October 9, 2006
this post took three hours to write
(It shouldn’t have.)
Well, I’ve moved to Atlanta, the bustling cultural capital of the southeast. There have been shows galore: Sufjan, Band of Horses, (smog), Ladytron, etc etc. I’ve seen none of them. Since I’m without a car for the moment, the commute to GPHQ is a bit of a bitch, too. I can imagine how awful it must be for Niina. Joel is busy and still hard at work on his July mix, which ought to be a fucking revelation. Mike… well, we haven’t seen him for months and there’s this odd smell coming from his corner of the office. None of us have worked up the gumption to look over his cubicle wall. Maybe he just left some French cheese sitting out.
So, despite having an unprecedented amount of time on my hands these days I’ve all but become a ghost on the old girlpants (ghostpants?). Why is this? I could hardly say. There’s definitely been a dearth of interesting new music for the last month or so. Maybe it’s just that everything I hear lately pales in the shadow of the new of Montreal album. Seriously, what a stroke of genius that thing is.
Anyway, a couple of records have managed to break through the funk. They aren’t Hissing Fauna-level revelations, but they’re catchy enough. I guess. One of them is (…And You Will Know Us By the) Trail of Dead’s new album So Divided. The other is the Pernice Brothers’ new one, Live a Little. Both bands are coming off of somewhat disappointing last albums (Worlds Apart and Discover a Lovelier You, respectively).
So Divided (pre-order) expands on the operatic prog ambitions of Worlds Apart while mostly ditching the over the top quasi-Egyptian choral chanting stuff that gave me so many giggles. It also ditches a lot of the more straight ahead rock (like the titular “Worlds Apart,” which was a damn great song despite its ridiculous lyrics) for more expansive and exploratory noodling. The jangly, vaguely 60’s-ish “Eight Day Hell” is about as poppy as it gets, and while they take it down a notch for “Gold Heart Mountaintop Queen Directory” (a rather unexpected Guided By Voices cover) the majority of the album is comprised of sprawling, multipartate (there’s a SAT word) rock suites.
The Pernice Bros., meanwhile, haven’t really made any great stylistic leaps with Live a Little (buy). If you’ve heard one of their records before, you’ve pretty much heard this one. With a lot of bands, that’d be if not a negative thing at least a note of caution. But the Pernice Bros. make such pleasant music that it’s hard to criticise them for sticking with what works. “Cruelty to Animals” is at least as catchy as anything from the last few albums, and album-opener “Automaton” is the most Zombies-ish song I’ve heard since the last time I listened to Odessey and Oracle.
Niina and I have just hatched a plan for a megamix to get us back on track, so keep checking back for that one. I hear the sounds of mid-90s midwestern emopop coming from Joel’s cubicle, so maybe we’ll get a mix from him soon, too. See you later, and stay sweet.
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October 9th, 2006 at 6:23 pm
Joe Pernice is the greatest.
If you want Zombie-esque, try Belle and Sebastian. “Act of the Apostle”, “Jonathan David”, etc.
Bruce K.