Songs Of The Week #41

Deerhunter, Savages, She & Him, Still Corners, and Crimes...

Well hello again, MP3 junkies! Welcome to Songs Of The Week #41!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the column, here's the scoop: TCDroogsma is a bit of an MP3 junkie. We're seriously beginning to think he has a problem. So, in order to help him turn this dangerous habit into something constructive, we've tasked him with writing Songs Of The Week.

Each week we ask TCDroogsma to download the songs given away via The Current's Song Of The Day podcast. Once he's spent some time with the tracks, we ask him to write a quick review of each song and give it a score of 1-5.

As always, we strongly encourage you to follow this link and subscribe to the podcast yourself. It's free and it's fun for the whole family!

To that end, you'll notice there is a poll to the right side of the page. Once you've listened to the songs please feel free to vote for your favorite in the poll. The winning artist receives the validation of winning an anonymous internet poll, arguably the highest achievement a musician can achieve in this day and age.

So, Droogsy... thoughts?

01. Deerhunter – Back To The Middle (from the album Monomania)

TCDroogsma:

     My relationship with Deerhunter is short and uncomplicated.  When they play up their tuneful, hook-laden side I think they're nearly brilliant.  When they turn to odd-time signatures, half-baked ideas, and PoMo in the Moe Szylak sense (y'know, weird for weird's sake), I they they're nearly useless.  To be frank, if Deerhunter were a genuinely great band they'd figure out a way to meld these two things.  Based on my admittedly not-so-thorough knowledge of the band, they haven't figured out how to do that just yet.  However, this would only be an issue if I were being asked to review Monomania as a whole.  Fotunately, I am not.

     "Back To The Middle" has a lot in common with "If Only In My Dreams," Ariel Pink's brilliant singe from 2012.  Both feature bands fronted by love-em-or-hate-em frontmen (Ariel Pink in, uh, Ariel Pink's case and Bradford Cox in Deerhunter's case).  Both were/are putting out albums that came with their expectations that could push them from indie rock mainstays to indie rock touchstones.  And both come with killer singles that easily meet expectations.

     As I mentioned above, I'm not now (nor do I have any interest in) reviewing Monomania.  Personally, I find Bradford Cox's schtick pretty insufferable (He sings with bandaged fingers?  He wanted to serenade a rat?  C'mon...).  As a single, however, "Back To The Middle" features everything that's great about Deerhunter.  The instruments are all pushing toward the same fuzz ball groove (the lead-in to the chorus may be the most rhythmic thing I've ever heard from them).  Cox turns in a brilliant performance, ranging from shouty to pouty to downright seductive, all while lamenting how, "your low is just a sick, sick game."  "Back To The Middle" is a gateway drug bound to lead new listeners down the rabbit hole that is the Deerhunter catalog, but as a first hit, it's mighty intoxicating.

Final Score: 4/5

02. Savages – She Will (from the album Silence Yourself)

TCDroogsma:

     To be completely honest, "She Will" had won me over before Jehnny Beth's banshee wail had even entered my brain.  Just one listen to that shimmering guitar-crisp bass-steady drum buildup of the first 40 seconds was enough to convince me that "She Will" was going to be a great song.

    
     Once Beth does enter the picture, her voice, while distinct, is really just the fourth quarter of the whole.  Every member of Savages is well-represented in this song, which is a shrewd move considering a) the spotlight-stealing potential of Beth's looks & delivery and b) the daring gender-turnabout of the lyrics.  When the song calls for more passion, it comes from all members, with Beth's pushing her voice hard on the "she will!" refrain while Gemma Thompson's guitar takes on the sound of a buzzsaw (special props here to bassist Ayse Hassan, who drops out entirely before returning to bring the ruckus on the last refrain.  Sometimes the trick is knowing when not to play).

     With all hands on deck, "She Will" shows that there's still a place in the MP3 world for smart, powerful post-punk.

Final Score: 4/5

03. She & Him – Never Wanted Your Love (from the album Volume Three)

TCDroogsma:

     I like She & Him.  I saw them on their first national tour when they packed First Avenue and put on an expectedly charming performance.  I've been made fun of many times by people for being a fan of M.Ward and, to be honest, as someone who would have to be forced at gunpoint to watch an episode of The New Girl, I will defend a lot of Zooey Deschanel's work (she killed it in Elf).

     "Never Wanted Your Love" is not going to win over anybody who is not a She & Him fan already.  It's yet another in a very long (read: consistent) line of brilliantly catchy singles the two have put out over the years.  Theoretically "Never Wanted Your Love" should carry a bit more weight because it's the first single Deschanel's written since her divorce from Ben Gibbard, but given the subject matter of the group's previous work, that doesn't seem particularly fair.  She & Him tracks have always trafficked in being smitten, being in love, and being broken up.  Frankly, there's no way of telling just how genuine Deschanel's being on the song.

     (Quick Sidenote: I've spent a week being blown away by her dropping the line, "I'm tired of being clever, everybody's clever these days..." given that it's a line paraphrased from the old Smiths single "Rubber Ring."  The Smiths catalog, of course, played a role in the Deschanel film 500 Days Of Summer, making the reference brutally clever, which, circularly, implies that Deschanel doesn't even want to sing the line... My head hurts.)

    Anyway, a lot of people either don't care for She & Him at all or file them away under the always ridiculous "Guilty Pleasure" moniker (as if liking a certain song is something to feel guilty about).  I can't imagine ever putting "Never Wanted Your Love" on specifically, but as a shuffle track, to be sure, it's a charmer.

Final Score: 3/5

04. Still Corners – Fireflies (from the album Strange Pleasures)

TCDroogsma:

     From its title to its dreamy synth-pop sound, I'd swear that Still Corners was from Minnesota.  Not be too cynical, but living in the Twin Cities (and having even a passing knowledge of the music scene) means I've heard this song under various titles by different band a hundred times over the last 3 years.

    
     That's not to say "Fireflies" is a bad song.  On the contrary, it's an excellent dream-pop track with more than a little John Hughes thrown into the mix (it's not hard to hear the song soundtracking Molly Ringwald and Mike Schoeffling's kiss in Sixteen Candles).  But there's just nothing particularly new or interesting here.  It's a very well-executed songs that takes few risks and, as such, offers few rewards.

Final Score: 2.5/5

05. Crimes – Cloud Creep (from the album Thin Sunlight)

TCDroogsma:

     Crimes has been gaining quite a bit of buzz recently, however, true to my last-one-to-know m.o., "Cloud Creep" is the first song I've heard from them.

    
     After listening to the song for a week, I'm really charmed by the beach guitar sound that creates most of the vibe for the song.  More charming, however, is the way the vocals make it sound like the beach that guitars coming from is the same one Morrissey "trudged over" in "Everyday Is Like Sunday."  There's something sinister underneath the charm of "Cloud Creep" and that gives the song a bit of a leg up over the suddenly-very-crowded guitar band market of the Twin Cities.  With songs as devious as "Cloud Creep" Crimes' stock is sure to continue rising.

Final Score: 3.5/5

There you have it, folks! Another week's worth of songs downloaded, reviewed, and filed away!

As always, please keep in mind that neither Newest Industry nor its contributors is in any way affiliated with the artists above, The Current, or MPR. We're just music fans with laptops and a little too much time on our hands.

For more TCDroogsma, be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma). He can also be found right here on Newest Industry hosting our free weekly podcast Flatbasset Radio.

For more Newest Industry, be sure to give us a follow on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) to stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors. More importantly, we also have a Facebook page here. Trivial as it seems, stopping by and giving us a “Like” is a free & legitimate way to support the blog.

Big Day Out #3: TCDroogsma at The City Classic

I prayed more in The Dome than I ever did in church...

Well hello again, everybody!  Welcome to the third edition of Big Day Out!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Big Day Out column, here's the scoop:  In our quest to become your favorite blog in the Twin Cities we decided we needed a column in which our contributors could go out on to the beautiful streets of the cities and take in various events.  So far we've sent MinneSarah to the State Fair & TCDroogsma to the signing of the gay marriage bill.

This time around we put TCDroogsma to work and sent him to the Metrodome last Tuesday to take in the City Classic, an annual baseball game between the best team in St. Paul & the best team in Minneapolis.  This year's game featured Minneapolis Southwest against St. Paul Highland Park.

So, Droogsy... thoughts?

I can't remember the last time I was at a high school baseball game.  Maybe 16 or 17 years ago?  That was about the last time I accompanied my father (a high school umpire) to a game that he was working before puberty hit and I decided I was too cool to hang out with my dad (but not too cool to spend every waking hour sitting alone in my room playing Mortal Kombat II.  I wasn't a bright kid.).  To be completely honest, the prospect of covering a high school game for this blog sounded like a task more tedious than reviewing Ben Gibbard songs (the most tedious thing I've done for this blog yet).

However, my opinion was swayed by two things.  First, my father was umping the game and seemed genuinely excited about it.  Why was he so excited?  Well, the game was being played at the Metrodome and his excitement at the opportunity to ump on a major league field was contagious.  It's been years since I was in The Dome for any reason and this seemed like as good an opportunity as any to check in on the old eyesore.

That's him, second from the right.


So, Tuesday rolled around and I made the trek from my neighborhood over to The Dome.  As I strolled past HCMC and that big white pillow came into view I was surprised at how quickly I became flooded with nostalgia.  It's entirely possible that I'm the last person who's ever going to think, "Damn! I'm going to The Metrodome!," but that's exactly the thought that crossed my mind.

My love for The Metrodome is a difficult thing to explain.  Any clear-headed person will tell you that, yes, in fact, The Dome is a dump.  It's a football stadium that happened to hold a baseball team for 27 years.  Its concourse is too small, the seats are uncomfortable and poorly aligned, the sound system is terrible, and building itself is brutally stale and impersonal.

You know who didn't care about any of these things?  Young TCDroogsma.

Growing up with a father whose first love was baseball, The Metrodome was, to me, a baseball stadium first and everything else second.  Even today I tend to think of The Dome as the building where "the Twins used to play" rather than the building where "the Vikings actually play."

To me, the Metrodome was a place to see real life superheroes.  On any of 81 given days during the summer, I could be watching Kirby Puckett IN PERSON!  I could watch Kent Hrbek do his "No Smoking/Yes Drinking" bit over at first base IN PERSON!  Trivial as it seems now, I could watch Scott Erickson & Kevin Tapani pitch LIVE!  To a young baseball junkie, the realization that these people who were essentially characters on television could be watched up close and personal was a revelation.  That excitement was inextricably linked to my beloved Metrodome and all those things other people complained about.

To my young eyes, everything about those first days at the Metrodome was so big and shiny and new.  From the outside the structure seemed impossibly large, it's light blue pillars seemingly stretching all the way to the sky.  The tinny speakers outside of the stadium playing "We're Going To Win Twins!" on repeat were like sirens, enticing me with a song that had previously only existed in my house, yet was now here calling all like-minded fans to the stadium.  Once inside, Bob Casey's voice rolled throughout the stadium like a voice from heaven.  "Batting third, the center fielder, #34, KIIIRRRBBYYY PUCKETTT."  To a young man who grew up loving the Twins, it was hard to imagine there was a happier place on Earth than the Metrodome.

In many ways, I grew up with the Metrodome.  Yes, there was something vaguely scary about going to The Dome as child (being in the big city of Minneapolis itself was terrifying in and of itself). But the thrill of being there was overwhelming.  Everything that happened in the stadium had an air of excitement.  The music was loud, the fans were louder, the lights were bright, the flaws seemed barely perceptible.  Sure, if I could go back and relive those early days it would probably be a very underwhelming experience, but that's a concept.  Through the lens of nostalgia, everything back then was perfect.

It's possible that I only feel this way through a stroke of good timing.  You see, I was 9 years old in 1991, just old enough to create life-long memories, yet still young enough to believe in the magic of rally caps, 7th inning stretches, and grown men as superheroes.  And, more than anything, I was fortunate enough to spend Game 6 and Game 7 of the 1991 World Series in the seats in the upper deck behind home plate with my dad.

I'm not a good enough writer to express the thrill, terror, and unbridled joy contained in those two nights.  The sheer volume of 60,000 delirious Twins fans made it impossible for my dad and I to have any semblance of conversation (and we were right next to each other).  To this day, I've never experienced any moment in life as simultaneously scary & exhilarating as Kirby's home run to win Game 6.  The noise was just overwhelming, the thousands of homer hankies making it difficult for pre-growth-spurt Droogsy to see Kirby pump his fist, but within that swirl of sight & sound was such jubilation that fear gave way to revelry quickly.  Only once in my life have I experienced anything comparable, and it happened to be the next night when Gene Larkin slapped a single to right field, scoring Dan Gladden to win the series.  To this day, when I see those clips on television, I can't even believe that I was there.  Sometimes I can't help texting my dad just to say, "Can you believe it?"  All he ever says back is, "That was something special."

Of course, like a gambler who's dealt a blackjack his first time at the table, the thrill of going to the Metrodome never completely dissipated.  There were many games over the years with my entire family coming up.  We went just to see Sammy Sosa's Cubs back when interleague play still held intrigue (Slammin' Sammy did not disappoint, launching a bomb into the left field seats to the delight of pretty much everybody) and a random win against the Yankees that led to "Yankees Suck!" chants in the parking ramp stand out. I even remember one time specifically going up with my friends once we'd turned 16 just as an excuse to use his new driver's license for a trip to The Dome.  If memory serves the Twins beat the Indians in something like 15 innings, but that was beside the point.  The last Twins game I remember attending at The Metrodome was a home opener on a second or third date with a girl.  The Twins lost to the Angels, but it hardly mattered as we ended up standing in the snow at the lightrail station afterward, holding each other closely in an attempt to stay warm as the night quickly morphed from "mine" to "ours" for the first time.

I bring up those last two games just to illustrate just how much of a constant the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome was in my life.  It was there when I was just impressionable enough to appreciate its magic, was there when my parents needed something myself & my three younger siblings could agree on, there again when my friends and I needed an excuse to take those crucial first flights away from the nest, and there one last time when I needed something big & stupid to try to win over a woman.

So, why do I bring all of this up?  Because, as a 31 year old who bleeds skepticism, returning to the Metrodome on Tuesday brought all of those feelings rushing back.  All the things that shaped me from a 9 year old boy to a 31 year old man washed away as I walked back through the gates.  My eyes still got wide with disbelief at that first sight of the base paths and outfield glimpsed through the stairwells.

These days the Dome isn't what it used to be.  Nearly all signs of the Twins tenure at the Metrodome have been removed, save an imprint of the "TC" logo that can't be removed from the wall and that beautiful light blue seat in left field, painted a different hue from its thousands of brothers to symbolize where Kirby's home run landed.

This day, the baseball field was crisscrossed with lines from a soccer pitch, the bases didn't have any dirt surrounding the bag, hell, even the "baggie" in right field is nothing but a distant memory.  Perhaps, most jarringly of all, was the total saturation of the Minnesota Vikings.  Those pillars I mentioned above are now purple.  The signs in the concourses no longer feature any reminders of the Twins' past glories, only Adrian Peterson rushing records and Alan Page profiles as far as the eye can see.  Hell, the stadium isn't even called The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome anymore.  You know what it's called now and I'll be damned if I'm going to type it out.

All of these changes gave my last visit to The Dome the feel of a funeral.  Not just any funeral, but the funeral of someone loved but not seen for years.  The haircut is new, the makeup is different, the age lines more prominent than I recalled.  And yet, it was still the same old girl.  The same one that caused my heart to race with excitement as a child still had the ability to transport me back to a time when things were more pure and simple.  A time when athletes weren't merely talented men, when teams meant more than different colored laundry, and when sometimes just believing as hard as you could was enough to make something magical happen.

Of course, with the demolition of the Metrodome now merely a matter of time, I'm sure many writers will take their turn eulogizing the stadium.  Many of those writers were closer to my present age when the Dome opened, and given my feelings toward Target Field (a wonderful facility and a worthy recipient of civic pride, but certainly not "magical"), I'm inclined to believe that most of those eulogies will not do the stadium justice.  It doesn't take much to write it off as an ugly, sterile barn whose greatest attribute was its versatility (in the sense that it sucked to see any event there) and I'm sure most of the columnists will do just that.  For some of us, however, The Metrodome stands as one of the last buildings in town that houses perpetual youth.  Underneath that ugly white roof lies a place that, even after 31 years, is still capable of turning back time, turning off the pressures of the real world, and reminding a man that life isn't nearly as complicated as he may think.  I may be alone on this one, but I'm going to miss the old ball park.  I'm glad I got a chance to say goodbye.

(Editor's Note: Droogsy!  What about the game?!?)

Oh, right.  Highland Park ended up ten-running Southview in a game whose main excitement was the sheer terror created every time one of those piercing, aluminum-bat aided "PING!" sounds jolted me from dozing gripped by the fear that a foul ball was about to shatter my jaw.

That's better.

Well, there you have it folks!  TCDroogsma may not have covered the baseball game very well, but a special day was had none the less!

For more TCDroogsma, be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma).  He can also be found right here on Newest Industry hosting our free weekly podcast Flatbasset Radio.

For more Newest Industry, be sure to give us a follow on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) to stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors.  More importantly, we have a Facebook page here.  Trivial as it seems, stopping by and giving us a "Like" is a free & legitimate way to support the blog.

Songs Of The Week #40

Mikal Cronin, Carmen Villain, The Child Of Lov, Jonny Fritz, & VANDAAM...

Well hello again, MP3 junkies!  Welcome to Songs Of The Week #40!

For those of you who aren't totally sure what you're looking at right now, here's the deal.  TCDroogsma is an MP3 junkie.  He's also opinionated and has an incredible amount of free time on his hands.  As such, we've put him to work reviewing the tracks given away each week via The Current's Song Of The Day podcast.

TCDroogsma downloads the tracks and, after spending some time with them, writes up a review and gives the songs a score of 1-5.

As always, we strongly suggest that you follow this link and subscribe to the podcast yourself.  It's free and it's fun for the whole family!

To that end, once you've given the tracks a spin, we encourage you to vote for your favorite song in the poll on the right-hand side of the page.  The winning artist receives the validation of winning an anonymous internet poll, arguably the highest achievement any artist can aspire to.

So, Droogsy... thoughts?

 01. Mikal Cronin - Weight (from the album MCII)

TCDroogsma:

     For the first 45 seconds of "Weight" I wasn't totally on board.  "I've been starting over for a long time" is probably the most relateable line I've heard in a song this year, but given the stereotypical indie-pop guitar strumming behind it, I feared that this song was just a well-crafted pity party waiting to happen.

     But then that guitar comes in.  Oh, that guitar... suddenly, the song has legs.  Is anything on Earth as life-affirming as a fuzzed out guitar?  Cronin spends the rest of the track wrestling with dilemma's of pushing 30, but those are questions that can be answered later.  In the twilight of his youth, the power of a loud guitar and a microphone still trumps all.

Final Score: 3.5/5

02. Carmen Villain - Lifeissin (from the album Sleeper)

TCDroogsma:

     "Lifeissin" is an intriguing song, but you won't realize it until the second time you listen to it.  Why?  Because Carmen Hillestad's laments on her misdeeds sound like a morning-after discussion until the last second of the track when, with the line, "Do you believe that I'm going to hell?" the song abruptly drops off the face of the Earth.  In that last instant the song shifts dramatically from "next day hangover" conversation to "deathbed lament," retroactively adding weight "Lifeissin."

     Listening to the song a second time (with that "deathbed" as a backdrop) turns the song from average to pretty good.  Hillestad's vocals have the airy weightlessness of somebody speaking with nothing left to lose, matching the guitar strumming that does just enough to create a mood, but nowhere near enough to upstage the vocalist.  She delivers the line, "Open that guilt cage, I just want to think free..." with just enough of a hiccup in her voice to leave the listener believing that, for a last brief moment, peace has been found, and that the concern of heaven or hell is merely a secondary concern.

Final Score: 3/5

03. The Child Of Love - Heal (from the album The Child Of Lov)

TCDroogsma:

     After a quick google search to find out what exactly The Child Of Lov is all about, I find myself more confused than ever.  According to Wikipedia, he's an anonymous 25 year old musician from Amsterdam who has so far refused to release any personal information.  Intriguingly, he's slated to collaborate with DOOM & Damon Albarn (two of my all-time favorites) on his upcoming album.

     Does any of that information make me like "Heal" any more?  Not really.  Over some bouncy drums and a nicely fuzzed out bass line, The Child Of Lov does little more than a James Brown impersonation.  The lyrics traffic in cliche like, "Baby, you know I'm for real..." and a chorus of "Got to, got to heal your soul," implying that, when not listening to American R & B, The Child Of Lov has been finding meaning in Richard Ashcroft's solo albums.  There's nothing wrong with leaning on energy and charisma if you're playing live, but on record, "Heal" in very forgettable.

Final Score: 1.5/5

04. Jonny Fritz - Goodbye Summer (from the album Dad Country)

 
TCDroogsma:

     "Goodbye Summer" starts out with Jonny Fritz coming off like a kid about to go back to college, trying to put together the pieces of one last party with his high-school friends (though he plays the role of that friend you hate, asking his ride if they can stop at CVS to pick up contact solution).  From there he heads back to wherever he's suppose to be in fall (again, it sounds like college to me).

     The song takes a peculiar turn from there, telling the story of Fritz meeting up with a married woman in a hotel room.  This story of a "lover with a wedding ring" has nothing to do with the first verse of the song, though the song does eventually circle back to another party for its third verse.  Basically, there's not really any narrative to the song at all, rather just a bunch of couplets that fit the country-pop jam constructed as a backdrop.  To be honest, neither of those things appeal to me.  A pretty standard country rave-up could have legs if there was a story to be told, but really, "Goodbye Summer" sounds an awful lot like a genre exercise and not much more.

Final Score: 1.5/5

05. VANDAAM - Electron Oceans (from the EP VANDAAM)

TCDroogsma:

     I've been making jokes about how Minnesota is the Land Of 10,000 Synth-Pop bands since the day I started writing this Songs Of The Week column.  On my initial listen, I was fully prepared to put VANDAAM into that same category.  However, after spending a week with the song, it's clear that these guys are just slightly left of center compared to the other synth bands around town.  If Solid Gold & Portishead had a child and that child grew up to be a codeine-addled stripper, you'd have "Electron Oceans."

     With the refrain of, "They wanna know how I drop it so deep, they wanna know how I stay on my feet..." "Electron Oceans" would be an absolute staple of hipster strip clubs if, y'know, such a thing existed.  Just wobbly & atmospheric enough to maintain its sensuality without tumbling off the edge, VANDAAM's subtle sexuality is beautifully, unmistakably midwestern.

Final Score: 4/5

Well there you have it, everybody!  Another week's worth of songs downloaded, reviewed, and filed away!

As always, please bear in mind that neither TCDroogsma nor Newest Industry is in any way affiliated with the artists above, The Current, or MPR.  We're just music fans with laptops and a little too much time on our hands.

For more TCDroogsma, be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma).  He can also be found right here on Newest Industry hosting Flatbasset Radio, our free weekly podcast.

For more Newest Industry, be sure to give us a follow on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) to stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors.  More importantly, we have a Facebook page here.  Trivial as it seems, stopping by and giving us a "Like" is a free & legitimate way to support the blog. 

Newest Industry Presents - Flatbasset Radio: Episode #16 (All Sota Everything!)

Pick up your paws and let's dance...

Well hello again, free music fans!  Welcome to the 16th edition of Flatbasset Radio!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Flatbasset Radio here's the story:  TCDroogsma is our resident MP3 junkie.  As you may have noticed from his Songs Of The Week column, he's old and he's grouchy.  So, to prove to us that he does actually like music, we invite him to share his weekly podcast with us.  He play some songs, says some things, songs, things, etc... and he ends it all with his Flatbasset Flat Classic Song Of The Week!

This week's edition is a special edition indeed.  TCDroogsma decided to celebrate Minnesota's 155th birthday by rambling on for two solid hours of Minnesota music!  Along the way he drinks a little too much beer, explains which app he won't use (hint: it rhymes with 'Wine'), explains what Twin Cities band is like a drug, shares the soundtrack to his life as a silent film, puts The Current on blast, gets confused as to whether or not there's a Minnesota Music Hall Of Fame, tells people who are unfamiliar with Prince where to go, implies that more bands should emulate Steely Dan, confuses a 15 year old version of himself, ruins all the sexiness of two of the Twin Cities sexiest artists, and declares Dave Pirner one of life's winners!

All that, plus the constant celebration of Minnesota's birthday!  It's all gay weddings and spaceship football stadiums from here on out people!

As always, the podcast is free to download and/or free to stream right here on Newest Industry.  You can't beat that price.  Give 'em a listen.

Flatbasset Radio - Episode 16 (Part 1)



01. St. Paul Slim (w/Mankwe Ndosi) - Everyday
02. Midnight Evils - Twin City Lights
03. Dosh - MPLS Rock And Roll
04. Gloss - Front Porch
05. BNLX - Meet Me On The Barricades
06. Mike Mictlan (w/Greg Grease) - WZRD SCIENCE
07. Ghost In The Water - Cardinal Red
08. Lifter Puller - Roaming The Foam
09. Big Quarters - Song For Brown Babies
10. Panther Ray - Ought
11. Bora York - Close Your Eyes
12. The Plastic Constellations - Black Market Pandas

Flatbasset Radio - Episode 16 (Part 2)



01. Nallo - Submarines
02. Eyedea - Weird Side
03. The Bad Plus - You And I Is A Comfort Zone
04. Jeff Hanson - If Only I Knew
05. Alpha Consumer - Gary Victorsen's (We'll Disappear)
06. Kanser - Pleasant
07. Moonstone Contiuum - Smooth Odyssey
08. The Chalice - Push It
09. Soul Asylum - Misery
10. Toki Wright - The Soul (Go There)
11. Jim Ruiz Set - Allison
12. Heiruspecs - A Tiger Dancing
13. Sean Na Na - Princess And The Pony

There you have it, everybody!  Enjoy!

Please remember, neither TCDroogsma nor Newest Industry is in any way affiliated with any of the artists played during the podcast.  We don't make any money off of these podcasts, we're just music junkies with microphones and a bit too much time on our hands.

For more TCDroogsma, be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma).  He can also be found right here on Newest Industry writing the aforementioned Songs Of The Week column.

For more Newest Industry, be sure to give us a follow on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) to stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors.  More importantly, we have a Facebook page here.  Trivial as it seems, stopping by and giving us a "Like" is a free & legitimate way to support the blog.

Big Day Out #2: TCDroogsma at The Gay Marriage Bill Signing

It's been a long time coming...

Well hello everybody!  Welcome to the second installment of our long-dormant column Big Day Out!

For those of you unfamiliar with the Big Day/Night Out format, here's what you're looking at:  All kinds of events are happening all over Minnesota on any given day or night.  Whether those things are concerts, protests, the State Fair (as was the case with the first Big Day Out post) or, in this case, a momentous political event, we try to be sure to have somebody there to document things.

As most of you already know, yesterday Governor Mark Dayton held a ceremony on the State Capitol lawn to sign the bill allowing gay marriage.  As we don't have a political writer here on Newest Industry, we just figured we'd send TCDroogsma to take in the afternoon's events.  Sure, he's typically just a music critic, but his perpetual availability made him just the man for the job.

So, Droogsy... how was it?

I'll be honest, I didn't know what to expect when I hopped on the 94 and headed from downtown Minneapolis to the capitol building.  I'd been watching the news for the last couple of days and watched curiously as the gay marriage issue divided up the people of Minnesota.  All the rancor and debate had ended in a 37-30 vote from the senate, allowing the gay marriage bill to be presented Governor Mark Dayton, who had made it very clear that he intended to sign the bill into law.

Getting onto the bus, I was surprised to learn just how many people on board were heading over to the capitol.  The 94 is always busy, but I'd be willing to wager that at least 70% of the people on board today were making their way over for the celebration.  Of course, being a Minneapolis resident, I wasn't particularly surprised.  The GLBT community here in town is one of the most prominent in the nation and they've done a great job of making sure their voices were heard the most loudly in their home city.  But again, having no real idea of what I was heading into, I was surprised by the numbers.

When I did eventually arrive to the capitol building, I was met with a large sea of people (The Strib puts the total number around 7,000).  This, I suppose, I had expected.  What surprised me, however, was the complete lack of dissenting opinion.  Seeing so many people on their soap boxes over the last two years, I was fully expecting the anti-gay marriage community to make their presence known one last time, y'know, just in case we had forgotten that we were destroying the very fabric of America and dooming ourselves to a future of... well... well, I'm not totally sure.  I never got the specifics of what the negative consequences of gay marriage were.  I'm sure they were dire, though.

The lack of anti-gay marriage mongers, however, gave the proceedings an oddly calm energy.  To be certain, the crowd was there to celebrate.  The much-discussed "myth of inevitability" had given way to, well, the reality of inevitability.  That inevitability colored the afternoon.  As the temperature soared through the 80's for the first time this summer and up into the 90's, I wouldn't say the crowd wilted because, frankly, they were never fully bloomed.  If anything, the entire ceremony took on an air of formality (which makes sense given Dayton's well known stance on the issue).  Sure, the crowd cheered lustily when Dayton made his way to the stage, and they dutifully continued as the parade of representatives and gay rights advocates made their way to the stage, but really, the celebration had been the night before.

To draw a sports parallel, the fight over the last couple of years, first to defeat last year's amendment, and now to pass this new bill, had been akin to the long and arduous battle of a playoff run.  The playoff run had it's highs, lows, and plenty of bruises, but it had all been worthwhile, as foes had been defeated and the championship (the bill passing both the house and senate) had been won.  Last night's vote was akin to the players celebrating on the ice, yelling, jumping, hugging, sharing the moment with everybody who had been their with them over the course of the struggle.  Tuesday's signing was merely the parade after the fact (there was literally a parade), a moment to look back, acknowledge the work done, shake hands, pat backs, and maybe finally relax.

I couldn't help but sense just a bit of confusion mixing with the satisfaction.  The age old question for anybody who's set a seemingly impossible goal only to finally achieve it is, "What happens next?"  The question seemed to linger in the air over the whole proceedings.  Most of the people in attendance had committed at least the last two years of their lives to this singular goal.  They'd prayed together, fought together, cried together, and they'd won together.  But now, short of sharing a couple of celebratory drinks, there is no more "together."  These people had brought out the very best in each other and in other Minnesotans.  But even a journey that ends in success is still a journey ending.

To be sure, everybody seemed to enjoy this night together.  But the fact that they now had to go back to fighting the smaller fights (the intolerant neighbors, the sideways glances on the street, the barely-concealed disdain) and, more importantly, fighting them with only the knowledge of kindred spirits (rather than the actual physical presence of kindred spirits) loomed larger as the night wore on.



Here's hoping those battles are fewer now than ever before.  Minnesota did a great thing over these last couple of years and that collective sigh of relief you heard coming from St. Paul yesterday was well-earned.  All things considered, though, yesterday's festivities may turn out to be that last drink before the bar lights come on and everybody is thrust back out into the real world.  At least it's a better place today than it was yesterday.

For more TCDroogsma, be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma).  He can also be found right here on Newest Industry hosting our free weekly podcast Flatbasset Radio.

For more Newest Industry, be sure to give us a follow on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) to stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors.  More importantly, we have a Facebook page here.  Trivial as it seems, stopping by and giving us a "Like" is a free & legitimate way to support the blog.

Songs Of The Week #39

Houses, The Uncluded, The Veils, Shout Out Louds, & On And On...

Well hello again, MP3 junkies!  Welcome to Songs Of The Week #39!

For those of you who are still unfamiliar with the column, here's the story:  TCDroogsma has an MP3 problem.  Each week he downloads dozens of MP3's and typically won't shut up about them.  So, with that in mind, we put him to work.

So, each week he downloads the songs given away via The Current's Song Of The Day podcast.  After spending a few days with them we ask him to write a review of each song and give it a score of 1-5.

As always, we strongly suggest that you follow this link and subscribe to the podcast yourself.  It's free and it's fun for the whole family!

To that end, we also encourage you to give the songs a listen and then vote for your favorite in the poll to the right-hand side of this page.  The winning artist receives the validation that comes with winning an anonymous poll on a blog, arguably the greatest achievement a modern musician can attain.

So, Droogsy... thoughts?

01. Houses - The Beauty Surrounds (from the album A Quiet Darkness)

TCDroogsma:

     It took nearly an entire week of listening to "The Beauty Surrounds" before its... um... beauty finally revealed itself.  It should be noted, of course, that since this is the first song of the week it means I'm typically listening to it while I walk to work at 5:45 in the morning.  I can barely function at that point in the day let alone digest the subtleties of a chillwave-inflected pop song.

    
     And yet, I'm almost certain that when my playlist cycles back to this song each April I'm going to have one of those, "Oh damn!  I forgot about this one" moments.

     The song eases in like a sunrise, with a simple clicking loop and descending synth-line.  "There's some gold in my bones that I told you about..." is how we're greeted.  "So I'm pulling out my teeth and burying them deep underground."  What does that mean?  I have no idea.  Allegedly, A Quiet Darkness is a concept album about two people in post-apocalyptic America trying to reconnect.  Well, seeing as how I'm only reviewing the one song and not the whole concept, the lyrics don't make a ton of sense.

     Still, the co-lead vocals from Dexter Tortoriello and Megan Messina provide the same sort of warmth that one would expect from the aforementioned sunrise.  "All my love won't bring you back to me" is a universal sentiment, whether it's fictional post-apocalypse America or non-fiction, pre-apocalypse America, Houses manages to strike a chord that resonates longer each time I hear it.

Final Score: 3.5/5

02. The Uncluded - Delicate Cycle (from the album Hokey Fright)

TCDroogsma:

     It's almost unfair for me to review "Delicate Cycle."  As an Aesop Rock devotee, I'm almost too familiar with The Uncluded.  Thanks to Aesop's 900 Bats blog (not too mention his Twitter), I've heard "Delicate Cycle" in various forms for over a year.

    Conversely, having heard Aesop Rock & Kimya Dawson together for quite a while now, The Uncluded has little novelty value left to me.  The question, then, is does this project stand up once the surprise of hearing these two artists collaborate stand up?

     The short answer: Yes.  Aesop Rock had spent the years since None Shall Pass coping with a lot of things.  He's even more disconnected from New York City.  He's had friends and family pass away.  He's gone through a divorce.  All of these things were dealt with directly and indirectly on last year's Skelethon (and, in a very indirect way, on his Hail Mary Mallon project, which, with the benefit of time, sounds like a record consisting of a guy going out with his friends for a night on the town to try to forget the problems at home).

     "Delicate Cycle" treads on the more literal side of Aesop's struggles.  Of course, "literal" to Aesop still means layers and layers to dig through.  His first verse is the sound of a man growing older, trying to make his peace with his new place in life, and (most importantly) acknowledging just how fragile it all is.

     Kimya Dawson, as the opposite side of the same coin, spins a much more straightforward yarn of her dad working in a laundromat and the adventure's she had there.  Is this a true story?  I have no idea.  But that's really the genius of the collaboration.

     Dawson's tale of growing up in a laundromat (and the struggles of finally being able to afford her own washer and dryer, thus eliminating the need to go to the laundromat) may be fact, it may be fiction, but read as a very straight narrative leading up to the one big lesson (the "airing their dirty laundry" line) it leaves me with a new respect for her ability to get to the same place as Aesop with about 200 fewer words and 50 fewer metaphors.  In the end, as both grow older, their acknowledging that they've grown wiser but not necessarily happier.  Sometimes the only reasonable thing to do is to pick up a guitar and sing yourself a song.

Final Score: 4/5

03. The Veils - Through The Deep Dark Wood (from the album Time Stays, We Go)

TCDroogsma:

     I've been going pretty hard for The Veils over the last year or so thanks to a friend pushing their first two albums on me.  I wasn't an immediate fan, but they definitely won me over.

     
     "Through The Deep Dark Wood" is not a drastic departure for the band, but it does show The Veils reaching a new level in their craft.  Whereas they used to use singer Finn Andrews' howling-at-the-moon vocals to prop up songs when they flagged, "Through The Deep Dark Wood" has layers upon layers of charm.

     Don't get me wrong, Andrews' still brings to mind the best moments of Hamilton Leithauser, but the rest of the band seem to have finally found a way to work up their own version of "The Rat" behind him.  The guitars chime, the drums hurtle forward, and every time a break is needed, it's there building the suspense for the next blast.  Really, a brilliant job by a band that seems to have really found its footing.

Final Score: 4/5

04. Shout Out Louds - Illusions (from the album Optica)

 
TCDroogsma:

     Maybe I'm being unfair, but I've never been able to completely separate Shout Out Louds from the fact that that their Swedish.  Every song I ever hear from them is meticulously crafted, catchy as good be, but entirely non-threatening and always leaving me wondering if the song was really about anything.  Beautiful but distant.  Y'know, like Sweden.

     
     Take comfort, though, you sexy Nordic dance-poppers, there's a precedent here.  I always felt the same way about fellow-Swedes The Cardigans.  And here in 2013 I find myself one of the few people I know still willing to go to bat for that band.  Great pop music is great pop music and Shout Out Louds are undeniably great at writing pop music.

Final Score: 3.5/5

05. On And On - The Hunter (from the album Give In)

TCDroogsma:

     According to my extensive research (what up, Google!), On And On is a collaborative effort between musicians from Chicago and Minneapolis.  While my distaste for Chicago is at an all-time high right now (fucking Blackhawks), I've definitely embraced this collaboration.

    
     With "The Hunter" On And On manage to keep the sly, synth-heavy hooks that have dominated the Twin Cities over the last couple of years and mix them expertly with the kind of hammer-of-the-gods drums and guitar crunch that can only come from a city that couldn't be further from "Minnesota Nice."

     The result is a song that that kicks around in your head, but also leaves you to realize that you're walking around work singing a song that's menacingly, excitingly sexual under your breath, and that if anybody actually heard you muttering, "You are the hunted, you know why I'm coming..." you'd probably find yourself in the greatest Human Resources there ever was.  Any song that could theoretically lead to that scenario is a winner in my book.

Final Score: 4.5/5

Well there you have it, everybody!  Another week's worth of songs downloaded, reviewed, and filed away!

As always, please keep in mind that neither Newest Industry nor its contributors is in any way affiliated with the artists above, The Current, or Minnesota Public Radio.  We're just music fans with laptops and little bit too much time on our hands.

For more TCDroogsma be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma).  He can also be found right here on Newest Industry hosting our free weekly podcast Flatbasset Radio.

For more Newest Industry be sure to give us a follow on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) to stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors.  More importantly, we have a Facebook page here.  Trivial as it seems, stopping by and giving us a "Like" is a free & legitimate way to support the blog.

Songs Of The Week #38

Bleached, Keaton Henson, The Lonely Wild, Andy Burrows, & Har Mar Superstar...

Well hello again, MP3 junkies! Welcome to Songs Of The Week #38!

For those of you who are new to the column, here's the story: TCDroogsma likes to dork out about MP3's. We think he may have a problem. Each week we ask TCDroogsma to download the songs given away over the week by The Current's Song Of The Day podcast. After spending a few days with the songs we ask him to review the songs and give them a score of 1-5.

As always, we strongly suggest that you follow this link and subscribe to the podcast yourself. It's free music, people!

Alright, Droogsy... thoughts?

01. Bleached – Dead In Your Head (from the album Ride Your Heart)

TCDroogsma:

     I didn't know anything about Bleached going into this week's songs.  Turns out Bleached is the work of sisters Jennifer & Jessie Clavin.  The name "Bleached" seems appropriate as the band is based out of L.A. and definitely sounds like a band from the 90's with some of the Seattle grunge burned away, leaving us with a hook-heavy, hearbroken pop song.

    
     As has been pretty well documented in these columns, I'm a fan of anything that leans 90's and anything that leans shoegaze.  "Dead In Your Head" has both in spades.  While the prospect of MPR giving away yet another "we broke up, I'm feeling things" song is about as exciting as another week of winter, Bleached manages just enough tricks to keep it interesting.

     Coming off like 808's era Kanye, the Clavin sisters start off lashing, claiming, "It's time to think about what you lost, because you know, baby, it's gonna hit you..."  Sadly, instead of an entire track of kiss-offs, the chorus is hinges the phrase, "I never wanted to lose the boy I love the most..."  Honestly, this back-and-forth between anger and regret has been beat to death in this "Song Of The Day" format.  In a different venue I probably would have likes this song more, but after spending a week with "Dead In Your Head," I'm left with the desire to sit down with the Clavin sisters and tell them each to get their shit together.  Nobody wants to hear somebody complain about something they had and lost when they're not even sure they wanted it in the first place.

Final Score: 2.5/5

02. Keaton Henson – You (from the album Birthdays)

 
TCDroogsma:

     According to, wel... the internet, Keaton Henson is the "bedroom troubadour" archetype personified.  Evidently, Mr. Henson has been so racked with anxiety since he was a child that he rarely ventures out to play live, instead staying in crafting fragile pop songs.  Frankly, I blame his parents.  Who names their kid Keaton?

     Well, "You" definitely sounds like the work of somebody who spends all day in a bedroom.  It's lushly produced, with strings that are beautifully executed and percussion that builds & drops the way anxiety would well up if you were stuck in your own head all day.  From an instrumental standpoint, this is clearly the work of somebody who hasn't left the house (and I mean that as a compliment).

    Lyrically, however, it also sounds like the work of somebody who hasn't left the house (and I don't mean that as a compliment).  "You" is filled with cliche & platitudes of a third-party telling somebody how to cope with life.  The fact that it's somebody who struggles to actually leave the house and live a life is readily apparent.  The lyric's revolve around "If... then..." statements.  "If you must leave," "If you must mourn," "If you must weep..."  The answer to all these questions a rote.  Honestly, the song sounds like an address from Henson to his own anxiety, questions answered with a mix of continued hibernation or calls to action, which leaves no right or wrong option.  Everything action or inaction justified.

    The song was definitely going to be a 2, but I'm bumping it up to a 3 for the line, "If you must die, sweetheart, die knowing your life was my life's best part..."  That is my early 2013 nomination for "Soul-Crushing Line Of The Year."

Final Score: 3/5

03. The Lonely Wild – Everything You Need (from the album The Sun As It Comes)

TCDroogsma:

     The Lonely Wild introduces "Everything You Need" with some upbeat-indie guitar and, unexpectedly, mariachi horns.  If the bastard child of The Helio Sequence & Calexico seems interesting, you should probably give The Lonely Wild a listen.

    
     Is this interesting to me?  Not especially.  "Everything You Need" is certainly well-executed and delivered with passion.  Sadly, The Lonely Wild seems to be counting on this indie-mash up sound to be their most compelling fact, rather than the actual content of the song.  Everything is so well-done and between the lines that even the moment of abandon (when the horns & rhythm vaguely abandon the songs structure around the 2:30 mark) seems a little too well coordinated.  "Everything You Need" is a welcome addition to the iPod Shuffle library, but I can't imagine listening to 50 minutes of this.

Final Score: 3/5

04. Andy Burrows – Keep On Moving On (from the album Company)

TCDroogsma:

     Andy Burrows is the former drummer for the band Razorlight.  Unless you're English (or an NME junkie), this may not mean much to you, but Razorlight was arena-show huge in England.  I'll explain why this is relevant in a bit.

     I'm sure he hates the fact that pretty much every article or review about him starts this way.  Honestly, until I googled his name I didn't know this fact.  The reason I googled his name, however, is because "Keep On Moving On" starts off like a hundred other indie rock songs.  The harmonies and hooks are big, but the song takes a real turn around the 1:00 mark when a big time guitar solo turns up.  Form that point on the song takes on an REO Speedwagon kind of vibe.  I mean that as a compliment.  So many of these Current songs are so far up their own ass that they can't see the light of day.

    What Burrows does with "Keep On Moving On" is incredibly refreshing.  He aims big with the second half of the song, something too many indie-bands undertake only with the knowing wink of, "here we go, right?!?"  Clearly, Burrows learned a lesson or two playing the big stages with Razorlight.  That lesson: Just fucking go for it once in a while.  If the songs above suffer for their venue (This "Song Of The Day" format), the Burrows benefits from it.  This song doesn't belong on MPR, it belongs on KQRS.

Final Score: 3.5/5

05. Har Mar Superstar – Lady, You Shot Me (from the album Bye Bye 17)

TCDroogsma:

     I've already written pretty extensively on "Lady, You Shot Me" right here on Newest Industry for their Singles Mixer column (click here to give it a read).  I'm not going to re-hash everything I said there, so in summation: this is a pretty great single.

Final Score: 4/5

Well there you have it, folks. Another week's worth of songs downloaded, reviewed, and filed away!

As always, please bear in mind that neither Newest Industry nor its contributors are in any way affiliated with the artists above, The Current, or MPR. We're just music fans with laptops and a little too much time on our hands.

For more TCDroogsma, be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma). He can also be found right here playing some songs & bantering on our free weekly podcast Flatbasset Radio.

For more Newest Industry be sure to give us a follow on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1) to stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors. More importantly, we have a Facebook page here. Trivial as it seems, stopping by and giving us a “Like” is a free & legitimate way to support the blog.