My Own Biggest Fan

______________________________
November 22 16:43
Subject: Tron soundtrack
From: (redacted)

(link)

I think it’s real?

______________________________
November 22 16:51
Subject: RE: Tron Soundtrack
From: (redacted)

Hope you downloaded it already because it’s ALREADY down.

Luckily, I had.

Don’t expect a “real” Daft Punk album. This is a score, and it’s effing good. If you’ve listened to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ The Social Network soundtrack, then you’d have a good idea about what this feels like. Of course, there are banging chunes on this album (like Derezzed, which we all heard in that trailer) but it’s not an album full of them. My personal favourite tracks are the ones that combine the orchestra and electronics, and give me shivers that are only partially attributable to the -25 degree weather.

It’s really grand, it’s really sharp, it’s really without much sense of humour. It also sounds really, really good turned up really, really loud. Any time you need to say, “I will now take on the world” and really, really believe it, this is your album. Really.

I’m interested to hear what Daft Punk make after this, because while this album has a very different feel from their normal releases, I could see this informing future albums in very positive ways. I half-predict that they might remix this album themselves into something more dancefloor ready. I hope so, because many of the songs end just as I’m getting into them. (The average track is about 2:30.) At the very least there will be a ton of remixes of nearly every song on this score by other dance artists.

Here’s C.L.U. which was the song in the first trailer. (WRONG. That was The Game Has Changed. Whoops.) I fully expect to get a DMCA notice for posting this song.

Download C.L.U.

Postscript: One thought that hadn’t occurred to me until I started listening, I wonder how much they reference the soundtrack to the first Tron movie? I’ll have to check that out.

Post Postscript: My conversation with (redacted), that started above, ended with this show-stopper of a quote:

You should do both Kanye and Daft Punk for monm and just have a photo of a blown wad.

I don’t really feel like writing this now but I will, because MONM is about will and determination and NOT enjoyment.

The Greenhornes released an album on my birthday, November 9th, just 5 days ago. This is not that album. Gun for You is their debut album, and man it’s pretty damn good. At least I think it is. I’m tired and grumpy and I spent most of the day hung over, so it’s hard for me to be genuinely excited about it right now. Tired, grumpy and hungover — in my head, that’s how I imagine every garage rocker to be anyway, so I’m in the right head space.

Ok, so if you like garage rock in any way (The Sonics, The Zombies, The White Stripes even, who are friends and collaborators to these guys) then you will enjoy this. Very well done, and more than just an exercise in pedagogy.

That’s it. That’s all you get. I was planning on writing a bit about Third Man, (Jack White’s label, which releases The Greenhornes’ records now) and how I thought what they are doing is interesting, but fuckit, this is all you get.

Download I’ve Been Down

I once owned the Cult’s Greatest Hits, and I listened the shit out of it, but I’ve never owned a Cult album. When I embarrassed myself in the comments of yesterday’s post I decided that maybe my rock knowledge was lacking; and when I found this at Inner Sleeve for five bucks, I thought maybe I should pick it up.

I don’t know why I never got into these guys more than I did. The Cult has always intrigued me. No one needs to question why or how this band was accepted by the goth community, the hair rockers AND the “college” rockers (as was the vernacular of the late 80s). It makes sense the first time She Sells Sanctuary washes over you — that is, if it isn’t irreparably associated with Labatt beer commercials. And look at that cover. Native American Goth is not a design sensibility that you would think would look hip, but damn.

I’d like to say that this album is surprisingly good, but it isn’t. Surprising, that is. I knew this album would be good back when I was a kid, I just never got around to listening to it. There must be a hundred albums for which I’ve let the same thing happen. I didn’t own a copy of Siamese Dream until this summer. Pinkerton — never heard anything from it. Never listened to a Kiss album from beginning to end. Queen — the only album I’ve heard front to back is Flash Gordon. God damn greatest hits collections, (unless they are collecting songs that were only available on singles) they’re fit — for the pit.

Download Black Angel

My first experience with the music of Quintron and his wife, Miss Pussycat was at Sled Island two years ago. I was urged to see his show by Kallen, who figured I’d really like his stuff. I did. That show is easily in the top 5 so far. This status is helped along by the fact that King Khan was dancing right beside me and later went up on stage and mooned the audience. (as he is wont to do) The day after the show I proceeded to download a bunch of albums of Quintron’s, in prep for buying some on vinyl, but embarrassingly I never got around to listening to them.

Swamp Tech does a great job translating the energy of a Quintron live show into a studio recording. (probably because it was recorded live, all in one studio session) The Quintron Pussycat train barely stays on the tracks It’s so balls-out, full-tilt that it’s a wonder they keep it together. It’s a crazy blend of blues, punk, R&B and dance music that for all intents shouldn’t work, but totally does.

I’m not sure if I’d be as into this if my first encounter with them wasn’t a magical, memorable live show, but I’d like to think I would. If this is your first time hearing them, who knows, maybe you won’t be sold on God of Thunder, which I’ve shared with you below. But if I were you I’d hold off on making a final decision until after you’ve seen their show. It’s something special.

Download God of Thunder

I never listened to Slowdive — Simon Scott’s band in the 90s — very much back in the day, but I know that I liked what I had heard even if I can’t really remember it.

Navigare is beautiful, but I know that there will only be one or two of the people who read this blog that would agree with me. Or at least that I could predict would. Melodies, beats and song structure are merely suggested in these songs. Finding words to describe this album is simple: droney, noisy, spacious, blah blah blah. I worry that anything I come up with will all synonyms for “boring” for most of you.

For those reading that are already interested in this album from that description, the rest of this “review” isn’t really for you, although you’re welcome to stick around.

I’m assuming that you’re assuming that this is really dark, moody music. I guess it can be, I won’t argue. But this groggy Sunday morning, with my plain yogurt and my crappy espresso, this soundtrack is actually quite warm and soothing. Even if this isn’t your normal type of music, I’d urge you to give this album a chance, maybe at a time in the day that you aren’t actually in the mood for music, or if your neighbours are annoying you with their noise, or if you have something heavy on your mind that you need to think through.

I know it’s out of character to come out and urge people to listen to an album, I’m not even crazy enthusiastic about this album in particular. I feel it’s important that everyone, even if only once in awhile, listens to something that defies the traditional notions of music. We are bombarded with music nearly every minute we are awake. A good chunk of what we listen to isn’t even of our choosing. It feels like a small act of subversion or defiance to put on something that sounds like it comes from a completely different planet, (never mind country — or genre). It’s my experience that “resetting my ears” with something like Navigare helps me better understand and appreciate the more traditional musics I consume.

While it may sound completely pompous and a little trite, I hope you give yourself a chance to have different relationship with an album than what you may be used to, you might find both something new to appreciate and a new way to appreciate everything else. I have to remember to let myself do it all the time.

Download Ashma

There’s a tendency to group Bowie albums in trilogies. [Hunky Dory, Ziggy, Aladdin Sane] and [Low, “Heroes”, Lodger] being the two most obvious.

Outside, Earthling and “Hours…” are sometimes grouped this way; I’d say wrongly. Stylistically “Hours…” has more in common with Heathen and Reality, the two recorded after it. (Yes, I’ve heard the albums before and after “Hours…”, I’d avoided it because I’d heard bad reviews.) Yet, it’s not quite as memorable as those albums. It’s a good intro to them, but doesn’t feel like the main event. Despite having some very catchy songs on it, the production makes it sound much more adult contemporary MOR rather than rock. “Hours…” was producted by Reeves Gabrels, who also produced Tin Machine. Oh jeeze. Suddenly it all made sense. Had Bowie gone to Tony Visconti for this album — like he had for the BRILLIANT Heathen — then we would have had a much more compelling beast here.

Of course, Bowie’s worst turd of an album is ten times better than nine sixteenths of the crap out there, so who am I to nit-pick?

Download If I’m Dreaming My Life

As an aside, Bowie was pumping out an album every two years up until Reality with was released seven years ago. I’m in dire need of a fix.

I’m a fan of Gavin Friday’s third album, Shag Tobacco. It’s crazy campy and over the top and sleazy sexual.

Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves, Friday’s first album, is like a slightly less ridiculous version of Shag. Gavin’s sense of humour doesn’t get shown off as much in this one, nor is there the hyper-sexuality I associate with Shag Tobacco. While I was listening to it I felt a little let down by this one, but about half way through I started getting into it. It feels more weary and retrospective, but only someone who heard Shag first, (or an idiot) could call this album “understated” though.

The album’s title and opening song is from an Oscar Wilde poem, about a man who slit his wife’s throat with a sword. The man was hanged in the same prison at the time that Wilde was incarcerated there for “performing homosexual acts”. If that’s any indication of what Friday is all about. (Not the misogyny part, the “holy shit life is a dramatic thing” part.)

There are magnificent cacophonies, messes of sound that I’d say took considerable engineering skill to not turn into an unlistenable sludge. There’s a Scott Walker cover, a Bob Dylan cover and a shout out to David Bowie’s Watch That Man, so he’s got a spectacular tripod of influences to prop his special brand of pop on.

I dig this album, it fits a niche mood where I’m feeling melancholy, yet cocky. Or maybe if I need a soundtrack to a particularly sad make-out.

Download Love is Just a Word

I was going to make some sort of clever-clever amalgamation of artists to describe FrankMuzic’s sound, but really it’s just pop music with a very self conscious nod towards the 80s. So much so that there are a few songs one could almost think that they were recorded 25 years ago. At one point there’s even a full scale ripoff of Golden Brown. (Think the relationship between Connection and Three Girl Rhumba)

The vocals remind me a little of Patrick Wolf at times, and sometimes the music sounds like A-Ha, so I guess you could say they are an amalgam of them, but I every time I use a combination of other bands to describe a third’s sound I feel like I’m being lazy. And really, there’s a bit more variety than that on the album … but fuckit, I’m tired, and it’s not like anyone paid to read this, so I’ll be lazy.

For my selection I’ve picked Time Will Tell because you can’t really go wrong lifting the same samples as Pump Up The Volume.

Download Time Will Tell

To be honest, I have no idea where this album came from. It appeared in my iTunes out of nowhere. No idea where or why I downloaded it. It happened to be listed close to my last MONM selection and me being as lazy as I am decided to just listen to that, rather than seek out something on my list.

I’ll be honest, I’m not the person that should be reviewing this album. I’m not a big fan of low-fi bands, or the warbal-ly singing that the lead singer employs. I was annoyed by the first 5 of the 9 songs on […]Grievances, but then the song named after the band bought me flowers (it reminded me very vaguely of The Clash) and then the epic No Future Part One and Two, (almost 15 minutes long put together) took me out to dinner and then made-out with me. This all came as a huge surprise considering how much the first half annoyed me. This album and I are the Sam Malone and Diane Chambers of MONM. I’ll admit, the winks towards classic Springsteen at times helped a ton.

I gave the album a second listen, to see if I was wrong about the first half. I’m still not into it but I’m sure there are a ton of people that will say I just “don’t get it”, and they would be right. Enjoy the parts I liked from this album below.

Download No Future Part One
Download No Future Part Two

I really really REALLY wanted to hate this album. Mostly because of that ridiculous title. (apparently it’s not pronounced Oh-verry, but Uh-verry like it would be pronounced if the hyphen never existed. Makes. Sense?) The only reason I checked it out is because it debut at #1 in the UK and has Ellie Goulding on it.

I enjoy Craig David. I enjoy Lil’ Wayne. I can handle a bit of Dizzy Rascal. If these guys annoy you, if you hate commercial R&B or if the words “over-produced” at all turn you off, you aren’t going to enjoy this album. I’m not saying this is quality R&B or Hip Hop, and I’m not even saying that if you like those other artists, you’ll like this. This is music that will blare out of cars that have more money put in aftermarket than they cost new, play in college dorms, and at every club in Brighton — while drunk kids slobber all over each other. It’s made for that, and I kind of love it for it.

There is enough going on here that that’s not ALL there is here, I mean there’s some sort of interesting sounds here. It’s heavily influenced by chiptune sounds and decent classic drum and bass rhythms. It also has enough 90s style lead stabs to speak to my inner 20-year-old. If I was 20, I’d totally be throwing this on all the mix CDs I was making this winter. And I’ll be looking for Tinie’s second album for sure.

Download