About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (April 13, 2011)
eatatmamasbov.com One loves Jay-Z. One loves rockin’ bow ties. And one loves shoppin’ for hipster eyewear. But they can all agree that the thing they love the most is Chocolate Cake for Breakfast. lor voting us your Favorite Breakfast and Hangover Breakfast and 2 ,,J Favorite for Brunch! ’flagpole * 2011 Reader Picks SfianK (ItfiesiA y QU THE RON JONSONS The Ron Jonsons Independent Release In an age riddled with blatant blog- baiters. you sort ol have to hand it to a band bent on being unequivocally uncool. Behold Alhens/Ailanta quartet The Ron Jonsons. whose self-titled debut album is a higgledy-piggledy hodgepodge ot precise prog, meander ing jam rock and breezy FM bravado. Some tracks work better than others: the introductory ‘Repeat Offender.* for instance, manages to incorporate all the aforementioned influences and retain a measure ol coherency. Mostly, though, The Ron Jonsons’ first foray into recording is just plain confounding. It's sax-solo smooth, frat party tun one minute and clumsily sol emn the next. The lyrics are painfully juvenile (“I need to get out/ And walk away/1 need lo escape/ From the wall I've made*). Aurally, the record is often unpleasant; besides the consistent lack ol inter-instrument balance (and the fateful preponderance of slap bass), the album is buried beneath a blinding. Christian rock-esque sheen. But The Ron Jonsons isn't a Christian rock record; conversely, for the life of me. I cant read from it any sort of message, musical, lyrical or otherwise. All I hear is the bummeritic. too-common sound ol a young band woefully unsure and fiercely unfocused. Gabe Vodicka TUNE-YARDS WHOKILL 4AD Like the offspring ot Dave Longstreth and Melanie Safka. aban doned in the woods to be raised by wolves and songbirds. Merrill Garbos’ singular, highly stylized aesthetic as tUnE-yArDs is part field-recording, part (reak-folk and all joy. Her dedication to odd punctuation, creative spelling and ononiatopoeia add another layer to her crusty, exhaustingly indefinable musi cal creations in which she switches naturally between tluttery. feminine vocal chirping and screechier. more forceful moments Tracks like ‘Gangsta* and ‘Doorstep* offer quick-time passages in which her singing takes on a per cussive, almost rap-like quality that essentially keeps lime while various instruments and electronics wiggle and wind their way around her. The presence ot obvious electronics (a departure from 2009s brilliant Bird- Brains) is made known by the end ot the opening track. *My Country,* which also features reedy winds and btatty horns reminiscent of the Dirty Projectors’ Getty Address album The manic ‘Es-So* employs a kooky, halting organ riff that suggests RKO-era black and white cartoons, and the last two tracks 'Wolly Wolly Gong* and ’Killa* let Garbus’ avian vocal manipulations and scatterbrained uku lele-plucking unfold over unabashed hip-hop beats Armed with the accoutrements of a professional studio, Garbus has embel lished the one-of-a-kind sound of her debut without losing sight ol its warm, personal sensibility. David Fitzgerald TIMMY TUMBLE Oh, Those Wild. Wild Wednesdays Party Party Partners Craftsmanship is on display in two forms on the second Timmy Tumble record, as Tim Schreiber’s solid songwriting meets nis skilled, textured production. The result is an album that seems boisterous at first but grows more contained with each listen. Schreiber’s songs have the catch- . ing melodic quality ot ’50s rock and roll or, more recently, a band tike The Exploding Hearts. The guitar solo is often a gratuitous, ornamental gesture; Schreiber makes it integral. On "Jill,* the solo anives at the perfect juncture and lasts just long enough to keep us interested, all the while building ten sion as it leads into a climactic final chorus. Schreiber sings like he plays guitar: with thick tremolo. This style suggests bombast, but the record is • ultimately more introverted. Imagine listening to tommy at low volume before bedtime. I picture Schreiber betting out a chorus in an empty room and then immediately checking to make sure the mic isn't clipping What makes this record interesting is that it borrows from over-the-top genres but doesn't choose showmanship over quality- performance gives way to something more enduring. If Schreiber breaks a sweat, you're too caught up in the music to notice. Marshall Yarbrough TV ON THE RADIO Nine Types of Light interscope TVOR’s new album is a mixed bag at best. The interplay between Tunde Adebimpc’s rusty baritone and Kyp Malone's Bee Gees-esque falsetto is sharp and engaging, lending a strong identity to the band’s signature cocktail o! subverted R&B. funk and post-punk, but unfortunately, that identity is otten lost in the overzealous production ot Dave Sitek. So brilliant on his 2010 side project. Maximum Balloon, here Sitek muddies the waters, filling every crack in the wall of sound with sharp horn stabs and foggy electronics, suffocating moments that could use a little air. While tracks like the touching “Will Do* and the hard-nfling 'Caffeinated Consciousness* overcome these missteps admirably, they are bogged down by ill-advised dalliances like the intensely obnoxious ‘Repetition* and the faux-dance number "No Future Shock* (which admonishes the listener to *do the No Future.’ a dance which, real or imagined, is not likely to become the next ‘Dougie*). It s hard to bag on a band that’s willing to experiment, but this album tried to take two steps forward and instead took one step back. David Fitzgerald ALL TINY CREATURES Harbors Hometapes Put out on the curatorial, avant- leaning label Hometapes. brainy noiseniks All Tmy Creatures produce a record of startling craft and clarity with their debut. Harbors Led by muiti- instrumentalisf Thomas Wincek. the quintet produces a much more accessi ble (but similarly toned) variation ot the spacey long-form suites of Wincek’s other band, the venerated Collection ol Colonies ot Bees Harbors adds several guest vocal ists to ATC's minimalist-informed machinery. So. when Bon Ivei a Justin Vernon shows up on ‘An Iris,* the results predictably recall the musicians’ past collaborations on the excellent Volcano Choir one-ott. However, for ATC, vocals are just another instru ment-pushed low m the mix and hardened into a texture. Edited, re-edited, computerized and coliagist, these 11 songs teeter between intricately compositional and organically improvisational, like a com puter disintegrating to entropy It's all very modernist, as "Triangle Frog* does the near-impossible and puts a scaf folding around ambient drone. And tfie astral yet not abstract 'Breathing Set.* with its airy barety-there vocals and spacey synthesizer, splits the difference between German kosmiche musik and krautmck. ultimately grounding itself with minimal-inflicted Rhodes piano. Like contemporaries Battles. All Tiny Creatures maxe complicated music where the listener is unsure whether it is man or a machine making the noises. Highly recommended. Christopher Joshua Benton 24 FLAGPOLE.COM APRIL 13,2011
