REVIEW: Cults - Cults

Cults

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Grade: 83% (B)

Remember watching the first Back to the Future and how cool it was to see how things were in the 50's? That's how I felt when I first heard "Bumper," my first introduction to the indie-pop duo Cults. The groovy 50's bassline accompanied by the piano building with the innocent pre-world being destroyed by the internet lyrics leads perfectly into the shimmering chorus. Even with it's chaste lyrics and painless instrumentation, the song is still endearing to someone of the modern age. 

This is somewhat true for the entirety of Cults' self-titled debut. While their images might not portray the same innocence, Brian Oblivion and Madeline Follin cloak their Manhattan pop with vintage rhythms and sugar-boppy choruses. Follin's voice is the perfect fit for this manner of sound. On "You Know What I Mean" she sings effortlessly in the verses and then is on the verge of screaming by the time the chorus comes around. She sounds like a young girl waiting for the ice cream man on "Most Wanted" while Oblivion tools around with the guitar just for fun. She even sings the thoughts of an adolescent girl, confused about the temptations that life hands her, saying, "What we most want is bad for us we know," as the song closes with a distant voice speaking, "Flirtation, drug use, and adultery." 

"Abducted" opens the album with a low volume that (SPOILER ALERT) surprises you with a quick expansion and uses the back and forth between Oblivion and Follin to create the metaphor of a boy abducting a young girl's heart and is drowned out before you know the ending. You probably don't need to hear anything about "Go Outside" because even I am bugged by girls whistling it's cute xylophone notes through the hallways of my dorm. That probably best describes the music of the record: cute. The smooth bass is usually accompanied by a catchy high pitched riff of some sort while some quick drum loop is layered by some hearty but diminished piano chords and finished off with some guitar canoodling by Oblivion. 

The songs are all the same in theme but each has it's out distinguishable characteristic to assure that you don't get bored by track four. The record's longest song, "Bad Things" builds by banding particular instruments on top of each other as Follin continually threatens to run away. By the time the bridge comes it is clear that she is only bluffing and she only reinforces this notion with the repetition of the opening verse.

A personal pick would probably be "Oh My God," where Madeline sings of wanting to move on with the life she has boringly created for herself and Brian shows off a rare sign of some power chords and impressive work on the fretboard. I can call them by their first names because they were in college last year. My personal favorite is the closer "Rave On," which showcases a few quick bursts in just under three minutes with it's simple guitar and organ chords.  

With eleven short songs (non span close to four minutes), Cults feels like a record written about a tween girl, by a twenty-something who misses being a tween girl, and for that rare group of tween girls who aren't too pretentious to recognize that they relate to this music more than that of Lady Gaga and Wiz Kalifah. Tween.   

REVIEW: Bon Iver - Bon Iver

Bon Iver

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Grade: 95% (A)

Let's get all the cabin in the woods talk out of the way. Okay good, I said it. 

Bon Iver's follow up to For Emma, Forever Ago starts with, "Perth." The song starts with a strong guitar riff alone into snare drum and background vocals. A break comes and the song washes over your entire body like you're 18 and drunk listening to the album in the darkness of a basement with your friends. The opening track is actually about Heath Ledger, surprisingly enough, and while Justin Vernon's (don't pretend like you didn't know that was his real name) voice does the song a lot of justice, it is the guitar riffs, drum patterns, and horn section that carry the song on the emotional level. With this first song, Vernon set the tone for the entire album: this wasn't drunken woods acoustic sessions, but it was still going to be spectacular.

While For Emma touched everyone on an emotional level, Bon Iver is set up for more interpretation. It is darker, with a higher tempo (the band tours with two drum sets) and louder. Vernon's voice this time is right in your face, not hidden behind the lo-fi and quiet nature of his debut. While For Emma made you say, "Holy shit. I might cry," Bon Iver makes you say, "Holy shit."  The Holocene refers to the last 10,000 years since the final ice left marking the end of the Ice Age. The guitar work throughout the song feels like it could go on for just about that long and nobody would get sick of it and the music video appropriately fits that feeling just as well. 

Most artists generate their first album from every major experience of their life up until that point. For Emma however, was instead written from a year of shit that Vernon had been going through. This set up a peculiar situation for his follow-up: Vernon was able to explore those things from his early life he had not yet written about. It seems this might explain why 70% of the songs are named after locations. Perhaps they refer to things that happened to him while he was there. "Towers," with it's jangle guitar strumming, refers to the place where Vernon lost his virginity on the campus of the University of Wisconsin. "Perth," we know refers to the place where Heath Ledger was born.

It is clear that this wasn't made without the emotion of For Emma. This record was still made with a great amount of hurt and sentiment. Though it is heavier than For Emma, Bon Iver still has the beautiful moments that the debut did. You still can't understand more than half the things Justin is singing the entire time. Vernon leads "Michicant" with his voice and the building "Calgary" never seems to break or drop. The much debated closer, "Beth/Rest," sounds like a ballad right out of the eighties. But there is an engaging nature to it as well. If you aren't a fan of the song, you will be once you hear the way Vernon performed it with only a piano for NPR earlier this year. The song ushers in not only the ending of the record, but also a period of rest after the first nine songs attack your ears and soul. With "Beth/Rest" you can sit back and reflect upon the previous tracks and while the complexion of the song circles around you in every which way. 

Bon Iver signals that Justin Vernon not only doesn't care about the back story of his debut anymore, but he is also not going to take advantage of it. While he could have come out with another lo-fi, acoustic, bedroom album and people would have given it good reviews just because, he instead explored his musical ideas and went in another direction, and earned good reviews with an excellent record.  

TOURS: of Montreal Announce Spring US Tour

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of Montreal has announced tour dates in support of their upcoming LP Paralytic Stalks, which is due out February 7th. The tour is bookended with shows in Georgia and includes back to back nights in March in San Francisco that we will hope to attend barring exam conflicts. Also, it looks like Coachella could potentially still be in the mix but is not likely considering they already swing West in March. You can check out our review of their single "Wintered Debts" and the tour dates below via Pitchfork. 

12-31 Athens, GA - Go Bar (List Christee DJ set)
02-17 Athens, GA - Georgia Theatre
03-07 Jacksonville, FL - Freebird Live *
03-08 Orlando, FL - The Plaza Live *
03-09 Mobile, AL - Alabama Music Box *
03-10 New Orleans, LA - Howlin Wolf *
03-11 Houston, TX - Fitzgeralds *%
03-12 Oklahoma City, OK - ACM @ UCO Performance Lab *
03-13 Dallas, TX - Tree's *
03-14 McAllen, TX - Sofie's Saloon
03-15 Austin, TX - Emo's East (Polyvinyl Showcase)
03-18 El Paso, TX - Tricky Falls *#
03-19 Tucson, AZ - Rialto *#
03-20 Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern *#
03-21 San Francisco, CA - Slim's *#
03-22 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore *#
03-23 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom *#
03-24 Seattle, WA - Showbox at the Market *#
03-25 Boise, ID - Treefort Music Festival
03-27 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue *~
03-28 Chicago, IL - Metro *~
03-29 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom *~
03-30 New York, NY - Webster Hall @!
03-31 New York, NY - Webster Hall *~
04-01 Boston, MA - The Paradise *~
04-02 Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer *~
04-03 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club *~
04-04 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle *~
04-05 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel *~
04-06 Chattanooga, TN - Track 29 *~
04-07 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse *~

* with Kishi Bashi
# with Deerhoof
% with Cults
~ with Loney Dear
! with Computer Magic
@ with Hard Nips

SONG OF THE DAY: The Antlers - "Rolled Together"

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Three chords, two lines, some moaning and yelling and a breezy drum loop, that's the best way to describe the tangible parts of this song. But intangibly, there is so much more to this track. It floats across the record, the most laid back song on the Antler's Burst Apart, and you might not even notice it when you give it a listen, but you'll certainly recognize it the second time you hear it. 

The version of this track featuring Neon Indian flows into the meaty parts of the original over a longer period and the jam at the end seems to linger on forever. While the original encapsulates all the same feelings in only four and a half minutes, it is not simply a smash and grab take on the emotions. Much like "Fallout" by Neon Indian, this track rolls along with a simplistic beauty unrivaled by few songs this year. 

The song is best listened to as a release. The title of the track itself is a reference to this and the album gets it's name from one of the two lines in the song. Peter Silberman sings, "Rolled together and I'm about to burst apart." It's a utopian way of expressing the feeling of having every feeling rolled up inside, and that euphoric feeling of bursting apart when you release it all. Silberman's echoing screams are the best representation of this, as they express both pain and exhilaration as he lets everything go. But because he warns his audience that this is coming, it's as if he knows, and has no control over when it happens. It's as if he is saying that all the other songs on the record were simply written, but this is the one with the most tactile emotions. Three chords, two lines, some moaning and yelling and a breezy drum loop, that's the best way to let whatever is rolled together inside you burst apart. 

REVIEW: of Montreal - "Wintered Debts"

of Montreal

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Grade: 69% (D)

I have recently been thrown into the of Montreal discography after a quick foray into the Pitchfork.tv collection on the band. After a witnessing their live debacle this spring, I was certainly a fan, most notably of their 2007 album Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?, but had not yet immersed myself into their sound. However, I have most recently been interested in their latest effort, 2010's False Priest. The pop-iness of the album is spectacularly underground in some way, mainly due to the lyrical uncanniness. While their constant references to sex are enough to grab the attention of an adolescent boy, the scope of their musical depth is interesting to consider. 

With "Wintered Depths," it seems as if Kevin Barnes is sampling a little bit from every part of their discography without completely committing to any style. Running over seven and a half minutes, the track starts with the creepy acoustic guitar that is reminiscent of the band's early musings which is quickly slid into the low-fi pop of The Bedside Drama A Petite Tragedy with a hook comparable to one from Hissing Fauna minus the extrenuous bells and whistles. Barnes even tests his classic lyrical ingenuity, singing, "Tried to call you from a bathroom in South Paulo, but I was too drunk to formulate any sort of earthly language." 

All of this is pushed to the precipice of each former methodology but extends no boundaries into new territory in under three minutes. You're then sucked back into the darkness of Barnes' eerie voice covered by rehashed pianos. Henceforth it is the quintessential "falling down the rabbit hole" swirling sounds of any psychedelic outfit. The final minute is filled with an attempt to grab back at what was before, but the feeling is that it is simply too late and any effort is futile, resulting in an anti-climactic ending of sorts. 

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of Montreal's newest album Paralytic Stalks is out February 7th. 

REVIEW: St. Vincent - Strange Mercy

St. Vincent

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Grade: 92% (A-)

I introduce you to HBO's television series Hung; a story of Ray, a divorced high school gym teacher on the verge of some serious Michigan educational budget cuts who is "gifted" in other aspects of life and therefore pursues them by becoming a male prostitute to make some cash on the side. Tanya, a self-loathing poet/artist who has gone through life pushed around by her mother and others, enlists Ray as her hoe as she delves into the field of becoming a pimp. Tanya doesn't exactly have control of her life and continues to be pushed around by Lenore, her much more attractive and successful opponent pimp seeking Ray's services, leading to breakdowns and episodes. Tanya, welcome to your release. 

Annie Clarke is as badass as a sweet pale girl with curly black hair can be… Which apparently is pretty badass. On Strange Mercy, she takes St. Vincent into a new stratosphere with her combination of attitude and innocence. Much like Tanya does when she steals her rival pimp's dog, Clarke has just said, "fuck it," and is taking control of how shit goes down in her life. She isn't taking shit from anyone anymore.

While they share the same hairstyle, the two aren't entirely parallels of each other. As Tanya is somewhat all over the place and unhinged, Clarke maintains a certain level of sanity. She still is able to fool you with her childlike innocence on "Cheerleader," until she swoops in and demands that she no longer roam the sidelines supporting the team in their endeavors. However, she is still not afraid to admit the times in which she has given in in the past. On "Surgeon," she opens singing, "I spent the summer on my back," but then sounds as dangerous as a rabid dog with her crazed chorus, "Best find a surgeon, come cut me open." The most important line of the record is on the title track, when Clarke sings, "If I ever meet that dirty policeman who roughed you up, no I don't know what." Clark extinguishes any security by ripping in and out of guitar riffs throughout the LP (see "Cruel"). She knows her life of, "making a living telling people what they want to hear," is not a perfect plan but she doesn't care what you think. The simple structure (drum loops, synth workings, and honed guitar riffs) proves once and for all that Annie Clark means business. Even through all of this though, the musical integrity is maintained and you would still like the songs without paying close attention to the lyrics.

She also might still be a little crazy though, as the album is littered with these examples. Still, Annie Clark has provided inspiration to any unremarkably put together female (10-15 on the tightness scale) and, considering she has gotten an 18-year old male college freshman to reflection the state of life of mediocre and unnoticed women, has certainly gained respect in the music community. Keep your pimp hand strong Tanya. 

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