Underappreciated Album of the Month: UAM #7 (Pavement – Wowee Zowee, 1996)

With this DOA feature that has been re-vamped, last seen in 1993, we focus our attention on an album that may not have the recognition or notoriety it deserves. It might be a cult hit, it might be a small favorite or it might even be an album that is just so great, we feel it needs all of the attention possible. Albums chosen will always be, at least, more than five years old and will be chosen at our own discretion and hey, if you feel there is an underappreciated gem you wish could get some exposure, feel free to let us know.

This wasn’t the classic rock that glittered itself over the neatly collected twelve tracks on Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain; no, instead it was an assorted collection of miscellaneous sounds that all found their ways onto a spontaneous, stirring, eighteen-song, near hour-long journey. And while many have tried to pinpoint what lead Pavement into such new experimentation, the end result was Wowee Zowee’s incredibly glorious music. It was the kind of music you could get excited for and the kind of music that you could take hours, upon hours, just trying to figure out and like the title’s inspiration, yelling for joy is always a great thing.

Besides the fact that “Motion Suggests” is one of the most bitterly lovely, emotional jabs of guitar rock I’ve probably ever heard, there is magic all over. Hearing Stephen Malkmus sing, “No I won’t need someone to let me be,” before fading away into his scorching guitar solo is one of my favorite memories from when I first heard the album and I remember just melting away to it. Back in 1995, music still seemed like something unattainable, like something I could never fully understand. I’m still not much better than I was but after you hear the ensuing memorable guitar shuffle of “Father to a Sister of Thought,” everything just sort of washes away. Maybe that’s what everyone means when they call it ‘slacker rock,’ but either way, there was always so much more going than just laid-back rock.

Malkmus was a fantastic wordsmith that enabled his playful demeanor into his own singing. There’s the emphasis on each syllable on “Rattled by the Rush” and lines like “I’m drowning for your thirst” to begin with and later, on “Half a Canyon,” Malkmus channels his inner Osbourne with a gnarly, smoke-filled banister of grunge. The epic jam at the end – and those screeches – drives the penultimate song as the album’s lengthiest endeavor into the high soars Pavement was known for. And there was always the quirky trademark touches that Malkmus was known for, like his “Chim chim chim sing a song of praise” on the downright perfect “We Dance.”

Where every one of their other albums were always about a great range of sounds (the back-to-back slam of “5 – 4 = Unity” and “Range Life” remains as my personal favorite Pavement moment) Wowee Zowee pushed the spectrum even outward, with a varied sound that to this day, continues to astonish. Whether it’s the brilliantly harsh rock of “Flux = Rad,” to the transcendent guitar balladry of “Grounded,” or even just the entirely surprising reflective aforementioned opener – that above all, starts with Malkmus singing, “There is no castration fear” before gently asking, “Maybe we can dance together?” – Pavement never made an album as diverse as this one.

Just being varied isn’t what makes it so absorbing either. It’s underrated mostly because it follows the towering masterpieces and significant works that are Slanted & Enchanted and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and I guess fans didn’t dig the swirling new spirals they were exploring. And although many have attempted to go back and re-evaluate it, I’ve even seen lists that have Brighten the Corners ahead of Wowee Zowee. There is no doubt that everything Pavement did as a band is gold but in terms of sheer exceptional musicianship and an engrossing skill at being able to craft gripping songs like the ominously tension-filled “Grave Architecture,” this album takes the cake.

It’s a special album for a tremendous amount of reasons but above all, it deserves a lot more attention. There willl never be another band like them and slacker or not, Malkmus was the king of indie rock in the 90s, with Wowee Zowee maintaining a spot in Pavement’s outstanding discography; fittingly so, right smack in the middle.

Matador

New project for The Fastbacks’ Kurt Bloch

THE FASTBACKS’ KURT BLOCH CELEBRATES RELEASE OF HIS NEW PROJECT, THEE SGT. MAJOR III’S DEBUT FULL-LENGTH, “THE IDEA FACTORY” (SPARK AND SHINE RECORDS)

Thee Sgt. Major III¹s first full-length, “The Idea Factory,” contains the wit, optimism and feisty schoolboy angst that Kurt Bloch articulated in his songwriting for The Fastbacks and the sparky guitar chug that beloved The Fastbacks to so many. Expert musicianship and high-cool grace are tempered by scrappy garage punk leanings, jazz longings, and a winking kind of macabre, not at all serious but seriously killer.

Each of “The Idea Factory”‘s twelve songs are a sort of controlled explosion, the recipe for which is this: take a well-built, 1960′s pop music machine and stuff it with The Who and some Ramonesy punk rock. Blow it to bits. Start again.

The Fastbacks made bright, tight, witty and explosive music that was not quite punk, not quite pop, and totally distinct. Sub Pop, Popllama, SpinART, and other labels put out records by The Fastbacks during the band’s 20-year tenure.

THEE SGT. MAJOR II’S MYSPACE PAGE: http://www.myspace.com/theesgtmajoriii

Easy Star All-Stars – Dubber Side of the Moon

In 2003 Easy Star All-Stars released Dub Side of the Moon, a dub-style remix of one of the greatest rock albums of all time, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. I was skeptical at first, as I am with most contemporary attempts at remixes of great albums, but was hooked before the end of “Speak to Me/Breathe”.  Now, E.S. All-Stars hit us with yet another remix, Dubber Side of the Moon, featuring some of the heavies of the modern dub era.

First up, with a conga heavy start interspersed with bubbling bong noises, is Canadian dub artist Dubmatix and his version of “Speak to Me/Breathe”. Tight keyboard and horn work give this piece a great classic reggae/dub feel, while retaining the essence of the original song. Much like the work it is based off of, this track leads seamlessly into “On the Run”, a rolling, bass-heavy remix courtesy of Boston’s own 10 Ft. Ganja Plant. Next up is “Time”, reinvented by electro/dub duo Groove Corporation out of the U.K. Having previously worked with reggae rhythm masters Mighty Tree, and with reggae music in general for most of their musical career, a collaboration with GC for this album was a no-brainer and, as with all of the tracks here, works to great effect. “Time”, of course, slips away and heads upward to Dubphonic‘s take on “Great Gig in the Sky”. Peppered with trippy effects, though still using the original vocal tracks from Clare Torry on Dark Side…, this track has a great flow to it, and, as it has been for nearly forty years, marks well the mid-point of the album.

“Money” kicks off the second half of the album with synth-bass and tight, but sparse, drum work amidst the sound of bong hits and coughing fits. With remix duties here handled by All-Star’s resident soundman The Alchemist, the lyrical delivery, obviously, departs from the original and mid-way through the song we get a dub-Jah-I-Jah breakdown before that previously sparse drumwork picks up and rides us out for the remainder of the song alongside the original lyrics. “Money” rides right on into “Us and Them”, reworked by UK dubsters Dreadzone. This is a pretty straightforward version of this song, with the biggest remix being on the percussion side of things, while still holding nice keyboard melodies and keeping the sax as with the original Pink Floyd version. Tel-Aviv based Kalbata (aka Ariel Tagar) stepped up for a remix of “Any Colour You Like”, giving it a bit more of an electronica tinged dub vibe than other tracks found on Dubber Side… The album heads into some mellower territory for the two remixes that end the album “Brain Damage” and “Eclipse”. Adrian Sherwood and Jazzwad, out of the UK, throw down a chill, classic reggae feel on “Brain Damage” as does Victor Rice on “Eclipse”; though Rice puts across a bit of an R&B feel with the early drumwork on the track before it breaks into more reggae/dub territory. Great closers for the album – but how can you not finish strong when you have such talented artists giving a fresh treatment to incredible and timeless source material?

We then get treated to four bonus tracks by Border Crossing (UK) (“Step it Pon the Rastaman Scene”), Mad Professor (UK) (“Money”), Michael G. (from the Easy Star All-Stars) (“Time Version”) , and J.Viewz (Brooklyn, USA) (“On the Run”). These bonus tracks are an interesting supplement to the main album, but also stand well on their own.

Now, as I said at the beginning of this review, I’m usually skeptical when it comes to “tribute” or “remix” albums, but as a fan of Pink Floyd and reggae/dub/dancehall/bluebeat/ska, this album has it all – great songwriting (obviously), great arrangements and a fresh, interesting take on a classic album.

Kacey Johansing – Many Seasons

Singer/songwriter Kacey Johansing’s debut album Many Seasons is a musical interpretation of her experiences as a young artist traveling from Colorado to Boston and San Francisco. With guitars, piano, strings, bass and soft percussion, Johansing and her guests explore the shifting styles and emotional atmospheres that changing seasons and a change of scenery bring, via an unassuming blend of delicate folk and lithesome indie-rock, with keen but quaint vocals.

The femme-folk songwriting results in a lilting chamber-pop sound with nods to Tori Amos and Feist. And while Johansing can sound like Leslie Feist or St. Vincent’s Annie Clark, it’s mostly in style and not always in substance. The reflective musical sketches sound organically grown but never blossom with quite enough heart and soul. They are, however, suitable as a soundtrack for browsing through a magazine at your local coffeehouse.

The record starts off nice enough with “Good Mourning” a short, ambient instrumental with a cool, hazy drone of strings and swirling, piano chops. It segues perfectly with the atmospheric title track, awhirl with weepy strings and sweeping piano arrangements and Johansing’s pretty voice floating above. This feeling isn’t revived though until the second to last track on the album “(We Will Be Telling Our Children)”. It’s loping piano line and shifting strings evoke a dreamy spookiness with an art-house feel. In between we’re treated to less interesting pieces that tend to be a pedestrian blend of melancholic strings and indie-folk. These songs seem to struggle from the artist’s assertive efforts to incorporate various influences from jazzy keyboards, country-ish acoustics and blended backing vocals that sound more like ooohs and aaahs from the 50′s.

Except for the few highlights noted, even Johansing’s sweet vocals and poignant lyrics can’t stop the folksie chamber-pop on Many Seasons from feeling melodramatic rather than commanding.

Porto Franco Records

Kings Of Leon – Come Around Sundown

“Radioactive”, the new single off of Kings Of Leon’s fifth album, Come Around Sundown, will be the only track you’ll remember. I’m not sure if the band is going through a very early mid-life crisis or if they’ve made a conscience choice to keep every track as mellow as possible. Where are the rockers we love so much? Songs such as “Black Thumbnail”, “Molly’s Chambers”, and “Four Kicks” seem a thing of the past. Earlier releases such as Youth And Young Manhood and Aha Shake Heartbreak feature a young band bringing fierce, southern swing backed with sexiness and a cool, sassy flirtatiousness that Come Around Sundown lacks in it’s entirety.

For the single “Radioactive”, track two on the album, Kings Of Leon swing in and the build up is quick with singer Caleb Followill exclaiming, “It’s in the water, it’s in the story, it’s where you came from, the sons and daughters in all their glory”. The track rises higher and higher and will leave you singing along after one listen, as well as days later. The most riveting and uplifting aspect of the song is the addition of the West Angeles Mass Choir. This is the ironic “saving grace”.

The remaining 10 tracks are a disappointment. A bit of the album is upbeat, but simply borders on the edge only to keep slipping back into the tone-downed instrumentation that is a token part of the Kings Of Leon sound. But please, this doesn’t need to happen for every second of every song on the entire album. Again, “Radioactive” is the single, and it stands alone among the boring two or three minutes of every other track on this Come Around Sundown. If you’re an old, die-hard Kings Of Leon fan Come Around Sundown will upset you. Keep what you love about this band close to your heart and ignore this album, you’ll thank yourself in the end.

The Black Ryder – “Sweet Come Down”

Aimee Nash and Scott Von Ryper of Australia’s The Black Ryder showcase one aspect of their sound with the softly desolate, laconically-paced noir song “Sweet Come Down” that features Peter Hayes of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club on harmonica.  A quasi-duet is set in motion by picked acoustic guitar and the occasional pull of plaintive harmonica, while Scott, shadowed by Aimee, sings in a hushed and dispassionate tone on the first verse and chorus.  A lonesome whistle haunts the ensuing vocal lull, until a dulcet Aimee comes in languidly on the second verse and chorus.

The video for “Sweet Come Down” is directed by Michael Spiccia who has also directed videos for Jet and End Of Fashion.  This video projects the rotten core of human interaction (lust, jealousy, betrayal, revenge, and murder) with just a few iconic images.  Via one continuous tracking shot, Michael Spiccia distills a 3-hour cinematic experience (i.e., Westerns, film noir, crime) into an arrestingly bleak 3-minute video, paring the visuals down to the stark essentials by focusing near ground-level on a lone stranger in pointed-toe cowboy boots and narrow-cut pants walking through a parched landscape with sparse scrub and low-rise hills on the distant horizon.

The stranger slowly and steadily walks through the aftermath of a shoot-out, where the dead and bloodied bodies of men, their scattered guns, and a dead woman in flimsy dress and bound at the wrists by rope, are strewn over the arid desert.  Amid the carnage, the stranger pauses briefly at the body of the dead woman and also rolls a dead man onto his back with the push of a boot heel.

Near the end of the video, the stranger walks towards an old pick-up truck where a wounded, but conscious man is leaning against the  front grill.  As the camera pans upwards to waist-height, the stranger contemplates the man and then starts to walk behind the pick-up.  The camera tracks up the truck for a view through the front and back windshields, revealing the identity of the stranger, who then turns and walks away unhurriedly as flames begin to lick the back of the truck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbLjM2NloaI

New Full-length from Rusty Willoughby

PACIFIC NORTHWEST SONGWRITING MAINSTAY, RUSTY WILLOUGHBY CELEBRATES RELEASE OF LATEST FULL-LENGTH, “COBIRDS UNITE,” ON SPARK AND SHINE RECORDS

Rusty Willoughby is celebrating the release of his latest full-length, “Cobirds Unite,” featuring Seattle elite such as Rachel Flotard, Barrett Martin, Barb Antonio, Margrethe Bjorklund, Johnny Sangster, Scott Sutherland, Lisa King, and Tillman Herb.

A Pacific Northwest songwriting mainstay, Rusty Willoughby has been writing, recording, and performing music since 1982. Largely known for his work with the rock/pop bands Pure Joy, Flop, and Llama, Willoughby¹s mostly lo-key, often lo-fi and decidedly lo-electricity records have flown well under the radar for the last decade or so.

Influenced by everything from Woody Guthrie to Jacques Brel, Willoughby¹s solo output is peculiar, difficult to categorize and seemingly patterned after the most viscerally stubborn and commercially inept western minds and talents of the last century.

Meet the new album, “Cobirds Unite.” Herding a music consortium between cool waters and nourishing fields. Twenty first century bandmates make for the lushest outing yet. Barrett Martin, Barb Antonio, Margrethe Bjorklund, Rachel Flotard, Johnny Sangster, Scott Sutherland, Lisa King and Tillman Herb help to create an ethereal, natural unfolding topography.

Listen for more to come from this furry, hazy, damp, dark corner of the world, and you’ll be hearing the oddly mellifluous sound of a weird and mysterious depth being plummeted.

Rusty¹s website: http://www.rustywilloughby.com
Rusty’s Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/rustywilloughby

Avey Tare – Down There

Dave Portner, aka Avey Tare, is ready to slow things the fuck down, and it’s hard to blame him. It seems like he and his bandmates in Animal Collective have been whirling dervishes for the last 10 years – first writing, touring, and recording with creative restlessness, and then later writing, recording, and touring like a traditional careerist band – until eventually they became the newest token avant-garde band okay for the masses to love, folding mainstream college partiers and NPR-listening yuppies into the circle of underground fanboys, primal spazzes, and hipster trendspotters. All the attention alone would be enough to produce withdrawal for the once low profile and arty Portner, but in the time period between releasing Merriweather Post Pavilion and the recording of his first proper solo album Down There he also weathered a dissolved marriage, a seriously ill sibling, and a death in the family. What comes out on record is both a return to form and a bit of a denial of form.

The return to form here is Portner’s welcome return to weirdness. After the foreground-mixed vocals of Strawberry Jam and the more subdued singing on Merriweather Post Pavilion –which seemed to be the place where democracy in Animal Collective watered down the original idea at Portner’s expense – here he brings back the unhinged yelping, the extreme pitchshifting, and the word drunk auctioneer stylings on which his reputation was built. The overall sound is highly electronic and more dubby than anything, with lots of subbass throb, repetitive synth, and wet underwater sonic treatments, especially on the vocals. Guitar here is in fairly short supply, and the arrangements result in slippery, under-the-radar melodies. The whole affair slinks by at a fairly even level, with few highs or lows.

The content here strives to be fairly bleak when you can make it out at all. “Laughing Hieroglyphic” leads the album off with a repeating harmonium riff and a stuttering rhythm, and, as he searches for explanations, shoulders some blame, and howls that the next time “when I get fucked up I’ll do the best to make myself not fucked up again”, it just might be Portner’s “Always on My Mind”. “Heather In the Hospital” tenderly expresses the helplessness of dealing with the severe illness of a loved one, and the perspective which that surrender provides. “Cemeteries” is a beautiful, calm meditation on being dead. These more focused songs favor the soul-searching darkness which it feels like this album is struggling toward, but the cohesion is undercut by the exuberance of tracks like the buoyantly carnivalesque “3 Umbrellas” and the smooth sensuality of low-key banger “Oliver Twist”. Down There nicely explores a number of directions, but doesn’t come together in a way that makes sense. The crocodile imagery seems to attempt to tie the disparate threads together – with some interstitial vocals pitchshifted way down to presumably represent the crocodile as he provides a guided tour through the murky waters on a raft, Charon-Style – but in the end lions seem to get way more lip service than crocodiles.

While it feels great to have some undiluted Avey Tare material, he seems a little creatively restless here. Portner made Animal Collective an essential band with his wild songwriting style which resembled the engineering of rollercoasters. A few of these tracks (“Ghost of Books” and “Heads Hammock”) simply lumber along, killing the momentum in the middle of the album with song structures more reliant on simple addition and subtraction of elements than wild twists and turns. That it all still sounds pretty cool is testament to Portner’s great musical ear, but a less scattered direction and more adventurous songwriting would probably be enough to put his next solo work over the top.

Paw Tracks

Coin Under Tongue – Reception

With endorsements from Spoon’s Britt Daniel and the legendary Julian Cope, Coin Under Tongue comes with a promise to deliver on its new album Reception. Further adding to its pedigree, the album is released by Death By Audio — the home of A Place To Bury Strangers’ Oliver Ackermann. So, what’s the music like?

If you remember the band Swell, you’ve got a head start on understanding the sound of Coin Under Tongue. As a reference point, both bands trade on sharp lyrics and a veering between stripped-down and amped-up compositions. Coin Under Tongue, though, gets heavier than Swell ever did, throwing in some really fuzzed-out guitar and bass (“Night Weed,” “Beyond Yes”) and throwback riffing. “Beyond Yes” does a little ransacking of Mudhoney’s playbook when it wants to make its points. On “Junksmith,” the opening measures of feedback and subsequent guitar work show the influence of Ackermann’s approach to electric guitar. What’s curious about Coin Under Tongue’s sound is the way the drums sound thin and rough. Bands usually go for a sonic aesthetic and apply it equally to all instruments, but here the guitars sound like they’re played in an aircraft hangar while the drums sound like they were recorded in someone’s basement.

The title track “Reception” seems to have to do with a wedding reception at first, but with a line like “Coming through loud and clear,” it might be that the band is playing with a double meaning here (as in “receiving” a signal). The caterwauling vocals and guitars infuse this one with a menacing aspect that makes it anything but the genteel affair usually connoted by weddings generally.

“Seizure In The Stairwell” goes for unadorned, Waits-/Swell-like tunesmithing but there’s a low, rumbling presence lurking in the background. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the Liars-like aggro experimentalism of “Conflicted,” whose nearly tuneless bursts of noise and screamed singing show the band’s raw side. There’s a decent amount of unusual pairing of musical styles on this album, and if it weren’t for the band’s competent melding of these styles it might come off as accidental or unfocused. How many bands would’ve or could’ve penned a cut like “Dogma Sheen,” where an 80s-style guitar intro (repeated during bridges) turns into a grimy, sludge-covered wall of noise? Not many, really, not many.

Birds & Batteries – Panorama

The steady drive of experimentation comes from a band’s skill at knowing when it’s time to progress. Most bands often get stale before they’re able to capitalize on flourishing moments where everything comes together. San Francisco band Birds & Batteries have recently discovered what it means to be striking at the right time. With Panorama, the psychedelic quartet conjures a diverse sound that nods to the music of the 80s, just as much as it lives and dies on the synthesizer. Their newest album is neither an extension nor follow up to previous albums but rather, a new direction that hopefully sees its full fruition.

If the newest sound of synths, warbling keyboards and the swarm of Supertramp is the kind of music that you miss, Birds & Batteries are certainly the kind of band for you. Sometimes, like on the lead single “Strange Kind of Mirror,” singer Michael Sempert and co. deliver an exuberantly smooth guitar and drum combination that is both easygoing and entertaining. The simplicity comes in the way of the band being able to scale down the walls, whereas on something ethereally mysterious like “The Villain,” Sempert is coolly suave as his bandmates deliver a bass-driven, 80s club hit. The synths wash over the escalated patterns and the song’s slow-moving verses allow for full advantage on combing the chords over. Sempert sounds like a sly combination of Britt Daniel and Morrissey as he sings “I believe in the villain, I believe in the thief who steals what he is given and holds it in his teeth.” But it’s these kinds of arrangements and methods that spring up all over on Panorama.

And speaking of the open clearing of sky – like the mountainous one depicted on the cover – the album’s title track opens the record with a synthesized production that surrounds the band’s electronically-heavy instrumentation. In some ways, the sound comes off as a dated version of 80s-style ELO and the David Bowie stylings they’re seamlessly striving for but with less than underwhelming melodies. Like “Raincheck,” the tiniest of modifications are barely heard and mostly, the majority of the music rides a stagnant wave of bubbling synths. Still, in comparison to the kind of music they made on last year’s Up to No Good, Panorama flashes with maturation and growth. On the latter song, before simply ebbing on the flow they’ve created, the addition of various sounds and especially the Queen-esque touches at the end, all make for something far more startling. As easygoing as the music wants to be, Birds & Batteries are capable of much more.

But perhaps this is exactly where Birds & Batteries hoped to be at, now this far down their career. There is still plenty to expand and expound off but for what Panorama reaches for, it succeeds through most of its interesting efforts. And for Sempert and his long-time crew, maybe that just means cranking out a completely different new album the next time out. For now, there’s plenty to rejoice in here.

“Strange Kind of Mirror” by Birds & Batteries

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Velvet Blue Music / Spune

« Previous Page — Next Page »