REVIEW: Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

BEN SHEENE:

Let me be honest here. I didn’t catch on with Phoenix until 2003. During said year I saw Lost in Translation and fell in love with every aspect of the movie, including the soundtrack. I was familiar with some of the bands but purchased the soundtrack mostly because I wanted to hear Bill Murray’s lounge version of Roxy Music’s “More Than This”. Hidden inside all the shoegaze and deliberate tracks was one real gem: “Too Young” by Phoenix. Even though United came out in 2000 I was just now licking my lips to this amazingly crafted piece of indie pop/rock music.

It is with that sentiment in mind that Phoenix brings us their fourth studio effort Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix—one of the year’s best pop records so far. But more on that later.

I would rather tackle the albums “faults” first before anything. And I don’t mean faults as in shoddy production or particularly terrible songs because this album legitimately doesn’t have any of these glaring errors. One thing you might find wrong here is a lack of change. When a great band keeps coming out with music you can’t help but line songs and albums next to each other to see how they compare. When it comes to Phoenix, this isn’t really necessary. They are a band who embrace their sound and polish it to the point of perfection. You can fault them for not “changing it up” but is that what you really want of a band you already like? (Personally, I don’t care what the hell they do, as long as it sounds good.) If you want me to be honest, that’s all I’ve really got on the so-called “bad” side. I feel really trying to delve into it more would just be gibberish. So…

How about “Lisztomania”? Talk about a hell of an opener. Seriously. The track has been floating around for awhile and has been kicking my ass the whole time. Songs like this are what Phoenix does best. Hearing it swirl around in my ears just fills my old soul with a vibrant shot of youth.

For some reason that I will never understand it is almost impossible for good bands to actually get some recognition. I mean look at the Grammys. What a sham. I know it. You know it. A lot of people don’t know it. When I saw Phoenix on Saturday Night Live I was quite happy because the band was getting some really good exposure. Playing “Lisztomania”, “1901”, and even “Too Young” (though it was cut short by credits) you really got a feel for what the band wants you to hear. The live versions were almost identical to the album ones and it seemed like a great band were finally getting their place in the sun.

With Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix the band has managed to capture what most would call radio-friendly pop. In the end I feel that the band tries to craft songs that everyone can listen to and enjoy, and it succeeds completely. Even with some of their more ballad like songs “Fences” and “Coundown” the hooks and rhythms really romanticize the overall feel of the album. One part of the album I want to pay special attention to is the song duo “Love like a Sunset” (Parts 1 & 2). The first track is a near six minute sort of synth art-rock piece. Honestly, it’s kind of weird. I scratched my head at first wondering what was going on since it doesn’t really fit with the tone of the rest of the album. Regardless of its place in the whole nature of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix it does kind of show what the band can do. So, in a way that addresses the whole “what else could they do if they wanted to do it” question. Then, again, out of nowhere, we get a short two minute little song that actual provides one of the most beautiful sounds on the album. It is a completely stripped sounding song compared to everything else on the album but it really works.

You know, the whole album can be described as something that just works. Let me be honest with you for a moment; when I first was writing out my review of this album I was going to give it an 8.0 just a flat score, no in between because Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is a solid album. And, as I do before I write my reviews, I listened to the album again. The thing is, the first time I got this album a while ago I listened to it three times in a day because it was that much of a joy. You have thirty six minutes of pure pop/rock bliss. It was on that final listen (and while writing at this moment in time) that I feel confident that this is a 9 out of 10 album. Phoenix is nearing their ten year mark so it makes sense that they know what they are about. So queue this baby up. The opening track with bite into you and won’t let you go. Not like that matters, anyway because even after the last track “Armistice” is over you are going to want to experience the whole thing over again.

REVIEW: Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

HANK ALTOGETHER:

Grizzly Bear's 2006 record, Yellow House, was as ethereal as a shaft of sunlight piercing through a rusty window. It's pretty hard to follow up that kind of image. And this time around, the boys of da Bear manage to take their sound and put it a little harder on the ground. Veckatimest is the operatic version of folk music that it's been willing to take for years. Instead of pushing into the lyrical realm built by Dylan, Grizzly Bear delves into musical territory that evokes and outdoes the strongest worded image.

Wagner thought music was the greatest of the arts because of it's ability to elicit a genuine emotional response. And there's ways that music speaks to us and draws from us emotions that a lot of other types of art can't. Mostly because of it's non-linguistic communication. Well, apologies to Wagner, but Grizzly Bear turns words into music. Their fracturing/ed choral harmonies are tied to what seems like existential angst. "We're all faltering," the crew croons on "Fine for Now" - an anthem of eroding while putting up with bullshit. That's perhaps the strongest growth between this record and Yellow House. House erred on the side of atmosphere, on this record the atmosphere seems to float from the emotional evokation of the songs.

Basically, it's better honed songwriting. The sublime "Two Weeks" shows that right off -- dropping a 21st century jazz standard in the patchwork of Grizzly Bear's music. And the musical styles that are being brought up, homaged, used, and invented just keep coming. But, they don't show up to show off. They show up as a natural, organic expression of the song. I argue pretty often that The White Album is the best one of The Beatles, becuase it sees the band use so many different forms, as if there were a perfect genre for each song. Veckatimest, may well be Grizzly Bear's White Album, ever evolving but out of love for the song, not for the sake of the song writing. This album is a keeper. And one of the best of the year.

REQUIRED LISTEN: Avi Buffalo

ZACH THAT:

Living in Los Angeles, I've heard the name Avi Buffalo float around for months. I finally caught their set last night at the Echo and man, oh, man...this band is fantastic. They either are in or recently graduated high school...which is mind blowing because the songwriting is very mature, thoughtful, and rivals that of any established band. The band is lead by Avi Buffalo (defintley not his real name) and Rebecca Coleman. The best part of Avi Buffalo's sound is when Avi and Coleman sing at the same time...their voices are so perfect together that the combined sound is just infectious.

They started off the set with the song, "What's In It For" which has been playing in my head for the last day. Just listen to the song below, see for yourself if Avi Buffalo deserves a required listen. If you think no, search yourself, you might be without a soul. Looking forward to seeing this band blow up, the sky is the limit for Avi Buffalo.

Avi Buffalo - "What's In It For" (Via Rock Insider)

REQUIRED LISTEN: The Mint Chicks

ZACH THAT:

I remember hearing Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! for the first time and being blown away by how amazingly original their music was. I experienced the same shock when The Mint Chicks sent me their LP, “Screens”. The album has a unique sound that makes for a very fun listen. It’s distorted pop, with a mix of electro. The key here is that the distortion comes across upbeat, not a hard sonic wave that has been used to success by Waves and Crocodiles. I was waiting for the album to fall apart, but the whole record is packed with amazing track after another. This is definitely why I started required listen, to highlight bands that are daring and bring forth a new sound that needs to be heard. I’m now a huge fan of The Mint Chicks.

THE MINT CHICKS - "I Cant Stop Being Foolish" from Samuel Peacocke on Vimeo.

REVIEW: Clues - Clues

ZACH THAT:

Before looking at the album, I would like to take a moment to talk about the 10.0 rating (I’ve never handed one out) and make our criteria for a perfect score clear. Personally, I think the album has to move the listener to a level where the love for the sound is indefinable, which makes clearly stating your reasons for loving the album impossible. My co-WLFY blogger, Hank, believes it’s impossible to give a current album the 10.0 rating because the album has to stand the test of time. While I agree with this notion, what’s the fun in running a music blog if you can only hand out perfect scores to re-issues? Were you really shocked when Pitchfork gave "OK Computer" a 10.0? That was brave. Then I had a friend bring up this interesting point…is this album better than Nick Drake’s “Pink Moon” or Leonard Cohen’s “I’m Your Man” (my two favorite albums of all time)? The answer is no, but I think there is room for more than one 10.0 album that you can then rank as the list of your favorites. I’m not claiming that this album will be a 10.0 for you or that it will change music forever. To me, this album exudes an emotion, a specific sound that I’ve been looking for all my life. Just like the first time I heard The Velvet Underground, after experiencing this masterpiece from Clues, I sat there stunned, clicked back on the first track and took the musical journey over and over again.

What’s funny with Clues is how most music journalists seem to be more concerned with where they came from, rather than where they are going. Almost every piece of news surrounding the band starts with: Clues, featuring Alden Penner (ex-Unicorn) and Brandan Reed (ex-Arcade Fire). What’s interesting about Clues’ past is not the successful bands they came from, but how Penner focuses his dealings with musical fame/success into the lyrics. We’ll get to that later, but the main thing to take away is that this review will not be comparing the self titled Clues album to anything Unicorns or Arcade Fire related.

The first song on the album, "Haarp", threw me off immediately with its loud hits and long pauses, immediately suggesting that this album is something different. The first lyrics offered are: “Our reaching, expecting hands” (loud guitar and drum crash). “Searching for what the eyes cannot see”. Hmmmm. Right away, I’m thrown into the theme of this album. It’s an introspective look at the musician’s dilemma, specifically putting themselves out there to be the subject of critique and having fans ask for more than one wants to give. The whole album follows this theme and it’s quite interesting because it poses questions I’ve never considered in a subtle, yet beautiful manner. At the end of "Haarp", Penner yells, “Will I be able to feel the difference…when you turn me on and off?” The album is jam packed with lyrics like these that work on two levels. On one hand you have obvious subtext, like the line mentioned above relating to the previously stated theme. On the other hand, the deeper levels of the lyrics complicate this album and ultimately strengthen it, passing themselves off as unimportant babble on the first listen, but becoming a clear companion to the theme after a few more spins.

This is obvious on the next two tracks, "Remember Severed Head" and "Approach the Throne". With lyrics like, “Who here wants to sleep in the dragons mouth?” and, “Approach the throne…throw away your skin…” the self-reflexive take on the music industry is present…but not on the surface. What exactly does sleeping in the dragons mouth mean? Why is Penner talking about throwing away your skin? For me, it’s a direct exploration of a musicians identity…you can have all the rewards of being a successful band (the throne), but be prepared to strip yourself down and give your identity (skin) to the people who listen to your music. I could go on for several pages highlighting this theme through lyrics, but point made, let’s move on.

Looking now at the albums sound, it’s important to note how amazingly unpredictable the music is. This rebels against the usual pop structure where the listener can sing along to the chorus during the first listen because it is repeated over and over. This album has perfectly planted twists, turns, and tempo changes, and the tone of the album, if plotted on a chart, would move rapidly up and down. This will ultimately hurt Clues, as I find it’s impossible to understand/fall in love with the album after one listen. It’s a tough album to crack and demands the listeners’ utmost attention. The first time I heard the track, “You Have My Eyes Now,” I just sat there confused and after a minute or so, skipped ahead. Big mistake. The whole track is building toward a musical explosion at the 2:05 mark that is now one of my favorite moments on the album, the musical equivalent to opening Pandora’s box in my mind.

The album is strong start to finish, without a misstep or a track out of place. It’s impossible to describe the overall sound of the album, because it cannot be related to anything else ever made. It has moments of prog rock, garage tendencies, lush classical arrangements, unicorns-esque melodies, bullshit, bullshit. Don’t let any reviews of this album tell you it fits in any category of established sound, Clues have created their own sound that has yet to be labeled by music blogs/journalists. I was fortunate enough to see Clues live before hearing the album and while Penner /Reed will garner most of the attention due to their pasts…this is definitely a band where every member plays an equal part. They’re all talented musicians who often trade off instruments song to song…showing that this is a untied team that can pick up any part, any time.

The last track put the bow on deciding to give this album a 10.0. It’s Penner playing a simple, but beautiful piano line and singing about the above mentioned theme. The lines hitting on voyeurism, choice, regret, desire to be famous…and the last and most amazing line of the album: “I’ve got wings…but they aren’t meant for viewing.” I’ll let you listen to the album and make your own conclusions as what it means, but for me it basically sums up in one line what Clues are trying to say with every lyric. It’s almost as if the entire album was a musician’s therapy session, and in a poetic fashion the band states how they should feel with the last line.

It’s my contention and I don’t expect you to agree, that this self-titled album does exactly for music that Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2 did for film. They are both stripping away the themes of their own professions and execute the self-reflexive examination so perfectly that it demands several views/listens to fully understand the genius of their finished works. This just might be me and my relationship to art, but I like to struggle when finding meaning. There is nothing rewarding about being handed all the themes, quickly understanding why the album exists in the way it was presented to the listener by the band. If you are forced to work for it, you will find beautiful discoveries along the way…if they are there (some albums, you can look and look, but there is nothing). I urge you to give this album at least two listens all the way through…and if it’s not for you, then so be it. But in my mind this is one of the most important albums of the decade and demands the attention of anyone who is remotely interested in music.

Since you will hardly ever see all their names I would like to list them now. Alden Penner, Brendan Reed, Ben Borden, Lisa Gamble, and Nick Scriber. Five, not two, are Clues…and they made the perfect album.

REQUIRED LISTEN: Sports: The Band

ZACH THAT:

Sports: The Band have put out one of the most enjoyable and refreshing EP's I've heard in a long time. I unfortunately don't know that much about the band other than three facts:

1.) They're from Toronto, CA
2.) They're a four piece.
3.) They have a very bright future ahead of them.

The band really shines on the track "Syntax Error" which is a dream of a song that made me recall the emotions I felt after hearing Casiotone For The Painfully Alone and +/- for the first time. I hope everyone spends a little of their time and listens to this fantastic EP. I'm very excited to hear what this band can do on a full length record.

REVIEW: Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band – “Outer South”

ZEKE GOGGIN:

It’s tough to watch music you love slip into mediocrity. It’s also tough to see Oberst’s current projects with the Mystic Valley Band as anything but.

I listened to this album once, and I can’t really say I have any real desire to listen to much of it again. It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t good. I just didn’t care. On Oberst’s new release with The Mystic Valley Band you get what you’d expect –what Oberst’s recent works slowly, oh so slowly hinted at as time went on. We watched as the claustrophobic “Fevers and Mirrors” morphed into the shimmering and folky “Lifted: The Story is in The Soil, Keep Your Ear to The Ground.” Then came the double release of “I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning,” a country-folk crystallization of the zeitgeist of New York at the birth of the Iraq War and “Digital Ash in A Digital Urn” the dynamic, though ultimately less satisfying electro-pop meditations. It seemed that Oberst’s interests were becoming more distinct and focused, his intuition more keen, and his songwriting more natural. He didn’t seem afraid, at last, to simply let the songs speak for themselves and let concepts bloom forth for the listener to appreciate –the unforced flowers of heartfelt songwriting and the artistic maturity to “let go.” We were watching the young man from Omaha, who so many hyperbolically compared to Dylan, at the outset of a brilliant mainstream career.

But then something happened. Oberst’s pendulum seems to have swung too far from his Bright Eyes days. “Outer South” can barely be called an “album” in the proper sense. It is, rather, big plate of mostly dense, easy-rockin, lukewarm, country tunes with no discernible connection to a common theme. The value of songs which actually speak to each other, of lyrics which are self-involved and self-invested, has been lost on Oberst. The result is a collection of songs which smacks of “A.M.” era Wilco and the Jayhawks, and in a completely boring way. There are standout tracks, however. “White Shoes” an ostensible return to form for Oberst and the only song on “Outer South” that remotely resembles his work with Bright Eyes –it’s a dark, reverberating cave of a song. Oberst’s vocals quiver in the dark over stark, acoustic strumming. He shows more restraint here than when under the Bright Eyes moniker, but it is hardly enough to save the album. “Roosevelt Room” is another strong tune: an aggressive, lefty political-rocker which evokes Springsteen and Neil Young amid cascades of distortion, electric organ, and a heavy groove. Mystic Valley is no Deceparecedos, but they can rock when properly motivated, it would seem. Bandmates Nik Freitas, Jason Boesel (drummer for Rilo Kiley), Taylor Hollingsworth and Macey Taylor all get a turn at the mic, but with mixed and mediocre results. Nik Freitas and Macey Taylor are nearly vocal twins, with rather uninteresting, boyish vocal stylings which lack the innocence and effeminacy that make Stephen Trask listenable and sympathetic. Boesel has a strong, country Baritone, but again, the songs are pretty weak. His version of the earlier Oberst tune, “Eagle on a Pole” is inoffensive, but that’s hardly a compliment. Hollingsworth sing-speaks over undulating new-wave arpeggios about sleeping with an ex-lover on air-matress. Listenable. Not awful. Ok.

“Outer South” is the result of Oberst maturing into someone who feels less and less inclined to press the envelope musically. Sure, he still sings about drugs, sex, left-wing politics, estrangement, and misery. People have been doing that for years though, and all of the things about Conor Oberst that made him the Conor Oberst we knew and loved. Maybe he’s just having more fun and lightening up. Maybe he finally got that cocktail of anti-depressants just right. Either way, we can only hope Conor will strike a balance between the smothering madness and misery that was Bright Eyes and the tasty-licks (yet, oxymoronically, bland) country rock of Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band.