From First Listen: so far, not a record to fall in love with, but a good record (as I finished, I will say the second half of this album is much better). good for fans of SY, certainly. nice and noisy guitar rock without being your usual 'indie' 70's rock ripoff. Why is everything today a 70's rock ripoff? The more I listen to the Kinks, the more invalid so many of today's (and the last 15 years) indie rock bands are. Christ, do something different. I'm bored. And leave led zepellin alone. You'll never be them. move on.
Its like punk rock. Pure punk rock, a la ramones and sex pistols, lasted for 5 minutes, and that was plenty. Everyone of the time with a clue knew that and evolved. Its called a foundation. Punk rock in its essence was and is not the skeleton, the frame. Its the foundation. People should have realized this and moved on. Siouxsie, the Cure, Joy Division, Talking Heads. Built upon punk rock, used it as the base, and that is it. Hundreds of artists realize this. Sadly, hundreds of thousands of kids don't, and start bands. pop punk, green day, go fuck yourself. Rancid, have an original idea, or get out of the way. I knew you sucked when I was 14 and you didn't even exist yet.
In an era of too much music, too many bands, and the elusive originality, one can't blame a band for wearing its influences on its sleeve. If you know music well enough, you know how hard it is to find a song that doesn't make you think of at least one or two other bands. But this doesn't mean you can lack originality, as so much of today's music does. There is still plenty of originality out there. Its called devouring what you love and translating it through your own filter. Most people can't do this, they just regurgitate. But those who truly digest can make a great sound, regardless of what you hear inside of it (yes, i'm thinking of interpol, the knife, et al). I can absolutely hear other bands in there, but i'm not just hearing a ripoff. I'm hearing something interesting.
I will say Autolux has a nice filtered sound. I'm hearing what is in there, at least my interpretation of it, but i'm not hearing ripoff. These guys should continue, keep at it, and I can see great things. And the Production is nice too. Not too polished. Could be a bit more raw, but its still nice and noisy. Good job, T-bone.
On First Listen
track 1 Turnstyle Blues 4-stars. giving this a second listen, now that I've heard the rest of the album. and i didn't really write about it. Its got a nice headnod to it. A good album opener. Nice dirge guitar and bass, good droning layers on that, that shoegazer vocal that comes up later. Great droning end. Still 4 stars.
track 2 Angry Candy - 2.5 stars, lame title, pretty boring, gets better, loves SY. Second listen. Nice dissonance, great vibrating sound in back a la Lee Ranaldo or YLT. Pretty basic vocal structure. Distorted guitars come in and stop. He's got a pretty good voice. Not overly impressed with some of the lyrics, but the song structure ain't bad. The dreaded 'doo doo da doo.' vocal filler. does have a nice fey quality to it, and it does have its moments. then it becomes a direct Sugar kane (SY) ripoff for about 20 seconds.
3. Subzero Fun - again, loves SY, bit of mbv in the vocal. nice sound. 3 stars
track 4 Sugarless - nice and noisy, poppy, still not amazing, but good. 4 stars.
track 5 Blanket - some good rock on track 5. reminds me of a huggy bear song. only mellower. poppy edge, noisy guitars, catchy hook, you can bobblehead to it. nice use of distortion too. This band should make an album that blows you away. This ain't it, but i see potential.
track 6 Great Days for the Passenger Element - is the obligatory slower track. Really enjoying the droning end, but overall, i can live without this song. 2 stars.
Nice, track 7, Robots in the Garden - get right into it. a quick 2 minute power pop, nice and simple, moves well. a bit hokey riff wise, especially the chorus, but bobblehead. nice noise. heavy drums. good rock. 4 stars. silence for the last 20 seconds? oh, churchbell like distortion leading into the next song. good touch. i approve.
track 8 Here Comes Everybody - jangly guitar with droney noise. good start. slower, unrest-y, hmmm. I like the other bands i'm hearing here. Ooop, 'sha la la,' i could live without, but its brief. I'm enjoying this track. 4 stars
track 9 Asleep at the Trigger - starts out with little kiddie piano and noise, thankfully they didn't go too long here. then, a slower thumping drum line straight outta 80's cheese poprap. And then the slow song begins, and brings to mind Cay songs from Nature Creates Freaks. A great record there. Asleep at the Trigger is a great title, I must say. The falsetto voice of the drummer is quite nice. I like the fact that if you didn't read who's in the band, you aren't sure if these guys have great falsettos of if a lady takes the helm. nice. This song is simple, pure, sweet, nice. great swelling feedback bass and guitar layers nicely. I could rest happy here. I didn't think a slower track would stand out, but this really hits nicely. 5 stars.
track 10 Plantlife - Great job using the whale sound to transition to the next sweet riff of plantlife. again i hear unrest, mbv, and a nice thumping stereolab guitarline a lo peng. Then the noise jam, again with peng and noisy yo la tengo, very autumn. lovely shoegazer vocals. this album has grown on me a lot. 4.5 stars
track 11 certainly reminiscent of Cay again, didn't really stand out too strong, but I did get a phone call too. But I don't think its going to Wow me.
reminds me of: Sonic Youth, Cay, Huggy Bear, My Bloody Valentine, Yo La Tengo, Unrest
