smartrock

Trans Am – Red Line: Rock from the future

Trans Am’s brand of future-rock has been of constant interest since the day I first heard it in early 2002. I appreciate their hard-drive rhythms and computerized effects. In fact, before i knew any better, I thought the group was from Germany. Turns out they’re actually from Washington, DC, which is why I also appreciate that they tackle political material in a way that’s direct and clever, but not too clever.

However, I have to take issue with the group’s 2000 album, Red Line. This was indeed the album that started my fascination with the band, but really only on the basis of two very good songs: I Want It All, and Play in the Summer. But after yesterday’s tunequest listen, i have to admit to myself that the rest of the album is fairly uninteresting. I mean, the albums left such an amorphous impression that I can barely remember what it sounded like specifically. I’ll hang on to it though; I never know when it might strike my fancy.

Play in the Summer, live in Austin. It’s not as good as the album version, but it gives you a good idea.

Trans Am – Play in the Summer (10/1/03)

Stereolab – Ping Pong: Geo-political Rock

ping pong

Ping Pong is an unusually uptempo, rockin’ song from Stereolab’s mars audiac quintet. It’s one of my favorites from the groop and the increase in tempo gives its lyrics a stronger visceral impact.

Though released in 1994, the lyrics show a degree of timelessness, given the current geo-political situation.

it’s alright ‘cos the historical pattern has shown
how the economical cycle tends to revolve.
in a round of decades three stages stand out in a loop.
a slump and war then peel back to square one and back for more

bigger slump and bigger wars and a smaller recovery
huger slump and greater wars and a shallower recovery

you see the recovery always comes ’round again
there’s nothing to worry for things will look after themselves
it’s alright recovery always comes ’round again
there’s nothing to worry if things can only get better

there’s only millions that lose their jobs and homes and sometimes accents
there’s only millions that die in their bloody wars, it’s alright

it’s only their lives and the lives of their next of kin that they are losing
it’s only their lives and the lives of their next of kin that they are losing

it’s alright ‘cos the historical pattern has shown
how the economical cycle tends to revolve.
in a round of decades three stages stand out in a loop.
a slump and war then peel back to square one and back for more

bigger slump and bigger wars and a smaller recovery
huger slump and greater wars and a shallower recovery

don’t worry. be happy. things will get better naturally.
don’t worry. shut up. sit down. go with it and be happy.

Meanwhile, enjoy this poor quailty music video of the song; it’s so very 90s:

My Ratatat Fix: Live at Lee’s Palace in Toronto

My lowly 15gb iPod, maxed to its capacity, can only store about 2000 songs at a time. At the moment, it houses albums ranging from 0-N (not including albums that begin with ‘the’). Thus, I have not had any Ratatat grace my eardrums in quite some time. And man, i have been jonesin’ for it, with no relief in sight.

But in this junkie’s darkest hour, I stumbled upon a ray of light called CBC radio 3, with its vending machine of archived performances available for all kinds of streaming pleasure. God bless those Canadians; they had a 2004 performance by those electro-synth-rockers queued up and waiting, just for me.

Now I can slip on my headphones and have a prolonged and gentle heroin shot of that driving melodious Ratatat sound and wait in anticipation of their album’s arrival on the tunequest.

Addendum (9:58pm): just discovered that the iTunes music store has a heretofore unknown (to me) Ratatat b-side: "Noose." Yeah, I had a couple free downloads; yeah, this was one of them; yeah, it’s good, very good.

Spiritualized, Stereolab, This Heat, more

Here are some quickies; enjoy:
Spiritualized, some drifty, hazy, drugged-out psychedelia. Lots of fuzz.

The Aluminum Tunes album is nothing special, but anything by stereolab is worth listening to.

I didn’t know anything about this heat other than I enjoyed their album Deceit until I checked out the wikipedia, which pretty much reflects the album. Based on their sound, I would have pegged them as German, except for the lyrics to Independence, in which they sing the American Declaration of Independence. Given that, I was surprised to discover the group is British. hat tip to jon for this.

A strong showing from The Chemical Brothers on come with us, especially My Elastic Eye which seems to be inspired by the castle theme to Dragon Warrior.

Hum – Downward is Heavenward: gotta go down to get up

Hum’s Downward is Heavenward is a lost gem among rock records in general and 90s rock records especially. Those of you with particularly acute memories might recall that Hum scored a minor US hit in 1995 with the single Stars which is actually one of the weaker songs imho from You’d Prefer an Astronaut.

Even so, I really enjoyed that album and, during that year, Hum became one of my top tier bands for the remainder of high school and the beginning of college. Devoted fan that I was, I eagerly awaited the band’s next album. On the cold January morning in 1998 that Downward is Heavenward was released, I remember leaving school between classes and waiting for the mall to open so I could buy it.

But it seems I may have been the only person who did that, because this album tanked… big time. The album barely made a splash and no one seemed to take any notice of it. Sales were abysmal and the record label (RCA) dropped the band later that year. The group split up shortly thereafter.

I once had a short-lived newspaper column called ‘records that time forgot’ where I would find old, nearly forgotten records at used stores, thrift shops, etc, with an eye toward resurrecting lost masterpieces, and then write about them. Downward is Heavenward almost became the subject of one, even though the album was barely 3 years old at the time, because I felt it hadn’t had the chance to be remembered, let alone forgotten. And that’s a real shame, because this thing is smartly put together and executed by expert musicians.

Like its predecessor, this album features some very tight and complex songwriting, with a brilliantly clean distortion that overlaps shrouded and oblique, but thought-provoking lyrics delivered with such earnestness by Matt Talbot. Then there’s that guitar riff that never seems to end in Ms. Lazarus, I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard anything so intriguing.