Ian Marquis - The Shivers

The single greatest hurdle for musicians is creativity. Sure, it's an obvious trait, but some musicians don't really take it into account. I have heard countless bands who are flooded with talent, but they lack the creative spark to make anything interesting of it. Sure there are exceptions (Nickelback runs to the front of my mind here), but the majority of bands survive on their ability to make what has not been made. That is Ian Marquis' resounding trait.

I met Ian through reddit, quickly revealing itself to me to be the king of the interwebz. Ian makes music for a genre that I don't listen to very much. While there are moments of post-rock and even pop here and there, I keep relating his tunes to the realm of industrial. I would certainly classify his first album, with it's brooding drum pounding and whispering vocals, very industrial music. It's much more difficult to pin his second self-written-played-produced album, The Shivers, under this title, or any title for that matter. "Girl's Got Attitude" has the very dramatic grumbling, but the riffs are much more U2, or even Whitesnake, than Trent Reznor. "Clarified" can be called nothing less than dancing inclined (Think what Daft Punk did on Tron), while "Pressure Plates" is a great little glitch pop jam. Meanwhile, the guitar riffs remain hard hitting throughout, and the overall mix stays spot on as well. The production, what with Ian doing it all himself, was one of the main things that surprised me when listening to his music for the first time.

While the creativity is very nice, Ian does have a few things to work on; mainly his lyrics. He has some great ideas for some lines, don't get me wrong; It's just that he struggles to flesh them out to their full potential at times. "Baby, don't you know /I've gone away/But you're all wrapped /Around these gears /Dreamin' that tomorrow is today" left me hoping for towards the machine aspect, but the reference dies off there. Also, the voice can get a little too dramatic to be sincere in a select few places. Marquis is astutely effective when keeping the tiniest bit of melody in his softly trickling voice, but when it claims a bigger stake in the songs, it can get a little to far out of line. However, this is a trait I have seen many times with those who ease their way into the singing role, and you can hear the improvement in his vocal ability between his first album, The Solomon Project, and his latest release.

The album is a very impressive one for a musician just starting to find his way in the industry, and it proves that there is a lot of potential in Ian's wash-y guitar driven ballads. Check out the album here, and if you like it enough, please buy it. I'm sure Ian would be eternally grateful for helping him keep make this music he is so passionate about.

The Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde

Ever since the dawn of the radio, certain band's have played the proverbial playlist of the teenagers around them. The 1960's had a band that was as starry eyed and revolutionary as the teenagers themselves. That band was the Beatles. The 70's, the most diverse of any decade, had bands like Led Zeppelin, Jackson Browne, Simon & Garfunkel, Boston, James Brown, and Queen all representing their respective audiences;The 80's; Van Halen, The 90's; Nirvana. It's hard to really put a thumb on the last ten years, but the attitudes of bands like Korn, Beyonce, Fall Out Boy, and Kanye West have all hit a nerve and struck the awe of many.

Yeah, the 2000's kind of sucked.

So, am I saying that The Smith Westerns are that band for today? No, not at all. In the least pretentious way posible, you've probably never heard of them, and in all honesty, you most likely never will again. However, the more I run through tracks like "Still New" and "End Of Night", the more I think about how well this music applies to my generation (my my my my generation).

I suppose I am referring to the hipper than though culture in particular. Yes, this goes out to everyone who has ever bought a bike just so they could roll their pants up to their calf, or stared at the sun until you had to have thick rimmed glasses (because wearing fakes is trying too hard). These hipsters, like The Smith Westerns, have modest dreams, but they never tend to let reality get the best of them. They are very grounded. They find humor in what is real, not what is imagined; "ironic" is thrown around the same amount of times as "the" and "hello". It is a very introspective culture that thrives on what is real, even if the nay-sayers think their heads are in the clouds. If it sounds confusing, it's because it is.

Dye It Blonde is a constant shoe-gazing struggle between releasing and with-holding emotions. "God, it's a waste of time, but the sun still shines, and it shines for you", pleads 18 year old singer Cullen Omori. This ambiguous claim is romantic, but romantic in the sense that there's a lot of pessimism behind that claim. At the same time, the band has constructed a hazy soundscape that is as harsh as it is beautiful. The guitar lick on the opening track, "Weekend", raggedly cuts to the bone, but it's also maintaining the songs fluidity. It's as non-conforming as the kids nowadays.

One of the albums singles, "Imagine Pt. 3", bounces as heavily as the bridge in Arcade Fire's "Wake-Up", but every once in a while, the rhythm dips out of the be-bop and cuts in half, completely losing its structure, only to materialize again, seconds later. It's brilliant. This swinging motion carries through until the end, when that swing snaps, and leaves you flying off in the distance. Once again, Cullen is spouting both praise and hell-fire towards his love, all while picturing a perfect world that the girl keeps tearing down. It's probably my favorite track of the year thus far.

Another thing to note about Dye It Blonde is it's sly trek through multiple genres. The obvious standout being 60's garage rock, the band manages to also test its chops in some gleaming moments of glam rock, punk (slightly), and even a bit of hair metal. Ok, so the last one might be a bit of a stretch, but when I saw these guys at a bar downtown a few weeks ago, the piano break in "End Of The Night" left me dying to start screaming, "IT'S AS COLD AS ICE." Moment's like that make this band special. While they may not ever get near the fame the famous mop-top crew ever achieved, their music is iconic for me. Even if that time is right now.

I wish I could say more about this album, but it's one of those cases where it just works. It's too good for me to describe successfully. Listen to it. Experience it. Let it affect you. Let The Smith Western's struggle connect to yours. At the very least, go buy a fake mustache and some Pabst.

The Decemberists - The King Is Dead

Songs. Sometimes they're great. Sometimes they're terrible. Sometimes they're meh. And sometimes, they get stuck in your head. I'm not talking McDonalds jingle stuck in your head. I'm talking about a band packing up and keeping residence in your head like it's a bed and breakfast, injecting their song into your head with every passing second until it's completely taken over your life to the point of public meltdowns. Well, ladies and gentleman, it's happened. "Down By The Water" by The Decemberists. It's got me in a folk trance. I've caught myself singing it in public. I listen to it every chance I get. I have dreams of Chris Farley singing it to me by my bed side. This song is resounding with me more than any song I've heard before. Therefore, on a quest to remove the song, I bought the album and listened to it three times straight. Impressively, the album's not a one and done; far from it actually. The Decemberists have shaken their epic concept album attachment to make not a long unfurling folk story, but a collection of different shades of folk rock. In broadening their horizons, Colin Meloy's troupe of folksters let their alternative country talent shine with their studio album The King Is Dead.

Not that The Crane Wife and Hazards of Love aren't good albums. Not at all. They are both ambitious and beautiful in places, but they tended to steer towards the darker spectrum of folk, with songs running seven and eight minutes long, and while The King Is Dead has its introspective moments, the real difference in the new album is the energy. The King Is Dead is filled with fun down to earth tunes that just feel right. The album's opener, "Don't Carry It All" sounds likes a barn-stomping affair; all of the family singing along. A perfect drum part and the occasional fiddle-here mandolin-there fits perfectly. "So raise your glass to turnings of the season/ And watch it as it arcs towards the sun/ And you must bear your neighbors burden within reason/ And your labors will be born when all is done." Lyrical creativity has never been a problem for Colin Meloy. In fact, a lot of his music begs listeners to have their dictionary open, looking up the words that Shakespeare would have been inspired by, a feat making the imagery all the more poignant. You know, like Miley Cyrus. But who, in this day and age, has time to look up words in an old dusty book. I went to high school with kids that didn't know what a dictionary was. Therefore, I've prepared a nice little Idiot's Guide to The Decemberists The King Is Dead; how to understand Colin Meloy.

plinth-pedestal: an architectural support or base (as for a column or statue)

trillium-any liliaceous plant of the genus Trillium having a whorl of three leaves at the top of the stem with a single three-petaled flower

bonhomie-affability: a disposition to be friendly and approachable (easy to talk to)

dowager- widow holding property received from her deceased husband

loam-a rich soil consisting of a mixture of sand and clay and decaying organic materials

strata-Layers (the plural of stratum); in archaeology this term generally refers to layers of earth.

anon-at another time; "ever and anon"

gabardine-a firm durable fabric with a twill weave

lynchpin-anchor: a central cohesive source of support and stability; "faith is his anchor"

culvert-a transverse and totally enclosed drain under a road or railway

reverie-absentminded dreaming while awake

panoply-a complete and impressive array

avarice-extreme greed for material wealth

I haven't seen vocabulary like that since The Black Eyed Peas classic, Elephunk.

The King Is Dead also features a panoply of guest artists. R.E.M.'s Peter Buck appears quite a bit, along with Dave Rawlings Machine's Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings Himself. However, these are in no way the only influences apparent on the album. Bits of Tom Petty show up every few hooks or so. Both "January Hymn" and "June Hymn" have traces of Avett Brothers in in their blood. "Down By The Water" sounds like it could be The Boss himself. Even the rallying cry "This Is Why We Fight", one of the weaker songs on the album, reminds me of Muse's epic rocker "Knights Of Cydonia" every time I hear the entrance, and while some might condemn The Decemberists for losing their typical sound and picking up others, the musical execution and emotionally enthralling songwriting makes it all alright.

All in all, The King Is Dead is a great album, mainly because that's all it's trying to be. You can hear the work put into the songs. With all of the help from outside sources, the album has a very communal sound, stretching the boundaries this band had set before. Here's too hoping there's more like it to come.

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

There are two types of people in the world. Those who love My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and those who hate Kanye West. I know that's a bit of an ultimatum, but really, everyone I've talked to that has looked down on this album have included the words, "I hate Kanye West" in their justification. I try not to tell people that their beliefs towards music are wrong, but these people are blinding themselves to one of the greatest rap albums I've ever heard on a pretty ridiculous basis. MBDTF (I'm not typing that again) isn't nearly as beautiful without a douche-bag behind the wheel anyways.

As most everyone in the world realizes, Kanye West is no saint. In fact, let me help you with a timeline of Kanye's life, starting with a little Hurricane Katrina Benefit program.

September 2005 - Kanye West appears alongside Mike Myers on very national T.V. for a Hurricane Katrina Benefit program. Kanye wisely decides to trash his family friendly lines in favor of his own insight to the situation stating, "George Bush does not care about black people." Mike Myers doesn't know what to do.

January 2006- Kanye appears on the cover of Rolling Stone wearing a crown of thorns. The world rolls it's eye.

December 2006 - Robert "Evel" Knievel sues Kanye for trademark infringement in Kanye's "Touch The Sky" video. Knievel settles November 2007, days before his death.

September 2007 - Kanye moves the release of his third studio album, Graduation,a week and a half earlier, the same day as rapper 50 Cent's album Curtis. 50 announces that if Kanye outsells him, he will never make a solo album again. 50 Cent did not outsell. 50's fourth album came out a year later, and another one is coming this coming year. Graduation goes double platinum.

November 2007 - Kanye West's mother dies suddenly after plastic surgery.

September 2008 - Kanye and his bodyguard Don Crowley are arrested are arrested at LAX on counts of felony vandalism after an altercation with the paparazzi.

November 2008 - Kanye is arrested again outside of a club in Newcastle for fighting a photographer. Kanye's fourth album, 808's and Heartbreaks, is released ten days later.

June 2008 - Kanye is two hours late for his headlining slot at Bonnaroo, starting at 4:30 in the morning, which in effect ruins most of his elaborate light show, due to the sun. Kanye later rants in ALL CAPS on his blog, blaming Pearl Jam, Ashely Capps, The fans, and everyone else in the world besides him for the awful show. (When people got bored at 'Roo this year(two years later), veterans would yell "F@#^ KANYE", much to the crowds chagrin.)

September 2009 - Kanye interupts Taylor Swift, mid-acceptance speech for her "You Belong With Me" video, and yells the words heard around the world. "Yo Taylor. I love you, and I'mma let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best video of all time!" The internet has a field day with meme's, and anyone who has ever heard of Taylor Swift acts like the world has ended.

Those are the high points. Believe it or not, there are plenty of other instances that have peppered Kanye's life the last few years. After the Taylor Swift incident, Kanye dropped off the map and stayed there for quite a while, taking a long hard look in the mirror. The public was hoping this would be cathartic, and that Kanye would go back to just making pretty good, innovative rap music, like he did on his first two albums. That didn't happen. Kanye took his mirror image and completely delivered it into the studio. After almost a year of relative silence, Kanye emerged on smash-hit collaborations "Forever", and "Run This Town", with a fluidity that had been missing since Late Registration. Lines such as, "I'd trade my grammy's back/ Just to have my grammy back." and, "I used to want this s%!^ forever, ya'll can have it back.", provide a stark opposing view to songs like "Good Life" and "Champion", released just a year earlier. This new dark side of Kanye was intriguing, if not a little confusing.

So, to wrap up our time line.


September 2010 - Kanye publicly debuts his newest hit "Runaway" at the VMA's. He finishes the song, and walks off stage, without bothering anyone all night.

A whole night where no one had reason to be mad. So, where did the crazy go?

MBTDF is Kanye West's greatest album, if not one of the best hip hop albums of all time. I stand firmly behind that. Kanye has framed the last few years of his tumultuous life into a fantastically orchestrated diary that violently swerves between egotistical bombast and depressing self-revelation. Kanye has learned to channel his antics into musical form, a mutually enriching experience for Kanye as well as the audience. For the most part, the lyrics are cutting and concise, creatively elaborating a point of view the public tends to ignore; the accused. That's not to say that Kanye is pointing fingers. Mr. West has matured enough to realize he is steering his mistakes, and he expresses this sentiment especially in the song "Runaway". The song starts with a single repeating note from a slightly out of tune piano, symbolic of Kanye's own life. After the piano finishes dancing around a few bars like an old music box, the song explodes into a barrage of bass, back-beat drums, and a sample of someone screaming "Look at ya!" literally moving around the sound spectrum, as if encompassing the deflated Mr. West. This "toast to the douche-bags" hits all the right buttons to form an interesting emotionally driven ballad, ending in a Mr. West ripping variations of the chorus into a vocoder while the song breaks down around him.

"Dark Fantasy", the albums first track, starts with Nicki Minaj setting this album apart form the get go.

"You might think you've peeped the scene
you haven't
The real ones far to mean
The watered down one
The one you know
Was made up centuries ago
It made it sound all wack and corny
Yes, it's awful, blasted boring
Twisted fiction
Sick addiction
Well gather round children
Zip it listen!"

This is followed by a huge gospel choir repeatedly questioning, "Can we get much Higher?", before the song falls out of it's fairy tale charm, and hit's the ground running with a creeping beat that is the perfect canvas for Kanye to show off both his creativity both lyrically and rhythmically. The song is one of the few on the MBDTF that doesn't really revolve around a central idea, instead taking the time for Kanye to simply clear his mind, and tease the elements that will later come into play. The song grabs you from the moment it stops for Ye's grand entrance and keeps your attention with lyrics like "We drown sorrow in the Diablo/ We found bravery in my bravado" through to the end. It's one of the better intro's in all of the rap albums I've heard, simply because it isn't a simple 40 second teaser to the rappers ego; a move that happens far too much.

Three songs in, Kanye lays down what could arguably be his best song ever. POWER has one of the most epic sounding beats of all time. The chant clap that feels equally pre-historic and futuristic is driven with an overpowering bass to create this huge aura around the listener. It' like hip-hop that craves Michael Bay to shoot an explosion to. Kanye takes this larger than life music, and uses it as the background to his eternal struggle with his fames pros and cons, all the while leaving room to just say "till then, f$%^ that/The World's ours." This balance is not just a microcosm of the album, but Kanye's life as a whole.

Other songs on the album take up the bad-guy image Kanye has projected over the last few years, and simply embraces it. The aptly titled "Hell Of A Life", with it's intro uncanilly reminiscent of Darth Vader's theme music, finds West in a materealistic cannon ball where he marries a porn star and embraces the sensual euphoria that comes with it, not for his own sexual pleasure, but the pleasure of knowing that so many people will snarl their noses at him before they find a single fault in themselves.

"Lost in the World", the album's closer (sort of) utilizes the same tool Arcade Fire used recently in The Suburbs. The song represents it's idea as powerfully in it's music as it does in it's lyrics. As the title suggests, the song finds Kanye looking in every direction (religion, sex, drugs, ego) for something to hold on to as he is buried in confusion and fame. Kanye has little to no hope in his voice when he suddenly drops from the track, leaving a few a few minutes for the demons around him to simply be. Eventually, the album ends with a very scared Gil Scott-Heron reading excerpts from his incredible poem "Comment #1", words that really tie the bow around this absolutely outstanding piece of art. If anything, these last two tracks are worth listening to a hundred times over, for both those who hate, love, or tolerate Kanye West.

Controversy will always follow Kanye's name. He may not realize that he is at fault for it, but at this point who cares. With My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye has taken both his talent and his life and blended them seamlessly into a hip-hop opus for the ages. The album truly is a gem amid the ever growing face of popular hip-hop. Kanye is tragic hero that we can all examine, and learn more about the nature of human beings through, all the while dancing until we hurt. So thank you Taylor Swift. Thank you George Bush. Thank you cast of SNL, and thank you every rapper who tries so hard to sound like everyone else. You have created a beautifully intriguing disaster, and I would rather hear him than my radio anyday.

Kings of Leon-Come Around Sundown

Hello world. It's been a long time. I've kind of been hibernating for a while. I know it sounds xrazy, but college IS difficult and time consuming. Fun, lot's of fun; But time consuming. But honestly, there's like a 98% chance you didn't know, and furthermore, didn't care that I haven't been keeping up here.

Oh well.

Who is the biggest rock act going right now? Think about it. I'll give you a hint; It's not Creed. King's of Leon has absolutely eclipsed the rock scene with, arguably, their worst album. The band has gone from playing small bars in Knoxville two or three times a year, to being the main reason for a huge percentage at both Bonnaroo and Glastonbury this last year. Interestingly enough, the band is pretty vocal about how they sold their soul to the devil, and how much they hate themselves for it. I love this clip of an interview in SPIN.
"We definitely got bigger than we wanted to be," Caleb tells SPIN. "You feel like you've done something wrong. That woman in mom jeans who'd never let me date her daughter? She likes my music. That's fucking not cool. You almost start doing damage control: When people ask you to do stuff, you're like, 'No, because I can already tell this record is going to get to a level where people will fucking hate us.'" Only By The Night wasn't a bad album by any stretch, but it was mostly just listenable, and for musicians, that's worse than bad. That means your creativity is blacking out. A lot of artists get to that point, and may rise in fame, gain more money, but the band dies.

I have seen a staggering amount of online "critics" refer to this as Kings Of Leon's sophomore album, which is a huge pet peeve of mine. If you are going to review a band or an album, have the respect to look up their f@(&*($ discography. Don't be ignorant. So, for all you looking to praise or bash, let me enlighten you with a history lesson.

First there was Youth and Young Manhood, and it was good. So I hear. I haven't heard a lick of this, but it's supposed to be pretty fun rock. Next came Aha Shake Heartbreak, which I can vouch for. The album is an incredible blend of rollicking bar-stompers and creative dark jingles. Next came Because Of The Times, which essentially honed in on the great parts of the previous album, and turned up a few notches. Then there was Only By The Night. The album lost the fun in the last three albums. It was catchy in places, but gone were the frenetic fuzzy bass lines, and craftily syncopated drum beats. The songs, both literally and figuratively tend to just wander around and try to sound emotional. Songs like "I Want You","17", and "Use Somebody" find the band an emotional wreck on the same bar-floor they were once raising hell on. I will say I do like "Closer" a lot, but it doesn't sound anything like the rest of the tracks. On the flip side, it is the highest selling album on the internet ever. The guys could retire and buy a pool of molten gold in each ones backyard. I guess there's the silver lining.

Before Come Around Sundown hit shelves, KoL pledged new ways. They don't want mediocrity, they want a mark in musical history. So does it take a turn to their creative past? To make it short, no. The band is still very much the band it was this time last years. Songs like "The Immortal", "Birthday", and "Pickup Truck" just fill out the album. There are very little redeeming qualities in their shallow "just get through it" licks. However, there are quite a few mostly successful attempts at rising back into it's earlier days. Take for instance, the hit single "Radioactive". It's a neat little microcosm of the whole album. It has a solid driving spacy bass throughout the whole song, but the guitar lick is incredible. It's terribly simple, but equally effective. The lyrics are so-so, but the song is pretty good, and if I'm going to hear a song every time I turn my radio on, I'd much rather it be this than Ke$ha.

"Back Down South" is the band's salute to the good ole' south, and features some very Springsteen-y lyrics. "Underneath the stars when we park the cars, ain't showin signs of stoppin'. Pretty little girls aching through their curls, ready to lay in a coffin." Paired with a subtle banjo, twangy steel guitar, and gradually growing fiddle, the song sounds like it would fit on CMT more than Pitchfork, but here that's a good thing. "Pony Up", the oldest sounding song on the album has the same hard bass line and odd percussion KoL fans have missed from Aha Shakes Heartbreak. The mysterious tale of arson "Pyro" is a good example of how the last album should have panned out. It is spacy and heart-breaking as any other hit, but it works. I can't explain how, but it is a really good depressing song.

My favorite song on the album, "Mary" could not have been better described than by Consequence of Sound Dan Caffrey, so I'm just going to quote him. "“Mary” hooks the listener with yearning doo wop vocal styling and woozy, muffled saxophone, painting a black and white photo of the band as the drunken house act for a 1950’s prom." I love that. And it might be because of my time as Danny Zuko last year, but I really love good 50's doo wop. My Pandora is either hipster never-heard ofs or 50's bubble gum pop. This song is both.

Come Around Sundown is certainly a turn for the better. They have ideas churning in their head again. They just don't see, to be able to completely flesh them out into amazing music. Right now, they're really good, and to be the face of rock music they're great. Down with Daughtry, Up with the Kings of Leon. The album's worth buying, if anything as the next chapter in the band's pretty interesting path between musicality and fame.

Dr. Dog-Shame Shame

1 day, 7 hours, 21 minutes, and 23 seconds until blast-off.

I love analyzing music. I will listen to an albums 10 to 20x through, just to break it down, try to understand the message given across. And I have done so with Dr. Dog. I've come to a very deep conclusion. Dr. Dog plays music, just to play it. They love music, just like, I do; just like you probably do. They are simply making music for the joy and fun of it. you can hear it in their songs, in their lead singers voice, even in the band's name. They, just like Fountains Of Wayne, are making wonderful music because it is good ole fashioned entertainment. They remind me not to get to deep and cryptic with my critiqueing, and instead just to enjoy the moment in the music, and express the experience.

Dr. Dog started out as Racoon, a self titled "schizophrenic pop" band from West Philly. They eventually semi-split, leaving guitarist Toby Leaman and drummer Scott McMicken to form Dr. Dog. The group released their first album, Toothbrush, to mediocre sucess and acclaim locally. Jim James, front man of My Morning Jacket, and friend of the band invited Dr. Dog to tour with the amazing band, which they did. Over time they gained more and more sucess, signing higher and higher with record labels and releasing Easy Beat, We All Belong, and Fate. Fate, each record gaining the band more and more momentum, until they were playing late night shows everywhere, and touring with big name indie hits like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, The Strokes, The Raconteurs, and The Black Keys. Most recently in the band's history, Shame, Shame was released in early 2010.

The first song on the album is really what inspired my little shpeel up top. The song is fun incarnate, and it makes me want to, rather terribly, sing my lungs out to it. The slowly descending and ascending chord structure play like confetti repeatedly being flung into the air. The lyrics are silly, but not stupid. "Twenty years of schooling, I just never learned the math, that one and one don't equal two. They often equal half." Little quips like this keep the song quirky and unique from every other big name indie band that takes it music like too professionally. These guys have what I want; fun while they work. Some of the guitar solos, which are featured quite a bit in the whole album, are more reminiscent of folksy mandolin melodies than heavily distorted rock riffs. "Later", "Mirror Mirror", "I Only Wear Blue" and "Unbearable Why" all have the same free-spirited fun roam to them as the opener.

While the band is shining brightest in its super pop jams, it shows off its artistic capabilities with songs like "Shadow People" and "Someday" have very Beatle-y (especially Revolver) and ELO-y melodies and rhythms that pair surprisingly well with the harder material. The albums title track is an interesting "Shangri-La","Hey Jude", "Burning Down The Mission" hybrid that blends like a good smoothie, cool and refreshing from the slow ballads you get from the radio now. Once again, the lyrics play a big part into the success of the song.

The album isn't the best album of 2009. It has it's flaws. But it's all nit-picking material. Overall, the album is a hit. It's fun to listen to, especially under the hot summer sun, rolling down the road to the lake, or the cliffs, or wherever i'm drifting off to that day. That is what summer is to me. Fun music, water, and leisure. Dr. Dog will be a pretty big hit in the ole' Subaru Forester this year.

The Black Keys-Brothers

2 days, 68 hours, 4095 minutes, or 245719 seconds. However you want to look at it.

This band pisses me off, while delightfully entertaining me at the same time, all in one swift punch to the ears. They sound so dirty and grimmey, while still producing some beautiful song-writing and interesting sounds out the wazoo. Somedays, I can't handle it; others, its the only thing I listen to all day. It's not like The xx, where I grew into the sound. It's a jin-u-ine 100% love-hate relationship. Especially on Brothers. Attack and Release, The Black Keys last studio album, was tamer, but easier to hear, relying more on the fast paced headbangers, and less on the heart-of-blues slow rock from hell. But, hey; No risk, No reward; and Brothers is very rewarding, in many ways of it's own.

Not all that different from their blues bretheren The White Stripes, The Black Keys are from the Mid-West (Akron, Ohion to be exact) where the mere two members, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, began playing the underground Akron scene in 2001, before releasing their first album, The Big Come Up, in 2002, featuring a cover of "She Said, She Said", a Beatles gem from Revolver. The band gained praise from both the public and the critics. Since the first album, The Black Keys have since released 6 albums, a live album, and a collaboration project with dozens of rappers titled Blakroc. Dawg.

As I said before, my connection to The Black Keys is a real dusty love. Songs like "Sinister Kid" and "I'm Not the One" have a real rugged attractiveness that draws in listeners with every cast of the beat, whilst somehow scaring them away. "Ten Cent Pistol" is the perfect soundtrack to every great Western shoot-out, with its quite disposition looming around it's musical occupancy, occasionally taking hits to the chest with Auerbach's occasional gruffly wail into the microphone. The song, like almost all of the tracks on Brothers, never features more than drums and two very electric guitars, installing a rugged American edge in their beautifully orchestrated blues ventures.

One of the best aspects of the album, however, is it's perfect use of other instruments, ever so sparingly. Only releasing enough sound to make a small dent on the hood of "Everlasting Life", a small group of voices adds an occasional old-time "shoo wahh" to the mix, making the song belong more in an old juke-box than my iPod. Paying small homage to their inner Andrew Bird, "Tighten Up" proudly displays a small army of whistlers, tweeting a melody fit for the playground; a feature beautifully paired with the songs lyrics of life as a young man, and how sadly different the writer is now. The two songs standout on the album, certainly as the catchiest, as well as two of the best.

Some of the songs drag on without ever really going anywhere, wandering endlselly in a vast desert of troubling love stories and jangly guitars. "Too Afraid Too Love You" stays consistently boring from start to finish, and without it's decent lyrics, the song would be a dud. Luckily, these songs are few and far between, always sandwiched by some of modern blues' greatest work. "The Go Getter", "She's Long Gone", and my favorite "Next Girl" all pick up any drooping momentum and steadies listeners for more slow burning blues jams.

Towards the end of the album, the songs start to take a graceful turn towards quieter softer pastures. The last three songs all slowly unwind, as if accompaning the graceful death of a wise man who's seen his share of battles. "Never Give You Up" sounds like it belongs on the first She and Him album; not to one of the scruffiest powerhouses in modern rock. Still, the songs sound just as great as the harder material, showcasing The Black Keys versatility in their song-writing ability even farther. I honestly just fell asleep to the closing track, "These Days", before waking to the opening of Magic Potion. I'm telling you, it's serene stuff.

The Black Keys pack a hard punch, and they can be tough as nails to mentally digest. The two men have nearly perfected a form of music that sounds much heavier and more honest than any metal bands can ever try to achieve. So beware, ye of easy eardrums. Here lies the blues monster tandum that is The Black Keys.

The xx-xx

9 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 16 seconds until 'Roo. But, who's counting.

The xx confused me at first. Well, that's not to say they don't still confuse me; trust me, they do. But I couldn't figure out this band at all when I first heard them. I think I listened to the first few songs on this album in The Disc Exchange one day, and I remember shrugging it off like it was some over-hyped critic fodder. I didn't come back to it until I heard that the band was going to play in town for Big Ears. I gave the album another shot, and I liked it a bit more, but I still couldn't get into the dreamy aura and the floating voices. Fast forward to now. I love this. I really really love this stuff. It's amazing. Now, tell me why that happens? I have no clue. I gave it the same chance all three times, and the first two were strikes. Now, I've been listening to the album non-stop. Frreeaakkyyyyy. In a good way.

The xx are a bunch of super emo hip London school kids who grew up listening to Aaliyah and The Cure, the latter showing much more clearly through their atmospheric dream pop. The kids made a single, and the critique world flipped their wig. They made an album, xx, and lather, rinse, repeat. It got a lot of critical acclaim, and the band has been on a rampant tour across the world ever since.

The album is sleek, sexy, and embracing, but timid. The band has created a sound all to themselves, and they convey it like a hermit crab, poking it's head out with caution and time. The xx create world's to be explored with every reverberating chord structure. Soft and steady mechanical beats churn into listeners head like a droning factory line. While the songs may not present you with different colors, they invoke many shades of gray that are meant to be built with imagination. The album sits comfortably next to Frank Sinatra's In The Wee Small Hours in the late-night listening category, and with songs like "Nighttime" and "Stars", The xx seem to be cool with it.

The opening track, despite it's lack of the core vocals, is arguably the best on the album. Appropriatley named, "Intro" is more of a night-mare than a dream, with it's steady repeating guitar line, and dark room-filling chords. The track builds and builds, adding the two lead voices in a monk-like drone and a continually climaxing blend of drums, before all falls down, except the same ominous chords pre-mentioned, leaving a flying sensation unlike any other. It's sensational and effective to the core.

The next track, "VCR", is an emo romance, filled with teen angst, boredom, and poetic meanderings of past love. The dynamic vocal duo of Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim is perfect for the spacious tinkering the band plays. The two sing their verses outstandingly well, but together, they form zen, pairing like it is all their lives are meant for. They both have a tone as serene as a gust of wind in the rain, but as dark as the the storm cloud it came from, which is mysteriously brooding yet very likable. The song is beautiful and poetic, pondering, "When I find myself by the sea, In another's company, by the sea. When I go out to the pier, gonna dive and have no fear." This is the kind of song that makes an album great hands down.

Some people would say that The xx's problem is that they sound the exact same, never really diverging from the same tempo and sound, but not all bands have to do this. The xx music doesn't scream that it is bold, and adventurous. It is soft and steady. That is all it needs to be. That being said, not all of the songs on the album maintain their hypnotic brilliance as well as others. "Basic Space" is just that, a basic block of time on the album. It's not bad, but it's not all that good either. "Infinity" suffers from the same disease. But, I could feel differently about both of them with a new listen. That's the beauty in the music. It stirs emotion in different ways with every listen. I may not appreciate the song that well now, but after a dozen listens or so, it could be my favorite. There's a strange power in this ability that draws me back to listen more and more.

If you can't handle songs without smoke and mirrors to keep you interested, then xx is not the album for you. It takes a very dedicated and open minded listener to really appeal here, but if you give it room to work inside your head, The xx will manipulate your moods, hack into your dreams, and stir a strange emotion you can't quite put your finger on. I'm very eager to hear what else the young British band can manage to do with a few bare instruments, soothing vocal ability, and an yearning to spread their bleak hearts through more of their beautiful music.

Wale-Attention Deficit

It's time for some more pre-Bonnaroo antics. 10 more days until I hit the road with my boy Jake. Can't wait.

Bonnaroo isn't exactly a showcase for hip-hop. Sure, it has hosted it's fair share of moguls. Snoop Dogg, Kanye West, and this year Jay-Z are some of the biggest names in rap. Ever. Bonnaroo has has rap artists ever since there first year, but, until this year ( maybe last), that;s not why people go to the festival. Now, in it's effort to appeal to music tastes of all appetites, B.o.B, Kid Cudi, Jay Electronica, and Wale, as well as various other rap groups from different cultures will be rockin all week long.

Wale (pronounced Wah-lay) is the one I'm most excited to see. He's a fresh-face, he raps exceptionally well, and he lays down some sick beats. He's generally well-rounded. He's best known for his collaboration with Lady Gaga, "Chillin". Don't let Lady Gaga's name discourage you. She's only in it for a few measures, and she sounds better than usual. Much to my liking, I checked out the album after hearing the single, and I've gotta admit, it's one of the best rap album's I've heard in a while. There's not a weak link the whole way through, and he hits it out of the park in a few songs.

Wale, born Olubamale Victor Akintimehin, was raised in suburban D.C., where he began calling himself "The Ambassador of Rap for The Capitol". He started making music in college, but eventually dropped out and set all of his effort on his rap career. He released some of his songs that got play on local radio and gradually began raising more and more eyebrows until he was signed by Interscope in 2008. Attention Deficit was released in 2009, gaining pretty good record sales and lots of critical acclaim.

Attention Deficit starts out with a huge splash of what Wale can do. "Triumph", sounds like a robotic swing band gone haywire. The track is full of surprises, and Wale has one of the best flows you can ask for, rolling through lines like its as easy as walking down the street. The track is one of the best on the album, slightly reminiscent of Jay-Z's famous opener from The Blueprint, "The Ruler's Back".

The two hit's are very solid tracks that transcend a lot of modern popular rap, not just talent-wise, but in it's material that has more substance than just hoes and drugs. "Chillin" slips in and out of a great Atari-glitched stutter beat that has a tinge of Passion Pit flowing through the hook. Lady Gaga does a pretty good job of not being a complete music-raping talent-wasting freak, too. "Pretty Girls" has a great beat with a huge voice singing the hook, but there is a hug problem with the whole thing. The very top note of the line repeated throughout is about 1/16 off-key, and this makes me want to destroy something in my immediate vicinity with a hammer. I cringe painfully every time the otherwise great voice fails to get up to the pitch over and over again until I start to rip my hair out. It's a real shame too, because Wale does some of his best rapping, and Gucci adds an unespected great verse too. It hurts to think about.

The best track on the record comes in the simplest form of song. "90210", a cautionary tale of the near impossibility of trying to find succes in Hollywood from a female stand-point. Wale is accompanied by no more than a Pokemon-esque blip track and some light bass, and his talent shines through without the distractions of his elaborate beats and guest artists. The tale is sad, but un-ashamed in its ugliness, which is something many rappers won't get near; scared it will tarnish their bad-boy image. I guess the songs not about him, but I still feel some of his humbleness in the young girl's sad life-story.

The end of the album starts to drag out with slower jams, lacking the punch to keep things interesting. "Contemplate" especially lulls on without ever really being that relevant to anything in the album; musically, rhythmically, or lyrically. In another act of Jay-Z, "TV in THe Radio" (Featuring my boy K'naan) has virtually the exact same beat as Hovva's "Empire State of Mind". They are eerily similar, almost to the point of suspicion. Weird Stuff.

Despite the album rolling gradually down-hill, it's still worth a good listen or two. Wale is one of the most promising up and comers in the business right now, and with a few adjustments, he should be putting out some outstanding albums in the near future.

The National-High Violet

I've made up my mind to become a little bit more familiar with some of the artist I will be seeing at Bonnaroo, so here on out, I guess it will be a full-on road to Bonnaroo review-a-thon. I'm excited about it, and you might be marginally interested. I guess I'm freaking out over 'Roo a bit, but it's a good feeling, so I won't be slowing down anytime soon.

I first heard about The National from my sophomore year Geometry teacher. The guy loves a lot of the same music that I do, and he's seen U2 over twenty times in concert. That's a heck of a lot of money. The National were the spur of a conversation of bands we don't know well, and the band floated around my sub-conscious until the buzz about their new album came out, and I got a hold of it. At first glance, or listen, I was kind of perplexed. I mean, the band wasn't bad, but nothing was blowing me away. But, that was just the ADHD talking. I never sat down and listened to the album. Now that I've finally given it the light of day, I've been pretty impressed.

The National don't have an interesting story at all. They are just a band that began in Ohio, finally formed in New York, and have been putting out albums over the last 15 years to high critical acclaim. Good enough for me.

This album still isn't my favorite album of all time. It seems to lack a lot of glimmer. There isn't much that imediatley draws you in. All it leaves are great big orchestral rock tunes that focus as much on meaning and moral as they do music. I've spent the morning looking over lyrics, pondering meaning, and letting the music affect the whole thought process. I have a tedious habit of putting little to no emphasis on lyrics, and what a song is for. I love the music, and I love band's who focus on the music. This is not to say that The National doesn't put their all into the musicality. Lawd no. The band produces quietly emphatic sound gardens, very similar to Grizzly Bear. Their gentle distortion cries out to be played in cathedrals, not bars. The music is a place to ponder about things. I especially love the horns that creep in and out of the music, like a mist that is there one minute and gone the next. And somehow, through all of the effort put in the music, the lyrics still shine the brightest. They are very loosely coherent and understandable, but that leaves listener interpretation and application. The lyrics reach into sub-conciouses and connects to little things in every one's life, with no two listeners sharing the exact same view of the art. Isn't this what great music is supposed to do? Heck, it's what art majors live for.

A lot of the songs on High Violet are depressing. The singer shares nuggets of his sorrow filled life, and occasionaly throws in his two cents on the ordeal. The fast pace, tinny guitar'd "Sorrow" opens with these poetically beautiful, but harshly lived words.

Sorrow found me when I was young,
Sorrow waited, sorrow won.
Sorrow that put me on the pills,
It's in my honey it's in my milk.
It's only about half a heart alone
On the water,
Cover me in rag and bones, sympathy.
Cause I don't wanna get over you.
I don't wanna get over you.

People connect to that. That is real. The song is not optimistic, because not everything in life is. The song itself completes, instrumentally, what a lot of Cold Play can't produce. The distinct howling in much of the background, and the gradual build of piano, strings, and bass, before the sudden break off, is scintillating.

The albums' biggest hit, "Bloodbuzz Ohio", is one of the song's I don't really connect with that well in words, but the music is outstanding. If you were to remove the drums and bass from the song, you would be left with a prayer of gently swooping melodies, and quiet disposition of the singers mind. The rhythm section propels the song into an energetic plea, instead of the otherwise reverently somber poem. As I said earlier, there is nothing fake in the ability to grab listeners for the right reasons. There are no gimmicky stops in sound, or key changes. The music is powerful just the way it is, even if you don't notice at first.

The opening song on the album, "Terrible Love" is a brilliant, rhythm morphing, group crooning, nonsensical travel through the solitude of the singer's love. The song builds and builds and builds until it bursts at the hinges. It just stops, like a euphoric malfunction. It's nice though. It leaves your mind open for what's left of the album. At one point, the sea of sound dies down, and the singer just repeats, "Company, It's quiet company, It's quiet company". High Violet is just that. It is the quite company to the sorrowed, depressed, and the out-of-ideas. It is reminiscent of the past, without hope for the future; a spot everyone falls into. Interestingly enough, the album doesn't leave listeners with this. The last song, "Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks", assuredly leaves with the message, "All the borders are risin', Still no surprisin' you, Vanderlyle Crybaby Cry, Man it's all been forgivin', The swans are all swimmin'". With those lines, The National sail its patients of heartbreak out to sea, with a brighter future lying in the distance.