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JUNIOR SENIOR
Hey Hey My My Yo Yo
Rykodisc
Danish duo Junior Senior makes
it look easy with its special brand of
cutesy disco-pop, melding influences
of ‘60s pop, 70s funk (listen for that
guitar) and '80s hip-hop into an overtly
optimistic outlook on music. It sends
a call for dance revolution out to the
young masses and leaves behind the
trail of sexualized undertones that
usually accompany club-goers. It rallies
troops with slogans like, “Boys and
girls, what are you gonna do for the
nation? Well, you're gonna use your
imaginations!" Junior Senior sports
an easy-going manner, as if it weren't
painstakingly calculated behind the
mixing boards of a sterile studio. Junior
Senior is here to simply have fun, and
do so with production wizardry.
Sonically.the snare hits and bass
kicks sound like smacks from oversized
boxing gloves at the carnival. They hit
you with gleeful abandon, substituting
the minor pain for the pure joy in the
activity’s rough and tumble. Indulgence
in synthesized orchestrations comes in
abundance, settling for an overstuffed
production approach.
But like anything sweet. Hey Hey
My My Yo Yo should only be taken by
the spoonful to help this dance-heavy
medicine go down. At times, it feels
that there is so much pop shoved into
each song that it could make your teeth
rot. The album is front-loaded with
adorable singles, while the mid-section
slackens with motifs and themes
mercilessly exploited in the beginning
of the album. Yet its revelry does not
sound too far off from an evangelical
mission statement, in each instance
getting us to rise to the occasion and
move to a greater glory.
Daniel Boroughs
THE SUEX EFFECT
Faces of the Tree
Independent Release
The Suex (pronounced “sway")
Effect is a local instrumental trio long
on jams and really short on lyrics.
However, spastic outbursts of funk,
reggae, jazz and rampant psychedelia
can be found lurking in the corners of
Faces of the Tree, the band's debut.
Guitarist Richard Barrett, drummer
Jonathan Daniels and bassist Miles
Karp are the Suex Effect, and. in the
past months, they've become regulars
at Tasty World and Italian eatery Amici,
even putting in more than a handful of
appearances at the Georgia Theatre.
Sometimes, as on the hyper funk
noodling of "Space Cataz" (are these
guys paying homage to “Aqua Teen
Hunger Force" here?), they sound like
what one could imagine as the hippie
Minutemen. When things slow down,
though, as on the steadily climbing
“Big 0,* the band often seems to be
sailing in search of a musical anchor
that will put its wayward vessel back
on course.
If you covet hazy, psychedelic
jams that often get hijacked.by
slaphappy bass licks, sinewy, slick
funk guitar leads and unpredictable
atmospheric drums, you'll want to
sway—sorry, "suex"—in this direction
as proficiently as possible. Otherwise,
it’s probably best to stay situated on
dry land.
Michael Andrews
The Suex Effect is playing at the
Georgia Theatre on Wednesday, Aug.
22.
AU
Au
Aagoo/ Oedipus
The swelling orchestrations of
Portland, OR's multi-faceted Luke
Wyland throb and heave at a steady
pace like bruises on the mend. The
hypnotic looping piano chords of
“Boute" roll over each other, building
at a distance, then emerge in the
foreground with click-clack percussion
and a soaring legato vocal that only
makes its presence felt when need be.
The rising and falling crescendos of
the song’s composition are daunting,
yet they hush themselves at a soft end.
In comes “Sum," a track that jests with
the listener.
Wyland's arrangement brings the
banjos and flirtatious chimes/ cymba!
crashes to the forefront, interspersed
midway with a raucous drum-thump
that might lead one to blissful
abandon. It's not far off from Akron/
Family’s more haphazard moments
or dragging at the heels of Animal
Collective territory. Nevertheless.
Wyland seems to do whatever adds
new shine to an old shoe. On “Shelter,"
overshot drone is added to what is
becoming a somewhat mixed bag of a
disc with flittering piano all along the
way that still retains the distance it had
on prior tracks. Ads high point strikes
on the staggering track “Deaih," where
Wyland plays a wet and tired bluesy
guitar lick over and over with more
and more care to an emerging chorus
repeating, "Bring me my shadow...
bring me my death."
The latter few tracks of Au get
bleaker and sparser with more room
for nuance. Acoustic guitars twang in
and out of tune on "Life" and give rise
to a gentle hum and finger-picking,
ending with cymbal shimmers. On
concluding track "Ask the River," the
glint and glitter of percussion rumbles
to a peak and then gives way to
gently pattered hand drum along with
looped'n'plucked guitar. It’s a fitting end
to a set of aching experimental pieces
doused with a certain melancholic
aura—impressive!
Daniel Boroughs
SPOON
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Merge
Spoon has never been overstated
and explicitly direct in its approach.
Rather, the band evokes a hard
shuffle and a crack of the guitar. Britt
Daniel and his bandmates take a
terse stance on rock with acoustic/
electric guitar, bass, piano and drums,
but the detailing is nuanced with
extra percussion, handclaps, brass
sections or whiffs of strings when
necessary. And necessity is the key,
not desirability. Spoon thinks about the
weight of the song and with each listen
and layering, the sound gets heavier,
like the sweat of the bass echo or the
reverb holler from Daniel's chops.
"Don't Make Me a Target" is an
earnest plea from Daniel to lower our
hands from their dismissive triggers
and in return, he will self-critically
be able to elude fault. A little over
halfway into the song, the band dives
into a piano-driven romp marked by
slamming handclaps, shooting all
suspecting glances a fiery rebuttal. The
nonchalant singalong of ‘life can be
so fair, let it go on and on" in “You've
Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" is what thrusts
Spoon to the pinnacle of flawless
fits of pop and swaggering austerity.
The bombast of centerpiece “The
Underdog" shoots for the stratosphere
and catches it in all its calculated
compactness, from acoustic guitar to
claps to brassy blasts chiseled down
to a sharp haircut that, aurally, looks
fabulous.
When all is said and done. Spoon
this time around plays a fair game that
can resemble safety, but the appeal of
the band’s sound is its staying power,
garnered by high-water production
duties and grounded by impeccable
songcraft.
Daniel Boroughs
8AVATH & SAVALAS
Golden Pollen
Anti-
Ever since Guillermo Scott Herren
moved from Atlanta to Spain, he's
relocated his musical focus to the
same climate. Each successive Prefuse
73 record has been solid, but a step
down from its predecessor. Savath &
Savalas, on the other hand, began as
a bare-bones Latin-glitch project, but
grew into a flourishing partnership with
singer Eva Puyuelo, peaking with the
recent Mariana EP. Now comes Golden
Pollen, and it's both a surprise and
a logical branch on the Savath tree.
Herren has predictably deepened his
exploration of traditional Latin pop
while toning down the laptop trickery.
But this time out, he sings nearly every
song himself. And although it’s not the
first time we've heard his voice, it’s still
a bit shocking how pleasant it is. Mia
Doi Todd lends her haunting vocals
to the strumming intro. Jose Gonzalez
takes the lead on the plucky “Estrella
de Dos Caras." The hignlight, though,
is “Era Tu," on which Herren croons
over acoustic guitar and an orchestral
backdrop. Herren has become an
immaculate producer. The purity of
sound of Golden Pollen alone is worth
the admission price.
While it doesn't have the staying
power and sheer ingenuity of his
Prefuse 73 work. Savath & Savalas
continues to be a viable moonlighting
job for the prolific Herren. As is always
the case with him. there are several
projects in the works, including an
ambitious Prefuse album, and Golden
Pollen is the best second-best we
could have.
Michael Wehunt
•WC
BLACK REBEL
MOTORCYCLE CLUB
Baby 81
RCA
Baby 81 marks the fourth release
from San Francisco band Black Rebel
Motorcycle Club. The album also
marks a return to the band’s original
styles of assertive garage rock and
grimy blues-rock, as evidenced on
its first two albums. Howl, the band's
wildly successful foray into heartland
rock and roots-folk music, is still
apparent on Baby 81, but now those
leanings provide a backdrop to BRMC’s
fourth album.
This is gritty machismo mixed
with fuzzed out guitar, sultry lyrics,
swaggering bass lines, and hard-
driving drums. The song "Berlin" is a
rollicking love/ anti-love anthem that
begs to be played at high volumes in
noisy, congested places. Zeppelin-
esque track “Killing the Light’ makes
it clear that rock and roll and sex arc
indeed a match made in heaven. And
the ominous psych-rock noise emitting
from “666 Ccnducer’ sounds like
something from the Jesus and Mary
Chain. Baby 81 never loses any of its
momentum, even on its softer songs,
the dfums and guitar still provide
passion. Honestly, there isn’t a single
track on this album that doesn’t work. It
there is any doubt as to why these boys
remain essential to the rock scene.
Baby 81 doesn’t just dispel those
apprehensions, it takes a leather clad
fist and socks them square in the nads!
Charley Lee
46 FLAGPOLE.COM • AUGUST 15,2007
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