i hate the sound of guitars

Every new release I listened to in January (20):

• Braids – Native Speaker – Shoegaze/ambient/experimental collision. Cool.
• British Sea Power – Valhalla Dancehall – Something about British Sea Power’s wide-screen indie rock seems oddly retro to me. Like they’re making records for people who still listen to albums straight through (not to mention call them “albums” and “records”) which should be me, but, somehow, isn’t quite.
• Cloud Nothings – Cloud Nothings
  “Should Have” (single) – Apparently there’s some kind of religious war going on about how the new Cloud Nothings album is too “slick.” The Internets are ridiculous. Turning On sounded like a 5th generation cassette dub; this one doesn’t, but it’s still pretty low-tech. “You’re Not That Good At Anything” is one of the highlights; doesn’t really sound like The Replacements or The Yardbirds, but somehow reminds me of both.
• Daytrader – “Last Days of Rome” (EP) – guys from a mess of latterday punk bands (Bridge and Tunnel was the draw for me) paying tribute to a bunch of the 90s emo/punk bands I always felt vaguely bad for not liking better: SDRE, Hot Water Music, et al. Why do I like this so much? Probably coz the recording smokes.
• The Decemberists – The King is Dead – Lots of acoustic guitars and harmonica folking up the mood; I keep thinking of The Alarm ca. 1984, but that’s probably because I’m twisted. Early/mid R.E.M. is an even more obvious touchpoint, not least due to the actual presence of Peter Buck. Duets with Laura Veirs and Gillian Welch (”Down by the Water” and “Dear Avery”) are my favorites.
• Deerhoof – Deerhoof vs. Evil – One of the phenomenal things about Deerhoof is how effortless they make these pop/noise confections seem, and how almost every crazy shift in texture, mood, tonality or rhythm retroactively seems logical.
• Fujiya & Miyagi - Ventriloquizzing menacing indie-rock/funk hybrid (27.jan.2011)
• The Gifted Children – “Fallacy Stilts” (EP) – Their first release of 2011 finds The Gifted Children mostly acoustic, but kinda edgy, with lots of sustained notes (on a variety of instruments) looming under the chord changes and adding tension/melodic interest. Opener “if the accident will” reminds me no little bit of The Wrens, with its defiant, “we’re still alive/so fuck you” delivered through what sounds like a megaphone far away from the other instruments. The surprisingly soulful chorus vocals on “i have a lake” make it another high point, and the two instrumentals really aren’t low points.
• I Was a King – Old Friends – Dumps the snarly, sometimes atonal electric guitar breaks of the previous albums in favor of some horns. Result is too hazy/dreamy/sixtiesish for me. Which prolly makes it perfect for plenty of folks.
• The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar outstanding indie-rock, shoegaze; clear advance over the EP (29.jan.2011)
• Lemuria – Pebble – Lemuria’s slow-burn co-ed indie rock reminds me a lot of Versus. J. Robbins’ production is (typically) ace. I generally take it as a bad sign when bands write songs about touring and writing songs, but I’ll give a band a pass when they’re this catchy (and smart). A winner.
• Metric – “iTunes Sessions” (EP) – The big draw here is probably the unavailable-elsewhere cover of The Buffalo Springfield’s “Expecting to Fly,” like “Help I’m Alive,” “Gimme Sympathy,” and “Eclipse,” it’s rendered acoustically, with strings. The rest of the tracks crank up the electric guitar to compensate for the lack of studio slickery; they make a pretty good case for metric as a bona fide live act.
• Modern Skirts – Gramahawk – new-wavish, keyboard-heavy indie rock with a fine line in making off-kilter sound combos groove surprisingly well. Some good vocal harmony ideas,too, although I could do with a little less falsetto.
• Office of Future Plans – “Harden Your Heart” (single) – J. Robbins! What more do you need to know? Well, maybe you need to know that the A-side is not a Quarterflash cover. And that the B-side is a cover of The Stranglers. And that Jawbox-on-cello dude Gordon Withers is aboard, along with people from other cool bands. But, basically, J. Robbins! J. Robbins!
• Robert Pollard – Space City Kicks – Can you fit a prog rock epic in two and a half minutes? If you’re Robert Pollard (or collaborator Todd Tobias), yes. “Children Ships” is almost like a Rush pastiche, only without busy Neil Peart, and much, much shorter. But the record also features an unexpectedly lovely and straightforward ballad, “One More Touch.” You know what I wish? I wish Tobias would crank the treble on the geetars more often. A bit more brightness would not be amiss.
• Say Hi – Um, Uh Oh – Took me a while to warm to this — no geekfests like in “Say Hi to Your Mom,” days, this record is for a different audience, and now the band name change makes sense. If the content is perhaps blander, the production is much fuller, and Eric Elbogen’s singing is much, much better. And it’s nice to hear him sounding kinda happy.
• Tapes ‘n Tapes – Outside – I feel a bit guilty when a record reaches me as little as this one. There’s nothing I’d say is particularly wrong with it, it just doesn’t command my attention. Sorry, dudes. I still love “Insistor.”
• John Vanderslice – White Wilderness – 2 months on, I’m still digesting this. It’s interesting to me how much the non-rock arrangements (this is a collaboration with Magik*Magik Orchestra) take this out of the realm I can evaluate and discuss. My dim understanding of actual musical structure goes out the window, and it’s even harder for me to respond to the lyrics so far out of the usual context I hear lyrics in.
• Wire – Red Barked Tree – My respect for the restless, exploratory verve of modern-day Wire is pretty much boundless, and I’m never sorry I bought/listened to one of their records. But I don’t find myself going back to them much; I feel like I appreciate them more than I enjoythem.