OLDSOUNDS
LOONIEBIN Johnny Cash "One Too Many Mornings"
The Man in Black covering Bob Dylan, sounding just as weary as he should while singing "I'm one too many mornings / And a thousand miles behind." June Carter offers her always able support in the background, lifting Cash up enough to drag himself through to the end.
Built To Spill There's Nothing Wrong With Love (Up) Originally released: 1994
Obits "You Gotta Lose"
"You Gotta Lose" mixes call-andresponse guitar with a sense of fun—à la the Sadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet-esque riffs that permeate the song— with the desperate wail of Rick Froberg. Worth your time if you like to rock. You do like to rock, don't you?
Yuck
"Suck"
With a name like Yuck and a song titled "Suck," the one-liners that usually fill this column are at your fingertips. Instead, this is great. A minimalist sound that fills out as the song goes on, this is the kind of slow jam to get an earlymorning drive going. It approaches saccharine at times, but manages to keep it together beautifully.
PJ Harvey "On Battleship Hill"
Like a valkryie, PJ Harvey's voice— here high and angelic, though it's not always so—divebombs the acoustic chords and piano notes "On Battleship Hill" that go from hopeful to dark without warning. A deep male voice join her as she sings, "The land returns to how it's always been / Time carried on the wind," but later, it's "cruel nature has won again," sharpening a hopeful melody into something deeper and darker. Nobody, nobody makes music like she does.
Bright Eyes "Shell Games"
Returning to the Bright Eyes moniker seems to have enlivened Conor Oberst's pop sensibilities without dampening his acute eye for social disparity: "Shell Games" buoys a simple pop hook—"here it comes that heavy love / Someone gotta share in the load"— with digi-guitars, '80s synths, drum machines and, later on, some lazer guitars. It wobbles under the weight, but holds together.
The Electric Demons "The Devil Made Me Do It"
The lady on vocals goes by the name of Thundermonkey and she sings in some sort of attempt at a death metal growl, but it doesn't quite come off. The music's fairly stomping, but it doesn't cut much in the way of a new path and ultimately falls flat.
In 1992, Doug Martsch combined his experience with the gnarly vibes of Treepeople and the pop sensibilities of Halo Benders and formed Built To Spill. An orotund rock sound coupled with the vulnerable sincerity of Martsch's songwriting made Built To Spill an early champion of the shape and form of today's elusive "indie rock" specifier. The band's breakthrough second album, There's Nothing Wrong With Love, subtley incorporated the strengths of several influences with the fundamental simplicity of a rock trio. Aside from the occasional cello accompaniment, TNWWL employed only a bass, a guitar and some very intuitive drumming to bake up a boundary pushing alternative record. With a dash of punk, a dollop of rock, a bit of folk and a heaping portion of honest ardour, singer Doug Martsch coined an entire album of songs that were deeply heartfelt but tastefully moderated. The immediate draw to BTS is Martsch's voice, injected with such primitive emotion, whether he's singing in a snarky inquisitive tone or crooning so sincerely it is almost too much to handle, you can hear the expression on his face. To add to that, Martsch controls our attention with his inquisitive tone, always inflecting his voice as though he is posing a rhetorical question. His
QUICKSPINS
lyrical content and phrasing are very carefully crafted as well, rarely entering the abstract or abandoning the colloquial. Take for example "Twin Falls" where Martsch moans, "Christmas, Twin Falls, Idaho is her oldest memory / he was only two / it was the first time she felt blue. / Cafeteria Harrison Elementary / Beneath a parachute / I saw her without shoes. / 7UP, I touched her thumb and she knew it was me / Although she couldn't see / unless of course she peeked." Martsch touches on these collective memories of a North American upbringing, romanticizing and paying tribute to humble and esoteric glimpses of childhood, youth, and young adulthood in a modern context. Nelson and Capps's contribution cannot go unmentioned, though. Originally intent on changing the line up for every album, Martsch replaced Brett Netson and Ralph Youtz— who had played on the debut Ultimate Alternative Wavers—with Brett Nelson on bass and Andy Capps on drums for this follow up record. The result was a less rock 'n' roll oriented approach that left more room for pop variations and opportunities for slowed-down ballads. Nelson's almost-jazzy bass lines and Martsch's slightly dissonant, Hawaiian-sounding guitar responses on "Reasons," the second and arguably the strongest track on TNWWL, demonstrates the matchless chemistry that dominates the album. The three of them fearlessly occupy several stratas of noisiness and business, not too proud to make it simple when it needs to be, nor afraid to make it impressive when there's room to strut. It is difficult to discern how much of this success is owing to producer Phil Ek who, after making his big break producing TNWWL, went on to be demanded by similar indie cupbearers Modest Mouse, The Shins and even Mudhoney. Built To Spill has had some casualties but continues to bang out incredible records. It is comforting to know that TNWWL was the beginning of a strong career and not the high water mark. Joe Gurba
// joe@vueweekly.com
WHITEY HOUSTON // QUICKSPINS@vueweekly.com
Steve Dawson Nightshade (Black Hen)
Bruce Cockburn Small Source of Comfort (True North)
Some flashy pickin' Top drawer guitar work is like Lipstick on a pig
Canuck folk hero Getting old enough to need A rocking lawnchair
Fearing & White Fearing & White (Lowden Proud)
Keys Cuts Fall Asleep Already (Keys Cut)
So comfortable Like an old married couple Andy is the wife
More relaxing than A handful of Ambien in Neo Citran
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White Cowbell Oklahoma Viva Live Locos: Live at Hertzberg (Slick Monkey)
Dinosaur Bones My Divider (Dine Alone)
One huge penis joke Uhh ... I mean the joke is huge The penis is small
Quite a fine album Perfectly overdriven Catchier than SARS
VUEWEEKLY // FEB 24 – MAR 2, 2011
MUSIC // 31