Explosions in the Sky - "The Rescue" (LP Review)

First, let's get this out of the way: "The Rescue" is nowhere near the tour de force that is "Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever". But it is still a fine EP and one that deserves to be in your collection. Clocking in at 32 minutes, it is more like an LP than EP, but that's what they call it. And since it is free, there is no reason for you to not download a copy. But we'll get back to that in a bit.

"The Rescue" is volume 21 in the "Travels in Constants" EP series released on Explosion in the Sky's label Temporary Residence Limited. Yeah, I hadn't heard of the series either, but some of the other artists in the series include Low and Mogwai, so that should give you an idea.

"The Rescue" was recorded in eight days (one song per day) and represents a slight departure for them. There are more instruments, a looser approach and even some singing. Well, background vocals only -- nobody sings a lead. The EP was recorded in the Michael James's (bass & guitar) house and has a decidedly more lo-fi, less produced feel. There are no bad songs on this EP, but some of the experiments are more successful than others (e.g., Day Five, in which their original goal was to make the "saddest dance record in the world"). There is a tentative sound to some of these songs that 1) reminds me of Dif Juz (e.g., "Day Eight" vs. Dif Juz's "No Motion"), and 2) is in stark contrast to the ferocity of TWTTTSD.

I could try to describe the tracks, but EITS has extensive notes on their web site about the recording of each song. Suffice to say that the entire EP is an homage to their early experience of being stuck in Syracuse NY for eight days while they awaited a transmission repair on their van. The story is made more explicit on the song "Day 3" through samples from videotapes the band recorded while awaiting the repair.

Originally only available via mail order or at concerts, the EP is now out of print. But EITS has all eight songs available for download from their web site, so there is absolutely no excuse why you don't have this in your collection.

Standout songs: Day Two, Day Three, Day Seven, Day Eight

Skip 'em songs: none.

Final score: 7/10.

2019-08-22 update: The page and MP3s are no longer on the EITS home page, but they have been archived.  

DJ Shadow - "Dark Days" (LP Review)

"Dark Days" is an often overlooked single in the lengthy DJ Shadow discography. Released in 2000 while DJ Shadow was still enjoying the peak of his popularity with 1996's "Endtroducing....." and 1998's "Psyence Fiction", it is arguably the last recording he made in his "original style" and could easily be at home on any of his releases on the Mo' Wax label. After this point, he made a concerted effort to evolve his style: sometimes it worked (2002's "Private Press" and 2003's "Private Repress") and sometimes it did not (2006's "The Outsider").

"Dark Days" also serves as the soundtrack for the Marc Singer documentary of the same name. Technically, the movie featured previously released DJ Shadow music as well, but the "Dark Days" song was recorded especially for this film. The single has two versions of the song: one as an instrumental, and one with sampled dialogue from the film. The latter is especially chilling; it begins with:

When I first came down the tunnel, it lookin' dangerous man,
real dangerous.
Like, I'm scared.
You're on your own down here.

The film is a documentary about the homeless people that lived below ground in the "Freedom Tunnel" in Manhattan. The film is a moving, non-exploitative profile of the people that lived there and the resulting society of the tunnel, as well as their journey out when evicted. A mild spoiler: the film ends at a positive point, even if you suspect the longer story arc eventually won't.

The main sample for the song is Bill Osborn's single "Bamboo and Rice". I've scoured the web and I can't find the original source recording. Almost any thing you find about the artist and song derives from it appearing in "Dark Days". I don't even know when the single was released -- I would guess early to mid 60s given the surf-rock guitar sound. A nice pull from the king of crate digging. The DJ Shadow single itself is out of print and $20 and up is the going price.

Standout tracks: "Main Theme", "Spoken for Mix"

Skip 'em tracks: none.

Final score: 10/10

Bonus links: Dark Days trailer; Interview with Marc Singer, DJ Shadow (special feature from the DVD); first 10 minutes of the film.

Explosions in the Sky - "Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever" (LP Review)

Imagine The Pixies walking into the studio, finding Black Sabbath's instruments and gear (ca. 1973) and then deciding to cover songs by Tortoise. Or maybe it should be Tortoise covering The Pixies. Either way, Explosions in the Sky triangulates somewhere between these three musical influences, with the additional regional influence of Austin, TX. I'm not sure I can describe the Texas, esp. Austin, sound (it is more of an attitude than a specific genre), but you know it when you hear it.

EITS are Mark Smith (guitar), Munaf Rayani (guitar), Michael James (bass and guitar), and Chris Hrasky (drums). As you can infer from the lineup, they play instrumental (taking their Texas laconism to the point of no vocals), guitar-oriented rock. But even with two, sometimes three, guitarists, don't look for any shredding here: they've completely transcended the conventional rock guitar solo and are firmly within the post-rock genre (hence the comparison with Tortoise). Structurally, it is clear they've also listened to their share of NWOBHM bands with their highly regimented, almost martial/marching band arrangements.

EITS is probably most well known for providing the soundtrack for 2004's "Friday Night Lights". A lot of people when first exposed to EITS find this an odd pairing, assuming that EITS represents the alternative, "too cool for sports" set. I get it though. For one, EITS clearly makes soundtrack-sounding music. Secondly, HS football is such a part of the Texas ethos that to have refused the opportunity when it arrived would have been self-negation. But I'll review that LP at a later date...

"Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever" is their 2001 LP, whose very title invites comparisons to Tortoise's 1996 LP "Millions Now Living Will Never Die". TWTTTSD is technically their second LP, although their 2000 debut "How Strange, Innocence" received very limited release. TWTTTSD gives us six songs and 50 minutes of vast, epic, open, organic instrumental music that works the soft-loud-soft formula to its maximum effect. Noise canceling headphones are the best way to listen to this LP: the quiet bits are so subtle and sweet that you have to really stop and pay attention to what they're doing. You'll be tempted to turn up the volume, but be careful. In a minute or two they're going to explode: a majestic, roaring, aural behemoth. And just after the reverberations have rearranged the objects in your room, EITS will be quiet again. Then you will know how apropos the band's name is and realize that they really could not have been named anything other than Explosions in the Sky.

In a band filled with guitarists (all of whom do an excellent job), I have to say the star of the show is drummer Chris Hrasky. Producer Trevor Kampmann certainly did him a favor and put Hrasky out front in the mix, and he is often playing more of a lead than rest of the band. For example, listen to 1:40--2:25 in "Yasmin the Light", 3:00-5:00 of "Have You Passed Through This Night", or 4:50--5:50 of "A Poor Man's Memory" -- you'll nearly forget the guitarists are playing.

The closest thing they have to lyrics is in "Have You Passed Through This Night" where they sample Private Witt's voice over from the movie "The Thin Red Line" (delivered with an appropriate drawl):

This great evil. Where does it come from? How'd it steal into the world? What seed, what root did it grow from? Who's doin' this? Who's killin' us? Robbing us of life and light. Mockin' us with the sight of what we might've known. Does our ruin benefit the earth? Does it help the grass to grow, the sun to shine? Is this darkness in you, too? Have you passed through this night?

Unkle would also sample this and other dialogue from "The Thin Red Line" in the song "Eye for An Eye" on their 2003 LP "Never, Never, Land", but EITS did it first as well as better.

There are no bad songs on this LP. An unkind critic could argue that the songs are interchangeable, but it is fair to say that if you like one you'll like them all. "Have You Passed Through This Night" stands out because of the movie sample, but honestly the song boundaries are almost arbitrary as each song consists of several movements and if it were presented as a single 50 minute track I would be hard pressed to cut it into six segments.

Standout songs: all. You can find the LP at Grooveshark, but note that the track listing there currently has a lot of errors. You can find a better listing at lala.

Here are the tracks as sourced from YouTube: "Greet Death", "Yasmin the Light" (live), "The Moon is Down", "Have You Passed Through This Night?", "A Poor Man's Memory", "With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept".

Skip 'em songs: none.

Final score: 10/10. This is truly a genre-defining LP.

Slade - "Run Runaway" (forgotten song)

So here's a guilty pleasure you probably haven't heard in a long time...

Slade was one of the original glam rock bands of the early 70s and while they were big in the UK, they never really became famous in the US. Kiss cites them as big influence, but they are probably best known in the US for being the writer & original artist of two of Quiet Riot's biggest singles: "Cum on Feel the Noize" and "Mama Weer All Crazee Now". Even in 1983 & 1984 I was never terribly fond of either song, though I will say the originals work better than QR's covers since Slade has a sense of humor that QR just can't pull off.

By the time of their 1983 LP "The Amazing Kamikaze Syndrome", they were about 40 years old and veterans of the music scene. The US version of that LP came out in 1984 and was titled "Keep Your Hands Off My Power Supply" and from it the single "Run Runaway" was released. For a short while it received moderate rotation on radio & MTV, probably because of the recent success Quiet Riot had with their songs.

The song itself is fun and shows Slade certainly knew how to write anthems. It also has the rock/folk sound (i.e., guitar + fiddle) of other early- & mid-80s UK bands like Dexys Midnight Runners and Big Country, so it should sound familiar even if you haven't heard it before.

Run Runaway: YouTube 1, YouTube 2 (slightly better audio).

N.B. You might enjoy some of the other songs from the YouTube channel "Back Porch Video". Apparently something of a real-life Wayne's World, it has a surprisingly good selection of alternative 80s songs.

Bonus Links: The Slade originals that Quiet Riot made famous: "Cum on Feel the Noize" & "Mama Weer All Crazee Now" (featuring the finest in 1972 video technology). Maybe I'm just projecting, but I think the difference between the QR & Slade versions is that Slade knows these are silly songs...

The Kinks - "Days" (forgotten song) (the song remains the same)

Although I first heard it as performed by Elvis Costello on the the 1991 soundtrack "Until the End of the World Soundtrack", "Days" was originally a 1968 single from The Kinks (it also appeared on some versions of their 1968 LP "The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society").

Before Costello, Kristy MacColl covered the song in 1989 on her LP "Kite" with an arrangement pretty true to the original. But it's the Elvis Costello version that strips away the modish production of the original and reveals yet another excellent song from Ray Davies.

And while the original single apparently did well in 1968, I don't recall it receiving radio airplay on classic rock radio stations. The Kinks canon is filled with great songs, but here's one that you probably haven't heard before, or maybe haven't heard in a long time.

The Kinks: YouTube 1, YouTube 2.

B-Side Bonus Link: The Kinks - "She's Got Everything".

Kristy MacColl: YouTube 1, YouTube 2.

Elvis Costello: Lala, Grooveshark.

Elvis Costello & Chrissie Hynde: MSN, Metacafe.

The Chemical Brothers - "Brothers Gonna Work It Out" (LP Review)

Although The Chemical Brothers originally began as producers and DJs, it wasn't until 1998 and after two successful studio LPs that they officially released their first DJ mix LP, "Brothers Gonna Work It Out". Ok, technically this mix is based on their 1997 "Radio 1 Anti-Nazi Mix", but that was a limited release on their own label, Freestyle Dust, and "Brothers Gonna Work It Out" was released on the much larger Astralwerks label.

I became a big fan of the Chemicals when singles from their 1997 LP, "Dig Your Own Hole", surprisingly received a fair amount of radio airplay (powered mainly by Noel Gallagher singing on "Setting Sun", although even "Block Rockin' Beats" made the playlist). After getting a copy of the then hard to find debut LP "Exit Planet Dust", I was hooked.

So in 1998 I got this LP as soon as it came out. I'm pretty sure it was the first DJ mix LP I bought, and I have to admit that buying an LP of people mixing other people's music seemed a little odd at first. Since then, I've become quite a fan of the genre and I've lost track of how many I've added to my collection. The expectations for a mix LP is to 1) tell a story and 2) recontextualize both the familiar and unknown in the DJ's own unique style.

"Brothers Gonna Work It Out" succeeds at both. First, all the songs are presented through The Chemical Brother's big beat filter; indeed several of them are either remixes of songs by the Chemicals or other people's remixes of their own songs. There are a few 70's era funk songs (mostly from soundtracks) thrown in the mix for variety, but mostly it comes from their contemporary mid 90's big beat bands. As such, the entire mix very much sounds like a Chemical Brothers LP, and that means it is as subtle as a sledgehammer. Thievery Corporation makes smoother mixes, James Lavelle/Unkle make more experimental mixes, DJ Spooky makes more abstract mixes, and DJ Shadow's mixes are like a textbook, but I'm not sure anyone rawks harder than the Chemicals in their mixes.

The mix also does a good job of taking the listener on the journey. They take their foot off the accelerator for a few short moments ("Gimme Some Love", "Mother Earth", "I Think I'm in Love"), but mostly it slams from one track to another because, well, that's what The Chemical Brothers do. They do a good job of foreshadowing upcoming tracks and referencing motifs from previous songs (e.g., "Mars Needs Women" and "Take That Motherf*ers!").

Here is the track list taken from Wikipedia, with links to the more obscure bands going to discogs.com if they don't have a Wikipedia entry:

• Track 1
  • Willie Hutch - Brothers Gonna Work It Out (1973)
  • The Chemical Brothers with Justin Warfield - Not Another Drugstore (Planet Nine Mix) (1998)
  • The Chemical Brothers - Block Rockin' Beats (The Micronauts Mix) (1997)
  • On the House - This Ain't Chicago (1998)
  • The Jimmy Castor Bunch - It's Just Begun (1972)
  
  
• Track 2
  • Kenny Dope presents Powerhouse 3 - Makin' a Living (1991)
  • Badder Than Evil - Hot Wheels (The Chase) (1973)
  • Unique Three - The Theme (Unique Mix) (1989)
  • Love Corporation - Gimme Some Love (1991)
  
  
• Track 3
  • The Micronauts - The Jazz (1995)
  • The Serotonin Project - Sidewinder (312 vs 216 Stomp Mix) (1995)
  • Carlos "After Dark" Berrios - Doin' It After Dark (D-Ski's Dance)
  • Freestyle - Don't Stop the Rock (1990)
  • Metro L.A. - To a Nation Rockin' (1995)
    
  
  
• Track 4
  • The Chemical Brothers - Morning Lemon (1997)
  • Meat Beat Manifesto - Mars Needs Women (1994)
  • Renegade Soundwave - Thunder (1990)
  • DBX - Losing Control (1994)
  • Dubtribe Sound System - Mother Earth (1994)
  
  
• Track 5
  • Barry De Vorzon and Perry Botkin, Jr. - The Riot (1970)
  • The Ultraviolet Catastrophe - Trip Harder (1992)
  • Manic Street Preachers - Everything Must Go (Chemical Brothers Remix) (1996)
  • Spiritualized - I Think I'm In Love (Chemical Brothers Vocal Remix) (1997)
    

I think tracks 1-3 are the strongest, or at least sample from songs I like better. Track 4 starts off strong with "Mars Needs Women", but "Losing Control" and "Mother Earth" are a bit weak. Track 5 echoes the psychedelic final two tracks on "Dig Your Own Hole", and while it is strong (and points are awarded for integrating Spiritualized into the mix), it doesn't standout as much as the first three tracks.

Standout tracks: Track 1 (YouTube, Grooveshark), Track 2, Track 3. (N.B. the tracks make more sense in the context of the entire LP).

Skip 'em tracks: none.

Final Score: 9/10. There might be some nostalgia for this being my first mix LP, but the bottom line is if you like The Chemical Brothers, you're going to like this LP.

Galaxie 500 - "This Is Our Music" (LP Review)

First post of 2010 and time to complete the Galaxie 500 hat trick...

Released in 1990, "This Is Our Music" was Galaxie 500's third and final studio LP. The name of the LP is a nod to the Ornette Coleman LP of the same name. That alone should tell you that the band is simultaneously 1) clever, 2) ambitious and 3) just a bit pretentious. I mostly like the reference, but sometimes it is seems a bit much for a garage rock band.

The short version: "This Is Our Music" is a very good LP, but pales in comparison to their first two LPs, "Today" and "On Fire". I'm not sure if they were running out of ideas, becoming worn down by touring, or perhaps their initial unassuming -- almost timid -- sound was unsustainable.

The LP represents a continuation of direction that was introduced on their second LP, "On Fire". But some of the ideas don't work. For example, the opening track, "Fourth of July", is a good song, but is lyrically awkward. Prior songs found the poetry and beauty of quotidian events, such as this from "Snowstorm" on "On Fire":

Well I listen to the weatherman
He's changed his tone of voice
And he can see it on the radar
Only seven hours away
Well there's gonna be a snowstorm
When the t.v has gone wild
And they got nothing else to think of
And they're letting me go home

"Fourth of July" tries to be too clever for its own good:

I wrote a poem on a dog biscuit
And your dog refused to look at it
So I got drunk and looked at the Empire State Building
It was no bigger than a nickel
...
I stayed at home on the Fourth of July
And I pulled the shades so I didn't have to see the sky
And I decided to have a Bed In
But I forgot to invite anybody

"Snowstorm" is precious; "Fourth of July" is affected.

Perhaps I'm being too critical... There are no bad songs on this LP, and some are excellent. But more so than the first two LPs some are nondescript, such as "Hearing Voices", "Spook" and "Way Up High".

The excellent songs include bassist Naomi Yang singing the Yoko Ono song "Listen the Snow is Falling", "King of Spain, Pt. 2" and "Melt Away", which is perhaps the best song on the LP. The 1997 Rykodisc reissue includes an outstanding cover of "Here She Comes Now" by the Velvet Underground (originally a B-side to the "Fourth of July" single). Galaxie 500 had always borrowed heavily from the Velvet's aesthetic and this cover just makes it official.

"This Is Our Music" is a strong LP that deserves to be in your collection. And while it would be a remarkable LP by almost any other band, it just doesn't quite live up to the standards set by their first two LPs. Dean Wareham left the band in 1991 after touring and went on to form Luna. Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang would eventually form Damon and Naomi. Both bands would release decent LPs, but neither band would capture the magic of their original band. For those whose are interested, the site "Head Full of Wishes" expertly covers Galaxie 500 and their various post-1991 bands.

The Galaxie 500 discography would be posthumously extended with a live LP, Peel sessions LP, B-Sides LP, etc. But "This Is Our Music" is an appropriate coda for a band that was criminally undiscovered while they were active.

Standout songs: "Fourth of July", "Listen the Snow is Falling", "King of Spain, Pt. 2", "Melt Away", "Here She Comes Now". (Many of the above are live versions; the studio versions can be found on Grooveshark.)

Skip 'em songs: none.

Final score: 8/10.