Summer Reading Split 7" (Chimney Sweep)

Summer Reading 7"is a split record put out on Chinmney Sweep featuring:

Eternal Summers: Secret Languages/Electric Blue
Reading Rainbow: Be Who I See/My Sunrise

reading rainbow side--echoe-y male/female vocals blend together to sing pretty, washed-out melodies..minimal drums, guitar, keyboards, the vinyl crackles, or is that the recording....the sound of a scratchy needle, a crappy stereo, a tinn-y cassette... willful aesthetic choices...question mark...now that we live in an era when everyone has access to digital technology do these sounds still retain their politicized "we lack access to the means of production" signification? what is it that we are meant to hear by the inclusion of this surface noise? is it nostalgia for 80's lo-fi indie pop or is it more of a nod to that tradition? if you are discovering that music now, as a younger person who did not live through that period, then do you realize that some of us deliberately made music with our fingerprints all over it as a form of class warfare, so as not to invisiblize the PROCESS of the making of the thing, so as not to pretend we were machines or rich, so as to encourage the disenfranchised to make their own music--to say that it can still sound good even if you record it on a crappy cassette 4-track in your bedroom? turn the song down, turn the static up. regardless of the why of it sounding like this, I like how it sounds, probably for the set of reasons I described that are historically associated with the aesthetic choices made here, but I don't know why these groups made them, and it feels a little odd--maybe even disingenuous--to hear records that sound like this that are being made now...there are quite a few as you probably know. There is a nice luminous-sounding quality of the Reading Rainbow recording--each small part played on a few different instruments come together minimally creating an aural landscape or impression. was the room big or small? I really don't know. crappy microphones or expensive? home recording or studio? is the band rich or poor? punk or preppy? college educated or working class? did they record this on a computer and then put it through some kind of effects-box to make it sound this way or did they record it on a hand held tape recorder on a late 70's Tascam they bought on eBay? really, it beats me. I guess what I am missing is the context in which this record was made...the why and the how and the so what. I wouldn't think this would sound good on an iPod and maybe that's part of the point but I'm really not sure. I listened to the Reading Rainbow side about 10 times in a row before I flipped it over. The Eternal Summers side is nice too, but it sounds more like an overcast Northern England town to me than sunshine; it's freezing cold, not warm or bright.
this record sounds like it was painted with water colors, not acrylic or oil or finger paint. it's good to listen to in the dark, in the rain, when you don't want to go outside and get your feet wet or whatever. it is pop music, but not so good for dancing. I don't think it would sound good if someone tried to play it at their DJ night. maybe that's also part of the point? just a guess.

Vivian Girls - Vivian Girls LP

Vivian Girls-Vivian Girls LP
Lately talk amongst people who play in underground bands is about whether or not Vivian Girls "deserve" all the hype they've been getting. Someone in a touring band I recently spoke to cynically commented on their use of a publicist to 'make it big'. When I replied that I had seen their first show, which was at a Brooklyn punk house party with the Old Haunts in 2007 and they didn't seem to be contrived in the slightest, but actually to be a part of the punk scene there, my friend was like 'that was all a part of their plan from the beginning', as if they were only playing that show to get punk cred but had bigger plans from the start. I was dubious, but kept it to myself. I remember the show--it was up several flights of stairs and full of punx. They didn't strike me as posers at the time, nor did they strike me as anything special. I actually spent most of their set hanging out with my NYC friends in one of the back bedrooms, trying to make the most of a room full of people I hadn't seen all in the same place since the early 90's--Carlos, Molly, Rop, Billy, Joaquin, Aaron Cometbus and more people I know less well but was still psyched to see. Since they were a new band made up of all women I made a point of checking out their songs when tour was over.
I was instantly amazed by Tell the World. Musically it sounded a lot like a song I wrote in 1986 with my teenage all girl group, Doris. I loved it but didn't expect anyone else to. So when it became apparent that they had mass appeal, I was confused and like everybody else, got distracted by the hype. Why is this music big all of a sudden?
Fast forward to a few months ago and the Old Haunts are playing (what would end up being our last show) with Vivian Girls at Craig's house in Olympia. I wait for them to play Tell the World. It's a basement show the PA is bad. I can't hear the vocals and the impact of the rest of their songs don't fully hit me. I continue to wonder what the big deal is, almost forgetting my initial reaction to hearing Tell the World.
That's the problem with hype. It distracts you from actually listening to the music. This week I finally had the album and the time to sit down and hear what they are doing musically. By now I have read the reviews, heard them get called C86 and read the rebuttal-they don't understand why people think they sound like the Shop Assistants, they are trying to sound like Dead Moon and the Wipers. This informs the way I hear the record. At first I dismiss the fast melodic songs as sounding too much like Tiger Trap. This made me revisit what I didn't like about Tiger Trap--they were trying to sound like the C86 bands and there was no edge to it, it wasn't punk. Some of their songs were well constructed and even good, but it left me with the same feeling that a lot of pop music does--emptyness, wanting more. I never felt that way about the Shop Assistants or Talulah Gosh. David from the Shop Assistants was listening to the Ramones. And as David Feck and Jon Slade recently argued in a 26 page interview with Comet Gain, Talulah Gosh was a punk band. Not to mention that Huggy Bear was influenced by Crass! So this makes sense when listening to Vivian Girls. They sound like C86 because they are a pop band who listens to punk. Or maybe they are a punk band who happen to write pop songs. Either way, they aren't like Tiger Trap, who were self-consciously cute and listening to Beat Happening and Talulah Gosh. Doris was a band in 1986 and we were listening to all this stuff. We couldn't play our instruments and didn't know how to write songs, but one of our better songs does actually sound a lot like Tell the World, but without the awesome harmonies.
Bringing me back to the actual record at hand. It's classic. There are three totally amazing songs on this album. Tell the World still being my favorite: "Keep it to myself no way/I'll tell the world about the love that I've found/He sees what I see/He feels what I feel" the song is about an obsession that becomes so immense it can't be contained and has to be openly declared. The song then becomes a testimony for us all to witness; a performance of authenticity. The tremulous vocals and uncertain-but-willful playing is the hook. When they hit all the notes and you notice that they almost miss a couple but don't, you start to listen to them playing together, drums and guitar, as if you are in the group yourself--a drummer listening to the bass player, a guitarist listening to the drummer--and as it all comes together, it starts to sound perfect and by the end you are convinced that it doesn't matter that they are relatively new at playing together, maybe at playing instruments at all, you are just totally grateful that they took the time to learn how to play well enough to play the songs all the way through without stopping and actually get them documented, on vinyl no less! Turn the record over. The first song on Side Two, Where Do You Run To, is so amazingly sad and good sounding. The lyrics ask "where do you go/where do you go/why do you leave me all alone?", then the harmonies take it up a notch for the chorus and the guitar lead is reverb-fueled and notey, melodic, really great. My brain is like, 'yeah where the fuck do you go', feeling betrayed, angry. Then I realize, wait, this is only a story, not my life and I don't need to get upset. Instead I sing along and imagine writing a song like this as soon as I get a free day to sit down with the 4 Track. A few songs later, when they sing "I'm having a really hard time walking down the street" and in the next verse "I'm having a really hard time getting out of bed" in Never See Me Again you believe them. There is an emotion there you just can't fake. We've all felt it. It feels like the Wipers. Yet, unlike the Wipers, who are resigned to things being dark and doomy, there is a hopefulness here-- at least she wants to be walking down the street and getting out of bed. She is trying to overcome her situation, to move on, that's the point of the song. By the end of the record, which comes together with the incessant refrain "I Believe in, I Believe in Nothing" you have to turn it over to re-hear the songs where they do believe in something, because you now understand that nihilism is as fleeting as any emotion related to obsession. By this time you are hooked and will be listening to this record on repeat. That it's possible to hear it three times an hour ensures that you will listen to it at least six times a day for the next several days.
This is not the sound of pop music that is disposable, materialistic and shallow. It sounds like real people writing songs about their lives. Consequently, there is a necessity to it that is missing from most modern music. The Vivian Girls should not be dismissed because they are soft-sounding, too feminine or getting popular. They may live in Brooklyn but I hear them in a continuum with the Shaggs and the Carter Family. But who cares about genre-when people write songs about their lives and don't polish it up to sound perfect there is a kind of authenticity in it that we experience in our everyday lives but is increasingly rare in popular culture. In making this wonderful record, a reflection of life as it is lived and imagined, they are giving us something we need; an artifact that encourages us to tell our stories, to make our own records, to document our own lives. It's important to remember that "Participate!" was what was good about the C86 aesthetic, and 80's underground music in general.
The final question is the one we started with-- are Vivian Girls consciously trying to create the illusion of authenticity or are they 'for real'? These kind of questions, often unanswerable, are interesting, but maybe besides the point. Their record is real, whether or not their 'realness' is a pose. Isn't that non-knowing, that wondering, that searching for authenticity the essence of American folk music? And isn't the best folk music often a performance of the real? Isn't that what art is? It starts to make sense that they are named after the Henry Darger drawings. I suggest you stop talking about why they are so hyped and just start listening to their music. It's really good.

The Long Blondes-Couples LP

The Long Blondes-Couples (Rough Trade) this record is already old in blog years, but it came out this summer and I just picked it up last month, so it's new to me. The Long Blondes are of that 2003 school of groups that are technically genre-d "indie-dance" or "dance-punk" or maybe even "indie-pop", but that doesn't condemn them in my mind. Nor does their new romantic leanings (duran duran, spandau ballet, ultravox, etc)...although I universally hated that shit as an 80's teen...i guess i would call them post-romo, romo being a brief 90's revival movement of the club decadence/style if not sound of new romantics (see: orlando/plastic fantastic)...when I first heard Long Blondes way back in 2005 I kind of gagged at the name and cringed at the girls' voice...I didn't wanna like this 80's looking/sounding pop music...but for some reason I did end up liking it. I still am not sure why. I like to try and over-come my genre-prejudices and generational bias, so maybe I'm just trying to prove something to myself, like when I forced myself to reconsider Depeche Mode (in 2003) by ritualistically listening to their first album and asking young people who were into gay club music what was good about it. I never liked it, but at least I kind of understand where people are coming from now. The Long Blondes remind me of Bowie, Blondie and at times Roxy Music. Other echoes: Postcard Records--when Scottish post-punk went disco; when British post-punk got dancy; when the Human League was kind of good. So, it's kind of hard for me to admit I like this. Am I forcing myself to like it then, or am I just embarrassed that this JFA loving 80's underground purist actually likes this 'trendy dance music'? Bringing me to question, what does any of it mean? It gives me the same feeling that listening to the Go-Go's did as a pre-teen. I liked Bananarama, the Fun Boy Three, Altered Images, Dolly Mixture, Motorcycle Boy, the Jesus and Mary Chain and even the Smiths....so it's not like I was anti-pop music. I just hated the 80's dance club kids. We would endlessly harass them, "why are you paying $6 to dance to pre-recorded music when you can see three live bands made up of teenagers on tour for just $3 AROUND THE CORNER...not to mention al the rad local bands made up of kids just like you", etc. Of course we also hated their clothes and haircuts. Funnily enough, we were friends with some of these "duranimals" at school, we just didn't hang out with them downtown. So we recognized that new wavers were weirdos just like us punkers, but in order to "be cool" we had to denounce each other. In the early 90s I actively renounced this division as arbitrary and called for new wave/punk rock girl unity. However I still would get annoyed at the trendy aspect. So as the 90's went on, I hated Elastica and even Blur (at first) and certainly thought Garbage was terrible. But then I reconsidered it. I think meeting Huggy Bear and going to England made me unashamed of my pop leanings, though clearly I still have issues coming to grips with it. So this dichotomy is there when I listen to the Long Blondes. I think they are good, I like this record, but I fear it's trendy and doesn't mean anything. I'm pretty sure I'm right about the latter and not sure how well this music will hold up over time, but I'm enjoying it a lot right now. The best moments remind me of recent Glass Candy, Debbie Harry solo and the Au Pairs. For me it's all about the singer. I like her voice a lot now and imagine she's a cool new wave girl that I should have been friends with outside of school, but was "too cool" or maybe not cool enough...sometimes I don't wanna always be such a hater. I value the idea of popular music and dancing...I reject the shallowness and the emphasis on surfacey concerns and materialism...fashion vs. style...I don't believe that market commodification=populism, but I do think it's rad to have accessible music that unites people, and I know that can happen purely based on a catchy chorus of nonsense, see the Beatles Yellow Submarine. The Long Blondes are an underground pop group (for the most part), they aren't the Beatles, but liking them still brings up all these concerns for me, bringing me back to my question: does is really mean anything? Why does it exist? I still don't know, but today it sounds good to me. It's like, I know melon is good for you but I resist eating it. Why? Is it because it's too expensive and therefore decadent/ostentatious or is it because I'm secretly allergic and it actually makes me sick. I don't know, but sometimes I eat it anyway even though it turns my mouth numb. Is this music like a honeydew melon then? I could fully extend the metaphor, but I would insult your intelligence and test your patience. Suffice to say, even if it is nutritious it's not enough to keep you alive.

Mutators-Secret Life LP

Vancouver BC's punk trio Mutators aren't your average post-everything screamers punx, though they are of that generation...and what i mean by that (in case you are not getting the grandma lexicon) is those younger adults known as "kids" who are into really cool shit that used to be hella obscure but in the past 10-15 years got integrated into the cool shit underground music canon, ie no wave, avant garde classical music, noise, industrial music, post-punk and just in general regional groups that never toured or put records out so remained unknown to those of us who grew up before the obscure history of everything was so instantly accessible ..(in this case the SCREAMERS are the example of this salvaged punk band that was so obscure that, if i remember correctly, they didn't release anything besides a demo tape and a Target video, which was supposedly their album, and so while their name was fairly well known on the west coast, most people didn't hear them until the late 90's when a well circulated bootleg was released on vinyl; if you wanna google them you'll know more about it than me because untill right now i never did that, but here you go)....well enough about generation gaps...this is all to say that in many ways, most of them formal, punk is better now than it used to be, but it sometimes means less and just seems like pastiche. mutators are one of those groups, but they have amazing energy, presence and possibly the best punk girl singer-i-mean-screamer of all time. you might trace it back to Lydia Lunch's early group, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks or a more recent reference like VIKI (LOAD RECORDS/ANIMAL DISGUISE RECORDINGS) from detroit but that's not why you would care.
last night i listened to this record twice in a row, lying on the floor, not doing anything else. this is how i used to listen to music all the time, but rarely does something command my full attention these days. having seen mutators live a few times, i was pleased to be able to hear lief's vocals full force. so many times i have wanted to hear a sound like her voice...to make that sound come out of my own mouth...it is a monstrosity, but so familiar in feeling as to make you wonder where all the other bands are that make rad sounds like this. to be fair, the other musicians in the group are wild and furious too. the music is minimal (a two piece?) noise-core with echoes of black flag my war era type abandon; but with no wave/noise leanings and minus the metal. fucking rad. i wish there was a lyric sheet. this is the best sounding record in awhile, so i wanna know what the songs are about, if they are about more than sound, that would be killer, but if not, this sound itself means a lot to me; it replaces the silence of my own unrecorded screams....which is incredibly comforting. it hurts to make this sound, but it also sucks to never be in a situation where making noise like this is a possibility...you could go in the woods or get on stage and i don't really wanna do either of those things right now, but i do feel like making this sound, or attempting to rather, almost every day all day. ok go listen to them now and try not to be as cynical as i sound about 'the kids these days' because this is an awesome record.