The Friday Thing: Taste by Animal Collective

A while ago, I was 'youtube-ing' all the songs from the album Merriweather Post Pavilion, and when I looked up 'Taste' I came across a really strange version. I'm assuming they did this song live for awhile, but came up with a really clean different version for Merriweather. This performance was one of the things I came across, and I absolutely love it. It's VERY strange, and very different than the album version, but that makes it even better. I think Animal Collective should try more things like this utilizing objects found on the street to do some songs, because is this not awesome?


Taste

ORACULAR SPECTACULAR-MGMT

Oracular Spectacular-
MGMT
Label-Columbia
Status-Out as of 2008
1st technical Studio Album
Rating-3.5 Feathers

The Management came under the radar by opening for of Montreal back in 2005. Since then, and after a name change to MGMT, they have released their debut album ‘Oracular Spectacular’, quickly becoming hailed as “the band to watch” for 2008. Taking you through spacey-guitar riffs to the tune of psychedelic synthesizers, is easy to see why ‘Oracular Spectacular’ is the subject of recent hype.

This journey begins with a first step, and that first step is ‘Time to Pretend’. Chronicling the life of a stereotypical rockstar backed by moody synthesizers, and with an opening synth line effective enough to give you goosebumps, can you believe they didn’t choose this as the finale? After the pretending stops, MGMT goes on to prove that they know how to write a dancefloor filler. ‘Electric Feel’ is a space-rock influenced disco tune, and except for the disco feel it’s a great song. It’s not your typical dance song, but the thick bassline will be enough to help you develop a nice groove. After your trip to the late 70’s, ‘Kids’ comes in and brings you back with all its glory. The opening synthesizer is boss, and when the heavy backing synth comes in you have to get up and bop around, it’s simply impossible not to. With the basic synthesizer arrangement, punctuated by the sound of screaming kids and the main swooping synth line, you know MGMT’s created the perfect dance song that’s shockingly not on Top 40 charts. After the wonder comes the strife, also known as ‘4th Dimensional Transition’ and ‘Pieces of What’. ‘4th Dimensional Transition’ sounds like they tried to equal the drama of the previous songs, but failing to do so and adding that obnoxious quasi-tribal drum was a mistake. ‘Pieces of What’ is completely inconsistent with the album’s general sound. The whiney croon backed by a tinny acoustic guitar just sounds wrong, especially when they add the airy backing vocals and spacey synths at the end which even further just don’t go. ‘Of Moons, Birds & Monsters’ brings you out of your misery, taking you on a trip through an epic odyssey of sci-fi, simple guitar lines, and ambient synthesizers all ending with reverb strongly reminiscent of Muse. Past ‘Of Moons…’ the basic idea of the album fades, and the final two songs are passable. A great disappointment.

As a whole, MGMT are what they are hyped to be: masters of subtle space rock and neo-psychedelia. They’ve shown they can write works of genius, but they’ve also shown they can write a few easily-forgettables. They show extreme promise, and with their electric feel, there is still Time to Pretend for MGMT.

“We redid a lot of our songs that sounded too polished. Dave [the producer] ended up running the tracks through this thing that crushed them and made them sound really gross again. They're a lot better now.”-Ben Goldwasser

'Official' fan video for Kids

Recommendations: Time to Pretend, Electric Feel, Kids, Of Moons, Birds & Monsters
MGMT's Official Website
Note: Is that not the best lip synch, other than this, that you have ever seen in a music video? It's better than 99.9% of 'official' videos. I didn't put the official video for 'Kids' because the toddler crying makes me depressed. The lip synch in that sucks too. I mean, the video for A-Punk is better lip synched. I hope you enjoy and stay tuned for an of Montreal or a Tapes 'n Tapes review!

Thom Yorke and Bon Iver=Twilight?

Remember how at the Grammys last year, Radiohead performed? It was great. Remember how you heard, after the Grammys, that Miley Cyrus felt entitled to meet Radiohead, but Radiohead refused to meet with her? That was really awesome. However, Thom Yorke has just negated that fact. Of all people, Thom Yorke is writing a song specifically for the Twilight 2's soundtrack. Folkie/Indie Bon Iver is also joining in on this. This is really terrible. I understand, maybe they need the money, but c'mon! Of all movies, they pick Twilight. Not so awesome.


15 Step performed at 2008 Grammys

Source: Stereogum

The Friday Thing: Nantes by Beirut

About two weeks ago, I was watching Later With Jools Holland, and I found that Beirut were were performing. Until this point, I really did not give them a second glance, only having heard 'Postcards From Italy'. Granted I liked the song, so I decided to watch their set. After I watched 'Nantes', I was completely blown away. I did not realize how much talent the band as a whole had. So, for my Friday Thing, I chose the performance of 'Nantes' from La Blogotheque. This performance is even better than Later's, and it even has Will Sheff from Okkervil River in the band! I hope you enjoy!


Nantes

WOLFGANG AMADEUS PHOENIX-Phoenix

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Phoenix
Label-Glassnote
Status-Out as of 2009
4th Studio Album
Rating-3 Feathers

French band Phoenix are one of those bands: they come out with somewhat progressively better stuff, and couple of singles that could be mega hits, but they are still virtually unknown. They don’t take a whole lot of chances, never straying too far from their basic sound, but will their 4th effort ‘Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix’ be their ticket to the big time?

The songs ‘Lisztomania’ and ‘1901’ start of the album, and honestly, have you heard a better opening? ‘Lisztomania’ is such a catchy song. It has a nice bright groove that clears your mind and sets you in the mood for dancing. Leading into ‘1901’, that mood you were in sure comes in handy: you can’t help but bop around to it. The song immediately sucks you in with synth/guitar combination, and proceeds to infect you with its relentless hooks and guitar riffs. Unfortunately, past this point, there are no other songs that make quite the same impact, but there are a few good ones. ‘Fences’ is a heavy disco-influenced tune. It’s calm, and mellows you out, but its falsetto vocals make it standout from the rest. ‘Rome’ is another one. It’s not very upbeat, like ‘Fences’, but it has this reflective quality about it. The flow of the song is perfect: it starts out very Interpol with dramatic guitars in the background, and slowly builds. However, just before it peaks, it stops and Thomas Mars has a very somber solo moment, but it quickly dives back into what it hadn’t finished. It’s absolutely perfect. Except for ‘Love Like a Sunset Pt.1 & Pt. 2’, which is an intense 6 minute mess of self-indulgence, none of the other songs really stick out. They are all well performed and generically catchy, but they are nothing to shout about.

As a whole, ‘Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix’ was a mild disappointment. With shear awesome songs like ‘Lisztomania’ and ‘1901’, you’d expect the rest to ring loudly, but they (for the most part) only pinged. Mostly, nothing was in particularly bad, but nothing except for four were overtly fantastic. I do feel that ‘Wolfgang’ was a quality effort, and I’m a Phoenix fan now, but I doubt it’ll really make them known for more than that band with the guy who was almost in Daft Punk.

“When we were recording it, I listened for one month only to the Smiths, every album. Then I got bored and listened only to Crosby, Stills Nash and Young. But only the songs written by David Crosby.”-Laurent Brancowitz

1901

Recommendations: Lisztomania, 1901, Fences, Rome
Phoenix's Official Website
Note: I hope you like this, it was one of the easiest reviews I written in a long while, but I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing. I will be working on MGMT or oF Montreal so stay tuned. I appreciate your comments!

New Video for Crying Lightning by Arctic Monkeys

The first single for Arctic Monkeys Humbug is 'Crying Lightning', which was released a few weeks ago. Yesterday the video was premiered and I must say, it ain't no 'Fluorescent Adolescent'. It has some of the cheesiest cinematography I have ever seen, and it's so not what you'd come to expect of them noting the fact that the videos for 'Fake Tales of San Francisco' and 'Fluorescent Adolescent' were so epic. I really hope this is no representation of what's to come, and I'm trying to keep as optimistic as possible.


Crying Lightning

The Friday Thing: No Sunlight by Death Cab For Cutie

Ian France turned me on to the 'Black Cab Sessions' awhile ago, so I decided to check it out. This is one cool cab, very reminicent of the idea the 'Behind Closed Doors', the performances in an elevator, had. I heard this song alot on the radio a while back, and I have to say, this acoustic version is beautiful. Death Cab for Cutie really know how to make a song fit the summer months! I hope you enjoy!


No Sunlight