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Filed under: Cover Songs, Review | Tags: Berklee College of Music, Da'Raiya, David Pamrik, Emily Elbert, Green Day, Heavy Rotation Records, Joy Division, R.A.Y., Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Boston Boys, the Pixies, Under the Influence
Various Artists – Under the Influence. Heavy Rotation Records, 2012.
As you may know from back when I used to do the “Any Asshole” feature (and we’re about due for another one, I think), I love cover songs. There’s an art to taking a song out of its original context and making it one’s own. When covers aren’t done right, they become a sort of exercise in full-band karaoke, but when they are done well, it’s something special.
Which brings us to Under the Influence, a compilation album put together by students and alumni of the Berklee College of Music. I’m just going to come right out and say it: these are all well done covers. Each of the acts has really made a new song out of an older one in a way that, on first listen, sometimes had me saying “This sounds familiar…what song is this? OH!” This was especially the case on the opening track, Julia Easterlin’s ethereal, nearly a capella reimagining of the Pixies’ “Break My Body.” Right from this track, any apprehension I had about what kind of cover album this might be was gone.
The rest of the album holds up, from Da’Raiya/R.A.Y.’s R&B cover of RHCP’s “Give it Away” to David Pramik’s piano heavy cover of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” to The Boston Boys (featuring Emily Elbert)’s pop-country cover of Green Day’s “Welcome to Paradise.”
Overall, Under the Influence is exactly what I look for in cover songs, and it serves as a showcase for some very talented up-and-coming artists.
You can listen to Under the Influence on the Heavy Rotation Records Bandcamp page. It’s available for digital purchase on iTunes, as well as other services.
-jason
And here’s a live version of that Pixies’ cover.
Filed under: Review | Tags: Classic Albums, Dave Stewart, David Bowie, David Fricke, Lou Reed, Transformer
Classic Albums – Lou Reed: Transformer. Bob Smeaton (dir.). Eagle Rock Entertainment, 2001.
I recently noticed that Netflix Streaming got a whole bunch of these 50 minute documentaries on classic albums. You know the kind: you see them in the bargain bin at Best Buy all the time. I’ve watched a couple of these kind of documentaries about the Beatles in the past, and they’re usually crap. But…i had some spare time, and I noticed there was a documentary on Lou Reed’s Transformer, so I decided to give it a try.
First of all, I picked this particular one because I love Transformer. “Satellite of Love” is one of my favorite songs (especially because of Bowie’s backing vocals on it), “Perfect Day” is, well, perfect, and “Walk on the Wild Side” is a classic. So I figured that 50 minutes of fluff about an album I loved would at least be interesting.
Surprisingly, Classic Albums – Lou Reed: Transformer is better than interesting. About half of the documentary is Lou Reed himself talking about writing and recording the album, as well as playing parts of several songs on acoustic guitar. He talks a lot about hanging out with Andy Warhol, as much of the album is about those days, and it’s cool to see Lou Reed just telling stories about those days.
The other half is pretty much what I had expected: archive footage of an interview with David Bowie, actual interviews with other people who worked on the album, and commentary from people like Dave Stewart and David Fricke. If Classic Albums was just made up of these bits, I still would have been interested, but I wouldn’t be recommending this to anyone. However, coupled with the Lou Reed bits, and running at only 50 minutes, I would say that this is definitely worth your time.
Classic Albums – Lou Reed: Transformer is available on DVD, and is streaming on Netflix.
Filed under: Pop, Rambling, Videos | Tags: fun., Justin Bieber, The Wanted, We Are young, We're Not Young
So Wednesday was my birthday, and it was the one that makes it so I have to round up to forty thirty. I know…age is just a number, and you’re only as old as you feel, and blah blah blah. And, in my defense, I still have trouble “feeling” like an adult, so the idea that I might be “old” is kind of a weird one for me, but…
Yesterday, I tempted the fates and watched MTV. I’m young enough to know that MTV does, in fact, play videos. They play them between ass-crack of dawn and the time anyone is actually getting out of bed, but the videos are there. I mean, sure, in a half-hour, I saw 2 videos and 20 minutes of commercials, but THERE WERE VIDEOS. Watching them, I had that reaction my parents had when I was little: “WHAT IS THIS CRAP!?”
Take, for instance, this:
It’s not terrible until the point where they all start saying “oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh! oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!” Still, it’s something that no man should have to witness before that first cup of coffee. And reading the comments below the video on youtube, people are defending this band because of things like “They sing live” and “They like their fans.” Is that really what we’ve gotten to? The band is good because they are not pre-recorded?
Next up (or maybe it was first) was this:
Again, the song is so overproduced, it’s boring, and the video is like…no one is ever going to believe that Justin Bieber is tough. They’re trying to make him look like Zack Morris’ tough younger brother, which is funny because the target audience has no idea who Zack Morris is. Oh god, I’m old.
According to this Cracked article, the reason I may feel that this new music sucks is because I’m old, and that makes me incapable of appreciating new music. And I see their point, but at the same time, I frequently enjoy music I listen to. A lot. Remember a few months ago, when I reviewed fun.’s Some Nights? The first three songs on that album were like “This is what pop music is supposed to be.” “We Are Young,” ironically enough, got stuck in my head so hard that I needed to drown it in cheap liquor to get it out, and the only reason I wanted it out was because the song was stopping me from thinking about anything else, like cheap liquor. I have the ability to enjoy music like a fifteen-year-old girl does, so that’s not the problem.
So, and I seem to ask this in a lot of my posts, what’s my point? I’m not sure. Maybe that you’re never too old to enjoy music, and you can be, in fact, too young to do so? That MTV is shit?
Whatever. Happy birthday to me!
-jason
Filed under: Americana, Review, Rock | Tags: Americana, Canadicana, Eamon McGrath, North Americana, Young Canadians
If you didn’t check out yesterday’s review, let me break it down for you. After a long run establishing our bona fides as the ‘whatever’ guy, like jason is the indie-folk guy, and I’m the post-rock guy, we’ve kinda hit a point. I think it’s worse for me that jason, I just don’t have anything to say about anything anymore because it all sounds the same. We’re not ready to throw in the towel yet though, so we’re tradin’ genres this week.
When I was younger, a pal of mine told me I should get over myself and listen to some Springsteen, he threw out some album names. The gist of which being that if you weren’t listening to Born In The USA, The Boss was privy to some Essential Truths about life, and you can could be too, if you just took the time to listen to Darkness on the Edge of Town.
I bring all this up, because this is what Young Canadians makes me think of. Eamon McGrath sounds like he’s worn out but not ready to quit either. Like if you listen long enough, some of those Essential Truths will seep through into your subconscious. McGrath is playing a kind of dirty, guitar rock with a country and western sensibility that reminds me of some of the best 90s alternative bands, but would be equally at home in your average roadside bar. I feel like I hear the Canadian prairie in the depths of his voice. Dude also does sound a biscuit like The Boss too, when he wants to. Hard to believe he’s only 23. Damn good stuff, man.
- Jayson
Cosmonauts Day – Paths of the Restless. Self released (?), 2012.
Pefore I start, I just want to let you all know that we’re doing a thing this week. See, I’m the folk/indie/twee guy, and Jayson is the post-rock/ambient guy. The good thing about having a “thing” is that you get to listen to a bunch of music that you know is in a genre you already like. the bad thing, though, is that you eventually run out of adjectives to describe the stuff that sounds like the stuff that sound like the stuff. So, Jayson and I are reaching out of our comfort zones a little and reviewing the stuff the other usually reviews.
So, that brings us to Cosmonauts Day, a post-rock group from Russia. Their first proper album, 2011′s Paths of the Restless has been given a reissue of sorts, complete with a physical release on CD. This is like…I want to get excited about it. I don’t listen to much post-rock, but what I do listen to, I like. Also, I’m interested in Russian things, even going as far as trying to learn to speak the language once. Did I succeed? HET. But the fact that they are Russian AND a post-rock group really got me psyched to listen to this. However…
…throughout most of the album, this is really by-the-numbers post-rock.
This isn’t neccessarily a bad thing. They sounds good enough, and they hit the notes they are supposed to hit: spiraling, echoing guitar riffs, constant symbols crashing, and most importantly to the purists, no vocals. And the band’s really together, bringing that deliberate, polished sound that is so important in such a “serious” genre. Cosmonauts Day’s shortcoming is in the depth and the atmosphere of the album. When I listen to Red Sparowes or Caspian, what really draws me in are the layers and layers of sonic complexity. I describe these bands as painting landscapes of sonic emotion. Cosmonauts Day are hinting at emotions, but I feel like it’s just not there yet.
This isn’t to say that there weren’t a few great, or at least surprising, tracks. “Satellite” is surprisingly happy and light, in contrast to most of the album’s brooding, and “Blackout” erupts into a chaos that comes closest to feeling like “an atmoshere of a cold space,” as the band’s website says, but overall, I feel like this was a good effort from a band with a lot of potential.
Paths of the Restless is not bad…I would even say it’s very good. I’d give it a 6.5 out of ten if we did that sort of thing, and there’s nothing here that would stop me from checking out their next album, but I’m not eager to pop this one in again.
Paths of the Restless is available for free/name your price on the band’s Bandcamp page, and is also available for purchase on limited edition CD.
-jason
Filed under: Noise Rock, punk rock, Review | Tags: AmRep, NYC, Pigs, Solar Flare, Unsane
It’s impossible not to reference Unsane when talking about Pigs and not just because Unsane bassist Dave Curran is the guitarist and singer. To the untrained ear, You Ruin Everything, is virtually indistinguishable from an Unsane record. Fuck, I’ve been listening to Unsane for decades and I’m hard-pressed to tell the difference. Not that it’s a bad thing of course. The world can always use another dose of ugly, well-executed noise-rock.
To tell the truth though, this is better than Wreck. Where Wreck‘s experimentation sometimes seems forced (harmonica? really?), when Pigs relax, the results are chilling and ultimately more satisfying. Songs like “Massive Operator Error” and “Outburst Calendar” expand the rhythmic churn by slowing down and allowing a touch more melody to creep into the proceedings. On the more straight-forward songs, Curran’s standard-issue AmRep bark is more guttural and less strident that Chris Spencer’s.
The Pigs bio talks about how these guys “have played countless shows in many bands for a couple of decades and still can’t leave it alone.” That’s exactly what it sounds like: the exorcism of ugly music demons rather than a far-reaching musical vision. Ultimately, neither record is going to change anyone’s life, but You Ruin Everything, especially, is a nice reminder that there are still guys who care more about propulsive punk rock than any sort of Pitchfork fame.
— Russell Emerson Hall
Filed under: punk rock, Review | Tags: Archers & Arrows, punk rawk, Switzerland
Archers & Arrows self-titled album cover
So like, has Switzerland always had a really strong music scene and this fact is now just being pushed through the tubes to US America in 2012?
Archers and Arrows are a punk rock band. I am not much of a dude of punk rock these days, and haven’t been for years. It’s super easy to get bummed out on it, re: the fans debating what’s punk and what’s not. Let’s not do that, I’m callin’ this punk and punk it is. It’s the kind of late era, non-Phat kinda punk. Reminds me of stuff like Billy Talent and Rise Against. That is not everyone’s deal and it’s not even been my deal all the time.
Here’s the thing, I was kinda like ‘oh a punk band, I don’t ca…’ and then more like ‘Hey, y’know? I actually like this.’ And here we are, me liking it enough to tell you go and check it out. Check it out. 19 year old me would have loved these guys.
- Jayson
Filed under: Pop, Review | Tags: Beatles, Bill Rousseau, Billy & Dolly, Claudia Gonson, Dahlia Gallin Ramirez, Monolith, Peter Bjorn & John, The Magic Numbers, the Magnetic Fields, the Shins
Billy & Dolly – Dally Bon Idyll. Self-released, 2012.
If you know anything about me, you know I like indie-pop. That is to say, I like music that uses pop-hooks, rock influences, chord structures that aren’t too complicated, and vocals that are pleasant. I’m not talking about most Top 40 crap…that stuff reaches for the lowest common denominator. I’m talking about the stuff I can put on in the background and listen to without feeling like I’m listening to music for 3rd graders, but also music that if I want to sit down and give a close listen to, there will be some measure of depth.
On Dally Bon Idyll, the duo Billy & Dolly (Bill Rousseau and Dahlia Gallin Ramirez, formerly of Monolith) are doing it right. The opening track, “Oh Yeah,” sounds a little like Claudia Gonson of the Magnetic Fields if she lost all her irony. By track two, “Gold,” I had to do a double-take to make sure I wasn’t listening to The Magic Numbers, and by the end of the album, I was hearing shades of Peter Bjorn & John, the Shins, and even Revolver-era Beatles.
The thing is, I didn’t feel like these were influences on them (Well, except for the Beatles, but who isn’t influenced by the Beatles?). Rather, I feel like these are all bands I like, and Billy & Dolly have managed to place themselves amongst these other bands, making pop music that is 1000 times better that the pop that gets radio play. They are playing pop music for adults, and they are doing it without the pretense and the irony that comes with a lot of indie-pop today. This is good stuff.
Dally Bon Idyll will be available on May 15 on the band’s Bandcamp page.
Billy & Dolly – “Gold”
02 Gold
Filed under: Electronic, hip-hop, R & B, Review, Soul | Tags: Even If It Isn't Right, Michal Menert, Pretty Lights
This is a pretty simple one. Michal Menert’s Even If It Isn’t Right is out on Pretty Lights‘ newish label. It sounds a lot like Pretty Lights. It is samples and funkiness and electronics and a touch of glitch. Pretty Lights is one of the groups defining the trip-hop/acid jazz/whatever-we’re-calling-it-this-year sound, and this release says “yes, I agree with you, this is the sound” and delivers more of it. There is maybe a bit more big-beat sensibility, sort of like the 1320 Records kind of thing. It is head-nodding to the max. But you know what I am going to say is really notable about this?
It is 1 hour and 41 minutes of good music.
I mean most mixtapes these days are only 30 minutes or so, and this dude drops 27 tracks of aforementioned head-nodding goods, keeps the quality level high across those, and puts them together into an album of seamless transitions and tight flow. And it is free to download.
Go, listen, and do the right thing with the donate button.