Take off those clothes, you're one of them.

    I'm excited to see that the Nitsuh Abebe has his own column over at p4k.  I've been following his excellent and always thoughtful blog, A Grammar for a couple weeks now so I'm excited to see  his missives in a more well trafficked site. (Although, are p4k columns really read that often?)  On his first outing he compares Lady Gaga and Joanna Newsome while taking on the neurotic self conscious politics of cool in the indiesphere.  Definitely worth a read if you even remotely care about any of the above topics.  I'm still very interested in this debate about the politics of who we find clever or innovative and who we find trite or escapist, but it's personally losing it's relevancy in my day to day life.  Maybe my circles have changed but it's not often I find myself in a place where I'm actually embarassed to admit my fondness for something because of hip politics.  Interning at Thrill Jockey certainly presents those moments, but the mocking tone there is more like dudes at a bar talking about basketball players than some deleted scene from High Fidelity.

    It's hard to really spot a time or place in my life where I ever really felt threatened by other people's tastes.  High School had it's moments, but the cool-indie-rock-kid crowd was small and pretty self consciously not very hip and most of them were my friends and bandmates.  I felt the war for what's cool was always being fought online or in New York or some other place where I had no voice.  Even if I really cared (and I did) about the micro trends of New York, it was  so beyond my control or influence, a world that only meant something because I decided it did.  And in small ways it still does, but the ground level arguments about what's hot and what's not never seemed to be as crucial or as mean spirited as they did online.  Actually watching people get riled up and pissy with each other over personal tastes is not usually all that fun or productive.  As much as I like a good spirited debate, once someone get's smug or self important or just plain condescending, I'm usually out.  And living in a place as fractured and contentious as Chicago, I feel like it's more beneficial to be open minded and curious than to have an entrenched viewpoint.  If there's something dilettantish about that, I don't see why that's a particular problem, what's a scene without enough people who are willing or naive enough to try to walk in as many circles as they can?  As long as your interest is genuine, what do you have to worry about?
    I'm not saying this just because I want everyone to be friendly and pat each other on the back.  No, if anything we need to expect more from performers than to just pick a sound and stick to it.  If bands want to narrow their focus and dig deep into a sound (The Walkmen) that's totally credible, enjoyable and rewarding.  But bands who tap into more material, who are taking more risks and seeking out different ways of making music are essential to "the fringe" or whatever you want to call it.  This is why very good bands who make very enjoyable and impressive albums (Surfer Blood, Real Estate, Smith Westerns) can ultimately be a letdown when compared to their influences.  They don't seem to mean much?  I'm on the fence here.  Not every band should straddle themselves with the expectations of recreating music or being utter visionaries and I'm willing to look for originality and fresh ideas from bands who don't tout themselves as THE NEXT THING.  But I agree with Abebe, if you're going to wear your tastes as a merit badge of adventurousness, then I don't see the point in mocking bands for their misadventures. 
    If that makes a lick of sense.  There's also a refreshing Liars interview up and it's good to hear these guys in in top form once again.  A HL review is in the pipeline.

  

Snap Judgements

So I took a sick day and decided to vegetate around the house while the -10 windchill made everyone else miserable. To pass the time I decided to listen to some of the Pfork Best New Music picks I haven't yet heard and write some initial thoughts. The rule was one or two sentences a song. Here's what I found:

Real Estate-S/T
1. Like this a lot, not too overdone
2. A little plodding by second track
3. So the first track is uptempo for this band. Still like the tone and aesthetic, 'cept for the drums. This is somewhere between slow Pavement and early Shins.
4. But still pretty winning. Damn guys.
5. Oh, I get it, they don't have a drummer. I Like Springsteen's Atlantic City better.
6. Oooh. They do wrangle maximum emotion out of minimal technical skill. Not a slight.
7. Meh.
8. This has a cool blossoming Jim O'rourke style beginning. Yeah, this one's good. Little long though.
9. Ok guys, where's your jam switch? It's time to find it and turn it off. Also, this does not sound like a beach being rocked.
10. Like the song, still hate that drum sound though, and the voice is getting to me. Feel a little underwhelmed.

Alright, the album does have a cohesive sound, and is pretty well sequenced. And there is something romantic about coming back to your hometown and making an album with your old friends. Creating romance for a place you once thought was miserable, I can get behind that. But there's a way better album that does the same thing, and it's Spoon's Girls Can Tell. And as far as hazy pop albums, do we really need another one this year?

Bear in Heaven-Beast Rest Fourth Mouth
1. Bongos, why did it have to be bongos? Dude's voice has that thing that makes it sound thin with reverb, like the guy from Band of Horses or Getty Lee.
2. Pheonix + Isaac Brock's guitar. You didn't work for that chorus. Who mixed this?
3. This could be a lot better.
4. Wait, is this Rush?
5. Ok, so it's like Wire without the tension or restraint. Truly bored.
6. Favorite song so far, much simpler and economical. Ok, you earned that crescendo.
7. Bored.
8. Ok, so this album has an admittedly impressive sound. Good sound design that is, meticulous textures, and a dedication to being weird.
9. But even that awesome drum track is falling flat. Not enough room to breath.  Sounds like a dull headache, in space.
10. This album makes me itchy.

Ok, so amazing chops, very adventurous band. But man that sound is dense, too much future shock. Maybe exactly the opposite of Real Estate. I prefer Real Estate.

Skipping the Hyperdum comp cuz reviewing comps aint fun.  Ah yes...

Fuck Buttons-Tarot Sport
1. Sweet.
2. Sweet.
3. Awesome. Oh yeah.
4. Still really awesome.
5. These guys can do whatever they want with sound. My only complaint about Fuck Buttons is that normal life doesn't allow nearly enough proper contexts for their music. It takes a lot out of you.
6. Little too close to My Girls in the intro. My ears are a little fatigued.
7. The Fuck Buttons make me wish I was at a rave.

More dense than the first album, which I might actually like a bit more. More holy-shit moments on this one though. Listening casually while writing sentence length reviews is not how you should listen to this album.

Skipping Atlas Sound becuase I've already heard it and like it. Skipping Mountain Goats because I truly dislike them.  Oh what's this, a new Beck single?  Oh chillwave, this is gonna be quick...

Neon Indian-Psychic Chasms
1. Alright, cool intro
2. Ok, I'm on board.
3. Quirkier and more fun than the other so called "chillwave" or whatever, stuff like Memory Tapes or Washed Out.
4. Tape phasing, glad hipsters decided to save you.
5. Ah, this is the low budget Daft Punk part.
6. Thumbs up.  High fives all around.
7. This is a great long lost GBV song title, I'm sure. Oh yeah, nice. Good job dude.
8. An arpeggiater and drum machine on tape, some vocals.
9. RIYL: Listening to Chromeo without the icky feeling of actually listening to Chromeo
10. Still on your side man.
11. But will I buy your album?

A surprise. Very fun listen, not sure of the staying power. It does have a good sense of humor and fun while not diving headlong into novelty, it remains both warm and wry. I might actually buy this.