About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (April 20, 2011)
Grand Opening PARTY ^ introducing Our ^ tVests/ife locution! 4124 Atlanta Hwy„ Bogart Next door to Haverty’s Couples Boutique Celebrating Cove live remote with ScrearfiihqC^ Scream Team Tony Batman with A! Entertainment News Door Prizes and Free Gifts Hors d'oeuvres and Drinks Specials throughout our new 5000 sq. foot store and Staying Sexy This store has everything you expect from Sexy Sex andmore... upscale sophisticated u/omen & couples friendly athens' largest lingerie & dub Wear store games & sexy fun toys for to Vers adult novelties sexy shoes fetish and bondage incense, candles & oils adult movies & DVDs Von t Forget Our Fasts/de Store/ 50 Gaines School Boad I\Pult Emporium Everything Hdull for a ‘Passionate World. BOTH LOCATIONS OPEN 10am - 11pm Mon-Thu . ' . v . . ‘ . ' ' • • . 10am - Midnight Fn <k Sai Noon - 8pm Sun AT one inkier JS ihinlined * Phoio ID required WESTSIDE • 678-661-0700 | EASTSIDE • 706-850-6919 t ~ r r *t - * ★ i a i i i • ft (i i 4 x < i t ] THE STROKES Angles RCA Angles is an elusive little record that finds The Strokes experiment ing with their tried-and-true formula while expanding their sonic palette. Unfortunately, after years of re-writes and a completely scrapped record, what we are left to contend with is a bit of a grab bag. While some songs, like first single "Undercover of Darkness’ and "Gratistadion," bounce with the same back-to-basics garage-pep of The Strokes’ first two albums, most of the record has the band trying something new—with mixed results. Album opener "Machu Picchu" is all tropical pop with bongos with a faux dub riddim. And oddities like The Cars sound-a-like ‘Two Kinds of Happiness’ and the labyrinthine ’Games’ success fully explore ’80s synthpop territory. Still, while lead singer Casablancas’ bored-cool ’vibrato has never sounded better, it can’t save the meaningless Castilian-sounding suites of “Call Me Back’ or the meandering ‘You’re So Right.’ With 10 songs that feel much longer than the album's 34-minute run-time, the real problem is a lack of locus. As the first Strokes record where every member is credited in each song—and perhaps most significantly, without the creative diredion ot Julian Casablancas—Angles is the sound of a band looking for its voice outside of the well-defined aesthetic that it estab lished with 2001's watershed Is This It. However, considering the undeniable strengths of at least half ot this very disjointed record, it seems that while Angles is sure to please some, The Shokes are certainly capable ot better. Christopher Joshua Benton LOUD VALLEY Loud Valley Independent Release OrlandoS Loud Valley sounds more suited to the currents of California than its Florida homeland. This self-titled debut sticks to a strict diet ot slow, breezy, lo-fi rock that has more reverb in it than 3 Benedidine monastery. No surprise that halt ot it was recorded with the Futurebirds' Thomas Johnson here in Athens Opening track ’Pensacola* start' with the line ’IIS why I’m headed lor the coast/ ttS the only place I know.’ The ocean/beach/escapist references are aplenty here, as are appropriate instrumentation: layered trumpets (or are they French horns?), exquisite harmony vocals and slow, ska-esque guitar accents Take these elements, teed them some prescription-strength cough syrup, and you begin to get an idea ot what Loud Valleyls dreamy, druggy aes thetic is all about. This is good stuff Listen to it at the beach. Mark Sanders CRYSTAL STILTS In Love with Oblivion Slumberiand Brooklyn’s Crystal Stilts h3ve shifted away from the relatively atonal bleakness ot their debut, Alight ol Night, and settled comfortably into the tuneful darkness of psychedelic blues. Although never reducing their sound tc noisy minimalism 3 la Spacemen 3, there’s still a heavy debt owed to that band as well as The Creation, primitive Pink Floyd, el al. Opening track "Sycamore Tree’ sets the tempo quickly with its carnival atmosphere. “Through the Floor’ fea tures a nice doo-wop melody. ‘Silver Sun’ would place nicely next to any early paisley underground record, as would “Flying Into the Sun.* It’s all just so predictable and. basically, faceless. If there’s such a thing as being too well schooled in one's influences, Crystal Stilts are guilty. I throw this record on and lorget which band it is in the space of 10 minutes. On one hand, pop music requires a measure of disposability. Without it we’d have never gotten “Sugar, Sugar’, ’Louie, Louie’ or ’Yummy. Yummy, Yummy’; each ot which has, ironically, endured. On the other hand, it also needs a certain amount of personality, which Crystal Stilts seemed to have on their debut but tost somewhere on the road to this album. Gordon Lamb Crystal Stills are playing at Farm 255 on Sunday, Apr. 24. on Mir Independent Release OTT may be the best dubstep producer you've never heard of. Hell, he may be the best dubstep producer working today, period. Only the third in a series ot studio releases that have grown exponentially more complex since his 2003 debut, Mir feels like a culmination ot the myriad electronic ideas that he has been exploring throughout the past decade. His com positions have taken on a life ot their own. They are the musical equivalent of Chinese parade dragons propelled by a hundred different motions—twisting and weaving in a hundred different directions but always moving forward with a singular purpose Drawing from traditional dub. jamtronica. IDM. new age and even traditional Eastern and Bollywood music (“Mouse Eating Cheese’), OTT can begin to teel a bit maximalist, not unlike his ADD contemporary Flying Lotus, but by always keeping one pedal firmly planted in his dubstep roots, his songs never abandon their danceability. no matter how exquisitely complicated they get With a maestro's touch on the fader and a bigger bag of digital tricks than Joker and edIT combined. OTT unquestionably delivers a lush, cosmic voyage ot spacey effects, squelchy bass and beats that'll have you grindin’ your bones to make his bread. But ultimately, what he has created with Mir 'rs a much rarer artifact in a field thatls quickly becoming overcrowded: a dubstep album that is just as reward ing in the headphones as it is on the dancefloor. David Fitzgerald GIOVONM PRATT The Beautiful Mind Umbrella Coded Music Thai hip-hop is no longer an intensely regional art form is detrimen tal to its development. As it continues its journey towards the center of the mainstream, it becomes increasingly difficult to differentiate Dirty' South bombast from New York City backpack- rap and Cali swagger; as such, the music loses some of what always made it so significant: its sense of self Bronx-bred Marietta dweller Giovonni Pratt seems stuck in a spe cific time and place; specifically, his is a distinctly mid-*90s East Coast style of hip-hop that calls to mind Digable Planets or the superb early work of The Roots (before they were a late-night TV house band; after all, they could really get down on some shit). His backing tracks, courtesy ot DJ Fu Beats, are fluid and soul-centric. But The Beautiful Mind falls short, for though Pratt’s heart and ears are in an inspired place, there isn’t much inspiring lyricism to be found. Among the requisite posi-rap epistles and too- frequent guest spots, the record fails to find a memorable foothold. But the dude is on the right track. The Beautiful Mind is enjoyable, it not totally remarkable, and at the least, he's head and shoulders above most modern rap*stars in the personality department. That’s personality, not per sona. Giovonni Pratt is quite honestly someone. Gabe Vodicka 18 FLAGPOLE.COM • APRIL 20,2011
