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Words Archive
The Little Ones-tour diary: Part 2
to Vancouver:
For
the record, Minneapolis to Vancouver = 26hrs of pure little ones
enjoyment! We did this trek months ago during the winter and we must
say it's much more enjoyable sans snowstorms. We finished our first
book on cd together, Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A
Low Culture Manifesto. At some point we posed the idea of installing a
sensory deprivation tank in the van. Here's a rough schematic...
Mon Apr 30 2007 · Posted in Daily on littleradio.com
LiTTLE RADiO album picks for May
I'm sure there are many more records from smaller acts that I'm leaving out, but I'm really looking forward to these full-lengths. Time to visit Coinstar.
MAY:
Afghan Whigs: Unbreakable (Retrospctive) - (Rhino)
Battles: Mirrored - (Warp)
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: Baby 81 - (RCA)
Bjork: Volta - (One Little Indian)
The Clientele: God Save the Clientele - (Merge)
Dinosaur Jr: Beyond - (Fat Possum)
Dungen: Tio Bitar - (Kemado)
Elliott Smith: New Moon - (Kill Rock Stars)
Feist: The Reminder - (Interscope)
Fields: Everything Last Winter - (Blacklab)
Handsome Furs: Plague Park - (Sub Pop)
Lavender Diamond: Imagine Our Love - (Matador)
Maximo Park: Our Earthly Pleasures - (Warp)
National: Boxer - (Beggars Banquet)
Parts & Labor: Mapmaker - (Jagjaguwar)
The Sea and Cake: Everybody - (Thrill Jockey)
Shapes and Sizes: Split Lips, Winning Hips, A Shiner - (Asthmatic Kitty)
Voxtrot: Voxtrot - (Beggars Banquet)
Wilco: Sky Blue Sky - (Nonesuch)
Thu Apr 26 2007 · Posted in Daily on littleradio.com
The Little Ones-tour diary: Part 1
The Little Ones have set out on a tour with the Walkmen and Kaiser Chiefs. These are the facts, and this is their story. We will have updates from the Little Ones every week.
Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre
En
route and on time, or so we thought. First day of joining the Kaiser
Chiefs tour and we were hit with some mild backluck. At the tale end of
a long haul from Columbia to Chicago we hit a wee bit of traffic
getting into the city. It was one of the those scenarios where you have
to load directly onto stage, do an accelerated sound check, sprint off
stage, clean up a bit, then go back out and start the show. I think we
all would of wished it were that easy. Instead, we were line checking
our equipment while doors opened. Which isn't bad in anyway, it's just
odd when there's a crowed already forming at the front of the stage and
half of us are trying to figure out how to setup the absent band
members'equipment. All the while the attentive eyes at the front of the
stage are growing exponentially. Meanwhile, the missing band members
are attempting to park the van and trailer to no luck at all. 10
minutes till stage time and a call comes in from Lee, "we're still
trying to park aaaaaaaaaaand one of our tires just blew up". I think it
was at that point we asked ourselves what the hell else can go wrong
today.
Tue Apr 24 2007 · Posted in Daily on littleradio.com
Jarvis Cocker: Jarvis
Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis
2007 | Rough Trade
I’m into Jarvis. This album isn’t as triumphant and glorious as Pulp’s Different Class, it’s pretty safe to say that record is the benchmark for anything Jarvis attempts in his career, but this is definitely a move in the right direction. Most of the record is low-key, gentle, and moody, but it also sounds like it’s going somewhere. Kind of like a “hey I’m back” record. Songs vary in tempo and feel utilizing slide guitar, bells, and lots of strings. I don’t really get the instrumental pieces “Loss Adjuster 1 & 2,” but slower ballads like “Tonite” and “From A to I” sound breezy and keep you dreaming.
Thankfully there are also
plenty of peppier tracks to keep you engaged. The record takes off with
“Don't Let Him Waste Your Time.” It sounds like a Dave Gedge anthem as
Jarvis pleads to cure a lady of the dreaded young woman’s disease (not a real disease) that thousands of young women suffer from here in
the United States. “You ain’t getting no younger,” says Jarvis-he’s
right ladies. The driving “Heavy Weather” channels Wilco around the
one-minute mark so there are no complaints there. “Fat Children” is
funny yet it makes you take the subject seriously (kudos to the
arrangement) because it’s such a driving song. Jangly guitars float
over pulsating drums and clever lyrics. Apparently common people eat
too much.
“Black Magic” is pretty stunning. Yeah, yeah I know
the riff is obviously borrowed from the classic 60’s hit “Crimson and
Clover.” But I can deal with that because Jarvis is good at making
anything regular sound youthful and dramatic when he gets behind the
mic.
Mon Apr 23 2007 · Posted in Reviews on littleradio.com
The Parish Festival: Handshakes & Heartaches
The Parish Festival
Handshakes & Heartaches
2007 | Future Apple Tree
Iowa-natives the Parish Festival are skilled at mimicking these styles whilst framing them within rock. The high-pitched, feminine vocals of Jamey Cummins work well with the music, and there are some memorable choruses throughout. On “Lullagoodbyes” the singer simply repeats “I don’t think so,” over an almost stupidly-catchy breakdown. “Blessings” is another winner, making clear these kids do some interesting things with structure. The songs seems to concern the time-tested topics of longing for girls, missing girls, meeting girls and the desire to get away from girls altogether. Each member of the Parish Festival sounds integral to the overall product--the great basslines, the inventive drum fills, and the neat banjo-playing. It’s great to see them reach for a period beyond the 1950s for inspiration, and deliver their product with such cohesiveness, and skill. This is an interesting release that’s a bit out of time and place alongside a lot of other indie music. And that’s a good thing.
-Chris Holmes
Wed Apr 18 2007 · Posted in Reviews on littleradio.com
Kings of Leon: Because of the Times
Kings of Leon
Because of the Times
2007 | RCA
Kings of Leon were once labeled "the Strokes of the South,” a simple way to dismiss
the band who were regarded equally for their southern “look” and music
in the press. On Because of the Times I hear a huge
improvement in sound and arrangement that separates them from previous
albums, and any Lynyrd Skynyrd comparisons. Surprisingly, the band is
very loose from the beginning and strikingly similar to the rage and
guitar blasts of the Pixies being fronted by greg Dulli, at least
during the first third of the album.
Because of the Times is
certainly darker and less accessible than I would have ever imagined.
The screams on “Charmer” annoyed me at first but now I immediately go
right to that track because it climaxes with a thunderous riff after
about a minute and a half. The single "On Call" slowly builds into a
solid chugging guitar line. Too bad the obvious pro-tool effect that’s
capping the vocal line “I’ll be there” sticks out like a sore thumb,
not cool at all guys. "McFearless" gets rhythmically adventurous then
lashes out. The middle of the record takes a back seat and leaves you
mellow and uninspired. "Camaro" saves the ending and is a shredder,
especially with that bassline accompanying the guitar solo. You’d think
a song about a Camaro would be just plain stupid, but the music roars
like a finely-tuned V8 engine.
Here in the US Kings of Leon are quickly passed over as a cliché southern rock band, like people only have time these days for My Morning Jacket. I know the trend is to skip over bands that aren't featured weekly on about a dozen different blogs, but in a more accurate world people would start paying attention to music that actually makes you feel something.
Tue Apr 17 2007 · Posted in Reviews on littleradio.com
Parts & Labor: Mapmaker
Parts & Labor
Mapmaker
2007 | Jagjaguwar/Brah
I
was in Guitar Center in San Francisco a couple of years ago, waiting to
be rung up for some pedal I couldn’t afford, when I noticed these two
guys in front of me buying a bunch of cables. One of them looked like
that crazy guitar player for Faith No More, the one with the ‘fro,
beard and glasses, while the other guy was a seriously tall redheaded
guy. “These two are interesting looking,” I thought to myself, “I bet
they’re in a good
band.” I struck up a conversation with them, and
they revealed to me that were on tour with their group Parts and Labor.
I had heard a little of P & L via their first album, Rise, Rise,
Rise, at least enough to know they were good. And so my theory that
you can oftentimes evaluate the quality of band simply by the
appearance of the members was once again confirmed.
If
you’re familiar with Parts and Labor you would probably guess that they
guys behind it were some interesting cats, as capable as they are of
summoning shrieks out of an old Apple IIE as of writing a great chorus.
Indeed, they create anthemic, vaguely Scottish-influenced noise rock
built around the use of junkyard electronics. There are obvious
parallels to Amps for Christ, whose leader also crafts instruments out
of circuitry and has an affection for the Highlands, as well as to
stuff like Husker Du and Neutral Milk Hotel, in terms of B.J. Warshaw’s
sincere, forceful vocal delivery. Parts and Labor have emphasized
melody a bit more with each release, albeit in a seriously noisy way,
and Mapmaker continues this trend. Just as their last album had an
undisputed best song in “The Great Divide,” so too does Mapmaker with
opener “Fractured Skies,” a perfect intersection of noise, harmony and
energy. In fact, if someone was to ask me about this album, I’d
probably say “well, it has this one great song.” There a couple other
worthy numbers, notably “New Crimes” and “Brighter Days,” but nothing
quite as stunning as that first one. The Scottish influence is more
subtle on this album than on those past, and truth be told I miss the
bagpipe-sounding effect that was applied so liberally on their first
release. Still, on the whole this is solid stuff, and probably a good
entry point to a band that is as loud as they are melodic.
-Chris Holmes
Mon Apr 16 2007 · Posted in Reviews on littleradio.com
Grinderman
Grinderman
Grinderman
2007 | Anti/Mute
Through the years Cave's outlook remains a constant; songs of despair,
abuse, and shattered love. For his new project he enlists 3 of his Bad
Seeds to do the dirty work that makes up Grinderman. As the project
began to take shape the bands self-description was "Foul-mouthed,
noisy, hairy, and damn well old enough to know better." That's a great
thing to know before putting on 40 minutes of some of the most hardcore
rants you will hear all year. When I first heard about this project in
passing I mistook it for the soundtrack for the new Tarantino/Rodriguez
Double-Feature "Grindhouse," which would make perfect sense as the same
techniques were applied. A simple story told in the most brutal form
possible. This album sounds like it was made to be a soundtrack to a
snuff film.
The album opens in typical Cave fashion. An acapella monologue followed
by a basic bassline mutilated by distortion and some faint bongos. The
tone for the album is set when Cave sings, "He Drank Panther Piss and
Fucked the Girls You're Probably Married To." I wasn't joking when I
said this album was hardcore. The next track (and first single) "No
Pussy Blues," content-wise is pretty much exactly what it reads. Fuzzy
distorted wah-wah guitar makes up the chorus in Sonic Youth drone
freak-out fashion without being too intrusive. That quality has to do
with the amazing production done by Nick Launay (Talking Heads, PiL,
and my little radio co-host Bobby Alt's previous project) who takes a
whole lot of power and each band member's dominance and balances it
perfectly. The album itself is made up of basic sharp parts played by
seasoned musicians who do a great job of keeping it tamed so the rest
of the space can be filled with attitude dished out by the tone of the
songs.
You may not expect it, but there are also some mellow
tracks on the album that are still heavy and haunting. "Electric Alice"
and "Man In The Moon" are reminiscent of Cave's contribution to last
years Rogue's Gallery album which was aptly dubbed, Pirate Ballads, Sea
Songs and Chanteys. Simple backing sounds to accompany the deep and
dark thoughts of Cave equipped with his patented handlebar mustache and
mullet. This album rocks like if John Cale made a record after enduring
any more of Lou Reed's criticism. It's great to see Cave returning to
his roots, hardcore pain and despair.
-Perfik
Sun Apr 15 2007 · Posted in Reviews on littleradio.com
Restaurant Music
Restaurant is a band who are in Los Angeles by way of Victoria, Tx that describing their music only gets more complicated when trying to explain the instruments these boys play.
Take Bobby "State" Penn for instance. At first glance,
he's the drummer in the band. On closer examination, his kick drum is a
cardboard box filled with women's bras, his high-hat is a stack of
Texas license plates, his snare is a sheet of metal and his floor tom
the wheel of a car. Craig, the band's frontman, can be seen pulling
strings on what looks like a cigar box with a guitar neck strapped to
it. Restaurant led the party outside at last years Summer Camp festivities, prompting our only visit ever from the LAPD. Look for a repeat appearance again at Summer Camp this June.
Recently, Bobby "State" Penn, (aka Jonathan) has begun an interesting side project called World Fame Project. Click HERE and give the song 1981 a listen.
Fri Apr 13 2007 · Posted in Daily on littleradio.com
Tycho: Past is Prologue
Tycho
Past is Prologue
2006 | Merck
Past is Prologue is basically an upgraded re-release of 2005's Sunrise Projector. It includes four new tracks as well as remixed/remastered versions of songs from the original record. What makes this release extra special is Scott Hansen’s incredible art and CD packaging that actually looks like it was designed to accompany the music
Tycho floats right alongside the brilliant ambience and careful synth work of Boards of Canada, there's no hiding that. The album consists of chilled beats and filtered drones created to induce an uncomfortable yet calming effect. “Dictaphone’s Lament” recalls Seefeel’s More Like Space EP, which turns me on in every possible way, while “The Disconnect” is an experience close to staying up all night and witnessing your first sunrise. Scott Hansen’s understanding of rhythm also helps the record soar on “PBS” with a smooth transition into a mid-tempo groove. Every song is like living in someone's daydream.
There are millions of colors and shades in the music, I know that sounds totally cheesy, but the record has this indescribable feel. Past is Prologue conveys the importance of imagery, and possibly, slowing down your routines and relationships to a complete stop.
Fri Apr 13 2007 · Posted in Reviews on littleradio.com
The Little Ones: Sing Song
The Little Ones
Sing Song
2006 | Astralwerks
The latest Sing Song EP from L.A. kings of pop The Little Ones, formerly known as “Little One” if you must know, is a piece of music you need to own. Sing Song is abundant with shiny, bouncy, pop melodies and a tropical feel that is freeing, like you're on a vacation.
Let's begin with the Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Yeah of "Lovers who Uncover." Imagine you're trying to walk across the dance floor at Cinespace, trying desperately to get to the bathroom. Once you make it to the center someone smacks you on the booty and you suddenly recognize hundreds of people who are actually enjoying the music and having a great time. "Cha Cha Cha" reveals some sharp guitar work and a keyboard melody that reminds me of stepping off an airplane onto my own private island in the South Pacific. Then there's the catchy riffing on "High on a Hill," reminiscent of many Elephant 6 bands with its anthemic, marching rhythm.
The "new" banger, and standout, is "Face the Facts." It's slightly more streamlined and less "happy," not that being happy is a terrible way to feel. The opening warped melody and stomping drum rhythm pulls you closer and closer. But what makes it so special is how loose and driving it feels compared to the rest of songs. You can sense a new direction in their arrangements.
The Little Ones are reminiscent of Built to Spill and The Shins but sound bigger and full-of-life, like they have something to celebrate. What sets these bands apart is the positivity and triumphant feel that shines through in every song. I would bet that you could play Sing Song for an entire Elementary School and they would like it for many of the same reasons that would initially come to mind. That's a quality rarely experienced in music these days.
Thu Apr 12 2007 · Posted in Reviews on littleradio.com
CD Baby joins hands with Snocap/Myspace
As some of you have noticed in the past months many of your favorite artists have recently added a SNOCAP digital storefront to their Myspace page. CD Baby, who also feature about 130,000 indie artists, has announced a partnership with MySpace that will allow all registered users easy access to create a SNOCAP digital storefront, according to cmj.com.
The SNOCAP MyStore is a backed by their very own online content registry. MyStore launched in December as a way for unsigned/indie artists to sell their music on MySpace without a distribution deal, label, or PR team, and can be posted on any site that recognizes HTML code. Now CD Baby artists will be able to sell content directly to fans from any site that allows HTML (websites, blogs, etc.).
I think it's about time you start digging through those old home recordings of you and your buddies electric shaver-meets-drums machine techno project.