// Category Archive for: Music

The Fall, Your Future, Our Clutter

By J Howell

The late John Peel once famously said of The Fall that the reason he loved them was because “they are always different; they are always the same.” That pretty much sums up Your Future, Our Clutter as well as any one sentence could.

Though only Mark E. Smith has been constant throughout the band’s thirty-four year career, that same thread of similar traits is present on this, the band’s twenty-eighth album. Part of that may be that Your Future, Our Clutter was made by the same Fall that made the last album, Imperial Wax Solvent, but listening to a cross-section of Fall music made over the band’s career one can’t help but notice that there are similarities: hypnotic repetition in the music, distinctly British social commentary, Mark E. Smith’s iconoclastic vocals, and an amazing knack for being simultaneously incredibly abrasive and hooky.
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Torch Songs for the Heroin(e): Hole, Nobody’s Daughter

By Emily Carney

“You don’t understand how damaged we really are.” This is a lyric from the opening track of the “new” Hole album, Nobody’s Daughter, which seems like it has been 1,000 years or so in the making. (Well, it certainly has been feted by Courtney Love for the last five years or so). This is the “comeback” album, the one that has weathered all the setbacks, like drug issues, family problems, bad hair weaves, and ill-advised plastic surgeries.
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Let’s Get Associated Released For The Killola Army

By Christian Lipski

Dog tags are usually intended to identify the wearer as a member of a branch of the militia, but after March 2010, they’ll also be used to indicate that the wearer’s a fan of L.A. Band Killola. The do-it-yourself band have released their third album on a wearable USB drive in the shape of a dog tag, also including their previous two albums and much more.

The unique packaging is typical of a band who has made a reputation out of doing things their own way. From their beginnings in 2003, they’ve been doing their own recording, producing, and promotion, and have amassed a huge fan base, performing across the country as well as Europe.
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Rufus Wainwright, All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu

By Alex Arnott

Listeners unfamiliar with Rufus Wainwright would probably be surprised to hear that this obliquely named, classically influenced, piano-driven album is in fact, one of his more understated works. This masterful musician, who has a penchant for impressively orchestrated pop songs, has a great deal of unusual achievements under his designer lederhosen. In the past three years, Rufus has accomplished two incredibly ambitious projects that your run-of-the-mill pop star would never dare to undertake.

First, he challenged himself to reproduce the legendary Judy Garland Concert at Carnegie Hall song for song, even recreating some of Judy’s banter. Many of the songs in Judy’s repertoire are quite dissimilar to Rufus’ usual style, yet he pulled it off with aplomb.
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Apples in stereo, Travellers In Space And Time

By Chelsea Spear

It’s a typical Sunday morning in New England. The skies are overcast, precipitation is spitting, and a slight breeze has started to pick up and become a full-blown wind. To my Eustachian tubes, however, the weather is 85 degrees and sunny without a cloud in the sky. The music of the Apples in stereo can have that effect on listeners.

While Robert Schneider and his band of merry musicians lack the cathartic heft of their Elephant 6 buddies Neutral Milk Hotel, and were never as experimental as the Olivia Tremor Control, he’s always been adept at serving up a kind of musical comfort food to fans of 1960s bubblegum and power pop. He sets his stick-in-the-head melodies in lush, layered production, creating a satisfying sound for fans of a bygone era.
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Arranged Marriage, Dearly Beloved

By Christian Lipski

As a rule, kids never like the music their parents listen to. Likewise, there’s an unwritten law that parents must hate their children’s music. It’s important for young people to develop their own identities as people, and for parents to get a taste of what they put their own parents through. That’s what makes the band Arranged Marriage such a unique treat: father Brad Allen has teamed up with his son Scott to write, perform and produce the album Dearly Beloved.
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What Are YOU Doing On Record Store Day 2010?

April 17, 2010 marks the third year of Record Store Day (they grow up so fast). According to the event’s website, it was founded as:

“. . . a celebration of the unique culture surrounding over 700 independently owned record stores in the USA, and hundreds of similar stores internationally. . . [t]his the one day that all of the independently owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music.”
—Record Store Day.com/About Us

The first official Record Store Day was held at Rasputin Music in San Francisco on April 19, 2008, christened by none other than Metallica. It is now celebrated on the third Saturday of every April. This year it will be held on Saturday, April 17.

This year, Sonic Boom in Toronto, ON will be hosting various in-store performances by Sloan, Adam Green, The Meligrove Band, Metz, Buck 65, and Valery Gore, beginning at 3:00 p.m. Admission is free, but they encourage everyone to bring non-perishable food donations for the Daily Bread Food Bank, which is running low on inventory at this time.

Here are some shout-outs to favorite record stores from Popshifter readers and writers. Next time you’re in that town, be sure to check them out!
—Less Lee Moore

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Crudbump, NA$TYJAM$

By Adam McIntyre

The latest effort/persona from Drew (of Toothpaste For Dinner, Married To The Sea, and others): Crudbump.

Bathe in its magnificence. . . wait, did you hook up a subwoofer? I told you to hook up your subwoofer. Pretty sure I did tell you. You’re going to need it.
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Quantizing Your Pulse: The Heart Is A Drum Machine

By Adam McIntyre

“Why music?”

The Heart Is A Drum Machine attempts to answer that question in several ways with testimonials from musicians, actors, scientists, and doctors. Bookending the film are two little pieces with Ann Druyan, producer of the Cosmos television series (starring her husband, the late astrophysicist Carl Sagan) and the human responsible for choosing the music on the Golden Record included during the deep space probe of Voyager. Even if you don’t believe in life on other planets, including this record on Voyager is a gesture of poignant optimism; it’s entirely likely that the record would be damaged or misunderstood in purpose when discovered.
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Eight Bits To Hold You: Oxvylu’s Chiptunes

By Less Lee Moore

If you haven’t yet heard Oxvylu, here is the latest press release which should explain exactly WHY you SHOULD hear Oxvylu!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Oxvylu Recess EP – Free Music Download – April 9, 2010
Oxvylu invites you out to play with an all new RECESS EP release. Remember when RECESS was your favorite time of day, relive that bliss for 16 minutes while listening to “8-bit chiptunes” goodness. Every tune is short, bursting with playful melodies and retro videogaming nostalgia that will keep you listening every day. RECESS can also stand for ‘RECESSION’, but never fear! Download the entire RECESS album in mp3 format at absolutely no charge. Don’t keep this a secret and invite your friends out to play too. Take a break and enjoy your RECESS.

To download the free music, please visit http://www.oxvylu.com/recess
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