Every time I start to thank Canada for a great band, I think about Nickelback and have to replace my broken monitor. As Canada’s latest incremental reparation, Montreal-based quartet Wolf Parade returns this week with their third LP on Sub Pop, Expo 86. The band recorded and mixed at Montreal’s Hotel2Tango with Hoard Bilerman (former member of Arcade Fire), after only a couple of months of writing, having reconvened in November ’09 from their own side projects- guitarist Dan Boeckner from touring with Handsome Furs, keyboardist Spencer Krug from touring with Sunset Rubdown.
On Expo 86 the band continues its trajectory in grander sized sound while attempting to maintain its charms. For any of its pop concessions, the album contains no erosion of passion. Especially on the Boeckner pieces, much of the album plays like a neon Springsteen- enthused, all-in rock ‘n roll draped in casio synth ready for dancing. Krug too has developed past his shaken songwriter portrait, apparent on earlier tracks like “You Are a Runner,” sounding more on this album to be leading a charge than quietly taking the fall. He’s more emphatic than ever, rising to match Boeckner’s swing and importantly keeps the flow of the album.
Expo 86 features more massively reverberating guitars and catchy synth riffs, which by measures of size and intensity sounds predominantly like Boeckner behind the wheel. But that’s not to say that there is less of Krug’s subconscious bending or stream of consciousness. Vocal duties are still split straight down the middle. And Krug’s otherworldly wanderings are introduced from the get-go, as he muses on the opening line, “I was asleep in a hammock/I was dreaming that I was a web/I was a dreamcatcher hanging in the window of a minivan parked along a water’s edge/I’d say that I was all alone… but I’ll never be born as a scorpion.” Needless to say, dissecting any lyrical meaning from Krug probably takes a scalpel carved from a crystal skull. But the opener is as frenetic as the album gets, which leaves it less haunting as the work on Apologies to the Queen Mary, playing more continuously as up-tempo.
It’s Boeckner’s sentimentality that seems to be the primal force behind the album (the Springsteen thing). This is most explicitly stated on “Little Golden Age, ”I don’t miss my little golden age/cause the body takes the heart takes the heart from place to place/ but this place still stands this place remains unchanged/and I cant go back but who would want to anyway?” Call it unsentimental sentimentality, but the feeling is there. Maybe “Pobodys Nerfect” is more convincing: “We built this city on cocaine and lazers.” Late-night uppers and flashing lights? Yea, now you’re with me. The album’s direction may best be represented by “Ghost Pressure,” the album’s first single and arguably the best tune on the record. Its an infectious, repetitive chorus backed by rock steady drums, cracking Boeckner vocals, bleeping and buzzing synth, and shimmery guitar lines. “Little vision come shake me up, shake me up,” seems to metaphorically asks of us to dance along.
There are a few indie fan-favorites that have smoothly expanded their sound with wider appealing records this year, The National and The Hold Steady are probably the most notable. Expo 86 is a step in a similar direction for Wolf Parade. This aren’t Dan Boeckner’s most piercing and howling selections, and is far from Krug’s most fantastical work which I think his Moon Face EP earlier this year stands a good running for. But Expo 86 is a full band effort; a well produced collection of energetic, arena-ready tracks that may have indie nerds grooving next to some babes at bigger venues this year. And if only indie nerds show up, I think Krug can probably conjure some spell that can change that…
‘Walking up to me expecting, walking up to me expecting words, happens all the time.’
With this, James Murphy kicks off his new album This Is Happening. Over the last couple releases, LCD Soundsystem has risen from relative obscurity to a major band in independent music. Expectation for Murphy’s next release have kept pace. From the man who began his rise with “Losing My Edge,” a song about attempting (and failing) to maintain hipster cred, these opening words shows how very different James Murphy’s world looks today. What kind of album does he make with his status at unflagging cool, dare I say star? Well, it’s still cocky, the disco beats are still there, and if you ignore a few missteps in the direction of overly self-indulgent it’s a very good album. Although it’s not as consistently mind-blowing as Sound of Silver, the highs are just as high. The lows, though at times painfully long, are easily skipped and forgotten among the other great tracks.
Right off the bat, Murphy demonstrates his mastery of the slow build with his excellent opener “Dance Yrself Clean,” which clocks in at over 9 minutes. This continues throughout the album. Most of the songs are over the 6-minute mark and several are in the 8- to 9-minute range. Usually, this is to great effect, but it also contributes to the big dud of the album, “One Touch,” a robotic attempt at extended disco Daft Punk, complete with screechy female vocals. The song seems like it could crescendo rewardingly in the chorus but then only gives you six quiet notes from a xylophone as a refrain. The song is long, falling flat for a grand total of 7:47.
Fortunately “One Touch” is cupped on either side by the best 4 songs on the album: “Dance Yrself Clean,” “Drunk Girls,” “All I Want,” and “I Can Change.” These four songs are so filled with incredible goodness that if you ignore “One Touch” they make up arguably the strongest string of songs in LCD’s career (counter-argument: “North American Scum,” “Someone Great,” “All My Friends,” and “Us vs Them”). “Dance Yrself Clean” begins with a pattering beat, vocal harmonies, and James speak-singing to us before dropping a heavy synthesizer that sounds like it was taken (gracefully) from The Knife’s “We Share Our Mother’s Health.” “Drunk Girls” seems like a stripped down anthem suited for a frat party before the swooning, yearning, chorus comes in: ‘oh Oh OOOH, I believe in waking up together.’
“All I Want” deserves it’s own paragraph. Taking the sliding guitars straight from Bowie’s “Heroes,” this, James’ opus on steady love and ultimately heartbreak, is among if not the best song of his career. Like “All My Friends,” Murphy puts aside the cockiness and uses repetition and warm instrumentation to create a safe space where he can talk about what he loves most and his fear of losing it. “I’ve never needed anyone for so long,” Murphy sings in the first verse, recalling stability and lengthy relationships before undercutting it with “all I want is your pity.” In the second verse, the girl one day never comes home: so “you pack your backs and leave.” The inevitability of loss. Murphy wants your pity for that inevitable eventuality. Musically, as the song progresses, fuzzy synths break up the repeated guitars in increasingly wild patterns. By the end of the song, the erratic squealing keys threaten to pull the track apart with only the guitar line holding the composition together, Murphy wailing “Take me home. Take me home.” The obvious parallel between the musical progression of the song and the lyrical focus (the stability of a relationship in the face of life’s inevitable craziness) just adds to the songs charm.
The second half of the album returns to the stylistic studies of the opener. Often, these songs are broken into sections with a long intro (if this were classical music, several movements). “You Wanted a Hit,” addresses the growing pressures of the record industry with his usual cockiness. “You wanted a hit, but maybe we don’t do hits… You wanted a hit. Well, this is how we do hits.” While most of these tracks lack the immediacy of the first half of the album, the closer “Home” is a sweet farewell with it’s grooving bass line and chanting vocals. “Home” may in fact be the LCD closer, as This is Happening is rumored to be their last album.
As a whole, This is Happening is often too slow to be considered a dance album, more appropriate for the car than a party. We get to see Murphy indulge and delve deeply into his exhaustive knowledge of disco, punk, and electronica to make music intended for the pleasure of his own ears as much as his audience. While at times quirky and esoteric, it’s ultimately very rewarding. Give the album multiple listens. Much of the pleasure lies in the details, little riffs and muttered lyrics, and if that still doesn’t do it for you, just put “All I Want” on repeat and rock out or mood out to one of the most perfect compositions of a very accomplished trio of albums from LCD Soundsystem.
When Brooklyn-based quartet, Suckers, signed in February with NYC-based indie powerhouse Frenchkiss in February, we knew something likely worth our time was brewing. They joined label-mates The Antlers, The Dodos, and current tour-mates Local Natives, and prepared for the follow up to the Anand Wilder (Yeasayer) and Chris Moore (TV on the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) produced self-titled EP on IAMSOUND last year. In the same keeping of production quality, their debut LP Wild Smile proves a masterfully produced record, containing an epic size while preserving its charm. The fact that Wild Smile is a debut LP is stunning. “Save Your Love for Me” offers a grand introduction to the bubbly bigness of the album, like a jumbo-sized bottle of champagne, promising playfully roaring highs, bittersweet lows, and plenty of party sing-alongs. The breakdown of the song unleashes arena sized drums, a glamorous guitar solo, and an ungodly high falsetto performance that makes you wonder if Queen has been reincarnated in Brooklyn.
The albums first single and what I consider one of the best tracks of the year, “Black Sheep,” blasts an indefensibly infectious chorus, the vocals rupture with incoherence, and the effects give it a trophy-like glimmer. The song builds on a fairly simple progression without many complicated turns. This happens often on Wild Smile, where Suckers start with a pop-oriented arrangement of chords and reinvent the phrasing, effects, timing, or instrumentation throughout the song to keep it feeling fresh as lemons. But I didn’t really notice that until the 5 or 6th listen, after I grew tired stomping my foot through the floorboards in celebration.
In the same respect, variable is probably the best word for the album. Vocally speaking, Quinn Walker oscillates between someone with a serious story to tell and you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me high falsetto. Sometimes he brings to mind the laughable deepness of Fred Schneider of the B52s (don’t tell me you don’t hear it on “Black Sheep”), though more often heard are the cracking calls of Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse; there’s definitely some David Byrne in there as well. Particularly on tracks like “Loose Change,” he receives marvelous vocal backing from the whole band, giving them an Animal Collective togetherness, demanding you chant along with their commune wherever you are.
Likewise swings the pendulum of the vibe of their music, which reaches tear-jerking catharsis on “A Mind I Knew” only to be immediately followed by the blissful happiness of “Roman Candles,” complete with group whistling and the swing of a perfect day in the park. There is a taste of disco on “Black Sheep,” surfy pop on “You Can Keep Me Runnin’ Around” and new wave on a number of tracks. These influences seem to unpredictably circulate on the album.
Wherever the needle lay, prepare Wild Smile for heavy summer rotation.
I recently caught up with the Sandwitches over a few drinks to hear what’s been going on since their record, How to Make Ambient Sad Cake, and get a little more sense of how these Bay Area suburbanites came to make their rustic jams. If you haven’t heard their brooding Americana meets melodic 60’s doo-wop yet, do your eyes and ears a favor and check out their video for “Kiss Your Feet”:
TheBloodBeat: So tell me a little bit about what’s going with you guys now? You put a record out last year (How to Make Ambient Sad Cake), you played a bunch of shows.. Heidi: Yea, we played a bunch of shows. We went on a short tour, and then we went on a long tour. And now we’re taking a bit of an extended hiatus to mess around and work on ourselves. BB: Thats always important. Grace: Yea it will probably be at least another couple of months. BB: The record was on Turn Up Records. Tell me a little bit about how you got in with those guys? H: Marc is a friend of ours. Last year he called us up, said he was thinking he wanted to start this label and wanted to put on a Sandwitches record as his first release because he liked our songs and was a real supportive. He thought it’d be a good way to start off so we were like yea, sure, of course! And he was kind of old fashioned about it. He was willing to put up the money and have us go into the studio and do the recordings and do it in a real cool way so it was great. BB: And where is the studio? H: In the East Bay. G: This place called The Wally Sound Studio, run by this guy Wally. He’s a cool rockin’ dude and this place is in his garage. BB: So Sonny is also on the label? H: Yea Sonny is. Marc is doing I think 5 of his 7”s. Sonny is doing a series of 100 7”s as this conceptual masterpiece. BB: I saw it at Gallery 16 when you guys played there, and he played as well. Really cool idea. H: It’s so cool. BB: So are you friendly with Sonny as well? He’s like a Bay Area staple huh? G: We both recorded on some of those 7”s. BB: That’s cool. And Grace, you put out a solo record recently, Grace Sings Sludge? G: Yea, I recorded a bunch of songs on my own. It was a bunch of recordings I made last year and my friend liked them and put them out as a limited tape release. BB: Very cool. And you also in your other time work at Amoeba Records? G: Yea, I’ve been there about 3 years. It’s like a big dysfunctional family there. Everybody’s really nice and usually a musician. BB: You must listen to a shit load of music from working there? G: I’m not quite as obsessive or expert as some of my co-workers. But yea… BB: Is there anything you’re really stoked on now that you’re listening to? G: My friend is putting out a Michael Yonkers record so I’ve been listening to him a lot. H: I got a bunch of music from my roommate recently. So I’ve sort of been slowly making my way through. I’ve been listening to a lot of jazz recently. John Surman, Don Cherry, and am seeking some new pop experiences. BB: So how do you guys know each other? G: We met through her ex-boyfriend who worked at Amoeba. So we became friends and hit it off. She gave me a bunch of songs that I really liked. Then she gave me a CD of her recordings. H: Yea we both did a bunch of recordings, we swapped, and both liked each others stuff. BB: What do you use for home recording equipment or software? H: I just use my computer. Mostly GarageBand on there. G: I have a little digital 8 track that I use sometimes. But mostly GarageBand as well. BB: More recently you put out the video for “Kiss Your Feet,” which Joey Izzo produced, how did you guys get hooked up with him? G: He’s my honey. BB: Oh nice. So when you’re working on new music, it seems like you split on the vocals, do you both bring in stuff you’ve been working on and go from there? H: Yea, pretty much. I think we both enjoy being in lead and supporting roles so that works out nice. Both vocally and instrumentally. Songwriting wise its a pretty happy union, because all the different sides of it are different and satisfying. BB: You have really complimentary voices, it make sense. H: Ha, yea we like singing together. BB: So any plans for shows coming up? G: Not for a little bit. H: I think our next show is in August. We’re not really trying to book anything until that. BB: The first time I saw you guys play at Cafe de Nord you had a guy drummer, and then when I saw you at Gallery 16 you had a girl drummer… H: The girl, Roxy, was our drummer on the album. Lance is our current drummer who went on tour with us. G: He’s in a few other bands and he had a show that night at Gallery 16. He plays with Tongue and Teeth. H: I thought they were going by Zoo? G: I think it might be Teeth and Tongue. Or Zoo, haha. BB: I read somewhere that you used to play with the Fresh & Onlys? H: Both of us. We were back-up singers. We met through my ex-boyfriend who is Tim Cohen, who is the lead songwriter. G: He recorded our EP that’s coming with Wymond from the Fresh & Onlys. BB: When is that coming out? G: Pretty soon. H: I think we just got the record sleeves for it. BB: Is that two legged cat going to be on it again? G: No, we did the art for it this time. BB: Is that on Turn Up as well? H: No, it’s going to be from Secret Seven and Empty Cellar. G: Our friend Greg recorded it. H: Empty Cellar is part of Empty Nest. There are levels this collective I guess. It’s Arvel Hernandez and Greg Gardner. Arvel doesn’t work at Amoeba anymore but he once did. So it’s those two guys putting it out. BB: And no bassist right? Is that intentional? H: We’re always looking! We’ve had some candidates. Bunch of flakes! G: I like the way the songs sound with the bass on the album but I’m not really in any hurry to expand the band. We’re getting better. We’ve been working on harmonies on the guitar to make it sound a little fuller. H: There’s always a touchy social dynamic in a band too. Bringing in another person is kind of a terrifying prospect. It’s gotta be the perfect person. BB: Where do you practice around here? G: In the TL at Park and Taylor. H: Francisco Studios. It’s three stories, there are tons of bands there. Francisssco. BB: Did you both grow up around here? Your music sounds much more like a small town, country folk origin. If you told me you both grew up in Oklahoma I’d be like, yea I know… G: I’m from the suburbs. H: Menlo Park. BB: Well where the hell did you come up with this sound? G: I have no idea what comes out.
H: It just happened pretty naturally I guess. We had those songs and that’s just how they sounded when we played them together. And we played them together a bunch so we filled them in. Everybody has kind of a good ear so we just heard it out and it felt right.
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