(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)
John Grant, Gold & Youth, Dungeonesse, Alpine, & Crankshaft & The Gear Grinders...
Well hello again, MP3 junkies! Welcome to Songs Of The Week #42!
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the SOTW column, here's the scoop: TCDroogsma has an MP3 problem. He downloads dozens of MP3's each week just try to quench his thirst for new music. He's also been devoted to The Current's Song Of The Day podcast since its inception back in 2007.
As such, we thought we'd try to channel his addiction into something productive. Voila! 42 weeks worth of Song Of The Day track reviews and scores!
Of course, we strongly recommend 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, we strongly encourage you to give the songs a few spins and, once you're confident in your opinion, cast your vote for your favorite song of the week in our poll to the right side of the page. The winning artists receives the validations of winning an anonymous internet poll, arguably the greatest honor a musician can achieve these days.
So, Droogsy... thoughts?
01. John Grant - GMF (Greatest Living Creature) (from the album Pale Green Ghosts)
TCDroogsma:
Listening to "GMF" the first time through, I thoroughly enjoyed the song. It's fantastically catchy and it's ego-bluster lyrics are a nice change of pace from the usual indie-rock cliche bukkake The Current usually treats us to. "I'm usually only waiting for you to stop talking so that I can... Concerning two-way streets I have to say that I am not a fan..." are genuinely funny. And yet, with the "you could be laughing..." line at the end of each chorus, Grant makes it clear that these lines are not to be taken seriously.
With each further listen I found myself more confused as to the goal of the song. It's obviously sarcastic, but it could be great. In the hands of somebody with well-known pathos (think Lou Barlow or James Murphy), the song would have carried so much more weight. Or maybe it's just a character sketch about one of the millions of "me-first" millenials that are slowly taking over pop culture. With that in mind, I though perhaps this was a case of me just now knowing enough about John Grant. Maybe he does have the requisite pathos and "GMF" is the type of song that Grant fans will immediately recognize for what it is while those of us who don't know Grant's story are missing the point.
So, after doing a big of reading, I discovered that Grant is both openly gay and openly HIV-Positive. This information doesn't really help me understand the song much more, but it definitely forced me to look at it from a different perspective. The line, "Go ahead and love me while its still a crime..." suddenly carries a lot more weight. All of this is to say that "GMF" is a fine song, but as an introduction to John Grant, it's left me very confused. Perhaps within the context of his entire catalog it makes more sense, but I'm left with more questions than answers, which, of course, means it's an ideal introduction to John Grant's catalog.
Final Score: 3.5/5
02. Gold & Youth - Jewel (from the album Beyond Wilderness)
TCDroogsma:
When I was researching Gold & Youth for this column I found out that they're a band based out of Vancouver & Toronto and that they're signed to Arts & Crafts. Suddenly, everything about "Jewel" made sense. The eloquent & meticulous synth sounds, the well-crafted hooks, the nod to the 80's.... "Jewel" is the kind of song that you would absolutely hear if you played the "Neko Case" Pandora station (or the Broken Social Scene station. Or Japandroids. Or A.C. Newman. Or Arcade Fire. Or Stars.).
I don't know exactly what they're doing in Canada (and I realize it's a bit presumptuous to just lump them in with fellow Canadian acts), but, even though "Jewel" is a fine song, it's difficult not to lump it in with this "Canadian Sound" that's been a going concern for much of the 2000's. Gold & Youth have crafted a wonderful pop-single with "Jewel," but its pop-sheen is so strictly within the lines that it doesn't leave anything particularly memorable behind.
Final Score: 2.5/5
03. Dungeonesse - Shucks (from the album Dungeonesse)
TCDroogsma:
Remember back in the late 90's/early 2000's when the pop-punk sound was genuinely beginning to lose its momentum and yet the genre was producing some of its best songs? The charming struggles of figuring out how to merge the two genres had finally given way to a formula for success and as new singles were released they were immediately written off as "another pop-punk song," and yet, many of the songs released at the time, when viewed 8-10 years, stand up as some of the best tracks to come from that sound.
The reason I bring this up is because we seem to have reached that stage with indie musicians trying their hands at synth-pop. If you read this column regularly you know that I usually spend at least one track a week reviewing some sort of synth-pop jam. They're all kind of the same, but they're all very good. Hell, just look at the track above this one for an example of what I'm on about.
All of this is a roundabout way of saying that Dungeonesse's "Shucks" is a very good song, but I've heard so many songs that sound like this over the past 5 years that it's difficult for me to even differentiate between the tracks anymore. "Shucks" is like the "Flagpole Sitta" of this synth-pop genre, a song that's probably better than a hundred similar songs that arrived before it, but suffers for being late-to-the-party nonetheless. In another 8-10 years this'll probably come up on my iPod and I'll think, "Wow, that was a great song!" but for the time being it seems easily disposable.
Final Score: 2.5/5
04. Alpine - Gasoline (from the album A Is For Alpine)
TCDroogsma:
There is really only one thing that really stands out to me about "Gasoline," Australian sextet Alpine's first real stab at gaining an American audience, and unfortunately, it's not the thing that's going to stick in the mind of somebody just hearing the song casually.
"Gasoline" comes on like a synthed-up version of Tune-Yards, which, from my perspective, is a brutal, brutal thing. I've no time for these quirked-out vocals and PG-13 come-ons. The African-influenced guitar figure brings almost nothing to the table except a lazy Vampire Weekend comparison that I'm not a strong enough critic to resist making. Really, there's not much to like here.
The only real exception is the bouncy, almost hip-hop-esque, drum and synth that provides the backbone for the entire song. Alpine has created a find canvas, but failed to paint anything memorable on top of it.
Final Score: 1.5/5
05. Crankshaft & The Gear Grinders - Boomtown (from the album What You Gonna Do?)
TCDroogsma:
On its surface I can understand what Crankshaft & The Gear Grinders are trying to do. "Boomtown" recalls a more straight-forward, less art-damaged version of rock n roll. They represent the kind of greased-back hair, suits & sunglasses retro that people who are tired of odd-time signatures and wimpy guy vocals always seem to be clamoring for.
The dilemma, however, is that a big part of the reason that art-damaged kids have bands is because this kind of straight-forward rock n roll has almost nothing new to say. Crankshaft almost literally makes this point by starting each verse with a repeating couplet ("Taken so long to get up this hill... to get up this hill's taken so long" etc...). When he ends the first verse with the plea to, "just let me sing my own song..." you find yourself begging him to do just that because by the time "Boomtown" ends you'll find yourself thinking you've just listened to a 4OnTheFloor b-side (which is not a good thing as that band is so relentlessly average that they seem to traffic exclusively in b-sides).
I suppose that in a live setting, with the guitars turned up and the greaser-effect in full force, it's possible that Crankshaft & The Gear Grinders have the type of chops that will keep them opening at block parties and playing the Turf Club for as long as they desire. On record, however, there's just not much here to get excited about.
Final Score: 1/5
Well there you have it, folks! Another week's worth of songs downloaded, reviewed, and filed away!
As always, please keep in mind that neither Newest Industry nor any of our contributors are in any way affiliated with the artists above, The Current, or MPR. We're just music fans with laptops and a little too much time on our hands.
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