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- Drowned in Tuesday: Ruby? Gentle? See You Next?
- If You're Wondering: Weezer confirm new single and album deets
- Shred Yr Face returns with Espers, The Cave Singers and Woods
- Simian Mobile Disco - Temporary Pleasure
- Squarepusher - Solo Electric Bass 1
- Dinosaur Pile-Up - The Most Powerful EP In The Universe!!
- This Week's Singles: 17/08/2009
| Drowned in Tuesday: Ruby? Gentle? See You Next? Posted: 18 Aug 2009 04:43 AM PDT  But apart from being named after a Nordic god nobody has ever heard of, what does Tuesday have going for it? Not a lot it seems. Probably the worst day of the week. At least after Wednesday is done you're over half-way through the working week. After Tuesday you're still staring into the middle of a gigantic black and bleak void. Nevertheless, there is a sizable amount of songs either about Tuesday, or containing the day of the week in the title. Then there's the "see you next Tuesday" element, reflected here at the end with Anal Cunt and Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Click here to listen to the Drowned in Tuesday playlist on Spotify. Drowned in Tuesday:
Listen: "Drowned in Monday" on Spotify For more Drowned in Sound Spotify playlists click here. DiScuss: Is Tuesday the worst day of the week? Is Ruby Tuesday actually a good song? Derek & Clive are funny fuckers aren't they? Anything not on here you'd have liked to have seen? Wednesday requests? |
| If You're Wondering: Weezer confirm new single and album deets Posted: 18 Aug 2009 05:14 AM PDT  A blog post on Weezer's official website read:
So, that's all the details of the single 'If You're Wondering If I Want You To (I Want You To)' which is going to be played across the USA today and goes on sale on August 25. The art work looks much like this:
And, details were also divulged about the album...
So, yeah, it's called Raditude if you couldn't work it out. And yes, it probably is their worst album title to date. Other important details you may want to take note of are that it's out in the US on October 27 and it was produced by Jacknife Lee and Butch Walker. So far we know that one track is called 'In The Mall' but that is all. Though all of the above dates for releases are, of course, 'merican, we all bloody hope that we can get a sniff of the new material soon. But Raditude? Fuck. |
| Shred Yr Face returns with Espers, The Cave Singers and Woods Posted: 18 Aug 2009 02:49 AM PDT  On the bill is the Greg Weeks led Espers! They are ably joined by the Seattle pop-folkers The Cave Singers! Ending the bill are the low-fidelity, happy melody-using Woods! Get yourself in on the action on these dates at these places: November: 08 - Instores, London For ticketing and more info, visit the official website. Don't take our word for how brilliant it would be for you to see all three of these bands on the same bill, do so for yourself below. If you aren't snapping up your tickets after sampling this triumvirate, there is something missing in your life. |
| Simian Mobile Disco - Temporary Pleasure Posted: 18 Aug 2009 01:08 AM PDT  Simian Mobile Disco suffered in translation of the success of their early singles to an entire debut album. After the simple-yet-effective brilliance of 'Hustler' - until it was roundly overplayed by pretty much any DJ able to get their hands on a copy - and superior follow-up 'Tits & Acid' (backed with quite possibly their finest track to date, the synaesthetic headrush of 'Animal House'), stretching such a solid run to a full-length was almost inevitably going to be a challenge. James Ford and Jas Shaw stepped up to it by calling in a couple of vocalists and extending more or less the same idea throughout Attack Decay Sustain Release, with gradually diminishing returns over the course of its length. Which is not to say it was at all a bad album – more that stretching a good idea over so many tracks was spreading a decent formula too thinly for it to remain effective for long. On Temporary Pleasure, they have addressed this by recruiting an impressive cast of guest voices and crafting a surprisingly enjoyable straightforward pop album. They're still intrinsically tied to their electro/house roots, with the entire record isunderpinned by a metronomic four to the floor kick and their trademark synth cascades, both analogue and digital, are ever-present throughout. But they've borrowed liberally from Ford's day job as pop producer du jour and worked this influence into fairly conventional song structures. It's a pretty intriguing experiment in its distance from their early work, and provides the backbone of consistency and coherence that Attack Decay Sustain Release so craved. It also ensures that its two fully instrumental, firmly danceable tracks stand out as individuals, rather than fading into the background as one of many. Take first single 'Audacity Of Huge', a deliciously gonzo slab of decadent electro-pop featuring Chris Keating of Yeasayer as your sterotypical Easton Ellis yuppie, waxing lyrical about his cars, his coke and his "bag of Bill Murray". Arriving straight after the downbeat Neon Neon-isms of Gruff Rhys' turn on opener 'Cream Dream' it's a wicked shock to the system and a stupidly addictive fake rush, like pouring an entire packet of popping candy into your mouth at once and feeling each tiny detonation rattle your skull. On the first couple of spins, Temporary Pleasure is full of tiny 'what the fuck?' moments, which do a good job of holding the attention while its charms gradually worm their way in; once the Spank Rock sleaze-hop stylings of 'Turn Up The Dial' have kicked in, and the synth abuse of the album's (Ed) banger 'Ambulance' leach into Telepathe-featuring closer 'Pinball', there's an undeniable urge to reach again for the play button and feel the buzz all over again. Okay, so Temporary Pleasure is unlikely to win any awards for longevity, but then the clue was in the title. Sometimes all that's needed is a massive saccharine sugar hit – it's all good for now, and the inevitable crash can wait. |
| Squarepusher - Solo Electric Bass 1 Posted: 18 Aug 2009 03:29 AM PDT  That Jenkinson is an accomplished player is in little doubt. The full pelt Flea-funk of the closing 'S.E.B. 12' sounds like a hive of bees are violently pursuing him around the stage, while the opening 'S.E.B. 1' and 'S.E.B. 9' are placid bass strums that twinkle into folky laments. The first third of Solo Electric Bass is surprisingly pleasant; the speedy melancholia of 'S.E.B. 4' is even reminiscent of some of Jeff Buckley's guitar playing on Live At Sin-E. Most of the tracks run into each other, with Jenkinson offering little pause for thought as he jumps from saturnine self-absorption to cheeky bilious monster riffs, often in the space of one song. 'S.E.B. 6' covers a mind-boggling array of styles, including caustic slap-heavy abrasiveness, ruminatory inward-looking plucking, and the kind of blubbery miasmic jitter runs that often punctuate regular Squarepusher recordings. As the album progresses, Jenkinson begins to wring impossible spaghetti-like patterns from his bass, the sound wobbling all over the place, everything moving so fast that it feels like the instrument has wrestled control of his fingers and won't let him stop playing. He clearly has a thing for inanimate objects. On Just a Souvenir he wrote a genuinely funny paean to a coathanger, and Solo Electric Bass 1 pans out like a love letter to his favourite instrument. Listening to the album feels like you've just walked in on someone indulging in a spot on onanism, but instead of looking up shocked, Jenkinson just ploughs on, his ardor for the task at hand causing him to block out everyone around him. Naturally, every good masturbation session requires a climax, and that's where he falters. The tracks on Solo Electric Bass 1 are all build-up, no pay off. Nothing ever really goes anywhere. There are little peaks and troughs, but the songs often end up heading down blind alleys and frittering into nothing. As such, it's somewhat consistent with his other recorded output. Most Squarepusher albums start well, with Jenkinson dropping tracks full of promise ('Squarepusher Theme', 'My Red Hot Car', 'Star Time 2'), things fall a bit flat in the middle, and by the last few songs it feels like he's desperately short of inspiration. The key difference here is the inspiration never really arrives in the first place. The playing feels like it's been ripped straight from an episode of the much-maligned Eighties BBC TV show Rock School, with Jenkinson dressed in a comfortable sweater and brown flared cords, his Slap Bass 101 students eagerly jotting down complex chord changes as they struggle to keep up with the blur of fingers. It's turgid stuff for the most part, a functional demonstration of Jenkinson's capabilities. This is also consistent with his other work — there's rarely ever any emotional involvement. It's all technically proficient, impeccably arranged and occasionally a bit of a laugh. But Jenkinson always stops short of infusing anything genuinely moving. Perhaps that's a problem inherent in music made in isolation, that need to know when to hit the pause button and rein in impulses that sound amazing in the fug of 3 a.m. weed smoke. The concept of a solo bass album feels like another one of those ideas, and while there are fleeting moments of inspiration, Solo Electric Bass is a cavernous black hole that is mostly devoid of anything truly affecting. |
| Dinosaur Pile-Up - The Most Powerful EP In The Universe!! Posted: 18 Aug 2009 02:03 AM PDT  Dinosaur Pile-Up may not sound anything like those mentioned above, but their mindset appears to be the same, in that they've chosen to ignore many of the more voguish noises around them. In fact, they seemed to have ignored any noises made around them since the mid-Nineties. This five-track EP is a playful beast that deals in pogo chords, infectious guitar hooks and the sort of wonderfully dumb melodies that rattle around in your brain long after you've finished listening. Unsurprisingly for a band whose lead singer claims to listen to Foo Fighters' first two albums daily, the influence of Grohl and co falls heavily on The Most Powerful EP In The Universe!!. Third track 'Cat Attack!!' wouldn't seem out of place on the Foos' debut; the chug-chug of guitar and vocals give way to the sort of searing energy that defined their early releases, and are now beginning to do the same for the three-piece we have before us. Lead-off track and highlight 'Summer Hit Single' threatens to jump right out of the speakers and through your skin, causing the sort of leaping around normally reserved for recipients of stern electric shocks. Something my bedroom still hasn't recovered from. It's a four minute pop nugget that takes in an obscenely catchy arpeggio hook, a verse that threatens to bob your head right off, and a feedback-laden intro to a chorus that just begs singing along to: "I've been waiting, hibernating, contemplating being gathered underground". Thoughtless, addictive, complete. Obvious maybe, but at this point it's necessary to mention Nirvana and grunge in general because, as you may have noticed with Dinosaur Pile-Up's previous releases (lest we forget April's sublime 'Traynor'), they go hand in hand. The by-now done to death quiet-loud-quiet-loud pattern heard on 'Opposites Attract' is signature grunge, whilst closing track 'Beach Bug' contains the kind of primal drumming that Dave Grohl (there's that name again) made his hallmark. Lead singer Matt Bigland doesn't spit his lyrics with the same venom as Kurt Cobain though; he's not an angry man. If naming a band after a film sequence involving several Brontosauruses fall over a cliff doesn't tell you this - never mind the name of this EP - then the five tracks on offer here are proof - this is grunge that's FUN. The three-piece veer towards uplifting pop territory than dark angst and in this sense share a lot with Americans Weezer (listen to 'Melanin' and tell me that it wouldn't fit in anywhere on the 'Blue Album'). Bigland's voice at times follows the same wearily laidback but very warm tones of Rivers Cuomo. So Dinosaur Pile-Up then; attempting to revive grunge revivalism for the first time on these shores since Nine Black Alps had a stab at it in 2004. The flaws that stuck out then will remain the same now; there's nothing clever here, anyone seeking broadening horizons will be routinely disappointed. It would be harsh to call Dinosaur Pile-Up a straight up pastiche, but the debt they owe to Foo Fighters, Weezer et al is undeniable, and this is a reasonable enough justification for disliking The Most Powerful EP In The Universe!!. But for those of us who fancy a bit of a break from listening to perfect female vocals singing over Korgs and synthesised beats (Florence, La Roux, Little Boots), or who fancy listening to something where you don't have to work out whether you have to understand it as art to enjoy it (Sunn o))), Animal Collective) Dinosaur Pile-Up are it. There is nothing to understand here, no memo to follow, just three chaps who enjoy making a damn good racket and would rather like you to get involved too. Simple enough? |
| This Week's Singles: 17/08/2009 Posted: 17 Aug 2009 03:38 PM PDT  Single of the Week! Dinosaur Pile Up - 'The Most Powerful EP In The Universe!' (Big Brain/Friends vs. Records)
I rather like it when your ideas about who you are / what you like are thrown into confusion. And this is what Dinosaur Pile Up have done, just as I thought I was finished with this column and was about to send it off to the html hellhole in the sky. But on the basis of 'Opposites Attract' – a magnificently dumb and heavy of riff Weezer soundeylikey - I am prompted to declare that if this is what bringing Grunge back sounds like, I am going to welcome it with an open arms, if not a sweaty bared chest. Not comfortable with the idea of myself as a flasher, I listened to it again. And try as I might to turn that smile upside down I could not; my nice grown-up tea dress was morphing to dirty plaid before my eyes. And I hate Weezer. And I am not sixteen anymore, and I thought I had got over that fact, even though keen-eyed readers will be well aware I am regularly banging on about age and ancientness and mourning my youth (do today, in fact). Damn you Dinosaur Pile Up, but I like you. A lot. Listen at MySpace, here. Arctic Monkeys - 'Crying Lightning' (Domino) If this is about what I think it is, I am on cold, hard, familiar territory. And it is an exemplary seven inch subject. I know this Lo, this Becky Sharp, I remember those girls from school who could weep on demand, snatching all the sympathy while you keeping your tears to yourself was not a victory; it meant everyone thought you were a bitch. The Arctics' Jezebel arrives sucking on a strawberry lace. And though it is hard to avoid casting a blaring searchlight on Alex' notebook like some sort of Pop Police ('So Mr. Turner, you're the indie fucking Byron, are you?') I am not going to, because it seems to me to be too early to declare his genius; it is not entirely helpful. As for the song itself, it has rather a grand and bitterly theatrical air which just about works, bearing in mind that for me they have always been a band to admire rather than cherish. Though since this is a charity release, I may shelve my objections. Tiny Masters of Today - 'Real Good' (Mute)
It seems to be that any song which has a Johnny as a protagonist is a proper pop song in the most traditional sense; it has a 50s shiny diner chromeyness to it. In fact, in what we shall loosely call my 'research' for this column, I found a whole actual website dedicated to this chart archetype (Chartetype? No. Anyway, said site - 'Johnny Songs' - is here). I am also happy to report that 'Real Good' sees TMOT finally fulfilling the promise of their press, releasing a single which is Hansen-happy and MmmmBoppy enough to raise a smile from the dowdiest, most difficult music-loving blowhard. This is enormously likeable, E-numbered punk-pop from a band too young for mine old heart to bear ('Oh, do shut up' etc). Listen at MySpace, here King Creosote – 'No One Had It Better (Bullion mix)' (Domino)
I feel a strange sort of fondness for King Creosote after his silly 'KC Rules OK' sticker campaign a few years back – it seemed a neat and old-fashioned way of him declaring how skill he was, without falling into the sort of ego-trap the likes of Kanye West tumble into regularly. And I couldn't feel fonder of the man who created 'Pet Sounds: In The Key Of Dee' if I tried. Luckily, for a morning where I am in no mood to have my hopes raised and dashed, their combined efforts are a joy, with Bullion's rangy, galloping approach to melody proving a neat counterpoint for KC's incredibly amiable intoning. This pulses like a skipping heartbeat fuelled by a defibrillator gone slightly wrong; it jumps oddly but never loses sight of the listener's wellbeing. No videothing, but you can hear it as part of a Marc Radcliffe show here. The Citadels - 'Golden Islands' (Friends Vs Records) 'Everything, all the time / I want to feel / Everything all the time' seems like a prayer too far to me, however swizzy your synth landscape and twinkly your Passion Pit-redolent single. It's not far removed from Leo Blooms' desire to have 'everything I've ever seen in the movies' i.e. too big an ask for most of us not to end up very disappointed indeed. All that said, wanting everything is a very good sentiment for a pop song. Even though The Citadels are not from paradise, but London, where I suspect they wake up every morning wanting the world, but settling for a tiny bedsit and the sort of half-life where things are only very occasionally, (and only for seconds) bathed in Powell and Pressburger Technicolor. In any event, happily it turns out that 'Golden Islands' is one of those moments, it being a pretty and pulsing three minutes which though very now and very MGMT (it's not their fault they got there first). Rather like having an anti-SAD super-light beamed into the circuits of your stereo. That is, lovely. Little Boots - 'Remedy' (679) Remedy is the point in the Little Boots album where she really shows her hand, flying a Steps-style flag so shamelessly indebted to the giddy pop music of the early 90s that one cannot be left in any doubt as to her influences (Rusko remix or no). And do you know, I happen to love it, it has a chorus so determinedly, almost brazenly tailored to literal dancing I was at the school disco in my head before I had a chance to tell off my synapses. You know, you can almost hear the moves, 'No more POISON' (hand to mouth as you pretend to drink a sickening dancefloor elixir, then wag your finger 'No') / 'KILLING my emotion' (motions stabbing) / 'I will not be FROZEN' (runs hands up and down arms in 'brrr' style) 'Dancing is my REMEDY REMEDY REMEDY' (generally goes nuts). So shoot me, I think it's a top bit of nonsense, whether your 'floor' is located in your kitchen or down your local discotheque. Bastila - 'Ghosts' (Sunday Best) This was a lovely surprise, Bastila being something of a new one on me. For the similarly uninitiated, they are in the business of making the sort of flickering, brightly-burning wibble rock that I am supposed to call new wave of shoegaze, but I feel this is doing it down. And even if the press release was not here to helpfully inform me that this was produced by Mark Gardener, that is the genre drawer in which my brain would have ended up. Really it is not so much music as a sort of impressionistic rock painting - and though this means it will be accused of being wetter than a Manchester winter in some people's books; the aural equivalent of a limp hand-shake, I find 'Ghosts' to be oddly romantic as it sweeps and soars. The Nextmen ft. Ms. Dynamite - 'The Lion's Den' (Universal) Gratifying though it undoubtedly is to hear Naomi back on a ragga tip, this could have comfortably been released about 10 years ago were it not for the saving grace of some utterly modern electronic flourishes, including some triumphantly artificial bass bin proddings (the best noise on this single, by far). Cold Pumas 'Altered Yeast' & Male Bonding 'Stare At My Problems' (Split 7", on CYAN) 'Stare At My Problems' has been on my pod for quite some weeks. And it's cropped up -unexpected and unbidden - so many times now that I have gradually come round to its defiantly dischordant charms. It's thrashy, throwaway and has a chorus almost entirely made up of Oooh's - but there's a surprisingly pretty little coda at the end that rescues this from having too much punk spittitude (sorry) for its own good. 'Altered Yeast', despite being a wicked name for a record, is an utter racket. And sadly I am rarely in the mood for those. Male Bonding MySpace Cold Pumas MySpace Cougar - 'Stay Famous' (Counter) 'Digit Cleaver' - featuring the vocal stylings of Maximo Park's Paul Smith – is a very pleasingly blippy math rock tune you can have for nowt here. The Molotovs - 'Come To Grief' (Fierce Panda)
Listen at MySpace, here. |
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