enough that their drama doesn't overwhelm it. ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V7 #122 *******************************