i hate the sound of guitars » c

quick take : lemuria/cheap girls : split single

guitarlover — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 11:18:00 +0000

On the A-side, Lemuria offer two more examples of the smart, catchy, indie rock that’s made Pebble one of my most-played albums of the year so far. I expected their side to be swell, and it delivers. But the revelation here for me is Cheap Girls’ “Pure Hate.” I’m not quite sure what “And I/Keep breathing pure hate into ever’thing/I only wanna stare you down,” means, but I am sure it rides a mighty, indelible hook, setting up and releasing tension in the space of a few bars. I wouldn’t exactly say that Cheap Girls sound like the Lemonheads; Ian Graham’s voice is gruffer, and this band as a whole is heftier. But there’s still something about Graham’s relaxed phrasing and the way the vocal melody sits above the fragmented-arpeggio style riff that reminds me of Dando’s outfit circa It’s a Shame About Ray. I am now A Fan.

quick take : craft spells : idle labor

guitarlover — Tue, 03 May 2011 11:08:58 +0000

New Order would decidely have struck me as a useful point of reference for Idle Labor even if the cover art didn’t recall Power, Corruption & Lies. As it is, I’m wondering if they want to get threatening letters from some lawyer. Craft Spells’ flowers are less gloomy, of course, and so is their music. As you’d expect from an artist on Captured Tracks, it’s also a lot more low-tech. And it’s not like there are no other influences audible in Idle Labor, it’s just that the debt to New Order is so specific that the other elements are actually a little jarring.

quick take : crass : penis envy, christ – the album

guitarlover — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 11:43:47 +0000

“The Crassical Collection” is currently my favorite first-wave punk-band remaster series. Not only do the albums all come with gobs of bonus material, facsimile of the original art, and booklets jammed with essays, lyrics, art, and photos, but the new slip cases will join up to make a giant acid-washed Crass logo when my collection is complete, like the backs of Topps bubblegum trading cards. It seems perfectly emblematic of the complex relationship this most uncompromising of the old guard bands has with commerce.

Penis Envy is probably my favorite Crass record to actually listen to, as opposed to admiring, mostly because of Eve Libertine’s more prominent vocal role. This has rather less bonus material than many of the packages, but both new (to me, at least) tracks are priceless: there’s a radio advert version of “Our Wedding,” and “The Unelected President” which has more-or-less the same relationship to “Major General Despair” as the DK’s “We’ve Got a Bigger Problem Now” has to “California Uber Alles”

Christ – The Album has maybe my favorite Crass track to actually listen to, “Bumhooler,” mostly because it sounds like something Fugazi might have been listening to as they became the band that would make Red Medicine and the records that followed it.
The track gaps on the second disc don’t quite seem to match up with the actual track divisions. With most bands this would seem like a mistake; with Crass, it’s a statement. “Listen to the whole sodding gloriously anarchic mess from beginning to end, or don’t listen at all!” Why, yes sir, I will.
I also enjoyed Penny Rimbaud’s communication about the miscommunication of the number of tracks on the release (listed as 48 on the slip case, though there are “only” 46):

IS THERE A QUANTUM IN THE HOUSE?
Under normal conditions 22+24=46. However, being what it is, human error (or was it a quantum leap?) intervened in the case of this package to give an alternative (if not radical) result of 48. Notwithstanding (and with appropriate apologies to all concerned parties), theories asserting that 1+1 = 3 should not be discounted.
Enlightenment mechanics have seen their day. Quantum is the new poetry – 22+24=0+

Yanks like me will be happy to learn that Piccadilly and Southern Records are happy to send these treasures ‘cross the pond.

quick take : capsula : in the land of silver souls

guitarlover — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 08:53:04 +0000

Usually a garage/psychedelic record, even one as well executed as this, wouldn’t make big claims on my listening time. This does, for two reasons. First, it’s got an enough indie rock flavor to hold my interest (Coni Duchess sounds enough like Kim Gordon, ’specially on lines like “I wanna kiss the future,” (”Under the Woods”) to reinforce how Thurston Moore-ish Martin Guevara’s leads can be). Second, even its freakiest explorations are admirably terse: only one song cracks the five minute mark, and most are around three.

quick take : chain and the gang : music’s not for everyone

guitarlover — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 11:01:34 +0000

Scratchy, aggressively lo-fi production and the rough/smooth interplay between Ian Svenonius and a veritable harem of female back-up singers (Tara Jane O’Neil and Finally Punk’s Veronica Ortuño among them) are the wires baling this unruly garage rock/soul/funk/blues conglom. Not all of it works for me, but highlights like the rave-up “Detroit Music,” its instrumental sequel “Detroit Music, Pt. II,” and the chilly, bluesy, “It’s a Hard, Hard Job (Keeping Everybody High)” are, er, pretty high. Svenonius’s notorious radical politics aren’t too in-your-face this time around: you could dance to this record without thinking about it too much. And for once, I don’t think Mr. S would mind.

quick take : Cowboy Racer : Love Stationary

guitarlover — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 12:00:41 +0000

Recently I was wondering what happened to the folks from Salad, a mid-90s power-poppish britpop act that never got as much traction as Sleeper, let alone Elastica, despite having some catchy tunes and the presumed advantage of an MTV VJ as a frontwoman. I couldn’t find anything recent from guitarist/tunesmith Paul Kennedy, but his singer/writing partner Marijne van der Vlugt has a brand new album with Cowboy Racer, a project also featuring Mike Mason of 4AD band Swallow.

Love Stationary proves to be smooth, densely layered indie pop with lots of ear candy for the attentive listener. There’s nothing surprising or challenging, but I like it. Van der Vlugt’s singing is more subtle and expressive, and arguably better, than in her Salad days*. At first I thought a pair of tunes (especially album closer “Forever”) with a breathy/sexy delivery were a little too cheesy in a Jane Birkin sort of way, but they’ve grown on me since, and anyway they’re not representative.

* not sorry. They set themselves up for that line.

act in haste or repent at leisure

guitarlover — Sun, 04 May 2008 19:54:21 +0000

You’ve got just about a month left to place an order from Asaurus Records, the micro-indie label that releases beautiful hand-packaged CDRs from the likes of Pants Yell!, Colin Cleary, The Mathletes, and many more. There’s a very generous selection of free tracks to download, too. Among the “I Hate the Sound of Guitars”-endorsed discs still available as of this writing:

The Capstan Shafts Chick Cigarettes

I was going to say that this album is to The Capstan Shafts as Propeller was to Guided by Voices — the dodgily-recorded breakthrough early album packed with catchy songs. Well, this album may not be as good as GBV’s Propeller. But it’s pretty durn good, and despite the obvious influence of Robert Pollard on Dean Edward Wells, it’s good in a very different, uniquely Capstan Shafts-y, way.

New Grenada Parting Shots

This release does not feature the excellent song “Parting Shots” (a.k.a. the “he’s constantly thinking about what you’re thinking about him” song); they saved that for the follow up Modern Problems. But it still has brainy co-ed spiky tuneful indie goodness a-plenty in songs like “Nerd Alert” and “Just Inside a Week.” And the design is gorgeous.

The Capstan Shafts Her Versus the Sad Cold Eventually

An instant classic. Wells dramatically expands his sonic palette, and improbably comes up with a batch of songs not overshadowed by their awesome titles. There’s “He Would Die for You (Were It Up to Me),” (a murderously green-eyed, yet lovely, piano interlude) “‘Lauren Behold’ (A Conversation with a Stripper over Canadian-style Health Care),” (acoustic pop song enlivened by squally electric guitar underpinnings), and “She Can’t Stand the Quiet (Unless It’s Me Shutting Up),” (a plaintive, atonal, but oddly compelling,lament) — and 17 more.

I loved it so much I bought several copies as gifts.

new england digital music bonanza

guitarlover — Sat, 03 May 2008 13:16:04 +0000

I’m going to link MySpace pages in this post. I feel like it’s a little irresponsible to do that without mentioning a more-or-less safe way to follow the links. Here’s what I recommend for visiting MySpace:

Set up a browser (or browser profile) to delete all cookies on exit
I like to configure Opera up for visiting unsafe sites, that way I can leave Firefox open with all the tabs I need for work.
Make sure it has all the latest security updates to prevent drive-by downloads
Close and relaunch the browser
Turn the speakers down!
Visit MySpace
Close the browser

I’ve been impatiently wondering when the first releases of 2008 from The Capstan Shafts would arrive, and just learned of all the goodies at http://www.myspace.com/capstanshafts. There are previews from both the new self-released EP Miles Per Famine and the upcoming Rainbow Quartz release Fixation Protocol. Also, there’s ordering info on getting gobs of the earlier and out-of-print Capstan Shafts releases directly from Dean. Big ups to Dan for giving me the heads-up.

You can also preview tracks from Ho-Ag’s imminent Doctor Cowboy at http://www.myspace.com/hoagsobject. I’m so pysched for this album. I’ve been wishing for a while that Ho-Ag would work with recording professionals who could capture the band better, and it sounds like I’ve gotten my wish. The samples from Doctor Cowboy are more vibrant than anything Ho-Ag has yet committed to plastic.

Slightly old news at this point, but Hallelujah the Hills have also raised their recording-quality bar with the Prepare to Qualify EP. It compiles the songs that have been trickling out from Stereogum and the like with some additional goodies; they’ve been re-mastered and sound super-fab.

And finally, I just stumbled on the Dirt Merchants site, from which you can download everything the band ever did, including the never-released The Speed At Which You Speak and several live sets. The only thing missing is a tip jar.

Colleen – Les Ondes Silencieuses

guitarlover — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 14:50:19 +0000

More justification for my usual laggardly approach to putting together the year-end mixes: If I’d put my 2007 list together midway through January, it definitely would’ve included Les Ondes Silencieuses, represented probably by “Echoes and Coral,” or “Sea of Tranquility.”

Colleen (real name: Cécile Schott)’s story would be intriguing even if I didn’t love the music. She assembled her first release, 2005’s Everyone Alive Wants Answers by manipulating samples from old records — the sort of records that are usually filed in the “classical” section, whether or not the composers are strictly from the early 18th through early 19th centuries. That album’s extensive use of loops and the often prominent presence of vinyl surface noise gave it a superficial gloss of glitch-pop electronica, despite the unusual sound source choices.

It found considerable critical favor, and when in response Schott began touring, she felt that performing with a laptop would be too sterile and uninteresting, and opted to work live with acoustic instruments. The ensuing The Golden Morning Breaks was assembled from original source material, and much less reliant on looped sounds.

Les Ondes Silencieuses (The Silent Waves) is even sparer. My wonderful girlfriend observes that Erik Satie is perhaps the best touchpoint. I also hear some of Harry Partch’s fascination with the tonal qualities of unusual instruments, although Schott adds the dimension of manipulating the sound sources significantly after they are digitized. Since Schott’s compositions are assemblages, they don’t fetishize performance technique the way many “classical” recordings do. Her lack of “first chair” control over the clarinet (for example) imparts a certain unusual quality of fragility, (even, almost naivety) to her music.

Les Ondes Silencieuses has a very sculptural aspect. “Echoes and Coral” evokes images of moving slowly through some darkened, twisting gallery and seeing its bell notes revealed like hanging beacons as I turn corners. The concluding section of the baroque-influenced harpsichord piece “Le Labyrinthe,” despite its name, makes me think of circling a single, dense, complex, object and observing the play of light and shadow on its surface. (I noticed that when Schott talks about her creative process she sounds more than a little bit like my favorite sculptor, Sarah Sze)

Colleen’s music is often, but not always, pretty in a conventional, accessible, sense. There’s ample musical tension and discordance to keep it wll clear of new age/aural wallpaper territory. At its most intense, as on “Past the Long Black Land,” and “Le Bateau,” Schott’s viola de gamba even evokes a more stately version of John Cale’s mind-bending see-saws on “Black Angel’s Death Song.”

Throughout it’s a surprising, thoroughly rewarding musical experience and very highly recommended.

The Capstan Shafts – Consumption Violets, A Brace for Hephaestus, Kid Butane Goes to Greenland

guitarlover — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:43:08 +0000

Here are some things that Dean Edward Wells, a.k.a. The Capstan Shafts, doesn’t have:

Fancy recording equipment
A rock-solid sense of timing
Rabid perfectionism about the recording process
Long songs

Here are some things that Dean Edward Wells does have:

A prodigious bounty of catchy melodies and riffs
A bevvy of quirky lyrics set to the former
A pretty good singing voice
A modicum of proficiency at the guitar,bass, and to a lesser extent, drums

Comparisons to Guided by Voices and The Mountain Goats are inevitable and not unwarranted. Sound quality-wise, Wells is maybe even closer to John Darnielle’s legendarily cantankerous boomboxes than Tobin Sprout’s four-track.

I spent a bunch of time making notes on these songs, trying to find the ones where peaks of performance competence and melodic genius overlapped (”Grapples and Orangutangs”, say), but then I realized that was fundamentally missing the point. The guitar solo of “The Icecaps of Mars (Are Just Copying Ours” has some cringingly bad notes, but it also has a giddy exuberance that multiple takes might have worn down, and quite a few exactly right notes. None of the instruments are quite in time with each other, but it still pretty much rocks. If you have trouble reconciling these thoughts, The Capstan Shafts really aren’t going to be for you.

Wells has released these three EPs (and the older “Haluluah Moancoaxers!” and “The Sun Don’t Get Things Done Without a Little Help from Everyone”) as Creative Commons licensed downloads at archive.org, so if you think you might dig it, you can find out with no more investment than a little bit of your time and bandwidth. (I had some trouble getting the MP4 files into iTunes and the tagging was weird; MediaCoder and mp3tag were very helpful).

If you decide you’re as much of a fanatic as I am, there’s a world of CDs, lovingly hand-assembled CDRs, casettes, and out-of-print rarities to track down from the likes of Abandoned Love Records, Asaurus Records, Beat the Indie Drum, Fall of the West records, Kittridge Records, Rainbow Quartz Records, Slight, and Yellow Mica Recordings. Happy hunting.