The Forefront of Unclassifiable

subtle - Exiting Arm [2008]

subtle’s 2006 album, for hero:for fool, always struck me as sounding like music from the FUTURE. The way subtle morphed these rambunctious beats through some very weird production, the way that it didn’t conform to any of the tropes of indie rock and yet was somehow firmly grounded in the indie aesthetic, the way the raps had no real point of comparison in modern hip hop, and the way the whole thing was somehow catchy – all of this created the time travel effect. I mean, imagine hearing cutting edge music 10 or 20 years from now without the benefit of context. So many of the evolutionary steps that are embedded in the music – and familiar to contemporary listeners – would be lost to you. It’s going to sound familiar yet different, like how rye whiskey tastes. subtle mimic this effect by being so forward looking and unique.

subtle are still rocking the time machine with Exiting Arm, providing further evidence that they’re at the absolute forefront of whatever genre they’re supposedly in. iTunes tells me that for hero:for fool is in a genre called “Unknown” (with the exception of one track, which is unhelpfully classified as “General Hip Hop”), while Exiting Arm is simply “Rock”. This is rubbish, but I’m not sure that I could do better. Is it possible to be at the forefront of “Unclassifiable”?

Title track opener “Exiting Arm” provides all the evidence. Like most of the songs here, it’s driven by percussion – in this case, a thumping, fast rap beat. Then, like a lot of great Beatles tunes, the lyrics start with the chorus. Meantime, a whining, distorted riff weaves its way around the beat, keeping pace, and further rhythm is provided by a looping, Brian Eno-does-Microsoft hum. When the guitar drops out for the verse, we’re immediately in hip hop territory. In the course of less than four minutes subtle manipulate this tension between musical genres. The bridge at the 2 minute mark is a classic electro break, while the one forty seconds later is “Rock” – everything drops out besides the voice and the bass. Somehow, it’s all catchy as hell.

Thus, Exiting Arm is the best possible musical mindfuck. “Sick Soft Perfection” drops spooky, Amnesiac beats and pained electronic glitches under subtle’s already-weird vocals at their most disjunctive. To their credit, subtle never allow the density of the music and the ideas behind it to take over, as evidenced by the surprising moments of clarity like the rap break-down in “Unlikely Rock Shock”. And while the lyrics are largely incomprehensible, you’re occasionally given a hint that what’s being said doesn’t just sound like it might be profane, it actually is: see “what sort of armor can the average man arrange inside of him?” and “Q: what’s working man’s hope? A: they call it cope”. [Edit: Also see this fucking nutso flash site the band put together to accompany the album, featuring interactive poetry.]

The future called, they want their music back.

Punks. Everywhere.

Abe Vigoda - Skeleton [2008]

There’s this punk club in downtown LA called The Smell and there must be something fishy in the water there (get it? Fish smell, heh-heh) because four of their mainstay acts – No Age, HEALTH, Mae Shi, and now, Abe Vigoda – have blown up and become mega indie-famous. Meaning, moderately famous. Not sure if this is one of those Manchester in the early 80’s things (unlikely) or Seattle in the early 90’s (also unlikely) but, well, it does at least look like one of those random geographical creative pulses – and those things are pretty cool. Call it the Californian Spring… Of rock. The California rock spring… You get my drift.

Abe Vigoda make tropical punk rock. Weird, right? It reminds me of when Lisa Simpson encountered Yahoo Serious: “I know those words, but that makes no sense”. The tropics are the last place you’d expect to find a punk – it’s too hot for black jeans, and everyone’s getting laid too often to be riled about capitalism, the Man, or the Queen of England. Y’know, punk stuff.

But the concept of tropical punk makes a bit more sense when you hear Abe Vigoda. The dissonance of Skeleton is very No Age, but the sound also embraces the chaotic power of Black Flag and throws a whole lot of schizo Caribbean rhythm into the mix. Abe Vigoda even manage at points to make the guitars sound like steel drums, which is one of the things that almost rockets this album directly into the awesomesphere. If I were forced to give a non-drug related analogy, I’d say Skeleton is the music equivalent of being chased through downtown LA by stoned, knife wielding Rastas. Woops, there’s a drug reference. Sorry.

Abe Vigoda’s sound isn’t easy on the lobes. Skeleton isn’t a dinner party album, unless you’re hosting a dinner party for hipsters. But you get the feeling that Abe Vigoda would fucking shred live, and that (the potential to one day see these guys shred) probably makes this album worth the risk of indictment for music piracy. Plus, when everyone’s talking about the “Cali scene of the late 00’s” you can be all like: “yeah man, I was listening to Abe Vigoda back when No Age were relative unknowns”. That’s called cred. You can’t buy that shit.

Zack Attack Back

New Zack De La Rocha here. The angry not-so-young man and a drummer called Jon Theodore. It's stripped down down and pretty cool, but this may as well be new RATM. Not necessarily a bad thing.

voltage spikes

This looks even cooler here.

When in doubt, play track 4

Elvis Costello & The Imposters - Momofuku [2008]

Elvis Costello is an imposing figure. According to some, his shadow over modern music is as significant as that cast by Bob Dylan. Admittedly, this was news to me. The hipsters haven’t embraced Costello like they have Dylan or Tom Waits. Why that is, it’s hard to say. Maybe it’s because he’s British and he hangs out with perennial sad case Paul McCartney. Or maybe it’s because he reminds the hipsters too much of themselves – skinny, literate, geeky glasses, encyclopedic knowledge of music history – except that he’s got the thing every hipster dreams of but doesn’t have: talent, fame, success. We like our musical geniuses to be tormented, depressed, alcoholic – dead, ideally. So the fact that a well adjusted suburban computer programmer can do it is a harsh reality check best avoided.

Costello is still doing it. Momofuku is a great album. It does that thing where it sounds familiar and yet confounds expectations. The joy is in these little surprises, like in opener “No Hiding Place”. At first, the song seems a jam, but little by little it reveals itself as a deliberately structured and superbly produced rock out. Then, “American Gangster Time” punches in with this raw punk riff, but by the time the chorus rolls around complete with Vox continental organ, you’ve realised the wheel’s been reinvented again.

What else can I say? To quote Costello himself, in an article for Vanity Fair that listed his favourite 500 albums: “How many times can you write "Superb," "Beautiful," "Stomping," or "Absolutely tangerine" before it loses all meaning? How many times do you need to read: "Masterpiece"? Or, better still "Masterpiece . . . ?".” Ok, this is no masterpiece. But the man’s point applies to those words, too. Who cares if you’re listening to a masterpiece or not when a track like “Go Away”, pumped through crappy earphones, can make you drum the air with invisible sticks as you walk home from work.

In the same article, Costello wrote: “When in doubt, play Track 4-it is usually the one you want.” Damn straight. Track 4 of Momofuku is called “Harry Worth”, and it’s absolutely tangerine. Head straight for track 4 and if it doesn’t knock your motherfucking socks off, feels vindicated in your Costello-apathy.

Melancholy on toast

El Perro Del Mar - From the Valley to the Stars [2008]

A bit of the way through El Perro Del Mar’s new album, From the Valley to the Stars, Swedish vocalist and songwriter Sarah Assbring repeatedly sings “Don’t cast away your inner island”. It’s a line with metaphorical reverberations throughout the entire album.

El Perro Del Mar told us that she set out to record a good hearted album free from cynicism, and she’s succeeded with From the Valley to the Stars. But not in the way you might think, because we’re not talking about sunshine and lollipops here. For one, Sarah’s haunting voice precludes that. But beyond that, in many ways this album is a dark piece of work. Melancholy is El Perro’s bread and butter, and despite lighter moments such as “Somebody’s Baby”, the introspective gloom can’t help but seep in.

Happily, it works. This is a funereal piece of music, and Sarah sings like a brave widow. The sunny optimism of the lyrics of “Happiness Won Me Over” are put to the lie by sighing Church organs. Opener “Jubilee” uses those same organs to convey the joy that Christians are supposed to feel about Christ’s crucifixion – a joy fixated upon slow, violent death.

Then there’s that line, “Don’t cast away your inner island”. Much like the album, the lyric sounds sweet, corny even, upon first listen. But it’s really about solitude – while no man is an island, we all have an island in us. Maybe we go there to die, alone.

SUPER MUSIC NERD STATUS CHALLENGE

Girl Talk - Feed the Animals [2008]

Girl Talk has finally dropped the follow up to 2006’s non-stop party machine Night Ripper. It’s called Feed the Animals, and about 45 seconds into my first spin this week I got that tingly feeling in the spine that means that everything might just be right with the world.

I’m not even sure what a mega mix is, but Girl Talk takes the mega mix to the next level. Let’s call it the ultra mix – no, even better – the mega ultra mix, the multra mix. Girl Talk is the multra mega phat pharty-starting white boy, Leisure Suit Laptop, the Sheik of Beat, the Cherry on Top of the Pops. He doesn’t so much mash up as mash on down – sure, there’s mash ups galore, but each lasts for about 5-25 seconds before being drowned or devoured by the next indie riff, rap beat, hip hop flow, pop hook, dance... thingo.

It’s hard with words to convey the sheer weight of hedonistic sampling that goes on in Feed the Animals. So here’s what I done. On my third spin the record (yes, first would have been better, but it’s too late now, isn’t it?) I conducted an experiment and a challenge. Of the 300 or so samples on this three quarters of an hour, could I name 100 songs, either by title or band?

Girl Talk draws so thick and fast from the last couple of decades of popular music, any music nerd worth his salt would anticipate a walk in the park in naming a mere 100 samples from Feed the Animals. But would I be up to it? In the days leading up to SUPER MUSIC NERD STATUS CHALLENGE, as it came to be known, I massaged my lobes raw and obsessively studied Spicks and Specks in anticipation. The stakes: any future claim to musical knowledge, and the enviable MUSIC NERD status that it entails.

The Rules:
Target: 100 points.

The Purported Nerd may name either band or song title, or both, of any song sampled. Each successful guess is rewarded with 1 point. A band and title combo is worth 2 points (yes, I'm cheating).

Random comments in (parentheses) will be tolerated.

Markers comments will appear in [square brackets].

No google. No mobile phones. Laptops ok. Girl Talk uses two.

And the result:

Track 1: "Play Your Part (Pt. 1)" - 4:45

“My Sharona” [ed: not actually sampled on this song, apparently. Way to false start]
Kiss: “We’re Not Gonna Take It” [ed: It’s by Twisted Sister. At least I got the men in heavy make up bit right]
(“Gettin’ some head; Gettin’ Gettin’ some head”)

2 "Shut the Club Down" - 3:07

Avril Levine: “You Don’t Need a Boyfriend” [ed: It’s called “Girlfriend”, but close enough]
Butthole Surfers [ed: song’s called “Pepper”]
NWA: “Fuck the Police” (Ice Cube rocks in right at the end here with a “Wit a little bit of gold and a pager”, some other rapper responds “We don’t give a damn, we don’t give a fuck”) [ed: Actually a Cool Kids song which samples NWA. Girl Talk samples Cool Kids sampling NWA. How postmodern]

3 "Still Here" - 3:57

(“Flash…lights”) [Ed: Kanye]
(“I like the way you work it (No diggity) I got to bag it up”) [ed: BLACKstreet feat. Dr Dre]
(That “20 dollar bill” club hit, over some country song)

4 "What It's All About" - 4:15

(“Na na na na na” song)
Faith No More [ed: song’s called “Epic”]
“Say a Little Prayer” [ed: No such song, apparently]
(“I grew up on the crime side/The New York Times side/Stayin’ alive was no jive”)
Outkast: “Miss Jackson”
Jackson 5: “2 and 2 is 4” [ed: It’s called “ABC”]
Queen: “Bohemian Rhapsody”

5 "Set It Off" - 3:42

Radiohead “Paranoid Android”
Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five [ed: Song’s “The Message”]

6 "No Pause" - 3:12

(That annoying road trip song) [ed: Len: “Steal my Sunshine” Bad song, but Girl Talk works it.]
“I want you to want me”
Eminem (This is a fucking great Eminem rap. Whatever happened to that guy?) [Ed: Song’s called “Shake That”. As for Eminem, isn't he dead?]

7 "Like This" - 3:21

Beastie Boys: “Bodymovin”
“Ghetto Superstar” over Yo La Tengo: “Autumn Sweater”
Metallica: “One” (the super fast guitar bridge bit - matched with this awesome chick rapper) [ed: She’s called Lil’ Mama]

8 "Give Me a Beat" - 4:12

Air: “Sexy Boy”
Of Montreal (“foooorgeeeet” goes the lyric, apt because I’ve forgotten the song name) [ed: “Gronlandic Edit”]
“America’s Most Wanted” [ed: it’s “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted”, but close enough]

9 "Hands in the Air" - 4:20

“Woop there is it” [ed: Apparently it’s “Whoomp”]
Cardigans: “Love Fool” with Hot Chip
(a dance sample – that fucking song with the video clip of the kid running around with a model airplane that gets sampled fucking all the time!) [ed: Stardust “Music Sounds Better with You”. Der.]

10 "In Step" - 3:23

(A hella Jane Fonda workout song, oh hang on, it’s):
“You got it!”
(That wacky whistling sound. Can’t believe I can’t remember the name of this) [ed: Deee-Lite: “Groove is in the Heart”]
Nirvana “Smells Like Teen Spirit” [ed: “Lithium”, you tool]
“Dancing in September” [ed: Just “September”]
The Beatles: “God only knows” [ed: Beach Boys! Lennon is rolling over in his grave! I hate you!]

11 "Let Me See You" - 4:04

(woo-oo, wee-oo)
(Sounds like a young Shaggy singing “I’m a flirt”) [ed: it’s R Kelly]
Daft Punk: “Harder Better Faster Stronger”
Devo: “Whip It” [ed: nope.]
MIA: “Boys Say” [ed: “Boyz”. Close enough]
(Some new wave revival wonderfully mashed up with MIA) [ed: It’s the Cranberries: “Dreams”]

12 "Here's the Thing" - 4:46

“Choo choo Ride” [ed: It’s called “C’mon Ride It (The Train)”. Perhaps even more inane a title than “Choo choo ride” would have been]
Skank Ho: “Since U Been Gone” [ed: Correct! Two points. Also would have accepted Kelly Clarkson]
Prodigy: “Breathe/Firestarter” [ed: yep, Firestarter. Those songs are indeed indistinguishable, so no penalty]
“Jessie’s Girl” (Best call and response sample mix ever. Faggy white boy [ed: Rick Springfield] sings: “I want Jessie’s Girl”. Rapper responds: “But I’d rather get some head”)

13 "Don't Stop" - 2:58

Underworld: “Born Slippy”
The Cure [ed: Nice! “In Between Days” is the song. The Cure’s “Close to Me” also sampled on earlier track “What It’s All About”]

14 "Play Your Part (Pt. 2)" - 3:25

Red Hot Chili Peppers: “Under the Bridge”
ACDC: “Thunderstruck”
(very Family Ties opening sequence piano bit with lage scale synth action… Whitney Houston?) [ed: It’s Journey “Faithfully”. Interestingly, David Chase also chose to end the final episode of The Sopranos with a Journey song. Coincidence?]

The Score:

Named 29 bands + 31 songs = 60.

A “pass”, but shatteringly short of the target. See the work of a real nerd here. Download the album (pay what you want) here.