Golden Boots - EV / Coyote Deathbed Surprize

LO-FI Masterpiece

The new release by this Tucson AZ band was originally intended to be a limited release of only 25 copies, but when the music showed up at their label’s (People In a Position To Know) offices, it was decided that this was just too damned good to limit. The first couple of tracks play and you’re a little confused by what the big deal is. It’s good music but certainly isn’t knock-your-socks-off good. Combining an alt-country styling, vocals from early Modest Mouse or Elfpower with a sort of sideways attack on melody, the sound is definitely unique enough to hold your interest, but it’s not until track three’s Evil Eye that the real genius begins to start kicking in your head and the album just gets better from there. On the second listen, even those first two tracks are amazing. This album is so consistent and complete that I find it hard to believe that it was originally two separate EPs, much less that the band consists of two guys who take turns playing frontman. They sing so differently from each other, it's staggering that the band is still so damned consistent.

The songs are the clever kind of poetry every musician wishes he could write, words and imagery resting casually on effortless instrumentation. The music is slow and ambling, leading you down a country road in a Dali painting, the perfect soundtrack to plodding surreality. There are a couple of tracks in the middle that don’t shine quite as brightly as the others, but what they lack in catchiness, they make up for in atmosphere. I loved this album before I even got to my two favorite tracks, “Days Are Night,” and the closer, “Slangin Family Ties Dub.” The first is an endless three minutes that seems the culmination of the entire record while the last is a playful little piece in the modus of Optiganally Yours. If you don’t come away from this album half-crazed from the hooks and begging to borrow your grandfather’s casio and a 4-track, then something’s wrong with you.

The album itself is currently available on vinyl, scratch that, amazing vinyl, or as a digital download. My copy is strawberry pink marbled into a beautiful peach orange. Side A has double grooves, parallel to each other like the infamous Monty Python three-sided album. Side B is played from the inside of the album to the outside. The record label, PIAPTK, is a memorial service to the comfort food home cooking of vinyl recordings and they take their charge quite seriously. Serious vinyl fans already know this label and the rest of you should be so lucky. In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I’m friends with Mike, who runs PIAPTK and that he personally dropped this album off at my home, knowing that it was something I would treasure, but this in no way affected my opinion of the record. Seriously, it’s amazing.

For fans of early Mountain Goats, Elf Power, Beulah, or The Microphones.

Beck - Modern Guilt

Confessions Of An Accidental Beck Fan.

I’ve been recently coming to terms with the fact that I seem to really like Beck, an artist I’ve basically ignored for my adult life outside of a well-worn copy of One Foot In The Grave. I recently picked up a couple of things here and there and no matter how much I tried not to let them, they just grew on me. His voice is fine and his songwriting is grade A, but the thing that pushes him past most other artists is his willingness to embrace his producers as he records an album. Judging by only the music itself, he seems eager to mutate his sound to a shared vision, a successful philosophy. This new album, in case you somehow haven’t heard, was produced by Danger Mouse, the creative force behind the last five years. I haven’t heard everything this producer has done, but everything I have heard I’ve liked and so it was with a fair amount of excitement that I decided to embrace my inner Beck fan and look forward to this release, hipster cred be damned.

So does it live up to the hype? Sure, why not? The album starts slow with “Orphans” but quickly hits a high spot with “Gamma Ray,” a fantastic song with a great rhythm. These two are immediately followed by another meandering introspective track succeeded by the title track, another toe-tapper. This formula works beautifully for these first four tracks but after that the album begins to lose its focus. There is a measurable decline in energy between “Youthless” and “Walls,” both fine songs but not up to the heart and soul of the earlier tracks and we finally wander into the desert at “Replica.” In the end, the whole album can’t quite live up to the promise of its creators and the brilliance of its first half. The closer, “Volcano,” is excellent and does do something to redeem the back side. If this were vinyl, side 1 would get constant playing and side 2 about every other listen. On compact disk, the album is short enough at 33 and change to just run constantly.

The production is everything you would expect and hope for from these two artists, regularly finding that sweet spot on the other side of lush, back towards minimalist. There’s a breeziness to the songs that feels almost effortless until you realize just how many layers of instrumentation are in a given song. This is a neat trick and the source of Danger Mouse’s appeal. The louder the volume, the richer the experience, as this really is an immersive sonic world these two artists have created. While this album wasn’t everything I was hoping for, it is still a good addition to both these artists’ canons and I’m sure I’ll spin it as much as the new Gnarls Barkley or, say, Beck’s Guero, but probably not quite as much as Mutations. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if more time raises my estimation of this work.

For fans of Beck and Danger Mouse. If you’re vague about these artists, you need to leave your cave more often.

From Bubblegum To Sky - A Soft Kill

Twee pop with garage rock stylings.

A Soft Kill, the third album by Oakland’s Mario Hernandez, aka, From Bubblegum To Sky, starts with a generic rock riff and a hooky melody that runs out after a couple of short minutes, setting the album’s theme. The first time I took this album around the track for a spin was a disappointment. A rough guitar mixed too high and melodies that never have enough room to breathe. The songs end as they really get going and the production and sparse instrumentation don’t do the music any justice. But the album does deserve and warrant multiple listens and the songs do grow on you. And clocking in at nearly 30 minutes, the album is short enough that repeated listens are not difficult. Much like their previous record, 2004’s Nothing Sadder Than Lonely Queen, A Soft Kill is a much darker turn than the band’s debut album – denser melodies and a morose depression that shines through the twee vocals. Unfortunately, after waiting three years, this album doesn’t live up to the promise of the band’s previous outings, but it’s still pretty alright.

There are a lot of really good tracks on this record, including “Even The Sunbeams” (available as a free mp3 from Eenie Meenie Records), “Captain Tennille” and the closer, “Downtown Or Up,” but too many songs are too short, cutting out when they need to kick it up a notch. Even the album’s best song, “I Always Fall Apart,” pulls up short. In the end, there’s not a bad song on the album and certainly nothing you’ll want to skip, but it just never hits that sweet spot of captivation I wanted it to. This was a great album to have on while I worked on a puzzle, but fell a little short on the headphones.

Anyone who likes indie-pop should really be a fan of this band. It’s just that when you wait years between releases, it’s hard to live up to the expectations. Their first record, Me And Amy And The Two French Boys was power pop brilliance and both Nothing Sadder Than Lonely Queen and the new album are worth picking up and giving at least a few spins. Advanced listeners should track down 1, by Hernandez’s first band, Ciao Bella, which stands as one of my all-time favorite pop albums, with an apocalyptic sound I’ve never heard any other band touch, even though I cross my fingers with every new FBTS release. I guess I have to keep waiting.

This record is only available as vinyl and digital download.

For fans of Kindercore style upbeat pop. Heavenly, Cub, and The Lucksmiths (if Kepi from the Groovy Ghoulies was singing).

Say Hi - The Wishes and The Glitch

Immaculately produced bedroom synth pop.

Pretty much anyone who plays video games, guitar, or uses the internet for anything besides pornography should own at least a couple of albums by this band, and their new one, The Wishes and the Glitch, is as good a place to start as any. The erstwhile Say Hi To Your Mom, now simply called Say Hi (I’ll address the nomenclature later) are one of those bands that I love without them having actually ever put out a great album. Their new record is the fifth in this tradition. The band is basically one guy, Eric, with a multi-track recorder and they share the same strengths and weaknesses of most other single-person bands. The strength is a cohesion within the music and a singularity of passion and vision, but the weakness lay in not having anyone there to censor the lesser songs and help craft the better tracks past good to great. The band has over the years managed to maintain a solid style and sound within their canon without it ever growing stale, no small feat.

The songs on The Wishes And The Glitch are up-tempo synth-pop consisting of earnest vocals and guitar over a variety of well-programmed digital instruments. A couple of tracks, “Bluetime” and “Spiders” especially, are fantastic. The subject matter eschews most of his previous work’s focus on robots, vampires, video games and the people obsessed with robots, vampires, and video games for a slightly more serious tone, but with his geek cred firmly established for several records now, this is more of an observation than a fault. The band’s real Achilles heel is, as it always has been, their inability to write songs that feel finished. Virtually every song by Say Hi starts out well, gets good, but then cuts out halfway through the hook, never quite fulfilling their promise. The songs are still good, and perhaps this is nitpicking, but I can’t help but be disappointed every time I hear a song by them only to find it half a chorus short of being perfect. There are a few tracks here that should have been left in the studio, “Apples For The Innocent” and “Back Before We Were Brittle” are especially useless to my mind, but overall this is a very enjoyable album and we should be grateful that Say Hi continues to put out good quality releases year after year.

My biggest complaint about this album and one I’m duty bound to report is the name change. For this album, the band changed their name from Say Hi To Your Mom, a brilliant name so good I used to bring up the band in conversation just to say it, to simply being Say Hi, which is a band name that sucks. I suppose it is a band’s prerogative to make this sort of executive decision, but in the eyes of the band’s fans, at least all the ones I know, this was a mistake. But I suppose if that’s the worst thing you can say about an album, that ain’t too bad.

Good for fans of The Flaming Lips, Grandaddy, the internet, and Kleenex Girl Wonder.