BoogMusic

Blueblood by The Croup

At long last The Croup have released a follow up to 2004 self-titled debut. I hesitate to say it was worth the wait for fear that we won’t see a third album until 2018. Jason Gambrell and Casey Brandt, the only permanent members of what would best be described as a studio project, have departed from what some might consider the enjoyable anti-folk simplicity of their debut for I would describe as a lo-fi Brian Wilson-esque suite (Gambrell and Brandt are joined brilliantly by Jason Holt on bass and Dave Van Epp on guitar). I will say that this album is excellent; certainly the best album I’ve heard this year and probably my favorite release since the xx debut in 2009. In some ways this is an apt comparison- both are sparse synth-based pop, however where the xx write lyrics steeped in adolescent desire hinting at obsession The Croup can’t help but write wry lyrics more akin to Rollins than Soft Cell.

Split into 3 parts, each part of the album can be broken down further:
Part I – Intro / Move On / Puppet Train / Happy Guy / Nothing
Part II – Parenthesis / Black Box / Hate You More / Shoot it Over
Part III – What I Believe / The Sun / Growing Old / Brown / Together in the End

While some might chafe at the notion of not being able to scan directly to a specific track, the album is short enough to enjoy straight through. So get to it; there is no weak part throughout the entire album. If I have any complaint it is that I wish they would have utilized Dave Van Epp’s guitar more; the two solos he does lay down shred and are really fun to listen to- why hold back on rippin’ solos? Listen and enjoy. Here’s “Together in the End”, the closing piece from the album:

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Today marks the long-awaited release for Fleet Foxes second album Helplessness Blues, as well as the beginning of a tour that will last almost uninterrupted through August and take them across North America and Europe.  Although I’m not generally a huge fan of their sort of wide-eyed enthusiasm there is certainly something catchy about their melodies, and only a fool would deny the care they put into crafting their harmonies.  While Brian Wilson and Crosby, Stills and Nash are often invoked when describing, I find their sound akin to Sufjan Stevens and the Polyphonic Spree (in that I think their music can sound like it was written in cult compound), not to mention My Morning Jacket:

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I also find something Prog-y in their harmony constructions, similar to what we hear in the Your Move section of “I See All Good People”:

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That one might be a stretch, but regardless of their cult sound tendencies or perhaps sounding (and even looking) like MMJ’s little brother, the songs on Helplessness Blues are essentially sentimental.  The obvious care taken in arranging, as well as the vaguely stilted language in which the lyrics are written only lend more value to the Simon-&-Garfunkel-esque earnestness and sincerity of the songs and general likability of the effort (it also makes them sound alittle like they were written by an adolescent trying really hard to impress a girl he likes, which is also very sweet).  For all the press they’ve gotten regarding their mature sound, Fleet Foxes are really writing love hymns for young people who may or may not have ever lived with their significant other; indeed I imagine this album will become the soundtrack to the coital rustlings of many a summer tryst, of love’s first bloom.  And they said they weren’t hippies…

Of course, I’m already sick of the song “Helplessness Blues” and dread the long future I foresee in which I encounter this song on countless movie soundtracks and Volkswagen commercials.

In 2004 The Croup, a studio project conceived by Jason Gambrell and Casey Brandt, released its self-titled debut album.  Described on CDBABY as “Bluegrass with… post-punk sensibilities”, The Croup is an album as sweet as it is hornery, as concise and coherent as it’s bleary-eyed and rambling: it’s as if the band went into the studio with a lot of enthusiasm only to find it sweaty with only room temperature Grolsch to take the edge off.  That might not actually be very far from the truth- most if not all of this album was recorded in the bedroom that was converted into a studio in Casey Brandt’s Brooklyn apartment in the middle of summer with the AC off for noise purposes.  Not that the album suffers for it; rather, instead of crashing into the alcohol-fueled chaos of early Replacements albums, The Croup growls quietly (“Coney Island”), snarls a curse (“Debilitate”), then apologizes with a sweetness so subtle it’s both surprising and sublime (“Rock and Roll”, “In This Hole”).

That was in 2004.  Since then, both Jason Gambrell and Casey Brandt have moved onto other musical projects, and indeed, Brandt has since moved to Maryland.  Before moving, however, Brandt and Gambrell were able to write and record at least ten tracks for a second album, more akin to Brian Eno than early Wilco.  Ambitious as this follow up effort may be, in this age of ftp sites, Skype, and MySpace pages I see no reason why we can’t expect to see a second Croup album sometime in the near future.

At this point I should mention that I am friends with both Jason and Casey and have made music with both Jason and Casey: I hate to use this blog to shame, but as both your friend and your former colleague, for god sakes finish the second Croup album!  It’s been six years now, don’t let this turn into your Chinese Democracy. I shame because I love.

Here is the video for Coney Island off the first album, released about three weeks ago.

Today Devo releases Something For Everybody, their ninth studio album and first in twenty years.  While it probably won’t go down as their strongest effort, Something shows Devo hasn’t really lost anything in the last twenty years (they have reunited in the past decade for a number of gigs and to sue McDonald’s; the “New Wave Nigel” character featured in Happy Meals was apparently a misappropriation of trademarked elements of the band’s look).  Opening with”Fresh”, Somebody is full of songs we have always expected from Devo: frantic pop songs wryly celebrating society’s unabated journey down the toilet.  The highlight of the first half of the album is “Don’t Shoot (I’m A Man)”, which features the best use of the phrase “don’t taze me, bro” outside of Gainsville, Fla.  It was released with this Target-Ad-esque video last April:

The Album has been available for stream on ColbertNation.com for a few days- Gerald Casale, speaking Kai Ryssdal on Market Place, said this about the band’s publicity strategy:

Ryssdal: So here’s where I do the “wait a minute” thing, because you guys now on this album have sort of gone that way — you’re using focus groups, you’re letting the audience pick the tracks that are going to be on the actual CD. I mean, you’re buying into it. A clever marketing ploy, probably, but I mean, you are doing it?

Casale: Well, it’s partly satirical, but it’s also having your cake and eating it too. Because we decided, what’s the one thing that Devo never did — which was play ball. We don’t exclude ourselves from the de-evolution process… That is definitely the culture we all live in. I mean, look what’s happened — the implosion of the music business in general, the functions of labels are almost gone, people have devalued music in terms of its cultural important and they feel they shouldn’t even have to pay for it. And with all the home-recording techniques, everybody puts out CDs and everybody thinks they can become the next huge act by using social networking like Facebook or MySpace. And it’s all largely an illusion. What’s happened is that so many CDs are put out per month, possibly 10,000 a month. Nobody can possibly even know half the music that exists out there. And so marketing is everything. Marketing is the end-all, be-all of our society.

(here is the interview in full)

If anything, there are moments of seemingly jarring sincerity near the end of the album – “No Place Like Home” to my recollection is the only Devo ballad I can think of (correct me if I’m wrong).  Having said that, however, the sincerity, at least musically, transforms more into a pastiche of Depeche Mode-esque emoting- how could Devo avoid jamming a tongue into that much cheek?  Really though, the thing I miss the most from early Devo on this album is the guitar work- Something is pretty much a straight forward electronic, strange dance album; I always thought Devo had really good guitar hooks.

Devo’s has always been and continues to be great, even if now they look more like five different versions of your boss wearing the same Halloween outfit to the office party than prophets from the future dystopia- I guess being part of the de-evolution includes the inevitable sixty year old paunche.  Too bad we can’t all work for dudes like that.

PLEASE INDULGE ME

This video has nothing to do with Devo, but it’s one of my favorite things ever from the Simpsons, and when I was looking for the photo of Roddy McDowell I was drawn to the siren song of the greatest musical that never was.  Let it stand here forever as my tribute to the undying genius of Phil Hartman.

On April 27th the band The Qualia released their second album Secret Weapon.  While they are from Brooklyn and they are self-described as electro-pop, The Qualia seem more focused on what comes after the hyphen than before.  Song craft trumps gimmick; the Qualia is less dogmatic than many of their electro-pop borough mates (MGMT, Animal Collective, et. al), and the album is better off for it.  Too bad the bass playing sucks.

At this point I should mention that I auditioned to play bass live for this band, and, needless to say, I’m writing this blog and they just released a very good second album and are playing awesome live, regardless of the robot on bass.  They’re obviously doing just fine without me, but the rejection stung in a way that is hard for me to impart outside the realm of my own experience of it, so, you know,  f these guys.

Best track is “This Weekend”, which I find lyrically has a sweetness reminiscent of the Smiths-era Morrissey ballads like “Unloveable” or “Sing Me To Sleep”.  Here’s a link to listen/buy the whole album.