(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)
Sun Airway, Kopecky Family Band, Ra Ra Riot, Paul Banks, & Southwire...
Hello again, music fans! Welcome to
Songs Of The Week #20!
That's right, everybody. SOTW turns
the big 2-0 today! One more week and we won't have to ask our older
brother to buy us beer anymore!
But that's for next week. This week
we're putting the holidays behind us and getting back to the grind:
downloading and judging other people's hard work just because we can!
As always, we encourage you to hit
up The Current's website here and subscribe to the podcast yourself.
Free music is a hell of a gift.
Also, as you probably know by now,
there is a poll to the right side of the page. Please give the
tracks a listen and vote for your favorite. The winner receives an
amount of encouragement wholly related to their opinion of stranger's
opinions. So, y'know, every vote counts.
This week we asked MinneSarah &
TCDroogsma to take a break from Christmas drinking and give us their
thoughts on this week's tracks. They have not seen each other's reviews prior to posting.
Hungover kids, thoughts?
01. Sun Airway –
Black Noise (from the album Soft Fall)
MinneSarah:
I had the hardest time reviewing this
song. It's catchy enough, the lyrics are convincingly
nostalgic, and I'd love this to be in the background as I do some of
my favorite things ( likethrift store shopping). This song may be the
definition of "black noise." If this song itself is black noise, then
mission accomplished. I'm not a fan of the gaunt vocals that
are so popular now, but I'm a sucker for keyboard breakdowns. Mostly
win.
TCDroogsma:
This one really grew on me as the week went on. Sun Airway is certainly synthy and dancy, with just enough drunky slurred vocals to make me forget that this could easily be a new Stars single. I'm not totally sure why this guy is so obsessed with hearing this woman's voice, but if all he wants is her voice and "black noise" it must really be something special. Let's hope this woman wants to hear his voice on the radio as much as he'd like to hear hers, because this track is catchy and non-threatening enough to live on The Current until spring.
Final Score: MinneSarah - 3/5
TCDroogsma - 3/5
02. Kopecky Family
Band – Hope (from the album Kids Raising Kids)
MinneSarah:
While I was not expecting to like this
song as much as I do - the band is from Nashville, they have a lot of
members, they are described as folk disciples.
However,
this song is well constructed, with dissonants thrown in to
showcase the upbeat nature of the rest of the song. The lyrics
are equally on the scale of the title - when someone hopes, it is
overall optimistic but also peppered with doubt. I don't even
mind that there are probably ten people playing at once. I'm
tapping my foot and hoping that the rest of their songs sound like
this one.
TCDroogsma:
Thank god those drums that start and end the song are merely hipster affectations. I'm not sure I have the patience to sit through another "afro-beat influenced" indie jam. I mean, I'm just one man.
That being said, the rest of the song is pretty straight-forward indie pop. Charming, but incredibly disposable. If I didn't know any better I'd swear this was Stars covering Sun Airway. Sorry, but it's getting real incestual on the radio.
Final Score: MinneSarah - 3.5/5
TCDroogsma - 3/5
03. Ra Ra Riot –
Beta Love (from the album Beta Love)
MinneSarah:
There are many dangers in writing a
song about the hypothetical phenomenon of robots falling in love.
Even using robot love as an analogy to describe human love can
be a tenuous, or at least make us all feel bad - if unfeeling robots
can find love, what's my excuse?
First of all, the name of the
song:
01. Beta can mean "almost ready" in software terms - "Hey girl,
this is almost the real deal" - not romantic.
02. Beta is a type of
fighting fish that would never hang out with a robot - way less
likely, still not romantic.
But the singer pronounces the
chorus "Betta" which makes the song sound as carefree as if two robots
were in a park in Paris during the spring. Maybe we are all
robots, and Ra Ra Riot, in their infinite Ivy League wisdom, already
knows this. Assuming the rest of us androids are clueless -
they'd still like to sell this song to an overseas cell phone
company. Win.
TCDroogsma:
I saw Ra Ra Riot open for The Cribs once. I also spent a bunch of time listening to their song "Dying Is Fine" when it was a SOTD a few years ago. Taking those two things and adding "Beta Love" to the equation I'm left with only one conclusion: Ra Ra Riot is relentlessly average.
Honestly, they're the Aughtie's answer to Better Than Ezra. When I saw them (on on "Dying Is Fine") they were more of an upbeat chamber-pop outfit (lots of emphasis on hooks and violin work). Evidently they've decided to embrace a bit more of an electro-pop sound for "Beta Love." It's catchy enough, but Jason Lytle could sue them over the lyrics. Clearly there's talent here, but "Beta Love" is desperately wanting.
Final Score: MinneSarah - 3/5
TCDroogsma - 2/5
04. Paul Banks –
The Base (from the album Banks)
MinneSarah:
Awww... MinneSarah loves Interpol. But does this translate to loving Paul Banks's solo album?
Well, yeah, it does - it's like still liking an actor in a
different series or with a different director. Granted, this
song is not as catchy as anything on any of Interpol's last four
albums. (Carlos, why did you have to leave?) The
breakdown is a weird electronic remix, but the same deadpan delivery
of random lyrics are still there, forcing me to listen and bob my
head a little. While I approve, this song does not make me want
to go see what else Paul has been working on during post-breakup
Interpol.
TCDroogsma:
I'll try to keep this brief, since I feel like I could spent 1,000 words trying to figure out Paul Banks.
"The Base" features all the things you love about Paul Banks. Sneaky good, monotone hooks. Tense, angular guitar work. Baffling lyrics. It's all there. But that's kind of the problem. Everything he's done since Antics (either as Interpol, Julian Plenti, or himself) keeps returning to this recipe to more and more diminishing returns. If you're already on board with the Paul Banks show you'll really like this song (I include myself in this group)
Still, why did this have to be a solo song? I mean, it sounds exactly like everything Interpol's done for the last 6 years. It even seems to get better the more I listen to it, with it's disparate parts coming together more fluidly every time. Still, whatever wilderness the success of those first two Interpol record pushed Mr. Banks towards, he's still trying to find his way out by walking the same path.
Final Score: MinneSarah - 3/5
TCDroogsma - 3.5/5
05. Southwire –
God (from the album Southwire)
MinneSarah:
They can't all be winners, but
sometimes a song excels at being bad that we can actually use the
word bad in the 90's sense - as good!?! Okay, no.
This
song relies on layering - tambourine,
drums, extraordinarily intoxicated Patti Smith sounding
vocals (the female singer sounds as if she just got done with an
exorcism, she is completely unintelligible), and a guy
talking/praying over the top. Now, I'm no theologian, so the lyrics that are intelligible may be lost on me by how clever
they are in their meaning. I just have to say, clean it up in
post-exorcism. Slurred vocals are only okay at karaoke.
TCDroogsma:
Over the last couple weeks Southwire started to get a bit of buzz on the old Twitter feed, so I was excited to hear what all the fuss was about.
What I got is a bluegrass-leaning song about God with biblical lyrics sung by, as far as I can tell, a muppet. And the muppet's a big Wesley Willis fan.
Seriously, Sota? This is what you're excited about? I'm really trying to restrain the vitriol here, but I don't ever want to here this song again. The mumbled delivery (by both singers), the old testament lyrics, the refrain "gonna get a little god..." I can definitely see a bunch of hipsters at a Southwire show eating this shit up, clapping in unison as some sort of communal, stoner grounding experience, but it does absolutely nothing for me.
Final Score: MinneSarah - 0/5
TCDroogsma - 0/5
There you have
it, music fans. Another week's worth of free music downloaded,
listened to, judged, and filed away.
As always, let
us take a moment to remind everybody that neither Newest Industry nor
its contributors is in any way affiliated with the artists, Minnesota
Public Radio, or The Current. We're just music fans with keyboards
and a little too much soy nog in our bellies.
For more of the always charming MinneSarah be sure to give her a follow on Twitter (@MinneSarah). Her cat impersonates beer. Just think about that for a second.
For more of the seldom charming TCDroogsma he can also be found on Twitter (@TCDroogsma). He can also be found rambling on his personal blog Flatbasset or rambling here on our weekly podcast. He's eaten enough ginger snaps in the last three days to kill a weaker man.
Of course Newest Industry also lives on Twitter (@NewestIndustry1). Give us a follow to stay up on the work being done by all of our contributors. More importantly, we have a Facebook page here. Trivial as it may seem, stopping by and giving us a “Like” is a great way to support the blog. It would make our Christmas.
