Tell us, Cymbals Eat Guitars. Why are there mountains? To climb, and play seven-minute jams atop, obviously. On their debut album, the New York band dabbles in early Pavement’s frantic guitar spasms and an airier prettiness more in line with late ’90s Britpop acts — often in the same song. Their fresh handling of loud-quiet-loud is commendable, as is their willingness to stretch their songs past the 6-minute mark even as they cut off a number of tunes at a terse 2 minutes — no middle ground for these guys. It’s bit of a pastiche, sure, but a chaotic and winning one. As like-minded, undersung Rawkblog favorites from the past few years such as Evangelicals and Paper Airplanes can attest, sometimes just reaching someone else’s summit is progress enough.
Moony twee revivalists The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have released a third MP3 from their stellar self-titled debut, the Craig Finn-clever “Young Adult Friction.” When I reviewed the album for Cokemachineglow, I called it “the best song about library-related public lovemaking since the Clientele’s ‘Bookstore Casanova.’” Read up below. Angelenos, the band is back in town in July.
Pains of Being Pure at Heart – “Young Adult Friction”:mp3
The Smiths‘ catalog is a pretty overwhelming animal, in both diversity of sound (take the easy ska of “Frankly, Mr. Shankly” vs. the torch ballad “I Know It’s Over,” for instance) and the sheer number of tracks scattered across their four albums and numerous singles compilations. But their appearances on John Peel’s show over the years always captured the short-lived act at its best, and never better than on this acoustic version of “Back To The Old House,” one of Morrissey’s most intimate songs. “I would rather not go back to the old house / there’s too many bad memories,” he sings in this Sept. 1983 rendition, a simple enough line, but in comparison to the boy who would rather die in a bus collision than go home in “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out,” he doesn’t sound maudlin or melodramatic, for once — just sincere.
The Smiths – “Back to the Old House” (live @ Peel Sessions): mp3
On “Iris,” Finnish twee act Burning Hearts sound less like they’re running with chests aflame than like Meryl Streep in Doubt listening to Belle & Sebastian. The Hearts play a matronly, serious brand of indie pop that nevertheless shimmers and jangles with the best of ‘em; of all the songs of their latest, Aboa Sleeping, “Iris” has the biggest twinkle in its eye.
The recent anniversary of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s death was a reminder not just of a brilliant talent snuffed out too soon, but of the short shelf-life of rock movements. Grunge was quickly co-opted and Xeroxed into submission in the early ’90s, and alternative — whatever that means — stopped being an alternative to anything practically to the day MTV launched Total Request Live. As Billy Corgan said earlier this year, there are no alternative fans now — just pop fans who like Nickelback. The point being that indie rock seems about ready to reach its expiration date as a mainstream movement of sorts, too.
Technology and the Internet has so drastically changed the way we interface with music that what this means — and what will come next, if anything — remains to be seen. So amidst this time of major label casualties (arguably, the Decemberists, Interpol, Death Cab) and vapid trends (Lo-Fi II: The Wrath Of Guitar Teachers), Harlem Shakes’ furious debut shares the twin burdens of being both a shot in the arm and perhaps some famous last words. Read the rest of this entry »
Live: I saw My Bloody Valentine (pictured at left; photo by David Greenwald). My ears survived. Plus, we kinda covered Coachella without actually going.
Bootlegs: Radiohead’s Thom Yorke previews acoustic takes on future In Rainbowssongs in ’05.
News: Jon Brion is in Funny People. Ravens & Chimes have four new songs in the can. And according to MTV News, Pharrell is working with the Clipse again! Huzzah.
I’m putting my cards on the table: Harlem Shakes‘ Technicolor Health is my favorite album of the year (though Grizzly Bear has its claws deep in my heart, too) and has been for weeks. Perhaps it’s the band’s sheer jubilation. When they sing in this song, “This will be a better year,” with the bombast of those frayed guitars under it, visions of Barack Obama playing with Bo the First Puppy dance in my head. For those of us past our giddy college years (and long past keeping up with hawk-haired teenagers with pants that couldn’t fit our sisters), it’s worth remembering that indie rock used to make us feel alive. Maybe it still can. (And look for a full album review soon.)