i hate the sound of guitars » alternative

quick take : sick of sarah : 2205

guitarlover — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:45:26 +0000

You may have heard the story by now: Sick of Sarah leak their own album onto peer-to-peer sharing service; claim “platinum” status on basis of download counts; lotsa folks say, more or less, “Sick of who?“. More evidence, if you ask me, that it’s ridiculous to assert that each pirate download of a track is a lost sale; people will take for free what they would never buy. And the gambit is the sort of careerist bs that usually screams “stay away!” at me. But at some point the article mentions that Sick of Sarah is a female-fronted alternative rock act (all women, actually) and this lizard part of my brain that is eternally searching for another Eight Arms to Hold You takes over and I have to listen to the record. (Not badly enough to futz with BitTorrent, mind you.)

Veruca Salt’s Eight Arms to Hold You is my personal apotheosis of mainstream-leaning female-fronted alterna rock. Beyond the honey/tabasco combo of Nina Gordon and Louise Post’s voices, the magic is in how its weaknesses reinforces each other: Gordon’s and Post’s writing, trending toward sappiness and tunelessness respectively, are unexpectedly redeemed by Bob Rock’s hamfisted metalhead production.

I mention this because my judgment in this area is a little suspect. If something pushes my “Eight Arms” button (and this does — the repeated “I know” chorus lead-in of “Kiss Me” even specifically recalls the repeated “I know” leading into the refrain of Veruca Salt’s “Awesome,” although that’s probably a happy accident) I may overlook flaws that would otherwise bug me.

This has a few too many songs with carefully non-specific lyrics, but it also has “Cigarettes” with the rather surprising phrase, “I might run home and kill all my friends.” Abisha Uhl delivers that line off-handedly, not nümetal like she means it, which makes even better (in general I prefer her singing when she’s not pushing her voice hard, as on this track). If I were mixing the record I would have opted for a little more crunch versus chime in the guitars, but this also has a some slightly dark, pop-goth seasoning here and there (like scarling., say) which I don’t mind either.

Guilty pleasure? Maybe. Probably. But a pleasure, all the same.

quick take : r.e.m. – collapse into now

guitarlover — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 10:49:53 +0000

R.E.M.’s recent return-to-form albums led me to an epiphany: I had always assumed it was Warner Brothers who pushed me away from R.E.M. — pressure toward big dollar production, famous guest stars, etc.. I still think there’s some truth to that (I don’t think most of those cameos were great artistic choices), but I realized is that it’s mostly about Stipe’s evolution as an artist. I liked his singing better before he had confidence in it, and I liked his lyrics better before he wrote them with the expectation of standing up to the scrutiny of thousands of intent listeners.

That said, like Accelerate, I can listen straight through Collapse Into Now without wishing it were over partway through. And if the really kinda old-school “It Happened Today” is hands down, Calechee bound, my favorite R.E.M. song since 1991’s “Country Feedback,” partly because most of the words are “oh, oh, oh,” other highlights belong to newer-school brooding, almost ominous, slow tracks like “Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando And I” and the (Patti Smith guest spot) “Blue.”

quick take : PJ Harvey : Let England Shake

guitarlover — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 09:46:07 +0000

A fascinating album that evokes the breadth of Harvey’s catalogue — she makes some use of the fragile, high register she first explored on 2007’s White Chalk and there are vestiges of the percussive guitar attack that drove her earliest albums — but ultimately sounds like nothing else in it. In “On Battleship Hill” her voice almost like Kate Bush; the melody and guitar line of “In the Dark Places” could almost be from a John Vanderslice song.

Kay Hanley – Weaponize

guitarlover — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 16:53:13 +0000

I had just enough leftover affection for Kay Hanley’s 90’s act Letters to Cleo to check out the previews for her new record, even though the only thing I remember about her solo debut Cherry Marmalade is that I felt like I didn’t need to hear anything on it twice. I’m really glad I gave Weaponize a shot; it’s perhaps her career highlight.

Hanley’s voice sounds better than ever, by turns both tougher and sweeter than in her Letters to Cleo days. Guitarist/former-LTC-member (and husband) Michael Eisenstein fills Weaponize with the kind of fat, crunchy, tone that used to be the hallmark of Eric “Roscoe” Amble’s production jobs. Weaponized is also packed with catchy tunes, with the “The Wrong Year” probably my initial favorite. Also worth a mention is the expansive “I Guess I Get It,” a slow-burning ballad/rocker that could pass for the best Aimee Mann song since Bachelor No. 2. Even the closing jokey grunge-rap number “Drop a Bomb” is kinda growing on me.

I liked Weaponize so much, I’ve since got a copy of Hanley’s 2005 ep babydoll, and it’s really good, too. I’m left to wonder if I was just in a cruddy mood when I heard Cherry Marmalade.

Zsammy – Be Let Down

guitarlover — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 12:55:27 +0000

last.fm recently played me Zsammy’s “Your Chest Is Not Moving,” and I liked it a lot. It’s about as creepy as the title suggests, but much prettier. It’s a little shoegazer-y and a little bit Britpop in a loved-The Bends way without being overly derivative; some of Zsammy’s other songs have a slowcore vibe. It stood out because of the pacing and dynamics of the arrangement — lots of lovely stacked guitar parts — and the strong vocal performance.

When something catches my ear that much on last.fm, I follow up to see if I want to hear more (my LaLa wishlist has been growing by leaps and bounds, I’ve spent some of my eMusic downloads, and I’ve even bought some round shiny pieces of plastic).

Zsammy, to my surprise, turns out to be one guy recording, he says, “in various basements throughout Pittsburgh.” He’s posting the songs that comprise Be Let Down on his website as he finishes them.

Listening to Be Here Now reminds me of the promise that the Internet held for independent musicians a dozen years ago or so. The prices of recording equipment (and the ease of using it) were plummeting, and the ‘net promised to level the playing field, to make it as easy for a guy in a Pittsburgh basement to get his music out to the world as for a guy signed to Sony.

I have the usual quibble — I’d love to hear these songs with live (and/or better recorded) drums. But if everybody’s home-recorded album on the Internet were this good, I’d never get anything done.