This is on pitchfork.tv for the next week or so… a cool little short film about the making of what was probably my favorite album of 2009, the Flaming Lips’ Embryonic:
This is particularly cool since it’s not a Behind the Music kind of thing that focuses on the personalities of the players, but examines the band’s process of writing and recording the record. In particular, I was intrigued by the distinction they make between “sound” and “song.” It’s something I thought about a lot when I was listening to that record a ton… most of the “songs” don’t seem so much about structure or melody, but about finding cool noises and textures and putting them together in an interesting way. In the months before I got Embryonic I had been listening to a lot of musique concrete and other experimental 20th-century noise, and the fact that the Lips could take that approach and modernize it with cool, up-to-date sounds and retro-cool flourishes was really intriguing. Well, that and the monstrous bass sound, which is something Totalitär or Kriegshög would kill for… I think the beginning of “Worm Mountain” has to be one of the heaviest and most pleasing moments of music I’ve ever heard.
One little thing, though: I often wonder about the things people are wearing in these live-in-the-studio montages. Often part of the band will be dressed like it’s summer… short sleeve t-shirts, etc… while one or two members will be wearing some piece of thick outerwear like a pea coat or a big puffy gortex jacket. Is there like a special fan blowing on that person? Are they just cold-natured? I really don’t get it…
Fourteen or Fight: S/T 7″
Four Walls Falling: Burn It b/w Happy Face 7″
Four Walls Falling: S/T 7″
Four Walls Falling: European Release 7″ (this thing sounds like Rage Against the Machine but I still kind of like it!)
The Freeze: I Hate Tourists 7″
The Freeze: Guilty Face 7″
Fuel / Angry Son split 7″
Fury: Resurrection 7″
FU’s: Rock the Nation 7″ (what a great bootleg! 3rd LP-era songs delivered with the intensity of the 1st 2 records)
Fy Fan: S/T 7″
Gagize: Traculent Crime flexi (what the fuck does the title of this record mean?)
Gastunk: Sex 7″
Gastunk: Mr. Gazime 7″
Gudon: Discography 2xLP
Crisis: Hymns of Faith LP
Kinks: Are the Village Green Preservation Society LP
T Rex: Electric Warrior LP (had this in my head after Plague’s sweet cover last night…)
The Fall: This Nation’s Saving Grace
I’ve been reading for a while about Off!, the new hardcore band from Keith Morris (Black Flag, Circle Jerks). Obviously, they’re named after a DIFFERENT bug spray, the implication being that Morris would be returning to his roots in short, snappy punk. After lots of little teasers we finally get a song from these guys and whattayaknow, it’s pretty decent! Here’s the link:
You can kind of tell that they worked hard to dial in a similar guitar sound to the Nervous Breakdown EP, but you sure won’t find me complaining about that… glad to see they resisted the urge to be more polished and modern. The song itself is pretty good too… while not as raw and as beastly as the early Black Flag or ‘Jerks stuff, it does fit well with later Circle Jerks material circa Wild in the Streets or Golden Shower of Hits. Indeed, it’s right up there with “Coup d’Etat” and “86′d” as one of the best songs Morris has been involved with after the year 1981.
I had already picked up the “Digging for Something” single and was quite impressed… loud guitars, power chords, and big melodies just like the old stuff.
Update: About halfway through and this is just straight killer… no slow stuff yet, and everything is really dense yet melodic… total Buzzcocks style but with a 90s indie rock edge. Lovin’ it! Will definitely be buying this from emusic when it comes out next week.
Man, is this frustrating… at the risk of making an unseemly analogy, I imagine this is what it must be like to have a loved one with Alzheimer’s… you see little sparks of their former self but only a split-second at a time and never long enough to feel connected or gratified. There are so many cool bits here… particularly the weird drumming and the AWESOME intertwining lead guitar stuff (the end of this track recalls my favorite AOF track, “In This Jungle”), but the vocals are TERRIBLE and the whole thing sounds like it was mixed by a deaf person. Where are the guitars? Could you make the bass sound any shittier? Is it just me or do instruments seem to fade in and out randomly? It almost sounds like “AOF Shreds” in places.
I really hope this is just some off-the-cuff practice tape and not any indication of what this record will sound like. If they take their time with this, make it sound good, and keep Bondi in a very small box this could be something worth hearing. Otherwise it will be a disaster. Even at best though, it probably won’t be an album of songs that I love, it’ll just be an album made by people whose guitar style I love, which is an entirely different (and inferior) listening experience.
