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Baby Blue Movie. Cigarettes After Sex
Cigarettes
After Sex is around since 2007 and formed in El Paso, Texas. The band
debuted with an EP in 2012 and since grew and grew. However, it passed
this blog by until a few months ago with the single, 'Tejano Blues'.
Baby Blue Movie is a single that is slow, dreamy and sung by a woman,
right? No, it isn't. Singer Greg Gonzales has an "androgynous" voice or
so Wikipedia tells me. Well, he could have fooled me. The mood of Baby
Blue Movie is superb though. Everything is slow about the song. No one
is in a hurry here. Soft drums, bass and over it a layer of synths and
an electric guitar playing lead notes. Perhaps extremely loud in the
studio, but here mixed into the (semi) background. Up front is that
androgynous voice that sings ever so slow and mildly sad. Musical
beauty in other words. 'Blue Movie' is a movie that shocked The
Netherlands around 1971 with at least one sex scene, in an elevator. Is Baby Blue Movie the chastened U.S. sequel?
That
DEADLETTER has a saxophone as the lead instrument in its songs, should
not come as a surprise for people who follow this blog. That in Mother the saxophone has an identical vibe as the one in David Bowie's swan song album 'Black
Star' is. Singer Zac Lawrence stays well within the post punk mix of
singing and talking. The band plays with dynamics in a superb way. The
bass takes the lead here and keeps that up in the band sections as well.
It is the real lead instrument in Mother, as it plays a combination of
lead and rhythm. The band comes in to play the louder accents, with
the saxophone floating over it like the wind coming and going, adding that
'Black Star' vibe no little. It may no longer come as a surprise to me,
it certainly sets DEADLETTER apart from all the other bands thrown into
the postpunk class of the last six years.
Postpunk? Why, if you can play just good old punk? Dumb Bats, a female fronted punk band from Germany does just that. I'm going to start with the drummer. The dry sound of the skins brings Therapy to mind, at the time of 'Troublegum'. Tight skins, hit hard. It lays a foundations that a band should be really bad, should a punkrock song go wrong. It far from doesn't. Dumb Rats takes off like a rocket, with an energetic song. The first half of the intro only gives half away from what is coming in the second half. Here the band goes and doesn't stop until the every end. A great guitar solo fills the song up quite nicely. As far as I'm concerned this is how things are done.
How
many examples do you know of drummers who come from behind their kit to
present a successful solo single? Yeah, Phil Collins. I'd opt for
Topper Headon's single 'Leave It To Luck'. Junior Varsity is the brain
child of Mighty Joe Vincent, who played drums in a host of bands I've
never heard of. That does not put me into the league of cool kids, the bio
tells me. With Back To Reno I can only hope to and catch up a little. Vincent present the world with a great rock song that has a host of oohs and
aahs in all the right places, a couple of great guitar licks, while the
drumming itself is powerful and perhaps just a little bit more prominent
in the mix than it would have been in a song by a non-drummer. The
single certainly is a great introduction to Vincent's solo work, that
will be expanded with an EP in the fall. "It's never enough", Vincent
sings and if the EP is this nice, it will have a predictive quality.
Pixies?
Yes, I remember the band having fans around 1990 when I was about
to leave the university behind me and the younger arrivals were fans. I
did not catch on. Still haven't. This single however is great. Perhaps
it's only so so for fans of old. I love the pace and drive of the You're So Impatient.
It has a great punk attitude, despite the members being well into their
fifties. If not older. You're So Impatient is a song that doesn't test
us at all, as it is all over in about two minutes. To assist you there,
the rhythm has this little hops as if skipping a beat. It helps setting
that pace, including that strange little "aahh" every few beats. Black Francis and band are in great form on this, for now, stand alone single
supporting the tour the band is on.
"Warning:
This video contains flashing images", reads the start of video.
"Warning: the music in the video contains ripping post punk", would have been another justified warning for
non-suspecting EDM or jazz lovers to name just two. Gurriers is from
Ireland and joins the ever larger line of postpunk bands coming from the
country. I keep being amazed by how many of these bands exist. Against
all the grains of modern music played on radios and other public
broadcasts. Approachable is a song I would not encounter in a hundred
years when listening to the radio (which my wife puts on). I like to
play my own selection and judging by the likes of Approachable, the
upcoming album 'Come and See' (13 September) may be just one for me.
Dubliners Dan, Emmet, Ben, Mark and Pierce really go for it, with an
enthusiastic singer who speaks-sings with emphasis, while behind him a
relentless pace is kept up with a two note riff that just keeps on going
and going. Think Shame, that's where I would start, with a little more
musical imagination here and there. Gurriers, remember that name.
"Time
for a cool change", Little River Band's Glenn Shorrock sang over forty
years ago. JC Miller brings that change on the blog today. From all the
(post)punk he brings us to country rock. Before Nightfall has that tough
kind of laidback feeling that comes from riding all day in the sun and
finally sitting down for dinner and coffee under a setting sun, while
bracing for the colder night in the open air. Miller has the tough voice
to match the music. I've heard at least a thousand songs like Before
Nightfall and yet I fall for it easily. How many guitars are in this
song? I stopped counting at some point. Just listen how many there are,
supportive, lead, and anything in between the two. With its stuttering
rhythm the song becomes a mesmeriser. Slowly but surely song and I
become one. Country rock exactly as it should sound Before Nightfall is.
Michigan
is a single from Tasha's upcoming second album, 'All This and So Much
More'. Listening to Michigan, I will expect to hear indie rock kind of songs,
in the mid tempo range. Louder than label mate Bloomsday, but a lot
softer than Squirrel Flower in her rocking mode. Tasha sings with a
breezy voice, rather high and kind of modest. The drums and bass
particularly are not modest and drive her dreamy vocals onwards. Just in case
she decides to stop halfway. The rest of the music in the song is certainly present but
is of another order than the rhythm section. The mix is also dense, making
it harder to pull some instruments apart. That aside, Michigan has a
positive vibe. It certainly rocks in its own way. Tasha, as you will
have noticed, has not totally convinced me but certainly gets the
benefit of the doubt.
The
female voice at the start of Make It All Right made me prick up my ears
for the wrong reasons. I forgot to listen, while finding the right
locker in my brain to find the name. So did others on the internet I
found. I came up with Wet Legs's singer. It is a perfect match with a Wet Leg
song, I'd say. Listening to Make It All Right is a pleasant surprise.
The Offspring may not have made a better 'Self Esteem' but does come up
with a great pop-punk-rocker. Dexter Holland and Noodles (Kevin
Wasserman) can still write great songs. The oohs aahs and pa-pas fly
around my ears, while around them strong melodies and supercharged
(the name of the upcoming album) playing are going on. On the basis of
this new single, I'd say The Offspring has some more life in it.
The final one for this day, is a great alternative rock song by a band called Exedo. Exedo is Latin and means to eat up, devour, consume. Anything from just eating to wild abandon or simply eating in the wild it seems. Exedo is a band from Chicago. The song reminds me of a Dutch band, I can't lay my finger on. The band rocks loud. The main riff though is of a delicateness that is a surprise compared to especially the chorus. Drums and bass are tight alright. They really keep the song together. Together with the guitar they play a passage during the song, that makes The Longest Night so extremely powerful. Over it all sings Christine with a near gothic inclination. It is what makes the single stand out twice. The band does so and the singer makes it more special. Album 'The Body Remembers' is out for a few weeks already. I may have to take a listen anyway.
Wout de Natris - van der Borght
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