Towards the end of the song “Red”, the Units‘ singer attempts to convince you that “I will try to take the questions out of my eyes, I try to not be so quiet and serious all the time,” and you know it’s a promise he would have a hard time keeping. Today’s topic of 24 Days of American Music My Dad Has Never Heard Of, the Units from San Francisco, were nothing if not unflinchingly strange, and conformity has not their natural mode of expression. As part of a small scene of similarly minded first-wave synthpunks who preferred synthesizers to guitars, including fellow San Franciscans The Screamers, they emerged in 1978 as a strangely malformed infant, with plenty of endearing qualities, including an uncanny ear for pop, that could not be obscured no matter how hard they tried. Later in their career The Units even cultivated that aspect of their personality (check out “A Girl Like You” below), but as is often the case, they were best when the pop was tempered with other, more disquieting tendencies. I got to know them through the great career retrospective “The History of the Units”, released by Community Library (thank you!), which covers most of their output. Beware, you may find yourself listening over and over to these tracks, trying to decipher why the Units are not part of the American musical canon, and wondering why their output is so sparse. On the other hand, the tracks this strange mutant did manage to pass down to us are so inventive, diverse and down-right fun, that they often feels like all this little Unit will ever need. I’ve included a few choice cuts below. Highly, highly recommended, for those reluctant to take the questions out of their eyes.
Despite what you might think from looking at the picture above, Cheap Girls are pure rock ‘n’ roll. They are from Lansing, Michigan, and the latest topic for 24 Days Of American Music My Dad Has Never Heard Of. They are punk not in clothing or musical style, but in spirit, and their live show will rip your face off, as they did to me when I saw them at the Middle East in Boston. They write songs about being young and disenchanted, and the means we use to escape disenchantment, like sex or booze or kidding ourselves. They play their instruments as if they had started playing together in the womb, steadily building a mutual understanding, but never trying too hard, never making it boring. Singer Ian Graham has a voice like a tipsy angel, and makes us care about every word. Of course, this template has been followed by about a million other three-minute-heroes before them, which may make Cheap Girls an unlikely hype-contender, but they probably don’t care about hype anyway, so that’s okay. They have recently signed a deal with Rise Records, for their next album, which will come out in the Spring, but in the meantime you should listen to both their first two albums, My Roaring 20s and Find Me A Drink Back Home, and help me decide which one is the better. You can listen to both albums for free right here, and also buy them on vinyl. I have also posted one of their best songs below.
On this installment of 24 Days Of American Music My Dad Has Never Heard Of, we visit Dallax, TX, to discuss awesomely named band Tripping Daisy. They were active in the 90s, fronted by Tim DeLaughter, who started a new band called The Polyphonic Spree in 2000, following the tragic death of Tripping Daisy-guitarist Wes Berggren. Polyphonic Spree became well-known for having lots of band members, that were all wearing robes, and musically I think they occupy a cosmic soft-rock territory similar to that of latter-day Flaming Lips. Perhaps because of that association, and also because of their weird covers (see above) and titles (above and Jesus Hits Like The Atomic Bomb), I always expected Tripping Daisy to be trippy noise-rock, similar to the early records of that other band. But although Tripping Daisy has elements of that, I realize now that it is actually grunge (! – first album came out in 1994, duh), with big guitars, big drums, and straight-up soloing at times. But the band also has both the inclination and the ability to produce true pop gems, like Sonic Bloom, a four-minute masterpiece that Wayne Coyne and Brian Wilson both wish they had written. Both of the albums I’ve heard are littered with such little perfections, sometimes within another song. They basically just try a lot of very different stuff, both most of it works, so unless you have an aversion to grunge (and why would you, grunge is awesome and having a revival right now), or don’t like music that sticks in a lot of directions, you should give Tripping Daisy a try. Listen below.
Today on 24 Days Of American Music My Dad Has Never Heard Of, we will continue the pattern we have established with oldies on odd days, and newcomers on even. Today’s topic is Death Grips from Sacramento, CA, a hip-hop project involving Zach Hill, better known for his noise-rock project Hella. He has a few unnamed collaborators here, and judging by the music they are seriously crazy (and talented). Forget any ideas you may have about half-assed rock-guy-decides-to-dabble-in-hip-hop projects, this is intense and brilliantly executed music that is not for the faint of heart. Many of the tracks on their lone release, the Exmilitary mixtape, feels like a steel-toed boot kicking all your soft spots at once. The beats are loud and dissonant, definitively showing a noise-rock influence, the MC screams at the top of his lungs on every track, and the lyrical subject matter is uniformly ugly. But I also detect a wry sense of humor running through the project, and when they sample stables like Link Wray’s “Rumble”, Black Flag’s “Rise Above”, or The Castaways’ “Liar Liar”, the latter two in the same song, it almost seems like the group is breaking character, betraying the “angry hip hop” ethos they display upfront. These little cracks in the armor, regardless of how they were intended, to me only serve to make the whole package more interesting. Very excited to see what happens next with these guys. Exmilitary is available for legal download here, on vinyl here, or you can download the elements of each track here, and make your own remixes (very cool). There’s also a few tracks from the album below, including the Charles Manson-sampling opening track (yep, they did that).
Okay, so I fell a little behind with 24 Days of American Music My Dad Has Never Heard Of. More than a little. But who’s really surprised? Not me, and if you want things on time you could start paying me. That would be an idea. But let’s quickly continue with Naked Raygun, a 1980′s punk band from Chicago. In Our Band Could Your Life (if you haven’t read that book, stop reading my blog, that means you too dad), the story is told of how the great Steve Albini was such a huge fan of the band, that he requited two of the band members to play with him in the band he was starting (Big Black could easily be on this list, but I think my dad knows about them). Naked Raygun apparently had a pretty large following (at least in the Chicago area) back then, which is not hard to understand. Their lyrics often have a menacing edge, which is amplified by the singer, but they make you want to scream along at the top of your lungs, nonetheless. Imagine a less artsy, more high-energy version of the Pixies, especially the way they sounded on Surfer Rosa (probably not a coincidence since that album was produced by Albini). Put simply, I just think Naked Raygun strike a perfect balance between all of their elements, attack and anthem, menace and melody, grime and (g)riffs! And did I mention the freakin’ riffs? Below, you can listen to “Home of the Brave” from All Rise (1986) and “The Mule” from Jettison (1988). Those are the first albums you should get, I think. Rock on.
For the second installment of 24 Days Of American Music My Dad Has Never Heard Of, we take a look at Olympia, WA’s Milk Music. They are a part of a recent wave of bands from the Northwest, that rivals the grunge-boom of the early nineties, at least when judged on the quality of the music. Recently, Pitchfork joined the party, and with the reissue of their originally self-released debut EP Beyond Living on great Olympia label Perennial Records (which seemed like their spiritual home all along), Milk Music seems poised to take over the world. Although inspired by many of the same bands that inspired grunge, heroes like Dinosaur Jr. and The Replacements comes to mind, Milk Music have a seriousness and honesty about their music that makes them move beyond mere reference. In a recent interview, guitarist Alex Coxen said that Milk Music songs are about “What’s inside my life. What’s happening. Life music. I guess it’s spiritual. No politics” and later, “There’s a big lack of sincerity in music now and we’re fighting that.” Big statements, but they are backed up by the music to such an extent that Milk Music is arguably the most exciting American band at the moment. I highly recommend that you buy Beyond Living and listen for yourself. Below you can hear a set Milk Music played for Brian Turner’s Show on WFMU radio.
This post will kick off a new installment on my blog, called “24 Days Of American Music My Dad Has Never Heard Of” (24DOAMMDHNHO). Every day of December I will post a new American band or solo artist my dad has never heard of, with a brief description, and a song or two. Now, maybe someone is thinking this is an easy task, because they could just mention all of their favorite bands, and their parents would have never heard of them, but I am lucky enough that my dad is actually pretty well versed in music, and introduced me to such great American music as The Flaming Lips, The Rolling Stones, and The Band, and many others. So as you can probably imagine, this is both a tribute to him, and a challenge to myself to write some more on this thing. Either way, it is already December 2nd, so before I get any further behind, let’s go:
Dead Moon. I just got to know them due to recent reissues of their three first studio albums on the great Mississippi Records. Dead Moon were a trio from Portland, that apparently were active from 1987 until 2006, although the latest of the records I have heard with them is from 1990. They play disjointed, desperate garage-rock, that sounds like they mean it. The vocals from front man Fred Cole are awesomely fucked-up, with his wife, Toody, sometimes adding a bit of female sensibility to the mix, with great effect. The music nicely straddles punk, country and garage-rock, with the most common denominator being that you can’t stop listening. Or smiling – desperately. Here’s the title track from their first album Graveyard.
If the answer is yes, you better keep reading. Sean McCann has released a string of albums and cassettes in a very short period, many of which are excellent, but his recent album The Capital is easily his best work yet. It is also among the best albums of the cosmic-synth explosion that has happened in recent years, which also includes excellent people like Emeralds and Oneohtrix Point Never (here’s a blog post about Emeralds). What makes The Capital so good? Well for one, the album completely refutes the sometimes truthful criticism levelled by cosmic non-believers that the music is monotonous. This album is filled to the brim with action! Many of the pieces are relatively short, and even on the longer ones there’s constantly something going on. Also, the music is incredibly varied, and manages to be both playful and foreboding, both light and heavy, both intense and soothing, and often several of those things at the same time. McCann mixes electric and organic sounds in a seamless and exciting way reminiscent of Bjork’s best work, although with an entirely different approach. The album is almost entirely instrumental, but never becomes distant the way instrumental music something does for me. This is an incredibly album, an adventure waiting to be had, and if you are new to this type of music, I would say it’s a brilliant place to start. The album is out on Aguirre Records (think that name is an accident?) and can be purchased here. Excerpt of “Aerial Sapphire Show” from the album is below.
I first heard about EMA when a track of hers, Mouth Like the Sun, was featured on the excellent “Cola Heavy Nights” mixtape that can be downloaded from the the website of the Night People record label. Night People have, in my opinion, had an absolutely stellar 2010, and I immediately realized that I had to familiarize myself with several of the artists featured on the mixtape. The final track by EMA, however, did not have me fully convinced. On the one hand it seemed incredibly loose, unhinged and almost amateurish, but on the other hand it did have some mystical appeal, hinting at a potential for more. With The Grey Ship, posted by Pitchfork a few days ago, that potential has been realized. The song shares more than just a title with Brian Eno, but is also very unique and personal. And absolutely excellent. Pitchfork reports that EMA (or Erika M. Anderson) was previously in drone-folk trio Gowns (whom I have never heard of) and that she has a record coming out on Souterrain Transmissions. I will be checking out both of these projects. Here are both of the tracks, do you agree that The Grey Ship is superior to Mouth Like the Sun?
After listening to Gowns for a while now I have to say that they are pretty awesome as well. Somewhat different from EMA, a lot slower, although you can definitively recognize the voice. Drony, electronic folk, and all of the songs seem to be about drugs, one way or another. This discovery highlights the conceit of me talking about a potential being fulfilled; Ms. Anderson’s obviously been fulfilling potential for a while, at least since 2007 according to this rather gushing pitchfork review of the Gowns album. I also wanted to link to her blog, where you can look under Addendum for her funny take on what The Grey Ship is about. With that out of the way, here’s a standout from the Gowns album:
I thought I had raved about Rainbow Arabia at some point on this blog, but that turns out not to be the case, and the oversight must be rectified immediately. They are a band from Los Angeles that combine electronic dance beats with influences from middle eastern and other world music. Yeah yeah, I can see you cringing out there, and while this is undoubtedly a way too hip move, it does not necessarily mean that the music is no good. Fortunately, the music is good, very good in fact; reminiscent of Gang Gang Dance, but with an ability to get your body moving comparable to M.I.A’s most infectious tracks. They’ve put out a couple of EPs and seven inches so far, but February 28th will see an LP come out on renowned German minimal techno label Kompakt, who, on a side note, provided me with the title of this post. This could turn out to be excellent. In the meantime, by way of introduction, here’s a mixtape they made for Dummy, as well as the video for one of their best tracks:
