Like Herr Medsker, my history as a music critic can be tied directly back to one concept: getting free music. I went to a high school journalism conference in 1987, and one of the speakers assured his audience that if you sent a copy of your publication to a record label and told them that you wanted to review one of their albums, they’d send you a free copy. It’s still true today…except in our case, we send them a link to our site, and more often than not, we don’t have to request this stuff; it’s sent to us whether we have any interest in it or not. So here are a few rapid fire critiques of discs that I never really wanted in the first place, but, hey, they were free…
The 1900s, Plume Delivery (Parasol): These Chicago-based popsters are a little bit Belle and Sebastian, a little bit New Pornographers, and are influenced a hell of a lot by late ’60 pop and early ’70s bubblegum. This, their debut EP, is full of lots of pop goodness. Even the 7+ minutes of “Patron Saint of the Mediocre” are full enough of enough musical diversity to keep things interesting throughout.
Doleful Lions, Song Cyclops Volume Two (Parasol): This album was recorded in the home of Jonathan Scott – who is, for all practical purposes, the Doleful Lions – in 1999, and there’s never a moment when you aren’t completely aware that it’s a bedroom production. I admit it, the songs – originals sitting alongside covers of the Beach Boys, the Misfits, and the Close Lobsters, among others – are all catchy as hell…but, damn, never before have I wished that I was Phil Spector, just so I could clean this shit up!
Jonny Lives!, Get Steady (Eleven Seven): There are way too many punk-pop bands out there who sound approximately the same for me to be able to write anything other than approximately the same review. These guys warrant at least a few extra words, though, because frontman / songwriter Jonny Dubowski seems to be interested in having his band be more than being just the next Jimmy Eat World. They’re not Sugarcult, but they’re certainly better than average…and lord knows that most of their peers are terribly, terribly average.
The Remote, Too Low To Miss (Global Underground): You’ve either got to be a dancing machine or a real child of the ’80s to embrace indie electro-pop, since so much of it sounds the same…and that goes for the Remote’s new disc. Your inner New Order / Depeche Mode fan will totally dig songs like “She’s Going Out Tonight,” “Right Meat,” and “The Greatness of Nothing,” but for consistency, you’d be better served by sticking with Fischerspooner.
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Stylemasters (Build): All you need to know is that it’s the instrumental soundtrack to a documentary about surfing, and it sounds like the kind of music you’d have to be stoned to enjoy.
Tom Paxton, Live at McCabe’s Guitar Shop (Shout! Factory): I received this in the same envelope at the Freedy Johnson McCabe’s album, but I kept forgetting to give it a spin. It’s not bad, really, given that I didn’t know anything about Mr. Paxton ’til just now. One description called him equal parts Woody Guthrie and Tom Lehrer – read, “sometimes political, sometime funny, always clever” – and that’s pretty well on the money, given song titles like “I Am Changing My Name To Chrysler” and “The Ballad of Gary Hart.” If you dig folks like John Prine, you’ll dig this.
Shearwater, Palo Santo (Misra): The press release on the back of the disc spouts reference points like John Cale producing Nico, Talk Talk covering Elton John’s “Madman Across the Water,” and a blend between the Velvet Underground, the Incredible String Band, and Pink Floyd circa Meddle. Right, so a album that’s just for pretentious rock critics, musical elitists, and record store clerks, then…? Actually, it’s one of those albums that’s really nice to have wash over you either as you’re falling asleep or just waking up…there’s a LOT of Talk Talk here, people…but if I’d read those descriptions, I’d be scared to go anywhere near it, lest I instantly turn into one of those cooler-than-thou assholes I so loathe.
