Albums I’m Excited About, August 19th
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The Center Won’t Hold — Sleater-Kinney
This album is a tough one to write about today, because no matter how the album sounds, it exists under the heavy shadow of the (seemingly non-amicable) departure of Janet Weiss from Sleater-Kinney. It’s nearly impossible not to project some tone onto this album and wonder how much it (and which parts if any), contributed to the breakup of one of the most legendary riot girl acts of all time.
This album is also the first full-length production credit by Annie Clark (St. Vincent), who has probably at this point made the jump fully in to mainstream pop— arguably a questionable choice for a band already dear to their fans by keeping their sound raw and consistent.
So is it possible to hear the music through all that noise? Yes, but not entirely. It’s a great album, the production value is very high, the lyrical content and messaging is contemporary and smart, almost everything about it is clearly precisely tuned. It has an Interpol-esque listenability without sacrificing thick snare hits and chunky guitar tone. This is also where its weakness lies. It’s a great album, one that that could probably win a Grammy, which might just be exactly what drove Janet away.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-center-wont-hold/1463695430
https://open.spotify.com/album/6ArjrXMlLegKiAPOp34K58?si=OrZ6KYtFQSCHkOAtWpnF8g
Animated Violence Mild — Blanck Mass
Blanck Mass is the side project of Benjamin John Power, who is half of the glitchy electronic act Fuck Buttons. If you’re a fan of BOTH Dan Deacon and Nine Inch Nails, this album is the unholy combination of them both. Blanck Mass feels like the exploration of a more violent version of Fuck Buttons, a release that keeps the main project palatable.
Animated Violence Mild is an assault starting with the cover that, like all Blanck Mass album covers, seems intentionally constructed to make you uncomfortable. The album continues this trend, it’s a triumphant exploration of noises shunted by other electronic artists, but to my ears feels far more constructed than his first 2 albums, which gives it a listenability that prior albums seem to avoid. In this way it’s reminiscent of Aphex Twin — by avoiding pop so dramatically, it becomes a perfect inverse cast.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/animated-violence-mild/1463197887
https://open.spotify.com/album/74tQiCbJ97DTI7zsRbj55f?si=EYZ0KoG-Q7a0ADeSTzdzdw
Infest the Rats’ Nest — King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
I’ve already written about a few King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard albums, and I think right now they’re generally considered one of the most innovative bands going (I saw them cited as one of Trey Anastasio of Phish’s modern influences, which I think means they’re a known quantity). Given that they are clearly a very smart group of dudes, the timing on this album couldn’t be better.
This album is their full length metal effort, the expansion of the glorious single “Planet B” to a 9 track homage to late 80s Thrash Metal that is both respectful to the genre without missing a chance to class it up. It’s a Slayer album with all the mud cleaned off, and with a heavy anti-rich, global warming awareness message instead of indirected flailing. Their last album Fishing for Fishies and this album are clearly a pair, the former taking a 60s approach, and this album fast forwarding to a world where the optimism of the 60s has devolved to a shitty world that needs violence to make progress. For existing stoner/doom/thrash metal fans, this album is a masterpiece off the shelf. But I think it also has a chance to change some minds, with a message and song construction that may tempt a crowd previously relegated to faster BPMs and cleaner bass tones. Maybe the next Phish tour will include an encore of Reign In Blood?
https://music.apple.com/us/album/infest-the-rats-nest/1469933446
https://open.spotify.com/album/5Bz2LxOp0wz7ov0T9WiRmc?si=Onf2FtfRQQWdVSKeBTi7mg
Face Stabber — Oh Sees
Oh Sees, formerly known as Thee Oh Sees (among other names), is basically LA based (formerly out of SF) John Dwyer’s solo project (although he also records under a more formally solo project called Damaged Bug). It’s a brand of SF Garage psych rock that I believe can be fairly directly attributed to him. This being their 19th album, it’s unlikely that it will be a surprise to anyone how it sounds except for folks who have never heard an Oh Sees album before.
It’s a weird, driving chug fest that starts with a rhythmic squeaking of what sounds like a dog toy, and never stops pinging the ride for the next hour and 20 minutes — I believe a record for this band — including a 14 minute organ-backed journey right in the middle, and a 21 minute song to cap off a 14 song tracklist. It does feel a bit more jammed out and exploratory, which I think makes sense with their trajectory as a band. It draws the lines between the garage punk tracks and noodling jam tracks a bit clearer than earlier albums, and I think appeals more to Deadheads than Ty Segall fans, but is overall a good listen and a fun ride.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/face-stabber/1470095674
https://open.spotify.com/album/2asqm6ydqbRKZKbXfGIhrX?si=gBT3PhgATLGFhRU-gLWwyQ
This Is Not a Safe Place — Ride
When Ride got back together in 2014, I was stoked. MBV had recently also come out of retirement to release some new material, Slowdive was touring, and shoegaze was finally getting the respect it had deserved. No small part of me expected for the cash grab to complete though and for shoegaze to still be fundamentally a genre that existed for a few years in the early 90s, not actually be picked up again and innovated on.
It may still be too soon to speak, but this album feels very much like shoegaze still has some room to grow in 2019. This Is Not a Safe Place is a beautifully complete and never derivative album, which brings a mastery of 90s sounds to a modern studio. It’s widely tracked, filling a ton of frequencies without resorting to blowing out the guitar tone — in fact, it leans much heavier on vocal harmonies and light synth to fill the wall of noise, an unexpected and very welcomed tweak on a well loved formula. Ride is back to stay!
https://music.apple.com/us/album/this-is-not-a-safe-place/1457755716
https://open.spotify.com/album/6h5jv9bwnNkYPyfOQMEA0p?si=nGHD66tJTeSnXXiDCMPC8Q
