Songs Of The Week #79: TCDroogsma & MinneSarah

Mogwai, Dog Bite, The Autumn Defense, Leif Vollebekk, & Little Man...

Well hello again, MP3 junkies!  Welcome to Songs Of The Week #79!
 
For those of you who are new to the SOTW column, here's the story:  TCDroogsma and MinneSarah are both fans of The Current's Song Of The Day podcast.  They're also both opinionated and have access to computers.  Seeing an opportunity to let them indulge in their MP3 habit and put them to work writing reviews we created the Songs Of The Week column.  Over a year later later and here we are.

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 each song a spin or two, feel free to cast a vote for your favorite song of the week in the poll to the right side of the page.  The artist who accrues the most votes wins the validation that comes from winning an anonymous internet poll, arguably the loftiest height to which a modern musician can aspire.

As per tradition TCDroogsma and MinneSarah have not read each other's reviews prior to posting

So... Droogsy, Sarah... thoughts?

01. Mogwai - Remurdered (from the album Rave Tapes)

TCDroogsma:

     Over the years, I've talked a lot of shit about The Current.  While I don't see that ending any tie in the foreseeable future, I will give them credit for this: They've made me a Mogwai fan.

     "Remurdered" marks the third time that Mogwai has turned up as a SOTD track, and I've loved each one of them unconditionally.  I'm almost certain that's because I don't think I would enjoy listening to an entire Mogwai album.  However, taken in 4-6 minute chunks (and stacked up against the indie flotsam that typifies The Current's playlist), they sound phenomenal.

     "Remurdered" doesn't stray far from the Mogwai formula.  It starts off slow, humming along on a guitar & keyboard warble for a minute before the guitar begins to bloom (with some help from the drums).  That, however, is only a teaser.  The whole song blossoms a couple of minutes later, when the keyboards expand, the drums go full post-rock, and a thick bassline glues the whole thing together.  It may be Mogwai-by-numbers, but for six minutes, there's nobody like them.

MinneSarah:

     I approached this song thinking, "I'll bet this track is a six minute droning instrumental" and I was dead on.  Mogwai was the "it" band while I was in college about which everyone fawned over to prove their hipster cred.  Nobody ever followed up on by seeing them live or buying all their albums (or truly enjoying the background music)?  Mogwai, in my mind, plays the soundtrack to every dorm room in Minnesota circa 2003.

     This offering didn't push that idea out of my head, though it did sound more "90's electronic" than I remember them sounding in the 90's.  In fact, it reminded me of Orbital's ebbing and flowing electronic technique.   This track starts softer during the first three minutes and louder during the last, making it sound like two separate songs drawn together.  The song title, "Remurdered," doesn't give a lot of context to an instrumental song, though I think it would be the perfect song title for a cover of a cover, especially if the first cover was a bad try.

Final Score - TCDroogsma: 4/5
                    MinneSarah: 3/5

02. Dog Bite - Lady Queen (from the album Tranquilizers)

TCDroogsma:

     Dog Bite is best known as the side-project of Washed Out keyboardist Phil Jones, which is really a shame.  While "Lady Queen" may share an affinity for hinting at melody (rather than simply indulging in it) with Washed Out, Dog Bite definitely stands on its own.

     "Lady Queen" appears to be a tongue-in-cheek shot at a woman who demands she gets her way despite not having a firm grasp on what it is she wants.  The vocals aren't necessarily prominent in the mix, but they definitely fit in with the overall "shoegaze with keyboards" aesthetic of the song.  Vocals and keyboard lines drift in and out of the song, yet it retains a pop structure that Jones full-time gig typically abandons.  It shuffles and builds for nearly two minutes before collapsing in on itself, never overstaying its welcome.

MinneSarah:

     My new kitten has a new theme song!  "Lady Queen" is also her new nickname, just surpassing "Princess Baby" this past week (she's growing up)!  If "uptempo downtempo" is a genre, Dog Bite hit the nail on the head. The vocals are disinterested but trustworthy. I love the 90's fuzzed out guitars with a hefty dose of well-planned electronics drums.

     "Lady Queen" is a fun listen - the lyrics aren't too serious, and it definitely made me wonder what else Dog Bite is working on right now.  While I can't really pin this song down, the wondering what could come next makes me love it all the more.

Final Score - TCDroogsma: 3.5/5
                    MinneSarah: 4/5

03. The Autumn Defense - This Thing That I've Found (from the album Fifth)

TCDroogsma:

     A couple of things came to mind when I first set upon reviewing "This Thing That I've Found:"

     First, I'm a huge Wilco & Uncle Tupelo fan, yet had no idea that bassist John Stirratt had his own band (let alone five albums worth of songs).

     Second, given his longevity within Jeff Tweedy's universe, I always assumed Stirratt was the quintessential "good soldier."  That he was more than willing to indulge in Tweedy's moods & left turns in the name of great songs and great paychecks.

     While I'm still not sure if that second part is true or not, "This Thing That I've Found" shows that Stirratt may have been able to put up with the ebb & flow of Wilco because he was more than capable of burning his creative energy elsewhere.  "This This Thing That I've Found" arrives just in time for Valentine's Day.  It's a smoothly written, expertly performed love song for the over-30 set, most of whom can appreciate the sentiment of acknowledging both their own & their significant other's past and leaving it where it belongs.  It also sounds like a long lost ELO single, which, considering I'm part of that over-30 set, I mean as a genuine compliment.  The songs celebrates feelings & mood over specific words.  Stirratt may have no idea what the thing that he's found is, but he's old enough to know its special.

MinneSarah:

     Everyone knows I want nothing to do with Wilco.  I was blown-out-of-my-mind surprised to find that The Autumn Defense is Wilco bassist John Stirratt's side project.  Songwriting doesn't get more perfect than this song!  The only complaint I have is the slight twang at points during the song...and the Wilco associations.

     But seriously, this song is timeless - it'd describe your life if you lived it anytime from the 60's onward - any season.  The lyrics are hopeful, but there is a sense of ennui in the guitars.  It leaves the listener tapping their feet and wanting more.  What a song. 

Final Score - TCDroogsma: 4.5/5
                    MinneSarah: 4.5/5

04. Leif Vollebekk - Southern United States (from the album North Americana)

TCDroogsma:

     I hate to say it, but "Southern United States" is exactly the type of country-tinged song that only somebody who's never lived in the southern United States could write.  To his credit, Leif Vollebekk opens the song by stating, "I had a dream I was standing under the Memphis moon..." which frames the whole song as merely a dream, rather than an actual portrait, of Dixie.

     Unfortunately, that doesn't bring much comfort during the remaining three and a half melody-averse minutes of the song.  There's some exceeding loose character sketchers, a very cliched take on southern music (violins & pedal steel guitar abound), a clumsy reference to Lou Reed's Berlin, and nary a chorus to be found.  By the end of the song I was at a loss as to just what the point of "Southern United States" was. This is less a song than a fictional travel log entry.

MinneSarah:

     If Canada could offer a Jeff Buckley, I believe that Leif would be the best they can do.  While I've been pining for a legitimate Buckley replacement for the past 20 years, I'm not entirely sold that he should play "Americana" (personal bias).

     While Leif issues a convincing stab at Southern Americana, one cannot help but see it as Canadian romanticism of the American South - which can be more sanguine than an actual Southerner would offer.  The lyrics annoy me because they use the same Bob Dylan moment by moment storytelling that I've ripped other songs for using.  Throwing in a reference to Lou Reed's "Berlin" may be for hipster cred, or it might just embody the sentiment better than using his own words to describe it - only Leif can know the answer to that question.  Note I'm giving above a three to a song featuring a prominent harmonica solo - I don't forsee this happening again. 

Final Score - TCDroogsma: 1/5
                    MinneSarah: 3.5/5

05. Little Man - Flip You Over (from the album Original Face)

TCDroogsma:

     I really shouldn't be allowed to review Little Man songs.  I've been a big fan of this guy for years now, and he's yet to make a misstep.  He can go folk, he can go glam, he can go pop... It all sounds great to me.

     "Flip You Over" clocks in at just 2:00, and pretty much sums up the spirit of Little Man in its opening seconds.  "Every little thing's been done, wanna get out and have some fun..."  For a guy that's been battling Marc Bolan comparisons from the day he strapped on a guitar, that's a battle cry, a mantra, or both.  He's right, there's nothing original going on in "Flip You Over."  So what?  It's loud, it's fast, it's catchy as hell.... Sometimes that's all you need.

MinneSarah:

     "Flip You Over" has contagious energy.  While I spent most of the weekend thinking this song sounded like it came from a familiar place, the distilled thought on this is, "what if the glam rock bravado of Spacehog was influenced by Led Zepplin?"  I'm a huge fan of bands embracing and building upon 70's glam rock, and Little Man does just that.

     From what I can glean from the lyrics, they are incredibly empowering.  If you create a get up and go playlist, don't leave this one off your tracklist.  There is a little twang in this ditty as well, but it seems like it is for emphasis rather than the direction the song takes.  This song, a charismatic band performance, a night at Lee's with just the right amount of gin and tonics - well, this scenario could only turn out swimmingly. 

Final Score - TCDroogsma: 4/5
                    MinneSarah: 3.5/5

Well there you have it, MP3 junkies!  Another week's worth of songs downloaded, reviewed, & filed away!

As always, please keep in mind that neither Newest Industry nor our contributors are in any way affiliated with the artists above, The Current, or MPR.  We're just music fans with laptops 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 hosting our free weekly podcast Flatbasset Radio

For more MinneSarah be sure to give her a follow on Twitter (@MinneSarah).  In addition to  filing reports out of St. Paul for our Big Day Out column she occasionally joins TCDroogsma as co-host of the Flatbasset Radio 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.

Songs Of The Week #31: TCDroogsma

Dog Bite, DRGN KING, Jose James, The James Hunter Six, & Bad Bad Hats...

Well hello again, MP3 junkies! Welcome to Songs Of The Week #31!

For those of you who aren't totally sure what you're looking at, here's the story. Each week we ask two of our regular contributors to download the tracks given away via The Current's Song Of The Day podcast.

After spending a few days with the songs, we ask our contributors for a brief review of the songs and a score of 1-5.

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

To that end, we've also posted a poll to the right side of this page. Vote for whichever one of this week's songs was your favorite. At the end of the week the winning artist will receive the sort of validation that can only come from winning an anonymous internet poll. Obviously it's pretty important that you vote.

As those of you who've been following this column over the last couple of week's know, we've been unable to find a second person to join TCDroogsma in writing this post. Remarkably we just don't seem to know any judgmental music fans who are willing to commit. So, to the the chagrin of pretty much everybody, TCDroogsma flies solo once again.

Let's get into it. Droogsy, thoughts?

01. Dog Bite – Forever Until (from the album Velvet Changes)

TCDroogsma:

     With "Forever Until" Dog Bite walks the line between nostalgia and current sounds or is a wholly unoriginal song.  Which side of that line it falls over depends almost wholly on the knowledge and mood of the listener.

     I, for one, thinks it does a fine job of staying on the "nostalgia" line while sort of staying in line with current indie rock sounds.  They take a tried-and-true page out of the British Invasion of the early 60's by finding a guitar riff that works and riding it for a whole song.  If it worked for bands like The Beatles, The Stones, and Cream it'll work for Dog Bite.

     Vocally they're taking their cues from the early 90's, with the shoegaze-y, far off vocals sounding like Bob Pollard fronting My Bloody Valentine.  As someone who is a die-hard 90's fan I can definitely get behind that.

     What really keeps me engaged with "Forever Until" is the way that the chorus doesn't just ride the echoed vocals to a woozy feeling, it actually has a moment where the instruments seem to drop half a note.  This makes the complete lack of a vocal hook moot, as I spend the chorus just trying to find my bearings.  Fortunately, balance is restored when that guitar hook comes to start the next verse.  Proof positive that all you need is one good guitar riff and a working knowledge of rock n roll.

Final Score: 3/5

02. DRGN KING – Wild Night (from the album Paragraph Nights)

TCDroogsma:

     It took me a bit to figure out why DRGN KING sounds so familiar even though, to the best of my knowledge, this is the first time I have heard them.

     It finally hit me.  I've never heard these guys before, but I've heard them a million times before.  In every Taking Back Sunday or Thrice album I ever played back in the early 2000's.  Listen closely to the dual vocals in your headphones in the chorus, the "moment-in-time" intro, the way the song breaks down after the second chorus with everything going half-time before building to the last chorus, the the melody-abandoning moans that appear after the last chorus... hell, even lyrics like, "if we make our mistakes together is it any less stupid?" sound like they came straight off a Yellowcard record.

    They really drive the point home with the chorus, "You could take me on a wild night, I don't ever want to go home, it doesn't matter if it's ever right..." is right out of the "frustrated small town kid" punk rock playbook.

     Fortunately, DRGN KING balances is this off with a bouncy keyboard & bass combo and enough falsetto "Woo-ooh's" to imply that their was a copy of Parklife next to Tell All Your Friends in their first car's six-disc changer.  Basically, I can't foresee pursuing this band much further, but I'll be damned if "Wild Night" isn't a fun trip down memory lane.

Final Score: 3.5/5

03. Jose James – Do You Feel (from the album No Beginning No End)

TCDroogsma:

     I'll be honest, "Do You Feel" was fighting an uphill battle from the moment I saw that the title didn't have a question mark.  Throw in the fact that it's seven and a half minutes long and it would have to be really good to win me over.

     Well, it's not, but I did struggle over the last couple of days trying to figure out what to make of this one.  On its surface, "Do You Feel" is every Harry Connick Jr. song ever.  A smooth-voiced, soul singer over a lounge-y piano riff lamenting whether or not a woman could be the one.  Hell, this sounds like the song Harry Connick Jr. would have written to soundtrack the Will & Grace episode where Harry Connick Jr and, um... Grace have a fight and then reconcile.  Yes, its that vanilla.

     Two things jumped out at me about this song.  First of all, pace is the trick.  If you're not going to break any new ground with a style of song, you better dress it up and give me a reason to stay engaged.  Instead, Jose James waits a whole three and a half minutes to abandon the vocals and allow the piano, bass, and drums to do their thing.  Why didn't this happen after the second chorus?  You've got me.  Adding insult to injury, some horns finally show up to break up the monotony, but not until 6:45 into the song!  It's a great idea, but it would have been better if they'd turned up after my imagined piano break going into the third verse.  It may not seem like much, but little things like that are why Burt Bacharach is a legend and I had to check Jose James name twice before writing this review.

     The second thing that came to mind when reviewing "Do You Feel" stems from that last point.  Namely, at its core, this isn't a bad song.  If Sondre Lerche had put this song on his Duper Sessions album it would have been tossed off immediately as a genre-excercise (much like the rest of that clunker of an album).  Of course, if Andre 3000 had sung this song as the centerpiece of The Love Below it would be universally recognized as a highlight of a Grammy-winning album and the moment when Three Stacks revealed himself to be maturing as a man and an artists.  This song could be great depending on the setting and the arrangement.  Instead, we're left with the definition of, "Meh."

Final Score: 1.5/5

04. The James Hunter Six – Minute By Minute (from the album Minute By Minute)

TCDroogsma:

     I face a dilemma every time I'm supposed to review soul music.  Namely, I don't listen to soul music.  Much like somebody who's never been to a play thinks every play is great, I tend to thoroughly enjoy the soul music I listen to in this medium (I discussed this when I reviewed The Valdons last year too).  Being forced to listen to "Minute By Minute" six times provided me the opportunity to let its charms and flaws reveal themselves.  Still, I know for a fact that if I actually bought this album I would lost interest after three songs.  My ability to judge soul music is dependent almost completely obligation and quantity.

     That being said, "Minute By Minute" sounds like Bobby Womack fronting Spoon.  This is an awesome thing.  For all the Bruno Mars and Toussaint Morrison's in the world, there just aren't enough James Hunters.  Sure, those other guys will show their "warts" lyrically, on their terms.  There's no hiding Hunter's voice when it can't quite hit those high notes.  His vocals are charming in a, "chain-smoking between songs" kind of way.  And the "Six" work up a nice groove behind him.  Standing on its own, "Minute By Minute" is a fine time.

Final Score: 3.5/5

05. Bad Bad Hats – Super America (from the EP It Hurts)

 
TCDroogsma:

     Over the last couple of years the Twin Cities scene has been dominated by two poorly-monikered, quirk-heavy, actual-song-devoid female-fronted band.  Lucy Michelle & The Velvet Lapelles Lapelles and Caroline Smith & The Good-Night-Sleeps.  I don't know if Bad Bad Hats is making a play for some of their turf (they nailed the poor moniker), but they failed in the best way possible.

     Make no mistake, "Super America" is heavy on the quirk.  I almost wrote this whole thing off when they left in the giggling & playful banter underneath the bridge (Note to new bands: Seriously, DO NOT do that.  We get it. You're friends having fun.), but all things considered, Bad Bad Hats has a lot more in common with my favorite female-fronted band of the last few years, Total Babe.

    Where as Lucy Michelle & Caroline Smith and Their Cast-Of-Every-Hipster-You've-Ever-Mets have only rough ideas for songs that are then drowned in quirkiness, Bad Bad Hat has a full, strong sound.  The production (minus the giggling interlude) is well done and the chorus is definitely muscular.  I don't really know what's going on lyrically, with singer Kerry Alexander rattling off a list of things that could literally be bought at Super America, but the song does contain the line, "I want you more than I want the things you lack," which is just about the sweetest thing somebody could say to somebody else.

Final Score: 3/5

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

As always, please remember 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 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 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.