Wednesday, June 16, 2004
"It's better in the matinee, the dark of the matinee..."
This Past Week:
First off, allow me to apologize to my five readers. It's not that I haven't been listening at all, just not listening intently. See, I have been spending time playing shows and rehearsing, and not much time paying attention to the music I am hearing. I have also spent a large portion of my train/couch time reading. It's a habit I attend to in sprees; and I certainly feel one coming on. Based on the interest I showed in the upcoming Will Smith flicker, I, Robot (based on a novel by Isaac Asimov), my girlfriend reccomended that I read said author's most well known book(s), the Foundation trilogy. Go ahead, hardcore readers, laugh it up. I know I should have read this shit years ago, but I am finally getting to it now, and I LOVE IT! anyhoo... I finally paid attention to the earbuds this morning and it goes a li'l somethin like this - HIT IT!
Morning Commute:
Franz Ferdinand, Franz Ferdinand
It's taken some time to work up to this post, as I have been completely taken by and smitten with this album. Despite the fact that I was attracted to the cover art and the reviews I had heard, I refused its purchase at first, writing it off as nothing more than hipster fodder. The fact that one person described it as "The Strokes meet Disco" sealed the deal and I avoided it for a solid month. It wasn't until my bass player mentioned that getting people to dance was one of his motives for playing the music we do that I decided the idea of a dance band with real instruments was worth giving a spin - literally. Upon my next trip to the Prex, I was pleased to find it on vinyl and scooped it up having scarcely more than forty five seconds worth of previews at the iTunes store. I took it home and fell in love. Not only was i confronted with a band that were great players, but they were great songwriters AND made me want to dance. And dance I did. When I say the only time the record was removed from my turntable was to flip sides for more than a week, I am not exaggerating. I listened to it time and time and time again until the grooved were lodged into and impenetrable part of my brain. Withing two days of imapteience and unwillingness to deal with the Vinyl to MP3 process, I purchased it again, this time from the iTunes store. It seems that jagged, angular, dueling guitar work has become one of the staples of the new post-punk movement. I have found this return to a better aesthetic sense about the use of the guitar in rock music to be one of the redeeming values and saving graces of this otherise "smarter than thou" scene. The mere fact that said instrumental intelligence is one of the strongsuits of this record should sell me enough, but backed with a disco groove (yes, I said disco), the art for art's sake-ness of this popular effect is completely removed. It's just plain fun. The lazy vocals and slightly lo-fi recoding quality could be misconstrued as Strokes-influenced, but it only makes this dance record sound more organic. If you read about this band's roots (esentially throwing their own dance parties in what seems to be Scotland's answer to Williamsburg), this straight-forward approach to studio sound makes all the more sense. The lyrics border on the ridiculous at times, but most times the stock lyrics ("this fire is out of control, gonna burn this city) only serve to add to the fun of the album. "Dark of the Matinee" certainly stands out as my fave, and has been chosen as their third single. If you buy one record before you finish reading this blog, let it be Franz Ferdinand.
On to the bad stuff. My worst fears are coming true. For some godforsaken reason, the mainstream has caught on to this band. How they are getting airplay on K Rock is beyond me, but it's happening nonetheless. I have been planning on going to see their upcoming show in Brooklyn for a month and a half now. For weeks, the venue's ticket site has been saying "day of show only", and yet: they tickets are now "sold out" and going for as much as $120 a pair on cragislist. *sigh* but wait! the same said bassist who, in the first paragraph, inspired me to buy this record went to see them at Virgin Megastore *blech* last night and SCORED ME A TICKET!!!! now i just need to hope and pray it's not counterfeit. My only real fear is the Williamsburg hipsters in their striped sweaters and trucker hats nodding their approval in the front row, whilst they SHOULD be getting their groove on. I know I will be (getting my groove on that is).
First off, allow me to apologize to my five readers. It's not that I haven't been listening at all, just not listening intently. See, I have been spending time playing shows and rehearsing, and not much time paying attention to the music I am hearing. I have also spent a large portion of my train/couch time reading. It's a habit I attend to in sprees; and I certainly feel one coming on. Based on the interest I showed in the upcoming Will Smith flicker, I, Robot (based on a novel by Isaac Asimov), my girlfriend reccomended that I read said author's most well known book(s), the Foundation trilogy. Go ahead, hardcore readers, laugh it up. I know I should have read this shit years ago, but I am finally getting to it now, and I LOVE IT! anyhoo... I finally paid attention to the earbuds this morning and it goes a li'l somethin like this - HIT IT!
Morning Commute:
Franz Ferdinand, Franz Ferdinand
It's taken some time to work up to this post, as I have been completely taken by and smitten with this album. Despite the fact that I was attracted to the cover art and the reviews I had heard, I refused its purchase at first, writing it off as nothing more than hipster fodder. The fact that one person described it as "The Strokes meet Disco" sealed the deal and I avoided it for a solid month. It wasn't until my bass player mentioned that getting people to dance was one of his motives for playing the music we do that I decided the idea of a dance band with real instruments was worth giving a spin - literally. Upon my next trip to the Prex, I was pleased to find it on vinyl and scooped it up having scarcely more than forty five seconds worth of previews at the iTunes store. I took it home and fell in love. Not only was i confronted with a band that were great players, but they were great songwriters AND made me want to dance. And dance I did. When I say the only time the record was removed from my turntable was to flip sides for more than a week, I am not exaggerating. I listened to it time and time and time again until the grooved were lodged into and impenetrable part of my brain. Withing two days of imapteience and unwillingness to deal with the Vinyl to MP3 process, I purchased it again, this time from the iTunes store. It seems that jagged, angular, dueling guitar work has become one of the staples of the new post-punk movement. I have found this return to a better aesthetic sense about the use of the guitar in rock music to be one of the redeeming values and saving graces of this otherise "smarter than thou" scene. The mere fact that said instrumental intelligence is one of the strongsuits of this record should sell me enough, but backed with a disco groove (yes, I said disco), the art for art's sake-ness of this popular effect is completely removed. It's just plain fun. The lazy vocals and slightly lo-fi recoding quality could be misconstrued as Strokes-influenced, but it only makes this dance record sound more organic. If you read about this band's roots (esentially throwing their own dance parties in what seems to be Scotland's answer to Williamsburg), this straight-forward approach to studio sound makes all the more sense. The lyrics border on the ridiculous at times, but most times the stock lyrics ("this fire is out of control, gonna burn this city) only serve to add to the fun of the album. "Dark of the Matinee" certainly stands out as my fave, and has been chosen as their third single. If you buy one record before you finish reading this blog, let it be Franz Ferdinand.
On to the bad stuff. My worst fears are coming true. For some godforsaken reason, the mainstream has caught on to this band. How they are getting airplay on K Rock is beyond me, but it's happening nonetheless. I have been planning on going to see their upcoming show in Brooklyn for a month and a half now. For weeks, the venue's ticket site has been saying "day of show only", and yet: they tickets are now "sold out" and going for as much as $120 a pair on cragislist. *sigh* but wait! the same said bassist who, in the first paragraph, inspired me to buy this record went to see them at Virgin Megastore *blech* last night and SCORED ME A TICKET!!!! now i just need to hope and pray it's not counterfeit. My only real fear is the Williamsburg hipsters in their striped sweaters and trucker hats nodding their approval in the front row, whilst they SHOULD be getting their groove on. I know I will be (getting my groove on that is).
