New Music Week Of July 13th, 2009: Disappointments Abound
Exasperated – Dallas Austin
Yellow Light – Twisla
The last time I saw Austin he was DJing for TLC at MSG on TLC’s mildly disappointing “Fanmail” tour (A young Christina Aguilara blew em off stage). But off the stage he has had a productive life producing and now he pulls back the curtain and reveals a…. DJ. On the first single off The Dallas Austin Experience Experience album “8Dazeaweakened”, “Exasperated,” he struggles with forming a song and loses though it is not disastrous but “Hot Girls In The Bathroom” lives up to its name and the rapping settles into the synth swishes and finally only the title mantra and the drum machines matter. Single Of The Week. Twista is a one trick pony, he raps very very quickly -even in the Guinness Book Of Records and guess what? He has slowed down and it’s like a closer losing five miles off his fastball. “Yellow Light” is alright I guess. R. Kelly adds very little.
You’re Going Down – Sick Puppies
Periodically Double or Triple – Yo La Tengo
We Used to Be Friends – The Dandy Warhols
Yo La Tengo are responsible for a couple of my favorite albums, “Fakebook” and seven years later their masterpiece “I Can Hear The Heart Beat As One”. The rest of their oevre not so much -songs here and songs there but any time they get into obstreperous sonic land I zone out. The new single off the upcoming “Popular Songs” should be right up my alley, a Booker Tish organ augments a white dance groove just waiting for Go Go Dancers and Tony Randall and Jack Klugman fugging in a night club in a 60s New York City. And it is pretty good but also not very thrilling. It is much better then perennial little brothers the Dandy Warhols -their problem being they are perennial, etcs to the Brian Jonestown Massacre: they both do masses of blow but the warhol’s cut theirs with talcumn powder. It’s high pitched and it’s boney and needs a veggieburger. And it is much, much better than the Sick Puppies who sound like Bush and God knows why.
California Song – Brooke White
You Don’t Belong – Daughtry
I’ve got nothing against nothing: don’t matter to me if rock singers get their start on American Idol or pop singers either (and definitely not country singers) BUT Daughtry is just the absolute pits: he looks like Moby, sings like Gavin Rossdale and has worse songs than Silverchair. Here is Brooke White’s problem in a nutshell (help im in a nutshell): her songs are pleasant but dumb, “Radio, Radio” is a strong little pop song but bland beyond belief and “California Song”… Ok, we got it, we got it, you like laid back LA in the 70s but a keyb vibe don’t make you Carole King and a Joni shout out don’t make you a lady of the canyon.
Cheerleader – Grizzly Bear
1901 – Phoenix
Surfin’ Away – Vivian Girls
The downside of itunes, of buying just a couple of songs at a time off an album, is that if you are in the wrong mood or pickup the wrong songs, you dismiss a band you might have liked if you’d purchased the entire album. To put it bluntly, you have less invested in $2.00 than in $14.00. “Cheerleader” is OK but their three songs on daytrotter.com are awesome and free and is where all our problens with their tweeness (Brian Wilson: yeah, sure) is purified in the live harmonies. I thought Phoenix were awful on SNL this season but looking at it again after the edgitators stamp of approval I guess they aint the worst thing i’ve ever seen and after ten years of hard work they deserve their good fortune. Here it is:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/66321/saturday-night-live-phoenix-1901
And he said “Pretentious, moi?” Vivian Girls are pretty good in an arty kinda way, remind me a bit of Sleater-Kinney. I’ll have more to say after the Whitney gig next week.
Vivire Para Ti – Los Amigos Invisbles
The thing about living in NYC is you get so much Latin American music it starts to grab a hold of you and if I spoke Spanish I have no doubt I would be a big, big time fan. This Venezulan dance hybrid were at summerstage last week and I missed them. More fool me. The keybs and bass carries the dance track all the way through.
