Harlem - Hippies

Harlem
Hippies
(2010, Matador)
RIYL = Girls, The Strokes, Hanoi Janes

I just realized that I haven’t written up Hippies. Well, let me go ahead and present this formal recommendation. Hippies is bread and butter. The ingredients aren’t new, but it is super delicious and, similar to actual occassions I've had with bread and butter, Harlem’s version just so happens to be that one time when this simplified recipe seems to hit the spot just that much harder. The band’s sound is strongly reminiscent of Girls’ breakthrough, Album, last year; however, whereas that album left me only slightly peaked and then patently bored, Hippes has me all warm and excited. The lyrics are as crisp as the instrumentation. The whole aesthetic hits squarely, and what more can you ask for than that when pumping some blissful revivalist garage tunes. Harlem plays music for convertibles and road trips (something we got around to at about 2AM on our way to Minneapolis). And that’s about it. This is your summer bread and butter.

-Thistle

Jaguar Love - Take Me To The Sea

Jaguar Love
Take Me To The Sea
(08.2008, Matador)
Verdict: Fun!

How about another umm..... pop punk album? Jaguar Love is what you get when you take two of the most enjoyable deceased umm... punk bands and sew the remnants into a spaz rock super group. Being the descendants of Blood Brothers and Pretty Girls Make Graves, Jaguar Love had some big shoes to fill, and at first I wasn't buying it. I was initially uninterested because the distinct twee vocals from Blood Brothers Johnny Whitney make it hard not to expect just another Blood Brothers album. Once I finally separated the bands in my mind and allowed Jaguar Love to be their own band I started really enjoying Take Me To The Sea. It has all the retarded frantic brutality that you have come to love from the previous bands releases all written into hook heavy rock n' roll songs for you to finally get your experimental umm... pop punk side down to this year.

-Sassigrass

Matmos - Supreme Balloon

Matmos
Supreme Balloon
(05.2008, Matador)
Verdict = Blissful synths and blissful synths only.

In every review of this album you'll most likely find some reference to Matmos’ unconventional past, littered with inventive experimental albums built around one or more odd audio concepts (i.e. samples of “freshly cut hair” or "the amplified neural activity of crayfish”) and now, despite my initial intentions not to involve myself, this is one of them. Matmos basically ask for it with a sticker right on the plastic wrapping of Supreme Balloon that announces that they completely avoided their precious microphones this time around with an album created solely with synthesizers. It is funny how even their attempt to not have some overriding sampling concept has turned Supreme Balloon into Matmos’ “synths only” concept album. Well all that aside (I mean who hasn’t made an album completely out of synthesizers? Besides me that is), Supreme Balloon is every bit as captivating as Matmos’ previous releases and every bit as fun as well. I have always found it super impressive when an artist can create something genuinely engaging and terrific while still maintaining a sense of humor. Matmos accomplish this unapologetically. The cover art for Supreme Balloon illustrates the mood of the album perfectly, placing the duo in a hot air balloon mangled with various electronics and speakers spewing out clouds of colorful geometric goodness. Supreme Balloon is indeed a colorful cloud of supreme goodness. Bouncy, rubbery and alien, the noises produced here are bright and joyful as they are bizarre and adventurous. All and all, if you put all this emphasis on the non concept concept aside, or whatever (I am sure I am over emphasizing this) Supreme Balloon is a smart album that you can boogie to. Oh, and a word to the wise, grab this sucka on 180 gram double vinyl and you will be glad you did, first and foremost you get three bonus, non CD tracks (I promise you’ll want these because the CD version somehow manages to be just a tad too short for full satisfaction – i.e. it is good enough to make you wish it was longer) and you can avoid the tacky “secret” song tagged onto the end of the album with its extended dead air and such (didn’t this go out of style in the 90s?). Just so you know.

-Mr. Thistle

Matmos - "Rainbow Flag"

Times New Viking - Rip It Off

Times New Viking
Rip It Off
(01.2008, Matador)
Verdict = I Love It!

It is official, with Times New Viking’s move to Matador records ultra low fidelity production is officially the new black. Seems the FG office building has seen its fare share of purposely ill recorded jams as of late, but don’t let that make you shy away from this little gem because Times New Viking has got-it-going-on! With an ever lengthening Utah winter constantly hurting my poor feelings with its bitter frostiness, Times New Viking feels like sunshine via a gloriously grainy 60’s era 8mm. The wonderful surprise here is that the songs buried underneath all the swirling distortion and feedback would be as lovable without the static filter as with it. This is something of a contrast from most lo-fi pirates who use hip anti-production values as a gimmick to over shadow the fact that their songs actually suck. Yep, Rip It Off is the real deal and something of a rarity for it. So it makes sense that TMV get picked up by a larger indie label. Congrats guys! Drink in the money - you deserve it! In other news, I recently gained a new friend named Tip Toe who is actually a stuffed elephant and he says Rip It Off is the best album so far in 2008, but I still think it’s The Evening Descends. He thinks I’m lame, but whatever, at least my arms aren’t sewn to my stomach! Times New Viking rules! …this review has been lying around for awhile and I am still listening to Rip It Off and I just gained a second wind after watching Tip Toe boogieing to the album. This record is so great, good and grand. It makes me want to take of my shirt and drink lemonade and skateboard on my old driveway (no skateboarding on FG office building premises). I would almost even cuss I like it so much. That’s nuts! And I’m spent.

-Mr. Thistle

Times New Viking - "(My Head) R.I.P. Allegory"