I Wanna Context You Up (All Night)

No one will argue that context is important. No one! But how important is it exactly, and to what extent is context necessary to fully appreciate a work of art? Let's talk about it, shall we.

It's a constant issue in critical circles and I doubt it will every really be resolved. The ur example is Ezra Pound- does his fascism trump the excellence of his poetry? A similar but less cliche example, if you want to not be a generic blowhard at snooty parties, is Knut Hamson. Want to be more topical? Let's talk Polanski. These are all great examples of infamy, and while they may not seem to be directly related to the production of the creators' art, it can easily be argued that the two are inseparable. Your mileage may vary as to how well you can filter the product from the producer.

Stepping away from that crucial and obvious issue, is a more subtle one that is particularly germane to our little game, the critical review of music, especially at the album level. Most albums, as individual entities, undergo a 'life span' of sorts, with the artist as parent, and producers, writers et al. as extended family. Just like a child, an album is conceived, gestated, birthed, and then presented to the world, and I'd like to make consideration of this process a crucial part of our understanding. That's the context I'd like to take into consideration while looking at some new albums, and one old.

I've been on a bit of a Neil Young bender lately. Now, I've been a fan since I discovered "Rust Never Sleeps" on vinyl when I was a freshman in high school, but I'm really hitting the material hard lately. There are a number of Neil Young albums that until recently have been out of print on CD, but one remains that is out of print in all media, the first of his so-called 'Ditch Trilogy:'


Without context, "Time Fades Away" is still one of Neil Young's best albums, a raw live set that sounds awesome even despite its terrible production values. It's unfortunate that it's out of print, and probably always will be, for two reasons. One, it was directly mastered off of one of the first digital mixing boards, so there are no 'master tapes,' per se. Second, Neil himself has stated that it will never be released again, because it's not a good album. This is just flat wrong, and Mr. Young is lying to himself, though for good reason. To protect himself from the pain. Are you ready, kids? Context time, and it will make listening to this album an emotional experience. Even if you're not Neil Young.

After the rampant success of "Harvest," which was recorded with a band other than Crazy Horse, Young was pressured by his record company to go out on tour. His Crazy Horse bandmate and best friend Danny Whitten had hoped to come with, but Whitten's heroin habit had degenerated so far that he couldn't play anymore, and he was given a plane ticket back to LA, and $50. Whitten took the plane to LA, plunked the $50 down on some smack and promptly OD'd. Young was devastated, but contractually obligated to continue the tour. A host of problems ensued on all fronts: roadie troubles, drinking, grieving, and a throat infection. Young was forced to call in help from an unlikely quarter: his former CSNY bandmates David Crosby and Graham Nash, who assisted with vocals and guitar.

This all sounds like a recipe for a disc of complete shite trainwreck. The proof is in the pudding, though, and the already awesome disc is revealed to be one of the most profound statements of grief ever put down in music. Take a look at the verses of "L.A.":

In a matter of time,
There'll be a friend of mine
Gonna come to the coast,
You're gonna see him
Up close for a minute or two
While the ground cracks under you.

By the look in your eyes
You'd think that it was a surprise
But you seem to forget
Something somebody said
About the bubbles in the sea
And an ocean full of trees

Well, it's hard to believe
So you get up to leave
And you laugh at the door
That you heard it all before
Oh it's so good to know
That it's all just a show for you.

But when the suppers are planned
And the freeways are crammed
And the mountains erupt
And the valley is sucked
Into cracks in the earth
Well I finally been hurt by you

If that doesn't break your heart knowing the story behind it, you are a soulless lead singer for the Decemberists or something.

What else can we find? Remember that historical data is not the only thing that can form context for an album. If you are an artist, your intentional actions need to be putting a best foot forward. When you think of how your album came to be, and where you would like to see it, think about whether your explanation will make you seem like a slavering goon. Especially to members of a group who are traditionally know for being jaded and quick to pick up on any weakness. Why yes, Army of Me, I am talking about you!

Their new EP "Make Yourself Naked", without context, just sits there and does nothing. Singer-songwriter stuff, low-key heartfelt singing about stuff that no one will listen to, acoustic strumming, some keys here and there. Coffee shop background noise. According to Army of Me, these songs were just demos. Wait, what? Also according to Army of Me, they were never intended to be heard. Huh? But, and I must quote their press release, this album is "an unexpected image of a naked man." No, 'goatse.cx' is an unexpected image of a naked man. This is a five song acoustic blorp from the lead singer of an indie-pop band, who are releasing it- opportunistically, perhaps?- and claiming attributes such as 'rawness' and 'intimacy' that simply are not there. Maybe some people like pablum, but not me. The context only makes it unignorable.

Okay, let's clear the taste of that out of our mouths. Who will rescue us? A release from Thrill Jockey? Oh, there's one ready? Thanks, TJ!

This is another five song EP, this time from Javelin. They're an electro-whatever duo, and what they duo they duo well. The songs have something that you don't get a whole lot these days- tasteful sampling, which combined with the general layered cleanliness of their grooves makes for a surprisingly versatile set of songs. The one thing about Javelin is that I don't really picture this music existing outside of the bedroom project sphere, or if live pretty much the DJ realm. Here's where I am wrong, and context comes to the rescue. Or does it, ultimately?

Javelin have done something pretty cool. Here I quote their press release: "In performance, Javelin use colorfully painted boomboxes that form large speaker totems (“boombaatas”) which can hang from the ceiling or stack up on the floor like pyramids. The signal from the show is broadcast via FM transmitter, thereby fostering audience participation (B.Y.O.Boombox) or fueling battery-powered, mobile parties. The duo has played venues as diverse as the children’s branch of the Olneyville Public Library (RI), to the Museum of Modern Art (NY), both of which happened in the same week." Well kiss my grits! That's awesome, so I understand that for them the performance bit is probably more important than just the music proper. Here is also where I ponder- you didn't think I wouldn't leave well enough alone, did you?

The music is good, but I don't know that it stands head and shoulders above what a lot of people are doing at any given moment- Gasoline Monk locally, ferinstance. Adding in their boombox towers and pomo album covers and all, makes for a more complete experience, and that is probably what they will be known for. This holds true for plenty of acts- GWAR, Lightning Bolt... and just so you know I'm not keeping any cows sacred, perhaps Kid Beyond? So long as the experience is fun and satisfying for both producer and consumer, all is well, and it is only overthinking hypercritics infected with some nasty recursive memes who lose sleep/burn unnecessary brain power over it.

Well, jokes on you with the recursive meme thing, constant reader. Tag. You're it.

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Album Review : Fiery Furnaces "I'm Going Away"

Several months ago, my boyfriend checked the Fiery Furnaces’ “Bitter Tea” out from the library. This was my first exposure to the band, and I didn’t know whether I liked them or not. The arrangements were schizophrenic, the subject matter bizarre, and altogether gave a feeling of being piecemeal but somehow whole at the same time. On a second listening, however, they became a fast favorite, and I quickly got hold of everything by them that I could.

It should come as no surprise that when Thrill Jockey asked if Crappy Indie Music wanted to review ‘I’m Going Away’, their forthcoming album, I jumped at the chance. I wasn’t disappointed.

In a few ways, I’m Going Away is a departure from their earlier work. The instrumentation is simpler – heavy on guitars and piano, and as far as I can tell, not a synth in sight. The arrangements are also more straightforward – most every song is based on one riff and chorus, and they tend to hold the same tempo throughout, or change gently, rather than the abrupt shifts often found in former works. The album retains some of the band’s identifying characteristics – though gentler and simpler, the song structure is specifically their style, there is a frenetic feeling throughout and of course Eleanor Friedberger’s distinctive voice. This is one of my favorite things about the Fiery Furnaces – when I think of a female indie singer, I expect to hear something high and wispy like Isobel Campbell (who I like, too, don’t get me wrong) – but Friedberger has a deep, rich voice you would more often hear singing the blues. “I’m Going Away” has a bit of a bluesy, roots music feel to me, in fact.

I liked all the songs on the album, but a few standouts are “Drive to Dallas” which starts out slow and piano heavy and busts into a delightfully unexpected classic rock type wailing guitar solo, “Charmaine Champagne”, which is like a female Ted Leo’s celebration of a lounge singer, and "Staring at the Steeple", which while not making much literal sense, provides the ambient feeling of a supernatural murder mystery.

At first I was a little bit sorry that “I’m Going Away” wasn’t more weird and wacky, but it’s a very good album in its own right. If you’re already a fan of the Fiery Furnaces, you’ll want to check it out, and if you’ve never heard them, it’s an enjoyable, accessible introduction to a band worth knowing.

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Album Review: Tortoise- "Beacons of Ancestorship"

As I get older and the engine that powers my raw cognitive skills goes into decline, I've noticed a certain mental artifact increase in frequency. I often immediately misread items to humorous effect. My Facebook friends will probably attest to this. So if you are like me, please be advised that Tortoise's new album is not called "Bacon of Ancestorship."

I have to preface this with the fact that I don't really know much about Tortoise, and have not kept up on them as a band. To the best of my recollection I had heard a few of their tracks years ago but could not remember that bit distinctly. Here and there, though, I kept coming across references to them. People mention them in craigslist musicians wanted ads, they are a supposedly meaningful benchmark in music reviews, and a friend of mine said that some of my band's instrumentals sounded like "Tortoise through a beat box." I've since learned that that was quite the compliment, and all in all I have been very excited to check the real deal out. So, after my review of "More" (by Thrill Jockey labelmates Double Dagger) when I was informed that the next release down the pike from TJ would be the new Tortoise, I had to snap it up.

Now, there is something to be said for caution in expecting too much. You don't want to get disappointed, and with Tortoise you're also dealing with a band that has been liberally tarred with the 'post-rock' brush. Gentleman blogger Eriq Nelson and I had a discussion on this very topic, and I can think of no better way to express the low-down than to quote his very own eloquence: "...it's strange that any term so broad in it's scope has become familiar and formulaic as "post-rock". It defied conception. The term itself allows for limitless possibility, but ends up being applied more like post-Mogwai. It saddens me greatly." So with that in mind I jumped right in...

...and found to my great surprise that Tortoise was not even close to what I would describe as 'post-anything' at all, but rather, straight up PROG ROCK. Good old fashioned Weather Report meets Gabriel-era Genesis meets who knows. I don't believe this is just a result of the vintage synths present, either. It's the consummate musicianship, the rich variety of sound textures and dynamics, and the deep reverence for their source music, in this case rhythmic jazz. Then of course there is the esoteric, and it's right from the get-go. The title of the lead track "High Class Slim Came Floatin In" namechecks an obscure Billy Gibbons composition, which I was proud to be able to indentify sans Intarweb. Much like ZZ Top, a band vastly underrated for their progressive contributions to the blues rock genre, this song careens all over the place in a savage and exuberant manner, setting the tone for an album of great inventiveness. Again, the playing is top knotch, and that's good. Tortoise seems to be known for their experiments with rhythm, and for a band without any vocals to speak of, a listener might become bored hearing hackneyed attempts to 'experiment' where so many visionaries have already gone before. Tortoise has no such problem.

Indeed, with such captivating music, the average person's only complaint might be that the album passes too quickly, which is certainly no complaint at all. My one quibble was that there was a noticeable amount of distortion when all the instruments started really going for it at once. If this were an intentional insertion of some modern lo-fi, it really clashes with the prog aesthetic that seems to be the dominant one. If it's unintentional, well, that's a stumper with all the talent (and recording expertise) involved. This did nothing to decrease my enjoyment of the album as soon as I was out of reviewer mode, though, and I would highly recommend this album to anyone. It aspires to the same sort of genre-spanning tentacular greatness of albums like "Heavy Weather," "Aja," and "Selling England By The Pound." Whether Tortoise's modern spin lands their disc in with these, only time will tell.

"Beacons of Ancestorship" is out June 23rd on Thrill Jockey.

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Album Review: Pontiak - Maker

It's pretty rare that an album lands in my lap for review that I get totally obsessed with. Thank you Thrill Jockey. Thank you so fucking much. The arrival of this album in my record collection has given the Black Keys a scare, pushing in on their listening time to an almost dangerous degree. This is heavy rock. Meaning that the promo album was carved out of a three ton slab of granite. After I offloaded this massive platter from the flatbed truck at my apartment and had the forklift operator put it up on my two story record player I used a crane to start it spinning. An expensive proposition to be certain but the earthquake that ensued was well worth the effort.

I was greeted with a swaggering deep rock track that blew half the cars in my neighborhood up into the air. "Laywayed" does not fuck around people. You can almost feel the power and resistance of the music, it's so thick it takes a few seconds for it to come out of the speakers. This gives way to the body of the album which feels like I'm sitting at the crossroads drinking bourbon and dropping acid with Morphine, Alice In Chains and Pink Floyd. "Maker", the title track for the record, is a haunting and intensely cerebral song that fills the space in your heart that used to hold your fear of the dark. Clocking in at damn near 13 minutes, I feel like this could go on for another half an hour and I'd still be listening. I like a band that says "fuck you" to radio friendly formatting and goes all out. The extended length makes the song, no doubt about it.

The solo work on this album pierces the gloom of this southern Gothic acid trip like the headlights of a car on a dark country night. Reading the copy from Thrill Jockey I learn that guitarist Van Carney blew out two amps during the recording session that gave us this album. This makes perfect sense as I'm watching the Richmond Fire Department try and battle the sexual blazes erupting all around my ruined neighborhood and my friends are all stripping their clothes off and getting down to "Honey". He bleeds into his guitar in every track, you can feel the sweat dripping down his chin in the tiny 12x12 studio they built to get this monster on tape and the smell of fried electronics wafting through the air. This track could seduce Leonard Cohen, it could burn a hole through your bed and make a Tibetan monk chuck the saffron and join the orgy. If you're ever feeling sexually repressed, I prescribe a healthy dose of Pontiak to get you through the night.

All in all, I say hell yes. Pick this thing up and grab a glass of bourbon, get your earthquake kit in order and crank it up.

"Maker " comes out on April 7th on Thrill Jockey Records. Be an anachronist! Buy it on the limited release (1000) vinyl! Remember kids, limited edition vinyl is worth 14 Indie Points a copy.

UPDATE: It's up for listening on Last.fm

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