Newspaper Page Text
GLOS
Harmonium
Lovitt
It you go to the recorrt store and
pick up Harmonium by Gibs. you will
read this quote on a sticker on the
cover:" . riveting layered soundscapes
ot lush melody and sultry beats
Whenever I see quotes bookended
by ellipses. I imagine a reviewer
bashing the band, writing something
like. “The only thing rescuing this band
from utter wretchedness is this one
track that features one minute of riveting
layered soundscapes of lush melody
and sultry beats, but overall this sucks,'
from which a victory is snatched
from the jaws of defeat. But I digress
already. I mention this because the
above description could be attributed
to an enormous range of music. What
I think of when I read that is trip-hop,
something Gibs is certainly not.
The trio hailsJrom three spots
on the American map, working on its
debut via file transferring. That's quite
the trend in music today, enabling
bands that would never exist to piece
together an album in a more individual
fashion. Gibs features the former Denali
vocalist Maura Davis, brother Keeley
Davis (also a Denali member as well
as frontman of post-hardcore Engine
Down) and Cornbread Compton,
who manned drums with Keeley in
the latter. Simply combine those two
bands with beats, synthesizers and a
hint of canned orchestra, and you've
got the recipe for Harmonium. The
problem is the beats are too sultry, the
soundscapes not really very riveting or
layered at all, and tne melodies a little
on the arid side of lush.
Many who came of age during the
regrettable emo boom a few years ago
are following the trajectory of music
that GIOs traverses This is still emo but
too “sophisticated" to label as such A
track like “Employee" has all the right
elements in place—soaring boy/ girl
vocals, a sweeping flow overlaid with
string flourishes, etc—but a spade
is a spade, and I for one am unmoved
by merely competent post-emotional
hardcore posing as refined rock. Pass
Michael Wehunt
III
■ • B
Myth Takes
Warp
hipster 1 Dude, have you heard
Bong Bong Bong' 1 ''
Hipster 2 "Who'’'
Hipster 1: “Clunk Clunk Clunk.
Chick Chick Chick ’
Hipster2: “Uh..."
Hipster 1: “Their names three
exclamation points, which means you
can call them any sound three times,
like Bling Bling Bl...'
Hipster 2: “Oh yeah. I know them
That shake your butt' song, the one
about being at the schoolyard with
Giuliani. They're pretty cool. Isn't
dance-punk dead, though'?"
Hipster 1: “Yeah, but they've
always been as much Talking Heads as
dance-punk. But this new album Myth
Take& It's on Warp, which rules, and
it's probably their most put-together
release, and, I mean, it's awesome,
but . I don't know It's not grabbing
me at all. The title track is everything
that makes the band good, with
snaky guitar, funky liquid bass lines,
and propulsive beats, polyrhythmic
everything, but I just want to skip it
But then this one. All My Heroes Are
Weirdoes.' brings the disco full-on, and
I’m seriously digging if
Hipster 2 "Sounds like more of the
same to me."
Hipster 1 “'Must Be the Moon' is
goofy bordering on stupid, like a lot
of their songs. See how I'm just going
through track by track giving a short
description? Thais how unexciting
this record is. And, c'mon, this sound
should be getting me pumped up Duh."
Hipster 2: “Anything experimental?
That would make up for its biahness."
Hipster 1: “Actually, I was getting
to that The last three tracks made me
gladl bought this They sound more
like Out Hud, singer Nic Offer’s other
band."
Hipster 2: “Didn't they just break
up?"
Hipster 1: ‘Yeah, damn it But 'Bend
Over Beethoven' is brainlessly simple—
thus good—but there's something a
little different, which segues into Break
in Case of Anything,' which is horn-
driven DFA-style awesomeness. But
'Infinifold' closes out the record on a
un-exclamatory note. God, it rules so
hard. It's quiet and beautiful and epic
somehow in only five minutes. And
beatless! The band made a good move
putting all the dancier stuff in the first
half. In the past, its records have kind of
struggled to find momentum. But still,
I don’t know. I want to love this album,
but I just donf
Hipster 2: Bro, I think, you just
did a record review!"
Hipster 1 “Yeah . that was easy!"
Michael Wehunt
FIGARO
Picture This: The Mixtape. Vol 1
Black Mane Entertainment
Practically brothers with Elite tha
Showstoppa (who guests on one song
on this mixtape) and newly signed to
Biack Mane, Figaros got. at the very
least a pretty good ear for picking
backing tracks It's no! that he's vocally
indistinct—its perfectly clear what .
he's saying on each song—but there's
also not a very strong sense o* a
voice yet on these 22 cuts. A lot of the
local rapper's subject matter is fairly
standard stuff, too: one love song, one
self-blazon to sexual prowess, loads of
posturing Some of it works ("Boss" is
great chest-thumping), and some of if
doesn't, but mostly Picture This: The
Mixtape, Vol. 1, an aimost 90-minute
record, needs more variety.
The songs that do have it stand
out. “Ride," for example, covers
familiar ground in its tale ot cruising,
purple drank and ogling ladies, but its
summer thunderstorm of voices on the
chorus mixes well with the largeness
of the sound as a whole "In GA," an
ode to the state we call home, complete
with a roll call that ranges from Martin
Luther King Jr. to Young Jeezy. evokes
something like statetriotism; maybe the
Georgia tourist bureau should be trying
to reach new markets with it. Even the
intro. ‘Do Something." which talks
about the desire to. well, you Know, has
some charm in its praise of the hustle
But, there are too many songs
and too many songs that don’t quite
have it. You can rap about shooting
people and dealing drugs as much
as you want if you make it creative,
come at it obliquely, stretch your
powers of metaphor, but you need
that unexpectedness to be present
throughout All we’ve got on this
mixtape is potential
Hillary Brown
SISTER VANILLA
Little Pop Rock
Chemikal Underground
The horrible band name is only
one of the many obstacles that Sister
Vanilla throws at listeners with Little
Pop Rock The project was conceived
by Jesus and Mary Cham siblings
William, Jim and Linda Reid, and
long-time cohort Ben Lurie Though
the album is not an entire failure, it is
the weakest entry in the Reid family
catalogue Yes, it s even worse than
Munki. if that's possible
Opening number “Pastel Blu p “
is a sweet and day-dreamy number
that would work well in a Sesame
Street montage, and “Jamcolas" could
have easily been culled from some
long-forgotten cache of Psychocandy
outtakes But as soon as little sister
Linda's airy croon takes shape, the
albums finer qualities are stripped
away.
“Can't Stop the Rock" is the
discernible breaking point. Linda's
voice bares an unmistakable tamiiy
resemblance, evoking the most
brilliant moments of her brothers
careers. But amidst the mane lyrical
chatter and the circa 1997 alternative
rock radio melodies her singing ;s
quite tormenting The slinky, sultry
grooves ano druggy sneer in' Tolp'
and Tne Two of Us" reeks ot the
Studio pop song-craft once taken to tne
airwaves by the likes of Garbage arid
the Cardigans This aesthetic carries
over from the songs to the pseudo
slick Photoshop cover art Everything
about Little Pop Rock screams '90s
alternative chic, when a dose of '90s
noise would do this brand of pop a lot
of justice These guys should know;
they pioneered the sound.
Chad Radford
KIEfiAN HEBDEN &
STEVE RED
Tongues
Domino
The formula for an artistically
successful band is simply the two
pronged combination of a) good ideas
and b) a good drummer. Everything
else'S gravy. Toques distills this
theory to such a great extent that I
would assume that Kieran Hebden and
Steve Reid are monitoring my every
move and thought. The former is more
commonly known for his work as Four
Tet, wherein the Brit solo artist Hebden
produces buzzing, humming layers
of soft sonics coupled with warmly
benevolent hip-hop beats that seem
antonymous to their origins: a cold,
dead laptop computer The latter’s
resume is all the percussive snap and
swing behind Miles Davis, James
Brown, Fela Kuti and others. Given
Hebden and Reid's pedigree, there isn't
much surprise that this collection of
jams is mostly right on.
And I do mean jams: all 10
dialogues on longues are improvised
in full. Even though Hebdens
squelching beeps and pop-up-
book samples sound scattered and
occasionally disassociated with one
another, this is undoubtedly the sound
of two people in a room playing
together. Reid's drums in particular
own that room-mic’d quality that are
as much a part of the larger history of
jazz as the man himself If I had to say
there was any sort of follow-the-leader
involved, I would probably surmise
that Hebden's dots and loops were the
crux of the sessions. The organics
spilling from the speakers are dynamic
and playful, with Reid often given the
challenge ot playing along with the
repetitive syr.th pads that Hebden sets
in motion Reid's contributions are the
most unexpected ol the two—his beats
don't recall so much jazz as they do
Krautrock; these songs don't swing,
they percolate. Old dog. new tricks, etc
It's the meandering qualities at
play here that sometimes yield less-
tnan-rewarding results And by virtue
of the off-the-cuff techniques ai play,
hooks aren't as plentiful as grooves,
collisions, and rhythmic whirligigs
But the peaks and valleys are traversed
witn ease, and the finished result is far
more engaging than one might guess.
Hebdens world of new-school rabbits
exploding from various hats is a pretty
charming match to Reid s reserved
out psychically engaging drumwork,
and the pair exceed the world of jazz-
eiectromc collaborations oy a few
heads. Wallpaper its not. and that in
itself is an accomplishment
Jeff Tobias
VILLAGE
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