Distortion!
FRIDAY NIGHT VIDEOS!
It’s no secret that the unifying elements in many of my favorite rock songs are the contradictory elements of melody and noise. From at least “You Really Got Me” forward, wrapping some distortion – something textured, abrasive, not traditionally pretty or mellifluous – just this (or maybe even that) side of “slightly-painful” around a sweet melodic core can make the song all the more “sticky” and pulse-quickening to me.
Here are a few songs that are the sonic equivalent of sugarcubes coated in Sriracha sauce.
Up top is No Age, with a song that reminds me of the mighty “Procession”. Looking forward to the new record later this month.
Down below is Atlanta’s Deerhunter with some deliciously bad vibes. Their most recent album, May’s Monomania has gotten a fair amount of play this summer around Casa Glyph. But this is the title track off their 2007 sophomore effort, Cryptograms.
I like the way the signal slowly coalesces out of static; and then that signal goes shooting off to the other side of the cosmos. This song is what The Silver Surfer listens to on his earbuds as he rides the solar winds, careening around the edges of black holes and skipping across cosmic dust clouds and straight on through the heart of the fire nebula:
Deerhunter – Cryptograms
And here’s a song from those young Turks’ Hoboken forefathers in Yo La Tengo, with their own twist on the noise-pop recipe – with surging waves of noise alternating with Ira and Georgia’s dulcet harmonies, the first half of the video makes a joke of setting up all their equipment, just in time for the brief squalling vacuum-cleaner solo at the song’s center; after which they spend the back half of the video breaking down their equipment again:
Yo La Tengo – From A Motel 6
I enjoyed these, particularly the Yo La Tengo song (but I’m a fan), but I have to say that if I went to a Deerhunter show and saw the 3 guitars up there, I would have to yell “Play some Skynyrd!”Report
I would have to yell “Play some Skynyrd!”
Don’t be that guy.
I may have mentioned that at one Built to Spill show I saw, when some wag yelled out the inevitable “Freebird!” (as happened at every show ever for a while), they busted out a full-length, totally-faithful, non-ironic, obviously-well-practiced cover of it.
It was actually really, really good.
That’s one way to deal with an overused joke.
When I saw Deerhunter, that girl wasn’t in the band. There were just two guitarists. They’ve had a lot of turnover, that bassist in the video isn’t in the band anymore either (and I liked his style). On the plus side, Cox has gotten a better haircut and ditched the Cosby sweaters.
RE: YLT – I was a bit tipsy when I saw them the most recent time at Matador 21 – after a particularly epic finale of “Blue Line Swinger”, I was that guy, telling anyone who’d listen “YO LA TENGO IS A GODDAM NATIONAL TREASURE AND WE ARE LUCKY TO HAVE THEM!”
Sound’s not great (it was freaking LOUD and it overwhelms the recording, but I guess for a post with this title that’s OK), but you can see it below. You can also see Mitch Mitchell from GbV nearly get his ass kicked – he bum-rushed the stage and a bouncer didn’t know who he was, so he grabbed him and cocked his fist back to clock him, but luckily someone else stepped in:
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I’ve never actually been the guy who yells “Play some Skynyrd” (or, back in the day, “Play some Freebird,” but I admit that one time I went to a free Newsboys, Third Day, Jars of Clay show around ’96, snuck in some Jim Beam, got snockered, and yelled for Jars of Clay to play some Freebird, which they ignored entirely. At the time, I thought it was really funny. So I was, at least at one time, that guy.Report
Deerhunter sounds good. I played that entire album on Spotify before going to the inlaws for dinner. I’m going to listen to them a bit moreReport
They’ve been pretty prolific, and consistent quality-wise…never less than good – 5 full-lengths, a couple EPs, and multiple solo records from the guitarist (as Lotus Plaza) and singer (as Atlas Sound). They are one of the few modern rock bands I will reliably buy unheard.
If you want an entry point, try Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. (a double album, but the first has a couple of their catchiest pop songs and the second is an odds and ends collection that shows a few of their more experimental sides) or the newest one (Monomania), which is kind of a trashy garage record that’s slightly weirder than it first seems. Halcyon Digest is probably their best-reviewed album, and it’s really pretty, but I forget it as soon as it’s over. Cryptograms is really strangely structured, but still worthwhile if you are in the mood.Report
i am a big fan of a place to bury strangers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFa4a56j52o
(video may be nsfw. their best video is definitely nsfw but youtube can help you sort that out)Report
A partial list of songs’ ghosts I hear inside that one:
In A Hole (JAMC)
The Metro (Berlin)
The Baby Screams & The Upstairs Room (The Cure)Report