The Radio Dept. has a thing for names lately. Since 2006′s Pet Grief, the Swedish synth-maudlinists’ masterpiece-so-far, they’ve released a pair of EPs with masculine title tracks: Freddie & The Trojan Horse and the upcoming David. It’s not clear who these fellas are, but the band doesn’t sound happy with them. The Radio Dept. are usually the type of wallflower rockers who sing about lost love and romantic rivals, but “David” pushes the aggression up a notch. For once, the band puts the beat on top. “David’s” percussion goes straight for the subwoofer, thick and square at the front of the mix. Under it, though, lies vintage Radio Dept., twinkling and fading into some android’s electric sheep.
As I hinted at in my review of Destroyer’s recent Echoplex gig, bands without a new album to promote tend to be looser, more relaxed — more fun. Not that Jens Lekman doesn’t always bring the Swede-pop party, but even by his standards, this show seemed special. The joyful musician revealed three new tracks, all worthy contenders of LP4: “New Directions,” an upbeat “song about Google maps” he also played when I saw him at the Henry Fonda Theater in 2008; “The End of the World Is Bigger Than Love,” a Field Mice-like strummer that recalled his folkier early work; and “An Argument With Myself,” the funniest of the bunch, a Paul Simonesque lyrical traffic jam sans Simon’s tragic yuppiedom. For the rest of the set he turned mostly toward 2007′s Night Falls On Kortedala, and the more I see Jens — this was my third time — the more it’s obvious he wants to make people dance. For most sad-hearted, sharp-tongued singer-songwriters, this would be the worst move possible, but for Lekman, all his new directions are worth following.
Denton, Texas songwriter Robert Gomez’s latest album, Pine Sticks & Phosphorus, isn’t quite the stuff of summer jams — a restrained, gentle folk collection, it’s unlikely to unseat, say, Jay-Z’s “DOA” from your party playlist. But luckily Gomez’s latest is an album for all seasons, a carefully arranged set that recalls pop dabbler Jim O’Rourke’s more pastoral moments. Tracks such as “On This Day,” with Gomez’s hushed, measured vocal cadence and its interlocking guitar arpeggiations, could share space with the former Wilco producer’s “Memory Lame” or even Michigan-era Sufjan Stevens. Pine Sticks doesn’t have quite the immediate classic-making charisma of those predecessors, but Gomez’s music is built to last.
Robert Gomez – “On This Day”: mp3 Robert Gomez – “Middle Of Nowhere”:mp3
(Pine Sticks & Phosphorus is out now on Nova Posta Vinyl; he plays the Knitting Factory on July 18)
Your favorite actor and mine turns 21 today. Do they have a drinking age in Canada? Next up for the young charmer is Year One later this month as well as a co-starring role with his cougar girlfriend in Paper Heart, with the Scott Pilgrim adaptation and Youth In Revolt on the way. And perhaps Arrested Development? I’m still waiting on Superbad II: The College Years. At any rate, happy b-day, Mike. I hope nobody breaks up with you.
Since the 2003 release of all-star frat-pack rager “Old School,” mainstream cinema has been dominated by two divergent brands of comedy: Will Ferrell’s increasingly ignorable journey to the center of 3rd grade, which looks to reach its apogee with “Land of the Lost” this weekend, and Judd Apatow’s more mature universe of post-Kevin Smith four-hanky bromances. (Apatow, of course, generally has a hand in Ferrell’s hijinks, too. Collusion!) “Old School” director Todd Phillips has never been as sensitive a screenwriter as Apatow or had as cartoonish a comedic sensibility as his “Old School” star Ferrell, leaving his more recent efforts – “School For Scoundrels,” least notably – to languish in a milquetoast middle ground.
But “The Hangover” ups the director’s game with a ramped-up romp that offers both Ferrell-sized absurdity and Apatowian real-world raunch. Read the rest of this entry »
A very faux-Gondry effort from Jason Schwartzman’s tropical-themed band for a track I called “the kind of of-the-moment song that’ll deservedly get sandwiched in this spring’s lovelorn mix tapes and maybe even soundtrack a few bespectacled make-out sessions.”
The left-field Snow Blindness Is Crystal Antz is due August 11. Chad and I talked about his experimental excursions in our interview a few months back: “It seems like people always gravitate toward my folk stuff which is fine but it’s also not really where I came from musically. So now I’m releasing all that stuff in side projects.”
Denton, Texas songwriter Robert Gomez’s latest album, Pine Sticks & Phosphorus, isn’t quite the stuff of summer jams — a restrained, gentle folk collection, it’s unlikely to unseat, say, Jay-Z’s “DOA” from your party playlist. But luckily Gomez’s latest is an album for all seasons, a carefully arranged set that recalls pop dabbler Jim O’Rourke’s more pastoral moments. Tracks such as “On This Day,” with Gomez’s hushed, measured vocal cadence and its interlocking guitar arpeggiations, could share space with the former Wilco producer’s “Memory Lame” or even Michigan-era Sufjan Stevens. Pine Sticks doesn’t have quite the immediate classic-making charisma of those predecessors, but Gomez’s music is built to last. 
The left-field Snow Blindness Is Crystal Antz is due August 11. Chad and I talked about his experimental excursions in our 
