Indie Pop Is Not Dead!

REVIEW: Sunset Rubdown-Random Spirit Lover(Jagjaguar)






So when I was at CD Trader a couple of days ago I picked up the new album by Sunset Rubdown, it was cheap and I liked their second one. This one might be better. The sounds are virtually the same; keyboards, wavering vocals, quirky and sharp guitar lines, and odd little flourishes of percussion. Same deal on this one, only bigger. The songs are longer have multiple parts and they play with silence quite well. His vocals where they should annoy me given my current taste in vocals instead sound earnest and they invoke something from my past. The base melodies are very simple yet melodic which gives each player room to play around the repeated patterns mostly coming from some form of synth.
Oddly enough this album reminds me of baseball it's not just because i just got back from seeing the dodgers a few nights ago but it really does have this kind of summer night organ wafting through the air kind of carelessness about it, it reminds me of fireworks and old timey shit. The first track reminds me of deerhoof a little mixed with a lot of frog eyes, you can hear a lot of frog eyes in this also you can hear some xiu xiu and a lot of medievel influences with the use of flutes and harpsichords. The album has kind of a retro look towards the future kind of thing going on. There is one part in the song "Colt stands up, grows horns" where it completely apes the theme to Halloween I think and it's exceptionally creepy but damn effective in creating a mood. Elsewhere the album takes the whole big is better Arcade Fire kinda thing and improves upon the formula making it intimate yet with a wide scope at the same time and I feel that is a feat to be proud of.
Every track is excellent with a few standouts namely track 6 that I mentioned before and "Up on your leopard, upon the end of your feral days" both are the best tracks but the whole album is pretty much blowing me away. Thank you Sunset Rubdown for not fucking Indie Pop up and keeping it alive for a little while longer.

Shart now, ask questions later

REVIEW: Qui-Love's Miracle



So this is David Yow's new project. It's not new per se but new to him, Qui have been around as a 2 piece since 2003. In late 2006 David Yow hooked up with them to do a guest spot for one of their live shows and ended up sticking around long enough to coalesce into a full on working band and released this album. This album is pretty awesome. It's not as good as their live show but it captures them quite nicely. 9 tracks, 2 are covers the rest sound like lost mclusky meets jesus lizard tracks. The subject matter ranges from pissed off to very angry to laughing about being pissed off and angry. This music seems to seethe and teeter on the brink of a breakdown. It's excellent dirty rock n roll and it sounds like an Albini production but its not.

Let's do a track by track:

1. Apartment-The only track of Qui as a duo without Yow and it's one of the best on the album, I want to believe it's about the drummer's apartment not lasting through a rainstorm. 9/10
2. Today, Gestation-The first track Qui did with Yow and it's a barnburner fucking awesome, intense. 9/10
3. Gash-Pretty incredible, lyrically very reminescent of Jesus Lizard musically very Mcluskyish. Has some pretty interesting yet slightly distracting backing vocals during the "chorus". 8/10
4. Freeze-Might be the best song on the album it seems like it's shitting on a "handsome businessman" or something and telling him they hope he freezes to death in a place who knows where it is. This song ends with Yow talking some rant about baskin robbins and a penguin eating their ice cream and something about how the vanilla looks like sploogh on the penguin's chin.10/10
5. New Orleans-One of the more meandering and lackluster tracks on the album, nice musicianship with not much else going on, slightly boring but still pretty good. 7/10
6. A#1-I have no idea why they titled this like this since the only lyrics on the song are "baby blue" sung very softly and almost comically given the mood of the album, I like this one because it shows they have a sense of humor and it's almost sweet. 8/10
7. Willie the Pimp-The first of 2 covers on the album. This one's by Frank Zappa and I love it but i cant even begin to see this as a Frank Zappa song. It is like a long lost garage rock gem that i have never heard, very catchy and very sarcastically sung, way high energy and another one of the best tracks on the album. 10/10
8. Belt-This song is another fucking awesome rocker, this one is a little heavier and definately wears it's Jesus Lizard on it's sleeve. Very pissed very cathartic. 9/10
9. Echoes-Yep, Pink Floyd. Pretty straightforward doesnt deviate too much from the original, i saw them perform this live as an encore without Yow on vocals which leads me to believe he isnt on this one and it would make sense and it would make the first song and last bookends to a Yow involved album. This song is kinda boring but a nice sendoff.8/10

This band seems like Yow's logical progression from the Jesus Lizard to now. Good Job!