Good old Kevin Barnes, prancing around in his grandma’s clothes, singing to his love: “You’re the only one who’s worthy of my concentration.”
Barnes said it’s “a song about panic, fear, insecurity, misanthropy, self-loathing, vanity, lustfulness, arrogance and um…loving compassion. It is an anthem for the post-Obama era, an age where spurious hope has been replaced with a hatewave of pharmaceutically diminished internet neo-realism.”
Which, of course, is a perfect subject for a disco song. Why not?
There’s no hula hooping in this one, but the song is just as good as Anna Burch’s previous single.
She’s got such an easygoing, effortless delivery, and her rhythm guitar reminds me a bit of early Liz Phair. I swear I listened to this song ten times in a row.
Strange, the ones you love
Could bury your body underground
I woke up too late again
Would you start the coffee, my only friend?
I forgot to fake away that I was feeling
I guess it’s too late now all my cards are showing
No you can’t come up
Who am I kidding? I would drag you up
What was that you said
That I don’t exist inside your head
You said you would communicate better
So what will you send me a tea soaked letter
I feel so alone
When everyone in town is overblown
So I made a scene
I can think of things more embarrassing
It’s important to know how to hula hoop. It seems impossible at first, but keep trying. You’ll get it. Don’t try to go too fast or else you’ll just look like spaz. Another tip: learn on a good quality, heavier hoop. You can still buy it at the grocery store but just don’t get the super cheap lightest ones, because they’re harder to do. The heft of the hoop helps keep the momentum, and that’s key.
Anna Burch is a solid hula hooper and this video is evidence of that. She grew up in St. Joe (West Michigan, represent!) and lives in Detroit. She’s been in a bunch of bands I’ve never heard, but now she’s gone solo. Back in January she told the Metro Times that her solo debut (working title: Quit the Curse) had been “all recorded” but she was frustrated with the results and intended to “lay down new tracks” with producer Collin Dupuis in February. The full-length results are due in early 2018.
Burch sings “2 Cool 2 Care” as if it doesn’t bother her that her boyfriend is an asshole.
Slamming all your drinks, you don’t have to think about me
You’ve got all your friends, used up all their meds, honey
She says, “I like you best when you’re a mess.” But the extended bridge reveals she knows the deal.
I don’t even fantasize about what life would be like
If I were to find a one true love
The kind they said I should be dreaming of
Dare to dream, Anna! Ditch that prick and go find yourself a grownup who knows how to treat you properly.
This is a great song, and it would be just as good if its video didn’t feature hula hooping. But it does, so how lucky are we?
Innocence Reaches is due August 12, 2016 on Polyvinyl. “It’s Different For Girls” sounds like Kevin Barnes is back to embracing electro-disco pop again, so that’s fun. But it’s also serious if you listen to the lyrics: “It’s different for girls. From when they are children they’re depersonalized, aggressively objectified.” And yet it’s still playful and silly. “They don’t spit on the street, they don’t piss on the seat.” Dude’s clearly never been to a music fest where girls hover over the porta-potty with uncontrollable aim…
I love the Rentals. I still think Return of the Rentals is an underrated 90s classic. Maybe “Friends of P” had “one hit wonder” written all over it (one minor hit, of course: it peaked at No. 82 on the Hot 100), but it works great in the context of a perfectly conceptualized and executed album. Neither Return of the Rentals nor its 1999 follow-up Seven More Minutes charted on the Billboard 200 but they both rank pretty high on my personal all-time Top 200 Albums chart.
This site’s first real interview was with Cherielynn Westrich back in 2001, and we caught up with Matt Sharp himself in 2003 while he was doing his solo project. The Rentals released an EP in 2007 and some kind of multimedia project in 2009, but just last year they released their first full-length album since 1999: Lost in Alphavile on Polyvinyl. I pre-ordered it on Coke bottle colored vinyl.
And it’s good. None of the people from the first two albums other than Matt Sharp have anything to do with it, but the guy from the Black Keys plays the drums on it, so that’s kind of a big deal, right? It came out last August, but they finally got around to making a video for it, and it looks like a bunch of semi-futuristic, quasi-scientific mumbo jumbo, so it’s pretty much perfect!
The most frustrating thing about Japandroids is that there is barely a hint of complexity, and within the first minute or so of any random song of theirs–be it from Post Nothing or their new sophomore effort Celebration Rock–you’ll have these guys completely figured out. Distorted guitars, driving drums, anthemic chorus, and repeat. There should be no reason within the band’s recorded grooves to cause much of an internal commotion.
Yet here I am, trying to put that surprise outburst to words, struggling to find the appropriate weight of just how good Japandroids second album is, particularly since this tasty apple doesn’t fall that far from the branches of their debut.
It’s better than Post Nothing because it’s a step further. Each song sounds epic enough that the fact they’re a duo doesn’t even enter the equation. They all tend to get louder the farther into the song you get and with each increase, the listener tends to get even more worked up. By the end of Celebration Rock, I had an uncontrollable urge to look for their tour schedule. Because if they can stir up that kind of adrenaline rush, sitting complacently on my couch, then being in the same room of other devotes would most certainly feel revolutionary.
It’s also better because they’re older. Droids Brian Smith (guitar) and David Prowse (drums) are getting ready to hit thirty soon, but they’ve thankfully seen what’s coming with their encroaching middle age and have decided to enter it kicking and screaming. Lucky for us, Celebration Rock lets us live vicariously through that realization, and best of all they’ve made the chord structures easy enough for all of us to learn.
Wanna know their trick? Great songs. Japandroids not only subscribe to the less is more formula in terms of membership, they’ve trimmed the fat so much that the record is a blast–both literally and figuratively–clocking in at a mere thirty-five minutes in Celebration Rock’s eight songs.
Celebration Rock marks the very rare occasion when the middle-age contrarians knee deep in their own nostalgic fog can co-mingle with the dwindling youth who still think rock and roll is worth a damn. It’s an exuberant reminder of the genre’s strength, particularly when it’s fueled with nothing more than a pair of young men with full hearts, a few drinks and some instruments to help translate their angst.
Directed by Jason Miller, “Coquet Coquette” is the first single off False Priest, due September 14 on Polyvinyl. It’s difficult not to be distracted by the crazy video featuring excessive amounts of gore, cannibalism, and dry humping, but the song itself seems to be a return to more natural instrumentation. Definitely less dancey than the previous few albums, which is odd considering the fact that Kevin Barnes has claimed the new album is “a blend of ’70s soul” and “trunk rattling bass” music.
I’m a complete sucker for these guys, specifically the bi-polar projection of vocalist Josephine Olausson’s cutesy pop against the band’s art punk racket. I love how lyrically they don’t stray too far from the trials and tribulation of love in your late twenties. I love the artwork that each record presents; an old fashion cut and paste job with an X-Acto knife and retro fashion photography.
Directed by Nick Gould, wherein our hero is a fencing mime who runs around stealing televisions, chopping wood, and visiting Australia. Why not? I love that Of Montreal refuses to tone down the goofiness no matter how “successful” they become. From Skeletal Lamping, out now on Polyvinyl.
