Songs Of The Week #92: TCDroogsma

(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)

Hurray For The Riff Raff, Thievery Corporation, Pink Mountaintops, Spottiswoode & His Enemies, & Little Man...

Well hello again, MP3 fans! Welcome To Songs Of The Week #92!

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.

Unfortunately, this week MinneSarah took the week off due to what could kindly be called "Current-based fatigue."  Trust us, her words were considerably more harsh.

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.

So... Droogsy... thoughts?

01. Hurray For The Riff Raff - I Know It's Wrong (But That's Alright) (from the album Small Town Heroes)

 
TCDroogsma:

     The story of Hurray For The Riff Raff's lead singer & songwriter Alynda Lee Segarra is a long & winding tail.  She's of Puerto Rican descent, was raised by her aunt in the Bronx, spent her teen years indulging in the punk scene on the Lower East Side, started hopping trains at 17, came out as a lesbian, picked up a banjo, and started writing songs.

     That's quite a journey.  As such, "I Know It's Wrong" has a ramshackle quality to it.  Segarra's vocals bounce along a piano line straight from a spaghettie Western while pedal steel guitars & banjo licks provide some color to the proceedings.  For better or worse, though, "I Know It's Wrong" is a pop song (and not a particularly interesting one).  The melody is catchy, but doesn't offer any surprises.  Lyrically, Segarra's journey has left her with the same problems as all of us: love, lust, loneliness, and the always romantic I'd-break-the-rules-for-you dream.  It's a pleasant enough, but instantly forgettable.

Final Score: 2/5

02. Thievery Corporation - Depth Of My Soul (from the album Saudade) 

 
TCDroogsma:

     From the very beginning, the idea behind Thievery Corporation's core members Rob Garza & Eric Hilton has been to create something that sounded both modern & timeless.  They lean heavily on scratchy samples, insistent vocals, & some live instrumentation to achieve this goal consistently.

     "Depth Of My Soul" continues their winning streak. Turning their focus to something that wouldn't sound out of place in a smoke-filled, stylish club (or, I suppose, a commecial for high-class liquor), they've enlisted Shana Halligan to croon soulfully over strings, piano plinks, & sorta-hip-hop sounding percussion.  The end result is a beautiful, soulful, lyrically vapid song.  Considering that Thievery Corporation has never been about lyrics and more about mood, there's nothing wrong with that.  "Depth Of My Soul" would sound best in one of those aforementioned clubs, where all anybody would notice are the strings, drums, and singing.

Final Score: 3.5/5

03. Pink Mountaintops - Ambulance City (from the album Get Back)

TCDroogsma:

     Pink Mountaintops is the side project of Black Mountain's Stephen McBean.  Despite Black Mountain's penchant for psychedelic rock, Pink Mountaintops are allegedly a "more psychedelic" outfit.

     Whoever wrote that must have missed the memo regarding "Ambulance City."  McBean ditches most of the psychedelic's (though he can't help himself with the vocal reverb) and bangs out a good old fashioned punk rock song.  As far as I can tell the lyrics aren't anything but placeholders (and the fact that the third verse doesn't even contain any vocals speaks to that theory).  Those verses, however, act merely as a buildup to the screaming catharsis of the chorus.  "Ambulance city, station to station!" means something, maybe, or maybe it doesn't.  I don't know.  Frankly, they could have recorded this song in German and it would have been just as good.  Nobody ever said rock n roll had to be smart.

Final Score: 3/5

04. Spottiswoode & His Enemies - No Time For Love (from the album English Dream)

TCDroogsma:

     I'll throw this out here right from the jump:  If you're going to give your band a name as stupid as Spottiswoode & His Enemies you're already starting with one strike against you.  It's not personal, but the same rule has been applied to poorly named bands in the past (The Magnetic Zeroes, TuNe-YaRds, etc...) and typically strikes two and three come quickly.  Sorry, Spottiswoode.  Blame your peers.

     To their credit, "No Time For Love" is nowhere near as bad as anything Edward Sharpe or Merrill Garbus has put their name on (then again, it's nearly impossible for anything to be that bad).  The band aims for both epic & personal with this piano-based stomper and, for the most part, hits the mark.  It's smartly devoid of universe-conquering declarations and insufferably specific details.  Rather, it's an ode to sacrificing some personal happiness in the name of spending that time trying to create something bigger.  I can't help but think that's subject matter Spottiswoode & His Enemies are familiar with intimately.

Final Score: 2.5/5

05. Little Man - Medicinal (from the album Original Face)

TCDroogsma:

     It's been two months since Little Man last appeared on SOTW, which means we're long overdue for another track.

     With "Medicinal" (his SIXTH SOTD track), Chris Perricelli sticks with the same formula that has built up his following in the Twin Cities.  While I can't help but suspect that his dogged adherence to playing clever, T. Rex-inspired pop has also led to a glass ceiling of sorts for his popularity, there's just no arguing with his hooks.  "Medicinal" was released as an SOTD track the same week that Minnesota legislators OK's marijuana use for medicinal purposes.  Whether that was a move by Perricelli or the jackasses running The Current is unknown to me, but considering how "har, har, this will be clever" the whole thing seems, I'm willing to blame MPR.  Nobody likes pretending they're clever more than those folks.

     But I digress... "Medicinal" is either an ode to marijuana in the same "no, it's about a significant other" way that Paul McCartney's "Got To Get You Into My Life" is or, in our post-everything world, it's a clever turn of ideas and is really a love song that people would initially think was about pot.  I'm not smart enough to figure out which is which, but given Little Man's previous work, I'm just going to assume it's about weed.  Doesn't really matter. Smart, snappy, hooky... It's everything you want from a Little Man single.  See you in another month or two, Chris.

Final Score: 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 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 #79: TCDroogsma & MinneSarah

(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)

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.