The Wrens – Secaucus 9.0

                Right from the beginning, you’re hooked. I enjoy it when I hear the first song and get the impression everything else is going to be just as good. Though I have a definite bias towards more experimental music, I also love a good pop album. “Secaucus” a name belying The Wren’s New Jersey roots, is just that: a fantastically good album with no fat whatsoever.

                Take a look at the track list. 19 songs might seem like a lot of songs, but they come at you at a blisteringly fast pace. Each song stays at exactly the amount of time you’d want. It’s like they know what you want before you know it. As soon as you feel overwhelmed by the sheer tempo of the songs, they throw in a quieter, laid-back track such as “Jane Fakes a Hug”. Sure, I talk lot about pacing, but not every band pulls it off well. The Wrens are a quartet who understands this important skill.

                “Yellow Number Three” introduces you to the album in the best way possible. Comparisons to the Arches of Loaf are inevitable, especially regarding the vocal delivery. However, The Wrens maintain a higher quality product than those College Radio darlings. Constantly I heard songs where I longed for the 90s all over again. Songs like “Surprise, Honeycomb” and “Joneses Rules of Sport” made me wish these guys had more money and success. Quality is consistent all the way to the very end of the album with “I married Sonja” building up nicely into a chorus which I’d hug if it was a person. Even at the last song “It’s Not Getting Any Good” they manage to have this interesting guitar work with literate lyrics.

                Overall, as I read about them, I’m a bit saddened. Apparently their label Grass Records decided to drop them for the appalling awful Creed. The Wren doesn’t have anywhere as big of a discography as you’d expect for a band founded in 1989. However, we’re just entered a new decade, and that means another release called “Funeral” slated for this year 2011. If it is anywhere as good as this, I might have my album of the year.

Grand Duchy – Petits Four 5.3

                Ouch, it pains me to say this: Frank Black just isn’t the same. Most of this album does nothing but recycle the same ideas he’s been pursuing since the Pixies broke up. Parts of this vary in terms of originality and execution but generally speaking it shows the gradual decline he’s been following for the past decade and a half. 

                It is bits of a relief to have his wife (Violet Clark) add something to the proceedings. Her voice at least provides some interesting variation on this theme. With the lyrics the way they are, it is a hopeless task to bother focusing on them. Each time they try to sound cool or hip it’s like your Dad convincing you he can still rock out as he plays “Margaritaville”. All of it feels so hopelessly out of it, it is almost made for background bar music, the guitars, etc.

                Even the songs sound like variations on old themes: “Lovesick” sounds suspiciously like “Bohemian Like You” from the Dandy Warhols. Later in the album the synthesizer becomes more prevalent and failing to fit into the rock songs.

                What reminds you of how good he used to be is the song “Fort Wayne”. Here he hits his mark, it sounds really sweet. Sadly, this is the only hint that perhaps there’s still some creativity left for him. Taken as a whole though, the album is a disappointment even excluding Frank Black’s illustrious career, judging him against his rock contemporaries.

Playlist for the Air Force

This is for perhaps one of my favorite people. Long before I became an unprofessional blogger, I wrote little short stories.  She approved of them, thought they were funny. For various reasons I won’t be posting those up on here, I just wanted you to get a sense of how much I truly care about this person.

                When it was my birthday, I got the least amount of hits ever for my blog. Upon that realization, I understood that I live in the real world. What this person did, this Air Force, she sent me an entire box of goodies for me to open. Now I just received it and can sleep easier as a result.

                We’ve been friends for years. What this playlist does is introduce her to a little bit of who I am and a little bit of who she is. The intention with this one is to bring both of our interests closer together. Also, this is partial repayment for the package you sent to me.

                As I have done for the more recent mixes, this one will be kept short and sweet. Hopefully you’ll be able to enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed putting it together. 

1.       The Kinks – Afternoon Tea

Everything should start with the Kinks: weeks, drinking sessions, karaoke. The Kinks are the band that did no wrong. Plus, they are the most British thing I can think of.

2.       Modest Mouse – Doin’ the Cockroach

“Doin’ the Cockroach” introduced me to Modest Mouse. “Lonesome Crowded West” sounds American, Western to me. Since I grew up in the East I wonder whether or not that affected what I listen to, what I enjoy. This is a blast of a track.

3.       Meat Puppets – What to do

I like the low-key attitude of this song. Every MIX CD needs a flippant track, so here’s mine. 

4.       Wire – 106 Beats That

AF enjoys a type of music which leads me to believe she’d enjoy this as well. Hopefully she does, it’s a classic.

5.       Magnetic Fields – Papa was a Rodeo

Magnetic Fields released 69 Love Songs, and this one is easily my favorite. The relaxed atmosphere (obviously I’m a down tempo kind of guy) is perfect. 

6.       Tuxedomoon – New Machine

Actually, I lived off this band for a while in college. Years after the fact, this song inspires me like it is some kind of half-remembered Saturday morning cartoon. 

7.       Marine Girls – Second Light

This is twee cutesy music done right. 

8.       Yann Tiersen – Dust Lane

Triumph over adversity and geography. I wish geography didn’t stifle my dreams the way it does.

9.       Deerhoof – Secret Mobilization

Deerhoof are great. As soon as they get really sweet and caring, they explode. Just like people living, loving, and exploding. 

10.   Low – La La Song

She likes these guys. Clearly she has good taste paying attention to one of the most overlooked American band. 

11.   Xiu Xiu – Blacks

Few bands capture what a nervous breakdown sounds like better than Xiu Xiu. 

12.   Women – Venice Lockjaw

I liked their album a lot. By having more people listen to them, I hope the positive experience of listening will convince them to come back together.

13.   Pavement – She Believes

She believes in me!

14.   Washboard Rhythm Kings – Just Another Dream of You

Aw, this song says everything I’m too shy to say. 

15.   Tim Buckley – Anonymous Proposition

I’m glad I care about someone enough to put this on a MIX CD. One of the most romantic songs I’ve ever heard in my whole life.

Altogether you have 55 minutes of sweet stuff. PS: I’ll send a MIX CD to this special someone, who might just be you (contact for further details!).

Like the Air Force, she protects me from the gray skies.

Is OK CUPID LETTERS THAT NEVER GOT RESPONSES marking the line between getting vulnerable and too much information?

He's a winner, I can feel it

Jake Elliot Roren embraces the prevailing attitude of sharing more. With his website “OkCupidLetters.com” he takes this to a logical place: online dating. Here, his vulnerable impulses take hold. You thought Carles from Hipster Runoff was “getting vulnerable with you”? Forget that well-adjusted put-on artist, this guy wears his heart on his sleeve; he might have been the original prototype for the Emo kid. Maybe that should be his next tattoo. Maybe it already is. 

                The site consists exclusively of messages that he sent to girls on OKCUPID and never received responses. Each message offers the reader a look into the dark, twisted and admittedly alternative soul. He’s 36 now, so he’s honed this vulnerability to an absolute art form.

                Now this would be unfair if he just showed us their responses, and stated “Wow, how could they not go for that.” Instead, he never received one, allowing the reader to make their own judgment on his wise or faltering attempts at online flirtation. Obviously his goal is to show off how shallow and superficial online dating is, but I don’t necessarily take his cynical point of view. Dating over the internet has just begun and it needs some time one can discount it.

                Having said that, OKCUPID does have a certain reputation for how it treats users. One of its famous messages was sent to the most attractive users on its site. Here I have the actual wording of that very post:

We are very pleased to report that you are in the top half of OkCupid’s most attractive users. The scales recently tipped in your favor, and we thought you’d like to know.
How can we say this with confidence? We’ve tracked click-thrus on your photo and analyzed other people’s reactions to you in QuickMatch and Quiver.
Your new elite status comes with one important privilege: You will now see more attractive people in your match results.
This new status won’t affect your actual match percentages, which are still based purely on your answers and desired match’s answers. But the people we recommend will be more attractive. Also! You’ll be shown to more attractive people in their match results.
Suddenly, the world is your oyster. Login now and reap the rewards. And, no, we didn’t just send this email to everyone on OkCupid. Go ask an ugly friend and see.

                Now, oddly Jake hasn’t yet written about this (yet). His site does appear to be updated fairly infrequently. But any dating site that sends such things to its users plays a cruel game, akin to Lacrosse, easily one of the meanest games ever. Those users who failed to receive this message, I’m sorry but random dating site algorithms thought you were unattractive.

                His modus operandi appears to be as a twee sort of adult. The one casually name-dropping bands and having more energy than he knows what to do with, hence all those messages he sent out. If you saw this guy in any record store, anywhere, he’d be the guy you’d tell what band you liked and he’d spit out an answer for what you’d like. And he’d be right; you’d adore him for it. He is a human, living breathing version of your last.fm account. 

                The online world isn’t as nice. His site seems to acknowledge this, though perhaps being rejected isn’t always a bad thing. I’ve known friends who kept job rejection letters and later looked at them and laughed. Maybe his site does a little of that too. When he’s met that certain someone and together they can bask in the glow of their computer monitor, reading and laughing at each post. Seeing his explanation for why he sent each and every message. How each analysis brought him a little closer to emotional nirvana? Perhaps they might even share some of that wisdom with their first child, Galaxie 500’s album “This is Our Music”. Then their next child “Slanted and Enchanted” can also appreciate his father’s bizarre sense of humor.

                But I digress. I enjoy the website a lot. I want Jake to continue with it, with all his trials and tribulations on the alternative dating site OKCUPID. His evisceration of the Ice Breaker feature is great, sometimes it just gives you random things you both like, such as “Carpets”.

 Live free and prosper Crazy Pablo.