na: danny and zooey
Yancey insists the subject line for this post is too obtuse.
Here’s what’s hype in today’s haul:
She & Him, Volume One: At South by Soutwest, I stupidly left the Merge showcase for that Scandinavian Death Metal bill, convinced I’d have no trouble getting back in. Clearly, I underestimated the power of Zooey Deschanel. In his review, which will hit the site tomorrow, eMusic’s Keith Harris says:
A high-minded few might stand opposed, on principle, to the very idea of Zooey Deschanel, crushee du jour of countless fickle indie boys, torching her way through a stylized set of ’70s retro pop. Their loss. Truth is, Deschanel ably channels the brassy cuteness of her acting persona into her singing with a savvy that’s always likeable and often sly. And her musical helpmate, M. Ward, shuffles musical clichés of laid-back yore – lagging piano chords, country guitar licks, AM-ready strings – with a dexterity that adds up less to pastiche than to alternative history. Phil Spector should’ve had a countrypolitan phase, and now, thanks to “Sweet Darlin’,” he kinda has.
Destroyer, Trouble in Dreams: Dan Bejar is back, and if Trouble isn’t quite as good as Destroyer’s Rubies, it still has enough to satisfy fans of Dan’s particular stream-of-consciousness. I will quote myself on this one:
It should be said that Bejar’s latest, Trouble in Dreams, is neither as surprising or far-reaching as its predecessor. Instead, it’s a limber — if slighter — sequel, taking the original’s musical themes and reworking them. The first two words on Trouble are “OK, fine,” and the rest of the record could well be subtitled: “Once more, with feeling.” Bejar has found his musical niche; most of Trouble inverts classic rock in many of the same ways Rubies did. “Dark Leaves Form a Thread,” an early high, chucks a single guitar lick down the stairs over and over and over. “My Favorite Year” obscures girl group da-da-da’s behind a squall of guitar, Bejar rattling off lyrics as if he’s afraid he won’t get them all out in time.
Bells Of, 11:11: Mid ’90s TeenBeat band I’ve never heard before sounds, at its best, like Bob Dylan fronting the Go-Betweens. Try “Strange Pair” or “Cornrows” to see if this is for you.
Daniel Lanois, Here is What it Is: Uber-producer Lanois (U2, Bob Dylan, Parachute Club) returns with another album of lush, atmospheric pop. Lanois’ got a reedy voice not unlike late-period Robbie Robertson, and this record continues his love affair with moody music. Trivia: Lanois pressed only a limited number of physical copies of this record. It’s mainly only available as .mp3 or .wav downloads.
Adam Green, Sixes & Sevens: The latest full-length from one-half of the Moldy Peaches (would that just be half a peach?) is a bit more sprawling and stately than his older stuff. The touchstone here is probably Jonathan Richman. I’m not a huge fan, but eMusic’s James McNair is. He says:
Musically speaking, it’s richly-layered and exquisitely-executed. The space Green allocated for strings on 2006’s Jacket Full of Danger has here been usurped by two female Gospel singers whose soaring, stentorian tones provide neat contrast to Green’s disarming croon. There’s a kitschy, almost easy-listening feel to songs like the Latin-tinged “Tropical Island” and “You Get So Lucky,” which is appointed with jaw-harp, pan-pipes and tuba, but Sixes & Sevens is palpably indebted to Stax and Motown too; Green rides an Al Green-like groove on “Twee Twee Dee,” and sometimes draws upon the arranging skills of the venerable David Campbell, a man whose viola-playing graced Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.”
Mission of Burma, Reissues: They were here, then they were gone, now they’re back. These records to me are the blueprint for art-punk: slashing guitarwork, dry, conversational vocals and crazy, garbled tape loops. Burma to me feels like one of those bands that a lot of people really mean to check out, but never quite get around to it. Do not make that mistake! These records were made 20+ years ago, and they still don’t really sound like anything out there. Douglas Wolk did a great job of getting mainmen Roger Miller and Peter Prescott to share the stories behind the albums in this feature.
Fuck Buttons, Street Horrsing: My favorite thing about Fuck Buttons is getting to watch how newspapers deal with their name when the pop critic decides to write about them. This is a bit more experimental, full of strange chatters and screaming synths that give way suddenly to thudding dance beats. I don’t usually go in for stuff like this, but I find it strangely compelling.
Willts + Sakamoto, Ocean Fire: Christopher Willits is a sound collage musician from California. Ryuchi Sakamoto is a legendary Japanese musician whose work runs the stylistic gamut. Ocean Fire skews ambient, its songs churning and eerie. This is a bit beyond my wheelhouse (though I’m enjoying listening to it), so maybe Todd wants to weigh in with more educated insight.
Will eMusic be getting the Retribution Gospel Choir disc? It’s on Caldo Verde Records, which has its other titles on eMusic (Sun Kil Moon, Corina Repp). Thanks.
Thanks to 17dots, I wait until the next Tuesday afternoon to start burning my monthly download allotment. The Fuck Buttons, in particular, was a welcome surprise. Thanks.
I see what you did there .. with the title ..
Hilarious.
Thanks, Ryan! And sorry today’s NA post came so late in the day — busy morning!
No word on the Retribution Gospel Choir yet — I’ll let you know for sure. Also Daniel, you & I will have to have a long discussion about the new REM record at some point, because I think I like it way more than you do.
Anytime for the long discussion. I’ll happily talk about something other than law.
I’ve only heard the first single, BTW. It’s okay. I think I said elsewhere that the reason it reminds some people of mid-career R.E.M. is Mike Mills’ background vocals. Somebody else said the Peter Buck guitar sound is also mid-career R.E.M., and I understand that, too. The rest is good, eh?
I think it’s their best record by far in 16 years. Maybe longer. For serious.
The single also doesn’t do it justice. It sounds much better in the context of the album.
Any idea if emusic will be getting the Crystal Castles’ album?
No idea, Adamm, tho i hope so!
Well, okay, but the past 16 years only takes us to 1992, when Automatic For The People was released. Now if you’re saying this new disc is better than AFTP, then that’s saying something. If you’re saying this new disc is better than anything they released since AFTP, that’s not necessarily a high bar (the only disc in that time frame I’d say is good is New Adventures in Hi-Fi, and (a) that’s only 1/2 good and (b) even the 1/2 that’s good doesn’t measure up to their early-career output).
I am hesitant to say it tops Automatic, but I will say that Automatic has shrunk in stature to me over the years. I will say it’s at least as good as that record. I don’t love New Adventures either — I think both of those ’90s rock records are “off” in different ways. The new one at least sounds like an ’80s uptempo R.E.M. record, most obvious touchstones being Life’s Rich Pageant and Document.
Nothing to do with today’s releases or REM, but I read that emusic signed up Kompakt… is that true? Have they posted to the site?
PLEASE SOMEONE TELL ME EMUSIC SIGNED UP KOMPAKT. THEN TELL ME EMUSIC IS GETTING RETRIBUTION GOSPEL CHOIR. THEN TELL ME JOE IS RIGHT ABOUT THE NEW R.E.M. DISC.
(Seriously, where did you read that? Link, perhaps?)
It appears to be true:
http://hypebot.typepad.com/hypebot/2008/03/emusic-adds-lab.html
That’s fantastic news! Are some of the 43 new labels already here? Is there a big rollout day planned for the new labels yet to debut? What labels, aside from the ones mentioned in the article, are coming on board? Will they be available in the U.S. market?
Sorry for so many questions, but this is very good news. I’m glad for eMusic.
daniel i have literally been waiting for you to find that news.
some of those labels are live, others are coming. the date for kompakt is not exact, but hopefully sometime in april. so awesome.
BTW, this — “Automatic has shrunk in stature to me over the years” — is OTM. AFTP has not aged well.
Yancey, I’m surprised it took that long for the news to hit my radar screen (with RSS feeds, and all). I blame a spike in new litigation projects over the past week.
Kompakt is a real jewel of a label to pick up. The Field’s 2007 disc, for example, is wonderful. Without disclosing anything not yet meant to be public, are there — in your opinion — any other labels coming on board equal in quality/stature to Kompakt?
is there anyone equal in stature to kompakt? seriously though, not that i know of.
Also, this NA post doesn’t mention the new Neon Neon disc that appeared today on eMusic, which is a collaboration between Gruff Rhys (the lead singer of Super Furry Animals) and Boom Bip. It is a very nice little record that updates 80s sounds that I thought I’d never want to hear again, e.g., Phil Collins. Definitely worth the DLs.
BTW, sorry to be all over the comments on this post. I’m well-aware that I probably post too many comments, but there it is.
Yes, the new REM album is superb. I was never a huge REM fan, but I am really enjoying this new one.
I think all of us would sincerely agree that there’s no such thing as “too many” comments.
wow, you guys went nuts today.
to touch on a few things:
- AFTP not aging well: yeah, sorta. or at least the songs that were only so-so now bother me. on the other hand, i still quite enjoy it ’round about that first crisp autumn night.
- new adventures: “leave” is AWESOME. “e-bow the letter” and “how the west was won” are both excellent. the rest sucked then and now.
- kompakt being added: DEEP JOY.
- any label as good as kompakt: i’d say not now, not directly comparable, and certainly not for most of the label’s existence. i had a hard-on for harthouse/eye-q until around 1995, and we all know warp essentially did no wrong until 1997 or so.
Micah:
It’s funny. If I had to pick standout songs on NAIH-F, they would be “Be Mine,” “Electrolyte,” and “New Test Leper.” But the songs you mention are good, too. I think the biggest problem with NAIH-F — then and now — is that it sounds so generic. I’m a bit like a broken record on this point, but I think R.E.M. lost something essential when they moved away from that Southern Gothic rock sound they began with (from Chronic Town to its very last gasps in Life’s Rich Pagaent), and they never recovered. Maybe the new disc will make me care again. I hope so.
And as to Kompakt being the best label around; they may be. If I had to pick a No. 1 label at the moment, I think it would be the Italians Do It Better imprint (uniformly strong songs, and it seems to me that their brand of “Dark Disco” is the cutting-edge trend of the day). And — if we’re counting reissue labels, too — Blood & Fire, The Numero Group and Soul Jazz can do virtually no wrong. But Kompakt is up there, I agree.
It’s very good news. I’m now anxious to see what other interesting labels eMusic signed on. Anyway, back to reading reactions to today’s Obama speech. And what a speech! Stunning and gutsy.
— Daniel
i actually really like new adventures in hi-fi, and i’m not much of an rem guy.
and yes, i have watched the obama speech twice today and read it once. oh man. today was a good day.
@ Daniel, Esq. – never too many posts from your sir. always quality and questioning posts.
Thank you. That’s very kind.
any news if we will be getting the new Elbow record “The Seldom Seen Kid”?
daniel:
ironically enough, i suppose that, upon reflection, the three you like are the second tier of that album for me. so it seems we’re only technically disagreeing.
though on the other hand, my peak REM years were document through AFTP, but i’m one of those nutjobs who LOVES fables as well. southerners who loved REM since the get-go have told me that if i were to live in the south for a year or so and really live it, get into the eccentricities and the histories, that i could only understand the first four albums. at any rate, to hear that a new REM album does not outright suck is both surprising and exciting.
sure, italians are doing it better right now, but i’ll wager dollars to donuts that you won’t be listening to 75% of those tracks within three years. now with kompakt, not only could you enjoyably listen to 75% of their backcatalogue, but at least half you could still drop in sets now and do well.
Joe or anyone else who cares;
emusic did get Crystal Castles, it’s just not linked up correctly for a search.
I mant to obtain one version of music.
I have no idea what he just said.
Saw Fuck Buttons open up for Caribou last night. They put on one hell of show. Really didn’t expect a noise act (as I’d called it) to open up for Caribou. Of course it does make a bit of sense when you think about the Up In Flames days.
my 17-year-old brother emailed me today saying he’s into the fuck buttons right now and all i could think was “watch yr language!”
Yancey… I felt the same way when I read over my early comment here. I still pressed Submit. We’re all grown-ups here (I think).
Kompakt on eMu has me ridiculously giddy. Good work, eMu.
And I really enjoyed (and still enjoy) R.E.M.’s Up — far more than I ever enjoyed New Adventures in Hi-Fi or anything after they signed to Warner (and I bought every single one, religiously). I am pretty sure I am the only person on the planet who feels that way, but there you have it.
I’d like the F–k Buttons disc much more if they capped the volume on the half-dozen or so screaming vocal parts that pepper the album. I understand that it’s part of the “noise experiment,” but it’s way so jarring that it’s almost painful.(n.1) Otherwise, it’s an intriguing disc (but I still think Pitchfork over-rated it at 8.6).
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(n.1) I guess this means I’m old and/or un-hip. So be it.
please put She & him on the uk site