Temporary Obsession
Mining Cultural Ephemera since 2009
I don’t know about you, but I’m about ready for the release cycle to begin again. I’m running out of new tracks! January’s a lovely time to reflect on music from the past and re-discover old bands, but I’m about ready to dig in to the new stuff already. Luckily, the hype cycle starts up again in full next week. For the time being, here’s a new discovery from Pandora. Deep? Not really. Completely disposable and ultimately fun? Definitely.
It’s unusual in the hyper-fast release cycle most indie bands deal in these days to be gone for more than 2 years without an album. Chairlift’s last album, Does You Inspire You (mostly known for iPod ad-accompanying single “Bruises”), came out in 2008. A lot’s happened in four years – the band lost a founding member, Aaron Pfenning (now making music for DFA as Rewards) nearly lost its name (resulting from the breakup), and its members have been equally busy with other artists (Patrick Wimberly acting as the “invisible fourth member” of indie rap guys Das Racist, and Caroline Polachek guesting vocals on Washed Out’s stunning “You and I”).
And yet from the cover of their new album, it’s immediately clear where they’re going with their second album – looking back, mining a lot of the same 80s influences as their peers, but with their own twist. There are gorgeous synths all over this album, and not just providing melody lines – synth bells clatter and create unusual percussion on almost all tracks. Polachek’s vocals can go to a strong lower range or an enthusiastic but ethereal high range. One reference point that immediately came to mind that’s a bit different than what other groups are pulling from: Hall and Oates. There’s a sense of songcraft (as well as some of the synth sounds of their era) that just fits in with that other duo.
This is an album that makes a good first impression and keeps growing on you with additional influences. ”Sidewalk Safari” (above) is an intriguing opener, but it’s easily the best song about mowing people down with your car that I’ve heard all year (not that there’s been much competition in that field). Other strong tracks are the pulsing “I Belong in Your Arms” and “Met Before”, the sultry and unusual “Take It Out on Me” and the exercise-video-soundtrack jam that is “Anamaemonesia” (previously seen here as a TotD). Closing tracks “Turning” and “Guilty as Charged” give a more experimental edge to the record, but still keep accessible enough to give the album a strong end. Something is, for me at least, the first truly stunning album of 2012, and I can already see it making my year-end list. We’ll see.
Rating: 
Note: I realize in taking well over a week to get this out, I’m already a step behind in the whole cycle that I’m talking about with this, but I think it’s still an interesting subject to explore.
It’s safe to say at this point that you’ve heard of Lana Del Rey. Whether you were one of the first people to see “Video Games” when we still thought she was an independent artist or you found about her in the subsequent wave of press that followed, it’s likely you’ve heard the details of her story: the millionaire father backing her efforts to be a singer, the transformation from Lizzie Grant to Lana, the accusations of being all hype and of collagen-enhanced lips, etc, etc. Perhaps it made you mad – I know it did my roommate. Even before hearing her songs, he decided he didn’t like her – after all, those of us who prided ourselves on our “indie” taste had been duped – she had a contract with Interscope. I wasn’t so dismissive – after all, this wasn’t the first artist who’d been agressively marketed at us, and she didn’t seem any better or worse than any other pre-packaged micro-managed pop star who’d been thrown at us before. I waited to see her performance on SNL before making any sort of judgement.
As for that performance: awful. I’d actually warn against watching the clip even though I’ve embedded it at the top of this article. There’s really no vocal talent on display – LDR alternates between some weird low range that doesn’t quite work and a truly awful high falsetto. Aside from the lyrics and backing, this doesn’t remotely resemble the “Video Games” we’ve seen on Youtube. She would have been better off performing the more recent “Born to Die” – the melody line’s a little easier and would have at least fooled us into thinking she could sing. And don’t get me started on the lack of stage presence – I’ll get to that later.
Some might argue that SNL isn’t the best venue to evaluate an artist, and I’d agree. There’s certain acoustic properties 8H lacks, and various union regulations governing who’s running the sound board (hint: it’s not usually the band’s usual sound guy, who’s allowed to consult but can’t actually touch the board). On the other hand, it’s still in the artist’s hands to present themselves the best way possible. The week after LDR’s performance, SNL ran a rerun of the Emma Stone/Coldplay episode. Now this may be an unfair comparison (Coldplay isn’t a new artist, nor was it their first SNL performance), but it’s a good example. Coldplay didn’t sound the best live during the show, but the sold the hell out of their performance. Chris Martin was energetic, bounding around the stage, spinning in circles, and giving the best vocal performance he could. Compare this to Ms. Del Ray, who awkwardly swayed back and forth, rubbed her hands on her body like she was wiping off sweaty palms, and spun around awkwardly. I hate to say it, but it comes down to this – the performance might not be your best, but at least sell the hell out of it.
As far as I can see, there are two ways this will go: Lana will either bomb spectacularly, with no singles beyond “Video Games” and “Born to Die”, and fade back into the trailer park from whence she came (we as the American public have said “no” to Jessie J despite the music industry’s machinations, and we will do it again), or she’ll have one “good” (read: popular, bought by everyone, regardless of end-product quality) album, biff it on the second album, and fade away. Either way, this is not a career built to last – why worry about it too hard.
Style Break is an occasional series where we stop focusing entirely on music, movies, and TV, and look more at what’s going on in our closet. Today: green stuff.
The depths of winter may just be starting (at least here in Cambridge), but colors for winter are staying a little on the brighter side. Take for instance green – usually just relegated to darker olive shades, is getting a brighter outlook.
Lands’ End Canvas has an awesome corduroy shirt in a bright blackwatch plaid that looks awesome with jeans (and fills your need for blackwatch plaid if you coveted J. Crew’s awesome blazer in the same pattern, but couldn’t justify spending the $500).
Also available to brighten up your wardrobe? Their Moleskine campus jacket in a cool Loden green. This has been my favorite blazer since it arrived in the mail – I keep trying to find more excuses to wear it to work, as I get nothing but compliments from my usually quiet co-workers when I wear it. The fit’s a little tight, (but that might just be the result of me bulking up a bit for winter — need to stay warm, after all) and the cut is perfect – the only way I would have loved this more was if the blazer was double-vented (and that’s a personal preference thing anyways). The little details like the elbow patches and inner pockets only make it better.
LEC isn’t the only brand bringing awesome greens this season. Elsewhere on the net, Gap has taken their classic straight-leg jean (the only jean any guy really needs) and run them through a garment-dying process to turn them an army green that has its own individual variations. For my business-casual (emphasis on the casual) office, these mixed with a button-up or basic sweater on top with some chucks (I did say emphasis on the casual) is a perfect weekday outfit.
All images culled from retailer’s websites. I bought these all with my own money (unless otherwise noted) and vouch for them by wearing them in my daily life. Men’s Fine Wale Cord Shirt, $19.99. Men’s Moleskin Campus Jacket, $139.99. Men’s Straight-Leg Garment-Dyed Jean in Olive, $69.99.
Santigold is back (after what felt like forever), and she is having none of your sass.
I’m not sure I’m loving the verse structure, but the chaotic chorus is sort of killing it here. Master of My Make-Believe, her new album, drops sometime this spring.
Chairlift’s new album Something, out next Tuesday, appears to be mining some of the forgotten sounds of the 80s (a big trend from last year), but in their own way. Loving the old-school production values on this video. Can’t wait for this to come out.
Okay, so the title’s a little overwrought.
One of my favorite times of year is the MIT Mystery Hunt. It’s a weekend that allows me to completely indulge my geekiest tendencies, be entirely ridiculous, and spend vast amounts of time not sleeping. This year was no exception. For the second year in a row, Project Electric Mayhem graciously allowed me to help solve puzzles and run around campus with them. Were we anywhere close to winning? No. But it’s still an experience I won’t soon forget.
Unlike last year, I was there for the opening ceremony this time. As we all gathered in Building 7′s expansive lobby and awaited the start of things, I noticed people in suits milling about and arranging themselves near the large columns in the room. These had to be CODEX operatives, the winners of last year’s hunt preparing to start this year’s. Then another CODEX member, this time with an accordion, stood on a table near the projection screen and began to play a tune unfamiliar at first that quickly revealed itself as “Springtime for Hitler”. Only this time it was springtime for puzzlers at MIT. About midway through the song, I realized this wasn’t just a fun warmup for the hunt; it was the theme. We were going to help Max and Leo mount more musical bombs.
As for the hunt itself, I’ll just quietly direct you to the full archive of puzzles and let you wander around for yourself. The arrangement of puzzles was fairly genius and I loved the round names. We ended up only producing/performing one full musical for Borbonicus and Bodley, “A Circus Line”. By producing, I mean myself and another team member took time to stop puzzling, re-write the lyrics to “One” to include an elephant in a tutu and poor grammar (to irritate our critic as instructed by the metapuzzle), construct crude costumes (a red sequined jacket over my shirt/bowtie combo from earlier in the evening along with a black hat to make me a ringmaster, a paper cup-and duct tape elephant nose and ears along with a pink scarf around the waist for our elephant), and ACTUALLY PERFORM SAID NUMBER FOR AN AUDIENCE (of probably around 8 people and a video camera). There is visual proof of this, but I don’t plan on revealing it even if it does get released.
Other memorable moments:
This track carries on with the slightly-distorted thing I’ve had going on lately (see also: Amateur Best, Grimes). There’s a bedroom quality to this music (meaning it sounds slightly better than a demo), but there’s also an expansiveness that’s impressive. I’ll be keeping an eye on this guy – if the rest of the forthcoming Strange Weekend LP is like this, it’s going to be a great way to start off 2012.
I’m off at the MIT Mystery Hunt today, so this one’s posted in advance. I’ve slowly been dipping into the posthumous Amy Winehouse release, Lioness: Hidden Treasures, and for whatever reason, the original “Best Friends, Right?” has been stuck on repeat. There’s something in the jazzy arrangement meshed with the lyrics about a friendship that might or might not be that just hits me in the right place right now.
His Primary 1 project may have ended up D.O.A., but Joe Flory’s still making music, this time as Amateur Best. And while I don’t quite get (or like) the comic that comes with every monthly release, I do like the music. Here’s the latest pice of slightly-synthy, slightly-funky groove from Joe, “Be Happy”, out as a 7″ on February 13:
DD010 A1: Amateur Best // Be Happy by Double Denim Records