October 31st, 2010 § 0
I’m trying something a bit different here – a live stream of Montreal punk band the Sainte Catherines playing at The Fest in Gainesville. Hopefully the embed code will work, and thanks to Erica of Yowie.com for alerting me to this.
This post goes live at 8pm and the set will begin at 9pm GMT. If my embed doesn’t work, then the source page is here.
October 31st, 2010 § 0
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October 28th, 2010 § 1
There’s an amusing anecdote in the press release I was sent for Charles the Osprey’s Consider, and although normally quoting directly from a press release would be complete anathema to me, I’m going to share this:
Charles the Osprey’s moment of infamy was brief and bittersweet. After a show early into the band’s tenure as kings of instrumental math-rock in their hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan, they found a note on a bar table written by a woman who “really enjoyed your obvious LACK of musical talent” (her emphasis). “It also really helps to play your bad music really, really loud. Give me a call sometime.”
Not for everyone, I guess.
Charles the Osprey are a drums-and-guitar duo, and wait, before you click away, they aren’t a lo-fi or indie-rock duo. No, while that vein has been thoroughly mined over the past five years, Charles the Osprey play cool noodly instrumental tech-punk (“tech-punk” is me trying to avoid quoting the press release against, since “math-rock” is a perfectly apposite phrase to use here) that’s not quite like any other band I can think of. In fact, if I were determined to draw a comparison, the only one I could make would be to a band from half the world away – Leeds’ That Fucking Tank (reviewed here). However, TFT are all about looping riffs and rocking rhythms laden with fuzz and distortion, and their best songs are essentially seven minutes of minor variance building to crescendo, whereas Charles the Osprey adopt a more playful approach, with lots of clean lead guitar work and noodling that pushes songs in unexpected directions. I suppose the missing link between the two would be Battles, whose sound is closer to Charles the Osprey but whose songwriting approach is more akin to That Fucking Tank.
There are exceptions, of course, such as ‘Lipstick with Bull Tendencies’, which is a little more loose and aggressive than some other tunes on Consider, although it too becomes very soft and gentle in places. But variety is a major strength here on Consider with no two songs being quite alike. Take, for example, ‘Alia Pompeii; The Temptress’, a highly atmospheric tune which starts out slow and steadily accelerates to a breakneck pace. Or ‘Lovecraft! Smile!’ with its sinister and jarring guitar (perfectly suited to the author namechecked in its title), or the beautiful extended intro and verse of ‘Eucharist Prototype’.
For my money the top song present is ‘The Idiran/Culture War’ – yes, a reference to an early Iain M. Banks SF novel – which features some superb riffs and rapid lead guitar work.
In a way it’s a shame the band are instrumental because their songtitles hint at both a sense of humour and extensive reading, and I’m curious to know the stories behind some of these songs, but of course the instrumental purity of these songs wouldn’t fit with most vocal styles, and it’s better that the band are what they are. It helps that what they are is very cool indeed. I suspect that Consider will become the sort of record that I put on at parties to shake things up a bit, and I further suspect that more than a few revellers will want to know who Charles the Osprey are.
October 26th, 2010 § 0
Formed in 2005, Floridian folk-punk band Fake Problems released their first album in 2007. They’ve not been slack since then, following How Far Our Bodies Go with It’s Great To Be Alive in 2009. A year and a half on and here’s their latest offering, Real Ghosts Caught On Tape.
Back in their early days Fake Problems (along with other folk-punk outfits like O Pioneers!!!, One Reason and even Defiance, Ohio) were regularly compared to Against Me!, a band whose commercial success was beginning to accelerate its ascendance – with the inevitable side effect of many early fans either drifting away from the band or outright decrying their new direction. For better or worse, attitudes and fanbases were changing.
I mention the Against Me! connection because, although I’ve always felt Fake Problems are a band unusual and talented enough to stand on their own eight feet, it’s interesting to see the ways in which the trajectory of their creative development is following that of their Gainesville predecessors. Both bands began their careers with lo-fi releases that could only be described as folk-punk: simple but hard-hitting tunes, just-so production, and earthy yet provocative lyrics and themes.
(This is not to put them in the same pot; there are many key differences. Against Me!’s Tom Gabel’s flair for songwriting developed earlier, for example, with their first album being a bona fide classic rather than simply a good record; Fake Problems’ Chris Farren has a knack for the personal-poetic that’s wildly distinct from Gabel’s early and more politicised lyrical subject-matter, and vocally Farren has a broader range and more classically strong voice, although both singers are unique and instantly recognisable.)
The second albums took a significantly different tack: Fake Problems, with It’s Great to be Alive, crammed the record full of almost every idea they could find. It’s a gloriously diverse album filled with a number of highly distinct songs, and shows how the band had taken leaps and bounds forwards as musicians. Ditto As the Eternal Cowboy, still today one of the most highly-regarded Against Me! releases. And then the third albums, Searching for a Former Clarity and Real Ghosts Caught on Tape respectively, both somewhat darker, more thoughtful and introspective – more mature, perhaps. And the connection is more than thematic, with both records showing restraint as well as exuberance in their songwriting, and holding together more obviously as albums rather than collections of songs.
And so, as much as the band or their fans (I count myself as one, of course) may hate me for saying it, the shadow of Against Me! still hangs over Fake Problems. But the analysis above is just one man’s opinion, and the product of following both bands’ careers very closely. And as I said from the outset, Fake Problems don’t need comparisons to be recognised as an excellent band.
Real Ghosts Caught on Tape focuses on the themes of disappointment and disillusionment, but does so with Farren’s trademark wit and the band’s usual sense of play. Opener ‘ADT’, for example, juxtaposes lyrics like “If home is where the heart is / I do not have a pulse” (simultaneously heartfelt and revelling in its melodrama) with a simple and hooky song that demonstrates subtle flair beneath that simplicity. It’s immediately followed with ’5678′ which leads with the fantastic lyric “5, 6, 7, 8, oh God is good but I am great’, an insincere arrogance that’s all the better for being delivered in a faux falsetto. Yes, Fake Problems are as playful and fun as ever, and the restraint exercised in the recording of this album helps bring that to the fore.
Other songs particularly worthy of mention include ‘Soulless’ with its 60s/70s party tune rhythm, ‘Complaint Dept’ which strongly recalls Vampire Weekend (ordinarily I would not mean that as a compliment), and ‘Ghost to Coast’, perhaps the most sincere song on the album and certainly its most outright confessional.
The old adage ‘ones to watch’ has applied to Fake Problems for many years, and still does, but it’s also safe to say that with Real Ghosts Caught on Tape the band have matured into something truly excellent. You owe it to yourself to give this record a listen.
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October 24th, 2010 § 2
Kudos to Rachel for figuring out how to fix Postalicious!
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October 21st, 2010 § 1
Apparently Banquets are named for a brand of beer, so I was going to open with a predictable joke about pissweak American lager. However, it turns out that the parent company of Coors (who make Coors Original, aka. “the Banquet Beer”) are also responsible for mid-range beers like Grolsch here in the UK. They’re also responsible for Reef. The dangers of brand association, Banquets!
Fortunately these guys play some cool and goddamn tight anthemic punk rock. On my first few listens I liked what I was hearing – though what I was hearing didn’t seem unique enough to remain particularly memorable. Yet the four songs presented here have grown on me, and I think this is an EP that every so often I will happen across, remember, stick on again and enjoy.
It’s a shame that this sounds like damning with faint praise, because Banquets clearly know what they’re doing – their musicianship is faultless, their songs are well-written, their vocalist has excellent range and control, and their lyrics strike a chord with me. And yet, and yet, it just feels like there’s something missing. Perhaps I just expected a little more from an EP where every component is right? Something more than the sum of its parts?
Anyway, top tune here is ‘Eleanor, I Need a Garden’ – a really catchy number with some cool gang vocals from the rest of the band, and a satisfying pinch harmonic to boot. ‘What a Bunch of Aaron Burrs’ is built around tight, speedy guitar work and features the lyric “When you awake, it’s morning / And you’ll be 28 alone”, which if you add a hangover will describe my birthday in about a month. I’m touched!
Another interesting lyric pops up in ‘Lyndon B. Magic Johnson’ which opens the EP: “I should have more bitter within me / I just need more hurt to heal.” The song itself is a solid, pacey number, in contrast to the final track, ‘I Wish I Was a Little More Lou Diamond’, which cuts the tempo for a slower-building number with some faintly haunting gang vocals.
There’s a lot of neat references in this EP’s song titles (as well as its Lebowski-referencing name and the band’s beer-homage moniker); I’ve just gone and read about Lou Diamond, an old-school US marine from the early 20th century who sounds like kind of a badass – in an awesome, irreverent kind of way. The references are US-centric so I can’t say how recognisable they’d all be over there, or if like me they’d have to go away and look them up… still, it’s a nice touch and a different spin on the usual nostalgia you see from melodic punk bands. (Funnily enough I read about Aaron Burr several days ago – he shot and killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804. Politics used to be so visceral!)
So, this is an EP that I feel is well worth a listen, and I’ll be keeping an eye out for future releases from the band – whilst hoping that they bring their A-game instead of an exceedingly polished B-game. And then I’ll feel less guilty for being harsh on a band I rather like.
October 20th, 2010 § 0
Apparently September 2010 was Nostalgia For Infinity’s busiest month ever, with 2,500 unique hits over the course of the month. Cool! Thanks for visiting and reading, visitors and readers.
October 18th, 2010 § 0
If it seems like just a few weeks have passed since I reviewed a record from an ex-Latterman outfit, that’s mainly because it was. And like Iron Chic, RVIVR are generating pop-punk tunes that are fun, catchy and warm… although lyrically RVIVR are more upbeat than the scathing outsider poetry of their counterparts.
I was lucky enough to catch RVIVR on one night of their UK tour a few weeks ago (and still hope to post a short review here) and although I’d not listened to them much – and was feeling dog tired – I was impressed by their energy, their obvious down-to-earth vibe and between-song banter, and of course their songs. I wished I’d known the latter well enough to sing along a little, particularly to the tune with the intro that reminded me of Leatherface.
(These days almost everything reminds me of Leatherface in a roundabout way. Even I’m getting a bit sick of referencing them in reviews. On the other hand their influence on the US melodic punk scene via Hot Water Music, Jawbreaker et al is well-documented. Anyway, I’m supposed to be writing about RVIVR, not fellating Frankie Stubbs.)
The Dirty Water EP boasts 5 tracks. I wish I could say I recognised some of them from that show, but I can’t – blame booze and brain. Fortunately everything on offer here is a keeper. My favourite’s the closer, ‘Resilient Basterd’, which I’ve just learned is a Shellshag cover. Well, fuck. Definitely prefer RVIVR’s pacier version, though.
First track ‘Seethin’ highlights some of RVIVR’s immediate strengths, namely pacey and melodic punk rock with simple, hooky work from the band’s strings, and toe-tapping choruses blending simple chords with simple licks to highlight catchy vocal lines and fist-in-the-air singalong segments. The dual singers work well together, their lines weaving in and out in a very relaxed fashion. ‘Tallest Tree’ pulls the pace back a bit, with sparse and tight verses emphasising how well the band’s members work together (of course, pulling that off live is the real test).
‘Tiny Murders’ opens with the female vocalist, whose style I prefer a little to the male singer (she reminds me of a grittier, more aggressive Lemuria). It’s a bit more of a playful tune, throwing discordance and feedback into an initially simple tune of varying pace, eventually building to a tumultuous crescendo made consistent only by distant gang vocals. As with its predecessors it’s a well-judged song, each instrument contributing just what is needed to make the whole more than the sum of its parts.
Then there’s ‘Had Enough (Of This Hell)’ which is back to the formula of the first couple of tunes – but it’s a welcome return, thanks to some great chord progressions, neat guitar work and more great vocal lines. It’s also a darker tune lyrically; I don’t have the words to hand, but from what I’ve made out it’s about dealing with the loss of a friend through music. Oh yeah, and this song also features the most prominent use of a brass section, something that fades in and out on occasion through the EP.
Not much need for a conclusion after all that positivity, is there? Check out this EP, or go and catch RVIVR live if you’re able. Apparently they’re really nice people too!
October 15th, 2010 § 0
The Orwellian online scheme was dreamt up by Devon company ‘Internet Eyes’. They want people to sign up and monitor multiple real-time CCTV feeds from shops and businesses – and then compete to correctly alert them of any perceived suspicious behaviour occurring. The most eagle-eyed snooper each month can win a £1000 prize. But beware! Falsely alert too often and you could be booted out of the game.
The obvious ethical and moral implications of all this aside, for those nosey punters wanting to feel the power of armchair policing, the reality of watching endless hours of the dullest TV ever conceived while maintaining enough concentration to correctly separate crime from lingering, is tiring and demanding work. So Internet Eyes will reward you for it – at staggering rates ranging from 50 pence for 30 hours hard surveillance work in a month…right up to a whopping £1.50 for 60 hours. And you thought sweatshop labour got a raw deal.
To top it all, the masterstroke is to make you pay to sign up – £2 a month or £13 for a year (meaning if you fail to win the monthly prize, you have to put in eight and a half 60-hour months before you break even). For the company, 500 mugs signing up is your monthly prize covered – everything else is gravy while you sell the service for top dollar to businesses. Ker-ching!
October 14th, 2010 § 4
I didn’t know people reviewed blogs, but apparently they do! A reader has reviewed me on Scribnia:
“Still nothing amazing” smells like a tagline to me!
For what it’s worth, I’ve considered splitting the different strands of content into separate blogs in the past, but others persuaded me against it. I’m now fairly comfortable simply writing about what interests me. I can only hope that a few other people share some of my interests and enjoy reading some of what I write. Thanks to the author of the review above for sharing their views!
Oh yes, and the name of the blog is a relic from back before I learned to use WordPress. It’s a reference to some of SF author Al Reynold’s novels. The other names I considered were Haste Killed Creativity and Muscles Burning Alcohol and Nicotine because holy crap did I love Against Me! at the time.