Dana Buoy (a.k.a. Dana Janssen, the percussionist from Akron/Family) just released his solo debut Summer Bodies on Lefse Records. It’s almost a complete turnaround from the sound listeners are used to from A/F. He leaves out any of the freak folk nature associated with his work and instead ventures down the path of dream pop to a transcendental level. Dana was nice enough to answer some questions for us recently. Read up on our interview!
After several albums with Akron/Family, what made now the right time to release an album of your own work?
I’ve always had a desire to craft a pop record and have it be just that. Simple and fun. With Akron we have always had so many ideas at once and we tried, and succeeded in a lot of ways, to give them room to exist in the scope of one album. There’s so much energy with the three of us and it works really well. But we all have our own individual roads we want to explore and we just found some free time to create so I took advantage of the space. And I found inspiration in a girl!
Since working as a three piece, how has that affected both the band’s ability to craft new songs and perform older material?
It’s been great. We all have more roon to just play. It was a learning curve but one that we navigated well. Now it’s actually preferred by us to create as 3. Older material can always be adapted. It’s already lived out there for this long as it is so it’s been nice refreshing the arrangements.
Now that you have moved to Dead Oceans, do you still maintain some sort of relationship with Michael Gira from Young God Records?
Yes. We keep in touch for sure. We actually just recorded some vocals on the new Swans record while we were in Prague. He’s a great artist and I treasure the time we spent together. His producing style is unique and incredible. We wouldn’t be here without him. But when we left it was just time for all of us to move on. No hard feelings at all. Ours and his doors remain open to each other.
The lyrics on Summer Bodies appear much more wordy and calculated than anything I’ve ever heard from A/F. I always think of those lyrics to be a series of wise mantras, while you alone tend to weave tales through the use of a dense vocabulary, almost bordering on scientific. Is this change of form a result of you being in the captain’s chair?
For sure. I was just trying to express the story. It may come across as a bit overwhelming at times but that’s how I feel about the whole situation. I found myself in the right place at the right time and used this inspiration to really express how I feel in words and song. Something I’ve always admired in Bob Dylan is his ability to paint the picture mostly thru words. He colors it with his guitar and arrangements but the meat and potatoes are in the words. Not that I’m comparing myself to the greatness of Dylans lyricism at all! I just relate to his story telling and choose to write in this way for this album.
Did you purposefully intend for the album to gradually decrescendo? It begins with the energetic “Anatomy Of Now” and slowly quiets down to “We On The Sea,” the most tranquil of songs. If so, was there a specific reason behind this?
Not so much. I was investing in the process more than I was focusing on the outcome. The mapping of the flow of songs came later. When heard in the context of vinyl maybe it’ll start to make more sense to people. It has a very side A side B quality to it.
Given that you were the sole instrumentalist of each song, did you face any difficulties in building each one piece by piece?
I used my mpc for the majority of the writing so that helped out a ton. When I started putting it into logic it was all pretty easy. I demo’d it all out at home like this and then when I went to record it back in Brooklyn the arrangements were already written so it was pretty much just replacing the sounds with live drums and other instruments. I can play to a click so that made things pretty effortless.
What was it like touring with Gauntlet Hair recently?
Those guys are great! I love the music and the dudes are all really sweet dudes. We had a lot of fun together.
What connections do you have with other Dead Oceans affiliate artists?
I’m friends with the Bear In Heaven guys and the Bowerbirds. We meet a lot of the Secretly [Canadian] bands too and they all seem so nice.
Can you give any insight to the plans of A/F and your solo project? Will you return to writing music with the original group after touring by yourself, and what lies in store for the Buoy project?
Ak will be recording this fall and releasing some new music next spring. I’m gonna be focusing on Dana Buoy from now until……. Who knows?!?! But I’ll be out there on the road playing this music for sure. It’s really great to have some new juice to create with.
You heard it here, folks. The future is open for both A/F and Buoy. Summer Bodies is a great record, lend it your ears. As if you need any more proof, here’s Dana performing “Satellite Ozone”, one of the album’s best cuts.
Hi all. Nick Wan here. Now that I’m free for the summer (barring starting my new job, moving out of my place and into a new one, and attending my friend’s wedding), the show season begins for me again. Below is a list of shows I’m most likely going to. All of them are highly recommended! I suggest tagging along with me. You can shoot me a line over on Twitter, or email me nick at 402productions dot com.
Plants and Animals @ Bottom of the Hill 5/18
They are touring in support of their latest release, The End of That. Last time they came around I didn’t have a chance to catch them, so tomorrow seems like a good night.
Dum Dum Girls @ The Blank Club 5/21
Recently billed for Maha Music Festival. Hoping their live show is awesome. It’s punky. It’s loud. I can only assume it’ll be a dance party.
The Avengers @ The New Parish 5/25
Just an all out punk show. I also love that venue.
Cr33P0cH @ Outer Planes Comics and Games 5/26
I normally hate chiptunes and 8-bit music, but Cr33P0cH’s CD release party in Santa Rosa has a few things going for it: 1) it’s in a comic book store that has never thrown a show before. Those are always fun. 2) Cr33P0cH is actually one of my good friends from back home, so I would love to be there to see him perform his stuff live for the first time. And 3) I’m actually opening for this show. If you’re in the North Bay, let me know!
Hugh Laurie @ Great America Music Hall 5/27
Dr. Gregory House and company won’t be seeing another season, but this does pave the way for Laurie to finally promote his music career (if that is what he wants to do for a few years). His blues style, sprinkled through House episodes, is actually fairly on point. I’m assuming this is a must-see show, as his west coast touring dates are far and few.
Mogwai @ Regency Ballroom 6/1
No explanation needed. And honestly, if you were one of the lucky ones to have seen Godspeed AND Explosions in the same week, Mogwai would most likely just be more icing on your post-rock cake this year.
Although Nate Kinsella, otherwise known as Birthmark, plays the majority of the instruments on all of his albums when he’s not filling in odds and ends for Joan Of Arc or drums for Make Believe, it’s difficult to view his LPs as solo efforts. Nate wrangles a multitude of noisemakers and he’s skilled at every one of them. Jumping into any point of his musical career shows it, such as when he’s rocking an off-kilter piano in JoA’s awesome “Questioning Ben Franklin’s Ghost”. He’s better described as a super-multi-instrumentalist. It is because of this that when it comes to his albums one can easily be fooled into thinking that a backing band is provided, or in his newest case Antibodies, an entire string section.
Listen to “Stuck”
The Pros:
As usual, Nate uses every bit of his arsenal to create the illusion of accompaniment. This time around, he actually worked with a string section to nail some essential bits on the record. So overall composition aside, Nate does not handle 100 percent of the instruments on Antibodies. Just 98.7 percent. The density created on each track gets so intensive at times that it harkens to another rogue musician’s work from a few years ago; Jim O’Rourke‘s The Visitor. Although Jim’s latest LP was sans-vocals, its focus over the course of its forty minute duration leapt from one landscape to another, thanks to the lush craftsmanship provided by O’Rourke and no one else. Kinsella similarly passes this feat of building a song one component at a turn to the point where it is unimaginable to think of these songs as soluble, (minus the relatively simple “Big Man”).
As the Kinsella family collective often does, Nate has dropped a compellingly lyrical bomb on his listeners. His words are casual yet gripping, and track by track, he seeps out confession through the cracks. What works best about these cathartic rhymes is the fact that he doesn’t indulge too far. Nothing gets overly dramatic, egocentric, or self-loathing; we aren’t staring into the soul of Nate Kinsella. That has never been his style, anyways. “Stuck” is instantly relatable to any cynic with half of a brain. A litany of insecurities can hit harder than doubling over in sorrow as most songwriters tend to; and with this, it feels like Nate has hit his lyrical mark.
The Cons:
For an album with only eight tunes, it may seem a tad heavy on the orchestral element present. About half of Antibodies carries a cello vibe, and the strings are always utilized for backing rather than blatant melody. This doesn’t result in songs sounding the same, but rather the string parts that inhabit them. They are easier to handle in small helpings like in the beginning of “Stuck”, but when thicker throngs appear in a song like “You Lighten Me Up”, they tend to feel more like a fixture instead of an instrument.
The Verdict:
Nate Kinsella’s Birthmark project’s latest release ranks as his most polished and professional to date. A relatively small offering, Antibodies covers excellent and associative emotional ground paired with both the acerbic bite and timid beauty that his instrumental palette allows.
Dana Buoy is really Dana Janssen of freak folk act Akron/Family in disguise. Well, not in disguise, but more so the solo epithet for the multi-instrumentalist. This is the same case as Paul Banks’ Julian Plenti branch off from Interpol, but more similar to Bradford Cox’s Atlas Sound project aside Deerhunter, because this music is much more electronic-oriented than the home outfit. Thank goodness that A/F is not on operation shutdown after the leave of core member Ryan Vanderhoof years ago. Now with Dana seeing the release of his debut album Summer Bodies, there’s even more reason to sweat over that prospect.
Listen to “Call To Be”
The Pros:
With this album, Dana transfers us from the familiar territory of woods and bayou that we’ve grown used to with A/F’s catalogue thus far and switches coasts on us. If the title isn’t enough of a clue, Summer Bodies is chock full of summery, beachside, meditative, electronic epics. Buoy pairs every song with wordy, calculated lyrics that would sound robotic if read off of pure paper. Dana gives so much vibrance and feeling to all this verbosity, and providing the right fit seems an impressive feat the likes of solving a multi-thousand pieced jigsaw puzzle.
Buoy has openly referred to the music on this LP to be “tropicore.” You would be hard-pressed to think of this as the “core” of any genre specifically. There is absolutely an island-like feel to it at times, but this vehicle is comprised of many different parts. Synths are relied on heavily to create the overlying atmosphere while Dana makes sure to check in with the frequent tape loop or waning guitar line; both clear compliments of the Akron/Family influence that is no doubt present. Another attribute of the former project that did not get lost along the way was his soft spot for vocal harmonies. Countless tracks feature Dana’s lush pipes creating a wall of sound on their own; in fact, we are introduced to the world of Dana Buoy via these harmonies on the leading song “Anatomy Of Now”.
Relaxing, yes. Flat out beach-like/tropical, not exactly. Buoy’s mindset in writing these tunes was goaded along by time spent at the ocean, without argument. So, from what you may have heard, do not let the description skew your view. Evoking this particular mood differs from musical style itself. Allow Summer Bodies to take you to that sunny, utopian place, but remember that while the overall tone appears much more sanguine than his usual work, elements are slipped in ever-so-slightly that harken back to A/F. “Futures Part” is serene in every sense of the word and marches to a simple yet pounding drum beat that could easily have been steam coming off of Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free. “Delicate Suitor” is as epic in scope as “Lumen” from Akron/Family, but with cheer in place of mystique.
The Cons:
As a whole, this album is really solid, but it can tend to be misleading at times. One of the disappointing instances here occurs during its interlude of sorts; “Untitled 1″, consisting of saxophone lines from a tape recorder tricks you into thinking that someone just popped in Music Has The Right To Children. It has that field recording quality to it and the potential to erupt into a venture that is more electronic than anything appearing prior, but alas, it simmers. The general pacing could have been modified just a bit to attain a greater consistency, but this is a mere suggestion. Summer Bodies starts off with five singalong, scintillating numbers, and the second half features the sleepier side of things that crawls to a hush by the album’s end. Critically thinking, Dana could have evened things out by scrambling the tracks, but some may defer that the transition from pep to nap works towards its cohesiveness.
The Verdict:
Regardless, it’s all pretty beautiful. Akron/Family have made pitch-perfect freak folk jams for years ranging from mellow (Akron/Family) to wildly erratic (Love Is Simple). Saying that any A/F fan would immediately warm up to Dana Janssen’s solo work is a fallacy, although it wouldn’t be that difficult. Summer Bodies leaves out any weirdness found in his group effort’s work and trades it in for kumbaya-esque campfire winners of all shapes and sizes.
Welcome, welcome. You have just come to the next stop on Ty Segall‘s wondrous music-filled tour of 2012! Our first stop was not too long ago with his album Hair, released with songwriting partner White Fence. Now we have another record that longs to capture the whole garage skronk ethos which Segall specializes in producing. No, not Slaughterhouse; that comes out late next month. This LP finds Segall instrumentally uninvolved and instead seats him in the actual chair of the producer. This is Super Treatment, the new wax from Infinity Cat affiliates Heavy Cream.
Listen to “John Johnny”
The Pros:
If you love hearing chicks kick ass, this is a great example. In fact, this group works like the opposite of a stereotype: three chicks and a dude ON BASS. Unheard of, right? Anyways, the science behind Super Treatment consists of twelve blisteringly heavy tracks featuring vocalist Jessica McFarland at her screechiest and most spiteful. In “John Johnny,” she refuses to point the finger at her titular main squeeze for cheating and rather threatens any other bitches who want or have had a piece. Other songs like “Prison Shanks,” which muses around the idea of jail being an adaptable environment conveys the essence of Heavy Cream; a leather-wearing pack of fierce, too-cool-for-school she-rockers.
The Cons:
Yes, here we have it. Another heavy, tape-hissy re-imagination of retro garage rock. As a writer, I am getting the inkling that these reviews are starting to sound the same. Thee Oh Sees, Uncle Bad Touch, Ty Segall & White Fence; seriously, has the beach rock revival exhausted itself? Obviously that is false, as Best Coast will be releasing their new album a week from today. The point is that all those aforementioned groups (minus Best Coast, of course) have been getting ahead in the “race” if you wish to call it that. The past two years were thickly coated with a new, often irritatingly forced take on surf pop. It was an exploding fad, as opposed to this garage stuff which never really blew up, but was more of an underlying and continuous effort.
When emulating sounds that go further than just a genre, but an era specifically, (much like indie surf), coming off as forced is an easy feat, and often an unintentional one. What is more apparent on Super Treatment than any other garage album I’ve taken a look at in the last year is that the retro sounding genre in question is more than capable of sounding mistakably strained. Heavy Cream’s biggest problem is that they put way too much elbow grease into the fuzziness and simplicity of their tunes. Whereas bands I have looked at such as Thee Oh Sees have taken the style and transformed it into something weird, wonderful, and enduringly unique; this quartet amps up the grit and lessens the quality. Worst yet, it all seems pointless. Production tricks/methods such as this only go as far as veiling songs for what they really are, and what lies at this album’s core is a bunch of mediocre, rehashed punk songs.
The Verdict:
For the genre’s sake, I really hope this isn’t the beginning of some terrible downfall for retro garage. It’s a specificity in music that many listeners have come to enjoy, and if it becomes redundant like Super Treatment, then it is a sad day. Heavy Cream are by no means a faulted band; they deserve their spot on Infinity Cat’s excellent roster. Either Ty Segall got way too indulgent during the recording process or this is truly an honest misstep. Whichever path landed them with this album, it remains a disappointment nonetheless.
Generally, I feel weird reviewing albums from close friends. The whole objective review sort of gets thrown out the window when you try to play softball with a friend’s album. Luckily, Alvin Pingol, most popular on the web for his instrumental covers of remix artist Pogo, doesn’t really need my help garnishing popularity or praise. Nor will he take offense to my snarky comments about his album. Rather, Pingol’s debut instrumental album Make Them Walk Like a Robot seems to stand alone from the “albums from friends” pile.
Check out what made Alvin famous below.
I’m obviously a proponent for instrumental jams. I mean… look at my track record. I’m a pretty easy guy to please. Normally, as I’ve discussed before, the hype music culture via YouTube sensationalism isn’t really effective in forming something more than just a cash cow. Rather, it’s a delivery system that feeds off the same energy the radio does: over produced tracks with shitty live performances. Usually the bottom of the barrel stems from the people who get famous off of a cover and then fail to impress with their original music. A few bands from the early 2000s come to mind: The Ataris and Alien Ant Farm both had huge radio rock hits from updated renditions of popular 80s songs. However, both groups never were able to surge past their cover song stardom with a follow up single that was equally as large or larger. Some acts are able to seemingly pull through, for better or for worse. Limp Bizkit‘s rise to fame was initiated by their TRL smash cover of “Faith”. Of recent memory, Karmin was able to take a step onto a larger stage after their ironic-yet-on-point cover of Chris Brown’s “Look At Me Now”. Of late and most notably, Aretha Franklin and “Respect”… well, you get the picture.
The large problem with cover-ers and their “style” is that they usually get pigeonholed by just doing covers. Take Pingol’s YouTube channel for example. With his home movies aside, the music he is promoting are his covers. There isn’t a mix of original tracks and some covers on the side. It’s a tragedy if you end up typecasting yourself. So, making it out of this hole you’ve begun to dug seems to be quite the feat.
Make Them Walk Like a Robot is definitely a way out. Self-described as alt-rock and indie pop, Pingol threads a needle through an eclectic set of styles and sounds using practically every instrument available to him. And that is something I don’t have to guess at, since I know Alvin’s bedroom studio and instrument library is limited to the equipment in his home, a baby grand piano at another friend’s home, and random doo-dahs he has Craigslisted. In all, Pingol’s debut album is seemingly an attempt to separate himself from his YouTube self — the professional artist versus the hobby artist.
Check out the entire album below!
The Pros
Alvin Pingol doesn’t fail to impress in terms of multi-instrumentation. It’s obviously not extremely uncommon to see a single artist play every instrument on the record, and Pingol is no exception. However, the separation of being able to do it and being able to do it with care is fairly large — one that takes a different set of skills, like patience and discipline and knowing what actually works and what actually is shit. This album seems to be well pruned, both on the player’s side and the producer’s side. The voicing instrument throughout the album is guitar, which would be an easy guess if you’re familiar with Pingol’s cover work. The accompanying instruments aren’t just a slathering of electronic pish-posh, which one may have guessed as his affinity for Pogo is something of note. Rather, it’s a mixed beast between a full-band set of instruments and some synth and pad drum accompaniment.
I would argue the album truly starts with track two, “Alan and the Blue Whale”, as it showcases the meat and potatoes of the album pretty clearly. Pingol’s guitar work isn’t based around being a total shredder, riffing up and down the fretboard. He’s a bit more precise as a guitarist. The pop styling doesn’t give rise to any slasher solos, so the emphasis on interesting melodic riffs plays a premium in keeping the listeners attention. For the most part, where the guitar lacks the piano helps out. Pingol’s jazz-fusion piano style plays into the whole package, as he is really trying to go for more of a bouncy and fun album rather than a think-and-dwell instrumental adventure.
The underlying tone of the album rests in this partially electronic pop and partially pop guitar rock vibe. What layers over are tons of different genres and styles. Pingol is relatively fearless in trying to incorporate a myriad of genres with his backbone guitar pop, ranging from instrumental hip hop, to folk, to flares of glitch pop and ambient pop. He cleans up most of his signal through some heavy post-production, incorporating those glitchy pans that Pogo is known for. In essence, “Careless Air Removal Specialists” is more of a dedication to the man who Pingol has become popularized by. whereas tracks like “Fizzy Root James” and the title-track “Make Them Walk Like a Robot” is more of Pingol’s strength.
The Cons
The creativity falls upon the artist, of course. And a single artist in his room alone with his thoughts may not be the strongest drummer or bassist, especially when you’ve played guitar and piano for the majority of your boredom. With that, the cons really do fall upon the rhythm sections of the album. At times, it’s real cheesy. GarageBand like. Pingol does try to freshen up the sound by incorporating both TR-808 clones mixed with his own set of acoustic drums but the steady 4/4 rhythm and all-too-easy predictability of the jam makes the drum and bass really fall into the background in a bad way. It’s no coincidence that the front instruments of piano and guitars are normally the most complex, but leaving the complexity out of the rhythm section turns this album from being something extremely interesting to just a solid listen-through. This isn’t to say Pingol lacks in drum or bass skills, as a handful of the tracks do show off his subtle cymbal pattern intricacies as well as creamy bass lines (“Alan and the Blue Whale”; “Catpaw Smooth Vegetable”), but it is to say that the idea on paper might not have been the best idea in application.
The pacing of the album is also a little off. The album really jumps around in terms of track listing. The track listing may have been a far after thought, as Pingol probably didn’t have many (or any) b-sides for this album. For instance, “Paradise Gardens Marinade” is so awkward sandwiched between “Larsen’s Biscuits” and “Alan and the Blue Whale”. That track on it’s own doesn’t really hold as much water as the other two that sandwich it either, which may have been reason to turn it into b-side if Pingol had either 1) the wherewithal to 86 a track from his self-made debut album or 2) a third-party producer. Many instrumental albums that I normally give a thumbs up to usually pay very close attention to track listing and/or pacing, as it can turn your album from a work of art to playlist fodder. Unfortunately for Pingol, shuffling the tracks on the album or throughout a playlist doesn’t change the overall meaning of the songs in a set. Although, if Pingol was wanting such an eclectic set of songs in the first place, he might not mind being playlist shuffle fodder.
Then again, the idea that your album is just a bunch of good, solid songs you wrote in your bedroom doesn’t necessarily make the album a good album. In my listen through, it took me a really long time to decide whether these songs would be mediocre in comparison to the other instrumental songs I have on my playlist. In short, yeah they would be. I wouldn’t mind listening to this, but compared to something like Toe or Sharks Keep Moving I feel that Pingol may just be literally the opener songs before the big boys come on. This isn’t to say it’s a bad deal for Make Them Walk Like a Robot, because in a general sense… it’s good enough to be thrown on a playlist with those bands and a strange assortment of instrumental and ambient music (Vince Guaraldi Trio, Anamanaguchi, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Sigur Ros to name a few), and that’s quite the accomplishment in my opinion. On the other hand, the division between a good listen and a home run hitter is a fairly large one for this album. One can only hope the next time Pingol finds the time to track out another handful of songs, he’ll really push the limits for all angles.
The Verdict
As a friend, this album was awesome. As a reviewer, you could have done a lot more. You know this though.
Does this put Alvin out of his YouTube cover shadow? No. If he has collected any fans (most likely he has) through his channel, this album will be a nice listen. But the divide between this album and his covers are also pretty large. This album showcases Pingol as a extremely strong musician whereas his covers showcase what some guy could do if he had some free time and played guitar well. That’s not to take anything away from his covers, as they took probably hours and days to put together (video and all), but let’s be honest… I’m sure many of you readers can think of a friend who is a very talented musician that could do what Pingol did in his covers. What Pingol did on his debut album is something the friend you’re thinking of most likely wouldn’t have done, which is what really puts Pingol in a new light.
In general, the album’s lack of creative rhythm sections at least rising to a complexity that the piano and guitar have to offer really pumps the breaks on the album. The guitar work and piano work is fantastic, and I would love to see Alvin Pingol pair up with an equally gifted pianist/guitarist to take this act on the road, but an addition of a bassist and drummer wouldn’t be necessary. Something to relate this to would be one of my all time favorites, Owen. The Owen studio albums are truly complete works of art, where Mike Kinsella showcases his guitar work and vocals first with a rich backing of accompanying instruments, many similar to the ones Pingol uses on his album. However, those tracks live are just played with Kinsella on the guitar and singing. All the songs take on a completely different vibe and feel live. For Pingol, I don’t believe I would get that same feeling, albeit being very impressed with his guitar playing and piano playing live. I would hope that the next outing expands as much as he expanded on his guitar and piano work for all the other areas he may have missed out on.
H. Jon Benjamin: Writer, prankster, voice actor and, if his onstage wardrobe is any indication, part-time hobo.
Even if you don’t know the guy, you know him. It might be from Home Movies, where he voiced two of the main characters and a good percentage of the supporting cast, or as the talking can of vegetables in Wet Hot American Summer. If you’re a bit younger, but still of the Adult Swim set, you may know him from Assy McGee or Lucy, Daughter of the Devil. Or as the title character on both Archer and Bob’s Burgers. Benjamin has guested on everything from Aqua Teen Hunger Force to Important Things With Demetri Martin to Human Giant to a Super Bowl commercial with Conan O’Brien. And his prank show, Jon Benjamin Has A Van, just got canceled by Comedy Central.
The important thing is, you know him from somewhere. And you should know that he’s on tour with a traveling carnival of dry, dark humor and guests– Jon Benjamin Has A Van alums Nathan Fielder and Leopold Allen at the Seattle stop, and Brendon Small (of Home Movies and Metalocalypse) in L.A. The Seattle show was a combination of stand-up comedy, improv, music, magic (well, one magic trick) and multimedia pieces including a Powerpoint presentation on the proper way to give ecstasy to a child.
The show isn’t particularly well put together, of course, and I think a broader audience wouldn’t have been entertained. But watching Benjamin work is such a joy for his fans that I never once felt bored. You know how some people could listen to Morgan Freeman read a cereal box and be moved to tears? I could listen to Benjamin read the Emancipation Proclamation or bridge graffiti all day, and it would be hilarious. Plus, he called my girlfriend on stage, so that was pretty cool.
It’s the Christopher Walken principle applied to a guy who is personified by his deadpan self-loathing and utter lack of giving a shit (par exemple: his phone rang mid-performance and he checked to see who was calling before shoving it back in his pocket to continue the show.) That, and his ability to make people say this, as I heard twice outside the venue: “That went to a dark place really fast”.
I’m a fan of comedians like Patton Oswalt and Louie C.K. and Brian Posehn– comedians who specialize in dark material and witty turns of phrase. But Benjamin may be the dark horse for Darkiest Comedian of the Century. Case in point, standing in Seattle’s Capitol Hill with a gigantic poster that says “GOD IS ANNOYED BY FAGS” – Benjamin’s attempt to “tone down” the message of the Westboro Baptist Church. The awkward, shocked laughter that rippled through the room exemplifies Benjamin’s appeal: he’s not the comedian who “isn’t afraid to go there”. He’s the comedian who doesn’t give a good god damn where he’s going, or whether you want to go there with him.
There’s not many more tour dates, kids, and there’s not likely to be another tour like this. Catch it while you can, before Benjamin gets bored and wanders off to do something else hilarious and incredible.
Our photographer David Wajfelner was on the scene during tUnE-yArDs and St. Vincent in Oakland the other week. tUnE-yArDs was noted to be trying to start up a Kickstarter for an Oakland “school of rock” where kids get to learn how to rock out, essentially. So far, she is pretty close to the goal! She’s trying to provide a library of instruments to the kids who are a part of the rock project. As for St. Vincent, she was a shredder and ended up crowd surfing at some point. Check out shots of the surf, the rock kids, and of course the artists below in the roll!
Marriages is a band that stems from Red Sparowes, consisting of 60% of Red Sparowes: Emma Ruth Rundle (vocals, guitar), Greg Burns (bass, synth), and Dave Clifford (drums). Kitsune, the Japanese word for fox, is a classic legend where the kitsune can become a human and have wisdom and power as they have more tails. On top of this, kitsune also lives extremely close to humans and normally is seen playing tricks or stirring up trouble among people.
With all of that in mind, I went into the album hoping for a sort of power struggle feel. On top of that, I was really interested to find out about Rundle’s vocals, since word on the street said she had some pretty killer pipes. And of course, seeing the differences that make Marriages not just Red Sparowes with vocals would be something of note.
Listen to the entire thing below!
The Pros
I feel like I’m always stressing seamless albums — no breaks or filler, meant to be listened to from the first track all the way through the last — and I get that from Kitsune. The album itself is no slouch in time, clocking in just under 30-minutes, but feels much shorter. It’s not the pace of the band either, as the majority of songs range in that head-bobbing 100-140 BPM range. The only thing I can think of was how smooth the entire album plays, with the planned song transitions bringing a sort of live set feel to the entire album.
There are some glaring similarities between Marriages and Red Sparowes. For one, the entire tone just feels like that heavy, dark Red Sparowes-esque post rock. That’s not a bad thing by any means however, and is elaborated on with the introduction of vocals. The song structuring is still progressive in nature, with parts of songs being repeated maybe twice at most. The weird descriptor I may use is “catchy”. By no means do I mean poppy or even upbeat, but rather instantly memorable. “Ride In My Place” has this extremely hummable bass line that I would assume everyone to get stuck in their head after a listen. A handful of tracks from Kitsune has that quality: getting stuck in your head, which is something that Red Sparowes never really tried to expand upon. Catchy doom is frankly more appealing to me.
Rundle’s vocals are definitely fire. She sings generally in a lower chamber but has flares of her range like in the track “Ten Tiny Fingers”. Most of the lyrical accompaniment is more ethereal than it is singer-songwriter-y. This style is completely more fitting to the entire package of Marriages as a band, and would have been fairly awkward to hear Rundle have any more emphasis vocally as it would have taken away from the aura of the album. Her guitar work goes without saying — fantastic. With her as the only guitarist in the crew it’s easy to see why she was a great addition to Red Sparowes. Red Sparowes in general aren’t necessarily known for being a cast of shredders, but Rundle definitely has some awesome showcasing of guitar work on Kitsune. In the same vein, Burns’ bass work is pretty spectacular in its own right. However, there are flashes of brilliance throughout Burns’ bass work on Red Sparowes. Hearing him shred it up, like on “White Shape”, is welcomed but not necessarily surprising. Clifford’s drum work falls in the same arena as Burns’ bass work: welcomed and expected.
For me, “White Shape” was my favorite track on the album. However, it should be stated again: this isn’t playlist fodder. It’s best experienced from the first track to the last.
The Cons
I was hoping for something more experimental, honestly. Strange timings, strange quirky instruments, possibly even something more upbeat. I didn’t get that. The album itself definitely takes on its own character, but doesn’t really show the range of where Marriages could go. It’s heavy, it’s dark, it’s basically Red Sparowes with vocals, but what else is it? Or can it be anything else?
“Part The Dark Again” gave me the most Red Sparowes vibe out of the songs. All the other songs felt different from Red Sparowes to me… felt like Marriages. “Part The Dark Again” didn’t. I got the vibe of “Red Sparowes B-side with vocals”. That’s definitely not what I wanted from this album. But that basically goes with the first con I stated: there may not be much separating Marriages from Red Sparowes. This obviously plays into their comfortability and strengths but is also a fairly conservative play.
The Verdict
This album has been a mainstay on my player since I got it. I personally love this kind of music. However, taking a step back and seeing the bigger picture is a bit harder. There are seemingly more similarities than there are differences between Red Sparowes and Marriages, which can be a bit polarizing. On one hand, the people who love Red Sparowes and that general sound and feel will fall in love with Marriages pretty easily. On the other hand, the fans of Red Sparowes who have heard about this new side project they put together called Marriages may be going into it expecting something different than what Red Sparowes has to offer. Essentially, the nuances that make Marriages different from Red Sparowes are more subtle than they are blatant, even with vocals included.
Marriages’ Kitsune is probably one of my favorite albums of the year, next to another Sargent House Records release with Good Old War‘s Come Back As Rain. The dark and at times dreamy vibe is something I’d be interested in seeing live from these guys.
I’ve been listening to Hurt since 2007 when I was going to college in Southern California. I had Vol.1 spinning constantly with “Rapture” testing the levels of my car speakers. After they released, “Goodbye to the Machine”, there was a long hiatus with no music in sight. Then, in 2012, they reappeared and announced “The Crux” – an aptly named record that toys with your feelings.
Wet Your Whistle
Pros
“So When” opens the album with a short piano ballad followed by the abrasive roar of J. Loren. Power chords pound away as Loren pops in and out with tender mercy and terrifying ferocity. Guitar solos tear through the grumble and a piano solo ends the track. “Eden” follows a similar sound, but with a more cryptic melody. Loren screams “But it’s the only time that Eden wasn’t far away/that believing wasn’t hard for me because I found you near.” The lyrical content is a similar mixture of their previous work. Half of it is a wrestle with god and the latter deals with deep-seated emotional issues surrounding (what would appear to be) the biggest bitch in the world and infanticide from Vol. 1. Scattered screams boom at the end and merge into my favorite track on the album. “Links & Waves” begins with clean electric guitar and a mild piano and Loren rips in with a verse/chorus that rattles you: “My life if yours because you’re mine. So we waited by the shore for the wave we’ve been looking for – to lie awake at night and make love – touch me, the way you touch me made me alive.” Every lyric evoked complete and total passion and vulnerability. As chills shot through my entire body I started to wonder how they could be so sadistic by making it only a minute long, but some things are more memorable if they leave you wanting more. “Sally Slips” follows the similar sound Hurt is known for. The southern brass knuckle of rock attacks with a persistence that is striking. Tracks like “Caught in the Rain” keep the album at a certain level of “somber” while maintaining a definite trajectory as their single “How We End Up Alone” soon follows to bring us back to familiar back-breaking melody. Then, wait for “Numbers” to tear you apart with a vicious elevated chorus.
Cons
If you don’t like Southern rock or music that packs an emotional punch, Hurt my be a little on the heavy side. This isn’t a con – I just needed something to take up space in this area. Buy the CD!
Verdict
Hurt always finds a way into the consciousness of the listener and evokes a certain level of emotion. They are such passionate musicians that it is a contagious sound even when it is produced in a studio. While the album is riddled with fierceness, there is a subtle amount of love and pain that you recognize only when it sneaks up on you. This is another really solid release from one of the best rock groups around. I’ll be seeing them in San Francisco this Wednesday and will give a brief live review of what I see. To be honest, I think they are going to set Hotel Utah on fire. Even if you don’t end up buying this album, check out “Links & Waves” for the 1:16 experience. Expect a small live review when I see them in 2 days. If you’re available, join me for a beer and great music.
Brief Live Review Follow-Up
I went to Hotel Utah with a good friend of mine and metal head, Dustin. He had never heard of Hurt before, but was down to have some beer and see a show in the city. I have terrible luck in San Francisco (I’ve mentioned this in the past). As a result, we find the best parking spot in front of the doors of Hotel Utah, but my I.D. is put into question by the man at the door. “This, my friend isn’t a real I.D.” he said. “You bet your sweet ass it’s a real I.D., sir. You can call the police if you need to confirm.” I was not going to miss this show because the bouncer wasn’t familiar with CA’s new I.D. cards — Fast forward a few minutes of banter and he gets it checked out by someone else who confirms that “It is real”. I shaved for the ladies, but regretted not keeping a little gristle for the show. That was a pain in the ass.
We sat on the top balcony and overlooked the opener and, eventually, Hurt when they came on stage. As requested by J., nobody had their phones out recording the set and being obnoxious. Believe it or not, there are some people who still value the raw, personal experience of playing music in a small venue and don’t like it being slathered on YouTube for others to gaze at casually. I stand behind this 100% and I’m glad J. said it outright.
The all-acoustic show began and made everyone freeze in position once the first track was over. From the metal head next to me, to the casual listeners standing in the background, everyone knew that this was no joke. Folks, I’ve seen a lot of shows in my life, but never have I experienced something as enjoyable and powerful as Hurt’s set at Hotel Utah. Each song, including a cover of “Wicked Games” was executed with passion and a love for music that a lot of bands forget about when they hop on a tour bus. It was mind-blowing.
Halfway through the show my friend Dustin asked me, “Hey man, have a cigarette with me outside”. I thought, “That’s funny, I don’t smoke.” I didn’t realize that what he was really saying was, “The band is hanging out right here, you should go be a fan boy for a few.” The guys in the band were all great, down to earth people. They let me throw out my fanboyism about being really helped by their music when I went away to college in ’07. Long story short, I really enjoyed talking with the guys from Hurt and it solidified the belief I already held about why they were putting on such an unforgettable show – there was a passion for music that came out of every pore.
What I can say post-show is that while I don’t have any pictures, videos, etc. to share, I recommend you take a trip out to see these guys play if you’re able. I’m nominating “The Crux” for Album of the Year in 2012 for 402 Productions as well. The more I listen, the more impressed I am.
On a brief side note, make sure you exit out of the side door at Hotel Utah. “Doves and a mango” await those who venture. (Copyright J. Loren Quote of the Night)
