Alright, alright, alright. So we took the spring off. Fine. FINE. THAT IS THE END OF THAT SHIT.
In honor of the three lazy butts that run this website, we bring you FOWR FOR FLINCHING: where each of us pick two to four albums that we should have done some kind of gushy content about, but we were too busy getting into trouble or something. So instead we’re giving short reviews, to get the narrative back in line and keep moving.
AND HERE ARE MINE! Continue reading
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Trigger Warning: Discussion of rape, rape jokes, all that.
Like I have an audience that’s at risk or something. Continue reading
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AND WE’RE BACK!
This is probably going to end up being more about older British Sea Power records. Continue reading
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I think it’s fair to say that rock music is still the soul of this thing we do here. Our range does expand past the bravado of guitar acts and isn’t closed to much of anything, although I suppose country is underrepresented. At the same time, that is Iggy fucking Pop in the banner up there freaking out from the terrible power of The Stooges (also heroin). Rock music is a key element of this website, and of western music. This year had a lot of music that fought hard for what they thought rock and roll meant. Warpaint melted into itself, Frog Eyes filled the air with thunder, Soft Pack made a scale model city, Surfer Blood worked through human existance, and Menomena drowned in people.
So what rang out louder than all of this? Continue reading
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I personally have always had higher expectations for electronic music. As a “musician,” I’ve always been intimidated by the toolsets involved, as when faced with the ability to create ANY SOUND, my mind just shuts down. So when it came to decide the best electronic album of the year, my mind was torn. Our discussion of the topic spread between sound collage (The Books, and to a lesser extent Girl Talk), emotionally charged dance music (Baths and Caribou), and whatever the hell Down There was.
The reality of the situation is this. Continue reading
Filed under 2010 FOWRies, John
So while the Complete & Accurate Omar Rodriguez-Lopez is so far big ambition and little writing, I do still keep up to date with the man’s music, and over the year he dropped eight full recordings. They all held a great degree of variety and importance to his development as a composer, and they’re mostly fine records.
For the record: I’m not as willing to count the live record as a part of critical analysis, and as I was writing this, Un Escorpion Perfumado was released. That’s why those two aren’t on here.
I’m going to address them in quicker detail, as to save content for future entries in the C&A: Over half of the releases featured Ximena Sarinana, with two of those albums being incredibly noteworthy. Two other albums were noted by the participation of John Fruiscante, an important figure in the history of The Mars Volta. The other two records, I have little to say about at the moment, given I’ve made it through Mantra Hiroshima once and Un Escorpion Perfumado nonce. I will say that I wasn’t particularly taken by Mantra on the first listen, though.
So which of these records was the best released in 2010?
Continue reading
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That’s what this post is. And this website is still happening. Here are some people to thank.
Me, for hatching this idea out of a sleep deprived stupor.
Matt, for going along with this madness and looking good doing it.
Andrew, for DEMANDING to be a part of this site and for being the graphics wizard for everything except Mixtape 3.
Metal Sam, for shaking people down and being metal.
Ben, for holding down the fan club fort.
Jer, for handmodelling on the Fermixtape #3 cover.
Music, for kicking ass this year and making this fun.
Everyone who’s ever read this site.
Everyone who keeps reading this site.
Everyone who actually likes this site.
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TAG: Great
PERIOD: Nascent (recorded 2001, released 2004)
Not much has been made of Omar’s desire to make films by anyone but Omar. It comes up infrequently in interviews, usually in tandem with discussions of the output he has and how casually he approaches releasing it, discussing how many finished albums he hasn’t finished and how he’s the same way with films. His first publicly viewed film, “The Sentimental Engine Slayer,” surfaced in 2010 and is currently touring the festival circuit. While a variety of named films show on his Wikipedia page, the only one widely known despite no public release is “A Manual Dexterity.”
“A Manual Dexterity” appears to be a charged film for Omar, deeply personal that was difficult to revisit after the passing of Jeremy Michael Ward, a founding member of The Mars Volta and a close friend. It’s fitting, then, that this album feels like it’s working around deep voids. The most obvious is the absence of the visual that the music is supposed to wrap around. It’s some of the more subtle composition work Omar has done because that’s the purpose it’s supposed to serve, and as such the album ends up serving a valuable purpose outside of the artist’s original intention, and it’s the reason this album is tagged as it is.
Said purpose? Due to the subtlety of the work, this album is an excellent primer to how Omar thinks about and composes music, as well as giving a chance for to appreciate how oddly naturalistic Omar’s compositions are. In interviews he’s described the two sides of his composition; the roots of punk and traditional Spanish music as well as his pursuit of pure expression, leading to a solid pop structure base with experimental guitar and sound manipulation being overlaid.
The whole of the album builds this incredible atmosphere around an empty space, ornate and disconcertingly familiar like the final scene of 2001. Maybe like A Manual Dexterity. The only thing I could even consider being a misstep is the outro of the album, after the abrupt arrival of frequent collaborative partner Cedric Bixler Zavala interrupts the sparse space the music had been creating. At the same time, Zavala’s lyrics give the only attempt at filling the void left by the film’s absence, so it’s difficult to judge too harshly.
This album’s importance as Omar’s first solo release along with being an easier listen than other albums of this period make recommending the album a logical conclusion. Also I guess now would be the time to mention this series is going by release chronology.
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The first album I bought that I truly loved was “Relationship of Command” by At The Drive-In. I was 12, I think, and I used to be the kind of kid that would sit and watch MTV, although I preferred MTV2 as soon as we had it. I would put it on and play with toys, read, or do homework (woo homeschooling). Sometimes I’d just spin in place and listen to the music, and as I got dizzy the music would seep in and be the only anchor I could percieve. I would only really be transfixed if the video was strange, and not so much about the song.
Except for “One Armed Scissor.” I didn’t know what I saw in it then, but it grabbed me like no other song had. I have that song to blame for my music obsession, and a large part of that obsession is related to At The Drive-In. I’ve worn out both the CDs of “Wiretap Scars” by Sparta and “De-Loused in the Comatorium” by The Mars Volta. And within the continuing fanboyishness towards ATDI and the splinter groups, I became aware of Omar Rodriguez Lopez’s solo work. Now that this music blog is en route to becoming a thing, I’ve decided to channel that obsession into something more educational. In writing The Complete & Accurate Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, I have three goals. Continue reading
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Fermata over Whole Rest 