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(11/04/14 4:57pm)
4/7 stars
Let me commence by stating my love for the Flaming Lips. 1999’s The Soft Bulletin and 1993’s Transmissions From The Satellite Heart are two of the most loved albums of their respective decade, admired for their ambitious soundscapes and cleverly profound approach to songwriting. Never afraid to reinvent themselves, the Lips have delved further into the world of studio experimentation over the last decade, with such works as the 2006 release At War With The Mystics.
This experimentation also resulted in several cover albums including a take on Dark Side of The Moon (here ambitious is an understatement.) Now, they take on a cultural phenomenon, The Beatles’ 1967 colorful masterpiece Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Over the years they have cultivated the same spirit of sonic exploration that allowed something like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band to exist in the first place. However while they have established themselves as thoroughly meticulous in their craft, With A Little Help From My Fwends seems confused in its intention while simultaneously defining the term “hit and miss.”
When undertaking a project of this magnitude one must consider the weight of the social, musical, and historical consequences produced by the Beatles’ original Sgt. Pepper. The album along with the Beach Boys’ album Pet Sounds redefined what the recording studio represented for musicians, particularly powerful due to the pop origins of both groups.
In light of my own Flaming Lips fandom and lifelong Beatles obsession, my reaction to hearing about this album was mixed to say the least. Was this too good to be true? A truly dichotomous reaction, drawing memories of when Taco Bell began serving breakfast. I digress.
The first “rut roh” moment other than the album’s cringe-worthy title comes on the first track. The first moments of the original Sgt. Pepper are thoughtfully deceiving, as they contain one of the only riff-heavy moments on the album. In other words, recruiting guitar legend J. Mascis was nothing less than a perfect choice for this track. For whatever reason, heavy guitars are traded for a tweaking toy synth, a major oversight. This is the equivalent of hiring a magician for your party, then having him fix the sink while your step uncle does card tricks. However there is salvation, a roaring chorus followed by an excellently noised-out J. Mascis solo we all know and love.
The tracks “With a Little Help from my Friends” and “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” showcase the sheer overproduction of most of this album. A fine line exists between imagination and overkill. “Lovely Rita”, “She’s Leaving Home” are essentially butchered into overly effected synth pop tracks. Sorry folks, but let’s get real. It gets better.
The Electric Wurms performance of “Fixing A Hole” displays a more minimal and ultimately successful reinterpretation of a classic. The ghostly vocals of Steven Drozd coat acoustic guitars and tasteful synth noise. This tastefulness is replicated on “Within You Without You.”
The absolute best this album has to offer comes on “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise),” the second to last track. Featuring Ben Goldwasser of MGMT with Foxygen, its production is absolutely the most interesting and intriguing for this sort of project. In all earnestness, I would pay money to hear Ben Goldwasser and Foxygen cover Sgt. Pepper any day of the week. Hands down.
Wayne Coyne could have chosen anyone to accompany him on “A Day in the Life”, the most sacred of Pepper songs. While I have no real opinion on Miley Cyrus, I did learn from Wayne how not to cover this song. The sublime beauty of the verse is overtaken by electronica overkill. Once again, this album absolutely defines the term “hit and miss.”
While the reception of work like this remains entirely subjective to the listener, I was disappointed by half of the album. Alas, this is not due to an artist being “unfaithful to the song.” It’s a cover, I understand that and so should all listeners.
However, one must question the Flaming Lips’ judgment when overly panned synthesizers and purposeless alteration of melody bleed out an album known for its unique instrumentation and stunning arrangement.
Covers are great. Covers are fun. Albeit in the case of With a Little Help From My Fwends, the best tribute the Flaming Lips can pay is to continue making the original music they have succeeded with for decades.
(10/13/14 6:17pm)
Singer-songwriter Steve Gunn took the stage at The Bishop last week for the fourth tour stop in support of his new album, Way Out Weather which dropped last Tuesday. Formerly a backing guitarist for Kurt Vile’s backing band, the Violators, Gunn now plays his own distinct brand of folk-laced songwriting.
Referring to Gunn as simply as “singer-songwriter” is indeed an understatement and oversight. While years have shown the phrase singer-songwriter applied to fistfuls of acoustic guitar wielders identical in craft, Gunn sets himself apart by channeling in psychedelic and folk-rock influences at prime moments.
Gunn accomplishes this unique blend using a custom Kelly hollow bodied electric guitar, the classic Fender Twin amplifier, and a Cry Baby wah pedal along with two delay pedals. His electrified guitar picking laid the sheets for beautiful washes of lap-steel, banjo, and, well, more guitar. His songs went exactly where he led them, from a roaring chorus of wah-wah guitar down to Gunn’s warm tenor vocal and back again.
In addition to this musical exhibition, Gunn provided stories about the Wu-Tang Clan and interacted with a heckler in the most positive manner I’d ever seen. These are two of many reasons you should check out his new album Way Out Weather today.
(10/05/14 4:01pm)
5/7 stars
Any proponent of heavy weight rock n’ roll will smile upon mention of the name Kyle Thomas. Whether rolling around with stoner-metal outfit Witch (drums provided by Dinosaur Jr. legend J. Mascis) or delving into the scuzz sounds with King Tuff, Thomas never fails to bring the energy vital to the art of rock in any era. With Black Moon Spell, King Tuff returns with his goofball riff heavy rock n’ roll.
While fans of the eponymous 2012 release or 2008’s legendary Was Dead can certainly bank on similar vibes, there are definite signs of expansion throughout Black Moon Spell. In tow with many of their garage rock contemporaries, King Tuff’s production has become more and more solidified with each album. The sonic leap between Was Dead and King Tuff is easily illustrated, simply exemplifying the difference between Kyle Thomas’s self-production and the studio work of producer Bobby Harlow. The band worked Harlow again for Black Moon Spell. Despite this, Black Moon Spell brought a larger and more varied sound, particularly in its use of guitar tone and panning.
The album is an almost non-stop heavy trip, jarring the listener with one guitar scorcher after another starting with the first song and title track, “Black Moon Spell.” Ominous feedback peels the curtain for a monster riff, back by none other than Ty Segall on drums. Icy double vocals mirror the guitar melody during the chorus: “In a black moon spell, baby you’ll be dreamin.’”
Lyrically the album is extremely satisfying, though sometimes easily anticipated. While Kyle Thomas has cultivated a certain perma-teen vibe to his lyrical content, it can sometimes pander into vapidity. Though sex and drugs can admittedly be a standard in rock n’ roll writing, thoughtless phrasing can convey more of a tasteless cheese than a vice indulgence. That being said, there are some killer lyrics on this album, particularly in the tracks “Rainbow’s Run,” “Eyes of the Muse,” “Black Holes in Stereo,” and “Radiation.”
In line with the varied guitar tones and production styles, "Headbanger" is reminiscent of Husker Du's "Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely" while “Eyes of the Muse” strays gently into the realm of 70’s power pop. Still utilizing heavy tones, Thomas creates a softer soundscape on this song relative to the rest of the album. This was my favorite track on the album upon first listen, though the title track and “Rainbow’s Run” are now fast in the fight.
King Tuff will be on tour until December, though regrettably his only Midwest stops are Detroit and Chicago.
(09/28/14 8:14pm)
September 26, 2014 marks the 45th anniversary of a larger than life body of work, uniquely unparalleled and beautifully rendered---Abbey Road. Although Let It Be stands as their last official studio album release, a majority of its sessions took place before Abbey Road. Abbey Road was the last album recorded as a band with producer George Martin, “the way we used to do it,” as Paul McCartney stated. It was for this album that on August 20th, 1969, all four Beatles appeared in a recording studio together for the last time.
Abbey Road displays every side of the Beatles, from their earliest influences to the end. Lennon’s Come Together commences the album with a line fittingly lifted from the 1956 Chuck Berry single “You Can’t Catch Me.” Although the song is musically nuanced and entirely original, its vocal evokes the early rock n’ roll influences that drove The Beatles to the artistic Gibraltar on which they stood in 1969. The album takes listeners on a trip through the group’s history, with a wide range of influences and songwriting contributions from all members. McCartney’s Vaudevillian influences shine on “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.” He simultaneously channels primal blues and rock n’ roll on “Oh! Darling” with a vibe that could have rattled the walls of the Cavern Club in their primitive days.
George Harrison’s contributions to the album represent some of his finest composition work as a Beatle. “Something” remains one of the greatest love songs of the 60’s, additionally becoming the second-most covered Beatles song after the 1966 hit “Yesterday.” Even Ringo delivers with the zany psych-pop tune “Octopus’s Garden,” debatably his finest songwriting work.
This covers merely the first five songs on an incredible 17-track collection of Beatle originals. Whether it’s the first, fifth, or five hundredth time around, give Abbey Road a birthday listen.
(11/15/13 12:23am)
There comes a moment where music reaches beyond its own grasp and the term “local band” no longer serves as an accurate description. Sleeping Bag is becoming one of those bands. Granted Bloomington has taken a habit of churning out fantastic live and recorded music year after year, there are still albums and performances that inform listeners this has all begun reaching beyond us.
On that note, Bloomington band Sleeping Bag will be returning to The Bishop this Saturday, November 16th at 9 P.M. Although Sleeping Bag has, along with many great Bloomington outfits, played at The Bishop a number of times, this time is different. This time Sleeping Bag brought along friends and tour mates Rozwell Kid, with whom they released a split LP titled “Dreamboat” just this past month through West Lafayette’s Jurassic Pop Records. The sleeve displays a picture of a comic-drawn cyclops girl smiling, sitting on a bed holding a copy of the record on which she appears. “Dreamboat” appears as a heading on the album cover, with a heart shape in place of an O. Beneath lays the tagline, “A Real Chill Listen.” It holds no disappointment in that regard. With song titles like Total Doofus, Chinchilla, and Dogfood, the record keeps a genuine attitude without taking itself too seriously, an admirable quality compared to the rest of today’s musical zeitgeist.
Dave Segedy assembled Sleeping Bag in 2010 creating pop-driven guitar rock, with qualities that remind listeners of everything and nothing all at once. It’s too new to be retro, too retro to be new. Drawing heavily from a sound like that of Pavement, Sleeping Bag has released two albums through Joyful Noise Recordings before the latest release with Rozwell Kid.
Saturday’s show is one of several that the bands will be playing together, and is guaranteed to be a real chill listen.