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SPINDRIFT
The Legend of God’s Gun
Tee Pee
What better calling for the L A
psych-rock posse known for romanc
ing the spaghetti Western sound than
an actual Western film score? In fact,
the parameters of soundtracking the
indie film of the same name results
in possibly their most focused work
yet. This desert serenade for the tale
of a preacher-tumed-gunfighter takes
Ennio Morricone's dramatic sweeps
and modernizes them with pulpy
Tarantino-esque flair Go down the
spaghetti Western checklist and it’s in
here: melodramatic narration, solitary
high-plains whistles, furious castanets,
even the well-placed gong smash. But
it's all executed beautifully to create a
sonorous widescreen.
The title track is an outsize can
nonball of retro swing and swagger .
Titoli" is the kind of panoramic
vagabond ramble that introduces every
good Western; “Preacher's Theme" is
a horizon-gazing meditation stabbed
by thunderous stomps and hoots; and
“Indian Run* is a wonderfully nasty
stampede punctuated with native war
chants. But the top pick is “Girt? Booze
and Gunz,* an Iberian dust devil that
rages like a bar brawl.
Slathered in a dusty vintage patina,
the music not only has enough char
acter to stand on its own but is capable
of doing the heavy lifting of conjurir g
complete visual scenes—moody,
evocative, outstandingly cohesive.
BaoLe-Huu
JAY REATARD
Watch Me Fall
Matador
Here is the ready-for-prime-time
long-player from long-unnoticed
Memphis, TN punk Jay Reatard. The
guy's been trying on a lot of hats
since abandoning his teenage hate •
persona several years ago: pop-punk,
folksinger, synth-wave artiste. On
Watch Me Fall, his first full-length for
indie institution Matador, he's become
obsessed with the high-energy pop of
the Dunedin, New Zealand Flying Nun
Records scene.
Reatard strums acoustics over
his trademark garage-punk for a more
endearing racket than he's produced
over innumerable DIY releases. There*
nothing experimental or electronic
or dance-oriented. This is simplistic
three-chord pop-rock with that oft-
annoying faux-Bntish hectoring bark
ing at you Fans of the Tall Dwarfs and
The Bats might enjoy a Seppo meshing
Kiwi pop with American punk
Reatard’s Matador singles series
was a bigger waste of Middle Eastern
oil than a fleet of Hummers, but this
album finds him On sure tooting again
The singles proved he's never too far
from falling off the edge, but this sound
suits him well, and this album is a
welcome collection
Scott Reid
IGGYPOP
Prtoiminaires
Astralwerks
Now that The Stooges are back
together, you’d think Iggy would be
dusting off the peanut butter Instead,
(gulp), he's picked up a pack of
Gauloises and emerged with a big.
weird dose of Gamesbourg-ian Gallic
romance. Pr&iminaires is the work of
a man looking for respite, even if it is
from himself It’s xcasionally goofy
and a little creepy, as you'd imagine
Iggy would sound doing Euro cabaret
tare. Songs like “King of the Dogs’—
which, despite its name, is the kind of
silty ragtime shuffle where the singer
almost always adopts the persona of a
cat—will send you off in stitches. But
as much as you'll want to laugh at this,
it does pack some genuine enchant
ment and poignancy
Powerful moments include the
cinematic Mediterranean heaviness of
“Spanish Coast’ and the bewitching
murder-blues of “He's Dead/ She's
Alive.’ The spare torch ballad “1 Want
to Go to the Beach’ squeezes maximum
mileage from his voice* character
Preliminaries is an intriguing and
mature excursion from a man who’s
earned the right to explore and has a
big enough personality to pull it off.
Bao Le-Huu
Gather, Form <£ Fly
Hometapes, PDX.
Durham, NC based, ex-Bon
tver homeboys Megafaun crank out
number-two since the departure of
their rage-du-jour '08 buddy, none
of it falling an inch further than the
branch both parties dropped from:
bedroomy folk-noir, sometimes with
lyrics, sometimes an instrumental
trailing off until the next track number
appears on your player. Gather, Form
& Fly seems engineered to function
as an album, wherein richer atolls of
song craft are connected by brinier by-
waters of interstitial studio ephemera A
double-drop, D-tuned acoustic invokes
alongside piano and violin in the
opening instrumental, ‘Bella Marie,"
and from there the album cleverly and
slowly builds. Expect every single
gadget of Americana pastiche to make
an appearance big harmonies, dobro
banio—the former sometimes hitting
on terrain more recently touched on
by Seattle* Fleet Foxes, yet with more
Southern ancestors
Coy King
LESLIE &
THE BADGERS
Roomful of Smoke
Independent Release
With a title that alludes to the
2008 Southern California wildfires,
the third independent release from the
Los Angeles band features country
music radiant with style and intellect
Self-described as “bourgeois country.'
its sumptuous sound is forged from
gentle twang, melodic precision and
instrumentation that's lush but never .
obtrusive. Leslie Stevens' voice is the'
picture of gorgeous restraint, a refined
mixture of urbane sophistication and
genuine country honey. Carrying the
grace of Dolly Parton* vulnerability
and fragility, her singing is more about
movement than volume, and it* what
makes it an enduring marvel.
Standout tracks include the pristine
country lullaby of “Los Angeles,’ the
feathered shuffle of “Old Timers,’ the
wistful whiskey confession of “Winter
Fugue’ and the breezy exhales of
“Salvation ’ But the gold star here is
the title track, which is one of those
perfect songs that hits all the right
notes and sways in all the right places
Crafted with maturity and taste,
the unpretentiously beautiful Roomful
of Smoke warms with a soft yet crisp
sound that strokes the soul and pops
with more personality and color than
The Watson Twins.
Bao Le-Huu
THE FRY
FURNACES
I’m Going Away
Thrill Jockey
One thing you can say about the
Friedberger siblings, Matthew and
Eleanor, is they are not boring. With its
eighth release in six years, I'm Going
Away, the band is rivaling Ryan Adams
for speed of creative output and diver
sity of sound Unlike him, though, The
Fiery Furnaces are a cohesive unit, and
while the music runs the inspirational
gamut from garage to blues to funk,
they find a way to make it fit
Perhaps the most remarkable thing
about the record is how relatabie it is
As lo-fi as it sounds, this could have
been done with a tap* recorder m your
best friend* basement And when
Eleanor siftgs. “If I see you tomorrow
I don't know what I will do," in the
lounging ode to crying jags, “Drive to
Dallas," we can all torch along with her.
The frenetic pace and constant changes
can sometimes be alarming, but there*
a common thread here that weaves the
weirdness together They have a healthy
disrespect for boundaries and home
made charm to spare, and I’m Going
Away is both a comforting and chaotic
reminder that there* always someone
else out there who knows the drill
Jennifer Gibson
The Fiery Furnaces play the Variety
Playhouse on Thursday, August 20
BANGTAIL CATS
The Get Down
Independent Release
Bangtail Cats have down all the
mechanics of being a solid band.
The bluesy guitar riffs are well-timed,
soulful and in key The arrangements
are simple but satisfactory There are
thoughtful flourishes of keys, harmon
ica and the occasional harmonizing
vocals. The elements are all there, and
the performance is more than adequate;
what* missing, though, are the songs.
After a full 12 hours on repeat, I tried
to submerge myself in these tunes, to
let them seep in, and there was just
nothing there to cling to. Those classic
blues chords and rock progressions
feel vaguely familiar and yet are never
memorable. The vocal melodies in
particular seem stagnant, bound to a
very limited range and never climaxing
into a rousing chorus I mean, there are
technically choruses, in that there are
repeated phrases, but they lack that all
essential hook.
Americana is often very comfort
able floating free without a hook. Some
of the best folk musicians, Dylan
included, can write a linear progression
that seems to ramble forward without
direction. But those types ot songs,
in order to be effective, must at least
possess strong lyrical content. Bangtail
Cats dont really have that either, rely
ing mostly on pop simplicity and easy
rhymes. But Bangtail Cats are hardly
without promise. In a live setting, I bet
these grooves feel good The playing is
proficient, and the songs, especially the
more garagey rockers, have a fun spirit
about them, but once the set closes, I
fear the tunes will all but be forgotten.
Michelle Gilzenrat
Bangtail Cats are playing at Tasty
World Uptown on Wednesday, Aug. 12.
22 FLAGPOLE.COM • AUGUST 12,2009