All the Nations Airports
It's obvious the boys at the record label sat
these guys down and told them to rein it in, buy some new equipment
and at least try to make an album the radio kids would understand.
While the album sounds great, some of that raw energy has been
sapped through the use of more conventional song structures.
I saw these guys on tour for this album (for $2 at NYU!)
and "Strangled by the Stereo Wire" was absolutely
incredible live, but I couldn't help but feel the big-label
baddies had gotten ahold of this band and tamed them for a more
radio-friendly approach--although they’are still way far
from being a radio-friendly band. There are a few tunes like
"Chumming the Ocean" that certainly show some signs
of Bachman's future project, Crooked
Fingers, and an instrumental that sounds an awful lot like
one of the tracks from a Barry Black
LP. |
Icky Mettle
If I could start off every mix I
ever make with "Web in Front" I'd be a happy man. It's one of
my favorite songs of all time and puts me in a great mood every
time I hear it. Why, you may ask, do I love it so? I have no
idea, I just do. The rest of Icky Mettle is a great
amalgam of angular post-rock that sounds as if the band's equipment
hasn't been tuned in a while and their strings are snapping
on every song. Before you get all scared, this is a good thing,
and adds to the off-kilter, college basement sound that's at
work here. The band always sounds slightly out of control, and
lead singer, Eric Bachman's,
voice always sounds as if it's on the verge of collapse. The
album is good, raucous fun that shows a group doing its indie
thing without brakes. |
The Speed of Cattle
Usually collections of B-sides, outtakes,
etc. are hit-or-miss. I love the song "What Did You Expect?"
and "Ethel Merman" (which always reminds me of the
movie Airplane), and am actually surprised by the quality
of most of the other tracks on this album. The songs tend
to be a little less all over the place and spastic than
some of the stuff on their first couple of albums, and in
being more "pop" probably will piss off some
purists, but this material seems to me to be a good bridge between
the first two albums of angular craziness and the last
two albums of more crafted, somber tunes. |
Vee Vee
Building on the shredding noise that was
their debut, Icky Mettle, Vee Vee incurs the
same fits of jarring guitar screeches (including a couple that
sound an awful lot like a large truck backing up) and blister
the listener's ears with raw rock 'n roll. Built around themes
of idol worship, rock cynicism and, uh, drinking, it seems the
Archers have tried to write some more melodic tunes (although
not too melodic) that involve more clearly defined structures.
What results is an album full of memorable tunes that got me
through my slag of a job hauling dummies around as a production
assistant for Rescue 911--my first job out of college.
I played this one to death, honestly, and it hasn't lost anything
since. It’s easily my favorite Archers album. |
Vs. The Greatest of All Time EP
EPs are tough. It's like just when you're
getting into them, they end. Also, in the days before the iPOD,
it was always a pain in the ass putting on a CD that only lasts
fifteen minutes and then having to fish it out for another disc.
Vs. makes the most of its short timing, involving some
of the great noise of their first album with more rockin' melodies
from their second, Vee Vee. The subject matter is more
of the same, talking about themselves in the context of indie
rock (ironic considering their eventual move to a major label),
but in the scheme of this EP it works. Shout down the A&R
and radio folks. Woohoo! |
White Trash Heroes
They ain't brash no more. They're road weary
and beaten down. They've had too much booze and too little success.
They're older and wiser, but somehow less frayed. Experimenting
with some different production techniques and time signatures,
the melodies are more plodding, the feeling heavier and monolithic.
This feels like an end-of-the-road album for a band. The swan
song that slowly morphs into the lead singer's solo career (see
Pavement's Terror Twilight
and Screaming Trees' Dust
for other examples), mellowing and dulling the edge that made
the band exciting and messy and vibrant and replacing it with
a more “mature” sound that generally involves some
sort of alcohol abuse, relationship bliss/destruction and/or
the urge to play all the instruments on the album and alienate
your core audience by acting like an adult. |
Musical Connections:
Barry Black
Crooked Fingers
Small 23
|
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