Shoplifting from American Apparel (Movie)

             An attempt at making a movie out of Tao Lin’s ‘?-selling’ book has finally arrived, with all of the hype it so rightly deserves. Tao has been having a fantastic year this year, getting married, writing for Thought Catalog, and now a movie. Everything has been coming together for him after so many years of living in the direst of poverty. Hopefully he spends all the money from this movie and spends it wisely on drugs, so he can videotape himself doing them via his production company MDMA Films. I think that’s known as ‘investing’. 

                Who is behind this delightful development, sure to bring warmth and good cheer among an ultra-specific group of people? Pirooz Kalayeh is the director for this, bringing together a vast network of great people.  Seeing Pirooz in the trailer, he states how he could watch Gchats all day, so you know it’ll be a riveting performance. A cartoonist and animator have been brought in to spruce up the production and give it that glossy sheen it truly needs. In case this wasn’t enough, he actually has some pretty wonderful companies working with him to provide the bizarre sorts of items no one really needs (talking tree?), but likes having. 

                Sadly, they have run into a hitch. Unbeknown-st to them, making a film costs a great deal of money. Maybe they even knew this, I’m not sure. But their Kickstarter shows off some of the progress they’ve made thus far. I guess making a film of this caliber costs roughly $37,500. Personally, I’d urge you to check out the various goodies they’ll bestow upon you for various disclosed amounts of cash. For $5,000 you get to attend the world premiere of the movie in sunny California, with the luxurious accommodations of Kalayeh’s floor. Contribute $10,000 and you get the same thing but this time the couch, so you can see it is totally worth it. 

 Sangha films (located in Long Beach) need your help to create a film celebrating the joys of stealing stuff and selling it on EBAY to survive. Personally, I’d tell them a good way of raising cash for this film might involve stealing stuff and selling it on the internet. Hey, worked for Tao.

                Tao’s book speaks to all those who’ve tried, perhaps in vain, to add something to the vast body of literature out there. New York City is expensive, and I know people who did things similar to Tao in order to survive the great city. Unlike Tao, they didn’t write, they vegetated and eventually moved to Indonesia. So I have a tremendous amount of respect for what Tao does and continues to do, despite the vast indifference most of the internet (and reality) has towards him. With this movie, that indifference is vaguely combatted, probably while wearing a neutral expression.

                Actually the movie itself appears to be a mixture of a documentary on Tao’s harrowing life from guy typing stuff on a computer to his current situation of guy typing stuff on a computer who is married. Due to the subject matter, it is an absurdist look into someone who has been called a “literary prankster” by people who know the true definition of one. Besides Tao’s work being involved, it looks into the various creative roadblocks the crew itself faces, like raising money. Perhaps part of the movie will involve them refreshing their Kickstarter page, wondering who else just contributed money.

                Pirooz stated himself to share the link with friends and family. So I’ll do that. Click here to learn more about the myriad ways of supporting a starving artist who is doing a movie about another starving artist. And the circle of life is complete.

Numbers – In My Mind All the Time 6.5

Maybe I’m reviewing this a little too late; the jerky rhythm punk might be finished by now. Despite this problem, I re-listened to this tiny album/EP and remembered why I enjoyed these guys in the first place. Eventually they even evolved onto writing full-fledged songs, but here they are clearly in the short bursts mode here.

                Even though a lot of this album sounds a bit expendable, there’s enough originality to save it. Featuring prominent in the recording are a broken sounding synthesizer and elementary drums set. The vocals are drunken and shouted. Within these self-imposed limitations, they are able to craft some surprisingly sweet pop hooks. 

                Tigerbeat6 should have decided to go down this route a little more, and branch out the way that Warp did with its rock acts. I forgive them though, since they are a much smaller label with far less clout. Probably the best tracks on here would be the ear-candy of “Anything” and the surprisingly different droning end “Feelings” which sort of signaled the longer form songs they explore on later recordings.

Jean Wilder – Nice Trash 7.5

                At first you hear just the samples. Then you hear what Andrew Caddick actually did with them. Is this chillwave? I feel like if there ever was a dictionary-defined band for chillwave, this would meet the criteria. Does it wax nostalgic using old samples? Check. Does it bring up images of laziness and the beach? Check. Is there distortion? Check.

                Obviously distortion is a soft spot of mine. Not all musicians can pull it off, but Jean Wilder does a pretty good job of making the sounds expand into the stratosphere with “Blonde Beach”. If that doesn’t scream ‘summer fun’ at you, then I’m sorry but you’re an idiot. 

                The looped samples are not all treated the same. Sometimes they are extremely obvious, but he does throw them into the digital wood chipper, like for “Blanket Mountain” where the origin remains a bit more mysterious. Other tracks show off a sense of humor, like the clipped 50s vibe of “Sparkler”.

                Finally, he shows (and this is important) good taste. Hearing the closer “Light Sleeper” made me so happy. It samples Bedhead’s “The Present” one of my all-time favorite songs. Andrew captures the mood of the original without simply repeating it.

                Nice Trash grows on you. After a few listens, you get what he was aiming for. In case you like this, well, he’s doing what all the cool kids are doing: touring Europe. He needs your help though and roughly $2900 of your dollars. Apparently flying from California to Europe costs a bunch of money. Here’s him on the surprisingly successful website “Kickstarter”.

The Morning Benders – Big Echo 6.9

                A Berkeley, California band called “The Morning Benders” gone to Brooklyn to ‘make it big. Relevance, money, fame all would come flowing to them. Big is what they start out with before the sound gets tired. 

                “Excuses” and “Promises” are like a one-two punch from a skilled boxer. For eight minutes, you’re so satisfied. You wonder whether or not they can keep up this kind of energy. The multi-part singing on “Excuses” is amazing. You’re in awe. “Promises” continues this joyful energy. Looking at the album cover, you feel like you’re at the beach with them.

                Sadly, the rest of the album gets mellow out of nowhere. I like mellow adore mellow, but this is a boring kind of mellow. Their sound appears to be treading water to some degree for the remainder of the album. While that isn’t bad, it gets a bit disappointing considering the bombastic wonder they opened up.

                Perhaps at some point they’ll work out the pacing issues. I enjoyed this album, I found the first half far more enjoyable than the second.  What I hope is on their next album they do more alternation between loud and quiet, fast and slow. If they do continue in the mellow stream, to make that relaxed songwriting more memorable.

Deerhoof – Deerhoof Vs. Evil 8.7

               Deerhoof wins against evil. It’s so clear to me, a band that’s been around since 1994 manages to put out a quality product. Actually, I’ve always been a fan of these guys, but this is probably the best stuff they’ve put out for a while. 

                I know they are a hyperactive band, but they are in happiness overdrive. Each song bristles with enthusiasm, even the darker ones. There are some positively excellent moments, those short bursts of energy I don’t find on every album, or even with every band. Deerhoof excels with this glee, creating so many memorable little moments within their sonic universe.

                For one, there are actual acoustic guitars on here, like “Behold a Marvel in the Darkness”. Granted, it does explode into drum chaos as they are wont to do. The drums hit just as hard as before, indeed, that’s one of their main draws. Satomi’s voice fits with the band better than usual, and her singing is delightful.

                Oddly, even the male vocals on here are enjoyable. Usually that had been a previous sore point with their music. Here it finds its place. “Must Fight Current” has an interesting back and forth between the two of them. Well, it isn’t quite a back and forth, they are too unconventional for that. Instead it adds a level of tenderness they often lack.

                There are so many highlights; all the pieces just come together. Each song fits in with the next. Some songs have their sweetness come out of left field. “The Merry Barracks” starts out as a discordant jam. Guitars jut out with a lazy beat. Over halfway in, it blasts off in that drum intensity they excel at and virtually invented. 

Humor’s another big part of what they do. “Hey I Can” manages to create a chorus out of Satomi tossing out “La la’s” and “fa fa’s”. Though the humor gets even sillier for “I Did Crimes for You” with handclaps and her pronouncement that “This is a stick-up” with her weird delivery.

My hope is I get to see them live again. I’ve probably seen them live more than almost any other band; they have a bizarre stage presence. The drummer is a gentle giant. She did something with these Velcro fruits during the Milkman tour. I remember thinking “Yeah baby, you can attach those Velcro fruits to me” and then wondering if perhaps I’d passed that threshold from normal to near obsessive music fanatic or if I just found her cute. 

Either way, I enjoyed this more than I expected. I hope this bring them an even bigger audience. Here’s hoping.

Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump 7.4

Grandaddy specializes in a certain, overly-dramatic emo rock. Due to that genre’s almost non-existence in polite society, that might explain why they’ve since disbanded. Nonetheless, despite the genre no longer being a viable option, this is a testament to the fact that even music I’m almost genetically programmed to dislike can have some bright spots.

Apparently the whole album works as a concept album musing over technology and its various failings. The songs refer to the coldness that technology brings us, disconnected from actual emotions. Of course, this means that occasionally things get cheesy. But most of the times they tend to avoid outright cringe inducing awfulness. Plus, starting out a pop album with a 9 minute song is fairly ambitious.

Pop is the main goal here. “Crystal Lake” is easily the catchiest, most fun song on here. While still referring to the darkness going on with the rest of the album, the playful keyboards in the background makes it a little more manageable. Jason Lytle may not be the best singer, but he seems aware of his limitations and his delivery makes the song that much better for me.

There’s some experimentation here as well. “Jed’s Other Poem (Beautiful Ground)” comes across as a surprisingly touching dirge. The broken drum only adds to the effect.

Honestly, this isn’t something you’ll always be in the mood for. But if you want to throw a pity party for yourself, it makes a surprisingly good soundtrack.

RIP Donald Glen Vliet (January 15th, 1941 – December 17th, 2010)

Captain Beefheart, probably one of my most adored musicians, passed away today from multiple sclerosis. Though I haven’t posted a review of his many albums on here, rest assured that will be amended. Trout Mask Replica is of particular importance, I think once I heard that album I listened to it solid for an entire month. 

                Besides his music, there was his attitude. How he operated was not how others operated. Some might see his weirdness as a put-on, but I think it was genuine. Growing up in the middle of nowhere and moving around can create a difficultly in relating to other people. Using art as a form of escape isn’t unusual, but he grew relatively obsessed with it.

                Rituals related to his sculpting continued strong as he created a band. Despite having no training playing a piano, he created songs on it to be translated into full-fledged songs. In case having multiple rhythms and intentionally loose playing wasn’t enough, there are the lyrics. The lyrics feel like the rants of a crazed lunatic on the street corner who used to be a Poet Laureate.

                Getting the pieces ready took forever. People had a hard time liking him. His music was one thing, but then he spread random information in order to create a myth. Members of his band stated he tried (and succeeded) in brainwashing them. He bullied the bejesus out of them, tormenting them, physically hurting them at times. Living in a house with the windows blacked out, he created his masterpiece “Trout Mask Replica”. 

                Nothing he did ever seemed understandable. It was as if he wanted to make music that could have an infinite number of responses. Delta Blues (back when rock referenced blues instead of itself), free jazz, and bits of the avant-garde came together in the most incoherent mess ever to create a career. Most of what he did escaped categorization, there’s really no way to describe the utterly bizarre nature of what he did. I’m personally shocked that people listened to this, enough of them to actually give Donald an actual career.

                After he ended his obsession with music, he went back to art. The music industry had nothing left to offer this iconoclast. Ending it in 82, he stated that he couldn’t take that world anymore. Plus, a lot of those ideas and sketches had been around in his head for some time, and he let them out. Nature and art were the only things left for him, and he quietly pursued them until his death.

                I’m going to miss this guy. One of the few weirdos who existed outside all norms, he truly was an American original, unwilling or unable to conform to some late hippie or mystical stereotype. By hiding himself in the California desert he maintained control of what other people’s perception was of him, something he could do more easily by keeping quiet than speaking.

The California Ramblers – Miss Annabelle Lee Volume 1: 6.4

If you’re looking for quality big band music, The California Ramblers got it in their bag. Less adventurous than the Washboard Rhythm Kings, these guys stick with the nuts and bolts construction of songs. Often the music gives off some long-lost jalopy music, particularly in the antiques of “Charleston” and the memorable “Miss Annabelle Lee”. 

But part of the problem with a lot of big band music is how it exists in time as a curio rather than something whose value appreciates in time. Some artists are able to see their fortune and respect increase with the passage of time, like the aforementioned Washboard Rhythm Kings or Sippie Wallace. Others, like the California Ramblers, saw themselves fit specifically into a particular period of time.

Don’t worry, though. If you’re a fan of big band music, this might help meet your fix. But even as a fan of this type of sound, a song like “Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie” sounds particularly weak. Lacking any sort of hook and mixed in with overly cutesy lyrics, it sort of fails.

The instrumentals work far better than any of the vocal material. Vocally, they couldn’t sing to save their lives. Stick with the instrumentals and you’ll be able to appreciate what they do.

Out Hud – S.T.R.E.E.T D.A.D 8.4

Really, I have no idea what this acronym stands for. Nor do these California dance rockers offer any sort of insight either. But since (!!!) came out of this, you should probably realize that it is pretty good.

I prefer this album to their second one for a few reasons. For one, the best song on “Let Us Never Speak of It again” kind of harked back to the weird fests of this one (Dear Mr. Bush, There Are over 100 Words for Shit and Only 1 for Music. Fuck You, Out Hud). Plus, this one doesn’t feel the need to win you over with coy lyrics and other cutesy effects.

Actually, Street Dad has a large amount of instability running through its vein. The song structures in this album are unsound, which is truly a delight once dealing with dance music. Most dance music focuses purely on groove, and tends to avoid these strange sidesteps.  “Dad, There's A Little Phrase Called Too Much Information”. Oh yes, that song sort of sums up their purpose. Grooves are built up only to be overwhelmed with additional blasts of over-distorted drum kicks.

Plus, there is that cello. Here they display it prominently. It adds to the groove, making it almost classical dance music, almost. “Hair Dude, You're Stepping on My Mystique” shows off some very nice cello playing, along with their aforementioned love of instability.

“The L Train Is a Swell Train and I Don’t Want to Hear You Indies Complain” is the best track on here. First, it is kind of a funny name, especially considering how the L train has become the gentrification express rather than something to be worried about. But there’s everything they are good at here: abrupt shifts, actual emotion, grooves, cello, etc. It is amazing how much inspiration they drew for this from the awkwardly named great project "Peter Gordon and the Love of Life Orchestra", right down to the length and classical influences.

I sort of wish that Out Hud continued with their project, but I know that (!!!) gained too much prominence for them to ignore that avenue. Also, many of these players ended up being in the even cooler LCD Soundsystem. Oh well, I guess we still have this to remember them by.

Lesser/Kid606 – Split 8.8

Vinyl Communications probably did the best thing possible by releasing this split. Not only does it offer a snapshot at these two artists in their prime but it also ended up being ahead of the curve on this kind of chaos-ridden glitch music.

When I first heard this, I kind of got blown away by the quality and the sheer strangeness. It is like the most digital punk stuff I’d ever heard. Lesser began the split with two long and very abstract pieces. Random fragments of drum programming, shards of noise, all filed under the most obnoxious names he could think of. I mean, “Produced by Giorgio Moroder” for an abstract and repetitious noise track? Yeah, I think that disco purveyor really had something to do with this.

Years later, upon finding this little CD in one of my spindles, I decided to give it another listen, to see if it held up against the test of time. Listening to it now, I realize that is very much a yes. For both of the artists involved, this is probably some of my favorite material from either of them.

Lesser’s side stands up well, the “Speed for Gavin (AMF Cover)” being one of the weirdest things, mixing up industrial with ridiculous little samples. Example: “You sell fish here” and “Blessing some guy from San Diego”. There’s happier moments from Lesser as well, like “From-Ace Baby! To-Dad” and the surreal carnival of “Kid Tested, Mother Approved”. Jason Doerck sort of mixes together the high and low culture (drum machines and abstract noise) into some weird mix.

Kid606’s side is excellent. This is coming from his more abstract phase in his music before he took the lazy route of imitation dance music. Around this time he had “Down with the Scene” out and figured his life would be better off if he dropped out of school. Oddly, it was. Miguel includes some bizarre, distorted melodies like in “Hunting for Affection” and the demented ho-down of “Catch a Lucky Star”.  It was this release that even got me into a lot of other Tigerbeat6 stuff, before it descended down to just another boutique record label.

Overall, I’m pleasantly surprised that after revisiting this album over a decade later, it still works. This is an approach most electronic artists have failed to take. And why they haven’t is probably the million dollar question for me.

No Age – Everything in Between 8.6

No Age

Like all No Age releases, this one grew on me. The immediate difference was how the songs felt fuller, both in terms of recording quality and it terms of more conventional structure.  Add that to the length of the album (almost 40 minutes, a record for them) and the word “maturity” comes to mind.

Yes, they have finally reached the next logical step in their evolution. But simply growing older and a bit wiser doesn’t mean that they’ve given up their energy. Rather, this energy is directed in new and exciting ways. “Valley Hump Crush” combines the joys of old No Age with the new focus. It has the same catchiness but there’s even more heart than before. “I don’t want to go to bed/The Sun’s still shining in my head” gives you some idea of the blissed out California world these two still inhabit. But the ideas are better fleshed out than before. Even the chaotic pace of “Fever Dreaming” can’t disguise the fact that they’ve worked harder on this without losing the energy that made them so likable in the first place.

Initially, I worried about this new approach upon first hearing it. For one, the reverb and effects are gone, making it sound more direct. Muscle like that found on “Life Prowler” allows you to actually respect the fact that they could tear down that wall. Also I wondered whether having so much thought behind the emotion would let it succeed on that visceral level. Thankfully, I was wrong after giving it a few more listens. So give this one a bit more tries than their previous work, it does take some getting used to. But ultimately, it is a very enjoyable work. Even the pacing of the ambient interludes works well, with most of them helping to mellow out the latter half of the album, with the album front-loaded with intensity.

Lamborghini Crystal – Alien Microwave 8.3

Here’s probably a perfect place to start for all the Skaters/Clark Spencer/James Ferraro type things. This particular album is rather easy to understand and doesn’t involve the epic track lengths and ambient/new age atmospherics that he usually employs. Only “Goro Kralth” does this on the entire album, and it does it quite well, so it doesn’t drag down the album.

It is called “Hypnagogic Pop” for a reason. Pop can be found with relative ease on here, complete with actual beats and almost melodies. James usually doesn’t work with stuff that’s so immediately catchy, like “Midway Video” or “Alien in Hollywood”, the latter of which possesses some extraterrestrial chorus.

Vocals are even found on here, making it even more lovable work than usual. The “Alien Microwave” pieces seem to be noise interludes between the more conventional material, the word conventional being used very loosely.

James is famous for stating that he doesn’t use samples in his compositions. Everything on here is played by him, making the casual listener worried about James’ mental well being. But don’t fret. He works best in this sort of medium, and this is definitely one of his better recordings. And I know I tend to be a bit of a cheerleader for this guy, but it is rare for someone with a discography of his size to be involved in so many high-quality projects.