Album Review: Romance is Boring - Los Campesinos!

Los Campesinos' third studio album (of four), Romance is Boring was released in 2010 to follow up the band's two album releases in 2008: Hold On Now, Youngster... and We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed. The whole album is strong, and I would definitely recommend it. I'm not sure how I ever considered this band as electronica (they're not, at all, in any sense of the word), but the crazed guitar work on this and earlier albums might be a clue. As is my wont, I'm going to list a couple of my favorite tracks - in case you want to check them out before you buy:


"There Are Listed Buildings" - Possibly the most reminiscent of Hold On Now Youngster, this second of the album's singles earns its place with quick guitars, an upbeat percussion track, and great lyrics.


"Romance Is Boring" - Fast, angry without losing its heart, and with a really fantastic music video to boot. Deserving of its position as the title track and third single.



"Straight In At 101" - What might be the best breakup song of all time, this is certainly far out in front in the running for Los Campesinos' most explicit tune. That, however, is its charm: lyrics like "I've been playing straight chicken with gay girls (it's never enough)", it's not hard to feel the singer's frustration.


"The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future" - I didn't really realize that this band could write a truly sad song. I was wrong. Dialing their characteristic speed and energy back doesn't stop the rapid-fire vocal delivery, and the contrast only makes this first single all the more affecting.


You can check out a handful of Los Campesinos' stuff on the KEXP Song Of The Day podcast, which usually releases at least one song from each of their albums.

Album Review: Shimokita is Dead? - Tennis Pro

Normally, when someone gets an advance copy of an album with the intent to review it, they write and post that review before the album comes out. That's not what we do here, though! Despite getting the new Tennis Pro album Shimokita is Dead? a few weeks ago, I'm just now posting this review - days after the album dropped.


This album, based heavily on the time the band recently spent in Japan, is 15 tracks long and much more musically diverse than their previous offerings. Not all the tracks are considered by the band to be full songs, but they're all worth a listen. Here are a few of the album's highlights:


Track 1: "Dance Hit Number One" - A good, very eighties-influenced song residing far outside the band's power pop wheelhouse. Though its style isn't repeated on the album, its strangeness serves as a good introduction to the rest of the tracks' divergent styles.


Track 2: "Satomi Bicycle" - Immediately, the album shifts back to power pop. The narrative style that characterizes some of their best songs is evident here. One of the album's top three new songs.


Track 6: "Rock Over Tokyo" - See the review of Happy Is The New Sad, but like some of the other repeated tracks, this one is a new and slightly different version.


Track 10: "Clothing Optional Christian Barbecue" - Based on a melody written for a beer commercial and the creepy vibe of a middle-aged nudist, there is no way this song wasn't going to be fantastic. Its origin gives it a slightly different vibe, instrumentation-wise, from a lot of the other stuff on the album, but paired with the vocals it's the perfect weirdo party song.


Many of the other tracks would merit a description as well, but let me simply summarize by saying that the album's experiment with guitar-driven post-grunge make for an interesting - if not always completely effective - contrast. I fully recommend the album, but if the price tag seems a little much I would at least recommend downloading these four songs.

Album Review: Happy Is the New Sad - Tennis Pro

I finally broke down and - as one of the first parts of a totally inadvisable but completely worth-it spending spree - bought my first Tennis Pro album.


I picked Happy Is the New Sad because it had one particular song that I loved, which I believe I've mentioned before: "Rock Over Tokyo". That song alone is good enough to merit a ten dollar purchase, but the rest of the album isn't slacking.


Most of the songs are pretty straightforward rock numbers, since the band is a pretty straightforward outfit: guitar, bass, drums. They swing back and forth between totally rocking and very melodic, but this album generally staying in the first category.


Out of thirteen songs, seven of them are currently rated as five stars on my computer. The rest? Four stars. The only thing keeping that average as low as it is is the lack of a 4.5 rating.


Top tracks: "Rock Over Tokyo", "Fireball", & "Why Break Curfew (If You're Only Going to Break My Heart)"

Minipost: Hello Saferide

In another podcast-delivered bit of musical awesome, I recently remembered a song I had heard by the band Hello Saferide. The song was called "Anna", and is fantastic - a little downbeat, in a twee way. Granted, the people on the podcast spent most of the show calling them "Hello Saf-er-di" because they assumed it was Swedish, but the song stuck with me.


I listened to a couple other songs on the Hype Machine, one of which ("San Francisco") I really liked. It was a little more upbeat than the rest of their songs, but I expect that I didn't get a great sample. They were all good, though! Check them out.


Note: The same band also released two albums entirely in Swedish under the name Säkert! with a lot of success. So if you want good music check them out too, but if you want to understand the lyrics make sure you check first.

Tennis Pro

On one of the podcasts I listen to every week, they recently (well, a few months ago, give me a break) had David Drury - singer of a band called Tennis Pro - on the air. They had previously played a few of their songs, but I hadn't looked up what they were. It turns out, this Seattle band recently made a movie called Big in Japan (watch the trailer), about the band's tour through Japan and the general feeling towards American rock and roll there (hint: they effing love it).


So, Tennis Pro is fantastic. They have one song up on their MySpace page and a few MP3s available at their website. Also, because they're still trying to recoup their tour, you can get all sorts of goodies in exchange for a donation - up to and including a private concert. I recommend "Shelly Gets High" and "Kimberly", but my favorite of their songs is the one backing the trailer that I linked earlier.


Definitely going to need to get more of their music. The actual sound is very standard guitar-bass-drums indie rock/power-pop, done extremely well. Go listen.

The Three Songs I Just Bought...

...are all pretty awesome, but I'm not exactly the first one to say it. Still, it was a good use of the four dollars of credit I didn't know I had on iTunes.

Rill Rill - Sleighbells
We Own the Sky - M83
Statue of Liberty - XTC

The first two are electronic-ish, the first being upbeat and the second a lot slower, and the third is good old-fashioned indie rock.

Since I haven't gotten any other new music lately, so this is all I've got. More whenever I can!

New (and old) Blitzen Trapper

"The Man Who Would Speak True" and "Black River Killer" are the same story, told from different perspectives. At least, that's what I'm going to try and prove by writing them into a single song. Either way, you should listen to them both, because they are awesome.

That is all.

Best band (indie rock)

Before we begin this particular love-fest, let me lay out what I mean by indie rock. I mean the kind of band that is mostly based around the guitar-bass-drums archetype, a "traditional" rock band. Basically, it's totally subjective.

So, after all that, I'm talking here about the Lonely Forest. So far the most popular group I've written about - not saying much, but they are the only one with a Wikipedia page - I first heard of them through total coincidence. While standing outside an underwhelming show at the Vera Project in Seattle, getting ready to ditch out on the show with a few friends, a very excited guy came out of the door and introduced himself as John Van Deusen, and urged us to stay until the last band, because it was his. He then left to get cookies. The show started with a room full of bored, stock still hipsters but ended with nearly everyone on the floor dancing. I went out and bought their concept album Nuclear Winter the next day.

Recently, the Lonely Forest released We Sing the Body Electric, their newest LP. Based on a couple concerts and a lot of listening on podcasts and the internet, it is a pretty fantastic follow-up. Whereas Nuclear Winter chronicled a single story of a family escaping a world war, WSBE is a more traditional album with a few stand-outs: the title track and Turn Off The Song And Go Outside among them.

I love this band not because of their musical style, but because of the sincerity of Van Deusen's vocals. The music is great, don't get me wrong, but the melodic, minimalist refrain of Two Pink Pills ("I hear a voice, so faint and weak, two pink pills to fall asleep") - so unlike the rest of their catalog - and the heavy lyrics of Turn Off The Song ("I've seen the tweakers struggle, syringes line the floor") tell the story of the songwriter's struggle with and overcome addiction in between albums.

http://www.myspace.com/thelonelyforest