by: Kyle Olson, KUCI Music Director
Hey everybody,
Welcome to the BLURB THUNDERDOME!!! Several CDs enter, a couple others leave, and the rest also leave…BUT IN BODYBAGS!!! OH CRAP!!! Was that super intense? Good. Your faces are sufficiently rocked.
Slim pickings this week on the music front. All the promo kids were busy getting drunk on PBR at SXSW, so they didn’t exactly bring their A-Game. Maybe it only seems sparse after the monster, sure-to-be-on-top-of-the-year releases over the last couple weeks. But, there are good CDs to be had. Enjoy, tigers.
Los Straitjackets – Rock En Español Vol. 1 (Yep Roc)
This is easily one of your type 5, luchadore mask-clad band of surf rock latinos. This time, tus amigos bring you a collection of oldies hits, recorded EN ESPAÑOL!!! You get such hits as Wild Thing, Hang on Sloopy, Whittier Blvd., etc. Bridge that gap with our neighbors to the south. Show them you care. ¿Como se dice, “TOTALLY BITCHIN’, DUDERS!!”?
The Book of Knots – Traineater (Arclight)
This band has a bit of a freak-rock pedigree. Features members of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Pere Ubu, Tin Hat Trio, Skeleton Key, Tom Waits, etc. Basically, it’s dark-ish junkyard rock with unique trashy grooves, with occasional darkly beautiful violin and ambient spoken word stuff (and features Mr. Waits on one track). It’s a enigmatic hodgepodge, for certain. Not as scary as Sleeptime Gorilla Museum, but, then again, few live experiences are that I know of. I think the only band I’d be more intimidated to see would be Oxbow. But that’s because I don’t want to get the piss kicked out of me by a huge, muscular black dude in his tighty whities. Wow. How often am I going to get to say that? (Until my birthday, anyway.)
The Fall – Reformation Post T.L.C. (Narnack)
This band has been around for 30 years now, and Mark E. Smith continues his weird enunciation parade, and looks more like your history professor every day. I’m sort of at a loss to explain this band. People always said Pavement ripped them off, but I never really heard that. Both bands have sort of nonsense lyrics, but that’s about it. This is edgier, post-punk-ish stuff with an old British dude pronouncing words oddly over them. I dunno, man. They’re sort of one of a kind. I’m kind of at a loss here.
Unknown Instructors – The Master’s Voice (Smog Veil)
This is Mike Watt’s 102345th band. That dude goes door to door asking, “Yo dudes. I’m Mike Watt. Do you guys need a bass player? Or just want to hang out with a dude with a trucker ‘stache?” Also, this band has Raymond Pettibon on one track. If you don’t know who that is, what kind of fucking punk are you, poseur? Anyway: the music. Like a toned-down Minutemen, I guess. Chill indie-jazz-rock jams, sort of. I dunno. This thing is all over the damned place. One track is really reverb-laden stoner-rock. One’s all jazzy. One’s all noisey-styles. I’d accuse them of dicking around, but Mike Watt could probably get some longshoremen to show up at my house and throw me a blanket party.
The Twlight Sad – Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters (Fat Cat)
When I saw this band and title, I thought, “Ewwww. Overt references to depression and the darker seasons. This is gonna be some eeeeeeeeemooooooooo craaaaaaaaaaaaaaap. But I flipped it over and did not see Jade Tree Records stamped on the back, but Fat Cat, the brings of Sigur Ros, Animal Collective, Mum, etc. Rather, it’s a Scottish band who mix My Blood Valentine, The Smiths (a little emo, I guess), and Interpol into a sort of shoegaze-stew. What a trick. Aside: why do dogs put their heads out car windows? Do you think it makes them think they’re running like, superfast? Do you think your terrier secretly desires to reach triple digit land-speed numbers? Hahaha. Could you imagine pugs zipping around at 75 miles an hour? Holy shit. I’d tie a cape to one and watch the damned show.
Cibo Matto – Pom Pom (Warner Brothers)
This one is subtitled “The Essential Cibo Matto”. So, hopefully, you’ve deduced that it is a best-of of sorts. Seventeen old favs and two unreleased cuts make up this album of chill, asian-influenced dub-rock featuring John Lennon’s son. PLUS, they were on that episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where Buffy comes back and..nevermind. Haha. NEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDDD.
Limbeck – Limbeck (Doghouse)
Last I saw this band, it was at Chain Reaction. I was there to see the Kids of Widney High. Somewhere, I have a ticketstub that says Limbeck, and it’s signed by Cain (of KOWH). I think I left halfway through Limbeck. Because if it’s not “The Kids”, who gives a shit? But I remember it being a sort of pop-punk kind of indie thing, and the audience seemed made up entirely of members of their high school or something. But, now, apparently they’ve gotten a little cred, a decent label, an indie-twang sensibility, and some songwriting talent. Now it seems like a sort of dios/Oh No! Oh My! sort of chill-pop-twang thing. Plus, they’re from Orange County. Hell. Some of you probably went to school with these dudes. I didn’t. I went to school with the dudes from Bat Von Puddle. That shit ripped.
Dat’r – Turn Up the Ghosts (Hush)
Not sure how you pronounce this name. I’m guessing “D.A.T.-urr”. What do I know? At any rate, this isn’t the normal Hush Records whispery sleeptyime pop. This is a sort of semi-electo jiggle party. Sort of fun-energy, percussion heavy electro-pop-rave. I guess these dudes have some old joysticks, rigged up by dudes from MIT, to control the music with (which I understand doesn’t make the CD any more fun to listen to, but damned if I don’t like a gimmick). I know at 25, that puts me in the upper half of the age bracket at KUCI, but how many folks had an old Atari? With those rubbery joysticks that you just sort of wanted to...chew on? I played hours of Missile Command. I commanded missiles like it was my goddamned 6-year-old JOB. Ain’t no aliens gonna bomb my base. Bitches. This is some pretty solid stuff. I should probably put this higher up to make sure folks read about it, but I gave up editing things I write for Lent.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to fight some dinosaurs with my bare
hands. If you are inclined, you may swoon at my manliness.
Why is Lil Jon on my AIM?
-Kyle
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