Tag Archives: Merge
David Kilgour And The Heavy Eights – Left By Soft (Merge)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (14.7MB)
MP3: David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights – Diamond Mine
David Kilgour and The Heavy Eights
Left By Soft
Merge
Rating: 3 out of 5
Link: http://www.davidkilgour.com/
David Kilgour wears varied rock hats and Left By Soft carries the weight of that. The New Zealander, best known for his days with Clean, bleeds over his New Zealand rock roots and with the songs contained, you hear the days when bands like The Verlaines dominated.
But then you come to a cross-roads and he could go any way he wants. “Way Down Here” borrows time from the subdued California rock days and the ‘60s roadtrip like The Band would take. Halfway through the song, it takes a 90 degree turn and spins an about face into hair metal territory.
The “Steel Arrow” fits right into the Merge collective, pairing up with the psych trip of Ladybug Transistor or the Sub Pop one-timer All Night Radio. It transcends to the slow down of “Pop Song.” It’s where I think Kilgour and The Heavy Eights are at their best. The timeless beat, the careless drifting and beautiful textures — much like the cover art and its lavender textured print — that make it worthwhile. Like the cover that I could stare at endlessly, you can get lost in a song like this.
“Diamond Mine” sends slight nods of Velvet Underground to their instrumental, and “I’ll Cliimb Up That Hill” is Loud Reed’s Coney Island Baby all the way.
Much like the Midwestern weather, just wait five minutes and Kigour’s sound will change. Even if you don’t see eye to eye on the band’s varied techniques, one thing is for certain and that is Kilgour’s strong and identified vocals, a constant that will never let you down.
Wye Oak – Civilian (Merge)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (8.9MB)
MP3: Wye Oak – Civilian (from the album Civilian)
Wye Oak
Civilian
Merge Records
Rating: 5 out of 5
Link: http://www.wyeoakmusic.com/
Wye Oak nailed it. 2009’s The Knot was a great album, but Civilian is a masterpiece!
The album is flawless as the band has just proven to be one of the top indie bands of the 21st Century. The album beckons gorgeous melodies and chords that swirl around. “The Alter” may sound like the afterlife and you just passed the gates of heaven, but “Holy Holy” punctuates that with fantasurreal guitar daze that sounds like Bad Moon Rising genius. It’s a song that you can listen to over and over again while falling deeper into their trance.
Close your eyes and let the band’s strange and cosmic sound consume you. There has not been an album where I have felt that the band is so aware of their sound and in control of the music’s destiny than with Civilian.
Both in “Plains” and “We Were Wealth” lie the sounds of fate, the feeling of letting go and a look into the great beyond. A “what if” for what’s out there, and a spark of fascination for those seeking to find it. It takes us to the end of the album and thoughts wondering will this album be as monumental in 100 years as it is right now. I would hope so.
My work is 90 percent complete for the Top 10 albums of 2011.
Apex Manor – The Year Of Magical Drinking (Music Review)
MP3: Apex Manor – Under The Gun (Merge)
Apex Manor
The Year Of Magical Drinking
Merge Records
Rating: 3 out of 5
Link: http://www.mergerecords.com/artists/apex%20manor
You hear about songwriter’s going into isolation to combat the demons of the craft in the hopes to emerge from the underworld with great success and that glorious historical moment – the album.
Ross Flournoy did that, but he really was not in isolation, living amongst a Pasadena suburbia with a broken-down vehicle. And he really did not emerge with the album, but did successfully defeat writers block and came out with an album that got him past the hurdle of a post Broken West existence, thanks to the help of post Broken West band mate Brian Whelan and longtime collaborator Adam Vine.
There are great things about The Year Of Magical Drinking, but it bounces around with strange fervor.
“Under The Gun,” a song about the process of an NPR Monitor Mix contest where a songwriter had a week to write and record one song, spits out with jangly noise pop defiance. “Who are you to tell me what to do,” sticks out like a middle finger amongst a canopy of big beats. A jumping off piece, you hear the song, and you feel like something is forced down your throat. Hey, we the listener never told you that you could do anything, did we?
What I wish the album would be more of is like the song “I Know These Waters Well.” This song is a well-written and simply fun to listen to, hitting hooks exactly where you need them and Flournoy’s voice sounding as sincere as can be.
But things are changing around constantly on this album. There is the downtempo of “My My Mind.” The mellow acoustic country & western flavored Simon, & Garfunkle-esque grabs your attention but only because you just got whacked over the head with “Teenage Blood” and stretched out with the expansive pop of “Elemental Ways Of Speaking.” At least it was not an immediate transition, but still a stylistic diversion.
The album ends on a bright note, as “Coming To” is a positive spin and another great song reminding you that Flournoy is a great songwriter.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (8.1MB)
Destroyer – Kaputt (Music Review)
Destroyer
Kaputt
Merge
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Link: http://www.mergerecords.com/artists/destroyer
A few months back, we presented the first song on Dan Bejar’s ninth studio release, Kaputt. “Chinatown” was love at first listen. (See Jukebox Article – http://www.zaptownmag.com/2010/12/the-jukebox-destroyers-chinatown) Since then we kept going back to that song, marveling amongst its lush beauty and cloudy day casualness, giving us hope for what the entire album had in store for us. And let me tell you that we are not disappointed.
Not since Air’s Moon Safari have I been so impressed over an album of this stature. Kaputt is that breath of fresh air on a cold day. It’s the feeling of warmth from the sun beaming down through bay windows on a casual Saturday afternoon spent indoors, caressing the music like it was a fine wine.
“Blue Eyes” is a softening glow and a love for the crackle of genius as your foot swings in the air to the beat while the record spins. From early ‘80s prowess to mid-’90s English posturing — a time that traces back to his musical beginnings — you feel a hypnotizing swath of sound and a clear lineage of influences from the thick Peter Hook bass line of “Savage Night At The Opera” to a Neil Tennant love affair on “Song For America.”
With the mixture of trumpets and saxophone, Bejar must spend time listening to Antonio Carlos Jobim and Gilberto Gil because how else would he get that laid-back silky vibe emoting with gorgeous downtempo beats. You want to wrap your mind around it as easily as you want to just sit back and forget about the stress of the day. His monotone vocal texture helps with that but it is best when it’s broken up by the lushness of the female vocals peppered throughout.
And as Bejar leaves us with a post-11 minute epic, “Bay Of Pigs,” the music may beckon something of meditative contemplation, but Bejar’s words say something else; something a little more playful: “Sick of fighting of the diseased lighting of the discoteque at night…it don’t mean a thing,;it never means a thing, it’s got that swing.” All of this lies under a canopy of electronic orchestration that sounds like the soundtrack to a ride at Epcot Center until the dance beat forces you to move like you never moved before. It’s now a celebration, and you are stuck in the middle of it.
The Jukebox – Destroyer’s “Chinatown”
(Click on the label to hear the song)
What will 2011 sound like? If you base the future off of Destroyer’s latest song “Chinatown,” 2011 will be a bubbly sensation of cocktails under neon lights and slender suits adorned with the smell of jetset fancy surrounded by images of Nagel and women wrapped in silk.
Destroyer’s charm is a teaser to January’s release of Kaputt (Merge Records). This is Dan Bejar’s ninth release of his career and a testament to the musical greatness that he churns out album after album. From home recordings to multiple releases that have been more than extraordinary, expect Bejar to act no differently with Kaputt, that is if “Chinatown” is any indication.
