Category: Music Reviews
REVIEW: AthFest 2015 Compilation CD
AthFest, Athens’ seminal music festival, is right around the corner (June 24-28) and with it comes another stellar compilation CD featuring highlights of the jam packed lineup. This year’s was the first ever to be produced by students of UGA’s own Music Business program, and let us to be one of the first to say they did a bang-up job.
The 21 track compilation has a clear theme, one that has naturally marked every AthFest but seems to be even more present this year: summer. Whether it’s the breezy Kokomo noodling of opener “Fools Like These” by Tongues or the lazy Sunday contemplation of WrennPop’s “Laundromat”, each hand-picked track perfectly encapsulates the slowed down pace of an empty campus and the heat of baking Athens asphalt. Even the obligatory Whigs song, “Hit Me”, is one of their substantially mellower tunes. Major kudos goes out to the MBUS kids for this superbly sequenced compilation. Each sampling flows evenly from one to the next, from bouncy pop to quiet, moody bedroom synth dreaminess; as befits any zen summer festival, nothing about this varied representation is misplaced or jarring.
The CD’s assemblers also made wise choices in including some lesser knowns of our local scene – of Montreal is headlining the fest, sure, but they don’t need to do much to get anyone to visit their sets. But for smaller indie bands like The Orkids and Playground Hero – and especially for oft-shafted Athens hip hop artists like Uncle Pizza and Showtime – this exposure ahead of the festival is crucial.
MBUS student and compilation project co-producer Kelsey Kirpich, along with fellow MBUS student Anna Reed, said a team of five students listened to all 150 submissions, eventually narrowing it down to the 21 tracks it features – a tough feat for most, but moreso for a group of music fanatics. “We kept narrowing down the submissions until we had a list we felt was a great representation of the diverse Athens music scene.” Kirpich said, “The Music Business Program at UGA is a community of passionate music lovers, so it made it a really enjoyable process for everyone involved.” MBUS director David Barbe was also an enthusiastic backer of the project, saying he “instantly loved the idea” of having his own students be part of the process. “[It’s] a great opportunity for students to see the nuts and bolts of a music release – selecting artists and material, mastering, manufacturing, promoting and distributing,” he said. With MBUS’ stature growing every year, it makes total sense to get UGA students more involved in AthFest, which more broadly serves the Athens community, one that is made up of so much more than academia and football.
The CD was produced by Russ Hallauer and is out June 18 on Ghostmeat Records (purveyors of the annual AthFest comp for the last 18 years) and available for purchase here or at the merch table on site. As with everything AthFest, it benefits Athfest Educates, so jump on this thing.
Click here to listen to select comp CD tracks!
Club Crawl Info:
After the free outdoor shows, a $30 wristband grants access into more than a dozen Club Crawl venues Friday and Saturday nights, as well as discounts at AthFest affiliated events and into a VIP viewing area to the right of the stage. 40 Watt has a wristband-only show Friday night featuring Thayer Serrano, Cracker and The Whiskey Gentry, and Shehehe, Mind Brains and Warehouse Saturday night. The Georgia Theatre has two nights of wristband-only shows featuring headliners Blank Range and Roadkill Ghost Choir Friday night, and Darnell Boys and Surfer Blood on Saturday night. Other participating venues include Caledonia Lounge, Cine, Flicker Theatre, Go Bar, Hendershot’s, Little Kings Shuffle Club, Live Wire Athens, Lumpkin Street Station, The Foundry, The Globe, and The World Famous. Club Crawl line-up here.
The Vaccines: “Minimal Affection”
If you’re still unsure just how prevalent 80s nostalgia is in today’s scene, pick up a shovel and dig the new Vaccines track. The playfully cool new track (off of their 5/26 release English Graffiti) uses the same faux string synth spurts that made you love your kiddie Casio back in the day. The track is full of crunchy swagger, drenched in leather and neon. Its Ratatat verses and Strokes choruses make it sound as big and bold and the Vaccines’ ambitions.
Despite having only been around for five years, this is a pretty damn confident-sounding group of dudes. Don’t write off “Minimal Affection” as a grab on a recent sonic trend – as with many recently released songs, its lyrics tackle the dissonance between disaffection and desire in today’s youths (cue Liz Lemon gif). In a world seemingly bereft of ‘true affection’, maybe the only refuge left to find it is in a less-than-suitable relationship “when we don’t have a lot in common.” Most of us generally want the same things, but we’re also getting tricked into thinking we shouldn’t. The Vaccines brilliantly pair this sentiment with similarly disaffected music, cool on the surface but barely containing the bursts of fuzzy emotion that keep breaking through.
Sufjan Stevens: “Exploding Whale”
In the ongoing tradition of employing grotesque imagery, Sufjan Stevens’ tour-only song “Exploding Whale” has been leaked online. Thanks to a Reddit user, and with permission from Stevens’ label Asthmatic Kitty Records, the plinky, wandering track is now available to us all. It’s more Kid A than the offerings on his most recent record Carrie & Lowell, drawing comparisons to his previous album The Age of Adz. Its last minute goes from lightly peppered synths to full on autotune, but the whole track is supremely pretty – yet still subdued and understated, as it never fully swells as grandiosely as it could.
As with Sufjan’s other work, he manages to make art school vagueness feel frighteningly personal and intimate. It’s unfortunately commonplace these days for songs to use a gracelessly hashtagged title, but Stevens seems unironic in his plea for us to embrace his “epic fail.” Between this and the song’s title, it’s a possible allusion to Twitter’s fail whale – and, more broadly, the attention span-less social age in which we live. This is most apparent at the song’s beginning, when Stevens sings, “I’m nobody’s friend / Loneliness rides in my bed / My misfortune / Give everything you’ve got / While the sun burns hot, my addiction / Spoils my affection for everything good.”
(It’s also worth mentioning the single’s ace artwork, featuring an as-of-yet unexploded mobster whale who’s probably about to utter the word “sweetheart.”)
Turbo Suit: ‘Out Here’
At first listen, Turbo Suit‘s Out Here transports you to another place. It immediately brings you to some huge field with new and old friends while you bask in all of summer’s glory and dance the day and night away. Maybe because warmer weather is closing in, and festival fever is rampant, but with it’s grandiose infectious sound, Out Here is sure to ramp up your excitement for the coming spring and summer months.
If Turbo Suit’s creativity evokes such strong feelings from a recorded electronic album, it’s pretty much a guarantee these seven songs with translate incredibly well live.
Over the past years the funkronica trio – comprised of David Embry on production and vocals, Nicholas Gerlach on tenor saxophone and EWI, and Jeff Peterson on drums – established themselves as Cosby Sweater, with the release of four albums and an abundant amount of touring. With growing negativity towards the word “Cosby,” the band morphed out of Cosby Sweater and into Turbo Suit earlier this year.
Out Here represents this evolution and shows the trio transforming into something that is fresh, fast, and stylish. Musically, the band has brought it to the next level with their new material. So, it only makes sense to “suit up” in a new vessel that showcases the band’s evolution from Cosby Sweater to Turbo Suit.
Joining Turbo Suit on this transformative journey are Jake Cinninger, Joel Cummins and Andy Farag (Umphrey’s McGee), Natalie Cressman (Trey Anastasio Band), Joe Hettinga and Marcus Rezak (Digital Tape Machine), Zion I, ProbCause, and Rusty Redenbacher. Each special guest leaves their unique mark on Out Here. From Cressman’s soulful vocals fused with Redenbacher’s rhymes to Joel Cummin’s funky keys, to hard hitting drum and bass to dreamy saxophone, this album is a nonstop musical ride that surprises you at every turn.
Starting the album off is the sexy “Rewind pt. 1” which balances the gritty hip hop rhymes of Redenbacher with Cressman’s delicately soothing vocals over groovy beats. While this may be one of the more slower songs on the album, this track is the perfect introduction to the new Turbo Suit. “Hourglass” takes it up a notch as it starts with an upbeat hip hop vibe that slows towards the middle and gives way to a smooth jazzy saxophone. With a slow build, the inevitable drop comes with a sound reminiscent to that of Big Gigantic.
The third song and first single “Coogi Wolf” is purely Turbo Suit. Agressive, loud, groovy, filthy…however you want describe it, there’s no doubt this is one of the hardest hitting songs on the album with an absolute rager of a peak accompanied by a blazing sax. “Rewind 2” brings us back to earth with a sleek velvety pulse concluding with quirky beats. The album picks up again with “Wake Up” and feeds right into the drum and base heavy “Divine.” With a hefty hitting dubstep beat and Middle Eastern synths so tight that they could charm a snake, Turbo Suits absolutely brings it with this one.
The personal favorite and album closer is “Karate” featuring Cummins and Rezak. This track is a funky free-for-all with dreamy synths and spacey rapturous keys and makes for the perfect ending.
Embry, Gerlach, and Peterson could not have done a better job at reintroducing themselves to the music world as Turbo Suit than with Out Here. This album is passively melodic and soothing when it needs to be while also managing to be a nasty in-your-face banger. This perfect balance and the ability to create music that seamlessly translates from recorded to live is exactly what will keep drawing old and new fans to Turbo Suit.
3.5/5
The Ravenna Colt: ‘Terminal Current’
The Ravenna Colt is the side project of former My Morning Jacket guitarist Johnny Quaid, who co-founded MMJ with Jim James. He left the group in 2004 after the release of It Still Moves (taking with him the Kentucky farm they used to record on, incidentally changing their sound) and deigned to do what so many good ole boys have done: he moved west to find himself, and… became a carpenter? Yes, he went full Notebook on us.
Fortunately, he didn’t quit writing songs, and eventually had enough material to warrant moving back east to Tennessee, where twang dreams come true. As The Ravenna Colt, Quaid (nee John McQuade, but that doesn’t sound enough like the name of a Captain Planet associate, does it?) released 2010’s Slight Spell.
After that, Quaid moved again to Boise, Idaho and began working on what would become this year’s Terminal Current. This is a record full of lush, warm sounds that mimic Quaid’s own contrails – distinctly southern, but yearning to move toward America’s upper lefthand corners. Don’t get me wrong – My Morning Jacket’s influence is still heavily felt, especially in rhythmic tracks like “National Dander.”
Terminal Current is the same kind of sweetly sad, expansive western Americana that put the Jacket on the map. Yet it bears more resemblance to the more pedal steel-leaning side of contemporary roots music. This album is full of reverbed, lonesome waltzes that your favorite bar plays during closing time, much the same as Son Volt’s peanut shell-sweeping Honky Tonk.
Then again, reverb is beloved on both coasts, is it not? Songs like “Yutu” and “Absolute Contingency (Heartattack)” are the same sort of wavy, pensive beachcore tracks that Real Estate and Built To Spill deal in. Quaid sings of pioneers “With the strangest fear / And a fantastic chance / To leave behind / The filth and crime / And find somethin’ else,” and one gets the sense that he’s talking about his own life’s journey – it’s not insignificant that he left a band he helped create right before they gained enough staying power to reach indie rock’s upper echelon, only to move across the country and become a manual laborer.
Slight Spell obviously explored the emotional fallout that resulted, and Terminal Current is a continuation in some ways. The titular “Terminal Current” is the most explicit expression of the record’s loose plane theme, as its narrator slowly learns the true meaning of that adage about how you can’t go home again. But this record is also full of resolve at its author’s new direction, and sees Quaid get more comfortable in his solo shoes.
3/5
Tame Impala: “‘Cause I’m A Man”
In the second single from Tame Impala‘s upcoming record, we find band mastermind Kevin Parker imploring his ladylove that he’s really sorry for hurting her feelings – but he just can’t help it, because he’s a dude.
Okay, pause. The song as a song is sublime Impala – pleasantly sluggish psychedelic garage rock that sounds like it was recorded at the wrong RPM on a vintage tape machine. It’s great music to listen to if you’re laying out, chilling in your room, or – and I’ll say it because we’re all thinking it – doing drugs.
Appealing sonic features aside, the whole premise of the song is a bit of a turn off. It reads like a bad non-apology that excuses bad behavior – “I’m sorry for what I did, but I couldn’t help it; this weak response excuses the same bad behavior in the future. Whew!” If this were being expressed through a veil of self-aware irony, that’s different. But Parker sounds genuinely saddened by his seemingly un-reign in-able self. “I have a conscience and it’s never fooled / But it’s prone to being overruled” he pleads to his woman, claiming to possess an emotional intelligence that he simply chooses to ignore at his convenience. We know you’re better than this, Kev!
Tame Impala’s new record Currents will be released later in 2015 on their new label, Interscope.
2/5
Built To Spill: “Never Be The Same”
As the release date of Built To Spill’s latest record – their first in six years – gets ever closer, the band have given us another preview with their second single, “Never Be The Same.” This is a song that won’t be harshing anyone’s mellow anytime soon. Though the song is relatively short at just over three minutes, the repeating chords and riffs put you in an indie trance. Still, it’s a little more focused than their mathy first single, “Living Zoo”.
Loosely, “Never Be The Same” is about how the experiences we have are constantly forging us into new people, and how time is cyclical. Just your average midtempo metaphysical musings. As with the rest of their body of work, there’s a vaguely cosmic feel to the whole thing; the album’s title (Untethered Moon) and the album art featuring Caaaaats Iiiiin Spaaaaace certainly contribute.
During the band’s absence, plenty have taken up the mantle of jangle – bands like Real Estate, Surfer Blood, and Beach Fossils come to mind. This type of music is inherently appealing because it’s relaxing to listen to. It’s our generation’s soft rock, but not, you know, crappy; it’s the kind of music that will play in the hip dentist offices of the future. But Built To Spill was one of the forebands of the subgenre, and it’s nice to have a return to form once the whippersnappers take over the scene.
Courtney Barnett: ‘Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit’
Considering the considerable press Courtney Barnett has garnered in recent months, it may surprise some that she’s only just released her first album, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. Her singles and EPs have upped the anticipation ante, and have worried initial fans – myself included – about whether or not the album itself would stack up. Well worry not, because it does.
Songs like “An Illusion of Loneliness (Sleepless in New York)” and “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to The Party” are filled with 90s slacker shoegaze with the low end scooped out. They’re spiky slices of college radio-informed punk. But Barnett’s got other tricks up her sleeve, as the bluesy, circus-y waltz “Small Poppies” and sun-and-surf, Vile-borrowing “Depreston” prove. They’re self-aware, smartly arranged, likable… and very, very relatable. Barnett’s lyrics are rapid-fire and approach spoken word at times, especially on lead single “Pedestrian At Best” and the nervous post-grad anthem “Elevator Operator”. These are songs about the anxious, meta-to-a-fault search for authenticity; about existential quarter life crises, the seemingly inescapable move to suburbia, and always feeling financially behind. “We either think that we’re invincible / Or that we are invisible / Realistically, we’re somewhere in between” she drones on the dark confessional “Kim’s Caravan”. Even the album’s title expresses the sought-after fine line between excessive reflection and zen-like emptiness. This is a record about the millennials who have simultaneously had everything handed to them and everything taken away.
And who better in this day and age to explore such a theme? Barnett is a woman who shreds her left-handed guitar and makes no attempt to hide her Australian accent for the sake of marketing demos. “Debbie Downer” is a sly feminist nod to the Stop Telling Women To Smile campaign, and she casually refers to Jesus as a “she”. Barnett is the embodiment of a current generation that’s inspired a million thinkpieces, the unsmiling Broad City of indie rock. We can’t wait for album #2.
4/5
Laura Marling: ‘Short Movie’
After many grueling hours in the studio, up-and-coming artist Laura Marling may deliver the best folk Americana album this month. With every song drenched in depth, this singer-songwriter branches from her usual acoustic to much grungier electric guitar.
The album’s concept primarily lies within Marling’s exploration of herself. As a child growing up in London, she started strong in the business, even racking up a famous relationship with a Mumford brother. Marling moved to LA during her time off from the scene and searched for her soul, taking a full break from music. However, after two years, she found her way back. Short Movie, recorded in London’s Urchin Studios, marks her return.
The album features musicians Matt Ingram on drums, Ruth De Tuberville on Cello, Nick Pini on bass, Tom Fiddle, and of course Marling on guitar. All songs were written and produced by Laura herself.
The album starts off with song “Warrior,” a Bonnie Tyler/American lyric-inspired synthy western love story. She presents herself in this moody, ambient mix, reminding listeners of exactly who she is as an independent singer/songwriter.
The album only gets better with “False Hope.” Marling fans have probably played this song a thousand times from her “Short Movie Sessions” available both on her website and YouTube. The song shows off not only Laura’s lyrical abilities but also the band that helps bring her magic to life. As she sings about her life in New York, her band – even live – hits every note perfectly and provides the ideal balance with every riff and drum beat to this upbeat yet melancholy piece of genius.
The next song, which is just as brilliant, has a similar sound to the “Warrior.” Unlike “Warrior,” however, “I Feel Your Love” includes the beautiful sounds of the violin instead of synth. Touching on relationships in life, this song provides you with a continual chill as she creates an image of a caged bird yearning for freedom, regardless of the love she feels.
The album takes a turn with the song “Strange.” Instead of showing off her singing, Marling speaks straight poetry as bongos and maracas play, giving a different twist to this folk game she plays.
Tracks “Easy” and “Gurdijeff’s Daughter” have a similar taste but differ in the lyrical scenarios Marling presents. And trust me – the album only gets better – “Worship Me” is not one to be overlooked – and worship you, we do, Marling.
Although Marling has been placed in the folk-Americana-indie singer/songwriter genre, which has become overrun with many musicians these days, Marling strives for innovation through self-reflection in this album. Every song brings a different thought to the table.
5/5
Marina and the Diamonds: ‘Froot’
It’s been close to three years since the release of Marina and the Diamonds’ sophomore record Electra Heart, a polarizing concept album about female archetypes. With Diamandis’ third album, FROOT, she forgoes listening to the input from others to deliver a tight 12 song set that she co-produced with Bat For Lashes producer David Kosten. The resulting product is her most sonically cohesive effort to date and depicts the maturing songwriter’s state of mind throughout her hiatus.
Album opener “Happy” begins with a dry vocal that’s accompanied by a piano as the lyrics play off the forlorn atmosphere (Couldn’t relax, couldn’t sit back / and let the sunlight in my lap.) While the first verse doesn’t sound like the title would suggest; the stacked harmonies that come in towards the end of the second verse establish a more optimistic tone. It’s an interesting choice to start the album with since the campaign has been full of bright, neon colors; however it works as a good lead-in to the disco title track “Froot.”
Although “Happy” appears to be the most introspective track on the record based on a topical listen, “Gold” is truly the show runner from a thematic point of view. In a recent interview, she mentioned this song was written during her opening run for Coldplay. Perhaps she didn’t intend for the track to be interpreted as her internal conflict regarding how Electra Heart was initially perceived, but it certainly comes across as such with the lyrics “I’ve been waiting for the penny to drop / I’ve been working to get back what I lost / But whatever happens I’ll be okay.”
Farther along in the album is “Solitaire,” and it’s easily one of the best tracks on the album. Dissonant sonar blips set the stage for the deeper end of her range; this time slightly reverberated and filtered to appear like it’s coming from an old fashioned radio. The title itself is a play on the definition of the word “solitaire” as Diamandis juxtaposes the feeling of singularity in first verse (Don’t wanna talk anymore / I’m obsessed with silence / I go home and I lock my door / I can hear the sirens) against the uniqueness of a diamond in the chorus. The minimalist approach to the song builds to its bridge as the blips combine into cascading synth sparkles.
The second to last track “Savages” is a cliché – by her standards — musical approach to showing her disdain for how human treat one another, but she considers it to be the most important song on the album. It contains the same snarky mentality as other songs in her back catalog like “Girls” and “Hermit the Frog” with far less metaphorical imagery. The song’s saving grace is the fourth verse which concludes with “I’m not afraid of God / I’m afraid of man” after listing off the animalistic ways in which humans interact with one another.
With this record, Marina has nothing to prove to her fans and critics because they already know what she’s capable of producing. Instead, FROOT is an inside look into the alternative pop artist’s mind as she confronts her dislike for her last record and wants to strip everything back down to the essentials. As Diamandis sings in the title track “Good things come to those who wait / but I ain’t in a patient phase,” the finished product truly shows what happens when an artist is left to their own devices and achieves a true moment of self-realization.
3.75/5