The Cribs have a new album out! I haven’t heard any of it yet, other than from watching this video. However, the video has some Monty Python bloodshed in it as well as what we call in the business a “naked woman.” The song is called “Men’s needs.”
I wouldn’t expect to see a review of their new album on Pitchfork any time soon, as their last album “New Fellas,” which I love, got a whopping 3.0. Granted its tough to get a reeeally good review on Pitchfork, but its also pretty hard to get a 3.0. I couldn’t disagree with any of the things said in the review, though. Yes its derivative of, even mimicking the Strokes, yes its really sloppy, their musicianship is terrible, and their lyrics are trivial. Yes their vocals somewhat annoyingly echo back and forth and their harmonies, if any, never really ring very well. However, there’s a big comfortable place for sloppy pop from these drunk guys with impossibly British drawling voices in my listening. There’s just something about them that just plain works. Its fun, its simple, it satisfies. I agree, if you listen to the Cribs and admire their musicianship then you’re crazy, but if you want to listen to them and drink beer and jump around then I’m with you.
Sometimes I wonder what the IBM supercomputers would do if they turned on the human race… then I realize they don’t have limbs, any means of attack, or any means of building robots that could attack. They’d just remain there humming loudly and model protein-folding in a reeeeally anti-human manner.
Some guy I know (respecting anonymity) has a podcast. He’s a pretty cool dude. He goes by the name Dreadful Snake Guy. He combines blues and folk with rare and odd little segments. Its a darn good listen.
Philadelphia area band The Teeth just put out full length You’re My Lover Now, in which they tried to capture their “fierce” live energy as well as their more often laid back recording style. It’s been two years since their EP Carry the Wood, which was the first I’d heard of them, and a while longer since their last full-length. They are currently signed with record label Park the Van.
The Teeth play rock and roll. While indie’s typical instrumentation is including more and more synth these days, the Teeth play grainy, piercing lead guitar and chopping rhythm. Its refreshing to see guys committed to the aesthetic of guitars(2)/bass/drums, with occasional keyboard, who play new-sounding stuff. Well, not entirely new.
Reviewers have compared their music to Queen, Bowie, early Kinks, Pavement, the Muppets, as well as movies Punch Drunk Love, Rocky Horror Picture Show and a Clockwork Orange. A review in Rockpile (?) said to “think Pavement and the Kinks penning sea shanties,” of Carry the Wood. But remember, these shanties are not like the gentle Colin Malloy’s, which try to scare you with big words and violence. The first half of “Mercy Mercy Pudding Pie” scares you just listening to it.
The new album has songs which compare to some of these bands in a much less convoluted way. The most accessible, bopping song on the album, “Ball of the Dead Rat,” sounds quite literally like “Let it Be”-era Beatles. One of the best songs on the album, “Coolest Kid in School,” sounds like it came right off of “Village Green Preservation Society.” Most, however, are a dramatic stripping and mangling of sixties rock with the scary folk (complete with the copper-colored plinking and plunking of old pianos) from the soundtracks of old horror movies thrown into the mix.
I just got the Sony alpha 100 digital SLR as a graduation present, thanks mom and dad! I will be experimenting with this camera all summer before I take it on the road. I just upgraded my flickr profile to “pro” status, so I will be linking there pretty often.
According to the internet, as well as the guy at Ritz, this is overall a better camera (and a boatload cheaper) than the Canon EOS 30D I was looking at. It came with a Quantaray 18-200mm lens (not pictured), which gives me quite a range. Now I just have to figure out how to use it. Results so far: blurry.
