Welcome back to Midnight Matinee in the year 2009!
On tonight's show :
BAUHAUS
GO AWAY WHITE
Could you have ever imagined talking about Bauhaus in the 2000s? let alone at the end of the triple zeroes? And here they are back in white in a very edgy album filled with a newer sounding Bauhaus - but still reminiscent of the group that led the goth nation into the world of spy in the cab and someone named Bela Lugosi. An 18 day studio session with Bob Ezrin brings back the band after twenty five years for their fifth and final studio album. Very rock guitar, spartan and lean in places, eastern influences and a goth laced tribute all topped off with that trademark glam Peter Murphy vocal and the fab contribution of Daniel Ash, David J and Kevin Haskins.
SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS
ALPINISMS
Maybe it should be School of Seven Belles instead of School of Seven Bells but this is another one of those records that falls into medieval updated choral music - however, this is much less pretentious than the M83 - and with American accents. Catchy rhythms and easy to repeat lyrics make this a good listen when you're on the tube or subway in the morning commute mode.
LOVE IS ALL
A HUNDRED THINGS KEEP ME UP AT NIGHT
For a band grabbing all the attention with their first full length album they stand up to the scrutiny. The sound harkens several of my favourite bands from the 10 Things I Hate About You days - especially Letters to Cleo and the lovely singer - albeit in a different registry and style of shouting out the lyrics.
Too many obvious comparisons to yeah yeah yeah's or Raveonettes abound - but with a less reverential attitude - more tongue in cheek or cheeky - compare the Raveonettes 60s covers of My Boyfriend's Back against the spectoresque Love Is All tunes. At the end of it all love is all.
WOULD-BE-GOODS
BRIEF LIVES
This is a rare catch indeed. After a listen to Stereolab Chemical Chords, then would-be-goods would be the next step in line. The perfect diction of would-be-goods singer Jessica Griffin [ who also contributes the guitars ] fits right into the notch of Stereolab Laetitia Sadier - dare to compare the accented Vivre Sa Vie with a typical Stereolab tune. The band behind Griffin has more than a brief history with name players among them Peter Momtchiloff on guitar, Lupe Nunez-Fernandez on bass, with Deborah Green keeping things straighforward on drums and adding her high harmonies. Brief Lives is a compendium of little pop style vignettes for those looking for their next literate fix of even Camera Obscura or Belle and Sebastian. This 2002 recording of Brief Lives can be found on Matinee Recordings.
have you spent the night in hell
it's a cheap hotel
and the bedbugs in the sheets
won't let you get to sleep
it's hell
DAVID BYRNE AND BRIAN ENO
EVERYTHNG THAT HAPPENS WLL HAPPEN TODAY
Dare to say anything about this album except it is another modern masterpiece - the vocals and tunes of David Byrne against the instrumentals of Brian Eno is their first album together in about 30 years and another leap stylistically from My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. Everything That Happens Will Happen Today is a venture worth following. These are not songs about food and buildings or suburbia, but more country or worldly-like, references to ships in the darkness and a lighthouse, but in the end leaving with an impression that is haunting.
SEABEAR
THE GHOST THAT CARRIED US AWAY
Rather naive and simple back to basic folk pop music from Iceland without all the intrinsic weirdness that seems to come out of Iceland. Guitar, piano, plucked violin and a smattering of drums and background instrumentation - with multi-part male and a dose of children background vocals - very light listening designed for listeners of Iron and Wine.
Quick views:
FRANZ FERDINAND
TONIGHT: FRANZ FERDINAND
Sometimes you just have to take Franz Ferdinand for what it is - a scattergun catchy popgun approach that does not aspire to the heights of XTC or the tribal rhythms of Adam and the Ants but still with plenty of dance attitude.
SIGUR ROS
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This is by far the least favourite Sigur Ros album of the whole lot - failing to reach any etherealness with its dry production at moments and just dragging along at dirge pace - which for most people is the whole point of Sigur Ros.
.../ stay tune for the February edition of Midnight Matinee for the year 2009. Happy Groundhog Day.
JANUARY 19, 2009 10:09 PM
