It’s 1997 all over again

Over at a friend’s place the other week, we were listening repeatedly to a couple of the best albums of the last twelve months - by Portishead and Radiohead.

Now that’s a sentence that could easily have been used 11 years ago.  Radiohead were riding high off their landmark OK Computer and Portishead had followed up their absurdly popular debut with a darker but equally brilliant disc, Portishead.

In 2008, we’ve got Radiohead’s In Rainbows, which I’ve talked about elsewhere, and Portishead’s long awaited Third.  In the intervening years, Radiohead have put out three full lengths and a couple of other discs, while Portishead have been missing in action.

When you do something like disappear for a decade, you can either “reunite” and embark on a greatest hits type tour, or you can pretend you never really went away and take up where you left off.  Portishead have taken the second approach - and pretty literally, because Third doesn’t really sound like it would have been out of place ten years ago.  In fact, its none-more-dark reworking of the classic Portishead sound isn’t so different to what Massive Attack did with their sound on 1998’s Mezzanine.

It’s still made remarkable by Beth Gibbons’ heart-wrenching vocals and by some brilliant arrangements.  Whatever year it is, it’s an album to get involved in.

Portishead - “The Rip”

Portishead - “Machine Gun”

Side Project Alley

A “side project” typically arises for one of three reasons:

1. The instigator is a minor member of a band and is frustrated at their lack of creative input or attention.
2. They have songs or a genre to explore that don’t fit within the current band’s sound.
3. They have friends in other bands or from the bar they used to drink at illegally in high school and one night they think “Yeah, we should totally get a band together.”

Retribution Gospel Choir started off as a mix of #2 and #3. Main-man Alan Sparhawk’s day job is with Low, previously the softest, slowest band you could think of. He’s been the principal songwriter in Low over its fifteen-year existence, but Retribution Gospel Choir allowed him to bust out some grungy guitar riffs with fellow sad-sack Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon).

Reason #3 had disappeared by the time the debut album came out this year, as Kozelek has pulled back him contribution to production duties. Reason #2 has also become more spurious with the release of Low’s second last album The Great Destroyer, which was heavy on distorted guitars and upbeat rhythms. Which kind of makes you wonder why Sparhawk needs the other band.

Anyway, the album is quite good, even if it doesn’t explore new territory. Strangely enough, there are a couple of songs borrowed from last year’s Low album, Drums and Guns. This would be completely redundant if Low hadn’t pulled back on the rock and explored more electronic sounds with that album. So they make a nice contrast after all.

Perhaps RGC will take a different turn next album to stay off the Low-beaten path.

Low - “Breaker”

Retribution Gospel Choir - “Breaker”

Speedmarching

If you’ve followed the career of John “Speedo” Reis over any of the last fifteen years, you’ve probably worked out what to expect from him: classic 60s rock ‘n’ roll fed through the rough blender of West Coast hardcore for the most part.

Even as his bands have operated in different sub-genres (mathcore for Drive Like Jehu, pop-punk with Rocket From the Crypt and balls-out-rock in Hot Snakes) - Speedo’s developed a pretty consistent sound.

Now that RFTC and Hot Snakes are both defunct, it could be time for reinvention. But Speedo knows when he’s onto a good thing and new band The Night Marchers is pretty much Hot Snakes Mk. II. Case in point is a pedal-down barnstormer like “Branded”.

No complaints here - to do so would be like criticising The White Stripes for not using enough cello. That said, it’s not all death-by-riffage: “You’ve Got Nerve” is a crunchy, laid-back pop song if ever there was one.

In short, if you liked the old bands, you’ll probably like this one. If you never heard any of Speedo’s previous records, then listen to Suicide Invoice and Scream, Dracula, Scream! But listen to this one too.

The Night Marchers - “Branded”

The Night Marchers - “You’ve Got Nerve”

Your Convict Past

The bartender at the Comet Tavern in Seattle loved Australian music. He liked it so much he happily talked about it with my friend and I at length and didn’t charge us for drinks (although that might have been more to do with liking my friend). The Birthday Party, The Saints, The Scientists, The Beasts of Bourbon: these were like crack for him.

It made me think about a particular strand of Australian rock music that blew up in the late 70s and early 80s, but has been hibernating ever since (I think that’s three different metaphors in one sentence - nice). The kind of primal rock music that reminds you that we’re a nation founded by convicts and are home to some of the most lethal fauna anywhere. Unlike, say, the Lucksmiths, who remind you that a lot of us are latte-sipping urbanites in cardigans.

The reason I’m thinking about this has been finally getting into The Drones and their howling, bluesy Australian rawk. I can’t think of the last time I listened to something so brutal. The guitars on “Jezebel” seem to be made from cut-throat razors and the lyrics are biting and wicked (”I’ll hurt you like an amputee”, “I had a Caesarean but it was not any use”). And I love it.

The Drones - “Jezebel”

Across a continent

Having a Canadian girlfriend is going to be good for my musical awareness - especially with all the Canuck stuff that doesn’t get a lot of attention internationally.

A band that seem to be immensely popular in their homeland and a lot less so elsewhere are The Constantines. I’m doing a bit of research to see what the fuss is all about. I suspect the place to start is NOT their new album, Kensington Heights, since it’s getting some mixed reviews. But it’s not a bad album on its own terms.

The track that has stood out for me is “Trans-Canada”, mostly for its driving rhythm that evokes cross-country travel nicely. I don’t know whether driving around Australia with it playing is really appropriate, but I don’t care.

The Constantines - “Trans-Canada”

In the gutter, staring at the stars

If you’ve spent any time in my company, you’ve probably had me force a Twilight Singers album or song on you with the creepy intensity of a pusher using his own product. They’re an uneven band, but the concept - Afghan Whigs anthemic grunge mixed with trip-hop and electronic flourishes - what a concept! Some of the tracks on Blackberry Belle stand as my all-time favourites and I’m pretty much always in the mood for them.

They’re dark too, and never more dark than when they let a truly moody bastard like the Screaming Trees’ Mark Lanegan provide guest vocals, as he did on 2003’s “Number Nine”. The combination of two early 90s stalwarts singing about women and despair was luckily not a one-off, because the Singers’ Greg Dulli and Lanegan are back in ‘08 as The Gutter Twins.

No big surprises with the sound. It sounds a lot like “Number Nine” stretched out over a number of tracks. Not a bad thing by any means.

The Twilight Singers - “Number Nine”

The Gutter Twins - “The Stations”

This is insect speed

Sometimes I just ignore music for no good reason at all. Like the 2005 album by German lap-pop dudes The Notwist with weirdo American rappers Themselves. I should have known that I would dig it and yet I busied myself with other things. I guess there’s always so much to be listening to.

Better late than never, anyway. Because 13 & God is an impressive piece of dark and experimental hip-hop (if you can even call it that). It’s got the glitchy yet melodic thing that The Notwist do so well along with alternating vocals from the nasal Germans and the even more nasal (and tremendously abstract) Californians.

Where to start? Here are some good points:

13 & God - “Afterclap”

13 & God - “Perfect Speed”

TGIF

Yes, it’s been one of those weeks. Busy, busy, busy. So hopefully you’ve got something good planned for the weekend and this song by Def Jux Records artiste El-P will be appropriate - if not in sound, then at least title.

“Up All Night” has got that Def Jux dystopian hip-hop sound perfectly encapsulated in a lean under-three-minute track. Producto spits his rhymes with barely controlled agression and the beats are propulsive and mean.

My favourite bit: the hook-line, “We might have been born yesterday, but we stayed up all night”. So get that end of week frustration out of your system with this track - it’ll be therapeutic.

El-P - “Up All Night”