Bossman Johnny Boy Laird seemed to dig the
overwhelmingly, er, not negative response to my
first edition of "Brain Notes" so he’s asked me if
perhaps I could make it a more regular part of my
weekly postings. I can’t promise you a weekly
thing, but I can say that I enjoy combing through
the tangle of my musical thoughts every week and
dropping at least a few on you unsuspecting
bastards.
So, again, the basic jist of "Brain Notes" is a
weekly clearing of the mess that is my mushy brain.
A lot of shit rattles around up there over the
course of seven days and I’m usually pretty happy if
I can remember a fifth of it. Thus, each week (or
something along those lines) I’ll purge my musical
stomach for your perusal.
As always, thanks for reading!
- My
Morning Jacket - Progressive Or Adult Contemporary? -
The new My Morning Jacket album, Evil Urges baffles
me. I’ve listened to it five or six times all the way
through and I honestly can’t wrap myself around the damn
thing enough to even formulate an opinion. I think I like
it, it certainly sounds nice, but I can’t shake the slightly
disturbing feeling that also sounds somewhat like a modern
day Hall ‘n’ Oates album.
Now, I’m a firm believer that a band needs to progress, and
an even firmer believer that bands should challenge
themselves by pushing the boundaries of what they consider
music, but I just don’t get Evil Urges. Z was
such a slow-burning gem, an almost Caribbean feeling
response to the darker, scarcer edges of It Still Moves
- honestly, I was hoping Jim James and crew would come back
with a second serving of that goodness.
Instead, Evil Urges pushes the boundaries
of...adult-contemporary music? I’m not just being Mr.
Snarky Blogger Man right now, there’s a decidedly mid-day FM
radio feel to a lot of the tracks on this album. I’m
Amazed sounds like late-90s John Cougar Mellencamp;
Thank You Too could be the soundtrack to the final dance
scene in a John Hughes flick - a John Hughes flick scored by
John Hall and Darryl Oates. In truth, the overall sound of
Evil Urges is, well, ridiculous.
So here’s my question: is this just MMJ pushing the
boundaries of music in a very very bizarre manner or have
they just hit a point in their musical careers where they’re
closer to the world of adult contemporary? These guys are
selling out massive venues these days – they’re huge and
only getting huger. Does this mean My Morning Jacket is
making a slow evolution in to the likes of say, U2?
Probably not, but you get my point.
On final analysis, I do like this album. I like MMJ and I
like what they aim to do, I’m just not as enthralled with
Evil Urges as I was with say, Z.
Thoughts?
:My
Morning Jacket - I'm Amazed:
- No Age
VS Times New Viking -
Against all normal Sanders-thinking, I’ve come to absolutely
love the new No Age record Nouns. On the surface
it’s a dirty, sleazy little bundle of distortion and Dean
Spunt’s almost sickly croon. Repeated plays unearth what
makes No Age so fantastic, the subtle balance of pop and
grime that lays just centimeters from the oily-top layer.
Every time I start to tire of the crunching march of
guitars, somewhere in the mix a touch of melody appears,
just enough to draw me back in. It’s more than intriguing,
it’s near brilliant.
Before giving either band a true chance, I always equated
Matador’s Times New Viking with No Age (for a while I
thought they were the same band) and to be honest there’s
plenty or reason. Both bands use noise as a protective
covering for their more poppy-aspirations. The difference?
No Age’s noise is more of an atmospheric cloud, a fog of
sound that envelopes the melody. Times New Viking on the
other hand shoves their noise in your face, demanding that
you accept them as noise before you’re given access to what
lies beyond. Which, in truth is also pretty amazing,
somehow Times New Viking manages to straddle the line of
experimental and listenable. Yes, some of the songs push to
far in to immature fiddling for this guy, but in general the
album is impressive.
My personal taste falls on the side of No Age, but I don’t
need to tell you that both are well worth a listen.
:No
Age - Teen Creeps: | :Times
New Viking - Drop Out:
I had another thought to dig in to but I think I’ll
save it for later.
Until next week.
Noah Sanders is the blog/news editor at Light
In The Attic and a contributor over at Sound On The Sound. If you'd like to contact Noah in regards to
his writings here at Side One: Track One then please do so
here.
- Noah Sanders -
Unless
otherwise expressly stated, all text in this blog and any
related pages, including the blog's archives, is licensed by
John Laird under a
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