9: Do Make Say Think: It’s no secret that I used to like these bozos. In fact, I actually own two of their albums and have praised them here in the past. Life is very interesting. Especially in the ways that your persona changes. When I was still digging indie music, I would wonder from time to time, if I’d be 38 years old and still shop at used record stores searching for the latest kranky release. Obviously that’s a pretty horrifying thought but at the time I couldn’t really see my taste changing anytime soon. I used to wonder why more people weren’t “interested” in music and if they were just missing out on all these great and exciting bands. I’m certainly not in that predicament anymore. All it took was a swift, cruel encounter with something called reality.

Now I think, “hot new indie label…avoid like the plague.” Give me Naxos, give me anime music, give me screamo and hair metal but I’m not going back to what I was.

The first thing you notice about any given do make release is that it comes in some goofy cardboard sleeve instead of a jewel case. On a humid day these sleeves will really soak up the moisture and when you go to play it you’ll feel kinda gross or like you’re living in the tropics. God help me, I actually liked this band so much that I researched them enough to find out that this non-traditional packaging was in fact a deliberate effort on the part of the band. It really mattered to them that, from start to finish, their output was produced according to strict guidelines which also meant I assumed relying on “local growers” for the pulp from the trees that was used to make their cd cases. Anyway, let us just say that you couldn’t get crappier music without increasing your carbon footprint.

Damn, that sounds cynical. T_T

Another point of contention for this band is that they were instrumental in opening a rift in my friendship with zach. It was totally my fault, but I’d say that this incident was probably the canary in the coalmine as it were which signaled what was to come later for me in terms shifting taste in music. Basically, a while back I had committed to going to a do make show. Anyway, the appointed day rolls around, zach’s car is in the shop and he’s like “let’s go” while I’m sitting in my darkened room at my desk and I’m like “I don’t wanna.” If it had been a manga, in that panel I would’ve been drawn in close up with my hair covering my eyes with a long shadow over the rest of my face. There were three issues at play. 1) At the time I had a dread fear of lots of stuff, especially driving. 2) I sort of felt like hanging out with zach and chu would really drive home how much I was missing milestones in my own life and that wasn’t something I really wanted to think about. I think those reasons are understandable, however they arguably don’t have anything to do with dmst, I mean, it could’ve been any band. However, the third reason is at least somewhat specific to the band and that’s basically that it wasn’t going to do anything for me personally. I suppose in my mind I’d come up with any reason to justify avoiding going out. But, at least based upon my experience, all that was going to happen was that we’d go there stand around for a few hours and go back. If you’re socially awkward, you’re going to be so at a show too and it’s not like shows are particularly friendly or conducive to interacting with other people, especially with a band like dmst belting out their funereal dirges. And I’m not the type of person who can sort of psych himself into believing that I’m having a conversion experience witnessing a performance. I guess that’s part of what draws me to shred. I can watch somebody playing a technically difficult guitar part and think “yeah, it’ll take a lot of work, but it’s something I could reasonably learn how to do myself” but with bands like dmst I could never put myself in their shoes or learn to do that because their art is all about who they are as people and who they know. I can’t learn to be somebody else. That kind of idol worship is just hollow.

Update

Just wanted to post this video I came across on the anime news network. I may have to to check serial experiments lain again. Although what I really want is to watch Haibane Renmei but it’s out of print. Maybe I can pick up a copy at toracon.

Anyway, this is for the artists.

As I was out getting a meatball sub for lunch I decided that I should countdown the worst bands of the past two decades. I guess it’s kind of influenced by David Rees as Zach’s linked there a few times recently. I’m not trying to bite his style just trying to get some catharsis working through my frustrations with music. Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep up with it if people find it entertaining. First up is Godspeed naturally.

10: Godspeed You Black Emperor: The absolute nadir of the “adding strings to woosy indie bands” movement. “Godspeed” to fans. I confess, I don’t know a whole lot about their music. My exposure was mostly due to hearing my friends in the dorms play it. As such, I was just checking out their wikipedia entry which is a veritable goldmine of embarrassing and moronic info, and which I feel dumber as I read it. The entire article in fact is clearly written by a fan and has a condescending tone matched only by the subject. For example, the frequent Shakespearian asides which explain things for the average wikipedia reader.

Because the band is taper-friendly—that is, they allow audience members to record their live performances—fans often release new material before the band makes an official recording.

As if I would’ve assumed that the band went out of its way to be accepting of all things that start out big and gradually get smaller. But, I mean, this is indicative of a much sadder problem that, in my opinion, plagues all of indie music. Like, honestly, am I supposed to care about this crap. If I go to a show, I don’t want to have to endure some half-hour lecture or read up on it beforehand of how the people in the band are really just like you and me. But I guess that sort of posturing goes a long way. Seriously, get up there and fucking shred or don’t. Please, have some other reason for this band than the Peace corps photo-op.

This is how a real frontman deals with a “taper”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmRNSZHTr3Q

But really, where it all comes together is in the liner notes for the 70s Yes era massive rock opera Yanqui UXO. The sleeve contained a withering diagram which exposed the deep collusion of the recording industry with the military-industrial complex. This certainly would’ve been an “oh noes” moment had we had the term at the time and definitely provided a cornerstone for the “truther” movement that would follow. Those were heady days, and I’m sure that a lot of GYBE fans probably imported copies of Dominique de Villepin’s collected poetry to feel some sense of participation of a democracy of true statesmen. However it’s been around eight years since the album was released and I’ve taken it upon myself to update the chart to reflect the even more dire state of the world today.

As usual, my end of the year musings are pretty much exclusively dominated by what happened in the past 6 weeks, making my impression of 2008 be that of a pretty stressful year.  Forcing myself to look back with a little bit wider lens, though, I think it was actually pretty good.  Ross already mentioned that it’s been a good year for movies, but it’s been pretty sweet on a bunch of other fronts, too.  Here’s some stuff just off the top of my head.  These don’t occupy any order other than they’re what’s on my mind.

Best Music

This year was pretty heavily December-ended with my end-of-November birthday and Christmas supplying most of my year’s musical acquisitions.  Lindsay Anderson’s If,  wherein L’Altra’s chanteuse cuts a solo album and it’s pretty sweet. Beach House’s Devotion I got for Christmas and is on heavy rotation at the moment. Dreamy and intense.  And even though it didn’t come out this year, Bibio’s Hand Cranked is like the best album ever made.

Best Movies

Punisher: War Zone – ridiculously severe and surprisingly filigreed shoot-em-up.

Dark Knight riff trax – ANYBODY WANNA GO TO SHAKEY’S?

Best Video Games

I think I missed every important video game release this year due to outdated equipment.  Didn’t play anything old I found especially memorable, either.  I think my 2008 videogaming experience can be summed up by me playing through phantasy star I and II on game boy advance, hating every minute of it, but just finishing it because I started it.

Best Gaming

It’s been a banner year for roleplaying since Ross started 2 new games, I ended 2, and a few others have had significant streaks of riveting storyline.  It even spurred me to write and submit a few short stories.

Best Movie Night

I think both Ross and I had visions of some Ultimate Movie NIght where it would be me, Ross, Dan, Mark, Rob, and Andrey.  We even had a list of “ringers” all lined up and ready to go, but alas it wasn’t to be as everyone’s post-Christmas schedules were just too divergent.  Nevertheless, there were several memorable movie nights this year, including I think the Avatar run (? was that this year?), and the He-Man/She-Ra specials.

Best Science

Mark hit the big time this year [link updated], and Chu laid down a monster Applied Optics paper.

Best Books

Devoured a shitload of Delany and a bunch of Conan comics, too.  Have to say I’m still pretty into them both, though I think I’ve basically plumbed the depths of both of these wells at this point.  But I’m looking foward to reading Delany and Howard Chaykin’s comic Empire: A Visual Novel which I got for Christmas.

Best Future

Also giving a lot of thought to what 2009 will hold, of course.  Basically invested the whole of my being in the NSF fellowship application I have in, and will probably end up dying if I don’t get it.  Leaving the professional stuff aside, I think the thing I look forward to most is Darren’s triumphant return to movie night.

So what have you guys been into this year?  What are you looking forward to in the future?

I sort of tried to restrict my choices to some of the more low-key releases of the year. Here goes…

3/4HadBeenEliminated – The Religious Experience/Theology [Soleilmoon]
These are certainly the most lavishly packaged pair of albums I purchased all year, The Religious Experience coming in this perfumed sugarcane fiber sleeve, and Theology coming in a hinged wooden box, with both covers resembling Josef Albers’ “Homage to the Square” or some of the more abstract Schoenberg/Ligeti covers on Deutsche Grammophon or something. On The Year of the Aural Gauge Operation 3/4HadBeenEliminated instantly struck me as a band that was culling from so much more than a lot of others working the same street. This might stem in part to the fact that coincidentally 3/4 of these guys are accomplished soloists in their own right, yet while presumptions can sort of be made as far as who’s contributing what it all comes together with no hesitation. It makes me wonder if with The Religious Experience and Theology they’re commenting on the process of improvisation versus composition as much as anything else with these two releases. Either way the result is at times devastatingly beautiful.

The Religious Experience (Excerpt)
The Religious Experience (Excerpt)

The Cradle (Excerpt)
I Am Daughter (Excerpt)

Circular – Shaping the Unknown [Loki-Foundation]
I was looking through the Loki-Foundation website one night, anxiously waiting the Herbst9/Z’ev collaboration, and this CD immediately struck my eye, with its sort of pseudo-art nouveau/post-industrial revolution/geometric artwork. Loki seems like a pretty close knit group so I was surprised to see someone new on the roster. This album reminds me a lot of some of the best moments of Popul Vuh, without all the wonky prog-rock meanderings that usually never made it to film anyway, or any of the darker, less synth-laden moments of Tangerine Dream, or even some of the more ambient Markant releases—the drum beat on “Eclipse Unveiled” is 100% Markantian. Shaping the Unknown also manages to sound exceptionally dense, cinematic, and wholly atmospheric not just because of its use of reverb, which seems to be this kind of music’s biggest crutch. Check it:

The Triangular Center
Eclipse Unveiled
Volcanic and Fervent

Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words – Fall, Fall, Falling [Kalligrammofon]
I try to make it a point of almost fanatically following Thomas Ekelund’s music now not only because it’s usually so limited but because I’ve become increasingly intrigued at tracing his stylistic development from album to album and the tangents he builds off of on each release in between. Ekelund has been continually honing his style over the past several years, with the drone pretty much remaining the guiding light. His last album, Circles Turned to Lines Turned to Circles was among my last year’s favorites, and Fall, Fall, Falling is a natural extension of the foundations laid out on that album. While Fall, Fall, Falling might not come as such a surprise in relation to where Ekelund may be taking his music, it’s clear he’s continually perfecting a succinct, coherent album narrative. This isn’t to say it’s his music is any less challenging than before, but it seems to me that with each album anyway, Ekelund is getting better at expressing a solid narrative stream that forces a full listen, where all the facets of his sonic personality are there in some form begging to be peeled away with intent listening. I have to say, I almost feel that the joy of delicately peeling away the politics of the Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words sound becomes a reference point for appreciating it on some secret, unspeakable level. Listen.

July 12th 2005

Do Make Say Think – You, You’re a History in Rust [Constellation]
Much better said.

Giusepi Ilesai & Nicola Ratti – Bellowes [Kning Disk]
While listening to the second track of this at home downstairs, my father blurted out, ”Your music’s a little monotonous, isn’t it’?” That was the second time he had said something to that effect in a one week span. It’s some wannabe-renegade bullshit, I know, but for his remark I appreciate this album even more now, and I even decided to replace Ilesai’s solo work August with this one in the year-end list only because I honestly expected something a little more challenging and arguably less stereotypically Fennesz-ish from Ilesai’s most recent album. On the other hand, while this album really doesn’t offer anything groundbreakingly new, it does at least see some fading back to the more discordant or dissonant sounds I’ve heard in Ilesai’s work, and even harkens back to the, while still fairly subtle, more explicitly Techno underpinnings I’ve come to appreciate and find so little of elsewhere from artists on a similar wavelength. I don’t want to downplay Nicola Ratti’s involvement, but I’m new to his work, yet from what I’ve heard of it, who contributed what is anyone’s guess. Not a bad thing.

I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII

Neurosis – Given to the Rising [Neurot Recordings]
I have to admit, with the weight of influence these guys pull, thinking back to when I first heard them, I sort of couldn’t stand the vocals. Honestly, at their most contemporary sounding they’re kind of glaringly obtuse, but not always. And to be fair, they really did grow on me over time. It’s in the way this guy (Scott Kelly) inflects I guess. I think for a newcomer, once you get past the at-times kind of mediocre vocals, you might appreciate just how fucking killer this album really is. “Fear and Sickness” is just fucking mammoth. The other thing that struck me about Given to the Rising is that it caused the second instance I can remember of outside sound affecting my dreams, where I dreamt of a small propeller plane landing in my other neighbors’ driveway from to the kind of rumbly lull that starts off “At the End of the Road”. Goddam incredible.

Water is Not Enough

Rosetta – Wake/Lift, The Cleansing Undertones of Wake/Lift [Translation Loss]
While from what I’ve read, it seems like Wake/Lift wasn’t quite the follow-up people were hoping for, but experiencing such a devastating live version of “Clavius” from their split with Balboa, I couldn’t help but mention them. One thing that really had an impact on me about Wake/Lift is that there’s this guitar feedback going on, most notably in “Red in Tooth and Claw”, that’s played up in the mix which almost sounds violin-like. It’s got this distinctly sweet scratchy-ness that’s pretty unmistakable. Moreover, while these guys are totally indebted to Neurosis (who isn’t with this stuff, right?), I think what sets Rosetta apart from some of the other post-metal or whatever bands these days is that their work remains fairly serious while lacking a lot of the pretension associated with bands like ISIS, which I guess stems in part from their choice of subject material. That said, though, it was pretty depressing seeing these four guys play so commandingly for such a short amount of time, simply because they had to get to work in the morning, only to walk away with $25.00 plus merch money between the four of them.

(Rosetta @ Myspace)

Scraps of Tape – This is a Copy is This a Copy [Tenderversion]
I almost forgot this album came out in 2007, but I pulled it out recently while tracking down all those perfect soundtracks for a snowy winters. This album embraces even more delicate electronic underpinnings compared with their debut, mixed with care, unobtrusive and almost easily overlooked. That said, this album definitely rewards repeated listens. Subtleties are played up in all the right places, like the string slides or meticulous feedback swells of “Death as it Should Be” or on the crushing “How Your Heart Gets Thrown”. Overall, the guitar work is pretty incredible, and the production-level is noticeably heightened over their debut, where then it seemed like someone thought the only way to make everything sound even more forceful was to just over-compress and hard-clip everything in mastering. Scraps also have a drummer that at the right times sounds like Art Blakey gone post-rock or something—i.e.: heavy-handed destruction. To name-drop for the neigh-sayers, this is right up there with any of Do Make Say Think’s finer moments, and that’s saying a lot for a band with only two proper albums under their belt now. Look forward to more Scraps of Tape. Don’t take my word for it, though:

Death as it Should Be
Pickpockets Vow
Since all the Birds are Moving, Shouldn’t We

Stephan Bodzin – Leibe ist… [Herzblut]
If I had to describe this album I guess I would say it’s sort of like the French square-wave disco-revivalist scene meets Pan Sonic at some Bauhausian minimalist refuge piped out of a Minimoog. I have to be honest, I wasn’t initially expecting the level of detail this album delivers either, like the creepy vocal underpinned high-hats on “Leuchtraft”, and other weird ornamental shit slowly revealing itself after repeated listens. This album also manages to have the gruff underbelly of any of the grimy bass-heavy stuff coming out these days, while somehow paying homage to forgone synthesizer music in all its delayed and arpeggiated glory. Apparently this guy is like a world-wide Techno sensation and sometimes plays to crowds of like 10,000 people or something. Who knew?

(Stephan Bodzin @ Myspace)

Uusitalo – Karhunaninen [Huume Recordings]
I make it no secret that I’m a huge Sasu Ripatti/Vladislav Delay fan. His music never ceases to amaze me or make me rethink why the hell I would bother trying to finish my shit anyway. Mark once told me, though, that the best concerts make you want to go home and work on your shit, and I think the same applies to albums, so in that respect this one is no different. That said, I was really surprised at how discreetly this one passed through some online stores, Boomkat especially. I can’t remember what did, but for whatever reason this album didn’t manage to make their best of the week list, despite being better than a whole assload of Techno out these days. What I like about Karhunainen is that Delay has gotten a little more daring in the repetitiveness of particular phrases in his tracks, still keeping them loose, while as always lining them with subtle shards of sound. That and the basslines are to die for. “Sikojen Juhla (Feast of Pigs)” and the title track are just fucking relentless. Kill it:

Korpikansa (Backwoods People)
(Uusitalo @ Myspace)

Okay, I’ve been meaning to do this for a while. Here’s a top ten list of video games, actually top 18. I’ve arranged it by system. At the end of the day, when you’re making a list like this you have to go with what is personally meaningful. I can understand that you probably won’t agree, just don’t try and tell me I’m missing final fantasy 7 or some other self-indulgent square piece of crap. (more…)

I’m still pretty lost as to the whole “roaring shark” thing (blame my technological ignorance), but I’ll contribute a very provisional top-10 albums/songs list I just thought of:

1. My Bloody Valentine – “Soon”

The undisputed kings & queens of nineties-era psychedelia. Loveless is a more than competent alt-rock album sent over the edge by Kevin Shields’s guitar genius and its unique production method (it sounds like it was dunked in battery acid just before packaging). “Soon” is incredible – as is the whole of Loveless – even if you’ve seen the embarrassing early nineties video.

2. Massive Attack – “Unfinished Symphony”

Trip-hop at its most elegant. The opener on Blue Lines, “Safe from Harm”, is excellent as well.

3. John Coltrane – A Love Supreme (the whole damn thing)

Nothin’ wrong with Coltrane, in my opinion.

4. Pelican – “March to the Sea”

It was either this or something from Takk… by Sigur Ros, but I’m a sucker for loud guitars played by guys with metal chops, so the #4 spot goes to art metal’s nerdiest intrumental (or is it intru-metal?) foursome. Honorable mention to the Icelandic elves.

5. Gillian Welch – “Wrecking Ball”

The “Soul Journey” album as a whole is great, but a little mellow for my taste. This one adds drums and a fiddle, and references Welch’s past as a bass player in a college-goth band and her former drug use.

6. Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers – “Free For All!”

From the hyperactive album of the same name. See Wayne Shorter’s nasty sax solo.

7. Bob Dylan – “I Shall Be Released”

Does anyone know when this was originally recorded? I’ve only seen it on his second greatest hits album. Anyway, it’s not played nearly enough.

8. Afghan Whigs – “Going to Town/Honky’s Ladder”

A nice one-two from the Whigs. For some reason I always associate these guys with Girls vs. Boys. Is it the funky noise in suits thing?

9. Kate Bush – “Cloudbusting”

Kate Bush is an ever-adventurous cheese queen, but her voice is incredible and she’s consistently intelligent. If you accept her essentially cheesy nature, you can begin to appreciate her genius. Sure, there’s at least one cringe-worthy song on each album (see “Bertie” from the recent Aerial, “Waking the Witch” from Hounds of Love), but she hits at least as much as she misses. “Cloudbusting” is the classic choice for a Bush single.

10. Prince – “Kiss”

Despite the potential horrors of the Kate Bush-Prince axis (see Bush’s The Red Shoes album), Prince remains required listening for me. There’s no way to explain his greatness. On the subject of funk, I’d like to make a plug for forgotten soul man Maxwell’s ridiculous r&b version of Nine Inch Nails’s “Closer.”

Thought I’d give my top ten favorite albums to start rounding out the site.

(more…)