Jonathan Richman – Because Her Beauty Is Raw And Wild (Vapor)
I’m a huge fan in case you didn’t notice my first post. So it’s accurate to say that I was pumped when he came back with another album.
He’s still the good old Jonathan as I’ve grown to know through his music. His styling is very much the same with a subtle Caribbean accent.
Sad to say though, I thought the title track to be a little disappointing. It’s so quiet and “tame” for a song about a beautiful and wild girl. However, it does pick up more with “No One Was Like Vermeer.” It’s in his infamous classic and simple style with his rolling storytelling, free thought/improvisational delivery. “Time Has Gone By So Fast” is the best example of being simple but sophisticated. The melody, the lyrics are simple but listen closely and think. He’s right; time has been going by too fast.
And Ha! In “Es Comom El Pan,” he discusses the significant of life of bread as far as I can tell. And exactly what I love about his music, humor, charming and sincere. The imagery in “Our Drab Ways” is realistic and once again makes sense it’s “swayable” best for slow dancing alone or otherwise.
One of my favorites is “When We Refuse To Suffer” because of lines like “it’s like air condition in the summer time” and “ it’s like when Prozac wins”. “Old World” is an update to “Modern World”, a song written and performed when Richman was in the Modern Lovers. It has the same texture and feeling but without a band. He welcomed the modern world; now, he is saying good-bye to the old world. It’s a nice throwback for his old fans. There isn’t as much charm as I hoped for. But it’s still enjoyable and he didn’t lose this fan. I don’t know if his album will pick up any fans though.
Track Listing:
1. Because Her Beauty Is Raw And Wild
2. No One Was Like Vermeer
3. Time Has Been Going By So Fast
4. Es Como El Pan
5. Our Drab Ways
6. The Lovers Are Here And They’re Full Of Sweat
7. Le Printemps Des Amoreux Est Venue
8. When We Refuse To Suffer
9. This Romance Will Be Different For Me
10. Old World
11. Our Party Will Be On The Beach Tonight
12. When We Refuse To Suffer
13. Here It Is
14. As My Mother Lay Lying
Thee Oh Sees – The Master’s Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In (Tomlab)
The Magnetic Field’s Distortion distorted pop; the Raveonettes’ Lust Lust Lust distorted prog rock and rock; now Thee Oh Sees distorted early punk rock, they did it well… but… they are just the next band in line with this emerging trend.
Thee Oh See’s The Master Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In is definitely influenced by the 70’s garage punk rock scene. They have bantering male and female vocals that sound like similar dialogue of the B52s (having female and then one-line male interjection; think “Love Shack”).
The enjoyable and best part of the band and album is that heavy and steady drum beat. “Ghost In The Trees” is one of the stronger tracks with wailing guitars and Brigid Dawson’s peaking (shrieks) vocals. It’s a modern early punk, if that makes any sense. “Adult Acid” is that “gold-old-rock-n-roll” with a punch. The main disappointment is that I can’t pay attention to the lyrics because the distortion makes it very difficult to listen closely.
Overall, I hear and feel the early punk influences and the classic rock-folk missed with the distortion. And it is new twist on this often-overlooked musical era. However, heavy effects are obviously a trend this year, and Thee Oh Sees seem to be band-wagoning it.
Tracklisting:
1. Block Of Ice
2. Visit Colonel
3. Grease 2
4. Ghost In The Trees
5. Two Drummers Disappear
6. Graveyard Drug Party
7. The Master’s Bedroom
8. Grease
9. Adult Acid
10. The Coconut
11. Maria Stacks
12. Poison Finger
13. You Will See This Dog
14. Quadropazzed
Has spring become the season of compilations and samplers? Yesterday, it was “Wait Til The Ice Melts”; and today is another electronic compilation. And to keep the trend going, I’ll have another sampler for you tomorrow.
Today it’s Silicon Graffiti, a compilation with music from Circuitree and Catalog Records. Silicon Graffiti deserves that name. It’s “silicon” because it is all electonic and manufactured; it’s “graffiti” by being loud, noisy, messy and “unpredictable” and I guess “artfully created”?
Now, as a disclaimer, I don’t know much about music, just whether I like it or not. I don’t know or care how it’s made, or if it takes talent or not. So with that said; let’s take a walk and look at the silicon graffiti.
Continue Reading…
Various Artists – Wait Til The Ice Melts (Exponential)
Here is something interesting a compilation of electronic music from… TEXAS?? And surprisingly it doesn’t suck! In fact, it was enjoyable and unexpected. It has a healthy mix of sounds, each track varies, without sounding the exactly the same. And because it’s electronic compilation, it passes my one and only test for this genre, the annoyance test. Is it annoying, no. So it’s pretty good.
It starts with Unspoken by A.M. Architect. Like most of the compilation, it’s “instrumental” space-electro. You know, rocket man floating alone through space, passing all the planets while grooving to the space… grooviness? And a common theme of the compilation is strangely smooth transitions between the varieties of songs. For example, RJD2 calmness from “Unspoken” switched to Horizontal K’s bass-based “Uraqtk” and then to Dance Like Robot’s guitar-rifted “We Were Vampire” without throwing me off.
The songs all have a heavy post-production quality, but what can you expect from an electronic compilation. If I ever for some reason heard this compilation and all of it’s acts live, it would sound nothing the same unless it was prerecorded.
There are a few high points on the album. Like the aforementioned “Unspoken”, “Guerra Futbol” by Mnolo is another favorite. It’s an all instrumental, which once again cements the relation of this compilation to RJD2 before he wrecked himself with Third Hand. Overall it’s a very electronic album but has a consistent sound even through it has multiple artists.
Track Listing
1. A.M. Architect – Unspoken
2. HorizontalK – URAQTK
3. Dance Like Robots – We Were Vampires
4. Rae Davis – Pyramids
5. Mnolo – Guerra Futbol (just a short sample)
6. Diego Chavez – Forgive
7. Wayside Dream – Catch as Catch
8. Ernest Gonzales – Caviar, Cigarettes, Dynamite, & Laserbeams
9. Nectarine – Blue Beacon
10. Diego Bernal – Father’s
11. Dead Waiter – The Liar
12. Makestapes – Outlines
13. [on hiatus] – Out of the Blue
14. Mirm – Kan-sha
Can you dig it?
(brought to you by Sleazetone Records)
Just look at the cover. LOOK AT IT. Are you creeped out? Intrigued? Homophobic?
Well good. That’s exactly what SSION (as in mission with out the “meh”) was going for. For serials, this band’s goal was to make the gayiest record ever. But then they realized pop “trumped” gay and bam, they decided to make the gayiest pop album ever. Best described as “gay-disco-meets-punk-rock”, Ssion is a lot of fun and, yes, pretty gay.
Track Listing:
1. Clown
2. Bullshit
3. Street Jizz
4. Fear Us
5. The Woman
6. Dayjob
7. Warm Glove
8. A Wolves Eye
9. Ah Ma
10. Heaven
It travels the history of pop music. It cover’s women’s rights with this ridiculous song called “The Women”. It covers disco with “Heaven”. It covers gay with obviously “Street Jizz”. 
Altogether, this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but it suited me just fine. I mean, if you are into a (more) androgynous and weird Prince, you may have fished your wish. Apparently Ssion is this guy’s cup of tea. He made a pretty wicked shirt. Regardless if you like or dislike the music, that shirt is pretty cool.
Check out their opening track, Clown.
And the video for Ah-Ma.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7zRSdk6u2E]
I like this mustache, duh. And this jacket. And his hat, and his heroine-sque hygiene habits. Continue Reading…
