Aural Quarterly: April-June 2010

Who's ready for some good ol' fashioned music talk?
Well it's gonna happen anyway.

APRIL

Let's start off with an album, that until just recently, was dominating my soundwaves. Most of our mornings in April & May were done to the music of the Tallest Man On Earth, and while he apparently holds such a prestigious record as being so tall, he also sings quite a tune on The Wild Hunt. Think Bob Dylan, with less political burden. Avi Buffalo (right) was maybe the second biggest surprise of my birthday month. Dudes seem to be just kicking back with the guitars a churning out some medium paced jams, Not really trying too hard is awesome when it sounds this good. Spirit Youth was an album that didn't catch me at first, but made its way back into the rotation, somehow, and I'm the better for it. Dreamy shoegazing pop from Depreciation Guild with textured guitar work, ethereal drumming and melody of no immediacy makes for a rather engaging listen. A big buzz release was MGMT's Congratulations, and while I did find the playful sandbar psychedelia enjoyable, a few tracks I even heard twice, I don't think I'm jumping on the MGMT bandwagon any time soon. Good stuff tho.

Oh the fun-loving good times of Javelin. No Más is, for the most part a moderately paced funk-a-thon, as brightly colored as its cover, and I can only imagine, a great album to have playing at your hipster party, where no one will ever be impressed with your selection, even if it is the new unheard Neutral Milk Hotel. They get 5 stars for Oh! Centra alone. Girl do the monkey foot! Frog Eyes (left)released another album. One of the best live shows I've ever seen, but if you're not in a very specific mood, Paul's Tomb: A Triumph, as it is with every Frog Eyes album, can be a challenge. Are you up to it?

A few confusing albums too. A very cool release from Caribou (right), altho I can't pin down a single track to place in a mix for Laura, I know it's good. The albums called Swim, and that's what you do. In a pool there's no one good spot you stay in the whole time. You kinda float around the whole thing, sometimes without notice. Also this band called Inlets, I heard their album called Inter Arbiter, and I was kinda blown away. Then I listened again and couldn't get thru it. I'm holding out on my third time charm. And one late night in April, I sat home alone and made the glorious mistake of turning on The Internal Tulips album Mislead Into A Field By A Deformed Deer. Yeah. It sounds like that too. Organic & experimental, sounding simultaneously calculated & improvised. I remember sitting and staring at the glass door out into the dark woods... and then it was over.

I had many early morning drives, no sign of sun, no sign of anyone, and every once in a while it was hard to find the right music to fit that mood. Then I found Doug Burr, and while possibly on a more sunny & vibrant afternoon commute I may have skipped over O Ye Devastator, his mellow story-songs fit perfect more than a few times. Red Sparowes are a heavy handed instrumental rock band from L.A. and their new album The Fear Is Excruciating, But Therein Lies The Answer is brutal & beautiful. It's breautiful! Awesome. Dosh (left) is a guy who makes some crazy stuff and puts it on an album and releases it to the world. And for that we thank him. Entitling an album Tommy is a lofty undertaking, but while he doesn't outdo The Who, he sure does make you forget that they ever existed.

Tunng alwasy does good things, and tho I didn't fall in love with anything past the opening track on ...And Then We Saw Land, I know it's in there. Quality listens from Harlem, Eagle Seagull, Dr. Dog & Palpitation.

MAY

Three words. Social. Scene. Broken. Not in that order. I was nervous. I had seen a new song on Letterman and didn't go all ga-ga, and then saw a critic give Forgiveness Rock Record a less than glowing review in passing during a speech on the state of music today, but that'll teach me to doubt the machine that is the Broken Social Scene. This is their best and most diverse work since You Forgot It In People, which is in my top albums of all time. Well done. I am your devoted servant. And not to mention another of my all time favorites, The Most Serene Republic, who even after losing what we all thought was their lifeblood Emma Ditchburn, put out Fantasick Impossibliss, an ep that proves they can make due with their parts left. Holy crap these songs are bonkers. And as much as I like both of these albums, neither of them got more play than High Violet. Very strong contender for album of the year, not a bad song on here. The National (right) are a band like no other, never overstating, never pushing the line past bent, and classy as hell.

I decided one day to mow the lawn with my headphones on, for no other reason than I hadn't heard some new music in a while. Tame Impala (left)was the pick of the day, and never have I had such a groovy time trimming the lawn, nor has anyone. I was carving psychedelia all over these blades of grass, they didn't know what him them. Innerspeaker almost sounds like a greatest hits compilation from some obscure late 60's midwest suburban basement heroes, and that's not bad for their debut. And I finally found a Black Keys album I can really get behind. They've always been a band I routed for, but could never call myself a heartfelt fan. I can now. Brothers is awesome.

The delicate songwriting of Gemini show Wild Nothing (right) stepping right into the shoes of their predecessors like The Smiths & the Cure & The Durutti Column. Suprisingly fit synthesizer trickled all over this thing, plus the catchy lyrical handouts, I like this. Then Villagers comes along and releases an emotive/cohesive collection of piano & percussion driven tunes that are suspiciously simple to love, and tho Becoming A Jackal is not a step by step guide to actual animal morphing, the musical stand-in is equally favorable.

One morning I caught myself listening to the 1971 third selftitled album by Caetano Veloso. Experimental Brazilian folk tropicalia, it's nice to agree with the albums that seem to have stuck around all these years. And another early morning I got into the new Laura Gibson & Ethan Rose (left) collaboration Bridge Carols. Folkie meets electro-wizard, they hook themselves up to their respective instruments, pop a few Ambien and away we go. I was lucky I stayed awake this ride in. But I bet it's sleep splendor.

I have always been big on anything coming out of the label Jagjaguwar, and even tho they released a couple of out-of-character albums this month, I still loved them. The sensual homage to Roxy Music that Gayngs (right) let loose on Relayted, like nothing out there today. Slow-building jazz grooves and bluesy horns done with such a hold on modern music, bravo. And then there was Peter Wolf Crier, out of the same camp, but the other side of the spectrum. Inter-Be is laid-back easy going, bass drumming folksiness, packaged and ready for lively campfire singalong, but only if you already know the entire Bon Iver catalogue.

Bands that do their thing and do it well time after time are rare so big-ups to Ratatat, LCD Soundsystem, Holy F*** and Phosphorescent. Big-downs I guess to Josh Ritter. Man what the hell was that?

JUNE

Not until its last week did June's releases really start to kick ass. The month staerted off slowly, with a amicable but nonetheless albumaic disc from Born Ruffians. While Say It may contend for best cover of the year, the songs have a lot of work cut out for them. We listened to Here We Go Magic's (left) much anticipated, by me, Pigeons, but the odd sounds that came out of the speaker did not reflect what i had in mind for the followup to one of my favorite debuts ever. It was strange and restricted sounding at first, but I've been coming around. They're not gonna make it easy on me. That opening track is groovy tho. And then Foals failed to continue their frantic guitar plick battles from their first album, and instead gave me Total Life Forever, something that more resembled the My Morning Jacket covering the Bravery. Weird. But I'll have you know that upon repeat visits, all three albums have started to open themselves up to me and show themselves as worthy, even if they don't live up to where I had originally intended. Teaches me to just let them do what they and like it.

June was in trouble. So they sent in Wolf Parade (right). I was trepidatious (what, I was!) since I found their previous effort less than satisfying, another situation like I just spoke about. But with the title of the album Expo 86, and the best cover I'd seen in a long time, I was optimistic. And rightfully so. Ya see, Wolf Parade is the conglomeration of two other bands, Sunset Rubdown & Handsome Furs, the former being a powerhouse, the latter being, well the latter. But never did the personalities of either come out on A Wolf Parade release. But whether it was by design or of divine, this thing has the stink of Sunset Rubdown all over it, and it smells delicious. Stepping up to the plate in a precarious position was the chance listen of Guidance Counselor, a Pacific northwestern rock band who implement noisy sound effects over their pop perfect rock rawkus and having videos of them cooking asparagus salad & yam fries on their myspace page.

Suckers put a monkey face on their album Wild Smile, so of course I was gonna listen to it right away, and it is wild. Scene stealing drums, killer guitar and wailing vocals all find their appropriate uses in this perfect little summer album. Tokyo Police Club is a band I was excited to hear from again. On Champ they managed to separate themselves from other young pop-rock bands, putting themselves in the rack above, and one over labeled "Take More Seriously". And the just the other day in a funk of bad songs, I tuned into Man/Miracle (left), not expecting much since I was like 0 for 27 that day but instead I got some awesome Shins meets Akron/Family on some tropical island and freak out. YES! The Shape Of Things, hopefully the shape of things to come.

Just this weekend I had a bevy of fortunate listens, from all star stalwarts like Stars and the new glorious as usual The Five Ghosts to relative newcomers Maps & Atlases literally blowing me away with making such accessible "math rock". On Perch Patchwork they have de-busied their guitars and added some quite amazing drumwork complimented with very cool vocal passage a la Dirty Projectors in their heyday. Speaking of Dirty Projectors (right), they just put out Mount Wittenberg Orca, a little ep recorded with Björk. Regardless of the fact that it has "When The World Comes To An End" and song floating around the interweb for a while now, but no real release, it's a stunning collection of songs, even if they are all about whale. And I can't lie, I liked the witty penned tunes of Panic At The Disco, and when I heard they broke up I was still excited to think they might've outgrown the kiddie-pop thing. Well the better half of Ryan Ross formed up The Young Veins and released the sunshine pop album Take A Vacation!, literally dragged out of the Beatles/Beach Boys time machine, complete with rattle claps and castanets.

Looking forward to more than just the one listen I got from Librarians, Emancipator, Dios, Boas & The Drums.


Hope you took notes. There will be a test.